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WASHINGTON Robert Lighthizer has long complained that the United States dithered in the face of abusive Chinese trade policies, allowing its trade gap with Beijing to explode and American factories to close.
Now, the veteran trade lawyer may have a chance to do something about it.
As President Donald Trump's choice to be U.S. trade representative, the 69-year-old Lighthizer would be empowered to renegotiate and enforce trade deals, many of which the new president has condemned as destroyers of American jobs.
A fixture in Washington trade policy circles for nearly four decades, Lighthizer has built a reputation as a shrewd negotiator. And like the president who chose him, Lighthizer represents a departure for a Republican Party that for decades favored the free flow of global trade as a boon to economic growth.
"I agree with President Trump that we should have an 'America First' trade policy," Lighthizer said at his committee hearing last month. "And that we can do better in negotiating our trade agreements and be stronger at enforcing our trade laws."
His nomination sends another signal that the Trump administration intends to upend decades of U.S. policy and act aggressively to block imports when it deems other countries to be acting unfairly.
"He's a trade realist," Paul Rosenthal, a trade lawyer at the firm Kelley Drye & Warren. "He doesn't necessarily subscribe to free trade as a religion as some people do."
Lighthizer's philosophy, Rosenthal suggests, essentially boils down to: "How can we afford to be unilateral free traders when the Chinese don't reciprocate?"
Drawing from experience in trade law and his work in the Reagan administration in countering Japanese imports, Lighthizer will likely try to force China and other competitors to end what the Trump team sees as unfair trade.
Supporters of free trade, such as analysts at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, argue that a Trump-Lighthizer combative approach could backfire. Blocking or taxing imports would raise prices of imports for American consumers and provoke retaliation. The result could potentially be a trade war that would hurt U.S. farmers and companies from Boeing to Caterpillar that depend on exports.
Lighthizer won't be the administration's only trade policy heavyweight. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor, is expected to involve himself in trying to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and other trade issues. And Trump named Peter Navarro, a vociferous critic of Chinese trade policy, to lead a new White House National Trade Council.
Lighthizer's confirmation vote had been delayed by a political rift: Some Democrats argued that he must obtain a waiver from Congress because he has worked in the past for foreign clients. They said they would support the waiver only if Republicans pass an unrelated bill to protect the endangered pension and health care benefits of retired coal miners.
Lighthizer served as a top aide on the Senate Finance Committee under Sen. Bob Dole in the late 1970s and early 1980s and later as treasurer of Dole's 1996 Republican presidential campaign.
Under Reagan, Lighthizer served as deputy trade representative. Despite Reagan's reputation as a stalwart supporter of free trade, his administration seldom hesitated to pressure U.S. trade partners if it thought American manufacturers were being hurt.
Lighthizer played a key role, for example, in strong-arming Japan into limiting auto exports in the 1980s. That move eventually led Japanese automakers to open plants in the United States, thereby creating U.S. jobs, instead of shipping all its cars from Japan.
Later in private practice he became a senior partner in international trade at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Lighthizer represented U.S. steel companies that complained that China and other countries were dumping underpriced steel on the U.S. market.
Trump campaigned on a promise to renegotiate or withdraw from agreements that he says failed American workers. But Dean Pinkert, formerly of the U.S. International Trade Commission, says he thinks Lighthizer will seek better ways to use existing agreements before tearing them up. In his 2010 testimony to U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Lighthizer said the U.S. should more aggressively scour WTO rules for new ways to bring cases against China.
Alan Wolff, a deputy U.S. trade representative in the Carter administration, says China and other U.S. trading partners should brace themselves.
Under Lighthizer, Wolff says, "trade policy is going to get a lot more muscular."
DECATUR A judge has ruled in favor of a state motion to analyze biological material collected from the body of a 4-year-old girl who was beaten to death last summer, for possible use in a sexual abuse case.
Amarrah Reynolds died Aug. 31 as a result of blunt force injuries to her head which were inflicted in her home, according to autopsy and police reports.
Her father, 29-year-old Darrell A. Reynolds, is facing two counts of first-degree murder. Shortly after she was pronounced dead at Decatur Memorial Hospital, he confessed to police that he killed Amarrah. He is being held in jail on $2 million bond.
Amarrah's mother, Dalvon Taylor, is charged with one felony count of endangering the life or health of a child.
The hearing was held to consider the state's motion to allow the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Laboratory to test biological material found on the girl's body. The DNA standards of two male suspects were sent to the lab for comparison.
Because of the limited amount of biological material preserved on swabs, a ruling was necessary, since testing will consume the available material, eliminating any possibility of additional testing.
The state's motion was filed in relation to Taylor's endangerment case and the Reynolds murder case. In the Reynolds case, no hearing was necessary, because the defense attorney, William L. Vig of Springfield, agreed to allow the material to be consumed.
My client wanted it to be tested, Vig said, adding that it was important to note that another male was also identified as a suspect in a possible sex abuse case.
Taylor was arrested the day her daughter died and booked into the jail. She was released on bond in December, after her bond was reduced from $500,000 to $100,000.
Taylor sat at the defense table with her attorney, Arthur Sutton of Matteson.
Arguing for the motion, First Assistant State's Attorney Nichole Kroncke said swabs from the victim's body were tested by the crime lab and indicated the presence of biological materials, which indicated possible sexual abuse.
Why is this information relevant in this case? Griffith asked.
She may have well known that (Amarrah) was being sexually abused, Kroncke said.
It goes more to what Mr. Reynolds allegedly did than what Ms. Taylor had knowledge of, Griffith said.
Sutton objected to the motion. He said he did not understand how a ruling to approve the motion would assist the crime lab.
Griffith then handed down his ruling.
The charge indicates that the defendant, a parent, caused or permitted the life-threatening circumstances, by placing her or allowing her to be in a physically abusive environment, and that the defendant allowed this to occur, Griffith said.
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DECATUR A night manager at a Decatur restaurant has been arrested on preliminary charges alleging he fired a weapon at customers as he chased them out of the building.
At 6:50 a.m. Sunday, a group of friends was in the IHOP at 1280 E. Pershing Road, when staff requested they leave after they made a mess, said Decatur police patrol officer Aaron Carr, in a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Herald & Review.
During the altercation the store manager pulled a gun on the group and chased them into the parking lot, Carr wrote in his statement. (A patron said) when they got in the parking lot the manager shot a single gunshot, which appeared to be in his direction as they were fleeing to his vehicle.
The witness accounts of the incident were corroborated by a video taken by one of the patrons, police said.
Carr wrote in the report that the cellphone video showed the the manager, 26-year-old Jason A. White, walking toward the front lobby with a gun in his right hand.
A search of the restaurant turned up a black Hi-Point .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol, which was inside a storage closet on the roof. The police discovered the handgun had been stolen.
According to police, when the general manager tried to view the surveillance video, he discovered someone had disabled the video cameras and set a password on the login so he could not access it." He said the cameras normally work and had worked the prior day.
White allegedly admitted to police he did produce the firearm during the altercation and that the weapon discharged when he dropped it on the ground, the affidavit said.
Police said White told them that he wiped down the gun to attempt to conceal the evidence before hiding it in the roof closet and disabled the cameras to attempt to conceal the incident to officers during the initial investigation.
White was arrested and booked into the Macon County Jail, where he is being held on a $50,000 bond on preliminary charges of aggravated discharge of a firearm, possession of a weapon by a felon, possession of a stolen firearm and unlawful use of a weapon.
At his bond hearing, White argued for a lower bond.
I got about $3,000. I do have a job, he said. I can return to work.
But Luis Pinedo, area director of operations for IHOP, said it most likely he will not be part of the team anymore.
We have not communicated him with as far as his status with the company, Pinedo said in a phone interview. We need to talk to him about that. This just happened. We haven't fully taken action about the incident. We don't condone that kind of behavior. We don't approve of employees carrying weapons at the restaurant.
Pinedo said the company's policy on hiring felons could change as a result of this incident.
We like to give everybody an opportunity besides their background, Pinedo said. With this incident we will be taking more precautions on who we hire for our company. We want to hire better candidates, especially for management.
White has four prior felony convictions in Macon County cases since 2009 and has served four terms in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was convicted in 2010 and 2012 of felony charges in unrelated cases in which he was originally charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon. In the 2010 case he was found with a shotgun while on parole; in the 2012 case a parole agent found him in possession of brass knuckles.
White is due in court for his arraignment by Monday in his most recent case.
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First Hualong One reactor vessel passes pressure tests
10 April 2017
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The reactor pressure vessel for unit 5 of the Fuqing nuclear power plant has completed hydraulic pressure tests. The unit - the first of two demonstration Hualong One units being built at the site in China's Fujian province - is expected to start up in 2019.
The reactor pressure vessel destined for Fuqing 5 (Image: China First Heavy Machinery)
The vessel - manufactured by China First Heavy Machinery - completed the hydraulic pressure test on 8 April. The tests aim to confirm the integrity of the vessel's welds and seals.
The tests were witnessed by officials from China's regulator, the National Nuclear Safety Administration; China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC); China Nuclear Power Engineering Company; reactor designer, the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI); and China First Heavy Machinery.
CNNC said, "The hydraulic pressure test is a comprehensive inspection of the quality of the pressure vessel design, manufacture and assembly. By monitoring the temperature, pressure, strain and other parameters of the pressure platform and combined with visual inspections, the sealing performance of the equipment pressure safety can be verified."
In November 2014, CNNC announced that the fifth and sixth units at Fuqing will use the domestically-developed Hualong One pressurised water reactor (PWR) design, marking its first deployment. The company had previously expected to use the ACP1000 design for those units, but plans were revised in line with a re-organisation of the Chinese nuclear industry. China's State Council gave final approval for construction of Fuqing units 5 and 6 in mid-April 2015.
The pouring of first concrete for Fuqing 5 began in May 2015, marking the official start of construction of the unit. Construction of unit 6 began in December 2015. The units 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. Those units are also expected to start up in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Last month, hydraulic pressure testing was completed on the reactor pressure vessel for the demonstration CAP1400 unit to be built at Shidaowan in China's Shandong province. That design is an enlarged version of the AP1000 PWR developed from the Westinghouse original by State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation, with consulting input from the Toshiba-owned company.
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Bangladesh, India sign cooperation agreements
10 April 2017
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Three nuclear energy agreements between Bangladesh and India, including one regarding nuclear power projects in Bangladesh, have been signed during an official visit by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh to New Delhi.
Modi, on the right, welcomes Hasina at a ceremonial reception in New Delhi on 8 April. (Image: MEA)
According to India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), an agreement between the two countries' governments on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy was signed by Bangladesh's Ministry of Science and Technology and India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
The chairmen of the two countries' nuclear regulators - the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority and India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board - signed an agreement on the exchange of technical information and cooperation in the regulation of nuclear safety and radiation protection.
The final nuclear agreement listed by the MEA was an inter-agency accord between the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and the DAE's Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) on "cooperation regarding nuclear power plant projects in Bangladesh". The GCNEP is a nuclear research and training centre currently under construction near New Delhi.
A total of 22 agreements and memoranda of understanding, including those related to nuclear energy, were exchanged during Hasina's visit from 7 to 10 April. Speaking at a joint press conference, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two premiers had held "productive and comprehensive discussions" on partnership between their countries.
"We agreed that the agenda of our cooperation has to remain focused on purposeful action. We specifically looked at charting new avenues and tapping fresh opportunities in advancing our relationship. We want to build cooperation in new areas, especially some high-technology areas, that have a deeper connect with the youth in both our societies. These would include working in the fields of electronics, information technology, cyber security, space exploration, civil nuclear energy, and other areas," he said.
Bangladesh's energy plans include two large Russian-built VVER pressurised water reactors to be built at Rooppur in the Pabna district, about 160 km north of Dhaka. Construction of the first unit is expected to be begin later this year, entering commercial operation in 2023 or 2024, with the second unit following a year later.
India's 22 operating nuclear units include two Russian-supplied and built VVERs at Kudankulam in the state of Tamil Nadu. Kudankulam 1 entered commercial operation in December 2014 and on 6 April this year all responsibility for the unit was formally handed over to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. Kudankulam 2 began commercial operation on 3 April. Two further VVER-1000 units - Kudankulam 3 and 4 - are to be built at the site in a second construction phase, with more units to follow.
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French state moves to ensure Fessenheim closure
10 April 2017
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The outgoing French government has published a decree to repeal EDF's licence to operate the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. The plant, it said, must be shut down when the Flamanville EPR begins commercial operation, expected by 2020, as EDF has already agreed.
The Fessenheim plant (Image: EDF)
The decree - published in the Official Journal yesterday - sets out the conditions for closing Fessenheim, France's oldest nuclear power plant. It states that EDF's authorisation to operate the plant's two 880 MWe pressurized water reactors will be withdrawn from the day that the Flamanville 3 EPR "enters into service".
Publication of the decree comes just days after the utility said it intends to comply with previously announced legal requirements regarding the plant's continued operation. In accordance with French law, a decree is required to revoke the Fessenheim plant's operating licence. This decree, however, is to be issued at EDF's request. Following a board meeting on 7 April, EDF said it will instruct its chairman and CEO to issue a request for this decree within six months prior to the commissioning of the Flamanville 3 EPR.
In response to the board's decision, France's Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea said it would "legally endorse ... in the coming days" the "inevitable and irreversible" closure of the Fessenheim plant.
French President Francois Hollande's 2012 election pledge was to limit nuclear's share of French generation at 50% by 2025, and to close Fessenheim - the country's oldest plant - by the end of his five-year term, which ends in May. In June 2014, following a national energy debate, his government announced the country's nuclear generating capacity would be capped at the current level of 63.2 GWe. It will also be limited to 50% of France's total output by 2025. The French Energy Transition for Green Growth Law was adopted in August 2015. Nuclear accounts for almost 75% of the country's electricity production, making closures of power reactors appear inevitable.
EDF is constructing a 1650 MWe EPR unit at Flamanville which is expected to start up in late 2018. The utility would therefore be forced to shut the equivalent capacity - most likely the two reactors at Fessenheim - by that time in order to begin operating the Flamanville unit.
By issuing the decree now, the current government aims to ensure that Fessenheim will be shut within the next few years, thereby achieving Hollande's pledge even though he will no longer be in power. In a statement, energy minister Segolene Royal welcomed the decree's publication, declaring: "It is said, it is done."
She said, "I encourage EDF to pursue and strengthen investments in renewable energies: solar, wind, geothermal, marine energy, hydroelectricity, to reduce the share of nuclear energy to 50%, as required by law. I would add that this closure does not entail any job cuts by EDF because a large industrial decommissioning site will be able to start."
The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) - one of a number of trade unions that has strongly opposed the closure of Fessenheim - said the government had "rushed to sign and publish" the decree "a few days before the end of their mandate". It described the decree as "useless because it contains no real decision".
It added, "The review of the application for repealing the authorisation for operating Fessenheim will again be examined by the board of EDF when the time comes, that is to say six months before the commissioning of Flamanville 3."
System performance tests began yesterday at the Flamanville EPR on 15 March. The first phase of the tests involves flushing the primary circuit with water at a very high flow rate, after which cold testing will be carried out. EDF said the next milestone in Flamanville 3's commissioning will be the loading of fuel ahead of its scheduled start-up at the end of 2018.
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Iran, Hungary agree to collaborate on small reactors
10 April 2017
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Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), and Zsolt Semjen, the Hungarian deputy prime minister, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that includes collaboration between the two countries on designing small nuclear power plants as well as an 85 million ($90 million) investment by Hungarian banks in Iran. Reuters reported that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Mihaly Orban's chief of staff, Janos Lazar, had told a news conference on 6 April the MOU concerned establishment of a small nuclear reactor for scientific-educational purposes. He added that this cooperation had first been agreed during a visit by Orban to Iran in 2015.
Semjen (left) and Salehi shake on the MOU (Image: AEOI)
Salehi and Semjen briefed reporters in Tehran on 8 April, following signing of the MOU that day. According to Tasnim news agency, Salehi said the AEOI "hopes to see extensive use of small nuclear power plants in Iran". He added that economic ties between Iran and Hungary had declined in recent years but they aimed to return them to their previous level following the entry in force of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in January 2016. The JCPOA, the international agreement limiting Iran's nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions was signed in July 2015 by Iran and the E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the USA - also referred to as the P5+1 - plus the European Union).
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said last week that several agreements had been concluded at the first session of the Hungarian-Iranian Joint Economic Committee. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Eximbank had established an 85 million credit line to facilitate cooperation between Hungarian and Iranian businesses, and to finance export-import transactions and the founding of joint ventures.
"Now that the European Union has authorised negotiations, we can immediately begin talks on an investment protection agreement, Eximbank will begin developing direct, inter-bank cooperation and we also agreed that the Iranian import licencing authority will be paying special attention to Hungarian products and technologies," the minister told reporters in Budapest last week, according to a ministry statement.
Annual trade between the two countries used to total about $350 million, but this dropped to roughly a tenth of that during the period of economic sanctions against Iran and now stands at some $30 million, Szijjarto said.
"The two countries will also be tightening their cooperation on energy, creating the opportunity for Hungarian enterprises to also become involved in the development of Iran's energy infrastructure," he said, adding that Iran has "the world's second most significant natural gas reserves and fourth largest oil reserves".
On cooperation in science and education, Szijjarto said some 1400 Iranian students are studying at universities in Hungary and there are plans to offer scholarships to 100 more students.
The AEOI said Hungary had useful experience in Russian-designed VVER nuclear reactor technology. According to the AEOI statement, Semjen said all agreements signed between the two countries were in line with EU regulations, and that the MOU was based on international laws and regulations.
Szijjarto and Salehi held talks in Budapest in February last year on further cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Szijjarto said the two countries would "continue and expand" the training of Iranian nuclear experts as well as establish research and scientific cooperation in the use of nuclear energy.
Salehi proposed a project with Hungary to design and develop a 25 MWe reactor and another reactor of up to 100 MWe, which could be sold across Asia and Africa while being built in the Islamic republic. Salehi told reporters then that small reactors would be more affordable to poorer countries and need less cooling water. Iran plans to build two more Russian-designed large reactors in addition to its current single reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. On completion of this project, which Salehi said could take ten years, Iran would look at building small reactors.
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IAEA calls for commitment and vigilance on safety
10 April 2017
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Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) highlighted the importance of sustaining and enhancing a nuclear safety culture, maintaining effective legal frameworks, and enforcing safety precautions within the supply chain following a two-week review of nuclear power plant safety. Their seventh review meeting was held from 27 March to 7 April at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, in Vienna.
The IAEA said on 7 April that, following intensive discussions and reflections on the national reports of nuclear safety programs from 79 countries, delegates at the meeting "identified and offered ideas to ensure achievement of high levels of safety". These included ideas to address financial and human resource constraints, safety concerns related to ageing nuclear facilities, and the need for harmonised cross-border emergency planning approaches.
In their summary report, released at the close of the meeting, the Contracting Parties also encouraged the IAEA to continue developing guidance to help countries strengthen regulatory body oversight and practice safety culture.
"Maintaining nuclear safety requires long-term commitment and vigilance from countries, as well as effective mechanisms for early detection and assessment of problems and networks for sharing lessons learned," said Juan Carlos Lentijo, IAEA deputy director-general and head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security.
He said the need to maintain oversight of the supply chain to ensure safety was a common issue both for countries operating nuclear power plants and those considering nuclear power programs, "because of the lack of availability of identical replacement parts and the need to be able to detect non-conforming, counterfeit, suspect or fraudulent items". And with the number of nuclear-grade certified suppliers "diminishing", he said, access to manufacturers able to meet nuclear standards will become more challenging.
The Convention entered into force on 24 October 1996, setting international benchmarks in the areas of nuclear installation siting, design, construction and operation, as well as financial and human resources, safety assessment and verification, quality assurance and emergency preparedness. The CNS Contracting Parties hold review meetings every three years.
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Areva and KazAtomProm extend uranium cooperation
10 April 2017
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Areva and KazAtomProm have today signed a new strategic agreement to strengthen their cooperation in Kazakhstan's uranium mining sector. The agreement opens new opportunities to develop and enhance their long-standing Katco joint venture.
Areva and KazAtomProm signed the agreement in a ceremony in Kazakhstan (Image: KazAtomProm)
The agreement was signed in Astana by KazAtomProm chairman Askar Zhumagaliyev and Areva CEO Phillippe Knoche. According to the two companies, the agreement "meets [the] interests of Kazakhstan and France, opens new opportunities for further development and enhancement of effective operations" for the 51% Areva-49% KazAtomProm joint venture.
Katco, established in 1996, produces uranium at Moyinkum (Moinkum) in the South Kazakhstan region. A strategic agreement signed by the partners in 2008 expanded the joint venture from mining 1500 tU to 4000 tU per year.
Knoche said the new agreement would give the joint venture a new long-term perspective, with the development of the South Tortkuduk project. This, he said, would extend production for the next two decades. "In the [framework] of longstanding nuclear cooperation between Kazakhstan and France, this agreement strengthens our 20-year partnership with KazAtomProm for the mutually economic benefit of the two partners," he said.
Zhumagaliyev said the agreement was a "positive example of mutually beneficial cooperation in the successful implementation of joint projects in the nuclear fuel cycle". He said the provisions of the agreement corresponded to targets set by the Kazakh president, Nultan Nazarbayev, "to preserve leadership in the uranium mining market and to create a competitive nuclear company".
Kazakhstan has been the world's leading producer of uranium since 2009. Its uranium mining operations are either wholly owned by state-run company KazAtomProm or operated through joint ventures between KazAtomProm with international partners. Earlier this year KazAtomProm announced the country plans to produce 10% less uranium in 2017 than it had previously planned, in response to ongoing oversupply in the uranium market. The reduction of 2000 tU is roughly equivalent to 3% of total global uranium production based on 2015 figures. Kazakhstan's 2015 production of 23,800 tU accounted for 39% of world production.
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UK sets out decommissioning plans to 2020
10 April 2017
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The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has published its Business Plan for 1 April 2017 to 30 March 2020. Based on the third edition of NDA's Strategy, published in April 2016, the Business Plan sets out its objectives and expected progress for all 17 of its nuclear sites over the next three years, in line with the funding agreed with the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The Business Plan, which follows a public consultation that ran between 12 December to 3 February, also includes is a 20-year overview of forthcoming activities across the 17 sites.
"Our core objective is to decommission these sites safely, securely, cost-effectively and in a manner that protects the environment," the NDA said. The total planned expenditure for the financial year beginning April 2017 to financial year ending March 2018, is 3.24 billion ($4.02 billion), of which 2.36 billion will be funded by government and 880 million by income from commercial operations, it added.
Newly appointed NDA chief executive, David Peattie, said the Business Plan "includes some major milestones on the near-term horizon", adding, for example, that after many decades, all nuclear fuel reprocessing at Sellaeld will draw to an end by 2020.
"Whilst it's clear we are making good progress, it would be wrong of me to shy away from mentioning some of the pressing issues that we have addressed," Peattie said.
The NDA recently announced its intention to terminate the contract, by mutual agreement, with Cavendish Fluor Partnership to manage decommissioning work at the Magnox nuclear sites across the UK. This is because the scope of the work covered in the contract is materially different from that which now needs to be delivered at the sites, Peattie said, adding, "This material variation could have left us open to risk of legal challenge."
The NDA has also concluded legal proceedings relating to claims over the placing of this contract, agreeing commercial settlements with EnergySolutions for 76.5 million plus 8.5 million in costs and Bechtel for $14.8 million plus costs of 462,000, totalling 12.5 million.
Peattie said: "These are substantial amounts but settling is the best outcome to prevent costs escalating for the public purse," adding there will be a government inquiry into what went wrong with this procurement. "The NDA will co-operate fully to understand what happened and we will implement its recommendations fully, adapting this Business Plan to account for them if necessary," he said.
During the 2016/17 nancial year, the NDA has also been working with its workforce representatives to explore ways in which the government's policy on pension reform can be implemented across the NDA's estate. "We are pleased to have been able to develop a revised proposal with the recognised trade unions for affected employees to consider before any government decision is made," he said.
The milestones included in the 2017-2020 Business Plan include: a Low Level Waste Repository contract decision by 2018; the end, in 2018, of the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) reprocessing schedule; all Magnox reactors defueled and fuel transferred by 2019; the Magnox site in Bradwell, Essex will become, by 2019, the first NDA site to move into Care and Maintenance phase; earlier start for retrievals from the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo by 2020; and, Magnox reprocessing due to nish by end of 2020.
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Tourism is an important part of the economy of Australia, with this sector employing approximately one million people. International tourism has been on the rise in Australia, with a large number of visitors coming from China. This number is expected to continue growing. This article takes a closer look at where international tourists go in Australia and where exactly they themselves are coming from.
Tourist Destinations In Australia
One of the reasons for Australias growing tourism sector is its wide range of tourist destinations. Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, the major cities in Australia, are popular tourist locations. Other popular destinations include the Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian wilderness, the Australian outback, the Gold Coast, Queensland, casinos, shopping, and vineyards. Perhaps the most famous of these places is the Great Barrier Reef. Approximately 2 million tourists visit the Great Barrier Reef annually. The government has implemented strict regulation surrounding the area in order to reduce potential negative impacts to this sensitive ecosystem.
Top Source Countries For International Tourists
As previously mentioned, Australia receives a large number of international tourists every year. In fact, it is estimated that tourists in 2019 will number more than ten million. Statistics show that international tourists tend to purchase or plan package trips that include the major sites and at least 1 wildlife viewing excursion. Additionally, Australia receives a large number of backpacker-type tourists. These types of travelers tend to stay for longer periods of time, getting to know more of Australia and even seeing places and things that are not on the typical tourist list. In order to finance their extended stays, many backpackers apply for working holiday visas. These visas allow individuals to work in the country while on vacation. They are available to people between 18 and 30 years of age and primarily to those individuals from the western region of Europe, Canada, some Eastern Asian countries.
1. China
19 years ago, in 2000, only 150,000 visitors to Australia came from China. Today, that number is well over 1.3 million, making China the largest source country for tourists to Australia. One major reason for this is the growing middle class in China, with many people have a larger discretional income with which to travel. Australia is also relatively geographically close to China, which makes it an accessible destination.
2.New Zealand
A large portion of individuals traveling to Australia come from New Zealand. New Zealand, which sent 1.2 million tourists in 2019, had formerly been the most popular source destination before being taken over by China.
3. United States
The United States also sends a significant number of backpackers to Australia. This country is also the 3rd largest source of tourists. In 2019, the US sent more than 700,000 tourists to Australia.
4. United Kingdom
The United Kingdom sent over half a million travelers to Australia in 2019. Many of these tourists travel with a short-term vacation package. Great Britain, however, is one of the biggest sources of backpackers to Australia.
The chart published below offers a more in-depth look at the major source countries for international tourists to Australia.
What Is The Cotonou Agreement?
Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) is a comprehensive partnership treaty signed between the fifteen European Union (EU) member states and seventy-eight African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries on June 23, 2000, in Cotonou Benin for the period 2000 to 2020. It was first enforced in 2003 and revised in 2005 and March 2010. The CPA aims at poverty reduction and eventual eradication for sustainable development.
Background
ACP and EU cooperation was guided by the Lome Conventions of 1975 prior to the year 2000. The decision to re-strategize these relations was because of significant advancements in global socio-economic and political relations. The 2010 revision of the ACP considered emerging global challenges. Unique in this includes the growing importance of regional integration in tackling cross-border challenges, the need to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), climate change, and stability. Other aims were the inclusion of other non-state actors such as civil society organizations, aid effectiveness, cooperation in peace initiatives and reaffirming the role of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) in boosting development.
Thematic Areas
The CPA establishes north-south cooperation on three pillars: Development Cooperation, Political Cooperation, and Economic and Trade Cooperation. The guiding principles provide equal partnership and provision for ACP countries to own their own development strategies, participation of additional non-state actors, continuous dialogue and mutual responsibility on fundamental and universal issues such as human rights and differentiation and regionalization based on a partners level of development, performance, economic needs, and development strategy.
Political Benefits
The agreement gives ACP state members a chance to address and learn from past political challenges. Political dialogue for a strong ACP-EU cooperation is a key element in the agreement and touches on issues previously not considered in development cooperation. These include migration, arms trade, and peace and security. Also included is "good governance" as an essential section which, if violated, may lead to partial or complete suspension of cooperation between the country in violation and EU. Under the agreement, both state and non-state actors are encouraged to engage in honest, balanced political dialogues to promote a democratic culture, good governance, equitable resource distribution, dignity and freedoms, security, stability and the rule of law. The agreement emphasizes respect of human rights and freedoms. International institutions such as the African Union and the International Criminal Court are mandated provide conflict resolution and accountability services in times of significant challenges and conflicts. Such challenges range from trade disputes to crimes against humanity.
Development Cooperation Benefits
The CPA abolishes aid entitlements and introduces performance-based aid. This means more money can be given to countries that are accountable to their donors and beneficiaries. Aid can be reduced or withdrawn if not managed properly. The EU may channel more incentive amounts to countries that improve on good governance and democracy. The agreement established an emergency fund pool to be used in times of humanitarian response. All state partners in ACP and EU are given equal treatment. ACP countries are now free to determine their development strategies with the support of non-state actors, and steadily be integrated into the world economy. The more vulnerable Least Developed, Land Locked, and Island (LDLICS) the ACP States can take advantage of opportunities offered in the agreement to accelerate their development.According to the CPA, global challenges of promoting universal human rights, equality, migration, climate change, culture and heritage, terrorism, piracy, arms proliferation, and international organized crime such as trafficking, are addressed jointly through comprehensive and integrated local and international policies to promote sustainable development, peace, security, and prosperity. Fair treatment of other nationals legally living in any countrys territory is assured in the agreement. Foreigners are granted rights and obligations like the ones enjoyed by citizens. They should not be discriminated socially, economically or politically.
Benefits In Economic And Trade Cooperation
Under the CPA, the EU abolished the non-reciprocal trade approach to ACP countries. EPAs (also known as Free Trade Agreements) are fronted to enable individual countries, and regional bodies enter a restrictions free market system. The CPA leaves it upon ACP countries to decide the level and procedures of trade negotiations, considering their regional integration process. The ACP countries are encouraged to negotiate collectively as a region, through bilateral negotiations between countries are also allowed. EPAs also consider partner development level, needs, performance and development strategy. The LDLIS are given more special treatment and favorable terms that they are comfortable with.Finally, EPAs offer individual countries chance to improve its relations with the EU and a chance to access international markets.
Yellow fever disease is caused by a yellow fever virus spread by an infected mosquito through a bite. It affects only humans and some species of primates. The symptoms of yellow fever include muscle pain, loss of appetite, and headache. The fever may keep recurring and the liver may also be damaged leading to a yellow skin and bleeding. The disease may be difficult to detect, especially in its early stage. Yellow fever is spread by a type of mosquito known as Aedes aegypti, who especially carries it in cities. The mosquito is found throughout the tropics and subtropics.
Where Is The Yellow Fever Belt?
Yellow fever is more pronounced in the tropic and subtropic countries of South America and Africa. "Yellow fever belt" is a name given to groups of countries within the tropics and subtropics, especially in Africa and South America where the realistic chances of contracting yellow fever tend to be quite high. Residents of these countries are at risk of contracting the disease due to the high presence of female mosquitoes who carry the disease-causing virus. Several countries, such as South Africa, require travelers to be vaccinated before they can be allowed into the country. In South Africa, travelers from the yellow fever belt are required to be vaccinated ten days before their travel as the vaccine can only be effective 10 days after it has been administered into the body. If one does not obey the 10-day rule they can be denied entry into South Africa by the immigration officers. Over 500 million people worldwide live in endemic areas with over 200,000 infections reported every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
African Yellow Fever Belt
More than half of African countries fall within the Yellow Fever Belt. The majority (over 90%) of the yellow fever infections occur in the African continent with large numbers of deaths and infections recorded in several African countries. The largest number of infection in the history of the disease was recorded in Togo in 2008. In 2016, there was a large breakout in Angola which spread to the neighboring countries before it was contained through a massive administration of the yellow fever vaccination. Five genotypes occur in Africa, especially in countries making the Yellow Fever Belt. The genotypes include the Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa I and II, and Angola. All the countries in Africa are part of the yellow fever belt except the North and South African countries. However, to enhance safety and precaution, it is advisable for anyone traveling to South Africa to be vaccinated irrespective of the country they are coming from.
South American Yellow Fever Belt
South American genotype I and II have been identified in the continent. According to some research, these genotypes may have been carried from West Africa. The genotypes were first introduced in Brazil around 1822, especially during the slave trade period. The tropical and sub-tropical climates of South America have encouraged the growth of yellow fever causing mosquitoes. The sub-tropical countries of South America including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama Peru, and Venezuela have provided a breeding ground for the disease-causing mosquitoes. In Brazil, there were over 400 confirmed cases of infection and 135 deaths in March 2017. To limit the exposure to the South American genotypes, South Africa requires those traveling from the continent to be vaccinated ten days before the travel date.
Boundaries between continents are somewhat a matter of geographical convention. The number of continents that the Earth is considered to have can range between six or seven, although the count can go as low as four when Afro-Eurasia and Americas are combined as continents. There are only three overland boundaries in existence. These boundaries include the ones between Asia and Europe, between Africa and Asia, and between North and South America.
Overview Of Eurasia
Obelisk on the geographical boundary between Europe (on left) and Asia (on right) parts of the world. Near Pervouralsk city, Sverdlovsk region, Russia. Image credit: Alexander Verevkin/Shutterstock.com
The boundary between Europe and Asia exists on paper. However, there is no significant physical distinction between the two continents. The boundary between the two continents is just merely a historical and cultural construct. The boundary between Asia and Europe is often defined to follow the Aegean Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Turkish Strait, the Black Sea, the Greater Caucasus, and the Ural River and Mountains. However, controversies exist over the exact boundary. As the ocean does not separate the two continents, they both exist on the same landmass. The division of the two continents is purely cultural and tends to be biased towards the European side. The modern definition of the Eurasian boundary places some countries into both continents while others entirely in one continent. These transcontinental countries include Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.
How Did The Two Continents Come To Be?
The original continental separation was invented by ancient Greek Mariners who named the continents as Europe and Asia. The two masses of land were separated by a complex waterway flowing from the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Azov. However, the Greeks viewed the continent as physical entities with minimal cultural significance or political content. The threefold system by Herodotus divided the old world into three: Europe, Africa, and Asia. However, the Europe-Asia boundary remained unusual even among the Greek geographers and even Herodotus. The boundary between Asia and Europe was placed along the Phasis River by Anaximandar. The convention was also followed by the Herodotus in the 5th BC. However, a new convention emerged in the following centuries drawing the continental boundaries along the Tanais or the modern Don River. From the Middle Age through to the 18th century, the traditional division of the Eurasia into two continents followed Ptolemy with boundaries following along the Turkish Strait, the Black Sea, the Azov Sea, and the Don. However, in 1725, Philip Johan Von Strahlenberg departed from the Don boundary by drawing a boundary line along the Volga through Samara Bend and along the Ural Mountains.
Definition Of The Boundary By Philip Johan Von Strahlenberg
Philip Johan Strahlenberg (1677-1747) / Public domain
The border between Europe and Asia as it exists today was first defined by Philip Johan Von Strahlenberg, an explorer and a Swedish Army officer. His border followed the chains of the Ural Mountains; Emba River to the north coast of the Caspian Sea, and the Kuma-Manych Depression which exists on the Black Sea. The depression is based on the name of two rivers that lie in the northern part of the Caucasus Mountains and are currently considered to be the exact boundary.
Map of Russia in 1725, drawn by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg and Johan Anton von Matern
The eastern boundary between the two continents cut Russia into two, the European side of Russia and the Asian part. There is a significantly uneven distribution of people between the two portions of the country with the European portion being home to over 75% of the country's population.
Role Of Soviet Geographers
By the mid-19th century, three main conventions had emerged. One was drawn along the Volga-Don Canal, the second following the Kuma-Manych Depression to Ural River while the third convention follows the Greater Caucasus Watershed to the Caspian Sea. The second convention, the boundary line following the Kuma-Manych Depression to the Caspian Sea, is the most popular convention today. Soviet geographers recommended that the boundary between the two continents be drawn in textbooks from Baydaratskaya Bay, along the eastern foot of the Ural Mountains. The Soviet definition of the boundary placed the Caucasus entirely in Asia while the Urals are entirely in Europe. Further, most Soviet Geographers preferred the boundary along the Caucasus Crest.
The Physical Features Defining The Asia-Europe Boundary
The Ural Mountains. Image credit: Misne/Shutterstock.com
The Ural Mountain watershed forms a natural boundary separating the two continents. The Mountain range averages 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the sea level. The highest peak, Mount Narodnaya, measures 6,214 feet. From the Ural Sea, the boundary follows the unnavigable Ural River which ends and empties into the Caspian Sea. However, the segment covered by the Ural River is yet to be determined.
Map of the Caspian Sea.
The Caspian Sea forms the next major segment of the boundary. The sea is 746 miles long and 270 miles wide making it a large completely enclosed water body. The border demarcations are not universally definitive and vary from one source to another. Some geographers place the country of Georgia entirely in Europe while others classify it as a transcontinental country that spans both Asia and Europe. Cyprus is also placed in Asia by some geographers although the country is often accepted as being included in the modern definition of Europe. According to the EUs geographic requirement, the definition of Europe is culturally and geographically intertwined and therefore is subject to political discretion.
The Debate Continues
Confusion surrounding the definition of the two continents leads to more geographers identifying six continents only, by merging Europe and Asia to form Eurasia. The splitting of Eurasia into Europe and Asia based on the true definition of a continent is now put on record. The separation of Europe from Asia was the effort of European geographers and scholars who sought to separate their region of the world. In fact, some readers find it difficult to accept the landmass forming Europe and Asia as separate continents in any context other than the study of the 20th-century history. In Europe and Asia, the historical boundaries trump the conventional continental criteria.
A Border Is An Imaginary Line
As has been illuminated here, the border between the two continents has not been a constant thing. Rather it's been a shifting amorphous line that is largely defined by convention rather than any specific physical feature. This makes for an interesting history, albeit a slightly confusing one!
Police forces around the world are respected for their oath to serve and protect the general public. Members of police forces are generally expected to be upstanding citizens and role models for proper civic behavior. In most places, it would be unheard of for a known criminal to hold such an important position. That has not always been the case, however, in Australia. This article takes a look at the first police force of Australia, which was made up entirely of convicts.
History Of Law Enforcement In Australia
When Australia was first being colonized, the country had no formal police force. In response to this need, the Marines of the Royal Navy assumed the responsibility after arriving to New South Wales in January of 1788. This provisional police force proved to be insufficient for the growing law enforcement needs of the newly developing country. The need was made even more evident when an economic crisis hit and the government established a rationing program. The lack of basic goods caused insecurity and fear among residents. With these feelings of instability and the inability to procure basic necessities, crime rates began to soar.
The Night Watch
The Marines of the Royal Navy were unable to control the ever-growing crime rates. The local government, led by Governor Phillip, soon recognized the need for a locally established law enforcement department and created the Night Watch. At the time, Australia had more convict residents than residents without criminal backgrounds. With convicts being the only human resources set before him, Governor Phillip decided to task 12 of the most well-behaved individuals with the responsibility of the "night watch".
These 12 men were divided into four groups that were assigned to different sectors of New South Wales. Given the success of this first group of convicts-turned-police-officers, the government decided to expand the program. In 1790, the Night Watch program was expanded to the city of Sydney. A new group of convicts joined the pre-existing Sydney Foot Police, allowing the enforcement area to expand into Toongabbie, Hawkesbury, and Parramatta.
Under Governor Hunter, in 1796, this larger police department was modeled after the London Police Department. This new organization placed police constables under the management of local magistrates. By this time, the Night Watch had become the go-to model for Australias police force expansion efforts. After 30 years, the Sydney department had grown to over 60 constables in several districts, the majority of whom were ex-convicts. Additionally, the force had grown to include several new units, including: Border Police, Mounted Police, Water Police, and the Mounted Aboriginal Police.
According to historians, of these additional police units, the mounted forces played an extremely important role in enforcing law throughout the land. This is because these police officers were able to reach the areas located far from the city. In addition, mounted police were able to monitor and regulate the transportation of trade and other goods along the countrys roadways. By the mid 19th century, the government passed the Police Recruiting Act which allowed the police department to recruit individuals from the British Isles as well. Recruits were given a free fare to come to Australia in exchange for 3 years of police service.
Historical records indicate that the Night Watch and its extensions were successful at controlling and reducing crime throughout Australia, a surprising result for a police force created of convicts.
DECATUR Last September, Christina Binnion was about to lose her Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and knew she had to do something.
Binnion hadnt worked since 2011 and had been in treatment for mental illness through Heritage Behavioral Health Center since 2014.
I couldnt just sit there and wait for something to happen, Binnion said. Where was my family going to live? How were we going to eat?
Binnion talked to her counselor and was referred to Heritages Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Employment Services, which helps adults with severe and persistent mental illness who want to find employment get a job.
As long as they want to work, we dont exclude anyone, IPS program manager Ashley Jamison said. It doesnt matter if they have any criminal history or past employment issues, as long as they say to their therapist or case manager they want a job, well start working with them.
Binnion was put in touch with IPS employment specialist Wanda Dotson and began the process. Binnion was asked what kind of work she wanted, assessed for what shed be good at and what would be appropriate for her.
Its based on what each individual wants to do, rather than just, Heres a job you can do. Go do it, Jamison said. Wherever they want to work, well support that goal and try to help them achieve it.
Jamison said IPS works with clients on how to communicate with potential employers, make a resume, interview and choose the right clothes to wear for the interview and for the job.
Binnion said there were times when the process was stressful and frustrating.
In January, I was going to drop out of it, but my husband made me continue, Binnion said. He said, Dont you dare. Where are we going to be when you lose your money if you dont get a job?
Then, last month, during a meeting with her caseworker, Binnion was told about a job opening for a peer support specialist in Heritages drop-in center.
I thought at first she was asking me if I was interested in seeing a peer counselor; I wasnt sure what she was asking, Binnion said. I thought about it, then decided to try it and see what happened.
Binnion filled out the application, was interviewed and found out two weeks later she got the job.
I was nervous about it, but also excited and ready, Binnion said.
Binnion just started the job but said family members have already noticed a difference.
I talked to my sister last week we shared a room growing up, so were close, Binnion said. She told me I was the Christy I was 15 years ago.
When I was young, I was enthusiastic about everything I did. But when I got to college, I lost that. Now I have that back, and its wonderful. If I hadnt found IPS, I dont know where Id be now.
Jamison said research shows that people progress faster in their mental health recovery when theyre employed.
It helps them feel needed, it gives them purpose and it makes them feel important, Jamison said. And, it provides them with income. Not having any way to support themselves is often one of the biggest barriers to mental health.
Jamison, who has been with the program since December, said three individuals found employment in the past month. Thats a big achievement; were excited about that, she said. There are also five people currently in a program taking hospitality courses and another working on getting his commercial drivers license at Richland Community College.
Many Heritage clients are on some kind of government assistance and worry theyll lose it when they start working.
We link them with a benefits counselor who can help them see how it will affect Social Security and Social Security benefits, Jamison said. They can find out how much they can make and how it will impact their current income.
The support doesnt stop once an IPS client gets a job. Dotson said as long as the employer agrees to it, IPS employment specialists can act as a liaison between employee and employer. Its called follow-along support.
We can assist with coping skills when need be and help them out with problems theyre having or want to talk about, and we can talk to their employer if there are any problems, Dotson said.
North Wales Police Pay Their Respects to PC Keith Palmer
This article is old - Published: Monday, Apr 10th, 2017
Officers and staff from North Wales Police marked a two minute silence this afternoon in memory of PC Keith Palmer, who was killed during the Westminster attack in March.
The Force joined colleagues across the country in the two minute silence at 2pm this afternoon.
Officers from Wrexham town centre stood silent outside the police station to pay their respects and to honour PC Palmer. Officers and staff also gathered outside the North Wales Police Headquarters to take part in the two minute silence.
In London thousands of officers lined the streets to pay their respects at PC Palmers funeral this afternoon.
Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Neill Anderson said: Officers and staff across north Wales observed the two minutes silence at 2pm today as a mark of respect for PC Keith Palmer and his family. In addition a number of officers including Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Richard Debicki attended the Service held for PC Keith Palmer at Southwark Cathedral.
Whilst observing the two minute silence at Wrexham a kind member of the public handed officers and card and flowers which has been greatly appreciated by all.
Wrexham to Serve up Tasty Treats With Return of Popular Food Festival
This article is old - Published: Monday, Apr 10th, 2017
One of Wrexhams most popular events will be serving up some tasty treats when it returns to the town centre next month.
The two-day Wrexham Food and Drink Festival, which also coincides with the FOCUS Wales music festival, will take place on Llwyn Isaf on both Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th May.
Now a staple part of the community calendar, the two-day food extravaganza promises to be bigger and better than ever before with a wealth of traders selling everything from street food, confectionary, cakes and locally brewed ales.
Those looking food with a distinctly international flavour will certainly be spoilt for choice with plenty of classic and global cooking going on in the demonstration kitchen along with the chance to sample freshly made paella courtesy of Su Cassa.
Other exhibitors at the event will include the ever popular Orchard Pigs and their tractor wheel pies Snowdonia Cheese, Chilly Cow Ice Cream and Patchwork Pate.
For the real ale lovers out there will have local brewers such as Big Hand Brewery, who will be launching the very first Nightingale House Beer, T-WREX as well as Wrexham Lager and Rosies Triple D Cider.
Perhaps the biggest attraction will be celebrity chef and former Coronation Street star, Sean Wilson who is back by popular demand to show off his cooking skills in Sundays demonstration marquee.
Sean Wilson is back by popular demand at this years Wrexham Food Festival
As if all that wasnt enough this years Food Festival will offer free parking in all council car parks courtesy of Wrexham County Borough Council as well as live music from FOCUS Wales and the Tenovus Cancer Choir.
Eleri Smith of Nightingale House said: The Wrexham Food and Drink Festival is now in its fifth year and is a firm favourite in our community calendar, bringing visitors from far and wide.
The complement of food and drink exhibitors, interactive cooking demonstrations and live music makes this a great family day out and we hope to see plenty of people enjoying the sights again this year.
The Wrexham Food and Drink Festival will take place on Saturday 13th May from 10am until 5pm and Sunday 14th May from 10am until 4pm. All profits will go directly towards patient care at Nightingale House.
For more information, call 01978 314 292 or visit the Wrexham Food Festival website.
PANA The latest victim of a tragic house fire in Pana was identified Sunday as 43-year-old John E. Beyers.
Christian County Coroner, Amy Calvert Winans, said Beyers was killed by choking on toxic smoke and soot when a fierce blaze engulfed a two-story house about 10 a.m. Saturday in the 400 block of East 4th Street.
An investigation by the State Fire Marshal's Office and the Pana Fire Department determined the fire was caused by discarded smoking material in a recliner chair in a corner of the first-floor living room.
Beyers' death is the third such tragedy within a week for the small community of Pana. On April 2, Ellaina Graves Emerson, 2, and her 3-month-old brother, Keith Emerson, both died in their 808 E. 2nd St. home from carbon monoxide inhalation as fire destroyed their home.
Pana firefighters had fought desperately to get through the flames to rescue them but were beaten back, at first, by the intensity of the blaze. It was the same story in the Saturday morning fire as firefighters attempted to fight their way inside, putting their own lives at risk.
Our guys made entry and did a quick search and started up the stairway as fire was building in the upstairs area, said Pana Fire Chief, Rod Bland. But when they got to the top of the stairs the room they had just left flashed over and almost trapped them inside the building. They had to bail out and leave the hose and everything and evacuate the building.
The four firefighters who had been inside managed to get clear safely and Bland said his crews aggressively attacked the fire and eventually got back inside, where they recovered Beyers' body.
Bland, who had counselors available to help his crews after the fire that took the lives of the two children, said he had gathered his department together Sunday for a debriefing session and reported everybody was doing good. But he said it's been a very hard week.
A lot of fire departments like ours go years and years and years and never see anything like this, he added. And we've had three (fire fatalities) in barely a week. It's been a hard hit on us.
Workers, students and young people across Australia have reacted to the US bombing of a Syrian air base last Thursday with a combination of shock and intense opposition. Speaking to the WSWS, many noted the bloody record of US and Australian interventions in the Middle East over the past 15 years. Some expressed concerns that the direct targeting of a base at which Russian troops were present marked a dangerous turn towards a broader military conflagration.
The sentiments of ordinary people stand in sharp contrast to the response of the Australian political and media establishment. Liberal-National Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Labor Party leader Bill Shorten hailed the illegal act of aggression by the US.
The media, including its nominally liberal wing, has universally lined-up behind the fraudulent pretext for the US bombingthat the Syrian regime used chemical weapons last weekand has suppressed all information indicating that it was the US-backed Islamist opposition that had the most to gain from the alleged nerve gas attack.
WSWS reporters spoke to workers, students and young people over the weekend.
Amanda, a middle-aged healthcare worker from Newcastle, a regional centre in New South Wales, said: The CIA is behind the bombings in Syria and probably the gas attack as well. They have their fingers in all pies. That is how they operate around the world. If they dont like a government, they will change it.
Amanda questioned the official pretext for the bombing. I really doubt it was Assad [the Syrian president] who conducted the gas attack, she said. It is illogical. Why would Assad do that now, when he is regaining control over Syria? It doesnt make sense.
America has attacked every government in the Middle East that had gained some degree of independence. Iraq, Syria and Libya, were some of the most civilized countries in the Middle East and all had secular governments. When they [the US] invaded Iraq in 2003, no one provided any proof about weapons of mass destruction.
Asked about the dangers of a broader conflict, Amanda commented: There is real likelihood for a major war here. Russia has never attacked the US and they have no overseas bases except in Syria. But the US has over 200 bases in every corner of the world. I imagine if Hillary Clinton had been elected US president she would have gone to war just a couple of days after the election.
In the Latrobe Valley, in south-east Victoria, WSWS reporters spoke with residents about the relationship between the drive to war abroad and the assault on the social conditions of the working class. The region faces a deep social crisis, after decades of job cuts in the power sector, which will be exacerbated by the closure of the Hazelwood power plant last month and the destruction of 750 jobs.
Misty, a 22-year-old casual worker, said: I think that war has gotten to the point where its not about protecting people. Its about a selfish government.
I wanted to go and fight in a war when I was young. I did 28 days of training. Its only in the last two years I decided not to. I realised people are not fighting for freedom, but for money. I dont think its right for some of us to suffer just for someone else to put money in their pocket.
In Iraq, in 2003, there were no weapons of mass destruction. They said there were. It was a lie. I think this one in Syria is the same. Theres another reason they want to go to war in the Middle East. Theres a lot of money to gain from controlling the oil.
Misty continued: The government here spends all the money on war and things that arent necessary. They could be funding homes for people who are homeless. There isnt enough done for the people who need it. I dont see people as Muslim or Iraqi. Were just people. We all have to work, we all have to survive.
Jordan, a 24-year-old demolition worker, said: I think this whole thing in Syria is caused by the US. Its just like Iraq. In 2003, it was all over oil. Saddam Hussein was a bad man but it wasnt a reason to take over a country.
Asked about the billions spent by the Australian government on war, Jordan said: I believe money is spent in the wrong way. Theres nothing much out here. I came here to live with my girlfriends family. There are a lot of drug problems and there are no jobs. I find whatever work I can. I get work three out of seven days. Its not enough to get by.
Yvonne, a retiree, pointed to the illegality of the bombing. The question in my mind now is, did Trump order the bombing? she asked. Trump has the formal title of president but he is not the government. I dont know whether according to the US constitution he can make unilateral decisions and have them executed.
Yvonne denounced the media, for uncritically peddling the claims of the major imperialist powers. I know what the media is saying is tailored. Its tailored by what is not said, she commented.
Yvonne pointed to the persecution of refugees, many of whom are fleeing the Syrian conflict, by successive Labor and Liberal-National governments. I just cant bear to watch the television, she said.
Im the daughter of refugees and I hate the appalling policies that our government carries out against asylum-seekers in the name of border protection. They dont listen to us. Theyre Janus-faced. Theres the public face on the television with all the trimmings. And then theres the reality which we never get to see.
Anuj, a 30-year-old IT worker originally from India but now living in Sydney, said: Im against the bombing, any bombing. Its not something that should ever happen. I think Trump is someone who doesnt really understand why he does a lot of things. Hes doing it to show he has power.
The media is supporting what hes done because he is president of the most powerful country in the world. The US has attacked the Middle East a lot, like they did in Vietnam. They have a history of meddling in other countrys affairs.
Stuart, a transport worker in Sydney, said that US bombing was disgraceful. There are so many machinations in this that you wouldnt know whats going on, he said. Western governments have created a lot of this mess. The whole region was split up by Britain at the end of World War I which started a lot of the mess.
Stuart pointed to the anti-democratic character of US-led wars: There is never any attempt to ask the people. Its just the leaders that make the decisions and the ordinary people have to do all the dirty work for them. They are the ones sent to war and dying. The generals sit back in their ivory towers and once its all over, they move on to the next disaster and leave all the carnage behind them.
Stuart said that there was a deepening social crisis in the US and Australia. The US worker has been in decline for a long time, he commented. The steel industry has been decimated, they all lost their jobs and look at it now. Its even creeping up to the high-paid and skilled workers, like the pilots in America. Its hitting Australia as well and other Western countries. What do you do? You vote for Trump as a protest vote and you end up with a bigger disaster.
The Liberal-National conservative government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has given Australias full support to the Trump administration for its unilateral and illegal military strikes on the Syrian government. Even before the government took a formal position, just hours after the attacks, the Labor Partys opposition leader Bill Shorten had already declared that Labor totally endorsed US actions.
The US strike, last Friday Australian time, was the first direct attack on the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad by the US military. It was justified by unsubstantiated and highly dubious allegations that the Syrian air force had bombed civilians with chemical weapons two days before.
The political and media establishment has shown no interest in establishing the truth about the allegations. The American military and intelligence agenciesthe authors of the claims in 2003 that Iraq had weapons of mass destructionhave proclaimed Assad guilty, so that is enough for the Turnbull government and the Labor Party. They have dismissed out of hand the categorical denials by Syrian authorities and the demands by Russia for a credible international investigation. The possibility that the strikes could result in a direct military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia has been generally downplayed.
The right-wing, anti-immigrant One Nation, whose leader Pauline Hanson previously voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, also declared support for the US attack.
The line-up behind Washington by the government and Labor has been replicated throughout the media, both commercial and state-owned. From the time the reports came through of an alleged chemical attack, Syrian government responsibility was taken for granted. After the US fired 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield, the right of Washington to launch yet another war was not questioned.
Greens acting leader Scott Ludlam issued a statement of opposition to the US strike, reflecting the views of a layer of the corporate and political elite who want to distance Australia from Washington. He declared that Turnbull must rule out any Australian involvement in this military campaign and that we must take a look at our closest ally and acknowledge that the alliance is now a real danger to Australia. It is not clear if Ludlams statement represents the views of Greens leader Richard Di Natale and his faction of the party.
Ludlams nationalist and limited criticisms have been effectively censored by the media, as has any serious exposures and condemnations of the lies surrounding the US strikes. Most attention has focused on whether Australian forces already operating in Syria and Iraq, as part of the so-called Coalition against Islamic State (ISIS), will now join US combat operations against the Assad government.
The Australian military currently has eight FA-18 fighter-bombers, surveillance aircraft, refueling aircraft, support personnel and a contingent of army trainers working with Iraqi government forces. The FA-18s regular carry out attacks on alleged ISIS targets in eastern Syria.
Defence Minister Marise Payne stated that the Pentagon has not asked Australia to carry out attacks in Syrian government-held areas or for additional Australian aircraft or personnel to be sent to the Middle East. She announced, however, that she will be holding further talks with US officials this week. On Saturday, in comments to the press, Prime Minister Turnbull for the first time tentatively endorsed the position that Assad has to gothat is, regime-change.
The Australian political establishment has watched cautiously as a bitter civil war has played out in Washington, with Trump being accused by the Democratic Party and much of the media of being a virtual Russian stooge. At stake has been the immediate focus of US foreign policy. Trump and the layers behind him were determined to step up an economic and political confrontation with China. The rival wing of the American elite want Russia brought to heel and the Middle East brought under US controlwhich means pursuing the long-held plan for regime-change to remove the Assad government in Syria and install a US puppet.
A protracted media campaign surrounding investigations about Russian influence in the US has now intersected with the alleged chemical attack in Syria. Trump had been compelled to abandon his positions that Russia could be worked with and that his only concern in the Middle East was defeating ISIS. His administration is now indicating it will seek regime-change, which means a vast escalation of violence and the extreme risk of war with Russia and Iran.
For the Australian ruling class, greater carnage in the Middle East or even war with Russia is preferable to the US attacking North Korea or taking other actions that could trigger a war with ChinaAustralias largest trading partner and export market.
Under successive Labor and conservative governments, Australian imperialism fully backed the Obama administrations pivot to Asia and military build-up in the region, including US new bases in Australia. The objective, however, was to pressure China to accept ongoing American dominance of the Indo-Pacific and to restructure its economy so it could join the economic arm of the pivotthe Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Trump came into power with a different agenda. He repudiated the TPP on his first day as president and has set out to force trade concessions from China by threatening to militarily challenge its key strategic interests on issues such as Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea.
At the beginning of last week, there is little doubt that countries across Asia were preparing, politically and militarily, for the possibility that the US would launch pre-emptive attacks to destroy North Koreas nuclear weapons program and assassinate its leadership. With the Syrian strike, much of the Australian ruling class may have breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the immediate focus of the White House was instead going to be the Middle East and Russia.
Any respite, however, would have been short-lived. The Pentagon announced over the weekend that an aircraft carrier battlegroup has been ordered to return to waters off the coast of the Korean Peninsula. Even as war tensions rise in the Middle East and Europe, they are not lessening in Asia.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was instructed by Washington to cancel a scheduled trip to Moscow Monday, to meet with his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Instead, he was tasked by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a phone call Saturday with securing a clear and co-ordinated message to the Russians over Syria. This message, dictated by the Trump administration, is to be given at today and Tuesdays G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Lucca, Italy of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the US.
Johnson was left embarrassed for a second time in as many days, after publicly admitting that Tillerson had told him not to go for talks in Moscow that would have coincided with the Secretary of States own visit later this week.
Johnson wrote in a statement that he had discussed in detail his plans with Tillerson and they had agreed the American should go to Moscow first so that he would deliver [a] clear and coordinated message to the Russians.
Johnson will instead attend the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy Monday and Tuesday, where he will try to build a consensus for demands to Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull his troops out of Syria and end his support for President Bashar al-Assad.
Johnson justified the cancellation of what would have been the first trip to Russia by a UK foreign secretary in five years by declaring that Developments in Syriathe April 4 chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhounhave changed the situation fundamentally.
This is bluster on Johnsons part. What changed the situation fundamentally is the Conservative governments desire to be on message with the Trump administration, as it has moved to a position of demanding regime change and preparing a military offensive to that end.
The intention to remove Assad was signalled by the unilateral April 6 attack on the Syrian governments Al Shayrat airfield involving 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Earlier that day, Johnson had also failed to keep pace with the shift in the Trump administrations line of collaboration with Moscow and Damascus in ensuring the defeat of Islamic State (ISIS).
Speaking to reporters in Sarajevo, Johnson opposed unilateral action, insisting, It is very important to try first to get out a UN resolution condemning Syria in order to place maximum pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in Assad. This was also the position of Prime Minister Theresa May. Hours later, May was informed by phone that the US was about to commence bombing and immediately fell into line.
Speaking on Johnsons decision to the Daily Telegraph, a Foreign Office source said: It has been noticeable this week that both Tillerson and Trump have said there is no future for Assad. Johnson would be hitting the phone to ensure a very strong and very hard-hitting G7 statement over Russias involvement in Syria is agreed, the source added.
That same day, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, declared, Theres not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime.
On cue, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon wrote an opinion piece in the Sunday Times accusing President Vladimir Putins government of political responsibility for the civilian deaths in the attack on Khan Sheikhoun. By proxy Russia is responsible for every civilian death last week. If Russia wants to be absolved of responsibility for future attacks, Vladimir Putin needs to enforce commitments, to dismantle Assads chemical weapons arsenal for good, and to get fully engaged with the UN peacekeeping progress, he demanded. Russia must show the resolve necessary to bring this regime to heel.
Moscow is openly contemptuous of Britains bluster. The foreign ministry said there was no need to talk to the UK, as it is in the shadow of its partners. The cancellation of Johnsons visit once again confirms doubts about the added value of dialogue with the British, who dont have their own position on the majority of current issues.
The Russian Embassy in London tweeted that if Putin was given an ultimatum, the outcome would be either a war of clowns, war of muses, a conventional war or mix of the above.
Johnsons embarrassment occasioned some schadenfreude from the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats and Labour.
The SNPs foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond said Johnson looked like some sort of mini-me and is in deep political trouble. Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats leader, said, Boris has revealed himself to be a poodle of Washington, having his diary managed from across the pond.
Labours Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told Sky News that Johnson should be in Moscow now. ... He should be saying to the Russians just how appalling this situation is and the role they should play. We have got to be frank with them and we shouldnt just allow the Americans to go off and do that, we should be doing that ourselves.
The tenor of McDonnells remarks points to the pathetic character of such political posturing by the opposition parties.
There is no substantial disagreement with the Tories from the fanatically pro-interventionist Liberal Democrats, while McDonnell is making clear once again that he and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not oppose a vote in support of military action by their MPs, should one be called.
The government has not so far raised the possibility of the UK launching its own air strikes against Assad, which would in all likelihood need the support of MPs. There remains the example of 2013, when Parliament rejected a bombing campaign in Syria. But this time, a majority of Labour MPs have indicated their support for extended action citing their inevitable humanitarian pretexts and justifications.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Liberal government, and virtually the entire Canadian political and media establishment were quick to give their full-throated support to last weeks illegal, and geopolitically incendiary, US missile strike on Syria.
The ruling elites rush to endorse Washingtons aggression is further proof of its eagerness to work with the Trump administration, so as to assert Canadian imperialisms predatory global interestsincluding in a new US drive for regime change in Syria and an intensified US-led military-strategic offensive against Russia.
On Thursday, prior to the US strike on al-Shayrat air base, Trudeau and his foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, were calling for an international investigation of the alleged April 4 chemical weapons attack in Idilb province, adding that it was too early to say who was responsible for it.
Less than 24 hours later, Trudeau appeared before the television cameras and without batting an eyelash declared that his government fully supports the US missile strike because the Syrian regime cannot be permitted to continue chemical weapons attacks with impunity.
When asked whyabsent the international investigation he was calling for just a day beforehe was now certain that the Assad regime had carried out a chemical weapons attack, Trudeau said the Trump administration had told Ottawa that the Syrian government was responsible and that was sufficient for Canada.
Trudeau described Trumps missile strikes as limited and focused. Such claims are transparently false and an attempt to conceal from the population the extent to which Canada is implicated in aggressive acts that could rapidly lead to a regional and even world war.
Trumps attack on Syria is the outgrowth and continuation of more than a quarter-century of US wars in the Middle East, aimed at consolidating American imperialisms hegemony over the worlds most important oil-producing region. It threatens to lead to a military clash with nuclear-armed Russia, the Assad regimes most powerful international ally. Moscow has responded to last weeks missile strike by canceling an air-cooperation agreement with the Pentagon over Syrias skies and by dispatching a warship to the Mediterranean.
The threat of a wider conflict did not cause the Trudeau government any pause. Asked about the possibility of Canada lending support for further US attacks on Syrian government forces, Trudeau declared, Those are determinations that obviously the international community will be seized with today and in coming days.
Foreign Minister Freeland, meanwhile, sharply criticized Moscow, painting it as complicit in violations of international law, when it was Washington that had just illegally attacked Syria and without even the pretense of seeking United Nations authorization. Russia needs to pressure Assad to do the right thing, said Freeland. Russia needs to step up and act. What is very important is that the international community cannot be paralyzed by that Russian (Security Council) veto. And we wont.
Trudeaus and Freelands remarks make clear that Canada is preparing to expand both its military intervention in the Middle Eastwhere Canadian Special Forces are currently assisting the brutal offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul and Royal Canadian Air Force pilots are mounting surveillance missions in Iraq and Syriaand against Russia in Eastern Europe.
Canadian troops are already set to deploy to Latvia in the coming weeks to lead one of four new forward deployed NATO battalions aimed at encircling and menacing Russia. The government also recently announced that six CF-18 fighter jets will deploy to Romania in September for military exercises with the NATO member. And last week, the Liberal government signed a military cooperation agreement with the far-right Ukrainian regime, clearing a major hurdle to the sale of Canadian-made weaponry to Kiev.
Trudeaus endorsement of Trumps missile strikes is further proofalthough by this point none should be neededof the cynical and duplicitous character of the Liberals attempt to appeal to antiwar sentiment in the 2015 election by promising to withdraw the Canadian fighter jets bombing Iraq and Syria.
Under Trudeau, Canada has deepened its participation in the three major US military-strategic offensives, in the Middle East and against Russia and China.
Last year, the government extended and expanded Canadas military intervention in the Middle East, by tripling the number of Special Forces deployed to Iraq and significantly increasing the number of officers tasked with assisting US war planning in Iraq and Syria.
Recently, the Liberals extended the Iraq deployment by a further three months, while pledging in the meantime to put together a long-term proposal for Canadian operations in the country, including possible further increases in troop deployments.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and his aides have made it known that they are anxious to coordinate Canadas military intervention with the Trump administration. Toward that end, Ottawa delayed moving forward with a planned counterinsurgency deployment to Africa until receiving assurances from the Pentagon that Canadian forces would not be needed elsewhere.
Finalization of Canadas long-term plans for the current Mideast deployment have clearly been waiting upon completion of the Trump administrations own review. Even before last weeks missile strike, there were many indications that a major US escalation was in the works.
Despite Trudeaus whole-hearted endorsement of Trumps missile strike, certain media commentators and the Conservative opposition have criticized the Liberals for not being sufficiently supportive and forthcoming with offers of military support of Washington.
Several National Post commentators berated the Trudeau government for its supposed reluctance to back Trumps action, which was apparently demonstrated by its having briefly raised the possibility of an international investigation into the alleged gas attack and its calls for multilateral efforts to end the Syrian war to continue through the UN.
The missile strike has also been used as grist for the mill for the ruling elites longstanding push for major hikes in military spending. The Liberals are slated to announce the results of their defence policy review by the summer, after which they have pledged to hike military spending from its current level of 1 percent of GDP.
But for the Post, which is demanding that Ottawa double military spending to $40 billion per year to meet the 2 percent target agreed upon at NATOs 2014 summit, this is woefully inadequate. A Post editorial hailing Trumps attack on Syria declared, This is also another reminder, as if more were needed, that no member of the Western allianceCanada very, very much includedcan afford to underfund its military, and, more generally, to degrade its ability to act in concert with allies abroad.
In Quebec, the pro-Quebec independence Parti Quebecois (PQ) joined with the provincial Liberal government in welcoming the missile strike and condemning Assad as a war criminal.
The New Democratic Party (NDP), Canadas social democrats, refused to condemn Trumps illegal attack on Syria, saying it was too soon to say what the consequences of raining missiles on Syria would be. However, it gave tacit support to Washingtons actions, by making no mention of the illegal wars the US has waged and fomented in the region, including in Syria, while declaring, Assad must be held accountable for these crimes.
The NDP has supported Canadas participation in one US-led war after another, including the 1999 war on Yugoslavia, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the 2012 regime-change war in Libya.
Rodrigro Reyes, the young director of Lupe Bajo el Sol (Lupe Under the Sun), agreed to answer a number of questions by email. This is the exchange.
* * * * *
WSWS: In most films about immigration the goal of the protagonists is to get to the US, the land of opportunity, but in this film we see what things are really like in Californias impoverished Central Valley and now the goal is to go back to Mexico. Was there a deeper meaning behind this story?
Rodrigo Reyes: Lupe is a film that comes from a story I discovered within my own family. Right before I started making the film, I discovered that my grandfather had gone missing in the United States for five years. At the time, over 40 years ago, grandpa had been coming and going from Michoacan into California, leaving before the spring and returning in the winter. But suddenly, he simply stopped showing up. It was an anxious and difficult time for my aunts and uncles, and especially for my grandmother.
When grandpa finally came home, he never offered an explanation for this absence. I made Lupe Bajo el Sol inspired by this story, because I wanted to look at the shadows and the pain of immigration.
The American Dream is woven into the fabric of migration and the identity of the US. We are proud of this dream because it makes us exceptional to the rest of the world. We take it for granted that folks will always fight to come here because it proves the existence and vigor of this dream, which is so important to our sense of self.
For a lot of economic immigrants, the process of leaving their homeland is wrapped up in the chasing of this dream. This mythology is incredibly powerful. It renews itself generation after generation, in great part because there is little account of what happens when these dreams vanish on the other side. Within immigrant communities it is extremely difficult to talk openly about failure and the price they have paid to chase a mirage.
Lupe is a man caught in this tension. The American Dream never materialized for him. Instead, he spent his lifetime away from home, doing backbreaking work. He is old and tired, and his family in Mexico has rejected him. What was the point of it all? This question is devastating and it pushes Lupe into his last adventure. For once in his life he knows what he really wantshe wants to go home.
WSWS: You mentioned you are from Merced originally. Can you describe what it was like to live there?
RR: Im actually from Mexico City, but I have lived in Merced for many years. I would describe it in terms of what the film tries to portray: a vast agricultural heartland, full of huge orchards and a slow pace of life. For migrants like Lupe, this is a place where they take root as farm workers, employing many of the skills they developed in Mexico to keep industries like peach farming alive. Dusty, hot and with endemic poverty, it is a far cry from the idealized California of Los Angeles or the Bay Area.
Many of these folks live in a bubble, a parallel world to the mainstream life of the town. Lupe, for instance, is consumed by work. His routine is overwhelming. And on Sundays, when he does go out, he is like an alien in the world, riding his bike through the park, nice neighborhoods and restaurants. He is a ghost who cannot connect with regular life. And to my eye, Merced and the many towns of the Central Valley are full of ghosts like Lupe.
WSWS: How did you come across the actors who are in the film?
RR: Danny [Daniel Muratalla] worked with my father for many years until he retired. I approached him because he fit my idea of the character, and then I was lucky to meet his wife [Ana Maria Muratalla], who was just perfect for the part of Gloria, Lupes lover.
Im very grateful to have worked with him and his wife Ana Maria. I think they are amazing because they were willing and open to take part in the film, in spite of never having been a part of this world. They were willing to trust meand it was this connection that allowed the movie to come to life. Imagine the courage it takes to say yes, when you are approached to work on a film and you have limited English and a hard background in your own country, with little access to education or opportunity.
Thanks to their faith and courage, I was able to make an authentic film that did not hide or polish life in the fields. Danny really looks like what he is: a hardworking man. His hands, his back, even his gait are all real. And the same goes for his wife Ana, who is an extraordinarily resilient woman.
WSWS: What do you think of the current political situation, especially in regard to immigrants?
RR: Is there a bigger lightning rod for racism, bigotry, fear-mongering and hate than immigration? Our reaction to this community, in particular in the United States, is a test of our humanity and our ability to think rationally about our relationships to other people. I really think it embodies the biggest social challenge of our times.
Internet privacy is among the latest hot-button debates, in part, because of a likely rollback of Obama-era privacy protections that were supposed to take place later this year.
That got the attention of some Illinois lawmakers who are looking to implement internet safeguards at the state level, including one that would allow people to find out what companies like Google and Facebook have collected on them and which third parties they share it with.
We think that is a good idea.
Most people don't understand how a lot of this works, but just about everyone recoils at the thought of their privacy being invaded. With the internet, it is happening more and more frequently.
Surveillance of one kind or another has become the business model of the internet.
Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that if internet service providers want to collect and sell personal information, like your browsing history, they needed to get your permission first that is, ask you to "opt-in" to their data-sharing programs.
But the GOP-led Congress voted to revoke the opt-in provision and President Trump signed the resolution last week.
Supporters of protections like Illinois is considering a House committee has endorsed the measure say they are needed because of what is going on in D.C.
The federal regulations would place restrictions on what companies such as Comcast and Verizon can do with information, including user search histories, but not websites.
Privacy advocates say the move sends a clear signal that it's up to individual states to step into this "right to know" debate and try to correct it.
Not surprisingly, the tech industry is largely against the proposed requirements, saying they would burden companies with an unnecessary layer of regulation and compliance costs, while stifling innovation.
Supporters of the Illinois bill disagree, contending that similar requirements in the European Union and in California, which enacted a similar measure in 2000, have not hurt business.
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce argues the proposal treats basic information such as names, addresses and phone numbers as "highly sensitive," unfairly extending requirements to other businesses like restaurants that offer online ordering services.
But supporters point to overwhelming support the proposal has generated. The House committee received notices from more than 1,000 people and organizations in support of the bill largely from private individuals. Only 32 were submitted in opposition.
It's no surprise that the American Civil Liberties Union's Illinois chapter is backing the bill, telling the Associated Press that such legislation is needed to address the now "razor-thin" division between government and private entities that can sell data to federal agencies.
In the end, maybe this ship has sailed. Maybe there is no good way to protect our basic privacy because the internet has become such a pervasive part of our everyday lives. But efforts like the one in Illinois is worth it, if for no other reason than to initiate a dialogue over our threatened right to privacy.
Five protestors taking part in a demonstration against the Trump administrations illegal bombing of Syria were arrested in Jacksonville, Florida on Friday afternoon and charged with multiple felonies, including inciting a riot. Video of the arrests and eyewitness testimony clearly show that the incident was provoked by the police in concert with a well-known right-wing provocateur.
The police assault was initiated when Gary Snow, a right-wing activist well-known for his frequent provocations, attempted to disrupt the protest by mounting the area used as a stage for the speakers with his own megaphone to shout pro-Trump slogans. Snow was allowed to do this by the police, who had at least a half a dozen officers surrounding the immediate area.
When one speaker, Connell Crooms, confronted Snow offstage with a sheriffs deputy standing between them, he was shoved by Snow. Jacksonville police then began their assault on Crooms.
The video shows at least four officers pile on Crooms, who is deaf, violently dragging him to the ground. As Crooms was pinned to the ground by three officers, one of them repeatedly punches the incapacitated man in the ribs as the others hold him down. Snow can be seen standing unmolested over the dogpile of police officers as they viciously beat Crooms.
Crooms, who frequently participates in anti-war and anti-police violence protests in Jacksonville, was hospitalized for his injuries. Witnesses told the Folio Weekly that police could be seen dragging the limp body of Crooms into a nearby ambulance. Police absurdly charged him with two felonies: inciting a riot and resisting an officer with violence.
As the outraged crowd gathered closer and shouted at police to stop their assault, the sheriffs deputies turned on the crowd and responded with brutal force. Toma Beckham, another local activist, was slammed to the ground and arrested. When another nearby activist, Christina Kittle, came to their aid she too was assaulted. The video shows a large sheriffs deputy slamming the woman face down onto the ground and violently twisting her arm behind her back into a joint lock before arresting her.
Kittle was charged with two felonies: battery on a law enforcement officer and riot/incite or encourage. Beckham was charged with a felony count of resisting an officer with violence and a misdemeanor count of affray (fighting).
William Wilder, a 74-year-old man, was beaten by another large deputy as he attempted to prevent him from assaulting another protestor. In a Facebook post from the Jacksonville sheriffs office, the police admit punching the elderly man in the face several times to obtain compliance, after Wilder allegedly knocked the radio off of the deputies shoulder. Wilder was charged with two felony counts: aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and depriving an officer with means of communication.
David Schneider, a local activist, was charged with a felony count of inciting a riot. Schneider was on the outskirts of the protest when police launched their assault on demonstrators.
The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office (JSO) Facebook post that attempts to whitewash the arrests justifies Schneiders arrest thus: During the protest suspect David Schneider was identified to be the primary organizer of the protest. He was observed organizing and rehearsing chants with the crowd that they later repeated on his command during the time he addressed the crowd with an electronic megaphone. Mr. Schneider was also the main person observed engaging and coordinating with most of the s. The decision was made to detain the organizer of the protest. Suspect Schneider observed police looking at him and began to cross the street and leave. Police yelled multiple times to stop and he did not comply. An officer ran after him and grabbed his arm and told him he was being detained. Suspect Schneider was arrested for Inciting a Riot (felony).
The JSO indicts themselves with their own words. They arrested Schneider for organizing the protest, exercising his constitutionally protected rights of free speech. Nothing in the preceding protest, which consisted of peaceful chanting and speeches, could be rationally seen as inciting a riot.
It is clear, however, that the JSO allowed a friendly provocateur to start a fight which they then used as a justification to assault the activists.
The fact that Schneider was targeted despite the fact that he was not in the immediate vicinity of the police assault suggests the arrests were planned in advance and the s were illegally targeted for their politics. Kittle, Beckham, Crooms, Wilder, and Schneider are all well-known activists who frequently participate in local anti-war and police violence protests.
A recent article in the Florida Times-Union exposed the JSOS routine surveillance of demonstrations. Going back to at least 2015 the Times- Union established that sheriffs office had a contract with the social media monitoring service Geofeedia. They used the service to notify them of any planned protests, particularly against police violence. The article also reveals that the JSO would film demonstrations, zooming in on the faces of speakers so as to better identify them. The article states that the JSO has access to facial recognition software, suggesting that they used the software to identify and target protest organizers.
On Saturday family members and friends who attempted to visit those arrested were turned away from the Duval County jail. Some had traveled from out of state to visit their imprisoned family members. Rather conveniently, the jail had been placed in lockdown and visitation canceled.
The provocateur, Snow, is also a frequent presence at local protests. He is known for provoking and intimidating protestors in his attempts to disrupt peaceful demonstrations and promote his right-wing ideology. At a rally at the Jacksonville courthouse Sunday in support of the imprisoned s, speakers called for his arrest, and several noted that at previous demonstrations the police had separated the counter-demonstrators from the main protest. The fact that they failed to do this at Fridays protest indicates probable collusion between the police and Snow.
Further evidence of this can be seen in video from the incident. As the police scatter the terrified crowd, Snow can be seen sitting on the hood of a nearby police cruiser, calmly talking with officers.
The arrests in Jacksonville must be taken as a stern warning to the working class. Police collaboration with fascistic elements like Snow in assaults on workers is a frequent tactic of authoritarian dictatorships. As opposition to war and inequality grows, the state will increasingly rely on such methods.
Just days after launching its criminal cruise missile attack on Syria, the Trump administration has provocatively authorised the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, together with its full strike group of guided missile destroyers and a cruiser, to waters off the Korean Peninsula. The move is a direct military threat to North Korea, which was at the top of the agenda in talks last weekend between the US and Chinese presidents.
An unnamed US official told the Financial Times that the deployment was designed to be a show of force. The carrier strike group had taken part in joint US-South Korean war games but was heading south for port calls in Australia before being ordered to turn north from Singapore. The Navy Times noted that announcing carrier movements in advance is rare, and generally done to send a clear message.
US Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham declared the decision was a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific, then castigated North Korea in blunt terms. The number one threat in the region continues to be North Korea, he said, due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilising program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capacity.
The Navy Times boasted that the strike group brings with it a ton of firepower, including the strike- and air-combat capacities of the Hornets [fighter aircraft], early warning radars, electronic-warfare capabilities and more than 300 missile tubes on the carriers escorts.
The dispatch of the Carl Vinson is a deliberate escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula following the Trump administrations completion of a lengthy review of US strategy toward North Korea. NBC revealed last Friday that three military options were under active consideration: the return of US nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula, decapitation attacks to kill the North Korean leadership and covert operations inside North Korea to sabotage nuclear, military and industrial targets.
Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, President Donald Trumps national security adviser, General H. R. McMaster, justified the deployment of the Carl Vinson as prudent, adding: This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear-capable regime. The president has asked [us] to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region.
Citing US officials, the Navy Times reported that the Pentagon and US Pacific Command have been sharpening plans for military strikes on the North as an option should the administration want to pursue that action.
All these highly provocative options threaten to trigger a devastating war on the Korean Peninsula that could kill millions. The Navy Times suggested that an all-out regional conflict would bring the US and its allies head-to-head with not only North Korea, but perhaps with Chinathat is, a conflict between the worlds two largest economies, both nuclear-armed.
Trump undoubtedly exploited the threat of military action against North Korea to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping to take tougher action against the Pyongyang regime. Speaking after talks between Trump and Xi last weekend, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CBSs Face the Nation yesterday that Xi clearly understands ... that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken.
Tillerson ruled out any talks with North Korea at present, saying only that we can work together with the Chinese to change the conditions in the minds of the DPRK [North Korean] leadership. But if Beijing fails to bully Pyongyang into accepting Washingtons demands, Tillerson left no doubt that the US would take aggressive measures against North Korea. Trump bluntly told the Financial Times last week: If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.
In an interview yesterday with ABCs This Week, Tillerson was asked whether North Koreas development of an intercontinental ballistic missile would constitute a red line. He answered ominously: If we judge that they have perfected that type of delivery system, then that becomes a very serious stage of their further development.
Drawing a link with last weeks attack on Syria, Tillerson said: The message that any nation can take is if you violate international norms, if you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point, a response is likely to be undertaken.
The North Korean regime denounced the US missile strikes on Syria as an unforgiveable act of aggression, adding that the US has been picking only on countries without nuclear weapons. A spokesman declared: The reality of today shows that we must stand against power with power and it proves a million times over that our decision to strengthen our nuclear deterrence has been the right one.
In reality, Pyongyangs limited nuclear arsenal has only provided US imperialism with a pretext for a massive build-up of its military forces in Asia, which are not primarily directed against North Korea, but China. Trump is continuing and expanding the Obama administrations pivot to Asia in a bid to ensure the continued US dominance of the Asia Pacific region.
While North Korea is not the same as Syria, the US will not hesitate to use military force against Pyongyang to further its strategic ambitions. US Defence Secretary James Mattis has already warned North Korea that any attempt to use its nuclear weapons will be met with an effective and overwhelming response. The Carl Vinson strike group alone has the capacity to carry and deliver enough nuclear weapons to obliterate North Koreas industrial and military capabilities.
Moreover, no one should conclude that the strikes on Syria will preclude a US attack on North Korea. Damascus and Pyongyang are just the proxy targets for a far broader strategy of subordinating Russia and Chinaand thus the Eurasian landmassto the hegemony of US imperialism. The bitter infighting within the American political, military and intelligence establishment over tacticswhether to confront Moscow or Beijing firstdoes not rule out attacks on both Syria and North Korea, with devastating consequences for humanity.
On Friday, Labour leader Corbyn issued a pro-forma statement opposing the unilateral and illegal bombing of Syria by the United States. He did so nearly 10 hours after the US sent 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into the Syrian government airbase, and hours after the Conservatives issued their backing of the attack.
Corbyns oppositional statement only served to underscore the domination of the pro-war right within the party. Several hours before Corbyn declared his position on the bombing, Labours Deputy Leader Tom Watson had already given a statement to the Birmingham Mail fully endorsing the bombing. This was immediately reported by the national media and taken by them to be Labours real position on the bombing.
Watson was followed up by a host of other pro-war Labour MPs, who combined enthusiastic support for the bombing with mocking reference to Corbyns ongoing silence.
Labour MP Michael Dugher said, Stop criticising Corbyns slow response. It takes time for Seamas [sic] to run the draft statement by the Kremlin, Stop the War + the Morning Star. Seamas refers to Corbyns spin-doctor, the Stalinist former Guardian columnist Seumas Milne, and the Morning Star to the daily newspaper of the Communist Party of Britain.
It was reported later Friday that Corbyns Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffithwho issued no statement on the bombinghad been shown Corbyns statement and had opposed it.
In his statement, John Woodcock MP tweeted: It is disappointing that the UK government sat on its hands until the US acted. 24 hours ago, Theresa May was insisting no one was contemplating a military response.
Woodcock signed a statement later Friday along with 25 other Blairite Labour MPs, claiming, without citing a shred of evidence, that the Idlib attack was, undeniably committed by the Syrian regime. Further action must be taken against the Assad regime under the guise of humanitarian concerns, it read.
The statement cited the UNs Responsibility to Protect Civilians agreement, declaring, [I]t is time for that to be recognised. After praising the US air strikes, the Labourites said they should only be the start of a wider and coherent strategy in which an internationally-led no-fly zone should be set up in Idlib province as soon as possible to prevent further civilian deaths. It concludes, Inaction has consequences and we cannot allow the slaughter to continue, and that is why we support immediate action to prevent further atrocities.
In its comments on Labours response, US airstrikes on Syria leave Labour hopelessly divided, the New Statesman notes: Labour sources estimate that most MPs and at least half of the shadow cabinet back the strikes.
The picture painted is of Corbyn facing the brickbats and under a state of siege by the pro-war majority of the party he nominally leads. However, the analogy breaks down because Corbyn has repeatedly thrown open the castle gates in surrender to his Blairites opponents.
Within weeks of being elected leader in September 2015, Corbyn granted a free vote to Labour MPs in support of UK bombing raids on Syria. In the December 2015 parliamentary debate on authorising UKs bombing on Syria, which overturned a 2013 vote against air strikes, Corbyn allowed Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn the right of reply to the government. Benn spoke in support of bombing, leading 66 Labour MPs in doing so, handing then Prime Minister David Cameron the convincing majority he needed to begin air strikes within hours.
Benn was allowed to keep his position in the shadow cabinet, only to resign a few months later as a signal for coordinated mass resignations and the launch of an attempted coup to remove Corbyn following a no-confidence vote by 177 Labour MPsmore than two-thirds of the parliamentary party.
Though defeated, the right-wingers have been allowed to continue their domination of the party, with Watson retaining his position even though he had personally guaranteed Cameron his support for air strikes in advance of the parliamentary vote!
Corbyn also refused to oppose Labour MPs as they lined up overwhelmingly to vote for the governments renewal of the 200 billion Trident nuclear weapons programme.
So pro-war is Labour that no less than three of the four shadow defence secretaries Corbyn has nominated since 2015, including the incumbent Griffith, are in opposition to him.
His ability to posture as an opponent of the right depends entirely on the snow job performed on his behalf by Britains pseudo-left and Stalinist organisations.
The Stop the War Coalition (STWC) dutifully reproduced without critical comment Corbyns Syria statement on its web site, despite the fact that it was weaker in terms of opposing US air strikes than that issued by Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond and even the former leader of the far-right UK Independence Party and Trump supporter, Nigel Farage!
Corbyn never questioned the official account of the Trump administration and the Conservative government, asserting the Syrian governments responsibility for the gas attack, despite the lies about Iraqs non-existent weapons of mass destruction utilised to invade Iraq in 2003. He declared, Tuesdays horrific chemical attack was a war crime which requires urgent independent UN investigation and those responsible must be held to account.
This is despite the fact that the US government, along with Russia and the United Nations, supervised the destruction of Syrias stockpile of banned chemical weapons in 2013-2014. US intelligence agencies have since repeatedly certified that Syrias chemical weapons stocks were destroyed.
This was carried out as part of an agreement brokered with Russian President Vladimir Putin following the thwarting of an attempt by the Obama administration to topple Syrian President Bashir Al Assad involving a weeks-long propaganda campaign asserting that his government authored an August 21 sarin gas attack on Gouta, east of Damascus, that killed 1,000 people. The US has never presented any evidence linking Assads forces to the atrocity and investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that the US deliberately ignored intelligence that al-Nusra was capable of manufacturing poison gas, including sarin, in bulk.
On April 5, immediately after the incident in north-western Idlib province, an area largely controlled by the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, in which a reported 86 people were allegedly killed by poison gas, Corbyn told ITN News, Whats happened is appalling, illegal and wrong. I want Syria to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was set up in 1925.
In fact, Syria signed the 1925 agreement Corbyn refers tousually called the Geneva Protocolin 1968, with the reservation that it did not recognise the state of Israel. Israel has never signed the Geneva Protocol to this day. In 2014, Syria also signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international agreement outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.
Corbyn concluded by politely urging the British government of Theresa May to urge restraint on the Trump administration and throw its weight behind peace negotiations and a comprehensive political settlement.
Speaking Sunday on Sky News, Corbyns main ally, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, refused to oppose Watsons support of US bombing, stating, I respect that view. I dont condemn him, I respect it.
Corbyn and his supporters will do nothing in opposition to the predatory warmongering of British imperialism. Indeed the pathetic character of his rebellion over Syria was highlighted when he followed this up by speaking to Gibraltars chief minister, Fabian Picardo, who told the media Saturday that the Labour leader restated his commitment to British sovereignty of Gibraltar. For this at least, Corbyn received the backing of the Tory supporting Sun and Express newspapers.
This followed the threat by senior representatives of the British political and military elite to go to war with Spain to maintain, post-Brexit, British possession of Gibraltar, located in the Iberian peninsula.
If anyone still needs to be convinced, last weeks events confirm once again that it is not possible to oppose war through the Labour Party, or by supporting Corbyns leadership of it. There is no crime of imperialism this party of state will not support, or against which Corbyn will mobilise his many supporters.
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Former UK Conservative Party leader Howard threatens war with Spain over Gibraltar
[03 April 2017]
We are publishing here the text of a lecture delivered Saturday, April 8 by Nick Beams, a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site. This is the third in a series of five international online lectures being presented by the International Committee of the Fourth International to mark the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
The axis of my lecture today on War and Revolution: 19141917 is a very important point made by David North in opening this series of lectures.
In point 7 of his 10 reasons why the Russian Revolution should be studied, he made the following observation:
The Russian Revolution demands serious study as a critical episode in the development of scientific social thought. The historical achievement of the Bolsheviks in 1917 both demonstrated and actualised the essential relationship between scientific materialist philosophy and revolutionary practice.
This approach is vital for three interconnected reasons:
First, a materialist approach is the key to understanding the nature of World War I, its origins, underlying causes, and enduring significance and relevance for our times.
Second, it enables us to locate the objective causes of the Russian Revolution arising out of the very transformations in global capitalism which had produced the war.
Third, it enables us to grasp the essential content of the revolutionary strategy, developed above all by Lenin, which resulted in the successful conquest of power by the working class, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks in November 1917.
The points made here, in somewhat abstract form, will, I hope, become clear as we trace the course of events themselves and Lenins political analysis.
World War and Revolution: 1914-1917
The objective causes of World War I
Let us turn to the question of World War I itself. More than 100 years after its outbreak on August 4, 1914 the question of its origin remains controversial. The reason is that this issue is of direct relevance for the analysis of contemporary events.
Roughly speaking there are two contending positionsthat of Marxism and various forms of bourgeois liberal scholarship.
The Marxist analysis, to summarise it in the broadest terms, is that the war was the outcome of conflicts, rooted in an objective and irresolvable contradiction of the capitalist mode of production: that between the global character of the economy and the nation-state system in which the profit system is grounded.
The opposing theories boil down to the conception that the war arose out of the political mistakes, miscalculations and misjudgements of various bourgeois politicians and it could somehow have been averted if only wiser heads had prevailed.
Political issues are immediately bound up with these opposed assessments. If the Marxist analysis is correct, then what immediately follows is that there can be no end to war and the threat of mass destruction without ending the capitalist private profit and nation-state system and creating a new social and economic order.
This is why from the very outset, bourgeois politicians, having presided over the greatest destruction in human history brought by four years of war, sought to absolve themselves and the capitalist system over which they presided from any responsibility. It arose almost inadvertently, according to the British wartime Prime Minister Lloyd George. The war was something into which the great powers glided, or rather staggered and stumbled. The nations slithered over the brink into the boiling cauldron of war.[1]
Bourgeois historians have followed in the wake of the capitalist politicians, sparing no effort in attempting to repudiate the Marxist analysis of World War I as a violent eruption of the contradictions of the world capitalist system. According to the British historian Niall Ferguson, for example, there is scarcely any evidence that businessmen wanted war; in fact, they were fearful of its consequences. Therefore, he insists, the Marxist interpretation of the wars origins can be consigned to the rubbish bin of history, along with most of the regimes which fostered it.[2] One could respond that no businessman wants recessions and economic crises, but they happen.
If it was all a product of mistakes, miscalculations and misjudgements, then why, barely two decades after the war to end all wars, did an even bigger catastrophe erupt in the form of World War II in 1939? And why is the world today facing a situation which bears a striking resemblance to that which led to both world warsinnumerable flashpoints, in Eastern Europe, the South China Sea, Korea, the Middle East, to name but a few, and rising tensions between the major capitalist powers?
Marxism bases its analysis of war on the dictum advanced by the German theoretician Clausewitz in the 19th century: that war is the continuation of politics by other means.
What then were the political relations which existed in the period leading up to the outbreak of World War I out of which it arose?
They can only be grasped through a scientific, that is, materialist analysis which locates political relations, in the final analysis, in the economic developments of the capitalist economy.
Capitalist politicians, of course, make decisions, including the decision to go to war. There is no economic law which says that war must break out on such and such a day.
But their decisions are shaped by the political and economic framework in which they work, through which they seek to advance the interests of the capitalist nation-states they lead. At a certain point, however desirable or even undesirable it may be, the decision to go to war becomes the least worst option that confronts them.
If we take a broad view, the period leading up to the outbreak of World War I divides into two distinct epochs.
The great French Revolution of 178993 opened up a new historical epoch: the overthrow of the outmoded feudalist regimes, clearing the way for the development of capitalist nation-states.
The period from 1789 down to 1871 saw the establishment, through a series of national wars and revolutions, of the modern-day framework of capitalist nation-states, culminating in the founding of the German national state by Bismarck at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian war.
Together with the American Civil War, which ended in victory for the industrial north, these national states provided a mighty springboard for the development of the productive forces under capitalism. However, this very process gave birth to a new epoch.
The last quarter of the 19th century and the opening decade of the 20th were characterised not by national wars against the remnants of feudal absolutism but by the struggle for colonies by the rising capitalist great powers. Africa, for example, had hardly started to be colonised in 1875. In the 25 years to the end of the century, however, it had been almost completely carved up by Britain, France, Germany and Belgium.
The political structure of the world was being transformed by these economic developments. In the first half of the 19th century, Great Britain had been the dominant global capitalist power. It was the workshop of the world and ruled the waves.
But new rivals were emerging: on the European continent in the form of Germany, undergoing vast industrialisation, in the East, Japan, and in the West, the United States, which made its entry into the scramble for colonies in the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the subsequent annexation and subjugation of the Philippines.
Each of these capitalist powers was seeking, to use the phrase developed in Germany, its place in the sun. But in doing so they ran up against each other.
At one point a German diplomat asked one of his British counterparts where Her Majestys Government would not oppose the establishment of German colonies. The British diplomat replied that Whitehall was perfectly amenable to the setting up of German colonies, provided they were not contiguous with or between two British colonies. In the other words, the German diplomat replied: Nowhere.
Tensions between the capitalist great powers were rising. Britain and France almost went to war in the so-called Fashoda incident in 1898 when their armed forces confronted each in the upper Nile.
A row erupted when the German Kaiser expressed his support for the Boers in South Africa. The Balkans, under the domination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were becoming a tinder box, seething with national opposition to Austrian rule, a conflict in which Russia had a direct stake as it sought to advance its interests to the west.
In the government offices and chancelleries, the implications of this new period were being assessed.
In 1907, an under-secretary in the British Foreign Office, Eyre Crowe, produced an extensive memorandum for Foreign Secretary Lord Grey. Crowe was tasked with making an assessment of whether, under conditions where its economy and influence were rapidly expanding, Germanys intentions were peaceful or militaristic.
He concluded that in the end it did not matter because the very development of Germany and its expanding global interests threatened the British Empire. Therefore, whatever assessment was made of Germanys intentions, Britain, had to prepare for war. That war broke out just seven years later.
The immediate event which set off the Great War of 1914the assassination by a Serbian nationalist of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28was an accident. What followed was not.
The Austrian regime, ruling over an empire in central and southeastern Europe, feared its break-up. It was determined to crush rising nationalist opposition in the Balkans spearheaded by Serbia and backed by an even bigger threat in the form of Russia. It issued a series of impossible demands to Serbia over the investigation of the assassination, aimed at provoking war.
The war may have been restricted to a local skirmish had it not been for the fact that the Austrian situation was intertwined with the economic and strategic interests of all the European great powers.
In Berlin, the Hohenzollern regime issued what amounted to a blank cheque to its Austrian ally to take all necessary action against Serbia, even though that may lead to a war with Russia. According to an official government statement, if the Serbs, aided by Russia and France, had been allowed to go on endangering the stability of the Austrian monarchy this would weaken the position of Germany. Vital economic interests were also at stake.
Looking back in 1917, the German politician Gustav Stresemann summed up the view in the powerful industrial circles for which he spoke. Germany had seen others conquer worlds, a world under the sceptre of others where our economic breath of life was becoming increasingly restricted.[3]
No less vital issues were at stake for France in its support for Russia in the conflict with Germany. The annexation by Germany of the province of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871 gave rise, as Marx had perceptively predicted, to an alliance between France and Russia in which the two would arm against Germany.
In the conflict between Germany and Russia, France could not stay neutral because, as the French President Poincare later explained, the break-up of the alliance that had been in place for a quarter of a century would leave us in isolation and at the mercy of our rivals.[4]
Britain was likewise confronted with vital strategic and economic issues. Its policy was based on preserving the balance of power in Europe, to ensure that no single power or group of powers was able to challenge its global hegemony, based on its empireabove all the plunder of India.
In a remarkably candid assessment, the then first lord of the admiralty, Winston Churchill, summed up its position during a 191314 debate on naval expenditure:
We have got all we want in territory, and our claim to be left in unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, mainly acquired by violence, largely maintained by force, often seems less reasonable to others than to us.[5]
Accordingly, after some equivocation, Britain decided to support France and went to war against Germany.
The real war aims, of course, were never stated. How can a government declare to its population that it is sending the flower of its youth to die and be maimed on the battlefields in the interest of profits, the acquisition of resources, colonies and markets? The great powers sought to cover over the real motivations with an unending stream of lies issued through the mass media.
In Germany, the war was proclaimed to be for the defence of the fatherland, to maintain German culture and economy against the barbarism of Russia.
France declared it was going to war to defend the ideals of French political life, the legacy of the French Revolutionliberty and equalityagainst Prussian autocracy, notwithstanding the fact that it was allied with the despotic tsarist regime.
Britain declared it had entered the war to defend the neutrality of little Belgium, so grossly violated by the Huns, despite the fact that it would have done the same itself.
And when the United States entered the war in April 1917, to defend its own strategic and financial interests, it added to this mountain of lies by declaring that the war was to make the world safe for democracy.
The betrayal of the Second International
The outbreak of the war did not come as a surprise to the Marxist movement. In fact it had been foreshadowed as far back as 1887 by Frederick Engels.
The only war left to be waged by Prussia-Germany, he wrote, would be a world war, the violence of which would be of hitherto unimaginable proportions.
Eight to ten million soldiers will be at each others throats and in the process they will strip Europe barer than a swarm of locusts. The depredations of the Thirty Years War compressed into three to four years and extended over the entire continent: famine, disease, the universal lapse into barbarism, both of the armies and the people, in the wake of acute misery, irretrievable dislocation of our artificial system of trade, industry and credit, ending in universal bankruptcy collapse of the old states and their conventional political wisdom to the extent that crowns will roll into the gutters by the dozen.
It was impossible to foresee how the war would end and who would be the victor, he continued. Only one consequence is absolutely certain: universal exhaustion and the creation of the conditions for the ultimate victory of the working class.[6]
The Second International, comprised of the social-democratic parties proclaiming adherence to Marxism, had charted the rise of great power rivalries and tensions and pointed to the dangers of war, arising from the struggle for markets and profits.
But if the outbreak of war itself was not a surprise, then the reaction of the leading parties of the International was a shock.
On August 4, 1914, as German troops marched into Belgium with the aim of conquering France, the parliamentary representatives of the German SPD, the leading party of the International, voted unanimously in favour of war credits. There were 14 in opposition out of the 92 but they abided by party discipline in the Reichstag vote. The French socialists followed suit, declaring support for their own nation.
These decisions were in complete contravention of resolutions passed at congresses of the Second International. In 1907, at a congress held in Stuttgart, Germany, the International had issued a resolution declaring it was the duty of all parties to exert every effort to prevent war by the means they considered necessary.
The resolution then stipulated:
Should war break out nonetheless, it is their duty to intervene in favour of its speedy termination, and to do all in their power to utilise the economic and political crisis caused by the war to rouse the people and thereby to hasten the abolition of capitalist class rule.[7]
The Basle congress of 1912, held as war clouds were gathering, strengthened the resolution. It retained the Stuttgart phrasing but then referred to the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Russian Revolution of 1905 to make even clearer what was meant.
Lenins response to the war was grounded in the analysis developed in the years preceding its outbreak. It was an imperialist war for colonies and profits.
From the outset, Lenin insisted that the betrayal of the Second International meant it was dead. It was necessary to break from it politically, ideologically and organisationally.
Against all attempts to cover up the significance of what had happened, the collapse had to be recognised and its causes understood, so as to make it possible to build up a new and more lasting unity of the workers of all countries.
Lenin and revolutionary defeatism
Lenins strategical line for the building of a new, Third International, was summed up in the perspective turn the imperialist war into a civil war enunciated in the aftermath of the wars outbreak.
The conversion of the present imperialist war into a civil war is the only correct proletarian slogan, one that follows from the existence of the Commune, and outlined in the Basle resolution (1912); it has been dictated by all the conditions of an imperialist war between highly developed bourgeois countries, a statement entitled The War and Russian Social Democracy issued in November 1914 declared.[8]
All of Lenins work over the next period, in the lead up to, and in the course of the Russian Revolution, culminating in the conquest of political power in October 1917, was directed to carrying out this perspective, not simply, it must be emphasised, in Russia, but on an international scale.
The very character of the war, a world war, dragging in workers of every country into the maelstrom of death and destruction, meant that the strategy and tactics of the proletariat could only be developed on an international scale and on the basis of a common perspective. As Trotsky was to later remark, August 1914 sounded the death knell of all national programs.
Before examining the many different sides and aspects of Lenins work, let me dispel some of the misconceptions about what the slogan turn the imperialist war into a civil war actually meant.
It was not a radical phrase. Lenin, above all, was against this type of petty-bourgeois politics so characteristic of anarchist, semi-anarchist and syndicalist tendenciesloud declamations of radical action.
It did not mean going into the street and proclaiming the necessity for civil war. Nor did it mean engaging in sabotage or other such actionsthe blowing up of bridges as Lenin once put itin order to deepen the crisis by artificial means.
It was the elaboration of a line of political work to make clear to the international working class, through propaganda, education and agitation, the historic significance of the war and the revolutionary tasks that would rapidly confront it.
How far removed was this perspective from radical phrase-mongering can be seen from a resolution authored by Lenin in March 1915 where he pointed to the first steps toward converting the imperialist war into a civil war. These should include: 1) an absolute refusal to vote for war credits: 2) a complete break with the policy of class truce; 3) the formation of an underground organisation where governments abolished constitutional liberties and introduced martial law; 4) support for fraternisation between the soldiers of the belligerent nations; 5) support for every kind of revolutionary mass action by the working class.[9]
Lenin clearly recognised that such revolutionary activity could weaken the country that was waging war and lead to its defeat. However, a proletarian could not deal a class blow against his own government, or hold out a hand to the worker of another country who was at war with our side without contributing to the disintegration and defeat of his own imperialist great power.[10]
The nature of imperialism
The elaboration of the strategy of revolutionary defeatism, as opposed to defencism, of turning the imperialist war into a civil war, was grounded on a scientific analysis of the nature of imperialism.
The question of imperialism had been under discussion both within the ranks of the Marxist movement and more broadly in the period leading up to the war.
In 1902, in the aftermath of the Boer War, the English social liberal John Hobson published a highly influential book, Imperialism: A Study.
The term imperialism was not new. But in the past it had referred to the consolidation of a strong national state. Hobson drew out that the new imperialism differed from the old in that it involved theory and practice of competing empires and the dominance of finance capital over trading interests. This led to the growth of financial parasitism in which wealth was accumulated not so much through manufacture and trade but via an enormous tribute drawn from colonies and dependencies and the rise of a financial aristocracy using its vast wealth to bribe the lower classes into acquiescence to its rule.
In 1910, the Austrian Marxist Rudolf Hilferding published his work Finance Capital in which he sought to extend Marxs analysis to take account of the enormous growth of finance that had taken place since his death.
No understanding of present-day economic tendencies, and hence no kind of scientific economics or politics is possible without a knowledge of the laws and functioning of finance capital, he wrote.[11]
These two works were a major influence on Lenin as he sought to provide the theoretical foundation for his perspective. He was particularly drawn to Hobsons analysis of financial parasitism and the conclusions arrived at by Hilferding of the impact of finance capital on politics.
Hilferding had drawn out that the domination of finance capital spelled the end of the liberal bourgeois politics of the 19th century based on free competition and increasing democratisation. Finance capital had to fashion a new ideology to meet its needs. This ideology ... is completely opposed to that of liberalism. Finance capital does not want freedom, but domination.
Whereas the old liberalism had opposed international power politics, finance capital demands a strong state which can intervene in every corner of the globe and transform the whole world into a sphere of investment.[12]
This determined the politics of every great power, whether it took the form of a democratic republic or an absolutist regime. The politics of finance capital was, as Lenin put it, reaction all down the line.
In his work Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, which he had been working on throughout 1915, Lenin drew together all the strands of the analysis he had been developing from the outbreak of the war. Through the presentation of data he laid out the character of the new epoch, showing how the war was the outcome of the predatory drive of finance capital for markets, profits and colonies.
Like all great Marxist works, Lenins Imperialism is a polemic. It is directed against the leading pre-war theoretician of German social democracy, Karl Kautsky, who played the central role in providing the theoretical justifications for social chauvinism.
According to Kautsky, imperialism did not arise from a definite stage or phase in the development of capitalism but was simply the preferred policy of sections of the bourgeoisie consisting of the striving by industrial nations to bring large areas of agrarian territory under their control.
This definition passed over the central feature of imperialism which was not the role of industrial but finance capital.
Moreover, if imperialism was simply a preferred policy and therefore not rooted in objective developments in the capitalist economy, then what followed was that the politics of the working-class movement could be directed toward seeking an alliance with one or other section of the bourgeoisie which preferred another policy.
Kautskys definitions had one central political purpose: to provide the justification for opposition to the perspective of socialist revolution.
Lenins analysis in Imperialism had three core components:
1. It showed how the war had arisen out of an objective stage of capitalist development, the growth of monopoly out of competition and the rise of predatory finance capital to a dominant position, not from a preferred policy.
2. The domination of finance capital, the transition to monopoly capital with giant enterprises, banks and financial institutions operating on a world scale had not only led to war. These same processes had resulted in a vast change in the social relations of production, a tremendous socialisation of production and labour.
Therefore imperialism, based on the domination of parasitic finance capital, was not only moribund capitalism. The changes it had brought about, socialisation of production, signified, within the capitalist economy itself, the beginning of the transition to socialism. That transition, however, could only be realised, actualised, through the defeat of opportunism and its domination over the workers movement.
3. Opportunism was not simply the product of the betrayal of individual leaders. It was bound up with objective processes arising from imperialism and was organically tied to the interests of the capitalist ruling classes. Imperialism had led to the acquisition of super-profits from the colonies by the capitalist great powers. This enabled the bourgeoisie of these countries to create a privileged layer of sections of the petty-bourgeoisie, of journalists, the trade union bureaucracies, better off and better placed employees and a privileged section of the working class which received material benefitscrumbs from the table of the imperialist banquet.
From this analysis Lenin drew far-reaching political conclusions.
Imperialism had led to the transformation of the official leaderships of the working class into open agencies of the bourgeoisie. This was the material necessity for the formation of a Third International.
How that struggle was conducted was the key question of the hour.
The struggle against opportunism
The privileged layers, which formed the social constituency for defence of the fatherland, formed only a minority. It was necessary to go lower and deeper, to the lowest mass and explain to them the necessity of breaking with opportunism and thereby educate them for revolution.
Here the main fire had to be directed against those who played an even more dangerous role by providing the opportunists and social chauvinists with a political cover by using Marxist sounding phrases. The leader of this trend was Kautsky.
From the beginning of the war, having refused to oppose the support for war credits, Kautsky sought to provide social chauvinism with an internationalist hue.
In October 1914, he wrote: It is the right and duty of everyone to defend his fatherland; true internationalism consists in this right being recognised for socialists of all nations, including those who are at war with my nation.[13]
In other words, true internationalism consisted in justifying German workers firing at French workers and vice versa in the name of defence of the fatherland.
Another attempt to provide an internationalist cover for opportunism was advanced by those who invoked the attitude of Marx to the wars of the 19th century, which had led to the formation of the nation states of Europe.
In all those wars, Marx had taken an internationalist standpoint, seeking to assess the victory of which side would be the most advantageous for the cause of democracy and thereby benefit the working class. The same method, it was argued, had to be adopted in the present war. It was necessary, on the basis of an internationalist assessment, to determine the victory of which side would be the most advantageous from the standpoint of the working class and socialism.
It is not hard to discern how such a position provided grist to the mill of the social chauvinists. The German opportunists would advance the claim that a defeat of Russian despotism was the most advantageous from an internationalist standpoint, while their French counterparts would likewise argue that the defeat of Prussian autocracy was the most advantageous, again from an internationalist standpoint.
This attempt to provide an internationalist cover for social chauvinism completely ignored the vast changes that had taken place since Marx had written on the question of war.
In the first seven decades of the 19th century, national wars were bound up with the overthrow of absolutism and took place where the objective conditions for socialism had not matured. But in the period since then, for almost half a century, the ruling classes of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Russia had pursued a policy of plundering colonies and oppressing other nations. It was this policy that was being continued in the present war, Lenin wrote, following the dictum of Clausewitz.
To decide in the present situation the victory of which side would be the most beneficial would be to determine whether it was better that India was plundered by Germany or Britain, whether it was better that China be partitioned by Japan or America, or whether Africa should be pillaged by France or Germany.[14]
Against the defencists
In advancing the perspective of turn the imperialist war into a civil war, Lenin countered two other significant arguments.
The slogan of an end to the war with neither victory nor defeat raised two decisive questions.
First, it provided a political cover for the defencists. After all, the supporters of the war efforts of their own governments claimed to be fighting against defeat. As the leading right-wing German Social Democrat Eduard David explained: The significance of our August 4 vote was that we are not for war but against defeat.[15]
If one is not for victory, but against defeat, this implies opposition to a revolutionary struggle as this could lead to a military defeat for ones own government. Therefore all such action had to be opposed.
Second, the slogan neither victory nor defeat raised another, even more important, question. It was based on the conception that there could be a return to the status quo ante, refusing to recognise that the war marked a qualitative historical turn.
A whole era of relatively peaceful organic development had been blasted to smithereens by the guns of August. There could be no going back to it.
The eruption of the war was result of the economic development in the period 18711914. A new epoch had dawned, such that if peace did come, but the foundations of the existing socio-economic order remained, then such a peace would only be the breeding ground for new wars. The whole system had to be overturned through international socialist revolution.
The same issues arose, in a slightly different form, with regard to the slogan of peace now coming into greater prominence as the deprivation of the masses deepened and the real nature of the war became apparent. By the end of 1914 a series of trenches extended across Western Europe that were to remain in place for the next four years. Offensives and counter-offensives brought no change, only mass slaughter, as the prospect of a quick end evaporated.
As Rosa Luxemburg, the German-Polish revolutionist, wrote in April 1915 from her jail in Berlin where she was held because of her opposition to the war:
The scene has thoroughly changed. The six weeks march to Paris has become a world drama. Mass murder has become a monotonous task, and yet the final solution is not one step nearer. Capitalist rule is caught in its own trap. Gone is the first mad delirium The show is over. The curtain has fallen on trains filled with reservists, as they pull out amid the joyous cries of enthusiastic maidens Into the disillusioned atmosphere of pale daylight there rings a different chorus; the hoarse croak of the hawks and hyenas of the battlefield And the cannon fodder that was loaded upon the trains in August and September is rotting on the battlefields of Belgium and the Vosges, while profits are springing like weeds, from the fields of the dead. [16]
As the horrors of the war piled up, one upon another, Lenin pointed to the importance of the desire for peace among ever broader masses of the populations of the belligerent countries. It was, he insisted, the duty of socialists to take a most ardent part in any demonstration motivated by that sentiment.
But above all they had to make clear that any peace without oppression, annexation and plunder and without the creation of the embryo of new wars could not happen without a revolutionary movement.
Whoever wants a lasting and democratic peace must stand for civil war against the governments and the bourgeoisie, he wrote. That is, they must fight for socialist revolution.[17]
The leading role in attacking this perspective was played by Kautsky.
The justification offered by Kautsky and others for their repudiation of the commitments contained in the Basle resolution of 1912 was that it had envisaged the development of a revolutionary situation.
That did not take place with the outbreak of the warthe masses were caught up in the imperialist war driveand so the conditions supposedly envisaged by the resolution did not apply. The prospect of socialist revolution was therefore an illusion, a chimera. Marxism, as a scientific perspective, had to base itself not on delusions but on an objective appraisal of the situation.
There is no question that large sections of the population were caught up in the war drive when mobilisation was ordered in the belligerent countries. Trotsky explained the reason for this development in mass psychology and the seeming isolation of the revolutionary vanguard at the outbreak of war.
In the period of peace, the influence of the socialists touches upon and influences only the most advanced sections of the working class. Large sections of the population remain outside immediate political struggles. But with the outbreak of war and the beginning of mobilisation, they are drawn into politics.
They are confronted with immediate questions of life and death, in which the government and the military rise up before them as their protector and defender. These feelings are mixed in with confused sentiments of a change, hopes and aspirations for a better situation.
The same thing happens, Trotsky wrote, at the beginning of a revolution, but with one all-important difference. A revolution links these newly aroused elements with the revolutionary class, but war links themwith the government and the army!
In one case, the confused hopes and sufferings find expression in revolutionary enthusiasm, in the other these same social emotions temporarily take the form of patriotic intoxicationa mood that infects wide sections of the working class, including even those who have been influenced by socialism.[18]
In such conditions, Trotsky continued, the party could not launch an immediate revolutionary struggle. It could, however, voice its opposition to the war, declare no confidence in the government, refuse to vote for war credits and, in that way, prepare for changes in mass consciousness that the course of the war would inevitably bring.
The fact that this did not happen, that the signal for war mobilisation was also the signal for the fall of the International, that all the social democratic and labour parties fell in line with their governments without a single protest meant there had to be deep causes.
Lenin, above all others, probed those causes to their full and in so doing developed the political strategy and tactics which led to the successful conquest of political power by the working class.
Those who sought to defend the opportunists began by presenting a false picture of the situation with the outbreak of the war.
According to Kautsky, writing in October 1914, never is government so strong, never are parties so weak, as at the outbreak of war.
In fact, Lenin responded, never do governments stand in such need of agreement with all the parties of the ruling class, or the peaceful submission of the oppressed classes to that rule in time of war.[19]
Moreover, he continued, governments may appear to be all powerful, but seeming does not coincide with the actual, and no one linked revolutionary expectations simply with the outbreak of war. That was only the beginning of a process and already, Lenin was writing in 1915, symptoms of a revolutionary situation were developing in all countries as the discontent of the masses grew and governments demanded ever greater sacrifices.
Will this situation last long, how much more acute will it become? Will it lead to revolution? That is something we do not know. And nobody can know. The answer can only be provided by experience gained during the development of revolutionary sentiment and the transition to a revolutionary situation by the advanced class, the proletariat.[20]
Furthermore, the reference to the lack of revolutionary struggles on the immediate outbreak of war was a product of the situation confronting the working class. In every country, it faced censorship and martial law, compounded by the unity of its leadership with the imperialist governments prosecuting those measures.
Materialist philosophy and revolutionary practice
Going beyond the immediate situation, the issues raised by Lenin are of immense methodological importance, taking us back to point 7 in the opening lecture by David North in which he pointed to the essential relationship between scientific materialist philosophy and revolutionary practice.
The point emphasised by Lenin was the following: the situation was objectively revolutionary in that the ruling classes could not rule in the old way and increasingly neither could the masses live in the old way. But whether this objectively revolutionary situation would lead to an actual revolution could not be assessed by contemplation but only through the development of a revolutionary practice.
What the situation actually contained, whether its potential could be realised, could only be discovered through the intervention of the conscious, subjective factor, the revolutionary party, seeking to develop the movement of the working class, revealing to it the objective situation it confronted and arming its developing struggles with a clear program, worked out to the end, aimed at the conquest of political power.
Lenins insistence on how the actual situation had to be grasped, rather than its mere seeming, underscored the vital point made by Marx in his Theses on Feuerbach in which he outlined his decisive development of materialist philosophy.
Kautsky and others claimed to be standing on the ground of materialism against the illusion-mongering of Lenin and his perspective of civil war and revolution to overthrow the bourgeoisie.
However, it was not the materialism of Marx on which they sought to base themselves but rather the materialist outlook he had superseded through the incorporation of the gains of German idealist philosophy, above all Hegel, which had laid stress upon the active side, that is, human activity, in the historical process.
In the first of his Theses on Feuerbach, Marx wrote:
The chief defect of all hitherto existing materialismthat of Feuerbach includedis that the thing, reality, sensuousness, is conceived only in the form of the object or of contemplation, but not as human sensuousness, activity, practice, not subjectively. Hence the previous materialist philosophy had not grasped the significance of revolutionary, of practical-critical activity.[21]
In opposition to Kautsky, Lenin explained that no socialist had ever guaranteed that the present war, rather than the next one, would produce a revolution. The issue was that it was the duty of socialists to arouse the revolutionary consciousness of the working class by revealing the actual existence of a revolutionary situation.
Marxism versus social chauvinism
The decisive question was: how was it possible that the most prominent representatives of international socialism had betrayed. The answer lay in a materialist analysis of the origins of the social chauvinist trend.
In the period leading up to the war, stretching back more than a decade and a half, the socialist movement had been rent by a fundamental division over its perspective.
Would socialism come about through a peaceful, gradual development, the accumulation of reforms through parliamentary and trade union activity, or would it come through a breakdown of the capitalist system and the eruption of revolutionary struggles?
In 1898, the leading German social democrat Eduard Bernstein had proposed a fundamental revision of the partys basic perspective. Summing up the outlook of the gradualist tendency, he said the movement was everything and the final goal nothing. The revisionist tendency was pushed back so far as the formal position of the SPD was concerned. But the practices on which it was basedclass collaboration and integration into the very structure of bourgeois rulecontinued to gather strength.
The issue flared again in the aftermath of the 1905 revolution in Russia. Was the revolution, with its mass general strikes and the formation of soviets or workers councils, which Fred Williams so vividly outlined in his lecture two weeks ago, the harbinger of the European revolution, anticipating the forms it would take, as Rosa Luxemburg insisted? Or was it, as her opponents, above all in the trade unions, maintained, an expression of Russian backwardness, in no way related to advanced Western Europe?
The betrayal of the Second International brought the issue into clear focus. Its source was the growth and development of the opportunist trend which had come to full flowering and maturity, passing over into direct support for its own bourgeoisie in the war.
Lenins analysis of the material roots of this tendency had profound political implications. It meant that the new International, the Third International, could neither be reconstituted out of the remnants of the Second, nor could it be established on the basis of its theory and practices.
The Second International, Lenin explained, had carried out important preparatory work in the period of gradual development. But the Third International faced new tasks: the direct revolutionary struggle against capitalist governments, a civil war against the bourgeoisie, the capture of political power and the triumph of socialism.
That necessitated a complete political, ideological and organisational separation from opportunism, which, in period of the Second International, had been regarded as a legitimate trend within socialism.
In Russia that political and organisational separation had been carried through in the split with the Mensheviks. For Lenin, its international significance was now coming into clearer focus.
The division between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks had begun at the 1903 congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. It was somewhat unclear in that it developed over a phrase on what constituted party membership.
With the eruption of the 1905 revolution, the class basis of the divergence began to emerge. The policy of the Bolsheviks was based on hostility and opposition to the liberal bourgeoisie. That of the Mensheviks was an accommodation to the liberal bourgeoisie, most graphically expressed by Plekhanovs declaration that the Moscow workers should not have taken up arms in the December uprising.
The task in Russia was a bourgeois-democratic revolution, they maintained, the ending of feudal absolutist rule, and the coming to power of a bourgeois regime. The actions in Moscow would only push the liberal bourgeoisie away from fulfilling its assigned historical role. It was necessary, therefore, to proceed with tact in relation to the bourgeois party, the Cadets, according to Plekhanov.
The disputes continued after 1905 and within the International they were regarded as something of a Russian peculiarity. They are at it again was a common reaction.
The betrayal of the Second International posed the necessity for a complete organisational separation from opportunism and its defenders. To Lenin it made clear the international significance of the split with the Mensheviks.
The complete severance of the proletarian movement in Russia from petty-bourgeois opportunist elements had been prepared by the whole history of the movement, Lenin wrote.
Those who disregard that history, and, by declaiming against factionalism, make themselves incapable of understanding the real process of the formation of a proletarian party in Russia
The struggle in Russia had international significance because it was rooted, in the final analysis, in the same processes that had resulted in the growth and victory of opportunism in the Second International, leading to its betrayal in 1914. The same type of European development, in which privileged strata of the petty bourgeoisie acquired certain great power privileges of their own nation, had its Russian counterpart in the form of Menshevism, Lenin wrote.
But in Russia, a split, both political and organisational, had been carried out with these forces. These were the internationalist tactics, consistently revolutionary, that now had to be extended.[22]
The Zimmerwald conference
The arena on which this struggle began was the socialist anti-war conference held in the small Swiss village of Zimmerwald from September 58, 1915. It was held in secret. The hotel booking was made in the name of an ornithological society. There was no bird watching, though there were some veritable eagles of human thought present, most notably Lenin and Trotsky.
The Zimmerwald conference was organised by the Swiss socialist Robert Grimm. His perspective, and that of his supporters, who comprised the majority of the delegates, numbering 43 in all, was far removed from that of Lenin.
Grimms aim was not to launch a revolutionary movement against the war but to remove the stain of the August 4 betrayal from the Second International, and restore its pre-war foundations under the general slogan of peace.
There was a broad left faction, which constituted a minority, and within that an even smaller faction, numbering around five, grouped around Lenin.
Lenin did not have any illusions as to what the conference would bring. He saw it as a step forward in rallying the genuine Marxist forces internationally, however small they may be.
The Swiss socialist left-winger Fritz Platten recalled that during the proceedings of the conference Lenin was the most attentive listener, speaking rarely and never for long. But when he did, his words had the impact of a caustic shower. It was Lenins perspectivehe was the only one to present a draft resolution for the conferencewhich set the tone for many of the discussions.
According to Platten, Lenins strength consisted in the fact that he saw the laws of historical development with phenomenal clarity.[23]
It was his focus on those laws which determined Lenins attitude to all attempts to revive the Second International by trying to wipe away the stain of August 4.
The collapse of the Second International was not simply the result of the betrayal of its leadership. It signified the end of a whole historical epoch of relatively peaceful development. A new era of wars and revolutions had dawned. A new International had to be built, on new foundations, to meet new tasks.
The slogan proposed was for peace. Yet this contained all the issues: how could there be peace without the overthrow of the capitalist system, whose historical development into imperialism had led to the war? And that task could not be carried out without a complete separation from, and intransigent struggle against, all those who had come to represent the interests of imperialism inside the workers movement.
During the evening session of September 7, the French delegate, Alphonse Merrheim, summed up the issues. The majority wanted peace action by the proletariat, not narrow formulas, he said. Merrheim was not against revolution but insisted: A revolutionary movement can only grow from a striving for peace. You, comrade Lenin, are not motivated from a striving for peace, but by the desire to set up a new International. This is what divides us.[24]
The outcome of the Zimmerwald conference was the issuing of a manifesto, drafted by Trotsky, and signed by all, against the imperialist war. It did not represent by any means all that Lenin, or even Trotsky, had wanted. But it was an advance, a step, as Lenin put it, towards an ideological and practical break with opportunism and social chauvinism.[25]
In the coming months, Zimmerwald was to be associated with widening opposition to the war as the contents of the manifesto, denouncing imperialism, made their way into the consciousness of broader sections of the international working class amid ongoing mass slaughter and deepening privations.
The foundations for a new International
But the underlying issues on which the conference had turned remained.
They were articulated in a resolution issued by Rosa Luxemburg in March 1916 on the foundations for a new International. It could only be born, she wrote, as a result of revolutionary struggles of the masses, the first word of which was mass action to force the achievement of peace.
The existence and viability of the International is not an organisational issue, not a question of understandings within a small circle of individuals who come forward as representatives of the oppositionally-inclined strata of the working population, but rather a question of the mass movement of the proletariat of all lands.[26]
Herein lay a fundamental difference with Lenins conception.
He had no doubt the war would provoke mass revolutionary struggles. But the crucial question was whether, in advance of those struggles, there existed a revolutionary leadership, which had worked out the main elements of the necessary program, and which, most importantly, had made clear its hostility to all those political tendencies, above all those emerging from the workers movement itself, which, having supported the war, would come forward to try and derail the revolution.
Only on the basis of such preparation could the outbreak of revolutiona product of the same conditions that had led to the warlead to the successful conquest of political power by the working class.
The correctness of this perspective was to be verified in the course of 1917. Just a year and a half after the Zimmerwald conference, the February revolution erupted, followed eight months later by the October revolution.
In his Farewell Letter to Swiss Workers as he began the journey back to Russia, Lenin wrote:
When in November 1914 our party put forward the slogan Turn the imperialist war into a civil war of the oppressed against the oppressors for the attainment of socialism, the social patriots met this slogan with hatred and malicious ridicule, and the social democratic centre with incredulous, sceptical, meek, and exceptional silence. Now, after March 1917, only the blind can fail to see that it is a correct slogan. Transformation of the imperialist war is becoming a fact. Long live the proletarian revolution that is beginning in Europe.[27]
Notes:
1. Cited in Hamilton and Herwig, Decisions for War, 191417 (Cambridge, 2004), p. 19
2. Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War (Allen Lane, 1998), p. 31
3. Cited in Fritz Fischer, War of Illusions: German Policies from 1911 to 1914 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1975), p. 449
4. Cited in David Stevenson, Armaments and the Coming of War (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), p. 391
5. Cited in Paul Kennedy, The Rise of Anglo-German Antagonism (London: The Ashfield Press, 1987), p. 467
6. Engels, Introduction to Borkheim Abstract, available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1887/12/15.htm
7. Resolution of the Second International Stuttgart Congress, available at https://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/1907/militarism.htm
8. Lenin, Collected Works Volume 21, p. 34
9. Lenin, Collected Works Volume 21, p. 161
10. Lenin, Collected Works Volume 21, p. 279
11. Rudolf Hilferding, Finance Capital (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985), p. 22
12. Hilferding, op cit, p.334
13. Cited in Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, p.219
14. Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, p. 187
15. Cited in Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, p. 278
16. Rosa Luxemburg, The Junius Pamphlet: The Crisis in the German Social Democracy in Rosa Luxemburg Speaks (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970), p. 261262
17. Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, pp. 315-316
18. Leon Trotsky, War and the International, pp. 51-52
19. Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, p. 215
20. Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, p. 216
21. Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm
22. Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, p. 258
23. Catherine Merriedale, Lenin on the Train (Allen Lane, 2016), p. 86
24. Cited in R. Craig Nation, War on War (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2009), p. 89
25. Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 21, p. 384
26. Cited in R. Craig Nation, War on War, p.95
27. Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 23, p. 373
Opel workers at the plant in Russelsheim, Germany expressed their solidarity with the framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers in India in comments to the World Socialist Web Site last week. Many read an information leaflet, distributed by supporters of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP-Socialist Equality Party), during their shift and spoke with the WSWS as they left work.
Last month, a judge in the northern Indian state of Haryana condemned 13 Maruti Suzuki workers to life in prison. This was a brutal act of retribution against autoworkers who have waged a years-long struggle against poverty wages and sweatshop conditions that prevail in Indias factories and special economic zones.
The International Committee of the Fourth International is mounting an international campaign and online petition to demand the immediate release of these workers.
General Motors recently sold off its Opel and Vauxhall divisions to French carmaker Peugeot in a move that threatens the jobs of autoworkers in Germany, UK, France and other countries. The SGP campaigners spoke with workers even as the Opel works council and IG Metall union officials were meeting with Peugeot executives to map out future job cuts and concessions.
Russelsheim workers expressed support for uniting autoworkers internationally against the assault on jobs and living standards. Some workers immediately drew parallels to their own situation.
Tobias H., an Opel worker, who has worked at Russelsheim for 27 years, described the treatment of the Indian workers as a scandal. Yes, I have read the flyer, Tobias said. It is a conspiracy where the judiciary judges solely on behalf of the bosses. They must be defended. It should be: One for all, and all for one.
Referring to the Opel works council and union, Tobias said, The works council and IG Metall can no longer be relied upon. We have gone through a lot in the last few years. For example, we do not receive any reliable information, only afterwards, when everything has been checked and decided. I did not know, for example, that they met today in Berlin with [Peugeot boss] Tavares.
In my opinion this meeting in Berlin is a big conspiracy between IG Metall and the bosses, added Giovanni, who has been working for Opel for 40 years. Why didnt they tell us about it at the last factory meeting? On Friday, we had a meeting and then it was interrupted without anybody telling us why.
A Polish colleague said he was glad to work in Russelsheim and not in Polish Gliwice or Tychy, where the workers earn much less. They play us off against one another. This means we can do nothing.
Two Moroccan workers said they had read that the Maruti Suzuki workers had been sentenced to life imprisonment. Thats a very bad thing, one of them said. The workers said they had to be cautious because Anybody who sticks their neck out here is immediately out of a job. We all have families. One can only hope that such methods are not applied here.
Heiner K., a worker with almost 20 years of experience on the production line in Russelsheim, also declared he had no more confidence in IG Metall, although he was still a member. But in the last few years it was just too much to take. Pressure keeps coming and there is bullying in the factory. Were all fed up. The works council sits in the same boat as the company board.
On the imprisonment of the Maruti Suzuki workers, Heiner said: This is despicable, a real stitch up against these colleagues. I will sign the online petition.
A worker took the handout and promised to sign. Then he asked, What do you think about the boycott against Russia? They are preparing war; Germany wants a new war. The SGP campaigners agreed while saying only an international anti-war movement, based on the working class and fighting for socialism, could stop the drive to World War III. The fight to defend the Maruti Suzuki workers was part of the struggle to unite the international working class, they said.
The petition is just the right response, his colleague responded. Its filthy, what they are doing to these Indian workers.
Fatih, a 40-year-old Opel worker of Turkish origin, said, I will definitely sign the petition. I think its a good thing to carry out this campaign.
Rene works in a production department and moves parts to the production lines. He also read the Maruti Suzuki handout and said, This is definitely out of the ordinary. It seems to me like a judicial conspiracy. I think every worker has to be able to fight for his rights without being put in jail. He promised to sign the petition.
The sale of GM-Opel-Vauxhall to Peugeot Citroen PSA threatens at least 6,000 jobs and possibly several company facilities, according to industry experts. PSA chief executive Carlos Tavares wants to save 1.7 billion per year. A high-level meeting in Berlin last Wednesday confirmed that Tavares can rely on the cooperation of the IG Metall union and the Opel works council.
The content of the April 5 discussions at the economics ministry in Berlin remain top secret. In a conspiratorial manner, the so-called workers representatives met behind closed doors with the PSA boss and leading politicians to agree on measures to make Opel-Vauxhall competitive in the future. German Economics Minister Brigitte Zypries of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Matthias Machnig (SPD), her official responsible for Opel, had extended the invitation to the talks.
Alongside Tavares others taking part included IG Metall leader Jorg Hofmann, deputy Opel works council leader Lothar Sorger and the state premiers (or their deputies) of all the federal states containing Opel plants. Besides Malu Dreyer (SPD, Rhineland Palatinate) and the Hesse state Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Green Party), the Thuringia state premier Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) was also present.
After the meeting, the PSA boss said he was satisfied with the extremely close cooperation between the German trade unions and the auto bosses. In a statement on the website of the Economics Ministry, Tavares stated he was determined to continue the valuable collaboration with employee representatives; this cooperation was a key factor for the success of the company.
Neither the Opel works council chief, Wolfgang Schafer Klug, nor the IG Metall chairman Jorg Hofmann revealed any details of the talks, which took the form of a conspiracy against the workers. In the run-up to the meeting, Schafer-Klug had demanded that the works council representatives should be closely involved in the transition process.
Following the talks, all participants confirmed they had been held in a very constructive atmosphere. Rhineland Palatinate state premier Dreyer told the press, We have agreed we will not give away too much to the outside world.
At a factory staff meeting on Thursday, the works council provided more soporifics and repeated the stereotypical claim that the new owner, PSA, will abide by all existing labour contracts and not destroy jobsat least until the end of next year. Nothing substantial was said to contradict the objections of a shop steward who had previously worked in Bochum, who said that the same phrases had been repeated before the closure of the Opel plant there.
Without providing any further details, the management said that Adam Opel AG was to be transformed into a limited company by the summer. Part of the development area was to remain with General Motors; however, it was not known whether this involved the research department in Turin, Italy, or whether it also affects Powertrain in Russelsheim in Germany. Powertrain is also developing transmissions and engines for GM models. Works council chief Schafer-Klug has consistently refused to make any statements about the meeting in Berlin.
In early March, the PSA Group had agreed with General Motors to buy Opel-Vauxhall for 2.2 billion. The European company operates nine plants in Germany, Britain, Poland, Spain, Austria and Hungary, with around 35,000 employees. However, only representatives of the German sites were invited to the Berlin summit meeting, and the representatives from IG Metall and the works council evidently had no objectionsfor years they have pursued nationalist pro-German policies.
The acquisition by PSA takes place under conditions of a massive restructuring of global auto production. In Germany, one in seven jobs depends on the auto industry. Opel still maintains production facilities in the cities of Eisenach, Kaiserslautern and Russelsheim, where its research centre is based with more than 7,000 employees.
When the deal was concluded at the beginning of March, the PSA board had agreed to comply with all location guarantees until 2020 and make no compulsory redundancies until the end of 2018albeit only in a verbal agreement. Business daily Handelsblatt described this as a French pledge of allegiance for Opel with an uncertain shelf life.
Auto industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoffer has made it clear that Tavares verbal commitments were merely palliatives to keep the workforce quiet. Commenting on the Berlin meeting, Dudenhoffer told broadcaster n-tv, All that is known so far is, yes, Tavares is a tough re-structurer, i.e. [he] cuts costs ... these prior commitmentsone year or a bit moreare not worth the paper they are written on.
Competition had forced the company to restructure rapidly, and rapid restructuring means lower costs, said Dudenhoffer. Opel now faced hard cost reduction programmes.
The Opel works council chairman Wolfgang Schafer-Klug is already preparing for sharp attacks on the workers. On March 30, he gave a long interview to business weekly Wirtschaftswoche. In this he reaffirmed that he assumed that savings of 1.7 billion per year could be achieved. At the same time, he also threatened that the acquisition by PSAwhich he supportswould jeopardize jobs.
This was based on changes throughout the entire auto industry, and especially the development of electric cars, Schafer-Klug said. If these trends prevail on the basis of the current regulatory requirements, it will cost the automotive industry a significant number of jobs. He cynically stated, We are still living under capitalism and money still has to be earned with autos in order to save jobs.
Schafer-Klugs predecessor, the former Mister Opel Klaus Franz, also published his assessment of the deal in a business newspaper. In a long article, headlined Opels shaky future under Peugeot rule, in Manager M agazine, sounding like a business consultant, he recommended that PSA/Opel be transformed into a European Company (SE) with a participation agreement on the German model. He advised how PSA best achieve its market objectives, saying, Until the final conclusion of the deal at the end of 2017, there must be a plan to return Opel to profitability from 2020, and which provides a 6 percent profit by 2026.
There was currently no alternative to the merger with PSA, Franz said, since Opel lacks the size, market share and profitability in order to exist alone. Franz went on to state that both the engine plant in Kaiserslautern and the Spanish Opel factory in Zaragoza had poor future prospects. A hard Brexit could lead to shifting the supply industry to the UK: This can lead to problems in the Kaiserslautern components plant.
Moreover, if the synergies, piece by piece in design, purchasing, administration and production carried out with each new model, were followed through, this would lead to enormous pressure on the Spanish plant in Zaragoza, starting from the Eastern European PSA level, Franz said.
Undoubtedly, as part of the turnaround ... employee contributions would be called for, the former works council leader said. He proposed safeguarding the financial sacrifice demanded of the workers in the form of an employee share ownership scheme.
This proposal is not new. Already in 2009, when a takeover of Opel by Canadian-Austrian auto supplier Magna was planned, Klaus Franz had proposed such a workers equity investment scheme : A private corporation was to be supplied with capital from drastic cuts in workers pay and conditions, with the works council and some IG Metall officials exercising controla vicious trap for the workers, who received no guarantees that they would able to dispose of their deposits.
At that time, Opel remained with General Motors, and Klaus Franz was recognized for his crisis management with the international award of Communicator of the Year. During this period of crisis management, the Opel general works supported the elimination of 15,000 jobs, the closure of the Opel plant in Bochum, along with 3,300 jobs, with the remaining staff subject to a merciless cuts programme.
Before this, the IG Metall and the Opel works council had already agreed to the closure of the factory in Antwerp, Holland, and the Saab factory in Trollhattan, Sweden. Since then, the Opel plant in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Holden production facility in Australia have been closed.
As reported by Manager Magazine on March 24, in the event of a successful sale to PSA, the Opel board can expect bonuses running to millions. General Motors has held out the prospect of 20-30 million for managers if the sale is actually completed. These premiums are regardless of whether the managers leave Opel or not. Current Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann has already sold some of his GM shares in March, pocketing more than $4 million.
Whether the works council leadership also enjoys such premiums is not yet known. What is certain is that it stands completely on the side of the executivewhether under the Opel, General Motors or PSA badge. We still live in capitalism, as Schafer-Klug pontificated in the media. In the current crisis of capitalism, the works council is willing to sacrifice the jobs and living standards of tens of thousands of workers throughout Europe in order to satiate the demands of shareholders.
In the aftermath of last weeks cruise missile attack on Syria, the relentless logic of military escalation is driving decisions in Washington. The US political establishment and media are demanding that the action be followed up by a comprehensive strategy to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and escalate the confrontation with Russia.
The Trump administrations ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, declared on Sunday that regime change [in Syria] is something that we think is going to happen. As for Russia and Iran, she said, Were calling them out. But I dont think anything is off the table at this point Youre going to continue to see the United States act when it needs to act.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called on Sunday for the deployment of five to six thousand US troops to Syria and for economic sanctions against Russia. Assad, he said, is making a serious mistake because if you are an adversary of the United States and you dont worry about what Trump may do on any given day, then youre crazy.
The chorus of calls for action against the Russian government came from both Democrats and Republicans. Theyre accomplices, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said. Vladimir Putin is a war criminal who is assisting another war criminal. His colleague, Democrat Ben Cardin, declared the UN Security Council should set up a tribunal to indict both Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes.
Such rhetoric is the language of war. The denunciation of one or another foreign leader as a war criminal is the standard prelude to military action.
The United States is not alone in its incendiary provocations. All the imperialist powers in Europe have lined up to support the US strikes. British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon wrote on Sunday that Russia is by proxy responsible for every civilian death last weekclaims that of course were not made in relation to the US massacre in Mosul last month.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is participating in a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy beginning today, in which the US and its European allies are discussing an ultimatum that Moscow remove all its troops from Syria and cease support for the Assad government. Tillerson will repeat this demand in a face-to-face meeting with the Russian foreign minister in Moscow, reportedly accompanied by charges that Russia is complicit in war crimes.
In one of the few comments pointing to the consequences of such positions, Georgetown University professor Colin Kahl wrote in the Washington Post on Sunday that if the US goes down the road of escalation, demands for regime change and no-fly zones, the prospects of a military confrontation with Moscow are real. Yet this is precisely the road that the Trump administration, backed by the entire political establishment and the imperialist powers of Europe, is taking.
How will the US and its allies respond if Russia rejects an ultimatum to back down in Syria? Amidst the hysteria gripping the American ruling class and media, no one is asking how many hundreds of millions of people will be killed in a war with Russia, or if there will still be a habitable world in the aftermath of a nuclear conflagration.
As all of this is taking place, the US is escalating its war threats in Asia. The Trump administration deployed warships to the Korean Peninsula over the weekend, amidst media reports that the White House is considering decapitation strikes and other military actions against the North Korean governmentwhich could happen as early as this week.
The level of recklessness of imperialist foreign policy has an objective basis. There are two interrelated factors that are driving it.
First, dominant sections of the militarywhich is now largely dictating Trump administration policyare determined at all costs to reverse the retreat of the Obama administration from war in Syria in 2013, when an agreement was reached with Russia to oversee the destruction of Syrias chemical weapons. They see this as critical for maintaining US domination not only in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but globally.
Writing in the New York Times on Sunday, Republican Senator Tom Cotton stated that the strikes on Syria have gone a long way to restoring our badly damaged credibility in the world. Cotton proclaimed: In one night, President Trump turned the tables. He showed the world that when the United States issues a warning, it will back up its words with action With our credibility restored, the United States can go back on offense around the world.
Cottons arguments make clear that the chemical weapons attack is yet another manufactured pretext for intervention. Time and again, imperialist accusations that war crimes had been committed were later proven to have been entirely fabricated to justify a neo-colonial and predatory agenda.
The Syrian government of Assad, whose forces have been on the offensive, had nothing to gain from ordering a chemical attack on his retreating enemies. The United States had obvious political motives. The CIA and military were looking for a justification to launch airstrikes on the Syrian government based on geostrategic considerations.
Now that they have done so, Cotton boasted: Friend and foe alike have been reminded that the United States not only possesses unmatched power, but also once again will employ our power to protect our interests, aspirations and allies.
The second reason for the escalation of military operations relates to concerns over the deepening crisis and instability throughout Europe and within the United States. The European Union and NATO are fracturing amidst the rise of nationalist movements in the wake of Brexit.
The fight against Russia is to be a unifying theme. Chris Coons, the Democratic senator from Delaware, spelled this out in remarks at the Brookings Institution last week. Under the headline Are we at war with Russia? Coons declared that the American-led international order is under threat due to the actions of Russia, which benefits directly from the election of European leaders who support narrow-minded nationalism and share its opposition to a cohesive European Union and a strong NATO.
According to Coons, the regime of Vladimir Putin is achieving today what the Soviet Union set out to do in 1950 It is destroying unity in the West, isolating the United States, and alienating the Western people from our governments. It has undermined Americans trust in our institutions, in each other, and in the very credibility of our democracy.
The effort of Coons to attribute the breakdown of the EU and social discontent within Europe and the United States to the actions of the Putin government in Russia is patently absurd. Tens of millions of working people suffering from declining living standards do not need Putin to know that the political and economic system has failed them.
Within the United States, the Democratic Partyallied with the military and the intelligence agenciesis playing the leading role in fomenting anti-Russia hysteria to try to keep Europe in line and to direct internal social tensions within the United States outward toward military conflict. The Democrats have shelved their occasional criticism of the Trump administrations domestic policies. In the aftermath of the Syrian airstrikes last week they have rushed to praise the White House and are only demanding a more consistent policy against Assad and Russia.
Ominously, Coons worried about the fact that according to recent polls, only half of all Americans believe Russia actually interfered in our presidential election, even after the entire US intelligence community made it clear that Russia intervened in our electoral process. Congress must comprehend the nature of our conflict with Russia and ensure the American people share that understanding.
And if people do not share that understanding? This is clearly then the result of enemy propaganda and illegitimate.
The American ruling class is right to be concerned about mass consciousness. The same contradictions of world capitalism that produce imperialist war also produce the objective basis for socialist revolution, in the form of the growth of the class struggle all over the world. In the United States, the consequences of the war drive against Russia will produce shock and outrage. There is a deep and abiding skepticism and hatred for the political establishment and media among broad sections of workers and youth.
The greatest danger, however, is that opposition is not politically organized. Decisions are being taken behind the scenes, with the population largely unaware of the cataclysmic consequences. In the media, there is a complete absence of any critical examination of the propaganda claims of the government. The entire spectrum of official politics supports the catastrophic war policy of American imperialism.
Whatever the immediate outcome of the US strikes on Syria, events are moving relentlessly in the direction of world war. That reality must animate the fight internationally for a politically conscious intervention of the working class to end imperialism and nation-state divisions and reorganize society on socialist foundations.
This is the third and final part on the recent San Diego Latino Film Festival. Part 1 was posted April 3 and Part 2 on April 6 .
El Elegido (The Chosen)
Directed by Spanish filmmaker Antonio Chavarrias, El Elegido (The Chosen) is an absorbing but limited work about Ramon Mercader, the Stalinist assassin who carried out the murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico in August 1940.
As we previously noted when the film was shown in Toronto, an honest film about Trotsky, founder of the Fourth International and a central leader of the Russian Revolution, is welcome. While the film focuses on Mercader, care was taken to study the more general circumstances surrounding Trotskys assassination.
For whatever reason, the distributor of El Elegido allowed only one screening at the San Diego festival, which was sold out a week in advance. More than a few audience members were obliged to sit on the stairs or folding chairs.
At a question-and-answer session following the screening, Alfonso Herrera, who plays Mercader, explained that the film was undertaken because not much was known about the assassins lifeOur goal was to present a clearer picture of Mercader. He also mentioned that during the filming in Mexico, the crew ran into many people who had been to Trotskys houseEveryone in Mexico City seems to know who Trotsky was. In response to our questions, Herrera admitted that he wasnt very familiar with the issues surrounding the assassination.
El Elegido takes up Mercaders life when he is already a combatant in the Spanish Civil War (1936-38), fighting, Herrera asserts in a voiceover, for a world without classes, without war.
Caridad del Rio (Elvira Minguez), or Caridad Mercader, a prominent member of the Spanish Communist Party, visits Mercader and informs him he is needed by the party for a special mission. Throughout the film, the relationship between the two is the propelling force. Mercader worships his mother and unquestioningly obeys her orders.
Mercader accepts the mission to infiltrate the Fourth International by means of initiating a romance with Sylvia Ageloff (Hannah Murray), a young Trotskyist from New York City, in 1938 in Paris. Both Ageloff and Mercader eventually make their way, separately, to Mexico.
We are introduced to a number of individuals working with Trotsky in Mexico who are, for the most part, portrayed favorably. While the film provides very little analysis of Trotskyist politics, Trotsky (Henry Goodman) is depicted in a sincere and humane light, someone principled and fighting for the worthiest of causes.
The least convincing scenes are those that contain political discussion. At one point, for example, Mercader comments, I dont believe in the class struggle. Things have always been and always will be the same, he asserts. The responses from Ageloff, Harold Robins (Toby Harper) and another of Trotskys guard, Otto (Brontis Jodorowsky), are largely impatient and unpersuasive. The dialogue here feels stilted and unconvincing.
In one of the best scenes in El Elegido, Mercader randomly runs into an old comrade, Carles Vidal (Roger Casamajor), an army captain with whom he fought in Spain. Over dinner, Vidal explains how the GPU was responsible for the defeat in the Spanish Civil War. Mercader is shocked and questions Vidals principles, to which the latter responds, Im still a communist, but communism is not in Moscow any more. Vidal comes across as genuine and honest, and Mercader is clearly troubled. The former comes to a violent end.
As the assassination mission draws closer, Mercader experiences doubt. He brings up the deaths he has witnessed to his mother and the commanding GPU officer, Kotov (Julian Sands). Not everyone who dies is a traitor, havent we become lost with so much lying? Mercader asks, to which Kotov replies, We are trained to serve the party, not to question, obey or betray. The blind loyalty to Stalin and the party gives Mercader pause. But he goes ahead
Chavarrias film neglects a more in-depth investigation of the political issues that would compel someone like Mercader to commit such a heinous political crime. Years of plotting, learning multiple languages and engaging in intimate but false relationships clearly involved a considerable effort. To boil this down to Mercaders relationship with his mother, as the film tends to, is an oversimplification.
To what extent does the filmmaker understand Trotskys life and work, and their significance, 100 years after the Russian Revolution?
In any event, it is to Chavarrias credit that he has brought some of the issues involved in Trotskys assassination to the screen. By nature of its honest treatment, El Elegido sheds light on the river of blood produced by the crimes and betrayals of Stalinism. The film has been purchased by Netflix and will be available for streaming in mid-April.
El Amparo
El Amparo is a remarkable retelling of the famous 1988 massacre, in which a Venezuelan joint military-police unit killed a group of fishermen and then tried to claim they were guerrillas who had attacked them.
The film opens in October 1988. Pinilla (Vicente Quintero) joins a fishing trip with friends, with the promise of a big cash payment. Soon after heading out, Pinilla and the 13 others are attacked by the Venezuelan military on suspicion of being fighters from Colombia, on their way to blow up nearby oil refineries. They are fired on without warning or the chance to identify themselves. There are only two survivors of the brutal mass execution, Pinilla and Chumba (Giovanni Garcia).
As part of a cover-up, the government concocts the story that the army was combating guerrilla forces along the border. Officials allege the men they faced were armed and had blueprints of the refinery site.
Pinilla and Chumba are bribed and coerced with the promise of money and houses into admitting to being guerrilla fighters, to preserve the good name of the army. However, the people are no fools. No one believes the army and government story. Equally, no one wants to reveal the truth, because the exposure will lead to the disappearance and death of Pinilla and Chumba.
Director Rober Calzadilla does an extraordinary job of painting the risks involved in telling the truth. While El Amparo focuses on a very concrete incident, the story speaks to episodes that repeat themselves over and over again throughout the Americas. From the mass disappearances of the 1960s and 1970s, to the persecutions of Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden today, the state apparatus, as El Amparo makes clear, will go to any lengths to suppress the truth.
Without giving away too much, the film ends abruptly, but not before it has pointedly highlighted the effectivenessor lack thereofof the Inter-American Court where the case was argued. Let it simply be said, justice was never served and no government officials were punished for their role in covering up the murder of innocent men.
X500
X500, directed by Juan Andres Arango, is a Canadian, Colombian and Mexican co-production. It features the stories of three young adults. The stories are tied together by a single threadeach youth leaves his or her native country and becomes entangled in a gang.
David (Bernardo Garnica Cruz) leaves a small village in Michoacan, Mexico after the death of his father and finds his cousin in Mexico City. Immediately on arrival, he is roughed up by the local gang and, despite carrying out an initiation task, is continually harassed and eventually beaten to a pulp.
The more interesting scenes show David as he works construction on a high-rise building with his cousin and other workers. He attempts to fit in to a counter-culture punk scene and begins dancing at a local club in his spare time. Unfortunately, we dont find out much more about the nature of Davids rebellion or why he is continually attacked and has such a hard time making a life for himself.
In the Colombian strand of the story, Alex (Jonathan Diaz Angulo), is deported from the United States back to his hometown where he reunites with his aunt and younger brother. He sets out in search of a motor for a small fishing boat he is repairing so he can provide a better life for his aunt, who survives only by wading through the mud and collecting black crab for a few dollars.
His aunt believes Alex is part of a local gang, and she fears her younger nephew is also coming under its influence. Alex begins working in a chop house where rival gang members or disloyal members are killed and afterwards dumped in a river. His younger brother also starts working as a guard for the gang and Alex attempts to convince his brother this is a bad plan. The following chain of events is labored and unrealistic.
Maria (Jembie Almazan) arrives in Montreal to live with her grandmother after her mother dies in the Philippines. Enrolled in a strict French-language school, she immediately becomes entangled in fights with other students and her teacher. Reticent and angry most of the time, Maria rebels against her grandmother, whose admonishments have the opposite of the desired effect.
She falls in with the wrong crowd, and things unfold tragically. There is little investigation of what causes her rage. We learn nothing about why her mother died, what her life was like in Manila and what produces Marias social isolation.
The stories in X500 have the potential to illuminate life, but too much is left unexplored and undeveloped. While they do seem to flow together cinematically and the international connections force their way in, the Colombian-Canadian Arangos film is too narrowly focused on psychological and personal tensions within families without exploring more broadly the global issues of poverty, borders and police violence.
Lupe Bajo el Sol (Lupe Under The Sun)
Lupe Bajo el Sol (Lupe Under The Sun) tells the story of an alcoholic farm worker living in Californias Central Valley who must find a way back home to Mexico when he discovers he has cancer.
Rodrigo Reyes film is told through extensive long takes and a slow pace. However, one becomes accustomed to the approach and unlike a number of other films shown at the festival, it actually contributed to the artistry of the film.
Lupe (non-professional actor Daniel Muratalla) arises every day at 4 a.m. to prepare his breakfast of fried eggs wrapped in a tortilla. His daily routine is brutal. Despite his age, he has to work in the hot sun harvesting pears in an orchard. His can of Coors Light is always on hand.
Lupes home is a dilapidated motel room, but at least he has a girlfriend, Gloria (Ana Muratalla), who utters the first line in the film after 40 minutes with almost no dialogue. When Lupe is told he has cancer he tries to mend relations with his family in Mexico to whom he sends money, but they have moved on and want nothing to do with him.
Reyes film is refreshingly honest in its look at social conditions in the United States, especially life in the impoverished Central Valley. It is significant that here the immigrant protagonist is trying to leave the United States. Something of the loneliness and spiritual emptiness of life in America comes out.
We never find out if Lupe makes it to Mexico or not, and this ambiguity is especially tragic because it recalls all the other Lupes who have since gone missing, their stories never to be told. The film is not without it flawsthere needs to be more dialogue and greater dramatic complexity. Some of the scenes feel a bit rudimentary and over-long. There is the same passivity that pervades many of the other films as well.
But the saving grace here is the poetic quality of various moments in Lupe Under the Sun: Glorias hand caressing Lupes face; the agricultural machines in the background ready to replace Lupe any day; the voice of his daughter back home.
We see how a workers life is chewed up and spat out. Given nothing culturally, morally or spiritually, Lupe and his class brothers and sisters are literally left to die under the sun. At a time when the Trump administration and the entire establishment demonizes and attacks immigrants for living and working in the United States, Reyes film is at once humane and courageous in its depiction of the most oppressed sections of the working class. There need to be more films like this.
Concluded
The coming to power in the US of Donald Trumps aggressively nationalist and protectionist administration sparked bitter divisions in the Spanish ruling class. Trumps attack on Syrias al-Shayrat airbase, the prelude to a broader military escalation directly threatening nuclear-armed Russia, marks a major shift in the political situation. The Spanish bourgeoisie is closing ranks in support of Trump and his alignment with the demands of the CIA, the Democratic Party and the Pentagon for a war policy.
Immediately after Trumps election last year, the influential daily El Pais published over 20 editorials against Trump and attacked Spains right-wing Popular Party (PP) government for its submissiveness to Trump and called on the EU to adopt a more aggressive line toward the US.
In its Friday editorial, however, it states, Trump had little room for manoeuvre, especially if he wanted to send a clear message to El Assad and other regimes which violate with impunity the principles and treaties on which international peace and security are based. It denounces Russia for blocking the US and its allies regime-change initiatives in the UN Security Council.
Two months ago, Elena Valenciano, a European Member of Parliament of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and vice president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, was demanding that the European Parliament act forcefully and courageously against Trumps statements criticizing the European Union (EU). Now, she is hailing Trumps strike on Syria, claiming it was meant to send a clear message to Assad, although she also said she disagreed with its unilateralism.
The PP government for its part has increased its collaboration with the US and endorsed the attack. Last Friday, it described the strike as measured and proportionate response to the alleged gas attack last Tuesday in the village of Khan Sheikhoun in Syrias Idlib province. With no evidence, and discounting out of hand the Syrian governments denial of its involvement, the statement accuses the Syrian army use of chemical weapons against the civilian population in the country.
The statement covers up the blatant violation of international law involved in Washingtons action, claiming that the American operation was a limited action in its objectives and means. The attack, it continues, struck a military base, not civilian objectivesthough in fact, it killed at least 15 people, including nine civilians, four of which were children.
It concludes by stating that Madrid, which has a strong sense of loyalty towards its allies, is in favour of concerted international action, and therefore regrets that the blockade of the United Nations Security Council in the Syrian conflict has not made this possible.
At a press conference, government spokesman and Minister of Culture Inigo Mendez Vigo had nothing to say when asked why the government had changed its position from 2013. At that time, Spain opposed the Obama administrations attempt to use allegations of a chemical weapons attack, falsely attributed to the Syrian government, to launch a war.
Mendez baldly declared that the situation has changed from 2013, when Spain, under the same prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, stated that Madrid does not at any time express support for a concrete military action. At the time, Rajoy added, There is no possible military solution to the civil conflict in Syria, there is only one political solution, and that Spain wanted to prevent Syria from becoming an Iraq II.
What has changed is not that Trumps act of war against Syria no longer threatens to plunge Syria into ever greater bloodshed on the scale of that in the decades-long war in Iraq, or to provoke an even broader war. Rather, in light of Trumps sudden alignment on the CIA and the Democratic Party, the Spanish bourgeoisie has re-thought its position and is closing ranks behind Washington. The far right billionaire Trump now is seen by growing sections of the ruling class as an opportunity.
Once Trump was installed as President, the PP immediately went on a diplomatic offensive to become Washingtons new strategic partner in Europe, as its traditional closest ally, Britain, began its departure from the EU under Brexit. During his first conversation with Donald Trump, Prime Minister Rajoy offered Spain as interlocutor in Europe, Latin America, and also in North Africa and the Middle East. Rajoy said he was prepared to develop a good relationship with the new US administration.
The White House statement on the conversation said that Trump had emphasized the importance that all NATO allies share the burden of defence spending.
Last month, and at Washingtons request, Spains Defence Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal met with US Secretary of Defence James Mattis in Washington. She promised that Spain would dedicate 2 percent of its GDP to defence spending within one decade.
No sooner had she returned, when Spain announced that the new 2017 budget would include a whopping 32 percent increase in military spendingfrom 5.7 billion in 2016 to 7.5 billion in 2017.
On March 26, Rajoy named former Defence Minister Pedro Morenes, with whom Rajoy has close ties, as Spains new ambassador in Washington. Morenes was one of the chief architects of the renewal in 2015 of a Spain-US bilateral defence agreement. It allows Washingtons military permanent use of the Moron air base in Seville, with increased numbers of troops and aircraft. It also allows the stationing of two additional destroyers equipped with the Aegis radar system at the Rota Naval Base, bringing the total to four.
In the aftermath of Trumps attack on Syria, the Spanish social democrats, their political allies and their media supporters are joining the PP in aligning themselves on Trumps foreign policy.
Two of the destroyers posted at the Rota Naval Base, USS Porter and USS Ross, were used in last weeks attack on Syria. Luis Simon, Senior Analyst and Director of the Elcano Royal Institute think tanks Brussels Office, boasted that this showed the increasing importance of Spain for the US Navy as a source of strategic depth for possible actions in the Middle East.
Trying to limit popular anger amid broad opposition to war, government officials and the media claimed that the destroyers left days ago and were patrolling off the coast of Israel. Madrid was also quick to state, however, that even though it had not been previously consulted or received direct communication from Washington, it was forewarned about the attack by NATO.
Such statements aim to confuse and disorient the population. Rather than increasing security, as it was claimed on the eve of signing the defence agreement with the US, the Spanish and European bourgeoisies support of imperialist wars and regime-change operations, put millions of people at risk of annihilation, especially as the US and its European allies recklessly escalate the confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia and China.
WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Sheriff Jared Miller and the Wakulla County Sheriffs Office is seeking the publics assistance in finding a missing juvenile.
Jalisa Lafay Mils, 15, was last seen at her Wakulla County home on April 9, 2017, at 2:00 a.m.
Jalisa is described as an African-American girl, around 53 tall, weighing 115 pounds, and is believed to be wearing a white shirt with black and pink shorts.
Jalisa may possibly be in the southern part of Leon County, Florida.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Jalisa is requested to contact Detective Sergeant Eddie Wester, Criminal Investigations Division, at 850-745-7100.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Florida State University police department is asking students to be careful after a sexual assault was reported on campus.
The student who reported the assault told police she met her attacker at Potbelly's on College Avenue just after 1 a.m. Saturday. The victim says the man who assaulted her came back to her dorm room with her, attacked her and left.
She describes her assailant as a 5'7" white male with tan skin, dark hair and a muscular build. He was last seen wearing an unknown color t-shirt and blue jeans.
The FSUPD is actively investigating this offense and gathering evidence. Any person who may have been in contact with the suspect is urged to notify FSUPD at 850-644-1234.
Persons who wish to remain anonymous can contact Big Bend Crime Stoppers at 850-574-TIPS, or visit at www.BBCSI.org.
Remember, with Crime Stoppers, you don't have to give your name and the information you provide may make you eligible for a reward of up to $3000.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A local nurse may have her license suspended after the Florida Department of Health filed a complaint against her, alleging that she used a elderly patient's debit card to pay her bills.
According to a complaint filed by the Florida Department of Health, they say that Myesha Leonard, who is an LPN, was employed as a certified nursing assistant by Hopewell In-Home Senior Care in Tallahassee.
They said that she provided in-home care for a 76-year-old patient through the company. While caring for the woman, Leonard had access to her debit card.
Around June 2016, the document said that the patient suffered a major stroke and was placed in a full-time care facility. They said that Leonard stopped providing car for the woman at this time.
A few months later, unauthorized charges began to appear on the patient's debit card account.
FDOH alleged that the charges included payments to Century Link, GEICO, Verizon, and Talquin Electric accounts that were in Leonard's name and were connected to her address.
The transactions totaled over $2,000.
Leonard told a detective who interviewed her that she had the patient's account number and routing number saved on her phone to use as a payment option. She admitted to using the account instead of her own to make payments without the patient's permission.
On January 18, 2017, Leon County deputies arrested Leonard for exploitation of the elderly, fraudulent use of personal ID, grand theft, and bank fraud.
Based on the evidence, the department said that Leonard could face discipline for unprofessional conduct and "employing a trick or scheme in or related to the practice of a profession."
As of now, Leonard's license has been placed on emergency restriction. She is scheduled for pre-trial case management conference on April 18th.
VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - Police say a man has been arrested after he broke into a Valdosta business to steal cigarettes and employees refused to let him leave.
The Valdosta Police Department said that on Saturday, they received an emergency call for help at 1646 Clay Road (Baileys Custom Meats).
They were told that a suspect had just shattered the front door with a brick and had entered the business.
When police arrived on scene, they saw store employees attempting to subdue a combative man in the parking lot.
The suspect continued to physically resist arrest the first responding officer, but was finally arrested when additional backup officers arrived on scene to assist.
Store employees told officers that the suspect, identified as 44-year-old Corey Porto, entered the business after breaking in and began trying to leave with several cartons of cigarettes.
The employees refused to let him leave and began trying to detain him while police were being called.
Officers on scene reported seeing multiple cartons of unopened cigarettes lying on the ground along with broken glass from the shattered door.
Porto was transported to the Lowndes County Jail where he now faces charges of burglary (FELONY), obstruction of an officer (FELONY), and battery (Misdemeanor).
BROOKS COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - Deputies said that two people have been charged with murder in connection to a body found in Brooks County.
Captain John Ulm said that Luis Felipe Mollinedo-Lopez and Jamie Lopez-Martinez were both arrested on Sunday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Ulm said that the men did not resist arrest.
The body has not yet been identified.
We will update this story as we continue to confirm more details. Stay updated with us here, on Facebook, and on Twitter.
Always stay informed on the go with local and national news, including community events, health and business information with our WTXL news app.
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At a distance and in person, it is hard to imagine Yoel Yuli Edelstein anywhere but in the Knesset. In contrast to other prominent Russian immigrants such as former Knesset colleague Natan Sharansky, Edelstein appears to have been born for public office. His appearance is sharp and stately and he speaks a flowing, polished Hebrew with only a slight trace of an accent. He is not exactly quiet, but his polite manner contrasts sharply with many of the raucous parliamentarians over whom he is tasked with maintaining order as speaker of the Knesset.
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The speakers office could scarcely be further removed from the cold Soviet prison cell where Edelstein spent three years in the mid-1980s for the crimes of teaching Hebrew and applying for a visa to leave the Soviet Union. The inner office could easily hold 20 to 30 of those cells, and that number would triple if you include the outer foyer leading to the dining room.
Edelstein's interview
X
If the contrast between a Russian prison and the parliament of Israel seems to be a dramatic one, however, Edelstein says his physical surroundings today have little bearing on the young man who took on the Soviet empire at the height of its power.
On a day-to-day level, of course I had to be practical in those days. You concentrated on just getting through the day.
But what sustained me was the knowledge that I wasnt alone. I may have had just four to five square meters in my cell, but I knew that Israel and Jews around the world were mobilized and trying to help. It wasnt just about me, not even just about Jews. It was about tens or even hundreds of millions of people wanting to live different lives. The struggle was for a good cause, led by good people, Edelstein said.
Edelstein speaking in his office (Photo: Aharon Krohn/TPS)
Speaking to TPS reporters to mark the 30th anniversary of his release from prison and immigration to Israel, Edelstein said that the memory of his time as a refusenik is not something he tries to erase, if only because the reality of life in the Soviet Union continues to inspire him in Israel.
After 30 years, I can say that our country is not perfectin the sense that it does not lack things to fix or improve, Edelstein contended. But it is a terrific privilege to live in, a place where you have both the freedom and the desire to work to make things as good as they can possibly be, where you want to change the things that trouble you. In the Soviet Union, from a very young age, nothing seemed right to me. I could barely think of anything that I liked about the place. But I never wanted to change anything. I only wanted to get out of there.
Still, the experience of losing your job, going to jail, and then immigrating to Israel certainly gives you a unique relationship with the concept of freedom and political independence. Can you talk a little bit about freedom and about Passover, the holiday of freedom?
Of course. Pesach is the holiday to which I feel most emotionally connected. The first time I saw a Seder of any kind was in Moscow in 1979. It didnt take much imagination to connect with the phrase in every generation a person must view himself as having personally left Egypt and with customs like opening the door for Elijah and imploring God to pour out Your wrath on the nations of the world who do not know You. We were always interested to see whether a Russian soldier or policeman would be waiting for us when we opened the door.
Edelstein in the Knesset building (Photo: Aharon Krohn/TPS)
Today, without the immediacy of that feeling, Im a bit more philosophical. Here it is a question of inner freedom. And thats one of the lessons from three years in prisona person is free as long as he believes himself to be so. A person can live in a golden cagewhere nothing is keeping him therebut he is in prison nonetheless. The opposite is also truea person can live in a physical prison for many years, but retain his sense of inner freedom.
Edelstein's Passover message
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Asked about the possibility of applying Israeli law in the West Bank, Edelstein noted that he and his late wife Tanya live in the Gush Etzion town of Alon Shvut, but also noted that while laws are important, they are reversible and therefore have limited efficacy.
I dont hide my view that (we should annex) areas that are solidly inside the consensus and about which there is no argument. I dont think any intelligent person really believes that Maaleh Adumim is going to be dismantled or anything like that. We can and should impose Israeli law there.
That said, Edelstein is adamant that as Israel negotiates the political and diplomatic challenges of an increasingly turbulent Middle East, the society must focus on the unique qualities that make the country home. He says he is thankful and astounded at the way Israel has moved from survival mode in 1987 to being an economic and technological powerhouse today.
But he warns that Israel must not give in to what he calls an illusion of thinking that Zionism and the accomplishments of the State of Israel can be summed up in terms of economic prowess. Speaking about the culture and the people of Israel snaps Edelstein out of his dry analysis of local and international politics and brings him back to the ideas that inspired him at the age of 20 to connect to the State of Israel, Zionism and Judaism and which continue to most animate him.
(Photo: Aharon Krohn/TPS)
If we were another country, I would say, Wow, look at us! Weve got a flourishing economy and a high standard of living. Sure weve got poverty and a gap between the rich and poor, but overall were doing pretty well, he explained.
For the State of Israel, however, that isnt enough. We mustnt lose sight of the idea that we are a light unto the nations, that we are about something else. Its not just about Israeli hi-tech or startups, but rather about the goals they serve. Its about making life better in lots of places around the world. In a nutshell, that is what we are about, he concluded.
Article reprinted with permission from TPS
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri is calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish a new ministry to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Ynet's sister publication, Deri spoke about many issues, starting with Israels friction with Iran.
Internal Affairs Minister Aryeh Deri (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
The minister commented that even though Iran understands that theres a new sheriff in town (referring to US President Donald Trump), they still do whatever they can to invest in terrorism against Israel and supply Hezbollah with weapons as their front line against the Jewish state.
Deri expressed hope that one day a generation will rise up in Iran and ask itself why do we even need to fight Israel?
Then, segueing to another people who rose against their regime, Deri was asked about Syria, specifically regarding his stance as a member of the Security Cabinet on whether last weeks US missile strike justifies Israels involvement there.
(To answer) I can only quote the former head of IDFs Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, who said that Israel should bomb Syrias chemical weapons reservoirs, Deri answered. I presume that the Security Cabinet will assemble soon enough to deliberate on the subject and make a decision.
US missile attack on Syrian airbase (Photo: AFP)
I am not going to recommend conquering Syria or anything, but there are definitely ways to take care of whats going on there and not just be satisfied with denouncements and sorrowful expressions.
Theres the way of diplomacy, and theres also the way of action.
The conversation then transitioned to conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. When asked about it, the minister responded that it is a very complex problem. There is an open strife (between us), Deri said, adding that in spite of that, they live among us and we live among them.
Im going to candidly say that, unfortunately for us all, Mahmoud Abbas does not want to progress with diplomacy. He is not willing to, and this was also claimed by John Kerry (who was the US Secretary of State at the time) and Tzipi Livni (who was the Foreign Minister at the time).
Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AP)
Deri was then asked about what should be done, and made quite a surprising statement.
Here, I call on Netanyahu for the very first time, on record for the news, to appoint a special minister to deal with the Palestinian issue, who can take care of our financial ties with them. We should manage the conflict, and that is something we are not doing sufficiently.
There is a supporting government in the White House and an opportunity was given. We should deal with the Palestinian financial issue, to give them hope for the future. We can work together, as is proven in the war on terror, in which we have strong cooperation with the Palestinians.
Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi (Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)
Deri went on to clarify that he does not wish to take the aforementioned position, as he is already the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee. Instead, he recommended Tzachi Hanegbi and said that even though he might be busy as the acting Minister of Communications, he is very talented, and can do both.
(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)
President Reuven Rivlin paid a condolence visit to the family of 20-year-old Sgt. Elchai Teharlev Sunday, who was murdered in a car-ramming terror attack last week at Ofra Junction.
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The Teharlev family told Rivlin of Elchais pride at being recruited into the IDFs Golani combat brigade, of his intentions to train to be an officer, and of his desire to defend his country.
Elchai, in his own special way, in his quiet and calm character, brought so much good to so many, and had such an impact on so many people; in his life, and in his death, said Elchais father, Rabbi Ohad Teharlev.
His parents also told the president of their sons childhood in the settlement of Talmon, of which they were one of the founding families.
President Rivlin visits family of Sgt. Elchai Teharlev (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)
Despite her loss, Elchais mother reflected on the light which the family could draw from their sons murder.
Elchai was a boy who saw good in others. We said to ourselves that with this darkness, we have also been given the keys to light and compassion. If we can grow this light, we can also keep Elchais memory here in this world.
President Rivlin expressed his deep sorrow for their loss, warmly embraced members of the family, and spoke of the high price that the people of Israel have paid, and continue to pay for their independence in their land.
It was not the familys first interaction with a senior official in the Israeli establishment since the attack.
On Friday, the Teharlevs met with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman during the ritual, week-long period of Jewish mourning and told him that they expected their sons killer never to be released from prison. Elchai was buried on the same day of the attack in Israel's national cemetery on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl.
Overnight Sunday, Israeli security forces dismantled a monument in Hebron erected in memory of a terrorist who carried out an attack in the region. They also seized seven illegal weapons manufacturing lathes and arrested three suspects for terrorist activities.
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The monument was erected in memory of the terrorist Bian Asila, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl. In October 2015, Asila approached the Border Police base near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and attempted to stab a Border Police officer on guard duty, though she only succeeded in lightly wounding the Israelis hand. Cpl. M., the attacked Border Police officer, managed to shoot Asila dead.
The monument (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
Illegal weapons manufacturing workshop (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
The monument carried a text memorializing Asila alongside a verse from the Koran: "In the name of the merciful God, do not think that those who were killed for the sake of God die, but live in the midst of God.
Asila, shot by her would-be victim
According to intelligence figures, as a result of the frequent raids by the security forces, the price of improvised weapons has increased, nearly tripling from the prices of a year and a half ago.
(Translated and edited by J. Herzog)
Stoning of buses driving near Ma'ale Adumim and other towns close to Arab settlements in the Jerusalem area has become a major problem over the last few years, endangering both drivers and passengers.
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"I've had rocks thrown at me six times already, and the last time, three months ago, they also threw a glass bottle filled with paint at my windshield," recounted D., one of the drivers.
"The bottle broke, and the paint smeared all over the glass. That was the most frightening incident of the all, though mainly because they (the assailants) were very close to me.
"I'm a driver with a lot of experience (so I was fine), but if it had been a new driver, he could have lost control over the bus and crash.
"I was very scared. But more than being scared for my own safety, I was scared for the safety of my passengers. Glass shards from the bottle flew into my eyes and I started bleeding, but I kept driving so as to not stop suddenly and endanger the passengers.
"There were moments when I felt like I was about to lose control of the bus, and I thought that this might be the end of me."
D. stopped driving for an entire month after that incident. "I went to get my eyes checked by several doctors, so I can know for certain that I can return to work.
"I was staying at home and my mental state was bad. I started thinking that it's not worth it, but I had to go back to provide for my family.
"In the past, the police used to station patrol vehicles in those area for deterrence, but they don't anymore."
Assaf Bondi, Transport Branch Coordinator in Koach La Ovdim, a workers organization which represents the employees of Egged, the largest transit bus company in Israel, sent a letter to the company's management about the issue.
In it, he wrote, "Over the last few weeks, several stoning incidents have occurred involving your company's buses in the areas near Jerusalem, especially near Ma'ale Adumim, where the drivers are working in vehicles which are not protected from firearms or from rocks.
"All actions so far have failed to strengthen the drivers' sense of security. They are put in very real danger with no proper means of protection."
According to the workers organization, recently there have been four cases where rocks were thrown at a driving bus, in one of which the driver needed medical attention.
The organization also noted that workers of other bus companies in the area have also complained about stoning incidents.
Yaniv Zafrani, chairman of Egged's Workers' Union, said that the stoning of buses have become commonplace.
"Our workers are driving from Ma'ale Adumim to Jerusalem and back. They pass near Wadi al-Joz and Isawiya (Arab neighborhoods). They get rocks thrown at them there for years now, but recently it has become more pronounced," stated Zafrani.
"I personally know at least five drivers who experienced it, and it's starting to feel like the Wild West," he said, adding that "there's even a driver who used to drive with a helmet on.
"We're afraid that a driver, God forbid, will get hit by a rock, lose control, and a full bus of 50 people will swerve and crash. It's scary."
The government refused to address these cases, referring us to the police and Egged.
Different branches of the police kept referring us to other branches, refusing to comment.
Egged responded that the company is "working with every means necessary to safeguard the physical and mental health of its drivers. We aim to reduce incidents of terror activities and the risk they impose.
"With that, the Workers' Union should understand that the mandate over the matter is not in our hands."
(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)
Particularly in tight financial years for agriculture, the argument for finding the economically optimal corn plant population has perpetuated. The challenge of this goal is that it is often difficult to find the economic optimum and then balance that with the yield optimum.
In a recent Midwest Forage Association Forage Focus article, the University of Wisconsins Joe Lauer emphasized that producers should be aware of the different inputs necessary for maximum yield versus economic optimization.
The input level for economic optimum is lower than the level providing maximum yield, Lauer said regarding his recommendations for determining seeding rate.
In research done at the University of Wisconsin from 2007 to 2016, plant population for producing maximum forage yield was 48,000 plants per acre, while maximum milk per acre was 45,000 plants per acre. Grain yield optimum was much lower at 34,000 plants per acre, and the economic optimum plant population for grain yield was 39,000 plants per acre.
Lauer shared that year, hybrid, soil type and texture, environment, and management style are all factors that affect how thick corn should be planted to maximize forage yield. Meanwhile, seed and grain or silage price drive the economic optimum.
Although each farm will differ on these optimums, Lauer suggests assuming that maximum yield and economic optimum plant densities go up over time. Under that assumption, he recommends farmers figure economic optimum plant density and pick one round to seed at a 10 percent higher plant density. This will allow an on farm comparison of economic and yield optimums each year and provide a better understanding of the lands capabilities.
When planting this year, take into consideration the inputs and outputs of your fields to find that sweet spot of economic and yield success.
British Prime Minister Theresa May delivered her Passover message to British and international Jewry, expressing her belief that Jews are an integral part of British society.
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As the festival of Passover begins, I want to send my very best wishes to Jewish communities in the UK and around the world for a very happy and peaceful Pesach, May began.
As Jewish families come together to relive the story of escape from slavery in ancient Egypt, it gives all communities an opportunity to join with you in thanks for the liberty and freedom that we all hold dear.
The Tory leader then invoked the Holocaust, reminding Jews that her government remains committed to remembering its horrors but erecting a memorial in the most prominent spot in the UKWestminster.
PM Theresa May (Photo: AP)
The history of the Jewish people and the horrors of the Holocaust highlight what happens when freedom is lost and anti-Semitism is allowed to flourish. That is why we are establishing a national Memorial to the Holocaust, together with an accompanying education centre, next to Parliament at the heart of our democracy, she added.
For in remembering the Holocaust, we will also reaffirm our national commitment to fighting hated and prejudice in all its forms in the world today.
May stressed the need for Jews to feel free to practice their religion, pledging to act as a guardian for the Jewish people.
The freedom to practice your religion, without anxiety or prejudice, is one of the fundamental tenets of our society and as Prime Minister I will defend your rights to practice your faith without fear. As I have said before, without its Jewish Community, Britain would not be Britain, she continued before acknowledging the contribution to British Jews in society.
Your community makes an enormous contribution to the UK and has excelled in every field helping create a successful and prosperous country, she concluded.
So let me wish you and your family a Chag Kasher V'Sameach.
Prime Minister May is considered to be among Israels staunchest supporters , as well as a genuine friend of the Jewish community.
In her first day on the job as the prime minister, May reaffirmed what appeared to be a genuine commitment to the British Jewish community when she decided to proceed with plans to have a dinner that she had scheduled months prior, with Britain's Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
In an unprecedented move, Israel closed its Taba border crossing with following a warning by its anti-terrorism office of an "imminent" terrorist attack there. The thousands of Israelis who had planned to vacation in Sinai during Passover will have to change their plans.
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A few hours after the decision had been taken, a Code Red alert was sounded in southern Israel as a rocket was fired from the Sinai Peninsula into Israel, damaging a greenhouse.
Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said in a statement Monday there was intel regarding a potential "terror attack" against tourists in the Sinai peninsula. The crossing is open for those wanting to return from Egypt. He said that his decision was influenced by the severity and seriousness of the threat.
Taba crossing (Photo: Tiki Golan)
In a statement issued Friday morning, the Counter-Terrorism Bureau said that Katz had taken the decision in consultation with Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman. Taking immediate effect, the crossing was shut down for those travelling to the Sinai Peninsula until the end of Passover on April 18, providing that the security situation improves.
(Photo: Chaim David)
Despite the crossings closure, however, Israelis currently in Egypt will be permitted to return home via Taba.
Southern Sinai, with its pristine beaches and Red Sea coral reefs, has traditionally been a popular Israeli tourist destinationespecially for secular Israelis during the Passover holiday. But Israel has urged its citizens to avoid the area in recent years because of Islamic militant activity.
(Photo: Chaim David)
The Counter-Terrorism Bureau estimates that hundreds of Israelis are currently in Sinai, and that many more thousands will arrive before the Passover holiday. For the High Holy Days last October, between 17,000 and 20,000 Israeli tourists arrived in Sinai.
pair of church bombings during Palm Sunday ceremonies killed more than 40 people Sunday; shortly after those attacks, Israeli urged its citizens in Sinai to return home.
Later that day, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for a three-month state of emergency in his country, which was approved by the government on Monday.
The grandchildren of a prominent Jewish victim of the Nazis are renewing their fight for title to the world's oldest illustrated Passover manuscript, hoping newly-unearthed documents will boost their claim to a prized jewel of Israel's leading museum.
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Last year, the descendants of German Jewish lawmaker Ludwig Marum requested the Israel Museum pay compensation for the famed Bird's Head Haggadah, a medieval copy of the text read around Jewish dinner tables on the Passover holiday.
They say the Haggadah was snatched from their grandfather's family after he was rounded up by the Nazis and later sold to the predecessor of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem without their consent.
Bird's Head Haggadah (Photo: Associated Press)
One of the grandsons, 75-year-old Eli Barzilai, said he met with the museum last May and has corresponded with it since.
The museum acknowledges the Bird's Head Haggadah was in the family's possession before the Nazi epoch, but has asked the family to offer documentation about what happened to the Haggadah from the time the Nazis arrested their grandfather in 1933 until an unrelated Jewish man from Germany arrived in Jerusalem and sold the Haggadah in 1946.
The family has no written proof that the manuscript was stolen. But over the last few months, Barzilai has acquired documentation from a German archive he says proves that Hermann Kahn, the man who sold the Haggadah, did not have the financial means to purchase it in the first placelending support to the possibility that he obtained it illegitimately.
"Hermann Kahn could not have been able to buy the Haggadah because of unending financial difficulty," Barzilai said in an interview in his Jerusalem home.
The family's lawyer in Israel, Meir Heller, says the relevant archival documentation will be presented to the Israel Museum.
The family wants the Bird's Head Haggadah to remain on display at the museum, but seeks financial compensation and wants the museum to rename it the Marum Haggadah, after their grandfather, Ludwig Marum.
"It will be a shame if we have to go to court," said Heller. "An injustice has been done, and the museum must correct that injustice."
Israel Museum's Shrine of the Book (Ziv Reinstein)
The museum says it is open to receiving new information on the Haggadah's ownership history and continuing discussions with Barzilai, but considers the ownership matter to have been resolved in 1984. At that time, Marum's daughter wrote the museum that she believed the immigrant who had brought the Haggadah to Jerusalem "had no right to sell it," but that the family wanted it to remain at the museum "for the benefit of the public."
Written in southern Germany around 1300, the Bird's Head Haggadah has long been a riddle, largely because of its strange illustrations of Jewish figures.
Marc Michael Epstein, an expert on the manuscript, believes the figures have the heads of griffins, a beloved mythical creature, offering a positive representation of Jews while skirting a biblical prohibition against depicting human likenesses.
Marum, a Jewish lawyer from the southern German town of Karlsruhe who served in Germany's parliament and was an opponent of Hitler, received the Haggadah as a wedding gift, according to his family. In 1933, the Nazis paraded Marum and other opponents across town before taking them away, and Marum was later killed at the Kislau concentration camp.
In 1946, a Jewish lawyer named Shimon Jeselsohn, who worked with Marum in Karlsruhe and fled to Jerusalem after World War II, read in the newspaper about a special Haggadah purchased by the Bezalel National Museum, the forerunner to the Israel Museum. He recognized it from Marum's law office and was curious how it ended up in Jerusalem.
Kahn told Jeselsohn a Jewish doctor had given it to him, but the doctor denied it, and when Kahn offered no further explanation, Jeselsohn became suspicious. He tracked down Marum's daughter to notify her. Over the years, Jeselsohn, now deceased, continued to encourage the family to seek an arrangement with the museum.
The family had no further information about Kahn until late December 2016, when German historians in Karlsruhe mailed more than 1,000 photocopied documents to Barzilai, including files pertaining to Kahn's correspondences with German authorities.
Barzilai said the documents reveal that Kahn, a schoolteacher, was low on cash. He made multiple requests for funds from the German authorities to help him pay for his ill wife's medical treatment, and at one point apparently paid his apartment rent in dining room furniture.
Like other Jews, Kahn was fired from his teaching job, the documents show, and he took a low-paying, part-time job teaching drawing classes at a Jewish school during which time Barzilai thinks Kahn may have obtained the Haggadah.
According to one document, neighbors reported seeing Kahn hiding valuables in the upholstery of the sofas he was packing up. Barzilai believes this is a clue that the Haggadah was in that shipment.
While Kahn was en route to Palestine, World War II broke out and he got stuck in Switzerland. He arrived in Jerusalem in 1945, retrieved his belongings from storage, and sold the Haggadah a year later.
Barzilai does not think Kahn himself stole the Haggadah, but that he may have gotten it from someone else after Nazis arrested his grandfather.
The Haggadah is at the root of an uncomfortable battle pitting a Jewish family against Israel's leading museum, which considers itself a caretaker of heirless Judaica once owned by Holocaust victims.
Another sore spot is that David Jeselsohn, the son of the lawyer who advocated for the family's rights to the Haggadah, is a leading donor of the Israel Museum and has encouraged Barzilai to drop the case.
"Because of all the past, and my father, I am always ready to meet (Barzilai) and ready to help him," David Jeselsohn said in a telephone interview from Switzerland, where he has a home. "But if he wants facts to be changed, he must come up with new facts."
Barzilai said he hopes Jeselsohn will help reach an agreement acceptable to all sides.
Jeselsohn's father "did so much for this case," he said. "We would like the Jeselsohn family to continue the father's path."
Swedes observed a minute of silence Monday during an official day of mourning to honor the four people killed and 15 wounded in a truck attack last week on shoppers in Stockholm.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told a crowd outside Stockholm City Hall that "the whole of Sweden" sympathized with the families and friends of the victims, thanking the police and other officials for their courage "from the bottom of my heart."
He said the countries of the four victims -- two Swedes, a British man and a Belgian woman -- had suffered "horrendous acts of terrorism, but we have also seen the strength and determination and power of our democratic societies."
"We will never surrender to terror. We will get through this together," Lofven said.
ANKARAA Turkish official says the country's foreign minister has held a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, during which the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad was discussed.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Mevlut Cavusoglu and Tillerson on Monday also talked about the fight against the Islamic State group.
BELGRADEUS Senator John McCain accused Russia on Monday of having cooperated with Syrian government forces in a chemical weapons attack that has killed more than 80 people, including more than a dozen children.
The Republican senator said at a press conference in Belgrade that he believes "the Russians knew about chemical weapons because they were operating exactly from the same base."
He said the US launched cruise missile strikes last week against the Syrian base "in a response of a chemical attack."
"I hope that this behavior by Syria, in what clearly is cooperation with Russia and Syria together, will never happen again," he said.
McCain said the US should take out Syria's air force as part of stopping Syrian President Bashar Assad from repeating such attacks in the future.
Dozens of employees of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) are holding their Passover Seder in front of the home of Avi Nissenkorn, chairman of the Histadrut, protesting that on a holiday commemorating laborers, hundreds of workers will become unemployed.
IBA officials: "We chose to celebrate Passover in front of his home, perhaps he will finally wake up and understand the extent of the neglect of the IBA employees on his shift."
Many workers wanted to arrive at the site, but the police apparently did not authorize it.
Hamas security forces announced that they had arrested a suspect in the assassination of Mazen Fukha, a senior member of the military wing who was shot in the head near his home in Gaza last month. The details of the suspect have not yet been submitted.
It was also reported that the investigation into the assassination had come to an end, and its conclusions were conveyed to the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.
Four hundred and fifty lone soldiers from 35 different countries from around the world took part in the biggest Passover Seder for lone soldiers of the IDF. The event was held at the Olga recreational resort, hosted by United for Israels soldiers, donated by the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association (CZCA).
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Earlier in the day, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Head of IDF's Manpower Directorate and Spokesperson Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz, Chairman of United for Israels soldiers (Res.) Yoram Yair and President of CZCA, Mr. Wilf Shiff met with and greeted the soldiers.
Eisenkot with the lone soldiers (Photo: Gil Nechushtan)
The lone soldiers got to enjoy a celebratory Passover Seder. The dining room was turned into a lavish events hall with traditional Afikomans (half-piece of matzo which is broken in two during the early stages of the Seder, so that the children at the Seder will "steal" it and demand a reward) hiding within its walls.
The event was held by United for Israels soldiers for the sixteenth year and sponsored for the fifth time by CZCA
In a month, we will mark 69 years to Israels independence. Today, Israel is a very strong country, with a powerful military. Though we are facing many threats, we have spent the last 69 years building a mighty army, with advanced technologies and the ability to defend our country and win wars.
(Photo: Gil Nechushtan)
"Our power as an Army lies in our people. Young people like youmaking Aliyah, coming from diverse backgrounds, from around the world, for one purposebeing a part of IDFs power. When that power is met with the commitment of world Jewry and the countrys civilians to the IDFit creates great and powerful strengththat is the essence of it all.
"This is our opportunity to salute you and to express our sincere appreciation for your contribution and dedicationthose volunteering to serve and those enlisted. We will go to great lengths to assure this holiday is safe for the civilians of Israel. I wish you all a wonderful Passover, and all the best, said Eisenkot.
(Photo: Tzalamim Be'click)
Eisenkot's words were followed by Maj. Gen. Yair, who said, This year we will commemorate 50 years to the Six Day war. Beyond the incredible military achievement, the war was a monumental moment in time when this countrys connection with the diaspora strengthened significantly. The hundreds of soldiers here today, represent 6,900 lone soldiers serving in the IDF, who are a testament to the deep bond built in those days. I would like to personally thank each and every man and woman and wish the people of Israel a happy and Kosher Passover."
The deep connection between Canadian Jews and IDF soldiers is over 40 years old and was established by the Holocaust survivors who founded the CZCA. I wish to extend my gratitude and thank every soldier, here and everywhere across the countrywe love you and wish you and your families a happy holiday, and send you all a warm, loving embrace, said Mr. Shiff.
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Egypt: At least 44 people were killed in Egypt in bomb attacks at the cathedral of the Coptic Pope and another church on Palm Sunday, prompting anger and fear among Christians and leading to troop deployments and the declaration of a three-month state of emergency.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also injured more than 100 people and occurred a week before Coptic Easter, with Pope Francis scheduled to visit Egypt later this month.
The assault is the latest on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, and a challenge to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them as part of his campaign against extremism.
The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city about 100 km (60 miles) north of Cairo, tore through the inside of St George Church during its Palm Sunday service, killing at least 27 people and injuring at least 78, the Ministry of Health said.
The second, a few hours later in Alexandria, hit Saint Mark`s Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 17 people, including three police officers, and injuring 48, the ministry added.
Coptic Pope Tawadros had been leading the mass at Saint Mark`s Cathedral at the time of the explosion but was not injured, the Interior Ministry said.
"These acts will not harm the unity and cohesion of the people," he was later quoted as saying by state media.
Islamic State said two of its fighters wearing suicide vests carried out the attacks, and it warned of more to come.
"Crusaders and their apostate allies should know the bill between us and them is very big and they will pay it with rivers of blood from their children, god willing. Wait for us, for we will wait for you," the group said in a statement.
In a televised speech addressing the nation, Sisi declared a three-month countrywide state of emergency, subject to parliamentary approval, and called for national unity and urged the media to refrain from coverage that could be harmful.
"Deal with the issue with credibility, and responsibility and awareness," he said of the media coverage. "It`s not right what I`m seeing being repeated on all of our channels, and you know this hurts Egyptians."
Sisi also ordered troops be immediately deployed to assist police in securing vital facilities, a rare move for the general-turned-president, who as defence chief led the military`s 2013 ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood`s President Mohamed Mursi.
Deflecting Western criticism that he has suppressed political opposition and human rights activists since he was elected in 2014, Sisi has sought to present himself as an indispensable bulwark against terrorism in the Middle East.
"The attack...will only harden the determination (of the Egyptian people) to move forward on their trajectory to realise security, stability and comprehensive development," Sisi said in a statement.
President Trump, who hosted Sisi last week in his first official visit to the US, expressed support for a leader he has said he plans to work more closely with on fighting Islamist militants, who Sisi identifies as an existential threat.
"So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns. I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly," Trump wrote on his official Twitter account.
Hundreds gathered outside the Tanta church shortly after the blast, some weeping and wearing black while inside, blown apart pews sat atop tiles soaked with blood.
"There was blood all over the floor and body parts scattered," a woman who was inside the church at the time of the attack said.
"There was a huge explosion in the hall. Fire and smoke filled the room and the injuries were extremely severe," another woman, Vivian Fareeg, said.
"WE FEEL TARGETED"
Islamic State`s branch in Egypt has stepped up attacks and threats against Christians, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt`s 90 million people and are the biggest Christian minority in the Middle East.
In February, scores of Christian families and students fled Egypt`s North Sinai province after a spate of targeted killings.
Those attacks followed one of the deadliest on Egypt`s Christian minority, when a suicide bomber hit its largest Coptic cathedral, killing at least 25 people. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for that attack.
Islamic State has waged a low-level war against soldiers and police in Egypt`s Sinai Peninsula for years but is now targeting Christians and broadening its reach into Egypt`s mainland. That is a potential turning point in a country trying to prevent a provincial insurgency spiralling into wider sectarian bloodshed.
Although Copts have faced attacks by Muslim neighbours, who have burnt their homes and churches in poor rural areas, in the past, the community has felt increasingly insecure since Islamic State spread through Iraq and Syria in 2014.
"Of course we feel targeted, there was a bomb here about a week ago but it was dismantled. There`s no security," said another Christian woman in Tanta in reference to an attack earlier this month near a police training centre..
Wahby Lamie, one of whose nephews was killed and another injured in the Tanta blast, expressed exasperation.
"How much longer are we going to be this divided? Anyone who`s different from them now is an infidel, whether they`re Muslim or Christian. They see them as infidels," he said.
"How much longer are these people going to exist? And how much longer will security be this incompetent?"
Washington: Former US President Bill Clinton met his predecessor George HW Bush in Texas and gifted him pairs of socks, a media report said.
Clinton shared an image of the two together on Twitter on Sunday, The Hill magazine report said.
"Great to spend time with (George HW Bush) in Houston today (Sunday)," Clinton tweeted.
"We caught up about kids, grandkids, old times and new times. And socks."
Clinton gifted Bush a green pair of socks with brown labradors on them and a blue pair with bees.
Clinton once admitted he was "envious" of his predecessor`s sock collection.
Bush has made waves in foot fashion, often sporting creative designs - including Superman-themed socks - while using his motorised scooter.
He has a form of Parkinson`s disease.
"(Bush) has been known for wearing coloUrful socks for years, but it has been most noticed really ever since he has been depending on wheelchairs for mobility - exposing his ankles," the former President`s spokesman Jim McGrath told the New York Daily News.
Dhaka: Bangladesh`s opposition leader Khaleda Zia has called an "emergency meeting" of her BNP party`s policymaking forum over Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina`s India visit and the agreements signed between the two countries.
The meeting of the National Standing Committee has been set for 8.30 p.m. (local time) on Monday at Khaleda`s Gulshan offices, said Bangladesh Nationalist Party`s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
"The meeting has been convened to discuss the PM`s India visit, the agreements and MoUs signed, the political situation and the party`s steps going forward," said Rizvi.
Hasina`s four-day trip to India will end with her return to Dhaka on Monday night, bdnews24.com reported.
India and Bangladesh signed 22 agreements and MoUs on Saturday, including as many as five on defence cooperation.
The BNP has been vocal against three of the MoUs on defence cooperation, according to the report.
Khaleda had spoken out on the topic on Sunday, claiming the government had agreed to "sell off the country" in exchange for another five years in power.
"Those who call themselves the current government are not the government of the people. They were not elected by the people. They are scheming, once again, to cling on to power," she had said.
Sharifah Munirah Alatas/South Asia Monitor/IANS
On March 30, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak arrived in Chennai for an official visit following an invitation from his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.
This was Razak`s third official visit as Prime Minister, and an important one at that, given the number of agreements that were signed. On a six-day visit, Razak reached New Delhi on March 31, and proceeded to Jaipur on April 2 following an invitation by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia.
The Malaysian delegation`s six-day official visit to India focused on the close political and economic ties between the two nations. Razak had written exclusively in the Hindustan Times about the purpose of his visit and how the two nations have shared similar trade, economic and personal/cultural affinities over the decades.
But what is really behind the Malaysian Prime Minister`s official visit to India?
Razak`s clicking a selfie with Tamil super star actor Rajinikanth at the latter`s home in Chennai on March 31 indicates Malaysia`s conscious attempt to bring "the people" of both Malaysia and India to a certain level of understanding, that the two nations share close cultural ties, apart from the trade and economic ties that already exist.
It is also seen as a move to appease the Tamil community in Malaysia, i.e., to suggest that the friendly and familiar relationship between the Tamil communities in both India and Malaysia remains strong. For Modi, too, the appeasement of the Tamil community in south India is a positive political move in the direction of winning over more adverse political opinions. (The south here includes the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana and the Union territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep).
Jaideep Mazumdar, Joint Secretary in charge of Malaysia-India diplomatic relations in the Indian foreign ministry, confirmed the following:
- That India and Malaysia discussed $5 billion worth of two-way investments during Razak`s five-day visit in a bid to boost economic linkages between Asia`s third-largest economy (India) and one of the fastest-growing economies in South East Asia (Malaysia).
- That India is keen on building stronger political, economic and strategic ties with Malaysia, seen as a moderate Muslim nation with a population of approximately 28 million.
- That Indian firms have moved to Malaysia in a big way, making it a base to do business with other ASEAN nations.
- That Malaysia has invested about $6 billion worth of projects in India and Indian investment in Malaysia amounts to about $2.5 billion.
In the defence and security arena, Indian pilots operating Sukhoi-30 frontline fighter aircraft were training Malaysian defence personnel on Sukhois in Malaysia between 2008 and 2010.
Mazumdar also said that India inducted the Russian-made Sukhois into its inventory in 1997 and has been steadily adding to its numbers in the Indian Air Force. The two countries (India and Malaysia) held their first military exercises in 2012 and their first naval exercises in 2016.
In general, the relationship encompasses a very wide canvas from economic and commercial to defence and security, besides the traditional people-to-people links.
India and Malaysia signed an MoU on Defence Cooperation in 1993 and a Malaysia-India Defence Cooperation Meeting (MIDCOM) was established under its framework. Several MIDCOM meetings and reciprocal visits of high-level defence personnel have been taking place since 1993.
Defence cooperation with Malaysia is in the interest of India from the point of view of both economic and strategic aspects. Besides a seller-buyer relationship with respect to military hardware, India and Malaysia also cooperate to secure the Malacca Straits through joint patrols and other activities. India and Malaysia have discussed the issue of compulsory pilotage of the Malacca Straits at the latest Shangri La security dialogue held in Singapore. India`s expertise in maritime security can be useful for protecting the narrow channel of the Malacca Straits from emerging non-traditional security threats in Southeast Asia.
Compared to Malaysia`s relations with India during the administration of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, Razak sees a new and improved relationship, a new "high" in the areas of infrastructure development, student exchange, and other areas.
The two nations agreed to revitalise the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), as well as to be more proactive in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Overall, the two leaders unanimously declared that relations between India and Malaysia are at an all-time high.
However, like most official dignitary-level visits and meetings, what is reported of the diplomatic exchange between the leaders of both India and Malaysia goes only skin deep. There is more to Razak`s visit to India.
Domestically the repercussions are enormous. During this somewhat volatile political situation at home (in Malaysia), there is a need to apply a holistic approach to governance. A large chunk of this governance involves placating and seeing to the needs of the different races within Malaysia, including the very influential and visible ethnic Indians -- most of whom are Tamils -- linguistically, religiously and culturally.
Furthermore, this holistic approach to diplomacy takes into consideration two other important aspects of strategic thinking: First, Razak`s decision to visit India is closely tied to the geopolitical competition between India and China in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR); and second, Malaysia`s stance as a small power juxtaposed with the major powers of India and China.
Malaysia`s role can be best explained as a balancer between the two formidable powers. Both Razak and Modi realise the threat of an encroaching China into the Indian Ocean Region, but this point was not mentioned during talks between the two leaders.
The Indian Ocean Region provides critical sea trade routes that connect the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia with the broader Asian continent to the east and Europe to the west. A number of the world`s most important strategic choke points, including the Straits of Hormuz and Malacca -- through which 32.2 million of barrels of crude oil and petroleum are transported per day, more than 50 percent of the world`s maritime oil trade -- are found in the Indian Ocean Region, which itself is believed to be rich with energy reserves.
It is no surprise that Razak`s recent visit focused discussions on defence issues as well. Beijing`s regional vision, backed by $40 billion of pledged investment, outlines its One Belt, One Road (OBOR) plan, combining the revitalisation of ancient land-based trade routes, the Silk Road Economic Belt, with a Maritime Silk Road.
China`s ties with regional states have deepened, including the influx of Chinese capital into construction projects in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Since launching counter-piracy operations in 2009, Beijing has become increasingly active in the region.
China has also undertaken efforts to modernise its military, particularly its naval deployment capabilities to protect overseas interests like personnel, property and investments. Experts also argue that Beijing`s forays into what is at times described as India`s neighbourhood are driven by China`s excess capacity challenges -- incentivising Chinese firms out of domestic markets to compete in and open new markets abroad.
Furthermore, China-India relations are fraught, coloured by historical disputes and the perceived threat to India of China`s rise. Tensions have persisted despite overtures by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Much of the friction stems from a longstanding dispute along a 4,000-km border that stretches from Kashmir in the west to India`s far-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and the legacy of the 1962 Sino-Indian War along the Himalayan border.
The expansion of a Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean has heightened India`s concerns. Beijing says its activities are commercially motivated and intended to better protect its interests and people abroad. However, Brahma Chellaney of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), an independent Indian think tank, argues a ramped up Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere is consistent with Xi Jinping`s intention of making maritime power central to achieving Chinese dominance in Asia.
In order to be assured of state survival, Malaysia as a small power needs to further engage with India in the larger strategic context, to balance China`s growing security presence in the Indian Ocean Region.
To sum up, Razak`s visit to India was clearly more than the signing of MOUs worth billions of dollars. Both the nations reiterated the importance of the fight against terrorism, showing that this is a smokescreen for a deeper undeclared `war` against China`s strategic encroachment into the Indian Ocean Region.
Both India and Malaysia made it a point to say that they should identify, hold accountable and take strong measures against states which encourage, support and finance terrorism. The message was meant for Pakistan although not explicitly naming any country. Indirectly, China is also implicated as a major power which strategically supports Pakistan, and other littoral states in the Indian Ocean, such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
New Delhi: Indian filmmaker AR Murugadoss on Friday took to Twitter to express his disappointment over the recently announced 64th National Awards. The 42-year-old director alleged bias and stated that 'influence & partiality' of people in the jury can be sensed.
"#NationalAwards Can clearly witness the influence & partiality of people in jury, it's biased," he posted on the social media.
The whole debate began when Akshay Kumar won the 'Best Actor' award for his performance in 'Rustom'. It was being said that there were several other candidates who deserved the honour more than him.
#NationalAwards
Can clearly witness the influence & partiality of people in jury, it's biased. A.R.Murugadoss (@ARMurugadoss) April 8, 2017
National Award winner Priyadarshan was the chairperson in Feature Films category.
New Delhi: The Election Commission cancelled the by-election for the Chennai's Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency late on Sunday, two days after cash-for-votes allegations surfaced.
The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on April 12.
The Election Commission said that the by-elections shall be held by the poll panel in due course when the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors gets removed with the passage of time and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive to the holding of free and fair election.
Slamming the Election Commission's decision, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran said: "This is a wrong decision, even the Election Commission does not want me to win. They can delay but can`t deny." Dinakaran had filed his nomination for the seat that was held by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on March 23.
The decision came after Income Tax raids in Chennai found money was distributed to voters. The department had on Saturday said that around Rs 100 crore has been distributed to RK Nagar voters by the AIADMK faction led by the now-jailed VK Sasikala,
On Friday, I-T officials raided the residences and business premises of Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, his relatives as well as persons close to him and his business associates.
"We have seized cash totalling Rs 5.5 crore. We have also seized documents showing Rs 89 crore changed hands in RK Nagar," an I-T official had told news agency IANS.
The by-elections in RK Nagar became necessary after the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented it for two terms.
The stakes for the by-polls were very high as the results would have been a verdict of sorts in the war between the two rival factions of the ruling AIADMK.
Fresh clashes had broken out on Sunday between the supporters of O Panneerselvam and TTV Dinakaran, in which one person sustained injuries.
OPS faction candidate was attacked by a Dinakaran camp supporter.
However, no key leaders were on the spot and the situation was contained immediately by security personnel.
On April 7, several people got injured after a clash broke out between the members of Sasikala and O Pannerselvam factions of AIADMK in RK Nagar area.
During the clash, E Madhusudhanan`s car, a member of Pannerselvam camp, was also damaged.
The AIADMK party, which is now divided into two groups, has been witnessing political turmoil after the demise of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Earlier, both the factions also staked claim over the election symbol `two leaves,` where Sasikala camp moved the Election Commission challenging the use of party symbol by Panneerselvam-led camp.
However, the Election Commission froze the election symbol and allotted two new symbols to both the factions.
(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday granted interim bail till May 4 to five fresh accused named by the CBI in its supplementary charge sheet in a coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and others.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar granted the interim bail to accused- Jindal Steel's adviser Anand Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra's Vice-President Siddharth Madra, Nihar Stocks Ltd Director BSN Suryanarayan, Mumbai-based KE International's Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Aggarwal and Mumbai's Essar Power Ltd Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo - on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and one surety of the like amount each.
The case pertains to allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.
During the hearing, the CBI opposed the regular bail plea of two of the five accused persons - Goel and Maroo - alleging that they tried to hamper the investigation, destroy evidence and threatened witness Suresh Singhal in the case many times.
The CBI lawyer alleged that both the accused are a threat to the witness (Suresh Singhal) and have also allegedly slapped him in Delhi's Patiala House Court premises.
CBI also informed the court that it's in possession of two e-mails which were exchanged between Sushil Kumar Maroo and Suresh Singhal totally proving the allegations.
The lawyer representing the accused claimed that the charges directed by the CBI are one-sided. He said that neither were they provided with the copy of e-mails nor any document substantiating the allegations made by the CBI.
The court has now put up the matter for hearing on whether to grant regular bail to these accused in the light of CBI's fresh allegations after counsel for both the accused sought time to argue on this point, saying they were not supplied with related documents in the case.
The court has also directed the CBI to provide defense lawyer with the documents supporting the claim that Suresh Singhal was threatened by the accused.
It will also hear regular bail pleas of Madra, Aggarwal and Suryanarayan which were not opposed by the CBI
The names of these five persons were revealed by Singhal, a chartered accountant, who was earlier chargesheeted by the CBI as accused in the case.
The court had summoned the five new persons as accused after taking cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI on March 24.
Besides Jindal, the case also involves former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda.
The court had earlier directed the agency to expeditiously file its further probe report.
With PTI inputs
A local court on Monday granted interim bail to real estate company Unitech`s Managing Directors Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra for three months.
The Economic Offences Wing had booked Sanjay and Ajay Chandra for allegedly cheating buyers and siphoning off clients` money.
Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kapoor granted three months` interim bail to the Chandra brothers asking them to furnish a bond of Rs 70 lakh each.
The court has directed them to submit their passport to the investigating agency and not to leave the country without prior permission.
On April 6, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ashu Garg, rejecting the bail plea of the Chandras, had remanded them to judicial custody till April 20.
They were booked for cheating buyers as Unitech first failed to complete a real estate project in Gurugram`s Sector 70 on time and then did not refund the money to buyers.
They were arrested from their residence in Gurugram on April 1 by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police and a court here had sent them to two-day police custody the same day.
There are 90 complaints against the brothers in connection with the project. It was started in 2011 without getting environment clearance. Unitech obtained environment clearance in September 2013.
Even though it did not have environment clearance, the accused continued booking the flats without giving the real picture to investors and thus misrepresented facts to the investors.
The project was to be completed by 2014.
The accused were booked on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.
The police on Saturday told the court that Unitech had collected Rs 363 crore from 557 customers for Anthea Floors residential project.
In 2015 also, the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against them in a misappropriation of funds case, though it was cancelled later.
Sanjay Chandra is also facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case and currently he is out on bail in that matter.
New Delhi: Companies from India and Bangladesh today signed pacts worth over $ 9 billion here aimed at deepening partnership in sectors like power and oil and gas.
Among the MoUs signed in the presence of visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a facility agreement between Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL) and Exim Bank of India for debt financing for construction of 1,320 mw Maitree Power Project in Rampal in Bangladesh ($ 1.6 bn).
The MoUs include an implementation and power purchase agreement between Reliance Power and the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources for the first phase (718 mw) of the 3,000 mw power project at Meghnaghat, entailing $ 1 billion (out of a total proposed investment of $ 3 billion).
The agreement between NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) and Bangladesh Power Development Board for supply of power from Nepal envisaged an investment of $ 3.15 billion.
The event also saw signing of pact between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and the Bangladesh Power Development Board entailing an investment of $ 2 billion and a power purchase agreement between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
Besides, the MoUs signed include those on LNG terminal use between Petronet LNG, India and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), among others.
The MoU-signing ceremony was organised by CII.
New Delhi: With the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections inching closer, the opposition parties will today urge the Election Commission to conduct the upcoming polls partially through VVPAT (voter-verifiable paper audit trail) machines and ballot papers.
The opposition will pitch in the idea of conducting 50 percent of the voting through VVPAT machines and other half with the help of ballot papers.
Last week, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had in a veiled attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that baseless observations and allegations were made by a "leader of a political party today in a press conference regarding the use of EVMs" and clarified its position.
"The EVMs comprising the Control Unit (CU) and Ballot Unit (BU) used in any election shall be kept in a strong room after declaration of results and shall not be accessed by anyone till the period of filing of election petition is over.
The election petition has to be filed within 45 days. However, in case of VVPAT machines, the printed paper slips have to be retrieved at the time of counting and sealed in a paper envelope and only these sealed paper slips have to be kept inside the strong room along with the EVMs.
The VVPAT machines are not required by the law to be retained in strong room for the purpose of election petition and are available for use in any other election. VVPAT machines are not required by the law to be retained in strong room for the purpose of election petition and are available for use in any other election.
However, in the on-going bye-polls only VVPAT machines which were kept in reserve and not used during the actual poll, have been redeployed," the statement said."The Commission would like to point out that these allegations are completely baseless and made without verifying the facts.
No EVMs have been moved from Uttar Pradesh for the purpose of Bye-polls in Madhya Pradesh. Required number of VVPAT machines were moved from different States for use in Bye-polls as per the existing policy of the ECI," the statement added.
Kejriwal had earlier expressed doubts over the security features installed in the machines while demanding that the upcoming civic polls in the capital be conducted using paper ballots.
"It doesn`t look like all machines are tampered. Some are being used in a few areas. I wrote to the EC today. We have the experts to study the software, if you don`t have them. Give the EVMs to us. We will make the software public," Kejriwal said.
New Delhi: Taking on P Chidambaram over his remarks on the influence of black money in the RK Nagar by-polls, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday alleged that black money surfaced during the former UPA regime while demanding an explanation from the former finance minister on the same.
"How did the black money surface I guess Chidambaram knows it better.
The reason being back money was generated during their regime and it is only after our government came to power that the generation of black money was effectively curbed," Naidu told ANI.
"Despite our efforts, if things happened there, the explanation can only be given by the parties who distributed money there," he added.
Responding to the opposition parties` allegations that the Centre is `misusing` government agencies like the Income Tax Department for their ulterior motives, Naidu said, "What misuse? These departments have been doing their job diligently, they should be congratulated.
"Naidu`s remarks came in response to Chidambaram`s tweet wherein he asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi if his demonetisation drive achieved desired results, hours after the poll body canceled the April 12 by-polls.
"We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money (sic), he said.
On Sunday, the poll panel cancelled the by-polls in R K Nagar constituency after cash-for-votes allegations surfaced.The decision came after the Income Tax raids in Chennai found that money was distributed to the voters.
New Delhi: Over 2,000 fresh accounts were opened in a Bareilly branch of State Bank of India post-demonetisation till December 31 to allegedly channelise black money in which at least Rs 8 crore were deposited in old notes, a CBI probe has found.
The CBI has now registered an FIR against unknown bank officials and unknown persons for criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption.
Based on source information, the CBI had carried out a surprise check in the Civil Lines branch of State Bank of India in Uttar Pradeshs Bareilly on January 2.
During the operation, the CBI detected that a huge amount of cash was deposited in the bank after November 8 last year, when the notes ban was announced, in newly-opened accounts and the dormant accounts which had been activated.
The CBI had found that 2,441 new accounts were opened by bank officials between November 8 and December 31.
Out of these accounts, 667 were savings accounts, 53 were current, 94 were Jan Dhan accounts, 50 PPF, 1,518 FD, 13 festival accounts, two senior citizen accounts and one government account.
The probe found that there were 794 instances at the bank when cash of over Rs. 1 lakh and more was deposited. In certain cases huge cash deposits were also made but the sources refused to disclose the amount.
These accounts were opened by bank officials allegedly in connivance with private persons which enabled deposits of huge cash and currency conversion without keeping proper records. It is observed that 267 dormant accounts have been activated after declaration of demonetisation by the bank officials in connivance with private persons in order to facilitate the deposit of old currency notes, the FIR said.
It said in order to cover up the alleged misdeeds of the officials, complete teller reports, details of receipt of old currency notes and its exchange with new currency notes was not maintained by them, though it was the responsibility of the concerned branch to maintain the teller reports.
The CBI alleged that vault register and other records maintained by cash department of the branch containing details of inward and outward movement of notes was made casually and a lot of alterations were made in a number of pages.
By the acts of commission and omission, the bank officials in connivance with private persons have conspired to defeat the purpose of demonetisation and facilitated exchange of black money and deposit of bank accounts without maintaining proper records, it alleged.
New Delhi: The government on Monday said there is no proposal under its consideration to review the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in the multi-brand retail sector.
"No proposal is under consideration of the government to review the extant FDI policy on multi-brand retail," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmal Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The current foreign direct investment policy permits overseas players to hold 51 percent stake in an Indian retail company.
So far, only one foreign player, Tesco, has received approval for opening stores under the multi-brand retail policy.
Replying to a separate question, she said that government has been interacting with investors to identify issues for promoting FDI in the food processing sector.
"Several issues including sale of home and personal care products have been raised by investors," the minister said.
Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had earlier indicated that the government is actively considering a proposal to allow FDI in non-food items, along with food products and a decision may be taken ahead of the mega world food event here in November.
Mumbai: Even as temperatures are soaring, there has been a substantial increase of 39 percent in bookings for travel during the summer of 2017 among Indians, according to a recent report.
"There has been a huge increase in the number of people travelling this summer and about 39 percent more Indians are opting to travel this summer season," MakeMyTrip COO - Hotels and Holidays - Mohit Gupta told PTI quoting the 'Summer Travel Trends' report.
The findings of this report is based on the bookings seen on MakeMyTrip platform till February 28, 2017 for travel for the summer season (April-June 2017) and highlights the trends seen in the travel space compared to last year.
There also has been a remarkable year on year increase in bookings coming from smart phones, Gupta said.
Smartphone penetration and adoption led by the young travellers is driving the shift from offline to online in the travel industry, he added.
The transactions made from mobile app has increased by 49 percent since last summer in 2016, the report said.
With 39 percent more Indians travelling this summer, there has been a significant increase from April-June 2016, it added.
Further the report said, more young Indians are travelling this summer with 12 percent of the travellers in 18-24 age group compared to 9 percent last year with in the same age group.
As more young Indians are travelling, the mix of single travellers has also increased to 36 percent against 32 percent last year, it added.
Indians, Gupta said, are widely opting for travelling to the previously unexplored destinations and have been quite experimental with their travelling choices.
More travellers this summer are heading to long haul international destinations, which has registered 36 percent growth in bookings, it said.
International travellers continue to prefer staying at 4 to 5 star hotels, it said.
However, there has also been a growth of 17 percent in bookings seen in the mid-range hotels segment.
In domestic destination, more travellers are heading towards Delhi this summer with Mumbai-Delhi being the top domestic flight route followed by Bangalore-Delhi.
It said domestic travellers opting for budget hotels this year have increased by 24 percent this summer.
Top domestic destinations for this summer are Goa followed by Manali (Hinachal Pradesh), Ooty (Tamil Nadu) and Gangtok (Sikkim), the report said.
Indians this summer have also shown interest in travelling to previously unexplored places like Digha (West Bengal) which has seen a growth of 3.6 times and North East destinations like Gangtok, Shillong, Kalimpong, Lachung (growing by 45 percent), it said.
In international bookings Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was most preferred destination followed by Dubai, Thailand and Singapore.
It said, London and Paris are the top destinations for long haul trips along with Masai Mara Safari in Kenya.
Panaji: Still smarting from party leader Vishwajit Rane's high-profile cross over to the BJP, the Congress on Monday said it is of the view that he should never be allowed back in the party fold in future.
However, unfazed by his criticism by the Congress, the former Valpoi MLA has ruled out the possibility of his return to the Congress.
"Congress should ban re-entry of Vishwajit Rane who not only betrayed the party but also the voters in Valpoi. The party will soon take a decision on banning his re-entry to the party," All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary Girish Chodankar told reporters here.
Chodankar said that Rane, who got elected as an MLA on the Congress ticket, ditched the party on the floor of the Legislative Assembly by helping the BJP leader Manohar Parrikar form the government.
Rane is the son of the Congress veteran and former chief minister Pratapsinh Rane.
He was referring to Rane abstaining from voting during the crucial trust vote in the House on March 16, which brought down the Congress' tally to 16 in the 40-member Assembly.
Parrikar eventually proved the majority with the support of three MLAs each of the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the Goa Forward Party (GFP), and three Independents, besides 13 MLAs of the saffron party.
Rane had resigned from the Congress on the same day.
Chodankar said, "Rane's behaviour is highly unprofessional. Congress is all set to defeat him during the upcoming by-poll in Valpoi constituency."
When asked to respond to Chodankar's remarks, Rane said that the Congress party is on decline across the country due to "unsuccessful and inefficient" leaders like him (Chodankar).
"Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi should ban leaders like Chodankar who does not have the capability even to win panchayat elections. Chodankar is fit to be outside Rahul Gandhi's office," he said, adding that he is a loyal worker of the BJP and would work for its growth in the state.
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New Delhi: In further trouble for Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the ED has summoned him for questioning in its money laundering probe against him and others.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) action comes close on the heels of the CBI filing a charge sheet against him and his wife and others for allegedly amassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Officials said the agency has issued fresh summons to Singh as it wants to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
They said he has been asked to depose before the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case on April 13 here.The agency has summoned Singh earlier too but then he had excused himself stating his official commitments.
It has already questioned his wife Pratibha and son Vikramaditya in this case.
The ED had filed a case under criminal provisions of the anti-money laundering law against the CM, his family members and others after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the CBI in this regard in September, 2015.
The agency is probing allegations against Singh and his family members of having amassed wealth of Rs 6.1 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2009 and 2011 when he was the Union Minister of Steel. It has also attached assets worth about Rs 14 crore in this case under PMLA laws.
The CBI charge sheet, filed sometime back, claims that the politician had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate by 192 per cent of his total income during his tenure as a Union Minister.
The final report filed against nine people for alleged offences punishable under section 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.
Besides the 82-year-old Congress leader and his wife Pratibha Singh, the report also arraigned Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia as accused.
The report also named as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who is currently in judicial custody. Chauhan was arrested by the ED?on July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the present case.
New Delhi: Visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull was all praises for his Indian counterpart, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the country at an admirable path of growth and development.
"Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit. PM Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on an extraordinary journey of growth and development.
The achievements of India are an admiration for the world and we look forward to working even more closely," he told the media here during his ceremonial reception at the President House.
"Half a million Australians are of the India background. Both countries are tied together with a shared destiny," Turnbull added.Turnbull arrived in New Delhi yesterday for a four-day visit today. This is his first visit to India.
He is scheduled to hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Modi later in the day.On Tuesday, Turnbull will visit Mumbai where he will attend several events, including an interaction with key business leaders and an energy round-table.
Cooperation in renewable energy, clean coal and bio-fuels will be high on agenda during his visit. A number of MoUs and agreements are also to be firmed up in the areas of security, environment, sports, science and technology and health.
Turnbull and Prime Minister Modi have had substantive meetings on the sidelines of the G-20 in Antalya in 2015 and in Hangzhou in 2016.
Beijing: China on Monday denied any credit for the Indian Navy for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, claiming that its naval ship equipped with a helicopter saved the 19-member crew.
Declining to acknowledge any role for the Indian Navy which said its chopper provided the air cover for the Chinese soldiers to enter the Tuvalu-flagged ship OS35, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the air support was provided by Chinese helicopter attached to the ship.
The missile frigate Yulin circled the ship while its helicopter provided air cover, she said, making no mention of the Indian Navy's helicopter support to the Chinese troops.
The Chinese naval ship, part of the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters, rushed to the hijacked ship as soon as it received a message from UK Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) on April 8, she told reporters here.
"Rescue operation was launched on early Sunday morning. Sixteen Chinese soldiers successfully boarded the timber-carrying freighter, and freed its crew," she said.
"They also conducted a comprehensive search of the ship to make sure no pirate was on board. 19 crew members released from the strong room where they had taken shelter, while also searching the ship to ensure there were no further threats," she said.
"We believe the aforementioned operation demonstrated the effectiveness of China's naval forces in the field of fighting against pirates, as well as China's image as a responsible major country in safeguarding regional peace and stability," she said.
When questioned about the absence of any reference to the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
"I have already given to you what I have learnt. The Chinese convoy received report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation.?With regards to details I refer you to the Chinese defence ministry," she said.
"As I just said the Chinese side is always positive towards international cooperation against pirates. This position is very clear," she reiterated.
Her comments followed a Chinese navy statement last night that omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese soldiers.
When asked about the Chinese navy's statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD".
He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
The surprise omission of Indian Navy's role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
The Indian Navy also said that the Chinese navy thanked it for its role in the operation.
"In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt DK Sharma said yesterday.
China's disinclination to acknowledge Indian Navy's role came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, China's opposition to India's NSG membership and Beijing blocking India's effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.
In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navy's help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, from pirates. At that time, Chinese navy's flotilla was on an escort duty in the Gulf of Aden - 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault.
Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on Sunday finally reacted to the reports that he was joining the BJP.
Shashi Tharoor has written a Facebook post on the matter.
In a Facebook post, he said: "In view of the number of people asking, let me repeat that my convictions are a matter of record and they do not match those of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)".
"For 40+years I have spoken and written in defence of a pluralist India with equal rights for all its citizens and communities," Tharoor, also a former UN diplomat, said.
"On this, no compromise. Rumours of my joining BJP have been floated periodically with no basis whatsoever. I deny them categorically and without qualification," he said.
The Congress MP's clarification comes in the backdrop of a statement by CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that four Congress leaders, including Tharoor, planned to join the BJP.
Balakrishnan had said there are reports that four Congress leaders from Kerala are joining the BJP and that KPCC president M M Hassan had said that one of them was Tharoor.
However, Hassan denied having made any such remarks when contacted.
"When media persons asked me whether the reports about four Congress leaders joining the BJP has come to his notice, I said there is no such thing," Hassan said.
"There are no fortune seekers in Kerala like S M Krishna and Jaffer Sharif," the KPCC president said.
Tharoor campaigned for the Congress-led UDF candidate for the April 12 bypoll in Malappuram, Hassan said.
"When I asked him about such reports, he (Tharoor) told me that it was a propaganda by the BJP," Hassan added.
New Delhi: After watching this video, your faith in power department will be restored (at least to an extent).
While paying a visit to the office of Power Finance Corporation, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal addressed the gathering and warned the power ministry officers to stay away from corruption.
Speaking in an authoritative tone, Goyal made it clear that those who are caught engaging in corruption will face dire consequences.
He further added that if any worker had any problem adjusting with the new reforms then they could submit their resignation.
It's a MUST WATCH video:-
Chandigarh: Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, has said that India should approach the International Court of Justice and ensure that the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani establishment is not carried out.
"Our government should take appropriate steps. They should appeal in the international court of justice and seek stay," Kaur told PTI over phone while reacting on the Pakistan army court's verdict.
India should take every necessary step to ensure that Jadhav's death sentence is not carried out, she said.
"Even if I assume for a minute that Jadhav was an agent, still does he deserve death sentence. There are many Pakistani nationals lodged in our jails who are charged with serious crimes, does this mean they too should be given the same treatment. The 2000 Red Fort attack case convict was a Pakistani national, but was he hanged?" she asked.
About Jadhav, she said, "just because he is an Indian, he has been given death sentence. This shows the hatred and enmity which Pakistan harbours towards India".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak about this to his Pakistani counterpart, she said.
Having lost her brother four years back in Pakistan, Kaur said she could fully understand what Jadhav's family must be going through at this hour.
"I am with the family. They should immediately meet the Prime Minister. My full support is with Jadhav's family and I can accompany them if they go and meet the PM," she said.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials in Baluchistan after he entered from Iran. He has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.
India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
Pakistan's powerful army chief today approved the execution of Jadhav after a military court found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities".
Kaur's brother Sarabjit had died following an attack on him by inmates of a Lahore prison in April 2013. He was convicted for terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death in 1991. However, the government had stayed his execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
Delhi: In a strong warning to Pakistan over death sentence given to an alleged Indian 'spy' Kulbhushan Jadhav, India on Monday issued a demarche to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit.
The Ministry of External Affairs also said that India will regard the execution of Jadhav as a case of premeditated murder.
Following is the demarche issued to Basit by the MEA:
We have seen the ISPR press release today regarding Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian citizen, who has been awarded a death sentence by a Pakistani military court martial.
Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly. The government of India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law. Requests to that effect were formally made 13 times between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial. Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence.
The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
Pakistan's Army Chief today approved the execution of Jadhav after a military court found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" against the country.
Also Read - Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial under Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," it said.
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, "a commander in the Indian Navy", "confessed" before a magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by 'Pakistani security forces' in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran.
Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was "a serving officer" in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
The Pakistan Army had released a so-called "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the Navy but has denied he has any connection with the government.
"The individual has no link with government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy," the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement in March last year, as per PTI.
The ISPR statement, however, said Jadhav, alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
(With PTI inputs)
Kupwara: The brave soldiers of Indian Army have foiled an infiltration bid by Pakistani terrorists on Monday.
Four Pakistani infiltrators have been gunned down by Army in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara.
The encounter took place in Keran sector.
"A major infiltration bid from across the LoC was foiled by the Army troops in Keran sector yesterday (Sunday) evening," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.
The entire area has been cordoned off and security forces are sweeping the perimeters to check for any untoward elements remaining.
The search operation is still on.
Islamabad: The Pakistani military on Monday said that alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in Balochistan in March 2016, has been given a death sentence.
Pakistan's powerful Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved the execution of Jadhav (46) after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" against the country, a development that could further strain the India-Pakistan ties.
"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial under Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said and added that the FGCM found Jadhav "guilty of all the charges."
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a Commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 03, 2016, by Pakistani security forces in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was "a serving officer" in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
The Pakistan Army had released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the Navy but denied he has any connection with the government.
"The individual has no link with the government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy," the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement in March last year.
India had demanded Consular access to Jadhav, but Pakistan repeatedly denied Indian officials access to him.
The ISPR statement, however, said Jadhav, alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
Following is the press release issued by the Pakistan militarys public relations department:
"Rawalpindi - April 10, 2017:
Indian RAW Agent / Naval ofcer 41558Z Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 through a Counter Intelligence Operation from Mashkel, Balochistan, for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence. Today COAS, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has conrmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM.
RAW agent Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav was tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of ofcial Secret Act of 1923. FGCM found Kulbushan Sudhir Yadhav guilty of all the charges. He confessed before a Magistrate and the Court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage / sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi.
The accused was provided with defending ofcer as per legal provisions."
The Pakistani Army's decision today is expected to further strain the ties between India and Pakistan. The two countries have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Pakistan's support to terrorism since the terror attack on an Indian Army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Leading Pakistani experts viewed the announcement about Jadhav's death sentence as an unprecedented move, saying it will send a strong message to foreign countries engaging in spying activities in the country.
"Pakistan has sent a message that if somebody does such activities here, it will hand them severe punishment. Those operating against the state will face a similar fate," Defence analyst Ikram Sehgal told Dawn newspaper.
(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: A Pakistani military court, Monday, awarded death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.
The news has been received with shock in India. The shocking manner in which Pakistan's all-powerful military carried out the trial in secret goes against all established international norms on the manner in which espionage cases are to be handled.
Jadhav was reportedly arrested in Balochistan after he entered from Iran on March 03, 2016, for alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities. It was alleged that Jadhav was a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Kulbhushan Jadhav, alleged Indian spy, sentenced to death in Pakistan
India has acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the Navy but denied that he has any connection with the government.
The individual has no link with the government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy, the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement.
Jadhav is a Mumbai-based businessman who had legitimate business interests in Iran's Bandar-Abbas and Chabahar ports. He had a residence permit of Iran.
Some media reports had claimed that Jadhav was abducted by a Sunni extremist group from the border area and he was later handed over to the army.
Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav - Things you may not know about ex-Indian Navy officer to be hanged in Pakistan
India later demanded consular access on 11 occasions - to Kulbushan Jadhav but the Pakistani authorities repeatedly denied the request.
The official statement from the Pakistan's military today claimed that Jadhav was given a defense lawyer. However, the fact that the entire trial was held in secret gives India no confidence in the procedures followed.
Undoubtedly, it is a clear case of justice being denied as per international norms that need to be followed in such cases.
The Pakistani media has pointed out to the confessional statement given by Jadhav before a magistrate. However, with the government of India not given access to him, the confession can be safely called a sham.
Also, a forensic examination of the confession video by Indian authorities shad revealed that it was heavily edited and the audio was spliced in several places. Union Minister of Sate for Home, Kiren Rijiju, had said that Pakistan was cooking up stories to defame India and that the video was completely doctored and fake.
Importantly, Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had, last year, admitted that the government was presented with only "insufficient evidence" on Kulbhushan Jadhav.
Addressing a full Senate chamber, Aziz said the dossier on Jadhav contained mere statements.
"It did not have any conclusive evidence," he was quoted as saying by the Geo TV.
"What the dossier contained was not enough. Now it is up to the concerned authorities how long they take to give us more matter on the agent," Aziz said.
As the verdict has been delivered by a military court, Jadhav loses the right to appeal against the verdict in any court of law.
The only remaining legal recourse for him is to approach the President of Pakistan with a mercy petition.
However, given the state of the matters, it does appear that the 'judicial cold murder of Jadhav' has been planned and is being executed by the Pakistan's military.
Also, the verdict has come as a serious setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to improve relations with Pakistan and may have serious consequences for the already strained ties between the two nations.
Delhi: With Pakistan announcing that the alleged Indian 'spy' Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in March 2016, has been sentenced to death, an angry India on Monday stopped the release of a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who were to be repatriated on Wednesday after completion of their prison term.
The move came within hours of Pakistan Army's announcement that its Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for alleged "espionage and sabotage" activities.
The government feels that it is not the right time for the release of Pakistani prisoners, official sources said here, as per PTI.
The retaliatory action came as India made it clear that it will be regarded as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
The sources said India had no clue about Jadhav's trial in a military court in Pakistan and felt that it was a "stage-managed drama" - from capturing Jadav to alleged confession and finally the so-called trial.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Pakistan Army Chief after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in Rawalpindi.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and issued a strongly-worded demarche.
India reacted angrily, saying Jadhav had been sentenced to die "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
The demarche said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran "and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly".
It said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had sought consular access to Jadhav 13 times between March 25, 2016 and March 31, 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities.
Demarche issued by MEA to Pakistan High Commissioner today. Pl see press release at https://t.co/K55zof27it pic.twitter.com/PLZCv5B3gD April 10, 2017
Indian officials say Jadhav was once with the Navy and that he was engaged in business in Iran when he was abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies, as per IANS.
New Delhi has repeatedly denied Islamabad's charges of involvement in insurgent activities in Balochistan, Pakistan's biggest province which has a border with Iran.
(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: At a special dinner-cum-meeting hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Monday, the 33 constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) vowed to work together under his leadership to succeed in the 2019 general election.
The members passed a resolution expressing their commitment after their brief meeting at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, where the prime minister hosted a special dinner for them.
Replying to a question as to whether presidential election also came up for discussion, Jaitley said, "It was not on the agenda."
Replying to an identical question, TDP Chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said NDA partners will collectively take a call on that whenever the issue was deliberated upon.
Both Jaitley and Naidu unanimously identified "clean and corruption-free governance" provided by the Modi dispensation as its biggest achievement.
All NDA constituents hailed the performance of the Modi government, especially the leadership of the Prime Minister, Jaitley told reporters.
Union minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan put forth a proposal for fighting the upcoming Lok Sabha election under Modi and expanding the NDA's base across the country. The proposal was accepted unanimously, Jaitley added.
"The NDA allies also passed a resolution to work together to win a second term under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi in 2019," he said.
The Minister said the ruling alliance has expanded its support base in the last three years during which its popularity and acceptability have also gone up.
Echoing similar sentiments, Naidu said, "India will be the only country which will have double digit growth and this is only possible under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi."
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister said the NDA allies are committed to working in tandem to win the 2019 elections under Modi's leadership.
Today, under the able leadership of Modi, India's presence is being felt and acknowledged at the global level. Countrymen across the world feel proud about being Indian, Naidu said.
The meeting began with the inaugural address by BJP President Amit Shah. His speech was followed by those of SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal, TDP supremo Naidu and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, who has often targeted the Modi government and BJP, was also present and addressed the gathering.
According to sources, Shah also met Thackeray separately on the sidelines of the meeting and the two leaders discussed a host of issues.
PDP leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti could not attend the meeting and a representative deputised for her.
The NDA is celebrating its third year in office since storming to power in the last general elections.
Earlier, television visuals showed a wide array of NDA leaders such as Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Sharma, Piyush Goel, Ram Vilas Paswan, MP PD Rai from the SDF party, Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari, among others, arriving at the venue.
All the NDA allies were invited to the meeting-cum-dinner.
PM Modi had reached the venue shortly after the guests arrived with BJP chief Amit Shah in tow.
(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: A meeting of NDA's top leaders, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be held this evening as the ruling alliance puts up a show of strength ahead of elections to the post of the President and Vice President.
Leaders of 31 BJP allies, including the new friends it has won over in Goa and north-east states, will attend the meeting after its president Amit Shah reached out to them.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who has often flayed the saffron party, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu will also attend the meeting.
The BJP sources said the meeting will be a show of strength of the ruling alliance as well as an exercise in taking stock of the national political scene.
The meeting assumes significance as the saffron party will need the support of its allies to push a candidate of its choice for the President's elections due in July.
Sources, however, insisted that this is not on the agenda of the meeting.
This is only the second meeting of top NDA leaders since the alliance stormed to power in 2014 and could result in smoothing over any differences between the BJP and many of its small allies, some of whom have often complained about lack of communication.
Its allies from Bihar, including Union Ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha besides Jitan Ram Manjhi, from Uttar Pradesh, including Union Minister Anupriya Patel and Om Rajbhar, besides a host of allies from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and other states are expected to attend the meeting.
Former Punjab Chief Minister and Akali stalwart Parkash Singh Badal will also participate, the sources said.
Sajjad Lone from Kashmir, Ramdas Athavale, Raju Shetty and Mahadev Jankar from Maharashtra, Vijai Sardesai and Sudhir Dhavalikar from Goa, P C Thomas and Vellappally from Kerala and Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling will be among those attending the meeting, they said.
New Delhi: Top National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders will on Monday convene a meeting, which is likely to be attended by representatives of 32 parties, including Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the meeting, the second since the NDA assumed power in 2014.
According to sources, Telugu Desam Party chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Mehbooba Mufti, inter alia, will attend the meeting.
During the meeting, the leaders will take stock of the political situation and deliberate on the future strategy of the alliance.
Besides, a number of Union ministers will be present at the meeting, the sources said.
They said representatives of all the allies of the BJP across the country will participate in the meeting during the evening, followed by dinner.
(With PTI inputs)
Islamabad/New Delhi: Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani army court on charges of spying, prompting New Delhi to warn Islamabad that his execution would tantamount to premeditated murder".
The trial proceedings that led to the capital punishment for Jadhav were also described by India as "farcical".
The award of the death sentence to the 46-year-old former Naval officer at a court-martial was confirmed by Pakistan's army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa today and is expected to further deteriorate already strained Indo-Pak ties that were hit after the deadly attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan- based terrorists last year.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The court martial was closed to the public and consular access was not provided to Jadhav.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it said.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
He said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly".
Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy."
The Pakistan Army had also released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy but denied that he has any connection with the government.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
It also claimed that Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Islamabad's support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The two sides were also engaged in a war of words last year over Pakistan's provocative statements on the turmoil in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year.
New Delhi: Visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday said his country will work more closely with India in order to secure stronger ties.
"Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit," Turnbull told the media after his ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapti Bhawan.
"Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on a extraordinary journey of growth and development," he said.
"The achievements of India are the admiration of the world," Turnbull said, adding: "We in Australia look forward to working even more closely than we have done in the past."
He arrived here on Sunday evening on a four-day state visit to India.
"We are bound together to ties of history of values of people. We look forward, Prime Minister (Modi) and I, to making that even stronger in this visit," Turnbull added.
Turnbull was received by Modi at Rastrapati Bhawan and was then accorded the ceremonial guard of honour in the forecourt of the presidential residence.
This is Turnbull's first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor, Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Modi's visit to Australia in November that year.
Modi will hold a bilateral summit with Turnbull later in the day following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull ahead of a bilateral summit here on Monday.
"Suprabhaat PM @TurnbullMalcolm! PM @narendramodi welcomes Prime Minister of Australia at Hyderabad House in Delhi," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.
Earlier on Monday, Turnbull was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj also called on the visiting dignitary.
The Autralian Prime Minister arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit to India.
This is Turnbull`s first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Prime Minister Modi`s visit to Australia in November that year.
A number of agreements are expected to be signed following Monday`s bilateral summit.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday inaugurate an exhibition to mark the 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah.
The exhibition, titled 'Swachhagraha - Bapu Ko Karyanjali - Ek Abhiyan, Ek Pradarshani', will be held in the national capital.
The PM will also launch an 'Online Interactive Quiz' at the event which is being organised by the National Archives of India. The quiz will continue for 30 months till October 2019.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, PM Modi said the Champaran Satyagraha was a historic mass movement which had a phenomenal impact and appealed to the countrymen to become 'Swachhagrahis' and create a Swachh Bharat.
He also said that the exhibition will connect essential principles of Satyagraha with Swachhagraha.
"A century ago, Indians became Satyagrahis and fought colonialism. Today, let us become Swachhagrahis and create a Swachh Bharat.
"Champaran Satyagraha was a historic mass movement led by Bapu. Its impact was phenomenal," the Prime Minister said yesterday.
The exhibition will be available for public for a month from Tuesday at National Archives of India (NAI) here.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma are expected to attend the event. The exhibition will also be showcased in other cities of the country after a month.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Movement) was launched on October 2, 2014, with an aim to achieve clean India and aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi had arrived in Champaran, a district in Bihar, in 1917 to take up the cause of the farmers who were forced to grow indigo, instead of food crops, by the British.
Champaran Satyagraha was the first non-violence action initiated by Gandhi, who during his stay in Bihar, also delved in detail with the social problems like scavenging, illiteracy, and issues related to women and health.
(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Vishwajit Rane, who quit the Congress to join the BJP last week, says that party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is "non-serious" and an inaccessible leader and under his leadership the grand old party would be reduced to just 20 seats in the 2019 general election.
"Congress has a non-serious leader called Rahul Gandhi. He is not serious about the people of the state who give you a mandate, not serious about government formation. He is not even accessible. Seriousness of a leader is very important for a party to grow," Rane, son of former Goa Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane, said in an interview to IANS.
Rane, who was elected from the Valpoi assembly constituency in the February 4 polls, resigned from the Congress accusing the party leadership of letting go the opportunity to form a government despite emerging as the single-largest party with 17 MLAs.
Later, he also quit as Congress MLA. He had gone missing during a trust vote in the House last month, which the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP coalition won with 22 MLAs backing his government, while the Congress got the support of 16 legislators.
Rane said if Rahul Gandhi continues to be the leader of the Congress, then in the 2019 general elections the party would be reduced to 20 seats in the Lok Sabha.
He said the Congress was "heading in no direction" under Rahul Gandhi. "If this is the nature in which you want to take the party forward, then I am confident in 2019 from 44 they will be reduced to 20," he said.
"I don`t see any such leader emerging in the Congress party. I don`t see any future for the Congress party in the next 10 years," Rane said, asked if there was any leader in the party who could challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.
Continuing his attack on Gandhi, Rane said: "Rahul Gandhi should have been available on his phone when there were serious issues happening in Goa like election of the CLP leader, deciding unanimity and bringing everybody together, talking to the probable candidates."
He blamed Rahul Gandhi and party General Secretary in-charge of Goa Digvijaya Singh for the "mess up" in Goa, and blamed Gandhi for being "inaccessible" in times of need.
"The whole mess in Goa was done by Digvijaya Singh. I feel he wanted to see the Congress out of power. He did everything possible to ensure that the Congress sits in the opposition.
"And he has put the final nail in the coffin by electing a CLP leader, Babu Kavlekar, who did not attend a single meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) in the past five years..That was the end of Congress party in Goa," said Rane.
However, he had good things to say about Congress President Sonia Gandhi. "Sonia Gandhi is different. She was much more approachable and hands-on," said Rane.
Rane said even his father was not happy with the present day functioning of the Congress.
"I don`t think even he is very happy with the functioning of the Congress in the state. A man (Kavlekar) was made the leader of opposition by Rahul Gandhi who never attended a single CLP meeting in the last five years.. A man (Pratapsinh Rane) who has won 11 times has to sit as an ordinary MLA, which is quite insulting," he said.
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New Delhi: Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave`s absence in the Rajya Sabha on Monday to reply to a member`s question made Chairman Hamid Ansari call it a "very unusual situation".
During the Question Hour, as Chairman Ansari called out for answer to question number 392 raised by member Mahendra Singh Mahra on air and noise pollution in Delhi, he found Dave was not present.
Even Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was not present.
Dubbing it "most unusual situation", Ansari said it is the responsibility of the minister concerned to be present in the house when a question relating to their ministry is taken up.
"This is an extraordinary situation. I am sure the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (Ananth Kumar) will look into this and respond," he said.
Meanwhile, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was to reply to the question on Dave`s behalf, rushed to the upper house and apologised for coming late. He said he got late as he was introducing a bill in the Lok Sabha.
"Prakash ji, your question was called. You were not present. A most unusual situation has arisen. I have not witnessed it for 10 years and probably earlier also," Ansari said.
As opposition members, including Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury tried to speak, Ansari said the point has been made "loud and clear" by all sections of the house. He then proceeded with the Question Hour.
New Delhi: Coming out in full support of Vice-President Mohammed Hamid Ansari`s wife Salma Ansari`s assertion on triple talaq, former Home Secretary and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP R K Singh on Monday said the practice of divorce is not a part of the Islam religion.
"I think she (Salma Ansari) is right. Triple talaq is not prevalent even in the neighbouring countries. Its only here that some people are opposing the abolition of pernicious practice of triple talaq.
There is no ground for opposing it. Reform movements have happened in every sphere and this is an essential reform. All these are not part of religion. This is not what God said.
It`s how you treat your wife," Singh said.Earlier, talking to the media on the sidelines of a function in Uttar Pradesh`s Aligarh, Ansari said that uttering `talaq` thrice does not amount to divorce and asked the Muslim women to read the Quran thoroughly instead of relying on clerics.
"If you`ve read the Quran then you can find the solution there itself. There is no such rule in Quran. They have just made it up. There is no such thing. You read the Quran in Arabic and don`t read the translation.
You accept whatever the Maulana (clerics) or the Mulla says. You must read the Quran, read Hadis.
Just see what Rasool had said," she said.Asserting that women should not blindly follow anyone, she said that women must have the courage to read the Quran by themselves and introspect what`s written in it and gain knowledge about it.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking declaration of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan as illegal and unconstitutional.
"This treaty is of 1960 and this treaty has held good for more than half a century," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while dismissing the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma in his personal capacity.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, however, made clear that the order dismissing the PIL "does not put any impairment on anybody".
The clarification came when Sharma said that the dismissal of the PIL should not put any restriction in the way of the government if it wants to review the Indo-Pak water pact.
During the brief hearing, it was argued that the Indus water pact was not a treaty at all as the same was not signed in the name of the President of India.
"It was a tripartite agreement between three leaders and void ab initio (illegal at the outset) and hence cannot be acted upon," the lawyer said.
The court said that it has perused the entire petition and does not wish to agree with it.
The Indus water agreement was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, the then Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories.
The apex court had last year refused to grant an urgent hearing on the PIL, saying there was no urgency in the matter while Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, to "keep politics aside".
Sharma, in his PIL, had referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.
However in the case of the 1960 Indus waters treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and "nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India", the plea had said.
"According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India...," it had said.
Sharma had said, "According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to national interest."
The treaty was "against the national interest and violated fundamental right of the citizen of India effecting their life and livelihood", it had said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday hear the petition calling for scrapping of the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan.
The plea has been filed by a Delhi-based lawyer M. L. Sharma, who has said that the treaty is unconstitutional.The treaty was signed on September 19, 1960 by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan President Ayub Khan.
It is one of the most liberal water-sharing pacts in the world.However, Sharma says the treaty is invalid as it was signed by Nehru and Khan, and that it should have been signed by the President of India.
The agreement covers six rivers - the three eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and their tributaries and the three western rivers of Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and their tributaries.
Water from the eastern rivers has been allocated to India, and New Delhi is obligated to let 80 percent water from the western rivers flow to Pakistan.The treaty gives the lower riparian Pakistan more `than four times` the water available to India.
Pune: Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad has opted to travel by Rajdhani Express to reach Delhi for attending Parliament Session rather than an Air India flight, a report said on Monday.
Jeetendra Shinde, a close aide of the MP, was quoted by The Times of India as saying: "It is confirmed that he took the Rajdhani Express to Delhi. He has already reached the country's capital and had called me to confirm it. The train leaves from Mumbai Central station in Mumbai and stops at Borivali too. I am not sure whether he boarded the train from Mumbai Central or Borivali. He will be staying in Delhi until the Parliament session is over. He might take some days more and then come back".
The Shiv Sena MP had no other option but to catch a train to come to Delhi for Parliamentary sessions due to an air travel ban imposed on him for assaulting a senior staff member of Air India. However, the ban was lifted after the intervention of the Ministry of Civil Aviation last week.
"At that time he already had a confirmed train ticket and hence he traveled by train. This time, there were four to five people traveling with him and hence he chose to take the train again. He isn't trying to avoid flying after whatever happened. Everything related to that incident is over and has been fixed. There is no point discussing it again and again," Shinde told TOI.
The Osmanabad MP was earlier supposed to take the Pune-New Delhi AI-852, which has now made a provision for business class travel on this particular service. Incidentally, on March 23, it was the same flight AI-852 which did not offer business class that day leading to a serious verbal and physical altercation with the airline staffers.
It culminated in the assault of a senior official, two police complaints lodged against him, blacklisting him, slapping a complete flying ban besides ruckus by Shiv Sena in Parliament and a face-off between the two ruling BJP-led NDA constituents.
Last week, after Gaikwad tendered a letter expressing 'regret' over the incident to Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapathi Raju, AI revoked the flying ban on Saturday, closely followed by Federation of Indian Airlines and other private airlines.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday sought the United Nations' intervention to secure the release of retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistan army court on alleged "espionage" charge.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led outfit, part of the ruling BJP-led coalition at the Centre, termed the development as sad, painful and agonising.
"The decision of Pakistani military court is sad, painful and agonising. The saddest part is that the Indian government could not secure Jadhav's release," Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande told PTI.
"It's time the government gives a tit-for-tat response to Pakistan. If India has such Pakistani prisoners, it can think about awarding a similar sentence to them as a befitting reply to the neighbouring nation," she added.
Kayande said the Centre should immediately use all means at its disposal to secure the release of 46-year-old former Navy officer.
"We hope the Centre would immediately seek the UN help for Jadhav's release," she said.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials allegedly in Balochistan which he entered from Iran.
He was sentenced to death by a military court in a secret trial for alleged "espionage and sabotage activities" and Pakistan's army chief today approved his execution.
The Indian government has maintained proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly."
New Delhi: In a scathing attack on Mohan Bhagwat following his remark that violence in the name of cow protection defames his organisation, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Monday said that the nation will decide which ideology to follow- Mahatma Gandhi's or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief's.
"The nation has to decide whether the nation wants to go on the vision shown by Mahatma Gandhi or by Mohan Bhagwat or Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The grand guru of Yogi Adityanath's monastery was accused of inflaming the mindsets of those youths who eventually attacked the Mahatma Gandhi," SP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari told ANI.
However, Bhagwat has condemned the violence by the cow protection groups, saying it "defames" the cause.His remarks at an event to observe the birth anniversary of Lord Mahavir came against the backdrop of the lynching of a Muslim man by cow vigilantes in Alwar in BJP-ruled Rajasthan that sparked protests from opposition parties and put the saffron party on the defensive.
"Nothing should be done while protecting cows that hurts the belief of some people. Nothing should be done that is violent. It only defames the efforts of cow protectors... The work of cow conservation should be carried out while obeying laws and the Constitution," Bhagwat added.
New Delhi [India]: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed Pakistan for spreading terror in South Asia, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart L.K. Advani expressed his desire to see improved ties between New Delhi and Islamabad, while lamenting that Karachi, where he was born was not a part of India anymore.
"There are also some other neighboring countries besides Bangladesh with which we want to improve relations. I will be happy if our relation with this neighboring nation improves. Sindh was once part of India and I was born there but after Independence we lost that part. I will always be unhappy about this," Advani said at India Foundation Awareness programme here.
Hinting indirectly at Pakistan, Advani further said that he wishes to build similar relations with `that country`, which India shares with Bangladesh.This is not the first time when the BJP patriarch has put forth such thought. Earlier he had said that India is `incomplete` without Pakistan`s Sindh."At times I feel sad that Karachi and Sindh are not parts of India anymore. I believe that India appears incomplete without Sindh," Advani had said in January.
Advani had to resign as BJP president after making controversial remarks about Jinnah during his visit to Pakistan in 2005."I personally have experienced what referring to Jinnah as a person who basically wanted a secular state with a Muslim majority....," Advani said leaving his statement incomplete, nevertheless giving a clear picture as to what his intentions were.Advani was also forced to quit after RSS and several leaders within the BJP openly slammed him and demanded his resignation.
Advani had first resigned as party president on June 7, 2005 following widespread criticism from the RSS and right wing outwits over his remarks praising Jinnah.
Less than seven months after he withdrew his resignation, Advani stepped down as party president on December 31, 2005 over the same issue, and on June 2013 Advani resigned again from top party posts over his statements on Jinnah.
London: The World Wide Web needs a complete rethink to prevent spying and the spread of "nasty, mean ideas" on social media websites, its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, said on Monday.
Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web as a platform on top of the internet in 1989, said his intention in building it had been for the public to "do good stuff" and share ideas among each other, as was the case with websites such as Wikipedia.
Instead, negative ideas were proliferating on social media sites in particular, he said, while privacy was also being compromised by online spying.
"We need to rethink the way we build society on top of these web pages," he told the Innovate Finance global fintech summit in London.
"How come nasty, mean ideas, seem to have travelled more prevalently than constructive ideas on Twitter sometimes? Is that the way it has been designed? Could Twitter be tweaked?"
Social media has become active in polarised political campaigns such as the U.S. presidential elections and Britain`s referendum on membership of the European Union last year.
There have also been instances of public figures being abused online, often by robots programmed to send out negative tweets.
The conclusion was that a "complete change of strategy" was needed. Facebook and Twitter were already rethinking approaches, he said.
Berners-Lee, who has previously criticised state-sponsored eavesdropping as well as censorship, said he had given humanity "an open internet to play with" in the hope that they would use it in a positive manner.
"We have tried to keep it open, we kept it royalty-free. We have kept it open in the sense of no censorship. On a good day, in a good country, we keep it free of spying."
There was a need to analyse the effects networks have on society, Berners-Lee said.
"We actually have to not leave people to make whatever social networks they like."
Last week he told the Guardian newspaper that U.S. President Trump administrations decision to allow internet service providers to sign away their customers` privacy and sell customers` browsing habits was "disgusting", after he won the prestigious Association for Computing Machinerys AM Turing award.
Despite the web being world-wide, with the possibility of school children from India, China and Syria interacting with each other, Berners-Lee said, people were broadly parochial, choosing to communicate with others like themselves.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday lavished praises on Yogi Adityanath for taking quick decisions for the people's welfare and asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take lessons from his Uttar Pradesh counterpart.
An editorial in Sena's mouthpiece' Saamana' said Adityanath proved all his critics wrong and was taking one decision after the other in all seriousness for the welfare of the people.
"He is striving in a commendable way to elevate his state from ruins and he is very serious in his work," it said.
The Sena especially patted Adityanath for deciding to write off loans of farmers, a demand which all parties in Maharashtra had raised.
"If a bit of this seriousness is imbibed by rulers of Maharashtra, they will surely be blessed. Yogi in his first cabinet meet announced a loan waiver for farmers but here the government has only said it would look into the Yogi model and appears to be waiting for debt-burdened farmers to commit suicide," the Sena said.
"Wearing the mask of seriousness without imbibing the qualities is of no use. Those who are in power here should borrow seriousness from Yogi Adityanath," it said.
Mumbai: Akshay Kumar, who had come up with an idea of an App for helping families of martyred central paramilitary forces, a few months back, realised his dream when the same was translated into reality on Sunday.
The App and website Bharat Ke Veer was launched Sunday by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Kumar, who was honoured with the National Film Award in the Best Actor category for his performance in Rustom, lauded the Government of India for making his dream come true and providing a platform for everyone to help the family of martyred soldiers financially.
"This website has been made exactly in two and a half months. About three months, this idea came in my mind, while watching a documentary film on terrorists, which showed how terror leaders financially support the families of the terrorist who carry out terror acts." Akshay said at the inauguration.
"Everybody wants to connect to people in uniform in their pain. It was a small dream and to fulfill this dream, our government really helped us. I want to thank everybody with my folded hands. My father was in Army and I am here as his son. Thank-you everyone," he added.
Akshay, who has been vocal about concerning issues in the recent part, took to Twitter Sunday to share his experience of being a part of an event of that stature.
He tweeted: Such an Honour to Garland the sacred soil of the Sardar Post on #ValourDay. Launching my dream, #BharatKeVeer as we speak!! Jai Hind (sic).
Such an Honour to Garland the sacred soil of the Sardar Post on #ValourDay. Launching my dream, #BharatKeVeer as we speak!! Jai Hind pic.twitter.com/JbJUoNbq5i Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) 9 April 2017
A heartfelt thank you to hon. @rajnathsingh,Shri. Rajiv Mehrishi and @paramiyer_ for making #BharatKeVeer possible (sic).
A heartfelt thank you to hon. @rajnathsingh,Shri. Rajiv Mehrishi and @paramiyer_ for making #BharatKeVeer possible pic.twitter.com/U0iOGicMp9 Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) 9 April 2017
A Day I Found Hard To Hold Back My Tears...Support the families of our Bravehearts #BharatKeVeer Now LIVE --> http://BharatKeVeer.Gov.in (sic).
A Day I Found Hard To Hold Back My Tears...Support the families of our Bravehearts #BharatKeVeer Now LIVE --> https://t.co/wCPFZOYV7g pic.twitter.com/8wKGcaRYdD Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) 9 April 2017
The portal is an IT based platform, with an objective to enable willing donors to contribute towards the family of brave-heart who sacrificed his/her life in line of duty.
The amount so donated will be credited to the account of `Next of Kin` of those Central Armed Police Force/Central Para Military Force soldiers. Actor Akshay Kumar was the Guest of Honour during the function.
(With ANI inputs)
New Delhi: Nearly four crore members of retirement fund body EPFO will soon be able to settle their claims like EPF withdrawal through mobile application UMANG.
"The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is developing online claims settlement process by receiving application online," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The minister also said, "The application will be integrated with Unified Mobile App for new-age governance, (UMANG) App, to receive the claims online. However, the timeframe to roll out the same has not been finalised."
The EPFO receives close to 1 crore applications manually for settlement of EPF withdrawals, pension fixation or getting group insurance benefit by the deceased.
A senior official said over 110 regional offices of the EPFO out of 123 field formations have already been connected with the central server. The official explained that it is a technical requirement for connecting all regional offices with the central server for rolling out the facility.
Earlier in February this year, EPFO Central Provident Fund Commissioner had said, "The process of connecting all field offices with a central server is going on. We may introduce the facility for online submission of all types of applications and claims like EPF withdrawal and pension settlement by May this year."
The EPFO has an ambitious plan to settle the claims within a few hours after filing of the application. For instance, it has plans to settle the EPF withdrawal claim within three hours of the filing.
As per the scheme, the EPFO is required to settle all claims within 20 days from filing of the application for settlement of pension or EPF withdrawal.
The minister also told the House that the EPFO has engaged the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, as its technical consultant to upgrade its technology and the body is installing latest equipment at its three central data centres in Delhi, Gurugram and Secunderabad.
An official spoke of the requirement of seeding Aadhaar and bank accounts with the Universal (PF) Account Number (UAN) for settling EPFO claim online.
In a separate reply to the House, the minister said that out of the 3.76 crore contributing members as on March 31, 2016, as many as 1.68 crore have linked their Aadhaar numbers with UAN.
The EPFO has already made it mandatory to provide bank account numbers with IFSC codes and Aadhaar of subscribers.
New Delhi: Realty portal Housing.Com today appointed Amit Masaldan as national sales head to expand its senior leadership team.
Housing.Com is a part of Elara Technologies Pte Ltd, which also owns PropTiger.Com and Makaan.Com.
"The new appointment comes in conjunction with the company's recent merger with PropTiger to become the largest and preferred full service online-to-offline (O2O) real estate platform in India," a company statement said.
Prior to joining Housing.Com, Amit worked with another realty portal MagicBricks.
UST Global expands workforce in Bengaluru to over 3,000 US-based leading digital technology services company UST Global today said it has expanded workforce in Bengaluru to over 3,000.
The Bengaluru facility continues to be the company's second biggest delivery centre globally. The company has more than 10,000 employees in India out of 17,000-plus globally.
Sudhansu Panigrahi, GM and Centre Head, Bengaluru, UST Global, said, "We are gaining significant traction in semiconductor, VLSI, cloud, AI, mobility and IOT, and are continuously adding talent to serve the growing demand from our customers.
"Bengaluru continues to be one of our focus cities and by the end of 2017, we plan to add 500 more employees in our Bengaluru centre," he said.
New Delhi: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, and his Expedition 50 crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, returned to Earth on Monday after spending 173 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
According to NASA, the trio, in their Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft, landed at southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 7:20 a.m. EDT.
Earth has 3 more people on it as @Astro_Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov & Andrey Borisenko land at 7:20am ET. Watch: https://t.co/KX5g7zfYQe pic.twitter.com/zIHBS2I0NS NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2017
Earlier, the US space agency tweeted that the trio had undocked from the space station at 3:57am ET.
NASA Television provided live coverage of space station's activities beginning at 12:15 a.m.
During their 171-day stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, together, the Expedition 50 crew members contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.
In total, the departing trio will have spent 173 days in space since their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan October 19 last year.
On Sunday, Apil 9, Kimbrough handed over the command of ISS to NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who remains on the station as commander of Expedition 51 along with Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency.
Below - Watch Expedition 50 crew hands over the space station to Expedition 51
New Delhi: Following the cancellation of the by-polls in Chennai`s R.K. Nagar constituency, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday demanded the dismissal of Edappadi K. Palaniswami-led Tamil Nadu Government and immediate action against the culprits.
"There was support of the police to the ruling faction of the AIADMK. They distributed the money with the aid of the police. The Chief Minister was also used to distribute the money. The DMK would have easily won these elections. This incumbent government should be dismissed," DMK leader T.K.S. Elangovan told ANI.
The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on Wednesday.
The Election Commission said that the by-elections shall be held by the poll panel in due course when the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors gets removed with the passage of time and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive to the holding of free and fair election.
"The Election Commission has taken the decision. They should have been much more vigilant earlier because a lot of money has already been distributed. It is very clear that the ruling party was involved in such things. It is a very big disgrace to the state of Tamil Nadu and immediate action should be taken on the minister because even the Chief Minister was also used to distribute money," said another DMK leader T. Siva.
The Election Commission`s decision came after Income Tax raids in Chennai found that money was distributed to the voters.
The by-elections in R.K. Nagar became necessary after the death of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who represented it for two terms.
Earlier on Friday, the Income Tax officials raided several premises belonging to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar and his relatives in Chennai and other districts in the wake of complaints that he was involved in cash distribution to the voters in the R.K. Nagar constituency ahead of the April 12 by-polls.
The Income Tax (IT) authorities have issued summons to Vijayabaskar to appear before them today in connection with the raid on his premises on Friday.
The IT department also conducted searches on the premises of actor and All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader R. Sarathkumar, former AIADMK legislator Chitlapakkam Rajendran and vice-chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University S. Geethalakshmi.
New Delhi: Political parties and their top leaders used "innovative ways" to bribe voters in the RK Nagar Assembly constituency in a bid to outwit authorities monitoring poll expenditure, an Election Commission probe has found.
Many complaints were received by the Commission about electors being possibly offered inducements. They included cash and gifts in innovative forms like tokens, prepaid phone recharge coupons, newspaper subscription, milk tokens, money transfer in no frill accounts in banks and even mobile wallet payment to mobile numbers.
The Commission, which cancelled the April 12 by-poll in RK Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu following evidence that money was used to influence voters, said in its order last night that some of the states have "particularly excelled in innovating more and more subtle ways to circumvent the statutory provisions enacted by Parliament to curb the menace of money power in elections".
In its elaborate 33-page order, the poll watchdog said it cannot help "expressing its anguish over the sordid state of affairs" as revealed in the reports of the election expenditure observers, monitors and Income Tax authorities.
The innovative ways which the political parties and their leaders at the top echelons have devised to bypass law enforcing authorities entrusted with keeping an eye on unauthorised and illegal expenses in election campaigns need to be dealt with a heavy hand, it observed.
"The top leaderships of the parties cannot feign ignorance about such illegal activities being indulged in by the candidates set by their parties, and also the managers appointed by their parties to oversee the election campaigns of their candidates.
It is high time that political parties exert their moral influence and legal authority to rein in erring candidates quickly "if democracy is to flourish and deepen its roots in our country", the order signed by the three commissioners said.
The order pointed out that an amount of Rs 18,80,700 was seized and 35 FIRs were registered until April 7 on the complaints of distribution of money, gift articles and violation of model code.
"Apart from cash, various items such as lamps, T-shirts, silver plates, mobile phones and sarees, which were used for distribution to workers, were also seized," it said.
The EC will come out with a fresh date for the by-poll which was necessitated following the demise of J Jayalalithaa.
Lucknow: The BJP on Monday termed SP leader Azam Khan's gesture of returning a cow gifted to him by a seer as a move to "maintain his relevance" in the current political scenario of Uttar Pradesh.
Khan had yesterday returned the black cow gifted to him by Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth Swami Adhokshjanand Maharaj in 2015, saying "any vigilante could kill the animal to defame" him.
"The gesture of Khan is completely uncalled for. His statement that any cow vigilante may kill it to defame him, only shows his narrow and parochial mindset," state party spokesperson Manish Shukla told PTI.
"By this he has hurt the sentiments of crores of people who rever cows," he said.
"Khan's antics are a last ditch effort from his side to maintain his relevance in the current political scenario of the state," he claimed.
Taking a jibe at the former state minister, Shukla said, "It is really surprising that Khan is having problems with a cow, whereas police had to intervene when his buffaloes went missing."
Khan in a letter to the Hindu seer had said, "Muslims were living in an atmosphere of insecurity... Any cow vigilante might harm or even kill the beautiful and beneficial animal to defame me and the Muslim community."
Swami Adhokshjanand Maharaj had in October, 2015 gifted a black cow to Khan after the latter had expressed his desire to have one in his dairy.
Khan also alleged that a "vicious propaganda has been launched against Muslims in the country and their condition was even worse than that of slaves".
The SP leader told the Shankaracharya that he accorded "best treatment" to the cow and the animal was being returned keeping in view its "safety and security".
Lucknow: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat called on his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath here on Monday - in the first meeting between the two BJP leaders.
The two Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Ministers were closeted for over 40 minutes, an official told IANS. The meeting went beyond the courtesy call and both discussed serious issues like the contentious division of properties that has been hanging fire for the past 17 years.
Both sides are hopeful that with the neighbouring states having BJP governments, the impasse will be resolved at the earliest.
On a two-day visit to the state capital, Rawat said he was very optimistic that the long-standing issues between the two states will be resolved soon.
The issues that are yet to be resolved between Uttar Pradesh and the hill state of Uttarakhand are related to the irrigation department, rural development department, Panchayati Raj and Industrial Development.
Uttar Pradesh is still retaining two guest houses, 36 irrigation canals, 214 hectare of land and 266 houses.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged for the replacement of EVMs with ballot paper, saying "old is always gold".
"EVMs can be tampered with, so let's go back to the old system," Mamata said here in an informal interaction with media.
The TMC is part of the 13-party delegation meeting the Election Commission to demand that upcoming polls be held with 50 per cent use of paper trail of EVM voting and ballot paper.
"If there is any doubt (on EVMs) then let's opt for ballot paper," the TMC supremo said.
Opposition parties are unitedly taking up with the EC the issue of alleged EVM tampering in the recently held elections.
She said in a democracy the EC cannot be immune to the demand of the majority of political parties.
"The EC has to abide by the democratic process...When so many political parties are raising it. The EC has to increase its staff strength for counting," she said.
Incidentally, the CPI(M) is also part of the joint delegation seeking EVM replacement.
Your Right to Know: Walkers order on records is welcome
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the release of funds over Rs 10,000 crore due to the state under various centrally sponsored schemes.
In nearly half an hour meeting, Banerjee, who has long been seeking loan waiver for her state, discussed West Bengal's debt situation but said that there was no talk on the Teesta river water sharing accord with Bangladesh.
"We discussed about the debt situation of the state and release of funds due to the state under various projects and schemes," Banerjee said after her meeting with Modi.
"Around Rs 10,459 crore is pending with the Centre, I apprised the Prime Minister about that and the problems arising out of that. I requested him to ensure that the funds are released. He said he will try to release the funds," she added.
London: Russia should end its support for "toxic" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy.
"It's time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up," Johnson said, according to a foreign ministry spokeswoman.
"We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," he said, warning that Putin was "damaging Russia" by supporting Assad.
"He must understand that Assad is now toxic in every sense. He is poisoning the innocent people of Syria with weapons that were banned 100 years ago -- and he is poisoning the reputation of Russia," he said.
Johnson on Saturday cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow over its support for the Syrian regime.
The move came after a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Seikhun last week in which at least 87 people were killed.
The United States launched a missile strike on a Syrian airfield on Friday in its first military action against Assad in retaliation for the attack.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven main industrialised countries are meeting in the Italian town of Lucca later on Monday before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flies to Moscow tomorrow.
"There's no doubt the US action is a game-changer in Syria. We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," Johnson said today.
Russia's foreign ministry earlier condemned Johnson's decision not to come to Moscow, saying it showed that Britain had "no real influence on the course of international affairs".
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the suspected gas incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations.
Poison gas was extensively used in the Western Front in the 1914-18 World War I from 1915.
It was outlawed internationally by the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which entered into force in 1928.
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday praised the normalisation of relations with Norway, six years after a dispute over the Nobel Peace Prize, as Norway's prime minister said she was glad to be back.
The visit by Erna Solberg is the first high-level exchange since December, when the two countries normalised ties that soured after the Oslo-based Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Peace Prize to the still-imprisoned Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo.
Solberg's visit, the first to China by a Norwegian prime minister for a decade, began Friday and will end Tuesday.
"Your visit this time holds a lot of significance," Xi told her at a meeting in the Great Hall of the People.
He noted that Norway had been one of the first Western countries to recognise the People's Republic of China, and one of the earliest to recognise its status as a market economy.
Solberg said she was "delighted to be back" in China and Norway's king was also happy to accept Xi's invitation to visit in the autumn of 2018.
On Friday she met Premier Li Keqiang, signing numerous cooperation documents including an agreement to resume negotiations on a free trade pact.
Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in 2009 to 11 years in jail for "subversion", after he co-wrote a text calling for democracy in China. His wife Liu Xia remains under house arrest.
Diplomatic relations and trade talks were frozen after Liu was given his Nobel. Norway's salmon industry suffered as exports to China were halted.
Exchanges only resumed last December after Norway pledged its commitment to the one-China policy and respect for China's territorial integrity.
The Western media often blamed China for "converting its economic power into strategic influence", but cooperating on economic goals was ultimately more beneficial than clashing over human rights issues, an editorial in the Global Times newspaper, which often takes a nationalistic tone, said Monday.
New York: Robert O'Neill, the former US Navy SEAL who claims to have killed Osama bin Laden, has revealed that the al Qaeda chief's head was so severely shattered by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification.
In The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Bin Laden, the former Navy SEAL Team 6 shooter reasserted his claim that he alone pumped three bullets into 9/11 attack mastermind.
Revealing the details of what happened on the May 1-2, 2011, night inside the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, O'Neill claims that Osama's head was so severely destroyed by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification photographs.
The New York Daily News reported that as per O'Neill's version, he was trailing five or six other SEALs climbing the stairs to the compound's second floor when Osama's son Khalid appeared on the half-landing with an AK-47.
The agents were able to lure Khalid from where he was hiding behind a banister by calling to him in Arabic, saying: 'Khalid, come here.'
He shouted in response: 'What?' and emerged from his hiding spot, and was immediately shot in the face, the report said.
Once upstairs, the men spread out to search the rooms. In the compound with Osama were three of his four wives and 17 children.
O'Neill kept his hand on the point man's shoulder. The two were alone on the stairway, convinced that whoever was on the third floor was strapping on a suicide vest for an explosive last stand.
O'Neill recounts that finally he decided to take action. He squeezed the point man's shoulder, the signal to charge and then burst past the curtain.
The point man tackled two screaming women to the floor.
Bin Laden stood near the bed, his hands on the shoulders of the woman in front of him. She was later identified as Amal, the youngest of his four wives, the report said.
"In less than a second, I aimed above the woman's right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice," O'Neill writes.
"Bin Laden's head split open, and he dropped. I put another bullet in his head. Insurance," he writes.
According to O'Neill, the other members of the team rushed into the room only after he placed a two-year-old boy found covering in a corner alongside Osama's widow on the bed.
A harrowing 90-minute flight returned the squadron to camp in Afghanistan.
O'Neill's book comes five years after "No Easy Day," fellow SEAL Mark Bissonnette's account of the operation.
He agreed to surrender the USD 6.8 million in proceeds from the book for his use of classified information and violation of a non-disclosure deal.
(With PTI inputs)
Islamabad: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has barred his party leaders from making any controversial statements about former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif amid his appointment as the head of a 41-nation Saudi-led military alliance of Muslim countries.
The former army chief's appointment had been criticised by some Pakistani politicians, retired army officers, journalists, intellectuals, who had questioned the decision of the retired general to join a foreign military alliance.
The prime minister found contradictory statements being made by senior leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
"Nawaz Sharif has prohibited PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retired) Raheel Sharif," Radio Pakistan quoted PM Sharif as saying.Nawaz Sharif has prohibited PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retired) Raheel Sharif," Radio Pakistan quoted PM Sharif as saying.
The prime minister said the entire nation hailed the former army chief for his "meritorious services".
Sharif's directions to leaders of his party came days after Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair called Gen Sharif "just another general" and said he should not be made "larger than life".
"Raheel Sharif was made larger than life and that's the reason that when he is allotted a piece of land, which he deserves, it raises eyebrows," Zubair said.
"He is a normal general like any other generals and it's his right to acquire the piece of land he was given. Let's be fair with him, let's not make him larger than life. This will only create more problems for him," he said.
Zubair was referring to the news that Gen Sharif has been awarded agricultural land for his services.
"His [Sharif's] job as chief of the Saudi-led alliance is also being seen as something extraordinary ? when it should be his prerogative as a normal person," the Sindh governor added.
Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said last month that General Sharif should not accept the controversial position.
Gen Sharif, who retired as Pakistan's army chief last November, is likely to assume command of the 41-nation anti-terrorism alliance, being dubbed the 'Muslim NATO', this month.
Warsaw: The top investigator of the deadly 2010 crash of a Polish presidential in Russia said Monday that a fresh analysis showed the aircraft broke up in mid-air before hitting the ground.
The claim comes on the day that Poles mark the seventh anniversary of the crash in Smolensk, western Russia, that claimed president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, mostly senior Polish statesmen.
Poland`s governing rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party, led by Kaczynski`s twin brother Jaroslaw, has long insisted it was no accident.
Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, who says that the crash was the result of a Polish-Russian conspiracy, last month accused former Polish premier and current EU President Donald Tusk of "diplomatic treason" over an earlier probe into the crash.
After winning power in 2015, the PiS launched a new investigation into the incident, which Polish and Russian investigators earlier attributed to human error and bad weather.
"The plane started to break up and lose parts in the air; they fell to the ground far from where the infamous birch tree was... The tree had no impact on the crash," Waclaw Berczynski, who heads a team of Polish investigators, told public broadcaster TVP Info Monday.
Berczynski said investigators based their new conclusion on an analysis of a conversation between the plane`s pilots and Russian air traffic controllers on the ground.
The previous investigation found the crash was in part triggered when the jet`s wing clipped a tree near the runway.
Polish prosecutors also said earlier this month that fragments of the plane were being sent to four labs abroad to check for traces of explosives.
Polish prosecutors said last week that based on a fresh analysis of the evidence, they would charge the controllers with having "deliberately causing a catastrophe", a theory the Kremlin immediately denied.
Polish prosecutors had already pressed charges against the two Russian air controllers in 2015: one for "being directly responsible for having endangered air traffic" and the other for "unintentionally causing an air traffic disaster".
Polish justice officials have also been exhuming the remains of the victims to establish the cause of death.
Warsaw has repeatedly asked Moscow to return the wreckage of the plane, but Russia says it will only do so once its own inquiry is over.
The crash occurred as the presidential delegation was heading to a ceremony in Russia`s Katyn forest for thousands of Polish army officers killed by Soviet secret police in 1940 -- a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990.
Moscow/Tehran: Russia and Iran have issued a direct warning to US President Donald Trump, saying his missile strike on a Syrian airbase crossed "red lines" and they would respond to any new aggression and increase support for their ally.
A joint command centre consisting of the forces of Russia, Iran and other allies supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in a statement on Sunday, described the April 7 attack on Shayrat airfield in Syria's Homs province as "a dangerous act of aggression".
The US targeted the airbase last week with nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles, killing six Syrian soldiers and nine civilians, including four children, and destroying nine warplanes, according to Syria's official news agency SANA.
However, the US government said the attack on the airbase was in retaliation for the April 4 strikes by the Syrian air force on the town of Khan Sheikhoun. At least 80 people were killed in the attack, according to reports.
The statement by the group, published on media outlet Ilam al Harbi (War Media) said: "What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well."
It added that the allies of the Syrian government will increase their support to the Syrian army following the US missile strike and called the US military presence in northern Syria as "illegal" and referred to the forces as an "occupation".
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, said the Russians "have played now for some time the role of providing cover for Bashar Assad's behaviour".
"Russia's failures to rid Syria of weapons stockpiles has led to the killing of more children and innocents," he told CBS News.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani said American military intervention in Syria was a "violation of international law" in telephone talks, said the Kremlin on Sunday.
Rouhani also called for an investigation of the suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria last week, and he warned that the US strikes in response risked escalating extremism in the region.
Syria's Foreign Ministry condemned the US strike as "a flagrant aggression" against the country and said Washington's real objective was to "weaken the strength of the Syrian army in confronting terrorist groups."
Madrid: A Russian computer programmer, Pyotr Levashov, has been arrested in the Spanish city of Barcelona, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Madrid said on Sunday.
It was unclear why Levashov was arrested. The embassy spokesman declined to give details for his arrest, and Spanish police and the interior ministry were not available for comment on Sunday.
Russian television station RT reported that Levashov was arrested under a U.S. international arrest warrant and was suspected of being involved in hacking attacks linked to alleged interference in last year`s U.S. election.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Departments criminal division, said: "The U.S. case remains under seal, so we have no information to provide at this time."
The criminal division is separate from the national security division, which is responsible for investigating state-sponsored cyber crimes.
A U.S. Department of Justice official said it was a criminal matter without an apparent national security connection.
Spanish authorities notified the Russian embassy of Levashov`s arrest on Friday, the embassy spokesman said.
In January, Spanish police arrested another Russian computer programmer, whose name was given as "Lisov" and who was wanted by the United States for leading a financial fraud network.
The U.S. government has formally accused Russia of hacking Democratic Party emails to help the campaign of Republican President Donald Trump. The U.S. Congress is also examining links between Russia and Trump during the election campaign.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied that Russia tried to influence the election.
Madrid: A Russian computer expert was remanded in custody in Spain on Monday on suspicion of involvement in alleged hacking of the US presidential election campaign, a legal source said.
Piotr Levachov, who was arrested on Friday, has been singled out by the United States for extradition in a request which is due to be examined by Spain`s national criminal court, the source said.
Madrid: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will host a summit here on Monday with the leaders of six other southern European nations.
The meeting is to focus on the future of the European Union (EU) in light of Britain's decision to leave the bloc, as well as the future negotiations that would allow this to happen, Efe news reported.
Those set to attend Monday's meeting include the Presidents of France, Francois Hollande; Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades; and the Prime Ministers of Greece, Alexis Tsipras; Italy, Paolo Gentiloni; Portugal, Antonio Costa; and Malta, Joseph Muscat.
The gathering would be the third of its kind among southern European nations, the last ones taking place in Athens in September 2016 and in Lisbon at the end of January.
With UK Prime Minister Theresa May now having formally notified the EU of her country's wish to leave the bloc, Brexit is expected to feature on the agenda for the talks in Madrid.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is scheduled to make an initial statement to the other leaders, at the invitation of Rajoy.
Spanish government sources told Efe news that Madrid hoped a common position would be ratified among the seven southern European countries that could be shared by the other remaining 20 members of the EU.
New York: A former NATO commander described as "souring" the relations between US President Donald Trump's administration and Russia amid a series of foreign policy collisions between the two countries, the media reportd.
"That relationship between the Trump administration and Russia is gradually going downhill, because I think the senior members of the Trump administration are beginning to realise that Russia is not a force for good in the world," retired Admiral James Stavridis told a radio station here on Sunday.
"I think reality is setting in about how difficult a partner (Russian President) Vladimir Putin will be, and I think events in Syria have underlined that for the administration," he added.
Stavridis's comments came days after the US launched a missile strike on a Syrian military air base on April 6, The Hill magazine reported.
The attack was in response to a chemical weapons strike in northern Syria on April 4 allegedly carried out by the regime of President Bashar Assad. The attack killed over 80 civilians including children.
While the US retaliation was largely hailed by world leaders, it drew a bitter response from Russia, a staunch backer of the Assad regime. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin called the strike an "aggression" and said the U.S. had violated international law.
The attack led the Kremlin to suspend an agreement between the two countries meant to lower the risk of in-flight collisions of US and Russian aircraft in the region.
On the campaign trail, Trump spoke fondly of Putin and expressed a willingness to increase cooperation between the US and Russia, the magazine added.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional investigators are currently conducting separate probes into Russian meddling in the US presidential election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Stockholm: An Uzbek man suspected of ramming a truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing four people, had expressed sympathy for Islamic State and was wanted for failing to comply with a deportation order, Swedish police said on Sunday.
Two sources who had worked with the suspect, Rakhmat Akilov, independently identified him to Reuters from images distributed by police as the manhunt got underway on Friday.
Two police spokespersons declined to confirm his identity as did the suspect`s court-appointed lawyer.
Thousands gathered in the spring sunshine near the site of Friday`s attack to show support for those killed or injured when a hijacked beer delivery truck hurtled down a busy shopping street before crashing into a store and catching fire. The Uzbek man was arrested several hours later.
"The suspect had expressed sympathy for extremist organisations, among them IS," Jonas Hysing, chief of national police operations, told a news conference, using an acronym for the ultra-hardline militant group.
Two of those killed were Swedes, one was a British citizen and the other from Belgium, Hysing said of the attack, which echoes the earlier use of vehicles as deadly weapons in Nice, Berlin and London. Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State, but there has been no such claim yet for the Stockholm assault.
The suspect, aged 39 and from the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, applied for permanent residence in Sweden in 2014. However, his bid was rejected and he was wanted for disregarding a deportation order, Hysing said.
Security Police spokesman Simon Bynert said the suspect had been involved in an asylum process in Sweden, but that the security police had not been part of it.
Police had been looking for him since Sweden`s Migration Agency in December gave him four weeks to leave, but security services had not viewed him as a militant threat.
Sweden`s prosecution authority said a second person had been arrested on suspicion of having committed a terrorist offence through murder, but police said they were more convinced than ever that the Uzbek man was the driver of the truck.
Another five people were being held for questioning after raids and police said they had conducted about 500 interviews.
Police across the Nordic region went on heightened alert after the attack and in neighbouring Norway police set off a controlled explosion of a "bomb-like device" in central Oslo on Sunday and took a suspect into custody.
FLOWERS AND DEFIANCE
Although nine of the 15 people injured remained in hospital, two in intensive care, Stockholm began to return to normal on Sunday with the removal of police barricades along the Drottninggatan street where the attack took place.
Hundreds of flower bouquets covered steps leading down to the square next to where the truck ploughed into the Ahlens department store, with more piled up under boarded-up windows.
Only yards from the scene, thousands of people gathered in the Sergels Torg square in a show of unity as heavily armed police stood guard and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
"I want to show I`m not afraid to go out," Eva Udd, a 55-year-old nurse who had joined the demonstration with a friend, said. "I usually never go to things like this, but this just felt so very important."
Husam Kranda, a Libyan living in Sweden for the past five years and now working as translator, was among the multi-ethnic gathering which underlined Stockholm`s cosmopolitan inhabitants.
"We believe it`s our duty to come here and show our support for the Swedish society," he said.
"I know it`s a difficult time, there is a lot going on within Swedish society and internationally. But today is not about that, it`s about showing support for our neighbours and our beloved ones."
He was joined by his wife from Uzbekistan, Irana Mamedova.
"I really feel ashamed [of] that man, because this country give him everything, this country give him peace," she said of the Uzbek suspect. "He is a monster."
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, addressing a Social Democratic party conference in the western city of Gothenburg, said Sweden would never be broken by acts of terror.
"We will hunt down these murderers with the full power of Sweden`s democracy. There will be no compromises," he said.
Sweden, a nation of 10 million inhabitants, has long taken pride in its tolerant liberal society and been among the world`s most welcoming nations to immigrants.
But some Swedes are having second thoughts after more than 160,000 people, many from Syria, applied for asylum in 2015.
The Ahlens store cancelled a planned half-price sale of smoke-damaged goods and apologised after a storm of protest on social media that this would be disrespectful to the victims.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. 339.2 tons of goods in humanitarian aid was imported to Armenia in January-February, 2017, with a total value of 2 billion 456.6 million AMD or 5 million 53.1 thousand USD, reports Armenpress.
According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, 25.7% of the delivered aid were vehicles, devices, mechanisms, 20.3% were chemical products and product of industrial branches related with it, 18% were devices, 17.3% were textile goods, 5.9% various industrial products, 3.7% finished food products, and 9.1% were the remaining products.
China is leading in terms of humanitarian aid volume provided to Armenia in the period of January-February 2017, with a total volume of 1 million 997.1 thousand USD. Chinas share in the total volume of humanitarian aid sent to Armenia comprises 39.5%. It increased by 6 times compared to January-February 2016. In the period of January-February 2016 China sent a humanitarian aid of 335.6 thousand USD to Armenia.
US share is 16.4%. It provided Armenia 828.4 thousand USD aid which is an increase of 94.3%. Last year in January-February the aid volume comprised 426.3 thousand USD.
According to official statistics, the volume of humanitarian aid sent from Germany comprised 576.6 thousand USD, whereas in the previous year 11.9 thousand USD humanitarian aid was sent to Armenia. This year Germanys share is 11.4%.
The amount of aid sent from India also increased by 15.3 times, comprising 386.3 thousand USD. Frances humanitarian aid increased by 4.9 times, with a total of 256.8 thousand USD.
China, US and Germany are leading in terms of humanitarian aid volumes provided to Armenia.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The trials on the murder of Hrant Dink, founder of the Agos newspaper based in Istanbul, resume April 10 in the Istanbul Court.
Prior to the trials start, the murdered reporters friends gathered outside the Court and demanded justice.
We are here for justice in the Dink murder trials. Once again we say that we are here to follow the process of the trial and expect justice. This trial lasts for 10 years, we are waiting for 10 years for the real responsible of the murder to be punished, however there are still people who havent faced the trial, the gathered demonstrators said.
They were chanting We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians, Those who gave the order to kill must be punished, For Hrant, for justice.
Turkish lawmaker of Armenian descent Garo Paylan was also present outside the Court.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The Speaker of the Nation al Assembly of Armenia Galust Sahakyan sent his condolences to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ali Abdel Aal Sayyed Ahmed. As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the parliament of Armenia, the condolence message particularly reads:
Your Excellency,
We learnt with pain and wrath about the terrorist acts committed in Mar Gerges and Saint Mark of Alexandria churches, where fell victims numerous innocent people.
Terrorism has no excuse, what motivation or manifestation it has. We always condemned and condemn that anti-human phenomenon.
Your Excellency, at this hard moment, on behalf of the National Assembly of Armenia and personally me, let me express my deepest condolences, comforting words and fraternal support to you, the members of the parliament and the victims relatives with the conviction that the organizers and executors of that heinous act will get their worthy punishment.
A gang of 15 to 20 teens and young people attacked a North Side residence with rocks, bats and sticks late Sunday night, in what police call a targeted effort to get at people inside.
Multiple police officers were sent twice to the residence in the 1500 block of Wright Street, with extra patrols assigned to the area after the disturbances, Madison police said.
"Initial reports say this group brought bats, sticks and rocks to a residence occupied by a targeted individual or individuals," said Lt. Timothy Radke. "They broke multiple windows at that residence while looking for a fight."
One person in the gang reportedly pepper sprayed another person, but there were no official reports of injuries.
No one was reported as being arrested or ticketed in the disturbances.
Email exchanges between Shell management cited in the Global Witness report and seen by AFP suggest that Shell was aware that the OPL245 money was likely going to be funnelled to individuals, including Etete and then-President Goodluck Jonathan
Corruption watchdogs alleged Monday that Shell executives knew that money earmarked for a controversial oil deal was being used to bribe senior Nigerian officials, a claim rebuffed by the petroleum giant.
The allegations by Global Witness and Finance Uncovered refer to the 2011 purchase by oil giants Shell and Eni of OPL245, an offshore oil block estimated to hold 9 billion barrels of crude, for $1.3 billion.
The deal saw the Nigerian government act as an intermediary between the oil majors and Malabu Oil and Gas, a Nigerian company allegedly controlled by former petroleum minister Dan Etete.
Allegations of corruption and bribery have mounted in the years since the deal was signed, forcing Shell and Eni to repeatedly maintain that they acquired the rights to the lucrative block in line with Nigerian law.
But email exchanges between Shell management cited in the Global Witness report and seen by AFP suggest that Shell was aware that the OPL245 money was likely going to be funnelled to individuals, including Etete and then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
"Shell executives knew the money would go to Malabu and Etete, and was then likely to flow to some of the most powerful people in the country," the Global Witness report said.
"Senior Shell officials were also briefed that funds could flow on to then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
- 'No basis to prosecute' -
"The leaked emails come as Shell and Eni are facing intense scrutiny in connection with the deal.
They are charged with corruption in Nigeria and are being investigated by Italian prosecutors in connection with the deal.
"Etete can smell the money," said one Shell executive in a 2010 email published in the Global Witness report. "I think he knows it's his for the taking."
In another email, a Shell advisor said "the president (Jonathan) is motivated to see 245 closed quickly driven by expectations about the proceeds that Malabu will receive and political contributions that will flow as a consequences".
Story continues
Nigeria's anti-graft agency filed corruption charges against Shell and Eni in March, accusing 11 defendants, including Etete, of "official corruption" in connection with the oil block deal.
Jonathan has denied receiving kickbacks, saying in January that he has not been "accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting monies" linked to the deal.
A Shell spokesperson told AFP the company believes there are no grounds for prosecution but said it was "fully co-operating" with the relevant authorities.
"We are not aware of any evidence to support a case against any former or current Shell employee," the spokesperson said, adding that if any improper payments were made "none of those payments were made with its knowledge, authorisation or on its behalf."
"Shell attaches the greatest importance to business integrity. It?s one of our core values," the spokesperson concluded.
- Years of legal wrangling -
Eni Claudio Descalzi told the Financial Times in February that his company "did not do anything wrong".
"At every stage, we have acted in compliance with all applicable law?.?.?.?Eni and Shell paid the government of Nigeria, and were not involved with the government decision on how to use such money."
The OPL245 oil block has been a source of contention for almost two decades.
In 1998, the block was awarded by then-petroleum minister Dan Etete to Malabu Oil and Gas.
Years of legal wrangling between Malabu, the Nigerian government and Shell ensued, with Shell ultimately winning rights to the block in a partnership with Eni.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to fight corruption in Nigeria's oil sector.
He campaigned on a platform to target rampant graft and has said "mind-boggling" sums have been stolen from the public purse.
His government has arrested a series of high-ranking officials from Jonathan's administration on corruption charges but few have been convicted.
Fever is one of the first products available in XR Brands new Heat collection of self-heating pleasure products. The wand-style vibrator has a flexible head to reach all the right spots, and boasts seven modes of pulsation patterns and three speeds. The pink silicone coating has decorative swirls and curlicues on the shaft and handle, and it carries the powerful vibrations throughout. The massager head heats up to 95 degrees F (35 degrees C) in as little as 5 minutes. Fever is not compatible with silicone lubricant, but it is waterproof.
Website: XRBrands.com
Dimensions: 7.75 inches long by 1.6 inches wide
Power: USB rechargeable
MSRP: $$
The assets of the Wigan-based manufacturer Rivington Biscuits are now for sale, after the company went into administration in December.
Ninety-nine Rivington employees were made redundant in December when the company went into administration, and its assets are now up for sale.
Since 1996, Rivington has produced more than 30 different biscuit lines, including pink wafers.
Its four key products were Montana Triple Chocolate Wafer a triple-layered chocolate wafer; Trophy Milk Chocolate Wafer a multi-layered milk chocolate wafer; Countdown Breakfast Biscuits Milk & Cereals a baked vanilla and milky-flavoured breakfast biscuit; and No Wheat Gluten-Free Chocolate & Orange Wafer a gluten-free multi-layered chocolate orange cream wafer.
The companys products were stocked in locations including supermarkets and discount stores.
In a statement, the company said: Rivington Biscuits had focused on seeking out cost efficiencies in their systems to provide high-quality products at low prices to remain competitive within the market.
Collectively, the company sold more than 4.1 million units to customers.
Metis Partners, which has been appointed as an agent to sell the intellectual property (IP) assets of Rivington, said: This opportunity is especially relevant to parties operating in food and beverage manufacturing and confectionery manufacturing, looking to expand their product portfolio, as well as household product manufacturers aiming to diversify into the food and beverages market.
The joint administrators Russell Cash and Ben Woolrych of FRP Advisory LLP have set a deadline for offers of Tuesday 25 April 2017 at midday. Metis said: All interested parties should ensure that their best offer is received by this deadline. Interested parties that do not submit an offer will no longer remain included in this marketing exercise. Following the deadline, the joint administrators reserve the right to request a further round of offers to be submitted above a minimum offer level.
The winner of the category will be named Tiptree Patisserie Trainee Baker 2017.
If you are an apprentice baker or studying to become a baker, the new Apprentice category, sponsored by Tiptree Patisserie, offers the chance to prove yourself.
We are really delighted to support this category, said Daren McGrath, managing director of Tiptree Patisserie. McGrath conceived the idea after a days judging at the 2016 Awards.
He added: At Tiptree Patisserie, we take the training of young people very seriously and I feel its really important the Tiptree World Bread Awards have a dedicated category to recognise the hard work and talent of that sector, which sits between young enthusiasts and professional bakers.
Entrants should apply through the Tiptree website.
The amazing advocacy of the DRM-PT movement has resulted in the country's Parliament passing a bill that legalizes breaking DRM to accomplish lawful ends, such as exercising the private copying right, or making uses of public domain works or works produced at public expense.
The bill still has to be signed by the president to enter law.
This is a most welcome development! I've read the bill and commentary and one thing I can't quite figure out is whether the bill authorizes uses alone, or if it also encompasses the tools to make those uses. Many DRM rules including those implemented under Article 6 of the EUCD (like the Portuguese law), and the rules defined under Section 1201 of the US DMCA create some exemptions for "legitimate uses," but they do not authorize the creation of tools to accomplish these uses.
A good example is Norway's DRM law, which grants an exemption for blind people who want run ebooks through screen readers or Braille embossers. However, it does not authorize anyone to make, distribute, or assist in the creation of a tool to do this. When I debated the minister who drafted this legislation in Oslo more than a decade ago, he admitted that the way the law was supposed to work was that each blind person would become a software developer, and would each, individually, discover flaws in ebook DRM, exploit those flaws to extract ebooks they'd purchased, and then run them through their assistive tools. They could not share the flaws they discovered, nor the tools they made, nor the books they'd unlocked. Any blind person who was not also a programmer with advanced reverse-engineering skills would not be able to take advantage of this.
In the USA, temporary exemptions are granted every three years at the Copyright Office's 1201 exemption process. These exemptions are also strictly "use" exemptions, not "tools" exemptions. So you are legally allowed to jailbreak your mobile devices thanks to the latest exemption but you are expected to do so without outside assistance (including any outside instructions or HOWTO files). Under the DMCA, you are expected to discover an error in the Ios operating system, develop a tool that exploits that error, and jailbreak your own Iphone, and you are bound under both criminal and civil liability never to reveal to anyone how you did this.
I can't tell whether the Portuguese bill is a use exemption or a tools exemption. Some Europeans have mooted the possibility of tying use exemptions to court orders for non-DRM versions of a work; in other words, rather than making their own DRM-breaking tool, a blind person would be able to hire lawyers to sue publishers to give them non-DRM-locked ebooks they could use with their assistive technology. This is an improvement, but it's still obviously inadequate: expensive, cumbersome, and unduly burdensome to people who want to exercise their rights under law.
I suspect the Portuguese proposal is drafted to comply with Article 6 of the EUCD, and will thus only permit uses, and not tools though perhaps with some process to require DRM-free versions to accomplish those uses (and maybe with a nuclear option of being able to develop and traffic in tools if the DRM vendor doesn't comply). But in an ideal world, Portugal which is struggling under austerity would use this law to give itself the right to develop tools to unlock DRM for lawful purposes, and export them, both to the EU (though they'd face enforcement action from the EU if they did) and to the rest of the world.
If GM can get $75,000 out of every mechanic in exchange for the tool that unlocks the DRM from its engine-telemetry, Portuguese companies could make a $100 version of this tool (an app you run on a phone or laptop) and sell it to mechanics in every country in the world, offering support and service through ongoing contracts. This tool would be virtually impossible for other countries to interdict, and it would allow small, local, independent repair shops to offer better service at lower prices in communities wherever GM cars are driven.
DRM has metastasized into every corner of our world; it's even coming to the web. Portugal could set itself up for billions in policy arbitrage at the stroke of a pen, selling products that virtually no other country on earth could compete with, and which every country demands. From alternative app stores to alternative tractor firmware, Portugal would be a powerhouse, during the planet's DRM dollars into DRM-breaking dimes for its own treasury, while saving the world's technology users billions and enabling local repair, service, parts, consumables and app markets.
In a boost to educators, citizens will be given the right to circumvent DRM for teaching and scientific research purposes. There will also be an exception for private copying. The draft also outlaws the use of DRM on copyright works that have fallen into the public domain, works which support cultural heritage, and works that were created by public entities or funded with public money. The move is being welcomed by ANSOL and the Free Teaching Association, which thanked the politicians who supported the bill, noting that their work will "ensure that citizens can finally exercise their fundamental rights in respect of DRM-protected works."
Portugal Passes Bill to Restrict Use of DRM, Grant Circumvention Right [Andy/Torrentfreak]
(Image: Librarians Against DRM)
prem_watsa-16-9
There is one investor in the world we should thank for more wealth creation than anyone else. His name is Benjamin Graham. He wrote an incredible book called The Intelligent Investor and is considered the father of value investing. Because of Graham?s teachings, we have investors like Warren Buffett, who?s often considered the greatest investor in the world. But he?s not the only one who has learned from Graham?s lessons.
Prem Watsa is often called Canada?s Warren Buffett. If we look at his business, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (TSX:FFH), it?s easy to understand where that comparison comes from.
Buffett is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B), which has been able to achieve such massive scale that it has gobbled up entire companies; it?s spent tens of billions on railroads and manufacturers. Although Watsa has not achieved quite as much growth as Buffett, the strategy is exactly the same for both companies, and it?s all grounded on insurance.
Insurance companies sell policies to individuals or companies, offering to cover some incident. In exchange, the insurance company receives a premium on a monthly or yearly basis. There are a few ways to make a profit with that money.
The first is to simply take in more premiums than what is paid out to insured entities. When analyzing insurance companies, look for a combined ratio below 100%. This is its incurred losses and expenses divided by the earned premium. And if we look at Fairfax?s, it has done a great job at this. Its consolidated combined ratio (all of its subsidiaries) was 92.5%. Subsidiaries such as Crum & Forster, a property and casualty insurance company, came in at 98.2%, while Zenith, a workers? compensation insurance business, came in at 79.7%.
The other way to make money in the insurance business is to take the premiums and reinvest them. Unfortunately, these numbers have been weak because Watsa has had a hedge strategy in place for the past five years. Essentially, he was waiting for the stock market to tank, which would result in his shorts making a lot of money. But once Trump won office, he realized that this was an unrealistic scenario, so he closed his shorts.
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Ultimately, 2016 wasn?t a good for Fairfax Financial. It had a US$1.2 billion net loss in its investments, which pulled the company into the red with a total loss of US$512 million across its entire holding company. Nevertheless, this is only the fourth time in 31 years the company has reported a loss. In 1985, when Watsa took over, its book value per share had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.4%, but the stock price has experienced a 18.6% CAGR.
For those that are considering buying Fairfax, the reality is clear to me. Every investor makes mistakes sometimes, and Watsa, unfortunately, tried to time the market with a speculative short. However, through a series of acquisitions, the company is only getting more powerful and increasing its yearly premiums. So long as the combined ratios remain below 100%, Fairfax will have the funds to invest, thus increasing book value even more. And since it has lost 19% since the beginning of October, shares are much cheaper.
Invest in Canada?s Warren Buffett and buy Fairfax Financial.
36-Year Old CEO Bets Over $300 Million on 1 Stock
Iain Butler, Lead Adviser of Stock Advisor Canada, recommended this little tech darling to thousands of loyal members last March... and those that followed his advice are up 127.7% (they've already made 2X their money!).
Not to mention this tiny Eastern Ontario company has already been recommended by both Motley Fool co-founders, David and Tom Gardner, because of its amazing similarity to an "early stage" Amazon.
Find out why Tom Gardner was recently on BNN's Money Talk raving about this company, and how you can read all about it inside Stock Advisor Canada. Click here to unlock all the details about his Canadian rule breaker!
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Fool contributor Jacob Donnelly has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). Fairfax Financial is a recommendation of Stock Advisor Canada.
36-Year Old CEO Bets Over $300 Million on 1 Stock
Iain Butler, Lead Adviser of Stock Advisor Canada, recommended this little tech darling to thousands of loyal members last March... and those that followed his advice are up 127.7% (they've already made 2X their money!).
Not to mention this tiny Eastern Ontario company has already been recommended by both Motley Fool co-founders, David and Tom Gardner, because of its amazing similarity to an "early stage" Amazon.
Find out why Tom Gardner was recently on BNN's Money Talk raving about this company, and how you can read all about it inside Stock Advisor Canada. Click here to unlock all the details about his Canadian rule breaker!
Fool contributor Jacob Donnelly has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). Fairfax Financial is a recommendation of Stock Advisor Canada.
Father John Boutros's family could see the explosion in their rearview mirror as they drove home from Palm Sunday service at Saint Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt.
It was the second of two bombings that ripped through Egypt as worshippers marked the day Christians believe Jesus entered Jerusalem, leaving at least 44 dead and injuring another 100 others, according to officials. The first hit Saint George church in the city of Tanta in the Holy Week leading up to Easter and ahead of a visit by Pope Francis.
A world away at the St. Moses and St. Katherine Coptic Church in Toronto, news of the attack for which ISIS claimed responsibility was trickling in, with worshippers frantically trying to find out of any of their family or friends were affected.
"Everyone was asking everyone else, 'Do you know anybody that was affected by the bombings? Do you have any family that was affected by the blasts?'" Boutros said.
'This is personal'
It's a reality all too familiar for the community. In December a bombing at at Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral claimed 25 lives. In that bombing, a widowed mother who was friends with Boutros's family lost almost all of her immediate family, including two young women.
"This is not just news for us," Boutros said, recalling the tragedy. "This is personal."
Those young women were the cousins of the wife of Dr. Sherif Emil, a member of Montreal's Coptic community.
For Emil, news of Sunday's attack, while tragic, was no shock.
"It's no surprise that this happened today to intimidate people from both participating and exercising their faith and shedding gloom on what's the happiest day of the year for millions of people there," Emil said.
Boutros, who was born in Egypt and has lived most of his life in Canada, says the tragedy brings a troubling start to Holy Week.
The attack's timing, ahead of what Christians hold to be the final week of Jesus's life and ministry, is something Boutros says is especially poignant.
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The Palm Sunday service, he said, traditionally ends with a funeral prayer something that took on new meaning on a day when so many were killed while worshipping.
"It's joy interspersed with sadness, knowing that these people were being true to their faith and they're in a better place. We believe that they are in the kingdom of heaven with God, in paradise."
'God can make something good out of anything'
In Toronto, Boutros said, worshippers who would normally write their prayers on pieces of paper to send up to the altar, were mentioning the terror attacks not only in Egypt, but also in Syria, Somalia and elsewhere in the world.
"In a certain sense, there is some good that comes out of this," Boutros said. "God can make something good out of anything in a certain way it couldn't have happened at a worse time and it couldn't have happened at a better time."
That feeling was echoed in the official statement from the patriarch in Egypt, which bid a farewell to what it called "martyrs," celebrating the life of Jesus believed to have promised "love and peace to all human beings."
"But now, with all the Church, they are offering their prayers to the Just Judge who sees, hears and writes a book of remembrance," the statement said.
At Boutros's church, in Toronto's Bloor and Bathurst streets area, the usual white vestments have been put away. Black flags of mourning will be hung in place of the white ones normally used to declare Jesus's resurrection.
"All of our churches have reverted to solemn tunes and all of our festive apparel that we use for Palm Sunday has been put away and will only come back out again for Easter time," he said.
"If I wear any vestments at all, I'll wear black or deep dark blue ones."
'Send peace into their hearts'
And for other Christians marking Palm Sunday in Toronto, Egypt was on the minds of many.
"It's very sad," said Alisha Arif at an event at Queen's Park. "They should have the right to praise the Lord. Everyone should have their own freedom."
In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Sunday's attacks, calling on the international community to "stand united in our efforts to stop those responsible and to fight against hate by embracing values of diversity, inclusion and peace."
Pastor Praskah Masih, who was also at Queen's Park, shared the sentiment of the attack's timing.
"It happened on a very special day," he said, adding that the message to those behind the attacks is precisely the one Jesus is believed to have brought.
"It is the same as was from the cross, because Jesus said to those who persecuted him and crucified him, 'Father, forgive them because they know not what they are doing,' so that's the same message we want to say to them 'Send peace into their hearts.'"
UW-Madison has launched the STEM Diversity Network, a website collecting resources on science, technology, engineering and math to boost recruitment, retention and success of people of diverse backgrounds working and studying in those fields.
"The goal is to create a campus community around STEM and compile campus resources available to underrepresented students, faculty and staff in a one-stop shop place," said Ahna Skop, an associate professor of genetics who established the site during her role as chair of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences' equity and diversity committee.
The website, stemdiversity.wisc.edu, is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, including support for two undergraduate interns, Kemi Olukoga of Minneapolis and Kaitlin Morse of Mount Horeb, who worked with Skop to design and build the website. They wrote tips on finding research opportunities and summer programs and original articles based on their own experiences navigating STEM fields. The network recently received additional funding from the Office of the Provost.
The site emphasizes mentoring and curates a list of advocates and mentors who are trained to provide guidance on professional development for students, staff and faculty from diverse backgrounds. The resources are available for all university members, especially faculty and advisers who are looking for ways to connect students with a mentor, event or summer program.
By Ju-min Park and Nobuhiro Kubo SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - China and South Korea agreed on Monday to slap tougher sanctions on North Korea if it carries out nuclear or long-range missile tests, a senior official in Seoul said, as a U.S. Navy strike group headed to the region in a show of force. North Korea marks several major anniversaries this month and often marks the occasions with major tests of military hardware. The possibility of U.S. military action against North Korea in response to such tests gained traction following last week's strikes against Syria. Previously, Washington has leaned toward sanctions and pressure to deter North Korea, but comments from U.S. President Donald Trump's top aides at the weekend suggest that position may be hardening. However, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Kim Hong-kyun said there was no mention of any military option in his talks with China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Wu Dawei. The two also did not discuss any possible strike against the North by the Trump administration, he said. "Both sides agreed that despite the international communitys warnings, if North Korea makes strategic provocations such as a nuclear test or an ICBM launch, there should be strong additional measures in accordance with U.N. security council resolutions," Kim told reporters. Kim added the two sides agreed "an even stronger U.N. resolution" will have to be adopted in the event of additional weapons test by North Korea. Wu did not speak to reporters. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the U.S. military strike against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons was a warning to other countries including North Korea that "a response is likely" if they pose a danger. "(Chinese) President Xi (Jinping) clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken," Tillerson said on CBS's Face the Nation. The U.S. Navy strike group Carl Vinson canceled a planned trip to Australia and was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a U.S. official told Reuters over the weekend. "We feel the increased presence is necessary," the official said. Trump and China's Xi held a summit meeting in Florida last week, where Trump pressed his counterpart to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear program. China is North Korea's main diplomatic and economic ally. OPPOSITION TO THAAD Wu's trip was the first visit to South Korea by a senior Chinese official since the planned deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system led to a diplomatic row between Beijing and Seoul. Kim said Wu repeated China's position on the THAAD deployment but did not give details. China has previously said the system would destabilize the regional security balance and that its radar's reach would be intruding into Chinese territory. North Korea has sounded a note of defiance against the United States, calling the strikes against Syria on Friday "an unforgivable act of aggression" that showed Pyongyang's decision to develop nuclear weapons was "the right choice." In Tokyo, the feasibility of U.S. military action was downplayed, while South Korea said the focus remained on deterrence and readiness. "It probably is not realistic for the U.S. to attack North Korea," a Japanese defense ministry source said. "If America says it is going to attack, both Japan and South Korea will probably put a stop to it," said the source, who declined to be identified. A senior Japanese military source added: "If the U.S. military was to attack, there could be a request to Japan for rear-guard logistics support but there has been no talk of such preparations." South Korean and U.S. forces are also involved in annual joint military drills that run until the end of April. The North calls the drills preparations for war against it. Several North Korean anniversaries in April could be an opportunity for Pyongyang to conduct nuclear or missile tests, South Korean defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said. North Korea has invited a large number of foreign media representatives to Pyongyang this week, likely to cover the so-called "Day of the Sun" birth anniversary on April 15 of the state founder Kim Il Sung. North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday that flew a short distance before spinning out of control and crashing into the sea, the latest of a number of missile tests defying U.N. sanctions. The North is also seen to be ready to conduct its sixth nuclear test at any time, with movements detected by satellites at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. (Additional reporting by Minwoo Park; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday his order to the military to reinforce areas in the South China Sea controlled by Manila was to maintain the geopolitical balance, and assured China no "offensive weapons" would be placed there. Duterte said the Philippines wanted peace and friendship with China but his country needed to bolster what territory it had in the Spratly archipelago because "everybody's grabbing" islands and reefs in the disputed waterway. The maverick former mayor set off alarm bells on Thursday, including in Beijing, when he said he had ordered troops to occupy uninhabited islets and shoals that the Philippines claims in the Spratly Islands. Philippine officials later said plans were to upgrade existing facilities and not occupy new territories. "I'd like to address myself to the Chinese government... I ordered the occupation of the 10 or nine islands that are just near our shores because there's a heightening of geopolitical issues and eventually maybe a violent low-intensity war over here," he told a news conference on Monday. He said the Philippines would not engage in any military buildup, but indicated the United States would. China claims most of the South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. Duterte has turned Philippine foreign policy upside down by making overtures towards China and fiercely rebuking traditional ally the United States. Duterte wants China to be a major investor in the Philippines. Duterte puts the blame for current maritime tensions squarely on Washington, for not intervening to stop China building and arming artificial islands in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. "If they fight each other, we will be hit. Everybody knows, the United States will be stockpiling their weapons there. And, they said they will not," he said, without elaborating. "I do not want to get involved in a war between nations. I have extended my hand and friendship to the U.S. government." He seldom criticizes China for its actions in the South China Sea and stressed on Monday that any future Philippine activities in the Spratlys would not be hostile. "For the information of China, we will not place there any offensive weapons, not even one gun," he said. China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing there was "close and effective communication" between Beijing and Manila. "We hope the Philippines can move forward with China and continue to appropriately handle disputes and create a good atmosphere," she said. (Reporting by Martin Petty, Neil Jerome Morales and Michael Martina; Editing by Nick Macfie)
MANILA (Reuters) - A retired police officer who testified to killing hundreds of people while working for a "death squad" under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte when he was a city mayor has left the country in fear of his life, he said. Arturo Lascanas in February told a Senate hearing he had killed 300 people, about 200 as a member of a hit squad at the behest of Duterte when he was mayor of southern Davao City. The government has dismissed his account as a fabrication and Duterte's aides stress that investigations into his past have found no wrongdoing. Senators concluded after their inquiries that no proof existed that the "Davao death squad" existed, despite testimony by two men who said they were members. Lascanas said he needed to get away. "I was advised that my life is really in danger," Lascanas said in an video clip posted on the website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer news organization. He said that criminal cases against him were being prepared. The Bureau of Immigration cleared Lascanas to leave for Singapore by air two days ago. "Lascanas did not have any immigration lookout bulletin order or hold departure order issued against him," the agency's spokeswoman, Antonette Mangrobang, said in a text message on Monday. Lascanas had told Reuters in an interview that he did not fear the president and believed four other members of his alleged hit team would come forward to testify. Human rights groups say history has repeated itself in the Philippines since Duterte took office mid-last year and unleashed a war on drugs during which more than 8,000 people have died. About 2,500 killings were by police, in what they say were self-defense. Activists say the mysterious killings of thousands of drug users during the campaign bear similar hallmarks to hundreds of suspicious deaths of criminals in Davao City during the 22 years Duterte was its mayor. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty and Nick Macfie)
As the Assiniboine River gets ready to crest, the province is still waiting on hundreds of millions from Ottawa in disaster assistance pay for floods dating back to 2009.
But the jam in the financial waterway appears, in part, to be on the Manitoba side of the ledger.
The province is awaiting word on applications under the federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program that add up to more than a half billion dollars ($542,839,476.00, according to figures supplied by Manitoba Infrastructure).
The number, according to a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada, is even higher, up to $600 million.
Requests for federal compensation under the DFAA program date as far back as the flood event in 2009. For that natural disaster, Manitoba applied to Ottawa for $71,607,355. So far the feds have advanced just under half, with $35,000,000 coming over the last eight years.
Manitoba has 10 open files under the DFAA program. Under its guidelines, final payment requests from provinces must be audited by the federal government prior to the issuance of the funds.
The province of Manitoba has submitted a request for the last payments on two of these files: the 2009 spring flood and the 2010 October storm. The requests are currently being reviewed by federal auditors and could net Manitoba just under $42 million if approved.
Under the formula, after a flood or storm, Manitoba starts its own Disaster Financial Assistance program with affected municipalities. After collecting receipts for expenses and doing its own auditing, the province then makes claims for compensation under the federal DFAA program.
According to officials at Manitoba Infrastructure it has not closed many of its cost-shared DFA programs, including from disasters in 2011 and 2014, and therefore Canada has not audited or issued final payments on these programs.
A statement from Manitoba Infrastructure outlines some of the difficulty in completing their own processes, let alone the two-stage audit that the federal government does for each claim.
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"Each DFA claim is unique," said the statement, "and the time to administer, provide assistance and finalize the claim depends on various factors, such as the scope and source of damage, whether or not the damages represent an insurable loss, the applicant's or local authority's access to technical experts and contractors to complete a restoration, necessary engineering and licensing studies required, and the provision of necessary documentation and invoices to Manitoba EMO to complete the evaluation and claim process."
$100M here or there doesn't always add up
University of Winnipeg economics professor Phillip Cyrenne said he hates to say it, but a half-billion-dollar windfall isn't quite the fix that Manitoba needs.
He said it does, however, provide some breathing room.
"If the government decides to reduce the deficit over time, it will reduce the pressure on some of those (cut and spending) decisions, but, in terms of a budget, it's not huge," Cyrenne said.
Cyrenne said the impact a half-billion-dollar windfall may not be as significant as one might think, especially when the province is recording deficits over $800 million.
But Cyrenne acknowledges optically it makes it harder for the Progressive Conservatives to argue the cupboard is completely bare.
"If someone is giving you money it is harder to say, well, I am going to have to cut back," Cyrenne said.
The slow churn of these files may provide a fiscal bonus to the PC government just when it needs it most politically. Just under $350 million is remaining in claims to Ottawa for the 2011 spring flood. According to provincial officials those final payments are expected by 2018-19.
That is close to when Premier Brian Pallister must make good on his promise to cut the provincial sales tax by one per cent.
Several requests for an interview with Pallister were not granted.
BEIRUT/EASTERN GHOUTA, Syria (Reuters) - It's the dead children that still haunt Abu Ghassan, who was blinded for more than a month and paralysed for weeks by a nerve gas attack four years ago in a Damascus suburb. He recovered; 37 members of his family were among the hundreds of dead. Last week, when another gas attack killed at least 87 people hundreds of miles to the north, the memories rushed back, hard. When he learned of it, he wept "like a child", the 50 year-old recalls in Ain Tarma, one of three towns hit by poison gas in 2013 in areas near Damascus collectively known as the Ghouta. Last week's attack in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun was the first time Western countries say the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad again used the banned nerve gas sarin since the attack four years ago in the Ghouta. Damascus denies it was to blame for either attack, but the diplomatic effects of both were dramatic. Four years ago, the United States nearly bombed the Syrian government, only to pull back when Assad agreed to give up his chemical arsenal and submit to U.N. inspections. After last week's attack, President Donald Trump fired U.S. cruise missiles at Syrian government targets for the first time. Survivors of the Ghouta attack four years ago never lost the fear they could be gassed again at any moment, said Amer Zaydan, a 28-year-old school director from another part of eastern Ghouta. The new strike hammered it home. "After the Khan Sheikhoun massacre, we've gone back to that first moment, as if we are the ones who went through it," he said. "The people here are terrified." Since last week's attack - which like those four years ago came just before dawn when the wind is the calmest and poison gas most effective - residents have activated a night watch, staying up to warn others in case of another attack. Zaydan recalls seeing hundreds of dead people before falling unconscious himself as he tried to help victims. He was blinded for days. "It was like the end of days." "I don't know what happened to the child I was holding at the time," said Zaydan. Seven members of his family were killed. One of his cousins, presumed dead, was being prepared for burial when it was discovered he was still alive. "We have not forgotten this thing. It cannot be forgotten, when you see hundreds of people dying, it's a scene that cannot possibly be forgotten," he said. "You walk through a district, you remember that here an entire family died, or here an entire district died." VINEGAR BY HIS SIDE Abu Ghassan in Ain Tarma also lives with the constant fear of another strike. He says he was saved only by his military training, covering his face with a wet shirt when he first sense the poison, while none of the friends he was with survived. Since then, he has always kept cloth and vinegar to hand in case of another attack. Pieces of a rocket that bore the poison still litter the rubble-strewn floor of the apartment that it struck. Some parts were taken by U.N. inspectors, but the rest was kept in case it can one day be used in a war crimes tribunal, Abu Ghassan said. Residents have returned to live in most of the apartment block. Abu Ghassan remembers returning home to the sight of dead birds and chickens in the street by the house. Today, Syrian government forces are in a much stronger position than they were four years ago, and the opposition-held areas are even more vulnerable. The western Ghouta, where one of the strikes hit, is now under government control. The eastern Ghouta, where two towns were hit, has been effectively under siege for years and more vulnerable than ever, say doctors, who have never been able to replenish supplies of atropine, the medicine used to treat nerve gas patients. "After the massacre in Khan Sheikhoun, it's like the Ghouta is on high alert. We feel as though we are next," said Abu Ibrahim Baker, a surgeon who treated victims of the attack four years ago at two hospitals. "If God forbid a massacre happens like the 2013 one, there will be three or four times the deaths, because we no longer have as much atropine or capacities to resist at all." Hammam Daoud, a doctor who was in western Ghouta during the 2013 attack, said he was immediately struck on seeing the images last week of bodies gone limp and patients foaming at the mouth. "The pictures we saw from Khan Sheikhoun were similar to what we saw. The pictures of the victims, the symptoms were almost identical," said Daoud, speaking from Turkey, where he moved a few months ago as part of a negotiated withdrawal that gave Assad's opponents safe passage out of the area. "It is hard to talk about, it was greater than anything you expect. Medically, the thoracic symptoms did not cease, no one was 100 percent better, and we were unable to treat them well, because we had no tools," he said in a phone interview. Seeing footage from Khan Sheikhoun, he said he felt "the same level of despair". "This despair will not leave us. The helplessness you feel because of these cases, it is unmatched," he said. "I lost hope in everything." (Reporting by Tom Perry, Ellen Francis in Beirut, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, and a reporter in the Eastern Ghouta; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Peter Graff)
By Sarah N. Lynch and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top aides to President Donald Trump demurred on Sunday over where U.S. policy on Syria was headed after last week's retaliatory missile strike, leaving open questions about whether removing Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad from power was now one of Trump's goals. After the United States launched cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base alleged to have launched a deadly poison gas attack on Syrian civilians, Trump administration officials said they were prepared to take further actions if necessary. Trump's United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, said the United States had "multiple priorities" in Syria and that stability there was impossible with Assad as president. "In no way do we see peace in that area with Assad as the head of the Syrian government," Haley told NBC's "Meet the Press." "And we have to make sure that we're pushing that process. The political solution has to come together for the good of the people of Syria," she said. Her comments appeared at odds with those of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said the U.S. missile strike was aimed solely at deterring the use of chemical weapons by Assad. "There is no change to our military posture" in Syria, Tillerson said on ABC's 'This Week' program. Tillerson said the U.S. priority in Syria was defeating Islamic State, the militant group also known as ISIS. Once ISIS is defeated, the United States could turn its attention to trying to help bring about a "political process" that could bring about stability in Syria, he said. "It is through that political process that we believe the Syrian people will ... be able to decide the fate of Bashar al-Assad," Tillerson said. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said any difference in nuance was inadvertent and unintentional, and declined to comment further. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump said defeating Islamic State was a higher priority than persuading Assad to step down. The Republican criticized calls by his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, for the establishment of a no-fly zone and "safe zones" to protect non-combatants. "What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria," Trump told Reuters in an interview last October. Tillerson on Sunday blamed Russia for enabling the poison gas attack by failing to follow through on a 2013 agreement to secure and destroy chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria. "The failure related to the recent strike and the recent terrible chemical weapons attack in large measure is a failure on Russia's part to achieve its commitment to the international community," he added. Russia swiftly condemned last week's attack. On Sunday, a joint command center comprised of Russian, Iranian and militia forces supporting Assad said it would respond to any new aggression and increase its support for its ally. Trump ordered the missile strikes on the Syrian air base after blaming Assad for the chemical weapons attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children, in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the assault. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said the United States was "prepared to do more" regarding military action in Syria if necessary. On whether Assad should be removed from power, McMaster said: "We are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. "What we are saying is other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves, 'What are we doing here?'" McMaster said. Lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties were supportive of Trump's decision to attack the Syrian air base, but some Republican senators said they were concerned about the lack of policy clarity and Tillerson's strategy of leaving Assad's fate unresolved while concentrating on Islamic State. "There seem to be a difference in what Ambassador Haley is saying, that Assad has no future, and what I heard this morning from Secretary Tillerson," Republican Senator Marco Rubio told ABC, adding that Tillerson's strategy won't work. "There is no such thing as Assad yes, but ISIS no," Rubio said. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," said removing Assad from power would require the United States to commit thousands more troops to the country to create safe-haven areas for the opposition to regroup, retrain and ultimately take control of the country. "You tell the Russians, 'If you continue to bomb the people we train, we'll shoot you down,' Graham said. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and David Morgan, writing by David Lawder; Editing by Caren Bohan; Editing by James Dalgleish and Jonathan Oatis)
By Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - If Ukraine's central bank chief needed any more incentive to quit, last week she woke up to find the image of a pig draped in a Russian flag spray-painted onto the wall of her house and a gaggle of young protesters calling her a Russian stooge. After a sustained hate campaign that also included a coffin laid at her door, Valeria Gontareva finally quit on Monday. Her departure, with no obvious candidate for a successor, leaves President Petro Poroshenko with one fewer ally in power at a time when lenders keeping Ukraine afloat already question his ability to follow through on promised reforms. Gontareva's bloody-mindedness in enacting tough anti-crisis measures attracted many enemies while winning praise from investors and the International Monetary Fund, which props up the country with $17.5 billion bailout. The appearance that Poroshenko could not shield Gontareva, his former business partner, from being hounded out of office may make it harder to replace her. The president will struggle to find someone willing to step into her "kamikaze" role, said Oleksander Kirsh, a lawmaker with the People's Front, which is in coalition with Poroshenko's bloc. "Even those who are seen as being part of the president's team will wonder about agreeing" to head the central bank "if Poroshenko cannot protect them," Kirsh said. PRESIDENT WEAKER Poroshenko, owner of Ukraine's biggest chocolate company, was elected in 2014 promising to unite the country after a popular uprising toppled a pro-Russian leader and Moscow responded by seizing the Crimea peninsula. Since then, a revolt by pro-Russian separatists in the east has bogged down in bloody stalemate with 10,000 dead, and the economy, struggling to wean itself from dependency on Russia and plagued by official corruption, has been on life support. Support for Poroshenko's party has fallen to just 11.9 percent as of December, from 21.7 percent in October 2014, according to the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. Polls show he would lose to former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at the next presidential election due in 2019. Recent months have seen political setbacks that make him appear even weaker. He found himself on the wrong side of public opinion when he initially opposed activists imposing an economic blockade of territory held by pro-Russian separatists; two months later he made the blockade government policy. He also signed a parliamentary amendment that will dilute one of the biggest anti-corruption reforms enacted since the 2014 protests. He says he was forced to accept the amendment by recalcitrant lawmakers. "Poroshenko follows behind public opinion," lawmaker and investigative journalist Serhiy Leshchenko, a member of the president's own bloc, told Reuters. "Poroshenko's agenda is formed by others instead of him, and he must follow it." Poroshenko's office did not reply to a request for comment. The government of his protege, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, has only a thin majority in parliament to pass difficult measures demanded by the IMF, such as raising the pension age and lifting a ban on land sales. Not passing them risks delaying or shrinking the amount of money the IMF will disburse at a time when Ukraine's economic growth is expected to weaken to 2 percent from an earlier IMF projected 2.9 percent because of the blockade on separatists. The IMF in a report last week flagged its concerns that domestic politics could derail the bailout program. TAKING A BREAK Gontareva, who has also been in office since 2014, has been responsible for many of the reforms enacted to secure the lifeline from the IMF. She switched Ukraine to a flexible exchange rate and shuttered half the country's banks - including many which the authorities say were used as cash cows or money-laundering vehicles by their owners. She nationalized the largest lender, PrivatBank. The protesters and some lawmakers accuse her of incompetence at best, and at worst, enriching herself at Ukraine's expense in league with the country's enemy number one, Russia. A poll by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in December said 80 percent of Ukrainians distrust Gontareva. But the pervasive influence in Ukrainian politics of powerful business figures makes it difficult to assess the degree to which protests against her are driven by real public anger, rather than stoked by hostile vested interests. Gontareva's press service suggested that the latest protests were engineered as revenge by people who lost out from PrivatBank's nationalization in December. The coffin at her door was a reminder of what can happen to central bankers in this part of the world. Andrei Kozlov, a Russian central bank deputy governor who shut down dozens of corrupt lenders, was shot dead in the street in 2006. "Gontareva gets a lot of criticism but I judge her on what she's done and its absolutely remarkable what's been achieved at great personal risk," said Tim Ash, Sovereign Strategist at Bluebay Asset Management. "I think it's sad she is going, but after the exhaustion of fighting constantly against corruption and oligarchs for two years people want a break," he told a conference in London. (Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets in KIEV and Sujata Rao in LONDON Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Peter Graff)
A Cape Breton group is proposing that an old coal mine site in Sydney Mines be turned into a war memorial, a location that will avoid the bitter controversy faced by another proposed memorial the Mother Canada statue.
The Sydney Mines Tourism Development Society has begun planning a project known as Atlantic Memorial Park, which would be located on property once occupied by the Princess Colliery.
"That would take away the problem of having to disturb a pristine site in Green Cove and also, at the same time, beautify a former mine site," said society board member Cyril Aker.
Mother Canada controversy
Green Cove in Cape Breton Highlands National Park was the location proposed for the $25-million Mother Canada project championed by Toronto businessman Tony Trigiani.
The project was rejected by Parks Canada last year following fierce debate between proponents and those who didn't want the giant structure in a national park.
The Sydney Mines proposal near the mouth of Sydney harbour is much smaller than the eight-storey Mother Canada statue, and Aker said it is more than just a monument.
The proposal includes a visitor centre, the restoration of the Chapel Point Battery, a family park at Lochmans Beach and a reproduction of a First Nations encampment to recognize the contributions of Indigenous veterans to Canada's war efforts, said Aker.
Fellow board member Brian Ferguson said the group contacted Trigiani to see if he wanted to be involved in making Atlantic Memorial Park a reality. He declined, said Ferguson.
"He wants to retain his interest in Green Cove and move forward with that concept, in his mind, in the future."
Sydney Mines project gets support
A monument on the site of the former coal mine in Sydney Mines would be designed "through a consultative process," according to Aker. There's no estimate yet on the cost of such a monument, he said. Other components of the proposal are estimated to cost between $2 million and $6 million, depending on the scope of the project, he added.
Story continues
Ferguson said there's a funding strategy and the society will draw on corporate and private donors, as well as seeking money from federal and provincial government departments.
Aker said several legions have endorsed the idea along with Destination Cape Breton and the Port of Sydney.
There's a community information session at 7 p.m. on April 18 at Holy Family Parish Hall in Sydney Mines.
Military history
One of the strengths of the concept, Aker said, is the war memorial in this context would not be a standalone monument, as many are.
Convoys set out from Sydney harbour for Europe during the wars. The harbour was the site of military fortifications, a naval and air force base, and was where hundreds of ships were loaded with coal and steel during both war and peacetime.
Aker said the proposed park also has a role to play in satisfying the intense interest in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France as people remember what happened there 100 years ago.
By Damon Lin and Fabian Hamacher TAOYUAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - The wife of a Taiwan activist accused China of "political conspiracy" on Monday after she was barred from traveling to the mainland to support her husband who has been detained there on suspicion of endangering national security. The activist, Li Ming-che, is a community college worker known for supporting human rights. He went missing in China, which views neighboring Taiwan as a renegade province, on March 19. More than a week later, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Li had been detained on suspicion on endangering national security but gave no information on his whereabouts. Li's wife, Li Ching-yu, had been scheduled to fly to Beijing but told reporters at Taiwan's international airport her permit to enter the mainland had been canceled. "I am a weak woman who wants to visit. Is it really necessary for the Chinese government to use such great force to prevent this?" Li said. "This action confirms to the outside world that there is political conspiracy behind the Chinese government's arrest of Li Ming-che." Li's detention has put another strain on ties between Taipei and Beijing, which have cooled since Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen took power last year because she refuses to concede that the island is part of China. Tsai also leads the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which traditionally advocates independence for Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan into its fold, while proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being run by Communist Party rulers in Beijing. Over the weekend, Chinese state media reported that a letter written by Li Ming-che had been delivered to his family on Friday on humanitarian grounds. However, according to Li Ching-yu, the letter was a copy that she could not verify was from her husband and was delivered via unofficial channels by an individual who said the people holding her husband should be seen as "kidnappers". The DPP admonished Beijing, saying that its moves ran counter to the goal of normal exchanges between the two sides. "Moreover, (China) should not bypass our government units, and allow the case to become more complicated by the use of unauthorized private entities or individuals to inform the family about the disputed case," the DPP said in a statement. Taiwan activists have linked Li's detention to a new law targeting foreign non-governmental organizations in China, which grants powers to police to question organization workers, monitor their finances and regulate their work. Taiwan citizens use a special entry permit issued by China to travel there because China does not recognize Taiwan passports. (Additional reporting by J.R. Wu in TAIPEI and Christian Shepherd in BEIJING; Editing by Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)
Karen Baker was surprised to open two letters sent to her Cottage Grove home last week by Public Health Madison and Dane County, saying her former husband and her current husband should get pneumonia shots.
Bakers former husband died in 2007 and hadnt lived at her address since the 1980s, when they divorced. Her current husband said he is up to date on his immunizations.
How are they trying to help people if their records are so out of date? said Karen Baker, who didnt get such a letter addressed to her.
The health department sent letters to about 20,000 county residents 65 and older who, according to the state-run Wisconsin Immunization Registry, havent received both kinds of vaccines against pneumococcal disease, spokeswoman Sarah Mattes said.
The mailing cost about $9,000, which came from a state immunization grant, Mattes said. The department thought the state used death records to remove names, and clinics are asked to update information after vaccines are given, she said.
Many people in this age group get sick or die from pneumonia, so we felt this was a great use of funds, Mattes said. Unfortunately, (the registry) is not a perfect system. ... Clearly some pockets of the data have not been cross-referenced (with death records).
Elizabeth Goodsitt, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, said the registry, which started in 2000, has received death notices weekly since 2009.
We are currently in the process of back-loading death records that we did not already have, Goodsitt said.
Karen Bakers former husband continued to live in Wisconsin until his death, she said.
Her current husband, Preston Baker, 77, said he received both kinds of pneumococcal vaccine at the VA last fall. Karen Baker, 72, said she thinks she also got both kinds of vaccine, which may be why she didnt get a letter.
The letter says people 65 and older should also have annual flu shots and vaccines against shingles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Those with diabetes should get shots against hepatitis B.
C-Level View | Feature
IT Takes a Village: Getting a "Seat at the Table" is Not Enough
A Q&A with Jill Albin-Hill
We've heard a lot over the past few years about how IT departments are getting a "seat at the table" IT's evolution from a mere provider of technology services, to a new, more authoritative voice engaged with upper-level administration in strategic planning and oversight of technology applications for the institution. Here, Dominican University's vice president for information technology talks about the changing role of IT at her institution and how forming partnerships at many levels, both internal and external, is the real key to success.
How do you get to a place where people at all levels finally see technology as just an enabler and recognize the IT department as a true partner? Jill Albin-Hill
Mary Grush: Is IT "getting a seat at the table" at your institution?
Jill Albin-Hill: Yes, but getting a seat at the table is really not enough. The evolution of IT for our higher education institutions has to include building partnerships at many levels. Internally, this means fostering a more mature understanding of technology by people at the departmental level and all constituencies institution-wide, so that effective and intelligent planning and program implementation can take place. We provide support at the departmental level, of course, but we especially need the agreement and commitment of departments throughout the institution to become more tech-savvy at least in a way that allows for useful conversations between us. IT should also be looking outside of the institution for partnerships that can help us leverage consortia, networks, new cloud-based models, and all the other rich resources of the IT community at large. In a sense, IT now "takes a village".
Grush: Isn't it important for you to have a "seat at the table"?
Albin-Hill: Of course. But you know, lots of times we hear CIOs or IT leaders focusing on their own leadership development as, "I want a seat at the table." This is mainly because for years we have struggled with getting people to tell us about what they were doing. We would hear about some new system they wanted to have installed after they were already purchasing it! Or, they were struggling with a problem and never consulted IT or thought to bring us in. So the idea of getting a seat at the table, where those strategic conversations were happening, was very appealing. Your technology leader needs to be where higher-level technology plans are formed.
Grush: Were you, or the IT department, prepared for a seat at the table?
Albin-Hill: Good question. Be careful what you wish for! I think I've lived a little bit in these past 5 years since my institution first had a technology plan developed and approved by the board.
In turning that corner and having my seat at the table, I became aware of a very important question: How do you get to a place where people at all levels finally see technology as just an enabler and recognize the IT department as a true partner?
It should be no surprise that with one significant change, like getting a seat at the table, further adjustments are needed. Being included at the table is great! We now are to the point where there is hardly a conversation that happens in which we in IT are not asked to be there. As a result, we've needed to think more about balance and capacity in some regards: Now that we've built up the excitement, how do we actually address it all? How do we give service to each of these needs as they all arise? We are really having to try to prioritize things in new ways, because we are so often called on by every area of the university.
Computer Science
Report: 92 Percent of Coding Bootcamp Students Graduate On Time
Last month, various coding bootcamp providers, reviewers and funders formed the Council on Integrity Results Reporting (CIRR), announcing their commitment to publish student outcomes data. Now, the CIRR released its first set of outcomes for students who attended a program during the first half of 2016. Among the highlights from the report: On average, bootcamps saw a 92 percent graduation rate, 80 percent in-field placement rate and starting salary of $70,412 for graduates.
CIRR standards claim to be completely transparent. Schools that produce real results for students arent afraid of transparency, according to the CIRR website. Skills Fund, a college loan company leading the CIRR effort, says it places student and public interests first. The companys unofficial motto is, We dont finance students to attend crappy code schools.
As such, CIRR requires members to report outcomes for 100 percent of students (including students who enrolled after the initial drop without penalty date). Each coding bootcamp provider is asked to compile a single, clear report that answers the following questions:
How many graduated on time?
How many accepted a full-time job in the field for which they trained within three months? Six months?
How many secured other positions? (I.e. part-time jobs, short-term contracts, out of field work.)
Did the school itself hire any graduates?
How many students jobs are in fields outside of what they studied for?
What are the salaries of grads who started jobs in their field of study?
Read More: The Council on Integrity Results Reportings complete Standards & Implementation Guidelines is available here.
In addition, coding bootcamp providers must have their annual numbers verified by an independent third party, such as an auditing firm.
According to the recently published data, most students who go through coding bootcamps graduate on time and land high-paying jobs in computer science-related fields like the programs promise. Hackbright Academy in San Francisco, for example, reported a 100 percent graduation rate and $100,000 median annual base salary for the 78 students covered in its report. Most of these students entered the CS field as software engineers (77 percent), front-end engineers (6 percent) and full-stack engineers (6 percent).
As another example, Code Fellows had an 83 percent graduation rate and approximately $72,286 median annual base salary for the 106 students covered in its report.
View the data on the CIRR site.
STEM
Report Tracks State Progress on Computer Science Ed Policies
If understanding of computer science is essential to being an informed citizen, then it makes sense that every child needs an education in the use of computing devices and software, digital literacy and computational processing. That's the premise of a new report developed by half a dozen organizations that undertook a state-by-state survey of the current state of K-12 CS education.
The report, titled "State of the States Landscape Report: State-Level Policies Supporting Equitable K12 Computer Science Education," was released during a workshop led by Google, the Education Development Center (EDC), and the Massachusetts Computing Attainment Network (MassCAN) on Google's Cambridge campus.
"There are simply not enough adequately trained people to fill the current need for information security analysts, hardware engineers, software developers, computer programmers, data scientists and other STEM professionals," the report asserted. "States must both inspire and prepare a far greater number of students to pursue CS education and related careers."
To that end, the authors created a rubric to examine state action in 10 areas:
STEM
STEM Camps for 8-12 Graders Offered at Rice University
Rice Universitys Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity will offer summer camps for middle and high school students aimed at increasing their interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as future careers. The camps are targeting underrepresented populations in STEM fields.
School districts may use Title I funds to send students who have an interest in and aptitude for STEM. Camps are one week long and run from June 4 until July 29, and are open to students entering eighth through 12th grade. This will be the third year of Tapia Camps, with the goal of hosting up to 2,000 students this summer. Enrollment is now open and will continue through mid-May. The price for each weeklong camp is $995 per attendee.
Campers will live in university dorms, interact with top scientists, work in project-based learning groups, tour NASA and engage with peers and Rice STEM students. They will also develop skills on communications and preparing for college during a fun and active week on campus.
Tapia Camps open the doors of a top-tier institution to students who may never have had opportunities to advance despite their abilities, motivation and good grades, said Jaime Rodriguez, executive director of the Tapia Camps, in a statement. Many Tapia Campers are in the top 10 percent of their classes yet have never been to summer programs or programs at a university due to a lack of family resources.
The Tapia Center was named after Dr. Richard Tapia, a professor and mathematician, who is known for his research in computational and mathematical sciences and has built a reputation for empowering underrepresented minorities to engage in their education. He has received the National Medal of Science from President Obama, was honored with the Vannevar Bush award from the National Science Board, and was named to the list of 50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business, along with numerous other awards and recognitions.
To register or for more information, contact Jaime Rodriguez, [email protected] or (202) 905-3652.
MONDAY, April 10, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Having a mental health disorder doesn't mean a person will develop Alzheimer's disease later in like, a new study suggests.
Researchers examined long-term data from nearly 60,000 people in Finland with and without Alzheimer's disease.
The investigators found that those previously diagnosed with depression or other mental health disorders 10 or more years earlier didn't have a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease.
A history of mood disorders -- such as depression -- was associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's when the disorders occurred at least five years before an Alzheimer's diagnosis. But, the association wasn't there when this time window was extended to 10 years.
Some of those mental health problems in the five- to 10-year window might have been early symptoms of Alzheimer's, according to study lead author Vesa Tapiainen, from the University of Eastern Finland's School of Pharmacy, and co-authors.
The findings highlight the importance of proper diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease within an appropriate time window, the researchers said.
The study was published in the journal European Psychiatry.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about Alzheimer's disease.
MONDAY, April 10, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Alzheimer's patients given sedatives such as Valium or Xanax may have an increased risk for pneumonia, a new study warns.
People with Alzheimer's disease are often given these drugs, called benzodiazepines, over the long term, the researchers said.
Examples of benzodiazepines include alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), diazepam (Valium), and lorazepam (Ativan).
"An increased risk of pneumonia is an important finding to consider in treatment of patients with Alzheimer disease. Pneumonia often leads to admission to hospital, and patients with dementia are at increased risk of death related to pneumonia," Dr. Heidi Taipale, of Kuopio Research Center of Geriatric Care at the University of Eastern Finland, and co-authors wrote.
For the study, the researchers reviewed data from nearly 50,000 Alzheimer's patients in Finland. The patients' average age was 80 and about two-thirds were women.
The study found that people with Alzheimer's who took benzodiazepines were 30 percent more likely to develop pneumonia than those who weren't given the sedatives.
The risk of pneumonia was highest in the first 30 days after starting the drugs, the findings showed.
The researchers said their findings are consistent with previous studies.
Because benzodiazepines are sedating, it's possible that people taking them may breathe saliva or food into the lungs, increasing the risk of pneumonia, the study authors suggested.
Taipale's team said the benefits and risks of these drugs -- including pneumonia -- need to be carefully considered before giving them to someone with Alzheimer's disease.
The study was published April 10 in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
The study is "a good reminder to clinicians to 'first do no harm' when prescribing these drugs for frail older women and men with dementia," Dr. Paula Rochon and her co-authors wrote in an accompanying editorial in the journal. Rochon is from Women's College Hospital and the University of Toronto.
Non-drug "approaches should be the starting point when managing neuropsychiatric symptoms in this patient population, which should help to limit inappropriate use of these drugs," the editorial authors said.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about Alzheimer's disease.
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New York, April 6, 2017Ethiopias Supreme Court today ruled that two bloggers from the Zone 9 collective, previously acquitted of terrorism charges, should be tried instead on charges of inciting violence through their writing. If convicted of the charge, Atnaf Berhane and Natnail Feleke would face a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, according to the Addis Standard newspaper.
The court upheld the lower courts acquittal of two other Zone 9 bloggers, Soleyana S Gebremichael and Abel Wabella. Todays actions by the Supreme Court were a response to prosecutors appeal of the October 2015 acquittal of all four.
We urge Ethiopian authorities to do the right thing and drop any further prosecution of Atnaf Behane and Natnail Feleke on charges relating to their work, said Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal. Todays acquittal of two Zone 9 bloggers is a positive step, but there can be no celebration until this exhibition of legal harassment ends once and for all.
Ethiopia ranked fourth on CPJs 2015 list of the 10 Most Censored Countries and is the fifth worst jailer of journalists worldwide, according to CPJs 2016 prison census. CPJ awarded Zone 9 an International Press Freedom Award in 2015.
For more data and analysis on Ethiopia, visit CPJs Ethiopia page.
A doctor who specializes in anesthesiology expressed concerns in federal court Monday over the three-drug mixture with which Arkansas plans to execute seven men next week.
The testimony kicked off a three-day hearing scheduled by U.S. District Court Judge Kristine G. Baker after she was asked to halt the executions of seven inmates set to die over 11 days beginning April 17.
The mens lawyers requested an injunction on the grounds that the compressed schedule violates their Eighth Amendment rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
Dr. Joel B. Zivit, an associate professor at Emory University who specializes in anesthesiology and critical care medicine, appeared via video as an expert for the plaintiffs. Zivit, who said he witnessed an execution in Georgia, spent much of the morning answering questions posed by federal public defender Julie Vandiver about Arkansas lethal injection protocol.
Zivit first told the courtroom he has no comment or knowledge on how to improve lethal injections.
The physician said he has concerns about the drugs Arkansas plans to use, how those drugs are handled and mixed, how they will then be administered to the inmates and if those drugs will cause an excessively painful death.
Under the state Department of Corrections protocol, three drugs midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride will be given intravenously.
Zivit said the first drug, midazolam, is generally used as a calming agent and to create amnesia in a patient, but it in no way blocks pain.
The second drug, vecuronium bromide, is often used to paralyze muscle movement while patients undergo surgery, he said. Hospitals use an apparatus to ensure the patient can breathe. Without it, the person will suffocate, Zivit said. Its like being held underwater."
Vandiver asked the doctor if he would ever give a patient midazolam followed by a dose of vecuronium bromide during a procedure. He responded that he would, but only in a rare circumstance, and if a patient survived, I would apologize later."
The third drug, potassium chloride, can affect the way a heart muscle contracts, Zivit said. Potassium, when its injected, is quite painful because the element destroys the vein while it passes along its length, he said.
Zivit added that he has concerns about how the drugs will be given to each inmate, based on his study of autopsy reports of other people who have been put to death through similar methods. He said he has been administering anesthesia for 25 years and its not a simple thing to do.
There is no such thing as training to put an IV in someone who will be executed, Zivit said. Doctors and medical professionals are trained to deal with patients who are volunteers to the treatment they are undergoing, he said, which is not the case in executions.
Zivit said when he studied an autopsy of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett, the man had puncture wounds on his arms, legs, neck, chest where professionals had tried, and failed, to insert an IV.
The state objected several times during Zivits testimony to the doctor speaking about anything other than the general use and effects of the three drugs. Baker recognized the states objections but allowed the doctor's testimony to continue.
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Source: Arkansas Online , Emma Pettit, April 10, 2017
Medieval and barbaric: Public beheading in Saudi Arabia
Three Pakistani nationals were executed in Saudi Arabia on Sunday after being convicted of smuggling heroin into the ultra-conservative kingdom.
Saudi Arabia on Sunday executed three Pakistani nationals convicted of smuggling heroin, bringing the number of executions in the kingdom to 26 this year.
The state-run SPA news agency said the three had been found guilty of "smuggling quantities of heroin in their stomachs".
It named the three men as Mohammed Ashraf Shafi Mohammed, Mohammed Aref Mohammed Anayt and Mohammed Afdal Asghar Ali.
SPA reported 153 people being executed in the ultra-conservative kingdom last year, a number confirmed by London-based rights group Amnesty International.
Most executions in 2016, including that of high-profile Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, were carried out in a single day in January.
Nimr was behind a string of Shia protests in 2011 demanding reform in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
"It is a bloody day when the Saudi Arabian authorities execute 47 people, some of whom were clearly sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials," Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme, said at the time.
"Carrying out a death sentence when there are serious questions about the fairness of the trial is a monstrous and irreversible injustice," he added, urging Saudi authorities to "heed the growing chorus of international criticism and put an end to their execution spree".
Amnesty reported 158 death penalties in the country for 2015, the highest annual rate in the past two decades.
Saudi Arabia has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape, homosexuality and apostasy are all punishable by death.
The kingdom is one of four countries the others are North Korea, Somalia and Iran which still carries out public executions.
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Source: The New Arab , April 10, 2017
Congress has overturned a Federal Communication Committee (FCC) rule that required broadband companies to ask customers permission before sharing their app usage and online activity data with third parties for profit. President Trump signed the rollback into law. Despite the public outcry from privacy advocates and mainstream media outlets, it is crucial to note that many of the accusations and complaints are misleading.
Some say that loss of privacy is the price we pay for our Internet lives and that Congress sold Americans' privacy to Internet providers. These claims give rise to a false image of internet service providers selling books of customers browsing history along with their names, addresses and emails to third parties. A GoFundMe campaign set up by Misha Collins has so far raised $86,590 to purchase Congress Internet data. Sadly, their money is going down the drain because this simply is not the way online advertising works.
To begin with, ISPs and Internet companies have pledged to follow the Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) privacy framework, giving the FTC and FCC the power to hold them accountable. Under these guidelines, broadband and internet companies are not allowed to tie internet or app usage data to sensitive information such as name, address and social society number without permission. In short, opening up online marketplace to ISPs does not mean that our internet privacy is utterly unprotected or online advertising market unregulated. The FCC and FTC retain the authority to monitor and ensure that online advertising business is in full compliance with federal laws and policies.
Secondly, the hard truth is that our digital lives have never been entirely private. As part of the 2015 net-neutrality rule, the FCC took jurisdiction over ISPs while the FTC remained to oversee internet companies. But big internet companies, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix, are not subjected to broadband privacy rules. They have been aggregating customers demographics and browsing history and selling them to highest bidders via digital advertising markets for years.
Do you ever wonder why Google and Facebook are free? By using their services, customers consent to letting them gather massive nonsensitive data and share with third parties for profit. Google and Facebook are likely to stay as a duopoly in online advertising business even after ISPs can do what they have been doing, because of the behavioral data and personal information which ISPs are unable to get. For instance, Google has been collecting intent data from searching history. Facebook probably knows your social network better than you do. Both have better chances of getting cross-device-based data via mobile apps than ISPs.
It may be surprising to learn that trade groups of internet companies asked Congress to abolish broadband privacy rule in January because this rule will disserve consumers and stifle innovation in online marketplace. More likely, they are afraid of being targets of complaints or imposed of similar regulations by FTC.
Thirdly, instead of expecting more targeted ads to come their way, consumers will hardly observe any differences in their digital lives. The broadband privacy rule approved by the FCC last October had not yet taken effect before it was officially overturned in April. Accusations claiming this rollback took away existing rights were misinformed.
On the other hand, because the rollback was approved under the Congressional Review Act, the FCC cannot approve substantially similar regulations in the future. This new rule guarantees the status quo in the long run. ISPs are treated the same with internet-based companies. The difference is, however, that many large broadband companies, such as Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner/Spectrum and T-Mobile, provide customers the ability to opt out of their targeted advising programs while internet giants do not. Small ISPs are even more incentivized to offer to protect customer network privacy in order to attract business.
By standardizing the level of regulations across the FCC and FTC, the rollback paves the way for future collective efforts to improve user experience and online privacy guidelines on all sides. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai remarked on the importance of cost-benefit analysis at the Hudson Institute on April 5, signaling FCC should take the duty to conduct Regulatory Flexibility Analysis during rulemakings to consider how the FCCs rules might affect small businesses.
Consumers are better off with a more competitive marketplace, and fact-based, data-driven regulation. The U.S. digital ad market is reaching $83 billion this year and Google alone accounts for 41% of total revenues, followed by Facebook. We may not like the idea of being tracked, but it would be better to have multiple companies and providers vying for our business than two internet giants dominating the digital advertising market.
Yao Sun is a contributor to E21.
Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief.
Congratulations to the Legislatures finance committee for responsibly purging all non-fiscal policy out of Gov. Scott Walkers state budget request.
This hasnt happened since 2003. And back then, a Republican Legislature was pulling policy out of a Democratic governors spending plan, so partisan policies were at play.
Last week, the Republican-run Joint Finance Committee removed all 83 non-fiscal items as identified by the nonpartisan Fiscal Bureau from its own Republican governors budget. Well done, committee leaders Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and other members.
Now the goal should be to keep policy changes that dont relate to spending money out of the budget for good as the committee and then the full Legislature approve a final two-year tax and spending plan. Unfortunately, Nygren has already hedged on whether some of the unvetted policy could come back in. It shouldnt.
This is a good-government issue that too often gets short shrift from both political parties. When governors or lawmakers slip public policy into the state budget, they are attempting to fast-track changes to state law that, in many cases, could never survive public scrutiny and tough votes if the policies were to stand on their own merits as separate bills.
The governors budget had included language that would have allowed local governments to bury meeting minutes and other public notices on obscure government websites, rather than publishing them in local newspapers. The proposal had nothing to do with spending state money.
Gov. Walkers budget also sought to make Wisconsin the only state without a minimum number of hours required for educating children. Other non-fiscal items included the elimination of several boards and councils, and changes to the private school voucher program.
This prompted some whining from the conservative special-interest group Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin.
But if the governors policy ideas are so important and necessary, they should be able to survive a legislative process controlled entirely by Republicans, and become law as individual bills. If they dont relate to spending money, they shouldnt be buried in a $76 billion state budget for expediency and to help lawmakers dodge accountability.
Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, commended his colleagues on the finance committee for their honorable actions last week.
I too, wholeheartedly, agree that the state budget is no place for policy items, Cowles said. I look ahead to working with my colleagues on a much cleaner budget.
This is the same Joint Finance Committee that tried to dismantle much of Wisconsins open records law on the eve of the July Fourth weekend two years ago. So we hope the committee has learned its lesson and is sincere about keeping rash and surprise policy changes out of the budget for good.
EBENE CYBERCITY, Mauritius, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Big Bang ERP, a Canadian-based cloud solution consulting firm opens their first international office in Mauritius to better meet the demands of their clients around the globe. A 4-Star NetSuite Solution Provider, Big Bang ERP also specializes in Salesforce, Rootstock, ServiceNow and other industry specific softwares to tailor scalable solutions for every industry.
According to Mark Rhyman the Co-CEO and Chief Business Development Officer at Big Bang ERP, they chose to open their second office in Ebene CyberCity because of the amazing talent and it's perfectly located time zone.
Mauritius is a central hub where the skill set is incredible. Everyone is bilingual and returning graduates from prestigious universities worldwide. Mauritius is like the Singapore of the Indian Ocean, it allows us to adequately serve our European, African and Australian customer base," said Rhyman.
Appointing Jeek was a natural progression considering his remarkable level of education and business experience. We originally needed someone with the right mindset to step in to help us with our EMEA clients but, one thing led to another and a few coconuts later, he was the perfect fit to run our new Mauritian office, said Rhyman.
Jeek knows what it takes to be successful; with over five degrees and certifications from prestigious universities, he is more than qualified to successfully multitask between Big Bang ERP, being a successful author and a member of Mensa.
I am extremely proud to be leading our EMEA branch, and certainly excited to help the companies across the region through our Cloud Advisory Expertise. Mauritius is an African hub where many companies are striving to find the right balance between increasing efficiency and scaling lightning fast," said Jeekeshen Chinnappen, Director of Business Development at Big Bang ERP.
About Big Bang ERP
Big Bang ERP is a boutique consulting firm that helps businesses optimize and streamline their operations by implementing cloud business solutions. Their highly skilled team of experts works hand-in-hand with organizations to achieve exceptional business improvements.
For more information about Big Bang ERP, visit http://bigbangerp.com
#HEADINTHECLOUD - @BigBangERP (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram)
French English
NEWS RELEASE / REGULATED INFORMATION / INSIDE INFORMATION
IRVINE, CA, and HERSTAL, BELGIUM - 07:00 CEST, April 10, 2017 - MDxHealth SA (Euronext: MDXH.BR) today announced BJU International published a study demonstrating that its SelectMDx(TM) for Prostate Cancer test can reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment of men at risk of prostate cancer versus PSA testing alone, leading to a reduction in total cost per patient and a quality of life improvement.1
PSA testing is the current standard of care to determine if a patient should be selected for a prostate biopsy. However, since the test has a low-specificity for prostate cancer, it can lead to a considerable number of unnecessary, invasive procedures some of which find clinically insignificant tumors.
Researchers from leading universities in Belgium and The Netherlands used a decision-tree and mathematical model to evaluate diagnostic strategies that used SelectMDx versus PSA testing alone, to identify patients for transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TRUSGB) procedures.1 Findings indicated that a diagnostic strategy that used SelectMDx with a cut-off sensitivity of 95.7% for high-grade prostate cancer, resulted in savings of 128 and a gain of 0.025 quality-adjusted life year (QALY)* per patient compared to using PSA alone.1
"We know from our clinical validation studies that SelectMDx is a powerful predictor of high-grade prostate cancer and can help stratify patients for biopsy," said Prof. Wim Van Criekinge, study investigator, Ghent University, Belgium and Chief Scientific Officer of MDxHealth. "However, it was interesting to see that adding SelectMDx on top of the current standard of care actually lowered healthcare costs."
Patients selected for TRUSGB using PSA testing alone had a probability of 77% to undergo an unnecessary procedure versus 36% when using SelectMDx. Therefore, 41% of these unnecessary biopsies could be prevented. The probability to find a low-grade prostate cancer was also reduced by 7%.1
*QALY is a calculation to assess a medical intervention's impact on a person's quality of life. One QALY is equal to 1 year of life in perfect health. It is often used in economic analyses to assess a cost-benefit.
About SelectMDx for Prostate Cancer
Of the more than 2 million prostate biopsies performed each year in the US and Europe, less than a third find cancer. Most of these men could have avoided a painful and invasive prostate biopsy procedure, with its associated complications and costs. SelectMDx for Prostate Cancer is a proprietary urine-based, molecular diagnostic test that offers a non-invasive 'liquid biopsy' method to assess a man's risk for prostate cancer. SelectMDx helps identify men at increased risk of harboring aggressive, potentially lethal, prostate cancer who may benefit most from a prostate biopsy and earlier detection. The test delivers a negative predictive value (NPV) of 98% for clinically significant disease, helping to reduce unnecessary MRI procedures and invasive prostate biopsies by approximately 50%, thereby reducing healthcare costs.
About MDxHealth
MDxHealth is a multinational healthcare company that provides actionable molecular diagnostic information to personalize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The company's tests are based on proprietary genetic, epigenetic (methylation) and other molecular technologies and assist physicians with the diagnosis of urologic cancers, prognosis of recurrence risk, and prediction of response to a specific therapy. The Company's European headquarters are in Herstal, Belgium, with laboratory operations in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and US headquarters and laboratory operations based in Irvine, California. For more information, visit mdxhealth.com and follow us on Twitter at: twitter.com/mdxhealth.
For more information:
Shalon Roth, EVP Corporate Communications
MDxHealth
UK: +44 (0)7393 906278
@ShalonRoth
info@mdxhealth.com
Reference:
Dijkstra S, et al. (2017) Cost-effectiveness of a new urinary biomarker-based risk score compared to standard of care in prostate cancer diagnostics - a decision analytical model. BJUI. [advance e-publication] doi: 10.1111/bju.13861.
This press release contains forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the anticipated future performance of MDxHealth and the market in which it operates. Such statements and estimates are based on assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable but may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict, may depend upon factors that are beyond the company's control, and may turn out to be materially different. MDxHealth expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this release to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based unless required by law or regulation. This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities or assets of MDxHealth in any jurisdiction. No securities of MDxHealth may be offered or sold within the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or in compliance with an exemption therefrom, and in accordance with any applicable U.S. securities laws.
NOTE: The MDxHealth logo, MDxHealth, ConfirmMDx, SelectMDx, AssureMDx and PredictMDx are trademarks or registered trademarks of MDxHealth SA. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Almere, The Netherlands
April 10, 2017
ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today announces that the information regarding the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM), scheduled for May 22, 2017, is now available on the Company's website, www.asm.com.
This information includes the convocation and the full agenda as well as the proxy materials for holders of New York Registry Shares.
The AGM is scheduled to commence at 2:00 p.m. CET at the Hilton Hotel, Apollolaan 138, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The total number of issued shares in ASM International N.V. as per today amounts to 63,797,394 common shares. Considering the number of shares held in treasury, amounting to 4,388,060 shares, the number of voting shares amounts to 59,409,334.
In accordance with applicable legal requirements in the Netherlands the record date for the AGM is April 24, 2017 as further set out in the convocation for the meeting.
About ASM International
ASM International NV, headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, its subsidiaries and participations design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International, its subsidiaries and participations provide production solutions for wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as for assembly & packaging and surface mount technology (Back-end segment) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASMI's website at www.asm.com .
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: All matters discussed in this press release, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry generally and the timing of the industry cycles specifically, currency fluctuations, corporate transactions, financing and liquidity matters, the success of restructurings, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholders or other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability, epidemics and other risks indicated in the Company's reports and financial statements. The Company assumes no obligation nor intends to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or circumstances.
CONTACT
Investor contact:
Victor Bareno
T: +31 88 100 8500
E: victor.bareno@asm.com
Media contact:
Ian Bickerton
T: +31 625 018 512
English French
Paris, 10 April 2017
No. 10-17
Changes in governance
At its meeting of 10 April 2017, the Board of Directors took due note of the resignation of Jean-Francois Henin as member and Chairman of the Board.
Board members paid tribute to Jean-Francois Henin's commitment and achievements over the years. A visionary, he turned Maurel & Prom into an oil operator in 1998, and its successes in the Congo, Gabon, Colombia, Nigeria and Tanzania have earned the Group global renown.
In the summer of 2016, Jean-Francois Henin sold his stake in Maurel & Prom, held through the holding company Pacifico, to Pertamina. This provided Maurel & Prom with the support of a major oil industry player and the resources it needs to accelerate the Group's growth.
Appointment of Aussie B. Gautama as Chairman of the Board of Directors
The Board has co-opted and appointed Board member Aussie B. Gautama as Chairman of the Board, effective immediately.
Aussie B. Gautama, an adviser to Pertamina's CEO on Exploration and Production activities since 2015, has more than 35 years' experience in the hydrocarbon sector, 30 of which were at TOTAL Group working, including from France, on various projects in Indonesia, Norway, Libya and Nigeria.
The Board of Directors has confirmed Michel Hochard as Chief Executive Officer.
Co-optation of two new directors
The Board of Directors has also taken due note, as of today, of the resignation of Gerard Andreck, independent director and Chairman of the Appointments and Compensation Committee, Francois Raudot Genet de Chatenay, independent director and member of the Appointments and Compensation Committee, and Eloi Duverger, independent director.
The Board voted to co-opt Maria R. Nellia and PT Pertamina Internasional Eksplorasi dan Produksi (PIEP), represented by Huddie Dewanto, as directors.
APPENDICES
Aussie B. Gautama, 61 years of age
Aussie B. Gautama, an adviser to Pertamina's CEO on Exploration and Production activities since 2015, has held a number of successive positions at Total (1982-2012).
In 1991, he joined Total in Paris, working as a geologist on the Midgard project in Norway for two years. From 1998 to 2000, he worked at Total Libya as Geology and Geophysics Manager. In 2005, he returned to Total in Paris where he spent two years coordinating the OML 130 Egina-Preowei project in Nigeria.
From 2007 to 2012, he served as Vice President Geosciences & Reservoir at Total E&P Indonesia.
In 2012, Aussie B. Gautama was appointed Deputy for Planning Management at SKK Migas, the Indonesian regulatory authority tasked with managing exploration and production activities in the country's hydrocarbon industry.
A graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia, Aussie B. Gautama has also received a solid international education at schools such as ENSPM and INSEAD.
Maria R. Nellia, 52 years of age
Maria has worked in oil & gas industry for almost 29 years since 1989. She joined PT Pertamina Internasional EP in 2015 and currently serves as Vice President of Commercial & Business Support.
Maria received her bachelor degree in Geophysical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, USA in 1988.
In August 1989, Maria started her career in Mobil Oil Indonesia and continued in Exxon Mobil as Geophysicist Exploration Development. She developed her management expertise in oil & gas company when she joined several multinational oil & gas companies such as PT. Landmark Concurrent Solusi Indonesia, a Halliburton Company (2000), PT Medco E&P Indonesia (2004) and Eni Indonesia (2007). During that time, she occupied many different roles including as the Exploration Project Liaison Superintendent in Eni Indonesia (2014).
Beside her career, Maria also developed her interest in petroleum subject by produced 1 research paper, that she presented in 22nd IPA (Indonesian Petroleum Association) Convention in 1993 and AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologist) Convention in 1994 with title "3D Seismic Facies Analysis of a Reefal Buildup of the NSO "A" Area, Offshore North Sumatra" Indonesia.
Huddie Dewanto, 53 years of age
Dewanto is the member of Board of Directors at PT Pertamina International Exploration and Production). He was graduated from University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) Indonesia in Accounting and continued his study in Case Western Reserve University US for his Master Degree within the same subject.
He has 27 years financial management experience during his serving at PT Pertamina (Persero) since 1990. During 1999 - 2004, he was appointed as Indonesia representative at OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) in Vienna.
After his return from OPEC, Dewanto started his first managerial role as the Funding Manager in 2007 and continued his career as the Vice President Financing at PT Pertamina (Persero). During this period, Dewanto received several leadership and technical training provided by the company in cooperation with prestigious Leadership Institute such as INSEAD. In 2013, Dewanto was appointed as the Finance & Business Support Director for PT Pertamina Algeria EP and deeply involved in the acquisition of ConocoPhillips Algeria Ltd, the first overseas operatorship asset owned by Pertamina, he then continued his role to PT Pertamina Internasional EP as Finance & Commercial Director.
For more information, go to www.maureletprom.fr
MAUREL & PROM
Tel: +33 (0)1 53 83 16 00
Press, shareholder and investor relations
Tel: +33 (0)1 53 83 16 45
ir@maureletprom.fr
This document may contain forward-looking statements regarding the financial position, results, business and industrial strategy of Maurel & Prom. By nature, forward-looking statements contain risks and uncertainties to the extent that they are based on events or circumstances that may or may not happen in the future. These projections are based on assumptions we believe to be reasonable, but which may prove to be incorrect and which depend on a number of risk factors, such as fluctuations in crude oil prices, changes in exchange rates, uncertainties related to the valuation of our oil reserves, actual rates of oil production and the related costs, operational problems, political stability, legislative or regulatory reforms, or even wars, terrorism and sabotage.
Maurel & Prom is listed for trading on Euronext Paris
CAC mid 60 - SBF120 - CAC Mid & Small - CAC All-Tradable - CAC All-Share - CAC PME - EnterNext PEA-PME 150
ISIN FR0000051070 / Bloomberg MAU.FP / Reuters MAUP.PA
Bunuel wrote:
At a certain upscale restaurant, there just two kinds of food items: entrees and appetizers. Each entree item costs $30, and each appetizer item costs $12. Last year, it had a total of 15 food items on the menu, and the average price of a food item on its menu was $18. This year, it added more appetizer items, and the average price of a food item on its menu dropped to $15. How many appetizer items did it add this year?
A. 3
B. 6
C. 9
D. 12
E. 15
Kudos for a correct solution .
OFFICIAL SOLUTION:
Method I: using sums
Method II: proportional placement of the total average
First, last year. Let x be the number of entrees. Then (15 x) is the number of appetizers. The sums are:entrees = 30xappetizers = (15 x)*12 = 12*15 12x = 6*30 12x = 180 12xtotal = 15*18 = 30*9 = 270Notice the use of the Doubling and Halving trick in the second and third lines. The two individual sums should add up to the total sum.30x + 180 12x = 27018x = 90x = 5They start out with 5 entrees and 10 appetizers.Let N be the number of appetizers added, so now there are 5 entrees and (10 + N) appetizers. We need to solve for N. Again, the sums:entrees = 5*30 = 150appetizers = (10 + N)*12 = 120 + 12Ntotal = (15 + N)*15 = 225 + 15NAgain, the two individual sums should add up to the total sum.150 + 120 + 12N = 225 + 15N270 = 225 + 3N45 = 3N15 = NThey added 15 more appetizers. Answer = (E)Method I was do-able, but we had to solve for many values.Originally, the entree price was 30 18 = 12 from the total average, and the appetizer price was 18 12 = 6. This means there must have been twice as many appetizers as entrees. Therefore , with 15 items, there must have been 10 appetizers and 5 entrees.The number of entrees doesnt change. The average drops to $15, so the distance from the entree price is now 30 15 = 15, and the distance from the appetizer price is now 15 12 = 3. Thats a 5-to-1 ratio, which means there must be 5x as many appetizers as entrees. Since there still are 5 entrees, there must now be 25 appetizers, so 15 have been added.Answer = (E)If you know how to employ this method, it is much more elegant._________________
serbiano wrote:
Columnist: George Orwells book 1984 has exercised much influence on a great number of this newspapers readers. One thousand readers were surveyed and asked to name the one book that had the most influence on their lives. The book chosen most often was the Bible; 1984 was second.
The answer to which one of the following questions would most help in evaluating the columnists argument?
A. How many books had each person surveyed read?
B. How many people chose books other than 1984?
C. How many people read the columnists newspaper?
D. How many books by George Orwell other than 1984 were chosen?
E. How many of those surveyed had actually read the books they chose?
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
Number of people surveyed = 1000
Number of people naming the Bible as the most influential book = 999
Number of people naming 1984 as the most influential book = 1
Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer
First try the response, 999. In this case, only one person selected 1984 as the most influential book, and the argument is greatly weakened.
Next try the response, 501. In this instance, 499 people selected 1984 as the most influential book and the conclusion is strengthened (the other 501 people would have selected the Bible). Note that you cannot try a number larger than 501 because that would mean that the Bible was not named most often.
The conclusion of the argument is the first sentence: George Orwells book 1984 has exercised much influence on a great number of this newspapers readers. The basis for this conclusion is that 1984 was the second most named book in a survey about influential books. The argument contains a serious error: just because 1984 came in second in the survey does not mean that a great number of readers selected it as influential. To illustrate this proposition, consider the following example:In this example, 1984 has come in second, but no one would say this second place finish supports a conclusion that 1984 has exercised much influence on a great number of this newspapers readers. You can expect the correct answer to address this issue.Answer choice (A): The survey in the argument asks readers to name the one book with the most influence in their lives; the number of books read does not affect this answer. To apply the Variance Test, try opposite answers of 1 and a large number, say 10,000. These numbers will not alter the evaluation of the argument, and thus this answer is incorrect., but it can be difficult since the wording is a bit unusual. The question is intended to reveal how many people selected 1984 relative to the other choices, and this addresses the issue raised in the analysis of the stimulus. Consider how the variance test works for this answer choice:Because the varied responses produce different evaluations of the argument, this answer is correct. Answer choice (C): This answer is not relevant to the columnists argument. Apply the Variance Test to disprove this answer by using opposite answers of 0 and a very large number, such as 1 million.Answer choice (D): Because the argument is about Orwells 1984, other Orwell books chosen by the readers have no impact on the argument. Apply the Variance Test, using opposite answers of 0 and a small number such as 10 (Orwell wrote dozens of essays, but not dozens of books).Answer choice (E): The survey in the argument addresses influence, not the actual reading of the book. A person might be influenced by a book like the Bible through church teachings, etc. without actually having read the book. To apply the Variance Test, try opposite answers of 0 and 1000._________________
Re: In the United States, of the young adults who move from one state to a [ #permalink
ZLukeZ wrote:
kys123 wrote: The percentage of college student decreased. So if there were more people overall who go to others states for college overall it could mean that there is actually more college students in California rather than less. They might be a smaller fraction of the population, but the total number has increased.
you mean there are more students orginally from Calofirnia than there are students in California?
Therefore, business have enough graduates that are originally from CA to employ?
Edit: I get it now... Business seek college students no matter where they are from. They don't have to be from California. Thus even if there are less students in CA, there are more students over all , and therefore there are still enough people that can be employed..
Correct? you mean there are more students orginallyCalofirnia than there are studentsCalifornia?Therefore, businessEdit: I get it now... Business seek college students no matter where they are from. They don't have to be from California. Thus even if there are less students in CA, there are more students over all , and therefore there are still enough people that can be employed..Correct?
AzWildcat1 wrote:
In the United States, of the young adults who move from one state to another to attend college, the percentage who attend college in California has decreased by five percentage points over the past ten years. Since many local businesses in California cater to college students,these declines are likely to have a noticeably negative economic effect on these businesses and therefore on the economy on California.
Suppose there is no increase in Number of Students ( Population Remains the same )
1,000
950
Let's consider the possibility that the number of students ( Assuming Population Increases )
1,000
1425
Observe there is an actual increase in number of students , from 1000 to 1425 students ( Despite 5% decrease in population )
This suggests that there is an increase in population and there is scope for local business to flourish despite 5% decrease in population.
have enough graduates that are originally from CA to employ?
local businesses in California cater to college students,"
I don't think it is about the employment of College students in Local Business.
PS : Whenever % is given , always consider the factor " Number " in CR...
California - Year 1 ==> Total No of Students is 10,000 , No of students attending college isCalifornia - Year 10 ==>Total No of Students is 10,000 , students attending college is( Considering 5% decrease)California - Year 1 ==> Total No of Students is 10,000 , No of students attending college isCalifornia - Year 10 ==>Total No of Students is 15,000 ( Assuming Population Increases ), students attending college is( Considering 5% decrease)Hope this helps in understanding the issue a bit...- The statement mentions ", if I am correct (Correct me if I am wrong) it means local Business dependent on College students will suffer ( Example People like Book Stores , Cafeterias etc... ) ,- Plz correct me if I am wrong._________________
noboru wrote:
Nearly all mail that is correctly addressed arrives at its destination within two business days of being sent. In fact, correctly addressed mail takes longer than this only when it is damaged in transit. Overall, however, most mail arrives three business days or more after being sent.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following must be true?
(A) A large proportion of the mail that is correctly addressed is damaged in transit.
(B) No incorrectly addressed mail arrives within two business days of being sent.
(C) Most mail that arrives within two business days of being sent is correctly addressed.
(D) A large proportion of mail is incorrectly addressed.
(E) More mail arrives within two business days of being sent than arrives between two and three business days after being sent.
fameatop wrote:
Hi Mike,
I am not able to understand why option C is incorrect & D is correct. Can you kindly throw some light on the same. Waiting eagerly for your detailed explanation.
Regards, Fame
nearly all
within two business days of being sent
nearly all
most mail arrives three business days or more after being sent
(D)
(A)
NEARLY ALL
(C)
could
must be true
Scenario #1
(C)
Scenario #2
(C)
(C)
must be true
(D)
Magoosh Test Prep
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats (1865 1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats (1865 1939) Signature Read More
Apparently this is a practice LSAT Analytical Reasoning question, and it's an excellent question. I'm not sure whether MLSAT is the source, but it is discussed on this page:OK, let's think in terms of categories.Category P === correctly addressed mailCategory Q === incorrectly addressed mailThat's the big breakdown. At the outset, we have no idea of the relative breakdown of these two, but the whole "population" of mail falls into one of these two categories.Category P has the further breakdownCategory P1 = correct addressed and not damaged ---- this is "" of Category P, and this arrives "Category P2 = correctly addressed by damaged in transit --- this is some very small fraction of Category P (whatever the opposite of "" is!), and it doesn't arrive quicklyWe absolutely know that mail in Category P1 arrives within two days. How fast does mail in category Q arrive? We can draw absolutely no conclusion about this. We also have no idea what proportion arrives earlier and what proportion arrives late.Given the last piece of information --- "" --- from this, we absolutely know that P1 does not account for a majority of mail. If P1 is less than half of mail, we know P2 is going to account for such a small percentage that it doesn't matter, and this means Q must account for the majority of mail. This is precisely whatsays. This is by far the best answer, the only possible right answer.Why iswrong? This directly contradicts the statement thatcorrect addressed mail arrives within two days and therefore is not damaged.Why iswrong? Well, this onebe true, but it is not necessarily true --- it doesn't reach the standard of "" for which the question is asking. Consider these two scenarios.P1 = 39%P2 = 1%Q = 60%, and all of it arrives lateThis scenario is consistent with all the statements in the argument, and this supports answerP1 = 19%P2 = 1%Q = 80%, and this consists of two sub-categoriesQ1 = 25% --- arrive in two days daysQ2 = 55% --- arrives in three or more daysNow, all the statements in the argument are still true --- it's still true that the majority of mail --- 56% (P2 + Q2) arrives late --- but now if we look at the 44% that arrives on time, 25/44 comes from Q, the incorrectly addressed mail, and 19/44 comes P, the correctly addressed mail. Thus, the majority of mail that arrives on time, 25/44, comes from category Q, the incorrectly addressed mail. This is a scenario totally consistent with the argument in whichis false.Thus, we can construct scenarios consistent with the argument that makeeither true or false, so it is not a candidate for a "" answer.The only viable answer is, the OA.Please let me know if anyone reading this has any further questions.Mike_________________
kelleyorquestrom wrote:
Hello I registered to this website to ask this question since I thought that people would be more knowledgeable than college confidential. I would probably major in accounting or finance and I go to kelley for free and boston university for 45k a year.
My parents think that questrom would be a better choice for these reasons. 1. they care about school's reputation and rank overall. They don't like that IU is a state school and public. They think private schools will be better. (My parents were born and raised in asian country. What they think may be different from american people) 2. many good companies are in boston (boston consulting company, deloitte, etc) and it will be easier for me to get good internship opportunities. Lots of people are from BU at boston so i will have connections. 3. It's better to work in korea. Korean companies care more about school's reputation than the program. However, i am still not sure if I will work in korea or in the us.
But I think IU is better because 1. better program. #4 in the nation vs #40 something. 2. equal opportunities and internship in IU I am assuming. 3. cheaper. My parents say that they can pay 45k a year but I want them to spend that money on themselves.
So do you guys know what accounting or finance companies think about these schools? Assuming that I get same gpa, do they prefer kelley or questrom? Also if I pay the same money, would it be still kelley? If I spend 1 year at BU and transfer to IU kelley, would that be a bad idea? (if I don't like boston university of course). Finally, how good really is kelley for undergrad? I know that its ranked #4 in the nation and people say that it's great but ranking is just what the us news says and there are probably some other opinions.
I'm confused. Are you asking for MBA program or undergrad program?
A Nigerian lady, Obiageli Omeke, who just graduated from an American university, has become the first nursing graduate in her village.
The lady who is also the first to graduate from a university in her family, graduated from Texas A&M University in Corpus Christy.
Lady becomes first nursing graduate from her village in Enugu state
READ ALSO: Worshippers in shock as pastor dies at the altar
Legit.ng gathered that Omeke is from Umuogbo Agu village in Enugu state.
She expressed that she chose the nursing career because nursing is part of who she is. She wrote: I chose the career of nursing because of who I am, said Omeke. Nursing is all of me.
Igbo lady becomes first graduate in her family
READ ALSO: Nigerian prophet predicts there could be a plane crash between now and May
Watch Omeke in action
Watch Legit.ng's exclusive interview with female mechanic
Source: Legit.ng
Controversial Ghanaian counselor and pastor, George Lutherodt, is at it again.
The counselor who is known for his various outrageous relationship advice has once again advised women not to marry poor men because it will result in early death.
Lutherodt went further to advise women to arrest any poor man who uses their photos as profile pictures on social media.
George Lutterodt
"Report such a man to the police and let them know he is using your image to perpetrate crime. Never allow a poor man to marry you. You will die early and go to hell. A man who cannot afford a square meal and a snack should not dream of marriage because he cannot fend for himself", he said.
READ ALSO: The Bible doesn't condemn prostitution - Ghanaian pastor
He also said it is an insult for man who is not living in his own apartment to seek a lady's hand in marriage. He described such a person as a criminal who is committing crimes against humanity.
"There are some of the men who have no rooms of their own who live in obey the wind chamber and hall. Any man who is of age but not reminded by his parents, such parents are witches and wizards. Never support a man to marry you. He must be fully responsible to cater for you and therefore must bear all the cost of the marriage."
Source: Legit.ng
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
Researchers have detected the sounds of a previously undescribed species of dwarf bush baby deep in the African jungle, Joinfo.com reports with reference to National Geographic.
The team noticed one of the calls didnt sound anything like the 18 known species of bush babya tiny, bug-eyed mammal also called a galagoliving in western Angolas Kumbira Forest.
When the scientists finally spotted the primate, they discovered that it was 6.2 inches long, bigger than some other known dwarf galagosin their words, a giant among dwarfs.
Until now, call types have been the most reliable way to distinguish galago species, and to find one that did not match what we expected was very exciting, study leader Magdalena Svensson, a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford Brookes University in the U.K., says by email.
The team recorded calls of several bush babies at three forest sites in western Angola, then compared the recordings with teeth and jaws from museum specimens. They could decipher what kind of call a galago makes based on its skull structure, and one of the recorded calls did not match any of the skulls.
The results, published recently in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, describe the new bush baby, dubbed the Angolan dwarf galago, Galagoides kumbirensis, after the forest in which Svensson and others first heard its sounds.
Bush babies are difficult to studytheyre nocturnal and often live in politically unstable regions, says Luca Pozzi, an anthropologist and bush baby expert at the University of Texas at San Antonio. (Read about a shy, colorful monkey you probably have never heard of.)
Nighttime research also has unique challenges: Pozzi once faced down an elephant at night while studying galagos in East Africa.
Its a great discovery, says Pozzi, who wasnt involved in the research. It just explains how much we still have to know about these animals.
But the new primate may be even harder to study if their numbers decline due to human pressure.
Deforestation due to commercial logging is increasing rapidly throughout Angolas hillside forests, especially in Kumbira, Svensson says.
The fact that these are the very forests that harbor a newly discovered, endemic primate highlights the importance of the Angolan ecosystems and sends a clear message about the urgent need for conservation measures in this region, she says.
Judith Masters, a zoologist at Fort Hare University in South Africa, suggests that the new species is likely already endangered due to habitat loss from agriculture and mining.
Theres a huge amount of destruction going on in West Africa, she says. Its heartbreaking.
On 3-5 October 2017 Kyiv is going to host the Space and Future Forum to network international experts and youth, many of whom will also participate at the first CosmoHack in the world. Joinfo provides media coverage of the Forum, and some of its topics were already discussed ...
The Pinebook is a cheap, low-power laptop with an ARM-based processor. First unveiled in November, the Pinebook comes from the makers of the Pine A64 single-board computer and it uses the same processor as that tiny desktop.
Now the company is getting ready to begin shipping laptops to customers.
Prices start at $89 for a model with an 11.6 inch display or $99 for a 14 inch version but shipping from Hong Kong can add as much as $$37 to the price, depending on where you live.
The Pinebook is available through a build-to-order system. You have to enter your email address and choose a screen size and then wait for the sales team to contact you before your order can be placed.
A tipster forwarded me the email he received, which shows that shipping to the US costs $29 and that the order will be shipped in mid-April.
The Pinebook itself is a laptop with a 64-bit Allwinner A64 ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 2.0 ports, a microSd card slot, headphone jack, and mini HDMI port. Theres a VGA webcam.
Both the 11.6 inch and 14 inch models have 1366 x 768 pixel TN displays and 10,000 mAh batteries. And both have full-sized keyboards and touchpads with support for multitouch input.
The smaller model measures 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.5 and weighs 2.3 pounds, while the 14 inch model is 13 x 8.7 x 0.5 and 2.8 pounds.
Optional accessories are also available for purchase, including HDMI and USB cables or a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, but you can also probably use third-party versions of those.
One thing to keep in mind? The Pinebook is only covered by a 30-day warranty and all sales are final, with no returns accepted.
You can read more about some of the pre-release hardware in a thread at the Pine64 forum.
thanks Frank!
Morocco was ranked on top of North African countries as a tourism destination and third in the continent by the World Economic Forum, which has just issued its 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.
Although Morocco lost three ranks over 2015 global report on Travel and Tourism competitiveness, from 62 in 2015 to 65 in 2017, it still features among African top destinations.
The North African country ranks 65th out of 136 countries in the 2017 report compared with its 62nd position in the 2015 report.
At the level of North Africa, Morocco came ahead of Tunisia (87th) and Egypt (74th). Algeria took the very last position in the report (136th), which offers an in-depth analysis of the Travel and Tourism competitiveness of 136 economies across the world.
At the level of the continent, Morocco ranks right behind South Africa and Mauritius as top African destinations.
Even though the Moroccan Tourism Authority is robbing hands for a successful 2017 season, the report however points out shortages and a number of elements to improve in view of attracting larger numbers of tourists.
Considering the insecurity plugging several countries, Morocco was ranked the 20th safest destination in the globe.
Despite an unfavorable regional context marked by turmoil and instability as well as increasing amalgams due to terrorist attacks in Europe, Morocco managed to maintain its position in the global ranking.
In the WEF ranking, Spain came first followed by France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The WEF biannual report reveals that the global travel and tourism sector accounts for 10 percent of global GDP and provides one in 10 jobs worldwide.
Parkinsons disease affects more than 4.6 million people around the world and there is currently no cure. Credit: Lewy Body alphaSynuclein by Marvin 101 is licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0
Replacing lost brain cells may help undo the damage caused by Parkinson's disease, researchers believe.
Parkinson's disease affects more than 4.6 million people worldwide and this number is set to double by 2030 as the population ages. While the symptoms of this movement disorder can be alleviated, there is currently no way to stop it from progressing.
The disease develops in part because cells that produce dopamine, an essential brain chemical, are lost. One of the most effective treatments for Parkinson's is levodopa which increases dopamine levels. However, the effectiveness of this therapy wears off over time and it can have side effects.
Researchers investigating better ways to treat Parkinson's have implanted dopamine-producing cells into patients' brains. Small studies conducted since the 1980s have shown promise: some patients do very well, but others have suffered from side effects without clinical benefits.
"Cell transplantation has been shown to work for some patients and we wanted to further optimise the protocols," said Natalie Valle Guzman at the Cambridge University Brain Repair Centre, in the UK.
"The previous trials found that the patients who do best are those who have been diagnosed for less than 10 years, have responded well to levodopa drug treatments but have not yet developed major complications from it, and are under the age of 65."
Tests underway
Researchers at several European centres have been working to fine-tune their patient selection criteria and perfect how cells are prepared for grafting. Since May 2015, through the EU-funded TransEuro project led by Professor Roger Barker at Cambridge University, doctors in the UK and Sweden have performed 17 grafts on Parkinson's patients and 10 more surgeries are planned.
Each patient undergoes two procedures, one for each side of the brain. In some cases, it is not feasible to graft both sides in a single procedure due to the limited supply of the specialised cells required.
Results of the trial are expected from 2020 onwards, after all patients enrolled in the study reach the three-year endpoint at which doctors can assess the safety and effectiveness of the graft.
Guzman said it could be 10 years before this treatment would potentially reach clinics. By then, progress on developing flexible stem cells from adult cells could solve the problem researchers face in securing specialised brain cells.
The current trial could pave the way for the first in-human transplant trial replacing brain cells with stem cells.
"Our hope is that the current trial will demonstrate proof of concept," said Guzman. "We would then move to using stem-cell-derived dopamine neurons."
It's such a big job because so much damage has already been done to the brain by the time a diagnosis has been made.
"By the time someone is diagnosed, about 50 % of their dopamine-producing brain cells have already died," Guzman said.
The problem is that there is currently no blood test or brain scan for Parkinson's. The only sure-fire way to confirm that someone had the disease is by analysing brain tissue after they have died. Doctors diagnose the disease based on clinical symptoms such as tremors, stiffness and problems with balance, and their response to treatment and sometimes special dopamine scans.
Simple test
This approach has several downsides. Not only can the disease be confused with other similar neurological conditions, it also means that by the time there are clear signs of the disease, considerable damage may have been done to the brain.
A simple blood test that checked for detectable signs of the disease, known as biomarkers, would allow doctors to intervene much earlier, potentially limiting the damage done by the disease. Biomarkers would serve as an early warning system that flagged up a looming problem and which could be treated as early as possible.
The ideal biomarker would also be specific enough to allow doctors to track the patient's progress after treatment begins potentially prompting them to switch treatments if medication is not having the desired effect.
Now, a long-awaited Parkinson's biomarker may be on the horizon. The EU-funded Biomarkers for PD project has established a new test for biomarkers in the fluid that surrounds the brain and spine of patients with the disease.
The researchers took samples of the fluid known as cerebrospinal fluid from people with Parkinson's and healthy individuals. They tested this liquid for soluble alpha-synuclein, a protein associated with the disease.
"This has the potential of becoming the first biomarker assay (test) that can reflect the underlying pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease," said Dr Gunilla Osswald, chief executive BioArctic AB, the brain disease specialist company that coordinates the research project.
"By enabling early and more specific diagnosis of the disease, patients can be given treatment earlier thereby improving quality of life, symptom-free time and the cost for society will also be lower," said Dr Osswald. "The development of the biomarker assay would also facilitate the development of effective disease-modifying treatments benefiting all patients suffering from Parkinson's disease."
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Researchers at the University of Zurich have identified the brain mechanism that governs decisions between honesty and self-interest. Using non-invasive brain stimulation, they could even increase honest behavior.
Honesty plays a key role in social and economic life. Without honesty, promises are not kept, contracts are not enforced, taxes remain unpaid. Despite the importance of honesty for society, its biological basis remains poorly understood. Researchers at the University of Zurich, together with colleagues from Chicago and Boston, now show that honest behavior can be increased by means of non-invasive brain stimulation. The results of their research highlight a deliberation process between honesty and self-interest in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC).
Occasional lies for material self interest
In their die-rolling experiment, the participants could increase their earnings by cheating rather than telling the truth (see box below). The researchers found that people cheated a significant amount of the time. However, many participants also stuck to the truth. "Most people seem to weigh motives of self-interest against honesty on a case-by-case basis; they cheat a little but not on every possible occasion." explains Michel Marechal, UZH Professor for Experimental Economics. However, about 8% of the participants cheated in whenever possible and maximized their profit.
Less lies through brain stimulation
The researchers applied transcranial direct current stimulation over a region in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC). This noninvasive brain stimulation method makes brain cells more sensitive i.e., they are more likely to be active. When the researchers applied this stimulation during the task, participants were less likely to cheat. However, the number of consistent cheaters remained the same. Christian Ruff, UZH Professor of Neuroeconomics, points out "This finding suggests that the stimulation mainly reduced cheating in participants who actually experienced a moral conflict, but did not influence the decision making process in those not in those who were committed to maximizing their earnings".
Conflict between money and morals
The researchers found that the stimulation only affected the process of weighing up material versus moral motives. They found no effects for other types of conflict that do not involve moral concerns (i.e., financial decisions involving risk, ambiguity, and delayed rewards). Similarly, an additional experiment showed that the stimulation did not affect honest behavior when cheating led to a payoff for another person instead of oneself and the conflict was therefore between two moral motives. The pattern of results suggests that the stimulated neurobiological process specifically resolves trade-offs between material self-interest and honesty.
Developing an understanding of the biological basis of behavior
According to the researchers, these findings are an important first step in identifying the brain processes that allow people to behave honestly. "These brain processes could lie at the heart of individual differences and possibly pathologies of honest behavior", explains Christian Ruff. And finally, the new results raise the question to what degree honest behavior is based on biological predispositions, which may be crucial for jurisdiction. Michel Marechal summarizes: "If breaches of honesty indeed represent an organic condition, our results question to what extent people can be made fully liable for their wrongdoings."
More information: Michel Andre Marechal, Alain Cohn, Giuseppe Ugazio, and Christian C. Ruff. Increasing honesty in humans with noninvasive brain stimulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. April 10, 2017. Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Michel Andre Marechal, Alain Cohn, Giuseppe Ugazio, and Christian C. Ruff. Increasing honesty in humans with noninvasive brain stimulation.. April 10, 2017. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1614912114
Credit: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
In an FWF-funded project, scientists at the University of Graz modified and reinforced a host defence peptide from breast milk so as to enable it to specifically detect cancer cells. The active substance can then induce cell death. Research continues on this new therapeutic approach to types of cancer with limited treatability.
Many types of cancer respond well to treatment if detected early and treated with effective chemotherapy. But types that are poorly treatable include skin cancer and brain cancer (glioblastoma) as well as metastases, i.e. tumour cells spreading to remote parts of the body via the bloodstream. But even the most malignant cancer cell has a weak spot, an Achilles heel. Unlike healthy cells, the membrane enveloping cancer cells carries on its outer side negatively charged molecules, the lipid phosphatidylserine (PS). This means that PS can serve as a marker for cancer. With the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a team from the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz has developed a new weapon that selectively targets this Achilles heel.
Peptide arrow carved from breast milk
In a preceding FWF project, the team of principal investigator Dagmar Zweytick had already ascertained that the PS cancer marker was an appropriate target for anti-tumour medication, since it was detectable on membranes of various types of cancer and even metastases. In the present follow-up project, the team has now managed to hone a human defence peptide into an arrow that targets cancer cells. A modified and strengthened active part of the peptide lactoferricin, which is found in a precursor in breast milk, identifies various types of cancer cells, including melanoma and glioblastoma. The positively charged peptide arrows selectively locate the negatively charged PS-exposed on the surface of cancer cells, dock on to them and within a few hours induce cell death (a command that is otherwise blocked in cancer cells). The peptide variants do not, however, interact with healthy cells of the body.
The anti-tumour peptide (blue) interacts with the negatively charged PS markers (red) on the outer membrane of the cancer cell. The peptide is absorbed into the cancer cell, reacts with the mitochondria (green) and induces the controlled self-destruction of the cancer cell (apoptosis). The peptide does not interact with the membrane of healthy cells. Credit: Sabrina Riedl/IMB, University of Graz
Killing cancer without harming healthy cells
"The biggest challenge in the design process was to find the right balance of toxicity and specificity. If the peptides are made too active, they will also attack healthy cells. In control tests we always made sure that the peptides locate only cancer cells and leave normal cells untouched", explain principal investigator Dagmar Zweytick and postdoc researcher Sabrina Riedl. The biophysicist has been working on lactoferricin since 2002. A precursor of the small protein molecule is present in breast milk, a substance that not only nourishes a new-born child but also helps it build a strong antimicrobial defence system. As part of the innate immune system, lactoferricin is the body's first defence reaction against negatively charged non-host cells such as bacteria and fungi, but also against mutated body cells, such as cancer cells. Before the defence peptide can be used as an anti-tumour weapon, it has to be rebuilt in a directed manner to be improved in its activity. Between July 2012 and June 2016, a team of five members worked on the ideal arrangement of the chemical building blocks (amino acids) of the active peptide constituent which is shaped like a hairpin. The team started the design process by simulating variants of promising activity levels in a computer model. About fifteen variants of the substance were synthesised on the basis of these designs and then tested on membrane models and "in vitro" on cancer cell lines.
Skin cancer cells before (left), after 4 hours (middle) and 8 hours (right) of treatment with the anti-tumour peptide. The first stage of cancer cell death is blistering (middle), while the increasing uptake of the red dye points to severe membrane damage and final cell death, induced by the peptide treatment (right). Credit: Sabrina Riedl & Dagmar Zweytick/IMB, University of Graz
Tumour regression in the mouse model
In collaboration with Beate Rinner from the Medical University of Graz, the two most auspicious variants were tested "in vivo". The researchers compared peptide-treated and untreated mouse xenotransplants (mice growing human cancer cells). In the cancer mice treated with peptide, the researchers observed a strong or even complete regression of the tumours, achieving an average of 85% regression in the case of melanoma and up to 50% in the case of glioblastoma when compared with untreated cancer mice. A third control group of healthy mice remained unharmed when treated with the agent. The modified variants showed an effectiveness about ten times greater than the original breast milk peptide.
The active peptide variants with an anti-tumour effect have already been patented in the EU and the USA (respectively are patent pending). The team around Dagmar Zweytick is now collaborating with a pharmaceutical company in the context of a project financed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG in preparation of pre-clinical studies. The new anti-tumour agent should preferably be administered intravenously so as to reach metastases as well. Issues being currently tested include how stable the peptide arrow is in the blood system, whether it can cross the blood-brain barrier and how the arrowhead can be sharpened further.
More information: Sabrina Riedl et al. Human lactoferricin derived di-peptides deploying loop structures induce apoptosis specifically in cancer cells through targeting membranous phosphatidylserine, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes (2015). Sabrina Riedl et al. Human lactoferricin derived di-peptides deploying loop structures induce apoptosis specifically in cancer cells through targeting membranous phosphatidylserine,(2015). DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2015.07.018 Sabrina Riedl et al. Killing of melanoma cells and their metastases by human lactoferricin derivatives requires interaction with the cancer marker phosphatidylserine, BioMetals (2014). DOI: 10.1007/s10534-014-9749-0 Sabrina Riedl et al. In search of a novel targetPhosphatidylserine exposed by non-apoptotic tumor cells and metastases of malignancies with poor treatment efficacy, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes (2011). DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2011.07.026
Abby, Julia and Elmo. Credit: Zach Hyman
(HealthDay)A half-century into its run as an iconic staple of children's television, "Sesame Street" will introduce a character with autism to its world-famous neighborhood.
The new Muppet, a 4-year-old girl named Julia, makes her debut on the show on Monday in a special episode, "Meet Julia." It's slated to air simultaneously on both HBO and PBS.
"Our goal is inclusion," said Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president of U.S. Social Impact at Sesame Workshop, which produces "Sesame Street."
"By introducing this character we want to focus more on the things that children share, rather than their differences. We do want to acknowledge the differences, but then through them find commonalities," she said.
The "Sesame Street" team sees the addition of Julia as an opportunity to offer preschoolers an eye-opening window into the challenges faced by children with autism.
Julia, for example, can wield a paintbrush and sing alongside her Muppet peers. But she will also possess limited verbal skills, and will sometimes demonstrate the kind of repetitive hand-flapping that is often a visible sign of autism.
But "Sesame Street" will also strive to depict Juliawho has a mop of bright orange hairas just another playful girl on the block: a sweet, curious and embraced addition to the beloved family of Big Bird, Elmo and Abby Cadabby.
Julia was first developed in 2015 as part of one of Sesame's many youth-oriented community outreach initiatives, which variously tackle difficult subjects such as parental incarceration or death.
Titled "Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children," the effort, said Betancourt, uses stand-alone videos, animations, story books and e-books to "expand understanding around autism and destigmatize myths."
"And now," she added, "we really see this as an opportunity to expand empathy and diversity by embedding Julia as part of our TV programming, particularly given the high number of people impacted by autism."
The advocacy organization Autism Speaks cites U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers that show that 1 in every 68 American children has an autism spectrum disorder, a figure that breaks down to roughly 1 in every 42 boys and 1 in every 189 girls.
"So, this touches a lot of people," said Lisa Goring, Autism Speaks' New York City-based chief program and marketing officer. "And we applaud 'Sesame Street' for taking this step."
How Julia Came to Be
Goring described the development of Julia as a "collaborative effort," with Autism Speaks and 13 other autism organizations enlisted to provide feedback throughout the planning process.
"And we hope this will really demonstrate to children that people have different challenges and different strengths, but everyone is part of the community," she said.
That sentiment is seconded by Rose Jochum, director of internal initiatives for the national office of the Autism Society of America.
"We're thrilled," she said. "This is a breakthrough. 'Sesame' is very big. They have always been about diversity, and they are just so beloved. So, this is very exciting.
"Of course, Julia is just one little girl with autism," Jochum stressed. "And there's a saying in the autism world that 'if you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.' So, you can't represent everybody on the spectrum in one girl. Julia is an individual. She is unique. And autism is not just one thing.
"But still, I've heard many times people say that they wish there had been a Julia on TV when they were growing up, as a model for what they or their children were going through. Having role models is very important," said Jochum. "And she will be a role model for other children."
Julia's Not Every Child With Autism
"It's true, this is absolutely Julia's autism," Betancourt said. "We certainly do not claim that this is every child with autism. And we didn't go to the extreme in terms of her limitations. Instead, we chose to focus on some of the characteristics and details that reflect some aspects of autism."
For instance, Betancourt highlighted a first-episode interaction Big Bird will have with Julia (who is operated by puppeteer Stacey Gordon, herself the mother of a child with autism).
In that scene, Julia doesn't respond when Big Bird says hello, leading Big Bird to think that Julia doesn't like him, and that "she doesn't want to be my friend."
But eventually he learns to appreciate that Julia's behavior is different from what he's used to, and that her silence doesn't necessarily mean a lack of interest.
"Our core audience is 2 to 5 years old," said Betancourt. "Big Bird is only 6. And children that age are always asking 'Why?' 'Why is he doing that? Why is he different?' Which can be difficult for grownups to answer.
"So our main hope is just to talk about autism up front, and answer some of these questions from a child's perspective. And to say to those who have autism: 'You're not alone,' " she said.
The "Meet Julia" episode will also be launched this week in the United Kingdom, Australia and Mexico, in English and Spanish versions. Plans are afoot to expand into other countries and language markets within the year.
More information: Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president, U.S. Social Impact, Sesame Street Workshop, New York City; Lisa Goring, chief program and marketing officer, Autism Speaks, New York City; Rose Jochum, director, internal initiatives, national office, Autism Society of America, Bethesda, Md. Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president, U.S. Social Impact, Sesame Street Workshop, New York City; Lisa Goring, chief program and marketing officer, Autism Speaks, New York City; Rose Jochum, director, internal initiatives, national office, Autism Society of America, Bethesda, Md. There's more information on autism at Autism Speaks. There's more on Sesame Workshop's autism initiative at Sesame Workshop.
Copyright 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Monash University
For the 66,000 Australians injured in a motor vehicle crash each year the path to recovery can be slow. However new research from Monash University has found engagement with the road accident compensation system can make recovery even slower.
This is a finding from an analysis of thousands of road trauma victims by Research Fellow at Monash University, Dr Melita Giummarra. Dr Giummarra is named as 'Rising Star' of the Australian Pain Society's annual scientific meeting in Adelaide, April 9-12, where she will outline her research.
Dr Giummarra found that while most people injured in a motor vehicle crash recover well and return to work and social activities within months, around one fifth have delayed and complex recoveries.
Her research analysed both patient-reported outcomes from injured persons, and administrative claims and payments data from Victorian Transport Accident Commission road transport claimants. Her results show that the health impacts of injury are frequently worse when the injury is compensable a phenomenon described as 'the compensation effect'.
While symptom exaggeration and malingering may play a role in a small number of cases, there are other factors at play, Dr Giummarra said. These include adversarial relations with insurers, negative experiences with health professionals, or conflict with family members. When the injured person has a compensation claim, or perceives that the injury was someone else's fault, and they develop a moderate to severe level of disability, they have a much higher perception of injustice than those who do not engage with the compensation process, or do not attribute fault to another.
Dr Giummarra said the psychological impacts of dealing with the compensation system can contribute to chronic pain and mental health conditions.
Dr Giummarra called for innovation "to identify clients at risk of a poor outcome so they can be targeted with early interventions, and to streamline lodging and receiving compensation."
Dr Giummarra said: "Reforms in this direction will reduce some of the enormous socioeconomic and health impacts from motor vehicle crashes that cost the economy more than $27 Billion annually.
"The responsibility will ultimately sit with federal, state and local government, primary health care networks and clinicians to get engaged and help develop an effective solution. "Moreover, the transport and workplace compensation systems in each state should maximise their potential to be gate-keepers to recovery by working in partnership with local service providers."
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
After years of attempts, passing of Philadelphia's "soda tax" came down to appealing to people's purse strings, not their health, according to a new Drexel University study.
Jonathan Purtle, DrPH, assistant professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health, led the study that took a behind-the-scenes look at the strategy undertaken to make Philadelphia just the second U.S. city at the time to pass a sugar-sweetened beverage tax. And it appears that that was accomplished through focusing pre-kindergarten education, which enjoyed wide support, rather than the tax's health impact.
"The tax was conceptualized and framed as a revenue-generation ordinance, not a public health ordinance," Purtle explained. "Thus, it appears it was rather easy to avoid health messaging. Pretty much everything was focused on how the revenue from the law would be usednot the potential health benefits."
Purtle was joined by colleagues from the Dornsife School of Public Health Brett Langellier, PhD, and Felice Le-Scherban, PhD, to publish the study in Public Health Management & Practice.
Between April and June 2016, Purtle and company interviewed nine people behind the policymaking process or who had followed the strategy of it. Among those officials were a pair of city council members, city agency officials, a community-based advocate, a news reporter and a researcher. Additionally, the study team monitored news coverage in the months leading up to the passage of the tax on June 16, 2016 (which put a 1.5 cent per ounce levy on sugar-sweetened beverages beginning this year) to help assess findings from the interviews.
They found that the arguments for health benefitswhich had played a prominent role in two previous, failed attempts at a sugary beverage taxwere deemed too controversial to successfully pass the tax this time around. Although health benefits are undeniable when less sugar is taken in lowered obesity and occurrence of diabetesany arguments framed around that were largely left untouched.
"I think there's an analysis in this administration that [the tax] failed twice before in Philadelphia because it appeared to be too much of 'nanny state' politics," an official with a city education agency told the researchers during the policymaking process.
With that in mind, the policymakers decided to pin the tax to something that already had broad support: prekindergarten education. A poll around that time showed that 84 percent of Philadelphians felt that prekindergarten education was "very important." With such support for that issue, the messaging around the tax almost exclusively centered on it being a revenue stream for funding prekindergarten education across the city.
"[Jim Kenney] framed it as not a health debate, but he framed it as a debate over the source of tax revenue for pre-K [education] and expanded recreation facilities," the local news reporter the study team interviewed told them. "He obviously knew that [sugar-sweetened beverage tax proposals] had lost any number of times in any number of cities before, most of which tried the health argument."
Purtle and his team found that avoiding health-related discussions allowed for a "wide-range" of research to be applied to the tax, such as studies that presented the long-term benefits of prekindergarten on education-related outcomes and cost-savings related to it. Framing the tax as an education-based policy allowed for its proponents to use slogans like "Our Kids Are Worth It" to counter arguments related to economic concerns.
It was only toward the end of the processjust three weeks before the council votethat policymakers decided to use messaging regarding health benefits.
"Interviewees felt that the press conference served to 'health-ify' the sugar-sweetened beverage tax proposal at the very end of the policy debate and infuse health research into the policy discourse surrounding the proposal," Purtle, Langellier and Le-Scherban wrote.
"This could have been influential earlier, too, but it also could have been counterproductive and amplified the outcry against the bill as opponents could then run with the 'don't tell me what to eat and drink' nanny state argument," Purtle added.
Ultimately, the tax passed by a 13-4 margin.
"It was exciting to see things play out after systematically collecting different perspectives," Purtle said.
Estimates since the passage of the tax put the total of revenue derived from it at $32 million for both Philadelphia and the state over the next five years. And in last November, similar taxes passed in four cities: San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, California, and Boulder, Colorado.
Purtle believes the strategy used to pass the Philadelphia tax could be used elsewherethough he is unsure whether or not the results of a current Commonwealth Court battle over the tax will affect the attractiveness of it.
"Other cities might want to consider how revenue will be used as opposed to potential health benefits when they're trying to pass a tax like this," Purtle said. "But I'm not sure whether the court ruling will affect the strategies used to pass similar, future taxes."
More information: Jonathan Purtle et al, A Case Study of the Philadelphia Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Policymaking Process, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice (2017). Jonathan Purtle et al, A Case Study of the Philadelphia Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Policymaking Process,(2017). DOI: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000000563
Until a week ago, the rand was the worlds best-performing currency, according to Bloomberg.
When President Jacob Zuma announced a reshuffle of his cabinet, replacing the minister and deputy ministers of finance, all of the gains made since the start of 2017 were obliterated.
Bloomberg said that before 27 March, the rand had appreciated 11% this year.
After Zumas recall of Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas, the rand showed the sharpest decline among the 140 currencies Bloomberg monitors.
It also led to ratings downgrades from agencies S&P and Fitch, both pointing to the major cabinet reshuffle as a key reason for their decisions.
S&P downgraded South Africas sovereign debt rating to BB+, its first junk tier. Local currency debt was downgraded to BBB-, one notch above junk. Both ratings carry a negative outlook.
Fitch downgraded South Africas long and short-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings to its first junk tiers, with a stable outlook.
Economists have warned that Moodys will follow suit and that the impact of junk status would lead to escalating costs and lower growth which may lead to further downgrades.
Now read: Welcome to the Junk Banana Republic
Armenian National Security Council head and Polish Secretary of State discuss regional security issues
Stepantsminda-Lars highway faces restrictions
State Department: U.S. remains committed to supporting peace in South Caucasus region
Iran condemns thousand protesters and calls for retaliation against rest
Media: London is close to agreement with Washington on LNG supplies
Aliyev in fact confirms fact of Azerbaijani aggression against sovereign territory of Armenia
Toivo Klaar: Important meeting held in Washington between Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs
Aliyev switches from threatening Armenia to insulting foreign leaders
Karabakh ombudsman: Todays occupation does not change status of Shushi
Envoy briefs Kazakhstan human rights commissioner on consequences of Azerbaijan aggression against Armenia
Dollar, euro continue to rise in Armenia
EU partners welcome justice sector reforms in Armenia
Armenia government to have academic city project development working group
Rybar: Publication of Iranian film about 'skeletons' of Aliyev family is blow to positions of Aliyev family
Zelenskyy to attend G20 leaders' summit
Voting for midterm elections to Congress begins in U.S.
Russian MFA offers Tehran and Riyadh to mediate dialogue
Survey: Georgia residents say Armenia is their friend
Arman Yeghoyan to Poland colleague: Armenia needs support from European platforms
State Department official: American side is impressed by Armenia Police reforms
Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte: I realized that this project is the right one
Heads of general staffs of CSTO countries armies to discuss military cooperation development
President: Climate change agenda continues to remain priority for Armenia despite challenges, security concerns
Armenia discusses issue of EEU citizens' stay in country for more than 180 days
Economy minister: 74% of Diaspora Armenians ready to invest in Armenia
158 people die in Philippines storm
Close to $7.5M allocated for Armenia scientific infrastructure, material, technical base modernization
Byblos Bank Armenia finances the construction of two major solar parks
Bloomberg: EU mechanism to provide Ukraine with $18 billion implies conditions
Turkey voices its full and unconditional support for Azerbaijan
Ombudsperson attends Armenia-EU Human Rights Dialogue session, presents facts recorded in her ad hoc reports
Israeli embassy congratulates Azerbaijan on 'Victory Day'
World gold prices going down
Ankara offers its storage capacity for Russian grain
Zelenskiy calls key conditions for talks with Russia
Bitcoin price goes down
Copper price goes down
World oil prices dropping
Blinken: Armenia and Azerbaijan are taking courageous steps to achieve peace
Newspaper: What changes expected in "Brussels package" of Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization talks?
13 billion cubic meters of natural gas found off Israel coast
State Security Service of Azerbaijan is scared by YouTube video about situation in Nakhichevan
Newspaper: There were serious problems in organizing Global Armenian Summit
MFA: Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs agree to expedite their negotiations
President: UAE is a responsible energy supplier as long as the world needs oil and gas
EU has serious concerns about US inflation reduction act
Head of IMF: The global surge in consumer prices may be close to the high point
Germany wants EU to resume trade talks with US as soon as possible
Pashinyan's closed meeting with MPs of ruling Civil Contract faction is over
Hungary will not support EU efforts to help Ukraine with joint funds
Greece to soon ban sale of spyware
U.S. military delegation arrives in Turkey
German industry calls for postponement of global minimum corporate tax
Podolyak: Ukraine has never refused to negotiate
Elon Musk calls on 'independent-minded' voters to vote for Republicans
Bezos Earth Fund pledges $1 billion by 2030 to protect carbon stocks and biodiversity
7 people killed in collision between truck and passenger bus in Turkey
Nikol Pashinyan holds closed meeting with members of ruling party faction
Qatar's foreign minister calls criticism of West 'arrogant' and 'racist'
Algeria officially applies to join BRICS group
Delegations headed by Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs meet in Washington
French Finance Minister calls on EU to oppose U.S.
Armenian President: Aliyev's statements about intentional destruction of mosques have nothing to do with reality
German MFA reports constructive talks in EU on new sanctions against Iran
Kazakhstani President Tokayev instructs to increase oil supplies bypassing Russia
President of Artsakh holds expanded working meeting
Armenian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports to receive more than 250 billion drams in 2023
Borrell says EU is dependent on supplies from China
Armenia official: Peace treaty implies restoration of sovereign territory
Guterres thinks mankind is heading for climate hell
Dollar, euro gain value in Armenia
General: Iran riots were US plan to derail nuclear deal
Minister: 'Lydian Armenia' may start exploitation of gold mine on Mountain Amulsar
Armenia political scientist: Balance is formed in region thanks to Iran
Minister: 70 schools will be repaired or newly built in Armenia in 2023
UAE lifts most COVID-19 restrictions for tourists
Political scientist: There is no Armenian-American agenda
President of Finland says country has no plans to host nuclear weapons
Russian Ambassador to Armenia: We are not used to making PR and playing games
Flight restrictions extended to 11 airports in Russia
Kopirkin: Spiritual core will help Armenia, Russia overcome difficulties, challenges
Armenia ranks among top 5 CIS countries for winter tourism
Envoy: Russian president awarded Armenian philologist with medal
Iranian intelligence arrests 26 terrorists: an Azerbaijani citizen among them
Russian Defense Ministry confirms: Azerbaijan fired at Khramort village in Artsakh
Number of oil and gas drilling rigs is up in US
Economy minister: Azerbaijan aggression prevented increase of Armenia wheat sowing areas
Gegharkunik governor: There are observers who recorded that Azerbaijan carried out aggression against Armenia
The National Interest: Iran turns attention to the Caucasus
Tokayev: Kazakhstan is ready to use other measures, besides diplomacy, for its defense
Economy minister: Primary agricultural products ensure 11%-13% of Armenia GDP
FAO: World grain prices rise in October
Kremlin urges Yerevan and Baku to refrain from destabilization
Governor of Armenias Tavush on possible handover of enclaves to Azerbaijan: Not being discussed now
Governor of Armenias Vayots Dzor: We have pastures that are monitored by Azerbaijan
WSJ: Sullivan is in contact with Ushakov and Patrushev on Ukraine
Vayots Dzor governor: Azerbaijan military that infiltrated Armenia can be seen with naked eye from Jermuk city
Armenia President: Military clashes, hostilities have direct impact on soil, air pollution
IRGC seizes over 1,500 weapons in Iran riots
Minister: $879 million worth of agricultural products exported from Armenia
YEREVAN. - Although there is no immediate or direct impact on the South Caucasus region from the recent U.S. missile attack against Syria, there are significant indirect repercussions, Director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), Richard Giragosian, told Armenian News NEWS.am.
According to the political scientist, first, the decision by President Trump to order the missile attack against one Syrian airbase was more of a political move than a strictly military operation. For Trump, this was an important way to present a different and more decisive action than President Obama. More specifically, this was also a reaction to the Syrian use of chemical weapons, which as stated by then-President Obama represented a red line that the Syrian government cannot cross or violate. In this context, Trump wants to distance his Administration from his predecessors and in this way, take military action where Obama did not, he said.
Besides, this was also an early signal to Moscow that Washington will not blindly follow or allow complete Russian initiatives and objectives for its own military presence in Syria. And lastly, this was perhaps designed to improve relations with Turkey, as this U.S. attack is a move long called for by Turkey, Giragosian said.
At the same time, the political scientist noted that the recent events do not yet represent any deep or decisive shift in U.S. policy toward Syria: Rather, it may be a one-time response, with limited aims and with even fewer strategic goals.
Referring to the outlook for a possible confrontation between U.S. and Russia in respect of Syria, the expert noted that it is simply too soon to say. "Although their interests are clearly diverging, there does not yet seem to be a change in U.S. policy. Although possible, the real and more immediate conflict will be between Russia and Turkey, driven as their earlier crisis in relations was, by developments in Syria, he concluded.
When an emergency strikes, first responders across Iowa need to communicate seamlessly, and today that is a reality with a new ASTRO25 statewide radio system from Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI). Dallas County is now connected to the expanding Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communication System (ISICS) and first responders are preparing to experience the benefits.By joining the Motorola Solutions-built ISICS, Dallas County is taking advantage of a cost-efficient and technologically advanced mission-critical radio system without having to build an entirely separate system. During the next few weeks, county first responders will get ready to use the system by training on new Motorola Solutions award-winning APXP25 two-way portable and mobile radios, along with new dispatch consoles for the countys emergency communications center. Dallas County is expected to be operational on ISICS in May 2017.Dallas County needed to upgrade its VHF communications system which has operational limitations due to narrowbanding and adjacent jurisdictions that operate on multiple other radio systems. Interoperability was impossible and it was a challenge to communicate across the county for daily operations, said Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard. With our new Motorola Solutions simulcast P25 700MHz trunked system and connection to ISICS, we finally have the opportunity to converse operationally countywide with law enforcement, fire and EMS services and across the state. This has been a need for many years that is now being finalized.ISICS has been operational since July 2016 and is built on Project 25 (P25) standards-based technology. Westcom Emergency Communications, a consolidated dispatch center for the cities of West Des Moines, Clive, Urbandale, Norwalk and Waukee, connected their P25 system to ISICS in mid-2016.Westcoms migration to ISICS is beneficial to the responders in our five communities and ultimately the citizenry we serve by improving interoperability, said Assistant Chief of Logistics Rob Dehnert from Westcom.Several emergency management agencies across the state are in the process of joining ISICS. The Woodbury County STARCOMM system will be operational on ISICS in June 2017, and Mills County is the latest to announce that it will join the system and be operational in early 2018.ISICS has already played a crucial role in providing seamless communications at major events held in Des Moines, including last years Iowa State Fair and the National Governors Association (NGA) 2016 Summer Meeting. Gov. Terry Branstad welcomed 23 governors and their teams from across the country to the meeting, which required interoperable communications between state and local first responders. Security is a top priority at these events, and police, fire and EMS personnel were able to communicate securely on ISICS dedicated mission-critical network.Visiting governors security teams could also communicate from their mobile phones with local first responders using two-way radios using Motorola Solutions WAVEWork Group Communication technology. WAVE provides broadband push-to-talk for secure communications across any network and any device.The Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS) is proud to be a part of this interoperable solution for public safety agencies in Iowa. Finally, agencies will be able to communicate seamlessly with their mission-critical radios during emergencies, Bureau Chief Thomas Lampe from the Iowa DPS Communications Bureau. Having one statewide radio platform is a great solution and a clear path towards total statewide interoperability.Motorola Solutions is dedicated to working with Iowa first responders as ISICS continues to expand to other emergency management agencies across the state, said Ali Kapadia, sales vice president, Motorola Solutions. ISICS is built with the latest P25 technology to make sure that Iowa first responders can talk with each other from one end of the state to the other in major emergencies like tornadoes or during daily traffic stops in Dallas County. Iowa is now one of 35 states across the United States with statewide radio systems built by Motorola Solutions.Public safety agencies in every corner of Iowa will be able to benefit from secure, interoperable communications as ISICS continues to expand throughout the state with a cost-efficient and modern mission-critical infrastructure.Learn more about ISICS Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) creates innovative, mission-critical communication solutions and services that help public safety and commercial customers build safer cities and thriving communities. For ongoing news, visit www.motorolasolutions.com/newsroom
California Lab Approved as NRTL
Many OSHA standards require that an NRTL test and certify certain types of equipment as safe for use in workplaces. They are independent laboratories that meet OSHA's requirements for performing safety testing and certification of products.
OSHA announced April 6 that Bay Area Compliance Laboratories Corp.'s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., has been granted recognition as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory, effective on that date.
OSHA's online page on the NRTL Program is available here.
Many OSHA standards require that an NRTL test and certify certain types of equipment as safe for use in workplaces. They are independent laboratories that meet OSHA's requirements for performing safety testing and certification of products, and they must meet the requirements in the NRTL Program regulations at 29 CFR 1910.7. To be recognized by OSHA, an organization must: have the appropriate capability to test, evaluate, and approve products to ensure their safe use in the workplace; be completely independent of employers subject to the tested equipment requirements and manufacturers and vendors of products for which OSHA requires certification; have internal programs that ensure proper control of the testing and certification process; and have effective reporting and complaint handling procedures.
Bay Area Compliance Laboratories Corp. (BACL) was incorporated in 1996 to provide product compliance testing services to customers in product safety, electromagnetic compatibility and telecommunications, testing for emissions, immunity, radio, radio frequency exposure, and telecommunications, according to its application, and third-party accreditation body A2LA accredited BACL for UL 60950-1, the standard for which BACL requested NRTL recognition.
BACL's application listed its headquarters address as Bay Area Compliance Laboratories Corp., 1274 Anvilwood Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94089.
Clean Wisconsin, the states oldest and largest environmental nonprofit, is bringing its annual celebration of Wisconsins healthy environment back to the shores of Lake Michigan.
For 47 years, Clean Wisconsin has worked to protect the states clean water and clean air, and on June 8th the organization will host its 2nd annual Epicurean Evening fundraising gala at Discovery World.
"The connection between a healthy environment and high-quality food is simple: we need clean air and water to be able to produce safe, healthy, and delicious food," said James Beard Award-winning chef Adam Siegel, Executive of Chef of Bartolottas Lake Park Bistro. "Without clean air or clean water this would not be possible."
Siegel, who returns to Epicurean Evening for a second year, is joined by fellow James Beard Award-winner Justin Aprahamian, executive chef and owner of Sanford; and Peter Sandroni, executive chef and owner of La Merenda and Engine Company 3.
"We are thrilled to showcase three of Milwaukees finest culinary masters at this years gala," said Clean Wisconsin President & CEO Mark Redsten. "Were so fortunate in Wisconsin to have natural resources that allow farmers to produce premium ingredients. What better way to celebrate and raise awareness of the need to protect our clean water and air than by bringing people around a dinner table to enjoy incredible food?"
The event kicks off with a cocktail hour featuring specialty drinks crafted by local mixologists. A wine pull and a live auction are also on tap for the evening. All proceeds support Clean Wisconsins statewide work to preserve and protect Wisconsins clean air, clean water, and natural heritage.
"I offered to volunteer my time to Epicurean Evening because without Clean Wisconsin the fight to ensure a safe environment for our agriculture would be much more difficult," Siegel said.
Clean Wisconsin works throughout the state to protect our drinking water and waterways from overuse and contamination. Over the last years the organization has focused efforts in the Milwaukee area. Recently Clean
Wisconsin partnered with pharmacies and health care organizations to keep pharmaceuticals out of the water by making it easier to properly dispose of unused prescription drugs. Clean Wisconsin was also the leading advocate for a successful ban on the sale and use of toxic tar-based driveway sealants in Milwaukee.
Tickets for the 2nd annual Epicurean Evening are $150 each, or $1,200 for a table of eight. To purchase tickets, or to learn more about the event, chefs, and sponsors, visit cleanwisconsin.org/mke.
As we announced Friday, a new full-service Polynesian bar and restaurant called The Love Shack is coming to the former Wine Maniacs space at 106 Seeboth St. in Walkers Point.
It's headed up by Black Sheep owners Michael Sorge and Wes Shaver in partnership with Gary LaCourt, Founder and CEO of Milwaukee-based jeweler Forever Companies. And it could open as soon as Memorial Day weekend.
But what is The Love Shack?
According to Wes Shaver, one of the partners on the project, The Love Shack doesnt aspire to be just another tiki bar. However, it does aim to offer guests a classy spot where they can get away from the grind, relax and have fun.
"Its all about location," he says. "Its in a beautiful space on the river with great views. In fact, I havent seen such a perfect match between concept and location in a long time."
And yes, it was inspired by the B-52s song. Sort of.
The idea came to Shaver while he was sweating it out during an intense cardio session sometime last year.
"The song came on. And the spirit of it ... all the energy in it all I could think of was that The Love Shack totally had to be this great tiki bar where people can go and hang out and have a really good time.
"Its not so much the song itself that defines the space," he explains. "Its more the energy that it captures. Thats the sort of place we want it to be."
What The Love Shack wont be, Shaver notes, is a simplistic caricature of Polynesian culture. In fact, its goal is to pay tribute to long-standing traditions in a fun and engaging way.
"Were not exaggerating the culture or the style," he says. "Were honoring it and embracing it. Its not going to be campy or kitschy. Envision that its 1968 and the Beach Boys are flying to Hawaii to play a show in a small, upscale club. This is that place."
Food and drink
According to Shaver, the main bar will showcase a cocktail program featuring eight or nine traditional tiki drinks as well as a variety of new-school cocktails and riffs on classics.
The food menu, which will offer plays on traditional Polynesian fare, will be deployed by Chef Adam Pawlak, who will direct the culinary programs for both Black Sheep and The Love Shack.
Items include a melon salad with arugula, roasted red pepper, citrus vinaigrette and avocado cream; seared diver scallops served with crispy spam, mango and radish salad; and Hawaiian pork meatballs with roasted red pepper, sticky rice, sesame and avocado.
"Theres no fryer and theres no grill," notes Shaver. "So things will be really fresh."
Patio patio patio
The space itself will be approachable and modern, featuring clean surfaces augmented by rustic, authentic textiles and materials.
Large patio doors will open onto the spacious riverfront patio, which will boast both traditional seating, along with a collection of couches and lounge furniture. River views will be enhanced by palm trees, fire tables and a variety of atmospheric details.
Meanwhile, a second floor mezzanine will feature "The Rhum Bar," a secondary experience showcasing a rare collection of rums, a smaller, more artisanal menu and a second floor deck overlooking the river and first-floor patio.
"Weve done our research. And were really excited about this," remarks Shaver. "Personally, Im really fond of it. The core of it is so much like Milwaukee. Its brotherly. Its friendly. Its about clinking glasses and hanging out and enjoying life."
Once launched, The Love Shack plans to be open seven days a week.
Follow their progress on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Columbia University announced today that the Panama Papers investigation has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.
The Pulitzer Prize Board lauded the year-long investigation for using a collaboration of more than 300 reporters on six continents to expose the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens.
The award is the latest in a series of accolades for the globe-spanning reporting effort by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy, the Miami Herald, Suddeutsche Zeitung and other media partners.
This honor is a testament to the enterprise and teamwork of our staff and our partners here in the United States and around the world, Gerard Ryle, ICIJs director, said. Were honored that the Pulitzer Board recognized the groundbreaking revelations and worldwide impact that the Panama Papers collaboration produced.
The Panama Papers investigation exposed offshore companies linked to more than 140 politicians in more than 50 countries including 14 current or former world leaders. It also uncovered offshore hideaways tied to mega-banks, corporate bribery scandals, drug kingpins, Syrias air war on its own citizens and a network of people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin that shuffled as much as $2 billion around the world.
Collaborative verve
Ryle noted that the investigation would not have been possible without the collaborative spirit of Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier, two German journalists who received the original leak from a confidential source.
Instead of hoarding the trove of 11.5 million secret documents for themselves and their newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, they shared them with ICIJ. This allowed ICIJ to pull together a cross-border partnership and join forces with SZ, McClatchy, the Miami Herald, Fusion and more than 100 other news organizations to investigate the explosive documents.
Obermayer and Obermaier, bravely supported by their editor-in-chief Wolfgang Krach, worked with ICIJ to help lead the international collaboration and shared bylines on key ICIJ stories cited by the Pulitzer Board. In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, the Panama Papers investigation was also named as a finalist in the International Reporting category.
The Pulitzer Prizes are regarded as the preeminent honor in journalism. This is the 101st year that Columbias School of Journalism has awarded the Pulitzer Prizes. Other news outlets honored today with Pulitzers include The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail.
News of the recognition for ICIJ comes at a time when the nonprofit news outlet is blazing an independent trail for itself, aggressively seeking new funding and looking for ways to expand its partnerships to additional countries and boost its reporting and technology resources. ICIJ recently became an independent organization, spinning off in February from its parent, the Center for Public Integrity.
ICIJ was a project of the Center during the time it reported and published the Panama Papers investigation.
Were intensely proud of the work of the consortium, John Dunbar, the Centers chief executive office, said. Few projects in the history of the center have had as much of an impact as the Panama Papers.
The Center for Public Integritys founder, Charles Lewis, started ICIJ as the Centers international arm in 1997.
Five years of revelations
The Panama Papers investigation grew out of five-year reporting push by ICIJ, SZ and other media partners that dug into dark corners of financial secrecy havens, including the British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Those previous examinations of offshore murk prompted international outrage and official reforms. But none of them had the impact that the Panama Papers exposures have had. The Panama Papers investigation has prompted police raids, arrests and resignations of high-profile figures, including Icelands prime minister. Reporting by ICIJ and its partners has sparked more than 150 inquiries, audits and investigations in 79 countries and has driven new legislation and financial rules in the U.S. and abroad.
In early January, tax officials from 30 countries met in Paris to share findings of investigations triggered by the Panama Papers. Australian authorities said the meeting produced the largest ever multinational exchange of information about global tax dodging.
In February, Panamanian authorities arrested the founders of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers investigation, on money laundering charges. Panamas attorney general said evidence indicated the law firm may be a criminal organization.
Last week, one year to the day after ICIJ and its media partners published the first revelations from the Panama Papers, Panamas attorney general met in The Hague with agencies from 15 European countries that are investigating alleged criminal activities connected to the law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Across six continents
The Panama Papers reporting team began work in early 2015. Members of the team published and broadcast their first stories in April 2016 and continued producing stories throughout 2016. They pored over millions of confidential emails and corporate documents written in French, English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin and Arabic and used shoe-leather reporting to track down additional documents and verify facts on six continents.
Reporters spent months unlocking connections within layered offshore structures in which shell companies represented by straw men were in turn controlled by successions of other companies and fronts. Team members deployed software tools and used ICIJs online virtual newsroom to collaborate with colleagues in far-flung time zones creating more than 130 discussion groups and sharing 11,816 findings, questions and other postings.
In the end, more than 400 journalists reporters, editors, computer programmers, fact checkers and others worked on the project.
Weve said it again and again: some stories are too big, too complex and too global for lone-wolf muckrakers or even individual news organizations to tackle, Ryle, ICIJs director, said. We believe collaboration is the wave of the future in global journalism. Pooling resources and sharing information is a powerful way to investigate and expose stories that politicians, corporations and organized criminals are determined to keep in the shadows.
Read more about the impact from ICIJs investigations, and find out how you can help us raise funds towards our next major investigation
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In this April 6, 2017 photo, a World War I discharge paper awaits scanning at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford, Conn. The library is in the midst of a project to digitally preserve photos, letters, documents and other artifacts from the war, which the U.S. entered 100 years ago this month. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
Rick Maynard found the manila envelope containing letters from the battlefields of World War I while he and his sister were cleaning out the basement after their father's death.
The more than three dozen letters were written, some in pencil, by Paul Maynard, Rick's great-uncle.
"He was on the front lines," said Rick Maynard, the parks and recreation director for the town of Guilford. "In one of the letters to his mother, he said he had not slept in 10 days. I can't imagine it. I can't fathom that."
Soon, letters such as those from 21-year-old Paul Maynard, who died in 1918 during the last day of battle, will be available for anyone to read, thanks to a project spearheaded by the Connecticut State Library to help mark the 100th anniversary of the U.S. involvement in the war.
The library is hosting events across Connecticut, inviting people to bring in photos, letters and any artifacts associated with the "Great War" to be photographed or scanned for posterity. Students and veterans also conduct interviews with the owners to get a history of the items and the people to whom they are linked.
The library says it has the largest World War I archive of any U.S. state.
Since the project began in 2014, about 130 people have come to events, resulting in the digital preservation of more than 600 items and the creation of about 150 profiles of people who took part in the war effort.
This undated family photo provided by Rick Maynard shows Robert Remington, of Hamden, Conn., who was killed in France in May of 1918 during World War I. The photo is among items that have been digitally archived by the Connecticut State Library as part of a program to preserve letters, photos and other artifacts from the war. (Rick Maynard via AP)
Similar preservation efforts are being done at some universities, some branches of the military and local historical societies, but nothing on the scale of Connecticut's project, said Chris Isleib, spokesman for the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission.
The preservation is funded in part by an $11,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The New Haven Museum will host a major scanning event May 24. There are 16 others scheduled this year across the state.
"We can do high-resolution captures of anything that comes in, 3D objects, flat objects," said Christine Pittsley, the project managers for the state's Remembering World War I: Sharing History/Preserving Memories program. "All of that stuff is going to be online. It's being preserved in the Connecticut digital archive. So, even it that item disappears, there always will be a digital record of it."
The library is building a website that will allow anyone to download the images. It also is working with schools across the state on ways to incorporate the stories and images into curriculum.
The project includes not only soldiers' stories, but also those of nurses, YMCA canteen workers, those who sold Liberty Loan war bonds or anyone else associated with the war.
This undated family photo provided by Rick Maynard shows a woman named Ethel Cooke with Robert Remington, right, of Hamden, Conn. Remington was killed in France in May of 1918 during World War I. The photo is among items that have been digitally archived by the Connecticut State Library as part of a program to preserve letters, photos and other artifacts from the war. (Rick Maynard via AP)
The project also allows those who own the objects to learn more about their relatives who served in the war.
In 1919, the state library also became the state's Department of War Records. Librarian George Goddard took that role very seriously, and began gathering everything he could get his hands on.
The library sent out questionnaires to every Connecticut resident who served in the war, recording their experiences and thoughts on war. Those are all on file with the state and those attending the digitization events can get help looking up the information.
The preservation efforts are important, Isleib said, because they put faces and personal stories to an abstract history lesson about a war that not many understand.
"This is our inheritance and our future generation's inheritance," he said. "These stories make up who we are as Americans."
This June 1918 photo provided by Rick Maynard of Guilford, Conn., shows a letter sent by his great uncle Sgt. Paul Maynard to his family from France during World War I. Rick Maynard found the letter in a basement and is having it and other World War I items he found digitally preserved with the help of the Connecticut State Library, which is in the midst of a project to archive artifacts from the war. (Rick Maynard via AP)
Bernice McNeil, of North Haven, said it was a way to make sure that when she is gone, others will remember the sacrifice of her uncle, Robert Remington, who was killed in 1918 at the age of 18 in Seicheprey, France.
"These men and women should be recognized," she said. "He served our country and he died for this country, protecting our freedom."
2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Protesters rally against coal seam gas in Melbourne, February 2016. Credit: Caroline Zielinski
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's response to the looming east coast gas shortage has been to secure a promise from gas producers to increase domestic supply.
In a televised press conference last month, he said:
"We must continue the pressure on state and territory governments to revisit the restrictions on gas development and exploration."
But if an onshore gas boom is indeed in the offing, my research suggests that gas companies should tread carefully and take more seriously the social context of their operations.
Shell chief executive Erik van Beurden, one of the big players in the Australian gas industry, recently admitted that "social acceptance [for our industry] is just disappearing", while Shell Australia's chairman Andrew Smith last year urged the industry to be less hubristic and more willing to collaborate.
Industrial developments have social consequences, particularly in the case of unconventional gas extraction. But my analysis of the social research done by gas firms in the Darling Downs Queensland's coal seam gas heartland indicates a lack of rigorous research to identify community attitudes.
I looked specifically at the "social impact assessments" carried out for Arrow Energy's Surat Gas Project. I evaluated this assessment against the academic literature on best-practice methods and the results of my own anthropological fieldwork on coal seam gas developments in the Darling Downs, including interviews and participant-observations among a broad variety of residents. This included farmers with and without gas wells on their land, town residents, Indigenous people, activists, and those who viewed the industry favourably.
In my experience, the industry's social impact assessments do not generally meet the benchmark of good social anthropological research. They are largely completed using computer surveys, with limited amounts of direct local fieldwork and relatively little real attention paid to the particular issues raised by vulnerable groups or what actually matters to local communities.
Social impact assessments should be participatory and take into account the unequal distribution of the impacts among local populations. Some people will feel the impacts more than others this means that in-depth research in the region is required.
A desktop analysis of census data, complemented with information obtained during a few "consultation" meetings, is unlikely to reveal the variety of impacts caused by industrial projects. The conclusion is that such studies, combined with a regulatory agenda that prioritises economics, have created problematic "silences in the boom".
Satellite view of a coal seam gas field in Queensland. Credit: Google Earth, Author provided
Conflicting priorities
In Australia, policies governing extractive industries such as onshore gas are mostly viewed in terms of economic cost and benefit or to use the current mantra, jobs and growth. The projects themselves, meanwhile, are seen chiefly as a series of technical challenges to be overcome by scientists and engineers.
Public concerns about the effect on quality of life or uncertainties about underground impacts are commonly dismissed as irrational, emotional or uninformed. But the main problem faced by onshore gas producers is not an engineering one.
Social research has shown that the fundamental problems include lack of trust between gas producers and local communities, as well as differing views on livelihoods, culture and the environment.
In the coal seam gas fields of the Darling Downs a rural and agricultural area the effects on the ground, including concerns about extraction techniques such as fracking really matter. While individual gas wells typically have a relatively small footprint of about one hectare, the cumulative regional footprint of numerous connected gas fields and associated infrastructure is considerable.
The management of the impacts is negotiated in individual agreements with landholders as well as indigenous groups with traditional connections to country. Dealing with this social world is relatively new to many oil and gas companies that have previously focused mainly on offshore projects.
Unconventional gas and fracking developments have led to demonstrations, blockades, and the rise of vocal anti-fracking groups both in Australia and around the world. Gas producers in Colorado, for example, seem to have been shocked and surprised at the level of protest against fracking, a technique they have used for decades.
Instead of dismissing public concerns as irrational or ill-informed, politicians and gas producers could look carefully at why their proposals provoke these reactions. Just calling for more gas, more science, and less red tape is unlikely to diminish anti-fracking sentiment.
Invisible gas
Gas can be scary. It is everywhere and nowhere. You can't feel it, see it, hear it or smell it unless you add something to it or measure it with an expensive device. Gas doesn't have the same cultural symbolism as coal, the black gold of our settler history, or the Snowy Mountains, scene of the great "nation-building" hydroelectric project that Turnbull has pledged to make even bigger.
Anti-fracking activists, meanwhile, have sought to imbue gas with a cultural symbolism that draws on the underground world of demons and danger. Footage of burning tapwater is a potent example of "matter out of place". No matter that methane is sometimes found naturally in water. Cultural anxieties are rarely eased by natural science.
So while the federal government and industry figures call on states and territories to ease restrictions on gas exploration, they should bear in mind that unconventional gas can provoke strong anxiety and opposition. The architects of Queensland's coal seam gas boom were slow to recognise this.
Energy is fundamental to our ways of life, and social support is crucial for the companies that provide this energy. Such support is not earned with desktop studies or by dismissing non-economic concerns. It is earned with genuine engagement and social policies that take seriously the experiences and diverse views of people now on fractured and uncertain ground.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Pest management professionals battling the ongoing resurgence of bed bugs are wise to employ a well-rounded set of measures that reduces reliance on chemical control, as new research shows the early signs of resistance developing among bed bugs to two commonly used insecticides.
In a study to be published next week in the Entomological Society of America's Journal of Economic Entomology, researchers at Purdue University found significantly reduced susceptibility to chlorfenapyr among three out of 10 bed bug populations collected in the field, and they found reduced susceptibility to bifenthrin among five of the populations.
The common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) already shows significant resistance to deltamethrin and some other pyrethroid-class insecticides, which is viewed as a main cause of its resurgence as an urban pest. In fact, 68 percent of pest management professionals identify bed bugs as the most difficult pest to control, according to a 2015 Bugs Without Borders survey of pest management professionals conducted by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky. Little research had yet been done, however, to examine potential resistance to bifenthrin (also a pyrethroid) or chlorfenapyr, a pyrrole-class insecticide, which led the Purdue researchers to investigate.
"In the past, bed bugs have repeatedly shown the ability to develop resistance to products overly relied upon for their control. The findings of the current study also show similar trends in regard to chlorfenapyr and bifenthrin resistance development in bed bugs," says Ameya D. Gondhalekar, Ph.D., research assistant professor at Purdue's Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management. "With these findings in mind and from an insecticide resistance management perspective, both bifenthrin and chlorfenapyr should be integrated with other methods used for bed bug elimination in order to preserve their efficacy in the long term."
They tested 10 populations of bed bugs that were collected and contributed by pest management professionals and university researchers in Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, DC, measuring the percent of bed bugs killed within seven days of exposure to the insecticides. Generally, populations in which more than 25 percent of the beg bugs survived were deemed to have reduced susceptibility to the insecticide based on statistical analysis performed in comparison to the susceptible laboratory population.
Interestingly, the researchers found a correlation between chlorfenapyr and bifenthrin susceptibility among the bed bug populations, which was unexpected because the two insecticides work in different ways. Gondhalekar says further research is needed to understand why the bed bugs that are less susceptible can withstand exposure to these insecticides, especially chlorfenapyr. In any case, adherence to integrated pest management practices will slow the further development of resistance.
"There is a plethora of research that has shown that if insecticides are integrated with additional control measures such as vacuuming, steam or heat, mattress encasements, traps, and desiccant dusts, effective bed bug control can be accomplished and theoretically this should reduce the risk of resistance build-up in populations," Gondhalekar says.
More information: Aaron R. Ashbrook et al, Detection of Reduced Susceptibility to Chlorfenapyr- and Bifenthrin-Containing Products in Field Populations of the Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), Journal of Economic Entomology (2017). DOI: 10.1093/jee/tox070 Journal information: Journal of Economic Entomology
The Trump administration's hostility towards climate action and research leaves a void in global climate politics. Could China step up?
The world's largest absolute emitter could certainly use US inaction as an excuse to backslide on its promises of greenery. But China could instead see this as an opportunity to project itself as our planet's leading custodian.
Evidence suggests the latter course is far more likely. Opening the annual National People's Congress in March, premier Li Keqiang pledged to "make the sky blue again". Both the report he presented and the legislation and decisions reached continued to stress environmental issues, albeit perhaps not as emphatically as in recent years.
Meanwhile, in January at the annual World Economic Forum pow-wow in Davos, president Xi Jinping took advantage of Trump's economic nationalism to affirm China's commitment to globalisation. As the US rejects the very idea of global responsibilities, China is thus apparently aiming to reap the rewards of positioning itself as the polar opposite.
This isn't just empty rhetoric. Chinese investment overseas in green technology increased by 60% last year to US$32 billion. More importantly, the broader context of Chinese domestic politics has created strong incentives for further environmental efforts. This suggests an authentic medium to long-term commitment. And in China, it is the "dog" of domestic politics and regime legitimacy that wags the "tail" of geopolitical strategising.
Domestic pressure for climate policy
The environment is already a massive and potentially explosive issue within China. The increasingly powerful urban middle classes are becoming ever-more aware of environmental issues, particularly those that affect their health, such as air pollution or food, soil and water safety.
The government's key programme to make manufacturing more innovative is also intimately tied to environmental goals and the opportunities of "cleantech" such as electric cars). Even China's digital giants including Alibaba and Tencent are more interested in the environment than their equivalentsin Silicon Valley.
Restoring Chinese greatness
There are even broader factors at play too. As the country has grown in both domestic prosperity and global stature over the past 40 years it has gradually been compelled to address with ever-greater urgency its own central question. This is: how will China once again be the unquestioned centre of the world?
Restoring civilisational preeminence is easier said than done, however, especially given the starting place for these efforts. The past 200 years have seen a violent repudiation of traditional cultures and painful engagement with Western-dominated modernity. This remains a sensitive wound. For central to the Chinese concept of a unique "Chineseness" is both its unsurpassed cultural greatness and its unrivalled longevity.
Embryonic "soft power" efforts have proven problematic, which calls into question the universal appeal of Chinese culture. Meanwhile, traditional ideas such as Confucianism occupy only peripheral roles in contemporary life. This exposes both the comparative youth of modern China and the unresolved legacies of its traumatic breaks with its past.
The situation creates twinned dissonances: between China's actual and "rightful" standing in the world and between its actual and desired relation to its own traditional culture. Crucially, though, protecting the environment is seen by the government as a key opportunity in both cases. Hence Beijing's leading slogan of "ecological civilization" significantly a civilizational project that also, inseparably, has environmental sustainability at its heart.
The idea here is to draw on and renew distinctively Chinese ideas of Confucian harmony between humans and nature. This, it is hoped, could present a China to the world whose culture uniquely qualifies it to be the global environmental saviour. And it could reconnect the Chinese themselves to their traditional cultures, updated for a contemporary world of environmental responsibility.
Progress is unlikely to be smooth. China's one-party state does allow for the massive mobilisation of resources crucial to the major projects of sustainable transitions. But that same political structure best described as "fragmented authoritarianism" also makes it harder to foster cutting-edge innovation and harder to implement environmental regulations and to involve different stakeholders in decision-making.
As such, China still lags behind the US in the global game of cultural hegemony. Yet its grand project of "ecological civilization" is so important in contemporary domestic politics that the environment will likely be seen as China's trump card for some time yet. If America chooses to play its hand badly in the meantime, this will simply be welcomed in Beijing as a further stroke of good luck.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A July 1966 U.S. spy satellite photo of Arctic tundra in the western Taymyr Peninsula and a July 2009 commercial satellite image of the same location shows considerable expansion of vegetation during the 43-year interval. Credit: University of Virginia
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union routinely spied on each other using high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft and space satellites.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S. declassified tens of thousands of images obtained from its two major spy satellite programs, Corona and Gambit. Many of these highly detailed photographs, taken from 1960 through 1984, are of the massive and relatively little-studied western Siberian tundra. The government was looking for military installations and nuclear arsenals, but it found mostly undeveloped, wild terrain.
It occurred to University of Virginia environmental scientists that the imagery is a storehouse of information for better understanding how vegetation in tundra regions may be altering as a result of climate change and other factors.
"These spy images are a gold mine as a reference point," environmental sciences professor Howie Epstein said.
He oversaw a study comparing old spy photographs from 1960 into the 1980s with environmental images of the same terrain made in more recent years from commercial satellite sensors. "We are able to look at the exact same locations, in close detail, across several decades," he said.
Epstein and his graduate student, Gerald Frost, who conducted the study as part of his Ph.D. dissertation, tracked 11 sites in Siberia through half a century of imagery, and were able to distinguish the expansion of tall shrubs such as alder, willow, birch and dwarf pine. They found that tall shrubs and trees had expanded their range in some areas by up to 26 percent since the 1960s, though the overall expansion was less dramatic.
Researcher Gerald Frost stands before an old Russian armored vehicle he and Epstein used to study remote areas of Arctic tundra. Credit: University of Virginia
"We know from Earth-observing satellite data that the Arctic generally has been greening for 35 years or so," Epstein said. "But the Siberian tundra had not been as closely observed until relatively recently. We now know that a lot of greening has been going on there, too, with tall shrubs and woody vegetation. The vegetation has been getting both taller and expanding in space and range."
This possibly and likely could be attributable to climate change, he said specifically, a generalized warming of tundra climate but it also is more complex than that.
As the shrubbery increases its distribution, it creates its own warming effect by absorbing heat, rather than reflecting heat as snow does, leading to additional warming and perpetuating the effect. This also changes the distribution of landscape snow, the balance of plant and animal species in the warmed areas, and the normal ratios of plants to herbivores. As the species distribution changes, it also alters the amount of carbon cycled among the air, vegetation and soil, which in turn affects climate.
Epstein and Frost now a scientist with ABR Inc., an environmental research and services firm in Fairbanks, Alaska have also conducted ground studies in some of the same areas they've observed via satellite imagery. Some of their fieldwork is in a remote area near Kharp in the northwest central part of Russia. For several summers, they were able to secure rides on an old treaded armored vehicle across the tundra to exact sites they'd examined in photographs, allowing them to "ground truth," in effect, what they'd seen in the satellite imagery.
"We found that shrubs were using circular bare spots on the ground, naturally caused by freezing and thawing, to expand across the landscape," Epstein said. "By using those bare spots for expansion, the shrubs were taking advantage of the lack of competition from other species. The shrubs grow quickly and have tough roots."
But while vegetation clearly has expanded in the tundra during the past few decades, as documented by the old spy imagery and the new commercial data, Epstein said the "greening" in some places might now be reversing.
"We're starting to find a browning of the tundra in the last few years," he said. "The progression of growth may be reversing. We're not sure yet why, but it's clear that vegetation dynamics are more complex across tundra than previously thought. We still have a lot of work to do to understand Arctic changes and how this affects and is affected by changes to the global climate."
The skull of Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis. Credit: Xiao-chun Wu
The skeleton of a small, short-snouted reptile found in China was recently identified as the oldest known member of the phytosaursan extinct group of large, semi-aquatic reptiles that superficially resembled the distantly-related crocodylians and lived during the Triassic Period, approximately 250 million years ago to 200 million years ago.
Virginia Tech researchers led the team that re-evaluated and re-classified the animal, Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis, which had previously been labeled as a poposauroid, a group of animals more closely related to crocodiles.
The shape of the animal's head, shoulder, and skeleton bones is what gave away the animal's linkage to the phytosaurs, according to Michelle Stocker, lead author and assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science. After seeing a photo of the fossil in a paper published in 2012, she and other co-authors met in China in 2015 to re-examine the bones. Their findings were published in Scientific Reports April 10.
Stocker and co-author Sterling Nesbitt, also an assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science will give a free public talk with the fossil at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 13, 2017 at the Virginia Tech Museum of Geosciences on the second floor of Derring Hall.
The fossil, which is older than other phytosaur fossils by about 5 million years, fills a critical gap in scientists' understanding of how the animal evolved. The short snout and small body size suggest that the features the species is most known fora long snout and large body sizeevolved later than previously thought. A long snout is useful for predatory endeavors like reaching, snapping, and biting.
Michelle Stocker with Virginia Tech, Sterling Nesbitt with Virginia Tech, Xiao-Chun Wu with the Canadian Museum of Nature, and Li-Jun Zhao with the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History pose with the specimen. Credit: Xiao-chun Wu
"So much of our study of the fossil record is about filling in the gaps in our knowledge of how animals came to look as they do or live where they are, and Diandongosuchus does that for phytosaurs. We're never done filling in those gaps," said Stocker.
"Early members of these Triassic reptile lineages are appearing where they've been predicted for years. Now we have the fossils," said Nesbitt.
A small CubeSat designed to investigate atmospheric processes on Venus has been recently chosen by NASA for further development. The spacecraft, known as the CubeSat UV Experiment (CUVE), is one of 10 missions to study solar system planets and asteroids, selected by the agency under the Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) program.
CUVE will be a 12-unit CubeSat (one unit is a 3.94-inch cube) with a mass less than 400 lbs. (180 kilograms). It will carry a high-resolution ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer and a broad-spectrum UV imager specifically designed to address the strategic science questions relevant to the NASA planetary science program. CUVE will orbit Venus to measure ultraviolet absorption and nightglow emissions in order to understand the planet's atmospheric dynamics.
"CUVE will use remote sensing instruments to study the distribution of energy in Earth's sister planet Venus," Valeria Cottini, CUVE Principal Investigator at the University of Maryland in College Park told Astrowatch.net.
Many mysteries of Venus still remain unsolved, and among them is an enigmatic UV absorber of unknown origin that absorbs about half the solar radiation downwelling in the planet's atmosphere. CUVE will try to resolve this puzzle as its primary objectives are to understand the nature, concentration, and distribution of this unidentified source, atmospheric UV nightglow, abundance of trace gases, and cloud-top atmospheric dynamics.
"CUVE will establish the distribution of the unknown UV absorber, correlation with the UV co-absorbers (sulfur monoxide and sulfur dioxide), and provide valuable clues to identifying the source. The mission is also designed to address the role of the cloud-top dynamics and chemistry in global energy balance. These results will constrain theories that describe the evolutionary processes of Venus," Cottini said.
Therefore, CUVE has the potential to greatly improve our understanding of Venus' winds, atmospheric dynamics, chemistry and energy balance. Moreover, the probe's secondary goal is to establish the efficacy of CubeSat-based instruments in making meaningful scientific measurements in Venus' harsh environment and proximity to the solar radiation field.
The CUVE project is still in its infancy as the mission's critical aspects have to be yet carefully evaluated and addressed. While the University of Maryland leads the project, it also includes specialists in planetary science, atmospheric modeling and spacecraft instrumentation from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology INAF-IAPS in Italy.
"The University of Maryland has a strong planetary science research group. The mission will provide impetus in developing future CubeSat missions to other planetary science targets of interest to this community. CubeSat based planetary science mission concepts are in their infancy, and this mission will allow students to be directly involved in an exciting opportunity to address long standing unresolved scientific questions," Cottini noted.
CUVE is part of the PSDS3 program managed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The program aims to develop a small satellite strategy, with the goal of identifying high-priority science objectives in each discipline that can be addressed with CubeSats and SmallSats, managed for appropriate cost and risk.
Provided by Astrowatch.net
Scanning electron microscope image of Vibrio cholerae bacteria, which infect the digestive system. Credit: Ronald Taylor, Tom Kirn, Louisa Howard/Wikipedia
Cholera cases in East Africa increase by roughly 50,000 during El Nino, the cyclical weather occurrence that profoundly changes global weather patterns, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.
The findings, researchers say, could help health ministries anticipate future cholera surges during El Nino years and save lives.
The researchers, reporting April 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used sophisticated mapping to pinpoint the location of clusters of cholera cases before, during and after El Nino years. Cholera is an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease, typically contracted from infected water supplies and causing severe vomiting and diarrhea. Africa has the most cholera deaths in the world.
"We usually know when El Nino is coming six to 12 months before it occurs," says study leader Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Bloomberg School. "Knowing there is elevated cholera risk in a particular region can help reduce the number of deaths that result. If you have cholera treatment centers available, fast, supportive care can reduce the fatality rate from cholera from as high as 30 percent to next to nothing."
The total number of cases of cholera across Africa as a whole were about the same in El Nino years as compared to non-El Nino years, the researchers found, but the geographic distribution of illnesses was fundamentally different. El Nino conditions in the equatorial Pacific region strongly impact weather conditions globally, including increasing rainfall in East Africa and decreasing rainfall in drier areas of northern and southern Africa.
During the years classified as El Nino between 2000 and 2014, cholera incidence increased threefold in regions such as East Africa that had the strongest association between El Nino and cholera, with 177 million people living in areas that experienced an increase in cholera cases during a time of additional rainfall. At the same time, there were 30,000 fewer cases in southern Africa during El Nino where there was less rainfall than normal. Parts of central West Africa, however, saw significantly fewer cases of cholera, but with little change in rainfall patterns.
While El Nino brings wetter and warmer weather to East Africa, rainfall is not the only variable that appears to impact cholera rates, Lessler says. Cholera is almost always linked to vulnerable water systems. In some areas, massive rainfall can overrun sewer systems and contaminate drinking water. In other locations, however, dry conditions can mean that clean water sources aren't available and people must consume water from sources known to be contaminated.
"Countries in East Africa, including Tanzania and Kenya, have experienced several large cholera outbreaks in recent decades," says study author Sean Moore, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology. "Linking these outbreaks to El Nino events and increased rainfall improves our understanding of the environmental conditions that promote cholera transmission in the region and will help predict future outbreaks."
For the study, Lessler, Moore and their colleagues collected data on cholera cases in Africa from 360 separate data sets, analyzing 17,000 annual observations from 3,710 different locations between 2000 and 2014.
The researchers note that there were weak El Nino years from 2004 to 2007, while 2002-2003 and 2009-2010 were classified as moderate-to-strong El Nino years. They say that 2015-2016 was also an El Nino year with the largest cholera outbreak since the 1997-1998 El Nino occurring in Tanzania.
Using this knowledge of a link between cholera and El Nino could allow countries to prepare for outbreaks long before they start, Lessler says. Currently, there is an approved vaccine for cholera, but its effects are not lifelong and there are not enough doses for everyone in areas that could be impacted by El Nino. Once there is more vaccine, he says, it can be another tool for health officials to use as they try to prevent deadly cholera in their nations.
As climate change continues, disease patterns will continue to change as well, Lessler says. Often, the story is that climate change will put more people at risk for more types of diseases.
"But what the link between cholera and El Nino tells us is that changes may be subtler than that," he says. "There will be winners and losers. It's not a one-way street."
More information: El Nino and the shifting geography of cholera in Africa, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1617218114 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Credit: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Paul Roebber sat on the New Jersey beach, looked out at the ocean and let his mind wander. "I started thinking about sharks hunting for prey," the meteorologist says, "and about predicting dynamic systems in nature."
It reminded him how computers let scientists simulate complex systems, such as predator-prey interactions. Weather forecasters, too, rely on statistical models to find and sort patterns in large amounts of data. Still, the weather remains stubbornly difficult to predict.
Roebber has a history of making it less stubborn. He's a leader in bringing new approaches to meteorology, and his research has changed how experts around the world forecast weather. Often, his innovations come from adapting something that has nothing to do with meteorology. And in the summer of 2016, that Jersey Shore reverie about sharks was sparking another one.
Forecasters use "ensemble" models, which average many different weather models, to create more accurate predictions. Roebber wondered if a mathematical equivalent of Charles Darwin's evolution theory might get more out of ensemble forecasting, and do so without requiring additional data, which can be expensive to gather.
He devised a method in which one computer program sorts 10,000 other ones, improving itself with strategies that mimic nature, such as heredity, mutation and natural selection. "This was just a pie-in-the-sky idea at first," says Roebber, a UWM distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences, who had considered it as far back as 2010. "Now, in the last year, I've gotten $500,000 of funding behind it."
This latest forecasting method outperforms the models used by the National Weather Service. And when compared to standard weather prediction modeling, Roebber's evolutionary methodology performs particularly well on longer-range forecasts and extreme events, when an accurate forecast is needed the most.
The importance of meteorology goes far beyond advising people to pack an umbrella for work or send the kids to school in warmer clothes. About 40 percent of the U.S. economy is somehow dependent on weather prediction. Even a small improvement in the accuracy of a forecast could save millions of dollars annually for industries like shippers, utilities and agribusiness.
It's not the first time Roebber has been involved in breakthrough work. In 2007, he launched Innovative Weather, which provides custom weather-related services to clients such as We Energies, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Lake Express ferry. Now in his 22nd year at UWM, he credits natural curiosity and a persistent personality with framing not only his prominent career, but also carrying him through a personal battle with cancer.
Chaos
Weather forecasting models are far from perfect because complete and exact data is impossible to get. "When we measure the current state of the atmosphere, we are not measuring every point in three-dimensional space," Roebber says. "We're interpolating what happens in the in-between."
Turns out, nature's state of high uncertainty is something you can't just ignore. Its role was first identified in the 1960s by Edward Lorenz, an MIT meteorologist and mathematician.
Lorenz found that when he inadvertently shortened a number with six decimal places to three, the tiny error resulted in unexpected changes to the forecasts.
Roebber explains this concept in terms of narrowly missing a bus. Even though you miss it by only 60 seconds, you still must wait a full 15 minutes before the bus comes around again. Once that 60-second delay becomes 15 minutes, perhaps you to miss an important meeting. While absent, you're assigned a task that requires weeks of your time. Small errors cascade into big consequences.
Lorenz's discovery, called the "Butterfly Effect," became the founding principle of chaos theory, which first acknowledged the overlooked role of apparent randomness in predicting nature. For meteorologists, it meant that obtaining a perfect weather prediction was impossible, especially in the long term.
Interestingly, as a graduate student at MIT in the early 1980s, Roebber took a chaos theory course with Lorenz that proved to be his most difficult class there. It underscored the importance of time spent seeking better forecasts, even though a perfect forecast is unattainable. In meteorology, he says, an incremental gain in accuracy perhaps only 1 degree Fahrenheit in a longer-range forecast has a cumulative economic impact.
Snow
In college, Roebber reveled in the interdisciplinary aspects of meteorology. "For me," he says, "creativity comes from being open to broad interests."
For example, after reading about the architecture of artificial intelligence, he was inspired to improve how meteorologists predict snow amounts. Such predictions had been particularly challenging because forecasters had no way to know the snow ratio the amount of water contained in each inch of snow.
Credit: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
That ratio varied widely, so you never knew if you were going to get heavy, wet snow or the light, fluffy kind. The best forecasters could do was predict a large range of inches, which could mean the difference between a fairly minor nuisance and a major plow event.
Roebber built simulations that were organized like networks of neurons in the brain: The computer programs formed a system of interconnected processing units that could be activated or deactivated. This artificial neural networks tool proved especially proficient at predicting scenarios with large data gaps and reams of variables. And it significantly advanced snowfall prediction efforts.
"Paul crosses discipline boundaries like citizens of the EU cross national borders," says Lance Bosart, a distinguished professor of atmospheric science at the State University of New York in Albany.
Bosart is so respected among his peers that the 2017 American Meteorology Society's annual meeting held a symposium in his name. He also happened to oversee Roebber's postdoctoral work. "He was in the absolute forefront," Bosart says, "of using neural networks to improve weather forecasting 10 years ago."
Roebber's creative drive isn't surprising when you consider his upbringing in a family of intellectuals. The son of a chemistry professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Roebber remembers the PBS program "Nova" as a TV staple in the household. By the time he finished high school, he knew he wanted to pursue the physical sciences in college.
During his graduate years at MIT, he studied explosive cyclones, like the one in the film "The Perfect Storm." The resulting thesis continues to be Roebber's most-cited publication by other atmospheric science researchers.
Evolving
With his latest research, Roebber is taking another brick out of the wall between forecasters and accuracy: the flaws inherent in ensemble modeling.
Lacking the addition of new data, models used in a group tend to agree with one another rather than the actual weather. In other words, the information in each model is often too similar, and in the absence of more diversity, it's hard to distinguish relevant variables from irrelevant ones what statistician Nate Silver calls the "signal" and the "noise." Roebber's solution applies Darwinian evolution principles.
Roebber has developed three tools that set Innovative Weather apart. One detects lightning strikes. Another identifies storms likely to cause power outages. A third delivers accurate snowfall predictions in inches. Credit: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
In nature, species diversity foils the possibility of one threat destroying an entire population at once. Darwin observed this in a population of Galapagos Islands finches in 1835. The birds divided into smaller groups, each residing in different locations around the islands. Over time, they adapted to their specific habitat, making each group distinct from the others.
Roebber decided to use evolution to engineer more variation in forecasting models. He began by subdividing the variables into conditional scenarios: The value of a variable would be set one way under one condition, but be set differently under another condition.
The computer program then picks out the variables that best accomplished the stated goal and recombines them, and does so in meteorological "niches," just as the finches did in their Galapagos niches. The offspring models have the most successful traits.
"We dig deeper into the data by configuring the variables in a different way," Roebber says. "One difference between this and biology is, I wanted to force the next generation to be better in some absolute sense, not just survive."
He is already using the technique to forecast minimum and maximum temperatures for seven days out. And the evolutionary computer program does as well or better than the most skilled human expert forecasts.
In a 2010 paper, Roebber calculated $2 million in potential annual savings for Ohio electric utilities if they'd substitute this evolutionary method for ensemble forecasts.
Innovation
Being prepared and saving money was the idea behind launching Innovative Weather in 2007. The forecasting group, manned by Roebber, meteorologist Mike Westendorf and a team of skilled student interns, provides a 24/7 service of customized forecasts for a dozen-plus clients. It helps the Brewers decide when to close Miller Park's roof, Lake Express prepare for rough sailings and We Energies handle Wisconsin's worst winter storms.
"When you forecast for clients with specific needs, it's more intense than general forecasting," says Westendorf, Innovative Weather's director. "There are thousands of dollars on the line for these clients who need to ensure that their resources are available at the time they are needed."
Paul Roebber consults with student Lily Chapman at Innovative Weather. Credit: UWM Photo/Elora Hennessey
Savings come from averting damage to infrastructure, but also from managing staff more efficiently. Too few on duty during bad weather, and customers are left longer without power longer. Too many working adds up to wasted labor costs, especially on weekends and holidays.
"With Innovative Weather, we now receive a range of potential weather scenarios, but also have a realistic idea of the potential severity of an event," says Duane Miller, manager of gas and electric distribution at We Energies, which calls on the service 15 to 20 times a year.
Roebber has developed several predictive tools that set Innovative Weather apart. It was the first to adopt his method of predicting snow in inches. Consulting with We Energies, he also created a lightning-strike detector and a method to identify storms that are likely to cause a power outage.
Innovative Weather's successful launch was one of Roebber's career highlights. But it also marked the start of his most trying personal saga. Because soon afterward, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer, and it had already spread to his liver.
Ever the mathematician, he remembers a most daunting statistic: "My five-year survival rate was 7 percent, I was told."
Between 2007 and 2012, he underwent a dozen surgeries and survived three near-fatal complications from pulmonary emboli. Throughout several rounds of chemotherapy, he kept teaching his courses to avoid imposing on colleagues. And the experience changed how he views his professional accomplishments.
"My research has always been important to me," Roebber says. "But when I was sick, I thought about the impact I've had on my students. To me, that's the lasting contribution I give."
Student success and research intertwine in Roebber's world. Once, after disagreeing with someone else's list of traits that are most predictive of grad school student success, Roebber mathematically modeled the question and found a more inclusive set of indicators.
In fact, a main goal in creating Innovative Weather was to offer students paid internship experiences in a field where few are available. It allows both undergraduate and graduate students the chance to be involved in applied research while working with businesses.
In the middle of 2012, Roebber was declared cancer-free. Now, nearly five years later, he couldn't resist redoing the survival math. He puts the conditional probability of living for the next five years at 91 percent. For the general public, it's 93.
Could this be the fish farm of the future? Credit: Ole Andre Haug, UiS/NettOp
A new Master's thesis shows that a renewable wind and solar energy solution can cut emissions by 50 per cent and at the same time increase profitability.
When Master's student Helleik L. Syse started looking into the energy consumption of the Teistholmen fish farm outside of Stavanger, he soon found that the industry was much more energy intensive than expected.
A medium-sized fish farm with diesel generators emits the same amount of CO2 annually as 70 private cars.
"What requires a lot of energy is the actual feeding process, where several tonnes of pellets are transported through hoses using compressed air out to the sea cages," explains Syse.
Today, about half of the fish farms along the Norwegian coast rely on diesel generators to produce the electricity needed. The other half is connected to the electricity grid, via a sea cable.
Industry growth means stricter standards
The aquaculture industry is growing rapidly. Larger farms further out to sea is the trend.
"In the future, farms will be located far out to sea. They will consume more energy, and connecting them to the onshore electricity grid will be challenging. The industry will also face stricter CO2 emission standards, says Associate Professor Siri Kalvig at the University of Stavanger.
"One possibility is for the aquaculture industry to use renewable energy solutions for off-grid systems, i.e. self-sufficient energy systems such as a fish farm at sea," she continues.
Kalvig is head of the Research Network for Sustainable Energy at UiS and IRIS, and she is a part owner of Gwind. This company was established based on research done at UiS, and it explores the possibilities for hybrid renewable solutions at lighthouses and fish farms along the Norwegian coast.
In June 2016, Kalvig assigned Master's student Syse the task of assessing various energy sources for supplying electricity to fish farms.
Syse, who at the time was studying renewable energy systems at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, was unable to find many relevant studies that dealt with supplying fish farms with renewable energy. Neither were there any open studies that looked at the energy consumption of Norwegian fish farms.
He therefore had to visit an actual farm and find out for himself.
Energy intensive
In June 2016, Helleik L. Syse was challenged to study how fish farms might benefit from renewable energy solutions. The answers he found are good news for the offshore wind energy industry.
Using data from the fish farm and cost information provided by the CEO of Gwind, Syse applied energy simulation tools for his analysis.
"The advantage of using such a tool is that you can test millions of combinations to find the optimal energy system for each individual farm," says Syse.
His Master's thesis presents three different ways of supplying a fish farm with electricity: a pure diesel system, a hybrid energy system and a 100 per cent renewable energy system.
Syse found that the diesel systems currently in use give high costs and considerable emissions.
A typical fish farm has CO2 emissions of around 120,000 kg per year, in addition to emissions of other gases and soot particles.
"Almost 500 fish farms in Norway run on diesel generators, which adds up to create substantial emissions," explains Syse.
100 per cent renewable energy is not profitable
Syse first looked at the possibility of supplying a fish farm with 100 per cent renewable energy. Several potential energy sources were evaluated, including wave power, tidal power, wind and solar.
He found that combining wind turbines, photovolatic panels (PV panels) and batteries was the most efficient solution in the current market.
"To make a fish farm with a 100 per cent renewable energy system work, it requires an overcapacity of wind turbines, PV panels and batteries to secure continuous operation. Only then will the system be able to cope with periods of little wind and sun light," says Syse.
"This leads to very high costs if they want to get rid of the diesel generator altogether. It is therefore not profitable in the current market," he concludes.
A hybrid solution works best
The system that provided electricity at the lowest cost was a hybrid energy system that combined solar, wind and battery power with a diesel generator for backup.
"Renewable energy such as solar and wind depends on the wind and weather conditions. A fish farm requires constant power supply. If we use renewable energy and keep the diesel generators for backup, there is no need for an overcapacity of wind turbines and PV panels. It has a lower cost, and we also achieve a considerable reduction of CO2 emissions," Syse concludes.
The Master's student has estimated that by using wind turbines and PV panels in addition to a diesel generator for handling the energy peaks, farms can reduce their CO2 emissions by almost 50 per cent, and a typical fish farm will at the same time be able to cut costs by 16 per cent.
"By switching to sustainably produced biodiesel or biogas to power the generator, the fish farm could cut fossil fuels all together," says Syse, who's supervisors for the Master's thesis were Siri Kalvig at UiS and Paul Tuohy at the University of Strathclyde.
Profitable market for wind in Norway
Today, the former Bachelor's student in petroleum engineering at UiS works at Gwind as a project engineer.
"What is most important for me, UiS and Gwind is that this solution could be economically viable in today's market and not sometime in the future. We can cut emissions considerably without any extra costs. Bearing in mind the current market, hybrid systems seem to be a very good solution for ousting diesel," says Syse.
Kalvig is enthused by the findings.
"Here we have identified a potential profitable market for offshore wind in Norway. This is just what the industry needs.
Kalvig believes the market for green energy solutions within fisheries will grow and envisages a Norwegian springboard for innovative solutions within offshore wind and solar power at sea.
"We need a market in Norway for developing new technology, and the fish farming industry might become a promising market for such a development of wind energy," concludes Kalvig.
More information: Helleik L. Syse (2016): Investigating Off-Grid Energy Solutions for the Salmon Farming Industry, University of Strathclyde and the University of Stavanger.
The structure of the Zika virus protein NS5, which is key to the reproduction and spread of the virus. Credit: Cheng Kao, Indiana University
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne infectious disease linked to certain birth defects in infants in South and Central America and the United States. A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researcher, Banumathi Sankaran, worked as part of a multi-institutional team to map a key viral protein called NS5. Necessary to virus reproduction, NS5 contains two enzyme activities: one reduces the body's ability to mount an immune response against infection and the other helps start the genetic replication process. The work was led by Indiana University's Cheng Kao and Pingwei Li at Texas A&M University (TAMU).
In a study published March 27 in Nature Communications, the team described the structure and function of these two enzyme active sites. They also showed comparisons between this protein and those from other related viruses that cause dengue fever, West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, and hepatitis C. These comparisons will help researchers as they search for possible compounds to halt the ability of the virus to reproduce.
Working with researchers from TAMU, Sankaran, a research scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division at Berkeley Lab, used X-ray crystallography to solve the atomic structure of NS5 in the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). "The ALS was critical to the success of this project," said Li. "The powerful beam and the sensitive detector on beamline 5.0.2 made it possible for us to obtain data on our poor quality crystals."
Sankaran is in charge of the Collaborative Crystallography (CC) program at the ALS. Funded by the NIH, this program is a fast, reliable and transparent mail-in crystallographic service for the structural biology community. Since the mosquitos carrying the vector have been spreading into the Southern U.S., interest in studying the virus has increased and TAMU's Li indicated that several groups currently are working on similar structural determination efforts. "Having access to state-of-the-art facilities provided by our Collaborative Crystallography program resulted in a rapid turnaround of this project," according to Sankaran.
While the researchers have gathered a lot of information about how to target this protein, there are still puzzles remaining. "One of the most important unresolved questions about Zika NS5 is how it catalyzes the synthesis of RNA," said Li. "We look forward to further studies and future collaborations, which will be invaluable for therapeutics discovery."
Diverse immigrant populations do more than enrich a city's cultural fabric. According to geographers from the University at Buffalo and Southampton University, they also boost wages.
"What we found was remarkable. In cities that are unwelcoming to immigrants, as diversity rises, people's wages either don't change, or they go up by only a small amount. In cities that are welcoming to immigrants, as diversity goes up, people's wages go up, and by a lot," said Abigail Cooke, an assistant professor of geography in UB's College of Arts and Sciences.
Cooke wrote the paper with Thomas Kemeny, a UB research assistant professor and a lecturer at the University of Southampton in England.
The findings were published online ahead of print in the journal Economic Geography.
"It's been shown empirically that as you have more immigrants and greater diversity of immigrants in a city, people's wages also increase, which is certainly not the narrative that is often told about immigrants in our society. But this is a pretty robust finding, especially in the U.S.," adds Cooke. "The contribution of this new research is that it shows how the institutional character of different cities might facilitate this positive aspect of immigration, or not."
Cooke and Kemeny also found that anti-immigrant policies and laws may actually end up backfiring on the group most likely to support themworkers who were born in the U.S. "That was really surprising to us," Cooke said.
"U.S.-born workers in these anti-immigrant cities get no benefit from rising diversity. Their wages don't go down, but unlike everyone else, their wages do not go up as diversity increases," she added. "Immigrants in those places still seemed to be able to benefit despite the fact that they're in this unwelcoming environment. It was less so than in pro-immigrant places, but they still benefitted."
Cooke and Kemeny examined reams of U.S. Census Bureau data for 33 million people from across 160 metropolitan areas from 1991 to 2008. States include Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Washington and others. (Data for New York and several other states was not made available through the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics program.)
They looked at the wages of people who stayed with one employer for at least two years and tracked their wages over time as diversity in both their workplace and their city changed.
Cooke and Kemeny suspected that the various institutions that make up a city play a key role in shaping what previous studies have shown to be a strong relationship between greater immigrant diversity and higher productivityin this case, wages.
In economic terms, inclusive institutions refer to societal structures that facilitate trusting interaction among diverse people.
Cooke and Kemeny employed two different methods to measure inclusive institutions in the metropolitan areas for which they had data: a composite measure of social capitalthe resources and connections that individuals in places have at their disposal to facilitate their lives and provide opportunities to interact with others in the cityand locality-specific ordinances aimed at immigrants.
The researchers focused on metropolitan areas that ranked at the high and low ends of the social capital index.
"The wages of workers in cities that feature strongly inclusive institutions, whether measured by social capital or immigrant ordinances, respond much more sharply to changes in immigrant diversity in their urban context," they write.
With an average increase in immigrant diversity over the study time period, the average worker in a high social capital metro area has enjoyed a 21 percent wage increase. Conversely, wages for workers in metropolitan areas with low social capital rose by only 2.4 percent in response to a similar increase in immigrant diversity.
To measure policies toward immigrants, they aggregated county and city laws recently implemented that target immigrants, either favorably, such as sanctuary laws, or unfavorably, such as those that restrict the use of languages other than English.
Cities with very pro-immigrant ordinances include Madison, Wisconsin; El Paso, Texas; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cities that were unfavorable to immigrants were Charlotte, North Carolina; Palm Bay, Florida; and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The findings using this very different measure of inclusive institutions were remarkably similar to the social capital findings. As immigrant diversity increased, wages rose in pro-immigrant cities but were stagnant in anti-immigrant cities, Cooke said.
However, Cooke cautions, "Our research cannot say that if a city passes pro-immigrant policies, then wages will suddenly increase for native-born workers. But I don't think the answer is to give up. Places and institutions evolve slowly, but they evolve through effort."
More information: Tom Kemeny et al. Urban Immigrant Diversity and Inclusive Institutions, Economic Geography (2017). DOI: 10.1080/00130095.2017.1300056
Drone image -- thawing permafrost peat plateaus in northern Norway. Credit: Sebastian Westermann
Global warming will thaw about 20% more permafrost than previously thought, scientists have warnedpotentially releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the Earth's atmosphere.
A new international research study, including climate change experts from the University of Leeds, University of Exeter and the Met Office, reveals that permafrost is more sensitive to the effects of global warming than previously thought.
The study, published today in Nature Climate Change, suggests that nearly 4 million square kilometres of frozen soilan area larger than Indiacould be lost for every additional degree of global warming experienced.
Permafrost is frozen soil that has been at a temperature of below 0C for at least two years. Large quantities of carbon are stored in organic matter trapped in the icy permafrost soils. When permafrost thaws the organic matter starts to decompose, releasing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane which increase global temperatures.
It is estimated that there is more carbon contained in the frozen permafrost than is currently in the atmosphere.
Thawing permafrost has potentially damaging consequences, not just for greenhouse gas emissions, but also the stability of buildings located in high-latitude cities.
Roughly 35 million people live in the permafrost zone, with three cities built on continuous permafrost along with many smaller communities. A widespread thaw could cause the ground to become unstable, putting roads and buildings at risk of collapse.
Recent studies have shown that the Arctic is warming at around twice the rate as the rest of the world, with permafrost already starting to thaw across large areas.
The researchers, from Sweden and Norway as well as the UK, suggest that the huge permafrost losses could be averted if ambitious global climate targets are met.
Lead-author Dr Sarah Chadburn of the University of Leeds said: "A lower stabilisation target of 1.5C would save approximately two million square kilometres of permafrost.
Achieving the ambitious Paris Agreement climate targets could limit permafrost loss. For the first time we have calculated how much could be saved."
In the study, researchers used a novel combination of global climate models and observed data to deliver a robust estimate of the global loss of permafrost under climate change.
The team looked at the way that permafrost changes across the landscape, and how this is related to the air temperature. They then considered possible increases in air temperature in the future, and converted these to a permafrost distribution map using their observation-based relationship. This allowed them to calculate the amount of permafrost that would be lost under proposed climate stabilisation targets.
As co-author Professor Peter Cox of the University of Exeter explained: "We found that the current pattern of permafrost reveals the sensitivity of permafrost to global warming."
The study suggests that permafrost is more susceptible to global warming that previously thought, as stabilising the climate at 2C above pre-industrial levels would lead to thawing of more than 40% of today's permafrost areas.
Co-author Dr Eleanor Burke, from the Met Office Hadley Centre, said: "The advantage of our approach is that permafrost loss can be estimated for any policy-relevant global warming scenario.
"The ability to more accurately assess permafrost loss can hopefully feed into a greater understanding of the impact of global warming and potentially inform global warming policy."
More information: An observation-based constraint on permafrost loss as a function of global warming, Nature Climate Change (2017). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nclimate3262 Journal information: Nature Climate Change
Researchers are developing a suite of diagnostic tools featuring tiny semiconductor crystals, known as quantum dots, and dye-coated silica nanoparticles. Credit: Dzmitry Melnikau / 123rf
Fast, cost-effective electrochemical platforms show promise for highly-sensitive detection of different strains of influenza and diarrhoea-causing pathogens.
Sending patient samples to the lab for analysis takes time and can delay treatment. To address this, researchers are developing a suite of diagnostic tools featuring tiny semiconductor crystals, known as quantum dots, and dye-coated silica nanoparticles. These platforms can be configured to detect multiple pathogens at the same time to further improve their functionality at the point of care.
Recent advances in the field demonstrated by researchers based at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) in Thailand include the simultaneous measurement of DNA from three organisms (Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella and Shigella) responsible for diarrhoeal diseases. The team has also configured a platform to identify DNA from four different strains of influenza virus.
"Simultaneous detection provides users with more information and saves time, which makes the sensors more cost-effective," explains Werasak Surareungchai, head of the Bio and Chemical Sensor Research Group at KMUTT. "In addition, the total sample size required for detecting all of the biological targets is typically much smaller than for conventional methods because these devices require just a single sample."
To create its biosensors, the group employs DNA sequences that bind to specific bacteria, viruses or other disease-causing microorganisms. During formulation, the DNA sequence is attached to either a quantum dot or a silica nanoparticle, which acts as a label or marker and allows any binding events to be readily identified in a patient sample.
Because the quantum dots are made of different metals (lead, cadmium and zinc), they produce different colours of photoluminescence and react at different voltages, with distinct current peaks in response to a voltage sweep, which can be used to identify their presence.
By exploiting this behaviour in their biosensor, the researchers engineer the simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens using a stepped waveform.
In their silica nanoparticle-based devices, the scientists trap different dye molecules, each targeting a different microorganism inside the particles to enable analysis. Again, the dyes respond at different voltages, allowing the team to pinpoint the presence of several pathogens in the sample at the same time.
Provided by King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
Lake Monona, in Madison, Wis. is experiencing rising salinity due to nearby roadways and road salt application. Credit: Hilary Dugan
North America's freshwater lakes are getting saltier due to development and exposure to road salt. A study of 371 lakes published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that many Midwestern and Northeastern lakes are experiencing increasing chloride trends, with some 44% of lakes sampled in these regions undergoing long-term salinization.
The study is the first large-scale analysis of chloride trends in freshwater lakes. It was conducted by a team of fifteen researchers as part of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) Fellowship Program, an initiative that seeks to train the next generation of freshwater scientists and practitioners.
Lead author Hilary Dugan, a limnologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Postdoctoral Fellow, explains, "We compiled long-term data, and compared chloride concentrations in North American lakes and reservoirs to climate and land use patterns, with the goal of revealing whether, how, and why salinization is changing across broad geographic scales. The picture is sobering. For lakes, small amounts of shoreline development translate into big salinization risks."
Chloride trends in 371 freshwater lakes were analyzed. Each lake was larger than 4 hectares in size with at least 10 years of recorded chloride data. The majority of the lakes (284) were located in a North American Lakes Region that includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ontario, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
A view from a road near Lake Mendota, in Madison Wis. Impervious surfaces like roadways channel salt-laden runoff directly into lakes. Credit: Hilary Dugan
Since the 1940s, the use of road salt to keep winter roads navigable has been escalating. Each year, some 23 million metric tons of sodium chloride-based deicer is applied to North America's roads to melt away snow and ice. Much of this road salt washes into nearby water bodies, where it is recognized as a major source of chloride pollution to groundwater, streams, rivers, and lakes.
To gauge road salt exposure, the research team assessed road density and land cover within a 100- to 1500-meter buffer around each of the 371 study lakes. Roadways and impervious surfaces such as parking lots and sidewalks are reliable proxies for road salt application because as developed areas, they are susceptible to high levels of salting and runoff.
Results were clear: roads and other impervious surfaces within 500 meters of a lake's shoreline were a strong predictor of elevated chloride concentrations. In the North American Lakes Region, 70% (94 out of 134) of lakes with more than 1% impervious land cover in their 500-meter buffer zone had increasing chloride trends. When results are extrapolated to all lakes in the North American Lakes Region, some 7,770 lakes may be at risk of rising salinity.
If current salinization trends continue, many North American lakes will surpass EPA-recommended chloride levels in 50 years. Within this study, 14 North American Lakes Region lakes are expected to exceed the EPA's aquatic life criterion concentration of 230 mg/L by 2050, and 47 are on track to reach chloride concentrations of 100 mg/L during the same time period.
Lakes with just 1% impervious surface within 500m of their shorelines are at risk of salinization. Credit: Google Earth
Co-author Sarah Bartlett, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, explains, "These results are likely an underestimation of the salinization problem, as a number of regions with heavy road salt application, such as Quebec or the Maritime Provinces of Canada, had no long-term lake data available." Co-author Flora Krivak-Tetley, a graduate student at Dartmouth College, added, "It is also extremely difficult to obtain rates of road salt application both through time and across regions. Better application data would allow us to more accurately forecast ecosystem health."
In lakes, elevated chloride levels have been shown to alter the composition of fish, invertebrates, and the plankton that form the base of the aquatic food web. Aquatic species richness and abundance can decline, and in extreme cases salinization can prevent lakes from mixing - causing low oxygen conditions that smother aquatic life and reduce water quality.
The study's authors recommend that best lake management practices recognize that shoreline management extends well beyond a lake's perimeter. While many states and municipalities acknowledge the importance of shoreline management, they note that zoning regulations are often only enforced within 300 meters, and many lakes lack the monitoring programs needed to adequately track lake health.
Coauthor and Fellowship advisor Kathleen Weathers, an ecosystem scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and co-chair of GLEON, comments, "In the North American Lakes Region - where road salt is a reality - roads and other impervious surfaces within 500 meters of a lake's shoreline are a recipe for salinization. We need to manage and monitor lakes to ensure they are kept 'fresh' and protect the myriad of services they provide, from fisheries and recreation to drinking water supplies."
A lake's chloride status may also provide a window into the ecological health of its watershed. Co-author Samantha Burke, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, adds, "Unlike flowing streams and rivers, water resides in lakes for long periods of time. This makes them vulnerable to pollution from their watersheds and good early warning indicators of environmental disruption."
Food purists may have cause to celebrate thanks to a recent international study directed by the University of British Columbia. The study, which evaluated the spread of genetically modified (GM) organisms to non-modified crops, has implications from farm to family.
"Trying to figure out how far GM pollen will travel is really difficult," says study co-author Rebecca Tyson, associate professor of mathematics at UBC Okanagan.
"It is important to have accurate tools to estimate this, so that unintentional cross-pollination of GM material to non-GM crops can be minimized."
According to stastista.com, genetically modified crops in Canada are mostly located in Ontario and Quebec and consist of canola, soybeans, corn and sugar beets. More than 90 per cent of the canola grown in Canada is genetically modified.
Tyson suggests that the simplest way to minimize cross fertilization between crops is to separate them. Up until now, the isolation distances have been somewhat haphazardly determined. Previous estimates have been based on two standard models, which either overestimate or underestimate pollen movement. The gap between these two distances makes prediction difficult and thus necessitates improved calculations, she explains.
Tyson's research offers a new analytical tool which can provide a much improved estimate of how far pollen will travel.
Along with colleagues from the Universite catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and Delft University (The Netherlands), she developed a mathematical model of pollen dispersal by bees, based on field experiments.
"Our results suggest that separation distances of several hundred metres, proposed by some European countries, is unnecessarily large but separation by 40 metres is not sufficient," says Tyson. "Using our model, we can calculate and suggest separation sizes with better accuracy. For example, we have estimated that for a 0.9 per cent cross-pollination rate, the ideal distance of separation between two crops is between 51 and 88 metres, depending on crop size and type."
These numbers are specific to particular crops and landscapes, she explains, but the predictive ability is the same.
"We believe that our model provides a more accurate assessment of GM pollen cross-pollination than previous models," adds Tyson. "We are hopeful these findings will simplify the decision-making process for crop-growers and policy makers."
This research was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Mount Etna: boiling over again. Credit: Shutterstock
An eruption of Mount Etna recently caught out some BBC journalists who were filming there. The footage was extraordinary and highlighted the hazards volcanoes pose to humans and society.
Since 1600, 278,880 people have been killed by volcanic activity, with many of these deaths attributed to secondary hazards associated with the main eruption. Starvation killed 92,000 following the 1815 Tambora eruption in Indonesia, for example, and a volcanic tsunami killed 36,000 following the 1883 Krakatoa eruption.
Since the 1980s, deaths related to volcanic eruptions have been rather limited, but this is not entirely a result of increased preparedness or investment in hazard management it is significantly a matter of chance.
Research shows that volcanic activity has shown no let up since the turn of the 21st century it just hasn't been around population centres. Indeed, there remain a number of volcanoes poised to blow which pose a major threat to life and livelihood.
Vesuvius, Italy
Known for its 79AD eruption, which destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Vesuvius is still a significant hazard given that it overshadows the city of Naples and its surrounds, which are home to over 3m people.
It is also known for a particularly intense form of eruption. Plinian (after Pliny the Younger who was the first to describe the 79AD event) eruptions are characterised by the ejection of a vast column of gas and ash which extends into the stratosphere, far higher than commercial airliners fly.
Were such an eruption to occur at Vesuvius today, it is likely that much of the population would already have been evacuated as a precursory swarm of earthquakes would likely herald its imminent approach. But those who remained would initially be showered with huge pumice rocks too large to be kept aloft by the column of gas.
Then, as the volcano began to run out of energy, the column itself would collapse, causing smaller particles of rock (from fine ash to small boulders) to fall from the sky and back to Earth at high velocity. Asphyxiating clouds of gas and pulverised rock pyroclastic density currents would then flood down the slopes of the volcano, annihilating anything in their path. Such gas-ash features have been known to travel tens of kilometres and at terrifying speeds, potentially turning modern Naples into a new Pompeii.
Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of Congo
This central African volcano has erupted several times over the last few decades and while its eruptions aren't particularly explosive, it produces a particularly runny and dangerous form of lava. Once effused, this lava can rapidly move down the flanks of the volcano and inundate areas with little or no warning.
Mount Vesuvius looms over Naples. Credit: Shutterstock
In 2002, the lava lake at the volcano's summit was breached, resulting in streams of lava hurtling towards the nearby city of Goma at 60km/hr, engulfing parts of it to a depth of two metres.
Fortunately, warnings had been issued as the volcano's unrest has made it the focus of intense research and over 300,000 people were evacuated in time. Should such an event occur again, we have to hope that the authorities are equally prepared, but this is a politically unstable area and it remains seriously vulnerable.
Popocatepetl, Mexico
"Popo", as the locals call it, is just 70km south-west of the one of the largest cities in the world: Mexico City, home to 20m people. Popo is regularly active and its most recent bout of activity in 2016 sent a plume of ash to an altitude of five kilometres.
In recent times, and indeed throughout much of its history, eruptive events at Popo have consisted of similarly isolated ash plumes. But these plumes coat the mountain in a thick blanket of ash which, when mixed with water, can form a dense muddy mixture which has the potential to flow for many kilometres and at relatively high speeds.
The fiery heart of Nyiragongo. Credit: Shutterstock
Such phenomena, known as "lahars", can be extremely deadly, as exemplified by the Nevado del Ruiz disaster of 1985 when around 26,000 people were killed in the town of Armero, Colombia, by a lahar with a volcanic source that was 60km away.
The Nevado del Ruiz tragedy was the direct result of volcanic activity melting ice at the volcano's summit, but a large volume of rainfall or snowmelt could feasibly generate a similar lahar on Popo. This could flow down-slope towards nearby settlements with little or no warning.
Krakatoa, Indonesia
Otherwise named Krakatau, Krakatoa's name is infamous; 36,000 people were killed by the tsunami triggered by its 1886 eruption, which released more energy than 13,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. The eruption destroyed the volcanic island completely, but within 50 years, a new island had appeared in its place.
The new island is named Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatoa) and since the 1920s, it has been growing in episodic phases, reaching about 300 metres in height today. New and significant activity commenced in 2007 and since this time, further episodes of activity were noted at the volcano, most recently in March 2017.
No one knows for sure whether or not the spectacular growth of Anak Krakatau means it may one day repeat the catastrophe its "father" unleashed, but its location between Indonesia's two most populated islands, Java and Sumatra, means it poses a grave threat to life.
Changbaishan, China
Few have heard of this volcano in a remote part of Asia and its last eruption was in 1903. However, its history tells a rather scarier story. In around 969AD, the volcano produced one of the largest eruptions of the last 10,000 years, releasing three times more material than Krakatoa did in 1886.
Letting off steam: Popocatepetl. Credit: Shutterstock
One of the chief hazards is posed by the massive crater lake at its peak (with a volume of about nine cubic kilometres). If breached, this lake could generate lahars that would pose a significant threat to the 100,000 people that live in the vicinity.
In the early 2000s, scientists began monitoring the hitherto under-monitored volcano, and determined that its activity was increasing, that its magma chamber dormancy was coming to an end, and that it could pose a hazard in the following decades.
Anak Krakatau erupts in 2011. Credit: Shutterstock
Further complicating things is the fact that Changbaishan straddles the border of China and North Korea. Given such a geo-politically sensitive location, the effects of any volcanic activity here would likely be very hard to manage.
Changbaishan. Credit: Shutterstock
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
- Sheriff said through his deputy Ojuogboh that the party is ready to work without governors that are not in support of the leadership of the former Borno governor
- The party, Ojuogboh said, has begun a nationwide mobilization campaign to bring party members together
- The campaign is set to start in the south-east where Ojuogboh said work has already begun
Sheriff says any governor that is not in support of his leadership can leave the party
Factional national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ali Modu Sheriff has said that governors of Ekiti and Rivers states Ayo Fayose of Ekiti and Nyesom Wike can leave the opposition party.
READ ALSO: Martin Elechi defects to APC
Sheriff said both men and other governors who are not happy with his leadership can show themselves out of the party.
He also noted that he could not be intimidated by the governors because he is not ready to collect stolen money from them.
The Punch reports that the former Borno state governor made these assertions through his deputy Dr. Cairo Ojougboh.
He added that the party would dump governors that refused to join hands in rebuilding the party and it would not support such governors if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission goes after them when they leave office.
Ojuogboh said: We are moving on with the determination to reposition the party. We are not interested in the funding of the party from the governors.
They are free to leave if they want to, especially Wike and Fayose.
We are also not interested in their money. The party belongs to the people, they will finance it. So, if the governors want to withhold money from the party, they are free.
READ ALSO: Obasanjo reveals why EFCC lost 4 cases in 96 hours
We dont receive stolen money. They have not been funding us and we are surviving.
According to Ojuogboh, the party is planning a nationwide campaign and has already begun work in the South-East where the campaign would start.
We are starting with Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu and Abia states, and then we will move to Cross River State. The party belongs to the people and not to governors who will want to steal peoples money.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng gathered that the crisis rocking the PDP took a new twist on Sunday, April 9 as Inuwa Bwala who is the Special Adviser on media to Sheriff resigned his appointment.
Nigerian Tribune reports that Bwala has worked as the spokesman to Sheriff since he was first elected as the national chairman of the party in February 2016.
Source: Legit.ng
While Fintech is the buzzword going around these days, hailed for its ability to bring innovation to a staid financial industry, it is by no means the sole exemplar of disruption to a particular professional sector.
The legal industry, for instance, has long been regarded as an area where technological applications were not considered to be a huge game-changer in the bigger scheme of things. In the past, any perceived value-add was considered either minimal at best, or not robust enough to properly address the subtleties of the practice of law. And to be fair, for a period of time, there was definitely a strong argument for this case.
Technology 2.0
But times have changed, and so has the level of sophistication that comes with the latest technological advancements.
So whether it is a new-found method of breaking down complex legal processes into smaller parts to enable automation, or perhaps turning unstructured text contained within law cases into a structured data format to facilitate research, Legaltech certainly seems to have finally gotten a foothold within the industry, and the ever-increasing number of ways that technology can be used to enhance the status quo has contributed greatly to Legaltechs rise over the last 5 to 6 years.
Flying the torch for Legal Industry
The law community here in Singapore has been busy making strides of its own to foster the adoption of Legaltech amongst the local law firms; both from an organisational as well as individual basis.
With firm support from the government, crystallised in the form of financial support programmes, measures have recently been put in place to spur the usage of technology by law firms to enhance the various facets of productivity, efficiency and overall capability.
A good case in point is that on 1st March 2017, the Ministry of Law, together with the Law Society of Singapore and SPRING Singapore, launched a new scheme dubbed Tech Start for Law.
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With this scheme, Singapore law firms can simply apply for financial support from SPRING Singapore via the Law Society, which then helps to subsidise part of the initial costs that a firm will have to pay when using a certain form of legal technology and/or business development solution.
Zuu Online and LegisComm
Source: Asia Law Network
ZUU Online and our partner, LegisComm a marketing firm that focuses on the legal sector and other related professional services, took part in the Legal Technology Roadshow organized by the Law Society of Singapore at NTUC Business Centre on 27th and 28th of March 2017. Over the two-day roadshow, various products and services were offered by legal technology providers to the members of the legal community.
The team members from both ZUU and LegisComm were there to advocate the use of content marketing as the best long-term strategy for law firms. The team was also there to promote the upcoming launch of the new ZUU Online Legal -Section on 19 April 2017. This new Legal section would also be one of the avenues where law-related content would reach a wider audience including readers from business and finance sectors.
Relevant and well-written content can result in heightened interest in a particular type of legal work, and translates into a more efficient and elegant manner of client acquisition, and even enhance customer retention.
Content Marketing is a strategy that is value-for-money, as any content generated can be published on several platforms not only on your companys website, it can be blasted out in the form of newsletters and reposted on your social media pages to get maximum mileage. Most importantly, any content published on the internet is evergreen and stays online for almost eternity, unless taken down shared Eliza Tan, Managing Director of LegisComm in her speech on Content Marketing The best long-term strategy for Law Firms.
Legaltech on the rise in Singapore
Source: Asia Law Network
Aside from ZUU and LegisComm, there were also interesting startups such as Asia Law Network, an online platform that connects lawyers, law firms, and clients to one another, as well as Intelllex, a portal that helps lawyers to search through case files in a faster manner, keep notes and better organise their research as a whole.
Another boost for the Singapore legal sector
During the Roadshow, the Law Society also officially launched the SmartLaw Assist scheme. This scheme enables each law firm to get access to a subsidy amounting to 70% of the first years subscription costs of an online knowledge database from Singapore Academy of Law, Lexis Nexis or Thomson Reuters. The Law Society are currently accepting applications from now until 30th June 2017.
What all this boils down to is that the future is definitely looking bright for the legal sector here, what with the positive stance of promoting added usage of technology to enhance the legal services here. Hopefully, all stakeholders, be it law firms or the clients who need their services, will all benefit as a whole.
(By ZUUonlineSG)
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Sweden held a nationwide minute of silence Monday for the victims of last week's Stockholm truck attack which police believe was carried out by an Uzbek jihadist sympathiser. A huge crowd gathered outside the Ahlens department store at the corner of the Drottninggatan pedestrian street, where a driver mowed down shoppers with a stolen beer truck Friday before ploughing into the store's facade, killing four people and injuring 15. Swedish court documents obtained by AFP identified the suspect as Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek national. Media reports said he had confessed, claiming he had been ordered by the Islamic State group to carry out the attack against "infidels". Under rainy skies, the crowd observed a minute of silence at noon, many visibly moved with tears streaming down their cheeks as a carpet of flowers and candles covered the ground. "I just want to cry, many died here. For nothing," said Fadi Mdalal, from Syria. The four dead were two Swedes -- one of them an 11-year-old girl -- a British man, and a Belgian woman. Many people thanked and hugged police officers guarding the scene, some offering them flowers, for their widely-praised response to the attack. An official ceremony was held at the same time outside Stockholm's City Hall, attended by Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, King Carl XVI Gustaf and most of the royal family, and Stockholm mayor Karin Wanngard. "We will never let terror prevail," Wanngard said. "Stockholm will remain an open and tolerant city." - Residency application rejected - The motive for Friday's attack remains unconfirmed and no group has claimed the attack, but the method resembled previous rampages using vehicles in Nice, Berlin and London, all of them claimed by IS. Police are continuing their investigation into Akilov, who they say went underground when he received a deportation order after his permanent residency application was rejected last year. Swedish media have described the suspect as a construction worker and father of four. A court in Stockholm is due to decide Tuesday on whether to grant prosecutors permission to remand Akilov in custody. Court documents seen by AFP showed that he had requested his state-appointed lawyer be replaced by a Sunni Muslim, saying "only a lawyer of this faith could assert his interests in the best way", but the demand was refused. The far-right Sweden Democrats party blasted authorities' failure to deport the suspect. "It's a huge scandal if it's true," party leader Jimmie Akesson told the Aftonbladet newspaper. "We need to detain people when there is a risk they will go underground, and there appear to be around 10,000 to 15,000 cases," said Akesson, whose party won almost 13 percent of votes in the 2014 legislative election. However, national police commissioner Dan Eliasson said "there was nothing in the system that indicated (the suspect) would do something like what he did on Friday". The country of 10 million people took in 244,000 asylum seekers in 2014 and 2015, the highest per capita in Europe. Justice Minister Morgan Johansson meanwhile told AFP he wants to beef up Sweden's anti-terror laws. "We've criminalised foreign travel for terrorism purposes, we've extended (our laws) on terrorism financing. There is a possibility to extend them further." - 'Mowed down the infidels' - Akilov, arrested several hours after the attack, had expressed "sympathies for extremist organisations, including the Islamic State," senior police official Jonas Hysing told reporters. The Aftonbladet and Expressen newspapers reported that he had confessed to the assault, saying he was "pleased with what he had done". "I mowed down the infidels," he said, according to Aftonbladet, which cited sources close to the investigation. The suspect reportedly said he had received an "order" directly from IS to carry out the attack. "The bombings in Syria have to end," he was quoted as saying. Police would not confirm whether he had confessed, but Eliasson said investigators were sure they had the truck driver, based on "discussions we've had with him". According to police, components were found in the truck that could be used to make a "dangerous" object. On Sunday, a second suspect was formally placed under arrest, Stockholm district court judge Helga Hullman told AFP, refusing to disclose any links between the two suspects. "It can take up to a year to finish the investigation," the head of national police operations, Mats Lofving, said Monday.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) The wife of a Taiwanese pro-democracy activist detained in China said Monday that she was prevented from flying to the mainland to seek a visit with her husband, whose case has inflamed tensions between the sides that have already sunk to their lowest level in years.
Lee Ching-yu said airline staff told her when she tried to check in for her flight that Beijing authorities had canceled her Chinese-issued travel permit. Li was hoping to fly to China to demand information about her husband, Lee Ming-che, who has not been heard from since March 19.
A Chinese official said last week that Lee was under investigation on suspicion of endangering Chinese national security and was in "good physical condition," but offered no additional information. Lee Ching-yu says her husband suffers from hypertension and has asked that medication be provided to him.
Lee, a college employee who used the WeChat social media platform to discuss China-Taiwan relations, is the first Taiwanese activist in years to be held by China on security charges. His colleagues said his account on WeChat a mainland China-based service used broadly in the Chinese-speaking world had been shut down by Chinese authorities in mid-2016, suggesting he had attracted government attention.
Lee, 42, formerly worked for the Democratic Progressive Party, which has advocated for Taiwan's formal independence. He was due to meet a friend in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on March 19 but never arrived.
China cut off its already limited contacts with Taiwan's government in June, five months after the DPP's Tsai Ing-wen was elected president. Since then, China has been seen as further restricting the island's already limited diplomatic breathing space while bringing economic pressure to bear.
Trailed by a scrum of supporters and media, Lee Ching-yu was turned away at the check-in counter by an Air China employee who said the airline had been informed by Beijing that her permit to visit the mainland had been voided, without providing details. China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and requires the island's residents to use a document called a Taiwan Compatriots Pass rather than their passport when traveling to the mainland.
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"I wonder why China needs to stop me, a defenseless woman, from visiting," Li told reporters at the airport.
Monday's drama raises the stakes in a case already complicated by the absence of formal cross-strait diplomatic channels. The Taiwanese government department responsible for relations with China says its requests for information about Lee have largely gone ignored.
Lee Ching-yu said Sunday that a middleman who claimed to have Chinese government contacts sought to persuade her not to make the trip, saying that her husband would be released soon if she acted in an "obedient and quietly cooperative" manner. If not, Lee said, the middleman suggested that Chinese state television would air a confession extracted from her husband.
Taiwanese media on Monday disclosed the middleman's identity as former Taiwanese intelligence officer Lee Chun-min, who told the press that he would no longer work on the case.
National security crimes in China are broadly defined and have a range of penalties. Authorities usually release little or no information on the specific allegations, citing the need to protect state secrets.
Powers of the security services in dealing with foreign groups and their Chinese partners were strongly enhanced under a law that took effect in January, leading to concerns about further prosecutions and restrictions on civil society.
In recent years, China's state security apparatus has detained foreign activists, domestic lawyers and other political elements it considers hostile and extracted and aired video confessions as proof that they were working to undermine China's national security. In several instances, the detainees recanted their confessions upon their release.
___
Shih reported from Beijing.
Daria Kasatkina and Jelena Ostapenko will both be battling for a first WTA title when they meet in the final at Charleston on Sunday. Latvia's Ostapenko out-lasted 11th-seeded Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, while Russia's Kasatkina rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Germany's Laura Siegemund. "It's nice. Finally I made the final," Kasatkina said. "Don't know what will happen tomorrow. Never have been in the final. So we will see." After dropping the opening set, Kasatkina dominated the rest of the match, reeling off one run of nine games before converting her fourth match point after two hours and 20 minutes. Siegemund took a medical timeout in the third set for treatment on her right thigh and said a pair of lengthy matches took a toll on her. "I just couldn't move anymore. The week is a long week, and I'm a really fit player but she just started giving me no pace at all," Siegemund said. "I just started to miss here and there like this, my serve started to go down. Very frustrating for me because I was playing really well and it was like someone unplugging my energy." Ostapenko, who ousted former world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter-finals, will be playing in her third career singles final, having lost in the title matches at Quebec in 2015 and at Doha last year. Ostapenko survived eight double faults, but converted seven of her 13 break point chances against Lucic-Baroni. Ostapenko, who like Kasatkina is 19 years old, had to conquer her own emotions to get past Lucic-Baroni after failing to take advantage of her chance to serve out the match in the second set. Lucic-Baroni produced a welter of winners to break Ostapenko for 5-4 and held on to force the third set. "I actually was quite emotional in the second set when I was 5-3 up and I couldn't finish the set, but she liked when I was emotional," Ostapenko said. "It kind of gave her confidence till then. "In the third set I was just trying to be calm because I think it was tougher for her because I didn't show any emotions, and it helped me, so I won the third set."
The most prominent insurgent group in Thailand's south rejected the military's peace plan in a rare statement on Monday, underscoring Bangkok's inability to open negotiations with the actual fighters in the conflict. The country's southernmost border provinces, which were annexed by Thailand more than a century ago, have been plagued with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay rebels battle Thai troops for more autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state. The fighting has claimed more than 6,800 lives -- mostly civilians -- since 2004, with both sides accused of rights abuses and atrocities. The shadowy Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) is believed to be behind much of the violence, although it never claims attacks and shuns publicity. On Monday it outlined objections to Bangkok's peace plan, saying it "must include the participation of third parties (international community) as witnesses and observers" and that an "impartial" mediator should lead the talks, not the Thai army. In February the military and a group of rebel peace negotiators agreed to create a cluster of "safety zones" -- the first small but significant step in a much delayed peace process. Thailand's generals, who seized power in 2014, touted the deal as proof the army-led peace process had legs. But many experts have long remarked that the only rebel group Bangkok will agree to talk to -- the Mara Patani -- has little control over fighters on the ground. Thailand's military treats the insurgency as a purely internal security issue and has baulked at any suggestion of outside involvement from the international community. There have been talks in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur with Mara Patani. But they have staggered on for years, undercut by near-daily bombs, ambushes and assassinations in the Deep South and a decade of political instability in Bangkok. Matthew Wheeler, an expert on the southern insurgency with the International Crisis Group, said the BRN "perceive the current (peace) process as one driven by Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur for their own interests". But he added that statement reminds both sides the BRN is willing to come to the table under the right conditions. "It does not reject dialogue, even as it rejects participation in the current dialogue process," he told AFP. Monday's statement followed a weekend of coordinated bombings across the south that targeted electricity poles. The attacks caused widespread blackouts but no casualties and were seen as a reminder from the insurgents that they can still cause trouble despite a strong military presence and harsh martial law restrictions. Those bombings came hours after Thailand's new King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed into law a military-backed constitution that will curb the power of elected lawmakers and bolster the army's role in any future government. The southern region was one of few areas to reject that constitution when it was put to a referendum last year.
Housing units for the victims of Zamboanga seige
Housing units for the victims of Zamboanga siege
MANILA, Philippines The 537 housing units will be turned over on Monday morning by the local government of Zamboanga to victims of the 2013 Zamboanga siege.
It is located at Vale Vista Subdivision Phase 1, in Barangay Kasanyangan.
The turn over ceremony will be led by the National Housing Authority and the city officials.
Beneficiaries come from Mampang transitory sites, Rio Hondo temporary shelters and other home-based victims of the siege.
The project costs over 167 million pesos.
Additional housing units are still being constructed and are expected to be completed on May 4, 2017 for more victims displaced by the bloody attack. UNTV News and Rescue
The post Over 500 housing units to be turned over to Zamboanga siege victims appeared first on UNTV News.
MANILA The Philippine National Police (PNP) warns the public against thieves tagged as the termite gang.
The PNP said the termite gang commonly breaks into commercial and private establishments by digging a tunnel into the shops.
The Philippine National Police advices the public to be observant of their surroundings and stay alert.
Pansinin nyo na po yung mga nasa paligid nyo as early as now kung may mga bagong lipat mga bagong mukha bagong nagrenta sa katabing unit o bahay. Tignan nyo ang drainage system nyo. Do a 360 degree inspection of your establishment (Be observant of your surroundings if there are new faces in your neighborhood, new tenants in the house next to yours. Check your drainage system. Do a 360-degree inspection of your establishment), PNP PIO chief PSSupt. Dionardo Carlos said.
The PNP also reminds the public who will be leaving their houses for a vacation.
Make sure that doors and windows are locked. As much as possible, double the locks. Set up an alarm system or a CCTV camera. Placing a dog will also help. Refrain from posting a notice outside the house saying there are no people inside the house. Ask a trusted neighbor to check on your house.
The PNP also reminds people to be cautious when posting destinations on social media. Thieves usually get information from social media.
They get information via the internet that nobody is in the house. They see all our posts. We say we are checking in at NAIA 3 going to Boracay, said PSupt. Elmer Cereno from PNP Police Relations Group.
For police assistance, text or call the PNP through hotline numbers 0917-847-5757 or 117. Grace Casin | UNTV News & Rescue
The post PNP warns public vs termite gang appeared first on UNTV News.
Dr. Kanawat Chantaralawan of Ruckdee to talk about digital health opportunities in Thailand at Echelon Thailand. Read on to find out more.
Healthcare is poised for a revolution. With rapid advancements in technology and significant changes in regulation, the healthcare industry is beginning to embrace the monumental changes brought about by the times. From simple solutions such as lessening waiting times in doctor visits to complex ones such as development robotics to perform invasive procedures, healthcare technology is on an upward trajectory.
Join Dr. Kanawat Chantaralawan, co-founder of Ruckdee, as he talks about digital health opportunities in Thailand at Echelon Thailand 2017. Hear how the healthcare industry in Thailand can benefit from digitising and learn about the critical role of technology in responding to emerging challenges of the industry.
Echelon Thailand 2017 is a tech conference (May 15-16, Bangkok) and year-long digital platform attracting international speakers, founders, investors and professionals.
Register for your Echelon Thailand access pass now.
New in 2017 is Echelon Thailands digital platform. Get immediate access to exclusive insights, participate in discussions and engage with the speakers and fellow attendees directly on Echelons digital platform, the moment you register (accessible from the Ecosystem page). Whats more, the digital platform will be accessible all-year even after the conference, so kickstart your Echelon experience today and embark on a year-long journey of discovery.
About Kanawat
Dr. Kanawat Chantaralawan is the co-founder of Ruckdee, a consultancy company that provides a channel for investment into healthcare projects through their website. He is also a practicing Opthalmology Resident at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital
Before Ruckdee and his Opthalmology Residency, Kanawat was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, and took his medicine internship at the Queen Savang Vadhana Memorial Hospital in Thailand.
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The post Ruckdee co-founder to speak in Echelon Thailand 2017, to talk about digitization of the healthcare industry appeared first on e27.
FILE PHOTO: President Rodrigo Duterte (Cerilo Ebrano/Photoville International)
FILE PHOTO: President Rodrigo Duterte (Cerilo Ebrano/Photoville International)
MANILA As the Senate sessions resume on May 2, one of the priority bills to be passed is the bill granting emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The President will be given powers, by appointing a traffic crisis manager, that will implement other methods of procurement to fast-track the implementation of transportation projects.
Senator Grace Poe, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Services said this is one of the priorities of the Palace and Congress.
She said the bill must be passed immediately to ease the struggles of commuters caused by the worsening traffic problems.
Poe added that although the senators are in favor of granting emergency powers, they will make sure that the emergency powers will not be abused.
The projects and programs under the emergency powers will also be publicized.
It can be noted that on December 14, 2016, Senator Poe sponsored at the Senate plenary, the bill granting emergency powers to the President. It has reached the period of interpellation.
In the Lower House of Congress, the bill is at the committee level.
Senator Poe urges government agencies to implement immediate solutions to the traffic problem and not wait for the bill anymore. Joyce Balancio | UNTV News & Rescue
The post Senate to rush Dutertes emergency powers to solve traffic crisis appeared first on UNTV News.
In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea, Friday, April 7, 2017. President Donald Trumps decision to launch missiles at Syria government risked rising tensions with Iran, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a conflict with dangerously blurry battle lines. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump's decision to launch missiles into Syria risked raising tensions with Iran, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a conflict with dangerously blurry battle lines.
Tehran has condemned the missile attack on the Shayrat airfield, and officials have raised the possibility of consequences. The friction underscores a challenge for Washington, which has long supported opposition groups fighting Assad and his Iranian allies without joining the fray itself. Deeper U.S. involvement in Syria means greater chances of direct conflict with an often unpredictable and aggressive Iranian foe.
Retaliatory measures by Iran could have ripple effects in the region, targeting everything from U.S. Navy warships to U.S.-allied Arab governments. Iran could also use Hezbollah and other Shiite militias to hit American forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, or attack the many U.S. allies in the region.
The U.S. cruise missile strikes, launched as punishment for a Syrian chemical attack that killed more than 80 people, could also prompt Iran to boost Revolutionary Guard forces fighting alongside Assad's government.
Before Thursday's attack, the U.S. took the standard measures to prevent an inadvertent strike on Russia's military, another Assad ally. No such "deconfliction" agreement exists with Iran's military and paramilitary, meaning there was no way to prevent its personnel from being in the wrong place at the wrong time during the missile attack.
There is no sign Tehran has retaliated against the U.S. American forces have not had any "unsafe" or "unprofessional interactions with Iranian maritime forces" since the strike, said Cmdr. Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
On Sunday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the U.S. strike on the base was a "strategic mistake and offense."
Story continues
And one prominent Iranian lawmaker threatened consequences. "Russia and Iran won't be quiet against such acts which violate interests of the region," said Allaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy.
The U.S. has taken great pains in recent years to work around Iranian fighters in Iraq and Syria as it battles the Islamic State group. That has partly reflected an effort to safeguard a landmark nuclear agreement, and to avoid another American conflagration in the Middle East.
Naval forces from the elite Guard keep close tabs on American ship movements in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil trade navigates. In February, several armed Revolutionary Guard speedboats approached and filmed a U.S. aircraft carrier entering the Gulf. Hezbollah has long threatened U.S. interests in the region, including Israel's security.
But Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Washington-based consultancy Gulf State Analytics, expected a wait-and-see approach from Iran.
"My gut tells me if this is a one-off operation," Cafiero said of the U.S. cruise missiles, "we will likely see a relatively calm and measured response from Iran and its Shiite proxies."
In Iraq, the U.S. and Iran are essentially fighting the same enemy, though independently and, when possible, at a distance. Since U.S. airstrikes and advise-and-assist operations began in Iraq in 2014, the U.S. has tread cautiously in supporting Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces while avoiding direct engagement with Iran.
No such comity exists in Syria. Long before the country spiraled into civil war, Syria was a key Iranian partner, serving as a conduit to the Iran-based Hezbollah and helping Tehran flex its muscles all the way to Israel's northern border and the Mediterranean Sea. It was a place that never bore a strong American imprint.
Since the 2011 start of the Syrian civil war, Iranian and Hezbollah fighters have fought alongside Assad even as the Obama administration insisted his days as leader were "numbered." And the U.S. has supported groups that have lined up on the opposite side of the battlefield.
While Trump has dialed back the U.S. push to oust Assad, he also has vowed to take a tougher approach to Iran. He has imposed new sanctions on Tehran and threatened to dismantle the nuclear deal. He has stepped up support for Saudi and Emirati forces fighting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.
All those efforts also mean more exposure for Washington if it goes after Syria again militarily.
"I don't think the Trump administration is trying to punish Iran with the strikes in Syria, but it will certainly send a strong message," said Edward Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel who now directs Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Nevertheless, Djerejian said, Trump must "pay attention to what the Iranians are doing in the region because they have the ability to really disrupt things in their own way."
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Schreck reported from Dubai. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Inspirational stuff as always from Skateistan in the form of this animated short film by Berlin-based freelance motion graphic designer Dominik Grejc.
Her Story tells the tale of a young Afghan girls first contact with skateboarding in Kabul and her subsequent journey through the Skateistan educational skate-school program in Afghanistan. For more information on the fantastic work that Skateistan do, consult their site here: Skateistan.
Skateistan: Her Story from Dominik Grejc on Vimeo.
The gun industry may be headed for a slump after eight years of explosive growth under former President Barack Obama.
Gun Sales Down Since Trump Elected
From December through February, the number of federal background checks conducted each month declined from the same month a year ago, according to the Associated Press. While not an exact measure of total firearm sales, background checks are considered a key measure of how gun manufacturers are performing.
One reason for the softening demand, some gun industry experts say, is that potential gun buyers are no longer worried Washington will issue new regulations restricting gun sales.
President Obama was the best gun salesman the world has ever seen, Karl Sorken, a production manager at Houston-based Battle Rifle Co., told the AP.
During Obamas tenure, customers rushed to buy firearms before the administration could follow through on its goal of placing tighter controls on the type and number of guns that could be sold. The gun industry boomed on the surging demand: The number of U.S. companies licensed to make firearms jumped 362 percent over the decade ending in 2015.
Ironically, President Donald Trumps outspoken support of the Second Amendment and gun manufacturers may actually be contributing to an industry-wide slowdown.
The FBI conducted about 500,000 fewer background checks in December 2016 than it did in 2015, the Washington Post reported. The year-over-year drop off was significant, because the holiday season is normally a busy time for dealers selling guns as Christmas gifts.
Background checks were down in January and February, as well. The 4.3 million checks completed in the first two months of this year were 17 percent fewer than the 5.2 million checks run over the same period in 2016.
The trends really almost since Election Day or election night have been that gun sales have slacked off, Robert Spitzer, political science department chairman at State University of New York at Cortland, told the AP. When you take away Barack Obama and you give the Republicans control of both houses of Congress, which is extremely friendly to the gun lobby, then the political pressure subsides. And that surely is at least a key part of the explanation for the drop-off in sales.
A silver lining in the negative numbers for gun makers is that background checks remain well above levels seen in the mid-2000s, under the George W. Bush administration. This years January-February total was the third-highest on record since the FBI began conducting background checks in 1998, WaPo reported.
Republished by permission. Original here.
Sara Blakely, founder of SPANX, turned a simple idea into a revolutionary brand by learning from her failures.
Born in 1971, Blakely lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and four kids.
According to Forbes, Blakely has amassed a net worth of $1 billion. But success didnt come easy.
Learning from Mistakes
Turning Failure Into Success
Today, shes known as one of most powerful business women in the world. SPANX, the brand she created on her own, is a hugely successful line of shapewear.
But long before she tasted success, Blakely faced a lot of failure. She failed the LSAT for admission to law school twice! After that she tried to get a job at Disney World, trying out and failing to get a job playing Goofy at the world-famous theme park.
Setbacks continued and she spent the next seven years selling fax machines.
But the life lessons she received from her father helped her embrace her failures. In an interview with CNBC, she said, My dad growing up encouraged me and my brother to fail. The gift he was giving me is that failure is (when you are) not trying versus the outcome. Its really allowed me to be much freer in trying things and spreading my wings in life.
Necessity Leads to Innovation
Inspiration for the SPANX brand came from Blakelys own experience. On a hot summer day when she couldnt find any suitable undergarment to wear under her white trousers, she cut the feet off a pair of panty hose.
Soon she realized her take on the footless panty hose could solve a problem for millions of women.
Using a show rather than tell approach, she started selling her product at department stores herself. The idea clicked and the rest is history.
For small businesses, Blakely is a great example of a sharp entrepreneur who drew from her own experience to create something simple yet innovative.
Most small business owners have come across the term search engine optimization (SEO). Many of them know it is critical to their business online. But prod them a bit more and it becomes clear many dont know what it really means.
According to a new survey by Memphis, Tennessee-based marketing agency HigherVisibility, 20 percent of small businesses still dont have a website. Whats more, 54 percent of the surveyed respondents said they dont have a budget for SEO.
Small Businesses Making Some Common SEO Mistakes
For a small business, SEO is essential because it helps drive more people to their website. But as the survey reveals, businesses are making some common mistakes that have an adverse effect on their websites SEO.
For example, 38 percent of surveyed respondents wrongly believe keyword stuffing is a good thing. Twelve percent incorrectly think its okay to publish duplicate content that has been copied and pasted from another website or page.
Many Small Businesses Lack SEO Knowledge
Further, the survey highlights examples of how small businesses lack SEO knowledge they need. To give an example, 26 percent are unaware of the importance of onsite optimization for SEO.
Likewise, 21 percent of respondents dont know how important blogging and content creation is to SEO.
It goes without saying these lapses may have a serious impact on a small business SEO initiatives.
What Businesses Need to Do Differently
This is not the first time a report has highlighted the problems with how small businesses are approaching SEO. The Web.com Small Business Digital Trends Report published earlier found that 43 percent of businesses have no plans to change or improve their online presence in 2017.
In 2017, no small business owner can afford to take SEO lightly. Otherwise theres a risk of losing customers to competition.
Thats why, its essential for small businesses to pay special attention to their SEO activities. A well-planned SEO strategy can go a long way in making a significant difference. A long-term strategy can help make the most of SEO trends in 2017 and will have an impact on how these businesses connect with customers.
For the study, HigherVisibility surveyed 500 people involved in marketing for small businesses.
SEO Photo via Shutterstock ; Other images via Higher Visibility
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Foreign chambers of commerce conducted a regular survey among investors.
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European investors have a sunnier view of Slovakias economic situation now than at any time since the financial crisis broke here eight years ago, a regular survey has found. But they point to a big cloud on the horizon: there arent enough qualified workers. They are also urging the government to step up efforts to combat corruption and dishonest procurement practices. The findings come from a business poll conducted by several chambers of commerce, the results of which were presented by the Slovak-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SNOPK) and other participating organisations on March 30.
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Four out of five investors would choose Slovakia again as their investment location, even under the current conditions, said SNOPK spokesperson Markus Halt, noting that this represented a marked decrease of 6 percentage points, from 85 percent to 79 percent, compared to the previous year.
The explanation for this decline the indicator is now at its lowest level for four years can be found especially in the lack of skilled labour, Halt said. This factor deteriorated the most out of all the worst-rated factors compared to previous years. With respondents evaluating each factor using school marks, meaning that 1 equals very satisfied and 5 very unsatisfied, the mark for availability of skilled staff has declined from 3.29 in 2014 to 3.78 in 2017.
More and more companies are starting to perceive the problem of finding quality workers as a visible brake on development, said Halt.
Halt added that the industrial sector has been suffering most from the lack of skilled labour.
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On the other hand, other worst-rated factors the fight against corruption, transparency in public procurement, jurisprudence, and access to state or EU funding remained relatively stable, suggesting companies have learned to live with them. That said, the rating for the fight against corruption worsened to a new record 4.33.
This is the worst mark so far given in this survey, said Halt. Thus, even though the [Robert Fico] government wrote the fight against corruption in big letters on his flag after last years parliamentary election, in the eyes of European investors, not a lot of things have happened.
Among the best-rated factors investors in Slovakia again listed membership in the EU, the productivity and motivation of staff, the qualifications of staff, the availability and quality of local suppliers, and labour costs. Of these, only two factors recorded a decline productivity and motivation of staff, and labour costs, with the latter worsening from 2.77 to 2.95.
Investors difficulties finding new employees are also reflected in a forecast increase in wage costs. They anticipate that these will increase this year by as much as 6.8 percent. This is the highest expected increase in the last four years. Nevertheless, labour costs in Slovakia are still acceptable for European investors.
Slovakia remains very interesting for foreign investors, Hans Christian Kugerl, commercial counsellor at the Austrian Embassy, told The Slovak Spectator. Investing in Slovakia is not so much about cheap labour but more about the productivity and professionalism of Slovak workers. There is obviously still great interest, even though investors have to face the reality that labour costs are becoming higher, and getting closer to those of western countries.
Eight-year high
In spite of the existing problems, the European investors surveyed regard the economic situation in Slovakia as the best over the past eight years. Out of 176 companies that participated, 45 percent evaluate the situation in Slovakia as better, while for a further 47 percent it has not changed.
An extremely positive result is that the share of companies seeing the economic situation as negative has decreased to below 10 percent, said Kugerl.
In terms of their evaluation of expectations for their businesses, investors are even more optimistic, with 47 percent evaluating the situation to be better and a further 42 percent as unchanged.
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Also, as many as 37 percent of respondents say they want to invest further, and 44 percent want to hire new workers. The latter figure represents an increase of 4 percentage points compared to last year.
If there were enough qualified labour, this number would be even higher, said Kugerl.
The survey also indicates an increase in dissatisfaction on the part of companies with the state of vocational training, even though Slovakia launched dual education in vocational schools during the 2015/16 school year.
There is still a lot that should be done, said Halt. Primarily, financing of the secondary vocational schools should be reformed.
Currently 1,000 students are attending dual education programmes, the first 400 of whom should complete their education in 2019.
This is a good effect, but we will have to wait some years until dual education starts bearing real fruit on the labour market, said Kugerl.
The participating organisations, which as well as SNOPK included the Dutch, Swedish and Austrian chambers of commerce, still regard the share of students enrolled in dual education programmes as being too low, and hope that by around 2020 the share of enrolled secondary students will increase to 8 percent. Nevertheless, this would still not be enough to satisfy the needs of the labour market.
They are also calling for the introduction of elements of dual education into university education. Dissatisfaction among investors with the abilities of university graduates is also reflected in the survey results, with respondents marking the adequacy of higher education at 3.37, a fall from 3.09 in 2015 and 3.2 in 2016.
In addition to SNOPK, the survey was organised by Advantage Austria Bratislava, the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia, the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia and the Slovak-Austrian Chamber of Commerce. Of the total 176 participating companies, 52.3 percent represent industry, 19.9 percent trade and 27.8 percent services.
A foreigners' real experience at the foreigners police department in Bratislava.
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Prologue
It is well known that dealing with the foreigners police in Bratislava is, at best, unnecessarily difficult. The lines are long, they fail to deal with an adequate percentage of the people there on any given day, there is a suspicious group of unofficial organizers that seems to operate in league with the officers and which handles the crowds in the hours before the office opens, the officers themselves are often unhelpful if not hostile to those trying to submit their paperwork, and so on. Stories about the deliberately inefficient and seemingly corrupt activities at Hrobakova 44 appear in various media on a regular basis. With enough such reporting in a compressed enough time span, the station will do something - sometimes processing a larger number of people on a given day than they have in months, sometimes doing something more cosmetic - but, within a month or less, things return to their usual mode of operation. I have been living in Bratislava for just under 19 months and I know that much.
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Before going any further, it should be made clear how unpleasant an experience it is simply being in or near this building. The office is a former kindergarten in Petrzalka that has not been maintained or, if it has been, not very well. The foyer is small, perhaps about the size of the average living room, and so quite insufficient for the number of people there on any given day. Thus, it gets stuffy very quickly even if only a small number of the people there are inside. There is a total of five benches, counting the two on the concrete patio. The area underneath the outdoor semi-enclosure, which has no benches, is significantly smaller than the foyer and reeks of stale cigarettes. I have been lucky that it has not been raining or snowing when I have been there. There is no internet. There are eleven plugs in total, three of which are used by the computer and ticket machines. The television, if on, only plays videos from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) detailing examples of people the organization helped return to their home countries. There is nothing to read except more information from IOM. There is one soda machine and one coffee machine. In a small hallway off the foyer there is one bathroom, with three toilets. There is a grassy area in front of the building with one small semi-circular metal object for children to play on; the others appear to have been removed long ago. There is always a handful of children among the applicants. There are not too many places to go to within easy walking distance of the office or, if there are, it is fairly easy to get lost getting there and back since this is Petrzalka.
Because of my experiences in 2015, I knew I needed to begin the process of confirming what documents I need and gathering them in December. My current permit expires on April 8. To be sure about things, I spoke with someone at IOM, who explained that I needed fewer documents than the information I found through the foreigners police English-language website indicated. However, some of the documents had to be dated within 90 days of the expiration date of my current permit. In addition, some of these documents or at least copies of them, including some of those which needed to be dated within 90 days of the expiration date, need to be notarized. I thus spent the next two months gathering all the documents, then got the appropriate documents notarized by the end of February.Toward the end of this process, someone posted on one of the Facebook pages for foreigners living in Bratislava of which I am a member that he had gone down to Hrobakova Street and encountered the list.
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The list is the invention of the unofficial organizers of the crowds that gather prior to the offices opening at 7:30 a.m. When you arrive, you sign your name on the numbered list and, some time before opening, the organizers start calling out names to get everyone into a line to prevent a crush of people trying to get into the narrow door for the foyer. As often happens, this Facebook poster was confused and frustrated by this system, and he protested. In response, he was apparently met with insults, including racist slurs. On February 24, The Slovak Spectator published a front-page story about the lines, the wait, the list, the (alleged) bribery, the (denied) collusion between the police and the list organizers, and other such things. As an aside, the denial of police collusion with the organizers is a lie: I personally witnessed officers, at least one of whom appeared to be of a higher rank than others, and the organizers chatting and coordinating the entrance of applicants during my several trips down there in 2015.
To return to this particular issue however, because Fridays are my most free day, I had been planning to go to the office on March 3, and did my best to clear out my schedule. With this story being in the news, I decided to see if I could glean what effect there may have been from the story on Thursday evening. I found no one there, although there were signs in Slovak and English indicating that there is no such thing as the list. I took a picture and sent it to some friends. One of these was a Slovak who had been kind enough to help translate for me the last time. I wanted to warn her that I was not sure what was going to happen this time, and could not guess at what time I might need her help the following day. With the list, you could usually judge at approximately what time you might get to see an officer, if you got to see one at all. Without it, everything was a mystery.
This account of the authors real experience at the foreigners police department in Bratislava is to be continued.
James Griffith teaches political thought and philosophy at the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts
After criticism from the interior minister, President Andrej Kiska made his first journey to his hometown of Poprad by car but it turned out not to be as safe or cheap as the minister claimed.
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Interior Minister Robert Kalinak criticised President Andrej Kiska for using the cabinets airplane for private flights to his family in Poprad. In his first drive since this dispute, on April 6, Kiska had two small incidents and was ultimately forced to change to another car which was part of the police escort, the Sme daily wrote.
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Kiskas vehicle experienced tyre trouble halfway through the journey, prompting an impromptu pit stop in Banska Bystrica. Eventually, the president had to switch to a back-up car in Ivachnova in northern Slovakia.
Ive made the trip from Bratislava to Poprad more than a thousand times, Kiska said. Ive been through worse before though, such as when it was freezing and snowing, but the trip yesterday didnt really go swimmingly, either. In addition to traffic jams, we experienced problems with the car. We tried to fix it, but then we switched to another one.
The journey ultimately took around five hours.
Cars break down. As president, Im lucky enough to have a backup car ready that I can switch to so as to make sure that I arrive on time," he summed up, adding that one of the rear tyres was penetrated by a screw, causing it to slowly deflate.
The Interior Ministry still insists that travelling by car is the cheapest and by plane is more expensive, while security analyst Jaroslav Nad told the Novy Cas daily that if all security measures are included, using a car is more expensive and less safe, as there are many security measures to be made, while flying includes security measures done routinely by the airport, without requiring additional ones.
The ruling Smer party, which now criticises Kiska for his flights in cabinet airplanes, used to be much more benevolent towards expensive car rentals, top public officials driving their own family members or even a trip by an empty car all the way form Bratislava to Lisbon. These incidents were highly publicised and caused scandals and discussions about the abuse of power, according to Sme.
Even the scandal surrounding underage clients of the resocialisation centre did not prompt the ruling coalition MPs to vote to recall the Labour Minister.
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Opposition in Parliament tried to recall Labour Minister Jan Richter due to the scandal surrounding the Cisty Den resocialisation centre, in which he did not withdraw accreditation from the facility although the accreditation committee recommended him to do so, the Sme daily wrote.
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On April 7, only 57 MPs from the 128 ones present voted for his removal, while the ruling coalition supported him, the TASR newswire wrote. All present MPs from the governing parties - Smer, Slovak National Party (SNS) and Most-Hid - unambiguously backed Richter, while only SNS Jaroslav Paska abstained from the vote. Richters ousting was supported in the ballot by MPs from Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), OLaNO-NOVA, Sme Rodina (We Are Family), Kotleba-LSNS and most independent MPs. OLaNOs Richard Vasecka did not vote.
The previous parliamentary discussions on his removal lasted for more than 16 hours, starting on April 6 afternoon.
Richter, according to the opposition parties, is covering the scandal. In Cisty Den (meaning Clean Day), clients including underage ones have allegedly been abused and tortured, opposition SaS MP and caucus leader Natalia Blahova reported last year, according to Sme.
The session was initiated by opposition lawmakers, who cited the resocialisation centre scandal as the reason why the minister should be dismissed. SaS and OLaNO-NOVA officially submitted a petition to that effect signed by over 50 MPs last week.
The Labour Ministry and the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre are holding a protecting hand over the mistreatment and abuse of children, a situation that cannot be allowed by any democratic country and people, Blahova said on April 4 after submitting the motion, adding that staff who have dared to voice criticism concerning the situation at the ministry have been intimidated with the threat of dismissal. She stated that Cisty Den has not been stripped of its licence despite gross violations of the law, while some other facilities have lost their licences for small transgressions.
Cabinet is "disgusted" with the opposition activities
Earlier this week, Richter expressed his disgust with the oppositions activities concerning the facility.
At the parliamentary session on April 6, Blahova also read out the testimonies of children placed there and their parents, who decried the bullying and violence perpetrated on children at the centre.
Later, Prime Minister Robert Fico in parliament backed his minister, describing the oppositions initiative as absurd and stressing that the they failed to table a single relevant argument for Richters removal, and slammed also the sessions opening speech by Blahova as nothing but old wives tales.
A very complicated stretch of highway finally gets a contract acceptable to all involved parties.
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The National Highway Company (NDS) signed a contract on April 6 with the D1 Presov Consortium on constructing the Presov West-Presov South D1 highway section., with Transport Minister Arpad Ersek (Most-Hid) in attendance.
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The consortium, comprised of the companies Eurovia SK, Eurovia CS, Doprastav, Metrostav and Metrostav Slovakia, will construct the almost eight-kilometre highway stretch for over 356 million, the TASR newswire wrote. It will begin construction work in June and should be finished by June 30, 2021.
Presov will thus finally obtain a highway bypass that will divert transit transport away from the eastern-Slovak city.
Tough negotiations
Ersek said that mutual agreement was preceded by tough negotiations. The price has been revised downwards by 15.2 million when compared to the original bid. The minister considers it to be a fair contract.
Weve agreed on a price that is acceptable for me," he said, as cited by TASR. Spring is coming, and thus construction work can start. I hope that the road will be constructed on time and will be of good quality ... This is our goal. Ive never said that I dont want to build. I do want to construct highways, but I want to build them with contracts acceptable for both parties, said minister explained.
The Presov bypass is an extraordinarily complicated construction project, with one third of the road set to pass over bridges and another third through tunnels. It also includes two large motorway intersections.
The construction consortium will achieve the agreed savings by reducing its own profits and making changes to technical measures, Eurovia CEO Robert Sinaly said, adding that he can guarantee that this will not be at the expense of quality.
The project will be co-financed from the EUs Cohesion Fund within the Integrated Infrastructure Operational Programme. The financing is still subject to negotiations.
Presovs northern bypass, which is currently in its preparation stage, was also an issue touched by the transport minister. A construction permit has been issued for the first stretch. The ministry still needs to obtain the results of up-to-date traffic density measurements. Based on these, it will decide on the width of the bypass along with how to complete the R4 dual carriageway, said Ersek.
Three areas on which the initiative focuses are transparency and predictability of the legislative process, corruption, and transparent, effective judiciary.
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The government will seek to stay away from adopting any indirect amendments while cutting down on national legislation that complicates the absorption of EU funding and exceeds the EU's requirements. At the same time the cabinet is ready to amend recently enacted legislation on letterbox businesses, heeding practical experience with its application so far. This was agreed between Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) and the representatives of businesses, employers and chambers of commerce belonging to the Rule of Law initiative when they met at a working lunch on April 6. .
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Also present were Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska (Most-Hid) and other senior state representatives. The officials met to take stock of an action plan that the previous Fico-led government adopted in 2015, taking its cue from the initiative. Fico stated that 12 out of 13 tasks laid out in the action plan have been fulfilled. The future collaboration between the government and the initiative was also discussed.
Fico and the representatives of the Rule of Law intiative agreed on their next meeting, at which they will assess to what extent the latest promises have been met. The government will also inform about progress made in revising laws on public procurement, the Commercial Code and letterbox companies.
"We can state that the dialogue with the Government is lively indeed," said Gabriel Galgoci of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) for TASR.
The initiative's representatives also voiced their reservations about the action plan and provided ideas to add to it.
Galgoci stressed three issues that are the most important for the initiative: deals in three areas the transparency and predictability of the legislative process, corruption, and a transparent and effective judiciary.
Fico also urged employers to boost their engagement in the legislative process further, including when it comes to the pieces of legislation discussed at the meeting.
"We need to realise that practical experience provides perspectives that may make us examine the law again," said Fico, TASR informed. As regards corruption, Fico welcomed the initiative's interest in ensuring that planned legislation on the protection of whistleblowers also boosts the protection of businesses in reporting such conduct.
First flights are already planned for early May.
The airport in Poprad below the High Tatras. (Source: TASR)
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The newly emerging low-cost airline, Blue Slovakia, wants to provide scheduled domestic air transport in Slovakia and is waiting for permits.
We have submitted our request to obtain an air operators certificate (AOC) to the Transport Authority and now we have to wait for the request to be approved, said the companys managing director, Lubomir Kolarik, as cited by the TASR newswire. Were planning to launch our first domestic flights within Slovakia in early May.
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Kolarik is the founder and main investor of Blue Slovakia. He worked for 10 years in military aviation, the airline website states.
The airline should receive its own AOC permit as well as the necessary licences from the Transport and Construction Ministry by the end of 2017. Until then, it wants to operate the flights under the AOC held by the Van Air Europe airline.
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At the moment Van Air Europe possesses two 19-seat L 410 UVP transport aircrafts. It is planning to expand the fleet with an Aerei di Transport Regional ATR 72 aircraft, TASR reported.
Blue Slovakia wants to interconnect the biggest Slovak airports, such as those in Bratislava, Kosice, Poprad-Tatry (near the High Tatars), Sliac (Banska Bystrica region), Zilina and the spa town of Piestany (Trnava Region).
Later Blue Slovakia wants to specialise on charter passenger and cargo air transport within Europe on regional routes.
Currently, Slovakia does not have a national airline. The only regular regional route is between Bratislava and Kosice. It is operated by Czech Airlines and the route continues on to the Czech capital, Prague.
Assessment
Virginia Shortens SOL Math and Reading Testing Time and Expands Compatible Devices
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is continuing its efforts to reduce the time it takes for nearly 300,000 elementary and middle school students to complete its end-of-the-year Standards of Learning (SOL) reading and mathematics tests. In addition, the VDOE has updated its test-delivery system, TestNav 8 from Pearson, to allow students to take the SOL tests on a wider array of devices, including iPads and Chromebooks.
First introduced during the 2014-15 school year, SOL tests use computer adaptive testing (CAT), which begin with a moderate question or problem and modify the difficulty level for subsequent questions based on the answer provided. In other words, if a student answers a problem correctly, then the next question will be slightly more challenging, while an incorrect answer will generate an easier question. SOL scores are determined by both the number of questions answered correctly and the difficulty of the correctly answered questions.
The current 2016-17 school year is the third year of a four-year plan to use CAT assessments, according to a VDOE news release. This spring, all math tests for grades 3 to 8 are computer adaptive (with exceptions for some algebra and geometry tests) and adaptive reading tests are being introduced in grades 3 to 5. There will be fewer items on both SOL tests.
Furthermore, the VDOE has been working to expand the types of devices approved for use in the administration of online SOL tests, according to its website. The TestNav 8 software that is compatible with Microsoft Windows-based and Mac OS-based workstations now supports the use of additional touchscreen devices like Chromebooks, iPads and Android tablets.
A student uses an iPad to take the Virginia Standards of Learning math test. Image Credit: YouTube.
This upgrade simplifies the logistics of SOL testing for many schools because principals and testing coordinators dont have to move hundreds of students through a limited number of computer labs, Superintendent of Public Instruction Steven R. Staples said in a statement. Students can test in their classrooms with devices theyve used all year.
SOL testing is just one of the many things that any busy school does in a given school year and we want to minimize the hours students spend testing and maximize the hours that they spend in quality instruction with teachers face to face, said Kume Goranson, principal at Bailey Bridge Middle School, in a VDOE video. Having a Chromebook enables use to reduce our testing window so that students are able to take their test the first time and if necessary take an expedited retake in an even shorter time frame.
Using the iPad devices makes it much more simple I would say for students and for teachers as well, said Tina McCay, principal at Goochland Elementary, in the video. They are much more comfortable on their iPads and they are able to manipulate them a lot better than using a laptop.
The fourth phase for the 2017-18 school year will involve adaptive reading tests for grades 6 to 8.
To learn more, watch the video below or visit the Virginia Department of Education site.
"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.
By Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration must decide by the end of this month whether to grant Belarus continued relief from U.S. economic sanctions despite a stiff government crackdown on street demonstrations last month. The renewal decision is considered a low-level priority for the administration, which is facing bigger questions about U.S. relations with Russia and China, and with most major diplomatic positions still unfilled. But whether the United States renews the sanctions relief or instead returns to blacklisting nine major Belarus companies is an early test for the Trump administration on the importance it puts on human rights versus efforts to coax countries in Russia's orbit to turn to the West. The sanctions waivers, which began in 2015 and were extended twice last year, were tied to domestic political reforms and intended to encourage Belarus, which has long historical ties to Russia, to move closer to the European Union and the United States. Now, however, U.S. officials are alarmed by the arrests of hundreds of people last month during an attempt to hold a street protest in the capital Minsk, and concerned if continuing sanctions relief could be seen as ignoring the crackdown. Belarus authorities last month raided a human rights group's offices and used violence against peaceful protesters, rights groups say. "This most recent crackdown sharpened people's focus," said a U.S. congressional aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Now there is a real question about whether or not they (the sanctions) should be reimposed." The decision must be taken by the end of April. If the administration makes no decision, the sanctions will be re-imposed. NATO members, including Poland and the Baltic states, feel threatened by what they see as increased Russian intervention in Europe, including Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014. "Belarus is so important from a strategic point of view and it's so dependent economically on Russia that we are really very concerned," said Piotr Wilczek, the Polish ambassador to the United States. "Belarus is becoming more and more part of this wider Russian problem we have." The Trump administration is inclined to renew the sanctions relief, but likely would wait until the last minute "to make sure they don't do anything awful," said a U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. State and Treasury Department officials declined to comment in detail on the Belarus sanctions. The Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment. President George W. Bush in 2006 blacklisted top Belarus officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko, for undermining the country's democratic processes or human rights abuses. The United States later added large Belarus companies to the sanctions list. But in 2015, Lukashenko released political prisoners and indicated he was open to better relations with the West. That October, President Barack Obama temporarily lifted sanctions on nine Belarus companies, including petrochemical conglomerate Belneftekhim and tire manufacturer Belshina. Now, however, Lukashenko appears to be keeping his country firmly in Moscow's orbit. In a letter to him last week, four U.S. senators said they were concerned over the crackdown and that he decided to allow Russia to conduct "provocative" military exercises in Belarus later this year. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Patricia Zengerle in Washington and Andrei Makhovsky in Minsk; Editing by John Walcott and Alistair Bell)
Is Trump going to start a war on the Korean Peninsula? (Rex)
The former head of MI6 has warned that Donald Trump lacks the instincts of an effective president and may be leading the US into a war with North Korea.
Sir John Sawers said Mr Trump was not a person who fills me with confidence, noting that the Korean Peninsula, not Syria, may the location of a conflict that threatens world peace.
His comments came after Donald Trump launched a missile attack against a Syrian airbase in the early hours of Friday morning.
Shortly afterwards, Boris Johnson called for G7 countries to collectively impose new sanctions on Russia if it does not cut ties with president Bashar al-Assad.
On Saturday, a US Navy carrier group headed to the Korean Peninsula in a bid to ward off missile tests by Kim-Jong Un.
Sir John, also former UK permanent representative to the United Nations, said: Hes not someone who fills me with confidence.
He doesnt have the background and the experience and the instincts of being an effective US president, but it is in our interests that we have a US administration that upholds the international system, that supports its allies and supports international norms.
What we saw last week [in Syria] was some of the heavyweights, the serious minds in the US administration, HR McMaster, the national security advisor, Jim Mattis, the Defence Secretary, and now [Rex] Tillerson this week going to Moscow.
We see the sensible grown-ups within the administration taking charge and the rather ideological figures around Trump himself being marginalised, and thats to be welcomed.
President Donald Trump is considering major changes in his top-level staff, including replacing White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, amid a deepening rivalry between Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner.
Sir John told BBC Radio 4s Today programme he was no fan of Mr Trump and that the first three months of his presidency had been chaotic.
If you are looking for a world crisis which could bring about the dangers of a clash between great powers then North Korea is a bigger concern than Syria, he said.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's ruling socialist party decided on Sunday to lend its support to an independent senator's candidacy for president, dealing a blow to former President Ricardo Lagos' bid to return for another term. After a long debate, the party decided to back Alejandro Guillier, a left-leaning former journalist who is a member of the ruling New Majority coalition and has promised to advance current socialist President Michelle Bachelet's reforms in the world's largest copper producer. Primaries are to be held in July, with the general election in November. A few months ago, the election appeared poised to pit two establishment, market-friendly candidates -- Lagos, and former center-right President Sebastian Pinera -- against each other. But Lagos, 79, flagged in the polls as Guillier's popularity soared. Pinera leads the race with 27 percent support compared with 23 percent for Guillier, according to pollster GfK Adimark. Lagos registered only 3 percent support in the poll published this week. Guillier was a relative unknown in Chilean politics until recently. But graft scandals and sluggish growth in the country, long one of Latin America's most stable and prosperous, have disenchanted Chileans with politics as usual and turned Guillier's outsider status into an asset. (Reporting by Felipe Iturrieta; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Sandra Maler)
The Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people has had the effect of smelling salts on the otherwise comatose West.
As if waking up to the unmitigated horror unleashed by Bashar al Assad six years ago, British and American leaders from Donald Trump down to Boris Johnson began railing against attacks on women and children using chemical weapons.
It makes no difference to Syria's 500,000 victims of this war how they are killed.
:: America's strike on Syria: Five things you need to know
The scale of death from a conventional weapons strike against a hospital, school or indeed military camp is no bigger or worse when people are gassed or torn apart.
They still end up dead.
Assad has killed immeasurably more people than the so-called Islamic State.
We have learned this year that while, alongside his Russian allies, he's been bombing his own people he's also been hanging 'dissidents' in industrial quantities.
Trump's cruise missile attack against the airbase that Syrian and Russian forces shared, which was allegedly the launch for last week's chemical weapons assault, was telegraphed ahead of time.
It was a slap on the wrist and there is a promise of more strikes if more chemical weapons are used to murder Syrians.
But this is not the start of an air campaign against the Assad regime, much less the beginning of a policy of regime change in Syria.
It has been an opportunity for Trump to look tough, to try to dispel the rumours that he's some kind of Kremlin patsy in the White House.
But any further escalation, the Pentagon knows, would bring the US into direct conflict with Russia (and Iran) .
Turkey has been calling for a no-fly zone from close to day one of the Syrian revolution. It has also called for civilian safe zones.
These cries were ignored before Russia entered the battlefield and added to Syria's already formidable air defences.
A no-fly zone is now a military impossibility without war.
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So the G7 meeting in Lucca, Italy, has had to focus on what else can be done to sever the close ties between Assad and the Kremlin.
The only options are more economic sanctions.
But the weaker Russia's economy gets, the more Vladimir Putin may look for external scapegoats and the chance to distract Russians from economic misery - perhaps through an escalated conflict in Syria, the Ukraine, or in the Baltics.
That way madness lies - and everyone in Lucca and in the Kremlin knows it.
So the whiff of Syrian chemicals has galvanised Western leaders into desperately trying to be seen to "do something".
But what that something may be is as hard to grasp as gas itself.
The crew of Expedition 50 to the International Space Station touched down safely in Kazakhstan on April 10 on board a Russian Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft.
NASA Commander Shane Kimbrough, Roscosmos Soyuz Commander Sergey Ryzhikov, and Flight Engineer Andrey Borisenko had spent 173 days in space, according to NASA.
This video shows their return journey, from boarding the Soyuz at the station, through to its descent and landing in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA via Storyful
MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexican prosecutors say that a former governor of the border state of Tamaulipas has been detained in Italy.
The attorney general's office said Sunday that ex-Gov. Tomas Yarrington is accused in Mexico of money laundering and organized crime. He is also wanted in the United States for allegedly receiving millions of dollars in bribes from the Gulf cartel during his 1999 to 2004 term.
The office said it expects Yarrington will be returned to Mexico soon.
Yarrington's lawyers have in the past denied the charges against him.
During his tenure, drug gangs rose to dominate the state. His Institutional Revolutionary Party expelled him from its ranks late last year.
Local media reports said Yarrington was detained in Florence, Italy.
America is committed to fighting "crimes against the innocents" across the globe, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.
He spoke during a memorial in the Tuscan town of Sant'Anna di Stazzema to mark a Nazi 1944 massacre, ahead of a G7 foreign ministers meeting in nearby Lucca, Italy.
Foreign ministers from France, Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy and the UK will join Mr Tillerson for talks on how to sever the close ties between Syria's Bashar al Assad and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
"We will dedicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," said Mr Tillerson in Tuscany.
His comments ahead of a trip to Moscow followed condemnation from Russia and Iran on US airstrikes in Syria after a chemical weapons attack which killed more than 80 people, including up to 30 children.
Mr Putin and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani warned the US a "red line" had been crossed.
The attack was seen to mark a dramatic departure from Donald Trump's "America First" philosophy and represent a much more aggressive foreign policy.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in Tuscany for the annual summit, warned the US could launch further airstrikes on Syria following its bombing of the Shayrat airfield near the city of Homs on Friday.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain was "in discussions with our key partners on how we can bring further pressure to bear on the regime and those who are backing it, which includes the Russians".
He refused to be drawn on whether the UK would support further US military action in Syria.
"What we are focused on is building international support for a political solution to end the conflict and bring lasting peace and stability to Syria," he said.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said mantras such as "Assad should leave" would not help resolve the crisis.
Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that Mr Tillerson would be meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and not the Russian president.
Mr Tillerson will deliver a "clear and coordinated" message to the Kremlin after Mr Johnson cancelled his own visit to the Russian capital following conversations with Mr Trump's team.
By Aleksandar Vasovic BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia and the United States agreed to step up efforts to bolster regional security including joint military and police training drills, Serbian Prime Minister and President-elect Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday. Serbia is maintaining a balancing act between the West and Russia, its traditional Orthodox Christian and Slavic ally. Although it wants to join the European Union, Belgrade has adamantly refused to join NATO which bombed it in 1999 during the war in Kosovo. In 2008, with the U.S. backing, Kosovo declared independence. After meeting Republican Senator John McCain, who also chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, Vucic told reporters that the two sides will have "six or seven" joint training drills this year. During his one-day visit to Serbia, McCain attended a training between country's elite SAJ police unit, a detachment of the U.S. Special Operations Command and a military unit from Slovenia, a ex-Yugoslav republic and now NATO member. "I am sure Mosul and Raqqa will fall," McCain told a news conference speaking through an interpeter, referring to two Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria. "Many people (seeking to do violence) may (then) come to Europe and the U.S. ... therefore joint drills are important," McCain said. Vucic said the two also discussed regional stability, including talks between Serbia and Kosovo on normalising relations, and the political crises in ethnically divided Macedonia and Bosnia. In 2016, Serbia conducted 206 joint military activities with the United States and NATO, and 17 with Russia. It will later this year participate in a training drill in Kazkhstan staged by the Russia-controlled Collective Security Treaty Organization. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Jermey Gaunt)
KUWAIT CITY (Reuters) - Suspected Islamic State militants arrested in Kuwait and the Philippines were planning to carry out bombings against U.S. military forces in Kuwait, the Gulf country's al-Rai newspaper reported on Monday. The suspects were also plotting a suicide attack on a hussainiya, or Shi'ite Muslim meeting hall, said al-Rai, which has close ties to the security services. Philippine security forces arrested a Kuwaiti and a Syrian for suspected links to Islamic State on March 25, three months after they arrived in Manila. Al-Rai said Kuwaiti security forces also arrested a Syrian chemistry teacher suspected of involvement with the plots. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait referred queries to Kuwaiti authorities. Kuwaiti security officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kuwait, home to several U.S. military bases, suffered its deadliest militant attack in decades when a Saudi suicide bomber blew himself up inside a packed Shi'ite mosque in June 2015, killing 27 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility. (Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy Writing by Katie Paul; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
PC Keith Palmer, who was murdered in the Westminster terrorist attack, was honoured with a full police funeral this afternoon.
The 48-year-old was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood as he carried out his duties on the cobbled forecourt of the Palace of Westminster.
Thousands of officers from across the country lined the streets as his coffin was taken from the Palace of Westminster at 1.30pm, where it laid in rest overnight, to Southwark Cathedral for the funeral at 2pm.
The hearse carrying PC Palmers coffin makes its way through central London. (PA)
A private cremation followed service, where several officers were expected to take part as ushers.
The Queen gave permission for PC Palmers body to rest in Westminsters Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, an honour normally reserved for heads of state.
Scotland Yard said that full service funerals are normally only held when a police officer or member of staff dies while they are carrying out their duty.
Officers from across the country are paying their respects to the Westminster attack hero (Rex)
Chief Constable Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs Council, said the scale of the funeral will be unprecedented as officers hold a two-minutes silence at 2pm.
She told the BBCs Victoria Derbyshire Show: I dont think we will have ever seen a police funeral of this size.
Officers from all over the country are coming to London to join their Metropolitan Police colleagues to line the route.
MORE: Woman injured in Westminster attack has died police
MORE: Westminster attack: Police warn public about no-go areas in London
But at 2pm outside police stations across the country, officers and staff will be observing a two-minutes silence.
We all want to pay honour to the ultimate sacrifice that Keith made.
PC Palmers name was added to the roll of honour and remembrance at a ceremony at the National Police Memorial on The Mall, central London, complete with a guard of honour, hours before his funeral.
The funeral vehicle travels through Westminster during the sombre journey. (PA)
A mourner produces a sombre note of reflection in Westminster. (Rex)
The names of fallen officers PC Palmer and PC Gareth Browning are added to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour and Remembrance (PA)
Steve Lloyd, of the Police Roll of Honour Trust, said: It is right that the men and women of the British police service who have paid the ultimate price in the service of this county be remembered here at the national memorial on this record of historical importance.
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We hope that knowing their loved ones name are to be forever remembered will bring some small comfort to the families of the fallen officers.
The name of former Pc Gareth Browning was also added after he died aged 36 more than three years since being seriously injured when he was hit at high speed by a stolen car while on duty.
Four people were killed and dozens of others injured in the 82-second atrocity on Wednesday March 22, which ended with Masood being shot dead by armed police.
Andreea Cristea, 31, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Kurt Cochran, 54, and Aysha Frade, 44, died after he ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.
Top pic: PA
Russia's foreign ministry has said the country's relations with the US are the most difficult since the end of the Cold War.
It comes ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow - and after G7 foreign ministers rejected UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's calls to broaden sanctions against Russia and Syria.
Pressure has been mounting on Russia to end its support for Syrian leader Bashar al Assad following the US missile attack on a Syrian airbase, carried out in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack blamed on the president's regime - something it denies.
However, at a news conference at the close of the summit, Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano said Russia must not be "pushed into a corner" over Syria.
Mr Tillerson, who is heading to Moscow to work on "a solution which will deliver a lasting political settlement" in Syria, has raised fresh expectations of aggressive military action against the country and any other repressive regimes .
Speaking in a tougher tone than his Italian counterpart, he said Russia had a choice - to align itself with the US and like-minded nations, or with Mr Assad, Iran and the militant group Hezbollah.
Mr Tillerson said it was unclear whether Russia had failed to take its obligations in Syria seriously, or whether it was was incompetent, but he said the distinction "doesn't much matter to the dead".
He said another chemical weapons attack could not be allowed to happen, adding: "It is clear to us the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end."
Mr Johnson had seen the G7 summit as a game-changing moment and had called for new sanctions to be imposed on Syrian military figures and Russian military individuals responsible for backing them.
But the question of added sanctions had barely been mentioned in the meetings, according to French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
The outcome has fallen well short of that, with the countries agreeing there could be no Syrian peace deal with Mr Assad in power.
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However, it was unclear how the group of seven nations expected Mr Assad's departure to be brought about.
Sky's Political Correspondent Tamara Cohen, who was in Lucca, Italy, for the G7 summit, said: "Interestingly, sanctions didn't feature in Theresa May's phone call with Donald Trump last night, but they did believe this was a window of opportunity to put pressure on Russia."
Mr Johnson insisted afterwards his proposals "had a wide degree of acceptance... but you've got to do these things in the proper, legal way".
He told Sky News: "What I think we all want to see is Russia engaging with a political process that involves a transition to a new government in Syria.
"I think that's the offer that Rex Tillerson is going to be making, and I think it's a powerful one, but you must be realistic that we've been here before."
He continued: "Did they know that Assad was going to unleash chemical weapons? We have no evidence for that.
"It may very well be that they've simply been betrayed by their client, by they guy they've been backing.
"Now is the time for them to recognise that and help the rest of the world, and above all help the people of Syria, to move forward."
:: The dangers of playing Russian roulette in Syria
The US has concluded that Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attacks and then attempted to cover it up by bombing a hospital where victims had been taken, a senior official said.
But another official said it was too early for clear-cut conclusions to be reached.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, have warned the US that airstrikes on Syria crossed "red lines" - echoing Mr Trump's condemnation of the gas attack itself.
Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley, in Moscow, said: "At the moment Russia holds all the cards when it comes to the future of the Assad regime.
"It is very much in Russia's gift, alongside Iran of course which is a very significant player, to put pressure on the Assad regime to participate in a transition out of power if it so chose to go down that route.
"Given that they are militarily very much with the upper hand on the ground in Syria against the Syrian rebels, I don't think they're minded to take that route at all in Moscow, not least at a time when they are being talked at from their perspective, lectured by the international community on what should go on in Syria.
"I think that the message they will want to deliver is 'we want some respect in this context'."
Storyful
Music boomed through a darkened street in Kyiv, Ukraine, on November 5, despite the city experiencing widespread blackouts due to the damage of critical infrastructure.Video filmed by Sergio Olmos shows the light from a patio heater illuminating a section of an otherwise dark street in Kyiv while speakers play electronic music.The National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities of Ukraine released a statement regarding the blackouts on November 4, blaming Russian energy terror for the restricted service.Such measures are forced steps to ensure the balance of the energy system and avoid network overload. The commission emphasizes that emergency teams of energy companies are doing everything possible to restore all energy facilities damaged by Russian attacks as soon as possible. With this in mind, the NKRECP appeals to consumers and asks them to understand such temporary steps to restrict electricity supply, the regulator said, according to a machine translation.On November 4, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 450,000 people in the city were without power.On November 6, Klitschko posted on Facebook saying officials have to be prepared for different scenarios and urged people to save electricity, according to a machine translation.In the war situation in which we live, you need to have plans in case of various scenarios of events and emergencies. And be prepared for action. Preparing for winter, we have purchased, engaged from foreign partners and continue to purchase generators, heat guns, equip heat points, secure critical infrastructure facilities. We are doing everything we can to ensure the livelihood of the capital in these difficult conditions, Klitschko wrote.According to a New York Times report, Ukrainian officials have begun planning for the possibility of a total blackout in Kyiv, and the evacuation of its civilians. Credit: Sergio Olmos via Storyful
The Trump administrations hostility towards climate action and research leaves a void in global climate politics. Could China step up?
The worlds largest absolute emitter could certainly use US inaction as an excuse to backslide on its promises of greenery. But China could instead see this as an opportunity to project itself as our planets leading custodian.
Evidence suggests the latter course is far more likely. Opening the annual National Peoples Congress in March, premier Li Keqiang pledged to make the sky blue again. Both the report he presented and the legislation and decisions reached continued to stress environmental issues, albeit perhaps not as emphatically as in recent years.
Meanwhile, in January at the annual World Economic Forum pow-wow in Davos, president Xi Jinping took advantage of Trumps economic nationalism to affirm Chinas commitment to globalisation. As the US rejects the very idea of global responsibilities, China is thus apparently aiming to reap the rewards of positioning itself as the polar opposite.
This isnt just empty rhetoric. Chinese investment overseas in green technology increased by 60% last year to US$32 billion. More importantly, the broader context of Chinese domestic politics has created strong incentives for further environmental efforts. This suggests an authentic medium to long-term commitment. And in China, it is the dog of domestic politics and regime legitimacy that wags the tail of geopolitical strategising.
Domestic pressure for climate policy
The environment is already a massive and potentially explosive issue within China. The increasingly powerful urban middle classes are becoming ever-more aware of environmental issues, particularly those that affect their health, such as air pollution or food, soil and water safety.
The governments key programme to make manufacturing more innovative is also intimately tied to environmental goals and the opportunities of cleantech such as electric cars). Even Chinas digital giants including Alibaba and Tencent are more interested in the environment than their equivalents in Silicon Valley.
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Restoring Chinese greatness
There are even broader factors at play too. As the country has grown in both domestic prosperity and global stature over the past 40 years it has gradually been compelled to address with ever-greater urgency its own central question. This is: how will China once again be the unquestioned centre of the world?
Restoring civilisational preeminence is easier said than done, however, especially given the starting place for these efforts. The past 200 years have seen a violent repudiation of traditional cultures and painful engagement with Western-dominated modernity. This remains a sensitive wound. For central to the Chinese concept of a unique Chineseness is both its unsurpassed cultural greatness and its unrivalled longevity.
Embryonic soft power efforts have proven problematic, which calls into question the universal appeal of Chinese culture. Meanwhile, traditional ideas such as Confucianism occupy only peripheral roles in contemporary life. This exposes both the comparative youth of modern China and the unresolved legacies of its traumatic breaks with its past.
The situation creates twinned dissonances: between Chinas actual and rightful standing in the world and between its actual and desired relation to its own traditional culture. Crucially, though, protecting the environment is seen by the government as a key opportunity in both cases. Hence Beijings leading slogan of ecological civilization significantly a civilizational project that also, inseparably, has environmental sustainability at its heart.
The idea here is to draw on and renew distinctively Chinese ideas of Confucian harmony between humans and nature. This, it is hoped, could present a China to the world whose culture uniquely qualifies it to be the global environmental saviour. And it could reconnect the Chinese themselves to their traditional cultures, updated for a contemporary world of environmental responsibility.
Progress is unlikely to be smooth. Chinas one-party state does allow for the massive mobilisation of resources crucial to the major projects of sustainable transitions. But that same political structure best described as fragmented authoritarianism also makes it harder to foster cutting-edge innovation and harder to implement environmental regulations and to involve different stakeholders in decision-making.
As such, China still lags behind the US in the global game of cultural hegemony. Yet its grand project of ecological civilization is so important in contemporary domestic politics that the environment will likely be seen as Chinas trump card for some time yet. If America chooses to play its hand badly in the meantime, this will simply be welcomed in Beijing as a further stroke of good luck.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
The Conversation
David Tyfields Liberalism 2.0 and the Rise of China: Global Crisis, Innovation and Urban Mobility will be published by Routledge in August 2017. He is Principal Investigator on the ESRC project "Low Carbon Innovation in China: Prospects, Politics and Practice" (2013-17).
Associate Professor | College of Distance Education
Professor Sexton began teaching at the U.S. Naval War College in 2001 as a military professor in the National Security Decision Making Department. Upon retiring from the military in 2005, she taught as an adjunct professor for the College of Distance Education (CDE) where she taught over 850 students online before returning to campus as a civilian CDE professor in 2014. In 2018, Professor Sexton was named the program manager for online programs and is responsible for the Naval Command and Staff and electives online programs.
Glen Adams, Chief of Staff, White Sands Missile Range
Adams describes his vision for New Mexico as a collaborative state that looks to incorporate the good of all individual, community, corporate, and government capabilities into its fabric; creating an atmosphere that cultivates and grows the future in one of the best environments in the United States. Adams believes that the state needs to develop a way to look at issues that link social support systems to skill development and job placement. He thinks that scaling tax incentives will encourage small businesses and corporations to make New Mexico their headquarters. Finally, Adams feels that schools need to have career development programs. Adams contributes by sharing his thoughts to the surrounding communities city and county officials, connecting their concepts with people that can support them. Leadership New Mexico allowed me the enthusiasm to contribute where I can, says Adams.
Ken Adkins, Chief of Staff, Communications, and Public Affairs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos
Im inspired by leaders who lead by example and have the courage to demonstrate real political and moral leadership in difficult times, says Adkins when asked what inspires him as a leader. When Adkins became a participant of Leadership New Mexico, his goal was to gain a better understanding of how public organizations can more effectively partner with neighboring communities to strengthen math and science education, diversify the economy, and expand the economic base. Adkins considers the states greatest assets to be its natural beauty, the unique fusion of art and culture, and its spirit of scientific innovation. His vision for New Mexico is a state which uses its unique capabilities, resources, and expertise to help solve the challenges facing the nation.
Silvia Alvarez, Executive Vice President, Commercial Banking Manager, First National Rio Grande, Albuquerque
In the past five years, Alvarez considers the following to be accomplishments for New Mexico: developing a prolific film industry, attracting new industries such as Facebook, and fostering collaborative efforts between UNM Science & Technology Inc., the national labs, and venture capital firms. Alvarez says, These accomplishments have helped place New Mexico on the national and international radar and can translate into a recruiting tool for other companies, industries and investors. She is concerned about the quality of education, economic development, job creation, retention of talented individuals, and affordable and accessible health care in New Mexico. Alvarez became involved with Leadership New Mexico to broaden her knowledge of issues affecting the state and to interact with other influential and diverse leaders.
Bobby Arnett, Office Manager, Arnett Medical, Roswell
Arnett lists New Mexicos abundance of natural resources, from the energy industry to tourism, as some of the greatest qualities of the state. Our abundant sunny days and consistent source of wind have been a boon to green energy while advances in production have grown our oil and gas industry as well, says Arnett. Arnett is concerned about New Mexicos education system because even though New Mexico is host to some of the most advanced laboratories and research facilities in the nation, the state is still consistently ranked at the bottom of national education lists. He would like to see New Mexicans have the opportunity to prosper. As a business owner and community volunteer, Arnett hopes to use the education and network obtained from Leadership New Mexico to benefit his business and charitable interests in his community and the state.
Jeannie Baca, Vice President of Student Services, New Mexico State University-Carlsbad, Carlsbad
Baca has many definitions of leadership and believes that leadership includes the ability to guide others by recognizing and leveraging individual strengths and differences to create problem-solving team environments. Leadership is about being competent, people-centered, well-informed and courageous to make difficult decisions. It is about learning from mistakes and continually seeking to improve oneself and the lives of others. She would like to see New Mexicos leaders and policymakers increase their awareness and activism to help and support less-advantaged groups and communities. To do this, greater interactions and exposure to such individuals, groups and communities are necessary. She believes that through education, awareness and community engagement, networks are strengthened and goals are reached more quickly.
Jorge Brasil, Chief of Food & Beverage Operations, Laguna Development Corp., Albuquerque
Brasil states, New Mexico is multicultural and unique, rich with wonderful traditions and history. Its eclectic social landscape is reflected in the food, festivities, and architecture throughout the state, and the weather is very mild and pleasant. He would like to see the state as one that is among the top states in the country to raise a family, attend school and retire. In order to be successful attracting business, tourism and new residents, he believes New Mexico needs to focus on its safety and security and reduce crime rates across the state. He also thinks New Mexicos local and state leadership needs to have a clear vision, commitment, and dedication, and leave politics and personal interests aside. Brasil is inspired to become a better leader by having the ability and responsibility of completing a task and achieving goals, while building a solid and dependable team of people.
Laura Ann Crawford, Northwest Region Director, Presbyterian Medical Services, Farmington
Crawford would like to see New Mexico become a state of choice for employers, education and families. She believes the state needs to increase workforce development to attract large companies and organizations, work on education reform, focus on its natural wonders, and promote healthy, active lifestyles for residents and tourists. Crawford is most concerned about the following: health care and behavioral health because there are not enough providers; lack of funding for services, such as education and skill building for the youth; and substance abuse because there are not enough services and addiction specialists, and DWI laws are too relaxed. Crawford states that she is excited to build her professional network through Leadership New Mexico, so that we can work as a team, a team that has a view from every angle across the state. Working together will give us a better chance at success.
Jennifer Deal, Controller, Jaynes Corp., Albuquerque
Deal is inspired by leaders who foster an environment of continuous improvement and success through sharing their knowledge and experience to help others achieve their goals. New Mexicos beautiful landscape, natural resources, and great weather make it an attractive place to live, work, and raise a family, says Deal when asked what she considers to be strengths of the state. She believes that New Mexico should preserve these assets and use them as an incentive for new businesses, job creation, and as a way to retain people. We need to create a business-friendly environment that encourages economic growth, which will provide job opportunities for our residents and diversification from government-subsidized jobs, says Deal. She feels Leadership New Mexico has provided her with the knowledge and resources to be a better leader.
Tom Domme, General Council and Vice President, External Affairs, New Mexico Gas Co., Albuquerque
Three issues facing New Mexico that Domme is concerned about are economic development, environmental protection, and improving quality of life for New Mexicans. Domme would also like to see New Mexico rise to the top of important national lists. I think the key to New Mexico improving for the long term is a strong and growing private sector that provides good-paying jobs to all New Mexicans. All of us should focus on this at all time, says Domme. He returned to New Mexico in the hope that he could make a difference and participated in Leadership New Mexicos Core Program to form relationships that would allow him to work with others from various communities. Leadership New Mexico gave me great exposure to interesting people in businesses and agencies that I do not normally interact with, says Domme says.
Kevin Donovan, Business Manager, Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC, Carlsbad
Donovan is inspired by organizations that excel under a great leader who helps people accomplish amazing goals. Donovan would like to see New Mexico as a state that leverages intellectual resources of its major universities, national laboratories, and private industries; has positive social and natural environments; has a willing and able workforce; and has favorable economic conditions to promote sustainable growth, tourism, and meaningful work for all. He says his vision is possible if there is collaboration among New Mexico leaders. Donovan considers the states natural resources, climate, laid-back lifestyle, and the two national labs to be its greatest assets. Continued sustainable development of natural resources can provide a strong economic base and the quality-of-life factors can help attract the business and people to enable beneficial growth, says Donovan.
Brian Freeman, Senior Facilities Manager, Intel Corp., Rio Rancho
Freeman is very optimistic about New Mexicos future. His vision for New Mexico is, to be the best place to live, be educated, raise a family, play, build, and grow a business. He believes that this vision is attainable if the state embraces its strengths, such as its natural resources, opportunity for renewable energy, climate, tourism, diversity, and the scientific laboratories. Freeman considers the failure to attract and retain businesses; poverty leading to substance abuse, crime, and mental-health issues; and poor education and early-childhood development as New Mexicos weaknesses. Id like to engage individually and with others in areas of need; connect my strengths and expertise to contribute to local and state programs, says Freeman when asked how he will apply his Leadership New Mexico experience to improve the future of New Mexico.
Sharon Friedes, Advertising Director, Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque
It is my goal to help people discover the great natural beauty of the New Mexico landscape, as well as the welcoming hearts of those who live here, says Friedes when describing her aspiration for New Mexico. The fact that the state is becoming more business friendly, allowing local businesses to grow, and attracting outside businesses to choose New Mexico are accomplishments Friedes deems have helped the state progress in the past five years. Friedes is primarily concerned with three state issues: engagement, education and poverty. She believes that if the education system is improved there is potential to change the cycle of poverty. I want to gain knowledge on how best to be of service to New Mexico, as well as develop relationships to aid in these efforts, says Friedes about what she wishes to gain from her Leadership New Mexico Core Program experience.
Benjamin Gardner, Vice President & Principal, Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, Albuquerque
Gardner considers New Mexicos diversity as a strength that is uncelebrated and underleveraged. We have amazing artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, musicians, business leaders, and others that come from every walk of life and every ethnicity, states Gardner. He thinks that the state can leverage this quality to create jobs, enrich lives and enjoy prosperity. Gardner would like to see New Mexico grow by creating opportunity, respecting the environment, welcoming diversity, and educating citizens. He believes this can be done by growing the economy, improving the education system, reducing poverty and crime, and believing in New Mexico. As a leader, Gardner is inspired by the company he works for. They are a diverse group that have the best interests of our state and industry in mind when making decisions, says Gardner.
Carolyn Green, Vice President Presbyterian Delivery System, Chief Nursing Officer, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Albuquerque
Green defines leadership as the ability to use ones strengths and integrity to guide a team toward the achievement of positive results. It is the art of serving others selflessly, seeing opportunities to inspire and develop others toward their highest potential. She hopes to gain an appreciation the states strengths and a network of passionate leaders through Leadership New Mexico. She feels this will encourage leaders to find viable solutions to the states current challenges. Three issues Green is concerned about are: the changing health-care status; the failure to keep youth in New Mexico, affecting economic growth and financial stability; and the challenges for improving the education system. Green says easier access to health-care coverage and the decline in teen pregnancies are two successes in the past few years.
Kirk Irby, Pharmacist/Partner, Lowells Pharmacy, Artesia
The three issues New Mexico faces that Irby is the most concerned about are: the states budget being affected by the decline in oil and gas; education and the inability to attract and keep good teachers; and welfare because too many people rely on the state for assistance. Irby wants to see New Mexico flourish in as many positive areas as possible. When asked what it would take for New Mexico to live up to his vision, Irby said, I think it would take a network of people to bring this about and I hope I can give some ideas to various leaders whenever possible. By participating in the Leadership New Mexico Core Program, Irby is learning more about the state as a whole, surrounding communities, and about other industries besides his own area of expertise in pharmacy. Irby believes that leadership is, the ability to mentor or guide others in activities that they perform.
Carole Jaramillo, Director of Finance Services, City of Rio Rancho, Rio Rancho
New Mexicos rich history and diversity of culture, people, climate, and geography are strengths Jaramillo believes the state needs to capitalize on. There is something for everybody and people like to come here. As a state, we should tap into the appeal of visiting New Mexico and use that appeal as a means of attracting a diverse variety of employers to locate here, says Jaramillo. She also thinks that to solve the states issues, leaders at all levels of government and the private sector must come together to develop strategies to move the state in a unified direction. Jaramillo believes if the state resolves its education issues, the youth would be more interested in higher education and crime rates would go down, helping increase economic development in New Mexico. Jaramillo is inspired by women suffragists, civil-rights movement leaders, and the American feminist movement.
Mario Juarez-Infante, Vice President, Wilson & Co. Inc., Engineers & Architects, Albuquerque
When asked what he views as New Mexicos top three accomplishments are in the past five years, Juarez-Infante states, New Mexico has begun to see its ports of entry increase international trade, it has taken on the challenge in health-care reform and begun to embrace it from the legal and financial responsibility perspective, and we have recognized and begun promoting New Mexico tourism. He wants to see New Mexico as a leader in international trade with a unified workforce development structure supported by both the public and private sector. Juarez-Infante is passionate about creating a quicker, safer and more-efficient transportation system for commercial freight. He believes this is attainable if the state becomes forward thinking, understands the cyber market, and invests its limited resources.
Kyle Kerr, Area Manager, BP America, Farmington
Ive always been inspired by people who positively affect their industries and communities by challenging assumptions and encouraging innovation. I find it fulfilling to work on teams that are aligned in their goals for the overall good of the project, company or community, says Kerr. He sees the states natural beauty, wonderful climate, significant amount of natural resources, and the many research institutions and technology-based companies as its greatest attributes. Kerr says, I would like to see New Mexico become a place where innovation and entrepreneurship are not just encouraged, but core to the culture of the state. Kerr has gained an understanding of the challenges facing the state and a deep appreciation of New Mexico. He says the most powerful aspect of the program was meeting a variety of leaders throughout the state who are motivated to work together.
Jill Klar, Interim Chief Executive Officer, VP, Chief Operating Officer, UNM Medical Group Inc., Albuquerque
Klar wants to see New Mexico have a stronger economy and more strategic growth, improved financial health, be crime free, and a comfortable place to live, raise families and do business. She would also like New Mexico to be a place where we welcome and embrace diversity, and a place we honor, respect, and are proud to call home.' She considers the economy, the state budget, and the overall health-care landscape as New Mexicos biggest challenges. She believes that it is important for all leaders in our state to pull together in the same direction to support a common goal, and says we can be so much more powerful together than we ever can be apart. Klar is excited about the Leadership New Mexico experience because it has given her the opportunity to hear perspectives from other industry leaders outside the health-care environment.
Timothy Knowles, Head of Human Resources, URENCO USA, Eunice
Knowles is inspired by the ability to influence others to achieve more than they thought possible. It is the responsibility of todays leaders to develop the future leaders of the community and the state, says Knowles. He hopes that the experience and education gained through the Core Program will help him be vocal and take action on his concerns for the state and local community, advocating for important and much-needed change. His vision for New Mexico is to improve the overall well-being of New Mexicans through economic development and a focus on core public functions. Knowles believes that New Mexico needs to bring additional revenue into the state, which can be done by offering incentives and financial benefits to outside companies, and would like to contribute to this effort by speaking with his legislators.
Matt Martin, Construction Executive, Albuquerque
According to Martin, to be a successful leader you need to focus on your companys strategic foundation, including mission, values, and competitive advantages, then inspire a passion for these fundamentals to the people around you. His motivation to participate in Leadership New Mexico was his desire to see New Mexico achieve its potential and to be part of the journey. We will thrive economically through enlightened reforms surrounding our education platforms and become healthier as a state through better corporate and personal incentives and knowledge, says Martin says hes most concerned with New Mexicos poor education results, its limited private economic development, and the high percentage of substance abuse. Im hopeful to become more involved through the business community to raise awareness of the educational challenges facing our state, says Martin.
Jared Matts, CPA, CGMA, Tax Director/Shareholder, Atkinson & Co. Ltd., Albuquerque
Matts considers New Mexico to have many strengths, including: the scientific and engineering talent, the four seasons, geographical location, history, landscape, the diverse communities, and multicultural populations. He says if the abundance of natural resources is properly managed, they will serve New Mexicos future well for the generations to come. Matts describes the ideal state to be a place where community matters, where people of different backgrounds and diverse cultures live in support of each other, and where the enchanted lands contribute to the abundance and high quality of life experience that they provide. He believes that New Mexico is struggling in the following areas: high levels of poverty, specifically affecting the elderly and children; a neglected education system; and the challenges surrounding water conservation.
Chris McCall, Chief of Police, City of Hobbs, Hobbs
When asked why he joined Leadership New Mexicos Core Program after participating in the Local Government Leadership Program in 2015, McCall said, Information is power and being around informed and dedicated people such as those in Leadership New Mexico, keeps me motivated to continue to try and make a positive impact on our state. Chris hopes that New Mexico continues efforts to improve in all areas, and believes working together is key to making New Mexico a better place to live, work and play. Areas he feels the state has improved upon in the past years are: attracting and retaining innovative business ventures, the Real ID Act compromise, and the expansion of collecting DNA profiles. Areas he is most concerned about for New Mexico are education, the health-care system, and mental-health issues and resources.
Amy Miller, Public Affairs Consultant, Albuquerque
Miller admires New Mexicos rich culture, history, diverse population, stunning landscapes, beautiful weather and engaged citizens. She says, Our state can build upon these assets to diversify and improve the economic health of our state and its residents. The high poverty level is what Miller considers to be New Mexicos biggest challenge, which she believes is closely tied to the other challenges related to health care, education, the justice system and crime. Overcoming this challenge will require a long-term, bipartisan community vision, strategy and commitment to education, asset building and a focus on economic development, says Miller. When asked to describe her vision for the state, Miller says, My vision is that New Mexico is economically healthy with its citizens experiencing economic prosperity while the state still maintains its unique culture and beauty.
JF Nagel, Research and Development Director, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque
Nagel considers a successful leader to be one who develops and empowers his or her team to learn and develop, challenge and be challenged, and to always prepare them for the next big task. Nagels ideal state for New Mexico to be in is a great place to live and work for all our people a place we want to raise our children and where they are able to stay. He believes that the following issues need to be resolved in order for his vision to become a reality: education, too many children are not graduating or participating in higher education; the aging population, because younger generations are leaving to find work or a better education; and the overdependence on government spending for employment. He would like to play a role in improving the state by engaging with younger generations who have great potential to be an asset to the state.
Jose Ortiz, Regional Vice President, Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Co., Las Cruces
When asked who or what inspires him as a leader, Ortiz says that the youth of today are very motivating to him. They are fearless and they want to be challenged, they see endless possibilities, and they are quick learners, says Ortiz. Ortiz is confident that in order to improve the future of New Mexico, the workforce needs to be better educated. The state as a whole needs to focus on keeping todays youth engaged in learning and encourage them to stay in school, pursue higher education, and obtain and create jobs. He also believes that New Mexico needs to work on job creation and promote a pro-business structure to the local and state governments. Ortiz would like to see New Mexico as a state with better job opportunities and affordable living. He considers the natural resources, great outdoors, the quality of life and health care as some of New Mexicos greatest strengths.
Teresa Reinhard, Community Support Coordinator, Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Kirtland Air Force Base
Reinhard says that New Mexicos strengths are the ethnic and cultural diversity, beautiful weather, landscapes, and outdoor recreational opportunities. The state could be a premier destination for retirees, outdoor enthusiasts, and those who embrace cultural diversity. She sees the lack of jobs and economic opportunities, poor educational outcomes, and pervasive poverty as New Mexicos biggest challenges. She believes that the key to fixing these issues is improving the quality of public education and skill level of New Mexicos students. A better-educated workforce can entice more companies and businesses to locate here and build a future in New Mexico, says Reinhard. She hopes to see New Mexicos youth having the best education in the nation in the next ten years.
James Salsbury, Senior Vice President, HB Construction, Albuquerque
Salsbury envisions New Mexico as, a state that attracts new workforce and industry at an unprecedented rate. He believes that his vision is achievable if the youth are taught a sense of duty and honor for New Mexico, so that they are passionate to stay and help the state in the future. In the past five years, Salsbury views the beer, wine, and spirit sector production boom to be an accomplishment because it indicates the much-needed, untapped markets New Mexico can take advantage of. Something wholly produced, taxed, and consumed in New Mexico with the added advantage of exportability. What else is out there that we are not currently taking advantage of? asks Salsbury. By participating in Leadership New Mexicos Core Program, he hopes to expand his knowledge of issues in New Mexico that future generations will face and participate in creating solutions.
Kaycee Sandoval, Human Resources Director, Business Operations, Compliance Officer, South Central Colfax County Special Hospital District, Springer
Sandoval is motivated to inspire others to overcome obstacles, discover their potential, and succeed. She says, To help others gain the confidence they never knew they had and accomplish tasks they never knew they could do is an amazing feeling and an amazing thing to witness. Sandoval is confident that the state can improve its future by educating the population with unbiased information and encouraging individual thought and self-confidence. She is passionate about sharing accurate factual information about the states issues, so that the public understands the problems and the options available, and can then come to a consensus solution. Being exposed to a variety of perspectives on the issues facing New Mexico creates a more complete picture and helps determine the best solutions possible, she states.
Randy Shaffer, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Shaffer describes his vision for New Mexico as becoming a diverse destination for business, tourism, and retirement. He believes that this is attainable if, first and foremost, New Mexico continues to develop a long-term strategic economic development plan aimed at attracting businesses to our state. Part of the initiative will need to address the states crime rate. Creating and developing attractive, active communities is part of the path to success. He considers the focus on economic development funding, Medicaid expansion, and the Santa Teresa Port of Entry as accomplishments in the past five years that have had a positive impact on the state. The lack of a long-term commitment to economic development, crime rates, and access to quality health-care providers in the states rural areas are issues he believes face New Mexico.
Chez Steel, Executive Vice President, Century Bank, Albuquerque
Steel sees New Mexico as having many great attributes such as the climate, beautiful skies, and most importantly, the cultural diversity. He thinks that New Mexicans need to work on believing and taking pride in the state, and says, we are honest and fair with each other, and that is a strength that needs to be promoted. In order for New Mexico to build and grow, he strongly believes that citizens need to be more confident in the state so the youth will be more excited to stay and get educated here and join the workforce. I believe that if fair, bipartisan, fiscally responsible, and common-sense decisions are implemented, we will see native New Mexicans dreaming of opportunities and staying in the state rather than exiting, says Steel. Steel wants to see industry investment, diversification, collaboration between political, social, and economic strategies, and investment in the youth.
Renee Sudborough, Assistant Vice President, Risk Management, Holy Cross Hospital, Taos
Sudborough is proud of three accomplishments New Mexico has made in the past five years: access to post-secondary education in rural areas; the attraction of clean industries to the state such as the film and social-media industries; and the New Mexico True branding efforts by the New Mexico Department of Tourism. She wants to see New Mexico remain a clean, beautiful, prosperous, happy and quiet state. Sudborough would like to help achieve these goals by, supporting clean industry, the education of our people, and tourism, especially tourism that capitalizes upon the beauty of our state while at the same time preserving it. She was inspired to participate in Leadership New Mexicos Core Program for the opportunity it offers to become better informed on statewide problems and solutions.
Travis Tarry, Vice President, District Manager, U.S Bank, Las Cruces
In order to improve the quality of life and future of New Mexico, Tarry thinks that New Mexicans need to become more optimistic, create a more business friendly landscape, and the education system needs to better prepare students for the workforce of today and tomorrow. He hopes to contribute by increasing his awareness and knowledge of industries outside of his own, and bring that newfound knowledge back to his community, advocating for change. Issues that he feels New Mexico needs to work on are: dependence on government money, energy revenue, and lack of competitiveness to attract and retain business. My vision is for New Mexico to be a state known for cutting-edge technology, manufacturing, and robust economy while maintaining its heritage, culture, and diversity, says Tarry. He is inspired by his parents for giving him a solid foundation to live upon.
Scott Turner, Editor and Publisher, El Defensor Chieftain, Socorro
As a newcomer to New Mexico, Turner is excited to participate in the Leadership New Mexico Core Program to learn about what is happening in the state, the key issues and the resources available to conquer the issues. As a community leader, I would like to meet other leaders from around the state and develop a network to better serve my community and state, says Turner. He wants New Mexico to become a better place to live and believes that in order for this to happen, people with diverse backgrounds need to make a commitment to work together to come up with solutions. Turner states, As an editor and publisher, I will do what I can to make people aware of the problems our state is facing and be a part of the discussion to come up with solutions to those problems. He sees the top concerns for the state as education, health care, and economic development.
Jimmy Trujillo said climbing through tunnels and portholes into alien worlds and dimensions at Meow Wolfs wildly popular art exhibit in Santa Fe was a crazy experience.
Its the kind of thing Trujillo, a principal at the REDW accounting firm in Albuquerque, might never have done on his own. But as a lifetime member of Leadership New Mexico, he joined fellow program alumni on a recent tour of Meow Wolfs House of Eternal Return, an interactive and immersive fantasy exhibit that features 21st Century experimental art.
It introduced him to the tremendous potential of Santa Fes bustling artistic talent, something Meow Wolf CEO and co-founder Vince Kadlubek discussed after the tour. Kadlubek told the group the exhibit earned $6 million in its first full year and employed 130, encouraging Meow Wolf to expand to more states.
That snapped things into focus for Trujillo, who was still grappling with the exhibits wacky appeal.
Im still trying to figure it all out, he said at the after-tour reception. Its a crazy concept that Vince and his group have made into a crazy profitable deal. And now theyre taking that footprint to keep doing more crazy profitable ventures in other markets.
Exposure to such hands-on, eye-opening experiences is a fundamental part of Leadership New Mexico, a 22-year-old nonprofit organization that educates public- and private-sector leaders around the state about issues and challenges facing New Mexico. The program brings together leaders from a broad range of industries and communities to learn about each other and to collectively explore the states problems and assets.
Through those shared experiences, participants forge new friendships and lasting ties, helping to build the human networks needed to resolve problems and make the state a better place, said Leadership NM President Patty Komko.
We strive for diversity in our programs in terms of gender, ethnicity and the businesses and geographic regions people come from, Komko said. We throw them all into the mix to get people together who might not otherwise meet. In the process, they form new relationships and learn about issues, policies and challenges around New Mexico.
To do that, Leadership offers three different educational programs, plus continuous alumni activities to keep people engaged in educational and networking opportunities like the Meow Wolf event.
Leaderships core program is an annual, 10-month class that takes participants to nearly all corners of the state to tour facilities, meet with local business and community leaders, and attend presentations by experts on critical issues. That program, which launched in 1996, has to date graduated 860 senior-level leaders from 54 New Mexico communities.
The organization also offers more-condensed programs for local government leaders, and for younger, next-generation business leaders ages 25-40. A total of 625 people have graduated from those two programs combined.
This years core class, which began in September, includes 34 people from 15 communities and 14 different industries. Participants attend six three-day sessions from fall to spring, each one focused on a specific theme.
So far, the group has learned about leadership in Santa Fe, health and human services in Las Vegas, N.M., economic development in Las Cruces, and education in Hobbs. Still to come: Environment and natural resources in Farmington, and crime, justice and government in Taos.
The sessions include tours of facilities often closed to the public, such as White Sands Missile Range and the URENCO USA uranium enrichment facility south of Hobbs.
The curriculum is nonpartisan.
We present right down the middle without leaning in any direction, Komko said. The intent is to educate and inform people, not make up their minds.
As leaders in their professions and communities, graduates are later positioned to apply what they learn to better solve problems, Komko said.
Laura Ann Crawford, northwest region director for Presbyterian Medical Services in Farmington, said for her, this years core program is life-altering.
Ive gotten a much bigger picture of things, Crawford said. People do things differently in different corners of the state. But if we come together, we can work more effectively to resolve problems.
Likewise, Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer Carolyn Green said shes gained a broader vision of New Mexico.
Ive always been Albuquerque-focused, Green said. But Leadership has helped me look up and see the state from all perspectives.
Benjamin Gardner, vice president and principal at Albuquerque architecture firm Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, said hes now connecting a lot more dots on statewide issues.
Ive lived in New Mexico nearly all my life, but its eye-opening to find out what I dont know, Gardner said. Thats important for me to be a better ambassador for our state.
With nearly 1,500 graduates from all the Leadership programs, alumni strive to stay connected and participate in activities.
Patricia Aragon, who co-owns three McDonalds restaurants in Carlsbad and Artesia, drove to Santa Fe with her husband and business partner, Steve, to attend the Meow Wolf tour.
Its important to get out to learn and network and continue the relationships weve built through the program, said Aragon, a 2015 core-class graduate. Im constantly learning new things.
A county jail guard was arrested Saturday after choking his wife and threatening her with a shotgun, according to police.
Tyler Nafus, 25, has worked as a corrections officer at the Metropolitan Detention Center since 2011, a spokeswoman confirmed Sunday. On Saturday, he was arrested on charges including aggravated battery on a household member and child abuse.
Nataura Powdrell-Moore said that Nafus has been placed on administrative leave with pay, which she said is the protocol when an employee is charged with a crime. She said the county will conduct an investigation to determine whether any internal policies were violated.
Online jail records show Nafus was released from MDC on Saturday.
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WASHINGTON Criticized for his low-profile diplomacy, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is emerging from the shadows with a leading public role in shaping and explaining the Trump administrations missile strikes in Syria. And, hes set for an even higher-profile mission, heading to Moscow under the twin clouds of Russias U.S. election meddling and its possible support for a Syrian chemical weapons attack.
Since taking office in February, the former Exxon Mobil CEO has admittedly shunned the spotlight and the press. Yet, Tillerson was surprisingly visible during last weeks announcement of the response to the gruesome chemical attack, fielding questions from reporters on and off camera, and then captured in an official White House photo seated next to President Donald Trump as they heard the result of the 59 cruise missiles that struck a Syrian military base.
Tillerson was a prominent fixture during the most important foreign policy period in Trumps young presidency: a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that coincided with the strikes against Syria. He was by Trumps side during his meetings with Xi and spoke publicly multiple times to address both issues.
It was Tillerson who delivered the Trump administrations first blistering condemnation of Russia in the hours after the strikes. Standing in a cramped conference room alongside national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Tillerson said Moscow had failed to live up to its obligations under a 2013 agreement to strip Syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles. Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has simply been incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement, he said.
On Sunday, he made his first network television interview appearances. In one interview, Tillerson said he sees no reason for retaliation from Russia for the U.S. missile strikes. Russia maintains a close political and military alliance with President Bashar Assads government and has been accused of supporting its attacks against Syrians opposed to Assads rule something Moscow adamantly denies.
Tillerson said on CBS Face the Nation that Russians were not targeted by the strikes. He also said the top U.S. priority in the region hadnt changed and remained the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Then he headed to Europe to gather with the foreign ministers of the other major industrialized nations before venturing on eastward to become the first Trump Cabinet member to visit Moscow and possibly meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The criticism from the foreign policy establishments left and right that has dogged Tillersons tenure is dying down.
Tillerson had faced questions about whether he understood that his new position meant he was now the face of the United States to the world, that he had to answer no longer to a small group of top shareholders but to more than 320 million Americans.
The secretary of state must be the spokesman for American foreign policy, said Eliot Cohen, a senior State Department official during George W. Bushs presidency. This is the administrations first crisis but it wont be their last by a long shot, so hes going to have to get used to this.
Joining Trump at the presidents Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Tillerson was supposed to focus on the informal summit with Xi. Instead, he was thrust to the forefront after photos of the bodies piled in heaps in Idlib, Syria, dramatically altered the agenda.
Only a week earlier, Tillerson had alarmed U.S. allies by indicating the U.S. was no longer interested in pushing for Assads removal from power.
In the hours leading up to Trumps decision to order the strikes, Tillerson was among the most forward-leaning of Trumps top aides in suggesting the U.S. would deliver an appropriate response. He challenged Russia publicly in a way Trump appeared scrupulously to avoid and said of Assad early Thursday: It would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people.
After the cruise missiles crashed down in Syria, Tillerson was calm and commanding in a question-and-answer session with journalists.
Cohen, a conservative critic of Trumps foreign policy who has chided Tillerson for his reticence, said he saw Tillerson growing into the job. I suspect youll see more of him as he grows more comfortable in dealing with the press and in his relationship with the president and the administrations national security team, Cohen said.
The challenge will be greater in Russias capital this week. Tillerson is arriving at a fragile point in U.S.-Russia relations, where he will have to confront the Kremlins anger over the missile strikes in Syria along with suspicion at home that Moscow may have been complicit in the Syrian governments chemical weapons attack. Senior U.S. military officials have said they are looking into whether Russia provided drone surveillance and helped Syrian forces try to cover up what theyd done.
I think that there will be a lot of answers that come out of that meeting. And I think thats when the president will make his decisions, said Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, during an appearance on CNNs State of the Union.
Beyond Syria are disputes over Russias 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimea region and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
At the same time, Tillerson carries to Moscow the weight of FBI and congressional investigations into Russias interference in last years presidential election. The Trump campaigns possible ties to the presumed Russian meddlers are also under scrutiny.
This is going to be Tillersons biggest test to date, said Julianne Smith, a National Security Council and Defense Department official under President Barack Obama.
When he goes to Russia, keeping a low profile would likely be impossible, even if it were his goal.
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Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Julie Pace contributed to this report.
On March 27, the American people witnessed something remarkable: the countrys Top Cop went on national TV and demanded that our state and local officials violate the constitution or else. Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened to cut off federal crime-fighting funds from so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to honor immigration hold requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These immigration hold requests, often called ICE Detainers, ask local jails and prisons to detain certain people up to 48 hours beyond their original release date, not including holidays or weekends, so they can investigate their immigration status.
So whats wrong with that?
To start off with, imprisoning someone after theyve served out their sentence or posted bond is unconstitutional. Detaining someone beyond their release date is essentially a second arrest, and for that you need to have probable cause to believe that the person has committed a second crime. However, ICE detainers are often based on nothing more substantial than a suspicion that a person might be undocumented, which is not a crime in and of itself. In America, we dont arbitrarily imprison people based on mere suspicions we require evidence and due process. Federal courts across the country have affirmed this principle many times over.
Weve already seen negative outcomes from ICE detainers right here in New Mexico. Just five days before AG Sessions delivered his televised threats, a federal judge approved a settlement stemming from the illegal detention of a Farmington woman in the San Juan Detention Center per the request of ICE in 2012. Under the terms of this settlement, New Mexico taxpayers could be on the hook for nearly $750,000 a price we can ill-afford given our states current budget woes.
Beyond the fundamental unconstitutionality and costliness of these types of immigration holds, detainers also threaten our communities safety. When jails do ICEs unconstitutional bidding and become proxy immigration agents, it undermines trust in police. How willing would you be to go to the police to report a crime if you believed it could result in your family being torn apart? This reluctance within immigrant communities to report crimes is already in evidence in places like Los Angeles, where the police chief found that since the beginning of 2017 Latino/a residents reported 25 percent fewer sexual assaults and 10 percent fewer incidences of domestic violence compared to the same period the previous year.
So if ICE detainers are unconstitutional and actually make us less safe, whats really going on here? We see Sessions threats for what they are: part of the Trump administrations larger campaign of attacks on people of color, on immigrants, and on Muslims. By stoking fear and xenophobia, President Trump and AG Sessions are trying to distract and divide us so that we will lay blame on groups of people, rather than on failed policy, for unemployment and crime. The vilification of immigrants and minorities has been tried many times before in American history, and it always fails because ultimately people understand that our nation is strengthened and enriched by hard-working new Americans.
So to put it in terms that Jeff Sessions, the former senator from Alabama, might understand: that dog just wont hunt. By and large, New Mexico has resisted involving local law enforcement with other peoples anti-immigrant agendas, and we shouldnt let bullying and bluster from the Trump administration change that. One might even hope that New Mexicos example can help instruct Sessions on what respect for the law, Constitution, and basic human decency looks like.
The Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind in late 2015, encourages more local control of education. Additionally, ESSA requires stakeholder engagement to inform the plans states will submit to the federal Department of Education. New Mexicans were able to comment on our state plan through April 1 by visiting the NM Public Education Department website.
During September 2016, the New Mexico School Superintendents Association, New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools and Learning Alliance New Mexico invited New Mexicans to share their thoughts about the direction of public education. We created a toolkit with common questions and common processes for students, families, educators and community members to use across our state. More than 4,000 New Mexicans responded and recommended clear next steps:
Challenging academic content standards should inform social and cultural awareness, life skills, literacy and STEM.
Teachers can best gauge students learning through limited standardized testing, hands-on work, individualized, varied assessments.
Information important in identifying teachers strengths and areas for improvement include multiple student assessment outcomes, classroom observations, parent and student surveys and self-evaluations.
Vital aspects of schools to be measured or counted include student-focused school culture, teacher and staff work ethic and attitudes and family and community relations.
Through another stakeholder engagement process, NMPED partnered with New Mexico First to convene town halls in six local communities and offer an on-line survey. NMPED heard from more than 1,825 New Mexicans. Their findings can be found on the NM First website.
In aggregate, thousands of New Mexicans shared their voices, insights and expertise to inform the future of our public education. NMPED has the opportunity to listen to this feedback, inform the plan to submit to DOE and implement changes based on thoughtful input. We ask NMPED to utilize the input from all stakeholders the NMCCS/NMSSA/Learning Alliance Report, the New Mexico First Report as well as other stakeholder feedback methods as they finalize their ESSA State Plan. Communities, districts, individual schools and policy makers have opportunities to be responsive, too.
Asking for feedback and then ignoring it is a quick way to lose trust. NMSSA, NMCCS and Learning Alliance are committed to working with New Mexicans and moving toward the vision we created together. We invite you to join us.
The vision cannot be a one-size-fits-all model because we heard clearly that one size doesnt fit all. Still, the vision can unify statewide work in innovative ways. Efforts like Mission: Graduate in central New Mexico, the SUCCESS Partnership in Dona Ana County and Santa Fe Birth to Career Collaboration align services and create bridges to better serve our students. Imagine if we scaled up a similar statewide effort, driven by local input, supported by local policy, led by local leaders, all for the benefit of our local students, educators and schools? Thats the future we work toward.
Partnering together through public, private and philanthropic groups, we can lift our state to better outcomes. New Mexicans have called for change and offered solutions. Now is the time to follow community-led strategies to improve our public education.
WASHINGTON On Aug. 20, 1998, American Tomahawk cruise missiles hit sites in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The targets of the assault, ordered by President Bill Clinton, were Osama bin Laden and his band of terrorists.
In light of what would happen three years later, on Sept. 11, 2001, Madeleine Albright, Clintons secretary of state, was prescient. We are embarked, she said on a venture in which we have to deal over the long run with what is the very serious threat to our way of life at the end of this century and the next one.
One might imagine that Clintons decision was broadly popular. In fact, his move was met with an explosion of querulous partisanship. It occurred at the height of the controversy over his sexual relationship with a young White House intern that would, later in the year, lead to his impeachment. Many in the GOP charged that Clinton was trying to distract the nation from his scandal.
Clinton, as John Harris reported that summer in The Washington Post, was accused of following a Wag the Dog strategy so-named after the recent movie in which a president tries to draw attention away from a sexual scandal by staging a phony war.
Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., who now serves in President Trumps administration as director of national intelligence, was one of the skeptics. After months of lies and deceit and manipulations and deceptions stonewalling it raised into doubt everything he does and everything he says, said Coats. He insisted that it is legitimate to question the timing of this action.
John Ashcroft, then a senator from Missouri, asked: Were these forces sent at this time because he needed to divert our attention from his personal problems?
Trumps critics are certainly tempted to pursue a similar line of thinking about the strike he directed against Syria in retaliation for the odious chemical attack on civilians by President Bashar al-Assads government. After all, Republicans paid no price when they questioned Clintons motives, and Trump would sorely love to divert the public from the disastrous opening weeks of his administration.
In particular, he has been happy to level false charges first against former President Obama and then against Susan Rice, Obamas national security adviser to shift the focus away from inquiries into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russias subversion of the 2016 election. The fact checkers regularly remind us that Trump meets the Coats standard of being a politician about whom we can reasonably doubt everything he does and everything he says.
But the Clinton experience should teach a different lesson. Albright was right to suggest that the threat posed by bin Laden should have taken more seriously than our inward-looking political system allowed in 1998, and Syria presents humanitarian and foreign policy problems that must be debated on their own merits.
On the strike itself, many Democrats including the Senate and House Democratic leaders, Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi had called for proportionate action against Assad back when he used chemical weapons in 2013. Unlike Trump, they chose to be consistent with their past positions. In supporting the president on last weeks military operation, Schumer, Pelosi and many others in their party signaled that upholding American values was more important than partisanship, even when a man they deeply mistrust occupies the White House.
But one military strike does not make a foreign policy, and when you watch Trump speak on the subject, its hard to escape the sense that he has absolutely no idea what hes doing.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have inadvertently given Assad a green light late last month by abandoning Obamas stated policy that the dictator needed to be pushed out of power. What was the administration thinking? What comes next, and will Congress be involved? How do his approaches to Russia, Iran and Syria fit together? If Trump is moved by the suffering of Syrias people, how can he keep blocking refugees from our shores?
And, yes, the new crisis over the Assad regime and the backing it is receiving from Vladimir Putin make it all the more urgent to get to the bottom of the relationship between Trumps campaign and Russia.
Trumps opponents should not imitate the shortsightedness of Clintons 1998 critics. They should instead put their skepticism to work in pressing for a coherence on international matters that Trump has, to this point, been incapable of delivering.
Dionnes columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail: ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.
As messy as the political battle got GOP transgression, Democrat retaliation, an unprecedented partisan filibuster and, finally, the nuclear option the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to have a highly qualified new justice on its bench as early as today.
Unfortunately, the political fight could well have negative long-term impact on the U.S. Senate and its formerly cherished reputation as a deliberative body, and it makes the nations highest court even more politicized.
This was a bloody, partisan fight reminiscent of a running playground spat but with much greater consequences.
It was triggered in part by the refusal last year of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, to even consider outgoing President Obamas nomination of the Merrick Garland to the high court, saying the incoming president should have that prerogative. Garland appeared to be well qualified but never even got to answer questions.
And McConnells refusal was triggered in part by former Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and his heavy-handed change of Senate rules in 2013 when Democrats had the Senate majority to confirm Obamas picks for federal judges by a simple majority vote. Under Reids move, only Supreme Court justices were still subject to a 60-vote cloture rule.
All of those machinations are the result of the hyperpartisan divisions that are likely to curtail, if not kill, filibusters and supermajorities along with any realistic hopes for a timely return to bipartisan cooperation in the best interests of the whole nation.
But back to the direct beneficiary of the nuclear option, or some say constitutional option, soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
McConnell, as expected, thwarted the Democrats filibuster by employing a parliamentary procedure that allows the Senate to override a rule or precedent by a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of by a supermajority of 60 votes. The predictable result was a 55-45 party-line vote to end debate, and 54-45 to confirm, with three Democrats joining the Republicans.
Theres really no question that Gorsuch is qualified, nor that he restores a moderately conservative slant to the nations highest court.
His credentials: an undergraduate degree from Columbia and law degree from Harvard, both with honors, and a doctor of philosophy from Oxford. He clerked for Justice Byron White and then Justice Anthony Kennedy. He was rated well-qualified by the American Bar Associations judicial-selection panel (its highest rating), and is a member of the federal Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules.
He has a reputation for being thoroughly prepared in court, well-spoken and committed to the rule of law.
And unlike his ascension to the Supreme Court, the Senate voted unanimously to approve him to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which includes New Mexico in 2006.
Its worth noting, too, that he replaces Justice Antonin Scalia one of the courts most conservative judges, who died in February 2016.
Democrat arguments that Gorsuch is extreme, dangerous and outside the mainstream are without merit except for pandering to the base. The real mystery here is why they picked this candidate for a fight they were virtually certain to lose with such enormous consequences.
Senate Democrats will no doubt lick their wounds for a while and continue their rant against the very tactics they employed when they were the majority party. What goes around comes around and both parties would do well to remember that truism.
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.
Raymond Gallegos, vice chairman of New Mexico Motorcycle Right Organization, left, speaks about the lack of progress on the case of slain motorcyclist Earl Roybal Sunday afternoon. Roybal's aunt, Rita Nunez-Gallegos, center, and his daughter Ashley Roybal, right, also spoke at the news conference at the car wash were he was killed two weeks ago. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal) Earl "Payaso" Roybal, 59. (Courtesy Raymond Gallegos) Albuquerque police officers investigate after 59-year-old Earl Payaso Roybal was shot and killed at Hose It car wash on Coors near Quail NW on March 26, 2017. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 5 Next
Its been two weeks since motorcyclist Earl Payaso Roybal was shot and killed at a busy Northwest Albuquerque carwash, and his girlfriend said she continues to be frustrated that the man who shot him has not been arrested.
I dont feel like Im any closer to knowing whats happening, Libby Miller told the Journal on Sunday afternoon. Its frustrating that this man is walking around on the streets. Hes able to spend time with his family and do what he wants to do, and my whole world was turned inside out and shred to pieces.
Albuquerque police havent publicly answered any questions about the shooting. They say they have talked to the shooter but havent completed the investigation.
On March 26, the 59-year-old Roybal was washing and drying his motorcycle at the Hose It Car Wash on Coors near Sequoia NW, when a man grew impatient waiting for him to finish, Miller said. She said she watched as over the span of five minutes the two argued and the man fired three times. She said Roybal had a gun on his hip but he never pulled it out.
Miller said after Roybal was shot, she ran to get her phone to call 911 and the man turned his gun on her.
I stared down the barrel of that gun, Miller said. I was reaching into the back of the bike to get my phone, and he told me if I pulled out a gun he would put a cap in my (expletive) as well.
Roybal was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Officer Fred Duran, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, has said detectives interviewed the man who shot Roybal that night and they are still putting together evidence and a case file before they can turn it over to the District Attorneys Office. Police did not return calls Sunday asking if there had been an update.
We have been in constant communication with the DAs office on this case, Duran wrote in an email Tuesday. We both agree that all the facts need to be gathered and reviewed before a decision can be made to maintain case integrity and make a fair and educated decision.
Its not clear whether police believe the man shot Roybal in self-defense or why they didnt arrest him immediately. The Journal filed a request to APD under the Inspection of Public Records Act for documents related to the case and was denied because police say the material contained confidential information.
But Roybals friends and family are growing frustrated as to why they still dont have any answers in the case.
They held a news conference Sunday to urge police to complete the investigation and announce whether or not the shooter will be charged.
We deserve answers, Roybals aunt, Rita Nunez-Gallegos said. Whether its good or bad, we deserve answers and we deserve them now. Its been too long.
Raymond Gallegos, vice chairman of the The New Mexico Motorcycle Rights Organization, said he is working together with national groups to bring attention to the shooting and the group plans to continue talking about it publicly with media and state lawmakers.
We need to make sure that those who are in charge of the investigation know that we are putting this case under a microscope, Gallegos said. One of our members was shot for no reason, and we need to know why APD is taking their time in investigating this.
BOSTON (AP) A Boston college is presenting honorary bachelor's degrees to six members of a New Hampshire family, five of them posthumously.
Wentworth Institute of Technology said the members of the Downing family graduated with two-year degrees between 1914 and 1965.
The surviving Wentworth graduate from the family is 72-year-old Jonathan Downing, from the Class of 1965, who'll pick up his honorary bachelor's degree on campus on April 21 at a Legacy Luncheon. Wentworth said it plans on that day to bestow degrees posthumously to his great-uncle Edward, Class of 1914; his grandfather Lester, Class of 1916; his father, Judson, Class of 1940; and his uncles Richard and Philip, both Class of 1949.
The Downings, from Alton Bay, New Hampshire, attended Wentworth before it offered bachelor's and master's degrees and when graduates earned only certificates or two-year degrees.
Wentworth President Zorica Pantic said it's remarkable that six family members graduated from the institute beginning more than a century ago.
We want to honor the family for that achievement, she said in an emailed statement.
Jonathan Downing graduated from Wentworth with a degree in architectural engineering technology and is a retired architect. He said he and his relatives were military veterans who worked as engineers and mechanics.
We've been waiting a long time for this story to be told, he said.
Children and spouses of the Downings who've died plan to accept the honorary degrees on their behalf.
The degrees will be presented the day before Wentworth holds its 2017 spring commencement.
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A coalition of government watchdog groups plans to sue the Trump administration on Monday with the aim of compelling the White House to continue President Barack Obamas practice of releasing logs of lobbyists and others who visit the complex.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the website where such records had been publicly available has gone dark, and White House officials will say only that the policy is under review, making no assurances that they will operate with the same openness.
Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the same group whose legal actions led to a settlement with the Obama administration in 2009, opening up the White House visitor logs for the first time.
It is crucial to understand who is potentially influencing the decision-making of the president, particularly when you have a White House that tends to lean toward secret decision-making, said Noah Bookbinder, the organizations executive director.
After initial resistance from the Obama administration, nearly 6 million names of White House visitors were made public under the deal crafted in 2009, released in batches roughly 90 to 120 days after the visits occurred.
Last week, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say whether the Trump administration would continue that practice, which has not been universally applauded. Some past and present government officials have argued that White House officials should be permitted to conduct meetings outside the public eye.
I tend to feel its the prerogative of the White House to have people come visit, and the public doesnt need to know who they are, said Andrew Card, chief of staff under President George W. Bush. We dont have a log on everybody who visits Congress, and theyre a coequal branch of government.
Public access to the logs can serve as a deterrent to some prominent people who might otherwise be inclined to counsel the president, Card said. Theyll say, Id love to meet with the president, but I dont want my name to appear in a log.
News organizations routinely used the logs, which are generated by the Secret Service, to shed light on the Obama administration. In 2012, for example, The Washington Post reported on a single day in January of that year when a steady stream of lobbyists were among the thousands of visitors to the White House and surrounding executive buildings.
The logs existence burst back into the news last month when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., went to the White House grounds to review intelligence reports on which he later briefed the president. Both Nunes and White House officials initially declined to say whom Nunes had visited and who had cleared him onto the grounds, information that is typically contained in the logs, along with the length of the stay.
The 2009 agreement permitted some exceptions to disclosure, including purely private visits to the Obama family, such as friends arriving for sleepovers with the presidents school-age daughters. The Obama White House also maintained the prerogative not to release records of particularly sensitive meetings, such as interviews with potential Supreme Court nominees.
There were also reports of attempts to get around the disclosure requirements. In 2010, for example, the New York Times reported that a Caribou Coffee location just outside the White House grounds had become a popular destination for meetings with lobbyists that wouldnt show up in the official logs.
But by and large, advocates for making the logs public say they were pleased with the Obama administrations practices.
Were only asking for the same Secret Service data that Obama published routinely, said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, another plaintiff in the lawsuit against the government.
Blantons organization is an independent nonprofit group that collects and publishes U.S. government documents. Also joining the lawsuit is the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, a new entity that seeks to preserve and expand freedom of the press.
Among the legal questions at issue is whether White House visitor logs are controlled by the White House or the Secret Service. The distinction matters because White House records are not subject to freedom of information requests and can be shielded from public view. Executive agencies, including the Secret Service, on the other hand, are subject to the disclosure law.
The most recent court decision on the subject came in 2013, in a case in which Judicial Watch, a conservative group, sought visitor logs from the Obama administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the records are controlled by the White House.
Thats one reason plaintiffs in the new action have chosen a different venue for their lawsuit, which is being filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit lists the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, as the defendant.
A spokesman for the department did not respond Sunday to a request for comment.
The plaintiffs say their interest in Trump visitor records extends far beyond the White House complex, given that the president often holds meetings at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and other properties he owns in the New York and Washington areas.
It is unclear what kind of records the Secret Service generates regarding members and guests at Mar-a-Lago, which is a private club, when Trump is on the property. Blanton said the agency should have a similar logging system in place there.
Either they have one or they should have one, Blanton said. Maybe this lawsuit will speed up the process of getting such a system in place.
Officials in the Trump administration on Sunday demanded Russia stop supporting the Syrian government or face a further deterioration in its relations with the United States.
Signaling the focus of talks Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will have in Moscow later this week, officials said Russia, in propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, bears at least partial responsibility for Wednesdays poison gas attack on villagers in Idlib province.
I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility, Tillerson said on ABCs This Week.
Although officials acknowledged that they have seen no evidence directly linking Russia to the attacks, the top national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, said Russia should be pressed to answer what it knew ahead of the chemical attack since it has placed warplanes and air defense systems with associated troops in Syria since 2015.
I think what we should do is ask Russia, how could it be, if you have advisers at that airfield, that you didnt know that the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons, McMaster said on Fox News.
The timing of the comments, with Tillerson heading soon to Moscow, signaled the administrations intent to pressure Russia to step away from Assad, who is supported by the Kremlin with military aid and diplomatic cover.
The fallout from the Syrian regimes use of chemical weapons on civilians, plus the U.S. missile strike that came in retaliation for it, adds more strain to a rocky relationship that is at its lowest point in decades. A host of issues are responsible, topped by suspected Russian attempts to interfere in the U.S. presidential election and Moscows support for separatists in Ukraine that have prompted U.S. and European sanctions. These topics have now been overshadowed by last weeks missile strike.
The Russians had hoped that relations with the United States might improve under President Donald Trump, who expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign. Tillersons nomination as secretary of state also raised prospects given the former ExxonMobil executives experience negotiating a major deal with Rosneft, the state-controlled oil giant.
But 11 weeks into Trumps presidency, expectations have been substantially lowered.
This is a big cold shower, said Samuel Charap, a Russia analyst with the Rand Corp. Even if behind closed doors they might engage on other issues in a more pragmatic manner, the public posture is going to be one of emphasizing how they disagree about [Syria]. Putin is not going to want to be seen as chummy with the U.S. secretary of state.
On Sunday, both Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley cast doubts on Assads legitimacy as Syrias leader. Haley said that eventually the unrest in Syria cannot end if Assad remains in power.
In no way do we see peace in that area with Russia covering up for Assad, Haley said. And in no way do we see peace in that area with Assad at the head of the Syrian government.
Tillerson noted other instances when Syrian forces deployed chemical weapons, and other attacks on civilians involving barrel bombs and conventional weapons.
I think the issue of how Bashar al-Assads leadership is sustained, or how he departs, is something that well be working [on] with allies and other in the coalition, said Tillerson, who after weeks of keeping a low profile was making his debut on the Sunday talk shows. But I think with each of those actions, he really undermines his own legitimacy.
Neither suggested Assads demise was imminent.
Once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria, Tillerson said on CBS Face the Nation.
The U.S. missile strikes in Syria carry the implicit threat of a larger U.S. role in the conflict. Tillerson said Sunday that they function as a warning to any country acting outside of international norms, in an apparent reference to North Korea.
At least in the short run, it will further complicate efforts to improve the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship, which seemed to be Tillersons objective in going to Moscow, said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In the longer term, the threat of further U.S. intervention is a card that the U.S. can play to get the Russians to tighten the screws on Assad on both the chemical weapons and possibly on accepting a political deal with the opposition.
Tillerson departed around dawn Sunday for Italy to attend a meeting of the G-7 nations, a bloc of industrialized democracies. He is due to arrive late Tuesday in Russia for his first visit as secretary of state.
He and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are scheduled to meet, but it is not known if the secretary of state will also see Putin, who personally bestowed the Order of Friendship on Tillerson in 2012.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said the Russians still hold out hope for a breakthrough, but that depends on whether Putin and Trump hit it off, not on anything Tillerson and Lavrov say.
Things will only happen as a result of direct personal, sustained contact between Putin and Trump, he said. Thats the way things work with Putin.
But closer ties with Russia also carry political risks for Trump. Should the Trump administration ease sanctions imposed over Ukraine, for instance, critics would label it payback for Russias pre-election hacks targeting Democrats.
Several analysts said Assad has humiliated Putin by using chemical weapons despite Russias guarantee that Syrias stockpiles would be whisked away. Moscows interest in getting sanctions eased is greater than its loyalty to Assad. And that could provide maneuvering room for Tillerson.
That appears to be Tillersons calculation, too.
I do not believe that the Russians want to have worsening relationships with the U.S., he said on This Week. But its going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of dialogue to better understand what is the relationship that Russia wishes to have with the U.S.
The Washington Posts Mike DeBonis and Abby Philip contributed to this report.
LAS CRUCES Marisa Salazar, a Las Cruces native and senior at Princeton University, has been named one of two recipients of the universitys 2017 Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction conferred on an undergraduate.
The prize, established in 1921, is awarded to the senior who has most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership, according to a Princeton news release. Previous recipients include the late Princeton President Emeritus Robert F. Goheen, former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Salazar, who was mostly home-schooled in Las Cruces, but attended Onate High School part-time in her sophomore and junior years, is a chemistry major. She told the Sun-News the teachers she had at Onate sparked in her a love for chemistry and encouraged her to apply to Princeton. She said she expected to go to a state school where generous scholarships were available.
I think I can credit my teachers with even inspiring me to apply to Princeton in the first place. I wasnt planning on it, she said. I had Steven Ewing for AP chemistry. I also did Science Bowl with him, and did Chemistry Olympiad . I think thats where I really first found my love of chemistry. He was just so passionate about chemistry and he just enjoyed it so much. I learned to see the beauty of it. He showed us how it was relevant and why it is important.
She also credits David Nunez, her government teacher, and Chris Duffy, who taught AP U.S. history, with instilling in her a passion for history and public policy. After graduation, she plans to attend medical school and hopes to focus on providing access to medically underserved populations in the United States, particularly Spanish speakers, and ultimately to work in global health.
That, she said, is because of her experience growing up in Las Cruces. A second-generation immigrant, Salazar said she feels a deep connection to Mexican culture.
Growing up in Cruces really enriched my life , she said. My grandparents moved over here with their family when my father was very young and the Mexican culture has always been a very strong influence in my life. I really love how, in New Mexico, thats very normal having the Mexican culture and U.S. culture both at the same time.
She said growing up in New Mexico taught her to relate to people with very different cultures and from very different backgrounds.
Her academic honors include the Princeton Department of Chemistrys William Foster Memorial Prize, given to the junior with the highest departmental academic record, and the George B. Wood Legacy Prize, awarded in recognition of exceptional academic achievement during the junior year.
LAS CRUCES Spaceport America in southern New Mexico has joined a nationwide partnership with FieldTripZoom, a web-based provider of live and interactive virtual field trips.
The partnership will allow students across the United States to experience the worlds first purpose-built commercial spaceport. Spaceport Americas deal will allow teachers across the state to provide a range of STEM and other educational content free to every K-12 classroom across the state.
The subscription-based site provides more than 165 virtual field trips including the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Alaska SeaLife Center and the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. For the remainder of the 2016-17 school year, classrooms across New Mexico can access any of the virtual field trips for free.
The Spaceport America field trips will continue to be offered free to all New Mexico schools for the foreseeable future, according to Tammara Anderton, the spaceports director of marketing.
We wanted to make Spaceport America accessible to all kids in New Mexico, because their parents paid for it, Anderton told the Sun-News. And weve already seen that, for many of the states more remote schools that are cash-strapped, its nearly impossible for them to take a field trip to see the spaceport.
Spaceport America, in southern Sierra County, was built at a taxpayer-funded expense of roughly $218.5 million.
Anderton said the spaceport plans to provide a variety of virtual field trips, describing them as building blocks. The early field trips will explain the spaceport, its purpose and its role in democratizing space through commercial space flight, Anderton explained. Students will get a behind-the-scenes look at spaceport operations. Well help them to understand what it takes to run a spaceport. Its not just rocket scientists, she said.
Jo Galvan, spokeswoman for Las Cruces Public Schools, said the free, virtual field trips will help offset some of the districts budget shortfalls this year.
This will really help supplement the educational opportunities were able to provide students this year, Galvan said. Were in a spending freeze. And student instruction which includes field trips would be among the last places we would try to cut. But, when every expense is being closely scrutinized, this is a great tool and opportunity to allow kids to see something they might not otherwise be able to experience.
Daniel Hicks, chief executive officer of Spaceport America, said he hopes the partnership makes the spaceport more accessible to students.
New Mexicos Native American students have seen no significant gains in math and reading scores over the past decade, in most cases, and their performance remains well below the national average for Native youths, according to new research from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The recently released National Indian Education Study shows the difference is most dramatic for fourth-grade reading: Native American children in the Land of Enchantment were 20 points behind their peers.
It is not a cliff between the two, but it is a significant difference, said Jamie Deaton, a National Center for Education Statistics statistician. I and others certainly want to see that come up.
In addition, Native American student scores across the nation were relatively flat, statistically, during the study period, 2005 to 2015. New Mexico is up a point or two on a number of the tests, but not enough to make a dramatic dent in the achievement gap.
It is stagnant, Deaton said. We havent seen much movement from year to year.
The study examined fourth- and eighth-grade performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a standardized test administered by the U.S. Department of Education. It was conducted every two years from 2005 through 2011 and then every four years.
NCES researchers provided detailed comparisons across states with high concentrations of Native American students: Alaska, Arizona, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
New Mexico is generally near the bottom of the pack, while Oklahoma consistently comes out on top.
The Land of Enchantment is in particularly dire straits because every ethnic group has low NAEP scores. And New Mexicos Native American students are notably below their Hispanic or Caucasian peers; in other words, the bottom of the bottom.
For instance, only 10 percent of the states Native American kids met proficiency benchmarks for fourth-grade reading in 2015, compared with 17 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of Caucasians.
The gap is similar across the other NAEP exams.
In an emailed statement, New Mexico Education Secretary Hanna Skandera acknowledged that there is a lot of room for academic growth and achievement for our American Indian students.
She highlighted a handful of relatively successful districts: Farmington, Gallup, and Los Lunas posted strong math and reading growth and proficiency among Native American students.
As an education community we have a responsibility to learn from the districts that are making progress with our American Indian students, and to ensure that best practices are being scaled across New Mexico, Skandera said. Only then will New Mexico make dramatic progress on NAEP, our nations report card.
For Daisy Thompson, Albuquerque Public Schools Indian education director, the negative statistics arent news.
Weve been told that for years youre the lowest this and the lowest that, Thompson said. I agree with that data, but the question is what are they doing to help us?
Not all bad
One bright spot for New Mexico: Students have unusually good access to Native American language classes and culturally sensitive coursework, according to a survey administered as part of the NCES study.
APS, for instance, offers Navajo and Zuni, and it is working to add more.
Thompson said this kind of education can be life-changing for Native American youths.
She related the story of a teen who was on the wrong path until he took a Zuni language class at his high school. Now the boy is learning from Pueblo elders and taking part in sacred ceremonies.
Many of the urban kids have lost a connection to who they are, Thompson said. We really see self-confidence through identity.
Skandera also touted students exposure to traditional oral and written languages, history, music, dance, tribal or village government, and current events.
We must build upon this momentum, while continuing to highlight areas for statewide growth, to ensure that every child is college and career ready and can choose his or her life path, she said.
Bethany Lutheran Videos at Each Live Worship Service
Such is the contrast between the Bible of the old and the Bible of the new theologies. That there are compromise systems between the twoor at any rate attempts at a compromise is certainly true; but it is impossible to effect a compromise between systems fundamentally and essentially at variance. This is a case of either or, Delitzsch was right when he maintained that a deep chasm existed between the old and the new theology, and this chasm exists because there is a chasm between the Bible of the old and the Bible of the new theologies. In one word, the Scriptures of the one is the Bible without God; the Scriptures of the other is the Bible of and with God.
The Bible Of The Old And The Bible Of The New Theology. By Rev. Professor George H. Schodde, Ph. D., Columbus, O. in Loy, ed. The Columbus Theological Magazine. Vol. 18, 1898. LutheranLibrary.org
Albuquerque Public Schools is applying for a grant to study Native American students learning styles and develop new policies that boost performance.
The plan comes shortly after Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed legislation that would have amended the Indian Education Act to require similar efforts in 23 school districts with high Native American populations.
According to an APS proposal abstract, the district hopes to win a $50,000 award to fund a team of teacher-researchers who would spend 16 months investigating Native American students family and community spaces, cultural practices and daily out-of-school experiences in addition to classroom environments.
We aim to interrogate biases about what children can and cannot accomplish, the document states.
Later this month, APS will submit the grant to the Spencer Foundation, a Chicago nonprofit organization that supports education.
Daisy Thompson, APS Indian education director, said the goal is to explore new ways to motivate Native American students in the classroom.
If we can get this funded, it is going to impact not only our kids and our instruction, but all Native kids across the nation, Thompson said.
There is a dire need for strategies to boost Native American students performance.
In New Mexico home to about 35,000 Native American kids only 27 percent are proficient in reading, 10 percent in math and 22 percent in science.
Nationwide, Native youth have the lowest test scores, graduation rates and attendance of any ethnic group.
Thompson said she supported House Bill 484 sponsored by Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo as way to put the issue front and center.
But Martinez vetoed the bill, calling it an unfunded mandate that would burden districts.
While I support the bills attempt to assist districts in tailoring our states Indian Education Act to serve their individual needs, it would be irresponsible to require that they do so at such a high cost to themselves, Martinez said in her veto message. Schools that are truly committed to serving their students and community already take steps to support their students as they strive to reach their potential.
Lente has promised to bring back the legislation next year.
In an emailed statement, he said the governor did a disservice to Native students across our State.
Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairwoman Debra Haaland, the first Native American to chair a major state party, echoed that view.
Representative Lentes bill would have invested in the education of our young people to guarantee a bright future for New Mexico, she said. When Native American students see success, they will be able to create jobs, improve our communities, and lead as an example for future generations.
WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps national security adviser is calling on Russia to re-evaluate its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, leaving open the possibility of additional U.S. military action against Syria.
In his first televised interview, H.R. McMaster pointed to dual U.S. goals of defeating the Islamic State group and removing Assad from power. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was making the Trump administrations first official trip this week to Russia, McMaster said Russia will have to decide whether it wanted to continue backing a murderous regime. Trump is weighing next steps after ordering airstrikes last week.
Its very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime, McMaster said on Fox News Sunday.
Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?
He said Russia should also be asked how it didnt know that Syria was planning a chemical attack since it had advisers at the Syrian airfield.
Right now, I think everyone in the world sees Russia as part of the problem, McMaster said.
After last Tuesdays chemical attack in Syria, Trump said his attitude toward Assad has changed very much and Tillerson said steps are underway to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
But as lawmakers called on Trump to consult with Congress, Trump administration officials sent mixed signals on the scope of future U.S. involvement. While Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, described regime change in Syria as a U.S. priority and inevitable, Tillerson suggested that last weeks American airstrikes in retaliation for the chemical attack hadnt really changed U.S. priorities toward ousting Assad.
Pressed to clarify, McMaster said the goals of fighting IS and ousting Syrias president were somewhat simultaneous and that the objective of the missile strike was to send a strong political message to Assad to stop using chemical weapons. He did not rule out additional strikes if Assad continued to engage in atrocities against rebel forces with either chemical or conventional weapons.
We are prepared to do more, he said. The president will make whatever decision he thinks is in the best interest of the American people.
Reluctant to put significant troops on the ground in Syria, the U.S. for years has struggled to prevent Assad from strengthening his hold on power.
U.S.-backed rebels groups have long pleaded for more U.S. intervention and complained that Washington has only fought the Islamic State group. So Trumps decision to launch the strikes an action President Barack Obama declined to take after a 2013 chemical attack has raised optimism among rebels that Trump will more directly confront Assad.
Several lawmakers said Sunday that decision shouldnt entirely be up to Trump.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, praised Trumps initial missile strike for sending a message to Assad, Russia, Iran and North Korea that theres a new administration in charge. But he said Trump now needed to work with Congress to set a future course.
Congress needs to work with the president to try and deal with this long-term strategy, lack of strategy, really, in Syria, he said. We havent had one for six years during the Obama administration, and 400,000 civilians have died and millions of people have been displaced internally and externally in Europe and elsewhere.
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, agreed. What we saw was a reaction to the use of chemical weapons, something I think many of us supported, he said. But what we did not see is a coherent policy on how were going to deal with the civil war and also deal with ISIS.
Still, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he believed that Trump didnt need to consult with Congress.
I think the president has authorization to use force, he said. Assad signed the chemical weapons treaty ban. Theres an agreement with him not to use chemical weapons.
Their comments came as Tillerson planned to meet with Russian officials. Russia had its own military personnel at the Syrian military airport that the U.S. struck with cruise missiles. But in interviews broadcast Sunday, Tillerson said he sees no reason for retaliation from Moscow because Russia wasnt targeted.
We do not have any information that suggests that Russia was part of the military attack undertaken using the chemical weapons, Tillerson said. Earlier, U.S. military officials had said they were looking into whether Russia participated, possibly by using a drone to help eliminate evidence afterward.
Tillerson said defeating the Islamic State group remains the top focus. Once that threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria, he said.
Were hopeful that we can prevent a continuation of the civil war and that we can bring the parties to the table to begin the process of political discussions between the Assad government and various rebel groups, he said.
Haley said getting Assad out is not the only priority and that countering Irans influence in Syria was another. Still, Haley said the U.S. didnt see a peaceful future for Syria with Assad in power.
McMaster, Cornyn and Cardin spoke on Fox News Sunday, Tillerson appeared on ABCs This Week and CBS Face the Nation, Haley and Graham were on NBCs Meet the Press and Haley also appeared on CNNs State of the Union.
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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
LUCCA, Italy Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations met Monday to try to forge a common response to the deadly chemical attack in Syria, with new sanctions against Russian backers of President Bashar Assad one of the options on the table.
G-7 diplomats sitting down for talks in the centuries-old Ducal Palace in Lucca, Italy, hope to use outrage over the attack and wide international support for the United States retaliatory missile strikes to push Russia to abandon Assad and join a new peace effort for Syria.
Members of the group also hope to gain a sense from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of President Donald Trumps next steps and foreign-policy goals.
Speaking after meeting with Tillerson, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said ministers will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions, certainly, on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures.
He said Russia had a choice: to continue backing the toxic Assad regime, or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution.
Last weeks nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred Trump who was previously cool to the idea of U.S. intervention to strike for the first time at Assads forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched.
The U.S. strikes drew support from other Western leaders who have been uncertain what to make of Trumps foreign policy. Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said Sunday that Europes broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a renewed harmony between the United States and its partners.
In a gesture weighted with symbolism, Tillerson visited the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy on Monday. He said the United States was rededicating itself to hold to account any and all who commit crimes against innocent people.
Tillerson accompanied Alfano to SantaAnna di Stazzema, where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed in 1944.
The two-day G-7 meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca is bringing together the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, Japan and Canada, the U.S. and current G-7 president Italy, as well as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Ahead of the full meeting, Tillerson held bilateral talks with G-7 counterparts including Britains Johnson, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Kishida said that Japan supports the U.S. commitment in trying to take responsibility to prevent spread and use of chemical weapons and we confirmed Japan and the U.S. will continue to work together (in that effort).
Tillerson also spoke by phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose government insists Assad should play no role in Syrias future.
The G-7 meeting comes as the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula in a show of strength following North Koreas persistent ballistic missile tests.
It is also taking place amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.
Syria, though, topped the agenda.
The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which backs Assad diplomatically and militarily and denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
Russia planned to put forward a proposal on Monday for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, calling it a good and important sign.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose government is another backer of Assads, also called for an independent inquiry under U.N. auspices when he spoke Monday to Alfano, Italys foreign ministry said in a statement.
The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria, but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia, whose relations with the West have been on a downward spiral for several years.
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The flipside of the talk about sanctions from Johnson and other diplomats is an implicit promise that Moscow could be allowed to rejoin the G-8, if it drops its support for Assad.
I think the Russians need a way out and a way forward, Johnson said.
The British foreign secretary had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow before the G-7 meeting. Johnson canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had changed the situation fundamentally.
His decision drew taunts from opponents that Johnson was a poodle of the Americans who had been told to stay home so he would not upstage Tillerson.
But Johnson said Monday that it is the Americans who have changed the game by using those cruise missiles, and it was right for the rest of the G-7 unite behind Tillerson.
Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares the determination of allies such as Britain that Assad must be removed from power.
After the April 4 chemical attack, Trump said his attitude toward Assad has changed very much and Tillerson said steps are underway to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
However, Tillerson said in television interviews that aired Sunday that the top U.S. priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Among European nations, there are also differences. While Britain stressed pressure on Russia and removing Assad, Germanys Gabriel emphasized that Russia and Iran must be part of the peace process for Syria.
Now is the right moment to talk about how we can push for a peace process in Syria within the international community with Russia, with Iran, with Saudi Arabia, with Europe, with the United States, he said as he arrived. To prevent military violence to escalate on and on, its all about this.
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Colleen Barry in Milan and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
LAS CRUCES Some familiar faces are joining together to put on events in Downtown Las Cruces.
The Downtown Las Cruces Partnership and the Project MainStreet Committee have merged. The result is a new division of DLCP called DLCP Events, which will plan and present major downtown gatherings including Salsa Fest, the annual Zombie Walk and the Las Cruces Chile Drop on New Years Eve.
Project Main Street, which began three years ago with around a dozen events, has grown, producing 25 events last year. They operated with support from the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico, an arrangement that ended at the beginning of 2017 due to budget constraints. By aligning with DLCP, they will be able to enjoy full nonprofit status when seeking sponsors and will not have to deal with some of the logistical challenges of hosting events, such as event insurance and city permits.
For a small committee they really brought a lot of attention to downtown and had great events, said DLCP Executive Director Arianna Parsons. But that was all done with volunteer work and on a shoestring budget. Its time for that to evolve and take those events to the next level.
It is two organizations realizing they have a similar goal in mind, the revitalization of downtown and bringing vibrancy downtown, she added. We will be a lot stronger and share resources. Project MainStreet has a lot of the events know-how and processes in place. Downtown Las Cruces Partnershp has a little bit larger reach, event insurance, physical locations, donor databases, things of that nature really the infrastructure that will make their job so much easier.
We are finding ourselves in a moment of opportunity where DLCP naturally flows with elements of economic development and where Project MainStreet flows with elements of quality of life, said Russ Smith, the previous chairman of Project MainStreet. Bringing those two together in one house under the Downtown Las Cruces Partnership is an efficiency that we have thought of in the past and are taking advantage of now.
The merger will see Smith, who is on the board of Film Las Cruces and owner of Happy Dog Foods, and Janet Beatty-Payne, owner of the Green Chile Paddy Wagon and president of the Las Cruces Community Theater, both working in conjunction with DLCP. The duo has been responsible for marketing and logistics, respectively, with Project MainStreet. They will be paid under contract by the partnership based on the scope and budget of the events produced.
Both Smith and Beatty-Payne agree the arrangement will allow them to concentrate on building the downtowns signature events, including the Aug. 19 Salsa Fest, the Oct. 21 Zombie Walk and the Dec. 31 Chile Drop.
Those events have to be well put-together, Beatty-Payne said. For as large as the events are getting, we thought we need to partner with a group that is well established. Downtown Las Cruces Partnership really brings that to the table building up downtown and bringing people downtown.
DLCP Events will also produce other family-friendly events to draw crowds to the citys center. The group has been responsible for the successful Kids Night Out and will continue working with the Food Truck Fiestas that center around the Plaza de Las Cruces. Other events will be considered as they arise.
There are a lot of other cool things that can happen downtown, but they take a lot of coordination and money, Beatty-Payne said.
The experience gained by the Project MainStreet volunteers in the past three years, combined with the elimination of the need for them to manage administrative details will allow for the expansion of the signature events, Smith said.
Our efficiencies for placing an event on the ground and putting it out there for the public, we are good at it. We pay attention to it. We like doing it, Smith said. On the other hand, the Downtown Las Cruces Partnership, with their overarching economic development initiatives, has no time to pay attention to those critical moments. So, as we bring our ambition for events to DLCP, which is then not encumbered by the process of planning and execution, they are embracing it. The community that wants these activities embraces it. So the coupling of DLCP and Project MainStreet under these conditions is timely and well-received.
The merger comes at a time when event space is finally completed in the plaza and the city is beginning to define its character through the annual events, Beatty-Payne said.
We get to see the beautiful things happen downtown like Zombie Walk and the Chile Drop that are really good for our community, she said. They are building our identity. We have cool things happening downtown and we have a cool place to have them.
Jason Gibbs may be reached at 575-541-5451, jgibbs@lcsun-news.com or @fjgwriter on Twitter.
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2017 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)
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LOVELAND, Colo. Cash is a different sort of hunting dog. Hes on the hunt for poachers and endangered species, using his specially trained nose to help Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Wildlife Manager Brock McArdle.
One of two nationally certified wildlife law enforcement dogs on the beat with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Cash is part of a pilot program to show how dogs can help sniff out poachers, evidence and the territory of certain species of concern.
Hes got a good nose, said McArdle, who is assigned to the Red Feather District in northern Larimer County.
Dogs as wildlife officers are not as widespread as canine cops on a traditional law enforcement beat, but they are working in the natural resources capacity in more than 24 states, including Kansas, Indiana, Idaho and California. The Colorado pilot program started with one dog, Sci, in the Colorado Springs area within the last year, and Cash joined McArdle in Larimer County earlier this year.
Its gaining steam, said McArdle. The whole purpose of this pilot program is to show the benefits of these dogs.
So far, the pilot program is completely funded by donations and grants. Bear Point Kennels donated Cash, and his $8,000 in equipment and training were covered by a series of grants from Great Outdoors Colorado, the Mule Deer Foundation, Rocky Mountain Big Horn Society, Colorado Bowhunters Association, Northern Colorado Pheasants Forever and Operation Game Thief.
Also, an internet donation site is set up to help pay for food and medical expenses for both Cash and Sci, anticipated to be about $1,500 per year per dog.
Cash is trained to sniff out the scents of 11 commonly hunted species including moose, deer, waterfowl and pronghorn. This skill will help McArdle and other officers find evidence and traces of illegally killed animals during poaching investigations.
Cash could help lead officers to evidence, or during checkpoints held in hunting season, he could provide officers with probable cause to search a vehicle.
This particular dog, too, is trained to smell the black-footed ferret and the boreal toad, which are species of concern in Colorado. He can help biologists in the field as they survey locations to see how these species are faring in their habitat or in areas they have been introduced.
Cashs nose can pinpoint where biologists should look, replacing teams of people simply following a grid in hopes of spotting a species.
So this black Labrador, who is about a year old, is part criminalist, part scientist and part ambassador.
McArdle will take him into the community for presentations with children and other groups to spread education and awareness about wildlife and the importance of stewardship. Though hes been on the job for only a short time, Cash has already made an appearance at a youth hunting event.
Cash, too, may serve as a deterrent to poachers and other criminals, McArdle added.
Cash is nationally certified, so he can work in any state, and though the team is based in Northern Colorado, McArdle anticipates helping out when needed statewide and maybe even north into Wyoming.
He hopes that as Cash and Sci (who is dually trained as a wildlife dog as well as a traditional law enforcement dog who can help with arrests) show their skills, Colorado Parks and Wildlife will grow the program.
But for now, the two will remain on the beat, helping with the protection and management of wildlife.
And the hope is that Cash, like his namesake, may leave a legacy.
Hes the dog in black, said McArdle. You know, like Johnny Cash, the man in black.
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Information from: Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald, http://www.reporterherald.com/
Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, was trying to be funny. Its the only explanation.
Otherwise, were left to assume that Hensarling was being the worlds biggest corporate shill and hypocrite when he accused the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of abusing his authority.
In a contentious hearing last week that bordered on outright abuse, Hensarling told CFPB Director Richard Cordray that the president is clearly justified in dismissing you and I call upon the president yet again to do just that, and to do it immediately.
American consumers need competitive markets and a cop on the beat to protect them from fraud and deception, he snarled. They dont need Washington elites trampling on their freedom of choice and picking their financial products for them.
Make no mistake: Hensarling doesnt give a damn about American consumers, and he sure as hell isnt pushing for a cop on the beat to keep banks in line. What he wants is to liberate his deep-pocketed corporate patrons from regulatory oversight thats resulted in billions of dollars being reimbursed to customers.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Hensarling has been raking in cash from the financial sector since he was first elected to Congress in 2002.
The top single donor to his campaign efforts over the years is JPMorgan Chase, which has contributed $106,686. The second-biggest donor is Bank of America, which has given $86,250.
Hensarlings third-biggest donor is the rest of the banking industry in the form of the American Bankers Association, which has given him $85,300.
On an industry basis, hes received $1.3 million from commercial banks, $1.4 million from securities and investment firms, $1.4 million from insurers and $703,304 from finance and credit companies.
And this is a guy with consumers best financial interests at heart?
Jeb Hensarling has a long, long list of contributions from banks and Wall Street firms, Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League, told me. He and his committee have set their sights on the CFPB because the CFPB has been so successful at protecting consumers from being ripped off.
Since it opened for business in 2011, the bureau says it has recovered about $12 billion fleeced from consumers via illegal and questionable financial practices. It has overseen a revamping of mortgage rules, proposed new regulations for payday lenders and held dozens of firms accountable for fiscal misdeeds.
I contacted the Financial Services Committee and said that a consumer advocate had suggested that Hensarling might be influenced by his industry ties. I asked if theyd like to respond.
Sarah Rozier, a committee spokeswoman, first wanted me to name the consumer advocate, although why that should matter was a mystery. All she had to do was say, no, Hensarling isnt influenced by the millions of dollars hes received from financial firms.
So I passed along Greenbergs name and, an hour later, Rozier sent an email dismissing Greenbergs organization as a liberal group backed by labor unions.
Instead of explicitly denying that Hensarling is influenced by the money he gets from financial firms, Rozier said, Chairman Hensarling led the fight against the Wall Street bailout in Congress. She also said that legislation proposed by Hensarling would impose the toughest penalties in history for those who commit fraud and insider trading.
Um, OK.
Hensarling and his Republican colleagues, in their first face-to-face encounter with Cordray since the November election, spent nearly five hours Wednesday treating the CFPB chief like a pinata.
The tone was set early when Hensarling said he was surprised that Cordray had shown up, even though the CFPB director is required to do so twice a year when the House Financial Services Committee requests his presence, which it did.
In his next breath, Hensarling told Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, that hed half-expected him to be in his home state running for governor, which he isnt. Perhaps the rumors of your political aspirations are greatly exaggerated, Hensarling said.
Republicans feel that Cordray has too much power and acts with impunity. Theyre emboldened by a recent court ruling that declared the CFPBs leadership structure unconstitutional. However, that decision will be revisited by the U.S. Court of Appeals.
This tyranny must end, Hensarling said at Wednesdays hearing, reaching deep into his muddy bucket of hyperbole.
He and other Republicans want to replace the bureaus single director with a more easily influenced committee, and want to control the CFPBs budget, which of course would make it vulnerable to industry lobbying.
After the Republicans had taken turns getting in their licks, frequently denying Cordray a chance to respond, Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., said, Boy, they really hate you, dont they?
Cordray replied that its part of the game.
Its not a game. If the CFPB were derelict in its mission of consumer protection, lawmakers would have every right to demand changes. But the bureaus track record is one of unqualified success much to the consternation of big-money banks and financial firms.
Chairman Hensarling is furious at the CFPB because its working, protecting consumers and holding banks and lenders accountable for their actions, said Christine Hines, legislative director for the National Association of Consumer Advocates. Hes made it clear that his leadership on the Financial Services Committee is strictly for the industrys benefit.
Of all House members running for re-election last year, Hensarling was the second-largest recipient of contributions from commercial banks ($274,900), topped only by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., ($344,399), the Center for Responsive Politics found.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., seemed to put his finger on things when he told Cordray that last weeks hearing was little more than political theater.
Its not really about any of this stuff, he said. Its about the CFPB diverting money to the pockets of working Americans and not financial interests.
You can take that to the bank.
ABOUT THE WRITER
David Lazarus, a Los Angeles Times columnist, writes on consumer issues. He can be reached at david.lazarus@latimes.com.
2017 Los Angeles Times
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LAS VEGAS An Idaho man whose photo as an armed protester in Nevada was seen around the world was the only one of six defendants to testify before the defenses rested Monday in the first trial stemming from a 2014 standoff involving cattleman and states rights advocate Cliven Bundy.
Eric Parker was asked during cross-examination about his Facebook post during the confrontation saying that protesters planned to free Bundy cattle by any means. He was also asked about his comments after the standoff ended in an interview recorded by a man with cellphone video on a freeway overpass near Bunkerville.
You said this could have potentially turned violent? prosecutor Nicholas Dickinson asked.
Absolutely, Parker answered.
In the video, he gave his name as Eric from Idaho, and he was still holding the AK-47 style rifle and wearing his ballistic vest with two spare clips of bullets for his handgun.
Minutes earlier, flag-waving riders on horseback and more than 100 unarmed protesters including women and children faced off with about 30 heavily armed federal agents near a gate of a corral in a dry riverbed beneath the highway bridge.
Parker, now 33, was famously photographed prone on the pavement, looking with his rifle through a seam in a concrete freeway barrier toward the federal agents in the U-shaped wash below.
The crowd demanded the release of cows rounded up in the Gold Butte area about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Parker testified he remembered the wind carrying the words lethal force, will be shot, amid muffled warnings from loudspeakers used by agents to warn protesters not to take another step.
Parkers defense attorney, Jess Marchese, asked during direct questioning how Parker interpreted calls by Cliven Bundy for a range war to stop federal agents from confiscating his cattle.
Did you want to start a shooting war? Marchese asked.
No sir, Parker answered.
Defendants Gregory Burleson of Arizona, Richard Lovelien of Oklahoma, Idaho residents Todd Engel, Scott Drexler and Steven Stewart told Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro they decided not to testify.
The judge gave both sides until Tuesday to prepare for closing arguments Wednesday in the trial that opened Feb. 9.
Defense attorneys are expected to argue the government didnt prove conspiracy, weapon, assault on a federal agent and other charges that could, combined, get each up to 101 years in federal prison.
In another development, Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre asked in court filings for the judge to schedule jury selection to start June 5 or later for the trial of Cliven Bundy, sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and two other defendants who prosecutors characterize as leaders of a conspiracy to defy court orders to get Bundy cattle off public land.
Trial for another six defendants would follow in the fall. Myhre said in documents the government might call up to 60 witnesses in the next trial.
That could take much longer than the two months spent presenting nearly 40 prosecution witnesses against the six men accused of being gunmen and followers in the confrontation.
Parker said he arrived in Bunkerville with Drexler and Stewart before dawn the day of the standoff, didnt know Bundy family members personally, and headed back to Idaho before dark.
In one exchange, prosecutor Nicholas Dickinson asked Parker about his comment during his interview on the overpass about needing to keep matching the show of force against federal authorities.
Just like Cliven Bundy told you to do, correct? Dickinson asked.
Nobody told us to do anything, sir, Parker answered.
After the success of nimble companies like as rocket- and capsule-maker SpaceX and Earth-imaging firm Planet, investors are starting to see aerospace startups as viable ventures. But its still unclear whether these young firms can work with big, established players such as Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., or deliver the kind of quick returns that some investors expect.
Last month, a few of aerospace startups gathered in El Segundo, Calif., to pitch their ideas to a room of investors and space aficionados at an event co-hosted by Aerospace Corp. and incubator Starburst Accelerator.
Some startups said large aerospace companies or investors expressed interest in their proposals; those talks are in early stages.
For successful space entrepreneurs with good ideas, there is more and more money, said Francois Chopard, chief executive of Paris-based Starburst Accelerator. In the year since its founding, the incubator has worked with more than 150 startups and hosted events in cities such as Berlin, Montreal and Seattle. Starburst Accelerator also has a consulting arm, a venture fund and offices in Los Angeles, Singapore and Munich, Germany.
In one month, college friends Deepak Atyam and Alex Finch will graduate from Purdue University armed with masters degrees in aerospace engineering and ready to change the dynamics of building rocket engines.
The two are co-founders of Tri-D Dynamics, a Cerritos startup that has developed technology and processes that improve on advanced 3-D printing methods for metalworking. Tri-D Dynamics plans to use them to churn out rocket engines of any size in a kind of automated assembly-line process to possibly shave months from the usual production process.
As a University of California, San Diego, undergraduate, Atyam led a student group in developing a 3-D printed rocket engine. Its test firing in the Mojave Desert was financed with money from NASA and $2,000 the group made by selling barbecued chicken. Two years later, Atyam and Finch followed that up with a test-firing of a second-generation engine that was about three times larger, with greater thrust.
The four-person firm already has a contract to produce a rocket engine by early 2018 for a small-satellite launch vehicle company it declined to name. And it has letters of intent from several small companies. Atyam and Finch estimate they have invested a total of $25,000 of their own money in Tri-D Dynamics. Theyre looking for a $1 million seed round this year.
Its really important to find the right investor who knows exactly what to expect and whats needed to go into creating the products and services necessary to serve this industry, Finch said. That payoff is going to come, but it may not be the two to three years they may have expected from an app or a software company.
Scott Montgomerie knew his startup was on to something when large crowds gathered to watch a demonstration of its augmented reality training program at a 2012 mining industry conference.
The Scope AR team showed how a worker wearing special glasses could watch computer-generated animations overlaid on a real-world mining truck fuse box to learn how to make repairs.
But when the San Francisco firm started looking for funding in 2015, it was a tough sell since augmented reality wasnt yet a mainstream concept, said Montgomerie, the companys chief executive.
That year, Scope AR was accepted into Silicon Valley tech incubator Y Combinator and later raised $2 million in a seed funding round.
The companys two technological platforms one for remote assistance and another that enables companies to make smart instructions for assembly workers have been used by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, NASA and Boeing.
Scope ARs technology helps assembly-floor technicians avoid paper instructions by using a more interactive approach. Workers can use a tablet, phone or specialized glasses to see 3-D animations superimposed on real-world parts or vehicles that explain assembly or repair steps.
Were seeing some real value in terms of business applications, Montgomerie said. People see the future.
Seven years from now, Firmamentum hopes to operate 27 cellphone towers in space that would beam cheaper broadband Internet service directly to consumers smartphones.
The company plans to manufacture its satellite antennas in space using technology similar to 3-D printing. Several antennas would be attached robotically to a satellite to increase the amount of data it could transmit for customers, company CEO Rob Hoyt said.
Currently, large space antennas are built on the ground and designed to fold up like giant umbrellas to fit inside a rocket. Firmamentums antennas which would look like bigger versions of earthbound satellite dishes wont be limited by the rockets cargo space. And its process could eventually allow for mass, low-cost antenna production in space a technology that could be sold to satellite makers, Hoyt said.
The idea gained more traction around 2008 after 3-D printing became more popular in the consumer market, he said. From there, the company figured the technology could be used to make large antennas for a widespread broadband service.
Firmamentum was created about two years ago as a division of Tethers Unlimited, a Bothell, Wash., company thats been making satellite components for 23 years.
So far, Firmamentums funding has come mostly from government research and development contracts such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. Venture capitalists and other possible investors, however, are holding back for now, convinced the company is too early in the production process to seek funding, Hoyt said.
The timeline for getting new technologies developed, proven and on the market in the space industry is much longer than in many other industries, he said. Hopefully at some point the risk-benefit story will make sense for them to work with us.
When Peter Beck arrived in Silicon Valley in 2013, he gave himself three weeks to secure funding for his small-satellite launch vehicle startup, Rocket Lab.
Instead of blanketing area investors with meeting requests, the New Zealand native focused on a select few venture capital firms that were knowledgeable about space. The decision paid off. Rocket Lab secured A-round funding from Khosla Ventures, a firm that previously had invested in Skybox Imaging, which launched small satellites to capture images of Earth.
Since then, the Huntington Beach company has raised $148 million, including a $75 million Series D round led by venture capital fund Data Collective. (Rocket Lab did not attend the El Segundo pitch event.)
Rocket Lab plans to give small satellites a dedicated ride to space, unlike the usual method of piggybacking on launches with larger satellites. That gives customers a more precise launch window and an ability to position the satellite more precisely. The firm has completed construction of its launch pad in New Zealand.
The first test flight of Rocket Labs Electron rocket is planned for sometime in the next couple of months. Rocket Lab has contracts with NASA and Planet to launch small satellites.
Beck said space is on the tipping point of being a more commercial domain, meaning his pitches to investors boil down to the impending normality of conducting business in orbit.
The way I describe Rocket Lab to investors is, yes, theres fire and theres rockets, he said. But at the end of the day, were a glorified freight company.
2017 Los Angeles Times
Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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U.S. Border Patrol agents shot a man Sunday at an I-25 checkpoint after he allegedly fired a handgun while being questioned, the agency said.
Hundreds of vehicles cross the internal Border Patrol checkpoint between Las Cruces and Hatch every day. Agents typically ask drivers whether they are U.S. citizens; when a vehicle or driver arouses suspicions, agents may send the vehicle to a secondary inspection.
Around 6: 15 p.m. on Sunday, a man drove his vehicle up to the checkpoint and was directed to a secondary inspection.
According to Border Patrol, the man pulled a handgun on agents as he was being questioned and fired one shot through the vehicle toward the agents. Agents returned fire at the driver, Border Patrol said in a statement.
Agents secured the scene and initiated first aid.
The man was air lifted and transported to a local hospital. Border Patrol reported the man was receiving medical care on Monday but did not update his condition.
A spokesman declined to provide additional information on other aspects of the encounter.
U.S. Customs and Border Protections Office of Professional Responsibility, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New Mexico State authorities, are investigating the incident.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. A man walked into his estranged wifes elementary school classroom in San Bernardino and opened fire without saying a word, killing her and an 8-year-old student before shooting himself in a murder-suicide that spread panic across a city still recovering emotionally from a terror attack just 15 months ago.
A 9-year-old student also was critically wounded. He and the boy who died were behind their special-education teacher, Karen Elaine Smith, 53, the target of the man she had married months earlier, police said.
The shooting left hundreds of distraught parents waiting for hours to reunite with their children.
Staffers knew Cedric Anderson, who had been estranged from his wife for about a month, and he got into the school by saying he had to drop something off for Smith, officials said.
No one has come forward to say they saw this coming, police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters.
Anderson had a history of weapons, domestic violence and possible drug charges that predated the short marriage, authorities said.
He frequently wrote social media posts about his wife over the past month. On what appeared to be his Facebook page, Anderson said he loved being married to Karen Smith-Anderson! and posted a photo of the two of them on March 4 in what he described as a date night. He posted several photos of his wedding to Smith early this year and their honeymoon in Sedona, Arizona.
Smiths mother, Irma Sykes, said her daughter had been friends with Anderson for about four years before they got married.
She thought she had a wonderful husband, but she found out he was not wonderful at all, Sykes told the Los Angeles Times. He had other motives, Sykes said. She left him and thats where the trouble began. She broke up with him and he came out with a different personality. She decided she needed to leave him. She did not elaborate further.
Sykes said her daughter was a dedicated teacher who took up the profession about 10 years ago after her four children grew up.
Fifteen students ranging from first to fourth grade were in the special-education classroom at North Park Elementary School, along with two adult aides and Smith, when Anderson emptied a large-caliber revolver and reloaded. Then, he turned the gun on himself.
Marissa Perez, age 9, was in the classroom hiding under a table.
A boy just walked in with a gun, she said shortly after she and her mother, Elizabeth Barajas, were reunited. The two cried, hugged and trembled. Barajas held the sweater her daughter had been wearing. It was speckled with blood.
He just shot everywhere, Marissa said. My friend and my teacher. They got shot.
Jonathan Martinez, the 8-year-old, was airlifted to a hospital and died soon after arriving, Burguan said. The 9-year-old boy, whose name was not released, has been stabilized at a hospital.
The 600 other students at the school were bused to safety at California State Universitys San Bernardino campus, several miles away, after many walked off campus hand-in-hand, escorted by police.
Panicked parents had to wait hours before being reunited with them at a nearby high school.
Holly Penalber, whose 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter attend the school, called it every parents worst nightmare. She said the long wait was frustrating but also understandable.
When the buses first pulled away from the elementary school, some parents ran alongside, waving and trying to recognize their children inside. Many said their children were too young to have cellphones. Others said the phones rang unanswered.
When students got to the high school, many carrying glow sticks they had been given to pass the time, they got hugs from emotional parents, many in tears. Police officers applauded and high-fived them.
Alberta Terrell said she cried with relief when she was told that a family friend saw her 9-year-old granddaughter getting safely onto a bus.
I was really elated. But I wont be truly happy until I see her and can give her a big hug, Terrell said as she sat in the bleachers near Cajon High Schools baseball diamond, waiting for her granddaughter to arrive.
San Bernardino, a city of 216,000 people about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, was the site of a December 2015 terror attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a meeting of San Bernardino County employees. Husband-and-wife shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were later killed in a gunbattle with authorities.
Tragedy has again befallen our city, Police Lt. Mike Madden said Monday of a community that has struggled in recent years.
Once a major rail hub and citrus producer, San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after struggling to pay its employees despite steep cuts to the budget. It was hit hard by the great recession, seeing rises in unemployment and violent crime.
An overflow crowd gathered at sunset at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in San Bernardino to mourn and pray for the victims and survivors of Mondays shooting.
Sometimes all we can do is cry. And today is the day for that, Bishop Gerald R. Barnes told the gathering. Well get up again. Well move on. Well become stronger. But today is the day to cry.
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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Brian Melley, John Rogers, John Antczak, Amanda Lee Myers and Andrew Dalton contributed to this story.
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Follow Christopher Weber on Twitter at @webercm.
CHICAGO A 22-year-old man was killed and his father critically injured Sunday morning in Chicagos Burnside neighborhood after the pair shot each other during an argument over the family dog, according to Chicago police.
The shooting occurred around 8:20 a.m., police said.
The men, ages 43 and 22, fought over who was going to walk the dog, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote in a tweet. The two then shot at each other, Guglielmi said.
Both men were shot multiple times, police said. The son was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition, police said. He later was pronounced dead, according to a police media notification.
The father also was transported to Advocate Christ in critical condition.
Police recovered two weapons at the scene. Detectives are investigating.
U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce on Monday described the American missile strike against Syria as part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to address instability throughout the world.
His Democratic colleagues from New Mexico, meanwhile, said Trump must come back to Congress quickly with a plan to address Syria in the long term and to secure authorization for military action.
All three members of New Mexicos delegation to the U.S. House Republican Pearce, and Democrats Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Ray Lujan participated Monday in an hourlong panel discussion sponsored by the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.
Trumps action, Pearce said, was surely noticed by the president of China, an ally of North Korea, another potential trouble spot.
The newly elected president is exceptional about knowing how to raise the pressure in negotiations, Pearce said.
You leave a vacuum when you dont lead with strength and courage.
Lujan Grisham and Lujan, meanwhile, questioned Trumps legal authority to decide alone on military action.
Lujan, in fact, said Republican leaders in the U.S. House and Senate both controlled by the GOP should call Congress back to debate military action in Syria.
The country deserves that, he said. Our Constitution demands that.
Lujan Grisham said she expects Trump to come to Congress with a specific plan for Syria where the U.S. last week struck an air base, a response, the Trump administration said, to Syria using poison gas on its own people.
Its not a unilateral decision, Lujan Grisham said.
The luncheon took place at the Sheraton Albuquerque Airport Hotel. About 175 business and community leaders attended.
Lujan Grisham and Pearce, both potential candidates for governor next year, sat side by side on the stage. Kent Walz, senior editor of the Journal, moderated the discussion.
I didnt know if Id be invited because Im not running for governor, Lujan joked.
Lujan Grisham has announced her campaign to succeed Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. Pearce said last year that he would consider running.
Pearce and Lujan Grisham each spoke about a desire for bipartisan solutions to national and state problems. They were cordial, and neither singled the other out for harsh criticism.
On immigration, Lujan Grisham said the Trump administration had conducted raids that have sparked intense fear, and harmed New Mexico businesses and communities. She called the raids reckless and irresponsible.
Pearce, by contrast, said its critical to enforce the law against illegal border crossings. Immigration agents are simply going around and collecting the criminals, he said.
WASHINGTON Before the U.S. attack on a Syrian air base, President Donald Trump accused his predecessor of doing nothing when Syrias government used chemical weapons against its population in 2013. Trump is right that President Barack Obama issued what amounted to an empty threat of military action. The circumstances, though, were more complicated than Trump described.
A look at statements on a selection of subjects over the past week by Trump and lawmakers:
TRUMP: In a White House statement after what the Trump administration said was a bombing involving the nerve agent sarin in a rebel-held part of northern Syria: These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administrations weakness and irresolution. President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a red line against the use of chemical weapons, and then did nothing.
THE FACTS: Many in the foreign policy establishment essentially agree with Trump. Thats not to say he told the full story.
When evidence emerged in August 2013 of a large-scale chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs, more than 10 times deadlier than this past weeks, Obama quickly signaled his intention to use military force. But when key ally Britain wouldnt participate, Obama became uncomfortable about going it alone and sought Congress authorization. Lawmakers in both parties balked; he could not win enough support.
Indeed, when Obama had made his red line threat a year earlier, Trump himself tweeted: President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your powder for another (and more important) day!
Its also true, though, that Obama could have ordered a military strike without congressional authorization, as Trump did Thursday. Derek Chollet, Obamas assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, wrote in Politico last year that he was initially shocked when Obama decided to go to Congress, because it was clear the president had all the domestic legal authority and international justification he needed to act.
In the end, Obama turned to diplomacy when Russia offered him a way out. Their deal led the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, to own up to chemical weapons stocks and agreeing to have them removed, steps seen as breakthroughs at the time.
It wasnt nothing, as Trump claimed. But neither it did it remove Syrias chemical weapons threat. Assads forces are believed to have conducted a number of deadly chlorine attacks in the years since, with no international punishment. And as is now apparent, Obamas deal wasnt enough to spare Syrian civilians from a sarin-like nerve gas this past week.
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SEN. MITCH McCONNELL, Senate majority leader, on why he opposed Obamas proposal for U.S. military action against Syria in 2013 but supports what Trump did: Secretary (of State John) Kerry, I guess in order to reassure the left-leaning members of his own party, said it would sort of be like a pinprick. You know, really would not be of any great consequence. I dont know whether he had in mind knocking out a tent and a couple of camels or what. But Trumps strike was well-planned, well- executed, went right to the heart of the matter, which is using chemical weapons. So, had I seen that that kind of approach by President Obama, Im sure I wouldve signed up.
THE FACTS: What McConnell, R-Ky., said at the time was that Assads use of chemical weapons on his own people did not threaten the U.S. A vital national security risk is clearly not in play, he said then, responding to a far deadlier attack on civilians than the latest one.
McConnell told the Senate in September 2013 that Obamas planned action was detached from any strategy to end the Syrian civil war. McConnell said the planned intervention could be too limited to dissuade Assad from further use of chemical weapons or so broad that it could put those weapons in the hands of extremists, if Assad lost control. His concern not merely, or even principally, that intervention might amount to a pinprick.
At the time, McConnell was alone among the top Senate and House leaders from either party in opposing Obamas proposal. The senator was facing a primary challenge from a Republican who opposed intervening in Syria.
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TRUMP, speaking to CEOs at the White House about the nations unemployment rate: We have 100 million people if you look who want jobs and cant get them. You know, the real numbers not 4.6 percent one of the statistics that, to me, is just ridiculous. When you look for a job, you cant find it and you give up. You are now considered statistically employed.
THE FACTS: Hes wrong about federal jobs data. Theres no category that counts frustrated job-seekers as statistically employed.
And there arent 100 million of them.
When people give up looking for work, they are categorized as having left the workforce neither employed nor unemployed.
Trumps figure of 100 million people uncounted in the unemployment rate is made up largely of high-school and college students, retirees and stay-at-home parents who arent looking for work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does ask people outside the workforce if they would want a job, even if they arent actively seeking one. The bureau found 5.6 million people fit this category in February, a small fraction of what the president claimed.
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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, Senate Democratic leader, on the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch: Senator McConnell would have the world believe that his hands are tied. That the only option after Judge Gorsuch doesnt earn 60 votes is to break the rules, to change the rules. That could not be further from the truth.
THE FACTS: McConnell was closer to the truth on this matter.
A Senate rules change, requiring only 51 votes to stop a filibuster instead of 60, did appear to be the lone route that Republicans had to put Gorsuch on the court. It was the route they took in winning his confirmation Friday. To Schumer, D-N.Y., Republicans had the option of ditching Gorsuch and coming up with a more mainstream nominee. Its unlikely, however, that any nominee produced by Trump would win Democrats approval.
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TRUMP, in remarks to CEOs: There was a very large infrastructure bill that was approved during the Obama administration, a trillion dollars. Nobody ever saw anything being built. I mean, to this day, I havent heard of anything thats been built. They used most of that money it went and they used it on social programs and we want this to be on infrastructure.
THE FACTS: The $787 billion package in 2009 was not an infrastructure bill, but a catchall response to the recession with infrastructure as a major part.
More than one-third of it went to tax cuts, not social programs. Medicaid spending and other help for health care made up the next largest component. Then came infrastructure, followed closely by education. The package mixed economic and social spending, helping states train displaced workers, for example, extending jobless benefits and assisting with low-income housing.
As for being unaware that stimulus money built anything, Trump neednt have traveled far from Trump Tower to see those dollars at work.
In New York City alone, $30 million went toward repairs and repainting of the Brooklyn Bridge; the Staten Island ferry also got a boost. More than $80 million was earmarked for Moynihan Station, an annex to Penn Station that is meant to return the rail hub to the grandeur of the original Penn Station. Road, bridge and transit projects across the country got a lift.
Trump praised Obama and the packages combination of tax cuts and spending programs when it passed in February 2009.
I thought he did a terrific job, Trump said then. This is a strong guy (who) knows what he wants, and this is what we need.
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TRUMP, on signing executive action that revived the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada: I was signing the order and I said whered they buy the steel? I didnt like the answer. I said who fabricated the steel? I didnt like the answer. I said, From now on, were going to put a clause, got to be made in America.'
THE FACTS: This is one of Trumps favorite stories, a mix of fact and fiction that he told with more accuracy in its latest iteration.
This time, he owned up to the fact that he placed no requirement on the TransCanada pipeline company to use U.S. steel: They had already bought 60, 70 percent of it, so you cant be too wild, right? So a mandate for U.S. steel would be for future pipelines, from now on.
Its not quite right, though, to say hes insisting that steel or pipelines be made in America in the future. His directive calls for the use of U.S. content to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law, leaving lots of wiggle room.
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TRUMP, on progress against the Islamic State group: We had a very, very fine delegation come over from Egypt, and also from Iraq. And they said more has been done in the last six weeks than has been done in years with the previous administration.
THE FACTS: Far more progress was achieved against IS over the past year than in the past six weeks.
Last year Iraqi military forces, supported by the coalition, waged successful battles to oust IS from Fallujah, Ramadi, eastern Mosul and a number of smaller towns along the Tigris River. They also established logistical hubs for the push that began in February to retake western Mosul, which is expected to be the last major battle against IS in Iraq. No major cities have been taken in the past six weeks.
As for Syria, Trump was correct in suggesting that there has been significant progress against IS in recent weeks, as the U.S. deployed hundreds more troops to help prepare local forces to retake Raqqa, the Syrian city that is the militants de facto capital.
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Associated Press writers Erica Werner, Lolita C. Baldor and Josh Boak contributed to this report.
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Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd
EDITORS NOTE A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps decision to launch missiles into Syria risked raising tensions with Iran, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a conflict with dangerously blurry battle lines.
Tehran has condemned the missile attack on the Shayrat airfield, and officials have raised the possibility of consequences. The friction underscores a challenge for Washington, which has long supported opposition groups fighting Assad and his Iranian allies without joining the fray itself. Deeper U.S. involvement in Syria means greater chances of direct conflict with an often unpredictable and aggressive Iranian foe.
Retaliatory measures by Iran could have ripple effects in the region, targeting everything from U.S. Navy warships to U.S.-allied Arab governments. Iran could also use Hezbollah and other Shiite militias to hit American forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, or attack the many U.S. allies in the region.
The U.S. cruise missile strikes, launched as punishment for a Syrian chemical attack that killed more than 80 people, could also prompt Iran to boost Revolutionary Guard forces fighting alongside Assads government.
Before Thursdays attack, the U.S. took the standard measures to prevent an inadvertent strike on Russias military, another Assad ally. No such deconfliction agreement exists with Irans military and paramilitary, meaning there was no way to prevent its personnel from being in the wrong place at the wrong time during the missile attack.
There is no sign Tehran has retaliated against the U.S. American forces have not had any unsafe or unprofessional interactions with Iranian maritime forces since the strike, said Cmdr. Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
On Sunday, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the U.S. strike on the base was a strategic mistake and offense.
And one prominent Iranian lawmaker threatened consequences. Russia and Iran wont be quiet against such acts which violate interests of the region, said Allaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy.
The U.S. has taken great pains in recent years to work around Iranian fighters in Iraq and Syria as it battles the Islamic State group. That has partly reflected an effort to safeguard a landmark nuclear agreement, and to avoid another American conflagration in the Middle East.
Naval forces from the elite Guard keep close tabs on American ship movements in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the worlds oil trade navigates. In February, several armed Revolutionary Guard speedboats approached and filmed a U.S. aircraft carrier entering the Gulf. Hezbollah has long threatened U.S. interests in the region, including Israels security.
But Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Washington-based consultancy Gulf State Analytics, expected a wait-and-see approach from Iran.
My gut tells me if this is a one-off operation, Cafiero said of the U.S. cruise missiles, we will likely see a relatively calm and measured response from Iran and its Shiite proxies.
In Iraq, the U.S. and Iran are essentially fighting the same enemy, though independently and, when possible, at a distance. Since U.S. airstrikes and advise-and-assist operations began in Iraq in 2014, the U.S. has tread cautiously in supporting Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces while avoiding direct engagement with Iran.
No such comity exists in Syria. Long before the country spiraled into civil war, Syria was a key Iranian partner, serving as a conduit to the Iran-based Hezbollah and helping Tehran flex its muscles all the way to Israels northern border and the Mediterranean Sea. It was a place that never bore a strong American imprint.
Since the 2011 start of the Syrian civil war, Iranian and Hezbollah fighters have fought alongside Assad even as the Obama administration insisted his days as leader were numbered. And the U.S. has supported groups that have lined up on the opposite side of the battlefield.
While Trump has dialed back the U.S. push to oust Assad, he also has vowed to take a tougher approach to Iran. He has imposed new sanctions on Tehran and threatened to dismantle the nuclear deal. He has stepped up support for Saudi and Emirati forces fighting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.
All those efforts also mean more exposure for Washington if it goes after Syria again militarily.
I dont think the Trump administration is trying to punish Iran with the strikes in Syria, but it will certainly send a strong message, said Edward Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel who now directs Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Nevertheless, Djerejian said, Trump must pay attention to what the Iranians are doing in the region because they have the ability to really disrupt things in their own way.
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Schreck reported from Dubai. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON Half a century after the United States led a global expansion of international efforts to combat infectious disease and promote family planning, the Trump administration has embarked on a historic retrenchment that many fear threatens the health of millions and jeopardizes Americas standing in the world.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has proposed dramatic cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has historically spearheaded U.S. efforts to improve womens and childrens health.
The White House is urging reductions this year to major international heath initiatives, including the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which provides life-saving medicines to millions of AIDS patients in developing nations.
The Trump administration has imposed tough new restrictions on U.S. support for aid organizations that provide family planning and other health services.
And last week, the White House announced it is cutting all U.S. contributions to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, the lead international agency dedicated to promoting family planning and child and maternal health.
Cuts on the scale proposed by the president could be devastating, said former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a surgeon who has worked extensively on global health since retiring from Congress in 2007.
If the U.S. chooses to drastically cut its foreign assistance, including for HIV/AIDS, nutrition and family planning, we risk reversing our strides over the past 25 years to reduce extreme poverty and disease worldwide, he said. That potentially creates a domino effect, which could lead to nation destabilization, conflict and catastrophic loss of life.
The U.S. is the largest funder of global health programs, including family planning.
The Trump administration has defended the rollback as necessary to address domestic needs, such as repairing aging bridges and airports, and constructing a new wall along the border with Mexico. Conservatives also want to ensure the U.S. is not funding abortion services.
These steps to reduce foreign assistance free up funding for critical priorities here at home and put America first, the administration said in its 2018 budget proposal released last month.
But across the world, there are growing fears the U.S. will no longer be a reliable ally in tackling major global health challenges, including combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and future pandemics such as Ebola.
Last month, more than 100 evangelical and Catholic leaders who work on international aid sent a letter to Trump, imploring him not to cut U.S. aid.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures compel us to care for the marginalized, the leaders wrote. If we can protect the lives of mothers and children, we can intervene not just to save lives but also to establish a foundation of health and wellness to uplift communities, societies and nations.
Several international aid groups, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid being seen as criticizing the new administration, said they had already been told by U.S. government officials to expect a major shift away from global health care assistance.
The stakes in this retrenchment are high.
Although maternal and child mortality rates have been falling globally, more than 300,000 women died in 2015 from complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and nearly 6 million children died before the age of 5 because of disease and malnutrition, according to World Health Organization and United Nations estimates.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a mother is nearly 40 times more likely to die in childbirth than in the U.S.
At the same time, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS still claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year.
For decades, the U.S. played a crucial role in addressing major global health challenges, even though foreign aid has remained a small fraction of the overall federal budget.
The George W. Bush administrations campaign to address the AIDS epidemic in the developing world spearheaded by PEPFAR is widely credited with helping to turn the tide against the deadly disease.
President Bush changed the face of Africa, said Jennifer Kates, who oversees global health research for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Total U.S. spending on global health topped $10 billion in 2016, more than half of which is committed to HIV/AIDS, according to a Kaiser analysis.
Support for global family planning has waxed and waned over the years, as Republican presidents, including Bush, have been less supportive.
But the Obama administration made family planning a major priority, seeing access to contraception as key to improving the health of mothers and children, empowering women and supporting economic development.
The U.S. is still one of the largest contraceptive purchasers, and last year contributed more than $600 million to global family planning and reproductive health efforts, Kaisers analysis found.
In Guatemala, USAID money helped build the countrys largest provider of family planning services, known as APROFAM, which now operates a network of hospitals and clinics that last year provided 1.2 million family planning services in a country of 16 million people.
In the Philippines, USAID has worked with the government to ensure family planning services are available in more than 400 clinics and hospitals in a region of the country where an estimated 2 million women and girls have unwanted pregnancies every year.
And in Mozambique, the agency has supported a network of community health workers who go door to door in rural areas of the country to provide information on family planning.
The Trump administrations proposed budget, released last month, would cut about 30 percent of the State Department and USAID budget in 2018.
And although the White House said it would continue support for PEPFAR and other global health funds, it has proposed a series of substantial cuts this year to PEPFAR as well as programs targeting polio, tuberculosis and malnutrition, according to budget documents sent to lawmakers last month and first reported by Politico.
Cuts to PEPFAR would be generated, among other ways, by requiring PEPFAR to begin slowing the rate of new patients on treatment, the White House proposed.
At the same time, the Trump administration has substantially expanded a restriction on U.S. aid to organizations that counsel women about abortion services.
U.S. law already bars funding for abortion, but Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan have added a restriction that requires recipients of family planning assistance to attest that they will not even discuss the procedure with patients.
When Trump reinstated this ban commonly called the global gag rule he said it would apply to all U.S. global health aid, not just family planning funding, which could affect many more aid groups.
The United Nations ability to provide family planning assistance also took a hit when the Trump administration announced last week that it would pull more than $32 million in funding for UNFPA.
The administration cited UNFPAs work with China, which has engaged in forced sterilizations and abortions, although there is no evidence that UNFPA supports or participates in these activities.
Since January, several European countries have indicated they will step up support for global family planning efforts in the wake of the U.S. retreat. But that is doing little to assuage concerns that Trumps family planning moves are harbingers of other cuts to come.
It is very troubling, especially when you think of the pivotal role the U.S. has played over the years in global health, said Lawrence Gostin, a global health expert at Georgetown University. The world is lost without U.S. leadership.
Nisha Narayanan, COO, Red FM, has announced fresh advertising tariffs for new stations within the growing network along with the revision in airtime rates for existing frequencies. The annual review of advertising tariffs at Red FM has resulted in a rate hike of 15-20 per cent and is based on a careful strategy that is founded upon the growth of the brand, as well as, the spread of the network.
While the incline is noticeable in metros, the moderate upward correction in small and medium cities is mostly an output of the networks evolution, in addition to the proven mix of content and music. Having said that, the ultimate goal to make radio a feasible and flexible medium of advertising has not fallen out of focus, said Narayanan.
While the fresh advertising tariffs are an indicator of improving preferences for radio in urban centres, such symptoms of positivity are being noticed across segments in the M&E industry. Overall, Narayanan feels that radio being a double-digit growth segment within M&E industry is not the only conducive factor that Red FM is banking upon. There are more organic and imminent markers; like new station launches, frequent inventory surges and increasing audience loyalties. These are the drivers that truly help Red FMs clients to tune-in for consumer capture.
After launching stations in Amritsar, Chandigarh, Surat and Patna, Red FM is readying to be transmitted in full strength to 56 cities by August 2017.
As far as the content and revenue leadership strategy for FY17-18 is concerned, according to Narayanan, Red FM has set its eyes on two specific goals. Firstly, becoming a well-differentiated, formidable competitor to existing players in the market and secondly, strengthening its presence in newer cities with decisive speed.
Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in line with the 10 year celebrations is all set to give the beloved fans one more reason to get excited this T20 season. In association with Macmerise, they have curated an exquisite range of unique and bold gadget accessories that consists of laptop skins, phone cases and power banks available on www.macmerise.com and Amazon. The price of the accessories range from Rs. 499 to Rs. 1599.
These stylish RCB Gadget Accessories have been created by Macmerise keeping in mind the key assets of the brand such as the fierce logo, the star players and the bold colours of black and red. The design exudes the teams bold spirit and class and includes graphics with inspiring quotes that encourage fans to play bold too.
The collaboration with Macmerise to create these was a natural progression for Royal Challengers Bangalore owing to the popularity of the franchise and fanatic fan base.
Macmerise is a lifestyle brand that makes cool covers, skins, decals, power banks, etc. for your gadgets.
General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications; General Secretariat DETEC
Bern, 10.04.2017 - On her visit to Estonia on Monday, President Doris Leuthard was received by Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid. She also met with Prime Minister Juri Ratas, Foreign Minister Sven Mikser and Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kadri Simson. The subjects discussed during the working meetings included bilateral relations between Switzerland and Estonia, the priorities of the Estonian EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2017, and relations between Switzerland and the EU.
Since the parliamentary decision on the issue of immigration in December 2016, the conditions for normalising relations between Switzerland and the European Union (EU) have been met. Ms Leuthard explained in Tallinn that she and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had agreed at their meeting last Thursday to renew talks and negotiations on all pending dossiers, and to continue negotiations on an institutional agreement. For its part, the Estonian delegation set out the objectives of the EU Council Presidency, which it hopes to achieve by the end of 2017. The subject of Brexit was also discussed.
Both sides expressed their appreciation and praise for the bilateral relations between Switzerland and Estonia, which have intensified in recent years, for example through cooperation on the Swiss enlargement contribution. Specifically, economic cooperation, vocational education and training, energy, innovation and infrastructure topics were discussed.
Other subjects covered included the Ukraine conflict, security policy in Europe and cybersecurity. Switzerland is interested in deepening cooperation with the international research institute, NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence, based in Tallinn. This would allow Switzerland to participate in research projects.
The programme in Tallinn also included a visit to the e-Estonia showrooms, exhibiting Estonias approach to the digitalisation of society. Estonia is one of the most advanced EU countries in the digital field; health data is managed electronically and it is possible to vote and register businesses online, for example.
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General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications; General Secretariat DETEC
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We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is considering accusing Google of systemic and quite extreme gender pay discrimination, alleging that the Mountain View-based tech giant is paying its female employees less than it pays men occupying the same positions within the company. The DOL recently started an investigation into the matter and has so far found compelling evidence that the Alphabet-owned company discriminates against its female employees, thus breaking federal employment laws. The agencys Regional Director Janette Wipper testified on the investigation on Friday, telling a San Francisco-based court that the DOLs current findings indicate Googles entire workforce in the country is affected by the companys practices that discriminate against women. While the agencys probe still hasnt been completed, this latest turn of events indicates Google might be officially charged with violating federal employment laws later this year.
Legal representatives of the Mountain View-based Internet giant have so far only denied the allegations of inequities within the company but have yet to elaborate on the matter. Googles potential violations of federal employment laws came to light as part of a hearing on a lawsuit the DOL filed against the company in January in an effort to obtain its salary data and certain files on its employees. Being a federal contractor, Google should allow the agency to inspect some basic data on its workforce and make sure the company isnt violating any equal opportunity laws, but the company refused to cooperate with the DOL after the federal department launched a new compliance review of the firm last year. That turn of events led to the aforementioned lawsuit which Google previously described as being overly vague and asking for records that reveal confidential data, adding that the DOL already received hundreds of thousands of records on Googles employees.
The DOL is specifically seeking older salary snapshots from Google, as the agency is convinced that the tech giant had a gender pay gap problem in 2015 and is now trying to determine the cause of the phenomenon. As part of that investigation, the DOL is not only seeking employee data but also wants the opportunity to confidentially interview individual employees. An update on the situation is expected to follow later this year.
Android Pay support has been expanded to 13 more banks, including the Bank of Stockton, Maquoketa State Bank, The Conway National Bank, and the Infirmary Federal Credit Union. The latest expansion of Googles mobile payments solution comes shortly after the platform added 51 more banks to its list of supported institutions last month. In total, over 100 new banks in the United States started supporting Android Pay this year and if recent trends are any indication, that number will likely keep rising in the coming months. As for this latest expansion, other than the aforementioned institutions, Android Pay is now also supported by the Boundary Waters Bank, Citizens Bank of the South, Country Bank for Savings, Countryside Bank, First Green Bank, Greenfield Cooperative Bank, First State Bank of the Florida Keys, Indiana University Credit Union, and the McFarland State Bank.
As can be seen above, all of the banks that now added support for Android Pay are based in the United States, the key market for Googles mobile payments solution that has been gaining a lot of traction recently. A number of banks in the country like the Commerce Bank of Kansas City are yet to start supporting the platform despite offering support for Apple Pay since its launch, but theres still no specific time frame regarding when such a thing might happen. Likewise, while the system has recently been expanding stateside in a rapid manner, Android Pays international expansion has slowed down during the same period. While the platform is officially available in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, its still limited to a small number of financial institutions in those markets, and its currently unclear when its international expansion is scheduled to resume.
Finally, while certain developments in December suggested support for Android Pay in Canada is just around the corner, the mobile payments solution still hasnt made its way to that country, and Google has yet to provide consumers with an official update on the situation. On the bright side, it seems that many more owners of Android devices in the U.S. will be able to start using Android Pay at some point this year, depending on their bank of choice.
According to a report published by CyberMedia Research (CMR), Samsung, Intex and Rising Star were the top three Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in India during Q4, 2016. While Samsung and Intex manufacture and market devices under their own respective brands, Rising Star is the largest contract manufacturer in India, manufacturing phones for ASUS, Gionee, InFocus, Microsoft, OPPO and Xiaomi. Reports in the Indian media claim that as of Q4, 2016, there are 48 OEMs and 3rd-party manufacturers that make mobile handsets in India, while another 140 ODMs (Original Design Manufacturers) sell their products to various domestic and international companies marketing smartphones in the country under their own brands. Some of the leading 3rd-party ODMs in the country include Shenzhen Tecno Technology that supply to Itel and Shenzhen Benavi Electronics, which supply its products to Micromax and Zen.
With an increasing number of global smartphone vendors starting to sell locally-manufactured devices in the country following the governments Make in India initiative, only about one in three handsets sold in the country today are believed to be imported from abroad, with the rest manufactured in Indian factories. According to research analysts at CMR, that ratio is likely to get even better in the coming days when Apple is expected to start selling India-manufactured iPhones in the country. While the Cupertino, California-based tech giant is yet to verify those rumors officially, reports in the Indian media over the past few months seem to suggest that Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn is most likely to bag the contract to manufacture iPhones in India.
According to CMR, Intex leads the entry-level segment for devices costing up to Rs. 4,000 ($60). Samsung is on top in the Rs. 4,000 Rs. 8,000 ($60 $120) range, as well as between Rs. 15,000 Rs. 20,000 ($225 $300). Rising Star leads in the Rs. 10,000 Rs. 15,000 ($150 $225) range, while Foxconn subsidiary Hong Fu Ji Precision Electronics is leading in the Rs. 20,000+ ($300) category. The CMR report also notes that domestic brands in the country have been on a downward spiral of late thanks to the advent of a number of aggressive Chinese brands, and suggests that the problem could only be solved by bringing design and engineering to India as well, alongside manufacturing.
The Google Duo Android app will soon support audio calls in all parts of the world, as the feature started rolling globally several hours ago. Justin Uberti, Technical Lead for Google Duo took to Twitter to share the news of the rollout earlier today, approximately eight months after the Mountain View-based tech giant initially announced the feature. The functionality is available in the Google Duo build 9.1.1516 that should soon be available for download from the Google Play Store in your territory if it isnt already. Apart from audio calls, the latest Google Duo update also debuts a number of tweaks and performance optimizations meant to improve the general user experience of the app, though the apps changelog doesnt go into more details on the matter.
The Alphabet-owned Internet company already started rolling out audio calls for Google Duo last month, though the functionality was only available in Brazil so far. Regardless, the addition of this feature will likely be well-received by most users who have been requesting the ability to make audio-only calls in Google Duo ever since the app initially debuted more than a year ago. The latest update for Googles mobile communications tool is identical to its predecessor in terms of software requirements, meaning Google Duo still officially supports all devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and newer versions of the ubiquitous operating system. Once youve downloaded and installed the latest stable build of the app, youll see a toggle button on the top of the main calling interface that will allow you to switch between video and audio calls with a single tap, as shown in the screenshot below.
Google Duo recently received another major update that expanded support for file types users are able to share within the app. Apart from images, you can now use Google Duo to share APK, ZIP, PDF, and MP3 files, as well as Google Docs, all of which can be uploaded in bulks. Seeing how the Mountain View-based company has recently been hard at work debuting new features and improving the overall quality of Google Duo, more significant updates to the app will likely be introduced in the near future.
The Google Home Android app is now announcing that multi-account support is scheduled to debut soon, as reported by Ausdroid. Its currently unclear whether the announcement is going live in all countries officially supported by Google Home, though that seems like a likely scenario. Seeing how the latest client-side update for the Google Home app was released in late March, the new card announcing multi-account support was almost certainly pushed out to users through a server-side update initiated by Google on Monday. The contents of the message itself actually say multi-user support is already available, though it provides no other details on the matter, meaning the feature will likely start rolling out in the coming days.
Google has yet to officially detail the new functionality on its Support pages, though the companys representatives already confirmed that the message pre-announcing the feature is meant to denote that multi-account support will debut alongside the next Google Home update. Once the new update becomes available for download, users will receive a notification telling them the feature is officially available and explaining how they can set up multiple accounts in the Google Home app, the companys representatives said in a statement given to Ausdroid. Theres no information on how Google designed the functionality itself as of this writing, but given recent developments, more details on the matter are bound to follow shortly.
The Alphabet-owned Internet company previously said its looking to turn Google Home into an ultimate digital companion that can differentiate between each individual household member and cater to their specific needs. Support for multiple accounts can certainly be interpreted as the first step towards realizing that goal, though Google likely has a long way to go before it manages to realize its ambitions. While its still unknown for how long has Google been developing the upcoming feature, the company started implementing the necessary backend into its app in early March, as revealed by a recent teardown of one of the previous builds of Google Home. In related news, Googles casting and home automation app is scheduled to receive support for Shopping Lists later today after Google removes the same functionality from Google Keep.
Google Play carrier billing now supports eight more carriers from seven countries around the world, as revealed by the Google Play Store support pages. The latest expansion of the feature brought support for Boost Mobile in the United States, while all of the other additions include wireless carriers in Europe and Asia. More specifically, Google Play carrier billing is now available with Orange in Luxembourg, Telekom in Slovenia, Vodafone in Indonesia, Beeline in Kazakhstan, and Telenor Pakistan in Pakistan. Finally, the service is now also supported by Viettel and Vietnamobile in Vietnam, the Mountain View-based tech company revealed.
Just like the name of the feature suggests, Google Play carrier billing is a service that allows users to pay for apps and other content on the Google Play Store directly through their wireless carriers. Instead of linking ones Google Account with a credit or debit card, users are able to connect their profiles with their phone number, then pay for any content they purchase on the Google Play Store through monthly bills sent by their mobile service provider. The service itself could lead to somewhat higher charges due to transaction fees depending on your country and the exact wireless carrier youre using, but it still serves as a viable alternative to paying for digital goods on the Google Play Store, especially if you dont want or arent able to use a credit or debit card for any reason.
The latest expansion of Google Play carrier billing marks the second time the service rolled out to more users this year, having previously debuted with Vodafone and Airtel in India back in January. While Google never promoted the service in an aggressive manner seeing how it usually led to somewhat higher charges for users, the Alphabet-owned Internet giant is still seemingly adamant to continue including more wireless carriers to its program in an effort to potentially reach out to a larger number of customers and consequently increase the amount of revenue generated by the Google Play Store. With that in mind, an update on the availability of the service will likely follow later this year.
Googles artificial intelligence (AI) unit DeepMind will host a Future of Go Summit in China next month, DeepMinds co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis announced on Monday. Hassabis explained how the upcoming festival will be yet another step in the companys endeavor to improve its AlphaGo AI and learn more about how its creation can help human players evolve and improve their skills at playing the three-millennia-old board game that was considered to be too difficult for computers just a few years ago. The Future of Go Summit will be held in Wuzhen, China, from May 23 to May 27, Hassabis revealed. DeepMinds CEO also added that the company will be hosting the event in partnership with the Chinese government and the China Go Association, noting how China was chosen as the location for the event due to the fact that the Far Eastern country is also the birthplace of Go.
The Future of Go Summit is set to pit top players against AlphaGo in a broad range of different game formats that are specifically designed to explore new ways in which AI can help revolutionize Go, Hassabis said. Those game formats will include Pair Go, Team Go, and Ke Jie vs AlphaGo, with the first one pairing two Chinese professional Go players against each other and giving both access to their very own AlphaGo companion that will help them devise and execute a winning strategy. The Team Go format will see AlphaGo play against five best Go players in the country with the goal of determining how efficiently can DeepMinds AI adapt to an incredibly demanding and mixed style those five players will come up with, something that no single individual would likely be able to match. Finally, the Ke Jie vs AlphaGo format will be yet another iteration of DeepMinds traditional test, a man-versus-machine game type that will pit AlphaGo against Ke Jie, currently the best human Go player in the world.
While DeepMind is looking to evolve Go with its AI, the traditional game still isnt set to adopt machines anytime soon. In fact, certain official bodies governing Go are presently planning to ban AlphaGo from future tournaments.
LeEco and VIZIO have called off their planned merger because of regulatory headwinds, the two companies said in a joint statement provided to Android Headlines. The deal thats been in the making for close to a year was supposed to have LeEco acquire VIZIO for $2 billion in an effort to expand its presence in the United States, but that idea has now been dropped due to issues that neither company has yet clarified. LeEco and VIZIO said they still believe the two firms are compatible, but as any kind of merger is seemingly not possible at this point in time, theyve opted to find a solution that they describe as a win for both parties. For the time being, VIZIO will continue to integrate the Le app and related content into its CE platform, in addition to collaborating with the Chinese tech giant in an effort to implement its Ecosystem User Interface (EUI) into its future offerings, thus providing users with a wide variety of exclusive content and giving VIZIO-made products a foothold in China.
The new partnership between LeEco and VIZIO thats meant to replace their ambitions to merge for the foreseeable future is unlikely to have the same financial impact that LeEco was hoping the actual merger will. The Beijing-based company was initially planning to acquire VIZIO in an effort to stabilize some of its revenue flow and have more resources to reinvest into its riskier endeavors like driverless cars. The cancellation of the deal might be partially connected to VIZIOs legal troubles that arose after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found the Irvine, California-based firm guilty of collecting data from 11 million American households without user consent. While LeEco reiterated its commitment to the deal following a 2.2 million fine VIZIO received in February due to the ordeal, U.S. regulators might not have been willing to approve a deal that would see a major Chinese tech conglomerate acquire a company found guilty of spying on millions of American citizens just months prior to the transaction.
Other than VIZIOs own controversies, LeEco itself may have been reluctant to go through with the deal that most industry watchers agreed was overpriced due to the fact that the Chinese company is currently enduring a cash crunch and has to rely on financial injections to keep its many existing businesses afloat.
McDonalds started soliciting Snapchat job applications in Australia earlier this month, local media reports. The fast food restaurant chain is reportedly asking applicants to send 10-second snaps as part of their job applications. Apart from being ten seconds long, the snaps should also feature a special McDonalds live filter that shows the applicants wearing a virtual McDonalds uniform, the report reveals, adding how the Australian branch of the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company is referring to those snaps as Snaplications. The novel request isnt meant to replace the actual interviewing process but is only intended to serve as a prelude to the conventional interview, presumably to allow McDonalds to filter through initial applications more efficiently while simultaneously looking for outroverts, i.e. people who are comfortable enough to use social media.
Shaun Ruming, Chief Operating Officer at McDonalts Australia confirmed as much, saying that the company is looking for applicants who have a bubbly personality, something that McDonalds believes Snapchat users do. The idea itself was apparently conceived by Ruming who learned about Snapchat from his 14-year-old daughter, then decided to contact Snap in an effort to collaborate and launch an online application campaign using the companys social media platform. The two firms came up with a solution that has applicants send the aforementioned Snaplications to McDonalds which the companys human resources department reviews and gets back in touch with everyone who seemingly fits its personality criteria. Approved applicants will receive a message on Snapchat with a link to download the actual job application form and proceed with the regular application process.
In a statement given to local media, Ruming explained that the campaign is not only meant to help the company recruit new talent but was also designed to reflect on the fact that McDonalds is the largest youth employer in Australia, largely thanks to its innovative efforts. The campaign officially started on Friday, though its currently unclear how long will it last and how much McDonalds ended up paying for it. Regardless, the initiative marks yet another step in Snaps efforts to differentiate Snapchat from other social networks and provide marketers with a unique advertising platform.
The Meizu PRO 7 is one of the most anticipated Chinese flagship devices of this year, and the companys VP seemingly revealed some info about the device. Li Nan, Meizus VP, hinted that the Meizu PRO 7 might arrive before the end of April, as expected. Li Nan shared this info while responding to an inquiry on Weibo (Chinese social network), though do keep in mind that he did not flat out confirm that the Meizu PRO 7, he simply said that the upcoming phone is not called the Meizu M5X, and that the phone will sport an interesting new design.
Those of you who dont know, the Meizu PRO 6 actually arrived back in April last year, so this month is kind of perfect for Meizu to announce the Meizu PRO 7, as that would mean that the company is finally sticking to some sort of a release cycle. Now, if rumors are to be believed, the Meizu PRO 7 will be fueled by the Helio X30 64-bit deca-core SoC, which is MediaTeks flagship processor. Chances are that this phone will ship with an AMOLED display, just like its predecessor, and you can expect it to sport a fullHD or a QHD resolution. If rumors are to be believed, the Meizu PRO 7 will pack in a 12-megapixel camera on the back. Sonys IMX362 sensor, and its display will probably be 5.5 inches or smaller, the Meizu PRO 7 Plus which is expected to arrive later this year will probably be the companys flagship phablet, and will be fueled by the Exynos 8895 64-bit octa-core processor.
The Meizu PRO 7 will probably be made out of metal, even though Meizu might opt to change things up and release a metal + glass smartphone this time around, well just have to wait and see what happens. Android Marshmallow or Android Nougat will come pre-installed on the Meizu PRO 7, and on top of it, youll get Meizus Flyme UI, as per usual. We still do not know what day exactly will Meizu announce their new flagship, but chances are we will see it before the end of this month, so stay tuned for that.
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With an eye towards increasing its market-share in the face of increasing competition from super-aggressive Chinese brands, Indian technology company Micromax Informatics has announced a far-reaching collaboration with Flipkart that goes beyond basic retail partnership. Micromax says that it wants to use the insights and analytics of Flipkarts nationwide logistics and customer behavioral database to help shape the companys product and marketing strategy going forward. Indias leading indigenous smartphone company has also revealed that the two companies will eventually jointly announce a whole new smartphone brand that will retail exclusively on the nations largest e-commerce portal. While Micromax has traditionally been strong in the offline category, the company is now looking to increase its online market share, given how Xiaomi, Lenovo and OnePlus have become some of the leading vendors in the country almost exclusively through their online strategy.
The company, earlier today, also announced two new budget-oriented smartphones called Evok Note and Evok Power, both of which will be sold exclusively through its newly-announced strategic partner. The two handsets will only go on sale from April 12th, which is when the pricing and official tech specs of both devices will be revealed. However, even though the company is yet to announce the tech specs of its upcoming budget smartphones officially, reports in the online tech media in the country seem to suggest that both these devices will be positioned in the entry-level and lower mid-range segments, and will sport fairly humble hardware.
According to rumors, the Evok Note will feature a 5.5-inch 1080p display and will be powered by the MediaTek MT6753 SoC. The device will reportedly ship with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The handset is expected to sport a 4,000mAh battery and is believed to run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. In terms of cameras, the Evok Note will reportedly pack a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. The Evok Power, meanwhile, is expected to have even more humble specifications. The device will apparently feature a 5-inch 720p IPS display, and will be powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor of unspecified make. The handset is expected to come with 2GB of RAM and just 16GB built-in storage. As is evident from its name, the Evok Power will apparently have a large battery, which is said to be a 4,000mAh unit. It will also sport a fingerprint scanner on the back, and will apparently be positioned against the recently-launched Xiaomi Redmi 4A.
The Nokia 9 might land at the end of the third quarter, at least if a new rumor is to be believed. Nokia had introduced three Android-based smartphones this year, starting with the Nokia 6 back in January. Nokia had announced two additional smartphones during MWC 2017, the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5, while they also announced an international availability of the Nokia 6. Having that in mind, the Nokia 9 should become the most powerful Nokia-branded, Android-based smartphone to date.
This new rumor comes from NPU, and if it is to be believed, the Nokia 9 will land by the end of July, or could arrive in early August, but it will not be available before the end of the third quarter it seems. The Nokia 9 will launch on a global basis, just like the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6, and the phone will become available in the United States as well. If this rumor is to be believed, the Nokia 9 will cost $699 in the US, while you will have to pay 749 ($793) in order to get it in Europe. Now, as far as Indian pricing goes, you will be able to get the phone for Rs. 44,999 ($698) in that Asian country. Now, the source also mentions that theres a good reason why we might have to wait for the Nokia 9 to arrive, the phone would probably land sooner, but the Snapdragon 835 could present an issue for the company. The Nokia 9 is expected to arrive with Qualcomms flagship SoC, but there are plenty of OEMs who are waiting for that chip to become available, and it seems like Qualcomm cannot keep up with the demand.
Having that in mind, its also worth saying that HMD Global is expected to release 6-7 smartphones by the end of this year, so we can expect a couple of additional offerings next to the Nokia 9 which will launch later this year. Now, in addition to the Snapdragon 835, the Nokia 9 will probably sport 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and it is possible that it will arrive in more than one variant. This smartphone will ship with Android Nougat out of the box, though we still dont know how larger will its display be, well just have to wait for more info to surface.
Google offered to invest one trillion won ($880.29 million) into LGs display panel-making division LG Display as the Mountain View-based tech giant is looking to boost the companys OLED operations, recent reports reveal. According to unnamed sources cited by ETNews, the investment is aimed at improving LG Displays manufacturing operations aimed at OLED screens for smartphones. Reports claim that Google made the offer to ensure that the search giant will have a steady supply of OLED displays for its Pixel smartphones. LG Display has long been producing OLED panels for TVs, but it also has the capacity to manufacture OLED displays for smartphones, as evidenced by the LG G Flex series which uses flexible plastic OLED displays from the company.
This investment comes at an interesting time for the OLED display industry. Samsung, which has long dominated the small and medium OLED panel market, received a two-year contract with Apple for the production of OLED screens for two generations of iPhones. While Samsung is expected to manufacture the majority of OLED displays, other manufacturers including LG Display have been prompted to also produce OLED screens for the iPhone. However, a shortage of OLED displays due to Apples high demand is expected to occur in the near future, which may negatively affect other phone manufacturers that use OLED panels for their smartphones, including Google. To keep up with the demand, OLED manufacturers have increased the capacity of their OLED manufacturing lines, but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough in the short term. By 2020, Samsung Display and LG Display are expected to triple their annual manufacturing capacity of OLED screens compared to their capacities in 2016, with LG expanding mostly its manufacturing capacity of OLED screens for smartphones.
Google has started using OLED displays for its smartphones back when its smartphone line was still called Nexus, with Nexus 6 from Motorola sporting an AMOLED display. The current smartphone offerings from the tech giant, the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL also have AMOLED displays sourced from Samsung. Based on this report, Google wants to continue using AMOLED displays for the next Pixel smartphones, which isnt surprising in light of recent industry trends.
There will be a vast array of accessories arriving for the new Samsung flagship smartphones, and now pre-orders are open for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus RhinoShield CrashGuard Bumper Case. A protective bumper case is a good idea for those who want to protect their smartphone investment, but dont want to fully conceal their device. You can pre-order either of the cases now with the shipping date currently given as between April 15 and April 25 and the price of each is $24.99. The new RhinoShield CrashGuard Bumper Case for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus comes in black, gray, and dark blue color options.
The durable case with an exposed-back design offers maximum protection with minimal bulk, as the case is only as thick as a stack of three credit cards. Its made of a mixture of hard and soft shell materials for easy handling. The in-house material can absorb up to 90 percent of impact energy with the hexagonal structure adding 15 percent shock dispersion. As an example of the protection this offers, previous drop testing of this case using the Samsung Galaxy S7 produced an unscathed handset following a 3-meter drop. As far as the appearance is concerned, the matte finish and curved edges of the bumper case were designed to offer improved grip and attractive styling. The raised lip offers protection for the display as well as the camera when the phone is placed on a flat surface. Cutouts offer accessibility to third-party chargers and headphones, while the case also has tactile protruding buttons to make switching between silent mode and volume easy and convenient.
The RhinoShield CrashGuard case is also compatible with skins from other manufacturers, although RhinoShield cautions these may make it harder to fit the bumper case or to remove it. Its worth noting that a RhinoShield tempered glass screen protector is also available at a price of $24.99. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus were announced at the end of March and will release in various global markets later this month. Samsung already announced its official accessories for the devices while other cases already announced include those from manufacturers such as LifeProof, X-Doria, and Incipio.
OPPO is currently the second largest smartphone manufacturer in China, its positioned right after Huawei, and one of their smartphones has just surfaced on GFXBench. OPPO enjoyed great success in their home country and some other regions around the world in the last couple of years, and their OPPO R devices are amongst the most popular ones this company is selling. The OPPO R11 has just popped up on GFXBench, at least it looks like it has, read on.
The OPPO R7 and OPPO R7 Plus were the companys most popular handsets back in 2015, while the OPPO R9 and OPPO R9 Plus took that title last year. Well, its time for the OPPO R11 to reign. The OPPO R6051 popped up on GFXBench, and judging by its specifications and the timing of this listing, this is almost certainly the OPPO R11. The companys OPPO R phones were never the most powerful handsets on the market as far as specs are concerned, but they always incorporate really powerful specs nonetheless, even though they included mid-range processors. If this listing is to be believed, the OPPO R11 will sport a 5.5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) display, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of native storage. The phone will be fueled by the Snapdragon 650 64-bit octa-core processor, along with the Adreno 510 GPU for graphics processing.
On the back of the OPPO R11, youll be able to find a 16-megapixel snapper, while a 20-megapixel shooter will be included on the phones front side. The companys OPPO R smartphones always shipped with a really powerful front-facing camera, and it seems like the same will happen with the OPPO R11. Android 7.1.1 Nougat will come pre-installed on the OPPO R11, and on top of it, youll be able to find the companys custom UI.Its also worth mentioning that a single SIM variant of the OPPO R11 surfaced on GFXBench, but chances are that a dual SIM variant will also be available. The OPPO R9 was announced back in March last year, so the OPPO R11 will probably become official before the end of this month, as the company did not release it in March, obviously.
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The Xiaomi Mi Max 2 is expected to arrive in mid-2017, quite probably in May, and a ton of new info just surfaced. As most of you probably already know, the Mi Max 2 surfaced on GFXBench a couple of days ago, and in addition to the specs that were shared by GFXBench, a new rumor just surfaced sharing some additional info about the device. According to the rumored info, the phone will sport Sonys 12-megapixel shooter on the back, the companys IMX378 sensor, which is the same camera that Xiaomi included in the Xiaomi Mi 5S, in case you were wondering.
Now, some pricing info also surfaced, along with the phones camera details. If the source is to be believed, the Mi Max 2 will cost between 1,499 Yuan ($217) and 1,699 Yuan ($246). Now, in addition to this, we more or less know that the Mi Max 2 will sport a 6.4-inch display, just like its predecessor. This will be a fullHD (1920 x 1080) panel , and the phone will also pack in 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, at least the variant that surfaced on GFXBench. So, as you can see, this phone will be huge, just like its predecessor, and definitely wont be suitable for everyone, Xiaomi has been aiming at a certain consumer base with the original Mi Max, and the same will happen with the second-generation product as well. Now, the Mi Max 2 will sport a 5-megapixel snapper on its front side, and Android 7.1.1 Nougat will come pre-installed on the device according to GFXBench. On top of Android Nougat, the Mi Max 2 will sport Xiaomis Android skin, MIUI 8. Qualcomms Snapdragon 626 64-bit octa-core processor will fuel the Xiaomi Mi Max 2, along with the Adreno 506 GPU for graphics.
The Xiaomi Mi Max 2 will probably be made out of metal, just like its predecessor, and it is possible that it will resemble the original Mi Max in terms of the design. Were only guessing though, as we did not see a single Mi Max 2 leak thus far, but chances are we will soon. In any case, the second-gen Mi Max phablet will be really huge, just like its predecessor, and Xiaomi is obviously aiming at people who are looking for a phone that will replace their phablet, and who do not mind using their handset with two hands.
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About Us
MISSION
This site is devoted to the cause of non-interventionism and is read by libertarians, pacifists, leftists, "greens," and independents alike, as well as many on the Right who agree with our opposition to imperialism. Our initial project was to fight against intervention in the Balkans under the Clinton presidency. We applied the same principles to Clinton's campaigns in Haiti and Kosovo and bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan. Our politics are libertarian: our opposition to war is rooted in Randolph Bourne's concept that "War is the health of the State." With every war, America has made a "great leap" into statism, and as Bourne emphasized, "it is during war that one best understands the nature of that institution [the State]." At its core, that nature includes an ever increasing threat to individual liberty and the centralization of political power.
Antiwar.com is one project of our parent foundation, the Randolph Bourne Institute. It is a program that provides a sounding board of interest to all who are concerned about U.S. foreign policy and its implications.
In 1952, Garet Garrett, one of the last of the Old Right "isolationists," said it well:
"Between government in the republican meaning, that is, Constitutional, representative, limited government, on the one hand, and Empire on the other hand, there is mortal enmity. Either one must forbid the other or one will destroy the other."
This is the perception that informs our activism and inspires our dedication. Non-interventionism abroad is a corollary to non-interventionism at home. Randolph Bourne echoed this sentiment: "We cannot crusade against war without implicitly crusading against the State." Since opposition to war is at the heart of our philosophy, and single-issue politics is the only avenue open to us, Antiwar.com embodies the politics of the possible.
Our dedication to libertarian principles, inspired in large part by the works and example of the late Murray N. Rothbard, is reflected on this site. While openly acknowledging that we have an agenda, the editors take seriously our purely journalistic mission, which is to get past the media filters and reveal the truth about America's foreign policy. Citing a wide variety of sources without fear or favor, and presenting our own views in the regular columns of various contributors, we clearly differentiate between fact and opinion, and let our readers know which is which.
The pressing need for "citizen experts" is the reason we set up Antiwar.com. In this process, the site evolved very quickly into an online magazine and research tool designed to keep the American people and the world informed about the overseas plans of the American government. The history of our site and of American foreign policy demonstrates the demand for such experts.
The founders of Antiwar.com were active in the Libertarian Party during the 1970s; in 1983, we founded the Libertarian Republican Organizing Committee to work as a libertarian caucus within the GOP. Today, we are seeking to challenge the traditional politics of "Left" and "Right." At present, none of the existing parties or activist groups offer an effective vehicle for principled libertarian politics. Yet even in the absence of a party of liberty, we cannot abstain from the struggle. We strive to lead the non-interventionist cause and the peace movements that many respected institutions have forgotten.
Forged in the experience of the first Balkan war, Antiwar.com has become the Internet newspaper of record for a growing international movement, the central locus of opposition to a new imperialism that masks its ambitions in the rhetoric of "human rights," "humanitarianism," "freedom from terror," and "global democracy." The totalitarian liberals and social democrats of the West have unilaterally and arrogantly abolished national sovereignty and openly seek to overthrow all who would oppose their bid for global hegemony. They have made enemies of the patriots of all countries, and it is time for those enemies to unite or perish alone.
Antiwar.com represents the truly pro-America side of the foreign policy debate. With our focus on a less centralized government and freedom at home, we consider ourselves the real American patriots. "America first!" regards the traditions of a republican government and non-interventionism as paramount to freedom a concept that helped forge the foundation of this nation.
THE FUTURE
Antiwar.com is already fighting the next information war: we are dedicated to the proposition that war hawks and our leaders are not going to be allowed to get away with it unopposed and unchallenged. The War Party is well-organized, well-financed, and very focused. They know what they want: a renewal of the Cold War, increased military spending, and a globalist mission that would project American power from the Middle East to the Korean peninsula and all points in between. And they know how to get it: mobilizing special interest groups and key corporate allies in a propaganda war designed to win the hearts if not the minds of the American people. The antiwar forces, on the other hand, are not so well-positioned. Everyone is for peace, in theory at least, but there is no one group of Americans especially disposed to work for it, outside of small religious groups such as the Quakers and the Catholic Worker movement.
Lacking a centrally coordinated leadership, without financial resources of any significance, and incredibly diverse, the organized opposition to the first Balkan war was unfocused and of limited effectiveness. Currently, the antiwar movement against a war on Iraq is considered anti-American and left-wing. However, we are changing this perception by leading the cause of the patriotic peace movement, which understands the true costs of war. Unfortunately, the organizations pushing for actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other areas around the world are stronger and better focused. Antiwar.com has become an integral part of the movement against these groups and for peace by disseminating accurate news and commentary.
Antiwar.com is dedicated to building an awareness of the globalist and interventionist forces that would enslave us all in a New World Order on which the sun never sets. But we can't do it without you. Tell your friends about Antiwar.com, and also help us do our job by bringing items to our attention. We are always looking for material, and we welcome your suggestions, whether of links or in the form of original articles submitted to the editors.
Antiwar.com is a ward of the nonprofit Randolph Bourne Institute. Your contribution to Antiwar.com is tax-deductible. Your contributions, whether a one-time donation or a monthly pledge, will make the difference between success and failure. While the propaganda machine of the War Party is well-oiled with money, Antiwar.com carries on the fight with little in the way of resources except the intellectual resources to bring the facts to light. But we can't do it without your material support. To find out how, just click on the secure credit card form at the bottom of this page. You can strike a blow against the War Party and cast your ballot for peace by making a contribution today.
See the history of Antiwar.com and recent media coverage.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Artsakh Republic told Armenpress the Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime over 30 times firing from various caliber small arms at the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.
The Ministrys statement reads: On April 9 and overnight April 10 the situation was relatively calm at the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.
The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime over 30 times by firing more than 250 shots from various caliber small arms at the Armenian positions.
The Defense Army forces of Artsakh mainly refrained from taking countermeasures and continued confidently conducting the military service.
AMG
A recent Industry Pool test day saw a 992 Neunelfer crossing paths with an Affalterbach Coupe. The Porscha , which should be a Carrera or Carrera S model, ended up chasing what seems to be a Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe And, as you'll be able to see in the piece of footage at the bottom of the page, the Zuffenhausen prototype, which is expected to pack around 400 ponies, wasn't exactly shy when it came to hunting down the 510 hpThe all-German encounter makes for a brilliant occasion to remind you that we could also see a similar fight involving the evil twins of these machines.And that's because we had previously shown you spy material of both the 992 Porsche 911 Turbo (albeit still in test mule guise) and the Mercedes-AMG C63 R Coupe (here are some spyshots of the velocity animal, which come from last year).Speaking of the latter, the spiciest incarnation of the current generation C-Class Coupe to date should make its debut soon.We're still comparing apples (since we're talking mules, makes that apple seeds) to oranges, but these inevitable clashes are part of the usual Green Hell testing business.Returning to the 2019 911, the Porsche is still far away from its introduction, so you shouldn't trust too many visual clues delivered by prototypes such as the one we have here.As for what hides under the provisional skin of the next 911, the spiciest rumors out there talk about not one, but two hybrid versions of the machine, so you might want to prepare a plug.
SUV
The crossover will seat up to seven people, and it is reportedly based on the CUSW platform that is also used by the Cherokee. Allpar, the website that has also managed to publish these images ahead of everyone else, notes that the car is expected to come with a four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine from the Hurricane series.Images portrays a model that is called K8 , and this could be the production name of the vehicle in question.The lack of door handles, along with other minor elements suggests the possibility that the vehicle presented in the images is a concept car that is close to production from a design point of view, but still not the finished product.As you can observe, it shares a few lines with the new Cherokee, but numerous elements are styled differently. The window line is one of them, but the essential lines and traits are present.Previous statements made by Jeep officials noted that the brands three-rowwould be named Grand Wagoneer, and it would be based on the all-new Grand Cherokee, which is supposed to be launched in 2017.The plans presented for the Jeep portfolio back in January 2015 portrayed a new Wrangler in 2017, a small SUV introduced to refresh the Renegade lineup in 2017. Moreover, the brand also announced the addition of a C-SUV which would be sized close to the Compass , replacing the Patriot as well.Some people, including Allpars experts, believe that this model could be rebadged as a Chrysler model and sold in the USA as well. The Belvidere assembly facility in Illinois is viewed as a potential candidate for the place to build the Chrysler variant of the K8. However, that is just speculation at this moment.
As a returning exhibitor, Honda came up with a plan that allows it to take advantage of the broad range of show elements, specifically leveraging the increased dealer attendance and engagement in the Columbus location.AIMExpo presented by Nationwide is an excellent venue for us to engage with our dealers, said Chuck Boderman, Vice President, Motorcycle Division at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. With the show moving to Ohio it will allow more of our network to take advantage of this opportunity and to showcase our North American Headquarters just down the road in Marysville.The bike maker is expected to showcase an array of 2018 models, including the new CRF off-road range as well as the astounding CBR1000RR . Maybe the re-launched 2018 NM4 will get to be seen on the show floor.The announcement of Hondas return to the Motorcycle Industry Council produced North American powersports expo come on the heels of their partnership with Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda to contest the Superbike class in the MotoAmerica series.To celebrate this, Honda is planning to have professional racer Jake Gagne and his Genuine Broaster Chicken CBR 1000RR superbike in attendance in Columbus to meet with dealers and consumers throughout the show.Honda has experienced the value of AIMExpo presented by Nationwide and has leveraged the platform to great benefit of their brand, said Larry Little, Vice President & General Manager, MIC Events. With 41 percent of the nations dealerships and 50 percent of the US population within 500 miles of Columbus we look to make 2017 the best show yet, and Hondas commitment contributes greatly to that goal.So, if you want to check out Hondas latest motorcycle and also meet a racing rider, dont forget to visit booths 1347 and 1535 on the AIMExpo show floor.
SUV
EV
Evidently, we agree that promotional material should be accurate, and all of the claims made by the automaker should be real, and not something with an asterisk at the back that tells you that it only applies on Wednesdays, on the 13th, when the sun is shining brightly in the sky.However, commercials need something catchy, and it must be brief enough to be announced as quick as possible. That is why some ads use intentionally placed mistakes to get your attention, or have a catchphrase in them that has the possibility of making them viral, or at least remembered by everyone.The latest dispute of this kind happened between Jeep and Tesla , when the American off-roader brand stated that the newly released Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is the worlds quickest and most powerful production SUV on the planet.The performance-oriented model can sprint from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.6 seconds, and it can also do a quarter-mile pass in just 11.6 seconds at 186 km/h (115 mph). Top speed is calculated at 290 km/h (180 mph), which is more than most of its European rivals will do, but the Bentley Bentayga can drive even faster.The British luxury, currently the most expensive model from this category in the world, is also the fastest on the planet thanks to its 301 km/h (187 mph) top speed.The problem with Jeeps claim was that Tesla advertised the Model X as the worlds quickest SUV. The P100D version of the Model X can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.1 seconds.As you have observed, the difference in claims is half-a-second for the. The Australians at Motoring asked Jeep for clarification of the situation, and they explained that the Model X from Tesla is a crossover, and not an SUV like the Grand Cherokee.Furthermore, the spokesperson for the off-roading brand owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles stated that the two vehicles are in two different classes.The explanation provided by Jeeps officials is matched with a classification from Wards Auto, which places the Model X in the middle luxury CUV class, while the Grand Cherokee is a Middle SUV. The Model X can be described as an SUV, but the attribution is not correct.Theres a fine line between crossover and SUV , but we do not expect the clients of these brands to be confused in what they want from a vehicle when they choose what to buy. Jeeps product is supposed to be more affordable than the Tesla Model X P100D, which would be another advantage for this marque.
This time, it was the turn of the Nissan Rogue to benefit from something similar, which was matched with a camouflage-inspired exterior wrap. Nissan calls it the Trail Warrior Project, and it is a part of the automaker s partnership with Lucas Film , the company behind the Star Wars franchise.Visitors of the 2017 New York Auto Show will be able to admire this exhibit in Nissans stand, which is at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Evidently, this is a one-off, so you will not be able to buy one in showrooms. However, these track kits are available from aftermarket suppliers, and obtaining one depends on your area of residence.If you dream of fitting tracks on your vehicle, you should know that they cannot be used on paved roads, and that there's a speed limit for them.Prospective customers should be aware that they can be worn out far quicker than a conventional tire meant for off-road conditions appropriate for these tracks. On the other hand, if you want to drive in the snow and feel like a million bucks, it could be a good idea.The tracks seen in the exhibit are for snow or sand, and American Track Truck Inc makes them. The particular model fitted here is called Dominator, and has 48 inches (121 cm) in length, a height of 30 inches (76.2 cm), and have a width of 15 inches (38 cm).They are designed to replace the regular wheels and tires of an automobile, but the recipient needs suspension and wheel modifications to install them.The engine, transmission, and other drivetrain elements have remained standard. The Trail Warrior includes yellow-tinted headlights, custom fender flares, LED lights, a 4K winch from Warn, and an ARB Gear Basket. The wrap used on the body is entirely custom, while the tracks were painted khaki.
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SPRINGFIELD These are halls of justice not mercy, the prosecutor bellowed before the jury as I wiggled uncomfortably in the back of the courtroom, notebook in hand.
I was fresh out of college and covering courts in Texas when I first wrestled with the notion of justice vs. mercy. Justice is when society gives someone a punishment it thinks a defendant deserves. Mercy, on the other hand, is when it extends a hand of compassion.
We are all for compassion when it is we who are standing before the judgement seat. But we arent so much for it when it is someone who has wronged us.
I just finished reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Hes a Harvard-educated lawyer who has devoted his life to representing those sentenced to death. He famously was able to prove one of his clients was factually innocent and have the conviction thrown out.
Sometimes our society makes mistakes. And the death penalty is something that makes me uneasy.
It has since I met a man named Gary Gauger. He was wrongly convicted of murdering his parents in rural McHenry County. He served two years on Illinois death row before his conviction was thrown out.
I met Gauger back in 1990 when he dropped by my office, which was then in the Illinois statehouse. He told his tale of wrongful conviction and left me speechless.
Im libertarian in my philosophy, which means I support limited government. And lets face it, there is no greater intrusion of government than when it chooses to kill one of its citizens.
And after 30 years of covering government, Ive come to the conclusion that it does very little very well.
Even when it comes to the death penalty, in recent decades Illinois managed to sentence 13 men to die who were factually innocent. For this reason, Im glad Illinois no longer has capital punishment.
While Gov. Pat Quinn signed the legislation outlawing the death penalty, it is really Gov. George Ryan who deserves the credit. During his four years in office, he moved from being a supporter of the death penalty to being the nations most vocal opponent of capital punishment. He is the man who emptied Illinois death row.
I used to say, I support the death penalty because some people dont deserve to live. And, no, I havent become naive. I know there are still bad people among us who should be banished to be forever away from society. But what does society gain by killing? Retribution?
Well, perhaps its time to temper our justice with a bit of mercy.
Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist. He works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area and produces the podcast Suspect Convictions. He can be reached at ScottReeder1965@gmail.com.
1 million Christian pilgrims prepare to descend on Rome to mark the Passion and Resurrection of Christ
As Christians descend in their hundreds of thousands on Rome for the ceremonies of Holy Week and Easter, Pope Francis is preparing to visit a jail located 30 miles away to take part in the Maundy Thursday foot-washing ritual.
Last year, Pope Francis visited a refugee centre and washed and kissed the feet of Muslims who had fled the Middle East in fear of their lives.
This year, with the shadow of events in Syria, Iran and Iraq hanging over the world still, and the shocking massacre of Christians in Egypt on Palm Sunday, tourists are aware of the heightened security in the Eternal City.
At least 1 million Christian tourists are expected for the holiest week of the Christian year, culminating next Sunday in celebrations marking the Resurrection of Christ.
'We feel very safe. It's always heartbreaking to see the need for all the security,' tourists told Rome Reports. 'Everything is quite controlled. There are a lot of police, lots of military.'
And this helped them feel safe. 'Personally, I have not felt any threat of danger at any time,' said one visitor.
On Good Friday Pope Francis will lead the celebration of the Passion in Saint Peter's Basilica, beginning at 5 pm. That will be followed at 9.15 pm by the traditional Via Crucis or Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, after which Pope Francis meet the crowds and deliver his traditional blessing.
On Saturday will begin the Easter Vigil in Saint Peter's at 8.30pm, blessing and in a procession with the Paschal candle. And on Easter Day itself, he will preside at Mass in Saint Peter's Square before giving his 'Urbi et Orbi' blessing to the city of Rome and to the world from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica.
In the blessing, he is thought likely to focus once again on the poor and homeless, the continuing tide of refugees fleeing the Middle East still, and the growing threat of escalating conflict in the region.
A quarter of British Christians 'do not believe in the resurrection,' BBC survey suggests
A quarter of people who describe themselves as Christians in Britain do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, a survey commissioned by the BBC for Palm Sunday suggests.
However, almost one in 10 people of no religion say they do believe the Easter story, while claiming that it has 'some content that should not be taken literally'.
And a fifth of non-religious people believe in life after death, according to the poll.
ComRes surveyed 2,010 British adults by telephone, between February 2 and 12, 2017. The research was commissioned by BBC local radio.
The survey suggested that 17 per cent of all people believe the Bible version 'word-for-word', while 31 per cent of Christians believe the literal Bible version, rising to 57 per cent among 'active' Christians (those who go to a service at least once a month).
Exactly half of all people surveyed did not believe in the resurrection at all.
Some 46 per cent of people say they believe in some form of life after death, while 46 per cent do not.
Meanwhile, 20 per cent of non-religious people say they believe in some form of life after death, and nine per cent of non-religious people believe in the resurrection, one per cent of whom say they believe it literally.
The Church of England pointed out that the survey shows that many people hold 'core Christians beliefs'.
Commenting for the CofE, the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker said: 'This important and welcome survey proves that many British people, despite not being regular churchgoers, hold core Christian beliefs.
'Alongside them it finds surprisingly high levels of religious belief among those who follow no specific religion, often erroneously referred to as secularists or atheists.
'This demonstrates how important beliefs remain across our society and hence the importance both of religious literacy and of religion having a prominent place in public discourse.'
The BBC quoted Dr Lorraine Cavanagh, who is the acting general secretary for Modern Church, which promotes liberal Christian theology. She said: 'I think [people answering the survey] are being asked to believe in the way they might have been asked to believe when they were at Sunday school.
'You're talking about adults here. And an adult faith requires that it be constantly questioned, constantly re-interpreted, which incidentally is very much what Modern Church is actually about.
'Science, but also intellectual and philosophical thought has progressed. It has a trickle-down effect on just about everybody's lives.
'So to ask an adult to believe in the resurrection the way they did when they were at Sunday school simply won't do and that's true of much of the key elements of the Christian faith.'
Respondents were split evenly on the issue of life after death.
The majority of Christians say they do believe, while 46 per cent of the general public do and 46 per cent do not, with the remaining eight per cent saying that they do not know.
Examples of life after death in the survey included heaven, hell and reincarnation.
Three in 10 Christians surveyed (31 per cent) said they did not believe in life after death.
However, a fifth of non-religious people surveyed said that they did (21 per cent).
The survey found women were more likely to believe in life after death than men, with around 56 per cent of women surveyed compared with 36 per cent of men.
Of those who did believe in life after death, two thirds of those surveyed (65 per cent) said they thought their souls would go to 'another life' such as heaven or hell while a third thought they would be reincarnated (32 per cent).
Professor Linda Woodhead of the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, said: 'This polling confirms that Britain is now split down the middle between those who call themselves Christian and those who say no religion, but this is not a simple division between religious and secular.
'A significant proportion of Christians don't believe in life after death and a significant number of the non-religious do.
'Belief in a soul and an afterlife persists, including amongst young people, even though belief in the resurrection of Christ and the authority of the Church and the Bible are in decline.'
Almost two in five Christians surveyed say that they never attend religious services (37 per cent), while one fifth say they attend every week (20 per cent).
Younger Christians are more likely than older Christians to say they regularly attend religious services.
Two in five 18-24 year-old Christians (41 per cent) surveyed and 25-34 year-old Christians (42 per cent) say they attend a service at least once a month, compared with about a quarter of 45-54 year olds (22 per cent) and 55-64 year olds (26 per cent).
In the BBC-commissioned survey, people were asked to choose whether they believed in the resurrection of Jesus 'word-for-word' as described in the Bible, whether they believed it happened but that some of the Bible content should 'not be taken literally', whether they did not believe in the resurrection or whether they did not know.
Full data tables are available at www.comresglobal.com
American war hero dies saving drowning boy during missionary work in Indonesia
A Christian from Ohio who survived explosions during combat in Afghanistan and Iraq died saving the life of a young boy while doing missionary work in Indonesia.
Tim Adams, from Warren, was described as 'very humble, very caring, and loving' by his brother Lenny, WKBN reported.
Adams enlisted in the Army, serving in the Middle East and surviving three explosions. 'He was a combat engineer. His main duty was to disarm explosives and clear ways for infantry to come in,' Lenny Adams said.
In January, Adams signed on to be a missionary intern through Grace Fellowship Church in Niles and Liberty University, at the age of 35.
On March 5 in Indonesia, he was swimming off a beach with some children when the water quickly rose above their heads. 'He stayed out to get the kids in and he sacrificed himself for a six-year-old,' Lenny said.
Roy Mack, the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Niles, the church Adams attended, said Adams felt guilty for killing people in the line of service: 'He said, "You know, I want to spend the rest of my life not carrying bullets to other parts of the world, but I want to carry the word of God and live out my life serving Christ this way."'
The boy saved by Adams is named Daniel and is the son of one of the missionaries. 'In fact, Daniel still had Tim's hat in his hand. He had put him up on his shoulders to keep him from going under and I mean, literally, just gave his life to make sure that little boy had a life to go to,' Pastor Mack said.
Lenny said he was not surprised his brother died saving a life.
The funeral service for Tim Adams was held on Saturday at Grace Fellowship Church, with full military honours.
Flights into Egypt: Could the Holy Family's route from Bethlehem become a pilgrim trail again?
Pope Francis is to visit Egypt next month and Egyptian tourist authorities are using the event to publicise a 'Way of the Holy Family' pilgrimage destination.
The vital Egyptian tourist trade has been devastated by terror attacks leading to countries including the UK recommending against all but essential travel to some areas.
According to Fides, the pilgrimage trail aims to follow the route traditionally taken by Joseph, Mary and Jesus as they fled King Herod's forces after the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2:13-15). There were Jewish settlements at Alexandria and in many other Egyptian towns and cities where they would have been able to find refuge.
Egypt has recently restored the Abu Sarga cave church, dating from the 5th century, where local tradition says the family rested before starting their journey back to Palestine.
The trail is expected to start at the town of Al-Arish in Northern Sinai, which has been the scene of violence against Coptic Christians by jihadist groups, and progress toward the Nile Delta, Wadi Natrun, Assiut and the Monastery of the Virgin Mary.
Francis is to visit Cairo at the end of April at the invitation of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque and Christian leaders.
Relations between the Vatican and Egypt soured in 2011 when Pope Benedict called for Christian minorities to be protected after an attack on a church in Alexandria. Egypt withdrew its ambassador to the Holy See and Al-Azhar University also broke off ties, which were not reinstated until October last year.
Growing number of Americans 'love Jesus, but not the Church,' new study finds
A growing minority of Americans are 'spiritual but not religious' and 'love Jesus, but not the Church' according to a new study by the Barna Group.
Some 11 per cent of those surveyed say they are 'spiritual but not religious' and 10 per cent say they 'love Jesus, but not the Church'.
The latter group are Christians who say their faith is important to them, but have not attended church in six months or more.
They do, however, share many core beliefs with their church-going neighbours: nearly all of them (around 95 per cent) believe in only one God, that he is omnipresent, and that he is the 'all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator of the universe who rules the world today'. Meanwhile, 89 per cent of them are committed to Jesus.
'They still love Jesus, still believe in Scripture, and most of the tenets of their Christian faith. But they have lost faith in the Church,' said Roxanne Stone, editor in chief of Barna Group.
The group who 'love Jesus, but not the Church' has grown from seven per cent in 2004, according to Barna.
'While many people in this group may be suffering from church wounds, we also know from past research that Christians who do not attend church say it's primarily not out of wounding, but because they can find God elsewhere or that church is not personally relevant to them,' said Stone. 'Churches need to be able to say to these peopleand to answer for themselves that there is a unique way you can find God only in church. And that faith does not survive or thrive in solitude.'
The 'love Jesus, but not the Church' group is mostly white (61 per cent) and mostly female (63 per cent), according to the new research.
They are nearly as likely to identify as Republican (25 per cent) as Democrat (30 per cent).
Believers who have given up on the Church still pray (83 per cent) and consider themselves 'spiritual' (89 per cent) about as much as fellow Christians, Barna reported.
But they are only half as likely to read Scripture and a quarter as likely to pick up spiritual books, and they will not attend religious groups or retreats.
'Spiritual leaders should not discount [the] group of the "spiritual but not religious,"' Stone added. 'They are distinct among their irreligious peers in their spiritual curiosity and openness. The majority of those who have rejected religious faith do not describe themselves as spiritual (65 percent), similarly two-thirds of those with no faith at all do not identify as spiritual. So those who do this group of the spiritual but not religious display an uncommon inclination to think beyond the material and to experience the transcendent. Such a desire can open the door to deep, spiritual conversations and, in time, perhaps a willingness to hear about Christian spirituality.'
How jihadis are killing Egypt's 'soft target' Christians to undermine the state
Islamic State attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt are not just anti-Christian but are 'part of concerted efforts to undermine the Egyptian state', according to a spokesman from SAT-7, the Christian satellite broadcasting organisation that works throughout the Middle East.
'Christians are an easily identifiable and vulnerable group who are seen by militant Islamists as supporting the state and churches are a soft target,' Lindsay Shaw told Christian Today.
The atrocities are the latest in a series directed against Egypt's Christians. On December 11, 2016, a suicide bomber entered the St Peter and Paul Church next to the Cairo Coptic Cathedral and killed some 30 worshippers.
From January 31, jihadists in North Sinai mounted a series of house-to-house and drive-by shootings in the coastal town of El-Arish after leafleting them with 24 hours' notice to leave or be killed. Seven people were murdered and hundreds of Christian families fled to other cities.
On February 17 an Egyptian affiliate of Islamic State released a video featuring the bomber who had died in the Cairo explosion, masked and vowing that 'we will come bearing explosives'.
Shaw said: 'Although Christians are being targeted, it appears to be part of a wider strategy to destabilise and undermine the Egyptian state. Lower-level attacks against Christians especially in rural areas where they are ineffectively policed have been an ongoing problem in Egypt. But Christians are now being selected as a soft and easily identifiable target.
'For the jihadists of Islamic State they are also seen as one group who have no place in their vision of a strictly Islamic society. Typically attacks designed to strike terror have taken place during major religious or national festivals. This is true of the car bombing of Al-Qeddesine Church in Alexandria as long ago as New Year 2011.
'Yesterday the bombers selected one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar in the knowledge that far larger numbers of worshippers families included would gather to mark the start of Holy Week. A further reason for the timing is probably the imminent visit of Pope Francis to Egypt from April 28-29.'
SAT-7 production crews visited both churches today and spoke with those affected by the events. It will broadcast a special programme tonight.
On a SAT-7 ARABIC Facebook page, the channel posted a series of messages including the following: 'Our hearts are crushed with pain because of the horrifying terrorist crimes at St George Coptic Orthodox Church in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria. We lift our eyes to the living God asking for consolation to all the families of the martyrs and healing for all the injured.'
SAT-7 founder and International Chief Executive, Dr Terence Ascott, referred to the 'sick and distorted ideologies that have possessed the minds of some, to the point where the act of killing innocent children and destroying the lives of as many others as possible can be seen as a service to God'.
He said: 'In the end, winning the battle for people's minds is the only way to stop such carnage. As a media organisation serving in this very troubled region, may God give us wisdom in what to say; and give our viewers the ears to hear and respond to his love for all people yes, even those who, at this moment, may be rejoicing at the successful murder and maiming of yet more of our brothers and sisters in Egypt.'
ISIS' Palm Sunday bombings of Egypt churches kill 44, state of emergency declared
At least 44 people were killed and over 100 injured in Palm Sunday bombings on two Coptic churches in Egypt. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Egypt's president has declared a national state of emergency.
The first bombing, yesterday morning in Tanta, a Nile Delta city less than 60 miles north of Cairo, killed at least 27 and injured at least 78, according to Egypt's ministry of health.
Just hours later a second bombing took place from a suicide bomber in Alexandria, at St Mark's Cathedral, the historic seat of Coptic Pope Tawadros II. The blast killed 17, including three police officers, and injured 48. The Coptic Pope was unharmed.
ISIS quickly claimed responsibility for the two suicide bombings.
'Crusaders and their apostate allies should know the bill between us and them is very big and they will pay it with rivers of blood from their children, God willing. Wait for us, for we will wait for you,' the jihadist group said in a statement.
Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month nationwide state of emergency following the attacks. In a televised speech addressing the country, he called for unity, and for responsible media coverage of the attacks.
'Deal with the issue with credibility and responsibility and awareness. It's not right what I'm seeing being repeated on all of our channels, and you know this hurts Egyptians,' he said.
He ordered the immediate deployment of military troops to assist police in its security measures.
In a statement he added: 'The attack...will only harden the determination [of the Egyptian people] to move forward on their trajectory to realise security, stability and comprehensive development.'
Pope Tawadros said: 'These acts will not harm the unity and cohesion of the people.'
Yesterday the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Coptic Church in the UK condemned the attacks and offered their condolences, with the latter promoting the hashtag #PrayForTanta.
President Trump, who hosted Sisi last week in the US, expressed sympathy and support for the president. He wrote on Twitter: 'So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. US strongly condemns. I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly.'
Hundreds gathered outside the Tanta church shortly after the first bombing, many weeping at the loss of friends and relatives caught in the Palm Sunday service blasts.
'There was blood all over the floor and body parts scattered,' said one woman who was inside the church at the time of the explosion. Another woman described 'extremely severe' injuries.
In December, ISIS claimed responsibility for a Cairo Coptic church bombing that killed 27. In February, the jihadist group released a video inciting violence against the 'infidel' Christian faith community. At least seven individuals have been murdered by militants in northern Egypt since January 30, with victims being burned alive, stabbed in their sleep and shot in the street.
Hundreds fled the coastal city of El-Arish, Sinai in late February following an increasing terror threat from ISIS against the Coptic Christian community. Bishop Angaelos, the head of the Coptic church in the UK, said Copts in the area were essentially told to 'leave or die'. Most of the displaced people found refuge in the governate of Ismailia, given ad hoc shelter and provisions courtesy of churches and other groups in the area.
Egypt's Christians mostly Orthodox Copts represent about 10 per cent of the country's majority Muslim population.
Bishop Angaelos said in a statement yesterday following the attacks: 'We pray for His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and all our Coptic clergy in Egypt who continue to serve their spiritual children faithfully and diligently at a time in which their leadership and pastoral care is needed by our whole community.
'We also pray for our Coptic Orthodox sisters and brothers who continue to be resilient in the face of ongoing and escalating attacks, and who resist the urge to react vengefully or reciprocally.
'As we celebrate Palm Sunday today and Christ's entry into Jerusalem, we now also mark the entry of those who have passed today into the heavenly Jerusalem. As we continue into the Holy Week of our Saviour, we share in the pain and heartbreak of their families and of all those affected by today's incidents.
'As we celebrate the Feast of the glorious Resurrection at the end of this week, we are reminded that our life here on earth is a journey often filled with pain, at the end of which is a promised glorious and eternal life void of such suffering and evil.'
Additional reporting by Reuters
Police raid Indian church, question US visitors after Hindu group alleges conversion activity
Christians in India were left 'shocked' after police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh were called to a church by members of a Hindu youth group who demanded that the officers investigate a group of Americans they believed were engaged in forced religious conversions.
A team of officers arrived at St Andrew's Church in the village of Dadhauli, about 230 miles east of Lucknow, and found about 25 activists from the group Hindu Yuva Vahini with a written request for a police inquiry, according to the lead officer Anand Kumar Gupta.
Inside the church, the police found nine foreigners, including American tourists, and a group of villagers involved in a prayer service. There was no evidence of efforts to convert Hindus to Christianity, and after checking the foreigners' passports and ensuring that they all had valid tourist visas, the police allowed them to leave.
Gupta said: 'We did not file any complaint as we found no such activity happening there.'
The incident left the group's host as well as the foreigners shaken. 'We were all shocked,' said Dev Raj, a member of a Christian organisation in New Delhi who had taken a group of friends, seven Americans and two Ukranians, on a tour of northern India. 'My friends said: "Is this what normally happens in India? That you visit a church and are mobbed by a group of men?"'
The encounter brings into focus the tensions between emboldened right-wing Hindu activists and India's minority groups including Christians, particularly when it comes to missionary activity.
Last month India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party shut down a Christian charity, Compassion International, because of suspicions that it was engaging in conversions.
The Hindu Yuva Vahini, or Hindu Youth Brigade, was formed in 2002 by Yogi Adityanath, a hard-line Hindu priest who was appointed the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh last month.
Adityanath is known for provocative comments about India's minorities. In 2015, when a Muslim man was killed by a Hindu mob outside Delhi over rumours that he had slaughtered a cow revered as sacred in Hinduism Adityanath defended the mob and said that the family of the man should be prosecuted. He has also called for India to be enshrined as a Hindu rashtra, or Hindu nation.
But since becoming chief minister, Adityanath has also moderated his language about minorities, saying all groups should be tolerated.
'Revolutionary' new book seeks healing for the Catholic Church and LGBT community
A provocative new book about the Catholic Church and the LGBT community has won high praise from leading figures in the Catholic tradition.
Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity (HarperOne, $19.99) is a new book from New York Times bestselling author James Martin SJ.
Martin has become a leading voice in the Catholic Church advocating for love and sensitivity to the LGBT community. He is also known for his closeness to Pope Francis, who while not advocating for any change in Catholic teaching on sexuality, has made unusually progressive comments on the subject. Francis won criticism and applause when he said last year that the Church needed to apologise to gay people.
Martin's new book, to be released on June 13, has already won wide acclaim from key voices in the Catholic Church.
'In too many parts of our Church LGBT people have been made to feel unwelcome, excluded, and even shamed,' said Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey in a commendation of Martin's book.
He added: 'Father Martin's brave, prophetic, and inspiring new book marks an essential step in inviting Church leaders to minister with more compassion, and in reminding LGBT Catholics that they are as much a part of our c
Church as any other Catholic.'
Bishop of San Diego Robert McElory wrote: 'The Gospel demands that LGBT Catholics be genuinely loved and treasured in the life of the Church. They are not.
'Martin provides us the language, perspective, and sense of urgency to undertake the arduous but monumentally Christlike task of replacing a culture of alienation with a culture of merciful inclusion.'
As well as receiving endorsements from high-profile cardinals, the book also received support from those further on the edges of Catholic tradition. Sister Jannine Gramick pioneered New Ways ministry, a group that describes itself as a 'gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian and gay Catholics and reconciliation in the larger Christian and civil communities'.
Gramick's teaching on sexuality was previously considered beyond Catholic orthodoxy and she was barred from the Vatican, according to RNS. She wrote: 'Sexuality, gender, and religion a volatile mix! With this book, Father Martin shows how the Rosary and the rainbow flag can peacefully meet each other.'
Martin previously addressed New Ways ministry in October, where he outlined his reflections on 'respect, compassion and sensitivity' that formed his upcoming book. His address was republished here.
His book calls for both sides to listen to each other and engage in mutual respect. He implores the Church to call LGBT people by the terms they give themselves (as opposed to simply 'homosexual') and called for an end to discrimination in the Church against the LGBT community. His book does not advocate a change in Church teaching, nor address the issue of same-sex marriage.
The book's blurb describes Martin's book as a 'roadmap for repairing and strengthening the bonds that unite all of us as God's children'.
Building a Bridge will be published on June 13.
'The church was filled with the bodies of the dead': Egypt Palm Sunday bombing survivors speak out
Eyewitnesses of the blasts that took the lives of 49 Egyptian Coptic Christians have spoken of the horror of the events.
The Coptic Pope, Tawadros II, narrowly escaped injury in one of the atttacks. He told local television that 'sinful acts will not undermine the unity and coherence of the Egyptian people in the face of terrorism'.
Two bombs were exploded, one in St George's Cathedral in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, killing 25 people and injuring at least 78, followed by a second at St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, where Tawadros had just celebrated mass. Eighteen worshippers and four police officers were killed, and 35 were injured.
Abanoub Gamal, a member of St George's, told World Watch Monitor: 'I was standing behind the back pews, next to the church door. At about 9.05am I noticed a man wearing a brown jacket enter the church and walk among the pews from the back to the front ... [He] stood in front of the church altar and he then exploded himself.'
He continued: 'Then there was a huge explosion, the lights went off, all the people screamed, the situation was terrible. The church was filled with the bodies of the dead, body parts and the injured. Blood was splattered all over the place and reached the church ceiling.'
Gamal said he believed the Bishop of Tanta, Paula, was targeted but escaped death because he was not the celebrant at yesterday's Mass. However, 'the blast destroyed his chair by the altar'.
Video footage shows a robed male choir singing in the moments before the explosion, when the picture cuts out and shouting and screaming can be heard. Most victims were men and many were deacons because the suicide bomber detonated his vest near to the pews in which the men sit.
Mobile phone footage from the moments after the blast shows palm fronds in pools of blood, the floor of the church spattered with in blood, dust and masonry, and the decapitated body of one of the dead being carried out on a stretcher. One woman is heard screaming hysterically, while other members of the congregation move pews to get to the injured.
Eyewitnesses said of the Alexandria attack that the suicide bomber tried to enter the church as worshippers were leaving. A member of the congregation, Mina Makram, said one of the cathedral's guards, a man named Nasim, 'stopped him, prevented him from entering the cathedral, and asked him to pass through a metal detector first. The man entered the detector briefly, then took a step back and exploded the suicide vest he was wearing under his jacket.'
She said Nasim's actions had saved many lives, including that of Pope Tawadros, at whom she said she believed the attack was aimed.
'Pope Tawadros was targeted to be killed... if this suicide bomber had been able to enter the church, the number of the victims would have been more,' she said.
Sameh Fahim, who had attended the papal mass, told World Watch Monitor: I walked just 20 metres out of the church and heard the sound of a huge explosion. White dust filled the place, body parts were flying through the air, people were screaming and running in the street. One was screaming, "My son!",another was screaming, "My wife!"; and another was screaming, "My grandson!", as they searched for their loved ones. I saw body parts like a body without a head; it was a terrifying sight.'
The attacks have been widely condemned and raise questions about the protection afforded to Egypt's Christian citizens by its government. Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar University, the seat of Sunni learning, said it was a 'despicable terrorist bombing that targeted the lives of innocents'.
A local Christian known as 'Nehemiah', who works to support Christians under pressure for their faith in Egypt, told World Watch Monitor he feared some Christians would be too scared to attend the daily church services that will take place throughout the rest of Holy Week.
He added: 'One of the most joyful days for Christians in Egypt is Palm Sunday. To prepare for that day, parents buy palm leaves for children the day before and weave them together and decorate them with spring roses, so that children can carry them happily the next day to church and place them near the pulpit... But that joyful day turned into a painful tragedy.
'My soul is bitter and my spirit is crying in pain and agony. Lord have mercy on Egypt, Lord unveil the dark spirit of deception and show Your light, Lord help Your children to continue to be people with guts, courage and strong convictions, and may Your name be glorified even in the middle of death, pain and devastation.'
Before you shed any more tears, though, dear Gentle Reader, please consider who had long been empowered with this tool. Have you thought about asking whether or not these Senators deserved it in the first place?
Many on both sides of the aisle shed a tear or two as the US Senate lost one of its most famous and romantic tools; until the Democrats overplayed their hand on the Gorsuch nomination, a single Senator could hold up a presidential appointee with a filibuster. No more.
In the first week of April, 2017, a nostalgic nation watched as one of the grand old institutions crumbled into dust: the Senate filibuster was removed from the toolbox for presidential appointments.
I believe that a great deal of our political trouble today is caused by a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of our government - not just in what the government is for, but in how the Constitution designed it to function how much thought the Framers put into its careful design.
They were frustrated by the failures of the Articles of Confederation, and recognized that no mere amendment would do; we needed a new Constitution to obtain public support, and to both set up a national government and simultaneously rein it in, to both provide for the prosperity and security of the American people and to fully protect our liberties. A difficult task.
Read the notes taken at the convention, by Robert Yates, James Madison and others or read the fascinating books about it, such as David O Stewarts The Summer of 1787 and consider the contributions of Madison, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, Roger Sherman, Rufus King, and in particular, General Washington, whom the delegates elected as their presiding officer.
The Founding Fathers - and most specifically the Framers (the men who participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787) - understood that a national government is a necessary evil, and wanted that government to be successful, and effective, in its proper functions.
But they also knew that a national government would want to expand... that both elected officials and bureaucratic appointees would try to expand their influence - for good, of course, always for good - and they knew that each such expansion would pose a greater threat to the people's freedom.
So today, in studying our government and its perks and rules, we need to recognize how the people in the national government were meant to be selected, and recognize that it was a very deliberate selection process. The Framers didnt just throw the dice and say okay, well pick the Senate this way and the House that way. It was deliberate.
One house of the legislature would be known as the peoples house. In a nation quite intentionally designed without referenda, this would be the closest thing to democracy the new system would allow. The House of Representatives would be picked directly by the voters, every two years, so there would always be a representation in our nations capitol of the publics most recent will.
By contrast, the executive the President would be selected by an Electoral College a group of wise people, perhaps statesmen, perhaps just local worthies, elected by the voters. Through the Electoral College, the public could appoint thoughtful people who could be trusted to choose well. Their sole duty would be their vote for President, so they would presumably give it everything they had. Again, this is close to democracy, but not directly; the public chooses middlemen to gather and deliberate on their behalf. The Framers were certain that people make more intelligent decisions when deliberating in a group than when simply walking into a voting booth, checking a box, and departing.
Finally, we have the US Senate. The public would not select them at all.
The way the Framers set up our country, this was up to the states; each state government had two seats to fill in the US Senate, and it was up to them how the state legislatures select them. Perhaps the governor would submit names for consideration? Perhaps the state house would send several nominations to the state senate for a final run-off? Their choice.
Why? To empower the state governments in Washington.
Many of the Framers rightly worried that eliminating the Articles of Confederation would leave the state governments powerless in the new nations capital. Some for noble reasons, others jealous for power, most wanted to ensure that the state governments not just the people in those states, but their experienced, thoughtful representatives still had the power to rein in the new national government if it ever went too far.
Most of the Framers therefore knew that the Senate was the most important piece of this process, the lynchpin of the whole deal, specifically because the Senate was chosen by the state governments.
These US Senators would jealously guard the rights of the people and the states, because they would understand, better than anyone else, that any expansion of the national government in Washington would by definition be an incursion upon the state authority and individual freedoms that the Senators are there to protect.
The Guard Towers
Please think of the federal government in Washington DC as a prison complex, and of the Constitution as the wall surrounding that prison. The Constitution has limits each body can do this, and only this each body is limited in what its allowed to tax, to regulate, to attempt and anything outside these limits is forbidden to those within the government. Its a wall ten or twenty feet high, with barbed wire on top.
All the people inside this prison complex both the elected officials and the bureaucrats - would naturally want to break through that wall and expand their powers, right? Of course they would.
Every newly created agency, every new law, every new program that the regulators enforce, is going to be an expansion beyond that original wall, enlarging the national government, enlarging the scope of Washington DC. You can picture sections of wall being opened up, all the time, pushing it out 20 feet to the north, then 50 feet to the southwest, then another 100 feet to the east as the inmates constantly and naturally try to expand their areas of influence.
And thats what the Framers were worried about. They pictured this tiny national capital city, to be designed so cleverly by Pierre Charles LEnfant a few years later, gradually expanding until it became the massive leviathan that they so terribly feared. They didnt want to risk their handiwork enabling the very monster of an encroaching government that theyd just fought a revolution against!
So now we come to the U.S. Senate.
Remember, the voters directly sent Congressmen to the nations capital to do stuff for them, or to get stuff for them, stuff that might lead to enlarging the government, breaking through the walls that the Constitution had erected. Similarly, they sent a President there after a huge national election, hoping that he would do stuff for them, and get stuff for them, as well. Hopefully from the perspective of this small d democratic population, the House and President will work together to make sure it happens, and the gravy train flows smoothly!
Where do the Senators fit in this picture? They're the prison guards, sharpshooters in teams of two per state, posted very indirectly by the American people through their state governments, in the guard towers all along the prison wall. First thirteen, then fifteen, then on and on until we now have fifty such guard towers encircling the nations capital.
The job of the U.S. Senate is to constantly be on the lookout for bad appointments to the judiciary, and for bad laws being proposed in the House, and bad new agencies or regulations being proposed by the newspapers or the lobbyists, bad cabinet secretaries being proposed by the President.
The U.S. Senate is there to watch out for anyone or anything that would enlarge the scope of the national government beyond its proper, constitutional scale.
The job of the U.S. Senate is to stand at the ready, with binoculars and night vision goggles, rifles cocked and ready at their sides, and watch for such encroachments and then to stop them.
The Constitution gave the Senate several tools for this task the impeachment process, the "advise and consent" process, the legislative process, etc.
The Senate's job is to identify encroachments, and stop them.
So to return to our prison metaphor, the Senators are the guards, very carefully selected and posted by the 50 states in these guard towers metaphorically surrounding Washington DC. They were given wonderful tools - the impeachment process, the security of six-year terms, the filibuster, and so many more - to use in the service of this one goal: keeping the leviathan at bay.
Their job was to watch closely, and whenever they see anyone trying to break out of these Constitutional limits and expand the walls trying to expand the power of the national government the Senators were supposed to shoot them down.
And it worked pretty darned well, for over 120 years, too.
The Errors of (and leading up to) 1913
Unfortunately, some of the states never fully understood this process never fully understood how carefully and thoughtfully the Framers had been looking out for their interests. So by the late 1800s, some of the states had a reputation for chicanery in their selection of Senators, and some others were giving in to the populist effort to let the public have control of this house too and finally, in 1913, the 17th amendment was passed, mandating direct election of US Senators.
This one colossal error removed the state governments' one and only institutional check on the federal government, essentially just turning the Senators into stuffier, more powerful, just-as-democratic Congressmen, but with six-year-terms.
In other words, the prison guards now serve the prisoners unite with the prisoners join the prisoners at the feast.
They're on the same side as the people they were supposed to be guarding us from.
Now that it's all changed, do today's Senators really still deserve all the perks and tools that the Senators had when they served their state governments in their original cause?
Well, if you ever wondered why the walls have all collapsed and the federal government can now rule the entire country, with nothing holding them back now you know.
Many accuse the Constitution of failing, because the national government is now enormous, but thats not fair. When the Constitution was in place, from 1788 through 1913, it did a pretty good job of keeping the national government small, by using the self-interest of the state governments as a wonderfully, brilliantly effective permanent check on the federal government.
Until 1913, when we ratified the 17th amendment, and the states totally destroyed the country.
The lesson of the day is to never allow the inmates to appoint the guards on the prison walls.
Our current socialist, omnipresent national government isn't the fault of the Constitution at all, it's the fault of the conscious destruction of the Constitution's brilliant plan in 1913.
Copyright 2017 John F. Di Leo
John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based trade compliance trainer, actor and writer, who has actually never been to a penitentiary, either as a prisoner or an inmate. His columns are regularly found in Illinois Review.
Permission is hereby granted to forward freely, provided it is uncut and the IR URL and byline are included.
What is the festival of Passover?
Sunset today marks the beginning of the festival of Passover. It's a defining festival for the Jewish people, and it's of deep significance in the Christian faith too. What is it?
Passover (in Hebrew Pesach) celebrates the journey of the Israelites from oppressive slavery under Pharaoh to freedom and the beginning of their journey to the Promised Land.
The story, narrated in the book of Exodus, tells us how God was grieved at the slavery of his chosen people, the children of Israel. Through Moses, he begins their journey to liberation. God visits nine plagues on Egypt, as a demonstration of his power and judgement to Pharaoh. These horrific plagues included rivers of blood, swarms of flies, locusts and frogs, the death of livestock and finally an oppressive darkness lasting three days.
Lastly, God sends the tenth plague: an angel who visits death on the first-born of every house in Egypt. The Israelites were to absolve themselves from this visitation through the death of a sacrificial lamb (Exodus 12).
Every household would take an unblemished one-year old male lamb and look after it for four days, before slaughtering it at twilight. Then they were to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the door frames of their homes. This sign meant the angel of the Lord would 'pass over' that household, and not strike down their first-born.
In the midst of this grave night, the Israelites make their escape from Egypt. It is a pivotal, dramatic moment that marks their journey from slavery to freedom.
Since that day (Approximately 1300 BC) for thousands of years, the Jewish people have re-enacted that moment through the festival of Passover.
When the Jews fled in the middle of the night, they had no time to add yeast to their dough. For this reason the festival is famous for its use of matzo (flat, unleavened bread, made without yeast). Before Passover begins, the whole house must be cleared of any chametz (leaven). This cleansing can also illustrate a spiritual purging from the impurity of sin.
The most iconic moment of the Passover is the Seder meal, a precisely ordered ritual which takes place on the first two nights of Passover.
In this meal, bitter herbs are eaten alongside the Matzo, just as the Israelites had in their final meal before they fled Egypt. These herbs, usually horseradish today, also represent the bitterness of slavery.
A potato is dipped in salt water, as a depiction of the tears the Jews shed in slavery. As the story of the Exodus is narrated, a cup of wine is also spilt to symbolise the suffering of the Egyptians that accompanied the Jewish liberation.
In Israel the festival lasts seven days. Everywhere else, it is an eight-day period, where the first and last two days are observed as days of rest. It always begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew Calendar.
The Bible frequently recalls the Exodus event, reminding the Jewish people to reflect on God's grace and their freedom through enacting the Passover meal.
Jesus himself celebrates the Passover meal with his disciples, while instituting a mysterious new tradition, inviting his followers to drink wine and break bread in remembrance of a new kind of 'Exodus' that was about to take place.
For Christians, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who suffers to save the people from judgment. Through his sacrifice God's judgment would once again 'pass over'. Through the redemption Jesus achieves, humankind is taken from a spiritual slavery to a spiritual freedom, and the dark forces of Satan like Pharaoh are defeated.
Freedom is a profound gift, and is never to be taken for granted. Through Passover, it's something the Jewish people have understood for millennia.
Why it's time to stop mis-using 'For such a time as this'
There are some biblical phrases of which we just can't get enough. Forgetting the context entirely, Christians love to reappropriate lines of Scripture as if they were simply idioms to be quoted as popular wisdom or pinned to a fridge door. Jeremiah's promise that God will prosper and not harm his followers is perhaps the most famous example, but there are plenty of others; Jesus' promise of a 'full measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over' being poured into your lap (Luke 6:38) is another classic.
One of the absolute favourites, particularly in more charismatic and pentecostal circles, is a fragment of a verse from Esther 4 :14: 'for such a time as this'. It's movie-trailer stuff, an intoxicating phrase that suggests action, purpose and immediacy. No wonder it's been the title or subtitle for a thousand conferences and events, been inserted into countless prophecies, and is almost certainly emblazoned on a fair few church clocks.
We Christians love to use that phrase to give a bit of time-sensitivity to our plans and activities. Tonight we're holding a youth event... 'for such a time as this'. The women of the church are meeting for pastries and prayer, 'for such a time as this'. Those six words find their way into funding applications, job adverts, and perhaps most regularly, prophetic words.
It's an offbeat phrase, which is probably why it's so popular, but what we're really saying through it is that the time in which we're living is somehow more important and vital in God's eternal timeline than almost any other. That in itself might be a bit self-indulgent, but the more dangerous application is that if we're not careful, we start to call God to serve our own timescales, not his own. It's as if we think by using it, we can somehow compel him to act right now, marching to our drum, rather than in his own timing. It's like we're saying: come on God, this is your moment...
It's perhaps no surprise that when we look at the original context in the Old Testament, we find that there's a bit more going on than that six-word fragment might suggest. Queen Esther is meeting secretly with her adopted father Mordecai, who tells her she's Israel's big hope against the murderous plans of the King's adviser. The evil Haman wants to wipe out the Jews and has tricked King Xerxes into signing a genocide warrant. Mordecai suggests that as Queen, Esther has been specially positioned to stop the plot by talking to her husband. Mordecai's exact words: 'But who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?'
The first interesting thing to note is that Mordecai is hardly definitive. He doesn't impose a certain belief that God has ordained this situation, and that he will certainly save the people through Esther. He simply finds it amazing that this has happened, and wonders aloud if indeed this is the work of God. This is an important distinction, because it means that if Esther fails, God isn't thwarted or disproved. 'For such a time as this' isn't a statement, but a question.
The other interesting point is found at the start of the very same verse, when Mordecai reminds Esther that she's not the saviour of her people God is. In fact he actually says that if she stays silent, and doesn't step up at her probably-God-ordained moment, 'relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place'. Mordecai doesn't tell Esther that the whole universe is about to pivot upon her actions in this moment; instead he's pointing out that she's been given an opportunity to join in with what God appears to be doing in that place and time. If she doesn't do it, God is still God, and will still come to the rescue of his people.
What I think our love of this phrase really comes down to is our own impatience. Mis-appropriating and over-using it belies our need to be involved in exciting moves of God's power right here, right now. We don't like sitting and waiting for him to move; we don't enjoy running by his timing. Instinctively in a fast-moving, experience-it-now culture, we want every time to be 'such a time as this'.
And of course, this time might be. Sometimes God does use us in specific ways, at crucially-important moments. Much more often though, he simply invites us to be part of the long and unglamorous journey of life and faith. It's OK to wonder, like Mordecai, if God might have arranged the present because he's inviting us to be used in some special way today, but this shouldn't distract us from the everyday, and beautifully ordinary pursuit of following him, in every time.
Martin Saunders is a contributing editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders.
Will a U.S. missile attack on Syria signal fulfilment of the Bible's End-Time prophecy? Some Christians think so
The spiralling Syrian conflict was made even grimmer by last week's eventsSyria's chemical weapons attack that killed at least 85 people on Tuesday and the U.S. missile counterstrike on Thursday and it has apparently revived an intense Christian theological debate on whether the unfolding events have some Biblical connections.
Evangelical Christian author Joel Rosenberg has pointed to Old Testament scriptures like Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49, linking them to the events happening in Syria, according to Faithwire.
Those scriptures both say that Damascus, Syria's capital, will be "destroyed."
"We're watching Damascus unravel...is that the prelude to the completion of those prophesies?" Rosenberg asked.
Giving further Biblical overtones to the situation in Syria is the involvement of Russia and Iran. In a blog post, Rosenberg claimed way back in June 2012 that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "working hand-in-glove with Iran's government" in support of the Syrian regime.
He then drew on the writings of Hebrew prophet Ezekiel over 2,500 years ago to argue that in the "last days" of history, Russia and Iran would form a military alliance to attack Israel from the north.
"Bible scholars refer to this eschatological conflict, described in Ezekiel 3839, as the 'War of Gog & Magog. Are these sudden and dramatic moves by Moscow and Tehran...simply coincidental, or [do they] have prophetic implications?" Rosenberg asked, according to CBN News.
Prophecy author Jack Kinsella shared Rosenberg's views that it is possible Syria will look to engage neighbouring countries, such as Israel, Iran or Turkey, in the conflict.
On a commentary for Olive Tree Ministries in June 2012, Kinsella said that if Syria uses chemical or biological weapons in an ethnic cleansing campaign, it would force foreign governments to take military action against Damascus. He predicted that such action would prompt Syria to retaliate with military strikes against its northern neighbor Israel, which could eventually lead to a domino effect, with counter-strikes from Hezbollah, Iran, Turkey and perhaps even Jordan.
However, Hank Hanegraaff, another Christian author known as the "Bible Answer Man," does not believe that current events in Syria are fulfilling biblical prophecies.
Hanegraaff said on his radio talk show sometime in 2013 that some pastors' efforts to link biblical prophecy to the 21st century are irresponsible. He said these pastors and Bible experts are "dragging Christ's name through the mud," according to The Blaze.
He said he could not believe that the people who wrote the Bible were looking into a distant future, stating that they only wrote about prophecy that would unfold in their immediate future, which already happened a long time ago.
Hanegraaff said some theologians are "reading into the scriptures their own eschatological views," and not what the scriptures are all about.
Hanegraaff finds support from Dr. Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame. In a 2013 article for The Daily Beast, she rejected claims that Damascus would play a role in the apocalypse, pointing out that the ancient city has already been conquered repeatedly by various armies.
"Isaiah lived and wrote in the eighth century BCE [BC] and scholars think that the original prophecy referred to the conquest of Damascus by the Assyrians in 732 BCE [BC]," she wrote. "But that's not the only time Damascus has seen conflict."
Moss stated that among the conquerors of Damascus were Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great.
You could not ask for a clearer demonstration of how todays Democratic Party embodies all the forces most contrary to the Founders Constitution than the reasons party officials gave for their adamant opposition to Neil Gorsuchs nomination to the Supreme Court.
Start with the Democrats main line of attack against the distinguished jurist, painting him, as a New York Times headline put it with patronizing folksiness, as no friend of the little guy. Senate minority leader Charles Schumer of New York was the partys most relentless barker of this charge: Gorsuch is someone who almost instinctively favors the powerful over the weak, corporations over working Americans, Schumer claimed. Far too often, he sides with the powerful few over everyday Americans just trying to get a fair shake.
The allegation that Gorsuch is a biased judge is about as serious a charge as one can level against a jurist, though its not clear that Schumer realized the gravity of his slur against a man whose integrity seems impeccable. Fortunately, the Senate Judiciary Committees ranking Democrat, Diane Feinstein of California, thought to ask Gorsuch if he could cite cases where he had given the worker a fair shot. Out of some 2,700 decisions, the judge replied, he could list quite a few, and proceeded to do so, before Feinstein realized she had just blown up the Democrats main weapon and stopped him.
In the play-acting world of politics, its not surprising that the party of the multimillionaire Clintons, who saw their opportunities and took them, or the overpaid public-sector unions should pretend that it is still the party of FDRs working man. What is noteworthy is that Schumer and crew want voters to think that the interests of the rich and the bosses are not equally important; they can take care of themselves, with no one to protect them. The Framers worry in constructing the Constitution was exactly the opposite. The principal danger in a democratic republic, wrote Madison in Federalist 10, would be the tyranny of the majority: by which he meant that the unpropertied many would gang up on the rich few to dispossess them of their wealth by disproportionate and unfair taxation, or by inflating away the value of their money. Accordingly, the top 5 percent of taxpayers now pay almost 60 percent of federal income taxes, while many non-taxpayers receive government benefits worth the equivalent of a full-time unskilled job.
Madison imagined that senators, originally chosen by state legislatures rather than by the voters directly, would be men of prudence, experience, reputation, and property, who would serve as a counterweight to the more demotic, and potentially more redistributionist, House. But the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913 and mandating the direct election of senators, changed all that; and the last remnant of Madisons dream of the Senate as a brake on majoritarian tyranny, or flightinessthe need for 60 votes to do much of the Senates business (though that was not part of Madisons original design)has been shorn to a nubbin in the confirmation fight that ended Friday.
It was Senator Feinstein who, with what seemed like chronic naivety in the Judiciary Committee hearings, cast into sharp focus the Democrats second great subversion of the Framers Constitution. Gorsuch, the senator charged, opposed the Supreme Courts 1984 Chevron-deference doctrine, a long-standing legal doctrine that allows agencies to write regulations necessary to effectively implement the laws that Congress passes and the president signs, the senator explained, not quite correctly. Congress relies on agency experts to write the specific rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedures necessary to carry out laws we enactthe rules that enable the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act to protect our environment from pollution, and allow the FDA and the agriculture department [to] safeguard the health and safety of our food supply, our water, our medicines.
We in Congress rely on the scientists, biologists, economists, engineers, and other experts to help ensure our laws are effectively implemented, the senator went on, now waxing lyrical. For example, even though Dodd-Frank was passed nearly seven years ago to combat the rampant abuse that led to our countrys worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it still requires over a hundred regulations to be implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other regulators in order to reach its full effectiveness, as intended by Congress when it was passed.
There was something endearing in the senators obtuse frankness, however horrifying it became as she went on. What she was saying is that the American people no longer govern themselves by laws that they themselves have made through their representativestheir senators and congressmen. Legislators instead gauge some vague national feeling, articulate it by decreeing Let there be clean air and water, and set loose an army of supposed experts to make the rules ensuring that their broad and general vision becomes reality, in whatever form and by whatever means the experts deem best. This process, the senator admittedor, rather, boastedhas been fundamental to how our government addresses real world challenges in our country and has been in place for decades.
The awful truth is that shes right. What she was describing is the working of the administrative state, constructed by progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson explicitly as a replacement for the Constitution of 1787, which he considered an obsolete relic, its system of separated powers and checks and balances much too slow to deal with fast-changing modern reality; its elected representatives mere amateurs in a complex world needing constant management by experts with specialized knowledge. Instead, administrative agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, would make rules to carry out Congresss enunciation of basic principles. They would administer those rules and adjudicate infractions of them by administrative judges, who are merely the simulacrum of judges, since they possess no independence and are employees of the agencies on whose disputes with citizens they are to rule. And in place of the Constitution, wed have the Supreme Court sitting as a permanent constitutional convention, continually reshaping the basic law of the land in a Darwinian adaptation to ever-changing circumstances, with boldness and a touch of audacity, said Wilson, so as to shed a dead Constitution for what he called a living one.
Only during the New Deal did it became clear how audacious this living constitution could be . At first, the Court repeatedly and properly overturned Franklin Roosevelts efforts to extend the Constitutions commerce clause to give the federal government control over every nook and cranny of the nations economic life, right down to how much grain a farmer could grow to feed his own livestock, a matter having nothing to do with the interstate commerce over which Washington has authority. In response to its resistance, FDR threatened to expand the Court, pack it with left-wing justices, and curb its powers, persuading Justice Owen Roberts to change his implacable opposition to the New Deals grossly unconstitutional usurpation of power and endorse FDRs wholesale replacement of a government of limited and enumerated powers, hedged with checks and balances, into an unlimited government with dictatorial powers. Not the Supreme Courts finest hour in its spotty and sometimes sordid history.
So, instead of Americans ruling themselves, they are now ruled by expert (meaning politically correct) administrators making rulesthat is, lawsthrough a legislative power which the original Constitution would see as illegitimate tyranny, and adjudicating transgressions of those laws by usurping the judicial power which the Constitution gives solely to the judicial branchwithout even the grand or petit jury protection that Magna Carta vouchsafed to the English-speaking peoples 802 years ago. No longer do we have separated powers and checks and balances. Legislators, as Senator Feinstein admitted, really no longer legislate but instead illegitimately delegate their legislative power to administratorsmetastasizing hordes of them under Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, as Feinstein pointed out in her horrifying description of what Dodd-Frank entails in government expansion, with all those employees lavishly paid, protected by their unions and by civil-service rules, and the opposite of expert and efficient. And the legislators get lavishly paid too, thanks to campaign contributors seeking waivers from the rules that the administrative state has threatened to impose on them.
The final nail in the coffin of democratic self-governmentas Woodrow Wilson asked, who wants to be governed by representatives not of Americans of the older stocks only, but also of Irishmen, of Germans, of Negroes?is that Chevron deference that Feinstein upbraided Gorsuch for opposing. That doctrine requires a court, when faced with a litigant challenging the validity of an administrative agencys application of a rule that it has made, to defer to the agencys interpretation of that rule, rather than making an independent judgment of its import and providing genuine judicial review. So the whole system is a Kafkaesque hall of mirrors, from which you cant escape into the clean air of liberty. And Gorsuch would like to start unlocking the federal funhouse.
If the Court has tied its own hands in this matter, in other respects it really is the permanent constitutional convention that Wilson envisioned, energetically making up the law as it goes along out of what it claims to be emanations and penumbras of the Constitution, the shadow of a dream. It has become a political, even a legislative, bodyexercising will instead of judgment, which Alexander Hamilton warned in Federalist 78 is something that the Constitution forbids the Supreme Court from doing. And since the laws it makes up are almost always left-leaning, it is the third and biggest gun in the Democratic Partys anti-constitutional arsenal.
But suppose the Court were not left-leaning. Suppose, now that Gorsuch has been confirmed and sworn in, it understood and intended to overturn the administrative states usurpation of the Constitution. Suppose, moreover, that it understood the promiscuous lawlessness with which the justices have been making laws out of thin air for half a century and moreclaiming some vague basis in the Bill of Rights or the Fourteenth Amendmentand resolved to end that abuse, exercising only judgment, not will. Suppose President Trump got to appoint one more justice in the Gorsuch and Scalia mold, creating an irresistible majority that upheld Madisons original Constitution instead of Wilsons living one.
Then the spirit of James Madison might arise from its grave in the red Virginia clay, holding out the original Constitution in its ghostly hands and mildly and reasonably reminding Americans, as he said at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, that the powers it grants to government are the gift of the people, and that every power not granted thereby remains with the people, and at their will. The Constitution did not create an elective despotism, he might add, but rather a mechanism by which citizens could govern themselves. It is past time for Americans to relearn the art of self-government, an art that is the hallmark of American exceptionalism and that has made America a light unto the nations.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Where are the faculty? American college students are increasingly resorting to brute force, and sometimes criminal violence, to shut down ideas they dont like. Yet when such travesties occur, the faculty are, with few exceptions, missing in action, though they have themselves been given the extraordinary privilege of tenure to protect their own liberty of thought and speech. It is time for them to take their heads out of the sand.
I was the target of such silencing tactics two days in a row last week, the more serious incident at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, and a less virulent one at UCLA.
The Rose Institute for State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna had invited me to meet with students and to give a talk about my book, The War on Cops, on April 6. Several calls went out on Facebook to shut down this notorious white supremacist fascist Heather Mac Donald. A Facebook post from we, students of color at the Claremont Colleges announced grandiosely that as a community, we CANNOT and WILL NOT allow fascism to have a platform. We stand against all forms of oppression and we refuse to have Mac Donald speak. A Facebook event titled Shut Down Anti-Black Fascist Heather Mac Donald and hosted by Shut Down Anti-Black Fascists encouraged students to protest the event because Mac Donald condemns [the] Black Lives Matter movement, supports racist police officers, and supports increasing fascist law and order. (My supposed fascism consists in trying to give voice to the thousands of law-abiding minority residents of high-crime areas who support the police and are desperate for more law-enforcement protection.)
The event organizers notified me a day before the speech that a protest was planned and that they were considering changing the venue from CMCs Athenaeum to one with fewer glass windows and easier egress. When I arrived on campus, I was shuttled to what was in effect a safe house: a guest suite for campus visitors, with blinds drawn. I could hear the growing crowds chanting and drumming, but I could not see the auditorium that the protesters were surrounding. One female voice rose above the chants with particularly shrill hysteria. From the balcony, I saw a petite blonde female walk by, her face covered by a Palestinian head scarf and carrying an amplifier on her back for her bullhorn. A lookout was stationed about 40 yards away and students were seated on the stairway under my balcony, plotting strategy.
Since I never saw the events outside the Athenaeum, which remained the chosen venue, an excellent report from the student newspaper, the Student Life, provides details of the scene:
The protesters, most of whom wore all black, congregated outside Honnold/Mudd Library at 4 p.m. to stage the action. We are here to shut down the fucking fascist, announced an organizer to a crowd of around 100 students. The protesters subsequently marched to the Ath around 4:30 while chanting. An organizer shouted How do you spell racist? into a megaphone; the marchers responded C-M-C. When they arrived, the protesters were greeted by around two dozen Campus Safety officers and Claremont police officers, stationed at various locations around the building. Protestors ignored the officers (who did not obstruct them) and the makeshift white fences sectioning off areas of Flamson Plaza, enveloping each of the Aths entrances with multiple rows of students linking arms. White students were encouraged to stand in front to form a barrier between students of color and the police. The protesters continued their chants, including hey hey, ho ho, Heather Mac has got to go, shut it down, andmost frequent and sustainedblack lives matter. Some of the officers appeared visibly uncomfortable during chant of from Oakland to Greece, fuck the police. Keck Science professor Anthony Fucaloro pushed against and grappled with the crowd of protesters in an unsuccessful attempt to reach the door Garrett Ryan CM 17 brought a large speaker to the Hubs patio, blasting Sousas patriotic march The Stars and Stripes Forever to provoke the protesters. A woman who ran up to him managed to steal his audio cable after a brief scuffle, cutting off the music and garnering cheers from the protesters when she returned to the crowd. It was not well-received, Ryan told TSL. Steven Glick PC 17, the co-editor-in-chief of the conservative Claremont Independent publication, attempted to livestream the protest, but he was swarmed by protesters who blocked his phone. Several administrators attended the protest and stood to the side. They told TSL that they saw their role as ensuring student safety, but they also sympathized with the protesters views. Black Lives Matter is really at my heart, said Pomona Associate Dean Jan Collins-Eaglin.
Of all the chants, How do you spell racist? C-M-C, was the most absurd. Racist CMC is so desperate for diverse students that it has historically admitted black and Hispanic students with an average 200-point lower SAT score than white and Asian students. Such racial preferences satisfy CMCs desire for racial virtue but set the alleged beneficiaries up for academic struggles, if not failure.
Shortly before 6 pm, I was fetched by an administrator and a few police officers to take an out-of-the-way elevator into the Athenaeum. The massive hall, where I was supposed to meet with students for dinner before my talk, was emptythe mob, by then numbering close to 300, had succeeded in preventing anyone from entering. The large plate-glass windows were covered with translucent blinds, so that from the inside one could only see a mass of indistinct bodies pounding on the windows. The administration had decided that I would live-stream my speech in the vacant room in order to preserve some semblance of the original plan. The podium was moved away from a window so that, as night fell and the lights inside came on, I would not be visible to the agitators outside.
I prefaced my speech by observing that I had heard chants for the last two hours that black lives matter. I therefore hoped that the protesters were equally fervent in expressing their outrage when five-year-old Aaron Shannon, Jr., was killed on Halloween 2010 in South-Central Los Angeles, while proudly showing off his Spiderman costume. A 26-year-old member of Wattss Kitchen Crips sent a single bullet through Aarons head, and also shot Aarons uncle and grandfather. I said that I hoped the protesters also objected when nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee was lured into an alley in Chicago with the promise of candy in November 2015 and assassinated by gang enemies of Tyshawns father. The gangbangers original plan had been to cut off Tyshawns fingers and send them to his mother. While Black Lives Matter protesters have in fact ignored all such mayhem, the people who have concerned themselves are the police, I said. And though it was doubtful that any of the protesters outside had ever lost a loved one to a drive-by shooting, if such a tragedy ever did happen, the first thing he or she would do is call the police.
I completed my speech to the accompaniment of chants and banging on the windows. I was able to take two questions from students via live-streaming. But by then, the administrators and police officers in the room, who had spent my talk nervously staring at the windows, decided that things were growing too unruly outside to continue. I was given the cue that the presentation was over. Walkie-talkies were used to coordinate my exit from the Athenaeums kitchen to the exact moment that a black, unmarked Claremont Police Department van rolled up. We passed startled students sitting on the stoop outside the kitchen. Before I entered the van, one student came up and thanked me for coming to Claremont. We sped off to the police station.
The previous night, I actually succeeded in delivering a talk on policing to the audience who had come to hear it; such heretofore ordinary circumstances are now noteworthy. My hosts, the UCLA College Republicans, had titled my presentation Blue Lives Matter, which campus activists viewed as an unspeakable provocation. After I finished speaking and welcomed questions, pandemonium broke out. Protesters stormed the front of the classroom, demanding control of the mike and chanting loudly: America was never great and Black Lives Matter, They Matter Here, among other insights. After nearly 10 minutes of shouting, one of the organizers managed to persuade some students to line up for questions. The College Fix paper captured the subsequent interaction:
A black female asked whether black victims killed by cops mattered. Yes, Mac Donald replied. And do black children that are killed by other blacks matter to you? At that the room erupted in gasps and angry moans and furious snaps, and the young lady who asked the original question began to yell at Mac Donald, pointing her finger and repeating the original question. . . . Of course I care [that black victims are killed by cops], and do you know what, Mac Donald said. There is no government agency more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the police. Again, gasps and moans filled the auditorium. Bullshit! Bullshit! a young woman off camera could be heard screaming. Mac Donald continued: The crime drop of the last 20 years that came to a screeching halt in August 2014 has saved tens of thousands of minority lives. Because cops went to those neighborhoods and they got the dealers off the street and they got the gang-bangers off the street. Mac Donald took more questions and at times was able to articulate her points during the Q&A, but was also often interrupted by angry audience members shouting out things such as: I dont trust your numbers. Why do white lives always need to be put above everybody else? Can we talk about black lives for one second? The same system that sent police to murder black lives . . . You have no right to speak! What about white terrorism?!
To the inevitable claim that poverty causes gun violence, I responded that if students really believed in that causation, they should be concerned that mass low-skilled immigration was driving down wages for the American poor. That provoked a new chant: Say it loud! Say it clear! Immigrants are welcome here.
At 8 pm, the organizers decided to end the event, and I was hustled out of the room with a police escort.
To my knowledge, the UCLA administration has not addressed the disruption of my presentation and interaction with students. The Claremont McKenna administration did, however, respond. Two days before my speech, the director of the Rose Institute, Andrew Busch, sent out an email decrying the use of the epithet racist as a bludgeon with which to shut up critics or keep friends in line. Busch optimistically put matters in the conditional: If we ever accept that approach we will have taken a giant step toward surrendering freedom of thought and expressionas if intmidation via the R-word is not already routine on and off campuses. Busch graciously tried to provide a neutral summary of my views and noted that I, too, aim to protect black lives.
A few minutes after I was escorted out of the Athenaeum, a campus-wide missive from Vice President for Academic Affairs & Dean of the Faculty Peter Uvin expressed disappointment that people could not attend the lecture, but lauded the fact that the lecture was live-streamed. Uvin, a government professor specializing in development and human rights, went on to establish his bona fides with the social-justice crowd. I fully understand that people have strong opinions and differentoften painfulexperiences with the issues Heather Mac Donald discusses. I also understand that words can hurt. And in a world of unequal power, it is more often than not those who have a history of exclusion who are being hurt by words. I support everyones right to make this world a better one. This may not have been the best moment to reaffirm the idea that undergirds such silencing protests: that speech can damage allegedly excluded or marginalized minorities.
The next day, CMC president Hiram Chodosh, a former international law professor, weighed in. He explained the failure to intervene against the protesters: Based on the judgment of the Claremont Police Department, we jointly concluded that any forced interventions or arrests would have created unsafe conditions for students, faculty, staff, and guests. I take full responsibility for the decision to err on the side of these overriding safety considerations. Chodosh said that students who violated school policies by blocking access to buildings would be held accountable.
A poorly written editorial in the student newspaper attributed to me positions I have never taken and quoted me wildly out of context. Such misunderstanding goes with the territory. But the editorialists explanation for why my talk had to be shut down revealed the racism is everywhere brain-washing that students at even a once relatively conservative campus like Claremont now receive: If we allow her to speak at the Ath or attend her talk, we are amplifying her voice and enhancing her credibility. Last month, we proposed that writing and publishing an article, even if its free of opinion, is not passive. This is a throughline for many of our editorials this year: many actions that seem neutral in theory are actually entrenched in unconscious bias.
Last weeks events should be the final wakeup call to the professoriate, coming on the heels of the more dangerous attacks on Charles Murray at Middlebury College and the riots in Berkeley, California, against Milo Yiannapoulos. When speakers need police escort on and off college campuses, an alarm bell should be going off that something has gone seriously awry. Of course, an ever-growing part of the faculty is the reason that police protection is needed in the first place. Professors in all but the hardest of hard sciences increasingly indoctrinate students in the belief that to be a non-Asian minority or a female in America today is to be the target of nonstop oppression, even, uproariously, if you are among the privileged few to attend a fantastically well-endowed, resource-rich American college. Those professors also maintain that to challenge that claim of ubiquitous bigotry is to engage in hate speech, and that such speech is tantamount to a physical assault on minorities and females. As such, it can rightly be suppressed and punished. To those faculty, I am indeed a fascist, and a white supremacist, with the attendant loss of communication rights.
Hyperbole is part and parcel of political speech. But I would hope that there are some remaining faculty with enough of a lingering connection to reality who would realize that I and other conservatives are not a literal threat to minority students. To try to prevent me or other dissenting intellectuals from connecting with students is simply an effort to maintain the Lefts monopoly of thought. The fact that this suppression goes under the title of anti-fascism is particularly rich. I am reluctant to wield the epithet fascist as promiscuously as my declared opponents do. But it must be observed that if campus conservatives tried to use physical force to block Senator Elizabeth Warren, say, from giving a speech, the New York Times would likely put the obstruction on the front page and the phrase fascist would be flying around like a swarm of hornets, followed immediately by the epithet misogynist. And when students and their fellow anarchists start breaking glass, destroying businesses, and assaulting perceived opponents, as they did during the Milo riots and at Middlebury College, it is hard not to hear echoes of 1930s fascism.
It is not enough for professors to sign statements in support of free speech (and surprisingly few have actually done so). When word goes out of a plan to shut down non-conforming political views, that plan must be taken deadly seriously. Claremont McKenna took obvious pains to protect my talk, but they were not enough. I will not second-guess president Chodoshs decision not to arrest the mob blocking access to the Athenaeum. Administrators and campus police are loathe to do anything that might necessitate the use of force against student darlings, as the deplorable passivity of the UC Berkeley campus (and Berkeley city) police during the anti-Milo riots on February 1 revealed. But if arrests are all but foreclosed, enough police manpower must be summoned to maintain open access through sheer command presence. Before a planned blockade, the faculty must reaffirm in their classes the campuss belief in free expression. And the faculty must show up to the threatened event itself to give meaning to the ideal of free speech; they must shame the students trying to prevent their fellow students from hearing ideas that challenge campus orthodoxies. Fortunately, the campus thugs are too dim-witted to understand that by trying to shut down nonconforming speech, they are only giving it a greater cachet, as President Chodosh ruefully noted in his post-blockade email.
Retroactive punishment for violating school rules is necessary, as Charles Murray has persuasively written. President Chodosh should follow through on his promise to hold the censors accountable; if he does, it will be a first, since punishment violates the consumerist ethos of American higher education.
We are cultivating students who lack all understanding of the principles of the American Founding. The mark of any civilization is its commitment to reason and discourse. The great accomplishment of the European enlightenment was to require all forms of authority to justify themselves through rational argument, rather than through coercion or an unadorned appeal to tradition. The resort to brute force in the face of disagreement is particularly disturbing in a university, which should provide a model of civil discourse.
But the students currently stewing in delusional resentments and self-pity will eventually graduate, and some will seize levers of power more far-reaching than those they currently wield over toadying campus bureaucrats and spineless faculty. Unless the campus zest for censorship is combatted now, what we have always regarded as a precious inheritance could be eroded beyond recognition, and a soft totalitarianism could become the new American norm.
Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
Going over to the dark side was how a colleague of mine jokingly described it when I said I was going to take up a trustee role in a charity operating in a completely different field than I was used to.
But why not? Many trustee boards are, and should be, made up of a group of people with a wide range of skills and experience including fundraising and marketing, which should surely be seen as very advantageous to any organisation. In fact, at the charity that I am joining, Winstons Wish, the board of trustees were actively recruiting for those exact skills. It seemed like a great fit for me.
The ten largest corporate givers have contibuted a combined total of 200m to the sector, according to figures released by the Directory of Social Change in its latest review of corporate giving today.
Lloyds Banking Group tops the list and contributed 64m, ahead of ITV which gave 24m and and Santander UK which gave 22m. The figures produced by DSC include both cash donations and in-kind donations.
The list was revealed as DSC published eleventh edition of The Guide to UK Company Giving, which cumulated information from over 400 companies that support charities.
According to DSC, corporate support is worth over 420m to the sector.
Top 10 UK corporate givers in The Guide to UK Company Giving, 11th edition (total contributions)
1. Lloyds Banking Group: 64m
2. ITV PLC: 24m
3. Santander UK plc: 22m
4. Ecclesiastical Insurance Group plc: 20.4m
5. HSBC Holdings plc: 18.65 m
6. Marks and Spencer Group plc: 15.5m
7. Goldman Sachs International: 14.3m
8. Impetus - The Private Equity Foundation: 11.6m
9. John Lewis Partnership plc: 11.6m
10. Royal Mail plc: 10.4m
An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the U.S. presidential election.
Pyotr Levashov was arrested Friday in Barcelona on a U.S. computer crimes warrant, according to a spokeswoman for Spain's National Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules.
Such arrests aren't unusual American authorities typically try to nab Russian cybercrime suspects abroad because of the difficulty involved in extraditing them from Russia but Levashov's arrest drew immediate attention after his wife told Russia's RT broadcaster that he was linked to America's 2016 election hacking.
RT quoted Maria Levashova as saying that armed police stormed into their apartment in Barcelona overnight, keeping her and her friend locked in a room for two hours while they quizzed her husband. She said that when she spoke to her husband on the phone from the police station, he told her he was told that he had created a computer virus that was "linked to Trump's election win."
Levashova didn't elaborate, and the exact nature of the allegations weren't immediately clear. Malicious software is routinely shared, reworked and repurposed, meaning that even a computer virus' creator may have little or nothing to do with how the virus is eventually used.
Levashov's name is familiar in cybercrime circles. He has been alleged to be spam kingpin Peter Severa, according to Brian Krebs, a journalist who has written extensively about the Russian cybercrime underworld, and Spamhaus , a group which polices spam.
Levashov himself couldn't immediately be reached for comment, and officials did not say whether he had a lawyer
The U.S. Embassy in Spain declined comment. Russian Embassy spokesman Vasily Nioradze confirmed the arrest but wouldn't say whether he was a programmer, as reported by RT. He wouldn't comment on the U.S. extradition order.
"As it is routine in these cases, we offer consular support to our citizen," he said.
The Spanish spokeswoman said Levashov remains in custody.
The 2017 Republican Assembly of Lake County (RALC) Ronald Reagan Dinner was held April 1st at the Dover Straits Seafood House in Mundelein, IL. A record number of 84 members and guests attended.
The RALC is an affiliate of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA), a grassroots political organization which promotes conservative principles and candidates within the Republican Party. The first Republican Assembly was founded in 1934 in California.
President Ronald Reagan called the Republican Assemblies "the conscience of the Republican Party," while still others referred to them as "the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party."
Prominent current and past Republican Assembly Members include:
Late President Ronald Reagan
Late Actress Jane Russell
Late Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum
Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum
U.S. Senator Rand Paul
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
Former Ambassador and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell
RALC Treasurer, Mike McKay, introduced the Honorable State Senator Dan McConchie (26th District) as a true conservative and a member of the RALC. Senator McConchie was described as an energetic campaigner. McConchie won his seat a year ago in the primary and was then appointed a month later to fill the unexpired term of the previous state senator, Republican Dan Duffy, who stepped down.
Senator McConchie's began his remarks musing about Governor Bruce Rauner and his "TurnAround Agenda" campaign with its list of 20 different items. Among the items, having a budget was deemed a requisite to get Illinois back to fiscal order. Illinois is now in its 22nd month without a budget.
Senator McConchie pointed to a recent setback toward achieving a balanced budget due to under-performing revenues. The largest component of the decline came from the Big Three State revenues: individual income tax, corporate income tax and sales tax. Although sales tax collections in the first two thirds of FY2017 have kept up with the original projections, individual income tax receipts are down 3.9% from this point last year, and corporate income taxes are down 43.7%.
McConchie said Illinois is a "financial disaster." When Leslie Munger was Comptroller, $7 billion in bills were sitting on her desk to be paid. Now unpaid bills have mounted to $12 billion. Furthermore, pension debt has skyrocketed to $130 billion. Illinois' bond rating is just about at junk level, and they're being treated as such.
McConchie bemoaned why some agreement can't be reached in dealing with Illinois' debt. Although Governor Rauner did agree to some form of tax increases, Democrats have not stepped forward in the direction of Republican concessions. Instead, Governor Rauner has been at loggerhead with the Democrats for over two years.
"Unlike a business or corporation where differences of opinions must be settled to keep the company functioning," said McConchie, "in politics when contrasting people push against each other the result is gridlock. Senator McConchie related how sometimes promises made are not being kept for Illinoisans who depend on social service providers who are not being paid for their work.
About Mike Madigan: McConchie related how Madigan has held office for 44 years, having been Speaker of the House for 30 of the last 33 years. Madigan, at 74 years of age and with no heir apparent, seems to have no desire to understand the situation. As McConchie see it, upon waking up in the morning Madigan's goal is to beat whoever he has to at their game today. As such Madigan goes from election to election.
How then to get change here in Illinois, reasoned McConchie? There must be a grassroots swell where enough becomes enough. Cooperation must happen to get things done. The situation in Springfield, in McConchie's words, "is indeed dire."
Outside the budget issue, McConchie mentioned House Bill 40, which would expand taxpayer funding of elected abortions to all nine months. It's on the edge of passing in the IL House. If the bill passes in the House it will pass in the Senate. McConchie spoke of the grassroots becoming involved, but the push back must continue, and urged the audience to contact their representatives and senators.
Said McConchie, "It's a dark place in Springfield." He asked that prayers be said for all legislators in Lake County. We cannot rescue Illinois on our own. It requires a Divine hand. McConchie suggested that we take one day at a time, and, when possible, attempt to help another see the truth in the right way.
McConchie did admit to becoming frustrated, but when showing up for work each day he functions within the framework of that day to find things he can do on his own, also reaching out to others to achieve positive results. McConchie is starting to see little miracle of God.
At the end, a $10 per ticket raffle for a Springfield XD 9 sub compact was held conducted by RALC Vice Chairman, Glenn Garamoni.
A partial list of elected officials present included Judge Daniel B. Shanes, Circuit Court of Lake County; Bonnie Quirke, Libertyville Library Trustee; IL Rep. Randy Hultgren (14th District); Mark Shaw, Lake County Chair of Republican Party; Steve Lentz, Mayor of Mundelein; Mundelein Trustees Dawn Abernathy and Ray Semple; Republican Township Chairmen: Phil Howe (Avon), Bob Cook (Wauconda), Glenn Garamoni (Fremont), Frank Bessette (Antioch), Nancy Kubalanza (Grant), and Jim Dorfman (Ela).
A $43 million megaship-ready pier will be done in time for the 2017-2018 cruise season in Curacao, boosting capacity for the island.
Our goal is to have 1 million passengers; and we need the additional capacity. This will enable us to further grow the business, said Raul Manotas, chief commercial officer at Curacao Ports Authority, in an interview with Cruise Industry News. He attributed the growth course to the uniqueness of the destination and its shoreside product.
The 2016-2017 season was expected to come in at just over 600,000 passengers.
There are already megaship bookings for the new pier, and that will allow the country to open up Willemstad to luxury and niche ships, according to Manotas.
The summer will be active too, as Curacao, working with a number of other ports, convinced Pullmantur to stay for the summer and up company capacity again in 2018.
Incentive programs include volume-based discount and summer call incentives. Going forward, expect a program to let ships overnighting keep casinos and shops open.
More collaboration across the region with Curacao, Aruba, the Dominican Republic and Cartagena promote a so-called Caribbean fusion itinerary.
The Caribbean is sun, sea and sand, and you can offer a lot with these destinations, and a piece of Europe via Curacao, added Sem Ayoubi, shipping development manager.
Homeporting by European cruise lines is another focus area.
We have been talking to them intensely, Manotas said. KLM, TUI and Air Berlin fly here, there is potential to embark.
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Get an in-depth, behind the scenes look at the Caribbean cruise market and the ports that make it happen in the 2017 Spring edition Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine. Subscribe today.
A bipartisan group of Senators said Thursday that they plan to reintroduce the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act just as President Donald Trumps economic adviser Gary Cohn voiced support for the move.
Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., along with John McCain, R-Ariz.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; and Angus King, I-Maine who first banded together to introduce the bill in 2013 said their new bill would be a modern version of the Banking Act of 1933 (Glass-Steagall) that protects American taxpayers, helps community banks and credit unions compete, and decreases the likelihood of future financial crises.
The senators noted that President Trump along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn (who noted his support in a Wednesday Bloomberg interview) have all voiced support for reinstating the walls between commercial and investment banking.
The gut-wrenching news was all too familiar: a dictator unleashing a deadly chemical attack on his own people. The Butcher of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein, used chemical weapons in the 1980s. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2013, and then again just a few days ago. In perhaps what might be the biggest test of President Trump's presidency, the question remains: will Syria be Trump's Iraq War?
From 2007-2010, I traveled to Baghdad 14 times as a civilian member of a special Department of Defense task force in charge of economic development and rebuilding as part of General David Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy. The strategy, or "COIN" as we referred to it, focused on winning the hearts and minds of the people. Political victories, rather than military victories, were the key to achieving success. Military strength has its limitations, and COIN understood that.
Although I'm a Republican, as a Mexican-American I have been very critical of Trump for obvious reasons but Trump's decision to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles in Syria was the right call. I applaud his quick and decisive action as it sends a clear message to our allies and adversaries alike that a new sheriff is in town, and that this administration will not tolerate such atrocities so long as he is the president.
In a perfect world, the launching of Tomahawk cruise missiles would be the equivalent of a mic drop. But unfortunately, thanks to recent history over the last decade, we know that's not the case. Assad will have to respond, and Russia will be forced to either intervene or rush to Syria's defense. Either way, it doesn't look good.
Syria is now ground zero for ISIS. And for an organization that thrives on death and chaos, this is their dream scenario. From 2003-2012, it was Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it's Syria. With a former U.S. Marine Corps General with extensive on-the-ground combat training and expertise now the secretary of defense, a deployment of at least some U.S. troops to Syria seems almost inevitable.
If we learned anything from COIN and our battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, we will need a combination of military and civilian personnel to deploy to Syria to establish some form of stability and fast. Rebel fighters will need training, weapons and ammunition. ISIS and ISIS recruiters will need to be outnumbered and marginalized. Like radiation is to cancer cells, an aggressive strategy must be implemented to keep ISIS cells from metastasizing throughout Syria.
The American people are clearly not ready to endure yet another conflict. But in a post-September 11 era, we have no choice. How Trump chooses to address this new reality in Syria will perhaps be the greatest test of his presidency.
Chicagoan Mark Vargas (@MarkAVargas) is co-founder and president of Licentiam. From 2007-2010, he served as a civilian within the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Used by permission. Published first in the Washington Examiner.
Over the past two years, Indian market leader Bharti Airtel has doubled its total footprint of mobile network sites in India.
Airtel stated that it had deployed 180,000 sites since 31st March 2015 the same number that it had deployed during its entire 20-year history up to that point. In November 2015, it announced that it would invest INR600 billion ($9 billion) into transforming its Indian network over the next three years under an initiative entitled Project Leap.
The operator also revealed that in the course of deploying 3G and 4G coverage across Indias 22 telecom circles, it had rolled out over 14,500km of fibre and doubled its total transmission capacity, as well as achieving an eightfold increase in its mobile backhaul capacity.
Abhay Savargaonkar, the operators director of networks, noted that this increase meant that Airtel was well-positioned to increase its capacity very quickly in the future. Airtel currently leads the market with a 23% share from its 268 million mobile connections, but faces tough competition from newcomer Reliance Jio, which has pulled in 100 million subscribers since its September launch by offering free voice and data.
Airtel has hit out at Jios predatory pricing, claiming to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in February this year that Jio was abusing its relationship to one of the biggest companies in India, Reliance Industries. Airtel has previously filed complaints over Jios extended promotions, and most recently complained that Jio failed to immediately shelve its Summer Surprise offer after it was told to scrap the promotion by regulator TRAI.
In response to the threat from Jio, in February Airtel signed a deal to acquire Telenors Indian operations. The additional 54.5 million subscribers will give Airtel a total market share of around 30%.
LONDON - A new garment sector-wide alliance has been formed in Jordan with the aim of creating economic opportunities and supporting refugees caught up in the Syrian crisis. Backed by the World Bank Group, the Jordan Garment Sector Alliance has been formed by various partners including the International Labour Organisation, Better Work Jordan, the Jordan Investment Commission, the Jordan Industrial Estates Company, the Jordan Garments, Accessories, and Textiles Exporters' Association (JGate) and the Jordan Chamber of Industry and Trade. The partners have come together to design programmes that translate the policies contained in the Jordan Compact a document created last year at a London conference on the refugee crisis into practice.
Heres what to know in Beaver County this Election Day
If youre a registered voter in Beaver County planning to vote in person today, heres what you need to know.
BEER-SHEVA, Israel...April 10, 2017 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have demonstrated that the perception of cold temperatures elicits greater cognitive control, even from a photo.
"Metaphorical phrases like 'coldly calculating,' 'heated response,' and 'cool-headed' actually have some scientific validity, which we demonstrate in our study," says lead researcher Dr. Idit Shalev of the BGU Department of Education. Dr. Shalev conducted the research with Prof. Nachshon Meiran of the BGU Department of Psychology and their Ph.D. student, Eliran Halali, now of the Department of Psychology at Bar-Ilan University.
"Previous research focused on the actual effect of temperature on the psychological phenomenon known as 'cognitive control,'" says Dr. Shalev. "But this is the first time we were able to measure the effects of perceived temperature." The study, "Keep it Cool: Temperature Priming Effect on Cognitive Control," was published in Psychological Research.
Cognitive control is the ability to deliberately inhibit responses or make choices that maximize the long-term best interests of the individual. For example, when a person is very hungry and sees a sandwich but does not eat it, he is exhibiting cognitive control.
The researchers conducted two experiments for the study. In the first, 87 students performed an "anti-saccade task," which requires looking in the opposite direction an object is moving and measures cognitive control. In the second experiment, 28 students were shown images of winter scenery, a temperature-neutral concrete street and a sunny landscape, and told to picture themselves in those settings.
"The result indicated that those viewing the cold landscape did better and that even without a physical trigger, cognitive control can be activated through conceptual processes alone," says Dr. Shalev.
The researchers state there is a possible explanation for the relation of temperature and cognitive control with social proximity. "While signals of warmth induce a relaxed attitude, cool signals trigger alertness and a possible need for greater cognitive control."
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About American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision: creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. As Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) looks ahead to turning 50 in 2020, AABGU imagines a future that goes beyond the walls of academia. It is a future where BGU invents a new world and inspires a vision for a stronger Israel and its next generation of leaders. Together with supporters, AABGU will help the University foster excellence in teaching, research and outreach to the communities of the Negev for the next 50 years and beyond. Visit vision.aabgu.org to learn more.
AABGU, which is headquartered in Manhattan, has nine regional offices throughout the United States. For more information, visit http://www.aabgu.org.
ATLANTA - American College of Rheumatology President Sharad Lakhanpal, MBBS, MD, today issued the following statement regarding the publication of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review's (ICER) Review of Treatments for Rheumatoid Arthritis.
"The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has issued its final report on the Review of Treatments for Rheumatoid Arthritis, which evaluates health and economic outcomes of various medications used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Based on our in-depth review of ICER's early draft and our preliminary and ongoing review of the final report, we would like to express our concerns over ICER's approach, methodology, and conclusions as we think ICER's report may result in reduced patient access to medically necessary treatment for RA.
"The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) is an active supporter of comparative effectiveness research (CER) as this type of research has the potential to powerfully inform physician and patient decisions about the relative merits of one treatment compared to another. CER should not, however, be employed to limit therapeutic options and force patients toward therapies that are not medically appropriate. Ideally, CER would highlight the need for multiple treatment options to address heterogeneous groups of patients with individual and unique co-morbidities. Unfortunately, studies that lack long-term follow-up and do not take into consideration patient heterogeneity, co-morbidities, preferences and tolerances must be interpreted within their limitations. The ACR is concerned that the ICER report, while based on a commonly used method to assess cost-effectiveness, provides insufficient information on model structure and validation.
"Furthermore, while the final report confirms the important clinical impact of biologic therapies for RA patients, the analysis fails to address the rising cost of these therapies, how these artificial economic forces impact the conclusions of the study, and how to make the drugs more affordable. For all these reasons, we are concerned that the report will limit access to effective treatment for RA patients for whom there are no medically appropriate alternatives.
"The ACR will continue to review the final ICER report and provide more detailed comments in the coming weeks.
"The rheumatology community appreciates ICER compiling this report as more research is needed to help address the various treatment options available for patients living with RA."
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The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) is the nation's leading advocacy organization for the rheumatology care community, representing more than 9,500 rheumatologists and rheumatology health professionals. As an ethically driven, professional membership organization committed to improving healthcare for Americans living with rheumatic diseases, the ACR advocates for high-quality, high-value policies and reforms that will ensure safe, effective, affordable and accessible rheumatology care.
Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. (April 10, 2017)--A puzzling surge in western Uganda patients diagnosed with a painful, disfiguring skin condition known as elephantiasis was caused not by the parasitic worms typically associated with the affliction, but by long-term exposure to irritating soil minerals absorbed while walking barefoot, according to a new study published today in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The investigation by a team of experts from the Uganda Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was prompted by what appeared to be a relatively recent and intense outbreak of elephantiasis in 2014 and 2015 in the Kamwenge District of Western Uganda, an area not previously known to harbor the inflammatory disease.
While the people affected had painful swelling and ulcerating sores associated with the condition, they lacked evidence of the microscopic filarial worms that cause the most common form of elephantiasis, a condition known as lymphatic filariasis. After reviewing the medical history of 52 of the victims, scientists concluded they were suffering from a form of elephantiasis podoconiosis--which also meant this was no sudden outbreak.
"People can be suffering from podoconiosis, a non-infectious disease, for decades before it becomes obvious that they are developing elephantiasis," said Christine Kihembo, MD, a senior field epidemiologist with the Ugandan Ministry of Health and the lead author of the study. "Many of the people affected in Western Uganda probably had been suffering silently without help for more than 30 years."
Podoconiosis is caused by repeatedly walking barefoot in volcanic soils, which contain tiny, sharp mineral crystals that can penetrate the soles of the feet. For some people, once these crystals are under the skin, they provoke repeated cycles of inflammation. Over time, the inflammation produces a build-up of scar tissue that eventually blocks lymphatic vessels and produces dramatic and disabling swelling and open sores in the lower legs.
According to the WHO, this type of elephantiasis is typically associated with farming and years of working barefoot in freshly turned soil. But Kihembo said that until about 50 years ago, the area of Uganda where the patients she studied live was completely covered with forest and grasslands.
According to the report, in the 1960s, a large migration of people swept into the area in search of farmland "and subsequently, the soils were laid bare." But early signs of the disease went undetected because neither the settlers nor healthcare workers in the region had any experience with podoconiosis, which is known to occur in some parts of Eastern Uganda, but is more commonly described in Ethiopia. The WHO estimates at least 1 million people in Ethiopia are estimated to be affected by podoconiosis, but it affects other parts of Africa along with volcanic regions of Southeast Asia and Central and South America as well.
Investigations by the researchers revealed patients who for many years had suffered routine bouts of itching, foot pain and swelling that were dismissed as minor problems.
The scientists ultimately concluded that "contrary to the perception that an outbreak of elephantiasis had occurred in the area, we have uncovered a chronic neglected tropical disease with a relatively stable annual incidence over the last 30 years."
According to the study, the mean age of those diagnosed with elephantiasis in the region is 48 years old. However, the scientists believe the disease process itself likely began when the victims were much younger.
Evidence shows that the easiest way to prevent podoconiosis is for people to wear shoes and regularly wash their feet. Indeed, many of the patients in the study reported frequently digging in the soil to grow crops and never wearing shoes or washing their feet after being barefoot in the soil. There is now an effort underway in the region to conduct a public health education campaign to focus on the importance of better foot hygiene.
Kihembo noted there have been some misperceptions in the community about the cause of the disease. For example, she said that when word got out that people were suffering from a condition called elephantiasis, a rumor spread that it was caused by dung from elephants that live in surrounding forests and occasionally stroll through local farms. And even when people understand the real cause, the solution is not as simple as it may sound, Kihembo said.
"It can be a challenge to get people to focus on foot hygiene in a poor, rural community where there are many hardships, and going barefoot is not generally viewed as one of them," she said.
Kihembo said flagging early signs of the disease is crucial because proper foot care can prevent it from progressing any further. Eventually, podoconiosis reaches a "point of no return" where the swelling cannot be reversed, she said.
"People end up being isolated and stigmatized by the disease and they can develop secondary infections due to the ulcers on the skin, all of which cause a further decline in their health and their ability to be productive members of the community," Kihembo said.
The podoconiosis investigation was undertaken as part of the Uganda Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), a collaborative effort between the Uganda Ministry of Health and Makerere University School of Public Health, with support from CDC. Since the program's inauguration in January 2015, the Uganda fellows have successfully investigated more than 60 disease outbreaks and conducted dozens of other applied epidemiologic investigations on emerging public health threats across the country.
This is a perfect illustration of why there is often no substitute for getting out into the field and interviewing patients to determine why they are getting sick and what can be done to help them," said ASTMH President Patricia F. Walker, MD, DTM&H, FASTMH. "These findings can help inform the decisions of health authorities in planning education campaigns to stop further suffering from this terrible, but entirely preventable, form of elephantiasis."
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About the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, founded in 1903, is the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases and improving global health. It accomplishes this through generating and sharing scientific evidence, informing health policies and practices, fostering career development, recognizing excellence, and advocating for investment in tropical medicine/global health research. For more information, visit astmh.org.
About the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Continuously published since 1921, AJTMH is the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the world's leading voice in the fields of tropical medicine and global health. AJTMH disseminates new knowledge in fundamental, translational, clinical and public health sciences focusing on improving global health.
(Millbrook, NY) North America's freshwater lakes are getting saltier due to development and exposure to road salt. A study of 371 lakes published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that many Midwestern and Northeastern lakes are experiencing increasing chloride trends, with some 44% of lakes sampled in these regions undergoing long-term salinization.
The study is the first large-scale analysis of chloride trends in freshwater lakes. It was conducted by a team of fifteen researchers as part of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) Fellowship Program, an initiative that seeks to train the next generation of freshwater scientists and practitioners.
Lead author Hilary Dugan, a limnologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Postdoctoral Fellow, explains, "We compiled long-term data, and compared chloride concentrations in North American lakes and reservoirs to climate and land use patterns, with the goal of revealing whether, how, and why salinization is changing across broad geographic scales. The picture is sobering. For lakes, small amounts of shoreline development translate into big salinization risks."
Chloride trends in 371 freshwater lakes were analyzed. Each lake was larger than 4 hectares in size with at least 10 years of recorded chloride data. The majority of the lakes (284) were located in a North American Lakes Region that includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ontario, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Since the 1940s, the use of road salt to keep winter roads navigable has been escalating. Each year, some 23 million metric tons of sodium chloride-based deicer is applied to North America's roads to melt away snow and ice. Much of this road salt washes into nearby water bodies, where it is recognized as a major source of chloride pollution to groundwater, streams, rivers, and lakes.
To gauge road salt exposure, the research team assessed road density and land cover within a 100- to 1500-meter buffer around each of the 371 study lakes. Roadways and impervious surfaces such as parking lots and sidewalks are reliable proxies for road salt application because as developed areas, they are susceptible to high levels of salting and runoff.
Results were clear: roads and other impervious surfaces within 500 meters of a lake's shoreline were a strong predictor of elevated chloride concentrations. In the North American Lakes Region, 70% (94 out of 134) of lakes with more than 1% impervious land cover in their 500-meter buffer zone had increasing chloride trends. When results are extrapolated to all lakes in the North American Lakes Region, some 7,770 lakes may be at risk of rising salinity.
If current salinization trends continue, many North American lakes will surpass EPA-recommended chloride levels in 50 years. Within this study, 14 North American Lakes Region lakes are expected to exceed the EPA's aquatic life criterion concentration of 230 mg/L by 2050, and 47 are on track to reach chloride concentrations of 100 mg/L during the same time period.
Co-author Sarah Bartlett, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, explains, "These results are likely an underestimation of the salinization problem, as a number of regions with heavy road salt application, such as Quebec or the Maritime Provinces of Canada, had no long-term lake data available." Co-author Flora Krivak-Tetley, a graduate student at Dartmouth College, added, "It is also extremely difficult to obtain rates of road salt application both through time and across regions. Better application data would allow us to more accurately forecast ecosystem health."
In lakes, elevated chloride levels have been shown to alter the composition of fish, invertebrates, and the plankton that form the base of the aquatic food web. Aquatic species richness and abundance can decline, and in extreme cases salinization can prevent lakes from mixing - causing low oxygen conditions that smother aquatic life and reduce water quality.
The study's authors recommend that best lake management practices recognize that shoreline management extends well beyond a lake's perimeter. While many states and municipalities acknowledge the importance of shoreline management, they note that zoning regulations are often only enforced within 300 meters, and many lakes lack the monitoring programs needed to adequately track lake health.
Coauthor and Fellowship advisor Kathleen Weathers, an ecosystem scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and co-chair of GLEON, comments, "In the North American Lakes Region - where road salt is a reality - roads and other impervious surfaces within 500 meters of a lake's shoreline are a recipe for salinization. We need to manage and monitor lakes to ensure they are kept 'fresh' and protect the myriad of services they provide, from fisheries and recreation to drinking water supplies."
A lake's chloride status may also provide a window into the ecological health of its watershed. Co-author Samantha Burke, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, adds, "Unlike flowing streams and rivers, water resides in lakes for long periods of time. This makes them vulnerable to pollution from their watersheds and good early warning indicators of environmental disruption."
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Funding for this study was provided, in part, by the National Science Foundation. It is a product of the GLEON Fellowship Program, an intensive 18-month graduate opportunity that trains participants to analyze large and diverse data sets, collaborate on international teams, and communicate cutting-edge freshwater science to diverse audiences. Learn more at: http://fellowship.gleon.org
Additional coauthors included: Jonathan Doubek (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), Nicolas Skaff (Michigan State University), Jamie Summers (Queen's University), Kait Farrell (University of Georgia), Ian McCollough (University of California), Ana Morales-Williams (University of Vermont), Derek Roberts (University of California), Facundo Scordo (Universidad Nacional del Sur), Zutao Ouyang (Michigan State University), and Paul Hansen (University of Wisconsin).
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is one of the world's leading independent environmental research organizations. Areas of expertise include disease ecology, forest and freshwater health, climate change, urban ecology, and invasive species. Since 1983, Cary Institute scientists have produced the unbiased research needed to inform effective management and policy decisions.
The Global Lakes Ecological Observatory Network is a grassroots network of more than 600 members in 50+ countries conducting innovative science to understand, predict, and communicate the role and response of lakes in a changing global environment. GLEON's international team of researchers, managers, and citizens collect, share, and interpret large datasets, with the goal of advancing lake ecology and informing sound freshwater stewardship.
Researchers have hypothesized that migrations into higher, colder latitudes may lead to the evolution of fast-burning metabolisms that keep cells warm in chilly conditions, boosting cold tolerance. In Developmental Cell, on April 10, researchers show that a gene called THADA, which has previously been identified as one of the key genes in humans that differs in people from arctic latitudes and people from tropical latitudes, helps flies burn energy from fat. When the gene is knocked out in flies, they become obese and burn less energy. This finding may be a clue to previously observed correlations between ancestral latitudes and metabolism in humans.
"When you remove THADA, then the cells store more fat and produce less heat. When you restore THADA function, the cells store less fat and burn more energy," explains study co-author Aurelio Teleman of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany. "It's a metabolic regulator that affects the balance between how much energy your body turns into fat versus how much of it gets burned."
When the researchers tested obese flies' response to cold by putting them in a walk-in refrigerator, they found that they were less able to cope. At near freezing temperatures, fruit flies "pass out," but when the researchers returned cold-immobilized flies to a warmer room, THADA knockout flies took longer to "wake up" than their wild-type counterparts. That result surprised study co-author Alexandra Moraru of DKFZ. "We suspected that fatter animals would have better insulation and be more resistant to the cold, but in this case, they were more sensitive to cold," she says.
However, the fact that flies with slower metabolisms took longer to recover from cold makes more sense in light of the observed correlation between tropical latitudes and obesity. In warmer regions, the heat from burning fat isn't as important for survival as it is in colder climates. Obese flies, which have a slower metabolism, burn less energy and thus cannot adapt to colder environments as quickly.
Of course, humans and fruit flies are quite different when it comes to anatomy, making it difficult to compare human obesity and fruit fly fat storage. "Unlike humans, flies have an exoskeleton, which means they have a solid carapace on the outside and that constrains how much they can expand," explains Teleman. "So if you just look at a fat fly from the outside, it's hard to notice any difference, but then if you open it up and look inside, then you can see that there's a bunch more fat in the abdomen."
However, there are reasons to think that human and fly metabolisms are pretty similar at the cellular level. Previous fly studies have identified metabolic genes that turned out to be standout predictors of obesity predisposition in humans. In addition, when a previous population genetics study compared the genomes of Siberian people to genomes of people from the lower latitudes of Southeast Asia, they found that THADA was one of the genes in which the two populations diverged the most. However, until this study, scientists weren't sure what THADA's function was.
In this study, the obesity of THADA knock-out flies was rescued both when the researchers restored fruit fly THADA function or when they added human THADA to the flies' genomes, suggesting that THADA has the same metabolic effect in both mammals and fruit flies. "All the hints are there that THADA will probably be an important metabolic regulator in mammals as well," says Teleman.
The team is following up on that hypothesis by collaborating with a UK lab to study THADA's function in mice.
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This work was funded by the Deutsche Krebshilfe and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB1118.
Developmental Cell, Moraru and Cakan-Akdogan et al.: "THADA regulates the organismal balance between energy storage and heat production" http://www.cell.com/developmental-cell/fulltext/S1534-5807(17)30169-7
Developmental Cell (@Dev_Cell), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly, cross-disciplinary journal that brings together the fields of cell biology and developmental biology. Articles provide new biological insight of cell proliferation, intracellular targeting, cell polarity, membrane traffic, cell migration, stem cell biology, chromatin regulation and function, differentiation, morphogenesis and biomechanics, and regeneration and cellular homeostasis. Visit: http://www.cell.com/developmental-cell. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne infectious disease linked to certain birth defects in infants in South and Central America and the United States. A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researcher, Banumathi Sankaran, worked as part of a multi-institutional team to map a key viral protein called NS5. Necessary to virus reproduction, NS5 contains two enzyme activities: one reduces the body's ability to mount an immune response against infection and the other helps start the genetic replication process. The work was led by Indiana University's Cheng Kao and Pingwei Li at Texas A&M University (TAMU).
In a study published March 27 in Nature Communications, the team described the structure and function of these two enzyme active sites. They also showed comparisons between this protein and those from other related viruses that cause dengue fever, West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, and hepatitis C. These comparisons will help researchers as they search for possible compounds to halt the ability of the virus to reproduce.
Working with researchers from TAMU, Sankaran, a research scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division at Berkeley Lab, used X-ray crystallography to solve the atomic structure of NS5 in the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). "The ALS was critical to the success of this project," said Li. "The powerful beam and the sensitive detector on beamline 5.0.2 made it possible for us to obtain data on our poor quality crystals."
Sankaran is in charge of the Collaborative Crystallography (CC) program at the ALS. Funded by the NIH, this program is a fast, reliable and transparent mail-in crystallographic service for the structural biology community. Since the mosquitos carrying the vector have been spreading into the Southern U.S., interest in studying the virus has increased and TAMU's Li indicated that several groups currently are working on similar structural determination efforts. "Having access to state-of-the-art facilities provided by our Collaborative Crystallography program resulted in a rapid turnaround of this project," according to Sankaran.
While the researchers have gathered a lot of information about how to target this protein, there are still puzzles remaining. "One of the most important unresolved questions about Zika NS5 is how it catalyzes the synthesis of RNA," said Li. "We look forward to further studies and future collaborations, which will be invaluable for therapeutics discovery."
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Funding for this work was provided by the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The ALS is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
Americans used more renewable energy in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Overall, energy consumption was nearly flat.
Each year, the Laboratory releases energy flow charts that illustrate the nation's consumption and use of energy. Americans used 0.1 quads (quadrillion BTU), more in 2016 than in 2015. A BTU, or British Thermal Unit, is a unit of measurement for energy; 3,400 BTU is equivalent to about 1 kilowatt-hour.
Prices for photovoltaic panels have fallen dramatically over the past decade, contributing to solar energy's rapid growth, which rose by 0.15 quads or 38 percent in 2016, with significant additions in the electricity, commercial and residential sectors. "Two thirds of that increase was in the electric sector," said A.J. Simon, group leader for LLNL's energy program. "These are large installations of thousands of solar panels, usually in the desert." Installations on the roofs of homes and warehouses account for the rest of the additions.
Likewise, more wind power is contributing to the nation's utility grid. Use of wind power rose by 19 percent or 0.33 quads. "Generous incentives for renewable energy, combined with improved 'know-how' in siting and building wind farms, has led to a favorable environment for growth in this sector," Simon said.
Coal use decreased by 9 percent to 14.2 quads, mostly due to decreased coal supply to the electricity sector. That supply has been replaced by wind, solar and natural gas. Overall, natural gas use rose by 1 percent to 28.5 quads.
Energy use in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors all declined slightly, while consumption of fossil fuels in the transportation sector rose by 0.5 quads or 2 percent.
All energy use results in some losses, shown on the charts as rejected energy. This energy most often takes the form of waste heat, such as the warm exhaust from automobiles and furnaces. The efficiency of the nation's cars, lightbulbs and factories determines how much waste heat is produced, and how much of fuel and electricity can be put to productive use.
This year marks two changes to the energy flow chart. The Energy Information Administration has changed the way it analyzes and reports renewable energy use, and those changes are reflected in the 2016 chart as well as a revision to the 2015 analysis. Additionally, the estimate of efficiency of the industrial sector has been reduced from 80 percent to 49 percent to align with recent analysis at the DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office. LLNL reports all year-over-year changes on a basis consistent with the new methodology.
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Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
After years of attempts, passing of Philadelphia's "soda tax" came down to appealing to people's purse strings, not their health, according to a new Drexel University study.
Jonathan Purtle, DrPH, assistant professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health, led the study that took a behind-the-scenes look at the strategy undertaken to make Philadelphia just the second U.S. city at the time to pass a sugar-sweetened beverage tax. And it appears that that was accomplished through focusing pre-kindergarten education, which enjoyed wide support, rather than the tax's health impact.
"The tax was conceptualized and framed as a revenue-generation ordinance, not a public health ordinance," Purtle explained. "Thus, it appears it was rather easy to avoid health messaging. Pretty much everything was focused on how the revenue from the law would be used -- not the potential health benefits."
Purtle was joined by colleagues from the Dornsife School of Public Health Brett Langellier, PhD, and Felice Le-Scherban, PhD, to publish the study in Public Health Management & Practice.
Between April and June 2016, Purtle and company interviewed nine people behind the policymaking process or who had followed the strategy of it. Among those officials were a pair of city council members, city agency officials, a community-based advocate, a news reporter and a researcher. Additionally, the study team monitored news coverage in the months leading up to the passage of the tax on June 16, 2016 (which put a 1.5 cent per ounce levy on sugar-sweetened beverages beginning this year) to help assess findings from the interviews.
They found that the arguments for health benefits -- which had played a prominent role in two previous, failed attempts at a sugary beverage tax -- were deemed too controversial to successfully pass the tax this time around. Although health benefits are undeniable when less sugar is taken in --lowered obesity and occurrence of diabetes -- any arguments framed around that were largely left untouched.
"I think there's an analysis in this administration that [the tax] failed twice before in Philadelphia because it appeared to be too much of 'nanny state' politics," an official with a city education agency told the researchers during the policymaking process.
With that in mind, the policymakers decided to pin the tax to something that already had broad support: prekindergarten education. A poll around that time showed that 84 percent of Philadelphians felt that prekindergarten education was "very important." With such support for that issue, the messaging around the tax almost exclusively centered on it being a revenue stream for funding prekindergarten education across the city.
"[Jim Kenney] framed it as not a health debate, but he framed it as a debate over the source of tax revenue for pre-K [education] and expanded recreation facilities," the local news reporter the study team interviewed told them. "He obviously knew that [sugar-sweetened beverage tax proposals] had lost any number of times in any number of cities before, most of which tried the health argument."
Purtle and his team found that avoiding health-related discussions allowed for a "wide-range" of research to be applied to the tax, such as studies that presented the long-term benefits of prekindergarten on education-related outcomes and cost-savings related to it. Framing the tax as an education-based policy allowed for its proponents to use slogans like "Our Kids Are Worth It" to counter arguments related to economic concerns.
It was only toward the end of the process -- just three weeks before the council vote -- that policymakers decided to use messaging regarding health benefits.
"Interviewees felt that the press conference served to 'health-ify' the sugar-sweetened beverage tax proposal at the very end of the policy debate and infuse health research into the policy discourse surrounding the proposal," Purtle, Langellier and Le-Scherban wrote.
"This could have been influential earlier, too, but it also could have been counterproductive and amplified the outcry against the bill as opponents could then run with the 'don't tell me what to eat and drink' nanny state argument," Purtle added.
Ultimately, the tax passed by a 13-4 margin.
"It was exciting to see things play out after systematically collecting different perspectives," Purtle said.
Estimates since the passage of the tax put the total of revenue derived from it at $32 million for both Philadelphia and the state over the next five years. And in last November, similar taxes passed in four cities: San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, California, and Boulder, Colorado.
Purtle believes the strategy used to pass the Philadelphia tax could be used elsewhere -- though he is unsure whether or not the results of a current Commonwealth Court battle over the tax will affect the attractiveness of it.
"Other cities might want to consider how revenue will be used as opposed to potential health benefits when they're trying to pass a tax like this," Purtle said. "But I'm not sure whether the court ruling will affect the strategies used to pass similar, future taxes."
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Annapolis, MD; April 7, 2017--Pest management professionals battling the ongoing resurgence of bed bugs are wise to employ a well-rounded set of measures that reduces reliance on chemical control, as new research shows the early signs of resistance developing among bed bugs to two commonly used insecticides.
In a study to be published next week in the Entomological Society of America's Journal of Economic Entomology, researchers at Purdue University found significantly reduced susceptibility to chlorfenapyr among three out of 10 bed bug populations collected in the field, and they found reduced susceptibility to bifenthrin among five of the populations.
The common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) already shows significant resistance to deltamethrin and some other pyrethroid-class insecticides, which is viewed as a main cause of its resurgence as an urban pest. In fact, 68 percent of pest management professionals identify bed bugs as the most difficult pest to control, according to a 2015 Bugs Without Borders survey of pest management professionals conducted by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky. Little research had yet been done, however, to examine potential resistance to bifenthrin (also a pyrethroid) or chlorfenapyr, a pyrrole-class insecticide, which led the Purdue researchers to investigate.
"In the past, bed bugs have repeatedly shown the ability to develop resistance to products overly relied upon for their control. The findings of the current study also show similar trends in regard to chlorfenapyr and bifenthrin resistance development in bed bugs," says Ameya D. Gondhalekar, Ph.D., research assistant professor at Purdue's Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management. "With these findings in mind and from an insecticide resistance management perspective, both bifenthrin and chlorfenapyr should be integrated with other methods used for bed bug elimination in order to preserve their efficacy in the long term."
They tested 10 populations of bed bugs that were collected and contributed by pest management professionals and university researchers in Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, DC, measuring the percent of bed bugs killed within seven days of exposure to the insecticides. Generally, populations in which more than 25 percent of the beg bugs survived were deemed to have reduced susceptibility to the insecticide based on statistical analysis performed in comparison to the susceptible laboratory population.
Interestingly, the researchers found a correlation between chlorfenapyr and bifenthrin susceptibility among the bed bug populations, which was unexpected because the two insecticides work in different ways. Gondhalekar says further research is needed to understand why the bed bugs that are less susceptible can withstand exposure to these insecticides, especially chlorfenapyr. In any case, adherence to integrated pest management practices will slow the further development of resistance.
"There is a plethora of research that has shown that if insecticides are integrated with additional control measures such as vacuuming, steam or heat, mattress encasements, traps, and desiccant dusts, effective bed bug control can be accomplished and theoretically this should reduce the risk of resistance build-up in populations," Gondhalekar says.
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"Detection of Reduced Susceptibility to Chlorfenapyr- and Bifenthrin-Containing Products in Field Populations of the Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae)," by Aaron R. Ashbrook, Michael E. Scharf, Gary W. Bennett, and Ameya D. Gondhalekar, will be published online on April 10 in the Journal of Economic Entomology. Journalists may request advance copies of the study via the contact below.
CONTACT: Joe Rominiecki, jrominiecki@entsoc.org, 301-731-4535 x3009
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Journal of Economic Entomology publishes research on the economic significance of insects and is the highest-cited journal in entomology. It includes sections on apiculture and social insects, insecticides, biological control, household and structural insects, crop protection, forest entomology, and more. For more information, visit https://academic.oup.com/jee, or visit https://academic.oup.com/insect-science to view the full portfolio of ESA journals and publications.
Summary:
- Billionaire investor Jim Mellon famous for identifying major trends has announced his commitment to support research in human longevity - Jim Mellon is currently writing a book Juvenescence outlining his thesis for investing in longevity which is due to be published in May 2017. - Jim Mellon has made an investment in Insilico Medicine to enable the company to validate the many molecules discovered using deep learning and launch multi-modal biomarkers of human aging
Monday, April 10, 2017, Baltimore, MD - Insilico Medicine, Inc, a big data analytics company applying deep learning techniques to drug discovery, biomarker development, and aging research today announced that it has closed an investment from the billionaire biotechnology investor Jim Mellon. Proceeds will be used to perform pre-clinical validation of multiple lead molecules developed using Insilico Medicine's drug discovery pipelines and to advance research in deep learned biomarkers of aging and disease.
"Unlike many wealthy business people who rely entirely on their advisors to support their investment in biotechnology, Jim Mellon has spent a substantial amount of time familiarizing himself with recent developments in biogerontology. He does not just come in with the funding, but brings in expert knowledge and a network of biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives, who work very quickly and focus on the commercialization potential. We are thrilled to have Mr. Mellon as one of our investors and business partners", said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder, and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc.
"I am thrilled to announce an initial investment into Insilico Medicine, which I hope will be the start of a long and productive collaboration. During the course of the past few months, I have traveled throughout Europe and America interviewing major figures in aging research and learning about companies working in the field," said Jim. "I believe that Insilico is a truly remarkable platform for drug discovery, and my colleagues and I look forward to working with them to develop effective treatments for aging"
After years of research, Jim Mellon announced his vision for longevity at the Master Investor show in London attended by over five thousand investors and entrepreneurs. A video recording of his talk is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlSsLS3WfHw&index=3&list=PLfZpFSa9-dsYojmaUgHKZ3OnMlKNDvCXT .
Often referred to as the "British Warren Buffett", Jim Mellon is famous for spotting trends early. In the 1980s he started investing in emerging markets. In the 1990s he traveled to Russia to participate in the privatization of state assets. In 2005 together with his business partner he co-founded a company called Uramin with one hundred thousand dollars and sold it for over 1.8 billion euro in 2007 and Jim is now a substantial landlord in Germany.
In 2012, Jim published a best-selling book "Cracking the Code", where he presented his vision for the life science sector and why people should be focusing on the rapid technological process influencing the industry. In 2017, he announced his intention to focus on the business of longevity and make substantial investments into this area.
In his upcoming book entitled Juvenescence, Jim Mellon and long-time co-author Al Chalabi take a tour of many academic laboratories, biopharmaceutical companies, and Silicon Valley tech companies to research emerging trends and exciting discoveries. Juvenescence highlights promising technologies that are likely to generate substantial longevity dividends and create sustainable and profitable industries.
Through its focus on aging research and drug discovery, Insilico Medicine is bringing the knowledge gap between the consumer and pharmaceutical industries and collaborates with some of the largest pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and nutrition companies and academic institutions. In 2016, Insilico Medicine published several seminal proof-of-concept papers demonstrating the applications of deep learning to drug discovery, biomarker development, and aging research. A study published in Aging proposed a short list of molecules with likely geroprotective effects. In a recently published article at Nature Communications, Insilico Medicine describes a tool that it uses to study the minute changes in gene expression between young and old tissues and tissues afflicted by the disease. Another paper demonstrating the ability to predict the chronological age of the patient using a simple blood test, published in Aging, became the second most popular paper in the journal's history.
Insilico Medicine was the first company to apply deep generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generating anti-cancer drugs with given parameters and published a seminal paper in Oncotarget. The paper published in Molecular Pharmaceutics, demonstrating the applications of deep neural networks for predicting the therapeutic class of the molecule using the transcriptional response data, received the American Chemical Society Editors' Choice Award.
In March 2017, the company launched its first geroprotector with its exclusive partner, Life Extension: http://www.geroprotector.com.
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About Jim Mellon
Jim Mellon is a serial entrepreneur and bestselling author of bestselling books "Wake Up!", "Cracking the Code" and "Fast Forward. He has built a worldwide business empire consisting of a variety of businesses, from hotel chains, banks, natural resources to online gaming. In his upcoming book, "Juvenescence" presents the profit opportunities in the nascent longevity industry. Jim has remained amongst the top 10% in the Sunday Times Rich List for a number of years. He holds a master's degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. About Insilico Medicine, Inc
Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a bioinformatics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore with R&D resources in Belgium, Russia, and the UK hiring talent through hackathons and competitions. It utilizes advances in genomics, big data analysis and deep learning for in silico drug discovery and drug repurposing for aging and age-related diseases. The company pursues internal drug discovery programs in cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS, diabetes, sarcopenia and geroprotector discovery. Through its Pharma.AI division, the company provides advanced machine learning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and skin care companies. Brief company video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8
Nagoya, Japan - Researchers at Nagoya University have reported in Nature Communications, on the development of an organic catalyst (organocatalyst) that triggers a highly stereoselective 1,6-addition of azlactones (nucleophile) to a -aryl dienyl carbonyl compound (electrophile) to generate amino acid derivatives in high yields. The generated 1,6-adduct contains two carbon stereocenters, and a slight structural change in the organocatalyst leads to inversion of stereochemistry at a single stereocenter to form a diastereomer in high selectivity. The group started this research in 2012 and serendipitously found this inversion of stereochemistry upon screening various amino acids, which are incorporated in their unique iminophosphorane catalyst.
Many molecules with pharmaceutical uses contain stereocenters (chiral centers, where an atom has three or more different atoms or functional groups attached to it) and the development of efficient stereoselective reactions to synthesize a particular stereoisomer (isomers that differ in the three-dimensional orientations of their atoms in space) is in high demand. This is because each stereoisomer usually has different characteristics and precise control is required to obtain the desired stereoisomer in a pure form.
When connecting carbon atoms that have three different functional groups attached to them, this can result in a series of stereoisomers, where the functional groups are orientated differently in space.
Enantiomers are a type of stereoisomer, in which they contain one or more stereocenters and are mirror images of each other. So far, numerous asymmetric reactions have been developed to generate chiral centers in high efficiency. On the other hand, diastereomers are stereoisomers of a compound that have different configurations at one or more stereocenters and are not mirror images of each other.
Upon connecting a pair of carbon molecules that each has 2 different hands, they can be connected in a variety of combinations, and 4 different stereoisomers can be synthesized in theory. These stereoisomers are a series of enantiomers and diastereomers depending on the relationship to each other (mirror image or not). Conventional methods to synthesize diastereomers have required a specific catalyst for each isomer. In most cases, a completely new catalytic system is necessary to specifically obtain one of the stereoisomers.
When 2 molecules to be connected each have 4 different hands, the situation becomes more complicated and potentially leads to 16 (24) types of stereoisomers. Since the reaction can now occur at different positions, the possible generation of regioisomers (positional isomers) also arises. In order to make a specific stereoisomer (regioisomer, enantiomer, or diastereomer), a reaction system needs to be established for the starting materials to react at a specific site and in a specific orientation, i.e. for the molecules to be positioned to hold hands in a particular manner.
In a new protocol developed by Professor Takashi Ooi's group at the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) of Nagoya University, they have developed iminophosphorane catalysts that can generate specific stereoisomers in high yield and selectivity. Moreover, a slight change in the organocatalyst structure leads to pinpoint inversion of a single stereocenter to generate a diastereomer, enabling access to a particular diastereomer of interest in a pure form.
"I was really excited the moment I saw the inversion in stereochemistry by changing the organocatalyst," says Ken Yoshioka, a graduate student in Professor Ooi's research group who mainly conducted the experiments. "Initially, we were trying to expand the scope of our catalytic system to new substrates, so this was also the moment when I thought that this was more than an ordinary stereoselective reaction."
The iminophosphorane catalyst is derived from amino acids, and a change in the amino acid structure can tune the properties of the catalyst. In this case, a slight change in the position of the methyl groups on the catalyst led to the diastereomer of the 1,6-adduct.
"Since starting this research 5 years ago, it took me about 3 years to find the optimal reaction conditions after finding the stereochemical inversion reaction," continues Yoshioka. "One main issue was the reproducibility of this reaction, as the selectivities varied in each reaction. I had repeated the reaction over and over again to see what was happening."
"We were really confused by these variable results and we initially assumed that the presence of water was playing a role in the transition state and was affecting the selectivity of this reaction," says Daisuke Uraguchi, an Associate Professor at Nagoya University. Complete removal of water is difficult in organocatalysts as they are able to form hydrogen bonds with water molecules.
"After various optimization studies, we were able to find that lowering the temperature to ?30 C was the key to controlling the selectivity of this 1,6-addition reaction," says Yoshioka. "This took a while to figure out, and were relieved to be able to generate reliable results. We were also able to stereospecifically synthesize diversely functionalized proline derivatives by further reactions of the 1,6-adducts."
"We then carried out experimental and computational studies to find a rationale for this unique stereochemical inversion," explains Uraguchi. "The organocatalysts that lead to different diastereomers share the same core and we were keen to find out how the position of the methyl groups on the catalyst affects the diastereoselectivity of this reaction."
Analysis by X-ray crystallography and DFT (density functional theory) studies revealed that the shape of the catalyst has a major role on positioning the substrates for reacting with one another. "Even though the methyl groups appear to be on the outside of the catalyst, they actually have a huge influence on holding the substrates in place to react on a particular face," describes Uraguchi. "We were able to show that a small difference in the catalyst structure changes the transition state, and leads to a change in diastereoselectivity.
Diastereodivergence (making diastereomers from a common set of substrates) has been a challenging topic, but the group succeeded in developing a new strategy for the inversion of stereochemistry by their unique reaction system. "The key to the success of this work was to keep challenging on difficult topics and to question any small observation," says Uraguchi. "Ken Yoshioka worked extremely hard on this project, and I believe that if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have gone this far."
"I had been working on this project throughout the course of my graduate studies and I believe that my persistence paid off," says Yoshioka. "Although there were times where we were unsure of what was happening in the reaction, we checked each factor one by one and it was a great feeling of satisfaction to find the origin of the stereoselectivity."
"We were pleased to accomplish diastereodivergence in 1,6-addition reactions with high levels of stereocontrol, and envisage that this diastereodivergent strategy will advance the field of asymmetric synthesis," says Uraguchi and Takashi Ooi, a Professor at Nagoya University, who led this study. "We hope to continue to make unique catalysts that will contribute to making complex molecules, which will have potential uses in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries," says Ooi.
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This article "Complete diastereodivergence in asymmetric 1,6-addition reactions enabled by minimal modification of a chiral catalyst" by Daisuke Uraguchi, Ken Yoshioka, Takashi Ooi is published online in Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14793 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14793)
About WPI-ITbM
The Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) at Nagoya University in Japan is committed to advance the integration of synthetic chemistry, plant/animal biology and theoretical science, all of which are traditionally strong fields in the university. ITbM is one of the research centers of the Japanese MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) program, the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI). The aim of ITbM is to develop transformative bio-molecules, innovative functional molecules capable of bringing about fundamental change to biological science and technology. Research at ITbM is carried out in a "Mix Lab" style, where international young researchers from various fields work together side-by-side in the same lab, enabling interdisciplinary interaction. Through these endeavors, ITbM will create "transformative bio-molecules" that will dramatically change the way of research in chemistry, biology and other related fields to solve urgent problems, such as environmental issues, food production and medical technology that have a significant impact on the society.
Author Contact
Professor Takashi Ooi
Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM), Nagoya University
Furo-Cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
TEL: +81-52-789-4501
E-mail: tooi@apchem.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Media Contact
Dr. Ayako Miyazaki
Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM), Nagoya University
Furo-Cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
TEL: +81-52-789-4999 FAX: +81-52-789-3053
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Cholera cases in East Africa increase by roughly 50,000 during El Nino, the cyclical weather occurrence that profoundly changes global weather patterns, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.
The findings, researchers say, could help health ministries anticipate future cholera surges during El Nino years and save lives.
The researchers, reporting April 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used sophisticated mapping to pinpoint the location of clusters of cholera cases before, during and after El Nino years. Cholera is an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease, typically contracted from infected water supplies and causing severe vomiting and diarrhea. Africa has the most cholera deaths in the world.
"We usually know when El Nino is coming six to 12 months before it occurs," says study leader Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Bloomberg School. "Knowing there is elevated cholera risk in a particular region can help reduce the number of deaths that result. If you have cholera treatment centers available, fast, supportive care can reduce the fatality rate from cholera from as high as 30 percent to next to nothing."
The total number of cases of cholera across Africa as a whole were about the same in El Nino years as compared to non-El Nino years, the researchers found, but the geographic distribution of illnesses was fundamentally different. El Nino conditions in the equatorial Pacific region strongly impact weather conditions globally, including increasing rainfall in East Africa and decreasing rainfall in drier areas of northern and southern Africa.
During the years classified as El Nino between 2000 and 2014, cholera incidence increased threefold in regions such as East Africa that had the strongest association between El Nino and cholera, with 177 million people living in areas that experienced an increase in cholera cases during a time of additional rainfall. At the same time, there were 30,000 fewer cases in southern Africa during El Nino where there was less rainfall than normal. Parts of central West Africa, however, saw significantly fewer cases of cholera, but with little change in rainfall patterns.
While El Nino brings wetter and warmer weather to East Africa, rainfall is not the only variable that appears to impact cholera rates, Lessler says. Cholera is almost always linked to vulnerable water systems. In some areas, massive rainfall can overrun sewer systems and contaminate drinking water. In other locations, however, dry conditions can mean that clean water sources aren't available and people must consume water from sources known to be contaminated.
"Countries in East Africa, including Tanzania and Kenya, have experienced several large cholera outbreaks in recent decades," says study author Sean Moore, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology. "Linking these outbreaks to El Nino events and increased rainfall improves our understanding of the environmental conditions that promote cholera transmission in the region and will help predict future outbreaks."
For the study, Lessler, Moore and their colleagues collected data on cholera cases in Africa from 360 separate data sets, analyzing 17,000 annual observations from 3,710 different locations between 2000 and 2014.
The researchers note that there were weak El Nino years from 2004 to 2007, while 2002-2003 and 2009-2010 were classified as moderate-to-strong El Nino years. They say that 2015-2016 was also an El Nino year with the largest cholera outbreak since the 1997-1998 El Nino occurring in Tanzania.
Using this knowledge of a link between cholera and El Nino could allow countries to prepare for outbreaks long before they start, Lessler says. Currently, there is an approved vaccine for cholera, but its effects are not lifelong and there are not enough doses for everyone in areas that could be impacted by El Nino. Once there is more vaccine, he says, it can be another tool for health officials to use as they try to prevent deadly cholera in their nations.
As climate change continues, disease patterns will continue to change as well, Lessler says. Often, the story is that climate change will put more people at risk for more types of diseases.
"But what the link between cholera and El Nino tells us is that changes may be subtler than that," he says. "There will be winners and losers. It's not a one-way street."
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"El Nino and the Shifting Geography of Cholera in Africa" was written by Sean Moore, Andrew Azman, Benjamin Zaitchik, Eric Mintz, Joan Brunkard, Dominique Legros, Alexandra Hill, Heather McKay, Francisco Luquero, David Olson and Justin Lessler.
The research was supported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Cholera data was provided by the Ministries of Health of Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Sudan and Nigeria as well as Medecins Sans Frontieres and MSF/Epicentre, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Relief Agency.
Researchers from King's College London have discovered a specific class of inhibitory neurons in the cerebral cortex which plays a key role in how the brain encodes spatial information. The findings are published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
The cerebral cortex, the brain's outer layer, is responsible for many complex brain functions, such as thought, movement, perception, learning and memory. It is a complex, highly organised, structure, whose function relies on vast networks containing two main groups of nerve cells, or neurons: pyramidal neurons and interneurons. Neurons communicate with each other through chemical and electrical signals that can be excitatory (activating) or inhibitory (deactivating), depending on their class: Pyramidal cells are excitatory neurons whilst interneurons are inhibitory. Importantly, due to their great diversity, interneurons are uniquely placed to orchestrate the activity of neural networks in multiple ways. Understanding the function of specific classes of cortical interneurons is therefore one of the main challenges of contemporary neuroscience.
Previous studies have shown that a special type of cortical interneurons, called basket cells, exerts a strongly inhibitory effect on brain circuits. However, their specific contribution to the function of cortical circuits has remained elusive. In their new study, the researchers reveal that one of the main classes of basket cells plays a key role in how the brain represents and remembers our environment, called spatial information coding.
The multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology (CDN) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), and the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MRC CNDD), found that a particular class of basket cells does not function properly in the absence of a protein called ErbB4, making and receiving fewer connections with other neurons. They also found that the disruption of the connectivity of these cells during brain development causes alterations in brain oscillatory activity and disturbs the function of place cells, a type of pyramidal neuron that becomes active when an animal is located in a particular place in its environment. These developmental defects in the wiring of neural circuits cause very selective alterations in spatial learning and memory in adult mice. Together, these results uncover a novel role for interneurons in the coding of spatial information in mice.
'Our work emphasises the high level of functional specialisation that exist among different classes of neurons in the cerebral cortex. This study also exemplifies how relatively subtle developmental changes in neural circuits have a major impact in function and behaviour in adults', said Professor Oscar Marin, senior co-author of the study and Director of the MRC CNDD and the CDN at King's College London.
The present study builds on previous work by the laboratories of Professor Beatriz Rico and Professor Oscar Marin on the role of the disease susceptibility gene ErbB4 in the development of neuronal circuits in the cerebral cortex. In recent years, their work has led to the realisation that cortical inhibitory circuitry is directly involved in cognitive function, and that developmental disruption of the function of cortical interneurons might be linked to the pathophysiology of developmental disorders such as schizophrenia.?
Professor Beatriz Rico, senior co-author of the study from the MRC CNDD and the CDN, said: 'Step by step we are building knowledge on how cortical interneurons orchestrate the function of cortical networks. We know that the hippocampus is the brain area where precise maps of spatial information are established. In this study, we have discovered that a subpopulation of inhibitory neurons is essential to maintain the shape and the stability of these maps. Without the proper wiring of these interneurons, the spatial information changes from precise to diffuse and from stable to unstable.'
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For certain frequencies of short-wave infrared light, most biological tissues are nearly as transparent as glass. Now, researchers have made tiny particles that can be injected into the body, where they emit those penetrating frequencies. The advance may provide a new way of making detailed images of internal body structures such as fine networks of blood vessels.
The new findings, based on the use of light-emitting particles called quantum dots, is described in a paper in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, by MIT research scientist Oliver Bruns, recent graduate Thomas Bischof PhD '15, professor of chemistry Moungi Bawendi, and 21 others.
Near-infrared imaging for research on biological tissues, with wavelengths between 700 and 900 nanometers (billionths of a meter), is widely used, but wavelengths of around 1,000 to 2,000 nanometers have the potential to provide even better results, because body tissues are more transparent to that light. "We knew that this imaging mode would be better" than existing methods, Bruns explains, "but we were lacking high-quality emitters" -- that is, light-emitting materials that could produce these precise wavelengths.
Light-emitting particles have been a specialty of Bawendi, the Lester Wolf Professor of Chemistry, whose lab has over the years developed new ways of making quantum dots. These nanocrystals, made of semiconductor materials, emit light whose frequency can be precisely tuned by controlling the exact size and composition of the particles.
The key was to develop versions of these quantum dots whose emissions matched the desired short-wave infrared frequencies and were bright enough to then be easily detected through the surrounding skin and muscle tissues. The team succeeded in making particles that are "orders of magnitude better than previous materials, and that allow unprecedented detail in biological imaging," Bruns says. The synthesis of these new particles was initially described in a paper by graduate student Daniel Franke and others from the Bawendi group in Nature Communications last year.
The quantum dots the team produced are so bright that their emissions can be captured with very short exposure times, he says. This makes it possible to produce not just single images but video that captures details of motion, such as the flow of blood, making it possible to distinguish between veins and arteries.
The new light-emitting particles are also the first that are bright enough to allow imaging of internal organs in mice that are awake and moving, as opposed to previous methods that required them to be anesthetized, Bruns says. Initial applications would be for preclinical research in animals, as the compounds contain some materials that are unlikely to be approved for use in humans. The researchers are also working on developing versions that would be safer for humans.
The method also relies on the use of a newly developed camera that is highly sensitive to this particular range of short-wave infrared light. The camera is a commercially developed product, Bruns says, but his team was the first customer for the camera's specialized detector, made of indium-gallium-arsenide. Though this camera was developed for research purposes, these frequencies of infrared light are also used as a way of seeing through fog or smoke.
Not only can the new method determine the direction of blood flow, Bruns says, it is detailed enough to track individual blood cells within that flow. "We can track the flow in each and every capillary, at super high speed," he says. "We can get a quantitative measure of flow, and we can do such flow measurements at very high resolution, over large areas."
Such imaging could potentially be used, for example, to study how the blood flow pattern in a tumor changes as the tumor develops, which might lead to new ways of monitoring disease progression or responsiveness to a drug treatment. "This could give a good indication of how treatments are working that was not possible before," he says.
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The team included members from MIT's departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, as well as from Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Raytheon Vision Systems, and University Medical Center in Hamburg, Germany. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Foundation for Cancer Research, the Warshaw Institute for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the Massachusetts General Hospital Executive Committee on Research, the Army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation.
Additional background
ARCHIVE: A new contrast agent for MRI http://news.mit.edu/2017/iron-oxide-nanoparticles-contrast-agent-mri-0214
ARCHIVE: A new eye on the middle ear http://news.mit.edu/2016/shortwave-infrared-instrument-ear-infection-0822
ARCHIVE: Chemists design a quantum-dot spectrometer http://news.mit.edu/2015/quantum-dot-spectrometer-smartphone-0701
ARCHIVE: Running the color gamut http://news.mit.edu/2014/startup-quantum-dot-tv-displays-1119
ARCHIVE: Fine-tuning emissions from quantum dots http://news.mit.edu/2013/fine-tuning-emissions-from-quantum-dots-0602
Imaging CoE scientists have solved a 40-year old mystery and shed light on an evolutionary arms race played out between cytomegalovirus (CMV) and the immune system.
Human CMV, also known as human herpesvirus 5, infects over 50 per cent of adults worldwide and is the leading cause of birth defects in the developed world.
New research undertaken at Monash's Biomedicine Discovery Institute, within the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, and published in the journal Cell, has unveiled why this particular virus has been so successful at lying dormant and undetected.
Co-first author, and Imaging CoE Associate Investigator, Dr Rich Berry, said that while some viruses are loud and brash, announcing themselves with vigor and manifesting as obvious and severe symptoms, CMV is different.
"CMV has evolved to hide from our immune system," Dr Berry said, "and only emerge at the opportune moment.
"This strategy has triggered an evolutionary arms race that can be likened to a life or death game of chess," he continued. However, in this scenario molecules replace chess pieces and instead of moving pieces to attack or defend, the virus and host evolve or build new pieces tailored to suit their strategy," Dr Berry said.
The new research, conducted in collaboration with scientists from Canada and Europe, shows how CMV has evolved to present decoys to Natural Killer (NK) cells and out-smart them into thinking infected cells are healthy.
Co-senior author and Imaging CoE Chief Investigator Professor Jamie Rossjohn said that NK cells act like our very own front line defense against viral infections.
"NK cells roam our body checking cells for signs of infection. This way they know when to kill, and when not to kill," said Professor Rossjohn.
Healthy cells display 'self' markers on their surface, which act like signposts to tell NK cells not to kill them. The loss of these 'self' markers during infection is one way the immune system can detect viruses.
"This is the process that CMV has hijacked" said Dr Berry. "CMV presents a decoy marker or signpost to trick the immune system into thinking a virally infected cell is actually healthy.
"But not all is not lost," he continued, "the immune system does not stand idly by, it evolves too and remodels - as is necessary for the continued survival of a species."
"Our research has also solved a 40-year old mystery concerning the function of one of the most famous proteins in the immune system," Dr Berry said.
"It turns out, this molecule, NK1.1, is a new weapon that has evolved to directly recognise the CMV decoy, thereby enabling the immune system to detect, and ultimately kill, the virus again."
While this initial research was focused on mice, the team is now shifting to human studies.
"NK1.1 is also expressed in humans," Dr. Berry said. "If it does the same job as we have seen it do in mice, this might provide a new avenue to develop future therapeutic agents in the fight against CMV, and other viruses."
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For Interview: Dr Rich Berry
Contact: Stephanie Pradier, 0424 568 314, stephanie.pradier@monash.edu
Dr Rich Berry and Professor Jamie Rossjohn are based at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, the headquarters of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging.
About the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute
Committed to making the discoveries that will relieve the future burden of disease, the newly established Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University brings together more than 120 internationally-renowned research teams. Our researchers are supported by world-class technology and infrastructure, and partner with industry, clinicians and researchers internationally to enhance lives through discovery.
About the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging
The $39 million ARC-funded Imaging CoE develops and uses innovative imaging technologies to visualise the molecular interactions that underpin the immune system. Featuring an internationally renowned team of lead scientists across five major Australian Universities and academic and commercial partners globally, the Centre uses a truly multi scale and programmatic approach to imaging to deliver maximum impact. The Imaging CoE is headquartered at Monash University with four collaborating organisations - La Trobe University, the University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland.
Improved understanding of the types of partnerships most likely to prevent HIV-related sex risk can inform expansion of correctional facility-based family-strengthening programs to reduce risk of HIV in inmates
HIV incidence among African-American men is nearly eight times that of white men, and twice that of Latino men. Incarceration, which disproportionately affects African-American men, is thought to be a factor in this wide disparity. There have been strong, independent associations drawn between history of incarceration, sexual risk behaviors, and sexually transmitted infection (STI). However, research on the sex partnerships of incarcerated African-American men and the types of partnerships most likely to protect against STI/HIV-related sex risk is limited.
To address this need, Dr. Maria Khan, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor in the New York University School of Medicine's Department of Population Health and affiliated researcher of the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (NYU CDUHR) conducted the study, "The Committed Inmate Relationships During Incarceration and STI/HIV Prevention," published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. The study's aim was to characterize the relationships of incarcerated African-Americans and the influence of those characteristics in protection against STI/HIV risk when in the community, when STI/HIV transmission risk is greatest.
"We identified subgroups of participants with distinct relationship profiles and measured associations between relationship characteristics and multiple partnerships of inmates and their partners in the six months before incarceration," said Dr. Khan.
The data were drawn from Project DISRUPT, a cohort study of African-American men (N = 207) being released from prison in North Carolina who were in committed heterosexual partnerships at prison entry.
The researchers stress the importance of understanding these relationships because some correctional settings do offer family-strengthening programs for inmates and their committed partners, however most programs are designed for married couples.
"Unfortunately while a majority of inmates have committed partners, only a minority are married said Dr. Khan."
To better understand the most common kinds of relationships of African American men who enter prison, Dr. Khan and her team interviewed African-American male inmates in committed relationships at the time of prison entry, assessing demographic/socioeconomic characteristics and relationship quality indicators.
They found the average committed relationship was three years. The vast majority were in partnerships characterized by stability; they lived together, helped one another financially, raised children together, reported relationship satisfaction, and were together for multiple years or longer. Satisfaction indicators--versus length, marriage, or cohabitation--were the strongest independent correlates of inmates' and partners' multiple partnerships. Pre-incarceration economic deprivation, mental disorder symptoms, substance use, and violence in relationships were associated with dissatisfaction/instability.
"Being in a marital or non-marital partnership with high levels of relationship satisfaction - which was a majority of committed partnerships -- was associated with protection against non-monogamy for inmates and their partners," notes Dr. Khan.
Additionally, the results highlighted many of the barriers to maintaining the non-marital relationships such as: limited phone time; distance from prison; expense of visiting; and child-care expenses.
"The study's findings highlight a need for criminal justice policies and programs that support the partnerships of inmates by reducing barriers to maintaining healthy ties during incarceration, strengthening relationship skills during incarceration, and addressing factors underlying dissatisfaction/instability, STI/HIV risk, and violence," said Dr. Khan.
The researchers note that the most significant limitation of this study was that they were unable to interview the female partners of the study participants.
This study begins to fill an important research gap and suggests that family-strengthening programs and couple-level interventions that improve relationship skills and address STI/HIV risk are appropriate for inmates in a broad range of marital and non-marital committed partnerships.
"Prison-based programs designed to maintain healthy partnerships, strengthen relationship skills, and reduce HIV risk-taking and violence in relationships are warranted and should be targeted to both marital and non-marital partnerships," said Dr. Khan. "Programming also should address the poverty, mental illness, and substance use factors that threaten relationship satisfaction/stability and increase HIV risk."
Improved understanding can inform expansion of correctional facility-based family-strengthening programs to a greater proportion of protective partnerships and HIV risk reduction programs to partnerships vulnerable to sex risk.
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Researcher affiliations
Maria R. Khan1 Nabila El-Bassel2 Carol E. Golin3,4 Joy D. Scheidell1 Adaora A. Adimora5,6 Ashley M. Coatsworth7 Hui Hu7 Selena Judon-Monk5 Katie P. Medina5 David A. Wohl5
1Division of Comparative Effectiveness and Decision Science, Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine and Center for Drug Use and HIV Research at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, 2 Social Intervention Group, Columbia University; 3 Division of General Internal Medicine and Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; 4 Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; 5 Division of Infectious Disease, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine; 6 Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina; 7 Department of Epidemiology, University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions.
Acknowledgements This study was fundedbyNIHNIDAR01DA028766 611 (PI: Khan), University of North Carolina Center for AIDS Research [AI050 612 410] and NIH 1K24HD059358 (Dr. Adimora); Dr. Golin's salary was partially supported by K24 HD06920
Conflict of interest All authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
About CDUHR
The mission of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in drug using populations and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grass roots initiatives at the local, state, national and global levels. CDUHR is a Core Center of Excellence funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #P30 DA011041). It is the first center for the socio-behavioral study of substance use and HIV in the United States and is located at the New York University College of Nursing. For more information, visit http://www.cduhr.org.
NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated academic medical center, is one of the nation's premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research, and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of five hospitals--Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; Rusk Rehabilitation; the Hospital for Joint Diseases, the Medical Center's dedicated inpatient orthopaedic hospital; NYU Lutheran Medical Center, a full-service, 450-bed teaching hospital located in Brooklyn, and Hassenfeld Children's Hospital, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services across the Medical Center. Also part of NYU Langone is NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history, and the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. The Medical Center's trifold mission to serve, teach, and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education, and research. For more information, go to http://www.NYULangone.org,
About the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing
NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science with a major in Nursing, a Master of Science and Post-Master's Certificate Programs, a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing research and theory development.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Although adults can beat children at most cognitive tasks, new research shows that children's limitations can sometimes be their strength.
In two studies, researchers found that adults were very good at remembering information they were told to focus on, and ignoring the rest. In contrast, 4- to 5-year-olds tended to pay attention to all the information that was presented to them - even when they were told to focus on one particular item. That helped children to notice things that adults didn't catch because of the grownups' selective attention.
"We often think of children as deficient in many skills when compared to adults. But sometimes what seems like a deficiency can actually be an advantage," said Vladimir Sloutsky, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.
"That's what we found in our study. Children are extremely curious and they tend to explore everything, which means their attention is spread out, even when they're asked to focus. That can sometimes be helpful."
The results have important implications for understanding how education environments affect children's learning, he said.
Sloutsky conducted the study with Daniel Plebanek, a graduate student in psychology at Ohio State. Their results were just published in the journal Psychological Science.
The first study involved 35 adults and 34 children who were 4 to 5 years old.
The participants were shown a computer screen with two shapes, with one shape overlaying the other. One of the shapes was red, the other green. The participants were told to pay attention to a shape of a particular color (say, the red shape).
The shapes then disappeared briefly, and another screen with shapes appeared. The participants had to report whether the shapes in the new screen were the same as in the previous screen.
In some cases, the shapes were exactly the same. In other cases, the target shape (the one participants were told to pay attention to) was different. But there were also instances where the non-target shape changed, even though it was not the one participants were told to notice.
Adults performed slightly better than children at noticing when the target shape changed, noticing it 94 percent of the time compared to 86 percent of the time for children.
"But the children were much better than adults at noticing when the non-target shape changed," Sloutsky said. Children noticed that change 77 percent of the time, compared to 63 percent of the time for adults.
"What we found is that children were paying attention to the shapes that they weren't required to," he said. "Adults, on the other hand, tended to focus only on what they were told was needed."
A second experiment involved the same participants. In this case, participants were shown drawings of artificial creatures with several different features. They might have an "X" on their body, or an "O"; they might have a lightning bolt on the end of their tail or a fluffy ball.
Participants were asked to find one feature, such as the "X" on the body among the "Os." They weren't told anything about the other features. Thus, their attention was attracted to "X" and "O", but not to the other features. Both children and adults found the "X" well, with adults being somewhat more accurate than children.
But when those features appeared on creatures in later screens, there was a big difference in what participants remembered. For features they were asked to attend to (i.e., "X" and "O"), adults and children were identical in remembering these features. But children were substantially more accurate than adults (72 percent versus 59 percent) at remembering features that they were not asked to attend to, such as the creatures' tails.
"The point is that children don't focus their attention as well as adults, even if you ask them to," Sloutsky said. "They end up noticing and remembering more."
Sloutsky said that adults would do well at noticing and remembering the ignored information in the studies, if they were told to pay attention to everything. But their ability to focus attention has a cost - they miss what they are not focused on.
The ability of adults to focus their attention - and children's tendency to distribute their attention more widely - both have positives and negatives.
"The ability to focus attention is what allows adults to sit in two-hour meetings and maintain long conversations, while ignoring distractions," Sloutsky said.
"But young children's use of distributed attention allows them to learn more in new and unfamiliar settings by taking in a lot of information."
The fact that children don't always do as well at focusing attention also shows the importance of designing the right learning environment in classrooms, Sloutsky said.
"Children can't handle a lot of distractions. They are always taking in information, even if it is not what you're trying to teach them. We need to make sure that we are aware of that and design our classrooms, textbooks and educational materials to help students succeed.
"Perhaps a boring classroom or a simple black and white worksheet means less distraction and more successful learning," Sloutsky added.
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The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute for Educational Science.
Contact: Vladimir Sloutsky, 614-247-4449; Sloutsky.1@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, 614-292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
(Portland, Ore.) April 10, 2017 -- DesignMedix Inc., a drug development company targeting drug resistant infectious diseases, has entered into an agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will pave the way for first-in-human clinical trials of DesignMedix's malaria drug DM1157.
The agreement is with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, and builds on a strong package of preclinical data DesignMedix developed to prepare its malaria drug for clinical trials. Under the agreement, NIH will sponsor a Phase I clinical trial of the drug, which will test its safety for human use.
The trial will be conducted at Duke Clinical Research Institute in North Carolina, and is expected to commence in late 2017. The trial is expected to last about a year. Two more studies will be required before the drug can go to market - a process that will take five to six years.
"Diseases like malaria are a significant hurdle to the productivity, prosperity and health of millions of people around the world," said DesignMedix CEO Sandra Shotwell, noting that malaria parasites have developed resistance to almost every malaria drug currently available. "Our malaria drug is designed to overcome drug resistance. We believe it will make a positive impact on global health."
DesignMedix is housed in the Portland State Business Accelerator, the region's leading technology incubator and home to more than 30 promising technology and science startups. DesignMedix exclusively licensed the malaria drug technology from Portland State University. The drugs were designed to have two important functions: kill the malaria parasite, and block drug resistance.
The World Health Organization has identified emergence of antimalarial drug resistance as one of the greatest challenges facing malaria control today. The U.S. Congress established a significant incentive program, Priority Review Vouchers, to encourage development of drugs for tropical diseases, including malaria. In addition to being eligible for a Priority Review Voucher upon FDA approval, malaria drug DM1157 benefits from an Orphan Drug designation from the FDA.
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About DesignMedix, Inc.
DesignMedix, Inc. was founded in 2008 to develop small molecule drugs to overcome drug resistance in treating infectious diseases. In addition to the malaria drug program, DesignMedix has early-stage drug development programs for additional bacterial and parasitic diseases. For more information please visit: http://www.designmedix.com.
About Portland State University (PSU)
As Oregon's only urban public research university, Portland State offers tremendous opportunity to 27,000 students from all backgrounds. Our mission to "Let Knowledge Serve the City" reflects our dedication to finding creative, sustainable solutions to local and global problems. Our location in the heart of Portland, one of America's most dynamic cities, gives our students unmatched access to career connections and an internationally acclaimed culture scene. "U.S. News & World Report" ranks us among the nation's top 10 most innovative universities.
Contact: Ken Ma, Director of Media Relations, kenma@pdx.edu, 503-725-8789, @PSUinfoandnews
Sandra Shotwell, CEO, DesignMedix Inc., shotwell@designmedix.com, 503-348-0855
Some stroke survivors say they are disregarding general practitioners' advice on secondary prevention medications, such as statins, with some patients stopping their medication completely, according to a study of an online stroke forum led by QMUL
Some stroke survivors say they are disregarding general practitioners' (GP) advice on secondary prevention medications, such as statins, with some patients stopping their medication completely, according to a study of an online stroke forum led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
The researchers say that GPs should make patients aware of multiple treatment options and the potential need for several changes in medication, and actively follow-up with their patients when providing advice or changing treatment due to side effects, such as aches and tiredness.
Three in 10 stroke survivors will go on to have a further stroke, which causes greater disability or even death. Secondary prevention medications, including antihypertensives, blood thinning and lipid lowering agents, such as statins, can reduce risk of stroke recurrence by up to 75 per cent. However, patients' persistence with these medications decreases over time because a minority of people experience side effects, which are mild in most cases.
The analysis, involving University of Cambridge and published in the journal Family Practice, was performed on the archives from TalkStroke, a UK online forum hosted by the Stroke Association. The forum is used by patients with stroke and their carers, and generated 21,596 posts during 2004-2011. 50 participants were found to discuss GP advice on prevention medications in 43 discussion threads.
The side effects of secondary prevention medications, and statins in particular, were found to cause anxiety and resentment in some patients, and their concerns were not always addressed by GPs. While most advice was followed, GP advice was sometimes disregarded when related to dealing with statin side effects. Some patients even stopped the medication after just one or two attempts by the GP to adjust statin treatment.
Lead Researcher and NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer Dr Anna De Simoni from QMUL said: "I am a GP and these findings have changed my own practice when I start patients on statins and when they consult about side effects.
"Given the variety of cholesterol lowering treatments and possible approaches to manage statin intolerant patients, I was surprised to see that patients seemingly lost hope after only one or two contacts with their GPs, unaware that a better regimen may have been available or that their GP would have been able to carry out another change in medication.
"In my practice I am now advising patients that multiple treatment options are available, and several attempts may be required before a suitable treatment is found. It is also important to pro-actively invite them to seek help if side effects are experienced and don't improve."
The researchers say that advising patients to persist with statins side effects to prevent further strokes could result in the patient stopping the medication. Following up patients (even by telephone) after any change in treatment or advice could ensure issues are resolved.
The study found that forum participants did not make incorrect or misleading statements, but instead provided appropriate peer support, underlined the central role of GPs in managing medications, and their shared-decision making with clinicians was improved by online peer-to-peer discussions. The forum's 'super-users', who had a high number of connections with other participants, played an important role in this.
Considering the ease, low-cost and advantages of obtaining patient information from online fora, the researchers say that more attention could be paid into studying health issues using data from online communities. This could allow collection of data from participants who might not take part in traditional research studies and from a wider geographical location.
The study is limited in that the data are old (2004-2011), the identity of users could not be verified, the forum was moderated, and older patients might be under-represented.
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For more information, please contact:
Joel Winston, Public Relations Manager
Queen Mary University of London
j.winston@qmul.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 7970 096 188
Notes to the editor
Research paper: 'How do stroke survivors and their carers use practitioners' advice on secondary prevention medications? Qualitative study of an online forum'. Nkeonye J Izuka, Matthew A W Alexander, Chantal Balasooriya-Smeekens, Jonathan Mant and Anna De Simoni. Family Practice 2017. doi:10.1093/fampra/cmx023
Available online after the embargo lifts: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmx023
About Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) is one of the UK's leading universities, and one of the largest institutions in the University of London, with 23,120 students from more than 155 countries.
A member of the Russell Group, we work across the humanities and social sciences, medicine and dentistry, and science and engineering, with inspirational teaching directly informed by our research. In the most recent national assessment of the quality of research, we were placed ninth in the UK (REF 2014).
As well as our main site at Mile End - which is home to one of the largest self-contained residential campuses in London - we have campuses at Whitechapel, Charterhouse Square, and West Smithfield dedicated to the study of medicine, and a base for legal studies at Lincoln's Inn Fields.
We have a rich history in London with roots in Europe's first public hospital, St Barts; England's first medical school, The London; one of the first colleges to provide higher education to women, Westfield College; and the Victorian philanthropic project, the People's Palace at Mile End.
Today, as well as retaining these close connections to our local community, we are known for our international collaborations in both teaching and research.
QMUL has an annual turnover of 350m, a research income worth 125m (2014/15), and generates employment and output worth 700m to the UK economy each year.
About the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funded by the Department of Health to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. The NIHR is the research arm of the NHS. Since its establishment in April 2006, the NIHR has transformed research in the NHS. It has increased the volume of applied health research for the benefit of patients and the public, driven faster translation of basic science discoveries into tangible benefits for patients and the economy, and developed and supported the people who conduct and contribute to applied health research. The NIHR plays a key role in the Government's strategy for economic growth, attracting investment by the life-sciences industries through its worldclass infrastructure for health research. Together, the NIHR people, programmes, centres of excellence and systems represent the most integrated health research system in the world. For further information, visit the NIHR website (http://www.nihr.ac.uk).
Findings from Rice University physicists working at Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are providing new insight about an exotic state of matter called the "quark-gluon plasma" that occurs when protons and neutrons melt.
As the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the LHC is able to smash together the nuclei of atoms at nearly the speed of the light. The energy released in these collisions is vast and allows physicists to recreate the hot, dense conditions that existed in the early universe. Quark-gluon plasma, or QGP, is a high-energy soup of particles that's formed when protons and neutrons melt at temperatures approaching several trillion kelvins.
In a recent paper in Physical Review Letters written on behalf of more than 2,000 scientists working on the LHC's Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, Rice physicists Wei Li and Zhoudunming (Kong) Tu proposed a new approach for studying a characteristic magnetic property of QGP called the "chiral magnetic effect" (CME). Their approach uses collisions between protons and lead nuclei. CME is an electromagnetic phenomenon that arises as a consequence of quantum mechanics and is also related to so-called topological phases of matter, an area of condensed matter physics that has drawn increased worldwide attention since capturing the Nobel Prize in physics in 2016.
"To find evidence for the chiral magnetic effect and thus topological phases in hot QGP matter has been a major goal in the field of high-energy nuclear physics for some time," Li said. "Early findings, although indicative of the CME, still remain inconclusive, mainly because of other background processes that are difficult to control and quantify."
QGP was first produced around 2000 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in New York and later at the LHC in 2010. In those experiments, physicists smashed together two fast-moving lead nuclei, each of containing 82 protons and 126 neutrons, the two building blocks of all atomic nuclei. Because the melting protons in these collisions each carries a positive electric charge, the QGPs from these experiments contained enormously strong magnetic fields, which are estimated to be about a trillion times stronger than the strongest magnetic field ever created in a laboratory.
The chiral magnetic effect is an exotic asymmetric electromagnetic effect that only arises due to the combination of quantum mechanics and the extreme physical conditions in a QGP. The laws of classical electrodynamics would forbid the existence of such a state, and indeed, Li's inspiration for the new experiments arose from thinking about the problem in classical terms.
"I was inspired by a problem in an undergraduate course I was teaching on classical electrodynamics," Li said.
Two years ago Li discovered that head-on collisions at LHC between a lead nucleus and a single proton created small amounts of particles that appeared to behave as a liquid. On closer analysis, he and colleagues at CMS found the collisions were creating small amounts of QGP.
In a 2015 Rice News report about the discovery, Rice alumnus Don Lincoln, a particle physicist and physics communicator at Fermilab, wrote, "This result was surprising because when the proton hits the lead nucleus, it punches a hole through much of the nucleus, like shooting a rifle at a watermelon (as opposed to colliding two lead nuclei, which is like slamming two watermelons together)."
Li said, "One unusual thing about the droplets of QGP created in proton-lead collisions is the configuration of their magnetic fields. The QGP is formed near the center of the initial lead nucleus, which makes it easy to tell that the strength of the magnetic field is rather negligible in comparison with the QGP created in lead-lead collisions. As a result, proton-lead collisions provide us a means to switch off the magnetic field -- and the CME signal -- in a QGP in a well-controlled way."
In the new paper, Li, Tu and their CMS colleagues showed evidence from proton-lead collision data that helps shed light on the electromagnetic behaviors that arise from the chiral magnetic effect in lead-lead QGPs.
Li said more details still need to be worked out before a definitive conclusion can be drawn, but he said the results bode well for future QGP discoveries at the LHC.
"This is just a first step in a new avenue opened up by proton-nucleus collisions for the search of exotic topological phases in QGP," Li said. "We are working hard on accumulating more data and performing a series of new studies. Hopefully, in coming years, we will see the first direct evidence for the chiral magnetic effect."
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VIDEO is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9KZLaVItI Fermilab physicist and Rice University alumnus Don Lincoln explains quark-gluon plasma.
High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at: http://cds.cern.ch/record/2235235/files/ CUTLINE: A visual of data collected by the Compact Muon Solenoid detector during a proton-lead collision at the Large Hadron Collider in 2016. (Image courtesy of Thomas McCauley/CERN)
http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/04/0406_EXOTIC-two-lg-1tz1zjz.jpg CAPTION: From left: Zhoudunming (Kong) Tu and Wei Li (Photo by Zhenyu Chen)
The DOI of the Science Advances paper is: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.122301
A copy of the paper is available at: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.122301
Related research from Rice:
Rice University physicist earns White House honor -- Jan. 11, 2017 http://news.rice.edu/2017/01/11/rice-university-physicist-earns-white-house-honor-2/
Rice physicists find surprising 'liquid-like' particle interactions in Large Hadron Collider -- July 22, 2015 http://news.rice.edu/2015/07/22/rice-physicists-find-surprising-liquid-like-particle-interactions-in-large-hadron-collider/
Rice physicist will search for 'quark-gluon plasma' at the LHC -- May 16, 2014 http://news.rice.edu/2014/05/16/rice-physicist-will-search-for-quark-gluon-plasma-at-the-lhc-2/
Rice-born detector finds heaviest antimatter -- April 27, 2011 http://news.rice.edu/2011/04/27/rice-born-detector-finds-heaviest-antimatter/
Grant advances quark-gluon plasma studies -- Oct. 7, 2010 http://news.rice.edu/2010/10/07/grant-advances-quark-gluon-plasma-studies/
This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for happiest students and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
HOUSTON - (April 10, 2017) - Rice University researchers are starting to understand how protein fragments influence the fiber aggregation suspected as a cause of Huntington's disease.
In their computer simulations, Rice bioscientist Peter Wolynes and graduate student Mingchen Chen show that the N-terminal sequence in huntingtin protein fragments encourages their aggregation into prefibrillar structures, while a C-terminal sequence made up of polyproline inhibits aggregation.
The models suggest their combined actions are part of the aggregation mechanism they described in a previous study about how repeats of polyglutamine genetically trigger Huntington's.
Wolynes said the discovery offers hope for drugs that could interfere with N-terminal binding and thereby stop aggregation early in the process. "Finding a target involves understanding molecular mechanisms and how things work at the atomic level, and we're adding to that part of the story," he said.
The research is detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Huntington's is a hereditary disease caused by a mutation in the gene that expresses huntingtin proteins, which are common in human neurons and mostly harmless. The mutation involves a repeating chain of glutamines, which increases in length as genes are passed down through generations. Eventually, when the length surpasses a threshold, aggregation is triggered. Fibers typically begin to aggregate in Huntington's when these polyglutamine chains reach a critical length of 36 repeats. Longer chains can make the disease more severe and its onset earlier.
The Rice lab studies the molecular energy landscapes that allow proteins to fold into their functional shapes. This time, the researchers looked at the protein fragments that remain in a cell after the proteolysis - or breakdown - of large huntingtin proteins. These hairpin-like fragments contain polyglutamines capped on either end by an N-terminus and a C-terminus.
Wolynes and Chen found that the N- and C-termini are like children on either end of a see-saw: They must be in balance to stabilize fragments with long polyglutamine chains. If they are not, the fragments begin to form inclusion bodies, the aggregates found inside the cells of people with Huntington's.
"If you only had the N-terminus encouraging aggregation and you didn't have the polyproline at the other end, then everyone would get Huntington's disease," Wolynes said. "So the prolines are doing something clinically good, but we don't know why it has evolved that way."
Wolynes said the core process by which polyglutamines fold prematurely when their length is beyond the threshold remains the same as for peptides lacking the termini, "but it's modified quantitatively by the influence of the two ends." Some people may harbor huntingtin proteins with long polyglutamines that are prevented from causing disease by the presence of longer polyprolines, he said.
Altering the N-terminus may also halt progression of the disease. "What would happen if we change a single amino acid in the N-terminus? We can use our models to look into that," Wolynes said. "If there are people with 40 polyglutamines but who also have a mutation in the N-terminus head and they don't get Huntington's, that would be very interesting.
"But that's a very tricky thing to prove," he said. "If somebody doesn't have Huntington's disease, they usually don't come in and say, 'Check me out!' Still, this argues for finding drugs that modify N-terminal binding."
The researchers' simulations predicted that the critical length of fragments prone to aggregation is between 30 and 40 glutamines, which is "remarkably consistent with the critical length for disease onset," they wrote. "Before, we showed there's a critical length (of 30 glutamines) for this pre-folding transition into hairpin shapes, but that length was shorter than the actual disease onset length (of 36)," Wolynes said. "When you put on these two termini, the length of the protein moves up to the range where the disease onset actually occurs.
"This tends to point to aggregation itself as the cause of the illness, even though some have suggested that aggregation is a protective mechanism."
He said the results also underline the involvement of the cytoskeleton. Wolynes noted that the huntingtin protein is known to interact with at least four proteins linked to the cytoskeleton, the network of filaments that direct the transport around a cell. He said experiments have established that the cytoskeleton helps bring fragments together as they aggregate.
"I tend to think the weird involvement of the cytoskeleton is a clue, and the fact it's involved in other neural processes like long-term memory has a certain suspicious air about it," he said.
Wolynes said the Rice lab may probe proteolysis, in which enzymes cut larger proteins into fragments. "In almost all of the neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Huntington's, the aggregates that signify the presence of the disease are the result of proteolytic cleavage," he said. "Proteolysis seems to have evolved to cleave proteins at a specific point to do something functional, which suggests it's not merely an accident."
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Wolynes is the D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Science, a professor of chemistry, of biochemistry and cell biology, of physics and astronomy and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice and a senior investigator of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice.
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences supported the research. The researchers used the NSF-supported DAVinCI supercomputer administered by Rice's Center for Research Computing and procured in partnership with the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology.
Read the abstract at http://www.pnas.org/10.1073/pnas.1702237114
This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews
Related materials:
Wolynes Research Lab: http://wolynes.rice.edu/node/129
Center for Theoretical Biological Physics: https://ctbp.rice.edu
Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://natsci.rice.edu
Images for download:
http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/04/0410_HUNTINGTON-11-WEB-2jncvgc.jpg
Huntintin protein fragments with 40 repeats of polyglutamine progress from top to bottom toward aggregation in a simulation by scientists at Rice University. The polyglutamine fragments in orange fold into stiff hairpin shapes when they reach 30 polyglutamine repeats. The Rice researchers found the N-terminal region (green) encourages aggregation but is held in check by the proline C-terminus (blue) until polyglutamines reach a critical 36 repeats. Aggregation is suspected of causing Huntington's disease. (Credit: Mingchen Chen/Rice University)
http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/04/0410_HUNTINGTON-2-WEB-2df0fee.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University's Peter Wolynes, left, and Mingchen Chen. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for happiest students and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
London, UK. Well researched journalism is more important than ever. Around the world there are squeezes on press freedom from all directions, and with the rise of what has been dubbed "fake-news", it is a time for thorough journalism, says Rachael Jolley, editor of the Index on Censorship Magazine, on the publication of a special report called "The Big Squeeze: Freedom of Speech Under Pressure".
Included in the latest issue of the magazine is a special focus on Poland, where magazine editor Wojciech Przybylski discusses the governments continuing efforts to stifle and control news in the country:
"Along with public TV, public radio statutes have been changed to enable the takeover by government supporters of executive boards in direct violation of the role of the bi-partisan committee that previously supervised the quality of public broadcasting. Many journalists who are not supportive of the government have been fired and the remaining ones are under threat of being fired."
In Turkey, Canan Co?kun, a journalist at daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, who faces two upcoming trials for her reporting, talks about the dangers of life as a reporter. "Every two to three weeks recently, I have seen off a colleague leaving the courthouse for prison", she describes.
And the magazine includes two reports from Mexico on threats to journalists lives, and the fear involved in doing their jobs.
In these turbulent times, Jolley says "journalists and journalism needs to step up and do a really excellent, through job of discovering and publishing the news", while also calling for the public to take responsibility in supporting well researched and thorough journalism. "We need to be capable of a bit more dissection and skepticism when we see stories, rather than swallowing them whole without thinking", she explains.
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For a PDF copy of the latest issue of the Index on Censorship Magazine "The Big Squeeze: Freedom of Speech Under Pressure" please contact Mollie Broad (mollie.broad@sagepub.co.uk) or Tiffany Medina (tiffany.medina@sagepub.com).
Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 1,000 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. A growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company's continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. http://www.sagepublishing.com
Index on Censorship launched in 1972, has reporters around the world. International in outlook, outspoken in comment, and publishing some of the world's finest writers, Index exposes stories that are suppressed, publishes banned writing, investigative journalism and new fiction. Previous contributors include Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, Nadine Gordimer, Aung San Suu Kyi, Salman Rushdie, Tom Stoppard and Ai Weiwei. http://www.indexoncensorship.org
LA JOLLA, CA - April 10, 2017 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to tether HIV-fighting antibodies to immune cells, creating a cell population resistant to the virus. Their experiments under lab conditions show that these resistant cells can quickly replace diseased cells, potentially curing the disease in a person with HIV.
"This protection would be long term," said Jia Xie, senior staff scientist at TSRI and first author of the study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers, led by study senior author Richard Lerner, M.D., Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry at TSRI, plan to collaborate with investigators at City of Hope's Center for Gene Therapy to evaluate this new therapy in efficacy and safety tests, as required by federal regulations, prior to testing in patients.
"City of Hope currently has active clinical trials of gene therapy for AIDS using blood stem cell transplantation, and this experience will be applied to the task of bringing this discovery to the clinic," said John A. Zaia, M.D., director of the Center for Gene Therapy in the Hematological Malignancy and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute at City of Hope. "The ultimate goal will be the control of HIV in patients with AIDS without the need for other medications."
"We at TSRI are honored to be able to collaborate with physicians and scientists at City of Hope, whose expertise in transplantation in HIV patients should hopefully allow this therapy to be used in people," added Lerner.
The new TSRI technique offers a significant advantage over therapies where antibodies float freely in the bloodstream at a relatively low concentration. Instead, antibodies in the new study hang on to a cell's surface, blocking HIV from accessing a crucial cell receptor and spreading infection.
Xie called it the "neighbor effect." An antibody stuck nearby is more effective than having many antibodies floating throughout the bloodstream. "You don't need to have so many molecules on one cell to be effective," he said.
Before testing their system against HIV, the scientists used rhinovirus (responsible for many cases of the common cold) as a model. They used a vector called lentivirus to deliver a new gene to cultured human cells. This gene instructed cells to synthesize antibodies that bind with the human cell receptor (ICAM-1) that rhinovirus needs. With the antibodies monopolizing that site, the virus cannot enter the cell to spread infection.
"This is really a form of cellular vaccination," said Lerner.
Because the delivery system can't reach exactly 100 percent of cells, the finished product was a mix of engineered and unengineered cells. The researchers then added rhinovirus to these cell populations and waited to see what would happen.
The vast majority of cells died in about two days. In dishes with only unengineered cells, the population never recovered. There was an initial die-off in the mixed engineered/unengineered populations, too, but their numbers quickly bounced back. After 125 hours, these cell populations were back up to around the same levels as cells in an undiseased control group.
In essence, the researchers had forced the cells to compete in Darwinian, "survival-of-the-fittest" selection in a lab dish. Cells without antibody protection died off, leaving protected cells to survive and multiply, passing on the protective gene to new cells.
This success led the researchers to test the same technique against HIV. To infect a person, all strains of HIV need to bind with a cell surface receptor called CD4. So the scientists tested antibodies that could potentially protect this receptor on the very immune cells normally killed by HIV. "This research is possible because of the ability to select specialized antibodies from combinatorial antibody libraries," said Lerner.
Again, their technique worked. After introducing cells to the virus, the researchers ended up with an HIV-resistant population. The antibodies recognized the CD4 binding site, blocking HIV from getting to the receptor.
The scientists further confirmed that these tethered antibodies blocked HIV more effectively than free-floating, soluble antibodies in experiments led by study co-authors Devin Sok of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and TSRI Professor Dennis R. Burton, who is also scientific director of the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and of the National Institutes of Health's Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) at TSRI.
Joseph Alvarnas, M.D., director of Value-Based Analytics at City of Hope, explained how the TSRI technique could help patients, who--despite treatment with anti-retroviral drugs--still suffer from higher rates of diseases, such as cancers. "HIV is treatable but not curable--this remains a disease that causes a lot of suffering. That makes the case for why these technologies are so important," he said.
In addition to potentially collaborating with City of Hope, Xie said the next step in this research is to try engineering antibodies to protect a different receptor on the cell surface.
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Additional authors of the study, "Immunochemical Engineering of Cell Surfaces to Generate Virus Resistance," were Nicholas Wu and Tianqing Zheng of TSRI. The study was supported by Zebra Biologics and the JPB Foundation.
About The Scripps Research Institute
The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs more than 2,500 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists--including two Nobel laureates and 20 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering or Medicine--work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. In October 2016, TSRI announced a strategic affiliation with the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), representing a renewed commitment to the discovery and development of new medicines to address unmet medical needs. For more information, see http://www.scripps.edu.
About City of Hope
City of Hope is an independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as one of only 47 comprehensive cancer centers, the highest recognition bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, City of Hope is also a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, with research and treatment protocols that advance care throughout the world. City of Hope is located in Duarte, California, just northeast of Los Angeles, with community clinics throughout Southern California. It is ranked as one of "America's Best Hospitals" in cancer by U.S. News & World Report. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation, diabetes and numerous breakthrough cancer drugs based on technology developed at the institution. For more information about City of Hope, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.
A University of Alaska Fairbanks study has determined that warmer water migrating from the Atlantic Ocean is a surprisingly powerful contributor to Arctic sea ice decline.
Research led by Igor Polyakov, a professor at UAF's International Arctic Research Center and College of Natural Science and Mathematics, has found that Atlantic currents contribute to sea ice loss in the Arctic Ocean at a rate comparable to warming air temperatures.
"This is a very important step toward a seasonal ice-free Arctic," said Polyakov.
The findings, outlined in the journal Science's April 6 edition, provide a greater understanding of the complex dynamics that contribute to sea ice melt. Co-authors of the paper include UAF's Andrey Pnyushkov, Robert Rember, Till Baumann and Vladimir Ivanov, as well as collaborators from Russia, Canada, Poland, Germany, Norway and the United States.
The Arctic Ocean has experienced dramatic reductions in sea ice in the past decade. The Eastern Eurasian Basin has had almost no ice by the end of each summer since 2011. Circulating Atlantic waters have been considered a small factor in that decline, due to a phenomenon known as stratification.
In the Arctic, warmer and denser water from the Atlantic has normally remained beneath a colder and lighter surface layer. The greater the difference in density between the layers, the less likely they are to mix. Without mixing, the heat from the warmer water can't come into contact with sea ice at the surface.
That has changed. Data collected by Polyakov and other researchers during the Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System project showed increased mixing in the Eastern Eurasian Basin, a major pathway for Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean. That means more heat is being transferred to the Arctic sea ice on the surface.
Even before analyzing the data, the research team noticed that something was changing. They depend on solid sea ice to deploy their research buoys. During the 2015 expedition aboard the icebreaking research vessel Akademik Tryoshnikov, much of the sea ice was too rotten to support the buoys, Polyakov said. "For the first time, we had a problem finding a suitable ice floe to deploy buoys. We spent several days trying to find such a floe."
NABOS sends comprehensive research cruises through the Arctic Ocean every two years. The NABOS project is currently planning its 2017 research cruise.
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ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Nate Bauer, 907-474-7413, nbauer3@alaska.edu. Igor Polyakov, ivpolyakov@alaska.edu, 907-474-2686; Eddy Carmack with Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences, eddy.carmack@gmail.com; Jeff Richardson, UAF University Relations, 907-474-6284, jarichardson6@alaska.edu.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos are available for download online at http://news.uaf.edu/polyakov-april2017/. View the full paper at http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/04/05/science.aai8204.
A new study led by UC San Francisco has found that radiation doses can be safely and effectively reduced - and more consistently administered - for common CT scans by assessing and comparing doses across hospitals, and then sharing best practices for how much radiation to use.
While there has been a steady rise in the use of computed tomography (CT) in the United States over the last decade, doses of radiation vary substantially between hospitals, with few concrete standards on best dose levels. As a result, medical experts have difficulty determining the "right" dose of radiation that balances diagnostic accuracy, while minimizing the radiation exposure that increases cancer risk for patients. Without a consistent standard, each institution generally makes independent decisions about what dose to use.
A new project at the five academic medical centers of the University of California introduced a feedback system for radiologists on their doses and sought to study its effectiveness in reducing excess radiation exposure. The program consisted of auditing radiology professionals at each medical center and providing feedback on how these doses compared to those used at the other medical centers, while systematically sharing best practices. Included in the project were section chiefs of radiology, medical physicists and radiology technicians.
The project resulted in substantially lower radiation doses for chest and abdominal scans as well as more consistent radiation doses for head scans, according to the study which appears April 10 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
"We estimate that if the improvements we saw were applied to all abdominal CT scans performed in the U.S., this would result in the reduction of approximately 12,000 cancers annually," said senior author Rebecca Smith-Bindman, MD, a professor in the UCSF departments of radiology, and of epidemiology and biostatistics, and the Philip R. Lee Institute of Health Policy Studies. Smith-Bindman also directs the Radiology Outcomes Research Laboratory.
"Reducing unnecessary and inconsistent radiation doses is an extremely important process for improving patient safety," she said. "We found that providing detailed and comparative feedback, and sharing best practices on how each institution was able to optimize their dose, leads to lower and more consistent CT doses. In short, it makes no sense for each institution to have to re-invent the wheel regarding how to optimize doses - this project focuses on helping the leaders at each institution learn from each other."
The American College of Radiology and other organizations advocate that CT scans be performed with radiation exposures that are as low as can be reasonably achieved. But in the absence of explicit guidelines, CT radiation doses vary widely, leading to unnecessary radiation exposure for some patients.
To help optimize radiation exposure and shift toward dose standardization, the authors of the new study collected information on all diagnostic CT examinations - amounting to more than 158,000 CT scans - performed between Oct. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2014, at the five medical centers composing UC Health: UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco.
The authors then created reports for chest, abdomen and head CT scans, provided those reports to individuals at each medical center, and then met in person to discuss the findings. During the meetings, each medical center shared strategies on lowering radiation doses without affecting diagnostic performance, including both successful and failed approaches. The collaborators then shared and implemented what they had learned with their own medical centers.
The authors found that by reviewing doses and sharing best practice procedures, the mean effective radiation dose for standard chest CT scans could be reduced by nearly 19 percent, and for abdominal CT scans, the mean dose could be lowered by 25 percent. For head CT scans, doses varied less over time, the authors reported. CT scans of the chest, abdomen and head account for more than 80 percent of all CT imaging performed at the medical centers, so the improvements were substantial.
"These findings indicate a benefit to reviewing institutional radiation doses, providing feedback to radiology practices using an easy and comprehensive format, and bringing professionals together to discuss strategies for improvement," said Smith-Bindman.
"While our study team provided the leadership, the hard work of improving, optimizing and standardizing radiation doses was performed by the University of California technologists, radiologists and medical physicists who were all committed to improving the care they provided."
Among several study limitations, the authors said that a randomized trial, rather than an observational study, could provide "more definitive evidence of the association between dose feedback and dose." Smith-Bindman has been funded by the National Institutes of Health to conduct a randomized trial, which is underway.
An accompanying commentary in the same issue of JAMA Internal Medicine concluded that the study provides a valuable roadmap for hospitals and other treatment facilities. While previous radiation improvement programs have fallen short, this "robust" approach succeeded, the commentary noted, in part because medical experts were given authority and accountability to implement appropriate changes.
"By creating a venue for leaders from the five institutions to collectively define and standardize best practices, with allowance for flexibility within each institution...the study team hypothesized that greater reductions (and less variation) in radiation exposure could be achieved. And they were right," wrote the authors of the commentary.
The commentary's corresponding author was Ralph Gonzales, MD, MSPH, associate dean for clinical innovation and chief innovation officer for UCSF Health.
The commentary pointed out several remaining questions: what specific changes were made at each institution that achieved the reductions and whether the radiation reductions led to changes in diagnostic accuracy. "This will certainly be a factor for future institutions to consider," they wrote.
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From UCSF, co-authors of the study are Joshua Demb, MPH, of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; and Philip Chu, MS, and Robert Gould, DSc, both with the Department of Radiology.
The research was supported by grant 5R01CA181191-03 from the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute; grant P0056817 from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute; and grant A118665 from the University of California Office of the President Center for Health Quality and Innovation.
About UCSF: UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises three top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area. Please visit http://www.ucsf.edu/news.
The quality of society's institutions affects not only the service people receive but also who wins the political power. Research from the University of Gothenburg shows that corruption is one reason some European populist parties have achieved great electoral success in recent parliamentary elections.
Public services such as law enforcement, health care and education often comprise the most direct contact people have with the state. The quality of these services is therefore critical to people's confidence in public institutions and democracy in general.
'Low confidence in public institutions is one of the most distinguishing features of populist voters,' says Mattias Agerberg, PhD student in political science.
One common characteristic of societies with poorly functioning social institutions is corruption, which has a severe negative impact on virtually everything related to people's quality of life. Examples include that citizens may have to pay to gain access to health care or to get good grades in school, or that they need to belong to a particular family in order to get a job as a civil servant.
Researchers at the Quality of Government Institute at the University of Gothenburg have previously assessed the incidence of corruption by compiling interviews with 85 000 people in 24 European countries. The interviews provide a measure of citizens' experiences of corruption, something that other studies on the topic have shown correspond well with the actual situation in a country.
Based on this data, Agerberg has now found a clear link between high levels of corruption and people's willingness to vote for populist parties. This is for example true for the National Front in France and the Five Star Movement in Italy, both of which have grown dramatically in popularity in recent years.
'Populist parties are more vocal than others about politicising corruption. It is part of their anti-establishment rhetoric. For voters who face corruption on a daily basis, the populist parties simply offer a political alternative that is perceived to take these issues seriously,' says Agerberg.
While previous research on the increased support for populist parties often has focused on the effect of election systems or major public corruption scandals, Agerberg's study looks at factors that are closer to voters' daily lives.
'In times of cutbacks and austerity packages, my study shows that the quality of public services can determine not only the service people get, but also who ultimately wins the political power.'
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Contact: Mattias Agerberg, PhD student in political science, tel.: +46 (0)31 786 1113; email: mattias.agerberg@gu.se
The results have been published in European Journal of Political Research: Mattias Agerberg (2017), "Failed Expectations: Quality of Government and Support for Populist Parties in Europe". http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6765.12203/full
Highly effective current treatments for vision loss need to be allied with careful counselling to ensure patients maintain good psychological health as well as good vision, new research recommends. wAMD is the commonest cause of vision loss in the western world, but modern treatments have dramatically improved the level of vision patients can expect to retain. These treatments involve regular injection of vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors (anti-VEGF) into the eye.
However, a new study conducted at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, demonstrates high levels of undiagnosed anxiety and depression persisting in patients receiving treatment, despite their improved visual outcomes.
Manchester researchers say that the study findings demonstrate the value of human interaction between clinician and patient in offering reassurance around the efficacy and safety associated with anti-VEGF injections.
Dr Tariq Aslam, Senior Lecturer in Ophthalmology at The University of Manchester, Consultant Ophthalmologist, at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT), and lead author of the study, said: "There have been amazing scientific achievements in diagnosing and treating serious eye diseases, such as wAMD, which have revolutionised our ability to reverse life-changing vision loss. However, we must not forget the human element when applying all this to ensure all our patients can reap the full benefits of this cutting-edge science.
"This study represents one of the largest and most detailed examinations of patients undergoing anti-VEGF therapy to date. It helps us understand how factors such as patients' understanding and building strong relationships with healthcare professionals may help alleviate anxiety around receiving injections."
The report suggests that patients may benefit from additional assurances from clinical staff regarding; success rates in halting disease progression with anti-VEGF therapy, how it can reduce the risk of becoming blind in the future, and the low likelihood of serious problems occurring following the injections.
Dr Hugo Senra, the Clinical Psychologist who conducted the study, said: "This study also highlights the importance of considering specialised counselling for certain wAMD patients. Literature has shown that tailored psychological and psychosocial interventions can be effective to reduce anxiety and depression in wAMD patients, and contribute to their adjustment to illness and medical treatments."
The research found as many as 89% of patients who showed anxiety, and 91% who showed depression were not receiving appropriate psychological and psychiatric treatment.
Although levels of depression reduce once anti-VEGF therapy is established, doctors should be vigilant to such symptoms and their potential to impair quality-of-life. Use of standardised tools to screen wAMD patients for symptoms of anxiety and depression in the macular treatment unit could better help identify patients at risk. Further research and controlled trials will be needed to better understand anxiety and depression in wAMD patients and develop new intervention tools at patient and clinical level to reduce symptoms and improve quality-of-life.
This study was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It was also funded by a grant from Bayer, in order to support the ophthalmology community in transforming care and supporting people living with retinal conditions.
Dr Jackie Napier, Medical Director for Ophthalmology at Bayer, said "At Bayer we are dedicated to working in partnership with the ophthalmology community to help transform lives, and an important element of this is working together to improve the holistic support that is provided to patients, carers and their families. We are proud to support this study, which is one of the first of its kind in the UK to investigate the experience of patients with wet AMD receiving anti-VEGF therapy. This type of research can help shape improvements in patient education and support, and thus enable people with wet AMD to get the most from their treatment."
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The article is "Experience of Anti-VEGF Treatment and Clinical Levels of Depression and Anxiety in Patients With Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration," by Hugo Senra, Konstantinos Balaskas, Neda Mahmoodi, Tariq Aslam (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2017.03.005). It appears online at Annals of Global Health, published by Elsevier.
What pushes a teenager to suddenly drop out of high school? The answer: any number of very stressful "trigger" events that occur in their final few months in class, researchers at Universite de Montreal's Public Health Research Institute have found.
In fact, adolescents exposed to severe stressors are more than twice as likely to drop out in the following few months compared to similar schoolmates who are not exposed, says the study led by UdeM pyschoeducation professor Veronique Dupere.
The stressors are not always school-related. In fact, most occur away from school and can involve family members (divorcing parents, for example), conflicts with peers, work issues (being laid off), health issues (a car accident) and legal issues.
Previous studies of high-school dropouts have concentrated on individual triggers, such as teen pregnancy. The UdeM study, published in late March in Child Development, looked at a wide array of severe events across the spectrum of adolescent experience, in and away from school.
"That's how we were able to show for the first time that the prevalence of these events is quite high in the months preceding a student dropping out of school," Dupere said. "It happens quite frequently, and it's not just one type of event they're exposed to; there are many."
Dropping out is usually seen as the result of vulnerabilities a student has exhibited in school over a long period, including learning problems at an early age. What is less well-understood is why students with no history of difficulty in school quit suddenly, or why vulnerable students who quit do so at different times, some earlier than others.
The UdeM study looked at 545 adolescents of about 16 years of age at 12 public high schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in and around Montreal between 2012 and 2015, where the average dropout rate was 36 per cent, more than twice the Quebec average. The students were interviewed at length about stressors in their life over the previous year. One third of the participants had just dropped out, another third were schoolmates with a similar academic profile and family background, and a final third were average, not-at-risk students.
The interviews focused on two types of stressors: "discrete" events (e.g., the relapse of a bipolar parent) and chronic difficulties lasting at least a month (e.g., incapacitation due to a concussion). Adolescents were asked about stressors in school, at work, in housing, with money, involving criminal or legal issues, accidents or health problems, personal relationships (with friends, family and romantic partners), and more. Specific questions then honed in on areas such as education: course failures, program or school changes, conflicts with teachers, suspensions and such.
The study found significant differences between dropouts and the two other groups in their exposure to severe stressors in the three months before the interview. In those three months, exposure to at least one severe stressor spiked among dropouts and reached nearly 40 per cent, more than twice as high as that of at-risk and average students (18% and 16.8 %, respectively). Moreover, the results showed that exposure to two or more severe events was 12 times higher among dropouts (6%) than among at-risk (0.5%) and average (0.6%) schoolmates.
About one-third of the severe difficulties that dropouts faced were school-related (23% involved protracted course failure, 6% involved chronic conflicts with school personnel), whereas one-quarter (25%) involved recurring family conflicts. Chronic health problems made up 18% of the overall total, distributed about evenly between the participants themselves and their significant others. Problems with peers and romantic relationships accounted for 16%, recurring criminal or legal problems were rare (2%), and the final 10% were miscellaneous problems.
Other studies have suggested that disruptive events like pregnancies, arrest, hospitalization or changing schools are associated with increased chances of dropping out. The UdeM study goes further, showing that about two out of every five dropouts are exposed to some kind of significant stressful event several months before quitting school. In other words, recent stressors are quite common among dropouts, more so than previously thought. The new study also clarifies when stressors matter for dropping out: in the few months following exposure.
"These findings show that the risk of high school dropout is not predetermined over the long run," Dupere said. "Rather, it fluctuates and becomes higher when adolescents have to deal with challenging situations in their lives. School personnel thus need to be aware of their students' changing needs in and out of school to provide them with the right kind of support at the right time."
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About the study:
"High School Dropout in Proximal Context: The Triggering Role of Stressful Life Events," by Veronique Dupere (Universite de Montreal) et al. Published in Child Development, March 28, 2017. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12792. Funding by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Sante (FRQS) and Societe et culture (FRQSC), and the Universite de Montreal Public Health Research Institute (IRSPUM).
A new study has found a link between neurological birth defects in infants commonly found in pregnant women with diabetes and several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. This is the first time this link has been identified; it may indicate a new way to understand, and perhaps treat, both neural tube defects and these neurodegenerative diseases.
The findings will be published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"These results were really surprising," said the study's lead author, Zhiyong Zhao, PhD, a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM). "The association suggests that these disparate diseases may have more in common than we previously realized." The researchers on the article also include UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece.
Neural tube defects occur when misfolded proteins accumulate in the cells of the developing nervous system. The misfolded proteins form insoluble clumps and cause widespread cell death, eventually leading to birth defects. Protein clumps also play a major role in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. In Alzheimer's, for instance, this leads to the accumulation of plaques in the brain, reducing the ability of that organ to function.
The researchers studied pregnant mice with diabetes, and found that their embryos contained clumps of at least three misfolded proteins that are also associated with the three neurodegenerative diseases: -Synuclein, Parkin, and Huntingtin. It is not clear exactly how these protein clumps contribute to those diseases, but the link is well established.
This latest research also underscores the links between diabetes and some neurodegenerative diseases. People with diabetes have a higher risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and some research suggests that there are molecular links between Huntington's and diabetes as well.
The scientists also examined whether it is possible to reduce levels of the misfolded proteins, and in so doing reduce neural tube defects. They gave diabetic pregnant animals sodium 4-phenylbutyrate (PBA), a compound that can reduce mistakes in molecular structure by aiding the molecules that ensure proper protein folding. In the animals that received PBA, there was significantly less protein misfolding, and fewer neural tube defects in the embryos. PBA has already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for other uses, and if it proves safe and effective in humans for this purpose, it could potentially reach patients much more quickly than an entirely new drug.
Neural tube defects are birth defects of the brain and spinal cord. They occur in the first month of pregnancy. The two most common are spina bifida and anencephaly. In the first, the fetal spinal column doesn't close completely. This usually causes nerve damage, with some paralysis of the legs. In the latter, most of the brain and skull do not develop. Infants with this defect are usually stillborn or die soon after birth. Neural tube defects have several causes, including diabetes, folic acid deficiency, obesity in the mother, and consumption of certain medications. About 10 percent of women with diabetes who are pregnant will have embryos with neural tube defects.
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About the University of Maryland School of Medicine
Celebrating its 210th Anniversary, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 and is the first public medical school in the United States and continues today as an innovative leader in accelerating innovation and discovery in medicine. The School of Medicine is the founding school of the University of Maryland and is an integral part of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. Located on the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine works closely with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide a research-intensive, academic and clinically based education. With 43 academic departments, centers and institutes and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians and research scientists plus more than $400 million in extramural funding, the School is regarded as one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the U.S. with top-tier faculty and programs in cancer, brain science, surgery and transplantation, trauma and emergency medicine, vaccine development and human genomics, among other centers of excellence. The School is not only concerned with the health of the citizens of Maryland and the nation, but also has a global presence, with research and treatment facilities in more than 35 countries around the world.
PITTSBURGH, April 10, 2017 - Researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have developed and refined a blood test that could help clinicians identify infants who may have had bleeding of the brain as a result of abusive head trauma, sometimes referred to as shaken baby syndrome. The science behind the test is described today in JAMA Pediatrics.
The serum-based test, which needs to be validated in a larger population and receive regulatory approval before being used in clinical practice, would be the first of its kind to be used to detect acute intracranial hemorrhage, or bleeding of the brain. Infants who test positive would then have further evaluation via brain imaging to determine the source of the bleeding.
"Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the leading cause of death from traumatic brain injury in infants and the leading cause of death from physical abuse in the United States," said senior author Rachel Berger, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the Child Advocacy Center at Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the Pitt School of Medicine.
However, approximately 30 percent of AHT diagnoses are missed when caretakers provide inaccurate histories or when infants have nonspecific symptoms such as vomiting or fussiness. Missed diagnoses can be catastrophic as AHT can lead to permanent brain damage and even death.
Berger and colleagues at Children's Hospital and the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research at Pitt's School of Medicine have long been researching approaches to detect acute intracranial hemorrhage in infants at risk.
In the current study, the researchers collaborated with Axela, a Canadian molecular diagnostics company, to develop a sensitive test that could reduce the chances of a missed diagnosis by using a combination of three biomarkers along with a measure of the patient's level of hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in blood. Axela's automated testing system allowed the researchers to measure multiple biomarkers simultaneously using an extremely small amount of blood, an important characteristic of a test designed to be used in infants.
To arrive at the formula, called the Biomarkers for Infant Brain Injury Score (BIBIS), for discriminating between infants with and without intracranial hemorrhage, the team used previously stored serum samples from a databank established at the Safar Center.
The team then evaluated the predictive capacity of the BIBIS value in a second population of 599 infants who were prospectively enrolled at three study sites in the United States. In addition to Children's Hospital, infants were enrolled at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago and Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. The test correctly detected acute intracranial hemorrhage because of abusive head trauma approximately 90 percent of the time, a much higher rate than the sensitivity of clinical judgement, which is approximately 70 percent.
"The test is not intended to replace clinical judgement, which is crucial," said Dr. Berger. "Rather, we believe that it can supplement clinical evaluation and in cases where symptoms may be unclear, help physicians make a decision about whether an infant needs brain imaging."
The specificity of the test--or the ability to correctly identify an infant without bleeding of the brain who would not require further evaluation--was 48 percent. The researchers aimed for the test to be highly sensitive rather than maximizing accuracy, since missing a diagnosis has more serious consequences than performing brain imaging in babies without the condition.
"This study illustrates the benefits of being able to perform highly sensitive tests at the point of care," said Paul Smith, President and CEO of Axela and a co-author of the study.
Pitt, Dr. Berger and Axela have filed a joint U.S. patent for the test.
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Additional authors include Janet Fromkin, M.D., Richard Saladino, M.D., and Patrick M. Kochanek, M.D., all from the University of Pittsburgh; Brian J. Pak, Ph.D., Mariya D. Kolesnikova, Ph.D., David Englert, Ph.D., and Paul T. Smith, from Axela Inc., Canada; Bruce E. Herman, M.D., from the University of Utah; and Mary Clyde Pierce, M.D., from Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital.
The study was funded by National Institutes of Health grants R01HD055986 and NIHK23HD43843. The data in this publication is the basis for patent 62/334,345 filed on May 10, 2016.
About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
As one of the nation's leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1998. In rankings recently released by the National Science Foundation, Pitt ranked fifth among all American universities in total federal science and engineering research and development support.
Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region's economy. For more information about the School of Medicine, see http://www.medschool.pitt.edu.
About Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Regionally, nationally, and globally, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC is a leader in the treatment of childhood conditions and diseases, a pioneer in the development of new and improved therapies, and a top educator of the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists. Children's Hospital has fulfilled this mission since its founding in 1890. Children's is named consistently to several elite lists of pediatric hospitals, including ranking 10th among children's hospitals and schools of medicine (FY 2015) in funding for pediatric research provided by the National Institutes of Health, and is one of 11 pediatric hospitals in the United States named to U.S. News & World Report's Honor Roll of America's "Best Children's Hospitals" for 2016-2017.
http://www.upmc.com/media
GALVESTON, Texas -The first live-attenuated Zika vaccine still in the development stage completely protected mice against the virus after a single vaccination dose, according to new research from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Instituto Evandro Chagas at the Ministry of Health in Brazil. The findings are currently available in Nature Medicine.
While a Zika infection typically results in mild or symptom-free infections in healthy adults and children, the risk of microcephaly and other diseases in the developing fetus is an alarming consequence that has created a worldwide health threat. Pregnant women who are infected with the Zika virus but never display any disease symptoms may still give birth to a baby with microcephaly.
An effective vaccine is urgently needed for women of childbearing age and travelers to areas where the virus has been reported. Since Zika virus could also be sexually transmitted, prevention of men from infection through vaccination could also halt Zika transmission and diseases.
Rapid and promising progress has been made toward a Zika vaccine. These developing vaccines have been made from an inactivated version of the Zika virus or subunits of the virus; these vaccine candidates have been shown effective in mice and nonhuman primates.
"We chose to pursue a vaccine made from live virus that has been sufficiently attenuated, or weakened, to be safe, and is able to illicit robust immune response to protect us from Zika virus infection. Such live-attenuated vaccine has the advantage of single-dose immunization, rapid and strong immune response and potentially long-lived protection," said UTMB's Pei-Yong Shi, senior author and the I.H. Kempner professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. "A successful vaccine requires a fine balance between efficacy and safety - vaccines made from attenuated live viruses generally offer fast and durable immunity, but sometimes with the trade-off of reduced safety, whereas inactivated and subunit viruses often provide enhanced safety but may require several doses initially and periodic boosters. Therefore, a safe live-attenuated vaccine will be ideal in prevention of Zika virus infection, especially in developing countries."
To create the vaccine, the researchers engineered the Zika virus by deleting one segment of the viral genome. A similar approach has successfully been used to develop a dengue virus vaccine, which is currently in phase three clinical trials.
Shi explained that the data indicate that the vaccine the team is developing has a good balance between safety and efficacy. A single immunization with the vaccine candidate produced strong immune responses and prevented the virus from infecting mice at all.
"Safety is a major hurdle when developing a live-attenuated vaccine. Our Zika vaccine showed promising safety profile in mice when compared with clinically approved live-attenuated vaccines, such as the yellow fever vaccine," Shi said.
"Vaccines are an important tool for preventing Zika virus transmission and microcephaly," said Pedro F. C. Vasconcelos, medical virologist and present director of the Evandro Chagas Institute and co-author. "This vaccine, the first live-attenuated vaccine for Zika, will improve the public health efforts to avoid the birth defects and diseases caused by Zika in countries where the virus is commonly found. The initial target of this vaccine is women of childbearing age, their sexual partners and children less than 10 years old.
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Other authors include UTMB's Chao Shan, Antonio Muruato, Huanle Luo, Xuping Xie, Maki Wakamiya, Robert Tesh, Alan Barrett, Tian Wang, Scott Weaver, and Shannan Rossi; Bruno Nunes and Daniele Medeiros who are affiliated with UTMB and the Instituto Evandro Chagas at the Ministry of Health in Brazil.
This work was supported by UTMB, The University of Texas System, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pan American Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health.
Walking between busy urban environments and green spaces triggers changes in levels of excitement, engagement and frustration in the brain, a study of older people has found.
Walking between busy urban environments and green spaces triggers changes in levels of excitement, engagement and frustration in the brain, a study of older people has found.
Researchers at the Universities of York and Edinburgh say the findings have important implications for architects, planners and health professionals as we deal with an ageing population.
The study is part of a larger project looking at mobility, mood and place and the role of the urban environment in promoting lifelong health and wellbeing.
The aim of the study was to understand how older people experience different urban environments using electroencephalography (EEG), self-reported measures, and interviews.
As part of the experiment, eight volunteers aged 65 and over (from a wider sample of 95 people aged 65 and over) wore a mobile EEG head-set which recorded their brain activity when walking between busy and green urban spaces.
The research team also ran a video of the routes the people walked, asking the participants to describe "snapshots" of how they felt. The volunteers were also interviewed before and after.
The volunteers experienced beneficial effects of green space and preferred it, as it was calming and quieter, the study revealed.
Dr Chris Neale, Research Fellow, from the University of York's Stockholm Environment Institute, said: "There are concerns about mental wellbeing as the global population becomes older and more urbanised.
"Urban green space has a role to play in contributing to a supportive city environment for older people through mediating the stress induced by built up settings.
"We found that older participants experienced beneficial effects of green space whilst walking between busy built urban environments and urban green space environments. Indeed, this work is the first to be published in a series of papers understanding the impact of green and urban spaces on brain activity in older adults.
"In a time of austerity, when greens spaces are possibly under threat due to pressure on council funding, we have demonstrated that these areas are important to people's health.
"We have an ageing population which places challenges on the NHS. As the cost of looking after an ageing population continues to rise, maintaining access to green space could be a relatively low cost option for improving mental wellbeing."
Dr Sara Tilley, Research Fellow, from the University of Edinburgh, added: "To help ensure that living longer is a positive experience for everyone, we need evidence-based solutions to support lifelong health and wellbeing.
"These findings - and others from the same project which show how important places are for our personal and cultural memories, and for enabling us to stay connected socially - have implications for the way we design for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities so that going outdoors in younger years becomes a lifelong passion for getting out and about."
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The study is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
It was funded by the Research Councils UK under the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Cross-Council Programme. Details about the project can be found here: http://www.mobilitymoodplace.ac.uk
Researchers re-evaluated and re-classified Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis, which had previously been labeled as a poposauroid, a group of animals more closely related to crocodiles.
The skeleton of a small, short-snouted reptile found in China was recently identified as the oldest known member of the phytosaurs--an extinct group of large, semi-aquatic reptiles that superficially resembled the distantly-related crocodylians and lived during the Triassic Period, approximately 250 million years ago to 200 million years ago.
Virginia Tech researchers led the team that re-evaluated and re-classified the animal, Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis, which had previously been labeled as a poposauroid, a group of animals more closely related to crocodiles.
The shape of the animal's head, shoulder, and skeleton bones is what gave away the animal's linkage to the phytosaurs, according to Michelle Stocker, lead author and assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science. After seeing a photo of the fossil in a paper published in 2012, she and other co-authors met in China in 2015 to re-examine the bones. Their findings were published in Scientific Reports April 10.
Stocker and co-author Sterling Nesbitt, also an assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science will give a free public talk with the fossil at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 13, 2017 at the Virginia Tech Museum of Geosciences on the second floor of Derring Hall.
The fossil, which is older than other phytosaur fossils by about 5 million years, fills a critical gap in scientists' understanding of how the animal evolved. The short snout and small body size suggest that the features the species is most known for--a long snout and large body size--evolved later than previously thought. A long snout is useful for predatory endeavors like reaching, snapping, and biting.
"So much of our study of the fossil record is about filling in the gaps in our knowledge of how animals came to look as they do or live where they are, and Diandongosuchus does that for phytosaurs. We're never done filling in those gaps," said Stocker.
"Early members of these Triassic reptile lineages are appearing where they've been predicted for years. Now we have the fossils," said Nesbitt.
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Stocker and Nesbitt are both researchers with the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech.
Other co-authors include Li-Jun Zhao with the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History; Xiao-Chun Wu with the Canadian Museum of Nature; and Chun Li with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech's Open Access Subvention Fund supported the open access publication of the article.
New research provides an insight into why cervical cancer is less common in certain regions of the world even though they may have limited screening and fewer or no prevention programs. Though the preliminary findings, published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, don't rule out a cultural explanation or other reasons, they explore how genetic factors may also help explain this trend.
Approximately eight out of 10 cervical cancer deaths worldwide occur in low- and middle-income countries, but a few geographical regions--such as Western Asia including Saudi Arabia--have low cervical cancer rates despite the lack of national screening or vaccination programs against human papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted sexually and is the main cause of cervical cancer.
Ghazi Alsbeih, MD, PhD, of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Saudi Arabia, and his colleagues collected tumor samples and demographic data from 232 patients treated for invasive cervical cancers and compared the information with 313 matched controls without cancer.
The researchers found that cervical cancer in their Saudi national cohort displayed two peaks of increased incidence at 43 and 61 years of age. "As cancer development takes years to decades, the first peak could be a consequence of early sexual encounters, which often occurs at the end of the teenage period to the early thirties, while the second rebound could correspond to new encounters later in life," explained Dr. Alsbeih. "The latter is generally occasioned by separation, failure of a first marriage, or simply second marriages in polygamous societies, which brings in an added risk of HPV infections as the number of lifetime sexual partners increases."
Worldwide, 85 percent to 99 percent of patients with cervical cancer are HPV-positive, but in this study, only 77 percent were.
Dr. Alsbeih and his colleagues looked to genetics to explore why cervical cancer rates may be lower in Saudi Arabia than in other regions such as the United States. They found that HPV-negative patients in this study were more likely to show a particular variant in the gene that encodes the p53 tumor suppressor protein: a cytosine (C) rather than a guanine (G) in the DNA code, which leads to the production of a proline rather than an arginine amino acid in the translated protein. The authors hypothesize that this C variant therefore could be associated with a reduced likelihood for HPV infection. Less HPV cervical infection is associated with less cervical cancer risk. Though the G allele is considered the majority allele, the C variant was more commonly observed in this cohort than it is in populations from other parts of the world that show higher incidences of cervical cancer.
The optimistic conclusion about a protective role for this genetic variant is provocative, but the authors acknowledge that differing cultural norms could also help explain the lower rates of cervical cancer in Saudi Arabia.
Infection with HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States. April is STD Awareness Month.
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The study was supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's National Science, Technology, and Innovation Plan.
Though they may seem rock solid, the ancient sedimentary rocks called iron formations - the world's chief economic source of iron ore - were once dissolved in seawater. How did that iron go from a dissolved state to banded iron formations? Dr. Itay Halevy and his group in the Weizmann Institute of Science's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department suggest that billions of years ago, the "rust" that formed in the seawater and sank to the ocean bed was green - an iron-based mineral that is rare on Earth today but might once have been relatively common.
We know there was dissolved iron in the early oceans, and this is a strong indication that Earth's free oxygen (O2) concentrations were exceedingly low. Otherwise, the iron would have reacted with oxygen to form iron oxides, which are the rusty red deposits familiar to anyone who's left a bike out in the rain. Today, says Halevy, iron is delivered from the land to the oceans as small insoluble oxide particles in rivers. But this mode of sedimentation only came about as free oxygen accumulated in Earth's atmosphere, about 2.5 billion years ago. With almost no oxygen, the oceans were iron-rich, but that did not mean that iron remained dissolved in seawater indefinitely: It ultimately formed insoluble compounds with other elements and settled to the seabed to give rise to banded iron formations.
The idea that one of those insoluble compounds could be a rusty green mineral, says Halevy, occurred to him during his doctoral research, when he was trying to recreate the conditions on early Mars, including its rusty-red iron sediments. "I got some green stuff I didn't recognize at first, which quickly turned orange when I exposed it to air. With a little more careful experimentation, I found that this was a mineral called green rust, which is extremely rare on Earth today, owing to its affinity for oxygen." Today green rust quickly transforms into the familiar red rust, but with not much free oxygen around, Halevy reasoned, it could have been an important way for dissolved iron to form solid compounds and settle to the seafloor.
Support for these ideas comes from Sulawesi, Indonesia, where green rust forms today in iron-rich, oxygen-poor Lake Matano, thought to be similar to the seawater that existed during extended periods of Earth's early history. To test his ideas in detail and explore their significance, Halevy set up experiments in which he and his team recreated, as closely as possible, the conditions of the ancient, oxygen-free, Precambrian ocean. They found that green rust not only forms under these conditions, but that when left to age, it transforms into the minerals found in Precambrian iron formations - a combination of iron-bearing oxides, carbonates and silicates.
Could green rust have been a main vehicle for settling iron out of seawater? Halevy and his team developed models to depict the iron cycle in Earth's early oceans, including the possibility of green rust formation and competition with other mineral shuttles of iron to the seafloor. Their findings suggest that green rust was probably a major player in the iron cycle. The iron in the green rust later transformed into the minerals we can now observe in the geologic record. "Of course, it would have been one of several means of iron deposition, just as a number of different processes are involved in chemical sedimentation in the oceans today," says Halevy. "But as far as we can tell, green rust should have delivered a substantial proportion of iron to the very early ocean sediments."
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Dr. Itay Halevy's research is supported by the Helen Kimmel Center for Planetary Science; the Deloro Institute for Advanced Research in Space and Optics; and the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust. Dr. Halevy is the incumbent of the Anna and Maurice Boukstein Career Development Chair in Perpetuity.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
Crystallization is a very basic chemical process: School children can witness it with their own eyes. But scientists had not, until now, been able to observe this process on the molecular level - that is, the instant in which molecules overcome their tendencies to float individually in a liquid solution and take their place in the rigid lattice of a solid crystal structure. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have, for the first time, directly observed the process of crystallization on the molecular level, validating some recent theories about crystallization, as well as showing that if one knows how the crystal starts growing, one can predict the end structure.
The research took place in the lab of Prof. Ronny Neumann of the Weizmann Institute's Organic Chemistry Department. Neumann explains that in order to bond to one another, the molecules must overcome an energy barrier: "The prevalent theory had been that chance contacts between molecules leads to bonding, eventually creating small clusters that become nuclei for larger crystals to grow. But the molecules, which move randomly in solution, must be aligned properly to crystalize. In recent years researchers have begun to think that this process might present too high an energy barrier." Theories proposed in the past few decades suggest that if the molecules were to congregate together in a so-called dense phase, in which they aggregate into a sardine-like state - close together but unorganized - and then crystallize from this state, the energy barrier would be lower.To test the theories, Neumann and PhD student Roy Schreiber created large, rigid molecules and froze them in place in solution. They then placed the frozen solution under an electron microscope beam that warmed up the mixture just enough to allow some movement, and thus interactions between the molecules. Adjusting the makeup of the solution by adding different ions enabled the scientists to produce crystallization with and without dense phases; for the first time, aided by Drs. Lothar Houben and Sharon Wolf of the Electron Microscopy Unit, they were able to observe dense phases forming and subsequently transforming into crystal nuclei.
While both states yielded crystals, the experimental results showed that when dense phases form, the energy barrier to formation of an orderly, crystalline arrangement of molecules is, as the theory predicted, lower.
The scientists also found that the growth arising from dense phases results in larger, more stable crystal nuclei. In addition they discovered that the arrangement of molecules in fully grown crystals, which they determined by X-ray crystallography with the aid of Dr. Gregory Leitus of Chemical Research Support, was in good agreement with that in the small clusters of just a few molecules in the original nuclei. "This means that the forces and factors that determine the process are constant throughout the growth of the crystal," says Neumann.
"We have really observed an elementary event in the world of chemistry," says Neumann. "The findings are also leading us into new inquiries in this area, looking at the effects and significance of dense-phases on chemical reactivity."
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Also participating in this research was a group led by Prof. Josep Poblet, Dr. Jorge Carbo and PhD student Zhong-Ling Lang of the University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain, who assisted in the calculation of the motion of molecules in solution.
Prof. Ronny Neumann's research is supported by Dana and Yossie Hollander, Israel; and the Bernice and Peter Cohn Catalysis Research Fund. Prof. Neumann is the incumbent of the Rebecca and Israel Sieff Professorial Chair of Organic Chemistry.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
In the most common type of supernova, the iron core of a massive star suddenly collapses in on itself and the outer layers are thrown out into space in a spectacular explosion. New research led by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers shows that the stars that become so-called core-collapse supernovae might already exhibit instability for several months before the big event, spewing material into space and creating a dense gas shell around themselves. They think that many massive stars, including the red super-giants that are the most common progenitors of these supernovae, may begin the process this way.
This insight into the conditions leading up to core collapse arose from a unique collaboration called the Palomar Transient Factory, a fully automated sky survey using the telescopes of the Palomar observatory in southern California. Astrophysicists halfway around the globe, in Israel, are on call for the telescope, which scans the California night sky for the sudden appearance of new astronomical "transients" that were not visible before - which can indicate new supernovae. In October, 2013, Dr. Ofer Yaron, in the Weizmann Institute's Particle Physics and Astrophysics Department, got the message that a potential supernova had been sighted, and he immediately alerted Dr. Dan Perley who was observing that night with the Keck telescope in Hawaii, and NASA's Swift Satellite. At Keck, the researchers soon began to record the spectra of the event. Because they had started observing only three hours into the blast, the picture the team managed to assemble was the most detailed ever of the core collapse process. "We had x-rays, ultraviolet, four spectroscopic measurements from between six and ten hours post-explosion to work with," says Yaron.
In a study recently published in Nature Physics, Yaron, Weizmann Institute researchers Profs. Avishay Gal-Yam and Eran Ofek, and their teams, together with researchers from the California Institute of Technology and other institutes in the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Israel and the UK, analyzed the unique dataset they had collected from the very first days of the supernova.
The time window was crucial: It enabled the team to detect material that had surrounded the star pre- explosion, as it heated up and became ionized and was eventually overtaken by the expanding cloud of stellar matter. Comparing the observed early spectra and light-curve data with existing models, accompanied by later radio observations, led the researchers to conclude that the explosion was preceded by a period of instability lasting for around a year. This instability caused material to be expelled from the surface layers of the star, forming the circumstellar shell of gas that was observed in the data. Because this was found to be a relatively standard type II supernova, the researchers believe that the instability they revealed may be a regular warm up act to the immanent explosion.
"We still don't really understand the process by which a star explodes as a supernova," says Yaron, "These findings are raising new questions, for example, about the final trigger that tips the star from merely unstable to explosive. With our globe-spanning collaboration that enables us to alert various telescopes to train their sights on the event, we are getting closer and closer to understanding what happens in that instant, how massive stars end their life and what leads up to the final explosion."
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Prof. Avishay Gal-Yam's research is supported by the Benoziyo Endowment Fund for the Advancement of Science; the Yeda-Sela Center for Basic Research; the Deloro Institute for Advanced Research in Space and Optics; and Paul and Tina Gardner. Prof. Gal-Yam is the recipient of the Helen and Martin Kimmel Award for Innovative Investigation.
Dr. Eran Ofek's research is supported by the Helen Kimmel Center for Planetary Science; Paul and Tina Gardner, Austin, TX; Ilan Gluzman, Secaucus, NJ; and the estate of Raymond Lapon.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
One way to understand how ocean acidity can change, for example, in response to rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, is to look to the history of seawater acidity. Dr. Itay Halevy of the Weizmann Institute of Science has looked to the distant past - all the way back to Earth's earliest oceans. The model he developed, together with Dr. Aviv Bachan of Stanford University, suggests that the early oceans, right around the time that life originated, were somewhat acidic, and that they gradually became alkaline. The study, published in Science, sheds light on how past ocean acid levels were controlled by CO2 in the atmosphere, an important process for understanding the effects of climate change.
Acidity and alkalinity are measured on the pH scale of 0-14. On this scale, 7 is neutral, higher is alkaline, lower is acidic. At around 8.2, today's oceans are mildly alkaline, and we know that rising CO2 levels are currently increasing the oceans' acidity (decreasing pH).
Halevy, of the Weizmann Institute's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, explains that billions of years ago "the early Sun was dimmer, even though we don't have evidence for a much colder climate. We think that this is because the early atmosphere had more of the greenhouse gas CO2 than at present, and that as the Sun got brighter, CO2 levels decreased," says Halevy.
CO2, and water produce carbonic acid, so it stands to reason that the early oceans would have been more acidic. But higher early CO2 levels would also have resulted in acidic rainwater and this, in turn, could have led to higher rates of chemical weathering of Earth's rocky crust, washing down ions that would partly neutralize the acidity of CO2. Which effect is the stronger? This has been unclear; thus previous models of the history of seawater pH have come up with everything from high values to low.
The model that Halevy and Bachan developed accounts for these processes and the way in which they influence the fluxes of ions into and out of ocean water. According to their model, the acidifying effect of higher CO2 levels dominated, and the early oceans had a lower-than-present pH.
"On a very fundamental level," says Bachan, "we show that the pH of the ocean has been controlled by a few simple processes for all of geologic time."
Putting numbers to the proposed pH, Halevy says that three to four billion years ago, the pH of ocean water was somewhere between 6.0 and 7.5 - between that of milk and human blood. Halevy: "This gives us some clues as to the conditions under which life emerged in the early oceans."
"We had an early ocean more acidic than today in which primitive life thrived and chemical cycles were balanced; but if we want to apply this insight to today, we have to remember that this balance of acids and bases was maintained over geological timescales - millions of years," he adds. "Today's acidification from CO2 is much more rapid, so this model does not apply to the short-term problem. Hundreds of thousands of years from now, the oceans will have found a new balance, but between now and then, marine organisms and environments may suffer."
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Dr. Itay Halevy's reseach is supported by the Helen Kimmel Center for Planetary Science; the Deloro Institute for Advanced Research in Space and Optics; and the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust. Dr. Halevy is the incumbent of the Anna and Maurice Boukstein Career Development Chair in Perpetuity.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
Erasing unwanted memories is still the stuff of science fiction, but Weizmann Institute scientists have now managed to erase one type of memory in mice. In a study reported in Nature Neuroscience, they succeeded in shutting down a neuronal mechanism by which memories of fear are formed in the mouse brain. After the procedure, the mice resumed their earlier fearless behavior, "forgetting" they had previously been frightened.
This research may one day help extinguish traumatic memories in humans - for example, in people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. "The brain is good at creating new memories when these are associated with strong emotional experiences, such as intense pleasure or fear," says team leader Dr. Ofer Yizhar. "That's why it's easier to remember things you care about, be they good or bad; but it's also the reason that memories of traumatic experiences are often extremely long-lasting, predisposing people to PTSD."
In the study, postdoctoral fellows Dr. Oded Klavir (now an investigator at the University of Haifa) and Dr. Matthias Prigge, both from Yizhar's lab in the Neurobiology Department, together with departmental colleague Prof. Rony Paz and graduate student Ayelet Sarel, examined the communication between two brain regions: the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. The amygdala plays a central role in controlling emotions, whereas the prefrontal cortex is mostly responsible for cognitive functions and storing long-term memories. Previous studies had suggested that the interactions between these two brain regions contribute to the formation and storage of aversive memories, and that these interactions are compromised in PTSD; but the exact mechanisms behind these processes were unknown.
In the new study, the researchers first used a genetically-engineered virus to mark those amygdala neurons that communicate with the prefrontal cortex. Next, using another virus, they inserted a gene encoding a light-sensitive protein into these neurons. When they shone a light on the brain, only the neurons containing the light-sensitive proteins became activated. These manipulations, belonging to optogenetics - a technique extensively studied in Yizhar's lab - enabled the researchers to activate only those amygdala neurons that interact with the cortex, and then to map out the cortical neurons that receive input from these light-sensitive neurons.
Once they had achieved this precise control over the cellular interactions in the brain, they turned to exploring behavior: Mice that are less fearful are more likely to venture farther than others. They found that when the mice were exposed to fear-inducing stimuli, a powerful line of communication was activated between the amygdala and the cortex. The mice whose brains displayed such communication were more likely to retain a memory of the fear, acting frightened every time they heard the sound that had previously been accompanied by the fear-inducing stimuli. Finally, to clarify how this line of communication contributes to the formation and stability of memory, the scientists developed an innovative optogenetic technique for weakening the connection between the amygdala and the cortex, using a series of repeated light pulses. Indeed, once the connection was weakened, the mice no longer displayed fear upon hearing the sound. Evidently, "tuning down" the input from the amygdala to the cortex had destabilized or perhaps even destroyed their memory of fear.
Says Yizhar: "Our research has focused on a fundamental question in neuroscience: How does the brain integrate emotion into memory? But one day our findings may help develop better therapies targeting the connections between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, in order to alleviate the symptoms of fear and anxiety disorders."
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Dr. Ofer Yizhar's research is supported by Jean-Charles Schwartz and Marc - Antoine Schwartz; the Adelis Foundation; the Candice Appleton Family Trust; Paul and Lucie Schwartz, Georges; and the Vera Gersen Laboratory. Dr. Yizhar is the incumbent of the Gertrude and Philip Nollman Career Development Chair.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
One of the mysteries of the living body is the movement of cells - not just in the blood, but through cellular and other barriers. New research in the Weizmann Institute of Science has shed light on the subject, especially on the movement of immune cells that race to the sites of infection and inflammation. The study revealed that these cells - white blood cells - actively open large gaps in the internal lining of the blood vessels, so they can exit through the vessel walls and rapidly get to areas of infection.
Prof. Ronen Alon and his group in the Weizmann Institute's Immunology Department discovered how various white blood cells push their way through the lining of the blood vessels when they reach their particular "exit ramps." Using their nuclei to exert force, they insert themselves between - as well as into - the cells in the vessel walls called endothelial cells. Dismantling structural filaments within the cytoskeletons - the internal skeletons - of the endothelial cells creates the large holes - several microns in diameter.
Alon explains that the nucleus is the largest, most rigid structure in the cell. When driven by motors specifically engaged for this function, is tough enough to push through the barrier imposed by the blood vessel walls.
The scientists tracked the cytoskeletons of endothelial cells as they were crossed by immune cells in real time, the behavior of the nuclei of various white blood cells during active squeezing and the fate of the various types of actin fibers that make up the endothelial cell skeletons. The researchers used a number of methods, including fluorescence and electron microscopy, in collaboration with Dr. Eugenia Klein of the Microscopy Unit; a unique system in Alon's lab for simulating blood vessels in a test tube; and in vivo imaging with Prof. Sussan Nourshargh of Queen Mary University of London. The results of this research, conducted in Alon's lab by research students Sagi Barzilai and Francesco Roncato and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Sandeep Kumar Yadav, were recently reported in Cell Reports.
Common wisdom in this field had held that the endothelial cells must help immune cells squeeze through by contracting themselves like small muscles, but the present study found no evidence for such contraction-based help. Alon says: "Our study shows that the endothelial cells, which were thought to be dynamic assistants in this process of crossing of blood vessel walls, are really more responders to the 'physical work' invested by the white blood cell motors and nuclei in generating gaps and crossing through blood vessels."
Significance for cancer research
In addition to increasing the basic understanding of how the various arms of the immune system reach their sites of differentiation and activity, these findings may aid in cancer research. "We believe that small subsets of metastatic tumor cells have the ability to adopt the mechanisms used by immune cells to exit the blood vessels into the lungs, the bone marrow, the brain and other organs. If this is true, we might be able to identify these subsets and target them before these cells leave their original tumor sites and invade distant organs," says Alon.
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Prof. Ronen Alon's research is supported by the Herbert L. Janowsky Lung Cancer Research Fund; Mr. and Mrs. William Glied, Canada; and Carol A. Milett, Aventura, FL. Prof. Alon is the incumbent of the Linda Jacobs Professorial Chair in Immune and Stem Cell Research.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Fresh from attending the 2017 International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association convention and expo in Nashville, TN, here come the videos! Learn about new developments in the funeral industry on display at the exposition through the videos coming online through The Family Plot Blog and our YouTube channel.
Upon entering the doors to the exposition hall, you immediately run into the greeting booth put together by FuneralOne. Its a party atmosphere, with dancing flower ladies, and the opportunity to get your picture taken with the ladies and fun props.
Why? As Rilee Chastain with FuneralOne explains, FuneralOne is all about celebrating life. People dread going to a funeral, thats not fun A funeral is a chance to look back at someones life and celebrate the amazing moments, celebrate who they were as a person. What better way to start celebrating than right when you walk into ICCFA?
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Your intrepid correspondent will provide a range of videos from the ICCFA expo over the next few weeks. Look for new blog posts with videos soon!
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There is a sense of 'escalating excitement' for Welsh Lamb in the US once trade is re-established for lamb exports, according to Hybu Cig Cymru Meat Promotion Wales (HCC).
HCC attended the two-day Taste Wales event, arranged by the Welsh Government, to further develop its relationships with influential buyers from UK supermarkets and countries across the globe, including the USA, Canada and Hong Kong.
The American market has been closed to lamb from Britain for many years, however work has been ongoing for a decade to re-establish the trade by HCC, working alongside the Welsh and UK governments.
Taste Wales, the largest ever showcase of Wales food and drink industry was an opportunity to continue with ongoing discussions and explore trade channels with American buyers when restrictions are lifted.
'Huge potential'
During one of the Meet the Buyer sessions, John Rodger from large-scale American distributor in retail and speciality markets, Atalanta, expressed a keen interest in exporting Welsh Lamb to the US once market access is granted.
We think the market has huge potential. We love the stories behind the product and the fact that its produced on traditional family farms. Our customers would love these stories too.
John Rodger continued: The UK is right up there in terms of importing to the US, and these products are distributed to country clubs, hotels and major retailers around the country. We already import Welsh cheese to the US, and have major dealings with the meat business. Hopefully, well be selling Welsh Lamb to the US soon too!
20 million a year
Over the coming months, British farmers are looking forward to continued progress towards opening up market access to the USA.
Previous research showed that the market could be worth 20 million a year to the Welsh red meat industry.
A consultation on bringing American animal health rules in line with other countries was announced by the USDA last year.
Earlier this year, red meat exporters, including representatives from the companies which own the three largest processing plants in Wales, visited Washington DC to learn more about US regulations for beef and lamb imports.
A police team dedicated to serving rural communities is celebrating its first anniversary and its 100th arrest.
The North Yorkshire Polices Rural Taskforce have pledged to keep up the pressure on rural crime over the coming 12 months.
In 2015, the National Rural Crime Survey discovered that rural communities were not only living in fear of crime being committed against them, but that they were under-reporting crime by up to a third.
In response to this, and following a meeting involving more than 100 stakeholders, North Yorkshire Polices Rural Taskforce was established in April 2016.
North Yorkshire is not the only county who have created a rural task, Derbyshire, Hampshire and Suffolk have also.
The North Yorkshire Rural Taskforce, however, builds on the work already carried out by North Yorkshire Polices Neighbourhood Policing Teams, response officers and proactive policing colleagues in tackling rural crime head-on.
In its first year, Taskforce officers made 101 arrests, reported 71 people for summons and seized 39 vehicles.
Officers and PCSOs have attended more than 100 community events across the county including the Great Yorkshire Show and regularly frequent local livestock markets and sales.
'Very productive'
Inspector Jon Grainge leads the Rural Taskforce. He said: The team have had a very busy and very productive first year of operation.
Crucial to our success is working with the community, talking to local residents and businesses, understanding the issues that affect them and offering advice wherever possible. There have been thousands of conversations over our first year and this year well have thousands more.
That two-way communication is vital, and we need people to continue to tell us about suspicious incidents.
Particularly in rural areas, local residents and businesses can act as the eyes and ears of the police, helping us clamp down on crime and anti-social behaviour whenever it occurs. Local people know when something or someone is suspicious, out of place or unusual in your community and we need you to tell us about it.
Rural well-being
The Taskforce has also been addressing well-being issues, recognising that that people in rural communities can be vulnerable.
Officers and PCSOs have been distributing leaflets to make people aware of the support available, and are working with partner agencies to ensure appropriate interventions take place, and help is provided where necessary.
Other successful campaigns pioneered by the Taskforce in the last 12 months include 'Horse Watch' a campaign ensuring expensive tack and equestrian equipment is protected against thieves and Call It In a campaign urging residents to report suspicious activity in rural areas to the police.
The campaign 'Dot peen', a sophisticated property marking machine, is used to engrave farm equipment to deter thieves and help police recover stolen property.
The Taskforce says they are working on more initiatives, with further operations and campaigns planned throughout 2017.
An on-site sale has seen over 1.6m-worth of agricultural machinery sold and was the largest single vendor auction of modern equipment in recent years.
The Cheffins on site sale for Whittinghams Farm Supplies in Preston, Lancashire on 6th April generated over 1.6 million.
This sale saw over 30 mainly Massey Ferguson tractors, 18 Manitou telescopic handlers, a Claas forage harvester, JCB shovel and over 400 lots of implements, trailers and spares go under the hammer following Whittinghams Farm Supplies decision to cease trading.
Over 1.6m of machinery found new homes with dealers and farmers attending from throughout the UK, Ireland and complimented by buyers from Poland, Spain, Belgium and a host of others taking advantage of on-line bidding.
'Profitable ways'
Bill King, Chairman at Cheffins reports on the sale: This proves how on site sales can be one of the most profitable ways to disperse of agricultural machinery.
Late registered Massey Ferguson tractors were much in demand with four number 7618 tractors making between 48500 and 49500 for 2015 models and 36,500 and 41,000 for 2013 models. MF 6490s were keenly bid for making prices from 19,000 - 20,000 for 09 and 07 models, a 09 6495 fetched 28,800 and a 13 plate 5480 made 30,500.
These prices were outshone by a very low-houred 1997 Massey Ferguson 362 making a spectacular 19,400 which was eventually knocked down to a collector from Yorkshire.
Manitous were also in demand, led by a 15 plate MLT 634 at 37,000 and a 2013 MLT 739-120 at 31,000. Other big ticket items saw a 2013 Claas 870 forage harvester make just shy of six figures at 99,000 and a 2014 JCB 418 loading shovel make 75,500.
Farmers looked to grasslands
With the grass cutting season imminent, grassland machinery and silage trailers were being targeted by farmers and contractors.
Mr King continued: A Kuhn front and rear mower outfit raised 20,000 and a 2011 3500 Claas Liner rake made 16,000, whilst a McHale 998 bale wrapper was sold at 18,000.
Three 16t Broughan silage trailers fetched between 11,000 and 11,800 and Hi-Spec tankers made up to 11,900. With muck to be spread, a 2014 Bunning spreader made 14,900 with a smaller 09 Lowlander at 10,900.
Numerous spares, attachments and UTVs were also sold to a keen audience and saw prices to match. Clearly the timing of the sale encouraged farmer buyers on the lookout for seasonal equipment and we also saw a number of dealers looking to restock their yards and satisfy farmers seeking a cheaper alternative to buying new.
These levels of demand, coupled with a weak pound and good export trading conditions has led to price rises and we are now facing the prospect of a shortage of some of the more popular models of tractors, combines and machinery.
All poultry in England will be allowed outside from Thursday 13 April following the latest updated evidence on the risk posed by wild birds.
The requirement to keep poultry in Higher Risk Areas of England housed or completely enclosed in netting, introduced to minimise the risk of them catching avian flu from wild birds, will be lifted, the UKs Chief Veterinary Officer has announced.
However, all keepers in England will continue to be required to comply with strict biosecurity measures. A ban on poultry gatherings also remains in force until further notice.
The decision to lift the additional requirements in the Higher Risk areas is based on the latest scientific evidence and veterinary advice, which concludes that the level of risk to poultry in the Higher Risk Areas has now reduced to the same level as that across the rest of England.
This is because of changes in the wild bird population: the majority of over-wintering migratory birds have now left the UK, and resident wild waterfowl are at their lowest levels and entering the breeding season when they become less likely to move long distances to forage for food.
However, the National Farmers Union (NFU) has begun lobbying the EU Commission for a solution to the marketing of free range eggs if there is another outbreak of Avian Influenza later this year.
Risk remains heightened
Nigel Gibbens said that this years outbreaks have been ?unprecedented
The risk of poultry becoming infected from H5N8 remains heightened and countries across Europe continue to experience outbreaks and observe cases in wild birds.
Defra is stepping up surveillance of wild birds across the UK to inform our risk assessments.
All poultry keepers are being urged to take steps to reduce the risk to their birds, including minimising movement in and out of bird enclosures, cleaning footwear, keeping areas where birds live clean and tidy and feeding birds indoors.
Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said: "We continually review our disease control measures in light of new scientific evidence and veterinary advice.
"Based on the latest evidence on reduced numbers of migratory and resident aquatic wild birds we believe that kept birds in the areas we previously designated as Higher Risk are now at the same level of risk as the rest of England and may now be let outside.
"However, all keepers must still observe strict disease prevention measures to reduce the risk of contamination from the environment, where the virus can survive for several weeks in bird droppings.
"This does not mean business as usual: the risk from avian flu has not gone away and a Prevention Zone remains in place, requiring keepers across England to take steps to prevent disease spreading."
Allowed outside once again
Lifting the housing requirement in Higher Risk Areas means free range birds across every part of England can now be allowed outside again.
H5N8 avian flu has been found in wild and farmed birds in the UK since December 2016, including chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese.
Where avian flu has been confirmed, the Government has tried to limit the spread of disease with restrictions around affected premises and full investigations to determine the source of infection.
H5N8 can be spread indirectly via the contaminated environment, for example in wild bird droppings, contaminated feed or bedding, as well as being passed from wild birds to poultry directly from bird to bird.
The UK has seen its fair share of bird flu cases throughout winter. There has been a case on a Suffolk duck farm on the 3 March, on a chicken farm in Northumberland on 24 February, in a pheasant farm in Suffolk on 13 February, Lancashire on 30 January, in a turkey farm in Boston, Lincolnshire on 26 January, in a flock of farmed pheasants at a premises in Preston, Lancashire on 24 January, in a backyard flock in North Yorkshire on 6 January, in Carmarthenshire, Wales, on 3 January, at a turkey farm in Lincolnshire on 16 December and in a number of wild birds across England, Wales and Scotland.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by a farming union and the Environment Agency aimed at building a more effective working relationship between the Agency and the farming community.
The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
The aim is to build a stronger, more effective working relationship between the Agency and farming community, while supporting sustainable farming in ways that benefit and protect the environment.
The agreement wants to show a strong commitment from both parties to work together proactively to help farmers improve the environment in ways that support economic outcomes.
NIEA Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, David Small said sustainable agriculture is 'dependent' upon a healthy environment.
He said: It focuses on improved communication and raising awareness to ensure farmers, the custodians of the countryside, receive the necessary information to fulfil their environmental responsibilities.
Environmental compliance
The MoU contains measures which will deliver higher levels of environmental compliance, contribute to the achievement of relevant Directives and Programme for Government targets and which should increase the profitability of farm businesses through sustainable farming and innovative, resource efficient practices.
UFU Chief Executive Wesley Aston said: We have been discussing the MoU with NIEA for some time now. It was borne out of concerns that relationships between farmers and NIEA needed to be improved.
We suggested simple things to enhance working relations and ensure the goals of both farmers and NIEA are realised. To finally have it officially agreed is a great achievement.
It is a win-win for farmers and the environment and will deliver better environmental outcomes, improved compliance and farm sustainability in a way that improves relationships between farmers and NIEA.
'Positive step'
Mr Small added that he believes this approach will help farmers address issues that may be causing damage to the environment through closer liaison with NIEA staff.
He said: The challenge in developing the MoU has been the balance between advocacy and regulation, and NIEA has been clear throughout the process that it will not detract from the Agencys regulatory role a point acknowledged by the UFU. Enforcement is one tool to achieve environmental compliance; guidance and support is another.
This is not a softening of our regulatory approach. We are enhancing the consistency and proportionality of our approach to ensure our customers are treated fairly across the sectors.
This is a positive step in the right direction to increase levels of compliance resulting in a healthier environment.
US-based machinery giant Great Plains Manufacturing site in Sleaford, Lincolnshire will cease production by the middle of the year and by early 2018.
The decision comes in the wake of an extended downturn in the worldwide agricultural economy.
Other operations and functions of the Sleaford site will be phased out after the 2017 autumn season with the facility to close in the early part of next year.
In the future, parts and service operations will be continued under the responsibility of Great Plains Manufacturing with support from its sister company, Kverneland Group.
'Long-term weakness'
The companys president Linda Salem said: We examined many options before we chose this path.
We know this affects the lives of our team members, their families, and our customers, making it a painful decision. After long and careful consideration, we have determined that the long-term weakness in the agricultural economy has made it no longer viable to keep the facility in operation.
Ms Salem added: Great Plains Manufacturing is proud to have worked with our many committed dealers, distributors and suppliers for so many years.
Together, we have provided quality products and outstanding service to our farming communities.
Plans to continue to provide parts and service for these products through their reasonable life cycles are in place and will be shared as the transition occurs.
Kansas-based Great Plains had acquired the Woodbridge Road plant from Simba in 2010.
Lowest ever sales of livestock antibiotics recorded in UK
For the past two years, Southwest Airlines (LUV -0.48%) and Delta Air Lines (DAL -0.03%) have been engaged in a seemingly endless fight over gate space at Love Field, the closest airport to downtown Dallas. The dispute has been making its way through the court system slowly, but it could still be years from being resolved.
Last year, a potential solution appeared when Alaska Air (ALK -0.19%) acquired Virgin America, which is the only other commercial airline at Love Field, whereas Alaska Airlines flies to nearby Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). It seemed plausible that Alaska would consolidate its Dallas-area operations at DFW, the region's main airport.
However, Alaska Air recently slammed the door on that possibility, as a high-ranking executive revealed that the company has no plans to abandon Love Field.
Southwest and Delta spar over gate space
The long-running dispute between Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines stems from an arcane federal law that was originally designed to protect DFW from competition. In its current form, this law restricts Love Field to having just 20 gates -- whereas DFW has 165.
Southwest Airlines has controlled 16 of those gates for many years. In 2015, it subleased two more from United Continental, which decided to stop flying to Love Field. Southwest wanted those gates so as to increase its Love Field schedule to 180 daily departures. That goal requires operating an ambitious 10 flights per day at each gate.
However, Delta Air Lines had been using one of those gates under a short-term lease for its five daily flights to Atlanta. Delta refused to leave, while Southwest said there was no room for it to stay. This situation is what precipitated the ongoing litigation.
Meanwhile, Virgin America has held on to the other two gates. After some recent schedule cuts, Virgin America has just 13 daily departures at Love Field, compared with an original plan that called for operating up to 20 daily departures there. Furthermore, these flights never lived up to Virgin America's expectations from a financial perspective.
Alaska Air doesn't want to leave
It wouldn't be crazy for Alaska Air to give up on Love Field based on this shaky track record. Doing so would potentially allow Southwest Airlines to keep its 18 gates while enabling Delta to take over the current Virgin America gates and add flights at Love Field, which it has wanted to do for several years.
However, in a recent interview with Bloomberg, Alaska Air President Ben Minicucci said: "We're keeping both for sure. We love Love Field." However, he acknowledged that the company might change its route offerings at Love Field.
Given that Alaska is staying at Love Field, it will probably want to start flying to Seattle and Portland, its two largest hubs. At some point, it could also add additional flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles and perhaps start service to San Diego, another California city where it has been steadily growing.
By contrast, Virgin America's routes from Love Field to Las Vegas, New York's LaGuardia Airport, and Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport could be on the chopping block. Alaska Airlines and Virgin America don't have a particularly strong presence in any of these cities. Virgin America has had a particularly tough time getting reasonable fares on the route to Washington, D.C. Furthermore, takeoff and landing slots at LaGuardia Airport and Reagan Airport are very valuable, so if the routes to Love Field aren't working, Alaska ought to find a better use for those slots.
The battle goes on
Flights to Love Field could be a key weapon for Alaska Air as it pursues its goal of becoming the premier airline for people on the West Coast. With more flights between Dallas and major West Coast cities on tap, it's unlikely that Alaska will ever be able to accommodate Delta at its two Love Field gates.
That means Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines will keep slugging it out in court for the foreseeable future. The outcome will determine whether Southwest must continue to make room for Delta at Love Field.
What happened
The oil market hit a rough patch in March after renewed volatility sent crude prices below $50 a barrel for the first time since November. That decline in the oil market, along with some company-specific news, sent financially challenged oil producers plunging. Among the biggest decliners were Cobalt International Energy (NYSE: CIE), California Resources (CRC), Stone Energy (NYSE: SGY), and Resolute Energy (NYSE: REN).
So what
Cobalt International Energy suffered the biggest decline last month, plunging nearly 25%. While weaker oil prices certainly weighed on the stock last month, an even deeper concern to investors was the company's troubling fourth-quarter results. Driving those worries was Cobalt's $0.43 per share loss, which was much deeper than the $0.15 per share analysts expected. Also concerning was the company's 2017 forecast that it would spend $550 million to $650 million against just $50 million in revenue. While the company did end the year with $956.5 million in cash, at its current burn rate, it will be out of money in less than two years. Because of that, Cobalt International Energy needs to either sell assets or raise outside capital to stay afloat, which is hard to do when oil is bouncing around $50 per barrel.
California Resources was also down more than 20% last month. Slumping crude oil also played a role in that decline, especially considering what the company said at its analyst day last month. What worried the market the most was how sub-$55 oil would affect the company's financial situation. At that price point, more than half of California Resources' EBITDA will go toward interest expenses and debt repayment this year instead of capex, limiting its ability to grow. Also concerning is that the company's leverage ratio would remain above 7.0 times at that oil price and would only decline marginally by 2020 if oil didn't improve into the mid-$70s. That suggests California Resources could remain a "zombie-like" company that's unable to grow unless it makes a significant transaction to pay down debt.
Stone Energy also slid double-digits last month, which was its first decline since returning to the public markets after emerging from bankruptcy protection. While the company was able to eliminate $1.2 billion of debt via bankruptcy, it still has a long road to recovery ahead of it given where oil prices are these days. The concern is that the new Stone Energy is 100% focused on the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Coast, which are higher-cost sources than shale. Because of that, the company could struggle to grow if oil prices remain low.
Finally, Resolute Energy is a bit of an outlier in this group. Its March slump appeared to be just a breather considering how hot this oil stock has been over the past year. That said, investors had reason to be nervous after the company reported a deeper-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and spent $160 million on an acquisition to bolster its high-return Delaware Basin position. What has investors concerned at the moment is that Resolute Energy didn't put long-term financing in place and instead paid for the transaction with its credit facility. However, that might be a short-term concern because the company subsequently put its legacy Aneth Field assets on the market, and it could use that cash to finance the deal. That said, this stock could remain volatile until the company provides more details on that deal because the market sees its debt level rising at a time when oil prices are wobbling.
Now what
Cobalt International Energy, Stone Energy, and California Resources need oil prices to stabilize much higher before they're back on solid ground. Because of that, investors should steer clear of those oil stocks since there are plenty of better options. One of those options appears to be Resolute Energy, which has emerged from the downturn with a stronger balance sheet and a focused position in a high-return oil play. While the company is higher risk, especially while it figures out how to finance its latest deal, it has compelling upside from its high-growth Delaware Basin position, which could ultimately make it a buyout candidate.
Quote: Originally Posted by Gibson68 F26YKH34785 / WB: 131 / COLOR: M / MODEL: F263 / BODY: 2B4 / TRANS: A / AXLE: 24 / MAX GVW LBS: 06300 / CERT NET HP: 170 / RPM: 4100 / DSO: 658937
before
from
from
F26 = F250 4WDY = 360 2V (only V8 factory installed in 1968/76 F100/250 4WD).K = Kansas City MO Assembly Plant.H34875 = 1970 (production date printed on upper left of Certification Label, glued to the B pillar below the striker plate).131" Wheelbase.M = Wimbledon White.F263 = F250 4WD .. 6,300 lbs. GVWR2B4: 2B = Black all Vinyl / 4 = Styleside Pickup.A = New Process 435 4 Speed Manual Transmission.24 = Dana 60 Rear Axle / 4.10-1 / 5,200 lbs. Rear Axle Capacity.6,300 lbs. Gross Vehicle Weight Rating.170 net HP @ 4,100 RPM658937:65 = Oklahoma City OK Ford District Sales Office, where the original selling dealer ordered the truck from.8937 = Domestic Special Order number, truck special ordered by the original purchaser, not "bought off the lot."-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1970 has a 1969 Custom Cab anodized aluminum grille, 1967/69: headlamp doors, parking lamps, stone deflector.1970 anodized grille frame has two plastic inserts in a checkerboard/egg crate pattern.1970/72 Ranger/Ranger XLT have 3 5/8" wide upper body side mouldings. Rangers have black painted inserts, Ranger XLT's have wood grained (decals) inserts.1970's have a 3 spoke 17" diameter steering wheel, Sport Custom/Ranger/Ranger XLT have a horn ring.1970/72 Ranger/Ranger XLT have wheel opening and lower body side mouldings, but XLT's do not have a moulding behind the rear wheel opening.1970/72 Ranger XLT's have Ranger XLT emblems on the rear of the bedsides, wood grained tailgate finish panel.1970/72 F100/350's have markeron the bedsides, reflectors below the taillights.1967/69 Custom Cab/Ranger & 1970/72 Sport Custom, Ranger/Ranger XLT have stainless steel windshield reveal mouldings.F250 4WD (High Boys): Two different types of Power Assist P/S: 1973, 1974serial number T80,001: Garrison P/S // 1974serial number T80,001, 1975/77: Bendix P/S1977 F250 4WDserial number Y20,001 (not a High Boy), 1978/79 F250 4WD have Ford integral P/SFrom what I see, this is a Custom, no upper/lower bodyside or wheel opening mouldings, no windshield reveal mouldings, w/a horn button.To verify, a copy of this trucks original build sheet is available from martiauto.com
March 2017 saw the highest number of new tractor sales for three years, according to figures from the Agricultural Engineers Association.
Registrations of agricultural tractors over 50hp reached 1,770 units, which is 43.2% higher than in March 2016.
The number of units sold over the first quarter of the year is now 3,024 units, which is also 27% higher than the same period a year ago.
See also: Outlook for 2017 machinery sales
Stephen Howarth, agricultural economist for the AEA, said it was traditional for there to be a spike in new registrations in March, with one factor being the fact that it was the month when new registration plates came out.
Farmers are also feeling better off, with farm incomes rising, and having been through a difficult couple of years many will have put off purchasing until now, he said. So there is probably an element of catching up going on.
There may also be an element of expectation that prices for farm machinery will be rising further through this year because of exchange rate factors. Prices have already come up a bit, but I think people are thinking they may come up a bit more and that may have helped sales.
However, we have to bear in mind were comparing it against last year, which was a particularly bad year, so while it has come up quite a lot, in the historic context, sales are not especially high.
See also: Best-selling tractor brands in the UK in 2015
Mr Howarth said the increase has been particularly noticeable in the south-west of England and the east of England, with sales flatter in the Midlands and the north of England.
Theres no obvious split between arable regions and livestock regions, he said.
Second-hand market
Simon Wearmouth, divisional partner at Brown & Cos Norwich office, said the market for second-hand machinery has really picked up since last October.
There are a lot more buyers globally, particularly buyers from Poland and Romania, who are coming into the UK market quite hard and competing with UK dealers for second-hand machinery, he said.
Buyers from Eastern Europe were particularly keen on the larger horsepower tractors, although there was demand for any machines that were well maintained.
Were also regularly selling machines to New Zealand, the US, Israel and into Africa. These guys have become more prevalent.
Mr Wearmouth said the fall in the value of sterling has been one of the factors driving increased demand, but another factor is people becoming more comfortable with the concept of timed online machinery auctions and bidding live online during dispersal sales.
UK dealers are also looking for extra stock as increased export demand has helped to clear out their yards.
Farmers who had decided they could not justify a new tractor after the price hikes as a result of currency changes, are also looking to the second-hand market. There are a lot of buyers out there, he said.
Scholarships help single moms pursue BRCC degrees
Taking five college classes while working full-time would be a tough balancing act for any 22-year-old. Victoria Hayes has an even higher priority every day spending time with her daughter, Holly.
A single mom, Hayes was spending her life savings to pay for class and buy books when opportunity came knocking in the form of Dede Walton, a parent educator with the Children and Family Resource Center.
She kind of found me, Hayes said. She called me out of the blue and introduced herself. I think I was referred somehow, but it was really kind of a blessing in disguise.
Victoria HayesHayes and Evelyn Gutierrez were the 2016-17 recipients of the Children and Family Resource Center Scholarship for Single Parents, a $1,000 award that goes to an outstanding individual who is pursuing higher education as a single parent.
Hayes is studying at Blue Ridge Community College with a goal to be in office administration.
Hayes meets with Walton once a month to catch up on life.
Shes kind of like my third mom, said Hayes. Shes helped me learn a lot about Holly and her development and when I get frustrated or have tough times shes always there.
Hayes used the scholarship to pursue her associates degree from BRCC. After she graduates in May, she plans to get a bachelors degree through online classes so she can spend time with Holly, who starts kindergarten next year.
It means a lot to be chosen for the scholarship, she said. Im really grateful, because I really didnt have the financial means to continue schooling.
Mentors at the Children and Family Resource Center have helped her, too.
I thought I knew everything, she said. I took early childhood development, but I didnt know anything when faced with it. The resources are very beneficial and I would recommend it to any mom who is doing it on her own and wants the best for her kids.
Grateful for support
Evelyn GutierrezGutierrez, 18, is studying to become a medical assistant. She is on track to graduate in April from this program, the second program she has been able to complete due to the CFRC scholarship money. Shes already completed a certified nursing assistant class. first heard about the scholarship through Emily Balcken and Sarah Hoffert, who were a part of the Adolescent Parenting Program that Gutierrez was referred to shortly after she moved to Hendersonville from California during her junior year of high school. After hearing Gutierrezs plans to continue her education after high school graduation, Balcken and Hoffert recommended the scholarship.
After her April graduation, Gutierrez hopes to work in a doctors office and eventually attend nursing school. Working in a doctors office would be nice, she said, because it will have regular business hours and give her weekends with her son, who is 15 months old.
Im so grateful to have this help to start off my career and what better way is there to give back to the community than being in the medical field and offering my help to anybody who needs it, Gutierrez said. Without the scholarship Gutierrez said that it would have taken her much longer to save up for her education.
This scholarship shows a lot of support and Im really thankful for having it and I was able to show the scholarship to somebody in my CNA class, she said. Being able to even go to college as a teen mother is a rewarding thing to have and with this scholarship it feels like I have a lot of support from the community as well.
Nik's Run seeks to raise addiction awareness
Nik Fredrick died of a heroin overdose in October 2013 at age 22.
Patti Fredrick-Enloe kept hoping for the best. Her son, a star athlete in high school, had fallen into addiction, first with alcohol, then pain pills and finally heroin. She hoped he would not become a statistic, one of 13,000 North Carolinians since 1999 to die of an accidental overdose. That hope was dashed when a law officer knocked on the familys door on Oct. 29, 2013.
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The sheriff came to the house in Goldsboro and told my husband he was found dead on a railroad track with a needle in his arm, Fredrick-Enloe said.
Nikolas Stephen Fredrick was 22.
Although she knows she cant bring her son back, Fredrick-Enloe hopes by raising awareness of the deadly consequences of opioid abuse and courageously and publicly owning her own struggle with alcoholism she might save one more kid from becoming a statistic and breaking a familys heart.
The second annual Niks Run for Addiction Awareness, a 5k and 1-mile run or walk, will take place at 10 a.m. May 13 at Patton Park. The fundraiser benefits PATHS, the Psychiatric and Addictions Therapeutic Healing Services unit at Pardee Hospital.
Nik was a normal child, very outgoing, very friendly, said Fredrick-Enloe, who moved with her husband back to Hendersonville after he had been transferred to a plant in Eastern North Carolina. When he was in high school (in Goldsboro) he was the Southeast Conference runner of the year.
Two strikes
Active in the DECA club and Young Life, Nik was voted best looking in his graduating class in 2009 at Charles D. Aycock High School. His path toward substance abuse began after a traumatic accident.
He was giving a friend a ride home on a country road, Fredrick-Enloe said. He missed a stop sign and the person he hit passed away at the scene.
She figures that was strike 2. She owns strike 1.
Nik was raised in an alcoholic home, she said. Im a recovering alcoholic.
Nik started drinking to dull the pain of the crash that took a life.
Things kind of started changing, his mom said. It was his teenage years and coming from a generation of an addicted family, that kind of started that ball rolling.
He went to East Carolina University and the partying kind of picked up there, she said. At East Carolina they had a drunk bus that would bring you home from downtown.
Free rides made drinking more convenient. Nik spiraled further into addition.
We had him go to the Wilmington treatment center, but he had broken his hand and had been on pain pills, and in between his clean and sober time he would look for the pain pills, his mom said. They had gotten so expensive and people said, Why dont you just try heroine?
It was advice that would eventually kill him. Strike 3.
I guess when my son passed away I was kind of at a turning point of do I just say screw it and go back and drink, or do I carry this message forward in order to make the living amends? So Im going forward and my goal is to at least save one alcoholic. A lot of people think they can go back out one more time (and get high) and that one time may be the one time they dont come back.
Nik left behind his parents, family and friends and a girlfriend.
70 pills per person
As the death toll rises, schools and the medical community are putting greater emphasis on addiction awareness. This week, middle and high school students are taking a public stand against substance abuse during the weeklong We Are Hope campaign. Events include a Parent University at Blue Ridge Community College on Thursday, April 6, to help parents, foster parents, grandparents and other adults navigate the current climate, recognize warning signs of substance abuse and get answers to questions. The week culminates with the hanging of banners from four middle schools and six high schools at noon Friday, April 7, at the Historic Courthouse.
During a presentation at last weeks Pardee Hospital Board on spinal cord stimulation, an alternative to pain medications, physicians talked about the epidemic of opioid abuse.
Last year the number of narcotics prescribed in Henderson County was 70 per person, said Dr. David Ellis, chief medical officer at Pardee.
In a letter last month, North Carolinas Health and Human Services secretary, Mandy Cohen, described the epidemic as a crisis.
I need your help, she said. Twenty years ago, physicians were encouraged to treat pain more aggressively, sometimes without proper safety guidelines and training. Similarly, patients were incorrectly counseled that all pain could be readily and quickly controlled without long-term negative impacts. We now know that these along with complex social and economic factors and the highly addictive properties of opioids have created a perfect storm resulting in this crisis. The results have been devastating.
Doctors wrote nearly 10 million opioid prescriptions last year. Yet pain severity reported by patients remains unchanged, Cohen said.
Last year, the Niks Run for Addiction Awareness raised $600 for the PATHS unit.
This year the PATHS unit money will be used for particular items like A.A. Big Books and recovery material for the patients as well as educational materials for the staff and the public, Fredrick-Enloe said. As a recovering alcoholic, we have service work and part of that is taking an A.A. meeting to the PATH unit.
Every morning I awake to the heart-breaking reality that my son has died, she said. Totally out of the blue, she and her husband, Greg, got word that Nik had left behind a blessing.
Six months after Nik passed away, we were contacted that his daughter was born, she said. So out of the whole thing, when God closes a door he opens at least window.
Raegan Nikolette turns 3 on April 16.
Niks Run for Addiction Awareness
In memory of Nikolas Stephen Fredrick (Jan. 31, 1991-Oct. 29, 2013)
5k and 1-mile run/walk
10 a.m. Saturday, May 13
Patton Park
Benefits PATHS unit at Pardee Hospital
To donate visit pardeehospitalfoundation.org (Niks Run)
Donations Optional. Awareness Mandatory
More information: Patti Fredrick-Enloe, pfred333@yahoo.com.
Ritz-Carlton Reserve At Pearl Island, Panama Breaks Ground
Representatives of Marriott Internationa joined the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, and investors from Grupo Eleta and Grivalia last week, to celebrate the groundbreaking of the ultra-luxury Ritz-Carlton Reserve being built on Pearl Island, 45 miles south of Panama City.
As Pearl Island is renowned for its spectacular white sand deserted beaches, scuba diving, marine life and delicate ecosystems, the resort will offer a bespoke experience that is reflective of the destination. With handcrafted curated offerings and cultural elements woven throughout their stay, guests will have an experience that is transformative, pure, rare, and refined. It will be an authentic extension of true Panamanian hospitality.
The centerpiece of the Reserve will feature an open-air resort offering 86 intimate rooms, and a range of select luxury amenities and exceptional services to include a lavish spa, private beach club, swimming pools, restaurants, an 1,800-square-foot pavilion and boardroom with ocean views, and access to a world-class marina.
Each Ritz-Carlton Reserve is set apart from other luxury hotels, showcasing the natural beauty of their location, with deeply immersive experiences of local culture and traditions. At this new Ritz-Carlton Reserve, travelers will foster a unique connection with the destination through personalized service and heartfelt, genuine care.
The Pearl Island project is a development of Grupo Eleta together with Grivalia Hospitality, which recently acquired the participation of Dolphin Capital Investors.
"This first stone represents a great achievement for Panama as we become the first country in the region with a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, renowned for leading trends in travelers seeking experiences in natural sanctuaries that offer unique and unrepeatable services," said Guillermo De Saint Malo Eleta, CEO, Grupo Eleta.
The third largest island within Las Perlas Archipelago
Reachable by boat, helicopter or plane through a private airstrip, Pearl Island is a virtually untouched paradise featuring an extensive private natural reserve with over half of the island undisturbed. Located in the Gulf of Panama on the Pacific Ocean, minutes from Panama City, the 3,500-acre private island is the third largest in the Archipelago of Las Perlas. The island is one of approximately 250 different islands inhabited by fishing communities throughout the archipelago.
Populated by an extraordinary collection of exotic natural life, Pearl Island is home to a remarkable 150-species bird sanctuary, one of the greatest in the world, including a vast population of migrating pelicans, 700 species of fish and 15 species of coral that fill the surrounding waters, in addition to 16 species of mammals, sea turtles, and whales that visit the island for a great part of the year.
To preserve this critical habitat of birds and marine species, 70% of the total of the island will not be affected, applying strict development measures to minimize the impact on the environment, guaranteeing the conservation of this natural paradise.
In this sense, Saint Malo said that "we have conceived this project to keep the majestic natural beauty that exists on the island, so for us it is paramount to be able to protect the environment."
Former Starwood Senior Operations Executive Joins Company
Denihan Hospitality announced that Vera Manoukian has joined as President and Chief Operating Officer. In her role, Vera is responsible for operations and management of the company and delivering superior performance, as well as accelerating pipeline growth of its portfolio of both branded and independent boutique luxury and lifestyle hotels. Vera's appointment comes just as the company is preparing to open two new James Hotels: The James - West Hollywood and The James - NoMad on Madison Avenue in NYC.
"We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Vera Manoukian as our President and COO," said Patrick Denihan. "She is a seasoned and accomplished leader that will help us achieve improved results through superior performance, expand our portfolio and take us to the next level." "As a family business that has been in existence for over 50 years, we are very aware of the need to continually strive for excellence in everything we do. Vera comes with the breadth and depth of experience to lead Denihan forward," said Brooke Barrett.
"I am honored to be given this opportunity to join Denihan at this exciting time in the business. Denihan has a quality portfolio of hotels that is poised to grow and exceed customer expectations," said Vera Manoukian.
Ms. Manoukian is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry, primarily with Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President of Operations leading Starwood's largest geographic region with 68 properties, delivering over $3.4 billion in revenue with 7 brands and 35,000 rooms in both full service and luxury hotels. During her tenure at Starwood, Vera was recognized for her operational excellence and maximizing performance, while also successfully managing her region's growth and development pipeline.
Manoukian holds an MBA from the University of Southern New Hampshire, specializing in Marketing, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Rivier University of New Hampshire.
Denihan is a privately-held, full service management and development company. The company owns and/or operates boutique hotels in major urban markets throughout the U.S.
We work towards an equitable,
gender-just, self-reliant and
sustainable fisheries,
particularly in the small-scale,
artisanal sector
We work towards an equitable,
gender-just, self-reliant and
sustainable fisheries,
particularly in the small-scale,
artisanal sector
We work towards an equitable,
gender-just, self-reliant and
sustainable fisheries,
particularly in the small-scale,
artisanal sector
We work towards an equitable,
gender-just, self-reliant and
sustainable fisheries,
particularly in the small-scale,
artisanal sector
Burma Death Toll Rises to 30 in Pathein Boat Tragedy
The death toll rises to 30 in a boat accident in Irrawaddy Division.
PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Division The bodies of 10 missing people from a capsized ferry in the Irrawaddy Delta were recovered on Sunday morning, bringing the death toll to 30.
The ferry, which was carrying around 66 people, capsized in the Ngawun River near Pathein after colliding with a boat carrying gravel around 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The ferry was going from Pathein to Yakhinekone Village in Ngapudaw Township. Most of the ferrys passengers were returning from a wedding ceremony.
Thirty people26 males and four femaleswere rescued from the capsized boat, but 20 others16 females and four males drowned.
A team consisting of naval police, Pathein-based naval troops, firefighters and army engineering troops continued searching for missing persons, and recovered the 10 bodiesincluding the ferry helmsman, six women, a boy and two girlson Sunday morning.
Eight bodies surfaced in the Ngawun River near Pathein and two bodies surfaced near Ohnbinsu Village in Ngapudaw Township, said an officer supervising the operation.
All of the victims are from Ngapudaws Yakhinekone Village.
We have registered and kept jewelry found on the bodies. We will notify the victims families and return everything, police officer Thein Min Oo told The Irrawaddy.
According to the wishes of the victims families, the bodies of 19 victims were cremated in Pathein on Saturday.
Police have detained and opened a case against Ko Thiha Aung, a second helmsman of the capsized Ngwe Kyel Pwint, and U Aung, the helmsman of the boat carrying gravel.
Burma Ethnic Armed Group Leaders Agree to Basic Federal Principles
Fourteen ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) held a two-day summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand on April 8-9. / Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy
CHIANG MAI, Thailand Fourteen ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) approved a list of eight basic principles that they say will be the basis of a future federal union in Burma at a conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on April 8-9.
Both signatories and non-signatories of the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) supported the principles, first drafted in 2005 t0 ensure the autonomy and equality of Burmas ethnic minorities.
The principles are: sovereignty; self-determination; establishment of a genuine federal union; protection of ethnic rights, democratic rights and basic human rights; gender equality; a multi-party democratic system; and secularism.
We approved them now as the EAOs were able to come together, said Khun Myint Tun, the chairman of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO).
The groups also passed the Panglong Manual, a guide to building a federal democratic system of government, following the Mai Ja Yang Summit held in Kachin State last July.
The manual defines the EAOs understanding of the historic Panglong Agreement, signed between Gen Aung San and several ethnic groups in 1947.
Gen NBan La of the Kachin Independence Organization said in his opening speech on April 8 that having two authoritiesthe Burma Army and the National League for Democracy (NLD) controlling the governments ministries has created obstacles for peace negotiations.
We have to overcome many difficulties, he said. The EAOs must be united despite our diversity and different ways of thinking.
Our thinking has become complex and some organizations believe they can no longer follow the NCA path, he said, referring to the Northern Alliance, of which his group is a member.
As you all know, we have to consider the situation in northern [Burma] but I would like to request all of you to share your thoughtful recommendations, he added.
All members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)a coalition of seven EAOs who opted out of signing the NCA in 2015were present.
These are: the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO); the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP); the New Mon State Party (NMSP); the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP); the Arakan National Council (ANC); the Lahu Democratic Union (LDU); and the Wa National Organization (WNO).
Seven signatories of the NCA were also present: the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS); the Chin National Front (CNF); the PNLO; the Democratic Karen Benevolence Army (DKBA); the Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council (KNLA-PC); the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP); and the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF).
The Karen National Union did not attend because its own congress was in progress.
The UNFC said it would sign the NCA when the government agrees to its terms. This follows an alleged rift in the bloc sparked during the Panghsang Summit in February when two member groups said they wanted to replace the NCA with a new approach to the peace process, while the others aimed to eventually sign the NCA.
The EAOs that have not yet signed the NCA are still on the NCA path, and will continue negotiating on the foundation of their eight principles in order to sign, Khun Myint Tun added.
The ethnic leaders also agreed to form working committees to draft defense and security policies, examine affairs related to the Joint Coordination Body (JCB) for peace process funding, and craft policy for the interim procedure between signing the NCA and the agreements conclusion.
In a statement on April 9, the leaders stressed the need to find solutions for negotiations between the government, the Burma Army and the EAOs to stop the Burma Armys offensives in Kachin and Shan states as well as to find a solution to collaborating on the peace process.
Burma Push for Treatment-Oriented Drug Policy Continues
The Advancing Drug Policy Reform in Myanmar panel discussion is held at the Novotel Hotel in Rangoon on April 8, 2017. / Tin Htet Paing / The Irrawaddy
RANGOON The Drug Policy Advocacy Group (DPAG) has stressed thorough implementation of a recent draft of updated narcotics legislation, emphasizing the need for better law enforcement and for greater socio-economic development affecting small-scale opium farmers.
Together with the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the DPAG hosted a panel discussion on Saturday in Rangoon, where its members and stakeholders exchanged views on how the new policywhich emphasizes the decriminalization of drugscould be implemented.
Sai Sam Kham of the Metta Development Foundation, which has been working to address drug-related health issues and development in the countrys ethnic areas, said that it is crucial to get drug users and opium growers involved in the policy-making and the decision-making processes.
When we talk about decriminalization, it has to strongly accompany [issues of] public health as well as development support, he said at the panel discussion.
He also emphasized the need to change the publics perception of drugs and to actively engage with local religious and faith institutions to improve their understanding of addiction.
When the drug issue is discussed among the general public, a lot of people are taking a religious and moral stance in judging it, he said, adding that this has proved problematic.
Burmas existing 1993 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law prohibits anyone from planting poppy, coca, cannabis or any kind of plant from which drugs can be derived or extracted. It also criminalizes the possession and use of any drug with a maximum of five years imprisonment.
The new version of the legislation modifying the notorious 1993 law is in the public consultation stage before being discussed in the Parliament. The new law would ensure a treatment-oriented and rehabilitation approach to drug addiction, according to the current draft.
Dr. Nang Pann Ei Kham, the coordinator of DPAG, also highlighted the importance of helping poppy growers link with the international pharmaceutical industry to manufacture narcotic raw materials for medicines so that farmers can continue to earn a living.
We have been brainwashed [into thinking] that drugs are bad, she said. But in fact, there are also examples in these communities that drugs have been used for their real medicinal purposes.
The DPAG has been working to develop an advocacy platform for non-punitive, evidence-based drug policy changes in the country. The group was formed in 2014 by like-minded organizations and individuals, and supports a global campaign to rehabilitate and reintegrate drug users into society under the theme, Support, Dont Punish.
The group networks with both domestic and international organizations, such as the National Drug Users Network Myanmar (NDNM), Myanmar Opium Farmers Forum (MOFF), Myanmar Anti-Narcotics Association (MANA), Medicins du Monde (MdM), Save the Children, Transnational Institute (TNI), HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission.
Psychiatrists who attended the event also urged the government and policymakers to outsource the counseling treatment for drug users to private clinics, authorizing licenses so that governments medical facilities do not become burdened by drug users seeking treatment.
Ruth Dreifuss, a commissioner of Global Commission on Drug Policy and a former President of Switzerland, also participated in the Saturday panel discussion, acknowledging Burmas move toward a more treatment-oriented drug policy.
A successful treatment is always a treatment [where] medical doctors and the patients agree about what the aim is of the treatment, [and] what the success is of the treatment, she said at the event.
Burma Rangoon Govts Rock Bottom Rent Rates Lose Billions to Companies
Hanthawaddy Complex near Junction Square Shopping Center in Kamayut Township, Rangoon / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy
RANGOON The previous government agreed to lease commercial space to three construction companies in deals that have lost Rangoons divisional government 13.153 billion kyats since 2015, according to a report from the auditor generals office.
The report for the 2015-2016 fiscal year reveals space from three construction projects began as joint ventures between private companies and the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) has been leased to the companies at rates well below standard commercial rents for the area.
The projects, including a shopping mall, offices, and a block of apartments situated near Daw Aung San Suu Kyis residence in Bahan Township, are not the only major losses recorded in the report. The divisional government also suffered a 57.923 billion kyat loss from long-term reduced rent leasing agreements for land within public parks, signed by the previous government and private companies.
Out of the joint ventures, Kanthayar Consortium Tower in the compound of Thein Byu Sport Ground inflicts the biggest cost, draining the regional government of 729.77 million kyats each month and 8.757 billion kyats annually.
YCDC and Asia Myanmar Construction Development Company Ltd began the development situated near Kandawgyi Park in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township in mid-2013. Comprising four high-rise buildings housing offices, a hotel, apartments and a car park, the ventureestimated to be worth 125 billion kyatswas split equally between YCDC and the firm.
YCDC agreed to rent its share to the company for 500 million kyats per year in a long term lease after the construction was completed, according to the report, meaning the company pays 57 kyats per square foot every month. The report stated residents in the area pay at least 1,000 to 1,200 kyats for the same space.
Mingalar Taung Nyunt Townships MP U Yan Aung told The Irrawaddy he would urge the regional government in the next parliamentary session to raise rental rates to private companies. He added that Burmas independence hero General Aung San made speeches at Thein Byu Sport Ground and the place was invaluable.
The state gets a small income while companies earn a lot of money, he said. I would definitely say that is down to corruption among high-ranking bureaucrats.
Construction of the Hanthawaddy Complex in Kamayut Townshipa collaboration of YCDC and the Crown Advanced Construction Company Ltdbegan three years ago but is yet to be completed. It will include apartments, shopping malls, car parks, and a car showroom.
Signed in 2013, the contract stipulates YCDC will lease its equal share of 26 floors back to the company for 70 years for 665 million kyats annually starting this month. It would result in a yearly loss of 3.755 billion, according to current market rates.
The average commercial rate in that area is 750 kyats per square foot, said the report, however the rental price for the company in the nearly nine-acre project is 637 kyats cheaper.
YCDC is favoring the private company rather than transparently selling its own share to the public, stated the report.
The third project, situated nearby the Rangoon residence of Burmas State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is a joint venture between the YCDC and Myanmar Growth Winner (MGW) Company.
They agreed to construct an eight-story building, and in October 2015, YCDC leased its 50 percent share of the space back to the firm on a 50-year contract set at 5 million kyats per month. Compared to the current market prices for renting on University Avenue, the regional government loses 53.603 million kyats per month and 643.24 million kyats each year.
The Irrawaddy contacted three YCDC committee members but all declined to comment. YCDCs building department head U Than Htay said he was being transferred to YCDCS financial assessment departure but declined to explain the transfer or comment on the construction projects.
Burma UNICEF Official Seeks Release of Detained Children in Burma
Children wash and collect water at Balukhali Makeshift Refugee Camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh on April 9, 2017 / Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters
RANGOON A top official from the UN childrens fund (UNICEF) has sought the release of Rohingya children detained in a Burma Army crackdown on the Muslim minority, the organizations country representative said on Monday.
Children as young as 10 were among hundreds of Rohingya detained on charges of consorting with insurgents, Reuters revealed last month, citing a previously unreleased police document.
Thirteen juveniles were among more than 400 arrested since Oct. 9, when insurgents attacked three police border posts in northern Arakan State near the frontier with Bangladesh, according to the March 7 document.
The attacks by a previously unknown insurgent group ignited the biggest crisis of leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyis year in power, prompting more than 75,000 Rohingya to flee the ensuing army crackdown to Bangladesh.
The issue was discussed in high-level meetings and UNICEF felt encouraged that the issue was known to authorities, who spontaneously shared their concerns and willingness to take action, said Bertrand Bainvel, the UNICEF representative to Burma.
The bodys deputy executive director, Justin Forsyth, discussed the children with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing during his recent visit to the country.
There was no clear information on whether or when the children were likely to be released.
A United Nations report issued earlier this year said Burmas security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes against Rohingya during their campaign against the insurgents, which may amount to crimes against humanity.
The military has denied the accusations, saying it was engaged in a legitimate counterinsurgency operation.
The United Nations agreed last month to send an international fact-finding mission to investigate the allegations. Burma has opposed the move.
The Southeast Asian nation has ratified international conventions that require additional protections for children accused of crimes.
Reuters was unable to establish whether all those provisions, such as whether they have been able to communicate with their families or have legal representation, were being followed.
Domestic law says children between seven and 12 are only criminally responsible if mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions. Two listed detainees are under 12, while two are 13.
Mafazy to Address Honors Convocation
Rebecca Gearhart Mafazy
April 6, 2017
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Illinois Wesleyan University will hold its annual Honors Convocation on Wednesday, April 12, at 11 a.m. in Westbrook Auditorium.
Honors Convocation is dedicated to the Class of 2017 as well as IWU students who have earned academic and activity honors. The 2018 winner of the Kemp Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, the universitys highest teaching honor, will be announced at the Honors Convocation.
Professor of Anthropology Rebecca Gearhart Mafazy, the 2017 recipient of the Kemp Award, will deliver the keynote address entitled Curiosity and What to Make of It.
She takes an interdisciplinary approach (visual anthropology, history, and performance studies) to her research on non-Western expressive arts, including music and dance traditions. Mafazys research interest in East Africa began when she was a Mount Holyoke College undergraduate in 1987. She has lived frequently in East Africa, primarily among the Swahili peoples of the Kenyan coast. She is co-editor of Contesting Identities: The Mijikenda and their Neighbors in Kenyan Coastal Society (Africa World Press: 2013) and the author of numerous scholarly papers.
Mafazy has an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Florida. She joined the faculty at Illinois Wesleyan in 1999. She has served as chair of the department of anthropology and sociology, and on numerous university and departmental committees. Mafazy regularly mentors students conducting independent ethnographic research, whether at the introductory level or in the upper-level visual anthropology course.
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By Arun Gupta. | ( Yes! Magazine ) |
Despite a string of victories in the last few years limiting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure on the West Coast, Donald Trumps presidency shows it was never going to be easy to defeat the oil and gas industry.
In two months, Trump has moved to revive the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipeline routes that had been blocked by the Obama administration, expedite environmental reviews for infrastructure projects, and reverse fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. He is expected to reverse environmental regulation policies established under President Obama, including the Clean Power Plan, and will not likely adhere to the commitments of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Trump has sparked a groundswell of people coming into the climate justice movement.
Republicans in Congress have followed suit, voting to kill two regulations passed in the waning days of the Obama administration: the Stream Buffer Rule, which prohibits coal companies from dumping toxic waste into an estimated 6,100 miles of streams; and a Bureau of Land Management rule that directs energy companies to capture natural gas from drilling operations on public lands rather than allowing them to burn or vent it into the atmosphere, where its heat-trapping potential is 84 times that of carbon dioxide.
For now, the situation is scary, says Mia Reback, a climate justice organizer with 350 PDX in Portland, Oregon. At the same time, she said, Trump has sparked a groundswell of people coming into the climate justice movement who are looking to strategically and thoughtfully take action to create political change. At her organization alone, orientation attendance has increased tenfold since the election.
All along the West Coast, environmentalists are gearing up for an epic fight. Advocates of a clean energy economy talk of building a thin green line from California to British Columbia to protect and improve on gains against the spread of fossil fuel infrastructure so that the production, use, and export of oil, coal, and natural gas steadily decline.
The fronts in this war are multiplyingalong pipelines and rail lines, in the courts and media, through finance and all levels of governmenteven as an emboldened fossil fuel industry tries to roll back gains for climate justice and revive stalled infrastructure projects. Opponents are outmatched by the billions of dollars energy companies can throw around, but they are buoyed by an invigorated grassroots effort to stymie the industry and strengthen resistance by local elected officials. And they are aided by economic trends that increasingly favor renewable energy.
The Northwest is the gateway between vast energy reserves in the U.S. interior and huge markets in Asia.
Portland and the entire Northwest are key to the fate of the fossil fuel industry simply because of geography, explained Dan Serres, conservation director of Columbia Riverkeeper. The Columbia River, which forms most of the border between Washington and Oregon, is the most accessible shipping point for large flows of oil, coal, and natural gas seeking a deep-water pass. The rivers path also provides the flattest route for trainloads of oil and coal. As such, the Northwest is the gateway between vast energy reserves in the U.S. interior and huge markets in Asia.
In the past decade, as fracking unlocked crude oil and natural gas stores in shale formations from Pennsylvania to North Dakota, and Chinas industrial appetite for fossil fuel boomed, energy companies rushed to develop projects in the Northwest to link supplies to these markets.
The Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based think tank, warned in 2014 that 26 proposed fossil fuel projects in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia would carry the equivalent of more than five Keystone XL pipelines worth of global-warming carbon. Three years later, just a dozen of those proposals are standing. This was due both to grassroots resistance efforts and economics.
Throughout the Pacific Northwest, over a million people have registered opposition to energy exports.
Portland is on the forefront of the action. In December, its city council unanimously passed an ordinance proponents hailed as a first-in-the-country ban on new bulk fossil fuel storage facilities that exceed two million gallons and which also prohibits existing terminals from expanding. At the state level, Oregon passed a bill last year to eliminate coal-fired power from its energy grid by 2035, increase its share of renewable energy for electricity to at least 50 percent by 2040, and beef up capacity for electric vehicles. The measure is significant because it makes progress toward the Obama administrations Clean Power Plan, which was blocked by the Supreme Court last year and which Trump has vowed to kill.
Throughout the Pacific Northwest, over a million people have registered opposition to energy exports through a grassroots campaign that has included knocking on doors, gathering signatures, attending hearings, and pushing cities to pass resolutions against expanding fossil fuel infrastructure. Serres said that when the barrage of fossil fuel projects started in 2010, there [were] plans for six facilities for 147 million tons of annual coal exports through the Columbia River Gorge. We have whittled these projects down to one for 44 million tons annually. And that last one in Longview, Washington, was just dealt a severe blow in January when the state denied it a key lease agreement.
Indigenous nations took the lead in defeating some projects. Last May, the Lummi Nation successfully lobbied the Army Corps of Engineers to scuttle the Gateway Pacific coal terminal slated for the coast of northern Washington. The terminal would have exported 54 million tons of coal annually, imperiling the tribes fishing rights.
Some environmentalists worry the Trump administration could circumvent the state by exerting federal power over ports.
Oil terminals are dying on the drawing board as well, with only one significant proposal remaining. The Tesoro Savage Petroleum Terminal would be the largest oil-by-rail project in the nation, with a capacity of 360,000 barrels a day. The Washington state attorney general and the city of Vancouver have each opposed the project, and Gov. Jay Inslee has the final say.
Some environmentalists worry the Trump administration could circumvent the state by exerting federal power over ports. By altering the rules so ports are treated like railroads, which are regulated by Congress under the commerce clause of the Constitution, local government control would be mostly limited to some public health and safety grounds. But in Oregon, even that toehold was enough for Portlands city council to take a successful stand against oil trains. Although the citys 2015 resolution couldnt block the trains outright, it paved the way for the far-reaching plan to block new fossil-fuel infrastructure projects.
Market forces are proving to be one of the biggest obstacles to Trumps plan to supercharge fossil fuel exports. With coal giants declaring bankruptcy and the price of oil remaining low, activism and local opposition have tipped the balance against projects that lack economic rationale. In some cases, regulators denied permits to projects because they lacked the long-term buyers needed to justify the environmental, safety, and health impacts, said Tarika Powell, senior research associate at the Sightline Institute.
There are no easy victories for environmental campaigners.
That is the case in British Columbia, where 20 different liquefied natural gas projects are currently on hold. Everyone thought LNG would be the next big gold rush when oil was at $100 a barrel, Powell said. Trucking and shipping industries were looking at converting their vehicle fleets. Then the price of oil fell in half, and it was no longer worth the price of conversion. The stalled LNG projects in British Columbia are because of economics, not regulations.
Last spring, the federal government denied permits for a separate LNG export terminal at Coos Bay in southern Oregon because its backers could not demonstrate demand for the natural gas. In March, however, the Canadian energy company Veresen resubmitted its plans hoping Trumps energy regulatory commission appointees will resurrect the Jordan Cove LNG project.
There are no easy victories for environmental campaigners. In November, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau approved two pipelines that could disgorge up to a million barrels of notoriously dirty tar sands oil a day. Burning that amount of oil would release 27 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere, the equivalent of adding 58 million cars to the road. Even if court battles, activist campaigns, and shifting economic conditions do manage to scotch the two pipelines, Canada is expected to overrun its 2030 carbon reduction goal by at least 91 million tons.
Pushing back against the citys strong environmental sentiment, the Portland Business Alliance, Western States Petroleum Association, and construction unions are trying to overturn the citys ban on fossil fuel infrastructure. A coalition of physicians, environmentalists, and citizen groups has formed to oppose them.
The only reason that legislation saw the light of day and got voted on was because the movement was so strong here.
Conservative legislators in at least 18 states have also introduced bills to criminalize protest. A bill in Washington would redefine the peaceful blockade of oil and coal trains as economic terrorism, though few expect it to pass. In Oregon, a bill has been introduced to preempt other municipalities in the state from enacting fossil fuel bans, but activists are working to stop it from ever leaving committee.
But in a clear sign of this movements growing strength, the Seattle City Council unanimously approved a bill in February to end the citys contract with Wells Fargo because the scandal-ridden bank has loaned money for the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Wells Fargo handles about $3 billion in annual city revenue.
Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who chairs the Energy and Environment Committee, said her office put the legislation forward. She credited the leadership of some really brilliant indigenous activists, environmental activists, and 350 Seattle in creating a movement the council could not ignore. The only reason that legislation saw the light of day and got voted on was because the movement was so strong here, she said.
Since then, the Seattle movement has held two conference calls with activists in other cities to discuss how lessons can be applied from their campaign. In California, Davis and Santa Monica quickly followed Seattles lead, by pulling accounts totaling more than $1 billion in annual transactions from Wells Fargo.
These measures are proof that, given the proper care and attention, a green wall can grow along the West Coast, even in dark times.
Arun Gupta wrote this article for YES! Magazine. Arun is an investigative reporter who contributes to YES! Magazine, The Nation, Telesur, The Progressive, Raw Story, and The Washington Post. He is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City and author of the upcoming Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction: A Junk-Food-Loving Chefs Inquiry into Taste (The New Press). Follow him on Twitter @arunindy.
Via Yes! Magazine by Creative Commons License
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By Shlomo Ben-Ami | (Project Syndicate) |
MADRID US President Donald Trump has put on the back burner an executive order that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. He should leave it there permanently. Inclusive governments that are seen to represent the overwhelmingly devout Muslim societies of the Arab world are a vital antidote to global jihadism.
To be sure, the Muslim Brotherhood has not always fully embodied democratic values. In Egypt, for example, President Mohamed Morsis government treated democracy as a winner-take-all proposition and was ousted after little more than a year.
But addressing such shortcomings by ostracizing legitimate religious-political options merely reinforces jihadist recruiters argument that violence is the only way to secure reform. Thats what happened when Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Morsis successor after the 2013 coup detat adopted a zero-sum approach to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Where Islamist parties have been given space for political action, they have shown a capacity to take advantage of it, often advocating political participation as a superior alternative to violence. And, indeed, Islamist parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, are engaged in legitimate political activities in several countries activities that have often driven them to moderate their views.
Politics, unlike religion, is a realm not of eternal truths, but of rational calculations. To govern effectively, one must build alliances and coalitions, including with secular and liberal parties. Given this, political engagement naturally tends to pull parties toward moderation, a phenomenon we have seen time and again in the Arab world.
In Morocco, when the Justice and Development Party (PJD) entered politics in 1997, Islamization was at the heart of its electoral platform. Likewise, Tunisias Ennahda (Renaissance) party was originally shaped by the legacy of the Iranian revolution and the thinking of radical Islamist critics of Western values, such as Sayyid Qutb, a leading Muslim Brotherhood theorist in the 1950s.
But both the PJD and Ennahda which came to power in their respective countries in 2011 have for years been edging toward moderation, even secularization. They have deemphasized some of their radical principles to accommodate key tenets of secular democracy, such as cultural pluralism and freedom of expression.
In 2003, in response to a terror attack in Casablanca, the PJD created a clear division between the political party and the religious movement that created it, and unconditionally renounced violence. Unlike a jihadist group, which would have happily taken credit for such an attack, the PJD wanted to make it clear that it neither inspired nor condoned such actions. In 2015, Ennahda, too, separated the movement that promotes religious values from the party that adheres to the secular logic of the political game.
Critics who argue that these parties were merely maneuvering tactically are not entirely wrong. But such tactical moves can lead to strategic and even ideological shifts. Indeed, once separated from the constraints of religious dogma, the political branches of both parties distanced themselves from their fundamentalist Islamist roots.
Involvement in politics also had a moderating impact on Egypts Muslim Brotherhood. While Morsi was president, he respected Egypts peace agreement with Israel and even played a key role in brokering a ceasefire in the 2012 conflict between Israel and Hamas. Those decisions demonstrated his resolve to uphold Egypts role as a force for regional stability, which implied refusing to allow his ideology to drive him toward a radical foreign policy.
Algerias Islamists took a slightly different route, moderating their politics after their defeat in the devastating civil war of the 1990s. While the memory of that civil war is now fading, the example of the conflicts in Syria and Libya together with the political engagement of Islamist parties, such as the Movement for the Society of Peace is enough to drive most young Algerians away from jihadism.
Just as political participation can encourage moderation, political exclusion can reinforce radicalism. Consider the case of Hamas, which is not a global jihadist movement, but rather a nationalist Islamist organization whose iron-fisted rule in Gaza brooks no dissent.
One might argue that the international communitys refusal to recognize Hamass victory when it came to power in an election in 2006 stymied the movements potential for moderation. After all, in contrast to global jihadist groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, Hamas has often flirted, however obliquely, with a more conciliatory approach toward Israel.
Even without political recognition, Hamas has reportedly decided to publish a new charter without the rampant anti-Semitism found in the current one. There is also reason to believe that Hamas would accept a two-state solution, and declare its independence from the Muslim Brotherhood, in order to facilitate its reconciliation with Egypt and other leading Arab states.
If Hamas does prove itself to be moving toward greater political pragmatism, it should be encouraged. In particular, Israel should treat Gaza as if it were an independent state and promote its stability. This means ending Israels blockade which has served only to fuel more extremism and war and granting Gazans control over their own seaport for trade and travel.
Creating space for benign expressions of Islam in the public sphere is essential to defeat global jihadism. Only when the war against jihadism shifts from the battlefield to the political arena can Arab societies move toward a more secure and prosperous future.
Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, is Vice President of the Toledo International Center for Peace. He is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy.
Licensed from Project Syndicate
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Maan News Agency |
BETHLEHEM (Maan) The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) marked on Sunday the 69th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre, when at least 100 Palestinians were killed by Zionist militias in the Jerusalem-area village of Deir Yassin in 1948.
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi mourned the heartbreaking tragedy in which more than one hundred innocent men, women and childrenwere brutally murdered by armed members of Zionist terrorist organizations.
Deir Yassin has long been a symbol of Israeli violence for Palestinians because of the particularly gruesome nature of the slaughter, which targeted men, women, children, and the elderly in the small village west of Jerusalem.
The number of victims is generally believed to be around 107, though figures given at the time reached up to 254, out of a village that numbered around 600 at the time.
The massacre left more than 50 young children orphaned, Ashrawi noted, adding that the deadly attack was part of a broader plan in 1948 to expulse Palestinians from their homes with the deliberate intent of establishing the State of Israel on Palestinian soil.
After sixty-nine years, the Deir Yassin massacre still remains an important reminder of Israels systematic measures of displacement, destruction, dispossession, and dehumanization, Ashrawi said. The calculated efforts by Israel to completely erase the history, narrative and physical presence of the Palestinian people will not be ignored or forgotten. It is time for Israels lethal impunity to come to an end.
We urge all members of the international community to hold Israel to account immediately, to curb its ongoing violations against the Palestinians, and to support our nonviolent and diplomatic efforts to seek justice and protection in all international legal venues, she added.
The Deir Yassin massacre was led by the Irgun militia, whose head was future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, with support from other paramilitary groups Haganah and Lehi whose primary aim was to push Palestinians out through force.
Records of the massacre describe Palestinian homes blown up with residents inside, and families shot down as they attempted to flee.
The massacre came in spite of Deir Yassin residents efforts to maintain positive relations with new Jewish neighbors, including the signing of pact that was approved by Haganah, a main Zionist paramilitary organization during the British Mandate of Palestine.
The massacre was one of the first in what would become a long line of attacks on countless Palestinian villages, part of a broader strategy called Plan Dalet by Zionist groups aiming to strike fear into local Palestinians in hopes that the ensuing terror would lead to an Arab exodus, to ensure only Jews were left in what would become modern-day Israel.
The attack on Deir Yassin took place a month before the UN Partition Plan was expected to be carried out, and was part of reasons later given by neighboring Arab states for their intervention in Palestine.
The combination of forced expulsion and flight that the massacres what would later become known among Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe led around 750,000 Palestinians to become refugees abroad. Today their descendants number more than five million, and their right of return remains a central political demand.
The anniversary of the deadly razing of the village comes as modern day Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank continue to face widespread illegal settlement expansion, home demolitions, detention campaigns, and extrajudicial executions at the hands of Israeli forces.
Via Maan News Agency
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |
Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility Sunday for two suicide bombings at Christian churches in Lower Egypt on Palm Sunday, which left over 40 dead and over 100 wounded.
The death toll would have been higher except that an Egyptian policeman stopped the suicide bomber in Alexandria from entering the St. Marks cathedral. The terrorist, fearing that his mission would go sideways, detonated his payload there on the street, killing some 17 persons, including the policeman, Emad al-Rokeby, who first stopped him, along with several of his colleagues.
Emad alRokeby, Egyptian police officer paid the ultimate sacrifice to prevent suicide-bomber from entering St. Marks Church in #Alexandria. pic.twitter.com/wNcs0mzzsJ Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) April 9, 2017
In all the reporting on this incident, few will note that Muslims sacrificed their lives to protect a Christian congregation.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power in a 2013 military coup against the elected Muslim Brotherhood government, made the attacks a pretext to declare a 3-month state of emergency, suspending most civil rights and allowing police to enter homes without a warrant, cyber police to spy on virtually everyone, and the arrest and jailing without charges of whomever the government wishes. While one doesnt wish to blame the victim (Daesh is responsible), it is also true that this sort of high-handed authoritarianism does make Egypt less rather than more stable.
Daesh issued a typically juvenile and moronic statement filled with extravagant prose, saying Crusaders and their apostate allies should know the bill between us and them is very big and they will pay it with rivers of blood from their children, God willing. Wait for us, for we will wait for you.
Crusaders are the Christian Powers and the apostates or those who are accused of abandoning Islam are the governments with friendly relations with Europe and the Americas. This way of carving up the world, however, is fairly stupid. Many Middle Eastern Christians are local nationalists and have a strong critique of imperialism, so you cant just sweep them up into a Christian front with Donald Trump, who anyway doesnt seem like much of a Christian.
Egypt is a country of some 85 million persons. The Coptic Christians form anywhere from 6 to 10 percent of the population, i.e. between 5 and 8.5 million persons. That is, they constitute a Christian community at least as big as Denmark but possibly as big as Austria, within the most populous Arab country (something like 1/5 of all Arabs live in Egypt). Some are poor, some are middle class and some are billionaires. Coptic Christians, one of the older Christian communities in the world, do not play as big a role in politics as their numbers would warrant, in part because Egypt has mostly been a dictatorship since 1952. In a genuinely parliamentary government they would be a sought-after swing vote.
Still, it is no secret that many Coptic leaders and probably most of the rank and file were extremely nervous about the 2012-2013 Muslim Brotherhood government, which they feared would reduce them to second class citizens on account of their being non-Muslims. When Mohammad Morsi was overthrown, angered activists of the Muslim religious right set a number of churches on fire. There have been other incidents, including a church bombing only last December.
Salma Abdel Nasser asks at the Egyptian newspaper Masrawi why Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) targeted two Coptic Christian churches for bombings on Palm Sunday. She enumerates:
* Revenge for the 2013 overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohammad Morsi (though the Coptic Christians had nothing to do with actually making the coup, and Muslim authorities such as the clerics at the al-Azhar Seminary were more consequential in their support for al-Sisi).
* The terrorists know that attacks on Middle Eastern Christians will make front-page news around the world.
* They know that deaths of minority members reflect poorly on the Egyptian government, showing it up as incompetent, and putting pressure on it.
* Depicting Egypt to the international community as a country in turmoil from the point of view of politics, society, and the economy.
One could add to this list an attempt to harm tourism to Egypt, which has fallen off substantially since 2010. It was still over 11 percent of Egypts gross domestic product in 2015, but suffered a steep decline in 2016, and now this. (Statistically speaking, there is no particular danger in going to Egypt, which is generally if anything way too safe, as with most police states).
Finally, as always with sectarian terrorism, Daesh is attempting to sharpen contradictions. If it can get the Christians goat and make them lash out at Islam and Muslims, it can then set offended Muslims on them, and create a snowballing atmosphere of sectarian hatred in which moderate Muslims have to get off the fence and decide whose side they are on. Daesh pursued this strategy effectively in Iraq with regard to ramping up Sunni and Shiite tensions, until in 2014 they managed to take over the Sunni Arab areas of Iraq.
They arent likely to succeed in Egypt, where the urban population (a slight majority) mostly despises Muslim radicalism, and where rural Egyptians are a mix of Sufis, traditionalists, and even old-style Nasserist leftists. The population base for the Salafi Jihadis is mostly absent in Egypt, except in the Sinai, which is why they are carrying out desperate bombings like the one on Sunday.
The biggest danger is not that the Copts will fall for their tricks but that the Egyptian government will, ramping up its authoritarianism to the point where it alienates the general population (most of whom are quite young), the way Hosni Mubarak (in office 1982-2011) did.
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Related video:
CGTN: Dozens killed in terrorist attacks at churches in Egypt
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 10, 2017) - Nevada Zinc Corporation ("Nevada Zinc" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:NZN) is pleased to announce that it has filed and obtained a receipt for a preliminary short form prospectus (the "Preliminary Prospectus") with the securities regulators in each of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, pursuant to which the Company proposes to complete on a commercially reasonable efforts basis a public offering of units of the Company for gross proceeds of $2,000,000 (the "Offered Securities") upon terms to be determined in the context of the market (the "Offering") and subject to completion of satisfactory due diligence.
The Offered Securities will be units consisting of one common share in the Company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each whole Warrant shall be exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.50 per Warrant for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering.
Canaccord Genuity Corp. (the "Agent") is acting as sole lead manager and sole bookrunner in respect of the Offering. The Company has granted the agent an over-allotment option to sell up to an additional 15% of the Offered Securities pursuant to the Offering, exercisable in whole or in part at any time up to 60 days from the closing of the Offering, to cover over-allotments, if any. The Company has agreed to pay the Agent a commission equal to 8% of gross proceeds of the Offering payable in cash or Offered Securities, or any combination of cash or Offered Securities at the option of the Agent. The Company has also agreed to issue to the Agent non-transferrable options (the "Compensation Options") entitling the Agent to subscribe for that number of units as is equal to 8% of the number of Offered Securities sold pursuant to the Offering at the deemed issued price. Each Compensation Option shall be exercisable for units consisting of one common share in the Company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant ("Agent Warrant"). Each whole Agent Warrant shall be exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.50 per Agent Warrant for a period of 24 months from the closing date.
Nevada Zinc intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for continuing exploration and development of the Company's Lone Mountain zinc project in Nevada and the Company's gold exploration projects in Yukon, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
A copy of the Preliminary Prospectus is available at www.sedar.com.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Offered Securities, nor shall there be any sale of the Offered Securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Offered Securities being offered will not be, and have not been, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, a U.S. person.
About Nevada Zinc
Nevada Zinc is a discovery driven mineral exploration company with a proven management team focused on identifying unique mineral exploration opportunities that can provide significant value to its shareholders. The Company's existing zinc and gold projects are located in Nevada and Yukon, respectively.
VIRGINIA CITY, Nev., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Comstock Mining Inc. (Comstock or the Company) (NYSE MKT:LODE) announced today, that the Lyon County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved both a major, expansion-friendly master plan amendment for the Silver Springs Airport and commercial zoning for a centrally-located 160-acre parcel, both of which are in the immediate vicinity of the Companys recently approved, shovel-ready, 98-acre Comstock Industrial Site in Silver Springs, Nevada.
Corrado De Gasperis, President & CEO of Comstock Mining Inc. said, The Lyon County Commissioners have demonstrated outstanding leadership by making critical land use changes that support and facilitate the economic development opportunities spreading throughout our region. Our property sits squarely in the middle of these changes.
The Companys 98-acre Comstock Industrial Site is available for development and recently received the Nevada Certified Site accreditation from the Northern Nevada Development Authority (NNDA). It is in immediate proximity of the super-routed USA Parkway and Highway 50 intersection. This site is located in the direct vicinity of the expanding Tahoe Reno Industrial (TRI) Center, the Silver Springs Airport, the now re-zoned Downtown Silver Springs parcels and the USA Parkwaythat is scheduled for completion later this year.
The Nevada Certified Site Program is designed to provide critical decision-making information to business owners, developers and site selectors to allow informed, expedited decisions. The Nevada Certified Site designation serves as a pre-qualification for buyers, indicating that a propertys title is clear, appropriately zoned, possesses sufficient utilities, adequate transportation access and other critical infrastructure for industrial and commercial uses. It also includes a confirmation that a positive, Phase One environmental assessment has been completed, among many other criteria. The designation ensures that a companys expansion plans will not be held back by costly delays in permitting and approvals.
The 98-acre Comstock Industrial Site in Silver Springs, Nevada, is also located adjacent to the Silver Springs Airport, multiple, expansive parcels of commercial and industrial properties and immediately within the municipal water and sewer service area, serviceable by electrical power, natural gas, and communications. The Company also owns more than 256 acre-feet of the most senior water rights in the basin. NNDA has uploaded the certified site information packet at this link:
http://www.nevadacertifiedsites.com/service/98-acre-commercialindustrial-site/
The property is ideally situated with excellent logistics in immediate proximity to where USA Parkway (State Route 439) connects with US 50 from Interstate 80, through the TRI Center, also known as the largest industrial park in the world. The Company plans to sell certain, non-mining related lands, buildings and water rights, including the Certified Site, for expected net cash proceeds of more than $14 million during the next 12 to 18 months. The Nevada Department of Transportation has an animated flythrough of USA Parkway (SR 439) that can be viewed at this link: http://www.nevadadot.com/projects-programs/road-projects/usa-parkway
About Comstock Mining Inc.
Comstock Mining Inc. is a Nevada-based, gold and silver mining company with extensive, contiguous property in the Comstock District and is an emerging leader in sustainable, responsible mining. The Company began acquiring properties in the Comstock District in 2003. Since then, the Company has consolidated a significant portion of the Comstock District, amassed the single largest known repository of historical and current geological data on the Comstock region, secured permits, built an infrastructure and commenced production in 2012. The Company continues evaluating and acquiring properties inside and outside the district expanding its footprint and exploring all of our existing and prospective opportunities for further exploration, development and mining. The near term goal of our business plan is to maximize intrinsic stockholder value realized, per share, by continuing to acquire mineralized and potentially mineralized properties, exploring, developing and validating qualified resources and reserves (proven and probable) that enable the commercial development of our operations through extended, long-lived mine plans that are economically feasible and socially responsible.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - April 10, 2017) - Almadex Minerals Limited ("Almadex" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: AMZ) ( OTCQB : AXDDF) is pleased to announce it has received assay results from channel samples taken in the newly discovered Raya Tembrillo area of outcropping porphyry gold-copper mineralisation within the Villa Rica target zone which has never been drilled. This area of mineralisation is located roughly 2 kilometres south of the Norte Zone where the company currently is drilling with two rigs. Eight channels were taken over a roughly 90 by 50 metre area along outcrop exposures, in the general area where initial grab sample results were recently reported (see Almadex news release of March 19th, 2017). The exposed mineralisation is oxidised so any copper that had been present has likely been removed through the weathering process. The mineralisation is comprised of quartz stockwork zones developed in a diorite. Photos of the mineralisation are appended to this release along with a map of the sample locations and results. The sampling returned the following results:
Channel 1: 14.0 meters @ 1.22 g/t gold and 0.02% copper Channel 2: 9.0 meters @ 1.22 g/t gold and 0.04% copper Channel 3: 1.0 meter @ 0.75 g/t gold and 0.02% copper Channel 4: 22.0 meters @ 0.18 g/t gold and 0.03% copper Channel 5: 4.0 meters @ 0.23 g/t gold and 0.02% copper Channel 6: 6.0 meters @ 1.91 g/t gold and 0.02% copper Channel 7: 14.0 meters @ 1.57 g/t gold and 0.03% copper Channel 8: 2.0 meters @ 1.93 g/t gold and 0.04% copper
J. Duane Poliquin, Chairman of Almadex commented, "Drilling continues to expand our Norte target but fieldwork on the Villa Rica zone has been rewarded with these exciting surface samples from recently discovered outcrops. The channel samples along with recently announced outcrop, subcrop, and float sample results upgrade the potential of this zone. Further surface work is underway at Villa Rica preparatory to drilling".
About the El Cobre Project
The El Cobre Project has a total area of 7,456 hectares and is located adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico, about 75 kilometres northwest of the major port city of Veracruz, Mexico and has uniquely excellent infrastructure. The project area is situated 200 meters above sea level with extensive road access and is located less than 10 kilometers from a power plant, highway, gas line and other major infrastructure. Major power lines cross the property area. Almadex has its full drill permits from SEMARNAT and has land access agreements in place. The land ownership is private over most of the project area, has previously been cleared and is used for local agricultural purposes.
The four copper-gold porphyry targets currently known within the El Cobre Project, Villa Rica, Norte, Encinal, and El Porvenir, are defined by distinct Cu-Au soil anomalies, discrete, positive magnetic features and a large IP chargeability anomaly. The largest target area is the Villa Rica zone which has not been drill tested. Limited past RC and diamond drill testing at Encinal, El Porvenir, and Norte has returned wide intercepts of porphyry copper-gold and narrow zones of intermediate sulphidation epithermal gold-silver vein mineralisation, with selected intercepts as follows:
El Porvenir Zone: Drilling has demonstrated that the system persists at least to 400 m depth. Significant copper and gold grades were intersected such as 0.16% Cu and 0.39 g/t Au over 290 m in hole DDH04CB1. In addition, hole EC-13-004 intersected 0.23% Cu and 0.36 g/t Au over 106 m, to a depth of 504 m, again indicating potentially significant mineralisation at depth. Deep IP Zone: To the north of the El Porvenir Zone a large area of high chargeability responses located at depth. This zone is interpreted to be a possible core to the entire El Cobre porphyry system. Encinal Zone: Hole CB5 intersected a highly altered breccia pipe containing fragments of stockwork veining and porphyry mineralisation across which 15 meters returned 1.63 g/t Au and 0.12% Cu. The breccia pipe occurs in a large alteration zone, IP chargeability high and magnetics low which has not been tested to depth. On July 1, 2016, Almadex reported results of drilling at Encinal, which were consistent with the interpretation that the drilling was located in a zone marginal to a potential copper-rich portion of the porphyry system. Norte Zone: All five holes drilled in the Norte Zone prior to 2016 intersected porphyry-style mineralisation. Hole 08-CBCN-022, one of the deepest holes drilled at Norte in 2008, returned values of 0.14% Cu with 0.19 g/t Au over 259 m and 08-CBCN-19 intersected 41.15 meters averaging 0.42 g/t gold and 0.27% copper to the end of the hole at 187.45 meters. Drilling in 2016 and 2017 has been designed to test this zone to the south and at depth, with previously-announced highlights including hole EC-16-010 which intersected 163.5 metres grading 0.68 g/t Au and 0.29% Cu (see press release of August 8, 2016), hole EC-16-012 which intersected 218.0 metres grading 0.70 g/t Au and 0.28% Cu (see press release of October 24, 2016), and hole EC-17-018 which intersected 342.0 metres grading 0.60 g/t Au and 0.27% Cu (including 193.3 metres grading 0.93 g/t Au and 0.38% Cu, see press release of April 5, 2017).
In addition to the above, several anomalous areas remain untested by drilling, including the Villa Rica Zone, a roughly 2.5 kilometre by 1 kilometre area defined by a strong north-northwest trending magnetic-chargeability high, an associated copper-gold soil geochemical anomaly, and significant outcrop, float, and channel sample assays.
More information on El Cobre is available on the Almadex website at http://www.almadexminerals.com/ASSETS/PROJECTS/Cobre.html.
Larry Segerstrom, M.Sc. (Geology), P.Geo., A Director of the Company, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") and has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. The porphyry mineralisation reported in this news release is associated with broad areas of alteration and stockwork veining. True widths cannot be determined at this time. The analyses reported were carried out at ALS Chemex Laboratories of North Vancouver using industry standard analytical techniques. For gold, samples are first analysed by fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy ("AAS"). Samples that return values greater than 10 g/t gold using this technique are then re-analysed by fire assay but with a gravimetric finish. For copper, samples are first analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma - Atomic Emission Spectroscopy ("ICP-AES"), with four acid digestion. Samples that return values greater than 10000 g/t copper using this technique are then re-analysed by HF-HNO3-HCLO4 digestion with HCL leach and ICP-AES finish. Blanks and certified standards were inserted into the sample stream as part of Almadex's quality assurance and control program which complies with National Instrument 43-101 requirements. A NI 43-101 compliant technical report on the El Cobre project entitled, "Technical Report on the El Cobre Property" was filed in May 2015 and can be obtained from www.sedar.com.
About Almadex
Almadex Minerals Limited is an exploration company that holds a large mineral portfolio consisting of projects and NSR royalties in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. This portfolio is the direct result of over 35 years of prospecting and deal-making by Almadex's predecessor company, Almaden Minerals Ltd. Almadex is currently focused on exploration at its El Cobre gold/copper porphyry project in Veracruz, Mexico, in which it holds a 100% interest, subject to a sliding-scale net smelter returns royalty ("NSR") equivalent to 0.5% in the event that production from the property exceeds 10,001 tonnes per day of ore. This NSR can be reduced to 0.25% at this production rate through the payment of US$3 million.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / April 10, 2017 / MGX Minerals Inc. (MGX or the Company) (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG / OTC: MGXMF) is pleased to provide a project development update for its Paradox Basin petrolithium project.
The Company has begun unitization of designated oil and gas leases and the staking of overlying mineral claims located contiguous to its Lisbon Valley mineral claims. The purpose of the unitization is to eliminate property boundaries, pool mineral interests and establish the Companys private partner as unit operator. MGX now controls more than 94,000 acres of combined oil and gas leases and mineral claims in the State of Utah. MGX's North American Lithium Brine claims now exceed 1.7M acres.
MGX and its Utah based partner have completed boundary surveying and issued mailers to parties within the unit. Additionally, the Company has submitted a permit to drill along with a surface use plan of operations to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Previous geological and seismic information is now under review and preparations have commenced to conduct a 3-D seismic shoot to understand both lithium and oil-bearing structures.
Consolidation through unitization of the oil and gas leases represents the most efficient timelines and cost-effective means of developing the areas underlying resources.
Engineering of Oil, Gas, and Lithium Wells
MGX is currently in discussion with a US based engineering company for drilling and operation of multi- zone wells optimized for maximum flow of oil, gas, lithium and magnesium brine. MGX expects a project scoping study shortly.
Acquisition of Additional Minerals Claims
MGX as part of the acquisition of mineral claims overlying its recent oil and gas lease acquisition in the Paradox Basin 4,718 additional mineral claims were acquired. This expanded land position adds 94,082 acres to the Companys Paradise Basin petrolithium project, increasing MGXs total cumulative minerals claims to approximately 118,000 acres (see Figure 1), which now includes the majority of oil, gas, and brine mineral rights within the area of interest.
Additionally, MGX reports it has amended the previously announced payment schedule to acquire underlying oil and gas leases (see press release dated March 23, 2017). The amended payment schedule is as follows:
Non-refundable deposit of $50,000 (paid)
$500,000 on or before September 1, 2017
$500,000 on or before March 1, 2018
$500,000 on or before September 1, 2018
$450,000 on or before March 1, 2019
Overview of Lisbon Valley Oilfield
MGXs oil and gas leases overlie the Lisbon Valley oilfield located approximately 40 miles southeast of Moab, Utah in the salt anticline belt on the southwest edge of the Paradox Basin in San Juan county. Historic lithium brine content has been reported as high as 730 parts per million lithium (Superior Oil 88-21P) at Lisbon Valley. The region is also home to the former Rio Algom uranium mill facility, an active copper mine operated by Lisbon Valley Mining Company, and a natural gas processing plant.
Figure 1. MGX Minerals Cumulative Lisbon Valley Mineral Claims
Qualified Person
The technical portions of this press release were prepared and reviewed by Andris Kikauka (P. Geo.), Vice President of Exploration for MGX Minerals. Mr. Kikauka is a non-independent Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument (N.I.) 43-101 Standards.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - April 10, 2017) - Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd (TSX:OR)(NYSE:OR) is pleased to provide an update on its investment portfolio, which had an estimated fair value(1) of approximately $407.9 million as at April 7, 2017. The acquired cash price of the portfolio is approximately $233.2 million.
Sean Roosen, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, commenting on the portfolio noted: "As part of our value creation process, we have committed capital and people to advance exploration and development projects. As part of our investment in these projects, we have secured royalties, streams and rights to participate in future financings. We believe that these projects will provide a strong platform to generate future revenues".
The following outlines some of the developments in projects held in certain investee corporations:
Osisko Mining Inc. (TSX:OSK)
Osisko Mining Inc. ("OSK") is currently carrying out a 400,000 meter drilling program on its flagship Windfall project located approximately 100 km east of Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Quebec. The property is located in the Plan Nord region, a Quebec Government initiative to develop northern Quebec. The Windfall exploration program continues to generate exciting drilling results. OSK also owns the Marban deposit near the Canadian Malartic Mine and the Garrison property in northern Ontario.
Osisko Gold Royalties owns 27,372,709 common shares of OSK (14.8%) with a fair value of approximately $153.0 million as at April 7, 2017, exceeding its acquired cash price by approximately $102.0 million. Osisko Gold Royalties also owns a 1.5% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty on the Windfall project and has the right to fund the project development and to participate in future equity financings.
Additional information on Osisko Mining Inc. can be obtained on their corporate website www.osiskomining.com.
Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:BGM)
Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. ("BGM") is focused on exploring and developing an extensive land package in the historical Cariboo Mining District of Central British Columbia. BGM is currently executing a 130,000 meter drilling program and expects to mine 150,000 tonnes from the Bonanza Ledge deposit, following the reception of the amended mining permits to allow for the underground exploitation of up to 150,000 tonnes per year.
Osisko Gold Royalties owns 116,372,506 common shares of BGM (35.2%) with a fair value of approximately $85.0 million as at April 7, 2017, exceeding its acquired cash price by approximately $36.3 million. Osisko Gold Royalties also owns a 2.25% NSR royalty over BGM's land package.
Additional information on Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. can be obtained on their corporate website www.barkervillegold.com.
Falco Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:FPC)
Falco Resources Ltd. ("FPC") is currently focused on the preparation of the feasibility study for the Horne 5 deposit located in the prolific Rouyn-Noranda mining area. The study is expected to be completed in late second or early third quarter of 2017. The Horne Mine has produced historically 11.6 million ounces of gold and 2.5 billion pounds of copper. FPC has recently initiated a 40,000 meter drilling program on targets within the Rouyn-Noranda mining area. The cost of the investment in drilling is estimated at $10.0 million.
Osisko Gold Royalties owns 20,826,605 common shares of FPC (13.3%). It has also provided a $10.0 million advance payment to FPC, which can be applied to a silver stream or a 1% NSR royalty following the completion of the feasibility study. The fair value of its equity holding in FPC is approximately $21.5 million, exceeding its acquired cash price by approximately $10.0 million.
Additional information on Falco Resources Ltd. can be obtained on their corporate website www.falcores.com.
Arizona Mining Inc. (TSX:AZ)
Arizona Mining Inc. ("AZ") reported on April 3, 2017 (AZ's press release dated April 3, 2017 is available on www.sedar.com), the highlights of a preliminary economic study and a mineral resource updated for its Taylor zinc-lead-silver sulfide deposit located on their 100%-owned Hermosa project in Arizona, USA.
Osisko Gold Royalties owns 4.3% of the common shares outstanding of AZ with a fair value of approximately $23.7 million, exceeding its acquired cash price by approximately $14.0 million. Osisko also owns a 1% NSR royalty which was acquired in April 2016 for $10 million.
Additional information on Arizona Mining Inc. can be obtained on their corporate website www.arizonamining.com.
Osisko Gold Royalties invests from time to time in resource companies. It may increase or reduce its portfolio from time to time.
About Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd
Osisko is an intermediate precious metal royalty and stream company focused on the Americas that commenced activities in June 2014. It holds over 50 royalties and streams, including a 5% NSR royalty on the Canadian Malartic Mine (Canada), a 2.0% to 3.5% NSR royalty on the Eleonore Mine (Canada) and a silver stream on the Gibraltar Mine (Canada). It maintains a strong financial position and has distributed $30.8 million in dividends to its shareholders during the past nine consecutive quarters. Osisko also owns a portfolio of publicly held resource companies, including a 14.8% interest in Osisko Mining Inc., 13.3% in Falco Resources Ltd., and 35.2% interest in Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.
Osisko's head office is located at 1100 avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal, Suite 300, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 2S2.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 10, 2017) - Lundin Mining Corporation (TSX:LUN)(OMX:LUMI) ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of a Feasibility Study, including an updated Mineral Resource estimate and a maiden Mineral Reserve estimate, on the high grade Eagle East nickel/copper mineralization, as well as provide an update on the project progress.
Highlights
The Feasibility Study demonstrates the viability of mining Eagle East as an extension of the current Eagle Mine with an incremental estimated post-tax net present value ("NPV") of $205 million at an 8% discount rate and an estimated internal rate of return ("IRR") of 47%. The estimated pre-production capital cost is $102 million.
Given the robust results of the Feasibility Study, the Company has approved the full development of Eagle East subject to the successful receipt of amendments to the mining permit.
An updated Mineral Resource estimate comprising 1.29 million tonnes classified as Indicated grading 5.2% Ni and 4.2% Cu and an additional 0.29 million tonnes of Inferred grading 1.7 % Ni and 1.4% Cu.
The Feasibility Study indicates that these Mineral Resources can be mined with no significant changes to the current mine, ore transport, mill, and tailings infrastructure.
Similar mining methods to Eagle are proposed and a maiden Probable Mineral Reserve of 1.54 Mt at 3.7% Ni and 3.0% Cu has been estimated. Mining of this Mineral Reserve will significantly increase nickel and copper production from 2020 and extend estimated mine life to at least 2023.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has approved the initial Eagle East access ramp development within the existing Eagle mine boundary. An application for a modification to the existing Part 632 mining permit to allow the mining of Eagle East, with a supporting Environmental Impact Assessment, was submitted in late March 2017 and a decision is expected prior to the end of 2017.
Eagle East exploration/access ramp development has progressed well since commencement in July 2016. At the end of Q1 2017, a total of 938 metres of centreline advance had been completed together with the purchase of additional mobile mining equipment and installation of mining infrastructure. Ongoing drilling has enabled a Probable Reserve classification, a mine plan update and improved forecast return on investment.
Mr. Paul Conibear, President and CEO of Lundin Mining stated, "The results of the Feasibility Study on Eagle East confirm robust project economics and demonstrate significant incremental value to our Eagle Mine operations. The successful permitting and development of Eagle East will extend the life of the operation to the continuing benefit of our shareholders, employees, and local economy. Early decline ramp development has progressed on schedule and within budget. We continue with exploration efforts to find additional mineable mineralization."
Mineral Resource Estimate
The Eagle East massive and semi-massive nickel-copper sulphide mineralization is located approximately two kilometers east and 600 m below the Eagle Mine deposit. Since discovery of the Eagle East mineralization in July 2014, over 108,000 m of diamond drilling have been completed in 96 holes to locate and define the deposit which now has dimensions of approximately 550 m long, 40 to 50 m high and 30 to 40 m wide (see Figures 1 and 2). The estimation of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource is tabulated below. Exploration drilling is continuing at Eagle to systematically test the Eagle East conduit and deep peridotite and gabbro targets.
Eagle East Mineral Resource Estimate, December 31, 2016, NSR cut-off $142/t
Category Tonnes, 000s Ni (%) Cu (%) Co (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pt (g/t) Pd (g/t) Indicated 1,293 5.2 4.2 0.1 0.5 15.3 1.7 1.3 Inferred 290 1.7 1.4 - 0.2 6.0 0.5 0.3
Feasibility Study
Following the robust results from the Preliminary Economic Assessment on Eagle East in June 2016, a Feasibility Study has now been completed refining and optimizing the development plans to a higher level of definition.
Access to Eagle East will be via a ramp initially spiraling down beneath Eagle Mine, making use of the existing mine infrastructure, then a twin ramp across to Eagle East followed by a further spiral section to the mineralization (see Figure 3). The total centerline length of the ramp development is 6,669 metres. Ventilation and secondary egress will be provided by dedicated raises and the twin ramp system. Additional geotechnical studies have indicated that the same mining method as Eagle, transverse sub-level stoping with cemented rockfill, can be employed and the estimated Mineral Reserves are tabulated below. The existing mine infrastructure, power supply, temporary waste stockpiling and other facilities are expected to be sufficient to support the mining of Eagle East. All waste from the access ramp development will be temporarily stored and then used as backfill in both Eagle and Eagle East stopes.
Eagle East Mineral Reserve Estimate December 31, 2016, NSR cut-off $160/t
Category Tonnes, 000s Ni (%) Cu (%) Co (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pt (g/t) Pd (g/t) Probable 1,544 3.7 3.0 0.1 0.4 10.6 1.2 0.9
Advanced metallurgical testwork programmes have demonstrated that the Eagle East mineralization has equivalent performance in terms of grinding and flotation to Eagle, and no issues are foreseen with processing the blended Eagle and Eagle East mineralization in the Humboldt processing plant. Eagle tailings are currently disposed of in the former Humboldt open pit and sufficient capacity exists for the additional tailings volume created by Eagle East. No other additional surface infrastructure is anticipated.
The Feasibility Study has assumed that the Eagle East access ramp initiated in July 2016 continues as described above and that initial ore production is achieved in the first quarter 2020. The high grade mineralization from Eagle East will be blended with the lower grade from Eagle, significantly increasing nickel and copper production and extending the estimated mine life until the third quarter of 2023 (see Figure 4). Total additional nickel and copper in concentrate is estimated at 47.1 and 46.0k tonnes respectively.
The estimated pre-production capital cost for Eagle East is $102.0 million, including a 9% contingency, with the majority of this expenditure for ramp access, ventilation raises, level development and new mine equipment and infrastructure. Mine operating costs have been estimated from the current Eagle contractor rates with allowances for the increased haulage distance, ventilation and dewatering requirements for Eagle East. Processing, mine to mill ore haulage and G&A costs are the same as the current Eagle operations.
The results of the Feasibility Study demonstrate the robust viability of mining Eagle East as an extension of the current Eagle mine with an incremental estimated post-tax NPV of $205 million at an 8% discount rate and an estimated IRR of 47% using long term metal prices of $7.50 and $8.00/lb Ni and $3.00/lb Cu. The forecast payback period is approximately 1.5 years from production start and the forecast average combined C1 cash cost during the combined Eagle and Eagle East production period is $0.49/lb Ni. The key results of the Feasibility Study are tabulated below.
An independently authored National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Eagle Mine incorporating Eagle East will be filed on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com within 45 days of this press release.
Feasibility Study Results Summary Unit Eagle East Potential Production tonnes 000s 1,544 Head Grades Ni (%), Cu (%) 3.7, 3.0 Ni, Cu Metal Produced in Concentrate tonnes 000s 47.1, 46.0 Pre-Production Capital US$ millions 102.0 Sustaining Capital US$ millions 27.6 Metal Price Assumptions from 2020 $/lb Ni 7.50 (2020) then 8.00 $/lb Cu 3.00 Incremental Post Tax NPV 8 US$ millions 205 Incremental Post Tax NPV 0 US$ millions 337 IRR % 47 Average C1 Cash Cost1 $/lb Ni 0.49 Payback Years 1.5 Breakeven Ni Price, NPV 8 = 02 $/lb Ni 3.16
1. C1 cash cost estimates are for Eagle and Eagle East combined during 2020 to 2023 2. Breakeven is for Eagle and Eagle East combined
Permitting and Development Status
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has approved the initial Eagle East access ramp development within the existing Eagle Mine boundary. An application for a modification to the existing Part 632 mining permit to allow the mining of Eagle East, with a supporting Environmental Impact Assessment, was submitted in late March 2017 and a decision is expected by late 2017. While some additional permit modifications are required for the continued mining of Eagle, no other specific permits are required for the mining of Eagle East.
Development of the Eagle East access ramp by contract miners has accelerated since starting in July 2016. At the end of March 2017, total advance was 1,155 metres with 938 metres of centreline development in the ramp. Supporting ventilation, power and pumping infrastructure has been extended from the existing Eagle mine and new mine equipment on site to support the additional development. Total expenditure to date is approximately $7.5 million.
Notes on the Mineral Resource, Mineral Reserve and Feasibility Study
The Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates in this news release have been prepared in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), classified in accordance with Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum's "CIM Definition Standards - For Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves" 2014.
The Eagle East Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates have been prepared by or under the supervision of Lundin Mining Qualified Persons as defined in NI 43-101 and audited by independent Qualified Persons on behalf of Lundin Mining.
The Eagle East Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates are reported above fixed NSR cut-offs of US$142/t and US$160/t respectively and are dated December 31, 2016. The NSR is calculated on a recovered payable basis taking in to account nickel, copper, cobalt, gold and PGM grades, metallurgical recoveries, metal prices and realization costs. The metal prices used for the NSR calculations are US$8.50/lb nickel, US$2.75/lb copper, US1,000/oz gold, US$1,500 platinum, US$550/oz palladium and US$13.00/lb cobalt. The Indicated Mineral Resource estimates are inclusive of those Mineral Resources modified to produce the Probable Mineral Reserve estimates.
The Qualified Persons responsible for the Eagle and Eagle East Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates are David Rennie, P.Eng., Associate Principal Geologist and Normand Lecuyer, P.Eng., Principal Mining Engineer, respectively, both of Roscoe Postle Associates Inc.
The Qualified Persons who have reviewed and verified the data and estimates in the Eagle East Feasibility Study are David Rennie, Normand Lecuyer, Graham Clow, P.Eng., Principal Mining Engineer and Brenna Scholey, P.Eng., Principal Metallurgist, all of Roscoe Postle Associates Inc.
About Lundin Mining
Lundin Mining is a diversified Canadian base metals mining company with operations in Chile, the USA, Portugal, and Sweden, primarily producing copper, nickel and zinc. In addition, until its announced sale has been concluded, Lundin Mining holds an indirect 24% equity stake in the world-class Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Freeport Cobalt Oy business, which includes a cobalt refinery located in Kokkola, Finland.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - April 10, 2017) -
Joint Venture to target copper-gold mineralization in Alcacovas target, Portugal
OZ Minerals Ltd. may earn-in up to 75% over 2 1/2 years by spending AUS$4 million
Avrupa's geological team in Portugal will be the first-stage operator
Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:AVU)(OTC PINK:AVPMF)(FRANKFURT:8AM) is pleased to announce that it has signed an earn-in option agreement with Australia-based OZ Exploration Pty. Ltd. (OZE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of OZ Minerals Limited (OZM), to explore on the Alvito iron oxide, copper-gold (IOCG) project located in southern Portugal. The agreement allows for OZE to earn up to a total 75% interest in the project by spending AUS $4,000,000 over approximately 2 1/2 years.
Paul W. Kuhn, President & CEO of Avrupa Minerals, commented, "We are excited to be able to start the new exploration program on the Alvito project with Australian copper miner OZ Minerals. The OZ Minerals exploration team has significant IOCG exploration experience around the world. This is Avrupa's first IOCG target in Portugal, and we look forward to quickly moving the program ahead."
Concurrently, the Portuguese Mining Bureau (DGEG) issued a 30-month extension to the Alvito exploration license on March 10, 2017. Previously, Avrupa, along with earlier partners, spent over 450,000 euros on the license and developed a central IOCG target area covering 4 x 2.5 kilometers along the 24 x 4 kilometers Alcacovas Copper Belt. Exploration work led to the discovery of mineralized stratigraphy beneath 3-10 meters of soil cover through a 29-hole, top-of-bedrock, drilling program completed during 2015. Other IOCG target areas occur along the Alcacovas trend but have not been explored to date.
The new exploration program will commence in April 2017, and will include geological mapping, surface sampling, geophysics, further targeted top-of-basement sampling, and a drilling program. Details of the full program and targets will be announced soon.
Alvito IOCG project, Portugal
The newly-extended Alvito license covers approximately 300 square kilometers of prospective ground along the Alcacovas copper-gold trend identified by Avrupa geologists in 2011-12. Subsequent field work was successful in identifying potential for significant copper-gold-silver mineralization in known and several new occurrences.
Many of the copper-gold-silver occurrences that were visited during the recon program, starting in 2012, lie within a 24-kilometer long, 4-kilometer wide belt, designated as the Alcacovas Copper Belt (ACB), and defined by anomalous copper and zinc soil geochemistry from over 66,000 soil samples collected by previous operators in the district. Avrupa's review of the area suggested that classification of the deposits should be interpreted as IOCG type.
Avrupa geologists collected 274 rock chip samples on the original license between 2012 and 2015, centering around 16 separate prospect areas. A total of 32 (11.7%) of these samples contained greater than 0.4 ppm gold, up to 6.43 ppm gold. Forty (15%) of the samples contained greater than 5 ppm silver, up to a high value of 829 g/t silver. 105 (38%) of the samples carried greater than 0.1% copper, including 40 samples with greater than 1% copper, up to a maximum value of 27.4% copper. Others carry strongly anomalous lead, zinc, and molybdenum values.
In 2015, Avrupa, funded by a previous partner, drilled 29 top-of-bedrock core holes in the central Alcacovas target zone. Twenty-two of these holes intersected visible copper mineralization, associated with magnetite veining and alteration normally found with IOCG systems, beneath the shallow cover to a depth of <20 meters below the surface.
Terms of the Agreement
Avrupa and OZ Minerals signed the Option Agreement on April 5, 2017 under the following terms:
For OZE to earn a 51% interest in year 1: Fund AUS$1,000,000 in exploration expenditures.
For OZE to earn a further 24% interest (total of 75% interest) by September 30, 2019: Fund a further AUS$3,000,000 in exploration expenditures.
Avrupa will be the operator during the first earn-in stage with active technical support and oversight from OZE's experienced IOCG team.
OZ Minerals Limited is a copper-focused mining company that operates the Prominent Hill copper mine in South Australia and is developing the Carrapateena copper gold project in the same region. OZ Minerals' growth strategy includes developing a pipeline of exploration stage projects in Australia and elsewhere around the world partnering with experienced exploration companies.
Avrupa Minerals Ltd. is a growth-oriented exploration and development company focused on discovery, using a prospect generator model, of valuable mineral deposits in politically stable and prospective regions of Europe, including Portugal, Kosovo, and Germany.
The Company currently holds nine exploration licenses in three European countries, including six in Portugal covering 3,268 km2, two in Kosovo covering 47 km2, and one in Germany covering 307 km2. Avrupa now has four active option and joint venture agreements, three in Portugal and one in Kosovo, including:
The Alvito Option Agreement with OZ Minerals Limited covering one license in the Ossa Morena Zone in southern Portugal, for IOCG deposits;
The Alvalade JV, with Colt Resources, covering one license in the Iberian Pyrite Belt of southern Portugal, for Zn/Cu-rich massive sulfide deposits. The partner is currently in default under the terms of the JV agreement, and Avrupa is working on a route to consolidation of the program;
The Covas JV, with Blackheath Resources, covering one license in northern Portugal, for intrusion-related W deposits; and
Avrupa's partner at the Slivovo Gold Project in Kosovo is fully funding the program, allowing Avrupa to dilute its ownership in the JV operating company Peshter Mining JSC. If AVU ownership goes below 10%, the interest in the project converts to a 2% NSR.
Avrupa is currently upgrading precious and base metal targets to JV-ready status in a variety of districts on their other licenses, with the idea of attracting potential partners to project-specific and/or regional exploration programs.
New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS): Battling adversity, as many as 826 housing projects are running behind schedule by an average of 39 months, with Punjab having the maximum of the delayed projects followed by Telangana and West Bengal, an ASSOCHAM study has found.
It said as at the end of December 2016, 3511 projects were live in construction and real estate sector, of which 2304 were under the implementation stage. Of the projects under implementation, 886 construction and real estate projects have recorded significant delays. Importantly, out of 886 delayed projects, 826 delayed projects are from housing construction and 60 from the commercial complex.
Among the major states, Punjab has recorded the maximum delay of 48 months in construction and real estate projects followed by Telangana (45 months), West Bengal (44 months), Odisha (44 months) and Haryana (44 months), the ASSOCHAM study noted.
Similarly, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have recorded 42 months of delay. Maharashtra saw delay of 39 months
Karnataka has recorded lowest delay of 31 months. Similarly, Rajasthan and Kerala have recorded delay almost equal to Karnataka followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Hopefully, with steps like banks being allowed by the RBI to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), the sector should see revival of investment , enabling it to cut delays and restore consumer confidence, ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said.
On an average construction and real estate projects have been delayed by 39 months, the study said. The ownership analysis suggests that public and the private sector projects have almost similar kind of delays. Public sector projects are delayed by 39.03 months and private sector by 39.63 months.
The real estate and housing sector is battling several problems. The process of obtaining mandatory approvals from multiple regulators and authorities result in cost and time overruns. These delays not only discourage investments in the housing sector but also lead to delays and corruption. As an effective solution, centre and state governments must introduce a single-window system for clearance of all real estate projects.
The chamber said the government should act as a facilitator rather than a regulator of the real estate projects, particularly where demand is more than supply. State governments should complete updation their land records, making them computerized and online.
In coordination with the state and local authorities, basic infrastructure like transport, water, power, housing, healthcare and sanitation must be taken up in well before completion of the projects.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - April 10, 2017) - Sarama Resources Ltd. (the "Company" or "Sarama") advises that Savary Gold Corp. ("Savary"), the operator of the Karankasso Project Joint Venture5 between Sarama and Savary, provided an update on April 10, 2017 of ongoing drilling campaigns. The drilling was undertaken across multiple target zones within the Karankasso Project area.
Highlights
41 holes totalling approximately 4,500 metres of reverse-circulation ("RC") drilling were completed.
Selected downhole intersections highlighted by Savary include:
Serakoro 1 Main
HE-RC-17-030 5m @ 2.04 g/t Au from 19m including 1m @ 6.01 g/t Au from 23m Karangosso Zone HE-RC-17-044 3m @ 3.62 g/t Au from 84m HE-RC-17-046 9m @ 1.66 g/t Au from 81m including 2m @ 5.44 g/t Au from 88m Diosso South Zone HE-RC-17-051 5m @ 3.12 g/t Au from 81m including 2m @ 6.72 g/t Au from 82m HE-RC-17-053 5m @ 3.38 g/t Au from 100m including 1m @ 14.25 g/t Au from 101m HE-RC-17-057 2m @ 19.91 g/t Au from 74m HE-RC-17-060 18m @ 1.92 g/t Au from 10m including 9m @ 3.14 g/t Au from 12m, and 3m @ 6.86 g/t Au from 18m HE-RC-17-062 6m @ 2.33 g/t Au from 122m HE-RC-17-064 17m @ 1.72 g/t Au from 85m including 1m @ 11.10 g/t Au from 86m, and 1m @ 6.37g/t Au from 92m Kueredougou West Trend Zone HE-RC-17-066 4m @ 3.25 g/t Au from 80m including 2m @ 6.28 g/t Au from 80m HE-RC-17-067 13m @ 1.26 g/t Au from 115m including 4m @ 2.54 g/t Au from 121m HE-RC-17-070 4m @ 2.74 g/t Au from 99m HE-RC-17-071 8m @ 1.54 g/t Au from 119m including 2m @ 3.58 g/t Au from 124m
Follow-up drilling on selected targets is planned for Q2 2017.
Note: mineralisation true widths are estimated at 65-80% of listed downhole intersection lengths
Further details of these drill results, including sampling and QA/QC procedures, are contained in Savary's news release dated April 10, 2017.
Sarama's President and CEO, Andrew Dinning, commented:
"We are pleased with the steady progress and work being undertaken on the Karankasso Project and are looking forward to the recommencement of activity in May."
ABOUT SARAMA RESOURCES LTD
Sarama Resources Ltd (TSX VENTURE: SWA) is a West African focused gold explorer with substantial landholdings in Burkina Faso. Sarama is focused on consolidating under-explored landholdings in Burkina Faso and other established mining jurisdictions.
Sarama's flagship properties are situated within the Company's South Hounde Project area in south-west Burkina Faso. Located within the prolific Hounde Greenstone Belt, Sarama's exploration programs have built on significant early success to deliver an inferred mineral resource estimate of 2.1 Moz gold1,2. Acacia Mining plc is earning up to a 70% interest in the South Hounde Project by satisfying certain conditions, including funding earn-in expenditures of up to US$14 million, over a 4-year earn-in period and may acquire an additional 5% interest, for an aggregate 75% interest in the Project, upon declaration of a minimum mineral reserve of 1.6 million ounces of gold.
Sarama holds a 31% participating interest in the Karankasso Project Joint Venture ("JV") which is situated adjacent to the Company's South Hounde Project in Burkina Faso and is a JV between Sarama and Savary Gold Corp. ("Savary"). Savary is the operator of the JV and in October 2015, declared a maiden inferred mineral resource estimate of 671,000 ounces of contained gold3,4 at the Karankasso Project JV.
Sarama has also agreed to acquire a 100% interest in the Bondi Deposit from Orezone Gold Corporation (refer news release May 24, 2016).
Together, the South Hounde Project, Bondi Deposit and the Karankasso Project form a cluster of advanced gold deposits, within trucking distance of one another, which potentially offers a development option for a multi-source fed central processing facility in the southern Hounde Belt region of Burkina Faso.
Incorporated in 2010, the Company's Board and management team have a proven track record in Africa and a strong history in the discovery and development of large-scale gold deposits. Sarama is well positioned to build on its current success with a sound exploration strategy across its property portfolio.
1. 43.0 Mt @ 1.5 g/t Au (reported above cut-off grades ranging 0.3-2.2 g/t Au, reflecting the mining methods and processing flowsheets assumed to assess the likelihood of the inferred mineral resources having reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction)
2. The effective date of the Company's inferred mineral resource estimate is February 4, 2016. For further information regarding the mineral resource estimate please refer to the technical report titled "NI 43-101 Independent Technical Report South Hounde Project Update, Bougouriba and Ioba Provinces, Burkina Faso", dated March 31, 2016. The technical report is available under Sarama Resources Ltd.'s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
3. 9.2 Mt @ 2.3 g/t Au (at a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off)
4. The effective date of the Karankasso Project JV mineral resource estimate is October 7, 2015. For further information regarding the mineral resource estimate please refer to the technical report titled "Technical Report and Resource Estimate on the Karankasso Project, Burkina Faso", dated October 7, 2015. The technical report is available under Savary Gold Corp's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Sarama has not independently verified Savary's mineral resource estimate and takes no responsibility for its accuracy.
VANCOUVER, April 10, 2017 /CNW/ - Marlin Gold Mining Ltd. (TSX-V: MLN) ("Marlin" or the "Company") is pleased to report two high grade intercepts in drill hole 17TRD44 at the Company's wholly owned La Trinidad mine in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Hole 17TRD44 was drilled to test an area in the southern part of the high grade HS Zone where 11TRSN019 (sonic drill hole) provided the only previous drilling information in the area. The upper portion of 17TRD44 not only confirms the high grade intercept of 11TRSN019, which hit 8.07 g/t gold over 12.7 meters (see press release dated July 21, 2011), but it is positively reconciling to the current block model. 17TRD44 is completely open to the west, where there is no drilling information, and the nearest drill hole to the north is 16TRD22, which hit 6.91 g/t gold over 11.0 meters 59 meters away (see press release dated May 18, 2016). The Company plans to be mining the area around the upper high grade intercept of 17TRD44 by the end of 2017.
Additionally, the intercept in the lower part of hole 17TRD44 (5.81 g/t gold over 12.55 meters) confirms a mineralized zone entirely outside the current pit limit. Drill hole 09TR023 previously intercepted this mineralization when it hit 1.5 g/t gold over 17.8 meters, including 3.8 g/t gold over 5.80 meters (see press release dated September 9, 2009). Given that the deeper intercept of 17TRD44 is significantly higher grade than previous drilling, this may have an impact on the overall size and depth of the pit, which may increase the current mine life.
Further drilling is planned to follow up on both mineralized zones, as well as targeting additional areas of mineralization along strike to the south.
Akiba Leisman, Executive Chairman and Interim CEO states that "an intercept of 15.55 grams per tonne gold over 15.45 meters in an open pit heap leach mine is extraordinary, but it is not unique at our mine. These are grades higher than what was mined in December and January when the company sold approximately 20,000 ounces of gold at less than $300 per ounce total costs. We are well advanced on our south pit layback, and we are excited to be mining this type of high grade mineralization later this year."
The table below summarizes the two intercepts in hole 17TRD44. A cross section can be viewed by clicking HERE.
Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) 17TRD44 82.00 97.45 15.45 15.55 17TRD44 162.00 174.55 12.55 5.81
*Significant intercept defined as minimum gold assay of 0.3 g/t over a minimum 6-meter interval with no more than 2 meters of internal dilution below 0.3 g/t. Drill hole intercepts are believed to be approximately the true thickness of the zone.
Samples were kept in a secured logging and storage facility until such time that they were received on site by representatives of Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. ("Bureau Veritas"). Sample preparation was done in the Durango facilities of Bureau Veritas and pulps were sent to the Bureau Veritas laboratory in Vancouver for analysis.
Dr. Matthew D. Gray. C.P.G., of Resource Geosciences Incorporated, a Qualified Person under the definitions of CSA NI 43-101, implemented and supervised industry standard QA/QC protocols for the La Trinidad drill sampling program including insertion of duplicate and reference standard samples. Dr. Gray has verified the reliability of the drill sampling results reported in this press release.
About Marlin Gold
Marlin is a publicly-traded gold and silver mining company with properties located in Sinaloa, Mexico and Arizona, USA. Marlin's priority is to advance its properties toward commercial production and enhance shareholder value through the growth of its wholly owned subsidiary, Sailfish Royalty Corp. The La Trinidad property in Sinaloa, Mexico, declared commercial production on November 1, 2014. A NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment for the La Trinidad mine and Commonwealth project can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.marlingold.com.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / NewsWire / April 07, 2017 - Nevada Clean Magnesium, Inc. (TSXV: NVM; Frankfurt-M1V; OTC Pink Sheets: MLYFF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the TSX Venture Exchange has approved an operating and storage agreement between the Company and Industrial Surplus Supplies Ltd. ("ISS") located in Fort St. John, British Columbia.
The agreement provides the Company with a facility to operate and later store the bench scale pilot furnace which is scheduled to process materials needed to produce magnesium metal for proof of concept of the Company's process.
The agreement also allows for storage of not less than one year with compensation being the issuance of 1,500,000 shares of the Company. These shares will be subject to a four month hold period per TSX-Venture Exchange policy.
About Nevada Clean Magnesium, Inc.
Nevada Clean Magnesium is focused on becoming a major U.S. producer and distributor of primary, high grade, low cost magnesium metal extracted from its 100% owned Tami-Mosi property located in North Central Nevada. Based on the Company's NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment Report published in September 2011 and amended in July 2014, the Tami-Mosi Project has an inferred resource of 412 million tonnes with an average grade of 12.3% Mg for a contained metal content of 111 billion pounds of magnesium using a 12% cut-off grade contained within a high purity dolomite block. For more information, please visit www.nevadacmi.com.
This press release was prepared under the supervision and review of James Sever, P. Eng., president and COO for Nevada Clean Magnesium . Mr. Sever is a non-independent qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 standards.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Balmoral Resources Ltd. (Balmoral or the Company) (TSX:BAR) (OTCQX:BALMF) today announced that shallow drilling has continued to confirm broad zones of gold mineralization from the bedrock surface down to the central plunge line of the Bug South gold deposit on the Martiniere Property in Quebec.
Results from seven shallow drill holes, completed at the start of the winter 2017 program, include 75.45 metres grading 1.11 g/t gold, 53.80 metres grading 1.12 g/t gold, 50.21 metres grading 1.08 g/t gold and 46.89 metres grading 1.26 g/t gold. The latter intercept, in hole MDE-17-262, collared into the deposit at less than 20 metres vertical depth.
Drilling also extended the core of the Bug South deposit to shallower depths on several sections, including an intercept of 4.04 g/t gold over 8.59 metres in hole MDE-17-264 which brings the high-grade core of the deposit to within 75 metres of surface.
These results are a solid start to the winter program, with the initial holes successfully confirming broad near surface gold mineralization above the central core of the Bug South deposit and increasing the size of the central high-grade core, said Darin Wagner, President and CEO of Balmoral Resources. Drilling has now moved on to testing the down-plunge extensions of the Bug South and Bug North deposits, as well as our recent high-grade gold discoveries located proximal to the Bug Lake Gold Trend. Each of these target areas represent near term growth opportunities for the expanding gold inventory at Martiniere.
Hole # Section Dip
(Degrees) From
(Metres) To
(Metres) Interval*
(Metres) Gold
(g/t) Zone MDE-17-258 1+75S -51 40.34 68.45 28.11 0.53 Upper Bug 99.53 109.00 9.47 2.34 Lower Bug including 99.89 103.10 3.21 6.16 " MDE-17-259 1+75S -63 44.79 73.99 29.20 0.42 Upper Bug including 49.91 50.60 0.69 4.00 " MDE-17-260 1+75 S -51 72.41 83.67 11.26 0.83 Zinc Zone 104.24 133.72 29.48 1.41 Upper Bug including 120.23 120.86 0.63 6.47 " and 127.64 132.24 4.60 2.54 " MDE-17-261 1+45 S -51 48.99 56.44 7.45 0.31 Zinc Zone 123.74 173.95 50.21 1.08 Upper Bug including 129.39 130.85 1.46 2.78 " and 160.80 161.63 0.83 3.76 " and 169.91 173.95 4.04 3.60 " 203.46 225.23 21.77 0.64 Lower Bug MDE-17-262 2+05 S -51 25.06** 71.95 46.89 1.26 Upper Bug including 35.94 39.30 3.36 2.78 " and 64.05 64.75 0.70 3.32 " 104.11 105.00 0.89 2.33 Lower Bug MDE-17-264 2+65 S -51 36.70 37.89 1.19 8.57 52.52 55.33 2.81 0.45 Zinc Zone 64.20 118.00 53.80 1.12 Upper Bug including 99.82 108.41 8.59 4.04 " which includes 106.68 107.51 0.83 13.00 " 148.31 166.23 17.92 0.38 Lower Bug MDE-17-265 2+05 S -51 103.16 178.61 75.45 1.11 Upper Bug including 139.10 144.85 5.75 2.65 " and 174.26 178.61 4.35 3.30 " 192.40 195.43 3.03 1.36 Lower Bug
* Reported drill intercepts are not true widths. At this time there is insufficient data with respect to the shape of the mineralization to calculate true orientations in space. All values presented uncapped.
** Hole collared into gold mineralized zone
The first several holes of the winter program tested the Bug South deposit above the south-southeast trending plunge line of the core of the deposit. Results demonstrate that gold mineralization can be successfully traced over significant widths to the bedrock surface and that the broad near surface zones of gold mineralization exhibits excellent continuity with a significant increase in grade and thickness to depth towards the core of the deposit. Updated cross-sections for the Bug South deposit and a plan map showing the location of the holes from todays release are available at www.balmoralresources.com
Drilling continues on the Martiniere Property with the winter program having been expanded from the planned 7,000 - 8,000 metres to over 10,000 metres, weather conditions permitting. To date over 8,500 metres of drilling has been completed over 25 holes testing the Bug South and Bug North deposits, as well as recent near surface high-grade gold discoveries located to the northeast and southeast of the deposits.
Quality Control
Mr. Darin Wagner (P.Geo.- B.C., Ont., Res. Permit Que.), President and CEO of the Company, is the non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Mr. Wagner has supervised the work programs on the Martiniere Property since inception, visited the property on multiple occasions, discussed and reviewed the results with senior on-site geological staff and reviewed the available analytical and quality control results.
Balmoral has implemented a quality control program for all of its drill programs, to ensure best practice in the sampling and analysis of the drill core, which includes the insertion of blind blanks, duplicates and certified standards into sample stream. NQ sized drill core is saw cut with half of the drill core sampled at intervals based on geological criteria including lithology, visual mineralization and alteration. The remaining half of the core is stored on-site at the Companys Martiniere field camp in Central Quebec. Drill core samples are transported in sealed bags to ALS Minerals Val dOr, Quebec analytical facilities. Gold analyses are obtained via industry standard fire assay with atomic absorption finish using 30 g aliquots. For samples returning greater than 5.00 g/t gold follow-up fire assay analysis with a gravimetric finish is completed. The Company has also requested that any samples returning greater than 10.00 g/t gold undergo screen metallic fire assay. Following receipt of assays, visual analysis of mineralized intercepts is conducted and additional analysis may be requested. ALS Minerals is ISO 9001:2008 certified and the Val dOr facilities are ISO 17025 certified for gold analysis.
A US Navy strike group led by the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson carrier is being deployed to waters close to the Korean Peninsula to rein in increasing nuclear threats by North Korea, news reports said Sunday.
"The US Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson Strike Group north as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific," the France-based AFP reported, quoting US Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham. "The number one threat in the region continues to the North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability."
The strike group, composed of the aircraft supercarrier USS Carl Vinson, a carrier air wing, two cruisers and destroyers, was previously based close to Singapore. With the latest order, the strike group will relocate to the Western Pacific Ocean near the peninsula.
The nuclear-powered supercarrier had been deployed to South Korea last month for a massive joint naval exercise in the South Korean seas, designed to cope with North Korean maritime provocations.
The latest move marks decisive US action in response to North Korea's escalation of nuclear and missile provocations. North Korea has carried out a series of high-profile ballistic missile tests this year, including the latest one just four days ago.
In a statement issued over the US' missile attacks on Syria, North Korea reaffirmed its nuclear ambition.
"The US' invasion and intrusion schemes have reached a level of extreme arrogance. The reality shows that force should be dealt with force only and our choice to escalate our nuclear force have been proven totally right," the North Korean statement said a day earlier. (Yonhap)
Indore, Apr 10 (IBNS): OYO, Indiaas largest hotel network, Oyo on Monday said it has clocked strong growth in its Indore network following launch in June 2015.
There are currently 100 OYO hotels in Indore itself with over 1600 rooms providing standardized and affordable accommodation to travellers. OYOs network across Madhya Pradesh spans over 300 hotels in 13 cities including Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Pachmarhi, Khajuraho, Sagar and Ujjain. In this time, the average occupancy rate in these hotels has grown between 30-40%.
Speaking on OYOs upcoming plans, Shachindra Saxena, Hub Head, OYO Madhya Pradesh said, We are very happy with the response to our offerings in Indore. The hotel market here has the potential to expand further. Our aim is to enable delightful stay-experience for the customers by empowering hotel owners increasing their overall profitability, give them access to technology and help them provide better customer service. We are exploring tie-ups with hotels that are willing to be transformed to OYO standards and come onto our platform.
He further added OYO has been at the forefront of modernizing the small and budget hotels category in the state of Madhya Pradesh. We are working closely with various stakeholders to deliver enhanced stay-options to travellers. OYO was the booking partner for MP Tourisms Jal Mahotsav. Such partnerships help us make new experiences accessible to tourists.
OYO also generated new employment opportunities and nurtured micro entrepreneurs. There are many examples of people who have become successful after partnering with OYO. From rooms taken on lease to having their own property, we have helped them grow at a fast pace and become successful entrepreneurs, said Saxena.
Vinod Khurana, an OYO hotel-partner from Indore shared his experience, Partnering with OYO has given a strong boost to my business. The occupancy level at the hotel has increased by nearly 200%. The staff was also trained by OYO which helped in improving the customer experience. The feedback from guests is very positive. I am extremely happy and satisfied with this association. Mr. Khurana joined the OYO network in February 2016.
OYO is the global pioneer of a new business model, where the company partnered with hotels to standardize and transform their rooms to deliver a better experience to guests. In a little over 3 years since launch, OYO has become Indias largest hotel network, spread across 7000 hotels in 200 cities. Powered by technology, OYO apps make both the consumer and hotelier experience faster, convenient and more delightful. OYOs hotel-booking app is among the fastest in the world, enabling guests to search and book a room in less than 5 seconds with just three taps. The company also recently launched OYO Captains, to provide personalized on-ground local assistance to guests.
Boca Raton, FL Business owners responsible for the management of property and premises traversed by the public may not be conversant with Business owners responsible for the management of property and premises traversed by the public may not be conversant with Florida premises liability law that holds the business owner principally responsible for any real, or perceived lack of security. This can run the gamut from slips and falls, to crowd control. Anyone conversant with the panic and large crowds associated with Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, for example, can attest to the need for adequate security and crowd management.
In one example of premises liability Florida, a lawsuit involving seven claims was advanced against the office of the US General Services Administration (GSA) a federal agency with regard to an excessive number of patrons attending the US Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Boca Raton.The SSA shared space with other tenants in a building managed by CanPro Investments Ltd, the plaintiff. It was understood by all parties that a maximum of 250 visitors per day were expected through the SSA office on any given day.The problem over Florida premises liability arose when an SSA office closed in nearby West Palm Beach, resulting in a wave of additional visitors to the Boca Raton premises that swelled to 500 or more in a day or at least twice that of the agreed maximums. The overcrowding is alleged to have caused hardships for other tenants of the building and their clients, and overloaded the buildings parking areas.CanPro held that the GSA knew or should have known about the anticipated office closing of the West Palm Beach office of the SSA.The alleged problems were not restricted to overcrowding. In its certified Florida premises liability lawsuit, filed in November 2014, CanPro asserted the increased volume of visitors led to numerous arrests for drugs and weapons, together with a loss of tenants in the multi-story office building.CanPros 2014 claim was initially set aside for being unripe. The plaintiff refiled in February of last year, seeking damages of not less than $250,000.In the end, the lawsuit was largely dismissed due to various factors not the least of which was a finding by a US Court of Federal Claims judge that CanPro had failed to bring the Florida premises lease dispute to the attention of a contracting officer. Further, Judge Margaret M. Sweeney granted the defendants motion to dismiss all but one of the seven claims.The Judge did preserve the claim for breach of contract alleging the tenant SSA was indeed obligated to limit the daily visitors to the understood maximum of 250 under an implied duty of good faith and fair dealing.As has been witnessed in previous incidents historically, large crowds can foster sometimes dangerous circumstances requiring additional security in order to maintain a modicum of safety for patrons. It is the responsibility of business owners leasing space to ensure that crowds are kept to a manageable level, for the benefit and safety of all concerned.The Florida premises liability lawsuit is, Case No. 16-268C, in the
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President Trumps limited, proportional missile strike on a single Syrian air base had a clear purpose: Punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for having launched a chemical weapons attack that killed over 85 of his citizens and deter him (and others) from engaging in similar WMD-related war crimes.
The strike was not aimed at toppling Mr. Assad or ousting his minority Alawite regime, at least, not yet. Removing Mr. Assad would undermine what Mr. Trump has long called his key foreign policy objective defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the other most dangerous Islamists who have destabilized much of the Middle East.
But the launching of some 59 sea-based Tomahawk cruise missiles against the Syrian Air Forces base of Shayrat sends a strong message not only to Syria but to several other states and groups with a stake in the outcome of that countrys brutal civil war.
To North Korea, the strike is a warning that Mr. Trump is willing to match action with his tough tweets warning that the U.S. will not permit Pyongyang to threaten American security by marrying its small nuclear arsenal with intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching our shores. North Korea is also believed to possess chemical weapons which it could reign down on Seoul and American forces stationed near the South Korean capital in the event of conflict.
To China, it shows that Mr. Trump is prepared to make good on his pledge to take unilateral action against North Korea if Beijing is unwilling to pressure its mercurial neighbor into suspending, if not dismantling its own nuclear program.
And perhaps most important, the strike shows Russia that President Trumps unlikely bromance with Russias autocratic ruler Vladimir Putin has its limits, and that Mr. Trump is likely to insist that Mr. Putin stop making excuses for his brutal client and contain Mr. Assads most outrageous conduct. Military action which throws Moscow off-balance could not come at a better time for Mr. Trump, whose administration is beset by multiple investigations into whether his campaign officials colluded with Russia in interfering in Americas presidential election and whether such collusion helped elect Mr. Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Hours after the strike, Russias senior spokesman Dmitry Peskov blasted the strike as a violation of international law and demanded an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. He continued to deny that Syrian government forces possessed chemical weapons. Mr. Putin called the strike an act of aggression against a sovereign nation.
But neither immediately cancelled U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillersons planned visit to Moscow next week, so the extent of Russian fury is still hard to gauge. Perhaps Mr. Putin was somewhat mollified by the Trump administrations decision to give Moscow advance warning of the strike through deconfliction or military channels. Americas Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missiles apparently avoided targeting buildings on the airbase associated with Russian personnel and equipment.
Unlike President Reagans 1986 bombing raid on Libya which was aimed at killing then President Muammar el-Qaddafi, Mr. Trumps strike was not aimed at taking out Syrias leadership, nor even its militarys command-and-control structure. It was was directed at the one air base where U.S. intelligence believes deadly sarin gas was loaded into Syrian aircraft for Tuesdays deadly raid. Mr. Assad continues to live to fight another day, but if he heeds Donald Trumps dramatic warning, not with chemical weapons.
Mr. Trumps broader strategic objectives in Syria are still unclear. His administration, slow to appoint the assistant secretaries and other senior officials who make and oversee policy, is still a work in progress.
Mr. Trump himself and several of his senior officials have made conflicting statements about what they hope to achieve. While candidate Trump seemed to endorse the creation of safe zones in Syria to protect civilians fleeing the bloody conflict, President Trump has not recently spoken of such havens, which would probably require the deployment of more American soldiers to protect.
Until recently, Mr. Trump also seemed determined not to involve America more deeply in the civil war, even diplomatically. But after Thursday nights strike, he appeared to recast Americas interest in the Syrian conflict, saying that in addition to Assads chemical weapons, the regions instability was threatening the United States and its allies. That seemed to open the possibility that he intends to pursue enhanced diplomacy to resolve the seven-year war which has killed an estimated 500,000 people, displaced millions more, and destabilized Europe through a flood of refugees.
Thursdays strike tells us only that developing and using WMD remains for Mr. Trump, as for previous presidents, a red line that nations dare not cross without potential consequences. But that, as Mr. Trump would say, is yuge.
This piece originally appeared on FoxNews.com
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Judith Miller is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and Fox News contributor.
Charles Duelfer, a consultant on intelligence and defense issues, served as special advisor to the director of Central Intelligence for Iraqs Weapons of Mass Destruction and led the Iraq Survey Group, which conducted the investigation of the scope of Iraqs WMD.
New Delhi/Kolkata, Apr 10 (IBNS): Esri India, country's leading Geographic Information System (GIS) Software & Solutions provider, has launched the third edition of its annual GIS contest mApp Your Way App Development Challenge 3.0. An application (mobile or web) development challenge, mApp Your Way is open to all the students associated with the institutions that are users of Geospatial or ArcGIS technology.
The challenge offers an exclusive opportunity for institutes and students to implement new ideas via meaningful GIS enabled applications that are focused on larger benefit to society and have a business and citizen impact. The best three teams with innovative and impactful applications will be rewarded with national level recognition in addition to winning fascinating prizes.
Commenting on the challenge, Agendra Kumar, President, Esri India said, Through mApp Your Way our objective is to provide a platform to the institutes and students to showcase their skills and capabilities in the GIS technology.
Parameters for judgement include uniqueness of the problem statement, solution approach, usefulness/citizen impact, actual application and usage of GIS technology and scalability of the application.
Esri India will provide mentorship and guidance to the participants of mApp Your Way challenge through webinars and online portal.
Additionally temporary software license for shortlisted teams (only to be used for the purpose of app development for this contest) and access to online community for discussions will also be provided. The finalist teams will get an opportunity to demonstrate their applications at THE GIS conference of India - Esri India User Conference in December 2017 in New Delhi.
The winning teams from the last two editions include: IIT Bombay which developed Route Navigation and Pothole Monitoring application and CEPT University developed GIS based multi-platform mobile application built to connect campus students to share accommodation & transportation needs.
by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, April 10, 2017
Chobani this morning released the brand anthem TV spot/video for its new umbrella campaign, Believe in Food, which will run through 2017 and beyond.
Called Fruit Symphony, the 30-second ad (below) features a group of performers six of whom are actual Chobani employees in a verdant setting, playing instruments made of fruit and singing Burt Bacharachs '60s classic, What the World Needs Now. The ad was directed by movie and music video director and screenwriter Michel Gondry.
The commercial marks the first brand work for Chobani by Wieden+Kennedy, which was named its creative agency of record last September. That marked the end of a two-year period in which Chobani had eschewed the traditional AOR model in favor of in-house-led creative.
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Product-focused ads employing the new Believe in Food tagline actually began appearing in February, with a 30-second spot introducing the Drink Chobani yogurt smoothies line and a 15-second one dedicated to the mixed berry variety. The tagline has also appeared this year in 15-second ads for the key lime and almond coconut varieties of Flip, Chobanis spoonable yogurt-with-mixables snack line.
Chobani says that Believe in Food integrates its foundational brand manifesto, which declares that good food can be a source for good in the world and bring people together. Its also meant to convey that consumers can believe in Chobanis natural ingredients and innovation, in the dedication of the employees behind its products, and in the companys people and community first philosophy.
Chobanis progressive policies including paid parental leave and donating a portion of its profits to food-related charities drew more press last April, when the company gave its roughly 2,000 employees shares that will be worth up to 10% of its value when it goes public or is sold.
Its also been in the news, and been the subject of anti-Muslim sentiment and fake news reports, for its hiring of refugees, including Muslim immigrants resettled by the U.S. government. Indeed, Chobani being no slouch at leveraging earned media, the new ads release follows a 60 Minutes interview with Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya, which aired last night. Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant, continued his advocacy for refugees, who represent about 30% of Chobanis workforce, stressing that their hard work and loyalty have been instrumental in building the company.
The employees who were chosen for the new ad (via an internal, open casting call) highlight Chobanis commitment to diversity: They hail from countries including India and Thailand, as well as various states in the U.S. Their stories are also being featured in a dedicated area of Chobanis site, which has been updated for the campaign, and quotes from them will be featured in other online efforts.
Theres a lot of goodness that goes into every cup, and we wanted to tell the story of the people who make our delicious, nutritious products, summed up Chobani chief marketing and brand officer Peter McGuinness.
The Fruit Symphony ad is airing on national cable networks and is currently posted on Twitter, as well as YouTube. The campaign includes paid social media, as well as online. Media partners include Time Inc. and Thrillist.
Other campaign elements span PR; point-of-sale/shopper marketing promotions in more than 5,000 retail locations; appearances at some 50 community events around its Upstate New York and Twin Falls, Idaho manufacturing plants; and a cross-country tour by its ChoMobile. Chobani signed Horizon Media as its media agency of record last August.
As the major Greek yogurt pioneer in the U.S., Chobani grew in leaps and bounds from its founding in 2005. That was interrupted for a time starting in 2014, due to a combination of an outbreak of mold contamination; tardy but aggressive pushes into the Greek category by Dannon and General Mills Yoplait; and an inevitable slowdown in the double-digit sales increases seen for several years in the Greek spoonable sector.
But Chobani quickly recovered, thanks to an ongoing string of new products that have included the breakthrough Flip, stevia- and monk fruit- sweetened Simply 100, Meze Dips, and lines for kids and tots, as well as the new smoothies. Chobani has also continued to release new flavors across its lines and has launched initiatives like a healthy foods incubator and Chobani Cafes in New Yorks SoHo and TriBeCa sections and Tomball, Texas.
Strategic marketing including both mainstream advertising and grassroots, event- and influencer-based efforts have of course done much to drive the renewed growth.
The most visible initiative to date was 2016s controversial, competition-bashing ads for Simply 100, which generated massive press coverage and social buzz before they were ultimately restrained by a court after Dannon and General Mills sued. By then, the ads had already completed their TV schedule.
Last year, overall U.S. yogurt sales declined 0.3%, but Chobani had double-digit growth, with sales totaling $2 billion (about double its 2013 sales), per Nielsen data cited by Dairy Reporter.
That gave Chobani which makes only Greek varieties 20% of the total Greek and non-Greek spoonable U.S. yogurt category, surpassing Yoplaits 19% share (down from 25% in 2011) and $1.75 billion in sales. Dannon, with its non-Greek dominance plus its Greek lines, still leads the overall category, with a 34% share last year. But in the Greek segment, Chobani holds a nearly 37.6% share, according to the company.
by Larissa Faw , April 10, 2017
In a first, Virgin Atlantic is launching a campaign that targets all potential flyers. Previously the brands marketing efforts have concentrated on the business traveler.
However, the company and its agency, Figliulo&Partners, saw an opportunity to exploit the decline of the British Pound with the UKs decision to leave the European Union. That opportunity affects all flyers.
The resulting campaign centers on the Virgin Atlantic Brexit Calculator to promote the lower cost to Americans flying to London with the pounds decline. The calculator and its dedicated website reflect the airline's cheeky tone with unique reasons to head overseas, including how flyers can now buy four beers for the price of three while fish and chips are $2 cheaper than previously.
"Finding a message that appeals to all cabins was a tall order but we found an undeniable culturally relevant truth in Brexit," stated the agency.
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The digital and social-focused campaign features a short film that appears in pre-roll on digital assets of the BBC, New York Times, Vice Media, Hulu and CBS.
Virgin Atlantic will also utilize its social media footprint to draw visitors to the Calculator website.
F&P has worked with Virgin Atlantic since early 2015.
by Philip Rosenstein , April 10, 2017
Despite 2017 being an off-election year, a couple of special elections are piquing the interest of national party machines in Washington D.C.
Democrats and Republicans are facing off in a contested Georgia election. But before the Georgia 6th district holds its primary on April 18, we have another special election in the Kansas 4th district tomorrow, April 11.
The House seat for the Kansas 4th was previously held by now CIA director Mike Pompeo.
In a strong Republican district, which Trump won by 27 points, there are signs of Republican concern. An attack ad has been launched by the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) against Democratic candidate James Thompson. The Congressional Leadership Fund is spending $50,000 for live calls to voters in a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort, according to Politico.
Further, national figures, including Vice President Mike Pence, who recorded a robocall, and Sen. Ted Cruz, who will attend a GOTV rally on Monday, have been wading into the contest.
Still, with endorsements from Daily Kos, Democracy for America and Our Revolution, Democrat Thompson has raised upwards of $250,000. Republican contender Ron Estes reached just over $300,000 in contributions, according to Ballotpedia.
Unfortunately for Thompson, the Democratic party leadership does not seem as keen on helping him as they are with Ossoff in the Georgia 6th. According to The Huffington Post, Thompson said that lack of support, underscored by no funding from the Democratic Party, was caused by establishment thinking.
A lot of people dont want to be proven wrong, Thompson told HuffPo. If they were in Kansas, theyd have a better idea of whats going on. Speaking about the volume of last-minute grassroots funding, Thompson said: This is already a victory.
Thompson is a huge underdog to win Tuesdays general election, but depending on vote margins, we could get an idea of how Republican strongholds have reacted to President Trump first 80 days in office.
The Wichita-based district is also the headquarters of Republican mega-donors Koch Industries.
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Companhia Siderurgica Nacional operates as an integrated steel producer in Brazil and Latin America. It operates in five segments: Steel, Mining, Logistics, Energy, and Cement. The company offers flat steel products, such as high, medium, low carbon, micro-alloyed, ultra-low-carbon, and interstitial free slabs; hot-rolled products, including heavy and light-gauge hot-rolled coils and sheets; cold-rolled products comprising cold-rolled coils and sheets; galvanized products; tin mill products that consist of flat-rolled low-carbon steel coils or sheets; and profiles, channels, UPE sections, and steel sleepers for the distribution, packaging, automotive, home appliance, and construction industries. It primarily explores for iron ore reserves at Casa de Pedra and Engenho mines located in the city of Congonhas; and limestone and dolomite at the Bocaina mine located in the city of Arcos in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, as well as produces tin. In addition, the company operates railway and port facilities; produces and sells cement to construction material stores, home centers, concrete producers, construction companies, mortar industries, and cement artifact producers; and generates electric power from its thermoelectric co-generation and hydroelectric power plants. It also exports its products. The company was incorporated in 1941 and is headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Companhia Siderurgica Nacional operates as a subsidiary of Vicunha Acos S.A.
Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the adhesive technologies, beauty care, and laundry and home care businesses worldwide. The company's Adhesive Technologies segment offers adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings for various business areas, including packaging and consumer goods; automotive and metals; electronics and industrials; and craftsmen, construction, and professional industries. This segment markets its products primarily under the Loctite, Technomelt, Bonderite, Teroson, and Aquence brands. Its Beauty Care segment provides hair cosmetics; and body, skin, and oral care products, as well as operates professional hair salons. This segment distributes its products through brick-and-mortar stores, hair salons, third-party online platforms, and direct-to-consumer channels primarily under the Schwarzkopf, Dial, and Syoss brands. The company's Laundry & Home Care segment offers heavy-duty and specialty detergents, fabric softeners, laundry performance enhancers, and other fabric care products; hand and automatic dishwashing products; cleaners for bathroom and WC applications; household, glass, and specialty cleaners; and air fresheners and insect control products for household applications. This segment markets its products primarily under the Persil, Bref, Purex, all, and other brands. Henkel AG & Co. KGaA was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany.
New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS) : A group of Tamil farmers stripped near the Prime Minister office on Monday morning while demonstrating to press for waiver of agricultural loans, The Hindu reported.
Police, however, removed the men from the area.
According to the reports, another group of Tamil Nadu farmers, who have been protesting in Delhi's Jantar Mantar for over three weeks, reportedly said that they would further intensify their protest in case a positive view of their problem wasn't taken soon.
On Friday, five Tamil Nadu farmers, including a woman, who are protesting at Jantar Mantar, cut their hands, saying the Union government should pay attention to their plights.
Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, including auto financing, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its advice centers, RBC insurance stores, and mobile advisors; digital, mobile, and social platforms; independent brokers; and travel partners. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset servicing, custody, payments, and treasury services to financial and other investors; and fund and investment administration, shareholder, private capital, performance measurement and compliance monitoring, distribution, transaction banking, cash and liquidity management, foreign exchange, and global securities finance services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, advisory services, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, private equity firms, and governments. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
The Braves have signed reliever Jason Motte to a minor league contract, tweets David OBrien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Motte is likely to report to Triple-A Gwinnett on Monday.
The 34-year-old Motte came available when the Rockies released him Wednesday, which was not the outcome they had envisioned when signing him to a two-year, $10MM contract in December 2015. Motte battled a rotator cuff injury and a dip in velocity in in his lone season in Colorado. Thanks in part to those issues, Motte posted a 4.94 ERA and a 20.7 percent home run-to-fly ball ratio across 23 2/3 innings. However, he did log solid strikeout and walk rates per nine (9.13 and 3.04, respectively). The right-hander was at his best with the Cardinals from 2010-12, when he pitched to a 2.43 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 2.39 BB/9 across 192 1/3 frames, but he hasnt approached those numbers since.
The Braves bullpen entered Sunday with a 4.86 ERA and a 5.02 FIP in 16 2/3 innings, and relievers Arodys Vizcaino, Jim Johnson and Jose Ramirez then combined to allow four late-game runs in a 6-5 loss to the Pirates. Barring a turnaround from the unit, Motte could conceivably get back to the majors with Atlanta this year, though the organization does have another well-known option in Triple-A in fellow minor league signing David Hernandez.
For the first time in its 101-year history, British Vogue will have a man at the helm.
Ghanaian-born Edward Enninful, who is described as "influential in fashion, Hollywood and music", will take over from Alexandra Shulman in August.
Mr Enninful, who will be the publication's 11th editor, has been creative and fashion director of US magazine W since 2011.
Twenty years earlier, aged just 19, he became the youngest magazine fashion editor in the industry when he landed a top job at i-D.
Image:(L_R) Stefano Tonchi, Edward Enninful and Giovanna Battaglia at NY Fashion Week
From 1998 to 2011, Mr Enninful contributed to American Vogue and Italian Vogue and in 2014, he was named fashion creator of the year by the British Fashion Council.
He was made an OBE in 2016, and earlier this year, he helped make I Am An Immigrant - a video on the fashion industry protesting against President Donald Trump's travel ban.
Mr Enninful said: "People like me thought America was the best place to be creative, to be free to create, to have the freedom to be who you are.
"I just thought, 'Let's do something that shows that we're all from somewhere else'" - whether participants were immigrants personally, or the descendants of immigrants.
Mr Enninful, 45, came to London from Ghana as a child, growing up in the capital's Ladbroke Grove area.
He became interested in fashion as a teenager after being scouted as a model. He quit university at Goldsmiths to pursue his fashion career.
Jonathan Newhouse, chairman and chief executive of publisher Conde Nast International, cited Mr Enninful's work at Italian Vogue as having "attained landmark status in recent cultural history".
He described Mr Enninful as "an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist".
Newhouse added: "By virtue of his talent and experience, Edward is supremely prepared to assume the responsibility of British Vogue."
Ms Shulman announced in January that she was stepping down as editor-in-chief of British Vogue after more than 25 years at the helm
She said it was a hard to decision to quit the magazine "that I love" but she wanted to "experience a different life".
New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS): India's Foreign Secretary, S Jaishankar, on Monday, summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and handed over demarche, after Pakistan sentenced to death former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav on allegations of spying.
Excerpts from the demarhce:
1. We have seen the ISPR press release today regarding Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian citizen, who has been awarded a death sentence by a Pakistani military court martial.
2. Shri Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly. The Government of India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law. Requests to that effect were formally made 13 times between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities.
3. The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Shri Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Shri Jadhav was being brought to trial. Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Shri Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
4. If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
On Monday, the media quoted Pakistan's foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz alleging that Kulbhushan Jadhav was involved in "subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan".
On the other hand, tweeted Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, the Official Spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces, "Indian R&AW agent #Kalbushan awarded death sentence through FGCM by Pakistan Army for espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan."
NDTV reported that officials at the Indian high commission told the news channel that they were not formally informed of the development by the Pakistani government; they learnt about it from a press statement in which Pakistan claims that Kulbhushan Jadhav "confessed" to spying and sabotage activities in Balochistan.
India acknowledged Kulbhushan Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer but denied that he was in any way connected to the government, according to media reports.
Image: AIRNews Twitter
Chineze Anyaene, the producer of one of Nigeria's highest selling movies at the cinemas, 'IJE: The Journey' starring Omotola Jalade Ekeinde and Genevieve Nnaji got wedded to her lovely beau, Chibuzor Abonyi in a private registry ceremony while the lavish and flamboyant traditional wedding followed.
The private wedding ceremony which was attended by family, close friends and selected guests held last week.
Photography by Oocharles
Registry Makeup Clear transformation
Traditional wedding Makeup by bibiyonce
Aso-oke by - bimmms24
Hair by hair_by_joan
Brides Outfits by Mena, magic scissors and style temple
Grooms outfit - @nuelsmith
Styled by Tnldesigns
10.04.2017 LISTEN
Where there is a will, there is a way, so an adage goes. A mistake which is an affront to national security and the safety of the citizens, as well as being an insult to the intelligence of Ghanaians has been committed. A supposedly Vigilante Group by name Delta Force formed by some concerned members of the NPP in the heat of Election 2016, following the NDCs propensity and fondness for rigging elections by tasking their supporters to seize and bolt away with ballot boxes full of cast ballots, has now caused national outrage.
The Delta Force was to ensure the usual occurrences of NDC guys doing a runner with cast ballots in boxes retrieved from polling stations on election day, do not repeat themselves on Wednesday, 7 December 2017. Their objective was achieved to bring NPP and Nana Akufo Addo to power to the admiration of the majority of Ghanaians who had desired a change of government to guarantee them a better future.
Having successfully achieved their objective, their recompense is to totally discard them as if they did not exist or had done absolutely nothing useful for the party. This is the usual irresponsible behaviour of the NPP, the so-called party of educated people but who really lack the expertise and mechanisms to win election or stay longer in power.
I am not condoning the irreprehensible behaviour by the members of the Delta Force but I shall in the same vein not condemn them to the gallows as many political amateurs are doing. I very well understand and I am very supportive of the public in their bitter condemnations of the Delta Force but for NPP gurus to come out with their genuine but shameless bravado to ask for their crucifixion is what really pisses me off.
I really detest the nonsensical attitude by the NPP where they look down on others as less educated so they are good for nothing when they assume power and make themselves unapproachable. However, they turn to these very people classified as nonentities to help them in their great times of need. This is the very reason why I did not hesitate a second to reprimand John Boadu when he was fobbing off some disgruntled NPP members in the Western region who genuinely were expressing their concerns about the President imposing someone who never assisted the party on them as the MMCE or DCE of the area.
Had it been the usual deplorable behaviour by the NPP top men and women as just said, the Delta Force members would not have behaved the way they did which has now brought shame on the President, the party and the whole nation both nationally and internationally.
What has happened, if not treated with all the caution it takes, to prudently resolve it, I can foresee it as the beginning of the end of NPP in power with His Excellency President Nana Akufo Addo being a one-term President. It does not take a rocket scientist to predict this. Those who are not political savvy and lack the foresight to interpret signs may rebuke me for predicting doom but it is a fact that is vividly unfolding before our very eyes. There is a wedge set in NPP now!
The way the Delta Forces unfortunate offence is being hyped by some NPP gurus, giving credence to the NDC to complain bitterly, is in effect a political suicide that the NPP is committing. Instead of appealing to the public to calm down, accepting that you share their views and will deal with the culprits accordingly, you are rather out there condemning the Delta Force louder than anyone else with intent to imprison them even before their fate has been decided by a competent judge of our law courts. This to me is an exhibition of political immaturity upon all your attained higher paper qualifications.
You lack conflict resolution expertise and common sense approach to delicate issues that is all that I can see and say. However, for the sake of His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, I shall continue to support the party, but will not hesitate to express my disagreements whenever the occasion arises.
I would indeed love to offer advice, suggestions and solutions to the seeming Delta Force menace and the deplorable attitudes by the NPP but not in the public domain. How do I go about it now that the NPP Ministers, Deputy Ministers and top party officials have made themselves bigger than they really are hence preferring to live in what may appear to be seclusion because they are now lords?
As said, where there is a will there is a way, I shall find a means to communicate my views to the appropriate persons in the NPP to ensure the ongoing problem is resolved amicably.
Rockson Adofo
(Written on Sunday, 9 April 2017)
Terrorism, a global menace and a universal enemy of mankind has assumed an alarming level in Africa and West Africa in particular. Even though in recent times the [West African] sub-region has witnessed the emergence of major terrorist attacks, Ghana, by all accounts, has been extra lucky to have been spared so far. However, we must not relent in efforts aimed at helping to find ways and means to prevent or minimise the risk. In order to do this effectively, it is essential to first understand the causes of terrorism and to find out if the factors that make countries a fertile ground for terrorism to thrive are as well present in Ghana.
Though terrorism is caused by a multiplicity of factors, studies have shown that people join terrorist groups mostly because of political, social and economic exclusion, weak governance structures as well as religious and ethnic discrimination among others. Obviously most young men who constitute these subversive groups are frustrated and angry because they feel socially disoriented.
On his visit to Nigeria in 2016, former United States Secretary of State John Kerry posited that many people join terrorist groups because they have trouble finding meaning or opportunity in their daily lives because they are deeply frustrated and alienated and because they hope groups like Boko Haram will somehow give them a sense of identity, or purpose, or power.
Indeed, Boko Haram was born out of Nigerias poor governance, ethnic cleavages, and corruption. The chronic poverty, poor education system and the willful negligence of the largely impoverished northern regions of the country have made the residents easier targets for Boko Haram's recruiting activities. The story is not too different from those of Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Kenya, Somalia and Rwanda. In Kenya for instance, poverty in parts of the country helped Al-Shabaab to gain new recruits. Similarly, the terror attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Nigeria, Niger, etc. and even the 1994 Rwanda genocide were all partly due to economic crisis.
It is evident therefore that marginalization, poverty and corruption can compel otherwise decent people to engage in terrorism. And as it would be hypocritical to suppose these conditions do not exist in Ghana, one may not be wrong in predicting the possibility of the country becoming a target of terrorism, especially if we do not recognize the continued need to take measures to ensure good governance, social justice, and provide quality education, security, and respect for human rights.
At least, the rise of political vigilante groups in the country and their notion of using radical and violent methods which tend to be vicious and unwanted should be considered an early warning sign that political tolerance and respect for human rights are endangered; and that conflict is finding a home in Ghana. We must remember, however, that should there be a really serious conflict in Ghana, thousands if not millions of people may be killed and many more displaced.
Taking into consideration all the aforesaid, President Akufo-Addos promise of an improved economy, competent government and better living conditions for Ghanaians comes as welcoming news. In fact, it is refreshing to know, for example, that government has made provision for job creation, skill training and security in the Zongo communities. It is equally important to note that government is committed to the free secondary education policy which will ultimately ease the financial burden on the poor Ghanaian student. In all, President Akufo-Addos government aims at making Ghana an economic model by setting the pace for job creation and accelerated growth.
It is argued in this column that if government is able to deliver economic opportunities to vulnerable and disaffected youth groups, many lives will be improved and there will be nothing to inspire the young and overzealous youth to engage in terrorism. Beyond that, politicians must desist from funding vigilante groups that have radicalized themselves and have the potential of becoming terrorists.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
Meanwhile, just as their counterparts are doing in Nigeria, the racial integrationists, the champions of globalisation, the apostles of a new world order and the advocates of mass migration continue to test the waters by attempting to place obstacles in the path of the true believers and ethnic nationalists all over the world.
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For example Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, suggested that this was not the time to discuss the issue of a new referendum for Scottish independence just two weeks ago.
Thankfully Alex Salmon, the former leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, responded to her in an eloquent manner by assuring her that if she continued talking that way her words and attitude would actually guarantee Scottish independence rather than prevent it. His warning is appropiate and timely.
Again just last week, the President of the European Commission, Jeanne Claude Junker, who is one of the world's most rabid and diehard integrationists and globalists, said that President Donald Trump's stated desire to see "more Brexits" and to "witness more countries leave the European Union" was "provocative and inappropiate" and that in retaliation the European Union may consider calling on states like Ohio and Texas to seceed from the United States of America.
Nigel Farage MEP, the former leader of the British United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and one of the most formidable and respected nationalists in the world today, jumped into the ring the following day with a swift and devastating response.
He said that Junkers' words were inappropiate and misplaced because the United States of America came together as a consequence of consensus whilst the Europen Union was brought together by fiat and compulsion.
He also made the point that, unlike America, which is a transparant and functional democracy, the European Union is run by a group of faceless and unelected bureaucrats and officials at the European Commission in Brussels.
Farage is absolutely right. His was indeed a beautiful response. Both Salmon and Farage have spoken the minds of millions of people all over the world including Nigeria.
The bottom line is that you cannot compel a people to remain part of any nation unless they choose to be in that nation and you cannot deny them the right of self-determination and the freedom of choice and association.
Thankfully that message is spreading. The forces of integration and globalisation are clearly on the ropes in todays fast-changing world just as they are in Nigeria.
Nothing can stop the quest for self-determination or the glorious march of the ethnic nationalists.
A couple of weeks ago in an essay titled "The Hausa Fulani, The Yoruba and The Slaughter in Ile-Ife" (Part 2) yours truly wrote the following:
"The right to take pride in our ethnicity and invoke the principle of self-determination cannot be denied.
We reject the concept of globalisation and the enthronement of a new world order. We reject the concept of an artificial, man-made, multi-cultural, multi-religious, mongrel mega-nation that is made up of ethnic and religious incompatibles.
We reject the notion that we must bury our ethnicity, forget our differences, arrest our development, discard our values and enthrone the idea of a strange and complicated hybrid nation where we are expected to live with and accomodate those that hate our faith, despise our people, scorn our values and that rape, maim and kill our loved ones and compatriots in the name of religion, conquest, land, cows and cattle.
The truth is that no force in hell or on earth can stop the rise and establishment of the sovereign state of Biafra, Oduduwa or any other ethnic nation that will one day be carved out of what is presently known as Nigeria".
I believe that these words are relevant and prophetic. Those that do not see the wisdom in restructuring Nigeria have guaranteed her future dissolution.
Yet sadly this is a fact that appears to be completely lost on both the British and French Ambassadors given their simplistic and asinine contributions to what is essentially a very complicated, multi-layered, multifaceted, problematic, volatile and dangerous long-standing debate which borders on the nationality question in Nigeria.
May the counsel of the Lord stand in our nation and may His name be glorified. (TO BE CONTINUED).
The former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey has waded into the fight against galamsey in the country, describing the Chinese as economic guerrillas.
He said he finds it strange that various leaders of the country have not yet realised that the nation is at war with illegal miners.
The comments by the outspoken cleric comes in the wake of the sustained media campaign against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
Illegal mining in Ghana spearheaded by the Chinese has destroyed a substantial amount of Ghanas forest reserve and water bodies. The government is on a drive to rid the country of the activities of these foreign nationals who work in collusion with locals.
Addressing a gathering at the Christ Apostolic University College in Kumasi, Rev. Martey said illegal mining has the potential to wreck the nation if nothing is done about it immediately.
With the present galamsey operations in this country, Ghana is at war. And it is amazing that our political leaders, for a long time, have not realized that Ghana is at war.
I dont know what war is; if foreign economic guerrillas; that is what I call the Chinese. They are economic guerrillas, with their local missionary collaborators will attack and destroy your environment, pollute your source of drinking water and kill your citizens and you just sit down and do nothing, then what name should be given to you as a country, he wondered.
Reverend Martey was known for his often harsh criticism of the erstwhile Mahama administration.
He is on record to have wondered the whereabouts of wise men in the country during the tenure of the NDC administration.
Government employs more than 360,000 teachers in Ghana. Each teacher pays GHS30 as dues every month. That makes GHS10,800,000 translating to GHS129,600,000 each year. Yet we have dilapidated schools whiles GNAT invest in ultramodern GNAT Heights that houses Google and other multimillion dollar companies and builds guest houses all over Ghana.
What if GNAT decided to contribute 10% of its dues towards building and renovating schools, providing white chalk to deprived schools, building Professional development and learning centers for teachers in Ghana.
If GNAT and NAGRAT cared just a little about the children who walked barefooted each day to school; if they cared about children who did not have water in their schools; if they cared about schools without toilets.
If they contributed just 10% of their yearly revenue of GHS129,600,000 that is GHS12,960,000 this is what it could do each year:
For white chalk, that money can buy 259,200 cartons (12,960,000 boxes) of chalk
For boreholes at the cost of GHS9,000 for schools and their communities it can build 1,440 each year
Providing reading books at the cost of GHS10 it could distribute 1,296,000 to school children in Ghana.
Furniture for teaching staff at the cost of GHS400 per school, it could provide 32,400 furniture for 32,400 schools each year;
For 10 used computers at the cost of GHS5,000 for each school, it could provide 2,592 schools with personal computers for ICT lessons.
For toilet facilities for underserved schools at the cost of GHS15,000, it could provide 864 toilets each year.
One might be asking, is this not the job of government? I would also ask, is it the job of the American People, the Japanese People and the German people to fund our development projects?
We all have fiduciary responsibilities and commitment towards the nation. Let us demand accountability and selflessness from our leaders.
The conversation starts with you.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
Information reaching us from across nations of the world including the World Bank and its allies point to increase in corruption in high government offices. In some African countries and some developed and developing nations some government officials in key positions have been found to have embezzled public funds meant for government projects. Funds stolen by these government officials and kept overseas are so huge that they affect the development of the nations concerned.
The findings are as a result of audit reports and reports of special enquiries. Currently huge cash stolen by late president of Nigeria General Saani Abacha and other governors of Nigeria and other nations are being repatriated back to their nations. However, because actions required to retrieve some of the stolen funds are quite slow, corrupt government officials are left off the hook.
As a result of this, ordinary people are getting wide awake to the extent that they have begun taking actions to punish corrupt government officials. Actions taken against these officials take different forms. These include demonstrations, interspersed with hooting, display of placards and hurling of insults.
The height of the mob actions was first captured by the mainstream and social media in Ukraine where a mob manhandled a corrupt legislator. The legislator was apprehended by people outside parliament and thrown into a dustbin.
They have sworn to continue taking actions till the MPs stopped stealing. This was followed by another action this time in Nigeria where the state governor of Niger State was hooted at openly by his subjects as done to common criminals calling him thief barawo in Hausa. All those who saw the video clips on the action taken to punish the high profile criminals were surprised. however, they wanted similar actions to be taken to halt corruption in all nations. according to Mr. Vitus Azeem Ghanas anti-corruption crusader said the action by the people against corruption is sign of things to come. Mr. Azeem who also heads the Coalition for the Right to Information warned that if corrupt activities are not halted in high places mob actions would continue till it reaches all nations
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
eanfoworld for sustainable development
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Cairo (AFP) - The twin bombings of churches in Egypt suggest that Islamic State group jihadists are lashing out as they find themselves coming under increasing pressure in Iraq and Syria, analysts say.
The group's Egyptian affiliate which claimed Sunday's attacks in the Nile Delta cities of Tanta and Alexandria has been centred in the Sinai Peninsula, where it has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.
But IS has been unable to seize population centres there, unlike its early gains in Iraq and Syria, and it has also lost top militants to Egyptian military strikes in recent months.
The jihadists have attacked Egyptian Coptic Christians before, but their campaign against the minority picked up in December with a Cairo church bombing that killed 29 people.
In Sinai, IS militants killed seven Copts in January and February, forcing dozens of Christian families to flee the peninsula that borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
"IS and its supporters online have been methodically introducing more radical sectarian concepts to Egyptian jihadists since the December bombing," said Mokhtar Awad, a research fellow with George Washington University's Program on Extremism.
Shift in tactics
The December bombing in a church adjacent to the Coptic papal seat marked a shift in IS tactics.
"It was not until December 2016 when the Islamic State began a systematic campaign to target Coptic Christians in Egypt," said Jantzen Garnett, an expert on the jihadists with the Navanti Group analytics company.
"As the Islamic State is squeezed in Iraq and Syria it often conducts spectacular attacks elsewhere in an attempt to regain the narrative, boost morale and win recruits," he said.
Iraqi forces patrol a street during their advance near the Old City in western Mosul on April 8, 2017, during the offensive to retake the city from Islamic State group fighters
In Iraq and Syria, where the group proclaimed its "caliphate" in 2014 as it swept across northern Iraq, IS has faced consecutive defeats over the past year and is on the verge of losing control of Iraq's second city Mosul.
In a video released in February, IS attacked Christians as "polytheists" and promised there would be further attacks.
After Sunday's bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, the group said it had deployed two Egyptian suicide bombers against the "crusaders".
A defiant President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reacted by declaring a three-month state of emergency.
The Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90 million people, have been attacked by Islamists for years, more so after the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The Coptic Church was accused by the Islamists of supporting Morsi's overthrow which led to a bloody crackdown on Islamists, although Muslim clerics and politicians also backed his ouster.
Even before Morsi was toppled, jihadists had targeted the Christians, most notably in a 2011 New Year bombing of a church in Alexandria which police blamed on a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
Growing presence
The Islamic State group's "sectarian attacks fuel those ideologically inclined to support the group, while showing it's still 'expanding' despite battlefield setbacks," said Zack Gold, a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Center's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
The three church attacks in December and now April also suggest an expanded presence of jihadist cells west of the Suez Canal separating the Sinai proper from the rest of Egypt.
Following the December bombing, Sisi said members of the jihadist cell who carried it out had been caught, but others remained on the run.
"The Islamic State has struggled, with constant setbacks, to establish a sizable presence on the Egyptian mainland over the preceding years. These church bombings indicate they have a growing presence on the mainland," said Garnett.
The IS affiliate's predecessor in Egypt, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, had carried out several attacks targeting the police on the mainland before pledging allegiance to IS in November 2014.
And several IS bombings and shootings took place in Cairo, also targeting policemen, before the December church bombing.
Police arrested several cells and in November 2015 announced they had killed a top IS jihadist, Ashraf al-Gharably, in a Cairo shootout.
Sepang (Malaysia) (AFP) - Enforcement officials in Malaysia have seized 18 rhinoceros horns imported from Mozambique, weighing 51.4 kg and worth 13.7 million ringgit ($3.1 million), a senior customs official said Monday.
Airport customs director Hamzah Sundang said officials acting on a tip-off discovered the horns in a wooden crate at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport cargo terminal last Friday.
The haul is the latest indication that Malaysia has become an Asian transit hub for the illicit ivory and rhino horn trade.
The crate, listed as containing art objects, was imported from Mozambique on board a Qatar Airways flight which transited in Doha before arriving in Malaysia, Hamzah said in a statement.
Hamzah said the destination was listed as being in the town of Nilai in Malaysia's southern state of Negri Sembilan but it was a false address.
The seizure of a haul of rhino horns at Kuala Lumpur International Airport is the latest indication that Malaysia has become an Asian transit hub for the illicit trade
Rhino horn has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years and is also carved into highly prized libation cups.
Under Malaysian law, it is an offence to import rhino horns without a licence.
In April last year Malaysia destroyed 9.5 tonnes of elephant ivory that it had seized over the years, in a move intended to deter smugglers who have long used the country as a trans-shipment point.
Malaysia has previously announced in parliament that 4,624 ivory tusks were confiscated between 2011 and 2014.
Ivory from African elephants is typically smuggled to Asia where it is carved into ornaments.
Hamzah also said 2.12 kg of ketamine worth 94.4 million ringgit was confiscated at the airport's budget terminal from a foreigner who arrived last Wednesday from Chennai in India.
"During an X-ray of the man's bag, we found white crystals which we believe was ketamine," he said.
Hamzah said the case was being investigated under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries a mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
As Ghanaians, in general, and the Ghanaian media, in particular, come to a realization of the imperative need to put an immediate and radical halt to the environmental menace of illegal gold-mining activities, popularly called Galamsey, this new collective self-preservation measure is apt to clash with the interests of foreign Galamseyers, whose primary focus is the massive exploitation of the land and far less on the necessary preservation of the land and its vital water resources, if the future comfortable existence of the indigenes or natives of our country is to be guaranteed. And so it comes as absolutely no surprise, whatsoever, that resident Chinese diplomats would be vehemently protesting the medias portrayal of their nationals in the country who have gotten inordinately and destructively involved in Galamsey activities.
As the Minister for Lands, Forestry and Natural Resources, Mr. Peter Amewu, recently indicated, the Ghanaian government is deeply committed to protecting our ecological balance or environmental health and will not kowtow to any cynical attempts by any foreign power or government to stall this most necessary campaign geared towards the halting and rehabilitation of our natural resources for the benefit of Ghanaians, both presently living and the yet-to-be-born (See Chinese Mission Cry [sic] Over Galamsey Fight; Demands Fair Reportage MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 4/8/17). It is also quite understandable that the longtime resident Chinese Ambassador and her associates would be worried about alleged media caricaturing of the key players of the Beijing government, as well as their local representatives on the ground here in Ghana.
But, of course, we also need to highlight the fact that the Chinese are receiving an especially raw media publicity because they have more than any other foreign nationals been intimately and seemingly adamantly involved in the wanton, inexorable and inexcusable denudation and chemical pollution of Ghanas lands, forestry and other existentially critical natural resources. So it is quite refreshing to hear the Chief Chinese Diplomat in Ghana and her staff pledge to seriously work with the leaders of their host country to ensure the immediate cessation of the inhumane degradation of the countrys ecological system.
In return, these resident Chinese diplomats would have the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) tutor Ghanaian reporters and other media operatives on the proper dignified portrayal of the leaders and citizens of a traditionally friendly and benevolent mega-nation like China. This is all well and good, except that unlike Communist China, Ghana is a veritable constitutional democracy that guarantees unfettered freedom of the press and the media in general. What this means is that if the local representatives of the Beijing government want to see and/or experience a positive image portrayal in the Ghanaian media, they perforce ought to be seen by Ghanaian reporters and other media operatives to be assiduously working to drastically reduce the destructive impact of Galamsey on the local environment.
Our leaders, however, ought to also take some of the blame for the rather cavalier manner in which some of the resident Chinese diplomats talk down to them and our people. Our shameless beggarly dependence on the material generosity of Beijing does not favorably commend us as a people deserving of any more respect than the mange-infected family dog.
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
New Delhi, Apr 10 (IBNS): Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh called on President of India Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
Welcoming the Bangladeshi Prime Minister to India, the President fondly remembered his visit to Bangladesh in March 2013.
He also appreciated the Prime Ministers visit in August 2015 to attend the last rites of his late wife.
The President said Government of Bangladeshs gesture of honouring the Indian soldiers martyred during the 1971 Liberation War is highly appreciated in India. India considers it a demonstration of solidarity and a symbol of the unique history of bilateral ties. There is much that unites the two countries - a shared history and common heritage, linguistic and cultural ties, passion for music, literature and the arts.
The President said India deeply appreciates Bangladeshi Prime Ministers role in giving a new direction to the India-Bangladesh relationship and making it what it is today a strong, vibrant and exemplary partnership between two neighbours. He said that under the leadership of the Bangladesh Prime Minister, the country has made tremendous progress.
The President said Bangladeshs commitment to strengthening democracy, rule of law, pluralism and human dignity and to ensuring peace, security and stability in the country is commendable.
He congratulated Bangladesh on successfully hosting the 136th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Dhaka last week and also the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development in December 2016.
The President said India-Bangladesh relations are growing from strength to strength. Cooperation is the field of connectivity, power, energy, trade, capacity building and infrastructure development is especially praiseworthy. India is fully committed to be a partner in Bangladeshs economic development. Geographical proximity and connectivity are advantages that must be leveraged to mutual benefit. He hoped that the announcement of over USD 5 billion of Indian concessionary financing for infrastructure projects in Bangladesh over the next couple of years will usher in more development for Bangladesh.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye shares the views of Safe Democracy Ghana that we need to reconstitute the Council of State from the way it is done today to give credence to our political evolution and give meaning to balance of power such that, contracts the Parliament of Ghana enters into can be authenticated and validated by another house such that we do not flip flop contracts we enter into as a nation and finally begrudge our ineptitude to political partisanship.
Democracy is a culture with its twigs and colours. In the absence of any of the twigs other names are given to it other than the term democracy. Because of the good of its kindling it becomes a legacy worthy of emulation and it gives credence to promulgate it throughout the world as system that gives reasons to be adopted as a culture to human political administration.
Such is it that the people of Ghana have thought it wise to practice democracy against our own God given culture which in itself is a model of political system.
But then, every now and then, a change of government democratically brings other scores of hardships unto the people of Ghana especially those who had won contracts during the time of the outgoing government.
As a result of judgement debts rapt, the exercise of power of the successive governments finally stretches to affect the entire Ghanaian society where those contracts were awarded according to dictates of the enacted laws of the Parliament of Ghana, noting that, parliament and government as well, are of perpetual successions nature and since the inception of the 1992 constitution, majority and leadership of the house has always been occupied by either the NDC or NPP.
On succeeding President Rawlings, President Kuffour abrogated a lot many contracts awarded by President Rawlings that landed Ghana before the International Arbitration Court where we paid undisclosed amount of dollars. President Kuffour refused to use some items procured for the use of the Executive by President Rawlings. When President Mills won the Presidency, he also challenged some contracts awarded by President Kuffour and paid some judgements debts as results of contracts President Kuffour awarded which they thought was abnormal.
Today President Akuffo Addo has questioned the Ameri contract. He has instituted a commission to check on the integrity of the Ameri contract that got awarded through the scrutiny of the Parliament of Ghana, the Cabinet and the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama.
Among the recommendation of Addison Commission are that, a percentage of the total sum be reduced or the government of Nana Addo must abrogate the contract.
If the reasoning of the commission be upheld and the monies got reduced or the contract get abrogated like the previous deals that got abrogated by previous governments, then it is for the people of Ghana to wise up and accept the incompetency of our governments since the inception of the 1992.
If the Addison Commission is right in its conclusion and recommendation, then all other contracts awarded in the last eight years and beyond needed be revisited and reviewed to ascertain a balance of culpability and where it needed be directed to.
If similar outcome of ineptitude supposedly begets the results of commissions created to look into previous contracts awarded and, or if those anomalies are found to be in greater percentage of contracts awarded by previous governments then we would comfortably conclude that, the services rendered by the total sum of 275 members of Parliament made up of the NDCs and NPPs becomes meaningless, worthless, futile, unwarranted and we must be fast awake to protect political administrative turbulence in the near future by reconstituting our arms of government.
The pillars of democratic evolution to serve purpose without any encumbrances are the political stalk moulding system of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The legislature being the composite pillar of democracy that serves the executive and the judiciary at the same time is made up of the entire societal representation and it has always been divided to give meaning to how society sees itself, the rich and the wellborn and the other the masses. Anything done against this rule for constitutional economy or political expediency fails the society for which the constitution was created for.
The United Kingdom and the United States have dual chamber parliaments and so are France and Germany. In exception of Nebraska, all of the 50 states that make up the United States of America have dual chamber parliaments and so are almost all the western countries one can boast of.
It is therefore regretful that, the Ghana Council of State is only an advisory body and the composition of majority of the members are to reward loyalist of the President who also won his seat by having a political party sponsored him/her to that office.
It is also interesting a Second Chamber Parliament is necessary and we must uphold and reconstitute the arms of government, especially the Council of State such that, every deliberations of the Parliament of Ghana shall be considered and approved by the Second House before it becomes law and in terms of contracts before it is validated.
The composition of the house must meet the description given by the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, formally second deputy speaker of the Parliament of Ghana in a publication of the IEA Vol. 19 No.5 September/October 2013 Addressing the Imbalance of Power Between the Arms of Government , A Search For Countervailing Authority
That is the only way we can safeguard our integrity and protect our democratic evolution.
Long live Ghana long live our democracy
Munir Saani
10.04.2017 LISTEN
The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attacks that took place, today 9 April 2017 during a Palm Sunday service, in two Orthodox churches in Tanta and Alexandria in Egypt, during which at least 41 people were killed and over 100 injured.
They expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Egypt and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.
The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of Egypt and all other relevant authorities in this regard.
The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. They reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
The Center for Progressive Governance (CenProG), like many Ghanaians, has observed the rather worrying security situation our beloved country finds itself due to the actions of Vigilante groups, most notably Delta Forces, supported by some NPP big wigs.
We have also observed the banter between the big wigs supporting the vigilante groups and the National Security Minister, Hon Kan Dapaah and will like to call on His Excellency, the President to come out in support of his National Security Minister.
It will be recalled that the vigilante group called Delta Forces went to the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council and forcefully removed the Regional Security Coordinator, duly appointed by the President of the Republic of Ghana, from his office. This act was rightfully condemned by well meaning Ghanaians and the National Security Minister promised Parliament to take the necessary action against the said group.
However, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako and MP for Assin Central, Hon Kennedy Agyapong came out in support of this group and threatened mayhem if the perpetrators of this dastardly act were prosecuted. This spurred the group on and gave them the courage to go ahead and cause a COURT BREAK when 13 members of the group were put on trial and rightfully remanded.
Again, the National Security Minister has promised to deal with this albatross of a group and again that has put him on a collision course with Bernard Antwo Boasiako and Hon Kennedy Agyapong with the latter calling for the dismissal/resignation of Hon Kan Dapaah.
CenProG finds this extremely worrying especially in the circumstance where the group has attacked two arms of government in the space of less than a month. The silence of His Excellency Akuffo Addo makes it more worrying as he seems to have left his National Security Minister to deal with these Monsters on his own.
CenProg will therefore like to call on His Excellency to come out in full support of his National Security Minister to deal with this canker once and for all. A statement from the Presidency announcing the President's unflinching and open support for his minister, in this instance, will be most appropriate.
CenProG will also like to assure Hon Kan Dapaah of the support of all well meaning Ghanaians as he works to thwart efforts aimed at making the country a banana republic. The National Security Minister should stand his grounds and know that he is not alone in this fight and he has the support of the Nation!
God Bless our homeland Ghana and make it GREAT and STRONG.
Signed
Sawadogo Mahmoud
Executive Secretary, CenProG
0504607005
Mallam Yahya Mohammed
Executive Director, CenProG
0243728659
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government wants the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to crack the whip and stop sewage companies from dumping faecal matter into the sea.
Speaking to journalists during of a tour of the Lavender Hill Faecal and Mudor Waste Water Treatment Plant in Accra, Chairperson of Parliamentary Select Committee said Parliament will soon outline sanctions for people who dump untreated fecal matter directly into the sea.
Patricia Appiagyei said she found it difficult to understand why people would continue dumping faeces into the sea despite the campaign against it.
It is despicable and unthinkable and we should not encourage it under any circumstance. I am wondering why people discharge human excreta into the sea, she said on Friday during the tour of the Plant.
The Lavender Hill Faecal and Mudor Waste Water Treatment Plant can receive as many as 500 trucks of faecal daily for treatment.
What we are requiring of AMA is an enforcement and if we find anyone culpable it is possible we will prescribe the right sanctions as lawmakers, she said.
Former President John Mahama inaugurated the multimillion dollar Accra Mudor Fecal Treatment Plant which was to treat fecal matter in 2016.
Managing Director for Sewerage System Ghana Limited, operators of the plant, Haidar Said, he called for the construction of a similar plant in other parts of the country to ensure an environmentally safe way of fecal matter disposal.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | GN
10.04.2017 LISTEN
The Jackson Foundation has presented a scholarship package worth GHC 52,500.00 to 15 students studying at the Jackson College of Education (JCE).
The beneficiaries drawn from various study centres across the country each received GHC 3,500.00 and other electronic gadgets to aid their studies.
Mrs. Theodosia Jackson, Co-chair of the foundation presented the packages to the beneficiaries at a colourful launch of the Foundation at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kumasi.
The goal is to provide equal and equitable opportunities for people whose aspirations to be trained as teachers are in sync with JCE's vision to increase the number of professional teachers in the country. Mrs. Jackson who doubles as the Principal of Jackson College of Education said the Foundation's target is to offer scholarship to 100 students annually, adding that it would strictly be awarded on merit.
She noted that despite the affordable and flexible payment terms most students of the college struggle to pay their fees due to financial constraints.
The situation, she observed, informed the initiative to set up the foundation to support deserving students.
She appealed to corporate bodies, philanthropists and other stakeholders in the education sector to support the foundation in its quest to improve quality education.
Mr. Jacob A. M. Kor, Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES), applauded the initiative which he described as a key intervention.
He said the role being played by JCE is contributing immensely to the development of the education sector. In this light, he added that the foundation is worth supporting.
The Director-General again, noted that education is a springboard to success; hence, he challenged the beneficiaries to work hard to justify the investment made in them.
The Independent Presidential Candidate at the 2016 General Elections, Jacob Osei Yeboah President (JOY), has descended heavily on the trial judge, Mary Senkyire, in the case involving members of the Ashanti region New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante group, Delta Force.
According to JOY, the pronouncement of remand by the presiding judge was astonishly unwise on her part since the remand sentence at first experience was too harsh on the boys.
"The whole problem is that, those in various Public authorities, politicians, Judges, Legislatures, securities, etc have awfully betrayed the trust reposed in them". It's animal farm scenario, that is the reality, the survival of the fittest. We are a bunch of genetically and congenitally hypocrites and Liars.
JOY was speaking in a telephone interview with ModernGhana over the weekend.
President JOY went on to add: "when you have Judges that can unwisely use their discretion to create chaos. When you have GBA and Judicial council that is not prepared to ensure that their members dispense justice to criticise you. Come on.
...How many poor and innocent people have been wrongfully sentenced into prison or lost even their coveted little assets because of the Judiciary, while their crony criminals walk around free. How can a goat thief be sentenced more than 2 years and broad daylight robbers of our nation walk happily and freely?"
It would be recalled that there was pandemonium at a Kumasi Circuit Court recently when members of Delta Force stormed the court in an attempt free 13 of their colleagues on prosecution.
Thirteen of them who were linked to attack on the Regional Security Coordinator Mr. George Adjei had been arraigned before the court on various charges ranging from conspiracy to assault and assaulting a public officer and causing to unlawful damage
Shortly after the case was called and their pleas taken, the trial Judge, Mary Senkyire demanded they should be remanded in prison custody until the next adjourned date which is 20th of April, 2017.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
The Independent Presidential Candidate at the 2016 General Elections, Jacob Osei Yeboah aka President JOY, has called the bluff of all those condemning the actions of Ashanti regional vigilante group Delta Force, a group loyal to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to JOY, who has jumped to the defence of Delta Force, the boys put their last blood on the line not just during the elections but protecting the NPP during those hard days in opposition when the NPP came under various attacks and intimidations from state security apparatus and others by the then ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
"In Ghana, when you are in opposition, the police doesn't protect your leaders or your members so the Delta Force was one approach which succeeded in protecting opposition leaders, don't forget the NPP at the time was the largest opposition party but Police didn't care whether they live or die."
JOY was speaking in a telephone interview with ModernGhana over the weekend.
It would be recalled that there was pandemonium at a Kumasi Circuit Court recently when members of Delta Force stormed the court in an attempt free 13 of their colleagues on prosecution.
Thirteen of them who were linked to attack on the Regional Security Coordinator Mr. George Adjei had been arraigned before the court on various charges ranging from conspiracy to assault and assaulting a public officer and causing to unlawful damage
Shortly after the case was called and their pleas taken, the trial Judge, Mary Senkyire demanded they should be remanded in prison custody until the next adjourned date which is 20th of April, 2017.
JOY argued that the Delta Force have every legitimate reason to demand whatever is due them but if the approach is wrong then the presidency and the NPP should find a more amicable way of dealing with them devoid of any rancour and violence.
"....Now you have won power so you have turned your back at them, they will come back in the same manner to haunt you and that is what we are seeing."
He further called on the presiding judge to be wiser in her pronouncements in order not to plunge the country into chaos.
JOY also had these to share: "Your life is endangered when you want to serve your nation and especially when in opposition and your safety is guaranteed by Delta Force. When you use a private means to arrest a scammer and the scammer because with his political links can threaten you in the sight of policemen, then we have a problem. Democracy thrives with the LAW. But unfortunately, the MURDERERS of the law, I can say without equivocation is mostly the Judiciaries both Private and Public.
...To me, it is hypocritical for the Judicial Council and GBA to condemn the act by the Delta Force without taking deep introspection of assessing their performance. A country where "Kwaku Ananse" wisdom is our hero and we are never prepared to deal with issues in clear eyed terms from the root! The results will be lawlessness.
Our behaviour and attitude is like the biblical Jews who were ready and quick to stone the woman found in adultery. When Jesus acted to affect their conscience, they had no strength to stone the woman. But not in Ghana, even the most guilty will be the first to throw the first stone. Hypocrites. It is not the weak, poor nor the vulnerable alone in our society are selective injustice applied. The danger and weakness of democracies everywhere is that absolute power is given to Judges discretions."
The Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour has endorsed Citi FM's campaign against the menace of illegal mining in the country dubbed #StopGalamseyNow.
He said the campaign was a worthy cause that needed to be undertaken to protect the countrys environment.
In fact you guys at Citi FM are doing a great job. This your campaign is a very good initiative and it comes at a time when almost all our water bodies and farm lands have being depleted due to Galamsey activities., he said.
The minister made the comments when some members of the #StopGalamseyNow campaign team from Citi FM paid a courtesy call on him on Friday [April 7] at his office at the Regional Coordinating Council.
The minister, who doubles as the member of parliament for the Nkawkaw Constituency passionately condemned politicians and traditional leaders who sponsor the activities of illegal miners.
He said it is a shame that some politicians, Chiefs and other powerful people in the country are behind the activities of this illegal miners.
He further added, Growing up as a child we use to hear that some neighbors had gold in their family but they never mined, I have never heard of any gold road in my life, all we hear is cocoa roads here cocoa roads there. This country has benefited from cocoa but what benefits have we seen from areas and regions where companies have been given license to mine, is only poverty, depleted lands and water bodies we know of about mining areas
He rallied support for the campaign and noted that various stakeholders including chiefs, politicians, pastors, teachers and other well-meaning Ghanaians needed to come on board to end illegal mining.
Meanwhile, Citi FM's #StopGalamseyNow campaign team in the Eastern Region toured some mining sites at Bunso, Osino, Kwabeng, Anyinam and Kyebi last week and shared fliers and t-shirts to residents while engaging some illegal miners as well duty bearers on how to curb the menace in the region.
The move was part of the larger campaign to impress upon government suspend all small-scale mining activities to enable and audit of the entire mining sector to help sanitize it and address galamsey.
By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku & Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Principal Consultant at the e-Crime Bureau, Albert Antwi-Boasiako, has appealed to journalists in Ghana to lead the campaign to create awareness about mobile money fraud in the country.
Mr. Antwi-Boasiako said this at a day's workshop on mobile money fraud organized by MTN Ghana, a leading telecommunication company and Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA), an association that campaigns for corporate Ghana, on Tuesday in Accra.
The workshop sought to provide the platform for MTN to educate members of the media fraternity on its mobile money operations and how best journalists can help fight fraud in the sector.
According to him, journalists should begin to engage telcos and other key stakeholders like the law enforcement agencies to fight against mobile money fraud.
Commenting on the role of the media in countering mobile money fraud, he warned that telcos should not be left alone in the fight against mobile money fraud but supported by all stakeholders.
Awareness should be made to help people who are at risk of losing their funds to hackers, he told the media.
That, he said, was because mobile money operations provide a lot of economic, social and health benefits for the state, and it should be really protected from criminal gangs.
Mobile money should be viewed within the wider ecosystem of the Ghanaian economy and not only the profits the providers are making, he urged.
Mobile Money fraud has become a nagging issue for many operators in the telecommunications industry in Ghana.
Mr. Antwi-Boasiako cited customer-driven fraud, agents-driven fraud and service provider-driven fraud.
He warned mobile money users not to send money to third parties they do not know, indicating that fraudsters deceive clients that they have won promos from the various telcos.
He also urged clients to ensure the protection of their data by installing anti-virus on their smartphone devices, avoid downloading all sort of items on their phones, use combination of numbers and words for their passwords in order to make them strong.
With the mobile money sector expected to dominate the financial industry in the next 20 years, Mr. Antwi-Boasiako explained that more work is required by all stakeholders to enhance the security of customers.
Manager of Mobile Financial Services Analytics and Compliance at MTN, Solomon Hayford, on his part, took the journalists through the operations of the mobile money service.
He indicated that MTN, in partnership with about 16 banks and 60,000 agents across Ghana, was offering mobile money services to about 5.6 million subscribers.
By Melvin Tarlue
Politics is an interesting occupation, especially in countries where liars and hypocrites are not barred from engaging in it.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the political party with the worst record in terms of disrespecting the judiciary or even the rule of law found in last week's unfortunate Azorka Boys' rating misconduct by so-called Delta Force men in Kumasi, something to jump at.
Smarting over the most humiliating electoral defeat in the country's post-independence political history the reasons for which the party is still seeking at very expensive costs, the Kumasi incident came to them as Manna from heaven. They have expectedly savoured it with the voraciousness of a starving man.
It is pitiable how their crossroads position is driving them to the level of desperation: they have forgotten so soon their role in re-enacting the post 2000 political vigilantism in the local setting.
Someone out of anger could not help but let out the Akan expression 'kwasiasem' when the party issued a statement claiming that the NDC handed over a peaceful country to the NPP. Bumkum! An electoral defeat compelled the NDC out of office; the Plan B line of action to create confusion, as they sought, having failed to materialize.
Let them not deceive themselves. The equalization strategy in local politics, their preference, won't be applicable any longer.
In any case, this rare misconduct on the part of the NPP activists cannot be stretched beyond where it has reached now. Indeed the fugitives have given themselves in because they know their party leadership won't condone their unruly conduct.
Their misconduct has come under unusual flak by both NPP supporters and the party leadership, the latter supportive of the law taking its course by all means.
That is one of the variations between the NPP and the NDC.
In the latter, the President or his assigns are used to interfering with due legal process at especially the investigation stage.
There are myriad cases in point the last being when former President John Mahama pardoned the Montie 3 after they were convicted for their weird sabre-rattling on the airwaves.
The prisoners had barely served half of their sentence; the entry palpably having an unenviable place in our judicial history because of its level of oddity and impunity.
Three South Africans were released on bail by a court of competent jurisdiction after they were arrested by a politicized BNI.
The court order was breached as the South Africans were whisked away to custody and nothing happened. It was a classic case of the executive not respecting the judiciary in a country where the system of separation of powers is supposed to be operational.
For a party whose forebear gave the nod for the abduction and murder of three high court judges it should not play the angel.
Didn't the brother of a Minister in the previous regime claim he and others have been responsible for many murders in the Brong Ahafo Region and nothing happened to him until a new government took office?
The NDC should better shut up and let good governance gain a foothold in the country.
The Member of Parliament for Manhyia North in Kumasi, Hon Collins Owusu Amankwah, has noted with grave concern that he values a constituency that is calm and peaceful and with good security for all citizens than otherwise.
He said the absence of acrimony, robbery, accidents and the likes enhance the well being of the constituents even apart from the peace he will have to do his work as a legislator.
Donating two motor cycles to the Airport Police station, the young MP noted that it has been his resolve since he became a legislator to help the police in his constituency in any way he can to make their work better and easier.
When there are so many reports of armed robbery or stealing, rampant acrimony or gangsterism, investors are discouraged from coming in to establish their businesses or even partner with us. So we end up disturbing our own selves.
But when we are able to equip the police in addition to what the Central Government is doing, they get encouraged to go any length to perform their constitutionally mandated duties well. He pointed.
The two 1100 capacity Kawasaki motor bikes according to the MP was to facilitate the work of the police in the constituency in enforcing law and order, and also protecting his constituents from harmful persons.
This act of the MP greatly moved the constituents who expressed joy that he indeed had good thoughts about them.
On several occasions after assuming the MP position in Manhyia North, Hon. Collins Owusu Amakwah has made presentations of varied amounts to the constituency.
He completed an Ultra Modern Police station in Buokrom F line which had been abandoned for years. He has always contributed to night patrols of policemen by regularly giving them money for fuel.
When each morning on various TV stations representatives of the two major parties and the smaller once are asked to give their comments to the daily News Paper Headlines, watch out what happens hour in and hour out. Like small children in the sand box playing with their plastic tools to build a figure and house, fight over words and ideas shouting on each other with hefty gestures across Hosts bodies hard to stop and calm down. When switching over to Morning shows in Europe at the same time, Guest behave much differently allowing the opponent to speak out his mind before responding to it. What does it tell observers?
Crack Down of Galamsey (illegal mining), a threat to the environment and especially water bodies harming the supply of drinking water to local communities in various parts of Ghana, is once again on the Agenda of Media Houses and Political Parties. On March 5th 2017 on GHone, on Morning Show with Kafui Dey Hard Talk last former Minister for Mines and Energy lamented, NPP Representatives before 2016 election went to China asking for financial support to win the December 2016 election making the declared fight against Galamsey, only a lip talk with no effective actions to be taken to end the exploitation once and for all.
So far, it has only been unveiled that Chinese citizen are engaging in illegal mining, not Europeans, not Americans and no Australians. Is it a coincidence that these white Nationals have no interest in this lucrative business but only the Chinese that financially assist Ghana tremendously with Loans and financing of Infrastructure?
While GHone discussed Galamsey Menace, few minutes later on Metro TV on Good Morning Ghana the Host and his two guests discussed the issue of the 10-year-old BMW car Prez. Nana Akufo-Addo uses as too old with a strong need of replacement. Someone even took this matter to court to force the President to use a more modern car. When a President wants to save money for the nation, the nation seems not to approve it (Hypocrisy?). A society has to set the rules for a President but as he is never the Slave or Property of a Nation, it is his legitimate right to make his choice in the framework set for him even to the extent that he can refuse any form of body protection if he so wishes. That can never be of concern to any Citizen but must be respected like any citizen wants to be respected by the Society in a set framework of behavior.
The same day Prez. Nana Akufo-Addo appointed a 9 Member Board of Directors with 5 Advisors to head the Ghana Investment and Infrastructure Fund. Each time the Board meets, they get their sitting allowances reducing the Fund dramatically while the underlining responsibilities in other jurisdictions are managed and supervised by the respective Ministries and their civil servants that get their normal monthly paycheck.
Memories emerge when the presiding Judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana at the end of the Election Petition Hearing - end of 2013 -sentences three Ghanaian Journalists to Prison sentences only for their critical comments made towards the Court performance by saying, such criticism is justified and practiced only in advanced Democracies but cannot be tolerated in political developing countries, shouting into the faces of the Men before him. Vladimir Lenin killed the ousted last Romanov Zar of Russia, Nicolas II along with his German wife Alexandra (a Grand-Daughter of Queen Victoria), four daughters and one son on the eve of 1918 fearing the revolutionary momentum, which had started in October 1917, would lose its momentum. History has so many parallels to learn from to improve societies!
Prez. Park of South Korea has been arrested and put into Prison this week based on corruption allegation against her. Prez. Jacob Zuma got the backing of the ANC in South Africa even a court had several months before clearly convicted him of having violated the countrys constitution and forced him to pay back state funds taken unlawfully back to the Treasury.
Ghanaian Businessman Alfred Woyome has taken his case of GHC 51, 2 Mio. Judgement debts to the International Court of Arbitration knowing he cannot win. He has already paid back GHC 4 Mio. to the State after the High Court ruling by which he had accepted his guilt. The NDC can no longer protect him. It is his intention to make Ghana tired and win for time while at the same time put shame on the political and justice System of the country that once had favoured him laughing into the people of Ghanas faces. China is often criticized for taking drastic actions by executing people with a background of serious corruption regardless of fear or favour.
When is it the right time for Africans to learn, and for anyone regardless of race and ethnic background, to point the fingers into the wounds self-inflicted by the Black African Elite?
It was this week that the newly appointed Director to Ghana Standard Board stepped down from his position given two weeks into his assignment based on comments he had made earlier.
Car spare parts dealers were jumping for joy when Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had declared a heavy reduction of Import duties only a few days later to be corrected by Ghana Revenue Authority that the ECOWAS framework in Import Duties does not allow such a reduction to be effected bringing the spirit of hope of the Spare Parts Dealers down and their anger to a boiling point.
Vigilante groups like Invisible Forces or Delta Force closely associated with political parties and tolerated by them behind the public eyes. In the interest of Political Parties, they take the law into their own hands with security forces more than not closing their eyes on wrong doings only with the odd occurrences making headlines to be investigated and prosecuted. In Europe or USA, such groups do not exist.
Prisoners in African Correction Facilities like in Ghana when poor suffer below Human Rights standards, when rich, walk for free outside prison walls. The conditions inside Ghana Prisons are a blueprint for spreading deceases, being killed by inmates when a Prisoner was sentenced to life in prison being convicted as a murderer, but it never achieves its ultimate goal to improve the overall crime rate in the country. Humans that are incarcerated behind thick walls are still a vast labour force that can, by their own hands, earn money and improve their prison conditions while at the same time save money for the time of their release, and give them a sense of importance to society. Constructive ideas and work opportunities in Ghana are rare like pink diamonds. Human Rights organizations (ICC in Den Haag Crimes against Humanity) should take all African Governments to the appropriate courts for violation of Human Rights and reduce AID support accordingly.
When a White Man married a second time to an African woman sitting on the feet of his Black African Spiritual Father with black business partners around him speaks his mind as he knows and sees it is called by White people with only white women by their side - and Blacks alike a Borderline Racist (what is that anyway, someone can explain?) it shows obviously that many people exist that benefit from the misery of Africa pretending to be better friends to them; their visible interest is to preserve the status quo for their individual egoistic advantage in life.
There is no country, and no society for that matter, on earth that is a perfect place for mankind as humans are full of flaws in need for correction and improvements whether in the world of the White, Black, Yellow or Red Man. Where agreed minimum standards to treat people and manage nations are not met, the outcry must be louder than in other circumstances regardless of the ignorant voices of opposition against any attempt to speak out honest minds; only someone speaking his mind, that must not reflect the ultimate answer to a problem seen, but can be used as a stone in the way focusing someones mind to rethink a situation and behavior and come up with an appropriate answer to problem to make the lives of their own people better in their own approach based on time and historic circumstances, is a beneficially way forward for improved Humanity. Humans and Nations willing to learn constantly have a future as time is always moving on, others are falling behind.
Author: Dipl.-Pol. Karl-Heinz Heerde, Sakumono, Tema West, Ghana, phone +233(0)265078287, [email protected] , 07.03.2017
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, Alhassan Suhuyini, and Mahama Ayariga
10.04.2017 LISTEN
It started like a blockbuster movie plot with a climax everyone looked up to. But it ended in an anti-climax and took a rather humourous turn when the protagonists signature on his apology letter was likened to an erect manhood. We are laughing it off on social media and when its done we will move on.
Mahama Ayariga has generally become the villain in this story because his allegation that there was an attempted bribery of members of the appointments committee of parliament, was dismissed by the committee that investigated the matter.
On Newsfile two weeks ago, lawyer Ace Ankomah told the MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudjeto Ablakawa, that he (Ablakawa) and his team of MPs who alleged that there was an attempt to bribe them had done a poor job. He told the lawmaker that he should have, at least, used his smartphone to record the process of returning the bribe money to the Minority Chief whip, Mohammed Muntaka. This, Mr. Ankomah said, could have been used as evidence.
Mr. Ablakwa, the MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga; and the MP for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini; had alleged that the Energy Minister, Mr. Boakye Agyarko, had given a bribe of GHc3000 to each member of the appointment committee, which vetted him. The purpose of the said bribe was so that they would unanimously approve his nomination. Parliament set up a five-member committee to probe the matter. The outcome was very predictable. The committee said there was no evidence to support the allegation and found Mahama Ayariga guilty of contempt of parliament.
When Ace Ankomah told Okudjeto Ablakwa what he should have done, I thought it would not have amounted to anything fruitful. Who in Ghana has ever admitted or owned up to a secret recording? The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo, told stories about manipulation of a recording when his own voice on an ethnocentric comment was leaked.
Perhaps, the clearest and most flawless secret voice recording I have heard in this country was a voice alleged to be that of the Efutu MP, Alexander Afenyo Markins who was alleged to have taken a bribe and was recorded while negotiating another bribe. The purpose of the alleged bribery, according to the recording, was to enable him to perform legal gymnastics at the Supreme Court of Ghana in order to have a case he had filed against the Agric Development Bank dismissed.
Alexander Afenyo Markin was sitting next to Okudjeto Ablakwa when Ace Ankomah advised him about the recording. When the voice, which sounded very much like that of Afenyo Markin, was released to the media, he denied it was not his voice. The alleged giver of the bribe also denied paying the bribe. Afenyo Markin went silent for a few months, resurfaced and went ahead to contest his seat and won.
If Ayariga or anyone had recorded their fellow MPs in this bribery saga, we would not have given them a listening ear. We would have called them wicked and unethical for secretly recording their fellow MPs. So the so-called evidence, for want of which we have decided to crucify the three MPs, would not have changed anything. Those who want to believe them will believe them. Those who dont want to believe them would not even if they produced an audio-visual recording of everything that transpired.
We are generally a hypocritical people. We are angry about corruption, but we are not prepared to deal with it when it involves people we know or whose political party we support.
The fact that there was no recording of the incident does not mean it did not happen. I had an interaction with a member of parliament who does not support Ayariga, Okudjeto and Suhuyinis decision to go public on the matter. He told me the money was, indeed, paid in respect of Boakye Agyarko, but it did not come from himself. Both the minority and majority members on the appointment committee, according to this MP, received the money. When minority members on the committee later heard that an okro-mouth MP knew about the deal, they decided it wasnt safe to keep it, for he would insult them with it one day and expose them.
READ Manassehs Folder: Is the Chief of Staff a leper?
At that point, they all agreed to return it. It was at this point that some of them suggested the deal be leaked to the media. This caused a split because some of them said it should not be leaked. Ayariga, Ablakwa and Suhuyini were among the school of thought that the deal should be leaked to the media. They were the three MPs who openly said the money was paid to them to and they returned it.
The MP who told me this story believes Ayariga and his colleagues should not portray themselves as incorruptible paragons of virtues because they were not returning the cash based on any principles. It was based on the fear of being exposed one day that they came out with the story, he said.
My source explained that it was not the first time money was paid to members of the appointment committee. He said it was a norm that ministerial nominees who appeared before the appointment committee of parliament presented some cola nuts to the vetting committee. The MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, also said on Joy FM that Mohammed Muntaka was more interested in protecting parliament than helping to get to the bottom of the matter. He said Muntaka had told him that he swore by Allah in order to appear believable. Muntaka has not denied this.
It is difficult to produce evidence to back what Ayariga and his colleagues said. Ghana may be a corruption-prone nation but we are yet to get to the point where we will offer receipts for bribes.
Mahama Ayarigas apology letter to parliament
Judging from the reaction on social media and from opinion leaders, it sounds stupid to believe what Ayariga and his colleagues alleged. But from what I know, I think I believe them. As an investigative journalist, I have met with officials and discussed very sensitive issues. These are off the record conversations and information. The fact that I have not recorded them does not mean those conversations did not take place.
I ever sat with a medical doctor for over an hour. He told me everything I needed to know about what I was investigating. When we did the first part of the story, he went on a different radio station and said he hadnt told me any such thing. We were compelled to play the secret recording.
In court, this one-hour and fifteen minutes recording was played to him. His lawyer said that was not his voice.
I dont think Ayarigas evidence would have changed the outcome. He is not the first sitting MP to have said that some MPs take bribes to execute their mandate. He has apologised and parliament will continue to do its business as usual.
We the citizens of Ghana have let ourselves and the future generation down. We concentrated on the messengers and ignored the message. This was a golden opportunity to scrutinize our legislature and demand a more ethical and morally upright parliament. But, as usual, we have buried our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostriches.
We will continue to blame everyone else for the high level of corruption and underdevelopment of our nation. We will not remember how we often aid and abet these actions of our leaders. Many of the people who publicly condemned Ayariga and his group know the TRUTH! The silence and defence of those who knew the truth but decided to hide behind the lack of facts is a betrayal of our nation.
This is how we have been, and will always be until something miraculous happens.
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.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
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The chiefs and people of the northern parts of the Volta Region have called on government to exercise its power under the constitution to create the proposed Oti Region before the end of the first term of President Akufo-Addo.
According to them, their ancestors voluntarily voted in the 1956 plebiscite to join independent Ghana with the expectations that their people and communities would record socio-economic development through the provision of health facilities, good roads, among others.
They claimed they had been denied their share of the national cake which has improvised.
At the end of the maiden conference on the creation of the new region held at Nsuta in the Jasikan District, the chiefs and people issued a resolution that the creation of the Oti Region would accelerate development that would transform the lives of the people and future generations.
Background
The demand for the creation of the Oti Region started over 40 years ago when in the 1970s some chiefs and people of the area petitioned the then Prime Minister, Dr. K.A Busia, to create the region because of neglect in the provision of developmental projects.
In the 1980s, the chiefs and people also petitioned the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), and previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) under ex-President Kufuor but to no avail.
In the run-up to the 2016 election, the chiefs petitioned Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, then presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to consider creating the Oti Region if given the nod.
The proposed Oti Region encompasses eight districts including Jasikan, Kadjebi, Biakoye, Krachi East and West, Krachi Nchumuru, Nkwanta North and South.
The area is predominantly occupied by Akans, Guans, Ewes, Kokombas and several other ethnic groups.
Krachiwura Speaks
Chairman of the Joint Consultative Committee, the Krachiwura, Nana Besemuna Mprah III, noted that the creation of the region would bring governance closer to the people.
This would be done through the establishment of a Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), which is the highest political organ in every region, to oversee the development the area, he said.
He maintained that despite their demand for a new region, they shall forever remain part of Ghana per the laws.
Nana Besemuna Mprah III pledged that the people of the proposed Oti Region would live peaceful in a cultural diverse area, and also peacefully coexist with the people of the Volta Region.
Oti Region For Dev't
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archiebald Letsa, gave the assurance that the creation of the Oti Region would not have any adverse effect on other parts of the Volta Region.
According to him, the people of the new region would benefit from new roads, health facilities and also have economic opportunities.
He commended the chiefs for improving the lives for the people and pledged to support their cause.
( [email protected] )
From Fred Duodu and Gibril Abdul Razak, Jasikan
Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that a police officer on duty at the New Abirem Government Hospital in the New Abirem District of the Eastern Region allegedly beat a 32-year-old illegal miner, David Kwasi Dotse, to death on his sick bed.
Akua Ankomah, wife of the deceased, who confirmed the incident to the paper, said her late husband was afflicted by some disease in the police cells some months ago and was transported to the Central Hospital in Koforidua to seek treatment.
He recovered and was discharged. I even sold one of our houses to pay the hospital bills, which cost GH2,000.00 at Central Hospital in Koforidua, she said.
According to her, the condition of Dotse deteriorated last week and he was again admitted at the New Abirem Government Hospital.
She noted that Dotse told her that the policeman on duty subjected him to severe beatings on his sickbed after he begged him [policeman] not to handcuff his hands in order to wake up to urinate.
Some nurses also told me that the police officer on duty beat my late husband until he fell from the sick bed onto the floor on Wednesday morning. Some nurses and other patients came to his scene, Ms Ankoma declared.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the deceased, who was arrested last year with three other suspects for shooting a taxi driver at a mining site at Ntronan, suburb of New Abirem, died on Wednesday morning after the police officer brutally assaulted him the previous night.
Ms Ankomah said the Ntronan Police Commander and two other policemen came to her house on Wednesday morning to inform her about the husband's death.
I rushed to the Abirem Hospital and the doctor confirmed this to me and even asked me to pay GH200.00 as the hospital bill. I believe the policeman killed my husband, she indicated.
The Abirem Police Commander, DSP Amoah, when contacted by DAILY GUIDE, admitted that the suspect died at the hospital but denied reports that he was beaten to death by the police officer on duty.
According to DSP Amoah, he would wait for an autopsy report from the hospital before making further comments on the matter.
From Daniel Bampoe, New Abirem
10.04.2017 LISTEN
The Deputy Secretary General of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Koku Anyidoho has stated that President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a weak Leader.
The outspoken Deputy Secretary said the actions of NPPs vigilante group Delta force for the pasts days is most unfortunate and the no action posture of the president in curbing the situation makes him weak.
He made this statement on 7th April, 2017, on Ahotor Fms Friday political program, 360 politics with Akyena Brantuo Benjamin.
Mr. Anyidoho in a telephone conversation made it clear that he as an individual is not surprise about the actions of the vigilante group and as a matter of fact predicted the action even before its inception.
It can be recall on the 6th April, 2017 that members of the vigilante group affiliated to the new patriotic party (NPP) Delta force stormed the Kumasi circuit court and freed the members of their group who were facing charges for causing disturbances in the Ashanti Region.
The 13 were detained in connection with the groups raiding of the premises of the Regional security council last week on March 24, 2017 where they were alleged to have assaulted the newly appointed security coordinator, Mr. George Adjei.
In a disclaimer on Thursday night at Oman FM, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, the Assin Central MP and a leading member of NPP admitted that the action of the Delta Force in storming the court on Thursday to free accused persons was disgraceful
Hon. Agyapong in his condemnation said they have destroyed the goodwill he initially had for them and never expected them to have taken that action.
Mr. Anyidoho, has urged all political parties, civil society, religious bodies and all right thinking Ghanaians to condemn what happened. He also advised the security forces in the region to take steps in preventing such occurrences.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
A Manager of a sachet water firm, Edward Kodjo Tawiah, who allegedly robbed a family at gunpoint at Westland, near Haatso, Accra, has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.
Tawiah, charged with conspiracy to commit crime, and two counts of robbery, pleaded not guilty.
His accomplice whose name was given as Eric, aka Abodam, however, is on the run.
The court presided over by Mr. Aboagye Tandoh remanded Tawiah in police custody to reappear on April 18, 2017.
Prosecuting Superintendent of Police, Mr. Kweku Bempah, said Mr. Edward Antwi and his wife, Adwoa Antwi, and their son, Carlton Antwi, are the complainants in the matter.
According to Mr. Bempah, Mr. Antwi is an Estate Developer, while Tawiah was the Manager of his late fathers pure water company.
On March 28, 2017 this year, at about 3:00 a.m., the complainant and wife were asleep in the bedroom when Tawiah and Eric armed with a pistol and wearing face masks broke into their room.
Prosecution said they ordered the complainant and his wife to show them where they kept their moneys they brought home the previous day.
Superintendent Bempah said Mr Antwi told the accused persons that he did not bring any money home.
The accused persons dragged Mr Antwi from his bed onto the floor.
Prosecution said the accused persons tied Mr Antwi and his wifes hands behind them.
They collected Mr Antwis phone valued GH1,300.00, gold necklace valued at GH8,000 00 and his wife mobile phone costing GH5,000.00 and her engagement and wedding rings estimated at GH6,000.00.
Not satisfied with the act, they also entered into the couples sons room and collected his GH750.00 worth mobile phone and a Laptop valued at GH2,000.00.
After collecting the items, the accused persons marched the couples son to his parents room and tied him also.
Unknown to the accused persons, they skipped the room of the couples daughter who then called a friend who also called the Police.
Before the accused persons could leave the house ,the Police Patrol Team arrived at the scene and the robbers on seeing them entered the various rooms in their bid to escape through the window.
Abodam who was holding a pistol attempted to shoot the police but the police shot at him
However,the two managed to escape.
Tawiah who was injured could not go far and was nabbed by the police.
An Isuzu Trooper with Registration number GR 8237-A used by the robbers was retrieved from the scene of the crime and same was impounded.
Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis will visit Egypt as planned this month despite the weekend bombings of two Coptic Christian churches that killed 44 people, a Vatican official said.
"There is no doubt the Holy Father will maintain his offer to go to Egypt" on April 28 and 29, Monsignor Angelo Becciu, the Holy See's number three, said in an interview published in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Monday.
"What happened caused disorder and tremendous suffering, but it cannot stop the pope's mission of peace," he added.
Sunday's bombings in churches in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Tanta north of Cairo were the deadliest attacks on the Coptic Christian community in recent memory and were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
Becciu, who will travel to Egypt with the pontiff, described the bombings as an "attack on dialogue, on peace".
"Egypt has assured us that everything will go as well as possible, so we will go confidently," he said.
The pope had also voiced his condolences Sunday for victims of the double bombing, which has led Egypt to declare a three-month state of emergency.
"May the Lord convert the heart of those who sow terror, violence and death and also the heart of those who make weapons and trade in them."
Francis will become the second Roman Catholic pope to visit Egypt, following John Paul II's historic trip there in February 2000.
The Vatican's slogan for the trip is "Pope of peace in Egypt of peace".
The eight Delta Force members arrested for allegedly sparking the confusion at the Kumasi Circuit Court, leading to the escape of 13 of their own who were arraigned, have been remanded to reappear before the court on April 18, 2017.
Citi News Lauretta Timah reported that, the eight were accompanied by tight security comprising a SWAT team from Accra and police in plain clothes.
The accused were seen to be generally calm as they were walked into the court in handcuffs.
Lawyers of the remanded Delta Force members had argued that the case was bailable, but the bail plea was turned down by the presiding judge.
The eight have been charged with disturbing a court session, for resisting arrest, and freeing the 13 persons who were in lawful custody.
The 13 Delta Force members were facing charges for raiding the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council and assaulting its coordinator.
The judge had ruled that the 13 be remanded to reappear before the court on the 20th of April, 2017, after charges of conspiracy to assault a public officer and causing unlawful damage.
But the displeasure of some onlooking Delta Force members with the ruling, sparked the fracas at the court leading to the escape of the 13.
The 13 who escaped court custody, have since reported themselves back to custody, and will remain on remand until the 20th of April when they will be arraigned at the Kumasi Circuit Court.
By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Guwahati, Apr 10 (IBNS): A local court in Guwahati on Monday sent the SSP (CID) of Assam police to 14-day judicial custody, who was arrested for allegedly leaking the probe detail of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) office in Silapathar on March 6 last.
The investigating team on Monday produced IPS officer Dr N Rajamarthandan before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kamrup (Metro) after completion of two-day police remand and the court sent the arrested SSP (CID) to 14-day judicial custody.
The 2006-batch IPS officer, who was also investigating the multi crore rupees Louis Berger bribery scam in Assam, was arrested by the crime branch of Guwahati city police after his alleged involvement in leaking the information of investigation process of Silapathar incident was proven.
N Rajamarthandan had provided the information to the general secretary of Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samanvay Samiti (NIBBUSS) through RTI, whereas the CID organization has been exempted from the RTI Act following the Assam government order issued in 2006.
On the other hand, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court of Dhemaji had sent NIBBUSS president Subodh Biswas and his aide Subhash Biswas to 14-day judicial custody, who were arrested in connection with the Silapathar incident.
The Dhemaji CJM court also sent NIBBUSSs Assam unit president Sahadev Das and state general secretary Benimadhab Ray to 10-day police custody after police produced them before the court.
Assam police had arrested Sahadev Das and Benimadhab Ray from Siliguri area in West Bengal on April 8 last.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Vice President Amadou Hott (middle) at the construction site of the 2,400 MW Batoka Gorge hydro-electric scheme for Zambia and Zimbabwe. On his left is Mr. Mdaniso Ernest Sakala, AfDB Senior Private Sector Investments Officer; and on his right is Ms. Elizabeth Muguti, AfDB Senior Power Engineer
Livingstone, Zambia, 10 April 2017 The African Development Banks Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth Sector Complex, Amadou Hott, was in Livingstone, Zambia, on 30 and 31 March 2017 attending the 2,400-MW Batoka Gorge Hydro Electric Scheme (BGHES) investors conference, where stakeholders discussed progress and financial support to the scheme.
The BGHES is being constructed by the Zambezi River Authority, an organization equitably owned by the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe, to develop, operate, monitor and maintain hydropower projects along the Zambezi River shared by the two Southern African countries.
Zambias Vice President and four ministers from Zambia and Zimbabwe were in attendance along with other development partners.
Addressing participants at the conference, Hott reaffirmed the Bankss support to BGHES and its role as the lead financier of the project. The Bank has been working together with Zambia and Zimbabwe on major energy projects such as the transformative Itezhi Power Generation and Transmission Project, and rehabilitation of power infrastructure in Zimbabwe, among others. The Batoka Scheme is in line with the objectives of AfDBs New Deal on Energy for Africa. Hott said that the target for the New Deal for universal access to energy by 2025 requires the implementation of transformative regional projects such as Batoka.
The governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe have appointed the Bank as Lead Coordinator for the project, to be implemented in partnership with other development partners. Vice President Hott also held separate meetings with Ministers of Finance, Energy, Water and Sanitation and Mines, to discuss the progress made on the proposed Energy Sector budget support to Zambia, the way forward on the Batoka project and to update the Government of Zambia on the implementation of the New Deal on Energy. He further held meetings with representatives of the power utility company in Zambia, ZESCO, and the Industrial Development Corporation of Zambia, the Zambezi River Authority and Copper belt Energy Corporation.
AfDB and the New Deal on Energy for Africa
Africa constitutes only about 16 percent of the global population, but 53 percent of the global population is without access to electricity. Per capita consumption of energy in Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) is 180 kWh, compared to 13,000 kWh in the United States and 6,500 kWh in Europe. Over 700 million Africans do not have access to clean cooking energy, and 600,000 African women and children die annually due to indoor air pollution arising from use of carbon-based fuels such as charcoal for cooking. This situation has to change if Africa is to realize the SDGs.
The African Development Bank is implementing the New Deal on Energy for Africa, to Light up and power Africa, with the aspirational objective of achieving universal access to energy by 2025. The Bank will invest US$ 12 billion in the power sector over the next five years and aims to leverage US$ 45-50 billion from the private sector.
Assessing performance of our governments their first hundred (100) days in office and rating them according to our findings has become a convention across the world.The baby has started developing (it) his or her natural features,the new features show whether he/she will be the father's look alike ( resemble) or the mother.
I don't have the strength and the courage to type here the promises the Npp on their campaign platforms presented to Ghanaians.My hands and fingers are too tiny to complete this herculean task.Without waiting your precious time let's quickly delve into the promises vis-a-vis the government's performance and governance direction to see if these promises could be actualized.I will first touch on some detected distortions the first hundred days
1.Let me begin with the latest issue dominating our media discussions which is the fertilizer issue.I listened to the Agric Minister on the fertilizer issue and heard him make ridiculous statement that government has reduced price of fertilizer to our farmers.The impression being created is that the previous administration exorbitantly sold fertilizer to the farmers.This was the statement the minority caucus on agriculture led by the current Agric Minister made on the floor of Parliament which was captured by citifmonline
"THE MINORITY Caucus in Parliament has accused government of political discrimination in the distribution of fertilizers to farmers across the country.
According to the Caucus, there is a lot of discrimination based on the political colour of the farmers before they could have fertilizers with extensive reports of smuggling of fertilizers across our borders and the emergence of a huge black market in fertilizer and chemicals in this country belie the seriousness of this policy.
The operative word captured in their statement is "Distribution" throughout the four years,I didn't hear any statement suggesting that the product was sold cheaper to NDC farmers it was always about discrimination in distribution.Government supervised the provision of 680,879 metric tonnes of fertilizer equivalent to GHC 325.24 million for Ghanaian farmers since 2009 in 2013 government subsidies on 166,807 metric tonnes were given to farmers as against 43,176 metric tonnes in 2008 this moved fertilizer coverage from 8kg per hectare in 2008 to 12kg in 2013 this figure moves to 180,000 metric tonnes.Government in 2006 announced it was absorbing 26% of cost of the 180,000 tonnes of fertilizer so that with effect from April that 2016 a 50 kg bag of compound fertilizer would sell at GHC 85 with the Urea go for Ghc 80.What the current Minister mischievously failed to mention was how his current administration got the space to take the decision he played political mischief with.The point is who told the minister that placing prices on goods means there can't be free distribution.It was a policy of the Ministry and Cocobod to distribute free fertilizer to the farmers and other farmers according to farm size and demand that did not seize the farmers from making extra purchases if their farms size were bigger than what the free allocation could cover.In addition to the fertilizer distribution, government made available Ghc 120 million to the rice,poultry,Shea,cashew and other agro processing sub- sectors to boost production. I don't know if the Minister remember the famous Tarkwa case where one Nyarko Abronomah was charged for stealing and selling to farmers fertilizer meant for free distribution to cocoa farmers by Ghana Cocoa Board.
2.The other promise which turned out to be just one of the normal sugar for the ants promises is the removal of taxes on spare parts.I am not to do any financial engineering work here by separating the tax components.The Npp in opposition received funds from the spare parts dealers and as a reciprocal gesture, promised them massive tax cuts at the ports forgetting that most of the port taxes captured on their payback lists,were part of the ECOWAS external tariffs and didn't even know that Ghana assented to this new ECOWAS tariff system during the tenure of President Kufour and he signed to this policy with his foreign minister Nana Akuffo Addo sitting closely by.Few days after announcing the removal of duties on imported spare parts the government came back to rubbish its own announcement that removing those duties was impossible because of the ECOWAS clauses.
3.We were promised free SHS and mischievously were not made to understand how the policy was going to be structured. Most parents whose wards are in our secondary schools voted for the Npp to get some respite only to be told after taking office that the policy covers only students going to be admitted next September. This singular act of deceit has put serious signs of regret on faces of many parents.
4.The issue of fuel price and utility tariffs was another major campaign issue the Npp in their usual populist fashion were used to incite the populace against the previous administration. The irony is that the Akuffo-Addo government unprecedented in the annals of our politics, increased fuel prices and utility tariffs few days into government leading to high transport fares and pressure on our domestic budgets.The regime exhibited real conservatives skills by removing VAT in domestic flight fares leading to sharp decrease in air fares.
5.On all their campaign platforms and in their discussions the Npp led by Dr Bawumia made Ghanaians aware that the economy of Ghana was at its dying state and loans were suffocating the economy so promised Ghanaians that if elected, loans contracting would be a thing of the past.We were told that the Npp government will seal all the holes in our revenue generation outlets and curb corruption that will be enough source of getting funds for our projects than relying on external and domestic loans. Few days into government, the crippling economy was able to pay an outstanding arrears of $13 million at the ECOWAS peacekeeping Secretariat, sponsored a lavishly organised [email protected] anniversary,etc.The senior Minister told us that after all,the fundamentals of the economy was strong and the Minister of Finance himself in his budget statement praised the previous administration for taking certain strategic decisions which were bearing positive fruits. The npp Bawumia made us aware has the best of economic brains had to rely on the services of expatriate economists from South Africa to prepare its maiden budget for them.The President himself presented to us economy figures which were rubbished by his finance department few minutes after his delivery and the only explanation they gave us for the misrepresentation of of facts was that we should forgive the President because, none of his finance capos was around him to guide him.I don't know when it became a policy that the finance minister or his deputy must always be around the President when he is making statements about the economy.
6.The size of the previous government was another major campaign message. We were made to believe that chunk of our money go into paying our oversized government appointees that the size of the government was contributing to the fake corruption they preached all over.BBC was the first media platform to express deep shock over the 110 appointees in this new administration. Protection of national purse through prudent administrative arrangements was no more an issue.The size of this government is likely to swell to around 140 after the new regions have been created.
7.Unemployment was one of their main campaign punches. Ironically the regime started its work with dismissal of workers,termination of appointments,suspension of some perceived NDC public and civil servants leading to sharp increase in our unemployment figure.
8.We heard them preach about insecurity only to come supervise over vigilantism, militia operations,seizure of legally acquired properties,beating of innocent citizens,harassment of judges, ransacking of court premises etc.These reckless actions led to that painful episode at the Kintampo waterfall and the bloodbath at Kumasi when the famous Delta Forces chased out the regional security coordinator.For the first time since that unfortunate murder of the three high court Judges, a judge was made to run for her life at her own court in Kumasi.
9.Dumsor was another major issue and interestingly, the Npp used Dumsor for their campaign even after the previous administration had stabilised the situation and promised us stable power supply immediately they took over.People who were at the VGMA show will tell you that we still need multimedia, Evon and others to organise another Dumsor vigil reminder. Constant power outrage is what Ghanaians are going through.
10.The One district one factory has been re- engineered by the new administration. It now no more going to be government initiative,but purely Private initiative meaning area where they don't have attractive resources aren't going to immediately enjoy this Kwaku ananse promise.
POSITIVES!!!
Looking up into the heavens I cannot say to myself that I have not seen anything positive this 100 days.The administration has chalked few positive marks.The first to mention is the President's responses and reaction to appeals put before him.He hasn't shown much assertiveness but at least he has responded positively to some issues what is needed now is his ability to adhere and supervise full implementation of what he says.His statement at Manhyia on the vigilante issue was a positive step through personally I do not agree with anything like consensus building on this issue. All we need is a strong executive order disbanding these groups and making formation of such groups illegal not only unacceptable.
Kan Dapaah is another person I cannot go off without showing appreciation for certain steps he took when those notorious car seizure syndicates started their operations.I must also commend the Finance Minister for displaying candidness when discussing or talking about the economy. At times he plays the normal political chess game but on the whole I think his demeanor and intermittent show of professional instincts is commendable. Some of the female appointees have also started well although we beginning to see some reverses here and there.
CONCLUSION!!!
Let me conclude by writing "we cannot postpone for the future generations what we should do today" this is the reason why we must at all times evaluate and scrutinize platitudes churned to us by our politicians during their campaigns.Ghana is not an island and unfortunately for us we are virtually an import dependant nation with chunk of our mineral resources still being milked by expatriates including the illegal outlets. Nice dictions and sweet promises and also, use of beautiful cars and building of mighty houses by few bourgeoisies doesn't represent a nation's growth.
From empirical observations based on two recent incidents in relation to the despicable conduct exhibited by Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa, the Minister for National Security, I have begun to doubt his credibility, suitability and capability to helping His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo to deliver on his numerous campaign promises to Ghanaians.
Yes, silence is golden and patience is a virtue; however, for how long can we sit on the fence doing nothing when someones actions if not checked, can unleash awful lot of discomforts to the majority of the people?
Let me pause to define the nouns used to cast doubt over the integrity of Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa as Minister for National Security. Credibility is the fact that someone can be believed or trusted. Suitability is being acceptable or right for someone or something and Capability is the ability to do something.
I am not here to accuse the President of error of judgment; nonetheless, what was the criterion or criteria used for selecting Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa for that position since a search on him following his recent cockups did not turn out that he is either a security expert or a former military or police personnel? In the advanced countries, such a position normally goes to someone who is an expert in the field by studies but most importantly, a former military or police officer of high ranking.
If he were knowledgeable about security matters, the nationally-condemned acts by the alleged NPP Vigilante Group, Delta Force, would not have assumed that catastrophic proportion to the disgrace of the party, the President and the nation. He could have nipped the Delta Forces agitation in the bud at the regional level.
I am here not to defend the Delta Force nor condemn them to the gallows. Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa failed to perform his duties satisfactorily. When the Delta Force went to pull that Regional Security Co-ordinator out of his office, they did not beat him or damage any property. Instead of Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa investigating the cause of their action and concerns which could properly be genuine or not, all he could do was to come out as a macho without the least diplomacy to threaten to ensure they are jailed. At worst, could he not have said, I shall make sure they are prosecuted rather than saying, imprisoned? Is he a judge to determine their fate or he had or has the means to manipulate the judges of the law courts to do his bidding?
If Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa meant any good for the party, he could have arranged or allowed the NPP to contact the judge to plead that it was a party issue that could be resolved internally hence the judge should please allow them to withdraw the case. If he had done this, it would not have escalated into its current embarrassingly heightened level where the Ghana Bar Association and the NDC have somehow been affected and got involved to discredit His Excellency the President and the party.
What is deeply worrying is to learn that Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa disassociated himself from the party; refused to contribute financially or in any other form that could brighten the chances of NPP winning Election 2017. However, as soon as the party won the election through the efforts of determined and concerned Ghanaians, of whom the Delta Force are said to have played a major and decisive role, he was among the first batch of people to go for a position in the government. What an irony!
At times when you sit back and analyse things critically, you will understand why some people are forced to hurl insults at the leaders of the NPP who could although be better managers and well-educated, they are the least politically savvy when it comes to strategizing to win elections and staying in power for long. It has always been monkey de work baboon de chop to them. The case of the Delta Force is a classical example.
Yes, all Ghanaians, especially all those who campaigned and/or voted for NPP and Nana Akufo Addo did a marvellous job to ensure the success of NPP and Nana Akufo Addo in Election 2017. However, as it is said, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others, the job done by say, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) and those who helped negate the NDCs resolute determination to rig the election by adopting counter measures (names withheld), performed far much better than say, Rockson Adofo, on many fronts.
I, Rockson Adofo, did contribute my widows mite, wrote prolifically to canvass for NPP and especially, Nana Akufo Addo (the Joseph, Moses or David of our times), constantly on the phone to Ghana and elsewhere in the world persuading people to vote for a change and also, gave advice and directions. In all these, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, Chairman Wontumi and the Delta Force did far greater job than me. They risked their lives and committed immense money into the campaign which in the end brought NPP to the sugar-candy mountain where Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa, a seeming opportunist is now enjoying and threatening the lives of the very people who have earned him his position.
He is biting the very hand that feeds him for after all he had not wanted NPP and Nana Addo to win the election hence his absolute failure to help in the first place. No wonder, as security- clueless as he is, he is doing that to the Delta Force members. It is out of pain and seeing themselves as taken for simpletons; used and dumped, that the embittered Delta Force members behaved the way they did.
Blame Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa for mishandling the situation in a very unprofessional way; going about it without any consideration for their feelings emanating from how the NPP have fooled them to earn him his position.
When some military and police personnel descended on Bodomase to assault the innocent mourners attending the late Kumawu Akyempemhene Nana Okyere Krapa IIs funeral on Thursday, 16 February 2017, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition into the crowd, destroying the kingly umbrellas of Kumawuhene Barima Tweneboa Kodua V and that of Kumawu Akwamuhene Nana Kwasi Bafo II, what was the reaction of Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa? He said he would imprison Barima Tweneboa Kodua V and his elders. He had Barima Tweneboa Kodua V arrested and had arranged with the police and the court to refuse him bail but straightaway be remanded for six months without bothering to know who was at fault or who started the whole criminal acts.
The evidence was clear that the police and the soldiers who were collusively sent there started the whole nonsense, probably at the instigation of this same Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa. Subsequently, I was obliged to inform the Amnesty International and the Office of the United Nations Human Rights Court in Geneva about how some innocent citizens are being denied their rights in Ghana, a democracy of course. What a disgrace!
Some people claiming to be friends of Hon. Albert Kan Dapaa and his family are of the opinion that he is a gentleman. Yes, he can be a gentleman but in my opinion, he is not politically savvy and hence a misfit in his current job. He is the one bringing the credibility of His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo and NPP into disrepute more than the disgusting behaviour of the Delta Force.
The President had better shuffle him before he causes division in the party as some people have started taking positions and sides, a polarization which is a recipe for disaster.
I am sorry to say the NPP leaders have got such a bad attitude of ignoring the less educated individuals who sacrifice their time, energy and little money to help them win power. Once they win power, they turn their back on them. They ignore them completely. As I speak, some known NPP activists are now questioning the sense of their loyalty to the party all because of the ungratefulness and arrogance of most of the party gurus.
Anyway let me sign off here to come back another time.
Rockson Adofo
(Written on Monday, 10 April 2017)
Alexandria (Egypt) (AFP) - Hundreds gathered Monday to mourn 45 Egyptian Christians killed in jihadist bombings just a week before Easter, after Cairo declared a state of emergency following the attacks on two churches.
The Islamic State group said it was behind the twin bombings that targeted Palm Sunday services at churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria, and threatened further attacks against Egypt's Christian minority.
Sunday's first bombing at the Mar Girgis church in Tanta city north of Cairo killed 28 people, the health ministry said.
The second struck outside Saint Mark's church in Alexandria, killing 17 people after a suicide bomber was prevented from entering the building.
Egyptian Christians during the late-night funeral of victims of the Palm Sunday blast at the Mar Girgis church in the Nile Delta City of Tanta
The violence comes ahead of Catholic Pope Francis's first trip to Egypt later this month, which a Vatican official said will proceed as planned on April 28 and 29 despite the attacks.
Mourners filled the Saint Mina monastery west of Alexandria Monday as they bade farewell to the victims of the deadliest attacks in recent memory on Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.
Combing for clues
The victims' wooden coffins were placed near the altar amid applause as mourners saluted their "martyrs".
During the funerals, angry crowds denounced the security services and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar.
"Leave, leave, Abdel Ghaffar!" mourners chanted.
"I am a Christian till judgment day," they shouted.
In Alexandria on Monday, investigators combed for clues and took pictures of the debris produced by the blast.
A handful of black-clad women showed their identification papers to guards before being allowed to enter the church.
"I'm so sad, I cannot speak," said one mourner, a woman in her 40s.
In addition to the death toll of 45 from the two explosions, scores more people were wounded and 35 remained in hospital on Monday.
Women mourn for the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church during a funeral procession east of Alexandria on April 10, 2017
In Cairo, the cabinet said it has approved President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to declare a three-month state of emergency, which was published on Monday by the official gazette.
State of emergency
The state of emergency came into effect at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).
Constitutionally, it still has to be presented to and approved by parliament within seven days, but this is a formality given the number of pro-Sisi delegates.
US President Donald Trump called Sisi after the bombings to express his condolences, Washington said on Monday.
"The President also expressed his confidence in President Al Sisi's commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians," the White House said.
In a defiant speech on Sunday, Sisi warned that the war against jihadists would be "long and painful" after he ordered the army to protect "vital infrastructure" and boost security along Egypt's borders.
Lawmakers said the state of emergency -- Egypt's first since widespread unrest in 2013 -- would help the country face down a jihadist insurgency.
Men mourn over the coffin of one of the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church during a funeral procession east of Alexandria on April 10, 2017
IS has staged deadly attacks in the Sinai Peninsula against security forces.
Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt's population of more than 92 million, have been targeted several times in recent months.
Jihadists groups such as IS, and Islamists accuse Copts of supporting the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly crackdown on his supporters.
Mourners pray for the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church in Alexandria during a funeral procession east of Alexandria on April 10, 2017
In December, a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed 29 worshippers in a Cairo church, and the jihadist group later released a video threatening Egypt's Christians.
Attacks in the Sinai, including the murder of a Copt in the city of El Arish whose house was also torched, prompted some Coptic families to flee.
Sunday's Alexandria bombing was especially concerning for the Copts, as Pope Tawadros II had led the Palm Sunday service at Saint Mark's but left before the explosion.
Sisi has defended the performance of his security forces and accused jihadists of trying to divide Egyptian society by attacking vulnerable minorities.
However, rights groups accuse the former army chief of crushing even peaceful opposition to his rule.The pro-state daily paper Al-Bawaba said on its website that its Monday edition, which was critical of security provisions, had been banned from publication.
They dispersed like the seeds of a Sycamore tree to distant lands in search of places to acquire knowledge and increase their chances of securing a better future for themselves and their families.
This was the fate of pupils of the New Ningo D/A Primary 'B' School for more than a decade.
The lack of a building to house a junior high school meant the pupils to left the school after primary 6 and looked for a Junior High School elsewhere.
This caused parents, pupils and teachers a great deal of pain and frustration as teaching and learning and effective monitoring of pupils' performance were greatly hampered. This also meant educational outcomes were dimmed even for those who had the courage and the discipline to bear the indignities and eternal inconvenience that came with having to look for a junior high school elsewhere.
On Saturday, April 8, 2017, pupils of the school received a gift - an Easter gift you may call it. But the gift was not a box of candies with fanciful rappers and ribbons.
It was more.
The CEO of The Multimedia Group, Mr. Kwasi Twum and his siblings built a modern JHS Block for the school in honour of their late mother, Madam Manye Nueki Carboo.
The elders and people of the area gathered on Saturday to witness the inauguration of the Manye Nueki Carboo Memorial JHS Block.
It was commissioned by Samira Bawumia, the wife of the Vice President Dr. Mahamud Bawumi.
Along with the block are an ICT laboratory, a lavatory, Staff Common Room and a store-room.
The pupils can now drink from a deep reservoir of relief thanks to the generosity of Mr. Twum and his siblings.
Photos by Gershon Mortey
Story by Ghana myjoyonline;David Andoh/ [email protected]
Following the dastardly attack on the Kumasi Circuit Court by some members of the Delta Force, a militant group of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in reaction to the ruling by the presiding judge, Her Honour Mary Senkyire, remanding them in prison custody, the Right Alliance-Ghana has carefully monitored reactions from the public and statements by organized groups and civil society organisations including the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), the Judicial Council and Coalition of Domestic Elections Observers (CODEO), and wishes to add its voice to the condemnation of the act and reiterate its calls on the President and relevant authorities to deal with such militant groups firmly and conclusively.
We feel particularly scandalized by the fact that this latest insurrection took place in the court room leading to threats on the person of the presiding judge, freeing of accused persons in lawful custody and destruction of court property. This, we consider, as a serious case of judicial contempt and attack on both the independence of the judiciary and rule of law and therefore find statements by the GBA and Judicial Council as rather half-hearted and insipid.
In equal measure, the Right Alliance-Ghana finds the action of the Police before, during and after the court proceedings as most unprofessional, inept and suspicious considering that they provided only two truncheon-wielding police officers to guard the court in such an explosive hearing, a situation the Regional Police PRO, ASP Yaw Nketia Yeboah, tried to play down in a media interview.
Public pronouncements by the NPP Member of Parliament for Assin North, Hon Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, in the aftermath of the Delta Force assault on the Ashanti Regional Security Liaison Officer, Mr George Agyei, appointed by the President, daring anyone to attempt prosecuting the brigands, make him complicit in the recent attacks.
Above all, the Right Alliance-Ghana has enough cause to believe that the whole saga was an orchestration masterminded by elements within both the NPP and the Regional Police Command. We also find attempts by some media houses and public commentators at lumping these miscreants calling themselves vigilante groups with the active youth wings of some other political parties, particularly the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as most hypocritical and unfortunate. Such attempts at equalization only end up diluting the enormity of the situation and pushing the matter under the rug.
The Right Alliance-Ghana therefore calls on the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, and all relevant security operatives including the Inspector-General of Police, COP David Asante Apeatu, to put their foot down and deal emphatically with this group of hoodlums called the Delta Force as well as all their counterparts in other regions. Hon Kennedy Agyapong must also be arrested immediately for interrogation.
We also call on both the GBA and Judicial Council to go beyond calling for an investigation and actually constitute a panel to try the members of the group for criminal contempt. Finally, we call on all other civil society organisations to stop the pretentious oblivion and raise their voices in condemnation of such reprehensible acts because if care is not taken, things could get worse. Indeed, we fear for the future security of this country with the signals we are seeing now. God Bless Our Homeland Ghana.
#Long Live the Right Alliance-Ghana!
#Long Live the Fourth Republic!
#Long Live Ghana!
SIGNED
King Khorby
Director of Communications, the Right Alliance-Ghana.
050 1552690 / 023 549 6013
10.04.2017 LISTEN
During my national service days, a little over three years ago, I was a member of the 2013/2014 Ghana National Service Personnel group on Facebook. The purpose of the group was to inform and educate members of the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) on matters relating to our service and information on allowance disbursements in our respective districts.
Being in the group was fun and educative, with moments of excitement, jokes and personal experiences shared amongst us all. I had the opportunity to learn various things which have gone a long way to help me in this journey of life. Friends were made from there, as well most of whom I have had the opportunity to meet in person, and have become good friends with subsequently.
Being a motivator by nature, I personally used the platform to share my inspirational messages, motivational quotes and wallpapers, interview tips, sermons and poems. Weekends on the platform was a moment to look forward to as we all had time out of our busy schedules to have intellectual discussions on matters of significance--be it political, social or religious. Those were certainly some good moments sharing some wealth of knowledge and attaining diverse perspectives on the issues on board.
On a day however, things took a different turn when I posted one of my quotes. Ever had the experience of your post or status being disapproved for reasons which made no sense whatsoever? If you have- you can certainly relate to this, if not, take a lesson and keep your calm and engage respectfully. Respectfully I say, because your attitude in handling matters like this amongst others, determines who and what you are made of and could go against you in the long run. My post that day was met with comments of insults and accusations by a man also part of the group who claimed that that quote was similar to one he had read elsewhere, basically telling me it wasnt mine. Initially, I did not want to respond to him and just kept my cool. Friends who knew me personally and knew what I have been doing, came out to defend me but it wasnt enough to stop this man from continuing to insult me. Truth be told- I became irritated, very annoyed to say the least! How dare he discredit me for my intellectual property? I displayed my displeasure by finally responding to him that he had no right to comment on my post and to leave me alone and it only got worse. His comment was not one I saw coming at all. In his words, he wrote:
"I will continue to condemn this, you thief! If you don't want me to comment on your post, then don't bring it here (the group); you have a wall, go and post it there. This place is for the public. If you can't stand it, go away!"
When I read this, I stopped to comment any further. I paused and contemplated on this asking myself "But how could someone be so bent on discrediting me like this when he barely knew me? Was this some kind of propaganda against me?" I quizzed my befuddled mind.
It was an unpleasant experience which left me feeling dejected and rejected in some ways, and from that day, I stopped sharing my write-ups in the group. I would not even comment on a post if I was not friends with the one who posted it, and gradually stopped visiting the group altogether. My absence was the only presence they could ever feel I told myself. Time passed and this absence was felt by some "silent" members who were being impacted by my write-ups, and they followed me to my personal page by sending friend requests. A year after, and interestingly, I was made a co-administrator to the page- A position I still hold till date but I have intentionally turned a blind eye to. I have moved on in life, and appreciate the lesson learnt as a result.
I learnt my lesson from his statement: "...If you don't want me to comment on your post, then DON'T BRING IT HERE (the group); YOU HAVE A WALL, GO and POST IT THERE. This place is for the public. IF YOU CAN'T STAND IT, GO AWAY!"
Out of it an idea to create a page was brought to life- to enable me to share my works with others and be an impact in their lives- Obed M. Kodjo Inspires & Motivates. I have since then focused on building a brand using my wall and the page. The page is about three years old and the focus on building it and impacting those who visit it for their daily dose of inspiration and motivation is still as strong as it was when it was created. The pleasure in seeing lives transformed through the motivational teachings and seminars organized, and the opportunity to be invited to share my work to inspire others at various functions, messages shared and testimonies which pour in from people from all walks of lives and over the world, sets the fire ablaze to not give up or let any unpleasant situation disrupt me from ever pursuing what I was born to do. This new direction was unquestionably a blessing in disguise for me and one I am thankful for.
Joseph was rejected by his own brothers because of his dreams. They planned his death. He was thrown into the pit, and later sold to the merchants. He found himself in the palace. But here again, he was rejected and thrown into prison. In the end, his destiny was fulfilled. He became the Prime Minister in the foreign land of Egypt! His rejection led him to a new direction, a direction which lifted him from the pit to the palace.
My friend, do you feel dejected when you're rejected? Perhaps you have been. But let me tell you, at least from my experiences that, REJECTION GIVES A NEW DIRECTION, a direction we would not have taken otherwise.
Sometimes, it's a blessing when we are rejected. There is always a blessing and an opportunity in every negative situation if only we can train our minds to see it. It does not mean we are worthless. Sometimes where we are used to may not be where we belong, so when they show you the exit, please take the new direction. That new direction will lead you to a path and to doors that you would later be grateful for.
Rejection comes with some blessings in disguise. Do not wallow in dejection because of rejection. Find the new direction. It may be a new path you would have to walk alone, but take the pains to carve it. You'll be glad you did.
The writer, Obed Mawunyo Kodjo is an inspirational writer, motivational speaker and a budding author. He is also the Founder and CEO of iMpact360PLUS, an organization that is established to empower this generation for transformation. He can be reached on +233 0243 150 352 or at [email protected]
Juba (AFP) - At least 16 civilians were killed in fighting Monday between government troops and rebels in South Sudan's second-largest city Wau, the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) said in a statement.
The violence stemmed from an ambush Sunday of government troops near the city, leading to clashes in the city the following day, UNMISS said.
"The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured," the statement said.
Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country descended into civil war in 2013.
The city itself has remained under the control of forces loyal to Machar's arch-enemy President Salva Kiir throughout.
UNMISS said troops, tanks and equipment from the SPLA national army had moved towards areas controlled by the rebels in the south-western part of Wau late last week.
At least 3,000 people -- mostly women and children -- sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 had sought refuge at an UNMISS Protection of Civilians site.
Civilians who spoke to AFP described targeted killings in the city some 650 kilometres (404 miles) from the capital Juba.
"The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas," said Moses Peter, a priest, who confirmed that up to 3,000 people were sheltering in his church.
"They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses."
'Lying in blood'
Fighting in South Sudan between rebels and government troops has devastated many areas, including this town on the outskirts of Wau
Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.
The civilians were "killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels," said Erynio, adding that this was not true.
Erynio said shops and markets in the city's southern half were closed and the government had told people to stay indoors.
"You can only see people are moving, running either to the church for protection" or to a UN peacekeeping compound, he said.
One local resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP he had found his brother "lying in blood after he was shot", and had counted five other dead bodies.
Another, who gave her name as Mary Joseph said: "we saw three people lying dead in different places."
The International Committee for the Red Cross said it was rushing surgical teams to the city to assist the wounded.
The military and rebels gave conflicting accounts of the violence.
Military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the fighting started as government troops were trying to rout rebels from strongholds in the countryside.
Forces loyal to Machar took cover among civilians when the skirmishes reached Wau town on Monday, Domic said.
Four prison guards were killed in the fighting, Domic said, without elaborating.
A spokesman for the rebels William Gatjiath Deng said the fighting stemmed from an ambush laid by the rebels outside of Wau on Sunday that left 35 soldiers from a government-aligned militia dead.
The surviving pro-regime forces returned to Wau, where Deng said they killed 50 civilians in "house-to-house" raids.
Both accounts were impossible to verify.
Deng said the troops were from the same militia responsible for fighting last week in the southern town of Pajok that forced 6,000 people to flee across the border to Uganda.
South Sudan's leaders fought for decades for independence, but once they got it in 2011, civil war erupted in 2013 out of a power struggle between Kiir and his former deputy Machar.
At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.
The war has also created a man-made famine, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis.
10.04.2017 LISTEN
The business outlook for 2017 will be top of the agenda as the Ghana South Africa Chamber hosts Deputy Trade Minister, Robert Ahomka Lindsay at a Power Breakfast meeting.
Mr. Lindsay is expected to outline to delegates vital information about what the business community should expect of government in 2017.
Policy initiatives from the current government and emerging business opportunities will also be discussed at the event slated for 12th April 2017 at the Labadi Beach Hotel, Accra.
Speaking of the expectations ahead of the event, President of the Ghana South Africa Business Chamber Ashley Rix said the main concerns for businesses were the high cost of funding and unstable electricity supply.
They would be hoping to hear how government intends to address these challenges.
Mr. Rix, however, commended the Central Bank for dropping the policy rate by 200 basis point.
We are looking forward to going by to 18 or 20 percent, he added.
A delegation from the South African High Commission in Ghana is also expected at the event to discuss how trade relations between both countries can be enhanced.
The Power Breakfast meeting is open to both members of the chamber and non-members. Non-members would be required to pay a fee of 150 Ghana Cedis for the breakfast meeting which starts at 7 am.
The Power Breakfast meeting which is supported by JOY BUSINESS is also expected to provide networking opportunities for businesses from both countries.
The Ghana South Africa Chamber was set up in 2008 to enhance business interests of members in South Africa and Ghana and also to develop trade between both countries.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Joy Business |Daryl Kwawu
The Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) has given President Nana Addo and the Government a three-month ultimatum to end the menace of illegal mining or be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
At a press conference the partys Chairman, Nii Brew-Hammond, lamented the continued existence of illegal mining saying it was indicative of the failure of successive governments.
Consequently he said his party was giving the Akufo Addo government three months to stop galamsey operations in Ghana. Failure to do so shall compel us to drag him to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
The PPP chairman also called on the government to expedite action on all foreigners involved in the practice, especially the Chinese nationals involved.
Can a Ghanaian travel to China or any other country to destroy their water bodies? Will they be spared? Or will leaders of such countries tolerate our leaders, calling on their citizens who complain to order as the Chinese are asking us to do, he quizzed.
Mr. Brew-Hammond said his party expected the Akufo-Addo administration to gather the political will to prosecute and extradite all foreign galamseyers from Ghana so that our farmers can cultivate more crops to improve their individual livelihoods and that of the nation collectively.
We wish to assure Ghanaians that such unwarranted provocation and disrespect for our sovereignty will never happen under the watch of a PPP government. It is our fervent hope that the devastation caused by galamsey will not continue to be lost on the NPP administration and that they will find it necessary to deal with it surgically without fear or favour.
By: Anass Seidu/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Cairo, Apr 10 (IBNS): Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has declared a state of emergency in the country following attacks on Coptic Christians on Sunday, reports said.
The attacks, which took place on two Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria, killed at least 44 people, the BBC reported.
Two suicide bombers have carried out the attack, the Islamic State claimed on Sunday.
"So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the blasts in Tanta and Alexandria on Palm Sunday," the network reported.
Meanwhile, world leaders have condemned the incident.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed solidarity and tweeted, "Deeply pained by the attacks in Egypt. We condemn these attacks. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured."
In a two-part tweet, US President Donald Trump said, "So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns. I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly."
image: Screengrab from YouTube
10.04.2017 LISTEN
Accra, April 10, GNA -The shareholders of the Pan-African financial institution, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc applauded the Board, Management and Staff at the 55th Annual General Meeting of the Bank, held in Lagos on Friday April, 7, for their sterling performance.
The UBA shareholders, consequently, approved the payment of N19.9 billion as final dividends for the financial year, which ended on December 2016; in addition to N7.3 billion interim dividend paid after the audit of its 2016 Half Year Results.
The shareholders, who unanimously approved the N0.55/share final dividend on every ordinary share of N0.50 each, were particularly impressed by the new Group Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, who delivered unprecedented results to shareholders at his inaugural AGM.
UBA had earlier paid an interim dividend of N0.20/share to shareholders, bringing the total dividend for the 2016 financial year to N0.75kobo, an impressive 25 per cent growth over the total dividend of N0.60/share paid for the 2015 financial year.
An official statement issued by the Bank said the total dividend of N0.75/share translated to an unparalleled yield of 14.3 per cent when put in the perspective of UBA's share price of N5.26 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, as at the close of market on Friday, April 7, 2017.
'The Shareholders were excited at the sterling performance of the Group, an impressive 22% year-on-year growth in gross earnings and an outstanding 32% year-on-year growth in profit to N91 billion, in what analysts described as 'an attestation to UBA's resilience and enhanced productivity', the statement said.
'Worthy of note to the shareholders is the contribution from the Group's African subsidiaries, emphasising its earnings diversification, across geographies, which reduces the Group's vulnerability to macroeconomic pressures in any single market,' the statement.
The Group's ex-Nigeria subsidiaries contributed 32% of the Group's profit in 2016, compared to a quarter of profit contribution in the 2015 financial year.
Notwithstanding the challenging operating environment, the Group recorded an impressive 22 per cent growth in gross earnings to N384 billion in 2016, from N315 billion in the 2015 financial year, illustrating the Bank's resilience and tenacity to generate earnings even in periods of economic slowdown.
The Group also achieved a significant 32 percent growth in profit before tax to N91 billion compared to N68 billion profit recorded over the same period of 2015.
UBA's profit after tax grew by 22 per cent to N72 billion, from the N60 billion recorded the previous year.
The President of the Association for the Advancement of the Rights of Nigerian Shareholders, Alhaji Farouk Umar, said at the AGM, 'It is obvious from the faces of shareholders that all of us are happy with the performance of the bank,' the statement said.
'We did not expect anything less because we know that that our chairman is an achiever not only locally but also internationally. We have seen the African expansion and its contribution to our earnings
and I believe this is also commendable.'
The Group Chairman of UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu, gave credit to the chairpersons of UBA subsidiary Boards across Africa saying: 'These hard working men and women, who chair the Boards across our businesses in Africa, have helped contribute a third of the overall profit of the Group. I believe they deserve commendation. They are strengthening UBA brand across Africa, in line with our aspiration.'
He was particularly pleased with the Bank's new CEO, Kennedy Uzoka. 'At the Board level, we are extremely pleased by the financial performance that Kennedy and his team delivered in 2016. Kennedy and his team prioritize the Customer and they are diligently executing the Customer First project, which the Board believes will sustainably enhance the performance of the Group,' said Mr Elumelu.
'Our results show the tenacity and enterprise of our Management team and Staff. More importantly is our ability to proactively meet customers' need. I am pleased that UBA maintains some of the best prudential ratios in the industry, as our capital adequacy ratio.'
GNA
Accra, April 10, GNA - The Progressive People's Party (PPP) has issued a three-month ultimatum to government to halt the activities of illegal miners in the country.
The Party threatened to drag President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu-Addo to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity if he failed to heed to the call.
It also called for the immediate extradition of all foreign nationals, particularly the Chinese, who were found guilty of breaking the mining laws and causing harm to the environment.
It urged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to ensure the immediate disbarment of all forms of vigilante groups including the Delta and Invincible Forces, as their activities posed a great security threat to the country.
Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond, the National Chairman of the Progressive People's Party, who was addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday, said the Party strongly condemned these acts of lawlessness, which could plunge the country into a state of anarchy.
He took a swipe at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, accusing it of not taking charge of affairs and dealing effectively with the rising situations.
He challenged the government to demonstrate a strong political will by rolling out immediate strong actions and strategies to stop the 'shameful and unacceptable' actions.
Nii Brew-Hammond said the massive destruction to water sources, farm lands and reserved forest vegetation, as a result of illegal mining operations should be seen as a national threats to the survival of humanity, especially the immediate communities.
He said the country would be forced to import drinking water in the next five years if the situation was not curtailed and reversed.
He said the country would also record a massive reduction in its traditional exports including cocoa and timber.
Nii Brew-Hammond said the Ghana Police Service together with other law enforcement agencies must be resourced to be able to deal with any resistance from vigilante groups and also enforce the mining and all other laws to maintain peace, law and order.
He said both the actions of the Chinese and other nationals in illegal mining and the activities of the vigilante groups amounted to gross disrespect to the majority of law abiding Ghanaians.
The PPP cautioned all the political hands and 'big wigs' that were involved in perpetrating the nefarious acts by way of funding to stop, saying the country was no longer the playing ground for their selfish gains.
Nii Brew-Hammond commended the media for the strong campaign against galamsey activities and the activities of some unpatriotic citizens, and pledged the party's full support to the cause. GNA
By Christabel Addo, GNA
Accra, April 10, GNA - Mr Derick Tata Anku, the Ga East Municipal Project Coordinator of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Water and Sanitation Project (GAMA- SWP), said households would now pay 30 per cent of the total cost of the construction of a toilet instead of the initial 50 per cent.
He said this would enable them to build more household toilet facilities in order to improve environmental sanitation in the country.
'With the new reduction of the 30 per cent payment of the total cost, we believe that residents would take more advantage of building more toilets facilities in the municipality,' he said.
Mr Anku said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the side-lines of the project town hall meeting in the Ga East Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
The GAMA-SWP is a five-year $150 million project funded by the World Bank through the International Development Agency (IDA) grant to provide water and sanitation services to urban communities.
The project is currently being implemented in 11 metropolitan and municipal assemblies in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and aimed at building 19,000 toilets.
It is also expected to build 250 toilets for schools within the Greater Accra Metropolis and also apply some behavioural change communication strategies to work on the attitudes of the people with regards to open defecation.
Mr Anku said the toilets were to address the acute sanitation and water challenges confronting the urban communities, particularly the low income areas, and has so far built more than 600 household toilets.
He said the ban that was put on the GAMA-SWP by the World Bank due to some social and environmental safeguard standards had been lifted and that the project team was expecting contractors back to the project sites by Wednesday, April 12.
He said though there were other projects under the GAMA-SWP its main emphasis was on the sanitation aspect.
Mr Anku said Ghana, under the millennium goals, had reached about 80 per cent of water supply but was far below when it came to sanitation.
He said the Ga East Municipality was aiming to build 3000 household toilets facilities of which 38 had so far been built whilst 680 households are registered.
Mr Okunyin Boaz Orlan-Hackman, GAMA-SWP Promotion Team Officer and Public Relations Officer of the Ga East Municipal Assembly, said the task to bring the households on board to register had not been easy.
GNA
By Amadu Kamil Sanah
Kumasi, April 10, GNA - Eight persons arrested for allegedly storming a Kumasi Circuit Court to free 13 members of a vigilante group reportedly aligned to the governing party - the New Patriotic Party (NPP), standing trial for attacking the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, have been ordered to be held in prison.
They are Ebenezer Opoku, Samuel Yeboah, Kofi Fosu, Christian Anokye, Kwame Frimpong, Suleman Wadud, Abass Caesar and Eric Kusi.
They have been charged with resisting arrest, rescuing persons in lawful custody and disturbance of court.
The accused pleaded not guilty and were remanded into prison custody to make their next appearance on Tuesday, April 18.
Mr. Gary Nimako, Counsel for the accused persons, pleaded for bail but was denied.
Mrs. Patricia Amponsah, the presiding judge, explained that due to the nature of the case, the bail request could not be granted.
There was drama at the KMA Circuit Court, last week Thursday, as members of a vigilante group, reportedly aligned to the governing party, stormed the courtroom to free their colleagues, who have been ordered to be held in prison custody.
For close to about 10 minutes, there was total confusion as the unarmed police officers present, struggled to evacuate the judge from the courtroom to safety.
The strongly built men insulted and threatened everybody and by the time police reinforcements arrived, they were gone with the 13 accused persons.
The police later arrested the eight and charged them for aiding in the escape of the remand prisoners.
GNA
By Gifty Amofa, GNA
It is barely three months since the NPP government led by His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo assumed the mantle of leadership in Ghana on the January 7, 2017. So far, the president has duly appointed about 110 core members of his government excluding CEOS and Directors of state agencies. There has been a hot debate on the size of the government. We the Fair-Minded NPP Alliance for Bawumia (FNAFB) are least worried about that. It is clearly the prerogative of His Excellency President Nana Akufo Addo, and he seems convinced that this is how he could make good all the lofty promises he made to Ghanaians prior to the election. We can only wish him well and hope that he will be vindicated by the outcome.
As a group who are worried about the future of the our dearest party, NPP, we are particularly concerned about what appears as orchestrated manoeuvrer to relegate the Vice President, Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia to the background, in order to minimize his huge influence and strategic stature in the party, in case he decides to run for presidency after President Nana Akufo Addo completes his two time tenure, God willing.
A cursory perusal of the 110 ministers and deputy ministers appointed by the President clearly confirms that the VP was barely involved or adequately consulted. For avoidance of doubt, there is a clear difference between engaging someone or consulting someone over something, and informing someone of a decision you have already taken on it. The latter is what seemed to be transpiring. It is therefore not surprising that most of the individuals who have been confirmed as ministers are those who lobbied through a few favourite associates and relatives of the President, who are calling the shots and pulling the string behind the scene. In contrast, majority of equally competent persons who lobbied through the Vice President have been hugely disappointed.
To hazard a guess, it is highly unlikely that the few competent people that the VP managed to push through is worth mentioning at all. We strongly believe that the VP deserves more than that. We are all witnesses to how Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia worked passionately and tirelessly to guarantee NPP an emphatic victory in the last election. The President himself minced no words when he acknowledged the crucial role of the VP on the thanks giving day as follows:
It is always invidious to single out individuals on such an occasion, especially when there were so many who helped in diverse ways, but I hope that everyone will understand if I single out the young man whom I know is going to write a brilliant chapter in the economic history of our nation, and whom God has given to me as my Vice, Mahamudu Bawumia, who made an inestimable contribution to the success of our effort. I look forward eagerly to working with him for the progress of our beloved Ghana.
One would have thought that as the confidante and the next in command, the VP should have a more active and engaging role to play in the choice of the competent men and women who shall help the President execute his solemn agenda of transforming lives and transforming Ghana. In fact, the VP should not be playing a second fiddle to anybody else; friends or relatives.
As things stand now, some party members are nursing a feeling that attempt are being made to minimize or eliminate the possibilities of Dr. Mahmud Bawumia to succeed President Nana Akufo Ado eventually. The contention is that politics is a game of numbers, and so long as the VP does not have adequate appointees who owe him allegiance or are indebted to him for their nominations, it will be an uphill task if not impossible for him to garner the necessary financial and human resources to compete for the presidential slot. This speculation may appear overboard, nonetheless, the manner the ministerial appointments have handled this far, tended to lend credence to this claim. This speculation could still be nibbed right in the bud by the President. Going forward, the Fair-Minded NPP Alliance for Bawumia (FNAFB) would like to see an intense engagement of the VP in the nomination of candidates to fill up the remaining positions, thus, CEOs, Directors and Heads of state institutions. We shall be watching closely and thereafter advice ourselves appropriately.
We have so far managed to quell a few attempts by a section of our members to demonstrate against what they perceive as unjust treatment of the VP during the early appointments. We cannot by any means guarantee that we shall be able to persuade and convince these very troubled members to maintain their composure and remain calm.
In the light of ensuing developments, we would like to sternly warn those individuals at the helm of affairs, who for their own parochial interests are hell-bent on pushing the VP into a disadvantage point or putting him in a precarious state in order to make him less competitive, that their effort will be in vain. We shall not sit aloof for the VP or anyone for that matter who can facilitate the success of our great party after the graceful exit of President Nana Akufo Addo, to be treated unfairly. Ours is a party that believe in the rule of law and fairness, and this principle must necessarily guide the conduct of members in the party at all material moments. We are definitely aware of how much the VP has given up and is still doing just to ensure that this Government succeeds in discharging its responsibilities, and delivering on his promises to Ghanaians. The least that we expect from well meaning members of the party is to allow the government to work smoothly, so that Ghanaian will have a good cause to renew the party's mandate and give His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo a second term in office. Using ministerial appointments to short-changed the VP, in order to facilitate the realization of presidential ambition of select candidates is tantamount to a ploy in bad faith.
We would like to reiterate that any attempt to undermine the influence and relevance of the VP shall be used by NDC to justify its long running propaganda that the presidential slot in NPP is prerogative of the Akan. We still recall the exact words of General Mosquito, Asiedu Nketia during the campaign: "I pity Bawumia for allowing himself to be used as a Trojan Horse" At another rally in the Northern Region, he had this to say on Bawumia:
He is behaving like a tadpole in a fishpond with tilapia fingerling. Very soon with the passage of time, he will lose his tail, and the legs will start forming and he will see that the tilapia is not his brother. He will see that the pond is not his family pond so dont insult Bawumia, pray for him.
In fact, the immediate past President, His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama also re-echoed similar sentiment:
Sometimes, I feel sad when I see some of our northern brothers running and also doing this. They will use you and dump you....Let anything happen today and let our brother Bawumia say he is standing for president in NPP. They will never give it to him I can assure you.
It is quite early in the days, however, our elders say the success or otherwise of a market day could be forecasted right from the morning. The actions and inactions of some highly placed individuals in the party may pave the way for this prejudiced prophesy to come to pass, and we can all imagine how vindicated General Mosquito, President John Dramani Mahama, and others would feel: they shall joyfully look at the VP in the face, and say loudly: WE TOLD YOU SO!!!
The consequences of clandestine blocking or limiting the chances of the candidacy of the VP or plucking his wings by manipulating the nominations and appointments to key positions has dire and far reaching consequences. Ever since His Excellency, Nana Akufo Addo offered Dr. Bawumia the opportunity to be his VP for the first time in 2008, he has proven beyond reasonable doubts that he is worthy of the position. The sacrifices he has made, and is still making cannot be overemphasized. Any person or group of persons who think they can easily crowd out the VP in order to make way for the automatic ascension of their favourites to the top position would have to reconsider their plot again. The VP may be very calm and gentle, however, he cannot be pushed into the background, or unfairly consigned to oblivion, or cowed into resignation. He shall not suffer the same faith as Aliyu Mahama. of blessed memory, as JDM predicted.
We are as a group are resolved to ensure that our VP is treated fairly, and that a level playing field exists to all persons who have the capacity to serve NPP in the top position, regardless of their ethnicity or background. At this juncture, it is necessary that we are avert the minds of ethnocentric individuals who are keen on eliminating the VP from the equation to a very instructive article published by Professor H. Kwesi Prempeh on several key platforms on November 28, 2016, entitled: The Bawumia Factor in the 2016 Elections: Why It Represents a Mortal Threat to The NDC And an Opportunity to Transform The Basis Of Party Politics in Ghana. The central argument of the paper is that just as Bawumia played a crucial role in securing a landslide victory for the party, how his presidential ambition is handled post Nana Akufo Ado could keep NPP in power for a long time or result in a painful defeat and a long stay in opposition.
The mere creation of a Zongo ministry and allocation of a lamp sum to cater for the diverse needs of Zangos would not automatically endear the NPP to the people of Zongo. The direct engagement and involvement of the VP in running the affairs of Ghana is far more important. The VP must necessarily be seen performing his roles and duties adequately and effectively as the second person in charge after President Nana Akufo Addo.
We are not by any means suggesting that Bawumia should be granted an automatic right to be the front runner. That is completely against the democratic ideals that NPP is noted for. In any case, it is quite premature for anyone to be thinking about what happens after President Nana Akufo Addo, let alone to use that as a basis of sidelining Bawumia and shielding him from performing the function and duties he has sworn to discharge to his best of abilities.
As a concerned group, we are calling on the President and all meaning men and women in the party to intervene and ensure that the concerns we have raised here are addressed urgently. Those behind these manoeuvres and machinations must be called to order. If they keep on going on this thorny path, their actions would surely ruin the fortunes of our great party and send us back to opposition after the first term of President Nana Akufo Addo.
We are aware that a few groups within the NPP are worried about these developments and it will surely be in the interest of the party for this matter to be taken care of quickly and timely. Otherwise, very soon, we will begin witnessing a series of demonstrations in solidarity for the VP.
LONG LIVE HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT NANA AKUFO ADDO
LONG LIVE HIS EXCELLENCY DR. MAHMOUD BAWUMIA
LONG LIVE NPP
LONG LIVE GHANA
Secretary of the Group
FAIR-MINDED NPP ALLIANCE FOR BAWUMIA
(FNAFB)
11.04.2017 LISTEN
Dear Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,
Many thanks for your service to the American people and for your devoted interests in serving humanity as a US lawmaker. Through your involvement and concerns for global issues and matters, it is my strongest belief that the efforts applied by you and others have helped to continuously shape our world for the better.
However, I urge you to consider parts of the world where the United States administration and the Congress (House and Senate) have become part of the problem and the suffering of vulnerable people by paying deaf ears through inaction and collaboration with the powerful and the governors. One such places is Liberia, my native country.
In view this, Majority Leader McConnell, I urge you to call on the Trump Administration, especially various US government agencies responsible for international assistance, to immediately halt all aid to Liberia unless the exorbitant salaries and other benefits of Liberian lawmakers and executive branch officials are drastically reduced in line with the financial capacity and cost of living of the country. It is important to note that while the US wants to remain a generous nation, it cannot continue to aid and albeit organized corruption and widespread public theft while simultaneously robbing poor American tax payers of their minimum wages through taxes to aid unethical foreign officials and regimes such as those in Africa, especially Liberia.
It is no secret that Liberia is more than corrupt, and has a misguided leadership that is entrenched in arrogance at every level of government, including the executive, Legislature and judiciary, but the US governments desire to turn a blind eye to these vices as the citizens of Liberia struggle to survive daily due to heightened food insecurity, colossal unemployment and the lack of better or no health facilities, is worrisome and dangerous. Civil servants do not get pay; women die from childbirth and some are unable to leave the already fragile hospitals due to poverty. Children are malnourished to the point of death and the private sector remains incapacitated. The energy sector is paralyzed. In short, Liberia is more than a failed state in another form. What you hear about Liberia is as a result of paid public relations by those in power to polish their image; the reality in the country is dismal.
In all of these terrible miseries and excruciating poverty, officials of the Liberian administration, including its lawmakers earn more than $12,000 United States dollars in addition to other benefits. Official and unofficial travels are used as a glaring form of legal corruption. Liberian officials travel far more than US officials and the reasons for their travels remain undesirable.
In addition sir, the lawmakers in Liberia (a country the size or less than the state of Virginia) earn far more than every state lawmaker in the United States. Yet, since 2006, the United States and international partners have sent over two billions dollars in tax payers money to the country without any form of tangible impact. This is precisely why Liberia continues to remain in a poor shape.
This must stop for the sake of the Liberian people; and more so, I dont think it is fair to the people in your state who hard-earned tax dollars is used as a pond to enable corruption in another nation. I have attached the salary structure of states lawmakers in the 50 states of the US compare with Liberian lawmakers who earn US$12,000 monthly in addition to other benefits.
Sir, the high salaries of lawmakers in Liberia is not breeding career politicians and dangerous politicking, it is encouraging every Liberian to seek political office. Thus, devastating the private sector. This is wrong and dangerous for Liberias future.
I trust that you will give my request and the wishes of millions of struggling Liberians an urgent consideration.
Respectfully,
Jones Nhinson Williams
Advocate for Concern Liberians
Tel. 302 358 1107
West African migrants are being bought and sold openly in modern-day slave markets in Libya , survivors have told a UN agency helping them return home.
Trafficked people passing through Libya have previously reported violence, extortion and slave labour . But the new testimony from the International Organization for Migration suggests that the trade in human beings has become so normalised that people are being traded in public.
The latest reports of slave markets for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages [in Libya], said Mohammed Abdiker, IOMs head of operation and emergencies. The situation is dire. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants.
The north African nation is a major exit point for refugees from Africa trying to take boats to Europe . But since the overthrow of autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi, the vast, sparsely populated country has slid into violent chaos and migrants with little cash and usually no papers are particularly vulnerable.
One 34-year-old survivor from Senegal said he was taken to a dusty lot in the south Libyan city of Sabha after crossing the desert from Niger in a bus organised by people smugglers. The group had paid to be taken to the coast, where they planned to risk a boat trip to Europe, but their driver suddenly said middlemen had not passed on his fees and put his passengers up for sale.
The men on the pick-up were brought to a square, or parking lot, where a kind of slave trade was happening. There were locals he described them as Arabs buying sub-Saharan migrants, said Livia Manante, an IOM officer based in Niger who helps people wanting to return home.
She interviewed the survivor after he escaped from Libya earlier this month and said accounts of slave markets were confirmed by other migrants she spoke to in Niger and some who had been interviewed by colleagues in Europe.
Several other migrants confirmed his story, independently describing kinds of slave markets as well as kinds of private prisons all over in Libya, Manente said. IOM Italy has confirmed that this story is similar to many stories reported by migrants and collected at landing points in southern Italy, including the slave market reports. This gives more evidence that the stories reported are true, as the stories of those who managed to cross-match those who are returning back to their countries.
After his sale, the Senegalese migrant was taken to a makeshift prison of a kind that has been well documented in Libya. Those held inside are forced to work without pay, or on meagre rations, and their captors regularly call family at home demanding a ransom. His captors asked for 300,000 west African francs (about 380), then sold him on to a larger jail where the demand doubled without explanation.
Men who lingered there too long without the ransom being paid were taken away and killed, he said. Some wasted away on meagre rations in unsanitary conditions, dying of hunger and disease, but overall numbers never fell. If the number of migrants goes down, because of death or someone is ransomed, the kidnappers just go to the market and buy one, Manente said.
His terrified family began scraping together loans. As he spoke fluent English, French and some local languages, he translated for his jailers to win time for relatives to collect the money.
Many other migrants flee Libya with similar stories, said Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission at IOM Niger. Its very clear they see themselves as being treated as slaves, he said.
Lopretes office has arranged for the repatriation of 1,500 people in the first three months of this year almost the same number as in the whole of 2015. He fears more horrors are likely to emerge.
There are now more migrants coming back from Libya, so thats also why all these stories are coming to the surface, he said. And conditions are worsening in Libya so I think we can also expect more in the coming months.
Even growing international awareness of the problems migrants face is being exploited. IOM has had credible reports of criminals posing as aid groups that help migrants to lure in people who have escaped or bought their freedom and want to return home.
The organisation is working to spread awareness across west Africa of the horrors of the journey through the personal stories of those who return. Though most migrants know the boat trips to Europe are extremely risky, fewer realise they may face even worse dangers in Libya before even reaching the coast.
Tragically, the most credible messengers are migrants returning home with IOM help, said spokesman Leonard Doyle. Too often they are broken, brutalised and have been abused. Their voices carry more weight than anyone elses.
President Donald Trump View Photos
President Trump was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:
My Fellow Americans,
Were only 11 weeks in, but already my administration has achieved historic progress for the American people in fact, 93% of our domestic manufacturers have expressed optimism in the future, a record.
The confidence we are seeing in our Nation is about jobs and opportunity but its also about safety and security.
Security begins at the border as a candidate, I pledged to take swift and decisive action to secure the border, and that is exactly what I have done. We inherited a full-fledged border crisis it was a disaster. Yet, with quick and bold steps, we have so far exceeded even the most bullish predictions for the progress we could make in so short a period of time. Last month, we saw a 64% reduction in illegal immigration on our southern border.
At the same time, we are conducting enforcement actions across the country to remove dangerous criminal aliens from our society and theyll be gone. In just the last few days our Nations ICE officers have arrested 153 criminal aliens in south Texas, 84 criminal aliens in the Pacific Northwest, and 31 criminal aliens in Long Island, New York these arrests include aliens convicted of robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, sexual assault against a child, smuggling, drug dealing, and many more.
Much work needs to be done to reverse decades of harm caused by open border policies from Washington but, with time, dedication, and effort, we will get the job done, and save countless lives in the process.
Providing security for the American People also means restoring Americas standing in the world.
From the very start of my Presidency, I have worked to strengthen our alliances and improve our relationships all around the globe.
This week, I was honored to welcome the President of Egypt and the King of Jordan to the White House. Now, I am hosting a summit with President Xi of China at the Southern White House to address the many critical issues affecting our two peoples.
In our dealings with other nations, our conversations have been candid, open, and grounded in mutual respect.
I have been clear about advocating for the national interests of the United States, something so important to me, and so important to our people one of the reasons, certainly, that I got elected. And I want to ensure that the decisions we make truly serve the safety and security of our citizens.
In matters both economic and military, we understand that a strong America is in the best interests of the world that is why it is so important that as we strengthen international partnerships, we ensure these partnerships deliver real results for Americans and the American people.
Our decisions will be guided by our values and our goals and we will reject the path of inflexible ideology that too often leads to unintended consequences.
A future of peace, safety, and prosperity that is our guiding light, and always will be.
Together, we will bring about this future for the land we love, and for the people who call it home.
We love our country, and we love the American people. Thank you.
The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Millions of men, women and children in the world are victims of smugglers. People, like goods, are bought and sold for sexual exploitation or slave labor. This trade swept the entire world and turned into a profitable business. Human trafficking statistics in Nigeria is frightening. More and more terrible stories about people kidnapping and human trafficking shock the citizens of our country. We will tell you the latest facts and people stories.
Real human trafficking stories in Nigeria and the consequences
#1
The first story is about 29 years old human trafficker Serah Ekundayo Ezekiel. His story is about legal struggle, which beginned in 2011. He even tried to appeal but failed. This man delivered teen girls of 17-21 years from Lagos to Mali as prostitutes. He was brought to the Federal High Court in Lagos by NAPTIP. After many appeals and the dismiss, he was condemned and sentenced. Ezekiel was already behind bars for the same actual criminal act, so we cant be sure that this time he will understand the lesson. Source: naptip.gov.ng
#2
The next story is about the thirty years old Eke Oguchukwu, who has been sentenced by the High Court in Johannesburg to twenty years of prison confinement for the kidnapping, constant raping, and sexual exploration of 15 years old girl. The victim was kept against her will at a brothel in Rossetenville and was forced to see in average six clients per night. This place in Johannesburg is a problem area, where sexual exploration can be met across-the-board, there are many alcoholics and drug abused. The abuse became a trauma for the entire life and victims mother fears for the life of her daughter, because many friends of the sentenced are still free and can revenge their friend. The National Prosecuting Authority considers this case as a reason for hope of the residents of the country for justice. Source: sabc.co.za
#3
The third our story is again about crime in Rosettenville. Fifteen children aged 13-16 (six boys and nine girls) were kidnapped from Fochville. The kidnapper enticed the children promising of sport training at his home. Fortunately, all kids were returned home safe and alive. Unfortunately, the person, who kidnapped the kids is still free. Source: sabc.co.za
Human trafficking in Nigeria Facts
#4
The next story is about foreigners from Lesotho and Swaziland. 72 trafficked people were held and worked at a factory in Newcastle (South Africa). These people were brought to Africa illegally and were explored at the factory. In this story appears five suspects. (the source: sabc.co.za)
#5
The last story takes place in Italy but concerns our citizens. Police of Italy captured a criminal gang, which packed migrants into vans and tried to cross with the France border. Forty migrants were padlocked in one van they were treated as cattle.
The statistics shows that in 2016 about 181,000 recorded illegal migrants reached Italy by boats. This is a usual practice as we have mentioned above. All migrants were searching for better life conditions and new opportunities. (the source: sabc.co.za)
Human trafficking in Nigeria Facts
Human trafficking will exist until there is demand. The whole world is struggling with it, our country is not an exception. Nobody is immune to human trafficking, hope that the stories we have told you will teach you a lesson, how not to become a victim and to protect the loved ones from kidnapping and trafficking. Do not forget to share this write-up with your friends.
According to the estimating of the Permanent Mission of the International Labor Organization (ILO), slave labor annually generates $150 billion of illegal income. 2/3 - $99 billion - comes from sexual exploitation.
The main question is, who are they, the people behind these figures?
Factors responsible for human trafficking
Political (instability in a country);
Economic (joblessness, pauperism);
Social (domestic abuse, gender discrimination);
Cultural (lack of exposure to info and education).
On the one hand, all these grounds have negative impact on people and they decide to look for a life of new bright perspectives elsewhere, on the other hand, rich and advanced countries search for extremely cheap labor and low-cost services. Criminal cartels understood how to make money on the problems in the country and became connectors between the supply & demand and learnt how to make huge profits on human trafficking, abuse and exploration.
Other universal factors for human trafficking are: corrupt practices of the officials, inconsistent penal policies, lack of control on the side of organs accountable for this etc.
Consequences of human trafficking
The victims of trafficking are exploited and abused, suffer from different infection contaminations and diseases (more often sexually transmitted diseases such as Hepatitis, Syphilis, and HIV), physical and psycho injuries, and even death. After the victims of human trafficking are revealed they can still have longtime depressions and psychological traumas, even after rehabilitation and social reintegration. Very often psychological damage stay for the whole life and it is difficult to call the life after normal.
READ ALSO: Human trafficking: FG evacuates 41 Nigerian girls from Mali, arrests 6 suspected traffickers (photos)
Human trafficking in Nigeria
Nigeria is the most suitable state for human trafficking. Everything begins form the criminal trader, who promises a life of higher level to his future "goods". Parents themselves persuade their blood and soul to sell themselves, and they readily agree because the seller promises an outstanding income, opportunity to receive education and other goods of civilization. It is far from case. Each year, more than 500,000 young women from Nigeria illegally go to brothels in Europe. The crossing to Europe is like a nightmare - illegal immigrants are transported on brittle boats to the shores of Spain and Italy. People, who could survive the road, faced unpleasant opening that they now have to trade their bodies on the street. Years in a row, the Government of Nigeria together with the church have opened few shelters for people who were too naive and became the victims of human trafficking.
Thousands of females, who became targets of human smugglers in West African countries, including Nigeria, are now in Europe.
UNODC estimates that West African victims of traffickers, mostly in Nigeria, account for almost ten percent of women who are forced into sex trade in Western Europe.
A major role in Nigeria's trafficking is played by the city of Benin City in southern Nigeria, where there is a branching network of trafficking.
There, traffickers of human commodity are looking for girls who are attracted by bright perspectives of work or education abroad. The victims are offered forget documents and are told that they are supposed to pay only for transit after they get to the destination country.
After this, young ladies are often coerced into various voodoo ritesto ensure their obedience.
One woman, who sold girls to slavery in Benin City in the past told how the smugglers took clothes from girls, a strand of hair from their heads, underarms hair, and then gave these materials to the shaman for the ceremony, which should guarantee a debt repayment.
READ ALSO: Human traffickers make $150b yearly - UN
Source: Legit.ng
Toronto, Apr 10 (IBNS): The Saskatchewan provincial government's announcement, made on budget day last month, about the elimination of hearing aid plan from the budget to save $3 million had been strongly protested by parents of deaf or hard of hearing children, media reports said.
An online petition against the cuts started by Saskatoon High School student Mary-Jayne Morris has attracted more than 1,500 signatures, a CBCNews report said.
The protesters noted that Saskatchewan had fewer public audiologists per capita than any other province and lacked comprehensive hearing tests for newborns.
In a recent national study for its treatment of the deaf and hard of hearing, Saskatchewan received one of the worst grades.
Claudia Baptiste, president of the volunteer advocacy group Saskatchewan A.G. Bell said her 12-year-old son, Zachary, and hundreds of families across the province would be affected by elimination of the plan.
The government, supported by private audiologists, in a news release issued on Thursday, signed by 11 private sector audiologists from cities around the province, said A.G. Bell was spreading misinformation and said public sector and private audiologists, along with groups like A.G. Bell should work with the government to ensure that services remain focused on the patient, and not on providers, media reports said.
Baptiste and others opposed the statement by government and the private, for-profit companies and issued their own statement.
"Saskatchewan children's communication skills will be at risk, which in turn will affect their literacy levels, academic success and social & emotional well-being," said the A G Bell statement quoted the media.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj,Image: Wikimedia Commons)
What can be said about the state that used to be the colony of more developed countries for so long? Certainly, this historical period has left an imprint on almost every sphere of life: from political to economical and cultural. Educational system is not the exception. Do you know the history of education in Nigeria? Keep reading and there will be a lot of interesting on this theme.
READ ALSO: Private schools in Lagos
History of Islamic education in Nigeria
Islam came to Nigeria much earlier than Christianity and other confessions. It was 9th century. Islam spread from the north part of the country to the rest of its territory. By the 16th century almost all the people practiced this religion visiting mosques and reading the Koran. There are evidences that approximately between 14th and 15th centuries the first schools were built. These schools looked like Koranic centers. Further Islamic education became more and more profound and people started visiting mosques not only to pray but study as well.
History of education in Nigeria before independence
Education in Nigeria has got a long story of development. Being the colony of European countries, evidently, western way of teaching came to Africa with its rules, methodologies and traditions. At first, there were missioners which taught children at the primary level according Christian religion. Secondary education appeared only in 19th century. In 20 years British colonial government started interfering to the system of education making amends. The point is that western educational tradition was transferred therefore new subjects, technologies and even customs had been implemented.
The local citizens were against it because it had nothing in common with the way of Nigerian life. Pupils started forgetting national traditions, delving completely into new interesting subjects. That is why a number of the discontent increased they did not accept that way of life completely. Totally there was only 5 % of the educated in the whole country at the end 1950s. All they could not read and hardly write, to say nothing of sciences. Therefore, the government of Nigeria ceased educational humiliation to indigenous population and a new phase of educational development was fulfilled.
History of western education in Nigeria
As it is stated above, Nigeria was profoundly religious oriented in the question of studying that is why people were unenthusiastic when Europeans made them follow curriculum and other innovations.
New schools were built and sponsored by the west, new teachers and missioners came to spread sciences. Thus, complete control on Nigerian education was gradually established. In 19th century, for instance, colonial government even brought Education ordinance the first official document. Later schools were divided into governmental and private. Community supported financially only the governmental ones; the latter existed with the help of private donations. However, all these new things did not settle down.
At the beginning of 20th century it was finally decided to make a nationally and Islamic oriented system of education that suited the population much better. Thus, education as a concrete system began its life. The education system in Nigeria was completely reorganized, traditions and certain western educational technologies were combined, the quantity of protesters decreased at once. The next stage was to implement English as obligatory to study. But the latter had to be delayed because nor people neither government were nor ready to such radical innovations.
Speaking about nowadays, it should be noted down that the situation has changed. The whole country develops progressively. New educational organisations are being established and plenty of foreign lecturers are engaged.
Modern educational system has got several phases like in the west. Secondary education consists of:
Primary education (1-6 classes) starts at 6 years of age;
Middle school has got 2 cycles for 3 years each: the former (basic education 7-9 classes) and the latter (10-12 classes).
Now it is apparent the importance of the history of education in Nigeria, because only through a long and tense way to education Nigeria is gradually becoming progressive and developed country with more and more educated people.
READ ALSO: hevron scholarship 2017/2018
Source: Legit.ng
- The Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Oba Ewuare II, on Saturday, April 8, received two tortoises said to be 117 years old
- The tortoises were presented to the Oba as gift by traditional rulers in the Edo North senatorial district when he visited them
- This new gift presentation comes 15 days after the Oba received a 7-month old tiger of the Esama of Benin
- The gift was given to the Oba as a mark of respect to the king in the palace
This new gift presentation comes 15 days after the Oba received a 7-month old tiger of the Esama of Benin
The Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Oba Ewuare II, on Saturday, April 8, received two tortoises said to be 117 years old.
Punch reports that the tortoises were presented to the Oba as gift by traditional rulers in the Edo North senatorial district when he visited them.
Recall that the Oba had earlier received a 7-month old tiger as a gift from the The Esama of Benin kingdom Gabriel Igbinedion.
The tiger, Igbinedion said was given to the Oba as a mark of respect to the king in the palace.
READ ALSO: Breaking: Efe wins Big Brother Naija 2017; read how it happenedBreaking: Efe wins Big Brother Naija 2017; read how it happened
However, in this fresh development, the Ikelebe III, in the Etsako West local government area of Edo, His Royal Highness, Aliyu Momoh while receiving the Oba pledge support of all traditional rulers in the state for the visiting king.
Legit.ng gathered that the Oba Ewuare II also called on all the traditional rulers in Edo state to work towards promoting measures that will conserve the environment and encourage forest regeneration.
He also called on the rulers to support his initiative on youth empowerment and job creation stating that there is need to key into the state government's agricultural policies.
The Oba urged leaders to make land available to investors and encourage the youths to embrace agriculture to boost food production.
The state government is partnering investors to provide incentives for investors to boost agriculture and create employment," Oba Ewuare II said.
READ ALSO: How army captain, four policemen were killed by militants in Lagos Police commissioner
Encourage your youths to take advantage of this initiative.
We are taking steps to restore sanity to our villages and towns by stamping out activities of community development associations. Their activities have been criminalized. Support this crusade and stamp them out of your domains.
Oba Ewuare II further added that Edo North would continue to be blessed with good weather, expressed optimism that the people would be rewarded with good harvest this year.
READ ALSO: 5 facts you need to know about BBNaija's winner Efe (photos)
Also speaking, the Otaru of Auchi said other traditional rulers in Edo North will continue to support that Oba in his endeavour.
He also called on the Benin Monarch to lead an advocacy for the roles of traditional rulers to be captured or specified in the countrys constitution.
Watch this Legit.ng video of Emir Sanusi blasting Nigerian leadership below:
Source: Legit.ng
- Governor Fayose has accused ex-President Obasanjo of being corrupt
- The governor said Obasanjo has no moral right to be accuse anyone else of corruption
Governor Ayodele Fayose has attacked former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. The verbal attack came few days after the ex-president accused church leaders of fueling corruption in Nigeria.
Legit.ng gathered that Fayose, through his Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka accused the ex-president of being hypocritical and said he has no right to accuse church leaders of corruption.
Fayose said Obasanjo's two terms as president was the epitome of corruption in Nigeria and that the ex-President acquire dubious wealth to run his third term campaign, Punch reports.
Fayose said Obasanjo lacks the moral right to accused church leaders of corruption.
READ ALSO: 15 days after receiving tiger, Oba of Benin gets 117-year old tortoises
Fayose said:Where did Obasanjo get the stupendous wealth he is parading since he was a pauper before he became president? Where did he get the trillions of naira that he deployed to his failed third term bid?
How can Obasanjo, under whose tenure, Nigeria witnessed the Halliburton scandal be sermonising about corruption?
Fayose also accused Obasanjo of forcing governors during his tenure to contribute N10 million each to a library construction which was Obasanjo's personal project in his state.
Fayose said: Isnt compelling state governors to make donations to the personal project of a serving president part of corruption?"
Who introduced the politics of Ghana-must-go bags to the National Assembly?
Who was the president when sacks of money were displayed on the floor of the House of Representatives as bribe money given to some Reps members to impeach the then Speaker, Ghali Nabba?
READ ALSO: Emir of Kano Sanusi slams use of religion to control minds of citizens
Under whose administration was the out-of-court settlement in the controversial $1.09bn Malabu oil block initiated in 2006?
Meanwhile, the minister of mines and steel development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has said Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state will get his due reward at the appropriate time.
The minister made the statement in reaction to recent allegations made against him by Fayose.
Fayemi, the immediate past governor of Ekiti state, was succeeded by Fayose, who recently claimed the minister was working with some justices of the Supreme Court to sack him via a review of the ruling of the apex court which upheld his election as governor of the state.
Source: Legit.ng
- Forum of APC NEC members says in the letter to Buhari that the APC needs to swiftly address issues raised by members
- The group said the letter was written to Buhari after Odigie-Oyegun failed to act on previous letters written to the national chairman
- The letter titled Save our party APC was made available to the press on Sunday, April 9
APC chieftains want Buhari (left) to help with solving the party's problems by impressing action on Odigie-Oyegun
Chieftains in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have written a letter of complaint to President Muhammadu Buhari over the in-actions of national chairman John Odigie-Oyegun on critical issues with the party.
READ ALSO: Obasanjo shouldn't be preaching again'st corruption, he is corrupt - Fayose
The Punch reports that the chieftains who are members of the National Executive Council of the party who wrote under the umbrella of Forum of APC NEC members complaining about their continued exemption from the partys affairs.
The group said President Buhari should direct the National Working Committee led by Oyegun to urgently convene a NEC meeting.
The meeting, they said, is to enable members tackle the issues affecting the unity within the partys rank and file.
According to the letter, members of the forum had written several letters to the partys national chairman, without any positive reaction hence this Save our party request.
The forums letter was signed by the National Ex-Officio/South-West Coordinator, Omolayo Akintola and it noted that doing nothing to counter the concerns raised by party members could lead to preventable, avoidable and unnecessary intra-party cracks that the present situation might generate.
The letter dated April 6, 2017 and titled Save our party APC was made available to newsmen on Sunday, April 9.
READ ALSO: Martin Elechi defects to APC
It read in part: To be noted for appropriate advice is the exclusion of a sizeable number of federating states from the scheme of things within the party because many states are not presently represented by party officers on the current National Working Committee, hence, the need to be having regular NEC meetings pending the much awaited amendment to the present party constitution.
We, therefore, deemed it necessary putting this letter across for your timely actions to save our great party from preventable, avoidable and unnecessary intra-party/in-house cracks that the present situation might generate.
Source: Legit.ng
- Lagos House of assembly has confirmed the nomination of Hakeem Dickson as head of the states Safety Commission
- Dickson was convicted for fraud in United States in 1991 but fled jail term
- Dickson was nominated by the Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode
The Lagos state House of Assembly has confirmed the nomination of Mr Hakeem Dickson, a man convicted for fraud in United States, as the new head of state's Safety Commission.
Legit.ng gathered that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode nominated Dickson on October 4, 2016 as the Director General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, an agency empowered to set safety standards in the socio-economic activities in the state.
According to Premium Times, Dickson was convicted of credit card fraud in the United States but escaped the country without serving his 24-month jail term.
Dickson pleaded guilty to credit card fraud and was sentenced to 24-months jail term but he left the US without serving his sentence.
Judge Dickinson Debevoise of a U.S. District Court, in a judgement published by Sahara reporters last year, said Mr Dickson had not served the sentence handed to him since June 1992.
READ ALSO: APC chieftains write SOS letter to Buhari over Odigie-Oyegun
The judge said: For 20 years, Defendant (Mr. Dickson) successfully evaded all United States government efforts to locate and arrest him."
Dickson was arrested on June 14, 1991 and convicted for credit card fraud.
Four months later, Dickson pleaded guilty to Count One of a four-count indictment which charged that from August 29, 1990, to September 10, 1990, he knowingly and willfully executed and attempted to execute a scheme to defraud a federally insured institution in violation of U.S. laws.
On June 25, 1992, Dickson was sentenced to 24-month jail term, to be followed by a term of supervised release of three years. He was also ordered to repay $14,400.
The judge fixed August 3, 1992 for his voluntary surrender, despite opposition from the U.S. government, the plaintiff in the suit.
The judge said: The government had urged at sentencing that Defendant be remanded forthwith or at least surrender to the Bureau of Prisons no later than the following Monday, June 29, 1992.
The court noted that while on bail Defendant returned on three occasions after being given permission to leave the country.
The Court also took account of Defendants wish to spend more time with his one-year-old son, who suffered severe medical problems. Thus the August 3, 1992, surrender date.
But on August 3, 1992, Mr. Dickson was nowhere to be found in the U.S., forcing the judge to revoke his bail and issue a warrant for his arrest.
Twenty years later, on January 27, 2012, Mr. Dickson, filed a motion seeking to adjust his sentence of 24 months incarceration in the U.S. by claiming that he had already served 17 months on the same sentence in a Lagos prison.
In his motion, Dickson claimed that he lost his relatives during a religious clash in Lagos and he had to depart the US to go bury his siblings in Nigeria.
READ ALSO: Governors disagree over consultant fees from Paris Club refund
Dickson motion reads: During these clashes, two of Defendants sisters were killed and the family home was burned to the ground, the judge quoted Mr. Dickson as claiming, in his judgment dated May 12, 2012.
Following his sentencing Defendant returned to Lagos to bury his sisters, assess the damage to his fathers house and to take his mother for treatment.
When Defendant arrived in Lagos, he was arrested at the airport and was told that since he was convicted in the United States he would also serve time in Nigeria. He was retained in custody until December 10, 1993, a total of 17 months.
According to an investigations done by Premium Times though, no Nigerian prison has record of Dickson spending anytime Nigerian prison between 1992 and 1993.
A top prison source reportedly said: There is no name like that in our record. We've checked both our Lagos and Abuja records."
Source: Legit.ng
- Pastor Enoch Adeboye warned that terrible ending may befall those destroying Naira
- Adeboye said those destroying Naira will not live to enjoy the gain
- He said this was the revelation he received earlier this year
As Naira continues its struggle against dollars, other foreign currencies, the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye has predicted doom for those behind Naira's fall.
Legit.ng gathered that Adeboye, during a special Sunday service organized by RCCG Region 11, Ikoyi/Victoria Island family, at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Onikan, Lagos said those who are behind the fall will come to a painful end.
Adeboye said those behind the fall of Naira will not live to spend the gains.
READ ALSO: Sheriff tells Fayose, Wike to leave PDP as party crisis worsens
According to Vanguard, Adeboye said he received the revelation early this year but he was just sharing it for the first time.
Adeboye said: Those who are deliberately destroying the Naira will make the money but will not spend it."
Naira took a great fall in 2016 and has been battling to regain it's strength against foreign currency since then. Recently it started regaining it's strength to the joy of several Nigerians but few days before Pastor Adeboye's sermon, naira took a great blow and dropped further.
On Friday, April 7, naira dropped N8 to crash against the United States Dollar at the parallel market despite Central Bank of Nigeria fight market speculators and currency hoarders.
READ ALSO: APC chieftains write SOS letter to Buhari over Odigie-Oyegun
Meanwhile, Pastor Adeboye has contributed his two bits opinion to the fight against meningitis disease currently ravaging Nigeria.
The pastor, just few days after Zamfara state governor said meningitis is a reward for the sin of fornication, urged members of his church to bring their young ones for anointing against meningitis.
Meanwhile in the video below, Legit.ng asked random Nigerians to name a politician they believe is not corrupt.
Source: Legit.ng
Russia and Iran have both issued a strong warning to America over Syria
The warning came after the US attacked Syria with dozens of cruise missile strikes at a government-controlled airbase
The US accused the Assad regime of using chemical weapons on civilians
Russia and Iran warned US that they will retaliate with military action if more airstrikes are launched on Syria
In a threat to America, Russia and Iran warned Donald Trump that their governments will retaliate with military action if more airstrikes are launched on Syria.
According to the two countries, Donald Trump crossed their red line with his recent attack on Syria.
Making a joint statement, the military chiefs of the two countries alongside a militant group, Hezbollah said: From now on we will respond with force to any breach of red lines and America knows our ability to respond well.
READ ALSO: Nigeria oil price set to RISE as America attacks Syria
Earlier in the day, the Russian Embassy in London hinted that there could be 'real war' if Moscow is presented with an ultimatum over Syria.
Legit.ng however learnt that Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary will on Monday lead a push for Russia to face tough new sanctions unless it withdraws its support for Assads regime in Syria.
Legit.ng also recalls that in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that killed scores of civilians, the United States attacked Syria with dozens of cruise missile strikes at a government-controlled airbase.
READ ALSO: Biafra agitation suffers a major setback as Britain says it will not allow Nigeria to break up
The strikes, launched from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeted the base's airstrips, hangars, control tower and ammunition areas.
It was the first direct military action the US has taken against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the six-year war.
Meanwhile, in the video below by Legit.ng, Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II blasts Nigeria's leaders over poverty.
Watch the video:
Source: Legit.ng
Editor's note: The minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode in this second part of his essay writes on statements attributed to British and French ambassadors on the disintegration on Nigeria .
The former minister in this piece strongly postulates that you cannot compel a people to remain as part of a nation especially when they do not want to.
For example Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, suggested that this was not the time to discuss the issue of a new referendum for Scottish independence just two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, just as their counterparts are doing in Nigeria, the racial integrationists, the champions of globalization, the apostles of a new world order and the advocates of mass migration continue to test the waters by attempting to place obstacles in the path of the true believers and ethnic nationalists all over the world.
For example Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, suggested that this was not the time to discuss the issue of a new referendum for Scottish independence just two weeks ago.
Thankfully Alex Salmon, the former leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, responded to her in an eloquent manner by assuring her that if she continued talking that way her words and attitude would actually guarantee Scottish independence rather than prevent it. His warning is appropriate and timely.
Again just last week, the President of the European Commission, Jeanne Claude Junker, who is one of the world's most rabid and die-hard integrationists and globalists, said that President Donald Trump's stated desire to see "more Brexits" and to "witness more countries leave the European Union" was "provocative and inappropriate" and that in retaliation the European Union may consider calling on states like Ohio and Texas to secede from the United States of America.
Nigel Farage MEP, the former leader of the British United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and one of the most formidable and respected nationalists in the world today, jumped into the ring the following day with a swift and devastating response.
READ ALSO: Fani Kayode blasts Sheikh Gumi for saying only Muslim can end terrorism in NigeriaFani Kayode blasts Sheikh Gumi for saying only Muslim can end terrorism in Nigeria
He said that Junkers' words were inappropriate and misplaced because the United States of America came together as a consequence of consensus whilst the European Union was brought together by fiat and compulsion.
He also made the point that, unlike America, which is a transparent and functional democracy, the European Union is run by a group of faceless and un-elected bureaucrats and officials at the European Commission in Brussels.
Farage is absolutely right. His was indeed a beautiful response. Both Salmon and Farage have spoken the minds of millions of people all over the world including Nigeria.
The forces of integration and globalization are clearly on the ropes in today's fast-changing world just as they are in Nigeria.
The bottom line is that you cannot compel a people to remain part of any nation unless they choose to be in that nation and you cannot deny them the right of self-determination and the freedom of choice and association.
Thankfully that message is spreading. The forces of integration and globalization are clearly on the ropes in today's fast-changing world just as they are in Nigeria.
Nothing can stop the quest for self-determination or the glorious march of the ethnic nationalists.
READ ALSO: Pastor Adeboye predicts TERRIBLE ending for those destroying Naira
A couple of weeks ago in an essay titled "The Hausa Fulani, The Yoruba and The Slaughter in Ile-Ife" (Part 2) yours truly wrote the following: "The right to take pride in our ethnicity and invoke the principle of self-determination cannot be denied.
We reject the concept of globalization and the enthronement of a new world order. We reject the concept of an artificial, man-made, multi-cultural, multi-religious, mongrel mega-nation that is made up of ethnic and religious incompatibles.
We reject the notion that we must bury our ethnicity, forget our differences, arrest our development, discard our values and enthrone the idea of a strange and complicated hybrid nation where we are expected to live with and accommodate those that hate our faith, despise our people, scorn our values and that abuse, maim and kill our loved ones and compatriots in the name of religion, conquest, land, cows and cattle.
The truth is that no force in hell or on earth can stop the rise and establishment of the sovereign state of Biafra, Oduduwa or any other ethnic nation that will one day be carved out of what is presently known as Nigeria".
READ ALSO: Dangote at 60: 14 of his quotes that will change your life forever
I believe that these words are relevant and prophetic. Those that do not see the wisdom in restructuring Nigeria have guaranteed her future dissolution.
Yet sadly this is a fact that appears to be completely lost on both the British and French Ambassadors given their simplistic and asinine contributions to what is essentially a very complicated, multi-layered, multifaceted, problematic, volatile and dangerous long-standing debate which borders on the nationality question in Nigeria.
May the counsel of the Lord stand in our nation and may His name be glorified. (TO BE CONTINUED).
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Legit.ng
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Watch this Legit.ng's video of Nigerians lamenting the All Progressives Congress led administration below:
Source: Legit.ng
- Shittu believes that the continuous running of local government areas in Oyo state with caretaker chairmen is a breach of the constitution
- The communications minister describes the actions of the governor as impunity and said it is a disservice to citizens
- The situation must be immediately corrected, he said.
Communications minister Shittu during his Senate confirmation hearing. He believes Ajimobi's actions are unconstitutional
Oyo state governor Abiola Ajimobi has been lambasted by communications minister Adebayo Shittu for not conducting local government elections in the southwest state.
READ ALSO: Troops gun down Boko Haram bomber in UNIMAID
Shittu accused Ajimobi of ruling the state with impunity by refusing to allow the elections take place. He said such action is unconstitutional and must be brought to an end.
The minister made the assertion at the weekend while featuring on a live television programme Bottom Line, on a Lagos-based television station MITV.
This impunity must stop; it must be checkmated at all costs, Shittu said and noted with concern Ajimobis continued appointment of handpicked people to serve as caretaker chairmen.
Shittu said the governors action is not only a disservice to the people of the state, but also a disservice to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Communications minister Shittu (above) says Governor Ajimobi is engaging in illegality by not conducting local government elections
He had: Facts should be said. The stakeholders are frustrated by the way the executive has been treating them.
READ ALSO: Price of rice to crash to N6000
The governor does not even deem it fit to invite me to the stakeholders meeting; this issue of impunity must be checkmated.
Legit.ng gathered that Governor Ajimobi had just on Friday, April 7 in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, installed new caretaker chairmen for the 55 local governments and local council development areas in the state.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara recently challenged state governors, in the spirit of accountability and transparency, to publish how they utilise funds allocated to local governments.
The speaker made the charge while speaking during a retreat for management of the National Assembly in Kaduna on Friday April 7.
Source: Legit.ng
- The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, says the federal government does not plan to regulate social media as claimed by a recent report
- Mohammed describes the report on regulation of social media as false and misleading
- The minister says the intention of those behind the false news is to give the impression that the federal government is working to stifle freedom of speech, which is not the case
Lai Mohammed has said the federal government is not planning to stifle freedom of speech.
The federal government has dismissed reports circulating on the social media that it has mandated that ministry of interior to monitor and record all phone calls and social media posts made by citizens.
READ ALSO: Price of rice to crash to N6000
The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, described the reports as false and misleading, Vanguard reports.
Mohammed, in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, April 10, said the report was another example of disinformation that has permeated the media space, especially the social media.
Legit.ng learnt that the minister noted that the intention of those behind the false news is to give the impression that the federal government is working to stifle freedom of speech, which is not the case.
There is no regulation, old or new, from the Ministry of Interior or any federal government agency requiring the recording of all calls or the monitoring of Social Media platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter or Facebook.
READ ALSO: Presidency reacts to BBNaija Efe's victory
We are therefore using this medium to inform all Nigerians that what is being circulated in this regard is totally false and should be disregarded.
We thank all Nigerians who have reached out to us in an effort to confirm the authenticity or otherwise of this information, which is now being widely circulated on the Social Media. This is the best way to ensure that the purveyors of false news do not dominate our media space, he said.
In another news story, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, has said that President Muhammadu Buharis foreign trips have started yielding positive results.
Legit.ng reports that Onyeama said the president's trips had started attracting investors and enhancing Foreign Direct Investment into the country.
In the video below, Legit.ng visits the Bariga market in Lagos to find out the current price of foodstuffs.
Source: Legit.ng
- Ijaw youth council is calling for thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Naval Officer, Admiral Ikoli in Lagos
- Ikoli was reported dead last week Monday in his residence in Apapa area of Lagos
- IYC is demanding inclusion into the investigation team put together by the Nigerian Navy
The national leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) is demanding to be included in the ongoing investigation into the gruesome assassination of Rear Admiral Teikumor Ikoli, the Fleet Commander, Western Naval Command Lagos last week Monday.
The Ijaw youths condemned what they described as sudden and unlawful killing of a son of the Niger Delta region, a father to many, a fine and intelligent naval officer and a defender of the collective sovereignty of Nigeria.
The Nigerian Navy set up investigation panel to probe death of Rear Admiral Ikoli in Lagos
Recall that information currently making the rounds, have it that the Fleet Commander shot himself with his service pistol after locking himself in the room from inside but the Ijaw youths claim that he was assassinated in his Apapa residence last week Monday.
Following the establishment of a board of inquiry into the circumstances leading to his sudden death, the IYC is insisting that it be included as part of the team to investigate the alleged assassination of Real Admiral Ikoli, who was killed in Lagos last week.
READ ALSO: Price of petrol remains N145/litre - PPPRA
The council said the circumstances of the murder of Admiral Ikoli demanded thorough and transparent investigation.
In a statement signed by President of IYC, Eric Omare, the IYC said: The Ijaw ethnic nationality demands to be part and parcel of the investigation in order to unravel the real cause of the death and those behind it.
We therefore call on the military authorities to include a representative of the Ijaw ethnic nationality as part of the investigative team to ensure transparency in the process.
Rear Admiral Ikoli who died mysteriously in Lagos last week Monday
In another development, the IYC is calling on Ijaw youths to remain calm following the new convention that produced a factional president for the IYC in Okrika area of Rivers state on Sunday.
Omare said: What transpired on Sunday the 9th of April, 2017 at Okrika, Rivers state was not an IYC election but a charade by some former leaders of the council in the name of election.
READ ALSO: Troops gun down Boko Haram bomber in UNIMAID
It would definitely not stand the test of time. The IYC had since the 2nd to 3rd March, 2017 conducted its elections and have an existing national executive council under my leadership.
In the coming days, the national executive council of the IYC under my leadership shall use all legitimate means to bring the charade to an end and restore sanity to the Ijaw Youth Council.
I call on the Ijaw nation and the general public to completely disregard the outcome of the Okrika charade which was done in fragrant disrespect to competent courts of law.
We also call on IYC members to be peaceful and not to take laws into their hands in trying to express their grievances. We shall follow due process in our efforts to address this deliberate effort to factionalize the IYC.
Meanwhile a Nigerian family has cried out calling for justice over the death of a family member. Watch the video
Source: Legit.ng
After What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Davis and Crawford didnt sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Davis did guest spots on television as well as two movies, one of which (Dead Ringer) was directed by her Now Voyager co-star, Paul Henreid. In it, Davis played twin sisters (as she had already done in A Stolen Life, from 1946). Its not a bad film, but it was Crawford who really scored, appearing in William Castles axe-murder psychodrama, Strait-Jacket, a hit with the young crowd (just as Baby Jane was), and now a cult classic. The film was tailored to Crawford, and designed to call back memories of her 1940s persona, the striking silhouette, the shopgirl roles that made her famous. She even wears her signature shoes. Strait-Jacket is ridiculous in so many ways, but it has an intense and weird power, entirely because of to Crawfords hyperbolic no other word for it commitment to the role. Crawford means every word of it. Not once do you get the sense she is slumming. In its own bizarre way, it is a great performance.
This episode opens with a packed screening of Strait-Jacket, in which John Waters plays Castle (a stroke of genius casting) as the consummate master of ceremonies, crowding the stage with sexy nurses who toss toy hatchets into the crowd and forcing Joan Crawford to enter from the back of the theater wearing a red gown and wielding a bloody ax. Jessica Lange staggers down the aisle, participating in Castles gimmick with a tragic mixture of irritation, embarrassment and stiff-upper-lip professionalism. (Diane Baker, Crawfords Strait-Jacket co-star, has said she thought Crawford actually enjoyed being out with the public again.)
Wanting to capitalize on the surprise success of Baby Jane, disheartened by the failure of 4 for Texas, Aldrich initiates What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?, (written by Henry Farrell, the author who wrote Baby Jane), another Grand Guignol vehicle for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The negotiations are difficult, but Davis and Crawford eventually sign on and show up for the table-read at the studio like swaggering white and black hats in a Western, their two gas-guzzling cars facing each other in the lot as in a deadly standoff in a dusty frontier town.
A subplot about the emergence of Crawfords brother, Hal (Raymond J. Barry, in a retread of his role on Justified), who has threatened to leak a blue film that Crawford allegedly did back in the 20s, is tacked onto the episode. (Crawford was dogged by rumors about it her whole life.) While its difficult to believe that Crawford, a woman who maintained her star persona at all times, could have an ugly family spat in public, there is one moment that stands out. Hal sneers, You were always such a show-off. Whatever that word meant to Crawford, whatever memories and hurts it called up, Lange has personalized it to such a degree that her whole face caves in at the sound. Her eyes are startled with fresh pain. The story doesnt really go anywhere, although it does add some nuance to Crawford, who is first seen in the series complaining about Marilyn Monroes vulgarity.
Increasingly, Feud is told from Crawfords point of view. Susan Sarandons Davis barely registers next to that maelstrom of vulnerability, insecurity and rage, although its fun to watch Sarandon play a woman so fearlessly and honestly imperious. Its a quality organic to Sarandon but one she rarely gets to play. Nothing, however, can quite compete with Lange the intricate cigarette-smoking behavior, the shaky inhales, the surges of anger, the desolate collapses. Theres humor, too. (Does the syntax here concern anyone else at the table? she asks at the read-through.) That the shoot for Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte was a debacle is well known. For all intents and purposes, Crawfords career was over afterward. She had miscalculated the situation, and the powers that be called her bluff. Lange plays Crawford as though she can feel the midnight that Warner talked about a midnight cold and dark descending around her.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and state attorneys general in Illinois and Washington filed lawsuits against Navient, the nations largest servicer of student loans, accusing it of extensive mistakes and violations.
Navient denied all wrongdoing, and said it had a well-established, superior track-record of helping student loan borrowers succeed in repayment.
Below are seven ways in which Navient was accused of misleading or cheating borrowers.
1. Steering borrowers away from income-based repayment plans
Most borrowers with federal student loans are eligible for an income-based repayment plan, but navigating the thicket of different plans can be complicated.
Helping a borrower sort through them and processing all of the required paperwork takes time. Navient systematically deterred its customers from enrolling in income-based plans by instead steering them toward other options that were simpler for the company, according to the lawsuits.
Delta Air Lines continued to cancel flights throughout the weekend because of the cascading effects of storms that struck Atlanta last Wednesday.
The airline said it had canceled about 150 flights on Sunday and about 275 on Saturday. It attributed its continuing troubles to difficulty staffing flights in accordance with federal rules governing how long and how often flight crews can work.
We know this is extremely frustrating for our customers, and we apologize for that, the airline said in a statement posted to its website on Sunday afternoon. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether flights scheduled for Monday would also be affected.
The thunderstorms that descended on Atlanta on Wednesday led federal aviation officials to place a midday hold on flights into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Deltas biggest and busiest hub. About 60 percent of Deltas fleet travels through Atlanta on any given day.
21st Century Fox has enlisted the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to investigate at least one accusation of sexual harassment against the Fox News host Bill OReilly.
The move is the latest in the response to a New York Times investigation published this month on Mr. OReillys settlements with five women who complained of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior.
Wendy Walsh, a former guest on Mr. OReillys show who detailed accusations against him to The Times, called 21st Century Foxs anonymous hotline last week, prompting the investigation.
21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
Penn Station is a symbol of the failure of America to keep up with the escalating demands on urban public transportation, as cities have become much bigger and more important as global economic hubs, Ms. Wylde said.
She said large employers in New York were frustrated by the exclusion of private investment to help improve the citys transportation infrastructure.
Our competitor cities in Europe, Asia and Australia generally have modern systems and equipment, largely designed, built and managed through public-private partnerships, Ms. Wylde said. The frustration of the business community is not over which governmental units are running the railroad, but the missed opportunity to tap the private sector to create systems that can measure up to 21st-century expectations.
Mr. Wright said the patchwork response to the recent disruptions offered a glimpse of what life in the region might be like if one of the 110-year-old rail tunnels under the Hudson had to shut down. And the question is no longer if, but when.
Amtrak officials have warned that the damage to those two single-track tubes from Hurricane Sandy will eventually force Amtrak to close off one for repairs. When that happens, the number of commuter trains crossing the river at peak travel times will decline by 75 percent, a potentially crippling blow to the regional economy, they said.
The loss of that many trains would drive commuters to try crossing in buses or cars, on ferries or on PATH. Last week, New York Waterway added boats to its routes out of Hoboken and PATH honored New Jersey Transit passes, the costs to be recouped later from the railroad.
Hans Dehmelt, who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing methods to trap a single ion or electron, allowing for a more precise way to measure their properties, died March 7 in Seattle. He was 94.
His wife, Diana Dundore, confirmed his death.
Dr. Dehmelt devised a configuration of magnetic and electric fields known as an ion trap that serves as a cage for charged particles like ions and electrons. Once the particle was trapped, scientists could study it.
In 1973, Dr. Dehmelt used the technique to observe a single isolated electron. He was later able to observe single ions in the trap.
Dr. Dehmelts work allowed us to measure the electrons magnetism and that of its antiparticle, the positron and to make ultraprecise spectroscopic measurements of a single trapped ion, Robert Van Dyck Jr., a physics professor emeritus at the University of Washington, where he worked with Dr. Dehmelt, wrote in an email.
WASHINGTON The commander of American forces in the Pacific has ordered an aircraft carrier and several other warships toward the Korean Peninsula in a show of force by the Trump administration just days after North Korea tested another intermediate-range missile.
The officer, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the head of the militarys Pacific Command, diverted the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and its wing of fighter jets from a planned series of exercises and port calls in Australia, the command said in a statement. The Vinson and three guided-missile destroyers and cruisers steamed out of Singapore on Saturday for their new mission in the Western Pacific.
Rerouting the naval armada is President Trumps latest escalation in force against a potential adversary. Mr. Trump ordered a cruise missile strike last week against a Syrian military air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government that killed scores of civilians.
At a meeting last week at Mr. Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, he joined with President Xi Jinping of China in warning of the increasing menace posed by North Koreas advancing nuclear weapons program. Asked on Sunday why the Navy ships were being redirected toward the Korean Peninsula, the presidents national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, said it was a prudent step to take.
OTTAWA Several hundred people gathered at Canadas national war memorial at sunset on Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a fierce World War I fight in northern France that looms large in Canadas national identity.
For a country not generally given to national chest thumping, the battle at Vimy, where Canadian troops overtook German lines, has been cast by many Canadians as a pivotal moment in their nations formation. That sentiment was reflected at the ceremony in Ottawa and at others across Canada throughout the weekend, and at the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge near Arras, France, on Sunday, where about 25,000 people gathered, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and relatives of those who fought in the four-day battle.
BUDAPEST, Hungary Hungarians rose up on Sunday in one of the largest protests against the seven-year rule of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, dismayed by legislation that could force one of Hungarys top international universities out of the country.
Central European University, a school founded by the American financier George Soros, could be forced to leave Hungary after a bill passed last week in Parliament by Mr. Orbans Fidesz party set stringent new conditions under which it must operate.
The bill has led to criticism from hundreds of leading academics worldwide, as well as from the United States government and the European Union.
The protest drew some of the largest crowds against Mr. Orbans administration, with organizers estimating attendance around 70,000. The crowd marched across a bridge over the Danube and filled the square outside the Parliament building, which was defended by several lines of police officers, some in riot gear.
MOSCOW He refused to meet business associates in person and never talked on the phone, preferring instead to communicate via encrypted messaging services. But the elaborate precautions taken by the Russian computer spam kingpin known as Peter Severa appear to have failed him.
Acting on an F.B.I. request, the police in Spain arrested a man this weekend named Peter Levashov, according to Russian news media reports and Reuters, citing a Russian Embassy spokesman in Madrid. Western cybersecurity researchers have identified Mr. Levashov as Peter Severa, though some doubt he is the same person.
The initial reports in Russian news media of Mr. Levashovs arrest did not say if he was suspected by United States intelligence agencies of being involved in attempts by Russian government hackers to meddle in the 2016 American presidential election. The American intelligence agencies have said Russian hackers broke into the servers of the Democratic National Committee and the email of Hillary Clintons campaign chairman and released documents in an effort to sway the election toward Donald J. Trump.
But computer researchers who have linked the long-running computer spam business of the man known as Peter Severa to malware used in 2012 to influence a domestic election in Russia say his arrest could give other investigations important information.
His Name Is Peter Quinn or Is It John?
Many of you have long feared that Quinn was fated to die this season. There was just no way out for him, no other possible conclusion to the trajectory that took him from darkness to more darkness, punctuated by moments of aborted connection. Even the little boy he leaves behind shows signs of having inherited his fathers haunted look.
How awful it was to watch Carrie so callously cram Quinns few belongings those sweatshirts and jeans we all hated so much into a garbage bag. And it wasnt exactly heartwarming to see that the one thing that broke through her rush to get rid of him was her own picture. Did Carrie love Quinn for loving her, or was there something more? Is there ever really something more in Carries relationships?
We can always count on Max to have a full-scale human reaction. With Carrie, things are always so much more truncated, and so convoluted. She thrives, it seems, on intermittent reinforcement; falling in love with Brody, the would-be (married) terrorist; summoning romantic feelings for Quinn only when he has the ability to slip through her fingers; turning to this untrustworthy new president-elect with almost daughterly devotion. Her declaration on being offered a White House job It would be the greatest honor of my career was almost heartbreaking. And, having written the word daughterly, I for the first time understand why Claire Danes looked so strikingly young this season, so vulnerable and small and with the wide-open face of 15-year-old Angela Chase.
As Carries own mother told her, being bipolar doesnt guarantee that people will leave you. But perennially choosing to give your love to people who are already half-absent does, however, stack the deck.
Watching for Carrie and the Crash
A lonely, lonely time for Carrie is about to begin.
Theres no real safety for her at home. The ghost of Quinn, creaking about in her brownstone, is a constant, and unwelcome, presence. Until Franny is home and probably after shell be monitored and watched by childrens services, a reality that in and of itself guaranteed that Quinn could never come back to stay.
WHO LOST RUSSIA?
How the World Entered a New Cold War
By Peter Conradi
370 pp. Oneworld. $27.99
The hopes for a partnership between Russia and the West have been dashed, and in Who Lost Russia? Peter Conradi, the foreign editor of The Sunday Times of London, who spent seven years covering Russia for Reuters, seeks to explain what went wrong.
Conradi wisely examines the forests contours, avoiding the trees. He writes engagingly and enlivens his smart, balanced analysis with colorful anecdotes, though his books title does him a disservice. Who Lost Russia? suggests that he, like many Westerners, will treat this gargantuan, complicated country as if it were a misplaced personal item, or solipsistically attribute its post-Soviet path to Western policy. Conradi does discuss the Wests missteps, but he also focuses on the internal developments that shaped Russias course. And he is attentive to Russians views, even if his footnotes which are sparse contain only two Russian-language sources, one dating back to 1924.
Conradi starts with Gorbachevs reforms, the fall of the Soviet-backed Communist states in Eastern Europe (in 1989), the Soviet Unions implosion (1991) and the Yeltsin years (the 1990s). He describes the Russian economys crash and the penury millions of Russians endured. He recounts the privatization of state-owned industries and the accompanying corruption and Ponzi schemes of unscrupulous men who hijacked the process, enriched themselves and eventually became oligarchs. He tells of Russians dejection as their countrys power and prestige plummeted and of their sense of betrayal when NATO advanced eastward, even as Western leaders celebrated the Cold Wars end and welcomed Russia as a partner. He highlights the gap between the Wests verbal support for Russian reform and its paltry financial aid $2.50 per Russian, by his reckoning.
And he recalls the 1996 Russian election, which President Clinton praised as a victory for democracy, even though oligarchs bankrolled Boris Yeltsins campaign in exchange for shares in state-owned industries at bargain-basement prices. He portrays the tumultuous presidency of the oft-inebriated Yeltsin, who, during a visit to the United States, was encountered by Secret Service agents in front of the White House, drunk and in his underwear, trying to get a cab to a pizza joint.
James E. Staley, the chief executive of Barclays, is under investigation by the British authorities after he admitted to trying to learn the identity of a whistle-blower last year, the bank said.
Mr. Staley will receive a formal reprimand and take a pay cut; he has already apologized to the board.
Mr. Staley had attempted to unmask a tipster who had alerted the bank to a personal matter involving a senior executive, the bank said.
The case is also under scrutiny by the Department of Financial Services in New York, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.
Elliott Managements plan to unlock more value from BHP Billiton has some merit.
Tidying up, then breaking up could make shareholders in BHP Billiton, a British-Australian mining company, about 50 percent better off, the activist investor said. Elliott is not saying anything BHP has not already considered, and a full split looks a stretch, but it may prompt a helpful spring cleaning.
There are three parts to Elliotts agenda. The hedge fund, which owns 4.1 percent of BHP, would like to see separate London and Australian corporate entities crunched into one business with headquarters in Melbourne, but with a primary listing in London. It wants to spin off BHPs petroleum business in the United States, which it values at $22 billion, and list it in New York. Finally, Elliott wants BHP to make use of stored tax credits and buy back shares more cheaply, for at least $6 billion.
The first two parts are the most compelling. BHPs two-headed structure is a historical accident born out of the merger of BHP and Billiton in 2001, not a strategic move. Collapse them into one, and BHP could hand out some of the $9.7 billion of tax vouchers known as franking credits that currently are available only to Australian investors in the Sydney-listed shares.
Because the Sydney shares trade at a premium to their London counterparts, merging them would also give a new, lower price from which the discount in a tender-offer buyback effectively capped at 14 percent in Australia can be calculated. It is tinkering, but it is worth a try.
The billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Jorge Paulo Lemann have teamed up to engineer some of the biggest and boldest mergers and acquisitions in recent years, but they have rarely appeared in public together.
On Saturday night, however, the two appeared on a stage in Cambridge, Mass., to be interviewed by the dean of the Harvard Business School, Nitin Nohria. They were speaking at the Brazil Conference 2017, an annual event that Mr. Lemann formed and is organized by Brazilian students at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In their comments, the two investors offered a strong defense of open markets, free trade and the United States as a great place to do business.
Im all in favor of free trade and globalization, said Mr. Lemann, who was one of the founders of the Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, which owns such well-known brands as Burger King, Anheuser-Busch and Heinz.
A sprawling network of journalists was awarded the prize for their explosive articles on the so-called Panama Papers. The Pulitzer board commended the collaboration of more than 300 reporters on six continents to expose the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens. The work was originally submitted for the international reporting award, but the board moved it to the explanatory reporting category.
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LOCAL REPORTING
The staff of The Salt Lake Tribune
The prize honored reports about the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment given to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University. The Tribunes first article said that the university, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, investigated students who reported sex crimes and sometimes disciplined them for breaking rules on curfews and dress codes. The Tribune also found that the schools Title IX office, to which students could report sexual assaults, regularly alerted the honor code office, which looked into the rule violations. In November, Brigham Young took steps to restructure the Title IX office. The school also said that students who reported sexual assaults would no longer risk having their conduct reviewed by the honor code office.
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NATIONAL REPORTING
David A. Fahrenthold, The Washington Post
Image
Mr. Fahrenthold was cited for his reporting during the 2016 presidential campaign, which cast doubt on Donald J. Trumps assertions of generosity toward charities. A month after Mr. Trump skipped a Republican debate in Iowa to attend a fund-raiser for veterans, Mr. Fahrenthold found that only about half of the money had gone to veterans charities. Mr. Fahrenthold, 39, later found that Mr. Trump had used his own foundations money for business-related legal settlements and purchases that included two portraits of himself. In October, Mr. Fahrenthold received a tip about a video that showed Mr. Trump talking about women in vulgar terms. The voice youd heard in so many other contexts was talking in a way wed never heard before, Mr. Fahrenthold said Monday. Thats what made it so powerful.
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INTERNATIONAL REPORTING
The staff of The New York Times
In Russias Dark Arts, a team of New York Times journalists across two continents chronicled the covert and sometimes deadly actions taken by President Vladimir V. Putins government to grow Russian influence abroad. The series, which began last spring, explored the rise of online troll armies, the strategic spreading of disinformation and Russias unprecedented and politically consequential cyberattack on the 2016 American presidential election.
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FEATURE WRITING
C.J. Chivers, The New York Times
Image
Mr. Chivers, 52, spent months crafting his 18,102-word portrait of a young combat veteran haunted by his experiences in Afghanistan, who was imprisoned after a violent fight with a stranger. Unflinching yet empathetic, the reporting by Mr. Chivers himself a former Marine prompted the state of Illinois to vacate the veterans jail sentence. The truth literally set a young man free, Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine, where the story appeared, said Monday.
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On Monday, Mr. Norman, the spokesman for Shell, said in an email that the company assumed it had no choice but to come to a sort of deal with Mr. Etete and Malabu.
Over time, it became clear to us that Etete was involved in Malabu and that the only way to resolve the impasse through a negotiated settlement was to engage with Etete and Malabu, whether we liked it or not, he wrote, adding that Shell knew that the Nigerian government would compensate Malabu to settle its claim on the block.
Still, Mr. Norman said, we believe that the settlement was a fully legal transaction with the government of Nigeria.
In a statement on Sunday, Shell said that if it turned out improper payments were made by Malabu or others, it is Shells position that none of those payments were made with its knowledge. Shell also said it believed that there was no basis to prosecute the company or any current or former employees.
Eni has said an internal investigation found no wrongdoing.
In the phone call, Mr. van Beurden expressed worries that the internal emails Shells investigators had uncovered could draw the attention of the United States Justice Department. In particular, he cited emails written by former members of the British spy agency known as MI6 that Shell had hired. American officials have a reputation for being tough on international bribery cases.
Shell should have been more open with the D.O.J. than we now find we have been, he said.
Mr. Norman said that Shell had informed the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission of the aid and the results of an internal investigation conducted by the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton.
Eni has also faced pressure. Italian prosecutors recently recommended that the two oil companies and officials at Eni, including Claudio Descalzi, its chief executive, stand trial in the case. A judge is expected to decide this year whether a trial will occur.
We had a customer who refused to leave the aircraft, he said. We have a number of customers on board that aircraft, and they want to get to their destination on time and safely, and we want to work to get them there.
Since that customer refused to leave the aircraft, we had to call the police, and they came on board, he said.
The Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement on Monday that the incident was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and that an officer had been placed on leave pending a review of the matter. The department declined to identify the officer.
Airlines routinely sell tickets to more people than the plane can seat, counting on several people not to arrive. When there are not enough no-shows, airlines first try to offer rewards to customers willing to reschedule their plans, usually in the form of travel vouchers, gift cards or cash. The arrangement which is usually negotiated before passengers board the plane can be lucrative to flexible travelers and is crucial for airlines to maximize profit.
A bakery doesnt want to have a lot of extra pastries at the end of the day they have to throw out, said Seth Kaplan, managing partner at Airline Weekly, an industry publication. To an airline, an empty seat is basically the same thing as stale bread. Its something they can never sell again.
But involuntarily bumping passengers is rare. In 2016, United involuntarily denied boarding to 3,765 of its more than 86 million passengers on oversold flights, according to the Transportation Department. An additional 62,895 people voluntarily gave up their seats.
The event on Sunday was the second social media stir for United in two weeks. In March, two girls were barred from a flight because they were wearing leggings, which the company said violated its dress code for a benefit for United employees and their dependents. Critics called the policy sexist and overbearing.
Wells Fargos board said on Monday that it would claw back an additional $75 million in compensation from the two executives on whom it pinned most of the blame for the companys scandal over fraudulent accounts: the banks former chief executive, John G. Stumpf, and its former head of community banking, Carrie L. Tolstedt.
The clawbacks or forced return of pay and stock grants are the largest in banking history and among the largest in corporate America. A four-person committee of Wells Fargos directors investigated the extensive fraud.
Wells Fargos board said in a report issued on Monday that Mr. Stumpf had turned a blind eye to the fraudulent accounts being created under his nose and that Ms. Tolstedt, who ran the branch system, had focused obsessively on sales targets and withheld information from her boss and the board.
Wells Fargos misdeeds, which came to light in September, have at least temporarily become a more widely recognized symbol of the bank than its signature stagecoach. Bankers across Wells Fargos giant branch system were tacitly encouraged to meet their sales goals by committing fraud; opening unwanted or unneeded accounts in customers names; and, sometimes, moving money into and out of the sham accounts.
What is at stake as Congress considers the E.P.A. budget? Far more than climate change.
The Trump administrations proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency budget are deep and wide-ranging. It seeks to shrink spending by 31 percent, to $5.7 billion from $8.1 billion, and to eliminate a quarter of the agencys 15,000 jobs.
The cuts are so deep that even Republican lawmakers are expected to push back. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the chairwoman of the Interior and Environment Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pointedly reminded Mr. Trump last month that his budget request was just the first step in a long process.
Here are some proposed cuts that are likely to face resistance when the budget reaches Congress.
Tap water
Flint, Mich., is still reeling from its tainted water crisis, and unsafe levels of lead have turned up in tap water in city after city. Still, the E.P.A. is looking to decrease grants that help states monitor public water systems by almost a third, to $71 million from $102 million, according to an internal agency memo first obtained by The Washington Post.
The Public Water System Supervision Grant Program has been critical in making sure communities have access to safe drinking water. In Texas, for example, state-contracted workers collect drinking water samples across the state, an effort funded in part by federal grants.
Among the sweeping cuts in the Trump administrations 53-page budget blueprint released last month, one paragraph stood out to climate researchers. It proposed eliminating four of NASAs climate science missions, including instruments to study clouds, small airborne particles, the flow of carbon dioxide and other elements of the atmosphere and oceans.
The blueprint is as much a political document as a fiscal plan, in this case designed to send a message that the administration intends to pursue a long-sought goal of some conservatives: to clamp down on NASAs study of Earth rather than space. But Congress may have other ideas, especially since the projects are not very costly. The savings from eliminating the earth science programs, which include the missions, would total $102 million out of a proposed agency budget of $19 billion.
Long before President Trump was elected, climate researchers have warned that the nations climate monitoring capabilities which include satellites as well as air- and surface-based instruments were less than adequate and faced data collection gaps and other uncertainties. Elimination of any of the missions would be a further blow, they said.
Thats whats giving my colleagues and myself heart palpitations as we think about what might be lost, said Betsy Weatherhead, an expert on environmental monitoring at the University of Colorado.
Youll probably want, too, to make Melissa Clarks new recipe for ambrosia cake: towering, pillowy and sweet. It might be a challenge for a weeknight, but increasingly Im of the opinion that project cooking ought not to be relegated solely to weekends and vacations. The Nielsen Company recently issued its audience report for the last quarter of 2016: Americans over 18 spent a collective 72.5 billion minutes consuming news in an average week last year, up 18 percent from the year before, and a lot of that time was devoted to cable news. Which often isnt news so much as opinion (amirite?). Take a night off from all that. Go on. Bake a cake. Read the newspaper in the morning.
Arent you virtuous! Keep it up later in the week, with Florence Fabricants new recipe for a quinoa salad with Swiss chard, mushrooms and goat cheese a fine light lunch or dinner, to be sure, or a substantial accompaniment, served hot or cold, to a meal of sweet and spicy grilled chicken breasts.
Meanwhile, those planning an Easter feast this coming weekend ought to be, well, planning. Weve got you covered with a big guide to the essentials of an Easter feast, from homemade saffron honey Peeps to all that you need to know about cooking a ham. (Or, for that matter, lamb!) One thing is for certain in my house: Well be starting with Mark Bittmans recipe for deviled eggs with shrimp.
Thousands more recipes you could cook this week are on Cooking. (Have you made my recipe for patty melts yet?) Save the ones you like to your recipe box, so you can find them later you might create a separate folder for your Easter menu, or your best midweek meals. Rate the recipes you love. And, please, leave notes on the ones youve tweaked. We learn from each other, every day.
Finally, if you run into trouble, reach out directly: cookingcare@nytimes.com. We can help if you run into problems with the technology, and often with the cooking as well.
There is, of course, another fast-food chain that is known for its coffee: McDonalds. The company has embarked on a project to make all of its coffee sustainable by 2020 by innovating at every level of its supply chain investing in its farmers, for instance, as many of the much smaller high-end coffee companies do. (Coffee sold at McDonalds restaurants in Europe already meets the companys sustainability standards.)
The scale of McDonalds business is vastly different from Locols, but the consumer experience isnt, not when it comes to coffee: Both offer a cup that is cheap and approachable.
The efficiencies of the fast-food model are what allow Mr. Konecny to buy high-quality beans for about three times the price of commodity coffee and still sell it for $1. The coffee comes from Red Fox Coffee Merchants, a boutique importer that supplies some of the countrys most exacting roasters; Mr. Konecny coordinates closely with their buyer, who in turn works with farmers to finance them and determine best practices for growing the beans.
The coffee is brewed by Locols kitchen staff, and when a new batch is prepared the old batch is cooled and mixed in with cold-brew coffee to be served on ice: There is no waste. Black coffee is easy to scale up; stand-alone coffee shops, with their intricate menus (cortados, almond milk lattes, iced matcha spritzers) cant compete.
You couldnt run a coffee shop selling coffee for a dollar, Mr. Konecny said. It wouldnt be a sustainable business.
Jonathan Rubinstein, an owner of Joe, a coffee chain based in New York with 14 locations, agrees that the numbers would not work. Joes shops are in some of the most expensive neighborhoods in Manhattan, including Greenwich Village and the Upper East Side. Next month, a Joe will open in the World Trade Center. Mr. Rubinstein pays as much as $25,000 per month in rent he estimates that the average is $15,000 per month along with labor, materials, utilities, insurance and the many other expenses that are the cost of doing business.
LONDON Edward Enninful, the creative and fashion director of the American magazine W, is set to replace Alexandra Shulman as editor in chief of British Vogue, its parent company, Conde Nast, confirmed on Monday. The first man and the first black editor to take the helm of Britains most powerful fashion publication in its 100-year history, Mr. Enninful will begin his new role Aug. 1.
A top stylist and acclaimed fashion director who migrated to Britain from Ghana as a child, the 45-year-old Mr. Enninful is known for his cheerful demeanor, his legendary fashion covers and for having an army of loyal fans in and out of the fashion business. He received an Order of the British Empire in June for his services to diversity in the fashion industry.
Conde Nasts international chairman and chief executive, Jonathan Newhouse, called Mr. Enninful an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist, and added that by virtue of his talent and experience, Edward is supremely prepared to assume the responsibility of British Vogue.
The appointment comes three months after Mr. Newhouse named another man, Emanuele Farneti, to the helm of Italian Vogue, following the death of Franca Sozzani.
Medical detectives in western Uganda recently discovered that the wrong culprit had been blamed for an outbreak of crippling elephantiasis legs so swollen that they resemble those of an elephant.
As it turned out, one rare, neglected tropical disease had been mistaken for another.
In most affected countries, elephantiasis is caused by worms spread to humans by mosquito bites. The worms nest in lymph nodes, growing into big balls that stretch the glands and prevent lymph fluid from being pumped out of the legs.
The limbs swell, develop ulcerating sores and eventually rot. About 40 million people are disfigured or disabled by the disease, called lymphatic filariasis, the World Health Organization estimates.
In 2015, the Ugandan health ministry was told that an outbreak of elephantiasis was emerging in Kamwenge, in western Uganda. A team from the ministry, the W.H.O. regional office and Makerere University went to investigate.
What happened to Beatrice Weisman before dawn on Aug. 29, 2013, was not supposed to happen: The medical staff at Maryland General Hospital found her in cardiac arrest, resuscitated her and kept her alive.
The matriarch of a close-knit family on Marylands Eastern Shore, Ms. Weisman, then 83, had suffered a serious stroke in June and had spent weeks in two hospitals.
Fortunately, she and her husband had drafted advance directives; she named her husband, William, to make medical decisions if she became unable to.
In August, as her condition deteriorated, Mr. Weisman convened a wrenching family meeting at their Easton home. With the support of their four children, he authorized Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, known as a Molst form, stating that if his wifes heart or lungs failed, she should be allowed to die.
Bill Keller, who covered the Soviet Union for The Times before becoming its executive editor:
The thing that made Boris a brilliant teacher, I think, was that he knew what you knew he knew precisely where you were on the learning curve, so he could begin every lesson by pushing you higher.
Boris was the mastermind of an experiment that has been portrayed by some as a scam, though I insist it was not. In the summer of 1986, we convinced The Times to rent us a house in Bethany Beach, Del., for several weeks of immersion. This was never some expense-account junket for learning the always useful Russian words for fresh lobster and melted butter. In the mornings and afternoons we had intensive lessons and drills. During breaks, my wife and I would pace the beach, cramming vocabulary. In the evenings, there was a revolving cast of Boriss Russian immigrant friends his entourage of smitten babushkas, former Kiev taxi drivers and literary divas who accepted a free week at the beach in exchange for tolerating sandy hubris and bad Russian. We finished the summer more confident of our language, and nicely tanned.
Felicity Barringer, former national environmental correspondent; wife of Philip Taubman:
Bill is right Boriss genius was knowing what you knew. Then, with a suite of tricks worthy of a magician, he knew how to push you to know more. When I had my turn on the phone with an emigre who spoke no English, the object of the exercise was for me to find out the ingredients in a particular recipe. I understood her to ask, Can you take notes? I responded (or tried to), Yes, I have a card here to write on. Boris remained impassive as the conversation continued and concluded. When I hung up, the impassive expression was replaced by a wide grin and some chuckles. What did I say wrong? I asked. His response: You said, I have a potato to write on. Ah, the misplaced stress. He taught me to appreciate the rhythm of the language, which I still believe is as important as the meaning.
Steven Lee Myers, former Moscow bureau chief; now a Beijing correspondent:
I read this sad news on an island which those who have worked with Boris will appreciate while studying Mandarin. Everything Boris taught about trying to master a language quickly (in other words, the short cuts) has been swirling in my mind the last few weeks. Just the other day I asked my tutor how to say the equivalent of Boriss Chto vy imeyete vvidu? (What do you mean?) the question he insisted you ask instead of saying, Sorry, I dont understand. The latter, he insisted, correctly, was a conversation killer. But if you could just learn this one sentence, you might keep a conversation alive enough to understand a little more the second time around, and then leap to your next island and speak beyond your limited means. (This is also, by the way, a great journalistic tip in any language.) The tutor hadnt thought of it before but agreed it was a brilliant tactic.
I did my little introductory island the other night at a craft beer bar where I was doing my homework (yes, Taiwan is awesome): I am an American journalist, and I study Chinese Saying it still makes me feel as self-conscious as the cowboy in the old Budweiser commercial who walks into a big city bar and starts introducing himself in a friendly way, freaking everyone out. But the barkeep complimented me and said it gets easier in a few years. Success!
The New York Times won its first Pulitzer Prize in 1918, for its coverage of World War I. On Monday, nearly a century later, The Times won three more prizes, bringing its total to 122. Read about this years winners below and explore all of The Timess winners at nytimes.com/pulitzer. (The full list of winners.)
Over 35 days in the Philippines, Daniel Berehulak captured the images of 57 people killed in a brutal campaign that President Rodrigo Duterte has called a crackdown on drugs. Mr. Berehulak writes in the piece, What I experienced in the Philippines felt like a new level of ruthlessness: police officers summarily shooting anyone suspected of dealing or even using drugs, vigilantes taking seriously Mr. Dutertes call to slaughter them all. Daniel Berehulak won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography.
The first order of business on that Saturday in February was publishing Justice Scalias obituary, which I had first filed in 2011 and later revised once or twice. (There are close to 1,700 advance obituaries in the system.)
By Sunday morning, Elisabeth Bumiller, the Washington bureau chief, had organized a conference call with at least a dozen reporters and editors. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, had already announced that he meant to deny a confirmation hearing to anyone President Barack Obama had the temerity to nominate, though there was almost a year left in his presidency.
The vacancy was thus a White House story, and a congressional story, and a political story in a presidential campaign year, and a national story and for a moment an international story. It was also, of course, a story about the nature and future of the Supreme Court.
I have covered the court since 2008, and I report on developments there more or less solo. Our coverage of the fight over Justice Scalias seat involved at least 31 reporters.
It was clear almost from the beginning that the vacancy would give rise to an epic political brawl, but it took some time to see that it would do damage to both the Senate and the Supreme Court. In a prescient column a little more than a week after Justice Scalia died, Carl Hulse, the chief Washington correspondent, saw where things were heading. The rampant dysfunction that has riven Congress and undermined relations between the executive and legislative branches in the Obama era, he wrote, now threatens to engulf the nations highest court.
That is ahead of Mr. de Blasios pace at this stage in the race during his first run for mayor. He had 294 donors who had given the maximum at the time of the March 2013 filing. However, at that time, Mr. de Blasio was the citys public advocate, mounting what appeared to be a long-shot campaign for mayor in a crowded field. Now he is the citys mayor, with much higher expectations of his ability to raise large amounts of money.
It is difficult to make comparisons with other mayoral campaigns, partly because Mr. de Blasios predecessor, the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg, who paid for his own campaigns, served three terms without ever taking campaign donations.
Theres a lot of churning in donor pools, much more than people have realized, said Michael J. Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan research center in Washington, adding that the phenomenon may be greater this year for Mr. de Blasio because he has sought to reach out to more small donors.
Its a general rule in politics that people only give after theyre asked, so if hes shifting his focus maybe hes asking fewer of the traditional donors, Mr. Malbin said. But some of that may be that his base of support had shifted somewhat.
In an analysis of contributions to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush, Mr. Malbin found that 30 percent of donors who gave $200 or more in 2000, and a similar percentage of donors who gave the maximum of $1,000, contributed again in 2004. Those are much higher rates than Mr. de Blasio has seen so far, but there are still many months for donors to make contributions.
There are some striking shifts among Mr. de Blasios top donors this time, compared with four years ago.
Many former donors in the real estate industry have not contributed to his re-election campaign so far. At least 48 people who gave the maximum to Mr. de Blasio in 2013 and who listed a real estate company as their employer, including developers and brokers, have given nothing this time around. Among them is Mr. de Blasios best-funded challenger, the realty sales executive Paul J. Massey, who gave Mr. de Blasio $4,950 in 2013. Mr. Massey is seeking the Republican nomination to oppose Mr. de Blasio in November.
Real estate industry executives said that developers and others had held back donations from Mr. de Blasios re-election effort in part because the investigations into his fund-raising had made them leery of the scrutiny large donations could bring. One executive, who asked not to be named so as not to jeopardize relationships with City Hall, said that some also feared that a donation could backfire if city officials felt compelled to act less favorably to big donors with projects requiring city action regarding zoning or other factors, in order to avoid any suggestion of pay to play.
In each of those cases, the United States resettled far more refugees than any other country; and rightly so, given our direct involvement in the conflicts and our capacity to help. Thus far, the United States has provided more humanitarian funding than any other country. But of the 130,000 Syrians resettled in third countries after fleeing the conflict to one of Syrias neighbors, the United States has accepted only about 18,000.
Turning away from our historical leadership on these issues provides no relief for those who need it most. Those people include a family of four Syrian refugees currently in Jordan that our organization is trying to help. The father is a survivor of torture; his two sons are of Syrian draft age and both suffer from extreme anxiety and seizures. They lived a simple lifestyle in Homs the father was a shopkeeper until the day their house was bombed, causing one of the sons to lose his hearing. Knowing Syria was no longer safe, they fled to Jordan in 2013.
The family had completed their resettlement interviews and medical checks, and were fully approved for refugee resettlement in the United States when President Trump signed his first executive order in January, putting their resettlement in limbo. Mr. Trumps revised order places a 120-day freeze on all refugee admissions and slashes the overall refugee resettlement number to 50,000, from 110,000. Departures have ground almost to a halt. The family has no idea what is going to happen to them or where they can go, and they are extremely anxious about their future.
In a refugee crisis this large, resettlement to a third country is, of course, only one tool at the disposal of nations seeking to help the vast majority of those people must be assisted where they are. But the Trump administration has demonstrated a similar disdain for other means of assistance, including by seeking to slash the budget for agencies like the State Department that administer it.
In declining to do more, Mr. Trump is violating a principle he has long championed that the burden of addressing global challenges must be shared. Just as he has pressed NATO allies to spend more on defense, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany might well have been tempted, during her Oval Office meeting with Mr. Trump, to demand that he resettle some of the quarter million Syrian refugees currently applying for asylum in Germany.
The Trump administration has said, while presenting no evidence, that its draconian response to the crisis is justified by the threat refugees pose in the United States. Hundreds of national security experts from both parties and a series of federal court decisions disagree.
But no one, including, it now seems, Mr. Trump himself, disagrees about the human tragedy unfolding in Syria. Shocked by that reality, the president shifted his position on United States military action virtually overnight. Whatever one thinks of his decision, it was encouraging that Mr. Trump is capable of changing his views when confronted by compelling facts. If his newfound outrage is genuine, he should also reverse course on his unconscionable refugee policy.
Last month, President Trumps nomination of R. Alexander Acosta to be secretary of labor was approved by a Senate committee, even though the nominees testimony had left unclear whether he would be more interested in protecting employers prerogatives than in guarding workers interests.
We may soon find out, and heres one test an issue of worker health that President Barack Obamas Labor Department tried to resolve, without much success: Why does the departments Occupational Safety and Health Administration allow workers to be exposed to dangerous chemicals at limits far higher than those set for everyone by the Environmental Protection Agency?
Mr. Acosta should know that issue. He served on the National Labor Relations Board during George W. Bushs presidency. And OSHA was making slow progress toward equalizing some standards when Mr. Obamas presidency ended.
The issue of toxic hazards at work went national nearly 20 years ago, when former employees brought more than 200 lawsuits against IBM, accusing it of having concealed knowledge that it was exposing them to carcinogenic chemicals. Ultimately, IBM settled the suits, with the details sealed.
As a hometown campaigner, Donald Trump managed to win only one of New York Citys five boroughs Staten Island, where an opponents act of arson only boosted his chances.
That act occurred last August when someone poured gasoline on a 12-foot-tall red, white and blue lawn ornament on the island that simply proclaimed T. In the citys most organized and passionate conservative hub, people knew T meant Trump. The midnight blaze consumed the T and created an instant pilgrimage site.
Scott LoBaido, Staten Islands most celebrated artist-provocateur, went back to his studio to rebuild and produced an even bigger, 16-foot version. I promised Trump the new one would be yuge, Mr. LoBaido said the other day, still charmed that the candidate had called him and his friend Sam Pirozzolo, the local conservative activist whose lawn was the scene of the crime.
The perpetrator whom Mr. Pirozzolo guessed was some liberal coward has not been caught. But Mr. LoBaido is grateful for the deed because it galvanized the victory drive in the borough, which, as Mr. LoBaido has since been endlessly explaining for puzzled outsiders, is the one piece of the city that is deliriously loyal, now and forever, to Mr. Trump.
FLINT, Mich. The summer before my junior year of high school, I boarded an airplane for the first time. Three hours later I was in picture-perfect New England, where I was soon to be surrounded by a diverse and extremely accomplished group of peers. I had been awarded a generous scholarship to attend the Phillips Exeter summer semester five weeks of classes and sports, with some optional SAT prep mixed in.
Im from Flint, Mich., and even though I recently transferred to a private Catholic high school in my city, top tier-education is new to my family. Neither of my parents went to college, and in Rust Belt regions like the middle of Michigan, education is falling behind the rest of the country. Stanford researchers found, for example, that sixth graders in our town are two to three grade levels behind the national average. They are almost five grade levels behind students in more prosperous counties 30 miles away.
The friends I made at Phillips Exeter were from fancy-sounding towns and seemed to have it all. Most attended prestigious private or highly ranked public schools. They were impossibly sporty, charming and intelligent, with perfect smiles and impeccably curated Instagram profiles. The program we attended costs around $10,000, so they were clearly affluent, but they also came from diverse backgrounds. They had been on exotic vacations and had volunteered for the needy. They were truly interesting people.
So I didnt understand why so many of them were enrolled in the optional SAT prep section of our summer program. Why would such impressive high achievers spend their summer nights storming through a massive SAT book? Many of them already took weekend SAT prep courses back home. Did they just think it was fun to time one another on practice sets?
In its meticulous commitment to holding the Soviet Union accountable to its own laws and international treaties, A Chronicle of Current Events represented also a rebirth of civil society. It was a small community, and one that existed entirely on the onion-skin-thin pages of samizdat, the illegal, self-published writing of the dissidents, but this was where they could act as citizens, witnessing and reporting on violations of human and civil rights.
The Chronicle worked in a straightforward way. Issues were produced in Moscow and then passed from hand-to-hand. If someone had some piece of information to circulate, she could write it down on a slip of paper and pass it on to the person from whom she received her copy of the journal, who in turn would then keep it going along the chain. At the source were editors like Natalya Gorbanevskaya, the journals first compiler, as they preferred to call themselves. Eventually arrested by the state security agency, the K.G.B., in 1969, she was locked up in a psychiatric institution until 1972.
Over some 65 issues, from 1968 to 1983, the Chronicle became a catalog of abuses, noted in the most sparse, neutral tone possible. It was a painstaking effort to publish information that could never be obtained through the official Soviet media. Here, a citizen could read the details of closed political trials and the stories of what the Chronicle called extrajudicial persecution, understand what a K.G.B. search entailed, read secret documents meant only for those in power, learn about the constant religious and cultural persecution and get updates on political prisoners in the East.
This was self-consciously an attempt to create a valid and verifiable news source. The Chronicle demanded that its contributors be careful and accurate with any information they passed along and even ran regular corrections to previous items (pioneering a practice some Western media organizations only adopted years later). As the scholar of Soviet dissidence Peter Reddaway, writing in 1972, put it, the Chronicles aim is openness, non-secretiveness, freedom of information and expression. All these notions are subsumed in the one Russian word, glasnost.
This was in direct opposition to the diktat the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin had issued for newspapers, back in pre-revolutionary Russia in 1901. The press was to be not only a collective propagandist and collective agitator, but also a collective organizer a tool, in other words, for shoring up the power of the state. For the compiler Alexeyeva, the Chronicle represented something very different and without precedent in the Soviet Union: A source of honest information about the hidden layers of our society.
The K.G.B. did not take kindly to this business, and Gorbanevskaya was only the first of many editors to be arrested and imprisoned. By the 1970s, though, this fact-based evidence-gathering had become the central modus operandi of the dissidents, especially among its most prominent figures like Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet physicist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. These were men and women who, in some cases, were professionally inclined toward facts many of them were scientists, a vocation they adopted, even before they embraced dissidence, out of a conscious effort to move away from any field that could be distorted by Communist ideology.
In 1975, the Soviet Union, thinking it was outsmarting the West, signed on to the Helsinki Final Act. The pact offered international recognition of its territorial gains following World War II, but it also demanded adherence to international human rights norms. Moscow dissidents saw this as an opportunity: They could use this commitment against the apparatchiks, by claiming the right to publish every violation.
Principal among those difficulties is the thorny task of redefining relations between civilian and military authorities.
Even under the nominally government of President U Thein Sein, the situation in Kachin occasionally seemed beyond civilian management: Twice, for example, the Tatmadaw ignored truces called by the president. Likewise, the current fighting in Kachin and the worsening humanitarian situation there are calling into question the clout of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyis administration over the Tatmadaw.
Although the military has pulled back from some political institutions in recent years, under the junta-drafted 2008 Constitution it retains control of several critical ministries and, in effect, veto power in Parliament, among other prerogatives. There is still no civilian oversight of military activities.
Partly as a result, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyis government has made very few inroads regarding any of Myanmars numerous ethnic disputes. Existing cease-fires in Southern Shan and Karen states are under strain. Military activity has increased against groups that havent signed any bilateral cease-fire deals with the army, such as the Taang National Liberation Army, the Arakan Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.
Another reason for this deterioration is the fact that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has taken it upon herself personally to lead the negotiations with various ethnic armed groups replacing a team of seasoned high-ranking military officers who used to handle them. But she has none of their experience or their connections to local actors.
Over the years, the former junta had reached various more or less explicit cease-fire deals with some 40 armed groups. After the military government turned nominally civilian in 2011, some of these arrangements, many of which had been left unwritten, were formalized: Within a few years, some 14 ethnic armed groups signed individual cease-fire agreements. Then in 2015, shortly before the general election that would bring Ms. Aung San Suu Kyis party to power, the Thein Sein government proposed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (N.C.A.), a comprehensive deal that would supposedly pave the way for a broader political dialogue about the eventual creation of a federal system and perhaps also constitutional reform.
Seven armed groups (and one student union) signed the N.C.A. But many more, including signatories to bilateral cease-fires, such as the New Mon State Party or the Karenni National Progressive Party, refused, balking at the lack of guarantees that political concessions would follow and at the governments refusal to negotiate with insurgents who were still fighting. The peace process slowed down.
Imagine that the next time you arrive at a foreign airport a customs agent asks you to unlock your phone, hand it over and, for good measure, cough up the login and password information for any social media accounts you have. You could then wait for hours while government officials sift through your address book, your emails, your chats and, yes, even your photos. If all goes well, you get your phone back, get a new stamp on your passport and start your journey with the sinking feeling that follows an arbitrary breach of privacy.
If some Trump administration officials have their way, this Orwellian scenario could soon become commonplace for visitors to the United States. That has the potential to fundamentally alter global travel, take a toll on Americas tourism industry, and subject United States citizens to tit-for-tat measures when they travel overseas.
No one has made a convincing case that such forms of enhanced screening would make the United States any safer. In fact, the opposite is true.
As a candidate, President Trump made the concept of extreme vetting a core rhetorical element of his draconian approach toward immigration policy, arguing, falsely, that American border controls were a joke. I want extreme, he said during a lengthy speech on immigration in August. Its going to be so tough, and if somebody comes in thats fine but theyre going to be good. Its extreme. And if people dont like it, weve got to have a country, folks.
We now know how many cruise missiles it takes to turn you from pariah to respected member of the American foreign policy establishment: 59 the number President Trump fired on a Syrian government airfield on Thursday. I think Donald Trump became president of the United States, the CNN host Fareed Zakaria gushed.
And yet firing missiles at half-empty air bases does not make up for a lack of foreign policy acumen, let alone a strategy for dealing with a Middle East that has consumed American blood and treasure for at least 15 years. In fact, the good money says that Mr. Trump is, through plan or happenstance, likely to push us further into the fighting, whatever he promised on the campaign trail.
In the coming weeks, well have a long debate over where America is headed in the Middle East. But the question that historians will ask, decades from now, is how those 15 years of flailing failed to teach us anything.
All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory, wrote the novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen. Americans understood Vietnam to be a grievous defeat that required fresh thinking. In the 1970s, they set out on a long reckoning with its consequences, pioneering the promotion of human rights and asserting congressional control over war powers.
Its easy to sell the heroism of a humanitarian mission or the fear of terror or the two in tandem, as Trump attempted in this case.
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The temptation to unleash Americas massive war machine is seductive and also addictive. Put that power in the hands of a man like Trump, who operates more on impulse and intuition than intellect, and the world should shiver.
The problem comes when the initial glow dims and darkness descends. We punch holes in some place on the other side of the world and the war hawks many beholden to the military-industrial complex squawk and parade about with chests swollen.
But, feeding the beast of war only amplifies its appetite. Market Watch reported last week, It could cost about $60 million to replace the cruise missiles that the U.S. military rained on Syrian targets Thursday night, but Fortune reported that shares of weapons manufacturers, as soon as they began trading Friday, were collectively gaining nearly $5 billion in market value.
War is a business, a lucrative one.
Americans, who rightly are appalled by the images of dead children, applaud. They feel proud to slap the hand of a villain without risking American bodies. But now American might is irrevocably engaged. Our thumb is on the scale, and our reputation on the line.
Often, action begets more action, as unintended consequences sprout like weeds.
In the most extreme cases, we take down a bad leader in some poor country. In theory, this helps the citizens of that country. But in the complex reality that we have had to keep learning over and over in recent history, it often creates a vacuum where one bad man can be replaced by even worse men.
To the Editor:
Re After the Airstrikes, Whats Next? (editorial, April 7):
President Trumps airstrikes were nothing but a theatrical, cartoonish show of power. In striking Syria, the president is keen to show his warmonger face to reassure his political opponents that he is no less warlike than his Russian counterpart.
To many Syrians, Mr. Trump is no liberator but a gambler who, for narrow political gains at home, stains their just struggle for freedom with the bad brush of American interventionism.
To many Americans, his uncalculated move risks a new American involvement in the Middle East quandary without a clear endgame in sight, summoning the lingering ghosts of the Iraq war. Those lauding the move seem to have learned nothing from history.
SERAJ ASSI, WASHINGTON
To the Editor:
A broken clock is correct twice a day. President Trump, who has otherwise been incompetent, unprincipled and bumbling in his foreign policy debut, was right to order the cruise missile attacks after Bashar al-Assads use of chemical weapons. President Barack Obama was deadly wrong in permitting Syrian use of chemical weapons to go unpunished, including by requesting prior congressional authorization but not seriously lobbying for it.
Background reading:
Mr. Bakers story about how last weeks deadly chemical attack has some former Obama advisers questioning the decision to negotiate with Mr. Assad.
How Trumps view of Syria evolved, in 19 tweets.
Tune in, and tell us what you think. Email us at thedaily@nytimes.com. Tweet me at @mikiebarb. And if that isnt enough, we can even text.
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Hes a former Sandinista. He had all these ponchos and sailor tops, and these ginormous bell-bottoms, says the Los Angeles-based knitwear designer, Maria Dora. Shes talking about her father who emigrated from Nicaragua before meeting her mother, who was born in the Phillipines and raised in Germany. They met as med students in San Francisco. My mother was very prim, Dora says, laughing. Ruffles were the furthest she went.
Its these differing tastes that inform the designers work for her eponymous label, which combines modern shapes and colors with a hint of 70s nostalgia. (Her knitted bell bottoms are less extravagantly sized but still in evidence.) My mom always made fun of him for it, but it was something I always loved as a little kid, so I wanted to work it somehow into the collection. Her fall/winter 2017 collection, Doras fifth, has both her parents sensibilities in abundance. Her fathers slender poncho appears in a monochrome loose knit, alongside a long-sleeve sailor top and finely woven bell-bottoms in maroon and oatmeal. Elsewhere, delicate ruffles on a pale pink top are a sweet homage to her mother. The most personal piece, however, is an oversized cardigan in beige. Its based off a cardigan they used to fight over, Dora says. She liked it for herself but it was his. It was so gross, but he still wore it until my mom threw it away.
Despite her vivid childhood memories of clothing, Dora didnt always want to be a designer she thought shed follow her parents into medicine. Instead, she ended up at Parsons. (I knew Parsons was prestigious and my parents were going to be okay with it, she admits.) After college, she freelanced and worked for the designer Juan Carlos Obando in L.A., until a chance meeting with the costume designer Trish Somerville at a party. We started talking, and I was pregnant at the time and really needed a job, Dora says. Four weeks later she rang and asked if Id like to do the knits for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Dora collaborated with Somerville on a cowl-neck sweater for Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, which led her to start her own brand while she continued to create custom pieces for film. Spring/summer 2017 was the first time she sold the collection wholesale; shes now stocked by the store Bird, which has several locations in Brooklyn, as well as by several smaller boutiques like Rizom in Seattle. I do about six to seven films a year, and its kept the line very honest because that way we dont have to do anything weird or private label-y, she says. And Ive learned so much from the designers I work with.
Over the course of her 38-year-long career, Sophie Calle has established herself as one of France's most celebrated conceptual artists. In her work, she has attempted to metaphorically seduce her father; she once asked 107 women to respond to an ex-boyfriend's breakup email; and for a story in T's culture issue, the 63-year-old artist showed up to have her portrait taken pregnant pregnant with a cat. Here, a short list of the eccentric artist's best book projects.
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The Address Book
Calle who makes the private public, turning intimate details (her own and others) into art has a sticky reputation for invasive voyeurism, and it started here. After finding a lost address book, she interviewed friends and family of the owner, identified as Pierre D., creating a remarkably poignant and tender portrait of a man she would never meet. Published without his permission in the French newspaper Liberation in 1983, to great controversy, Calle agreed not to republish the project until after his death, which she did and only in English in 2012. (Siglio, $29; artbook.com)
One of the hottest technology trends in recent years has been the rise of artificial intelligence. What people often overlook is that the trend was not born in Silicon Valley, but in other places, including Canada.
Canada was the home of many researchers including Geoff Hinton, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto, who specialized in a form of A.I. known as machine learning. Their work has helped underpin a wave of new developments in the field.
But their success also brought some unintended consequences. Silicon Valley companies took notice of their achievements and using deep pockets and big promises, lured many A.I. experts away from Canada.
Oh, poor Sam. Hes traveled all this way at Thanksgiving to meet his girlfriends parents, and her father wont even shake his hand. Good-looking, polite, pre-med, Sam seems eminently presentable but not to this family. He gets zero points for being smitten with their daughter Emina.
Of all the guys you could have picked? her sister Aisa (Francis Benhamou) says in The Profane, Zayd Dohrns approachably eloquent, frequently comic new drama at Playwrights Horizons. You know this is Pas worst nightmare.
Raif (Ali Reza Farahnakian), their father, is a famous novelist who came to the United States as a student, leaving the Islam of his youth behind. Naja (the extraordinary Heather Raffo), their mother, was a dancer. Everything about this immigrant couple their spacious Greenwich Village apartment, teeming tastefully with books and art; their accents, by now standard American suggests comfortable assimilation into an elite stratum of secular society.
These are not people who hoped that a child of theirs would fall in love with a son of conservative Muslims, yet Emina (Tala Ashe) has. Away at college, she has started to remake herself accordingly: No alcohol, and she has sworn off sex with Sam (Babak Tafti), though theyd been sleeping together for a year. It doesnt work, you know, retroactively, he teases her, respectfully opposed.
The point of prescription drugs is to help us get or feel well. Yet so many Americans take multiple medications that doctors are being encouraged to pause before prescribing and think about deprescribing as well.
The idea of dropping unnecessary medications started cropping up in the medical literature a decade ago. In recent years, evidence has mounted about the dangers of taking multiple, perhaps unnecessary, medications.
Deprescribing will work only if patients also get involved in the process. Only they can report adverse effects that they sense but that are not apparent to clinicians. And they need to be comfortable weaning from or dropping drugs that they are accustomed to and believe to be helpful.
Yet an increasing number of Americans typically older ones with multiple chronic conditions are taking drugs and supplements they dont need, or so many of them that those substances are interacting with one another in harmful ways. Studies show that some patients can improve their health with fewer drugs.
A male colleague grabbing her leg. Another one suggestively rubbing her back. Others at work dinners discussing who theyd want to sleep with.
Jane Park talked about experiencing all of this behavior in her career in business consulting and strategy. Never has she reported any of it to human resources or management.
Its made into such a big deal that you have to make a decision: Do you want to ruin your career? Do you want this to be everything that you end up being about? said Ms. Park, who is now chief executive of Julep, a beauty company she founded. What you really want to happen is that it doesnt happen again.
Her choice is more common than not, social science research shows.
Employers, judges and juries often use womens failure to report harassment as evidence that it was not a problem or that plaintiffs had other motives. But only a quarter to a third of people who have been harassed at work report it to a supervisor or union representative, and 2 percent to 13 percent file a formal complaint, according to a meta-analysis of studies by Lilia Cortina of the University of Michigan and Jennifer Berdahl of the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday, his power and popularity diminished by a sex scandal that staggered the state, brought him to the brink of impeachment and prompted a series of criminal investigations.
Ellen Brooks, a special prosecutor, said Mr. Bentley quit in connection with a plea agreement on two misdemeanor charges: failing to file a major contribution report and knowingly converting campaign contributions to personal use. He pleaded guilty Monday afternoon.
It was a stunning downfall for the governor, a Republican who acknowledged in March 2016 that he had made sexually charged remarks to his senior political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
I have decided it is time for me to step down as Alabamas governor, Mr. Bentley said at the State Capitol. He did not mention the charges to which he pleaded guilty, or the deal with prosecutors that mandated his resignation.
CHARLESTON, S.C. As Dylann S. Roof made what was probably his final appearance in open court, his grandfather offered the earnest apology to the families of Mr. Roofs nine African-American victims that the Charleston church killer has steadfastly declined to make on his own.
I just want to say loudly and repeatedly and constantly were sorry, Joseph Roof, a Columbia, S.C., real estate lawyer, said on Monday in Charleston County Circuit Court. Were just as sorry as we can be that this has happened. We regret it. It has ruined lives, and I cannot put those back together.
His grandson, a white supremacist who had just pleaded guilty to nine counts of murder for the June 17, 2015, massacre at Charlestons Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, looked ahead impassively, just as when sentenced to death in federal court in January.
Under a plea arrangement, he received life terms for each of the murder charges, which will be appended consecutively to the 18 death sentences imposed by a judge and jury in his federal trial. Mr. Roof turned down an offer to address the court directly on Monday, leaving his grandfather as his only advocate. It was the first time a relative had spoken on his behalf in court.
Despite widespread criticism over his statement that the word 'Hindu' is Persian and it has a 'dirty', Karnataka Congress Working President Satish Jarkiholi sought to defend himself saying he was only referring to what has been written and published.
Robert Bentley, who resigned as Alabamas governor on Monday, will be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, who will be the first Republican woman to occupy the office. She is a familiar figure in Alabama, having served as lieutenant governor and state treasurer.
Ms. Ivey, 72, is the second woman to serve as Alabamas governor. The first, Lurleen Wallace, was the wife of Gov. George Wallace and stepped into the role for about a year after state law prevented Mr. Wallace from running for consecutive terms. As a student in the 1960s, Ms. Ivey campaigned for Ms. Wallace.
Alabama elected Ms. Ivey, a Republican, as lieutenant governor in 2010 and again in 2014. She previously served two terms as state treasurer; worked as the assistant director of the Alabama Development Office; and was a bank officer and high school teacher. She grew up in the small town of Camden, Ala. (current population: 1,930), and worked on the family farm.
In 2014, while reflecting on her first term as lieutenant governor, Ms. Ivey noted that she had worked with the Legislature to reduce unemployment, shrink the state government and pass budgets that did not require midyear cuts because of overspending.
For eight months, Jamal Browns body shook, so violently that he lost consciousness and ended up in the hospital more than 30 times. Though only in his 30s, his face drooped, his arms and legs often felt numb, and he was overcome with the anxiety of being a homeless drug addict trying to get clean in Camden, N.J.
Then, last July, as he lay in a hospital bed after his third stroke, a representative of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers came to his bedside and suggested a different kind of treatment for his illnesses: a federal housing voucher.
Within months, Mr. Brown, who had been bouncing between shelters, had a one-bedroom apartment in Somerdale, N.J., 10 miles from where his father first introduced him to crack cocaine. Mr. Brown has not been back to an emergency room since.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. Gunfire erupted inside an elementary school classroom in San Bernardino, Calif., on Monday, leaving two adults and one student dead in what the authorities said was an apparent murder-suicide.
The shooter, whom the police identified as Cedric Anderson, 53, walked into the classroom and without speaking opened fire on his wife, Karen Elaine Smith. Ms. Smith, 53, was the lead teacher in the class of 15 students with special needs, who ranged from first to fourth graders.
Two students were standing behind Ms. Smith, though the police did not say whether they had been directly hit by gunfire or wounded with shrapnel. An 8-year-old student, Jonathan Martinez, was airlifted by helicopter from the school, North Park Elementary, to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived. A 9-year-old student was also wounded and was in stable condition Monday afternoon.
The shooter entered the school through the front office and was checked for his identification, following routine procedures, the police said. There was no sign Mr. Anderson was carrying a weapon.
A 42-year-old immigrant was on her way to church in Mendota, a small city in Californias Central Valley, one afternoon last month when the police stopped her because the tinted windows on her 2006 Nissan were too dark. What happened next says much about the growing conflict between states like California and the Trump administration.
After inspecting her license, the police officer returned to the car and asked the woman, a mother of two, whether she knew that a deportation order had been issued against her. Yes, she replied, she was supposed to appear in front of an immigration judge in Texas nearly 15 years ago, but had no way of getting there.
After several minutes, the officer released her, but not before calling the federal immigration authorities. The police officer informed her that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would come to her house. Fearing deportation to El Salvador, the woman did not return home neighbors informed her that immigration officers appeared at her front door half an hour after she was pulled over and she has not gone back since, one of her lawyers said.
For the Trump administration, that kind of assistance from local police officers is a model. For California lawmakers, it is the clearest evidence yet of the need to strictly curb communication between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.
A nearly weeklong manhunt continued on Monday for a Wisconsin man the authorities suspect of robbing a gun shop, setting his own station wagon on fire, espousing broad revolution and mailing a threatening manifesto to President Trump.
The Rock County Sheriffs Department in Janesville, Wis., said that it was searching for Joseph A. Jakubowski, 32, in connection with the burglary on April 4 of more than a dozen firearms from Armageddon Supplies, a local gun store.
Mr. Jakubowski has been highly agitated recently regarding a variety of political issues and had specifically threatened to use weapons to target government officials or an unspecified school, the department said in a statement.
The department also released a video of Mr. Jakubowski preparing to send a 161-page manifesto to the White House. According to the police, the document includes grievances against government and personal angst towards anyone or anything other than natural law or rule.
Just how much rudeness is there in the hospital, and who bears the brunt of it?
A few weeks ago I wrote about a study that looked at what happens to medical teams when parents are rude to doctors. In these studies of simulated patient emergencies, doctors and nurses working in the neonatal intensive care unit were less effective in teamwork and communication, and in their diagnostic and technical skills, after an actor, playing a parent, made a rude remark about the quality of the hospital.
These results bothered me, not because I was surprised that there might be rudeness (and worse) coming from parents, but because I pride myself on a kind of professional immunity. Sure, parents are sometimes rude, and occasionally openly hostile; and sure, I acknowledge that that can be upsetting. But I wouldnt have imagined that it would actually affect my medical skills or decision making.
If those supremely highly trained NICU personnel are actually worse at resuscitating newborns or diagnosing life-threatening complications after exposure to rudeness, though, what happens to the rest of us as we go through the lower-stakes but still important interactions of our clinical days?
Many of the readers who responded to that column seemed to think that the doctors and nurses were somehow doing it on purpose, responding punitively to the simulated rude parent. But in fact they were performing at a lower level on observed and graded tests of their medical abilities.
MOGADISHU, Somalia A suicide bomber wearing a Somali Army officers uniform blew himself up inside a military training camp in Mogadishu on Monday, killing at least seven soldiers, including senior officers, and wounding 15 others, officials said.
The Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that more than 25 soldiers had been killed, according to the groups radio network, Al Andalus. The militant group boasted of what it called its ability to strike any target in Mogadishu.
The bomber was disguised as a Somali Army officer and blew himself up, said Abdikamil Moalim Shukri, a spokesman for the Internal Security Ministry.
The military training camp is near a former candy factory in the Wadajir district.
The Shabab have intensified their attacks against the government since Somalias new president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, also known as Farmajo, declared war on the group and replaced the leaders of the army, the police and international intelligence, as well as the mayor of Mogadishu, the countrys capital.
ROME The former governor of a drug-ravaged Mexican state who had been on the run since 2012 from both American and Mexican justice on charges of money laundering and racketeering has been captured in Italy, officials announced on Monday.
During the six years that the former governor, Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, ran the state of Tamaulipas, the Gulf Cartel and its brutal armed enforcement wing, the Zetas, established their hold over the state. Mr. Yarringtons term ended in February 2005, but Tamaulipas remains one of Mexicos most violent states.
A 2013 federal indictment in the United States accused Mr. Yarrington of receiving millions of dollars of bribes from the cartel, beginning in 1998, to allow it to operate unimpeded in the state, which borders southeastern Texas.
Mr. Yarrington, 60, was detained Sunday evening shortly after dining in Piazza della Signoria, one of Florences most famous squares and the gateway to the Uffizi Gallery. A wobbly video released by the Italian police on Monday showed that he had not shown resistance when approached by agents and asked to follow them to a nearby station for a routine check.
BEIJING When Jia Jinglong, a villager in northern China, was executed late last year for killing an official he blamed for the demolition of his home, the news media boiled with debate about the death sentence. Mr. Jias family and lawyers argued that the official had victimized him and that his life should have been spared.
The verdict against my brother was unfair, Mr. Jias sister, Jia Jingyuan, said in an interview this week. Theres a gap between the standards written in the laws and how those standards are enforced.
A report released by Amnesty International on Tuesday suggests that such complaints of injustice are far from isolated but often remain muffled by official secrecy. That secrecy has undermined the Chinese governments vows to limit death sentences, distorting how common executions are in China, the report said.
This deliberate and elaborate secrecy system, which runs counter to Chinas obligations under international law, conceals the number of people sentenced to death and executed every year, both of which Amnesty International estimates run into the thousands, said the report, which is 44 pages long.
TAOYUAN, Taiwan Chinas Ministry of Public Security has barred the wife of a detained Taiwan-born rights activist from flying to Beijing on Monday, adding to the drama surrounding the mans disappearance after he entered China more than three weeks ago.
The wife, Lee Ching-yu, said at a news conference at Taoyuan International Airport, in northern Taiwan, that her mainland travel permit had been canceled by China, making her ineligible to board her Monday afternoon flight to seek answers about the whereabouts and status of her husband, Lee Ming-cheh.
Ms. Lee said she had not received an explanation for the cancellation of her permit, which is required for people from Taiwan to enter the mainland, as Beijing does not recognize passports from the Republic of China, the islands official name. China claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to annex it by force.
Mr. Lee, 42, has been unreachable since he entered Guangdong Province in southern China from the semiautonomous territory of Macau on March 19. Ten days later, Chinas Taiwan Affairs Office confirmed that Mr. Lee was being investigated on suspicion of activities harmful to national security.
The NHRC has given both the DM and SP four weeks to submit their report over the allegations of harassment.
By Shivendra Srivastava: The National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, Gautam Budh Nagar on a complaint that police has falsely implicated innocent residents of the NSG society in the matter of assault on some African nationals at a mall in Greater Noida, March 27, 2017.
Both the officials have been given four weeks to submit reports in the matter. The Commission has also asked its Director General (Investigation) to get the facts collected in the matter.
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According to the complaint filed by some residents of the society, students and their parents living in the NSG society are being harassed in the name of the investigations. As a result, they are so petrified that they are not able to attend schools and colleges even as board exams are in progress.
Allegedly, a boy, living in their society had died on the March 25, 2017, allegedly due to an overdose of drugs supplied by some Nigerians.
The residents of the society had taken permission from the administration to take out a peaceful candle march in his memory from the society to the Pari Chowk on the March 27.
While they were sitting at Pari Chowk, some anti-social elements assaulted a few Nigerians at a nearby mall. But the police have named 53 persons, who were not even present at the place of the incident, which, they claim, can be seen in the CCTV recording at the mall.
Allegedly, the 7 persons, arrested by the police in the matter were also not present at the site of the assault. They were part of the candle march and sitting at the Pari Chowk at the time of the incident, a video recording of which is available with the police.
Also read: Sushma Swaraj on attacks on Africans: Not all incidents racist; envoys' statement painful, surprising
Also read: Indians not racist, we accept South Indians, says BJP's Tarun Vijay, apologises later
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WASHINGTON President Trumps deployment of an aircraft carrier to the waters off the Korean Peninsula has raised tensions across East Asia. But the show of American force conceals a lack of better options for dealing with the provocations of the rogue government in North Korea.
Chinas president, Xi Jinping, did not make any public commitment to tighten the pressure on North Korea during his meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., last week with President Trump. Even privately, officials said, he was circumspect. And an attack on North Korea carries far greater risk than the missile strike that Mr. Trump ordered last week to punish President Bashar al-Assad of Syria for his deadly chemical weapons attack.
That leaves the White House in a bind on a security issue that Mr. Trump has described as the most pressing of his presidency. Mr. Trump warned before the meeting with Mr. Xi that the United States would act alone against North Korea if China did not join his pressure campaign.
A senior administration official expressed hope that the productive tone of the meeting would eventually lead to further Chinese actions. But Mr. Trumps missile strike, which came while he and Mr. Xi were having dinner, could play both ways: Administration officials said it would convince the Chinese leader of Mr. Trumps resolve, while some experts said it would reinforce fears in Beijing that he is erratic and unpredictable.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan An Indian naval officer arrested last year and charged with espionage and sabotage was sentenced to death Monday, the Pakistani military said, a decision that is likely to further strain relations between the two nations.
The condemned naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, was arrested in March 2016 in Baluchistan, the restive province in Southwest Pakistan, where a separatist insurgency has simmered for decades. Pakistani military officials described the capture of Mr. Jadhav as a major counterintelligence victory. He was accused of running a clandestine terror network within the province and of participating in various activities meant to destabilize the country.
The Indian ministry of external affairs reacted sharply to the Pakistani announcement, issuing a protest to Pakistans high commissioner in New Delhi, which said if the sentence were carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
The Pakistani military said Monday Mr. Jadhav was a spy who was tried through Field General Court-Martial, referring to a court-martial trial of heinous crimes, dedicated to cases involving foreign agents and spies.
BEIJING Psst. Over here. Dont look at me, but if youre in Beijing and happen to know your local Agent 007, you may be able to cash in.
The Chinese capitals spy hunters are offering people up to a half-million renminbi (more than $72,000) to help identify foreign espionage activities and catch the operatives responsible, Beijing newspapers said on Monday.
The Chinese government has long admonished citizens that they have a duty to catch foreign spies and their agents. Under President Xi Jinping, warnings have grown about spooks lurking near military bases or seducing lovelorn officials. Theres even a National Security Education Day to drum home the warnings.
But the Beijing Municipal Bureau of State Security has decided that appeals to pure patriotism are not enough. Its offering cash for tips. Rewards for exposing espionage in the lowest category range from $1,450 to $7,240, according to rules that went into effect on Monday. The highest category offers rewards of more than $72,000.
LUCCA, Italy Days after President Trump bombed Syria in response to a chemical attack that killed children, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said on Monday that the United States would punish those who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.
The declaration, given at a memorial to a Nazi massacre that killed many children, was among the first efforts by a top official to describe what seems to be a new Trump administration doctrine that encompasses instinctual and emotional responses to catastrophic world events.
Mr. Tillersons statement also seemed bound to intensify a growing rift between the Trump administration and Russia, where Mr. Tillerson is headed on Tuesday to confront Russias foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, over the countries differences in Syria.
There had been some hope that Mr. Tillerson would meet President Vladimir V. Putin. But Russia announced on Monday that Mr. Putin would be unavailable more signs of the Kremlins growing displeasure. Hopes in Russia for an enduring thaw in relations between the two countries, fed by Mr. Trumps oddly positive comments about Mr. Putin during the campaign, have largely ended.
STOCKHOLM Sweden honored the victims of the countrys worst terrorist attack in decades with a minute of silence at noon on Monday, as the authorities formally identified the chief suspect in the assault and announced that they had questioned 600 people as part of their investigation.
Our unity will always be stronger than the forces that seek to tear us apart, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said at a ceremony at Stockholm City Hall, less than a mile from the pedestrian shopping street where the attacker mowed a truck into a crowd on Friday afternoon, killing four people and wounding 15 others. Our way of life will never be suppressed. Our democracy will triumph over fundamentalism.
Joining the prime minister were King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia and many diplomats and officials, including Mayor Karin Wanngard, who vowed: Stockholm will remain an open and tolerant city.
As the nation mourned a trauma that has been likened in magnitude to the unsolved 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, prosecutors identified the driver of the truck as Rakhmat Akilov, 39, an Uzbek whose application for asylum was rejected last year.
TEHRAN The punitive American missile strike on Syria for the chemical weapons attack a week ago brought Syrias most important backers, Russia and Iran, publicly closer together whether the Iranians want to be or not.
Far from accepting the Trump administrations version of the chemical weapons assault, the Iranians joined the Russians in rejecting it and doubling down on their expressions of support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
Nonetheless, Iran and Russia do not see eye to eye on everything in a relationship shaped by mistrust, a legacy of Iranian resentment of Russias historical expansionism and Soviet-era attempts at domination.
Iranian political analysts say there has been no sign that Iran is prepared to take one key step on Syria: granting Russias air force full access to Iranian air bases. Such a move would greatly increase Russias firepower and maneuvering space in Syria, and it would pose a new challenge for United States aircraft in the region.
Bharat Ke Veer - an app which will allow Indian civilians to donate money to families of deceased Indian soldiers was launched on Sunday. The idea of the app came from Akshay Kumar three months ago.
By India Today Web Desk: Akshay Kumar's dream has come true. Just days after, Akshay Kumar was honoured with the National Film Award for Best Actor, the actor's dream app to donate money to slain jawan's families was launched on Sunday on the occasion of Valour Day.
The website called bharatkeveer.gov.in was launched at Delhi's Vigyan Bhawan by Home Minister Rajnath Singh with Akshay Kumar by his side yesterday. Using the portal, anybody can donate up to a maximum of Rs 15 lakh to families of martyred soldiers and officers belonging to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).
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Three months prior to this, Akshay Kumar had come up with the idea of formulating a mechanism using which India's civilians could donate funds to families of martyred jawans who lost their lives in the line of duty. Akshay discussed his plans with home ministry officials who ensured that the idea was brought to fruition.
Akshay Kumar, whose father was an officer of the Indian Army, has earlier donated money to numerous families of slain jawans - the most recent instance being a donation of Rs 1.09 crore to 11 families of CRPF (Central Reserved Police Forces) troopers who died on duty during a Naxal ambush in Sukma.
According to a report in Times of India, speaking to thousands of Indian soldiers at Vigyan Bhawan on Sunday, Akshay Kumar said, "Today, I am here between you not as an actor, but as the son of an Army officer."
Akshay added that some of the country's youth get distracted and choose terrorism, sure, but they do not realise that they don't have enough supporters.
"Our jawans fight them with all their heart and do good work. We need the support of 1.25 billion people to do good work," Akshay said.
Before Akshay's speech, the actor and Rajnath Singh gave awaay medals to soldiers and officers of the CRPF. "It would not be wrong if I call him Action Kumar. He is a hero for so many, but for him, Army and CAPF jawans are the real heroes," Rajnath Singh said.
ALSO READ: Who would've thought, Akshay Kumar reacts after National Award win. Joining him is Sonam Kapoor
ALSO READ: Priyadarshan's reason behind Akshay's National Award win is bizzare
ALSO WATCH: How Akshay Kumar became Sabse Bada Khiladi
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Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan reiterated that a de-addiction drive would also be launched in the state soon.
By Press Trust of India: Madhya Pradesh is headed towards a total prohibition as Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that all liquor shops would be closed across the state in a phased manner.
"Alcohol prohibition will be implemented in the entire state by closing all liquor shops in a phased manner," Chouhan said while addressing a programme at village Neemkhera (Heerapur) of Narsinghpur district yesterday.
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This programme was organised during the ongoing river conservation awareness campaign Namami Devi Narmade - Narmada Seva Yatra.
"In the first phase, the state government closed all the shops falling within a radius of five kilometers from the banks of river Narmada on either side. In the next phase, the liquor shops would not be allowed to open in residential localities, near educational institutes or religious places," he said.
Chouhan reiterated that a de-addiction drive would also be launched in the state soon.
During past one month, several protests against liquor shops have been reported from across the state.
On April 5, the protesters had burnt two vehicles and damaged four others in Bareli town of Raisen district when Excise Department was trying to shift the liquor shops from a highway to a local residential colony.
Earlier on April 3, BJP MLA from Indore-1, Sudarshan Gupta had demanded total liquor prohibition in the state while extending support to the agitation against the opening of liquor shop.
Besides, protests were also reported from several parts of the state including Indore, Sagar, Burhanpur, Chhatarpur, Vidisha, Narsinghpur, Satna, Morena, Dewas and some other towns during last one month.
Also read: Madhya Pradesh: Anti-liquor campaign led by women turns violent; vehicles, shops torched
Also read: SC liquor ban: Kerala bar builds maze to increase distance from nearest highway
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Howard Dean has never been a liberal or progressive. Neera Tanden was and still is a Hillary Clinton surrogate. Both supported Hillary and the Twitterverse is speculating that Tanden and Dean are going after Gabbard because she endorsed and strongly supported Bernie Sanders. It wouldn't be surprised to see Hillary surrogates go after Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, the lone US Senator to endorse Bernie.
RT @bitchyologist: Neera: Tulsi met with a murderous dictator that she keeps defending Van Jones: But something something something Hillar at
Neera Tanden, Hillary Surrogate and president of the Center For American Progress, a fake progressive organization founded by Hillary surrogate John Podesta, along with Howard Dean, are attacking Tulsi Gabbard. They're advocating for her to be primaried, using this tweet by Gabbard to attack her. If it wasn't clear to you before, these two DLC, Hillary Democrats are anything but liberal or progressive. They are fakes who deserve the contempt and derision of real liberals and progressives.
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect, connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
Check out his platform at RobKall.com
He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune 500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful people on his Bottom Up Radio Show, and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet (more...)
The Anantnag bypoll has been postponed to May 25 as fresh clashes erupted in the Valley today.
By India Today Web Desk, Shuja-ul-Haq : The Election Commission of India late Monday night decided to defer the Anantnag bypoll in Jammu and Kashmir to May 25. The voting was originally scheduled to be held on Wednesday.
The Srinagar bypoll, which was held on Sunday, was marred by violent clashes between civilians and security forces in which at least eight people lost their lives. The poll also saw a 30-year record low turn out of 6.5 per cent.
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Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Mehooba Mufti's brother Tasaduk Mufti, who was fighting for the Anantnag seat, had appealed to the Election Commission that the bypoll for the constituency be postponed.
FRESH VIOLENCE
Meanwhile, one person was killed after suffering injuries due to stone pelting in Srinagar. A driver hired by security and police officials for election duty died in the incident which took place today evening.
A school in Rawalpura, Shopian, which was a polling booth for the Anantnag bypoll, was also set ablaze.
In Banderpora, Pulwama, on the other hand, a panchayat ghar was set on fire.
ALSO READ | Srinagar by-poll: Congress demands Mehbooba Mufti's resignation over low poll percentage
ALSO WATCH | Poll violence in Budgam: 8 killed in clashes, 6.5 per cent voting recorded
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It's dangerous for the major media, all major media really, to continually tout as proven what is only surmised. The current push for war is not only not well grounded, it's bipartisan, which makes it even more dangerous. The last time the bipartisan elite wanted a not-well-grounded war, it did not go well. Touting as proved what is only surmised starts with the assertion that Russia "hacked" (hijacked, stole) the last American election. That Russia both wanted to and tried to "interfere" in the recent election is easy to demonstrate. That Russia "hacked" or stole the U.S. election in an act of espionage that rises to an act of war, though, is an unproved assertion. Yet we're hearing that kind of loose talk more and more:
"I think this attack that we've experienced is a form of war, a form of war on our fundamental democratic principles," [Rep. Bonnie Watson] Coleman [D-N.J.] said during a hearing this week at the House Homeland Security Committee. ...
"I actually think that their engagement was an act of war, an act of hybrid warfare, and I think that's why the American people should be concerned about it," said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.). ...
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's ranking member, has similarly described the election meddling as an "attack" and likened it to the United States' "political Pearl Harbor."
"Political Pearl Harbor"? Even Dick Cheney has gotten into the act: ""There's no question that there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes. In some quarters, that could be considered an act of war.
" Following the lead of our leaders, the major media has repeated the unproved assertion -- that Russia "hacked" or stole the election in an "act of war" -- sometimes with disclaimer, sometimes without. For weeks, the repetition has been endless. In the phrase of a long-gone commercial, "You're soaking in it.
" This is a pattern and there's a price. The pattern happens on both the right and the left. Only the assertions are different. On the right: "Obama was born in Kenya." On the left: "If not for Russia, Clinton would have beaten Trump." On the right the assertions are often demonstrably false. On the left the assertions often turn a possibility and into a certainty. And the price -- both of these patterns are dangerous, since they both involve spreading a falsehood. The consumers of these falsehoods -- we the public, on both the left and the right -- never seem to consider the motives of their purveyors, nor the danger of believing as true what has not, and can not, be demonstrated with certainty. Which sets us up for a repeat.
Contrary to Mr. Bush's famous saying, this almost guarantees we can get fooled again. That may be playing out now, getting fooled again, with the Syrian "gas attack" story. What Is Known about the "Gas Attack in Syria"? What is known for sure about the Syrian "gas attack"? Actually very little. The best that I can find purporting to show that Assad and Syria launched a "gas attack" against Khan Sheikhoun is contained in this article from Business Insider. (The same information has appeared elsewhere.) The Pentagon has released a map allegedly showing the flight path of a Syrian military plane over the area.
Based on that, at least in part, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said,"We have a very high level of confidence that the attacks were carried out by aircraft under the direction of the Bashar al-Assad regime, and we also have very high confidence that the attacks involved the use of sarin nerve gas" (emphasis mine). What that tells you is (1) there's no proof that sarin was used, or they'd show you the proof. And (2) there's no proof that the identified plane dropped gas bombs or canisters, or they'd show that to you as well. Instead, we hear the now-common, telltale phrase, "high level of confidence." Expressing a "high level of confidence" involves an educated guess on their part, and an exercise in trust on yours.
Note: This doesn't prove that Assad is innocent. It proves nothing at all. What Are Other Sources Saying? Other sources are saying that there's a great deal of uncertainty about this incident, including whether it was a gas attack at all (see below) versus a conventional bombing of a rebel facility in which dangerous chemical weapons were stored. Some intelligence sources say they are hearing from their colleagues that the facts are entirely contrary to administration and the military assertions -- and that both the administration and our military know that. None of these assertions are proved, just as the assertions of Assad's guilt are proved, but none of this can be discounted. Unfortunately, the only assertions you're "soaking in" are those that lead to war. About the uncertainty of Assad's guilt, I want to present two sources out of several I could have brought forward. A search produces a fair number of them. The first one below is via Robert Parry.
A very good reporter, Parry did excellent investigative work at the Associated Press and Newsweek exposing many aspects of the Iran-Contra scandal undiscovered by others. In recognition Parry "was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984 and the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence by Harvard's Nieman Foundation in 2015."
In fact, according to Salon, Parry's "continuing quest to unearth the facts of the alleged October Surprise has made him persona non grata among those who worship at the altar of conventional wisdom." The "October Surprise" was the collapse of the negotiations between the Carter White House and the Iranian hostage holders just prior to the 1980 election, which brought Ronald Reagan narrowly to victory. Parry thought the October Surprise was the source of the events that led to later Iran-Contra scandal. (More at the link. That connection, as near as I can tell, is proved, though widely ignored in elite bipartisan circles.) Parry opens (my emphasis throughout):
Just two days after news broke of an alleged poison-gas attack in northern Syria, President Trump brushed aside advice from some U.S. intelligence analysts doubting the Syrian regime's guilt and launched a lethal retaliatory missile strike against a Syrian airfield.
Trump immediately won plaudits from Official Washington, especially from neoconservatives who have been trying to wrestle control of his foreign policy away from his nationalist and personal advisers since the days after his surprise victory on Nov. 8.
There is also an internal dispute over the intelligence. On Thursday night, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. intelligence community assessed with a "high degree of confidence" that the Syrian government had dropped a poison gas bomb on civilians in Idlib province.
But a number of intelligence sources have made contradictory assessments, saying the preponderance of evidence suggests that Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels were at fault, either by orchestrating an intentional release of a chemical agent as a provocation or by possessing containers of poison gas that ruptured during a conventional bombing raid.
I've run across these counter-assessments in several unconnected places (places that don't quote each other or depend on a common source). Again, the counter-assessments are either that Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels launched a "false flag" attack for reasons that will be detailed below, or that they stored poison gas at a facility that was bombed using conventional weapons by either the Russians or the Syrians (perhaps by the plane whose flight path the Pentagon has been showing, or perhaps not). More from Parry, this time about the danger this situation represents -- the reinstallation of neocons into foreign policy decision-making:
One intelligence source told me that the most likely scenario was a staged event by the rebels intended to force Trump to reverse a policy, announced only days earlier, that the U.S. government would no longer seek "regime change" in Syria and would focus on attacking the common enemy, Islamic terror groups that represent the core of the rebel forces.
The source said the Trump national security team split between the President's close personal advisers, such as nationalist firebrand Steve Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner, on one side and old-line neocons who have regrouped under National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, an Army general who was a prote'ge' of neocon favorite Gen. David Petraeus.
[...]
In this telling, the earlier ouster of retired Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser and this week's removal of Bannon from the National Security Council were key steps in the reassertion of neocon influence inside the Trump presidency. ...
Though Bannon and Kushner are often presented as rivals, the source said, they shared the belief that Trump should tell the truth about Syria, revealing the Obama administration's CIA analysis that a fatal sarin gas attack in 2013 was a "false-flag" operation intended to sucker President Obama into fully joining the Syrian war on the side of the rebels -- and the intelligence analysts' similar beliefs about Tuesday's incident.
There's an interesting section that examines Assad's reasons for not launching either attack:
In both cases -- 2013 and 2017 -- there were strong reasons to doubt Assad's responsibility. In 2013, he had just invited United Nations inspectors into Syria to investigate cases of alleged rebel use of chemical weapons and thus it made no sense that he would launch a sarin attack in the Damascus suburbs, guaranteeing that the U.N. inspectors would be diverted to that case.
Similarly, now, Assad's military has gained a decisive advantage over the rebels and he had just scored a major diplomatic victory with the Trump administration's announcement that the U.S. was no longer seeking regime change" in Syria. The savvy Assad would know that a chemical weapon attack now would likely result in U.S. retaliation and jeopardize the gains that his military has achieved with Russian and Iranian help.
Remember, Assad may be brutal -- frankly, most of these people, the ones we "like" and the ones we don't -- are brutal. But he didn't survive this long by being stupid. Finally, Parry quotes ex-intelligence officer Philip Giraldi on the Russian role in the incident and also on the reaction of the intelligence community to the way this situation is playing out:
Alarm within the U.S. intelligence community about Trump's hasty decision to attack Syria reverberated from the Middle East back to Washington, where former CIA officer Philip Giraldi reported hearing from his intelligence contacts in the field that they were shocked at how the new poison-gas story was being distorted by Trump and the mainstream U.S. news media.
Giraldi told Scott Horton's Webcast: "I'm hearing from sources on the ground in the Middle East, people who are intimately familiar with the intelligence that is available who are saying that the essential narrative that we're all hearing about the Syrian government or the Russians using chemical weapons on innocent civilians is a sham."
Giraldi said his sources were more in line with an analysis postulating an accidental release of the poison gas after an Al Qaeda arms depot was hit by a Russian airstrike.
I'll send you to the article for the rest. There's actually quite a bit more, and Parry does a good job. But do note two things -- the assertion that Obama knew that the 2013 sarin attack was a false flag operation (i.e., that Assad didn't do that one either; here's the link again), and the assertion that McMaster, a prote'ge' of David Patraeus, is the "tip of the spear" for neocon control of Trump's foreign policy. For Parry, this is Trump's "wag the dog" moment. For me, however, the key takeaway is different. No one who tells you the case against Assad is proved can show the proof. I would think, when it comes to going to war, that part matters. Especially given our recent bipartisan war-making past. Yes, Parry is making assertions, not offering proof. I'm even willing to bet that Parry has "very high confidence" that he's correct. Does this mean Assad is innocent? No. Just as the military's assertions mean he's guilty, absent actual proof. One More Source, Ex-DIA Colonel Patrick Lang.
The following was offered to me via an email list by someone I respect. I have not heard of Patrick Lang, but he's another of those, like Parry, with connections in the intelligence community. Clearly a former Trump supporter, he's now very angry with him. That may or may not have anything to do with these assertions. What's striking, though, is the degree to which Lang and Parry are saying pretty much the same thing -- that the facts were known in the intelligence community, that the White House (meaning the military and civilian team that decided on the missile strike) distorted those facts to the public for their own purposes, and that at least some faction within the intelligence community is not happy with the distortions. Lang (my emphasis below):
Donald Trump's decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie. In the coming days the American people will learn that the Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib. Here is what happened.
The Russians briefed the United States on the proposed target. This is a process that started more than two months ago. There is a dedicated phone line that is being used to coordinate and deconflict (i.e., prevent US and Russian air assets from shooting at each other) the upcoming operation.
The United States was fully briefed on the fact that there was a target in Idlib that the Russians believes was a weapons/explosives depot for Islamic rebels.
The Syrian Air Force hit the target with conventional weapons. All involved expected to see a massive secondary explosion. That did not happen. Instead, smoke, chemical smoke, began billowing from the site. It turns out that the Islamic rebels used that site to store chemicals, not sarin, that were deadly. The chemicals included organic phosphates and chlorine and they followed the wind and killed civilians.
There was a strong wind blowing that day and the cloud was driven to a nearby village and caused casualties.
We know it was not sarin. How? Very simple. The so-called "first responders" handled the victims without gloves. If this had been sarin they would have died. Sarin on the skin will kill you. How do I know? I went through "Live Agent" training at Fort McClellan in Alabama. There are members of the U.S. military who were aware this strike would occur and it was recorded. There is a film record. At least the Defense Intelligence Agency knows that this was not a chemical weapon attack. In fact, Syrian military chemical weapons were destroyed with the help of Russia.
This is Gulf of Tonkin 2.
Your bottom line -- You can believe any of these stories and sources if you like. But recognize that you're choosing whom to believe, and that it's belief. You're not being led to any of these beliefs by proof, because none has yet been brought forward.
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Trump speaks after cruise missile launch President Trump addressed the nation shortly after the U.S. launched a cruise missile strike against Syria. He is in Mar-a-Lago for a summit meeting with the ...
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President Trump speaking after launching missile attack in Syria
Now that President Trump has puffed out his chest attacking Syria in retaliation for Syria's President Bashar Assad alleged sarin gas attack last week, it just feels like waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Oh sure this could be a one-time strike by Trump-a flexing of muscles and nothing more-at least for the present.
As for Russia it's response beyond condemning Trump's attack has been to suspend its Memorandum of Understanding with the US over each other's air operations in Syria and sending a missile frigate to its naval base in Tartus, Syria.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson still plans to be in Moscow tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of his scheduled meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and possibly President Putin himself. Tillerson and Lavrov spoke with each other on Saturday in a call initiated by Tillerson. In that call Lavrov called the allegations of the Syrian military using chemical weapons "do not correspond to reality" while he called for a "thorough and impartial" investigation over the incident.
But who knows what the "Donald" will do next.
Meanwhile a few members of Trump's administration went on the Sunday talk show circuit including Tillerson who callied Russia "incompetent" for allowing Syria to hold onto its chemical weapons and interfering in Europe's elections as it did earlier in the US presidential election-all unfounded allegations and assertions of course while Syria's chemical weapons were removed by 2014 under the oversight of the UN's "Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons".
In remarks on CNN the crazed UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said, "We know there's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime. If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it's going to be hard to a government that's peaceful and stable with Assad". That was calm compared to her mouthing "nothing is off the table", "you're going to continue to see the United States act when we need to act" and warning Trump "won't stop here. If he needs to do more, he will do more." God help us.
As for Trump's National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster he said, "What's significant about the strike is not that it was meant to take out the Syrian regime's capacity or ability to commit mass murder of it's own people, but it was to be a very strong signal to Assad and his sponsors that the United states cannot stand idly by as he is murdering innocent civilians." This from the guy who was one of the leaders in charge of the US siege on Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 killing hundreds of innocent civilians in the process of destroying the city. Well so much for his compassion for the murder of "innocent civilians".
In contrast to the Trump gang and the complicit MSM doing its part in the triumphalism surrounding Trump's retaliatory strike, here's a statement from Viktor Ozerov, the head of the Russia's upper house "Defence and Security Committee" stating the day after the attack, "Russia does not intend to get involved in an armed standoff with the United States there-in Syria-our task there is to support the Syrian military forces in their fight against terrorists, this is the task we have a mandate for".
That's all well and good but what if Russian forces are killed by US forces in Syria" What then?
Mike Whitney believes, "There's going to be a collision" between the US and Russia in Syria. "They're not going to let Syria become another Iraq. They're not going to let that happen. So it's all coming to a head. The unstoppable force is fast approaching the immovable object". He may well be right.
Let's face it Tillerson talking with and meeting with Lavrov is a good thing. But international diplomacy is not a US forte and Tillerson's latest statements about Russia over the weekend saying Russia was "incompetent" doesn't bode well for any renewed detente with Russia or for positive negotiations to end the war in Syria.
Stay tuned. We should know more after Tillerson leaves Moscow.
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"Rob Kall is tapping in, exploring, assessing, and clarifying this important new way of thinking that has been influenced by the civil rights movement; women's movement; and new, more effective ways of doing business. This will be an important book that can make changes in our world."
Dr. Linda Seger, author of twelve books, including the best-selling Making a Good Script Great, Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success and The Better Way to Win.
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Being philosophical, being right , is simply not enough! Without being practical, the road to ruin is paved with good intentions and strewn with "bodies" of far too many of our best men and women figuratively and literally sacrificed for a "good cause." I supported Bernie Sanders and I still do, but as honest and forthright as he is, as just as his cause is, he was simply not well enough prepared to dethrone Hillary from her predetermined coronation. He had his righteous issues, but did not always present them in perspective. A successful single payer healthcare system presumes delousing Medicare of rampant parasites in Congress along with their pet lobbies who transmit those parasites. Implementation of a clean single payer system can save businesses literally hundreds of billions of dollars every year! Even a modified ACA and all other plans couldn't even lie and predict similar savings every decade ! Package this fact with a plan to tie lower corporate taxes to companies that pay higher wages because they no longer need to pay for healthcare and call it a long term, practical plan that can be presented to both employers and employees.
If lowering corporate taxes for participating companies insults our Democratic Party's arbitrary philosophical hatred of corporations and love of regressive taxes, then it's time to revisit our lack of perspective. By corporations demeaning their dependence on workers and workers doing the same to corporations, are not both "biting the hand that feeds them?" Meanwhile, I can guarantee that if a legitimate single payer system as described above were to be evaluated by the Congressional Budget Office, the results would be startling and an outright embarrassment to Republican lawmakers.
Another impractical issue for which neither Bernie nor Hillary properly prepared, is paying for a college education. Hillary, quite simply would make college loans simpler and cheaper. Bernie would make college free. Both, however would still send millions and millions of unprepared or unqualified young men and women to college where a huge percentage would get drunk, stoned, and summarily flunk out. And, unfortunately, Bernie did not mention many of the reasons for the success of free college tuition in other countries. Students in so many other countries have to pass competency tests before advancing to academic high schools and college. Many students with aptitudes for various skills are diverted to trade and skilled education. The students in their colleges and universities are more motivated as a group than they are in the United states. It is no coincidence that the best college students in this country are so often from abroad. If Bernie and Democrats really want to "sell" free college tuition, we can't take the "shortcut." We first need to discuss the necessity for changing our education system into a more practical and functional one. Otherwise we are ceding our future to pseudo educators such as Betsy DeVos and Michelle Rhee who share a sordid history of exploiting children for profit in the form of vouchers and corrupt private charter schools.
The last issue to be discussed is our party's failure despite all of our ranting and raving, to actually explain to the average citizen the significance of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. It is far more important than the various issues of abortion, gay marriage and whether church owned private schools are entitled to the same state funding for playground repair as secular private schools. It's main importance does not even lie in the fact that it so proudly enhances our already established "pay for play" campaign finance racket. It is the fact that, as I have said so many times before to deaf ears, it grants First Amendment protection to unlimited, secret political donations as political opinions, but does not grant the very same protection to the voter trying to express the same exact opinion at the polls!!!! In other words: (1) It means that a voter actually has to pay a candidate to earn First Amendment protection, the very same "right" to protection that he does not have when he votes for the candidate? And (2) that's why state governments can find so many ways to keep targeted groups of citizens from voting in large numbers by simply making it harder for specific subsets of voters to vote. On the other hand, If voting were actually protected as free speech (AKA "freedom of expression"), then anything that makes it harder to vote would thus automatically need to be scrutinized and eliminated as a violation of the First Amendment. Get it? Somehow, "conservatives" and even "liberals" on the Supreme Court didn't get it! Somehow, the ACLU didn't get it!
Meanwhile why don't we ask part time libertarian Rand Paul if he gets it. Rand, as one of the only Republicans still even pretending to have a conscience, did you know that the "right" of free speech doesn't extend to voters? According to your Supreme Court (apparently not ours) it's not one of our "God given" rights in this country. In fact, according to your godfather, Antonin Scalia, our Constitution doesn't specifically protect the general right to vote at all! So, if voting isn't actually protected by the First Amendment as expression of opinion, guess what; it's really not protected at all! What's more, your robotic vote for Neil Gorsuch might qualify you for deletion from even the part time roll of honorable libertarians.
As for serious Democrats, without a spokesperson and with no coherent message except to our own "true believers," by flitting from issue to issue, our party will not be able to sustain its influence. Contrary to popular belief, as shown earlier, our concerns regarding healthcare, education, the right to vote as well as making a living are not separate issues and do not impact only "true believers." Consider this little story:
I know this "pain in the neck" guy who earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy. In a stormy undergraduate career, he was told countless times that he was too practical to be a pre-med major, an English major and finally, a philosophy major. He was directed to the School of Education where he chose to perform a "practicum," a fancy word for actually teaching young adults, graduate students and children. His choices included either practical experience or a thesis to be gleaned from someone else's ideas, including many who had never taught. Nonetheless, under the guidance of some wonderful professors he earned his Master's Degree in "Philosophy of Education." After teaching in preschool, grade school, junior high, college and finally in medical school, he found that sometimes it's not how much you know that counts, but how well you can use your knowledge and how well you can impart it to others. In fact, the thing that he found most amazing was the number of brilliant philosophers he had studied whose work is still unappreciated to this day, simply because they lacked the skill to even explain how one ties a shoelace. Taking a stand and explaining it to those who already agree is not the same as explaining it to those who do not understand and therefore do not agree. What's more, falling on one's sword may show just how deeply one believes, but probably won't explain how to tie that shoelace.
Allen Finkelstein 4/8/17
(Article changed on April 11, 2017 at 19:33)
The Violin Monster
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The Central Intelligence Agency, the Democrats, neocons in the Republican Party and the Main Stream Media (MSM) have gotten under Donald Trump's thin skin. When attacked, Trump's instinct is to lash out at his attackers with counter attacks, without regard to his truthfulness or not. When Trump was a candidate for President that meant a war of words. As the President of the United States of America he has resorted to a dangerous and deadly shooting war of aggression.
Trumps critics are so numerous, unrelenting and persistent that like a cornered rat, Trump lost any sanity that he may have possessed and instead of lashing out at his tormentors, he lashed out at Syria's president Bashar al-Assad. Just like a drunk that comes home and beats his wife, terrorize his children, busts up the furniture and kicks the dog it accomplished nothing but chaos, but it feels so good to blow off some steam, even if it is at the wrong target.
Now Trump has a lot of damage to repair and it will take more than a night in the drunk tank to patch up the mess he has made. It is probably beyond redemption. Worse is that like an alcoholic there is no cure for someone drunk with power. Predictably Trump will continue with his unpredictable binges on which he prides himself. The world will now be walking on eggshells waiting for Trumps next irrational outburst.
Trump is not the only insane actor. The MSM has gone crazy with fake news, a phrase they will regret ever inventing. Not one MSM source paused in their war rant to even question the propaganda fed to it by the CIA (a shorthand abbreviation for the Deep State of 16 and counting intelligence agencies and police state goons). Readers are encouraged to correct the record if they know of even one MSM sources that had a serious debate of the few known facts of Assad's alleged chemical weapon attack on Syria's Idlib Province.
Today, April 10, 2017 the New York Times (NYT) is still busy pumping out propaganda: "The Grim Logic Behind Syria's Chemical Weapons Attack ", but instead of a logical discussion the NYT calls on clairvoyants to read Assad's mind. To paraphrase the conclusion, Assad is just plan evil, he loves to kill his own people, especially children and babies.
The NYT goes on that Assad wants to thumb his nose and show "the world the West's impotence and weakness", especially at this time of Assad's victory. The NYT concludes that Assad was taking a victory lap in preparation for retaking Idlib back from the West after losing it in 2015 to "a mix of Qaeda-linked and other rebels, some supported by the United States and its allies". Note that after all these years of the MSM pretending that the US was supporting "well-vetted moderates" and pooh-poohing as fake news that the US was supporting al-Qaeda, the NYT admits that the US has been behind "Qaeda-linked and other rebels" the whole time.
So according to the MSM, Assad just threw away a diplomatic solution being hammered out in Brussel (Supporting the future of Syria and the region) that would end the so-called civil war, leaving him in power and giving him billions of dollars in aid to rebuild Syria. As I write now, Lt. Colonel Ralf Peters, a military hack for Fox News, is screaming that Assad would rather "continue the war against his own people and that Trump did exactly the right thing". The MSM would have us believe that Assad just could not resist his thirst for the blood of "his own people" over several billions of dollars in foreign aid.
The MSM just cannot stop spinning its web of lies and cheerleading the USA into more illegal wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The American people could use some clairvoyants of their own to tell us what is on the mind of the MSM in their perpetual warmongering propaganda.
The MSM's groupthink is mind numbing. Do they have any sense of responsibility and the consequences of their propaganda? War propaganda like a rung bell cannot be unrung. It has a lasting effect that will pave the way for more enemies, more war and more death.
The Democratic Party apparatchiks keep egging Trump on, purely for their own political ambitions. Instead of legitimately attacking Trump on his policies and lack thereof, they have found that further demonizing the nuclear armed Russian Federation and its president Vladimir Putin has legs. Russia has been universally declared an enemy nation by the Democrats, and anybody, i.e. Trump and his associates, that has ties, however slight, to Russia, or even conversations, must be an unpatriotic stooge, accomplice and spy.
Trump has been accused by the Democrats and their faithful media of having a "man crush" on Putin and being Putin's puppet. One of Trump's few positive populist campaign agendas was to improve relations and work with Russia to solve common problems. Peaceful relations with Russia struck a chord not only with Trump fans but also many anti-war liberals and progressives.
The Democratic diehard Clinton backers turned peace with Russia on its head and made it treason. A ray of light from the years of dark propaganda against Russia has been extinguished. The dark shadow of a war with Russia now looms over the world. The neocons in both the Democratic Party and Republican Party are loving it. War profiteers continue to party just as Trump was about to take away their punchbowl. The endless flow of unaccounted for money continues to pour out of the Pentagon into the pockets of profiteers.
Donald Trump has taken the fight to some big enemies: the MSM, CIA, neocons, liberal interventionists, the military industrial complex, and he even stuck his finger in Israel's eye until he thought better and backed off. That list of enemies and some others such as the banks, oil companies, monopolies, and oligarchs make up a large part of the Deep State.
Trump may be the first president in a long time that was not a full-fledged member of the Deep State. Trump is learning the hard way what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) warned him, or was it a threat: "Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community -- they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you."
Unless Trump is a complete dummy he knows that he was had by the Deep State with the false flag of "Assad has used weapons of mass destruction, again!" But he is loving all the attention, admiration and faux respect. He does not know that the Deep State is laughing at him, not with him. Trump was played like a violin as he sinks deeper into the swamp he said he would drain.
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9th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Kafr ad Dik, occupied Palestine
Shahar with his son Bilal (5-yo) and daughter Sahar (8-yo). Photo: ISM/Charlie Donnelly
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At 2am on Wednesday morning, three intelligence vehicles and six military vehicles arrived at the building where Shaha Dharma lives with his family in Kafr ad Dik; Salfit municipality. For over two hours, Israeli forces raided, harassed, and searched the apartments of the three families living in the building.
Soldiers kicked and banged on the door with their rifles until Shahar Dharma went down the stairs to open it. He told the soldiers that his children were asleep, and that they should wait until they had been woken up as they would be scared if they saw the soldiers. However, Israeli forces pushed him aside and almost 60 soldiers poured into the building to search the three apartments.
Shahar's daughter, Sahar, awoke to the sight of Israeli soldiers in her bedroom and froze in fear. Her father managed to enter the room and reassure her as she started to cry, whilst waking the other children -- Bilal, 5, and Sahjar, 13 -- to take them into the living room. Sahar held onto her father with a tight grip, and asked for her mother. Shahar had to remind his daughter that her mother passed away last year, but Sahar insisted: 'I don't care,' she cried, 'I want to be with my mother.'
Israeli forces spent two hours turning the apartment upside-down, searching every nook and cranny of the home. During the raid, the family's mobile phones were confiscated whilst they were forced to stand in the living room and were not allowed to sit down. Shahar's wife, who is eight-months pregnant, became sick and dizzy, whilst his mother who suffers from cancer was not allowed to go to the bathroom.
Notice left by Israeli forces on Shahar's workshop. Photo: ISM/Charlie Donnelly
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A paper, written in Arabic, was posted on the workshop door claiming intelligence had informed them that people in the area were aiding terrorists by constructing military equipment, and were a threat to Israel and the security in the area. The paper continued to say that people would not be harassed by Israeli forces, but would be left to live and work freely if they did not support 'terrorists'. On the other hand, Israeli forces could not guarantee the safety of anyone who helped 'terrorists', nor the safety of their families and livelihoods. The locals claimed this was part of a 'media operation' by Israeli forces to claim a victory over 'terrorism.' But, as Shahar says, 'If they had found anything illegal in my workshop I would already be in prison'.
Shahar refused to sign the receipt for over half an hour, partly because he could not read what it said, but also because it became clear that the Israeli soldiers had written that only one piece of equipment had been confiscated from his workshop. In fact, Israeli forces had confiscated various tools and materials from his workshop, including a welding torch, a drill, and a disk cutter, with a total worth of over 4,000 shekels. Eventually, Shahar was punched in his left eye by one of the soldiers and told that if he did not sign the receipt, they would arrest him: 'What do you think?' asked one of the Israeli soldiers, 'Sign and stay with your children, or we can arrest you? You choice.' After signing the receipt under duress, Shahar was taken outside and pushed against a jeep by two Israeli soldiers, who held up a sign in Hebrew whilst a third took a photograph. Finally, the captain of the Israeli forces told Shahar that if he reopened his workshop they would return with a bulldozer to demolish the building, for which the family would have to pay. The soldiers finally left the house approximately at 3:30 am.
Confiscation notice signed by Shahar under duress. Not all confiscated items were listed. Photo: ISM/Charlie Donnelly
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Shahar does not know if he will ever get his property back. Having contacted the DCO (Distric Coordination Office) regarding the confiscation he was told that they would not help him as they were on holiday for Pesach for the next week.
The last time Shahar's mother experienced a similar raid was ten years ago, during which four of her sons were detained. Two were released shortly after, but the other two men spent three years and four years in prison respectively.
The young Sahar has been unable to attend school or leave the house at all since that early morning, saying that she is 'scared of the army'. Of the 25 people living in the building, sixteen of the residents are under the age of eighteen. Shahar sees this as just another form of 'psychological warfare' conducted every day against Palestinians by the occupying Israeli forces.
At least 44 people were killed and more than 100 more were injured in two Palm Sunday (April 9) attacks at two Coptic Christian churches in Egypt.
The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city about 100 km north of Cairo, tore through the inside of St. George Church during its Palm Sunday service, killing at least 27 people and injuring at least 78, the Ministry of Health said.
The second, carried out a few hours later by a suicide bomber in Alexandria, hit Saint Mark's Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 17 people, including three police officers, and injuring 48, the ministry added.
Coptic Pope Tawadros II had been leading the mass at Saint Mark's Cathedral at the time of the explosion but was not injured, the Interior Ministry said.
Not surprisingly, both attacks were claimed by the ubiquitous ISIS.
Following the blasts, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered troops be deployed across the country to help secure "vital facilities", according to a statement by his office.
President Trump, who hosted el-Sisi last week in his first official visit to the U.S., Twitted: "So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns. I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly."
The Palm Sunday twin attacks come following months of attacks on Egypt's Coptic minority. Coptic Pope Tawadros II recently told an Egyptian parliamentary committee that attacks against Christians average about one a month over the past three years.
The blasts came just weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country.
Pope Francis, marking Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square, decried the bombings, expressing "deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic church and all of the dear Egyptian nation." The Pope, whose authority does not extend to the Coptic Church, asked that God "convert the hearts of those who spread terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make, and traffic in, weapons."
The Coptic Church is the dominant Christian denomination in Egypt, where it is said to have been established in the 1st century by the Apostle Mark.
The Copts were largely supportive of the military overthrow of the democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 by General/Field Mashal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi who has tried to reach out to Copts twice attending Christmas services, a first for an Egyptian president.
Imams urged Pope Francis to speak about persecution of Copts
Tellingly, on April 5,2017, Pope Francis received at Vatican four British Imams who urged the pontiff to speak out about the plight of persecuted Christians when he visits Egypt later this month.
Following their meeting with the Pope, the imams also met with Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious dialogue, where they impressed upon him the need for the Pope to speak out for embattled Christian minorities when the pontiff travels to Egypt.
On 28-29 April the Pope will be in Egypt for a crucial bridge-building exercise with the Islamic world: he is due to address a conference on peace at Cairo's famous Al-Azhar university. Pope Francis will also meet with the Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, who leads a community that have recently come under attack.
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Claims that Assad is using chemical weapons are like a barometer: when the Syrian army is doing well, they surface, notably in 2013, 2015 and now, just as the Syria government looks close to some kind of 'victory'. Both times in the past the intelligence came from Mossad and the claims fizzled out, though the propaganda that it was 'likely' by the Syrian Army stuck in western perception. The current chemical 'attack', instantly hailed by Israel, occurred just as peace talks were beginning in Geneva. The source of the claim is, again, most likely Israel, though that's not part of the media fireworks. Tillerson might have checked with the Russians, as Russian military were stationed at the airport.
That is the background to the bombing of the air base April 6, in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians in rebel-held Idlib province two days before. National security adviser General Herbert McMaster solemnly declared, "We could trace this murderous attack back to that facility." Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Russia of being either complicit or incompetent in failing to keep its 2013 promise of completely destroying Syria's chemical weapons supply.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it "an act of aggression against a sovereign country violating the norms of international law, and under a trumped-up pretext at that. Washington's move substantially impairs Russian-US relations, which are in a deplorable state as it is." Russia said it had suspended deconfliction channels with Washington, set up to avoid air collisions over Syria, though the Pentagon said it continued to use the channel.
Why would Assad launch chemical weapons when he was winning? The most plausible explanation was that the Syria air force hit a supply depot in rebel-held territory. That Assad would have ordered the use of chemical weapons was dismissed by Russian deputy UN ambassador, Vladimir Safronkov, who vetoed the usual US-sponsored Security Council resolution condemning Assad, suggesting it was altnews. "We have not yet any official or reliable confirmation" of what took place or who was responsible, said the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, at a press conference after the incident. The EU echoed this, though European countries either supported the US strike or kept mum.
Safronkov warned the US, "If military action occurred, it will be on shoulders of those who initiated such doubtful and tragic enterprise. Look at Iraq, look at Libya." Olof Skoog, Sweden's ambassador to the United Nations, sounded a similar note. "I remember Hans Blix. Of course I'm concerned" about the possibility of a US attack in Syria." Bolivia, a current member of the Security Council, requested an emergency session to address, and perhaps condemn, the US missile attack in Syria.
What makes the accusation doubly doubtful is the fact that Syria joined the international chemical weapons treaty in 2013, agreeing to renounce all use of chemical weapons, and through the mediation of Russia, to dispose of all that were in their hands. The deadline for destruction was 2014. Syria gave the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons an inventory of its chemical weapons arsenal and started its destruction in October 2013, 2 weeks before its formal entry into force. Idlib, the site of the current 'attack', has moved back and force, and has been in rebel hands since 2015, and all the weapons were not yet removed.
As if scripted, ISIS stormed the Syrian army checkpoints in the nearby strategic town of Al-Furqalas.
Fate worse than death?
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Reclaiming Einstein: Book Reveals Famed Scientist as an Opponent of Israel
The Middle East, history, its politics and views revisited.
When we don't question the nature of mainstream propaganda and ask the questions why, we neither seek nor shall receive the understanding of truth. Then we remain subject to manipulation by those who may not have the peoples best interest at heart.
Please find in the following a collection of books, newspaper op-eds and letters that reopens the knowledge of historic events and opinions of Albert Einstein on his views on humanity and politics.
The following is from an article by John Spritzler October 7, 2006
"Reclaiming Einstein" By Fred Jerome
St. Martin's Press
"The only question that really matters: Why?"
"Why have we not Known?"
"When Einstein was offered the Israeli presidency, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion stated, "I've had to offer him the post because it was impossible not to, but if he accepts we are in for trouble." In a letter written in the same year, Einstein compared the Zionists' project with that of the Pilgrims, noting, "how tyrannical, intolerant and aggressive [they] became after a short while." And in Einstein's last media interview, which ran in the New York Post a month before his death, he stated "We had great hopes for Israel at first. We thought it might be better than other nations, but it is no better."
Jerome has authored two previous books about Einstein; The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist and Einstein on Race and Racism , co-authored with Rodger Taylor. These books are essential to understanding Einstein, a self-described "revolutionary," who publicly stated that he would use his fame and celebrity status to bring attention to the causes important to him. For example, Einstein on Race and Racism details for the first time Einstein's 20-year friendship with Paul Robeson. While the first two books were aimed at filling a large gap in the knowledge about Einstein's radical beliefs and political activism, Einstein on Zionism and Israel seeks to debunk the myth that Einstein was a supporter of Israel.
In the process, Jerome reveals much about the nature of mainstream propaganda. Einstein's opposition to Israel was widely known and reported on during his life. In fact, the myth of Einstein's support of Israel was born the day after Einstein's death in his obituary in The New York Times, which shamelessly wrote that he "championed" the establishment of the Jewish state. This contradicted decades of reporting from the "Paper of Record." Jerome provides some examples, including a 1930 article headlined "Einstein attacks British Zion Policy," a 1938 article stating Einstein was "Against Palestine State" and a 1946 article stating Einstein "Bars Jewish State."
The book ends with a quote from author and intellectual Gore Vidal, "The only question that really matters: Why?" Jerome follows with, "Why have we not known?"
Albert Einstein Quotations Opposing a Jewish State in 1938, 1946 & 1952 and Labeling Future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin a Fascist in 1948.
After the death of the first president of Israel in 1952, the Israeli government offered the post of second president to Einstein. He declined the offer.
A recent book about Einstein's opposition to a Jewish state is reviewed here.
A detailed discussion of Einstein's views on Zionism is here (also here.)
John Spritzler
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By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, Apr 10 (PTI) The BMC has issued a notice to actor Anushka Sharma for installation of an electric junction box in the common passage area of her building allegedly without taking permission from the civic body.
Sharma, residing on the 20th floor of Badrinath Tower housing society in suburban Versova, however, denied any wrongdoing.
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Based on a complaint by a resident of the housing society, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) issued the notice to the actress on April 6.
The notice directed Sharma to remove the electric junction box from the common passage area immediately, failing which necessary action will be initiated.
A senior BMC official said, "The notice was served to the actor after going through the complaint filed by a resident of the same society."
However, he did not comment any further on the matter.
The notice did not bear the name of the actor, and was sent to the owner of flat nos. 2001 and 2002 of the Badrinath Tower.
Denying the allegation, a spokesperson of the actor said "There is nothing illegal about any construction or installation."
"The actress owns three flats on the 20th floor and all the permissions since 2013 are in place. Anushka and her family are law abiding and responsible citizens and wouldnt do anything to cause inconvenience or harm to anyone," the spokesperson said in a statement. PTI APM KKP GK NM GK BAS
--- ENDS ---
Protest against U.S. military attacks in Syria
(Image by Fibonacci Blue) Details DMCA
The article here gives the argument for the "just for show" explanation. The points it makes are reasonable. But here's what it overlooks.
Trump's missile attack on Syria was part of an ideological attack on Russia that is arguably far more consequential than the admittedly minimal physical damage inflicted on the Syrian airbase by the missiles.
During his entire election campaign and even just days before the missile attack, Trump's strongly argued message, backed up by his administration and even his UN Ambassador, was that there was no reason to be war-like against Russia and that there was no need to remove Assad from power.
This was the anti-war ideology that infuriated the warmongering elements such as Hillary and McCain et al, but which garnered Trump enormous support from ordinary Americans who are sick and tired of perpetual unnecessary warmongering.
But suddenly, inexplicably (the evidence is strong that Assad did not launch the chemical weapon attack), Trump and people like his UN ambassador, do a 180 degree turn on the fundamental anti-war ideology; they declare--with no evidence!--Russia to be enabling the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction and using military power to maintain a MONSTER (Assad) in power, who must be removed for the sake of all that is good and decent. And if Putin is the kind of evil man who maintains a MONSTER in power in Syria, then it follows that he is certainly guilty of all the other crimes ascribed to him in Ukraine, and we must use all the force it takes against the Evil Russian dictator. Suddenly the anti-war ideology is replaced by the pro-war ideology based on nothing but lies.
I believe that the American Billionaire class wants the pro-war ideology to prevail, because this ideology is what legitimizes the military-industrial complex that enriches the upper class at the expense of everybody else. It's the pro-war ideology, the fear it induces and the consequent willingness to obey our upper class leaders that it creates, that the Billionaire class requires, not the actual firing of missiles or any particular amount of military destructiveness.
The argument that Trump made this KEY ideological turnaround for the reasons advanced by the "Just for show" thesis--to improve his ratings and get the Hillary and McCain crowd to stop accusing him of being Putin's puppet--is not persuasive. Trump's right-wing talk radio host supporters totally oppose his missile strike on Syria and fear he's caving in to the warmongers. Rank and file Trump supporters are confused and torn between opposing the missile strike versus giving Trump some benefit of the doubt. Most of the Democratic Party people who were for Bernie also reject the pro-war ideology and thought the only good thing about Trump was his opposition to it. Trump has sacrificed one of the main factors that made him at least seem like a genuine populist.
As for the missile strike showing the Chinese president that the U.S. was tough, there are lots of ways Trump could have done this other than by doing a 180 on his anti-war ideology.
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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
In 2003, not long after the American invasion, Dahr Jamail, a youthful freelance journalist from Alaska, headed to Iraq. He wasn't then a reporter for anyone or, put another way, he was at that moment perhaps the most "unembedded" reporter on the face of the Earth. In the years to come, he would visit that occupied country numerous times, traveling alone (except for a translator) and remarkably fearlessly, as he reported vividly for a variety of publications, including (begining in 2005) this website, on the kinds of devastation the U.S. military brought to Iraq. He would write a book, Beyond the Green Zone, on his experiences.
Meanwhile, his own land still seemed far away indeed from war. Small groups of protesters aside, most Americans, even as their country militarized and the national security state became the fourth branch of government, continued with their lives as if the distant wars being fought in their name had nothing to do with them. Existing under the implacable buzz of Hellfire-missile-armed drones, experiencing special-ops raids, finding jihadists spreading in your town or city, watching your country shatter before your eyes, being uprooted from your home and put to flight, all of that and more was the unimaginable experience of foreign peoples in distant lands. All of it had nothing to do with Americans (or our policies or our military), even as so many of them became refugees or terrorists (neither of whom we wanted in this country).
So imagine Jamail's surprise on discovering in Alaska that the U.S. military and its depredations were anything but far from our shores. He first covered the Navy's war games in the Gulf of Alaska and the ways in which they represented a kind of war against the American environment in May 2015. It was a joint report for this site and the invaluable Truthout (where he continues, among other things, to write stunning monthly summaries of the latest news and scientific information on the effects of climate change on our world). Now, he returns with a jolting update. Tom
War in the Gulf (No, Not That Gulf!)
The U.S. Navy's Anti-Environmental Broadside in the Gulf of Alaska
By Dahr Jamail [This essay is a joint TomDispatch/Truthout report.] It's war in the Gulf and the U.S. Navy is on hand to protect us. No, not that Gulf! I'm talking about the Gulf of Alaska and it's actually mock war -- if, that is, you don't happen to be a fin whale or a wild salmon. This May, the Navy will again sail its warships into the Gulf of Alaska. There, they will engage in military maneuvers and possibly drop bombs, launch torpedoes and missiles, and engage in activities that stand a significant chance of poisoning those once-pristine waters, while it prepares for future battles elsewhere on the planet. Think of it as a war against wildlife, an assault on the environment and local coastal communities. And call it irony or call it American life in 2017, but the U.S. military's Alaska Command has branded Emily Stolarcyk "a troublemaker" for insistently pointing this out. In a state where such a phrase is the equivalent of an obscenity, some have bluntly called her "anti-military." The office of Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has termed her a "rabble-rouser," while a Kodiak Assembly member labeled some of what she's been saying about the Navy "just silly." As a resident of the tiny fishing town of Cordova, Alaska, the most radical rabble-rousing thing about Stolarcyk may be the passion with which she loves this region of the planet in all its majesty. It's why she's taken a fierce and unwavering stand for years now against the ongoing training exercises the Navy carries out in the Gulf of Alaska during one of the largest migrations of birds and marine life on Earth. These exercises, which inject tons of toxic materials into the Gulf and use significant explosive ordnance, are once again scheduled to take place just as Alaska's commercial fishing season opens. Located in the state's massive Chugach National Forest, coastal Cordova is nestled between the glacial-clad Chugach Mountains, Prince William Sound, and the Copper River. Fishing is the heart and soul of the town, as well as the foundation of its economy. A rough and tumble place, it regularly lands on lists of the top 10 American fishing ports, whether measured in pounds of fish caught annually or their value. A fish tax pays for its schools and the upkeep of most of its infrastructure. At least a quarter of its jobs are connected to the commercial fishing industry. "Without fishing, the town wouldn't even be here," says Stolarcyk, who knows the intricacies of the Navy's plans better than most people in the Navy do, as we tour Cordova's harbor. It is impossible to overstate how iconic salmon are here. "What we have in Cordova is one of the last wild places left in the world, and one of the last places on Earth where we still have healthy salmon runs," she tells me. She's the program director for the Eyak Preservation Council, an environmental and social-justice-oriented nonprofit based in Cordova, whose primary mission is to protect wild salmon habitat. Her partner is about to start his seventh season as a commercial fisherman. Their apartment building even has a fish smoker. "Salmon bring this town to life, you can feel the energy once the fish start returning, it's palpable," she explains, excitement in her voice. "You can hear the boats coming in and people go to stand on the shore to welcome them back." However, this year, as in 2015, the Navy plans to conduct its part of Northern Edge 2017 (NE 17), a training exercise, right in her neighborhood. These war games, which occur every other year, include ships, aircraft, ordnance, and the widespread use of sonar across more than 42,000 square nautical miles of the marine environment of the Gulf of Alaska. And it is well known that sonar causes injury and death to whales, dolphin, and other marine life. It has been shown that whales will even beach themselves to escape the noise, which is more than 100 decibels louder underwater than even the loudest rock concert. Thanks to a major lawsuit against them, the Navy agreed to limit the use of certain kinds of sonar in Southern California and Hawaii, due to its impact on the endangered Blue Whale along with other species. But not in the Gulf of Alaska. Fishing for an Answer As in 2015, the Navy's plans threaten an area of the Gulf that couldn't be more biologically sensitive or rich in wildlife. Their training area includes a State of Alaska Marine Protected Area, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Protected Area, and both the Gulf of Alaska Seamount Protected and Slope Habitat Conservation areas.
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The latest delusional explaining of the Trump phenomenon is that it is animated by fear -- Trump's supporters are absolutely in touch with their existential side. They are afraid of Muslims, Gay people, People of Color, College Professors, Women, Socialists, Jews, Native Americans, Public Schools, Solar Panels, Bathrooms, Barack Obama, Citizens Without Guns, Mexicans, Alec Baldwin... However, they must be praised for their courage and steadfastness in the face of the inevitable threat of Climate Change. Interesting how they can ward off their fear of global destruction by simply denying its existence? Why can't they apply this to their other horrible fears -- why can't they simply deny the existence of Mexicans, Obama, Bathrooms, Women or Solar Panels?
To claim that Trump's Presidency's raison d'etre is fear based is a big stinking bag of bologna. Can you imagine the outcome if Abraham Lincoln would have explained away the intransigence of the South on the issue of slavery by blaming it on the fear of contract labor? No my friends we are currently in the throes of the second American Civil War. Living my entire life in the South, I can tell you that the first one never ended -- it just went underground.
What we are living in is the Breitbart version of "Gone with the Wind." Trump is Jefferson Davis' hedonistic, narcissistic, opportunistic doppelganger, Titus Carbunkle. The great ballroom scene from the original movie is transformed into a Caligula type affair, complete with a lot of gold stuff and barnyard animals. Titus is the first cousin of Rhett Butler. The same non-aligned, materialistic, opportunistic streak that runs through Rhett runs through Titus, but Titus doesn't have Rhett's charming, eloquent, kind side. The main difference between the 1930's film and the current version is that this time the South wins.
The Trump administration is an existential threat to The United States and the greater world because the most powerful nation on the planet is validating and excusing the worst of what we are. Fear certainly plays a role in the current state of things, on all sides. But what we should really be afraid of is: ignorance, racism, xenophobia, rank materialism, climate change denial, magical thinking coupled with militarism, nationalism, and most importantly we should be very afraid of Trump. As his latest knee jerk opportunity for self-aggrandizement shows -- he will use the might of the United States Military to further his personal brand.
It's like the story told to me by an old gentleman when I was a child, "A Spider in Your Room." I can't remember it exactly but the jist of it was the spider that lives in his web in the corner of your room is never a problem until it decides you're a bug.
(Article changed on April 10, 2017 at 13:23)
On July 3, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the first directive that would make up Operation Cycloneproviding funding and training, with the assistance of the Pakistani government, to the Afghan Mujahideen. Carters National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski advised the president that arming and training the Mujahideen would likely facilitate Soviet intervention in the countrysomething that Brzezinski favored. For Brzezinski and the hawks within the Carter administration, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.
The USSR is gone now yet America remains involved in Afghanistan. Since the communist government fell, the Afghan government has changed hands three times. And from the vantage point of the 2001 invasionnot only has the US occupied the country for a period longer than our own Vietnamwith 1965 marking the introduction of ground troops to that countrybut the US war in the country has lasted longer than the Soviet war in Afghanistan. If or when the US decides to withdraw completely from Afghanistan, its not unreasonable to assume some future National Security Advisor will talk, like Brzezinski, of giving a rival its Afghan war.
Not only has it become accepted that the war in Afghanistan may last another decade or more, the war is no longer noteworthy. It merited little attention on the campaign trail in 2016asked about zero times during the presidential debates and mentioned only once as it related to the function of NATO. This stands in contrast to the 2012 election, where Obama campaigned in part on Mitt Romneys inability to develop a plan to end the war.
If Mitt Romney had his way, we'd stay in Afghanistanindefinitely. pic.twitter.com/lhOQV5AQ The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) April 14, 2012
No longer do politicians and commentators even give pretext that the war in Afghanistan is serving a demonstrable goal in the still ongoing war on terror. By conservative estimates, the government controls only a little over half of the country and have slowly been losing ground since late 2015. If continued US presence in the country is meant to stop a resurgent Taliban, they have failed.
Additionally US-sponsored infrastructure projects continue to be plagued by fraud and bribery, and infrastructure projects built nearly a decade ago have fallen into severe disrepair. Nearly 16 full years of military occupation has produced little to show. The American war in Afghanistan has been decisively lost.
There is no longer a coherent long-term plan for Afghanistan. In the absence of any other concrete goal, the war in Afghanistan has paradoxically become about maintaining Americas position in Afghanistan. The Taliban will continue to be fought off in districts where it can and, barring the complete collapse of the current Afghan government, the foreign policy establishment can live with an open-ended warparticularly one that makes few headlines and for whom most of the causalities are Afghan and not American.
U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) reported that approximately 57.2% of the countrys 407 districts are under Afghan government control or influence as of November 15, 2016, a 6.2% decrease from the 63.4% reported last quarter in late August, and a nearly 15% decrease since November 2015.
One of the reasons there has been no serious reevaluation of the war in Afghanistan is that exceptionalism, along with Americas infallible use of military force, goes unquestioned assumptions in Washington. Admitting defeat in Afghanistan means admitting that despite the billions of dollars spent and the lives lost, it ultimately amounted to nothing. Far from being the indispensable nation, the US is just as capable of failure as the superpowers that came and went before it. It also raises larger existential questionsif America had to admit defeat in Afghanistan as the Soviets before them, does this mean too that the American empire could face the same fate?
Insistence of American exceptionalism in the face of defeat has long been a bipartisan project. It was Hubert Humphrey that condemned syndromes of self-condemnation over our past mistakes and self-pity over what we perceive as a lack of appreciation, in the wake of Vietnama position that wasnt all that far off from the bellicosity in Reagans talk of a Vietnam syndrome. So too has modern defeat engendered insistence from across the aisle that the military defeat was not rooted in underlying assumptions of American foreign policy. President Obamas characterization of Afghanistan as the good war in 2008 to his echoing neocon Robert Kagan in 2012 when he said, America is back flew in the face of conservative critics who complained that Obama believed America wasnt exceptional.
For the Trump administration, amid calls for another troop surge, there is unlikely to be a significant shift in policy on Afghanistan. The notion that the problems of the existing Afghan government require solutions that cannot be addressed by the US military or COIN operations is basically a non-starter for those in Washington. No one with the power to enact a withdrawal from Afghanistan would even consider it a legitimate option.
Its an indictment on the US military presence that its neither decimated the Talibans presence in the country nor made the government in Kabul more stable. That indictment extends not only to the short-term tactics currently embraced by the military but the long-term assumptions underlying the American approach to the war. There is no conventional military solution or victory in Afghanistan.
It was this failure of imagination and a belief in American exceptionalism that set the US up for long-term failure in Afghanistan at the cost of billions of dollars and thousands of human lives. John Kerry, then only a veteran of the Vietnam war, once asked those in Washington how they could ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake. It is a question that we should ask once again as there appears to be no end to the war in Afghanistan in sightnot only as it pertains to American troops in Afghanistan but the Afghan people themselves.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has doubled down on Australias support for a regime change in Syria, reiterating our nations position that President Bashar al-Assad lost all legitimacy as leader when he first used chemical weapons on Syrian citizens.
Speaking on Sky News, Bishop confirmed Australias stance on a possible regime change in the wartorn nation, saying Assad has no long-term position as leader, and asked the question is how do you remove Assad? and what does the next day look like?'
.@JulieBishopMP says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost all legitimacy as a leader. More: https://t.co/biXarro5iT pic.twitter.com/aeFe7pmOhj Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 9, 2017
Her comments follow Americas missile strike on a Syrian airfield, which received praise and support from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
On Saturday, Turnbull reckoned the crimes he has committed against his own people are so enormous and, of course now, so recent it is difficult to see how a political solution can be crafted that has him with a continuing role.
The PM also confirmed he had spoken to Defence Minister Marise Payne regarding the issue.
Bishop said the world is awaiting the results of a diplomatic mission between American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Russian government regarding the crisis.
Russias government has propped up the Assad regime for the past several years, and has openly criticised Americas missile strike. Those two factors imply itll be hugely unlikely Russia has a change of heart over the current Syrian leader.
With that in mind, Bishops language represents a significant escalation in Australias stance on the matter. If it keeps up, we may find ourselves pulled even deeper into the endlessly complex crisis.
Source: Sky News.
Photo: Matt King / Getty.
Four Remain at Final Table of the 2017 WNYPC Main Event
April 09, 2017 Marty Derbyshire
Four players will return to battle it out for a $57,738 first-place prize and the title of 2017 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event Champion in Niagara Falls, NY on Monday.
Day 2 of the event began Sunday at the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino with 55 players remaining and the 27-player money bubble in sight.
Niagara Falls, Canada's Matt Brunskole came in with the chip lead, and although he made the money, he did not get a sniff of the final table.
Top local rounder DJ MacKinnon got a sniff, but that was all, finishing 10th to bubble the official final table of nine.
Erik Christensen and WSOP Bracelet winner Michael Malm were leading when the final table began, but Christensen pulled out in front, busting Scott Murawa in ninth and Hayden Glassman in eighth.
Malm doubled up Buffalonian Guy Klass and Canadian Anne Jones in short order and suddenly had the smallest stack. Damian Baird then ran into Christensen to bust seventh. However, things began to go south for Christensen at that point.
Eventually he dipped out of the lead and Peter Beshay took it, sending Christensen out sixth in a massive cooler. Beshay made a boat versus Christensen's trip nines in that massive pot, and after also busting Mark Bowersock fifth; he had more than a third of the chips in play.
Beshay could not hold the lead either, and the table swapped chips around four-handed before Klass, who finished third in this event in 2015, moved out front. They talked about a chop, but ultimately bagged up at the end of Level 25 and will come back Monday to finish up.
They will resume play at 12 p.m. local time Monday inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room. Each of the returning players will be guaranteed at least $19,326.
PokerNews will be on hand providing live coverage from start to finish Monday. Tune in to see who becomes the 2017 WNYPC Main Event Champion and who pockets the rest of the prize money.
The chip counts are listed below:
Player Chip Count +/- Guy Klass 3,478,000 478,000 Anne Jones 1,731,000 -469,000 Michael Malm 1,641,000 -109,000 Peter Beshay 1,155,000 155,000
Philadelphia-based solo artist Jesse Hale Moore played an intimate set at Rockwood Music Hall this past week, celebrating the release of his debut album Green End. With a record that feels like a 44-minute personal Folk journey into a world of heartache, Moore managed to bring his songs to life in a way that personally moved everyone in the room.
Green End feels more like a sneak peek into the world of Moore, who self-produced the record at the suggestion of The War on Drugs' David Hartley. Early demos paved the way for a full-length record as he spent time between New York and Philadelphia, playing shows and finding his own sound. What came afterwards is an eleven track emotional exploration. "I think that anybody who has experienced loss in their life - and it can be on any level - that they can tap into the messages in my music," the songwriter told Out Magazine. "As a person I try not to get too lost, especially during difficult times, I try not to get swallowed up by feeling sad or feeling hopeless."
The show felt anything but sad - in fact, Moore's hopefulness shined through. The setlist was full to the brim with gems like "Calling You Out" and "Leave You Lonely", including a stunning rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire." It's rare that a cover can so easily fit right in with one's own music, but if anything it's a testament of Moore's talent. He also performed "Full Hearts", a track done with Rough Trade Publishing for their A Song A Day subscription that touches on the atmosphere after the election. I would say an artist's strength lies in their self-awareness, something Moore does not lack. "It's weird to be self-promoting at a crazy time like this," he quipped between songs, "So thank you for listening." The night concluded with the soul-wrenching "Every Time", the stand-out star of the album.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span class="redactor-invisible-space"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
One of the many things you notice about Moore is how easy he takes to being on stage - even if that's not necessarily true ("I was completely pale in the car over here," he mentioned). There's a rawness that comes naturally to his performance, aided by his own personal narrative. Green End is named after the avenue his grandparents house was on, a place Moore spent a lot of time in as a kid. With themes of heartbreak and personal loss, it's hard for the album not to hit home - however, it doesn't lose itself in it's own melancholy, but provides a respite for your own. I walked away with a feeling of accepting life's inevitable hurdles, but that much more able to overcome them myself.
Green End is out now.
For more of Jesse Hale Moore, you can find him via official website.
Check out more of his tour dates below, in support of Okkervil River:
7/20 - Colombus, OH - Rumba Cafe
7/21 - Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Music
7/25 - Washington, DC - The Hamilton Live
7/26 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
7/27 - New York, NY - Joe's Pub
7/28 - Pawling, NY - Daryl's House Club
TRAINING CENTER: A four-story anti-drug training center recently was built near the Russian Embassy in the upscale Las Colinas neighborhood of Managua. The center is intended to be used to train counternarcotics authorities from across Central America, but some security experts also suspect that it is intended for spying activities. Joshua Partlow/Washington Post
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Aluminum Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 - 2020" report to their offering.
Aluminum Market
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Aluminum is one of the most abundant metals found in the earths crust. Aluminums properties such as low metal density and its ability to resist corrosion make it the most favorable metal among the end-users. It is silvery white in color and be molded into very thin sheets having high strength and durability. Aluminum finds its application across many industries such as transportation, construction, packaging, consumer durables, electrical, machinery and equipment among others.Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-301 One of the key factors that contributes to the growth of aluminum market is the growing automobile industry. Increase in demand for light weight and fuel efficient vehicles is expected to boost the demand of aluminum in the automobile industry. On a global level, in the aluminum market China is the leading producer of aluminum followed by Russia and Canada. The aluminum market has witnessed an overall increase in the production capacity by the major producers across the world. High degree of vertical integration is another major trend witnessed in the aluminum market. Major aluminum manufacturers in the aluminum market are integrating their value chain in order to gain a significant control over the supply chain and offer the product to customers at reduced costs, thereby, increasing their market penetration. Aluminum market exhibits high degree of upstream as well as downstream integration. However, aluminum prices have witnessed an all time low over the recent past owing to oversupply in the aluminum market. Volatility of raw material prices of aluminum coupled with stringent government regulations is expected to restrain the growth of the market. Many efforts are carried out by the vendors in order to comply with the regulations vendors which further leads to higher operating and manufacturing cost of aluminum.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-301 Key participants in the aluminum market include Vedanta Resources plc, Dubai Aluminum Co. Ltd., Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., Norsk Hydro ASA, BHP Billiton Ltd. and United Co. RUSAL among others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral summit with his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull today, following which several MoUs were signed.
By India Today Web Desk: On his first official visit to India, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today said that his country will work more closely with India to forge stronger ties.
"Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit," Turnbull said during media address after ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapti Bhawan.
India and Australia today inked six Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) including one aimed at strengthening counter-terrorism cooperation after PM Modi held bilateral talks with Australian counterpart Turnbull.
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Issuing a joint statement today with Modi, Aussie Prime Minister Turnbull said, "We will continue to ensure that we provide outstanding opportunities for Indian students."
Emphasising on peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that terrorism and cyber security require global strategy and solutions.
"We reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations; number of forward-looking decisions taken to further strengthen our partnership," said PM Modi while issuing a joint statement.
PM MODI IS LEADING INDIA ON REMARKABLE JOURNEY: TURNBULL
The two leaders held comprehensive discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on a extraordinary journey of growth and development," he added.
"The achievements of India are the admiration of the world," Turnbull said, adding that Australia is looking forward to deepen its bond with India.
Turnbull arrived in New Delhi on Sunday evening for a four-day state visit to India.
"We are bound together to ties of history of values of people. We look forward, Prime Minister Modi and I, to making that even stronger in this visit," Turnbull added.
Turnbull was received by PM Modi at the Rastrapati Bhawan and was then accorded the ceremonial guard of honour in the forecourt of the presidential residence.
Watch video: Virat Kohli in India and Steven Smith in Australia are shaping cricket's young brigade: PM Modi
Also read: On demonetisation, India may find a follower in Australia
Also read: India-Bangladesh ink 22 pacts; PM Modi assures early solution on Teesta
Also read: Ahead of 3rd anniversary, Modi government asks ministers to submit 5 major achievements
--- ENDS ---
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Cyclomethicone Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.
Cyclomethicone Market
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 06:46:55
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Cyclomethicone also known as decamethylcyclopentasiloxane is a clear, odorless, alcohol free and colorless silicone liquid. It is soluble with numerous oil based products. It has a cyclical structure rather than linear structure of dimethyl silicone. Cyclomethicones are commonly used as base solvents to blend fragrance oils, perfumes and other cosmetic formulations. They evaporate quickly and they are miscible with a variety of cosmetics oils, waxes, hydrocarbons and silicone oils. This property of cyclomethicones makes them a key ingredient in cosmetics as base solvents. Cyclomethicones are insoluble in water. Additionally, they are low surface tension fluids, which allow them to easily spread on the surface they are applied to.The key driver for the market of cyclomethicone is the growing cosmetics market. The emergence and widespread usage of new age cosmetics such as hair conditioners, shampoos, leave- in conditioners, eye make-up products and body lotions have cyclomethicone as the base solvent. When used in skin care products, cyclomethicone, leaves the skin feeling smooth and lubricated instead of sticky or oily. Another driver for this market is the growing pharmaceuticals market. The increased awareness towards health and increase in the aging population is a driver for this market. Cyclomethicone is used in ointment and gels formulations. Medicated toothpastes, ointments and pain alleviating gels have cyclomethicone as a key base solvent; it helps in the easy spreading of the cream. Excessive exposure to cyclomethicone results in irritation of the skin in humans. In case of highly sensitive skin, there might be skin irritation due to its use. In such cases a milder emulsifier should be used. Cyclomethicone does not contribute to ozone-depletion and is therefore being used as an alternative for non-VOC (volatile organic compound) compliant petroleum-based solvents, as both carrying agent and cleaning solvent. The growing demand for non-VOC solvents is expected to open new opportunities for the growth of the market in the near future.Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-324 Based on region wise segmentation, China is the largest producer of cyclomethicone. It is also the largest consumer of cyclomethicone, followed by United States, Western Europe and Japan. These countries are the major manufacturers of cosmetics. China and the Indian sub continent produce a variety of generic drugs, which is another major area of application for cyclomethicone.The segmentation of cyclomethicone based on end use is cosmetics industry, pharmaceuticals industry and other industries such as lubricants, paints and varnishes and printing inks. The molecules of cyclomethicone are too large to enter the skin but function as carriers and evaporate after spreading on the skin, thus acting as vehicle for the formulation without getting absorbed in the skin. They however allow the active ingredients of the formulation to enter the skin, thus facilitate healing of the skin. Cyclomethicones help in easy application of make-up and are used in hair care products because they increase the hair's manageability while imparting a clean and healthy appearance. Additionally, they improve the appearance of scars and reduce discomfort. They are hypoallergenic and well tolerated by the skin. Cyclomethicone improves scratch resistance, acts as a flow leveling agent and prevents floating of pigments and matting agents, due to these properties, they are making gradual in roads into paints and varnishes market, however, this market is nascent as of now.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-324 The major players in this market are Dow Corning, Wacker Chemie, Wuhan Jiehong International Trading Co., Ltd., Cray Valley India Private Limited, Baoying Chemical Adjuvant Factory Of Jiangsu Province, Hong Ye Jie Technology Co. Limited and Guangzhou Yinghui Trading Co. Limited among others. This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, regions, product types and distribution channels.
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Cytokinins Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.
Cytokinins Market
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 06:48:43
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Cytokinins is a plant growth hormone which promotes cell division in plant shoots and roots. Types of cytokinins include adenine- type and phenyl urea type. The applications of cytokinins include biomedicine, pharmaceutical, agriculture and others.Increasing demand from organic food industry and textile industry is expected to drive the market. Cotton is used in textile industry as basic raw material and cytokinins are being used to increase the cotton production. Growing population and inclination towards organic food is anticipated to drive the organic food industry. Demand for herbal products in medicines and cosmetics is driving the growth of herbs and medicinal plants industry which is expected to drive the cytokinins market. However, use of fertilizers and cost of the cytokinins based product are expected to hamper the market growth. Developing cost effective products and eco-friendly synthesis of the cytokinins is expected to provide immense opportunities in the near future.Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-325 Europe was the largest consumer of cytokinins owing to demand from organic food chemistry and government policies to use eco-friendly agrochemicals. Various national governments are enforcing farmers to use eco-friendly plant growth enhancers than using chemicals based fertilizers. Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at higher rate owing to demand from emerging economies such as China and India. Growing population and demand from cotton based textile industry is expected to drive the market in this region. To provide food to population and cotton to textile industry, cytokinins are being used to increase the production. North America followed Asia Pacific region and is expected to grow with moderate rate owing to demand from organic food and medicinal plants industry.Key players in this market include BASF SE, Crop Care Australasia Pvt Ltd., Du Pont, Redox Industries, Xinyi Industrial Co. Ltd., Bayer CropScience, Sichuan Guoguang Agrochemical Co. Ltd, Sigma Aldrich, NuFarm Ltd., and amongst others. This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, regions, product types and distribution channels.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-325
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Cosmetic Chemicals Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.
Cosmetic Chemicals Market
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 06:45:25
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Cosmetic chemicals are the primary ingredients that are used for formulation of personal care products. Cosmetics have come from late civilizations due to need for improving looks and appearance. Since then, ingredients in cosmetics have changed drastically and new techniques and formulas were introduced to manufacture own cosmetics and scents. Different minerals were used to produce colors by the ancient Egyptian aristocracy to give description to their facial features. During the Greek era it was very universal to make use of face paints, while the Romans favored baths that contained oil based perfumes.Almost 1500 chemical entities have been recognized to be cosmetic chemicals globally. The common chemicals that are found in the cosmetics include thickening agents, carrier powders, colorants, pigments, surfactants, preservatives, emollients, film formers and moisturizers among others. The cosmetics chemicals which are consumed on a large scale include emollients, film formers and moisturizers followed by surfactants globally. The cosmetic industry is fragmented as large number of suppliers provides a very wide range of inorganic and organic chemicals that are the necessary ingredients in the cosmetic industry. Nevertheless, twenty or more major international companies have a considerable share of cosmetic chemicals trade in the market.Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-322 The cosmetic market is generally segmented based on products into surfactants, oleochemicals, aroma chemicals and blends, botanical extracts, fats, oils and waxes and polymers among others.The major applications of these chemicals include the skin care products, hair care products, color cosmetics, makeup, toiletries and oral care among others.The major diving factors of the cosmetic industry include growing demand from the ethnic groups for beauty products that are tailored according to their needs. In addition, the increasing purchasing power coupled with growing awareness and demand for personal care products among the aging baby boomers is also expected to fuel demand for cosmetic chemicals market. However, increasing demand of natural ingredients may hamper the growth graph of the global cosmetic chemicals market. In addition, major companies have comply with standards and regulations in the industry.The key segments for cosmetic chemicals market include North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World (RoW). North America is expected to be the largest consumer of cosmetic chemical owing to the high demand for hair care products and growing demand for multifunctional products. In addition, growing male grooming segment is also expected to boost demand for cosmetic chemicals in the market. Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest consumer of cosmetic chemicals in the near future. Southeast Asia including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore is expected to show substantial growth in the coming years.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-322 The trends that the cosmetic industry follow globally include Globalization of cosmetic products as major international companies such as LOreal, Unilever and Procter & Gamble continue to invest in the growing markets. Other trends include consolidation, increased use of nontraditional distribution channels and growing interest in cosmeceuticals among others.The cosmetic chemicals companies use innovative bio based high performance products and advanced technologies to manufacture a wide variety of products. The key companies profiled include: Akzo Nobel NV, Ashland Incorporated, Active Organics, BASF SE, Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated, Bayer AG, Clariant International Limited, Dow Chemical Company, Eastman Chemical Company, Evonik Industries AG, Emery Oleochemicals Group, FMC Corporation, Novecare, Integrated Botanical Technologies, Pilot Chemical Company, Procter & Gamble Company, Solvay SA and United-Guardian Incorporated among others.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 15:15:08
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Gold Lakes Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Beachwood, OH (FSCWire) - Gold Lakes Corp. (OTCQB:GLLK). has issued a press release with the following headline:Gold Lakes Corp Shareholder UpdateTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Gold Lakes Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Gold Lakes Corp.Source: Gold Lakes Corp. (OTCQB: GLLK, OTC Pink: GLLK)Date: April 10, 2017Time: 9:15 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Gold Lakes Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Acidity Regulator Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.
Acidity Regulator Market
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 06:42:12
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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 For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-329 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@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-329 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.
Hasina, who is on a four-day visit to India, urged Indian industry houses to invest in Bangladesh, especially in infrastructure projects, power and energy, transport, manufacturing, food and agricultural processing sectors.
By Press Trust of India: Bangladesh is looking to open more trade channels with India, widen footprint of border haats and open up routes that were closed during the 1965 war, visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said today.
Observing that nothing is solved by confrontation but friendship is the solution to all problems, she said the two nations have been able to establish "profound mutual trust and exemplary friendship" over the years.
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India and Bangladesh have been unable to finalise the long-pending Teesta water-sharing agreement, primarily due to opposition by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Hasina, who is on a four-day visit to India, urged Indian industry houses to invest in Bangladesh, especially in infrastructure projects, power and energy, transport, manufacturing, food and agricultural processing sectors.
She said the Indian business community can take full advantage of Bangladesh's steady economic growth, high demographic dividend, low business cost and large consumer base, noting that "to facilitate further investments, a One Stop Service Act is currently being finalised".
Hasina also witnessed the signing of pacts worth over USD 9 billion by companies from India and Bangladesh aimed at deepening partnership in sectors like power and oil and gas. Speaking in Bengali, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister took a potshot at her opposition parties, saying there were charges that she was going to sell off the country to India.
Observing that economic conditions of South Asia should improve, she termed poverty as the common enemy of both India and Bangladesh and called for a joint fight "to ensure a better life for our people".
She was addressing a meeting organised by business chambers CII, Ficci and Assocham here. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was also present on the occasion, invoked the shared cultural history of India and Bangladesh, and pointed towards his close proximity to Dhaka since he belongs to Odisha.
"My friends from Bangladesh perhaps did not get Hilsa for me this time. Rice and Hilsa fish is the staple food item of East India and Bangladesh," Pradhan said.
In many ways, this is an exceptional relationship, he said, adding, "Since we share 54 rivers, it is said that a river cuts through a rock, not because of its power but because of its persistence. We have enough goodwill between the nations to persist in nourishing and grooming this relationship for the collective welfare of millions of our people".
"Being one of the key pillars of our growing economic engagement, we are extremely happy to partner with Bangladesh in meeting its growing demand for petroleum products," Pradhan said, noting that the two nations are entering a new level of collaboration in hydrocarbon sector.
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He said a gas pipeline between the two neighbours will cater to the power plants of Bangladesh and also integrate the Bangladesh natural gas grid, creating synergy for both sides. He said exploration activities are being carried out by ONGC Videsh and "we are at an advanced stage of exploration which would hopefully produce results benefit both nations".
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PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 09:03:01
Initiative highlights need for talent and encourages the industry to raise awareness of career opportunities in fintech
Spotcap Announces Fintech Fellowship for Aspiring Graduate Students
Spotcap
Helena Zarchan
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Ph: +44 (0)7850 452021
Email: helena.zarchan@spotcap.co.uk
At a time of increasing need for graduates with fintech expertise, the Spotcap Fintech Fellowship programme affords young talent with the opportunity to pursue studies in a fintech related field. Launching on 10th April, the Fellowship will provide one student per academic year with a 8K stipend towards their studies.
This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201704100053
Spotcap Announces Fintech Fellowship for Aspiring Graduate Students (Photo: Business Wire)
The fintech sector is one of the UKs fastest growing sectors, adding more than 6.6 billion into the economy and attracting more than 500 million of investment. Its continued success is closely connected to access to talent, in the short- as well as long-term.
A recent survey by recruitment website Indeed revealed that 20 percent of top fintech job vacancies are left unfilled after 60 days. The data highlights an immediate need for managers, analysts and developers with financial and technical expertise.
The triggering of Article 50 brings further long-term uncertainty, compounding the issue of fintechs access to talent. As negotiations start, more questions on how to secure a healthy talent pipeline are likely to be raised. Despite the agreements put in place between the UK and other European markets regarding movement of talent, it is certainly the case that the UK needs a robust base of skilled labour.
The rising cost of graduate studies, combined with the UK's impending exit from the European Union, could create real challenges when it comes to ensuring a strong and healthy talent pipeline, said Niels Turfboer, managing director of Spotcap. We created the Spotcap Fellowship to raise awareness of these issues and encourage the UK fintech industry to get involved in attracting and supporting the development of talent.
Devie Mohan, co-founder and CEO of Burnmark, a fintech research institute, joins the Fellowships judging panel. She continues:
The UK government recognises the need for fintech related skills and initiatives. Indeed, supporting the development of these skills was announced in the Spring Budget and Digital Strategy. As an industry, we should also step up and contribute. For the message to resonate, aspiring graduate students need to hear we want you directly from fintech businesses as well.
For more details on the fellowship, visit our dedicated site: Spotcap Fintech Fellowship.
Award Details
Deadline: 31st July 2017
Amount: 8,000 towards the cost of tuition of a master's degree or MBA
Course start: September/October 2017
Host institution: Accredited UK universities
Field of study: Fintech related fields (e.g. business management, engineering, finance, economics, product design)
How to Apply
Alongside a CV and cover letter, applicants are asked to submit an answer to the question: What sparked your interest in fintech? They may submit a written response (500 word limit) or upload a short video (3 minutes). The submission deadline is 12 pm BST, 31st July 2017.
Applicant Criteria
Applicants must be UK citizens and have achieved or are expected to achieve a 2.1 or above in their undergraduate degree. They must hold an offer of admission to a master's or MBA programme at an accredited British university starting in autumn 2017.
###
About Spotcap
Spotcap provides flexible and accessible small business financing, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on what matters their business. We developed our credit risk algorithm in-house and lend from our own balance-sheet.
Headquartered in Berlin Germany, Spotcap launched in Spain in September 2014 before expanding to the Netherlands and Australia in 2015, the UK in 2016 and New Zealand in 2017. The company is led by founder and CEO Jens Woloszczak and Niels Turfboer, who is the managing director of Benelux and UK. The growing team currently consists of more than 100 employees. Spotcap is backed by investors including Rocket Internet, the world's leading global internet platform outside of the US and China, Finstar Financial Group, Access Industries, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Kreos Capital.
For more visit Spotcap UK.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201704100053
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 15:00:09
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Standard Exploration Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Calgary, Alberta (FSCWire) - Standard Exploration Ltd. (TSX Venture:SDE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Standard Exploration Ltd. Announces Sale of PropertyTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Standard Exploration Ltd., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Standard Exploration Ltd.Source: Standard Exploration Ltd. (TSX Venture: SDE, WKN: A1C573, ISIN: CA8533761018)Date: April 10, 2017Time: 9:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Standard Exploration Ltd. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Chlorinated Polyethylene Resins and Elastomers (CPE) Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.
Chlorinated Polyethylene Resins and Elastomers (CPE) Market
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 06:35:07
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Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comAbhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531
Chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) resins and elastomersare thermoplastic polymers exhibiting enhanced physical and chemical properties. These are used as thermoplastic elastomer, modifier for various resins such as Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) andPolyethyelene(PE). Chlorinated polyethylene resins offer resistance against chemical, fire, heat, oil, weather, abrasion. Other properties of CPE include excellent mechanical and physical properties, high filler acceptance, tensile strength and low temperature performance. The applications of chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers include geomembranes, as impact modifier andflexible sheeting for automotive, roofing membranes, molded shapes, extruded profiles and cable jacketing and as a base polymer.Growing demand for chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers in impact modification application is expected to drive the market growth. Impact modification is the largest application of CPE in terms of consumption. It is widely used for impact modification of PVC for fence, deck, window profiles, pipes and vinyl siding.Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-318 CPEs are added into formulations of PVC, PE and PP plastic products to improve impact resistance, low temperature performance, welding strength, and weatherability. In addition, growing demand from flexible sheetingelectrical wires and cables, roofing applications and rubber products for seals and shoe soles.Flexible sheeting industry is experiencing high growth in Asia Pacific region due to growing construction and electrical industries. These two industries are driven by changing lifestyle and rising disposable income.Further , rising demand from automobile hoses and industrial hoses is expected to fuel the chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers market growth. Owing to properties such as ozone resistance, chemical resistance, oil resistance and temperature resistance, CPE has become ideal choice for applications such as oil tubes, power steering tubes, delivery tubes of cooling fluids. It can be also used for vent and vacuum tubes in automotive. Automobile industry is driven by global demand for various types of automotives for variety of applications. Industrial hoses are used for chemical delivery and oil delivery in difference machineries of manufacturing plants.However, rising crude oil prices and hence volatility in raw materials prices are expected to hamper the market growth for chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers. Polyethylene is manufactured from crude oil derivatives and is subjected to availability and price variations. In addition, high cost of processing to develop the application specific elastomer or resin is expected to hamper the market growth.Development of new applications in healthcare and pharmaceutical are expected to provide opportunities for the players in the market. Due to non-hazardous nature of chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers, it can be used for manufacturing plants of pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.Asia Pacific was largest market for chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers in terms of consumption. China accounts for largest share in the global market in terms of production and consumption. Most of CPE in China is used for impact modifier and hoses application. Asia Pacific was followed by North America where the U.S. was the largest consumer. Demand from Europe and Rest of the World is expected to grow at moderate pace.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-318 Global chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers market is highly concentrated with few players dominating the market. Most of the players have their manufacturing plant in China and threat from Chinese players is moderate due to high cost of processing.Key players in Chlorinated polyethylene resins and elastomers market include the Dow Chemical Company, Sundow Polymers Co. Ltd., Lianda Corporation, Du Pont, Novista - Sanyi Chemical, WeifangPolygrandChemical Co.Ltd ., Shandong SanyiIndustrial Co. Ltd., Cevo Industry Company Ltd. among others.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-04-10 09:05:01
Arabia CSR Awards Clinic draws in interested businesses and government bodies
Workshop Details Criteria and Requirements of Acclaimed CSR Award
Arabia CSR Network
Sudipa Bose, +971-4-344-8622
admin@arabiacsrnetwork.com
www.arabiacsrnetwork.com
In a half day workshop held today in the Millennium Plaza Hotel in Dubai, the organisers, jury and applicants of the Arabia CSR Awards met to discuss the key points of the award. The Arabia CSR Awards is a globally known CSR and Sustainability award that has been launched from the Region by Arabia CSR network but has already become known around the world for its high standards. With a criteria developed to reflect international frame works and standards (UN Global Compact, GRI, EFQM), only the most committed CSR practitioners are able to make it to the top. Such is the reputation of the award that global experts have called it the most rigourous CSR award in the world. The award is organised in cooperation with United Nations Environment Programme. It has eleven categories from which organisations can choose from, and the deadline for application is on the 31st of May.
The aim of the clinic was to shed light on the awards criteria, as well as the methodology and requirements related to the application process. The President & CEO of Arabia CSR Network Mrs. Habiba Al Marashi said at the clinic, The objective of this event is to help registered applicants and potential applicants fully understand the details and requirements of the application. Joining her was Mrs. Karin Ireton, a member of the award jury, who explained the key points. A panel of speakers comprising of the winners of the 2016 cycle of the awards, shared their experiences, perspectives and insights. Among the speakers were key representatives of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) and Interserve. Their presentations highlighted the main elements required to focus on in order to develop award winning applications.
The workshop ended with the official release of the Arabia CSR Best Practices, a publication brought out annually by the Arabia CSR Network. It features a group of winners of the previous cycle of the award and traces their best practices and achievements in CSR and sustainability.
About Arabia CSR Network:
The Arabia CSR Network is a professional multi stakeholder organization established in the UAE in 2004. It is devoted to advancing the principles and practices of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Arab region. It facilitates networking, learning and sharing experiences and knowledge in matters of CSR. The Arabia CSR Network was the first GRI certified training partner for the Arabic speaking Middle East countries. The Arabia CSR Network promotes, encourages and recognizes responsible business practices through a bunch of services and offerings, including trainings, research and best practice, advisory services, third party assurance and a Pan-Arab acclaimed award initiative known as the Arabia CSR Awards. For more information, please visit www.arabiacsrnetwork.com. For further enquiries please email admin@arabiacsrnetwork.com or call on +971-4-344-8120.
*Source: ME NewsWire
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201704100054
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.
Qatar Airways had explored the possibility of buying stake in Indian budget carrier IndiGo.
By Press Trust of India: Gulf carrier Qatar Airways' proposed full service airline in India is likely to set up its base in Bengaluru and provide connectivity from there to other parts of the country.
At present, budget carrier AirAsia India, which is a joint venture between Malaysia's AirAsia group and India's Tata Sons, is the only local carrier which has its operational base in Bengaluru.
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Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer of the Doha-based full service carrier, had last month announced in Berlin that Qatar Airways was going to join hands with the investment arm of State of Qatar to start a domestic airline in India with a 100 per cent investment.
BENGALURU MOST FAVOURED
"Qatar Airways proposed Indian subsidiary is likely to make Bengaluru as its base instead of Delhi or Mumbai," an industry source said.
Qatar Airways, which is among the top three Gulf carriers, has been exploring investment opportunities in India.
The source also said that the new airline is expected provide connectivity first from the southern India cities to other parts of the country and then expand to other regions.
Significantly, six cities of the total 13 that Qatar Airways flies to in India are in the South.
A Qatar Airways spokesperson, in an e-mail response to PTI queries, declined to comment on the issue.
"We cannot comment anything at this stage," the spokesperson said.
AWAITING PERMISSION
Though Qatar Airways is yet to apply for government's permission for setting up a domestic airline here, it has already started giving shape to its plans with the appointment of a local headhunter to hire fresh talent as well as professionals from the existing domestic carriers.
Significantly, the Persian Gulf carrier has been eyeing the fast growing domestic air passenger market, which became the third largest, beating Japan, after the US and China in 2016.
"We are doing this (setting up a domestic airline in India) because Indian government has opened up the foreign direct investment in (setting up) an airline in India," Al-baker had said on March 8.
On several occasions earlier, the Qatar Airways -- which operates a significant number of flights from India to Qatar's capital city Doha -- had explored the possibility of buying stake in Indian budget carrier IndiGo.
Last June, India allowed foreign investors -- barring overseas airlines -- to own up to 100 per cent stake in local carriers by liberalising FDI regulations.
Currently, foreign airlines are allowed to invest only up to 49 per cent in Indian carriers.
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However, the revised norms provide room for overseas airlines to partner with a foreign non-airline player to set up a 100 per cent foreign-owned carrier in India.
Also Read:
Baby on board: Turkish Airlines crew help woman deliver baby at 42,000 feet
Now, Gaikwad free to fly as private airlines lift ban
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San Bernardino police chief said four shot in elementary school classroom in apparent murder-suicide and two students have been hospitalised.
By Reuters: A special education teacher and one of her students were fatally shot by her estranged husband when he opened fire in her classroom before killing himself at a San Bernardino, California, elementary school, police said.
A second student was wounded by the gunman, who authorities said had a criminal history that included domestic violence and weapons charges.
Police said the two students, both boys, were believed to have been caught in the gunfire unintentionally as bystanders to Monday's shooting, which took place about 8 miles from where a radicalized Muslim couple killed 14 people in a December 2015 shooting rampage.
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City Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said the shooting at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, about 65 miles east of Los Angeles, was an apparent murder-suicide. It was the latest in dozens of cases of gun violence on school campuses around the United States each year.
The gunman was identified as Sedrick Anderson, 53, of San Bernardino and his wife was identified as Karen Elaine Smith. Burguan said the couple had been married briefly and had been separate for about a month or month and a half.
The two students struck by gunfire had been standing behind Smith, the chief said. One 8-year-old boy died from his wounds. A 9-year-old classmate was admitted to pediatric surgery at a local hospital, where he was said to be in stable condition.
Neither student was related to the dead couple.
Also Read:
Florida mall shooting: Gym trainer opens fire, kills one then shoots himself
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A new released report showcases the leading independent mortgage brokerages in the country
Contact
Katrina Ricarte
***@keymedia.com Katrina Ricarte
End
--has released its 2017 Top Independent Brokerages list, highlighting seven of the nation's leading independent firms.In a continuously evolving industry such as mortgage broking, being independent has its perks as it allows one to do their business in their own terms. However, these brokerages also have their fair share of challenges with the extra responsibility independents have to take onbe it hustling to keep up with volume requirements or being more proactive to stay educated and up to date on industry happenings."Going it alone isn't always easy especially in a challenging environment such as the mortgage business," said Kimberly Banks,journalist. "But these seven brokerages were able to work efficiently and effectively on their own termsand in this feature, they share exactly why they chose to go solo in this highly competitive industry."For the full report, see issue 12.03 of, out now. The list is also available online at http://www.whichmortgage.ca/ leading-mortgage- professionals/ cmp-top-independent- brokers-2017/ ###, published by Key Media International, is Canada's leading independent magazine for mortgage brokers and professionals. With over 10,000 copies being distributed every month, it provides the latest news, developments and changes that affect the industry along with dedicated sales and marketing features that enable Canadian mortgage brokers to further develop their businesses.
Local author Janice Oberding will be available to sign copies of book
The Boy Nevada Killed
End
--At seventeen, Floyd Burton Loveless became the youngest person ever executed by the state of Nevada. What led him to that end was just as tragic. Following a series of family catastrophes, Loveless was a petty thief by age twelve and a confessed rapist at fifteen. Sentenced to seven years at an Indiana state boys' reformatory, he escaped after a month in custody. The ruthless teen robbed his way to Carlin, Nevada, where he shot and killed a constable who spotted the stolen car he was driving and confronted him. After a protracted legal battle, Loveless died in the gas chamber on September 29, 1944. Author Janice Oberding recounts the sordid details that sparked national controversy over the constitutionality of juvenile capital punishment.Independent historian and true crime buff Janice Oberding lives in Reno, Nevada, with her husband and two cats. She enjoys travel, photography, reading and digging up little-known Nevada history facts, especially those that involve true crime, the weird and unusual.Barnes & Noble5555 S. Virginia St.Reno, NV 89502Saturday, April 22nd, 2017 at 1:00 p.m.Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.The combination of Arcadia Publishing & The History Press creates the largest and most comprehensive publisher of local and regional content in the USA. By empowering local history and culture enthusiasts to write local stories for local audiences, we create exceptional books that are relevant on a local and personal level, enrich lives, and bring readers closer - to their community, their neighbors, and their past. Have we done a book on your town? Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com
Kungsleden has signed a three-year lease with Magelungen Utveckling AB for 900 square meters of space in the Krokslatt 34:16 property on Ebbe Lieberaths street in Gothenburg. The property Krokslatt 34:16 is situated in a neighborhood with good accessibility with good access to the E6 highway and the local tram
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THE first freight train to run from Britain to China is set to leave Barking in east London today, almost three months since the first arrival of rail freight from China on 18 January.
The train will travel 12,000km over 18 days, passing through France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan.
Freight trains are much cheaper than air cargo and also greener, while twice as fast as the journey by sea.
The train from London will carry soft drinks, vitamins, pharmaceutical products and Scotch whisky, and is due to arrive at Yiwu, an eastern Chinese city in Zhejiang province, on 27 April.
DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said it was a significant trade occasion. He added: "DP World London Gateway, one of the UK's largest logistics hubs, is designed and developed to ensure products can be both imported and exported from the UK via ship or train in a faster, safer and more reliable way than ever before. We look forward to enabling and facilitating more trade between the UK, China and the whole world."
China is promoting a programme known as One Belt, One Road, echoing the Silk Road trading routes which were known to exist more than 2,000 years ago. T rains from China have been reaching some destinations in continental Europe since 2011, but only started to cross the Channel this year. DB Cargo said 40,000 containers were moved between Europe and China by train in 2016, and that total is expected to rise to 100,000 by 2020.
As it aims to develop a new Dutch multimedia company, John de Mol's Talpa Holding has bought a 67% stake in SBS Broadcasting from Sanoma, gaining full ownership of TV stations SBS6, NET5, Veronica and SBS9.
SBS Broadcasting will complement Talpa in with positions in television, radio, print and online. As part of the transaction, Talpas stake in the TV guide business Veronica Uitgeverij will be sold to Sanoma. Talpa expects to close the acquisition relatively shortly, pending regulatory approvals and completion of other customary review and approval procedures.De Mol, creator of Big Brother, Deal or No Deal and The Voice, considers achieving full ownership of SBS represents a unique opportunity as one of only two free-to-air commercial TV groups in the Netherlands. He remarked: I strongly believe in a strong Dutch multimedia company that is flexible enough to respond to the changing media landscape, which is primarily a consequence of rapid technological developments. SBS is a unique media asset which will be a key link in the new multimedia company. Access to innovative content and other platforms will be an important addition. The proposition that follows is interesting for viewers, readers, listeners, consumers and advertisers.
Kyiv's forces have repelled several waves of Russian attacks in the Donbas, the Ukrainian military says, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the heavy losses sustained by the Russians on a daily basis highlighted the "madness" of Moscow's strategy of attack.
In the southern city of Kherson, Ukraine accused Russia of looting empty homes and occupying them with troops in civilian clothes in expectation of a Ukrainian offensive to retake the city that was the first to fall to Moscow's forces at the start of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
The Ukrainian military's General Staff said in its daily update that Russian troops in the east continued their attacks on Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Novopavlivka, the focal points of Moscow's offensive in Donetsk in recent weeks.
At the same time, the military said, Russian troops continue to shell critical infrastructure and civilian objectives in various regions of Ukraine.
In his regular video address, Zelenskiy on November 7 called the intense combat in the Donetsk region "the epicenter of the biggest madness of the occupiers."
"They are dying in hundreds every day," Zelenskiy said. "The ground in front of the Ukrainian positions is literally littered with the bodies of the occupiers."
Zelenskiy also said that Russian soldiers in the Pavlivka area had complained to the governor of their region in the Russian Far East.
CNN reported on November 7 that in a letter purportedly sent from the front lines to Primorsky region Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, the men of the 155th Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet Marines say they were thrown into an "incomprehensible battle" in the Donetsk and had lost about 300 men, dead and wounded, in four days, while also losing 50 percent of their equipment.
Zelenskiy said that in response to the letter, Kozhemyako had said that the losses were "not that big" and they were "exaggerated."
In Kherson, the only pocket of Russian-held territory on the west bank of the Dnieper River that bisects Ukraine, Moscow has ordered civilians out of the city in anticipation of a Ukrainian assault to recapture the city.
Kherson, with a prewar population of nearly 300,000, has no power or running water, both sides said.
Russian-installed officials blamed Ukrainian "sabotage," while Ukrainian officials said the Russians had dismantled 1 1/2 kilometers of power lines.
Ukraine's military said Russian forces, "disguised in civilian clothes, occupy the premises of civilians and strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles."
Russian forces were "involved in looting and theft from residents and from infrastructure sites and are taking away equipment, food, and vehicles to the Russian Federation," it said in an update late on November 7.
The Ukrainian military reported hits on a Russian antiaircraft facility, ammunition dump, and the destruction of Russian armor in the Beryslav district of the Kherson region, in its November 8 statement. It said 32 Russian military personnel were killed.
The information could not be independently confirmed.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy said the escalation of Russian missile strikes against critical infrastructure in his country has only resulted in the world responding with new aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine has received "new systems that significantly strengthen our air defense," Zelenskiy said on November 7 in his nightly address. Kyiv will do everything "to ensure that as many countries as possible join this aid," he said.
He added that the protection of the Ukrainian sky was "not 100 percent, but we are gradually moving toward our goal."
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced earlier on November 7 that Ukraine had received a shipment of NASAMS and Apside air defense systems to help it defend against Russian missile and drone attacks across the country.
"These weapons will significantly strengthen #UAarmy and will make our skies safer," he said on Twitter. Reznikov did not specify which countries the systems were from, but in the tweet he thanked "our partners: Norway, Spain and the U.S."
With reporting by Reuters and CNN
Over the past five years, Iranian officials and state media have touted the "indigenous" ingenuity in the Islamic republic's mass-produced Mohajer-6 combat drone, which Russia has deployed in its war against Ukraine.
But a new investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, has found that electronic components underpinning Tehran's production of the Mohajer-6 are far from homegrown.
The Mohajer-6 drones contain components produced by companies from the United States and the European Union, both of which have sanctions restricting the export to Iran of such technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes dual-use technology.
The presence of these components in the Mohajer-6 does not mean their producers are in violation of U.S. or EU sanctions, and RFE/RL does not have evidence that this is the case.
The investigation also found Mohajer-6 components produced in China, including a real-time mini-camera made by a Hong Kong firm that said it was "very sorry" that its products were being used in war.
At least one major foreign-produced component of the Mohajer-6 has previously been identified by reporters in a Mohajer-6 recovered from the battlefield by the Ukrainian military: an engine made by the Austrian manufacturer BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Bombardier Recreational Products.
But Ukrainian intelligence assesses that the Iranian combat drone contains components from nearly three dozen different technology companies based in North America, the EU, Japan, and Taiwan, the Schemes investigation has found. A majority of these companies are based in the United States.
A Schemes reporter who personally inspected the foreign-made drone parts identified components produced by at least 15 of these manufacturers.
These include parts made by the U.S. technology firm Texas Instruments, which said in a statement that it does not sell into Russia or Iran and complies with applicable laws and regulations.
To identify these components, Schemes reporters examined parts of the Mohajer-6 drone that the Ukrainian military shot down over the Black Sea near the Mykolayiv region coastal town of Ochakiv. They also reviewed Ukrainian intelligence records on the sources of these components.
The drone also contains a microchip bearing the logo of a California technology company and a thermal-imaging camera that Ukrainian intelligence says may have been produced by a firm based in Oregon or China.
Both Western officials and experts on illicit technology transfers say Iran has built a broad, global procurement network using front companies and other proxies in third countries to obtain dual-use technology from the United States and the EU.
"Exporters will look at the request coming from the [United Arab Emirates] or another third country, and they'll think that they're selling to an end user based there, when really the end user is in Iran," Daniel Salisbury, a senior research fellow with the Department of War Studies at King's College London, told RFE/RL.
In September, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions specifically targeting Iranian companies that Washington links to the production and transfer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Russia for deployment in its war on Ukraine. Fighting rages with no sign of an end more than eight months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked invasion on February 24.
"Non-Iranian, non-Russian entities should also exercise great caution to avoid supporting either the development of Iranian UAVs or their transfer, or sale of any military equipment to Russia for use against Ukraine," U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement announcing the sanctions.
Chinese Cameras, California Chips
Development of the Mohajer-6, the latest model in a series of drones Tehran has used since the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, began in 2017, while mass production began the following year. During a ceremony commemorating the Islamic Revolution, then-Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said that the new tactical drone could perform surveillance, reconnaissance, as well as help destroy targets.
Hatami extolled what he described as the drones domestic design, a portrayal echoed in later reports by Iranian media.
"The homegrown drone was made through cooperation among the army, Defense Ministry, and Quds Aviation Industries," the English-language Tehran Times quoted an Iranian military official as saying in July 2019.
The dismantling of the Mohajer-6 drone recovered by the Ukrainian military shows that the UAV is packed with foreign components.
One of these parts is a bright-orange real-time mini-camera produced by the Hong Kong-based company RunCam Technology. Documents seen by Schemes show that Ukrainian intelligence has also identified RunCam as the producer of the camera, which likely assists in remote guidance of the drone.
Founded in 2013, RunCam is involved in the development and production of so-called "first-person-view" real-time cameras. "Our users are our friends," the company's website states. The site says that RunCam has two authorized Iranian dealers.
Reached by Schemes for comment about the use of its camera in the Iranian drone deployed by Russia in its war on Ukraine, RunCam said in an e-mailed response: "We are very sorry to know that RunCam's products were used in warfare. RunCam is specialized in producing products for model aircraft hobby. We never contact any customer related to military."
The provenance of the Mohajer-6 drone-s thermal-imaging camera is more difficult to determine. A Ukrainian intelligence assessment reviewed by Schemes indicates it could be the Ventus Hot model produced by Sierra-Olympic Technologies, based in the U.S. state of Oregon, but that it also resembles a cheaper analog available for sale by the Chinese company Qingdao Thundsea Marine Technology.
Qingdao Thundsea Marine Technology said in an e-mailed statement that the company did not "have any business with Iran," because "it will affect our business." The company said it specializes in marine services and is not involved in manufacturing. It also said that it did not have a single successful order for its online advertisement of the thermal-imaging camera resembling the one recovered from the Iranian drone.
Sierra-Olympic Technologies did not respond to a request for comment on the possible use of its thermal-imaging cameras in Iranian combat drones in time for publication.
Microchips recovered from the drone also featured the logos of the California-based company Linear Technology Corporation and its parent company, the Massachusetts-based semiconductor company Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI). ADI did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment on the possible use of its technology in the Iranian combat drone.
Schemes reporters also observed among the components of the Iranian drone a voltage step-down converter produced by Texas Instruments. The company said in an e-mailed statement that it "does not sell into Russia, Belarus, or Iran."
"TI complies with applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate, and does not support or condone the use of our products in applications they weren't designed for," Texas Instruments said.
Schemes reporters also saw several components produced by the California-based technology manufacturer Xilinx, whose parent company is the multinational semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), also based in California.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, one of these Xilinx components was integrated into a video data-link module located in the wing of the Mohajer-6 that helped carry out attack missions.
"This module transmits information from the board to the missile head. That is, guidance for the missile. With the help of this module, it was possible to guide the missile to the target," a Ukrainian military intelligence representative told Schemes.
AMD did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
'No Authorization'
Previous media reports about the components of the Mohajer-6 drone, including by CNN, have shown evidence that its engine was produced by the Austrian manufacturer BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG, whose parent company is the Quebec-based Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP).
The Canadian company responded to the reports on October 21, saying in a statement that it "has not authorized and has not given any authorization to its distributors to supply military UAV manufacturers in Iran or Russia."
"As soon as we were made aware of this situation, we started an investigation to determine the source of the engines," BRP said. .
But Schemes reporters found that the authorized Rotax distributor listed on the Austrian manufacturer's website advertised itself as a Rotax aircraft engines distributor for Iran as recently as December 2020.
The distributor, the Italian company Luciano Sorlini S.p.a., has posted multiple magazine advertisements on its websites in which it describes itself as a Rotax distributor for numerous countries. Prior to January 2021, Iran was listed among these countries.
The Rotax website also lists a Tehran-based company -- MahtaWing -- as an official service center for its engines. The company, known in Persian as Mahtabal, conducts repairs of Rotax engines, including the Rotax 912 iS, the engine that was found in the Mohajer-6 combat drone recovered in Ukraine.
BRP said in an e-mailed statement on November 4 that while Luciano Sorlini S.p.a. is the appointed distributor of Rotax aircraft engines in Iran, "since 2019, no Rotax engines have been sold in Iran, and we will not sell any engines to Iran moving forward."
The Canadian company said it had "internal controls" that "significantly" restrict the sale of its products for military purposes.
"For example, the sale of any BRP product to operators with any military activity in Iran, Turkey, and Russia is strictly prohibited," BRP said. "We conduct our business in compliance with all EU, Canadian, and U.S. applicable regulations."
BRP described the Iranian company MahtaWing as a "local service center" that "offers maintenance services for previously sold aircraft engines."
Shahriar Siami of RFE/RL's Radio Farda contributed to this report.
Norwegian authorities say they have detained a young Russian citizen after a "bomb-like" device was found in central Oslo.
Norway's terrorism alert level was raised following the discovery of the device and the arrest of the suspect, the chief of national intelligence agency, Benedicte Bjornland, said on April 9.
"It's not clear whether the 17-year-old young man intended to commit a terrorist attack," Bjornland added.
The teenager arrived in Norway in 2010 with his family, which applied for asylum.
His lawyer, Aase Karine Sigmond, said her client denied any wrongdoing.
Officers cordoned off a large part of Oslo's Gronland area late on April 8, before the bomb squad detonated the suspect device.
Authorities said the "bomb-like" device was capable of causing only limited damage.
The incident came after an April 7 truck attack left four people dead and 15 injured in Stockholm, Sweden.
A 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan is the main suspect in that attack.
Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa
RK Nagar bypolls were cancelled after Income Tax Department uncovered massive corruption during raids on AIADMK's Sasikala-faction leaders. Here's what they found.
By India Today Web Desk: The Election Commission on Sunday cancelled the RK Nagar bypoll scheduled for April 12, after Income Tax raids uncovered evidence of massive corruption and bribery.
RK Nagar, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's constituency, was set for a showdown between the splinter factions of the AIADMK and the DMK. But, due to the Election Commission's latest decision, the election will now be held at a later date.
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So what made the Election Commission cancel the fierce election scheduled this week?
Here's all you need to know:
1. Last week the Income Tax Department raided houses of several leaders from Sasikala's faction of the AIADMK. Officials found that a staggering Rs 89 crore had been distributed among voters in RK Nagar. An additional Rs 5.6 crore was seized from two acquaintances of Sasikala-loyalist and Tamil Nadu health minister Vijaya Bhaskar.
These seizures proved a large-scale bribery scandal was in progress to swing the election.
At least, 6 lac 2000 rupee notes is now in 4 KM radius of RK Nagar. How on earth did they manage this? Election must be suspended.- SriramMADRAS (@SriramMadras) April 7, 2017
2. Raids on Vijaya Bhaskar's house showed that the Sasikala faction had given Rs 4,000 to every voter in RK Nagar to swing their vote. IT department said "papers" with signatures of those who received money were found at the health minister's house. Bhaskar later condemned the raids and called them "politically motivated."
Towards the end of March, DMK had complained to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission that Dinakaran-led AIADMK faction had allegedly distributed money. That had included video evidence to support their claim.
3. Documents show that seven ministers were given a target of total 224,145 voters and a budget of more than Rs 89 crore, for the bribes. Raids were also carried out at properties of actor-turned-politician Sarathkumar and Dr MGR Medical University vice-chancellor S Geethalakshmi.
Crazy protest at RK Nagar, women remove their clothes to stop EC officers from raiding their home!! @IndiaToday pic.twitter.com/8xAXxuFTol- Pramod Madhav (@madhavpramod1) April 7, 2017
4. In the raids conducted at Sarathkumar's house, IT sleuths did not recover any cash, but they claim to have recovered evidence that the Samuthuva Makkal Katchi (SMK) leader had received money from Vijaya Baskar.
Sarathkumar had only recently announced support for Sasikala-faction backed Dinakaran. If these findings by the IT department hold true, they would mean Sarathkumar received money for his endorsement. Sarathkumar too has called the raids "politically motivated."
5. Some officials also revealed how the politicians find a way to manipulate the law. "Some parties lure potential voters to Royapuram to give them cash. Our jurisdiction ends in RK Nagar so we cannot go after them," a senior flying squad official told the Hindustan Times.
Awwww 112 Cr down the drain(89+23) RK Nagar Jaya's seat polls rescinded both faction needs to introspect , you can not win by giving money- Maj Gen SK Sinha (@SKSk785) April 10, 2017
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The Election Commission has rapped both the AIADMK factions several times for bad practices in the run down to the election. Early this month, it pulled up the O Panneerselvam faction for misrepresenting election symbols.
Seeing the history of corruption in elections in Tamil Nadu, the EC had also put in place an unprecedented six observers to oversee the election process.
The Election Commission may have postponed the RK Nagar election for now, but at any future date the task will not be easy. With the large amount of money, and liquor that flows freely on the streets of Tamil Nadu during elections, the central poll panel's work will always be cut out for it.
Also read | By-poll in Jaya's RK Nagar: Clashes break out between Panneerselvam and Dinakaran factions of AIADMK; 1 injured
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I, Sohail Ahmed Khan (25 years old) from Delhi, pursuing LLB final year, got fascinated with riding after being inspired by my elder brother Javed, a software engineer by profession when he visited Ladakh on his bike in 2010 . Since then I did some extreme rides to Ladakh, Spiti,some off the extreme high altitude passes viz Sach pass, Chanshal, Jalori , solo ride to Indias dangerous road killar Kishtwar and many more. In 2016 I planned for this ride covering all 29 states in minimum time, after approaching Limca book of records and India books and getting their approvals in Jan 2017, I started preparations for this ride. The ride was on self- financed basis. I started my ride on KTM RC390 on 5th of March 2017 at 12 am from Delhi, and completed the ride on 28th of March at 11:27 am at Delhi, covering all 29,state capitals and 5UTs over a total distance of 16,143kms.
I was initially dispirited, since I had never gone on such a long trip on my own. But having seing many riders across the country undertaking solo rides, I knew it was very much possible. Thus with a positive mind set, I decided that I should give it a try. Fortune favours the brave. Thus,I finally made up my mind to go ahead. Though few of my relatives and friends advised to cancel the ride as it is not a safe venture to travel alone on such a long trip on the grounds of the uncongenial atmosphere, and the situation at different places especially the moist affected states and north east, but my parents supported me both financially and morally, and I decided to proceed.
During the course of my ride I faced some of the challenges and difficulties enumerated below :
1: The log book attestation The log book provided by Limca Book of records was to be maintained and attested at every states capital city and UT by any gazetted officers/police station to vouch for my presence in the respective city. In every state, city police cooperated overwhelmingly without taking much time in attestation of the log book. But in Ranchi and Patna it was quite contradictory. They kept me running from pillar to post in getting the log book attested, resulting in loss of time and frustration.
2. Non -cooperation from KTM Ranchi They were informed well in advance to get the bike checked and serviced as I have to move further to Kolkata on the same day, and Ranchi was the city where the bike service became due. Despite informing them well in advance, they kept me waiting for more then 2 hours and did not attend to me at all. I was left with no choice but to get the bike serviced from outside, and consequently lost a lot of time which, ultimately resulted delay in reaching next destination Kolkata, where I reached at 2:30 am night (5 hours late of my schedule time) which, also resulted delay in next day schedule.
3. The cash I was carrying was exhausted in Itanagar and was left with no money to pay the hotel bill and get the bike refuelled. I thought of withdrawing it from any of the available ATMs but to my surprise after visiting atleast a dozen ATMs, I could not withdraw the cash as all of them were dry of cash, which gave me sense of cashless India and Cashless me. However, the friends at Itanagar helped me out.
I am very grateful to :
1: Indian Army (Assam rifles) I started my ride from Silchar at 12 pm sharp after getting the bike checked from KTM Silchar, thinking that I will reach Imphal max by 7 in the eve. But unfortunately every time plan doesnt work. It was raining badly, and started witnessing slush and there was a stretch of approx 8 Kms, which was nightmare for me. Doing it solo was the challenge, as I used to skid and tyres used to get stuck in the slush , the bike started overheating because of over acceleration, which impacted clutch plates also. At a moment bike got stopped, and the coolant started flowing out. At this point of time, I was feeling miserable, and felt quite nervous thinking that now I will have to end my ride. I asked for help from the local taxi drivers/other people to get some help but they didnt want to get into slush and make their shoes dirty. Unfortunately there was no mobile network in that stretch, so, I could not contact to any one for help. On the way people advised me to get help from Army chowki, which was located approx 15 kms from that point. I looked the condition of my bike and prayed to God that it gets start and luckily it started. From there, I headed to Assam rifles camp. As the distance to reach the next destination, i.e., Imphal was 180kms from their camp, they advised me to stay in their camp as it was already dark and the road ahead was very dangerous, apart from being a high militant area. Provided me Boarding and lodging with full of courtesy, which will be remembered throughout my life. I am grateful to the officials concerned for giving me such an affectionate treatment.
2. All police staff at all the state capitals and UTs for getting the attestation work so easily and being so humble and supportive. I express my special thanks to ACP Trivandrum, Shri Pramod Sir for extending me his support as well as honour.
3.The KTM Service Centres at Panvel,Puducherry, Agartala, Silchar, North Lakhimpur, Patna, Noida for extending me their timely support in servicing the bike during my ride.
3. All My Rider brothers from each and every state and city who supported me in my entire ride. Without their support it was not easy to complete the ride,
4. My backup team which was active 24/7 for me and taking care of all my ride updates, and my club members of Rapsters for all the support.
Though the ride was named fastest ride but it was ride where I covered set no. of kms on daily basis. The ride for record title was totally depending on the performance of the bike, which fortunately had been perfect through out the journey.
However to complete this stupendous ride I have to keep myself physically fit for which I have followed the Followings :
1. Physical workout for 2 hrs daily for a month to boost my stamina
2. Started eating less food a month before the scheduled ride, so, as to adapt myself to take less meals during ride. Consequently, during the course of 23 days ride, I used to take only 1 meal at night. During the day I was depending on Dry fruits, Chocolates, and kept myself hydrated by taking sufficient water.
Since it was a target to achieve, the given distance within the stipulated period, to break the previous record, I used to sleep only 4-5 hrs daily. After Getting stuck in North east, I started lagging for 2 days from my set schedule and to break the previous record. Yet 6 more state capitals and 1 UT with a distance of 3000+ kms within three days was to be covered. So, I started from Patna,covering Lucknow, Dehradun, Shimla, Chandigarh, Srinagar and back to Delhi, riding for approx. 78 hrs continuously with three small power naps of 2hrs each in Noida, Chandigarh and Patni top (J&K), and ultimately with the grace of the Almighty, cooperation and best wishes of my friends and family, I concluded the trip of 16143 Km in 23 days 11 hours and 27 minutes, which surpasses all the earlier records in spite of all the difficulties faced during course of the ride.
Here is a link to his FB profile. In case you want to check out his LIVE timings, head to spotwalla.
Thats not all, these vehicles pass the scrutiny and validation on-site by the very same automotive engineers who have worked on the cars that we drive home. Also, these ATVs then proceed to perform on and conquer some brutal off-road tracks at the Baja site, on which (Im pretty sure) none of the cars that are around us will be able to survive even a single lap.
Thats the kind of learning Baja effects on young engineering students in India, in less than a years time. Baja brings engineering to life and also gives those students a huge opportunity to get placed at the top automotive firms in the country. All this is conducted by a non-profit organisation now thats what makes this event all about the students and nothing else.
Now, would you be interested to know what happened at the decade edition of Baja SAEINDIA?
Much like the previous seasons, Baja 2017 was highly organised and immensely challenging to the participants, but the magnanimity was in the scale of the event this year, right from the beginning. There were a record-breaking 414 registrations for Baja 2017, which meant 414 multiplied by upto 25 (students per team/college), summing up to 10,350 participants! This included one team from BITS, Dubai who shipped their pride production all the way from the UAE and back.
That many students arrived at Christ University, Bangalore for Virtual Baja 2017 where they presented their designs, calculations, production strategies and validation plans, to get into an unforgiving short list of 150. There were also eBaja participations, of which 34 were approved for fabrication. So, not even 50 percent of the registered teams were allowed to proceed to production, and yet there were 184 vehicles being built over the next six months all across the country. As usual, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka had the higher participation.
There would be a significant difference between an engineering graduate who has been a part of Baja SAEINDIA and not; and hence the sponsoring OEMs grab a couple of them each at the site, at the HR meet. They are not judged based on the performance of their respective vehicles, but simply based on each individuals capability. What could be more fulfilling to the students than this? This is why, at Baja, there is a chance for everybody to win, if not at the race, in life.
After getting selected among the top 150 at Virtual Baja where written test and detailed design presentation were conducted, they start the fabrication of their vehicle strictly within the college premises. No outside/professional help is allowed as per the rulebook of Baja SAEINDIA which also dictates various procedures and standards that must be followed while designing and building the vehicle.
From this point on, the Baja Alumni Committee actively keeps in touch with all the teams, to monitor their progress, guide them in decoding and following the rulebook, in purchasing the engine that is standard to all the Baja vehicles, and the like. There are also live webinars (online seminars) organised for the selected teams in computer aided designing and analysis of the components, and the whole vehicle too.The same kind of workshop is conducted physically at different zones in the country for a more up-close interaction for the students all this for a zero additional fee.
Then various levels of off-site scrutiny is done, via email, through submission of various reports every fortnight, self-certification sheets towards the end, visit by regional mentors assigned to the teams, and in the end, technical inspection teams visit each college to validate the vehicles a month before they are transported to the Baja site near Indore, Madhya Pradesh. This kind of thorough and periodical audit of the teams, and the human resources Alumni to help them out (in non-technical matters) to ensure the quality of the vehicles that arrive at the venue.
Once the vehicles are loaded onto the transport truck, the students gather at Indore and attend the HR meet where preliminary tests are conducted for their placement like Baja Aptitude Test (BAT) and psychometric test. The next day (usually on the same day) they unload their vehicles and take it to their respective pits beside at the venue, and they setup their makeshift workshop for the next four days.
And the fest begins!
The event begins with the business/sales presentation, then the vehicle cost presentation, vehicle-weight check, technical inspection, design evaluation, brake test, acceleration test, sled-pull event, suspension & traction test, and manoeuvrability run.
From here on, the teams had to pencil down their own strategy to earn complete all the events and earn maximum points, because Baja 2017 took the challenge to the students to a different level. Usually all the said events were lined up sequentially so that every team completes each one to move to the subsequent event, but this time the tests and evaluations were open to whoever was ready at the time. Some were mandatory and some were excusable. This made the teams prioritize and strategize an order to attend all of them. Teams that did not see this coming barely completed the mandated evaluations by the time the sharper teams made it through the dynamic events like sled-pull and maneuverability track.
The fierce play didnt end there. The grand finale, the endurance run for four hours on the treacherous 5+ km track, where around 124 vehicles competed with each other, was not just a test for the fittest. It was also a test for the smartest. While most of the ATVs were battling the terrain, caring more about not breaking any limb of the vehicle, the top tier teams had no worry of that sort except for saving every second that they could.
Those who watched the endurance run closely like they watch F1 or Moto GP, realised that there was a Hamilton-Rosberg, Rossi-Marquez kind of intense situation going on between three teams namely Team Nemesis Racing (Car 25 College of Engineering, Pune), Stallions Racing (Car 150 Alard College of Engineering, Pune), and Team Avishkar (Car 50 Dr. BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar), who were the overall winners in the same order.
The best eBaja team was declared as Team Kraftwagen (Car E153 Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune).
The 2020 Mahindra Scorpio BS6 does not carry any major improvement over its BS4 counterpart
Amid the COVID-19 lockdown, Mahindra has updated its popular Scorpio SUV to BS6 specifications. The 2020MY Mahindra Scorpio BS6 comes at a starting price of Rs 12.40 lakh for the base S5 model. For the BS6 era, it is available only in four variants: S5, S7, S9 and S11.
The previous entry-level S3 variant has been discontinued. The top variant costs Rs 16 lakh while the mid-level S7 and S9 variants are priced at Rs 14.21 lakh and Rs 14.84 lakh, respectively. Compared to its BS4 model, prices of the updated Scorpio have gone up by an average of Rs 60,000. The figures mentioned here are ex-showroom.
Besides discontinuing its S3 variant, the company has also ditched the 2.5-litre m2DICR diesel motor as well as the lower 120bhp tune of its 2.2-litre mHawk diesel mill. Previously, the top-spec Mahindra Scorpio was available with 4WD but the new range consists only RWD variants. In terms of design, the ladder-frame SUV remains unchanged.
The list of equipment is also the same as the BS4 version. In the top S11 trim, it packs dual airbags, ABS, rear parking sensors and camera, cruise control, 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system, automatic climate control, etc. It is fair to say that the Mahindra Scorpio is quite outdated compared to its rivals as well as other modern-day products from the Indian automaker. However, Mahindra is reportedly working on a next-gen Scorpio which was spotted on multiple occasions in test mule avatars.
The 2020 Mahindra Scorpio comes powered by a 2.2-litre mHawk diesel four-cylinder unit. As mentioned before, the power plant remains unchanged other than becoming compliant to the new emission norms. As part of this, Mahindra has installed an SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system and a dedicated urea tank. Urea, or AdBlue systems, in modern diesel vehicles help reduce NOx emissions.
Output figures are roughly the same at 140bhp and 320Nm of torque. This is sent to the rear axle via a 6-speed manual gearbox. Mahindra does not offer an automatic transmission for the Scorpio.
Indias automotive industry is going through tough times like never before due to COVID-19 outbreak. Major OEMs have started focusing on online sales platforms to make the best out of the worst. Mahindra has also started accepting online bookings for select models. After the Indian government relaxes its lockdown protocols, the entire car-buying scenario could be different know more details.
Report: 49 Yemeni civilians killed in 212 Saudi aggression airstrikes in six days
By Baseema al-Absi
SANAA, Apr 5 (Saba) At least 49 civilians were killed, Including thirteen children and six women, and 16 others wounded including a woman and child in 212 airstrikes launched by US-backed Saudi aggression warplanes on several Yemeni provinces over the past six days, officials and residents told Saba.
In Sanaa province, the aggression warplanes launched 55 air strikes on the districts of Nehm, Hamdan, Sanhan, Belad Alroos.
The airstrikes on Nehm killed eight citizens, including a woman, and injured two other civilians.
In Saada province, the aggression launched 49 airstrikes on several districts, including Dhahir and Ketaf.
Also in Saada, four Africans, including a woman, and a Yemeni citizen were killed in a raid on the Alrko market.
The airstrikes on Saada also killed eight children and two women and wounded four others in air raids on a house in Baqem district.
In Taiz province, the aggression fighter jets waged 39 air raids in Mokha city, and Mawza district, al-Nar and Howzan mountains, al-Wazeea region and Al-Omary area.
In Mareb province, the aggression warplanes carried out 15 raids on several civilian regions, including Serwah and Hareb al-Karamesh districts.
In Jawf province, the aggression warplanes launched four raids on citizens' farms in Khader Valley of al Matamma district.
In Hodeidah port city, the aggression launched 16 air strikes on different areas in Kamaran Island.
In Hajja province, the aggression warplanes launched 4 airstrikes, particularly on Haradh border crossing.
In Shabwa province, the Saudi aggression launched two air raid on Atak district.
In Amran province, the aggression warplanes carried out two raids on a stones-crusher factory.
In Lahj governorate, the aggression fighter jets launched 11 raids on Kahbob district.
In Abyan province, the aggression carried out four air strikes by pilotless planes on Al Mahfd area.
In Ibb province, the aggression fighter jets launched one raid on a mosque in the city and damaged it along with nearby houses.
BS/ZAK
Saba
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[05/April/2017]
Effective care and prevention strategies have managed to reduce the spread of HIV in the U.S. and other resource-rich countries. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 25 million are infected, the epidemic rages -- as does the debate over how to stop it.
The World Health Organization and UNAIDS have proposed using "treatment as prevention" to eliminate HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. The strategy would treat people infected with HIV to reduce their ability to infect others as a way to prevent them from transmitting the infection. UNAIDS has set goals to diagnose 90 percent of HIV-infected people and to treat 90 percent of those diagnosed individuals by 2020.
But a new study by UCLA researchers concludes that although the plan sounds laudable, implementing it might not be feasible.
The authors used statistical mapping techniques to identify the location of all people who are HIV-infected in Lesotho, a landlocked country within South Africa in which about 1 in 4 adults is infected with the virus. Currently, many of these people have not been diagnosed with HIV and are not receiving treatment. The researchers used their map to design and evaluate HIV elimination strategies. They found that the strategy proposed by the WHO and UNAIDS is unlikely to be feasible because HIV-infected adults are widely dispersed throughout the country and only a minority live in urban centers.
"Global health policies for HIV elimination need to be redesigned, and they need to consider settlement patterns and population density," said Sally Blower, director of UCLA's Center for Biomedical Modeling. "Our results show that the spatial demographics of populations in predominantly rural countries in sub-Saharan Africa will significantly hinder, and may even prevent, the elimination of HIV."
The study was published March 29 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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"The HIV epidemic in Lesotho is hidden," said Justin Okano, a co-author of the study and a statistician in Blower's research group. "Nobody knows where the vast majority of HIV-infected people live. To find them, it would be necessary to test everyone in the country, which would be extremely expensive and very difficult."
To reveal the hidden epidemic, Blower's team combined datasets from multiple sources, including settlement patterns and geographic variation in population density. Using HIV testing data from approximately 7,000 people in Lesotho, the researchers created a map predicting where every person infected with HIV in the country lives, whether they have been diagnosed or not.
"We estimate that almost every settlement in the country has at least one HIV-infected person, and this holds true for even the smallest and most remote settlement," said Brian Coburn, the study's other co-author, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Blower's group. "We also found that approximately 70 percent of HIV-infected adults live in rural settlements."
The researchers concluded that the UNAIDS elimination plan would not be feasible in Lesotho. They calculated that implementing the plan would require finding and treating a very large number of people in remote areas where there are only two or fewer infected people per square kilometer.
Blower and colleagues also used their map to design an alternative strategy for eliminating HIV that, in contrast to the current strategy, maximizes the efficiency of resource utilization. They took into account settlement patterns, population density and the spatial diffusion of the epidemic. Their strategy minimizes the area in Lesotho that needs to be covered to find and treat people infected with HIV.
Although the paper's conclusions might be controversial, Blower said, the goal of the study was to present a new way of thinking about how to eliminate HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
"To develop effective strategies, we need to figure out -- throughout entire countries -- where HIV-infected individuals live and which communities are connected to each other," Blower said. "A spatial map can provide all kinds of insight."
African governments should decide on which elimination strategy they use, Blower said, but global health policies and recommendations should be revised in light of the new data.
The people in Switzerland were on the move in the High Alps and running alpine pastures 7,000 years ago and therefore much earlier than previously assumed. A study by the University of Bern that combines archaeological knowledge with findings from palaeoecology comes to this conclusion. Prehistoric finds from the Schnidejoch Pass played a crucial part in this.
Did shepherds actually drive their herds from Lower Valais to the Bernese Oberland and graze their sheep there around 5,000 BC? Many factors indicate that this theory, which would have just been dismissed as speculation until recently, reflects reality. "We have strong indications that argue that people were on the move in the mountains with their animals much earlier than previously assumed," says Albert Hafner, Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at University of Bern.
Albert Hafner and Christoph Schworer, environmental scientist and specialist in vegetation history at the Institute of Plant Sciences at University of Bern, have just provided the chain of evidence that supports this assumption in an article in the Quaternary International specialist journal. Both scientists are members of the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research at University of Bern "The combination of two approaches," explains Albert Hafner, "allowed us to collect better data and also interpret it with a new perspective. Neither archaeology nor palaeoecology would have come to these new findings on their own."
According to the study, this is how we have to imagine early alpine farming between Valais and the Bernese Oberland: the region around today's Sitten was populated by people who ran arable and cattle farming around 5,000 BC. They kept sheep and goats, among others. However, the steep and dry slopes in Lower Valais did not produce much feed, which is why the shepherds undertook a two-day hike as far as the Bernese Oberland where they found good grazing opportunities below the Schnidejoch Pass situated at 2,756 metres above sea level. This nomadic pasture farming was only possible as the glaciers drastically retreated during the so-called Holocene Climatic Optimum. The Schnidejoch did not have any ice for several centuries.
Sediment analysis and prehistoric finds
The two researchers support their theory on the one hand with prehistoric finds from the Schnidejoch situated above the Lenk and on the other hand by the analysis of sediment cores from Lake Iffig (Iffigensee) just a few kilometres away.
A melting ice field on the Schnidejoch Pass has exposed several hundreds of these kinds of objects since 2003. Including remnants of containers made out of wood, which were very probably used to transport food. The Valais shepherds probably transported provisions in them for the time that they spent with their animals on the Bernese side of the pass. Indications of early alpine farming are also provided by the rings made out of plaited twigs which were used to hold the posts of mobile fences together. The rings originate from the Early Bronze Age (from 2,100 BC). What is interesting though is that one tradition from this phase of prehistoric alpine farming in the Bernese Oberland was preserved over thousands of years: cattle farmers can be seen in a historic photo from the Thun region who are building a mobile fence using rings made out of plaited twigs -- probably using the same method that their Valais ancestors applied around 5,000 BC. "This is obviously an extremely simple and convenient technique that could last long in traditional communities ," says Albert Hafner.
Strong indications of very early pastoralism in the area of the Schnidejoch is mainly provided by the reconstruction of the region's vegetation history. Christoph Schworer analysed the composition of sediment deposits from Lake Iffig for this. The pollen was of particular interest in the process. From the composition of this pollen it can be deduced which plant species were very widespread in a specific location in the past. For example, nettles, among others, can be evidenced for the time after 5,000 BC. These nutrient-loving plants frequently appear in places where cattle were fenced in overnight. Spores from the Sporormiella, a fungus that thrives extremely well on cattle dung was also found in the sediment core. When the glaciers advanced again during a colder climatic phase just under a thousand years after the oldest Schnidejoch finds, the route over the pass became impassable again. There is also no indication of the Valais shepherds and their sheep in the lake sediments from Lake Iffig during this time.
Researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have invented a new catalyst that can efficiently convert carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to carbon monoxide (CO). This soon-to-be patented invention enables the sustainable utilisation of CO 2 , a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change. If successful on a larger scale, this invention could provide a practical way for converting CO 2 to useful chemicals.
The researchers behind the catalyst, UvA chemists Edwin Gnanakumar and Shiju Raveendran, are in the process of commercialising the catalyst with the help of Amsterdam Innovation Exchange (IXA), the university's technology transfer office.
From waste to resource
Carbon dioxide (or CO 2 ) is a trace gas in earth's atmosphere and plays a vital role in regulating the planet's surface temperature by trapping heat. Although it forms an important part of the planet's carbon cycle, CO 2 is also known to be a potent greenhouse gas. Since the industrial revolution, the level of atmospheric CO 2 has climbed steadily as a result of human activity and is believed to be behind the current episode of global warming.
In the field of chemistry, practical solutions are currently being sought to reduce atmospheric CO 2 by using the gas as resource rather than a waste product. However, using carbon dioxide as a raw material and converting it to useful chemicals or fuels is notoriously difficult because of compound's molecular stability. This stability poses severe challenges to attempts to activate or reactivate CO 2 .
Efficient conversion
Gnanakumar and Raveendran, who work within the UvA's Sustainable Chemistry research priority area, have managed to address this activation problem by inventing a catalyst that can efficiently convert CO 2 to CO at relatively mild conditions. The CO can then be converted to a number of common hydrocarbons with the use of existing technology, thus opening up an efficient way to utilise CO 2 . 'It was an accidental discovery', says Raveendran. 'We were experimenting for a different product, but the catalyst turned out to be highly selective for CO 2 , better than any reported ones'.
The new catalyst is easily prepared and inexpensive. It can convert CO 2 at ambient pressure and low temperatures. Longer-term tests in a flow reactor confirmed that the catalyst remains active, showing promise for scale-up for applications such as industrial flue gas conversion. According to the researchers, the conversion can be easily adapted for handling large amounts of gases.
CAPITA
Graphene Flagship researchers from AMBER at Trinity College Dublin have fabricated printed transistors consisting entirely of layered materials. Published in the journal Science the team's findings have the potential to cheaply print a range of electronic devices from solar cells to LEDs with applications from interactive smart food and drug labels to next-generation banknote security and e-passports.
Led by Professor Jonathan Coleman from AMBER (the Science Foundation Ireland-funded materials science research centre hosted in Trinity College Dublin), in collaboration with the groups of Professor Georg Duesberg (AMBER) and Professor Laurens Siebbeles (TU Delft, Netherlands), the team used standard printing techniques to combine graphene flakes as the electrodes with other layered materials, tungsten diselenide and boron nitride as the channel and separator (two important parts of a transistor) to form an all-printed, all-layered materials, working transistor.
All of these are flakes are a few nanometres thick but hundreds of nanometres wide. Critically, it is the ability of flakes made from different layered materials to have electronic properties that can be conducting (in the case of graphene), insulating (boron nitride) or semiconducting (tungsten diselenide) that enable them to create the building blocks of electronics. While the performance of these printed layered devices cannot yet compare with advanced transistors, the team believe there is a wide scope to improve the performance of their printed TFTs beyond the current state-of-the-art.
Professor Coleman, who is an investigator in AMBER and Trinity's School of Physics, said, "In the future, printed devices will be incorporated into even the most mundane objects such as labels, posters and packaging. Printed electronic circuitry will allow consumer products to gather, process, display and transmit information: for example, milk cartons will send messages to your phone warning that the milk is about to go out-of-date. We believe that layered materials can compete with the materials currently used for printed electronics."
All of the layered materials were printed from inks created using the liquid exfoliation method previously developed by Professor Coleman and already licensed. Using liquid processing techniques to create the layered materials inks is especially advantageous in that it yields large quantities of high quality layered materials which helps to enable the potential to print circuitry at low cost.
Although adults can beat children at most cognitive tasks, new research shows that children's limitations can sometimes be their strength.
In two studies, researchers found that adults were very good at remembering information they were told to focus on, and ignoring the rest. In contrast, 4- to 5-year-olds tended to pay attention to all the information that was presented to them -- even when they were told to focus on one particular item. That helped children to notice things that adults didn't catch because of the grownups' selective attention.
"We often think of children as deficient in many skills when compared to adults. But sometimes what seems like a deficiency can actually be an advantage," said Vladimir Sloutsky, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.
"That's what we found in our study. Children are extremely curious and they tend to explore everything, which means their attention is spread out, even when they're asked to focus. That can sometimes be helpful."
The results have important implications for understanding how education environments affect children's learning, he said.
Sloutsky conducted the study with Daniel Plebanek, a graduate student in psychology at Ohio State. Their results were just published in the journal Psychological Science.
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The first study involved 35 adults and 34 children who were 4 to 5 years old.
The participants were shown a computer screen with two shapes, with one shape overlaying the other. One of the shapes was red, the other green. The participants were told to pay attention to a shape of a particular color (say, the red shape).
The shapes then disappeared briefly, and another screen with shapes appeared. The participants had to report whether the shapes in the new screen were the same as in the previous screen.
In some cases, the shapes were exactly the same. In other cases, the target shape (the one participants were told to pay attention to) was different. But there were also instances where the non-target shape changed, even though it was not the one participants were told to notice.
Adults performed slightly better than children at noticing when the target shape changed, noticing it 94 percent of the time compared to 86 percent of the time for children.
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"But the children were much better than adults at noticing when the non-target shape changed," Sloutsky said. Children noticed that change 77 percent of the time, compared to 63 percent of the time for adults.
"What we found is that children were paying attention to the shapes that they weren't required to," he said. "Adults, on the other hand, tended to focus only on what they were told was needed."
A second experiment involved the same participants. In this case, participants were shown drawings of artificial creatures with several different features. They might have an "X" on their body, or an "O"; they might have a lightning bolt on the end of their tail or a fluffy ball.
Participants were asked to find one feature, such as the "X" on the body among the "Os." They weren't told anything about the other features. Thus, their attention was attracted to "X" and "O," but not to the other features. Both children and adults found the "X" well, with adults being somewhat more accurate than children.
But when those features appeared on creatures in later screens, there was a big difference in what participants remembered. For features they were asked to attend to (i.e., "X" and "O"), adults and children were identical in remembering these features. But children were substantially more accurate than adults (72 percent versus 59 percent) at remembering features that they were not asked to attend to, such as the creatures' tails.
"The point is that children don't focus their attention as well as adults, even if you ask them to," Sloutsky said. "They end up noticing and remembering more."
Sloutsky said that adults would do well at noticing and remembering the ignored information in the studies, if they were told to pay attention to everything. But their ability to focus attention has a cost -- they miss what they are not focused on.
The ability of adults to focus their attention -- and children's tendency to distribute their attention more widely -- both have positives and negatives.
"The ability to focus attention is what allows adults to sit in two-hour meetings and maintain long conversations, while ignoring distractions," Sloutsky said.
"But young children's use of distributed attention allows them to learn more in new and unfamiliar settings by taking in a lot of information."
The fact that children don't always do as well at focusing attention also shows the importance of designing the right learning environment in classrooms, Sloutsky said.
"Children can't handle a lot of distractions. They are always taking in information, even if it is not what you're trying to teach them. We need to make sure that we are aware of that and design our classrooms, textbooks and educational materials to help students succeed.
"Perhaps a boring classroom or a simple black and white worksheet means less distraction and more successful learning," Sloutsky added.
When it comes to large, high-intensity forest fires, we can expect to see a lot more in the coming years, according to South Dakota State University professor Mark Cochrane, a senior scientist at the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence.
Using satellite data from 2002 to 2013, Cochrane and researchers from the University of Tasmania and the University of Idaho examined nearly 23,000 fires worldwide, identifying 478 large, high-intensity fires which they defined as extreme wildfire events. Their work is described in the Feb. 2017 issue of Nature Ecology and Evolution.
"Almost all happened under bad conditions -- high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds, which tell us that weather and climate are very important," Cochrane said. Using monthly world weather data from 2000 to 2014, the researchers modeled the likely changes in fire behavior from 2041 to 2070, predicting a 20 to 50 percent increase in the number of days when conditions are conducive to fires.
"Those conditions are based on business-as-usual carbon emissions," Cochrane continued. "This will continue to worsen after 2070 unless we get very serious about cutting global carbon emissions."
By 2041, there will likely be 35 percent more of these large, catastrophic fires per decade, according to Cochrane. "That translates to four extreme fire events for every three that occur now."
However, that risk is not spread evenly, Cochrane explained. Forests in the western United States, southeastern Australia, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean region that extends from Greece to Lebanon and Syria are among those areas at highest risk.
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Defining extreme fire events
Though the concept of huge, devastating wildfires, sometimes called megafires, has been tossed around, Cochrane said, "There is no operational definition." Therefore, the research team, led by University of Tasmania professor David Bowman, examined fire intensity and area.
First, the researchers identified hotspots using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, or MODIS, from two earth-imaging satellites to measure the amount of heat energy released, known as fire radiative power. To do this, they looked at the total energy being released in each 25,000-acre block across the planet, Cochrane explained. "It's a combination of the area that is burning and the intensity at which it is burning."
Through that analysis, the researchers identified 478 extreme fire events. "We limited ourselves to the top .003 percent," he said. "Anyone would agree that these are pretty intense, large events."
Determining impact on humans
They further narrowed the extreme fire events to ones that had the greatest impact on humans. "Fires in the boreal forest might be very large, but they do not impact many people," he pointed out. "We looked for those in which people had to clear out of the way."
The researchers identified 144 fires that were catastrophic, meaning people died and homes were destroyed. "Most of these fires were in the western United States and southeastern Australia, which have fairly high population densities," Cochrane said.
Wind-driven fires accounted for nearly 35 percent of these catastrophic events, while severe drought was a factor in nearly 22 percent. Other extreme fire weather conditions, largely due to high temperatures and low humidity, accounted for slightly more than 20 percent of these costly fires.
"Not only is climate making things worse, but people are building homes in these flammable landscapes," he said.
By Press Trust of India: From K J M Varma
Beijing, Apr 10 (PTI) China today denied any credit for the Indian Navy for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, claiming that its naval ship equipped with a helicopter saved the 19-member crew.
Declining to acknowledge any role for the Indian Navy which said its chopper provided the air cover for the Chinese soldiers to enter the Tuvalu-flagged ship OS35, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the air support was provided by Chinese helicopter attached to the ship.
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The missile frigate Yulin circled the ship while its helicopter provided air cover, she said, making no mention of the Indian Navys helicopter support to the Chinese troops.
The Chinese naval ship, part of the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters, rushed to the hijacked ship as soon as it received a message from UK Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) on April 8, she told reporters here.
"Rescue operation was launched on earlySundaymorning. Sixteen Chinese soldiers successfully boarded the timber-carrying freighter, and freed its crew," she said.
"They also conducted a comprehensive search of the ship to make sure no pirate was on board. 19 crew members released from the strong room where they had taken shelter, while also searching the ship to ensure there were no further threats," she said.
"We believe the aforementioned operation demonstrated the effectiveness of Chinas naval forces in the field of fighting against pirates, as well as Chinas image as a responsible major country in safeguarding regional peace and stability," she said.
When questioned about the absence of any reference to the Indian Navys role in the operation, Hua said Chinas Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
"I have already given to you what I have learnt. The Chinese convoy received report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation.With regards to details I refer you to the Chinese defence ministry," she said.
"As I just said the Chinese side is always positive towards international cooperation against pirates. This position is very clear," she reiterated.
Her comments followed a Chinese navy statement last night that omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese soldiers.
When asked about the Chinese navys statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD".
He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
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The surprise omission of Indian Navys role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
The Indian Navy also said that the Chinese navy thanked it for its role in the operation.
"In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.
Chinas disinclination to acknowledge Indian Navys role came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lamas visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, Chinas opposition to Indias NSG membership and Beijing blocking Indias effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
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China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.
In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navys help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, frompirates. At that time, Chinese navys flotilla was on an escort duty in theGulfofAden- 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault. PTI KJV MPB PYK ABH ZH AKJ ZH
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Food purists may have cause to celebrate thanks to a recent international study directed by the University of British Columbia. The study, which evaluated the spread of genetically modified (GM) organisms to non-modified crops, has implications from farm to family.
"Trying to figure out how far GM pollen will travel is really difficult," says study co-author Rebecca Tyson, associate professor of mathematics at UBC Okanagan.
"It is important to have accurate tools to estimate this, so that unintentional cross-pollination of GM material to non-GM crops can be minimized."
According to stastista.com, genetically modified crops in Canada are mostly located in Ontario and Quebec and consist of canola, soybeans, corn and sugar beets. More than 90 per cent of the canola grown in Canada is genetically modified.
Tyson suggests that the simplest way to minimize cross fertilization between crops is to separate them. Up until now, the isolation distances have been somewhat haphazardly determined. Previous estimates have been based on two standard models, which either overestimate or underestimate pollen movement. The gap between these two distances makes prediction difficult and thus necessitates improved calculations, she explains.
Tyson's research offers a new analytical tool which can provide a much improved estimate of how far pollen will travel.
Along with colleagues from the Universite catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and Delft University (The Netherlands), she developed a mathematical model of pollen dispersal by bees, based on field experiments.
"Our results suggest that separation distances of several hundred metres, proposed by some European countries, is unnecessarily large but separation by 40 metres is not sufficient," says Tyson. "Using our model, we can calculate and suggest separation sizes with better accuracy. For example, we have estimated that for a 0.9 per cent cross-pollination rate, the ideal distance of separation between two crops is between 51 and 88 metres, depending on crop size and type."
These numbers are specific to particular crops and landscapes, she explains, but the predictive ability is the same.
"We believe that our model provides a more accurate assessment of GM pollen cross-pollination than previous models," adds Tyson. "We are hopeful these findings will simplify the decision-making process for crop-growers and policy makers."
In the most common type of supernova, the iron core of a massive star suddenly collapses in on itself and the outer layers are thrown out into space in a spectacular explosion. New research led by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers shows that the stars that become so-called core-collapse supernovae might already exhibit instability for several months before the big event, spewing material into space and creating a dense gas shell around themselves. They think that many massive stars, including the red super-giants that are the most common progenitors of these supernovae, may begin the process this way.
This insight into the conditions leading up to core collapse arose from a unique collaboration called the Palomar Transient Factory, a fully automated sky survey using the telescopes of the Palomar observatory in southern California. Astrophysicists halfway around the globe, in Israel, are on call for the telescope, which scans the California night sky for the sudden appearance of new astronomical "transients" that were not visible before -- which can indicate new supernovae. In October, 2013, Dr. Ofer Yaron, in the Weizmann Institute's Particle Physics and Astrophysics Department, got the message that a potential supernova had been sighted, and he immediately alerted Dr. Dan Perley who was observing that night with the Keck telescope in Hawaii, and NASA's Swift Satellite. At Keck, the researchers soon began to record the spectra of the event. Because they had started observing only three hours into the blast, the picture the team managed to assemble was the most detailed ever of the core collapse process. "We had x-rays, ultraviolet, four spectroscopic measurements from between six and ten hours post-explosion to work with," says Yaron.
In a study recently published in Nature Physics, Yaron, Weizmann Institute researchers Profs. Avishay Gal-Yam and Eran Ofek, and their teams, together with researchers from the California Institute of Technology and other institutes in the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Israel and the UK, analyzed the unique dataset they had collected from the very first days of the supernova.
The time window was crucial: It enabled the team to detect material that had surrounded the star pre- explosion, as it heated up and became ionized and was eventually overtaken by the expanding cloud of stellar matter. Comparing the observed early spectra and light-curve data with existing models, accompanied by later radio observations, led the researchers to conclude that the explosion was preceded by a period of instability lasting for around a year. This instability caused material to be expelled from the surface layers of the star, forming the circumstellar shell of gas that was observed in the data. Because this was found to be a relatively standard type II supernova, the researchers believe that the instability they revealed may be a regular warm up act to the immanent explosion.
"We still don't really understand the process by which a star explodes as a supernova," says Yaron, "These findings are raising new questions, for example, about the final trigger that tips the star from merely unstable to explosive. With our globe-spanning collaboration that enables us to alert various telescopes to train their sights on the event, we are getting closer and closer to understanding what happens in that instant, how massive stars end their life and what leads up to the final explosion."
Scientists based in Vienna unveil the complex molecular structure that causes lethal infections by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Their findings might have implications for potential therapies against antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis.
In a paper published this week in Nature Microbiology, an international team of scientists across Europe, including IMP (Institute of Molecular Pathology) and IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) group leader Thomas Marlovits, describe the overall architecture of an assembly of proteins known as Type VII (T7SS) secretion systems found in a group of bacteria which cause diseases such as tuberculosis.
"We could identify a unique architectural principle that potentially reveals a novel molecular mechanism of T7SS, a protein complex located in the cell membrane of bacteria," says molecular biologist and biochemist Thomas Marlovits, who led the structural analysis by electron microscopy and who is also Professor at the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and deputy director at the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) in Hamburg. "This new system will allow us to further investigate the biology of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis as Mtb relies heavily on T7SS to transport molecules across its cell membrane upon infection, disarming and damaging the host cell." Relying heavily on large-scale facilities for structural data but also Mtb genetics, the team had joined forces with researchers at EMBL Hamburg and at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
New drugs are urgently needed in the fight against tuberculosis as the bacteria responsible for causing the disease become increasingly resistant to current antibiotics. According to the World Health Organisation, tuberculosis resulted in 1.8 million deaths and 10.4 million new infections in 2015, making it one of the top 10 causes of death in humans worldwide. The bacterium responsible has a complex biology and a comprehensive understanding of this is crucial to inform the development of new drugs.
T7SS-systems play a key role in tuberculosis infections and might present important targets for much needed new drugs: blocking these systems could prevent the bacteria from bursting the host cells and could thus alleviate the infection.
Thomas Marlovits illustrates the unique molecular architecture of the T7SS transport system: "In total, five T7SS systems are found in mycobacteria. Known as ESX-1 to ESX-5, these systems are likely all very similar but transport specific molecules. In our study, we could show that the mycobacterial T7SS structure sits exclusively in the inner bacterial membrane."
In addition to the core body of T7SS, some of the proteins extend down into the bacterial cell. The team collected Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) data at the EMBL SAXS beamline on the DESY campus in Hamburg to help understand what they look like and how these parts of the secretion system might move. "We believe these arm-like proteins help to move the molecules of different shapes and sizes from the inside of the bacterial cell towards the pore of the secretion system for them to be transported out of the cell," says first author Kate Beckham from EMBL Hamburg.
Now further biochemical and genetic experiments will be carried out to support the structural data and to provide in vivo insights into the components required for assembly of the T7 secretion system.
Following a dry, mild winter in the Midwest, a University of Missouri meteorology expert is predicting a relatively wet and mild summer for Missouri and much of the Midwest. Tony Lupo, a professor of atmospheric science at Mizzou, says normal temperatures and average rainfall this summer should help boost agriculture in the region after a dry winter.
"Historically, after dry winters such as the one we just experienced, we typically see a pattern change and experience average to wetter-than-average summers," Lupo said. "We already are seeing the beginning of this shift with the very wet spring we have experienced so far. With milder temperatures and a healthy amount of rain, farmers around Missouri and much of the Midwest can hope to have great growing conditions for much of the summer."
Lupo's forecast calls for slightly higher than normal corn and soybean yields throughout the state of Missouri, with the exception of southeast Missouri, which may see slightly below average yields. Lupo says the mild, average forecast for the summer can be attributed, at least in part, to the projected El Nino conditions in the Pacific Ocean.
"Early during the formation of El Nino patterns, the Midwest typically sees mild and wet summers, which is what we expect to experience this year," Lupo said. "While those conditions will probably change as El Nino advances, people in the Midwest should be able to enjoy the mild weather for this summer at least."
Lupo published a study on his 2017 summer forecast, "ENSO and PDO-related climate variability impacts on Midwestern United States crop yields," in the International Journal of Biometeorology. The lead author of the study was Chasity Henson, a doctoral student in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and was coauthored by Patrick Market, a professor at MU, and Patrick Guinan, an associate extension professor at MU.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to tether HIV-fighting antibodies to immune cells, creating a cell population resistant to the virus. Their experiments under lab conditions show that these resistant cells can quickly replace diseased cells, potentially curing the disease in a person with HIV.
"This protection would be long term," said Jia Xie, senior staff scientist at TSRI and first author of the study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers, led by study senior author Richard Lerner, M.D., Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry at TSRI, plan to collaborate with investigators at City of Hope's Center for Gene Therapy to evaluate this new therapy in efficacy and safety tests, as required by federal regulations, prior to testing in patients.
"City of Hope currently has active clinical trials of gene therapy for AIDS using blood stem cell transplantation, and this experience will be applied to the task of bringing this discovery to the clinic," said John A. Zaia, M.D., director of the Center for Gene Therapy in the Hematological Malignancy and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute at City of Hope. "The ultimate goal will be the control of HIV in patients with AIDS without the need for other medications."
"We at TSRI are honored to be able to collaborate with physicians and scientists at City of Hope, whose expertise in transplantation in HIV patients should hopefully allow this therapy to be used in people," added Lerner.
The new TSRI technique offers a significant advantage over therapies where antibodies float freely in the bloodstream at a relatively low concentration. Instead, antibodies in the new study hang on to a cell's surface, blocking HIV from accessing a crucial cell receptor and spreading infection.
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Xie called it the "neighbor effect." An antibody stuck nearby is more effective than having many antibodies floating throughout the bloodstream. "You don't need to have so many molecules on one cell to be effective," he said.
Before testing their system against HIV, the scientists used rhinovirus (responsible for many cases of the common cold) as a model. They used a vector called lentivirus to deliver a new gene to cultured human cells. This gene instructed cells to synthesize antibodies that bind with the human cell receptor (ICAM-1) that rhinovirus needs. With the antibodies monopolizing that site, the virus cannot enter the cell to spread infection.
"This is really a form of cellular vaccination," said Lerner.
Because the delivery system can't reach exactly 100 percent of cells, the finished product was a mix of engineered and unengineered cells. The researchers then added rhinovirus to these cell populations and waited to see what would happen.
The vast majority of cells died in about two days. In dishes with only unengineered cells, the population never recovered. There was an initial die-off in the mixed engineered/unengineered populations, too, but their numbers quickly bounced back. After 125 hours, these cell populations were back up to around the same levels as cells in an undiseased control group.
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In essence, the researchers had forced the cells to compete in Darwinian, "survival-of-the-fittest" selection in a lab dish. Cells without antibody protection died off, leaving protected cells to survive and multiply, passing on the protective gene to new cells.
This success led the researchers to test the same technique against HIV. To infect a person, all strains of HIV need to bind with a cell surface receptor called CD4. So the scientists tested antibodies that could potentially protect this receptor on the very immune cells normally killed by HIV. "This research is possible because of the ability to select specialized antibodies from combinatorial antibody libraries," said Lerner.
Again, their technique worked. After introducing cells to the virus, the researchers ended up with an HIV-resistant population. The antibodies recognized the CD4 binding site, blocking HIV from getting to the receptor.
The scientists further confirmed that these tethered antibodies blocked HIV more effectively than free-floating, soluble antibodies in experiments led by study co-authors Devin Sok of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and TSRI Professor Dennis R. Burton, who is also scientific director of the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and of the National Institutes of Health's Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) at TSRI.
Joseph Alvarnas, M.D., director of Value-Based Analytics at City of Hope, explained how the TSRI technique could help patients, who -- despite treatment with anti-retroviral drugs -- still suffer from higher rates of diseases, such as cancers. "HIV is treatable but not curable -- this remains a disease that causes a lot of suffering. That makes the case for why these technologies are so important," he said.
In addition to potentially collaborating with City of Hope, Xie said the next step in this research is to try engineering antibodies to protect a different receptor on the cell surface.
A former Navy SEAL and his brother formed a company (Shield AI) in 2015 to develop a quadcopter that would use off-the-shelf sensors and measuring electronics to fly into buildings and automatically (under control of the custom flight control software) measure, map and take video of the interior. Troops have been asking for something like this for years but, as is often the case since 2001, former military personnel, often Special Forces or SEALs, start small firms to develop and manufacture these items and then sell them to the military and civilians.
One thing that encouraged this attitude was another post-2001 development, RFI (the Rapid Fielding Initiative). RFI was created in 2002 by the U.S. Army as a mechanism for quickly getting what the troops needed. The Internet makes this possible, for the troops grew up with cell phones and the Internet and know how to quickly connect with each other and sort out what they all had experienced and determine what was needed to operate more effectively. Out of this came the Rapid Equipping Force program (REF) which monitored troop needs and quickly found and shipped out needed weapons and equipment and the Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI) which gave unit commanders (division and below) cash and authority to buy non-standard items the troops needed fast. With most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan over there is budget pressure to eliminate both of these programs. The troops and their commanders agreed that would be a big mistake.
In Iraq and Afghanistan the military, especially the army, was quick to take advice from the troops actually doing the fighting. That was recognized even before Iraq and led to the RFI, which recognized that the American army did not always have the best weapons and equipment available and that the troops and low-level commanders had a better idea of what was needed than the senior generals and politicians. RFI was intended to do something about that and do it quickly. Since 2002 the army approved the purchase of over 500 items immediately, which is what RFI was all about. In 2011 the army began deciding which of these RFI items to make standard equipment (about a quarter of them) and which to discard (the rest, although many were obsolete and improved replacements were being sought). The marines went through the same process and found that most of their RFI items were worth keeping. This is due to the marines having a tradition of doing more with less (since they have much less money to spend per person than the army).
Not everyone was a fan of RFI. Traditional (government and contractor) weapons and equipment developers did not like RFI. Procurement bureaucrats like to take their time, even when there's a war going on. This is mainly to cover everyone's ass and try to placate all the big shots and constituencies demanding certain features. In wartime, this process is sped up somewhat but it is always slower than it has to be.
And then there is the fact that the troops are willing to accept a partial solution. Engineers often point out that they can deliver much more quickly if they are allowed to use the old "70 percent solution" rule. This bit of engineering wisdom is based on the fact that some capabilities of a weapon or other item are not essential but take an inordinate amount of effort and expense to create. Thus a "good enough" item can be produced very quickly, if you are willing to sacrifice 30 percent of the capabilities you thought you needed (but probably don't). Despite official opposition, the 70 percent solution has become all the rage since 2003 because the troops have found that this is frequently good enough and a real lifesaver in combat. Since RFI this often meant adopting civilian gear (radios, hunting accessories, electronics, clothing, tents) that was not militarized (made much more expensive and not arriving for a long time.)
The age of change began with the troops who, thanks to the Internet and a flood of new civilian technology, got into the habit of just buying new stuff with their own money and using it in combat. If the army had developed a lot of this gear it would have had more features, probably been more rugged, and taken a lot longer to arrive, if it ever did at all. But for the troops, the off-the-shelf gear filled important needs, even if it was a 70 percent solution.
Troops have been finding and buying non-standard gear for decades but it had been growing more frequent since the 1990s. The army became tolerant of it, largely because this unofficial civilian gear (sleeping bags, boots, rifle cleaning kits, etc.) often was better and even officers used the stuff. As the number of these items increased tremendously after 2003, and more officers came back from commanding combat units with personal experience with this sort of thing, a growing number of senior commanders began demanding that the army procurement bureaucracy get rid of the traditional 10-15 years it takes to find, develop, and approve new technology for the troops. The troops have long understood this but now four star generals agreed and often did so from personal experience. The generals did create the REF in 2001, which was successful as long as it paid constant attention to what the troops were thinking and doing.
In hindsight you could see RFI coming. There were three existing trends pushing it. First, there was a lot more new technology coming on the market that troops could use. Some of it came from the companies that created equipment for the hiking and camping market (boots, rucksacks, all manner of outdoor clothing). Other items came from hunting and police suppliers (new gun sights and other accessories). There was a flood of new electronic gear, like lighter and more reliable GPS receivers and computer gear, plus new kinds of flashlights and, eventually, smart phones.
The second trend was that the troops were all on the Internet and, like never before, were in touch with each other via military related message boards, listservs, Facebook pages, and chat rooms. Troops have always been coming up with new ideas about how to use civilian gear for military purposes. But before the Internet each soldier's discovery spread slowly. Now, information about new discoveries gets spread army-wide, and world-wide, within hours.
Finally, there was SOCOM (Special Operations Command), which had long possessed its own REF/ RFI-like powers and budget to go with it. SOCOM could buy neat new weapons, as well as equipment. SOCOM could also afford to buy expensive stuff (the first night vision gear and satellite phones). SOCOM personnel were on the Internet as well. By 2001, thousands of soldiers were speculating, via the Internet, how much more effective they could be if they had SOCOM's freedom to quickly get new stuff that allowed them to do their job better.
When American troops went into Afghanistan in October, 2001, it was several hundred SOCOM Special Forces operators that did most of the work. Once the media got to the Special Forces guys, stories started coming out about the non-standard gear they were using. American infantrymen being sent to Afghanistan saw those stories, as did people in the Pentagon. Connections started to get made. Among other things, someone in the Pentagon realized that the army would not look too good if too many journalists interviewed too many troops who had bought civilian equipment with their own money, while the Special Forces was getting it paid for by the government. This was especially embarrassing if the new equipment from a civilian supplier was obviously superior to the stuff the government was handing out. With this kind of incentive the Rapid Fielding Initiative was quickly set up and became a big success.
Some generals consider the official procurement bureaucracy beyond help. It is encumbered with generations of laws and rules, which are supposed to curb fraud, enhance efficiency, or whatever and have just contributed to the many delays that make everything take far longer than it should. You can't mess with the laws, at least not too often and especially not in peacetime, without getting brought up short by Congress, defense industry lobbyists, and the courts. For the politicians the defense budget is a principal tool for getting re-elected. That procurement money means jobs for American voters and the politicians representing those voters know it. Congress will not relinquish too much control over this pot of gold.
Over a decade of war has changed a lot of things in the U.S. military but none more troublesome, to the military bureaucracy, than the new attitude of "we want it now." Senior commanders took on the military procurement bureaucracy in order to get new technology to the troops sooner. It's not a new fight but having so many generals involved in trying to speed things up, now that is new. And often the generals were asking for some very expensive stuff. But these officers had done their homework and it was hard to say no to officers who are under fire every day. The 70 percent solution became a legitimate tool on the battlefield. But now the procurement bureaucracy wants to go back to the bad old (but safer) days of taking your time and covering your ass.
In the north the state controlled media has tried to spin the recent (mid-March) removal from office of the elected South Korean leader. Most North Koreans dont really care as just getting enough to eat occupies all their attention. But for the donju (entrepreneurs) and members of the ruling class the events down south are disturbing because the South Korean people legally removed a corrupt leader from power. This was done, for the first time in Korean history, via impeachment. In mid-March the South Korean Constitutional Court approved the impeachment vote by the legislature. This impeachment was a popular move because president Park had been found guilty of corruption, something she pledged to fight against while campaigning for office. Northerners are having a hard comprehending all this. Back in 2012 news that 60 year old Park Geun Hye had won the South Korean presidential election spread quickly through North Korea and what amazed most northerners was that a woman, and the daughter of a disgraced dictator at that, could become leader of South Korea. Now the amazement continues and in the north those who have the time quietly discuss among themselves the fact that the Koreans down south are not only rich (something northern propagandists denied for decades) but also have political power unimaginable in the north.
What happened with the South Korean impeachment story backfiring on northern propagandists was not unique. Equally disturbing is the popular reaction to all the propaganda stories about the continued ballistic missile tests and development efforts. Impoverished and hungry northerners can do the math and realize that fewer rockets would mean more food and fuel for the people who need it. The secret police dutifully report this shift in popular opinion but the senior leadership is having a hard time adjusting. For decades the North Korean government depended on threats to maintain control and no one can conceive of any realistic alternative to what has become a losing strategy.
Bad news is being reported more accurately in the north because earlier in 2017 the government investigated senior secret police officials suspected of corruption and found more bad behavior than expected. Leader Kim Jong Un ordered punishment for the guilty (or suspiciously affluent). This consisted of demotions or worse (execution) as appropriate. One of the senior officials purged was Kim Wong Hon, who was in charge of monitoring the popular mood. He had gotten himself into trouble by delivering inaccurate reports that hid the degree to which most North Koreans had lost faith in their government. Kim Wong Hong was basically a greedy thief who thought he could mask his embezzlement by delivering positive (but fabricated) reports of popular opinion. Many senior officials had other sources these of attitudes on the street and began to compare notes. Particularly disturbing was the deliberate underreporting of the growing tendency of North Koreans to openly criticize the government and mock officials, including secret police, they deal with. The attitude is; you are killing us anyway so why not talk back. Kim Wong Hong apparently thought reporting this accurately would reflect poorly on the leadership of the secret police.
Now that Kim Kong Un is getting all the facts about popular opinion he may wish he wasnt. The secret police and border guards have been ordered to stop news of the recently deceased Kim Jong Nam from getting into North Korea and spreading. Details of how Kim Jong Un murdered his older brother Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia are getting into North Korea the usual way, via Chinese and North Koreans legally crossing the Chinese border on business. North Korea cannot seal the border completely because the nation would soon starve. So the best the secret police can do is slow down the flow of news and take notes on what people are saying.
The bad news here is that most North Koreans believe it is shameful for a brother to murder his older brother, especially when the elder brother was not a real threat to the younger one. All the older brother wanted to do was get out of North Korea, which is what most North Koreans want to do. Thus the details of what happened to the older brother are big news in North Korea, even if it can only be discussed in whispers. Many North Koreans were not surprised that the older brother was murdered in Malaysia on February 14th using droplets of VX nerve gas. North Koreans are amazed at the lengths the younger brother has gone to try and suppress the details and get the body back to North Korea for a yet unknown fate. At the moment most North Koreans see Kim Jong Nam as the tragic victim of a paranoid and vicious younger brother, who happens to be the hereditary ruler of North Korea. Kim Jong Un is apparently unsure how this will all work out. But noting what the Koreans down south recently did to their leader, Kim Jong Un and a lot of other North Koreans are dreading where all this is going.
Some North Koreans are taking action. For example secret police recently entered a home near the Chinese border without a warrant. The secret police were checking a report that someone in the area was using a Chinese cell phone to call outside the country. The woman attacked the policemen when she discovered they had no warrant. The police disarmed and arrested her and did not report the incident because you are supposed to get a warrant these days. Word of this incident got out and quickly spread.
This is bad news because at the end of 2016 Kim Jong Un ordered that the secret police cease searches of homes without a warrant. Obtaining a warrant is a minor hassle for the secret police but this new order was meant to reduce the incidence of secret police threatening to search an affluent looking home and making it clear that a cash bribe would make this go away. The warrants leave a paper trail of such activity and was well received by the growing number of entrepreneurs who are supplying a growing portion of vital foreign currency for the government. This new rule was popular and now it is being ignored by secret police seeking to keep bad news out of the country.
The Neighbors Agree
One thing Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans and Americans agree on (according to recent polls) is that North Korea is dangerous and unpredictable. Opinion surveys in the United States show over 60 percent of Americans feel that way and current Chinese policy is being driven by the fact that Chinese popular opinion turned against North Korea before the government did and government efforts to use their vast propaganda bureaucracy to manipulate that opinion did not work because the anti-North Korea attitudes were too entrenched and proved impossible to change. For that, and many other reasons, the Chinese leaders are now seriously considering how to remove the Kim dynasty and what to replace it with.
For China the main threat from North Korea is economic. China wants to avoid chaos in North Korea because that would be bad for the Chinese economy and increase the threat of conflict with even more dangerous opponents like Japan, South Korea and the United States. The most extreme (but acceptable) measures China could try include literally taking control of North Korea (which China has done in the distant past). Staging a coup in North Korea has always been a possibility but the paranoid (for good reason in this case) North Korean leadership has made it difficult for China to recruit enough North Korean officials to make this feasible. That said, the potential is still there and China could still go this route. Many North Koreans believe that the Chinese will just move in and take over if it appears that the North Korean government is about to fall apart or otherwise becoming too dangerous to China. The Chinese takeover plan apparently includes installing pro-Chinese North Koreans as head of a new "North Korean" government, and instituting the kind of economic reforms they have been urging the North Korean to undertake for over a decade. Fear of this sort of thing is apparently a major reason why Kim Jong Un had his brother assassinated in February. The older brother had frequently let it be known that he had no interest in running North Korea.
The Chinese do not want North Korea to merge with South Korea, nor do they want North Korea to collapse economically and politically because that would send millions of desperate and starving refugees into northern China. All the neighbors (especially China and South Korea) want North Korea to stay independent, and harmless. Thus China is willing to unofficially annex North Korea, knowing that the South Koreans would go along with this as long as the fiction of North Korean independence was maintained. South Korea won't admit this, but most South Koreans know that absorbing North Korea would put a big dent in South Korean living standards. That is more unpopular than any other outcome. While all Koreans would like a united Korea, far fewer are willing to pay the price.
Socialism Follows The Money
In the north the government may be socialist in theory but in practice they follow the money. Thus a growing number of state run factories in North Korea have become market based enterprises. The police, and even the secret police, spend more time collecting taxes, fees and contributions from the growing number of donju (entrepreneurs).People are responding by devoting much imagination and energy to evading the demands (which keep growing) from a desperate government that is under increasing international economic pressure. The North Korean government is nothing if not adaptive, which is how it has survived for so long. So the secret police have now been ordered to not only collect more money but also to do it with minimal use of terror. Popular opinion and morale is important, even in a police state. It was never easy being in the secret police and with all the economic problems it just keeps getting worse. Yet compared to most other North Koreans, being in the secret police pays well and there is a degree of job security not found anywhere else in the north.
The tax collectors up north have a hard job. In the last year China has enforced the sanctions more than ever before. That suddenly put a lot more government enterprises out of business and forced over a million people to find a new source of income. State owned firms, particularly those producing military goods, were always seen as immune to nationwide economic problems. But China cutting off much of its trade hit the military factories hard and now there are desperate people seeking food and other necessities. Many of these newly unemployed did not expect it and there is an increase in suicides and petty crime in the areas where large state owned factories abruptly shut down in the last year. At the same time government officials are finding out that they no longer control the economy. That began during the 1990s when the government could no longer provide basic food and energy needs because decades of Russian economic subsidies were cut off. The growing power of the black market (and now legal free markets) means price controls no longer work either.
What it has come to is that the government will allow an illegal enterprise to operate as long as they pay the bribes and fees demanded by the government and do not engage in activities that threaten the Kim dynasty. While much of this additional income goes to the special weapons (nukes and missiles) programs and gifts to keep the senior officials loyal a lot is spent on vanity projects that glorify the Kim dynasty. This is a problem when word gets around that work continues on these vanity projects (especially new, and very visible one, in the capital) while aid for reconstruction in northwestern areas hit by major floods is not arriving as promised. In the past the news of these shortages would not get around, but with the cell phones that is no longer possible.
The Bangladesh Bank Bust
Internet security network experts in many countries (including Russia) agree that it was most likely North Korean hackers, working for their government that recently hacked into the Bangladesh banking system and managed to get $100 million transferred before detected and shut down. The hackers were attempting to get a billion dollars transferred to dozens of accounts elsewhere in the world and use that cash to pay for imports, particularly illegal ones. Earlier and very similar attempts on banks in Vietnam, Gabon and Nigeria failed but were believed to be the work of the North Korean hackers.
Meanwhile this is not the first time North Koreans got into trouble for criminal behavior in Bangladesh. In early 2015 North Korea apologized to Bangladesh after a North Korean diplomat was caught trying to smuggle in 27 kg (59.4 pounds with $1.5 million) of gold into Bangladesh. The senior diplomat had diplomatic immunity and apparently hoped that would protect his luggage from inspection. In this case it didnt. North Korean diplomats are notorious crooks and since the 1990s have been caught smuggling or distributing drugs and counterfeit currency as well. More recently they have used their diplomatic immunity to smuggle illegal items (it is illegal to bring more than two kg of gold into Bangladesh without declaring it and paying a fee).
April 9, 2017: South Korea and the United States made official announcements that the U.S. was not considering an attack on Kim Jong Un in an effort to replaced his government. Kim Jong Un is alarmed that on April 6th the U.S. bombed a Syrian airbase because Syria used nerve gas against its own people. Today an American naval task force (containing a large aircraft carrier and three destroyers armed with cruise missiles) was ordered to move immediately from Singapore to the Korean coast. Whats a paranoid dictator to think? The U.S. has also recently said that from now on it is ignoring all the media theater North Korea loves to broadcast and concentrating on concrete measures to remove nuclear weapons and long range missiles from North Korea. Kim Jong Un keeps issuing statements that war is imminent. But he and his predecessors have been doing that for a long time and there has been no war. These declarations no longer have any meaning and the Americans are calling out Kim Jong Un on that point. Everyone knows that if Kim Jong Un ordered a military attack on South Korea, Japan and any U.S. forces they can reach it would be the end of Kim rule in North Korea and probably the end of Kim Jong Un as well.
April 7, 2017: Japan extended its 2006 economic sanctions against North Korea for two more years. Until 2006 one of the best sources of cash for North Korea was the 600,000 ethnic Koreans living in Japan. The Japanese Koreans long viewed North Korea as some kind of fictional paradise, especially because of North Koreas hostility to Japan. While the Koreans in Japan prospered (at least compared to Koreans in North Korea), they also continued to suffer discrimination from Japanese. But as word of the great North Korean famine of the 1990s leaked out, many Koreans in Japan lost faith in their dreams. North Korea was no paradise, no promised land. Some moved to South Korea, others got more comfortable with Japanese culture, and everyone was less willing to contribute cash to the cause up north. But even in 2006 there were still many Japanese Koreans willing to do business with North Korea but the sanctions put a large dent in that.
April 6, 2017: South Korea revealed that it had recently conducted a successful test of a locally made solid fuel ballistic missile with a range of 800 kilometers. This enables South Korea to hit targets anywhere in North Korea with weapons (ballistic missiles) that North Korea is not equipped to stop. This comes 18 months after the announcement that a ballistic missile with a range of 500 kilometers was successfully tested. That test ended decades of restrictions on South Korean ballistic missile development. In 2012 the United States halted its efforts to restrict South Korean missile development. The South Koreans tried for over a decade to develop warmer relations with North Korea and all efforts failed. The 2010 North Korea attacks (using artillery and a torpedo than sank a warship) on South Korea changed a lot of attitudes in South Korea, and the United States. North Korea is still a big problem but since 2010 South Korea has been free to try whatever it thinks will work.
April 5, 2017: For the second time since February North Korea conducted a test a mobile ballistic missile test in which the Polaris 2 (or KN-15) was successfully fired from canister on a tracked vehicle acting as a TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher). The TEL used the same cold launch used by the North Korean Polaris 1 SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile). The February test had the missile going 500 kilometers while the test today only went 60 kilometers, indicating a possible failure. The Polaris (or Pukguksong) 2 appears to be the same missile as the Polaris 1, except that it was fired from a canister on a TEL instead of a silo in a submarine. A mobile TEL carrying a ballistic missile that can reach all of South Korea and parts of Japan (and China), especially one armed with a chemical or nuclear warhead, makes North Korea a much more dangerous threat.
April 4, 2017: China is prosecuting two South Korean clergymen for assisting North Koreans to escape from North Korea and into China. These arrests are part of a crackdown that began in February when China expelled 32 South Korean Christian missionaries who were working along the North Korean border. The missionaries have long worked among the many ethnic Koreans living in the area. Most of these ethnic Koreans are Chinese citizens but a growing number are illegal migrants from North Korea. The two South Korean missionaries currently being prosecuted were apparently selected for this treatment as a warning to South Koreans in general.
April 3, 2017: South Korea, Japan and the U.S. began three days of joint military exercises. These mainly involved ships and aircraft from the three countries coordinating efforts to search for and destroy North Korean submarines.
March 31, 2017: In South Korea former (since March 10th) president Park Geun Hye was arrested and charged with corruption and related crimes that had made her the first South Korean president to be removed from office for misbehavior. In 2012 South Korea elected Park Geun Hye as its first female president. The charges she faces now could put her in prison for up to ten years.
March 30, 2017: Malaysia and North Korea announced an agreement in which the body of Kim Jong Nam, would be handed over to North Korea and in return North Korea would release the nine Malaysians detained (prevented from leaving) North Korea after Malaysia refused to turn over the body immediately. Malaysia will also allow three North Koreans, suspected of organizing the murder, to leave Malaysia. Apparently these negotiations have been going on since the first week of March. Malaysia had already arrested two North Koreans as suspects in the murder of Kim Jong Nam. Malaysia also wants to arrest two North Koreans who fled the country shortly after the murder. A North Korea diplomats believed involved in the murder plot was hiding out in the North Korean embassy along with a North Korean airlines official who is also a suspect. It is believed that North Korea will burn the body when they get it and insist that Kim Jong Nam died of a heart attack.
March 23, 2017: North Korea appears to be preparing to conduct another underground nuclear test. That would be the sixth such test.
March 22, 2017: North Korea conducted another long-range ballistic missile test with a large missile that exploded shortly after launch. The failed missile appeared to have been a Musudan, which first appeared in 2011. This missile is believed to have a range of up to 4,000 kilometers. That would put American bases in Guam (3,200 kilometers from North Korea) within range.
March 19, 2017: North Korea released photos of a recent ground test of a new rocket engine capable of powering a missile that could reach North America. The test was described as successful.
March 17, 2017: Japan launched another radar reconnaissance satellites to keep an eye on North Korea military developments. Japan has three photo and three radar satellites in orbit that allows the Japanese to monitor specific areas of North Korea. Japan has been using its growing fleet of recon satellites to do this since the 1990s. North Korea complains every time a new one is ignored and Japan ignores the complaints.
Teenagers hack and steal $300,000 worth of airplane tickets from website
What would you do if you have $308,000 USD worth of airplane tickets? Would you take a tour around the world or buy some expensive stuff for yourself?
A group of Indonesian teenagers along with an 27-year-old man managed to hack into Tiket.com, one of the popular online travel agents in Indonesia and steal Rp 4.1 billion ($308,000 USD) worth of airline tickets for the budget carrier Citilink Indonesia, the National Police said in Jakarta on Tuesday, April 4, 2017. The hackers then sold the stolen tickets on Facebook and used the funds to buy themselves expensive motorcycles.
In November last year, Global Network, the company behind Tiket.com, reported the case to the police when it suspected someone hacked into Tiket.com and stole tickets alloted for the low-cost airline, Citilink Indonesia.
Usually, airlines allot a ticket quota for each travel agent, where in the tickets are already paid in advance. In this instance, the teenagers hacked into the website and accessed Citilinks ticket pool.
The perpetrators had illegal access to Citilink Indonesias server, using an account owned by Global Network from Oct. 11 to 27, 2016, Brig. Gen. Fadil Imran, the director of cybercrime at National Polices Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) said on Tuesday.
The hackers then sold the stolen tickets on Facebook, Fadil added.
Confessing to the crime, the groups self-confessed leader, Sultan Haikal, 19, told Motherboard that, I bought a Ducati and went on a shopping spree. I didnt invest the money in anything. The hackers also refer to themselves as Gangtengers Crew.
While the three other members were arrested in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan on March, 28, Haikal was nabbed by the police in Ciputat, Banten two days later.
The four members of Gangtengers Crew could be slapped up to 12 years in prison under the Indonesias Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE) revised in 2013.
Apparently, Haikal who is quite fond of motorcycles has never entered high school. He learnt all his network infiltration skills from the Internet, which he used to exploit vulnerable security measures. In this instance, it was the website Tiket.com
Haikal has also managed to impress the Indonesian authorities with his hacking abilities.
He is quite sophisticated and the website was also not that hard to hack, said Idam Wasiadi, an official with the National Polices Criminal Investigation Departments cybercrime unit, according to Motherboard.
The Gangtengers Crew consisted of two freshers out of high school and one who was a college dropout, National Police Spokesman Brig. Gen. Rikwanto told CNN Indonesia. While only Haikal was named by the National Police, the other three alleged hackers remained anonymous.
The four member group has successfully hacked the National Police Departments website and the ride hailing app, GO-JEK. Hes hacked around 4,600 sites, but not all of them for profit, Rikwanto said. Hed hack them and show it to his friends, as a way to show off.
The robbery fetched Haikal Rp 600 million ($45,000 USD), with the other group members too earning about the same amount.
According to Citilink, a subsidiary of the state-owned carrier Garuda Indonesia, none of its customers private details were compromised in the hack and the breach was only restricted to the online agent. Also, Tiket.com was able to recover Rp 1.9 billion ($142,546 USD) of the stolen funds.
Source: Motherboard
The rescue operation was seen as brief respite in recently strained bilateral tensions, with China in recent days hitting out at India and summoning its envoy in Beijing over the Dalai Lama's on-going visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
By Ananth Krishnan: China on Monday ignored the Indian Navy's role in what was a joint anti-piracy rescue operation this weekend in the Gulf of Aden, only mentioning the Chinese Navy's role in aiding a hijacked vessel.
The joint rescue operation, reported Sunday, was seen as brief respite in recently strained bilateral tensions, with China in recent days hitting out at India and summoning its envoy in Beijing over the Dalai Lama's on-going visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
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Yet even this joint operation, seen as a sign of two countries working together, has generated conflicting reports on two sides of the border. The Indian Navy had said that the INS Mumbai, INS Tarkash, INS Trishul and INS Aditya that were on deployment to the Mediterranean had responded to a distress call from a Tuvalu-registered ship that was boarded by pirates.
The Indian Navy said its helicopters provided air cover while the PLA Navy vessel Yulin sent a stem of 18 personal to sanitise the ship.
CHINA MAKES NO MENTION OF INDIAN NAVY'S ROLE
China, however, has made no mention of the Indian Navy's role and suggested its helicopters were involved in reconnaissance.
A Defence Ministry statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency simply said the PLA Navy had conducted reconnaissance and rescued the vessel.
When asked at a regular press briefing on India's role, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying only repeated the statement, saying that on April 8 the 25th convoy fleet of the Chinese Navy conducting an escort mission in the Gulf of Aden had received a report from the United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations (UKMTO) about the hijack of the Tuvaluan ship.
"The vessel Yulin set off for the area immediately," said Hua. "Under cover of helicopters, special forces members of the navy rescued the 18 members on board. We believe the aforementioned operation demonstrated the effectiveness of Chinese naval forces in fighting against piracy".
Asked about India's role in the operation, Hua said, "China is always open to international cooperation in combating pirates and ready for more cooperation in this regard".
"The Chinese convoy," she added, "received reports from the UK MTO and conducted the rescue operation. As I just said, the Chinese side is positive towards international cooperation against piracy. This position is very clear."
ALSO READ | Dalai Lama's Arunachal visit may force Beijing to 'interfere' in Kashmir issue: Chinese media
How Indian and Chinese navy fought off pirate attack in Gulf of Aden: All you need to know
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Amid the ruins of the civil war-ravaged city of Aleppo, Syria, are the remnants of what was once a zoo - and some animals are still there. Two skeletal tigers, two bears and several monkeys have been trying to survive in their cages at the zoo known as Aalim al-Sahar, or The Magic World.
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
This month, the owner of the zoo reached out to the only man around he believed could help: An ambulance driver and animal rescuer, Mohammad Alaa Jaleel, known as Alaa. As thousands of families fled to save their lives during the almost nonstop years of fighting, Alaa started a sanctuary for the pet cats and dogs who got lost in the chaos. "The magic is over," Alessandra Abidin, a friend of Alaa's who runs the private Facebook group for Il Gattaro d'Aleppo ("the cat man of Aleppo") wrote from her home in Italy. "Only death and war, so many animals have died." Last week, Alaa visited what was left of the old zoo.
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
When he approached their cages, the animals just came to him, as if they knew he was there to help them.
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Alaa has now started bringing the animals fresh meat, thanks to donations from fans of his rescue work, who live all over the world. But finding longer term help for these animals is proving to be difficult.
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
"They are undernourished and are dying of hunger," Abidin wrote. "We want to find them an association or some person that can bear the cost of their food. It costs 100 per day to feed these animals." Members of the Il Gattaro D'Aleppo Facebook group are reaching out to many different organizations to see if they can help. But so far, nothing has come through. Many international rescue organizations just don't have the ability to go into war zones to save animals.
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
Alaa is trying to calm and comfort the animals, while people rush to find a solution. He fed the bears some honey, which seemed to lift their spirits.
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
"We are working to find a way to bring them Turkey," Abidin told The Dodo on Monday. "But this needs time and hard work."
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
Sadly, time is what these animals simply do not have. Already, Alaa found the body of a gazelle in one cage who had just died of starvation.
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
"It breaks my heart that these beings have survived the horrors and noise of over six years of terrible war and now face the very real and agonizing possibility of slow starvation," Jayne Reed, a member of Il Gattaro D'Aleppo, told The Dodo.
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
Il Gattaro D'Aleppo
On Friday, a terrorist attack in Stockholm, Sweden, claimed the lives of four people and injured more than a dozen others. There is one victim, however, who isn't always mentioned in news reports about that tragic incident a dog named Iggy who lost his life that day, too. But the people of Stockholm are making sure he is not forgotten.
Facebook/Dogs Aid
After a hijacked truck rammed into pedestrians on a crowded shopping street last week, makeshift memorials began to appear at the spot in remembrance of those who died. But Markus Krantz, who lives nearby, noticed that Iggy seemed to have been overlooked. "I saw no one put a flower or lit a candle in the place where the poor dog was killed during Friday's attack," Krantz wrote in a post online. "So we gave him our own little memorial. The collar belonged to my first dog, Ebba, who passed away this summer." The touching tribute initially included candles and some dog treats, as well. But from there, it quickly began to grow.
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Facebook/Markus Krantz
Before long, countless other mourners added to Iggy's memorial, paying their respects to a pup they likely never had the chance to meet themselves but who's still very much worth remembering. Included in the memorial are flowers, cards, dog toys and even a child's drawing for Iggy.
Facebook/Dogs Aid
Facebook/Denise Dayan
Dogs Aid, an Ireland-based rescue charity, has since confirmed that it had helped Iggy find a home in Sweden back in 2012; it's clear that, even years later, the group never forgot him. "R.I.P. beautiful, special boy. Run to the Bridge dear one, all of your Dogs Aid friends will be waiting for you. One hundred thousand stars will light your way," the group wrote on Facebook, adding: "Our thoughts are with IGGY'S family. They loved him so much and gave him the best life imaginable. His family would like privacy at this sad and traumatic time."
Facebook/Patrick Vesterlund
China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Wu Dawei is expected to discuss the North's nuclear issue with his South Korean counterpart.
By Reuters: A Chinese envoy will arrive in South Korea today to discuss North Korea's increasingly defiant weapons programme as a US Navy strike group heads to the region amid concerns Pyongyang may be readying a fresh nuclear test.
North Korea marks several major anniversaries this month and often marks the occasions with major tests of military hardware.
The possibility of US military action against North Korea in response to such a test emerged as an option following last week's US strikes against Syria. It was further fuelled by comments from US President Donald Trump's top aides on the weekend.
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In Tokyo, the feasibility of US military action was downplayed, while South Korea said the focus remained on deterrence and readiness.
"It probably is not realistic for the US to attack North Korea," a Japanese defence ministry source said. "If America says it is going to attack, both Japan and South Korea will probably put a stop to it," said the source who declined to be identified.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US military strike against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons was a warning to other countries including North Korea that "a response is likely" if they pose a danger.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken," Tillerson said on CBS's Face the Nation.
China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Wu Dawei is expected to discuss the North's nuclear issue with his South Korean counterpart, according to the South Korean foreign ministry.
Wu's trip comes after Trump and Xi met in Florida, where Trump pressed his counterpart to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear programme.
SHOW OF FORCE
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson canceled a planned trip to Australia and is moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a US official told Reuters over the weekend. "We feel the increased presence is necessary," the official said.
South Korean and US forces are also involved in annual joint military drills that run until the end of April. The North calls the drills preparations for war against it.
Several North Korean anniversaries in April could be opportunity for Pyongyang to conduct nuclear or missile tests, South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said.
North Korea has invited a large number of foreign media representatives to Pyongyang this week, likely to cover the so-called "Day of the Sun" birth anniversary on April 15 of the state founder Kim Il Sung.
Moon did not directly respond to a question about the possibility of a US military strike against the North.
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"Considering the possibility of North Korea's strategic provocations such as a nuclear test and missile launches, we have in place deterrence to the North's provocation and all readiness against them," he told a briefing on Monday.
Senior envoys of South Korea, Japan and the United State on the North Korea nuclear programme will soon meet to discuss their coordinated response, the South's foreign ministry said.
North Korea sounded a note of defiance on Saturday calling the US strikes against Syria "an unforgivable act of aggression" that showed its decision to develop nuclear weapons was "the right choice."
North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday that flew a short distance before spinning out of control and crashing into the sea, the latest of a number of missile tests defying UN sanctions.
The North is also seen to be ready to conduct its sixth nuclear test at any time, with movements detected by satellites at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
ALSO READ | Kim Jong-un on Trump's radar? US Navy diverts strike group towards Korean peninsula
ALSO READ | Syria strike a warning to others, including North Korea: US Secretary of State Tillerson
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By Press Trust of India: Kochi, Apr 10 (PTI) The vice principal of an engineering college at Thrissur, arrested in a case of alleged suicide by a college student was granted interim bail by the Kerala High Court today.
Justice Abraham Mathew granted interim bail to Thrissurs Nehru College of Engineering Vice Principal N K Sakthivel stipulating that he must not enter the college premises.
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The bail was granted a day after Sakthivel was arrested from Annoor in Coimbatore by a Special Investigation Team probing the case.
The court also asked the vice principal not to participate in the day-to-day matters of the institute, while granting him the bail on a bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties for the same amount.
The court also criticised the police for arresting Sakthivel while his anticipatory bail plea was pending before it.
The special public prosecutor opposed the bail plea, saying that there was no legal hurdle in arresting the accused as there was no specific order of the court against arresting him.
The family of engineering student Jishnu Pranoy, who had allegedly committed suicide, meanwhile, ended their indefinite fast late last night after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assured them that all the accused in the case would be brought to book. Thechief minister had called up Mahija, Jishnus mother, and assured her that steps would be taken to book all the accused in the case.
Jishnu, a first year student of the college, was found hanging in the college hostel in January this year.
Sakthivel was arrested after the government formed a Special Investigation Team and announced Rs one lakh reward to persons giving information on the absconding accused in the case. PTI COR TGB APR RAX
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LONDONBarclays Plc chief executive officer Jes Staley faces a significant pay cut and a regulatory probe for trying to unmask an anonymous whistleblower last year.
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is investigating both Staleys individual conduct relating to the complaint and the banks responsibilities and controls in connection with whistleblowing, the bank said in a statement. The violation of policy leaves Staley, 60, open to a fine or even a ban from the industry if the FCA deems him not fit and proper to lead the firm. Staley, who will be reprimanded by the firm, has admitted his error and apologized.
The former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive made restoring Barclayss reputation the centrepiece of his tenure, after the bank was fined billions of pounds over scandals including rigging Libor, gaming currency markets and wrongfully selling customers insurance products they didnt need. The FCA and Serious Fraud Office are separately investigating the banks 2008 emergency fundraising backed by Qatar, where questions have been raised about the proper disclosure of fees and services agreements between the two parties.
Read more:Court convicts Barclays traders in Libor case
At present, Staley will probably survive as CEO, but if other allegations of unethical behaviour emerge, this could change, said Andre Spicer, a professor specializing in organizational behaviour at the Cass Business School at City University in London. No one within the bank is likely to trust the whistleblowing system any more.
Staley tried to identify a tipster who alerted the bank to a personal matter involving a senior executive, the bank said, confirming what a person with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg earlier Monday. An investigation by law firm Simmons & Simmons LLP commissioned by Barclays concluded that Staley honestly, but mistakenly believed that it was permissible to identify the author of the letter. The case is also under scrutiny by the Department of Financial Services in New York, the person said.
I have apologized to the Barclays board and accepted its conclusion that my personal actions in this matter were errors on my part, Staley said in a statement. I will also accept whatever sanction it deems appropriate. I will co-operate fully with the FCA and the Prudential Regulatory Authority, which are now both examining this matter.
Staley has recruited several former colleagues from JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he spent more than three decades, since joining in December 2015. The CEO rebuffed calls to spin off or radically shrink the securities unit, instead opting to speed up sales of unwanted assets and sell down the firms African banking stake to reduce the banks capital requirements.
Staley received a 1.3-million ($2.15 million) annual bonus and he may be docked the entire amount as a result of the scandal, according to a person familiar with the boards investigation. The bank will not make a decision about how much to deduct until after the U.K. regulators complete their investigation. The CEO was awarded 7.53 million in total compensation including benefits for last year.
Given the banks history of regulatory mishaps, the latest investigation is a very significant embarrassment for the board as it tries to rebuild Barclays reputation, and a serious knock for Staley, Shore Capital analyst Gary Greenwood wrote in a note to investors, adding he doesnt think the CEO should be fired. It remains to be seen whether the PRA and FCA come to the same conclusion as the board in allowing him to remain in his post. It is possible that the group may also be fined by the regulators.
The attempt to identify the whistle-blower came to the attention of Barclays directors early this year after an employee raised concerns. The board notified the FCA and the PRA and other authorities.
The board has concluded that Jes Staley, group chief executive officer, honestly, but mistakenly, believed that it was permissible to identify the author of the letter and has accepted his explanation that he was trying to protect a colleague who had experienced personal difficulties in the past from what he believed to be an unfair attack, and has accepted his apology, chairman John McFarlane said in the statement.
In June, the board received a letter and a senior executive another anonymous letter raising concerns about an employee recruited by Barclays earlier that year. Among other issues, the letters raised concerns of a personal nature about the senior employee, Staleys knowledge of and role in dealing with those issues at a previous employer.
Staley requested that the banks Group Information Security team identify the author, yet was informed it was not appropriate to do so. The following month, the CEO again asked the GIS team to unmask the whistle-blower and this time received assistance from a U.S. law enforcement agency, according to Barclayss statement.
The allegations in the letters relate to Tim Main, who was hired in June as chair of the banks global financial institutions group, according to a person familiar with the case. Main joined from Evercore Partners Inc. and previously worked under Staley at JPMorgan.
Other Barclays employees, in addition to Staley, are also under probe for violating conduct, the person said.
A spokeswoman for Barclays declined to comment on Mains behalf. Patrick Burton, a spokesman for JPMorgan in London, declined to comment.
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DUBLINGuinness, the most iconic of Irish exports, shows the potential cost of the U.K.s decision to leave the European Union.
Brewed at St. Jamess Gate near the River Liffey in Dublin since the mid 18th century, whats in almost every bottle and can of the stout crosses the border from Ireland to the U.K. twice before reaching beer drinkers.
Ingredients from all over Ireland arrive in Dublin, where the water, barley, hops and yeast are mixed and brewed. The beer is then pumped into tanker trucks known as silver bullets and carried 90 miles north to Belfast in the U.K. province of Northern Ireland. There, its bottled and canned before being sent back south for distribution.
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Guinness highlights the concern over what happens to Britains only land border with the EU: the 310-mile frontier between the north and south of Ireland. While politicians and diplomats in Dublin, London and Brussels insist there will be no return to the controls in place during the violent sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, the reality may be more complicated. EU leaders are scheduled to hold a summit on April 29 to pave the way for two years of Brexit talks.
For me, theres no question, there has to be some sort of customs visibility on either side of the border, said Robert Murphy, a former customs official at the Irish tax authority who later worked at the European Commission in Brussels. The idea of having a seamless and frictionless border is lovely, but I do wonder how realistic it is.
Border controls began to melt away in the 1990s as the U.K. and Irish governments, backed by the EU, fostered a peace agreement between the mainly Catholic nationalists fighting for a united Ireland and the largely Protestant loyalists defending the status quo.
Shoppers are now free to filter back and forth using their Irish euros or British pounds. Cross-border trade is worth more than 3 billion ($4.2 billion) a year, the Irish government estimates.
For London-based Diageo Plc, the owner of Guinness, it means the companys trucks can head north and south unencumbered.
Each year, they make 13,000 beer-related border crossings in Ireland. Add in Baileys, the whiskey and cream-based liqueur, and the number rises to over 18,000. A hard border could cause delays of between 30 minutes and an hour, costing an extra 100 ($142) for each journey, the company said. That alone would add 1.3 million ($1.8 million) to the cost of Guinness and other beers Diageo produces in Ireland.
The company has said it will work with the British and Irish governments on finding a solution to the border issue.
Brexit could cut trade flows between Ireland and the U.K. by as much as a fifth, the Economic & Social Research Institute estimated. In draft guidelines for negotiating the U.K.s exit, EU President Donald Tusk said flexible and imaginative solutions will be needed to avoid a hard border.
For big companies like Diageo and brands like Guinness, there might be solutions, whether that be electronic tagging or some sort of trusted trader program, Murphy said. Customs officers dont want to waste peoples time. But its not going to be easy.
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In this age of rage, Madison Avenue is finding itself on red alert.
Advertisers are increasingly in the crosshairs of populist activists aided by the power and reach of social media who are demanding that brands quickly take sides on divisive social and political issues, posing a new challenge to corporations that usually prefer to stay out of the fray.
After a groundswell of online anger over reports that Bill OReilly, the Fox News host, had settled with at least five women who accused him of harassment, more than 50 companies pulled their ads from OReillys popular prime-time program. The exodus followed similar campaigns to pressure brands with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump, like L.L. Bean, Uber and advertisers on The New Celebrity Apprentice.
Read more:More advertisers ditch Foxs Bill OReilly show after sexual harassment allegations
Americans are now demanding that their brands articulate their values and weigh in on political issues, and I think the degree to which they are expecting that is really quite new, said Kara Alaimo, who teaches public relations at Hofstra University and worked in communications for the United Nations, the U.S. Treasury Department in the Obama administration, and the administration of former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. What social media is doing is forcing companies to make these decisions much more rapidly.
Ad boycotts are not new: provocateurs like Don Imus and Glenn Beck lost their cable news soapboxes in part because an angry public used petitions and letter-writing campaigns to force companies to drop their sponsorship.
But the pile-on culture of social media has accelerated the process to such a degree that corporations may find themselves besieged in hours by tens of thousands of online critics.
Last week, Pepsi was excoriated for a tone-deaf commercial that invoked the imagery of populist protest to sell soft drinks. A Twitter post from the Rev. Bernice King, the daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., that mocked Pepsi was reposted more than 140,000 times. Within roughly 24 hours of the release of the ad, Pepsi pulled it and apologized.
The speed of this cycle has tested even the best-prepared marketing giants, creating a niche for public relations specialists who say they can help companies navigate these instant social media storms.
One firm offers software and training sessions that simulate a real-time online attack on a brand the corporate equivalent of war games.
The boycotts may give brief satisfaction to social media activists. But many of the sponsors that turned away from OReilly this week are still advertising on Fox News, which reaches the biggest audience on cable television. Fox says it is working with sponsors to address any concerns about The OReilly Factor. And specialists say there will be little to no financial impact on the network in the near future, though that could change over time.
Brian Wieser, a media analyst at Pivotal Research, said that for now, Fox News was essentially just shuffling inventory not unlike if you run a store and have got to figure out what shelf on which you put different products. In the short term, the fallout could eat into revenue for The OReilly Factor as cheaper commercials replace big-spending brands, Wieser said, while the longer-term worry is that advertisers could reassess the annual budgets they spend on Fox News.
But social media are also handy conduits for people to register their anger with brands directly and en masse.
The intensity of this is a lot greater, said Matthew Hiltzik, a former Democratic consultant who draws on his experience in rapid-fire political campaigns to advise corporate clients. Companies need to invest time and resources in developing proactive strategies that advance and protect the brand, so that they are best prepared to deal with the unexpected.
Weber Shandwick, the public relations firm, created a simulation software and training tool called Firebell in 2010 to prepare clients for social media maelstroms. Its website describes a new strain of crisis made up of a string of critical nano-moments, which can gain momentum and mass at inferno-speed. Firebell, introduced as one facet of responding to a crisis, is now central to the firms crisis management training, a spokesperson said.
Brands are particularly concerned that they can be unaware of where their messages are showing up until angry consumers come calling. In recent months, news outlets and activists have discovered prominent companies inadvertently financing a wide range of objectionable material online through automated ad placement, including sites that traffic in fake news and racist and terrorism-related videos on YouTube.
The pressure represents some whiplash for an industry that had broadly moved away from relying on content as a rough proxy for groups of people, focusing instead on targeting online ads, and to a lesser extent, television ads, by audience size, browsing habits and other user characteristics.
Orkin, a pest-control company that removed its ads from The OReilly Factor, does not buy ads on specific shows but instead purchases broad day parts on networks that reach our target audience, Martha Craft, a spokesperson, said. The company added OReillys show to a Do Not Buy list after learning of the allegations against him, she said.
This year, consumers pushed brands to distance themselves from The New Celebrity Apprentice because Trump remained an executive producer of the show. That effort stemmed from #GrabYourWallet, a grassroots social media campaign that urges boycotts of companies selling Trump-related products.
We havent seen brands almost treated as individuals in this way before, and expected to espouse political beliefs and uphold them consistently across platforms in everything they do, Alaimo said.
Many companies are still figuring out how to cope with these situations, she said, adding that it was crucial to respond during the golden hour of crisis. The term refers to the golden hour in emergency medicine the window after a traumatic injury in which treatment is most likely to stave off death or permanent damage.
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A little less than a year ago, among the many startup tasks on newly arrived Art Gallery of Ontario director Stephan Josts docket was what to do with his office.
Recently vacated by his predecessor, Matthew Teitelbaum, the walls were bare, and, given its bank of south-facing windows, that was how they would mostly remain; paintings, drawing and photography dont do well in direct sunlight, a particular faux-pas in institutions charged with their immaculate conservation.
So, with a shrug, Jost wedged in a visit to the sculpture storage vaults in the gallerys sub-basement, where heartier, sun-resistant office fare might be found. I think it was when I walked past the second Giacometti that I realized we had to do something, Jost said, much more recently.
Late last month, the director offered a quick walk-through of phase one of what his inadvertent treasure hunt has yielded: the gallerys Look: Forward initiative which, by some time next year, will see a complete reinstallation of virtually all of its permanent collection displays (this first phase opened at the end of March). All in, thats 70,000 square feet worth of moving pieces almost 20 per cent of the gallerys entire 583,000 square feet, and a more than 50 per cent increase in the permanent collections previous footprint.
Its an enormous project, and with the directors stamp his first since arriving last spring. The content itself has tasked the curators (though as you might expect, one of the Giacomettis, the 1929 bronze work Three Figures Outdoors, was among the first to be dusted off; its on view right now), and all departments will take their turn. It will touch almost every part of the building plastic sheeting and locked doors bar the entry to several galleries-in-transition right now as well as some long untouched: Along the walkway surrounding Walker Court, the gallerys airy central hub, several vitrines were installed with Inuit carvings the first time in more than a decade art has ever been put there.
First at bat has been the department of Modern art, plumbing the vaults for early-to-mid 20th century Modernism. In a tight span of three adjacent rooms, now sporting an array of greatest hits and lost treasures, are its finds: Giacometti, the catalyst, was acquired in 1989, but has been rarely seen here for 20 years or more (the AGOs exhibition archive for the piece only goes back to 1998); a rough, gestural bust by Modern master Henri Matisse, Jeanette V, cast in 1930, last seen at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, of all places, in Waterloo in 2005, and not at the AGO since 2001.
But the prizewinner here for disappearing is Painting No. 147, a big, expressive work of gestural abstraction from 1959 by the Spanish artist Luis Feito. Acquired in 1962, it is amazingly on display for the first time literally ever, since the day it left Feitos studio according to the gallerys own text on the wall.
How can artworks be kept away from the eyes of the audience for which they were acquired for years, or even decades?
A few reasons. For some, theyre in demand: Three Figures Outdoors had a spurt of travel that saw it travelling to exhibitions in Montreal, Zurich, New York and London all between 1998 and 2001 (it went on view briefly here in 2015, not as part of a formal show; previous to that, it hadnt been seen anywhere since a Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition on Surrealism in 2011). Pablo Picassos Femme Assisse, from 1927, rarely seen here, has had its passport stamped more than a dozen times, being in almost constant motion on loan since 2001.
Another Picasso, the tiny blue-period La Soupe, from 1902, has bounced since 1998 from Boston to Washington, D.C., to Nashville to Ocala, Fla., to Buffalo to Osaka, Japan. It hasnt been seen here for a decade, and in September 2018, itll be on the move again this time to the Musee dOrsay in Paris.
Others, like Feitos, simply vanish into the vaults, perhaps lacking context, occasion or loan requests to keep them in the public imagination.
Witness the fate of iconic high-Modern sculptor Barbara Hepworths Sea Form (Porthmeor) from 1958, a majestic, organic swoop of dark stone. Since it was first shown at the AGO in 1964, its barely been seen, here or anywhere else; its been brought up from the vaults only four times in the past 50-odd years, the last one in 1995. Another, a large, iconic minimal work by Josef Albers, Homage to the Square (Oasis), from 1961, has shown only once, in 1996.
Collections, of course, can be unwieldy things, vast (the AGOs numbers some 90,000 pieces; about 4,000 are on view at any given time) and often bogged down with more chaff than wheat. Teitelbaum, prior to his departure, had talked about clearing the cobwebs and winnowing through the AGOs holdings to divest of some of the less-desirable works (some things are rarely or never shown for good reason); Jost, informally, has signalled an intention to advance that mission.
Being buffered by volume and hampered by limited floor space are two more reasons works can languish in the dark, but there are forces, too, that can bring them to light. Not part of Look: Forward has been the gallerys Tributes and Tributaries, an exhibition of work made in Toronto from recently installed curator of Canadian and Indigenous Art Wanda Nanibush, whose fresh-eyed scan through the collection has brought back works not seen in decades, and some of them, never.
Assistant curator of Modern Art Kenneth Brummel, who arrived just over a year ago from Kansas City, brought his own fresh view of the gallerys holdings to phase one of Look: Forward, excavating rarely seen gems few would have known the gallery to even possess: Natalia Goncharovas The Bridge, from 1914, a spectacular small work from one of the few female icons of the Russian avant-garde; Alexander Archipenkos Flat Torso, from 1914; cubist master Fernand Legers Femme a Genou, from 1921; Abstract Expressionist forefather Arshile Gorkys They Will Take My Island, 1944, which, according to gallery archives, was acquired in 1980 and has never been shown; and Chaim Soutines remarkable, rough and dynamic The Village Church, from 19191922.
The display is rounded out with old favourites works that seem almost as permanent on the walls here as the doors on their hinges: Franz Klines big black and white Ab Ex masterpiece, Cuppola (1958-60), or the cosy familiarity of Picassos Nu aux mains serrees, from 1905-06 (its been on view here, with few interruptions, since 2011).
Rejoined with lost treasures, its like a reunion of old friends, a deeper contextual frame for the gallerys greatest-hits acquisitions over the years.
But if theres a quibble, and its not a small one, it would be the levelling effect displays of these sorts tend to have. Its the sense that, surrounded by universally loved big names (even when leavened by the surprising and unusual), you could be anywhere a sealed esthetic environment apart from the world outside its doors.
Its not, of course, and disconnecting Canada from Modernism, as appears to be whats happening here, is to shortchange the audience and the country both. Im the last, typically, to beat the Group of Seven drum, unless its to fold them into a larger, non-Canadiana context.
Heres one: Look: Forward 1.0 opens with a selection of early-20th century post-Impressionist landscape painting (hey, didnt we have some guys who did that around here?) into which the craft of, say, Tom Thomson would naturally fit (Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumins Le Travas: matin, temps gris, from 1907, has a distinctly arboreal, Thomson-y vibe).
In the second gallery, a rare figurative piece by Montreal abstract painter and Automatiste Paul-Emile Borduas tucks in beside Giacometti, Goncharova, Joan Miro and Emil Nolde.
Borduas is, sore-thumb-like, the lone Canadian anywhere here, and he prompts some wondering. Wouldnt it be kind of nice to see the angular cubism of Kathleen Munn, a Toronto-based solitary avant-gardist of the same period, very present in the AGOs vaults, tucked in as well, somewhere between the Leger and Albert Gleizes?
And lastly, in room three, where Hepworth and David Smith are represented by robust abstract sculpture, inserting our own Sorel Etrog much present in the collection and beloved of Sam and Ayala Zacks, the legendary Toronto patrons who donated much of the work on view here to the AGO in the first place wouldnt be even a slight stretch. And what about drawing a link from the previous room, between the thick, deliberate abstraction of Borduas (have a look upstairs, where the museum has several) and his Automatiste peers to their New York contemporaries in Gorky and Kline?
The gallery is just beginning to explore the depths of the permanent collection, a revitalizing churn that puts on view varying priorities and tastes over the years. It has already turned up some wonders. But lets remember: Theres nothing more permanent about the AGO than the city and country in which it makes its home, and that cant be tucked in storage and forgotten.
Correction April 13, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that said the AGO has never installed artworks in the walkway surrounding Walker Court. In fact, art was installed there until the early 2000s.
AGO Look: Forward will continue to September 2018.
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The federal government is exploring potential policy changes to reduce the length of immigration detention and get non-violent migrants out of maximum-security jails, according to a new report.
The Canada Border Services Agencys New National Immigration Detention Framework, released late Friday, is not a concrete plan as much as it is a general set of intentions. But, if implemented, it would signal a substantial shift in how Canada treats its unwanted immigrants.
Based on a series of stakeholder consultations conducted last fall in response to mounting public pressure, the report from Canadas border police agency says it wants to better align itself with international and domestic standards for immigration detention by reducing the use of maximum-security jails, expanding alternatives to detention and drastically shrinking the number of children in detention.
By implementing the Framework, Canada Border Services Agency is taking concrete steps to exercise its responsibility for detentions to the highest possible standards, the report reads.
Canadas border police can detain immigrants who have been found inadmissible to the country if they believe they are a danger to the public, will not show up for their deportation, or if their identity is in doubt. The average length of detention last year was 23 days, but hundreds of detainees end up languishing in deportation limbo for months or years.
A recent Star investigation found Canadas immigration detention system regularly subjects difficult-to-deport migrants to indefinite detention often in maximum-security jails and is routinely unable to solve long-term detentions.
Highlighted in the series is the fact that Canada is one of only a handful of developed countries that do not have a maximum length of detention for immigration detainees. In Europe, maximum lengths of detention range from 45 days to 18 months. Mexico has a 60-day limit on immigration detention, while the United States doesnt technically have a limit, but the Supreme Court there has ruled that, if after six months deportation is not reasonably foreseeable in the near future, the detainee should be released.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee called on Canada in 2015 to set a reasonable time limit on immigration detention, but the federal government has thus far been reluctant to change its policy, concerned that such a deadline would provide an incentive for detainees not to co-operate with authorities.
Although the new report doesnt specify what policy changes are being considered, it does suggest the government is interested in detaining fewer immigrants who do not pose a danger to Canadian society and who collaborate with the government in their deportation.
Since taking power in the fall of 2015, the federal Liberals have already detained fewer people for immigration purposes than the Conservatives did. They have also significantly reduced the use of provincial jails, at least in Ontario, where federal immigration detention payments have declined sharply in the past year.
Federal payments to the province for immigration detention in the 2016-17 fiscal year are projected to be a little over $13 million, after three years in which annual payments averaged $21 million.
Since immigration detainees are a federal responsibility, Ottawa has to pay the provinces to hold them in provincial jails. They also pay the provinces a 20-per-cent premium on top of the per capita costs. In Ontario last year, immigration detention cost the federal government $258.83 per detainee per day, according to figures provided by Ontarios Ministry of Corrections.
The federal government runs three facilities dedicated to immigration detention one each in Toronto, Vancouver and Laval, Que. but none currently complies with international norms for immigration detention, according to the governments report.
Thats why two-thirds of the total number of days spent in immigration detention are in maximum-security provincial jails, where immigration detainees who have not been charged or convicted of a criminal offence are treated the same as inmates serving a criminal sentence or awaiting trial.
The roundtable consultations that spurred the report followed last summers announcement by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale of a $138-million investment aimed at improving immigration detention, primarily by expanding and upgrading federal detention facilities.
The report repeats previous commitments to replace inadequate detention centres in Laval and Vancouver, but it also promises to upgrade Torontos Immigration Holding Centre, which, because of its design and an agreement with its private service provider, the agency said is currently equipped to handle only low-risk detainees with no criminal record.
According to the CBSAs own policies, immigration detainees with a non-violent criminal record should, in most cases, be held in an Immigration Holding Centre rather than a provincial jail.
The CBSA outsources the provision of services within Torontos Immigration Holding Centre to a private company called Corbel Management Corp., which provides maintenance, housekeeping and food services. The agreement with Corbel appears to preclude the housing of immigration detainees with any criminal record even non-violent, petty offences that did not result in any jail time.
Corbels certificate of insurance, obtained by the Star, stresses it is a low-risk detention centre, which does not deal with any criminal-related immigration.
The company did not respond to questions from the Star, but a CBSA spokesperson said Corbel does not play a role in deciding where detainees are held.
Echoing the report, the spokesperson said pending upgrades to Torontos Immigration Holding Centre will allow it to accept higher-risk detainees. Once the appropriate infrastructure enhancements have been made, the CBSA will upgrade its service contract with Corbel to increase the facilitys ability to hold higher-risk detainees, she wrote.
These enhancements will see an important reduction in the use of provincial correctional facilities for higher-risk detainees.
The government is also asking individual Canadians for their input on immigration detention, inviting feedback to the report by way of an online questionnaire.
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MONTREALThe head of Quebecs largest police department declared himself a defender of journalistic sources who was aghast to learn his force had obtained reporters phone records while probing a leak of confidential information.
But while Surete du Quebec director general Martin Prudhomme talked up his actions after the scandal began last fall, he waited until the end of a long day of testimony at an inquiry into the confidentiality and protection of journalists sources to mention that it wasnt the only case.
The revelation was a rough start for a process that began in earnest Monday with the aim of restoring public trust in the police following a series of problems that have spilled out into the open. In addition to the SQ, the Montreal Police force has also admitted to monitoring journalists telephone communications while probing one of its own officers a practice that has been denounced as an attack on press freedoms.
Prudhomme, who took leadership of the provincial force in 2014, has tried to stay above the fray, which has pitted both media commentators and his political masters against the SQ. His testimony emphasized that he placed restrictions on the practice within hours of learning on Nov. 1, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. that investigators probing a leaked wiretap recording had obtained a search warrant for the call logs of six reporters in 2013, going back as far as five years.
From that day, anyone seeking to target a journalist in their investigation would have to first obtain Prudhommes approval, which he suggested would not come easily.
I am a fervent protector of sources and I also believe in journalistic sources. I think the media needs information to work, he said.
Yet Prudhomme revealed he has been sitting on information for almost four months about another reporter who had fallen into his forces crosshairs this time in 2012. He was informed of the case on Dec. 20, 2016 after a search of investigations going back to 1995.
The name of Journal de Quebec reporter Nicolas Sallant has been added to the list of reporters, with the dubious distinction of having been spied on by Quebec police.
This is important information. This means there is a journalist who, since 2012, has been the subject of surveillance and didnt know before right now, Francois Fontaine, a lawyer for Quebecor Media, told the head of the commission, Jacques Chamberland. We dont know the context or the reason.
That information could come Tuesday when the examination of Prudhomme continues. But the head of the SQ said no journalists in Quebec have been targeted by his investigators since the initial revelations.
Its very clear, he said in response to a question from media lawyer, Christian Leblanc. The answer is no.
In the past, it appears investigators were relatively free to seek search warrants for journalists communications so long as they could draft a convincing application that would sway a justice of the peace.
Since last fall, the Quebec government set new standards requiring investigators to first have the approval of the Crown prosecution service for such search warrant requests.
Chief Insp. Andre Goulet, head of the SQs criminal investigative section, also testified that officers have been told to treat journalists who may become involved in a criminal probe in the same manner as lawyers, judges or politicians who may be in possession of sensitive information or have confidential relationships would be treated.
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MONTREALIf he wants to avoid spending the 2019 campaign walking on the shards of yet another broken signature promise, Justin Trudeau has little choice but to make good on his promise to legalize marijuana in time for the next election.
Of the many commitments the prime minister made on the way to his majority victory some were more emblematic than others. The Liberal embrace of deficit spending, the vow to change the voting system in time for 2019 and the legalization of marijuana fall into that category.
On the issue of not letting a deficit stand in his way of his policy ambitions one could argue that Trudeau has delivered in spades. Or alternatively that he broke his word the moment he presented the country with a deficit three times larger than previously advertised, with no solid timeline to return to budget balance.
Trudeau has turned his back on the search for an alternative to the first-past-the-post voting system. With electronic and compulsory voting also off the table, there is little left of the Liberal promise to make sweeping changes to the way Canadians elect their government.
That leaves the legalization of marijuana a commitment that strategists believe went a long way to attract a cohort of first-time voters to a) cast a ballot and b) to support the Liberals in 2015.
If only to counter the perception that Trudeau cant be counted on to keep his word, delivering on the marijuana promise before Canada next goes to the polls has become non-negotiable.
But it will not be a cakewalk.
The prime ministers promise has always been more popular than his own party. That is still the case as the government readies to introduce its marijuana bill later this week. But polls suggest that as Canadians hear more details about the plan more of them may be having second thoughts. Support for the measure was always high, but it may also always have been soft.
A Nanos poll published last August pegged support for the policy at an overwhelming 70 per cent. That score was in line with election polls on the same issue. But a RPG Research Group survey done just as the government was signalling the imminent introduction of its marijuana bill last month found that the pro-legalization cohort had shrunk to 51 per cent.
It could be that the reality that Canada is going further than just removing the consumption of cannabis from the Criminal Code is sinking in. In the last campaign, there was plenty of anecdotal evidence that the distinction between decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana was not always uppermost in the minds of many voters.
Over the past few months the debate has shifted from pure politics and party branding to public health concerns. It could be that the arguments pertaining to the risks of making marijuana widely available on the legal market are having an impact.
And then there is the body language of the provincial governments. It is they that will have to do the heavy lifting and create an infrastructure to distribute and sell cannabis once the federal bill is passed. They are warily waiting to see the fine print of the legislation.
Take Quebec. It has long been ahead of the provincial curve on a host of sensitive progressive issues. Over the past decades the National Assembly pushed the envelope on abortion rights, same-sex marriage and more recently medically assisted death.
But that benevolent attitude will not necessarily extend to marijuana. Last month Quebecs Health Minister Gaetan Barrette complained that the federal government was handing the provinces a public health hot potato. The Coalition Avenir Quebec has serious reservations about the federal plan. On this, there will not be a unanimous motion of the national assembly. In the RPG poll, support for Trudeaus marijuana plan in his home-province was at the very low end at 37 per cent.
Among the larger provinces, Ontario has been the most enthusiastic about the federal intention. In light of the unpopularity of Kathleen Wynnes Liberal government, that may be more a curse than a blessing.
If all goes according to the federal plan, the legislation that is to be tabled on Thursday in the House of Commons will pave the way to the legal selling of marijuana across the country by the summer of next year. What will happen between now and then is a real national conversation about Canadas approach to cannabis.
Chantal Hebert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
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By Press Trust of India: (Eds: Adds detail, incorporates UP-MINISTER)
Lucknow, Apr 10 (PTI) Employees should get over the "holiday hangover" being experienced in UP for the last 15 years, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi today said after finding "very low" attendance in his department during a surprise check.
The minister said those marked absent today would lose one day salary.
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"The quantum of laxity in the office is very high. It is absolutely unjustified. The attendance in the office is very low. Those who have been marked absent today would face a pay cut of one day," he said. A warning has been issued to officials who were absent today during his spot inspection, he said. "The ground reality is indeed disturbing and we will take stringent action against habitual offenders. There should be no pendency of work and all works must be completed within the stipulated deadline," Shahi said.
Expressing displeasure over the low attendance at Krishi Bhawan, Shahi said the "holiday hangover" being experienced during the last 15 years of SP and BSP regimes will have to be changed at any cost.
Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mohsin Raza also paid a surprise visit to the office of the Shia Waqf Board here.
He was visibly annoyed when he found no employee there even at 11.30 AM, two hours beyond the reporting time. "This is shocking...the fans are running, the ACs are on," he said.
"It seems that the officials of this department do not feel the pain of the common public, who come from far flung places with their grievances," Raza said. "We (the ministers) reach offices by 9.30 AM. But, even at 11.30 AM, the officials are yet to reach," he rued. "From today onwards, the officials must come out of the hangover of the previous government," he said. PTI NAV SMI DV
--- ENDS ---
Mayor John Tory is urging council colleagues to lobby MPPs and anyone else who can help Toronto gets its fair share of money in the upcoming 2017 provincial budget.
In a letter sent Sunday and obtained by the Star, Tory notes the recent federal budget pledges big spending on transit expansion, social housing renewal and more, which could mean billions of dollars for Toronto.
There is a strong need for another chair at the table and we need the province to take that spot . . . and match funds from Ottawa and the city.
Im asking you today to write to your local MP and MPP, to write to any federal or provincial politician you know, to urge them to make their voice heard on Torontos needs if we are to build a stronger, fairer city.
The mayor gave the 44 councillors a draft letter they can use as a template. It lists a dozen priority projects from Toronto city council that would benefit from provincial funds matching federal contributions with a combined total cost of more than $20 billion.
They include $6.8 billion for a relief subway line connecting downtown to the Danforth to ease Yonge line overcrowding; $3.72 billion for the SmartTrack line including Eglinton West LRT; $3.6 billion for Gardiner Expressway repairs; and $1.7 billion from the provincial and federal governments for Toronto Community Housing repairs.
Tory has been in a war of words with Premier Kathleen Wynnes government since January, when Wynne reneged on a commitment to let Toronto toll the city-owned Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway.
The mayor has called a doubling of gas tax revenues inadequate compensation and demanded provincial Liberals boost help for Toronto.
Wynnes ministers have fired back with long lists of past spending on the provincial capital plus future commitments including regional electric rail.
Those talking points are fine, Tory writes, but we all have to change our ways so as to fund and build continuously to meet the needs of a growing city.
Torys plea will, however, fall flat with some councillors.
Gord Perks and others, primarily on councils left-leaning flank, have said Toronto has little leverage demanding funds after Tory convinced council to keep the east Gardiner expressway aloft, rather than a much cheaper tear-down option, and to build a Scarborough subway extension rather than the much cheaper light-rail option.
While saying those decisions have added billions of dollars to Torontos massive list of unfunded priorities, they also note the mayor has refused to support raising property taxes above the rate of inflation.
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Exactly 20 years ago this month, Toronto was embroiled in a civic upheaval unmatched in our memory. The provincial government imposed a controversial merger on the six municipalities that stretched from Etobicoke Creek to the Rouge River, Lake Ontario up to Steeles Ave.
The forced amalgamation of Toronto, York, Etobicoke, East York, Scarborough and North York was resisted with verve, vigour and the kind of civic passion unparalleled since the huge majority of residents (three in four) had their protests squelched.
Mike Harris introduced Bill 103 at Queens Park. The entire creation, it seemed, hollered No in referenda, nightly vigils, legislative filibuster and with the amplification provided by every available democratic tool. To no avail. The majority Tory government carried the day. The old city was history. A new one would be born eight months later. And everywhere, the citizens vowed never to love the child born out of what amounted to a political assault akin to forced marriage.
The fight has gone out of the dog reality never matches the warnings of doom and destruction, so people forget what they had and what theyve lost and celebrate survival where spectacular success was possible. But look close to the surface and the wounds are only now healing.
Of course, this sounds like strange doctrine to so many. Hundreds of thousands of newcomers have since arrived. The only Mad Max mayor they know of is Rob Ford, not the original Bad Boy Mel Lastman. Ancient grievances between old Toronto and the regional government of Metro Toronto are lost on them. They dont get the stubborn, latent whine from Scarborough that the burbs get no respect.
Market Value Assessment. A New Deal for City. Downloading. Relics of the past, yes, the very near past. Still, one rarely hears calls for de-amalgamation.
By the time the amalgamated government took office on Jan. 1, 1998, the metropolis had grown weary. And Harris bludgeoned what little fight was left by turning the bazooka on the city with an unprecedented dump of service costs and cuts on the new city, rendering it almost stillborn.
Queens Park used to pay close to three-quarters of capital costs and half the operating costs for the TTC. Harris advised the new government it was getting out of paying the operating costs and grudgingly supplied a diminishing percentage of the cost of building the system and supplying it with vehicles.
Housing, a social cost if there ever was one, became Torontos responsibility. He stopped paying for sections of highways and dumped the cost on the city. And those costs have framed the fiscal arguments for the past 20 years.
The changeover was so tumultuous and seemingly designed to destabilize the city that, in order to survive, Toronto had to pull together.
Understand, this was the time the province filled in the tunnel already being built for the Eglinton West subway yes the very route where the Crosstown LRT is being built now. Harris said no to the Spadina extension now going up to Vaughan. He acquiesced to Lastman for the Sheppard Subway, but short-turned it at Don Mills Rd., instead of all the way to the Scarborough Town Centre.
To many reading this, it is ancient history. But there are direct lines from our current fiscal issues to those decisions. Due to heroic, sustained advocacy, much of the social service costs minus housing have been taken back. It was the Liberal government, led by Dalton McGuinty, that started the repair. That might explain the persistent deference to the Libs.
So was the amalgamation the correct decision? I still think so, though it has never felt comfortable to hold that view, contrary to allies on most other fronts. The union was a natural evolution of a relationship that had survived more than 150 years.
But Harris executed the act with what still seems like malice and malevolence.
This was an act of sheer terror, a hatchet job that hacked the city to near death. Well never know what a unified Toronto might have accomplished lovingly spawned after a proper gestation period and welcomed into the world with the appropriate crib and balloons and care package.
Instead, we got a new municipality, grieving a civic divorce, forced to exist in an arranged marriage with a good portion of its household income stolen by the source of the upheaval.
Little wonder the provincial Tories have never recovered. Toronto has become their political graveyard.
During the provincial election next year, the Tories could win the province by sweeping everywhere but Toronto. Again. But the road to governing can be greased with a little Toronto love.
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Another one?
A steady stream of exasperated, would-be customers standing on the sunlit sidewalk outside the Toronto Leaf Dispensary on Queen St. E. and Jarvis St. on Friday afternoon share a common refrain.
Just after 1 p.m., uniformed police officers and the citys by-law enforcement officers walked up to the frosted glass door of the as-yet-illegal weed dispensary for a second go at raiding it.
The first time didnt go as planned; the uniformed by-law officers couldnt get inside the first time they tried as there are five cameras installed outside the front door and an intercom for entry, the Star was told.
This time, theyve arrived with a police escort and a warrant in hand.
The quiet raid is only marked by the Open sign on the storefront being extinguished. Still, its not signal enough for the dozens of prospective customers, some whom are surprised, while others are infuriated to find a police officer on the other side of the door.
In recent months, Mayor John Tory has repeated the citys position that marijuana shops will be subject to enforcement if they continue to open and operate without a licensing regime in place.
Police and bylaw enforcement raids have continued, most recently snaring pot activists Marc and Jodie Emery and their Cannabis Culture chain stores as the city awaits word on legalization from Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus federal government.
The Star was tipped off about one such raid and watched it play out over the course of several hours.
The officers only get so far at first; past the front entry is another locked door employees refuse to open, Mark Sraga, the citys director of investigation services, tells the Star outside the shop.
A locksmith is called in to assist.
A young man sporting a duffel bag is at first mistaken for the man with the right tools. The intruder is quickly expelled from the shop, turned away like the others. The real locksmith arrives shortly after.
Just hours earlier, it was rare for there to be a 10-minute stretch before a new customer entered the popular store that has earned rave reviews online.
Torontos new best dispensary. Amazing service. Top notch bud. Beautiful store and knowledgeable staff. Must visit when in Toronto, says one commenter on the dispensary site Leafly.com.
Both a man wearing a Canada Goose jacket and boat shoes driving a Mercedes G-Class SUV and scruffier characters walking in off the street appear to be regulars at the retail store flanked by a menswear boutique and a shuttered Thai restaurant to the west and Moss Park to the east.
Is this a wise use of resources? asks William Snitzler, speaking to a reporter standing next to a marked police van. How much money are they using? How much manpower? Going to a judge, getting a warrant, getting actual logistics in place and then executing it. This is taking money and for what?
Another man interrupts to ask if the store was raided.
Closed, closed, closed, yeah Snitzler says. That ones closed too across the street. Dont even bother!
Employees, the Star was told, now face obstruction by-law offences for earlier denying enforcement officers entry to the store. Additional criminal charges against four employees are expected, but have yet to be confirmed by Toronto Police.
More than an hour after police first arrived, two customers, trapped inside when the raid occurred, are escorted out. Later, out come four employees in handcuffs, including two men decked out in fashionable Raptors and Blue Jays gear.
The pot, advertised online in dozens of strains including Grapefruit and Hawaiian Dream, would soon follow in evidence bags. Cash was also seized.
As the hours tick on, a rotating shift of officers from 51 Division the Star counted at least eight make their way in and out of the shop.
Theyre getting all them, bro, says one unhappy customer referring to recent raids and seizures, slicking back his long hair as he steps back from the door.
Why are they getting f---ed like that? moans another.
A man who says hes survived cancer and is a medical marijuana user, is upset to learn the Queen St. store has been raided.
I dont blame the police for doing this, says the man.
He explains the shop acts as a bridge between his regular shipments. It has kept him off painkillers and free of their unwelcome side effects.
He anxiously tries the locked door anyway.
Some arrive at the store on the recommendation from elsewhere, to purchase a particular strain or to find a shop thats still open.
One thing many seem certain of is that it wont stay closed for long.
Im sure theyll be open in about two days or so, says one man as he walks back the way he came, empty-handed.
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In downtown Toronto, behind a public library there is a small park where James Ribble would sometimes go to sleep.
Last summer, he spent many nights on the grass, his backpack clutched to his chest.
When it rained he would lie on cardboard on an elevated grate so water wouldnt collect beneath him. On it, someone had written in black marker: I am high. I am low. I am cold with nowhere to go.
A few months later, Ribble, 52, did have somewhere to go: a publicly subsidized basement apartment on Coxwell Ave. that cost $950 a month and which he tried to make his home. He found the place through a city-run program designed to get vulnerable people into housing.
For four months, Ribble lived in the damp, dirty, graffiti-covered basement punctured with cracks and holes, many sloppily patched with crumbling spray foam.
I left that place to be homeless again, he says.
Ribble is one of thousands of people who struggle to find a place to live in Toronto, where for many even the worst apartments are too expensive. The Star followed his case for four months, to understand how, despite city programs, support workers and help paying rent, he ended up back on the street.
On Dec. 30, he packed up his turquoise-and-purple backpack, picked up his green duffel. It was -2 C and snow covered the ground.
Ill manage, Ribble says, heading for the door. Like I said, I am only taking what I can carry. Even that is too much, but Ill get by.
Ribble spent the next three months in city shelters and drop-ins, at Out of the Cold programs, or with friends.
I just prefer to stay outside, because I dont have the temperament to deal with some of these guys (in shelters) anymore, he says, behind the library in March.
Ribble grew up in Regent Park and lived in Toronto for most of his life. He once worked as a unionized drywall taper, earning $80,000 a year, he says, and often enjoyed an after-work martini.
He suffers from clinical depression and says he ended up in the system after his skull was split in half during an attack with a pipe in Regent Park some 20 years back.
Drug addiction, he says, has helped keep him on the street. When hes been high, hes stolen things, or threatened a family member. When hes been caught, hes pleaded guilty. Hes entered rehabilitation. Hes been sent to rooming houses, which are ridden with drugs and crime. The cycle repeats. Frustration fuels his temper. He has yelled at staff at the Scott Mission. They have kicked him out temporarily, several times.
No matter what a person has done or where they have been, he says, everybody deserves a clean and safe place to live, to recover.
Ribble says everybody asks, if the apartment was so bad, why did he move in?
For him, the question is why was the landlord allowed to rent it out in the first place?
Last summer, Ribble slept outside until a rainy spell forced him indoors.
Its cold. Im soaking wet. I have to walk around in wet clothes all day, because stuff in my bag is wet, says Ribble.
He went to a city-run, multi-service hub at Peter and Richmond Sts. where people get help finding a shelter or housing. There, he says, he was connected to Streets to Homes, who sent him to the house on Coxwell.
The program has helped 5,500 people find homes since 2005. Almost 90 per cent of clients stay for more than a year and everybody is offered additional supports to help them stay housed, said Patricia Anderson, with the citys shelter, support and housing administration division, in an email. Those followup services were audited in 2014, and they are working to implement the recommendations, she says.
Housing workers help identify affordable units and educate tenants on their rights and responsibilities. Workers recommend they go with people to view apartments, but the decision to rent is entirely up to the tenant, although caseworkers will help with disputes, she says. There is no formal relationship with landlords, she adds.
Streets to Homes does not vet landlords, does not check into records of landlords, does not refer clients to landlords, does not sign leases, does not make decisions for clients, and does not have a list of vetted landlords, Anderson says. It is not uncommon for people to decide to leave a place and seek another, she says.
Nobody from the city would discuss Ribbles case, even though he gave permission.
Ribble says he opted to go alone to see the apartment. It was filled with desks, chairs and desktop computers. Property manager Waqar Alam was painting and promised to fix it up, he says. In September, on moving day, nothing had been done, Ribble says, and it took three days to clean it out and get a look at the place.
He thought he could handle the repairs and says he asked many times for the right supplies to fix and clean it up, but only got bits of what was needed and spent hundreds on materials, cleaners and tools.
Ribble says his housing worker spoke with Alam, but that didnt fix the issues. He has lashed out at support and housing workers. Police were called.
Alam insists he told Ribble he would make the repairs before he moved in, but he says Ribble wanted the place as is, promised to fix it up and was given supplies and money to do so. He says Ribble pulled doors off the kitchen cabinets, damaged a toilet seat and the walls, wouldnt let him in to do work and did drugs in the apartment.
If asked, says Alam, he will do whatever a tenant needs.
The basement apartment is at the bottom of crumbling concrete steps.
A tour on Dec. 23 revealed a dingy rectangle, with white tile floors, covered in cracks and holes around door frames, behind the stove, across the ceiling and in the closet, between the sink and the mirror and inside the bathtub.
Many were overfilled with spray foam, bulging and discoloured with age. Pieces of carpet poked through the ceiling.
Writing on every wall bled through a thin coat of paint.
Scrawling black words framed the door: Did you notice this door is always open I am trying to train my mind The body has house in ruin.
In the back bedroom, Ribbles sleeping bag was on bare concrete. He says he pulled out mould-covered fabric, baseboards and drywall.
He kept the window open to air out the mouldy smell, but no screen meant raccoons their paw prints visible on the walls would creep in. He slept with a knife.
I give them a chance to get out, but they can be nasty.
When it rained, or snow melted, water ran down the walls. A flood from upstairs ruined his mattress, he says.
The tub was so dirty he showered at hostels and only one burner worked on the stove, he says, so he found his meals elsewhere.
At home the only way to be comfortable was to use, Ribble says.
I know in the long run drugs and alcohol arent going to do that for me, arent going to take away the problems, but it is just to try and kill it for a little bit.
A home, he says, should be a refuge.
Especially if you had a bad day and you do want to use. You can go home, you can sit down, you can eat I couldnt use the stove.
Alam says he has provided good homes to people who otherwise couldnt get housing for more than a decade, most through city housing workers.
His nephew is the owner and landlord, says Alam, who wouldnt provide a phone number, insisting he handle questions.
In Ribbles case there was no lease; $550 of the rent was from Ontario disability support payments and $400 from the Investment in Affordable Housing for Ontario program, a federal-provincial fund, used for a range of housing programs.
Toronto used $79.2 million from that fund, for 4,945 housing allowances, between 2011 and 2016, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing.
Councillor Janet Davis says she has sought but has yet to receive a satisfactory report on all city-run supportive housing programs, including Streets to Homes. When shown photos of Ribbles apartment, she described the unit as appalling and totally unacceptable in terms of the standard of cleanliness and repair.
It is doubly concerning, she says, that the unit was paid for by public dollars and says rigorous inspections, involving municipal licensing and standards staff, should be done before units are rented to people trying to move off the streets and into better lives.
Clearly no one inspected this before it got recommended to a person who was vulnerable. This is a ticket to homelessness, she said.
A new city bylaw approved in March will require the owners of buildings with three or more floors and 10 or more units to register with the city and should mean more oversight and faster repairs at bad buildings.
But those new rules wont apply to three-storey houses with basement apartments, like the place where Ribble lived.
Alam, when asked if he would live in the basement, says yes.
He encouraged a Star reporter and photographer to tour a unit on the second floor, with a water-damaged ceiling and where a light fixture dangles from a kitchen wall.
Dead cockroaches form a ring around the fridge.
Is there a pest problem? No, no, this is not pests, insists Alam.
What is the block of green poison for?
A tenant pipes up: Rats.
The day Ribble moved out, on Dec. 30, the last thing he packed was a bottle of Tide laundry soap.
The song Drive by the Cars played on a radio he was leaving behind, along with a dresser, mattress, television, DVDs and a pair of ill-fitting work boots given to him by a friend.
After handing over his keys he signed a handwritten contract to end the tenancy. He was reimbursed $700 in cash for Januarys rent, minus $250 for missing tools. Ribble says he didnt take them and doesnt know who did.
Alam counted out the $20s, $50s and a $100 bill and another tenant acted as witness.
A week later, fire inspector Chris Culleton was at the unit, scanning the walls and using his flashlight to search for cracks, holes and broken seals. The apartment had been painted, the holes filled.
So when was the last time we were in here? Culleton asks Alam, checking his clipboard. About six years ago?
Ribble had complained the unit wasnt fire safe and had serious structural issues throughout. Alam told the Star the fire department had been in the unit early last year.
Culleton says their end game was to make sure smoke and fire cant travel and major structural issues would be referred to other city departments.
When the patch jobs were pointed out to him, he asks Alam when he last did repairs.
Alam says, The guy was here, he say give me the materials
Culleton responds, You know the drill Its your responsibility and the owners responsibility.
He ordered Alam to fix the seal around the furnace room door, a fire safety issue.
Upstairs, the light is fixed and the bugs cleaned up.
The smoke detector in a shared hall should have been changed in 2015. There is a hole in the wall and no fire extinguisher, issues he was ordered to fix.
If they ask me to do anything I do it right away, says Alam. I am not above the law.
On April 1, Alam says the apartment was empty and city licensing staff were set to return for one more inspection.
Ribble, meanwhile, is still searching for a home. I just want someplace quiet, warm and clean, he says. I will work on the rest later.
He will try to work again with Streets to Homes, because he needs help with his rent supplement.
They have the keys to the city, he says.
Correction, April 10, 2017: Waqar Alam was incorrectly identified in photos as the landlord of the Coxwell home. He is the property manager.
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The government needs to act quickly to ease the overheated housing market and address uncertainty that has led to huge hikes in rental rates, says Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown.
The premiers wild speculation and the constant stream of policy rumours have started to affect the rental market and hurt real people, Brown said at Queens Park at a press conference with MPP Ernie Hardeman, his partys housing critic.
I am calling on Premier (Kathleen) Wynne to release whatever is in her rental housing plan this week not in the budget, not next month, but immediately.
Wynne has previously said it is an extremely urgent matter and unacceptable that landlords are boosting rates because of the possibility that rent controls will be extended. In some Toronto neighbourhoods, tenants have received notice that their rents are doubling.
Brown called on the government to act on skyrocketing housing rates, which has priced many out of the market.
In a statement, Minister of Housing Chris Ballard said the government has a housing affordability team looking at these issues and is also taking part in a federal working group.
Our government is serious about reducing the pressure of housing costs felt by Ontarians, as well as providing more affordable options for people to choose from, said Ballard, who pointed to some changes, such as increasing rental units in homes, banning increases to apartment property tax levels and boosting refunds for first-time home buyers.
We look forward to bringing forward a package of measures that deal with housing affordability in the near future, he said.
New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) recently put forward a private members bill to make all buildings subject to rent control, not just those built before 1991.
Hardeman plans to table a motion on Monday asking the government to reduce red tape and create an expert panel to look at housing issues both in the short and long term.
Ontario families work hard and they worry how theyre going to be able to afford that home or condo whether they can achieve that dream, Brown said.
Its reached a crisis point.
The dream of home ownership has become just that: a dream that is out of reach for many.
Lack of supply is a key issue that needs to be addressed, Brown said. When it takes close to two years for municipal approvals for even the most straightforward of single-family home projects, its time the government cut some red tape, he said.
The status quo is not an option, said Brown. There has to be some measures to manage this crisis.
Brown said the PCs are willing to look at a tax on vacant units among other solutions, and are going to have an open mind to the recommendations that the government puts forward, but we believe theres urgency here.
Home prices in the Greater Toronto Area have gone up 33 per cent over the last year.
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Premier Kathleen Wynne went to Chicago with a bottle of ice wine and a message: lets keep the Canada-U.S. border open and Great Lakes water quality top of mind.
Wynne met Monday with Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner amid continuing concerns the Trump administration will bring in a border tax and gut $300 million in funding for lakes that are a source of drinking water to millions.
Fresh from her weekend win against a Buy American provision dropped from the New York state budget, Wynne said she was pleased to sense Rauner is not signalling any similar policies.
Nothing he said to me suggests that hed be interested in going there. He really sees the strong connection, she told the Star in a telephone interview from the Windy City.
Ontario is the largest export market for Illinois, which sends $10 billion a year in goods and services to the province. Every month, $233 million in auto parts flow back-and-forth between the two jurisdictions.
We see an open border and our integrated economy, which has been built up over decades, as a strength, she said after presenting her host, a wealthy former businessman, with a bottle of Ontario ice wine.
Governor Rauner gets that. He wants to find ways to work with us.
Rauner did not issue a statement on the meeting.
Wynne also talked to executives at airliner giant Boeing Corp., warning of the perils of a border tax given that Ontario is a major part of the companys supply chain, with landing gear and other parts made here.
As Ontario did through lobbying efforts at the New York legislature against the proposed Buy American provision for state contracts of more than $100,000 it warned the province would respond in kind the premier cautioned a U.S. border tax would likely prompt retaliation from Ottawa.
Its hard to imagine these things happening on only one side of the border, and, if they happen on both sides of the border, then theres real damage done to the supply chain, she said.
Illinois is one of 28 states that count Ontario as their best or second-best export market. The provincial government notes that business with Canadian companies accounts for 340,000 jobs there, including 26,000 people directly employed by Canadian companies.
Wynne has been meeting and speaking with governors of Great Lakes and other states in recent weeks to make sure Ontario gets out in front of any potentially punitive U.S. measures from Washington.
Whats really clear is theres enormous uncertainty about exactly what the national government is going to do on any of these files and what theyre actually going to be able to accomplish, said Wynne, who was joined in Chicago by Ontarios representative in Washington, Monique Smith.
Thats not a particularly new piece of information, but it certainly underpins all these conversations . . . . Im staking our interest and making it clear what were going to do in the face of whatever changes come forward.
On the environmental front, Wynne met with leaders of the Conference of Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative and the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
She is concerned that cuts to Great Lakes funding from the U.S. side will make it harder to maintain the health of the lakes amid threats from the Asian carp, other invasive species and algae blooms.
Im very worried about it. I raised it with Gov. Rauner. I told him I was going to continue to be an advocate. We see it as very much a part of our relationship, our interconnectedness, this stewardship of the Great Lakes.
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WASHINGTONU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian airbase in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack carries a message for any nation operating outside of international norms. He didnt specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough.
If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken, Tillerson told ABCs This Week.
There was little doubt the missile strikes would be seen in Pyongyang as a message. The North has long claimed that the U.S. is preparing some kind of assault against it and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature.
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U.S. vows to keep pressure on Syria after missile strikes
U.S. navy ships are a common presence in the Korean Peninsula region and serve in part as a show of force. On Saturday night, the Pentagon said a Navy carrier strike group was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean to provide more of a physical presence in the region.
U.S. President Donald Trumps national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, described the decision to send the carrier group as prudent. He said Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping had agreed that North Koreas pattern of provocative behaviour was unacceptable and the U.S. was acting accordingly.
This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear-capable regime. . . . So the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and our allies and partners in that region, McMaster said on Fox News Sunday.
North Korea has pledged to bolster its defences to protect against airstrikes. The North called the U.S. action in Syria absolutely unpardonable and said it proves that its nuclear weapons are justified to protect the country against Washingtons evermore reckless moves for a war.
The comments were made by a Foreign Ministry official and carried by North Koreas state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday. The report did not name the official, which is common in KCNA reports.
In appearances on the Sunday news shows, Tillerson said advances in North Koreas ballistic missile program concerned the U.S. the most. Asked on ABC if development of an intercontinental missile was a red line for Trump, Tillerson said: If we judge that they have perfected that type of delivery system, then that becomes a very serious stage of their further development. The missile strikes against Syrias Assad-led government took place Thursday night as Trump hosted Xi for dinner at Trumps Florida estate. Among the topics of discussion was the vexing problem of North Korea.
I think theres a shared view and no disagreement as to how dangerous the situation has become, Tillerson said on CBS Face the Nation. And I think even China is beginning to recognize that this presents a threat . . . to Chinas interests as well.
Trump and South Koreas leader, acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn, spoke by phone on Friday, according to the White House, which said they agreed to stay in close contact about North Korea and other issues.
Trump has said China, with its ties to North Korea, should deal with its neighbour, but that the U.S. was prepared to act on its own if necessary.
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President Donald Trump is considering an executive action that would launch a formal investigation into the way U.S. trading partners use subsidies and use a tactic known as dumping to skew imports and exports, a White House official said Sunday evening.
If signed, the executive action would call for a review of foreign trading practices and could, depending on the results, be followed by retaliatory trade measures from the administration.
The action would additionally reflect a tension within the White House between the economic populists, who have argued for more aggressive and adversarial moves against foreign countries, and the growing influence of pragmatists, who have called for a more measured approach.
Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked others countries over their trade practices, arguing other countries were contributing to the U.S. trade deficit the gap between the cost of a countrys imports and its exports by using subsidies and other practices to undercut U.S. firms and lure away jobs.
Through export subsidies, foreign government provide funds to help their manufacturers lower the price of their exports to make them more attractive to international buyers a practice is often viewed as a violation of World Trade Organization rules.
Trump has argued that the U.S.s trade deficit with China and Mexico is disproportionately large, and he has taken particular aim at China, accusing them of manipulating their currency to boost their exports. During the campaign, he promised to formally label China a currency manipulator once he takes office, but he has declined to follow through on that threat.
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Should the administration want to take that step, it will have an opportunity to do so soon. Within days, the Treasury Department is expected to release its semi-annual currency report. The Trump administration is not expected to use the report to formally label China a currency manipulator but the language it does use will be closely studied for any clues about how it plans to engage with China about currency issues in the future.
Trump and his advisers reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting last week to launch a 100-day plan to improve trade relations between China and the U.S., a much more tepid step than Trump had promised during the campaign.
But the executive action under review could eventually lead to more aggressive U.S. trade actions against China, a sign that some voices within the White House believe more is needed.
It could focus specifically on the steel and aluminum markets, as U.S. officials have said that Chinas trade practices in this area have had a major impact on U.S. manufacturers ability to compete.
The White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation that would be prompted by the executive action, said The administration would use the results of that investigation to determine the best path forward, which could potentially include everything from no action at all to the levying of supplemental duties. But whichever action we take would be informed by the results of the investigation and not by predetermined conclusions.
The Trump administration has said one of their primary goals is to boost U.S. manufacturing and boost U.S. exports, drawing companies back to the U.S. and punishing those that move overseas and try to ship products back to the United States.
Foreign countries use many different tactics to try and win a trade advantage. U.S. manufacturers, Democrats, and Republicans have long accused China of using a tactic known as dumping to hurt U.S. companies. Dumping is the practice of importing an item at a below-market price in order to undermine industries in other nations.
Trump has signed numerous executive actions since taking office, and many of them have launched reviews or studies. Their final impact is still undetermined.
In his first 80 days as president, Trump has signed two executive orders that direct the government to review the causes of U.S. trade deficits and more strictly enforce anti-dumping provisions. He has also formally withdrawn the United States from the Obama-era 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yet the administration has yet to fulfil other promises made on the campaign trail, including renegotiating the U.S. free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada or branding China a currency manipulator. Congress has yet to confirm one of the White Houses primary trade negotiators, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
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Are you worried that nice guys finish last, or that all your hard work exposing clandestine operations is a waste of time?
Worry no more.
The Beijing government announced Monday it is offering cash rewards of up to half a million yuan (more than $72,000 U.S.) for anyone who helps expose a spy, state media reported.
An animated video, published by the Beijing State Security Bureau on website thepaper.cn, offers an illustrated guide of what to look out for and how to claim your reward complete with the motivating message cited above: Handy if youre not sure what a spy might look like or what they might be after.
The measures are part of a growing campaign to reinforce Chinas national security against what the Communist Party sees as rising internal and external threats.
The aim: to motivate citizens to gradually build up a steel Great Wall against spies and espionage, according to a statement from the Beijing state security bureau.
Beijing is the top choice for overseas spy agencies and other hostile forces to conduct activities of infiltration, subversion, division, destruction and information theft, the statement said.
Two years ago, China set up a national hotline to report spying. Last year, it marked its inaugural National Security Education Day on April 15 with a series of warnings about spying, including a comic-book poster warning young female government workers about dating handsome foreigners, who could turn out to have sinister motives.
On Monday, the Beijing City National Security Bureau said its rewards range from 10,000 to 500,000 yuan ($1,500 to $72,000) for information on spies.
The official Beijing Daily newspaper said the pressing need for new measures was a consequence of the countrys reform and opening up.
Foreign intelligence organs and other hostile forces have also seized the opportunity to sabotage our country through political infiltration, division and subversion, stealing secrets and collusion, the newspaper added.
However, since the reform process began nearly four decades ago, that explanation might not appear entirely convincing.
Li Fan, founder of World and China Institute, a private think-tank, noted the new rules had been issued just days after President Donald Trump and Chinas Xi Jinping had vowed to strengthen social and cultural exchanges between the two countries.
This is absolutely inexplicable and absurd, he said. I dont know what the government is thinking about.
Under Xis presidency, China has passed a series of laws designed to strengthen national security and cybersecurity, combat terrorism and regulate foreign non-governmental organizations.
The government has also cracked down hard on domestic civil society groups, lawyers and journalists, and is engaged in a war what it sees as dangerous Western values such as free speech and democracy, promoted by hostile foreign forces aiming to subvert Communist Party rule.
Li said the new rules could fuel mistrust towards foreigners in Beijing, including journalists.
How can foreign media report here? he asked. If you take a photo on the street, somebody will report you as a hostile foreign spy. People will be more cautious to talk to foreign media.
Li said the instructions reminded him of the Cultural Revolution, a tumultuous decade in the history of Communist China when husbands, wives and children were encouraged to denounce each other.
The Beijing government warned spies might be working with employees of state organizations to harm Chinas national interests, encouraging people to defect or buying state secrets.
Discovering equipment such as recording or monitoring devices could bring additional rewards, it said.
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BEIJINGChinas navy says its forces rescued a freighter from attack by pirates in the Gulf of Aden over the weekend. Missing from the report was any mention of the participation of the Indian navy, which says it dispatched four ships and a helicopter to provide cover for the action.
The omission was likely no accident. Deep distrust persists between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants, and in recent days, China has angrily denounced New Delhi over a visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to an Indian border area that China claims as its own territory.
Asked about that lack of mention of Indias part in the operation, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying referred questions to the defence ministry, where no spokesman was immediately available for comment.
We believe the aforementioned operation demonstrated the effectiveness of Chinas naval forces in the field of fighting against pirates, as well as Chinas image as a responsible major country in safeguarding regional peace and stability, Hua told reporters at a daily news briefing on Monday.
We are always positive toward international counter-piracy operations, she added.
No casualties or damage were reported in the incident, which unfolded between Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
The Chinese navys statement said a distress signal was received late Saturday from the captain of the Tuvalu-flagged OS35 saying it was under attack by an unknown number of pirates aboard a single boat. Steaming to the area, the missile frigate Yulin then circled the ship while its helicopter hovered above.
The statement said 16 members of the Chinese special forces were lowered onto the ship by helicopter at dawn Sunday and released the 19 crew members from the strong room where they had taken shelter, while also searching the ship to ensure there were no further threats. The statement made no mention of any arrests or other contact with the pirates.
Indias account differed slightly but did mention Chinas participation.
A statement from the Indian defence ministry said the Indian navy ships Mumbai, Tarkash, Trishul and Aditya had been sailing toward the Mediterranean Sea when they responded to the distress call and rapidly closed the merchant vessel by early Sunday. After an Indian navy helicopter flew over on Sunday morning, crew members emerged and ascertained that the pirates had fled the ship at night.
Subsequently, in a show of international maritime co-operation against piracy, a boarding from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation, the statement said.
India and China fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962 and each makes large claims on territory controlled by the other. That includes Indias remote northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, to which the Dalai Lama travelled last week amid angry denunciations from Beijing. Hua, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said last week that the visit severely harms Chinas interests and the China-India relationship, and that China did not consider it an Indian internal affair.
The Dalai Lama and his followers have been living in exile in northern India since they fled Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. China accuses Tibetan Buddhisms highest figure of using his religious status as cover for a campaign to win independence for Tibet, which was occupied by Chinese Communist forces in the early 1950s.
In general, China has been eager to highlight growing co-operation between its military and those of other nations in training and other operations, and the Yulin is part of the 25th anti-piracy squadron sent by China since it joined multinational patrols off the coast of Somalia in 2008.
That involvement offers both a sign of Chinas growing engagement in the global commons and valuable practice for its navy in operating far from home ports. The mission has also resulted in China building its first military base in a foreign country in the African Horn nation of Djibouti, mainly as a supply and recreation facility for its anti-piracy patrols and peacekeeping operations in South Sudan and elsewhere in Africa.
The navy says it has escorted a total of 6,337 Chinese and foreign vessels during its anti-piracy operations and intervened dozens of times in cases where ships were either attacked or pursued by pirates.
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In Arunachal Pradesh, Dalai Lama has more layers of security than even PM Narendra Modi.
By Manogya Loiwal : Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh was being closely watched by neighbouring countries and in India it was being monitored with more security than even for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Personnels from five forces were deployed across the circles and places to provide him multi-layer security cordon.
Senior officials and personnels from Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Indian Reserve Battalion, Shasastra Seema Bal, Central Paramilitary Force and Arunachal Pradesh State Police were deployed on various layers of security.
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More than six companies have been deployed of all these forces combined besides the visit was being keenly watched by Intelligence Bureau, Army, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.
For example, if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has three layer security cordon of Special Protection Group, National Security Gaurd and State Police then for Dalai Lama it was six layer with multiple agencies in action.
Tawang Monastery, the second largest monastery in Asia where Dalai Lama is staying during his religious sojourn too has been turned into a fortress with even resident Lamas being given separate identity cards for entering the premises.
Movement around the monastery too remains restricted, however pilgrims are allowed to take a round of the monastery for religious reasons.
And that's not all, the movement and access to His Holiness has been kept extremely limited this time unlike in earlier visits.
His travel from Guwahati to Dirang and then to Tawang had to be changed from air route to a road drive due to inclement weather. The whole stretch of road route was sanitized for VVIP movement at least an hour before the travel.
A senior official on condition of anonymity said, "This visit has more global and diplomatic repercussions and the proximity to International border has made it more sensitive than any visit in the past. The identity cards, all with photographs are being checked every time a person enters the cordoned area irrespective of his stature. We are not leaving any stone unturned and taking no chances for his security."
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These VVIPs in Dalai Lama's preaching sessions are all below the poverty line, on wrong side of 80
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LUCCA, ITALYForeign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations met Monday to forge a response to the deadly chemical attack in Syria, and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said they would consider imposing sanctions against Russian backers of President Bashar Assad.
G7 diplomats gathering in Lucca, Italy, hope to use outrage over the attack and wide international support for the United States retaliatory missile strikes to push Russia to abandon Assad and join a new peace effort for Syria.
Speaking after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Johnson said ministers will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions, certainly, on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures.
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He said Russia had a choice: to continue backing the toxic Assad regime, or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution.
Last weeks nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred U.S. President Donald Trump who was previously cool to the idea of U.S. intervention to strike for the first time at Assads forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian airbase from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched.
Tillerson said Monday at the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy that the United States is rededicating itself to hold to account any and all who commit crimes against innocent people.
With the group of wealthy nations working to see if it can strike a common front on Syria, Tillerson accompanied Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano to SantaAnna di Stazzema, where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed in 1944.
Alfano said the site of past Nazi atrocities was a reminder that peace is not a given. ... That is why we are here to work all together for peace and liberty.
The meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca brings together Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Tillerson, Johnson and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, along with other G7 foreign ministers.
Ahead of the full meeting, Tillerson held bilateral talks with G7 counterparts who included Kishida, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Britains Johnson.
Tillerson also spoke by phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose government insists Assad should play no role in Syrias future.
Over the weekend, Alfano said that Europes broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a renewed harmony between the United States and its partners as the G7 foreign ministers prepared to meet for the first time since Trump took office in January.
We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart, Alfano told Sky TG24 Sunday. I welcome this renewed harmony.
After meeting Tillerson, Japans Kishida said Japan supports the U.S. commitment in trying to take responsibility to prevent spread and use of chemical weapons and we confirmed Japan and the U.S. will continue to work together (in that effort).
The G7 meeting comes as the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Koreas persistent ballistic missile tests.
It is also taking place amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.
The United States is fighting Daesh militants in Syria but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia.
The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
Russia plans to put forward a proposal on Monday for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in Berlin.
The spokesman, Martin Schaefer, said Germany viewed it as a good and important sign.
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Britains Johnson, who had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of Mondays G7 meeting, cancelled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had changed the situation fundamentally.
He said that instead he would work with the United States and other G7 nations to build co-ordinated international support for a ceasefire on the ground and an intensified political process.
Tillerson is due to travel to Russia after the G7 gathering, and Johnson said he will deliver a clear and co-ordinated message to the Russians.
Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares the determination of allies including Britain that Assad must be removed from power.
After the chemical attack, Trump said his attitude toward Assad has changed very much and Tillerson said steps are underway to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
In a round of television interviews that aired Sunday, though, Tillerson said the top U.S. priority in the region remains the defeat of Daesh militants.
Among European nations, there are also differences. While Britain says Assad must go, Alfano was cautious on the issue, saying that decision should be up to the Syrians.
I have to say, the Libya experiment did not go well. We are still paying the price, Alfano said, referring to the lawlessness that has ensued since the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the subsequent flow of migrants to Europe via Italy.
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JERUSALEMIsrael closed its Taba border crossing to the Sinai peninsula on Monday following warnings by its anti-terrorism office of an imminent militant attack there and urged its citizens to leave Egypt hours before the start of the Passover holiday, when Sinai is a popular destination for many secular Israelis.
Soon after the announcement, sirens wailed in parts of southern Israel alerting residents to a rocket attack. The military said a rocket fired from Sinai exploded in southern Israel, hitting a greenhouse but causing no injuries. Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Yisrael Katz, Israels transportation and intelligence minister, said in a statement Monday there was intel regarding a potential terror attack against tourists in the Sinai peninsula. The crossing remains open for those wanting to return from Egypt.
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The border closure comes a day after militants in Egypt bombed two churches, killing dozens of Christian worshippers during Palm Sunday ceremonies. In the wake of those attacks, Israels anti-terrorism office called on all Israeli tourists in Sinai to return home immediately and asked Israelis planning trips to the Sinai to cancel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Monday sending Israels condolences to the families of those who were murdered in yesterdays terrorist attacks in Egypt and wishing a quick and full recovery to the wounded.
He said the world must unite and fight terrorism everywhere.
The Israeli government statement says that intelligence information shows increased activity by Islamic State (Daesh) militants in Sinai. It adds that with Daesh losing ground in Iraq and Syria, there is renewed motivation to carry out terror attacks in different arenas at this time.
Israel called on its citizens to leave Egypt on the eve of the Passover holiday that commemorates the biblical Exodus story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt.
The weeklong festival is widely celebrated in Israel even among otherwise nonreligious Jews. But southern Sinai, with its pristine beaches and Red Sea coral reefs, has traditionally been a popular Israeli tourist destination especially for secular Israelis during the Passover holiday.
Israel mostly shuts down after sundown for the holiday, as families and friends gather for Seder, the ritual multi-course meal where the story of the exodus from Egypt is discussed in detail so that the tradition is preserved throughout the generations.
Leavened goods like bread and items made from yeast such as beer are banned during the holiday. Instead, Jews eat matzo unleavened bread to illustrate how the Israelites had no time to let their bread rise as they fled from bondage in the land of the Pharaohs.
Despite the relaxing draw of Sinai, tourism there has declined since 2013, when the Egyptian military overthrew an elected Islamist president and an Islamic insurgency based in northern Sinai intensified. Rocket attacks on Israel from Sinai are relatively rare but Islamic militants there have been behind a few attacks in recent years. Egypt has been battling the militants, many linked to Daesh.
Israel issues travel recommendations from time to time based on intelligence reports. Mondays travel warning was unusual in its urgency and it is rare for the Taba crossing to be shut down.
Israel signed a peace treaty with neighbouring Egypt in 1979 and the two countries maintain close security co-operation.
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U.S. President Donald Trumps strikes against the Syrian government earned the support of the American people and improved views of Trump (albeit only slightly), according to a new poll. But the biggest takeaway might be the big, red stop sign that came with all that.
A new CBS News poll the first live-caller poll to test reactions to the strikes shows 57 per cent of Americans agree with the decision Trump made. His approval rating, meanwhile, edged up to 43 per cent, with about half (49 per cent) still disapproving.
But Americans were even more emphatic about what they dont want to see next: any other unilateral strikes authorized by Trump or further involvement, period.
Seven in 10 including a majority of Republicans said Trump needs to obtain authorization from Congress for any more strikes. And a majority 54 per cent say they are uneasy about Trumps approach to the situation in Syria, with just 41 per cent expressing confidence in him.
And finally, just 18 per cent say they would like to see American ground troops in the civil war, which features Syrian President Bashar Assads government forces; Daesh, also known as ISIS; and more moderate opposition forces. An additional 30 per cent say they are OK with airstrikes but many of them apparently want authorization first.
That support for ground troops is only slightly higher than it was in 2013, the last time the U.S. government threatened to retaliate for Assads alleged use of chemical weapons. A McClatchy-Marist poll at the time showed 13 per cent believed ground troops were called for.
Read more on the U.S. strike in Syria
At the time, very few Americans supported even the kind of airstrikes that Trump launched last week, so the situations arent completely analogous. And as our own Scott Clement noted Friday, actions like the one Trump took often gain more support after the fact. President Barack Obama never wound up launching strikes against Syria, despite having set the infamous red line.
But the new poll also makes clear that there is no significant increase in appetite for getting the U.S. more involved in a very difficult set of circumstances in the Middle East. Fourteen years after the war in Iraq was launched, the war-weariness still holds strong, even as Trumps limited strike earned a thumbs-up.
And the Trump administration doesnt seem particularly likely to take things further. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that its priority in Syria remains defeating Daesh. And national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that although the administration now believes Assad should go, its leaving that up to others.
Its very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime, McMaster said on Fox News Sunday. Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions.
That seems to be in line with what the American people want right now.
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In the months before he murdered his wife, Martin Joseph MacNeill told family, his church and friends in Pleasant Grove, Utah, that he was dying from cancer. The doctor, a former Mormon bishop with eight children and a law degree, then rearranged his finances and took trips, ostensibly for medical care.
But he didnt have cancer. He had a mistress, and a plan to kill his wife.
Investigators believe this was part of Martins plan to deflect attention away from him and to later remove himself from the events that would unfold on the day his 50-year-old wife Michele died, court documents said.
Just before her death in 2007, MacNeill convinced the former beauty queen to undergo plastic surgery. When she returned home, he drugged her and left her to die in a bathtub, where she was found by their 6-year-old daughter Ada, authorities said.
On Sunday, nearly a decade after the killing, 61-year-old MacNeill was found unresponsive and declared dead at the Olympus Facility at the Utah State Prison in Draper, where he was doing time for his 2014 conviction of first-degree murder, second-degree obstruction of justice and second-degree forcible sex abuse.
Prison officials said in a statement that MacNeills death is being investigated, though there were no obvious signs of foul play. His first parole hearing had been scheduled for 2052.
His attorney, Randy Spencer, told the Deseret News that MacNeill at attempted suicide at least once before while incarcerated. I feared this day would come, he said. It hasnt been officially released, but I suspect that that is what has happened.
Last month, the Utah Court of Appeals turned down MacNeills bid for a new murder trial, a case that garnered national attention as salacious details of the wealthy doctors life emerged, including accounts of mistresses and falsifying transcripts to get into both medical school and law school.
Prosecutors said he killed his wife because he wanted to be with his latest young mistress, a nurse named Gypsy Willis, who moved into the home after the murder under the pretense of being a nanny. MacNeill soon named Willis as his beneficiary.
MacNeil told so many lies over the years and was so good at deception that the chief investigator of the Utah County Attorneys Office compared his life to the movie Catch Me If You Can, telling the Deseret News that the movie paled in comparison.
A month after his wifes death, MacNeill abused an adult daughter, who testified that she woke up at her parents house to find her father rubbing her buttocks and licking and kissing one of her hands, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Years passed, but he was eventually convicted of that crime.
Two years after the murder, MacNeill and Willis were sent to prison after being convicted of multiple accounts fraud for using one of MacNeills adopted daughters social security number to open bank accounts under a false name in order to escape bad credit, ABC News reported.
But it wasnt until 2012 five years after his wifes death that MacNeill was charged with her murder. He was also charged with obstructing the investigation into her death, largely due to his behaviour on that day of the incident.
Investigators said that MacNeill called 911 after his daughter found her in the tub, but he lied to the dispatcher about performing resuscitation and lied to police about events surrounding her death in an effort to hinder, delay or prevent any investigation, according to the charges, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The dispatcher, Heidi Peterson, testified that MacNeill yelled so loud over the phone that she couldnt tell what he needed help with or where to send an ambulance. He also gave an incorrect address, she testified.
Scott VanWagoner, the emergency room physician who attended to Michelle MacNeill, testified in Provos 4th District Court that Martin MacNeill offered me $10,000 to continue my resuscitation and not quit.
At the time, he didnt understand why. I think she was dead by the time she arrived at our door, he testified.
Investigators said Martin MacNeill also provided misleading information to the state medical examiner. After an autopsy in 2007, her manner of death was ruled natural, the result of chronic hypertension and damage to the heart muscle. But a report issued in 2010 noted the combined effects of heart disease and drug toxicity, and said the manner of death was undetermined, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
After MacNeills conviction, 4th District Judge Derek Pullan sentenced him to 15 years to life for murder as well as 15 years on the obstruction charge.
MacNeill did not speak during the sentencing.
Mr. MacNeill, as you deprived Michele MacNeill of her life, the state of Utah exacts from you today the liberty that you otherwise might have enjoyed in your remaining years, the judge said.
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The history of police relations with racialized groups in Ontario is a tale of mistrust, missed opportunities and hollow responses that resolved little. The stalemate is on the verge of ending. A revolutionary report on police accountability by Justice Michael Tulloch could be the transformational document a generation of advocates have been waiting for.
Well before organizations such as Black Lives Matter took up the fight, the Black Action Defense Committee, Dudley Laws, Charles Roach, and other activists were crying out for effective police oversight. From that era to this, their core demands have not changed: accountability and transparency.
More often than not, advocates were met with either a knee-jerk defence of the police or by challenges to the legitimacy of those calling for change. Equally predictable, timid politicians have responded in piecemeal fashion with a patchwork of oversight legislation that has allowed the Special Investigations Unit to operate under a cloak of secrecy and nondisclosure.
Half-measures have not satisfied racialized communities who distrust their police. When potential misconduct is hidden behind an opaque wall of nondisclosure, distrust and fear are bound to fester. Sooner or later, a major overhaul of police oversight mechanisms was inevitable. The Tulloch report comprehensive, visionary, and highly credible marks the first step toward regaining the publics confidence in our police.
In signalling that his government is broadly receptive to the report, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi has sparked high expectations. The time for half-measures is long past.
Justice Tullochs Independent Police Oversight Review was launched on an implicit understanding that, historically, marginalized citizens and the mentally ill are those most likely to come into deadly contact with police. Moreover, statistics show that only 3 per cent of cases investigated by the SIU over its 25-year history resulted in criminal charges, a staggeringly low number.
While the review did not recommend the release of names of officers who are investigated but not criminally charged, it did urge the release of extensive evidence that is uncovered in these investigations as well as the reasons the evidence was deemed insufficient to support criminal charges.
Taken as a whole, this set of recommendations would uphold the presumption of innocence while still giving the public the information and evidence it needs to assess the efficacy of the police oversight process. Naqvi has wisely agreed to release old and forthcoming SIU reports.
The province should go further down this path by following Tullochs recommendation to expand the SIUs mandate beyond crimes that result in serious injury or death. It must be empowered to investigate offences such as breach of trust, fraud, perjury, obstructing justice and systemic racism or discrimination.
Another area that cries out for legislative change is the historic refusal of some police officers to participate in SIU investigations. The report recognizes that officers often fail to meet their legal obligations due to loopholes and ambiguity in current legislation surrounding their duty to co-operate.
The answer is to implement Tullochs recommendation that legislation be amended to require police to immediately disclose to the SIU all evidence in their possession. Failing to co-operate would be a provincial offence that carries a potential jail sentence.
The SIU should also be required to conclude investigations within 120 days; a deadline that will ensure timely justice and closure for those directly affected.
Doubtless, the province will face pressure to maintain the status quo. Police unions have often shown a flair for mobilizing public fear to stall reforms.
Aligned on the other side, however, is a steadily growing opposition toward police use of force, a reality Tulloch tapped into fully. Should his report succeed where numerous others have failed, it will be in no small part due to his unique qualifications to lead such a review.
Born in Jamaica, Justice Tulloch arrived in Canada to quickly discover the challenges of a being a new immigrant to this country. He worked as a defence lawyer and as a Crown prosecutor before being appointed as a judge. Tullochs origins, coupled with his cultural and legal experience, permit him to speak both for, and to, members of racialized groups who believe the legal system is loaded against them.
This review took Tulloch to all corners of the province. He listened intently to a wide spectrum of voices, assembling a remarkable report that brings the province to the brink of true reform. It will now be up to another immigrant who also shares Tullochs goal for racial justice Attorney General Yasir Naqvi to provide the final push forward.
Daniel Brown is a criminal defence lawyer and a Toronto director with the Criminal Lawyers Association.
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Is Queens Park about to cut the City of Toronto and Mayor John Tory off at the knees once again?
Unfortunately, it sounds very much as if it is. The mayor has been pushing for provincial action that would allow the city to bring in a tax on hotel rooms and short-term rentals, and now the government is holding up a big not so fast sign.
Thats the wrong way to go. After preventing Tory from going ahead with his plan to introduce highway tolls in January, the Wynne government should not stand in the way of yet another attempt by the city to close its yawning revenue gap.
The government should also stop sending mixed signals to the city.
Early last week, Premier Kathleen Wynne seemed to be onside with the mayor on his request for the power to levy a new tax on hotel rooms and Airbnb-style short-term rentals, which would bring in an estimated $20 million a year.
After meeting with Tory in advance of the provincial budget, she emerged to say she knows the mayor wants to move on a tax very soon, and added that were going to be able to move forward with (him) in the near future.
That seemed promising. But a day later, Finance Minister Charles Sousa sounded a much more cautious note.
In a letter to Tory, he laid out conditions that must be met before any tax could be approved the city must engage with constituents and shareholders, lay out how it plans to address those concerns, and on and on. In other words, dont hold your breath.
Caution is all well and good. And the province well knows that the hotel industry strongly opposes any new tax.
But denial or delay on every new revenue source the city suggests is no solution to the financial dilemma it faces.
First the government turned thumbs down on Torys proposal for tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway, clearly spooked by a backlash in the 905 commuter suburbs. Now Sousa is raising all kinds of obstacles to a much more modest proposal for a hotel and short-term rental levy.
The message seems to be: we dont want our fingerprints on anything that looks like a tax.
Thats understandable from a political perspective, but it does nothing to help Toronto fund its long list of urgent priorities everything from transit to flood protection in the Port Lands, to public housing and childcare.
The province should let Toronto grow up and take greater control of its own destiny. Right now that means giving it the power to move ahead on a hotel tax.
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Finally, the RCMP has admitted what journalists, parliamentarians, privacy watchdogs and democracy advocates have suspected for years. The federal police force has been surreptitiously using spy technology to collect Canadians cellular details, including tracking where they are.
As disturbing as that admission is, its also a welcome step forward. Now that its acknowledged, citizens and parliamentarians can debate and legislate how and when the devices should be used. Until now, its been the Wild West.
Chief Superintendent Jeff Adam acknowledged last week that the RCMP used the so-called stingrays or mobile device identifiers multiple times in 19 cases in 2016 and 24 in 2015
He also made clear that other police forces in the country are using the technology. But its still not known how many times it has been used in total.
Adam said the identifiers are used simply to identify and locate a suspect in a criminal investigation. But the problem is that the technology doesnt distinguish between suspects in criminal cases and ordinary citizens.
That has privacy experts worried. Stingrays, which imitate a cell phone tower, act like a drag net that puts the privacy of potentially tens of thousands of innocent, law-abiding people at risk, warns Ann Cavoukian, the director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University.
Worse, once the metadata information relating to phone numbers, SIM cards or handset identifiers is collected it is kept by the RCMP. Surely the data (that is not needed) should be deleted, Cavoukian sensibly points out.
Thats how it works elsewhere. In the United States, the government is required to destroy within 48 hours any information obtained through this kind of surveillance that is unrelated to an investigation. Other countries have laws requiring that all citizens whose data has been incidentally caught up in the net must be informed.
Canada has no such protections, since before last week no one had publicly acknowledged that the devices were being used. At this point, Adam said, the RCMP is required to get judicial authorization before using the devices, except in extremely urgent cases to prevent death or imminent harm.
The technology, he said, is used to identify a users basic subscriber information, such as the name and address connected to the phone. Then police can seek additional warrants to track the device or conduct a wiretap to capture communications.
But here too, Cavoukian suggests, there is a need for independent oversight to ensure the technology (never mind the data that is mined) is not abused.
In addition to privacy concerns, the devices also raise safety issues. Because they mimic cell towers, anyone caught in their zone who is dialing 911 would not be able to get through.
Thats a risk the RCMP has tried to minimize by advising stingray operators to use the devices for only three minutes at a time and to shut them down if they realize anyone is trying to call 911.
Still, there is a danger that something could go horribly wrong in an emergency.
For the police, the privacy downside to using the devices is outweighed by their usefulness. This capability can be used to further criminal investigations relating to national security, serious organized crime and other serious Criminal Code offences that impact the safety and security of Canadians, said Adam.
Maybe so, but police should not be given free rein to invade our privacy indiscriminately.
Now that the RCMP has admitted Canadian police forces use these devices, the government must step up to regulate their use and ensure that data gathered from innocent Canadians is destroyed.
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The U.S. Department of Labor accused Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google of having "systemic compensation disparities" between its male and female employees.
The department has evidence that the company has violated federal employment laws with its salaries for women, agency officials said.
(What will move markets this quarter and how should investors position themselves ahead of time? Jim Cramer sat down with four of TheStreet's top columnists recently to get their views. Click here to listen to his latest Trading Strategies roundtable with them and read their advice for stocks, bonds, forex and gold.)
The end has arrived for HHGregg (HGG) , and that's great news for some of its long-time rivals.
The struggling electronics and appliance retailer began liquidating its assets on Saturday after failing to find a buyer following an early March Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The company plans to close all of its 220 stores by the end of May, resulting in roughly 5,000 layoffs across the U.S.
Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Baker believes the biggest beneficiary HHGregg's bust will be Best Buy (BBY) , which after near-term pressure from the liquidation sales could see market share gains.
Here's a look at the three companies that stand to benefit the most from the chain's demise.
Best Buy's electronics sales could get a boost.
HHgregg mostly sold furniture and appliances including chairs, refrigerators and tables. But, the company also hawked a good amount of electronics such as computers, wearables, headphones and everything else for which Best Buy is known. More than 32% of Best Buy's annual sales come from consumer electronics, while more than 8% are derived from appliances.
In March, Best Buy reported a fourth-quarter revenue miss and a same-store sales slip of 0.9% in North America. Executives blamed weak revenue on declines in the phones, tablets, wearables, computing and drones categories. So if HHgregg vanishes, those struggling categories for Best Buy may improve.
Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly told analysts at the time that some $1 billion in sales would be up for grabs should HHGregg disappear. Baker says if Best Buy were to pick up 20% of HHGregg's market share in appliances and electronics, it would add about $335 million in sales, or 0.9% to same-store sales.
J.C. Penney's new appliance departments may see some fresh faces.
While J.C. Penney (JCP) is undoubtedly struggling itself, it did see strength throughout last year in its new appliances departments that are now in more than 500 stores and online. The company recently announced plans to launch appliances at an additional 100 stores.
As a result of its appliances expansion, J.C. Penney could be in a nice position to grab business that was once reserved for HHGregg.
Home Depot and Lowe's could see a lift in appliance sales, too.
Home improvement retailers Lowe's (LOW) and Home Depot Inc. (HD) don't necessarily need a sales boost as both are benefiting greatly from the U.S. housing recovery. But both likely will get a new shot in the arm now that HHgregg has bit the dust.
The companies not only dominate market share for tools and outdoor power equipment, but they also have sizable appliance businesses.
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What will move markets this quarter and how should investors position themselves ahead of time? Jim Cramer sat down with four of TheStreet's top columnists recently to get their views. Click here to listen to his latest Trading Strategies roundtable with them and read their advice for stocks, bonds, forex, tax reform and gold.
Updated from April 10 with additional information.
Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn could be willing to bid as much as $27 billion for Toshiba's (TOSYY) massive NAND flash memory unit, Bloombergreported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter, as Toshiba faces growing troubles.
Foxconn, a major Apple (AAPL) supplier, would join a group of bidders that's estimated to total as many as 10 companies. Other interested parties are said to include Amazon (AMZN) , Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google, Apple, Broadcom (AVGO) , Western Digital (WDC) , South Korea's SK Hynix and private-equity firms Silver Lake and Bain Capital. SK Hynix and Broadcom reportedly submitted preliminary offers for the Toshiba business worth $18 billion or more, according to Bloomberg.
The report comes after billionaire tycoon and Foxconn founder Terry Gou said last month that the company is "definitely bidding" for Toshiba's chip business and is "very confident" it can secure a deal, Reutersreported.
"Money should not be the only thing [for Toshiba] to consider," Gou said. "We can help its technology to be sold in products all over the world. That is Foxconn's advantage."
Toshiba has sought to sell off its chip unit as it readies to take a write-down valued between $4.3 billion and $6.1 billion on its U.S. nuclear operations. Toshiba is expected to exit the Westinghouse business sometime this year.
Furthering those concerns, the Japan-based company on Tuesday filed twice-delayed results for the third quarter of 2016, posting a net loss of $5.9 billion in figures that had not been signed off on by its auditors,. Without that approval, Toshiba faces a greater risk of being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, something Toshiba CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa said the company is doing its "utmost" to avoid.
Toshiba has long been one of Japan's most prized companies, but it cast doubt in the earnings release that the firm will be able to continue operating.
"There are material events and conditions that raise the substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," Toshiba said in the release.
Toshiba has looked to auction off several of its assets as a means of returning to profitability, but could face a lengthy regulatory review process.
Japanese government officials and Toshiba executives have signaled that they'd favor bids from a Japanese company or a joint venture between a Japanese and U.S. company because they see the chip business as a strategic asset, the Wall Street Journal reports. Foxconn, in particular, could face push back to any proposed deal due to its ties to mainland China because of potential security risks.
U.S. regulators could also challenge the deal because Toshiba has a partnership with Western Digital's SanDisk unit, called Flash Ventures, that develops and manufactures NAND flash chips.
Apple,Alphabet and Western Digital are holdings in Jim Cramer'sAction Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL, GOOGL or WDC? Learn more now.
Japanese regulators are hoping that some or all of the bid comes from local investors so that they can keep some part of the ownership in Japan, said Bill McClean, president of research firm IC Insights.
"It's going to be tricky to determine what the Japanese government will decide," McClean said. "Even if it is a Taiwanese company, maybe a U.S. venture capital firm could form a joint venture and bid in tandem."
Regulators likely view the deal on a scale, with a wholly Japanese bidder being most preferred, then a Japanese-U.S. partnership, followed by a U.S.-Taiwanese team. A single bid from a Taiwanese company would likely be the most difficult option to gain regulators' approval, McClean added.
Toshiba is selling its chip business at the right time, as NAND flash sales are up 25% so far this year, McClean explained. Under strong market conditions, he said Toshiba can demand a higher price for the unit. Toshiba's NAND flash sales totaled about $7.5 billion in 2016, meaning that a $27 billion offer from Toshiba would be almost four times sales -- above the typical premium of one or two times sales, McClean noted.
Foxconn has been looking to increase profit margins, as well as diversify its growing manufacturing business, said Patrick Moorhead, president of market research firm Moorhead Insights.
"What they haven't participated in is semiconductors and this would be one giant step for them," Moorhead said. "It also moves them further up the value chain."
Foxconn has employed similar bidding strategies in the past. The Taiwanese company offered $5.5 billion for electronics maker Sharp, well above what other companies, including a Japanese government-backed investment fund, were offering, according to the Journal. Foxconn later cut its bid to $3.5 billion after discovering liabilities at Sharp.
Therefore a $27 billion offer wouldn't be an outlandish move by Foxconn, said Jim Morrison, vice president of technology intelligence at TechInsights, a technology research firm.
"Terry Gou is paying to win," Morrison noted. "If he lost this over a billion dollars, he would be kicking himself."
When the forest officials of Arunachal Pradesh found that going was getting tough for them in their pursuit to increase plantation cover in the high Himalayas, they turned to the Dalai Lama of Tibet. And, the Dalai Lama gave the entire effort a spiritual touch in Tawang.
By Manogya Loiwal : The followers of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet believe that the spiritual leader is on a mission of peace and love. The Dalai Lama is in Tawang of Arunachal Pradesh, where thousands of followers are attending his public events. At one of the public functions in Tawang, the Dalai Lama talked about his other mission.
"All major rivers originate in Tibet - Indus, Ganga and Tsangpo or Brahmaputra. Over one billion lives depend on these rivers. So we need to take special care of the Himalayas... Preservation of wildlife and environment is important and planting of trees is a way of serving the mankind too," the Dalai Lama said in Tawang today.
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THE DALAI LAMA'S WAY
The Dalai Lama considers preserving the Himalayan ecology a mission and afforestation the right means to achieve the end. The Dalali Lama is contributing to bring a considerable change in the scenic beauty by means of plantation in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Dalai Lama in Tawang. (Photo: OHHD)
"My commitment is to preserve ecology and especially of Tibet. A Chinese scientist had said Tibetan plateau is the third pole. So, even they have realised the importance," the Dalai Lama said.
A sapling to save 'mankind'. (Photo: Manogya Loiwal/India Today)
So, when the forest officials of Arunachal Pradesh approached him to help them spread awareness about the dangers of deforestation and further the cause of environment protection, the Dalai Lama did what he does the best - give it a spiritual touch.
HOW THE DALAI LAMA HELPED FOREST OFFICIALS
The forest department planned to distribute 1,10,000 saplings to the followers of the Dalai Lama as Prasad. The devotees were gathered at the Higher Secondary School Ground in Tawang.
The Dalai Lama planting a sapling. (Photo: Manogya Loiwal/India Today)
The forest department officials distributed seeds and saplings among the followers of the Dalai Lama for planting the same at home and in their own locality.
The forest department officials of Arunachal Pradesh looked very enthusiastic with the response from the people. They believe that people who took away the saplings this time will take care of the growing plant with special love because of their faith in the Dalai Lama.
Thousands of followers came to see the Dalai Lama in Tawang. (Photo: OHHD)
"When people take plants as blessings from Dalai Lama, they will treat them like a child and never let it die," said senior forest officer Abdul Qayyum.
"Plantation drives require a lot of efforts to ensure the survival of saplings. We have more than seven lakh saplings in our three nurseries in Tawang district itself. After discussions with district administration we decided to give the saplings on the last day of sojourn of His Holiness," Qayyum added.
Followers of the Dalai Lama with saplings. (Photo: Manogya Loiwal/India Today) Followers of the Dalai Lama with saplings. (Photo: Manogya Loiwal/India Today)
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Plants like Criptomeria japonica, Cupressus - locally called Thuja, two species of Pine, Dhoop and Oak saplings were distributed along with barley seeds among the followers of the Dalai Lama. The government nursery usually sells one sapling at around Rs 13 each.
(Photo: Manogya Loiwal/India Today)
THE KHANDU CONNECTION
The Dalai Lama planted a sapling in the Dorjee Khandu Memorial Museum in Tawang as he inaugurated it during his sojourn.
Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu was present on the occasion. Pema Khandu is the son of former Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu, who died in a chopper crash in April, 2011.
Pema Khandu said, "His Holiness Dalai Lama visiting and inaugurating the memorial is a blessing for the people of Arunachal Pradesh. The saplings planted will remind us of our responsibility and efforts taken for a better environment."
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu at the Avalokiteshvara Empowerment ceremony in Tawang.(Photo: OHHD) OHHD)
(Photo: Manogya Loiwal/India Today)
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Why is China nervous? Dalai Lama has already visited Arunachal Pradesh six times
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New York has become the first U.S. state to make tuition free for students from middle class families at public colleges that are two- and four-year.
In January, New Yorks Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced his plan of tuition-free. Lawmakers agreed to make it part of the states budget, which gained approval on Saturday by the Assembly and late Sunday night by the states Senate.
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It is expected that the governor will sign the budget legislation. Tuition will become free for New York residents who earn up to a certain income cap that will be phased in during the first three years.
Beginning in the fall, undergraduate college students attending a State University of New York or a City University of New York will become eligible for an Excelsior Scholarship if the family earns less than $100,000 per year.
The cap for income will increase in 2018 to $110,000 and in 2018 will be set at $125,000. Those who are eligible will not pay for tuition, which has an annual cost of $6,470 for four year schools and just $4,350 at community colleges.
However, they will have to pay for room and board and fees. Those additional expenses could reach as much as $14,000 per year.
Students have to take a minimum of 30 credits per year to be eligible for the scholarship. Some New York lawmakers spoke out against the requirement, because it excludes those students who are enrolled just part time.
In the legislations final proposal the Governor said the requirement for credits was flexible so that any college or university student that faces hardship could pause and then restart the program as well as take less credits one semester and more another.
After graduation, students who are given the scholarship must then remain living and working in New York for a minimum of the same number of years they had been given the funding.
If they do not stay in the state, the scholarship is immediately converted to a loan. The requirement was not part of the initial proposal by the governor.
The Governors office estimated that the scholarship would cost over $163 million in year one, but some New York lawmakers said that figure was low. It is estimated that 200,000 students would become eligible for the program when it was completely implemented.
This scholarship has been structured to help fill a gap after taking into account other state and federal grants. Close to half of the students who are full time at SUNY and over 60% of those attending CUNY, already are not paying any tuition because of federal need-based Pell Grants and or Tuition Assistance grants from the state of New York.
Some posts on this site contain affiliate links, meaning if you book or buy something through one of these links, we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you).
The hills, fjords, and harbor of Bergen, Norway, make it the ideal destination for a weekend in this beautiful country. Bergen exudes so much charm and small-town feel, youd never know its actually Norways second largest city. For many visitors, a sunny day here is like a unicorn, but we lucked out and had fantastic weather for most of our visit, which allowed us to explore the best things to do in Bergen during our trip to Norway. Heres a look at some of our favorites.
Ride the Floyen funicular
Taking the funicular up Mount Floyen is one of the best things to do in Bergen. A quick 8-minute ride takes you up the mountain for fantastic views above the city. On a clear day, it feels like you can see forever.
From the top of the funicular, youll watch the activity in the harbor and along the waterfront. Youll see the ferries leaving on their fjord cruises. When youre done gazing at the city below, you can visit the troll in front of the forest or grab a snack at the cafe.
Visit Fantoft Stave Church
We have always been fascinated by the intricate, multi-layered stave churches of Norway. When we saw that one of these masterpieces was only about 20 minutes from the city center, it was a no-brainer to visit.
Originally built in Sognefjord around 1150, the Fantoft Church was moved to Bergen in 1883. Sadly, arsonists burned it to the ground in 1992, so what you see now is a re-creation, along with a cross that dates from the 11th century. Even though the current structure is a reconstruction, its still a remarkable example of Norwegian design and heritage and one of the intriguing things to see in Bergen.
See the fish market
Of course, given our obsession with markets, Bergens bustling fish market was our first stop. From king crab to live lobster to fish and chips, you can find almost anything seafood-related in this harbor-side space.
In the off-season, head inside to wander the displays of edible treats and have a sit-down meal at one of the eateries. Grab a seat by the giant window (and a blanket) and watch the activity outside. In the warmer months, visit the vendors outside and try all the fresh, free samples you can get your hands on.
See the city from Mount Ulriken
Riding the cable car to the top of Mount Ulriken is similar to the experience on the funicular but provides an altogether different view. At 643 meters high, Mount Ulriken is the highest of the seven mountains that surround Bergen. From the top, you can see not only Bergens cute harbor but the whole city and suburbs and islands stretching out for miles. There are even free telescopes at the top if you want a closer look.
Visit Bryggen
We were captivated by Bryggen before we ever set foot in Bergen, and finally seeing the UNESCO World Heritage site in person did not disappoint. Bryggen is the oldestand possibly most colorfulsection of the city, with footprints dating back to the 1200s. The current 58 buildings date from after a fire that devastated the city in 1702.
From the front, you would never know that these narrow buildings lead to a maze that includes workshops, specialty stores, boutiques, and more. Its easy to lose yourself in the history, architecture, and shopping here.
Explore Bergenhus Fortress
At the entrance to the harbor, Bergenhus Fortress contains some of the most important buildings in the city. Some of the structures here date back to the 1240s, though there were likely buildings on this spot at least a century before that.
In the Middle Ages, the fortress contained the royal residence in Bergen (the city was the capital until 1299) as well as a cathedral, the bishops residence, and other important religious buildings. The dramatic stone King Haakons Hall is the only surviving part of the former royal palace. It is used for occasional concerts and banquets, and the public can visit the museum inside which serves a dual purpose with exhibits about the buildings history and sections dedicated to Norways resistance movement during World War II.
The other building left in Bergenhus Fortress is Rosenkrantz Tower. Much of the tower dates from the late 1500s, but it incorporates the Keep by the Sea, a tower from the 1270s that was part of the royal castle. Six months of the year, visitors can climb the narrow stairs to the roof, which provides beautiful view of the city.
Stop for a sausage
Like the famous hot dog spot in Reykjavik, Trekroneren is a bit of an institution in Bergen. For over 70 years, this kiosk in the city center has been serving fabulous sausages to people at all hours of the day (its open until 4am on weekends). Its longevity should tell you something about how good it is.
The selection ranges from traditional frankfurters and bratwurst to wild game sausage. We opted for the reindeer (because, Norway) and currywurst varieties topped with curry sauce and raw onions. Our breath probably wasnt very good, but the sausages certainly were. So good, in fact, that we went back twice. You cant beat a $9 meal in Norway.
Take a fjord tour
Surrounded by fjords, Bergen is the perfect place to catch a ferry to explore the natural wonders of Norway. Several cruise companies leave from the center of the city. From here, you can visit the beautiful Sognefjord, head to Baroniet Rosendalthe smallest castle in the countryor start the famous Norway in a Nutshell train and fjord journey.
Visit the unexpected Leprosy Museum
Bergen once had the largest concentration of people with leprosy in Europe and was home to three hospitals for leprosy patients. St. Georges Hospital, which once cared for lepers, is now a museum about the disease, its sufferers, and its treatment, pioneered by Dr. Gerhard Armauer Hansen in Bergen. Exhibits detail Norways contributions to leprosy research, including the work of Dr. Hansen, who discovered the leprosy bacterium and gave his name to the modern name for leprosy.
Enjoy the street art
Bergen is a very walkable city, and theres lots to see everywhere you look. Among the shops and cafes and historic buildings, there are works of art on many blank walls throughout the city. We found murals big and small all over the city, but theres a great collection in the streets near the Leprosy Museum.
Visit Bergen provided a Bergen Card for us to enjoy some of the citys sights. All opinions are our own.
Afghanistan has said that India was only providing training and study opportunities to the Afghan Army.
By Indo-Asian News Service: Afghanistan has dismissed as "baseless" Pakistan claims that India played a "destructive role" in Kabul.
According to Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman General Dawlat Waziri, New Delhi had no military presence in Afghanistan, The News International reported.
RELATION CLASH
Waziri on Sunday said"Islamabad felt India was fuelling anti-Pakistan feelings with its presence in Afghanistan".
He said India was only providing training and study opportunities to the Afghan Army.
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The remarks followed Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif's charge that the strained relations between Islamabad and Kabul were due to the Indian influence in Afghanistan.
India has played a major role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime and has invested over $2 billion in various reconstruction and infrastructure projects.
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Special teams of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine have removed explosive devices from the territory of Balaklia and nine villages in the vicinity, the State Emergency Service reports.
"The territory of Balaklia and nine villages in the emergency zone was cleared from explosive devices by the explosive ordinance disposal teams of the State Emergency Situations Service. The contaminated area in and around Balaklia was reduced from 10 kilometers to 200 meters, reads a report.
As Ukrinform reported, on March 23, at 2.45 a.m., a massive fire broke out at some sites of ammunition storage depot, located near the city of Balaklia, Kharkiv region, which triggered explosions.
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Militants launched 44 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas over the past day.
This is reported by the ATO press center.
The tensest situation was observed in Mariupol direction, where the enemy used 120mm mortars, anti-tank grenade launchers and infantry fighting vehicles to shell Novotroitske (32km south of Donetsk). Ukrainian positions in Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk) and Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk) came under grenade launcher and heavy machine gun fire.
In Donetsk direction, militants launched attacks on Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk) and Butovka coal mine (11.4km north-west of Donetsk), using anti-tank grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. In addition, terrorists used anti-tank grenade launchers and small arms to fire at ATO troops outside Verkhniotoretske (22km north-east of Donetsk) and Zaitseve (67km north-north-east of Donetsk).
In Luhansk direction, Russian-backed militants used 82mm mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns to shell Ukrainian strongholds near Novozvanivka (70km west of Luhansk). ATO troops in Stanytsia Luhanska (16km north-east of Luhansk) and Krymske (42.5km north-west of Luhansk) came under grenade launcher and heavy machine gun fire.
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Today is 500 days since Ukraine stopped buying natural gas from Russia.
A reminder that the Ukrainian government in April 2016 decided to adjust the gas prices for the industry and population.
In March, 2017, a fee for the use of gas distribution networks and gas transportation was introduced.
Today, the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities will consider the issue of the temporary abolition of a monthly fee for gas "so that to avoid an increase in the total bill for the population."
At present Ukraine uses natural gas of own production and carries out gas imports from Europe.
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Moldova has launched in test mode the M-Tender electronic procurement system, which is based on the Ukrainian ProZorro system.
Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Maksym Nefiodov posted this on his Facebook page.
According to Nefiodov, the system was launched in test mode in Moldova after many months of negotiations, training and implementation.
"As Deputy Finance Minister of Moldova Yuri Chichibaba informed, the project is operating now in test mode. Seven state institutions are connected to the system. The system includes 19 procedures. Thirteen state purchases have already been made. The private sector and civil society will join it soon," the Moldovan InfoMarket newspaper reports.
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Ukraine and Argentina are expected to establish cooperation in livestock farming, winegrowing and winemaking, scientific and technological development, as well as jointly create a logistics center and agrarian cooperatives.
The press service of the Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry reports this, citing Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Deputy Minister for European Integration Olga Trofimtseva.
Another interesting area for cooperation and implementation of joint projects can be the development of agricultural machinery and equipment in Ukraine. Argentina intends to export machinery and separate component parts to Ukraine. We want to develop domestic production, and, thus, we see great opportunities for cooperation in this area, including exports to third countries, Trofimtseva said.
According to her, the Ukrainian side is also interested in cooperation with Argentinian partners, related to water resources management and irrigation systems. In addition, it is important for Ukraine to increase the volume of agricultural exports to Argentina.
A reminder that the trade turnover between Ukraine and Argentina was $53.9 million in 2016. Ukraine's imports from Argentina came to $53.85 million. Mostly, Ukraine imported fish, crustaceans, mollusks, fruit, nuts and zest, oilseeds, tobacco and tobacco products.
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Dwarka flyover and Sarita Vihar underpass were designed to provide better connectivity to the traffic coming from western and eastern parts towards south Delhi.
Dwarka flyover and Sarita Vihar underpass were designed to provide better connectivity to the traffic coming from western and eastern parts towards south Delhi.
By Rakesh Ranjan: Faulty designs and inadequate safety measures have turned major arterial roads in the national Capital into virtual deathtraps, a recent study of the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) found.
Over 1,500 people were killed in various accidents on Delhi roads in 2016. Experts believe were it not for heavy congestion, the fatalities would be much higher.
"A large number of road projects in Delhi lack the safety norms," Dr S Velmurugan, head of the traffic engineering and safety division at CRRI, told Mail Today.
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"Delhi has 33,000 km of road network, out of which the arterial ways measure about 1,800 km of road-length. These arterial routes accommodate nearly 80 per cent of Delhi's traffic and thus proper road design and safety measures become very important."
Unfortunately, said the CRRI official, recent post-operational safety audits on two of the busiest arterial roads in the city - Dwarka flyover and Sarita Vihar underpass - proved their worst fears right.
DWARKA FLYOVER
In its audit of Dwarka-Palam flyover, which reports nearly 30 grave accidents every year, the CRRI pointed out that the road-owning agency had completely ignored design and safety standards, leaving motorists vulnerable to fatal accidents.
The CRRI findings noted that apart from five sharp curves, that are the biggest engineering fault on the twokm long flyover, safety measures like cautionary signs, pedestrian facilities and speed-calming measure are also missing.
The flyover has claimed over 150 lives since it was built.
A city court had even termed the flyover a "manmade death trap" in its observation. "Most long stretches designed for non-stop smooth traffic flow in the Capital have basic design flows," said Velmurugan.
SARITA VIHAR UNDERPASS
In the safety audit of the Sarita Vihar underpass in southeast Delhi, which caters to a whopping 30,000 vehicles every hour, the CRRI team came to the conclusion that pedestrians and nonmotorised vehicles were left to the mercy of fast-moving traffic.
Velmurugan, who supervised the audits for both projects, said nothing could be done change the sharp curves on the Dwarka flyover but traffic calming measures and large cautionary signs could bring down the accidents significantly.
The expert also suggested strict enforcement and prosecution of speeding vehicles on the flyover.
The Dwarka flyover and the underpass were designed to provide better connectivity to the traffic coming from western and eastern parts towards south Delhi.
But in gross violation of prescribed safety designs, the two arterial pathways have caused more loss than ease, the CRRI report said.
MORE ABOUT THE TWO PATHWAYS
Dwarka flyover caters to a heavily built-up area and provides access to about 11 lakh people residing in Dwarka, which is locked between a railway line, the Najafgarh drain and airport.
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Sarita Vihar underpass is located close to the confluence of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and hence caters to a sizeable amount of traffic emanating from the arterial roads of NCR townships namely, Faridabad, Noida and Greater Noida.
The underpass and flyover connects strategically important locations like Ashram, Badarpur and Noida. Eventually, a six-lane flyover was constructed by the Delhi Development Authority in Ashram-Badarpur direction in the year 2000 to facilitate signal-free movement of traffic on NH-2.
The audit report points out that the cycle tracks created at the Sarita Vihar interchange facility were left completely dysfunctional forcing the cyclists and other non-motorised vehicles to merge with the normal traffic.
This created a messy situation and increases the risk of fatalities.
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Potholes claimed over 10,000 lives for last three consecutive years
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/potholes-deaths-road-fatality-ministry-of-road-transport-and-highways/1/915226.html
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Mumbai's killer potholes: Same story every year
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U.S. Republican Senator Jim Inhofe said that the times of Russias impunity for crimes against Ukrainians had passed.
The Senator said this on the air of Fox News.
Inhofe noted that Russians loved the period of Barack Obama presidency because they could do anything they want.
He also urged to draw attention to the situation in Ukraine. They [Russia] came in there and started to kill those people, knowing that our Administration would not send defensive weapons to Ukraine. Now, of course, its a different game in town. So I think that they now have a new respect for us and it is going to be reflected in much better relationship, Senator Jim Inhofe said.
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Tuesday, April 11, Foreign Minister of the Slovak Republic Miroslav Lajcak, Foreign Minister of Hungary Peter Szijjarto and Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic Lubomir Zaoralek will pay a joint visit to Ukraine.
This has been reported by the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine.
"The purpose of the visit is to confirm the support of these countries for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, to get acquainted with the actual situation in Donbas caused by Russian aggression and to discuss further practical assistance to Ukraine, particularly in carrying out internal reforms in our country. The parties will also discuss some issues of cooperation in the format of V4+Ukraine," reads a statement.
A joint press conference of the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic is planned to be held on the same day.
ish
By Press Trust of India: From Youssra El-Sharkawy
Cairo, Apr 10 (PTI) Egypt today imposed a three-month state of emergency and ordered the military to protect vital infrastructure after the Islamic State terror group targeted two minority Coptic Christian churches in powerful bombings, killing at least 45 people and wounding more than 100 others.
As Egyptians bid tearful farewell to the those who died in the terror attacks on Palm Sunday, the Egyptian government declared that the state of emergency across the country will be effective from today.
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Egypts Cabinet approved the measure - which allows authorities to make arrests without warrants and search peoples homes - and explained the reasons for the imposition of emergency.
The Cabinet said in a statement that the state of emergency "allows both the armed forces and the police to execute those procedures necessary to combat the threats of terrorism and its financing, maintain security around the country and protect public and private property, as well as preserving the lives of citizens," Egyptian media reported.
The Cabinets approval came after President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in a brief television appearance last night announced the state of emergency for three months.
Sisi said a top-level council for fighting terrorism and extremism will also be set up. Before making the announcement, he had called a National Defence Council meet.
Following the bombings at churches in Tanta and Alexandria cities, the government in its initial response ordered the military special forces to assist police in securing important state facilities across the country. The security forces have been put on alert in anticipation of more attacks, the media reported.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks in which the number of people killed has reached 45 after a person injured in the bombing at Tanta died.
More than 100 people remained injured, according to Egyptian authorities.
The first blast took place in the Coptic church of Mar Girgis, also known as St George, in the Nile delta city of Tanta, about 120 kilometres from Cairo, and killed 27 people and injured 78, according to the Egyptian Health Ministry.
Hours later, a suicide bomber struck the Saint Marks Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandrias Manshyia district.
Citing Health Minister Ahmed Emad, ON TV news channel reported at least 18 people, including police personnel, were killed and 41 injured in the suicide attack in Alexandria.
The blasts have come ahead of the visit of Pope Francis to Egypt on April 28-29, and prompted international condemnation.
Al-Azhar, the worlds highest seat of Sunni Islam, called the attacks an "outrageous crime" against all Egyptians. "This terrorist attack is devoid of all the principles of humanity and civilisation," it said in a statement.
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The US Embassy in Egypt condemned "the heinous, reprehensible terrorist attack against peaceful worshippers."
"The US stands firmly with the Egyptian government and people to defeat terrorism," the Embassy said in a statement.
Coptic Christians make up about 10 per cent of Egypts population of 85 million.
Egypts Christian minority has often been targeted by Islamist militants. In December, a suicide bombing claimed by an IS affiliate killed 29 people during Sunday mass in Cairo.
Egypt has seen a wave of attacks by militants since 2013 when the military toppled president Mohammed Morsi, an elected leader who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, and launched a crackdown against Islamists.
Palm Sunday falls on the Sunday before the Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. PTI YES ABH AKJ ABH
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A senior I-T officer said that agencies are using different technology tools to identify shell companies that exist only on paper.
By Shashank Shekhar: Soon after the last date for depositing demonetised notes ended on March 31, central agencies started tracking dubious accounts and shell companies that carry out high-valued transaction accounts.
According to enforcement agencies, thousands of companies, which could be working as shell companies for laundering black money, have come under the scanner.
The crackdown by several enforcement agencies- Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate, Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and Registrar of Companies (ROC) has begun to prevent money laundering and tax evasion.
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A senior I-T officer told Mail Today that agencies are using different technology tools to identify shell companies that exist only on paper.
A database on these companies 8 NEWS Mail Today, NMewa iDl Teolhdi a/y C, hNaenwd iDgealrhhi,, Moonnddaayy,, AApprriill 1100,, 22001177 and their directors is built by pulling information from various agencies.
"In our recent raids, we found that more than 50 companies had same registered address which on verification, was found to be residential premises that were left vacant. Shell companies are easy to make; all you need is a smart chartered accountant (CA) with no investment and staff," said a senior ED official.
In the month of April, ED alone has already conducted raids in 300 companies at 110 premises across 16 states in India under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to investigate instances of money laundering and illegal foreign exchange transactions.
So far, taxmen had made a list of 18 lakh bank accounts where `4.2 lakh crore of demonetised money was deposited.
But now, all enforcement agencies are working as a task force under the co-chairmanship of revenue secretary and company affairs.
The finance ministry record shows there are 15 lakh registered companies in the country, just six lakh of them file annual returns. Shell companies have no business operations or assets.
They are merely used by entry operators to launder money on behalf of clients.
After demonetisation, the government did a sample analysis of such companies and found that `1,238 crore worth of cash had been deposited in the suspected entities.
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Enforcement Directorate raids over 100 locations in 16 states, uncovers 2300 shell companies
Enforcement Directorate targets public servants under PMLA
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Massive ED crackdown: Raids over 2300 shell companies in 100 locations
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We know that buildings and equipment alone dont save lives, which is why this is part of a wider investment in the health sector by the European Union, through UNICEF, worth around $25 million dollars. Since 2013, the money has been invested in training for health workers and health governance, and supported the Presidents Free Health Care initiative, she says.
The upgraded facilities were officially opened by the President of Sierra Leone, H.E. Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, on 4 February 2017 at a ceremony in Kenema, a major town in the south of the country.
Providing much needed basic services
When the Konsho community health post was established in 2012, there was no running water and limited space and equipment to attend to patients and clients, according to nurse Zainab Tity Sawaneh, who has been working from the beginning. We had just one delivery bed so women had to deliver on mats or cloth on the floor, when we had more than one delivery. That was very uncomfortable for us and the women, and made infection prevention and control difficult, she says.
Now the nurses, patients and even relatives who accompany them have access to the basic but needed facilities, including running water and electricity. In the past, the only way to light night time deliveries was by mobile phone. There will be no reason now to drop my phone in fluids when conducting deliveries because I wont need it since we now have solar power! she says.
U.S. President Donald Trump is continuing to shuffle the ranks of his top national security advisers.
Trump aides confirmed Sunday that deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, who worked for three previous Republican presidents, is expected to leave Trump's staff soon, likely to be named as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore.
The 65-year-old McFarland came into the White House as an aide to Trump's first national security adviser, retired Army General Michael Flynn. Trump ousted Flynn after just 24 days on the job after learning that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence and others about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to Washington in the weeks before Trump took office in late January.
Flynn's replacement, Army General H.R. McMaster, has been reshaping the National Security Council, the White House panel that advises Trump on threats to U.S. security. Dina Powell, a Wall Street financial executive, was recently named deputy national security adviser for strategy and she has been present for high-level discussions with delegations from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and China.
Last week, Trump ousted his chief political strategist, Stephen Bannon, from the National Security Council, an appointment that had drawn the ire of Washington foreign policy experts, who say that only officials steeped in U.S. security concerns should be on the panel.
Two new U.S. public opinion polls show Americans support President Donald Trump's missile attacks on Syria for its use of chemical weapons, but have little appetite for further military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A CBS News poll showed that by a 57-to-36 percent margin, those surveyed favored Trump's assault last week, when the U.S. launched 59 missiles at an airfield believed to have served as a base for Syria's gas attacks that killed dozens and sickened hundreds more.
A Huffington Post/You Gov survey showed a 51-to-32 percent edge in favor of Trump's decision, the first direct U.S. attack on Syria during its six-year civil war.
But both polls showed only about a fifth of those polled want the U.S. leader to take further military action against the Damascus government.
The CBS poll said seven in 10 Americans think Trump should get congressional approval before taking any further action. The Huffington poll said that only a third of those it polled think that Trump's missile attack will deter Assad from using chemical weapons again.
Trump's approval ratings were in the mid-to-upper 30 percent range before the attacks, historic lows for a new U.S. leader. But CBS said the figure has now risen to 43 percent, while a separate pollster, Gallup, said Trump's approval rating stands at 40 percent.
automakers
Toyota Kentucky plant to get $1.33 billion
Japanese automaker Toyota Motor said it is spending $1.33 billion in its Kentucky plant as part of a plan to invest $10 billion in the United States over the next five years.
The investment in the plant, Toyotas largest, comes amid uncertainty over President Trumps trade policies that could affect certain Japanese firms capital expenditure plans.
Trump criticized the automaker earlier this year and said he would impose a hefty fee if it built its Corolla cars for the U.S. market at a plant in Mexico.
Toyota joins a host of automakers including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Honda Motor and Daimler that have announced investments in the United States since Trump won the U.S. election.
Even U.S. car manufacturers Ford Motor and General Motors have announced plans to spend more domestically.
Toyotas decision to invest $1.3 billion in their Kentucky plant is further evidence that manufacturers are now confident that the economic climate has greatly improved under my administration, Trump said in the statement issued by Toyota.
Toyota said that the investment would help in its new production process that would allow for a more flexible production environment, helping it build better cars and respond quicker to customers.
The plant employs about 8,200, and Toyota recently boosted the count by more than 700 ahead of the launch of the new version of the Camry.
Reuters
airlines
Quality has improved, annual report says
Airlines are getting better at sticking to their schedules and are losing fewer bags. Their customers seem to be complaining less often.
Those are the findings of an annual report on U.S. airlines quality released Monday by researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Many passengers may have trouble believing those conclusions, however.
In the past few days, Delta Air Lines suffered a multiday meltdown canceling more than 3,000 flights after a one-day storm in Atlanta. And on Monday, United Airlines was in the spotlight after a video showed security agents dragging a man off a plane; he had refused to give up his seat on a flight that United overbooked.
People dont look at the numbers, admitted Dean Headley, a marketing professor at Wichita State and co-author of Mondays report. They just know what happened to them, or they hear what happened to other people.
The researchers used information compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation to rate the airlines for on-time performance, baggage handling, bumping passengers off oversold flights and complaints filed with the government.
They judged Alaska Airlines to be the best U.S. carrier, followed closely by Delta. Frontier Airlines ranked last, followed by another discount carrier, Spirit Airlines.
Associated Press
Also in Business
Taiwans Foxconn has indicated that it may pay as much as 3 trillion yen ($26.99 billion) for Toshibas chip business, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. South Koreas SK Hynix and chipmaker Broadcom have submitted preliminary bids for the business, valued at $17.98 billion or more, according to the report. Toshiba, the second-biggest NAND chip producer after South Koreas Samsung Electronics, is considering selling the majority or all of its marquee flash-memory chip business, as it seeks to make up for a $6.3 billion write-down from its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse.
Boeing hired Norsk Titanium to print the first structural titanium parts for its 787 Dreamliner, the Norwegian 3-D printing company said Monday, paving the way to cost savings of $2 million to $3 million for each plane. The contract is a major step in Boeings effort to cut the cost of its barely profitable 787 and a sign of growing industrial acceptance of 3-D printing technology, which is replacing more expensive traditional ways of manufacturing components. Strong, lightweight titanium alloy is seven times more expensive than aluminum and accounts for about $17 million of the cost of a $265 million Dreamliner, people in the industry say.
Comcast plans to introduce an online video service offering hit shows from its NBCUniversal TV networks in the next 12 to 18 months, an effort to compete with rivals Netflix and CBS, people familiar with the matter said. The new service will include programs from the NBC broadcast network, and could include shows from Comcast cable channels Bravo, Syfy and USA, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private plans. Comcast is still determining many of the particulars of the service, including whether it will have a live feed of the broadcast network and whether it will include sports, the people said.
Whole Foods Market shares surged the most in more than two years after activist investor Jana Partners acquired a stake of 8.3 percent and suggested that the organic-food grocer may want to put itself up for sale. The investment firm announced the holding in a filing Monday, saying it would seek talks with management and push for a review of Whole Foods strategic alternatives. Jana also may nominate at least three directors in a bid to help foster a turnaround. Whole Foods shares gained as much as 11 percent to $34.40 in New York, the most since November 2014. The stock had been up 1 percent this year through the end of last week.
From news services
Coming today
10 a.m.: Labor Department releases job openings and labor turnover survey for February.
Wells Fargo said Monday that two former senior executives, including its longtime chief executive John Stumpf, must forfeit an additional $75 million in compensation after a scathing internal report found that they did too little to rein in the abusive sales practices that have rocked the mega-bank.
Stumpf, who stepped down in October, will lose an additional $28 million in bonus money and the bank is taking $47 million from another former high-ranking executive, Carrie Tolstedt. Stumpf and Tolstedt had already given up $41 million and $19 million in compensation, respectively.
The clawbacks of executive pay by the company are among the largest in history and a sign that big U.S. banks feel increasingly under pressure to show the public that they can hold themselves accountable for corporate wrongdoing.
Senior Wells Fargo executives knew as far back as 2002 nearly a decade earlier than initially disclosed that bank employees were setting up fake accounts that customers didnt want in order to meet aggressive sales goals, according to the 113-page report by the banks independent directors. Tolstedt was allowed to manage the banks massive retail banking operations with little oversight and repeatedly played down concerns that employees were engaged in risky behavior, the report found.
Stumpf was by nature an optimistic executive who refused to believe that the sales model was seriously impaired, the report stated. His reaction invariably was that a few bad employees were causing issues, but that the overwhelming majority of employees were behaving properly.
Stumpf did not immediately respond to a request for comment through his attorney. He has apologized in the past for not being more vigilant, even as he insisted most employees behave ethically. Tolstedts attorney was defiant.
We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt. A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion, Enu Mainigi, of the law firm Williams & Connolly, said in a statement.
The report, which took six months to compile, is likely to do little to quiet Wells Fargos critics. Two influential shareholder advisory firms are calling for significant changes at the bank, including the ouster of all of its incumbent board members. And Stumpf and Tolstedt are only giving up a fraction of the $280 million and $100 million they earned, respectively, between 2011 and 2016, critics note.
Despite the clawback, I still feel that Stumpf is getting off easy, said Sarah Anderson, global economy project director for the Institute for Policy Studies, a social justice think tank.
Wells Fargo admitted last year that it had fired 5,300 employees between 2011 and 2016 for opening fake accounts. But, according to the report, Stumpf was notified of a problem at one of the banks Colorado branches in 2002 that led to mass termination of bank employees. An internal investigation at the time found that many branch employees in Colorado were gaming the system to meet sales goals, including issuing customers debit cards without their consent.
Several employees were fired or resigned but not all of them, the report found. There were similar large-scale terminations for such conduct over the next decade, the report said, yet top executives repeatedly failed to look at what the root problem might be.
While the report said Stumpf, who spent more than 30 years at the bank, was ultimately responsible for the scandal, it lays much of the blame on Tolstedt, who ran the banks community banking division, encompassing some 6,000 branches.
The report described a pressure cooker sales operation in which reaching aggressive new account goals often overshadowed repeated complaints about employees risky behavior.
The Community Bank identified itself as a sales organization, like department or retail stores, rather than a service-oriented financial institution, the report said.
Some employees went to dizzying lengths to meet the sales goals. One branch manager had a teenage daughter with 24 accounts, an adult daughter with 18 accounts, a husband with 21 accounts, a brother with 14 accounts and a father with 4 accounts, the report said. Another senior executive had district managers dress up in themed costumes during periodic reviews, then run a gauntlet to a whiteboard where they reported how many sales they had completed.
Wells Fargo gave managers wide latitude to run their divisions. When confronted with concerns about the aggressive sales goals, Tolstedt and those in her inner circle were defensive and did not like to be challenged or hear negative information, the report said.
Tolstedt was scared to death that changes would hamper sales growth, the report found.
Stumpf was interviewed as part of the probe, but Tolstedt declined to be interviewed on the advice of her attorney.
The independent board members who spearheaded the internal investigation acknowledged in the report that they too were slow to aggressively call for changes at the bank. Several board members said they felt misled about the scale of the problem and did not learn that 5,300 employees had been fired for setting up the sham accounts until last September when regulators stepped in and fined the bank.
Senior executives did not tell the board that the problems plaguing the community banking division amounted to a noteworthy risk until 2015, the report found. The abusive sales practices were considered a problem of relatively modest significance, the equivalent of a tolerable number of minor infractions or victimless crimes, the report said. This underreaction to sales practice issues resulted in part from the incorrect belief, extending well into 2015, that improper practices did not cause any customer harm.
Board members should take more responsibility for not detecting the problems earlier and cut some of their own pay, said Alan M. Johnson, a compensation expert. I think they should have given up a significant amount of pay as well, but they dont seem to be inclined to do that, he said. The banks board members earn about $300,000 to $480,000 in cash and stock every year.
Since the scandal erupted, the report praised the progress Wells Fargo has made to address the problem. The report, conducted for the board by the law firm Shearman & Sterling, generally left the current chief executive, Timothy J. Sloan, unscathed. Sloan, who has been at the bank for about 29 years, said the bank was focused on mending fences with customers.
The bank has ditched the sales goals and spent more than $3 million reimbursing thousands of customers who were charged fees for accounts they didnt authorize. Wells Fargo has also rehired about 1,000 former employees, many of whom either stepped down or were fired when they struggled to meet the aggressive sales goals set by the bank, since the problem was disclosed last September, Sloan said.
I am very proud of what our team has accomplished . . . in terms of progress that has been made, Sloan said in conference call with reporters. We need to make things right with our customers and that is going to cost whatever its going to cost.
But the bank is still under pressure. The Department of Justice is investigating the matter and the House Financial Services Committee is reviewing more than 100,000 company documents. The bank is also studying how to compensate customers whose credit scores were harmed by the unauthorized accounts.
This pulled pork sandwich in the Sweet Home Cafe is the closest folks get to barbecue at the National African American Museum of History and Culture. Why? (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
What does the National Museum of African American History and Culture have to say about barbecue, and why does it matter?
Since the museum opened in September, I, like so many other visitors, have found the experience moving and important. But when I made my way to the Cultural Expressions exhibition, which includes a section on food, I couldnt help wondering, why no barbecue? Along with a little information about Africa, the tiny food exhibit features oysters, red beans and rice, greens and black chefs. There are no photos of pitmasters. No bricks from an important pit. No acknowledgment of the role African Americans have played in creating and defining what might be called Americas Cuisine.
If there is a story that courses through Americas veins, from before the establishment of the nation through slavery and into modern times, touching on politics, entrepreneurialism, social life and the transition from agricultural to urban living, it is the one told by barbecue. When I asked curator Joanne Hyppolite about the omission, she said, Theres only a finite amount of space, so you could only tell so many stories.
[Immigrants bring new touches to American barbecue. Just like they always have.]
She pointed me to the museums Sweet Home Cafe, saying it functions as an extension of the museum, with food telling stories about the African American experience. Indeed, I have eaten the oxtail, the oyster pan roast, the gumbo and the fried chicken and enjoyed them all. Unfortunately, I cant say the same for the barbecue. But its not the quality itself that concerns me. Its the stories, which strike me as more confusing than enlightening.
Take the Lexington Style BBQ Pork sandwich with coleslaw and pickled okra. The pork is suffused with a sweet sauce unlike anything for which Lexington, N.C., is known. The coleslaw is mayonnaise-based, which is characteristic of the eastern side of the state. Lexington is in the central-west part of the state, and its style is defined, in part, by red slaw, chopped cabbage in a thin ketchup-inflected vinegar and pepper dressing. There is nothing particularly Lexington about this sandwich or slaw. Why identify it as such?
Sweet Home Cafe in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture functions as an extension of the museum. (Maura Judkis/The Washington Post)
The sandwich is offered in the Agricultural South region of the 400-seat, cafeteria-style restaurant. It is one of four regions represented, the others being the Creole Coast, the North States and the Western Range.
Cold-smoked chicken with Alabama white sauce represents the barbecue offering in the Creole Coast region. The sauce was developed in 1925 by a white entrepreneur named Big Bob Gibson. If the idea is to showcase African American contributions, why such prominence to a condiment created by a white guy?
In the Western Range, the barbecue consists of a buffalo brisket sandwich on a brioche bun with charred-peach-and-jalapeno chutney. Never mind that, in traditional barbecue circles, rarely is heard the word chutney. Why buffalo and not beef, as is common throughout Texas, which would seem to fit within the Western geography? (As it happens, the buffalo, though still on the menu, has been replaced, for now, by beef because the cafe couldnt procure sufficient amounts of buffalo with the proper marbling.)
[The secret to building the perfect draft beer list]
In the North States, theres no barbecue at all, a lost opportunity. Chicagos rib tips could be included as a representation of a specific style that tells the story of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South, especially from Mississippi and Arkansas, where many found work in the citys slaughterhouses.
And why no ribs, which may be the most emblematic barbecue meat of them all?
The answer to that last question is easy. We just dont have enough space in the Cookshack, says Albert Lukas, a supervising chef, referring to the electric oven enhanced with a box for adding wood chips and chunks. Lukas is with Restaurant Associates, which operates the cafe with Thompson Hospitality, the countrys largest minority-owned food service company. Ribs, he said, might be served this summer.
Sweet Home Cafe chef Jerome Grant: The biggest complaint we get is, My mama didnt make it like that. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
Lukas oversees the operation with executive chef Jerome Grant, who came to Sweet Home from the acclaimed Mitsitam Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian. Together, they say, they view their mission not necessarily as serving food in traditional ways, but extending the traditions to show the adaptability of African American culinary techniques and flavors.
I want to take the traditional methods and innovate and modernize them, Grant says. I look at African American food as American food. Whether slaves or indentured servants, we were the ones doing the cooking. To say there is one specific genre, I dont look at it that way because the diaspora was so long. Were adding to the story.
There is no question that Grant and Lukas face a daunting challenge. What is traditional in, say, collards? Ham hock? Turkey neck? No meat?
The biggest complaint we get, says Grant, is, My mama didnt make it like that.
But an accepted version of a dish is different than a makeover. At Sweet Home, the fried chicken is served with two sides, such as mac n cheese and collards (with chicken broth, but no meat, incidentally). Traditional. The gumbo is served over rice not, say, polenta. Traditional. Even with a little Heinz chili sauce, the Thomas Downing oyster pan roast, named for a popular black chef in New York whose basement served as part of the Underground Railroad, adheres to what Lukas told Smithsonian magazine is an iconic New York dish. Traditional, or something close to it.
[Take a virtual tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture]
The barbecue, conversely, is loosened from its moorings. The mash-up of ingredients subverts regional or historical context. In so doing, it doesnt extend tradition. It dismisses tradition. And, perhaps more importantly, context. That is why the treatment of barbecue is important. Its story is the American story.
I think barbecue plays a very central role in defining American cookery, says Adrian Miller, author of Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time. I firmly believe that African Americans were the first ambassadors of barbecue across the country, he says. Go back to the historical record and a lot of the barbecues were cooked by an African American pitmaster.
When I interviewed her last year, Jessica B. Harris told me, Barbecue has become totemic. Harris is the author most recently of High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America and an expert on the foods of the African diaspora. The trick with barbecue, its a noun, verb and adjective. That in and of itself gives it extraordinary power. Its imprinted indelibly on our collective consciousness.
Harris served as a consultant to the museum and supplied a white paper that helped provide the concept of the cafes regional approach, but didnt develop the recipes.
It [barbecue] needs to be in the museum, she said. It was definitely a part of the cafe.
Grant understands that barbecue is a valuable African American culinary contribution, but he approaches it with considerably more creativity than the other dishes on the menu. He says that, to him, barbecue is more about picnics or backyard gatherings.
Thats fine, but unlike with the fried chicken and the oysters, Id say, the cafes treatment of barbecue does not articulate a clear story. It doesnt make sense of the evolving nature of barbecue, or help put it in historical or contemporary perspective. If the cafe is going to provide regions, then one expects from this most regional of cuisines that it communicate the same thing as the other dishes: a deeper appreciation for that foods relationship to culture.
Miller told me he thinks the cafe does a fantastic job of displaying the regions, and he likes the good mix of old and new. But when it comes to barbecue, he said, I think they have to stay true to the tradition. Thats the last taste of black history people are going to get at the museum.
Miller suggested that the cafe could perhaps provide a brochure or a place mat that provides some educational commentary.
Not a bad idea. I hope that, in two years from its opening, when the food exhibit will change, the museum also adds something about barbecue, given its unrivaled place in the story of African Americans. And that, in the meantime, the cafe works on telling that story more clearly.
Shahin is an associate professor of journalism at Syracuse University. He will join Wednesdays Free Range chat at noon: live.washingtonpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jimshahin.
From being hailed as the most efficient election body in the world to earning the tag of 'Dhritrashtra', the Election Commission is trying hard these days to re-establish its credibility. It has suspended 19 officials involved in the Bhind incident but maintains that EVMs and VVPAT tampering is not possible.
By India Today Web Desk: Almost the entire Opposition camp is up in arms alleging that the electronic voting machines are being tampered to favour the BJP.
The Election Commission is feeling the heat as Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that the poll panel is complicit in tampering of the EVMs.
The tampering allegation is not new but since the Assembly elections, where BJP did manage to form governments in four out of five states, it has taken a different proportion.
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THE FIRST ALLEGATIONS
BSP chief Mayawati was the first to question the authenticity of the polling in Uttar Pradesh saying that the EVMs were tampered with to benefit the BJP.
The issue was then grabbed by the Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal led a campaign demanding that the Election Commission should go back to using the ballot papers. Kejriwal alleged that the EVMs were tampered in Punjab so as to benefit the Congress.
THE BHIND EPISODE
In such a backdrop, the Election Commission officials of Madhya Pradesh held a demonstration of EVMs in Bhind district ahead of Assembly bypolls to show how Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) worked.
The reports of the Bhind demonstration claimed that the EVMs were tampered with as it left a paper trail showing that more votes went in favour of the BJP that were cast for the party.
Two prominent leaders had already questioned the incorruptibility of EVMs. Now, the entire Opposition seemed skeptical of the use of EVMs. The BJP was blamed all through and credibility of the Election Commission was at stake for the first time in decades.
The Election Commission responded with exemplary decisiveness. It suspended the 19 officials and ordered a probe.
REPORTS AND ELECTION COMMISSION
The probe by the Election Commission found that the reports about the tampering of the EVMs were 'false'.
After getting investigation done, the Election Commission said, "The team has found no anomaly or tampering in EVM and VVPAT used during demonstration in Bhind on March 31."
"It is completely false to say that at multiple times slips of lotus were printed on pressing different buttons," the Election Commission said.
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED IN BHIND
It seems that chief electoral officer giving demonstration at Bhind stated the truth on March 31, when she said that there was nothing wrong with the paper trail.
The Election Commission probe set the sequence right. The election official pressed four buttons on the EVM each followed by a slip from the VVPAT machine.
The slips came out in this order: Hand Pump (Rashtriya Lok Dal), Lotus (BJP), Hand Pump (Rashtriya Lok Dal and Hand (Congress).
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Initial reports said that the goof up happened as the EVMs were directly brought from Kanpur, where the election was recently held as part of the UP Assembly poll. The EVMs were not sanitised before they were taken for demonstration.
The Election Commission probe report said that the EVMs used in the demonstration in Bhind was not brought from Uttar Pradesh. However, the VVPAT used in the demonstration was brought from UP and its data was not deleted before being used at Bhind.
WHY THIS CONFUSION
News website Scroll.in reports that it spoke to several reporters present when demonstration of EVM and VVPAT was done.
"No news reporter contacted by us, however, happened to have noticed the first hand pump symbol," the website wrote.
Further, a light-hearted banter by the chief electoral officer Saleena Singh added to the confusion. During her press briefing, some reporters said, apparently in jest, that the EVM was biased towards the BJP.
Saleena Singh responded to the remark by saying not to print this else she would see them in police station. Her comment led to an altercation and the confusion prevailed. Soon, the political leaders were asking questions about the impartiality of the Election Commission and vulnerability of the EVMs.
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Clarifying the issue, the Election Commission said, "The accuracy of the functioning of the EVMs and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) is beyond doubt."
However, the poll panel has taken the issue of non-deletion of pre-loaded data in VVPAT (not the EVM) from Govind Nagar in Uttar Pradesh seriously saying, "There should be no room for casualness in handling the electoral matters."
ALSO READ |
EVM row: Dhritarashtra EC wants Duryodhan to win, says Kejriwal; 13 parties to move poll panel today
ALSO WATCH |
--- ENDS ---
When he called out Internet provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, above, some on the alt-right labeled the author an SJW (social justice warrior) and a public predator. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Ive always said that I appreciate all my readers, both those who agree with me and those who dont. But lately Ive been puzzled by the new slurs directed at me by some of the latter. Many I didnt even understand, so I did some digging.
Apparently, tried-and-true insults such as fag, fairy, kike and hebe (yes, Im Jewish) are old-school, especially among the alt-right. That small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state is developing new coded language, much as the Nazis once did, says noted linguist George Lakoff, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley.
For instance, in February I wrote about Milo Yiannopoulos, the now-disgraced Breitbart News editor and alt-right poster boy. I heard from many readers about that column, which took Yiannopoulos to task for his incendiary language. But one email caught my eye: Milo is far less bigoted, misogynist, and hateful than those of you sick sociopathic and psychotic SJWs who smear him so desperately. Sick, sociopathic and psychotic, I knew. But SJW? I had no clue. In a personal ad it might mean straight Jewish woman, but two of those dont apply to me. So what was this snarky new gem of an insult?
I emailed back, What is an SJW? The reply: An SJW is a social justice warrior. In the press, this particular public predator tends to be big on PC [political correctness] virtue signaling but happy to smear others viciously with false accusations of sexism, racism, white nationalism, hate speech, etc.
Well, that was certainly clear Im a public predator allegedly guilty of smearing Yiannopoulos by referring to his very own, widely reported hateful language.
I started looking into other slurs readers hurled at me. There was libtard, and one I really liked at first snowflake, because theyre magical, in moderation.
But heres the nasty undercurrent: These new words are intrinsic to the alt-rights rise, according to Lakoff. He connects this to the Nazis and the coded language (prime example: the master race) that eventually allowed them to topple governmental institutions. The strategy is to control discourse, Lakoff points out. One way you do that is preemptive name calling . . . based on a moral hierarchy.
I asked what he meant by a moral hierarchy. God above man, man above nature, men above women. The strong above the weak. Christians above gays, he said, continuing with even more examples. Lakoff emphasized that this is different from the Democrats labeling some conservatives racist, sexist or homophobic which they do if only because that usage is not as canny or strategic.
Take Donald Trumps repeated characterization of Hillary Clinton as Crooked Hillary, Lakoff said. Say it often enough in public, and people start to believe it, and before you know it people such as Clinton are discredited. The whole idea is not to be civil, Lakoff says. The idea is to win.
With that in mind, heres a short primer on some of the alt-right coded language making the rounds:
Snowflake. This is no compliment, even if you like to think that youre one of a kind. At best, its a derisive term for someone considered entitled, which to those using it includes people of color, LGBT folks, students even Meryl Streep for her pro-kindness stance at the Golden Globes. Sarah McBride of the Human Rights Campaign told me that its often used against LGBT people in reference to pronoun usage, particularly nonbinary pronoun use, and the efforts on college campuses to be more aware and affirming of peoples pronouns. Used in a sentence, via Urban Dictionary: Hey snowflake, Trump won, deal with it. With one word youre dismissed as weak, feminine, juvenile a loser.
Libtard. Lib is for liberal, while tard is shorthand for retard. Bingo! If youre two thumbs down on political correctness, then what better insult than this combination? It even allows a bonus zing at folks with special needs.
Cuck. I heard this one while watching Bill Mahers HBO show several weeks ago. One of his guests kept using it. Its short for cuckservative, which is a word cocktail made up of equal parts conservative and cuckold. Urban Dictionary defines it as a racial slur for a White person that is not loyal to White Supremacy and offers this sample of use in a sentence: Jeb is such a cuck.
Masculinist. Im an out and proud feminist, but Id never heard of masculinist. According to Merriam-Webster, its an advocate of male superiority or dominance and is often used to promote traditional gender roles. The Oxford Dictionaries use it this way, in reference to the 1990s: The newly unified German parliament replicated the same masculinist pattern, celebrating its debut with less than 10 percent women representatives. Thats the same as in pre-World War II Germany and theres that Nazi thing again.
Bottom line: It pays to increase your word power these days. Theres much more to alt-right coded language than meets the eye or the ear. Steven Petrow is a Social Justice Warrior, a public predator, a devotee of political correctness, and happy to tar and feather others with false accusations. If they say it often enough, you might believe it, and then you might not believe anything I write or say. Thats their whole point.
Agree or disagree with my perspective? Let me know in the comments section below.
You can reach the author on Facebook at facebook.com/stevenpetrow and on Twitter @stevenpetrow. Join him for a chat online at washingtonpost.com on April 18 at 1 p.m.
President Trump thanks fourth-graders Janayah Chatelier and Landon Fritz for homemade greeting cards they presented during his visit to St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando on March 3. With the president, from left to right, are Jared Kushner, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Ivanka Trump. (Joe Burbank/AP)
Florida has channeled billions of taxpayer dollars into scholarships for poor children to attend private schools over the past 15 years, using tax credits to build a laboratory for school choice that the Trump administration holds up as a model for the nation.
The voucherlike program, the largest of its kind in the country, helps pay tuition for nearly 100,000 students from low-income families.
But there is scant evidence that these students fare better academically than their peers in public schools. And there is a perennial debate about whether the state should support private schools that are mostly religious, do not require teachers to hold credentials and are not required to meet minimal performance standards. Florida private schools must administer one of several standardized tests to scholarship recipients, but there are no consequences for consistently poor results.
After the students leave us, the public loses any sense of accountability or scrutiny of the outcomes, said Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of Miami-Dade County public schools. He wonders what happens to the 25,000 students from the county who receive the scholarships. Its very difficult to gauge whether theyre hitting the mark.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a longtime advocate for school choice, does not seem to be bothered by that complaint.
Students play chess during an enrichment class at Academy Prep, a private middle school in Tampa that includes students from low-income families who receive tax-credit scholarships to attend. Academy Prep students go to school 11 hours per day and nearly 11 months per year. (Courtesy of Academy Prep Center of Tampa)
She is driven instead by the faith that children need and deserve alternatives to traditional public schools. At a recent public forum, DeVos said her record in office should be graded on expansion of choice-friendly policies. She did not embrace a suggestion that she be judged on academic outcomes. Im not a numbers person, she said.
In a nutshell, that explains how the Trump administration wants to change the terms of the debate over education policy in the United States.
In the past quarter-century, Republican and Democratic administrations focused on holding schools and educators accountable for student performance.
Now, President Trump and DeVos seem concerned less with measuring whether schools help students learn and more with whether parents have an opportunity to pick a school for their children. They have pledged billions of dollars to that end. And they have visited private schools in Florida to underline their support for funding private-school tuition through tax credits.
In February, Trump plugged the Florida program during a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he introduced as his guest a scholarship recipient named Denisha Merriweather. In March, the president went to Orlando to tour St. Andrew Catholic School, where students rely on the scholarships. It was his first, and so far only, school visit since taking office.
On Thursday, DeVos visited another Florida private school to highlight the program. Christian Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) Elementary is an awesome example of the opportunities provided through the Florida tax-credit scholarship, DeVos told reporters. She said that the administration is working on how to expand choice nationally and that there is a possibility its efforts might be patterned on Floridas tax-credit program, according to Politico.
Floridas program, created in 2001 with the full-throated support of then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R), was one of the first to harness corporate tax credits to help low-income families pay private school tuition. Sixteen other states have enacted variations on the idea.
(Brookings Institution)
Using tax credits to fund the scholarships, instead of direct payments from public treasuries, enabled lawmakers to work around state bans on the use of public funds to support religious institutions. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that tax-credit programs are constitutional.
Taking the idea to the federal level is one of the clearest ways Trump could make good on his promise to supercharge private-school choice across the country. If embedded in a larger tax bill that the GOP-held Congress passes via the budget reconciliation process, it would be protected from a Senate filibuster and therefore would require only 51 votes instead of the 60 usually required to pass legislation.
Vouchers are popular with the Republican majority on Capitol Hill but anathema to most Democrats. The Republican-controlled Congress in 2004 approved a voucher program that provides direct federal funding to help poor children in the District of Columbia attend private schools.
In Floridas tax-credit program, businesses receive a dollar-for-dollar credit when they donate to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations. A corporation that owes $50,000 in Florida taxes, for example, could donate $50,000 and pay nothing to the state. The nonprofit then dispenses money to students for tuition at participating private schools, although in some cases, the payment from the state does not cover the full cost of a private education.
Private schools do not need to be accredited to participate. They must show only that theyve been in business for three years; that they comply with anti-discrimination and health and safety laws; and that they employ teachers who have gone through a background check and hold a bachelors degree, three years experience or special skills.
About 82 percent of scholarship recipients attend religious schools, according to state data. Many teach creationism instead of evolution and require students and parents to adhere to certain principles of religious doctrine.
The Family Life Academy in Archer, Fla., requires parents to subscribe to corporal correction, according to its handbook, and to sign a form giving the school permission to paddle their children. Colonial Christian School of Homestead, Fla., makes clear in its handbook that students will be expelled if they engage in homosexual conduct.
Critics say the public shouldnt subsidize religious instruction, even indirectly. Supporters dismiss that argument.
No one is coerced to go to a faith-based school. Its a free decision, said Doug Tuthill of Step Up for Students, which administers most Florida scholarships. All the program does is provide the resources so they can exercise that freedom.
The program is projected to receive more than half a billion dollars this year that otherwise would have gone to Floridas treasury. But a 2010 analysis found it saves Florida money because each scholarship costs less than the state would spend to educate the same child in public school. The scholarship is now worth $5,886 per year.
In contrast, a federal tax credit would not save money for the federal government.
For more than 15 years, Florida has been out front in the movement to hold public schools accountable for academic results. It was one of the first states to use the results of standardized math and reading tests to grade every public school on an A to F scale, with rewards for the best-rated and sanctions for the worst. As in other states, annual report cards laid out how students at each school fared on the tests, with performance broken down by race and socioeconomic status.
But Florida exempts private schools from that accountability regime, even if they participate in the scholarship program.
Schools must give scholarship students standardized tests, but the outcomes are largely irrelevant. No matter how poorly a private school performs, it can continue receiving scholarship dollars.
The state commissions an annual report on the performance of scholarship students as a group, but their performance cant be compared with that of poor children in public schools, who take a battery of different tests.
And parents seeking test data from a particular private school are likely to find none: Scores are reported separately only for private schools with at least 30 scholarship recipients. In the 2014-15 school year, just 198 of more than 1,600 participating schools met that threshold.
The stakes for parents are high: Although a disproportionate number of the states best schools are private, so are a disproportionate share of its worst, according to Northwestern University economist David Figlio, who has studied Floridas tax-credit scholarships and produced the annual program report for six years.
There are some schools that, year in and year out, seemed to be adding considerable value, and other schools year in and year out that seemed to be leaving kids to fall further behind, Figlio said.
Private-school results are translated into year-to-year changes in national percentile rank, a figure that offers insight into how students compare with others in the same grade nationwide. As a group, Florida scholarship students see no change in their percentile rank from one year to the next, which means that theyre learning at about the same pace as students nationwide.
But that average masks an enormous range.
At Lincoln-Marti Community Agency 23, a school of English-language learners in Miami, students on average scored 9 percentile points lower in math in 2015 than they had scored in 2014, and 5 percentile points lower in reading.
The school received $1.4 million from the tax-credit program this year to educate more than 250 students. Demetrio Perez, general counsel for Lincoln-Marti, said the test results offer an incomplete picture of performance.
The biggest measure of accountability is that parents have a meaningful choice, Perez said. If a parent is not satisfied with the educational program at a school, that parent can take his or her child to another school.
At Okeechobee Christian Academy in Okeechobee, Fla., scores also show students losing ground. Principal Melissa King said the academy is constantly trying to improve. Our core belief is to support these parents in raising up the next generation to advance the Kingdom of God, King said.
Backers say the program forces public schools to improve. Figlios research found evidence for that idea: modest test-score increases at public schools facing the most intense competition.
Students who receive scholarships come from families with an average income of $24,000 per year. Many of those parents say the assistance has given their kids a shot at a better life.
You only have one chance to either do well by your children or to ruin them, and I was trying to give them the best opportunity they could have, said Linzi Morris, a mother of six scholarship recipients.
All six have attended Academy Prep Center of Tampa, a middle school that she said provided top-notch academics as well as music, art, monthly weekend field trips, chess and other extracurriculars. Three are now in college, she said, and the other three are headed there.
Academy Prep students go to school 11 hours per day and nearly 11 months per year, far longer than the typical student. To pay for that, the school raises more than $1 million per year in donations to supplement the scholarships. In all, the program costs $17,000 per student.
The investment appears to pay off: Students at the school learn faster than their peers nationwide, and 98 percent who finish eighth grade go on to graduate from high school, according to school officials. Eighty-four percent enroll in college.
Lincoln Tamayo, the schools principal, said it doesnt make sense to allow schools to continue receiving scholarship dollars if they fail to help children.
Schools of all stripes, whether they be private or public charter or traditional public, are not immune from mediocrity, he said. The anvils got to drop somewhere.
Natalie Rebetsky designed wooden Easter eggs as an alternative to the commemorative eggs from this years White House Easter Egg Roll. (Natalie Rebetsky)
Hes a force, a fundraiser like theyve never seen before.
In one weekend, President Trump helped raise $24 million for the American Civil Liberties Union, right after it took a stand against his proposed travel ban in February.
Other progressive nonprofits Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Watch, the Natural Resources Defense Council, even the tiny, D.C.-based La Clinica del Pueblo have all seen big spikes in fundraising from people eager to protest Trumps policies.
He has not only inspired folks to open their wallets, he has also helped raise a small army of newbie activists. Folks like English teacher Natalie Rebetsky, who never thought of herself as a political person or partisan activist. Until now.
Before Trump, Rebetsky was known as the colorful chair of the English department at Linganore High School in Frederick, Md., whose only involvement with the White House was a mild obsession with the annual White House Easter Egg Roll the largest annual public event at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., with 35,000 people attending last year.
Maryland teacher Natalie Rebetsky, left, and her friend Susan Boroff pack the first boxes of wooden Easter eggs. (Natalie Rebetsky)
[A bittersweet farewell to the Obamas at their last White House Easter Egg Roll]
She has almost two dozen commemorative White House Easter eggs on display in her Sykesville, Md., kitchen. You can touch anything in her Easter egg collection. Just not the White House ones.
When her kids were little, shed wake them up before dawn, get them in their Easter best and drive them to the White House.
There, theyd wait hours to get through the gates to the South Lawn for the Easter Egg Roll. Thats how it was done back then, before tickets were handed out through a lottery system.
And you get there, and its magical. We were always in awe, to be at the White House, she said.
Year after year they did it, and each year she loved adding whatever colorful wooden egg the White House designed to commemorate the event. Pastels, primary colors. Elaborate, minimalist. Republican, Democrat, didnt matter.
I didnt care who was president when I went on the White House lawn. You just always knew the person in the White House is looking out for us and our children, she said.
A child holds a commemorative wooden White House Easter egg in April 2001 during the presidency of George W. Bush. (George W. Bush Presidential Library)
Until now.
I just dont feel that with this administration, she said. Donald Trump has broken that trust with families and children.
When March came around, the time folks usually start making their Easter Egg Roll plans, the White House had yet to announce it was holding the event. The folks who make those commemorative eggs began egging on the administration over Twitter, begging it to submit its plans. They even began to worry that Trump wasnt going to hold the annual event.
[Could the White House Easter Egg Roll go the way of the correspondents dinner?]
Rebetsky looked at the egg collection, wondering if there would be a 2017 egg. And that was the first time she realized she would have political feelings about a Trump egg. Would she even want one this year?
That gave her an idea. What if she made an alternative egg? And her life as the alt-egg lady began.
Youre not doing this nutty thing, her husband told her, when she proposed raiding her familys nest egg of $5,000 to fund making her own egg.
Its really hard for all of us to jump out of our armchairs and be activists, she said. But she wanted to make a point.
So she talked to a marketing guy the family knows. Her heart was pounding in her chest when she called him with her scheme: What if she sold an alternative Easter egg to raise funds specifically for PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts, two organizations on Trumps budgetary chopping block?
I cant stand to imagine a world where there is no federal support of the arts, she said. Its a first for me to put myself out on this issue.
The guy loved the idea. So she called the woodworkers in Maine, Wells Wood Turning & Finishing, and they agreed to make a batch of 1,000. She took a deep breath and put $5,000 down.
She would ask people to send $15 for the eggs $5 to cover the cost, $10 to donate to the arts. That should raise $10,000.
She went to teens she knows to ask their help in launching her Gofundme.com page. She went to the post office to get advice on how to handle a huge mailing. And she waited.
A month after she started the campaign, the White House announced that it would be holding the Easter Egg Roll on April 17. And the woodworkers had to work flat-out to make the massive White House order in time.
Our team has hopped to this years production requirements, said Simon Varney, one of the owners of Wells Wood. Manufacturing the eggs is a multistep process that involves turning each piece from yellow birch on a high-capacity lathe machine, trimming the ends for shape, sanding, barrel painting with various colors and then rapidly printing images and signatures, in different ink colors, on each side of the eggs.
Before the White House order, they finished Rebetskys eggs.
Her kitchen filled with 1,000 wooden eggs. Then the orders started rolling in. She and her sister now spend evenings at the kitchen table, packaging and addressing the little wooden eggs, which say Protect Our Childrens Future 2017, with a cute sketch of dancing Easter bunnies.
One idea, one kitchen table, and more than $13,000 raised as of Monday.
I may be one person, Rebetsky said, but I hope that this campaign will help to deliver my message.
Mission accomplished, alt-egg lady.
Twitter: @petulad
It was one of the biggest surprises on Sine Die, the last day of the 2017 Maryland legislative session. And it had nothing to do with a bill getting killed or being sent to the governors desk.
Maryland Sen. Nathaniel T. Oaks (D-Baltimore), who is facing federal charges for allegedly misusing his legislative position and taking thousands of dollars in bribes, strolled into the ornate Senate chamber on Monday, patted one of his colleagues on the shoulder as he walked by and headed to his seat in the back of the chamber.
Wearing a seersucker suit and a matching kofi hat, Oaks walked into the chamber just minutes after Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) acknowledged Oakss absence and publicly appreciated him for deciding to stay home.
Hes not in jail, Miller said earlier explaining Oakss absence about an hour after the session opened. He said he didnt want to be a distraction.
Oaks moved to his seat next to Sen. William Smith (D-Montgomery), who wasnt expecting his seatmate and had to clear a stack of papers sitting on the senators desk.
Im not cold yet, Smith said Oaks told him as he sat down.
During a break, several lawmakers said they were shocked by Oakss decision to return on the final day.
Oaks is the third current or former Maryland lawmaker charged criminally since January, the start of the 90-day legislative session.
Del. Michael L. Vaughn (D-Prince Georges) resigned minutes before the start of the session in January and was later charged with involvement in a separate wide-ranging bribery scheme. Former Del. William A. Campos (D-Prince Georges) was also accused of accepting bribes in the federal investigation.
Oaks has served nearly 30 years in the General Assembly.
Im still a senator, Oaks mumbled to a reporter when asked about his decision to return to Annapolis just days after turning himself into federal authorities.
According to court records, Oaks was introduced in 2015 to an FBI source who portrayed himself as a businessman looking to obtain contracts in Baltimore through a minority-owned company.
In the months that followed, Oaks had an assistant type up two letters on his House of Delegates stationery at the businessmans request in support of what Oaks thought was a Department of Housing and Urban Development project, according to the court filing. Investigators assert Oaks knew the letters contained false statements about his involvement and knowledge of the project.
Oaks later introduced state legislation at the businessmans request to fund up to $250,000 for the project, according to the court filing.
On Saturday, the General Assembly gave final legislative approval to a bill designed to strengthen the states ethics laws. The bill was part of Republican Gov. Larry Hogans legislative package.
Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D) at a news conference in Annapolis on March 8 in support of legislation to continue funding for services provided by Planned Parenthood. (Brian Witte/AP)
Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly spent much of the 2017 legislative session opposing President Trumps agenda; taking progressive stances on education, health care and the environment; and trying to dent Republican Gov. Larry Hogans popularity ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial election.
On Monday, the House and Senate spent the last day of the session squeezing in final votes and trying to negotiate agreements on controversial bills dealing with police treatment of undocumented immigrants and banning guns on college campuses.
By evening, talks on the latter two proposals appeared to have fallen apart, and a bill on Internet privacy died in committee. But lawmakers passed bills to prevent price gouging by drugmakers, limit hours of standardized testing in schools, address a growing opioid epidemic, provide a tax break for new and expanding manufacturers, and roll back new transportation-funding rules that Hogan said would force his administration to cancel plans for much-needed road and bridge projects.
Legislators continued working late into the evening to resolve a dispute over the states medical-marijuana industry.
Hogan, who proposed his most robust agenda since taking office in 2015, described this years session as incredibly bipartisan but acknowledged that he and Democrats had a few heated moments here and there on different topics.
Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D) speaks with reporters in the Senate chamber on Jan. 11, the first day of the 2017 legislative session. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
Much of the heavy lifting for the Democratic agenda wrapped up before Monday, including the passage of a bill requiring employers to provide paid sick leave.
The session has been all about the Democrats playing defense, fighting against Trump and defending the Maryland worker and the Maryland environment, said Mileah Kromer, a political scientist at Goucher College. That plays well to a progressive base that is still reeling from the Trump presidency . . . but they did not hit Larry Hogan where he is the strongest on jobs and the economy.
The General Assembly sent to the governors desk measures that would prohibit public and private colleges from including questions about criminal history on their applications, ban suspensions of prekindergarten students and require the state to begin work on a nonpartisan redistricting compact with New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.
Immigration advocates pressed lawmakers this year to enact a bill that would limit police cooperation with federal deportation agents, one of several ways progressives want to fight Trumps agenda. The measure, known as the Trust Act, passed the House in March, but a Senate committee advanced only portions of the measure last week, after Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) warned that Maryland is not going to become a sanctuary state.
Negotiations over the measure stalled Monday, exposing divisions among Democrats, as progressive House members lashed out at Miller and Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), the chairman of a committee that removed language barring police and corrections officers from detaining undocumented immigrants on behalf of immigration authorities unless they have a judicial warrant.
Well continue to fight for those communities, even if the Senate and the leadership wont, said Del. Carlo Sanchez (D-Prince Georges), who chairs the Legislative Latino Caucus. It doesnt look good. Were not getting the language we want.
Hogan vowed to veto the original version of the Trust Act but has not taken a stance on the Senate committees modified plan, which would prohibit local police from stopping and questioning individuals solely to determine their immigration status, and from creating registries based on discriminatory factors such as race and religion.
Meanwhile, bail-reform advocates and the Legislative Black Caucus scored a victory last week when House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said a pro-bail bill would not receive a vote in the House this year.
The legislation, strongly backed by the bail-bond industry, would have reversed a recent Court of Appeals rule change that limits the use of bail and instructs judges to impose the least onerous conditions when setting the terms of a defendants pretrial release.
Lawmakers also passed three bills to combat the opioid crisis, including measures that would require doctors to follow best practices for prescribing pain pills; ramp up public-awareness efforts at schools; increase reimbursement rates for care providers who work with addicts; and create a new felony category for distribution of fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that is often mixed with heroin.
But a Senate bill that would have enshrined in state law the federal Internet-privacy regulation created by the Obama administration failed to move out of the House Economics Matters Committee late Monday. Del. Dereck E. Davis (D-Prince Georges), chairman of the committee, said there was not enough time for his committee to thoroughly consider the late-filed bill, which was introduced in the Senate last week and forwarded to the House on Monday evening.
In the past several days, the legislature has forwarded dozens of bills to the governors desk, including several progressive measures that change the way schools are rated for success and prohibit private companies from taking over failing public schools, ban hydraulic fracturing in Western Maryland and require the state to reimburse Planned Parenthood clinics for their services if Congress cuts funding.
The General Assembly also authorized the attorney general to sue the Trump administration over policies dealing with health care, immigration and the environment, and it formed commissions to study the impact of federal policies affecting health care and consumer protections.
Last week, Hogan, opting against a veto override showdown with the legislature, allowed almost all of the bills that were sent to his desk early to become law. He vetoed just one bill, the education accountability bill, which largely pitted the teachers union and Democrats against the State Board of Education and Hogan.
The majority of the bills, including the one that provides funding for Planned Parenthood and all of the measures aimed at the White House and Capitol Hill, became law without Hogans signature.
Weve had a great session, Miller said. We worked with the governor, sent him 27 bills; he vetoed one.
House Majority Leader C. William Frick (D-Montgomery) said the Democrats have largely had to focus on legislating Maryland values, because Maryland values are not coming out of Washington right now.
But Republicans said the attention on Washington was unnecessary, accusing Democrats of trying to tie Hogan, a popular Republican, to Trump, who is widely unpopular in Maryland.
They tried their best to bring D.C. politics into Annapolis, House Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County) said. What the Democrats did was a partisan reaction to anything coming out of Washington.
The session opened with a stain of scandal, and it ended in similar fashion. On Jan. 11, the day the legislature convened, Del. Michael Vaughn (D-Prince Georges) abruptly resigned; he was later implicated in a wide-ranging federal bribery investigation. On Friday, Sen. Nathaniel T. Oaks (D-Baltimore) turned himself in to federal authorities on separate bribery charges.
The legislature last week passed a bill designed to strengthen the states ethics laws, a step Hogan proposed after earlier scandals. On Friday, Miller added an amendment to increase the penalty for bribery to 12 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
We are reaffirming our promise and commitment to the accountability, transparency and fairness that the people of Maryland deserve, Hogan said.
Fenit Nirappil contributed to this report.
THE DISTRICT
Huge tree falls at edge
of White House area
A giant, old tree that stood at the perimeter of the White House compound collapsed Sunday afternoon and fell into the street. It struck a lamp post on its way down, but no injuries were reported.
The tree stood at the northeast corner of 17th and E Streets NW, across 17th Street from the Corcoran museum. It was part of the view seen for thousands of commuting motorists as they came out of the E Street tunnel, continued east and made a turn onto 17th Street NW.
It was one of the larger trees in that area, perhaps as much as five feet in diameter at the base, and about 50 or 60 feet tall.
Martin Weil
MARYLAND
Barricaded area
is deemed safe
Authorities in Prince Georges County said an area in Capitol Heights was safe after an earlier situation early Monday involving a barricade.
Officers were called to the 1000 block of Tunic Avenue around 7:45 a.m. for the report of an argument, according to Capitol Heights Police Chief Anthony Ayers.
A woman who called from inside the home reported that a weapon was involved, Ayers said.
Police set up a barricade, and the situation was cleared and deemed safe around 11 a.m., officials said. No one was injured. Ayers would not say whether anyone was taken into custody, citing the ongoing investigation.
Nearby, Capitol Heights Elementary School was placed on lockdown as a precaution, police said.
Dana Hedgpeth and Lynh Bui
Sister bear cubs at Maryland Zoo named
The two grizzly bear cubs who came from Montana now have names.
The sister cubs were named Nova and Nita after a public contest. More than 6,000 people voted online, said officials at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. It is the first time in the Maryland Zoos 140-year history that it has had grizzly bears.
The bears had been nicknamed Big Bear, which is now Nova, and Little Bear, which is now Nita. Both names are Native American words, according to zoo officials. Nova means chasing butterflies and Nita means bear.
The names were among the suggestions from the public and supporters who helped in getting the bears from Montana, where they were found roaming after their mother was shot.
Dana Hedgpeth
Student success is subject of town hall meeting
The Prince William Education Association is hosting a town hall meeting on the Every Student Succeeds Act on April 20 at 7 p.m. at Stonewall Jackson High School, 8820 Rixlew Lane, Manassas.
Educators, students, parents and community organizations are invited to attend and help determine what factors lead to student success.
For information, visit pweaveanea.org.
Public invited to comment on PRTC 2018 budget
Public hearings on the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commissions 2018 budget are scheduled for April 24 at the PRTC Transit Center, 14700 Potomac Mills Rd., Woodbridge; and April 26 at Manassas City Hall, 9027 Center St., Manassas. Both hearings begin at 7 p.m.
The proposed $60 million budget breaks down into $36 million for operating expenses and $24 million in capital costs. No service cuts are proposed. It also calls for new and expanded commuter services that would be paid for by the state as part of the Interstate 95/I-395 and I-66 transit and transportation demand management plans, according to a news release.
Comments may be made in person at the hearings, by email to publichearing@omniride.com or by writing to: PRTC, Attn: Public Hearing, 14700 Potomac Mills Rd., Woodbridge, Va. 22192. Comments must be received no later than May 1.
Volunteers sought to monitor water quality in Dumfries
Volunteers are needed to work on an ongoing project with the town of Dumfries and the Department of Environmental Quality to monitor E. coli levels in the Quantico Creek watershed. Training on how to check for E. coli will be provided.
For information, email Veronica Tangiri at waterquality@pwswcd.org .
Three runaway teenage girls have been returned home after an investigation that began with Fairfax County police looking into death threats allegedly made by a member of the MS-13 gang.
Police said they are exploring whether the girls were part of a trafficking or prostitution ring.
Fairfax County police charged 10 people last month in the gang-related killing of Damaris A. Reyes Rivas, 15, a runaway from Gaithersburg who was slain in a Springfield park in January. Police said in a search warrant that Reyes Rivas was killed in retaliation for the slaying of an MS-13 member in Prince William County about a week earlier.
[Police charge eighth suspect in alleged gang-related slaying]
Some of those same suspects were also charged in the disappearance of a Springfield 16-year-old, Lizzy Colindres, who left home with her 5-month-old son in mid-January before returning safely in February.
Police do not think the most recent case is related to Reyes Rivas's killing or Colindress disappearance.
In the recent case, Fairfax police began investigating 19-year-old Manuel Lopez Aguilar on March 11 after his ex-girlfriend reported that he was threatening her, according to a search warrant filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court.
The ex-girlfriend told authorities that Lopez Aguilar had been making threats since the couple broke up the year before. A detective wrote that the ex-girlfriend showed police text messages, audio messages and photos that Lopez Aguilar sent her via Facebook Messenger. In one, Lopez Aguilar allegedly told the ex-girlfriend that he has no problem coming after her and killing her.
The photos included shotgun ammunition, a Oujia board and Lopez Aguilar pointing a handgun while making MS-13 hand signs, according to the search warrant.
The detective wrote that the ex-girlfriend was also sent photos of two girls who were living with Lopez Aguilar and whom the ex-girlfriend suspected were runaways.
Lopez Aguilar was arrested and charged with making death threats, police said. Police said they do not think Lopez Aguilar was involved in trafficking or prostituting of the girls, but the investigation led police to the missing girls.
The first runaway girl, 17, was found in Falls Church on March 10. The second runaway girl, 16, was found with Lopez Aguilar when he was arrested in Falls Church on March 11. A third girl, 14, was found the next day in Maryland. The police did not release the names of the girls because they are juveniles.
[Public concern about gangs: Where are we okay? Where are we not okay?]
Separately, Fairfax police are also investigating the disappearance of two other teens who are believed to be in danger and have connections with gangs. Edvin Escobar Mendez, 17, of Falls Church and Sergio Arita Triminio, 14, of Alexandria disappeared last fall.
Fairfax police are also investigating the case of two bodies that were discovered in Holmes Run Park in the Lincolnia area in early March. Police are exploring whether those deaths are related to MS-13.
Fairfax has seen a 70 percent increase in MS-13 activity from 2015 to 2016, according to police. Detectives said the gang has been reconstituting itself after a major bust in 2014. It is considered the largest and most violent gang in the D.C. area.
Subsequently, these 13 political parties will also submit a memorandum on the EVM issue to President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.
By Supriya Bhardwaj: Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has hit out at Election Commission over EVM tampering row.
Ahead of the MCD election in the Capital, AAP chief said, "Chunaav aayog Dhritarashtra ban gaya hai jo apne bete Duryodhan ko saam daam dand bhed karke satta mein pohuchana chahta hai" (Election Commission has become Dhritarashtra who wants to ensure his son Duryodhana gets power at any cost).
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In another development, at least 13 Opposition parties are set to approach the Election Commission over the use of electronic voting machine (EVM) during elections.
The Opposition parties will meet Election Commission officials at 5 pm today to take up the matter.
On Wednesday (April 12), these 13 Opposition parties will meet President Pranab Mukherjee to submit a memorandum over tampering of EVMs.
Chunaav aayog Dhritarashtra ban gaya hai jo apne bete Duryodhan ko saam daam dand bhed karke satta mein pohuchana chahta hai: Delhi CM pic.twitter.com/I0ARY2LDdG- ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
Ever since the Assembly elections in March, several political parties have questioned if electronic voting machines are tamper-proof.
MANY HAVE QUESTIONED IF EVMs ARE TAMPER-PROOF
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati had alleged that EVMs were manipulated after the BJP registered a landslide win in Uttar Pradesh.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal too had alleged tampering of EVMs in Punjab.
Recently, a video showing the VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) machine dispensing slips with BJP's poll symbol in Bhind, Madhya Pradesh, went viral.
With Delhi gearing up for the crucial MCD election, both Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress raised the issue of EVM tampering with the Election Commission and sought scrapping of EVMs in the polls.
The Election Commission has already sought a detailed report on the Bhind incident.
The Election Commission has recently announced that it would replace more than 9 lakh EVMs with the advanced M3 machines ahead of the 2019 General Elections. These M3 machines reportedly stop working if tampered with.
ALSO READ:
Electronic Voting Machine: Here's all you wanted to know about India's EVMs
Amid tampering row, Election Commission to replace 9 lakh EVMs before 2019
While we worry about tampering, Russia seeks our EVM technology for presidential election in 2018
ALSO WATCH
--- ENDS ---
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will end a Justice Department partnership with independent scientists to raise forensic science standards and has suspended an expanded review of FBI testimony across several techniques that have come under question, saying a new strategy will be set by an in-house team of law enforcement advisers.
In a statement Monday, Sessions said he would not renew the National Commission on Forensic Science, a roughly 30-member advisory panel of scientists, judges, crime lab leaders, prosecutors and defense lawyers chartered by the Obama administration in 2013.
A path to meet needs of overburdened crime labs will be set by a yet-to-be-named senior forensic adviser and an internal department crime task force, Sessionss statement said.
[Read Justice Department statement on commission here]
The announcement came as the commission began its last, two-day meeting before its term ends April 23, and as some of its most far-reaching final recommendations remained hanging before the department.
Justice officials said, for example, that no decision has been made on a call for new, department-wide standards for examining and reporting forensic evidence in criminal courts across the country. But the department has decided to suspend work on setting uniform standards for forensic testimony.
[U.S. to commit scientists and new commission to fix forensic science]
The availability of prompt and accurate forensic science analysis to our law enforcement officers and prosecutors is critical to integrity in law enforcement, reducing violent crime, and increasing public safety, Sessions said in the statement. We applaud the professionalism of the National Commission on Forensic Science and look forward to building on the contributions it has made in this crucial field.
The action marked the latest break by Sessions, a former federal prosecutor, with Obama-era priorities. The former senator from Alabama last week announced that top aides will review agreements reached with troubled police forces nationwide to ensure the pacts to overhaul departments do not counter the Trump administrations goals of combating violent crime and promoting police safety and morale .
[In executive actions, President Trump vows crackdown on violent crime]
Barack Obama, a constitutional law scholar, had championed changes to forensic science.
In September, a White House science panel called on courts to question the admissibility of four heavily used techniques, including firearms tracing, saying claims about their reliability had not been scientifically proved. The Justice Department last year also announced a wider review of testimony by experts across several disciplines after finding that nearly all FBI experts for years overstated and gave scientifically misleading testimony about two techniques the FBI Laboratory long championed: the tracing of crime-scene hairs based on microscopic examinations and of bullets based on chemical composition.
(Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)
[FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades]
The wider review has been suspended pending review by the incoming administration and a strategy to be devised by the internal task force with input through public comments, Office of Legal Policy senior counsel Kira Antell said. at the start of Mondays commission meeting in Washington.
We plan to consider all options, Associate Deputy Attorney General Andrew D. Goldsmith said, including using a different commission, a Justice Department office or a group composed of representatives from many agencies.
In his statement about the future of forensic sciences, Sessions highlighted the need to survey crime-lab workloads, backlogs and equipment needs as a way to increase the labs capacities to do work, and the need for reliability and specificity of results.
Even before the announcement not to renew the national commission, several commission members from outside the Justice Department warned against ending its work, saying the Trump administration has made several moves to reduce the role of science and independent scientists in policymaking.
[Scientists are conspicuously missing from Trumps government]
In a letter Thursday, six leading research scientists on the panel urged re-upping the commission for an additional two years, saying, for too long, decisions regarding forensic science have been made without the input of the research science community.
Limiting the relevant scientific community to forensic practitioners is a disservice to that field and to the criminal justice system, they wrote, led by Thomas D. Albright, an internationally recognized neuroscientist specializing in vision and the brain at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
[Read letter from scientists here]
The commission jointly led by Justice and the Commerce Departments National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has prompted several changes.
Following one recommendation, NIST launched a $20 million research effort to solidify understanding of whether techniques used more than 100,000 times a year in U.S. crime labs work as advertised starting with the question of how often claimed matches of pattern-based evidence such as complex DNA profile mixtures may be in error, followed by studies of firearms and bite-mark tracing.
Sessionss predecessor as attorney general, Loretta E. Lynch, also accepted commission recommendations to set new accrediting and ethical codes for forensic labs and practitioners.
[Justice Department issues first standards for forensic expert testimony]
Several commission members who have worked in criminal courts and supported the input of independent scientists said the department risks retreating into insularity and repeating past mistakes, saying that no matter how well-intentioned, prosecutors lack scientists objectivity and training.
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of New York, the only federal judge on the commission, said, It is unrealistic to expect that truly objective, scientifically sound standards for the use of forensic science . . . can be arrived at by entities centered solely within the Department of Justice.
In suspending reviews of past testimony and the development of standards for future reporting, the department has literally decided to suspend the search for the truth, said Peter S. Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project, which has reported that nearly half of 349 DNA exonerations involved misapplications of forensic science. As a consequence innocent people will languish in prison or, God forbid, could be executed, he said.
However, the National District Attorneys Association, which represents prosecutors, applauded the end of the commission and called for it to be replaced by an Office of Forensic Science inside the Justice Department. Disagreements between crime lab practitioners and defense community representatives on the commission had reduced it to a think tank, yielding few accomplishments and wasted tax dollars, the association said.
The commission was created after critical reports by the National Academy of Sciences about a dearth of standards and funding for crime labs, examiners and researchers, problems it partly traced to law enforcement control over the system.
Although examiners had long claimed to be able to match pattern evidence such as with firearms or bite marks to a source with absolute or scientific certainty, only DNA analysis had been validated through statistical research, scientists reported.
In one case, the FBI lab in 2005 abandoned its four-decade-long practice of tracing bullets to a specific manufacturers batch through chemical analyses after its method were scientifically debunked. In 2015, the department and bureau reported that nearly every examiner in an elite hair-analysis unit gave scientifically flawed or overstated testimony in 90 percent of cases for two decades before 2000.
The cases include 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison.
Separately on Monday, the national commission heard from Keith Harward, an ex-Navy sailor exonerated last year after serving 33 years of a life sentence for rape and murder in Newport News, Va. Harward was convicted after six experts, including a leader in the field, concurred that bite marks on a victim matched his teeth to a medical certainty. DNA testing identified a different sailor as the perpetrator. No court in the United States has barred bite-mark evidence, despite 21 known wrongful convictions, a proposed moratorium in Texas and research showing that experts cannot consistently agree even on whether injuries are caused by human teeth.
[Va. exoneration underscores mounting challenges to bite-mark evidence]
The Justice Department and commissions moves have had impact.
FBI Director James B. Comey last year asked U.S. governors to have state and local crime labs review their hair-comparison cases, and reviews of past convictions are underway in at least a dozen states, according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
We want to make sure there arent other innocent people in jail based on our work, Comey wrote in a June letter. Unfortunately, in a large number of cases, our examiners made statements that went too far in explaining the significance of a hair comparison and could have misled a jury or judge.
In backing the expanded Justice Department testimony review, then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said in February 2016 that its goal was to determine whether the same kind of testimonial overstatement . . . could have crept into other disciplines.
The authority afforded to scientific experts is second to none, and we must make sure that our statements are clearly supported by sound science, Yates said.
In another example, the Defense Forensic Science Center, formerly called the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, has funded new research establishing error rates for firearms tracking and last month announced it would begin reporting fingerprint results using statistical probabilities instead of declaring one-to-one matches to individuals, a departure from FBI practice.
Three D.C. police officers were injured Sunday in Northeast Washington when their cars were struck by another vehicle.
None of the injuries was thought to be serious, said Rachel Reid, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Police.
She said the incident occurred in the 3900 block of Blaine Street. The driver of the other car left the scene and a car was pursued into Prince Georges County, but no arrests were reported, police said.
It could not be immediately learned why the officers were on Blaine Street.
The Trump Organization has settled a legal dispute with a second celebrity chef who backed out of a deal to open a restaurant in President Trumps hotel in downtown Washington.
The agreement between Trump and famed chef Geoffrey Zakarian, announced Monday by lawyers, comes three days after the Trump Organization settled a similar breach-of-contract lawsuit he filed against celebrity chef Jose Andres.
The details of both settlements were kept private.
[Trump settles $10 million breach of contract lawsuit filed against Chef Jose Andres]
After an intense, two-year legal battle, we are pleased we were able to amicably resolve our differences and wish Geoffrey continued success, read a statement Monday from Donald Trump Jr., who with his brother, Eric, runs the Trump Organization while their father is in the White House.
New York real estate developer Louis Ceruzzi, who had backed the restaurant, added that he was glad both sides were able to work together cooperatively to reach a settlement and wished Trump International Hotel the very best success going forward.
The settlements with the chefs were reached after Trump often boasted he would never settle a lawsuit.
The legal battles began when both chefs backed out of deals to open restaurants in Trumps luxury hotel complex in the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue. Zakarian, like Andres, cited Trumps derogatory public comments about illegal immigrants from Mexico that he made during the presidential campaign, and both chefs said those remarks made it impossible for them to run a successful dining establishment in the Trump property.
Trump originally sued Zakarian, a Food Network star, in D.C. Superior Court for $10 million, basing that figure on expected losses after Zakarians decision to back out. In recent court filings, Trumps representatives raised the estimated loss to about $14 million.
Trump also filed a $10 million breach of contract lawsuit against Andres. The chef countersued for $8 million, with his company arguing that Trumps campaign rhetoric made it next to impossible to hire Hispanic staff or to attract Hispanic patrons. Trump built his own restaurant in the space Andres had been expected to use and signed BLT Prime and chef David Burke to operate it.
Trump was unable to secure another restaurant to replace the one Zakarian had agreed to use. The space instead was used for another ballroom as well as a meeting space.
Zakarians attorneys Deborah Baum and Alvin Dunn of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman said they were pleased both sides were able to settle their difference amicably and put this dispute behind them, Baum said in a statement. She declined to comment further on the details of the settlement.
Jonathan OConnell contributed to this report.
Canadian photographer Nancy Rose builds tiny sets on her back deck to attract squirrels. She has published three books of her squirrel photos. A fourth is on the way. (Nancy Rose)
When Nancy Rose and her husband were house hunting last year, the first question shed ask whenever they visited a property was, Are there squirrels?
The confused real estate agents would invariably reply: Are you scared of squirrels?
Id say, No, I like squirrels, Nancy said. I take photos of squirrels.
In fact, squirrels are as vital to Nancys work as paints are to a painter or stone is to a sculptor or, perhaps more accurately, as a ballet dancer is to a choreographer.
Squirrels are Nancys raw materials. She photographs squirrels engaging in human activities: mailing a letter, cooking dinner, doing the laundry, vacuuming, going camping. Three of her books have been published in the United States and Canada. A fourth is on the way.
Nancy Rose set up a shoot for her furry models. She lures the squirrels with peanuts. Those who know what I do think Im kind of crazy, she said. (Courtesy of Nancy Rose)
People still think the squirrels are Photoshopped into the scenes, said Nancy, who lives in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Theyre not.
The way their little paws are kind of wrapped around something is pretty much impossible to Photoshop, she said. Or the way theyre standing against something or behind something. Theyre just funny poses.
Funny poses that are the end result of a lot of work. Nancy erects tiny sets on her backyard deck in a Halifax suburb and dresses them with squirrel-scaled props. Then she lures squirrels red squirrels are the species up there with peanuts. She stands at her tripod-mounted camera and waits for the squirrels to come.
Those who know what I do think Im kind of crazy, she said.
Nancys slide into squirrelography was gradual. A onetime home economics teacher and school guidance counselor, Nancy had always been crafty. Ten years ago, she took a digital photography course and started taking pictures in her back yard.
Flowers, scenery, birds, she said. Then one day the squirrels were there. I thought, Lets try to get some of those.
But after a while, the squirrels bored her. They were always looking the same, Nancy said.
A squirrel is a squirrel is a squirrel.
Piling peanuts into a cat food dish and snapping a photo was only mildly amusing. Nancy decided: They need something their size.
She started constructing backdrops, gluing together Popsicle sticks, molding things from self-hardening clay. My eyes are always open for something that might be squirrel-sized, she said.
Nancy came to understand the rhythm of the squirrels, when they were most active, how their natural curiosity would lead them to puzzle out where a nut was hidden. She posted her photos on Flickr. She made calendars for friends. Then she landed her publishing deal. Her books include The Secret Life of Squirrels, The Secret Life of Squirrels: A Love Story and Merry Christmas, Squirrels!
To me, Nancys masterpiece is the cover of The Secret Life of Squirrels. A squirrel appears to be dropping an envelope into a mailbox.
She made the mailbox out of a blue file folder. (Earlier shed made a red mailbox, like they have in Canada, but her publisher told her that wouldnt appeal to an American audience.)
She taped a tiny envelope in the opening of the mailbox and put peanuts inside the box.
I always have the story in my head, Nancy said. Then its just a matter of praying that hell do it.
And he did. Nancy fired off shot after shot as the squirrels little paw swept across the envelope, creating an anthropomorphic illusion.
It can take a lot of trial and error, as when Nancy made a papier-mache school bus.
What I really wanted was the squirrel standing by the door of the school bus, like a child waiting for the bus, or in the drivers seat, like a bus driver, she said. But the squirrel kept going through the front window or out the side window.
A defenestrated squirrel would not be attractive.
I realized I had to block the windows with stiff clear plastic so the only way into the bus would be through the door, Nancy said.
Why squirrels in the first place?
I guess its sort of the cuteness factor, said Nancy, 63. If you look at the Internet, people are all about baby rabbits and children, anything cute and babylike and fuzzy.
Occasionally, curious chipmunks members of the squirrel family stop by, but they dont really serve Nancys purpose.
They dont stand on their hind legs, she said. They dont look like little people.
Nancy and her husband have just moved to a suburb on the other side of Halifax to be closer to their new grandson. Are there squirrels?
There are a couple of big trees in the back yard and there was a squirrel on each bird feeder when we visited, Nancy said. Plenty of material to work with.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
Child-care worker Debbie James-Dean cleans the face of Aaron Albritton, 16 months, while Malachi Young, 15 months, left, waits his turn at a Kids Are Us Learning Center in Southeast Washington. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has offered a $15 million proposal to address the acute shortage of licensed child-care options for the citys infants and toddlers, an issue that has gained urgency amid a baby boom.
Her 2018 budget includes competitive grants to help high-
quality providers expand or open centers and would also make space available for child-care facilities in three city-owned or leased buildings.
The investment would yield an estimated 1,300 additional slots for infants and toddlers an increase of close to 20 percent.
We wanted to respond to what we have been hearing over and over again about infant and toddler child care that we dont have enough of it and its not where we need it, said Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles.
The investment was welcomed by advocates, who said it reflects growing, and much needed, attention to a stressed child-care system.
There is enough space in licensed child-care centers to serve only about a third of the 22,000 children younger than 3 in the District, according to a 2016 report by D.C. Appleseed and the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. The shortage means long wait lists and frustration for a new generation of parents.
[D.C. has a problem it never expected: Too much money]
The proposal begins to address the short supply of care, but it does not include an increase in the citys subsidy rate. The reimbursement helps fund care for children from low-income families and serves as the citys main revenue stream supporting child-care homes and centers. The rate covers just 66 percent of the median cost for quality infant care.
It also does not address the related issue of compensation for child-care workers, who earned an average of $26,900 in 2015, making them one of the lowest- paid groups of professionals in the District. Poverty wages for child-care workers are becoming a pressing issue in the District, because policymakers recently increased education requirements, making the city among the first in the nation to require child-care workers to obtain college degrees. Lead teachers are expected to have an associate degree by 2020.
Bridget Hall, director of Big Mamas Childrens Center in Southwest Washington, said the plan prioritizes quantity over quality.
Her center, like many across the city, serves primarily children from poor families, and so the subsidy rate largely determines what she is able to pay teachers.
We need to support quality care and education by paying our teachers what they rightfully deserve, Hall said.
[D.C. among first in nation to require child-care workers to get college degrees]
Niles said the expansion is a starting point in what she hopes will be a longer-term investment that puts the District on the map for providing a model system of care and education for infants and toddlers, following strides the city has made in offering universal preschool.
There is certainly much more work to do in the overall improvement of our early-
childhood sector, she said.
The mayors proposal would fund a pool of competitive grants worth between $250,000 and $1 million for between 20 and 50 providers, Niles said. The grants could be used for staffing and expansion of facilities or as seed money for new centers, she said.
Providers also would be able to apply for space in city government-owned facilities. The plan takes a page from the federal government; more than 100 independently-operated child-care centers including many in the District are located in federal buildings. Such facilities are popular with federal workers, and they often generate savings that can be spent to improve the quality of care or be passed on to families.
Niles said its not clear whether those facilities would be offered for a fee or at no cost to child-care providers.
Niles said the plan also would fund two government employees to streamline the regulatory process for child-care providers seeking to expand or open their doors in the District, easing a process some say is lengthy and extremely difficult to navigate.
And it includes money for scholarships for child-care workers who are aiming for a Child Development Associate certificate. The funding would likewise expand a pilot program that trains child-care workers starting in high school and supports them through higher education, Niles said.
For parents, the plan funds an expanded online portal that would provide consistent information about licensed facilities in the District and help parents find care and assess quality, she said.
The D.C. Council is also considering several bills that would improve the supply and quality of child care.
D.C. Council member David Grosso (I- At Large), chairman of the education committee, co-
introduced a facilities bill, similar to the mayors proposal, that would free up space in municipal buildings for child care. His plan would offer the space at no cost, and also provide utilities, equipment, furnishings and security.
Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) introduced a bill asking the city to evaluate the supply and demand for child-care facilities that operate outside of standard hours, for parents who work nights and weekends.
And council member Vincent C. Gray (D- Ward 7), along with six other council members, has introduced a wide-reaching bill with the aim of locating sites for at least four new child-care centers in Wards 7 and 8. His bill also would require city officials to develop an updated subsidy rate based on the actual cost of care, and to develop a competitive compensation scale for child-care teachers.
Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly said this year is the first time since 2011 that the TSA academy has welcomed new trainees. Training for new groups of federal marshals began in 2016. The story also misstated the average salary for air marshals: $44,000 is the median starting base salary. This version has been corrected.
Future federal air marshals participate in a shooting exercise inside one of the shooting houses at the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center's Federal Air Marshal Service Training Center on the campus of the Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
The first thing you notice is the gunfire. Loud blasts slice through the air with a sharp crack, crack, crack.
Over the course of a day, the recruits who come to this tree-studded campus will shoot hundreds of rounds from every position. Lying, kneeling, standing, sitting on the move and standing still. Then theyll come back the next day and shoot hundreds more. By the time their training is complete, theyll have fired close to 5,000 rounds.
Thats because when youre a federal air marshal and your work takes place in a 20-foot-wide space, 30,000 feet in the air, precision matters.
Air marshal trainees will go through a 16-week course designed to teach them how to spot and thrwart potential threats on the thousands of commercial air flights that crisscross the globe each day. This group is among the first new recruit classes since 2011.
Theyll spend eight weeks in New Mexico learning basic police techniques before coming to this special Transportation Security Administration school in Atlantic City where their training takes into account their role as armed, undercover agents who spend the bulk of their time aboard commercial planes.
A terrorist attack inside a remake of a commercial Boeing 767 passenger airplane is simulated during a training practice. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
Shooting and shooting with precision is a big part of that, but so is being able to blend in and quietly size up passengers to determine who might be a threat. The Federal Air Marshal Services motto? Invisus, Inauditus, Impavidus (Unseen, Unheard, Unafraid).
Their charge is straightforward.
Our focus in life is to make sure another 9/11 never happens, said Michael LaFrance, assistant supervisory air marshal in charge at the Transportation Security Administrations Atlantic City training center.
[Britain and U.S. ban most electronic devices in cabins on flights from several Muslim-majority countries]
Its not clear whether the Trump administrations efforts to more closely monitor potential terrorists trying to come to the United States aboard commercial aircraft will mean a greater role for air marshals or an expansion of their ranks.
Two of the presidents executive orders which are tied up in federal court prohibit people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. The administration also recently barred passengers traveling from airports in several Muslim-majority countries from bringing laptops, tablets and other portable electronic devices on board with them when they fly, amid concerns that such devices could be used as bombs.
[To fund border wall, Trump weighs cuts to airport security]
A remake of a terminal at Reagan Washington National Airport is set up to train future federal air marshals at the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center's Federal Air Marshal Service Training Center on the campus of the Atlantic City International Airport. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
But the president also has proposed eliminating a $57 million program that uses air marshals and other law enforcement personnel to conduct random sweeps of airports, subway stations and other high-profile public facilities to guard against terrorist attacks.
Here in New Jersey, however, instructors and administrators have tuned much of that out. They are focused on training.
[Second federal judge blocks revised Trump travel ban]
President John F. Kennedy created the air marshal program in 1961, after international hijackings raised concerns about the safety of commercial air travel. But it remained relatively small. At the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there were 33 air marshals. The programs total budget: $4 million.
But after 9/11, everything changed. The Air Marshal Service underwent a massive expansion, adding thousands of new officers.
Though TSA officials decline to discuss specific numbers citing security concerns, a 2016 report by the Government Accountability Office said the TSA employs thousands of air marshals. In fiscal 2012, its annual budget was $908 million. But in the intervening years, the Air Marshal Service has weathered its share of cuts and questions about how it deploys its people since there are not enough marshals to cover every flight.
[Report recommends new strategies for deploying federal air marshals]
The 2016 GAO report offered recommendations on how the TSA could improve its deployment strategy, and officials at the agency have moved to incorporate those suggestions. There have also been concerns about employee morale among marshals given the rigors of the job and relative low pay; the median base starting salary is $44,000. About 7 percent of the marshals are women.
Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for the service, said every effort is made to help air marshals manage the pressures of the job and the stress that comes with the rigors of their travel schedules.
Once they complete basic police training at a facility in Artesia, N.M., they are sent to Atlantic City, where the focus shifts to more tailored instruction. They spend time in gyms where they punch, jab and kick body opponent bags large rust-orange-colored dummies mounted on flexible metal stands. They also take part in simulated hijackings staged aboard true-to-life models of the types of aircraft cabins they are likely to fly.
In short, this is not a place where people spend a lot of time sitting behind a desk.
The goal, LaFrance said, is to place trainees in real-life situations that will sharpen their instincts for sussing out trouble. Rookie air marshals need to know how to size up a situation quickly but not overthink it, he said. The job also requires them to blend in just another weary traveler trying to get to his or her destination.
Even so there are special considerations.
Fighting someone on an aircraft is like fighting someone in a phone booth, said Cardo Urso, a former Marine who teaches close combat techniques as part of the schools defensive measures course. There is very little room for error.
Standing in a large training room at the campus about 10 miles north of Atlantic Citys famous boardwalk, Urso outlined the three options air marshals face when confronted with a threat: fight, flight or freeze.
Of the three, he said, fight is the only option.
His course includes instruction in pressure points to cause pain or induce muscle spasms and other techniques that will disable an attacker quickly and with a minimum of fuss. He showed visitors a rubber knife designed to deliver a small shock, which he described as a pain penalty for negative performance.
At the training center, there is a high-ceilinged room designed to look like the waiting area of an airport. Theres a TSA screening area, a Starbucks, a Dunkin Donuts and the familiar black faux-leather seats arranged back-to-back in groups of eight so common in U.S. airports. Those who regularly travel through Reagan National Airport would be amused to see familiar runways outside the windows of the concourse.
This is where some of the trainees most intensive training will take place. Recruits will be put through scenarios including hijackings in spaces designed exactly like the cabin of an aircraft. Actors are brought in to play passengers. Instructors are able to fill the cabin with smoke or shut off the lights. The encounters are recorded so that teachers can offer feedback. The curriculum includes at least 100 possible scenarios.
The training doesnt end once the air marshals graduate. Every marshal is required to do 20 hours a year of follow-up training. Others may return to Atlantic City to train as instructors.
Thats what has happened in a far corner of the campus, home to three indoor shooting ranges, where the sound of gunfire punctuates the midmorning gloom.
Inside, about a dozen veteran air marshals, clad in khakis and black polo shirts, are fanned out in front of paper targets. They are training to be firearms instructors.
The floor in front of them is littered with shell casings. Expert marksmanship is a key requirement for air marshals, who are tested quarterly on their shooting skills. Daniel Kowal, a supervisory section chief for firearms training, said over the course of their training, air marshal candidates may shoot as many as 5,000 rounds more than some police officers fire during their entire career.
Back on the floor, an instructor barks out another set of orders.
This time were going to start in a kneeling position, he tells the group. When the marshals are ready he gives them the signal to fire. The sounds is deafening. Their accuracy? Spot on.
Tom Perriello, a Democrat running for governor, made his second swing through sparsely populated, deep-red southwest Virginia over the weekend, looking for votes and credibility.
President Trump crushed Hillary Clinton here in November, winning more than three-quarters of the votes in some counties. It is coal country, a place cool to Perriellos promotion of solar and wind energy. And the June 13 Democratic primary contest against Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam will almost certainly be decided elsewhere in vote-rich metropolitan areas such as Northern Virginia.
But Perriello, a former congressman who represented rural central Virginia for one term, says he is making these early visits to southwest Virginia with a long game in mind.
He says restoring the Democratic Partys standing with rural voters requires a consistent presence and a message of economic populism. Perriello wants to be familiar to voters in the southwest if he advances to the general election, where he thinks he can defeat Republican front-runner and former lobbyist Ed Gillespie by tarring him as an establishment enemy to the working class.
And Perriello believes a strong general-election showing in southwest Virginia and other traditionally red parts of the state would strengthen his negotiating hand with what is likely to be a Republican-controlled legislature, if he makes it to the governors mansion.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello fields questions from about two dozen people who came to meet him at Emory & Henry College in southwest Virginia on April 8. (Fenit Nirappil/The Washington Post)
[Deep in Virginias craggy coal country, they saw Trump as their only hope]
Youve got to show up more than once; you have to listen, Perriello said in an interview en route to the Tennessee border town of Bristol. Its a risk because, obviously, we have a lot of bumper-sticker politics, but I think that regions like this that are deeply skeptical for very good reason are looking for the person who can answer the follow-up questions.
Outside his campaign events, voters showed little interest in the governors race and said Perriello has an uphill battle to prove he is not just another politician making token visits to a forgotten part of the state.
It doesnt matter who is the governor, said C.W. Monk, a 62-year-old retired railroad worker from Abingdon who voted for both Barack Obama and Trump based on their promises to deliver change. In Virginia, southwest Virginia is always on the back burner, and we always get whats left over.
Its easy to come around and tell people who dont have work, Im going to come down and help, he said. And as soon as you see them in office, they dont come around any more.
After Perriellos Thursday night campaign rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) his most high-profile endorser he and his campaign staff began a 400-mile trek for a more low-key, two-day swing through southwest Virginia. He met a nun who helps opioid addicts in Pennington Gap and community leaders in Gate City trying to wean the region off its dependence on coal. In all, he drew a little more than 100 voters at events in Wise County, Abingdon and Emory.
[Sanders lends star power to Perriello campaign]
The message he delivered focused on the economy: a $15 minimum wage, debt-free community college and taking on big utilities to make it easier for solar- and wind-energy companies to bring new jobs to the region.
The answer is not going to be to blame black and brown people and scapegoat any other group as Trump is going to try to do and has done, Perriello said at the Abingdon town hall on Friday. Its going to be about being honest to take on concentrations of power and wealth.
Northam, who speaks in the drawl of his native Eastern Shore, made trips to rural Virginia as lieutenant governor while Perriello was serving as a diplomat overseas in the Obama administration. He is planning a campaign swing through southwest Virginia in the coming weeks, and both candidates agreed to attend an April 22 forum in Bristol.
The Republican gubernatorial candidates have also been stumping in southwest: Gillespie, state Sen. Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach) and Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
Republicans say Perriellos candidacy is a nonstarter in the region because he is too far to the left on social and environmental issues, noting that he has become more hard-line on gun control and abortion rights since his time representing rural Virginia in Congress. Perriello counters that voters care more about who is looking out for their economic interests than where a politician falls on the left-right spectrum.
But even some Democratic-leaning voters who liked Perriellos vision for economic revitalization were not sure whether it would sell as well as Trumps promises to restore jobs and American power.
We have signs in peoples yards that say, Finally, someone with [courage], said Juanita Gartman, a 65-year-old nurse from Scott County who helps lead a grass-roots group, Indivisible Coalfields. They dont want to listen. They want to listen to sound bytes.
[Perriellos campaign gets a lift from national support]
Virginias governors race is one of only two in the country this year and is widely seen as an early barometer of politics in the Trump era. Results in rural regions can illuminate whether voters who turned out for Trump will support other Republicans. And while Democrats have fared well in recent statewide contests in Virginia, the party is looking to make inroads among rural voters.
Rick Boucher, a Democrat who represented southwest Virginia in Congress for nearly three decades until he was ousted in the 2010 tea party wave, said he believes it is possible for Democrats to win his region again with a laser-focus on jobs and steady attention not just one or two campaign swings.
But with limited time and resources, Democrats who have held all five statewide contests in recent years have instead focused on running up their margins of victory in the populous Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond areas.
The consultants are going to say, Stay in the urban area, keep your message on metropolitan areas, and dont spend a lot of time in rural parts of the state because you are not going to win them. . . . They simply have to ignore the advice of the consultants, said Boucher, who supports Northam. There is no reason Democrats should be losing the blue-collar vote, and yet thats what elected Donald Trump.
Throughout Perriellos trip, voters grumbled that politicians rarely venture south of Roanoke.
Some of the elected officials, even Democrats themselves, hear Wise County or southwest Virginia, and they think, Oh my gosh, I dont want to go down there; Im scared, its a bunch of deplorables. And were not. Were caring people, said Trevor Monk, a high school senior who was among two dozen who listened to Perriello at the University of Virginias College at Wise.
I dont expect you to trust me for the first time, Perriello responded. But I want it to be a work in progress.
Hans G. Dehmelt was a physicist who won a Nobel Prize for making possible the trapping of single electrons. (Davis Freeman/University of Washington)
Hans G. Dehmelt, a German army veteran who served at Stalingrad and in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, studied physics in his postwar civilian life and won the Nobel Prize for making possible the trapping of single electrons, died March 7 in Seattle. He was 94.
The University of Washington in Seattle, where he had been on the faculty for much of his career, announced the death but did not provide a cause.
Probably none of the particles that compose the atom is as well known or as prominent in the devices of daily life as the electron. Great streams of electrons flow as electric currents through the wiring of computers, calculators and all sorts of communications equipment. They are everywhere and impossible to escape or do without.
Dr. Dehmelts major scientific contribution was developing a technique for isolating a single electron, pinning it down, fixing it in a place where its properties could be carefully studied without interference from the environment.
The technique he devised in the 1950s used electrical and magnetic fields to seize and hold individual electrons. The technique is also used for trapping other charged particles or ions. The electron is a negatively charged particle and as such responds to electrical and magnetic forces.
For his work, Dr. Dehmelt shared half of the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics with Wolfgang Paul, of the University of Bonn in Germany, who worked in the same area. The other half went to Norman Ramsey of Harvard University.
Dr. Dehmelts efforts helped make possible the study of important properties of electrons not in vast numbers, but on the level of individual carriers of electrical charge.
Atomic properties depend on the laws of quantum mechanics that permit only fixed, or quantized, energy levels. Electromagnetic radiation is emitted or absorbed in transitions among these levels.
More precise information about these levels and this radiation is obtainable if the sample involved can be reduced in size to a single particle, and if that particle can be studied over a sufficient duration.
Trapping individual electrons makes it possible to gain more precise knowledge of their properties as infinitesimally small magnets. It also has applications to quantum computing.
Dr. Dehmelt traced his years of work on electron trapping to a moment of inspiration that came while attending a lecture as a student at the University of Gottingen in Germany. With a piece of chalk, a professor made a dot on a blackboard and called it an electron.
Under quantum theory, the position of an electron could not be so simply fixed, but at that moment in Gottingen, the idea of trying to do so entered Dr. Dehmelts mind.
It prompted him to study, calculate and control electron orbits in electric and magnetic fields until, as he said in an autobiographical sketch, the isolation of a single electron became a reality in 1973. This work was followed in the 1980s by isolation of an ion of magnesium.
Hans Georg Dehmelt was born in Gorlitz, Germany, on Sept. 9, 1922. An early fascination with radios sparked his interest in science. As a boy, his do-it-yourself projects so engrossed him, he wrote, that only tutoring from his father kept him from a disastrous performance in school.
At the start of World War II, he volunteered for an antiaircraft unit rather than be drafted. His battery was sent to relieve German troops at Stalingrad but escaped encirclement by the Red Army.
Later, serving on the Western Front, he was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and spent a year in an American POW camp in France. After his release in 1946, he supported himself by fixing and trading radios and studied physics at Gottingen.
He received a doctorate at Gottingen in 1950 and pursued postdoctoral research at Duke University in North Carolina. He joined the University of Washington as an assistant professor in 1955 and became a full professor in 1961. He retired in 2002.
His first marriage, to the former Irmgard Lassow, ended in divorce, and their son, Gerd, died in 2013. Survivors include his wife, Diana Dundore; a grandson; and a great-granddaughter.
Dr. Dehmelt was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He received the National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton in 1995.
Dr. Dehmelt had been dating Dundore when he got the early-morning call from Stockholm in 1989 informing him of his Nobel win.
Instead of mentioning the award, he asked her to marry him. They had earlier spoken, in a lighthearted way, that he would propose if he won the prize.
According to the University of Washington, Dundore described the call as his way of delivering the news. The university said they married soon after.
Sean Smith, left, and Kale Taylor pose for a photo with their son, Charlie Taylor. Smith and Taylor paid more than $20,000 in Hawaii for a fertility procedure when they decided to have a child using a surrogate mother. (Courtesy of Sean Smith/Via AP)
Sean Smith and his husband paid more than $20,000 for a fertility procedure when they decided to have a child using a surrogate mother. They did not know at the time that if they were a heterosexual couple, they might have saved that money.
Now, Smith and other members of Hawaiis lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are lobbying for equal access to the financial help that married heterosexual couples receive under state law.
They are pushing legislation that would require insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization for more couples, including making Hawaii the first state to require the coverage for surrogates, which would help male same-sex couples who must use them.
Now that marriage equality is the law of the land and is accepted, now lets turn to family building, and lets figure out how we fix all these inequities that exist, said Barbara Collura, president and chief executive of Resolve, a national organization that advocates for access to fertility treatments.
Hawaii is one of eight states that require insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization, a costly procedure in which a doctor retrieves eggs from a woman, combines them with sperm and then implants an embryo into a uterus.
But Hawaiis mandate applies only to married heterosexual couples because it covers the medical intervention only if a woman uses sperm from her husband, leaving the LGBT community and single women behind.
At the end of the visit, I would be going into the office and pulling out my credit card, and other people are probably just walking out and insurance is picking up the tab, Smith said. We had to borrow money, refinance a second mortgage, and Im sure there are people who dont even explore the option because the expenses are too great.
The measure pending in the Hawaii legislature would remove requirements that the egg and sperm come from a married couple and include surrogates among the people to be covered.
No other state has included surrogates in their laws, Collura said.
It is definitely groundbreaking, she said. And its an often-overlooked way that people choose to build their family, and it should not be left out. Its great to see that Hawaii is taking the lead.
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii opposed the measure, saying the medical provider and insurer do not perform and cover in vitro fertilization with donor eggs or surrogates because of complex legal issues and medical risks. The company asked lawmakers to remove egg donors and surrogates from the bill, saying that requiring coverage of additional procedures would raise costs for the company and its customers.
A similar measure in Hawaii failed in previous legislative sessions. But aside from Kaiser, the bill has faced little opposition this year.
A broad coalition including the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and the Democratic Party of Hawaii are working with LGBT groups to push for change. The proposal passed the state Senate and is up for a vote in the House this week.
Maryland had a law that also excluded same-sex couples until about a year ago, when the legislature changed the provision so it no longer required using a husbands sperm. That helped lesbian couples, but gay men were still left out because the law didnt cover surrogates, Collura said.
Most state mandates limit insurance reimbursement to a certain number of in vitro fertilization trials or allow coverage only after years of infertility. Some states also allow religious or small employers to opt out of the requirement.
We need to change these laws, Collura said. We need to update them and make them so that they are no longer discriminatory.
If your health-care costs are ballooning, you have plenty of company. About 25 percent of Americans reported having trouble paying their medical bills in the past year, according to a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the New York Times.
Everything including insurance premiums, out-of-pocket payments for medications and doctor visits has increased in price for most of us in recent years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, health-care expenses made up 7.8 percent of the average consumers expenses in 2015. In 2006, they were only 5.7 percent.
About two-thirds of consumers are trying to curb health-care costs. Consumer Reports expert strategies can help.
Take medication-savvy steps.
The average out-of-pocket payment for those who take prescription drugs is $792 annually. About 11 percent of us spend more than $1,200 per year, according to a national poll from Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs.
To trim costs:
Check the price with the doctor. When your doctor prescribes a new medication, ask about price before you leave the office. Although almost 8 of 10 prescriptions are filled today with generics, which can be up to 90 percent cheaper than brand-name drugs, not all drugs are available as generics. In those cases, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about lower-cost options in the same drug class.
Ask for a three-month prescription. This can be significantly cheaper for drugs you take long term. If you use insurance, youll pay one co-pay rather than three.
Shop around. Some commercial plans, as well as Medicare Part D and Advantage plans, have preferred pharmacies, which may offer lower prices to plan members. But you may not always get the best deals this way, so look for a pharmacy that offers the best prices on medications you need regularly.
Ask for a price break. Representatives for some stores, such as Costco, told Consumer Reports that their contracts with Medicare Part D plans prohibit pharmacists from offering a better price unless a customer asks directly.
Consider an online pharmacy. You may save by using a low-cost online pharmacy, such as HealthWarehouse.com. But be sure to use an online retailer that operates within the United States (its illegal to order foreign medications), is licensed and has a state-licensed pharmacist.
Do a med check. The average adult takes 4.6 prescriptions regularly. At least once a year, go over your medications with your doctor.
Save at the doctors office, lab and hospital.
The price for tests and procedures may differ depending on factors such as your insurance and the health-care provider or facility you use. Try these savings strategies:
Check prices beforehand. Most health insurers have online tools that help consumers determine their out-of-pocket costs with in-network providers. (Or you can go to healthcarebluebook.com or clearhealthcosts.com to find local pricing.)
Ask for a lower price for a procedure. By using local pricing information, you may also be able to negotiate directly with your doctor or hospital.
Know when to pay out-of-pocket. If you have a high deductible and dont think youll meet it during the year, you may benefit by paying the cash, or noninsurance, price.
Be wise about billing.
Watch for out-of-network bombshells. According to a 2015 survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, nearly one-third of privately insured Americans had received a surprise medical bill in the prior two years. This can happen, for example, when you have an operation and it turns out one of the doctors, like the anesthesiologist, is out of network, says Families USAs Lydia Mitts.
Even if you went to a hospital in your insurance network, your insurer may not cover that charge and the hospital or doctor can legally bill you. So if youre having an elective procedure, inform the hospital and surgeon beforehand that you want to use only in-network providers. Ask for the names of all physicians and outside labs that may be involved in your care. Then call your insurance company to confirm that they are in your network.
Choose an ER ahead of time. Many emergency rooms are staffed by physicians who may not take your insurance even if the hospital itself is in your network. So plan ahead. Call the billing department at your network hospital of choice and ask whether it uses out-of-network ER doctors. When filling out admission forms if you must go to the ER, request that you see only in-network providers.
Fight unfair bills. If you get an out-of-network bill, try negotiating with the doctor who billed you. Then ask your insurer to cover the charge. If neither will budge, file an appeal with your insurance company. To bolster your case, have your primary-care doctor or specialist send a letter stating that ER treatment was medically necessary. The Patient Advocate Foundation (patientadvocate.org) offers no-charge help for billing concerns.
Read medical bills carefully. Almost half of Medicare claims audited by the government contain errors, according to a 2014 review by NerdWallet. And the American Medical Association notes that about 7 percent of medical bills have mistakes. So always get itemized bills from your doctor or hospital, read through and save all bill-related paperwork including your Explanation of Benefits statements and familiarize yourself with common mistakes, such as incorrect codes and spelling errors. Notify your insurer, health-care provider or hospital if you see anything amiss.
Embrace a healthy lifestyle.
Stay in good health and youre likely to spend less on health care. So, eat right, avoid tobacco, maintain a healthy weight and exercise often. People who do roughly 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days save an average of $2,500 per year on health-care costs, according to a recent study in part because they end up in the doctors office much less often.
Copyright 2017. Consumers Union of United States Inc.
Florida
Killer in gym murder-suicide had been fired
The man who shot and killed two managers at a Florida gym before turning the gun on himself had just been fired from the fitness center for workplace violence, police said Sunday.
The Miami-Dade Police Department said that Abeku Wilson, 33, of Miami was let go Saturday as a fitness trainer at the Equinox gym in Coral Gables due to workplace violence and was escorted off the premises.
Shortly after his dismissal, Wilson returned to the gym with a handgun and fired multiple shots at both managers before fatally shooting himself. Police said that the managers were deliberately targeted and that the shooting wasnt random.
Equinox issued an email statement Sunday that it was deeply saddened by the deaths of the two employees, Janine Ackerman, 35, of Miami and Marios Hortis, 42, of Miami Beach. Ackerman was the gyms general manager, and Hortis was the fitness manager.
Associated Press
Cape Canaveral
NASAs Whitson is poised to set record
NASAs Peggy Whitson, soon to become the most experienced U.S. astronaut in terms of time spent in space, assumed command of the International Space Station on Sunday as two Russian crew members and an American prepared to fly back to Earth.
For Whitson, 57, it was her second stint in charge of the $100 billion station, a multinational project overseen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
On April 24, Whitson will have spent more time in space than any other American astronaut, surpassing the current U.S. record of 534 days held by NASAs Jeff Williams, 59. She has already held records for the most time spent in space by a woman and for the most spacewalks conducted by a woman.
Reuters
INDIAn kashmir
Police gunfire kills 5 in voting-site clashes
Security forces in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir opened fire Sunday on crowds of people who attacked polling stations where voting was taking place. Five people were killed and at least a dozen injured, officials said.
The deaths occurred when security forces fired after clashes broke out with protesters who wanted to stop the election for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency.
The seat became vacant after a lawmaker resigned to protest the killing of civilians during unrest last year.
Protesters tried to snatch or damage electronic voting machines in at least a dozen places in the districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal, said Shantmanu, Kashmirs chief electoral officer.
Anti-India separatists who challenge that countrys sovereignty over Kashmir had called for a boycott of the by-election.
Voter turnout was low, with only about 6 percent of the areas 1.3 million voters casting ballots.
Associated Press
HUNGARY
Thousands march to support Soros school
Some 70,000 people rallied in Budapest in support of a local university founded by American billionaire George Soros that is seen as a target of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbans policies. The Hungarian-born Soros founded Central European University in 1991.
A higher-education law, rushed through Parliament in less than a week, would require CEU to change its name and open a campus in the United States. It also calls for binding agreements about the university between Hungary and the United States.
CEU is accredited in New York state and in Hungary, and students can earn degrees valid in both countries. The university enrolls more than 1,400 students from 108 countries.
The U.S. State Department has expressed concerns about the legislation and CEUs ability to continue operating in Hungary. Deputy Assistant Secretary Hoyt Yee will be in Budapest on Monday to meet with government officials.
Associated Press
Somalia assassination attempt kills 13: Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Jimale, Somalias new military chief, survived a suicide car bomb attack just moments after he was sworn in with a mandate to launch a new offensive against Islamist extremists. Five soldiers and at least eight civilians traveling in a passing minibus were reported killed. The Islamist militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack occurred a week after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed replaced his security chiefs and called on al-Shabab fighters to surrender within 60 days in return for education and jobs.
Iranian hard-liner to challenge Rouhani in election: Irans official IRNA news agency reported that hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, a close ally of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the countrys supreme leader, has announced he will run in next months presidential election. Iranian conservatives had hopes that Raisi would challenge incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, who is eligible for a second term. Last year, Khamenei appointed Raisi to head the countrys wealthiest charitable foundation.
Nepal officials seek poachers who killed rare rhino: Authorities are searching for poachers who killed a rare one-horned rhinoceros over the weekend in the forests of southern Nepal and cut off the horn. Forest officer Nurendra Aryal said it was the first killing of a rhino in the Chitwan National Park forest in nearly three years. The forest, located about 100 miles south of Nepals capital, Kathmandu, is protected by the government and guarded by armed soldiers. Aryal said that because Friday night was stormy, forest officers did not hear a gunshot or see the poachers enter the area.
Arab Israeli politicians sentenced to two years: A former Arab Israeli lawmaker has been sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to smuggling cellphones to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. As part of a plea deal, Basel Ghattas, a member of the Joint List of Arab parties, agreed to resign from parliament last month. Ghattas must also pay a $33,000 fine or serve an additional four months.
Albanian authorities seize 13 tons of marijuana: Albanian police arrested three people and seized about 13 tons of marijuana hidden in a storage building in a village 150 miles south of the capital, Tirana. Another person was declared at large. This year, authorities have seized tens of tons of cannabis, stored in remote areas, along the coast or on speedboats, that is intended to be smuggled to neighboring Greece and nearby Italy.
From news services
President Trump speaks at the White House during the swearing-in ceremony for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
Maybe we should muzzle the wag-the-dog talk.
MSNBC host Lawrence ODonnell led off his show Friday night with an alarming report: Russian President Vladimir Putin may have told Syrias Bashar al-Assad to launch last weeks chemical attackto let President Trump respond militarily thereby boosting Trumps standing in the United States and dispelling the belief that he is too close to Putin.
Its perfect, ODonnell said, telling viewers what you wont hear is proof that that scenario that I have just outlined is impossible, because . . . with Donald Trump anything is possible.
Im a fan of ODonnell, and it is technically true that we cant prove that Putin didnt orchestrate the attack to boost Trump. But by that logic, we can never prove to everybodys satisfaction that there wasnt a second gunman on the grassy knoll, that Vincent Foster wasnt murdered, that there wasnt a controlled demolition inside Building 7, that former president Barack Obama didnt forge his birth certificate, or that the government isnt controlling our minds with fluoride.
But speculation without evidence is at best distraction, and at worst it allows Trumps defenders to discredit the whole story about Trumps contacts with Russia and Russias attempts to tilt the election his way.
(Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
Certainly, Trumps behavior has shown that hes capable of anything. But we dont need to speculate. Putin did conspire to help Trump win the presidency. Thats damning enough without letting allegations of a chemical-attack conspiracy cloud the whole thing in paranoia.
The chemical conspiracy, as The Posts Avi Selk noted, debuted on a left-wing site called the Palmer Report. This is part of a larger phenomenon that has already taken root online, where in some quarters full-blown cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome have already broken out. Trump won the presidency and now governs by creating a parallel universe with alternative facts. Theres a temptation among his opponents to respond in kind. But the way to counter Trump is to speak the truth, not to fight him with more fake news.
[MSNBC hosts conspiracy theory: What if Putin planned the Syrian chemical attack to help Trump?]
Trumps campaign, transition and nascent presidency have generated liberal conspiracy theories worthy of Glenn Beck and Alex Jones. Check these days with Snopes, the conspiracy-busting website, and, right there alongside the usual urban legends (woman arrested for training squirrels to attack her ex-boyfriend, female mortuary worker was arrested after becoming pregnant by one of the corpses she was preparing for burial), youll find them confronting various products of the vast left-wing conspiracy:
Senior White House officials openly admitted that the chemical strike against Syria had no actual purpose.
Donald Trump has vowed to reinstate the draft.
Evangelical leader Kenneth Copeland said opponents of President Trump could be punished with gay children.
1 of 83 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad See what President Trump has been doing since taking office View Photos The beginning of his term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media. Caption The beginning of the presidents term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media. March 17, 2017 President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, walk to Marine One at the White House en route to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.
Devin Nunes financial wealth is invested in a wine company with strong ties to Russia.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is to be disbarred from the Alabama State Bar Association due to a letter of complaint filed by 2,000 attorneys from across the U.S.
All eight Supreme Court justices penned a letter saying President Trump was completely wrong in choosing Neil Gorsuch to fill a vacant seat on the court.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) ordered the exhumation of the body of Clinton associate Vince Foster.
Some have gained considerable traction, such as Google engineer Yonatan Zungers late January post on Medium that the travel ban was the trial balloon for a coup detat. As BuzzFeed noted, Huffington Post contributor Alex Mohajer built a case that Trump was involved in the $11 billion sale of Russian oil giant Rosneft. One well-subscribed theory has it that Trumps early filing for reelection in 2020 was actually a conspiracy to silence his critics.
Robert Reich, the former Clinton cabinet member, has detected a Trump plot to control American universities in conjunction with chief strategist Steven K. Bannon and former Breitbart News provocateur Milos Yiannopoulos. And a dubious Twitter account claiming to be anti-Trump government officials, @RoguePOTUSStaff has amassed 850,000 followers by tweeting unsubstantiated news about the White House.
Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth government professor, explained in the New York Times in February why left-wing conspiracy theories appear to have gained since the election: Political psychology research suggests that losing political control can make people more vulnerable to misinformation and conspiracy theories. How else could people have fallen for the satirical report in a British outlet alleging that Queen Elizabeth II said she can legally kill Trump with a sword if he enters Buckingham Palace?
That would indeed be newsworthy, if true. But heres something even more newsworthy: The Putin regime meddled in U.S. elections to help secure the victory of a president to whom it has had extensive ties. And that one happens to be true.
Twitter: @Milbank
Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
The HealthCare.gov website, where people can buy health insurance, is displayed on a laptop screen in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Glenn Kessler was right in his critique of Vice President Pences statement about selling health insurance across state lines [Pence makes a strange claim about selling health insurance across state lines, news, April 2]. But there are some key points missing that would provide a more complete picture of this issue.
States are the primary regulators of insurance. Over the years, special interests got their services specifically covered, everything from maternity care and dialysis to arch supports and hair implants. This made it very expensive for major private employers to provide uniform health-insurance packages for their employees working in many different states. Congress in 1974 allowed health-insurance plans to provide uniform benefits across the country for large employers.
People are concerned that some plans may exclude or limit coverage for prevention, detection and treatment of many serious diseases and conditions. These omissions may not be apparent. There isnt much transparency in the health-care market.
Major private employers know that the larger the number in the insured pool, the lower the cost of that coverage.
Large risk pools provide the broadest coverage at the lowest price. Making the health-care marketplace more transparent comparing the success of various treatments and provider quality and negotiating drug prices would be a major step forward.
Ellen Goldstein, Washington
National Conference chief and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Dr Farooq Abdullah today said the violence and loss of lives during the Srinagar bypoll "are a tragedy and a failure of the government of the day."
By India Today Web Desk: National Conference chief and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Dr Farooq Abdullah, who is contesting the state by-elections from Srinagar, said that the violence and loss of lives during the bypolls in the state "are a tragedy and a failure of the government of the day. They could not provide security to the people, and further, it is the present dispensation which the people reject."
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"Why am I playing with fire? Is that not true? Are the stonepelters fighting for MP-ship or MLA-ship or some ministerial post? Wake up, before it is too late," said Abdullah, demanding that the youth deserved to be heard.
Here are some excerpts from the explosive interview.
Rajdeep Sardesai: You said - Kashmiri youth are picking up guns for the freedom of Kashmir, and not for becoming legislators. As a senior statesman, shouldn't you be bridging the gap, but almost endorsing azadi and Kashmir is lost to India?
Farooq Abdullah: Sometime ago, a Parliamentary delegation came to Kashmir under the leadership of the home minister. The delegation was told that we will talk to the youth, and all the stakeholders. Have they done so, in a single step, in the last two years? Why do you blame me?"
Q: Because you want votes, you are stirring the pot..?
A: Wake up, wake up. The situation is quite bad, and don't tell me Pakistan is not a party to this problem. Whether you like it or not, you have to talk to Pakistan. If you want to beat the threat of the terrorists, then you better start talking now.
Q: With what end result? All the talking, and yet terrorists are sent across border, and violence continues?
A: Let us start mending our fences, and start controlling present problem. Let's not burn, let's talk to the youth, Hurriyat, other leaders and come to a solution.
Q: How are talks are going to be different this time?
A: You have 8 people dead, and God knows how many injured. How long will you keep on doing this? You think it's all law and order? Or, you think by development you can change the mind of people?"
Q: Your critics will say that this is theatrics. When you are in power you speak differently, and now you seem to be catering to separatist sentiment?
A: You are losing Kashmir. You better wake up, and start thinking on not a military solution, but a political way. And come down from your high horses...I am seeing a very bad situation. The youth is on boil. Which I have not seen before.
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The situation remains tense in the Kashmir valley a day after violence and a historic low voter turnout, at 7 per cent, marred bypolls in Srinagar.
The Election Commission has postponed the bypolls in Anantnag Parliamentary constituency to May 25, 2016.
The decision came after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother Tasaduq Hussain Mufti, who is contesting a Parliamentary bypoll in Anantnag, appealed to the Election Commission to postpone his election.
On Sunday, 8 civilians were killed and school set on fire in Shopian, in incidences of poll violence in Kashmir.
ALSO READ | Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll: Lowest turnout in 3 decades with 7.14 per cent voting, 8 killed in clashes
ALSO READ | Centre upset over low turnout, high violence during Srinagar bypoll
ALSO WATCH | Battle for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat: 50 paramilitary companies deployed, internet services suspended
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RAMZAN KADYROV is unlike any other provincial leader in Russia. He rules the republic of Chechnya with brute force and enjoys the indulgence of President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Mr. Kadyrov keeps order in Chechnya, and Mr. Putin keeps out of his way. Now this deal has apparently led to barbaric treatment of gay men in the traditionally conservative Muslim society.
The crusading newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a startling article April 1 that reported Mr. Kadyrovs armed thugs were detaining and executing gay men, with more than 100 men already seized, three of them known to be dead and many others possibly murdered in extrajudicial honor killings. A respected human rights expert, Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, Russia project coordinator for the International Crisis Group, told the New York Times and the Guardian that she had been receiving similar reports.
According to the Novaya Gazeta report, the sweep began when a Moscow gay rights group began filing requests for demonstrations in Russias provincial cities. Although the group had not focused on the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region, including Chechnya, the petitions galvanized a local drive to round up gay men. In Chechnya, the command was given for a prophylactic sweep and it went as far as real murders, Novaya Gazeta reported, saying the authorities searched for closeted gay men partly by posing as men seeking dates on social media websites. The newspaper also noted that none of the men detained had been open about their homosexuality in a society where it is still strictly taboo.
Mr. Kadyrovs spokesman brushed off the report, saying no one in the republic is homosexual. You cannot arrest or repress people who just dont exist in the republic, Alvi Karimov said to Interfax. If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.
The roundup is another example of Mr. Kadyrovs depravity, as if any more were needed from an autonomous warlord whose followers are believed to have murdered Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov just outside the Kremlin walls in 2015. Nine years earlier, the Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Mr. Kadyrov was a coward armed to the teeth and surrounded by security guards whom she hoped to see brought to trial. Two days later, she was shot dead in the entrance to her Moscow apartment building.
Mr. Putin either is fearful of Mr. Kadyrov or appreciates his approach, but either way, the result is to allow this violent ruffian to act with impunity. His latest victims surely now fear for their lives, those who are still alive. Mr. Putin, who so often insists that Russia be treated respectfully in the world, should display some backbone in response to the latest reported atrocity, facing down Mr. Kadyrov, releasing the terrified gay detainees and investigating how such frightful intimidation was allowed to happen.
Syrian demonstrators chant slogans and wave pre-Baath Syrian flags during a gathering in the village of Maaret al-Numan, in the country's northern province of Idlib, on March 17. (Mohamed Al-Bakour/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
Bashar al-Assads chemical weapons attack on a town in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, prompting President Trump to retaliate with missile strikes, was the opening salvo in what could be a final, epic battle to determine the future of Syria. As that struggle unfolds in Idlib, the United States has a crucial role to play.
In its first months, the Trump administration has concentrated primarily on the fight against the Islamic State in and around the city of Raqqa, where U.S.- and Turkish-supported Arab and Kurdish fighters have been slowly but surely advancing on the capital of the terrorists self-declared caliphate. Meanwhile, Washington has largely ignored Idlib, where the bulk of the Syrian rebels are massed and preparing for an existential fight for the survival of the revolution.
Former Syrian prime minister Riyad Hijab, the head of the oppositions High Negotiations Committee, told me that there are tens of thousands of opposition fighters and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced civilians crowded into Idlib. This is the result of the Assad regimes years-long strategy to assemble all his enemies including U.S.-backed rebels and Islamic jihadists in one place.
Assads plan was to gather all the fighters, to push them away from their towns and make them gather in Idlib and that was on purpose, he said. Assads plan is to urge the international community and the United States to kill these people.
The United States has been conducting limited strikes against al-Qaedas affiliate in Idlib, now called Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which has a significant presence on the ground. Meanwhile, however, the administration has also cut off all aid to moderate groups fighting in Idlib, according to Hijab, placing them at a disadvantage as they struggle to maintain credibility among the civilian population.
Aid groups warn that up to 1.5 million civilians could face a humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib if the Assad regime begins bombarding the province on a large scale, causing a huge flow of refugees into Turkey and Europe and resulting in devastation and suffering on a scale many times greater than what was seen during last years siege of Aleppo.
An Assad regime campaign in Idlib is inevitable, said Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. When exactly it will happen we dont know, but the U.S. needs to be prepared for that.
Stretched thin after six years of war, the Syrian army cannot take Idlib through conventional means. Thats why Assad is using weapons of terror, such as nerve gas, to break the will of the civilians before the battle there begins in earnest. When the ground war erupts, a thick stew of Shiite militias, Hezbollah fighters, Afghan mercenaries and Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers, all covered by Russian air power, will be ready to take on the regimes adversaries.
Despite the risks and challenges, the best option for the United States is to reengage with those rebel groups on the ground that are most closely aligned with U.S. objectives and give them the money, arms and training necessary to defend Syrian civilians from the onslaught to come, said former State Department Syria official Frederic Hof, now at the Atlantic Council.
There are units on the ground with which we have had relationships for years, he said. These units are fighting a three-way battle right now, against the regime, al-Qaeda and ISIS. They need our support.
Doing so would not only save Syrian civilian lives, but would also raise the cost for Assad, Russia and Iran of laying waste to Idlib. If the United States provided some rebels with anti-aircraft capabilities, such as man-portable air-defense systems, it could make Moscow think twice before bombing the hospitals and schools that the people of Idlib depend on for a semblance of normal life.
Crucially, the United States has an interest in preventing Assad from achieving his primary goal, which is to force the international community into a binary choice between supporting his government or the extremists. The Obama administration recognized that imperative, but mismanaged its Syrian opposition support programs to such a degree that they were counterproductive.
The Trump administration may have deterred Syria from using chemical weapons in Idlib, but that is only one of the cruel and indiscriminate tools Assad is using to terrorize the population, and his determination to take back Idlib persists. If Trump truly believes in preventing slaughter in Syria, he must instruct the U.S. government to turn its attention to Idlib before its too late.
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How can Democrats best reply to the Trump agenda?
Since the rise of the tea party, the Democratic response that seems to have resonated most with voters has been to promise more stuff to more people.
You want to slow the growth of Social Security benefits for the upper income? Well increase Social Security. For everybody.
You want to abolish Obamacare? We will push Medicare for all.
Are people having trouble paying off their student loans? We will make college free for everyone, regardless of income.
(Alice Li/The Washington Post)
It makes sense that these big ideas would appeal. You might think that self-styled progressives would target their programs to the needy, but the middle class feels put upon and wants help from government, too.
And when Republicans dont seem to care about deficits certainly, Donald Trump did not during his presidential campaign why should Democrats be the eat-your-spinach party?
Trump won, and Bernie Sanders nearly outflanked Hillary Clinton, with big and bold. No one wants to be caught being incremental or, heaven forbid, responsible.
Heres the problem: Even if More Stuff for More People might prove a winning slogan in 2020, it wont be a viable governing strategy in 2021 or 2022 or 2023 or 2024. As the Congressional Budget Office reiterated recently, the federal budget is on track to be consumed by interest on the debt and by older peoples entitlements, leaving less and less for schools, national parks, scientific research and a lot of other activities that Democrats favor.
So heres a question: Would it be possible to fashion a platform that is progressive in its values, big and bold in its appeal, and not entirely irresponsible?
Jason Furman, who was one of President Barack Obamas top economic advisers, says he worries that the path for the next election will just be lying more that the lesson from this election wont be so much moving left or right, but overpromising.
Thats especially so because much of what government should be doing in response to automation and other forms of economic dislocation are things Obama proposed but the Republican Congress wouldnt support education and training, infrastructure, research. Those arent sexy, but the fact that Obama proposed them year after year doesnt make them any less needed.
Still, I came away from a conversation with a freshman congressman last week with at least some hints that Democrats might be able to craft an appealing platform that does more than promise more benefits. Ro Khanna, an economics teacher and briefly an Obama administration official, was elected from the heart of Silicon Valley last year by defeating a longtime Democratic incumbent, Michael M. Honda.
Khanna supported Sanders in the presidential primary, and he told me he won by responding to peoples distrust of the system he took no PAC money, and has introduced legislation saying no other congressional candidates should either and to their desire for big policy advances. As a result, he said, his polls showed that, in Californias unusual two-Democrat November runoff, he led among both Trump voters and Sanders voters.
He didnt adopt either of their approaches wholesale, though. Where Trumps appeal is muscular and insular, Khanna said, he believes the United States has to remain open to the world to immigration and exchange across borders and to the potential benefits of technological advance.
And he is beginning to explore policy options, big but not pie in the sky, that he thinks could promote a more open America while still letting more people feel included. Where Sanders favored free college tuition for all, Khanna said he supports Robert Reichs plan for debt-free community college and career training. Students would pay no tuition and while in job training programs, theyd get paid. But once college grads went to work, they would repay some tuition with a fixed percentage of their income. In absolute dollars, schoolteachers might end up paying a lot less for their education than Silicon Valley engineers.
Which is only one way Khanna declines to coddle his high-tech constituency. He thinks it crucial that young people in Ohio or West Virginia feel as much chance to make it in the entrepreneurial world as people growing up in Palo Alto, Calif. That will take government programs a massive track of apprenticeship, rethinking education to encourage going in and out of school throughout a career but also deeper involvement from Silicon Valley companies themselves. He favors a vast (but paid-for) $1 trillion expansion of the earned income tax credit a variation on the newly fashionable universal basic income, but one that Khanna would keep tethered to work.
The hunger is still there for a politics of national identity, Khanna said, and he worries that such a vision may still win out. We have to articulate a bold, alternative economic vision, some entrepreneurial vision so people arent afraid of the future.
Maybe it can even be honest, too.
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Graham Allisons April 2 Outlook essay, How Trump and Chinas Xi could stumble into war, described the Thucydides Trap in which a rising state (Athens or China) and a ruling state (Sparta or the United States) see threatening challenges coming from the other side. Mr. Allison wrote that history shows that these situations almost always lead to war. One of the challenges for Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump is North Korea.
The United States is in a difficult situation against clever adversaries (China and North Korea). North Korea must be made to understand that a nuclear attack on the United States will end in North Koreas destruction, and China must be made to understand that such destruction is exactly what it would do if it were in our place.
Once we have made it clear to North Korea that it would cease to exist should it attack us, we would need to accept North Korean nuclear development. In effect, we would be in a Cold War with North Korea.
Perhaps the cost of supporting this nuclear development and its standing military would eventually provoke a regime change in North Korea and a move toward peace. We were able to avoid war with the Soviet Union with this approach. It might also help China and the United States avoid the Thucydides Trap about which Mr. Allison warns.
Nick Pappas, Rockville
The proposed site of the homeless shelter in Ward 3 at 2619 Wisconsin Ave. NW across from the Russian Embassy is seen February 23, 2016 in Washington, D.C. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
The April 7 Metro article D.C. General closing plan clears hurdle ignored the unanimous agreement of the Board of Zoning Adjustment commissioners that the site selection process for the Ward 3 short-term family shelter was extensive. The long list of zoning violations cited by the opposition lawyer consists of four requests for zoning relief. Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C voted in support of most aspects of the project. Far from ignoring neighborhood concerns, the city made a major design change, adding a two-deck police parking garage, to alleviate long-standing parking problems in the area.
As a longtime D.C. resident and an active participant in Ward 3 For All, a group formed to support the shelter at 3320 Idaho Ave. NW, I was impressed by the citys commitment, care and efficiency in implementing a plan that will remove one of its biggest blots. The Departments of Human Services and General Services and the Board of Zoning Adjustment all deserve kudos, not criticism, for getting this done.
Livia Bardin, Washington
The April 7 Metro article D.C. General closing plan clears hurdle acknowledged that the mayors plan would house less than a quarter of all homeless families in city care. Several hundred have been placed in temporary shelter in motels, mostly along New York Avenue in Northeast.
Perhaps its our fault. For too long Ward 5 has been too generous to complain. But the mood is changing, fast, in part because we already house more than our share of those less fortunate.
The 1400 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE is home to Brookland Manor, whose 535 low-income units are being demolished for Mid-Citys mixed-use development. A block away, the National Center for Children and Families, a Bethesda-based charity, provides placement services for homeless families. Half a block behind it, Veterans Affairs offers homeless veterans showers, a meal and housing leads. Behind it, 1545 Girard St. offers 10 chronically homeless people accommodations. That facility is one block from the recently closed Youth Services Police Station, which surprise! is the proposed home of the new Ward 5 shelter for 150 people and 22 staff. A block away, the city rents 27 units for homeless people with mental disabilities. And we wish the city hadnt closed the Youth Services Police Station just before homicides jumped.
If only the District followed its own guidance: The severe concentration of community-based residential facilities in the Northeast quadrant . . . [creates] a de facto social service district which undermines the ability of community residents to achieve the goal of normalization and community integration.
Tom Kirlin, Washington
Perhaps the most important reason Donald Trump is president is because nearly two-thirds of American voters thought the country was moving in the wrong direction. Trump played to that dissatisfaction and disaffection, shouting at rallies that the United States is a hellhole. Progressives have matched conservative anger with a powerful popular uprising of their own. The Virginia governors race a crucial 2017 contest offers a contrast, and an opening for an anti-Trump. The man best positioned to do that is Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.
Unlike the vitriol defining national politics, most Virginians are I hope youre sitting down for this happy. They say the state is moving in the right direction. And they like their governor. Democrat Terry McAuliffe has focused on jobs, and has been a self-described brick wall standing against divisive social issues, such as the so-called bathroom bill that has hog-tied neighboring North Carolina.
How does the GOP run in a commonwealth in which every statewide elected official is a Democrat, and voters believe those Democrats have things moving in the right direction? Virginia Republicans will choose between former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie a classic establishment Republican who served in the George W. Bush White House and Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, a Confederate-flag-waving former Virginia campaign chair for Trump. Either will have a tough row to hoe, carrying the stench of Trump.
Democrats, too, face a primary choice. Former congressman Tom Perriello is an impressive, intelligent, earnest one-termer who lost his first reelection fight despite appeals to the National Rifle Association and pro-life activists. He has been endorsed on The Posts op-ed page by dear friend and former boss in the Clinton White House, John Podesta. John has been my friend for decades, but from my side of the Potomac (I live in Northern Virginia) I think Northam is the better option for Democrats. (Full disclosure: My son is a regional political director for Northams campaign.)
Northam, a former Army officer and pediatric neurologist, represented the states conservative Eastern Shore in the state senate. He won there even after taking on the gun lobby in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, and has always been a stalwart defender of a womans right to choose.
Northam has the enthusiastic support of McAuliffe, as well as Virginias two popular senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. He represents a progressive agenda that refuses to trim its sails, while his courtly, civil, bedside manner is a welcome contrast to the vitriol spewing out of the White House. As a rural Virginian and a doctor, he is well-situated to make the case to expand Medicaid, which would benefit rural Virginians especially. His environmental pitch is rooted in his love of the Chesapeake Bay, and his commitment to his fellow veterans has the credibility that comes from being a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and having worn the uniform with pride.
In fact, Northam strikes me as the anti-Trump: modest, decent, humble, thoughtful and a person of outstanding character. In addition to his everyday work as a pediatrician, he has for the past 18 years volunteered to care for terminally ill children in a pediatric hospice. He has continued this unpaid, heartbreaking labor of love as lieutenant governor, even while the legislature is in session.
Voting a year after the presidential election, Virginians usually swing to the party that has just lost the White House. Northam, I believe, offers Democrats their best chance for continuing that trend, and the right balance of continuity and change: continuing the pragmatic progressive agenda of McAuliffe, Warner and Kaine, while serving as the anti-Trump both in substance and in style. Sam Rayburn used to say, any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one. Washington has been overrun with jackasses. I believe that on the other side of the Potomac, voters will be looking for a carpenter like Ralph Northam.
As a D.C. resident, mother to a 3-year-old and researcher who studies gender issues, I am pleased to see discussions about quality early-childhood education. The Districts new regulation requiring child-care workers to have an advanced degree, however, should be accompanied by clear plans for increases in pay. Most concerning, there seems to be no concrete plan to increase the pay in these jobs to match the higher educational requirements [A higher degree of child care, Metro, April 1].
Research from the Institute for Womens Policy Research has found that workers in low-wage womens work are more educated than workers in other low-wage jobs and yet get paid less on average. Child-care workers, in particular, have increased their educational attainment by 21 percentage points since 1994, yet many still live in or near poverty. Virtually all child-care workers 94 percent in the United States are women, and nearly 40 percent are women of color.
IWPRs research has demonstrated that to achieve effectiveness, increases in child-care-worker credentials should be accompanied by increases in wages. Child-care workers have voluntarily invested in improving their education for decades, and many take great pride in their work caring for future generations. To improve the quality of child care, the District should invest in its child-care workers, offering supports to help meet raised education requirements and better pay once they do.
Elyse Shaw, Washington
The writer is a senior research associate for the Institute for Womens Policy Research.
The March 31 editorial An incremental approach to Marylands opioid epidemic, which was critical of the changes in Marylands proposed opioid laws advocated by the Maryland State Medical Society, was shortsighted.
Gov. Larry Hogans (R) original proposal of a seven-day limit for initial opioid prescriptions was bad medicine and potentially injurious to patients. Doctors pushed back because the law can never anticipate every scenario, and no patient ever fits a textbook definition of any disease state. By tying the hands of physicians, the proposal would have hurt patients.
Doctors have long advocated against specific legislative mandates for medical care and prefer to follow guidelines because guidelines are easily modified as new evidence emerges; laws are not. A lack of specificity is not a shortcoming of the law; it is an improvement to incorporate the gamut of presentations physicians face. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines are only one of several guidelines we follow, depending on the clinical presentation of the patient.
We physicians certainly understand the need to respond to the current opioid crisis and applaud the governor for joining in our efforts, but having a specific daily limit is not a scientific or rational way to achieve the goal of lowering narcotic dependency.
Stephen Rockower, North Bethesda
The writer is president of MedChi,
the Maryland State Medical Society.
A man carries a symbolic coffin with pictures of Syrian victims set up during a protest over the chemical attack on April 7 in the Syrian province of Idlib in Ankara, Turkey. (Adem Altan/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
In January, President Barack Obamas national security adviser, Susan Rice, declared: We were able to get the Syrian government to voluntarily and verifiably give up its chemical weapons stockpile. Obama, she boasted, was able to deal with the threat of chemical weapons by virtue of . . . diplomacy and in a way that the use of force would never have accomplished.
Tell that to the children of Idlib, their lifeless eyes dilated from exposure to an apparent nerve agent that the Obama administration assured us the Assad regime no longer possessed.
Im very proud of this moment, Obama declared last year of his decision not to enforce his red line and turn instead to Russia to get him out of his pledge with a face-saving agreement for Syria to give up its chemical weapons one we now know President Bashar al-Assad violated with impunity.
The Syrian gas attack was not just a failure of Obamas feckless foreign policy. It also was a failure of the Democrats arms-control agenda. For decades, Democrats have placed their faith in international agreements to control the spread of dangerous weapons. But as we have seen in recent years, pieces of parchment, not backed by credible threat of force, are powerless to restrain murderous dictators from trying to stockpile weapons of mass destruction.
Its not just Syria. As President Trump ordered strikes against the Assad regime, he was meeting with Chinas president to discuss how to deal with another Democratic arms-control failure: the North Korean nuclear threat. On Oct. 18, 1994, President Bill Clinton boasted that while three administrations have tried to bring this nuclear program under international control, his administration had finally succeeded in reaching a historic agreement with North Korea that would help to put an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula.
(Jayne Orenstein/The Washington Post)
Twelve years later, North Korea exploded a nuclear device. Despite Clintons promises of intense verification, the North Koreans had just like Assad been cheating all along. They not only continued developing nuclear weapons but also became one of the worlds most profligate proliferators of nuclear technology, helping Syria to build a suspected nuclear reactor at Deir al-Zour (that was stopped not by diplomacy, but by an Israeli military strike).
Worse, on Jan. 1 of this year, Kim Jong Un announced that his regime had entered the final stage of preparation for a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could one day deliver such a bomb to the United States.
Once North Korea possessed a demonstrated nuclear capability, it became increasingly difficult for subsequent administrations to roll back its nuclear program. But at least we could defend ourselves by building and deploying ballistic missile defenses to protect against a North Korean attack, right?
No, Democrats said, that would violate another sacred precept in the lefts arms-control canon the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) Treaty. Democrats howled when President George W. Bush withdrew from the ABM Treaty in 2001, allowing the United States to begin deployment of defenses against rogue regimes. Unable to prevent U.S. withdrawal, Democrats did their best to limit deployment. The Wall Street Journal reported that Obama cut funding for missile defense by about 25 percent over the course of his presidency as of 2015 and eliminated critical programs that could overcome decoy missiles by placing multiple warheads on a single interceptor and destroy incoming missiles in the boost phase when they are slowest and thus easiest to strike.
As a result, we now face a rapidly emerging intercontinental ballistic missile threat from North Korea but are years behind the curve in terms of our ability to defend against it.
Thats not all. If you liked the arms-control failures in Syria and North Korea, youre going to love the results of Obamas nuclear agreement with Iran. The Iran agreement is actually far worse than the nuclear framework Clinton negotiated with North Korea. While North Korea at least had to cheat to develop a nuclear bomb, Iran does not have to cheat because Obamas agreement does not require it to dismantle any of its nuclear facilities, end enrichment, end research and development on advanced centrifuges, permit snap inspections or stop the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that, far from preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, the Iran deal paves Irans path to the bomb.
The Democratic arms-control establishment assures us that Netanyahu is wrong. Well, it also assured us that Obamas diplomacy had disarmed Syria, that Bill Clintons diplomacy had helped to end the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula and that we would be safer relying on the ABM Treaty and Mutually Assured Destruction rather than ballistic missile defenses.
Feeling safer yet?
Read more from Marc Thiessens archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have now completed their first summit. Observers on both sides seem to be relieved. If no diplomatic breakthroughs on major issues were achieved, it is also the case that there were no outward displays of truculence from either side. Neither high hopes nor great fears have been realized.
This leaves the question of where economic relations between the United States and China are going and where the United States should want to take them. As important as the resolution of any specific issue is the definition of the challenges that will be the focus of economic diplomacy going forward. Having recently returned from China, where I had a chance to meet a number of senior officials, I have become convinced that the issues that preoccupy many Americans are either invalid or of secondary importance. Meanwhile, the most important economic challenge posed by China is receiving far less attention than it deserves.
Discussions by the United States of Chinas alleged currency manipulation in the economic realm are what discussions of changing the one-China policy are in the geopolitical realm unconstructive at best and possibly dangerous. While there is a case for the proposition that China manipulated its currency in an unreasonable way during the decade after 2005, by no stretch of any imagination is China today manipulating the renminbi downward for competitive advantage. Indeed, in terms of the volumes of reserves expended and the extent of capital controls imposed, few countries in recent years have done as much to try to prop up their currency as has China.
More broadly, the United States economic future is shaped much more by policy choices made in Washington than those made in Beijing. To the extent that China trade has caused disruption in the United States, it is the result of Chinas remarkable growth and increase in capacity to produce, not unfair trade policies.
So focusing on Chinas trade deficit with the United States is largely misguided. Yes, China subsidizes various exports to the rest of the world in a number of ways. But if the United States succeeds in stopping the subsidies or blocking the subsidized products, the result will be that companies will shift production to Vietnam and other low-wage countriesnot create good jobs in the United States. Likewise, reducing Chinese trade barriers to products produced by American companies will indeed help these companies, but only a small part of the extra production will take place in the United States. American firms have valid complaints about requirements that they share intellectual property with Chinese partners when they invest in China, but if such concerns were resolved the result would likely be more outsourcing of production to China, not less.
If currency issues are invalid and commercial diplomacy is unlikely to have much positive effect on the U.S. economy, what should be the focus of economic policy with respect to China?
It is difficult to overestimate the extent to which China is seeking to project soft power around the world by economic means. Xis speech in Davos , Switzerland, in January, quoting Abraham Lincoln and laying out a Chinese vision for the global economic system at a time when the United States is turning inward, was the rhetorical edge of a concerted strategy.
Of course there is Xis One Belt, One Road initiative, which envisions infrastructure investment and foreign aid to connect China and Europe. In a little-noticed development, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a Chinese-sponsored competitor to the World Bank, has announced that it will invest all over the world. Already, Chinese investment in Latin America and Africa significantly exceeds that by the United States, the World Bank and relevant regional development banks. And China will soon be the leading exporter of clean energy technologies.
This investment will, over time, secure Chinese access to raw materials, allow Chinese firms to gain economies of scale and help China to win friends. The United States has chosen not to join the Asian infrastructure bank, to undermine rather than lead global cooperation on climate change and, if the president gets his way, to sharply cut back foreign aid. In doing so, it is accelerating a loss of its preeminence in the global competition for prestige and influence. Perhaps this development is inevitable, but it is a mistake to accelerate it.
A truly strategic U.S.-China economic dialogue would revolve around the objectives of global cooperation and the respective roles of the two powers. It is important that such a dialogue start soon, but this move will require the United States to focus less on specific near-term business interests and more on what historians will remember a century from now.
The train will pass through seven countries - France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan - before arriving on April 27.
The train will depart on a 7,500-mile journey from Essex. (Photo: Reuters)
By Indo-Asian News Service: The first rail freight service from the UK to China will depart on a 7,500-mile journey from Essex today, the media reported.
Thirty containers will carry British goods including whisky, soft drinks, vitamins and pharmaceuticals, the BBC reported.
A DB Cargo locomotive will leave the DP World (global trade services firm) London Gateway rail terminal in Stanford-le-Hope for the city of Yiwu in Zhejiang province.
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After going through the Channel Tunnel the train will pass through seven countries - France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan - before arriving on April 27.
REVIVING ANCIENT SILK ROAD TRADING ROUTES?
The service is part of China's One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West dating back more than 2,000 years.
DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said it was a "significant trade occasion".
"DP World London Gateway, one of the UK's largest logistics hubs, is designed and developed to ensure products can be both imported and exported from the UK via ship or train in a faster, safer and more reliable way than ever before," the BBC quoted Bin Sulayem as saying on Sunday.
"We look forward to enabling and facilitating more trade between the UK, China and the whole world."
The first rail freight service in the opposite direction, from China to the UK, arrived three months ago.
ALSO READ | China begins first freight train to London: 7500 km in 18 days
ALSO READ | Train to Istanbul via New Delhi: India's response to China-Europe freight link
ALSO WATCH | First Direct Freight Train Arrives in London from China
--- ENDS ---
On Aug. 20, 1998, American Tomahawk cruise missiles hit sites in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The targets of the assault, ordered by President Bill Clinton, were Osama bin Laden and his band of terrorists.
In light of what would happen three years later, on Sept. 11, 2001, Madeleine Albright, Clintons secretary of state, was prescient. We are embarked, she said , on a venture in which we have to deal over the long run with what is the very serious threat to our way of life at the end of this century and the next one.
One might imagine that Clintons decision was broadly popular. In fact, his move was met with an explosion of querulous partisanship. It occurred at the height of the controversy over his sexual relationship with a young White House intern that would, later in the year, lead to his impeachment. Many in the GOP charged that Clinton was trying to distract the nation from his scandal.
[Democrats have a new strategy to keep up the pressure on Trump. It might work.]
Clinton, as John Harris reported that summer in The Washington Post, was accused of following a Wag the Dog strategy so-named after the recent movie in which a president tries to draw attention away from a sexual scandal by staging a phony war.
1 of 83 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad See what President Trump has been doing since taking office View Photos The beginning of his term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media. Caption The beginning of the presidents term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media. March 17, 2017 President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, walk to Marine One at the White House en route to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.
Sen. Daniel Coats (R-Ind.), who now serves in President Trumps administration as director of national intelligence, was one of the skeptics. After months of lies and deceit and manipulations and deceptions stonewalling it raised into doubt everything he does and everything he says, said Coats. He insisted that it is legitimate to question the timing of this action.
John Ashcroft, then a senator from Missouri, asked: Were these forces sent at this time because he needed to divert our attention from his personal problems?
Trumps critics are certainly tempted to pursue a similar line of thinking about the strike he directed against Syria in retaliation for the odious chemical attack on civilians by President Bashar al-Assads government. After all, Republicans paid no price when they questioned Clintons motives, and Trump would sorely love to divert the public from the disastrous opening weeks of his administration.
In particular, he has been happy to level false charges first against former president Barack Obama and then against Susan Rice, Obamas national security adviser to shift the focus away from inquiries into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russias subversion of the 2016 election . The fact-checkers regularly remind us that Trump meets the Coats standard of being a politician about whom we can reasonably doubt everything he does and everything he says.
[In Syrias next big battle, the United States has a crucial role to play]
But the Clinton experience should teach a different lesson. Albright was right to suggest that the threat posed by bin Laden should have been taken more seriously than our inward-looking political system allowed in 1998, and Syria presents humanitarian and foreign policy problems that must be debated on their own merits.
On the strike itself, many Democrats (including the Senate and House Democratic leaders, Charles E. Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, respectively) had called for proportionate action against Assad back when he used chemical weapons in 2013. Unlike Trump, they chose to be consistent with their past positions. In supporting the president on last weeks military operation, Schumer, Pelosi and many others in their party signaled that upholding American values was more important than partisanship, even when a man they deeply mistrust occupies the White House.
1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Photos show U.S. Tomahawk missile strikes in Syria View Photos U.S. forces launched more than 50 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield in the first direct assault on Bashar al-Assads government. Caption U.S. forces launched more than 50 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield. April 7, 2017 The USS Porter launches a Tomahawk missile in the Mediterranean Sea. The operation was authorized by the Trump administration in retaliation for a chemical attack killing scores of civilians. Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via Associated Press Wait 1 second to continue.
But one military strike does not make a foreign policy, and when you watch Trump speak on the subject, its hard to escape the sense that he has absolutely no idea what hes doing.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have inadvertently given Assad a green light late last month by abandoning Obamas stated policy that the dictator needed to be pushed out of power. What was the administration thinking? What comes next, and will Congress be involved? How do Trumps approaches to Russia, Iran and Syria fit together? If Trump is moved by the suffering of Syrias people, how can he keep blocking refugees from our shores?
And, yes, the new crisis over the Assad regime and the backing it is receiving from Russian President Vladimir Putin make it all the more urgent to get to the bottom of the relationship between Trumps campaign and Russia.
Trumps opponents should not imitate the shortsightedness of Clintons 1998 critics. They should instead put their skepticism to work in pressing for a coherence on international matters that Trump has, to this point, been incapable of delivering.
Read more from E.J. Dionnes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
A coalition of government watchdog groups plans to sue the Trump administration on Monday with the aim of compelling the White House to continue President Barack Obamas practice of releasing logs of lobbyists and others who visit the complex.
Since President Trump took office in January, the website where such records had been publicly available has gone dark, and White House officials will say only that the policy is under review, making no assurances that they will operate with the same openness.
Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the same group whose legal actions led to a settlement with the Obama administration in 2009, opening up the White House visitor logs for the first time.
It is crucial to understand who is potentially influencing the decision-making of the president, particularly when you have a White House that tends to lean toward secret decision-making, said Noah Bookbinder, the organizations executive director.
After initial resistance from the Obama administration, nearly 6 million names of White House visitors were made public under the deal crafted in 2009, released in batches roughly 90 to 120 days after the visits occurred.
Last week, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say whether the Trump administration would continue that practice, which has not been universally applauded. Some past and present government officials have argued that White House officials should be permitted to conduct meetings outside the public eye.
I tend to feel its the prerogative of the White House to have people come visit, and the public doesnt need to know who they are, said Andrew H. Card Jr., chief of staff under President George W. Bush. We dont have a log on everybody who visits Congress, and theyre a coequal branch of government.
Public access to the logs can serve as a deterrent to some prominent people who might otherwise be inclined to counsel the president, Card said. Theyll say, Id love to meet with the president, but I dont want my name to appear in a log.
News organizations routinely used the logs, which are generated by the Secret Service, to shed light on the Obama administration. In 2012, for example, The Washington Post reported on a single day in January of that year when a steady stream of lobbyists were among the thousands of visitors to the White House and surrounding executive buildings.
The logs existence burst back into the news last month when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) went to the White House grounds to review intelligence reports on which he later briefed the president. Both Nunes and White House officials initially declined to say whom Nunes had visited and who had cleared him onto the grounds, information that is typically contained in the logs, along with the length of the stay.
The 2009 agreement permitted some exceptions to disclosure, including purely private visits to the Obama family, such as friends arriving for sleepovers with the presidents school-age daughters. The Obama White House also maintained the prerogative not to release records of particularly sensitive meetings, such as interviews with potential Supreme Court nominees.
There were also reports of attempts to get around the disclosure requirements. In 2010, for example, the New York Times reported that a Caribou Coffee location just outside the White House grounds had become a popular destination for meetings with lobbyists that wouldnt show up in the official logs.
But by and large, advocates for making the logs public say they were pleased with the Obama administrations practices.
Were only asking for the same Secret Service data that Obama published routinely, said Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, another plaintiff in the lawsuit against the government.
Blantons organization is an independent nonprofit group that collects and publishes U.S. government documents. Also joining the lawsuit is the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, a new entity that seeks to preserve and expand freedom of the press.
Among the legal questions at issue is whether White House visitor logs are controlled by the White House or the Secret Service. The distinction matters because White House records are not subject to freedom of information requests and can be shielded from public view. Executive agencies, including the Secret Service, on the other hand, are subject to the disclosure law.
The most recent court decision on the subject came in 2013, in a case in which Judicial Watch, a conservative group, sought visitor logs from the Obama administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the records are controlled by the White House.
Thats one reason plaintiffs in the new action have chosen a different venue for their lawsuit, which is being filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit lists the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, as the defendant.
A spokesman for the department declined to comment Sunday.
The plaintiffs say their interest in Trump visitor records extends far beyond the White House complex, given that the president often holds meetings at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and other properties he owns in the New York and Washington areas.
It is unclear what kind of records the Secret Service generates regarding members and guests at Mar-a-Lago, which is a private club, when Trump is on the property. Blanton said the agency should have a similar logging system in place there.
Either they have one or they should have one, Blanton said. Maybe this lawsuit will speed up the process of getting such a system in place.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, leaving the floor ahead of the vote to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, expresses optimism that a stopgap funding measure will have bipartisan support. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)
Congress is off for two weeks, and when lawmakers return, they will quickly face a critical deadline to keep the government open. But in an unusual development on Capitol Hill, where budget brinkmanship has become a reliable expression of political dysfunction, nobody is threatening to shut the government down.
Instead, Republicans and Democrats appear to be working together to keep the lights on in Washington. Aides in both parties said negotiations are underway on a stopgap funding measure that both sides could support, one that sidesteps such political land mines as President Trumps request for new funding to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sounded a note of optimism as his chamber adjourned for its Easter break. He told reporters that bipartisan support would be needed not only for the stopgap measure, which would fund the government through September, but also for the fiscal 2018 spending bills needed to fund government operations in the months beyond.
(Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
None of those bills can be done one party only, McConnell (R-Ky.) said. All of that will have to be done on a bipartisan basis. And I think the Democratic leader can speak for himself but Im confident he looks at it the same way.
The bipartisan bonhomie marks a refreshing break from the dark days of spending fights that descended on the Capitol after the 2010 elections swept a wave of hard-line conservative tea party candidates into office.
Since then, the GOPs right flank has taken an aggressive stance on cutting federal spending, threatening repeatedly to shut down the government or even default on the nations debts in hopes of securing an agreement to slash spending. That has forced Republican House leaders to turn to Democrats for the votes to push must-pass measures over the finish line to raise the federal debt limit and finance the government.
The difference this time is that Republican leaders are turning to Democrats from the get-go, a decision that will produce less drama in the halls of Congress but is likely to make it much harder to craft a budget that matches Trumps ambitions on an array of fronts, from the border wall to a big increase in defense spending.
In an interview Friday, McConnell told The Washington Post that he is unsure how to square that circle. But he was insistent that Democrats need to play a part in the negotiations.
It seems to me that neither side benefits from sort of a government-shutdown scenario again in September, McConnell said. Exactly how we get from here to there, I couldnt tell you today.
The spending measure expires April 28 just four days after lawmakers return from their Easter break.
House Republicans are bitterly divided and aimless after the collapse of a plan by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to rewrite the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. Still angry over that grueling battle, the right wing of Ryans caucus is not expected to support a measure to keep the government open past the April deadline, though that is far from settled.
So Ryan has turned for help to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Last week, Pelosi said lawmakers from both parties were working well together to craft a stopgap spending measure. But she predicted that the measures fate would ultimately be in Trumps hands.
Trump, for example, could refuse to sign a funding measure that doesnt include money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Such funding is a non-starter with Democrats, as are any other policy changes that could be construed as a win for the president.
Members of Congress know what they can pass. Maybe the White House doesnt, Pelosi said. And thats that line of communication is where you might see some more difference of opinion than even between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress.
[Democrats have a new and surprising weapon on Capitol Hill: Power]
If they clear the April 28 hurdle, Republican lawmakers and aides are already worrying privately that a larger spending battle looms over Trumps budget request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Most Democrats and many Republicans have roundly criticized Trumps plan to increase the defense budget by $54 billion money that would be carved directly out of the budgets of domestic agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the Agriculture Department.
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) said Trumps request has put Republicans in a difficult situation. Trump has promised voters that Republicans will expand the military, regain control of government spending and overhaul the federal government without cutting safety-net programs for older and poorer Americans a promise many lawmakers see as mathematically impossible.
Conservatives like Sanford say Washington will never get its fiscal house in order without reining in spending on such popular programs as Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, which together make up about half of federal spending.
What you have is a mousetrap, Sanford said. Back home, youve got the mayor of North Charleston riding around in a Meals on Wheels truck saying, I dont think we should cut this and he was an early Trump supporter.
The White House has been closely monitoring preliminary talks about fiscal 2018 spending bills, according to Republican aides who were granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Last week, Ryan said he is optimistic about budget deals because there is a Republican in the White House.
The good news is we dont have to deal with the Obama administration, Ryan told reporters at his weekly news conference. We dont have to fight an administration that we disagree with on so many issues. We are now working with an administration we agree with.
But its far from clear that Ryans rank-and-file will line up behind him. Conservatives are still angry that Ryan persuaded them to try to roll back the Affordable Care Act by using a special budget procedure known as reconciliation that would have made it easier to push a bill through the Senate.
The repeal effort unraveled when Ryan could not build a coalition of moderates and conservatives large enough to approve a rewrite of the health-care law. Many conservatives are wary of making the same mistake in the 2018 spending measure.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) one of the holdouts on health care was among several conservatives who warned recently that they wouldnt support a spending bill just to avert a shutdown. Meadows said conservatives are particularly concerned about where any budget bill sets overall spending levels for government agencies.
Now youre going to be setting top-line numbers, which you appropriate to, Meadows said. That will have a unique dynamic, lets put it that way.
Hard-liners are also expected to balk at efforts to use reconciliation procedures to advance a comprehensive rewrite of the tax code, another top priority for Ryan and Trump. These lawmakers say they will not necessarily support a tax overhaul if it is accompanied by higher spending.
I think its more important that we take a look at the budget and make sure that it meets the principles were trying to move forward, said Freedom Caucus member H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.).
Griffith said any spending increases must be paired with cuts elsewhere or with policies to rein in spending on Social Security and Medicare, which is rising rapidly as the baby-boom generation retires.
A large number of conservatives voted against each of the last three spending measures over those same concerns. The most consequential fight came in 2015, when Republican leaders were forced to turn to Democrats to avert a government shutdown. The result was a two-year compromise that increased spending across the board and ensured equal funding for domestic and military programs.
That agreement is set to expire at the end of September, and GOP leaders have begun to fret quietly over what will happen.
Meanwhile, Democrats are eagerly laying plans to swoop in with a budget compromise if Ryan cannot solve the problems that have riven the lower chamber for the past six years.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who serves on the Senate Budget Committee, said last week that Democrats would offer a spending blueprint to counter Trumps budget request.
It has to be defeated and we will come up with alternatives. Sanders said. Democrats will not support tax breaks for millionaires . . . and cuts to programs that people desperately need.
Read more at PowerPost
Ahn Cheol-soo celebrates after winning the nomination as a presidential candidate of the Peoples Party on April 4. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)
The adage about a week being a long time in politics has never been truer than in South Korea, a tumultuous young democracy where politicians and parties rise and fall almost as fast as a North Korean missile.
This time last week, Moon Jae-in, the Democratic Party nominee for president, had a strong lead in the polls and hardly a rival in sight with just over a month until the May 9 election.
The conservatives were in disarray, having split into two factions following the demise of their leader, former president Park Geun-hye, whose impeachment last month triggered the snap election. Both factions candidates were polling in the single digits.
Unless something went drastically wrong, the race was Moons for the taking, analysts said.
Fast-forward to this week, and the one-horse race is suddenly neck-and-neck.
Moon Jae-In, presidential candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Something has gone drastically wrong for the liberal Moon: His support levels have flatlined, while a ragbag of conservatives, centrists, Ban Ki-moon backers and Moon Jae-in skeptics have rallied around Ahn Cheol-soo, a 55-year-old moderate who leads the center-left Peoples Party.
[Former South Korean president arrested 3 weeks after impeachment]
Ahn is now regularly polling within a few points of Moon, and some surveys even put him in the lead. A poll published Monday by the conservative Chosun Ilbo, South Koreas biggest newspaper, put Ahn two points ahead of Moon, with 34 to his rivals 32 percent. A Yonhap-KBS poll released Sunday had Ahn at 36.8 percent against Moons 32.7 percent.
People are disappointed by the politics because politicians compete among themselves instead of seeking to find out what the public wants, Ahn told the Korean Chamber of Commerce in a speech Monday. I have always had people in mind when setting up visions and policies.
Ahn, a medical doctor turned computer-doctor tycoon he invented the anti-virus software used by almost every South Korean ran for the presidency in 2012, against Moon and Park. Ahn dropped out to throw his weight behind Moon, who lost to Park.
He hadnt been considered much of a contender this time around, until Moons victory in the Democratic primary last week.
That event, combined with a lackluster performance by the two main candidates from the conservative side, has caused a coalescing of support around Ahn.
[Little-known governor runs as the hope and change candidate in South Korea]
Fans of Ban, the former U.N. secretary general who made a short-lived attempt at running for president, announced Sunday that they would support Ahn. And conservatives who had previously supported Park appear to find Ahn more palatable than the 64-year-old Moon, whom they view as a radical.
Its a question of whether the election is about stopping Moon, or if its just about being post-Park, said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
When the focus was on Park, the Democrats were winning a lot of support. But as it moves to a more careful examination of Moon, the broad ambivalence to him as a leader is returning, Snyder said.
In an attempt to reach out to a broad spectrum of voters, Ahn has used language that will be familiar to Americans who supported former president Barack Obama.
Theres not a liberal Korea and a conservative Korea; theres a peoples Korea, Ahn said when winning his partys nomination last week, echoing an Obama refrain.
Ahn has vowed to take a more centrist approach, particularly when it comes to foreign affairs. He has vowed to respect the decision to host a THAAD antimissile battery good news for the United States, but bad news for China, which is strongly protesting the deployment.
[What is THAAD and why doesnt China want it deployed in South Korea?]
At a time when the deployment [of THAAD] is underway, it would not be responsible for a presidential aspirant to oppose it and promise to cancel it if elected, Ahn said in an interview with the Yonhap News Agency.
If the alliance with the United States is broken, South Korea will not be able to solve the North Korean nuclear problem, he said.
We have to consult closely with the Trump administration and to that end, it is important to maintain a trusting relationship, Ahn told Yonhap.
Conversely, Moon has said he would review the previous South Korean governments decision to host the American defense system and would seek a meeting with North Koreas Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang as a priority over going to Washington.
Advisers to Moon say privately that they have been taken aback by Ahns sudden surge in the polls and are worried about the veto that conservatives hold against their candidate.
But Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations said he thinks that the continued presence of two conservative candidates, even if they are struggling, could split the anti-Moon vote. Im skeptical that Ahn will catch up with Moon unless the conservatives really fold their tents, he said.
Read more:
South Koreans celebrate presidents impeachment: Scenes from the rally
South Korean president removed from office over corruption scandal
After impeachment, South Korea may reset relations with China, North Korea
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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By Shweta Keshri: Love triangles and the concept of 'other woman' have always worked for Indian television. With time, the scheming and plotting vamp-like 'other woman' has been replaced by someone more sensible and with varied emotions. They neither wear big bindis anymore, nor are they bad, wily creatures.
These women who are termed as the 'other woman' are often bound by love and nothing's right or wrong when you are in love-- morally, ethically or logically.
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When Jhanvi (played by Disha Parmar) of Woh Apna Sa fell in love with Aditya, she didn't know that he was a married guy with two kids. But her feeling didn't change for him upon knowing the truth. She hasn't confessed her love to Aditya so far but is trying to bring him out of his life's mess that has been created by his materialistic wife Nisha (played by Ridhi Dogra). Though the show could have been a little altered and not shown Nisha to be an out-and-out negative character, as it is quite possible that two right people can be in a wrong relationship.
Nandni who married Chandra as war compensation has selflessly sacrificed her love and is living in exile in Kalinga.
In Chandra Nandni, Chandragupta Maurya's third wife Nandni (Shweta Basu Prasad), the warrior princess and daughter of Mahapadma Nand is married to Chandra as war compensation. She marries Chandra with lot of venom in her heart but eventually falls for him. She evolves into a mature woman with a heart of gold. Currently, she has been exiled from Magadh for a crime she never committed. She is not seen plotting against Chandra, but is utilising her time by teaching the kids in Kalinga.
Also read: Chandrakanta to Nandini; here's how princesses in Indian TV have evolved over the years
Sanjana and Kashmira in a still from May I Come In Madam? Picture courtesy: Hotstar.com
Playing the second fiddle in a relationship is not an easy task in reel or real life. While few of them are too good to be true, some provide us with the much-needed comic relief. Dil Se Dil Tak's Teni (played by Jasmin Bhasin) is one such character. She is the surrogate mother of Parth and Shorvori's child. But what makes her click is her Gujarati accent and her crazy antics that will leave you in splits. She has trust issues in life but more than her, it's her circumstances that are to be blamed. Parth (Sidharth Shukla) and Shorvori (Rashami Desai) might be the romantic couple here, but Teni is the one who lights up the screen and is a breath of fresh air.
Teni's character is a breath of fresh air in the show. Teni's character is a breath of fresh air in the show.
In May I Come In Madam? Sajan (played by Sandeep Anand), who is married to Kashmira is head over heels in love with his boss Sanjana (Neha Pendse) aka Madam. The other woman here has no such feeling for him but she is an authoritative boss who's always troubling Sajan. Although Sajan's wife Kashmira gets suspicious of Sajan at times but the light-hearted comedy never portrays Sanjana as the vamp; in fact on various occasion she has helped Kashmira.
Bhaag Bakool Bhaag will soon be premiered on Colors TV. Picture courtesy: Youtube/ColorsTV Promos Bhaag Bakool Bhaag will soon be premiered on Colors TV. Picture courtesy: Youtube/ColorsTV Promos
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Similarly Colors upcoming show Bhaag Bakool Bhaag is a sitcom that will revolve around Bakool, who lives a dual life. He simultaneously lives a rural and an urban life, which has caused a lot of problems in his life, as he is married to two women and have to keep them apart in order to live a peaceful life (sounds like Sajan Chale Sasural?). But none of his wives are portrayed in a negative light.
The portrayal of 'other woman' on TV is changing and it's a welcome change. It has given us respite from the likes of the Svetlanas and the Komolikas.
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Relatives mourn victims of the Palm Sunday bombings during a funeral at the Monastery of Saint Mina in Alexandria, Egypt, on April 10, 2017. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)
A day after deadly Islamic State bombings struck two Egyptian churches, Israel closed its southern border with Egypts Sinai Peninsula on Monday and urged Israelis to leave Egypt amid worries of another round of militant attacks.
Shortly after the announcement, Israels military said that a rocket fired from Sinai exploded in southern Israel. No injuries or damage were reported.
But the incident and border closure underscored the growing strength of Egypts Islamic State affiliate, which is based in Sinai. It also reflected the security challenges facing the government of Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who has vowed to eradicate Islamist extremists from the country and protect Egyptians of all faiths.
In its statement, the Israeli government said its intelligence indicated increased activity by the Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula and a desire to commit terrorist attacks against tourists in Sinai, including Israelis, in the immediate term.
The [Egyptian] military is incapable of controlling the Sinai, said Mohannad Sabry, an Egyptian journalist and author of a book on the Islamist insurgency in Sinai.
[Palm Sunday bombs rock Egyptian churches]
The border closure appeared triggered by the bombing of Coptic churches on Sunday in the northern Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria that killed at least 44 people and injured more than 100. The attacks, carried out by suicide bombers and claimed by the Islamic State, came as worshipers gathered for Palm Sunday services.
Sissi declared a three-month state of emergency, three weeks ahead of Pope Franciss scheduled visit to Egypt.
Israels intelligence minister, Israel Katz, said the Islamic States activities in Sinai have intensified in recent months due to pressures in Syria and Iraq, which has increased the groups motivation to carry out attacks in other arenas.
The well-armed affiliate known as Wilayat Sinai has grown bolder since it asserted responsibility for the October 2015 bombing of a Russian charter flight over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 aboard. Since then, the group has waged a steady military campaign against Egyptian soldiers, overrunning military posts and targeting them with roadside bombs.
But in December, the Islamic State changed tactics and orchestrated a bombing at Cairos Coptic Christian cathedral complex that killed at least 25 people and wounded 49. Since then, Christians have become a primary target in its campaign against the government.
Hundreds of Christians fled the Sinai Peninsula this year after the militants began killing members of their community. In a February video, the extremists warned that they would escalate attacks against Christians.
Sundays church bombings were hundreds of miles from the militants main base of operations, suggesting that they are able to mobilize fighters, weapons and explosives in urban areas, analysts said.
It is a message that ISIS is sending to say that they have the upper hands in Egypt, said Yousri el Ezabawy, an analyst of religious and extremist groups at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. This will boost their capabilities to attract more members and bring them to Egypt, from Syria and Iraq. It would also assure those who fund them that they are successful in Egypt, and hence get more funding and power.
On Monday, dozens of funerals were held in both cities for the victims.
Hundreds of black-clad mourners joined in processions of wooden coffins and beating drums. Many said the government had failed to protect its Christian minority, which accounts for about 10 percent of the population of about 95 million.
By increasingly targeting Christians, the Islamic State sees propaganda value, analysts said. Every attack receives worldwide attention and bolsters the image of the Islamic States Sinai affiliate within Islamist militant circles. It also embarrasses the Sissi government.
It immediately shows the state is not in control, that its incapable of protecting Christians, Sabry said.
After the bombings, Israels anti-terrorism office urged Israeli tourists in southern Sinai to return home immediately through the Taba border crossing, which remains open for Israelis.
The office also asked Israelis to cancel planned trips to Sinai, where they have long flocked to the picturesque beaches and azure waters of the Red Sea, especially during the Passover holiday.
Passover, which began Monday evening, commemorates the biblical story of the Israelites flight from slavery in Egypt. As in most years, about 20,000 Israeli tourists were expected to pass through the Taba crossing into Sinai.
Zack Gold, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Councils Hariri Center in Washington, said that Israels decision to close its border crossing into Egypts Sinai Peninsula was an unusual step.
The Islamic State in Sinai, he said, had changed tactics recently, targeting civilians and carrying out stated threats.
For years, theyve said, Were going to target Israel, but have not put their resources to that, he said. Now, theyre saying, Were going to target Christians, and they are targeting Christians, so Israel has to decide if its time to take the rhetoric seriously.
Eglash reported from Jerusalem. Heba Mahfouz in Cairo contributed to this report.
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Protesters carry placards during a rally against the U.S. missile strikes in Syria, Friday, April 7, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Americans narrowly support missile strikes ordered by President Trump last week in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack in Syria, even as most oppose additional military efforts to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
By 51 to 40 percent, more support than oppose the missile strikes launched early Friday on the Shayrat air base in Syria, with opinions dividing sharply along partisan lines. Trumps action was widely praised by Republicans, as well as many Democrats, though there has been less agreement on what additional steps to take.
The Post-ABC poll finds 54 percent oppose additional military strikes against the Syrian government at this time. And while more than half the public endorses a policy of trying to remove Assad as Syrias president 51 percent just 35 percent support exerting more military force to do so.
Trumps action does not appear to have boosted confidence in his leadership, with about one-quarter each saying it makes them more confident or less confident; a plurality say it doesnt make a difference.
[ Read: Full poll results ]
Americans are broadly pessimistic about the strikes potential to deter Syrias chemical weapons use and express concern about the impact on U.S.-Russian relations. Nearly 7 in 10 say they are not so or not at all confident the U.S. missile strike will end the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons, while one-quarter are at least somewhat confident.
Nearly 6 in 10 say they are concerned about the missile strike worsening relations with Russia, which has firmly supported the Assad regime and bolstered its military in battles with rebel groups.
The slight majority support for missile strikes last week is markedly higher than in September 2013, when President Barack Obama urged Congress to approve a military operation in response to U.S. government conclusions that Assad used chemical weapons on his own citizens. A Post-ABC poll at the time found 61 percent opposed to launching missile strikes, including 45 percent who opposed them strongly.
The sharpest change has been among Republicans, among whom 22 percent supported missile strikes compared with 86 percent today.
Views on Syria action today are heavily tied to partisan loyalties, though more than one-third of Democrats support Trumps order, (37 percent support, while 59 percent are opposed). Independents are nearly evenly split, with 46 percent supporting the airstrikes and 45 percent opposed.
Support for continuing airstrikes against the Syrian government also draws sharp partisan differences, with 65 percent of Republicans endorsing additional action, compared with 32 percent of independents and 19 percent of Democrats.
(Jayne Orenstein/The Washington Post)
About two-thirds of Republicans also say the United States should make removing Assad part of its official policy, though less than half, 46 percent, support additional military action to achieve this goal.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted among a random national sample of 900 adults reached on cellular and landline phones. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. Sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS of Media, Pa.
Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
Natashia Corrigan gave birth to baby Brian in January. Her son weighed nearly 14 pounds, twice the average size. (Photo: Natashia Corrigan via Facebook)
Natashia Corrigan of Melbourne, Australia, broke records by giving birth to a son weighing in at twice the national average.
Fourteen-pound Brian Jr. was born in January at Mercy Hospital in Victoria. Ive always wanted a little fat baby and Ive got a big one! Corrigan told 7News after the delivery.
Almost more astounding than the babys size is the fact his mother delivered him without an epidural. I think I was in a bit of shock because the birth was natural, said Corrigan, I only had gas so I was still in a bit of shock just from that.
Corrigan was only given laughing gas a 50/50 mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen. Because he was so big it was a bit hard to get him out, said Corrigan, and they had to get a few extra staff members to come in and help. She credits the hospital staff and breathing techniques with the successful delivery.
The response from the media as well as friends and family were overwhelming, says Corrigan on her Facebook page. I truly dont know what to say! Brian & I are overwhelmed with all of the visits, calls, messages, posts, comments and tags of well wishes from literally everyone! she writes.
Brian Jr. is her third child, and both mother and son are in good health.
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If you envisioned a summer filled with day drinking on the beaches in Oregon, you might have to change your plans. On Tuesday, lawmakers introduced House Bill 3441 that, if passed, will make drinking alcohol and having unopened or empty alcohol containers on public beaches a crime, The News-Review...
If you envisioned a summer filled with day drinking on the beaches in Oregon, you might have to change your plans. On Tuesday, lawmakers introduced House Bill 3441 that, if passed, will make drinking alcohol and having unopened or empty alcohol containers on public beaches a crime, The News-Review reported.
Under current laws, drinking on public beaches and in state parks is generally permitted except for in designated areas that are marked with signs; however, according to the bills lead sponsor Rep. Janeen Sollman, leftover garbage poses safety and environmental problems.
Im not a party crasher I dont have a problem with people enjoying a drink, Sollman told The News-Review. Its unfortunate that this will impact good people who have been doing it the right way.
Although there are littering laws in place, Sollman says that an alcohol ban is needed since current laws arent working.
Id like to protect the beaches for future generations, she said.
To read about 10 ways to cut down your boze intake and still have fun, click here.
Who remembers the words 'Khana Khazana dekhne waalo ko Sanjeev Kapoor ka pyar bhara namaskar'? Here's why we love the nation's first and most popular celebrity chef.
By Shreya Goswami: Any kid from the 1990s would remember the path breaking show, Khana Khazana, hosted by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor--then a young mustachioed chef, with brilliant communication skills. For the first time in India's history, a chef was reaching out to the whole country (remember the words 'Khana Khazana dekhne waalo ko Sanjeev Kapoor ka pyar bhara namaskar'?) to teach its people how to cook, that too with ease and passion.
Chef Sanjeev Kapoor is in Britain with his family. Photo courtesy: Twitter/Sanjeev Kapoor
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We had all heard of India's culinary diversity, but how many of our parents could cook those dishes from the farthest regions? How many of us could cook even the most regular chhole-bhature or kebab well?
It suffices to say that chef Sanjeev Kapoor changed the culinary map of India by making the most difficult recipes accessible to anyone who could understand Hindi and owned a TV with a cable connection. We remember sitting in front of our TVs with a pen and a diary (for a complete and loyal compilation of every culinary tip or trick that came out of Kapoor's mouth), poised to keep pace with him as he described the most delectable and easy-to-prepare dishes.
Chef Sanjeev with his family in Britain. Photo courtesy: Twitter/Sanjeev Kapoor
In a story we did, a young girl from Mumbai had sent a letter to Kapoor expressing her immense gratitude, an act that the chef found overwhelming and said was the best gurudakshina ever. His contributions to Indian food, its history and its future are immense, and India thanks him for it.
But for all those who might want to indulge in a bit of nostalgia today, here is a blast from the past:
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Albert the turkey was supposed to wind up as the main course at a Thanksgiving dinner , but two weeks before the holiday he was adopted as a rescue turkey, and now he lives as a house pet in the California home of a Hollywood TV producer. According to Today , TV producer Brant Pinvidic...
Albert the turkey was supposed to wind up as the main course at a Thanksgiving dinner, but two weeks before the holiday he was adopted as a rescue turkey, and now he lives as a house pet in the California home of a Hollywood TV producer.
According to Today, TV producer Brant Pinvidic and his family already had some chickens at their Santa Clarita home, and he got it into his head that it would be a good idea to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. Pinvidics daughter is a vegetarian, but the rest of the family is not. Pinvidic just figured hed get two turkeys and they could live with the chickens, and the kids would think it was neat. When he brought the turkeys home, though, one turkey decided right away to join the chicken flock, but the other one insisted on following Pinvidic into the house.
Now Albert the rescue turkey is mostly a house pet. He sits on the sofas and hangs out in the kitchen, and always sits waiting at the door when Pinvidic gets home from work. Albert is even house-trained, which is a pretty impressive feat for a bird.
Most of the members of Pinvidics family are not vegetarians, but they do say that nobody there eats turkey anymore.
Roger Severino (Photo: The Heritage Foundation)
On April 10, a group of Democratic U.S. senators led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) sent a letter to newly installed Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tom Price speaking out against the hire of Roger Severino to head the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR).
Until being named to the position at HHS, Severino served as the director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, where he made a name for himself for his vocal and prolific opposition to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the measure of the historic health care reform law that expressly prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, age, disability, and sex in all federally funded health programs.
The DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society was endowed by Richard and Helen DeVos, the in-laws of newly confirmed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and their family foundation.
In the letter, the senators write, Mr. Severino has a long history of making bigoted statements toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and attacking womens access to health care services and reproductive rights. His appointment raises deep concerns about the employment decisions and hiring practices being established by the Trump administration.
The senators end their letter by asking Price to reply with an answer as to how HHS plans to promote a diverse and inclusive workforce free of prejudice or malice, how it plans to handle reports of inappropriate communications or behavior, whether Severino plans to recuse himself from work related to the enforcement of Section 1557, and what the departments procedures are for vetting political appointees.
Murray is joined by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
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Whats at Stake
Before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, insurance companies routinely denied coverage to same-sex couples, and more than half of all health insurance plans discriminated against transgender individuals. Section 1557 set out to address that discrimination directly by clarifying that sex discrimination includes affording protections to trans people and banning sex stereotyping discrimination that often affects LGBT people.
LGBT individuals reckon with significant disparities in terms of access to care in the American health care system. A 2010 nationwide study found that 10 percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual respondents and 25 percent of transgender respondents reported being outright denied health care because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And an additional 2011 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that one in four of more than 6,400 transgender and gender nonconforming individuals reported being denied needed treatment, being harassed in a health care setting, and postponing needed medical care because of discrimination from providers.
In Severinos Own Words
Just last year, Severino called Section 1557 an abuse of power implemented to coerce everyone into pledging allegiance to a radical new gender ideology. And he falsely made the allegation that Section 1557 mandates gender confirmation surgeries, even when not medically necessary which the rule in no way does.
Severino has also been outspoken about the issue of transgender students desire to use the restroom in school that corresponds with their gender identity, claiming that making such an allowance would give unfettered rights allowing boys access to the girls shower room in elementary, middle, and high schools.
Severino has instead recommended a separate but equal policy. Under this proposal, transgender students would be given separate restrooms of their own to use, to ensure the comfort of those on the other side who feel that their privacy and their safety is being put at risk by allowing a child to use the restroom during the school day.
Implications for Reproductive Rights
Section 1557 also offers protections for women who have received abortions in the past from being denied coverage or care on the basis of religious objection to the procedure. While the Hyde Amendment means that no federal funding can go toward abortion care, Section 1557 set out to ensure that a woman is not turned away from a provider or denied coverage when it comes to needing care that has nothing to do with abortion.
But wait theres more.
Severino also spoke out in favor of the challenge raised by Little Sisters of the Poor in a case that reached the Supreme Court last year, saying that the exemptions that the Affordable Care Act afforded religious groups that were against the ACAs contraception mandate on religious grounds were not enough, and that their employees regardless of their own personal beliefs and the health care guidance they received from their own physicians should still be denied contraception covered through their insurance.
What Experts Say
Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), said in a statement, By appointing Mr. Severino to enforce the life-saving protections that he has made his personal mission to dismantle, the Trump administration has once again put the fox in charge of the hen house. He has made attacking womens and LGBT peoples access to health care one of the centerpieces of his career, while his baseless claims about protections for transgender people repeated over and over without any regard for the consequences on transgender peoples lives betray a fundamental misunderstanding of federal civil rights laws, medical science, the reality of what it means to be transgender. Mr. Severino is now in a position to transform his dangerous rhetoric into action that can inflict serious harm on the lives of millions of Americans. We cannot let this happen.
Echoes JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president of policy and public affairs at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in a statement: I could not think of a more dangerous person to head up the Office of Civil Rights at HHS. Once again, Donald Trump is declaring war against our community by appointing anti-LGBTQ people at all levels of his administration. Mr. Severino takes pride in being a stark opponent of the LGBTQ community and has made it clear that his number one priority is to vilify and degrade us. We will fight tooth and nail against any attempts to roll back civil rights including access to healthcare.
And Sen. Murray also issued a statement in response to Severinos appointment several weeks ago, saying, I am deeply troubled but unfortunately not surprised to learn of this appalling hire by the Trump Administration. Not only is this a stark example of the concerning employment decisions and hiring practices being established by this Administration, but it speaks volumes to their broader failure to uphold and protect civil rights, particularly when it comes to the LGBTQ community. Secretary Price has an obligation to fight discrimination in all lifesaving programs administered by the Department and to ensure that political appointees and career employees are truly committed to carrying out the responsibilities of the agency to protect and serve all Americans and I will do everything I can to make sure he is held accountable.
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Bill Clinton headed to Houston, Texas, over the weekend for a presidential reunion.
In a tweet on Sunday, the 42nd president shared that he had met with his predecessor, George H.W. Bush, and his wife, former First Lady Barbara Bush.
Bush spokesman Jim McGrath tells PEOPLE that the duo often catch up, noting that this weekends trip was purely social.
Great to spend time with @GeorgeHWBush & Mrs. Bush in Houston today, Clinton, 70, captioned a Twitter photo of himself handing Bush, 92, a small gift. We caught up about kids, grandkids, old times and new times. And socks.
A source tells PEOPLE that Clinton presented the 41st commander-in-chief with two pairs of socks: one with bugs on them and one with dogs. Clinton has spoken about bugs being some of the greatest cooperators in the world and is a longtime dog lover, having owned two chocolate labradors.
FROM COINAGE: This Is How Much It Would Cost to Paint the White House (And More Crazy Facts)
The insider said Clinton spent about two hours at the Bushes home in Houston for lunch, a visit the Arkansas native tries to make annually.
Earlier this year, Bush oversaw the coin toss at Super Bowl LI shortly after being released from the hospital after being treated for pneumonia.
President Bush recently declared that he wants to live to be 100, and being a goal oriented person I would never bet against him, Bushs spokesman says. He has rebounded nicely from his recent hospitalization.
This article was originally published on PEOPLE.com
Alycia Yeoman: Body of Missing California College Student Found
Authorities in California have revealed a twist in the ongoing search for a California college student last seen March 30, PEOPLE confirms.
In the days after Alycia Aly Yeoman went missing, her mother received text messages claiming the 20-year-old Yuba College student had been kidnapped and demanding a ransom for her return.
On Friday law enforcement tracked down the person who allegedly sent those messages, and determined the individual has no knowledge about the disappearance.
Its tragic, Sutter County, California, Undersheriff Jeff Pierce tells PEOPLE. There is definitely no connection. It was basically someone just trying to take some opportunity of a situation.
The email on the text trying to get money out of the family, that was tracked down and the person is already being dealt with, he says. It could result in more charges further on.
He did not identify the individual.
Meanwhile Yeomans family issued its first public statement since reporting Yeoman missing on April 1 after she failed to show up for work two days in a row.
We firmly believe in our hearts that Aly is alive and needs our help, family members said in a statement read at a news conference Friday by Gridley-Biggs Police Chief Dean Price. Please, please bring her home.
The statement continued: Aly, if you are hearing this, we have come all across the country. We love you and are desperately doing everything we can to bring you home safely.
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.
Initial reports said Yeoman, from Gridley, California, was leaving the Yuba City home of a male friend when she was last spotted alone behind the wheel of her green 1998 Toyota Tacoma pickup about 11 p.m. March 30.
However, authorities have since revised their timeline, and now say that she was last seen at 7:51 p.m. on her way to the male fiends home, in her car.
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Shortly thereafter, communication with (Yeoman) ceased, by both personal contact and via cell phone communications, Pierce said.
Four days later police recovered the truck in an orchard in Live Oak, between Yuba City and Gridley, where farm workers who reported the vehicle said it had not moved for several days.
Surveillance video provided by a local homeowner shows the truck just before 11 p.m. as it drives around a gate and then on top of a levee along the orchard, reports KCRA.
Authorities who recovered the truck said the vehicle apparently drove down the levee outside the range of the surveillance video, and then became stuck in the mud where it was found.
A single set of footprints trailed away from the vehicle. Yeomans cell phone was located nearby.
Family members have launched a GoFundMe page with a $10,000 goal to boost the reward money offered by the FBI in the case. We ask that you donate whatever possible so that we can bring Aly home safe!, it states.
Police describe the missing woman as 5-feet-4-inches tall, with brown-blonde hair, braces, a nose ring and a small mole near her left eye.
Anyone with information about Yeomans whereabouts is asked to call police at 530-846-5670.
This article was originally published on PEOPLE.com
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres marks his first 100 days in office on Monday, facing a long list of worsening conflicts worldwide and still many unanswered questions about where US foreign policy is headed.
The former prime minister of Portugal and head of the UN refugee agency took office on January 1 with a promise to change the United Nations to make it more effective in confronting world crises.
Since then, wars in Syria, Yemen and South Sudan have all taken a turn for the worse, while the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed the first in a series of potentially crippling funding cuts to the world body.
A suspected chemical attack last week brought a new level of horror to the six-year war in Syria, prompting the United States to fire missile strikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation.
The UN-brokered peace process however remains in a stalemate.
An unprecedented four famine alerts in South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and northern Nigeria have overwhelmed UN aid workers, with donor funding falling far short of what is needed to avert mass starvation.
Compounding the turmoil are North Korea's missile launches, fighting in Libya, tensions over elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the world's biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
Despite the daunting circumstances, there has been praise for the UN leader for bringing new energy to an organization that was sliding towards irrelevance under predecessor Ban Ki-moon.
"He is a much more effective diplomat than Ban Ki-moon, and a much more demanding boss," said Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"In a lot of cases, Guterres has been trying to stabilize crises that were running out of control under Ban," he said.
Guterres has traveled to the Middle East, the Gulf region and Africa, personally engaging in behind-the-scenes diplomacy to get leaders to agree on shared priorities for dealing with conflicts.
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- Ties with the US -
Despite Trump's dismissal of the United Nations as a "club" where people "talk and have a good time", Guterres has won praise from US Ambassador Nikki Haley, a leading voice on foreign policy in the US administration.
His reforms focus on cutting costs and streamlining the clunky bureaucracy, matching Haley's calls for the United Nations to show "value for the American taxpayer."
The United States is the biggest contributor to the United Nations, paying 22 percent of the $5.4 billion core budget and 28.5 percent of the $7.9 billion peacekeeping budget.
"The more that Guterres can reform the UN system, the more his relationship with the US will improve," said Martin Edwards, a professor of diplomat at Seton Hall University.
"Keeping the Trump administration engaged with the UN, given its rhetoric and lack of direction, is a major diplomatic coup" for Guterres, he said.
One hiccup however came when the White House blocked Guterres's choice of Palestinian Salam Fayyed to be UN peace envoy for Libya, a setback that highlighted how the UN chief's agenda could be hijacked by the United States.
Washington has cut $32.5 million from the UN Population Fund, which provides family planning in 150 countries, and is seeking to draw down and close peacekeeping missions.
Guterres has yet to meet Trump or US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to discuss how they see the way forward.
Tillerson will pay his first visit to the United Nations on April 28 to chair a Security Council session on North Korea, but no meeting with Guterres has been scheduled so far.
Two California churchgoers were tragically struck and killed in an accident that occurred as they left their place of worship Sunday.
According to police, a driver accidentally backed onto the curb at East Sarang Community Church in Chino and struck six parishioners.
Watch: Church Surprises Veteran Suffering From Throat Cancer With $20,000
Congregants were reportedly at the church for an event when an elderly man accidentally backed his SUV onto the curb Sunday evening.
Two people died at the scene, according to Chino Police. The other four were transported to the hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.
The victims were all women, according to CBS LA.
Read: Man Who Crashed Into Church Bus, Killing 13, Was Allegedly On His Phone: 'I'm Sorry. I Was Texting'
Police said the driver and his female passenger suffered only minor injuries despite having also collided with a tree during the accident.
After a preliminary investigation, police have ruled out terrorism in the case and said it was likely a terrible accident.
Watch: 13 People Dead and 31 Injured in One of California's Deadliest Highway Crashes
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TAYLORS, S.C. (AP) A church pastor says two children are still in a hospital after a bounce house was lifted into the air by a gust of wind in western South Carolina.
Officials said five children were taken to the hospital after the inflatable attraction was carried into the air about 2 p.m. Saturday at Springwell Church in Taylors.
Fire Battalion Chief Ricky Reed said the bounce house at a church carnival was anchored when it was lifted into the air.
Operations pastor David Pearson said in a Facebook post Sunday afternoon that two children were in the hospital in stable condition. Their names have not been released.
A power line was knocked down. Reed said the power line had a safety mechanism that deactivated the electricity when it was hit.
A teacher and an 8-year-old special needs student were killed Monday during a murder-suicide shooting at a California elementary school, authorities said.
Instructor Karen Smith was killed in her classroom when her estranged husband, Cedric Anderson, walked in and quickly opened fire, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters. Jonathan Martinez, 8, and an unidentified 9-year-old student were standing behind their teacher.
Read: Political Candidates Respond to 'Sickening and Senseless' San Bernardino Shooting
Martinez died hours later at a hospital. The other boy is in critical condition, police said.
After firing at Smith, Anderson turned the gun on himself, Burguan said. Both were 53. They had only been married for a few months, but had been estranged for several weeks, police said.
Fifteen special needs children, in grades 1-4, were inside the classroom along with two adult aides, the police chief said.
Anderson was allowed into the school after he told office staff he was dropping off something for his wife, Burguan said. As he strode into her classroom, "without saying anything, [he] opened fire on his wife," the chief said. He reloaded at least twice.
The wounded children had been airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center.
North Park Elementary School will be closed for at least two days, school officials said.
"Parents, I have a message for you. I would like you to work with your young child to keep things as normal as possible," said school district superintendent Dale Marsden. "Be willing to listen to their story as many times as possible and be ready to model for them a healthy response."
Read: Officer Sentenced to 40 Years Behind Bars for Shooting Death of 6-Year-Old Boy with Autism
The school was placed on lockdown and youngsters were transferred to a local high school, where distraught parents came to pick them up.
"This is a tragic incident that has befallen our city," police Lt. Michael Madden told reporters.
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Watch: 6-Year-Old Boy Killed in School Shooting Laid to Rest as Batman
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A 3,800-year-old pyramid found with an alabaster block bearing the name of pharaoh Ameny Qemau has been discovered at the site of Dahshur in Egypt.
Another pyramid containing artifacts bearing the name of Ameny Qemau (also spelled Qemaw) was discovered in 1957 in Dahshur, a royal necropolis in the desert on the Nile River's west bank. The finding has left Egyptologists with a mystery as to why the same pharaoh seemingly has two pyramids to his name.
The remains of the pyramid's inner structure were discovered by a team of Egyptian archaeologists and announced today (April 4) by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
"The uncovered remains of the pyramid represents a part of its inner structure, which is composed of a corridor leading to the inner side of the pyramid and a hall, which leads to a southern ramp and a room to the western end," Adel Okasha, the director general of the Dahshur necropolis, said in a statement from the ministry. [In Photos: See Another Egyptian Pyramid That Predates Giza]
This block was found within the 13th dynasty pyramid in Egypt and bears the name of pharaoh Ameny Qemau, who ruled about 3,800 years ago. Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities
Within the inner structure, the team discovered an alabaster block containing 10 lines of hieroglyphic writing. The ministry said it had not yet deciphered the writing on the block.
Live Science showed pictures of the pyramid's block, released by the ministry, to several Egyptologists. Both James Allen, a professor of Egyptology at Brown University, and Aidan Dodson, a research fellow at the University of Bristol, said that inscribed on the block is a type of religious text used to line the walls of pyramids, and that it bears the name of the pharaoh Ameny Qemau.
"He was the fifth king of Dynasty XIII and ruled for about two years, [around] 1790 B.C.," Allen said.
Thomas Schneider, a professor of Egyptology and Near Eastern studies at the University of British Columbia, also agreed that the name of the pharaoh on the hieroglyphic inscription is Ameny Qemau. "The resolution of the photo is not very good; however, I believe I can read the name of Ameny Qemau," he said.
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Within the remains of the pyramid, archaeologists found a corridor with steps. Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities
Dodson, who co-authored a 1998 paper on the artifacts from the Qemau pyramid discovered in 1957, noted the peculiarity of two pyramids holding the pharaoh's name.
Why both pyramids would have artifacts bearing the name of the same pharaoh is a mystery, Dodson said. Perhaps, the newly found pyramid doesn't actually belong to Ameny Qemau, but rather to one of his predecessors, he said. Along that line of thinking, perhaps upon rising to power, Qemau chiseled out the name of his predecessor on the block and inserted his own name instead, Dodson said. The hieroglyphic symbols representing the name of Ameny Qemau are of poor quality, indicating that the carver had to inscribe them over a chiseled-out area, Dodson added.
"Why Ameny Qemau would have added his name is unclear, as Ameny Qemau's actual pyramid was found in 1957," Dodson said.
The antiquities ministry said in a statement that excavations of the pyramid are not yet complete and that "further excavation is to take place to reveal more parts."
Original article on Live Science.
Editor's Recommendations
One of the most notable themes in 2016 was a rally in energy stocks; while that rally's taken a break in the early months of 2017, the dynamics are still in place for a continued rally throughout the rest of the year.
OPEC agreed to cut production late last year, and as OPEC nations continue ratcheting down, lower supply should keep a degree of upward pressure on oil prices. The best energy stocks to buy for 2017 should all benefit from a steady or rising price of oil. Here are a few stock picks from the sector that should perform well throughout the rest of 2017.
[Read: The 10 Most Anticipated IPOs of 2017.]
Exxon Mobil Corp. (ticker: XOM). Exxon was actually named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best energy stocks to buy for 2016, and it didn't disappoint. Assuming reinvested dividends, XOM stock had posted a 19.9 percent gain by year's end, far better than the dividend-adjusted 9.5 percent return of the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Part of Exxon's appeal is its dividend, one of Exxon's finer attributes, which has risen for 34 consecutive years.
With former CEO Rex Tillerson now the secretary of state for President Donald Trump, one might assume Exxon will have a cozier relationship with the government, which would almost certainly be good for XOM shareholders.
BP plc (ADR) (BP). Like Exxon, BP shares aren't likely to go up or down by 50 percent in a calendar year, which can certainly happen with smaller wildcatters and frackers whose shares tend to be much more volatile.
No, BP is simply one of the most massive major integrated oil and gas companies on the planet. As such, it's suitable for more conservative investors seeking robust dividend stocks, especially considering its sizable 7 percent yield. It's true that BP could slash its dividend if it doesn't boost profits soon, but earnings per share are expected to jump 157 percent in 2017 as industry economics smooth out.
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Schlumberger Limited (SLB). Other than flat-out buying oil and gas producers, what's the best way to wager on an era of higher oil prices? Buying shares in oil field services companies like Schlumberger isn't such a bad route to take, and SLB definitely appears to be one of the best large-cap energy stocks to buy for 2017. Its 2016 merger with oil field equipment maker Cameron International should not just "create synergies" that most M&A deals seek to realize, but also defend Schlumberger's position as the No. 1 oil field services company around. Analysts expect SLB to return to revenue growth in 2017, with EPS expected to roar 54 percent higher.
Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP). If the name sounds familiar, it's likely because you've heard it used in association with the Dakota Access Pipeline, the 1,000-plus mile oil pipeline being built to transfer oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
[See: The 25 Best Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy for 2017.]
An ETP subsidiary is building the pipeline; its route has been the source of much controversy and was originally held up by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late days of Obama. That said, the Trump administration reversed that decision in a matter of months, and the pipeline should begin transporting oil as soon as April. ETP, a master limited partnership, is one of the more rewarding dividend stocks out there today, with shares yielding a remarkable 11.8 percent.
Whiting Petroleum Corp. (WLL). A somewhat more speculative play, this $3.4 billion Denver-based oil and gas exploration company has big upside potential. It owns more than 440,000 acres of oil-rich land in the Williston basin of North Dakota and Montana, including prime real estate in the Bakken formation. WLL spent much of 2016 shoring up its balance sheet, and with decreasing debt, Whiting can now get back to business as usual. Incidentally, the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline should significantly decrease transportation costs, potentially lowering the break-even cost of oil to $47 per barrel.
Apache Corp. (APA). Shale driller Apache Corp. also owns some enviable assets, primarily in the Permian and Andarko basins, making it one of the best energy stocks to buy for 2017. Another major catalyst for these oil and natural gas producers is the dramatic rise in natural gas prices, which, through April 2016, had ripped 20 percent higher in just a year. Analysts expect Apache to swing to a profit as revenue grows by 24 percent in 2017.
After a 20 percent pullback in the stock price in the first three months of the year -- due largely to a secular decline in short-term oil prices -- APA could be approaching fire sale prices.
Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (XLE). Some investors don't want exposure to one or even a handful of the major stocks in a sector. They'd rather buy the sector outright. Well that's precisely what the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF offers: diversified exposure to energy stocks.
[See: 7 of the Best Cheap Stocks to Buy Under $10.]
Sure, it's not technically a stock itself, but it trades like one, and if you believe in the sector as a whole it's the most straightforward way to invest in it. XLE tracks the performance of energy stocks in the S&P 500, and pays a 2.4 percent dividend to boot. The expense ratio of just 14 basis points makes it one of the best ETFs in its space affordability-wise: the category average is 48-basis-points.
John Divine is an investing reporter for U.S. News & World Report, where he covers financial markets and the economy, with a focus on individual stock analysis. He has been an investor himself for over 10 years, and has been writing professionally about stocks and investing for the last five years. He previously wrote about the stock market for The Motley Fool and InvestorPlace, and his work has appeared on Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, and AOL DailyFinance. He graduated from Appalachian State University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in finance and banking. At Appalachian, he was a member of the Bowden Investment Group, a team of students that ran a real-money portfolio worth over $100,000. You can follow him on Twitter or give him the Tip of the Century at jdivine@usnews.com.
By Press Trust of India: Dubai, Apr 10 (PTI) The Indian government has restricted the recruitment of nurses through a few designated state-run agencies, the Indian embassy in Kuwait has said, pointing out that it was part of a move to make the process transparent.
The embassy in a statement said the restriction has been in effect since since May 2015 after some private hospitals in Kuwait enquired it about the process for recruitment of Indian nurses.
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"It is reiterated that to streamline the recruitment of Indian nurses for work in Kuwait, the Government of India has restricted since May 2015 the recruitment of nurses through a few designated state-run recruiting agencies and placed nurses under the ECR (Emigration Check Required) regime so that emigration clearance through E-Migrate becomes mandatory for them for any employment in any of the 18 ECR countries," it said.
Besides Kuwait, emigration clearance is required for 16 other nations namely Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Libiya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, the UAE and Yemen, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.
"The process of recruitment of Indian nurses under E-Migrate system is easy, transparent and user-friendly. Recruiting agencies in Kuwait which are keen to recruit Indian nurses for Kuwait should register themselves with the E-Migrate system. The embassy has an E-Migrate Helpdesk in its premises ? for those wishing to register in E-Migrate system," the embassy said.
Six state manpower corporations in India have been authorised for recruitment of Indian nurses abroad, it said.
They are Norka-Roots Centre, and Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants in Thiruvananthapuram; Overseas Manpower Corporation Ltd, Chennai; UP Financial Corporation, Kanpur; Telangana Overseas Manpower Company, Hyderabad; and the Overseas Manpower Company of Andhra Pradesh, Vijayawada. PTI CORR ABH MVV
--- ENDS ---
Associated Press
Concerns over the Buffalo Bills troubling loss to the New York Jets were quickly overshadowed by even bigger worries regarding the status of Josh Allens throwing elbow on Monday. Suddenly, the entirety of the organization and its fanbase is holding its collective breath while awaiting the results of medical tests to determine the severity of Allens injury sustained in the final minutes of a 20-17 loss to the Jets and what impact it will have on the second half of the season and the franchises Super Bowl aspirations. The reality, however, is bracing for the potential of having to turn over a very Allen-centric offense to journeyman backup Case Keenum to keep the AFC-leading Bills (6-2) afloat in the interim.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday rather than face impeachment and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations that arose during an investigation of his alleged affair with a top aide.
In a remarkable fall, the mild-mannered 74-year-old Republican and one-time Baptist deacon stepped down as the sex-tinged scandal gathered force over the past few days. Legislators turned up the pressure by opening impeachment hearings Monday. Last week, the Alabama Ethics Commission cited evidence that Bentley broke state ethics and campaign laws and referred the matter to prosecutors.
"There've been times that I let you and our people down, and I'm sorry for that," Bentley said in the old House chamber of Alabama's Capitol after he pleaded guilty.
The violations were discovered during the investigation of his affair but were not directly related to it.
In court, Bentley appeared sullen and looked down at the floor. He stood up and said "yes, sir" in a gravelly voice as the judge read out the charges he was pleading guilty to.
One misdemeanor charge against Bentley stemmed from a $50,000 loan he made to his campaign in November that investigators said he failed to report until January. State law says major contributions should be reported within a few days. The other charge stemmed from his use of campaign funds to pay nearly $9,000 in legal bills for political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason last year.
"He did what he did, and he deserves now to be called a criminal," said Ellen Brooks, a retired district attorney overseeing the state investigation.
The resignation and guilty plea were a dramatic reversal from the man who on Friday stood on the Capitol steps and said he would not leave office because he had done nothing illegal.
The plea agreement specified that Bentley must surrender campaign funds totaling nearly $37,000 within a week and perform 100 hours of community service as a physician. The dermatologist also cannot seek public office again.
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Bentley's successor is Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, who became Alabama's second female governor. The first was Lurleen Wallace, wife of segregationist and four-term Gov. George C. Wallace. She ran as a surrogate for her still-powerful husband in 1966 when he couldn't seek re-election because of term limits. She won, but died in office in 1968.
"The Ivey administration will be open. It will be transparent. And it will be honest," Ivey said.
Bentley said in his statement that he no longer wanted to subject his family and staff "to the consequences that my past actions have brought upon them." His staff gave him a standing ovation as he entered and exited the old House chamber.
Bentley's resignation follows the ouster of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, who left office in 2016 after being convicted on ethics charges, and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was suspended from his post last year over an order opposing same-sex marriage.
Bentley, a staunch family-values conservative who won two terms partly because of his reputation for moral rectitude, was first engulfed in scandal last year after recordings surfaced of him making sexually charged comments to the 45-year-old Mason.
An investigative report prepared for the House Judiciary Committee and released last week said Bentley encouraged an "atmosphere of intimidation" to keep the story under wraps and directed law enforcement officers to track down and seize the recordings. The report portrayed the governor as paranoid and obsessed with trying to keep the relationship secret.
The committee on Monday started what was expected to be days of hearings.
Bentley lawyer Ross Garber had argued that impeachment should be reserved for only the "most grave misconduct," noting that only two U.S. governors have been impeached since 1929, and both were indicted for serious felonies.
"It is not unusual for elected officials to have ethics and campaign finance issues. In fact, many governors face these things. It is very rare, though, for legislators to try to leverage those issues to impeach a governor. In fact, it is simply not done," Garber told The Associated Press in an email.
The last U.S. governor to be impeached was Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2009. He was removed from office and is now serving a prison sentence for conspiring to sell an appointment to President Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat.
The investigative report contained text messages that the governor sent to Mason. They were intercepted by Bentley's then-wife, Dianne Bentley, who was able to read the messages because they also showed up on the governor's state-issued iPad, which he had given her.
"I sure miss you. I need you. I want you. You are the only one," one message read.
Dianne Bentley divorced her husband in 2015 after 50 years of marriage.
Bentley denied having a physical relationship with his former aide, though in some of the recordings he talked about the pleasure he got from fondling her breasts.
At one point, according to the investigative report, the governor sent the head of his security detail to fetch the recording from his son Paul Bentley, who responded: "You ain't getting it." Dianne Bentley had secretly recorded her husband by leaving her phone on while she went for a walk.
The former first lady's chief of staff also charged that Bentley threatened her job because he believed she had helped his wife make the recordings.
Former Law Enforcement Secretary Spencer Collier, who a day after being fired by Bentley last year held a news conference where he publicly revealed the affair accusation, said he feels vindicated by the resignation and plea deal.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate called on Bentley to resign, as has the Alabama Republican Party's steering committee.
"It's really time for us to look ahead and start moving forward on more pressing matters," Republican Sen. Cam Ward said. "It was a constant distraction, one that was never going to change, and it's time for us to get back to work."
Two of Bentley's predecessors in the past three decades have been convicted of crimes: Republican Guy Hunt in the 1990s, for misusing funds, and Democrat Don Siegelman, who was convicted of bribery in 2006.
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Associated Press writer Jay Reeves in Birmingham contributed to this report.
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This story corrects an earlier version that said two of Bentley's predecessors went to prison. Former Gov. Guy Hunt was convicted, but did not go to prison. It also corrects that Bentley lawyer Ross Garber represented former Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut during impeachment proceedings, not Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Tirana (AFP) - Albania's opposition stepped up pressure Monday on Prime Minister Edi Rama, calling for him to resign and agree to a transitional government to prepare free and fair elections.
The Democratic Party will not stand in legislative elections scheduled for June 18 in the impoverished Balkan country, its head Lulzim Basha said, calling for the polls to be delayed.
"We decided not to participate .. because there is not political agreement on creation of a transitional government," which was the only way to ensure fair polls, he said opposition parties met Rama.
The opposition has decided not to submit lists of candidates to the central electoral commission "until a political agreement is reached on free and fair elections prepared by a technical government," Basha said.
The deadline for submitting the lists expired on Monday.
The right-wing opposition scheduled a protest for May 7 in Kavaja, a small western Albanian city, where local elections would be held that day.
Since mid-February its supporters have been protesting and occupying a tent in front of the main government offices in the capital Tirana.
They demand the departure of Rama, whom they accuse of having allowed the expansion of cannabis cultivation to raise money to manipulate voting.
The Socialist prime minister has denied the allegations, refusing either to resign or delay of the polls.
Since the fall of communism in the early 1990s, the results of elections have often been contested by the losing side, including with street protests that sometimes turned violent.
A NATO member since 2009, Albania has become a candidate for EU membership and hopes to open negotiations by the end of the year.
The Hague (AFP) - Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Monday he believed an outcry over his comment that southern European countries blew money on "drinks and women" was more triggered by anger at unpopular eurozone austerity policies.
And he said he regretted the uproar around the interview which has "escalated enormously. It's starting to look like I've committed a war crime".
Last month's gaffe by Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister, and the resulting backlash exposed simmering north-south tensions in the European Union's single currency zone.
"Everyone knows I never said southern Europeans spend their money on booze and women. That was never my message," Dijsselbloem said told the centre-left Dutch daily De Volkskrant.
"The anger over (what I said in) the interview is anger over eight years of crisis management policy," he added.
The eurozone debt crisis almost forced Greece out of the zone and German-led austerity has left a legacy of bitterness.
"Some euro countries find the policies were too strictly shaped around a northern agenda. That the commitments and rules are too restrictive and therefore killing the economy," said Dijsselbloem.
The tensions have however weakened Dijsselbloem, already reeling after his Labour party lost heavily in Dutch elections almost a month ago, which puts his future as finance minister and Eurogroup chief in jeopardy.
But Dijsselbloem has refused to step down, saying he stood by the "gist of his message."
"We cannot have limitless and unconditional solidarity. In the much-maligned interview I said that there was a lot of solidarity with euro-countries who were in trouble."
In an interview with Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on March 20, Dijsselbloem said that while coming to the aid of eurozone partners was important, "I can't spend all my money on drinks and women and then ask for help."
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The remarks caused an uproar in the southern European countries of Portugal, Greece and Cyprus that have all received eurozone bailouts in recent years, with Spain's banks also receiving support.
"The point I was making is that solidarity is not a charity. It's not for nothing that European emergency bailout programmes... come with strict conditions."
"Solidarity means you must fulfil your commitments otherwise the eurozone would collapse," Dijsselbloem said.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Before the U.S. attack on a Syrian air base, President Donald Trump accused his predecessor of doing nothing when Syria's government used chemical weapons against its population in 2013. Trump is right that President Barack Obama issued what amounted to an empty threat of military action. The circumstances, though, were more complicated than Trump described.
A look at statements on a selection of subjects over the past week by Trump and lawmakers:
TRUMP: In a White House statement after what the Trump administration said was a bombing involving the nerve agent sarin in a rebel-held part of northern Syria: "These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration's weakness and irresolution. President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a 'red line' against the use of chemical weapons, and then did nothing."
THE FACTS: Many in the foreign policy establishment essentially agree with Trump. That's not to say he told the full story.
When evidence emerged in August 2013 of a large-scale chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs, more than 10 times deadlier than this past week's, Obama quickly signaled his intention to use military force. But when key ally Britain wouldn't participate, Obama became uncomfortable about going it alone and sought Congress' authorization. Lawmakers in both parties balked; he could not win enough support.
Indeed, when Obama had made his "red line" threat a year earlier, Trump himself tweeted: "President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your powder for another (and more important) day!"
It's also true, though, that Obama could have ordered a military strike without congressional authorization, as Trump did Thursday. Derek Chollet, Obama's assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, wrote in Politico last year that he was initially shocked when Obama decided to go to Congress, because "it was clear the president had all the domestic legal authority and international justification he needed to act."
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In the end, Obama turned to diplomacy when Russia offered him a way out. Their deal led the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, to own up to chemical weapons stocks and agreeing to have them removed, steps seen as breakthroughs at the time.
It wasn't "nothing," as Trump claimed. But neither it did it remove Syria's chemical weapons threat. Assad's forces are believed to have conducted a number of deadly chlorine attacks in the years since, with no international punishment. And as is now apparent, Obama's deal wasn't enough to spare Syrian civilians from a sarin-like nerve gas this past week.
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SEN. MITCH McCONNELL, Senate majority leader, on why he opposed Obama's proposal for U.S. military action against Syria in 2013 but supports what Trump did: "Secretary (of State John) Kerry, I guess in order to reassure the left-leaning members of his own party, said it would sort of be like a pinprick. You know, really would not be of any great consequence. I don't know whether he had in mind knocking out a tent and a couple of camels or what." But Trump's strike "was well-planned, well- executed, went right to the heart of the matter, which is using chemical weapons. So, had I seen that that kind of approach by President Obama, I'm sure I would've signed up."
THE FACTS: What McConnell, R-Ky., said at the time was that Assad's use of chemical weapons on his own people did not threaten the U.S. "A vital national security risk is clearly not in play," he said then, responding to a far deadlier attack on civilians than the latest one.
McConnell told the Senate in September 2013 that Obama's planned action was detached from any strategy to end the Syrian civil war. McConnell said the planned intervention could be too limited to dissuade Assad from further use of chemical weapons or so broad that it could put those weapons in the hands of extremists, if Assad lost control. His concern not merely, or even principally, that intervention might amount to a "pinprick."
At the time, McConnell was alone among the top Senate and House leaders from either party in opposing Obama's proposal. The senator was facing a primary challenge from a Republican who opposed intervening in Syria.
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TRUMP, speaking to CEOs at the White House about the nation's unemployment rate: "We have 100 million people if you look" who want jobs and can't get them. "You know, the real number's not 4.6 percent ... one of the statistics that, to me, is just ridiculous. ... When you look for a job, you can't find it and you give up. You are now considered statistically employed."
THE FACTS: He's wrong about federal jobs data. There's no category that counts frustrated job-seekers as "statistically employed."
And there aren't 100 million of them.
When people give up looking for work, they are categorized as having left the workforce neither employed nor unemployed.
Trump's figure of 100 million people uncounted in the unemployment rate is made up largely of high-school and college students, retirees and stay-at-home parents who aren't looking for work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does ask people outside the workforce if they would want a job, even if they aren't actively seeking one. The bureau found 5.6 million people fit this category in February, a small fraction of what the president claimed.
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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, Senate Democratic leader, on the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch: "Senator McConnell would have the world believe that his hands are tied. That the only option after Judge Gorsuch doesn't earn 60 votes is to break the rules, to change the rules. That could not be further from the truth."
THE FACTS: McConnell was closer to the truth on this matter.
A Senate rules change, requiring only 51 votes to stop a filibuster instead of 60, did appear to be the lone route that Republicans had to put Gorsuch on the court. It was the route they took in winning his confirmation Friday. To Schumer, D-N.Y., Republicans had the option of ditching Gorsuch and coming up with a more "mainstream" nominee. It's unlikely, however, that any nominee produced by Trump would win Democrats' approval.
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TRUMP, in remarks to CEOs: "There was a very large infrastructure bill that was approved during the Obama administration, a trillion dollars. Nobody ever saw anything being built. I mean, to this day, I haven't heard of anything that's been built. They used most of that money it went and they used it on social programs and we want this to be on infrastructure."
THE FACTS: The $787 billion package in 2009 was not an infrastructure bill, but a catchall response to the recession with infrastructure as a major part.
More than one-third of it went to tax cuts, not social programs. Medicaid spending and other help for health care made up the next largest component. Then came infrastructure, followed closely by education. The package mixed economic and social spending, helping states train displaced workers, for example, extending jobless benefits and assisting with low-income housing.
As for being unaware that stimulus money built anything, Trump needn't have traveled far from Trump Tower to see those dollars at work.
In New York City alone, $30 million went toward repairs and repainting of the Brooklyn Bridge; the Staten Island ferry also got a boost. More than $80 million was earmarked for Moynihan Station, an annex to Penn Station that is meant to return the rail hub to the grandeur of the original Penn Station. Road, bridge and transit projects across the country got a lift.
Trump praised Obama and the package's combination of tax cuts and spending programs when it passed in February 2009.
"I thought he did a terrific job," Trump said then. "This is a strong guy (who) knows what he wants, and this is what we need."
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TRUMP, on signing executive action that revived the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada: "I was signing the order and I said where'd they buy the steel? I didn't like the answer. I said who fabricated the steel? I didn't like the answer. I said, 'From now on, we're going to put a clause, got to be made in America.'"
THE FACTS: This is one of Trump's favorite stories, a mix of fact and fiction that he told with more accuracy in its latest iteration.
This time, he owned up to the fact that he placed no requirement on the TransCanada pipeline company to use U.S. steel: "They had already bought 60, 70 percent of it, so you can't be too wild, right?" So a mandate for U.S. steel would be for future pipelines, "from now on."
It's not quite right, though, to say he's insisting that steel or pipelines be "made in America" in the future. His directive calls for the use of U.S. content "to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law," leaving lots of wiggle room.
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TRUMP, on progress against the Islamic State group: "We had a very, very fine delegation come over from Egypt, and also from Iraq. And they said more has been done in the last six weeks than has been done in years with the previous administration."
THE FACTS: Far more progress was achieved against IS over the past year than in the past six weeks.
Last year Iraqi military forces, supported by the coalition, waged successful battles to oust IS from Fallujah, Ramadi, eastern Mosul and a number of smaller towns along the Tigris River. They also established logistical hubs for the push that began in February to retake western Mosul, which is expected to be the last major battle against IS in Iraq. No major cities have been taken in the past six weeks.
As for Syria, Trump was correct in suggesting that there has been significant progress against IS in recent weeks, as the U.S. deployed hundreds more troops to help prepare local forces to retake Raqqa, the Syrian city that is the militants' de facto capital.
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Associated Press writers Erica Werner, Lolita C. Baldor and Josh Boak contributed to this report.
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Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Ohio State University is beefing up its emergency alert system and streamlining the way officials communicate in a crisis after a November car-and-knife attack exposed some flaws in the text-message procedure.
Some campus contractors and visitors weren't aware of campuswide "Buckeye Alerts" to seek shelter during the attack that wounded more than a dozen people, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request.
Too much time passed between the 10 alerts, which were issued over a period of about seven hours, according to the report by the OSU Department of Public Safety. In addition, the initial alerts lacked specifics about the attack, according to the report.
The "After Action Review" also noted that the sheet-covered body of the attacker shot dead by a police officer seconds after the attack began was visible for hours, "potentially creating psychological trauma and panic."
In addition, communication between safety personnel and top university officials was cumbersome and some outside police departments weren't aware an "all-clear" message had been sent, the report said.
The report makes several recommendations for changes that the university is reviewing. Some have already been put in place.
"Public support for the law enforcement response has been gratifying, but we know there is always room for improvement," Monica Moll, director of the university Department of Public Safety, said in a statement.
The Nov. 28 attack began when first-year Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove into a crowd outside a classroom building, then attacked people with a knife. Thirteen people were injured in the attack.
In a coincidence, a nearby building had been evacuated minutes earlier after reports of a gas leak. A university police officer assisting at the scene shot and killed the 18-year-old Artan almost immediately.
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Authorities believe the attack by the Somalia-born Artan was partly inspired by a cleric killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen. An investigation continues.
Among other problems and recommended fixes:
The university phone operator transferred many calls from worried parents and the media to an already overloaded 911 call center, limiting dispatchers' "ability to focus on strategies/tactics" regarding the crisis. The report recommends the creation of a phone bank that could take such calls.
Ohio State and City of Columbus police tactical teams had trouble communicating because their radios use different versions of encryption. The university plans to provide radios to its officers using the same encryption as Columbus.
The alert system relies too heavily on text messages, which limits awareness of an emergency for people who haven't signed up for alerts. Ohio State plans to increase the use of "pop-up" emergency messages on computers, insert alerts into digital signs around campus and let visitors sign up for alerts for specific times on campus, such as sporting events.
University police weren't trained to use a "fire alarm speaker system" to communicate with occupants in campus buildings. This meant that some people in buildings who weren't getting Buckeye Alerts were unaware of the emergency and didn't get updates. The report recommends training officers to use that speaker system and installing equipment allowing dispatchers to access the speakers remotely.
To deal with "cumbersome" communication problems that developed between safety and senior academic officials, all top administrators will be relocated to the hall housing the university's Department of Public Safety in an emergency.
The university has purchased equipment that would shield a body from onlookers while letting an investigation continue.
Some students, faculty and staff don't know what to do in an emergency. The report recommends increasing opportunities around campus for learning the "Run, Hide, Fight" system for active-shooter situations. The report also recommends making sure the university's Department of Public Safety has enough employees to boost emergency prevention and preparedness initiatives.
Officials will look at ways to make initial alerts less generic and continue to support dispatchers sending those initial alerts but will also allow emergency operations officials to take over responsibility for sending alerts as soon as possible.
Policies will be developed for instructing campus bus drivers on what to do with passengers when "shelter in place" alerts go out.
Only armed officers will be used to search inside the so-called hot zone after concerns arose about using unarmed security personnel in building-to-building searches.
An effort will be made to sign up more outside police agencies for alerts to avoid the problem of some agencies not getting the "all clear" alert.
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Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/andrew-welsh-huggins
An aspiring rapper in Australia was in court this week after he allegedly devoured hundreds of dollars' worth of seafood and beer before swimming away without paying.
Queensland police say Terry Peck or 2Pec ran onto the beach and into the Pacific Ocean after a $621 meal of two lobsters, 17 oyster shooters, a baby octopus, and several beers.
Watch: How This Quick-Thinking Jeweler Locked a Suspected Thief Inside
Employees at Omeros Bros Restaurant in Surfer's Paradise called police, who hopped on jet skis with the help of lifeguards after arriving at the scene.
Police say they engaged with Peck in the water, where he allegedly refused to be taken back to shore willingly.
"Police were then forced to enter the water and apprehend the man, bringing him back to shore without incident," Queensland police said in a statement.
According to Australian news outlet ABC, Peck is wannabe rapper who goes by the stage name 2Pec.
Cops say Peck has been charged with stealing and two counts of serious assault of a police officer
He appeared in the Southport Magistrates Court to face the charges, where Magistrate Joan White granted bail and ordered Peck to remain at his residence until his case is heard.
Peck defended himself outside the courtroom, where he told a reporter his meal was "overcooked."
Read: Man Returns Stolen Library Book 35 Years Later - With Author's Autograph Inside
"There was oyster shell in the oyster [shot] and he said he was going to take off the bill," said Peck, who told the reporter he was on the beach to help a friend who was giving birth there when he was arrested.
A manager at the restaurant said their seafood is never overcooked. Rather, the manager claimed Peck ran after seeing the hefty bill.
Watch: Kind Fisherman Releases Rare 14-Pound Lobster Back To Sea
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The Indus Waters Treaty facilitates both India and Pakistan to share water of Indus and its tributaries from the past 56 years.
By India Today Web Desk: The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition that sought to declare the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan illegal and unconstitutional.
The Indus Waters Treaty facilitates both India and Pakistan to share water of Indus and its tributaries from the past 56 years.
The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 covers the water distribution and sharing rights of six rivers - Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.
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India maintains that Sutlej, Beas and Ravi waters belongs to us and is not being used in Pakistan.
The World Bank which had brokered the treaty in 1960, last year paused the separate processes initiated by India and Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty to allow the two countries to consider alternative ways to resolve their disagreements.
India had taken strong exception to the World Bank's decision to set up a Court of Arbitration to look into Pakistan's complaint against it over Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
ALSO READ:Indus Waters Treaty in interest of both India and Pakistan
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WASHINGTON (AP) For three decades, America got tough on crime.
Police used aggressive tactics and arrest rates soared. Small-time drug cases clogged the courts. Vigorous gun prosecutions sent young men away from their communities and to faraway prisons for long terms.
But as crime rates dropped since 2000, enforcement policies changed. Even conservative lawmakers sought to reduce mandatory minimum sentences and to lower prison populations, and law enforcement shifted to new models that emphasized community partnerships over mass arrests.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions often reflects fondly on the tough enforcement strategies of decades ago and sees today's comparatively low crime rates as a sign they worked. He is preparing to revive some of those practices even as some involved in criminal justice during that period have come to believe those approaches went too far, for too long.
"In many ways with this administration we are rolling back," said David Baugh, who worked as a federal prosecutor in the 1970s and 1980s before becoming a defense lawyer in Richmond, Virginia. "We are implementing plans that have been proven not to work."
Sessions, who cut his teeth as a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Alabama, at the height of the drug war, favors strict enforcement of drug laws and mandatory minimum sentences. He says a recent spike in violence in some cities shows the need for more aggressive work. The Justice Department said there won't be a repeat of past problems.
"The field of criminal justice has advanced leaps and bounds in the past several decades," spokesman Ian Prior said. "It is not our intention to simply jettison every lesson learned from previous administrations."
Sessions took another step back from recent practices when the Justice Department announced last week that it might back away from federal agreements that force cities to agree to major policing overhauls. His concern is that such deals might conflict with his crime-fighting agenda.
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Consent decrees were a staple of the Obama administration's efforts to change troubled departments, but Sessions has said those agreements can unfairly malign an entire police force. He has advanced the unproven theory that heavy scrutiny of police in recent years has made officers less aggressive, leading to a rise in crime in Chicago and other cities.
It's the latest worry for civil rights activists fretting about a return to the kind of aggressive policing that grew out of the drug war, when officers were encouraged to make large numbers of stops, searches and arrests, including for minor offenses. That technique is increasingly seen as more of a strain on police-community relationships than an effective way to deter crime, said Ronal Serpas, former police chief in New Orleans. He was a young officer in the 1980s when crack cocaine ravaged some communities.
Officers' orders were simple, Serpas said: "'Go arrest everybody.' We had no idea what the answers were," he said. "Those of us who were on the front line of that era of policing have learned there are far more effective ways to arrest repeat, violent offenders, versus arresting a lot of people. That's what we have learned over the last 30 years."
In a recent memo calling for aggressive prosecution of violent crime, Sessions told the nation's federal prosecutors that he soon would provide more guidance on how they should prosecute all criminal cases.
Sessions' approach is embodied in his encouraging cities to send certain gun cases to tougher federal courts, where the penalties are more severe than in state courts, and defendants are often sent out of state to serve their terms.
He credits one such program, Project Exile, with slowing murders in Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1990s. Its pioneer was FBI Director James Comey, who was then the lead federal prosecutor in the area.
In the community, billboards and ads warned anyone caught with an illegal gun faced harsh punishment. Homicides fell more than 30 percent in the first year in Richmond, and other cities adopted similar approaches.
But studies reached mixed conclusions about its long-term success. Defense lawyers such as Baugh said the program disproportionately hurt the black community by putting gun suspects in front of mostly white federal juries, as opposed to state juries drawn from predominantly black Richmond jury pools that might be more sympathetic to black defendants.
"They took a lot of young African-American men and took them off the streets and out of their communities and homes and placed them in federal prison," said Robert Wagner, a federal public defender in Richmond.
Baugh argued the program was unconstitutional after a client was arrested for gun and marijuana possession during a traffic stop. He lost the argument, but a judge who revealed 90 percent of Project Exile defendants were black also shared concerns about the initiative.
Sessions has acknowledged the need to be sensitive to racial disparities, but has also said, "When you fight crime, you have to fight it where it is ... if it's focused fairly and objectively on dangerous criminals, then you're doing the right thing."
During the drug war, sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine crimes were seen as unfairly punishing black defendants. Sessions in 2010 co-sponsored legislation that reduced that disparity. But he later opposed bipartisan criminal justice overhaul efforts, warning that eliminating mandatory minimum sentences weakens the ability of law enforcement to protect the public.
"My vision of a smart way to do this is, let's take that arrest, lets hammer that criminal who's distributing drugs that have been imported in our country," Sessions said in a recent speech to law enforcement officials.
The rhetoric sounds familiar to Mark Osler, who worked as a federal prosecutor in Detroit in the late 1990s, when possessing 5 grams of crack cocaine brought an automatic five-year prison sentence. Osler said he came onto the job expecting to go after international drug trafficking rings but "instead we were locking up 18-year-old kids selling a small amount of crack, and pretending it was an international trafficker."
Sydney (AFP) - The former chairman of an Australian wheat firm was fined Aus$50,000 (US$37,500) Monday and banned from managing a corporation for five years over the payment of huge kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq.
Trevor Flugge was found by the Victorian Supreme Court in December to have breached his duties as a director of the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), after corporate regulator the Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC) filed a civil case against him.
The court ruled Flugge failed to properly investigate the payments, disguised as transportation fees, but ASIC was unable to prove that he deliberately flouted United Nations sanctions.
The AWB, formerly Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, paid Saddam's regime some US$225 million in bribes to secure lucrative grain deals with Iraq between 1999-2003 under a UN oil-for-food scheme, an Australian government inquiry found.
"The case highlights that company directors and senior management have a positive duty to chase down allegations of misconduct by their company," ASIC Commissioner John Price said after the hearing.
Iraq's government suspended business with AWB in 2006 following the Australian probe that saw the then prime minister John Howard called as a witness.
Two former AWB executives were previously fined over their role in the scandal but police dropped a criminal investigation in 2009 after an independent review of the evidence found there was little prospect of a successful prosecution.
Flugge has long-denied any wrongdoing and said in December he was vindicated by the court's ruling that he was unaware of breaching any UN sanctions.
By Anna Irrera NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Hinshaw is not a typical 75-year-old. He divides his time between his family he has 32 grandchildren and great-grandchildren and helping U.S. companies avert crippling computer meltdowns. Hinshaw, who got into programming in the 1960s when computers took up entire rooms and programmers used punch cards, is a member of a dwindling community of IT veterans who specialize in a vintage programming language called COBOL. The Common Business-Oriented Language was developed nearly 60 years ago and has been gradually replaced by newer, more versatile languages such as Java, C and Python. Although few universities still offer COBOL courses, the language remains crucial to businesses and institutions around the world. In the United States, the financial sector, major corporations and parts of the federal government still largely rely on it because it underpins powerful systems that were built in the 70s or 80s and never fully replaced. (GRAPHIC: http://tmsnrt.rs/2nMf18G) And here lies the problem: if something goes wrong, few people know how to fix it. The stakes are especially high for the financial industry, where an estimated $3 trillion in daily commerce flows through COBOL systems. The language underpins deposit accounts, check-clearing services, card networks, ATMs, mortgage servicing, loan ledgers and other services. The industry's aggressive push into digital banking makes it even more important to solve the COBOL dilemma. Mobile apps and other new tools are written in modern languages that need to work seamlessly with old underlying systems. That is where Hinshaw and fellow COBOL specialists come in. A few years ago, the north Texas resident planned to shutter his IT firm and retire after decades of working with financial and public institutions, but calls from former clients just kept coming. COWBOYS AND YOUNGSTERS In 2013, Hinshaw launched a new company COBOL Cowboys, which connects companies to programmers like himself. His wife Eileen came up with the name in a reference to "Space Cowboys," a 2000 movie about a group of retired Air Force pilots called in for a trouble-shooting mission in space. The company's slogan? "Not our first rodeo." Of the 20 "Cowboys" that work as part-time consultants many have reached retirement age, though there are some "youngsters," Hinshaw said. "Well, I call them youngsters, but they're in their 40s, early 50s." Experienced COBOL programmers can earn more than $100 an hour when they get called in to patch up glitches, rewrite coding manuals or make new systems work with old. For their customers such expenses pale in comparison with what it would cost to replace the old systems altogether, not to mention the risks involved. Antony Jenkins, the former chief executive of Barclays PLC, said for big financial institutions many of them created through multiple mergers over decades the problems banks face when looking to replace their old technology goes beyond a shrinking pool of experts. "It is immensely complex," said Jenkins, who now heads startup 10x Future Technologies, which sells new IT infrastructure to banks. "Legacy systems from different generations are layered and often heavily intertwined." Some bank executives describe a nightmare scenario in which a switch-over fails and account data for millions of customers vanishes. The industry is aware, however, that it cannot keep relying on a generation of specialists who inevitably will be gone. The risk is "not so much that an individual may have retired," Andrew Starrs, group technology officer at consulting firm Accenture PLC, said. "He may have expired, so there is no option to get him or her to come back." International Business Machines Corp, which sells the mainframe computers that run on COBOL, argues the future is not so bleak. It has launched fellowships and training programs in the old code for young IT specialists, and says it has trained more than 180,000 developers in 12 years. "Just because a language is 50 years old, doesn't mean that it isn't good," said Donna Dillenberger, an IBM Fellow. But COBOL veterans say it takes more than just knowing the language itself. COBOL-based systems vary widely and original programmers rarely wrote handbooks, making trouble-shooting difficult for others. "Some of the software I wrote for banks in the 1970s is still being used," said Hinshaw. That is why calls from stressed executives keep coming. "You better believe they are nice since they have a problem only you can fix," he said. Hinshaw said the callers seem willing to pay almost any price and some even offer full-time jobs. TURNING POINT Oliver Bussmann, former chief information officer of UBS AG, said banks usually tap into their networks of former employees to find COBOL experts. Accenture's Starrs said they go through a "black book" of programmer contacts, especially those laid off during or after the 2008 financial crisis. The industry appears to be reaching an inflection point, though. In the United States, banks are slowly shifting toward newer languages taking cue from overseas rivals who have already made the switch-over. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, for instance, replaced its core banking platform in 2012 with the help of Accenture and software company SAP SE. The job ultimately took five years and cost more than 1 billion Australian dollars ($749.9 million). Accenture is also working with software vendor Temenos Group AG to help Swedish bank Nordea make a similar transition by 2020. IBM is also setting itself up to profit from the changes, despite its defense of COBOL's relevance. It recently acquired EzSource, a company that helps programmers figure out how old COBOL programs work. In the meantime, banks' scramble has revived careers of those who retired or were let go, and whose expertise, until recently, was considered obsolete. One COBOL programmer, now in his 60s, said his bank laid him off in mid-2012 as it turned to younger, less expensive employees trained in new languages. In 2014, the programmer, who declined to be named to avoid jeopardizing current professional relationships, was brought in as a contractor to the same bank to fix issues management had not anticipated. "The call back to the bank was something of a personal vindication for me," he said. ($1 = 1.3335 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Anna Irrera; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Tomasz Janowski)
LONDON (AP) The CEO of Barclays bank is being investigated by regulators for his attempts to unmask a whistleblower who had written anonymous letters raising concerns about a senior employee.
Jes Staley had sought to identify the author of the letters but was told it was inappropriate to do so under rules protecting whistleblowers. Staley then sought again to identify the person, even using help from a U.S. law enforcement agency, but failed.
The bank, which has faced a number of legal problems in recent years, said Monday that Staley had honestly, but mistakenly, believed that he had clearance to identify the whistleblower.
Staley will face a written reprimand and a "very significant" adjustment in his pay, Barclays said. The amount will be determined once the official inquiries have concluded.
He faces an official inquiry by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority for his actions.
The incident involves anonymous letters written in 2016 to the board and an executive that raised questions about the recruitment of a new senior employee and Staley's role in the hiring process.
Staley at first tried to use the bank's security team to identify the author, the bank said.
Barclays says the board first learned about the problem earlier this year "as a result of a concern raised by an employee" who questioned the effectiveness of the bank's whistleblowing policy.
It said it used an independent law firm to investigate the allegations and also notified authorities of the possible wrongdoing.
The bank says Staley explained his actions to the board. The statement says the board concluded that Staley "honestly but mistakenly" believed it was permissible to identify the author of the letter.
The bank and Staley will cooperate fully with the investigations. Staley says he accepts the board's conclusion and has apologized.
The inquiry into Staley's actions follows other run-ins with authorities by Barclays. Former traders at the bank were found to have been involved in manipulating a benchmark interest rate known as Libor. The former CEO, Bob Diamond, resigned in 2012 over the scandal and four former traders at the bank were sent to prison last year.
In 2015 the Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays 72 million pounds for failing to safeguard against the risk of the bank being used to facilitate financial crime. That same year, Barclays was one of four banks fined more than $5 billion by U.S. authorities for manipulating foreign exchange rates.
Staley took over in 2015 after former CEO Antony Jenkins was pushed aside amid concerns about the performance of Barclays' investment bank. Staley began his career as a commercial banker and advanced to head J.P. Morgan's global investment bank.
Beijing (AFP) - Budding Chinese sleuths could start stalking foreigners as suspected spies in Beijing after authorities in the city on Monday offered a cash bonanza for information on overseas agents.
Members of the public can report suspected espionage through a special hotline, by mail or in person and will be rewarded with up to 500,000 yuan ($72,460) in compensation if their intelligence is deemed useful.
The average annual wage in Beijing in 2015 was 85,000 yuan ($12,300), according to the most recent data available from the city government.
"Citizens play an important role in spy investigations," said a statement from the city's security bureau, in the latest sign of concern about foreign agents in the capital.
Cartoon posters began appearing in Beijing public offices last spring warning Chinese women against falling for the romantic wiles of foreign men with undercover motives.
A 16-panel poster titled "Dangerous Love" showed a blossoming relationship between a Chinese government worker named Xiao Li and a visiting scholar, "David".
Their thwarted happy ending takes the form of a visit to the police station when the pair is arrested after Xiao Li gives David secret internal documents from her government workplace.
The new incentives for whistleblowers will be implemented ahead of China's second annual National Security Education Day on April 15.
Sources can choose to remain anonymous and request police protection for themselves and their relatives.
Those who deliberately provide false information will be punished, the security bureau said.
The Beijing Morning Post wrote on Monday that the "extensive mobilisation of the masses" will contribute to the construction of an "anti-spy steel Great Wall."
The newspaper reported that a fisherman in eastern Jiangsu province received a "heavy" reward after notifying the authorities of a suspicious device in the water bearing a "foreign language."
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The device was being used to collect data for a foreign party, according to the Beijing Morning Post.
The Chinese government often declares threats from "hostile foreign forces" as a justification for censorship and crackdowns on civil society.
Peter Dahlin, a Swedish human rights activist operating out of Beijing, was detained for 23 days and then expelled from the country in January 2016 for allegedly posing a threat to national security.
Dahlin's group offered training to lawyers who have tried to use the tightly-controlled judiciary to redress apparent government abuses.
The most recent national census, held in 2010, recorded 600,000 expats living in China.
Former Daily News intern Bradley Cooper is settling into his role as a new father after girlfriend and model Irina Shayk gave birth to the couples first child two weeks ago, multiple reports indicate.
Shayk had the baby in late March, People, citing an unnamed source, reported on Sunday. E! News and Us Weekly later confirmed the report, also using unnamed sources.
Neither Cooper, 42, nor Shayk, 31, have issued a comment regarding the news. There has been no word yet on the babys name, or whether it is a boy or girl, and pictures have not yet been shared.
Ellen DeGeneres, who recently filmed an episode of her talk show remotely in Philly, did, however, offer her congrats using a Hangover joke:
Congrats Irina Shayk and Bradley Cooper on your baby! Bradley, you're going to be a wonderful dad. Just don't take the baby to Vegas. Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) April 9, 2017
Word of Shayks pregnancy first began surfacing in media reports late last year, with the Russian-born model walking a Victorias Secret fashion show in Paris while wearing an outfit that hid a developing baby bump, USA Today reports. E! News reported in November last year that Shayk was in her second trimester at the time.
Cooper, a Philadelphia native who was raised in Montgomery County, has been romantically linked with Shayk since the spring of 2015. The pair have mostly kept their relationship quiet, but E! News reported in November last year that Cooper and Shayk had been discussing marriage before news of their pregnancy emerged.
As People reports, the couple plans to raise the baby in Coopers $4.7 million Los Angeles home, which the site said last year would need extensive renovations to be safe enough for a child.
In addition to becoming a father for the first time, Cooper is also at work on his debut as a feature film director. The Germantown Academy grad is currently remaking A Star is Born with stars Lady Gaga and Sam Elliot. According to IMDB, that film is scheduled for a Sept. 2018 release.
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The occupied region of South Ossetia held a referendum Sunday for a new president and a name change one some see as a threat to bring the region closer to Russian control.
South Ossetia declared itself independent in 1992. That independence is not recognized by most countries or international organizations in the world. It is, however, recognized by Russia. South Ossetia was the site of the Aug. 2008 war between Russia and Georgia (it was after this war that Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia, as well as that of Georgias other breakaway region, Abkhazia). In 2015, Russia signed a border agreement with South Ossetia. Russia financially backs South Ossetia. Economic hardships in recent years have not changed that. Russia keeps troops in South Ossetia.
If one were to recognize the referendum results which NATO, the U.S. State Department, the European Union, and the government of Georgia do not one would say that they gave South Ossetia a new president, Anatoly Bibilov. So, too, would one say that South Ossetia has a new name: South Ossetia the State of Alania.
That name change is significant because it mirrors that of North Ossetia the State of Alania, which is a federal subject of Russia. The referendum stopped short of offering voters the mostly internationally unrecognized opportunity to reunify Ossetia, thereby bringing South Ossetia under (Russia would say) Russian control. But the name change brings the breakaway region closer to that point.
Thats a reality that doesnt go unacknowledged by Georgians. This is a clear provocation by Russia that seeks to undermine Georgias efforts at reconciliation and confidence-building between communities divided by the occupation lines, David Bakradze, Georgias ambassador to the United States, told Foreign Policy. This illegal attempt to rename one of Georgias historic regions to a name similar to one of the subjects of the Russian Federation is aimed at laying the groundwork for further steps towards illegal annexation.
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Even if the threat of annexation remains just a threat, the referendum is a promise to, at the very least, continue the status quo, one in which Russia recognizes and actively supports the existence of the independence of part of a country it used to rule. The ongoing occupation of 20 percent of Georgias territory remains the greatest existential challenge that we face, Bakradze said. And the referendum and name change and new president are all reminders that that challenge isnt going away.
Or, to put it another way: Given that its been almost a decade since Russias war with Georgia, perhaps the case of South Ossetia serves as a reminder that, when it comes to what it considers to be its sphere of influence, Russia does not let go.
Update: This piece originally referred to South Ossetia as a breakaway region. It has been changed to occupied region in order to more fully reflect international law.
Photo credit: VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images
London (AFP) - Russia should end its support for "toxic" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy.
"It's time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up," Johnson said, according to a foreign ministry spokeswoman.
"We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," he said, warning that Putin was "damaging Russia" by supporting Assad.
"He must understand that Assad is now toxic in every sense. He is poisoning the innocent people of Syria with weapons that were banned 100 years ago -- and he is poisoning the reputation of Russia," he said.
Johnson on Saturday cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow over its support for the Syrian regime.
The move came after a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Seikhun last week in which at least 87 people were killed.
The United States launched a missile strike on a Syrian airfield on Friday in its first military action against Assad in retaliation for the attack.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven main industrialised countries are meeting in the Italian town of Lucca later on Monday before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flies to Moscow on Tuesday.
"There's no doubt the US action is a game-changer in Syria. We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," Johnson said on Monday.
Russia's foreign ministry earlier condemned Johnson's decision not to come to Moscow, saying it showed that Britain had "no real influence on the course of international affairs".
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the suspected gas incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations.
Poison gas was extensively used in the Western Front in the 1914-18 World War I from 1915.
It was outlawed internationally by the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which entered into force in 1928.
British DJ Paul Oakenfold is taking his love for music to new heights ... literally.
The 53-year-old DJ plans to make history by climbing atop Mount Everest and performing at the "highest party on Earth."
SEE ALSO: 8 pro tips for climbing Mount Everest from the guys who Snapchatted their journey
According to AFP, the three-time Grammy nominated artist has officially reached the mountain's base camp at 5,380 metres (17,600 feet) as of Monday morning and is due to perform the groundbreaking show on Tuesday.
"We are here now doing sound checks. We are really looking forward to the show tomorrow. Everyone is really excited here," Oakenfold told AFP.
This particular journey is only one part of Oakenfold's SoundTrek series, a project he designed to draw attention to the effects of global warming, while also raising money for various charities, such as aiding the survivors of Nepal's 2015 earthquake.
"I want to support in the rebuilding and to shed light on the environment ... I would like to do my bit," the DJ said.
Despite aspiring to change the DJ game and using the adventure to raise funds, not everybody approves of Oakenfold's journey. According to AFP, some feel he is disturbing the peace and tranquility of the Himalayas.
In an interview below, the DJ explains why he decided to embark on a 10-day walk to Everest with a trusty team of yaks and porters to make music history.
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Oakenfold feels Everest will be a refreshing break from the monotony of playing his same old gigs and festivals.
"Everest opens new doors that are exciting for all of us. That's what really inspires me, because it allows me to keep growing as a person," he explained.
Though he's seasoned artist, Oakenfold has had no prior trekking experience. To prepare for the journey, he reportedly trained for four months before arriving in Nepal.
"I'm not going to pretend it was easy to get here ... but it has been a wonderful trek. If you could see the view I'm looking at, it is very inspiring," he said.
Earth, in 2017: Where every place on the planet, no matter how remote, can be transformed into an inspired, beat-dropping club.
WATCH: Woman's Fitbit saves her life after it detected a strange change in her heart rate
By Press Trust of India: Dehradun, Apr 10 (PTI) Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide technical assistance to Uttarakhand to help it deal with damage caused by natural disasters especially landslides.
Senior officials from Uttarakhand including Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy and a Japanese delegation consisting of JICAs Chief Project Director Anoop Mallik and experts Shingo Kitaura and Saori Miyazama arrived at an agreement to this effect at a meeting also attended by forest officials here today.
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As per the agreement which is part of an MoU signed by Uttarakhand Chief Secretary and JICA Chief Project Director in India, Japanese experts will train forest department personnel of the state on how to go about restoration efforts in the event of landslides in forest areas. PTI ALM KUN
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London (AFP) - British Vogue, an iconic fashion magazine which celebrated its centenary last year, named Ghana-born Edward Enninful as its first male editor on Monday.
Enninful, a close friend of British supermodel Naomi Campbell, will replace Alexandra Shulman, who is stepping down on August 1 after more than 25 years.
He was born in Ghana, brought to London as a child and was scouted as a male model aged 16 before becoming the youngest editor in the industry when he was named fashion director of i-D magazine in 1991 aged just 18.
Enninful has already worked at Vogue's Italian and US editions and has been the creative and fashion director of the US style magazine W since 2011.
Enninful is "an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist," said Jonathan Newhouse, head of publisher Conde Nast International.
Enninful was named fashion creator of the year by the British Fashion Council in 2014 and last year he received an honour from Queen Elizabeth II.
The Tate has announced that Bruce Nauman will be the next artist presented in their ARTIST ROOMS gallery. The exhibition, free to the public, will open in July. Another shorter-term exhibition will open in May.
Since the 1960s, Nauman's exploration of various media platforms has challenged artistic conventions. Nauman, born in 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA studied mathematics, physics, art, and music; today he lives and works in New Mexico. A recent solo show of his work was held at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris in 2015.
The ARTIST ROOMS gallery, which opened in June 2016 with work by Louise Bourgeois, pulls from a collection of more than 1,600 works of modern and contemporary art, jointly overseen by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland.
This latest iteration of the ARTIST ROOMS exhibition features works pulled from throughout Nauman's career. These include the neon sculptures "VIOLINS VIOLENCE SILENCE" (1981-2), "La Brea/Art Tips/Rat Spit/Tar Pits" (1972), and "Double Poke in the Eye II" (1985).
There will also be video works such as "Good Boy Bad Boy" (1985), in which actors hypnotically recite phrases, and "Violent Incident" (1986), in which a violent dinner party scene is played on loop across 12 monitors.
Furthermore, Bruce Nauman's sound installation "Raw Materials" will return to Turbine Hall in May: the installation was created for this space in 2004 and subsequently acquired by the institution. It brings together 22 fragments of speech recorded over 40 years, transmitted from wall-mounted speakers. Discordant voices mix with exclamations and chants, varying from composed to ranting in tone. The 2004 description stated: "Bruce Nauman's fascination with language is central to his artistic output and this is an area which he will continue to explore in this commission. Influenced during his earlier career by the writer Samuel Beckett and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Nauman has continued to explore the possibilities of language in works ranging from purely acoustic explorations of the rhythms of speech to visually powerful neon text pieces."
"Bruce Nauman: Raw Materials" will be on display May 15-August 20, 2017.
"ARTIST ROOMS: Bruce Nauman" will be on display from July 24, 2017 for one year.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Burundian opposition leader and former rebel chief Agathon Rwasa has said he fears for his life and has asked the government to speed up talks to end a crisis that began in 2015, when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he wanted a third term. Burundi has been marred by instability since April 2015, when Nkurunziza announced his plan to run for a third term. The opposition said such a move was unconstitutional and violated a peace deal that ended a civil war in 2005. Nkurunziza cited a court ruling saying he could run, and the government accuses opponents of fomenting unrest and backing rebel groups. At least 450 people have been killed in violence since the crisis began, rights groups say. Talks between the government and its opponents in Bujumbura in 2015 failed to bridge their differences, and more negotiations mediated by Uganda in 2016 also stalled. Rwasa accused the government of harassing opposition supporters, including from his National Liberation Forces (FNL) party. He said he feared for his life, claiming that unidentified members of the police and army wanted him dead. "Some people believe that once Rwasa is killed they will stay or conquer power easily. But killing Rwasa will not help the country at all," he told Reuters at the weekend. Rwasa, who is also the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, said members of the opposition across the country were also being used as scapegoats. "When there is crime committed somewhere, regardless of who committed it, the first thing to do is to arrest people from FNL and find false accusations to keep them in jail," he said. Nkurunziza's spokesman, Jean Claude Karerwa, said no one wanted to harm Rwasa and that the courts should decide any accusations he wanted to make. "We also ask him to use a type of language which doesnt cause panic among the population," Karerwa said. Rwasa said the government did not appear keen to participate in talks and that political parties seemed to be unable to find a solution. The government has said it would not hold talks with parties it said were involved in the violence in 2015-16. "The governments goodwill has never been denied. The last session was held in February, we dont know when is the next, and its not the government to blame," said Alain Aime Nyamitwe, the foreign minister and one of the government's negotiators. Some 390,000 Burundians have fled to neighboring countries since the crisis began, according to the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. (Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Paul Tait)
SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Caledonia was bracing for high winds, massive waves, and heavy rain as a powerful cyclone bore down on the French South Pacific territory on Monday. Cyclone Cook had already swept through Vanuatu as a Category one storm over the weekend, causing flooding. The storm was forecast to strengthen to a destructive Category four, one rung below the most dangerous wind speed level, before it makes landfall in New Caledonia on Monday afternoon local time, Fiji's Meteorological Service predicted. The storm was expected to hit the main island's north almost at the same time as high tide, with winds of up to 200 km per hour (124 miles per hour). Flooding rain and waves as tall as 10 meters (33 feet) have been forecast by New Caledonian authorities. "The threat to New Caledonia is very serious," the territory's meteorological service said in a cyclone alert bulletin on Monday. Flights from the main airport at Noumea will be canceled on Monday evening, a spokeswoman said in a telephone interview. In Vanuatu, where Cyclone Cook had already passed through, no injuries were reported and the storm did little damage to property, but low-lying areas were evacuated as floodwaters rose, the Vanuatu Daily Post reported. Cyclone Cook was intensifying as the threat from Cyclone Debbie, which struck Australia and New Zealand, dissipated.[nL3N1HE5EP] (Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
True crime television network Investigation Discovery aired the first portion of its three-part Casey Anthony documentary Sunday night, and social media users were not pleased. "Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery" was skewered on Twitter by angry users.
Some cases just capture the nations attention and this case was a firestorm the panicked search for a missing toddler, a frantic family, police sent to chase suspects who may or may not exist, media demanding answers and devastated grandparents caught between their daughters lies and their desperation to find their granddaughter alive, said Henry Schleiff, group president of Investigation Discovery, American Heroes Channel and Destination America. Sex, betrayal and deceit are at the heart of this series, which will make viewers feel as if they are in the room for the bombshell prosecution of Casey Anthony as she was tried in both the court of law and, ultimately, the court of public opinion.
Read: New Prison Interviews Revealed In Charles Manson Documentary
Anthony was tried and acquitted of aggravated manslaughter, aggravated child abuse and first-degree murder in 2011 for the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony. Since dubbed "the most hated mom in America, people close to her and the case, including the judge who presided over it, have said Anthony likely killed her daughter.
There was a possibility that she may have utilized [chloroform] to keep the baby quiet ... and just used too much of it, and the baby died," Judge Belvin Perry Jr. said.
After the documentary aired Sunday, #CaseyAnthony began trending on Twitter, skewered by users who found the existence of the documentary absurd. Some of the more popular tweets voiced contempt for the fact that the notorious mother was still alive.
"When I see #CaseyAnthony trending and it's not cause she's dead" one user wrote, alongside a gif.
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Read: Heather Mack, Teen Convicted Of Murder, Gives Up Baby In Bali
Others expressed sorrow that Anthony was trending instead of her daughter.
"This beautiful angel should be trending instead. RIP Caylee Anthony" another user wrote alongside a picture of the 2-year-old.
Other's went for straight-up mockery.
"The only mystery surrounding #CaseyAnthony is how Florida found 12 people to vote "Not Guilty," one tweet read.
"#CaseyAnthony case a mystery? Also on DiscoveryID: Jeffery Dahmer: Misunderstood Romantic," said another.
Despite the Twitter firestorm, Anthony has made it clear she has little concern for what others think of her.
"I don't give a shit what anyone thinks about me. I never will," Anthony told the Associated Press. "I'm okay with myself. I sleep pretty good at night."
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China's top nuclear envoy arrived in Seoul Monday for talks on the North Korean threat, as the US sent a naval strike group to the region and signalled it may act to shut down Pyongyang's weapons program.
President Donald Trump, fresh from a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea, has asked his advisors for a range of options to rein in its ambitions.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks major anniversaries including the 105th birthday of its founding leader on Saturday -- sometimes celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
Wu Dawei, China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, will meet with his South Korean counterpart later Monday to discuss the nuclear issue.
The talks come shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Pyongyang's key ally to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.
"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.
He added however that Beijing had indicated a willingness to act on the issue.
"We need to allow them time to take actions," Tillerson said, adding that Washington had no intention of attempting to remove the regime of Kim Jong-Un.
The meeting between Xi and Trump came on the heels of yet another missile test by the North, which fired a medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend, heading toward the Korean peninsula instead, in a move that will raise tensions in the region.
Seoul and Washington are also conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a practice for war.
Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
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Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with US intelligence officials warning that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from its goal of striking the continental United States.
- Risk of escalating conflict -
China, the US, South Korea and Japan all have dedicated envoys who meet at regular intervals to discuss the North Korean issue: a legacy of the long-stalled six-party process that also involved Pyongyang and Moscow. The North quit the negotiations in 2009.
The isolated North is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology, but repeated rounds of sanctions have failed to arrest its nuclear ambitions.
Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against the reclusive state, a threat that appeared more palpable after Thursday's strike on a Syrian airfield following an apparent chemical attack.
US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday criticised North Korea as a rogue nation engaged in provocative behaviour and said denuclearisation of the peninsula "must happen".
"The president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat," he said on Fox News, apparently referring to Trump's advisers.
South Korea's Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said Monday the repercussions of a potential military response were worrying.
"Pre-emptive strikes may be aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear problems, but for us, it is also related to defending the safety of the public," he told reporters.
While a US unilateral strike on North Korea from a shorter range might be more effective, it would likely endanger many civilians in the South and risk triggering a broader military conflict, experts warn.
"The US has always had all the options on the table from a preventive strike to preemptive strike to negotiations," said James Kim, an analyst at Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
"If it's a preventive strike or precision strike, there's danger that this could expand into a broader regional conflict involving China or Japan.
"The upside is that the United States may be able to denuclearise the North by force.... but it will come at a huge cost to the region and to the United States," he told AFP.
Seoul (AFP) - China's top nuclear envoy arrived in Seoul Monday for talks on the North Korean threat, as a US naval strike group headed to the region in a show of force.
President Donald Trump, fresh from a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as putting Pyongyang on warning, has asked to be provided with a range of options for eliminating the North's nuclear capabilities.
"Presidents before and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearisation of the peninsula," US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told Fox News on Sunday.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks major anniversaries this month including the 105th birthday of its founding leader -- usually celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
Wu Dawei, China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, will meet with his South Korean counterpart later on Monday to discuss the nuclear issue, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
The South's deployment of a controversial US missile defence system loathed by Beijing will also be high on Wu's agenda, Yonhap news agency said.
The talks come shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Pyongyang's key ally to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.
"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia, heading toward the Korean peninsula instead, in a move that will raise tensions in the region.
Seoul and Washington are also conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a practice for war.
Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with US intelligence officials warning that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from its goal of striking the continental United States.
This study will tell you why.
By Asian News International: Whenever we are tired, instead of opting for a healthier option such as a fruit, most of us prefer that favourite chocolate bar or packet of biscuits. Ever wondered why?
Researchers at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago recently presented their results of a study looking into the effects of sleep deprivation upon high-calorific food consumption at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society's annual meeting in San Francisco, reports Science News.
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Participants were allocated different amounts of sleep, eight hours or four hours, and then their reaction to smells of high-calorific foods were tested.
Participants slept for both lengths of time, separated by a week of normal sleep. On the day after they either had full or partial sleep, participants rated the pleasantness and intensity of sweet and savoury high-calorific food smells such as crisps and cinnamon rolls. They were then asked to rate the smell of non-foods like fir trees.
Also Read: Pasta is actually much, much healthier than you thought, say health experts
Researchers found that those who were sleep-deprived had "specifically enhanced" brain activity to the food smells compared to when they had a good night's sleep.
The experiment supports the long-held association between sleep deprivation and excessive eating and weight gain.
So, if you want to stop reaching for the chocolate every day, perhaps a few extra hours sleep is all you need.
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BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) A Georgia jury has convicted a pastor of molesting two teenagers who attended his church in coastal Brunswick.
Media outlets report 57-year-old Kenneth Adkins was found guilty Monday of eight criminal counts, including aggravated child molestation.
Prosecutors said the pastor pressured two teenagers a boy and girl, both 15 to have sex while Adkins watched in his office at Greater New Dimension Church in 2009. They said the pastor also touched the girl inappropriately.
The male victim testified against Adkins during his trial. But the young woman testified the allegations were false.
Jurors took about an hour to convict Adkins. Glynn County Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett scheduled sentencing for April 25.
CHICAGO (AP) A judge who oversaw criminal cases in Cook County, Illinois, was shot to death early Monday outside his Chicago home and a woman he knew was shot and wounded, police said.
Investigators are looking at the possibility that the shooting of Associate Circuit Court Judge Raymond Myles and the acquaintance could have been part of an attempted robbery, although police don't believe anything was stolen from the victims or the house. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Myles also "may have been targeted for one reason or another."
"The offender shot him numerous times," Guglielmi said.
No arrests have been made in the shootings that happened around 5 a.m. on Chicago's South Side. Myles was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Since the woman who was shot is a witness to a killing, her name is not expected to be released, Guglielmi said. Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples described the woman as a close associate of Myles and said she was shot once and is expected to survive.
The woman was shot first. Myles heard commotion and a gunshot, exchanged words with the attacker and then was shot himself, Staples said.
Police Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro called the shooting "a senseless act of violence."
"Every day civil servants like Judge Myles and those of us in law enforcement work tirelessly to hold criminals accountable and make our streets safer," Navarro said. "That's why, when incidents like this occur, it's not only a reminder of the ever-present challenge we have with illegal guns and the offenders willing to use them, but it's also a direct attack on the criminal justice system that keeps our society safe."
Myles received his law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. He was appointed to the court in 1999. Circuit court judges appointed him an associate judge in 2001 and Myles had served in the criminal division since 2009, Chief Judge Timothy Evans said in a statement.
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"I join all of the judges today in the Circuit Court of Cook County in expressing our sadness regarding the tragic passing of our colleague and friend," Evans said.
"I have always known Judge Myles to be focused and determined in the pursuit of justice, and his conduct earned him the confidence and respect of the people who appeared before him," Evans added. "All of our colleagues at the Leighton Criminal Court Building will miss Judge Myles, who they came to know for his kindness and his impartial administration of justice."
The FBI is working with Chicago police on the investigation and is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to a suspect in the case.
Police in Colorado are under fire after an officer was caught on tape body-slamming a Colorado State University student face-first into the ground.
Read: Aspiring Rapper Eats $621 Worth of Seafood, Then Jumps in the Sea to Beat the Check: Cops
Authorities denied it was excessive force, saying that 22-year-old Michaella Surat "physically obstructed and struck" an officer.
The cop, from the Fort Collins Police Department, was responding to a bar fight Thursday allegedly involving the young woman's boyfriend.
In the video, which was released over the weekend, Surat appears to be pushing away from the officer, who then took her to the ground.
The department called the move "standard arrest control."
"This event will be thoroughly investigated," Fort Collins Police Services Chief John Hutto posted in a lengthy statement on Facebook. "The court process will take place and there will be an internal review of the officer's actions from the perspective of policy and procedure. At the conclusion of these investigative processes, the body worn camera video will be made available to the public.
Security expert Steve Kardian told Inside Edition that the "bar hammer" or "hammer lock takedown" is a legitimate move used by law enforcement, but it doesn't mean he was in the right to use it.
"What may not have been taken into account is she is wearing six, seven, or eight-inch heels and her center of gravity if completely off," Kardian said. "It is like someone standing on their tiptoes. They have no balance."
The student's family has pointed out that she weighs just 115 pounds and has released photos of bruises on her chin and legs.
Read: Quick-Thinking Jeweler Nabs Suspected Scammer - by Locking Her in Vault
Surat was taken to the Larimer County Jail where she was charged with third-degree assault and obstructing a peace officer. She is currently out on bond and will appear in court Wednesday.
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Watch: Cop Tackles Man Seen Hitting Police Station Windows With Baseball Bat
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) Commissioners in a Florida county are so tired of spending money on President Donald Trump's frequent visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort that some are suggesting a special tax be levied against the property if the federal government doesn't reimburse its costs.
Palm Beach County spends more than $60,000 a day when the president visits, mostly for law enforcement overtime -- almost $2 million since January. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says the county was expected to spend $250,000 during Trump's recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the president's sixth trip to his Winter White House in the 12 weeks since his inauguration.
County Commissioner Dave Kerner has suggested turning Mar-a-Lago into a special taxing district and imposing a levy on the resort to pay the president's security costs. Because Mar-a-Lago is incorporated as a club, it pays lower property taxes than hotels. It also gets a tax break because Trump surrendered development rights after he purchased the property from the estate of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post for $10 million in 1985.
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The 500 members pay $14,000 annually in dues. The initiation fee was recently doubled to $200,000. Forbes Magazine estimates the club is now worth $150 million.
"We're very honored to have the president here, but at the same time, his travel here is such high frequency he's not visiting Palm Beach County he's governing from it," Kerner told Money magazine recently. "Whatever our priorities are, the taxpayers didn't pay this money to us to protect the president."
Kerner did not return numerous calls from The Associated Press to his office.
The sheriff believes the federal government will eventually reimburse the county, but can't be certain.
"I had a personal conversation with the president in February and he understands," Bradshaw said. "There is a system in place and, unfortunately, that involves Congress ... and that is not an easy thing to navigate through. I am sure they will get around to it."
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Local governments aren't the only ones complaining. No solution has been found for the 28 business owners at Lantana Airport, a small field for propeller planes about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Mar-a-Lago. The Secret Service shutters it every time Trump visits Mar-a-Lago because agents believe the 350 flights it handles daily pose a security risk.
Marian Smith, who owns a flight school, says she has lost almost $100,000 because of the closures. A banner-towing company that operates from the airport says it has lost over $40,000 in contracts.
Jonathan Miller, the contractor who operates the county-owned airport, said this week that he believes a compromise will be worked out with the Secret Service, the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies that would allow the airport to operate with restrictions during presidential visits.
"The FAA has a strong incentive to work with us and help get some funding that will put a system in place that will appease the Secret Service," Miller said.
The cost of Trump's visits divides local residents, with the schism often falling along political lines. Trump's supporters say any money spent by the county is recouped through added visitors lured by the frequent exposure and his visits show he cares about the area.
"The fact that he comes down here, the fact he is involved in the community to this extent even though he is the president, I think that's great," said Julian Detwiler, who operates produce stands at local farmers markets. "There are costs associated with everything. It doesn't cost the country or the community more for him to (visit) than lots of other things we do. It keeps the economy going."
The president's critics say the visits illustrate his hypocrisy as he frequently slammed President Barack Obama's trips, even though they were less frequent and didn't burden any single community.
"Trump is costing this area so much money, a hell of a lot of money, and he doesn't seem to give a damn," said Bob Brink, a novelist and retired local journalist.
A Maine man who told detectives that his baby son had died from SIDS in 1979 has been arrested in the baby's death.
Burton Hagar's son was found unresponsive in early May of that year, after which the case remained closed until it was reopened in 1991.
Watch: Man Accused of Holding Woman in Storage Container Confesses to Murders from 2003
More than a quarter century after that, the 62-year-old was arrested Friday and charged with killing 4-month-old Nathan Hagar.
Nathan's death was Maine's oldest cold case. The father's arrest is now the oldest unsolved homicide case where state police have brought charges.
The oldest up until now was the arrest of a man in 2012 for an Augusta homicide that took place in 1976, 36 years earlier.
Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said in a statement Friday that detectives gathered new information in the last year about the death and coordinated the investigation with their new Unsolved Homicide Unit.
That investigation led the Attorney Generals Office to present the case to the grand jury last week.
The chief of the state police praised the unti for helping to bring charges in its very first case.
Watch: 911 Call Reveals Strange Twist About Jogger Mom Who Was Allegedly Kidnapped
"There are more than 100 Maine unsolved homicides and the new unit is reviewing each case," Colonel Robert Williams said. "The hard work of this dedicated group from state police and the attorney generals office have brought this first unsolved homicide to this point, and there will be other success stories as their work continues."
Hagar is being held at the Franklin County Jail. His first appearance in Cumberland County Court is scheduled for Wednesday.
Watch: Baby's Death Ruled a Homicide Having Starved to Death After Parents Overdosed
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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd will invest 70 billion yuan ($10 billion) in a health park in China's southwest, the firm said in a statement sent to Reuters on Monday, as some of the country's biggest companies look to tap demand for private healthcare. Wanda, headed by China's richest man, Wang Jianlin, said it had signed an agreement with the Chengdu city government to create a 'park' with two international general hospitals, eight small specialized hospitals and 30 healthcare-related firms. The investment comes as China's public hospitals are facing tough demands from a fast-ageing population and tightening budgets as the government looks to reduce state hospitals' reliance on drug sales. This is creating space for private firms. Wanda - whose business includes property development, shopping malls, cinema chains and theme parks - has been spending heavily on parks around China related to sports, leisure and health, to capitalize on growing middle class demand. Rival conglomerate Fosun International Ltd is also increasing its focus on healthcare and has announced various healthcare-related deals over the past year. China's private hospital market has been a lure for local and foreign hospital operators, though changeable regulations regarding foreign investment in the sector, a dearth of doctors and nascent private insurance schemes have slowed growth. ($1 = 6.9034 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Forces aligned with a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli said on Monday that three of their men had been killed in air raids against a desert air base by rivals allied with eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar. The oil-producing North African state slipped into turmoil during the 2011 uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year-old and has been riven by factional strife since then. The struggle for control around Tamanhent air base 30 km (19 miles) northeast of Sabha risks escalating into the first major confrontation between forces officially linked to the Government of National Accord (GNA) and Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA). Haftar is aligned with an eastern parliament and government that have spurned the GNA since it arrived in the capital Tripoli, in the far west of the country, a year ago. His forces have been extending their reach along Libya's central Mediterranean coastline and into the desert regions of Jufra and Sabha, and say they also intend to take control of Tripoli. After an LNA strike against Tamanhent last week the GNA warned of the risk of civil war and said it was mobilizing forces to repel the attack. Tamanhent is controlled by a force from Misrata, a militarily powerful western city that has backed the GNA. Air strikes on Monday killed three men stationed there and wounded at least one more, according to Mohamed al-Gasri, a spokesman for the defense ministry in Tripoli. An eastern military source said there had also been ground clashes around Samnu, about 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Sabha. A medical source in Sabha said three LNA troops had been killed. Since 2014, loose and shifting military alliances based in the east and west of Libya have been engaged in a stop-start conflict which the GNA has been unable to resolve. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Toni Reinhold)
Patil has asked denizens of the drought-hit state to keep in mind this fact, and use water judiciously.
By Nolan Pinto: Karnataka water resources minister MB Patil has appealed to the state's denizens to use water judiciously, reminding them that there's just enough water for drinking purposes till June 15.
Patil today held a meeting with officials belonging to various departments, to work out how best to optimally use water until the onset of the monsoon.
With Karnataka reeling under a severe drought for the past three years, the state government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that citizens aren't facing too much trouble. But with the available live storage in the reservoirs touching an all-time low, there's very little the government can do to supply continuous drinking water.
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As of today, this is the level of water in the state's reservoirs.
- Almatti dam: 12 TMC (TMC - one thousand million cubic feet)
- Narayanapura dam: 15 TMC
- Hidkal dam: 7.6 TMC
- Hipparge dam : 0.8 TMC
- Malaprabha dam: 1.7 TMC
- Tungabhadra dam: 3.7 TMC
- Bhadra: 8.5 TMC
- KRS: 4.438 TMC
- Kabini dam: 0.295 TMC
- Harangi dam: 1.228 TMC
- Hemavathi dam: 1.787 TMC
WATER RATIONING BEGINS?
"We will coordinate with different departments and ensure that as a team there will be efficient use of water," Patil said.
However, he hinted that agencies such as Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), KWSSB and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR) can take a decision on rationing water.
Similarly, district administrations can stop farmers from utilizing pumpsets, since Patil said, "there's is water for agricultural purposes and what we have is only for drinking."
WATER SHORTAGE IN BENGALURU
The problem that Bengaluru is suffering today is due to the fact that only a third of the city gets Cauvery water on a daily basis, as per the tribunal's orders. The other parts of the city make do with borewells and water tankers.
"We have allocated around 9 TMC of water to the peripheral areas of the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) but that will take time," Patil said.
He added that the BWSSB and BBMP would manage that issue in due course of time.
Patil said that in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya and surrounding areas, water is being supplied at 800 cusecs per day, and this should suffice till June 15.
The KRS dam and the Kabini dam together have around 4.7 TMC, and the requirement for 60 days will be around 4.5 TMC, which is manageable, he said.
ALSO READ | Bengaluru 'water warriors' challenge citizens in city to be 'water kanjoos' this summer
ALSO READ | Karnataka borrows Tamil Nadu's 'Amma canteen' idea, calls it Indira canteen
ALSO WATCH | Caught on camera in Karnataka: Offered water, parched cobra sips from bottle
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Juba (AFP) - Deadly fighting erupted, with civilians killed along ethnic lines and thousands displaced in clashes Monday between government forces and rebels in South Sudan's second-largest city of Wau, witnesses and priests said.
At least 2,000 people sought shelter in a Catholic church, and many reported targeted killings against civilians by government troops, according to local priest Moses Peter.
Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country descended into civil war in 2013. The town itself is held by government forces.
"The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas," priest Moses Peter said, using an acronym for the national army.
"They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses."
Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.
The civilians were "killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels," said Erynio, adding that this was not true.
Erynio said shops and markets in the city's southern half were closed and the government had told people to stay indoors.
"You can only see people are moving, running either to the church for protection" or to a UN peacekeeping compound, he said.
One local resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP he had found his brother "lying in blood after he was shot", and had counted five other dead bodies.
Another, who gave her name as Mary Joseph said: "we saw three people lying dead in different places."
Military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the fighting started over the weekend as government troops were trying to rout rebels from areas of the countryside they controlled.
The skirmishes reached Wau town on Monday, where Domic said forces loyal to Machar took cover among civilians.
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Four prison guards were killed in the fighting, Domic said, without elaborating.
South Sudan descended into violence more than three years ago after a power struggle between Machar and President Salva Kiir.
Much of the fighting has broken down along ethnic lines and has persisted despite an August 2015 peace deal intended to end the war.
At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.
In February, the government declared a famine in parts of the country badly affected by the fighting.
The violence in Wau came days after the government's top general Paul Malong visited the city in a trip billed as a morale-booster for front-line troops.
From Woman's Day
One grateful mother is crediting a perceptive school nurse with saving her child's life.
Nicole Defeo Campbell's son, Nathan, started kindergarten in Collingswood, New Jersey, last September. She thought he had been fighting off a cold, but a trip to the nurse's office during school one day proved otherwise.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an explanation for 5-year-old Nate Campbell's pale coloring, bruises and aches that his mother thought were growing pains: leukemia.
The nurse, Patti Butler, knew something was wrong with the young boy immediately. She noticed his skin looked translucent-something she had only seen once in 25 years. Patti called Nathan's mother right away and insisted she take him to a doctor.
Within a few days, Nicole got a call from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia explaining her son's pale skin, bruises, and aches: He had leukemia and needed immediate treatment.
The boy's blood wasn't carrying enough oxygen, which made his coloring appear sallow-and tipped Nurse Patti off to his condition.
"If it weren't for Patti pushing as hard as she did, I don't know that my son would be here," Nicole told the Courier-Post. "That's the honest-to-God truth."
Collingswood Nurse Credited with Saving Life - Congratulations Nurse Patti! https://t.co/k6YGeH0Syi pic.twitter.com/a2wKxCrjQJ - Colls Public Schools (@CollsSchools) April 3, 2017
Six months after his diagnosis, Nathan is now in remission and has entered the maintenance phase of treatment. His mom has nominated Patti for the America's Greatest School Nurse contest-but the sweet nurse says she just wants the little boy to get better.
(h/t Courier-Post)
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A U.S. naval fleet moving toward the Korean peninsula has alarmed South Korean politicians, who warn Washington against any unilateral action targeting Pyongyang.
The Carl Vinson strike group, which includes the supercarrier it is named after, was dispatched Saturday from Singapore toward Korean waters, a move viewed by many as a show of force by the administration of President Donald Trump in the face of an increasingly provocative North Korea.
The Korea Times reports that politicians across party lines in the South Korean capital Seoul, including the countrys presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in, are alarmed by the new naval presence, which comes one day after Trump ordered a missile strike on an airbase in Syria without first seeking congressional approval.
Korean leaders worry that Trump may be more inclined than his predecessor to use military might against North Korea, which has conducted several missile tests in recent months and is believed to be nearing nuclear capability.
South Korea should be the owner of North Korean issues and take the lead in dealing with them rather than letting ... countries such as the U.S. and China manage them, Moon told reporters on Saturday, according to the Korea Times.
Read More: Style and Substance Are Both Concerns When Chinas Xi Jinping Meets President Trump
Trump met last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the U.S. leaders Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea was high on the agenda. Reuters reports that the two leaders agreed to step up efforts to curb Pyongyangs nuclear program, though it is unclear what steps will follow.
[Korea Times]
This article was originally published on TIME.com
Photo credit: Twitter
From Woman's Day
Disney fans, get ready to freak out, because there's a new, grown-up way to play dress-up at the happiest place on Earth-and there's lots of glamorous, vintage flair involved.
According to Southern Living, Disney World recently opened a new retro apparel and accessory shop called the Dress Shop on Cherry Tree Lane at Disney Springs. The whimsical collection is inspired by Disney movies, characters, and park attractions-and we're coveting everything. As you can see in the video above, posted by the unofficial Disney blog Inside the Magic, wearing these marvelous retro frocks is basically guaranteed to make you feel like a princess.
Parkgoers on the West Coast don't have to feel left out either. Anaheim's Downtown Disney offers selected pieces from the Dress Shop inside Vault 28, as well.
The sizes of these fit-and-flare dresses vary from style to style, and can fall anywhere from XS to XXL, and plus sizes up to 3X. The dress prices range from $100 to $160. And in true Disney fashion, the amount of thought put into each style's pattern and details will blow your socks off.
"We designed the Dress Shop collection for guests who want to emulate their favorite Disney characters or theme park attractions in a fun, retro way," Disney Parks merchandiser Donna Sorrow told The Disney Parks Blog. "These items aren't costumes, rather the collection contains perfect outfits for guests who have a passion for Disney style."
Translation: You can dress up like Minnie Mouse and Snow White without looking like you're about to attend a costume party. For example, the Dress Shop's take on Belle's signature look is a lovely blue collared dress with cute bookshelf accents.
The Dress Shop also offers a series of dresses specifically for park fanatics. Inspired by various attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion, and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, these designs are chock-full of Disney kitsch-there's even an It's A Small World dress!
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Diehard Disney World geeks out there might recognize the Orange Bird on this dress-it's the park's official mascot. How cute is that?
The dresses are sold exclusively at the parks for now, but Disney fans will be able to purchase select styles online at some point in the future. In the meantime, we'll be wishing upon a star that that online shop opens sooner rather than later!
(h/t Southern Living)
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President Donald Trump expressed Friday how proud he was of his grandchildren for their performance in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan's official visit to the U.S. The president retweeted his daughter Ivanka Trump's tweet in which she had posted a video capturing her children, Arabella and Joseph Kushner's performance for the Chinese president and his wife.
Trump's grandchildren, Arabella and her brother Joseph were seen singing a Chinese folk song "Jasmine" and reciting verses from the "Three-Character Classics" as well as Tang dynasty poems to the two presidents in the video, while Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and the others listened to the children's performance.
Ivanks wrote along with her tweet "Very proud of Arabella and Joseph for their performance in honor of President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan's official visit to the US!"
This year in February Ivanka also visited Beijings embassy in Washington D.C. during the Lunar New Year celebrations. The first daughter visited the ceremony with her daughter Arabella Kushner. Photos and videos of the celebrations were posted on Chinese social media and the term #TrumpsDaughterVisitsChinasEmbassy in Chinese was one of the topmost searched phrases on one of their micro blogging site named "Weibo." Chinese ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai hosted the event. One Weibo user commented that in spite her father's lack of wishes she attended the celebrations, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Chinese analysts have said that Ivanka has tried to maintain cordial relations with China and thus played a major role in helping combat her father's rather critical approach towards the country, according to South China Morning Post.
Recently Ivanka also posted a picture while celebrating her son Theodore Kushner's birthday in March by sharing Chinese "long life" noodles and captioned the photo saying "Birthday tradition! #noodlesforlonglife."
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Trump accepted the invitation from President Jinping to visit China Thursday during their meeting as the Chinese president is in the U.S. on a two day visit from April 6-7 along with his wife Peng Liyuan. Jinping urged the U.S. president for cooperation on investment, energy and infrastructure between the two countries. Trump said he focused on two main issues during their discussions trade with China and North Korea's nuclear program.
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Of all the reactions to President Donald Trumps cruise missile strike on Thursday, the least convincing was the impulse by supporters such as Sen. Marco Rubio and John Bolton to label this a decisive act. Hardly. In fact, Trumps strike was reminiscent of the kind of low-risk cruise missile attacks that Bill Clinton favored against Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan and that Republicans mocked for their symbolic, ineffectual nature. After 9/11, youll recall, President George W. Bush vowed, in a swipe at his predecessor, When I take action, Im not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. Its going to be decisive.
Looks like were back to killing camels. Far from decisive, Trumps decision to fire 59 cruise missiles against a single air base in Syria was considerably smaller than the action that President Barack Obama was considering to enforce his red line in 2013 before he lost his nerve. Obama was on the verge of approving an air campaign to destroy Bashar al-Assads air defenses and air force what Secretary of State John Kerry described at the time as an unbelievably small, limited kind of effort. Trump, by contrast, merely took one air base out of operation for less than a day. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that within 24 hours, Syrian jets were once again taking off from Shayrat air base. Not only that: On Saturday, aircraft again were bombing Khan Sheikhoun, the very town that earlier in the week had been the site of a sarin gas attack. Whats smaller than unbelievably small?
The impact of Trumps attack was further vitiated because the administration decided to warn Russia, which had troops at the base. The Russians, in turn, seem to have passed along the word to their Syrian friends, which helps to explain why almost no Syrian military personnel died in the strike. The early warning to the Russians may have been prudent, but it was also ironic in light of Trumps nonstop criticisms of President Obama for supposedly sacrificing the element of surprise in his war-fighting candidate Trump claimed that Douglas MacArthur and George Patton must be spinning in their graves when they see the stupidity of our country. President Trump seems, mercifully, to have learned there are considerations that sometimes override the element of surprise, like the need to prevent a war with Russia.
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This is hardly the only reversal evident in this cruise missile strike in fact, the psychological impact of this attack was greatly heightened because it was so unexpected. It was ordered, after all, by the same man who tweeted back in 2013: AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING! And the same man who, as recently as last October, warned that Hillary Clintons plans for greater involvement in Syria would lead to World War III. And the same man who has shown so little interest in the suffering of the Syrian people that he has attempted to issue an executive order ending all refugee admissions from that country. And the same man who ran on a quasi-isolationist, America First platform that disdained the use of military force for anything but the defense of American interests, narrowly defined.
How, then, can Trump now justify military action in retaliation for an attack on Syrians rather than Americans? The only explanation offered by the administration is that Trump saw the horrific pictures of gassed victims, including children, on April 4 and was motivated to do something. It is a good thing he did act, but it is hard to know what larger lessons about U.S. policy in the world or in Syria itself one can draw from this decision. The Trump doctrine appears to be: The United States reserves the right to use force whenever the president is upset by something he sees on TV.
The best things you can say for the strike were that it helped strengthen the international norm against the use of weapons of mass destruction and that it put Americas enemies on notice that this commander in chief, unlike his predecessor, will not hesitate to use military force. Those are valuable messages to send, but if Trump is interested in truly decisive action in Syria, he will need to go a whole lot further. What is required is a comprehensive diplomatic-military plan to end a six-year civil war that has inflicted so much human suffering and empowered so many extremist groups.
That objective is much harder to achieve now than it was prior to the Russian intervention in 2015. Before then, U.S. and allied airstrikes could have easily crippled Assads air force and thus put his regime in serious jeopardy. Now Assad has a virtually invulnerable air force, courtesy of Vladimir Putin. There are still steps the United States could take, but none of them are as simple or risk-free as launching cruise missiles.
The essential need is to change the battlefield calculus to make possible a negotiated solution, which would probably result in ethnic cantons a la Bosnia after the 1995 Dayton peace accords. In order to achieve this outcome, the United States would have to train and support a true Free Syrian Army, a capable combined-arms military force rather than the ragtag rebel groups of today. It would have to be strong enough to win battles not only against the regime but also against powerful Sunni extremist groups such as the Islamic State and Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria). This, too, is much harder to accomplish now than in years past, because the lack of American support for moderate rebels has empowered the extremists.
To be effective, the Free Syrian Army would require American advisors and air support of the kind we are now providing to the primarily Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State in northern Syria. This would, of course, risk drawing the United States into a broader confrontation with the Assad regime and its outside enablers Russia and Iran while raising the prospect of U.S. casualties. Such a long-term, ambitious campaign would also require the approval of Congress and the support of U.S. allies, neither of which Trump bothered to seek before unleashing his cruise missiles.
There is absolutely no sign that President Trump has any appetite for such an agenda. Indeed, military officials are telling the New York Times that the cruise missile strike was never intended to be the leading edge of a broader campaign to dislodge Mr. Assad from power, or force a political settlement in a country that has been ripped apart by six years of a bloody civil war. Oh, so what was the point?
The only point, it seems, was to discourage Assad from killing people with chemical weapons. Killing people with barrel bombs, by contrast, appears to be just fine with the Trump administration. The American strikes did nothing for us. They can still commit massacres at anytime, a resident of Khan Sheikhoun told the Washington Post. No one here can sleep properly, people are really afraid.
If there is a coherent administration strategy, it is impossible to discern. Maybe the president is just hiding it so as to preserve the element of surprise when he finally springs it on us to the posthumous approbation of MacArthur and Patton?
Photo credit: MOHAMAD ABAZEED/AFP/Getty Images
Kinshasa (AFP) - Congo's normally teeming capital Kinshasa came to a standstill Monday as people stayed home in fear of violence after the government banned a planned protest against President Joseph Kabila.
Shops were shuttered and streets empty in the city of 10 million people at midday, with security forces posted at key intersections.
"With police everywhere I decided to stay home," street vendor Brel Kabeya told AFP.
Police on Sunday slapped a ban on political protests and warned that gatherings of 10 or more "will be broken up" after the main opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), called for countrywide anti-Kabila rallies on Monday.
There was no sign of a protest in Kinshasa, however, or in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo's second city, where police and troops were out in force and many shops shuttered.
In the eastern city of Goma, police clashed with protesters trying to build barricades and burn tyres.
Tension has been mounting across the vast mineral-rich nation of 71 million people since December, when Kabila's second and final term officially ended but elections failed to be held.
On New Year's Eve, pro-government and opposition groups agreed to a deal brokered by the influential Roman Catholic Church that sought to avert a full-fledged crisis.
It said Kabila, 45, would remain in office until elections in late 2017, ruling in tandem with a transitional watchdog and a new premier chosen from within the ranks of the opposition "Rassemblement" (Unity) coalition.
But the death of coalition leader, veteran UDPS chief Etienne Tshisekedi, held up the deal.
And meanwhile the coalition has struggled to live up to its name, flying apart over a push by Tshisekedi's son, Felix, to take over the party helm.
Last week, Kabila added to the tension by naming UDPS dissident Bruno Tshibala as the new opposition prime minister, a move slammed by Felix Tshisekedi, who on Sunday left the country.
Tshibala had been excluded from the UDPS and the coalition for opposing him.
By Hannah Martin. Photos by: Angela Moore and courtesy of Max Lamb.
It all starts with the material, says British designer Max Lamb of his latest collaboration with Danish textile brand Kvadrat and start-up Really. Its an approach he brings to most of his process-based projectshe once hacked Sesame Black granite from a quarry in China and turned it into chairs and tables; another time he slashed at a giant piece of expanded polystyrene (typically used as a packing material) with a claw hammer until it resembled a bulbous armchair.
Lamb's latest material interest? Solid Textile Board (STB), a newly engineered upcycled building material made by milling textile waste into small fibers, mixing them with binder, and pressing them into thin, square sheets. Lamb turned the innovative surface into 12 different benches, which hes showing in Milan during Salone del Mobile.
Im concerned with waste, says Lamb. Im always very economical in how I use material. That doesnt mean I use small amounts of itsometimes I use very large amountsbut Im very concerned about what happens to the offcuts or the waste. He might cut several chunks of polystyrene from the original block to make a table or chair, for instance, but often those scraps will become the legs or take some other functional purpose.
Lamb first laid eyes on an early version of STB in November 2015. After much experimentationsome of which is on display in the installationhe developed the necessary techniques for working with it. To cut it, he uses a CNC machine, which allows for very precise lines. And to form the flat square material into three-dimensional forms, he cuts incisions at different angles that allow the material to be formed into curves or different shapes. His designs, which range from a gridded piece composed of more than 300 individual components to a seat that resembles a long, cartoonish slab of stone perched on seven little sets of legs, make a point to show the numerous possibilities within the naturally rather square material. Were trying to find future users and customers for the material in the world of industrial design, but we dont really know what people are going to do with it, explains Lamb. Hopefully these benches will give them some ideas.
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More: 15 Rustic Barn-Style Homes
This story originally appeared on Architectural Digest.
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By Press Trust of India: bullets instead of pellet guns
New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The Centre today told the Supreme Court it was exploring a crowd control option that is akin to rubber bullets but not as lethal as pellet guns that are being used as a last resort to quell violence in the Kashmir Valley. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi made this submission after he said that the Centre has examined other alternatives to pellet guns like skunk water, laser dazzler and chilli-filled pava shells which are found to be "not so successful" like the controversial pellet guns. The submission came after the apex court dubbed as "very important" the issues arising out of the use of pellet guns to deal with violent mobs in the Valley.
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The court, which also said that it is a "sensitive issue", warned Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar, which has sought ban on use of pellet guns, from politicising the matter, saying it cannot take sides as "it is neither against the security forces nor with the protestors".
It also perused the report dealing with the strategies and methods to deal with violent mobs including UN-approved skunk water, a non-lethal foul smelling liquid developed by Israel for crowd cotnrol.
Rohatgi placed before the court an expert committee report and said options of using laser dazzler, a non-lethal intense radiation used to temporarily disable its target, high intensity noise devices, chilli-filed pava shells and rubber guns were deliberated upon and were "found not to be so successful" in comparison to pellet guns.
Rohatgi, who said he cannot show or read in open court the April 7 document, also referred to what he called a secret option by stating that "now we are looking at another option and I am not making it public. It is akin to rubber bullets but not lethal as pellet guns".
He told a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar that a "new standard operative procedure" will be used to deal with violent mobs as during the protests between July 8 and August 11, 2016, a total of 1,775 CRPF personnel have been injured out of which 79 were grievously injured.
The Attorney General said the use of traditional drills are perfect if the crowd is at a distance upto 300 metres but if they are advancing and is upon the security forces and are 10 metres away from its vehicles and the life is in danger then as a last resort pellet guns are used.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, asked the bar body to take its time and respond within two weeks the issues raised by the Centre through an affidavit by telling that people in the bar "are in effective position to bring out the true factual position and assist the court in giving directions which would be meaningful".
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"This is an important issue and we feel you can play an important role. The question is whether you scuttle the position in which you are or play an important role. You are a privileged person. Today, you are in a position that you can help but you have to be balanced," the bench said before posting the matter for April 28.
During the hearing, the bench noted that the largest casualties during the clashes involved minors, students and youths ranging from age-group of 13 to 24 years.
Rohatgi, who described as "critical" and "delicate" the situation in the Valley where the protests are violent, sought dismissal of the petition and said "it is unfortunate that because of the proximity to the border the situation has been fuelled".
"Crowds seem to be going into the hands of someone who has ulterior motives," he said, adding it has to be understood that "we are not a rogue force" and "we are concious of the situation and consistently looking if any alternative can be used".
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When senior advocate Zafar Shah and advocate Mian Abdul Quayoom, appearing for the bar body, made the submission and tried to portray that the arguments of the Attorney General were far from the reality, the bench asked them to utilise this chance for evolving a solution and not point fingers.
The two lawyers used to opportunity in the apex court to rake up the bye-elections held yesterday in the Valley which saw only 7 per cent polling and witnessed deadly violence claiming eight lives and leaving more than 100 security persons injured in the clashes.
One of the advocates raised the question "is the Central government at war with the people" while another counsel said it is turning out to be the "nation of blinded people".
The senior advocate took the liberty to state that "solution is perhaps not within the system and there is some problem within the system".
However, the bench said, "If the solution is from outside the system, we cannot interfere and perhaps you are saying that we cannot interfere."
The bench further said, "both lawyers and judges stand on the same side of rule of law".
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"Do not politicise. You just keep away from politicising it. You will go wrong if you will politice it. You give us the means and measures for solution. Do not point out fingers," the bench said.
CJI Khehar took an opportunity to get an answer by narrating a story that "suppose as a child, I live in a wooden house and if a mob comes to hurl a petrol bomb, what will I do?"
The senior advocate appearing for the bar said, "one can go to any extent to protect his life".
At this point, the CJI said, "you are in a very important situation. You are neither in this side nor that side. You are practising law. You cannot take a side. You have to take a right position. We also have to say right or wrong. You are here to help the state.
"Bar in the country has played greatest role in the time of crisis. Bar cannot become a party to a movement," he said.
When advocate Quayoom repeated that it is a nation of blinded people and indiscrimentaly and arbitrarily the pellet guns are used, the bench retorted, "what are these children doing in the mob? These are children of delicate age. They are not above 21 years. 95 per cent of them are students and the upper age limit of hardly 24."
The bench said if the suggestion is for not using pellet guns, what would have been the casualty if other weapons were used.
"We appreciate that you are seeing the reality there. As per you, 20,000 to 30,000 shots were fired. If these pellet guns were not used and instead regular guns were used, then atleast 20,000 people could have died. Deaths are there. It is very unfortunate. It has to be stopped but how can they allow destruction of public properties," the bench said.
"You are a bar body. You feel for your people and your state. You feel that the other side (security forces) starts it and not the mob. You are educated, qualified and are experts but why you do not do anything by lodging complaints if you feel that the other side is wrong. Why cannot you take it to the court with evidence," the court said.
It added, "You are very important. Help in larger issue by taking into account the totality of the circusmtances. Try to help us in reaching to the solution".PTI ABA MNL SJK RKS GSN GSN
--- ENDS ---
Cairo (AFP) - Egypt security forces have killed seven suspected Islamic State group sympathisers thought to be planning attacks against Coptic Christians, the interior ministry said Monday, a day after deadly twin church bombings.
"A group of Daesh sympathisers were hiding in one of Assiut province's mountainous areas", the ministry said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
The group was hiding in the southern province "to prepare explosive devices in preparation for carrying out a series of terrorist attacks," the ministry said.
They were killed after a shootout with the police, who found rifles, ammunition, and IS publications in the hideout, it said.
The ministry did not say when the firefight took place.
The announcement follows two attacks on churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria on Palm Sunday, which killed 45 people and were claimed by IS.
The group has threatened more attacks against Egypt's Christian minority.
Monday's statement said security officials were able to identify three of those killed, who were born in Egypt and thought to be planning attacks targeting Christians in Assiut and the neighbouring province of Sohag.
The group was also planning attacks against police and courts, the ministry said.
Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt's population of more than 92 million and who celebrate Easter next weekend, have been targeted by several attacks in recent months.
Jihadists and Islamists accuse Copts of supporting the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly crackdown on his supporters.
In December, a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed 29 worshippers at a Cairo church.
Cairo (AFP) - Egypt prepared to impose a state of emergency Monday after jihadist bombings killed dozens at two churches in the deadliest attacks in recent memory on the country's Coptic Christian minority.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced the three-month period, which will vastly increase the powers of Egypt's security forces, after the Islamic State group claimed the twin bombings that struck worshippers as they celebrated Palm Sunday mass.
In a defiant speech, he warned the war against jihadists "will be long and painful" after he had ordered the army to protect "vital infrastructure" and increase security along Egypt's borders.
The first Sunday bombing at the Mar Girgis church in Tanta city north of Cairo killed 27 people, the health ministry said.
The second struck outside Saint Mark's church in Alexandria, killing 17 people after a suicide bomber was prevented from entering the building.
Scores more were wounded in the latest in a string of jihadist-linked attacks on Egypt's Coptic community.
At the scene of the Alexandria blast on Monday investigators combed through the wreckage, taking pictures of the debris.
A handful of women, dressed in black, showed their identification papers to guards before entering the church.
"I'm so sad, I cannot speak," said one mourner, a woman in her 40s.
Lawmakers said the state of emergency -- Egypt's first since widespread unrest in 2013 -- would help the country face down a menacing jihadist insurgency.
It will allow police to detain for 45 days suspects "known to the security services but for whom there is not enough evidence to go to trial," said parliament member Yehia Kedwani.
- Copts under attack -
The state of emergency still technically needs the approval of parliament -- a formality given the number of pro-Sisi delegates.
IS has been waging a deadly insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula and has claimed scores of attacks on security forces there.
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But it has been unable to seize population centres, unlike its early gains in Iraq and Syria, and it has also lost top militants to Egyptian military strikes in recent months.
Analysts say Sunday's bombings suggest the group is lashing out as it finds itself under increasing pressure in other countries.
"It was not until December 2016 when the Islamic State began a systematic campaign to target Coptic Christians in Egypt," said Jantzen Garnett, an expert on the jihadists with the Navanti Group analytics company.
"As the Islamic State is squeezed in Iraq and Syria it often conducts spectacular attacks elsewhere in an attempt to regain the narrative, boost morale and win recruits," he said.
Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt's population of more than 92 million and who celebrate Easter next weekend, have been targeted by several attacks in recent months.
Jihadists like IS, and Islamists, accuse Copts of supporting the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly crackdown on his supporters.
In December, a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed 29 worshippers in a Cairo church.
The group later released a video threatening Egypt's Christians.
Attacks in the Sinai, including the murder of a Copt in the city of El Arish whose house was also burned to the ground, led some Coptic families to flee.
Sunday's Alexandria bombing was especially concerning for the Coptic community, as Pope Tawadros II had led a Palm Sunday service at Saint Mark's but left before the explosion.
Sisi has defended the performance of his security forces and accused jihadists of attempting to divide Egyptian society by attacking vulnerable minorities.
But rights groups accuse the former army chief of crushing even peaceful opposition to his rule.
Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, a political science professor at Cairo University, voiced worry over the powers afforded to security forces under the state of emergency.
"Under Sisi we've seen that arrests and sentences also concern those who have no link with terrorist acts," he said.
On a day that honors the unbreakable bond of siblings, we gather to mourn our brothers and sisters lost to the whims of TV writing staffs across Hollywood.
For TV siblings suddenly written off shows, we bow our heads. They did not ask for the fates they were handed. Rather, writers and producers scrubbed their short lives from existence, abandoning storylines completely in favor of something more interesting.
SEE ALSO: 'The Big Bang Theory' will continue to haunt your television for years to come
A moment of silence for That 70s Show's Tina Pinciotti. Donna's younger sister made a brief appearance in Season 1 before she disappeared. And while we honor Tina, let's also take a moment for Valerie Pinciotti.
There's just one mention of the eldest Pinciotti in Season 1. Soon after the writers would make Donna an only child, leaving Tina and Valerie forgotten forever.
'That 70s Show": Donna Pinciotti's little sister Tina, 1998-1998
Image: netflix
We also remember Judy Winslow of Family Matters, who spent a shocking four years on the show before she was written off with no warning or later mention.
As producer William Bickley told People in 2000, he and his fellow writers hoped everyone might somehow forget that a third Winslow child exists.
And then there's Happy Days' Chuck Cunningham, Richie and Joanie's older brother, who fell victim to the actor cast to play him.
As Gavan O'Herlihy, who played Chuck, told On Milwaukee in 2013, he simply asked out of his contract.
The late Garry Marshall, who created and produced Happy Days, corroborated O'Herlihy's story.
The actor moved on, while fans of the show pondered Chuck's sudden departure.
Chuck's memory lives on as the namesake for the TV trope in which characters like his exit shows with no explanation.
A salute to shunned TV siblings. May we continue to hold writing staffs accountable for their embarrassing screw-ups.
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By James Pearson, Tom Allard and Rozanna Latiff KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Over the past two decades, North Korean-born Han Hun Il, the founding chief executive of a Malaysian conglomerate, funneled money to the leadership in Pyongyang, a North Korean defector, speaking out for the first time, told Reuters. Hans conglomerate, Malaysia Korea Partners (MKP), worked in partnership with Jang Song Thaek, according to Lee Chol Ho, who worked as a trader for Han for nine years until he defected to Seoul in 2010. Jang, the uncle of North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Un, was considered one of North Korea's most powerful men until he was executed for treason in 2013. Reuters was unable to independently confirm Lee's account of Han's relationship with North Korea's leadership, including his assertion that money was funneled to North Korea's leadership body, the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party. Reuters also couldn't determine how the central committee, which controls North Korea's highly sanctioned nuclear and weapons program, used the funds from Han or if the payments are continuing. The new disclosures come at a time when United Nations sanctions monitors are intensifying scrutiny of both Han and MKP. A February report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions on North Korea says MKP's bank subsidiary in Pyongyang is a particular focus. A 2013 U.N. resolution bars foreign companies or foreign joint ventures with a North Korean company from having a financial subsidiary in North Korea. The U.N. report says the bank, called International Consortium Bank, was established as a joint venture between MKP and Jang's Sungri Economic Group. The bank is licensed by North Korea's central bank and registered with the Pyongyang Municipal People's Committee, it said. If the U.N. experts find sanctions have been violated, they could recommend the U.N. Security Council blacklist MKP, its executives or one or more of its subsidiaries, subjecting them to a global travel ban and asset freeze. STRAINED TIES Han, also known as Dr. Edward Hahn, hung up the phone and blocked a Reuters reporter on his messaging app when contacted for comment. MKP did not respond to requests for comment on Lees assertions. The company issued a statement dated March 23 saying MKP had no reason to hide the fact that Han is North Korean. It denied owning ICB or any other North Korean bank and said nobody from the United Nations has contacted the company. The U.N. said it does not comment on its ongoing investigations. Lee's description of how MKP operated appears to shed fresh light on the close ties between Malaysia and North Korea, which have come under strain following the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the elder half-brother of North Koreas ruler, with the highly toxic VX nerve agent in February. Reuters reported in February that North Koreas spy agency was running an arms export operation out of Malaysia. Malaysia's foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. PYONGYANG BANK MKP, which Han formed in 1996 with his Malaysian partner, Yong Kok Yeap, operates in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, piling up contracts worth at least $350 million, an MKP corporate video and promotional brochures shows. Yong declined requests to be interviewed. MKP's main business is construction, but it is also involved in a number of other activities, including financial services and coal trading, according to U.N. reports, company sources, registration documents and MKP promotional material. ICB is among several banks the U.N. is currently investigating for possible breaches of various U.N. Security Council resolutions. These include one from 2013 calling on members states to prohibit financial service companies where there are reasonable grounds to believe that such financial services could contribute to [North Koreas] nuclear or ballistic weapons programs. In its March 23 statement, MKP said its website had been hacked to insert ICB under its list of service companies and place a doctored photograph of MKP personnel, including Yong, visiting ICBs office in Pyongyang. A search of archive.org, a database of old websites, shows ICB has been listed on MKPs website since 2009, including under its earlier name, Sungri Hi-Fund International Bank. As of April 10, ICB was still listed on the website. In its February report, the U.N. said it had inquired with Malaysia and MKP about ICB and had yet to receive a reply. 'CONTROL TOWER' Lee said Han had used MKP as the control tower of a vast business empire, making him one of the isolated countrys richest men. He said Han began his career in Africa with North Korea's Reconnaissance Bureau, its premier spy agency. When people from the Central Committee visited Malaysia, they only met with Han, Lee said. They didnt even bother to see the ambassador. The Central Committee directs the development and financing of North Koreas nuclear and missile programs, said Michael Madden, a North Korea expert at Johns Hopkins Universitys 38 North website. Once a year, Lee said, high-ranking Pyongyang officials traveled to Kuala Lumpur to meet Han and instruct him to wire money to North Korea via banks in Malaysia. It was all dollars and euros, said Lee. Lee said Han was part of Jang's overseas network of businessmen. Two current company sources said MKPs fortunes - with the exception of its African businesses - declined after 2013 and Han became an infrequent visitor to Malaysia. They said they didn't know whether the downturn was related to Jangs demise. (Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Once upon a time, Facebook was just a website for college students to connect. If Facebook gets its way, it'll be the go-to solution for all companies, especially small businesses, to run their operations.
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"If you think about over the last 13 years, weve been making progress on our mission of making the world more open and connected," said Katherine Shappley, Facebook's director of small business in North America. "Other people and businesses that they care about, and, of course, communities are at the heart of that."
Facebook announced Monday that 5 million active advertisers are using its platform. The company reported 4 million advertisers in September 2016, 3 million in March 2016 and 2 million in February 2015. Instagram announced 1 million of its own advertisers earlier this year. More important than sheer numbers and scale to Facebook so Facebook says are the tools they are creating to empower these 5 million businesses.
Facebook is working to make it easier for business owners to control and update what they do for their companies via smartphones. For example, Facebook recently made it possible for Facebook Page owners to reinstate high-performing ads with one click, including the ability to easily change the targeting, via the app.
Image: facebook
Supporting more businesses with more tools fuels more advertising dollars into Facebook, while also drawing more attention from consumers into its app. If the easiest, most convenient place to find your local hair dresser is through Facebook, why wouldn't you choose it? Businesses don't necessarily need to advertise. In fact, more than 65 million businesses have Pages on Facebook, so the majority do not.
"While technology has created amazing opportunities and benefits it can also be challenging for small business owners, especially when theyre trying to reach new customers," Shappley said. "We want to empower them in this mobile world."
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A major concern for some businesses who rely or are considering relying on Facebook is the company's track record when it comes to transparency (or lack thereof). For years, publishers have languished over an ever-changing News Feed algorithm, which has made a media outlet win in traffic one week and deeply crash the next. The same thing happened to marketers before that. Small business owners, by comparison, have limited funds and time to experiment.
Facebook is trying to listen to these concerns. In addition to a Client Ad Council that includes some of the biggest advertising agencies and highest spending brands on Facebook, the company launched a website Monday dedicated to the three-year-old Facebook Small Business Council.
The new website features stories of more than 40 businesses who use the Facebook product. Facebook is also working to expand the number of councils this year. It currently coordinates one in the U.S., India, and Germany.
Last week, right after Shappley and I chatted on the phone, she attended a Small Business Council event at Menlo Park. While Shappley is based in Facebook's office in Austin, Texas, she traveled to Facebook's headquarter to meet with about a dozen small business owners who spend a couple day meeting with herself along with Facebook engineers and product managers.
The benefits of hosting an annual event pay off handsomely. The business owners "become advocates and teachers. A lot of people put on workshops to help other small businesses succeed on the platform. The magic comes from after they all get together," Shappley said.
Facebook also educates business owners through its owned and operated e-learning program called Blueprint. The service, as of Monday, is available in 10 languages and serves more than 1 million unique users. People have taken more than 2.5 million courses across more than 150 countries, according to Facebook. It also created new courses for managing video and sound copying, an A/B testing course and a Facebook and TV course.
"Another place we know we need to expand and iterate and continue to expand from is on language," Shappley said. "We, as a company, are continuing to invest from a people standpoint and a product standpoint."
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Yesenia Huerta In this April 5, 2017 photo, Californian Yesenia Huerta, 23, poses for a portrait in Tijuana, Mexico. Huerta, who says she is citizen of the universe, lives in Tijuana because its more affordable than San Diego. She crosses to San Diego almost daily to study journalism and work part time in a sporting goods store. (Photo: Rodrigo Abd/AP)
Over two weeks, AP journalists Rodrigo Abd and Christopher Sherman logged 3,000 miles in a rented Jeep traveling from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, crisscrossing back and forth across the worlds 10th-longest border 22 times and blogging about the experience .
All along the way they were looking for the right place for Abd to spend a day using his wooden box camera to make striking black-and-white portraits of the people who inhabit the frontier lands. Its a primitive device consisting of a box with a lens and space for a developing lab inside, and shooting, developing and digitizing the images is a painstaking process.
On the last full day of the trip, they finally set it up on a sidewalk in Tijuana, Mexico, near where people enter and leave the Chaparral border crossing. Most were coming or going in a hurry. But some, such as recent deportees from the United States, were just hanging around trying to figure out their next moves. (AP)
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By Helen Reid LONDON (Reuters) - Markets are weighing the odds as France prepares for its presidential elections this month, with far-right, eurosceptic Marine Le Pen among the main contenders. Surveys widely predict she will make it through to the decisive second round, where many expect her to face the current poll-leader, centrist Emmanuel Macron. http://tmsnrt.rs/2jLwO20 Below is a round-up of probabilities that strategists and economists at banks and asset managers assign to various outcomes, and financial market scenarios associated with them. CANDRIAM ASSET MANAGEMENT (101.9 billion euros under management) Probability of a Le Pen win: 10 percent Market impact of a Le Pen win: "intense flights of capital", France likely to restore capital control. Eurozone equities to drop more than 20 percent, volatility (VIX) to jump. French OAT spread against Germany to rise more than 300 basis points, Euro to drop more than 10 percent. Risk of economic downturn in Europe. CITI: Probability of a Le Pen win: 25 percent (revised up on April 10 from 20 percent previously) Citi changed its base case, which had been a win for center-right Francois Fillon, to a Macron win, on April 10. "We change our baseline to a Macron win (35 percent probability) - Fillon is our alternative scenario (30 percent)," the bank wrote. "Wild card" scenario of a win by the far-left's Jean-Luc Melenchon: 10 percent Market impact of a Le Pen win: Euro to drop initially, "possibly sharply". Bonds to sell off on perceptions of devaluation scenarios, 10-year OAT-Bund spread to rise nearer to 200 basis points. French equities to fall 5 to 10 percent to end-June 2017. Market impact of a Fillon win: Ten-year OAT-Bund spreads to come back down to 35-40 basis points, Euro to rise DEUTSCHE BANK: Probability of a Le Pen win: 25 percent Market impact of a Le Pen win: European equities to fall about 15 percent Market impact of a Macron win: Limited scope for relief rally as valuations already high JPMORGAN: Probability of a Le Pen win: 25 percent Market impact of a Le Pen win: French stocks to fall by double digits, French bond spreads to widen 200-300 bps, euro to fall to $0.98 Market impact of a Macron win: Eurozone equities to see a return of significant global investor flows, to the tune of at least 10 percent of current assets under management. LA FRANCAISE ASSET MANAGEMENT: Probability of a Le Pen win: "relatively low" Market impact of a Le Pen win: France's blue-chip CAC 40 index to fall by up to 20 percent, French rates to rise 3 percent, euro to drop 10 percent. Euro stocks could fall 15 percent, and Italian assets would also be impacted, with a possible 20 percent drop on Milan's FTSE MIB. MORGAN STANLEY: Probability of a Le Pen win: 15 percent Market impact of a Le Pen win: double-digit losses on European stocks and the euro, OAT spreads widen to about 120 basis points. Italian government bonds have more downside with spreads widening to 300 basis points. Market impact of a Macron win: French banking stocks including BNP Paribas and Societe Generale to rally 15-20 percent. NATIXIS ASSET MANAGEMENT (337.1 billion euros under management): Probability of a Le Pen win: no in-house prediction. Market impact of a Macron or Fillon win: Spread between 10-year French OAT and 10-year German Bund to narrow to 30 basis points. 10-year OAT, currently at 0.9 percent, could converge to 0.6-0.7 percent. Equity market "will continue to creep up", equities in peripheral markets (Spain, Portugal, especially Italy), to display the best showings. Market impact of a Le Pen win (and eventual exit from the Euro): 15 to 20 percent drop in French equities, Euro to drop to "at least" parity with dollar, spreads with Germany to rise to 300 basis points. Households to transfer savings to accounts outside France. "All these elements could take place before or at the moment of the second round of the presidential election," chief economist Philippe Waechter said. NOMURA: Probability of a Le Pen win: no in-house view. "The FX market prices Ms Le Pen's chances at around 13-15 percent," strategists said in a note on April 7. Foreign exchange volatilities likely to trade higher into the first round, weighing on the Euro. A high first-round result for Le Pen would also drive the Euro lower, Nomura's FX strategists said. Market impact of a Le Pen win: Euro to fall 6 percent, 10-year OATs to sell off by 30 basis points. Outflows from OATs into safe havens outside of the eurozone likely. France's credit rating would be "at risk, but not an immediate downgrade". Market impact of a Macron win: Euro to gain 1 percent, 10-year OAT yields to ease by 15 basis points. UBS: Probability of a Le Pen win: 40 percent Market impact of a Le Pen win: Euro stocks fall up to 35 percent, trade-weighted euro down 10 percent, high-yield European bonds down 17 percent Market impact of a Macron win: Eurozone assets to enjoy "substantial" relief rally, euro to jump 2 percent (Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Pritha Sarkar and Andrew Heavens)
(TABIO, Colombia) - While the real Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is locked up in a cold, tiny cell in New York, his career as a drug lord apparently over, his fictional counterpart is free and in top form in Colombia, where the Univision network and Netflix are filming a television series about his life.
Ironically, Guzmans re-arrest in 2016 - after two dramatic prison escapes - has created such a bloody power struggle for his Sinaloa cartel in Mexico that the series producers thought it would be safer to film in Colombia, the country that used to be the epicenter of the hemispheres drug violence.
Guzman was extradited to the United States in January, and his lawyers complain the conditions he faces at a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial are so restrictive they violate his rights.
The filming in Colombia was so cloaked in secrecy that the crew told locals they were filming a mythical TV soap opera, Dolores de Amor, roughly The Pains of Love. The Associated Press attended one filming session in the town of Taibo, where a half-dozen extras said they didnt know what the series was about.
Its real title is fairly self-explanatory: El Chapo.
At the time filming started, Guzman was still in Mexico and the series location was shifted for security reasons, said producer Daniel Posada. Colombia was a good option, because we have well-trained crews and it is very similar in appearance to Mexico.
Taibo has a colonial town square, church and park that look like they could be found in rural Mexico. The effect will be completed in post-production by adjusting the intensity of the light to match Mexican skies.
Colombia may also be a little less legally complicated.
Guzman employed a cadre of lawyers to file a seemingly endless array of legal appeals in Mexico. One of the lawyers, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, suggested the producers could suffer legal consequences for using Guzmans name and story without his permission.
If they are producing something that he (Guzman) has not authorized, if they start attacking him, or publishing things from his private life, then clearly there will be a legal response, Rodriguez said.
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When Netflix and Univision announced the series last year, they said it is based on the life story of one of the worlds most notorious criminals.
Another Guzman lawyer, Andres Granados, told The Associated Press at the time that the two networks would have to pay for the right to use Guzmans name and nickname, which can be translated as Shorty.
If they air this, they are immediately going to be sued, Granados said. They, by necessity, need the authorization of Mr. Guzman, because he is not dead.
Guzman earlier gave rights to his life story to Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who arranged a secret 2015 meeting with the then-fugitive drug boss and actor Sean Penn. Del Castillo hasnt said what she would do with those rights.
Posada, the producer, said he hasnt received any threats.
The series is scheduled to have its U.S. premiere on Univision April 23, and a couple of months later will have a worldwide release on Netflix.
Marco de la O, the 38-year-old Mexican stage actor who plays Guzman, bears an extraordinary resemblance to the drug lord after coming out of a makeup session.
Speaking before a pursuit scene that included gunfire and screeching tires, De la O said: It was a challenge to play Chapo, because of his complexity. Guzman, the son of impoverished farmers, rose to a spot on the list of the worlds richest people.
Asked if he plays Guzman as a hero or a villain, De la O said I cant judge him. From an actors perspective, you dont judge whether the characters are good or bad ... We tell the truth, and that truth can be harsh.
Research for the script started three years ago, based on meetings with reporters who covered the drug trade, acquaintances, DEA reports and psychological profiles of Guzman drawn up in prison.
I have never known of a drug trafficker who has had such a long career, and from each stage of his life there are accounts that have allowed us to construct a portrait of his personality and psychological characteristics, said Gerardo Reyes, the Univision research director who served as an adviser on the show.
The final script turned out to be a mix of reality and fiction. Its normal; some things we agreed on, some things we didnt, said Reyes.
We have avoided the Robin Hood image that many have wanted to project on him Reyes said. He came from a poor background and was obsessed with not returning to it, and this obsession was also extremely violent.
But the story is not just about Guzmans obsession; its also about the government corruption in Mexico that allowed him to flourish. The series examines the situation in which two types of ambition can coexist and intertwine, said Humberto Busto an actor who plays the corrupt politician Don Sol in the series. It leads the two characters (Don Sol and Chapo) to the same question: For what?'
If in the end all of us wind up in a grave and were not going to take anything with us, what are we doing all this for?
This article was originally published on TIME.com
Kavita Kaushik, who has worked with producers Binaifer and Sanjay Kohli in F.I.R, feels Shilpa Shinde's sexual harassment charge came too late.
By India Today Web Desk: Kavita Kaushik, who's known for her bold attitude and fearless statements, opens up to Spotboye about what she feels about Shilpa Shinde's sexual harassment charge.
"If you don't raise an alarm when you are, so to say, facing a violation of your dignity and speak about it a year later, you are setting a bad example for all women. If you choose a serious crime like sexual harassment to be your last resort in your fight and your trump card for the final hand, that evidently makes its seriousness insipid and invalid," says Kavita. Also read: Shilpa Shinde accuses Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai producer of sexual harassment; wife refutes charges
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Kavita also said that one should use the 'woman card' carefully.
"You are a very vocal and strong woman known for her fiery temper and assertive nature in the industry. What made you go numb for more than a year to scream out that a man is torturing you? Believe me, all of us would have stood by you then. The woman card is a precious one. If used for truth, it brings immense power and success, but if used for a lie, it may give momentary success but it brings dark karma," she said.
Wonder what Shilpa has to say about this.
--- ENDS ---
Stanford-le-Hope (United Kingdom) (AFP) - The first-ever freight train from Britain to China started its mammoth journey on Monday along a modern-day "Silk Road" trade route as Britain eyes new opportunities after it leaves the European Union.
The 32-container train, around 600 metres (656 yards) long, left the vast London Gateway container port laden with whisky, soft drinks and baby products, bound for Yiwu on the east coast of China.
It was seen off on its 18-day, 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey with a string quartet, British and Chinese flags, and speeches voicing hope that it will cement a new golden age of trade between the two countries as Brexit negotiations loom.
The first train from China to Britain arrived on January 18, filled with clothes and other retail goods, and Monday's departure was the first journey in the other direction.
The rail route is cheaper than air freight and faster than sea freight, offering logistics companies a new middle option.
After the last three containers were lifted onto the wagons, the driver gave a thumbs-up and tooted his horn as he got the train rolling at the port in Stanford-le-Hope, east of London.
"Restoring the ancient Silk Road as a means by which China, north Europe and now the UK can exchange goods is an important and exciting initiative," said Xubin Feng, the chairman of Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment, which is co-running the service.
"We have great faith in the UK as an export nation and rail provides an excellent alternative for moving large volumes of goods over long distances faster."
- Nine countries in 18 days -
The train will go through the Channel Tunnel before travelling across France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before heading into China.
The containers, which also contain vitamins and pharmaceutical products, will be taken off and put on different wagons as they leave Poland, as the former Soviet Union countries use a wider rail gauge.
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The containers switch back to standard gauge wagons at the Chinese border, an operation that typically takes around two hours.
Boosting trade with China is a top priority for Britain as it leaves the EU and becomes free to strike its own trade deals.
London was hailing the first export train as part of its "global Britain" plan, recalibrating its post-EU trading outlook.
Rupert Soames, Prime Minister Theresa May's business ambassador for infrastructure and transport, told AFP that the new route was "positive and timely".
"I genuinely think that this is quite an historic day," said Soames, a grandson of World War II prime minister Winston Churchill.
"In some quarters now, globalisation is seen as a bad word. But here you see trade in all its glory and possibilities."
China was Britain's seventh-biggest export market last year, behind the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland.
Some A13.5 billion of trade headed to China, according to UK government statistics, with an average annual growth rate of 12.9 percent since 2006.
In terms of imports, China is Britain's third-biggest market after Germany and the United States, with trade worth A35.8 billion last year.
The freight train is part of China's "One Belt, One Road" programme announced in 2013, reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes to Europe.
A Connecticut woman is crediting her Fitbit with saving her life, after the device detected signs of life-threatening blood clots.
The woman, 73-year-old Patricia Lauder, had recently retired and bought a Fitbit to help her get in shape, according to a statement from the University of Connecticut, where Lauder was treated. But then, she began to feel ill, even though doctors' tests for health problems came back negative.
She also noticed that her heart-rate reading on her Fitbit was gradually increasing, until one day, it spiked to 140 beats per minute. She called 911 and was taken to the hospital, where tests showed that she had a condition called pulmonary embolisms, or blood clots in her lungs. Doctors gave her anti-clotting medication, which got rid of the clots.
"If I didn't have a Fitbit on my wrist, I would never have known that my heart rate was getting dangerously high," Lauder told UConn Today, the news website for the university. "And I might not be here to tell my story." [Top 10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart]
Experts say that, because some fitness trackers include heart rate monitors, the devices can potentially alert people to certain health problems that cause changes in heart rate.
"Heart rate is a general signal for how much stress your body's under," Dr. Allen Taylor, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., told Live Science in a 2015 interview. Like a fever, a high heart rate could be a symptom of many conditions, so it cannot be used by itself to make a diagnosis, Taylor said. But "for certain conditions, [if] patients find their heart rates running faster, it could alert them to say 'something's not right here,' Taylor said.
A rapid or irregular heartbeat can be a sign of a pulmonary embolism, according to the Mayo Clinic. The blockage caused by the clots can require the heart to start working harder to pump blood through vessels, and this can also lead to an increase in blood pressure inside the lungs, the Mayo Clinic says.
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Other conditions that a fitness tracker might detect include atrial fibrillation (an erratic heartbeat), anemia (a low red blood cell count) and an overactive thyroid. All of these conditions can lead to a faster-than-normal heart rate. A normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In September 2015, a high school senior credited his Apple Watch with saving his life, when the device showed he had a heart rate of 145 beats per minute. An exam revealed that he had rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which muscles release a protein that damages the kidneys and other organs.
And last year, doctors in New Jersey used data from a man's Fitbit to determine how to treat him when he arrived at the ER with a rapid and irregular heart rate.
Still, it's important to note that having a normal heart rate doesn't necessarily mean you're healthy, Taylor said.
And fitness trackers like the Fitbit aren't approved medical devices, so they cannot be used to diagnose cardiovascular conditions. A study published last year found that wrist-worn heart rate monitors, which are typically used on fitness trackers, are not as accurate as chest strap monitors. The researchers advised fitness-tracker users to be aware that the devices' heart-rate readings aren't always accurate.
Original article on Live Science.
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Paris (AFP) - Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon has climbed into third place in the French presidential election, according to new polls, and is being taken seriously in the campaign for the first time.
- Who is he? -
He's a 65-year-old veteran politician who quit the Socialist party after 30 years in 2008 and is now head of his own movement "La France Insoumise" (Unbowed France).
Long known for being aggressive and acid-tongued, he has toned down his rhetoric for this campaign but is still able to deliver a zinger or a witty putdown when required.
"I'm becoming a reassuring figure," the divorced father-of-one told the Journal du Dimanche on April 2. "I'm less of a hothead."
After refusing an alliance with Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon, he appears now to have eclipsed him as the main voice on the left.
"He invented political stand-up. He's become a showman," according to a former colleague in the Socialist party Julien Dray.
Melenchon ran for president in 2012 and won 11.1 percent of the vote, lower than polls had forecast.
- Why so popular? -
His climb appears linked to strong performances in two televised debates on March 20 and last Tuesday during which he delivered some memorable soundbites, particularly when clashing with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
"Leave us alone with your religion!" he shouted at her last week at one point.
In an election marked by high levels of anger and people wanting to kick out the established political class, he has emerged as a charismatic alternative to Le Pen and the other "outsider", pro-business independent Emmanuel Macron.
From the beginning of the campaign, he has also built up a loyal core of supporters on Twitter and via his own YouTube channel -- a way for him to circumvent the traditional media, which he accuses of being biased.
In a sign of nervousness, Macron supporters spread an online video over the weekend highlighting Melenchon's tax plans while party secretary general Richard Ferrand urged voters to delve into his radical programme.
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- How leftwing is he? -
He's backed by the French Communist Party, is an admirer of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and has a huge tax-and-spend economic programme.
He wants to reduce France's working week to 32 hours from its current 35 hours and lower the retirement age back to 60.
He proposes increases in the minimum wage and social security payments paid for in part by greater taxation of the rich. Any earnings beyond 33,000 euros a month would be taxed at 100 percent.
He wants to quit nuclear power, which produces around 75 percent of France's electricity, and renationalise the partly-privatised national power group EDF.
In foreign affairs, he wants to pull France out of the market-friendly European Union as well as the Western military alliance NATO, and he has supported Russia's military action in Syria and Ukraine.
He has also compared German Chancellor Angela Merkel, current President Francois Hollande's closest ally, to war-mongering Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck.
"I'm the candidate for peace," he said on Sunday with an olive branch in his jacket pocket.
One of his signature domestic proposals is constitutional reform. He wants to scrap the existing powerful executive presidency and return France to a parliamentary system.
He wants to legalise cannabis and welcomes immigration.
"Today as yesterday, I am delighted that France is a mix of races and all the children are our children," he said on Sunday.
(LUCCA, Italy) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering Monday for a meeting given urgency by the chemical attack in Syria and the U.S. military response, with participants aiming to pressure Russia to end its support for President Bashar Assad.
Last weeks nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred President Donald Trump to strike for the first time at Assads forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who is hosting the meeting, said Europes broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a renewed harmony between the United States and its partners ahead of the first meeting of G-7 foreign ministers since Donald Trump took office in January.
We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart, Alfano told Sky TG24 Sunday. I welcome this renewed harmony.
Officials are hoping that this can be leveraged to bring a new diplomatic push to end the 6-year-old civil war in Syria.
The meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca brings together U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida , along with other G-7 foreign ministers, at a moment when the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Koreas persistent ballistic missile tests.
The meeting also comes amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the deadly Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State terror group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.
The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia.
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The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
If the international community is successful in pushing for a diplomatic solution in Syria. Alfano was cautious on the question of whether to push Assad out, saying that decision should be up to the Syrians.
I have to say, the Libya experiment did not go well. We are still paying the price, Alfano said, referring to the lawlessness that has ensued since the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the subsequent flow of migrants to Europe via Italy.
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Britains Johnson, who had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of Mondays G-7 meeting, canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had changed the situation fundamentally.
He said that instead he would work with the United States and other G-7 nations to build coordinated international support for a cease-fire on the ground and an intensified political process.
Tillerson is due to travel to Russia after the G-7 gathering, and Johnson said he will deliver a clear and coordinated message to the Russians.
But Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares its allies determination that Assad must be removed from power.
After the chemical attack, Trump said his attitude toward Assad has changed very much and Tillerson said steps are underway to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
In a round of television interviews that aired Sunday, though, Tillerson said the top U.S. priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.
This article was originally published on TIME.com
Washington (AFP) - The US strike on a Syrian air base destroyed a fifth of the Damascus regime's remaining warplanes, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Monday as Washington fired a fresh salvo of warnings at President Bashar al-Assad.
The public assessment of Friday's missile strike and the forceful rhetoric came as G7 ministers met in Italy to send a "clear and coordinated" message to Russia over its support for Damascus.
The United States on Friday blasted 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat air base near Homs, which the Pentagon said Assad's jets had used to launch a deadly chemical attack on rebel-held Idlib province.
"The United States will not passively stand by while Assad murders innocent people with chemical weapons, which are prohibited by international law and which were declared destroyed," Mattis said in a statement, noting that 20 percent of Assad's "operational" aircraft were destroyed.
"The Syrian government would be ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons," he added.
Mattis's warning came as White House spokesman Sean Spicer appeared to lower the threshold for new US action against Assad to include barrel bombs, a crude yet hugely destructive weapon of choice for the Syrian leader.
"If you gas a baby or drop a barrel bomb onto innocent people, you will see a response from" President Donald Trump, Spicer said.
But US officials later walked back Spicer's remarks.
"Nothing has changed in our posture," a senior administration official said.
"As the president has repeatedly made clear, he will not be telegraphing his military responses," the official said.
Trump discussed Syria during separate telephone calls Monday with British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
May and Merkel "expressed support for the action of the United States and agreed with President Trump on the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable," the White House said in a statement.
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Downing Street said Trump and May had "agreed that a window of opportunity now exists in which to persuade Russia that its alliance with Assad is no longer in its strategic interest."
The two leaders were looking to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's trip to Moscow this week as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a "lasting political settlement," May's office said.
- 'Toxic' Assad -
At the outset of the G7 gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca, Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson described Assad as "toxic," and said it was "time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up."
Tillerson also attended the meeting at the 15th century Ducal Palace, along with foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
The annual two-day meeting had initially been expected to focus on talks with Tillerson about hotspots like Libya, Iran and Ukraine.
But the agenda is now likely to be dominated by last week's suspected chemical weapons attack that killed at least 87 civilians.
Washington's missile strike was the first time it had intervened directly against the regime of Assad, who is fighting a civil war with the backing of Russia and Iran.
Several rounds of UN-backed peace talks have failed to end the conflict, which has killed more than 320,000 people since March 2011.
- 'End Assad support' -
Iran and North Korea have slammed Washington's retaliation and put it on a direct diplomatic collision course with Moscow, where Tillerson heads Tuesday for talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Johnson on Monday called on Moscow to do "everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated."
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the pressing task for the G7 was to "find a political solution, a political transition" in Syria, particularly if the West wanted to triumph over the Islamic State group.
- 'Crime against innocents' -
Italy arranged a last-minute meeting for Tuesday between the G7 ministers and their counterparts from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Italian media said the aim was "to avert a dangerous military escalation."
Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he told Tillerson that Tokyo supports the US in its push to "deter the spread and use of chemical weapons," and discussed the pressing North Korean nuclear threat.
Japan hopes the strong US response on Syria will also put pressure on Pyongyang, which is showing signs of preparing for its sixth nuclear test and more test-firings of ballistic missiles.
"We agreed that the role of China is extremely important. Japan and the United States will jointly call on China to play a bigger role," Kishida told reporters after meeting Tillerson in Lucca.
Meanwhile, the leaders of southern EU nations said Monday the US missile strike on the Syrian air base was "understandable."
"The strike launched by the United States on Shayrat Airfield in Syria had the understandable intention to prevent and deter the spread and use of chemical weapons and was limited and focused on this objective," they said in a joint statement after a summit in Madrid.
By Crispian Balmer and Steve Scherer LUCCA, Italy (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialized nations met in Italy on Monday, looking to put pressure on Russia to break its ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In a shift in Washington's strategy, U.S. missiles hit a Syrian air base last week in retaliation for what the United States and its allies say was a poison gas attack by Syria's military in which scores of civilians died. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the assault. U.S. President Donald Trump had previously appeared disinclined to intervene against the Syrian leader and the attack raised expectations that he might now be ready to adopt a tougher-than-expected stance with Russia, Assad's main backer. Calling the strike a "game changer", British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said support for the Syrian president "was toxifying the reputation of Russia" and suggested sanctions could be imposed on Moscow if it refused to change course. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to travel to Moscow on Tuesday at the end of the two-day gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca with his Italian, German, French, British, Japanese and Canadian counterparts. "What we're trying to do is to give Rex Tillerson the clearest possible mandate from us as the West, the U.K., all our allies here, to say to the Russians 'this is your choice: stick with that guy, stick with that tyrant, or work with us to find a better solution'," Johnson said after meeting Tillerson. Russia has rejected accusations that Assad used chemical arms against his own people and has said it will not cut its ties with Assad, who has been locked in a six-year-old civil war that has devastated Syria and displaced half its population. "Returning to pseudo-attempts to resolve the crisis by repeating mantras that Assad must step down cannot help sort things out," Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Monday. Johnson said he was keen to seen further sanctions imposed on both Syrian and Russian "military figures". Speaking to reporters in France, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was also ready to stiffen sanctions on Moscow. "CRIMES AGAINST INNOCENTS" Tillerson said at the weekend the main priority for the United States was the defeat of one of Assad's main foes, the Islamic State militant movement, and it is unclear how far he will want to push the Russians on Tuesday. On Monday, the former oilman-turned-diplomat visited the site of a World War Two Nazi massacre in Italy and said the United States would never let such abuses go unchallenged. "We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," he said in Sant'Anna di Stazzema before heading to Lucca. As the talks began, a few dozen anti-G7 protesters clashed with baton-wielding riot police on the edges of the walled city. Looking to build their case against Assad, Italy has invited the foreign ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar to sit down with the G7 group on Tuesday to discuss Syria. All oppose Assad's rule. Before the meeting started, the foreign minister of Iran, which supports Assad, asked to speak to Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano to discuss Syria, Italian diplomats said. Details of their conversation were not disclosed. The foreign ministers' discussions will prepare the way for a G7 leaders' summit in Sicily at the end of May, which looks set to be Trump's first overseas trip since becoming president. The ministers will also talk about growing tensions with North Korea, with the United States moving a navy strike group near the Korean peninsula amid concerns over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. They will also debate Libya. Italy is hoping for vocal support for a United Nations-backed government in Tripoli which has struggled to establish its authority even in the city, let alone in the rest of the country. The Trump administration has not yet defined a clear policy and Rome fears Washington may fall into step with Egypt and Russia, which both support general Khalifa Haftar, a powerful figure in eastern Libya. The struggle against terrorism, relations with Iran and instability in Ukraine are also on the agenda, with the meeting expected to finish by midday on Tuesday. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Steve Scherer; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
BERLIN (AP) German police have arrested 17-year-old boy on suspicion of killing his mother and dismembering her body.
The dpa news agency reports that officers found human remains believed to be those of the 58-year-old woman at her home in the eastern village of Borkheide, southwest of Berlin, on Saturday.
Her son was detained at the scene.
Police and prosecutors said Monday that final identification of the body has yet to be completed. The suspect remains in prison.
BERLIN (AP) Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-left challenger is promising that Germany would be a "strong and reliable" NATO member under his leadership, but again questioned the aim of dedicating 2 percent of gross domestic product to defense spending.
The new U.S. administration has stepped up pressure on NATO allies to reach 2 percent. Germany is one of many countries falling short, with the figure currently at 1.23 percent.
Martin Schulz, who hopes to oust Merkel in a September election, and his Social Democrats have questioned whether NATO ever agreed to a firm 2 percent target, pointing to a 2014 summit declaration that said allies "aim to move toward the 2 percent guideline within a decade."
Schulz told foreign reporters Monday that "what we need is not an arms race but disarmament initiatives."
17 RSS members have been arrested for the murder of a 17-year-old student who was trying to save girls at his school from harassment.
17-year0old Ananthu tried speaking up for the girls at his school, and he was beaten to death for it. (Image via Twitphoto)
By India Today Web Desk: Seventeen people affiliated to the right-wing organisation Rashtriya Seva Sangh (RSS) were arrested in Kerala on Saturday, for the murder of a 17-year-old student.
According to a report in the Indian Express, the victim A Ananthu was a class 12 student in Cherthala town, who was beaten to death after he questioned some of the accused for harassing girls at his school.
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Of the 17 arrested, seven accused are minors and studied at the same school as Ananthu. Cherthala Deputy Superintendent of Police YR Rastum confirmed that all the arrested were RSS affiliates and told Express that it was a case of planned murder.
An officer told Express that police plans to petition the court to consider the minors as adults, due to the seriousness of the crime.
WHAT'S THE CASE
Ananthu, and two of his friends, had been questioning their classmates for harassing girls at their school in Vayalar.
Their questions led to clashes between the two groups of students, so much so, that the opposing group allegedly targeted Ananthu and tried to attack him during a recent temple festival.
On Wednesday, the group caught hold of Ananthu from a temple near his home. They dragged him to a deserted area and beat him to death.
ANANTHU'S RSS CONNECT
Ananthu used to be an RSS worker until about a year ago, but stopped going to his RSS shakha to focus on his studies. This raised suspicion that his murder may have been politically motivated.
Both Deputy Superintendent Rastum and the BJP have denied those, however.
"The victim had been associated with RSS until a year back. His parents are still BJP workers. At the same time, it is baseless to say that he was killed for having deserted the RSS," said BJP Alappuzha President K Soman.
--- ENDS ---
WASHINGTON (AP) Justice Neil Gorsuch took his place in history Monday as the newest addition on the bench of the Supreme Court, restoring a narrow conservative majority and marking a much-needed political victory for President Donald Trump.
Gorsuch was sworn in during a sun-soaked ceremony in the Rose Garden, nearly 14 months after the seat was left vacant with the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The oath was administered during the White House ceremony by Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom Gorsuch once served as a law clerk. A smiling Trump stood behind his nominee.
It was the second of two oaths the first was conducted privately in the Justices' Conference Room by Chief Justice John Roberts.
"To the Scalia family, I won't ever forget that the seat I inherit today is that of a very, very great man," Gorsuch said to the audience of family and administration staffers, as well as all the sitting Supreme Court justices.
"I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great nation," he said.
Gorsuch joins the court that is often the final arbiter for presidential policy.
Speaking ahead of Gorsuch at the ceremony, Trump said that "our country is counting on you to be wise, impartial and fair, to serve under our laws, not over them, and to safeguard the right of the people to govern their own affairs," hinting at his own friction with the judiciary.
Gorsuch's confirmation was a badly needed boost for an administration riddled with controversy and misstep. Trump failed to get enough Republicans on board to support his plan to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's signature health care bill. His efforts to build a physical border wall with Mexico remain uncertain and his attempts to ban certain travelers from entering the U.S. because they pose a security threat have been blocked by the courts.
Trump was lighthearted about his latest win, saying Gorsuch's successful nomination came during his first 100 days in office and adding, "You think that's easy?"
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Trump said Americans would see in Gorsuch "a man who is deeply faithful to the Constitution of the United States" and predicted greatness for the 49-year-old former appeals court judge from Colorado.
Gorsuch said he was humbled by his ascendance to the nation's high court and thanked his former law clerks, saying of his former law clerks, "your names are etched in my heart forever."
Scalia had anchored the court's conservative wing for nearly three decades before he died unexpectedly in February 2016. In nominating Gorsuch, Trump said he fulfilled a campaign pledge to pick someone in the mold of Scalia.
Gorsuch is the youngest nominee since Clarence Thomas, who was 43 when confirmed in 1991.
His 66-day confirmation process was swift, but bitterly divisive. It saw Senate Republicans trigger the "nuclear option" to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster threshold for Gorsuch and all future high court nominees. The change allowed the Senate to hold a final vote to approve Gorsuch with a simple majority.
Most Democrats refused to support Gorsuch because they were still seething over the Republican blockade last year of President Barack Obama's pick for the same seat, Merrick Garland. Senate Republicans refused to even hold a hearing for Garland, saying a high court replacement should be up to the next president.
For now, Gorsuch restores the court's conservative tilt. But the new Senate rules allowing for confirmation of a justice by a simple majority will be crucial if Trump gets to fill another opening and replace either Kennedy often a swing vote or one of the court's liberal justices.
Kennedy and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg are both in their 80s and Justice Stephen Breyer is 78, raising concern among Democrats that Trump may have another opportunity to move the court in a more definitive conservative direction.
Gorsuch mirrored Scalia's originalist approach to the law during his 11 years on the federal appeals court in Denver, interpreting the Constitution according to the meaning understood by those who drafted it. Like Scalia, Gorsuch is a gifted writer with a flair for turning legal jargon into plain language people can understand.
Gorsuch will be seated just in time to hear one of the biggest cases of the term: a religious rights dispute over a Missouri law that bars churches from receiving public funds for general aid programs.
The White House swearing-in ceremony was a departure from recent history. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were both sworn in publicly at the Supreme Court. Former Justice John Paul Stevens has argued that holding the public ceremony at the court helps drive home the justice's independence from the White House.
A few hours after the swearing-in ceremony, a Pennsylvania college honored Scalia and Ginsburg with its annual award for civility in public life. The prize from Allegheny College noted the enduring friendship between the justices despite their ideological differences.
In her remarks accepting the award, Ginsburg said collegiality "really matters" at the court and urged members of Congress to "lead in restoring harmonious work ways."
___
Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
There is a lot of buzz concerning the Gotham City Sirens, which consists of Selina Kyle, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.
According to Comic Book Movie, the DCEU is even planning to make a movie starring the three villains, and Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard has expressed her interest on portraying Poison Ivy.
But what about in the Fox show Gotham? Selina Kyle (Carmen Bicondova) and Poison Ivy (Maggie Geha) have already been introduced, and executive producers have teased that Harley Quinn will make her appearance eventually this Season 3.
READ: Will Barbara Kean become Harley Quinn in Gotham?
When Heroic Hollywood asked Bicondova about the trios formation, she answered that shes not so sure. However, the actress said the show will probably delve into it in the future.
We havent really dived into that yet as of right now. I think that eventually it will happen, she said. The actress added that joining the Sirens would be cool, although she has no clue how that will go. I have no idea because some things are shaking up this season, so we never know! she said.
However, one things for certain. Cory Michael Smiths Ed Nygma will be embracing his Riddler persona when the show returns. Hes even going to don his full costume, and Smith is really excited for fans to see it.
Meanwhile, Smith discussed Nygmas relationship with his former boss, Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor). Smith told Screener that he does not believe Oswalds love for Nygma is genuine because he was selfish enough to kill Isabella (Chelsea Spack).
He wants true love, but he wants it the way a robot cyborg wants it: Oh, look at that behavior. I want to do that... But without actually knowing what it is, and truly understanding it, Smith said of Oswalds affections. In that sense, he'll never know true love - because it's not that.
Gotham Season 3, episode 15, titled How the Riddler Got His Name, will air on April 24.
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Carmen Bicondova
Photo: Getty Images/Alberto E. Rodriguez
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Just two months after a cancer-stricken couple tied the knot in a fairytale wedding gifted by the community, the New Jersey groom lost his battle against cancer.
Read: Couple That Battled Cancer Together Gets Married Days After Groom is Put in Hospice Care
Kevin Sochanchak, of Pennsauken Township, was fighting stomach and esophageal cancer when he died Sunday evening. He was 27.
"Kevin, my sweet husband, I cant believe this is really happening. I wish it was just a dream and I could hug [and] squeeze you again," his widow Ashley Sochanchak, who was also diagnosed with cancer, wrote in an emotional tribute on Instagram. "Youre amazing, and Im so proud to be your wife."
The high school sweethearts who battled cancer together for most of their relationship were married in February after winning an all-expenses-paid wedding from a social media contest sponsored by the Adelphia Restaurant catering hall last December.
It was everything I dreamt it would be and more, Ashley told InsideEdition.com in a previous interview. It was like a fairytale ending to everything that weve been through.
Their wedding date which also marked the couples 10-year anniversary had been long put off due to various treatments both the bride and the groom had undergone. In fact, Kevin was placed on hospice care just nine days before the big day.
Ashley was in remission last year, after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer when she was 18, just three years after the pair met.
"It was just full of shock to find out that he had cancer [after] everything we had already been through," Ashley said.
Following their wedding, the newlyweds were once again struck by misfortune when they said their home was broken into and thieves made off with Kevins ATV and motorcycle.
Read: Couple Who Got Free Wedding as Groom Battles Cancer Say They Were Burglarized a Week Later
"I finally got [Kevin] outside yesterday, and then he went into the garage and found that," Ashley told InsideEdition.com.
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In a Facebook post, Ashley wrote they are heartbroken, not because they lost $7,000 worth of possessions, but because they felt unsafe in their homes.
"[It] only made him more depressed than he already was," she wrote. "No one sees the [hardships] we actually face with having cancer because we try to always put a brave face on."
The Pennsauken Police Department did not respond to InsideEdition.com's request for comment at the time.
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By Aftab Alam
Higher education in India is going through a critical phase. The country has witnessed tremendous growth in the sector since independence, and now has 750 universities, 35,000 colleges and 30 million of students. But none of its best institutions have managed to secure a place in the list of the world's top 200 universities.
This is particularly worrying as some of India's leading institutions are now facing drastic cuts in employment and resources. The prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), for instance, has just announced an 83 percent cut in its research funds and a reduction in the number of students accepted for doctoral and masters degrees for the academic year 2017-2018.
And on March 25, the Tata Institute for Social Science, another center of research excellence, issued termination letters to 25 members of its faculty.
Both moves have come under scrutiny, leading, in the case of JNU, to a massive strike by students.
These are dark times for India's higher education system. Not only because of the poor showing of universities, but especially because of the shrinking space for genuine intellectual freedom on the nation's campuses.
Universities under attack
In fact, the very idea of what universities are meant to be is under severe attack in India. For the past couple of years, universities in the country have been the theater of various upheavals.
In 2016, protests erupted in JNU after an event organized by students turned into a political controversy over the Kashmir conflict and led to a countrywide debate on nationalism.
In February 2017, Hyderabad University students, who had taken part in a national solidarity movement in 2016 when Rohith Vemula, a young Ph.D. candidate and a liberal student activist committed suicide over caste discrimination, were barred from taking exams.
The same month, Ramjas College, which is part of Delhi University, witnessed violent protests by the nationalist student organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) against a seminar. The group is an offshoot of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its parent organization the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
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[READ: Narendra Modi's Big Bet on India's State Elections]
The event, which was called off after the protest, was actually titled Cultures of Protest. It had triggered the ire of the conservative organization because the list of speakers included two JNU students, Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid, who were deemed to be part of the clash that shook JNU in 2016.
Disruption of free speech
The incidents at Ramjas College and JNU are not one-off episodes. Rather, such clashes have become the new norm in Indian universities.
Just a week before the Ramjas incident, Professor Rajshri Ranawat of the Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) was suspended after a protest -- once again led by the ABVP -- simply for inviting JNU professor Nivedita Menon for a talk.
She had allegedly made some controversial remarks about Kashmir and the Indian Army, questioning India's role in the disputed territory. A police complaint was also lodged against her in Jodhpur.
In 2015, the ABVP-led Delhi University Students' Union disrupted the screening of the film "Muzaffarnagar Abhi Baki Hai" at Kirori Mal College. The film is a documentary about the Muzaffarnagar riots, which involved violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 2013.
These are attacks on what universities stand for. Threats to free inquiry emanate from both hardline university vice chancellors -- some of whom are accused of punishing teachers with different opinions from their own -- and neo-nationalist organizations such as the ABVP, which are quickly offended by any idea they disagree with.
Neo-nationalists and the right-wing government
Why have such incidents become so common, destroying the culture of debate and dissent in India's universities?
After the BJP's historic 2014 win in the Indian central legislative ("Lok Sabha") elections, which brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power, the ABVP and other RSS affiliates, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal have become bolder.
The ABVP, in particular, has resolutely pursued the BJP agenda of expanding its base in top universities, which have traditionally been considered the bastion of the Left. That's because the majority of faculty members who enjoy considerable influence on students are left-oriented and members of the Communist Party of India.
Now, right-wing student organizations champion their own brand of nationalism with the help of the government. Consider the case of JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar. He was arrested on Feb. 22, 2016 by the Delhi Police on charges of sedition initiated by BJP member of parliament Mahesh Giri.
Students have also alleged that police often stand by and don't help them, as was the case with the violent events at Ramjas College.
At the same time, the government seems to ensure that high positions at universities are only occupied by those who lean towards the RSS and promote its agenda. Professor Vijay Bhatkar, the newly appointed vice-chancellor of the Nalanda University, for instance, was president of RSS-affiliated private outfit Vijnana Bharati, which promotes "swadeshi" (homegrown) science.
And in 2015, BJP member Gajendra Chauhan was appointed director of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), triggering protests by students.
[MORE: Post-Truth: How India, the U.S. and the U.K. Are Similar]
As she was about to formally take up the role in January 2016, Oxford University vice chancellor Louise Richardson said:
"Education should be about confronting ideas you find really objectionable, figuring out why it is you find them objectionable, fashioning a reasoned argument against them, confronting the person you disagree with and trying to change their mind, being open to them changing your mind. That isn't a comfortable experience, but it is a very educational one."
The only way out of the current state of tension for Indian universities is for the institutions to learn to tolerate everything except intolerance. Universities exist for the sake of free inquiry and uninhibited debate. If that's not what they are doing, they may as well cease to be.
This article was written by Aftab Alam, professor at Aligarh Muslim University, for The Conversation on April 10, 2017. It is republished with permission.
The Conversation is a nonprofit news organization bringing knowledge from academia to the wider public. Articles are written by scholars who are experts on issues of public interest, assisted by editors who help unlock the knowledge. The Conversation was founded in 2011 and has newsrooms in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, and France.
At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million made homeless in northeast Nigeria since the start of Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency in 2009 (AFP Photo/)
Lagos (AFP) - Gunmen have shot dead four policemen, an army captain and a civilian in an attack on a community outside Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, police said on Monday.
The gunmen invaded Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu early on Sunday and kidnapped residents after looting their homes and shops.
"Around 1:00am on Sunday, the police received a distress call that a group of militants and kidnappers had entered Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu through the thick swampy forest surrounding the area," Lagos police spokesman Olarinde Famous-Cole told AFP.
"They were reported to have kidnapped some residents. In response, the police and the army immediately mobilised personnel to the area where the kidnapped victims were rescued," he said.
"Sadly, however, five of the gallant and patriotic officers lost their lives during the rescue operation," he said.
Famous-Cole said police were combing the surrounding forests and creeks in search of the attackers.
Despite security generally improving in Lagos in recent years, hard economic conditions still force some people to turn to crime.
Last October, four students and two teachers were abducted from a school in Epe by gunmen in speed boats, prompting the government to demolish waterfront shanties in a bid to flush out the criminals.
In one such demolition, some 30,000 residents of Otodo-Gbame, near the upscale Lekki district, were made homeless, angering rights groups including Amnesty International.
A search is underway for the hacker or hackers who caused city-wide panic in Dallas after 156 emergency sirens were all heard blaring over the weekend.
Read: 911 Calls Released in Pig Mask Vegas Heist Straight Out of 'Ocean's Eleven'
It began at 11:42 p.m. Friday as the sirens, which warn about approaching tornados, suddenly went off. However, there was no inclement weather or tornados headed to the area.
Some even feared it might be a terrorist attack coming on the heels of the U.S. missile strike against Syria.
The sirens were shut off and then turned back on more than a dozen times throughout the night.
Social media lit up with comments and the city's 911 system was inundated with more than 4,400 calls.
Emergency sirens in #Dallas are malfunctioning. There is no severe weather in #DFW and no active emergency. FBI Dallas (@FBIDallas) April 8, 2017
"I'm freaking out!" one person could be heard saying in a video of the sirens.
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At 1:20 a.m. Saturday, officials regained control by shutting down the entire system.
It looks like a hack caused the sirens to go off. Hacker(s) believed to be from Dallas area," a city spokesperson tweeted.
It is not known whether the incident was a prank or a prelude to something more nefarious.
Former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam told Inside Edition: "It can go anywhere from the mundane of hackers messing around to actual bad guys testing out the response capabilities and how fast they are able to repair those types of things."
Read: Man Nearly Electrocuted While Lying in Bed With iPhone: It Was God Who Saved My Life
Others saw the apparent prank as a wake-up call.
"This is yet another serious example of the need for us to upgrade and better safeguard our citys technology infrastructure," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings posted on his Facebook page Saturday afternoon. "Its a costly proposition, which is why every dollar of taxpayer money must be spent with critical needs such as this in mind. Making the necessary improvements is imperative for the safety of our citizens."
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By Abhishek TakleSHANGHAI, April 9 (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton mastered Shanghai's changing conditions and stayed clear of squabbling rivals to win the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday. The Briton eased his Mercedes across the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Max Verstappen, who started 16th, finished a surprise third to hand his Red Bull team their 100th podium. It was Hamilton's 54th career win and a record fifth in Shanghai. But it was the triple champions first this season and returned Mercedes to the top of the podium after Vettel won last months season-opening race for a resurgent Ferrari. "I'm so happy with my first win of the year and I cant believe it if Im honest, said Hamilton after the race, which also handed him his 106th podium, putting him joint second with Alain Prost on the list of drivers with most rostrum results. "What I said to Sebastian as I left the last race I said Im coming back in the next one. When I got on the podium it was like I told you." Hamilton, who finished second to Vettel in Melbourne, heads into the next race in Bahrain in a weeks time tied on points with the German. Mercedes, meanwhile, lead the constructors standings by one point over Ferrari. Hamilton started from pole position, but the conditions were a bit of a lottery for all the drivers with the track damp in patches but drying quickly. He kept the lead off the line ahead of Vettel, who came under investigation for lining up out of position on his grid slot. The German, though, stayed second, fending off Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes, who had started third. Lance Stroll, the 18-year-old rookie, spun off the track on the first lap after making contact with Force India's Sergio Perez. The Canadian beached his Williams in the gravel, bringing out the virtual safety car. Vettel took the opportunity to dive into the pits to change to dry weather tyres. His gamble backfired when Antonio Giovinazzi standing in for Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber crashed, bringing out the actual safety car two laps later. The four-times world champion found himself bottled up behind Ricciardo and his slower team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, costing him valuable time. As the trio squabbled for position, Hamilton pulled clear at the front. By the time Vettel managed to get past, with a series of spectacular overtaking moves that included banging wheels with his former team-mate, Hamilton was too far ahead. "The safety car came just when I was about to start to feel that the dry tyre was a lot quicker, Vettel said. "So I couldnt use the momentum, the advantage and I lost a lot ofpositions. "But then I had a very exciting race." Ricciardo finished fourth for Red Bull, crossing the line just 0.8 seconds behind Verstappen after hassling the Dutchman in the closing stages of the 56-lap race. Raikkonen crossed the line a frustrated fifth. Bottas finished sixth. The Finn, who has replaced retired champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, dropped him down the field after spinning behind the safety car. Fifteen cars finished Sunays race, with neither McLaren making it to the flag. Fernando Alonso, who "pushed like an animal" on Saturday to qualify 13th, had gone into the race aiming to capitalise on the mixed conditions to score his first points of the year, but his hopes were dashed by a driveshaft failure. Team-mate StoffelVandoorne was sidelined with fuel pressure problems. (Editing by Larry King)
Somali security forces have liberated an Indian cargo ship from the pirates who hijacked it, but only two of the ten-man crew were rescued, authorities in central Somalia said Monday.
Abdulahi Ahmed Ali, district commissioner for the pirate-hub region of Hobyo, told local press the "Al Kauser" ship had been held off the Indian Ocean coast near Yemen after the hijacking on March 31.
"We have the boat and two of the crew members but eight other members of the crew are still missing because the pirates took them off the boat," the commissioner said.
Ali said the two rescued crew members from India were healthy and that authorities were seeking their colleagues.
Their abductors are believed to be holding them near Hobyo.
The pirates had "refused a call by the local authorities to release the vessel and local forces forcefully engaged them," local security official Qoje Abdulahi told AFP by phone.
Somali security forces exchanged fire with the hijackers who fled to the shore aboard a fast boat, taking eight of their hostages with them, Ali said.
The Al Kauser was the third vessel seized by pirates in less than a month off the coast of Somalia, with experts warning that ships have lowered their guard in the five years since the height of the piracy crisis.
The Indian ship was carrying cargo including wheat and sugar from Dubai via Yemen to Somalia's Bossaso port when it came under attack, owner Isaak Them told AFP.
The president of the Kutch Seafarers Association, Adam Them, from the western state of Gujarat where the vessel originated, told AFP last week that the pirates had made ransom demands.
- Pirate 'mother ship' -
Somali pirates began staging attacks in 2005, seriously disrupting a major international shipping route and costing the global economy billions of dollars.
At the peak of the piracy crisis in January 2011, 736 hostages and 32 boats were held.
Though anti-piracy measures ended attacks on commercial vessels, fishing boats have continued to face attacks sporadically.
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However on March 13, pirates seized the Aris 13 oil tanker and eight Sri Lankan hostages in the first attack on a large merchant vessel by Somali pirates since 2012.
The pirates claimed to be driven by anger over illegal fishing in Somali waters which has long been seen as a key grievance behind piracy in the country.
While some hostages have been held for as long as five years, the pirates released the Aris 13 and its crew just four days after it was seized.
A week later a local cargo dhow was hijacked and taken out to sea, with the Oceans Beyond Piracy NGO warning it may be used as a "mother ship" for further attacks against larger vessels.
Hong Kong (AFP) - A Hong Kong technician was jailed for four years and nine months on Monday for rioting and arson during anti-China protests last year, in the harshest punishment yet over the unrest.
The case is the latest in a slew of legal action against demonstrators and comes soon after new pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam was selected as leader of the semi-autonomous city.
Yeung Ka-lun, 32, was pictured in news footage torching a taxi during the February 2016 unrest, which tapped into fears that Beijing is tightening its grip on Hong Kong.
During clashes dubbed the "fishball revolution", police fired warning shots in the air, while demonstrators hurled bricks torn up from pavements, charged police lines with homemade shields and set rubbish on fire.
"The court must send a message that these acts cannot be tolerated," said a judge at the Hong Kong court, in justifying the sentencing.
He said protesters shared a goal to disrupt social order and had threatened public safety.
While Yeung had no previous criminal records, he was "extremely reckless" in setting fire to the car in a crowded urban area, the judge added.
Outside the court, the acting superintendent of the organized crime bureau said, "police believe that the sentence has sufficiently reflected the seriousness and gravity of the offences."
A small number of supporters sat in on the hearing and expressed outrage over the sentence.
Last month three activists were jailed for three years on "riot" charges for their role in the same protests.
Like Yeung, they were not well-known campaigners.
The riot's alleged ringleaders from "localist" campaign group Hong Kong Indigenous, which advocates more autonomy for the city, face trial next year.
Nine pro-democracy activists including students, professors and lawmakers were separately accused of causing a public nuisance or inciting others to do so during the 2014 mass Umbrella Movement rallies, in a case they have criticised as political persecution.
The government's department of justice brought those charges just days after Lam was selected by a committee skewed towards the mainland camp.
A New York hospital has been ordered to explain what happened to the remains of a stillborn baby that went missing more than three years ago, as a judge ruled the grieving mother has a right to know why shes been unable to lay her baby to rest, court papers show.
Andrea Lewis was 22 weeks into her pregnancy when she gave birth to a stillborn child, whom she named Avery, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on March 28, 2014, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Lewis prayed with a pastor and relatives and held a religious service for the child, whom she held, caressed, kissed and said she loved, the papers said.
Hospital employees gave Lewis, now 39, a memory box containing the babys keepsakes, including the deceased childs footprints, and said to let them know when she was ready to send the remains for the autopsy.
Lewis handed over her baby that same day. It was the last time Lewis saw her child.
In her lawsuit, Lewis claimed the hospital knew she was planning to lay her baby to rest after the autopsy was completed, as she had asked staffers on April 1, 2014 for information on funeral homes and memorials as well as funeral services.
Read: Woman Sues Hospital, Claims Employee Flushed Her Miscarried Baby Down Toilet
When she reached out to the hospital again on April 2, she was told that the autopsy typically takes two weeks, but she was never told that she must decide what to do with her childs remains by a certain date or that the hospital planned to dispose of them under any circumstance, the suit said.
On April 8, Lewis found out that her childs body was missing, but she was unable to get answers from the hospital about what happened, the suit said.
Due to the defendant hospitals negligence, gross negligence, carelessness, recklessness, violation of the applicable law, and violation of its own policies and procedures, Lewis was deprived of getting to touch her child, hold her child, talk to her child and ultimately hold a memorial for and cremate her child, the suit said.
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Lewis, who said she has suffered grievous mental anguish, suffering and sorrow, is suing for unspecified damages.
In a March 23 decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings ordered the hospital to answer Lewis' questions about what happened to her child within 20 days of the ruling, which was made public Sunday.
Lewis has the "right to immediate possession of her deceased childs remains," according to state law, the ruling said.
If the hospital fails to meet Billings deadline, Lewis will automatically win her lawsuit, Billings wrote.
The hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment by InsideEdition.com, but in court papers has denied the allegations contained in the lawsuit.
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By India Today Web Desk: It's been a while since the reports of Mohabbatein girl Kim Sharma's marriage in trouble has been doing the rounds. If a report in a daily is to be believed, Kim's marriage to business tycoon Ali Punjani is over. Buzz has it that her husband has dumped her for another woman.
The 37-year-old got married in 2010 and moved to Kenya with her husband. It was only recently that she moved back to India and ever since her married life has been the talk of the town.
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A source was quoted as telling DNA, "Ali left Kim as he got attracted to another woman. The irony is that when Ali met Kim, he was plump and not great-looking but now because he is in love, he has lost weight and is looking great. But Kim is left with no money or financial security. Right now, she is looking to establish her business in Mumbai to provide for herself financially. She is now a brand strategist and goes by the name Kimi Sharma (her real name). Kimi didn't just leave their home in Kenya behind, but her job as the CEO of Punjani's chain of hotels as well."
But she recently took to Twitter to clear the air. She rubbished the rumours surrounding her life and said, "There is much ado about nothing."
I can't wrap my head around all these different angles and "groundbreaking" details everyone seems to know so much about. (1/2)- Kim Sharma (@kimsharma3) April 10, 2017
Straight from the horse's mouth - There is much ado about nothing. Next. (2/2)- Kim Sharma (@kimsharma3) April 10, 2017
Interestingly, she was also linked to menswear designer Arjun Khanna with whom she has been clicked on several occasions. Reportedly, Arjun's growing proximity to Kim is the reason why his marriage with wife Shefalee is on the rocks.
ALSO READ: Kim Sharma left with no money after husband dumps her for another woman?
ALSO READ: Mohabbatein girl Kim Sharma and designer Arjun Khanna are together?
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Grande-Synthe (France) (AFP) - A huge fire has gutted one of France's biggest migrant camps housing 1,500 people, which started after a brawl involving hundreds of Afghans and Kurds, officials and police said Tuesday.
The Grande-Synthe facility near the northern French port of Dunkirk was the only one in the area and provided hundreds of wooden huts for shelter, as well as cooking facilities and showers.
Michel Lalande, a senior local official in France's Nord region, told reporters that authorities were working to find alternative accommodation for the migrants, most of whom want to travel to Britain.
"Three gymnasiums have been put to use to provide shelter," he said.
Firefighters said at least 10 people were injured in the inferno overnight, which was visible several kilometres away. It followed an outbreak of fighting that required riot police to intervene.
Only around 70 of 300 huts and a handful of communal buildings were still intact on Tuesday morning. The others were smouldering embers or burned beyond repair, along with their contents.
- Scramble for other accommodation -
The camp, built by the humanitarian group MSF (Doctors Without Borders), opened in March 2016 over the objections of the central government, which announced plans to close it in March.
For more than a decade France's northern coast has been a magnet for refugees and migrants trying to reach Britain, causing tension between the two neighbours.
Ahead of the presidential election in two weeks' time, the fire quickly became a campaign issue, with far-right leader Marine Le Pen saying it underlined the need to control immigration.
"This chaos must stop," she said. "All migrants' camps will be dismantled after my election if the French people elect me as head of state."
Her main rival for the presidency, Emmanuel Macron, has pledged to scrap a treaty with Britain under which France has secured its northern border to stop migrants crossing the narrow Channel sea.
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"We will need to take up discussions with Britain again on the situation which leaves us acting as border guards for this country," the secretary general of Macron's party, Richard Ferrand, told the LCI channel.
As politicians discussed solutions in Paris, local authorities and police were investigating the cause of the brawl and whether the fire was started deliberately, as alleged by some local officials.
One camp resident, Emal, told AFP that the fighting had started after a football game among Afghans when the ball struck a Kurd from Iraq "who insulted the Afghan people".
- Spate of violent incidents -
The Afghans tried to catch him but he managed to escape before returning with a gang of armed friends, Emal said.
A Kurdish man, Kawan, told AFP that some Afghans had kicked a Kurd "and in the evening Kurdish people, all coming, and starting to fight again."
A police source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said there had been several bouts of fighting that culminated in a massive brawl involving around 600 people at 9:30 pm (1930 GMT) Monday.
Lalande said six people had been injured with knife wounds.
Local association Auberge des Migrants and the mayor of Grande-Synthe, Damien Careme, said that strains from overcrowding were the underlying cause of the violence.
Europe has faced its biggest migrant crisis since World War II over the last few years as millions of people have fled war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
"Our volunteers were telling us that there had been tensions for weeks linked to the overpopulation of the camp," Auberge des Migrants vice president Francois Guennoc said.
The number of mostly male inhabitants in the Grande-Synthe camp swelled after the destruction last October of the squalid "Jungle" camp near Calais, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.
According to several witnesses, disagreements arose after an increase in the number of Afghans who arrived from the "Jungle".
"I thought it was normal that the Kurds were here, it was their camp, and we (Afghans) had Calais," Emal told AFP. "But Calais doesn't exist anymore."
Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux announced plans to close the camp in March, citing public order problems after a spate of fights and stabbings.
The government also believes the camps encourages people to travel to northern France where they seek to break into trucks heading to Britain or pay smugglers to help them get across the Channel.
Migrants have been encouraged to register asylum applications in France, but many are determined to travel to Britain for family, language or work reasons.
burs-adp/gd/pdw
By Timothy Mclaughlin
CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Illinois judge was shot and killed outside his Chicago home on Monday morning and a woman was injured in the incident, police said.
Police found Raymond Myles, 66, shot multiple times when they responded to a report of gunfire at the address on the city's South Side, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department.
Myles was an associate judge in Cook County Circuit Court's Criminal Division, according to the court's website. Cook County includes Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States.
The incident started when a woman exited the home and encountered a man with a gun at around 5 a.m. local time, Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples said at a news conference.
Words were exchanged before the man fired, hitting the woman once. Hearing the gunshots, Myles exited the residence to investigate and was shot multiple times, dying of his wounds.
The female victim is receiving treatment at a local hospital and is expected to recover, police said.
Police are investigating the motive for the shooting and have several leads on the identity of the shooter, Staples said.
Myles had received threats in the past because of his work but Staples declined to comment on possible links between Myles' cases and the shooting.
The killing was "a direct attack on the criminal justice system that keeps our society safe," First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to a suspect, police said.
Myles was first appointed to the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1999, according to a statement from court, and served in the criminal division starting in 2009.
Chicago's struggle to curb violent crime has drawn national attention as the number of people murdered in the city last year rose to more than 760. President Donald Trump has repeatedly singled out the city for failing to quell the violence.
(This version of the story has been refiled to correct spelling of police in second paragraph)
(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Patrick Enright and James Dalgleish)
A powerful telescope has captured the rainbow-colored remains of an ancient star birth.
Astronomers in northern Chile gathered images of an explosive beginning in the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC-1), an active star factory that lies about 1,500 light-years from Earth, just behind the Orion Nebula.
SEE ALSO: Scientists want you to help them find planets in this database of stars
This story began around 100,000 years ago, when two adolescent protostars (very young stars) grew increasingly angsty about being stuck in their stellar nursery.
The siblings latched onto each other gravitationally and gradually drew closer, until eventually, they either grazed each other or collided, astronomers said in a paper published last week in the Astrophysical Journal.
The collision triggered a powerful eruption that blast apart the stellar nursery and released as much energy as our sun emits over the course of 10 million years. Other nearby protostars and hundreds of streamers of gas and dust launched into interstellar space at speeds greater than 93 miles per second.
Five hundred years later, the remains of this violent star formation are still visible from Earth at least when viewed through the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile's Atacama desert.
"What we see in this once calm stellar nursery is a cosmic version of a Fourth of July fireworks display, with giant streamers rocketing off in all directions," John Bally, the paper's lead author and a professor at the University of Colorado, said in a news release.
ALMA image of the OMC-1 cloud showing the explosive nature of star birth.
Image: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Bally; B. Saxton, (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
The colors in the ALMA images represent a relative change in the waves (via the Doppler effect) of light emitted by carbon monoxide gas.
Astronomers had previously captured hints of this explosive scene in 2009 using the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii. But Bally said the new ALMA data provides much greater clarity than earlier images, and it reveals important clues about the high-velocity motion and distribution of carbon monoxide gas inside the streamers.
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"People most often associate stellar explosions with ancient stars, like a nova eruption on the surface of a decaying star or the even more spectacular supernova death of an extremely massive star," he said in the release.
"ALMA has given us new insights into explosions on the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth."
WATCH: Astronomers built an 'Earth-sized' telescope to peer into black holes
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) A timeline of key events in Robert Bentley's tenure as Alabama governor:
Jan. 27, 2011: After being elected to two terms in the Alabama House, the dermatologist and one-time Baptist deacon is inaugurated after running on a platform of increasing jobs and not accepting a salary until the state reaches full employment.
April 27, 2011: Bentley declares a state of emergency after dozens of tornadoes strike the state, killing more than 250 people.
July 2, 2012: Helps announce the decision by Airbus to construct an aircraft assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.
Dec. 23, 2013: Bentley says his administration has saved taxpayers $1 billion, setting up a pillar of his re-election campaign.
March 2014: First lady Dianne Bentley secretly records phone call between Bentley and a woman, presumably aide Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
Nov. 4, 2014: Bentley easily wins re-election for second four-year term.
Aug. 28, 2015: Dianne Bentley files for divorce after 50 years of marriage.
March 22, 2016: Bentley fires Spencer Collier as head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
March 23, 2016: Collier publicly alleges a romantic relationship between Bentley and Mason; Bentley acknowledges personal mistakes but denies having a sexual affair with Mason.
April 6, 2017: Alabama Ethics Commission finds probable cause that Bentley violated ethics and campaign finance laws amid scandal.
April 7, 2017: Bentley appears outside Alabama Capitol to say he will not resign.
April 10, 2017: Bentley resigns and pleads guilty to misdemeanor campaign finance charges on the first day of a legislative hearing that could lead to his impeachment.
Last year, Pakistan detained Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, on suspicions of spying. On Monday, a military court sentenced him to death for espionage and sabotage.
The Indian government has acknowledged that Jadhav is an Indian citizen and a former Navy officer, but denies he is a spy. Pakistan released a video in which Jadhav admits he worked as a spy shortly after his arrest, which Pakistan says was in early March of last year. It is unclear under what conditions that filmed confession took place.
India repeatedly requested consular access to Jadhav. Pakistan repeatedly denied those requests.
In a statement sent out Monday, Indias foreign ministry called the proceedings farcical. The statement said that Jadhav was kidnapped in Iran, and that his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly. It also said that the death sentence, if carried out, would constitute premeditated murder.
New Delhi also summoned Pakistani High Commissioner (essentially the Pakistani ambassador to India) Abdul Basit after learning of the sentence, presumably to convey outrage in person. Basit is expected to be replaced soon, perhaps by the current Pakistani ambassador to Turkey.
This is not the first time Pakistan has executed an alleged Indian spy. An Indian man was hanged after ten years in jail for spying in 1999. And an Indian national who had been on death row for 16 years for allegedly spying was killed by his fellow inmates in jail in 2016. India and Pakistan didnt devolve into all out war then, and theyre unlikely to now. However, Pakistan is also, at present, accusing India of backing a separatist movement in Balochistan, and India accuses Pakistan of fomenting unrest in India-controlled Kashmir its possible either situation or both could worsen as a result of this sentence.
Kashmir is a sore subject for India in another sense. China currently plans to have its route for the Chinese-Pakistani economic corridor cut through part of Kashmir to which India lays claim. India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried its own pivot to the East, both to deepen trade ties with southeast Asia, and to check Chinas own moves westward. But it cant turn its full attention to Beijing as long as the Pakistani albatross remains around its neck.
This isnt the first diplomatic tit for tat between the two rivals. In early November last year, Pakistan withdrew several of its diplomats from India after theyd been suspected of espionage by India. Pakistan then leaked the names of several Indian diplomats who, it said, were sent to spy on Pakistan. All that followed several weeks of fighting in India-controlled Kashmir.
Photo credit: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images
By Aditya Kalra DELHI (Reuters) - A Chinese navy ship supported by an Indian navy helicopter thwarted an attack by suspected Somali pirates on a Tuvalu-flagged merchant ship, India's defence ministry said on Sunday. The ship, known as OS 35, was reported to be under attack on Saturday. The Indian defence ministry said four of its navy ships in the vicinity responded to a distress signal from the ship and reached the bulk carrier early on Sunday. It said the crew had taken refuge in the ship's strong room, know as the citadel, once they learnt they were under attack in line with established safe shipping operating procedures. "An Indian Navy helicopter undertook aerial reconnaissance of the merchant vessel at night, and at sunrise ... (to) ascertain the location of pirates, if still on board," the defence ministry said in a statement. "Subsequently ... a boarding party from the nearby Chinese Navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian Naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation." China's defence ministry said in a statement a Chinese navy frigate on patrol in the area responded to the distress call from the ship, which it said had been hijacked by pirates. A helicopter conducted surveillance of the ship before 16 navy special forces soldiers were sent aboard to rescue the sailors. It did not mention the Indian involvement. The Indian defence ministry said all the 19 Filipino crew of the ship were safe and the captain of the ship thanked the Indian navy for their response and for providing air cover. John Steed of aid group Oceans Beyond Piracy told Reuters the ship was sailing under navy escort to its next port. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which coordinates shipping in the Gulf of Aden area, said on its website the pirates had used a skiff to approach the vessel. The attempted hijacking comes days after pirates seized an Indian dhow that was on route to Bossaso from Dubai. Experts said some ship owners were becoming lax after a long period of calm, and that some were using a route known as the Socotra Gap, between Somalia and Socotra Island, to save time and cost regardless of the piracy risks. At their peak in 2011, pirates launched 237 attacks off the coast of Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau, and took hundreds of hostages. Their actions cost the world economy $7 billion and earned the pirates some $160 million in ransoms, according to the bureau. China's defence ministry said Chinese navy ships had helped patrol the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters since 2008, responding to several pirate attacks and conducting a small number of rescues. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London, George Obulutsa in Nairobi, and John Ruwitch in Shanghai; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Jane Merriman and Paul Tait)
Mumbai (AFP) - Indian police have arrested the alleged mastermind of a multi-million dollar racket in which callers posing as US officials tricked Americans into paying bogus tax bills, officials said.
Sagar Thakkar, 24, was making more than 10 million rupees ($155,000) a day at the height of the scam, which operated for nearly a year before it was exposed last October, police said.
Thakkar is accused of calling victims in the United States and berating them for not paying phoney tax bills, threatening them with jail if they did not cough up immediately.
He fled to Dubai after the scam was exposed but was arrested early Saturday when he flew back to India where he planned to revive his operation, police said.
"He has confessed to his crimes," Parambir Singh, commissioner of police in the Mumbai suburb of Thane, told AFP, adding the accused would face court on Thursday.
Mumbai police in October detained more than 770 people suspected of defrauding Americans by impersonating agents from the US Internal Revenue Service and demanding payments.
The US Justice Department subsequently charged 61 people for involvement in India-based schemes that defrauded nearly 15,000 American citizens.
"We are extremely vigilant when the names of US government agencies are used to perpetuate fraud for the purpose of victimising so many innocent American citizens," US Attorney Kenneth Magidson had said in a statement.
The con artists would use altered caller ID numbers to make it appear they were phoning from the US, and often quoted IRS badge numbers to trick their victims.
Those conned would sent money through pre-paid debit cards, such as Walmart supermarket vouchers or Apple iTunes gift cards.
The scam prompted Apple to issue a global warning against giving card numbers to strangers.
The IRS has for years warned about similar scams.
In January the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said it was aware of at least 5,000 victims who had been defrauded of more than $26.5 million via such schemes since late 2013.
India became the call centre capital of the world in the early 2000s as foreign firms, drawn by its educated and cheaper English-speaking workforce, farmed out jobs answering customer phone inquiries.
PARIS/DUBAI (Reuters) - IranAir may get its first new Boeing jetliner a year earlier than expected under a deal to take jets originally bought by cash-strapped Turkish Airlines, Iranian media and industry sources said. Iran had been expected to receive the first of 80 aircraft ordered from the U.S. planemaker in April 2018, but at least one brand-new aircraft is reported to be sitting unused because it is no longer needed by the Turkish carrier. Industry sources said Boeing was in negotiations to release at least one 777-300ER originally built for Turkish Airlines, which is deferring deliveries due to weaker traffic following last year's failed coup attempt in Turkey. Boeing said it never comments on talks with customers. The airlines involved were not immediately available for comment. Iran's Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan told the semi-official Mehr news agency the first Boeing 777 aircraft would reach Tehran within a month. It would be the first new U.S.-built jet delivered to Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The long-haul 777 is worth $347 million at list prices but is likely to have been sold for less than half that, according to industry estimates. IranAir has also ordered 100 aircraft from Europe's Airbus under a deal to lift most sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. Its return to the aviation market after decades of sanctions comes at a time when airlines elsewhere are having second thoughts about purchases due to concerns about the economy and looming over-capacity among wide-body jets. That trend has made a number of unused jets available for quick delivery at competitive prices, including three Airbus jets recently delivered to Iran, and has allowed IranAir to jump the usual waiting list of several years. The government of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani is seen as keen to showcase results from the sanctions deal ahead of a May election at which challengers include hardline Shi'ite cleric Ebrahim Raisi. Aviation sources say the first aircraft were paid directly from Iranian funds, but doubts remain over credit financing needed to secure almost 180 jets still on order. Western banks continue to shy away from financing deals between IranAir and Western companies, fearing U.S. banking sanctions that remain in force or a new chill in relations between Tehran and the West under U.S. President Donald Trump. Boeing has stressed the benefits to U.S. jobs of the plane deals. Fakhrieh-Kashan was meanwhile quoted on Monday as saying IranAir had reached a long-awaited agreement to buy 20 European turboprops from ATR. Talks over maintenance with engine maker Pratt & Whitney Canada had delayed a final deal. It was not immediately clear whether the official was referring to an earlier deal for the planes or the final contract including engine overhaul. ATR said on Sunday it was still in talks with IranAir. (Reporting by Tim Hepher and Dubai newsroom; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath and Louise Heavens)
Tehran (AFP) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani defended his economic record in a press conference on Monday but stopped short of formally announcing his candidacy for next month's presidential election.
Rouhani rejected criticism from conservatives over his economic performance, saying he had overseen measurable improvements in agriculture, health care, energy and internet coverage.
He also focused on his key achievement, a nuclear deal with world powers that ended some sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's atomic programme.
"In every aspect that you consider, figures tell us that after the (nuclear deal), there is more space for movement and progress," he said.
Pointing to deals signed by Iranian airlines to buy planes from Airbus and Boeing, he said the some $4 billion (3.8 billion euros) that Iranians spend on tickets to fly abroad would now go to domestic carriers.
Rouhani is expected to run for a second term on May 19, but said this press conference was "not about elections".
"We need to wait two or three more days," he said.
Hopefuls in the election have from Tuesday until Saturday evening to register their candidacy.
Sitting presidents in Iran are expected to be modest about their ambitions and to refrain from using state television as a campaigning platform.
The moderate cleric boasted that his government had allowed social media platforms to stay online despite objections from conservatives.
"People should speak out clearly about issues that are not being handled to their satisfaction," he said.
He criticised the arrests of administrators of top reformist social media channels in late March.
Rouhani also slammed the United States for imposing sanctions on Iran and attacking an airbase in Syria, a key Iranian ally, following a suspected chemical attack last week.
"The Syrian people and army must give a response that makes Americans regret their attack," he said.
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During his first month in office, US President Donald Trump imposed fresh sanctions targeting Iran's ballistic missile programme.
Rouhani said America had "never acted within international frameworks".
"One instance is the sanctions it has imposed on Iran, unreasonably seeing itself as the leader of the world," he said.
Rouhani said Tehran was "ready to improve relations" with regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia providing Riyadh "stops its attacks on Yemen" where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
The Sunni kingdom cut diplomatic ties with Shiite-dominated Iran early last year after its missions were attacked in Tehran and Mashhad by protestors angered at Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
There are local accents, and there are local accents.
SEE ALSO: Brits have the world's sexiest accents, survey finds
The Irish farmers in the video below, who featured in a recent RTE broadcast about sheep theft, are the perfect example of just how tricky to understand some dialects can be.
Those two farmers are from Mount Brandon in County Kerry.
We can just about make out what Richie Griffin is saying, but the first guy Mikey Joe O'Shea has such a spectacularly strong accent it's hard to grasp even a sentence.
Many Irish people responding to RTE's tweet were having just as much trouble.
@rtenews @ShonaOT this is what I was on about. Legit haven't a rashers what anyone here is saying. @IanCollins_IC any ideas?! Aislinn O'Toole (@AislinnOT) April 9, 2017
@rtenews What language is that dude speaking?! Sean (@rabdaawg) April 9, 2017
@rtenews Couldn't understand a word either of them said. Feel sorry for tourists thinking of going on a trip where Kerryish isn't their 1st language Deirdre (@shallow_boat) April 10, 2017
Mikey Joe O'Shea is clearly destined to be a local hero.
WATCH: How to Make a Proper Irish Burger
By India Today Web Desk: Mohabbatein girl Kim Sharma disappeared from the spotlight when she married business tycoon Ali Punjani in 2010 and moved to Kenya. Recently, her return to Mumbai sparked rumours of trouble in paradise. According to a report in DNA, Kim's marriage is over because her husband left her for another woman.
A source is quoted as telling the publication, "Ali left Kim as he got attracted to another woman. The irony is that when Ali met Kim, he was plump and not great-looking but now because he is in love, he has lost weight and looking great. But Kim is left with no money or financial security. Right now, she is looking to establish her business in Mumbai to provide for herself financially. She is now a brand strategist and goes by the name Kimi Sharma (her real name). Kimi didn't just leave their home in Kenya behind, but her job as the CEO of Punjani's chain of hotels as well."
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Interestingly, ever since her return, Kim has been linked to menswear designer Arjun Khanna and has even been clicked with him on several occasions. Reportedly, Arjun's growing proximity to Kim is the reason why his marriage with wife Shefalee is on the rocks. Rumour has it that Arjun and Shefalee have been living separately ever since she realised that her husband had lost all interest in her.
ALSO READ: Are Mohabbatein girl Kim Sharma and designer Arjun Khanna having an affair?
ALSO READ: Hazel Keech leaves party due to Yuvraj Singh's ex-girlfriend Kim Sharma?
ALSO WATCH: Brangelina to Ranbir-Katrina, 2016 was the year of celebrity break-ups
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel took the unusual step on Monday of barring its citizens from crossing into Egypt's Sinai peninsula, saying the threat of attacks in the area inspired by Islamic State and other jihadi groups was high. Minutes after the ban was announced, the Israeli military said a rocket was launched from the Sinai and struck southern Israel, causing no injuries. The ban will be in effect at the Taba crossing at least until April 18, the end of the Jewish holiday of Passover that begins at sundown on Monday, said a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office. Thousands of Israelis usually cross the land border with Egypt during the holiday to visit resorts and beaches on the Sinai Red Sea coast. Egypt declared a three-month state of emergency on Sunday after bombings of Coptic churches in Alexandria and the Nile delta city of Tanta which killed more than 40 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for both incidents and warned of future attacks. In the thinly populated Sinai, an Islamist insurgency has gained pace since Egypt's military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, and militants have carried out deadly cross-border attacks on Israel in recent years. Militants in the Sinai aim, the statement said, "to carry out terrorist attacks against tourists in the Sinai, including Israelis, in the immediate future". The statement urged Israelis already in the Sinai to return home immediately, reiterating a travel advisory that Israel's Anti-Terrorism Directorate issued on March 27. Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979. (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Andrew Roche)
JERUSALEM (AP) Israel closed off access to the Palestinian territories Monday as a security measure for the weeklong Passover holiday.
The military said Palestinians will be barred from entering Israel from the West Bank or Gaza until the end of the weeklong holiday that began Monday evening. It said exceptions will be made for humanitarian cases.
The closure does not apply to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Israel routinely imposes closures during Jewish holidays. Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007.
Also on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 17-year-old Palestinian, Jasim Nakhleh, died of injuries sustained in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank last month.
The Israeli military said at the time that a group of Palestinians had exited their vehicle near a Jewish settlement and hurled fire bombs at the community. It said the soldiers fired at the attackers, who fled the scene in their vehicle.
Since September 2015, Palestinians have killed 42 Israelis and two visiting Americans, mainly in stabbings, car ramming assaults and shooting attacks.
Israeli forces have killed at least 243 Palestinians during the same period. Most of the slain Palestinians have been identified as attackers by Israeli authorities.
Israel says the bloodshed is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of incitement, compounded by social media sites glorifying attackers and encouraging violence. Palestinians say it stems from frustration over decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's population will fall nearly a third by 2065, with almost 40 percent aged 65 or older and the working population laboring under a tougher pension burden, although the pace of population decline has slowed slightly, a government agency said on Monday. Solutions to Japan's population slide have eluded policy makers for decades, putting finances under growing pressure as demand for pensions surges. In 2015, the government established a new cabinet minister with the task of keeping the population from slipping below the demographic red line of 100 million by 2060. A projection for 50 years, conducted once every five years by a branch of the Health Ministry, showed that the pace of population decline has slowed slightly from the last estimate in 2012, with the total set to fall below 100 million in 2053. Earlier, the population was expected to fall to less than 100 million by 2048. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the slower pace of population decline showed government policies were working. "I am sure that the next five years will show even more of an impact," Suga told a news conference. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the aging, shrinking population is not a burden but an incentive to boost productivity through innovations like robots, wireless sensors and Artificial Intelligence. People aged 65 or older are expected to make up 38.4 percent of the population in 2065, with those 14 and under at 10.2 percent. In 2015, the base year for the survey, people aged 65 or older made up 26.6 percent of the population, while those 14 or younger were at 12.5 percent. The total population in 2065 will be 88.1 million, down from 127.1 million in 2015, a decline of 31 percent. In a particularly grim prediction, there will be only 1.2 working people to support every person over 65 by 2065 compared with 2.1 in 2015. This is down from 1.3 people in the previous projection. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Ever since John Oliver found out Donald Trump was an avid viewer of Fox News, Oliver has been using that information for the good of the people. And the president.
On Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver announced that he would be buying ad time during Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor in an effort to send a message to Trump about the inappropriateness of sexual harassment.
SEE ALSO: John Oliver explains why Trump's Syria strike is so dangerous
This action comes after Fox News had to settle five sexual harassment lawsuits all leveled against O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly. In the wake of this news, the show has been hemorrhaging advertisers but there's still one person who stands behind O'Reilly: Trump.
Trump told the New York Times, Hes a good person I know Bill. Bills a good person I dont think Bill would do anything wrong.
So Oliver has called on the familiar catheter cowboy, who has already starred in ads about everything from the nuclear triads to American healthcare, to help teach Trump why sexual harassment is something you should not stand behind.
WATCH: Trump accidentally stood next to Darth Vader and this is why symbolism exists
By Caroline Wambui LAIKIPIA, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Catherine Loiyan looked in dismay at her patch of land in Kenya's northern Laikipia County. A month ago it was bursting with tomatoes, maize, cabbage and potatoes. Now all that is left are a few trampled leaves and crushed stalks after herders drove their cows onto her farm in the drought-hit region, where competition for grazing and water holes has ignited a series of deadly attacks in the past few months. "I have nothing to show for my farming," said the mother of six, watching clouds of dust form as she sat under an acacia tree to escape the afternoon heat. "I have nothing to feed my children for the next season," she said. At least a dozen people have been killed in a recent spike in insecurity, prompting President Uhuru Kenyatta to announce on March 17 that he was sending troops to the northern regions of Laikipia and Baringo to stem the violence. Some residents say local politicians are fanning tensions in the under-developed, semi-arid region in an effort to win votes from ethnic blocs in national elections scheduled for August. Drought is a regular feature of life in northern Kenya, but locals say the changing climate has led to more frequent and more severe dry spells, exacerbating the battle for scarce resources. Cattle herders who have roamed the region with their cows and goats for years see no reason to stop driving herds onto land that was once communally owned before being divided and subdivided in the 1980s and 1990s. We cant let our animals die when there are plenty of pastures and water in these farms," said Joseph ole Rapanke, a herder who has let his animals graze on farm fields. TEDIOUS PROCESS Under Kenyan law, trespassers risk a prison sentence of two years and a maximum fine of 500 shillings ($5) for illegally entering property. They can be prosecuted under criminal law and sued in a civil case. But in reality, few serve time in prison. Ole Rapanke has paid more than 16 fines for illegal herding this year alone, both in court and out of it. The owner of 200 cows, 50 goats and 20 sheep, Rapanke said he has lost more than 125 animals to drought, which has scorched grass and fodder for miles around. "I can't risk losing more," he said. "I would rather graze on private land and ranches and be fined 500 shillings than risk losing an animal worth more than 20,000 shillings ($195)." Farmers say attempts to seek justice lead only to frustration. When Beatrice Lankenua's farm was first invaded by cattle, she reported the matter to the authorities who told her to get an officer from the Ministry of Agriculture officer to come and assess the damage to her crops. She was then told to get photographic evidence of the damage and have an expert from the Ministry of Public Works survey any damage to structures such as fences. "This not only cost me money but it was so tedious a process that by the end of it all, the illegal herders had only 500 shillings to pay in court," Lankenua said. "A LITTLE TOO LITTLE" Joyce Naserian, another farmer, said she had been taunted by herders who ask whether they should pay the 500 shilling fine to her or to the court. "(They) are just too glad to plead guilty to the illegal grazing charges after which they cheerfully move on," she said. Passed in 1962, the Trespass Act was introduced when Kenya was still a British colony - and has not been amended since. "The Trespass Act is one of those old laws that we inherited from the colonial government," said Ramadhan Abubakar, a partner at Magee Wa Magee Advocates based in Kirinyaga County. He agrees that the fine for breaking the law is now too low. "This amount is a little too little and does not serve one of the main purposes of punishment," he said. The fine needs to be larger, he said. But "be that as it may, it is a necessary law." ($1 = 103.3000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Caroline Wambui; editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women's rights, property rights and trafficking. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
Moscow (AFP) - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny walked free on Monday after spending 15 days in jail over a rally he led against alleged massive corruption by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The anti-corruption campaigner was arrested on March 26 at the largest unauthorised demonstration of recent years in Moscow and found guilty of disobeying police orders.
"Hi everyone," Navalny wrote on Twitter, posting a picture of himself at the offices of his anti-corruption foundation.
Just before his release when his sentence ran out at precisely 2:28 pm local time (1128 GMT) police moved Navalny without warning to a different detention centre, in an apparent attempt to avoid media coverage.
The anti-establishment Kremlin foe was forced to hop on the metro as journalists and supporters were left waiting for him at the location where he had been held across Moscow.
Navalny was among hundreds arrested at the Moscow protest and rallies held the same day in dozens of other Russian cities, with the European parliament among those subsequently urging his release.
- Medvedev rejects 'malarkey' -
In Moscow, police in riot gear detained around 1,000 people, including a significant number of teenagers who grew up under Vladimir Putin's rule.
The political and national mood has shifted since the protests, however, following a deadly bomb attack on the Saint Petersburg metro and the United States' direct intervention against Russia's ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Navalny -- a populist with nationalist anti-immigrant views -- has announced he intends to stand in 2018 presidential polls that Vladimir Putin is expected to contest for a fourth term.
He faces legal obstacles to running for the top job due to a fraud conviction at a trial this year that would bar him from public office.
The 40-year-old rose to fame with fiery speeches at mass protests over Putin's return to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012. He has harnessed the power of social media and YouTube to spread his message.
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The latest protests focused on claims by Navalny's team of anti-corruption investigators that Medvedev controls luxury villas and vineyards through shadowy not-for-profit organisations.
The video report has been viewed more than 18 million times on YouTube and prompted wide discussion with mockery over details such as Medvedev's purchase of flashy trainers.
Medvedev finally responded in televised comments on April 4, rejecting the claims as "malarkey."
He accused Navalny of wanting "to try to pull people out into the streets and reach political ends," while following the Kremlin practice of not naming Navalny directly.
Following the protests, Putin accused "someone, some political forces" of trying to advance "selfish interests."
Navalny was fined for breaching rules of organising protests after going ahead with the Moscow protest without permission from the authorities.
Police searched the offices of his anti-corruption foundation and detained staff who were accused of disobeying police and sentenced to up to 10 days.
Muscat (AFP) - Oman Oil Company and Kuwait Petroleum International signed Monday an agreement to build a refinery worth around $7 billion in the sultanate's southern port town of Duqm.
The 50-50 joint venture will have a capacity of 230,000 barrels per day when completed in 2019, Oman Oil Company chief Hilal al-Kharusi said at the signing ceremony in Muscat.
The two partners will provide up to 35 percent of the investment capital, while the rest will be raised from local and international banks, he said.
Bakheet al-Rashidi, chief executive officer of Kuwait Petroleum, said the project serves his company's strategy of diversifying revenues.
The sultanate derives 79 percent of its revenues from oil, of which it produces only about one million barrels per day.
Kuwait has a significant oil wealth and pumps around 2.8 million barrels per day.
Gulf states have been hit hard by a cash crunch due to a sharp drop in oil prices since June 2014.
Most of them have introduced austerity measures and have decided on a series of measures to boost non-oil revenues.
WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on the swearing-in of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court (all times local):
3:25 p.m.
Justice Neil Gorsuch is taking his place in history as the newest addition on the bench of the Supreme Court.
With the swearing-in of Gorsuch, the court returns to a narrow conservative majority and President Donald Trump scores a much-needed political victor.
The swearing-in ceremony Monday morning in the Rose Garden of the White House came nearly 14 months after the seat was left vacant with the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Justice Anthony Kennedy administered the oath to Gorsuch, his former law clerk. A smiling Trump stood behind his nominee.
The White House ceremony was the second of two oaths, the first conducted privately in the Justices' Conference Room by Chief Justice John Roberts.
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11:22 a.m.
Justice Neil Gorsuch is thanking his former law clerks, family and friends as he is sworn into the Supreme Court during a White House ceremony.
Gorsuch says of his former law clerks, "your names are etched in my heart forever."
The new justice joined President Donald Trump, members of the nation's high court and his family for a Rose Garden ceremony.
Gorsuch is thanking his family for their "perseverance and patience" and his mentor, Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he served as a law clerk.
Gorsuch is promising to be a "faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great nation."
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11:16 a.m.
President Donald Trump is praising new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch during a public White House ceremony. He says Gorsuch will rule "not on his personal preferences but based on a fair and objective reading of the law."
In a Rose Garden ceremony, Trump says in Gorsuch, Americans see "a man who is deeply faithful to the Constitution of the United States." The president is predicting Gorsuch will go down as "one of the truly great justices" in the court's history.
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The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado was sworn in during the ceremony by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he once served as a law clerk.
The president noted that the successful nomination came during his first 100 days in office.
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9:25 a.m.
Surrounded by family and his future colleagues, Neil Gorsuch has taken the first of two oaths as he prepares to take his place as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court.
The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado is being sworn in Monday after a bruising fight that saw Republicans change the rules for approving Supreme Court picks - over the fierce objection of Democrats.
The first ceremony took place privately in the Justices' Conference Room, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering the oath required by the Constitution.
That will be followed by a public White House ceremony, where Justice Anthony Kennedy is to administer the oath set by federal law.
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3:25 a.m.
Judge Neil Gorsuch is about to take his place as the newest Supreme Court justice.
The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado is to be sworn in after a bruising fight that saw Republicans change rules for approving Supreme Court picks over the fierce objection of Democrats.
First up is a private ceremony at the court, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering the constitutional oath. That's followed by a public ceremony at the White House, where Justice Anthony Kennedy will swear him in.
Gorsuch will be seated just in time to hear one of the biggest cases of the term a religious rights dispute over a Missouri law that bars churches from receiving public funds for general aid programs.
PARIS (AP) The Latest on France's two-round, April 23-May 7 presidential election (all times local):
9:35 p.m.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen wants to fight terrorism by tackling the "root of evil" in French society.
She said in a speech on Monday she would oversee a tough repression of criminals who risk turning to jihad and a cleanup within the Muslim population to rid it of fundamentalists who try to intimidate peaceful believers.
There are more jihadis in Syria from France than any other European country.
Le Pen vowed to "reconquer the lost territory of the Republic" by ensuring French law, not Muslim Sharia law, prevails.
Among measures she listed to reduce the risk of terrorism are ensuring sermons are delivered in French and dissolving the Union of Islamic Organizations of France.
She also wants a minimum defense budget of 2 percent of GNP written into the Constitution and a single agency to fight the terror threat.
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5:05 p.m.
French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron wants to hold discussions with U.S. social media groups about how to halt the spread of "Islamist propaganda."
Macron, a centrist considered the front-runner in the upcoming election, told a press conference he wants to "have a frank discussion" with the internet giants, such as Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter.
He also pledged to work with other European countries and members of the NATO alliance to force internet firms to provide data encryption keys to police or access to some encrypted contents when needed in a counterterrorism investigation.
He said only an "international coordinated initiative" can put pressure on the internet giants.
Macron also said he will maintain French operations in Iraq, Syria and Africa's Sahel regions against Islamic extremists.
France has been under a state of emergency since the 2015 attacks in Paris.
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1:55 p.m.
Israel's Foreign Ministry has condemned comments by France's far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen denying that the French State was responsible for rounding up Jews in World War II.
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The ministry says in a statement that her comments are "contrary to historical truth, as expressed in the statements of successive French presidents who recognized France's responsibility for the fate of the French Jews who perished in the Holocaust."
Former president Jacques Chirac formally acknowledged the state's role in Jewish persecution in 1995, a position maintained and approved by his successors Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also says France's recognition of its responsibility "underpins the annual events marking the anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from France and the study of the Holocaust in the education system, both of which are important elements in the battle against anti-Semitism, which unfortunately is once again raising its head."
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10:30 a.m.
Emmanuel Macron, an independent French presidential candidate, says his far-right rival Marine Le Pen made "a serious mistake" by denying that France State was responsible for the roundup of Jews in World War II.
He was among many presidential candidates criticizing Le Pen's comments Monday.
Macron, the front-runner in the April 23-May 7 two-round election, told BFM TV that "some had forgotten that Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen." Le Pen's father repeatedly has been convicted for anti-Semitism and racism.
Le Pen said Sunday on RTL radio "I don't think France is responsible for the Vel d'Hiv," a reference to the stadium where thousands of Jews were rounded up in July 1942 before being sent to Nazi death camps.
Le Pen later said in a statement she "considers that France and the Republic were in London" during wartime and "the Vichy regime wasn't France."
In all, about 75,000 Jews were deported from France to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Only 2,500 survived.
CAIRO (AP) The Latest on the aftermath of Sunday's deadly church bombings in Egypt (all times local):
7:45 p.m.
Germany says Muslims in Egypt should show solidarity with their Christian compatriots.
A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the suicide bombings that killed 45 people Sunday
Steffen Seibert told reporters that it was important to preserve the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Coptic Christians in Egypt.
Speaking on Monday in Berlin, Seibert said "the Coptic minority doesn't just need the protection of security forces, but also the solidarity and goodwill of the Muslim majority."
During a visit to Egypt last month, Merkel toured a Cairo church that had been the site of a previous bombing in December.
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1 p.m.
The priest of St. George's Church in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta, where a suicide bomber killed at least 27 people, says he lost his 23-year-old son, who was among six deacons killed in the attack.
"In just seconds, the entire church was filled with smoke, fire, blood, and screams," Father Danial Maher told The Associated Press over the phone from Tanta on Monday where he buried his son, Beshoy late Sunday night.
The pair arrived at the church early Sunday morning to start the Palm Sunday mass; Beshoy wore white deacon's robes and sang religious hymns. "He was like an angel, standing in the middle of the deacons singing," Maher said.
Pictures of Maher went viral on social media, showing him sitting helplessly in blood-stained robes.
The Islamic State affiliate in Egypt claimed responsibility for the attack. Maher said he didn't recall any unusual movements, but other worshippers told him that they saw a man rushing inside the church before the explosion.
A 15-year veteran of the church, Father Danial said that the church "definitely" was in need of better security but stopped short of blaming the government.
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12 p.m.
Egypt's Cabinet says the state of emergency will go into effect at 1:00 p.m. Monday afternoon.
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In a statement, the Cabinet says Monday that it approved the presidential decision to declare a state of emergency across the country for three months.
According to Egypt's constitution, parliament must vote in favor of such a declaration a virtual certainty since the legislature is packed with supporters of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. It cannot exceed six months. Mohammed Abu Hamed, a lawmaker, says that the parliament will consider the issue in a session on Monday.
The army chief-turned-president also dispatched elite troops across the country to protect key installations and accused unidentified countries of fueling instability, saying that "Egyptians have foiled plots and efforts by countries and fascist, terrorist organizations that tried to control Egypt."
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11:45 a.m.
Egyptian Christians are burying their dead a day after at least 44 people were killed in twin suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services in two separate cities.
Women wailed as caskets marked with the word "martyr" were brought into the Mar Amina church in the coastal city of Alexandria on Monday, the footage broadcast on several Egyptian channels.
Coptic priests, boy scouts, and mourners carrying flowers joined a procession into the church, the pace set by a beat of snare drums.
At least 17 people were killed at St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt. Another suicide attack killed at least 27 people inside St. George's Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta.
The sentencing of Kulbhushan Jadhav has got everyone talking about spies. We take a look at five 'spies' and trace their journeys.
By India Today Web Desk: A military court in Pakistan has sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer, to death.
Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested last year in Balochistan and was accused by Pakistan of being a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent, a charge denied by the Indian government.
"RAW agent Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was tried by FGCM under Section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923. FGCM found Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav guilty of all the charges," said the statement issued by Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (IPSR).
A young Kulbhushan Jadhav.
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We take a look at five 'spies', some forgotten and some not-so forgotten, and trace their journey.
RAVINDRA KAUSHIK
Ravindra Kaushik, a Rajasthan resident, reportedly joined RAW in 1975. When he reached Pakistan, he took on the name of Nabi Ahmed, learnt Urdu, got married and joined the Pakistan Army. According to a Telegraph report, his cover was blown up in 1983 and he was sentenced to death in 1985 over charges of spying. His death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He died in Pakistan in 2001 reportedly due to pulmonary tuberculosis and a heart ailment.
SURJEET SINGH
Surjeet Singh was held in Pakistan on charges of spying in 1980s. Nearly 30 years later, he returned to his home in Punjab in June 2012. He admitted that he was sent to Pakistan to spy for India. "I was a RAW agent," he told reporters then. His release was confused with release of Sarabjit Singh. "I met him recently though I couldn't meet him today before leaving," Surjeet had told reporters. Surjeet died of a cardiac arrest in November 2015.
Surjeet Singh (middle) after his release.
RAM RAJ
Ram Raj, according to various media reports, worked for an intelligence agency for 18 years, accompanying spies as a guide. Ram Raj was sent to Pakistan as a spy in September 2004 but was caught the next day. After two years in captivity, he was sentenced to prison for six years.
GURBAKSH RAM
Gurbaksh Ram spent 18 years in Kot Lakhpar jail on charges of spying. He claimed that he was trained by Indian intelligence agency and was arrested by Pakistan's security agencies in 1988. He along with 18 other Indian prisoners were released from jail in 2006. Following his release, he had demanded a government job.
SARABJIT SINGH
Sarabjit Singh was arrested by Pakistan's Military Intelligence Battalion in Kasur district in August 1990. He was accused of spying and planting explosives in Lahore and Faisalabad on August 30,1990, which killed 10 people and injured 66. He was sentenced to death by a Pakistani court in October 1991. He was allegedly attacked by fellow inmates at Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore on April 26, 2013. He succumbed to injuries on May 2, 2013. Sarabjit's family always maintained that he had inadvertently crossed into Pakistan.
Sarabjit Singh.
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Kulbhushan Jadhav sentence linked to Pakistan Army ex-officer vanishing in Nepal?
Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence: India summons Pak envoy Abdul Basit, calls proceedings 'farcical'
FROM THE MAGAZINE:
The Other Sarabjit Singhs
The Great Betrayal
ALSO WATCH: Pakistan awards death penalty to Kulbhushan Jadhav who is accused of espionage
--- ENDS ---
PARIS (AP) France's far-right presidential contender has prompted a major outcry by denying that the French government was responsible for the roundup of Jews in World War II.
Marine Le Pen, a leading candidate, said Sunday on RTL radio, "I don't think France is responsible for the Vel d'Hiv" a reference to the Paris stadium where thousands of Jews were rounded up before being sent to Nazi death camps.
Some 13,000 Jews were deported by French police on July 16-17, 1942, many of whom first were detained under harsh conditions at the indoor cycling stadium.
In all, about 75,000 Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps from France during World War II. Only 2,500 survived.
Other French presidential candidates and Israel's Foreign Ministry were quick to condemn Le Pen's remark.
"If one doubted whether Marine Le Pen is far-right, there is no doubt anymore," Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon told RTL radio.
Le Pen's main rival in the race, independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, said at a news conference Monday that Le Pen made a "serious mistake." Macron is the front-runner in the two-round presidential election that will be held on April 23 and May 7.
"On the one side, it's an historical and political mistake. And on the other side, it's the sign that Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen," Macron said, referring to Le Pen's father, co-founder of the anti-Islam party she now leads.
The elder Le Pen repeatedly has been convicted of crimes related to anti-Semitism and racism. Marine Le Pen pushed him out of the National Front party as part of an effort to appeal to more mainstream voters.
"I hope the French will sanction this re-alignment of Marine Le Pen with her father," famed French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld told the Associated Press.
Le Pen later specified in a written statement that she "considers that France and the Republic were in London" during the war and that the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis "wasn't France."
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She argued that had been the position of France's heads of state, including Charles De Gaulle, until former President Jacques Chirac "wrongly" acknowledged the state's role in Jewish persecution during World War II.
"It does not discharge the effective and personal responsibility of the French who took part into the monstrous roundup of the Vel d'Hiv," she wrote.
After decades of denial in France, Chirac in 1995 became the first president to publicly acknowledge the country's role in the deportations of Jews, issuing a long-awaited public apology at the start of his first term in office.
Israel's Foreign Ministry was not persuaded by her elaboration.
"This declaration is contrary to historical truth, as expressed in the statements of successive French presidents who recognized France's responsibility for the fate of the French Jews who perished in the Holocaust," the ministry said in a statement.
Small independent presidential candidate Jean Lassalle, a lawmaker with centrist views, denounced Le Pen's "disgraceful" remarks.
"It makes me throw up," Lassalle said on Franceinfo radio.
The two top vote-getters in the French presidential vote on April 23 will go into a presidential runoff on May 7. Polls suggest Marine Le Pen will advance to the second round of the election.
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Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed.
Leading electronic music festival Ultra announced an expansion Monday to China and India, sensing a bright future for the booming genre in the world's two most populous countries.
Ultra Music Festival, launched in 1999 in Miami when electronic dance music was beginning to find mass audiences in the West, also plans to head to Australia which will bring the party to six continents.
The September 9-10 edition in Shanghai marks the first entry of an international music festival into mainland China, which has a number of homegrown events that have drawn global talent.
Russell Faibisch, Ultra's president, CEO and executive producer, said he has been spending time in China since 2012 and sensed a strong appetite for electronic dance music.
"There is no other genre like electronic music now, or ever, in the history of music," Faibisch told AFP.
"It's the one genre that brings everyone together no matter what country you're in, what language you speak," he said.
Ultra will come to India in September in New Delhi with a second edition set for February 2018 in Mumbai. The Indian events for now will be "Road to Ultra" shows which have single rather than multiple stages.
Another major electronic festival, Las Vegas-based Electric Daisy Carnival, came to New Delhi in November, while the western beach state of Goa is already home to the popular Sunburn festival.
Electronic music revelers, often decked out in extravagant outfits for hours of sweaty dancing, have increasingly crossed borders. Ultra's flagship event in Miami last month drew 165,000 people from more than 60 countries, according to organizers.
Faibisch, who said Ultra tailored each event to local musical preferences, explained that he witnessed the potential for growth in Asia by seeing so many fans travel within the region.
Elsewhere in Asia, Ultra has editions in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
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"I think the artists really love going and playing there because the fans are so enthusiastic about it," Faibisch said of Asia.
"Their energy is very high, maybe because it's something that's newer in that region."
- Ibiza residency planned -
Just a couple of decades ago, China and India were relative backwaters for many Western concert promoters despite their billion-plus populations.
Along with rising incomes, China and especially India have seen musical tastes shaped by the streaming revolution with fans instantly enjoying access to DJs who once seemed remote.
Electronic dance music has also kept rising in the West, outpacing other genres in streaming and performance revenue expansion.
"I just see this continuing to grow and become even more popular in all corners of the world," Faibisch said of dance music.
Ultra also announced that Resistance, its stage for more underground electronic music, will have a six-week residency from July 25 on the Spanish island of Ibiza at Privilege, billed as the world's largest club.
Faibisch, calling the island crucial for the Ultra brand, promised "a production that has never been seen in Ibiza before" led by British DJ pair Sasha and John Digweed.
The Road to Ultra will come to Melbourne in February 2018 with a full-fledged festival planned in both Melbourne and Sydney in 2019.
Juba (AFP) - At least 16 civilians were killed in fighting Monday between government troops and rebels in South Sudan's second-largest city Wau, the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) said in a statement.
The violence stemmed from an ambush Sunday of government troops near the city, leading to clashes in the city the following day, UNMISS said.
"The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured," the statement said.
Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country descended into civil war in 2013.
The city itself has remained under the control of forces loyal to Machar's arch-enemy President Salva Kiir throughout.
UNMISS said troops, tanks and equipment from the SPLA national army had moved towards areas controlled by the rebels in the south-western part of Wau late last week.
At least 3,000 people -- mostly women and children -- sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 had sought refuge at an UNMISS Protection of Civilians site.
Civilians who spoke to AFP described targeted killings in the city some 650 kilometres (404 miles) from the capital Juba.
"The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas," said Moses Peter, a priest, who confirmed that up to 3,000 people were sheltering in his church.
"They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses."
- 'Lying in blood' -
Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.
The civilians were "killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels," said Erynio, adding that this was not true.
Erynio said shops and markets in the city's southern half were closed and the government had told people to stay indoors.
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"You can only see people are moving, running either to the church for protection" or to a UN peacekeeping compound, he said.
One local resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP he had found his brother "lying in blood after he was shot", and had counted five other dead bodies.
Another, who gave her name as Mary Joseph said: "we saw three people lying dead in different places."
The International Committee for the Red Cross said it was rushing surgical teams to the city to assist the wounded.
The military and rebels gave conflicting accounts of the violence.
Military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the fighting started as government troops were trying to rout rebels from strongholds in the countryside.
Forces loyal to Machar took cover among civilians when the skirmishes reached Wau town on Monday, Domic said.
Four prison guards were killed in the fighting, Domic said, without elaborating.
A spokesman for the rebels William Gatjiath Deng said the fighting stemmed from an ambush laid by the rebels outside of Wau on Sunday that left 35 soldiers from a government-aligned militia dead.
The surviving pro-regime forces returned to Wau, where Deng said they killed 50 civilians in "house-to-house" raids.
Both accounts were impossible to verify.
Deng said the troops were from the same militia responsible for fighting last week in the southern town of Pajok that forced 6,000 people to flee across the border to Uganda.
South Sudan's leaders fought for decades for independence, but once they got it in 2011, civil war erupted in 2013 out of a power struggle between Kiir and his former deputy Machar.
At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.
The war has also created a man-made famine, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis.
The most prominent insurgent group in Thailand's south rejected the military's peace plan in a rare statement on Monday, underscoring Bangkok's inability to open negotiations with the actual fighters in the conflict.
The country's southernmost border provinces, which were annexed by Thailand more than a century ago, have been plagued with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay rebels battle Thai troops for more autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state.
The fighting has claimed more than 6,800 lives -- mostly civilians -- since 2004, with both sides accused of rights abuses and atrocities.
The shadowy Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) is believed to be behind much of the violence, although it never claims attacks and shuns publicity.
On Monday it outlined objections to Bangkok's peace plan, saying it "must include the participation of third parties (international community) as witnesses and observers" and that an "impartial" mediator should lead the talks, not the Thai army.
In February the military and a group of rebel peace negotiators agreed to create a cluster of "safety zones" -- the first small but significant step in a much delayed peace process.
Thailand's generals, who seized power in 2014, touted the deal as proof the army-led peace process had legs.
But many experts have long remarked that the only rebel group Bangkok will agree to talk to -- the Mara Patani -- has little control over fighters on the ground.
Thailand's military treats the insurgency as a purely internal security issue and has baulked at any suggestion of outside involvement from the international community.
There have been talks in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur with Mara Patani. But they have staggered on for years, undercut by near-daily bombs, ambushes and assassinations in the Deep South and a decade of political instability in Bangkok.
Matthew Wheeler, an expert on the southern insurgency with the International Crisis Group, said the BRN "perceive the current (peace) process as one driven by Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur for their own interests".
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But he added that statement reminds both sides the BRN is willing to come to the table under the right conditions.
"It does not reject dialogue, even as it rejects participation in the current dialogue process," he told AFP.
Monday's statement followed a weekend of coordinated bombings across the south that targeted electricity poles.
The attacks caused widespread blackouts but no casualties and were seen as a reminder from the insurgents that they can still cause trouble despite a strong military presence and harsh martial law restrictions.
Those bombings came hours after Thailand's new King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed into law a military-backed constitution that will curb the power of elected lawmakers and bolster the army's role in any future government.
The southern region was one of few areas to reject that constitution when it was put to a referendum last year.
Photo credit: Getty
From Redbook
Fact: The concept of engagement rings has spun wildly out of control since diamond rings first started being handed out alongside marriage proposals a few hundred years ago.
Celebrities frequently flash rings valued in the five- and six-figure range, but they've got the money to burn. Someone who doesn't have the money to burn but wants an overly-expensive token of love anyway: this dude, who set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his would-be fiancee's $15,000 engagement ring.
Yep, you read that correctly.
The page in question was set up by one William Oliver of Atlanta, Georgia. According to the explanation posted by Oliver, he came to the realization that "teamwork makes our dreams work" shortly after his 30th birthday, when his girlfriend purchased him 30 separate gifts to mark the big 3-0. That, along with some encouragement from their family and friends to take their relationship to the next level, led him to decide to pop the question - with a little help from the good ol' Internet('s pockets).
"I've decided to utilize GoFundMe to let everybody who loves us show us. Sometimes we can't quite afford expensive things by ourselves," Oliver wrote. "A lot of people lean on credit card companies and banks (that overcharge them) so that they appear to do nice things for people they love by themselves." Um. Right. The campaign has since gone viral, with over 14,000 shares on Facebook, more than a little derision, and only $609 raised of the $15,000 goal.
For what it's worth, this story does have a happy ending. According to the most recent updates on Oliver's GoFundMe page, he successfully proposed to his girlfriend on April 4, and she said yes. He even shared a video of the surprise proposal.
In his second update, Oliver also (confusingly) addressed the controversy surrounding his crowdfunding scheme while announcing the engagement:
"Most people assumed because I asked for help from friends and family that I couldn't afford a Ring. They also assumed that this is what she asked for or that she doesn't deserve it. Unconditional Love is Free, Weddings are Not...Why do couples have to shoulder the cost of the public's materialistic perception of true love?"
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Jury's still out on whether his brand-new fiancee is aware of his crowdfunding plan. Or how he still managed to keep it a surprise after going viral. \_()_/
(h/t Today)
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(Reuters) - Police searching for a Wisconsin man considered armed and dangerous stepped up patrols on Sunday at churches near his home because of anti-religious views expressed in a manifesto he sent to U.S. President Donald Trump, officials said.
Joseph A. Jakubowski, 32, is wanted for breaking into a gun shop called Armageddon Supplies in his home town of Janesville, about 70 miles (113 km) southwest of Milwaukee, on Tuesday, when several handguns and rifles were stolen, according to the Rock County Sheriff's Office.
Later that night, his truck was found nearby engulfed in flames, the Sheriff's Office said in a statement. Police believe Jakubowski torched the truck.
Investigators have obtained a 161-page manifesto Jakubowski mailed to Trump. It was filled with barbs directed at officials from all levels of government, Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden said last week.
Investigators who analyzed the manifesto were also concerned about "anti-religious views" in the document, which Jakubowski can be seen mailing to Trump in a video posted to social media.
As a precaution, law enforcement officers increased their patrols at local churches and other places of worship on Sunday but no disturbances were reported, the Rock County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
At least one Wisconsin church shut its doors.
Bethlehem Lutheran in Sun Prairie, less than 50 miles (80 km) north of Janesville, canceled services after a man who was believed to resemble Jakubowski visited the church on Thursday. Investigators have not verified if it was Jakubowski.
A force of 150 law enforcement personnel, including Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, continued their manhunt for Jakubowski on Sunday.
Jakubowski, who served time in prison for trying to wrestle a gun away from a police officer, is believed to have become agitated about politics recently, authorities said.
A person who knows Jakubowski said he had spoken of his plans to steal guns and stage some kind of attack, possibly at a school, Spoden said.
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It was unclear if Jakubowski, who according to local media was unemployed, remains in Wisconsin or if he had left the state. Federal agents were pursuing leads in other parts of the country.
The FBI has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
Authorities have warned people not to approach Jakubowski, calling him "armed and dangerous."
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Larry King and Paul Tait)
States are legalizing, decriminalizing, or allowing for the medicinal use of marijuana. And for many opportunistic investors, one question arises over and over again: How do you invest in marijuana?
As it happens, there are several ways to go about it -- and it's not so simple as calling up your broker and saying, "I'll have some marijuana stocks, please."
By the time it's feasible to invest in cannabis on that level, the act of calling up a broker may not even be a thing any more.
[See: The 9 Best Investors of All Time.]
Still, it's worth surveying Wall Street for what, if any, upstanding marijuana stocks exist for individual investors to buy today.
The trouble with looking for marijuana stocks to buy. GW Pharmaceuticals (ticker: GWPH) is the closest thing to a legitimate U.S.-based marijuana stock. Though technically speaking, GWPH actually isn't a marijuana stock in the sense that most people would expect.
GW Pharmaceuticals doesn't grow or sell pot. The company is instead working on a marijuana-based epilepsy treatment called Epidiolex, which is expected to get a thumbs-up or thumbs-down from the FDA by the end of 2017.
Two of the most legitimate-looking weed stocks other than GWPH are both Canadian companies, where medical marijuana is legal: Canopy Growth Corp. and Aurora Cannabis. The competing medical marijuana suppliers north of the border have both seen their stocks roughly quadruple in price over the past year, and both currently seem to trade at exuberant valuations.
In short, this isn't the tech sector. The market isn't teeming with promising marijuana stocks to buy.
"There are virtually no public companies that directly touch the plant," says Lamine Zarrad, the CEO and founder of Tokken, an app granting banking privileges to cash-intensive industries like cannabis. "The majority of companies that are publicly traded are penny stock companies."
Penny stocks are notoriously bad investments for most individual investors, and are rife with scams, liquidity issues and transparency problems.
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The fact that marijuana remains federally illegal is what relegates many marijuana stocks to these shadier corners of the market.
Companies dealing directly with marijuana not only have to worry about potential enforcement actions, but are also shunned by most banks, who want to steer clear from doing business with companies trafficking in the sale of federally illegal substances to the public.
Still, marijuana is legal (in medicinal or recreational form), in more than half of the states in the U.S. as well as the District of Columbia, and the trend is unmistakably moving toward legalization. Despite the new Trump administration taking a tougher stance on the issue than the Obama administration, industry insiders are optimistic.
"It's been a little rocky with (Attorney General) Jeff Sessions and (President Donald) Trump, but the industry will stay strong," says Neil Demers, CEO of Diego Pellicer - Colorado, a Denver-based upscale dispensary.
"We've reached a tipping point," Demers says.
Still, while upbeat cannabis bulls may be eager to get their money in on the ground floor of a huge industry, marijuana stocks, largely speaking, just aren't ready for prime time yet. "It's probably wise to let some things settle -- probably wise to wait until some of these companies aren't penny stocks," Zarrad says.
Until then, there are other ways to invest in this budding industry -- outside of Wall Street.
[See: The 25 Best Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy for 2017.]
Invest without buying stocks. It's a good news, bad news situation. On the one hand, there are legitimate ways to invest in the marijuana industry today without buying penny stocks, compromising one's true investment intent or taking a flier on richly priced, highly speculative stocks that might not even be profitable yet.
On the other hand, if you're not buying stocks, the options basically boil down to becoming a local investor, small business owner or partner in a marijuana-related local business. That can be an expensive proposition, and certainly isn't for everyone, but opportunities do exist.
Andrew Ittleman is a founder and partner at Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph, and concentrates a good portion of his practice on marijuana-related issues on a national level.
"I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all approach," Ittleman says of the do-it-yourself approach to marijuana investing.
"Stick with what you know. If you're a real estate guy and you want to get into the cannabis space, there are plenty of opportunities for you," Ittleman says. The principle also applies to experts in the warehousing, product and marketing fields, he says.
Of course, buying part of a local marijuana-related business still has its risks -- mainly the glaring risk posed by the plant still being federally illegal. In many cases, raids, fines and charges are still within the realm of possibilities.
"But if that's within your appetite for risk and you understand what you're getting into, then by all means: Go for it. Because the growth trajectory that we're on right now -- it's not always gonna be like that," Ittleman says.
One day, the era of federal prohibition will end. What comes after that, as far as the marijuana industry is concerned, is the "billion-dollar question," Ittleman says.
Final risks to consider. While it may not seem like there can be risks bigger than the Feds raiding your business, seizing its assets and looking for scapegoats, there is one more considerable risk involved for those considering locally investing in the marijuana industry: scammers.
"I've seen Ponzi schemes, I've seen investment fraud, I've seen securities fraud, I've seen it all," Ittleman says. "If you wanna buy in because it's sexy and because you like the growth and because you have the appetite for risk, you can go and buy GW Pharmaceuticals -- but otherwise you gotta get out there. Meet the people."
And try to invest in what you know.
For bold investors thinking about going the local business route, it's always best to consult a lawyer before laying any hard cash down.
[See: 7 of the Best Stocks to Buy for 2017.]
Despite its high growth and the encouraging long-term regulatory trends, when it's all said and done, facts are still facts. And for the vast majority of investors, the marijuana industry -- and even marijuana stocks -- just isn't very investable right now.
John Divine is an investing reporter for U.S. News & World Report, where he covers financial markets and the economy, with a focus on individual stock analysis. He has been an investor himself for over 10 years, and has been writing professionally about stocks and investing for the last five years. He previously wrote about the stock market for The Motley Fool and InvestorPlace, and his work has appeared on Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, and AOL DailyFinance. He graduated from Appalachian State University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in finance and banking. At Appalachian, he was a member of the Bowden Investment Group, a team of students that ran a real-money portfolio worth over $100,000. You can follow him on Twitter or give him the Tip of the Century at jdivine@usnews.com.
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke on Monday to U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed that "a window of opportunity" exists to persuade Russia to break ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, May's office said. A spokeswoman for the prime minister said Trump had thanked May for her support following last week's U.S. military action in Syria against the Assad regime. The White House later on Monday said Trump had spoken with May and separately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by telephone about the U.S. attack and thanked them for their support. It said in a statement that May and Merkel expressed support for the U.S. action and agreed with Trump on the importance of holding Assad accountable. In a shift in Washington's strategy, U.S. missiles hit a Syrian air base last week in retaliation for what the United States and its allies say was a poison gas attack by Syria's military in which scores of civilians died. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the assault. Trump had previously appeared disinclined to intervene against the Syrian leader and the attack raised expectations that he might now be ready to adopt a tougher-than-expected stance with Russia, Assad's main backer. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to travel to Moscow this week and the spokeswoman for May said the two leaders had agreed during their conversation that the visit was an opportunity to make progress toward a solution. "The prime minister and the president agreed that a window of opportunity now exists in which to persuade Russia that its alliance with Assad is no longer in its strategic interest," the spokeswoman said. "They agreed that U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson's visit to Moscow this week provides an opportunity to make progress toward a solution which will deliver a lasting political settlement." The spokeswoman said the two leaders had also stressed the importance of the international community, including China, putting pressure on North Korea to constrain the threat it poses. (Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by James Dalgleish, Toni Reinhold)
India's Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar today summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche saying the proceedings that led to the sentencing of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jashav were farcical.
By India Today Web Desk: After the Pakistan Army today sentenced Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav to death, Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, and issued a demarche saying that if the sentence is carried out, India will treat it as a "case of premeditated murder."
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the External Affairs Ministry's demarche to Pakistan read.
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"It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Shri Jadhav was being brought to trial," the ministry said.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted a copy of the demarche.
India's demarche to Pakistan (MEAIndia/Twitter)
India's demarche to Pakistan (MEAIndia/Twitter) India's demarche to Pakistan (MEAIndia/Twitter)
Meanwhile, BJP National Spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi called the sentencing an "eye opener" for India's courts.
"Kulbhushan's arrest is an eye opener for our judiciary where cases (against Pak nationals) are pending for years. Kulbhushan had just gone for business purpose to Iran," she said.
Although a statement issued by Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) described Jadhav as a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent who was arrested during a "Counter Intelligence Operation" from Mashkel in Balochistan, India has said he was abducted in Iran.
The human rights NGO Amnesty International has opposed the death sentence given to Jadhav.
'KANGAROO PROCEEDINGS,' ' CRIME IN THE MAKE' - CONGRESS SLAMS SENTENCE
The Congress' National Spokesperson Manish Tewari today said Jadhav had been sentenced by "kangaroo proceedings."
KULBHUSHAN Jadhav has been sentenced to death by Kangroo Proceedings in Pakistan that no one even knows ever took placeGOI must get him back- Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) April 10, 2017
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor called the sentence "unacceptable," and "essentially a crime in the make."
If the sentence is carried out, "it will call for very serious escalation on our part too," he told India Today.
Sudhir Pawar, a former neighbour of Jadhav's in Mumbai, expressed shock at the news.
"I was shocked. He has stayed with us. We know how he was. This is a conspiracy by Pakistan," he said.
Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Indian soldier Sarabjit Singh - who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013 after he was attacked by inmates - said the news didn't come to her as a surprise.
"They did the same with my brother," she said.
Former Research and Analysis Wing chief AS Dulat, too, hit out at Pakistan, saying, "Anything is possible in Pakistan. After all, they've hanged one of their Prime Ministers in (the) past."
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(Inputs from ANI)
ALSO READ | Kulbhushan Jadhav sentence linked to Pakistan Army ex-officer vanishing in Nepal?
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ALSO READ | Here's everything you need to know about Kulbhushan Jadhav
ALSO WATCH | Pakistan awards death penalty to Kulbhushan Jadhav who is accused of espionage
--- ENDS ---
By Charlotte Greenfield and Tom Westbrook WELLINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Cyclonic winds and heavy rain buffeted New Caledonia on Monday, prompting residents of the French South Pacific territory to seek shelter and halt mining of nickel, its most important export. Cyclone Cook hit the main island at almost the same time as high tide, packing winds of up to 200 kph (124 mph), bringing down coconut trees to block roads and forcing residents to seek shelter indoors. "Right now we are in the eye of the storm, it is calm, but before the wind was strong and the rain was heavy," David Sigal told Reuters as he sheltered in the town hall of Poindimie, about 50 km (31 miles) north of where the storm hit land. Floods, and waves as tall as 10 meters (33 feet), were also forecast by weather authorities. "The threat to New Caledonia is very serious," the meteorological service said in a cyclone alert. The storm hit land late on Monday afternoon as a Category Three storm, said Virgil Cavarero, a forecaster at Meteo New Caledonia, below the destructive Category 4 predicted earlier, which would have been a level off the most dangerous wind speed. Authorities widened their cyclone alert on Monday, however, warning residents nearly everywhere in the archipelago to seek shelter before evening. Nickel group Societe Le Nickel, a subsidiary of French conglomerate Eramet, has suspended mining at its five locations in New Caledonia, though smelting operations continue at a reduced level in the capital, Noumea, the firm said in a statement emailed to Reuters. New Caledonia is one of the worlds largest sources of nickel, and mining and metals processing plays a major role in its economy. Its two other main nickel producers, Glencore Plc and Vale, were not immediately available for comment, however. Cyclone Cook, tracking southward, is predicted to pass within 50 km (31 miles) of Noumea during the night. Strong winds, heavy rain and rain are forecast to batter the 400-km (250 mile) length of the main island and smaller islands nearby. As a precautionary measure against the cyclone, none of the roughly 100 guests staying at the packed hotel Le Lagon, in south Noumea, will be allowed to leave in the evening, said manager Emilie Coste. After passing through New Caledonia, Cyclone Cook is forecast to gather strength and hit flood-soaked New Zealand, as the threat from recent Cyclone Debbie dissipates. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook in SYDNEY and Charlotte Greenfield in WELLINGTON. Additional reporting by James Regan in SYDNEY.; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Clarence Fernandez)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) The mother of an inmate strangled in a South Carolina prison questions how two convicts serving life sentences could kill four people without attracting guards' attention.
"The prison guards should've been watching. This should've never happened," Becky Kelley of Saint Albans, West Virginia, told The Associated Press on Monday.
According to arrest warrants, Denver Simmons, 35, and Jacob Philip, 26, lured each of the four inmates into a cell at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia on Friday morning and worked together to attack and strangle them. Two of the inmates were also beaten or stabbed with a broken broomstick. Simmons and Philip confessed after the bodies were found.
All four were killed within 30 minutes, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said.
Kelley also questions why the convicted murderers, who have no possibility of parole, were housed in the same dorm as her son. The prison's chaplain told her the two claimed they killed inmates they considered weak, but she said her son wasn't weak.
"You know it took two guys to do one guy at a time," she said.
She said she's gotten no other answers.
Kelley's son, 35-year-old Jason Kelley, was expected to be released in 2020. He was imprisoned in 2013 for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Another strangled inmate was also slated for release in 2020, while another was expected to be released later this year. One was serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to murder but insane.
Becky Kelley said she hasn't seen her son in two years, but they wrote each other weekly, and "he was reading the Bible and going to church. He was really changing."
According to the arrest warrants, cameras "partially captured" the crimes. State law enforcement officials declined to answer questions about the ongoing investigation or release video.
Simmons and Philip, both charged with murder in the inmate killings, were transferred Friday to a maximum security unit in the prison. Privacy laws prevent comment on the type of dorm all six previously shared, Corrections spokeswoman Sommer Sharpe said.
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The Kirkland prison serves several roles in South Carolina's system.
Simmons, 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, has been jailed since his 2007 arrest on charges he killed a woman he knew in Colleton County, took her debit card and ate pizza for lunch, then got her 13-year-old son from school and fatally shot him, too. He was sentenced in 2010 to two consecutive life terms.
Philip, 6-foot-1 and 255 pounds, confessed in 2013 to strangling his girlfriend and her 8-year-old daughter in their Berkeley County home. At the time, the sailor was a student at the Nuclear Power Training School near Charleston.
Sen. Karl Allen, a member of the Senate Corrections committee, questions whether the inmates were properly classified and supervised. The Greenville Democrat plans to visit the prison soon.
Rep. Mike Pitts, a retired police officer, said he doesn't yet know what happened in this case but, in general, prison guards are vastly outnumbered.
"I don't fault the guards," said Pitts, R-Laurens. "It's hard to keep an eye on everybody, and it's very easy for one or two inmates to create a distraction."
Pitts, chairman of the House budget-writing panel for law enforcement agencies, said he's repeatedly warned his colleagues that a lack of funding is creating a dangerous situation for inmates and officers.
"When something happens, you've got to have bodies to react, and we don't have that," Pitts said.
___
Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.
Rabat (AFP) - A Moroccan court sentenced a man to three years in jail for trying to throw himself on King Mohammed VI's car to give him a message, media reported on Monday.
A video posted online on March 23 showed a young man running towards the king's motorcade in the capital Rabat during a visit by Jordan's King Abdullah II.
The footage shows members of the royal guard jumping off a moving vehicle to run after the man and tackling him, helped by motorcycle outriders.
Daily newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum said the man was sentenced to jail last week after he tried to "hand a letter of grievances to the king".
The 25-year-old was sentenced for "blocking the royal procession, threatening to endanger the lives of others and disturbing the public order", the daily said.
There was no immediate response when AFP tried to contact the Rabat court on Monday for confirmation.
Other videos showing Moroccans running towards the king's car in an attempt to present him with their demands have circulated on social media in recent months.
In July last year, the interior ministry warned against "the danger of blocking the circulation and passing of a royal procession on a public road in a bid to benefit from certain advantages".
In December, the ministry added that "security services accompanying the royal procession will receive no demand presented in this manner".
A descendant of the Alawite dynasty which has ruled Morocco since the 17th century, King Mohammed VI has been in power since 1999.
Arbil (Iraq) (AFP) - Simba the lion and Lula the bear, the ailing last two residents of Mosul zoo, were flown out of Iraq Monday to receive emergency care from an animal welfare group.
A group of veterinarians from the Four Paws International charity took the animals out of war-battered Mosul and after many administrative delays finally managed to fly them out to Jordan from the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Arbil.
"We're in the plane with the animals, we're leaving now," said Amir Khalil, a 52-year-old Egyptian-Austrian vet who headed the Four Paws mission.
The doctor found the pair covered in dirt and excrement in February, abandoned in their cages at the privately owned zoo in the eastern half of Mosul.
Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the city, Iraq's second largest, from the Islamic State group in October and spent weeks battling the jihadists street by street before eventually retaking the east bank in January.
When Four Paws reached the zoo, nobody had entered the cages in weeks and no other animals apart from the female bear and the male lion had survived.
When Khalil and his team came back to the region in late March, they had one goal which was to remove the animals temporarily from Iraq so they could receive proper veterinary care.
- 'Most complicated mission' -
"I'm a vet -- I have to look after these animals," said Khalil, a kind of "roving war zone veterinarian".
"They are refugees. It's our duty to take them to a sanctuary."
It was supposed to be a formality, but it took Khalil and his team two weeks to finally squeeze the right paperwork out of the administrative confusion that prevails in post-jihadist Mosul.
In late March, Khalil had put the two beasts to sleep, taken them out of their filthy cages on stretchers and loaded them aboard a truck using a crane, hoping to be on an aircraft in a matter of hours.
The thud of artillery fire across the river was a reminder than while eastern Mosul had been fully reconquered by the federal forces, the area was still a war zone.
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As the animal welfare team cautiously extracted the animals from the abandoned zoo, Ahmed Manhel looked on.
"I wouldn't mind receiving some care myself," the 18-year-old had said, leaning on two wooden crutches.
He lost his right leg in an explosion in November.
"I need to leave this place, I need a prosthetic leg," the young Iraqi said, moments before the truck carrying the animals departed for Arbil.
The truck was stopped at a checkpoint, however, and a second evacuation attempt the following day also failed.
The two animals remained on a dusty roadside for nine days before the necessary permits were secured.
The lion developed a respiratory problem as a result of the delay.
"This has probably been our most complicated mission," said Yavor Gechev, from the Four Paws group which has done similar work in the Gaza Strip, in Egypt during the Arab Spring and in Libya.
Before the plane finally took off, doctor Khalil was relieved.
"This is the beginning of a new life for the animals," he told AFP. "From now on, they won't have to be part of this war."
By Olga Grigoryants
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (Reuters) - A special education teacher and one of her students were fatally shot by her estranged husband when he opened fire in her classroom before killing himself at a San Bernardino, California, elementary school, police said.
A second student was wounded by the gunman, who authorities said had a criminal history that included domestic violence and weapons charges.
Police said the two students, both boys, were believed to have been caught in the gunfire unintentionally as bystanders to Monday's shooting, which took place about 8 miles from where a radicalized Muslim couple killed 14 people in a December 2015 shooting rampage.
City Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said the shooting at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, about 65 miles east of Los Angeles, was an apparent murder-suicide. It was the latest in dozens of cases of gun violence on school campuses around the United States each year.
The gunman was identified as Cedric Anderson, 53, of San Bernardino and his wife was identified as Karen Elaine Smith. Burguan said the couple had been married briefly and had been separated for about a month or month and a half.
The two students struck by gunfire had been standing behind Smith, the chief said. One 8-year-old boy died from his wounds. A 9-year-old classmate was admitted to pediatric surgery at a local hospital, where he was said to be in stable condition.
Neither student was related to the dead couple.
(This story corrects spelling of suspect's first name to Cedric, instead of Sedrick in paragraph five)
(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman, Piya Sinha-Roy and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Bill Trott)
By Sarah Netter
Emily Frame was a multi-tasking maven. Whether working as a technical writer, editing a local fashion magazine or running a market featuring handmade items, she was always on the go.
She thrived on a high-octane lifestyle, constantly on the lookout for a new project. Then she became a mom and got a crash course in taking life one moment at a time. It was a complete 180 that she is profoundly grateful for.
Now a mom to three boysHayes, 6; Callum, 5; and baby RaleighFrame is multi-tasking in a whole new way. Between juggling school projects and trips to the museum, she is a writer for the childrens lifestyle blog Small Fry.
At Small Fry, Frame muses on things like her go-to food fuel for herself and the kids, bedroom makeovers, spring break projects and travel tips. Shes still on the lookout for a new project, but shes a mom first.
Heres what this Utah mom learned from her first baby:
Who were you when you got pregnant?
I was 24 years old. I had just graduated college. I was a workhorse. I was in school full time. I had a full-time job. On the side, I was doing a ton of styling. I ran a handmade market. I was all over the place. I have this real desire to have a creative outlet, and so I had a lot of these outlets going when I was 24.
Did having a baby make you feel like an adult?
My husband and I, we got married really young because we were high school sweethearts, and so we waited about five years before we had any kids. We were really used to just playing hard, working hard, doing what we wanted when we wanted to do it. And so that was a huge shock for me as a mom, to go from doing that, kind of changing gears and really focusing on a little baby. Its a completely different speed and pace.
I guess the biggest shock momentwhere I felt like the weight of taking care of another personwas after I had Hayes. He had jaundice.
His levels actually got so high that he had to be in a bed, and he almost had to be re-admitted to the hospital.
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Ill never forget the pediatrician. We brought [Hayes] in to get him tested, and the pediatrician had this really stern look on his face.
That was a huge moment for me. I felt the weight of being a mother and really wanting to protect him and do the best job that I possibly could.
What surprised you the most about having a baby?
I went from a really high-paced life to these very slow, sweet moments with my son. And I didnt expect it to be so quiet. My biggest adjustment was really learning to value those little things instead of having to be at this high pace all the time.
What did you learn about yourself?
I think every mom learns this: You just arent as patient as you thought youd be. Being a mom is such a mirror to your weaknesses. Like a microscope, it magnifies them. I learned really quickly under that microscope what I needed to do to become the mom I had envisioned for myself.
Describe your lowest point.
For sure that bilirubin test. When we came out of the hospital, Hayes was in a middle range. And then because we werent very diligent with that bed, [his bilirubin levels] rosehe kind of skyrocketed. That was my lowest point.
We just felt the weight of it and the guilt of it and the shame of not being better or not knowing more. Hes totally fine [now], but just having that brush with we might have lost him. That was terrifying.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
It really goes by so fast. Its such a cliche but it does. Its gone in the blink of an eye. Youre wanting them to crawl and youre wanting them to walk and youre wanting them to get a tooth. I anticipated those milestones way too much.
Now I have a first grader! I guess I would really tell myself to forget about those things and just enjoy them for where they are.
Having a baby is a big change, and a milestone that brings the need for life insurance into focus more clearly than ever. Amica Insurance can help protect your familys financial future. Visit AmicaQuote.com today to get a life insurance quote from Amica Insurance.
Sarah Netter is a Yahoo Storyteller. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and ABC News.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said the U.S. wants to defeat the Islamic State and remove Syrian President Bashar Assad - although not in a unilateral move - in his first televised interview.
McMaster left open the possibility for further military action against Syria following a missile strike last week ordered by President Trump in response to the countrys chemical attack against rebel forces that killed 87 people including children.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, McMaster said Trump was seeking a political solution for a regime change in Syria.
Its very difficult to understand how a political solution could result form the continuation of the Assad regime, McMaster said. Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves ... why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?
McMaster said U.S. goals of both destroying ISIS and ousting Assad were simultaneous. He did not rule out further strikes on Syria if Assad continued egregious attacks against rebel forces with chemical or other weapons.
We are prepared to do more, he said. The President will make whatever decision he thinks is in the best interest of the American people.
This article was originally published on TIME.com
In its first reaction after a Pakistani military court sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav to death, the civilian establishment called it a warning to Pakistan's enemies.
By Santosh Chaubey: Reacting to the death sentence given to the former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court, the country's civilian establishment has likened it to 'warning to the enemies of Pakistan'.
Pakistan has accused Jadhav of being a Research and Analysis Wing agent, a charge that the Indian government has strongly refuted.
According to a report published in Pakistani publication, The Nation, Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif said, "No leniency will be given to those with anti-Pakistan sentiments. His (Jhadav) death sentence is a warning to the enemies of Pakistan".
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Asif said that India's spy agency R&AW was acting in collusion with Afghanistan to foment unrest in Balochistan and to destabilise the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Reiterating the Pakistani rant that law was followed in Jadhav's case, the Pakistani defence minister said, "India was not their (Pakistan's) well wisher and it sponsored cross-border terrorism in Pakistan."
This is the first reaction from any senior minister of Pakistan's civilian establishment on the Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence, which was confirmed by Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa.
MILITARY VS THE GOVERNMENT
Notably, the civilian establishment is seen not at good terms with Pakistan's all powerful military.
Asif's statement on the Jadhav issue is on the expected line as Pakistan's military wields the real power in Pakistan and its civilian government has always been forced to toe the army line.
At the same time, rivals of Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif have slammed him for his alleged soft stance on India.
Also, it is widely believed that Sharif has tried to take on the military establishment to assert the civilian government's supremacy.
The death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a military court of Pakistan through a trial conducted in secrecy once again reaffirms the fact that it is the Pakistan's military that calls the shots in the country.
Just in December, Nawaz Sharif's Foreign Advisor Sartaj Aziz had accepted in the Pakistani Senate that the dossier on Kubhushan Jadhav had mere statements and more evidence was needed.
And now, all of a sudden, in just four months, in a military court trial, Pakistan has amassed enough evidence to hang Kulbhushan.
INDIA CRIES MURDER
The Indian government, in its reaction, has slammed the Pakistani military court's verdict announcing a death sentence for Jadhav.
The Ministry of External Affairs sent Pakistan a sharply worded demarche, which read, "If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder."
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WATCH | Pakistan sentences Kulbhushan Jadhav to death accusing him of espionage
--- ENDS ---
By Jemima Kelly and Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - The World Wide Web needs a complete rethink to prevent spying and the spread of "nasty, mean ideas" on social media websites, its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, said on Monday. Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web as a platform on top of the internet in 1989, said his intention in building it had been for the public to "do good stuff" and share ideas among each other, as was the case with websites such as Wikipedia. Instead, negative ideas were proliferating on social media sites in particular, he said, while privacy was also being compromised by online spying. "We need to rethink the way we build society on top of these web pages," he told the Innovate Finance global fintech summit in London. "How come nasty, mean ideas, seem to have travelled more prevalently than constructive ideas on Twitter sometimes? Is that the way it has been designed? Could Twitter be tweaked?" Social media has become active in polarised political campaigns such as the U.S. presidential elections and Britain's referendum on membership of the European Union last year. There have also been instances of public figures being abused online, often by robots programmed to send out negative tweets. The conclusion was that a "complete change of strategy" was needed. Facebook and Twitter were already rethinking approaches, he said. Berners-Lee, who has previously criticised state-sponsored eavesdropping as well as censorship, said he had given humanity "an open internet to play with" in the hope that they would use it in a positive manner. "We have tried to keep it open, we kept it royalty-free. We have kept it open in the sense of no censorship. On a good day, in a good country, we keep it free of spying." There was a need to analyse the effects networks have on society, Berners-Lee said. "We actually have to not leave people to make whatever social networks they like." Last week he told the Guardian newspaper that U.S. President Trump administrations decision to allow internet service providers to sign away their customers' privacy and sell customers' browsing habits was "disgusting", after he won the prestigious Association for Computing Machinerys AM Turing award. Despite the web being world-wide, with the possibility of school children from India, China and Syria interacting with each other, Berners-Lee said, people were broadly parochial, choosing to communicate with others like themselves. (Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
WASHINGTON (AP) Somewhere between the Republican caricature of the next justice of the Supreme Court as a folksy family guy and the Democrats' demonization of him as a cold-hearted automaton, stands Neil Gorsuch.
Largely unknown six months ago, Gorsuch has seen his life story, personality and professional career explored in excruciating detail since he was nominated by President Donald Trump 10 weeks ago.
The portrait that emerges is more nuanced than the extremes drawn by his supporters and critics.
Gorsuch is widely regarded as a warm and collegial family man, boss and jurist, loyal to his employees and kind to those of differing viewpoints. He also has been shown to be a judge who takes such a "rigidly neutral" approach to the law that it can lead to dispassionate rulings with sometimes brutal results.
Four times during his confirmation hearings, Gorsuch invoked a "breakfast table" analogy, telling senators that good judges set aside what they have to eat and their personal views before they leave the house in the morning to apply the law and nothing else to the facts of the cases at hand. It was all part of Gorsuch's artful effort to reveal as little as possible of his own opinions.
"We're all human beings," Gorsuch told senators, "but the judge's job is to put that stuff aside and approach the law as you find it."
That ability to compartmentalize, combined with Gorsuch's studious refusal to signal his thinking on contentious issues, left Democrats frustrated. For all his many visits with senators and his hours in the witness seat, Gorsuch had not revealed his core beliefs and may have, according to Democrats, a bias favoring powerful interests over ordinary people.
The question for Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was "whether there's a beating heart and an independent streak" behind Gorsuch's silver hair and smooth delivery.
Republicans saw Gorsuch's disciplined and detached approach as evidence of the fair and independent mindset that the U.S. needs on its highest court.
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Confirmed after a rancorous 54-45 vote in the Senate, Gorsuch soon will largely recede into the cloistered halls of the Supreme Court. He won't vanish entirely; other justices have written books, done speaking tours and interviews.
But Gorsuch won't again face this kind of grilling, into everything from his views on abortion to the avid outdoorsman's favorite fishing holes. (He largely pleaded the Fifth on both.)
The 49-year-old judge was happy to reminisce about his years as a student and lawyer before becoming a federal appellate judge in Denver 10 years ago. He relied on self-deprecating humor and a goodness-gosh-golly demeanor in outsize doses as he deflected the questions he didn't want to answer.
"I might be a little corny," he said at one point to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"Oh, now we're talking," Gorsuch enthused when the talk turned to fly fishing. "You can't focus on the worries of the world when you're only worried about a trout."
Gorsuch's impressive scholarly and legal credentials were on full display: Columbia, Harvard and Oxford, the latter with scenes that Gorsuch recalled were straight out of a Harry Potter movie.
But Gorsuch, known for the clarity of his legal writings, traced the roots of his success back to an even earlier source, Sister Mary Rose Margaret, the nun of whom he says: "She taught me how to read and she taught me how to diagram a sentence."
Gorsuch, whose mother was a state legislator and then director of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Ronald Reagan, tried to play down the political elements in his background. Gorsuch stressed that when issues such as torture arose during his time in President George W. Bush's Justice Department, he acted not as a policymaker but as a "speechwriter" or "a lawyer for a client."
He did acknowledge, though, that an email he sent criticizing lawyers at big firms for representing detainees being held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was "not my finest hour."
Perhaps no ruling got more attention over the past 10 weeks than a case in which Gorsuch came down against a truck driver who was fired for leaving his trailer of meat on the side of an Illinois road after breaking down on a frigid night in 2009 and fearing he would freeze to death. Asked whether the man's firing wasn't absurd, Gorsuch said simply: "My heart goes out to him. It's just not my job."
For all that he shared, Gorsuch did his best not to telegraph where he might land on a range of topics that he could confront early in his time as a justice, even though both sides think they have a pretty good idea how he would rule.
Cases about voting rights, gun control, religious rights, housing discrimination and immigration are pending before the court. The dispute over Trump's proposed ban on visitors from six majority Muslim countries could be on the way as well.
Gorsuch was careful not to offer any hints on these issues in his exchanges with committee Democrats and Republicans.
Questioned about his views on the Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman's right to have an abortion, Gorsuch would go no further than to voice his respect for legal precedent and say "no one is looking to return us to horse and buggy days."
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, spoke for many in her party when, nearing the end of two days of testimony, she told Gorsuch: "It remains to be seen whether you will be a justice for all or a justice for some."
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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
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Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/nbenac
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Find AP's reporting on Neil Gorsuch here: http://apne.ws/2mfXk4V
Beirut (AFP) - One woman was killed in an air strike Saturday on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun, site of a suspected chemical weapons attack earlier this week, a monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was unclear if the strike on the rebel-held town in northwest Syria's Idlib province was carried out by Syrian planes or those of government ally Russia.
The death was the first in the town since a suspected chemical weapons attack on Tuesday that killed 87 civilians, including 31 children, and left hundreds suffering symptoms including convulsions, vomiting and foaming at the mouth.
Much of the international community pointed the finger at President Bashar al-Assad's government for the attack, though it denied any responsibility.
US President Donald Trump ordered the first direct US military action against Assad's government in response to the attack, launching missiles against an air base in central Syria.
Khan Sheikhun has been hit several times since the Tuesday attack, including in a strike in the hours afterwards on a hospital treating victims.
Idlib province is largely held by an alliance of rebels, including a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and is regularly targeted in Syrian and Russian air strikes.
The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State jihadist group has also carried out rare strikes in the province.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since its conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations.
During his campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly called for rewriting the U.S.-Mexico relationship. He peppered Mexicans with nasty stereotypes (criminals, rapists, and bad hombres), advocated ripping up the North American Free Trade Agreement, and promised to build a big beautiful wall on the border on Mexicos dime.
Now some prominent Mexicans are raising their own quibbles about the border. They are making the case that Mexico should return to its 1848 boundaries, before the United States snatched large chunks of their territory, including most of California, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona, during the Mexican-American war.
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a respected left-wing politician and former presidential candidate, is leading the charge. He has been calling for the Mexican government to bring a lawsuit against the United States in the International Court of Justice, for reparations and indemnification.
We are going to make a strong and tough case, because we are right. They were in Mexican territory in a military invasion, Guillermo Hamdan Castro, a lawyer working with Cardenas on the case, told reporters in March.
The gambit hinges on a line in the first sentence of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the document that sealed the U.S. victory over Mexico on Feb. 2, 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American war. The sentence includes an admission the U.S. army invaded Mexico, and Hamdan argues that signing an agreement under such duress renders it null, and therefore Mexican immigrants cant be expelled.
Such a suit from the Mexican government would need to be approved by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, by no means a certainty. Then, it would likely face slim odds of succeeding in the courts. Legal claims using modern conceptions of law are on shaky ground applied to a treaty more than 150 years old. And the United States does not recognize the International Court of Justices jurisdiction to enforce its decisions in contentious cases.
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But there are worries the suit could exacerbate already resurgent Mexican nationalism, endangering two decades of relative stability between the two nations. I have concerns that this type of a case could really stoke a nationalistic defensive response from both sides of the border, Christopher Wilson, a Mexico expert at the Wilson Center, warned.
The very act of pointing out American hypocrisy on the border may become a rallying cry that could shake up politics in Mexico, a country that has recently been feeling denigrated and excluded by its powerful neighbor and supposed ally. Hamdan has even started a website and campaign called Demand Whats Ours.
The proposal indicates just how much Trumps new tone has managed to alienate Mexicans, Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said. She said pressure was building in Mexico to adopt a confrontational attitude to the U.S.
Anti-Americanism has always been a powerful undercurrent in Mexican society. Not only did the United States invade and seize nearly half its territory in the 1800s, but ever since then Mexico has chafed under American intrusions and perceived disrespect for Mexican sovereignty. Cardenass own father, former President Lazaro Cardenas, was an expert in exploiting distrust of U.S. meddling. In the 1930s he argued that Mexicans needed to protect their natural resources from foreign control and expropriated the oil industry, pushing out foreign investors.
In the past two decades, the relationship between the two countries has significantly strengthened, with new cooperation in security and trade helping to cement a stronger bond, analysts said. One of the great advances of the U.S.-Mexico relationship has been finding ways to move past a dynamic of mutual recrimination, Wilson said.
But Trumps election and repeated targeting of Mexicans has gone a long way to sour that relationship. Even if members of Trumps cabinet his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly seem to be sending more conciliatory signals to their Mexican counterparts, the cloud of uncertainty over U.S.-Mexico relations has encouraged agitators trying to translate popular outrage into political wins.
Trump has become a reliable punching bag for left-wing politicians vying for office in the 2018 elections. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who ran for President in 2006 and 2012 and whose populist style is sometimes compared to a Mexican Trump of the left, has been consistently blasting the U.S. President for his harsh measures against Mexican immigrants and his talk of building a wall.
Pena Nieto has also learned the upside of confronting Trump: he received a sudden bounce in the polls when he abruptly ditched a Jan. 31 visit to the White House in protest of Trumps insistence that Mexico would pay for a border wall.
Photo credit: MARIO VAZQUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistan will execute an Indian man arrested in the southwestern province of Balochistan last year who officials claim has confessed to being a spy for Indian intelligence, the country's powerful military said Monday.
The man, named by the army as Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav who also goes by the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, was found guilty by a military court and sentenced to death.
"Today, (army chief) Gen Qamer Javed Bajwa has confirmed his death sentence," a military statement said, without stating when the execution would take place.
India denied that he was a spy.
The nuclear arch-rivals routinely accuse one another of sending spies into their countries, and it is not uncommon for either nation to expel diplomats accused of espionage, particularly at times of high tension.
However death sentences have rarely been issued in such cases in recent years.
In 2013 an Indian national on death row for spying in Pakistan was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. Sarabjit Singh had been on death row for 16 years.
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has been battling a years-long separatist insurgency that the army has repeatedly characterised as "terrorism" promoted by hostile states such as India.
Pakistan will execute an Indian who allegedly confessed to spying for Indian intelligence, the powerful military said Monday in a move that quickly raised tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.
The man, named by the army as Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav who also goes by the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, was found guilty by a military court which was closed to the public and was sentenced to death.
"Today, (army chief) Gen Qamer Javed Bajwa has confirmed his death sentence," a military statement said, without stating when the execution would take place.
New Delhi slammed the decision. "If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign ministry said.
The Pakistani statement said Jadhav told the court he was tasked by India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency to "plan, coordinate, and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan" in the southwestern province of Balochistan and in the bustling port city of Karachi.
A Pakistani security official told AFP the court-martial had been kept secret even within the ranks of the military.
India has previously denied as "baseless" the claim that Jadhav, whom Islamabad says was arrested in Balochistan in March last year, was a spy.
Its foreign ministry said it had summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner (ambassador) Abdul Basit to protest at the conviction and sentence.
The ministry said there was no evidence against Jadhav, whom Indian media have described as a former naval officer, calling the proceedings against him "farcical".
It also dismissed the Pakistani military claim Jadhav had been provided with a "defending officer" as "clearly absurd", and said it had made 13 requests for consular access to him over the past year, all of which were denied.
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Shortly after the arrest the Pakistani military released a video showing Jadhav confessing to working in Pakistan for years, though it was unclear if it had been filmed under duress.
- High tension -
The arch-rivals routinely accuse each other of sending spies into their countries and it is not uncommon for either to expel diplomats accused of espionage, particularly at times of high tension.
However death sentences have rarely been passed in such cases in recent years.
In 2013 an Indian sentenced to death for spying in Pakistan was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. Sarabjit Singh had been on death row for 16 years.
In 1999 another Indian, Sheikh Shamim, was hanged in a Pakistani jail almost ten years after he was caught "red-handed" near the border and arrested on charges of spying.
Previous cases have largely gone through civilian courts.
Analyst Hassan Askari said the decision to execute Jadhav would "further increase tension between the two countries".
"The military has given a severe punishment which is according to Pakistani law," he told AFP.
"But we will have to see if Pakistan can sustain the political and diplomatic fallout."
Relations have plummeted since a deadly attack on an Indian army base in the disputed region of Kashmir in September, which 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.
The neighbours have fought three wars since independence from Britain seven decades ago, two of them over Kashmir.
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has been battling a years-long separatist insurgency which the army has repeatedly characterised as "terrorism" promoted by hostile states such as India.
Karachi, a city of 20 million and Pakistan's economic hub, is also frequently hit by religious, political and ethnic violence.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani military court sentenced an Indian accused of espionage to death on Monday, potentially ratcheting up tension between the two nuclear-armed states. Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, in the turbulent province of Baluchistan, which has seen a long-running conflict between Pakistani security forces and a militant separatist movement. The Pakistani military said in a statement he had confessed to being tasked by India's intelligence service with planning, coordinating and organizing espionage and sabotage activities in Baluchistan "aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan". The sentence was passed by a Field General Court Martial and confirmed by the powerful army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The military did not announce any date for the execution. There was no immediate comment from the Indian government. Pakistan accuses India of helping the separatist movement in Baluchistan, a charge denied by India. In its turn, the government in New Delhi says Pakistan aids separatist fighters in Kashmir, part of India's only Muslim-majority state, which Pakistan also claims. Last September, tension between the neighbors escalated after gunmen killed 19 Indian soldiers at an army camp in Kashmir, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based militants. Pakistan denies backing militants saying it only offers political support to the Muslim people of Indian-controlled Kashmir. (This story has been refiled to clarify that arrest was in March 2016 in paragraph two.) (Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Washington (AFP) - The Pentagon believes the Syrian regime likely has additional chemical weapons stocks at the airfield struck by US missiles last week, but these were deliberately left untouched, an official said Monday.
US intelligence experts assess Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military is probably hoarding the weapons in munitions depots at Shayrat airfield near Homs in central Syria, the US military's Central Command spokesman Colonel John Thomas said.
President Donald Trump ordered a massive military strike on the air base last week, in retaliation for a "barbaric" chemical attack he blamed on Assad.
"We suspected there was a significant probability there could be other chemical weapons which would be ready to go, weaponized in those facilities, and so we didn't strike those," Thomas told reporters.
The chemical stocks were left untouched because the Pentagon did not want to risk unintentionally sending a plume of toxic gas across parts of Syria.
Though the United States is confident Assad is stockpiling chemical weapons, intelligence analysts are not certain what these are.
Under a 2013 Moscow-brokered deal, Assad was supposed to have dismantled Syria's chemical weapons arsenal and ship it to Russia.
The Pentagon has said it is sure Assad unleashed a chemical attack on April 4 that killed at least 87 civilians in the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun.
"Our advice was to make sure we didn't inflict any greater damage by touching any of the chemical weapons in the area," Thomas added.
"We were trying to degrade their capability to launch aircraft and to load them up with chemical weapons."
The Pentagon says the strike destroyed more than 20 Syrian jets but the military has come under criticism for not targeting Shayrat's runways, amid reports regime planes were again using the base hours after the attack by 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Thomas said the runways were deliberately avoided because the United States was trying to draw a clear line that its military action was in response to the suspected chemical attack, and not signal a willingness to get more involved in Syria's brutal civil war.
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US forces gave Moscow a heads up shortly before Friday's strike, as Russian personnel and equipment were based at Shayrat under Russia's ongoing military intervention to prop up Assad.
Moscow reacted furiously to the US strike and immediately threatened to suspend a vital hotline established to avoid mishaps between the two powers in Syria.
Thomas refused to confirm whether the so-called "deconfliction line" remains operational, but said that even without it, "there are still ways for the pilots to hail each other."
While US and Russian pilots can use radar to see each other, the lack of a direct line of communication would further heighten the risks of misunderstandings or accidents in Syria's already crowded skies.
Former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was today given a death sentence by the Pakistan Army. Jadhav can't expect a fair trial, but he still has a couple of options left.
By Prabhash K Dutta: Former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was today awarded capital punishment by a military court in Pakistan.
The Field General Court Martial (FGCM) sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav to death on the charges of "espionage and sabotage activities".
FGCM is a military court consisting of Pakistan Army officers. The judges on the FGCM aren't required to possess law degrees.
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HOW IT HAPPENED WITH KULBHUSHAN JADHAV
Pakistan Army General Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed the death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav after the Field General Court Martial found him guilty of "all the charges".
An ISPR release said, "The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial under the Pakistan Army Act and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM."
The military court was not closed to outsiders. Kulbhushan Jadhav was not given consular access as demanded by Indian authorities.
Pakistan maintained that providing a defending officer during his trial at the Field General Court Martial as per legal provisions of the military court of Pakistan was enough defence for Kulbhushan Jadhav.
OPTIONS BEFORE KULBHUSHAN JADHAV
The military courts of Pakistan have unbridled rights and unmatched jurisdiction. They have the right to try civilians for several crimes. The government can also transfer cases to the military courts of Pakistan.
The Pakistan government gave an extension to the military courts of Pakistan after the December 2015 terror attack on a Peshawar school.
Interestingly, the military courts of Pakistan do not have trained judges or judges with any kind of mandatory legal training.
According to existing laws in Pakistan, the military court convicts cannot appeal in a civilian court. This means the possibility of a fair trial is not available for Kulbhushan Jadhav.
But, there are two options available to Kulbhushan Jadhav:
- According to the Pakistan Army Act 1952, Kulbhushan Jadhav can appeal in the Military Appellate Tribunal. However, the chances of getting a different verdict are slim.
- The second option available to Kulbhushan Jadhav is to appeal in a civilian court for 'review' of the FGCM judgment. According to the Pakistan Army Act Section 7.2.3, military court convicts can have the decisions 'reviewed' by civilian courts, where Kulbhushan can have a lawyer of his choice. The government of India can also find a lawyer to defend him if Pakistan gives Kulbhushan Jadhav consular access.
HOW MILITARY COURTS OPERATE IN PAKISTAN
The human rights activists of Pakistan have questioned the very existence of military courts especially for trial of civilians. According to the International Court of Justice, Pakistan is the only South Asian country to allow trial of civilians by military courts.
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The principle of fair justice warrants a written judgment by a court of law. The written judgment explains the reasoning and logic behind the verdicts. But, the military courts of Pakistan are not required to give any such document. Even the families of the convicts are not told about the investigation and evidence related to the case.
According to a report released by the ISPR about the trial of the cases for 2016, about 90 per cent of the accused confessed to the charges framed by the military courts. Kulbhushan Jadhav's confession was one of them.
The unusually high percentage of confession to crimes by the accused in military courts raises serious doubts about the credibility of the statements. This indicates questionable interrogation and torture to elicit favourable confessions.
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) A Philippines appeals court on Monday affirmed a regional trial court's conviction of a U.S. Marine and his sentence of up to 10 years in jail for killing a transgender Filipino, whose heirs he was also ordered to compensate.
The Court of Appeals decision seen Monday did not accept Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton's claim of self-defense in killing Jennifer Laude inside a motel room in northwestern Olongapo city after they met in a disco bar in October 2014.
The killing sparked anger in the Philippines and reignited calls by left-wing groups and nationalists for an end to U.S. military presence in the country.
Pemberton had claimed Laude molested him in the motel room by pretending to be a woman and he had to defend his dignity, but that he had no intention to kill her. He said Laude slapped him when he confronted her for pretending to be a woman.
But the decision penned by Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison said physical evidence contradicts Pemberton's claim.
"As proven by the prosecution, Pemberton did not leave Laude merely unconscious, but ensured his death by submerging his head inside the toilet bowl," it said. "Clearly, Pemberton intended the natural consequence of his wrongful act."
The court also upheld, with slight modification, the order for Pemberton to pay Laude's heirs more than $90,000 for loss of Laude's income, civil indemnity, moral damages and actual damages.
Rep. Harry Roque, who served as the Laude family's private lawyer, welcomed the court's decision, saying that "the fact that a member of the U.S. Marines was found guilty for breach of our criminal laws for the very first time is an affirmation of Philippine sovereignty."
Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was one of thousands of American and Philippine military personnel who participated in joint exercises in the country in 2014. He and a group of other Marines were on leave after the exercises and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former U.S. Navy base. At least two witnesses testified that Laude was a sex worker.
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Pemberton has been detained at a compound guarded by Philippine and American security personnel, at the main military camp in metropolitan Manila.
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This story has been corrected to show the amount to be compensated is more than $90,000, not $9,000.
BAYTOWN, Texas (AP) A man who fatally shot a Houston-area deputy constable outside a county courthouse last week killed himself the next day, police said Monday.
William Kenny, 64, was the man who shot Harris County Precinct 3 Assistant Chief Deputy Clinton Greenwood on April 3 moments after Greenwood arrived for work, Baytown police Lt. Steve Dorris said at a news conference. The attack prompted a massive manhunt.
Dorris said investigators hadn't identified Kenny as the gunman until late Sunday and had been searching for him Monday when they discovered he already was dead. Authorities determined he shot himself on April 4 outside Houston's Ben Taub Hospital, where the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office took jurisdiction of his body. Spokeswoman Tricia Bentley said the autopsy was completed the following day and a funeral home designated by Kenny's family picked it up Friday.
The gun used to shoot Greenwood was the same one Kenny used to kill himself, Dorris said.
Greenwood, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, was working for a Harris County constable's office when he was killed, but had previously worked for the county sheriff's office, the county prosecutor's office and in private practice as a lawyer.
Dorris declined to reveal a motive for the shooting, explaining that the investigation is ongoing, and said investigators are still working to determine why Greenwood was targeted. He said Kenny had filed complaints with the county sheriff's department, but authorities didn't reveal the nature of the complaints.
The Houston Chronicle reported, however, that Kenny had filed a complaint over a dispute with his now-ex-wife over family photos. The paper cited unnamed sources in reporting that Kenney filed a complaint with the sheriff's department because deputies declined to arrest his wife, who had taken the photos. Greenwood, as head of internal affairs decisions at the time, opted not to pursue the case.
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After Greenwood's death, authorities had placed a former district attorney under armed protection as a precaution.
The Chronicle reported last week that a source said Greenwood, 57, had emailed the Harris County Attorney's Office last month, saying he felt threatened by a man he had once targeted in a corruption investigation. The source asked not to be identified because of the nature of the investigation.
The gunman had stepped out from behind a dumpster as Greenwood, a married father of four, exited his SUV after arriving for work at a courthouse complex in Baytown.
Dorris said surveillance video showing a car outside the courthouse east of Houston was instrumental in leading investigators to Kenny. He described a painstaking process over the last week to review video at the courthouse and also other video in the area used by convenience stores and others.
"That was one of the reasons is took so long to get us to where we are," he said.
Video at a convenience store provided a clear photo of Kenny, Dorris said, and investigators determined the vehicle was a rental and that it had been rented by Kenny.
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This story has been updated to correct that Kenny's body had been found last week and to correct the spelling of his name to Kenny, per medical examiner.
By Marcin Goettig and Pawel Sobczak WARSAW (Reuters) - The plane that crashed and killed Poland's president and 95 others in 2010 probably disintegrated in mid-air when explosives were detonated on board, a Polish government commission said on Monday - a theory that a member of a previous commission dismissed as "propaganda". The new commission presented its preliminary findings on the seventh anniversary of the catastrophe in western Russia, which killed President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, top army brass and several lawmakers. "Much indicates that on April 10, 2010, an explosion took place on board of the government Tupolev plane," said the commentary accompanying video material presented by the commission on Monday. http://podkomisjasmolensk.mon.gov.pl/pl/1_16.html "As a result of the conducted experiments, we can say that the most likely cause of the explosion was a thermobaric charge initiating a strong shockwave." But a member of the previous Polish official commission to investigate the Smolensk crash, Maciej Lasek, dismissed the findings published on Monday as "illusions presented by people who had never investigated air crashes before." "This is propaganda aimed at strengthening the faith ... in hypothetical causes of this accident," Lasek told private broadcaster TVN24. Lasek was head of the state body to investigate air crashes from 2012 until he was dismissed from the post by the current government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party last year. The earlier commission, created by the previous government, blamed mistakes by the Polish pilots and Russian air traffic controllers for the crash. A Russian report blamed the Poles. The PiS government last month accused European Council President Donald Tusk of working with Russian President Vladimir Putin to harm Polish interests following the plane crash. Tusk was Polish prime minister at the time. The new investigatory commission, created by Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, said on Monday that a blast most likely tore the plane into pieces, killing all 96 people seconds before it hit the ground. It repeated allegations, first made in Warsaw a week ago, that Russian air traffic controllers had deliberately set the plane on the wrong descent path. Polish prosecutors said then they would press charges against two controllers. Moscow rejected the allegations. FRAGMENTS The crash took place as pilots attempted to land a Soviet-made TU-154 at a rarely used airport near Smolensk to take part in commemorations of thousands of Polish officers executed there by Soviet secret police in 1940. The commission report said that besides large pieces of wreckage, there was a multitude of smaller fragments, a fact that could be explained by an explosion. Russia has so far refused to return the wreckage of the jet to Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, citing its own continuing investigation. The commission also said that at least four victims of the crash had significant burns on their bodies, although they were found away from flames on the crash site. One of the plane doors penetrated the ground to a depth of one meter, suggesting it had been traveling 10 times faster than the plane's speed, it said. The commission said it had ordered a reconstruction of part of the TU-154 plane and blown it up with a thermobaric charge, adding that the damage resembled that done in the Russian crash. Polish prosecutors last year ordered the coffins of crash victims to be reopened to check for traces of explosives. This process will continue until next year, prosecutors said earlier this month. The commission's findings are likely to worsen relations with Moscow - already strained over the conflict in Ukraine - and increase domestic political tensions in Poland. (Writing by Marcin Goettig; editing by Andrew Roche, Larry King)
Senators from both sides of the aisle are lamenting the death of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, arguing that its demise will further exacerbate partisan dysfunction and congressional gridlock. But the end of the filibuster is a symptom of the death spiral of the Senate into permanent polarization, not its cause.
The history of the filibuster, as recounted by Josh Chafetz, suggests that it was a historical accident and only became a tool for permanent minority obstruction relatively recently. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution gives each house of Congress the authority to set the rules for its own proceedings. And, in the early years of the Republic, senators could end debate by calling for the previous question, which required a simple majority vote. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson, described by Chafetz as the great parliamentarian of the early Republic, said, No one is to speak impertinently or beside the question, superfluously or tediously, and, if repeated calls do not produce order, the Speaker may call by his name any member obstinately persisting in irregularity, whereupon the house may require the member to withdraw. (Chafetz has debated the history and constitutionality of the filibuster with Richard Arenberg, who offers a different perspective.)
The Senate abolished the previous question motion in 1806, at the urging of Aaron Burr. But this wasnt because the Senate sought to enshrine a principle of unlimited debate. Instead, Burr thought that the rule wasnt needed because it was rarely used. As political scientist Sarah Binder explained in testimony before the Senate in 2010, The history of extended debate in the Senate belies the received wisdom that the filibuster was an original, constitutional feature of the Senate. The filibuster is more accurately viewed as the unanticipated consequence of an early change to Senate rules.
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Following the 1806 rule change, a minority could begin to use the filibuster to obstruct actions in the Senate. But that didnt really happen. In fact, for most of American history, majorities who held both the House and the Senate were generally able to get through nominations and laws, as the Framers intended.
Scholars debate the lessons of early congressional history. Some point to a 1790 debate over where to locate Congress as the earliest example of delay tactics akin to a filibuster. Others mention early master obstructionists, such as Virginias John Randolph and South Carolinas John C. Calhoun. For example, as Erwin Chemerinsky and Catherine Fisk explain, Randolph had compiled such a record for protracted irrelevant talk during his service in the House and his subsequent brief tenure in the Senate that Thomas Jefferson used the generic term a John Randolph to describe one who protracted the proceedings of Congress. And, as Chafetz notes, Calhoun repeatedly used delay tactics in an attempt to protect the interests of the Southern states.
Chemerinsky and Fisk also point to specific examples of early filibusters in antebellum Americafor instance, in fights over patronage positions on the Congressional Globe and in a battle over the national bank. By 1863, the filibusteras an exercise in obstructionhad acquired its official name. Nevertheless, as Chafetz explains, filibusters were relatively rare in the nineteenth century. And, Chemerinsky and Fisk add that almost every filibustered measure before 1880 was eventually passed. So, as late as 1880, the filibuster did not yet function as a regular veto by a Senate minority. But the Senates workload increased significantly after the Civil War, as the role of the national government grew. As a result, the costs of the filibuster greatly increased.
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Senate concerns about ongoing obstruction came to a head in 1917, in a debate over a bill that would have armed merchant ships in the run-up to American involvement in World War I. As Will Englund explained, this was intended to protect the ships from German U-boats. A group of 11 progressive Senatorsled by Senator Robert La Follette, a Republican from Wisconsinblocked the bill. President Woodrow Wilson countered, A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own . . . have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible. The Senate then adopted the cloture rule, which provided a way of cutting off debate and ending a filibuster with a two-thirds vote.
Despite this rule change, the filibuster did not yet function as a de facto super-majority requirement for all major legislation. Take the New Deal era, for example. As Chafetz notes, Democrats didnt have a filibuster-proof majority at the beginning of President Franklin D. Roosevelts first term. Nevertheless, no cloture motions were filed during this period, and Congress passed several landmark pieces of legislation, including the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Glass-Steagall Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the Securities Act.
As Chafetz explained, senators did deploy the filibuster in one important contextcivil rights. Senator Strom Thurmond filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes. Less than a decade later, Southern senators used the filibuster to hold up the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from February through Junea total of 60 Senate working days. Both bills ultimately passed. Southern senators also filibustered the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972.
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Senators also used the filibuster to block Judge Abe Fortass nomination as chief justice of the United States. On June 26, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson nominated then-Justice Fortas to succeed Earl Warren as chief justice. However, during Fortass confirmation battle, senators discovered that Fortas had received a seminar fee from American University that was equal to 40 percent of his Supreme Court salary. Senators filibustered his nomination, and, in October 1968, the Senate cloture vote failed by a 45-43 margin. (This was one of four cloture votes for a Supreme Court nominee; the other three were for William Rehnquist in 1971 and 1986 and for Samuel Alito in 2006.) Johnson then withdrew Fortass nomination.
In the closing decades of the 20th century, minority obstruction in the Senate rose. Statistics from former Senate staffer William Dauster bear this out. From 1917 through 1970, the Senate only filed 58 cloture petitions (roughly one per year), voted on only 49 of them (less than once per year), and invoked cloture only 8 times (once every seven years). Between 1971 and 2006, those number rose to 26 cloture petitions filed per year, 18.5 petitions voted on per year, and cloture invoked 7.5 times per year. And this is despite a reform in 1975 that lowered the cloture threshold to its current 60-vote number. And, finally, between 2007 and 2014, those numbers rose again to 80 cloture petitions filed per year, 62 petitions voted on per year, and cloture invoked 42 times per year.
Today, just about all major legislation must meet the 60-vote cloture requirement. In the age of partisan polarization, this 60-vote requirement is often tantamount to a legislative death sentence. Gone are the days when the filibuster might promote debate and compromise. Instead, its just one more opportunity for paralysis.
Some scholars argue that the filibuster itself is unconstitutional because the Framers meant to enshrine majority rule into Article I of the Constitution. However, concerns about the filibusters constitutionality aside, if the goal is to promote deliberation and compromise, there are other approaches short of the 21st century filibuster that would do this more effectively. For example, Chafetz suggests the declining filibuster, which would slowly decrease the number of votes needed for cloture as debate progresses until a bare majority is enough, or some version of a suspensory filibuster, which would permit a Senate minority to delay a majority-supported proposal, but not defeat it.
Of course, the Senate is unlikely to pass these measures. As a result, its time to acknowledge that the cause of the breakdown in the Senate isnt the end of the filibuster, but polarization in the countrywhich political scientists Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole, and Howard Rosenthal suggest is as extreme in Congress in recent years as its been since the decades after the Civil War and Reconstruction. And, if polarization is, indeed, the cause of the Senates problems, then there is no easy solution.
Because of the big sort, like-minded people are segregating themselves into the same geographic and virtual communities. Furthermore, the rise of filter bubbles, Facebook sorting algorithms, and fake news have polarized public discourse, and the decline in trust in neutral media mediators has led to the ability of each political tribe to converge around a shared agreement of facts. These trends make public deliberation and reasoned compromise all but impossible. The causes of polarization must be addressed at their root. But, in a government of We the People, the root cause is us.
Read more from The Atlantic:
This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Vatican City (AFP) - The "Pope Francis Launderette" opened its doors Monday offering the poor and homeless to wash their clothes and bedding for free, the Vatican announced.
The laundry service is in Rome's Trastevere tourist district, which already has as homeless shelter and has a tradition of helping the poor.
The facility is run by volunteers and provides six washing and machines plus driers and irons. There are plans to also provide showers, a hairdresser, clinic and a distribution point for basic goods, the Office of Papal Charities said in a statement.
A statement from the Vatican said Pope Francis wanted to offer a "concrete" example of the papal jubilee Year of Mercy.
Cairo (AFP) - The twin bombings of churches in Egypt suggest that Islamic State group jihadists are lashing out as they find themselves coming under increasing pressure in Iraq and Syria, analysts say.
The group's Egyptian affiliate which claimed Sunday's attacks in the Nile Delta cities of Tanta and Alexandria has been centred in the Sinai Peninsula, where it has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.
But IS has been unable to seize population centres there, unlike its early gains in Iraq and Syria, and it has also lost top militants to Egyptian military strikes in recent months.
The jihadists have attacked Egyptian Coptic Christians before, but their campaign against the minority picked up in December with a Cairo church bombing that killed 29 people.
In Sinai, IS militants killed seven Copts in January and February, forcing dozens of Christian families to flee the peninsula that borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
"IS and its supporters online have been methodically introducing more radical sectarian concepts to Egyptian jihadists since the December bombing," said Mokhtar Awad, a research fellow with George Washington University's Program on Extremism.
- Shift in tactics -
The December bombing in a church adjacent to the Coptic papal seat marked a shift in IS tactics.
"It was not until December 2016 when the Islamic State began a systematic campaign to target Coptic Christians in Egypt," said Jantzen Garnett, an expert on the jihadists with the Navanti Group analytics company.
"As the Islamic State is squeezed in Iraq and Syria it often conducts spectacular attacks elsewhere in an attempt to regain the narrative, boost morale and win recruits," he said.
In Iraq and Syria, where the group proclaimed its "caliphate" in 2014 as it swept across northern Iraq, IS has faced consecutive defeats over the past year and is on the verge of losing control of Iraq's second city Mosul.
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In a video released in February, IS attacked Christians as "polytheists" and promised there would be further attacks.
After Sunday's bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, the group said it had deployed two Egyptian suicide bombers against the "crusaders".
A defiant President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reacted by declaring a three-month state of emergency.
The Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90 million people, have been attacked by Islamists for years, more so after the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The Coptic Church was accused by the Islamists of supporting Morsi's overthrow which led to a bloody crackdown on Islamists, although Muslim clerics and politicians also backed his ouster.
Even before Morsi was toppled, jihadists had targeted the Christians, most notably in a 2011 New Year bombing of a church in Alexandria which police blamed on a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
- Growing presence -
The Islamic State group's "sectarian attacks fuel those ideologically inclined to support the group, while showing it's still 'expanding' despite battlefield setbacks," said Zack Gold, a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Center's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
The three church attacks in December and now April also suggest an expanded presence of jihadist cells west of the Suez Canal separating the Sinai proper from the rest of Egypt.
Following the December bombing, Sisi said members of the jihadist cell who carried it out had been caught, but others remained on the run.
"The Islamic State has struggled, with constant setbacks, to establish a sizable presence on the Egyptian mainland over the preceding years. These church bombings indicate they have a growing presence on the mainland," said Garnett.
The IS affiliate's predecessor in Egypt, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, had carried out several attacks targeting the police on the mainland before pledging allegiance to IS in November 2014.
And several IS bombings and shootings took place in Cairo, also targeting policemen, before the December church bombing.
Police arrested several cells and in November 2015 announced they had killed a top IS jihadist, Ashraf al-Gharably, in a Cairo shootout.
PARIS (AP) Prosecutors say a woman from the United States who was visiting her daughter in a Paris suburb was attacked and stabbed to death by a man.
The woman has been identified as 52-year-old Cathleen Scherer McDonough, of Rye, New Hampshire. Facebook traffic among family and friends refers to her as Cathy or Catherine.
The prosecutor's office in Seine-Saint-Denis says McDonough was stabbed in Montreuil on Thursday. The man was arrested and was committed to a psychiatric hospital. His name has not been released. Authorities are investigating the stabbing.
Phone, email and Facebook messages seeking comment were left with members of McDonough's family on Monday.
Police in Rye said they have not been contacted by authorities in France or by members of the family.
New York (AFP) - The Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious awards in US journalism, on Monday honored work that challenged President Donald Trump during the country's divisive election campaign and delivered a passionate defense of a free press.
The 101th edition of the awards, announced at Columbia University in New York, came with the US news media under asault from the White House for peddling "fake news" critical of the administration, and after the press took a bashing for failure to predict Trump's election.
David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post won the national reporting award for what the board called "a model for transparent journalism" that cast doubt on Trump's assertions of charitable generosity.
Fahrenthold investigated not only Trump's claims of charitable giving but also disclosed that the Republican presidential candidate had boasted in crude terms about groping women in a 2005 videotape.
While on the campaign trail seeking the Republican nomination, Trump said he had raised $6 million for veterans, but stopped distributing the money having given out just a little more than $1 million.
Journalism during the campaign was also honored with the Pulitzer for commentary going to Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal for what the board called "beautifully rendered columns that connected readers to the shared virtues of Americans during one of the nation's most divisive political campaigns."
The coveted Public Service medal went to tabloid the New York Daily News and investigative news site ProPublica for uncovering official abuse of eviction rules that ousted hundreds of mostly poor minorities from their homes.
There were a total of 21 categories in journalism, arts and letters.
- Cornerstone of democracy -
"The prizes represent the core values of two realms: independent inquiry into public affairs, and creativity and scholarship in telling the story of America," said Pulitzers administrator Mike Pride.
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In his introduction he said the winning journalism included reporting that challenges "powerful politicians and institutions" and exposed "systematic abuse of people with little hope of defending themselves."
The New York Times won the international reporting award for "agenda-setting" coverage of Vladimir Putin's efforts to project Russian power abroad, including assassinations and online harassment.
Russian attempts to sway the US election in favor of Trump are the object of an investigation by lawmakers in the US Congress.
Freelance photographer Daniel Berehulak won for breaking news photography for images published in The New York Times illustrating the Philippines' war on drugs.
Pride challenged perceived wisdom that newspapers are in decline, hard hit by falling readership and advertising revenue, saying US reporting was in the midst of a digital-age revolution.
"Because journalists deliver uncomfortable truths they will always be easy targets for criticism," Pride said. "But you only have to pause to consider societies where journalism is suppressed to realize even with its flaws, a vigorous free press remains a cornerstone of democracy. It is truly an ally of the American people," he added.
"I'm not going to offer any kind of opinion about the political scene other than that to say that journalists just need to keep plugging and keep doing what they're doing," Pride later told reporters.
- Violence, prisons, slavery -
Other domestic US awards went to the East Bay Times of Oakland, California for breaking news, for covering a warehouse party fire that killed 36 people and exposing failures that might have prevented it.
The New York Times' C.J. Chivers won the feature writing award for showing a Marine's postwar descent into violence.
The Chicago Tribune won the Pulitzer for feature photography for portraying a 10-year-old boy who survived a shooting and his mother.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail won the investigative reporting award for coverage of opioids in West Virginia.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald won the explanatory award for an investigative series on the Panama Papers, exposing the global extent of offshore tax havens.
The Salt Lake Tribune won for local reporting for exposing cruel treatment meted out to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University in Utah.
The Pulitzer for fiction went to Colson Whitehead for slavery novel "The Underground Railroad." Heather Ann Thompson won in the history category for "History Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy."
The award for biography went to New York-born Libyan writer Hisham Matar for "The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between."
Photo credit: U.S. Navy
From Popular Mechanics
Russia-watchers have spent a lot a time wondering: Just what would Vladimir Putin do if he were directly challenged on Syria? Well, now it's happened. Last night, the United States launched a volley of cruise missiles against a Syrian airfield.
This is not one of those situations where Putin had no options. He was warned of the strikes in advance-a good and smart move, given that Russian personnel are stationed at the targeted airbase. With that information in hand, Russia could have tried to intercept America's missiles. It did not. Here's what Putin might be thinking.
Let's start with what his military has been doing on the ground. The Syrian regime operates Russian anti-aircraft systems, but they are older and not able to handle dozens of cruise missiles. The Pentagon says its Tomahawks targeted anti-aircraft weapons at the airbase, meaning those are likely not there anymore. Russia, on the other hand, has moved its best anti-aircraft missile systems, the S-300 and S-400, into Syria. The Russian move seemed to suggest these weapons were there to protect Syrian airbases from U.S. airstrikes.
The thing is, these sophisticated systems have been placed at Russian facilities. According to the Russian ministry, the S-400 and Pantsir systems are stationed at Hmeymim airbase (352442N 355642E, near Al Assad Airport) and also at the Russian naval base in Tartus. These are Russian facilities-their prime military assets within Syria.
The Syrian airbase that was targeted, Shayrat, is not too far away. The Russians use that airbase, too, and in late 2015 they improved the runway and moved equipment so that Russian warplanes could stage airstrikes from there. But they didn't need to put air defenses there to protect themselves. It's a safe bet that Russian radar protects the place. It's under the umbrella of the S-300s, which have a range of more than 90 miles, and use a radar system that extends over 185 miles. Tomahawks can be programmed to fly to avoid radar sites, but this pervasive coverage would be hard to skirt.
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Besides, Russia knew the swarm was coming. News agencies in Washington are reporting that the U.S. gave at least one hour of warning before the missiles struck. That is plenty of time to fire up those radars, move mobile launchers, and get the best missile crews at their stations.
So Putin could have taken a shot at the Tomahawks. He could have claimed he was saving the lives of Syrian allies who are fighting terrorists. Even if air defenses were overwhelmed by the sheer number of American cruise missiles, a few downed missiles could have served as a rebuttal to this new aggressive posture from D.C., not to mention an information warfare coup. In addition, retaliating against cruise missiles makes the question of escalation less intense, since there will be no dead or wounded American pilots.
But Putin didn't. Maybe this was a tactical choice he made. Maybe the U.S. called his anti-aircraft bluff. Maybe he wanted a message delivered to Assad that his support has limits, and war crimes don't help.
Or perhaps Putin has another game, one of salesmanship.
There is no greater open question in the defense world than just how effective Russian anti-aircraft weapons really are against American technology. Russia generates money and international leverage by selling systems that it claims can thwart American weapons. But the United States' jamming, cyberwarfare, smart missiles, and advanced decoys are designed to defeat these digitally-linked Russian systems. There would be no greater marketing disappointment than shooting at U.S. cruise missiles and missing, which would demonstrate the deterrent Russia is selling may not work as advertised.
Putin could have shot at those Tomahawks, but maybe the risk calculus had more to do with his long-term geopolitical game than a short-term loss of face.
Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to the Tomahawks as ICBMs, which they are not.
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The ex-Indian Navy officer was arrested in March, 2016. India has been claiming that Jadhav was abducted in Iran.
By India Today Web Desk: The Pakistan Army today announced death sentence to Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested on espionage charges. The ex-Indian Navy officer was arrested in March, 2016. India has been claiming that Jadhav was abducted in Iran.
A statement issued by Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) described Jadhav as a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) agent who was arrested during "Counter Intelligence Operation" from Mashkel, Balochistan.
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"RAW agent Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was tried BY FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952) and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923. FGCM found Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav guilty of all the charges," the ISPR statement said.
Reacting to the news, the Congress has demanded the government to get back Jadhav.
"Kulbhushan Jadhav has been sentenced to death by Kangroo Proceedings in Pakistan that no one even knows ever took place. GOI must get him back," senior Congress leader Manish Tewari tweeted.
KULBHUSHAN Jadhav has been sentenced to death by Kangroo Proceedings in Pakistan that no one even knows ever took placeGOI must get him back- Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) April 10, 2017
Minster of State for External Affairs VK Singh refused comment on the Khulbushan Jadhav, saying, 'Let (a) full probe happen.' MoS for Defence Subhash Bhamre too refused to comment on the issue.
INDIA REJECTED PAKISTAN'S CHARGE
Jadhav, 46, was arrested by Pakistan police in Balochistan in March last year. He was accused by Pakistan of creating unrest in Balochistan and Karachi.
The Pakistan Army even released a video in which Jadhav purportedly "confesses" to his "involvement" in terror activities in Balochistan at his country's behest.
WATCH | Exclusive: Pak group behind Kulbhushan Jadhav's kidnapping
The video is so slick, it was called a 'well-produced' evidence.
Since March 2016, India issued at least six note verbales to Pakistan to get consular access to Jadhav, but there was no breakthrough. While Pakistan had been claiming Jadhav is a commander-rank officer with the Indian Navy, India has rejected the allegation and maintained that he retired from the Navy in 2002 and was now a businessman.
WATCH: Sartaj Aziz: Not enough evidence against Indian 'spy' Kulbhushan Jadhav
ALSO READ:
Pakistan dossier on Kulbhushan Jadhav is so dodgy even Sartaj Aziz has rejected it
Arrested Indian 'spy' tutored, says India rejecting Pakistan's video
--- ENDS ---
After months of uncertainty, the presidents fiscal year 2018 skinny budget, released on March 16, was the first clear indication of the Trump administrations approach to global development. The budget seeks a 28 percent reduction in funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department in order to pay for equivalent increases in defense spending, and foreshadows the possibility of significant structural changes. The proposed cuts are the first step in what could be a contentious process between Congress and the president regarding the U.S. international affairs budget, dividing Republicans who have supported American global development leadership since the George W. Bush era but who also support overall budget savings and a stronger national defense.
While Congress appears inclined to largely restore the international affairs funding through the budget and appropriations process, it hardly means that State and USAID would be spared. The president has broad authority to determine policy, priorities, staffing, and even agency architecture changes that could be more consequential than the proposed funding cuts. For its part, the White House surely knows that if it wants to find savings in the small sliver of the budget pie that foreign aid represents, the current dynamics do not really favor that approach. Congress will send to the president some form of spending legislation that tracks more closely with existing priorities than the presidents budget request does. In this or any likely budget and appropriations scenario, big changes by the administration without congressional support are less likely to be transformational, lasting, or even cost saving.
While maintaining funding is an immediate requirement of Congress, its not a strategy for the long-term. For that, legislators should use the coming debate as an opportunity to address the reasons aid has been targeted in the first place. Foreign aids unpopularity among conservatives and thus its political vulnerability now has as much or more to do with the belief that it doesnt work as it has to do with an objection to spending money overseas. Theres a very good case in favor of effective foreign aid to be made to the many conservatives who support American global leadership. But what they often hear is unpersuasive, with little room for essential distinctions between effective aid and wasteful or ineffective aid. Too often conservatives are faced with what they see as a choice between support for aid and their conservative principles.
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Its hard to see any winners coming out of the process as it is now shaping up. But there is a potentially constructive alternative that could better serve all sides. A shared approach between Congress and the administration on foreign aid reform provides both the best basis for cooperation and a way to address foreign aids seemingly perpetual political vulnerabilities.
For many conservatives in Congress, aid reform is a clear pathway on which to reconcile internationalist instincts with aid skepticism and commitment to good stewardship of taxpayer funds, allowing for a conditional embrace of aids legitimacy and importance. For the administration, a shared reform process is the most straightforward path to the desired savings. For aid supporters, an aid portfolio that is subject to a reform process by a broad spectrum of viewpoints will enjoy greater buy-in, and is thus far less vulnerable to funding uncertainty in the future.
In this context, one proposal that is gaining attention is some form of a comprehensive review of the U.S. foreign aid portfolio be it top to bottom or bottom-up with the British bilateral and multilateral aid reviews providing useful examples of what a successful process can do. Whatever the format, the outcome should be largely the same: funding priorities better aligned with overall objectives, on which Congress and the president largely agree.
To be successful, an aid review process must be based on some accepted, shared points.
First, only with a shared understanding of what the United States aims to achieve with its aid and how the country defines success can America effectively review aid. A review might improve the aid portfolios performance by reducing waste and redundancies, but performance toward what? Absent agreement on overall goals and definitions of success, an aid review would produce a collection of programs that in the aggregate do not constitute a strategy. Thus, a review process should seek to build a shared vision that informs future funding decisions, not just identify waste in the current portfolio.
Second, a review must be undertaken with the goal of improving aid effectiveness, not simply reducing costs by a predetermined amount. A successful review process must balance the need for overall savings with the fact that a reduction in funding is not the same as a reduction in waste. Nor is a reduction in funding the same as an increase in value. Absent a review, a 28 percent cut risks leaving 72 percent of waste in place, rendering aid less capable of fulfilling its important role in U.S. foreign policy and actually decreasing the overall value for the taxpayer.
Third, a comprehensive aid review must include the entire aid portfolio of the U.S. government, not just that of USAID. In recent decades, multiple agencies and departments have gotten into the aid business, providing both real advantages and challenges to overall effectiveness and accountability. Assessing the interagency implementation model is essential to understanding whether and when this approach provides greater accountability, value, and performance, or results in discord and redundancies.
Fourth, Congress and the president should agree on a process that necessarily requires action on a reviews findings or recommendations. Such a requirement would incentivize participation and consensus, because the varied interests would understand that they are better off helping shape the outcome because they have to live with it. Such a requirement would also ensure that a review is less likely to wind up in the graveyard of commissions.
Finally, a review should include a conversation about the basis on which the United States sets its priorities for allocating aid whether it is determined by need, merit, national security, the potential return on investment, or other reasons. There is no single right answer, nor are the many justifications for aid spending necessarily discrete. But understating the values that are the basis of U.S. aid would help us better understand what Americas goals should be, and what it expects aid to accomplish. The answers could provide some surprises in terms of finding common ground, and would provide a much clearer explanation to a skeptical public about the importance of global development.
Photo credit: ALI AL-SAADI/AFP/Getty Images
Hard-line Shiite cleric Ebrahim Raisi announced his bid for the Iranian presidency Sunday, emerging as a potentially serious challenger to the countrys current president, Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani, a reformist candidate who won in 2014 largely with the support of young people and women, has disappointed many of his followers with his inability to fix the Iranian economy, despite the lifting of some Western sanctions in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal brokered between Iran and Western powers.
Raisi, a well-known conservative figure, has had an extensive political career serving most recently as Irans prosecutor general, while also maintaining close ties with Irans Revolutionary Guard. In 1988, he was one of the judges who oversaw the killing of thousands of left-wing dissidents and political prisoners. Perhaps most importantly in a political system where mullahs wield plenty of behind-the-scenes influence, he also has the backing of Irans supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Raisi is by far the most formidable challenger, in the race, said Ahmad Majidyar, director of the Iran Observed project at the Middle East Institute. Majidyar also noted that while Rouhanis base would be unlikely to vote for the cleric, he could garner support in rural areas and emerge a consensus candidate for conservatives, much like former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
And thats if Rouhani is even allowed to run. The sitting president needs the approval of the Guardian Council an influential body of power in Iran that is currently controlled by conservatives to run for reelection, and the conservative body could keep Rouhani from running again. But Majidyar said such a move could cause a backlash. Instead, if theres a decision by the supreme leader in consensus with hard-liners, youll see rigging in the elections to ensure Rouhani does not win, he said.
Raisi is sure to hone in on the stagnant economy while also touting his extensive experience in government to challenge Rouhani. But his presidential bid is also somewhat of a political gamble. The announcement came as a surprise to the Iranian public, who saw Raisi as a promising successor to Khamenei as supreme leader. A lost election could hurt his prospects in that regard.
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Raisi called it his religious and revolutionary responsibility to run in a statement Sunday, citing the need for a fundamental change in the executive management of the country and a government that fights poverty and corruption.
Looming over the election will be Irans relations with the United States, largely toxic since the 1979 Iranian revolution, but which showed signs of a thaw late in President Barack Obamas second term. Since President Donald Trump took office, after vowing on the campaign trail to tear up the Iran nuclear accord, he has moved to improve relations with Sunni states in the Persian Gulf worried about Irans aggressive behavior.
And in Syria, both parties will find fodder for political arguments that look like the mirror image of debates inside the United States.
Conservatives will argue that the strikes in Syria show engagement with the U.S. has been a failure, said Majidyar, while moderates will argue there is an even greater need for diplomacy and communication to defuse the tension.
Elections are scheduled for May 19.
Photo credit: STRINGER/Getty
Beirut (AFP) - The Russian and Iranian army chiefs vowed Saturday to keep battling "terrorists" in Syria, a day after a US missile onslaught on a Syrian airbase following a suspected chemical weapons attack.
General Valery Gerasimov and Major General Mohammad Bagheri spoke by phone and "condemned the American operation against a Syrian airbase which is an aggression against an independent country", Iran's state news agency IRNA said.
Russia and Iran are Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's closest allies, and label all opponents of his regime as "terrorists".
US warships in the Mediterranean launched a barrage of 59 cruise missiles at Shayrat airbase in Syria early on Friday, after 87 people including 31 children were killed in a suspected aerial chemical attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhun.
It was Washington's first direct military action against Assad's government.
Another air strike on Saturday on the same town in the northwestern province of Idlib killed a woman, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
It said it was unclear if the latest strike was by Syrian or Russian warplanes.
The monitor also reported an air strike on Urum al-Joz, another Idlib town, on Saturday that killed 18 civilians including five children, which it said was believed to have been carried out by Russian aircraft.
Idlib province is controlled by a rebel alliance that includes a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and is regularly targeted by both the Syrian government and its Russian ally.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Washington of "playing the terrorism game", during his first phone talks with his US counterpart Rex Tillerson since the US air strikes on Syria.
- 'Intolerable aggression' -
Speaking on a US talkshow to be aired Sunday, Tillerson insisted he had no concerns about possible retaliation by Moscow as "Russians were never targeted" in the strike and said defeating the Islamic State group was the top priority for the US in Syria.
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"Once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilising the situation in Syria," he told CBS television's "Face the Nation" in a clip released ahead of its air time.
"We're hopeful that we can prevent a continuation of the civil war and that we can bring the parties to the table to begin the process of political discussions," he said, noting that would require the participation of Assad's regime and its allies.
Much of the international community accused Assad's government of carrying out Tuesday's suspected chemical attack on Khan Sheikhun, but Damascus denied responsibility.
North Korea denounced the US attack, calling it an "intolerable act of aggression" that "proves a million times over" that Pyongyang was right to strengthen its nuclear programme.
The statement by the Iranian and Russian military chiefs said they would continue their military cooperation in support of Assad "until the total defeat of the terrorists and those that support them", according to Iran's Mehr news agency.
The US strikes "aim at slowing the victories of the Syrian army and its allies, and reinforcing terrorist groups", they said in a statement.
Both Tehran and Moscow have defended Assad against Western allegations that his regime carried out the attack on Khan Sheikhun.
- 'Terrorists celebrating' -
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani Saturday criticised his US counterpart Donald Trump for the missile attack on the Syrian airbase.
"This man who is now in office in America claimed that he wanted to fight terrorism but today all terrorists in Syria are celebrating the US attack," he said.
As the Arab League on Saturday warned against a "dangerous escalation" in Syria, influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr called on Assad to step down and on Washington and Moscow to stop intervening in the conflict.
"I would consider it fair for President Bashar al-Assad to resign and leave power, allowing the dear people of Syria to avoid the scourge of war and terrorist oppression," he said.
Several Iraqi Shiite militias, some of them directly supported by Iran, are helping Assad's camp by sending fighting units across the border.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations.
burs-srm/hc/mtp/amu
Sanaa Lathan didnt expect that Shots Fired was going to air on network TV.
During a panel at Deadlines The Contenders Emmys event on Sunday, Lathan revealed that she initially thought Shots Fired was going to be better on cable TV given its sensitive subject matter.
[I was] surprised that it was going to be on network, Lathan said. [But] the more I thought about it, I was actually happier because its going to reach more people.
READ: What drew Richard Dreyfuss to Shots Fired?
Shots Fired follows the Department of Justices investigation into the death of an unarmed white man who was shot in a traffic stop by an African-American police deputy. During the early stage of the probe, seasoned investigator Ashe Akino (Lathan) and young special prosecutor Preston Terry (Stephan James) learn that the police are ignoring the murder of an African-American teenager.
Despite the shows delicate theme, series creator Reggie Rock Bythewood said during the panel that other than language restrictions, he did not feel the network format compromised the shows subject matter.
Regardless of how the shows story will play out, Lathan said that they are hoping the limited series will get people talking and bring people together. We hope [viewers] see that we are one race, we are the human race, Lathan said.
In this weeks Season 1, episode 4 of Shots Fired, Cory (Marqus Clae) opens up about what he saw the night Joey Campbell (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) was killed. And based on the synopsis for the episode, it appears that Cory is pointing his finger at the sheriffs department. While Ashe and Preston are aware of the corrupt inner workings of the sheriffs department, the partners weigh whether or not Corys word is enough to go up against the entire sheriffs department.
To further strengthen their case, Ashe and Preston try to find any significant evidence that will establish the connection between Joeys death and Jesse Carrs (Jacob Leinbach) death. In the preview clip for the episode, the partners question Deputy Becks (Tristan Mack Wilds) best friend, Deputy Brooks (Beau Knapp), in an attempt to find out who among his colleagues are dirty.
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Shots Fired Season 1, episode 4 airs on Wednesday, April 12 at 8 p.m. EDT on FOX.
Sanaa Lathan as Ashe Akino
Photo: Fred Norris/FOX
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Love seafood? Cool story, but you'll never love seafood as much as the guy who literally swam away from a $621 check at a seafood restaurant.
Australian man and "aspiring rapper" Terry Peck destroyed two lobsters, 21 vodka oyster shots, a baby octopus and a bunch of beers at a restaurant on the Gold Coast, according to the ABC.
SEE ALSO: Marine biologist claps back at that Facebook user's hilarious sunfish rant
But, as Southport Magistrates court heard Monday, he didn't pay for any of it. Instead, he ran straight down the beach and into the ocean, free to find even more seafood to consume.
Peck, who goes by "2Pec" refused to come to shore, so police on jet skis were sent after him, and he was arrested mid-ocean. This is a true story, by the way. Not a Tim and Eric skit.
According to the news outlet the crustacean fiend, who was on parole at the time of the incident, told reporters the lobsters were "overcooked" anyway. So there.
Upon hearing about the contents of Peck's meal, Magistrate Joan White reportedly said: "My God! By himself?"
It is incredible. But it's even more incredible that he managed to run, and then swim, after eating it all.
Yep. The seafood in Australia is so good, it may turn you into a wasted, criminal merman.
P.S. Please don't look up 2Pecs rap songs on social media while at the office. They are in no way SFW and you should probably just not.
WATCH: This chocolate museum would even make Willy Wonka jealous
Cubans have found a homemade solution to making wine without high-tech fermentation tools: They use condoms.
Homemade wine is an affordable spirit for Cubans, where a bottle of imported wine in state-run liquor stores sells for at least half of the average person's monthly salary of $25, reported Associated Press. One backyard winemaker, Orestes Estevez, has hundreds of fruit-filled glass jugs capped with condoms. Estevez told the AP he uses the condoms to signal when the juices are ready to be bottled.
To ferment grapes into wine, yeast feeds on the sugars found in the fruit and carbon dioxide (CO2) is subsequently released, Kathleen Arnink, a viticulture (science of wine) and enology (study of wine) lecturer at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, told Live Science. The gas inflates the condoms as the fruit ferments, and when the condoms become limp again, Estevez said they signal that fermentation is complete. [Photos: Amazing Microscopic Views of Italian Cocktails]
"Putting a condom on a bottle is just like with a man," Estevez told the AP. "It stands up, the wine is ready, and then the process is completed."
Estevez, who turned his backyard winemaking into a winery, told the AP he sells an average of 50 bottles a day for about 40 cents each. The tiny winery has become a neighborhood attraction, the AP reports, thanks to the affordable local vino and bizarre sight of condom-capped jugs of wine.
In commercial operations, winemakers use fermentation locks that allow the CO2 to escape while still sealing off the wine from oxygen, Arnink said. Winemakers monitor the sugar concentration of the wine during fermentation to determine when the process is complete.
Trapping CO2 in a condom does help protect the wine from oxygen, though waiting for the inflatable to deflate is not a precise measure of the fermentation process, according to Arnink. And though it may look strange, at-home winemakers have used inflatables, such as balloons, for their concoctions before.
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"I have seen balloons used, but anything that will fit on the neck of the carboy [wine jugs] and trap the gas would work," Arnink told Live Science in an email. "I guess manufacturing birth control has been more important in Cuba than making balloon animals, so they had more condoms available than balloons."
Though there are better tools available for winemaking, Arnink said using balloons or condoms is an acceptable method for a makeshift fermentation operation at home.
Original article on Live Science.
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Photo credit: Leilani Rogers Austin, TX Birth Photographer / Leilani Rogers
From Redbook
Child loss is something that no parent should ever have to experience. Unfortunately, it's quite common - between 10 and 20 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, according to the Mayo Clinic, and that just accounts for those women who knew they were pregnant before miscarrying.
For that reason, having a child after an earlier loss takes on an entirely different level of poignancy. That's the experience one couple, Hunter and Hope Madden, had when they recently celebrated the birth of their daughter after prolonged fertility struggles and several miscarriages. The Maddens' birth photos are making waves on the internet for the sheer depth of their emotional intensity - just try not to tear up while looking at these beautiful portraits.
Photo credit: Leilani Rogers Austin, TX Birth Photographer / Leilani Rogers
According to TODAY, baby Evelyn was born on March 11 and is the couple's rainbow baby - a child born to a couple after the loss of a pregnancy. In the Madden family's case, the new parents (who had undergone several rounds of fertility treatments in their attempts to conceive) previously suffered two early-term miscarriages and one later-term loss when a sonogram of their son, Owen, revealed that he had no heartbeat.
Photo credit: Leilani Rogers Austin, TX Birth Photographer / Leilani Rogers
Hunter Madden spoke about the anxiety the couple had experienced leading up to Evelyn's birth, with every doctor's visit rife with "fear and slowly cautious optimism" about the pregnancy making it to term. Hope echoed his thoughts: "We were very much prepared for the worst [...] And I think my entire pregnancy was that way. We just kept waiting for the floor to fall out from underneath us every second."
The joy and relief of finally meeting their baby girl, born alive and healthy, is palpable in all of the images of Evelyn's birth, captured by Austin, Texas-based birth photographer Leilani Rogers. One portrait, of Hunter holding his baby girl to his bare chest and breaking down in tears, is particularly stirring. In the photo, Hunter's tribute tattoo for his son - a tree with an anchor at the bottom - is visible as he holds his baby close.
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Photo credit: Leilani Rogers Austin, TX Birth Photographer / Leilani Rogers
"I will never forget catching her as she was being born and the immediate, unconditional love I felt for her. That's what you're seeing in those pictures, my love for Hope and our daughter," Hunter told TODAY. "I could not believe I was allowed to hold something so perfect and I was overwhelmed with thanksgiving for finally getting to be a father."
Photo credit: Leilani Rogers Austin, TX Birth Photographer / Leilani Rogers
(h/t TODAY)
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Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the United States should have done more during its missile strike on a Syrian airbase - criticizing the Trump administration for not doing a thorough enough job.
The Arizona senator was specifically angry that following the missile strike last week, Syrian aircrafts were reportedly still able to take off from the airbase the U.S. struck.
But the signal that theyre able to fly almost right away out of the same facility indicates that I dont think we did as thorough enough job, which would have been cratering the runways, McCain said in an interview with CBSs Face the Nation. And somebody will say, Well, then they can fill in the runways. Yeah, and we can crater them again too.
President Donald Trump defended the choice not to damaging the runways, tweeting Saturday that the craters would have been an easy fix.
The reason you don39;t generally hit runways is that they are easy and inexpensive to quickly fix (fill in and top)! - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2017
McCain did praise Trumps decision to strike Syria, calling it an excellent first step and a reversal of the last eight years. However, he also said the Trump administration is partially to blame for the use of chemical weapons on Syrians last week by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
I think it probably was partially to blame, McCain said.
He criticized Secretary of State Rex Tillersons stance on prioritizing efforts on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) before focusing on Assads attacks on Syrians. McCain called the issues totally connected.
We will take Mosul. We will take Raqqa. And wed better have strategies as to how to handle those places once we have won it, McCain said. But theyre not disconnected from Bashar Assad and the Al Qaeda - the war crimes that have been taking place.
This article was originally published on TIME.com
The Pakistan Army today sentenced former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav to death. But is there more to this move than meets the eye?
By India Today Web Desk: Did Pakistan Army hurriedly announce a death sentence for former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav as a pre-emptive move, fearing Indian action against a retired Pakistani Army officer who has gone missing from a Nepali town near the Indian border?
Speculation is rife on social media, and journalists from both sides have spun conspiracy theories contradicting each other but having one thing in common: the disappearance of Lt Col Mohammad Habib in Nepal.
Is Pakistani action related to abduction of Pakistan Army officer in Nepal? Even if so, very short sighted.- Rezaul Hasan Laskar (@Rezhasan) April 10, 2017
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The Indian side believes Pakistan hurried the sentencing of Kulbhushan Jadhav to prompt India to declare its course of action vis-a-vis Lt Col Habib. The Pakistani side believes India pre-empted Pakistani action against Kulbhushan Jadhav by acquiring a Pakistani asset to negotiate a swap.
ALSO READ | India cries murder: Pakistan sentences former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav to death
Both the theories sound ludicrous now since India has not announced any arrest and neither has Pakistan officially accused India of taking custody of its retired Army officer. All the hints are from media reports.
Indian RAW kidnaps retired Pakistan Army officer from Nepal. - https://t.co/Cr7rJ1rRyf pic.twitter.com/aI4OIqP8BR- Pakistan Defence (@defencepk) April 8, 2017
Pakistanis on social media are accusing India of kidnapping a former Pakistan Army officer to put pressure on Islamabad to release Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer. Kulbhushan Jadhav has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani Army court. The hearing was not open and India is lodging a strong protest against the sentencing.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations said in a release that he was a RAW agent and was convicted for planning sabotage activities in Pakistan. He was arrested from Balochistan in March 2016 and made to confess to his involvement in espionage. He was tried by a military court and sentenced to hang to death.
India today issued a demarche to Pakistan, in which it said: "If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder."
LT COL HABIB IN INDIA'S CUSTODY, SAY PAKISTANIS
Many Pakistanis have alleged that the retired Pakistan Army officer, Lt Col Mohammad Habib, who reportedly went missing on April 6 from Nepal's Lumbini, might well be in the custody of the Indian authorities.
Lt Col Habib's disappearance came to light only on Sunday after media picked up the chatter on WhatsApp groups managed by retired military officers. Lt Col Habib was working in a private firm since his retirement in 2014.
He was in Nepal on the pretext of appearing for a job interview. He had flown from Lahore to Kathmandu on Thursday and later in the day flew to Lumbini, the Buddhist pilgrimage town located near the Indian border.
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He had sent his family a photo after his landing and told them he had safely reached his destination. His family and friends later said they couldn't get in touch with him as the local number he had called from was no longer active.
ALSO READ | Kulbhushan Jadhav, former Indian Navy officer, sentenced to death by hanging in Pakistan
ALSO READ | Here's everything you need to know about Kulbhushan Jadhav
ALSO WATCH | Pakistan awards death penalty to Kulbhushan Jadhav who is accused of espionage
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Mogadishu (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Mogadishu army camp Monday, killing at least three soldiers a day after the army chief escaped an attack on his convoy, military sources said.
"The suicide bomber was stopped at the main entrance and he blew himself up. Three soldiers died and several others were wounded," said soldier Abdukadir Farah, who was inside the camp at the time of the attack.
Farah said there had been a meeting of military officials underway at the camp.
But it was not clear if army chief Ahmed Mohamed Jimale was among them, he said.
Military official Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Abdirahman told AFP the attacker had been "disguised as a member of the military" to gain access to the training camp.
The attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab extremist group, which said that "tens" of people had been killed.
The training camp in the south of the capital is one of the largest in the country.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a convoy carrying Jimale, who was named to the post last week by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo.
The Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the military chief had "narrowly escaped" the blast. A senior army official separately said the attack left at least 10 people dead.
Farmajo, who took office in February, also named new police and intelligence chiefs in a speech Thursday in which he declared a fresh war against Al-Shabaab militants.
"I am announcing a state of war in the country and call on the public to stand with the national army to help fight terrorists," he said.
"We are very sorry for those kids who have been misled, and we are offering the Shabaab fighters an ultimatum of 60 days to surrender otherwise they will face the consequences," he said.
While Shabaab have lost large swathes of territory and were forced out of Mogadishu by African Union troops in 2011, they continue to strike in the capital and countryside.
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There has been an uptick in attacks over the past week, with a car bomb in Mogadishu that left seven people dead Wednesday, a landmine that killed 19 on Thursday and a mortar strike which left three dead on Friday.
Shortly after Farmajo's election, the Shabaab threatened to wage "vicious war" against his new administration.
Somalia's fragile central government is still propped up by the international community and a 22,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force after nearly three decades of civil war and anarchy.
During his inauguration, Farmajo warned there would be no quick fixes for the troubled country -- also on the brink of famine.
"Your problems were created during 20 years of conflict and droughts. A solution will need more than another 20 years," he said.
San Bernardino (United States) (AFP) - A man walked into a school in southern California Monday and shot dead his estranged wife in front of her students, killing an eight-year-old boy in the crossfire before turning his gun on himself.
Police said local resident Cedric Anderson had checked into the office as a visitor after entering the campus in the city of San Bernardino and going to the special needs classroom, where he opened fire on Karen Elaine Smith, 53, as she was teaching.
Officers said Anderson, also 53, had only targeted Smith but two students were caught in the crossfire and one of them, Jonathan Martinez, died later in hospital.
"This does appear to have been a murder-suicide with both male adult and female adult victim succumbing to injuries, with the male succumbing to a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Lieutenant Mike Madden of the San Bernardino Police Department told a news conference.
Police said initially the two wounded students had been listed as critical but later confirmed Martinez's death.
Students at North Park Elementary School -- which has around 500 students between kindergarten and sixth grade -- were transported to a nearby campus, where they were "having snacks, playing games and watching a Disney movie," the police department tweeted.
Many panicked parents and relatives who rushed to the school had to endure waits of several agonizing hours before they could be certain that their child was not among the victims.
"I saw blood splashing on the wall. I ran as fast as I can. I lost a shoe," one student told AFP.
An 11-year-old boy told AFP he was in the middle of a math test when he heard the gunfire.
"I started feeling really scared from the SWAT team, and people from the police station came through the door to walk us out we had to walk with our hands up," he said.
- Massacre -
San Bernardino, about an hour's drive east of Los Angeles, was the scene of horrific violence when Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik gunned down 14 people and wounded 22 others in December 2015 before being shot dead by police.
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At the time, before the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, it was the deadliest attack on US soil since September 11, 2001.
Pakistani-born Malik -- who met her future US-born husband on a Muslim dating website and married him in Saudi Arabia -- had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group on Facebook and was instrumental in radicalizing him.
Monday's shooting will likely reignite the debate on gun violence in the US, where attempts to put in place tougher gun control measures have failed, despite a series of mass killings.
In one of the most notorious school shootings in modern US history, 20 children and six staff were massacred in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
In June last year, 49 people were killed in a shooting rampage at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
"School campuses are sacred spaces where children should be free to learn, play and grow without threat of violence," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.
"Today's shooting... is a reminder that deadly weapons can shatter that sense of security, mercilessly and without warning -- leaving parents and educators struggling to address the questions, fears and anxieties that gun violence creates for our young people."
- Gun lobby -
More than 33,000 American residents die every year from guns, including suicides, a rate far higher than in other Western countries.
While losing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton vowed to fight the gun lobby during last year's election campaign, President Donald Trump promised to defend the right to bear arms and said he sometimes carried a gun.
In February, Trump signed a measure into law blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally ill people.
The rule aimed to prevent an estimated 75,000 people with mental disorders from being able to buy firearms as part of Obama's efforts to strengthen the federal background check system in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.
Adam Lanza, 20, who shot dead his mother using her guns before killing the students, adults and himself, had Asperger's syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The Obama administration rule required the Social Security Administration to send in the names of beneficiaries with mental impairments who also have a third party manage their benefits.
But the Republican-majority Senate, backed by the National Rifle Association pro-gun lobby and disabled advocacy groups, voted 57-43 to overturn the regulation.
With Adam Rawnsley
The Syria problem. The Trump administration sent some of its top officials out to make the rounds of the Sunday talk shows this weekend, but for all of the discussion of regime change in Damascus and defeating the Islamic State, U.S. policy in Syria remains a slippery thing.
Our priority is first the defeat of ISIS, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on ABC. Once that fight is over whatever the end state might look like and leaving aside al Qaedas Syrian franchise we hope to turn our attention to cease fire agreements between the regime and opposition forces.
In another interview on CBSs Face the Nation, Tillerson said Washington and its allies are looking to navigate a political outcome in which the Syrian people in fact will determine Bashar al-Assads fate and his legitimacy.
That diplomatic angle was challenged by Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, when she appeared on CNN. Haley, who has taken a harder line on Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than others in the administration, said regime change is something that we think is going to happen, in Syria, and we dont see a peaceful Syria with Assad in there.
Different, but similar. The differences in rhetoric and approach between the two officials are real. Yet both mark a break from President Donald Trumps American First campaign by appearing to commit the United States to a deeper military and diplomatic role in resolving the Syrian civil war, which has raged for six years and displaced millions of Syrians.
Hill hawks. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) doesnt like what hes hearing. The senator blasted Tillersons comments over the weekend, saying this idea that were going to get rid of ISIS and then well hopefully use Assad and others to come up with a solution, its not going to work, Rubio said. There seems to be a difference between what Ambassador Haley is saying, and what she said last night that Assad really has no future, and what I heard this morning from Secretary Tillerson.
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A little of this, a little of that. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster tried to split the difference between Tillerson and Haley on FOX News, saying there has to be a significant change in the nature of Assads regime, while calling for a degree of simultaneous activity between pressuring Assad to leave and fighting ISIS. He added, were not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change on Assad.
Lets all agree on Russia. Tillerson wasnt quite so diplomatic when it comes to Russia, however. Clearly theyve been incompetent, and perhaps theyve just simply been out-maneuvered by the Syrians he said when asked how Russian troops serving on a Syrian air base with Syrian chemical weapons could not know about the countrys activities.
How could it be that the Russians had advisors and troops at the base, McMaster said, and not know the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons? He added, I think everyone in the world sees Russia as part of the problem. Tillerson is headed to Moscow on Tuesday for meetings with Russian officials, but so far doesnt have a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin penciled into his schedule.
Why are we here? This new debate over what to do in Syria was prompted by last weeks apparent chemical weapons attack by the regime on civilians that killed at least 80, and sickened hundreds more. In response, president Trump ordered the firing of 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian base that launched the attack. Looming over the broadly-cheered strikes on Friday was the apparent lack of any overarching strategy to lever Assad out of power or facilitate a political solution to the six-year old Syrian civil war, FPs Dan De Luce and Keith Johnson write.
Trumps first foray into armed conflict against Syrias Russian-backed leader, Bashar al-Assad, underscored the presidents willingness to change course quickly and make decisions about war and peace without a long deliberative process, a tendency that might keep allies and potential foes off balance, FPs Paul McLeary and Colum Lynch add in another story looking at the international fallout from the strikes.
What strategy? What does all this mean for overall U.S. strategy in Syria? Is there a Trump Doctrine emerging? I do think there is an emergent doctrine and I think its different from either Bush or Obama, James Carafano of the Heritage told FP. Carafano, who has advised Trump and was part of the transition team, said that the administration is not out to reshape the international order.
Instead, theres likely a middle ground between Obamas refusal to become too deeply involved in overseas conflicts and the Bush administrations rush into fights throughout the Middle East and Africa. The trumpers are between the arguments to disengage, and going out and looking for dragons to slay.
Dont you forget about me. Almost lost in all of this is the fact that the Pentagon has dispatched the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to the waters off the Korean coast. The carrier was ordered to leave its port call in Singapore, cancel a visit to Australia, and head north along with the guided-missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer, USS Michael Murphy, and the cruiser USS Lake Champlain.
North Korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative behavior, McMaster said Sunday, calling the country a rogue regime. North Korea has seen an unprecedented spate of ballistic missile tests this year, alarming Washington and its regional allies. Many regional experts have warned that the tests show North Korea is inching closer to its goal of producing a nuclear-capable rocket able to reach the United States The Trump administration has been floating the possibility of preemptive strikes, but China is pushing the U.S. to engage in direct diplomacy with Kims government to try and get them to halt their development.
The strike group brings with it a ton of firepower, the Navy Times notes, including the strike- and air-combat capabilities of the Hornets, early warning radars, electronic-warfare capabilities and more than 300 missile tubes on the carriers escorts.
Welcome to SitRep. Send any tips, thoughts or national security events to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or via Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley.
Afghanistan. A U.S. Special Forces soldier was killed on Saturday after being mortally wounded fighting the Islamic State in Afghanistan. U.S. Forces Afghanistan sent out a statement on Sunday afternoon announcing the death, announcing that the soldier was killed while operating with Afghan Forces conducting counter-ISIS-Khorasan operations in Nangarhar Province. The Pentagon is delaying publicly identifying the Special Forces soldier pending the notification of his family.
Road to Singapore. Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland is leaving the National Security Council and taking up a new job as U.S. ambassador to Singapore, according to the New York Times. McFarlands departure is widely seen as the result of National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMasters effort to remove an appointment made by his predecessor, Michael Flynn, and bring in his own staff. Its unclear still who will fill McFarlands job after her departure but McMaster has recently hired Dina Powell as deputy national security adviser for strategy, which many saw as a step towards finding an alternative to McFarland.
Horror in Egypt. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a two attacks on Egypts Coptic Christian community during Palm Sunday. Suicide bombers attacked a church in Tanta, killing 27, and another 22 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at church in Alexandria. CNN reports that the Islamic State issued a statement on the Telegram social media platform saying the bombers were Egyptian members of the group. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declared a three month state of emergency in response to the attacks and announced the creation of a new counterterrorism council.
Sweden. An Uzbek asylum seeker stole a beer truck and drove it into a crowd in Stockholm, Sweden on Friday, killing four people. The New York Times reports that Swedish authorities has denied the attackers application for permanent residency in 2016 and ordered him to leave the country. The man was also apparently known to have Islamist extremist sympathies, particularly towards the Islamic State, according to Swedish authorities. The method used in Fridays attack using a large truck to run down civilians in crowded urban areas has been a favorite of Islamist extremists in Europe, with the deadliest taking place in Nice, France, when an Islamic State supported killed 86 people at a crowded market during Bastille Day celebrations
Cybersecurity. Spanish police arrested a Russian computer programmer on Sunday and theres conflicting information on whether or not the arrest is related to the U.S. investigation of Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential election. Reuters reports that Spanish police arrested Pyotr Levashov in Barcelona on Sunday on unspecified charges. Russian state-owned news channel RT reported that Levashov was arrested on charges related to Russias apparent interference in the 2016 election but a Justice Department source told Reuters that the Levashov was arrested on criminal and not national security charges. To cloud the picture even further, Agence France Presse tweeted early Monday that a legal source told the news agency that the arrest was indeed related to 2016 hacking incidents.
Theyre back. NATO Allied Joint Force Command chief Admiral Michelle Howard says Russian naval activity has surpassed Cold War levels. In an interview with Reuters, Howard said the recent uptick is precedential activity, pointing to increased patrols by surface ships and submarines over the past two years. Howard stressed the importance of NATO allies not falling prey to a narrow view of Russian activity and focusing solely on countering naval operations closest to them.
Photo Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
A third of Americans aren't getting enough shut-eye, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not surprisingly, these folks report feeling tired during their day. But if you're one of the 400,000 people who has multiple sclerosis, sleep disturbances are likely to be twice as frequent, more severe and can lead to debilitating fatigue -- the kind that dramatically interferes with work and home life.
MS affects nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. Each fiber is surrounded by a layer of protein called myelin, which protects the nerves and helps electrical signals from the brain travel to the rest of the body. In MS, the myelin becomes damaged and disrupts the transfer of these nerve signals, causing a wide range of problems including blurred or double vision, numbness or tingling, spasticity and loss of balance. Sleep disorders are common.
"It's not only insomnia," points out Dr. Enrique Alvarez, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. "People with MS are affected by nocturnal leg spasms, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, REM sleep behavior disorder and sleep disordered breathing (apnea). Any one of these conditions can interfere with slumber and contribute to profound fatigue during waking hours."
[See: 11 Simple, Proven Ways to Optimize Your Mental Health.]
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society website says, "Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of MS, occurring in about 80 percent of people with the illness." But getting a good night's sleep to combat fatigue can be especially difficult because of the physical and chemical changes associated with MS.
"A hallmark of MS is nervous system lesions in the brain, and those can affect circadian rhythm, otherwise known as the biological clock. This 'clock' controls when we sleep and when we wake," explains Dr. Anne Cross, professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
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"There's also an association between brain lesions and sleep apnea," Cross says. "But to be clear, in both these instances, there's no scientific proof of cause and effect, only an association."
There's another Catch-22 when it comes to MS and a good night's sleep. Extreme fatigue often triggers MS patients to take longer and more frequent daytime naps. "These extended and numerous naps can interfere with a good night's sleep," says Alvarez. "It's OK to take one nap, but best to keep it shorter than an hour and to include the time spent napping when calculating how much sleep a patient actually gets."
A sedentary lifestyle also contributes to disturbed sleep. The results of the National Sleep Foundation's 2013 Sleep in America Poll showed an association between exercise and better sleep. According to the poll, exercisers reported better sleep than non-exercisers. Even a 10-minute walk can improve slumber. Researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reported findings from a study involving 464 women who were non-exercisers. After six months, a group that walked about 10 minutes a day had significantly improved overall fitness. "MS sufferers often avoid exercise because of pain, depression or fatigue," Alvarez says.
When it comes to exercise and promoting a better night's sleep, timing is everything. "If exercise activates you mentally or physically, it's best to do it in the morning. If it makes you tired, than it's OK to do it later in the day," Cross says.
[See: 10 Lessons from Empowered Patients.]
For MS patients, it's not uncommon for chronic pain to interfere not only with exercise but also with a restful night. "It's difficult to fall and stay asleep when dealing with pain, and doctors often prescribe medication to reduce it," Alvarez says. "But medication can also be a factor in keeping people awake at night. For example, drugs given to treat daytime fatigue, if taken too close to bedtime, can contribute to insomnia."
Alvarez suggests, "If patients are concerned about drugs affecting their sleep, it's a good idea to speak with their doctor. But they should not stop taking any medications before they do."
This applies to drugs for depression. "MS sufferers have higher rates of the blues than the general population. Sleep problems such as difficulty falling asleep and early-morning waking are common symptoms of depression," Alvarez points out.
MS has a number of symptoms, some of which are shared by other disorders, so be sure to see your doctor or neurologist for a proper diagnosis.
Factors contributing to poor sleep quality in MS patients can also differ by gender. It appears that depression is more of an issue for women, whereas pain is more often the contributing factor in men, according to a 2016 study of 153 MS patients reported in the journal Brain Disorder.
[See: 10 Ways to Live Healthier and Save Money Doing It.]
A sleep disrupter affecting both genders is bladder control. MS damages nerves that send messages to muscles, including those affecting the bladder. Sufferers with this condition may wake up once or several times during the night with an urgent need to empty their bladder. Urinating right before bedtime can help reduce such awakenings. Other helpful sleep habits offered by The Better Sleep Council include:
-- Create a regular sleep pattern. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day -- weekends too. This helps your biological clock stay on track.
-- Reduce anxiety. Worry can keep you awake. Before bedtime, write down a list of today's worries and the pro-active actions to take the following day.
-- Keep the bedroom cool, quiet and dark. All will help to induce and maintain sleep.
-- Create a sanctuary devoted exclusively to sleep. The bedroom is not for reading, watching television or working on the computer or smart phone.
Robin Westen is a freelance Health reporter at U.S. News. She's an award-winning journalist who has written for numerous national magazines, including AARP, Family Circle, Psychology Today, MORE, Health, Self, Parents, Glamour and Cosmopolitan, in addition to others. She has authored more than a dozen books on health and relationships, including "The Yoga-Body Cleanse," "The Complete A to Z for Your V," "Ten Days to Detox" and "808 Conversation Starters for Couples," among others. Westen also won an Emmy for her writing on the ABC show "FYI."
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Shanshui Cement Group Ltd said its executives were attacked with pepper spray, smoke bombs and water guns and then held for two hours by associates of a former official when they tried to retake control of company property. According to the Securities Times newspaper, Shanshui Cement executives organized a crowd of around 600 people, wearing red arm bands, white gloves and wielding sticks and axes, to storm and gain control of a company facility in the city of Jinan. The abnormally hostile corporate battle is the latest development in current management's dispute with former deputy general manager Mi Jingtian. Accusing him of "suspected misconduct", the company said in December it had suspended Mi from his duties at unit Shandong Shanshui and all its subsidiaries. Shanshui Cement said in its filing on Monday it had appointed legal advisers to take action against Mi and his associates over what it described as an illegal occupation and criminal action. Mi could not be reached for comment. It was not known if he has retained a lawyer. Photos run by business website Sina.com showed smoke billowing from a facility described as the Shanshui Cement plant. An employee at the affected Shanshui Cement facility who answered the phone told Reuters there had been a confrontation. The employee, who declined to identify himself, also said that Mi had 'acted lawfully'. Jinan police could not be reached for comment. Other contact numbers for Shanshui Cement, either in Jinan or Hong Kong could not be obtained. Shares in Shanshui Cement have been suspended since April 2015 as its public float fell below the 25 percent minimum level required after Tianrui Group raised its stake to become the company's biggest shareholder. A Tianrui representative was not immediately available for comment. At the end of February, its unit Shandong Shanshui Cement defaulted on a 1 billion yuan ($146 million) bond. (Reporting by Donny Kwok and Umesh Desai in HONG KONG, Adam Jourdan and SHANGHAI NEWSROOM; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Snapchat has teamed up with the Electoral Commission for the first time to launch a geofilter to encourage young people in Scotland to register to vote.
SEE ALSO: Devastated Snapchatters talk about the heartbreak of losing a Snapstreak after hundreds of days
The filter is the first of its kind in the UK. It reminds people to register to vote in the council elections on 4 May in Scotland the first time 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland are eligible to vote.
"Snapchat gives us a fantastic opportunity to reach a typically under-registered audience and let young people in Scotland know that they can use their voice in these elections," said Andy ONeill, Head of the Electoral Commission in Scotland.
Image: electoral commission
Only 69 percent of 18-34 year olds in Great Britain are registered to vote, compared to 96 percent of people aged 65 and over, according to the Electoral Commission.
1 week left to register to vote in the Scottish council elections in May- we've teamed up with @Snapchat to spread the word across Scotland pic.twitter.com/9hp9t697Lc Your Vote Matters (@YourVote_UK) April 10, 2017
This isn't the first time Snapchat's been used to encourage young voters.
In September 2016, Snapchat ran a public service campaign in the U.S. in partnership with nonprofit Democracy Works' TurboVote. The campaign ran video ads between Snapchat Stories which directed users to a voter registration mobile webpage within the app.
WATCH: Snapchat Spectacles have a wind noise problem here's how to fix it
It looks like the McCulloughs wont recover that easily after Aniceto Pizana (Manuel Uriza) blew up their oil rig at the end of Season 1, episode 1 of The Son.
According to the synopsis for The Son Season 1, episode 3, titled Second Empire, Eli (Pierce Brosnan) and his eldest son, Phineas (David Wilson Barnes), struggle to help the family in Austin as they figure out how to continue their plans of starting an oil business in southern Texas.
In the first few minutes of Season 1, episode 2, Phineas told Eli that banks wont let them borrow money after what happened to their rig. So when Eli asked Phineas to think of another way to get a new rig up and running, the latter suggested they sell portion of their land to the Midkiffs.
READ: Pierce Brosnan talks losing his wife and daughter
We do have that orphan eight sections up by the Midkiffs, Phineas told his father.
Are you suggesting we sell to Percy Midkiff? asked the family patriarch.
Just those eight sections, Phineas replied. There aint nothing up there but brush and Ladino bulls.
Apparently, Eli doesnt like bible-thumping Percy, so he didnt take Phineas suggestion seriously.
As Eli and Phineas try to find a way to get their family business back on track, Pete (Henry Garrett) faces his demons. At the end of Season 1, episode 2, Pete gave Cesar (Elliot Villar) one of Anicetos men to run away from their familys custody. But the moment Pete untied Cesar, the latter attacked him, forcing Elis youngest son to kill the Mexican. Pete clearly had no intention of killing Cesar, so it isnt surprising that his guilty conscience starts messing with him.
In a sneak peek from episode 3, Maria Garcia (Paola Nunez) pays Pete a visit to ask him if he knows what happened to her brother-in-law, Cesar. Although its been hinted in the series premiere that Maria and Pete previously had a relationship, Pete ultimately decides to protect himself and his family by keeping the truth from Maria.
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Meanwhile, back in 1849, Young Eli (Jacob Lofland) trains as a warrior, but makes enemies.
The Son Season 1, episode 3 airs on Saturday, April 15 at 9 p.m. EST on AMC. Watch the sneak peek below:
Pierce Brosnan as Eli McCullough
Photo: James Minchin III/AMC
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Johannesburg (AFP) - South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday described last week's protests demanding that he resign as racist, as he fought back against the criticism that has threatened to split the ruling ANC party.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through South African cities on Friday, angered by years of corruption scandals, record unemployment and slowing economic growth under Zuma's rule.
Zuma's recent sacking of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan unleashed a fresh bout of public frustration -- as well as unprecedented complaints from senior ANC figures, including the deputy president.
The largely peaceful protests in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town appeared to attract a diverse mix of South Africans, but Zuma railed against those who participated.
"The marches that took place last week demonstrated that racism is real and exists in our country," he said.
"Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried... with some posters depicting black people as baboons."
The president said some South Africans regarded "black people as being lesser human beings", but he gave no further details about the alleged placards and posters or where they had been seen.
The protest in Johannesburg was organised by the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, which many ANC supporters accuse of harbouring white racists.
Further demonstrations are planned on Wednesday ahead of a parliamentary motion of no confidence in the president on April 18.
Zuma has easily survived previous such votes against him.
The president was speaking at an annual memorial service for anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani, who was shot dead by a white suprematist in 1993.
The African National Congress (ANC) led the decades-long struggle against apartheid, and carried Nelson Mandela to power in the 1994 elections that ended white-minority rule.
By Tanisha Heiberg and James Macharia JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday accused some protesters of racism after marches last week that drew tens of thousands of people demanding his resignation, while the opposition announced plans for a new protest. More than 60,000 people marched in South African cities on Friday in largely peaceful protests to demand Zuma quit after a cabinet reshuffle set off the latest crisis of his presidency. Speaking at a memorial to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the assassination of anti-apartheid and Communist Party leader Chris Hani - whose murder led to nationwide riots - Zuma said South Africa had not yet built a non-racial society decades after white-minority rule ended in 1994. In his first public response to the protests, Zuma said they "demonstrated that racism is real" in South Africa. "Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried in 1994, with some posters depicting black people as baboons," the president said. "It is clear that some of our white compatriots regard black people as being lesser human beings or sub-human." A mixed racial profile of people attended the rallies. Police said about 60,000 people took part in the marches in the major cities. Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), which has strong support among white people, had called for a march in Johannesburg, and held a rally of more than 10,000 people. In the capital Pretoria, about 15,000 people gathered in a field outside the Union Buildings, the site of Zuma's offices, in a march led by civil society group SaveSA. Other marches were held in Cape Town, Durban and other parts of the country. Maimane's spokesman Mabine Seabe said of Zuma's comments: "He cannot argue based on policy and is trying to distract from the issues by using race as a scapegoat." Zuma's spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga also said there were posters in Pretoria that depicted black people as baboons. Ngqulunga sent a picture to Reuters that has been used on Twitter showing a Zuma caricature. Some placards during the protests used vulgar language against Zuma, Reuters witnesses said. "It's been proven before that if you place a racial bombshell in a conversation it clouds the issues," said Gwen Ngwenya, the chief operating officer of the South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg. "It's an effective spin strategy that's very shrewd ... because it plays on historical racial tensions in South Africa." NEW PROTEST The DA, the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters and other smaller parties announced a new protest march dubbed "National Day of Action" on Wednesday at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, aimed at drumming up support for a no-confidence motion against the president in parliament on April 18. The African National Congress, which has a commanding majority in parliament, has said its members would vote against the motion. Zuma's sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in a cabinet reshuffle on March 31 has outraged allies and opponents alike, undermined his authority and caused rifts in the ANC, which has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid. The rand has tumbled more than 11 percent since March 27, when Zuma ordered Gordhan to return home from overseas talks with investors, days before firing him. Fitch on Friday followed S&P Global Ratings and downgraded South Africa to "junk", citing Gordhan's dismissal as one reason. On Monday, Zuma said he had met Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganyago and Tom Moyane, the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, to discuss the impact of the credit rating downgrades and "how we should respond adequately." Zuma reiterated plans to transform the economy to include more black people, who, he said, were passed up for promotions and had lower salaries than white people doing the same jobs. "The majority of black people are still economically disempowered. They are dissatisfied with the limited economic gains from liberation," he said. Black people make up 80 percent of the population, yet the lion's share of the economy in terms of ownership of land and companies remains in the hands of white people, who make up about 8 percent of the population. (Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The gunman who opened fire at a San Bernardino, California elementary school shot dead an adult female in a classroom, then himself, authorities said on Monday, adding that they did not believe two wounded children were targeted by the shooter.
Investigators were working to determine how the adult female victim and the shooter knew each other but said two students wounded in the incident were not related to either of them.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
Lalu Prasad Yadav is unfazed although he and his family face allegations of benami property acquisition, made by BJP leader Sushil Modi last week. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar hasn't commented on the accusations.
By Rohit Kumar Singh: After admitting that his family members own the two acres of prime land in Patna on which Bihar's biggest mall is being constructed, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav remains defiant on the alleged source of income to fund this project.
Although BJP leader Sushil Modi last week levelled a series of allegations on Lalu and his family, saying they acquired benami property to the tune of Rs 500 crore through the land and the mall, Lalu Prasad is unfazed.
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"Two plus two is four but for Sushil Modi, its five. Let him go and complain wherever he wants to, it will not make any difference," Lalu Prasad said.
'RAGS TO RICHES STORY'
Sushil Modi has threatened to move the Income Tax department, Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation.
The BJP leader said Lalu's admission clearly indicated how he has converted his black money into white.
"It's a rags to riches story and I will urge filmmakers to make a film on his life of how a poor person today owns Rs. 500 crore property. I demand Nitish Kumar to take action on Tejaswi and Tej Pratap who are ministers in the government and dismiss them from the cabinet" Sushil Modi said.
However, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who hasn't commented on the allegations Lalu Prasad faces, continued to be evasive when he was questioned by the press today on the sidelines of the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha.
"Today you all should focus on Gandhi Ji's ideology", he advised.
ALSO READ | Lalu Prasad Yadav counters charges on benami property, says Sushil Modi is a ghotalebaaz
ALSO READ | Will not spare Lalu, family for acquiring benami property: Sushil Modi
ALSO WATCH | PM Modi praises Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for liquor ban initiative
--- ENDS ---
Washington (AFP) - US authorities moved Monday to take down a global computer botnet behind the massive theft of personal data and unwanted spam emails, as Spain arrested the notorious Russian hacker who operated it.
US authorities say the Russian, Piotr or Peter Levashov, had operated the Kelihos network of tens of thousands of infected computers, stealing personal data and renting the network out to others to send spam emails by the millions and extort ransom from computer owners.
Levashov, also known in the hacking world as Peter Severa, was arrested at Barcelona airport on Friday at the US request.
A Spanish judge on Monday ordered him to be remanded in custody as Washington is expected to seek his extradition.
Spanish police said in a statement late Monday that the arrest was the result of a "complex inquiry carried out in collaboration with the American FBI."
A US indictment unsealed Monday said Levashov, 36 and a native of St. Petersburg, had operated the Kelihos botnet since around 2010.
It was not the first time US officials have gone after him. In 2008 he was indicted as a Russia-based partner of the leading US spammer, Alan Ralsky. Ralsky and others were jailed in that case but Levashov was never caught.
- 100,000 computers infected -
The Kelihos network is made up of private computers around the world running on the Microsoft Window operating system. The computers are infected with malware that gives Levashov the ability to control them remotely, with the owners completely unaware.
According to the Justice Department, at times the number of computers in the network has topped 100,000, with between five and 10 percent of them in the United States.
Through underground networks, Kelihos sold the network's services to others, who would use it to send out spam emails advertising counterfeit drugs, work-at-home scams, and other fraud schemes, the indictment said.
They were also used for illegal "pump-and-dump" stock market manipulation schemes, and to spread other malware through which hackers could steal a user's banking account information including passwords, and lock up a computer's information to demand huge ransoms.
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The indictment called Levashov "one of the world's most notorious criminal spammers."
The Spamhaus Project, which documents spam, botnets, malware and other abuse, listed him as seventh on its "10 Worst Spammers" list and "one of the longest operating criminal spam-lords on the internet."
"The ability of botnets like Kelihos to be weaponized quickly for vast and varied types of harms is a dangerous and deep threat to all Americans, driving at the core of how we communicate, network, earn a living, and live our everyday lives," said Acting US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco in a statement.
- Using legal 'malware' against botnet -
Levashov's arrest was unrelated to investigations into Russian interference in last year's US presidential election, US officials said.
Earlier, the suspect's wife had earlier told Russia Today that his arrest was connected to the election hacking case.
A Spanish court specializing in international cases will rule on whether he will be sent to the US.
The US has 40 days to present evidence backing Levashov's extradition, which the suspect opposes.
In parallel with the arrest, US justice authorities announced an extraordinary move to bring down the Kelihos network, obtaining warrants that allows it to install its own malware-like programs on computers in the network to intercept its operation.
Such a move appeared to be the first ever application of controversial new investigative powers which took effect late last year.
The Justice Department explained that its programs would be able to redirect Kelihos-infected computers into substitute servers in order to halt the network's operation.
In doing so, it can record the private IP or internet protocol addresses of the computers and provide them to internet service providers to help customers eliminate the infections, the department explained.
In a warrant that permitted investigators to "infect" botnet computers in order to block Kelihos, investigators pledged to guard the privacy of computer owners.
"This operation will not capture content from the target computers or modify them in any other capacity except limiting the target computers' ability to interact with the Kelihos botnet," the warrant said.
MADRID (AP) Carme Chacon, Spain's first female defense minister and a prominent socialist party leader, has died. She was 46.
The party said in a statement that Chacon died on Sunday from a heart condition she had had since birth.
Chacon helped modernize Spain's armed forces when she took the helm of the Ministry of Defense in 2008, in the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Photos of Chacon reviewing the troops while heavily pregnant became a symbol of a new era in Spanish politics.
Spain's socialist party, or PSOE, said in a statement that Chacon had always been "at the vanguard" of the party.
"Despite her youth," the statement said, Chacon had a "passion to defend the socialist ideals and, with time, she became a very important figure in our party."
Before taking charge of the Defense Ministry, she had previously been minister of housing and a national lawmaker.
When Zapatero stepped down in 2011, she ran for PSOE's top leadership, although she eventually lost the vote to former Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
Between 2012 and 2016, she had been in charge of the party's international relations, before she left politics to join a law firm in Madrid.
Chacon's body was found by police in her home on Sunday after relatives called emergency services when they couldn't reach her. She was married and had a young son.
TOKYO (AP) Japan Inc. where companies with roots going back decades, if not centuries, have long dominated, is finally warming up to startups.
Major banks and venture capitalists are keen to tap into faster growth by investing in innovative entrepreneurs, when they can find them. Money raised for ventures in Japan reached a record 276 billion yen ($2.5 billion) last year.
That's up from about 50 billion yen ($450 million) annually after the financial crisis, according to Japan Venture Research Co.
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OPEN FIELDS
Silicon Valley still raises 50 times more cash for startups than Japan, but the number of U.S. startups chasing that cash is higher. So there's relatively more money to go around in Japan, where young, daring risk-takers are still relatively scarce.
That helps startups to survive, says Yusuke Asakura, who heads a Tokyo-based angel network of entrepreneurs.
Still, he says Japan needs a change of "mindset."
"Japanese value hard work, but what creates innovation is not keeping at the hard work but deciding it is too much work and figuring out how not to do it," said Asakura, who led a turnaround as chief executive at Mixi, a social networking service in Japan.
He now sits on boards of two startups Raksul, an online service that farms printing work out to plants nationwide, and digital hotel reservation service Loco Partners, which recently was bought by Japanese telecoms operator KDDI.
"There is potential for startups in all the old-fashioned sectors," he said, pointing to growing use of digital tools in education and home-remodeling. "Creating a totally new sector is one way. But there are many old areas that need fixing."
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COOL STETHOSCOPE
Arata Ohwa did exactly that: Innovating in an area where practically nothing had changed for decades.
His Tokyo-based startup Classico sells stylish lab coats and scrub tops online to doctors and nurses around the world, especially in the U.S. and Japan. Classico coats cost about $200 each, about seven times more than utilitarian conventional ones, but are more fashionable.
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More recently, Ohwa raised seed money through crowd funding to begin designing, making and selling ergonomic stethoscopes that sell from $380 to $520 apiece.
Classico's U Scope is made of a more pliant material than traditional stethoscopes, whose basic design has been the same for a century.
It can be rolled up to fit into a pocket, and doctors say it's light and easy-to-use. This year, it won Germany's iF Design Award and Red Dot Design Award.
"In the medical industry, even if you do what's considered normal in the internet world, everyone says it's new," said Ohwa, 36.
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HOT STARTUPS
Investment by financial institutions and manufacturers, some of whom are setting up corporate venture capital funds, is driving the startup boom.
Local companies that once tended to think locally without considering overseas markets increasingly are focusing on global platforms, said Akira Kitamura, chief executive at Japan Venture Research.
"Companies are investing in open innovation because they don't want to end up like Sharp or Toshiba," said Kitamura, referring to big-name companies whose fortunes have fallen in recent years.
Japan's earliest "startup" ventures were in the 1970s. The 1980s brought internet giant Softbank Corp., travel company H.I.S. and the Culture Convenience Club, a video-rental chain. Online retailer Rakuten and game company DeNA were born during the dot.com boom of the late 1990s-early 2000s.
Until recently, such newcomers were viewed by suspicion.
The classic example is Takafumi Horie, whose downfall was as dramatic as his ascent as a star entrepreneur and founder of dot.com Livedoor. He was convicted in 2007 for financial crimes that usually do not land old-guard executives in jail. Horie, who pleaded innocent, spent nearly two years in prison.
Startups still face other hurdles in Japan, where initial public offerings remain the main exit option, rather than the relatively easier mergers and acquisitions approach typical of the U.S. and Europe.
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NEWSMAKER
Yusuke Umeda, 35-year-old co-chief executive of Tokyo-based startup Uzabase, is banking on a smartphone subscription news service focused on business and economic news.
Umeda's NewsPicks service has attracted 2 million users who each pay 1,500 yen ($14) a month, 550,000 of them daily active users. It eked out a profit last year on nearly 3.1 billion yen ($31 million) in sales last year, up 63 percent from 2015.
The service produces original stories and collects and curates reports from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Japan, TechCrunch and other news services. It also adds comments to items written by its own pool of hired writers and experts.
"And so they know it's not fake news," Umeda said.
While working for the Swiss investment bank UBS, Umeda found Western financial data services hard to use. He launched Speeda, a Japanese-language service designed for financial professionals in 2009, and NewsPicks in 2013. His company has gotten 1 billion yen ($9 million) in Japanese venture money from investors such as Globis, Monex and Itochu Technology Ventures.
"It's unimaginable how easy it has become to get funding from both big companies and venture capital," said Umeda. "The culture to nurture startups and try out new businesses is also growing. That was totally absent eight years ago. That's a big change. And I think that is positive."
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MANY TONGUES
Some startups, like software distributor Sourcenext Corp., serve as bridges between Japan and the rest of the world.
Sourcenext helped facilitate launches of Dropbox and Evernote in Japan. Its iOS and Android voice-recognition application, iGotcha, transcribes voicemails into text in 11 different languages.
The app sends messages to email and Facebook Messenger accounts by WiFi and collects and organizes voicemails from a user's mobile phone numbers.
Noriyuki Matsuda, the company's billionaire chief executive, founded the company in 1996 in Japan but has lived in California since 2012.
While the climate toward ventures is gradually improving in Japan, it still hasn't caught up with more globally-minded Silicon Valley, says Matsuda, 51.
"You can make deals there," Matsuda, who used to work for IBM Japan, said of Silicon Valley. "There are many advanced tools that have been developed in Silicon Valley, and we bring those products and the culture to Japan."
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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama
Russia should reconsider its continued support to Syrian President Bashar Assads regime, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on ABCs This Week interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired Sunday. The comments came after the U.S. carried out missile strikes on March 6 on the Syrian government-controlled Shayrat air base in retaliation to a fatal chemical gas attack earlier that week in Idlib province that killed nearly 100 people.
Tillerson suggested in the interview that Russia is partially responsible for the Syrian governments actions such as the latest chemical attack. But he said he is hopeful that Washington and Moscow will have constructive talks resulting in a solution to the conflict in the war-torn country.
Clearly, they [Russia] are Bashar Assad's current ally. They should have the greatest influence on Bashar Assad, and certainly his decisions to use chemical weapons, they should have the greatest influence on him to cause him to no longer use those, Tillerson told Stephanopoulos during the interview.
I hope that Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer in to some level of responsibility, the secretary of state added.
While authorities in the U.S. are probing Russias role in the chemical gas attack, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster also the current national security adviser said Moscow should be pushed to answer whether it knew about the attack beforehand.
I think what we should do is ask Russia how could it be, if you have advisors at that airfield, that you didn't know that the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons? I think we ought to ask them a question, McMaster said on Fox News Sunday.
Separately, British daily the Sunday Times reported that U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wants the G7 to release a joint declaration saying that Russia should withdraw its support to Assad and pull out its forces from Syria. If Russia does not end its support to Assad, Britain will push Western countries to impose new sanctions on Russia, the paper reported.
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Following this, the Russian Embassy in London took to Twitter asking its followers the probable outcomes if the expected G7 ultimatum to Russia led to a war. The options included: war of clowns, war of muses, a conventional war or a mix of the above.
The embassy posted another tweet asking, in case of a war scenario, what trust people have on U.S. President Donald Trump as a wartime leader and Johnson as his lieutenant.
Trump and Johnson did not respond to the tweets.
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WASHINGTON (AP) A man is still at large after crashing into multiple D.C. police cruisers and leading officers on a 4-mile chase.
Police describe the man as a drug suspect. He rammed into an unmarked police cruiser Sunday evening in northeast Washington. A chase ensued, ending in Prince George's County, where the suspect hit two more unmarked police cruisers and other parked cars.
He ran from the car, eventually escaping the Prince George's County officers in pursuit.
Three officers were injured. Police have not released the extent of the injuries or a description of the suspect.
BERLIN (AP) German authorities say a Ghanaian man arrested on suspicion of raping a camper at knife-point had been denied asylum days earlier.
The dpa news agency reported Monday that regional authorities in Cologne confirmed the 31-year-old suspect had arrived in Germany from Italy in February after being denied asylum there.
German authorities also rejected his asylum request, on March 23.
Prosecutors allege that on April 2 he attacked a couple camping near the western city of Bonn with a branch saw, and raped the 23-year-old woman in front of her boyfriend.
The suspect was arrested six days later. Prosecutors say genetic material from the crime matched the suspect's DNA.
Details of the case prompted outrage in Germany, where high-profile crimes committed by asylum-seekers have drawn particular public scrutiny in recent years.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar slammed the Rajasthan government for adopting manipulative ways to ensure that liquor shops within 500 meters of highways remain intact.
By Rohit Kumar Singh: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has criticised the Vasundhara Raje-led government in Rajasthan over denotifying national and state highways in order to ensure that liquor shops within 500 meters of highways remain intact, despite the Supreme Court's order banning it.
Speaking on the occasion of 100 years of Champaran Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi, the chief minister said that while Bihar has taken a lead to ban liquor sale, Rajasthan government was adopting manipulative ways to avoid the ban.
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"The Supreme Court has ordered that no liquor shop will function within 500 meters from national and state highways but it's shocking that Rajasthan government has denotified the highways in violence of the Supreme Court orders. It is a manipulation by Rajasthan government to keep liquor shops intact and keep the sale on," said Nitish Kumar.
The chief minister further maintained that the manner in which Bihar has taken an initiative towards prohibition, his government will undertake a massive awareness campaign against dowry and child marriages also, which is rampant in the society. He expressed concern over the cases of dowry deaths taking place in the country.
"We will soon kickstart an elaborate campaign against dowry and child deaths. Both these issues still remain a cause of concern," said Bihar Chief Minister.
Also read: All liquor shops across Madhya Pradesh to be shut down in phases: Chouhan
Also read:SC liquor ban: Kerala bar builds maze to increase distance from nearest highway
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Stockholm (AFP) - The prime suspect in the Stockholm truck attack has demanded that his state-appointed lawyer be replaced with a Sunni Muslim -- a request that was refused, according to court documents seen Monday.
Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek national believed to have sympathised with jihadist groups, is being held on suspicion of ramming a stolen lorry into pedestrians on a busy street in central Stockholm before crashing it into a department store.
Four people were killed and 15 others injured.
Akilov, a construction worker who had been refused permanent residency in Sweden, was arrested several hours after the attack in Marsta, a suburb north of Stockholm.
Local media, citing sources close to the inquiry, say he has confessed to the attack claiming he was ordered by the Islamic State group to target "infidels".
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a court document seen by AFP, Akilov's state-appointed lawyer Johan Eriksson said his client had asked him to "relieve himself of his mission", saying he "expressly wanted to be defended by a Sunni Muslim".
Akilov had argued that "only a lawyer of this faith could assert his interests in the best way", the statement said.
But Judge Malou Lindblom dismissed the request "for lack of sufficient reasons", in a written decision sent to AFP.
Akilov is due to appear in court at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Tuesday for a magistrate to decide whether to remand him in custody.
Stockholm (AFP) - After the Stockholm truck attack that killed four people and injured 15 others, Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson has told AFP he is seeking to toughen the nation's terrorism laws.
The suspected truck driver who mowed down shoppers in the attack, named in court documents as 39-year-old Uzbek national Rakhmat Akilov, had expressed an interest in jihadist organisations, according to police.
He had gone underground after his application for Swedish residency was rejected last year.
Q: How do you want to strengthen Sweden's terrorism laws?
Morgan Johansson: "We have criminalised departures abroad linked to terrorism and widened the scope of (punishing) the financing of terrorism. There is a possibility to extend this further.
"It could mean being active in an organisation that dedicates itself to terrorism even if it's not connected to a certain crime. In doing so we could target a wider circle and intervene earlier against potentially dangerous individuals.
"It might include a prison sentence... We're looking at the legislation that exists in Norway which has a similar constitution as Sweden."
Q: How can you stop people from going underground?
"We want to give the police the opportunity, without concrete suspicion of a crime, to go into workplaces to make sure that people who work there are in Sweden (legally).
"Today there must be suspicion of a crime... With the new rules, the police should be able to go into workplaces and make a risk assessment on whether people work there illegally."
Q: How many people in Sweden have received a deportation order and then gone underground?
"It's very difficult to know the exact number but in recent years the figures have been around 10,000 people per year who have received a deportation order but later not left Sweden, at least not to the Swedish Migration Board's knowledge.
"Some have left the country without us knowing. Last year, the number of forced and voluntary expulsions increased as nearly 19,000 people left the country."
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Q: Why do you think Sweden was targeted?
"That's difficult to say... The perpetrator can answer what motives he had.
"It's difficult to speculate before we know the circumstances. If it was a lone wolf then it was his individual reason that determined it.
"If it was an organisation that stood behind it then this question becomes more relevant."
Geneva (AFP) - Swiss researchers said Monday they have developed a wireless camera system to monitor vital signs in premature babies, a move that could replace uncomfortable and highly inaccurate skin sensors.
The skin sensors currently used to monitor vital signs in babies born prematurely generate false alarms in up to 90 percent of cases, mainly set off by the baby's movement.
"This is a source of discomfort for the babies, because we have to check on them every time," Jean-Claude Fauchere, a doctor at University Hospital Zurich's neonatal clinic, explained in a statement.
"It's also a significant stress factor for nurses and a poor use of their time - it distracts them from managing real emergencies and can affect quality of care," he added.
His hospital is preparing to begin tests of a new, contactless system created by researchers at the EPFL polytechnical university in Lausanne and at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, CSEM, in Neuchatel, the two schools said in a statement.
Researchers elsewhere have also shown an interest in camera-based baby monitoring, including a British company, Oxehealth, which has run tests on newborns at a hospital in Oxford, England.
The system devised in Switzerland should allow premature babies kept warm in neonatal incubators to be medically monitored using highly sensitive cameras that detect the newborn's pulse by detecting and analysing its skin colour, which changes ever so slightly every time its heart beats.
"Breathing is monitored by measuring movements of its thorax and shoulders. At night, infrared cameras take over, which means that monitoring can be carried out non-stop," the statement said.
The optical system was designed by CSEM researchers, who chose cameras sensitive enough to detect minute changes in skin colour, while the EPFL researchers designed algorithms to process the data in real time, it said.
"We ran an initial study on a group of adults, where we looked at a defined patch of skin on their foreheads," EPFL doctoral student Sibylle Fallet said in the statement.
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"With our algorithms we can track this area when the person moves, isolate the skin pixels and use minor changes in their colour to determine the pulse," she said, adding that "the tests showed that the cameras produced practically the same results as conventional sensors."
Once the system has been extensively tested on premature babies, it could one day replace skin sensors altogether, the schools said.
"In addition to cutting down on false alarms, it would also be more comfortable for the babies," the statement said.
SANT'ANNA DI STAZZEMA, Italy (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used a visit Monday to a World War II memorial to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians, as the Trump administration sought to rally world leaders behind a strategy to resolve Syria's protracted civil war.
Opening his visit to Italy, Tillerson traveled up a winding mountain road to Sant'Anna di Stazzema, the Tuscan village where the Nazis massacred more than 500 civilians during World War II. As he laid a wreath at the site, Tillerson alluded to the chemical attack in Syria last week that triggered retaliatory U.S. airstrikes.
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," Tillerson said. "This place will serve as an inspiration to us all."
Tillerson's visit to Europe has been overshadowed from the start by President Donald Trump's decision to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons by launching cruise missiles at a Syrian air base. The U.S. military action has renewed the world's focus on Assad's fate and on Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year.
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The secretary of state's pledge to stand up for innocents came as Assad has continued to attack civilians in Syria in the days since the U.S. airstrikes including in the part of Idlib province where the chemical attack occurred. And while other U.S. airstrikes in Syria have targeted the Islamic State group, the U.S. has acknowledged that civilian casualties sometimes occur.
Tillerson plans to use his meetings with foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized economies - normally a venue for wonky economic discussions - to try to persuade leading countries to support the U.S. plan. The centerpiece of that diplomacy will come Tuesday morning when Tillerson takes part in a meeting of "likeminded" nations on Syria, including several Arab nations invited to attend.
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The top American diplomat began to deliver that message on Monday when he met on the sidelines of the G-7 with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. Both countries have voiced support for the U.S. response to Assad's chemical weapons use.
The Trump administration is hoping that after defeating the Islamic State group in Syria, it can restore stability by securing local cease-fires between Assad's government and opposition groups that allow local leaders who have fled to return and by restoring basic services. The next step would be to use U.N. talks to negotiate a political transition that could include Assad leaving power.
From Italy, Tillerson will travel to Moscow, becoming the first Trump administration official to visit Russia. That trip, too, is fraught with tension over Syria: Tillerson has blamed Russia, Assad's strongest ally, of either complicity or incompetence for allowing Assad to possess and use chemical weapons.
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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
Berlin (AFP) - A 16-year-old Syrian refugee was convicted in Germany Monday of planning a bomb attack on behalf of the Islamic State jihadist group and sentenced to two years' juvenile detention.
The regional court in the western city of Cologne said in a statement that the defendant was found guilty of plotting "a serious act of violence threatening state security".
The teenager, who was not identified by the court, was arrested at an asylum shelter in Cologne in September and went on trial in February.
Police had said the suspect's mobile phone showed he had been in touch with an IS contact abroad and expressed willingness to carry out a bombing.
Investigators found online chat messages on the phone that included "concrete instructions" for building an explosive device.
However the court found that the plot was thwarted at a "very early stage". "At no time was the public specifically in danger," it said.
The teenager and his family were among the nearly 900,000 migrants and refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015, a record influx that has fuelled security concerns.
The suspect was brought to police attention after residents and employees at the refugee shelter where he was staying voiced concerns that he had been radicalised, as did a local mosque.
The court found that the "particular loneliness" of his housing situation at the shelter meant that he spent most of his time on his mobile phone, making him easy prey for jihadist propaganda online.
Germany has been on high alert since a series of attacks last year claimed by IS, the deadliest of which was a truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market which killed 12 people in December.
New York (AFP) - Tesla Motors overtook General Motors to become the biggest US automaker by market capitalization Monday, a sign of how Silicon Valley has captured investor excitement at Detroit's expense.
Tesla shares were up 3.0 percent to $311.74 near 1720 GMT, for a market capitalization of $51.43 billion, more than $1 billion above GM, a 109-year-old company that sold almost 120 times as many cars as Tesla last year.
Tesla's latest share price surge followed an upgrade by Piper Jaffray, which set a $368 target on shares and described the electric carmaker's messianic-like captivation of Wall Street.
"More so than any stock we've covered, Tesla engenders optimism, freedom, defiance, and a host of other emotions that, in our view, other companies cannot replicate," Piper Jaffray said in a report moving Tesla to "overweight" in their recommendation.
"As they scramble to catch up, we think Tesla's competitors only make themselves appear more desperate," the report said.
Tesla's rise reflects a broader conviction in the market that the Silicon Valley company embodies the future the industry and has a firmer grip than traditional players on technologies that will inject more autonomous features into driving.
That is in spite of awareness that Tesla is still a bit-player as far as the number of vehicles on America's roads, and skepticism about the California company's ability to meet the ambitious timetable it has laid out for taking electric cars mainstream.
Tesla last year sold 84,000 cars, generating $7 billion in revenue.
General Motors, in contrast, sold 10 million cars and took in $166 billion in revenues.
"Weve built a track record of strong financial performance," a GM spokesman told AFP. "We'll stay focused on delivering outstanding results and making decisions to deploy capital where it will generate the strongest returns, to enhance shareholder value."
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GM's strategy has included raising investment in autonomous vehicle technology and a commitment to profitable growth embodied by the March decision to sell its European brand Opel to French automaker PSA.
Tesla declined to comment on the rise in its valuation.
- Not everyone is sold -
Tesla, which last week overtook Ford in market capitalization, is on track to begin production in July of the Model 3, which is aimed at the middle market, making the electric car accessible to a broader swath of consumers.
Tesla as of last summer already had orders for nearly 400,000 of the Model 3, priced at $35,000, and has said it will reach production of 500,000 by 2018, a pace many analysts are skeptical it will reach.
Not everyone has jumped on the Tesla bandwagon. CFRA Research analyst Efraim Levy praised Tesla's progress on technology, but has a "sell" recommendation and views the stock as overvalued.
"The news flow has been positive, but it is a lot of money to pay for a potential profits that keep getting pushed out," said Levy, who has a "strong buy" on GM and a "buy" on Ford.
Piper Jaffray said recent interactions with Tesla staff have boosted its confidence that Model 3 deliveries will at least come closer to Tesla's delivery targets than it earlier appeared
But the analysts were almost sheepish in acknowledging some sympathy with Tesla skeptics, but said "their (arguably rational ) arguments probably won't matter."
"In many ways, Tesla seems to play by its own rules," the report said. "The company burns through cash at a rate that better-established companies would likely be crucified for."
And it added, "Tesla's production timelines are unreasonably fast, at least based on 'expert' opinions in the automotive industry, and the company spurns various industry norms."
"Yet, because of its superior products, loyal shareholders, and inspiring mission, Tesla remains unscathed," the note added.
London (AFP) - Thousands of police officers attended the funeral in London on Monday of Keith Palmer, the policeman stabbed to death in a terror attack outside the British parliament last month.
Officers lined the cortege route from the Houses of Parliament, where his body lay in rest on Sunday in a rare honour normally granted to senior politicians.
The service took place across the River Thames in Southwark Cathedral, with Palmer's wife and five-year-old daughter in attendance.
Normally bustling streets in central London were at a standstill for the procession, led by the hearse with a floral tribute reading "No 1 Daddy".
Officers wearing dress uniform with white gloves and medals stood with heads bowed during a two-minute silence at the start of the service.
Some 5,000 officers from around the country took part, along with Cressida Dick, the first female head of London's Metropolitan Police.
Palmer, 48, was killed on March 22 by a 52-year-old convert to Islam, Khalid Masood, as he stood guard outside parliament.
Masood attacked Palmer after he had driven into pedestrians nearby, killing three and fatally injuring a fourth. He was shot dead by an armed officer.
Parliamentary officials have ordered a security review after it was revealed that Palmer was not armed.
In addition, the vehicle entrance gate to parliament which he was guarding was open, as it often is to allow MPs in and out of the building more easily.
Palmer's was taken to a chapel inside parliament on Sunday, where a private service was held after Queen Elizabeth II granted special dispensation.
Others who have previously been granted the honour include former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
By Steve Holland PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - President Donald Trumps deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, is expected to step down and has been offered the position of U.S. ambassador to Singapore, a U.S. official said on Sunday. The move will be seen as a victory for Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, who is retooling the national security team he inherited from retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who resigned as Trump's first national security adviser in February. McFarland, 65, is a former national security analyst for Fox News and was one of Trump's original hires after he won the presidential election on Nov. 8. The exact date of her departure was unclear, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. News of her pending departure came less than a week after Trump removed his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, from the National Security Council at McMaster's urging. Bannon had a seat on the council's "principals committee," which included the secretaries of state, defense and other ranking aides. Flynn was forced to resign on Feb. 13 over his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, before Trump took office on Jan. 20. McFarland's expected departure will likely elevate the status of Dina Powell, who is deputy national security adviser for strategy. She had served in Republican President George W. Bush's State Department, and had advised Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, during Trump's transition to the presidency. Trump's White House has been rife with infighting and palace intrigue as the president has struggled to get past some early stumbles. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by James Dalgleish and Jonathan Oatis)
In the half an hour meeting, Mamata Banerjee is believed to have quoted an amount of Rs 10,000 crore due to West Bengal under various Centre-sponsored schemes.
By India Today Web Desk: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking release of funds due to her state under various centre-sponsored schemes.
Banerjee is believed to have quoted an amount of Rs 10,000 crore in the meeting.
Mamata Banerjee who has long been trying to procure loan waiver for West Bengal also discussed her state's debt situation apart from raising the Teesta issue.
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"Around Rs 10,459 crore is pending with the Centre, I apprised the Prime Minister about that and the problems due to this... He said he will try to release the funds," she added.
Chief Minister of West Bengal @MamataOfficial ji called on the Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/LQtOk4GWk2- PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 10, 2017
ON TEESTA-WATER SHARING ACCORD
In stark contrast to PM Modi's statement during Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina's visit that efforts to provide 'early solution' to Teesta water sharing will be taken, Banerjee said there was no accord yet.
The West Bengal chief minister told the PM that there was no talk on the Teesta-water sharing agreement with Bangladesh.
During Hasina's visit, the two prime ministers could not finalise the long-pending Teesta water-sharing agreement, primarily due to opposition to it by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
With inputs from IANS
Also read: Mamata denying BJP permission to celebrate Hanuman Jayanti in Bengal: Rijiju
Also read: Sandesh, hilsa and saree exchange made Mamata-Hasina bond again
Also read: Sheikh Hasina's India visit: Why Narendra Modi must listen to Mamata over Teesta water agreement
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Its been a tough few days for Americas state-sponsored hackers. On Monday, CIA hackers were outed by an American security firm who linked their work to recent WikiLeaks dumps. And over the weekend, a shadowy group of hackers calling themselves the Shadow Brokers spilled NSA hacking tools onto the internet.
The Shadow Brokers dump and the report from security firm Symantec shines the spotlight once more on the hacking capabilities of American spy agencies, amid a growing scandal about Russian intelligence agencies attempts to influence the American election. It also underscores the spies vulnerability to detection when carrying out clandestine work online and the risk of exposure in an era when reams of data can be quickly and easily leaked and publicized.
In a blog post Monday, Symantec said it had linked 40 attacks in 16 countries to material that bear the markings of the CIA hacking tools revealed by WikiLeaks last month in its so-called Vault 7 series. The CIA has not confirmed the authenticity of the leak. Symantec described the work of a group it has dubbed Longhorn, which it says has been active since at least 2011 and has targeted foreign governments and firms in the financial, telecommunications, and other industries for espionage.
Symantec says it has observed attacks with technical features that match material published by WikiLeaks in Vault 7. Given the close similarities between the tools and techniques, there can be little doubt that Longhorns activities and the Vault 7 documents are the work of the same group, Symantec researchers wrote.
Symantec tracked the group operating on computer systems in Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It documented one infection in the United States, which was quickly uninstalled. Operating in the United States is against the CIAs charter, and Symantec said it believed the infection was unintentional.
Meanwhile, the leak of NSA hacking tools shed light on the kinds of organizations targeted by the intelligence agency. They include telecommunications firms and a large number of foreign universities, including the Chinese Institute of Higher Energy Physics, according to security researchers who have examined the code released on Saturday. These hardly surprising targets for Americas premier signals intelligence agency.
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Some tools released allow the NSA to penetrate deep into the infrastructure of a telecommunications firm and collect call data on large numbers of phone numbers, a computer researcher who works under the name x0rz told Foreign Policy. By gathering such data, the NSA can analyze who talks to whom and for how long on foreign telephone systems.
Most of the released tools are old techniques, which may no longer be a part of NSAs hacking arsenal. The NSA did not respond to emails seeking comment.
The identities behind the Shadow Brokers remain shrouded in mystery but the hackers seemed motivated to leak the NSA hacking tools by anger over what they perceive as President Donald Trumps betrayal of his base. The group attacked Trump for last weeks missile strike against Syria in retaliation for the use of chemical weapons, in a statement accompanying the Saturday release of the hacking tools. It also denounced the removal of Trump adviser Steve Bannon from the National Security Council and the failure to repeal Obamacare.
Dear President Trump, Respectfully, what the fuck are you doing? the group wrote on the self-publishing website Medium.TheShadowBrokers voted for you. TheShadowBrokers supports you. TheShadowBrokers is losing faith in you. Publishing NSA hacking tools, the Shadow Brokers explain, constitutes our form of protest.
Some analysts have speculated the Shadow Brokers represent the work of a disgruntled NSA insider who has made off with a huge trove of material. Still others believe that it is the project of an American adversary, perhaps Russia. Under the latter theory, the leak of the hacking tools would seem a retaliation by Russia for the strike against Syria, a Russian ally. Publishing hacking tools allows a defender to block and render them ineffective.
The Shadow Brokers first surfaced last August when they published a first set of NSA hacking tools and held a second set in reserve, to be sold at auction. The hacking tools published in August included previously unknown vulnerabilities in widely used networking equipment. Researchers have so far discovered no such information in Saturdays dump.
Last years auction did not generate significant bids, and the Shadow Brokers claimed on Saturday that their dump included the information they had planned to sell. But security researchers examining the dump said they believed the published archive was incomplete.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. Navy Admiral Michelle Howard said on Saturday U.S. cruise missile strikes on an air base in Syria had destroyed the means to deliver chemical weapons from that base, and the U.S. military remained ready to carry out further strikes if needed.
Howard, the four-star officer who leads U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, told Reuters the United States had decided to launch the strikes after the United Nations failed to pass a resolution condemning a deadly chemical weapons attack that killed scores of people in rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun.
Washington has blamed the Syrian government for the attack on Tuesday. The Syrian government has strongly denied responsibility and blamed the deaths on leaks from a rebel chemical arms store it says was hit by a Syrian air strike.
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"We conducted strikes against an air field which was the means by which the chemicals were launched into the air. Those means don't exist now," Howard said in an interview during a missile defence event in Cologne.
"We saw the misuse of chemical weapons and said, 'OK, we need to send a very clear message'".
Asked about the U.S. military's plan for how to deal with any potential further attacks, Howard said the military was ready to respond if other civilian options failed.
"As the civilian leadership works through what their options are, if other options don't pan out, then it's generally the military that gets asked to do something."
Howard declined to give any details about the flight path of the missiles, or the U.S. military assessment of the damage caused, but said she was confident the strikes had hit their intended target.
"The intention was to take out the airfield and to remove the means of the delivery of chemical weapons. I feel that was accomplished," she said.
The cruise missiles were launched by two ships in the European region, the USS Porter and the USS Ross, in close coordination with U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East.
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Howard lauded the quick action taken by the commanders and crews of the two ships in response to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.
Howard said the integration of the strikes was "flawless" and showed the ability of the U.S. Navy to project power around the world.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, editing by David Evans)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) A prominent academic in Uganda was remanded to a maximum-security prison Monday after being charged with insulting the country's longtime president.
Stella Nyanzi, a postdoctoral research fellow at Uganda's Makerere University, was charged with cyber harassment and offensive communication Monday. She denied the charges and said President Yoweri Museveni is a "dishonorable" man who has "offended the people of Uganda."
Nyanzi is popular on Facebook for her relentless criticism of Museveni, who has ruled since 1986 and who is increasingly accused of planning to rule this East African country for life. Nyanzi frequently writes that Uganda is under "despotic family rule."
The charge sheet said Nyanzi had referred to Museveni as "a pair of buttocks" in one of her Facebook posts. In remarks before a packed courtroom in the capital, Kampala, Nyanzi said she often writes metaphorically in her efforts to "speak truth to power."
She is expected back in court on April 25 after prosecutors said they wanted her to undergo a mental examination that her lawyers indicated they would resist.
In Uganda mental exams are usually reserved for suspects accused of crimes such as statutory rape.
The case against Nyanzi is being widely followed in this East African country where few people dare to publicly criticize the first family in bold terms.
Nyanzi, who trained as a medical anthropologist, often uses sexual imagery to underscore her points on Facebook, leading many in this conservative country to accuse her of obscenity. But her fans say she is an honest activist who is using her literary skills to highlight the government's failures.
On Facebook Nyanzi has repeatedly rebuked First Lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as education minister, for saying the government has no money to buy sanitary napkins for poor schoolgirls, although the president had promised to budget for them while he campaigned for re-election last year. Many Ugandan girls reportedly drop out of school because of the shame they feel for lacking sanitary pads.
Kampala (AFP) - A prominent female academic and activist was charged on Monday with cyber-harassment for calling President Yoweri Museveni a "pair of buttocks" in a Facebook post.
University lecturer Stella Nyanzi, 42, has raised eyebrows in the conservative country for sexually explicit social media posts in which she has frequently criticised the president and his wife.
She has lashed out at Janet Museveni, who is also education minister, after the government reneged on a campaign to supply free sanitary pads to poor schoolgirls and has launched vitriolic attacks against the first couple.
Nyanzi appeared in a court in Kampala on Monday, where she was charged with making a remark that was "obscene or indecent."
The charge sheet referred to a Facebook post on January 28 "where she made a suggestion or proposal referring (to) His Excellency, Yoweri Museveni as among others, 'a pair of buttocks'."
The Facebook post reads: "That is what buttocks do. They shake, jiggle, shit and fart. Museveni is just another pair of buttocks... Ugandans should be shocked that we allowed these buttocks to continue leading our country."
There was no reference to any charge for insults to the first lady.
"Dr Stella Nyanzi has been charged with cyber-harassment and offensive communication (and) using her Facebook posts to disturb President Museveni's privacy, which she denies," her lawyer Nicholas Opiyo told AFP.
"Dr. Nyanzi is within her constitutional rights and we are for an all-out legal battle with the state to defend her rights."
She remains in custody pending a bail hearing.
Nyanzi, whose work specialises in the study of sexuality in Africa, shot to prominence in April 2016 when she stripped naked at her university to protest the closure of her office. She later shared the nude photos of herself on social media.
Nyanzi is often accused by commentators on her page of missing a chance to make an impact on serious issues through her regular use of graphic sexual imagery and descriptions.
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- Reporter beaten for defending Nyanzi -
Maria Burnett, senior Africa Researcher at Human Rights Watch, on Saturday said Nyanzi's arrest was "yet another clear indicator that those who express critical views of the government can face its wrath."
Meanwhile Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, said Monday that a prominent television reporter had been kidnapped and beaten up over the weekend for her coverage of the dispute between Nyanzi and Janet Museveni.
Gertrude Uwitware was walking along one of Kampala's safest avenues when a man and a woman forced her into a car at gunpoint and gagged her before she was driven to an isolated spot where they shaved her head and beat her.
"Referring to a blog post in which she defended Nyanzi, who accused the First Lady of not keeping an election promise to provide free sanitary pads in schools, they ordered her to stop harassing the president's family and made her delete all of her Twitter and Facebook posts deemed too critical," read the statement."
"They finally dumped her at an isolated location where police found her at around midnight."
LONDON (AP) Several thousand police officers from across Britain lined the streets of London on Monday for the funeral procession of a fellow officer killed in an extremist attack last month.
Constable Keith Palmer was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood on March 22 in the cobbled forecourt of the Palace of Westminster, Parliament's home.
Two minutes of silence were observed by police throughout the country and by many others to pay respects to the 48-year-old husband and father killed in the line of duty.
London's new police chief, Cressida Dick, said after the funeral that Palmer had represented the "friendly face of British policing" and would be missed.
"I think all of us in policing hope that today's tribute to him gives some sort of comfort to his family," she said.
Police Chief Inspector Neil Sawyer said in his eulogy that the entire force is proud of Palmer.
"As police officers, we go to work every day knowing that we may be called upon to put our own lives in danger," he said. "Police Constable Keith Palmer did just that to protect life and to protect Parliament and he did not waver he stood firm and made that ultimate sacrifice in doing his duty. A hero to us all."
Palmer's coffin lay overnight in a chapel at Parliament after special permission was granted by Queen Elizabeth II.
During the funeral procession Monday, it was covered with a floral tribute that read: "Number 1 Daddy."
Some 50 members of his family, including his wife, child and parents, attended the service at Southwark Cathedral.
Masood killed four other victims and wounded scores as he rammed pedestrians on Westminster Bridge with a rented SUV. He was shot dead by police after stabbing Palmer.
Geneva (AFP) - European countries must stop returning asylum seekers to Hungary because of deteriorating conditions there for new arrivals including children, and allegations of abuse, the United Nations said Monday.
The situation for asylum seekers and other migrants has long been considered dire in Hungary, but it has worsened since Budapest last month introduced a new law on the systematic detention of all asylum seekers.
"I urge states to suspend any Dublin transfer of asylum-seekers to this country until the Hungarian authorities bring their practices and policies in line with European and international law," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
The so-called Dublin Regulation, which aims to stop people making asylum claims in multiple countries by requiring asylum seekers to be sent back to the first European country they arrived in, applies to EU nations as well as non-members Switzerland and Norway.
- 'Urgent measures' needed -
Hungary already rejects most requests from European countries for transfers under the Dublin system, arguing that most migrants who pass through the country first came through Greece.
According to the Hungarian branch of the Helsinki Committee rights group, Hungary received 26,998 requests last year, but took back only 513 asylum seekers under the Dublin agreement.
Grandi said he was "encouraged" by a European Commission decision to work with Hungarian authorities in a bid to bring Budapest's practices in line with EU law, but stressed in a statement that "urgent measures are needed to improve access to asylum in Hungary."
The UN refugee agency has repeatedly cautioned that Hungary's use of physical barriers and restrictive policies basically deny the access to asylum guaranteed under international law.
Since Hungary's new law came into force on March 28, all new asylum seekers, including children, have been "detained in shipping containers surrounded by high razor fences at the border for the entire length of their asylum procedures," the UNHCR said.
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According to the government 324 shipping container homes have been installed at two separate locations called "transit zones" built into a fence that Hungary erected along the 175-kilometre (110-mile) border in 2015.
UNHCR warned last month that the new practice would "have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered."
As of last Friday, 110 people, including four unaccompanied children and children with their families, were being held there, UNHCR said.
EU member Hungary previously systematically detained all asylum applicants but suspended the practise in 2013 under pressure from Brussels, the UN refugee agency and the European Court of Human Rights.
Grandi on Monday hailed efforts by Hungarian authorities to address allegations of police violence.
But he said: "We remain very concerned about highly disturbing reports of serious incidents of ill-treatment and violence against people crossing the border into Hungary, including by state agents.
"These unacceptable practices must be brought to an end and I urge the Hungarian authorities to further investigate any allegation of abuse and violence," he added.
Other organisations also expressed concern.
"The government deliberately dismantles the asylum-rule system in Hungary, and by doing so puts refugees at risk," Gabor Gyulai of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee told AFP.
"This is not worthy of a European country and EU member."
HEFEI, China (AP) The flood of angry anti-Muslim rhetoric on social media was the first sign of how fiercely the suburban middle-class homeowners in this central China city opposed a planned mosque in their neighborhood. It quickly escalated into something more sinister.
Soon a pig's head was buried in the ground at the future Nangang mosque, the culmination of a rally in which dozens of residents hoisted banners and circled the planned building site. Then the mosque's imam received a text message carrying a death threat: "In case someone in your family dies, I have a coffin for you and more than one, if necessary."
"How did things get stirred up to this point?" the imam, Tao Yingsheng, said in a recent interview. "Who had even heard of the Nangang mosque before?"
On the dusty plains of the Chinese heartland, a bitter fight over a mosque exemplifies how a surge in anti-Muslim sentiment online is spreading into communities across China, exacerbating simmering ethnic and religious tensions that have in the past erupted in bloodshed. It's also posing a dilemma for the ruling Communist Party, which has allowed Islamophobia to fester online for years as part of its campaign to justify security crackdowns in its restive region of Xinjiang.
"It's let the genie out of the bottle," said James Leibold, a professor at La Trobe University in Australia who has tracked the growth of anti-Muslim hate speech on China's internet.
Interviews with residents and an examination of social media show how a few disparate online complaints by local homeowners evolved into a concerted campaign to spread hate. Key to it was an unexpected yet influential backer: a Chinese propaganda official, 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) away in Xinjiang, whose inflammatory social media posts helped draw people into the streets on New Year's Day, resulting in a police crackdown.
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A stone inscription outside its gate shows the original Nangang mosque was established in the 1780s by members of the Hui minority, the descendants of Silk Road traders who settled across China centuries ago. In its present form, the mosque has served the area's 4,500 Hui for decades, its domed silhouette partially hidden by overgrown shrubs in the countryside beyond Hefei's last paved boulevards.
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Over the past 10 years urbanization has come to Hefei, with sprawling development reconfiguring the landscape and its demographic flavor, and Hui leaders had been pushing for years to relocate their mosque to a more convenient urban location.
City planners in November finally selected a site adjacent to the newly built Hangkong New City condominiums, with its $200,000 two-bedroom units, faux-Mediterranean stylings and a Volvo dealership across the street. The project's homeowners overwhelmingly members of China's ethnic Han majority began complaining on China's popular microblog, Weibo.
Some complained the mosque would occupy space promised for a park. Others warned that safety in the area would be compromised.
Others were more blunt: Han residents were uncomfortable that a center for Hui community life would be less than 100 meters (300 feet) from their building, a homeowner who later identified himself in messages to the AP by his surname, Cheng, wrote in a petition posted in December.
"And the less said about what happens on Eid al-Adha, the better," Cheng wrote, referring to the Islamic holiday in which animals are slaughtered for a sacrificial feast. "It's absolutely shocking."
The story soon caught the attention of Cui Zijian, a boyish-looking propaganda official in Xinjiang who writes about the threat of religious extremism on his Weibo account with nearly 30,000 followers.
On Dec. 16, Cui suggested homeowners lobby local officials to block the construction, adding: "If that doesn't work, then how about pig head, pig blood."
Cui followed that a few hours later with another post repeating the four Chinese characters for pig blood and pig head over and over, attracting hundreds of reposts. While Cui was criticized by some on Weibo, a larger number including at least one other government propaganda official took his post as their cue to hurl abuse at the Hui.
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The mosque dispute was just the latest flashpoint for an increasingly active anti-Muslim social media movement in China.
A video of a Hui girl reciting the Quran in Arabic sparked outrage last May over so-called terrorist infiltration of Chinese schools, prompting officials to announce a "strict ban" on religion on campuses. Online activists derailed a Hui official's effort to regulate the halal food industry, arguing that religion was creeping into the officially atheistic Chinese state.
Han Chinese, who make up 95 percent of the population, have long grumbled about the dozens of China's officially recognized minority groups receiving advantages on the hyper-competitive college entrance exams or exemptions from family-size limits, but online abuse has increasingly targeted Muslims.
The rise in Islamophobia comes as Chinese have been buffeted by news of militant attacks in Europe, while at home, violence in Xinjiang and elsewhere has been blamed on Muslim separatists. Beijing has responded to the bloody, years-long insurgency from Muslim Uighur minorities in Xinjiang with further restrictions on Islamic expression, a move rights groups warn could potentially radicalize moderate Muslims. Such policies have also drawn vows of retaliation from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Ethnic hostility can only deepen, scholars say, when the government stops discussion of the plight of Muslims or ethnic policies while allowing anti-Muslim rhetoric and hate speech to go unchecked. In 2014, Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti, who had founded a website to host debates about ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, was sentenced to life in prison on separatism charges.
Government censors go after descriptions of abuses against Muslims, but "it doesn't take long whatsoever to find incredibly Islamophobic things that seem to be not censored at all," said William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, which has appealed for Tohti's release.
Political observers say the recent rise of a faction within the Communist Party advocating for a hard-line approach on religious affairs has coincided with the rise of government-linked commentators who openly warn about the danger of Islam.
"Interest groups have actively promoted Islamophobia in interior regions in order to create a nationwide environment that justifies Xinjiang's anti-terrorism campaign," said Ma Haiyun, a history professor specializing in China's Muslims at Frostburg State University in Maryland. "There's an Islamophobic movement that aims at creating chaos and even conflicts at the local level."
After briefly moderating his remarks about the Nangang mosque, the propaganda official, Cui, renewed his criticism in February with an essay arguing that his professional and patriotic duty was to resist extremism. His online speech about Muslims was part of the job, he said.
"For that, we're labeled Muslim-smearers," wrote Cui, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment. "But it is those who instigate a fear of Islam, precisely the terrorists and the extremists, who are the ones smearing Muslims."
Reached in March, an official at the propaganda department where he worked refused to comment on Cui's involvement in the controversy. But Cui now appears to be even better positioned to influence discourse: The official said Cui was transferred in February to work in the cyberspace administration, the agency in charge of censoring online speech.
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Tao, the 50-year old imam, recalled the day in December when he heard his mosque was suddenly the subject of thousands of posts and hundreds of comments on Weibo, a service he barely used. He soon found himself soothing local Hui who approached him, shaken by what they were seeing online.
"They said people were planning to hang a pig's head outside our mosque. I said, 'Then we'll remove it.' They said people will bury a pig's head in the ground. I said 'Why can't we just dig it up?'" Tao said.
After protesters followed through with the threat at the New Year's Day demonstration, police detained two protest leaders for two weeks and summoned others for questioning, according to residents. Since then Han indignation has gave way to quiet seething.
"People have been scared into silence," said Cheng, the Han tea seller.
During a recent visit to Hangkong New City, homeowners repeated the government's mantra that ethnic unity was important, but complained that officials sacrificed their interests to appease a minority.
"If 99 percent of our compound is Han, it doesn't seem appropriate that they put a mosque next door," said a middle-aged woman who said her surname was Han.
Ma Jianhua, a Nangang district planning official, told the AP that construction will proceed after his office "appropriately handled" homeowners' petitions, but declined to elaborate.
The mosque dispute has left the city's Hui community on the defensive, with many eager to emphasize their desire to peacefully coexist with their Han neighbors as well as their confidence in the government's handling of the situation.
At a ranch past the undulating rapeseed field that separates the condos from rubble-strewn Huimin Lu Hui People's Road workers at what is one of the few Hui businesses that hasn't been demolished to make way for high-rises expressed surprise about the mosque dispute, given the area's history of ethnic mingling.
"We've been in these parts a long time," a worker surnamed Tao, who is not related to the imam, said as he loaded sacks of dried fatty beef. "We mind our business and they mind theirs. We don't stir up trouble and they don't either."
But Tao, the imam, seemed to acknowledge a hardening of attitudes toward Muslims in recent years.
"It may be that the situation has grown more sensitive in that place that we all know about," he said after a pause, referring to but not daring to mention Xinjiang.
Still he tries to not harbor resentment toward the Han protesters.
"I don't blame the locals because I believe they were influenced," he said, sitting below framed pictures of him greeting government religious affairs officials. "I want them to know Muslims are virtuous people. We are peaceful. We are reasonable. We are tolerant. And we are good Chinese."
By Antoni Slodkowski YANGON (Reuters) - A top official from the U.N. children's fund (UNICEF) has sought the release of Rohingya children detained in a Myanmar army crackdown on the Muslim minority, the organization's country representative said on Monday. Children as young as 10 were among hundreds of Rohingya detained on charges of consorting with insurgents, Reuters revealed last month, citing a previously unreleased police document. Thirteen juveniles were among more than 400 arrested since Oct. 9, when insurgents attacked three police border posts in northern Rakhine State near the frontier with Bangladesh, according to the March 7 document. The attacks by a previously unknown insurgent group ignited the biggest crisis of leader Aung San Suu Kyi's year in power, prompting more than 75,000 Rohingya to flee the ensuing army crackdown to Bangladesh. "The issue was discussed in high-level meetings and UNICEF felt encouraged that the issue was known to authorities, who spontaneously shared their concerns and willingness to take action," said Bertrand Bainvel, the UNICEF representative to Myanmar. The body's deputy executive director, Justin Forsyth, discussed the children with Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing during his recent visit to the country. There was no clear information on whether or when the children were likely to be released. A United Nations report issued earlier this year said Myanmar's security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes against Rohingya during their campaign against the insurgents, which may amount to crimes against humanity. The military has denied the accusations, saying it was engaged in a legitimate counterinsurgency operation. The United Nations agreed last month to send an international fact-finding mission to investigate the allegations. Myanmar has opposed the move. The Southeast Asian nation has ratified international conventions that require additional protections for children accused of crimes. Reuters was unable to establish whether all those provisions, such whether they have been able to communicate with their families or have legal representation, were being followed. Domestic law says children between seven and 12 are only criminally responsible if mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions. Two listed detainees are under 12, while two are 13. (Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Nick Macfie)
This comes after PM Modi praised the Sheikh Hasina government's anti-terror policies saying, "Bangladesh's zero tolerance policy towards terrorism is an inspiration."
By India Today Web Desk: Praising Bangladesh government's strict action against terrorism and militancy, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has assured Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of taking a common stand in terms of relations with the nation.
"There may be political differences among us but our stand is same with regards to our relations with Bangladesh," Sonia was quoted by The Daily Star. The Congress President said it during a courtesy call on Hasina at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday.
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Sonia also lauded the Bangladesh PM for the socio-economic development under her leadership.
While Hasina spoke about the steps the Bangladesh government has taken to deal with militancy and terrorism, Sonia was quoted by bdnews24.com as saying, "The menaces should be contained with an iron fist."
This comes after PM Narenda Modi praised the Sheikh Hasina government's anti-terror policies saying, "Bangladesh's zero tolerance policy towards terrorism is an inspiration."
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also met Hasina at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
India and Bangladesh on Saturday signed 22 pacts in various sectors. Before making this announcement in New Delhi on Saturday, Modi held 'productive' talks with his counterpart from Bangladesh.
Hasina is on a four-day visit to India and also visited the Ajmer Dargah on Sunday.
ALSO READ | With Sheikh Hasina listening, PM Modi says India wants neighbours to progress, but some nurture terror
ALSO READ | Sheikh Hasina accorded ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan, to hold bilateral meet with Modi
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When U.S. President Donald Trump dispatched 59 Tomahawk missiles against Syria on Thursday evening - ostensibly in response to a chemical-weapons attack attributed to Syrian President Bashar Assad, which activists say claimed 86 lives - his guest maintained remarkable composure.
Dining with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort at the time of the strike was Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump has repeatedly told Xi that the Chinese leader needs to do more to rein in rogue state North Koreas nuclear program. In a Financial Times interview published April 2, Trump claimed that China has great influence over North Korea. He added he was prepared to act unilaterally against the regime of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un if Beijing refused to cooperate. If they do [help] that will be very good for China, said Trump, and if they dont it wont be good for anyone.
On Sunday, with the Syria strikes still ringing in Xis ears, Trump accented his threats by dispatching the U.S. Navy Carl Vinson Strike Group - an aircraft carrier and other warships - to the Korean Peninsula. The No. 1 threat in the region continues to be North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, said U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham. The message was received loud and clear: on Sunday, Chinas state-backed Global Times newspaper carried an editorial entitled, After Syria Strikes, Will North Korea Be Next?
It wouldnt be the first time that a Middle Eastern conflict has shaken China into action over North Korea.
In February 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush told his then Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin: If we could not solve the problem diplomatically, I would have to consider a military strike against North Korea. Just a month later the U.S. invaded Iraq, and Jiang clearly feared a similar intervention in Chinas backyard. By August, China was chairing the six-party nuclear-disarmament talks - involving North and South Korea, the U.S., Russia, Japan and China - and kept them going for six years through sheer diplomatic will despite numerous occasions when principle stakeholders stormed out. It was an unprecedented about-face for China, which had previously shunned any global leadership or mediation role.
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John Park, director of the Korea Working Group at the Harvard Kennedy School, says Trumps current language and behavior feels like a walk down memory lane ... Im wondering if this is an attempt to repeat Bushs playbook.
Of course, todays Korean Peninsula is radically different from 2003, not least because Pyongyangs nuclear program is significantly more advanced. Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, had enough conventional weaponry trained on Seoul - just 30 miles from the DMZ - to devastate the South Korean capital. But Kim Jong Un has sufficient nuclear material for more than a dozen atomic bombs. There is no weathering that storm. And while the elder Kim was willing to publicly embrace at least the rhetoric of nuclear disarmament - even as he enhanced his countrys nuclear capabilities in secret - his son insists nukes are nonnegotiable. A Pyongyang spokesman said Thursdays strike on Syria proves a million times over that North Korea is correct to strengthen its nuclear program.
There are also real doubts over what leverage Beijing still has over the Kim regime. Communist Chinas founder Mao Zedong famously described the neighbors as as close as lips and teeth, and his eldest son died fighting in the Korean War. Today, though, mutual animosity is intense. For North Korea, Chinas market reforms make it a traitor to the goal of a global socialist utopia; Beijing sees Pyongyang as petulant and unpredictable. Even though Beijing made its position clear to Pyongyang by supporting unprecedented U.N. sanctions following a fourth North Korean nuclear test last February, there has since been a fifth test, as well as a slew of missile launches.
After Beijing banned coal imports from North Korea - depriving the regime of a cash earner worth $1 billion in 2015 - a furious North Korea accused China of dancing to the tune of the U.S. and began timing missile launches at provocative moments for Beijing. There were launches during Chinas most important political convention (the annual meeting of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference) in March, and immediately before the last weeks Xi-Trump summit.
Additionally, North Korea has insulted in personal terms, using extremely vulgar language, the President of China, says Scott Harold, an East Asia expert at RAND Corp. Everyone knows how Xi Jinping was called out by Kim Jong Un.
China is in a bind. It does have significant sway over North Koreas economy - being responsible for 90% of Pyongyangs trade - but if it squeezes too hard, it risks imposing deprivation, and possibly even famine, on millions of ordinary North Koreans. If resulting instability caused the collapse of the regime, waves of refugees would pour into China. Even worse, a U.S.-allied South Korea would lay claim to the entire peninsula, presenting the possibility of U.S. troops and armaments being deployed right on Chinas doorstep.
Beijing could do more in terms of enforcement, like ramping up domestic law-enforcement efforts to target the syndicates of corrupt Chinese officials and North Korean businessmen who supply materials for nuclear and missile development. Thats where a lot of the procurement is happening, says Park.
But that would only slow rather than solve the problem. The bottom line is that nobody has a solution to what is going on in North Korea, says Carlyle Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy. What do you force China to do? Once again, Trump has put himself out beyond the ability to deliver.
This article was originally published on TIME.com
Chicago (AFP) - Social media anger sparked by footage of United Airlines forcibly removing a passenger from an overbooked flight showed no signs of abating Tuesday, with calls for a boycott of the US carrier.
The videos taken on the plane and posted to Twitter showed the man -- identified by US media as a doctor of Vietnamese descent who has lived in the US for decades -- being forcibly pulled screaming from his seat by three security personnel.
The incident occurred Sunday on a United Express flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky. Such flights are operated by one of eight regional airlines that partner with United.
The airline said it had asked for volunteers to give up their seats, and police were called in after one passenger refused to leave the plane.
For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.
Smartphone video posted online showed three Chicago Department of Aviation police officers struggling with a seated middle-aged man.
He starts to scream as he is dragged off while other passengers look on -- some recording the event with their phones.
One passenger can be heard yelling, "Oh my God, look at what you did to him!"
The showdown quickly ignited social media outrage, with "United" a trending term on Twitter, Facebook and Google.
The footage sparked anger in China after being re-posted on the country's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, after initial reports that the man was ethnically Chinese.
The incident quickly became the top trending topic, garnering more than 120 million views and 80,000 comments.
"Shameless! We won't forgive them. Ethnic Chinese around the world please boycott United Airlines!" wrote one commentator.
United Airlines claims to be the biggest carrier to China, with more nonstop US-China flights to more Chinese cities than any other airline, according to the company's website.
- 'Upsetting for all' -
In a statement late Monday, the Chicago Department of Aviation said the incident was "not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the department."
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"That officer has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation," the statement said.
It was another example of bad press and negative social media coverage for United after an incident in late March in which two teenage girls were prevented from boarding a flight in Denver because they were wearing leggings.
The airline defended its action at the time by saying the girls were flying on passes that required them to abide by a dress code in return for free or discounted travel.
Speaking to various media outlets about Sunday's incident, the airline said it had asked for volunteers to leave the overbooked plane.
"One customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate," United spokesman Charlie Hobart was quoted by the Chicago Tribune newspaper as saying.
United addressed the incident in a statement posted on its website on Monday.
"This is an upsetting event to all of us," said chief executive Oscar Munoz, noting that the airline was conducting a "detailed review of what happened."
"We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation," he said.
- Passengers 'disturbed' -
Passenger Tyler Bridges, who posted footage of Sunday's incident on Twitter, said the man appeared to be bloodied after his encounter with the law enforcement officials.
Bridges also posted video showing the man running back on the plane, repeatedly saying, "I have to go home." He appeared to be pacing and disoriented.
"Not a good way to treat a doctor trying to get to work because they overbooked," he wrote.
He described passenger reaction on the plane as "disturbed," saying: "Kids were crying."
US airlines are allowed to involuntarily bump passengers off overbooked flights, with compensation, if enough volunteers cannot be found, according to the Department of Transportation.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for Palm Sunday bombings that killed 43 in two Coptic churches in Egypt. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who, in Washington last Monday, reaffirmed with President Donald Trump his commitment to combatting terrorism, announced a three month state of emergency.
Unrest continued over the weekend in Venezuela. Thousands marched in Caracas against the announcement that opposition leader Henrique Capriles is banned from holding office for 15 years. Saturdays protest, which security forces met with tear gas, followed over a week of protests against a Supreme Court decision to take over the functions of the legislature.
Although that ruling has largely been reversed, it sparked the most urgent, sustained protests Venezuela has seen since 2014. But between the continued imprisonment of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and the Capriles ban, the government seems to be unwilling to let those leading the protests run for office in the next elections, currently slated for 2018 (though the opposition has been angling to move them up).
Thousands also took to the streets an ocean away in Budapest, where protesters called on Hungarian President Janos Ader to veto legislation that would effectively shut down Central European University, which was founded by George Soros, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbans bogeyman, in 1991. Although the ruling Fidesz party insists the new legislation is about making all accountable to the law, many see it as targeting CEU. The law has been met with resistance from the international and European diplomatic community, as well as from Hungarian institutions and individuals. But whether Ader listens to his people or to his party will be seen in the week ahead.
Also to be seen this week: How U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson manages his Moscow meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov, who became foreign minister in 2004, is the consummate diplomat; Tillerson, who until recently was the head of ExxonMobil, is not.
There was speculation when Tillerson was appointed that he might be too cozy and connected with Russia he did business there, and won the Russian Order of Friendship. But the Trump administrations recent decision to strike an airfield in Bashar al-Assads Syria, and Tillersons denunciation of Moscows role in Syrias chemical weapons attack, could throw a wrench into whatever bond Lavrov and Tillerson were set to forge. Tillerson was also penciled in for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that was cancelled Monday, just a day before Tillerson is to fly to Russia.
Photo credit: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images
BEIRUT (AP) U.S.-backed Syrian fighters on Monday pushed ahead in their offensive in northern Syria against members of the Islamic State group under the cover of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, moving closer to a strategic town that is home to the country's largest dam.
The latest advance by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces showed that operations were still ongoing after last week's U.S. missile attack on a Syrian army air base in the country's center. That attack followed a chemical attack on the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed 87 people.
The U.S. blamed the Syrian government for the attack a charge that Syria strongly denied, saying it hit a rebel arsenal that had chemical weapons.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting between the SDF and IS members on the eastern outskirts of the town of Tabqa left at least 11 extremists dead. It said 36 IS fighters have been killed in fighting since Sunday.
The SDF said on social media that its fighters marched about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the eastern side of Tabqa, the location of Syria's largest dam.
Separately, the Pentagon said U.S. military advisers helped U.S.-trained Syrian opposition forces to repel an IS attack on the al-Tanf border crossing between Syria and Iraq over the weekend.
Air Force Col. John J. Thomas, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon that military advisers were present at the time of the fighting.
"U.S. and coalition forces were on the ground in the area as they normally are, and participated in repulsing the attack," he said. "There was close air support that was provided. There was ground support that was provided" as well as U.S. medical evacuation support.
"Ultimately the attackers were killed, defeated or chased off," he said. He said three Syrian opposition fighters were killed.
CENTCOM military command said in a statement the IS militants attacked the checkpoint with a car bomb and 20 to 30 fighters.
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Last week, SDF fighters captured the area of Safsafeh east of Tabqa, laying siege to the town. On March 22, U.S. aircraft ferried forces behind militant lines in the Tabqa area to spearhead a major assault near the extremists' de facto capital, Raqqa.
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Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.
U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pembertons plea asking for the reversal of the guilty verdict, which was handed to him for killing transgender Jennifer Laude, was struck down by the Court of Appeals in Manila on Monday.
The court upheld the conviction made by a lower court the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74 saying Pembertons defense was flimsy.
Read: US Marine Charged With Murder Of Transgender Woman In Philippines
Pemberton met Laude at the Ambyanz Disco in Olongapo City on Oct. 11, 2014, following which they checked into a local motel. Investigation found that Laude performed oral sex on Pemberton but after the latter found out that she had male genitals, he pushed her.
Pemberton said Laude slapped him, which forced him to choke her. When she became unconscious, he dragged her to the bathroom in the hope to revive her from water in the toilet. His claim is disputed as Laude was found drowned in the shallow water of the toilet, which led to her death.
While the defendant fled the scene, a bellboy from the motel identified Pemberton as Laudes companion that night.
Despite a self-defense argument, the U.S. Marine was found guilty of homicide by the lower court and faced up to 10 years imprisonment, and was ordered to pay around $100,000 to Laudes family, mostly as compensation for income lost because of her death, the New York Times reported at the time.
The Court of Appeals increased the civil indemnity and moral damages to be paid to the Laude family by Pemberton from about $2,000 to about $3,000.
We thus find Pembertons defense of an impending grave danger more imaginary than real In the absence of unlawful aggression, even the privileged mitigating circumstance of incomplete self-defense which Pemberton also invokes cannot be appreciated in his favor The conviction of Pemberton for homicide is undeniable, the court reportedly said in its 48-page decision.
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on Sunday for an investigation against a leading opposition politician for falsely suggesting the government was carrying out a Syria-like chemical attack against protesters.
Caracas-area Mayor David Smolansky on Saturday denounced the presence of a previously unseen red gas used to scatter thousands of protesters who in recent days have taken to the streets against Maduro.
The type and composition of the gas or smoke is unclear. But some protesters said on social media that its usage amid volleys of tear gas produced nausea and vomiting, while government supporters said it was similar to crowd-control flares used in Spain.
At the height of Saturday's crackdown by police, Smolansky took to Twitter to accuse Maduro of "beginning to use chemical weapons as is occurring in Syria." The tweet immediately went viral and was held up by government critics as a sign of the lengths to which Maduro is relying on security forces to squash dissent.
Maduro responded by calling for an "iron-fisted" investigation against Smolansky, saying his "criminal messages" are an attempt to lay the ground for a U.S. military intervention.
"Venezuela never in its history has had biological, chemical or nuclear weapons," Maduro said on state television.
While heated rhetoric and exaggerated claims are favorite tactics used on both sides of Venezuela's bitter political divide, the singling out of critics in such a forceful way by Maduro is frequently a prelude to legal action.
On Friday, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles was barred from running for public office for 15 years amid an intense campaign waged by the government tying him to the protest movement that has grown into the most combative since a wave of unrest in 2014.
On December 11, 2008, a meter reader stepped into the woods near Casey Anthonys home. As he looked for a place to relieve himself, he kicked a garbage bag. A skull rolled out.
It was the discovery that ended a five-month long search for 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, who had been reported missing that July. The details of the discovery were gruesome: duct tape was stretched over the jaw of the skull. Items from Caylee Anthonys room, including linens and clothes, were found with the remains.
Authorities combed the area, and soon found dozens of bones belonging to Caylee. Prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony.
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.
In a new interview, Caseys parents recall hearing the news that their granddaughters remains had been found.
George and Cindy Anthony speak out for the first time in five years on Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery, a three-part docuseries on Investigation Discovery. In the exclusive preview clip above, Caseys mother they recall their devastation at the confirmation that their beloved granddaughter was dead.
It was horrible, a tearful Cindy Anthony remembers. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and taken every breath from out of my body, and my heart was just being ripped apart. All of our prayers and all of our hopes were gone.
The reality hits you like a brick wall you run into, or just having every part of your body being pulled and mangled, adds George Anthony.
Nearly nine years later, George and Cindy Anthony live in the same house, just a few hundred feet from where Caylee was found. Casey Anthony, who is known asthe most hated mom in America, was acquitted in 2011. She lives a lonely, guarded life in South Florida with her lead investigator. She has not been employed for several years.
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The Anthonys no longer speak with Casey, and have never gotten the answers they seek about what, exactly, happened to Caylee.
I just couldnt understand it, Cindy Anthony says now. Its very hard to process.
Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery, airs Monday, April 10 at 10 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery.
This article was originally published on PEOPLE.com
Lagos (AFP) - Corruption watchdogs alleged Monday that Shell executives knew that money earmarked for a controversial oil deal was being used to bribe senior Nigerian officials, a claim rebuffed by the petroleum giant.
The allegations by Global Witness and Finance Uncovered refer to the 2011 purchase by oil giants Shell and Eni of OPL245, an offshore oil block estimated to hold 9 billion barrels of crude, for $1.3 billion.
The deal saw the Nigerian government act as an intermediary between the oil majors and Malabu Oil and Gas, a Nigerian company allegedly controlled by former petroleum minister Dan Etete.
Allegations of corruption and bribery have mounted in the years since the deal was signed, forcing Shell and Eni to repeatedly maintain that they acquired the rights to the lucrative block in line with Nigerian law.
But email exchanges between Shell management cited in the Global Witness report and seen by AFP suggest that Shell was aware that the OPL245 money was likely going to be funnelled to individuals, including Etete and then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
"Shell executives knew the money would go to Malabu and Etete, and was then likely to flow to some of the most powerful people in the country," the Global Witness report said.
"Senior Shell officials were also briefed that funds could flow on to then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
- 'No basis to prosecute' -
"The leaked emails come as Shell and Eni are facing intense scrutiny in connection with the deal.
They are charged with corruption in Nigeria and are being investigated by Italian prosecutors in connection with the deal.
"Etete can smell the money," said one Shell executive in a 2010 email published in the Global Witness report. "I think he knows it's his for the taking."
In another email, a Shell advisor said "the president (Jonathan) is motivated to see 245 closed quickly driven by expectations about the proceeds that Malabu will receive and political contributions that will flow as a consequences".
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Nigeria's anti-graft agency filed corruption charges against Shell and Eni in March, accusing 11 defendants, including Etete, of "official corruption" in connection with the oil block deal.
Jonathan has denied receiving kickbacks, saying in January that he has not been "accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting monies" linked to the deal.
A Shell spokesperson told AFP the company believes there are no grounds for prosecution but said it was "fully co-operating" with the relevant authorities.
"We are not aware of any evidence to support a case against any former or current Shell employee," the spokesperson said, adding that if any improper payments were made "none of those payments were made with its knowledge, authorisation or on its behalf."
"Shell attaches the greatest importance to business integrity. Its one of our core values," the spokesperson concluded.
- Years of legal wrangling -
Eni Claudio Descalzi told the Financial Times in February that his company "did not do anything wrong".
"At every stage, we have acted in compliance with all applicable law . . . Eni and Shell paid the government of Nigeria, and were not involved with the government decision on how to use such money."
The OPL245 oil block has been a source of contention for almost two decades.
In 1998, the block was awarded by then-petroleum minister Dan Etete to Malabu Oil and Gas.
Years of legal wrangling between Malabu, the Nigerian government and Shell ensued, with Shell ultimately winning rights to the block in a partnership with Eni.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to fight corruption in Nigeria's oil sector.
He campaigned on a platform to target rampant graft and has said "mind-boggling" sums have been stolen from the public purse.
His government has arrested a series of high-ranking officials from Jonathan's administration on corruption charges but few have been convicted.
New York (AFP) - Wells Fargo took back another $75 million in pay from two former executives who played key roles in the bank's fake accounts scandal, the bank's board announced Monday.
The US banking giant said it demanded or "clawed back" an additional $28 million from former chief executive John Stumpf, who led the bank at the time of the scandal, and $47 million from former community banking chief Carrie Tolstedt, whose division was at the heart of the problem.
Together with an earlier round of punishments of the two senior executives, Wells Fargo has clawed back a total of $69 million from Stumpf and $67 million from Tolstedt.
The moves came as Wells Fargo, a leader in consumer and mortgage banking, released a 110-page report analyzing the factors behind the scandal that involved opening of about two million deposit and credit card accounts without the customers' approval or knowledge.
Wells Fargo has been castigated by politicians and analysts since news of the scandal broke in September 2016 when the bank reached a settlement with regulators to pay $185 million.
Since that time, Wells Fargo has replaced its chief executive and announced a series of reforms, such as eliminating product sales goals in retail banking. However, the bank continues to face numerous government probes of the matter.
The report, undertaken by the Wells Fargo board and with help from the Shearman & Sterling law firm, said ex-CEO Stumpf "was too slow to investigate or critically challenge sales practices in the Community Bank," nor did he "appreciate the seriousness of the problem and the substantial reputational risk to Wells Fargo."
In addition, a decentralized structure gave "too much autonomy to the Community Bank's senior leadership, who were unwilling to change the sales model or even recognize it as the root cause of the problem."
The report sheds light how the bank's desire to show strong growth on cross-selling -- the practice of convincing existing clients to open new accounts -- led to ethical breaches and created a brutal sales-first culture.
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Managers within Community Banking exerted "significant, and in some cases, extreme pressure on employees to meet or exceed their goals," sometimes calling subordinates several times a day to check on sales, the report said.
The bank fired many low-ranking employees for opening the fake accounts, but there was little questioning of the role of perverse incentives as a factor in the scandal.
"There was a disinclination among the Community Bank's senior leadership, regardless of the scope of improper behavior or the number of terminated employees, to see the problem as systemic," the report said.
"It was common to blame employees who violated Wells Fargo's rules without analyzing what caused or motivated them to do so."
- Board shakeup next? -
Community bank executives also minimized the extent of the dismissals in their interactions with the board. In all, 5,300 employees were fired due to sales practice violations, a figure the board did not learn of until the bank settled with regulators in September.
The report comes ahead of Wells Fargo's April 25 annual meeting, where board members are facing the risk of a shareholder revolt.
Shareholder advisory groups Institutional Shareholders Services and Glass Lewis have recommended the ousting of several board members.
The report largely exonerated chief executive Tim Sloan, who was portrayed as trying to get a grasp on the extent of the problem and as less deferential to Tolstedt than predecessor Stumpf.
"We accept the Board's findings as a critical part of our journey to rebuild trust," Sloan said in a statement Monday.
"While we have already made significant progress in making things right with customers and addressing issues, including several issues identified in the investigation, the Board's comprehensive findings provide another important opportunity to learn from our mistakes."
Shares of Wells Fargo dipped 0.2 percent to $54.74 in afternoon trading.
By Press Trust of India: (Eds: Adding ECs reaction)
New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The holding of the Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll, which saw large-scale violence yesterday, led to a war of words between the Election Commission and the Home Ministry, which suggested its advice that atmosphere was not conducive for the polls was "ignored".
The Election Commission hit back saying it is not bound to consult the central government before holding any election.
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The bypoll yesterday saw large-scale violence resulting in at least eight deaths.
Immediately after the announcement of schedule for the byelections on March 10, the Home Ministry had sent a strongly worded letter to the Commission saying there was no prior consultation with it regarding the bypolls in Srinagar and Anantnag constituencies.
The Home Ministry had advised that polling should be delayed and preferably held after panchayat elections are conducted in the next few months.
However, the Election Commission ignored the Home Ministrys advice and went ahead, sources in the ministry said today.
While polling in Srinagar was held on Sunday, byelection in Anantnag will be held on Wednesday.
Later, the Commission sought to reject the claims of the MHA, saying it was its constitutional obligation to hold the bypoll for Srinagar parliamentary constituency before April 16. "State government was consulted on the subject as it is responsible for law and order and security issues. MHA is only responsible to provide central paramilitary forces. ECI is not bound to consult MHA before holding any elections," an EC source said.
The source said the state government had apprised the Commission that the preparation for free, fair and peaceful elections are being made and a comprehensive deployment plan was also worked out by Jammu and Kashmir police.
"ECI is responsible for overall assessment of prevailing situation for holding elections. In the assessment of EC, if prevailing conditions were conducive for holding of Panchayat elections by the state government, then holding of parliamentary elections is also possible," the source pointed out.
The EC sources said in the case of Manipur, MHA had wanted to postpone the assembly elections there.
"That too was unsolicited advise. But EC went by its own assessment and held peaceful polls recently. Even the Supreme Court had observed that it is the EC not the MHA who would make assessment of environment of conducting elections," the source said.
There were 190 incidents of stone pelting, 120 polling boths were made dysfunctional, 24 EVMs were looted, two schools burnt down, eight people were killed and 150 others were injured in Srinagar yesterday.
Sources in the home ministry said for holding the bypolls in both the constituencies, the Election Commission held a meeting with a Joint Secretary on March 17 and sought 300 companies (30,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces and the request was duly accepted and fulfilled.
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The number of paramilitary personnel sought by the EC was very high. But despite presence of a large number of security personnel, the violence yesterday was unusually high, they said.
There is an atmosphere of fear in both the constituencies following the poll boycott call given by the separatists. Besides, such large-scale violence had not taken place in the Kashmir Valley in a single day in last 15 years, the sources said.
Normal life has been affected in the Kashmir Valley due to the strike called by separatists. Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were shut, while attendance in banks and government offices was low.
Internet services remained suspended for the second day today. Public transport was off the roads, while private transport was minimal. PTI NAB/ACB ZMN
--- ENDS ---
Photo credit: U.S. Navy / Getty
From Popular Mechanics
The United States fired 59 BGM-109 Tomahawk Land-Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM) at Shayrat air base in Syria in response to the Syrian use of chemical weapons, hitting aircraft shelters, fuel storage, ammunition bunkers and other targets. Out of all of those missiles, 58 of them reportedly hit targets at the air base, according to their immediate post-action assessment. But what exactly makes the Tomahawk the go-to weapon of choice for this type of mission?
The Tomahawk was originally designed to launch from a wheeled vehicle and deliver a nuclear warhead. In service since 1983, it has since taken on a more conventional role and can be fired from ships, submarines, and aircraft. The missile proved highly effective in many conflicts over the years. It was used in the opening salvo of the 1991 Gulf War, in 1995 against Bosnian Serbs, and in the opening rounds of the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns as well as against targets in Libya and Yemen.
The Tomahawk is a cruise missile, so rather than taking on a high, ballistic trajectory, it hugs the ground, steering around terrain features, propelled by an efficient turbofan engine. By keeping low-because of its small radar signature-the Tomahawk avoids radar-guided defenses that can threaten manned aircraft. Here's an example of a Tomahawk launch against ISIL in 2014:
This 20-foot-long missile carries a thousand-pound warhead, which is not much by the standards of aircraft, as a single B-2 can carry 40,000 pounds of bombs. The latest version of the Tomahawk, known as Block IV, has a range of a thousand miles, which highlights its other major advantage: It can be used to engage targets without risking pilots.
In a full-scale war, such missiles would themselves be targets, but that was not an option nor was the loss of a U.S. pilot.
Syrian airspace is defended by advanced Russian surface-to-air missiles, including the long-range S-300 and S-400 systems and Pantsyr short-range gun-and-missile system. Exactly how dangerous these are to modern stealth aircraft is a matter of endless debate. In a full-scale war, such missiles would themselves be targets, but that was not an option nor was the loss of a U.S. pilot. Hence, cruise missiles are preferable to manned aircraft for this type of mission, even though they are less flexible.
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That said, cruise missiles are not simple fire-and-forget weapons. The Block IV version can be retargeted in flight via a satellite link with targets selected from several pre-programmed before launch. The link can also be used to send back images from the missile's camera, giving a view of the target immediately before impact.
Photo credit: U.S. Navy
The Tomahawk is usually aimed at a fixed targetlike the aircraft shelters and ammo bunkers at Shayrat. Navigation is via two 70's-era systems, terrain-following radar (TERCOM) in the approach to the target and an optical system-the Digital Scene Matching Area Correlationfor guidance to the target. These are supplemented by GPS, but the earlier systems cannot be jammed and will still work even if GPS is lost.
The ship-launched version of the Tomahawk gets an initial boost from a solid-propellant rocket that shoots it up vertically. Once well clear, the Williams F107 turbofan engine cuts in, providing 700 pounds of thrust and giving a speed of over 500 mph. Long-range ballistic missiles travel mainly through space but the cruise missile has to push through the thick air at sea level. Block III introduced the ability to throttle the engine and vary speed, allowing several missiles to fire at different times from different places but still arrive at a target at the same time.
Of course, the whole point of this technology is to deliver a warhead, and that ability comes at a steep price. The official Navy Tomahawk page quotes $569,000 in 1999 dollars. In fact the U.S. paid $202 million for 149 of them in 2016, meaning each Tomahawk costs about $1.3 million.
While cruise missiles remain a good way of picking off specific targetslike the Shayrat air base-they have never been a decisive enough weapon to finish one as nearly all previous conflicts have demonstrated. In the past, further measures have always been needed. It's hard to say what will happen, but Tomahawk missiles usually signal the beginning of a conflict-not the end.
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New York (AFP) - Museums, apps and real estate: New Yorkers are taking a breather from the city's constant drive for renewal by delving into the past, searching for comfort and authenticity in fast-changing times.
The Museum of the City of New York, the New York Historical Society and the Brooklyn Historical Society have all recorded record numbers of visitors in recent months despite fierce competition in a city packed with activity.
America's cultural and financial capital -- and most populous city -- remains synonymous with perpetual construction, with skyscrapers stretching from Manhattan to now Queens and Brooklyn.
Springing up on the banks of the Hudson River on the West side is the largest private real estate development in US history: a new neighborhood called Hudson Yards being built from the ground up.
New York remains more than ever a city that innovates -- spontaneous queues can wrap around the block to buy the latest on-trend multicolored bagel. More than 100 new restaurants open each year, though 80 percent of them are destined to close within five years.
But New Yorkers are now also intent on rediscovering the past.
"Over the last decade, we have become a very different city, much more sharply focused on preservation," says Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical Society.
"Many people started to say: that's enough, we need to freeze our history and preserve it so future generations will know what happened in this neighborhood or on that block," she adds.
- Looking for answers -
In 2015 the New York Public Library launched an app, "oldNYC," that has been popular in allowing people to access old photographs of almost every street in Manhattan and compare them with the current reality.
New Yorkers' desire to soak up the past is also translating into real estate, said Jonathan Miller of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
The appetite for new has not dimmed, but more and more projects are integrating in their concept architectural elements from the past, he said.
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"New constructions have more ornate details, bigger windows, higher ceiling heights," he said -- all elements inspired by the "pre-war" look that New York defines as builds before World War II.
"Consumers are comfortable with the past," he said. "It's not as foreign to their life and they connect with it."
The quickening pace of society -- stimulated by the internet in general and social networks in particular -- and the emphasis on the here-and-now is motivating many to take a longer view of time.
"We certainly have noticed that people are very much focused on history these days, more and more," said Mirrer.
"They are looking to history for explanations and answers of a world that seems confusing and very uncertain."
- Connect past and future -
Sarah Henry, deputy director of the Museum of the City of New York, says the past has been used in different ways at different times. "Interest changes particularly when there are moment of stress or crises," she said.
Recently there have been lots of them -- the September 11, 2001 attacks, the 2008 financial crisis and now the election of New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump as one of the most unpopular presidents in history.
"There isn't a fixed relationship between New York and its past. That's something that's always been redeveloped, reconsidered, reinvented. That's one of the things that shaped this city and this museum," said Henry.
The Trump administration has alienated many in the Democratic-heavy city: his travel ban orders, plans to roll back women's healthcare and review environmental reforms have appalled liberal New Yorkers.
"At a time of great national dialogue and controversies, being able to look to the facts or our history and to ground our specific conversation in data and information is very thoughtful," said Henry.
"It provides a longer view of the city and the country that enables us to be more informed about where we're going and where we've been. Our mission is to connect the past and the future," she said.
Deborah Schwartz, president of the Brooklyn Historical Society, told AFP this is a positive trend being adopted by museums in general.
Museums are more than ever seeking to tie the past to contemporary issues and "make history relevant" in ways "that make people excited," she said.
By Alwyn Scott SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co hired Norsk Titanium AS to print the first structural titanium parts for its 787 Dreamliner, a shift that the Norwegian 3-D printing company said would eventually shave $2 million to $3 million off the cost of each plane. The contract announced on Monday is a major step in Boeing's effort to boost the profitability of the 787 and a sign of growing industrial acceptance of the durability of 3-D printed metal parts, allowing them to replace pieces made with more expensive traditional manufacturing in demanding aerospace applications. Strong, lightweight titanium alloy is seven times more costly than aluminum, and accounts for about $17 million of the cost of a $265 million Dreamliner, industry sources say. Boeing has been trying to reduce titanium costs on the 787, which requires more of the metal than other models because of its carbon-fiber fuselage and wings. Titanium also is used extensively on Airbus Group SE's rival A350 jet. "This means $2 million to $3 million in savings for each Dreamliner, at least," starting in 2018 when many more parts are being printed, Chip Yates, Norsk Titanium's vice president of marketing, said in a telephone interview. Boeing builds 144 Dreamliners in a typical year. The company declined to comment on the estimate but said Norsk's technology would help reduce costs. The Dreamliner turned profitable last year after racking up nearly $29 billion in production-related losses. Norsk worked with Boeing for more than a year to design four 787 parts and obtain Federal Aviation Administration certification for them, Yates said. Norsk expects the U.S. regulatory agency will approve the material properties and production process for printed parts later this year. That will "open up the floodgates," Yates said, by allowing Norsk to print thousands of other parts for each Dreamliner, without each part requiring separate FAA approval, resulting in the millions in expecting savings per plane. "You're talking about tons, literally," on the 787 that would be printed instead of made with traditional, expensive forging and machining, he said. General Electric Co is already printing metal fuel nozzles for aircraft engines. But Norsk and Boeing said the titanium parts are the first printed structural components designed to bear the stress of an airframe in flight. Norsk said it will print initially in Norway, but aims to have nine printers running by year-end at a 67,000-square-foot (6,220-square-meter) facility in Plattsburgh, New York. (Reporting by Alwyn Scott; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mary Milliken)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - A cyber attack on Union Bank of India last July began after an employee opened an email attachment releasing malware that allowed hackers to steal the state-run bank's data, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The attempt closely resembled the cybertheft last year of more than $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank's account at the New York Federal Reserve, the paper reported. The opening of the email attachment, which looked like it had come from India's central bank, initiated the malware that hackers used to steal Union Bank's access codes for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a system that lenders use for international transactions. The codes were used to send transfer instructions for about $170 million to a Union Bank account at Citigroup Inc in New York. Union Bank had traced the money trail and blocked the movement of funds. SWIFT late last year said that some banks using its system had been attacked after the Bangladesh heist, the Journal said, but did not specifically name Union Bank of India. Union Bank Chairman Arun Tiwari told the newspaper that SWIFT officials had been working with the bank since the day of the cyber attack. SWIFT declined to comment. (Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Tom Bergin; Editing by David Goodman)
Dr. Maximilian Muenke has a superpower: He can diagnose disease just by looking at a persons face.
Specifically, he can spot certain genetic disorders that make telltale impressions on facial features.
Once youve done it for a certain amount of years, you walk into a room and its like oh, that child has Williams Syndrome, he said, referring to a genetic disorder that can affect a persons cognitive abilities and heart.
And thats an incredibly useful skill, even as genetic sequencing becomes more widespread. For one thing, it can be the factor that sends someone to get a genetic test in the first place. For another, people in many parts of the world dont have access to genetic tests at all.
Thats inspired years of effort to train a computer to do the same thing. Software that analyzes a patients face for signs of disease could help clinicians better diagnose and treat people with genetic syndromes.
Some older attempts at facial analysis relied on large, clunky scanners a tool better suited to a lab, not the field. Now, in the era of smartphones, such efforts have a whole new promise. Face2Gene, a program developed by Boston-based startup FDNA, has a mobile app that clinicians can use to snap photos of their patients and get a list of syndromes they might have.
Read more: FDA approves sale of genetic tests for risk of Alzheimers and other diseases
Meanwhile, Muenke and his colleagues at NIH last month published an important advance: The ability to diagnose disease in a non-Caucasian face.
Its a promising preliminary sign. But if facial recognition software is to be widely useful for diagnoses, software developers and geneticists will need to work together to overcome genetics systemic blind spots.
Diagnoses vs. probabilities
The algorithms in general work on the same principles: Measuring the size of facial features and their placement to detect patterns. Theyre both trained on databases of photographs doctors take of their patients. The NIH works with partners around the world to collect their photos; FDNA accepts photos uploaded to Face2Gene.
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But they differ in a key way: Whereas the NIH algorithm can predict if someone has a given genetic disorder, the Face2Gene algorithm spits out not diagnoses, but probabilities. The app describes photos as being a certain percent similar to photos of people with one of the 2,000 disorders for which Face2Gene has image data, based on the overall look of the face as well as the presence of certain features. However, the app wont give clinicians a yes or no answer to the question of does my patient have a genetic disorder.
Thats intentional. Face2Gene is meant to be more like a search engine for diseases a means to an end.
We are not a diagnostic tool, and we will never be a diagnostic tool, said FDNA CEO Dekel Gelbman.
Drawing that bright line between Face2Gene and a diagnostic tool allows FDNA to stay compliant with FDA regulations governing mobile medical apps while avoiding some of the regulatory burden associated with smartphone-based diagnostic tools.
Diversity needed
The algorithm the NIH uses developed in collaboration with Childrens National Hospital system in Washington, D.C. seems to work pretty well so far: in 129 cases of Down Syndrome, it accurately detected the disorder 94 percent of the time. For DiGeorge Syndrome, the numbers were even higher: it had a 98 percent accuracy rate across all 156 cases.
Face2Gene declined to provide similar numbers for their technology. Since Face2Gene is a search and reference informational tool, the terms sensitivity and specificity are difficult to apply to our output, Gelbman cautioned.
But theres one big stumbling block for both of them, a problem that has dogged medical genetics for decades: Data for non-white populations is sorely lacking.
Read more: Should biologists stop grouping us by race?
In every single textbook, the ones we had [when I trained] in Germany and the major textbooks here in the US, there are photos of individuals of Northern European descent, Muenke said. When I told this to my boss, he said there have to be atlases for children from diverse backgrounds. And there arent. There just arent. (Today there is that resource, based on Muenke and the NIHs work.)
So diagnosing diseases from a face alone presents an additional challenge in countries where the majority of the population isnt of northern European descent, because some facial areas that vary with ethnic background can often overlap with areas that signify a genetic disorder. Eventually, the software will also have to be able to tackle people with mixed ethnic backgrounds, too. We have thought about it but havent gone there yet, Muenke said.
For example, children with Down Syndrome often have flat nasal bridges as do typically developing African or African-American children. Across different races and ethnicities of children there were only two reliable identifiers that could be used to diagnose Down Syndrome the angles between landmark points on the childs nose and eye, according to a paper Muenke and his colleague, Marius Linguraru, published with their colleagues earlier this year. All of the other typical features werent significantly more likely to show up when children were compared to ethnically-matched controls.
In fact, using a Caucasian face as a reference can sometimes be the least representative choice. One of the findings that Im very interested in [in] our recent study was that the population that we found to be most different from the others, in terms of facial patterns characteristic of DiGeorge Syndrome, was the Caucasian population, Linguraru said.
To continue to fix this problem, both the NIH and Face2Gene need help from more researchers who can upload more patients faces but thats easier said than done. Confirming a suspected disorder with genetic tests is standard practice today, and there are no genetic labs based in Africa registered in the NIHs Genetic Testing Registry. Asia and South America are also relatively underserved.
Those numbers also reflect the general patterns of distribution for medical geneticists. Most practitioners are located in North America and Europe, Gelbman said. Nigeria, for example, doesnt have a single medical geneticist in the entire country.
Its possible that might change, with time and effort. In addition to his work as a researcher, Muenke directs a program that brings healthcare professionals from developing countries to the US for a month-long crash course in medical genetics. (The program is funded by the NIHs Fogarty International Center; President Trump eliminated funding for the center in his 2018 skinny budget announced in March.)
For now, both algorithms have shown that they can handle a diverse patient set. FDNA scientists published a paper in January showing that their algorithm could better identify Down Syndrome after being trained with a more-diverse set of faces, and Muenke and Linguraru have also published papers this year demonstrating their algorithms ability to identify genetic disorders correctly in children across a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
As both groups work on recruiting more researchers, they are also working to push their tech forward. FDNA is working on establishing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to start their commercial outreach. In theory, these partnerships could contribute to precision medicine efforts or help companies develop new therapies for rare diseases.
Meanwhile, Linguraru has his eyes on eventual FDA approval for the algorithm the NIH has used. The ultimate goal would be a simple tool that any doctor could use anywhere to get fast results and better diagnose their patients.
The repatriation of the group - who are suspected of defrauding Chinese nationals over the phone from Spain - is likely to heighten tensions between Beijing and Taipei (AFP Photo/Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV) (AFP/File)
Washington (AFP) - US authorities moved Monday to take down a global computer botnet behind the massive theft of personal data and unwanted spam emails, as Spain arrested the notorious Russian hacker who operated it.
US authorities say the Russian, Piotr or Peter Levashov, had operated the Kelihos network of tens of thousands of infected computers, stealing personal data and renting the network out to others to send spam emails by the millions and extort ransom from computer owners.
Levashov, also known in the hacking world as Peter Severa, was arrested at Barcelona airport on Friday at the US request.
A Spanish judge on Monday ordered him to be remanded in custody as Washington is expected to seek his extradition.
Spanish police said in a statement late Monday that the arrest was the result of a "complex inquiry carried out in collaboration with the American FBI."
A US indictment unsealed Monday said Levashov, 36 and a native of St. Petersburg, had operated the Kelihos botnet since around 2010.
It was not the first time US officials have gone after him. In 2008 he was indicted as a Russia-based partner of the leading US spammer, Alan Ralsky. Ralsky and others were jailed in that case but Levashov was never caught.
- 100,000 computers infected -
The Kelihos network is made up of private computers around the world running on the Microsoft Window operating system. The computers are infected with malware that gives Levashov the ability to control them remotely, with the owners completely unaware.
According to the Justice Department, at times the number of computers in the network has topped 100,000, with between five and 10 percent of them in the United States.
Through underground networks, Kelihos sold the network's services to others, who would use it to send out spam emails advertising counterfeit drugs, work-at-home scams, and other fraud schemes, the indictment said.
They were also used for illegal "pump-and-dump" stock market manipulation schemes, and to spread other malware through which hackers could steal a user's banking account information including passwords, and lock up a computer's information to demand huge ransoms.
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The indictment called Levashov "one of the world's most notorious criminal spammers."
The Spamhaus Project, which documents spam, botnets, malware and other abuse, listed him as seventh on its "10 Worst Spammers" list and "one of the longest operating criminal spam-lords on the internet."
"The ability of botnets like Kelihos to be weaponized quickly for vast and varied types of harms is a dangerous and deep threat to all Americans, driving at the core of how we communicate, network, earn a living, and live our everyday lives," said Acting US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco in a statement.
- Using legal 'malware' against botnet -
Levashov's arrest was unrelated to investigations into Russian interference in last year's US presidential election, US officials said.
Earlier, the suspect's wife had earlier told Russia Today that his arrest was connected to the election hacking case.
A Spanish court specializing in international cases will rule on whether he will be sent to the US.
The US has 40 days to present evidence backing Levashov's extradition, which the suspect opposes.
In parallel with the arrest, US justice authorities announced an extraordinary move to bring down the Kelihos network, obtaining warrants that allows it to install its own malware-like programs on computers in the network to intercept its operation.
Such a move appeared to be the first ever application of controversial new investigative powers which took effect late last year.
The Justice Department explained that its programs would be able to redirect Kelihos-infected computers into substitute servers in order to halt the network's operation.
In doing so, it can record the private IP or internet protocol addresses of the computers and provide them to internet service providers to help customers eliminate the infections, the department explained.
In a warrant that permitted investigators to "infect" botnet computers in order to block Kelihos, investigators pledged to guard the privacy of computer owners.
"This operation will not capture content from the target computers or modify them in any other capacity except limiting the target computers' ability to interact with the Kelihos botnet," the warrant said.
The Bill provides for amending the existing categories of driver licensing, recall of vehicles in case of defects, protection of good samaritans from any civil or criminal action, increase of penalties for several offences under the 1988 Act.
By India Today Web Desk: A draft legislation to amend the Motor Vehicles Act to impose stiffer penalties on traffic rules violations and to protect the Good Samaritans from legal harassment was passed by the Lok Sabha today.
The bill proposes hefty penalties for various traffic offences, three-year jail term for parents of minors caught driving and causing fatal accidents, and a ten-fold increase in compensation for the families of accident victims, among other things.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BILL: The Bill amends the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 to address issues such as third party insurance, regulation of taxi aggregators, and road safety. Under the Act, the liability of the third party insurer for motor vehicle accidents is unlimited. The Bill caps the maximum liability for third party insurance in case of a motor accident at Rs 10 lakh in case of death and at five lakh rupees in case of grievous injury. The Bill provides for a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund which would provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in India for certain types of accidents. Improving delivery of services to the stakeholders using e-Governance is one of the major focuses of this Bill. This include enabling online learning licenses, increasing validity period for driving licenses, doing away with the requirements of educational qualifications for transport licenses are some of the features. The Bill proposes offences committed by juveniles. Under this the Guardian/ owner shall be deemed to be guilty in cases of offences by the juveniles and juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Also, registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled. The Bill proposes that the State Government can specify a multiplier, not less than one and not greater than ten, to be applied to each fine under this Act and such modified fine. To facilitate transport solutions for Divyang, the bottlenecks have been removed in respect of grant of driving licenses as well as alterations in the vehicles to make it fit for use of Divyang. The process for testing and certification for automobiles is proposed to be regulated more effectively. The testing agencies issuing automobile approvals have been brought under the ambit of the Act. The process for testing and certification for automobiles is proposed to be regulated more effectively. The testing agencies issuing automobile approvals have been brought under the ambit of the Act. To bring harmony of the registration and licensing process, it is proposed to create National Register for Driving Licence and National Register for Vehicle registration through "Vahan" and "Sarathi" platforms.
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The changes in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016, were approved by the Union cabinet on March 31.
The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha last August and was referred to a parliamentary standing committee, whose suggestions have been endorsed by the Union Cabinet.
(With inputs from agencies)
Also Read:
Cabinet approves amendments in Motor Vehicle Act
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Thousands flocked to Amsterdam from around Europe this weekend to meet their online video heroes and mingle with young fans, eager to learn how they too can become a YouTube star.
They were taking part in the first VidCon Europe, an off-shoot of VidCon US set up in Anaheim, southern California, eight years ago and now a hot venue amid an online revolution.
While such YouTube stars as Tyler Oakley, or Hannah Hart may not be household names to most, they have built up a huge fan base among children and young adults with their funny, often anarchic videos.
Though sometimes dealing with serious issues, they are filmed mostly with a tripod or webcam from their own kitchens or living rooms.
Amsterdam is VidCon's first foray out of the United States. Organisers are hoping it may become an annual event, and are also looking towards the first VidCon in Melbourne, Australia, later this year.
"The European place for online video is a few years behind the US one, but it is approaching it. Every day another kid starts a channel and wants to be famous," Michael Gardner, chief operating officer, told AFP.
Some 3,500 people from as far as Latvia, Serbia and Estonia trekked to Amsterdam for the three-day event, where industry figures also mixed with creators, or video producers often referred to as YouTubers, and fans.
Although small compared to the 26,000 who travelled to Anaheim in 2016, organisers said it was a good debut and the crowd was three times larger than the first VidCon in the US eight years ago.
"Authenticity" is the key to success for new YouTubers, Gardner said. "These online video stars, they're not on script, they're being themselves."
"It's like having a real good friend, who talks to you every day."
- TV doesn't talk back -
YouTube's biggest star, PewDiePie, was absent amid a row over a few videos he posted containing anti-Semitic remarks and Nazi references.
A 27-year-old Swede, real name Felix Kjellberg, he has 54.5 million online followers on the Google-owned service.
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He is also YouTube's top earner making roughly $14.5 million (13.6 million euros) last year through revenue-sharing and sponsorships, according to estimates from social media data firm NeoReach.
Gardner said fast technological advances and expanding bandwidth meant online video was an "equal opportunity for everyone to have their voice heard, to tell their narrative."
Every VidCon "I see two people come together, and they say, 'Wait, you like this? I like this too. I thought I was the only one'. And all of a sudden this bond forms."
Asked if television is dead, Gardner joked: "I wish it was." Online video was more active, involving engagement between its stars and their audience such as comments, likes and dislikes, he said.
"TV doesn't have those factors and in an increasingly disconnected world people are craving those elements. They're craving engagement, and TV just doesn't talk back to you."
- The power of nerds -
Many of the stars use their platforms to help advocate for gay rights, greater equality or to end the stigma of mental illness.
Founded by American author John Green -- who wrote the bestselling young adult novel "Fault in our Stars" -- and his brother Hank Green, VidCon is a forum for self-confessed nerds.
Known online as the Vlogbrothers, the two are now in their late 30s and describe their channel launched in 2007 as "raising nerdy to the power of awesome".
"I want kids to value passion and excitement, and not to disguise it through irony because people will think it's lame," John Green told an audience in Amsterdam.
Starry-eyed fans not only get a chance to met their favourites, but can gather in meet-ups to hang out with others who share the same interests.
"I was always an oddball," confessed pink-haired British star Lizzie Dwyer, who as LDShadowlady has amassed almost three million followers, who watch her play and comment on video games such as Minecraft.
"But it's great there are people on YouTube who appreciate the weirdness about me."
Supporting RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat's pitch for stepping up cow protection efforts, P.S. Chari said, "There is urgent need to have a national law against cow slaughter".
By Sahil Joshi: Bhartiya Janata Party's (BJP) National Executive member and former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak Seshadri Chari thinks that the PM Modi's government should bring in a national law against cow slaughter in the country.
Supporting RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat's pitch for stepping up cow protection efforts, Chari said, "There is urgent need to have a national law against cow slaughter. Now the government has majority it is the right time to bring in a national law, it is also mentioned in the constitution that government should work towards it".
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Chari, however, admitted that India's diversity makes it difficult to implement a uniform law across the country. Minister of Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju has openly said that northeastern states should not have any law against cow slaughter. BJP's Kerala unit leader has also spoken against such efforts.
Chari thinks that there is an urgent need for consensus on the issue but it can happen only after making a national law.
"We can work on it to bring a consensus over the issue, as in some states it might not be so easy (Northeast, Kerala ) but that doesn't mean 90 per cent Hindu's sentiments can be kept aside," the RSS veteran added.
Seshadri Chari also slammed the alleged lynching of a Muslim man in Alwar by cow vigilantes and said that respective government should take strict actions against such acts. He also distanced the party from such groups, "These are fringe groups, we have nothing to do with them," he said.
According to Chari, a national law against cow slaughter can stop such incidences. "Currently every state has different law regarding cow slaughter and that is why out of confusion such incidences happen , if we have one law in the country against cow slaughter such incidences can be stopped," Chari added in his statement.
Earlier, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat had also rooted for a law banning cow slaughter across the country.
"The states that have dedicated RSS members have made laws in this regard and other state governments should also follow the suit by dealing with local issues regarding this," Bhagwat said on Sunday.
Seshadri Chari is the first BJP member who has openly supported, having a national law against cow slaughter.
He wants that the government should not wait for consensus, rather both the process (of making law and building consensus) should go simultaneously.
ALSO READ:
SC may tether cow vigilantism, issues notice to Centre and 6 BJP-ruled states
Alwar gau rakshak attack: CPM leaders reach city to look into mob lynching case
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Senior advocate of Punjab and Haryana high court, HC Arora, has filed a plea against Navjot Singh Sidhu for using double meaning language on the The Kapil Sharma Show.
By India Today Web Desk: Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has invited fresh trouble for his appearance on The Kapil Sharma Show. Senior advocate of Punjab and Haryana high court, HC Arora, has filed a plea against Sidhu for cracking "vulgar jokes" in a recent episode of the popular comedy show.
The senior advocate has asked the Punjab chief secretary to take cognizance of the lack of propriety shown on national television by Sidhu.
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Also read: Now Navjot Singh Sidhu goes missing from The Kapil Sharma Show?
Arora also said that "it was unbecoming of the minister to use double meaning language on the show." The advocate has also asked the chief secretary to apprise the chief miniter of the matter, as such obscenity is punishable under the Indian Penal Code.
Also read: I will work all night for The Kapil Sharma Show; won't quit, says Navjot Singh Sidhu
Meanwhile, Sidhu has skipped a day's shoot for reasons unknown. He earlier defended his stint on the comedy show by saying this: "If people had objections to my television assignments, they would not have elected me with nearly 43,000 vote margin. I will work (as a minister) till 3 p.m. and then take a flight to Mumbai. I will shoot (for the show) till 3 a.m. and be back early morning," Sidhu told the media.
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The parties also passed a motion expressing admiration for the 'bold leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.' Arun Jaitley said there was no discussion over the next president of India.
By Brijesh Pandey, India Today Web Desk: Top leaders of the National Democratic Alliance, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, met today for dinner in New Delhi.
The NDA meeting which started at 7.15 pm lasted for close to 4 hours.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackrey and BJP president Amit Shah had a 20 minute long meeting prior to the start of the meeting and discussion centered around the constant friction between the two parties in Maharashtra.
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Later, Finance minister Arun Jaitley and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu addressed a press conference. Speaking at the same, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the parties passed a resolution to fight the 2019 general election under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
The resolution expresses appreciation of the bold leadership of PM Narendra Modi, he said.
"There is a nationwide appreciation and support of the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We have strengthened the federal structure of the country. In the last three years, we have given a corruption free government. We are winning election after assembly election because of this. In Uttar Pradesh, role of few smaller parties was there," Jaitley added.
One of the Key point of the resolution was that NDA has decided to fight 2019 Lok Sabha election under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'NO DISCUSSION ON NEXT PRESIDENT OF INDIA'
Notably, Jaitley said that there was no discussion over who will be the next president of India. There has been strong speculation that the meeting would discuss, if not decide, the name for the next president of India.
The meet also passed a resolution discussing the recent Assembly election results and expressing admiration of the "bold leadership of the prime minister."
The resolution "endorses policies of NDA and its campaigns." It refers to "contributions made to strengthen national economy" and the "steps being taken to help farmers."
"Fact is that we have run a honest and clean government," Jaitley said. The finance minister further added that Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan put forth a motion to "expand the NDA and start working for providing continuous leadership to the nation under PM Modi."
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that for the first time they could see a non congress Prime Minister getting this kind of support. He praised Prime Minister Modi for taking bold steps as far as the economy was concerned and said that now all Indians were proud to be Indians. He also congratulated the government for the passage of the GST bill. He said that the growth of India is going to be in double digits.
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After the resolution was passed, LJP leader and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan suggested, "we should show our determination to expand NDA and start working for providing continuous leadership to the nation under PM."
The meeting was being seen as a show of strength ahead of the elections for the posts of the President and the Vice President of India.
Leaders from 33 Bharatiya Janata Party, including those that lent the party their support in Goa and Manipur, attended the meeting.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose relationship with the BJP has been rocky, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu attended the meeting.
This is only the second meeting of the NDA since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
There has been strong speculation that the meeting was about who would be the next president of India.
Pranab Mukherjee and Hamid Ansari will finish their terms this year and the presidential election is expected to be held in July.
ALSO READ | Why BJP may surprise again with its pick for President of India's post
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ALSO WATCH | Mood of the Nation poll: NDA would win 360 seats if polls were conducted today
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By Rohit Kumar Singh: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed his concern over environment of rising intolerance and confrontation in the country.
Nitish made these comments at the event to kick start celebrations to mark the 100 years of Champaran Satyagrah undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi in 1917.
"We all talk now-a-days how there is a environment of confrontation, intolerance and violence, baseless logic is being spread all across, one way discussion is taking place. At this event there should be discussion taking place in which direction should the country go. Discussions should be held on how principles of Gandhi should be imbibed in our lives", said Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar.
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The Chief Minister further made a veiled attack on Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Amit Shah who will be going to Motihari on 19th April to participate in the 100 years of Champaran Satyagrah celebration mentioning that people who have nothing to do with Gandhi or his principles are also celebrating the historic occasion.
"Those who have nothing to do with Mahatma Gandhi will also celebrate centennial ceremony of Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha event", commented the Chief Minister.
ALSO READ:
Nitish Kumar slams Vasundhara Raje government over denotifying highways after liquor ban
MCD polls: Nitish campaigns for JD(U) candidates, pitches
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By Press Trust of India: From Sajjad Hussain
Islamabad, Apr 10 (PTI) Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has said it backs Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir and believes that there is a need to put "pressure" on India on the issue of alleged human rights violations there, according to a media report.
The OIC Secretary-General, Yousaf Ahmad Al-Othaimeen, who arrived in Islamabad yesterday, held talks with Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.
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Radio Pakistan reported that the two leaders said there was hundred per cent unanimity of views on all issues facing the Muslim Ummah (community) and the way forward.
The OIC Secretary-General said his organisation has same position as that of Pakistan on the issues of Kashmir, Palestine, Islamophobia and plight of Muslim communities in non-Muslim nations.
"Kashmir has always been on top of the agenda of OIC," the OIC Secretary-General said in response to a question during a joint press conference.
He said the OIC has been urging India to provide access to Kashmir but unfortunately India has declined to accede to the request.
He said India also opposed visit of an OIC Human Rights Commission to Kashmir.
The OIC Secretary-General said despite denial by India, "we should keep pressure on New Delhi on the issue of human rights violations in Kashmir and peaceful resolution of the dispute."
India maintains that OIC, a grouping of 57 Muslim countries, has no locus standi on the Kashmir issue.
Othaimeen thanked Pakistan for supporting programmes and causes espoused by OIC and said the two sides discussed holding of the upcoming summit of OIC on Science and Technology.
He said the OIC condemns all terrorist acts in Pakistan or any other country. He said terrorism is terrorism and it has no race or religion.
"We condemn terrorism no matter where it happens in the world as Islamic is religion of peace and co-existence," he said.
The OIC Secretary-General said the two sides have vowed to work closely on all issues facing the ummah.
Aziz thanked the OIC and the Muslim countries for their consistent support on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
"We agreed to work together to combat Islamophobia and hatred against Muslims and formulate joint Islamic action against publication of blasphemous material including on social media," Aziz said. PTI SH NSA
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Ex-Navy SEAL team shooter Robert ONeill has reasserted his claim that he alone pumped three bullets into Osama, killing the architect of the 9/11 attacks, in a new book.
By Press Trust of India: An ex-Navy SEAL, who claims to have killed Osama bin Laden, has revealed that the al-Qaeda chiefs head was so severely destroyed by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification.
Ex-Navy SEAL team shooter Robert ONeill has reasserted his claim that he alone pumped three bullets into Osama, killing the architect of the 9/11 attacks, in a new book.
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In The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Bin Laden, the former Navy SEAL Team 6 shooter lays out the details of what went down that night inside the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the New York Daily News reported.
While controversy still swirls around ONeill's version of the May 2, 2011, raid, much of it centers on his breaking the Special Ops code of silence.
ONeill, in his book, makes the gruesome claim that Osama's head was so severely destroyed by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification photographs.
In ONeill's version, he was trailing five or six other SEALs climbing the stairs to the compounds second floor when Osama's son Khalid appeared on the half-landing with an AK-47.
The agents were able to lure Khalid from where he was hiding behind a banister by calling to him in Arabic, saying: Khalid, come here.
He shouted in response: What? and emerged from his hiding spot, and was immediately shot in the face, the report said.
Once upstairs, the men spread out to search the rooms. In the compound with Osama were three of his four wives and 17 children.
ONeill kept his hand on the point mans shoulder. The two were alone on the stairway, convinced that whoever was on the third floor was strapping on a suicide vest for an explosive last stand.
ONeill recounts that finally he decided to take action. He squeezed the point mans shoulder, the signal to charge and then burst past the curtain.
The point man tackled two screaming women to the floor.
Bin Laden stood near the bed, his hands on the shoulders of the woman in front of him. She was later identified as Amal, the youngest of his four wives, the report said.
"In less than a second, I aimed above the woman's right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice," ONeill writes.
"Bin Ladens head split open, and he dropped. I put another bullet in his head. Insurance," he writes.
According to ONeill, the other members of the team rushed into the room only after he placed a 2-year-old boy found covering in a corner alongside Osama's widow on the bed.
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A harrowing 90-minute flight returned the squadron to camp in Afghanistan.
ONeills book comes five years after "No Easy Day," fellow SEAL Mark Bissonnette's account of the operation.
He agreed to surrender the USD 6.8 million in proceeds from the book for his use of classified information and violation of a non-disclosure deal.
ALSO READ:
Osama Bin Laden poster signed by US Navy SEAL team auctioned for $100,000
US imposes terrorism-related sanctions against Osama bin Laden's son
--- ENDS ---
By Press Trust of India: Burdwan(WB), Apr 10 (PTI) Over two tons of illegal sulphuric and nitric acid were seized by the CID sleuths from Nawabpur area of the district.
Senior police officers said a team of CID sleuths were investigating illegal trade of sulphuric and nitric acid in the district for some time and acting on a tip off, contacted one Biswajit Dutta posing as customers.
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"According to an arrangement, Dutta today came with 20 drums of both sulphuric and nitric acid near Nawabpur in a minivan. Our team had laid a trap and we nabbed him," said CID DSP Debojyoti Bhowmick.
The officer said soon after a ton of the deadly acid was seized, the sleuths starting grilling Dutta. Senior CID officers from the forces Kolkata headquarters also rushed to Burdwan and on Duttas information, a raid was conducted at a house in the Panuhati area of Katwa.
"Over one ton of both sulphuric and nitric acid were seized from the house, which belongs to a relative of Dutta. The man, however, managed to flee the spot before our team reached," Bhowmick said adding, Dutta will be produced before a district court tomorrow. PTI CORR DKB
--- ENDS ---
By Press Trust of India: (Eds: Updating with Indias reaction)
From Sajjad Hussain
Islamabad/New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) Pakistans army chief today approved the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav after a military court sentenced him to death for "espionage and sabotage activities" in a "farce" trial, evoking a sharp reaction from India which described the move as "premeditated murder".
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The incident is expected to further deteriorate already strained Indo-Pak ties which were hit after deadly attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the militarys media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it said.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
He said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly".
Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy."
The Pakistan Army had also released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy but denied that he has any connection with the government.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
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It also claimed that Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Islamabads support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The two sides were also engaged in a war of words last year over Pakistans provocative statements on the turmoil in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year. PTI SH/PYK ABH ZH AKJ ZH
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Most Opposition parties are demanding action against Tarun Vijay and accusing the BJP of trying to divide the people of India.
The Congress threatened it will hit the streets over the issue if no action is taken against Vijay.
By Supriya Bhardwaj: Parliament erupted over former BJP Member of Parliament Tarun Vijay's racist remarks on South Indians, with most Opposition parties demanding action against him and accusing the BJP of trying to divide the people of India.
"Are people living in South India part of the country or not? This shows your mentality. Do you want to divide India?," Congress Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said in Lok Sabha.
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The Congress threatened it will hit the streets over the issue if no action is taken against Vijay. "What action are you going to take? Otherwise we will have to agitate not only inside but outside too," Kharge said.
Speaking on behalf of the government, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said India is a secular country and no discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, or colour can be allowed here.
On Friday afternoon, Vijay, while speaking to Al Jazeera news channel on the recent attacks on African nationals in India, had said, ""If we were racist, why would we have all the entire South... why do we live with them if we are racist. We have black people around us."
At this, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram asked if only the BJP and the RSS members are Indians. "When Tarun Vijay said 'we live with blacks', I ask him who is 'we'? Was he referring to BJP/RSS members as the only Indians?" the former Home Minister tweeted.
Vijay claimed he was misinterpreted and later apologized. "Feel bad, really feel sorry. My apologies to those who feel (what) I said was different than what I meant," he said.
ALSO READ | Indians not racist, we accept South Indians, says BJP's Tarun Vijay, apologises later
ALSO READ | Robert Vadra condemns Tarun Vijay's racist remark in Facebook post, bats for secular India
ALSO WATCH | Congress to raise issue of BJP leader Tarun Vijay's racial remarks in Lok Sabha
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By Press Trust of India: raised by the Centre
New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court today asked the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association to respond to the issues raised by the Centre while defending the use of pellet guns to quell stone-pelting mobs in Kashmir valley, stressing that the lawyers body cannot take sides.
The apex court sought the Bars response after the Centre explained to the Supreme Court the circumstances under which security forces use measures like pellet guns.
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The apex court told the Bar it has to play a very important role in assisting the court in evolving a solution and cannot take sides.
The Bar is neither on the side of the security forces nor on the mobs side, the court said and gave two weeks time to the lawyers body to come out with its submission so that a solution can be found and asked it to file an affidavit. The matter has now been posted for April 28.
The apex court noted the submission of Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi that the security forces try to use minimum forces to avoid any damage to life and property and eventually use pellet guns and live ammunition in the final stage when the mob comes in immediate proximity to the security forces.
The bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar also took into consideration the submission made by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar which contended that the Centre was not coming out with a clear-cut scenario and expressed its willingness to assist the court.
The bench also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul said that the Bar was in an effective position to bring out true factual position to assist the court in giving directions which will be meaningful.
The bench reminded the Bar body that it has to play a very important role in assisting the court in evolving the solution as the lawyers in the Bar were privileged people.
At the outset, the Attorney General, in response to the last hearing, placed before the bench confidential documents about the deliberations undertaken to evolve options other than the use of pellet guns for tackling mobs which resort to stone-pelting and attacks by petrol bombs, acid bombs and other deadly weapons.
The apex court had on March 27 expressed concern over the pellet gun injuries suffered by minors who indulged in stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the Centre to consider other effective means to quell the protests as it concerns "life and death".
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It had conceded that though the use of pellet guns by the security forces was not a judicial issue, it can intervene in the matter to find a solution acceptable to parties concerned.
The court had given two weeks time to Attorney General to ponder over the suggestions to look into effective alternatives to the pellet guns.
It had said that it is not the subject that has to be decided by the courts nor can there be a judicial redressal as it is a delicate situation.
The court had suggested to the Attorney General to consider other technology-based measures like microwave to disperse the protesters and water which tastes and smell awful that will make people go away.
The AG had said he will speak to the committee of experts which has prepared an interim report on the use of effective measures in October 2016 and get back to the court after two weeks.
During the last hearing, the bench had expressed its concern over minors indulging in stone pelting and suffering injuries during protests.
It had asked the Centre to find some alternative measures to deal with such situations so that kids do not get injured.
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On December 14 last year, the apex court had said pellet guns should not be used "indiscriminately" for controlling street protests in Jammu and Kashmir and be resorted to only after "proper application of mind" by the authorities.
It had also sought assistance of the Attorney General on the issue and asked him to submit a copy of the report submitted by the expert committee constituted for exploring other alternatives to pellet guns.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association against the high court order seeking stay on the use of pellet guns as a large number of people had been killed or injured due to their use.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court had on September 22 rejected the plea seeking a ban on use of pellet guns on the ground that the Centre had already constituted a Committee of Experts through its memorandum of July 26, 2016 for exploring alternatives to pellet guns.
Taking note of the statement, the high court had disposed of the petition, saying that no further direction was required since the matter was being looked at by the Centre. PTI ABA MNL SJK RKS RRT RT SC RT
--- ENDS ---
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By Press Trust of India: raised by the Centre (Eds: Repeating after changing word in first para)
New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court today asked the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association to respond to the issues raised by the Centre which defended the use of pellet guns to quell stone-pelting mobs in Kashmir valley, stressing that the lawyers body cannot take sides.
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The apex court sought the Bars response after the Centre explained to the Supreme Court the circumstances under which security forces use measures like pellet guns.
The apex court told the Bar it has to play a very important role in assisting the court in evolving a solution and cannot take sides.
The Bar is neither on the side of the security forces nor on the mobs side, the court said and gave two weeks time to the lawyers body to come out with its submission so that a solution can be found and asked it to file an affidavit. The matter has now been posted for April 28.
The apex court noted the submission of Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi that the security forces try to use minimum forces to avoid any damage to life and property and eventually use pellet guns and live ammunition in the final stage when the mob comes in immediate proximity to the security forces.
The bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar also took into consideration the submission made by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar which contended that the Centre was not coming out with a clear-cut scenario and expressed its willingness to assist the court.
The bench also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul said that the Bar was in an effective position to bring out true factual position to assist the court in giving directions which will be meaningful.
The bench reminded the Bar body that it has to play a very important role in assisting the court in evolving the solution as the lawyers in the Bar were privileged people.
At the outset, the Attorney General, in response to the last hearing, placed before the bench confidential documents about the deliberations undertaken to evolve options other than the use of pellet guns for tackling mobs which resort to stone-pelting and attacks by petrol bombs, acid bombs and other deadly weapons.
The apex court had on March 27 expressed concern over the pellet gun injuries suffered by minors who indulged in stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the Centre to consider other effective means to quell the protests as it concerns "life and death".
advertisement
It had conceded that though the use of pellet guns by the security forces was not a judicial issue, it can intervene in the matter to find a solution acceptable to parties concerned.
The court had given two weeks time to Attorney General to ponder over the suggestions to look into effective alternatives to the pellet guns.
It had said that it is not the subject that has to be decided by the courts nor can there be a judicial redressal as it is a delicate situation.
The court had suggested to the Attorney General to consider other technology-based measures like microwave to disperse the protesters and water which tastes and smell awful that will make people go away.
The AG had said he will speak to the committee of experts which has prepared an interim report on the use of effective measures in October 2016 and get back to the court after two weeks.
During the last hearing, the bench had expressed its concern over minors indulging in stone pelting and suffering injuries during protests.
It had asked the Centre to find some alternative measures to deal with such situations so that kids do not get injured.
advertisement
On December 14 last year, the apex court had said pellet guns should not be used "indiscriminately" for controlling street protests in Jammu and Kashmir and be resorted to only after "proper application of mind" by the authorities.
It had also sought assistance of the Attorney General on the issue and asked him to submit a copy of the report submitted by the expert committee constituted for exploring other alternatives to pellet guns.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association against the high court order seeking stay on the use of pellet guns as a large number of people had been killed or injured due to their use.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court had on September 22 rejected the plea seeking a ban on use of pellet guns on the ground that the Centre had already constituted a Committee of Experts through its memorandum of July 26, 2016 for exploring alternatives to pellet guns.
Taking note of the statement, the high court had disposed of the petition, saying that no further direction was required since the matter was being looked at by the Centre. PTI ABA MNL SJK RKS RRT RT SC AAR
--- ENDS ---
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By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, Apr 10 (PTI) Philippines is likely to resume direct air services to India by next year with at least one of the three carriers from the Southeast Asian nation mulling to launch flights in the worlds third largest domestic market.
The India-Philippines market has not had non-stop services since 2011, when Philippine Airlines (PAL) briefly operated fights from Manila to New Delhi.
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According to a latest industry report, Cebu Pacific Air, PAL and Philippines AirAsia are seeking traffic rights to serve India and are keen to serve New Delhi.
"Direct flights in the fast-growing India-Philippines market are likely to resume by 2018," Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), the Sydney-based aviation think-tank, said in a report released today.
India is the largest unserved market from the South- east Asian nation and the only one among the top 12 source market for the Philippine tourism sector without any non-stop service at present, it said.
Manila-Delhi is by far the largest city pair by passenger numbers, accounting for more than 30 per cent of total Philippines-India traffic, CAPA said in its report.
The report noted that the local Philippines-India market has grown significantly since the PAL withdrawal, making a non-stop route attractive again.
The total number of passengers flying between the two countries has nearly doubled in size since 2011, driven primarily by growth in Indian visitor traffic to Philippines.
Indian resident visitor numbers to Philippines have grown from 43,000 in 2011 to 91,000 in 2016, the report stated adding, there has been double digit growth in five out of the past six years.
Indian visitor growth to Philippines exceeded 20 per cent in both 2015 and 2016. In 2016, India was the second fastest growing among the top 12 source markets, after China, the report said.
According to the report, airlines from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong carry more than 90 per cent of these passengers, with one stop service via Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, it said.
There are nearly 1,00,000 annual Indian visitors to Philippines and approximately 50,000 annual Filipino tourists to India.
According to CAPA, the Philippines-India air services agreement permits both non-stop flights and fifth freedom flights via Bangkok.
Under the Fifth Freedom rights, airlines are allowed to carry passengers from ones own country to a second country, and from there to a third nation and so on. PTI IAS RSY BAS
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By Press Trust of India: Hajipur(Bihar), Apr 9 (PTI) Police today arrested two smugglers and seized 1.750 kg of gold worth Rs 50 lakh from them in Vaishali district.
Superintendent of Police, Rakesh Kumar said acting on a tip off, police raided Ganga Bridge Colony under Industrial police station area in Vaishali district and seized 1.750 kg of gold from the two smugglers who had hid the gold biscuits in their thighs.
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The arrested smugglers have been identified as Mohammad Fakhruddin, a resident of East Midnapur and Najjo Shah, a resident of West Midnapur district of West Bengal, the SP said adding that both the smugglers had coloured the gold biscuit with ink in order to hide it.
The smugglers were arrested by the police while they were carrying out deal to sell the gold, he said adding that seized gold biscuit bore the mark of Thailand and Myanmar. PTI CORR AR RG
--- ENDS ---
The new President should be elected by July 25 and reports suggest the BJP is already working on names of probable candidates.
By Shashank Shantanu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah will be meeting the heads and representatives of the 32 allies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today. Sources said the meeting - second since Modi assumed charge as PM in May, 2014 - is being held to decide the government's future strategy. Observers, however, say it has more to do with the upcoming President election.
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Despite registering an emphatic win in the recent Assembly elections, the BJP is not taking things lightly. Both Modi and Shah would like to use the meeting to galvanize support from their allies ahead of the Presidential election.
The BJP and its old ally, the Shiv Sena, may have been experiencing a blow hot, blow cold relationship but Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has confirmed that he will be attending the meeting. Telugu Desam Party chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Mehbooba Mufti will also be present.
The NDA commanders know it well that they will need the support of every party if PM Narendra Modi wants a person of his choice on the President's chair.
The new President should be elected by July 25 and reports suggest the BJP is already working on the names of the probable candidates.
LIKELY CONTENDERS
LK ADVANI
If political grapevine is to be believed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants BJP patriarch LK Advani to be the next President of India. Some media reports claimed that PM Modi proposed Advani's name during a meeting in Somnath, Gujarat. Modi reportedly said that electing Advani as the President will be akin to giving 'guru dakshina' to the veteran leader.
RSS CHIEF MOHAN BHAGWAT
Though he has dismissed reports about him being in the Presidential race, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat could be the BJP's choice for the top post.
"If India has to be made a Hindu rashtra, Bhagwat will be a good choice for President. But the decision (to support his candidature) will be taken by Uddhavji (Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray)," Sena leader Sanjay Raut had said.
"When we joined the Sangh, we closed doors for all other possibilities. We work only for the Sangh and the society, and my name would not come up for the President's post. And even if my name is proposed, I will not accept it," Bhagwat had said rejecting Raut's suggestion.
LOK SABHA SPEAKER SUMITRA MAHAJAN
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan may also be given a consideration by the BJP for the President's post. Being close to the ruling party and her effective way of managing the Lok Sabha may work in Mahajan's favour.
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JHARKHAND GOVERNOR DRAUPADI MURMU
The BJP has a habit of surprising everyone when it comes to picking up names for the Chief Minister's post. The recent examples being Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where the party named Yogi Adityanath and Vijay Rupani as respective CMs. The party may again spring a surprise by picking up Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu for the President's post.
Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu (File Photo/AP)
A two-time BJP MLA from poll-bound Odisha, Murmu was a minister in the Naveen Patnaik Cabinet before being appointed as Jharkhand Governor. She headed the BJP's Mayurbhanj district unit in Odisha and had represented Rairangpur in the Odisha Assembly.
SUSHMA SWARAJ, M VENKAIAH NAIDU, SM KRISHNA
As External Affairs Ministers, Sushma Swaraj is one minister in the Modi Cabinet who has earned praise from the Opposition ranks for her extraordinary work. However, her health has taken a toll and considering that the BJP may want to elevate her to lessen her workload.
The BJP may also consider senior minister M Venkaiah Naidu and former Karnataka CM SM Krishna, who recently joined the BJP, for the Vice-President's post. By offering them the post, the BJP would like to woo voters in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as it seeks to expand its presence in South India.
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WATCH: Congress bats for RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat as President
ALSO READ:
How PM Narendra Modi can now have a president of his choice
25 years after Babri demolition: Will Modi choose Advani as President?
Devoted to RSS, not in the presidential race, says RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat
--- ENDS ---
Levashov is considered to be one of the world's most notorious spam kingpins.
Pyotr Levashov, also known as 'Severa' is a creator of Trojans and author of spam programs.
His identity became public last year during a trial of "Godfather of spam" Alan Ralsky.
Levashov was the moderator for the spam subsection of multiple online communities and connected virus writers with huge spam networks.
According to anti-spam group Spamhaus, Levashov is among world's 10 worst spammers.
He also ran multiple criminal operations that paid virus writers and spammers to install fake antivirus.
The 36-year-old was arrested after an international warrant was issued by the US. He has an extradition hearing later this week.
The US Justice Department says that Levashov was the Russian partner of Alan Ralsky, who was later convicted for creating spam schemes designed to artificially inflate the value of penny stocks.
An official of the US Justice Department told Reuters that it was criminal matter without an 'apparent national security connection'.
By India Today Web Desk: The media may have always pitted Twinkle Khanna and Raveena Tandon against each other, but apparently, there is no bad blood between them. Twinkle jokingly told Hindustan Times that when Arunachalam Muruganantham (the pioneer of the low-cost sanitary pad making machine, whose life will be captured in her maiden production venture, Padman) met her for the first time and told her she resembles Raveena, she "was about to drop his story."
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Now, Mrs Funnybones said it all in jest, but some just want to stir up a storm. At a promotional event of Raveena's film Maatr, a reporter told her that Twinkle was offended at the comparison, but she refused to believe him. "Oh, she did? I want to see her comment. Show me what she said. I don't believe that," she said.
When it was explained to Raveena by another reporter that Twinkle was just joking, she responded, "Then why are you saying offence? We are friends and we all know each other in the industry, we all meet each other regularly. I don't believe what you are saying."
It is well known that before marrying Twinkle, Akshay Kumar was in a relationship with Raveena that did not end well. However, it has been over two decades since they parted ways and both are happily married to their respective spouses and have beautiful children.
ALSO READ: What went wrong between ex-lovers Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon
ALSO READ: Akshay Kumar opens up on his fallout with rumoured ex-girlfriend Priyanka Chopra
ALSO WATCH: Akshay Kumar is the real 'Khiladi' of Bollywood
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According to sources, employees at Air India were upset with the airline revoking the travel ban on Ravindra Gaikwad.
By Anindya Banerjee: Air India will not withdraw the criminal complaint filed against Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, sources told India Today.
According to sources, employees at Air India were upset with the airline revoking the travel ban on Ravindra Gaikwad, who had allegedly hit an Air India staffer 25 times with slippers during an argument last month.
The Shiv Sena MP, however, chose to travel in a train today despite Air India lifting the ban against him.
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Ravindra Gaikwad was supposed to travel by AI 852 from Pune to New Delhi.
In fact, sources had told India Today that the Air India management was asked to fly an aircraft with a business class provision on this route following an informal instruction from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Shiv Sena's Ravindra Gaikwad, who is an MP from Osmanabad, had reportedly hit the Air India staffer as he was upset for not being able to travel business class despite having an open ticket for the same. The Air India flight did not have any provision for business class seats.
All major airlines had put a 'flying ban' on Ravindra Gaikwad who remained unrepentant despite nationwide criticism over the "slippergate" incident.
The Shiv Sena MP said that he would apologise to Parliament but not to the Air India staffer.
However, last week, Ravindra Gaikwad finally wrote to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju expressing 'regret' for the incident. Following his Parliament statement, the Ministry of Civil Aviation ordered Air India to lift its fly ban on Gaikwad.
After Air India lifted ban on Ravindra Gaikwad, other airlines followed suit.
ALSO READ:
Hours after pleading not guilty in Parliament, Gaikwad issues regret letter to aviation minister
Facing flying ban by airlines, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad reaches Delhi via chartered flight
Someone trolling Ravindra Gaikwad? Shiv Sena MP says never booked the 7 tickets cancelled by airlines
ALSO WATCH
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By Press Trust of India: Lucknow, Apr 10 (PTI) The BJP today termed SP leader Azam Khans gesture of returning a cow gifted to him by a seer as a move to "maintain his relevance" in the current political scenario of Uttar Pradesh.
Khan had yesterday returned the black cow gifted to him by Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth Swami Adhokshjanand Maharaj in 2015, saying "any vigilante could kill the animal to defame" him. "The gesture of Khan is completely uncalled for. His statement that any cow vigilante may kill it to defame him, only shows his narrow and parochial mindset," state party spokesperson Manish Shukla told PTI.
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"By this he has hurt the sentiments of crores of people who rever cows," he said.
"Khans antics are a last ditch effort from his side to maintain his relevance in the current political scenario of the state," he claimed.
Taking a jibe at the former state minister, Shukla said, "It is really surprising that Khan is having problems with a cow, whereas police had to intervene when his buffaloes went missing."
Khan in a letter to the Hindu seer had said, "Muslims were living in an atmosphere of insecurity... Any cow vigilante might harm or even kill the beautiful and beneficial animal to defame me and the Muslim community."
Swami Adhokshjanand Maharaj had in October, 2015 gifted a black cow to Khan after the latter had expressed his desire to have one in his dairy.
Khan also alleged that a "vicious propaganda has been launched against Muslims in the country and their condition was even worse than that of slaves".
The SP leader told the Shankaracharya that he accorded "best treatment" to the cow and the animal was being returned keeping in view its "safety and security". PTI NAV NKS AAR
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The electoral process has been "seriously vitiated" by parties through use of money power, the Election Commission said while cancelling RK Nagar bypoll which was scheduled to be held on April 12.
By India Today Web Desk: The Election Commission late on Sunday (April 9) cancelled byelection in Chennai's RK Nagar constituency which was scheduled to be held on April 12. The poll panel's decision came a day after Income Tax raids in the state capital revealed that money was being used to buy votes.
The electoral process has been "seriously vitiated" by parties through use of money power, the Election Commission said while cancelling bypoll in RK Nagar seat which went vacant after the death of J Jayalalithaa in December 5 last year.
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HERE'S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Questioning the Election Commission's decision to cancel RK Nagar bypoll, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, "We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in RK Nagar white money?" All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran also slammed the Election Commission for cancelling byelection in RK Nagar. "This is a wrong decision, even the Election Commission does not want me to win. They can delay but cant deny," he said. On the other hand, Sasikala Pushpa, the AIADMK MP who was expelled by own party for supporting O Panneerselvam in his war for the CM's chair against Sasikala after Jayalalithaa's death, has supported the Election Commission. "This election was not being handled in a fair manner that's why the Election Commission intervened. Constitutionally it has been proved that our democracy is alive," she said, adding, " I appreciate the EC's decision. It has been proved yet again that India is the largest democracy." Sleuths of the Income Tax Investigation wing conducted searches in properties and offices belonging to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar on Friday across Tamil Nadu. The searches on premises of an associate of Vijayabaskar revealed routing of Rs 89 crore for "distribution to voters" in RK Nagar Assembly constituency. Vijayabaskar is a loyalist of AIADMK (Amma) faction's candidate T T V Dinakaran. Vijayabaskar, who is the first state minister to come under the lens of taxmen, is among the key campaigners in the bypolls. There were also several complaints of alleged money distribution by AIADMK's Amma faction. "Many complaints were received by the ECI on possibilities of inducement of electors by distributing cash and gifts in innovative forms like tokens, prepaid phone recharge coupons, newspaper subscription, milk tokens, money transfer in no frill accounts in banks and even mobile wallet payment to mobile numbers," the EC said. The Election Commission had used its constitutional powers in March 2012 recommending to the President cancellation of the notification for a Rajya Sabha biennial election from Jharkhand even after the polling had concluded after it found that money was used to influence voters.
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By-poll in Jaya's RK Nagar: Clashes break out between Panneerselvam and Dinakaran factions of AIADMK; 1 injured
RK Nagar by-poll: Price of one vote is Rs 4000, reveals Income Tax official
Watch video: Election Commission cancels RK Nagar by-poll over reports of candidates paying off voters
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Congress MP Renuka Chaudhary asked the NDA government how effective was their demonetisation drive, if a hoard of money was distributed in RK Nagar ahead of now cancelled by-poll.
By Supriya Bhardwaj: While the Election Commission (EC) has cancelled the RK Nagar constituency by election in Tamil Nadu, the Congress has attacked the NDA government on demonetisation.
The EC decided to rescind the by-poll late Sunday night, over reports of candidates buying votes through cash, gifts in kind.
Upping the ante against the Modi government, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chaudhary said, "The question needs to be asked from BJP and the PM. They have been claiming that demonetisation has been successful. Then where is this money coming from? The biggest question is whether the Indian currency is secure?"
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ELECTORAL PROCESS VITIATED
Taking a firm stand, the EC added, "Electoral process was being seriously vitiated by political parties."
Leading the attack on NDA is P Chidambaram, who tweeted, "We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?"
On EC's decision to cancel the by-poll, Chaudhary added, "If money is being distributed like this, then what is the purpose of holding elections? Such acts defeat the entire purpose."
Also read: Was white money distributed in RK Nagar: Chidambaram takes dig at PM Modi's demonetisation
Also read: RK Nagar bypoll cancelled amid cash-for-votes row, Dinarakan slams EC
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Levashov was suspected of being involved in hacking attacks linked to alleged interference in last year's U.S. election, reported Russian television station RT.
By Reuters: A Russian computer programmer, Pyotr Levashov, has been arrested in the Spanish city of Barcelona, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Madrid said on Sunday.
It was unclear why Levashov was arrested. The embassy spokesman declined to give details for his arrest, and Spanish police and the interior ministry were not available for comment on Sunday.
Russian television station RT reported that Levashov was arrested under a U.S. international arrest warrant and was suspected of being involved in hacking attacks linked to alleged interference in last year's U.S. election.
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Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department's criminal division, said: "The U.S. case remains under seal, so we have no information to provide at this time."
The criminal division is separate from the national security division, which is responsible for investigating state-sponsored cyber crimes.
A U.S. Department of Justice official said it was a criminal matter without an apparent national security connection.
Spanish authorities notified the Russian embassy of Levashov's arrest on Friday, the embassy spokesman said.
In January, Spanish police arrested another Russian computer programmer, whose name was given as "Lisov" and who was wanted by the United States for leading a financial fraud network.
The U.S. government has formally accused Russia of hacking Democratic Party emails to help the campaign of Republican President Donald Trump. The U.S. Congress is also examining links between Russia and Trump during the election campaign.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied that Russia tried to influence the election.
Also Read:
10 things to know about Pyotr Levashov, Russian arrested in Spain accusing him of rigging US elections
US Secretary of State Tillerson stops short of accusing Russia for plotting Syrian poison gas attack
Syria strike a warning to others, including North Korea: US Secretary of State Tillerson
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Busted: Attempt to hack computers of top Army officers with sex videos
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Sadhvi Ritambhara has slammed BJP MLA Raja Singh for his statement threatening to behead those opposing construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: Firebrand Hindutva leader Sadhvi Ritambhara has slammed Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Hyderabad's Goshamal constituency Raja Singh for his statement threatening to behead those opposing construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Speaking to India Today in Mumbai, Sadhvi Ritambhara also appealed the government to promulgate an ordinance in the Parliament for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
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Slamming the statement made by Raja Singh, Sadhvi said, "Some people make such statements for political gains, such type of statements are not needed".
"We are in a democratic setup. We believe in courts, there is a strong government above all, communities involved are aware of the sensitive nature of the issue. But if some people try to ignore judiciary and make such statement, he may try to gain political mileage but it will serve no purpose of the society or nation," Ritambhara added.
She also reiterated her stand on bringing in an ordinance in the Parliament for a grand temple in Ayodhya. "The government should bring in an ordinance for Ram Temple, but before that, the suggestion given by Supreme Court to resolve the issue through discussion should be tried. If there is no outcome then the government should do something to respect the feeling of majority community," said Ritambhara.
She also added that because of Modi and Yogi government, people are hopeful and that solution will work out in this long pending issue as well.
Commenting on the Alwar lynching incident, Sadhvi said that violence or taking law into hands cannot be justified at any cost. But she also added that there should not be any incidents that provoke people to take extreme steps like this.
"If cows are trashed in a vehicle it is known where they are taken to. If it is an issue of faith for such a large section of people, then insulting those feelings is also not good at all," she added.
She also showered rich praises on newly elected Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "A true Yogi and true Hindu are always secular, these are good signs that the country is in the hands of Yogis," she said.
"We feel that the nation has a courageous leadership, we always felt that someone should teach Pakistan a lesson. It happened in surgical strikes. Notebandi has brought out black Money. PM Modi does not want anything for himself. When we have such a great leader, we are hopeful that this issue too will be sorted out soon," Ritambhara added.
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ALSO READ:
Hyderabad MLA Raja Singh threatens to behead those opposing Ram Temple at Ayodhya, FIR filed
Will behead "traitors" opposing Ram temple, says BJP MLA, gets
Sadhvi Rithambara for Parl resolution to build Ram temple
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By Saurabh Singh: Samsung recently launched the Galaxy C7 Pro in India. It also recently launched the Galaxy A5 2017 here. On a regular day, that would seem like good news for buyers, because the concept of more the merrier applies to smartphones like no other. Only, in the case of Samsung's new phones, things are not that simple. While the Galaxy A5 2017 has been priced at Rs 28,990, the Galaxy C7 Pro will be available for buying at Rs 27,990.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro: Top specs, features, India price and everything you need to know
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While it's clear that the company in question broadly has three premiere series of phones: the affordable J, the mid-tier A and the flagship S line-up, Samsung's C-series has always been a little hard to understand. From my understanding, Samsung at this point of time, maybe looking to position it as a mid-tier flagship series for buyers who prefer a larger phablet form factor. This is because both the Galaxy C7 Pro and the previously launched Galaxy C9 Pro hover up and above the 5.5-inch standard. That equation will, however, change should Samsung launch the 5.2-inch Galaxy C5 Pro in the country anytime soon.
For now, we can contend that, in the case of Galaxy C7 Pro and Galaxy A5 2017, size is one major differentiating factor, among other things.
There's little doubt that the A5 2017 has been designed from grounds up to offer a flagship Galaxy S7-kind of experience at a not so flagship Galaxy S7-kind of pricing. The phone, owing to its 5.2-inch compact form factor, looks ridiculously like the S7. If that wasn't enough, it is almost as thin (7.9 mm) and as light-weight (157 gram) as Samsung's top-tier phone. It shares its build materials, meaning, you get a healthy dose of 3D glass -- Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on the front -- and metal on the sides. Not to mention, the kind of curves -- a la the S7 -- that only a certain Samsung could have conjured. The only visible change that Samsung has brought about is in the positioning of the speaker grille. It lies on the right above the power button now. The new positioning ensures you don't accidentally cover it with your hand -- to muffle the sound -- while watching videos and/or playing games in landscape mode. The Galaxy C7 Pro, in sharp contrast, is an all-metal phone with curved 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass (unspecified) on the front. Samsung is touting the fact that although the Galaxy C7 Pro is a 5.7-inch phablet, it measures just 7mm in thickness, or rather thinness. The Galaxy C7 Pro is ridiculously slim. Also it weighs only 172 grams. One more differentiating aspect of the Galaxy C7 Pro, when compared with other all-metal phones, is its three lined antennas on the rear that add visual variety to the phone. The Galaxy C7 Pro, in contrast to the A5 2017, has its speaker out on the bottom edge much like how it is in most Samsung phones. Both the Galaxy C7 Pro and Galaxy A5 2017 have a front-mounted physical home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. While in the case of the A5 2017, it is mostly fast and accurate; in the case of the C7 Pro it is slow and rather inaccurate on most occasions. Both the phones come with USB Type-C for charging and data syncing purposes. The Galaxy A5 2017 also borrows two of the biggest highlights of the S7. It is IP68 certified for one, which makes it dust and water-resistant and also it comes with Samsung's characteristic Always-on display that's essentially a mobile screensaver housing time/calendar and notification alerts in a dimly-lit state at all times. The Galaxy A5 2017, in addition also supports Samsung Pay. The Galaxy C7 Pro isn't IP68 certified, nor does it have an Always-on display. The Galaxy C7 Pro also doesn't support Samsung Pay which is a little disappointing considering the price that it commands. While the Galaxy A5 2017 is a 5.2-inch phone, the Galaxy C7 Pro is a larger 5.7-inch phablet. Both the phones come with a 1080p Super AMOLED display and mete out exceptionally bright and punchy colours, as also some excellent viewing angles. The Galaxy A5 2017 is powered by a 1.9GHz Exynos 7880 (8-core ARM Cortex-A53) processor clubbed with Mali-T830MP3 GPU and 3GB of RAM. It comes with 32GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 256GB via a dedicated micro-SD card slot. The Exynos 7880 is Samsung's in-house mobile chipset in line with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 processor. "With advanced 14nm FinFET process technology, Exynos 7880 consumes up to 36 per cent less power than its predecessor built on 28nm HKMG process at the same performance level," claims Samsung. The emphasis therefore lies on achieving greater thermal efficiency and longer battery life. The Galaxy C7 Pro, on the other hand, is powered by a 2.2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 processor clubbed with Adreno 506 GPU and 4GB of RAM. It comes with 64GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 256GB via a hybrid micro-SD card slot. The Snapdragon 626 is simply a pro (higher clocked) version of the Snapdragon 625. Although it would be difficult to spot the visible differences in processing output between the Galaxy C7 Pro and Galaxy A5 2017, there will be some differences. Although both the SoCs focus on achieving greater thermal efficiency and longer battery life, the Snapdragon 626 is at the end of the day a faster and more potent mobile processor compared to Samsung's Exynos 7880 SoC. Also, the fact that the Galaxy C7 Pro ships with more RAM and double the storage, gives it an edge over the Galaxy A5 2017. Both the phones are dual-SIM and run the same Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow-based TouchWiz UI. Both the phones will b upgradable to Android Nougat because in the words of a top company executive, "Samsung always promises two upgrades for sure." Both the Galaxy C7 Pro and Galaxy A5 2017 come with a 16-megapixel sensor with f/1.9 aperture, phase detection autofocus, LED flash and 1080p video recording on the rear. On the front, they (again) sport a 16-megapixel sensor with f/1.9 aperture. So basically, both the phones have similar camera hardware. The camera app now comes with a very convenient Swipe UI that allows you to simply swipe up or down to switch between the front and rear cameras. Also, there's an option to drag (and drop) the camera shutter button anywhere on the screen which is quite useful. While the Galaxy C7 Pro is backed by a 3,300mAh battery, the Galaxy A5 2017 comes with a slightly smaller 3,000mAh battery. Both the phones have good battery life.
So which one should you buy?
On first look, the Galaxy A5 2017 appears to be a lot more about the style, courtesy its Galaxy S7-like design. The Galaxy C7 Pro, on the other hand, appears to be a lot more about the substance courtesy its more powerful processor, more RAM and double the internal memory. But, you should know, the Galaxy A5 2017 is no slouch either.
Moreover, the Galaxy A5 2017 comes with a water-resistant body and has a dedicated slot for expandable memory.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A5, A7 2017 quick review: The cheaper Galaxy S7 that you always wanted
Clearly, it all narrows down to the size that you're looking to get. Both the phones, at the end of the day, offer quite the bang for the buck. While the Galaxy C7 Pro offers more raw power (and slightly better battery life), the Galaxy A5 2017 offers premium looks and IP68 certification. They are quite evenly matched, the Galaxy A5 2017 and the Galaxy C7 Pro. If you're looking for an all glass and metal premium and water-proofing -- and don't mind the 5.2-inch form factor -- the Galaxy A5 2017 would be a better buy. If you're looking for a phablet, and a more powerful one at that, the Galaxy C7 Pro would be an ideal bet.
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By Press Trust of India: Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), Apr 10 (PTI): Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today wrapped up his four-day visit to Twang by giving a talk on "Secular Ethics and Happiness".
With Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu sitting by his side, the Dalai Lama told his audience at Kalawangpo Hall that secular ethics was the only way to bring lasting peace and happiness in the world.
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"Peace in the post World War II world is built on fear, but genuine peace can only come through inner peace," he said and stressed that inner peace could come through training of the mind.
The exiled Tibetan leader also emphasised that secular ethics must be achieved through education and not just prayers or faith.
Asked by a member of the audience what would be the state of secular ethics when the world was going through a clash of beliefs, the Dalai Lama said, "Nothing can destroy each others beliefs. So the best way is to make peace and live together. A terrorist killing in the name of religion can never be true to his faith."
However, efforts must be made to reach out to them as they are not born terrorists but circumstances had made them so," the Nobel laureate observed.
He emphasised on education as the key to bring in human understanding and values.
The Dalai Lama lamented that the western nations were not helping understand the true values of education, due to which everyone is after material pursuit bringing untold human suffering.
To a question on rituals becoming more important than wisdom or philosophy, his Holiness declared that rituals were not important and emphasised on the use of intelligence to transform emotions.
Earlier, the Dalai Lama released a book titled "Ocean and Blue Mountains" published by the department of Karmik and Adhyatmik Affairs in the presence of the chief minister and other dignitaries.
The book title refers Ocean as His Holiness and Blue Mountains as the people of Arunachal Pradesh and is a collection of memoirs of the special bond shared between the two.
He also released a book titled - "Crossing of the Frontiers" describing his exile route from Tibet to India, published by Losel Nyinje Charitable Society and Monyul Social Welfare Association.
Earlier in the day, the Dalai Lama gave his last sermon to the devotees at the Yid GaChosin monastery ground.
He distributed one lakh saplings to be planted in and around Tawang. On his way to the Kalawangpo Hall, His Holiness consecrated the statue of Lord Buddha at the heart of Tawang township. PTI UPL MD MD SNP
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In a Facebook post, he said: "In view of the number of people asking, let me repeat that my convictions are a matter of record and they do not match those of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)".
By Press Trust of India: Congress MP and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor denied reports that he was joining the BJP.
In a Facebook post, he said: "In view of the number of people asking, let me repeat that my convictions are a matter of record and they do not match those of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)".
"For 40+years I have spoken and written in defence of a pluralist India with equal rights for all its citizens and communities," Tharoor, also a former UN diplomat, said.
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"On this, no compromise. Rumours of my joining BJP have been floated periodically with no basis whatsoever. I deny them categorically and without qualification," he said.
The Congress MP's clarification comes in the backdrop of a statement by CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that four Congress leaders, including Tharoor, planned to join the BJP.
Balakrishnan had said there are reports that four Congress leaders from Kerala are joining the BJP and that KPCC president M M Hassan had said that one of them was Tharoor.
However, Hassan denied having made any such remarks when contacted.
"When media persons asked me whether the reports about four Congress leaders joining the BJP has come to his notice, I said there is no such thing," Hassan told PTI.
"There are no fortune seekers in Kerala like S M Krishna and Jaffer Sharif," the KPCC president said.
Tharoor campaigned for the Congress-led UDF candidate for the April 12 bypoll in Malappuram, Hassan said.
"When I asked him about such reports, he (Tharoor) told me that it was a propaganda by the BJP," Hassan added.
ALSO READ: Shashi Tharoor: Rahul must have earth-shaking proof which govt didn't want shown in Parliament
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Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad keeps everyone guessing as to why he did not travel by Air India even after a travel ban was lifted against him. Sources close to Gaikwad said Shiv Sena MP has plans to raise 'two questions' in the Lok Sabha and record his statement in the Air India assault case.
By Pankaj P. Khelkar: Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Gaikwad is likely to speak or raise questions on two subjects in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Parliament session. Ravindra Gaikwad is also going to meet the investigating officer to record his statement in the Air India assault case. But, the Shiv Sena MP from Osmanabad in Maharashtra is not traveling by Air India.
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Even though the travel ban on Ravindra Gaikwad has been revoked by Air India and Federation of Indian Airlines, the Shiv Sena MP doesn't seem to be satisfied with it. Gaikwad hasn't traveled by Air India since his name was taken off the no-fly list.
GAIKWAD KEEPS EVERYONE GUESSING: THINGS TO KNOW It was on last Friday that Air India was asked by the civil aviation ministry to revoke the travel ban imposed on Ravindra Gaikwad after he tendered a written regret letter on the ugly incident of March 23. But, the same evening instead of taking a flight, the Shiv Sena MP opted for a train journey to Mumbai. Ravindra Gaikward again preferred Indian Railways to Air India when he traveled back to New Delhi from Mumbai. India Today has learnt from the sources very close to Ravindra Gaikwad that the Shiv Sena MP hurriedly returned to New Delhi as he wanted to raise two questions on two different issues in the Lok Sabha. The issues are not clear yet Ravindra Gaikwad will be active during the Zero Hour and if the Speaker allows him, he will put those two questions. Sources close to Ravindra Gaikwad told India Today that the Shiv Sena MP is of the view that the Delhi Police should record his statement as they have done with the Air India staffers. Ravindra Gaikwad is likely to record his statement at the police station where FIR was registered in connection with the Air India assault incident. Gaikwad will be accompanied by other Shiv Sena MPs when he visits the police station.
ALSO READ |
Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad who beat up Air India staff is repeat offender
ALSO WATCH |
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Pirates said they would keep the crew to use as bargaining chips for the freedom of pirates jailed in India.
By Reuters: Somali security forces rescued a hijacked Indian cargo dhow on Monday, but pirates took the 11-member crew with them when they fled to land, authorities said.
The Al Kausar vessel was seized earlier this month, part of a sudden string of attacks by Somali pirates after years without a reported incident.
"We attacked the Indian ship and rescued it but the pirates took away the 11 crew. We rescued two crew and they went with nine crew into the hilly areas between El Hur and Hardheere," Mohamed Hashi Arabey, vice president of Galmudug state, told Reuters.
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Galmudug is a federal state within the Horn of Africa country that operates its own security forces.
The two crew were in a car that the pirates had to abandon after they were chased, Galmudug's vice president said.
WHY DID THE PIRATES KEEP THE CREW
Pirates told Reuters they would keep the crew to use as bargaining chips for the freedom of pirates jailed in India.
"We encouraged our friends to run away with the crew if they are attacked so that they exchange for the release of 117 pirates jailed in India," pirate Saiid said.
"We are ready to reinforce our friends so that Galmudug forces do not rescue the nine crew of the Indian ship."
MORE ABOUT SOMALI PIRATE ATTACKS
Somali pirate attacks peaked with 237 in 2012 but then declined steeply after ship owners improved security measures and international naval forces stepped up patrols.
But this month has seen a new rash of attacks, with two ships captured and a third rescued by Indian and Chinese forces after the crew radioed for help and locked themselves in a safe room.
Residents of the Somali coastline say piracy has resumed after local authorities issued permits for foreign fishing vessels to fish in Somali waters. They say the foreign vessels have cut nets belonging to locals and run down small boats.
Also Read:
Somali pirates hijack Indian cargo ship with 11 crew members on board
Somali pirates hijack first commercial ship since 2012, 8 Sri Lankan sailors held hostage
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Indian cargo ship Al Kausher hijacked by Somali pirates on way to Yemen's Al Mukala port
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The Srinagar by-poll held on Sunday recorded a total of 6.5 percent voting, the lowest turnout in the last 30 years.
By Supriya Bhardwaj: The Congress has demanded resignation of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in the wake of low polling percentage during the Srinagar by-polls on Sunday.
Terming it as a failure of not just of the government but that of democracy, Congress spokesperson Sushmita Deb said, "BJP-PDP government in Jammu and Kashmiri should accept that they have failed the people of Kashmir and we demand the chief minister's resignation."
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Only 6.5 per cent voting was recorded during the Srinagar by-polls, the lowest in last 30 years.
"The reason we are demanding her resignation is not to politicise the issue of Kashmir but it is her people, people of the Valley who by not turning out in the election has actually issued a 'vote of no confidence' against the government. The CM should step down on these grounds," said Deb.
"We have been consistently saying that the alliance in the state is against the will of the people. We have continuously termed it as an unholy alliance. In the by-polls, 8 lives were lost and a 6.5 per cent voting show the government has clearly failed the litmus test on the situation of security in the Valley," Deb added.
Earlier, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also criticised the BJP-PDP government and said the low poll percentage in the Srinagar by-poll showed the failure of the alliance.
Azad, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, told India Today that, "The low poll percentage shows total failure of this government. It also shows lack of confidence of people of Jammu and Kashmir in the PDP-BJP government."
COST OF FAILURES OF GOVERNMENT BORNE BY KASHMIRIS: YECHURY
Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, too, spoke of the "political failure" of the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government.
"The cost of the political failure of the Centre and the state is being borne by the people of Kashmir and the security forces," he tweeted.
In an another tweet, he said, "Strengthening India's internal security is paramount. This cannot be done by alienating its people and without winning their confidence"
VIOLENCE STALLED VOTING
Violence was reported from several parts of the state during polling. As many as eight people were killed in clashes with security forces, after stone-pelters' attempts to storm a polling station in Budgam district. Security forces retaliated by opening fire, leading to casualties.
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Opposition parties in Delhi slammed the Centre by claiming that the state government had failed to provide people with an atmosphere that would enable them to cast their votes.
The Anantnag parliamentary constituency goes to the polls on April 12.
ALSO READ| Centre upset over low turnout, high violence during Srinagar bypoll
ALSO READ| Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll: Lowest turnout in 3 decades with 7.14 per cent voting, 8 killed in clashes
ALSO WATCH| Battle for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat: 50 paramilitary companies deployed, internet services suspended
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By Press Trust of India: By Sumir Kaul
Srinagar, Apr 7 (PTI) The campaigning for the by-poll to the prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha seat has been a low key affair in the backdrop of the five-month summer agitation last year but political parties and independent candidates have heavily relied on social media to reach out to the electorate.
The constituency, where campaigning ends today for the poll on Sunday, will witness a virtual direct contest between opposition National Conference stalwart Farooq Abdullah and ruling PDPs Nazir Ahmad Khan, although there are seven other candidates in the fray including 25-year-old techie Mehraj Khursheed Malik and Chetan Sharma of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasbha.
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With the fear of the gun and boycott call by separatists looming large, political parties and other candidates have chosen the social media as their main medium for wooing the electorate and create awareness about their agenda.
Aijaz Jan, who handles the social media campaign of National Conference, said social media was a better way of connecting with the younger generation.
"Around 90 per cent of youngsters use social media like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. It is a better way to connect with them. We get a feed back also through such media.
"Some agree with us, some disagree. That is part of democracy. It is the best way to engage with the youth," he said.
Malik, who claims to have quit a job with an MNC in Bengaluru to jump into electoral politics, bemoans the lack of time for proper campaigning.
"I have been using WhatsApp and Facebook to reach out to the electorate as there was very little time given for campaigning," he said.
Malik justified joining the electoral fray by saying that growing discontent among the youth "clearly indicates failure of successive governments and political parties in addressing the concerns of the younger generation. Somebody had to rise."
Maintaining that he had an uphill task to "convince" the youth, Malik said after engaging with them, "many agreed with my point of view and many others agreed to disagree".
He claimed that his decision to "stand up for the people" was inspired by the teachings of Islam, life of Gautam Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa.
The election campaign for Srinagar by-poll did not witness any major rallies, except for a few held by former chief minister Abdullah in Ganderbal, Kangan and Beerwah areas of the constituency.
"While I have to make use of the social media as youth is connected with technology, I still went around my constituency holding rallies and meetings.
"After all, I am a traditional politician who belongs to the old school," he said.
Abdullah is the joint candidate of National Conference and Congress for the Srinagar seat under an agreement in which the regional party has extended support to PCC president G A Mir in the south Kashmir constituency going to polls on April 12.
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While the ruling PDP has also extensively used the social media to reach out to the electorate, its candidate Nazir Ahmad Khan has depended more on holding meetings with smaller groups of people in Srinagar district.
"I held hall meetings, meeting with workers and went for door-to-door campaigning. It was a strenuous process but I had a chance of reaching out to more people," he said.
Waheed Para, the youth president of the party and incharge of social media campaign, said 60 per cent of the states population belongs to the younger generation which uses social media as a medium of expression.
"We have used the social media to reach out and communicate with the younger generation," he said, noting that the young people were following the PDP campaign and social media gives them the option of "listening to us and then agree or disagree. It is better than addressing a rally".
"You either use the social media or the social media uses you," he said.
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Chetan Sharma, who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Srinagar and got 650 votes, said he was using the polls to impress upon the international community that Kashmir is an integral part of India.
"There is a fear in the air (in Kashmir) but my standing in the election is a message to the international community that Kashmir is part of India.
"I have been raising the issue of unemployment which is the major problem of Kashmir," Sharma said.
He said that while he has been using social media, his campaign has stressed more on "meeting people individually".
More than 11.72 lakh voters spread across three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal are eligible to exercise their franchise at over 1500 polling stations this Sunday.
The by-poll was necessitated by the resignation of then PDP leader Tariq Hameed Karra from the Lok Sabha in September last year to protest the alleged "atrocities" by security forces during the summer unrest triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter in July last year.
Karra, who recently joined the Congress, had defeated Abdullah three years ago but is now supporting the National Conference president following the agreement between the two parties.
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The voter turnout in 2014 polls was 26 per cent in Srinagar constituency, slightly better than 25.55 per cent recorded in 2009. PTI SKL MIJ SC RT
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By Press Trust of India: Jaipur, Apr 10 (PTI) A suspected Pakistani national was today nabbed along the international border in Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan, officials said.
The Border Security Force (BSF) jawans held the 55-year-old suspected Pakistani national when he reached the IB fencing, they said.
Rs 883 in Pakistani currency, a visiting card and a match box were recovered from the suspect, they added.
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Pakistani authorities have been informed about the incident, Station House Officer, Anupgarh, Bhawani Singh told PTI.
Security agencies are likely to carry out a joint interrogation in the matter, he said. PTI AG KIS
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Police said they were more convinced than ever that the Uzbek man was the driver of the truck that that killed 4 in Stockholm.
A turned over 'Stockholmslejon', a concrete traffic stopper, is seen outside the roped off area next to the department store Ahlens after a suspected terror attack on the Drottninggatan Street in central Stockholm, Sweden, April 8, 2017. Jonas Ekstromer/T
By Reuters: An Uzbek man suspected of ramming a truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing four people, had expressed sympathy for Islamic State and was wanted for failing to comply with a deportation order, Swedish police said on Sunday.
Two sources who had worked with the suspect, Rakhmat Akilov, independently identified him to Reuters from images distributed by police as the manhunt got underway on Friday.
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Two police spokespersons declined to confirm his identity as did the suspect's court-appointed lawyer.
Thousands gathered in the spring sunshine near the site of Friday's attack to show support for those killed or injured when a hijacked beer delivery truck hurtled down a busy shopping street before crashing into a store and catching fire. The Uzbek man was arrested several hours later.
"The suspect had expressed sympathy for extremist organisations, among them IS," Jonas Hysing, chief of national police operations, told a news conference, using an acronym for the ultra-hardline militant group.
Two of those killed were Swedes, one was a British citizen and the other from Belgium, Hysing said of the attack, which echoes the earlier use of vehicles as deadly weapons in Nice, Berlin and London.
Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State, but there has been no such claim yet for the Stockholm assault.
MORE ABOUT THE SUSPECT
The suspect, aged 39 and from the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, applied for permanent residence in Sweden in 2014. However, his bid was rejected and he was wanted for disregarding a deportation order, Hysing said.
Security Police spokesman Simon Bynert said the suspect had been involved in an asylum process in Sweden, but that the security police had not been part of it.
Police had been looking for him since Sweden's Migration Agency in December gave him four weeks to leave, but security services had not viewed him as a militant threat.
Sweden's prosecution authority said a second person had been arrested on suspicion of having committed a terrorist offence through murder, but police said they were more convinced than ever that the Uzbek man was the driver of the truck.
Another five people were being held for questioning after raids and police said they had conducted about 500 interviews.
Police across the Nordic region went on heightened alert after the attack and in neighbouring Norway police set off a controlled explosion of a "bomb-like device" in central Oslo on Sunday and took a suspect into custody.
FLOWERS AND DEFIANCE
Although nine of the 15 people injured remained in hospital, two in intensive care, Stockholm began to return to normal on Sunday with the removal of police barricades along the Drottninggatan street where the attack took place.
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Hundreds of flower bouquets covered steps leading down to the square next to where the truck ploughed into the Ahlens department store, with more piled up under boarded-up windows.
Only yards from the scene, thousands of people gathered in the Sergels Torg square in a show of unity as heavily armed police stood guard and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
"I want to show I'm not afraid to go out," Eva Udd, a 55-year-old nurse who had joined the demonstration with a friend, said. "I usually never go to things like this, but this just felt so very important."
Husam Kranda, a Libyan living in Sweden for the past five years and now working as translator, was among the multi-ethnic gathering which underlined Stockholm's cosmopolitan inhabitants.
"We believe it's our duty to come here and show our support for the Swedish society," he said.
"I know it's a difficult time, there is a lot going on within Swedish society and internationally. But today is not about that, it's about showing support for our neighbours and our beloved ones."
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He was joined by his wife from Uzbekistan, Irana Mamedova.
"I really feel ashamed that man, because this country give him everything, this country give him peace," she said of the Uzbek suspect. "He is a monster."
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, addressing a Social Democratic party conference in the western city of Gothenburg, said Sweden would never be broken by acts of terror.
"We will hunt down these murderers with the full power of Sweden's democracy. There will be no compromises," he said.
Sweden, a nation of 10 million inhabitants, has long taken pride in its tolerant liberal society and been among the world's most welcoming nations to immigrants.
But some Swedes are having second thoughts after more than 160,000 people, many from Syria, applied for asylum in 2015.
The Ahlens store cancelled a planned half-price sale of smoke-damaged goods and apologised after a storm of protest on social media that this would be disrespectful to the victims.
Also Read:
Sweden: Uzbek man main suspect in truck attack that killed 4 in Stockholm
Sweden: After truck drove into crowd killing 5 people in Stockholm, PM hints at attack being an act of terror
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Also Watch:
3 killed, several injured after truck ploughs into crowd near Indian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden
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The leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said Tarun Vijay's remarks were a 'threat' to the unity of the country.
By Kumar Shakti Shekhar: The Opposition led by Congress disrupted Parliament proceedings today and forced its adjournment thrice over the alleged racial remarks by BJP leader Tarun Vijay. Accusing the government of trying to divide the country, the Opposition demanded an FIR to be lodged against Tarun Vijay.
The leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said Tarun Vijay's remarks were a "threat" to the unity of the country. He alleged that BJP and its government wanted to divide the country. He said Vijay's remarks shows BJP's mentality and went on to compare it with the likes of Hitler. He said if such things went on, states would start asserting for independence and added that it showed
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Home Minister Rajnath Singh sought to clarify the matter by saying that the individual had already apologised and that the country is secular. However, it failed to soothe the ruffled feathers of the Opposition.
As the Opposition persists in their demand to initiate action against Tarun Vijay, these are the reasons why their action is exaggerated.
1. NOT A MINISTER
Tarun Vijay is not a minister in the Narendra Modi government. Hence, his views cannot be attributed to the BJP-led NDA government. Had he been a minister, the Opposition could have been justified to some extent of levelling the allegation because the ministry functions on the principles of collective responsibility.
2. NOT AN MP
Tarun Vijay is not a member of either house of Parliament. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha and term had ended in July 2016. Hence, his comments do not carry the same weight if they had been made if he had been an MP.
3. NOT A BJP OFFICE-BEARER
Tarun Vijay is not even an office-bearer of the ruling BJP. He is not even an official spokesperson of the ruling party. Hence, his remarks cannot be taken so seriously as to be considered either the government or the party's official stand over the issue.
4. APOLOGY
Tarun Vijay has already apologised for the alleged racist statement he had made at the panel discussion on whether attack on Africans in the national capital amounted to the country being racist and xenophobic. He has even said that his remarks were indefensible. This leaves no scope for any doubts about the former MP's intentions.
5. GOVERNMENT'S CLARIFICATION
The government and the BJP too have distanced themselves from Tarun Vijay's remarks calling them personal. Home Minister Rajnath Singh went on record to say that India is a secular country and there would be no discrimination based on caste, creed, colour and religion.
Hence, the Opposition, including Congress, seems to be exaggerating the importance of Tarun Vijay by persisting with their protests against the controversial remarks. By trying to derive political mileage from the controversy, the Opposition is also wasting Parliament's time and public money.
Also Read:
Parliament erupts over Tarun Vijay's racist remarks, Congress wants action against ex-BJP MP
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Indians not racist, we accept South Indians, says BJP's Tarun Vijay, apologises later
Robert Vadra condemns Tarun Vijay's racist remark in Facebook post, bats for secular India
Congress to raise issue of BJP leader Tarun Vijay's racial remarks in Lok Sabha
When Tarun Vijay fought for Tamil, had Thiruvalluvar statue installed at Haridwar
BJP MP Tarun Vijay seriously injured in scuffle outside Uttarakhand temple
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By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The Indo-Bangladesh ties will undergo "another transformation" if a pact on Teesta water sharing is inked, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said today but is anxious over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees reaction to such an agreement.
Stressing that common water resources must act as a uniting force, she pitched for a comprehensive solution to sharing of waters of all common rivers between the two countries.
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"We strongly believe our common water resources must act as a uniting force. A comprehensive, basin-wide solution with an in-built solution to water sharing of all common rivers holds key to our common future," she said while addressing an event here.
On the Teesta issue, Hasina said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again reiterated his governments strong resolve to conclude the water-sharing treaty as soon as possible.
"Once it happens, the phase of Indo-Bangladesh relations will undergo another transformation," she said.
In a lighter vein, Hasina said she does not know how Banerjee, who is reportedly not in favour of Teesta water sharing, will react to her submission about the pact.
"I dont know what didi (Banerjee) will do. Had a talk with didi, she put forward something new. But Modiji has given the assurance that he is there to see what happens," she said.
However, the Bangladesh PM said at least Banerjee offered her electricity from West Bengal. "Paani mangaa to electricity mila. Laykin electricity milaa achha hai kutch toh mila naa (we asked for water, she gave us power but at least we got something)" Hasina said.
While Modi has rekindled the hope for an early signing of the pact, Banerjee insisted that instead of Teesta, the government should look at other river systems to share water with Bangladesh.
The Teesta deal was set to be signed during the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit to Bangladesh in September 2011, but was postponed at the last minute due to objections by Banerjee.
Teesta waters are crucial for Bangladesh, especially in the leanest period from December to March when the water flow often temporarily comes down to less than 1,000 cusecs from 5,000 cusecs.
Hasina also asserted that her government has comprehensively addressed Indias security concerns which was a factor in building trust.
"We have put in place a multi-layered and effective bilateral security architecture with many dedicated joint institutional mechanisms for targeted and coordinated actions," she said.
Observing that the journey towards peace and prosperity is put to peril by the rise of terrorism and violent extremism, she said threats from state and non-state actors tend to undermine efforts to integrate regional economies and societies and pitched for more concerted efforts to strengthen security. PTI MP PYK SC
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By Press Trust of India: From Shirish B Pradhan
Kathmandu, Apr 10 (PTI) At least three Indians were killed on the spot and another person was critically injured when a truck rammed their car at a highway in southwest Nepal.
The three were killed on the spot yesterday when the truck, en route to Hetauda from Narayanghat in Chitwan district struck the car with an Indian registration number plate, according to District Police Office, Makawanpur.
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Two of the deceased have been identified as Nitesh Kumar Singh, 39 and Sanjaya Kuma Sharma, 45 of Sitamari, India.
The identity of another man is yet to be ascertained.
Ram Kumar Sharma, who sustained injuries in the accident is undergoing treatment at a medical college in Chitwan. His condition is said to be critical.
The police have detained the truck driver and seized the vehicle. PTI SBP AMS AKJ AMS
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By Press Trust of India: From Lalit K Jha Washington, Apr 10 (PTI) President Donald Trump has called his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to express his condolences on the terrorist attacks at two Coptic Christian churches in the Arab country, the White House said today. "President Donald J Trump spoke yesterday with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt to convey his deepest condolences to Egypt and to the families who lost loved ones in the heinous terrorist attacks against Christian churches on Palm Sunday," the White House said in a statement.
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Trump condemned the attacks that killed 45 people and wounded nearly 120 others.
"The President also expressed his confidence in President Al Sisis commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians," the White House said.
Over the weekend, Trump also spoke with the Japanese counterpart over the recent developments in North Korea and the US missile attacks in Syria.
"The leaders agreed that Bashar al-Assads use of chemical weapons against civilians, including women and children, was abhorrent and warranted a strong response from the international community," the White House said.
During the call, Trump thanked Abe for his support for the United States missile strikes in Syria.
The two leaders pledged to show continued resolve in response to al-Assads "brutal actions".
Trump and Abe also agreed to further cooperation on a range of regional issues, including the threat posed by North Korea, the White House said.
According to the White House, Trump over the weekend also called Commander Andria Slough, Commanding Officer of US Ship Porter, and Commander Russell Caldwell, Commanding Officer of US Ship Ross, to thank them and their personnel for successfully executing the strike against the Shayrat Air Base in Syria.
"The President commended the two commanders and their crews for the speed, precision, and effectiveness with which they carried out the operation.The President communicated that, as the Commander in Chief, he could not be more proud of the crews of USS Porter and USS Ross and their flawless execution of the operation," it added. PTI LKJ ZH
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Twinkle Khanna had a humourous take on the Kapil Sharma-Sunil Grover fight, as well as Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who assaulted an Air India employee.
By India Today Web Desk: Twinkle Khanna aka Mrs Funnybones does not spare anyone from her witticisms, be it Salman Khan or even Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In her latest column, she took a dig at the Kapil Sharma-Sunil Grover spat.
Rumour has it that on a recent flight, an inebriated Kapil started shouting profanities after one too many drinks. When Sunil tried to diffuse the situation, Kapil reportedly began abusing him and even threw a shoe at him. A humiliated Sunil then quit The Kapil Sharma Show, sending it into a downward spiral of ratings.
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Twinkle had a humourous take on the incident. She wrote that apart from scissors and knives, which are confiscated by airlines, there are other "potential weapons." Too much alcohol, for instance, can take a disastrous turn. Case in point: "the free in-flight booze led to a free-for-all, with an allegedly inebriated comedian, Kapil Sharma, hurling a shoe at his colleague."
In a similar vein, she also took on Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who assaulted an Air India staffer and was subsequently put on the 'no-fly' list by the airline. She wrote, "Footwear is also apparently yet another trendy weapon these days. A fact demonstrated by the now infamous Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad who forgot that when you climb on board, it is the plane that is meant to fly and not your temper. He reportedly took off his slipper and, by his own admission, hit an Air India employee 25 times."
Twinkle continued, "Aside from this violent behavior, what I find equally bewildering is how he arrived at this particular number. Why was he smacking the poor man and counting simultaneously? Was this a numerological auspicious number or an existential philosophy that in order to get even with the poor duty manager he must end at an odd number?"
ALSO READ | Twinkle Khanna's dig at Salman Khan: One of the oldest but most eligible bachelors
ALSO READ | Twinkle Khanna on dealing with demonetisation: Forget cash, buy vibrator with credit card
ALSO WATCH | Twinkle Khanna leaves Akshay Kumar and Karan Johar speechless on Koffee With Karan
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UP Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the core focus of the initiatives by the Yogi government would be the most marginalised sections of the society.
We have prepared a list of 270 errant doctors and clearance has been given to start legal proceedings against them- Sidharth Nath Singh, UP Health Minister
By Siddhartha Rai: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is going in for a major revamp of the healthcare system in the state.
The state administration, taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives, has drawn a blueprint which emphasises on maximum use of technology to strengthen its healthcare network, from basic primary health centres to multispeciality hospitals.
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Talking exclusively to Mail Today, state cabinet minister in charge of health Sidharth Nath Singh said the core focus of the initiatives by the Yogi government would be the most marginalised sections of the society - the poor who have so far not even been touched by the concept of state healthcare due to their deprivation and the shoddy policies of the previous governments.
The BJP dispensation claimed that it inherited a "completely broken system" from its predecessors, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had deliberately allowed the system to die a slow death.
THINGS THAT THE STATE CABINET MINISTER IN CHARGE OF HEALTH SAID
"At the heart of our blueprint to revive the healthcare system of the state is the decision to breathe life into primary health centres, primary health sub-centres and the community health centres. We want to spruce up the existing infrastructure to function properly including such factors as improving the attendance of doctors and nurses in government healthcare centres. The idea is to bring up the efficacy of the existing infrastructure in terms of buildings, equipment and manpower to an optimal level," Singh, the newly-elected MLA from Allahabad West assembly seat, said.
The second area of push will be augmentation of capacity, Singh said, which means creating new facilities.
"There is need to induct more nurses and such specialised medical personnel such as lab technicians and para-medics, besides more doctors. "We are looking at two ways to augment capacity. First, we have decided to augment via the organic way, which is to appoint more personnel through government appointments to departments. The second way we are considering is outsourcing it," Singh said.
Singh said the BJP government was ready to leverage technology to take health services to the people.
"We are going to introduce telemedicine soon. Another initiative will be to introduce medical mobile units (MMUs), which are like full-fledged health camps that will move from place to place with doctors and medicines," he said.
"We are introducing 170 such units. Technology will be used to reach people in the most far flung areas," the minister said.
The Yogi Adityanath regime is also preparing to come down heavily on such doctors and those in medical services who have "misused" the system for their own benefits.
"We have already prepared a list of 270 such doctors and clearance has been given to start punitive and legal proceedings against them," Singh added.
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The newly-sworn in BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has already regularised 3,700 doctors which was pending for over a decade, the minister said. "We are also going to establish seven AIIMS and 25 super-specialty hospitals across the state in future," Singh said.
Also Read:
Yogi Adityanath on Vande Mataram: Need to find out ways to deal with 'prejudiced mind'
Yogi Adityanath: Previous UP govt gave us slaughterhouse, instead of hospital with good doctors
Also Watch:
CM Yogi: We wanted good hospital, previous government gave us slaughterhouse
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Officers could be seen grabbing the screaming man from a window seat, pulling him across the armrest and dragging him down the aisle by his arms.
By AP: United Airlines sparked outrage on Monday for the treatment of a passenger who was physically dragged off a plane the airline had overbooked, and one of the security officers involved in the incident was placed on leave pending an investigation.
Video of police officers dragging a passenger from an overbooked United Airlines flight sparked an uproar Monday on social media, and a spokesman for the airline insisted that employees had no choice but to contact authorities to remove the man.
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As the flight waited to depart from Chicago's O'Hare Airport, officers could be seen grabbing the screaming man from a window seat, pulling him across the armrest and dragging him down the aisle by his arms. The airline was trying to make room for four of its employees on the Sunday evening flight to Louisville, Kentucky.
Other passengers on Flight 3411 are heard saying, "Please, my God," ''What are you doing?" ''This is wrong," ''Look at what you did to him" and "Busted his lip."
Passenger Audra D. Bridges posted the video on Facebook. Her husband, Tyler Bridges, said United offered $400 and then $800 vouchers and a hotel stay for volunteers to give up their seats. When no one volunteered, a United manager came on the plane and announced that passengers would be chosen at random.
"We almost felt like we were being taken hostage," Tyler Bridges said. "We were stuck there. You can't do anything as a traveler. You're relying on the airline."
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED
When airline employees named four customers who had to leave the plane, three of them did so. The fourth person refused to move, and police were called, United spokesman Charlie Hobart said.
"We followed the right procedures," Hobart told the Associated Press in a phone interview. "That plane had to depart. We wanted to get our customers to their destinations."
Oscar Munoz, CEO of United Airlines' parent company, described the event as "upsetting" and apologized for "having to re-accommodate these customers." He said the airline was conducting a review and reaching out to the passenger to "further address and resolve this situation."
The passenger told the manager that he was a doctor who needed to see patients in the morning, Bridges said.
Two officers tried to reason with the man before a third came aboard and pointed at the man "basically saying, 'Sir, you have to get off the plane,'" Bridges said. That's when the altercation happened.
The four United employees then boarded the plane.
"People on the plane were letting them have it," he said. "They were saying you should be ashamed to work for this company."
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A few minutes later, the man who was removed from the plane returned, looking dazed and saying he had to get home, Bridges said. Officers followed him to the back of the plane. Another man traveling with high school students stood up at that point and said they were getting off the plane, Bridges said.
About half of the passengers followed before United told everyone to get off, he said.
The man who was originally dragged down the aisle was removed from the plane again, and United employees made an announcement saying they had to "tidy up" the aircraft, Bridges said.
Bridges' wife told him she saw the man taken away on a stretcher, he said.
After a three-hour delay the flight took off without the man aboard, Bridges said. A United employee apologized to passengers, he said.
WHY DO AIRLINES OVERBOOK FLIGHTS
Airlines are allowed to sell more tickets than there are seats on the plane, and they routinely overbook flights because some people do not show up.
It's not unusual for airlines to offer travel vouchers to encourage people to give up their seats, and there are no rules for the process. When an airline demands that a passenger give up a seat, the airline is required to pay compensation of double the passenger's fare, up to $675, if the passenger can be placed on another flight that arrives one to two hours later than the first flight, or four times the ticket price, up to $1,350, for longer delays.
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When they bump passengers, airlines are required to give those passengers a written description of their compensation rights.
Hobart declined to say how the airline compensated the passengers who were forced to leave the plane, saying he did not have those details from employees on the scene.
Last year, United forced 3,765 people off oversold flights and another 62,895 United passengers volunteered to give up their seats, probably in exchange for travel vouchers.
That's out of more than 86 million people who boarded a United flight in 2016, according to government figures. United ranks in the middle of U.S. carriers when it comes to bumping passengers.
ExpressJet, which operates flights under the United Express, American Eagle and Delta Connection names, had the highest rate of bumping passengers last year. Among the largest carriers, Southwest Airlines had the highest rate, followed by JetBlue Airways.
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Bridges said United should not have boarded the flight if it was overbooked.
"The man handled it wrong," he said. "The police were kind of put in a bad spot. There's a lot of ways United could have handled it, and that was not one of the good ways."
Watch: Video of police dragging passenger off United Airlines aircraft goes viral
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With the summer season progressing, the residents of tri-city (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali) are struggling with inadequate water supply.
By Manjeet Sehgal: As the summer season progresses, the residents of tri-city (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali) are struggling with the inadequate water supply. The water supply in these cities has been inconsistent with the demand following the population explosion.
The city, with a daily shortage of 29 million gallons of potable water, tops the other cities in terms of potable water supply. Mohali (SAS Nagar,Punjab) and Panchkula (Haryana) are short of 10 to 6 million gallons of water every day.
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Thickly populated areas of Chandigarh, slum areas in particular, have already reported a huge shortage with erratic water supplies.
"The water though comes two times in the morning and evening but we have to use a water pump to lift water to the second or third storey. The supply is erratic from last five to six days," Kusum, a home maker based in Sector 25 told India Today.
Residents of sector 38 said they are unable to lift the water to the second and third storey of a house as the pressure is very low. They have been compelled to buy water from private suppliers.
"We are facing the water shortage and were compelled to buy water from private water suppliers. The local administration seized the water pumps as some residents did not pay the power bills," says Suraj, a resident of Sector 38.
Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, Mayor Asha Kumari Jaswal though admits a seasonal shortage of water but denies the rationing of water. She hopes that the scarcity of water will end by the end of the year.
"There has been a shortage of water every year during summer season but it is not as acute as in other cities. The settling of additional pipelines from Kajauli water works is in progress and we will be able to provide round the clock water to the city residents from next year," Asha Kumari Jaswal told India Today.
The situation is largely under control but it may go berserk when the summer season is at its peak.
The local administration is concerned about the wastage of water and has announced heavy penalties for those found misusing the portable water for other purposes like watering plants and washing cars.
A person of family found guilty of using water to wash cars or irrigating flower beds will attract a fine of Rs 2000. Three repeated violations may result in a permanent disconnection.
"Our teams leave early in the morning to check the misuse of water. We have challenged nearly 40 people and notices have been issued to three dozen residents who were found misusing the potable water," said Jaswal.
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Though the local administration has been tough with the local residents on the issue of water wastage but it simultaneously wasted hundreds of gallons in its park fountains.
Also, there was no check on the misuse by the influential people including politicians and bureaucrats.
ALSO READ:
Karnataka: Water resources minister MB Patil says just enough drinking water available till June 15
PIL seeking to declare Indus Waters Treaty between India, Pakistan illegal dismissed by Supreme Court
Bengaluru 'water warriors' challenge citizens in city to be 'water kanjoos' this summer
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Fujifilm v AbbVie case ([2017] EWHC 395 (Pat)) at Allen & Overy's offices in Spitalfields. A number of complex issues were debated, including the following: This GuestKat had a fascinating Thursday evening attending AIPPI's rapid response seminar on thecase ([2017] EWHC 395 (Pat)) at Allen & Overy's offices in Spitalfields. A number of complex issues were debated, including the following:
Should Arrow declarations be available as a form of relief?
Is the EPO system of divisional applications open to misuse?
Could strategic use of the EPO procedure for filing cascading divisionals potentially incur liability under Art 102 TFEU?
The event was introduced by Dominic Adair, with presentations from Michael Silverleaf QC, Ravi Srinivasan and Mark Brealey QC.
Michael Silverleaf QC
Ravi Srinivasan
By way of reminder, the case itself concerned AbbVie's Humira (adalimumab) product - the biggest selling prescription pharmaceutical in the world, with global sales in excess of $12.5 billion. The various twists and turns in the saga have been covered extensively by the IPKat. Further background can be found in previous posts including an interim decision from the Court of Appeal here , the first instance decision of Carr J handed down last month here , and various other interim hearings here here and here Up first was Michael Silverleaf QC (11 South Square), to analyse the case from a patent litigation perspective. Michael explained that andeclaration is a declaration that a product that is proposed to be sold lacks novelty or is obvious at a certain date. It has its origins in thedefence.The EPC regime is rather relaxed in that it allows the filing of divisional patent applications for as long as an application is pending. This can lead to cascading divisionals, which can go on for years - potentially even for the life of the patent. The situation can be exacerbated further by formulation and dosage regime patents, which are typically granted some years after the compound patent. The result of cascading divisionals is that the precise scope of patent protection remains obscure, leading to long term commercial uncertainty. The practical effect of this is that it inhibits generic or biosimilar manufacturers from entering the market place, give that the commercial risk of an 'at risk' launch is too great. Michael observed that such effects are not in the public interest.The potential difficulty with Court intervention in this area is that there is a statutory regime for establishing whether a product is 'patent-free' - namely the right to seek revocation. However, there is no statutory remedy available to clear the way before the patent has been granted. The difficulty for generic or biosimilar manufacturers is that the Court requires them to clear the path before their product launch - and a mechanism is needed for doing so. What is the English Court's solution to this conundrum? Granting a negative declaration - see[2007] EWHC 1900 (Pat) (in the context of an application for strike out).In, the Court of Appeal considered very carefully whether the statutory regime was a bar to the grant of an Arrow declaration under theprinciple, but reached the conclusion that it was permissible because such relief did not concern the validity of a granted patent. At trial, Carr J concluded that AbbVie's conduct was sufficiently extreme to justify the grant of a negative declaration. A negative declaration would serve a useful purpose, particularly given that it would give certainty to suppliers of Fujifilm in other EU jurisdictions - otherwise, there was a continuing threat that a patent subsequently granted elsewhere in the EU could affect the UK biosimilars market for Humira.In summary, the problem in the present case is that AbbVie had 'deliberately and repeatedly' walked up to the point of grant and then withdrew its application to avoid scrutiny. In such situations, it is right that the English Court steps in to provide a remedy. Ravi Srinivasan (J A Kemp) was up next, with a fascinating insight from a patent attorney perspective as to why a system has arisen which facilitates cascading divisionals - potentially for the duration of the patent. Ravi noted that the particular problems presented by the Fujifilm v AbbVie case are specific to the EPO, and do not apply to the UK IPO. Although the UK IPO allows patentees to file cascading divisionals, all applications are time limited (4 years and 6 months from priority date of parent patent to grant - see s20(1) of Patents Act 1977 and rule 30 of Patent Rules). In Ravi's experience, the UK IPO works exceptionally hard to get its work done within these deadlines. Ravi noted that some other jurisdictions do not allow the filing of divisionals at all.Old EPO rule 36 was much more restricted than the present version, because it had a 2 year time limit. This was unworkable because the EPO was unable to cope with the volume of applications and a backlog developed. New rule 36 (Implementing Regulations to EPC) was introduced which is very liberal in allow the filing of divisionals. Filing fees were increased in an apparent attempt to deter applicants from delaying the filing of divisionals, but the sliding scale of EUR 210 (for a second generation divisional) to EUR850 (for a fifth + generation divisional - see fees table here ) is hardly an effective sanction.Ravi accepted that it is very easy to file divisional applications at the EPO to maintain pendency throughout the full patent term. However, he pointed out that not all cascading divisionals represent an abuse of the system. For example, applicants may face excessive formality hurdles when seeking to amend under Art 123(2)/(3) of the EPC. The amendment process and outcome is not always predictable, and in some circumstances, it may be legitimate for an applicant to have a divisional application in its back pocket to try again using a different form of amendment if your first attempt is unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Ravi accepted that the current system is open to abuse, and this is exacerbated by the fact that an applicant can unilaterally terminate proceedings with immediate effect, thereby avoiding scrutiny.To place the issues in context, Mark Brealey QC (Brick Court) began by examining Carr J's findings of fact in the present case. The Court found that "" (para 349). Further, AbbVie's "(para 388).Mark then cantered through the case law on abuse of dominant position in the context of IP rights, noting that an abuse of dominant position had been found in many IP contexts, including: free movement of goods, refusals to licence, excessive pricing, abusive litigation, and abuse in a settlement context (e.g.). The Court in Fujifilm v AbbVie had as a matter of fact, found that AbbVie's conduct had had the objective effect of withholding its patents from scrutiny, and that it had intended to do so. In Mark's opinion, the test for an abuse of dominant position is a straight objective test (unlike an abusive litigation context which requires a subjective element), and so intention is not a necessary criteria. In conclusion, Mark believes that this sort of conduct is capable of amounting to an abuse of a dominant position under Art 102 TFEU.Michael agreed that there are key differences between the facts of Arrow v Merck and the present case - an observation also made by Carr J in his judgment when he sounded a note of caution on the use of the term "Arrow" declarations. First, in Arrow, the EPO had taken around 8 years to decide on a patent application - that case did not concern alleged abusive behaviour by the applicant. Secondly, the generic manufacturer was already on the market (at significant risk), with no commercial certainty in sight.There was collective sigh of relief in certain sections of the room as Mark explained that it is the undertaking (patentee) who is liable for the an infringement of the TFEU, not their patent attorneys or legal advisers.There was agreement that this is a highly complex issue which would require further consideration. The decision appears to be a binding inter-partes decision. There is an argument that it should be res judicata under the Brussels Regulation, although this conclusion may be counter-intuitive. One observer noted that it was difficult to see how Courts of different member states would follow this (controversial) relief when Courts from different member states can and do reach different conclusions on validity of different designations of the same EP patent.Although any decision is fact specific and tied to the claimants' specific biosimilar products, the declaration sought (which refers to a dosage regime) would likely be applicable to other biosimilar products. The circumstances were ripe for a third party biosimilars manufacturer to make a summary judgment application to clear the way for its product.Mark confirmed that there is a potential timing issue on the question of an Art 102 infringement. The provision under the TFEU is abuse by an undertaking 'in a dominant position' - it does not cover future dominance. However, if there was continuing conduct which runs into the period in which an undertaking becomes dominant, the undertaking could still potentially be liable for an Art 102 infringement.
This announcement is somewhat destabilising to the current president Hassan Rouhani, a supposed moderate (as moderate as a leader can be in a country where repression rules).
From now until the election which happens on 19th May, it is sure that we will be hearing many stories about who has done what and what the consequences will be for each candidate.
The reality is though that whoever becomes the next president of the Islamic Republic makes very little difference. The politicians in Iran can all be described as hardliners because they pledge to adhere to the Khomeinist principles that have been in place for decades.
The fifth President of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, won a landslide victory in the elections two decades ago. At that time, there was so much hope for the young people of Iran. But what has changed? The country has been described, on numerous occasions, and by numerous countries, as the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
Iran backs the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas and has been involved in the Syrian civil war since the very beginning. In fact, if it were not for Iran, Syrian president Bashar al Assad would not still be holding his position of power.
The Iranian regime exists according to its own rules. It completely disregards the human rights of its own people, never mind those of the civilians in the countries it is interfering in.
Over a year ago, British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in Iran as she was returning home to the UK after visiting her family. She was separated from her baby and was put into solitary confinement. Over the course of the past 12 months, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been refused medical treatment and has undergone difficult interrogations. The United Kingdom has ignored the plight of Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and much to the disgust of her family, the British government has not even publicly condemned the five-year prison sentence she was given for vague charges.
The BBC Today programme aired a very poorly researched documentary about Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffes case last week. No officials from the Foreign Office were consulted and many were left with the feeling that the BBC did not want to rock the boat with Iran.
So does it matter who becomes the new President of the Islamic Republic if the United Kingdom cares more about appeasing the country and ignoring its criminal activities than protecting one of its own citizens?
In its most recent article, Joseph I. Lieberman, former U.S. Senator and United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Advisory Board Chairman, has urged the Trump Administration to designate Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, after Tuesdays chemical attack in Syria. The Trump Administration has authority to make such a designation, including using Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act or Executive Order 13224.
Lieberman said, The chemical attack in Syria one of the worst atrocities we have seen in years was made possible by Iran and Russias ongoing support of President Assad. The IRGC is the main means of support financial and otherwise for the Syrian regime and terrorist organizations throughout the region. This is why Iran remains, according to the U.S. State Department, the leading state-sponsor of terrorism in the world. The gas attacks in Syria demonstrate the urgent need to designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization and show that this behavior will not be tolerated by the United States.
The security arm of the Ayatollah, the IRGC, is involved in major sectors of the Iranian economy, such as the air, energy, and auto industries, and provides training, weapons, and resources to extremist groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah and Hamas.
American company Boeing signed a tentative deal to sell thirty jets to Irans Aseman Airlines this past week. Boeings announcement is deeply troubling, as increased funds in Iran, even through private Iranian airliners like Aseman Air, could help drive funding to IRGC front companies that support terrorism. The deal, which on the surface seems legitimate, poses severe business risks to American companies, added Senator Lieberman. While Irans business climate remains tumultuous and continues to support regional atrocities, new investment risks funneling cash to the IRGC, emboldens Assad to commit further attacks, and creates grave human rights risks for civilians both in Syria and abroad.
She said: Were calling (Russia and Iran) out. But I dont think anything is off the table at this point. I think what youre going to see is strong leadership. Youre going to continue to see the United States act when we need to act.
President Trump ordered a US military strike on the air base where the chemical attack carried out last week was said to have been launched. US officials have blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the attack and slammed Iran and Russia for supporting him.
However, Russia is denying involvement and said that there is no proof that chemical weapons were even at the air base. Haley disputed this saying that there was evidence: What weve seen is, you know, in our meetings this week, we were told of the evidence. We saw the evidence. The President saw the evidence. All of that is naturally classified. And Im sure when they can declassify that, they will.
She also repeated the warning she gave the day after the strike: I was trying to give warning and notice to the members of the Security Council and the international community that (Trump) wont stop here. If he needs to do more, he will do more.
Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, will be meeting his counterparts in Moscow this week and he said he is going to question them about their commitments: Yes, that will be part of the discussions when I visit Moscow next week is to call upon Foreign Minister (Sergey) Lavrov and the Russian government to fulfil the obligation it made to the international community when it agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons. And why Russia has not been able to achieve that is unclear to me. I dont draw conclusions of complicity at all, but clearly theyve been incompetent and perhaps theyve just simply been out-manoeuvred by the Syrians.
H.R. McMaster, President Trumps national security adviser, said that recent events have turned into an opportunity for Russia. He said: Well this is part of the problem in Syria, is Russias sponsorship of this murderous regime. And so we would want to appeal rationally to Russia this is a great opportunity for the Russia leadership to re-evaluate what theyre doing. Why theyre supporting a regime that commits mass murder against its own people.
Research director at the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI), Malcome Chalmers, said the strikes were part of a pattern weve seen again and again. The US had given Russian forces in the area a warning of up to one hour, that a strike was imminent.
According to the Russian military, the 59 American Tomahawk missiles destroyed a warehouse of material and technical property, a training building, a canteen, six MIG-23 aircraft in repair hangars, and a radar station.
In a joint statement released after a phone call Friday, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel asserted that President Assad alone bears responsibility for this development.
We fully support what the Americans have done, UK Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, told the BBC. He also condemned Iran and Russian Federation for their part in Syria, since Russian Federation was supposed to have removed all the chemical weapons in Syria.
Donald Tusk, European Council President, also backed the United States action, tweeting: US strikes show needed resolve against barbaric chemical attacks.
British Prime Minister Theresa Mays office says the action was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is meant to deter further attacks. It has propped up and shielded Syrias brutal dictator for years. Advisers said she was outraged by images of young children who were among the dozens killed in the chemical attack.We find this [operation] positive as a step against the al-Assad regimes war crimes committed with chemical and conventional weapons.
According to Floyd Cook, in an article for appsforpcdaily.com, who writes that, The Kremlin accused Trump of reneging on pledges to focus on fighting Islamic State jihadists and insisted the move would inflict considerable damage on US-Russia relations, which are already in a lamentable state. We are prepared to do more but we hope that will not be necessary. The Russian Federation has vetoed repeatedly UN Security Council resolutions on Syria.
A photograph was release of officials who were gathered at Mar-a-Lago when President Donald Trumps national security team briefed him on the USA air strike in Syria. The Russian Federation was warned of the attack before it took place.
The strikes, which hit an air strip, Syrian planes and fuel dumps, were said to have killed up to 10 people.
Peskovs explanation to a press conference, for why Russian Federation has chose to drop the pact was, Amid the missile strikes, it is hardly reasonable to talk about any more increase in the risk, as the risk has increased considerably.
Moscow announced, according to the New York Times, that it is planning to send a frigate into the Mediterranean Sea to visit the logistics base at the Syrian port of Tartus.
In his bloody and corrupt past, Raisi was also in charge of the plundering Astan Quds foundation.
Although the Iranian regime is confronting crises from all angles, it seems like the main problem at the minute is the opposition from the people of Iran who are becoming more open and speaking out now more than ever about the corruption problems of the country.
The regime is fearful of another uprising like the one in 2009 and it is expected that if a candidate such as Raisi was to become President of the Islamic Republic, the people who are increasingly calling for justice for the 1988 massacre victims will voice their opposition.
Since the recording of Ayatollah Montazeris conversation with the members of the death committee was released in which he denounces them for their crimes against humanity, many Iranians at home and abroad have called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Political prisoners have even carried out hunger strikes while calling for justice.
A state-run news outlet suggested that young Iranians have a negative first impression of Raisi seeing as his name was mentioned in the audio recording. It claimed that people have an unrealistic image of him in their minds and efforts need to be made, and are in fact being done so, to change this image.
But to correct this image of what is essentially a hardened, experienced murderer is to launch a propaganda campaign. However, the people of Iran cannot be fooled. They will see through the lies and deception of the regime, as they already do, and it is likely to have a reverse effect. The people will rise up against efforts that basically glam up such a hateful person. It will add fuel to the fire, so to speak.
Whether he becomes President or not is crucial to Raisis future because he has been selected as one of the candidates for the successor of Khamenei. If he loses the election, he will lose the chance to achieve succession.
The outcome of the election will also be important to Rouhani because if Raisi becomes president he will have no choice but to leave the political scene and will be side-lined for some time to come.
Whatever the outcome, the Iranian regime is corrupt to the core and no matter which of the candidates becomes the next President of the Islamic State, the values remain the same.
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[April 10, 2017] HackerOne Strengthens Presence in Europe Amid Growing Demand for Hacker-Powered Security
HackerOne, the world's leading bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure platform, today announced the expansion of its presence in Europe amid accelerating growth, including 240 percent year-over-year customer growth in Europe. With the need for experienced security professionals in high demand and millions of lines of new code shipped each day, the most security conscious organizations are turning to the hacker community to find unknown security vulnerabilities fast. The largest European airline Lufthansa, leading telecommunication provider Swisscom, and Finnish insurance giant LocalTapiola, along with over 800 others companies globally, all rely on HackerOne for the creativity and intelligence of the world's largest hacker community, and its ease of use, from self-service to best-in-class managed services. HackerOne is the most widely adopted bug bounty platform in the world with a community of more than 100,000 hackers. The world's most successful hackers stand ready to help European companies improve their security with top earning hackers located in Sweden, United Kingdom, Romania, Germany, the Ntherlands, and Belgium, among others. Bug bounty programs allow software-powered organizations to identify severe vulnerabilities in live systems fast, and at a fraction of the traditional cost. As the average cost of a breach has grown to nearly 4 million euros (3.9m) in Europe, more than 42,000 security vulnerabilities have been resolved across more than 800 organizations globally with HackerOne. As a result, hackers earn more on HackerOne than anywhere else with over 14 million euro (11.9m) in bug bounties awarded -- 6.5 million euros (5.6m) of which was awarded in 2016.
"Working with hackers is a natural step forward for security because companies can find and fix their vulnerabilities faster," said Frans Rosen, top European hacker from Sweden who has helped top companies resolve over 500 security vulnerabilities. "The hacker community in Sweden and Europe is among the best in the world and growing fast. It is time for European companies to start working with hackers for better security and EQT Ventures is the perfect partner to help HackerOne do this." As part of its international growth strategy, the company has opened two additional offices in Germany and United Kingdom, with plans to double is engineering team in the Netherlands. To fuel its expansion, European-based venture capital fund, EQT Ventures, has invested in the company's recently announced $40 million Series C funding round. EQT Ventures is known for its expertise in European scaling, with experience gained from Booking.com, King and Uber.
"HackerOne is revolutionizing the cybersecurity industry by helping the world to build a safer internet," said Hjalmar Winbladh, Partner and Co-Head of EQT Ventures. "Every type of company, from technology to more traditional industries, should be working with hackers to find where they are most vulnerable and we couldn't be more excited about the fund's investment in the company." "Hacker-powered security is the most effective way to find your vulnerabilities in live systems and hackers in Europe are among the most talented in the world," said Marten Mickos, CEO, HackerOne. "Our strategic partnership with EQT Ventures will help European companies protection millions of customers with aid from the world's largest and most talented hacker community." Introducing The First Live Bug Bounty Hackathon in Amsterdam More than 15 elite hackers will travel to Amsterdam in May to spend a day live hacking a HackerOne customer to help find their vulnerabilities and for a chance to earn up to $150,000 in bounties. HackerOne has hosted live hackathons in San Francisco and Las Vegas with Panasonic (News - Alert) Avionics, Shopify, Snapchat and Zenefits, among others. To check out our most recent live hacking event's, visit: https://youtu.be/KsXkqz3Hqsc. About HackerOne HackerOne is the #1 bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure platform, connecting organizations with the world's largest community of trusted hackers. More than 800 organizations, including The U.S. Department of Defense, General Motors, Intel, Uber, Twitter (News - Alert), GitHub, Nintendo, Kaspersky Lab, Panasonic Avionics, Qualcomm, Square, Starbucks, Dropbox and the CERT Coordination Center trust HackerOne to find critical software vulnerabilities before criminals can exploit them. HackerOne customers have resolved more than 42,000 vulnerabilities and awarded hackers more than $15M USD in bug bounties. HackerOne is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, Germany and the Netherlands. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005453/en/
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[April 10, 2017] Weidenhammer a Good Fit for Mashburn
READING, Pa., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sid Mashburn, a nationally-recognized apparel retail and design company, has launched a new online Made-to-Measurement program with the help of Weidenhammer, a provider of strategy, marketing, and technology solutions.
Custom fit and made-to-measure suits have been a hallmark of the Sid Mashburn in-store experience since the brands conception in 2007. And now, for the first time, that custom, made-to-measure level of service is available online for mens shirts. Through this application designed by Weidenhammer, and using the Magento platform, customers can interface digitally to order a custom shirt online. The fully customized application reinforces the high touch element of Mashburns brand promise, states Jason Crickmer, Managing Director of Weidenhammers Commerce Practice. Crickmer notes, Customers can self-serve at their convenience, and Mashburn associates can lead shoppers through the process if a more hands on approach is desired. The resulting cohesive omnichannel experience heightes customer exposure to the aspirational aspects of the brand, positioning them as lifetime ambassadors of quality, style, and value.
Weve worked very hard to make it easy and accessible, because lets be honest no matter your job or your crowd or your day-to-day, its cool to have your own shirt, Sid Mashburn, CEO says. Were super excited. About Weidenhammer
Weidenhammer, founded in 1978 and headquartered in Reading, PA, identifies and integrates new technologies that help companies run smarter and grow faster. Weidenhammer maintains 7 offices in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, and Texas, and has 190 professionals on staff. The company has core competencies in consulting, software development, commerce, infrastructure solutions, cloud and managed services, digital/interactive design, as well as school district administrative solutions. Weidenhammer has strategic relationships with Cisco, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Magento, EMC, VMware, and Softdocs. More information about the firm can be found at www.hammer.net.
About Sid Mashburn
SID MASHBURN is a vertically-integrated and nationally-recognized apparel retail and design company headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Sid and Ann are the driving creative and design forces behind the Mashburn brand. Sid began his design career in New York as the very first mens designer at J.Crew, where he spent 5 years helping to establish the brands menswear identity and aesthetic. He was then recruited by Ralph Lauren himself as Senior Design Director at Polo. He went on to serve as VP of Design at Tommy Hilfiger and spent 6 years as SVP of Design at Lands End. For more information please visit www.SidMashburn.com. James P. Bitler, Marketing Communications Manager Weidenhammer [email protected] 610-378-8600 x8455
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[April 10, 2017] 2NDGEAR Certified as a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher
COSTA MESA, Calif., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 2NDGEAR, a subsidiary of Insight Investments, LLC, today announced that it has been certified for the fourth year in a row as a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR), authorizing 2NDGEAR to preinstall Microsoft Windows onto its professionally refurbished computers.
2NDGEAR offers refurbished IT equipment including desktops, laptops, tablets, monitors, servers, storage, and networking equipment. All equipment is thoroughly inspected, wiped, and restored to the original equipment manufacturer specifications prior to being made available. As a MAR, 2NDGEARs refurbished PCs, laptops and tablets include genuine Windows and access to additional Microsoft software. Building on his, 2NDGEAR also offers customers valuable IT support and flexible warranty options.
2NDGEAR serves several industries including the education and commercial markets. Being able to offer fully licensed Microsoft Windows at a more affordable price is a huge advantage for schools and companies as it gives students, faculty, and business users access to todays most up to date technology, said Leroy Wyman, General Manager, 2NDGEAR. It is our mission to give businesses and organizations the advantages of world-class technology by extending the life of used equipment. By adding Windows to refurbished computers and laptops we are increasing the value and passing along the savings to our customers. The MAR program is only available to the largest and most qualified refurbishers. Partners in the program must follow strict requirements established by Microsoft to ensure high quality, professional refurbished devices are installed with genuine Microsoft Windows. While the vast majority of used computer resellers offer just hardware, 2NDGEAR expertly refurbishes computers with Windows to provide a fully functional solution.
About 2NDGEAR
2NDGEAR, a subsidiary of Insight Investments, LLC, is a leading supplier of new, recertified and refurbished IT equipment and software from partners including Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Adobe and more. Offering IT implementation and support services including data destruction, imaging, deployment, office technology relocation, asset liquidation and warehouse outsourcing, 2NDGEAR supports the entire IT lifecycle. An established company respected for its uncommon dedication to service, 2NDGEAR has served thousands of businesses and educational institutions across the U.S. For more information, visit www.2NDGEAR.com. Contact: Christy Kemp 303-898-3390 [email protected]
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[April 10, 2017] Safe Orthopaedics Products Listed by AP-HP Paris Hospitals
Regulatory News: SAFE ORTHOPAEDICS (Paris:SAFOR) (FR0012452746 - SAFOR), a company offering an innovative range of sterile implants combined with their single-use instruments for spinal surgery, is today announcing that its principal products for thoracolumbar spinal fusion have been listed by AP-HP (Assistance Publique - Hopitaux de Paris, the main hospital authority serving Paris and its suburbs). This listing with AP-HP means that Safe Orthopaedics products are available in 39 hospitals in Paris, including 15 active in spinal surgery, together accounting for around one-quarter of the French market. To support the growing activity in the Paris region and capitalize on this listing from the outset, the Company has hired a sales manager for the Paris region, backing up the teams already covering largely south-east and south-west France. Upon the introduction of its products, Safe Orthopaedics had initially decided to focus on development in the regions with the assistance of expert salespeople possessing very strong local roots in a bid to firmly establish its credibility. The addition of dedicated sales coverage for the Paris region represents another crucial stage in the Company's development. Aside from the AP-HP approval, the new sales manager for the Paris region will be able to build on the relationships already established with hospitals in the Paris region. These include Kremlin-Bicetre teaching hospital where it has conducted a trial demonstrating the benefits of Safe Orthopaedics' single-use instruments for spinal srgery2.
All the thoracolumbar ranges have been successfully listed with AP-HP. SteriSpine PS and SteriSpine LC can cover requirements for the bulk of trauma and degenerative surgeries performed at these hospital facilities. "We are proud of the work done by our sales teams, which has resulted in our products being listed by AP-HP Paris hospitals. This represents a very important step forward in the expansion of our business. It will boost our sales not only in the Paris region but also in all the major public and private hospitals in France, given the value of such a listing." said Pierre Dumouchel, Chief Executive Officer of Safe Orthopaedics.
About AP-HP AP-HP is a globally renowned and leading European hospital authority. Every year, its 39 hospitals treat 8 million sick people, providing consultations, emergency and scheduled in-patient treatment and in-home healthcare. It provides public healthcare services round-the-clock, which it regards both as a duty and a source of pride. AP-HP is the Paris region's leading employer, with its workforce of 100,000 doctors, research scientists, paramedics, administrative and blue-collar staff. For further information: www.aphp.fr Next Financial Release Full-year 2016 results: April 28, 2017 (after market close) About Safe Orthopaedics Founded in 2010, Safe Orthopaedics is a French medical technology company that aims to make spinal surgeries safer by using sterile implants and associated single-use instruments. Through this approach, these products eliminate all risk of contamination, reduce infection risks and facilitate a minimally-invasive approach for trauma and degenerative pathologies-benefiting patients. Protected by 17 patent families, the SteriSpineTM kits are CE-marked and FDA approved. The company is based at Eragny-sur-Oise (Val d'Oise department), and has 30 employees. For more information, visit: www.SafeOrtho.com 1 Source (News - Alert): Safe Orthopaedics
2 See the "A Randomized Study Confirms the Benefits of Safe Orthopaedics' Products in a Leading French Teaching Hospital" press release dated October 20, 2016. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005762/en/
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ACLU of Nebraska is again threatening a prison lawsuit.
It sent a letter to Gov. Pete Ricketts Monday saying that if unlawful conditions at the prison persist, the organization is committed to filing a lawsuit.
The ACLU and other organizations urged Ricketts to immediately call an emergency and to allocate emergency funding to the Department of Correctional Services to fill current vacancies and correct constitutional and legal violations.
They gave Ricketts 10 days to respond.
His spokesman, Taylor Gage, said the department continues to make steady progress, and follow through on the Council of State Governments' justice reinvestment plan for Nebraska.
"The ACLUs call to release prisoners early in response to violent incidents is absurd and threatens public safety," Gage said. "We call on the ACLU to support our efforts to fully fund NDCS budget needs, including additional Corrections officers who protect the public and inmates.
The ACLU letter said the prisons must implement safe and effective techniques to reduce the prison population, or dramatically overhaul conditions of confinement in the prisons.
"The confinement of Nebraskans in (department) facilities under current conditions has no place in a civilized society and is creating unsafe conditions for the men and women in custody as well as the state employees working in those facilities," the ACLU said.
Other organizations signing the letter included the National Association for the Deaf, Nebraska Appleseed and the ACLU National Prison Project.
One of those who signed the letter was attorney Michael Bien, whose practice is focused in part on constitutional and civil rights law. Bien was a lawyer in the 2011 Brown v. Plata decision in which the Supreme Court ordered California to significantly reduce crowding in its prisons.
California's prisons were reported to have nearly twice the number of inmates at that time for which they were designed. The Supreme Court ruled the system violated inmates' Eighth Amendment rights, saying inadequate medical and mental health care were primarily due to overcrowding. It upheld a three-judge panel's order to decrease the population by an estimated 46,000 inmates.
As of December, Nebraska's prisons were at 158 percent of design capacity, with six of the major men's prisons collectively at 160 percent capacity. The Diagnostic and Evaluation Center, where the latest disturbance took place, was at 273 percent capacity.
The need for action to remedy the crisis in Nebraska prisons has been well documented for many years, the ACLU said.
Problems have been highlighted by legislative investigative committees, a justice reinvestment working group, the Nebraska ombudsman, the Nebraska inspector general for Corrections, the National Institute of Corrections, the ACLU and Disability Rights Nebraska.
The ACLU has reviewed medical records of inmates who have waited months to be seen by a doctor for a prescription they were receiving before entering prison, those who have waited half a year for treatment of a fractured bone, and others whose medical needs have gone unmet.
It has reviewed mental health records of prisoners taken off antipsychotic medications and given nothing in their place, those who after a serious suicide attempt have been denied mental health counseling, and inmates medicated into a zombie-like state.
The prisons also are not meeting their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and placing too many people in isolation for too long, the ACLU letter said.
Even as the department has been on notice about the problems in the prisons, the conditions have not improved and constitute cruel and unusual punishment, the ACLU said.
"The continued pattern of inhumane treatment and deficient conditions at DCS facilities present an invitation to legal action," the organizations said. "Current conditions jeopardize public safety, the wellbeing of corrections staff and the health, safety and lives of those serving a sentence."
The letter comes after yet another incident on Friday night in a state prison in Lincoln. Sixteen inmates in one housing unit were involved and three corrections officers were injured. In other disturbances in the past two years, four inmates have been killed.
Omaha Sen. Bob Krist drew attention to the ACLU letter Monday afternoon on the floor of the Legislature. He said he is "bitterly concerned" with the safety of corrections officers and the prison system, with riotous activity having spread to another prison.
"Everything (the ACLU has) said to date is coming to fruition," Krist said. "They don't just threaten the lawsuit. They promise it."
Grand Island police are investigating a fatal stabbing that occurred Saturday night.
Christian Peterson, 59, was stabbed multiple times at his home, 1309 W. Seventh St., sometime before 10:17 p.m., according to a news release.
Peterson was able to seek help from neighbors after being stabbed. Police found him near Jefferson Elementary School, about a block from his home, shortly after the stabbing.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the homicide investigation is asked to contact the Grand Island Police Department.
Zoey Loetscher, also known as the Princess Pug, spent Sunday afternoon dressed as a bunny and riding around the dog park in her miniature car, which was also decked out in Easter decor.
Owner Melissa Loetscher drove her from Omaha to attend the Easter Egg Hunt at Oak Lake Park put on by SitStay.com and Nebraska Vizslas. The event raised $200 for local rescue and no-kill shelters.
Loetscher adopted Zoey three-and-a-half years ago from Pug Partners Nebraska. Immediately, Loetscher knew her dog was meant to be a princess.
"She's so sassy," she said. "She loves any kind of attention."
Inspired by a friend, Loetscher purchased a miniature car for Zoey to ride around in.
"I thought maybe I'd just try it," she said. "And it's perfect because pugs run out of breath a lot."
The idea evolved from there. Zoey upgraded to a more durable car and also has a convertible.
Loetscher purchased the car from Amazon, but discovered it was from Rolling Hills Trading in Lincoln. She takes it to the store to get serviced and repaired, just like a regular vehicle.
"This thing has turbo, it has real tires," she said. "You can see it really goes."
The car is operated by remote and has a GoPro attached to the back to capture all of Zoey's adventures. On the front, there's even a spot for Zoey's business cards. The pink, zebra-print cards direct people to friend her on Facebook.
Loetscher built a carrier in her car to transport Zoey's car, but as the miniature car evolved it's gotten too big to fit.
"We've added so many accessories to it that now we just rent a little U-Haul trailer," she said. "It's a lot easier."
Loetscher takes Zoey to any dog-friendly events she hears about. Zoey is often in parades and even dog fashion shows to show off the outfits that Loetscher has specially made by a woman in Council Bluffs.
Zoey shares Loetscher's closet, where she stores over 50 pug-sized outfits. She even has a pageant dress and accessorizes with press-on earrings.
On Sunday, Zoey's car contained several of the treat-filled eggs from the hunt.
Hannah Wilken, the customer experience manager at SitStay.com, and Jon Cady, who organizes the Nebraska Vizslas group, frequently work together to host weekly social events for dogs and their owners. They hosted the egg hunt as a way to give back to the community.
"We wanted to do something different so we came up with the Easter theme," Wilken said. "Once we started developing it more we put feelers out there to see if people would be interested in doing it more as a donation versus just a fun event and people really latched onto the idea."
Wilken and Cady were surprised by the attendance and estimate 50 to 100 people showed up. They're preparing to host more fundraising events throughout the year.
"I think it's important to utilize the people and the energy in a group like this to really give back to the community in a good way," Cady said.
The annual Seward Chautauqua will include World War I events hosted at the Nebraska National Guard Museum.
The museum is hosting free activities for several days before the main celebration, which begins June 14.
The museum opened last year during the town's July 4 festival. Historian Jerry Meyer said over 26,000 people visited on opening day. He hopes to see comparable traffic during this year's Chautauqua event.
Meyer said the event is a great opportunity for people from surrounding communities to visit Seward and celebrate the 100th anniversary of WWI.
The events kick off June 12 and will focus on aviation during WWI. A presenter will talk about Nebraska Fighter Ace Orville Ralston and show historic artifacts. A replica aircraft, the Neuport, will fly in for a discussion with the pilot. Pilots will discuss the advances in aviation, and there will be a virtual tour of a Jenny aircraft.
A mock trench and WWI aid station will be put up for Tuesday to teach attendees about the medical treatment. Doctors will discuss medical treatments then and now and show artifacts.
Wednesday will feature WWI re-enactors, including Gen. Pershing and the family of Sgt. Alvin York.
Humanities Nebraska will host 10 workshops at the museum during the rest of Chatauqua.
"This is a big event for Seward," Meyer said. "And they are not afraid of big challenges. That's one thing I've noticed about Seward. I think this will be a record-setter."
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As the 2017 Legislature prepares to consider an extensive revision of Nebraska's tax structure, this week marks the 50th anniversary of the storm-tossed arrival of a state sales-income tax system.
Enactment of the two taxes by the Legislature on April 12, 1967, is a hallmark moment in the state's history, the beginning of change.
Fifty years ago, Gov. Norbert Tiemann and the Legislature were under the gun because state government all of a sudden had no visible means of support.
Voters had wiped out a newly enacted state income tax law and simultaneously eliminated the state property tax, which was the state government's essential funding source at the time, just two months before state senators and a newly elected governor gathered in Lincoln.
The income tax law fell victim to a referendum vote, and the state property tax was forbidden by a petition-driven constitutional amendment. State government suddenly and quite dramatically had no major source of revenue.
Fifty years later, agriculture is in economic distress largely as a result of low commodity prices, and that has delivered a blunt blow to the state's economy, resulting in a sharp decline in revenue that had been anticipated, or projected, to support state government.
The result is overwhelming political pressure for state budget austerity accompanied by a rural-driven demand for local property tax reduction through legislative action taken by the state.
Property taxes today are the chief funding source for local government, including school districts.
At the same time that budgets now are being squeezed, Gov. Pete Ricketts and conservative state senators are calling for phased-in reductions in the state's individual and corporate income taxes. That sets the state on course toward smaller government and a reduction in future revenue available for state activities, including the University of Nebraska.
The impetus for that kind of tax change marks a 180-degree turn from one of the driving forces in shaping the tax decisions made 50 years ago.
Today's proposed changes would gradually and steadily shrink state government's available revenue base and, in the process, limit government's role and ability.
In 1967, Tiemann and the majority of the Legislature were determined to add a new state income tax to a proposed state sales tax over strong opposition largely centered in Omaha not only in the interest of achieving fairness and tax equity, but also to produce a larger revenue stream that would allow the state to move forward with dramatic change.
That dual tax system fueled a new program of state aid to schools, creation of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, increased funding support to build a larger and higher-quality state university system, creation of a Department of Economic Development, and it was accompanied by authorized bonded indebtedness for highway construction for the first time.
That was change on steroids accompanied by political peril.
It was a landmark moment in the state's centennial year. Now, 50 years later, the Legislature is poised to consider fundamental change in its tax structure in Nebraska's sesquicentennial year.
* * *
"If you persist in your irresponsible spending and taxing, you won't have a ghost of a chance to be re-elected," L.M. Kingy of Omaha wrote Tiemann on Feb. 12, 1967.
"Many of us are beginning to wonder if we supported the wrong candidate," C.W. Luder of Omaha wrote the governor on Feb. 10.
"Ninety-five percent or more of my friends, acquaintances and business associates are aroused to the point of fury," John Spencer of Omaha wrote on Feb. 21.
But the letters, handwritten and typed, angry and blunt, did not just come from Omaha. They poured into the governor's office from across the state.
Box 31 of Tiemann's extensive gubernatorial papers housed at the Nebraska State Historical Society overflows with outrage and anger, and the addresses include Arthur, Tilden, Peru, North Platte, Fremont, Blair, Lincoln, Columbus, Gibbon, Holmesville, Ralston, Bellevue, Lynch, Kimball, Beatrice, on and on.
Responding to W.D. Kipple of O'Neill on March 13, Tiemann wrote: "Your threat to vote me out of office has absolutely no impact. I did not take this job to perpetuate myself in politics but to make the hard and firm decisions that need to be made to make Nebraska progress."
"I do not agree that passing such a tax law will mean the end of my political career," Tiemann wrote Rudolph Tesar of Omaha on March 22. "However, if it does," he added, "so be it."
* * *
The income tax portion of the proposed sales-income tax system was the major point of contention, not only within the Legislature but across the state and particularly in Omaha, where corporate leaders and the Omaha World-Herald argued for a sales tax only.
This is a bill that "may cause the members of this Legislature to be the most hated people in Nebraska," Sen. Sam Klaver of Omaha warned on Feb. 21 as senators braced for nearly 100 proposed amendments following a series of Revenue Committee meetings that stretched until midnight.
An effort by Sen. Henry Pedersen of Omaha on March 16 to remove the personal income tax from the bill and instead increase the proposed sales tax rate was rejected on a 33-12 vote.
"We are creating a situation which can call for great unrest in our state," Sen. Clifton Batchelder of Omaha declared as legislators worked their way through 136 sections of the bill one by one.
The personal income tax provision is "the one thing that seems to be the bone of contention," he said.
And then, centering on the largely unspoken factor that especially concerned committed Republican conservatives like him, Batchelder warned that including an income tax provided "an opportunity to make tremendous expenditures."
Three years later, in 1970, Batchelder would challenge Tiemann in the Republican gubernatorial primary election, wounding the embattled governor in advance of the general election, when Democratic nominee Jim Exon would defeat him in Tiemann's bid for re-election.
During a last-ditch effort to scuttle the tax bill before its passage on April 12, Klaver told fellow senators he was offering a final opportunity "to save you from entering the dungeon of darkness, of despair, of uncertainty."
The bill will be "giving the spenders a Roman holiday," he said.
Sen. William Skarda of Omaha was more blunt: "You play with a skunk, you smell like a skunk."
* * *
Tiemann addressed concerns about increased state spending in responses to the river of letters that had been flowing into the governor's office for months.
"Many legitimate state needs have gone unmet in recent years and have now become amplified to the point where immediate action is necessary," Tiemann wrote Mrs. Kenneth Harwick of Omaha on March 22.
Among the "unmet needs" he mentioned: the University of Nebraska, state colleges and the state's mental and correctional institutions.
"Hard decisions have to be made, some that are not popular, but have to be made if the state of Nebraska is to make sound, solid progress," Tiemann wrote Mrs. G.G. Gates Jr., of Omaha, on Jan. 11.
"I have repeated the needs for educational excellence, improved welfare services, economic development," the governor wrote Harry Culbertson of McCook on March 20.
And Tiemann was direct in identifying the source of the fiercest opposition.
"The legislators are now under great pressure from wealthy Omaha interests to enact only a sales tax and not an income tax," he wrote Mrs. C.E. Ahlquist, a transplanted Nebraskan who had retired in San Juan, Texas, in a letter dated March 9.
"The rich and powerful organizations, as you indicate, are trying to get the personal income tax law rejected," Tiemann wrote Paul Burke of Omaha.
"This would allow them to toss the burden of increasing the sales tax rate on the low-income groups and this is what I have violently opposed."
* * *
Jim Hewitt of Lincoln was there in the governor's circle of mostly young aides and informal advisers when the new tax policy was formulated.
It was a group that became known as "the Whiz Kids," many of whom first helped the man they knew as Nobby Tiemann during his election campaign.
As the new tax policy was being formed, "we felt really locked-in," Hewitt, a retired Lincoln attorney, recalled during an interview over coffee.
"Nobby always thought we needed to get into the 20th century," he said, and a sales-income tax system pointed the way.
Clayton Yeutter, the governor's chief-of-staff who later would rise to national prominence as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and U.S. trade ambassador, was "the principal thinker," Hewitt said.
And Yeutter was determined to "make sure it was a fair tax system," Hewitt said.
"Nobby always was willing to listen," he said. "But he made the decisions. He called the shots."
It was clear that the new tax package, especially its inclusion of an income tax, "could cost Tiemann a second term," Hewitt said, "and I think he knew that. Nobby knew from the beginning that there would be a fallout."
But that balanced revenue stream "opened up possibilities" for Nebraska, Hewitt said, and they are reflected today in the progress that has built the state.
* * *
Tiemann addressed his determination to construct a fair tax system that would build a dependable revenue stream in his response to many of the letters that poured in.
"In order to achieve tax equality, it is necessary to spread the burden as equally as possible; therefore, a combination sales-income tax must be enacted," Tiemann wrote Rudolph Tesar on March 22.
"A fair tax is one that is composed of sales tax, personal income tax and corporate income tax," the governor wrote to Mr. and Mrs. William Rus of Norfolk on March 14.
"If the personal income tax is eliminated, then the burden falls on the low-income people, which is absolutely unfair and I will not support this type of revenue bill."
The Norfolk couple had written Tiemann: "We cast our ballots for you last November, but it hasn't taken us very long to regret that."
* * *
The legislative vote to enact the sales-income tax was 38-11.
Nine of the 11 no votes were cast by Omaha senators.
School kids from Winnebago, North Bend and Cedar Bluffs were in the balcony.
Tiemann's wife, Lorna, was in the chamber and she was introduced by Sen. Jules Burbach of Crofton, who had guided the bill through the Revenue Committee.
Sen. Richard Marvel of Hastings, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, expressed his personal anguish in reaching a decision before the vote was taken to enact the bill.
"I sat up most of the night trying to make this decision," Marvel said.
"This is probably the toughest decision I have ever made."
But, Marvel said, he ultimately was convinced that the Legislature could "keep the spending under control with the tremendous tools we have."
Enactment of the landmark tax bill occurred on the 1967 Legislature's 69th day in session.
Debate on this year's proposal to restructure Nebraska's state income tax and diminish its revenue-producing ability will begin on April 21, the 2017 Legislature's 69th day.
KEARNEY -- Aleasha Jay, a student at Lincoln East High School, attended the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) fifth annual High School Ambassador Conference in Kearney on April 1. The BHECN Ambassador Program recruits and mentors rural students from high school through college and professional school and into behavioral health professions.
This year, 31 high school juniors and seniors from throughout Nebraska attended the conference. A total of 46 facilitators consisting of faculty and students from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), and Nebraska Wesleyan University, and providers representing diverse behavioral health and substance abuse professions presented and interacted with the students.
MOUNT PLEASANT A 30-year lung cancer survivor, Sandra Helmin-Clazmer considers herself one of the lucky ones.
With proposed federal budget cuts threatening cancer research funding, Helmin-Clazmer, a retired Racine Unified teacher, is now advocating for those who arent as lucky.
The 63-year-old Mount Pleasant resident was one of many who traveled last week to Washington, D.C., as part of the American Lung Associations Lung Force initiative. She lobbied Wisconsin lawmakers against proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and in favor of a health care bill that doesnt increase the number of uninsured people.
I see my role now is to be an advocate, she said. I cant stand back and watch whats happening.
Survives risky surgery
President Donald Trump has proposed slashing nearly $6 billion in NIH funding, though its a plan Republicans in Congress are expected to revise as they pass their own appropriations bills.
At a WisPolitics forum Wednesday in Washington, House Speaker Paul Ryan voiced support for NIH, saying he hopes to find savings in mandatory spending areas to redirect toward priorities like health research.
He noted Republicans passed health care legislation late last year, called the 21st Century Cures Act, that allocated $4.8 billion in research dollars for NIH.
Perhaps the most popular domestic funding we have, among Republicans, is NIH, Ryan, who represents Racine County in Congress, said at the forum.
Helmin-Clazmer spoke to the importance of research, saying more treatments need to be developed so cancer patients can survive. The number of women dying from lung cancer each year has nearly doubled over the past 30 years, according to the American Lung Association, which said lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in the United States.
Helmin-Clazmer was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1987 after a frustrating spate of misdiagnoses multiple doctors thought she had asthma, she said.
She survived, but only after a rare surgery that was considered so risky she was given last rites.
When I heard the word cancer, it was like sliding into a dark abyss, Helmin-Clazmer said. I didnt know how I was going to climb out. I was totally terrified.
I tried to be healthy, I didnt smoke, I was physically fit. And then, here I am. I have cancer.
While she made it through the procedure, she had a difficult recovery that lasted two to three years.
When you have lung surgery, one of the things that always struck me is that it hurt to breathe, she said.
Insurance going backwards
Two years ago, Helmin-Clazmer told her story at a gathering of the Lung Force initiative, which focuses on women and lung cancer.
It was a well-received speech, one that Helmin-Clazmer said made her feel empowered that I could do this.
She told her story again last week in Washington to several staff members of the Wisconsin delegation. Donning turquoise-colored T-shirts, she and advocates from other states stormed the Capitol to push for NIH funding and good health insurance.
As Congress struggles to put together a health care bill, Helmin-Clazmer said she is concerned about talk of reducing or eliminating essential health benefits, such as hospital care and prescriptions, from health plans.
Helmin-Clazmer survived in part because she had good health insurance, she said. In the 30 years since, insurance seems to be getting worse and not better, she said.
Especially infuriating were stories she heard from women who had to wait months to get a chest X-ray to determine whether they had cancer.
There were a lot of people at the Lung Force meeting in Washington who were stage 3 and 4 because they werent able to get the medical care, she said.
Id like to think that things go forward, but what we saw is that its gone backwards.
MOUNT PLEASANT Police say a Missouri man traveling through Mount Pleasant at more than 100 mph early Monday reportedly admitted to committing a shooting, though the Mount Pleasant Police Department is unaware of any shooting victims or a crime scene.
An officer pulled over 18-year-old Z'Core Hester-Henderson after seeing his vehicle speeding south on the 2400 block of Racine Street around 1:45 a.m., according to a Mount Pleasant Police Department news release and his criminal complaint.
Inside the car, police located a pistol and several spent shell casings, the release stated.
Hester-Henderson was reportedly acted strangely and said he had just shot at someone, however, would not disclose the location or any details regarding the shooting. Police noticed Hester-Henderson's behavior after he reportedly hit and knocked over a computer and telephone on the desk after he was taken to the Mount Pleasant Police Department.
Hester-Henderson was detained at the Racine County Jail on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and unreasonable and imprudent speed.
According to his mother, he is very mentally ill, the criminal complaint stated.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Mount Pleasant Police Department at 262-884-0454 and choose option no. 4, or contact Crime Stoppers at 262-636-9330, via email through the website www.racine.crimestoppersweb.com, or send a text message to CRIMES (274637) and type in TIP417 with a text message.
3 held for robbery
Police on Sunday arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in a robbery incident.
APF Head Constable killed in Dolakha jeep accident
A jeep belonging to the Armed Police Force (APF) met with an accident at Jhamasi in Kalinchowk-7 of Dolakha district on Monday, leaving one dead and two injured.
EC starts imparting training to election officers
Election management and operation training to chief election officers and election officers to be deployed in local-level election has begun at seven different places of the country on Monday.
Elections must for development
Speaker Onasari Gharti has said that the local level elections are essential for the countrys development.
Ex-Pakistani army officer goes missing from Lumbini
A retired Pakistan Army officer, who is on a visit for a job interview, has gone missing from Lumbini since Thursday.
Exchange facility to Nepalis soon: Nepal Rastra Bank
Nepalis holding banned Indian banknotes of 500- and 1,000-rupee denominations will soon be able to replace the now-useless currency with legal tenders. But the ceiling on the exchange facility is most likely to be fixed at IRs4,500 per person as proposed by India.
Foreigner dies in course of clicking photo in Solukhumbu
A foreigner died in course of taking a photo in Solukhumbu district this morning.
Health, population summit today
The 3rd National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal is kicking off on Monday.
Indian help sought for Nepal-Bangladesh trade
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to facilitate cross-border power trade between Bangladesh and Nepal over Indian territory.
Investigation launched into killing of one-horned rhino
The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) on Sunday launched an investigation into the poaching of a one-horned rhino in the Dhrubaghat area of the Chitwan National Park (CNP).
Koirala backtracks on criticism of court
A day after making a controversial remark that the judiciary should be brought under the purview of Parliament, Nepali Congress General Secretary Shashank Koirala on Monday backtracked on his statement clarifying that he respects the court.
Morchas views sought on fresh amendment proposal
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been seeking suggestions from the leaders of the agitating Madhesi Morcha on the draft of the constitution amendment proposal to finalise it before registering in Parliament.
Nepal Airlines captain nabbed with undeclared USD 93,000 from TIA
A captain of the Nepal Airlines has been arrested with a huge amount of undeclared US dollar from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in the Capital on Sunday.
Nepals security forces received high ratings for their post-quake work
In two weeks, it will be the second anniversary of the biggest national tragedy in living memory that Nepal suffered.
Nidhi to skip Cabinet meeting
The protocol row between two deputy prime ministersBimalendra Nidhi and Kamal Thapahas repeatedly put off the Cabinet meeting, the latest slated for Sunday afternoon, even as a lot of important decisions to be taken by the government are pending.
PM Dahal signals recovery of due amount from Ncell
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday indicated that the government would not hesitate to recover due capital gains tax on sale of Ncell, the largest private sector telecom company, from Ncell itself, if the seller refuses to fulfil its tax obligation.
Rise in cement prices will be reviewed: NCMA
Nepal Cement Manufacturers Association, an umbrella organization of cement manufacturers in the country has agreed to review the recent price hike.
Saptari locals want govt to create environment for polls
People of Saptari district have urged the government to create an environment conducive to holding the local body elections, expressing concern over the Madhesi Morchas refusal to take part in the polls scheduled for May 14.
Tamang community celebrates Temal Jatra (Photo feature)
People from Tamang community are celebrating Temal Jatra on Monday.
UML creating rift between Hills and Madhes
Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has accused the CPN-UML of hatching conspiracies to create a rift between the people of Mountains, Hills and Madhes.
UML lawmaker demands resignation of DPM Nidhi
CPN-UML lawmaker Rewatiraman Bhandari has demanded resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bimalendra Nidhi saying that the latter is not worthy of holding the position.
CPN-UML refuses to buy two-phase polls proposal
The main opposition CPN-UML has insisted that the Local Level Elections must be held in a single phase.
Zero hour
Election preparations have gathered momentum. The Election Commission is on track to complete preparations, although there have been delays in printing ballot papers for Provinces 2 and 5.
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.
2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.
3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.
4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.
5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.
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By Damali Mukhaye
Forum for Democratic Changes Dr.Kiiza Besigye and a team of opposition leaders have been blocked by police from preceding to Kamuli district for the final campaign rally of Salamu Musumba their candidate for in the Kamuli by-elections.
The group of opposition leaders including city Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago were making their way to Kamuli to drum up support for their candidate ahead of Wednesdays by-elections.
Besigye and team have been advised to use a diversion which he has strongly opposed, prompting a scuffle between the police and the FDC supporters
Meanwhile, President Museveni is also expected in Kamuli this afternoon to campaign for the National Residence Movements candidate Rehema Watongola.
The by-election was organized after the High Court in Jinja nullified Watongolas election as MP for Kamuli Municipality due to lack of the required academic qualification.
By Betty Ndagire
Makerere University research fellow Dr Stella Nyanzi who was arrested last Friday has been arraigned in court today.
Dr Nyanzi, who was on Monday morning driven from Kira Divisional Police Headquarters where she has been in custody since her arrest, to Buganda Road Magistrates Court in a convoy of security cars was charged in relation to the alleged offensive Facebook posts she made about President Museveni specifically.
She is charged with two counts including cyber harassment contrary to section 24 (1)(2)(a) of the Computer misuse Act 2011 and offensive communication contrary to section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act 2011.
By Damali Mukhaye.
The controversial Makerere University research Fellow Dr. Stella Nyanzi is today expected to appear before court for allegedly insulting the first lady also minister of education Janet Kataha Museveni.
Kampala metropolitan Police Spokesperson Emilian Kayima has confirmed that Dr Nyanzi is supposed to appear before court on two charges including Cyber harassment under the computer Misuse Act of 2011 and offensive communication.
Nyanzi was arrested on Friday last week by plain clothed security operatives and is still detained at Kira division police station.
Nyanzi in different face book posts attacked the education Minister over her statements that government does not have money to buy sanitary pads for school going girls and her position against the transportation of children on boda-bodas which she said puts childrens lives at risk.
Nyanzi has since been suspended from Makerere University over her social media utterances. She is expected to appear before the appointments board for disciplinary action to be taken against her.
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BY JULIUS OCUNGI
A total of 3,500 South Sudanese refugees have pitched camp at the Uganda-South Sudan border post of Ngomoromo in Lamwo district as the Office of the Prime Minister finalizes plans to relocate them in the three settlement centers in the district.
Last month Lamwo district local government offered land for the establishment of refugee settlement camps in Palabek Gem, Palabek Kal and Palabek Ogili following influx of South Sudan refugees in the district.
The refugees fled their homes following the renewed fights that erupted last week in South Sudans Imatong state where government backed forces the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army [SPLA] launched an offensive against various militias in the area.
Mr Titus Jogo, the Refugee Desk Officer in OPM told Daily Monitor in an interview over the weekend that the refugees have been temporarily provided with shelter in Ngomoromo collection point as they finalise works in areas where they will be accommodated.
Mr Jogo said about 1,000 of the refugees have been relocated to Palorinya settlement camp in Adjumani district in the past three days, to decongest the overwhelming numbers at Ngomoromo border.
By Steven Ariong.
The governments of Kenya and Uganda have resolved to build primary schools along the Kenya Uganda border to help the pastoralists children get access to education.
The two governments made the decision last week during the cross border peace meeting held in Moroto district.
John Byabagambi the minister in charge of Karamoja affairs said building joint cross border schools would also help to cement the relationship between the Karimojong pastoralists and their brothers the Turkana.
Currently Karamoja region is hosting more than 90,000 Turkana pastoralists who crossed with their children and livestock in search of water and pasture.
The pastoralists are in the areas of Moroto, Kotido and Kaabong.
By Ruth Anderah
A former high ranking UPDF officer has gone to Court seeking compensation to the tune of Shs 1.2 billion for forceful retirement from the army.
Major Ronald Iduuli who is the Former defense counsel at Makindye General Court marital (GCM) has dragged the Uganda Peoples Defense Force (UPDF) through the Attorney General to the High Court for unlawful dismissal and forceful retirement from the army.
He has jointly sued the Attorney General and his former bosses Major Gen J.B Musanyufu and Colonel Dr Godard Busingye.
Maj. Iduuli wants court to issue an order compelling his bosses to compensate him with 1.2 billion resulting from his arrears, allowances and damages he has suffered since he was dismissed from the military.
Maj. Iduuli also wants court to declare that the actions of officers at chieftaincy of legal services in UPDF of removing him from the post of defense counsel at the General Court Martial without any message from the commander in chief without deploying him anywhere until his forced retirement were irrational and malicious.
He wants court to declare his bosses decisions as illegal and unconstitutional because he had not applied, attained the mandatory age, was not sick and didnt fall in any of these categories as unconstitutional and illegal.
In the same application Iduuli wants court to issue orders prohibiting the UPDF from further harassing him adding that ever since he served the respondents with a Notice of intention to Sue he has been receiving threats of arrest which has caused him a lot of fear.
GARRETT A ribbon-cutting Saturday officially opened the new office of Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry at 4490A S.R. 327 at the Mile Corner just north of Garrett. The organization focuses on reducing hunger issues throughout Indiana and has a mission of making a positive impact on the quality of life for Hoosiers by providing nutritious meat to hunger relief agencies within Indiana.
Founder and Executive Director Deb Treesh is the organizations only full-time employee with fund development director Amber Zecca as part-time employee. Since its establishment in 2011, the organization has been operating out of a second-story room at Treeshs Corunna home in an effort to keep down overhead expenses.
In the past six years, Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry has gone from working in just DeKalb County to working within 85 counties throughout Indiana, with 90 participating meat processors. The organization has paid the processing fees on approximately 757,000 pounds of donated large game and livestock providing over 3 million meals to Hoosiers in need.
Due to the outstanding growth of the organization, it was definitely time to find a larger work space, said Treesh.
After investigating possible spaces to lease with an estimated monthly expense of about $1,200, Treesh said the storage space at Tireville was offered by brothers Dave, Doug, Dana and Dennis Treesh who own the business, at a cost of $1 a year for rent.
But the unfinished, unheated building had no plumbing and needed many repairs that could add up to thousands of dollars in expense. Thanks to donations of materials and labor from dozens of organizations and businesses, the cost for the upgrades, including office furnishings was completely covered.
Goods and services were donated by Pranger Enterprises, Weller Electric, MidWest Exteriors (Jarrod Freed), Kaufman Well Drilling Inc., Jimelle Flooring Inc., Carter Lumber, Big C Lumber, Auburn Hardwood Mouldings, Interior Images (John Dudash), Hixson Sand & Gravel Inc., Molargik Woodworking (Jim Molargik), Angola Housing Authority, Walmart Distribution Center, Albrights One Stop, Garrett Chamber of Commerce and Garrett Do-It-Best Hardware. Volunteers from Walmart Distribution Center, Serenity House, Edward King Sr., Missy OConner, Melissa McCann, John Taylor, Matt Hause, Eric Wagaman, Andy Clugh, Paul Zecca and Molly Rosebury helped with painting.
Treesh and Zecca are excited to move into the freshly-painted and carpeted 1,000 square-foot office that includes a conference room, restrooms and kitchen carved out of unused space on the north end of the building. Earlier in the day Saturday, a donor brought in a framed picture to decorate the office wall, Treesh said. The only item that they needed to buy was a refrigerator for the break room, she added.
Treeshs twin grandsons, Bentley and Kaiden Treesh, age 6 held a yellow ribbon for Treesh and Zecca to cut at Saturdays opening. They were joined by board president Bill Hoover, retired chief operating officer for Community Harvest Food Bank. Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry has 14 board members and six advisors.
Treesh said volunteers are always needed. People can phone 260-541-0365 or 357-9619 for information. Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry operates through private donations and grants, and holds fundraising events throughout the year.
For more information on the Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry program, its services, to find participating meat processors or to help, visit hoosiersfeedingthehungry.org.
Anyone who didnt quite grasp Dr. Jeff Thompsons mantra when he was Gundersen Health System CEO and insisted that Gundersen exists not only to safeguard patients health but also to ensure the communitys health can get a clearer picture from his new book.
The subtitle of Lead True reveals a hint in its exhortation to Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, but the book itself is more practical than the title might suggest.
I had been thinking about it for a while, said Thompson, who resigned as Gundersens CEO in 2015 and now is CEO emeritus and adviser to the health system.
How do you add to the conversation about leadership when most books talk about strategy, growth and competition? he said during an interview Monday, the day before a book-signing at Gundersen.
The 245-page book does just that adds to the conversation by including local examples in which Gundersen officials took the time and energy to make decisions in the best interests of the hospital system, its employees and the Coulee Region in general even during the economic downturn in the late 2000s.
Human interest instead of platitudes
Those anecdotes, as well as stories from national leaders, set the book apart with a tone of human interest as opposed to page after page of smarmy platitudes.
For example, Thompson chronicles instances such as:
Gundersen investing financially in Logistics Health Inc. at a time when LHI founder Don Weber was looking for help to ensure that the company would stay in La Crosse and keep its thousands of jobs here.
During the national economic doldrums, when some Gundersen executives suggested layoffs to control costs, Thompson turning the tables on them, saying perhaps such job cuts should start at the top of the food chain. That changed their tune to one of belt-tightening without layoffs or skimping on care.
Despite being in a shaky time financially, Gundersen taking the National Child Protection Training Center under its wing because it was the right thing to do.
Similarly Gundersen sticking its neck out to construct a new inpatient behavioral health building at a time when other hospitals were shutting down mental health services because the community needed a local place for such patients and the convenience of their families.
My attempt was to give stories from many different venues, some of which involve health care and others which dont, he said.
I thought one of the fundamental (and more valuable) underpinnings of leadership is that it should be more value-based than ego- and money-based, Thompson said.
Lead True includes the tripod of courage, durability and discipline Thompson sees as the three pillars vital to lead truly.
Values require courage
Asked which of the three might be most important, he said, I think it starts with courage because, if you have values but dont have the courage to follow through, you dont get anywhere.
In the books foreward, General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt sums up Thompsons vision of how to get there by saying, Leaders must be clear about what they believe in. Your beliefs provide the foundation that helps you stay resolute and resilient. Yes, change requires adaptability, but you must balance that with a core vision and viewpoint that will allow you to achieve results over the long run.
Immelt draws parallels between Gundersen, which employs about 7,000 people in 19 counties in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, and GE, a digital industrial company with about 300,000 workers in 180 countries worldwide. About one-sixth of GEs employees work in GE Healthcare, making it as concerned as Gundersen is about improving health care productivity, affordability and quality to improve patient assess and outcomes, Immelt writes.
Leaders arent necessarily high and mighty figures with impressive titles, Thompson writes, noting that early lessons came from a woman who was secretary of a Methodist church.
She had never gone to college and wasnt the greatest speller, he writes, without identifying her. She was a pretty slow typist and was not really concerned about sentence structure or page organization.
Yet she was the absolute go-to person for years at the parish when it came to advancing their mission, he writes.
Leading from any seat was not a popular phrase then, but she was a strong, quiet leader, from a humble, values-driven seat, he notes, before adding an O. Henry ending to her description: Those were some of my first leadership lessons, and I am proud to call that woman Mom.
Local figures featured
Thompsons book features leadership challenges accepted and conquered by local figures such as WXOW-TV anchor Heather Thompson, former Tribune executive editor Chris Hardie and former Trane executive Jerry Arndt, who eventually worked at Gundersen until retiring on New Years Eve 2015, among others.
One of Gundersens most courageous decisions came in 2009, when LHIs Weber was trying to ensure that his company and its jobs remain in La Crosse.
In an interview Monday, Weber recalled that it had partnered with TA Associates, when the Boston investment firm had bought a majority stake in LHI for $72.5 million in 2003.
Such companies try to turn their investments around within five to seven years, said Weber, who began to worry as that point approached.
My concern was the possibility of getting a partner that didnt have my culture as its interests, Weber said.
My priority one was to maintain control and keep jobs here, he said.
Since the stock markets and other investment venues were not doing well at the time, Weber said, I took a shot in the dark and approached Gundersen. I said, I think youve been watching the company. If youre interested probably not (LHI) could be a good investment and return a great value in three to five years.
Thompson saw the value, saying Monday, That was a pretty monumental decision to take a large portion of our savings it wasnt from salaries or pensions and investing in a local company.
Gundersen board members studied the issue long and hard, the CEO emeritus said.
It made sense, Thompson said. Don and his group are thoughtful and values driven, and it was a difficult decision for him. He could have cashed out like some do but he wanted to keep the company and the jobs in the community.
Gundersen bought minority interest for an undisclosed amount and cashed out with a tidy profit less than 1 years later when Weber secured a buyer, OptumHealth, that guaranteed to keep the company and its jobs in La Crosse.
It gave me time to find the right buyer, Weber said.
Stern marching orders, without layoffs
In the layoffs example, asked what kind of looks were on the vice presidents faces when he suggested that job cutbacks should start at their levels, Thompson said, They werent terribly surprised. They had all volunteered to work with me, and they knew how I was wired.
By the same token, they knew that if we didnt go the easy way to lay people off to balance the budget, there would be hard times deciding where to prune, he said.
The board issued stern marching orders, the executives made cuts elsewhere rather than staff, and the hospital weathered the downturn, he said.
An employee who asked not to be named said Monday that the decision was huge for workers, making them feel safe with the knowledge that Gundersen had their backs.
My point was, as leader, you look for the long term. If somebody was going to get pounded with this, it should be us and not the front lines, said Thompson, whose book is available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble for $24.95, with proceeds going to the Gundersen Medical Foundations newly created Leadership Development Fund.
Developing people is one of the most important things we do, he said. Thats so important, and people development is an amazing part of our success.
Two new faces will join the Western Technical College board of directors in July.
Three openings were filled Monday morning, with one incumbent and two new members to start three-year terms July 1.
Edward Lukasek, who is also a member of the Sparta City Council, was originally appointed to the board in 2010.
JF Brennan Co. vice president of asset management Ken Peterson of La Crosse County and Michelle Greendeer-Rave, Jackson County attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation, were appointed to their first terms on the board.
The three members were chosen from a field of five candidates by the colleges Board Appointment Committee, led by La Crosse County Board Chair Tara Johnson.
The Western District includes all or portions of 11 Western Wisconsin counties: Buffalo, Clark, Crawford, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland, Sauk, Trempealeau and Vernon. The college is operated under the direction of the board, which is composed of nine members who serve staggered three-year terms.
WASHINGTON On Aug. 20, 1998, American Tomahawk cruise missiles hit sites in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The targets of the assault, ordered by President Bill Clinton, were Osama bin Laden and his band of terrorists.
In light of what would happen three years later, on Sept. 11, 2001, Madeleine Albright, Clintons secretary of state, was prescient. We are embarked, she said on a venture in which we have to deal over the long run with what is the very serious threat to our way of life at the end of this century and the next one.
One might imagine that Clintons decision was broadly popular. In fact, his move was met with an explosion of querulous partisanship. It occurred at the height of the controversy over his sexual relationship with a young White House intern that would, later in the year, lead to his impeachment. Many in the GOP charged that Clinton was trying to distract the nation from his scandal.
Clinton, as John Harris reported that summer in The Washington Post, was accused of following a Wag the Dog strategy so-named after the movie in which a president tries to draw attention away from a sexual scandal by staging a phony war.
Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., who now serves in President Trumps administration as director of national intelligence, was one of the skeptics. After months of lies and deceit and manipulations and deceptions stonewalling it raised into doubt everything he does and everything he says, said Coats. He insisted that it is legitimate to question the timing of this action.
John Ashcroft, then a senator from Missouri, asked: Were these forces sent at this time because he needed to divert our attention from his personal problems?
Trumps critics are certainly tempted to pursue a similar line of thinking about the strike he directed against Syria in retaliation for the odious chemical attack on civilians by President Bashar al-Assads government. After all, Republicans paid no price when they questioned Clintons motives, and Trump would sorely love to divert the public from the disastrous opening weeks of his administration.
In particular, he has been happy to level false charges first against former President Obama and then against Susan Rice, Obamas national security adviser to shift the focus away from inquiries into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russias subversion of the 2016 election. The fact checkers regularly remind us that Trump meets the Coats standard of being a politician about whom we can reasonably doubt everything he does and everything he says.
But the Clinton experience should teach a different lesson. Albright was right to suggest that the threat posed by bin Laden should have taken more seriously than our inward-looking political system allowed in 1998, and Syria presents humanitarian and foreign policy problems that must be debated on their own merits.
On the strike itself, many Democrats (including the Senate and House Democratic leaders, Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi) had called for proportionate action against Assad back when he used chemical weapons in 2013. Unlike Trump, they chose to be consistent with their past positions. In supporting the president on last weeks military operation, Schumer, Pelosi and many others in their party signaled that upholding American values was more important than partisanship, even when a man they deeply mistrust occupies the White House.
But one military strike does not make a foreign policy, and when you watch Trump speak on the subject, its hard to escape the sense that he has absolutely no idea what hes doing.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have inadvertently given Assad a green light late last month by abandoning Obamas stated policy that the dictator needed to be pushed out of power. What was the administration thinking? What comes next, and will Congress be involved? How do his approaches to Russia, Iran and Syria fit together? If Trump is moved by the suffering of Syrias people, how can he keep blocking refugees from our shores?
Trumps opponents should not imitate the shortsightedness of Clintons 1998 critics. They should instead put their skepticism to work in pressing for a coherence on international matters that Trump has, to this point, been incapable of delivering.
In the midst of protests from white Minnesota legislators about being discriminated against, I couldn't help but notice that they were crying "foul" from their break room.
Evidently they are so caught up in earning their salaries for doing the public's work that they have time to lounge around eating donuts and pizza.
Since I am sure that they desire to do productive work and earn their keep, I have a suggestion. Why not have one of their own, Rep. Greg Davids, take them out to his farm fields where they could do the work that they seem to be most qualified for: spreading fertilizer.
Habitat for Humanity La Crosse Area is excited to celebrate April as National Volunteer Month and April 23-29 for National Volunteer Week.
Like many non-profits, Habitat for Humanity La Crosse Area could not do the work we do without our volunteers.
Based on the latest statistics from the Corporation for National and Community Service, 35.3 percent of Wisconsin residents volunteer, ranking us third in the nation in overall volunteerism. This equals 1,630,800 total volunteers logging more than 169.03 million hours of service for a whopping $4.6 billion of services delivered.
In 2016, 442 people volunteered at Habitat for Humanity La Crosse Area for a total of 15,092 hours. Thats more than seven full-time jobs.
In that year, they built homes for families. They volunteered in our ReStore. They gave of their time to improve local neighborhoods. They served on committees, for special events and in our offices. They all made their communities better.
To our Habitat for Humanity volunteers and to our volunteers everywhere, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for your time, passion and commitment.
I am writing to thank Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., for her opposition to the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Senator Baldwin stood up for what is right in a number of ways by sticking to her principled stance.
First, the Republicans refused to allow former President Obamas nomination of Judge Garland to even receive a hearing. To accept that control of the Senate is sufficient to stop any Supreme Court justice from being confirmed is a dangerous precedent.
The Constitution separates the powers of the executive branch and the legislative branch for an important reason, to stop either branch from becoming too powerful.
For the Senate to usurp the nomination power of former President Obama is a perilous step.
Second, President Trumps disdain for the judicial branch calls into question whether it is appropriate for him to make a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. From referring to the judge who struck down his unconstitutional travel ban as a so-called judge to his questioning of another judges ability to rule because of his race, President Trump has not shown proper respect for the nation's judicial branch.
Third, Judge Gorsuch is outside the norm of judicial appointees to the Supreme Court. He has consistently ruled against protections for those with disabilities, has voted to allow discrimination against legal immigrants and has put corporate interests consistently ahead of the interest of the worker.
For many reasons, Judge Gorsuch should not be confirmed.
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Anna has been wanting to go back to school for a long time. In this lesson, we go to class with her at Georgetown University, where she is getting ready to give a report in her class. Did she understand the directions? See the whole lesson at http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/lets-learn-english-lesson-50-back-to-school/3771173.html
VOA Learning English presents Americas Presidents.
Today we are talking about Martin Van Buren. He was sworn in as the eighth president of the United States in 1837.
Van Buren had already been working for the White House for several years. He had been the secretary of state for President Andrew Jackson, and later his vice president.
Jackson asked his party, the Democrats, to nominate Van Buren as their presidential candidate in the 1836 election.
They agreed, and Van Buren won that election easily. But he did not win the next election. Or the next. Or the next.
Presidency
In his inaugural speech in 1837, Van Buren noted that he was the first U.S. president to be born after the American Revolution.
He was also the first president who was not from a British family. His ancestors were Dutch.
He remains the only president so far who did not speak English as his first language.
In his inaugural speech, Van Buren predicted better times for Americans.
But several days later, an economic crisis struck. The situation put the country in a depression that lasted for the rest of Van Burens term. It was one reason the presidents opponents called him Martin Van Ruin.
The depression was not Van Burens only problem. He also faced a dispute with Britain related to the border between the U.S. and Canada. The conflict nearly turned into war.
Historian Joel Silbey says most experts do not think Van Buren was a strong president.
However, Silbey notes, Van Buren left an important legacy that still operates today: He created the modern U.S. political system.
Early life
Van Burens political education began early.
His father was a farmer and operated a hotel at a small town in New York State. Lawmakers sometimes visited the hotel. By listening to them, the future president learned about politics.
Eventually, Van Buren studied in a law office and became a lawyer. In the first years of his career, he defended farmers who were fighting large plantation owners for their land. As a result, he developed a reputation for helping the common man.
Van Buren became a local official, and then a senator and governor of New York.
When he was 24, he married a young woman he had grown up with. But she died of tuberculosis after 12 years, leaving him with four sons.
Historian Joel Silbey says although Van Buren did not remarry, he was known as quite charming among the ladies.
Political animal
Van Buren had a gift for politics that is, developing relationships and forming alliances.
Historian Joel Silbey says most people who knew Van Buren liked him. He seemed warm and friendly. He tried to keep his work-related life and social activities separate. It was not unusual to see him exchange handshakes, smiles and jokes with men who were his political enemies.
His ability to make friends became a powerful tool. Before Van Buren, even lawmakers from the same political party operated independently. They had their own beliefs, their own supporters, and their own allies. Van Buren brought them together.
First he identified people who followed the ideas of Thomas Jefferson: support for independent farmers and states rights. The group had become known as the Democratic Party (although it was in many ways different from the Democratic Party of today).
Van Buren organized meetings for Democrats to talk about their political beliefs. He persuaded them to support the same policies at that time, the policies of Andrew Jackson.
Sometimes, Van Buren helped people who supported Jacksons policies. He gave them government jobs.
Van Buren also used a series of meetings to choose one presidential candidate for the party. If this process seems clear-cut, it was not at the time. During the election of 1824, for example, a single party had four separate candidates for president, one for each part of the country.
Van Burens system eventually gave rise to the national conventions that major U.S. parties use today to nominate their candidates.
Model campaigner
Van Buren also helped create the modern political campaign. In the 1820s, he saw that many state constitutions were lifting some of their voting restrictions. As a result, states were giving more white males the right to vote. (Women and most African-American men were still largely prohibited from voting.)
Historian Joel Silbey says Van Buren wanted to bring these new voters into the Democratic Party. He decided to improve on the methods that other, smaller groups had used: campaign events, speeches, and organized efforts to bring people to vote on Election Day.
Silbey explains that these efforts to persuade and energize voters were new to national politics. Now they are some of the major features of political campaigns.
Live by the sword, die by the sword
In the election of 1840, Van Buren sought a second term as president. This time his opponents used Van Burens political techniques against him.
Silbey says the new opposition party, called the Whigs, used popular speeches and events to portray Van Buren as a failed president.
Crowds shouted, Mattie Van is a used-up man! In other words, he no longer had any power or effect in government.
Critics also made fun of Van Burens fine-looking, even fussy clothes. They portrayed him as a rich, elite candidate. They compared him unfavorably to their candidate, a military hero named William Henry Harrison.
Yet it was Van Buren who had come from a poor family, and Harrison from a wealthy one.
Even so, Van Buren lost the election of 1840.
Four years later, Van Buren again sought the presidency. This time, even Andrew Jackson did not support him. Instead, Jackson backed a man who supported the seizure of Texas and expanding slavery: James Polk.
But Van Buren did not permit those defeats to stop his political career. He ran again in the presidential election of 1848.
This time, Van Buren withdrew from the Democratic Party he had helped build. He ran instead as the candidate of a new, anti-slavery party, called the Free Soilers.
But even Van Burens political skills could not persuade voters. He did not win a single state.
After losing this final presidential election, Van Buren finally retired. He spent time with his children and grandchildren, traveled, and wrote about his life.
At 79 he died of heart failure.
Im Kelly Jean Kelly.
Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
inaugural - adj. happening as part of an official ceremony or celebration when a newly elected official begins an important job
reputation - n. the common opinion that people have about someone or something
charming - adj. very pleasing or appealing
ladies - n. women, usually of high social position
clear-cut - adj. obvious
features - n. important parts
portray - v. to describe someone in a particular way
fussy - adj. to fancy or complicated
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.
April is Autism Awareness Month in the United States.
Autism, also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a complex developmental disability. It affects a persons ability to communicate and do things with other people.
Children with autism face many challenges.
For examples, schools can be a difficult place for autistic children. Many schools are filled with loud noises, active classrooms and nearly non-stop social interactions.
So, researchers in Britain have made a child-sized robot to help autistic children learn social skills.
The robot, called Kaspar, can improve their ability to communicate with adults and other children.
Dealing with Kaspar is easier for most children with autism than interacting with someone else. The robot uses games and songs to help the children learn social interaction and communication skills.
Ben Robins is with the University of Hertfordshire. He says the robots movements are directed by an adult, who uses remote control equipment. So a teacher or therapist is always involved.
Robins explains that the robot gives therapists more ways to interact with autistic children. He adds that the children seem more at ease when they look at Kaspars face.
"Sometimes they're looking into the face and they're eye-gazing with the robot much more than what they do with a person."
He adds Kaspar is flexible. It can change to meet the needs of the 170 children who have played with him over the past 10 years.
This flexibility is important.
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often have problems with spoken language and eye contact. But the signs of the condition can differ greatly from one child to the next.
The word spectrum is an important part of the definition. You might hear of a child described as being on the spectrum. This means that tests showed the child has some level of autism. It could be minor or quite severe.
Alice Lynch works with an organization called Tracks Autism. She has been studying Kaspars effect on students in the classroom.
Lynch says the robot has had a major effect on the behavior of the students. She notes there was one boy who could not eat with his classmates. But now after feeding Kaspar, he has begun to take part, or integrate himself, in classroom activities. For example, he now eats meals with other students.
"And then we started doing it with Kaspar and he really, really enjoyed feeding Kaspar, making him eat when he was hungry, things like that. And now he's started to integrate into the classroom and eat alongside his peers."
Ben Robins says research like this is important. It shows that what the child learns with Kaspar transfers to other situations or contexts in his or her life.
"This long-term study is very important, because it's important to see is there's any transference of these skills when they play with the robot into other context like in the classroom or at home; what's happened outside the context of the robot."
The Kaspar robot is still in development. However, its designers say their goal is to see every child who could benefit from the robot get their very own Kaspar.
And thats the Health & Lifestyle report.
Im Anna Matteo.
Faith Lapidus reported this story for VOA News. Anna Matteo adapted her report for Learning English. She included information from several autism websites. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
therapist n. a person who helps people deal with mental or emotional problems by talking about those problems : a person trained in psychotherapy
flexible adj. able to change or to do different things
integrate v. to make (a person or group) part of a larger group or organization usually + into
peer n. a person who belongs to the same age group or social group as someone else
transfer v. to move (someone or something) from one place to another
transference n. the act of moving something from one place to another
context n. the situation in which something happens : the group of conditions that exist where and when something happens
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Now, test your understanding of the story with this short quiz.
Human exploration of Mars is now an official goal of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill to increase NASAs budget. The law sets spending at $19.5 billion for the 12-month period starting on October 1, 2017. Congress will need to approve the money.
And for the first time, the NASA budget adds human exploration of Mars as an official goal for the agency.
The president spoke at the signing ceremony. Trump said he was happy to sign the spending plan into law. He added that for almost 60 years NASA has inspired millions of Americans to imagine distant worlds and a better future on earth.
It's been a long time since a bill like this has been signed, reaffirming our national commitment to the core mission of NASA: human space exploration, space science and technology."
Working with private companies
Sending astronauts to Mars is the next great test for NASA. Space agency officials hope to have people on Mars by the 2030s. The agency is expected to develop new technology to carry out the mission by working with private companies.
SpaceX, owned by businessman Elon Musk, is working on its own plan to get to Mars. His company plans to launch an unmanned spaceship to the red planet as soon as 2018.
When sending anyone into deep space, one of the biggest problems is how to deal with damaging radiation. The spacecraft has to be built with materials that protect against the effects of radiation. But more work is needed.
Working to protect against radiation
Scientists are working on ways to protect astronauts from the radiation they will face while traveling outside Earths atmosphere. The atmosphere and Earths magnetic fields protect us from the damaging and possibly deadly effects of cosmic and gamma rays from our sun and outer space. High levels of radiation can lead to cancer and sometimes death.
If there were a nuclear disaster here on Earth, it would take several meters of lead or thick concrete to keep us safe from the radiation.
The same is true for astronauts in space.
The thin atmospheres of the moon and Mars will not provide protection for the people who might travel or live there. So shielding human beings from radiation is a critical part of colonizing space.
Scientists are working on several methods of protection.
Radiation vest
One involves a vest to be worn by astronauts. Called the AstroRad Radiation Shield, it is a product of an Israeli company called StemRad.
Gideon Waterman is StemRads chief technology officer.
"From the worst case of a nuclear disaster, to the best case of humans walking on Mars, we're providing the best possible radiation protection."
The vest is designed to protect vital human tissue, like reproductive organs and lungs, from radiation. It will also protect stem cells. These are simple cells in the body that are able to develop into different kinds of cells, such as blood cells, cells for making skin or other body parts.
The vest may get its first test in space in 2018. It may travel into space when NASAs Orion spacecraft makes its first test trip around the moon. StemRad says it will provide the same protection as a shielded safe room traveling on the Orion.
Oren Milstein is the companys CEO and Chief Scientific Officer.
"Based on our simulations we're sure it works, but, you know, to be one hundred percent sure, we're sending this up EM-1 (Exploration Mission 1) which is NASA's next launch of the Orion space capsule."
The vest is lightweight. It is made of many small cells. These cells are grouped together, so the device looks almost like a honeycomb made by a bee. Every vest will be made individually for each astronaut.
NASA options under development
NASA is also exploring other ways for dealing with the radiation. One idea is building a storm shelter deep inside the floor of the Orion spacecraft. Astronauts would hide there in the event of a solar flare storm. Solar flares are sudden bursts of energy from a small area of the sun's surface.
The space agency is also working on developing drugs, like anti-oxidants, to fight the effects of radiation. This medicine could be taken to reverse some of the effects of severe radiation exposure from solar flares.
Im Anne Ball.
Anne Ball wrote this story for Learning English based on VOA news reports and additional material. 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.
See how well you understand the story by taking this reading quiz.
Quiz - Humans to Mars Now NASA Goal, But What About Radiation? Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz
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Words in This Story
inspire v. to make (someone) want to do something : to give (someone) an idea about what to do or create
reaffirm v. to formally state (something) again in order to emphasize that it is true
core n. the most important or basic part of something
mission n. a task or job that someone is given to do
vital adj. extremely important
honeycomb n. a group of wax cells with six sides that are built by honeybees in their hive and that contain young bees or honey
reverse v. to change (something) to an opposite state or condition
Should American high school students know at least as much about their countrys historic documents as immigrants seeking citizenship? Many states and schools are asking that question.
People who want to become American citizens must know about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist papers. These documents were written in the late 1700s by some of the founders of the country.
But, some experts say American students generally know little about these founding documents. They say if students do not understand the documents, they cannot know how the American system of government operates.
So, an increasing number of American schools are requiring students learn about these documents before they can graduate. Individual states are using different methods for teaching the subject.
Since 2012, Kentucky, Arkansas and at least 12 other states put into effect such requirements. Students in those states learn about the founding documents as part of their social studies classes.
But lawmakers in other states -- including Minnesota -- want to give students a greater understanding of the documents. They want schools to teach a separate course about them.
Maida Buckley is a retired history and government teacher in Fairbanks, Alaska. Last year, she spoke at a meeting of state legislators studying the issue of civics education. She supports expanded study of the founding documents.
Buckley says, when you have a system of government that is based on ideas -- espoused in the Declaration of Independence and carried out with a working document in the Constitution -- those ideas need to be taught.
In many states, Republicans and Democrats support the teaching of the documents, although their reasons may differ. Some are concerned about the lack of public involvement in school boards and town halls. Others are worried about the way Republican President Donald Trump and his supporters use their power.
Gregg Amore is a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He also has taught history classes in high schools for many years. He supports a bill that says the survival of the republic depends on Americans understanding their countrys principles and history.
He says we clearly have seen there is a serious civics deficiency in this country, all the way up to the top -- the very top.
The Joe Foss Institute is a non-profit civics education group based in Arizona. It is campaigning to persuade states to pass laws requiring their students to know the answers to the questions on the citizenship test.
But some supporters of civics education do not support such laws.
Charles Quigley is the executive director of the Center for Civic Education. He says students take too many tests already.
Quigleys group developed We the People, a nationwide civics education program. Some teachers at North Smithfield High School in Rhode Island are using the We the People curriculum to teach about the founding documents. The curriculum calls for students to take part in a national competition in which they must defend their ideas.
Recently, students debated whether police may search a suspects smart phone without receiving permission from a judge. They talked about the Constitutions limits on searches. And they discussed the past opinions of Supreme Court justices about searches.
Natalie OBrien is the teacher. She tells her students to think about the more than 200 years of American history and legal thought.
Megan Skinner is a 15-year-old student at the school. She says she did not think about politics before she took OBriens class. But she says now she uses the founding documents when her family and friends talk about President Trumps administration.
It gives us an entirely new perspective on all the events that are going on, Skinner says. You see all these things in the news, and especially about the election, and all the things that are going on with the executive orders he (signed), the travel bans. Before this class, we wouldnt have understood these things.
Im Caty Weaver.
The Associated Press reported this story. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in This Story
civics n. a social science dealing with the rights and duties of citizens
espouse v. to take up and support as a cause
republic n. a form of government with a chief of state who has term limits
principle n. a rule, policy or value
deficiency n. the state of lacking some necessary quality
perspective n. the ability to understand what is important; the direction in which someone looks at an object
Countries around the disputed South China Sea are letting travelers visit small islands in the Sea to strengthen territorial claims. But experts say the practice will not be able to continue for a long time because it does not make economic sense.
In early March, a cruise ship from China took 300 people to the Paracel Islands. Vietnam, which has also claimed the islets, criticized the decision. The first cruise ship to visit the islands from China did so in 2013.
In December, a Chinese airline began charter flights from the southern city of Haikou to Woody Island, the biggest in the Paracels.
Malaysia lets tourists visit one of the islands it claims in the Spratly Island chain. Taiwan has also considered doing so in another part of the sea.
Frederick Burke is a partner at the international law firm Baker & McKenzie in Ho Chi Minh City. He says people from Vietnam are visiting the disputed Spratly Islands to strengthen their countrys claim to the chain.
Burke said they go out on boats to see what all the excitement is about.
He added, I suppose from a marine biology perspective some of those reefs are the fishing hatcheries for the entire sea, and Im sure there are some interesting destinations for divers."
Traditional tourism is still rare
But experts say most of those who travel to the sea will be patriots and adventure-seekers. They say the travelers must be prepared to travel a long distance, visit a place with little infrastructure and risk being caught in a conflict with another country.
Christian de Guzman is the vice president and senior credit officer of Moodys in Singapore. He also believes countries are using tourism to strengthen their territorial claims.
However, he says tourism to the sea probably has little economic benefit.
Malaysia has let foreign and domestic tourists visit Pulau Layang Layang in the Spratly chain since 1989. The islet is also known as Swallow Reef. It is used by the Malaysian navy. It has a 53-room diving resort, which organizes chartered flights from Malaysian Borneo 300 kilometers away.
In 2015, a Philippine military general told reporters that his country would begin developing Pagasa, one of the nine Spratly islands it claims.
Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines claim parts of the sea, which is highly valued because of its fisheries, marine shipping lanes and undersea reserves of oil and gas. China and Taiwan claim almost the entire 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea.
Most new construction is by the Chinese
China has quickly expanded territory in the sea since 2010. It has created at least 3,000 acres of land so that once-tiny reefs can be used for military operations. Its ships also sail regularly in waters claimed by other countries.
There is little infrastructure on many of the islets, except to support military operations.
Pulau Layang Layang is the only disputed South China Sea islet with a large resort.
There are about 200 people on Taiwan-controlled Taiping Island. Most work for the coast guard.
The 1,000 people living in Sansha, a Chinese city on Woody Island, have a bank, hospital and a large food store. But drinking water was still being brought in as of last year. China hopes to attract tourists to the island for diving, surfing and weddings.
Im Dorothy Gundy.
Correspondent Ralph Jennings reported this story from Taipei. Christoper Jones Cruise adapted the report for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.
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Words in This Story
islet - n. small island
charter - adj. temporary use
chain - n. a series or group of something that are connected
perspective - n. a way of thinking or understanding
hatchery - n. a place where people raise chicken, fish ... from eggs
destinations - n. a place to which a person is going
resort - n. a place where people go for vacations
reserve - n. a supply of something that is stored
entire - adj. complete or full
Egyptian Christians were burying their dead on Monday after suicide attacks that killed at least 45 people at two Coptic Christian churches in two cities.
Dozens more were wounded in the Palm Sunday bombings at St. Georges church, north of Cairo, and St. Marks Cathedral in Alexandria.
Palm Sunday is a holy day for Christians to celebrate Christs arrival at the city of Jerusalem, a week before Easter.
The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the bombings. Egypts government declared a state of emergency with fears of more violence.
The attacks came less than a week after Egypts President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met at the White House with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss fighting extremism.
The White House said President Trump spoke with President el-Sissi on Sunday "to convey his deepest condolences to Egypt and to the families who lost loved ones in the heinous terrorist attacks against Christian churches on Palm Sunday."
The statement adds: "The president also expressed his confidence in President el-Sissi's commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians."
Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypts 92 million people. It is the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.
Bishop Ahba Suriel is a Coptic Christian leader in Melbourne, Australia. He told VOA more needs to be done to protect Christians in the Middle East because, he says, they are targets of Islamic State.
..its very clear that there is a type of ethnic cleansing by ISIS targeted towards Christians of the Middle East with a particular emphasis on the Copts of Egypt.
The bombings happened weeks before Pope Francis plans a visit to Egypt. The pope said:
"I pray for the dead and the injured, and I am close in spirit to their families and the entire community. May the Lord convert the hearts of people who sow terror, violence and death, and even the hearts of those who produce and traffic in weapons."
Egypts Christians have been a frequent target of terrorist attacks, including arsons, assaults and bombings. The AP reports that a church bombing last December killed 30 people in Cairo, and a series of killings in the Sinai Peninsula have caused hundreds to leave for safer areas.
Im Anne Ball.
Victor Beattie and Zlatica Hoke reported on this story for VOA. Anne Ball adapted the story for Learning English with additional information from the Associated Press (AP). Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit us on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
condolence n. a feeling or expression of sympathy and sadness especially when someone is suffering because of a death
heinous adj. very bad or evil
ethnic cleansing - n. the practice of removing or killing people who belong to an ethnic group that is different from the ruling group in a country or region
convert v. to change something into a different form so it can be used a different way
The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.
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The upcoming, multi-award winning Agritech Expo at GART in Chisamba will offer free workshops with practical advice and live demonstrations to help farmers combat challenges such as the armyworm invasion, explore new technologies such as aquaculture, and learn from experts on improving efficiency and yields on their farms.
US Department of State via Wikimedia Commons
Armyworm and aquaculture
The Armyworm Combat Workshop will take place on Saturday, 29 April and will provide an opportunity for agri-institutions and all scale farmers to take part in discussions and contribute to creating an effective battle plan to avoid a similar crisis in the future. The session will be led by Dr Anton Chapoto, director of research at the Indaba Agriculture Policy Research Institute (IAPRI).
The Aquaculture Development Association of Zambia (ADAZ), a supporting association of Agritech Expo Zambia, are amongst the experts who will address farmers during the free workshops at the event. With the deficit in supply of fish by the local market, and the inability by capture fisheries to meet the demand for fish, only through fish farming as a business shall we meet this demand, says Mulolwa Simposya, ADAZ acting executive manager. He adds the aquaculture sector has a very high potential for alleviating poverty for many small-scale farmers while increasing the sectors contribution to the national GDP.
Agritech Expo Zambia workshops programme:
Thursday, 27 April 2017 - Commercial Farmers Focus Day workshops
Theme: Advancing commercial farming through financial support and innovation
Topics:
Integrated, low-risk crop protection solutions
Cash flow-based solutions
Breakthrough microbial formulations
Key fundamentals of finance and farm management
Friday, 28 April Saturday, 29 April - Interactive training workshops
Theme: Shaping todays farmers through smarter additions
Topics:
Sustainable disease management
Financial skills
Advanced crop nutrition
Increasing crop productivity
Effects of nitrogen on yield
Poultry broiler and layer houses
Generate energy from chicken waste
Integrating fish farming with conventional crops
Saturday, 29 April - Armyworm Combat workshop
Theme: Arresting the armyworms evolved nature to revive the agri economys livelihood
Topics:
Natural orientation: Introduction to the armyworm crisis in Zambia
Panel discussion: Identifying battle plans to defeat the armyworm parasite
Agritech Expo Zambia 2017 will take place at the Gart Research Centre, Chisamba, Zambia from 27-29 April 2017.
Air Macau has opened its local Cadet Pilot Program for another round.
Following the programs debut last year, the company has moved to the second edition of the program, which aims to train an additional 10 cadet pilots.
According to an Air Macau representative, the program has not undergone any significant changes from last years edition, which also recruited 10 cadets to be trained at Frances Civil Aviation University (ENAC, Ecole nationale de laviation civile).
The program began in September last year and is expected to take 30 months.
This year, eligible applicants must hold a Macau Permanent ID with a valid passport, as in the previous years amended criteria.
The program initially required applicants to hold a Macau SAR passport. This excluded residents not of Chinese nationality, even though the program has been primarily advertised in the Chinese language.
The company also claims to be investing around MOP20 million in the program to address the airlines future needs.
Chen Hong, President of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Air Macau, previously stated that he expects Air Macau to expand from the current 17 aircraft to a total of 25 after 2020, a prediction that justifies a significant expansion in the training of new pilots to take part in the companys plans for growth.
During last years departure ceremony for the programs first 10 cadets, Chen also stated that Air Macau will continue to recruit more local pilots for training in Macau. The program is expected to be held once a year. At the same time, Air Macau will also provide diversified development opportunities to the ambitious young men who want to join the aviation industry.
An Air Macau spokesperson added that they expect this years program to be more efficient and comprehensive than last year.
Albergue SCM is calling for participants for its Design and Art Field Trip 2017 Shenzhen, which will be held between April 20 to 22.
Sponsored by the Macao Foundation, the tour is intended to promote cultural exchanges of art and design professionals from Macau and Shenzhen.
The itinerary includes visits to the Shenzhen Design Week, China Guanlan Original Printmaking Base and Dafen Oil Painting Village. According to a statement by Albergue SCM, the tour will accept up to 20 participants. Selected candidates will be contacted by phone. Applications for the program are open until April 13.
What was billed as a showdown between the leaders of the United States and China over trade and North Korea ended with little sign of confrontation Friday or of concrete progress in resolving their differences.
President Donald Trump had predicted a very difficult meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. After their first face-to-face at the Mar-a-Lago resort, he trumpeted they had developed an outstanding relationship.
U.S. officials said the two sides agreed to increase cooperation on trying to get North Koreas to abandon its nuclear weapons program, and China acknowledged the need for more balanced trade with the U.S.
But the two days of meetings appeared heavier on optics than substance. The most powerful message for the Chinese leader may have been Trumps decision to launch U.S. missile strikes at Syria.
Those strikes added weight to Trumps threat last week to act unilaterally against North Koreas weapons program although a much heavier risk would be required to take military action against the nuclear-
armed North, which has its artillery and missiles trained on a key U.S. ally, South Korea.
The U.S. administrations first recourse is very likely to be economic pushing China to crack down on Chinese banks and companies said to provide North Korea access to the international financial system.
In a possible harbinger of the kind of punishments Washington could inflict, a leading Chinese telecoms company, ZTE, was fined nearly USD900 million in March for shipping sensitive U.S.-made technology to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.
They recognize that shows our clear determination to crack down on this sort of activity, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. and China agreed to increase cooperation and work with the international community to convince the DPRK to peacefully resolve the issue and abandon its illicit weapons programs. DPRK stands for North Koreas official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
Tillerson said Trump and Xi noted the urgency of the threat of North Koreas weapons program and that they reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearization of the divided Korean Peninsula.
On trade issues, Trump called for China to level the playing field for American workers, stressing the need for reciprocal market access. He also noted the importance of protecting human rights, and asked China to adhere to international norms in the seas of East Asia, Tillerson said.
As a candidate and president, Trump has taken an aggressive posture toward China, labeling Beijing a tremendous problem and arguing that lopsided trade deals with China shortchange American businesses and workers. Some $347 billion of the $502 billion trade deficit recorded by the U.S. last year was with China.
Trump said in a brief appearance before reporters Friday that he and Xi made tremendous progress in their talks and that he believes lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away. He did not elaborate.
For Xi, who is entering a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress in the fall, the meeting with Trump was more about stabilizing the critical U.S.-China relationship and burnishing his foreign policy credentials than achieving a breakthrough. The only other foreign leader to be hosted at Mar-a-Lago during Trumps presidency so far is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a close U.S. ally.
Speaking alongside Trump, Xi said the two delegations discussed important topics and established a good friendship and working relationship. He noted the historic responsibility of both countries the worlds largest economies and emerging military rivals to work toward peace and stability. Vivian Salama and Matthew Pennington, Florida, AP
Xinhua describes meeting as positive and fruitful
U.S. officials said President Donald Trumps first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week was an opportunity for the leaders of the worlds two largest economies to get to know each other and set up future meetings.
Chinas official news agency Xinhua said Saturday that the positive and fruitful meeting has sent a clear-cut message that Washington and Beijing can become great cooperative partners.
The presidents didnt mention the Syria attack, and even steered clear in their public remarks of issues like trade that were supposed to dominate the summit.
They remarked generally about progress in their relationship and optimism about the future. That could indicate that the relationship between the two countries remains stable, despite Trumps fiery accusations during his campaign, and afterward, that China has stolen U.S. manufacturing jobs.
The relationship developed by President Xi and myself, I think, is outstanding, Trump said Friday during a meeting between the two countries delegations. I believe lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away.
We have been treated unfairly and have made terrible trade deals with China for many, many years, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last week as he flew to Palm Beach. Thats one of the things we are going to be talking about.
His Cabinet secretaries said that Trump indeed confronted Xi.
Meanwhile, in a posting on its website on Saturday, Chinas foreign ministry said the countries had agreed to properly deal with issues of trade friction.
President Trump noted the challenges caused by Chinese government intervention into its economy, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. The president underscored the need for China to take concrete steps to level the playing field for American workers, stressing repeatedly the need for reciprocal market access. MDT/Bloomberg
Only time will tell on trade
President Donald Trump says his meetings with Chinas President Xi Jinping went well but as for any progress on trade only time will tell. Trump tweeted Saturday that It was a great honor to have President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan of China as our guests in the United States. Tremendous goodwill and friendship was formed, but only time will tell on trade. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Friday that the two sides would report back in 100 days on ways to make U.S.-China trade more balanced. Trump has repeatedly hammered China for exporting more to the U.S. than it buys. Hes also criticized China for grabbing jobs that could otherwise go to Americans.
The head of Chinas top insurance regulator is under investigation by the Communist partys corruption watchdog in the midst of an insurance industry crackdown that he has spearheaded.
Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, is suspected of severe disciplinary violations according to a brief statement on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which has tackled official corruption under President Xi Jinping.
The CCDI gave no further details.
Mr Xiang, who rose to prominence after taking on some of the largest players in Chinas insurance industry, was last seen in public last week attending a CIRC official ceremony. He has headed the CIRC and held a seat on the prestigious monetary policy committee of the central bank since 2011.
The CIRC under Mr Xiang battled a risky trend in the industry the financing of risky foreign acquisitions and corporate raiding using high yielding policies that are effectively wealth management products rather than insurance for protecting policyholders. These policies provide guaranteed payouts on maturity, rather than protection against specific risk events.
Chinas insurance sector has grown massively in terms of premiums on the back of these wealth management product sales.
In February the CIRC under Mr Xiangs leadership banned Chinas fourth-richest man, Yao Zhenhua, chairman of financial conglomerate Baoneng Group, from the insurance industry for 10 years as part of an effort to rid the sector of risky behaviour. The government wants the industry to focus on genuine insurance products, such as health insurance and pensions.
At a press conference in February, Mr Xiang said the agency will never allow the insurance industry to be turned into a rich boys club or become a sanctuary of large financial crocodiles. Mr Xiang previously warned that insurers cannot be ATM machines for corporate raiders.
Mr Xiang also promised to curb aggressive pricing and unreasonably high returns on some insurance products. He said insurers should not interfere with the management of listed companies. Instead, the industry should focus on its core function of providing risk protection. MDT/FT Exclusive
A popular Chinese comedian and former judge on the Chinas Got Talent television program is facing weapon and drug charges on Long Island in New York.
Zhou Libo appeared playful and jovial, joking with more than a dozen reporters from Chinese media outlets before and after a brief appearance in a Nassau County courtroom on Friday. At one point before he went into court, Zhou smiled broadly as he joined other reporters in taking cellphone video of his attorneys briefing to reporters.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a Jan. 19 arrest in the exclusive village of Lattingtown, east of New York City on what is known as Long Islands gold coast.
Police said officers stopped a black Mercedes Benz that Zhou was driving shortly after midnight because it was being driven erratically and the operator was using a cellphone. They said the 49-year-old Zhou had a passenger with him.
Officers said they noticed a shoulder holster in the back seat and found a loaded pistol and two plastic bags containing crack cocaine inside a backpack. He and the passenger were arrested.
Attorney Hugh Mo declined to comment on the allegations after the case was adjourned to June 9.
Hes taking the charges seriously, the attorney said. He does have confidence in the judicial system; he does have confidence in his lawyer; he does have confidence in the fact that hopefully at the end of the day were going to come out and hopefully resolve this to his satisfaction.
Authorities have not disclosed why the popular Chinese comedian was in the ritzy community near Long Island Sound on the night of his arrest. He is believed to have a residence in Alpine, New Jersey.
Last July, the Shanghai native performed his standup routine at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
The Carnegie Hall website noted he is a pioneer of political parody in mainland China. It said in 2012, he received the Starlight Award, the highest honor in Chinas television arts, for the Chinese Dream Show.
He served as a judge on the popular Chinas Got Talent program in 2010 and 2011. Frank Eltman, New York, AP
The Chief Executive (CE), Chui Sai On, met with 11 out of 19 lawmakers who had previously addressed the Pearl Horizon development in a letter to the CE.
The meeting, held on Saturday at the government headquarters, aimed to facilitate an exchange of views on possible solutions, as well as analyze the complexities of the situation and difficulties that might arise from it, a statement from the Government Information Bureau said.
During the meeting, Chui said several authorities have devoted themselves to examining viable and appropriate solutions to the matter, which includes granting the rights and interests of the buyers who have acquired units in pre-sale.
Chui reaffirmed that the government would solve the matter in a balanced manner and taking into account several principles; namely, compliance with the law, respect for the rule of law, consideration of general interests and the degree of acceptance of society.
The proceedings concerning the declaration of forfeiture of the concession of the Pearl Horizon land plot are currently pending in the Court of Second Instance. Several high-ranking government officials have stated that the government will await a court ruling on the case.
In the abovementioned letter delivered to the CE, the lawmakers expressed the opinion that the Pearl Horizon case can be resolved without reviewing the Land Law. They have submitted several proposals for resolution to the government for an assessment of feasibility.
During the meeting, the lawmakers said that they hope, through this meeting, to find a solution to the case within the current legal framework.
The CE highlighted the complexity of the case and its consequences, thanking the legislators for their help in finding a solution.
He also noted that he is aware of and acknowledges the publics interest in the case, stating once again that the government will try to solve the case in a balanced manner between the general interests of society and of the legal rights of the buyers.
The CE added that Secretary Sonia Chan will keep in close contact with both the lawmakers and the juridical team responsible for analyzing the lawmakers proposals. RM
The Northern Ireland peace talks have ended with an historic agreement.
The accord dubbed the Good Friday Agreement was reached after nearly two years of talks and 30 years of conflict.
Negotiations on the final day dragged on more than 17 hours after the deadline for an agreement passed.
The agreement is a triumph for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Republic of Irelands leader, Bertie Ahern, who have succeeded where all their predecessors failed.
Speaking at a news conference after the deal was announced Tony Blair said he hoped it marked a new beginning.
Today I hope that the burden of history can at long last start to be lifted from our shoulders, Mr Blair said.
Bertie Ahern said he hoped a line could now be drawn under the bloody past .
The proposals in the agreement include plans for a Northern Ireland Assembly, new cross-border institutions involving the Irish Republic and a body linking devolved assemblies across the UK with Westminster and Dublin.
A copy of the proposals will be posted to every household in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and then put to a referendum in May.
The chairman of the talks, former US Senator George Mitchell, paid tribute to all those who had taken part.
But Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said there was still a huge gap of distrust between nationalists and unionists.
It must be bridged on the basis of equality. We are here reaching out the hand of friendship, he said.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble added: I see a great opportunity for us to start a healing process.
The peace agreement was also welcomed by the UDP and PUP parties, which represent loyalist paramilitary groups.
Courtesy BBC News
In context
A referendum held in May 1998 on both sides of the Irish border, returned a resounding yes vote for the Good Friday Agreement.
The first three years of the agreements implementation saw accusations and counter-accusation from both sides.
Unionists said the republicans had not complied with the spirit of the agreements requirement for the decommissioning of arms.
Disagreement over decommissioning and policing led to three suspensions of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
In October 2002 it was also suspended after allegations of IRA intelligence gathering inside the Northern Ireland Office.
Devolved power was restored to the Assembly on 8 May 2007. DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Feins Martin McGuinness age-old opponents took office as first and deputy first ministers ending five years of direct rule.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed that the two nations and South Korea must maintain unity in dealing with North Korea launching ballistic missiles.
The two spoke by phone for about 45 minutes, exchanging views on Kim Jong Uns regime and Syria, Japans national broadcaster NHK reported yesterday in Tokyo. Abe said hes watching closely how China will react to the North Korea issue, according to NHK, after Trump held his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida.
We completely agreed that its very important for Japan and U.S. to cooperate and work together closely and the unity among Japan, U.S. and South Korea is important, Abe told reporters, according to NHK.
The phone conversation between Trump and Abe took place as a ballistic missile test by North Korea drew condemnation from countries in the region and a U.S. missile strike in Syria ratcheted up tensions with Russia.
Trump also explained to Abe that he conducted the missile attack in order to prevent chemical weapons from being used again after many civilians including women and children were harmed, according to Kyodo news service. Bloomberg
A surge in global use of lithium, a key component in electric batteries, is leading to the revival of a centuries-long mining tradition in the Czech Republics Ore Mountains.
Demand for the light metal, which is already used in smartphone batteries, is expected to triple in the next decade as it is used in far greater quantities in electric cars and electric storage systems.
With major car manufacturers increasingly focused on electric cars, Goldman Sachs calls lithium the new gasoline. Others say its the oil of the future.
The potential of lithiums boom is already having a knock-on effect for the small village of Cinovec on the Czech border with Germany, which has a tin and tungsten mining tradition dating back to 1378. Its mines were abandoned in 1991 because they ceased to be economically sustainable following the collapse of communism, but recent explorations have found the biggest deposit of lithium in Europe.
Jaromir Stary, the head of the Department of Mineral Resources at the Czech Geological Survey, said the lithium resources in the Czech Republic could amount to 1.2 to 1.4 million metric tons, mostly in the Cinovec area. Only Serbia has a similar deposit in Europe, estimated at 1 million metric tons.
Australias European Metals Holdings, or EMH, has had an exclusive license to explore the resources and the right to seek permission to mine since 2014 when it acquired Czech exploration company Geomet, which first confirmed the presence of the ore. lon
You can have a splendid idea but you need money to make it reality, said Otto Janout, a prospector and one of Geomets four founders. EMH is listed at the London Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney.
Speculation that EMH is seen the companys share price spike eight-fold in the past year alone.
EMH Managing Director Keith Coughlan said it was planning to open a mine at Cinovec within the coming years to produce over 20,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate (about 3,800 tons of lithium) a year.
That would place the country among the top five lithium producers in the world.
I believe it is a danger for Europe to continue to think that it can rely on Asia for its supply chain of battery related materials and in particular lithium, Coughlan said. I think it is a very significant asset from a European perspective.
According to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Australia was the leading lithium producer with 14,300 metric tons in 2016, followed by Chile with 12,000 metric tons. Argentina is third with 5,700, while China, the biggest consumer, was fourth with 2,000 tons.
Global output was 35,000 metric tons in 2016, 12 percent more than the previous year, the report said. A Deutsche Bank study in 2016 forecast global battery consumption growing threefold in the next ten years.
Unlike most other deposits in the world, the Czech variant is located in an area with functioning infrastructure, including a rail track. Potential customers are located nearby, and not just car manufacturers.
U.S.-based A123 Systems recently opened a new plant in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava to make lithium-ion car starter batteries for luxury auto brands. Prague-based HE3DA has recently started a trial production of lithium batteries suitable to store energy from renewable electric sources, using nanotechnology. It plans to open a new factory in eastern Czech Republic next year.
The company has already signed a memorandum about the future cooperation with EMH, HE3DA president Jan Prochazka said.
It means stable supplies for us, Prochazka said. Therell be a fight over lithium, no doubt. MDT/AP
A former assistant to a Chinese billionaire charged in a United Nations bribery scheme pleaded guilty to a single tax charge last week, the Associated Press reported.
The plea to a conspiracy charge by Jeff C. Yin came with an agreement by Yin and the government that a sentence of less than 30 months in prison was likely. He is free on bail and the sentencing is set for July 21.
As previously reported by the Times, the plea deal has been on the table and under consideration by Yin and his lawyers for around two weeks.
Having taken the deal and pleaded guilty in the Manhattan federal court last week, Yin has admitted to failing to pay taxes on a roughly USD54,000 salary for two years.
Yin earned the salary from a United Nations-focused media company, called South-South News. According to Reuters, he admitted last week to having requested that the company pay him in the form of cash and checks made out to petty cash.
Between 2013 and 2015, I agreed with others to not pay taxes to the IRS, he said in court, according to Reuters.
After two weeks of negotiations, the agreement between prosecutors and the defendant left the 31-year-
old without admitting to have bribed anyone.
Instead he will plead guilty only to tax evasion and will not appeal a prison sentence of 30 months or less.
The same cannot be said for his former employer, Ng Lap Seng, who is still standing trial over bribery charges.
Yin was chief assistant to Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng when both were arrested in September 2015 over several charges including attempting to bribe UN officials, money laundering and tax evasion.
Ng is accused of paying USD500,000 in bribes to former UN General Assembly President John Ashe, who died in June under mysterious circumstances while awaiting trial.
The objective behind the alleged bribery was to secure Ashes support for a U.N.-
backed conference center in Macau, which would be constructed by Ngs real estate company, Sun Kian Ip Group, and would allegedly serve as his legacy in the MSAR.
The real estate tycoon is awaiting trial next month on bribery charges and has pleaded not guilty. DB
The Judiciary Police (PJ)s Crisis Negotiation Team has conducted more than ten negotiations each year in rescuing people who attempted to commit suicide, according to a report published this week by Macao Daily News.
Cheong Kin Wa, head of the Judiciary Police School and a crisis negotiator, said the number of attempted suicides or critical personal problems increased significantly in 2015 compared to previous years.
Many cases involve labor disputes, and primarily concern mainland residents. Cheong added that the negotiators are normally investigators from different departments.
The PJ recruits those who know two or more languages, such as English, Portuguese, Mandarin or Fujians dialect, in order to handle different situations.
Established in 2001, the team comprises volunteers from the police force. While the team initially comprised just ten people, it now has 27 members.
The PJ also trains negotiators to deal with situations where terrorism is involved. Cheong also said that negotiations are relatively unique when compared to other daily investigation duties.
The Crisis Negotiation Team commenced operations in Macau in the 1980s. Prior to the teams establishment, the PJ invited Hong Kong negotiators to train the local team, and later chose local negotiators to be trained in Hong Kong after 2001. JZ
U.S. aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson has been diverted to the Western Pacific instead of sailing from Singapore to Australia, the U.S. navy said, amid escalated tensions on the Korean peninsula over North Koreas nuclear weapons program.
The strike group includes the Carl Vinson, several guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser, according to a statement on the navys website. It did not specify a destination.
U.S. Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson strike group north as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific, Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham said yesterday.
Third Fleet ships operate forward with a purpose: to safeguard U.S. interests in the Western Pacific, he said. The number one threat in the region continues to be North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability.
Reuters reported the carrier will move near the Korean peninsula, citing a U.S. official it did not identify. Pacific Command declined to provide the precise location the carrier strike force will be deployed.
U.S. President Donald Trump sent a message to North Korea and its ally China during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida that he was willing to take action over Kim Jong Uns nuclear program, said Lee Ho-ryung, chief of North Korean studies at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
The U.S. is proving itself that it can really take action if you play with chemical weapons like Syria, Lee said. Still, the Carl Vinsons move toward the Korean peninsula is probably a decision they made some time ago as part of the Foal Eagle joint military drills. In that sense, its not a special move.
The strike group has participated in numerous exercises with Japan and the South Korea and conducted routine patrol operations in the South China Sea since its Jan. 5 deployment from San Diego, California, the Navy statement said.
North Korea conducted another ballistic missile test on April 5, shortly before Xi and Trump met. Kim has said previously his regime is close to developing a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the continental U.S.
Many weapons experts say the North could have a functioning nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the continental U.S. within a few years.
However, last week an Air Force general said she was extremely confident the United States could intercept a ballistic missile fired by North Korea.
During a congressional testimony, Gen. Lori Robinson said North Korea cant reach our homeland right now. Robinson told the Senate Armed Services Committee. MDT/AP
What is in the strike group?
The strike group includes the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, with support from two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser. The group, headed by Admiral Nora Tyson, has the military capability to intercept ballistic missiles. The USS Carl Vinson is the third Nimitz-class supercarrier operated by the U.S. Launched in 1980, the ship is one of ten nuclear-powered aircraft carriers named after former U.S. Admirial, Chester Nimitz. Deployed from San Diego to the western Pacific since Jan. 5, the strike group has participated in numerous exercises with the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force and Republic of Korea Navy, various maritime security initiatives, and routine patrol operations in the South China Sea.
Venezuelas government fired tear gas and rubber bullets at some of the thousands of opponents of President Nicolas Maduro who poured into the streets of Caracas Saturday amid a weeklong protest movement that shows little sign of losing steam.
The demonstrations in the capital and several other cities came a day after Maduros government barred top opposition leader Henrique Capriles from running for office for 15 years.
The ban capped a tumultuous 10 day-crackdown that saw pro-government groups rough up several opposition leaders and another seek refuge in a foreign embassy to escape arrest.
The protests were triggered by the Supreme Courts decision to gut the opposition-controlled legislature of its last vestiges of power, a move that was later reversed amid widespread international condemnation and even dissent within Maduros normally disciplined socialist leadership.
Nobody can disqualify the Venezuelan people, an emotional Capriles said from a stage Saturday as he called on protesters to march to the ombudsmans office downtown.
As the sea of protesters approached the headquarters of state-run PDVSA oil company, they were met by rubber bullets and a curtain of eye-
scorching tear gas, some of it a never-before-seen red color. Mayhem ensued, with riot police racing down windy streets, dodging objects thrown from tall apartment buildings as they deployed to squash the unrest.
Later, a small group of youths unsuccessfully tried to set fire to a Supreme Court office building.
The violence was condemned by the opposition leadership, who nonetheless blame Maduros obstinacy for fueling the unrest.
They had called for another protest later today. But with Caracas shutting down for the Easter holiday which Maduro extended by decree for three extra days they appeared to be saving their strength for a major demonstration called for April 19.
As the most dominant figure in the opposition over the past decade, Capriles has been at the forefront of the protests, the most combative since a wave of anti-government unrest in 2014 in which dozens of people were killed, many at the hands of security forces.
The almost-daily churn of events in what the opposition calls an ongoing coup by the government has energized and united the normally fractious opposition.
While opposition leaders have insisted on peaceful protest, frustration built up over 17 years of polarizing socialist rule in Venezuela is running high on both sides.
Leaders in the ruling socialist party have accused the opposition of trying to provoke a bloodbath and its own coup. MDT/AP
The wife of detained Taiwanese human rights and pro-democracy advocate Lee Ming-che is scheduled to depart for Beijing today to meet him in China, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights said yesterday.
Lee, a former Democratic Progressive Party worker and a staff member at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, has been detained by China for 22 days after entering the country via Macau on March 19. Chinese authorities have not issued any official response to the matter, CNA news agency reported.
Lees wife, Lee Ching-yu is hoping to meet representatives from Chinas Taiwan Affairs Office and the semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) to hear an explanation for Lees detention. She will be accompanied by staff from ARATS Taiwan counterpart the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), according to the association.
Most importantly, Lee Ching-yu wants to personally meet her husband and ensure that he is safe, the association said.
According to the agency, Taiwanese non-government organizations will convene a press conference at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport upon Lee Ching-yus departure to express support for her mission.
PHILIPPINES Back-to-back earthquakes cracked small buildings and blocked roads with minor landslides Saturday in a Philippine resort province south of Manila where jittery tourists left and patients were evacuated from a hospital amid aftershocks.
THAILAND Suspected Muslim insurgents have set off dozens of bombs in southern Thailand, bringing down power lines and setting tires on fire to block roads. Security officials said there were no reports of deaths or injuries.
AUSTRALIA-PAPUA NEW GUINEA future of hundreds of asylum seekers languishing at an Australian-run detention center in Papua New Guinea remained in doubt on Saturday, with the leaders of both countries declining to provide details about what will happen to the men if a deal to resettle them in the United States falls through.
INDIA Security forces in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir opened fire yesterday on crowds of people who attacked polling stations where voting for a by-election was taking place, killing five and injuring at least a dozen, officials said.
RUSSIA emergency services ministry says 15 people have been hospitalized after a long-distance passenger train slammed into a commuter train in western Moscow. The accident Saturday night occurred when a commuter train, which was empty except for its crew, applied its emergency brakes and a passenger train heading for Brest hit it from behind.
IRAN-SYRIA Iranian President Hassan Rouhani affirmed his support for Syrian President Bashar Assads government yesterday, following last weeks U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base. In a phone call with Assad, Rouhani called the strike on Friday a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty, Syrian state media reported. Assad accused the U.S. of trying to boost the morale of terror groups in Syria.
EGYPT Bombs exploded at two Coptic churches in different cities in northern Egypt as worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday, killing at least 43 people and wounding about 100 in an assault claimed by the Islamic State group.
ITALY The long-delayed project to extend Romes subway system has brought treasures of the past to the surface. Rome city officials this week unveiled the Metro C archaeological exhibit, which features amphora, marble panels, coins and even peach pits dating back to the Roman era.
BRITAIN The body of a police officer killed in last months attack in London has been brought to lie in a chapel at Parliament, an honor usually reserved for senior politicians.
TWIN FALLS Stuck at the office or too tired to cook, but tired of pizza and subs? Your options for delivery just got a lot more diverse.
A new delivery service in Pocatello has branched out to Twin Falls, offering residents delivery from 17 restaurants in town. Twin Falls Food Express can take your orders from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Menus are subject to restaurant opening hours.
We live in a world of convenience whether good, bad or indifferent, said owner Scott Adams. I think the towns going to graciously accept (this service).
Participating restaurants are: Blu, Blue Island Grill, Burger Stop, Chilis Grill & Bar, Dickeys Barbeque Pit, El Toro Mexican Restaurant, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Garibaldis Mexican Restaurant, Johnny Carinos, Ketchum Burrito, La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, ODunkens Draught House, Slice Pizza, The Gyros Shop, The Ground Round, Twin Falls Sandwich Co. and 55 Windbreak.
There is a $5 delivery fee for each restaurant we stop at, Adams said.
On top of that, there is a service charge of 15 percent of the cost of the food. These charges are to help pay drivers, but any tips are appreciated, he said.
One of seven drivers can deliver within 60 minutes to anyone in the 83301 ZIP code. To order, visit twinfalls.express and select a menu.
You can literally add whatever to your cart that you like, he said.
A menu in red will tell you that the restaurant is not open.
You can call 208-427-2673 if you already know what you want to order.
Several of the participating business already offer delivery service, Adams said, but hoped to expand their clientele.
After helping an employee get a delivery order in on Monday, Garibaldis owner Jose Perez said This is the first time weve done this service. It would give customers another option, he said.
But Violet Ruiz, who waited for a to-go order that afternoon, said she wasnt sure the extra delivery charge would be worth it for one person.
I eat out every day, she said. If you split it between three to four people, it would be OK.
Adams was working as a Pizza Hut driver while he earned his business degree from Idaho State University. He is married with children.
The question that just makes my spine tingle is Whats for dinner? he said.
Pocatello Food express opened in January. Twin Falls Food Express began delivering on Monday.
TWIN FALLS A Twin Falls Police officer was charged April 10 with sexually abusing at least two pre-teen girls within the last 11 years. The alleged crimes happened before he was a police officer, but a sheriffs investigator said he believes many more victims will be uncovered.
William Anthon Jansen, 33, of Twin Falls faces four felony counts of lewd conduct with a minor under 16 and one misdemeanor count of disseminating material harmful to a minor. Hes accused of touching the girls genitals with his hands.
Jansen, a patrol officer, was placed on paid administrative leave when the allegations surfaced March 31, Twin Falls city spokesman Joshua Palmer said.
His leave was switched to unpaid when he was officially charged Monday, Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury said.
As soon as we found out about the allegations, we forwarded to the sheriffs office for investigation, Palmer said. Then they conducted their investigation.
Jansen never worked as a school resource officer, Palmer said, and Kingsbury referred questions to the sheriffs department when asked if Jansen could have accessed new victims in his role as a police officer.
Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said hell ask an outside prosecutor to handle the case because of the fact the accused person is a local police officer.
So I wont have any comment on that case, Loebs said.
Jansen denied the allegations in an interview with sheriffs detectives Friday. His attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
A teenage girl came forward with the allegations two weeks ago, saying Jansen sexually abused her in 2008 and 2009 when she was between 7 and 9 years old. She told a sheriffs detective that Jansen also abused at least two other girls one who has since died, and another who said Jansen abused her when she was 8 years old, in 2005 and 2006.
Based on my training and experience and the evidence gathered in this investigation, I believe more victims will be uncovered through the course of this investigation and Jansen remains a threat to society and any current/future victims, Detective Travis DeBie wrote. It took these victims many years to come forward. I believe we will uncover many more.
Jansen was hired by the city police department in December 2013 and sworn-in March 2014 after completing training. According to his biography at that time, he was a sergeant in the Idaho Army National Guard and completed two combat deployments to Iraq.
Jansens ex-wife told sheriffs investigators Jansen admitted to inappropriately touching juvenile girls and to having sex with a 17-year-old roommate that lived with them while they were married. She also told investigators that Jansen was sent home dishonorably from his Mormon mission due to a sexual incident that occurred.
His ex-wife also told detectives Jansen disclosed to his Mormon bishop that he had inappropriate contact with juveniles.
Jansen told detectives he was never alone with the girls hes accused of abusing, one of whom said Jansen showed her a book depicting sexual acts the first time he assaulted her. He admitted to having sex with the roommate but said he believed she was 18 years old.
A magistrate judge set Jansens bond at $100,000 during an initial appearance Monday and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 21.
TWIN FALLS Chobani yogurt founder Hamdi Ulukaya was the subject of one of this Sundays segments on CBSs newsmagazine program 60 Minutes.
The segment was narrated by Steve Kroft and consisted largely of interviews with Ulukaya, interspersed with clips of interviews with a few of the first employees hired at his first plant in New Berlin, New York, the owner of a pizzeria in New Berlin where Ulukaya got many of his meals during the companys early days, refugee employees at his Twin Falls factory and Idahos very popular and very conservative governor, as Kroft describes him, C.L. Butch Otter.
I think his care about his employees, whether they be refugees or they be folks that were born 10 miles from where theyre working, Otter tells Kroft. I believe his advocacy for that person is no different. And theres nothing wrong with that.
Kroft introduced the segment in the context of the national debate over immigration and refugee resettlement, noting how companies like Google, Tesla and eBay were founded by immigrants.
Its a reminder that foreigners dont always take jobs from Americans, sometimes they create them, Kroft said. And of all the success stories none seems more relevant to the current debate than the tale of Hamdi Ulukaya, who came here from Turkey 23 years ago on a student visa with almost no money. Today, he is a billionaire who has changed American tastes with his Chobani yogurt, resurrected the economy in two communities, and drawn praise and some hostile fire for the way hes done it.
Later in the segment, Kroft and Ulukaya go over how he first started to hire refugees in New York Utica, N.Y., about 40 miles from New Berlin, N.Y., which has a refugee resettlement center. The segment also included attacks on Chobani by refugee resettlement opponents, mentioning that both Ulukaya and Twin Falls Mayor Shawn Barigar have received death threats. Kroft reads Ulukaya a widely shared headline from the far-right website WorldNet Daily, American yogurt tycoon vows to choke U.S. with Muslims.
Yeah, It was an emotional time, Ulukaya told Kroft. People, you know, hate you for doing something right. I mean, what can you do about that? Theres not much you can do.
BOISE Idaho Republican Party Chairman Stephen Yates announced Monday he plans to step down at the end of the month, amid speculation he may jump into the fray in a field of Republican lieutenant governor candidates that is already starting to fill up.
Yates last day on the job will be April 24, he said in a statement. First Vice Chairman Mike Mathews will be acting chairman until the party picks a permanent replacement at the partys summer meeting in Coeur dAlene on July 22.
While this transition has been on my mind for some time, in recent weeks many supporters have asked me to consider running for another office, and I have decided to give that serious consideration, Yates said. I felt it necessary for the integrity of the office of chair to take this step at this time.
Yates has told reporters over the past week he is seriously considering running for the lieutenant governor job. With incumbent Lt. Gov. Brad Little planning to run for governor instead, as Gov. C.L. Butch Otter has said he doesnt plan to run for a fourth term, there has been a good deal of interest in the lieutenant governor spot.
Already, Republicans Sen. Marv Hagedorn and Rep. Kelley Packer and former Rep. Janice McGeachin have declared their intent to run for the job. As of Monday afternoon no one else had filed to run, according to the Secretary of States office.
The lieutenant governor often presides over the Senate when it is in session and is also acting governor when the governor is out-of-state. It can sometimes be a springboard for higher office Otter used to be lieutenant governor, as did now-U.S. Sen. Jim Risch.
Yates upcoming departure isnt the only turnover at the state GOPs higher levels this week David Johnston announced recently he was stepping down as the partys executive director. Lyndel Strong is taking over for him on April 17.
Yates, 48, a Maryland native who moved to Idaho Falls in 2011 after years of national security and political work in Washington, D.C. He first became chairman in 2014, in the aftermath of a party convention that collapsed into chaos without agreement on a platform or voting on party officers. In its aftermath, Chairman Barry Peterson was removed by a court deciding his term expired when the convention fell apart, leading to a special central committee meeting that ended in Yates selection.
During his tenure, the party increased its already-supermajority in the Legislature by a few seats in the November election and also held its first March presidential primary in 2016. Presidential primaries had been held in May, the same time as primaries for other offices, before that, but the Legislature changed the law in 2015 to let parties hold March presidential primaries should they so choose.
The March primary, in which you had to be a registered Republican to vote is one of the major factors credited for a surge in Republican enrollment during Yates tenure, from a little over 286,000 registered Republicans when he took the job, or about 38 percent of the electorate, to more than 398,000, or about half of the electorate today.
TWIN FALLS Should Twin Falls officially declare itself a welcoming city for immigrants? The City Council is set to consider this question Monday.
The first item for consideration on the agenda is a proposal being brought by Mark Crandall to adopt a welcoming city resolution like the ones Boise and Ketchum passed earlier this year. Crandall is a Boy Scout troop leader, and he says in a letter attached to the City Council agenda that he came up with the idea after an Eagle Scout Service Project at the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center.
A similar statement of support from our City Council would go a long ways in our current environment to demonstrate that Twin Falls is a welcoming city, Crandall writes. It would help show that our city is full of Good Samaritans like the boys in my Scout troop, and that we do not allow ourselves to be defined or caricatured by the alt-right media.
Among other agenda items, the Council is also scheduled to hear a presentation on the status of the Main Avenue redevelopment project, as well as one on damage city roads have suffered due to this years harsh winter and a request to use up to $4.4 million in money the city has in the street reserves fund to fix these roads.
The meeting is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. in the City Council chambers, 305 Third Ave. East. The agenda and related materials are available online through the citys website, tfid.org.
TWIN FALLS The shift from rural to urban continued in Idaho through July 2016, new U.S. Census Bureau estimates show.
Idahos population grew 1.8 percent from the year before, but its six urban counties Ada, Canyon, Kootenai, Bonneville, Bannock and Twin Falls accounted for 77 percent of that growth. About 65 percent of Idahos population live within those counties.
That pattern was repeated to a lesser extent in the Magic Valley, but was more apparent given the 10-year period from 2007 to 2016. The regions most populated counties Twin Falls, Cassia and Jerome grew faster than its rural counties. And in Camas County, the population dropped.
The Idaho Department of Labors projections through 2026 show every county but Camas growing in population. While current estimates may be off from the years projections, Regional Economist Jan Roeser noted these projections use an average growth rate over a longer period of time.
Theyre not going to line up with short-term fluctuations, she said.
The Magic Valleys population estimate for July 2016: 193,947 a 9.4 percent increase from 2007.
Heres a county-by-county look at what state and federal agencies have estimated for south-central Idaho:
Twin Falls County
Estimated population, July 2016: 83,514
With an estimated 13.3 percent growth over 10 years, Twin Falls County came out ahead of the Department of Labors projections for 2016. The population increased by more than 1,400 people, with 1,201 births and 757 deaths.
People coming to the area was a big factor, with 936 more people moving in than moving out.
The countys 1.7 percent growth from 2015 to 2016 nearly matched the statewide rate.
We see it as a positive, but its still in a manageable percentage growth, said Nathan Murray, Twin Falls economic development director.
He attributes the change to the regional economy and job growth. As Twin Falls prepares to reach 50,000 people in a few years, that will change how the city is viewed by companies.
It puts us in a different classification and mindset with the kinds of companies we bring, Murray said.
In the meantime, Twin Falls will have to reassess infrastructure needs such as streets and utilities, to prepare for the growth to come.
Twin Falls County is projected to grow 17.5 percent between 2015 and 2026.
Cassia County
Estimated population, July 2016: 23,504
Despite estimated population growth of 9 percent over the past decade, Cassia Countys population remained flat from 2015 to 2016. It is expected to grow only 6.7 percent between 2015 and 2026.
With more people moving out than coming in, the countys only growth occurred naturally, with 358 births and 189 deaths.
Jerome County
Estimated population, July 2016: 22,994
Jerome County ranks just behind Twin Falls for fastest-growing in south-central Idaho over the past decade. While slightly behind its population projections, it was expected to grow another 13.3 percent between 2015 and 2026.
The change from 2015 to 2016 mostly came naturally, with 389 births and 148 deaths.
Jerome Countys population is spread more evenly between the city and the county than some other places, City Administrator Mike Williams said. He feels the city is prepared for the growth to come.
One percent (yearly) is certainly sustainable, he said. We watch our demand on the infrastructure quite closely.
The city is running out of buildable lots, Williams said, but one new subdivision is in its final platting stage.
Blaine County
Estimated population, July 2016: 21,791
Blaine County is just about on par with state projections, but is expected to growth only 4.5 percent by 2026.
Like Twin Falls County, the most significant growth here in 2016 occurred with people moving into the city, rising the population by 135 people.
Minidoka County
Estimated population, July 2016: 20,616
Minidoka County grew 1.1 percent from 2015, slightly ahead of state projections. While the county had a 7.5 percent population growth in the past 10 years, it is projected to gain only 3.6 percent by 2026.
The past years increase had more to do with births than people moving to the area.
Rupert City Administrator Kelly Anthon says the growth is reflective of work the city is doing to bring the population back up.
However, Its not growth for growths sake, Anthon noted. Instead, his work has been to keep the community vibrant and create enough jobs so the next generation will not have to leave.
Gooding County
Estimated population, July 2016: 15,185
Gooding County was among the slowest-growing in the region over the past decade, and is slightly behind Department of Labor population projections. The county is expected to grow only 1.8 percent from 2015 to 2026.
Over the past year, Gooding County had 93 more people leave than move to the county. There were 204 births and 110 deaths.
Lincoln County
Estimated population, July 2016: 5,271
The county may be comparatively slower growing than its more urban neighbors to the south, but it is projected to grow its population by 15.4 percent over an 11-year time period.
From 2015 to 2016, Lincoln County lost a net 72 people to moving elsewhere, bring its overall population down.
Camas County
Estimated population, July 2016: 1,072
Camas Countys population forecast is no better than whats been the case in the past decade. By 2026, it is expected to lose 2.9 percent of its population.
But the county got a small boost in the short term, with six babies born and only three deaths from July 2015 to July 2016.
Jessie Grace Olson
FILER Jessie Olson, celebration of life service at 11 a.m. Monday, April 10, 2017 at the Filer United Methodist Church followed by a luncheon. A private interment will be held prior to the church service.( White Mortuary Chapel by the Park 136 4th Ave E., Twin Falls)
Sheldon L. Slagel
BOISE Sheldon L. Slagel, services at 2 p.m. Monday, April 10, 2017 at Twin Falls Reformed Church, 1631 Grandview Dr. N.Twin Falls, Idaho.
Wanda Barnes
TWIN FALLS Wanda Barnes, funeral services at 3 p.m. Monday, April 10 at Parkes Magic Valley Funeral Home, 2551 Kimberly Road, Twin Falls. Visitation will be held from 2 until 3 p.m. at the funeral home.
Barbara Mayes
BURLEY Barbara Mayes, graveside services at 3 p.m. Monday, April 10 at Pleasant View Cemetery in Burley. Arrangements under the direction of Morrison Payne Funeral Home.
David Funke
TWIN FALLS David Funke, celebration of life at 11 a.m. Monday, April 10 at the Twin Falls Reformed Church, 1631 Grandview Dr. N., Twin Falls. Arrangements under the direction of Parkes Magic Valley Funeral Home.
J. Russell & Loyeda Nelson
HUNT, Idaho Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 13 at Sunset Memorial Park, Twin Falls. Refreshments afterwards at LDS Church, 667 Harrison Street, Twin Falls from 3:30 until 5 p.m.
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Weight loss support
TOPS Club (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), a nonprofit weight-loss support group, will meet weekly at several locations.
The Twin Falls chapter will meet at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Twin Falls Senior Center, 530 Shoshone St. W., 208-734-2641 or 208-734-5300.
Other local chapters will meet at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at 2025 S. Highway 81 in Malta, 208-645-2438; 9:15 a.m. Thursday at the Jerome Public Library, 100 First Ave. E., 208-324-6693; 9:30 a.m. Thursday at 410 E. Third St. in Rupert, 208-436-6037 or 208-679-3518; and at 5:30 p.m. Friday at 1800 J St. in Heyburn, 208-678-8706 or 208-678-2622.
Parenting, coping support
Voices Against Violence is offering support groups at 212 Second Ave. W., No. 200, Twin Falls.
Parenting Group, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, to help improve parenting skills as well as learn rewards and consequences.
Mas alla de mi, Empoderando a las Mujeres domestic violence group in Spanish, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, for those who have been involved in an abusive, neglectful or traumatic relationship, and also helps women develop a support system.
The Power to Change Group, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, provides information, support, and community to women 18 and older, who have experienced difficulties in coping with past experiences.
Domestic Violence Support Group, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, provides information, support, and community to individuals 18 and older, who have experienced domestic abuse or gender violence.
Information: 208-733-2558.
Breastfeeding
Free Breastfeeding 101 class, 7 p.m. Monday in Oak Room 4 on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.
The class is for new mothers and breastfeeding mothers wanting to review their skills. Babies and your support person are welcome.
Free; pre-registration is required, 208-814-0402.
Bariatric support
Magic Valley Bariatric Support Group, 7 p.m. Monday in Oak Room 1 on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.
The meetings are facilitated by licensed bariatric health-care professionals.
Registration isnt required. Information: 208-381-3641.
Yoga
Morning Bliss Yoga, 9 a.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays at the YMCA, 1751 Elizabeth Blvd.
The yoga class stretches and strengthens the muscles with a strong focus on breath and body alignment.
Free to the community. 208-733-4384.
Alzheimers support
Magic Valley Caregiver Support Group, presented by Alzheimers Association, Greater Idaho Chapter, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bridgeview Estates, 1828 Bridgeview Blvd., Twin Falls. The group meets on the second Tuesday every month.
Information: facilitator Yolanda Martinez, 208-404-6720.
Childbirth
St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Centers prepared childbirth classes, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, April 11 through May 9, in Oak Rooms 2-4 on the lower level of St. Lukes, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.
Topics: Wellness during pregnancy; labor and delivery process with relaxation and breathing techniques; caesarean birth; postpartum care for mother and newborn; infant CPR; car seat and home safety; and a tour of the maternal and child units. Bring a labor-support person if possible.
Cost is $25 for a five-week session. Pre-registration is required: 208-814-0402.
Ostomy support
Ostomy Support Group, 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria at St. Lukes Magic Valley, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.
The meeting is for ostomy patients and their families.
Free; 208-308-6153.
Parkinsons support
The Magic Valley Parkinsons Support Group will meet at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Jerome Public Library, 100 First Ave. E.
Shawna Wasko from the Twin Falls Office on Aging will speak. Roll call will feature places we would like to go and why. Physical exercises as well as brain exercises will be featured.
The support group is available for those newly diagnosed and struggling to make sense of things, or experiencing a change of symptoms, and for caregivers who need reinforcement. The group meets monthly on the second Wednesday.
If you or someone in your family has Parkinsons, you are invited to participate. Information: nfturley@att.net or 208-358-5807.
Clearing energies
CSI Community Education Center is offering Researching and Clearing Negative Energies, 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and April 19, in CSIs Shields Building, room 107.
Learn about the many types of negative energies that exist in the universe, how to identify them, and tools to remove them. The class is recommended for all levels of Reiki students.
Instructor Sandy March is a Reiki master and has been working in the alternative health field for more than 17 years.
Cost is $49; register: csi.edu/communityed, 208-732-6442 or at the Community Education Center.
Fitness
South Central Public Health District has started another 10-week session of Fit and Fall Proof classes at Pomerelle Place Senior Living, 1301 Bennett Ave. in Burley. The classes will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. Thursdays and Saturdays.
The exercise-based fall prevention program is open to the public. The exercises recommended to reduce falls include strength, balance and flexibility. The classes are taught by trained class leaders.
Wear comfortable clothing, appropriate footwear, and bring a water bottle.
Information: Adria Masoner, Fit and Fall Proof program coordinator at the health district, 208-678-8221.
Grief support
Visions of Hope meeting, 5 p.m. every Thursday at Hospice Visions, 1770 Park View Drive, Twin Falls.
This grief support group is open to everyone in the community.
Information: 208-735-0121.
Mental health support
Mental Health Support Group will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays at 826 Eastland Drive in Twin Falls. The free support group is open to Magic Valley residents.
Information: 208-539-7492.
CPR
St. Lukes Magic Valley Education Department is offering a Heartsaver CPR and AED class, 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday at the Learning Center, 840 Meadows Suite 2, Twin Falls.
The course provides training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and using an automated external defibrillator.
Cost is $50. Pre-registration is required: 208-814-9050.
Stroke support
Stroke Education and Support Group meeting, 1 to 2 p.m. Friday in the Gwen Neilsen Anderson Rehabilitation Unit dining area at St. Lukes Magic Valley, Third Floor Medical Plaza, 775 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.
Topic: Organizational skills and memory loss.
The support group meets on the second Friday of each month and provides an opportunity for stroke survivors and their families to develop a social network.
Community members and current patients at St. Lukes Magic Valley are invited to attend.
Information and reservations: Stephanie Shawver, 208-814-0067.
Reiki
CSI Community Education Center is offering Reiki Level Two: Training and Attunement, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in CSIs Shields Building, room 107.
Reiki is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement, says a statement. The class gives students the ability to work on themselves, their family and the public, and to do distant Reiki healing. Instructor Sandy March will discuss and focus on healing.
March is a Reiki master and has been working in the alternative health field for more than 17 years.
Cost is $299; register: csi.edu/communityed, 208-732-6442 or at the Community Education Center.
Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A dead bat found in pre-packaged salad has caused Fresh Express to pull one of its products.
The company announced a recall of some of its Organic Marketside Spring Mix after two people in Florida said they found a dead bat in their packaged salad, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The bat was sent to the CDC's rabies lab for testing and "the deteriorated condition of the bat did not allow for CDC to definitively rule out whether this bat had rabies."
"CDC is supporting Florida local and state health officials in evaluating the people who found the bat in the salad," the CDC said in a statement. "In this circumstance, the risk of rabies transmission is considered to be very low, but because it isnt zero, the two people who ate salad from the package that contained the bat were recommended to begin post-exposure rabies treatment."
Fresh Express, which sells its salads at Walmart, said in a statement that the company and the retail giant "acted immediately to review all relevant records, launch an intensive investigation and initiate product removal and recall procedures."
For details on the recall, learn more from Fresh Express HERE.
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This appeared in the Lewiston Tribune:
The No. 2 man in the Idaho House and his wife stand accused of fleecing the Idaho taxpayer.
This is no mere blemish on the reputations of House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, and Rep. Janet Trujillo, R-Idaho Falls. How its resolved will reveal the integrity of the people running your Legislature.
As the Idaho Falls Post Registers Bryan Clark reported Tuesday, Trujillo accepted the per diem payment of $129 a day intended to cover the costs of setting up a second home in Boise for the 80-day session.
As far as anyone can tell, Trujillo didnt have a second home. She married Moyle in December and the couple apparently resided at his Star ranch, about 20 miles from the capital city. The three-term Idaho Falls Republican refused to tell Clark where she lived during the session, but she posted on Facebook that the view from the Moyles residence was my little piece of heaven.
If Trujillo was domiciled at the marital home, she was entitled to only $49 per day to cover expenses. Given that Idaho is a community property state, it means this pair of public servants pocketed the differencea cool $6,400.
Peculiar how conservative Republicans act with your tax money when its flowing in their direction, isnt it? Back in 2011, the same issue tripped up two former Canyon County lawmakers. The Associated Press reported that Sens. John McGee, R-Caldwell, and Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, were taking the full per diem payment despite the fact they werent incurring housing costs in Boise. McGee was staying with his parents; McKenzie was sprawling out on the couch of his Boise law office.
But McGee and McKenzie seemed to be just inside a rather lenient line because they technically were sleeping in second homes in Ada County.
If Trujillo can make the same claim, lets hear it.
As Tribune readers know, former state Rep. Susan Fagan, R-Pullman, was forced out of office after a Washington Legislative Ethics Board concluded she padded her travel account by $1,754 during a nine-month period.
But Washington takes a dimmer view of unethical behavior. The state has an independent ethics board that can either act on its own or accept complaints from anybody. In Fagans case, the complaining party was the clerk of the House.
The Moyle-Trujillo case would seem to qualify for an ethics review under Idaho House rules that condemn conduct unbecoming a representative, which is detrimental to the integrity of the House as a legislative body, or a violation that brings discredit to the House of Representatives or that constitutes a breach of public trust.
In Idaho, however, the politicians police themselves. The five-member House Ethics Committee cant act unless a fellow lawmaker brings a charge.
Youd hope someone would file a complaint. Otherwise, the House ethics rules are mere words on paper. But lets be frank. Thats just what they are.
As a practical matter, can you imagine the Republican House member who is willing to gamble with reprisals from his majority leader? Or how about one of the 11 House Democrats? Why would any one of them want to risk being further marginalized by the Republican majority?
There is, however, another precedent. Last summer, a right-wing blogger from southeast Idaho exposed a romantic affair between Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-Inkom, and Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa. Insinuated throughout was an accusation that they had bilked the taxpayers in the process.
In response, the presiding officers in each chamberSenate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, and House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakleysummoned legislative auditors to pore over travel records. In an official report issued on Aug. 26, Perry emerged vindicated; Guthrie had one questionable travel voucher.
By seeking the same type of inquiry about these legislative self-dealings, Bedke could either exonerate Moyle and Trujillo or establish the foundation for a full ethics review.
For that matter, Moyle and Trujillo could voluntarily submit their actions to the scrutiny of the ethics panel. No less than former House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, took that step in 2003 and was exonerated.
Its not as if Moyle doesnt get it. After all, the 10-term House leader had this to say about the way McGee and McKenzie manipulated their per diem payouts:
I dont think it smells good; I dont think it looks good; and if it were one of my members, I would highly advise against it.
American missile strikes against Syria are a critical first step toward protecting civilians from the threat of chemical weapons, and President Donald Trump deserves credit for doing what the Obama administration refused to do. But Thursdays action needs to be just the opening salvo in a broader campaign not only to protect the Syrian people from the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime but also to reverse the downward spiral of U.S. power and influence in the Middle East and throughout the world. A single missile strike unfortunately cannot undo the damage done by the Obama administrations policies over the past six years.
Trump was not wrong to blame the dire situation in Syria on President Barack Obama. The world would be a different place today if Obama had carried out his threat to attack Syria when Assad crossed the famous red line in the summer of 2013. The bad agreement that then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry struck with Russia not only failed to get rid of Syrias stock of chemical weapons and allowed the Assad regime to drop barrel bombs and employ widespread torture against civilian men, women and children. It also invited a full-scale Russian intervention in the fall of 2015, which saved the Assad regime from possible collapse.
Today, thousands of Russian forces operate throughout Syria, and not chiefly against the Islamic State but against the civilian population and the U.S.-backed moderate opposition. Russia has also greatly expanded its military presence in the eastern Mediterranean. The extensive air-defense and anti-ship systems Russia has deployed have nothing to do with counterterrorismbecause neither the Islamic State nor al-Qaeda has planes or shipsand everything to do with threatening U.S. and NATO assets. Obama and Kerry spent four years panting after this partnership, but Russia has been a partner the way the mafia is when it presses in on your sporting goods business. Thanks to Obamas policies, Russia has increasingly supplanted the United States as a major power broker in the region. Even U.S. allies such as Turkey, Egypt and Israel look increasingly to Moscow as a significant regional player.
Obamas policies also made possible an unprecedented expansion of Irans power and influence. Iran has at least 7,000 of its own fighters in Syria, and it leads a coalition of 20,000 foreign fighters, including Iraqis, Afghans and 8,000 Lebanese Hezbollah.
If you add the devastating impact of massive Syrian refugee flows on European democracies, Obamas policies have not only allowed the deaths of almost a half-million Syrians but also have significantly weakened Americas global position and the health and coherence of the West. Future historians will have to determine whether Vladimir Putin was emboldened to move in Ukraine by Obamas failure to carry through on his threat in Syria, or whether China felt free to act more aggressively in the South China Sea. But at the very least U.S. friends and allies in the Middle East and in Eastern and Central Europe have questioned how serious the United States is about countering aggression. Even in East Asia, American allies such as Japan and South Korea were left wondering whether the United States could still be counted on to keep its military commitments.
Trump, of course, greatly exacerbated these problems during his campaign, with all the strong rhetoric aimed at allies. Now he has taken an important first step in repairing the damage, but this will not be the end of the story. Americas adversaries are not going to be convinced by one missile strike that the United States is back in the business of projecting power to defend its interests and the world order. The Russians, by suspending an agreement with the United States to coordinate air operations over Syria, are already implicitly threatening to escalate in Syria. The Iranians are likely to step up their activities and could strike at Americans in Syria and Iraq. The testing of Trumps resolve actually begins now. If the United States backs down in the face of these challenges, the missile strike, though a worthy action in itself, may end up reinforcing the worlds impression that the United States does not have the stomach for confrontation.
Instead of being a one-time event, the missile strike needs to be the opening move in a comprehensive political, diplomatic and military strategy to rebalance the situation in Syria in Americas favor. That means reviving some of those proposals that Obama rejected over the past four years: a no-fly zone to protect Syrian civilians, the grounding of the Syrian air force, and the effective arming and training of the moderate opposition, all aimed at an eventual political settlement that can bring the Syrian civil war, and therefore the Assad regime, to an end. The United States commitment to such a course will have to be clear enough to deter the Russians from attempting to disrupt it. This in turn will require moving sufficient military assets to the region so that neither Russia nor Iran will be tempted to escalate the conflict to a crisis, and to be sure that American forces will be ready if they do.
It was precisely because Obama and his White House advisers were unwilling to go down that path that they resisted military action of any kind, regardless of the provocation. Lets hope that the Trump administration is prepared for the next move. If it is, then there is a real chance of reversing the course of global retreat that Obama began. A strong U.S. response in Syria would make it clear to the likes of Putin, Xi Jinping, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Kim Jong Un that the days of American passivity are over.
Surely, candidates for lieutenant governor of Idaho have never, ever, materialized this early.
Rarely have there been so many of them. And there could be more. Probably will be.
And there are larger, structural, even physics reasons.
The last time the office was seriously competitive was in 2002, not long after state Sen. Jack Riggs had been appointed to it (upon the departure of a predecessor named C.L. Butch Otter, who had gone off to the U.S. House). There were competitive primaries in both parties, but the Republican was notably crowded, including not only the incumbent but Celia Gould and Jim Risch, and former gubernatorial candidate Larry Eastland, plus two other little-knowns. The contest was unpredictable enough that the winner, Risch (getting his effective start here toward the Senate), won with just 34.6 percent of the vote.
Before that, although you could point to several reasonably competitive general elections back in the 70s and 80s, you have to go back generations to find the last really competitive primary for the job, or a really large field of contestants.
But so far this yearwith the filing deadline close to a year awayweve seen entries (apparently at least) into the race from state Sen. Marv Hagedorn of Meridian and state Rep. Kelley Packer of McCammon and former legislator Janice McGeachin of Idaho Falls. State Republican Party chair Steve Yates may also be in.
Why all the heavy interest?
The big reason is that light guv is an open seat this time, since incumbent Brad Little is running for governor (in another multi-contender battle). Incumbents are notoriously hard to take outfew have in recent decades in Idahoopen positions offer the best path upward.
And theres another reason for the interest: Ambitions (and I dont mean that in a pejorative sense) get bottled up in places like Idaho, where one party dominates the offices and the office-holders decide to stay around for long periods of time. In Congress, Sen. Mike Crapo has been there since 1998, Sen. Risch since 2008, Rep. Mike Simpson since 1998 and youngster Raul Labrador since 2010. Gov. Otter is wrapping up 12 years in the job; by the time of the 2018 election, Little will have been at his post for just under a decade.
If youre looking to move up, where do you go? Mostly, you wait for the rare opportunity of an opening.
Then too, the track record for upward mobility among lieutenants governor has been improving. Until the last couple of decades, most LGs topped out in that office (the main exception being John Evans, who succeeded to the governorship; Phil Batt went on to election as governor but only years after departing as lieutenant.) More recently the picture has changed. Incumbent Little is now a strong contender for governor. His predecessor, Risch, wound up in both the governors office and the Senate. The last LG before him, Otter, wound up in the U.S. House and the governorship.
Looking ahead to the contest, columnist Chuck Malloy was inclined to suggest, With Yates in, its game over. He wins. Personally, I wouldnt throw any betting money down just yet. Multi-candidate races can get awfully unpredictable, especially over the course of long campaigns. And the high pressure surrounding those few open seats can add to the number of open questions.
Never underestimate the power of bottled energy when just enough heat is applied.
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) Plans by the Bridger-Teton National Forest to thin and burn wildlands in northwest Wyoming have drawn objections over a proposal to ban cutting trees and other issues.
The Wyoming State Forestry Division and area government leaders have formally objected to prohibiting cutting trees in a proposed Palisades wilderness area abutting the west side of Jackson Hole. Conservationists and biologists are urging review of the region's suitability for wilderness and more thorough study.
The proposed Teton-to-Snake Fuels Management Project has been in the works for about six years. It is intended to allow wildfire to play its natural role on the landscape, while at the same time provide a manageable buffer for fires that burn near private property.
The U.S. Forest Service's most recent plan, a draft decision released in February, was to burn 14 square miles and thin another 3 square miles, with all use of machinery in the Palisades deferred pending congressional action on the wilderness designation.
Wyoming Forestry contends that the most recent plans no longer adequately protect from wildfire the nearly 40 miles where wildland abuts urban areas and the 1,500 private lots near the project area.
Wyoming Assistant State Forester Josh Van Vlack told the Jackson Hole News & Guide that the U.S. Forest Service must provide a buffer between the potential wilderness and neighboring property.
"It's really hard to manage potential wilderness when it's butted up against private property," Van Vlack said. "You have to have a little bit of a buffer there."
Meantime, a coalition of local governments wants to allow more commercial timber harvests. The group, which includes officials from Lincoln, Sweetwater, Uinta and Sublette counties, suggested there could be a resurgence of the logging industry in western Wyoming.
But others have environmental concerns about the proposal. "I am deeply concerned about the long-term ramifications of this project," ecologist Debra Patla wrote to the agency.
Patla contends the Forest Service must establish measurable objectives for sensitive species, protect amphibians, whitebark pine and migratory birds and cut back or eliminate commercial timber sales included in the project.
Some groups implored the Forest Service to withdraw its draft and start from scratch.
The Forest Service will hold hearings to try to resolve the differences.
Dale Deiter, the forest's Jackson district ranger, said it remains to be seen if the objections can be dealt with by the federal agency. Otherwise, the disputes would have to be settled in the courts.
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.
Malis defence minister and close ally to President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was named prime minister of the West African war-torn nation this weekend.
Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga replaced Modibo Keita, according to a decree read on state television.
The president of the republic, in accordance with the constitution, decrees that Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga is prime minister, said the statement.
The previous prime minister, Modibo Keita, had offered his resignation on Friday, the decree stated.
Mali is suffering from political instability since a coup detat in March 2012 overthrew its long-time president, Amadou Toumani Toure.
Bamako lost control of the northern region to extremist groups for around a year before it was reclaimed with the help of a French-led international military intervention.
Despite the UN having since deployed a large peacekeeping force in the north, Islamist militants have continued to conduct numerous attacks against local military and peacekeeping forces.
A week-long conference held under the auspices of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last month urged talks with jihadists in the countrys restive northern region.
Catholic Holy Father Pope Francis on Sunday condemned bomb attacks on two Coptic churches which left at least 45 dead in Egypt.
The pontiff who is due to visit Egypt later this month expressed his deepest condolences to all Egyptians and to the head of the Coptic Church, who is due to be one of his hosts.
In Tanta and in Alexandria, church services on Sunday ended in carnage.
At least 27 people died and nearly 80 were injured in bomb explosion in Egypts northern Nile Delta city of Tanta while local media quoting the interior ministry said 18 people also died and some 40 were injured outside St Marks Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of Alexandria.
Egypt has declared state of emergency following the attacks.
Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attacks and also said it was behind the deadly bombing in December of Cairos largest Coptic cathedral.
Vatican has announced earlier this month that Pope Francis will pay an official visit to the majority Muslim nation during the final week of April.
The North African nation hopes the visit will cement the spirit of tolerance and dialogue between followers of different faiths and further isolate extremism and terrorism.
Note that Coptic Christians make up 10 percent of Egypts population and are often the targets of Islamic extremism.
On December 11, the Coptic cathedral in Cairo was bombed, leaving 25 people dead.
Coptic Christians make up 10 percent of Egypts population, and are often the targets of Islamic extremism.
Tbilisi combats against pollution
By Messenger Staff
Street inspectors will maintain cleanliness in Tbilisi and deter polluters from harming the capital city.The inspectors appeared in Tbilisi streets on Saturday, and stated that for the first 20 days they will only inform the population about pollution, its damaging effects and the amount of fine they will face in case they drop litter.A company, Tbilservice Group, is behind the project.Citizens who contaminate the city with household waste amounting to around 2 kilograms will be fined with 80 GEL.It is noteworthy that cigarette butts are included in this category.If garbage is more than 2 kilograms, the fine will grow to 150 GEL.The supervisory officials will fine both legal and physical entities who throw garbage in the streets.Additionally, if a dog or other domestic animal contaminates the streets or parks with faecal matter, the owner will be fined with 50 GEL.Persons contaminating the environment with construction materials will be fined with 200GEL, and legal entities with 500GEL.When contaminating the streets with construction waste, physical entities will be fined with 500 GEL and legal entities with 1500 GEL. When violating the rules for a second time, the fine doubles.Informing people and setting high fines to combat pollution should gradually improve the city. The Messenger often touched upon the issue and wrote about the necessity of strong control needed in this regard.It was stated that initially, only 20 inspectors will be involved in the project, this amount of controlling entities is not definitely enough.It will be more welcome if the inspectors numbers increase, at least to begin with, so that people can become accustomed to the new regulations.Its very important that the inspectors be intolerable to pollution violations and never allow exceptions.
The News in Brief
Georgia is not implementing law it passed in return for visa-free travel to Europe
Georgia passed a law against discrimination three years ago, and in return the European Union gave its citizens visa-free travel to Europe. But a local human rights watchdog now says the anti-discrimination law is not being fully implemented.
The law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination was passed by parliament in spring of 2014 as a requirement by the European Union for Georgia to get visa-free access to the Schengen area.
Nearly three years after the adoption of the law, there are still problematic issues, which pose obstacles to its effective implementation, the Public Defender of Georgia writes in the latest annual report, which covers the year 2016.
Georgians celebrated that they finally can travel without a visa to most of Europe from March 28. But the ombudsman points out that three years after the anti-discrimination law was passed the government is not effectively implementing it.
The Public Defender has tried to warn against the Georgian Dream governments foot-dragging about the anti-discrimination law before. In 2015, PDG proposed a so-called first wave of amendments to make it stronger. The office has also argued that the law needs to be followed up by the government by an active information strategy. In the last annual report, for the year 2015, he proposed measures for raising awareness and creating a tolerant environment in schools. Both are proposals that the government has yet to act on.
Meanwhile, there are continuing attacks against transgender people in Georgia, and criticism against the lack of a proper response from the judicial system. Some of the murdered transgender people were seen at demonstrations for LGBTQ rights.
But the government is also under pressure from the other side, by people who think the law went too far, with one member of parliament even proposing in September 2015 to remove that part of the law mentioning sexual minorities. For a section of Georgian society, the law was controversial when it was passed, especially the part which deals with sexual minorities, in a country that to a large degree is religiously devout and conservative.
When researchers have tried to look into what may be causing a reaction, they found that when asked, Georgians are not against gay rights per se, but dislike having to deal with the issue in a public setting. An opinion poll last summer showed that Georgians on the whole support the rights of gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities, but the majority of them dislike seeing gay rights rallies and other manifestations of a lifestyle they consider threatening to the social order.
Among the Orthodox Church, the prevailing view is that the LGBTQ cause is a form of cultural imperialism pushed by Europe and the West, that threatens to undermine traditional family values. Many Georgians remember the events of May 2013, when a group of LGBTQ activists were violently attacked by a crowd of thousands of Orthodox Christians in the center of Tbilisi.
The gay rights issue has worked to distance Georgians from its Western allies, and recently a delegation of Georgian priests visited NATO headquarters in Brussels. Returning from the trip, the priests had learned that the EU is not against a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Another important human rights challenge in Georgia in 2016 was violations of the rights of children. The measures taken to combat child abuse, extreme poverty and other violations of the rights of children are not sufficient, the report states. In addition, there remains the ingrained problems of child poverty and inadequate living conditions, which in turn leads to problems for the children as they develop, also in terms of nutrition.
Other challenges are prisoner abuse and police brutality.
Once again, there is an acute problem of ill-treatment of people detained by the police, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili said as he presented the new report on Saturday.
Womens rights have been put on the agenda in the last year, following an awareness of the extent of violence against women. There have been calls to name femicide as a specific crime in the Criminal Code, most recently by the Republican Party.
The POG annual report is a survey of how well the country is protecting human rights and freedoms over the course of the preceding year.
In 2016, the government carried out reforms in the justice system and law enforcement agencies according to commitments taken at international and national levels, Nanuashvili said.
The report also criticized an amendment to a law regulating secret surveillance, adopted by the parliament in March.
The amendments are not in line with the Constitutional Courts decision and can not be referred to as a guarantee against unjustified interference in peoples private lives.
The report says that violations revealed during 2016 parliamentary elections couldnt influence results of the ballot.
POG received 8,827 complaints about violations of human rights last year; slightly higher than the two preceding years when the number of complaints was less than seven thousand. POGs reports explains the increase with more awareness and higher expectations among people regarding the complaints mechanism. (DF watch)
Doctor: Condition of assaulted former deputy interior minister is stable
According to New Hospital Director, the health condition of former deputy interior minister Gela Khvedelidze is stable.
Doctors presume that Khvedelize may be discharged from the hospital in 3-5 days.
Former deputy interior minister Gela Khvedelidze was attacked near his house on March 3, which resulted in Khvedelidze sustaining injuries to his face. The Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an investigation into the deliberate infliction of damage to someones health. (IPN)
About 1,800 current and former Florida prison inmates who were denied medical care for hernias will be entitled to divide $1.7 million in damages from a class-action lawsuit under a conditional settlement agreed to by the Department of Corrections and its former prison health-care provider, Corizon, and filed in federal court in Tallahassee last week.
The suit was brought by the Florida Justice Institute and the Coral Gables law firm of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton in September 2015 on behalf of three inmates. It alleged Corizon and the agency violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments by denying the inmates medical care in an effort to save money.
The damages will be paid by Corizon, but the settlement agreement also requires the state prison system to adopt a new policy to provide consultations with surgeons for inmates with hernia symptoms in all Florida facilities.
Obviously, the inmates are there for a reason. We are not trying to make their time in detention a country club, but there is a responsibility to provide humane conditions for their incarceration and in this case we achieved a big step in making sure the medical treatment complies with the standard of care in the industry, said Ken Hartman, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle gave preliminary approval to the settlement at the March 29 hearing but because several of the affected inmates are residing in other states, the settlement requires that their state attorneys general be notified and given an opportunity to object to the agreement. Hinkle said he would enter a final an order in 100 days. Story here.
Photo credit: TRIPPLAAR KRISTOFFER/SIPA Sipa USA via AP
@ByKristenMClark
When Anitere Flores declared, unprompted, a month ago there were a lot of controversial gun-rights measures she wouldnt support this year, the Miami Republican state senator truly set the tone for the Legislatures gun debate in 2017.
With the session half over, only a handful of the two dozen pieces of gun-related legislation proposed this year have been considered at all, and of those, only a couple have a viable path at actually becoming law.
The House approved three such bills this week two of which could likely be enacted this year, including highly divisive changes to Floridas Stand Your Ground law but lawmakers in both chambers and from both parties predict those measures will be the only ones on the table for this session.
Several attribute Flores who is No. 2 in the Senate behind President Joe Negron, R-Stuart as the reason.
I think the members not just myself, but some others were a little gun-bill fatigued, Flores told the Herald/Times in late March.
Full story here.
Photo credit: Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami. Steve Cannon / AP
The Supreme Court of Canada has published itsTo find out more about any particular case, click on the docket number in parentheses next to each case name to find docket information, case summaries as well as facta from the parties.
Labels: Supreme Court of Canada
HELENA A group of farm and ranch owners, along with two environmental advocacy groups, are suing the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation over rules that allow oil and gas companies to keep secret the chemicals they use for hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.
But the timeline for the lawsuit has been pushed back as a bill that could change disclosure laws works its way through the Legislature.
The suit alleges that the boards rules, which dont require companies to provide specific information on the chemicals they use until after fracking is complete or in some cases not at all if companies claim the mix of chemicals is a trade secret, violate the rights of Montanans under the states Constitution, which guarantees a right to know and the right to a clean and healthful environment.
The Montana Environmental Center, a state-level nonprofit environmental advocate; Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental advocacy organization; and a handful of landowners filed the lawsuit in January in Lewis and Clark County District Court. They agreed to extend the timeline for the board to respond to the suit as Senate Bill 299, carried by Sen. Tom Richmond, R-Billings, is deliberated by the 65th Montana Legislature.
On Monday, the bill cleared an initial vote in the House 70-30, moving it one step forward to the governor's desk. The bill clears up Montana Environmental Information Center's concerns over what constitutes a trade secret, but does not go nearly far enough on requiring companies to disclose the chemicals they use in fracking, said Derf Johnson, center's clean water program director.
The bill does not call for baseline testing of wells, which Johnson said is necessary to monitor any contamination from fracking. And while it does require disclosure of the chemicals used in fracking, it does not require that be done before the fracking occurs, making it impossible to track the source of any contamination, he said.
If this legislation passes, its potentially going to prevent meaningful disclosure because the board can point to the Legislature and say were preempted from doing anything because the Legislature acted and now theres a law in place, Johnson said.
Jim Halvorson with the board said he could not comment on the lawsuit, but said the Senate bill would allow the board to do the majority of what was in the centers request last July to change its disclosure rules.
***
In the lawsuit, the center and others said they want information about the chemicals used in fracking so they can understand the risks fracking operations may pose to property, human health and the environment and take steps to safeguard their water supplies.
The practice of fracking involves pumping fluid into wells to crack rock formations and release gas and oil. The practice is highly controversial. Those who support it say it it makes wells more productive, while opponents claim it contaminates ground and surface water and increases seismic activity.
Last July the group that filed the lawsuit petitioned the board to change its rules. The group asked for disclosure of chemicals to be part of the application process for drilling a well and the information be made public at least 45 days before fracking occurs.
The board rejected that petition in September in a decision the lawsuit calls factually erroneous, unsupported and irrational. The group wants Lewis and Clark County District Court to throw out that decision and force the board to reconsider.
There have been somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 wells fracked in 132 different fields in Montana. In 2015, 65 percent of oil production and 39 percent of natural gas production in the state involved fracking.
Under rules set by the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation in 2011, oil and gas operators do not have to tell the board or public about the specific chemical ingredients it uses for fracking until after operations are complete. The board does require the disclosure of the brand name or generic name of fracking fluids, which consists of industry labels such as DWP-621 or Slick Frac, but disclosure of the specific chemical ingredient list is not required before fracking occurs.
The generic information is effectively useless for landowners because it does not provide enough information for landowners to conduct baseline testing.
Even after fracking occurs, the rules also let oil and gas companies withhold any chemical information operators claim to be a trade secret.
In Wyoming, operators have to disclose the specific ingredients of their fracking fluids to a state official before they are approved for use. There is no legitimate reason why Montanans should have less access to chemical information than their neighbors, the lawsuit states.
In early March, the city of Missoula needed a new truck. A 2017 Ford F-150 Super Cab, specifically, for stormwater department superintendent Bob Hayes to use on the job.
The truck cost $27,138.28, well under the city budget of $35,000.
So city Fleet Manager Scot Colwell drafted up a request and sat in front of City Councils Public Works Committee on March 1.
Did any Ford company in Missoula give a bid to you? Ward 4 representative Jon Wilkins asked.
No, they did not, Colwell answered. Thats the problem we have with the bidding process, is that local companies here are not bidding.
I dont know why they wont bid on it.
The council approved the purchase; the truck at least was from Montana: Great Falls Bison Motor Company.
The last time Colwell could find a Missoula dealership entering a state bid was 2011. Since the beginning of 2014, the city has bought almost 60 vehicles, nine of which were from local dealerships though not through the state bid.
There (are) no local companies, no local businesses, who bid on them, Colwell said.
The state puts out vehicle bids twice a year; once for law enforcement cruisers. They ask dealerships from the area (Montana, Idaho or Washington) to bid vehicles in a variety of categories, from SUVs, pickups and sedans.
The state Procurement Bureau organizes the offers in a spreadsheet, which Colwell pulls up whenever the city needs a new vehicle.
He finds the low bid, puts in a request to City Council, and purchases the vehicle with their approval.
The 2016-17 state bids were from dealerships in Bozeman, Great Falls, Havre, Townsend, Spokane and Livingston.
The city has mostly done business with Bozemans Billion Auto Group and Bison Motor Company in Great Falls, buying almost 50 vehicles from the two dealerships, including 15 Dodge Chargers for patrol officers and 18 pickup trucks for maintenance crews.
The last time a Missoula dealership provided any vehicles to the city was in December 2015, when City Council approved buying four GMC Sierra 3500HD pickups from DeMarois Buick GMC for use at the Wastewater Treatment plant.
Karl Tyler Chevrolet sold the city a handful of pickup trucks the same month and in October 2014.
However, none of those sales were through the state bid process, Colwell said. Those purchases were done on the citys prerogative, bypassing the state-level awards.
Id much rather do a local vendor, he said. When you buy something out of town, you dont get the level of service as if you bought in town.
But Colwell said the states bid process usually generates way better prices than if the city called around town themselves. So with an eye toward trying to save the citys money where he can, Colwell takes the low bids.
Joe Ferkovich, a sales representative for Karl Tyler Chevrolet of Missoula, works in the fleet department.
He said they largely fill fleet orders for private companies, but do put in for the state bid on a semi-regular basis.
One of the main hurdles for dealerships, Ferkovich said, is having the space to store large orders.
We have like over 100 vehicles to be dropped off for a rental company, he said. Youve gotta be able to park all those vehicles.
About 14 other vehicles, for a local company, have been sitting in the lot for about a month, Ferkovich added. Theyve been paid for, just not picked up.
Aside from space, there just isnt very much overhead in fleet sales, Ferkovich said, thinking thats why most dealers dont go in for the service.
While Ferkovich wouldnt say how many fleet orders they fill, it is a service Karl Tyler values: Those people drive cars too."
I think we get our fair share, he said. There just isnt much money in it.
***
The two most prolific state bid winners in recent years were Billion Auto Group, from Bozeman, and Bison Motor Company from Great Falls.
Missoula has bought five vehicles from Bison in the past two years and 17 from Billion.
Bob Galiger, fleet manager for Billion Auto, said he worked his way into the job about four years ago, essentially creating a position where he focuses only on state and local bids.
Its a lot of work to do a bid for a state agency, Galiger said. Theres not a lot of margin in them.
He declined to say how many bids he sells in a year, but said it was enough vehicles to make it worth his full-time position.
Galiger thought the time commitment related to filling public agency bids was a reason many dealers decline to enter.
It takes a lot of time and effort, he said. By the time you go through your manufacturers and everything, it takes a good couple weeks.
Whitney Olson, vice president for Bison Motor Company, said they've had a fleet program for decades and built up an efficient team to process as many orders as possible.
She credited her fleet managers for their in-depth knowledge of the states bid process, which helps them win so many bids year after year.
The bidding process is really complex, she said. Its not just something you hand off to anybody in the dealership.
Bisons proximity to Helena is a bonus, Olson said, enabling them to fill orders for Helena-based agencies much more quickly than others around the state.
Olson would only say their fleet sales were in the hundreds per year, but also said despite the low overhead, the sales were worth it.
Its good business, she said. It creates some extra work when wed otherwise be slow.
Council member Wilkins said he has asked about the citys process before and understood it was generally cheaper and easier to use the states bid process.
But buying from fellow Montanans isnt quite good enough, Wilkins said, not when his neighbors and constituents can sell the city the same thing.
I definitely believe in buying local, he said. Any time we can.
***
Earlier this spring, Wilkins brought up the local issue over a Kiwanis Park pavilion that city staff was going to contract out to a Michigan company.
A majority of the Parks and Conservation Committee agreed with Wilkins, voting at a Feb. 8 meeting for staff to start a new bid process, specifically seeking out local builders and designers, with the understanding they were willing to stretch the budget.
We spend a lot of money for the city, sometimes frivolously, Wilkins said.
If were buying an individual truck, he continued, I would be willing to pay a little more.
There's a certain moment, said Missoula attorney Colin Stephens.
Youre lying in the hospital bed and you think, I can do anything, he said.
I can quit my job and people would understand. I can break off my engagement, people would understand. I can go live in a yurt in Ketchikan, Alaska, and people would just think, 'Oh well hes had this life-altering moment and etc., etc.'
Stephens moment came in spring 2006. Less than a year after graduating from law school at the University of Montana and only months into his first job as an attorney, Stephens was flown to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane for treatment of a blood clot, eventually undergoing a full heart transplant.
I remember sitting in the bed and going, I love criminal defense and this is what I want to do, he said.
***
Raised in Dutton, Stephens went to Carroll College to study philosophy before coming to the University of Montana to pursue a masters degree.
My plan was basically never much of a plan. It was literally knowledge for knowledges sake and just to learn stuff, he said.
He'd finished with all of his courses and was working on a thesis about the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention through the lens of political philosopher John Rawls when he made the shift to law. The thesis work meant he spent a lot of time in the law school library, and Stephens said between that and taking a course in constitutional law as an independent study, he decided to become an attorney.
I just went, 'Im either going to be the most educated bartender in the state of Montana, or I better go to law school,' he said.
After recovering from his transplant, Stephens and his wife Nicole came back to Missoula and a decade ago, he was approached by attorney John Smith, who shares a background in philosophy and asked Stephens to come join his firm, which is now Smith & Stephens.
"We're both really committed to justice. That's why we're in this game," Smith said. "I have a tendency to say that as criminal defense lawyers, we're sort of law officers of the highest order because we seek to enforce the Constitution and the rights it protects."
***
At the annual conference of the Montana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in March Stephens and Missoula attorney Brett Schandelson were honored with the groups Lawyer of the Year award.
The pair each have spent countless hours working on pro bono cases for the Montana Innocence Project, which works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people.
For Schandelson, a victory came in the case of Richard Raugust. Originally found guilty of a Sanders County murder in 1998, Raugusts life sentence was overturned last summer, with the prosecutors office later dismissing the charge entirely.
In January, Cody Marble became a free man against after years of proclaiming he never committed a rape while in juvenile detention, for which he was sent to prison in 2002. Stephens, who had been appointed to represent Marble during an appeal in a different case, said Marble and his father told him about the miscarriage of justice in his rape case. Eventually Stephens told them he would help Jessie McQuillan, one of the founders of the Montana Innocence Project, look into the case.
While he doesnt know a specific figure for how much pro bono work he put into Marbles pursuit of exoneration since joining the case, Stephens said its hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours.
His argument before the state Supreme Court in Marbles case ended with the court sending it back to Missoula County District Court for a new evidence hearing, which eventually ended with the conviction being overturned and the charges dropped.
In the state Supreme Courts ruling, the justices also created a new rule for how courts should weigh newly discovered evidence, deciding that the information no longer had to be a "silver bullet" that proved innocence by itself, but instead that it should be viewed in context of all of the evidence presented at trial.
Marbles case wasnt the end of Stephens' involvement with the Montana Innocence Project. Hes now helping the groups attorneys with the case of Katie Garding, convicted of hitting and killing a man with her car near East Missoula in 2008.
As with Marble, Stephens previously represented Garding in a separate criminal matter, around the same time she was being investigated in the vehicular homicide case.
It was always just, I didnt do this. And I believed her, so much so that I walked her into an interview with the cops, which I would never, ever, ever, ever do if I had even the slightest inclination someone was guilty, but I was so convinced, Stephens said. Ive never ever had a moments pause that Katie was at all guilty.
Larry Mansch, legal director for the Montana Innocence Project, said that in his mind Stephens is one of the most talented lawyers in the state, and that his assistance in cases has been tremendous.
He has a dedication to his work, and he combines that with a huge amount of common sense and a really sharp mind for the law, he said.
For Stephens, taking cases like Marbles and Gardings is about the interesting legal hook each provided.
While President Trump was busy launching cruise missiles in our newest war in Syria, the U.S. Congress was launching some ugly legislative missiles at themselves and the American populace. The Senates decision to implement the nuclear option to confirm Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch destroyed the longstanding requirement of 60 votes to end a filibuster, perhaps permanently crippling the Senate. The missile Congress launched at the populace is a measure to allow internet providers to sell all the information on their clients internet use to the highest bidder. The good news is that Montana is leading the nation in fighting back to protect citizen electronic privacy.
Its estimated that 100 million U.S. households now access the internet for an increasingly wide variety of purposes that include shopping, banking, browsing, reading and watching movies, to name a few. Meanwhile, billions of internet users post incredible amounts of personal information on social media using email, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and a host of other apps.
As noted by PCWorld, the measures requiring broadband providers to receive opt-in customer permission to share sensitive personal information, including web-browsing history, geolocation, and financial details with third parties.
What one senator called a gold mine of information is estimated to be worth a staggering $70 billion to $100 billion. And as Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, told PCWorld, the legislation kills the only privacy protections Americans can have when they use the internet or their mobile phones," predicting that "Americans will become victims of massive ongoing surveillance from their ISPs."
Its well known that Montanans highly value their privacy and the last thing anyone would want is for all their internet interactions to be collected, sold and re-sold to unknown third parties for the purpose of putting together personal profiles that would allow interests to target individuals for any number of commercial purposes.
Consequently, its not surprising to see both Democrats and Republicans in the Montana Legislature joining forces with Gov. Steve Bullock to protect internet privacy for Montanans and leading the nation in doing so.
Three electronic privacy bills, House bills 147, 148 and 149, all sponsored by Rep. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, are now in Bullocks office. HB 147 requires a search warrant for government access to electronic devices and passed both chambers of the legislature by nearly unanimous votes. Bullock returned the bill with amendments he says strengthen the bill by requiring a finding of probably cause for warrants or subpoenas for electronic information.
HB 148 requires a search warrant for disclosure of electronic communications by internet service providers as well as notice to customers if electronic communications are provided to a governmental entity. It also allows internet providers to challenge certain warrants.
HB 149 generally prohibits the use of a license plate reader by the state or a local government. The measure does allow the Department of Transportation or local governments to use license plate readers for planning purposes, but requires that they ensure and maintain the anonymity of the vehicle, its owner, driver and any passengers. It also bans use of the data collected without a search warrant to investigate or prosecute an individual or as evidence in court.
And finally, an amendment to the budget bill prohibits internet providers who use or sell customer data without customer consent from obtaining contracts with the state.
With the Legislature ending soon, Montanans should be thankful that our legislators and governor have taken prudent measures to protect our electronic privacy in light of congressional efforts to do just the opposite.
The proposed White House budget includes many spending cuts, while bolstering funds for military and the wall. Two specific cuts caught my eye: a reduction to nutritional aid to families (SNAP) and a decrease ($1.3 billion) for Pell grants. These cuts disproportionately hurt poor children and young adults trying to improve their lives.
In 2016, more than 120,000 Montanans received nutrition aid. To qualify, a family of three had to have an income of less than $26,813; 80 percent were below poverty level.
Approximately 38 percent of University of Montana and 29 percent of Montana State University students use Pell grants for tuition. Most of these students work also. The median adjusted gross income for families of U.S. Pell recipients is $15,223.
Twenty-seven White House staffers who completed a disclosure form are worth more than $2.3 billion, yet approximately 4,000 UM students come from low-income families.
Children and young adults in Montana merit support to realize their potential. The proposed federal budget eliminates opportunities while the White House begins talk about cutting taxes for the wealthy. Simultaneously, the Montana Legislature considers bills to limit SNAP eligibility and cuts revenue for higher education, leading to tuition increases for struggling families. Priorities are all wrong.
Arlene Walker-Andrews,
Missoula
Photo Courtesy of Atlantic RecordsWale's fifth studio album Shine officially comes out May 5, but you can pre-order the highly-anticipated disc now, which comes with a instant grat download track called "Fish N Grits," featuring vocals from Travis Scott.
The single follows several other previous instant grat downloads released by the "Pretty Girls" rapper with a pre-order of Shine, including "Running Back" featuring Lil Wayne, "Fashion Week" featuring G-Eazy" and "My PYT."
In addition, tickets to Wale's current Shine tour are still available to purchase. His next performance will be on April 20 at the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, North Carolina. For more information on Wale's tour and further updates, check out WaleMusic.com.
Here's the complete track list for Shine:
Thank God
Running Back (Feat. Lil Wayne) **
Scarface Rozay Gotti
My Love (Feat. Major Lazer, Wizkid, Dua Lipa)
Fashion Week (Feat. G-Eazy) **
Colombia Heights (Te Llamo) (Feat. J Balvin)
CC White
Mathematics
Fish N Grits (Feat. Travis Scott) **
Fine Girl (Feat. Davido & Olamide)
Heaven On Earth (Feat. Chris Brown)
My PYT **
DNA
Smile (Feat. Phil Ade & Zyla Moon)
** instant grat with album pre-order
Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
In the April 3 Missoulian, the article "Number of homeless and at risk youth rose in 2016" caught my eye. Missoula is a city with strange priorities. On the one hand, it has a mayor and a city council racing into the future with development after development at the same time we read every day about the housing crisis. As in, there is a shortage of affordable housing.
Then we have the city spending millions of taxpayer dollars to fix a problem that didn't exist: their pursuit to take over the water company that wasnt causing Missoulians a problem. Is leadership a tad bit power-hungry?
That brings me to the article. Missoula County Public Schools reported there was a 45.9 percent increase in at-risk youth from 2015 to 2016. This occurred at the same time, and with the support of the mayor and city council, as Soft Landing was bringing in many refugee families.
In fact, many have left Missoula for places unknown because they could not find affordable housing or jobs. It's curious that we have a growing homeless problem, a growing at-risk youth problem, Soft Landing can raise $30,000 to help people half a world away and no one sees anything wrong with these strange priorities.
I hope Missoulians wake up and take back their city before the leftists in leadership ruin a once-great little city.
Ed Kugler,
Big Arm
Its not often that we see bills in the legislature that help homeowners and businesses, generate jobs, and support our economy but cost nothing to the taxpayer. But Senate Bill 330 does just that, allowing property owners to invest in clean energy.
Known as Property Assessment Clean Energy (PACE), this bill will boost investment in clean and efficient energy technology through private capital using the same tried-and-true system that helps build other public infrastructure like sidewalks, roads and sewer systems. The best part is that PACE is 100 percent voluntary, so no one is forced to participate.
At a time of rapidly increasing housing costs, the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements can help make homes and businesses more affordable, but not everyone is in a position to spend the up-front capital to see these returns.
Thats why I support Senate Bill 330, which passed by the Montana Senate last week and is currently being considered by the House. The bill will allow counties and cities to partner with private lenders to create a new low-interest loan program for energy conservation and renewable energy through long-term property assessments.
Please call your legislator today and ask them to support SB 330.
Aaron Wilson,
Missoula
BILLINGS The city of Billings has dropped its case against Barry Beach, who was set to go to trial Tuesday.
Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss on Thursday, and municipal Judge Sheila Kolar signed an order the following day.
Beach was charged in city court last fall for violating a protection order, which was filed by a woman with whom Beach shares a child. Among the allegations was that the woman saw Beach parked outside of her home.
A GPS monitoring device affixed to Beach confirmed the woman's sightings.
In its motion to dismiss, Deputy City Attorney Benjamin Halverson wrote that the charges filed in November came "under an objective belief that probable cause existed based on the facts and evidence at the time," according to court documents.
Halverson wrote that the following investigation and "developments" in the case made it "unlikely that the city could meet its burden to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt."
He added that testimony from the woman who filed the protection order against Beach has been overshadowed by the "media's unmitigated fascination with (Beach)," court documents state.
Halverson wrote in his motion that the woman and her attorney agreed to dismissal.
The case was scheduled for trial on Tuesday.
LAKE COMO The scenario was what nightmares are made of for John Crowley.
The reservoir at Lake Como was full to the brim and water was already spilling over the concrete spillway. There was rain coming down on heavy snowpack and the water gushing out of the mountain was roaring down the tributaries.
And if that wasnt enough to make the man charged with the operation of the earthen dam shake in his shoes, Bureau of Reclamation officials tossed in an earthquake for good measure.
Suddenly, there was seepage coming through the dam and the countys emergency management team was being tested to see how quickly it could respond.
We like to go a little Hollywood during these tests, said Suzanne Marinelli, the Bureau of Reclamations emergency management program coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Region. I felt a little guilty packing all of this into one exercise they all performed wonderfully.
After the recent near failure of the earthen dam at Oroville, California, some folks in the Bitterroot Valley had questioned the communitys ability to respond to a sudden break in one the two larger earthen dams in Ravalli County.
This past week, Bureau of Reclamation officials put those responsible for addressing a potential breach at Lake Como though their paces in a fast-paced exercise that offered opportunities to review disaster procedures associated with the dam.
I was pretty much mentally exhausted when it was over, Crowley said. Any time we have this type of emergency planning exercise, it helps us to prepare. We always learn from it.
The original earthen dam that creates Lake Como between Hamilton and Darby was built between 1906 and 1909. The water stored in the reservoir irrigates farms and ranches along a 72-mile ditch that winds its way along the east side of the valley.
The dam is owned and operated by the Bitterroot Irrigation District. The Bureau of Reclamation serves as the agency overseeing safety measures at the dam.
Last Friday, Crowley led a small group of interested federal, state and local officials on a tour of the monitoring sites the irrigation district uses to ensure the stability of the structure.
Dallas and Ginny Erickson of Stevensville accompanied the group. The Ericksons have expressed concerns about the lack of an early warning system at the dam. A breach would have devastating consequences for downstream communities, especially Hamilton.
***
In the early 1990s, safety modifications costing $1.8 million were added to the structure. They included building a new concrete spillway and adding thousands of yards of fill material to shore up the toe of the dam.
The funding also paid for adding five large monitoring wells that are big enough for dam operators to climb down about 50 feet to measure and visually observe the ground water that runs below the dam.
Irrigation users will eventually be responsible for paying for the improvements and measuring devices.
Crowley said the monitoring wells are important because they would provide the first clues that something irregular was happening within the earthen structure.
That warning would show up as turbidity in the water, which Crowley said would result in immediate action in isolate the problem.
As a dam operator, any time you start seeing muddy water, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, Crowley said.
Fortunately, so far, turbid water has not been an issue in any of the monitoring wells.
The modifications also included the installation of 19 small tubes placed along the toe of the dam that are used to track the depth of ground water levels.
And finally, just downstream of the dam, two weirs were installed that offer another opportunity to check the amount of groundwater and turbidity levels.
Its all about checks and balances, Crowley said.
Managing the water levels in the reservoir is an annual dance between gathering the water necessary to supply downstream irrigators throughout the summer and keeping the water level low enough early in order to provide some flood control.
Once the water starts going over the spillway, those are uncontrolled releases, he said. We do whatever we can to control floodwaters.
As an example, the past week, Crowley made the decision to bring the reservoir down several feet because the annual snowpack is about 104 percent of normal for this time of year.
We figure that we have about 70,000 acre feet of water sitting up there in the snowpack right now, he said. My lake holds 38,495 acre feet of water. I think we have an ample snowpack this year.
Irrigators can expect to see water showing up at their head gates sometime between April 17 and 24.
Of course, Crowleys challenge is knowing when and how fast the snowpack will melt.
We try to stay one step ahead of Mother Nature,' Crowley said. Shes a hard one to predict. She can turn on you in a minute.
Butte police arrested a 21-year-old man early Sunday after he led police on a high speed chase from the Uptown area to the interstate where police used spike sticks to blow out the tires on the vehicle which then nearly hit an officer after driving into oncoming traffic.
Police said they originally responded to reports of a disturbance at Montana Techs student housing complex on the 1000 block of Lexington Street around 3:30 a.m. when a black 2011 Dodge Charger driven by Mansour Abdulah Alsubaihi approached two officers, flashed its lights at them, and then drove off between the two parked police cars, Undersheriff George Skuletich said Monday, referring to the police report.
Officers located the car on Excelsior and Park, and when they tried to pull the driver over, they said he took off. Police said the pursuit accelerated to high speeds, so officers pulled back. The vehicle was spotted getting onto Interstate 15-90 eastbound at Montana Street, and police followed at a distance.
On Woodville Hill, on Interstate 15 just northeast of Butte, police said Alsubaihi then turned around heading back toward Butte while driving at over 90 mph. Police used stop sticks to blow out three of the Charger's tires but said Alsubaihi kept driving on its rims and crossed into oncoming traffic, nearly striking another vehicle head on, Skuletich said.
Police said the Charger then turned around and began heading in the correct direction, and an officer on foot pulling his pistol had to jump out of the way of the oncoming vehicle, Skuletich said. When the vehicle came to a stop on Interstate 15-90 between Continental and Harrison, police said Alsubaihi fought with officers pulling him out of the car and spat on two before officers put a spit hood over his head.
Alsubaihi was arrested on a litany of charges: felony assault with a weapon for nearly hitting an officer with his car; two counts of assault with a bodily fluid; fleeing from police; reckless driving; and driving without a valid license, insurance, and lit headlights. Police said Alsubaihi was also booked for DUI, though that charge does not appear in the county jail roster. He remained in jail as of Tuesday morning. The bond was bumped to $55,000 from the initial $3,095, according to the jail roster.
On March 18, Alsubaihi was arrested in Whitestown, Indiana, for reckless driving and driving without a license and gave a Butte address, according to Boone County, Indiana, police reports. Police said his Charger is registered in Kentucky, and Montana Tech spokesperson Amanda Badovinac said he is a registered student at the college.
YINCHUAN, China Students burst into applause as I ended the first period lecture in American History of Technology and Society. Oh, I had forgotten that feeling of enthusiastic students who in every class express their appreciation for a foreign professor. Its a two-period evening class, beginning at 7 and ending at 8:30. The 30-some students who take the course for credit, along with the 10 or so who just sit in, all stay awake. Again, something Im not used to with American students in evening classes.
Im teaching two undergraduate classes (the other one is U.S. Environmental History) and guest lecturing in a graduate research methods course at Ningxia University in the northwestern Chinese city of Yinchuan (Ing-chew-on). The local beer, brewed in and named for the historical Kingdom of XiXia, has its motto on each can, Beer for the Northwest Man. I like that, even though XiXia like most large brewing companies back in America is foreign-owned.
The Chinese government promotes globalism, even as America seems to take an isolationist turn. Chinese students appreciate globalism. Most want to study abroad though, because it is so competitive, relatively few will realize that dream. Contrast that with American students, few of whom want to study abroad. Americans love to travel abroad, of course, but most want to stay in American-style hotels and see 10 cities in 7 days. Few want to actually live abroad, eat strange food, and experience a foreign culture on its own terms.
Yet another contrast, students are super helpful to this awkward American professor whether on campus, at the supermarket, or in class. On my first evening of class, two undergraduate students immediately seized the chance to be class monitors. They ready the classroom computer and data projector and take roll, and in the first hour of class set-up a WeChat (sort of like Facebook) site where they posted the syllabus, readings, lectures, and other course documents. The WeChat site also serves as a discussion board where students can ask me questions or make arrangements for things like joining me for a weekly dinner. American dollars go a long way for food an excellent meal for six is less than 200 Yuan ($30).
Ningxia University, with its many new buildings and expanding programs, is a good example of Chinas effort to promote the welfare of its 56 minorities. Ningxia Province is about 40 percent Hui, a Muslim minority. Though in many ways largely assimilated into dominant Han culture, poverty is widespread in this province with its isolated villages where farmers raise crops and tend their sheep. From outward appearances, most Hui students are indistinguishable from Han, although a few women do wear the hajib. I must also note that though China actively promotes the advancement of minorities, it is intolerant of minority challenges to central government authority, with Tibetans and Uighurs as prime examples.
Ningxia University is a Project 211 School, one of the 100 or so Chinese universities designated by the government as leading institutions for the 21st century. If we look at government investment per student in higher education as a percent of social wealth (per capita GDP), the United States spends about 26% and the rate is falling sharply. China spends about 59% and the rate is rising sharply (UNESCO statistics). With about 22,000 students (according to Wikipedia), NU is considerably larger than UM or MSU. Most students, especially outside of the sciences, are women. I am told this is because of the extremely competitive entrance exams. Young men spend too much time playing video games instead of studying and cannot make the grade. The sprawling campus, which includes a small lake about a half-mile in size, is uncrowded and it seems there are fewer students than at our Montana flagship schools.
The school hosts one of Chinas premiere viticulture (grape growing) and enology (wine making) programs. The program complements the local wine industry, established with heavy government investment. It seems to be paying off, and in tasting competitions Ningxia wines sometimes best fine French Bordeaux. As a wine lover, though hardly a connoisseur, I had to test this out. Indeed, the mid-priced bottle of Ningxia wine I bought at the supermarket is excellent. Now I need to find some local mutton to go with it.
HELENA When the Bakken oil boom peaked, and substance abuse spiked along with it, Jim Novelli wished he could have offered substance abuse treatment out of his clinics offices near the North Dakota border.
Even though Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center provides mental health and substance abuse services across most of the eastern side of the state, it couldn't treat people for drug and alcohol addiction in Dawson County under a 40-year-old law that only allowed one state-approved provider in an area.
Unfortunately for some of the people that follow the oil, that comes with the consequences of sometimes of drugs and alcohol, said Novelli, the executive director of center. "There was quite a bit of need for services.
But this summer the decades-old limit will be lifted and Novelli plans to start offering services out of the centers satellite office in Glendive.
In the 1970s when there werent enough treatment centers, the state established a law against duplicating services as a way to encourage clinics to spread geographically instead of concentrating in a few areas.
It was set up so that we could have coverage across the state, said Zoe Barnard, director of the Addictive and Mental Disorders Division of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. That was the original intent. But over time it turned into a situation where there couldnt be any duplication and there was only one.
This spring the Legislature erased that requirement with a bill recently signed into law. While any new center that opens must demonstrate a need in the area it plans to serve, it's expected the change will lead to more state-approved providers.
Being state-approved means clinics can get reimbursement for services from a federal block grant and can access county money that comes from a tax collected on alcohol sales. State-approved facilities also can bill Medicaid for patients covered under that state-federal program.
In 2015 Montana chose to expand its Medicaid program under the Montana Health and Economic Livelihood Partnership, or HELP, Act, which extended coverage to those making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The 71,000 Montanans who signed up for coverage under expansion gained access to insurance that included substance abuse treatment.
When that passed, we had to go in and look at what we were providing and figure out how it fit in with Medicaid, Barnard said. The statute kept coming up and presenting problems because if youre going to try to improve access to care and you only have one provider per area, obviously youre going to have a limitation on access.
The Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center, in operation for 50 years and based in Miles City, has a presence in 17 counties providing mental health and substance abuse services. But it had been limited from offering substance abuse services in Richland, Dawson, Prairie, Wibaux and McCone counties because another provider is in that area.
We have the full array of mental health services but the one thing thats lacking is substance abuse, Novelli said.
Once the new law goes into effect July 1, he plans to start offering substance abuse treatment in Glendive. If things go well there, he'll expand services next to Sidney. Oil production in the Bakken is climbing back up and with it, many of the workers who filled housing in the northeastern corner of the state are returning. With some come substance abuse problems.
Methamphetamine has ripped through many communities on the Hi-Line in the last five years, and there's a growing amount of heroin abuse. Plus, Novelli said, the alcohol problem is not getting smaller.
Barnard estimates about 80,000 people in Montana have a substance abuse problem, but just 10,000 have sought treatment.
Statewide, more than 13 percent of deaths among people ages 20-64 are due to excessive drinking, with 390 deaths attributed to alcohol in the state each year, according to a report prepared for the Montana Healthcare Foundation. Drug overdoses account for 250 deaths and 2,500 hospital admissions and emergency department visits. Of suicides that were reviewed with a toxicology screening between 2014-2016, more than half of people who died had alcohol or drugs in their system.
In a recent survey of 31 Montana counties, 24 said alcohol and substance abuse was their top concern. It was one of the top three issues for all 31 counties.
When the House debated the bill allowing for expanded services, Rep. Gordon Pierson, D-Deer Lodge, said that veterans, youth and the Native American community three sectors that have been under-served in Montana could benefit the most from more services. These are populations that dont necessarily feel comfortable going to the current facilities that provide care.
Jordan Thompson, who represents the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in western Montana, was among those who supported the new law.
On the reservation as well as in Indian Country there is a high rate of substance abuse and mental health issues," he said at a legislative hearing last month. "This bill creates access and it creates options.
But some worry there may be unintended consequences.
Before Medicaid expansion, state-approved providers, who are also required to treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay, relied heavily on the federal block grant and county money from a tax on alcohol.
Existing providers worry that the money could be stretched too thin if more providers open, and that more of the scarce funds will go to administering new offices instead of providing services. Barnard said county funds still will be parceled out at a countys discretion, meaning local governments arent under any obligation to divert funds to a new center.
She also said that with 71,000 more people covered under Medicaid expansion, clinics are starting to see more people come in with a way to pay for treatment.
Having access to insurance has started to help people feel more confident seeking treatment for substance abuse problems, something thats long been stigmatized in Montana.
When you know youre going to have to go in and say, I dont have insurance, what can you give me? Thats a really different power position than going in and saying, Heres my insurance card, Barnard said. Its a lot easier to let something linger like that when theres already a stigma on it and you dont know if youre going to be able to pay for it.
Before the bill passed, Mike Cummins, president of Montana Addiction Service Providers and director of Flathead Chemical Dependency Clinic, was among several urging caution.
Even though Republicans in Congress failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with their own plan that would have essentially ended Medicaid expansion, the programs certainly in the state is anything but guaranteed. The HELP Act has a 2019 sunset date. After that, the state has to decide if it can continue to fund the program under a lower federal reimbursement rate than it gets now.
We dont quite understand how things will all play out, Cummins said in March at a hearing before the bill was approved. If we have to go back to the block grant, youre going to have many more providers trying to stretch what up until now has been a very small pot.
Cummins also said he struggles to get applications to fill open spots for licensed addiction counselors, and worries what will happen if there are even more jobs to fill.
The law goes into effect July 1. Barnard has talked to some clinics like Novellis that plan to add treatment in places where they are already offering other services like mental health care. Shes also heard from tribes that want to explore opening centers on their reservations. But its too early for applications to start coming in, which will provide the first real snapshot of what will happen.
I think its entirely possible there will be providers in areas of the state where were surprised to fill niches that havent been served, Barnard said. Some of the tribal governments and tribal health organizations have expressed an interest to us.
An expansion of youth services is also on her wish list. The earlier we can deal with the problem, the better.
Montanans love our outdoors. Thats been shown time and again, through multiple official studies and countless individual anecdotes.
And when it comes to recreational pursuits, its a safe bet many outdoors-loving Montanans spend a fair portion of their free time hunting or fishing. A smaller but no less dedicated portion harvest wildlife in other ways, such as trapping.
These pursuits have a deep history in Montana, and contribute to the continuation of shared cultural values, among them self-sufficiency, hard work and a personal connection with the natural world.
But Montanans do not need to enshrine a right to hunt, fish and trap in the state Constitution. While the effort to elevate such rights to the constitutional level may be well-intended, doing so causes far more problems than it solves. Instead, Montanas legislators should focus on strengthening hunting and fishing opportunities by enhancing public access and ensuring that Fish, Wildlife and Parks has the resources it needs to enforce existing laws and protect our shared natural resources.
Thompson Falls Sen. Jennifer Fielder, a Republican, is sponsoring the bill that would amend Montanas Constitution. Although the original version of Senate Bill 236 underwent significant revision in the Senate Fish and Game Committee, it still barely passed on a 6-5 vote. It then passed the Senate on a vote of 30-20. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.
As amended, the legislation proposes to put a constitutional amendment before voters to protect the rights of Montana citizens to hunt, fish, trap, and harvest wild fish and wildlife, and establish that public hunting, fishing, and trapping is the preferred manner of managing wild fish and wildlife. Furthermore, it would allow for necessary and proper management and conservation statutes and regulations. Interestingly, it also specifies that maintaining this right does not create a right to trespass on private property.
This pared-down version is certainly better than the original, which set up all sorts of potential conflicts in state law. Unfortunately, it still sets the scene for a series of legal showdowns that could prove costly for the state and, rather than clarify and protect hunting and fishing rights, could confuse and erode them.
This has already been demonstrated in several the 21-or-so other states that have included a guaranteed right to hunt or fish in their state constitutions, starting with the state of Vermont, which led the way with such language back in 1777. The next state to adopt similar language, Alabama, didnt do so until 1996
Over the ensuing years, various courts have had to untangle cases in which a states constitutional right to hunt and fish ran up against laws protecting endangered species, as well as regulations intended to allow certain species to increase in certain districts. Not surprisingly, the courts upheld such laws over the constitutional rights of the individuals.
At best, these protections prevent any attempt to enact a blanket ban on hunting or fishing an unlikely scenario in Montana. At worst, they encourage new conflicts with existing laws that must be decided in the courts.
So what happens when, say, Montana FWP determines that elk numbers have dropped too low in a certain hunting district, and closes it to further harvesting? Does that violate the constitutional right to hunt? Would seasonal fishing restrictions on too-warm rivers violate the right to fish? Could a fee still be collected for hunting and fishing licenses, or would such financial barriers deprive low-income Montanans of their guaranteed rights? One can only imagine the myriad ways in which current management practices and regulations could conflict with this new set of rights.
The bills attempt to sidestep such problems by specifying that the state maintains the authority to regulate hunting, fishing and trapping is undermined by the inclusion of language noting that such activities are the preferred method of management and conservation. Presumably, Montanas wildlife managers would have to provide proof that such methods were not found to be preferable every time they chose a different option. So much for those beaver deceivers that have worked so well in waterways throughout Montana.
Tellingly, the proposed legislation does not enjoy universal support from Montanas sporting organizations, or from the United Property Owners of Montana. It doesnt even have the support of Montana FWP.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, on the other hand, has agreed to support the amended version, along with several other influential groups, including the National Rifle Association, Safari Club International and the Montana Trappers Association. Indeed, this legislation seems primarily aimed at reassuring the trapping community, which has witnessed recent attempts to restrict their particular activity. Only a few months ago, voters shot down an initiative to ban trapping on public lands.
The voters spoke, and decided that trapping should continue to be allowed. Nevertheless, trappers rightly felt targeted, and are likely braced for similar challenges in the future.
Here it is important to remember that Montanas Constitution already contains a right to harvest wild fish and game. Montanas voters approved this far more sensible constitutional amendment back in 2004, and furthermore, a bill to include trapping was passed in the previous legislative session and is now law.
The House Judiciary Committee is currently weighing SB 236, and the bill faced its first hearing before that committee just last week. Committee members should feel comfortable tabling this bad bill.
-- The Missoulian
GREAT FALLS Cascade County authorities say a man apparently shot and killed himself after breaking into two homes and fleeing deputies.
Sheriff Bob Edwards told the Great Falls Tribune that deputies responded to a report of an intruder entering a house Monday and pointing a gun at the homeowner.
Edwards says the homeowner put up a fight, left and called 911. A fire broke out at the house on the banks of the Missouri River about eight miles outside of Great Falls and was destroyed.
Deputies responding to the call followed a man to a neighboring house. The man entered the house and forced the homeowner out.
Edwards says the deputies approaching the house heard gunshots and found the man dead.
Edwards says the deputies did not fire a shot. The man's name has not been released.
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The 2017 Muscatine Diabetes Walk will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, May 5, at Discovery Park, 3300 Cedar St.
Check-in for the event begins at 5:30 p.m., with the program beginning at 6 p.m. and the walk at 6:30 p.m.
Registration fee for adults ages 18 years old or older is $10; 17 years old or younger is free.
The 1.5-mile walk will go around Discovery Pond, past the County Home Cemetery, around Heron Hideaway Pond and back to the start/finish line. Pets are welcome to attend but must remain on a leash.
The Muscatine Diabetes Project is an organized effort by a group of Muscatine citizens to provide diabetes education programs, outreach activities, support groups, and to strengthen partnerships with other community health agencies, in addition to bring awareness to diabetes research through the American Diabetes Association and JDRF.
The group is dedicating 95 percent of the fundraising to stay in Muscatine County, and 5 percent to go toward research.
For more information contact Kim at 563-260-2763 or MuscatineDiabetesWalk@gmail.com. To register online visit getmeregistered.com/MuscatineDiabetesWalk.
WAPELLO Louisa County Supervisor Brad Quigley has proposed moving the Wapello Police Department back to the county's former jail.
During Monday's regular meeting held a day earlier than usual because of scheduling conflicts Quigley said he met with Wapello Mayor Shawn Maine about the possible move. The police department had used the former jail building as its headquarters for almost three years, until moving out in 2014.
The current office is not handy, Quigley said, adding the city had remodeled the former Boy Scout meeting room on the second-floor of a municipal building for its police department, but was finding it difficult for access and other reasons.
He added the county completed renovation on the former jail facility last year, which made it more attractive as a police department office.
That work included separating the former jail from an annex, which now houses the county supervisors and other county department offices.
Under the former agreement between the city and the county, the city did not pay rent to use the old jail facility, but shared in utilities and completed some renovation work.
The police department moved after the county considered selling the building and the city decided the initial asking price was too high. The supervisors eventually decided against selling or demolishing the nearly century-old building, opting instead for the renovation project involving the annex.
Quigley said moving the police department back would be beneficial.
Im just happy to get someone in there and get heat back in there because it will last longer, he said.
Supervisor Randy Griffin agreed.
We can help the city and they can keep our building intact, he said.
The city also has approached the Wapello School District with a proposal that would allow the police department to use the lower level of the schools former preschool building. No formal agreement has been reached.
Supervisors also discussed a facelift for the nearly 90-year-old county courthouse, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1981.
The supervisors requested bids earlier this year to replace windows on the lower level of the building. The existing windows were apparently installed before 1980, although officials were unsure when. The replacement windows only covered the lower half of the original window openings and plywood was used to fill the remaining space. Since no insulation was installed in the upper portion, workers have complained of drafts and other problems.
Fhe supervisors agreed that rather than consider the replacement bids they had received, they would seek new bids that would more closely match the original window openings.
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Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
The former Miss Kenya 2016, Roshanara Ibrahim, was stripped off the coveted crown after her ex-boyfriend leaked her intimate photos.
While she may not have presented Kenya at the international stage, she did win the case against her ex-boyfriend and awarded Sh2.5 Million.
She also appears to have dodged a huge bullet as she and the man who led to her dethronement had plans to get married.
She spoke to the Nairobian about the relationship, revealing details about his insecurities after Ms Ibrahim won the Miss Nairobi title.
I met my ex-boyfriend Franck Zahiten in 2012 at a house party just before I joined university. We became friends instantly. Later, I joined university and he joined another college and so, we drifted apart. But in 2014 during an event, we met again and after a couple of meetings, we started dating, Roshanara said.
I would sleep at his place and he would also spend time. Everything was perfect. My friends used to say he was the best boyfriend I could ever have. But things changed when I competed for Miss Nairobi and won the title, she said, adding that Zahiten also competed and won Mr Mombasa.
She had to go to Malindi for the finals of Miss World Kenya and Zahiten came to support her and when I won the crown, he cried and left the event. He later said we are not going to be together because Im too good for him and would find someone better.
Roshanaraa assurance that no such thing would happen fell on deaf ears. He became even more insecure and in February of 2016, they broke up and got back together a few weeks later.
As a couple who were about to get married, we would take intimate photos. We even slept in the same bed at my parents house, said Roshanara.
She disclosed that when they had an argument at a friends place, Zahiten threatened to leak their intimate photos if she ever left him.
I was worried because we used to take and delete nude photos. So I started to sweet talk him so that we could be in a better place then delete the nudes when I got the opportunity, which I did. But he became too insecure and started stalking me on Facebook.
He would follow me everywhere I go and even started going through my phone. I had no freedom and thats what pushed me to call it quits in May 2016. My mom had seen the signs and wanted me to end the relationship, Roshanara said.
Miss Kenya franchise owner Terry Mungai called me for a meeting on July 28. When I got there, she showed me the photos and said I was stripped of my title.
I was not given any chance to defend myself and the next day, a press release was sent to media houses stating that, It is with great sadness that I accepted the decision of Miss World Kenya office to relinquish me of my duties as Miss World Kenya 2016.
But I urge aspiring beauty queens to ensure their personal lives do not affect their role as Miss World Kenya.
Roshanara added that, I hired a lawyer and we went to court. Terry Mungai and Zahiten were barred from releasing any images. Eventually I won the case and I was awarded Sh2.5 million, which he is yet to pay.
My advice to guys in relationships and young girls is to be careful. Dont send images or videos. Love comes and goes and if you are being blackmailed, seek help, Roshanara said.
The mark of a true genius in most creative fields is his or her ability to be diverse. In comedy especially, versatility is an important aspect for the longevity of a comedian.
As such, top social media comic Henry Desagu is one of the industrys most versatile and creative comedy geniuses.
In his latest skit, Desagu digs deep into all the Swahili he has learned over the years to address the Tanzanian media about a fight incident at a hotel.
It is rib cracking!
Watch:
Ziwani/Kariokor Member of County Assembly (MCA), Millicent Wambui, was the only lone survivor in a grisly road accident that left four people dead on Sunday in Gilgil.
The Minority Leader and first time MCA was airlifted for specialized treatment to Nairobi in critical condition and is currently in hospital receiving treatment.
She was admitted at the St Marys Hospital, Gilgil but later airlifted to Nairobi courtesy of Nairobi senator Mike Sonko.
Hon. Millicent was the only one who survived with numerous fractures, she was rushed to St. Marys hospital in gilgil but the hospital had no facilities. However I personally flew to the hospital where I found Hon. Hashim Kamau, nominated Mca Hon.Janet Owala and a women rep aspirant on the ground. We organised for Hon. Millicent to be airlifted to Nairobi hospital where shes currently admitted. My team was also on the ground to organise for the transportation of the 4 deceased bodies to Chiromo mortuary in Nairobi. I wish Hon. Millicent a quick recovery and also pray to the Almighty God to rest the souls of the deceased in eternal peace, said Sonko.
The accident happened when the personal car in which the MCA was travelling in heading to Nairobi, was overtaking a fleet of vehicles and rammed head-on into an oncoming trailer.
They were returning from a friends burial in Western.
According to police report, all the other occupants in the vehicle in died on the spot while occupants from the trailer escaped with slight injuries.
Before venturing into politics in 2013, Millicent was an actress in the Kenyan and Nollywood film industries.
The highlight of her career was when she represented Kenya in the reality tv series Big Brother Africa Amplified.
Here are the stories making headlines today.
13 killed in explosion at church in Egypt At least 13 people were killed by an explosion at a Coptic Christian church in northern Egypt during a service to celebrate Palm Sunday, state media reported.
Haley: Syria regime change is inevitable Two days after the US launched military strikes on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack widely blamed on the Assad regime, Haley said the departure of Assad was inevitable. Before Tuesdays attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed 89 people, Haley had said toppling Assad was not a priority.
Somalia bombing kills at least 15 Police Capt. Osman Mohamed said the attack was an assassination attempt against the new Somali military chief, Ahmed Mohamed Irfid. The attack happened on a busy street between the military academy and the ministry of defense headquarters. The bomber tried to drive into a convoy carrying Irfid, but missed and rammed into a minibus carrying passengers.
Indian anchor learns husband died in story shes reporting She told the audience about the details three people had died and two were injured when an SUV and truck collided in Pithaura.
Alec Baldwins Donald Trump meets his supporters on SNL We all love Trump, dont we? We do. We do, Baldwins commander-in-chief said. I just had an amazing week, folks. I met with leaders from China, Egypt, and Jordan. Gorsuch was confirmed, the media is saying nice things and nobody is talking about Russia. Wow, what a difference 59 Tomahawk missiles can make.
Big asteroid to whiz (safely) by Earth this month The space rock, known by the very dull name of 2014 JO25 will safely fly by Earth on April 19, according to NASA. The chances of it pounding our planet and leaving us for the dead? Zero, experts say.
Great white shark trapped on beach Dozens of people gathered on the cliffs of Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz to watch the 8-foot shark trapped in the shallow reef. Video from CNN affiliate KSBW then captured the still-alive shark rolling in the incoming tide bruised and bloodied.
Norway to spend $315M on worlds first ship tunnel The mile-long, 118-feet-wide tunnel will pass through the narrowest part of the Stad peninsula in western Norway, allowing freight and passenger ships to bypass the stormy, exposed Stadhavet Sea and avoid a highly treacherous part of the Scandinavian nations coastline.
Trump Administration Is Contradicting Itself On Regime Change In Syria The Trump administration appears divided on whether the U.S. is pursuing a policy of regime change in Syria, days after the first direct American military attack against the Syrian government. Thursdays strike was related solely to the most recent horrific use of chemical weapons, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told ABC News George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
SNL Skewers Poor Boob Who Thought Up Doomed Pepsi Ad Saturday Night Live took on Kendall Jenners yanked Pepsi commercial with a reimagined behind-the-scenes look at some golden boy director whos convinced hes got a killer diversity ad. The director, played by Beck Bennet, gets a call from his sister, and he waxes rhapsodic about the ad as a kind of a homage to the resistance.
Majority Of Republicans Said No When Obama Wanted To Launch A Strike On Syria Just 11 weeks into office, President Donald Trump has bombed Syria. The president announced Thursday that he had launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a deadly chemical weapon attack perpetrated by Syrian President Bashar Assads regime. The chemical attack, carried out earlier this week, left at least 70 dead.
Trump Is About To Find Out Why Obama Avoided Syrian Intervention WASHINGTON On Thursday night, President Donald Trump authorized the military to launch several dozen cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea at a Syrian airfield. The strike was meant to punish Syrias President Bashar Assad for allegedly using chemical weapons to attack his own citizens.
Poll: 51 Percent Support Airstrikes In Syria, But Most Dont Think Theyll Be Effective Half of Americans support President Donald Trumps airstrikes against Syria in retaliation for the Syrian governments reported use of chemicals weapons on its citizens, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov survey. The poll also found some Americans concerned about Trumps preparation for the attack and his failure to seek congressional authorization.
Pope Francis Decries War, Terrorism And Weapons VATICAN CITY, April 9 (Reuters) Pope Francis condemned a deadly blast at a church in Egypt and said at a Palm Sunday Mass that the world was suffering from wars, terrorism and interests that are armed and ready to strike.
Sky pool in Houston lets you fly and swim at the same time Real estate developers use a lot of clever techniques to sell apartments, but this is a new one: stomach-churning fear, with a splash of luxury. Situated 40 stories above the city of Houston, with a glass bottom view of the street below, the sky pool at the Market Square Tower probably seemed like a good idea when the developers of this high rise came up with it.
SNL captures the critical moment before Kendall Jenners Pepsi ad shoot And then Kendall Jenner comes up to a police officer and gives him a Pepsi, everybody celebrates, and no? Are you sure thats tone-deaf? Yeah. Were sure. Were all very sure.
Basically every college student has Netflix (but guess how many pay for it) The checklist for college freshmen in 2017? Textbooks, mini-fridges, and Netflix. A new study reports that a whopping 92 percent of college students have access to Netflix. In that same survey by LendEDU, only 8 percent of college students said that they didnt have an account.
A teen wrote #BlackLivesMatter on a college application 100 times and got accepted Taking a risk on college applications isnt always advised, but for high school senior Ziad Ahmed, the answer to What matters to you, and why? wasnt necessarily a risk. The American-Muslim teenager answered that Stanford University application question with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter over and over again until the word limit was reached.
Calistogas hot springs are no longer the steamiest attraction in town.
The Upvalley gets a yoga studio with the opening of Hot Yoga Calistoga, which is also currently the only hot Yoga studio in all of Napa Valley.
Owner Anne Seaver has been practicing Yoga for 17 years, but it wasnt until she discovered Hot Power Vinyasa that she was inspired to teach. In 2014, she got her first certification at Hot Yoga Ocean Avenue in San Francisco.
I really kinda of got bored of Yoga, and then I did Yoga with a new teacher, Anna Kyshynska. It was Hot Power Vinyasa and I fell in love with Yoga all over again. I found out where she was going to be doing her teacher training and went, she said.
Seaver was traveling from Calistoga to attend and later teach in Napa (until the Napa Bikram studio closed), and then Sonoma to teach, but the commute wore on her. She began to brainstorm ideas for her own studio, and once she found the space off of Wappo Avenue, it all started to come together. The single mom even timed the opening with her sons departure for college.
I needed something to take my mind off the fact that my son was gone. I thought, I need a new project, and we need a Yoga studio Upvalley, she said. I feel like I kind of channeled it. It manifested pretty easily, so I really feel like it was meant to be, said Seaver.
With more than 350 new students walking through the doors of Hot Yoga Calistoga in just the first two months of business, its obvious that the local community craved something closer to home as well.
Already we have regulars. It feels like a really solid, core community already. Ive met so many new people and made so many new friends, said Seaver. Its so fun to come in here and get to work. In Yoga its called Kula, a yoga community, and I really feel that and see it building up around us.
Seaver, 41, suffers from hip dysplasia, a genetic condition made worse by years of running.
Only a year ago, she underwent a hip replacement, but she can now move better than ever.
I was back on my mat in five weeks. I have full range of motion and its like I never had [the procedure], she said.
While there was an obvious need for a hot Yoga studio in Napa Valley, it was also the only choice for Seaver, who doesnt reap the benefits of cold Yoga. The heat is much better for her back and hip arthritis.
The studio, complete with changing rooms, showers and retail, offers a greater variety of styles than most hot Yoga studios, including Hot 90, which is a Bikram Yoga class, and Powerflow, a Ashtanga-based Vinyasa Yoga. Seaver coined Powerflow by combining common Yoga class names Power Yoga and Vinyasa Flow.
Baptiste Yoga is taught by Pilar Caso, a senior teacher of the practice. Caso studied under the founder, Baron Baptiste. Caso recently relocated from Boston to Calistoga.
For those that want to get their heart rate up, Inferno Hot Pilates is a fun, high-intensity interval training workout, set to loud, upbeat music. Core, lower body and upper body Pilates exercises are performed Tabata-style (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off).
Right before I opened this place, I went to my Inferno Hot Pilates training, which really blew my hair back, said Seaver.
It was the most empowering teacher trainings Ive ever been to. The inventor is brilliant and the modality has completely done wonders for my lower back pain. Its really good for the body and its very safe for the spine. Its kind of a new thing, but its completely sweeping the world.
A beginners Yoga class has also been added to the schedule, which focuses on learning how to breathe and move. Its not too hot, and is ideal for people with injuries, who havent exercised in a while, or Yoga novices, who might be intimidated by the practice.
On the last Saturday evening of each month, Seaver leads a special Blacklight Powerflow class, an idea she adapted from the Yoga and meditation-focused Wanderlust Festivals.
It includes neon colors and blacklight paint, and proceeds are donated to different animal rescue organizations, a passion of Seavers, who has two rescue pit bulls at home.
Thats my next long-term goal: to buy enough land to have a lot of rescue dogs, she said.
At the first blacklight class in February, $550 was raised and sent to Wine Country Animal Lovers.
The studios cast of teachers are mostly all local, and each bring their own teaching style and music to their classes. With the exception of Hot 90 (90 minutes) all classes are 75 minutes long.
There are three to four classes per day, with time slots in the mornings and evenings, as late as 7 p.m.
You can try out the different classes with an introductory offer of five classes for $35. Its valid for 30 days and is the equivalent of getting three classes for free.
Another deal is a six-month membership, which auto debits $138 per month and includes unlimited access to classes. A one-month unlimited membership costs $150, a 10 class pack is $160 and the single-class drop-in fee is $20.
For anyone who is skeptical of yogas healing capabilities both inside and out, Seaver is a prime example, as yoga played a big part in her recovery from addiction.
Im in recovery from drugs and alcohol. Ive been sober from alcohol for 17 years, other substances nine years, and Yoga has really helped me find balance in my life. I only talk about it because its a common problem, she said.
Its a spiritual practice and it helps you on so many levels. Its more than working out for me. Its like praying with my body. It builds inner stability as well as outer.
So far, so good. Of course, Gloria Manhattans new pescatarian restaurant just opened March 21. But the owners, who grew up in Napa, are confident.
Its going great. Weve already had good feedback and good press, said Leland Meibeyer in a phone interview at the end of a long day at his restaurant. Meibeyer, 29, is managing partner at Gloria. Diego Garcia, also 29, is the chef.
Gloria is named after Garcias mother, who lives in Sausalito. Garcia graduated from Napa High School; Meibeyer from Vintage. The restaurant, which holds 45 to 50 people, is located at 401 West 53rd in Manhattans Hells Kitchen neighborhood.
The neighborhood is known for its vibrant culinary scene, with a lot of ethnic restaurants, but it hasnt been known for really good quality food, Meibeyer said. Were not going too much off the beaten path, but we are bringing in something serious. After all, we learned to love food and wine in Napa Valley.
Phil Johnson, 35, a New Yorker, is the third partner at Gloria. Johnson, general manager and a sommelier, worked with Garcia at Aldo Sohm, the wine-bar spinoff of Le Bernardin, and later at Contra, which the restaurant blog Grubstreet called one of New Yorks most of-the-moment restaurants.
In spite of the long hours and deep commitment required to nurture a new restaurant, Meibeyer, whose first job was in catering, said he and his partners are thrilled to be back in work mode. They spent a year searching for just the right location and another three months preparing to open Gloria.
So why fish?
Garcia grew up in Puerto Penasco, a fishing and resort city on the Sea of Cortez. His family owned a pescatarian restaurant his uncle works there still and Garcias mother taught him to cook fish. Though Garcia is a classically trained French chef, he adds tomatillos or nopales to dishes from time to time, staying true to his roots.
Its hard to find a place in New York City with really good seafood, and if you are a seafood lover or a pescatarian, theres not really been a place you could call home and get good quality seafood at a reasonable price, Garcia said. The menu at Gloria features sustainable, local fish, including fish that are underutilized, such as skate, black bass and fluke, which is similar to flounder.
Meibeyers mother, Barbara Mahan, was at the soft opening at Gloria on March 17 with her husband, David Ross. They live in Napa. What did they have for dinner?
Im a vegetarian, been one for 40-something years, so I ate a lot of Diegos amazing jalapeno cornbread, Mahan said. Also I had broccoli rabe and a delicious tres leches cake. My husband had the scallops, and he said they melted in his mouth, the perfect texture.
The wine list features French and Napa vintages. Phils mother is from Anjou, so he grew up with old world wines, Meibeyer said. Many of the California wines are from Les Lunes and Populis, produced by Sam Barron, Meibeyers friend and former high school classmate. Meibeyer said, Were featuring natural wine, just the grapes made with organic sulphur, which lets the wine show itself.
Meibeyer said he and his partners want Gloria to be something special. Our goal is to build the model, give Gloria 110 percent and then branch out, start a restaurant group, he said. We definitely have the epicurean experience and the skills. I cant tell you right now where were going, but we have a foundation thats strong.
An attempt to cite a Napa-area man for not keeping his dog on a leash ended with the pet owner's arrest, according to the Napa County Sheriff's Office.
Shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday, deputies contacted Daniel Patrick McQueeny, 38, in the 1200 block of Lincoln Avenue and sought his signature on a citation for the leash violation, according to Sgt. Eric Swift.
McQueeny would not sign it, and an altercation ensued when deputies tried to detain McQueeny, Swift said. The dog owner was arrested and booked into the Napa County jail on suspicion of resisting peace officers and committing a crime while free on bail, both felonies.
Two men arrested early Saturday evening are linked to the theft of over $700 in cigarettes from two pharmacies, according to Napa Police.
Several cartons of Newport cigarettes were reported stolen from the Walgreens at 210 American Canyon Road in American Canyon, followed by the theft of Newport and American Spirit cartons at the Napa Walgreens at 1685 Trancas St., according to Sgt. Nick Dalessi.
A witness called Napa Police and shared a description of two men fleeing the Napa drugstore in a 1990 Toyota Camry, and police followed the car south on Highway 29 before stopping it near Airport Road south of town, Dalessi said.
Searching the Toyota, police found cartons of cigarettes and a vacuum cleaner worth $400, with a security wire and tag indicating it had been stolen from the Target at Bel Aire Plaza, according to Dalessi.
Also found on one of the two men were at least 20 credit cards, with numbers that did not match the names, Dalessi added.
Officers arrested the driver, 24-year-old Rodney Jerome Conerly of Oakland, and 25-year-old Jamon Jerrell Morton of San Lorenzo. A woman inside the car was briefly detained but later released, according to Dalessi.
Both men were booked into the Napa County jail on suspicion of criminal conspiracy and theft. Morton also was being held for investigation of possessing 10 or more pieces of forged identification, a felony. Conerly was detained on suspicion of driving with a suspended license.
The decline of Californias Republican Party, as underscored by the most recent voter registration data, is a truly remarkable, even historic, phenomenon.
And its not over yet.
Republicans dominated the states politics for much of the 20th century personified by Ronald Reagan but began to fade as the century closed.
The new registration report shows Republicans declining to just 25.97 percent of the states 19.4 million potential voters, 9 percentage points below the partys nearly 35 percent share in 2000.
Oddly, however, Democrats didnt gain. In fact, theyve dropped about a half-point to 44.77 percent since 2000. The big increase came in voters without a party preference, from 14.36 percent in 2000 to 24.51 percent in 2017. By next years general election, they may outnumber Republicans.
Except for Arnold Schwarzeneggers offbeat governorship, Republicans havent been viable for major statewide office for two decades and havent won the states presidential votes in nearly three decades after dominating presidential elections during the post-World War II era.
Next years e lections dont offer a realistic hope for a Republican resurgence, especially since the GOP will carry a very unpopular President Donald Trump as baggage.
Its entirely possible that under the top-two primary system, contests for governor and other statewide offices will be Democrat vs. Democrat affairs, and half of the states 14 GOP-held congressional seats are potentially at risk. The GOP would be lucky to hold its less than a third of legislative seats, but even so, is totally frozen out of any meaningful voice.
So why did Republicans plunge from dominance to rough parity and finally into the abyss of virtual irrelevance?
A popular theory is that when then-Gov. Pete Wilson and other Republicans embraced Proposition 187, a 1994 measure aimed at eliminating public benefits for undocumented immigrants, they sowed seeds of decline by alienating the fast-growing Latino community.
It was, and is, a factor since more than 25 percent of Californians were born in another country.
But the GOP also lost ground in middle-class suburbs as rising environmental consciousness and hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion turned baby boomers, Generation Xers and millennials against the party.
In addition to these megatrends, the shift to a post-industrial economy played a role. When the Southern California aerospace industry collapsed after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, for instance, the region experienced a massive out-migration of skilled workers who may have been registered Democrats but often voted as Reagan Democrats.
Coupled with continued in-migration from other countries, the outflow shifted Los Angeles County, with a quarter of the states population, from roughly neutral in top-of-the-ticket elections to overwhelmingly Democratic.
Republicans continue to dominate the states rural regions and do fairly well in local governments even in otherwise blue communities. But the decline in registration indicates that they havent hit bottom yet.
To the NVUSD board members: As leaders and representatives of the Napa school district, I imagine your goal is to provide an inclusive environment for all children and assist them excel in their studies. Students who feel valued and dignified at their schools are more likely to be engaged students. You can help make this possible.
However, in order to achieve this, the Indian mascot at Napa High must go.
To conserve the Napa High Indian not only dehumanizes Native Americans, but it continues Napa Highs very long legacy of broadcasting and engaging students in public performances of racial stereotyping and cultural appropriation on their own campus and school events. This practice deliberately teaches non-Native children, many, many generations of children, that an entire race of people is at disposal to mock and dress-up as, as if they no longer exist.
Unfortunately, this has sent a profound and long-lasting message to students; that our schools are a platform for outward and public displays of racial dominance against minorities. This is done without consideration of the Native peoples existence in this community, our narrative or perspective and is a remarkable exercise of white privilege.
Thus far, discourse from alumni who wish to keep such offensive mascot suggest that an Indian mascot honors Native Americans and it cannot possibly be hurtful. Yes, racial-charged imagery, regardless of authenticity, is harmful to our children. This, coupled with a lack of recognition of historical brutality against the same people they are mocking, is morally wrong and only works to ostracize Native children who already bear racial disadvantages in our society.
Deflecting of our concerns and narrative will not help heal the harm done to our people by offensive mascots. It will only exacerbate it by those who wish to keep the Indian mascot, as they are complicit to an ongoing injury toward an entire race of people.
I respectfully request that the school board thinks critically about this key moment in Napa school history. Please exemplify responsible leadership and make changes towards a more respectable campus fostering the safety and embracing the diversity of Napas children.
Sarahid Rivera Vazquez
Napa
More collaboration among teachers, more classroom time at the elementary level, and intervention support for struggling students are among the factors being credited for boosting the St. Helena Unified School Districts math scores to among the best in the region.
Last year St. Helena students math scores outranked Napa Valley Unified, Healdsburg, Windsor, Sonoma, Rancho-Cotati and Shoreline for each of the seven grades in which students are tested. St. Helena scores also beat the state averages, and six out of the seven grades showed substantial improvement over last years scores.
The school district has replaced algebra and geometry classes with a series of Integrated Math classes, the first of which is taught in eighth grade at RLS Middle School.
The school board held a special study session on March 30 to hear reports from district staff and review a list of recommendations, including continuing collaboration among math teachers at all grade levels and hiring another math intervention teacher at the high school.
Trustees said they wanted to see the costs of each recommendation before taking action, but they each praised teachers for working together to create a cohesive K-12 program and teaching math concepts in multiple ways to accommodate students various learning styles.
Administrators said parents can help by reinforcing the districts new Math Mindset philosophy, a positive approach that aims to build students confidence by celebrating mistakes as essential learning experiences, telling kids theyre good at math, and never telling them theyre bad at math, which tends to discourage them from wanting to get better.
Space Station Crew Including NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough Return to Earth
Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA is among three crew members from the International Space Station (ISS) who returned to Earth Monday, after 173 days in space, landing in Kazakhstan at approximately 7:20 a.m. EDT (5:20 p.m. Kazakhstan time). Also returning were Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The three touched down southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.
NATO does not recognize the so-called presidential elections nor the so-called referendum held in the South Ossetia region of Georgia this Sunday.
Unilateral steps to change the name or status of the region are detrimental to the efforts to find a lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia.
NATO Allies do not recognize the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions of Georgia as independent states.
The Alliance reiterates its full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its international borders.
The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will visit the United States from Tuesday, 11 April to Thursday, 13 April 2017.
On Wednesday, 12 April, Mr. Stoltenberg will participate in an official wreath laying Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
He will then meet the President of the United States, The Honorable Donald J. Trump, at the White House.
On Thursday, 13 April, The NATO Secretary General will deliver remarks at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.
Registration for media: please RSVP to Jason Shevrin at jshevrin@email.gwu.edu
Media Advisory
Wednesday 12 April
16h00 (local time): NATO Secretary General joint press point with the President of the United States - White House.
The press conference will be live on the NATO website, www.nato.int.
Still and video imagery of the events will be available from the NATO website.
Follow us on Twitter (@NATOPress and @jensstoltenberg)
"We received refrigerating machines on March 17 almost a year after the delivery date. Now we can start mounting them on the ship. The work is scheduled for early April," Panfilov said.
Considering the delivery date of the remaining systems, large-scale work is expected to begin by summer as all the shipyards workshops will operate in full swing, Panfilov said.
The Project 11711 large amphibious assault ship Pyotr Morgunov developed by the Nevskoye Design Bureau was laid down by the Yantar Shipyard on June 11, 2015. The ship is planned to be delivered to Russias Navy in 2018.
The Project 11711 large amphibious assault ship has a displacement of about 6,000 tons, a length of 120 meters, a width of 16.5 meters, a speed of 18 knots and cruising capacity of 30 days. The ship has endurance of 3,500 miles at a speed of 16 knots, which allows it to operate on the high seas.
It can land from 300 to 380 marines, 36 armored personnel carriers or 13 main battle tanks.
Instead of marines, the Project 11711 ship can carry cargo weighing 1,500 tons.
The ship is armed with one 100mm A-190 gun, two 30mm AK-630M 6-barrel small-caliber antiaircraft artillery systems and two 122mm A-215 Grad-M 20-barrel multiple launch rocket systems. It can also carry the Kamov Ka-29 (NATO reporting name: Helix-B) troop lift or Ka-52K (Hokum-B) reconnaissance/attack helicopter.
As Navy Deputy Commander-in-Chief for Armament Vice-Admiral Viktor Bursuk told TASS earlier, only two Project 11711 large amphibious assault ships will be built for the Russian Navy.
Copyright 2016 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PALM BAY, Florida A man was shot at a gun range just after 10 a.m. on Monday in Palm Bay, Florida.
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According to the Palm Bay Police Department, the man was shot at the Port Malabar Gun Range after his rifle malfunctioned. The exact cause of how and why the man was shot still remains under investigation.
Palm Bay Police and Fire Departments, along with Brevard County Fire Rescue crews, responded to the scene to render aid to the gunshot victim. The man then was airlifted by First Flight medical helicopter to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida. The man is in stable condition.
Photo credit: Palm Bay Professional Firefighters
TITUSVILLE, Florida A man was shot and killed just after 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 9, 2017, in Titusville, Florida
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Titusville Police responded to a report of a shooting in the area of Booker Street and Gilbert Street where they discovered that a man had been shot and killed. No one else was injured in the shooting.
Police say that there is not an active threat to the rest of the Titusville community at this time.
If anyone has information about this crime, please contact the Titusville Police Department at (321) 264-7800, or can remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward by contacting Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS.
09:54
An ex-Navy SEAL, who claims to have killed Osama bin Laden, has revealed that the al-Qaeda chief's head was so severely destroyed by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification.
Ex-Navy SEAL team shooter Robert O'Neill has reasserted his claim that he alone pumped three bullets into Osama, killing the architect of the 9/11 attacks, in a new book.In 'The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Bin Laden', the former Navy SEAL Team 6 shooter lays out the details of what went down that night inside the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the New York Daily News reported.
While controversy still swirls around O'Neill's version of the May 2, 2011, raid, much of it centers on his breaking the Special Ops code of silence.
O'Neill, in his book, makes the gruesome claim that Osama's head was so severely destroyed by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification photographs.
In O'Neill's version, he was trailing five or six other SEALs climbing the stairs to the compound's second floor when Osama's son Khalid appeared on the half-landing with an AK-47.
The agents were able to lure Khalid from where he was hiding behind a banister by calling to him in Arabic, saying: 'Khalid, come here.'
He shouted in response: 'What?' and emerged from his hiding spot, and was immediately shot in the face, the report said.
Once upstairs, the men spread out to search the rooms. In the compound with Osama were three of his four wives and 17 children.
O'Neill kept his hand on the point man's shoulder. The two were alone on the stairway, convinced that whoever was on the third floor was strapping on a suicide vest for an explosive last stand.
O'Neill recounts that finally he decided to take action. He squeezed the point man's shoulder, the signal to charge and then burst past the curtain.The point man tackled two screaming women to the floor.
Bin Laden stood near the bed, his hands on the shoulders of the woman in front of him. She was later identified as Amal, the youngest of his four wives, the report said.
"In less than a second, I aimed above the woman's right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice," O'Neill writes."Bin Laden's head split open, and he dropped. I put another bullet in his head. Insurance," he writes.
According to O'Neill, the other members of the team rushed into the room only after he placed a 2-year-old boy found covering in a corner alongside Osama's widow on the bed.
A harrowing 90-minute flight returned the squadron to camp in Afghanistan.O'Neill's book comes five years after "No Easy Day," fellow SEAL Mark Bissonnette's account of the operation.
He agreed to surrender the USD 6.8 million in proceeds from the book for his use of classified information and violation of a non-disclosure deal.
09:48
The Pulitzer committee released its 101st class of winners. The Pulitzer, which honors Americas strongest journalistic and creative work, is usually chosen from a pool of finalists selected by experts in each category (the Pulitzer jury) and then narrowed down to a single winner by the Pulitzer board.
The New York Times won three Pulitzer Prizes, and The New York Daily News and ProPublica shared the prize for public service, as journalism presented its highest honors on Monday at a time of steep financial challenges for the industry and unabashed antagonism from a new presidential administration.
The Daily News-ProPublica joint effort won for a series on the New York Police Departments widespread abuse of a decades-old law to force people from their homes and businesses over alleged illegal activity.
Here is the full list of winners for 2017.
Public Service
New York Daily News and ProPublica
For uncovering, primarily through the work of reporter Sarah Ryley, widespread abuse of eviction rules by the police to oust hundreds of people, most of them poor minorities.
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of East Bay Times, Oakland, CA
For relentless coverage of the Ghost Ship fire, which killed 36 people at a warehouse party, and for reporting after the tragedy that exposed the citys failure to take actions that might have prevented it.
Investigative Reporting
Eric Eyre of Charleston Gazette-Mail, Charleston, WV
For courageous reporting, performed in the face of powerful opposition, to expose the flood of opioids flowing into depressed West Virginia counties with the highest overdose death rates in the country.
Explanatory Reporting
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and Miami Herald
For the Panama Papers, a series of stories using a collaboration of more than 300 reporters on six continents to expose the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens. (Moved by the Board from the International Reporting category, where it was entered.
Local Reporting
The Salt Lake Tribune Staff
For a string of vivid reports revealing the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment given to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University, one of Utahs most powerful institutions.
National Reporting
David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post
For persistent reporting that created a model for transparent journalism in political campaign coverage while casting doubt on Donald Trumps assertions of generosity toward charities.
International Reporting
The New York Times Staff
For agenda-setting reporting on Vladimir Putins efforts to project Russias power abroad, revealing techniques that included assassination, online harassment and the planting of incriminating evidence on opponents.
Feature Writing
C. J. Chivers of The New York Times
For showing, through an artful accumulation of fact and detail, that a Marines postwar descent into violence reflected neither the actions of a simple criminal nor a stereotypical case of PTSD.
Commentary
Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal
For rising to the moment with beautifully rendered columns that connected readers to the shared virtues of Americans during one of the nations most divisive political campaigns.
Criticism
Hilton Als of The New Yorker
For bold and original reviews that strove to put stage dramas within a real-world cultural context, particularly the shifting landscape of gender, sexuality and race.
Editorial Writing
Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times, Storm Lake, IA
For editorials fueled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing that successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa.
Editorial Cartooning
Jim Morin of Miami Herald
For editorial cartoons that delivered sharp perspectives through flawless artistry, biting prose and crisp wit.
Breaking News Photography
Daniel Berehulak, freelance photographer
For powerful storytelling through images published in The New York Times showing the callous disregard for human life in the Philippines brought about by a government assault on drug dealers and users. (Moved into this category from Feature Photography by the nominating jury.
Feature Photography
E. Jason Wambsgans of Chicago Tribune
For a superb portrayal of a 10-year-old boy and his mother striving to put the boys life back together after he survived a shooting in Chicago.
LETTERS, DRAMA & MUSIC
CATEGORY WINNERS
Fiction
The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
For a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America.
Drama
Sweat, by Lynn Nottage
For a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream.
History
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, by Heather Ann Thompson (Pantheon)
For a narrative history that sets high standards for scholarly judgment and tenacity of inquiry in seeking the truth about the 1971 Attica prison riots.
Biography or Autobiography
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between, by Hisham Matar (Random House)
For a first-person elegy for home and father that examines with controlled emotion the past and present of an embattled region.
Poetry
Olio, by Tyehimba Jess (Wave Books)
For a distinctive work that melds performance art with the deeper art of poetry to explore collective memory and challenge contemporary notions of race and identity.
General Nonfiction
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond (Crown)
For a deeply researched expos that showed how mass evictions after the 2008 economic crash were less a consequence than a cause of poverty.
Music
Angel's Bone, by Du Yun
Premiered on January 6, 2016, at the Prototype Festival, 3LD Arts and Technology Center, New York City, a bold operatic work that integrates vocal and instrumental elements and a wide range of styles into a harrowing allegory for human trafficking in the modern world. Libretto by Royce Vavrek.
China and Myanmar have reached an agreement on an oil pipeline between the neighbouring countries and the project will open "very quickly", China's vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said today.An oil refinery to receive crude via the pipeline had already been completed near the Southwestern city of Kunming, Liu said.REUTERS PS BL1729 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-1224247.Xml
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya today said that Yogi Government is committed to make pot-hole free roads, as well as double the farm income within the stipulated time-frame. "Every point in our Sankalp Patra will be implemented. The Patra is as pious for us as is Ramayana and Gita. So, we are committed to ensure that every word of sankalp patra is implemented in letter and in spirit," Mr Maurya said, while addressing reporters here. Mr Maurya completed one year as party president today and said that last one year has taught him different shades of life. "This one year taught me the nuances of organisation skill. In the last one year, I won love and affection of people and workers alike. This affection helped the BJP to win UP elections with such a huge margin," he claimed. "This victory has given us an additional responsibility. The Chief Minister has made announcements about making state highways pot-hole free and implement pro-farmer policies. The work has started in right earnest. All the state highways will be pot-hole free by June 15, while purchase of potato at the rate of Rs 487 per quintal will start soon," the BJP state president said. He said Uttar Pradesh has high potential to develop Food processing units, so that bumper crop of potato and wheat could earn farmers a better price for their crop. "The wheat purchase will be free from middlemen. The Purchase centres have started operation. Similarly, potato purchase centres will be set up soon," he added. "This government will end corruption in government working and help in improving law and order situation in the state," he said.UNI MB RJ 2233 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1223453.Xml
This will be the second such meeting after the Bharatiya Janata Party was voted to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Representatives of all the allies of the BJP across the country will participate in the meeting during the evening, followed by a dinner.
According to reports, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Mehbooba Mufti among others will attend the meeting.
Several Chief Ministers have scheduled meeting with the Prime Minister on the sidelines of the meeting.
The leaders will take stock of the political situation and decide on future strategy of the alliance. Besides that a number of Union ministers will be present at the meeting. (ANI)
Following the cancellation of by-polls in Chennai's R.K. Nagar constituency by Election Commission on Sunday, a day after cash-for-votes allegations surfaced, the Congress on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the demonetisation drive. "We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?" Congress leader P. Chidambaram tweeted. The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on Wednesday. The Election Commission said that the by-elections shall be held by the poll panel in due course when the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors, as mentioned above, gets removed with the passage of time and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive to the holding of free and fair election. The decision came after Income Tax raids in Chennai found money was distributed to voters. The by-elections in R.K. Nagar became necessary after the death of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who represented it for two terms. The stakes for the by-polls were very high as the results would have been a verdict of sorts in the war between the two rival factions of the ruling AIADMK. Earlier on Friday morning, the Income tax officials raided several premises belonging to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar and his relatives in Chennai and other districts in the wake of complaints that he was involved in cash distribution to voters in the R.K. Nagar constituency ahead of the April 12 by-poll. The Income Tax (IT) authorities have issued summons to the Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijayabhaskar to appear before them today in connection with the raid on his premises on Friday. The IT department also conducted searches on the premises of actor and All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader R. Sarathkumar, former AIADMK legislator Chitlapakkam Rajendran and vice-chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University S. Geethalakshmi. (ANI)
On Sunday, the curfew was relaxed from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. but later extended till 12 noon on Monday to allow people to acquire essential commodities.
According to reports, the Centre on Saturday rushed 2,000 paramilitary personnel to Odisha to assist the local administration. 20 companies of the paramilitary personnel were dispatched to Odisha to help restore normalcy in the district.
Following a derogatory Facebook post against Lord Rama, Section 144 has been imposed in Bhadrak after protests broke out.
Fresh violence erupted in some areas on Friday evening after talks failed to resolve the row triggered by alleged abusive remarks on social media against a particular community.
Though Section 144 was imposed in the town, officials had to clamp curfew as the situation deteriorated further.
About 15 platoons of police have been deployed. (ANI)
The administration ordered probe into the allegation of engagement of Bangladeshi migrants as labourer in brick kilns of Tripura while opposition parties demanding high level enquiry into the political patronise of illegal migrants in the state. However, home department officials said after an accident of brick loaded trucks in South Tripura last week had revealed that a large number of Bangladeshi nationals were engaged in the brick kiln and one child labour was killed and few other Bangladeshi were injured in the accident. According to report, more than 52 brick kilns have been operating in Southern parts of Tripura and most of them have engaged Bangladeshi nationals as labourers illegally and neither local administration nor labour department officials got to know the issue till April 3 last. "We have asked all the district magistrates to find a ground level report of such engagement or involvement of illegal foreigners in industrial and manufacturing units or in any kind of business in the state besides, tabbing on the cross border movement of civilians," said a senior officials of home department. Police however, stated that all the police stations and surveillance units of security forces including BSF to keep a close watch on civilian movements in respective localities and strengthen surveillance on business and industrial activities in the state. Meanwhile, Labour Minister Sahid Choudhury said the department was directed to collect the profile of all the labourers and employees engaged in more than 350 brick kilns operating in Tripura and further asked them to be strict on compliance of labour laws to all business establishments. "We shall not allow any kind of illegal activity in the state and whoever violates the rules, he will be dealt with seriously under law. After the incident in South Tripura all concerns have been asked to be extra vigilant over migrant labourer issues," Mr Choudhury stated. The reports of Bangladeshi workers' engagement in the brick kilns of South Tripura district had rattled the administration and the particular brick kiln owner is on run after the accident, however, legal action has been initiated against the erring owners and related others, he added. A truck carrying Bangladeshis from a brick kiln met with the accident on its way to border through which the workers were supposed to sneak back to their own territory on April 3 last in Belonia. After the accident, police arrested as many as 11 Bangladeshi labourers out of total 40 who were then in the truck. The arrested labourers were sent to judicial custody. Allegedly, brick kilns in bordering areas of Tripura have been running with illegal Bangladeshi nationals who were crossing the border everyday and going back in the evening. Besides, several rickshaw pullers, patty traders, barbers and construction workers in bordering town of Tripura including Agartala are Bangladeshi. They have been engaged through middlemen and the matter is known to police and administration. But for unknown reasons, there was no action against the illegal foreigners in the state. And these people are being used for organised crime in the state, alleged Congress legislator Ratan Lal Nath. A large number of Bangladeshi has been entered into the electoral roll of Tripura. They Managed passport, ration card and other important Indian documents with the help of the leaders of ruling CPI(M) party and enjoying dual citizenship. There is several records of involvement of Bangladeshi nationals staying in Tripura in terrorist activities in different parts of India, he alleged. "To find out the truth of nexus of CPI(M) party with illegal Bangladeshis need NIA probe and I requested union home minister Rajnath Singh to pay serious attention on it for India's interest," Mr Nath added.UNI BB BM -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0214-1223583.Xml
Vice-President Mohammed Hamid Ansari's wife Salma Ansari, who faced ire of the orthodox 'Maulvis' encouraging the concept of triple 'talaq' for taking on them, said the holy Quran doesn't have any concept of triple talaq.Talking to UNI, Ms Ansari said,''No such concept exists in Islam. As per Quran , after uttering the word 'talaq' once, a man has to wait for three months and it gets validity only if three witnesses are present.''She said the concept of tripple 'talaq' reached India through Pakistan and Bangladesh. There is no such rule in Saudi Arab, where marriage is like a contract. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is banned but unfortunately in India, orthodox 'Maulvis' have given it their own interpretation, giving it an anti-women bias. This reflects the picture of a male dominated society.Quran says tripple 'talaq' cannot be pronounced in the heat of the moment.In the recent times, seeking divorce by uttering the word 'talaq' thrice on social media and advertisement has come into vogue due to ignorance of women about the Quranic law, Ms Ansari said.According to her, since Quran is being read in Arabic, common men end up imbibing what is told to them by orthodox Maulanas who mostly misinterpret it.If women also read Quran, they will realise that there is no concept of 'teen talaq'.Ms Ansari said, ''Go through Quran, 'Haadis' and get to know what Prophet has said. In my view, women should go through Quran, and deliberate so that they understand what Prophet has said and what is Shariyat.'' Asked about 'Halala nikah (re-marrying the same person after divorce), Ms Ansari said,'' I am trying to convey that Halala is a means to make the divorce procedure difficult.''Ms Ansari, who has been instrumental in providing free and quality education to the underprivileged children and those rescued as child labourer, had to face three 'fatwas' for her upfront views on the vexed issue. Fatwas were issued against her for coming out in support of taking a dip in Sangam, the confluence of holy rivers in Allahabad and recital of Om during Yoga for better health.There were several petitions in the court against 'teen talaq' and the Supreme Court recently referred the matter to a constitutional bench.The Centre had in an affidavit in the Apex Court had opposed tripple 'talaq'.UNI AS SV NAZ SB 1128 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0103-1223571.Xml
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured her to consider the release of pending Rs 10,459 crore for state pending projects Talking to reporters after meeting with the Prime Minister in South Block, New Delhi, Ms Banerjee said that she had discussed with the PM on many pending projects and state's shares (funds) for which development was being delayed for wants of funds. Ms Banerjee said she submitted a list of pending projects and state shares to the prime minister and Mr Modi assured her to try to consider in releasing funds. She said the Rs 10,459 crore was state share, which the Centre should consider otherwise the state was facing fund crunch for executing development projects. " We are already paying money to the Centre for debt of the previous government," Ms Banerjee said as quoted an official source here. Ms Banerjee, who is now in Delhi on the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Narednra Modi in view of visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed. On a question Ms Banerjee said during her talk with Mr Modi no discussion was held regarding Teeta River. The sharing of Teesta water between India and Bangladesh is crux point of the bilateral relations. However, the Union government has been giving much importance on the opinion of state chief minister, who wants state interest one of the priority sectors for her government. The face to face meeting between Ms Banerjee and PM Modi was today for about 20 minutes and for the first time in eight months.UNI PC BM -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0214-1223666.Xml
Concerns that China is producing too much steel put pressure on industrial raw materials markets on Monday, with key futures indicators, iron ore, coke and rebar all trading lower."We saw steel output up 6 percent in January and February already, and the expectation is that demand will not be able to absorb all that," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar said."There is simply too much steel out there, we're seeing iron ore fall as a result of that," Dhar said.The most-active rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was down 1.47 percent at 3,013 yuan ($436) a tonne by midday.Rebar's retreat swept iron ore lower, with the contract for September delivery on the Dalian Commodity Exchange down 2.7 percent to 520 yuan a tonne.Stocks of imported iron ore at China's port stood at 131.2 million tonnes as of Friday, according to SteelHome. That is more than one-tenth of China's estimated imports of iron ore this year, according to Australia's Department of Industry, Innovation and Science."The market sees china needing less iron ore. This combined with increasing domestic production is putting pressure on the price," Dhar said.Dalian coking coal was also weaker, down 1.8 percent to 1,274 yuan, while coke - made from coking coal - slid 1.5 percent to 1,818 yuan.REUTERS CJ VP1208 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-1223672.Xml
"Today is the birth anniversary of Prafulla Chandra Sen, former CM of Bengal. Had the opportunity to meet him towards the end of his life," Ms Banerjee tweeted.
The chief minister said, "His demise at a time when I was hospitalised after the Hajra incident, had saddened me very much."
"My regards to him on his birth anniversary," she added.
Born on April 10, 1897, Mr Sen was a Bengali Indian politician and freedom fighter. He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal during the period 19611967.
Sen was extremely influenced by Gandhi's speech and abandoned all plans of studying abroad and rallied to the Mahatma's nationwide call for a mass non-co-operation movement against the British.
In 1923, Sen shifted to the remote area of Arambagh in the Hooghly district, which became his laboratory for Gandhian experiments on Swadeshi and Satyagraha. After Independence, In 1948, he was inducted by the then Chief Minister Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy into the West Bengal Cabinet as Minister for Food. This was a portfolio he held until 1967. He also functioned as Roy's deputy and was acknowledged as his political heir.
After Dr Roy's death in 1961, Sen became West Bengal's third Chief Minister. Three years later, his regime faced a drastic food shortage in the state following countrywide drought.
At a Food Ministers' conference in Delhi, Sen advocated introducing the politically unsound measure of food rationing in urban areas. Within months, he had introduced food-grain rationing in the state, a system which has continued with minor modifications to this date.
He died in Calcutta on September 25, 1990.UNI BM
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Oil rose further above $55 a barrel on Monday, supported by another shutdown at Libya's largest oilfield and heightened tension over Syria following the US missile strike.Libya's Sharara oilfield was shut on Sunday after a group blocked a pipeline linking it to an oil terminal, a Libyan oil source said. The field had only just returned to production, after a week-long stoppage ending in early April."High, unscheduled production outages are still giving (oil prices) a boost," said Carsten Fritsch of Commerzbank.Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 42 cents to $55.66 at 0840 GMT. US crude was up 33 cents at $52.57.Oil also climbed on heightened tension in the Middle East, a region that is home to more than a quarter of the world's oil output. Crude rallied last week after the United States fired missiles at a Syrian government air base.Libya's Sharara field was previously shut for a week until April 2. The OPEC state has been pumping a fraction of potential output because of conflict and unrest since the 2011 civil war.Oil prices have also been supported by a deal led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day for the first six months of 2017. Libya, and another OPEC member Nigeria, are exempt from cuts.Last week's rise in prices was due to "the relatively high OPEC adherence to the supply cut agreement and the general belief that the deal will be extended and, secondly, because of geopolitical developments," Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM said.However, the price rally has been limited, as oil price gains have encouraged production in other countries such as the United States, filling some of the gap left by OPEC-led cuts.US drillers added oil rigs for a 12th straight week, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday, as energy companies boost spending on new production. REUTERS PS BL1514 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-1223878.Xml
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to the South Block to register India's strong protest.
A military court found Jadhav guilty of espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan.
The development is set to put further strain on the fragile relations between the two countries.
''If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder,'' the External Affairs Ministry said in reaction to the Pakistan Army's decision.
The MEA described the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav as ''farcical'' in the absence of any credible evidence against him.
Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly, it said. More UNI NAZ AE SNU 1749
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The fast-unto-death agitation by the unemployed agriculture graduates and post-graduates for the past four days has left the Left Front government in Tripura embarrassed, as the agitators accused a section of officers of Agriculture department of misguiding the administration. The Tripura Unemployed Agriculture and Horticulture Graduates Association (TUAHGA) had launched the agitation demanding filling up of 240 posts of agricultural officers, which have been lying vacant for past seven years. However, they accused top officials including Director of the department of misguiding the cabinet. Leaving aside the government posts, there are 250 posts under the centrally sponsored Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) but not a single recruitment has taken place, alleged the demonstrators. The government faced embarrassment as Tripura Agriculture Graduates Association (TAGA), an association of officers in service, has extended full support to the fast-unto-death agitation stating that the department was not serious about filling up the posts to enhance agricultural activities in the state. The Sub Divisional Magistrate (Sadar) Dr Sumit Roy Chowdhury and Director of Agriculture D P Sarkar today met the strikers and urged upon them to call off the agitation but they refused to do so without written assurance about their recruitment soon. "We had met the chief minister thrice in last six months and he advised us to meet the agriculture minister; we tried for appointment with agriculture minister five times formally by addressing letters but he did not give us any appointment," they alleged. They further alleged that the wards of many officers and employees are studying Agri-BSc or Agri-MSc and the vacant posts are being kept open for them so that they come out from institutions and join the service immediately; but the government is blissfully unaware of this harsh reality.UNI BB KK -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0212-1224251.Xml
Three days after the raids at his residential and business premises, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Dr C Vijayabhaskar today appeared before the Income-Tax department authorities and explained in detail on the documents seized during the searches. Actor and AlISMK leader R Sarathkumar also appeared beforethe authorities in complaince with the summons issued to them following the Friday's raids. The searches at the Minister's premises revealed alleged distribution of money to the tune of Rs 89 crore to the voters of RK Nagar, leading to the Election Commission cancelling of the bypoll scheduled for dayafter tomorrow. However, B C Roy award winner and Vice-Chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University Dr Geethalakshmi, whose house was also raidedand also summoned by the IT department, did not appear. Instead she chose to file a petition in the Madras High Court challenging the summons issued to her and it was likely to be takenup for hearing tomorrow. Both Dr Vijayabaskar and Sarathkumar arrived separately at the IToffice in the city around 1130 hrs and were questioned for nearly four hours. The Minister was questioned about the source of the Rs 89 crore used for cash for votes at RK Nagar and whether they were taxable. Later, talking to reporters after the quizzing, Dr Vijayabaskar said he replied to all the questions posed by the IT authorities. He also said he gave detailed replies to the questions posed athim. Security was enhanced at the IT office at Nungambakkam area in the city in view of their appearance. About 50 policemen were deployed in and around the office aspart of the tight security arrangements. MORE UNI GV 1750 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-1224333.Xml
Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lucknow, Sandhya Srivastava, issued the bailable warrant against Azam Khan in the complaint filed by Mr Thakur regarding the minister's use of extremely improper language against him on 29 November 2015.
The CJM had earlier issued summons against Khan but he did not appear before the court even today.
Adequate efforts, the magistrate said, had been made to serve summons on Khan and hence it issued a bailable warrant with Rs 10,000 personal bond against him, fixing May 10 as the next date of hearing.UNI MB RP1710
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According to the Univarta journalist, Eizaz Ahmed, the incident occurred at around 2330 hrs last
night after he boarded the bus from Sarai Rohilla.
"They argued with me after I asked them to issue tickets to the passengers, who paid money to the conductor but they refused and later hit me with a rod and pulled me out of the bus near Connaught Place area and fled with the bus," he said.
Mr Eizaz said then, he called the PCR and narrated the incident following which a complaint was registered at the Connaught Place police station.
Meanwhile, police has detained two people-- Nitin Kumar (conductor) and Vinod Yadav (driver) and on sustained interrogation they have confessed of hitting Eizaz with rod.
Later they were released by the police after the scribe withdrew his complaint following their apology.
The Press Club of India condemned the attack on the scribe by issuing a statement, "If this could happen to journalists in the national Capital, the plight of common man can easily be imagined."
The incident comes close on the heels of a brutal assault on a woman journalist in a park in Ashok Vihar area of the national capital.UNI DS ADG SHK 1946
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The Bahujan Samaj Party would stage a nationwide protest tomorrow, to observe the first 'Black Day,' alleging tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) during the recently-concluded Assembly elections, both in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The protest will be organised at every district headquarter, even as the party is concentrating to celebrate Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar's birth anniversary on April 14 in a big way. BSP supremo Mayawati had already dismissed the Assembly election results and said tampering was responsible for her party's poor show. ''BSP workers will organise dharna and demonstrations in Lucknow as well as other district headquarters on the 11th of every month to observe March 11, the day of UP election results, as a black day,'' Ms Mayawati had said, while addressing a press conference after her party faced a humiliating defeat last month. Ms Mayawati, who expected her party to grab a substantial share of the votes, blamed EVMs for the BJP's unexpected bumper victory in India's most populous state and shot off a complaint to the Election Commission to cancel the election results. The poll panel, however, wrote to BSP's national General Secretary Satish Chandra Misra, saying that it found no merit in the allegations, and the "prayers made in your letter are not legally tenable". Ms Mayawati rejected the EC's reply on her demand for a probe into EVM tampering and said her party will file a petition in the court on this issue. "BJP leaders are maintaining an ominous silence on my allegations. BJP won the election through manipulation. The day Assembly election results were announced, democracy was virtually murdered. EVMs were tampered to transfer the BSP votes to BJP," she alleged. She also accused the media of biased reporting and said the journalists were virtually writing the obituary of the BSP and saying the BJP's victory signified the end of her party. "Mediapersons have seen huge crowds in my public meetings. How can they say it is the end of the road for BSP? They should tell the people how BJP manipulated the election," she said. The BSP chief also condemned post-poll discussions on election results, saying the power-brokers were singing paeans for BJP in discussions, organised by various channels "for the lust of money". "I want to make it clear to the media that BJP did not manipulate election results in smaller states like Punjab, Goa and Manipur, as they would have to do a lot of explanation. They tampered EVMs in UP and Uttarakhand. Media should highlight the BJP's misdeeds," she added.UNI MB RJ 2219 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1224800.Xml
The Lotha Hoho (LH) and the Rengma Hoho (RH) have served an "open ultimatum" on the National Highways Authorities of Nagaland (NHAN) to immediately start the road widening work along NH-2 for the two sectors by April 18, failing which the Hohos threatened to launch a total indefinite bandh within its sectors (NH-2) from April 19 next. In a joint statement, LH Chairman Mhao Humtsoe and RH President Kenyuseng Tep have informed the NHAN that there would be "no more negotiations" since several appeals were made that fell into deaf ears. They said even after two years the assurances made by the Minister in-charge, Chief Engineer (NH) including the Commissioner and Secretary were yet to be fulfilled. Both the Hohos said the CE had also clarified on June 6, 2015 through the local media with assuring comments saying: "it has been observed regretfully that the Tseminyu and Wokha stretch of road is in deplorable condition because of litigation in the Supreme Court; but the court case is settled and the work on this stretch is proposed in the Annual Plan of 2014-15 and the updated Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been submitted to the MORTH for sanction." The Minister had also given his assurance, the Hohos said quoting the September 30, 2015 news headline published in section of the local dailies "Nuklotoshi assures work on Tseminyu & Wokha road sectors within two weeks." At the meeting between LH and RH members along with commissioner & secretary and CE (NH) on October 3, 2015, the Hohos said they were assured that the DPR could be ready for sanction within two months (by January 2016). Based on this assurance, the Hohos said they patiently and hopefully waited, but to no avail. The Hohos said a "reminder memorandum" was also submitted to the department on April 30, 2016. However, two years have passed and the assurances were yet to be fulfilled, the Hohos said. They pointed out that Government of India (MORTH) had approved the DPR and sanctioned Rs 340.2687 Crore on October 31, 2016. The Ministry had also specifically pointed out that the work had to start by December 2016 and to spend 20 per cent of the sanctioned amount within 2016-17, so that the sanctioned amount did not lapse, the Hohos said. The Hohos said they were aware that the court case was already settled on August 8, 2014. Expressing utter dismay, the Hohos said they would be compelled to launch the total indefinite bandh within the two sectors-- Tseminyu and Wokha and warned that NHAN would be held responsible for any eventuality. They said the bandh would continue till the work order is produced before the two Hohos and until the time the NHAN beings the widening work. Reminding NHAN not to make any further excuses, LH and RH said the rights of the people cannot be suppressed by any amount of clarifications or assurances, except by timely and satisfactory works. The Hohos have informed that the bandh would exempted for press and media, paramilitary, medical personnel on patient duty, administration, police personnel on duty, fire service, water and power personnel on emergency duty, the release added. UNI AS AD2056 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0108-1224769.Xml
According to a Raj Bhavan statement today, Mr Acharya and his wife, the state's First Lady Kavita Acharya, met the Dalai Lama.
They exchanged greetings and shared religious views.
Recalling his journey in March 1959, His Holiness expressed his appreciation to the people of India and Arunachal Pradesh for the warm reception accorded to him.
He said that India is the only country which combines modern education and technology to tackling destructive and negative forces.
His Holiness further said that ancient Indian provides mental peace.
In brief, but poignant meeting, the Governor also shared his views on Buddhism and Hinduism, it said. UNI AS AD2100
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Later, Mr Modi shared pictures of their metro journey on social networking site Twitter.
The Australian Prime Minister, who is on a four-day visit to India began his ride from Mandi House metro station amid tight security cover after the two-sides inked six pacts, including one to boost cooperation in counter-terrorism and transnational organised crime.
"On board the Delhi Metro with PM @TurnbullMalcolm. We are heading to the Akshardham Temple," Mr Modi posted a picture in twitter in which the Australian Prime Minister is seen taking selfie with him.
In another picture posted on twitter, Mr Modi and Mr Turnbull were seen waving their hands to the crowds at the metro station.
"With @narendramodi on the Delhi Metro Blue Line - 212 kms & 159 stations since 2002," Mr Turbull tweeted along with picture of both of them travelling in the metro.UNI DS ADG 2054
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Taking note of a string of recent statements about General (Retd.) Raheel Sharif, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has restricted the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders from passing any more controversial remarks about the former army chief. "PM Nawaz Sharif takes notice of the statements against Gen (retd) Raheel Sharif," Radio Pakistan tweeted on Sunday evening, the Express Tribune reported. "Nawaz Sharif prohibits PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retd) Raheel Sharif," read another tweet. "The entire nation pays tribute to Gen (retired) Raheel Sharif for his meritorious services," a third tweet by Radio Pakistan quoted the prime minister as saying. Prime Minister Sharif's directions to the leaders of his party came days after Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair called Raheel Sharif 'just another general' and said he should not be made larger than life. (ANI)
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has affirmed that following recent talks between Beijing and Washington, China has stated that it is prepared to move. Tillerson was reacting to the continued North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear weapons testing, the Sputnik reported. Detailed by Tillerson on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at Trump's Florida resort last week to discuss, among other topics, ongoing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. "President Xi clearly understands and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken," Tillerson clarified, according to The Guardian. A full U.S. Navy strike group, including the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, has been diverted from Australia to the Western Pacific, in what many are calling increased vigilance on the part of the U.S., as North Korea continues to test newer, and more deadly, weapons in the region. (ANI)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani called for an objective, unbiased investigation into the chemical weapon incident in the Syrian province of Idlib earlier this week, the Xinhua reported.
The two leaders noted the importance of continuing close cooperation in the political and diplomatic settlement of the Syrian civil war, the statement said.
Both the Presidents expressed readiness to deepen bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism to ensure stability in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said that U.S. President Donald Trump was discussing with members of his administration the possibility of sanctioning Russia and Iran for supporting the Syrian Government.
Trump earlier on Thursday ordered attacks against a military airbase in Syria with dozens of Tomahawk missiles, after the United States and its allies accused Damascus of killing civilians with chemical weapons on Tuesday.
But the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the deadly gas contamination was caused by the explosion of chemical weapons produced and stored by the rebels, after Syrian aircraft bombed the area.
Damascus has repeatedly denied possession of any chemical weapons. (ANI)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council have condemned the attacks on two Coptic churches in north Egypt, stressing the need to bring the perpetrators to justice. "The secretary-general expresses his deep sympathies to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of the Arab Republic of Egypt," said a statement issued here by the spokesman of the secretary-general, the Xinhua reported. "He wishes a quick recovery to those injured and hopes that the perpetrators of this horrific terrorist act will be swiftly identified and brought to justice," the statement added. The 15-nation Security Council, in a separate press statement issued here Sunday, "condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attacks" in north Egypt, and they expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the government of Egypt and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured. "The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security," the statement said. "The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all states, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the government of Egypt and all other relevant authorities in this regard," said the council statement. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the two attacks on churches in Egypt that left at least 37 people dead and injured several others. "A security detachment of the Islamic State carried out the attacks against the two churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria," the New York Times quoted an online statement shared by sympathisers and attributed to the militants as saying. At least 26 people were killed in a bomb attack near a church in Egypt's Tanta, north of Cairo. Another explosion occurred in front of St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria killing at least 11 persons. The explosions took place when Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria, was leading the Palm Sunday mass, local media reports said. The pope, however, has been reported unhurt in the blast. (ANI)
According to the statement, the President has authorized special units to assist local police in ensuring security of the infrastructure in all the country's provinces, the Sputnik reported.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the two attacks on churches in Egypt that left at least 37 people dead and injured several others.
"A security detachment of the Islamic State carried out the attacks against the two churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria," the New York Times quoted an online statement shared by sympathisers and attributed to the militants as saying.
At least 26 people were killed in a bomb attack near a church in Egypt's Tanta, north of Cairo.
Another explosion occurred in front of St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria killing at least 11 persons.
The explosions took place when Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria, was leading the Palm Sunday mass, local media reports said.
The pope, however, has been reported unhurt in the blast.
The attack is the latest in a series of assaults on Egypt's Christian minority, which makes up around 10 percent of the population of 92 million, and has been repeatedly targetted by the Islamic extremists.
In December last year, 25 people were killed by a suicide bombing at Cairo's main Coptic cathedral. The ISIS later claimed responsibility for the blast. (ANI)
The annual event will be attended by finance ministers, central bank heads and top officials of finance and economy related departments, from across the globe.
According to Radio Pakistan, during the visit, Dar besides attending different events in regard to IMF World Bank meetings will also have bilateral meetings with finance ministers of other countries as well as heads of important international organizations.
He will also participate in the 50th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank (ADB), which will be held in Yokohama, Japan next month. The meeting will discuss developments in Asia and the Pacific as well as institutional matters.
Finance Minister Dar is currently also serving as the Vice Chairman of ADB. (ANI)
Under a new "extreme vetting" policy being considered by the U.S. administration, British travellers may have to hand over personal information, including social media passwords and mobile phone contacts or be denied entry, according to the Guardian. Other U.S. allies including Germany and France, could also be forced to reveal personal data, as well as disclose financial information and face detailed ideological questioning, according to Trump administration officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. customs and border patrol told the Guardian: "All international travellers arriving to the US are subject to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspection. This inspection may include electronic devices such as computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players and any other electronic or digital devices. "Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation's laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials entering the US," it added. This comes as last month the U.S. and the UK announced a temporary ban on certain nonstop US-bound flights from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and some other electronics in carry-on luggage. The decision was prompted by reports that militant groups want to smuggle explosive devices inside electronic gadgets. The ban in UK applies to inbound flights from six countries that are Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey while in the U.S., the ban applies to flights from eight countries Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Later, the Australian Government also said that passengers flying from Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi will undergo random explosive detection tests and targeted screening of electronic devices. (ANI)
A senior Uighur Communist Party official in China's far-western Xinjiang has urged Uighur cadres to reveal "two-faced people" and "clean them out", the latest in a string of senior figures to single out their own ethnic group in the restive region.It had been unusual for Chinese government statements to specifically target an ethnic minority, but a recent series of statements has come as authorities step up security measures to combat what they see as a rising threat from Islamist extremism.Rights groups say that party restrictions on the religion and culture of Muslim Uighurs create simmering resentment against the state and its policies that encouraged many ethnic majority Han Chinese people to move to the region.In a commentary published by the official Xinjiang Daily today, Yasin Sidik, a senior official from Kashgar city in Xinjiang, urged fellow ethnic Uighur cadres to "bravely stand at the forefront against separatism"."We must ... remember to be grateful to the party," Yasin said. "To forget history is tantamount to betrayal.""We must stand out and reveal 'two-faced' people, thoroughly seize bad elements out from the masses, clean them out," he said.Sidik's was at least the fourth such warning from Uighur officials in the past two weeks. Another top Kashgar official warned last week that Uighur party cadres were not pulling their weight in the region's fight against extremism.A historic Silk Road trading post, Kashgar is central to China's Belt and Road initiative, President Xi Jinping's signature foreign and economic policy that aims to bolster trade and infrastructure links between China, Central Asia, the Middle East and beyond.However, the city and nearby towns in southern Xinjiang are also among the most unstable in the region, creating a threat to plans that the party is combating with paramilitary and police "anti-terror" rallies and a raft of new security measures.Hundreds have been killed in Xinjiang in the past few years, mostly in unrest between the Uighurs, who call the region home, and Han Chinese. The government has blamed much of the unrest on Islamist militants.The party encourages ethnic minorities to become cadres, but Uighurs still number far fewer than Han officials in the region. All party employees are expected to be atheist, so those Uighurs who do become party officials are seen by fellow Uighurs as having abandoned their cultureREUTERS CJ PR1239 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-1223698.Xml
Egyptian Christians wept with rage today as they recovered the bodies of loved ones killed in twin church bombings, furious at a state they believe will no longer protect them from neighbours bent on their murder.Forty-four people were killed in the attacks on Palm Sunday, a joyous festival a week before Easter when Christians celebrate the triumphant arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem.At Tanta University hospital morgue, desperate families were trying to get inside to search for loved ones. Security forces held them back to stop overcrowding, enraging the crowd."Why are you preventing us from entering now? Where were you when all this happened?" shouted one women looking for a relative. Some appeared in total shock, their faces pale and unmoving. Others wept openly as women wailed in mourning.A middle-aged man who had just stepped out of the morgue after seeing his dead brother stood with his face buried in his hands weeping. "You sons of bitches," he shouted as his family tried to calm him.Hours after the attack, Kerols Paheg and other young Coptic Christians were already digging graves in the basement of the devastated St. George Church in the northern Nile Delta city, where the first of the bombs exploded, killing 27 and wounding around 80.He showed photos on his phone of the carnage: human remains, blood and shattered glass strewn across the floor of the church on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar. "Today was supposed to be a day of festivity," he said.From now on, Christians will have to protect their churches themselves, rather than rely on the police, "because what's happening is too much. It's unacceptable," he said.SECTARIAN BLOODSHEDCopts make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 92 million people, the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. Yet despite a presence dating back to the Roman era, the community feels increasingly ostracised and has repeatedly been targeted in attacks, including by Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombings.Hours after the blast in Tanta, the second bomb blew up at the entrance to Saint Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, the historic seat of the Coptic pope, killing 17 people including three police officers and wounding 48.Pope Tawadros had been leading the mass at the time of the blast but escaped unharmed, the Interior Ministry said.Though Islamic State has long waged a low-level war against soldiers and police in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, its stepped up assault on Christian civilians in the mainland could turn a provincial insurgency into wider sectarian conflict.On Sunday, the group warned of more attacks and boasted of the number of people killed by three church bombings it says it has carried out since December: 80.President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has promised to protect the Christian minority as part of a campaign against extremism. But Copts in Tanta said security was almost non-existent on Sunday despite repeated warnings in recent weeks.A senior police official told Reuters a bomb was discovered and disabled near the Tanta church about a week ago."That should have been an alarm or a warning that this place is targeted," said 38-year-old Amira Maher, who was waiting for her injured brother at a nearby hospital."Especially Palm Sunday, a day when many people gather, more than any other time in the year... I don't know how this happened," she said.Milling about the charred church interior, as if trying to take in the enormity of the attack, several members of the community expressed dismay at what they said was lax security.Tanta priest Tawfik Kobeish expressed perhaps the most common of all emotions among the grieving: disbelief."We were not expecting people who live with us in the same country, people with whom we've shared love and friendships, and with whom we're familiar, to do these things," said Kobeish, the sound of ambulances bearing the wounded echoing outside. REUTERS PS BL1515 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-1223928.Xml
A Pakistani military court sentenced Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav, an Indian naval officer, accused of espionage, to death today.Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, in the turbulent province of Baluchistan, which has seen a long-running conflict between Pakistani security forces and a militant separatist movement.The Pakistani military said in a statement Jadhav had confessed to being tasked by India's intelligence service with planning, coordinating and organising espionage and sabotage activities in Baluchistan "aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan".The sentence was passed by a Field General Court Martial and confirmed by the powerful army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The military did not announce any date for the execution.REUTERS PS-RP1626/1636 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-1224115.Xml
The white supremacist sentenced to death in federal court for the 2015 shooting massacre at a historic black church in South Carolina is expected to plead guilty to separate state murder charges today.Dylann Roof, 23, is charged in state court with murdering nine African American parishioners as they closed their eyes in prayer at a Bible study session.Roof agreed to plead guilty in state court under a deal with prosecutors after being convicted of 33 federal crimes, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion resulting in death. In January, a jury found that he deserved the death penalty.Pleading guilty to the state charges will allow for Roof's transfer to death row and spare survivors and relatives of the victims a second round of courtroom testimony detailing his rampage on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.He will be sentenced to life in prison on the state charges, which include attempted murder of three survivors of the shooting, solicitor Scarlett Wilson said last month. State prosecutors abandoned efforts to seek a second death penalty.Roof was ordered into the custody of US Marshals last week. He has been held at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston County awaiting his state trial.He is expected to be transferred to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, that holds male death row prisoners, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that monitors US capital punishment.Since 1988, when the federal death penalty was reinstated, 76 defendants in the United States have been sentenced to death and three prisoners have been executed, according to the center's website.Roof would become the 62nd current federal death row inmate, and appeals in such cases can take a decade or more, the center's executive director, Robert Dunham, said in a telephone interview.REUTERS PS BL1645 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-1224136.Xml
During a telephonic conversation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif have called for an impartial investigation into the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria's Idlib province."Lavrov and Zarif called for carrying out a thorough and unbiased investigation into the incident in the Syrian province of Idlib that has led to numerous deaths among the civilian population," Russian Foreign Ministry said today. Last week, the US military fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a military airfield in Syria's Homs province on orders issued by US President Donald Trump. The strike came in response to what Washington claims was Damascus' use of chemical weapons in the Idlib province."The two sides discussed the situation in Syria after the US missile strike. They discussed the situation in Syria after the US launched a missile strike on the airbase in that country," the Ministry said. "Both sides emphasized that such aggressive actions against a sovereign independent country are a flagrant violation of international law, above all, the UN Charter, create threats for regional security and impair the fight against international terrorism," it said.Lavrov and Zarif agreed to maintain close contacts "with a view to further coordinating cooperation on the pressing bilateral and international issues," it noted.UNI XC JW SHK 1938 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-1224571.Xml
Serbia and the United States agreed to step up efforts to bolster regional security including joint military and police training drills, Serbian Prime Minister and President-elect Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday.Serbia is maintaining a balancing act between the West and Russia, its traditional Orthodox Christian and Slavic ally.Although it wants to join the European Union, Belgrade has adamantly refused to join NATO which bombed it in 1999 during the war in Kosovo. In 2008, with the US backing, Kosovo declared independence.After meeting Republican Senator John McCain, who also chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, Vucic told reporters that the two sides will have "six or seven" joint training drills this year.During his one-day visit to Serbia, McCain attended a training between country's elite SAJ police unit, a detachment of the US Special Operations Command and a military unit from Slovenia, a ex-Yugoslav republic and now NATO member."I am sure Mosul and Raqqa will fall," McCain told a news conference speaking through an interpeter, referring to two Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria. "Many people (seeking to do violence) may (then) come to Europe and the US ... therefore joint drills are important," McCain said.Vucic said the two also discussed regional stability, including talks between Serbia and Kosovo on normalising relations, and the political crises in ethnically divided Macedonia and Bosnia.In 2016, Serbia conducted 206 joint military activities with the United States and NATO, and 17 with Russia. It will later this year participate in a training drill in Kazkhstan staged by the Russia-controlled Collective Security Treaty Organization.REUTERS RJ AN2149 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1224790.Xml
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialised nations met in Italy on Monday, looking to put pressure on Russia to break its ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian air base last week in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in a rebel-held region by Assad's forces has raised expectations that President Donald Trump is ready to adopt a tougher-than-expected stance with Russia.British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters that Russia's reputation was being tarnished by its continued support of Assad and suggested, along with Canada, that sanctions could be tightened on Moscow if it continued to back Assad.It was unclear how far US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was prepared to push the Russian leadership when he travels to Moscow on Tuesday at the end of the two-day G7 gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca."What we're trying to do is to give Rex Tillerson the clearest possible mandate from us as the West, the UK, all our allies here, to say to the Russians 'this is your choice: stick with that guy, stick with that tyrant, or work with us to find a better solution'," Johnson said after meeting Tillerson.Russia has rejected accusations that Assad used chemical arms against his own people and has said it will not cut its ties with the Syrian president, who has been locked in a six-year-old civil war that has devastated his country."Returning to pseudo-attempts to resolve the crisis by repeating mantras that Assad must step down cannot help sort things out," Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Monday."CRIMES AGAINST INNOCENTS"Tillerson himself said at the weekend that the main priority for the United States was the defeat of one of Assad's main foes, the Islamic State militant movement.Those comments left US allies wondering whether the April 7 missile attack was a one-off event.On Monday, the former oilman-turned-diplomat visited the site of a World War Two Nazi massacre in Italy and said the United States would never let such abuses go unchallenged."We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," he told reporters in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.Looking to build their case against Assad, Italy has invited the foreign ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar to sit down with the G7 group on Tuesday morning to discuss Syria. All oppose Assad's rule.The foreign ministers' discussions will prepare the way for a G7 leaders' summit in Sicily at the end of May, which looks set to be Trump's first overseas trip since becoming president.Besides Syria, the ministers will talk about growing tensions with North Korea, as the United States moves a navy strike group near the Korean peninsula amid concerns over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.They will also debate Libya. Italy is hoping for vocal support for a United Nations-backed government in Tripoli which has struggled to establish its authority even in the city, let alone in the rest of the violence-plagued north African country.The Trump administration has not yet defined a clear policy and Rome fears Washington may fall into step with Egypt and Russia, which both support general Khalifa Haftar, a powerful figure in eastern Libya.The struggle against terrorism, relations with Iran and instability in Ukraine is also on the agenda, with the meeting expected to finish by midday tomorrow. REUTERWS RJ AN2147 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0098-1224815.Xml
| 2017-04-07 20:32:37|Editor: Tian Shaohui
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By Zhang Maorong, researcher with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations; cartoon drawing by Liao Tingting
On April 4-6, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Finland. The country has been dubbed a kingdom of thousands lakes. The host country dispatched two fighters to escort Xi's plane after it entered Finland's airspace.
During the visit, Chinese President Xi held talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto and met Prime Minister Juha Sipila and Speaker Maria Lohela.
In a joint declaration, China and Finland confirmed the establishment of a future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership, drawing a blueprint for and charting the course of the development of bilateral relations.
Xi's visit was the first state visit by a Chinese head of state to the Nordic country in 22 years. His trip marks a new milestone in the history of China-Finland ties. It is expected to enhance political mutual trust and the level of bilateral relations, strengthen strategic docking for bilateral economic development, and to deepen pragmatic cooperation in such areas as innovation, winter sports, the Belt and Road Initiative and giant panda research.
Xi's trip has consolidated the Sino-Finnish friendship. China, homeland to the giant panda and Finland, homeland to Santa Claus ushers in a historic handshake.
Moreover, Xi's Finland trip is expected to inject a new impetus to China's cooperation with the Nordic sub-region and promote the upgrade of China-EU overall relations.
(The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com)
(Source: english.cctv.com)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 03:22:46|Editor: yan
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LONDON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The British Government announced Sunday it was giving support worth 7 million pounds (8.66 million U.S. dollars) to medical teams in Syria following this week's chemical attack on Idlib.
Britain's International Development Secretary Priti Patel announced the additional funding to ensure health workers in Syria can deliver healthcare and essential medicines across the country, enabling them to prepare for medical emergencies.
A spokesman for the Department for International Development said the allocation builds on existing British support to the World Health Organization, which has enabled it to pre-position supplies and train medics in anticipation of an attack of this kind.
"As a result, WHO was able to rapidly deliver medicines including Atropine (an antidote for some types of chemical exposure) and steroids for treatment, ship in additional medicines, and provide immediate support to medics," said the department spokesman.
Patel said it is vital that the international community continues to support the Syrian people and Britain led calls at the Brussels Conference on Syria this week for donors to step up assistance to the most vulnerable people. As a result, 6 billion U.S. dollars in international funding was committed for the coming year.
The new 7 million pounds of funding from Britain builds on 10.7 million pounds provided last year by Britain to the World Health Organization for its support work in Syria. (1 British pound=1.24 U.S. dollars)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 03:57:50|Editor: yan
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RIYADH, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia confirmed on Sunday that no tax will be imposed on the profits of companies or the incomes of citizens until 2020, Saudi Press Agency reported.
Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan told a meeting at the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce that the percentage of added value tax will remain at five percent until 2020.
This tax, as a measure to cope with the dropping oil prices in the international markets and part of serious economic reforms to get the country ready for post-oil era, is yet to be implemented.
Al-Jadaan highlighted that to achieve the economic vision for 2030, the non-oil sector should achieve an annual growth of 8.5 percent and a GDP increase by 400 million U.S. dollars, while the government will fund the private sector with 53 billion dollars in the next four years.
A victim is seen on a stretcher after a bomb went off at a Coptic church in Tanta, Egypt, April 9, 2017. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council on Sunday condemned attacks on two Coptic churches in north Egypt earlier in the day, stressing the need to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The terrorist bomb attacks killed at least 43 people and injured over 130 others, according to local media.
"The secretary-general expresses his deep sympathies to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of the Arab Republic of Egypt," said a statement issued here by the spokesman of the secretary-general.
"He wishes a quick recovery to those injured and hopes that the perpetrators of this horrific terrorist act will be swiftly identified and brought to justice," the statement said.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the two church bombings, the group's news agency Amaq said.
The 15-nation Security Council, in a separate press statement issued here Sunday, "condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attacks" in north Egypt, and they expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the government of Egypt and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.
"The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security," the statement said.
"The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all states, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the government of Egypt and all other relevant authorities in this regard," said the council statement.
Meanwhile, the council members "reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the statement said.
"They reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts," said the statement.
The first explosion occurred about 09:30 local time at St. George's Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, about 90 kilometers north of the capital Cairo.
Hours later, a second explosion occurred at the gates of St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population. They have largely coexisted peacefully with the majority-Muslim public for centuries.
Toward the end of 2016, at least 29 people were killed and 31 wounded in an explosion that targeted the Cathedral of Saint Mark in the Abbasia district in Cairo.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 04:12:53|Editor: yan
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ALGIERS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Algeria said on Sunday that military escalation in Syria would undermine efforts aiming at reaching a sustainable cease-fire in the country, APS news agency reported.
"Any military escalation in Syria would only undermine the efforts of the international community as part of the process of political settlement to the Syrian crisis," APS quoted Abdelkader Messahel, the minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League, as saying.
"Algeria is following with concern the evolution of the situation in Syria at a time when dynamic efforts have been undertaken to reach a political and negotiable solution between Syrian warring parties," Messahel said.
Messahel's remarks came two days after a U.S. missile strike on a military base in Syria, in retaliation for the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime of Bashar al-Assad against rebels.
"Algeria, which has always inscribed its approach within the framework of respect for international legality, deems that the solution to the Syrian conflict can only be political, based on inclusive dialogue, national reconciliation and the fight against terrorism," the minister concluded.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 06:48:45|Editor: yan
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TIRANA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian police mounted an anti-narcotics operation in the south of Albania which resulted in the seizure of 11.6 tonnes of cannabis in the city of Permet, state police said Sunday.
According to a police statement, during a raid on a warehouse in the village of Pagri, Permet, the police officers found the huge amount of narcotic plant.
Albanian police spokesperson Genti Mullahi said in a press statement Sunday that two police chiefs in Permet and Gjirokastra districts were dismissed, an inspector was ousted from police structures while five police officers would face with administrative measures.
Meanwhile, police arrested two of the administrators of the warehouse where the cannabis was found. Police are searching for a third person.
LJUBLJANA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Tension of long tailbacks of traffic at both sides of Slovenian-Croatian border crossings appeared eased as the implementation of the European Union (EU) border directive has been suspended.
According to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), about one-hour waiting time is currently reported only at the Slovenian Obrezje border crossing with Croatia, compared to the three to four hours in the past few days.
Buses now have to wait two hours to exit Slovenia at Obrezje, while a one-hour waiting time is being reported entering the country. Cars have to wait one hour to enter or exit the country, the STA report said quoting data from the Slovenian National Traffic Information Centre.
The traffic tension was formed last Friday after the EU-decreed tighter controls was introduced on the Slovenia-Croatia border crossings.
The Slovenian and Croatian police stopped checking all passengers in line with the decree tightening controls on the EU's external borders on Friday evening after long lines of traffic were formed on both sides of the border.
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar tweeted late Saturday night that he had discussed the issue with his Croatian counterpart on the phone. They both agreed that the situation on the borders was intolerable and that immediate changes were needed.
Subsequently, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramapoulos, temporarily suspended the implementation of the decree on the Croatian borders with Slovenia and Hungary, the Croatian police said Saturday night.
The police are therefore checking only passengers from third countries while EU citizens are checked occasionally, according to the STA.
Slovenian Interior Ministry State Secretary Bostjan Sefic told local media Saturday night that Slovenia would brief the Commission on the situation next week. Security measures are needed, but they need to be made more bearable, he said.
PARIS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- French President Francois Hollande on Sunday vowed to mobilize his country's forces to support Egypt's combat against terrorism following bombings of Coptic churches.
"Egypt is again struck by terrorists who want to destroy its unity and diversity," Hollande said.
The French head of state also expressed solidarity with Egyptian authorities "in this terrible ordeal" and vowed to "mobilize all forces" to back Egypt's fight against terrorism, according to a statement released by his office, the Elysee.
The terrorist attacks that targeted on Sunday two churches in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured over 120 others.
HELSINKI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A major increase in the support of the Green Party and a steep decline for the populist Finns Party were the apparent trends as ballots were counted in Finnish local council elections Sunday evening.
While conservative candidate Jan Vapaavuori got major personal support and would definitely win the Mayoralty in the capital city of Helsinki, the Greens became the second largest party in the western city of Turku and rose from position five to the largest in Jyvaskyla, a university town in central Finland.
Green Party leader Ville Niinisto said it was "a spring of hope." Finns Party leader Timo Soini acknowledged defeat in his speech.
Ilkka Kanerva, the longest sitting Member of Parliament, said on national broadcaster Yle that the election result sends a reassuring message to the rest of Europe.
While the final result will be announced later, 98 percent of the votes were counted by midnight. The co-ruling conservative Coalition Party was predicted to be the largest with 20.6 percent. The opposition Social Democratic Party took second place with 19.4 percent, and Prime Minister Juha Sipila's ruling Center Party came in thrid place with 17.8 percent.
The Green Party attained 12.8 percent, which is an increase by over four percent from the local elections in 2012. The eurosceptic Finns Party got 8.8 percent, which is a decline by 3.5 percent. The Left League got 8.9 percent, with a slight increase from 2012.
Preliminary voter turnout was 58.8 percent.
By Rene Quenallata Paredes
LA PAZ, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish-speaking Bolivia is recognizing the importance of its native languages.
Under Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, laws that require state employees to speak a native language have been gradually strengthened.
In future general and regional elections, all candidates will have to provide a certificate verifying they can speak at least one native language, according to Guillermo Aluce, coordinator with the Vice-Ministry of Decolonization.
"It is not something we made up, it is in the Constitution and Law 269, which establish that candidates for the presidency, vice presidency and other public posts must speak a native language, at least at an elementary level," Aluce told Xinhua in an interview.
Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) will be in charge of ensuring candidates to all elected office, from legislators to governors, mayors, judges and local councilors, are certified in a native language.
Aluce said the law also stipulates that each public- or private-sector enterprise must also demand that its executives speak a native language, as well as Spanish.
"In each public help-wanted ad, private entities must include, among their requisites, the ability to speak a native language," said Aluce.
Some 36 different native languages are officially recognized in Bolivia, including Quechua, Aymara and Guarani, and three agencies are credited with granting the certificates: the Vice-Ministry of Decolonization, the Plurinational School of Public Management (EGPP) and the Plurinational Institute of the Study of Languages and Cultures (IPELC).
According to the government, of the country's 350,000 state employees, at both the national and local levels, only 20,000 have been accredited by the ministry, with the other two agencies accrediting a similar number each.
Aluce concedes that much still remains to be done before all elected officials and major public figures meet the "fundamental requisite of speaking a (native) language at a basic level," but Bolivia is at least well on its way.
SYDNEY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A man made a mad dash to the ocean late Sunday after racking up a huge bill at a restaurant on Queensland's Gold Coast in Australia.
According to the police, the 33-year old man ordered a large amount of seafood and alcohol from a restaurant on Seaworld Drive before making his escape without paying the bill.
The staff at the restaurant chased after the seafood thief as the man ran toward Main Beach and escaped, momentarily, into the water.
Police, with assistance from lifeguards, rode jet-skis into the water to apprehend the man who refused to come back to shore, forcing police to enter the surf and retrieve him.
Police charged the man with two counts of assault of a police officer and for the theft at the restaurant, and he will appear in court on Monday.
YANGON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- People in Myanmar are busy preparing for celebrating the country's traditional Thingyan water festival as it is drawing near.
Inherited from ancient time, Myanmar celebrates traditional water festival, also known as Thingyan, annually to welcome new year as other Southeast Asian countries such as Songkran in Laos and Thailand, Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia. Moreover, it is also celebrated in China's Yunnan province by local Dai ethnic nationality.
In most traditional way, people gently sprinkle water on one another to make clear the moral impurities from old year.
Among Myanmar's 12 seasonal festivals throughout the year, the Thingyan water festival represents the grandest which is believed to bring peace and prosperity to everyone.
The Thingyan water festival will run on April 13 to 16, and the Myanmar new year will fall on April 17.
All government offices, private businesses and banks will be closed for five days for the holiday.
In Myanmar, some Buddhist people go to pagodas and monasteries for making religious good deeds and making traditional donations called Satuditha to people of all classes.
This year's Thingyan water festival will be celebrated in a more traditional way across the nation.
In recent years, influenced by western culture, Thingyan festival had been celebrated in a modern way with stage shows, electronic music and modern dancing.
This year, traditional dance performances and Thingyan music will be featured during the festival instead.
Meanwhile, to ensure the safety, the regional authorities will deploy 8,000 security personnel during the water festival in the biggest city of Yangon.
Police patrol vehicles will be on stand-by in various areas and CCTV cameras will be installed in crowded areas and in popular resting places.
According to the authorities, there will be 22 large, 10 medium, and 27 small water throwing pandals in the commercial city.
Regional courts will be open in Yangon daily during the festival to enable swift action of cases and complaints.
Meanwhile in Mandalay city, the ancient capital of Myanmar, people will enjoy walking water festival seeing over 30 water-throwing and traditional dancing performance pandals around Mandalay Palace's gates and across the city.
Traditional mobile dance performance will roll around the city with large motor vehicles.
CANBERRA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Older and more conservative voters are abandoning their support for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal-National Party (LNP) coalition government, a survey has shown, while a separate poll said Liberal voters were increasingly backing a shift to renewable energies.
According to the results of Newspoll's quarterly analysis, the government would lose a federal election if it was held today, with older voters leading the charge abandoning the government's slow move to the center of the political spectrum, instead favoring Pauline Hanson's far-right party, One Nation.
At the 2016 federal election, held in July, One Nation received just 1.3 percent of the overall national vote. According to Newspoll, if an election was to be held today, One Nation would receive 10 percent of the national support.
Just 1.8 percent of older voters aged 50 and above backed One Nation last July, while 11 percent have now said they would vote for the far-right party at the next election.
Consequently, the government's primary vote (before preferences) support level has fallen from 42.1 percent in July to just 35 percent; Turnbull's coalition now trails the Labor opposition which has 36 percent of the overall public support, up almost two points from the election.
After preferences in the two-party preferred category the coalition has slipped from 50.4 percent to 47 percent, with Labor increasing from 49.6 percent to 53 percent indicating that Labor would take over if an election was held today.
Meanwhile a separate poll, taken for the Australia Institute, found that more than two-thirds of all voters believe the shift to renewable energy was happening too slowly. Interestingly, 55 percent of coalition voters traditionally in favor of more stable energy sources such as coal said the shift was too slow.
Only 9 percent of coalition voters said the shift was happening too fast.
KATHMANDU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Police have started search for a Pakistan retired army officer who went missing since Thursday while visiting a town in Southwestern Nepal a job interview, a spokesman of the police told Xinhua.
Nepal Police Spokesman Sarbendra Khanal said Sunday that the police Headquarters had asked local authorities in Rupandehi District to look into the disappearance of Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Habib Zahir who went missing shortly after arriving in the town of Lumbini on Thursday.
"As per the instruction from the Home Ministry, we have asked local authorities in Rupandehi District to look into the disappearance of the former Pakistani Army officer," Khanal told Xinhua.
Charge d' Affairs at the Pakistani Embassy in Kathmandu Javed Ahmed Umrani on Friday asked the Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find out whereabouts of the missing retired army officer.
According to local media reports, the missing retired Pakistani Army officer arrived here in Nepal on Thursday in search of a job opportunity at the United Nations Office in Nepal after he received a call from a British man named Mark Thompson.
Thompson had offered him a senior position at the United Nations with a handsome salary.
Confirming the disappearance of the former army officer in Nepal, spokesperson at the Pakistan's Foreign Office Nafees Zakaria told media in Islamabad on Sunday that his government had taken up the matter to the Nepalese government through diplomatic channels.
CANBERRA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Australian state of South Australia has reached its renewable energy target (RET) of 50 percent almost eight years ahead of schedule, with the state government reporting that 53 percent of its energy came from wind and sun-based sources last year.
Despite taking criticism from the federal government in recent months for blackouts which affected the state - including one which left 100,000 homes without power, South Australia's Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis described the announcement as a "good thing", describing renewable energy as "the future".
"I am pleased that South Australia is leading the nation," Koutsantonis told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.
"Renewable energy is the future."
Koutsantonis said that as South Australia continues to invest in renewable energies, such as at wind farms and through solar panels, the reliability and availability of secure renewable energy would increase.
The South Australian government's announcement comes a month after it said it would be spending a further 500 million Australian dollars (370 million U.S. dollars) to secure its own energy supplies with a new battery storage farm and a gas-fired power plant.
Currently, South Australia still relies on its neighboring state's energy supplies if demand gets too high.
CANBERRA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Just three of Australia's 10 deadliest cancers are receiving adequate funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), it was revealed Monday.
A Parliamentary inquiry into the funding model currently used by the NHMRC is analyzing "the need to ensure the funding model enables the provision of funding research into brain cancers and other low-survival-rate cancers".
Leukemia tops the funding list with more than 115 million Australian dollars (86.3 million US dollars) allocated to research between 2012 and 2016. It was followed by breast cancer with 112 million Australian dollars (84.1 million US dollars), colorectal cancer, childhood cancer and melanoma.
According to the National Institute of Health and Welfare, that means just three of the nation's 10 deadliest cancers - leukemia, brain cancer and lung cancer - are among the most well-funded.
While leukemia has an 'unavailable' five-year survival rate, 22 percent of brain cancer sufferers are expected to survive after five years, while lung cancer has a five-year survival rate of just 15 percent.
While both melanoma (skin cancer) and breast cancer are among the most prevalent in Australia, they both have a survival rate or more than 90 percent, raising questions about whether more money should be invested into finding ways to improve the survival rate of the nation's deadliest cancers.
According to the NHMRC, the current funding model is "designed to make best use of investigator-initiated and priority-driven approaches", with funding given to the cancers which affect the most people.
"The model is not designed to favor funding for particular types of cancers," the submission said.
Meanwhile in its own submission to the inquiry, Cancer Australia said a recent internal investigation had shown "proportionally lower levels of national funding to research into low-survival-rate cancer types, including lung cancer and mesothelioma, cancers of the pancreas, oesophagus and stomach".
It said it hopes for reforms which would lead to more focus on cancers with higher mortality rates.
HANOI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is targeting to earn some 24 billion to 26 billion U.S. dollars from leather and footwear exports by 2020, according to the Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
A MoIT's revised plan for leather and footwear industry development until 2025, with a vision to 2035, stated that the industry will develop at a high speed to maintain its position as one of the country's key export industries, reported local Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper on Monday.
Under the plan, the sector's annual production value is expected to grow by 11.62 percent in the 2016-2020 period, 8.87 percent in the 2021-2025 period and 6.04 percent in the 2026-2035 period.
In addition, it will strive to achieve an annual export growth rate of 10-15 percent in the 2016-2020 period, 8-9 percent in the 2021-2025 period and 4-5 percent in the 2026-2035 period, with export revenues expected to reach around 24-26 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, some 35-38 billion U.S. dollars by 2025 and about 50-60 billion U.S. dollars by 2035.
It also targets to raise the local content rate in footwear products to 45 percent by 2020, 47 percent by 2025 and 55 percent by 2035.
In 2016, Vietnam earned 16.2 billion U.S. dollars from leather and footwear exports, accounting for 10 percent of the country's total export value. The figure is forecast to hit 17.88 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, according to the ministry.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 13:49:14|Editor: Xiang Bo
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NANNING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Border police in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said Monday they had seized 537 products made from Siamese crocodiles, a protected species.
The products, including 370 pieces of crocodile skin, 90 tails and 77 specimens, were detected on a logistics vehicle attempting to cross the China-Vietnam border in early March.
The police thoroughly examined the vehicle after noticing that its goods were unusually placed. The driver also failed to provide official document for transporting the products.
The skins were around 43 centimeters wide and at least 1.2 meters long apiece. The longest specimen was nearly two meters long.
Siamese crocodiles are a critically endangered species native to Southeast Asia. Their skin is used as a raw material for luxury leather products on the international market. In China, it is illegal to raise them without a license or to trade and traffic them.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 13:59:16|Editor: xuxin
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by Edna Alcantara, Pei Jianrong
MEXICO CITY, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Mexico has potentially "much to gain" from upcoming North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations with the United States, an expert said.
Enrique Dussel Peters, coordinator of the China-Mexico Studies Center (Cechimex) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told Xinhua in a recent interview that the talks offer Mexico a chance to redefine its relationship with its northern neighbor.
Mexico first resisted U.S. President Donald Trump's call to renegotiate NAFTA, fearing it stood to lose from the proposal. But Dussel believes the opposite could be true.
"What if we take Mr. Donald Trump seriously and discuss expanding and deepening NAFTA? I believe Mexico has much to gain (and) to offer," Dussel said.
NAFTA, which went into effect in 1994, established a free-trade zone between Mexico, the United States and Canada, that lowered the cost of imports, benefiting consumers and producers.
However, Trump maintains the agreement allowed Mexican industry to thrive at the cost of U.S. jobs, since significantly lower wages south of the border led companies to relocate there.
The negotiations could go a number of ways, with the most appealing scenario seeing the three partners reach a new consensus on NAFTA, and the worst seeing NAFTA scrapped, said Dussel.
"Trump wants jobs and investment. We can say the same: we want to generate jobs, generate technology and also generate exports. So let's discuss how to go about it," said Dussel.
However, if NAFTA ceases to exit, it will not spell the same fate for Mexico, he said.
"Mexico will not vanish, nothing is going to happen," although some believe that it would push Mexico into "the abyss," he said. Chances are that in the absence of NAFTA or a similar deal, "tariff costs will rise."
In 2016, Mexico paid the United States a tariff rate of 0.12 percent on its exports, and that rate would likely reach 3.25 percent if NAFTA falls apart, he said.
Dussel believes NAFTA should be renegotiated, especially to bolster certain Mexican productive sectors, such as agriculture, toys, furniture, textiles and footwear, which "have been virtually wiped out in the two decades of NAFTA, because Mexico has been unable to compete with the United States" in those areas.
The true extent of the treaty's impact on these sectors "is not known for sure, as Mexico does not have a public assessment of NAFTA and its real impact on the economy," said Dussel.
"Mexico should make it clear to the United States that we are not to blame for the lack of jobs (there), since they were probably lost to technology, which has reduced man hours, for example, in manufacturing," said Dussel.
"It is possible to dialogue and to establish a serious agenda that maybe includes increases in added value so that the products we make can be taken into account regionally," he added.
SINGAPORE, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Singapore strongly condemns the twin terror attacks on churches in Egypt on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Monday.
The attack that happened during Egypt's Palm Sunday festivities killed more than 40 people and injured 100 others, according to reports reaching here.
MFA said in a statement that Singapore stands together with the Egyptian government against the scourge of terrorism and with its people at this time of grief.
It also conveyed the deepest condolences to the victims' families, and wish the injured a speedy recovery.
The ministry said there are currently no e-registered Singaporeans in both cities. Also, there have been no reports of Singaporeans directly affected by or injured in the incident thus far.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A suicide car bombing rocked near an Afghan security forces' base in eastern province of Nangarhar on Monday, killing the attacker, local authorities said.
"One suicide bomber was killed when his explosive-laden vehicle was detonated in Marko Bazaar locality, Ghani Khel district at around 08:30 a.m. Monday," the provincial government said in a statement.
The attacker tried to target a camp where dozens of troops and Counter-Narcotics forces were stationed but no member of security force was hurt by the explosion, the statement added.
"The attacker tried to assault the base but he become the victim of vicious plan as his vehicle exploded before reaching near the security forces' base," the statement said, adding a vehicle parked near the site was also destroyed by the blast.
A government-led drug eradication campaign was underway to destroy poppy fields in the area.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A suicide car bombing rocked near an Afghan security forces' base in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Monday, killing the attacker, local authorities said.
"One suicide bomber was killed when his explosive-laden vehicle was detonated in Marko Bazaar locality, Ghani Khel district at around 8:30 a.m. (0400 GMT) Monday," the provincial government said in a statement.
The attacker tried to target a base where dozens of troops and Counter-Narcotics forces were stationed but no member of security force was hurt by the explosion, the statement added.
"The attacker tried to assault the base but he become the victim of the vicious plan as his vehicle exploded before reaching near the security forces' base," the statement said, adding a vehicle parked near the site was also destroyed by the blast.
A government-led drug eradication campaign was underway to destroy poppy fields in the area.
Much of the world's opium poppy is cultivated in the militancy-hit country. In 2016, some 4,800 tons of opium was produced in Afghanistan particularly in western and southern parts of the country, where the government security forces have little presence, according to official figures.
The restive Nangarhar province with Jalalabad city as its capital, 120 km east of national capital Kabul, has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces, Taliban militants and Islamic State (IS) fighters over the past years.
On Saturday, several IS militants and one U.S. Special Forces' service member were killed during a military operation in the restive province.
LANZHOU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Zhiqin, a farmer in northwest China's Gansu Province, will spend more time this year taking care of his family fortune: three cow and five lambs, which he bought with the help of local banks.
For many years, the people of Chisha Village in Dingxi City have made their living through farming, but profits have always been thin. Steep mountainous terrain, frequent droughts and a hostile natural environment limited local farmers from doing other business.
Zhang had been keen to raise livestock, but he lacked the money to buy cows and sheep.
"My neighbors were also poor. I did not know where to borrow money," said Zhang.
In 2006, Chinese authorities started a loan program in poverty-hit villages across the country to fund poor villagers to develop new business. Every village was given 100,000 to 150,000 yuan (14,500 to 21,700 U.S. dollars) and farmers could borrow up to 10,000 yuan each.
However, the program ultimately could not meet the demands of needy people due to its low lending quota and short lending period.
In 2015, Dingxi City upgraded the loan program and launched a credit loan plan to increase the lending quota, under which villagers can borrow 50,000 yuan from banks after saving 10,000 yuan as a credit guaranty.
"We also prolonged the repayment period to meet the long-term financing needs of farmers," said Xu Binke, deputy head of Tongwei County in Dingxi.
Zhang is one of the beneficiaries. He borrowed 50,000 yuan last year and bought several cows and lambs as well as agricultural production tools to expand his cultivation area.
"I will sell six to seven grown sheep and one cow some months from now. The income is much higher than that from selling crops," said Zhang.
More than 1,800 villages in Dingxi have established special associations to help villagers attain these loans. Each poor village in Dingxi receives 300,000 to 500,000 yuan. By 2016, about 530 million yuan in loans had been lent to 867 such associations, benefitting 12,000 farmers.
"The project increases loan opportunities for farmers in need, alleviating their fund shortage problem," said Zhang Quanyou, deputy secretary general of the Dingxi City Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The project has also allocated a sum of money to buy critical illness insurance for poor villagers to help cover large medical costs. As of March 2017, 166,000 people had been included in the insurance program.
"We are no longer worried about the medical costs and can pay more attention to our farm work," said Zhang.
KABUL, April 10 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan ministry has provided 180 recovered drug addicts with permanent jobs, in the latest efforts to help drug users to rejoin the society, a local newspaper reported on Monday.
"Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled has employed 180 recovered drug addicts after they successfully completed a two-year treatment program at Omid National Rehabilitation Center in Kabul," the Daily Outlook Afghanistan reported.
In mid-last year, the Afghan government established Omid National Rehabilitation Center in Camp Phoenix, a U.S. military compound in the eastern edge of Kabul that housed units of U.S. and NATO forces during their presence before 2014, to help drug addicts to recover and rejoin the society.
Hundreds of drug addicts have been receiving medical treatment and vocational training at the center.
"After the establishment of Omid Center, so far, 600 addicts have been treated and 150 others were given vocational training," Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled Nasrin Oryakhil was quoted in the report as saying.
The ministry would hire more recovered drug users in the future, she added.
An estimated 1.9 million to 2.4 million adult drug addicts are living in the country and the drug addiction is often the result of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and trauma from continuing conflicts and migration, according to Afghan officials.
In 2016, some 4,800 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan, particularly in western and southern parts of the militancy-hit country, where the government security forces have little presence, according to official figures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 16:15:32|Editor: An
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NANJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese space tracking ship Yuanwang-7 started its maritime space monitoring and communication mission for Tianzhou-1, China's first cargo spacecraft, on Monday morning.
Yuanwang-7 is sailing into the Pacific Ocean, the first time for the ship to carry out a journey independently. During its maiden voyage in July 2016, the ship was accompanied by Yuanwang-6.
The vessel is also expected to perform emergency response and scientific tasks after reaching its destination in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday.
Designed by China, Yuanwang-7 is 220 meters long, 40 meters high and has a displacement of nearly 30,000 tons.
Yuanwang-7, part of the country's new generation of spacecraft tracking ships, entered service on July 12, 2016. It has performed scientific research and experiment-related tasks, including tracking missions for the maiden flight of the Long March-5, space rendezvous and docking of manned spacecraft Shenzhou-11 and the Tiangong-2 space lab.
The Yuanwang-1 and Yuanwang-2 ships, China's first-generation space tracking vessels, entered service in 1979, making China the fourth country to master space tracking technology after the United States, Russia and France.
(File photo taken on Oct. 20, 2010 shows the workshop of a fiber optic cable factory in Donghu High-tech Development Zone in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. Xinhua/Cheng Min)
Hi, here's what you need to know about China.
BEIJING -- China's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) reported growing net profits for 2016, despite slowing growth in the world's second largest economy.
Average net profits of 1,598 SMEs listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations system reached 21.05 million yuan (3.05 million U.S. dollars) last year, up 26.29 percent year on year.
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SHANGHAI -- A fund for assisting the medical treatment of patients with rare disease was initiated in Shanghai Sunday.
The fund with starting money of 3 million yuan (435,000 U.S. dollars) was jointly raised by rare disease prevention and treatment institutions in Shanghai and drug firms such as Sanofi.
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VIENTIANE -- China was the largest foreign investor in Laos in 2016, according to an annual report by Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment on Sunday.
China's investment to Laos soared to over 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 compared to 88.9 million U.S. dollars in 2015. Most of the investments were focused on the hydropower, mining and agriculture sectors.
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VIENTIANE -- A traditional music teacher from the National School of Arts of Laos will begin a performance tour in China to spread Lao arts and culture under the China-ASEAN cultural project in May.
Sinthavong Sengmeuangthong, who teaches at a school in Lao capital Vientiane, was quoted by Lao state-run media Vientiane Times on Sunday as saying that he was proud to be a Lao representative showcasing his skill and talent by performing traditional music and exchanging culture within Asia.
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DUBAI -- The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX), the sole international derivatives market for commodities and currencies in the Middle East in relation to regulatory standards, launched here on Sunday the Shanghai Gold Futures Contract, the first of its kind outside China.
Following the signing of a deal between the DGCX and the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) in October 2016 during the promotional "Dubai Week in China," the listing of the Shanghai Gold Futures Contract "marks the first-ever usage of the Shanghai Gold Benchmark Price in international markets," said Gaurang Desai, Chief Executive Officer of the DGCX, when he briefed the media earlier today on the sidelines of the ongoing Dubai Precious Metals Conference.
BERLIN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The German army is investigating 275 suspected cases of right-wing extremism within its ranks, according to a report by Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) on Monday.
The Military Counterintelligence Service of Germany has reviewed 143 cases from 2016 and a further 53 cases from this year so far. The remainder of the investigations stem from before 2016, German news agency Deutsche-Presse Agentur reported.
Most of the investigations are related to propaganda crimes and racist commentary on the internet. For instance, a soldier wrote abusive messages to a refugee after asking her whether she was Christian or Muslim, according to the news agency.
Another soldier expressed his admiration for the Nazi leader, who was heard distinctively saying "Heil Hitler," "Heil our leader" and "Sieg Heil, comrades."
A serviceman extended his hand in a Nazi salute while on a trip to Riga, Latvia.
The German Defense Ministry said a number of soldiers involved in the probe have already been laid off or punished with a fine, but the measures seem inadequate to the offense.
Ulla Jelpke, a speaker for the Left Party in German parliament, described the military's handling of right-wing extremism as "highly problematic," the DW reported.
"Whoever turns out to be a Hitler fan needs to get out of the army," Jelpke was quoted as saying by the DW.
LUSAKA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Edgar Lungu has canceled his visit to Egypt following an explosion inside a church in the Egyptian Nile Delta city of Tanta on Sunday, his office said on Monday.
On Sunday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Kalaba had announced that Lungu was this week expected to travel to Egypt for a state-visit at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
But presidential spokesperson Amos Chanda said the trip has been canceled due to the security problem in Egypt after the attack.
The trip will be undertaken later this year, he added in a statement.
The Sunday bomb attack at Mar Girgis Church of Tanta city in Gharbiya Province left at least 27 dead and 78 wounded. A following suicide bombing at Saint Mark's Church of the coastal city of Alexandria also killed 17 and injured 48, according to Egypt's health ministry.
The Egyptian president has since declared a three-month state of emergency.
by Xinhua Writers Xu Jing, Miao Zhuang
CHICAGO, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing exhibition on Chinese dance history at the University of Michigan (UM) in the midwest U.S. city of Chicago not only illustrates postwar Chinese dancing, but also tells a different collection story.
The show, held at the UM Hatcher Graduate Library, draws from a wealth in the UM Chinese dance collection, which owes most to a Chinese dance researcher, and a librarian who is meanwhile a performing arts fan.
While the show "Chinese Dance: National Movements in a Revolutionary Age, 1945-1965" presents China's dance culture and history in that specific time frame, the exhibits -- photos, periodicals, books,performance programs, postcards and mimeographs, among others, mark an intensive and joint efforts over more than three years by Emily Wilcox and Liangyu Fu.
Wilcox, a UM assistant professor, is one of the researchers in the field of Chinese dance studies based in the United States. Over the past decade, She traveled to China for 11 times, visiting Chinese artists' homes, scanning 1,500 rare photos, and recording 300-hour-long interviews with Chinese dancers and choreographers.
It was a lunch chat in the fall of 2013 that gave the origin of the UM Chinese dance collection.
Fu proposed that they work together to create a Chinese dance collection in the library during the meal she invited Wilcox for.
Being then a newly come librarian for China studies, Fu was keen to add a distinction to the collections at the UM Asia Library. As a performing arts fan and someone fascinated by preserving ephemeral materials, Fu was thrilled to learn that Chinese dance is an emerging area for studies.
What's more, the area combines her personal interest with Wilcox's research.
At the same time, being a dancer herself, Wilcox was overjoyed with the idea of having a permanent home for the research materials she had collected for years.
Thanks to their joint efforts, the UM Chinese dance collection now archives more than 1,500 photos scanned from personal collections of leading Chinese dancers in the 1940s, the 1950s and the 1960s, as well as more than 1,000 books, periodicals, photo albums, performance programs, postcards, mimeographs and manuscripts related to Chinese dance during those times.
None of the individual dancers and choreographers Wilcox has selected for the archive hasn't had an impact on the history of Chinese dance. Prior to the creation of the UM collection, there was no well-documented history of their artistic careers in English.
According to her, a feeling of urgency prompted Wilcox to work to preserve as soon as possible their memories, as the Chinese artists were mostly in their seventies or eighties, and some passed away.
The eldest Chinese dancer Wilcox interviewed for the archive is Sheng Jie. Wilcox said that although Sheng was over 90 of age, she could still recall vividly her dancing performances during World War II, which would often be disrupted by Japanese bombings.
Shu Qiao, who played the role of the female heroine in famous dance drama "Dagger Society" in 1959, impressed Wilcox most.
Shu is also one of the first prominent female choreographers of the Chinese classical and contemporary dance drama.
"I really enjoyed meeting Shu Qiao in person, I went to her apartment in Shanghai couple (of) years ago. I was just so shocked because she was already in her eighties, she just looked like a young person. She smoked all the time. She lived alone. She cracked jokes. She has a great personality," Wilcox told Xinhua.
"We had a really fun time talking all the afternoon in her apartment," she said.
On her part, Fu has amassed more than 1,000 items for the UM Chinese dance collection.
One of the interesting parts of the collection, Fu said, is that many things evidenced cultural exchanges between China and the rest of world in the 1950s and the 1960s, times that many people regard as a seclusive period for China.
"As a native Chinese, I didn't even know there were so many international exchanges in the field of performing arts (during that period) until I started collecting the performance programs," Fu told Xinhua. "They challenged a stereotypical view on that time period."
The performance program display at the current UM show unveils that between 1949 and 1965, state-sponsored Chinese dance delegations visited 53 countries, ranging from Hungary, Poland and Syria to Ghana, Colombia and Brazil. And vintage postcards in the 1950s and 1960s show trips of dance troupes from such countries as Yugoslavia and Britain to China.
Xiaobing Tang, a UM professor of modern Chinese studies, deemed the UM Chinese dance collection as invaluable resources for those who are interested in Chinese culture or dance and performance arts, for academic purposes or not.
Whatsoever, it is now the dream of both Wilcox and Fu to make the collection a world-class one.
LUSAKA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's leading opposition party on Monday denied reports that it deliberately blocked President Edgar Lungu's motorcade on Saturday.
The opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) has come under attack over the incident with television footages showing their leader Hakainde Hichilema's convoy traveling side by side with Lungu's motorcade on a road in western Zambia's Mongu district.
The two leaders were in the district for a traditional ceremony.
Kakoma Kanganja, the Inspector-General of the Police has promised that action will be taken after he gets a full report on what transpired because it endangered the life of the Zambian leader.
But Charles Kakoma, the spokesperson of the opposition party said the party was law abiding and could have stopped to allow Lungu to pass if they had noticed his motorcade.
"We would have courteously given way to the motorcade carrying Edgar Lungu had we seen it coming. Assertions that we opted to drive side by side with the motorcade that was carrying Lungu are not a true reflection of what transpired," he said in a statement.
According to him, there was no prior warning to alert the opposition convoy that the presidential motorcade was near.
Meanwhile, Lungu's office has condemned the opposition leaders for putting their lives in danger by obstructing the presidential motorcade.
NAIROBI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police on Monday confirmed receiving a key drug suspect who was deported from Madagascar after being linked to the 220,000 U.S. dollars worth of heroin that was destroyed in the Indian Ocean two years ago.
Head of Directorate Criminal Investigations (DCI) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Joseph Mugwanja said Ndechumia Bilali Kimali, a Kenyan, who arrived in the country on Monday morning from Madagascar is being interrogated by the anti-narcotics police unit.
Mugwanja said Kimali is a key suspect in a case involving a luxurious boat, MV Baby Iris which had 7.6 kgs of heroin that was seized on April 20, 2015 in the coastal town of Kilifi.
"Kimali is believed to be the mastermind behind the trafficking of illicit drugs that were destined to overseas. He is suspected to be a member of locally-based as well as foreign-based drug barons currently under investigation," Mugwanja said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
He said five suspects were arrested then and taken to court. However, Kimali escaped and he has been on the run since then.
"The boat was destroyed with the drugs on August 14, 2015 but the case is pending before court. The suspect is due to appear in court and face charges of drug trafficking in narcotics involving 7.6kgs of heroin valued at 220,000 dollars," Mugwanja said.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has put drug barons in Mombasa on notice, declaring a total war on the menace that has ruined the lives of many young people in the country.
Kenyatta has said the port of Mombasa will no longer be a passage for the importation of illicit drugs.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has on several occasions cited Kenya as a transit point for re-packaging and trans-shipment of drugs to Europe and America.
International investigators have established that proceeds from narcotics trade are used to finance global terrorist network.
The yacht christened Baby Iris was destroyed by the Kenyan military under supervision of top government officials.
Before its capture in a yard in Kilifi on April 10 2015, MV Baby Iris which is registered in Singapore, ferried wealthy Western tourists and vacationers to Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
Seychellois Clement Serge Bristol and four other Kenyans- Ahmed Said Bakari, Mohamed Bakari Mohamed, Shariff Mzee Mohamed and Ahmed Hussein Salim are facing charges of trafficking the heroin.
Myugwanja warned that criminals committing crime in Kenya and running to other countries will be pursued and brought back in the country to face law.
"Our law enforcement agencies are in constant collaboration with other agencies outside Kenya to make sure that criminals will not have safe haven in their quest to commit crime in our country or elsewhere," he added.
Anti-narcotics police officers say most of the drug traffickers have also been avoiding airports for roads, which are poorly manned to traffic the drugs.
Most of the narcotics that are seized are cocaine and heroin. Statistics show police at the airport seized drugs valued more than 10 million dollars every year alone. Most of those arrested were passengers who were on transit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 18:25:52|Editor: An
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Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on April 10, 2017 (Source: www.fmprc.gov.cn)
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China strongly condemned terrorist attacks that targeted two churches in Egypt on Sunday, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
According to local media, the twin bomb attacks in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured more than 120 others. The Islamic State (IS) group has already claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Chinese leaders have sent messages of condolences to Egypt, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing.
China opposes all forms of terrorism, she said.
"China supports Egypt's effort in maintaining national security and stability and is willing to enhance anti-terrorism cooperation with the international community," the spokesperson said.
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Xi extends condolences to Egyptian president over terrorist attacks
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolences to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Monday over the terrorist attacks that targeted two churches.
In his message, Xi extended his profound condolences to the innocent victims and sincere sympathies to al-Sisi, families of the victims, and the injured. Full story
Chinese premier sends condolences to Egypt over terrorist attacks
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent a message of condolences to his Egyptian counterpart, Sherif Ismail, on Monday over the terrorist attacks that targeted two churches.
KABUL, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen suspected drug traffickers have been arrested by Afghan law enforcement agencies over the past week, authorities said on Monday.
"Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) have captured 18 persons involved in trafficking of drugs and narcotics in Kabul, Nangarhar and Baghlan provinces within the past seven days," the Counter-Narcotics Criminal Justice Task Force of Afghanistan (CJTF) said in a statement.
Among the captured people was one woman.
The CNPA also seized from detainees 9 kg of heroin, 10 kg of morphine, 651 kg of hashish, beside confiscating four rounds of weapons with over 400 bullets, 22 mobile phones and six vehicles, the statement said.
Much of the world's opium poppy is cultivated in the militancy-hit country.
In 2016, some 4,800 tons of opium was produced in Afghanistan particularly in western and southern parts of the country, where the government security forces have little presence, according to official figures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 19:00:06|Editor: An
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PHNOM PENH, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on information cooperation here on Monday.
The deal was inked between Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith and Jiang Jianguo, chief of China's State Council Information Office.
Kanharith said information sector currently plays a vital role in promoting politics, economy, trade, investment, tourism, culture, and people-to-people relations.
"The MoU will lay a solid foundation for the two countries to broaden bilateral cooperation in information sector," he said.
Under the MoU, both sides will exchange visits between information officials and the Chinese side will offer scholarships to Cambodian journalists to study in China.
"I'm confident that our bilateral cooperation in information sector will contribute further to enhancing ties and cooperation between China and Cambodia," Jiang said.
In Cambodia, there are some 22 television channels, 812 newspapers, news bulletins and magazines, and 72 news websites as well as 334 radio stations, according to the Information Ministry.
SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, April 10 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 militants were killed in an ongoing fighting with Afghan security forces in the country's northern province of Jawzjan, police said on Monday.
"Several Taliban fighters and militants affiliated with Islamic State (IS) stormed Mughul and Helkhani villages in Darzab district Sunday night. The security forces were responding to the attackers and the clashes were still continuing there as of Monday afternoon," provincial police chief Gen. Rahmatullah Turkestani told Xinhua.
"Thirteen enemy combatants were killed and 10 others wounded, so far as we know. But no civilian casualties were reported in remote district in southwestern of provincial capital Shirberghan city as of mid-day Monday," he added.
However, the police official did not say whether any member of security force was hurt during the clashes in the province, 390 km north of Kabul.
The security forces also destroyed several vehicles and motorcycles of the attackers, he noted.
Jawzjan, as well as neighboring Faryab province, has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces and militants over the past couple of years as the militants have been trying to challenge government forces in the once peaceful region.
The Taliban insurgency has been on the rampage since the beginning of 2015 when the Afghan security forces assumed full responsibilities of security from the U.S. and NATO troops.
MADRID, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Spanish police have arrested a Russian computer programmer wanted in the United States for alleged cyber-espionage in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign.
Russian international TV channel, Russia Today (RT), said that Russian diplomatic sources have confirmed that Piotr Levashov was detained in Barcelona on Saturday and has been placed in preventive custody while the Spanish justice system decides whether or not he should face deportation to the United States.
The Russian consulate in Barcelona is in contact with Levashov and providing him legal aid.
Levashov's wife Maria Levashova told RT that her husband had been detained as the result of an arrest warrant issued by the United States which accused him of having taken part in an alleged hacking operation orchestrated by the Kremlin to facilitate then Republican candidate Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election last November.
Russia has denied being behind the cyber-intrusions, which targeted the Democratic National Committee and the private emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign Chairman John Podesta. Trump has repeatedly said he doubts the veracity of U.S. intelligence blaming Moscow for the hacks.
NEW DELHI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- India and Austrialia signed six agreements on Monday, including one aimed at strengthening counter-terrorism cooperation.
The agreements were signed after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held extensive talks with visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Addressing a joint press conference, Modi said: "We reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations, number of forward-looking decisions taken to further strengthen our partnership."
The Indian leader stressed on peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, saying that terrorism and cyber security require global strategy and solutions.
For his part, Prime Minister Turnbull said Australia will work more closely with India to forge stronger ties. "Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit," he said.
He said Prime Minister Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on an extraordinary journey of growth and development.
"The achievements of India are the admiration of the world. Australia is looking forward to deepening its bond with India," Turnbull added.
Turnbull arrived in India late Sunday evening on a four-day state visit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 19:11:03|Editor: Tian Shaohui
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TAIPEI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's exports in March rose 13.2 percent year on year, marking sixth-consecutive month of increase, according to the island's finance authority Monday.
March's exports reached 25.7 billion U.S. dollars, driven by demand for semiconductors, rising raw material prices, more trade with the mainland and a lower base last year.
For the first quarter, Taiwan's exports registered a yearly increase of 15.1 percent, the highest in almost six years.
Taiwan's exports to the mainland and Hong Kong in March expanded by 16.8 percent year on year, the ninth consecutive increase, followed by 16.4 percent growth of exports to southeast Asia and 10.6 percent to the United States.
Taiwanese exports are expected to benefit from modest expansion of the global economy and trade in 2017, the finance authority said, but uncertainties in economic policies and global politics, the transition in the mainland's economy and fierce competition might affect exports.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 19:31:07|Editor: Tian Shaohui
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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolences to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Monday over the terrorist attacks that targeted two churches.
In his message, Xi extended his profound condolences to the innocent victims and sincere sympathies to al-Sisi, families of the victims, and the injured.
China opposes terrorism in all forms and strongly condemns the barbarous attacks, he said.
The Chinese people will stand firmly with the Egyptian people and resolutely support Egypt's efforts in safeguarding national security and stability, as well as the fight against terrorism, he added.
According to local media, Sunday's twin bomb attacks in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured more than 120 others.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 19:51:12|Editor: Tian Shaohui
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LONDON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The first China-bound freight train carrying British products left London on Monday for east China, adding another terminal to the rail freight between China and Europe.
The trans-continental freight train, loaded with 32 containers carrying products including milk powder and soft drinks, started from east London' s DP World gateway to Yiwu city in central Zhejiang Province, east China.
The 12,000-km journey will pass through nine countries in 18 days.
During the trip, the train's locomotive has to be changed for several times due to different rail gauges in countries.
London is the 15th European city on an expanding map of China's rail freight. The first Chinese freight train arrived in London in January.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 19:56:13|Editor: An
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LHASA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Kelsang Jampa never imagined that one day he would have a new house in a neat courtyard, as his family was one of the most poverty-stricken households in Dagdong village of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
Jampa moved into his new two-story house just before the Tibetan new year, which fell on Feb. 27 this year. It was built on the site of his old home.
On the hillside in front of his house are the ruins of the sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso's manor. Dagdong village, a traditional farming village, was once famed in a love poem by Tsangyang Gyatso, also a famous poet. In the poem, Tsangyang Gyatso mentions the hill where his manor was located.
Dagdong village has a population of 800, 180 of which are registered as impoverished. A year ago, Jampa and his five family members were still living on an annual social security grant of 6,000 yuan (869.6 U.S. dollars).
However, benefiting from China's poverty-alleviation campaign, Dagdong village has started to change.
In Jampa's eyes, the village had not changed much for decades until April 2016, when a tourism company was jointly founded by the village and two local companies, with support from the Niu township government to help the village get rid of poverty.
New roads have been built, walls repainted and resort hotels and campsites built in the village.
Along with the improved infrastructure, an increasing number of tourists from across the world have rushed to visit the ancient village.
Tourists camp in front of the ruins of Tsangyang Gyatso's manor, tour the 900-year-old peach tree and visit ancient temples in the village.
Since Tibetans prefer not to migrate to work, young villagers view the booming tourism in Dagdong as a good opportunity for them to make money in their hometown.
Jampa's new house was part of a tourism project in the village. Meanwhile, the new work has provided a good job for his son -- transporting construction materials.
"My son will take his driving test soon. With a driving license, he can earn money via transportation. I will rent a room of my new house to a yogurt processing mill, which will bring me a monthly rent of 2,000 yuan," Jampa said.
This year, the annual income of his family is expected to surpass 40,000 yuan.
"My name will eventually be included on the name list of households casting off poverty," Jampa said.
Another villager, 70-year-old Chonyi Dechen, said she never imagined her son would find a job in a local orchard.
Tourism has created jobs such as cleaners, security guards and waiters for villagers.
Statistics from the regional tourism development commission show that the region's investment in tourism and tourism-related poverty alleviation projects totaled more than 600 million yuan in 2016, bringing benefits to over 40,000 impoverished people in the region.
The regional government hopes that by the end of 2020, all farmers and herdsmen engaged in tourism will be able to earn an average annual income of 16,000 yuan.
"This year, we will spend 90 million yuan to build a hotel and a hot spring resort," said Tobgye, head of the township.
Dagdong village is estimated to receive a total of 150,000 tourists this year, creating an income of 40,000 to 60,000 yuan to each family.
"Villagers find hope in the tourist industry. We are not far from the day when we can completely get rid of poverty," Tobgye said.
One month ago, dozens of hectares of peach trees were planted by the ruins of Tsangyang Gyatso's manor in Dagdong village with financial support from the Niu township government.
The village will hold its first peach flower festival in May.
File photo show the site of an explosion in Mogadishu, Somalia, April 5, 2017. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)
MOGADISHU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Several people are feared dead in separate attacks in the restive Somali capital of Mogadishu on Monday, the police said.
In the first incident, a government official was killed in a car bomb explosion in Hamar-jejab district in Benadir region in the outskirts of Mogadishu.
District Commissioner of Hamar-jejab, Ahmed Osman Dhore told reporters that the deceased was working for the Ministry of Education of Somalia.
"The car bomb killed Abdikadir Osman Farah who was working for the Ministry of Education. The security forces are at the scene and have started to find perpetrators who planted the bomb inside his car," Dhore said.
In the second incident, a suicide bomber clad in Somalia military uniform blew up himself inside a military training camp Wadahir district in Mogadishu.
A police officer told Xinhua that bomber who had disguised as Somalia army officer had forced his way inside the military camp and detonated his vest, killing an unknown number of people inside the camp.
The incident came a day after new Somali army chief, General Ahmed Mohamed Jimale Irfid, survived a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 15 people near his convoy in Mogadishu. The militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
File photo shows insurgents stand guard as the extremist movement of Al-Shabaab launches a mine-sweeping operation in areas vacated by Ethiopian troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Jan. 19. 2009. (Xinhua/Abdurrahman Warsameh)
A series of bomb attacks targeting government officials and African Union bases have increased since President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared an all-out war against the militants last week.
The president gave the insurgents 60 days to surrender ahead of a fresh offensive.
"The country is at war, this war is against Al-Shabaab. We give the fighters of this group 60 days to surrender to the government, and we will give them a good life," Mohamed told journalists in Mogadishu on April 6.
The president's remarks came a day after the militants detonated a vehicle full of explosives at the Interior Ministry building, killing seven people and injuring dozens.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 20:06:15|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao
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JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A rocket fired by militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula hit a community in southern Israel on Sunday, causing no injuries, the army said.
The rocket hit a greenhouse in the community of Yevul in the Eshkol Regional Council, spokeswoman for the police, Luba Samri, said.
Samri added that one man was treated for anxiety, but no other injuries were reported.
A military spokesperson confirmed that "a projectile was launched from the Sinai Peninsula," adding that forces are searching the area for the remains of the projectile.
The attack came less than an hour after Israel closed the crossing to the Egyptian resort and urged Israelis to leave "immediately."
The move came "in light of the increased severity and immediacy of the threat, and in accordance with the approval of the political leadership," the National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau said in a statement.
The Counter-Terrorism Bureau noted that "increased activity by the (Islamic State-affiliated) 'Sinai Province' in recent months has also found expression against Israel in its desire to commit terrorist attacks against tourists in Sinai, including Israelis, in the immediate term."
The incident was the third rocket attack from Sinai since February. On Feb. 20, two rockets, presumably fired by the Sinai Province group, hit an empty field in the Eshkol Regional Council, causing injuries.
Almost two weeks earlier, Sinai province militants launched four rockets at the Red Sea Israeli resort city of Eilat, in a rare incident in the peaceful border.
Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted three of the rockets, and a fourth rocket exploded in an open field, causing no injuries or damage.
On Sunday, at least 27 people were killed and 78 others injured in an explosion inside a church in the Egyptian Nile delta city of Tanta.
Hours later, 17 people were killed and 48 wounded in a second church bombing attack outside St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Mourners carry the coffins of victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church in Alexandria the previous day during a funeral procession at the Monastery of Marmina in the city of Borg El-Arab, east of Alexandria on April 10, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
CAIRO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's cabinet has approved on Monday a countrywide state of emergency for three months, one day after two church bombings killed at least 44 people.
The state of emergency will take effect from 1 p.m. local time (1100 GMT), the cabinet said in a statement.
The decision must be approved by parliament in maximum seven days to remain in place.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared the measure in a televised address on Sunday following the attacks.
"This is only to protect our country and prevent any targeting of its capabilities," Sisi said.
"What is happening now is another attempt to destroy our country," he added.
Earlier on Sunday, The president also ordered the deployment of army forces to secure state institutions all over the country.
The presidency said that troops from the armed forces will assist police units in the mission of maintaining the safety of buildings and government institutions.
On Sunday, a blast and a suicide bombing at two churches in Gharbiya and Alexandria province in northern Egypt killed at least 44 and wounded over 120.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 20:26:17|Editor: Tian Shaohui
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PHNOM PENH, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian edition of Chinese President Xi Jinping's book on the governance of China marked another milestone in China-Cambodia relations, a senior Chinese official said on Monday.
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen will preside over the release ceremony of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" on Tuesday at his office, the Peace Palace, in Phnom Penh, according to Jiang Jianguo, chief of China's State Council Information Office.
"This will be the first time that the book is translated into the Cambodian language, and it can serve as an experience for Cambodia in governance and administering the country," he said at a luncheon with Cambodian media representatives led by Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith.
"The Cambodian version of the book is a new testament to the fruitful relations and cooperation between China and Cambodia," he said.
The book contains 79 speeches, talks, interviews, notes and letters of the Chinese leader between November 2012 to June 2014. It was already translated into 16 languages and has a distribution of over 6.2 million copies around the world.
"Through this book, Cambodian readers will better understand President Xi's thoughts on China's development, domestic and foreign policies and response to the concerns of the international community," Jiang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 20:31:18|Editor: An
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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior official with the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, has called for more financial support for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) region, according to a statement made public Monday.
Financial institutions should find new ways to provide medium- and long-term financing for the region, PBOC deputy governor Pan Gongsheng said at a conference in Tianjin Friday.
They should increase financial support to important areas, including infrastructure, environmental protection, industrial upgrading, innovation and poverty relief, Pan added.
"The financial sector should take the strategy of Jing-Jin-Ji coordinated development as an opportunity to advance its own development," he said.
In 2015, central authorities approved a guideline for integrated development of the Jing-Jin-Ji region, with a focus on transferring non-capital functions from Beijing to neighboring areas.
The PBOC statement also said that the decision to establish the Xiongan New Area in Hebei Province, an important move to advance Jing-Jin-Ji development, was also studied at the conference.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 20:36:19|Editor: An
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JUBA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Fresh gun fire erupted Monday morning in South Sudan's north-western town of Wau between a government backed-militia and local youths.
Daniel Dickinson, spokesman for the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said the Mission has dispatched a peacekeeping team to patrol Wau town following clashes which erupted this morning.
"Gunfire erupted in the morning until around 9 AM and we still have no more details for now. We shall give more details until the patrol team come back," Dickinson said told Xinhua by phone.
Andrea Mayar, Wau State governor confirmed that there were clashes in the town, but declined to give more details.
South Sudan has been devastated by civil war that broke out in December 2013 after President Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup. Machar denied the accusation but then mobilized a rebel force.
Tens of thousands of South Sudanese have been killed, with over 2 million displaced since December 2013.
A peace deal signed in August 2015 led to the formation of a transitional unity government in April 2016, but was again shattered by fresh violence three months later.
NAIROBI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Robust engagement of citizens in policing has contributed significantly to a slump in terrorist attacks and other security threats in Kenya, officials said on Monday.
Joseph Kaguthi, the Chairman of Community Policing Initiative at the Presidency said ordinary citizens have bolstered state-led initiatives to identify and nab law breakers including terrorists, violent robbers, cattle rustlers and drug kingpins.
"The citizens-based policing has been a success in the recent past as evidenced by a decline in terror attacks and other forms of security threats in the country," Kaguthi said in Nairobi during a national forum to evaluate the success of community policing initiative launched by the government two years ago in the wake of terrorist attacks in Kenya.
"Citizens have been reporting terror suspects to police in a rapid manner hence preventing loss of lives. We have engaged the public in regions prone to terrorism to become an integral part of this unconventional warfare," said Kaguthi.
The Kenyan government and bilateral allies have increased budgetary allocation to community policing in order to strengthen response to insecurity.
According to Kaguthi, communities in volatile regions have been empowered with knowledge and modern technologies to enable them detect and report security threats on real time basis.
"We have provided a platform for local communities to identify and report to authorities criminal elements in their midst. As a result, we have witnessed an enthusiasm by the public to report terror suspects evading law enforcement agencies," Kaguthi said.
He added that citizens based policing has been enhanced in northern Kenyan counties to boost the war against cattle rustling.
Kenya has enacted a raft of policy and legislative frameworks to strengthen community policing in the light of rapidly evolving security threats.
Francis Sang, a member of the state-led community policing initiative noted that citizens' participation has revolutionized the war against urban crime, terrorism and banditry in Kenya.
"Many countries including Kenya have embraced community policing in their quest to defeat modern security threats like terrorism, drugs smuggling and robbery," Sang said.
He added that community policing will be critical to prevent mayhem as Kenya gears up for hotly contested general election in August.
A rocket fired by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel on March 18, 2017, prompting retaliatory Israeli tank fire, sources on both sides said, without any reported casualties. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A rocket fired by militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula hit a community in southern Israel on Sunday, causing no injuries, the army said.
The rocket hit a greenhouse in the community of Yevul in the Eshkol Regional Council, spokeswoman for the police, Luba Samri, said.
Samri added that one man was treated for anxiety, but no other injuries were reported.
A military spokesperson confirmed that "a projectile was launched from the Sinai Peninsula," adding that forces are searching the area for the remains of the projectile.
The attack came less than an hour after Israel closed the crossing to the Egyptian resort and urged Israelis to leave "immediately."
The move came "in light of the increased severity and immediacy of the threat, and in accordance with the approval of the political leadership," the National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau said in a statement.
The Counter-Terrorism Bureau noted that "increased activity by the (Islamic State-affiliated) 'Sinai Province' in recent months has also found expression against Israel in its desire to commit terrorist attacks against tourists in Sinai, including Israelis, in the immediate term."
The incident was the third rocket attack from Sinai since February. On Feb. 20, two rockets, presumably fired by the Sinai Province group, hit an empty field in the Eshkol Regional Council, causing injuries.
Almost two weeks earlier, Sinai province militants launched four rockets at the Red Sea Israeli resort city of Eilat, in a rare incident in the peaceful border.
Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted three of the rockets, and a fourth rocket exploded in an open field, causing no injuries or damage.
On Sunday, at least 27 people were killed and 78 others injured in an explosion inside a church in the Egyptian Nile delta city of Tanta.
Hours later, 17 people were killed and 48 wounded in a second church bombing attack outside St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
NEW DELHI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- India said on Monday that if Islamabad carried out the death sentence handed down to one of its nationals for alleged spying in Pakistan, New Delhi would treat it as "a case of premeditated murder."
Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit to the External Affairs Ministry in Delhi and said: "If this sentence against an Indian citizen ... is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder."
India's reaction came hours after a military court in Pakistan awarded death sentence to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav for alleged spying in that country.
In a statement, Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations said Jadhav, who was living as Hussein Mubarak Patel, was arrested on March 3 last year through a "Counter Intelligence Operation" from Balochistan's Mashkel.
The statement also said Jadhav was arrested for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, and he has been tried through the Field General Court Martial (FCGM) and was sentenced to death.
In March last year, Islamabad even released a video confession of Jadhav, saying he revealed how India engineers violence and separatism in the restive province of Balochistan.
While Pakistan claims Jadhav was arrested near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border of Chaman in Balochistan over illegal entry into the country, India insists the former naval officer was abducted by Pakistan from Iran.
PYONGYANG, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday accused the united States of trying to "maintain its colonial rule" in South Korea by helping the conservative forces remain in power.
Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, said the United States is "displeased with the ever increasing possibility of the collapse of the conservative regime and regime change by the progressive pro-reform forces in South Korea."
"The reality is clear that the U.S. remains unchanged in its wild ambition for maintaining its colonial rule over South Korea and gets ever more sly and vicious in its methods to quench the South Korean people's growing desire for independence," said the newspaper in a commentary.
Whenever South Korea faced a serious political crisis, "the U.S. maintained its colonial rule by replacing its lackeys with others and setting up a new puppet regime," according to the newspaper.
"The colonial rule that divided the territory of Korea and the homogeneous Korean nation into two and inflicted unbearable pain upon the Koreans is bound to collapse under the united struggle of the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad," it said.
The situation on the Korean peninsula is getting tense as the United States is sending an aircraft carrier combat group to the waters near the DPRK. Washington says the deployment is in reaction to "provocations" by the DPRK.
Pyongyang has carried out a number of missile launches and nuclear tests, with the most recent being Wednesday's launch of a ballistic missile.
SOFIA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria's foreign trade deficit amounted to 857.1 million lev (465.8 million U.S. dollars) in the first two months of 2017, a more than two-fold increase year-on-year, official data revealed on Monday.
The total value of all exported goods from Bulgaria amounted to 7.787 billion lev in the January-February period, a 12.7-percent increase compared to the same period of 2016, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) reported.
Meanwhile, the country's imports rose by 18.5 percent year-on-year to 8.644 billion lev, NSI reported.
Bulgaria's foreign trade deficit stood at 387.6 million lev in the January-February 2016 period, and 4.9 billion lev for the whole 2016, NSI said. (1 U.S. dollar = 1.84 Bulgarian levs)
MOSCOW, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Russian Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft carrying three crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) successfully landed Monday in Kazakhstan, said Russian State Space Corporation.
The spacecraft landed at 1121 GMT 147 km southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan, the company said in a statement on its Facebook account.
The capsule undocked from the ISS at 0758 GMT.
The crew members are Russian astronauts Andrei Borisenko and Sergei Ryzhikov, as well as their U.S. colleague Robert Kimbrough.
The three members of the Expedition 50 mission stayed aboard the ISS since October 21, 2016.
They carried out a program of scientific and applied research and experiments, supported the station's work capacity and upgraded it with equipment delivered by cargo ships, said the Russian company.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 21:26:30|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao
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JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Monday closed the Taba Crossing to prevent its citizens from traveling to Egypt's Sinai, citing security threats in the wake of Sunday's deadly twin attacks in Egypt.
A statement released by the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, operating under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's office, said the crossing will remain closed until the end of the Jewish high holiday of Passover next week.
The crossing is a passageway connecting the resort city of Eilat in southern Israel and the resort town of Taba in Sinai.
The block was imposed as "a protective measure," the statement said, to prevent Israelis from traveling to resorts in Sinai, where many Israelis to spend their Passover vacation.
"It has been decided not to allow exiting of Israeli citizens from Taba to Sinai, effective immediately," the statement added.
The Counter-Terrorism Bureau said the decision was made in the wake of "an increased severe and immediate threat, and under the approval of the political echelon."
In recent months, Islamic State-linked group increased their operations in Sinai, raising fears of an attack against tourists in Sinai, according to the statement.
The move came a day after the bureau announced a Level 1 travel warning for Sinai and urged Israelis to leave the region "immediately."
The crossing will remain open for inbound travelers, the statement added.
On Sunday, at least 27 people were killed and 78 others injured in an explosion inside a church in the Egyptian Nile delta city of Tanta.
Hours later, over 17 people were killed and 48 in a second church bombing attack outside St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a joint press conference on March 28, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
TEHRAN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned against further U.S. strikes on Syria, Press TV reported on Monday.
Any other strikes by the United States or other Western counties could push the region into a "very dangerous" situation, Rouhani told a news conference on Monday.
He said that the U.S. missile strike against a Syrian airbase last week was "basically wrong" which "benefited terrorism."
"The United States did this once, but will it go unanswered next time?" he said, stressing that "repetition of such an action could be very dangerous for the region."
On Sunday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the recent U.S. missile attack on a Syrian air base was a "strategic mistake."
"The Americans' action is a strategic mistake, as they are repeating the mistakes of their predecessors," Khamenei's official website quoted him as saying.
As Europe is now facing the threat of terrorists, so will be the United States, he added.
The United States fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat air base in central Syria at dawn Friday, saying the strike was intended to deter the Syrian government from using chemical weapons.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Thursday that the Syrian recent air strike on a rebel-held town in Idlib Province in northwestern Syria struck a rebel depot containing chemical materials, denying that the air force used toxic gas during the attack.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:13:35|Editor: Tian Shaohui
A Pakistani vendor organizes mosquito nets to attract customers outside his shop, in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar, on April 10, 2017. The medical experts have advised Pakistani citizens to take special preventive measures to protect them from mosquito, carrier of the dengue virus. (Xinhua/Umar Qayyum)
GENEVA, April 10 (Xinhua)-- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Monday called on all European states to temporarily suspend all transfers of asylum-seekers to Hungary under the Dublin Regulation.
The Dublin regulation is an European Union (EU) instrument that determines which European state is responsible for examining an asylum seeker's application.
"The situation for asylum-seekers in Hungary, which was already of deep concern to UNHCR, has only gotten worse since the new law introducing mandatory detention for asylum-seekers came into effect," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
Given the worsening situation of asylum-seekers in Hungary, Grandi urged states to suspend any transfer of asylum-seekers to the country until the Hungarian authorities bring their practices and policies in line with European and international law.
The high commissioner said he was "encouraged" by the decision taken by the European Commission to work with the Hungarian authorities with a view to bringing the new legislation and Hungary's practice in line with EU law, but noted that "urgent measures are needed to improve access to asylum in Hungary."
UNHCR has repeatedly raised its concerns over the situation of refugees and asylum-seekers arriving to Hungary with its authorities and the EU, stressing that physical barriers and restrictive policies have denied access to territory and asylum.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:01:36|Editor: An
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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday sent a message to incumbent Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to extend congratulations to him on his victory in Serbia's presidential election.
Noting that China and Serbia enjoy profound traditional friendship, Li said in the congratulatory message that cooperation between China and Serbia in various fields has undergone in-depth development since the two nations set up comprehensive strategic partnership in 2016, which has brought about tangible benefits to both the Chinese and Serbian peoples.
Li stressed that China highly values the development of China-Serbia relations, hoping that the traditional friendship between the two countries could be further strengthened and mutually beneficial cooperation could be deepened.
Li said he believes that the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership will continue to grow to higher levels with joint efforts from both sides.
Vucic declared victory on April 2 in the country's presidential elections with over 55 percent of the vote.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:11:37|Editor: Lu Hui
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Xu Bu (C, front), Chinese ambassador to ASEAN, delivers a speech during the 18th China-ASEAN Joint Cooperation Committee meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 10, 2017.(Xinhua/Du Yu)
JAKARTA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Marking the excellence of 25 years of being dialogue partners, China and ASEAN countries will further enhance the strategic partnership by enhancing mutual respect, understanding, trust, support and pragmatic cooperation.
The commitment was made at the 18th China-ASEAN Joint Cooperation Committee (ACJCC) meeting held in ASEAN Secretariat here on Monday, attended by officials from the two sides.
The meeting was co-chaired by Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Xu Bu and Chen Han-cheng, Permanent Representative of Singapore to ASEAN, China-ASEAN Coordinators, Permanent representatives of the ten ASEAN countries, senior officials of the ASEAN Secretariat and representatives from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Tourism Administration.
Addressing the meeting, Xu Bu said that two-way trade has soared to 452.2 billion U.S. dollars last year. China has become ASEAN's largest trading partner, while ASEAN is China's third largest trading partner, the fourth largest export market and the second largest source of imports.
In the meantime, people-to-people exchanges have been greatly enhanced thanks to rapid expansion of direct flights serving China and ASEAN countries, with around 2,700 flights per week, he said.
Xu said that ASEAN remains a priority in China's neighborhood diplomacy, adding that China has been a staunch, steady and sincere friend and partner for ASEAN as they move towards more competitive, inclusive and integrating region.
"Therefore we will continue this firm support to ASEAN centrality in regional cooperation and support ASEAN's greater role in international and regional affairs," he added.
China is willing to work with ASEAN to actively promote the implementation of the 2+7 Cooperation Framework and China-ASEAN strategic partnership third "action plan" to deepen strategic mutual trust, strengthen cooperation in key areas to promote China-ASEAN relations into higher quality, as well as create a community of common destiny for China and ASEAN, he said.
Speaking in his turn, Chen Han-cheng said that ASEAN highly appreciates achievements resulted from the development of China-ASEAN relations and cooperation in various fields throughout last year.
He added that ASEAN appreciates China's long-term support for ASEAN development and ASEAN Community building.
"ASEAN countries believe that China's success is in line with the interests of the region and welcome China to play a more active role in promoting regional stability, development and prosperity," Chen Han-cheng said at the meeting.
Permanent Representatives of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam spoke highly of the positive achievements of ASEAN's cooperation with China in various sectors, hoping that ASEAN and China should enhance pragmatic cooperation into higher level.
BANJUL, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Gambian President Adama Barrow has promised to release an equivalent of 25 million U.S. dollars to farmers ahead of the rainy season, which is due in two months' time, local media reported on Monday.
"So far 25 million U.S. dollars is available from the Islamic Development Bank to support farmers with groundnut seeds and fertilizers for the upcoming rainy season," President Barrow said in a press statement issued during the weekend.
He said during his recent tour of the county, people have expressed the need for urgent support for agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and farm implements.
"I have taken note of the urgent needs of Gambians such as the need for drugs in our health facilities, infrastructural development such as feeder roads, electricity and clean water supply, amongst others," he added.
"All these will require the support of the National Assembly as an oversight institution to make sure that the quality of governance is strengthened, laws are respected and the policies are implemented," the president was quoted as saying.
"We can only succeed by working together as a nation," he said. "While we respect our diversity in opinion, we can always come to consensus to build our nation."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:26:40|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao
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TEHRAN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The naval forces of Iran and Oman launched joint rescue and relief drills Monday in the eastern parts of the Strait of Hormuz and the northern areas of the Indian Ocean, Press TV reported.
The Islamic republic and Oman stage the joint rescue and relief drills every year, and the two countries take turns in hosting the event, Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told reporters on Monday.
This year's drills are hosted by Oman, Sayyari was quoted as saying.
An Iranian naval flotilla, comprising a destroyer, a logistic warship and a helicopter carrier, left Iran for Oman on Saturday to take part in the drills, Press TV reported on Sunday.
"It was imperative to improve security in Iran's southern waters and the Indian Ocean given their geographical significance in maritime economy and busy traffic of ships and oil tankers," Hossein Azad, commander of Iran's First Naval Zone, was quoted as saying.
"The naval forces of the Islamic republic and the neighboring country of Oman will draw plans and stage joint maneuvers to this effect," he added.
On Saturday, Iran's Navy also dispatched a flotilla to the Kazakh port city of Aktau for the first time, said Ahmadreza Baqeri, the commander of Iran's fleet of warships in the northern province of Gilan.
The flotilla to Kazakhstan, named Peace and Friendship, consists of a Damavand destroyer and a Peykan missile-launcher destroyer and plans to stay in the central Asian country for three days, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:36:42|Editor: yan
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WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Several global financial institutions on Monday urged economies all over the world to advance open trade in an inclusive way.
"The role of trade in the global economy is at a critical juncture," said a joint report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Increased trade integration has helped to drive economic growth, enhance productivity, lower prices and improve living standards, said the report.
However, trade is leaving many individuals and communities behind, notably in advanced economies, it said.
These economies have been incompetent in addressing trade shocks such as job losses, though job losses in certain sectors or regions have resulted from technological changes to a large extent, rather than from trade, said the report.
In face of trade shocks and the absence of policies as countermeasures, the public has become more skeptical about the benefits of open trade, especially in advanced economies, it said.
It also noted that the sharp slowdown in global trade in recent years is both a symptom of and a contributor to low economic growth, and that trade openness has slowed down sharply in recent years as trade restrictions in some areas remain high and new restrictions continue to grow since the global financial crisis.
The report called on economies to improve social safety nets and labor market policies, such as job search assistance and training programs.
It called for further trade integration by lowering restrictions on agricultural trade, reforming services and digital trade, upgrading bilateral and regional trade agreements, and mitigating trade adjustment costs.
It also emphasized the importance of the WTO in the global trading system, saying that its dispute settlement function has proved to be a powerful tool for enforcing trade rules.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:36:42|Editor: Lu Hui
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Liu Yunshan (C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, speaks at a symposium attended by publicity chiefs nationwide in Beijing, capital of China, April 10, 2017. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) leader on Monday called for better publicity work ahead of the 19th CPC National Congress, slated for the second half of the year.
The work should feature the promotion of mainstream values and the pooling of "positive energy," according to Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, who was speaking at a symposium attended by publicity chiefs nationwide.
We must heed the expectations, thoughts and minds of the people to ensure the success of the 19th CPC National Congress, Liu said.
He asked publicity officials to better interpret the Party's new concepts and strategies of governance, and publicize the Party's achievements since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.
Liu also urged them to "better tell China and the CPC's stories."
"CPC committees at all levels must adhere to the principle that the Party governs publicity and ideology," he said.
Liu called for efforts to ensure publicity and cultural sectors "stick to the right political direction and the correct orientation of public opinion and value, better promote the Party's views and reflect people's aspirations."
Publicity officials were also told to cultivate a healthy and upbeat cyberspace culture, enhance guidance of online opinion and administer cyberspace in accordance with the law so as to ensure a clean online environment.
The symposium was chaired by Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, and was attended by Vice Premier Liu Yandong.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:36:42|Editor: Liangyu
The first China-bound cargo train carrying British products left London for eastern Chinese city of Yiwu on April 10, 2017. (Xinhua/Lu Lantian)
LONDON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The first China-bound cargo train carrying British products left London on Monday for an eastern Chinese city, highlighting another historic moment in the China-initiated Belt and Road Initiative.
The cross-continent freight, loaded with 32 containers carrying products including milk powder and soft drinks, left from east London's DP World gateway for the Chinese city of Yiwu amid cheers and applause.
The front of the red locomotive was seen with a sign board that reads "First London-Yiwu Train."
The 12,000-km journey will pass through nine countries in 18 days. During the trip, the train's locomotives have to be changed due to different railway gauges in the countries.
Ma Hui, a senior official with the Chinese embassy in Britain, said the direct freight train service is "very meaningful and important" against the backdrop of slowing world trade and the rise of protectionism.
"The service injects fresh impetus into the joint efforts by China and UK in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative," he said. "The train carries not only goods, but also the bilateral confidence to score a win-win."
Rupert Soames, British prime minister's business ambassador for infrastructure and transport, said at the launching ceremony of the event, which he dubbed "historic", that such a rail service helped provide jobs to his country.
Kevin Lam, general manager of the global management office with Kerry logistics which is a key custom for the freight train, told Xinhua that he is expecting to see more frequent direct freight between Britain and China.
"The cost for the current freight batch is almost the same as the sea transportation," said Lam, whose company uses 10 out of the 32 containers, "But it is twice faster than through the sea route."
He added that his company is willing to see the number of the direct freight service increase to once every week.
Jacob Gan, operations manager of the local branch of the YXE International Container Train, operator of the direct rail service, told Xinhua that his company will monitor the operation of the service and evaluate when more such service could be provided.
London is the 15th European city on an expanding map of destinations for China's rail cargo.The first Chinese freight train arrived in London in January.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:41:43|Editor: yan
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KHARTOUM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Monday reiterated its moral commitment toward the people of South Sudan affected with famine and vowed more efforts for security and stability in South Sudan.
Sudan's Foreign Ministry on Monday welcomed a statement by the members of the Troika (Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States) in which it commended Sudan's stances toward the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan.
"The ministry expresses appreciation over the Troika statement which welcomed the Government of Sudan's opening of its border crossings for the delivery of humanitarian food assistance to South Sudanese citizens affected by war and famine, its acceptance of over 360,000 South Sudanese refugees and provision of food assistance from its strategic stock for the affected from those conditions," said the statement.
"The ministry reiterates Sudan's moral commitment toward the people of South Sudan together with its determination to continue its efforts to achieve security and stability in brotherly South Sudan," it noted.
On March 26, Khartoum agreed on opening a new corridor to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of South Sudan.
Additionally, the Sudanese Presidency has directed handing over of 10,000 tonnes of sorghum in support of the humanitarian operation implemented by the United Nations for the citizens of South Sudan.
According to official statistics last February, around 495,000 South Sudanese are present in Sudan. Recently famine was officially declared in South Sudan.
The South Sudanese government and the UN said 100,000 people facing starvation, with one million people classified as being on the brink of famine.
The famine was attributed to many reasons including the civil war and collapse of the economy in the new-born state.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:46:44|Editor: yan
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MANILA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Just before another joint military exercise between U.S and the Philippines scheduled for next month, the Philippine Court of Appeals (CA) announced on Monday it has rejected a U.S. marine soldier's plea of self-defense and affirmed guilty verdict for his killing a transgender when he took part in a joint military exercise here three years ago.
In a decision dated April 3, the CA Special 16th Division dismissed U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton's plea of self-defense for killing Jeffrey Laude, a Philippine transgender, and upheld a regional ruling that sentenced him to a maximum of 10 years in jail, with 4.58 million pesos (91.3 thousand U.S. dollars) compensation to pay, as several damages combined.
Laude, 26 years old, was found dead, with her head inside a toilet bowl, in a Celzone Lodge room in Olongapo City on October 11, 2014. Local court said that the 20-year-old Pemberton arm-locked and dunked the victim's head in the toilet to her death, when he found she still had male genitals after they agreed to have sex in a bar.
Pemberton was convicted of homicide in December 2015 by the Regional Trial Court of Olongapo City. He appealed against the decision a month later, arguing he was just defending his dignity and self-respect after Laude molested him.
The CA said the alleged molestation couldn't be considered as unlawful aggression and there was no physical evidence suggesting Pemberton was hurt by the deceased. "The only reason why he attacked Laude was that he was furious at him for pretending to be a woman, nothing more, nothing less," it added.
Laude's death reignited anti-American sentiment and incurred extensive protests by the Filipinos at that time as rape and other incidents also happened before when U.S. military visited the Philippines. Angry people called for the termination of an agreement signed in 1998 that allowed U.S. military forces to make regular visits to the country.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to scrap all the joints military between U.S. and the Philippines since he took office last June. Last November, the U.S. and Philippine military agreed they only remain the Balikatan military exercise, which the Philippine military said will be conducted in May this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:46:44|Editor: yan
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LHASA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Twenty Tibetan medicine specialists were officially recognized at a ceremony in the autonomous region on Monday, as graduates of a program to boost the industry.
The 20 masters of traditional Tibetan medicine were certified in Lhasa, the regional capital, bringing the number of acknowledged specialists to 72. Two of those certified Monday hold doctor's degree and eight have master's degree.
Under the program, a specialist must undergo a three-year apprenticeship with a senior Tibetan medicine master.
"After 19 years of being involved in Tibetan medicine, my dreams have come true," said Cering Samzhub, 44, gesturing to his certificate. "I feel honored to be one of the few to hold such an important title."
Cering Samzhub is thankful for the apprenticeship. "I achieved so much thanks to the guidance of my teacher."
Tibetan medicine, known as Sowa Rigpa in Tibetan, has been used to cure aches and ailments for over 3,800 years. It draws on traditional Chinese, Indian and Arab medicine and is mainly practised in Tibet and the Himalayan region. It uses herbs, minerals and sometimes insects and animal parts.
Fifteen Tibetan medicine therapies and practices have been inscribed on the national intangible cultural heritage list.
"In the past, it was unusual for Tibetan medicine practitioners to have received formal education. This new system not only provides nationally recognized qualifications but, more importantly, it ensures that knowledge and practice are passed down to future generations," said Hu Xuejun, deputy head of Tibet Health and Family Planning Commission.
The first graduates of the master or doctor degrees completed their studies in 2012. Since then, the region has continued to increase support for Tibetan medicine practitioners.
Nyima Tsering, president the Tibet College of Tibetan Medicine, in Lhasa, said the college has more than 1,500 students at present, the most since it was founded in 1989.
"It is an exciting, dynamic time for the Tibetan medicine industry," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 22:51:45|Editor: yan
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MACAO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's Macao Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and their neighboring regions jointly organized a tourism promotion event in Indonesia on Monday, Macao's tourism authorities said.
Macao Tourism Office said on its website that a delegation of more than 40 tourism officials and travel operators from Macao SAR, Hong Kong SAR, Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian provinces participated in a multi-destination promotion and product presentation seminar in Jakarta, followed by a mini-mart and networking dinner.
More than 80 Indonesian tourism counterparts also attended the activities. Some of them were very interested in such exchange of tourism products, which are very unique and complementary. They believed Indonesians would be willing to choose Macao as a potential destination.
According to Macao Tourism Office, the promotion initiative seeks to provide a platform for participants to introduce multi-destination itineraries and tourism products to expand their visitor-source markets in Southeast Asia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:01:46|Editor: Xiang Bo
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Chairman of Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Denis Zvizdic (R) and Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar attend a joint press conference in Sarajevo, BiH, on April 10, 2017. Slovenia supports Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on its way to EU and NATO, visiting Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said here on Monday. (Xinhua/Haris Memija)
SARAJEVO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia supports Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on its way to EU and NATO, visiting Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said here on Monday.
Cerar made the comment after meeting with Denis Zvizdic, BiH chairman of Council of Ministers.
The prime minister stressed that BiH, like Slovenia, is a European state and that both countries are part of a big European family.
For his part, Zvizdic confirmed excellent relations with Slovenia and noted that Monday's meeting focused on Slovenia supporting BiH's European path.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:21:49|Editor: yan
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THE HAGUE, April 10 (Xinhua) -- "Laten Wij Over Mao Zedong Lezen" ("Let's Read About Mao Zedong"), the Dutch-language version of a Chinese children's book was launched Monday in The Hague.
The book is one of the most important titles of the year 2017 that were specially selected for the Dutch-language market, said Lenard Wolters, founder and CEO of Leonon Media, a Dutch publishing house.
"Mao's thoughts and ways of practice have deeply influenced and shaped China as it is now. Without understanding Mao Zedong, it will be very hard to truly understand the present China," explained Wolters.
"I hope this book will provide an opportunity and new point of view for the European readers, to understand China's great man Mao Zedong, his ideals, his pursuits, and his wisdom."
Anne Marie Westra-Nijhuis, the Dutch translator of the book, said: "There's nothing more rewarding than to be able to communicate in another language and to understand and learn from other people from different cultures."
The book has sold over 100,000 copies since its publication a year ago in China.
D uring the past three years, it seems as if time has slowed down. I know thats not scientifically possible, but still something has change...
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:26:49|Editor: yan
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BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's top insurance regulator said Monday it will tighten regulations for the industry to avoid systemic crisis.
The industry should focus on its insurance business and regulators should strictly enforce regulations, said the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) in a statement.
The insurance sector should guard against financial risks, support supply-side structural reform and help promote the development of the real economy, said the statement.
The statement came after China's top anti-graft authority announced that Xiang Junbo, chairman of the CIRC, was being investigated for a suspected serious violation of the code of conduct of the Communist Party of China.
Xiang is also Party chief of the CIRC.
File photo shows Kenya Defence Forces soldiers beef up security in Mandera, Kenya, July 8, 2015. The town's proximity to Somalia makes it an easy target for Al-Shabaab militants to carry out its attacks. (Xinhua/Stephen Ingati)
MOGADISHU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- At least five Somalia soldiers were killed and 15 others seriously injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a military academy west of Somalia's restive capital, Mogadishu on Monday.
A military officer said the suicide bomber who was clad in Somalia military uniform sneaked inside the military training camp and detonated explosives from his vest, killing the soldiers who were near him in Mogadishu's Wadajir district.
"The blast was so massive which was followed by loud gunfire. Some five government soldiers were killed while 15 others escaped with serious injuries," the military officer who did not want to be identified told Xinhua.
Al-Shabaab group which is engaging the Western-backed government in near daily attacks claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at the military base.
The incident comes a day after new Somali army chief, General Ahmed Mohamed Jimale Irfid, survived a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 15 people near his convoy in Mogadishu.
The blast occurred minutes after the senior ministry of defence officials passed through the same road. The militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:31:50|Editor: Lu Hui
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with the first delegation to China from the new U.S. congress in Beijing, capital of China, April 10, 2017. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to work with the United States to progress negotiations on the bilateral investment treaty, Premier Li Keqiang said Monday.
As each other's largest trading partners and with economic interests highly integrated, China and the U.S. can achieve win-win through deepening cooperation, Li said when meeting with the first delegation to China from the new U.S. congress.
"China is willing to expand trade, two-way investment and cooperation at the local level and handle any disputes or frictions through dialogue with the U.S. to realize a more balanced trade relationship," Li said.
The premier said a healthy and stable China-U.S. relationship and enhanced cooperation is in the interests of the two countries and is conducive to the world peace, stability, development and prosperity.
Li said the meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump several days ago set the tone for the progression of bilateral relations. He said China was willing to work with the U.S. to enhance exchanges and dialogue in various fields and at all levels and promote greater development of relations based on mutual respect and benefits.
U.S. senators Steve Daines, John A. Barrasso, Rob Portman, John Neely Kennedy and congressmen Chris Stewart and Brad Wenstrup said the U.S.-China relationship was the most important bilateral relationship for the U.S..
The U.S. delegation said congress will strengthen its relations with China and expects more lawmakers to visit China and contribute to mutually beneficial cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:31:51|Editor: yan
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WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the "heinous" terrorist attacks on Egyptian churches that killed and injured dozens of people, the White House said Monday.
In a telephone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday, Trump conveyed his deepest condolences to Egypt and to the families who lost loved ones in twin bomb attacks on Christian churches in Egypt.
The attacks in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured more than 120 others. The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Over the phone, Trump also expressed his confidence in al-Sisi's commitment to protecting Egyptian Christians and other people in the country.
The telephone conversation between the two leaders came days after their meeting in Washington, in which they pledged to fight terrorism together.
"We will do that together. We will fight terrorism and other things. And we're going to be friends for a long, long period of time," Trump said, adding that the United States has "a great bond" with the people of Egypt.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:31:51|Editor: yan
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LONDON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of police officers from across Britain lined the streets of Central London Monday for the funeral of slain cop Keith Palmer.
The 48-year-old constable with London's Metropolitan Police was one of five victims killed by Khalid Masood in an attack on March 22 on the Houses of Parliament.
Queen Elizabeth II gave permission for Palmer's body to lie in state in a chapel at the Houses of Parliament, prior to his funeral service at London's Southwark Cathedral.
Palmer was married with a five-year-old daughter and had served in the Metropolitan Police for 15 years. A floral tribute, with the message "No.1 Daddy" was placed at the front of the funeral hearse.
Palmer's family attended a short private service in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft on Sunday as a guard of honor from the police's parliamentary and diplomatic protection command watched over his coffin throughout the night.
The service Monday was attended by 50 members of Palmer's family, including his wife, child, mum and dad, brother and sisters.
More than 2,000 police officers from the Metropolitan Police were on duty for the funeral.
All of those lining the route bowed their heads as the procession passed, with many of the officers weeping with sorrow.
Palmer, unarmed, was attacked and fatally stabbed as he guarded the entrance to the Houses of Parliament. His killer was shot dead by armed officers who raced to assist Palmer.
Thousands of people also lined the route which started at the Palace of Westminster, passing the spot where the officer was killed.
At two-minute silence was held at every police station in Britain, while flags flew at half mast at New Scotland Yard and every police headquarters around the country.
Sara Thornton, from the National Police Chiefs' Council, said Britain had never before seen a funeral on this scale for a fallen police officer.
She said: "Keith didn't hesitate to act when confronted by a terrorist -- his bravery and his courage are something that all officers are very proud of, but also there is a tremendous sense of sadness and of loss."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:36:51|Editor: yan
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ISLAMABAD, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned the terrorist attacks on churches in cities of Tanta and Alexandria in Egypt, resulting in the loss of precious lives and injuries to scores of people.
According to local media, the twin bomb attacks in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured more than 120 others. The Islamic State (IS) group has already claimed the attacks.
"The Government and people of Pakistan share the pain and anguish of the people and Government of Egypt and wish to convey their heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the bereaved families. We pray for speedy recovery of the injured," the Foreign Ministry said.
It said that Pakistan reiterates its strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-10 23:41:53|Editor: yan
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ISLAMABAD, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan army said Monday that a military court has awarded death sentence to an "Indian agent of intelligence agency RAW" who was arrested for spying in 2016 in Balochistan Province.
The Naval officer Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 through a counter intelligence operation from Mashkel, Balochistan, for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations said.
"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence," the statement added. Pakistani Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed the death sentence.
The FGCM found Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav guilty of all the charges.
The Indian agent confessed that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage and sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi, the army said.
The accused was provided with defending officer as per legal provisions, the statement said.
Later the day, Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the death penalty to Jadhav, saying that "the death sentence should serve as a warning to those engaged in terrorism in Pakistan."
The defense minister told Geo television in an interview that "those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared."
He said all legal requirements were fulfilled during the trial, adding that all constitutional force would be used against those acting against the sovereignty of Pakistan.
He also said that the Indian national had confessed his activities in Pakistan.
Reports suggested that India has summoned Pakistan's High Commissioner to New Delhi Abdul Basit and handed over a demarche which says "if this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder."
However, Pakistan rejected the Indian assertions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 00:01:55|Editor: Liangyu
(Xinhua file photo)
HANGZHOU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- AliExpress, an online marketplace and subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba, on Monday announced it has had more than 100 million overseas buyers.
The largest groups of buyers were either female, or in the 25-34 age range, said AliExpress, without elaborating.
Launched in 2010, the number of active buyers of AliExpress surpassed 60 million over the past 12 months. It receives more than 20 million customers on average daily.
People from Russia, Spain, Israel, and France were the most prolific buyers among the users from 220 countries and regions, said AliExpress.
The highest rates of returning buyers were from the Maldives, Lithuania and Bhutan; while the most expensive single order was made in Angola. Among countries along the Belt and Road, customers from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Israel favored garments and cosmetic products. AliExpress did not give more details.
To improve customer experience, Alibaba set up overseas inventories to shorten delivery time. It also cooperated with the post office service in Russia to cut the delivery time from 50 days to 15.
AliExpress allows customers worldwide to buy in one of 18 currencies via cooperation with more than 200 local financial institutions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 00:11:57|Editor: Lu Hui
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Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd R) and his wife Peng Liyuan (1st R) pose for a photo with Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw (2nd L) and his wife in Beijing, capital of China, April 10, 2017. Xi held a welcome ceremony for Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw before their talks here on Monday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China and Myanmar on Monday agreed to uphold the principle of mutual respect and win-win cooperation to promote the sustained, healthy and steady development of bilateral relations.
China appreciates Myanmar's support for and participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping said during talks with Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw.
China will work with Myanmar to synergize the two nations' development strategies, and push forward cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, water conservation, electricity, finance and border economic cooperation zone, Xi said.
"China will work with Myanmar to implement key cooperative programs such as Kyaukpyu Special Economic Zone and connectivity projects," Xi said.
During U Htin Kyaw's visit, the two sides signed nine cooperative documents. One was on a crude oil pipeline, which will stretch from Kyaukpyu port in Myanmar to Kunming City in Yunnan Province, according to Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin.
"One section of this oil pipeline and a refinery near Kunming of the Chinese side have already been completed," Liu told a press briefing.
"China and Myanmar have maintained close communication on the operation of the pipeline," he said. "I believe it will be running soon."
Another important cooperation document was on the development and implementation of an industrial park and a deep-sea port in the Kyaukpyu Special Economic Zone, said Liu.
Xi told U Htin Kyaw that China is ready to work with Myanmar to ensure bilateral cooperation on areas that will improve the lives of the people of Myanmar, such as education and agriculture.
He called on the two sides to enrich people-to-people exchanges and increase exchanges in culture, education, youth, health, tourism, media and religion, to consolidate the foundation of bilateral friendship.
He also suggested that the two sides enhance coordination on multilateral occasions, such as the United Nations, East Asia cooperation, as well as the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Framework.
China respects Myanmar's development path which suits its national conditions, and is willing to play a constructive role in promoting Myanmar's domestic peace process, said the Chinese president.
U Htin Kyaw said Myanmar will not forget China's assistance for Myanmar's development and its strong support for Myanmar on international occasions.
He thanked China for supporting the efforts of the Myanmar government to promote national reconciliation, boost economic and social development and improve people's standard of living.
U Htin Kyaw said Myanmar upholds the one-China policy and is willing to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, and strengthen cooperation on infrastructure and border economic cooperation zone.
Prior to the talks, Xi held a red-carpet welcoming ceremony for U Htin Kyaw.
During the visit, the two sides also issued a joint press communique.
In the communique, the two sides agreed to make the best use of the China-Myanmar Diplomacy and Defense "2+2" Consultation to jointly safeguard security, the rule of law, peace and stability in border areas, and boost economic and social development in the border region.
China supports Myanmar to achieve domestic peace and national reconciliation through political dialogue, it said.
Myanmar voiced support for the Belt and Road Initiative and China's Belt and Road forum for international cooperation this May, according to the communique.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and top legislator Zhang Dejiang also met with U Htin Kyaw earlier Monday.
Li said peace and stability in north Myanmar directly relate to the security of southwestern China, and China hopes that overall peace and tranquility in the border areas will be ensured.
U Htin Kyaw is on a six-day state visit to China from April 6 to 11 at the invitation of Xi. His delegation of over 30 people includes ministers from Myanmar's commerce and construction departments.
Before arriving in Beijing, he had visited Chengdu, Xi'an, Shanghai and Hangzhou cities.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 01:27:06|Editor: yan
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by Njoroge Kaburo
NAIROBI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan soldiers on Monday killed 15 Al-Shabaab terrorists and injured several others in an attack in southern Somalia near the border with Kenya.
Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman Joseph Owuoth said KDF soldiers operating under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) had identified an Al-Shabaab terrorist camp west of Catamaa, about 104 km from the border town of El-Wak, Gedo region.
"The KDF/AMISOM detachment from a nearby location engaged the terrorists using artillery and mortar fire and successfully destroyed the terrorist camp," Owuoth said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
He said KDF's onslaught against the Somali militants would continue until all terrorists who have been waging daily attacks against the Somali government are eliminated.
The AMISOM forces have been active in the recent past after attacks on its bases in southern Somalia in 2016 and 2017 left several Kenyan soldiers dead and others injured.
Al-Shabaab, which has teamed up with al-Qaida, has vowed reprisal attacks in Kenya, mainly targeting security forces in border towns of northern Kenya, where dozens of people have been killed in landmine and grenade attacks blamed on the militant group.
The East African nation launched cross-border entry into Somalia in October 2011 in pursuit of the militants blamed for a series of grenade and landmine attacks in Nairobi, Mombasa and the northern region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 01:52:09|Editor: yan
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LISBON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Three foreign citizens illegally residing in Portugal have been detained and another six were notified to voluntarily leave the country in central Portugal, the country's Immigragtion and Borders Service (SEF) said in a note sent to Portuguese Lusa news agency on Monday.
The operation involved around two dozen operations in the past days, in the districts of Leiria, Viseu and Castelo Branco.
"Around 150 foreign citizens were identified, of which 9 were verified to be in an irregular situation in national territory," the note read.
Three citizens were detained for "irregular stay in the country," while the remaining six were notified that they had to voluntary leave the country, according to the statement.
The operations focused on diverse sectors including building sites, night clubs and road transport terminals.
The SEF also revealed that there were around two dozen inspectors involved in the operations.
Eight infraction proceedings were carried out against employers which had citizens in an irregular situation working for them, and fines will vary between 16,000 and 80,000 euros (16,968 to 84,841 U.S. dollars), the agency said.
Russia's Soyuz MS-02 space capsule carrying three International Space Station (ISS) crew members lands in a remote area outside the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, April 10, 2017. (Reuters Photo)
MOSCOW, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Russian Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft carrying three crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) successfully landed Monday in Kazakhstan, said Russian State Space Corporation.
The spacecraft landed at 1121 GMT 147 km southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan, the company said in a statement on its Facebook account.
The capsule undocked from the ISS at 0758 GMT.
The crew members are Russian astronauts Andrei Borisenko and Sergei Ryzhikov, as well as their U.S. colleague Robert Kimbrough.
The three members of the Expedition 50 mission stayed aboard the ISS since October 21, 2016.
They carried out a program of scientific and applied research and experiments, supported the station's work capacity and upgraded it with equipment delivered by cargo ships, said the Russian company.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 03:22:21|Editor: yan
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BUCHAREST, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Romania's population showed a significant fall in the number of births in February, which was down 13,016 from 15,096 in the same month of 2016, according to data released Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
Overall, the Romania's population declined in February by 8,308 people with respect to the natural movement of the population, compared to the same month of 2016.
The official data showed an alarming trend as the natural growth of the population was negative both in February 2017 (minus 9,693 persons), as well as in February 2016 (minus 8,308 persons).
In some respects, the decline of the population may be explained by the exodus of Romanian workers to western Europe, involving mainly young and adult population.
According to an UN report, over 3.4 million Romanian citizens are living abroad, but analysts suggested that the number could be higher. But there is positive touch in this, as Romanian workers sent back 3.15 billion euros (3.34 billion U.S. dollars) in remittances in 2016, an 13.2 percent increase from 2015, helping the country's current account balance.
The exit of workers has raised particular concerns for the future of the pension bill, which turned negative, with a need of 20 billion lei (4.7 billion U.S. dollars) transfer from the general budget in order to pay the pensions, a sum which consumes around 2.3 percent of GDP.
According to the Labor Ministry data, around 5 million employees pay taxes and most of the rest are pensioners, children, subsistence farmers or people working illegally. The immediate effect is a high level of taxation on work, warned analysts.
The Romanian companies pay to the state 76 euros for every 100 euros given to the employee, said Ciprian Dascalu Chief Economist at ING Bank Romania, quoting a Molinari Institute report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 03:37:23|Editor: Liangyu
A group of Iraqi civilians are seen on their way fleeing from western Mosul, Iraq, on March 29, 2017. Iraqi forces on Wednesday pushed further toward the old city center of the western side of Mosul amid fierce clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, the Iraqi military said. The troops have been fighting street by street in Mosul's old city center, but they were slowed by the heavy resistance of IS militants and the presence of some 500,000 people living in the old houses with narrow allies. (Xinhua/Yaser Jawad)
MOSUL, Iraq, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi government forces on Monday gained more ground in the western side of Mosul amid heavy clashes against the Islamic State (IS) militants, the Iraqi military said.
The elite forces, known as Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), freed the small neighborhood of Sikak and the remaining part of the adjacent Yarmouk neighborhood in west of Mosul's old city center, after days of heavy clashes with the extremist militants, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, from the Joint Operations Command (JOC), said in a statement.
The latest advance is part of slow advance that included the nearby neighborhoods of Tanak, Aabar, Matahin and Urouba. The troops are pushing toward the western edge of Mosul's densely populated old city center, where roughly 400,000 residents are believed to still be trapped under IS rule.
Meanwhile, the federal police and interior ministry special forces, known as Rapid Response, continued their battles on the southern and western front lines at the edge of the old city center, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The troops are trying to advance through the narrow streets in the old neighborhoods around the historical al-Nuri Mosque in the middle of Mosul's old city center, the source said.
The progress in the old city center is much slower than the early phases of the offensive after the troops restricted the use of bombs and increased sniper fire against terrorist militants holed up in densely populated old city center, the source added.
The fierce battles brought the total number of civilians who left their homes in the western side of Mosul to 281,630 people, according to latest statement by the Iraqi Migration and Displaced Ministry.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, announced the start of an offensive on February 19 to drive extremist militants out of the western side of Mosul, locally known as the right bank of Tigris River which bisects the city.
Late in January, Abadi declared the liberation of the eastern side of Mosul, or the left bank of Tigris, after more than 100 days of fighting against IS militants.
However, the western part of Mosul, with its narrow streets and a population of between 750,000 and 800,000, appears to be a bigger challenge to the Iraqi forces.
Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 03:42:24|Editor: yan
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ANKARA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday extended his condolences to his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, over two terror attacks at churches on Palm Sunday, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The phone conversation is a rare diplomatic engagement between the two countries as their bilateral relations deteriorated after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted former Islamist President Mohamad Morsi in 2013.
The tension between Ankara and Cairo emerged from disagreement background between the two sides over the Islamist Brotherhood group, outlawed by Egypt and greatly supported by Turkey.
Ankara strongly reacted to the ousting of Morsi with strongly-worded statements from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Although the Turkish government has expressed its willingness to mend ties with Egypt, relations have yet to normalize between the two countries.
The twin bomb attacks in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured over 120 others. The Islamic State group has already claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd L) and his wife Peng Liyuan (1st L) pose for a photo with U.S. President Donald Trump (2nd R) and First Lady Melania Trump in the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the United States, April 6, 2017. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)
by Xinhua writers Zhu Lei, Zhou Xiaozheng, Qi Zijian
PALM BEACH, United States, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The conspicuous first meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump has set a constructive tone for the development of China-U.S. relationship.
From the ice-breaking visit by Richard Nixon in Beijing in 1972, China-U.S. relationship has evolved considerably over the years. The Xi-Trump talks, which came on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral relations, were considered as a new starting point for China-U.S. relationship.
The meeting, anticipated by the Chinese and American peoples, endowed strategic and historic significance to bilateral relations.
The solemn statement of Xi that "There are a thousand reasons to make the China-U.S. relationship work, and no reason to break it" is both forceful and exciting.
The over seven hours' in-depth tete-a-tete between Xi and Trump during Xi's two-day trip helped to foster a sound working relationship and personal friendship between the two leaders.
Coincidentally, both leaders used the wording of "good" to grade their talks. Xi underlined deepening understanding of each other and enhancing mutual trust, while Trump said, "Tremendous goodwill and friendship was formed."
The efficient, smooth and cordial meeting between the top leaders of the two countries have played a unique role in advancing bilateral ties in the interest of the two peoples.
Xi pointed out that cooperation is the only right choice for China and the United States, calling on the two countries to bake a bigger cake of cooperation.
Speaking of the responsibility the two nations should assume as major countries, Trump said Washington and Beijing should maintain communication and coordination on important issues and can make major achievements together.
Only by sticking to cooperation could China and the United States bring tremendous dividend to the two peoples and serve as an important cornerstone for global peace and development.
A four-pronged high-level dialogue mechanism was established at the Mar-a-Lago meeting, setting the course for future cooperation. The two sides initiated the comprehensive economic dialogue and the diplomatic and security dialogue, which make up the mechanism along with the law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue and the social and cultural issues dialogue.
What's equally important is that the intention to set up a cooperative priority list and the consensus on managing differences based on mutual respect will facilitate early harvest.
The Mar-a-Lago talks bespeak again the strategic composure, political resolve and diplomatic wisdom of the Chinese leader at a critical moment of developing bilateral relations. Only by adopting a long-term perspective would China and the United States promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.
Xi's statement calling on China and the United States to fulfill their historical responsibility for promoting world peace and stability also resonate. The responsibilities and wisdom displayed at the Mar-a-Lago meeting will undoubtedly leave an important and distinct mark in history.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 04:42:34|Editor: yan
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TALLINN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Swiss President Doris Leuthard on Monday visited Estonia to improve bilateral relations, discuss Britain's exit from the EU and the upcoming Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
During talks with Leuthard, Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said intensifying trade and increasing investment were positive signs, and he expected continued partnership as part of the Estonian-Swiss cooperation program.
Calling Switzerland an important partner for the European Union, Ratas said there was still a lot of potential for development concerning information and communication technology between Estonia and Switzerland.
On cyber defense, Ratas expressed support for intensifying cooperation between the countries, and encouraged Switzerland to contribute, as a partner, to the NATO Cyber Defense Center headquartered in Estonia.
During the one-day visit, Leuthard also met with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sven Mikser.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 04:47:34|Editor: yan
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RABAT, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Fathallah El Ouarrak, the Inspector General of Morocco's army, and Hamad Mohammed Thani Al Rumaithi, the Chief of Staff of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces, discussed here on Monday mutual military cooperation between the two countries.
They discussed matters of common interest and ways to promote the cooperation between the armies of the two countries, the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) said in a statement.
The military cooperation between the two countries is bound by a military and technical agreement signed in Rabat in 2006, said FAR.
The two army chiefs highlighted the excellent military cooperation between Morocco and the UAE, which is based on their historical ties, the statement underlined.
Al Rumaithi is leading a high-level military delegation on a visit to Morocco.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 04:57:36|Editor: yan
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KHARTOUM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said here on Monday that Khartoum's decision to impose entry-visa on Egyptian citizens is meant to prevent terrorism.
"Imposing entry-visa on the Egyptians came to prevent entry of terrorism, and the move came in consultation with Egypt to organize entry and exit of the citizens, and to be applied by the two parties," Ghandour told reporters.
The Sudanese minister denied that his country has backtracked from the Four Freedoms Agreement signed by the two countries in 2004.
He noted that the meetings of the joint political consultation committee between Sudan and Egypt would be held next week.
On Friday, Sudan issued a decision obliging part of Egyptian citizens seeking to enter its territories to obtain entry-visa, namely the ones aged between 16 to 50 years-old. The decision excludes women and children.
In 2004, Sudan and Egypt signed an agreement of four freedoms, which avails the citizens of the two countries freedoms of work, movement, residence and ownership.
Khartoum said it has fully implemented the agreement since it was signed, while Cairo imposes entry-visa on Sudanese aged between 18 and 50 years-old.
Khartoum recently complained about an Egyptian decision increasing the stay fees on foreigners, including the Sudanese.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 05:02:37|Editor: Xiang Bo
Image provided by Venezuela's Presidency shows Cuban President Raul Castro (R, front) and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro (C, front) attending the 15th Political Council of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), in Havana, Cuba, on April 10, 2017. Cuba on Monday urged Latin American countries to unite in the face of mounting right-wing pressure on Venezuela's socialist government. (Xinhua/Venezuela's Presidency)
HAVANA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Monday urged Latin American countries to unite in the face of mounting right-wing pressure on Venezuela's socialist government.
In an opening speech to the 15th Political Council of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez said, "the event in Havana must serve to continue strengthening unity and our capacity for regional coordination."
The meeting of the regional bloc, designed to promote integration, was attended by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and other leaders and senior officials.
Rodriguez said there appeared to be two Venezuelas: the reformist country promoting workers rights and engaging with international and regional organizations, and "a false and cruel (version) created by the Organization of American States (OAS), mass media and neoliberal oligarchies," according to state daily Granma.
The Washington, D.C.-based OAS has been campaigning to sanction Venezuela for alleged violations of human rights and democratic order.
While the ALBA meeting was taking place, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro once again called for moved-up elections in Venezuela "to restore democratic normalcy."
A power struggle between Venezuela's ruling socialist party and the right-wing opposition has plunged the country into an economic and political crisis marked by shortages of basic goods and protests.
In a joint declaration with Brazil's Foreign Affairs Minister Aloysio Nunes, issued out of Brasilia, the OAS official said, "From our point of view, the primary responsibility for the crisis falls on the Venezuelan government."
The statement adds, "the only way out of an institutional and political crisis is through an electoral calendar," and "Venezuela needs a legitimate government, a government that will lead the country to have access to new international (financial) support to recover the economy."
In Havana, participants are expected to ratify "a powerful final declaration" issued at an extraordinary ALBA summit held in March in Caracas," which constitutes an action plan" against the right-wing and imperialist onslaught currently taking place, Rodriguez said.
According to Granma, "the declaration features the keys toward jointly combating the new imperialist agenda being waged against the region, as well as other threats which seek to reverse the achievements made by progressive governments" in Latin America.
ALBA was founded in 2004 by then Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as an alternative to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area for the Americas (FTAA), and comprises Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Grenada.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 05:07:37|Editor: yan
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KIGALI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda hailed China's supportive role in the country's health sector as the 17th Chinese medical team completed one-year medical service there.
At Kibungo Hospital in eastern Rwanda and Masaka Hospital in Kigali, the team received up to 4,355 cases, performed 450 surgical operations and 992 acupuncture treatments, according to officials.
Speaking at a farewell ceremony for the group in Kigali on Monday evening, Rwanda's health minister Diane Gashumba hailed the Chinese cooperation in the development of the country's health sector.
She cited construction of Masaka Hospital and support toward Kibungo Hospital through construction of staff quarters among the areas of Chinese health intervention.
"The Chinese have also equipped Masaka Hospital with appropriate equipment ranging from clinical equipment to office furniture to cover all the different hospital departments. Talking of education, Rwandan professionals are going for short courses and study tours to gain experience from their colleagues in China," the minister said.
At the same ceremony, the 18th medical team from China was welcomed.
Gashumba said the support of the Chinese government in form of infrastructure, education and equipment is very important in the development of Rwanda's health sector.
Rao Hongwei, Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda, hailed the medics who were set to leave the country, saying they made "real contribution" towards health services in Rwanda.
China started sending medics to Rwanda since 1982. Up to 800,000 people have been treated since then, according to officials.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 05:17:39|Editor: yan
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MEXICO CITY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States "will not intervene" in Mexico's 2018 presidential elections, the local representative of the U.S. Republican Party, Larry Rubin, said on Monday.
Rubin held a press conference to pledge Washington will stay out of next year's race, after Rep. Senator John McCain last week publicly expressed concern at the possibility of a left-leaning candidate taking office in Mexico.
Polls show longtime leftist leader and two-time presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, head of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) Party, currently enjoys ample support among the electorate.
"We believe whoever is elected president of Mexico in 2018 will be the right one, whether from the left, right, center or any other (political) current," said Rubin.
"We believe it is important to support Mexico's next president, and the United States will definitely not intervene in these elections," added Rubin.
Regarding McCain, Rubin said "different senators can have different opinions, hopefully not publicly, about who would be the best leader in 2018."
Rubin also reported that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto in late summer or early fall.
"The meeting should take place in the third quarter. I think conditions have changed for the better in Mexico-U.S. relations," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-04-11 05:37:41|Editor: yan
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UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The displacement from Iraq's west Mosul continues to surge with some 17,000 people having fled the area over the weekend, said a spokesperson here on Monday.
UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a daily briefing that over 280,000 people have been displaced from west Mosul since a military operation began in late February in the area.
He also said as a result of fighting in both east and west Mosul, a total of 352,000 people have been displaced.
Iraqi government forces launched an offensive on Feb. 19 to drive extremist militants out of west Mosul.
Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq' s northern and western regions.
On Monday, Iraqi government forces announced that they have gained more ground in the area amid heavy clashes with the Islamic State (IS) militants.
Malala Yousafzai speaks after she was designated as the United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls' education at the UN headquarters in New York, April 10, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday designated 19-year-old Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan as the UN's youngest Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls' education.
In a ceremony held here, Guterres said the designation came for Malala's service to the ideals and objectives of the United Nations and her courageous defense of the rights of all people, including women and girls.
Wearing a light pink headscarf, Malala said she was honored to be the Messenger of Peace. At the occasion, she once again appealed for equal education opportunities for girls.
"Education is the basic right for every child; especially for girls, this right should not be neglected," she said in a calm but firm voice.
Malala Yousafzai speaks after she was designated the United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls' education at the UN headquarters in New York, April 10, 2017.(Xinhua/Li Muzi)
Born on July 12, 1997 in Pakistan's Swat Valley, Yousafzai became an international symbol of the fight for girls' education after being shot on Oct. 9, 2012 for opposing Taliban restrictions on female education.
She survived the attack and became an advocate for the millions of girls denied a formal education worldwide.
In 2013, Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, co-founded Malala Fund to raise awareness to the social and economic impact of girls' education and to empower girls to demand change.
Yousafzai became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2014.
Sense of hoplessness
Calling on people not to lose hope and heart and to see the Easter season as a time of reflection of perspectives, Anglican Bishop, Claude Berkley said, people will make a mess of things as is human nature, but get back on course and strive to make right. Delivering the sermon at yesterdays Palm Sunday service at Trinity Cathedral, Port-of-Spain, Berkeley said, People are afraid, marginalised, and more and more people are on the breadline. I am seeking to make representation to the HDC (Housing Development Corporation) for about five people right now, he said, All of them with very, very sad stories. While today might be a confusing day, he said, it need not be.
Seeing Palm Sunday as a day of reflection on perspectives, he said, his perspective was that God is in control and continues to work with people to discern and take charge of their siuation.
In that way we can work around the murders, disruptions, turmoils, economic hardships, marginalisation of people, the loss of faith, the hopelessness we see on the streets. We look for the creativity and imagination of what is available to us, so that we can transform our city of Port-of- Spain for the greater honour and glory of God, he said.
Shift in societal responsibility, he said, has created many of societies problems.
The breakdown of family life, influences of popular culture, the Get rich quick, or die trying notion and a number of new philosophies that engage living, he told Newsday after the service, have caused people to go off course.
Now we are seeking to address that breach of good community living by exacting murder or the penalty of death on the persons. It is shown that the death penalty is a not a deterrent to those who are of that mind, he said.
He reiterated the churchs position that the death penalty should be abolished and other means of treating those who would have run afoul of the law, be implemented.
Some injustices may be done by holding people who have committed offences, many years before they could be tried, he said.
Before talking about exacting justice, he said, the issues of detection and conviction have to be addressed.
While the death penalty was controversial, he said, If you are carrying out the death penalty, you are doing what is forbidden.
Thou shalt not kill. Noting arguments in favour of not spending tax payers money to keep criminals in jails, Berkley expressed support for restorative justice.
People who commit crimes, he said, should go through the rehabilitative process, work and contribute to the well being of their victims.
On the breakdown in family life and discipline, Berkeley said, in the past, the community, the school, and the church, sort of made up for weak households. It was now big challenge for them to do it in that same way, he said.
Therefore, the State, as the people with the responsibility and authority in governance, he said, has to set up with non-governmental organisations, churches and other groups that are willing to help with that shortfall. That is not to say, he said, that churches and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are doing some of that already, but it has to be augmented by a governmental input. The church is now facing a similar challenge in that there is a reduction of the transmission of the faith at the home, he said, so it has to form other means of outreach to reach young people.
I hope that Holy Week and Easter can bring a new sense of purpose to our nation and awaken many more hearts and minds to come forward to try to help our troubled situation in terms of crime, economics, and the various social issues before us, he said.
Daily crisis of working parents
This should be a matter of urgency to help empower the parents and special needs children, she said.
Interacting with people on the issue of special needs people, she said, she recognised that many know nothing about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders.
The keynote speaker at the launch of the Autistic Associations Autism Awareness Month of activities at Autism Place, DAbadie last Monday, Carmona said more sustainable jobs must be made available to persons with autism if we are serious about the viability of the independence of the person with ASD.
The spirit and the letter of The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities must take form, either through administrative, institutional or legislative means, she said.
As a society, she said, we have a moral responsibility to ensure that those who are marginalised, those who do not have a voice and those who are weak, are fully integrated into our society. Noting that there is growing worldwide concern that chronic depression is on the rise among parents and caregivers of children with autism, she said, we need to press the authorities to make available more clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and behavioural scientists to meet their needs. Occasions to mark Autism Awareness Month, she said, were meant to bring together the movers and shakers in the political, economic, corporate and social spheres who are best placed to formulate policy and initiate programmes that can assist special needs parents and special needs children.
Through their collaborative efforts, much can be achieved in raising the awareness of the existence of persons, who have been dubbed the mini population, she said.
The public needs to know and appreciate, she said, that special needs persons need patience, love, support, guidance. With time, she said, the beauty and benefit of their talent and abilities will be revealed.
While persons with ASD are perceived as unstable, incoherent and sometimes even violent, she said, the citizenry must be educated on the signs and symptoms of ASD.
Law enforcement officers and other persons that deal specifically with the behaviour and conduct of citizens, she said, must be trained to acknowledge a person with autism rather than simply placing them in a troubled, deviant and anti-social category. Noting that the month was being observed under the theme, Toward autonomy and self-determination, Mrs Carmona said, it is a recognition that special needs parents and special needs children are not about dependency and must be made to live in an environment that fosters independence and supports the right of the individual to aspire and determine their future.
South schools rule WASAs Spoken Word Competition
She was one of the top three students who hailed from schools from the southland.
Second and third place winners were Kevian Nelson of San Fernando East Secondary School and Leeum Quan Kep San Fernando Central Secondary School, respectively.
Fifteen students made it to the finals and they gave impressive performances as they relayed the important message about preserving and conserving waste water.
It was an learning experience for many present, including Public Utilities Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, who said the exercise was a learning experience for him because as minister, he was not even aware of some of the issues the students raised.
Deeply intellectual, well researched and sometimes humourous, the students got their point across as they urged the nation to preserve their water supply as it was vital for their survival.
Charles said she never expected to win the competition because her contemporaries all performed so well. She admitted that she started preparing late for the competition.
They came to our school in February and I was actually delayed because Im in Form 6 and I have exams to prepare for, so I prepared at the very last minute.
When I found out I got through I dedicated my time to studying the piece and with the help of my teacher Dwayne Ali and other students, they helped me with the words and emotions for it to sound the way it did, an elated Charles said.
And while this was her first competition, Charles said it was something that she would be doing more.
The teenager said it was while doing her research on the subject that she became aware that waste water was something that can be reused .
It impacts on the environment in a very bad way and we need the environment to sustain our lives, and that is where I really got the passion and drive to do this competition, said Charles, who intends to pursue either International Relations or French.
Third place winner Quan Kep, self proclaimed Wettest WASA Man, kept the audience in stitches as he described how much he loved his girl, Faucet Claire. He definitely earned his kudos.
And although she did not make it to the top five, Abigail Charles of Bishops Anstey and Trinity College East, delivered a mind provoking piece with her Pure Water of Our Land. She linked her piece of waste water with what was taking place with our youth of the nation today.
As soon as they said waste management and my environment, my mind just automatically went to our society because currently how things are going in my country and my environment right now, that is affecting me right now.
We have programmes, but how effective are they really? And it was the perfect thing to link the crime and the youth, and how they get like the waste waters of our society, Abigail said.
Our pledge says to the service of my God and my country, so it is my pledge to keep our waters clean and make sure that our society is clean. When Dr Eric Williams became the prime minister I am pretty sure the vision was not the one we have in our country right now, she added.
Abigail said as a society, we could not just sit back and just look on as our youth continued to falter.
We cant keep going on and saying Oh God, that bad and I dont want to hear that. But what are we doing about it? We are just swimming in the water.If we choose to actually take the time, if you see a youth being disrespectful to somebody tell them something, dont just sit down there and be like that is not my business.
We have to be an active part in the state of our society, Abigail said.
Cuffie tithes to Baptists
Cuffie made the decision after visiting the church and hearing an appeal for contributions to renovate the church, one of the oldest in the community.
On the day he visited every member of the congregation contributed to the building fund.
They do very good work in the community and I felt moved to help them continue that work, Cuffie said.
The donation fulfilled Rowleys pledge for his Government to lead by example even as he asked citizens to tighten their belts. The PM had said, As a symbolic gesture of our own willingness to share in the necessary adjustments my colleagues and I in the Government have decided that, with effect from January 2016 and for the next two years, we will each donate five percent of our salary to a selected charity, NGO or sporting body of our choice.
Will Russia, Iran double down in Syria following Trumps actions against Assad, leading to World War III?
The strategy of the United States and NATO during the Cold War focused primarily on stopping a massive land attack by the Soviet Red Army as it invaded the European continent. Short of all-out nuclear war, that was the most likely scenario leading to the third world war in less than a century.
Of course, the Red Army never invaded, there was never a massive nuclear exchange between Moscow and Washington, and the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the USSR. The world breathed a sigh relief.
Who could have imagined that, a quarter of a century later, the rump state of Syria may well become the flashpoint for World War III? And yet, thats entirely possible. (RELATED: Trump Is Not Obama: Laying Down International Law To Assad Panned By Some Supporters But Praised By Others As Decisive)
Last week President Donald J. Trump, in response to yet another shocking use of sarin gas by elements of the Syrian army against rebels and noncombatants, in which dozens of children were killed, ordered a massive Tomahawk cruise missile attack against the government-held airbase where the chemical attack was believed to have been launched. Over the course of several minutes while Trump was hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort 59 missiles slammed into the al-Shayrat airbase, destroying as many as 20 aircraft, hardened bunkers, and ammunition and fuel storage facilities.
Following the attack, Trump warned he would order subsequent attacks against the Syrian regime if it continued to use poison gas.
Shattering once and for all the Marxist Democrat narrative that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin colluded to steal the election from Hillary Clinton, the White Houses action earned Trump praise from all over the world except from Russia and its client state, Iran, both of whom have expended billions of dollars and no small amount of resources to prop up the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Now, Moscow and Tehran will have to figure out what their next moves will be given that Trump has officially broken from the Obama era of pacifist foreign policy, where Washington shrank from its traditional role of world leader during the previous administration. Will they double down on their support for Assads failing state to protect their investment, so to speak, but also in an effort to prevent the U.S. from once again becoming the dominant force in the Middle East or will they now seek a diplomatic solution before the situation escalates into a global conflagration?
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the situation could go either way, but the strike most assuredly raised tensions with Iran, which has been sending Assad military support in terms of weapons, ammunition and fighters:
Many Middle East analysts said Iran could seek to mobilize even more military support for Mr. Assad in coming months. This is in addition to the thousands of Shiite fighters it has already deployed in Syria since civil war broke out in the country in 2011.
Syria serves as Irans closest regional ally and the land bridge for Iranian supplies going to Lebanese and Palestinian militias at war with Israel.
The key question now is, whats the Iranian response to the attack? Do they double down, Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the WSJ. (RELATED: Will Iran, Russia double down in Syria after U.S. strike? WWIII looms)
Other experts told the paper that Tehran does not have a choice after what it has spent investing in Assads defense for the past six years, as the Syrian civil war has raged.
The same is true for Moscow.
Iran and Russia have paid a high cost in Syria, both financially and in human life, and Iran has lost even more than Russia, noted Foad Izadi, a professor at Tehran University. Therefore, Iran will not sit back indifferent.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
Sources:
WSJ.com
NationalSecurity.news
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Yesterday, Verizon (News - Alert) and Korean Telecom partnered to demonstrate the worlds first hologram call. Korean Telecom CEO Hwang Chang-gyu used the hologram phone to call Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam (News - Alert). The former was in Seoul, South Korea, while the latter was at Verizon headquarters in New Jersey. However, thanks to the hologram technology, each appeared to be in the room with their fellow conversant.
This call was only made possible through the use of 5G cellular technologies. These networks are estimated to be anywhere from 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G LTE (News - Alert), which is the type of data transfer speed that in necessary to conduct a hologram call. Though the networks are not widely spread and available for commercial use yet, telecommunications providers are already in the process of building and deploying these networks on a smaller scale.
Spokespeople from Korean Telecom believe that hologram calls would be the largest benefit seen from the implementation of 5G networks. Once these networks become commercially available, people all over the world will be able to have conversations using this technology to appear as if they are right in the room. This is an exciting potential application of faster and more reliable network fees.
Verizon and Korean Telecom will likely continue to work together to fine tune and improve the hologram call technology. The collaboration under the current partnership of Verizon and KT (News - Alert) has been very productive as shown by the demos we have seen today, said McAdam. We will continue to work together to lead the global 5G business by developing innovative technologies and services.
Finally, it seems as though the futuristic technologies made popular in science fiction movies from the 70s and 80s will not only be available, but also a reasonable thing to apply to the business world. Holograms allow for virtual meetings to be much more effective as they create a more personal environment, allowing for fewer misunderstandings between conversants and a more effective meeting space. As 5G becomes a more prevalent technology, look for new developments such as this to continue to be showcased.
Never send a cop to do a man's job
Problems have always arisen when it comes to Election Day whether it be voting fraud, the location of the voting precinct or just simply registering to vote. For the upcoming 2022 election, Nebraska is facing one of the toughest choices for the voting process: Voter IDs. While some believe
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Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced a deal with Moroccos Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur (BMCE) to attract new investors in a move defined as slap for the UN-backed Presidential Council.
NOC head Mustafa Sanalla signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BMCEs Ibrahim Benjelloun Touimi in Vienna on Friday making the Moroccan bank one of its commercial banks.
The NOC announced on its website that the BMCE will make arrangements for financing projects when necessary and attracting new investments in addition to presenting studies and research and providing investigation and information on companies and institutions that wish to register with the National Oil Corporation.
The NOCs agreement stands as defiance to the UN-sponsored PC established in Tripoli which few days seized some responsibilities of the oil company. The PC announced it would decide the NOCs policies and establish oil and gas price.
It is the first time that a Moroccan entity is being involved in Libyan affairs since signing of Libyan Political Accord (LPA) in Skhirat in December 2015.
Late February, the NOC also signed a cooperation framework agreement with Russian oil firm Rosneft for more Russian investment in Libya.
The PC has been haggling control of the NOC with rival government established in the east and supported by the Eastern Libyan army commander, Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
Last month Haftars forces drove PC-backed Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB) out of two Libyan oil terminals seized earlier by the brigades.
In September, Haftar forces managed to seize Libyas main oil terminals guarded by PC-aligned forces.
After Angela Merkel and Hassan Rouhani, the Algerian leader has failed to meet up with French Premier Bernard Cazeneuve last Thursday though the French leader was scheduled to meet up with the ailing Algerian leader glued to a wheel-chair since 2013, reports say.
The media and sources close to the Algerian presidency denied that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was to receive Cazeneuve in his residential palace, at outskirt of the Algerian capital.
However, according to Le Matin dAlgerie, the meeting between Algerian president and French Prime Minister was indeed planned.
Cazeneuve finally held a press briefing with his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal.
The media published a supposed program of the French leader handed to the French delegation by Algerian authorities.
The publication has revived speculations about the health of 70-year old President who has been glued to wheel chair since suffering from a stroke in 2013.
He failed to meet with Angela Merkel in February 20 and on March 9 with Iranian President Rouhani.
Though appearing on the TV on March 27 with Congolese President Sassou Nguesso, Bouteflika has given chance to his critics to doubt his ability to rule the country.
Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, stressed in Marrakech that the UN system must be reformed to adapt to the changes in the globe or risk irrelevance.
Speaking at the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend, the former UN chief underscored the importance of such reforms regardless of the complexities inherent to it.
The UN by itself cannot resolve all global issues, he made it clear, while calling for cooperation with other partners from the private sector and the civil society.
Annan has been an ardent advocate of the reform of the UN Security Council by taking new permanent members. If we dont change the council, we risk a situation where the primacy of the council may be challenged by some of the new emerging countries.
The Security Council has been criticized for its failure to deal with crises such as the wars in Syria and Ukraine, and for its impotence in longer term issues, including the situation in the Middle East and the banning of landmines.
The current system, which gives only five countries China, France, Russia, the UK and US a permanent seat and veto in the Council, has been widely criticized as an anachronism, setting in stone the global politics of 70 years ago. Among the longstanding proponents of reform are India, Germany, Japan and South Africa, all lobbying for a permanent seat on the Council.
Successive secretaries general have attempted to push through reforms but have met resistance from the sitting powers, as well as stumbling blocks such as disagreement over which countries would be chosen to join the current five permanent members. Any reform of the Security Council would require the agreement of all five, and at least two-thirds of UN member states.
The Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend, held on April 6-9 in Marrakech, brings together experts and decision makers to discuss challenges relating to leadership and governance in the continent.
Sebastian Gorka, a White House Deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, suggested partitioning Libya into three states during a meeting with a senior European Diplomat, the Guardian reported.
Gorka was said to have drawn the map on a napkin based on the old Ottoman provinces of Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the north-west and Fezzan in the south-west.
The Guardian said the European official described the idea as the worst solution for Libya as it may ignite civil war over the porous borders.
Gorkas views point to the likelihood of a possible volte-face from Obamas stance in support of the UN backed government in Tripoli in favor of a partition of the North African country into three states.
Trump position regarding Libya has swayed from saying that we would be so much better off if Qaddafi would be in charge right now; and in June 2016 to voicing support for the NATO 2011 intervention that helped topple Gaddafi
The partition proposal may gain support within the US if Gorka managed to become presidential special envoy to Libya. AS a former national security editor for the far-right Breitbart News, Gorka has been known for espousing hardline positions to tackle radical Islam.
Libya has been split between two rival governments: one based in Tripoli and the other based in the eastern city of Tobruk. The government in Tripoli is backed by the United Nations, while the government in Tobruk supports warlord Khalifa Haftar.
In December 2015, a unity government, called the Government of National Accord (GNA) was founded following the Skhirate agreement, but it failed to impose its authority over the whole country.
The storm clouds began gathering for Alabama governor Robert Bentley back in 2015, when his wife of 50 years sued for divorce. Now it seems like a deluge of evidence will finally force him from office. Photo: Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP
Hes held off the hounds baying for his blood for a remarkably long time. Now, faced not only with impeachment, but also with the strong possibility of spending whats left of his golden years in one of his states fine correctional facilities, Alabama governor Robert Bentley also known derisively as the Love Gov appears likely to accept a deal to resign, in exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanors.
If you havent followed the Bentley scandal, here are the basics: An allegedly (and apparently) sexual extramarital affair between the septuagenarian governor and a former communications staffer named Rebekah Mason became public after Bentleys wife of 50 years filed for divorce in 2015. A few months later, a state law-enforcement official who Bentley had fired released an audiotape (subsequently determined to have been made by the Alabama First Lady herself, on a hidden cell phone) of what sure sounded like a lubricious conversation between the governor and Mason. Various sleuths began looking into aspects of the relationship that might violate state as well as religious laws (Bentley is a Southern Baptist deacon who enjoyed strong Christian-right support in his two gubernatorial victories), and quickly found quite a few issues with Masons compensation. As Bentley bobbed and weaved and refused to admit to impropriety, pressure to impeach him increased steadily in the Republican-controlled Alabama legislature.
Now with impeachment hearings fully underway, and the state Supreme Court quashing a lower-court restraining order to stop them, Bentley has been hit from two directions: by a special legislative investigatory report offering damning evidence of his malfeasance in pursuing and then trying to hide his relationship with Mason, and also a state ethics commission report that finds probable cause that Bentley committed four felonies, three involving campaign finance laws. And so: Bentleys lawyers are reportedly trying to cut a deal to keep their boss out of an orange jumpsuit. Legal maneuverings aside, Bentley has few defenders left; above and beyond the impeachment proceedings, the Alabama GOP has called for his resignation.
This saga will have no immediate partisan ramifications. Under state law, another septuagenarian, Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey a self-described protege of the only woman to have served as Alabama governor, the late Lurleen Wallace (wife of George) will fill any vacancy. But its unclear whether she would be capable of placing the Bentley scandal in the rearview mirror, for her state or for her party.
The novice diplomat who is ambassador to the U.N. seems to be making U.S. foreign policy on the fly. Photo: Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley just had a remarkably good week: She went public with an attack on the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons, at a time when the Trump administration seemed at sea on the subject. Then the president shocked the world by firing cruise missiles at Syria, seeming to vindicate not only Haleys words about Assad, but also her past harsh criticism of Russia. Coincidentally or not, in the middle of all this turmoil she was named (along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry) a member of the Principals Committee of the National Security Council, at the same time that Stephen Bannon lost his seat.
And then, just as the entire political world begged for some sort of broader strategy surrounding the missile strike, Haley told CNN that regime change in Syria is inevitable, which the many politicians and pundits who favor direct intervention to topple Assad gleefully treated as administration policy. Even if its not, the fact that Haley could take that position and not be called on the carpet by her ostensible bosses (including the secretary of State) tells you a lot. Since her foreign-policy background prior to getting this job was exactly zilch, its not like anyone is deferring to her expertise or the deep respect she inspires among the worlds decision-makers. So, what gives?
According to the Washington Posts James Hohmann, Haleys ability to speak out on red-hot foreign-policy topics is a product both of the disarray in Trumpland and the former South Carolina governors own chutzpah:
All the chaos inside the Trump administration over the past 80 days has allowed Haley to get away with the kind of freelancing that would ordinarily cause someone in her position to be rebuked. In fact, shes been left alone. As she said on ABC the weekend before last, The president has not once called me and said, Dont beat up on Russia. He has not once called me and told me what to say.
That is not necessarily a good thing. The New York Times Somini Sengupta also suspects Haley is winging it:
Is she actually setting foreign policy? That would be highly unusual for any envoy to the United Nations. But in these unusual days, vital positions in the State Department remain vacant, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is far more distant from the public than his predecessors, and many American embassies are still without an ambassador.
That, say current and former American officials, seems to have given Haley, a neophyte in foreign affairs who works closely with a small band of trusted political aides, a great deal of visibility and, possibly, latitude.
The issue of where she is getting her advice is eye-opening, too:
She brought with her a handful of aides from South Carolina and hired a few conservative advisers. Those in her inner circle meet every morning on the 21st floor of the United States mission. Career foreign service staff members are invited only as necessary.
Indeed, the deputy ambassador who runs Haleys Washington office is her long-time pollster, Jon Lerner. So far as we can tell, Lerner has about as much foreign-policy experience as Haley. What he does have, however, is an intimate understanding of the conservative circles from whence so much praise of Haley is currently emanating. Most notably, hes done work for Marco Rubio and the Club for Growth.
Hohmann leaves it an open question as to whether Haley wants to succeed Tillerson at Foggy Bottom, or just check a foreign-policy box on her way to a presidential run. Either ambition would have been considered audacious not that long ago.
But Nikki Haley has long had an eye for the main chance: When she was accused (without corroborating evidence) of marital infidelity during her initial 2010 race for the governorship, she skillfully turned the smear into a symbol of the desperate efforts of the states former-Democratic good old boys club to hang onto power. That helped transform her from being a long-shot protege of disgraced governor Mark Sanford into a political powerhouse and, then, governor. And after an up-and-down tenure in that job, in 2015 Haley, with consummate timing, moved decisively to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds, becoming a national symbol of racial tolerance (mostly thanks to the horrific slaughter in a Charleston church that preceded it) nearly twenty years after Republican predecessor David Beasley took the same position and more than twenty years after Zell Miller and Newt Gingrich proposed removing Confederate insignia from the flag in neighboring Georgia.
So we definitely know by now that Haley has serious political skills, and has benefited from a lot of luck. But she had better watch her back if she is indeed disrespecting not just career diplomats or her foreign-policy bosses, but also the policy-making autonomy of Donald Trump.
Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
Back in January with Bernie Sanders standing at his side for maximum effect Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a plan to make New York state, city, and community college tuition free for qualified students whose families make up to $125,000 a year. On Sunday night, the New York legislature passed a $153 billion state budget that, among other things, made Cuomos proposal a reality. The plan, called the Excelsior Scholarship, will be phased in over three years, with families making $100,000 or less annually eligible in the fall of 2017, with the threshold rising to $125,000 in 2019, NBC New York reports.
Excelsior funding will only be available to full-time students who have lived in New York for at least a year. After graduation, recipients will have to remain in the state for as many years as they were in the program or they will have to pay the money back. And while tuition currently $6,470, $6,330, and $4,350 at SUNY, CUNY, and community colleges, respectively will be waived, students will have to cover room and board, books, and fees. (According to Forbes, non-tuition costs can run as high as $15,520 at SUNY and $12,390 at CUNY for students not living at home.) Still, it beats taking out loans and Cuomo, whos said to be considering running for president in 2020, wont let you forget it.
Rouhani and Putin. Photo: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Over the weekend, as the Trump administration struggled to explain its position on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Russia and Iran reaffirmed their support for his regime. In a statement released by their joint command center in Syria, the Assad allies called last weeks United States missile strike in Homs province a crossing of red lines. The statement continued: From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well. What exactly that response might look like was unclear.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani also spoke on the phone over the weekend. According to the Kremlin, the two leaders agreed that the U.S. had acted in violation of international law and called for an investigation into the chemical weapons incident in Idlib province that prompted the strike. Though the consensus is that Assad was responsible for the sarin gas attack, Russia which spearheaded a deal to eliminate Syrias chemical arsenal back in 2013 has tried to shift the blame to Syrian rebels.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, after this weeks G7 meeting in Italy. (The Associated Press reports that the G7 nations the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan plan to pressure Russia to drop its support for Assad.) Tillerson, who developed a friendship with Putin during his time as the CEO of ExxonMobil, criticized Russia on Sunday, saying that the country had either been complicit or simply incompetent when it came to preventing Assad from using chemical weapons. He also said that Russias apparent meddling in the 2016 presidential election had [undermined] any hope of improving relations.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson canceled his own planned meeting with Lavrov, saying, Developments in Syria have changed the situation fundamentally. We deplore Russias continued defense of the Assad regime, said Johnson, who added that, rather than visit Moscow, hell focus his energy on working with the G7 to build coordinated international support for a ceasefire on the ground and an intensified political process. The U.K.s Russian embassy, which knows how to have fun online, responded with this:
It is deplorable that @BorisJohnson found himself unfit to stand Western ground on Syria in bilateral talks with Sergey Lavrov pic.twitter.com/5HZBSg76C1 Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 9, 2017
In their brinkmanship over Syria Western elites try rewind situation back to August 2013 (no more talk of investigation).What are the goals? Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 9, 2017
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
On Sunday evening, United Airlines Flight 3411 was scheduled to fly from Chicago to Louisville. Since the plane was overbooked, the airline asked four passengers to give up their seats before the flight could depart. (The airline reportedly needed seats to get four United crew members to Kentucky for another flight the next day.) When not enough people willingly volunteered, Courier-Journal.com reports, Uniteds computer system chose people at random. One of them, a man, became very upset according to another passenger, and said he was a doctor with patients he needed to see in Kentucky. When he refused to give up his seat, the passenger was lifted out of his seat by airline security, and dragged down the aisle of the plane on his back. Another passenger caught the moment on video, and shared it on Twitter:
The video (which was also shared on Facebook by another passenger) has already been retweeted thousands of times, and prompted plenty of responses from people upset by the way United handled the situation.
@JayseDavid @united well i know which airline i'll never be taking, ever, fucking disgusting that's even considered ok to them Luna (@Lunaa) April 10, 2017
Amazing. We apologize for overbooking, not for physical assault on a passenger. Philippe Auclair (@PhilippeAuclair) April 10, 2017
jesus. i suspect the $400 they offered him for his seat is about to turn into much, much, MUCH more. deservedly so. devin nunes participation trophy (@coastalelite22) April 10, 2017
@JayseDavid @united Good job @united thanks for showing me which airline to never take for the rest of my life sam smeltzer (@elyon113) April 10, 2017
Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate, a United spokesperson told Courier-Journal.com. We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities. The passenger was ultimately allowed back onto the plane for the trip to Louisville, but returned looking bloody and disoriented, another passenger said.
Update, April 10, 2017, at 3:30 p.m.: Other disturbing videos and photos of the incident have since surfaced on Twitter. In one clip, the man appears to be saying, just kill me, while standing in the plane with a blood-covered face.
#flythefriendlyskies @united my husband had to deboard because of the blood pic.twitter.com/AMywCaPlnC Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
United has since issued a formal statement via its Twitter account, from CEO Oscar Munoz. In it, Munoz characterizes what happened on Flight 3411 as a passenger reaccommodation.
Edward Enninful. Photo: Mert & Marcus
Edward Enninful will succeed Alexandra Shulman as the new editor of British Vogue in August, Conde Nast announced on Monday. Highly regarded in the fashion world, Enninful has been the creative and fashion director of W magazine since 2011, previously served as the fashion director of i-D for two decades, and has contributed extensively to both American and Italian Vogue.
In an internal memo, Conde Nast chairman and chief executive Jonathan Newhouse called Enninful one of the most talented and accomplished editors in the world, citing the ground-breaking, highly admired editorial work the fashion director has overseen during his tenure at W. Newhouse also noted that Enninful is an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood, and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist.
Enninful immigrated to London from Ghana as a child 45 years ago, and began his career in fashion when he was scouted as a model at only 16 years old, according to British Vogue. Shortly thereafter, he started assisting i-D founders Trish and Terry Jones, only to become the youngest person to ever be named as fashion director for an international publication, after he was promoted to that post at the age of 19. Between 1998 and 2011, Enninful also made a name for himself through his Vogue contributions, particularly through his close collaborations with the late Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani, on noteworthy features including The Black Issue, The Curvy Issue, and Makeover Madness.
Hip or hipster: Can you spot the difference? Photo: Jean-Philippe Delhomme; from Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men; by Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Gonzague Dupleix (Flammarion 2017)
French fashion illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme and the journalist Gonzague Dupleix address common fashion questions for men (with a great sense of humor) in their new book Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men, out April 11 from Flammarion. How should a man mix prints? Is there a right way to wear a gray suit? How do you wear a kilt and keep your socks up?
The books wry, highly specific advice applies to both fashionable guys and anyone whos just stylishly curious, like how to wear white jeans or a snorkeling mask. Other tips: what to wear to a voting booth, how to freshen up your clothes after a cheese fondue, and a stance on hoverboards. Colorful illustrations from the book appear in the slideshow ahead.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Delhomme; from Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men; by Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Gonzague Dupleix (Flammarion 2017)
When did the first patterned socks appear?
Prior to the 1940s, socks had to be held up with garters, which often failed, leaving men to yank them up, unwittingly revealing their socks. It was only logical that fancy patterns and artificial colors should follow.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Delhomme; from Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men; by Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Gonzague Dupleix (Flammarion 2017)
How should you mix prints?
If youre wearing a pin-striped jacket with a polka-dot or paisley necktie, then stick to a solid-color shirt. A pin-striped jacket and Hawaiian shirt require either a solid tie or one that doesnt stand out.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Delhomme; from Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men; by Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Gonzague Dupleix (Flammarion 2017)
How can you make an impact without even trying?
Wearing a massive parka with the hood down in a small public space will give you instant heft.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Delhomme; from Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men; by Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Gonzague Dupleix (Flammarion 2017)
Should you button up your naval sweater?
The question of buttoning doesnt seem all that fundamental to us, so we accept two opposing scenarios totally buttoned or totally unbuttoned.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Delhomme; from Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men; by Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Gonzague Dupleix (Flammarion 2017)
Hip or hipster: Can you spot the difference?
To the naked eye, a hip person out and about has visibly wilder body hair than the hipster, who looks disciplined and openly well-groomed in terms of what he snips, smooths, and coifs.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Delhomme; from Suave in Every Situation: A Rakish Style Guide for Men; by Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Gonzague Dupleix (Flammarion 2017)
How can you avoid getting lost in the sartorial woods in the winter?
Wear a plaid flannel shirt, mainly red. Hiking boots. Long johns. Carry a thermos of coffee.
Suave in Every Situation by Gonzague Dupleix and Jean-Philippe Delhomme.
Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images
Advertisers might be fleeing The OReilly Factor in droves, but that doesnt mean viewers are. Last weeks damning report in the New York Times about the litany of sexual-harassment allegations against Bill OReilly and subsequent payouts caused 24 different advertisers to yank commercials from the show. However, that hasnt deterred viewers, who have been watching in increasing numbers last week. According to USA Today, On Monday and Tuesday it had 3.7 million and 3.8 million viewers, respectively, up 14% from the same two nights last week.
Despite the harassment claims against OReilly and the ensuing settlements not to mention his recent comment that California congresswoman Maxine Waterss hair looks like a James Brown wig Fox just renewed the hosts contract. None other than President Donald Trump has come out in support of OReilly; he said last week, I dont think Bill did anything wrong. Apparently, neither do viewers.
Photo: Getty Images
New Yorks Sex Diaries series asks anonymous city dwellers to record a week in their sex lives with comic, tragic, often sexy, and always revealing results. This week, a divorced flight attendant unsure why she cant stop acting like a girlfriend: 27, straight, Forest Hills.
DAY ONE
6 a.m. Briefly woken up by a roommate leaving the apartment for work. Theres so many of us I cant keep track. But heres the thing: Everyone is a flight attendant or a pilot, so even though we sleep in bunk beds and have no closet space, theres never more than two people home at the same time. Its an okay arrangement no privacy but it keeps rent low.
10 a.m. I meet a friend whos also a flight attendant at a local coffee shop. We met working a trip to Madrid and bonded instantly since we were both getting divorced. Now shes settled down again, while Im pretty far from it. I got married way too young and Im in no hurry to do it again. Telling my ex I didnt love him anymore was, by far, the most difficult thing Ive ever done. I was under the fantasy that Id release us both from a loveless marriage and hed thank me for making him see the light, but, alas, he hates me. We were together for six years; I undid it in one conversation that took a half-hour.
2:15 p.m. Coffee turned into lunch, lunch into a shopping trip. Im flying to Dublin and going out with a cute, butt-chinned English guy I see once or twice a month when Im there, so I buy a lacy thong at Victorias Secret and text him a picture of it. The thong was on sale for $5 I used to spend a lot of money on lingerie, but whats the point?
8 p.m. Checking in at the airport and spot a good friend just coming back from a trip. He is a gorgeous Italian with a sexy beard, the only flight attendant Ive ever slept with. Thank god I actually put some makeup on.
We flirted for a full year before anything happened I was married when we met, but he was my first post-divorce hookup. I was really nervous about sleeping with someone new after all that time. What if I was weird or bad at sex and just didnt know it? Sure, I had to down a whole bottle of wine at dinner, but I surprised myself with how calm I was when he took my hand and guided us to his room. Didnt even think about my ex at any point I was too busy enjoying sex for the first time in a good while.
10 p.m. Chicken, pasta, or salad? Coffee, tea, water? Some guy rolls his eyes at me when I ask him how he takes his coffee. Same as 40 minutes ago, he says. Right, because there arent another 200 people onboard, I want to tell him. But I just smile and remind myself Ill be in Ireland by the end of this. After the dinner service is done, we exchange passenger stories while we put things away: 23C is cute, 37H is an asshole, 16B asked for coconut milk for her coffee, the whole row at 42 needs to be cut off, theyre drunk already.
11:45 p.m. I have an hour break where I can sleep, but instead I go online. Italian Flight Attendant texted me with a screenshot of his schedule and now he wants mine, to see when were both in the same city. We make plans to hang out when I get back from Dublin; he doesnt live in New York, but hell be in midtown for a night. He tells me I have three minutes to send him a sexy picture. I go in the lav, unbutton my dress, and work my angles the best I can given the tight space. He snaps me back a picture of his hard-on. We keep sexting until my break is over. I didnt even close my eyes. Worth it.
DAY TWO
10:30 a.m. Walk into my room in Dublin this is by far the nicest hotel I stay at, ever. I thought Id be dead tired, but Im kind of getting my second wind. I go out for breakfast in the neighborhood.
Noon Walking around a bit and fall in love approximately ten times. The accents. I cant help it.
1 p.m. Nap time. Second winds come with brutal comedowns. How long have I been awake for?
5:30 p.m. I slept for longer than I intended rookie mistake, now Ill stay up all night. Butt Chin is meeting me after work and to get ready, I take a luxuriously long bath in the marble bathtub and exfoliate, shave, and moisturize my entire body.
7 p.m. Butt Chin knocks. We make out some and I really want to be fucked right then and there, but he insists on dinner and drinks first. He always does.
9:30 p.m. Im several pints in, more than enough to get me drunk. I get handsy with Butt Chin at the pub. English people are not into PDA, he tells me. I laugh and tell him we are not in England, but he doesnt cave. We decide to go back to the hotel.
10 p.m. Finally. We have sex on the couch. I bring my vibrator out and he seems taken aback at first but quickly shifts to enthusiasm. I make myself come while he fucks me with my legs on his shoulders, then I finish him off with a blow job. When were done, we cuddle, naked, until he falls asleep.
11:45 p.m. I still havent fallen asleep and cant stop thinking. Butt Chin is acting more and more like my boyfriend, but I dont really want to date him. Hes been asking when Im going to visit for longer than a work layover and Ive been stalling. This is a perfect arrangement: Come to a fancy hotel I dont pay for, get drunk, get fucked, fall asleep. Why is it not enough? Or am I wrong for not liking him more?
DAY THREE
8:15 a.m. Wake-up call. Ouch. I slept four hours.
8:30 a.m. I need to get in the shower, but Butt Chin beats me to it. I hop in with him and we give each other hurried hand jobs between shampoos. It feels very teenager-y, in a really good way.
9:15 a.m. Transportation to the airport is here. I put on my sunglasses and attempt to sleep, but one of the crew members smirks and tells everyone how he saw me at the pub last night, in good company. Now everyone is asking. I try to be a good sport and pretend their banter is fun.
9 p.m. Finally at home in bed, I go to sleep fantasizing about Italian Flight Attendant and our meeting tomorrow.
DAY FOUR
11 a.m. I wake up, make coffee, and head straight out without a clear goal in mind. I LOVE being off during the week and working weekends. Going to a museum on a random weekday morning makes me feel like my life is a vacation.
1 p.m. I send Butt Chin pictures of the city. He wants to come visit. Even though I dont want to be serious with him, I cant stop talking to him like a girlfriend and I dont know why. Because flirting and having sex is fun, I tell myself, pushing the uncomfortable thoughts away.
Ive been single for less than six months the longest Ive ever gone between relationships since my first boyfriend when I was 12. Im not a person afraid of being alone with her thoughts, but clearly I should give some thinking to the reasons I always need a man. And I will. Another time.
6 p.m. Italian Flight Attendant texts me his flight is delayed and he wont make it to the hotel until close to midnight, but he can call the front desk if I want to go earlier. I dont want to go all the way home, shower in a shared bathroom, and then back to the city. I accept his offer.
6:30 p.m. The change of plans means I need to go shopping, though. I dont want to see him in the clothes Ive been wearing while out and about all day. Im close to H&M; I go there and quickly get new underwear, a casual T-shirt, a miniskirt, and, at the last second, exchange tights for thigh-high stockings.
8 p.m. Im in the room and have a delicious four hours to kill. Being a flight attendant has been my job since I graduated college six years ago, so Im used to being in hotels by myself but looking out the window and seeing New York makes it fun and new.
9 p.m. The hotel TV lets you sign in to your Netflix. I watch The Great British Baking Show wrapped in my towel. Everyone is so nice to each other.
10:30 p.m. I track Italian Flight Attendants flight hes about to land. I play one more episode with the intention of getting dressed right after, but fall asleep. So much for the new stockings.
11:45 p.m. I wake up with his fingers lightly tracing my shoulders. Italian Flight Attendant is hot, but hes also funny and a good friend. Im genuinely happy to hang out.
Midnight Okay, guess well hang out after. He goes down on me for like, an eternity. I come on his face and am begging him to fuck me, but he keeps going, and I keep coming. Are these multiple orgasms? Is orgasming multiple times the same as multiple orgasms? I make a mental note to look it up.
DAY FIVE
8:30 a.m. Were up early because he has to leave for work. I love how theres zero awkwardness we can talk about our lives like actual friends.
11 a.m. Text from a cute young pilot I sat next to on a plane ride home last week. Super cliche, I know, and it annoys me, but what am I gonna do? These are the people I meet. I tried downloading Tinder and branching out, but it bored me to death.
11:30 a.m. Getting dressed to leave the hotel, and the pilot and I are still texting. He hasnt straight-up asked me out yet, but were definitely flirting.
1:30 p.m. Im home. I dont feel like doing anything other than lounging around. All my friends are working and I have a sex hangover my favorite type.
11 p.m. I go to bed but cant sleep, so I masturbate while rereading the best sexts from Italian Flight Attendant. Works like a charm: I always pass out the second I come.
DAY SIX
7 a.m. I wake up to a gorgeous sunrise picture from the pilot. I like him.
8 a.m. Get dressed to go to work. Today Im doing a turn it means that I fly somewhere and then back to New York on the same day. I dont do it often, and it feels weird not carrying my bag to the airport.
3:15 p.m. Working the second and last flight of the day, Miami to New York. A very cute passenger is, I think, flirting. Or maybe hes just being polite.
4:30 p.m. No, hes definitely flirting. He got up from his seat to ask for a drink and stayed back here talking. We talk until I get too busy and then he goes back to his seat. Most of my friends have hooked up or gone on dates with passengers. I never have, but I definitely would with him.
6 p.m. We land in New York and Cute Passenger hands me his card with a smile as he walks away. He thanked every crew member in the airplane. What a class act. I usually throw away the cards without looking, but I save his.
8:30 p.m. Butt Chin texts. Hes drunk. He sends me heart emoji. Oh my.
11:30 p.m. Pilot finally asks me out. Well, sort of we make plans to hang out in three weeks, the first day we both have off. I love my not-nine-to-five schedule, but it makes planning anything insanely difficult.
DAY SEVEN
1 p.m. Today I dont work and stayed in bed all morning. I love staying in bed.
5 p.m. I havent left the house, changed out of my pjs, or showered. Im not depressed; I just like staying in. When your job is to make small talk with 250 people locked in a tube eight hours at a time, you cherish quietness.
6:30 p.m. Italian Flight Attendant texts me. He wants to see me again. We work on our schedules for a bit and manage to get on the same trip, to Madrid next week. He proposed Dublin, which I had to laugh about.
7 p.m. One of my good friends texts that shes unexpectedly off work (she works nights) so we make spontaneous plans to watch Mean Girls and eat 7-Eleven pizza. Wild night!
Midnight Im back home. Tomorrow I work and I want to do laundry before bed. I empty my uniform pockets and find Cute Passengers card. I had completely forgotten about him. Is it too late to text? I dont care. He answers right away. Why did it take me so long to be single?!
Want to submit a sex diary? Email sexdiaries@nymag.com and tell us a little about yourself.
Freddy Krueger doesnt have perfect skin, and thats by design. Photo: New Line Cinema
According to Hollywood, evil has a face and it isnt smooth or even-toned. A study by JAMA Dermatology analyzed the top ten movie villains (according to the American Film Institute) and found that 60 percent of them had some type of skin disease. Darth Vader turned to the Dark Side, but according to dermatologists, he was also afflicted with dark eye circles (periorbital hyperpigmentation), scars on the left cheek and scalp, and deep rhytides (a fancy way of saying wrinkles). Naturally, Hollywood would designate wrinkles to be a sign of Satan.
Other indicators of skin disease identified in movie villains include alopecia or hair loss (Hannibal Lecter, Mr. Potter in Its A Wonderful Life, Lord Voldemort, Dr. Evil, and Kurtz from Apocalypse Now), verruca vulgaris or warts (the Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Wicked Witch of the West), gray skin (Darth Vader, Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist), and albinism (McNeil, Silas in The Da Vinci Code, Bosie in Cold Mountain, and the Albino in The Princess Bride). Although noted film villains Norman Bates, Nurse Ratched, or Alex Forrest of Fatal Attraction are clear-skinned, the study concludes that the results of this study demonstrate Hollywoods tendency to depict skin disease in an evil context. Its most prominent use in film is to illustrate underlying immoral depravity. Now you know why you call your pimples evil.
Photo: Stanislaw Pytel/Getty Images
Cindy Clark, 22
Soon-to-Be Software Engineer
Cleveland, Ohio
Each time I told people that Im majoring in computer science, theyd say, Oh, that is so cool! I think what they were really saying is, Oh, thats so weird! Youre social, and youre a girl, and you dont seem that smart. So its nice to be able to say that Im starting work as a software engineer at Salesforce in San Francisco. I interned there last summer, and they hired me to start full time.
If you think of a software engineer or a code monkey, you think of someone very introverted like, sitting in a dark corner, coding all day, scared of human interaction. There are definitely people who love coding just for the intrinsic value of being able to program. But Id argue that its important to have well-rounded individuals who are able to communicate clearly, who are thinking about whos going to use this, and what its going to mean for the end user. This is a skill I have. This is the aptitude I have.
I have lots of friends who are going on to grad school to avoid having to face working for a company full time and feeling like their freedom is being stolen. Ive had many jobs in libraries or tutoring, but there was no next step. A career is that path that youre embarking on, whereas a job is more just where youre getting the money from. Im definitely glad this is a career.
When I was an intern, Id come in to eat breakfast. They have a nice selection of cereals and fruits. And then Id start working at my desk for about two or three hours. Then wed have a stand-up meeting. The idea is, youre standing up and everyone will talk about where they are on the projects that theyre working on, maybe any trouble they ran into, and youll look at specifics tasks that youre going to do throughout the day.
Thursdays are supposed to be like our most productive day, so lots of people will work from home.
Lots of times, Id come in and Id be the only person there. The idea is that if you dont have to travel, maybe youre going to use that transit time to do more work. The whole day, were still communicating, working over Google Hangouts, chatting throughout the day, and asking if anybody needs help or asking for help most of the time, in my case.
We make a variety of software. These tools essentially automate some of these classical business processes, and just take them to the next level. The first one is a customer-relations management system. A salesperson, when theyre selling to someone, wants some way to record all of their interactions to log their calls, to see in a quick instance how the relationships going. Whats cool about the software is that it allows not just the salesperson to see the information, but their boss and then that persons boss. Then we have a product that, if you call in and somethings broken, it pulls up your phone number, and it goes, Oh, youre so-and-so, and then theyre able know what you have bought, or why youre calling. Then we have one that helps marketers create a really customized plan of how theyre going to connect.
Whats also really cool is that its in the cloud, so the client goes to a browser and logs in. They dont have to manage the software. We manage it all for you. That was pretty revolutionary when it came out 18 years ago, and its still good.
When I started, everyone was using all these acronyms, and you dont know all of the technologies that youre supposed to be working with. Its definitely scary when your co-workers go, Is this a feature you can implement? and youve never seen the code before, or written in that language. Theres so much code for just one page to run. You really need to pinpoint it. The problem is, theres not just one thing. You write some code, and then you test it, check how its working, and then write some more.
We might get a bug request from someone saying, This isnt working how I want it to, or, I dont know why, but when I click this button, it flashes white and then does this. Our product manager may talk to a client to get more details, but luckily they dont give them my phone number, so they can never call me when theyre angry about something. There are a lot of steps that the client has to go through before they can talk to my team directly. A sort of typical thing Id do would be, Ill go into the code and try to replicate the error making sure its not just their browser or them not knowing how to use the program. Then, Ill go dig into the source code and find out whats causing it: Maybe someone had a rounding error; maybe they skipped a line when they shouldnt have, or exited a loop prematurely, or missed a conditional. You can just be looking at code, not even writing anything for hours.
Everyone on the team is super smart and so accomplished. Theres not like a strict hierarchy, even though we have different job-title-level things. I can ask for help in different areas, and theyre able to give it to me. The teams made up of the engineering manager, the development manager, and a quality-engineering manager, and then developers and quality engineers. Some people are writing the code, and some people are testing and then youll also have a product manager on the team, who will really have a good understanding of the products, how theyre used in the field, what customers are looking for, and some of the problems customers have with them. They think, What are we going to make next? What are we going to fix? How important is this fix for this one company, compared to a bigger fix that will help everyone with something? We also have user-experience designers who design the layouts for new products that were going to make, and a technical writer wholl work with our team for any release notes, or for the way that we word things on the page.
I think it would be really cool, five years from now, to be working more in the product side. Thinking about what [countries] we want to go into next, how we would pitch our product, and help with the engineering side of moving into a new place. It would be really cool to travel and explore in that role potentially still doing software engineering and coding.
One area that Salesforce is really breaking into now is artificial intelligence. I think if I moved over to the Einstein branch, thats what we call it, I think there are jobs that I can be doing there that dont exist yet. Just seeing how were going to use predictive technology to help the business world, there are so many applications there that havent even been explored. I want to get a lot of experience building full systems, its not just about the layout, its also about efficiency and network times and lots of other things.
Even though Im not a doctor helping sick kids, I still feel like Im doing something good in creating programs that help people, and knowing that Im working at a place that values volunteering and philanthropy and diversity and equality. We have a one-one-one model, so we give one percent of our product to nonprofits, and we give one percent of our time, and we give one percent of our profits. So we give money, we give time, and then we also have 40 hours each year to volunteer. Right now, Im volunteering with and mentoring a group of girls who are learning to code.
I grew up knowing that you didnt have to love what youre doing. Sometimes, its important to make money and be able to have a positive life outside of work. My dad and my mom worked, and maybe didnt do what they love all the time, but we were able to have really great family memories outside of those work hours. We talked a lot in our family about how its not how much money you have, but how you use it. We dont like to buy fancy clothes and fancy shoes and fancy bags. We like to go to crazy cool places and spend time together.
Growing up, we got an allowance, which was split into different categories. A certain amount, we could spend right away. A certain amount had to be put into savings. And a certain amount that we had to donate. We got to choose where we wanted to donate.
I have a Roth IRA that I deposit into every year, and I download lots of those little stock apps, like Robinhood or Stash, and I would put like 20 bucks in and see what I can grow. I definitely want to invest in a mixed allocation fund. I dont think I would invest in property. I dont know if youve heard, but San Francisco is a little expensive for a new hire to be investing in property.
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Carson Williford, a fall 2016 Auburn University graduate with a degree in English literature and philosophy and a minor in German, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English in Germany.
A native of Auburn, Alabama, Williford graduated with a near-perfect 3.97 grade-point average as a member of the Honors College and the College of Liberal Arts. During the spring and summer of 2016 he conducted undergraduate research under the direction of Diana Eidson, assistant professor in the Department of English. Williford's research explored sustainable agricultural practices in Alabama and was titled "New Alabama Farmer: Sustainable Agriculture on Alabama's Small Farms." In addition, Williford completed an honors thesis in creative nonfiction and another in philosophy. He currently serves as program assistant for the Alabama Bicentennial Commission in Montgomery.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity to work as a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Germany," said Williford. "Some of my favorite professors have made this possible. I want to thank Dr. Keren Gorodeisky in the Department of Philosophy, professor Diana Eidson in the Department of English and the late Professor Tom Nadar in the Department of German. These faculty have shaped my time in college, and their support and guidance makes this opportunity more meaningful."
In addition to his undergraduate research, Williford served as assistant editor for Southern Humanities Review and was the co-creator and director of "Student University," a student forum to present ideas and global innovation. He worked as a tutor with the Pine Hills Literacy Program and as a lead consultant with the Miller Writing Center. In the summer of 2014 he was selected for the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Nottingham Trent University Summer Fellowship.
"We are excited for Carson," said Melissa Baumann, assistant provost and director of the Honors College. "The Fulbright program acknowledges Carson's hard work as a well-rounded, globally engaged student, and we wish him the greatest success in the coming year."
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential.
there was a fast turnaround on that pepsi commercial skit lmao
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It was really well done too! Tho Cecily came off as more Kylie than Kendall to me but nbd.
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I love it! Also this headline cracked me up: http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/look-at-this-fucking-asshole-1794077117
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omg everything about this kills me
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Hill intern lookin motherfucker
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That Pepsi commercial will live on in infamy
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Lmao @ all side eyes yaaas
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NYT and CNN can go fuck themselves
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Nothing new but their coverage on the syria strike has been alarming and disappointing. Especially with NYT dumbass article on Manafort.
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I never thought of it that way but you're right, I think people do it in general
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They'd host a circle jerk on dat
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Missiles, guns etc have always been phallic substitutes, it's pathetic. I haven't noticed it particularly with liberals but I'm sure it's as true of liberal men as it is for conservative.
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That last tweet doesn't make any sense. They were against his failed covert mission which got an American soldier and many innocent people actually killed.
This was useless posturing with no intention of having any effect and also explosions, so they were ready to party.
Edited at 2017-04-09 11:40 pm (UTC)
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real talk , what is your preferred reaction to chemical weapons? Should everybody just finger wave and sayy ohh don't do that again M.? What was the right reaction here?
Yes he should have taken this to congress before doing the strike, but my God some of the hysteria from the far left about this is ridiculous. I don't like Trump, and i'd really like to see American presidents ability to do such a thing without congressional approval to be reigned in a lot, that being said, IF chemical weapons were used as reported, Trump did the right thing, You can't in one minute be crying about letting refugees in and then Kanye shrug, those would be refugees when they get attacked by their own president. And i recognize that Trump's policy towards Syrian refugees is awful and any policy towards Syrians should include how to help those who are displaced, doesnt change that if Assad is using chem weapons, its ok to bomb the shit out of his airfields
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Loved the Pepsi skit, and man, I only found out recently that Beck was the guy from the AT&T commercials a few years back and it just increased my crush on him.
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Something about the way he talks is very sexy.
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aaaw i didn't realize that. so cute.
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I loved those commercials.
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The little girl who goes "kindergarten?!" is what I hope my future offspring to be
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A post shared by Bloody Disgusting (@bdisgusting) on Apr 8, 2017 at 6:00am PDT
ughhh why won't the video show up? the little boxes link to it!
Edited at 2017-04-09 10:53 pm (UTC) how the Pepsi really looked:ughhh why won't the video show up? the little boxes link to it!
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brutal
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They Live is such an excellent film. And that commercial is an A+ example of it.
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Did Kendall ever apologize? What's her strategy on this? Just pretend it never happened?
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Yeah, I think she's embraced the 'pretend it never happened' strategy.
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Oh to be rich and hot.
Well she's gotta talk sometime. No doubt she'll go the victim route. It just sucks she probably won't face any real consequences.Oh to be rich and hot.
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I thought pepsi basically told her stfu
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LOL no, she is too devastated to respond.
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Pepsi was all ~leave Kendall alone, she has nothing to do with this ): ):
So she won't say shit
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The louis CK school dance skit was gross given women have accused him of being creepy like that
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The way the girl was flirting with him on purpose to get him in trouble, was ultimately the one in power, and wanted to be a dominatrix when she grows, is exactly the way some child molesters view their victims. Last time his monologue was filled with jokes about how it's okay to molest little boys because they taste really good. He's a sexual predator who makes jokes about all the immoral sex stuff he's into, and gets away with it because people laugh. He seems genuinely misogynistic and racist too.
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Exactly this
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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ
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His horrible accent made Kate break so that was pretty funny
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Richard Spencer punched again: http://www.inquisitr.com/4130177/richard-spencer-attacked-alt-right-leader-just-punched-in-the-face-again-then-glitter-bombed/
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1. Spencer chased
2. Runs to taxi
3. Insults taxi driver for being Indian
4. Kicked out of taxi
5. Beaten up
6. LOL
https://t.co/3ZQRAQkHEn Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) April 9, 2017
So, so good.
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Punch all the Nazis
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YAAAAS WHOOP HA ASS
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Richard Spencer was attacked while leading a demonstration in Washington, D.C., against the military strikes against Syria.
I'm making posters: "No more Neocon Wars," etc.
Could someone make giant print-outs of Trump's 2013 tweets?
7 PM, Lafayette Sq. #StayTrue Richard Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) April 8, 2017
welp welp
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lol good
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The glitter bomb is the cherry on top
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CACKLING
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i never thought alec looked like trump but holy shit did he look like o'reilly.
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Ikr the resemblance was fucking uncanny
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What are you reading, ONTD?
I just finished Wild which actually made me burst into tears. I love Cheryl Strayed, she's such a talent.
Currently splitting my time between three books: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West, Mawrdew Czgowchwz by James McCourt and The Goldfinch.
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pornland by gail dines. heavy, depressing and necessary af
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I just finished Fellowship of the Ring and now I'm reading The Two Towers.
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FOTR is my favorite of the LOTR books... but probably my least favorite movie (although they're all good). Whereas TTT is my favorite movie but my least favorite book.
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I keep meaning to re-read The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
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currently reading the underground railroad
currently listening to we were feminists once audiobook
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I'm close to finishing "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay", the third novel of the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante. I have so many emotions rn.
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Rereading Goblet of Fire and trying to finish the Child Thief (but it scared me so bad the first time that I'm hesitant lol)
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Just finished You by Caroline Kepnes. Was unsatifisfied with the ending but then I saw there's a sequel, so I'll be starting that next.
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I just had a horrific two weeks where life kicked my ass SO i reread Lynn Flewelling's first Nightrunner book. perfect comfort fantasy tbh
now I'm thinking of starting The Goldfinch for the ontd reading challenge catching up on march lol
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i'm on the last pages of trainspotting and i love it. idk whether to start skagboys or porno next
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Wild was so damn good. I've actually read it twice because I have no life.
Its not a feminist read but I am reading IT for the first time and its a trip.
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i just finished "how to be good" which was a trip and a half. it really left me a bad taste in my mouth and my soul. I just downloaded 'Women, Race, and Class' by Angela Y. Davis just because of this post.. i'm sure i'll enjoy it!
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I'm trying to get through Close to Home by Christine Delphy. it's interesting but kinda dry at times.
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Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
This is the second in the trilogy and read the first one, Annihilation, thanks to the ONTD bookclub :)
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i'm reading silence by endo for the reading challenge and it's excellent so far
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I just read Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier which was a nice little palate cleanser after the awful book I finished before, The Truth About Forever.
I started reading My Lady Jane and I am not sure how i feel about it yet.
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Emma by Jane Austen.
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The Woman who would be King by Kara Cooney and im midway through cleopatra, a life.
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Reading The Right To Be Cold by Shiela-Watt Coultier.
Planning to go through the whole Canada Reads list this year.
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A Conjuring of Light. The writing style is starting to annoy me tbh, and I really liked the first two books. =/
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About the kremlin and Russia's (very) early history. Shit's crazy, good gravy. Sadly, also written a bit too dry
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Still sobbing over The Goldfinch tbh
I am having a really hard time finishing Difficult Women and McSweeney's #26. Blech. I am looking forward to receiving A Moveable Feast, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and Play It As It Lays in the mail soon! I'll be reading a Moveable Feast on my trip to Paris next week. :)
Edited at 2017-04-10 02:00 am (UTC)
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I'm reading At The Water's Edge by Sara Gruen (she also wrote Water for Elephants)
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Dead Letters by Cat Dolan-Leach
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I'm rereading A Court of Mist and Fury in preparation for the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series coming out next month. I'm kind of dreading going to bed tonight because I know I'll want to stay up reading but I have work in the morning lol.
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I recently tore through a cute little novel by Sophie Kinsella called "my not so perfect life" I'm a huge fan of hers but her last couple of books have left me wanting more, this one was finally back to what I like lol
And then I couldn't decide between reading or watching big little lies first, I choose to watch it first so now I have to start the book (that I already have)
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I started on Where the Air is Clear by Carlos Fuentes and realised I can't do it in ebook form, I need it in ink and paper.
The last thing I tried before that was Deathless by Catherine M Valente and idg all the raves I'd heard for it, it felt like a YA knockoff of magical realism.
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I just finished "The Radium Girls: The Dark History of America's Shining Women." It's already out in the UK but it won't be out in the US until May. It's definitely a very necessary book and it's frustrating how little has changed around corporate greed and workers' rights in the last century.
Also "The View From Flyover Country," Sarah Kendzior is a gift.
Pumped about this new translation of The Second Sex. Might splurge and get myself a copy.
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I finished the first part of "Boy, Snow, Bird" and wasn't ready for a shift in voice so now I'm reading "Shadow and Bone", which I think people who like "Uprooted" will also like.
And I'm trying to read the Edda this year. I've managed about a quarter so far.
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Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, I've just started and it's interestingly written
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Just finished Dracula, now I'm reading Dark Matter, then a book for a friend
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Just finished 'The girl with all the gifts', it was a really fast read tbh
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No
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if you, the authority, say so it must be true
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shit, what did we agree to? :O
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Weeeeeeelp
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In addition, any blogs that get over 3,000 visitors per days are now classified as media outlets, so they can no longer publish anonymously, use obscene language or share extremist materials.
Um.
How many visitors do we have?
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No way
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has ontd ever not been slow on a weekend?
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thank you op, i need book suggestions
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LMAO
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lmao
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A dolls house
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I'm about to start reading Kindred by Octavia Butler for my sci-fi literature class. It's not actually on the syllabus, but I took the liberty of finding and adding it for myself because there were no POC authors.
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hope you enjoy! shes awesome :)
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THAT BOOK IS FANTASTIC. YOU WILL LOVE IT. I chose it as a part of my independent study where I read a series of novels by black women writers from classics to newly published/
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I actually read the first few pages a while ago when I found it, and I just thought I can already tell I'm gonna like this, so I really hope I do! Can I ask what the other books were that you read for your independent study?
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It's a fantastic book but omg it's harrowing. Just as it should be given the subject matter.
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Still reading King Leopold's Ghost.
Also, I'm a sucker for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and am trying to figure out how to optimally convert them for Kindle so that I can reread them (you know, sometimes you just don't want to read anything heavy before going to sleep lol). I have the latest few books legitimately purchased off Amazon, but ofc those come with DRM and my current Kindle isn't registered under that account (and I don't want to go through the trouble of doing so bc then all of my current collections/bookmarks/notes/etc. would be wiped clean). This is such a headache.
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DRM is seriously one of the biggest pains in my life. lord knows how many programs i've downloaded to try to get around it, for books i genuinely purchased with my own money lol
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ugh right? Tho, the DRM would be just fine bc Calibre can take care of that no sweat.... if only I could figure out how to optimize the settings for an image-heavy book like the Wimpy Kid series.
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lol I don't understand why publishers fucking bother with DRM. I've pressed publish on a hundred texts now and never once used DRM. Most self-published authors I know don't bother because it's just a hindrance to readers who wanna swap tech and it's so easy for pirates to strip. TRADE PUBLISHERS, THOUGH. they will go down with that ship.
I'm sure you've tried it already but most people I know use Calibre to strip DRM.
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how is King Leopold's Ghost? I've been meaning to read it
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Only work around I found for DRM is switch it to PDF.
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I read that when I was in college for an African history class, I remember it being fairly good.
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Just downloaded Kindle DRM Removal & tried it out on a few Diary books, and it worked great! Only thing I've tried that works so far w/o messing up the book format. The downside is that it's not free, but at least I get a 30-day free trial... I'll just strip all the Diary books before that's over.
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I'm always happy for a book post on ONTD.
Reading "Our Own Private Universe" by Robin Talley. I read a range of different books, and this YA LGBT title caught my eye.
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I had been looking forward to this one YA lesbian book (Get it Together, Delilah) but then I reread the summary and realized that it was a book I had previously read (The Flywheel), published under a different title. I'm annoyed now lmao. esp bc I think I prefer the former title to the current one.
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Does anyone here read Sarah Dunant books?
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I do... I've read The Birth of Venus (my favorite), In the Company of the Courtesan, Sacred Hearts, and Blood & Beauty: The Borgias. (I haven't read it yet but I also have her latest book, In the Name of the Family, which is like a sequel to B&B.) All of them are set in Renaissance Italy, which is the main reason I read them, but I also love historical fiction in general. I gave all of them 5 stars except for Sacred Hearts, which I gave 4 stars lol.
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i read women, race and class last semester and i felt it changing me as a person tbh
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I finally found time to finish Hidden Bodies(C. Kepnes) and just ordered Game Change (J. Heilemann) so I could put off finishing 1984
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Damn, what did they say? I feel like I see this a lot on tumblr but can never remember a good example tbh.
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Anne of Green Gables was one of the first books I read cause my grandmother bought it for me. II feel like it was one of the first feminist (sort of) books I was ever given iirc. Im watching the new Anne of Green Gables series and so far I really like it. The casting is really well done. Especially comparing the original Anne, Marilla, Diana and Gilbert. I think they did a good job with Gilbert. The opening theme and visuals are gorgeous. The whole is really well shot so far. I know its peak Canadian to have The Tragically Hip as the opening song but Ahead by a Century fits it perfectly. I think itll do really well once it hits Netlix in the US. Lame about the photoshop controversy tho for the US. Anyways I recommend it to anyone who liked Lucy Maud Montgomery.
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I loved the Anne of green gables series as a kid and it's still a great reread. Really looking forward to the series, your comment has me very optimistic! I also just read the blue castle for the first time, and would definitely recommend it as a cute book by l m montgomery
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Anne is so great. I'm going to be watching the series soon. I adoooored the original so this comment is a good sign! :)
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i had no idea this was a thing so thank you for blessing me with this info today!
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i'm liking the new anne series too. they really went feminist in tonight's episode lol. the opening theme is growing on me as well!
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Same. I had the whole series. LM Montgomery was so ahead of her time. Anne was independent, went to college, had a career--she did it her way, and these books were written a hundred years ago. Before women even had the vote.
I've been watching the new series too, and I like the changes they've made (fleshing things out, but keeping with the spirit of the original). I'm not Canadian, but I grew up wanting to live on PEI, it's so idyllic in the books.
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Yeah I've heard ppl arguing that Anne is anti feminist bc she gave up her career to get married and have children but that's ignoring the fact that she completed her education and worked for years+ kept writing even after she was married (and got married pretty late by 1800s standards, she was 25). and also it's not hard to understand why an orphan would want to settle down and have a big stable family.
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I've never seen the original miniseries but Anne is one of my all-time faves both as books and as a character.
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What Photoshop controversy?
I just finished episode 4. I still like this series but all the changes to the story are really throwing me.
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I had ADD and it's so hard to finish a book sometimes, I have started reading the Second Sex about four times now, it's not boring but I lose focus then I just leave it and restart from zero weeks later because I obviously forgot everything I've read
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I have the same problem but sometimes I read early in the day when my shit is still relatively together so that helps.
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yeah the same thing happens to me, i rarely finish a book i'm always reading half of books and then moving on even if i really like the book i'm reading
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cher's twitter is iconic tho
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It is. Cher is dyslexic (I thought everyone knew that, she's talked about it quite a bit).
Cher still wrestles with her dyslexia and dyscalculia (making sense of numbers). I am a terrible reader, I dont write letters. Numbers and I have absolutely no relationship, she has said.
So her creative use of emojis, all caps writing, and a unique interpretation of grammar is kind of amazing, considering what she has to overcome to communicate on a platform like Twitter.
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omg I didn't know she had dyscalculia! I have that and it sucks. I couldn't imagine dealing with it + dyslexia at the same time.
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there is nothing wrong with chers twitter, OP is a hater who will never age as gracefully <3
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Right? I love Cher's Twitter.
And she has every right to be upset about Trump. My Twitter is probably annoying too.
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Seriously. TAKE IT BACK, OP
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yeah, i think she's fun and one of the best twitter...ers. lol
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Seriously I'm offended she's lumped in w this group
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for real her twitter is such a gem
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Ricky's cat is so fucking cute.
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I love that little fang.
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i wish his cat would tweet instead of him
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I always remember that time someone posted a gif from Batman TAS where someone was having a hard time reading the newspaper in a post about Cher's tweets.
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I can't stand following any celeb on twitter or social media for too long. After a while they all become annoying.
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Whatever, I love Cher's twitter
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I Once Said,Hitler,Goring,Goebbels live in iCloud.NOW s EVIL TWIN,& ENTIRE BODY SNATCHER POSSE LIVE THERE 2WAIT ,IS HIS EVIL TWIN Cher (@cher) April 2, 2017
I think it would be great if it were a little more coherent. I mean, can you decipher this one for me, bb?
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Her artpop could mean anything.
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toilet emoji = trump, something about trump being his own evil twin and i have no idea what she means about the nazi icloud thing
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that's the fun tho
like art, everyone can interpret it their own way
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She has dyslexia so you could have replaced her with one of millions of annoying celeb twitters.
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this is literally what makes her so great
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lol I love Cher on twitter
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I really like Roxanne Gay, but I've had to unfollow her multiple times on twitter because she just tweets way too much and is too obnoxious.
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First person I thought of when I read this post lol. I'd go from unfollowing/following again to muting. But now I just had to unfollow for good.
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I unfollowed her when she said a bunch of rude shit about 5h during an award show. I'm not even that much of a 5h fan lol, it just seemed so hypocritical and unnecessary
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Lol I *just* started following her but she's been chill for the moment.
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Unfollowing her during her Channing Tatum thirst phase was a great decision for my Twitter experience
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i dont follow her but anytime i see her on my timeline i cant rme hard enough. she tries too hard.
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she just tweets SO MUCH. like girl go take a break
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she tweets SO much. about everything. all the time.
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I had to unfollow her. She's so unnecessarily rude to people who try to have discussions with her. She's not very open-minded, which is ironic.
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You put Cher on your list but not Halsey?
Goodbye.
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Halsey has no positives so she doesn't fit into this article. Seems pretty clear to me.
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John legends ugly wife
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i'm surprised she's not on this list! she should take Cher's place
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iawtc, she's actually said some terrible shit too
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Chrissy Teigan, yeah. Now that she's part of Hollywood proper
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she's so annoying
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no because i love her cute daughter
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she is awful
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Whatever I love her
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you're entitled to your wrong opinion
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Lumping Cher in with the other actually annoying people? Shame on you tbh.
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Especially cause she had reading disabilities which is pretty easy to google and figure out.
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Yep, it's definitely insensitive. She clearly types like that because it's a comfortable and cohesive way for her (personally) to get her message across.
Plus, I don't find her tweets difficult to understand at all, she just uses emojis in place of words sometimes and shortens others.
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Eh...I agree with Lena.
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You mean like a hair net?
I've never heard the term 'cooking hat' b4
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Lmao, por metiche
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Lena should seriously consider taking twitter break.
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Lena should consider taking a break in general sis.
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yeah B.o.B's twitter is extremely annoying. i used to love him, but ugh shut up.
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....you can't be serious
what's next a story on tig
Edited at 2017-04-10 01:38 am (UTC)
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So do they like hire assassins to go after them on a business trip and tap them when they're shaking and shitting themselves because they think they're legit about to die.
Wait I read 'Wall Street' and immediately thought of the bankers in the financial crisis who still got paid, not randos. Oh well.
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brb writing a psychosexual thriller about duck duck goose.
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I would read this tbh
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Rod Serling already beat you to that, with the Twilight Zone episode about Kick The Can
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Can Colin Farrell star in the movie version?
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Followed by its erotic thriller sequel Simon Says
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Actually if someone throws like a brick at one of them and yells 'TAG YOU'RE IT!' as they get railed in the face, I'd watch that.
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lolll
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Just tell me when he releases an album so I could have an existential crisis over whether I'd really buy it or not.
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I think it's an interesting concept.
I went for a hike today and yesterday. I'm trying to become tan again.
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I don't go outside.
But I do try to find ways to make my life as funny as possible. Like I want to get a Savannah cat and name her after myself and go to the vet and be like hello my name is Savannah and this is my savannah Savannah.
I also thought it would be funny to marry a woman named Savannah and have people put out our cat's chart that Savannah is the tall one.
I never considered an extended game of tag.
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That sounds stupid
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Guys:
Konesky has plenty of experience of being 'It' and recalls many years ago that he even went as far as breaking into someone's house in an attempt to tag one of his rivals.
In the early hours of the morning Konesky tiptoed toward Brian Dennehy's bedroom, before flipping on the light and bursting through the door. Dennehy's wife screamed at him to run, but as Konesky recalls: 'There was nowhere for Brian to run.'
This is like a middle-aged male horror story.
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Lol this actually sounds like it could be a hilariously bizarre but nah to Jeremy Renner.
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Jeremy has been hiding his boyfriend(s) for like 20 years, so he's perfect for this role
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just the one i think
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You can never have just one boyfriend or potato chip
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this sounds so dumb but i mean i watched hansel and gretel so i'll see this
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Any interest I would have had in this went out the door with Jeremy Renner's casting.
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O_o Hollywood greenlights the weirdest shit.
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they are airing it again at 10pm pst
haven't seen it yet... good?
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Neither theory. Her mother absolutely killed her.
Yet another instance of Florida completely sucking when it comes to justice.
Eta: i haven't watched, I just can't stand that woman.
Edited at 2017-04-10 04:54 am (UTC)
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I agree Florida has some ways to catch up on, but this case, it was very difficult to prosecute because the evidence found was used with very new techniques which the law hadn't caught up to--after the case, the jury was like, "we know she did it, but we had to follow what the law said." and at the end of the day, there just wasn't enough physical evidence to link her to the crime. Although you can clearly see she did it, if there's no physical evidence or the evidence found is considered weak because the process used to find it is new and advanced and possibly faulty then there's still very little evidence and you just can't prosecute someone based on no evidence.
Now, in Florida, we all know that there have been cases where a lot of evidence has been presented and yet an acquittal was given, or there was absolutely no evidence and there was a guilty verdict, so there are lots of ways our judicial system can improve entirely--but I don't blame the jury in the Casey Anthony case, that was a hard one, and they did what they were told to do, which was to follow the law.
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You don't need physical evidence linking to the crime to convict though, people are found guilty based on circumstantial evidence all of the time. It seemed that the jury was confused in regards to that fact. IA with other comments here that going for first degree was a bad move also though, they probably could have gotten her on 2nd.
Edited at 2017-04-10 03:17 pm (UTC)
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i cant @ anyone wanting to relive this poor girl's murder and her shitty mother's shitty eyebrows
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i'm actually just listening to the details for the first time. i mean i've heard about it but never got into it tbh. 2011 was a busy year imo
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same :/
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she has a very odd shaped head, it looks like she's wearing a bumpit
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I thought she was wearing a bump it the entire trial. She had some very interesting looks during that time period- some very FLDS hairstyles.
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I just assumed she was wearing one, wth
peanut head
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lol
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I watched the first part, and probably won't watch the rest. It kind of dragged. I didn't follow this case terribly closely at the time, but the whole Anthony family strikes me as so shady.
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Is it really a mystery if we know she did it?
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I feel like I know everything about this case already so idk if I want to invest any time watching this.
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I watched it and all it did was make me more sure she did it.
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I agree with you.
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i remember the day she was found not guilty of murder!
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me too. and she and the jurors went into hiding
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Same. Such an awful day.
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Same. I was so pissed, I turned into a drive way that was being paved, instead of going around the block. It was fine though, they were laying the tar, and the guys were perfectly nice about it. But that's weirdly why I remember it. lol
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I remember Nancy Grace's head exploding. It was a glorious thing to watch.
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one of my HS classmate's daughter plays Caylee in this...so random.
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She reminds me so much of Alanis Morisette, and I hate myself for comparing their faces.
ANd FUCK Casey Anthony. That was only the start of the FL justice system disappointing us all.
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Oh shit Alanis is totally who she reminds me of lol. I was staring at her thinking "who does she look like?"
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Pathetic piece of shit murdered her baby.
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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ
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is it true she's pregnant again? someone just posted that on insta
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I heard that rumor too, but around the same time she gave an interview saying she'd be stupid to have another kid since everyone thinks she killed her daughter. Maybe someone misread??
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i saw that on a tabloid cover yesterday
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According to some tabloid, she is. lol
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I am definitely sick of zombies but this actually sounds pretty cool and unique, I might give it a shot.
My fave zombie-related story is The Girl with All the Gifts. I just realized I never caught the movie though...did anyone see it? Is it good? I love the book sfm.
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it was ok for me, not bad, not too memorable
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It was OK. The ending was anti climatic.
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Hmmm. To be fair, the book's ending is a little anti-climactic too IMO though. I'll give it a shot! Thanks!
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HYPEE! a friend is lending me the book so i'm gonna read it soon!
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it looked more like a tv movie but it was fine. it wasn't bad it was just okay.
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The movie was lame and the ending ridiculous. I almost fell asleep twice but oh well, didn't pay for the ticket
Edited at 2017-04-10 05:08 pm (UTC)
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Train to busan
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Train to Busan and Shawn of the dead are my favorite zombie movies i think.
Train to Busan was so amazing, omg
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the ending to train to busan gutted me
shawn of the dead will never get old for me!
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Same
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i will never tire of zombie themed films or shows. but here's the thing, i think it's more than just the dead walking around eating people, it's the whole end of the world aspect that i enjoy. er post apocalyptic scenario. how would i survive if i did, etc. plus that whole, there are less people in the world i enjoy too lol. i just happen to love horror so zombies are cool. i don't have a single favorite, but i do love romero's films except survival of the dead. and the zombie diaries was good. also shaun of the dead.
Edited at 2017-04-10 03:31 pm (UTC)
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I do love the apocalypse aspect as well, but imo the best use 4 the zombie genre has been in connection with war, Dead of Night & The Revenant were rly onto sth with the zombie/war returnee angle tbh.
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i was thinking dead of night the book, haven't seen the other version/movie. the revenant was fun, and i'm guessing anders loves zombies lol but those are good!
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same! i love the outbreak moment of the zombie movies, like brad pitt zombie movie where the start is everything
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It's being written by the same person who wrote K-drama Signal I believe and will be all Korean everything.
They've been talking about it some on Dramabeans, I might have to go back and check.
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Oooooh now I'm excited. I loved Signal even though it scared me.
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I hope they keep their word. I don't trust them to not cast Jennifer Lawrence or Jon Hamm or some shit.
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I'll watch. It seems different enough to be interesting. I still need to see Train to Busan
My faves are Shaun of the Dead and (tho they aren't zombies) 28 Days Later and I have a soft spot for PP&Z
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this actually sounds really interesting and i want to watch it
my favorite zombie movie will always be the original dawn of the dead
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Dawn of the Dead is so good. I own the director's cut on VHS and I'm like always scared to watch it because I don't want to damage it but also like, might as well enjoy it before I die.
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old news
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I'm honestly not into zombies much at all but I liked Train to Busan and WWZ. I'm kinda excited to see Fincher's take on the zombie genre with the sequal, knowing him it'll be pretty epic
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Me too
I am not into zombies at all but I liked WWZ. I really want to watch Train to Busan too
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It's available on Netflix US right now if you have it. Their zombie is similar to the WWZ one which is probably why I like both because I usually associate zombie with being slow/dumb therefore not scary at all lol
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omg hf (decent) zombie period pieces
Dead of Night/Deathdream, Dead & Buried, Wild Zero, I Am Hero, Train 2 Busan, Re-Animator (1+2), The Revenant, Night of the Creeps, Night of the Comet, Pontypool, Dead Set, Sars War etc etc
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awesome films!
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god tier inclusion of pontypool
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Sounds cool.
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28 Days Later hands down (yes I know they were infected with rage, whatever). Night of the Living Dead if we're going classic. I also was really surprised by Warm Bodies, I like that one a lot. It's also one of the few movies I have seen that is actually better than the book.
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Train to Busan was fucking amazing. I'm biased though because I love perpetual bachelor, Gong Yoo.
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I don't get tired of zombies, but mostly of terrible movies/shows that just include them BECAUSE.
Ones that I can watch multiple times are 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, Train to Busan, Dawn of the Dead (remake), Zombieland and Rec. Warm Bodies was cute.
For shows I like iZombie and Dead Set (bonus Riz Ahmed),
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Have you heard of In the Flesh? Check it out if you haven't, it may round out your collection, there.
It's about a post-apocalypse world where humanity has developed a vaccine for zombies to make them conscious/sentient again, but they have to take medication every day. There is a lot of backlash from society on how to reintegrate former zombies (who are still physically dead) and what their new role in society is. Themes include discrimination, coping with death, the militarization of the public, and cults. I guess it's kind of close to warm bodies, but is a lot less comical.
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I have! My friend actually gave me her DVD to watch it at some point. I know it's short so I can get through it quickly, but I keep getting distracted by shows I already watch lol.
I'll make it my mission to binge it this weekend probably.
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It's not Isis that carried this out. The most probable rebel group would be al-Nusra formed by al-Qaeda. They are against the Syrian government, armed, trained and backed by Turkey & Saudi Arabia who had sent them the chemical components to manufacture the nerve agents for use. The reason why Obama didn't attack Assad after the 2013 chemical attack was because he was told there was no chance it was the regime. The purpose of the 2013 attack carried out by the opposition was to provoke a US military operation in Syria which would topple the Assad regime to make way for the political agenda of Turkey/Saudi/Qatar (aka pipeline + more power). Obama didn't go through with it.What's happening now is similar. They knew Trump would want to one-up Obama so it's probable that the opposition forces would carry out this attack as a false flag driven by Turkey. Syria did conduct that warehouse bombing mission that same morning. It did not cause the spread of the agent as reported, but it was likely done to explain where the chemical agents came from, to implicate al-Nusra and corroborate themselves. Russia likely knew the attack was coming.This site hypothesizes on the cause and studies each piece of evidence: https://www.rootclaim.com/claims/what-caused-the-chemical-calamity-in-khan-sheikhoun-syria-on-april-4-2017-18448#hypotheses
The eleven Arab countries that comprise the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries have combined proved reserves of 710 billion barrels of crude 55.6 percent of the worlds total, OAPEC reported.
In natural gas, OAPEC accounts for 27.7 percent of the global total, with 54 trillion cubic meters, a senior official from the organization said, speaking at the 24th Forum on Fundamentals of Oil and Gas Industry in Kuwait.
The 11 members of the group produced oil and gas equivalent to 25 million barrels of daily crude last year. By comparison, OPECs total output at the end of the year was 33.08 million bpd.
OAPEC was set up back in 1968 to facilitate economic cooperation among the 11 countries: the UAE, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Most of these, bar Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Bahrain, are also members of OPEC.
OPEC reported average daily production of 31.96 million bpd in February in its latest Monthly Oil Market Report. Thats down by 140,000 bpd from January, the cartel said, as its members continue to reduce output in line with last Novembers agreement aimed at boosting prices.
OPEC production last month was estimated at 32.095 million bpd by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, plus ship-tracking information and data obtained from oil companies. About one-third of the total came from Saudi Arabia, which, at 10.01 million bpd, was still below its quota of 10.058 million bpd. Related: EV Startups Fighting Uphill Battle Against Tesla
Prices last week received a considerable boost from the U.S. air strike on a Syrian airfield following a chemical weapons explosion believed to have been a deliberate attack from the Syrian army on civilians, but the effect of this boost will be limited unless the situation escalates.
Meanwhile, OPEC last week appeared to recommend a six-month extension of the cut deal, acknowledging the agreement had failed to accomplish its goal. But this recommendation was quickly amended: the final statement of the committee overseeing the cuts said that it will just review the grounds for a possible extension.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Production from Sharara, Libyas biggest oil field, has stopped again, unnamed sources told Bloomberg. The sources said the pipeline that carries crude from Sharara to the Zawiya export terminal stopped operating on Sunday, without giving any further details.
The field produces 200,000 barrels of crude daily, contributing a large part of the countrys overall output, which stood at 700,000 bpd before last week. The first suspension of production at Sharara, as well as at a neighboring field, Wafa, occurred two weeks ago, when unnamed armed factions blocked the pipeline carrying oil to the coast, cutting the countrys total output by 252,000 bpd.
Last week, however, the National Oil Corporation said that after intervention from its chairman Mustafa Sanalla, the militia men agreed to release the pipeline, so the oil flow could be resumed.
The Sharara field was just restarted in December 2016, and NOC said that it planned to increase output from it to the 330,000 bpd it pumped before the civil war, aiming for a national total of 900,000 bpd in the next few months and 1.1 million bpd at the end of 2017.
Last month, clashes between the Libyan National Army, which controls the four biggest oil export terminals in the Oil Crescent in eastern Libya, and the Benghazi Defense Brigades caused the shutdown of two terminals, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider.
The situation was resolved relatively quickly, with the LNA regaining control of the ports. However, the situation remains fragile as evidenced by the emergence of a new group in eastern Libya that has threatened to block the flow of oil from the two biggest fields in that part of the country, which together yield 170,000 bpd of crude over 25 percent of Libyas total daily output.
All these events have given oil prices a wild ride on the seesaw, and this latest production stoppage is bound to have the same effect on benchmarks.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Notable authorities such as the EIA, the IEA, OPEC and BP forecast growth of demand for oil in their base case scenarios through the end of their forecast periods. These same organizations failed to predict, and even to fully recognize after the fact, the start of declining demand in the United States and the OECD when those occurred more than a decade ago. Royal Dutch Shell broke ranks from other industry players last fall when its chief executive officer opined that global demand could reach a maximum in the next five to fifteen years. Given the nature of the demand plateau and the historical failure of authorities to predict its advent, it is time for the oil industry to begin planning and watching for the turn.
Global demand growth has been slowing over the last decades, and it is forecast to grow at around 1 percent or less into the future. The actual year-to-year figures, though, are volatile. Large-scale movements like increasing efficiency, decreasing costs of alternatives, and effects of policy changes can be slow to unfold, difficult to see, and very difficult to predict. If todays optimistic outlook persists, then the industry is likely to be caught by surprise when demand shifts. Oil prices will not be inherently lower during the very long future decline of oil, but the nature of the cycles will change, especially the first cycle in which demand fails to grow.
Before that happens, oil prices seem set up for boom. The extraordinarily low oil prices of recent years caused investments in future supply to be cut too much. Though current and futures prices have sustained a reasonably consistent band since last summer, worldwide reinvestment has not stepped back up. At this point, an effective floor seems to have been established in the minds of the industry. Outside of the U.S. there is widespread effort, if unevenly shared, to increase prices. Investment confidence has improved somewhat from independent producers, but many countries seem to lack the ability to respond and timely. Indeed, they seem unable in some cases even to spend appropriate maintenance capital. The IEA has warned that the lack of investment is likely to lead to a shortage in the early 2020s, but it doesnt take an econometric model to see that. Related: OPEC Cant Stop The Beat: U.S. Adds 10 Oil Rigs
Markedly higher prices, should they arrive, could provide the last push on top of underlying decay. Producers may rush into development even as consumers back out of use. If supply increases while demand plateaus or declines in absolute terms, then the oil industry will see the worst down cycle in memory.
In past cycles, demand maintained its growth, more slowly in higher prices then stimulated anew with lower prices. In the end, though, demand will stop moving up at all. Factors unrelated to price will dominate, and demand will, at best, hold a virtual plateau. What is more, OPEC is likely to continue their management of the market to their own advantage.
When demand does turn, there will be only one path to balancedecreased supply. That is, marginally economic production must be plugged, and investment must slack off so much that the underlying decline of existing production can pull down the total supply figure to meet demand and to work off accumulated inventory builds. For OPEC, which has some of the lowest production costs in the world, this turning point creates an opportunity to gain market share and to solidify pricing power. It benefits key and leading members of OPEC to allow a deep and long depression of priceslong enough to allow the world to recognize that demand has turned, to plug high-cost production and to redirect large portions of investments.
The underlying decline of existing production is in aggregate 5 to 6 percent per year with normal levels of maintenance capital. If demand were growing 1 to 2 percent or more each year as it has in the past, then each years investments have replaced 6 to 8 percent of total demand. If demand instead declines 1 percent per year, then investments must replace only 4 to 5 percent of total demand each year, and that total demand benchmark will itself decline, eventually return to levels markedly lower than today. Related: Wall St. Gears Up For The Worlds Biggest Oil Trade
The industry may overshoot again on the down side, and cycles may continue even as demand lies flat or falls. This and subsequent gluts will, like the peak demand glut, be resolved by drops in production. Booms will be shorter, and the busts may be longer. On the other hand, having ceased better control of the market, OPEC may try to establish and maintain a reliable and modest long term price to abate the decline in demand.
In any event, the nature of the business will change. The public markets will no longer value companies for their growth stories in oil. Growth for energy companies will come instead from natural gas, which will be a global commodity by that time, or from alternative energy sources. Those who stick with liquid hydrocarbons will be treated like the natural gas companies of recent yearsout of favor and focused on margins.
The planning and decisions of our business require drawing conclusions about the future of oil prices. Often the best we can do is to watch alertly as existing and novel trends unfold. Widespread awareness of the possibility of plateau demand can affect planning and thus, perhaps, change the way that we experience the transition to a world of declining demand.
By Dwayne Purvis for Oilprice.com
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Shale companies have pushed breakeven oil prices below $40 per barrelbut so have major oil companies.
Analysts commonly portray cost reduction as something unique to the tight oil companies. Data from annual reports filed with the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) suggests otherwise.
(Click to enlarge)
Along with tight oil companies, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips and ChevronTexaco all had 2016 breakeven prices below $40 per barrel (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Breakeven Prices for Majors and Tight Oil Companies Were All Less Than $40/Barrel in 2016. Source: Company 10-K and 20-F SEC filings and Labyrinth Consulting Services, Inc.
SEC 10-K and 20-F filings include the standardized measure, a projection of discounted (10 percent) future net cash flows from production of proved oil and gas reserves. By dividing the standardized measure by the volume of proven reserves, breakeven prices can be calculated by subtracting the future cash flow dollar-per-barrel amount from the SEC average price for the year.
How is it possible that ponderous major oil companies have similar breakeven prices to much smaller, innovative shale companies? Simplecosts have fallen for everyone since 2014 as oil field service companies competed for limited projects by working at a loss. Related: Wall St. Gears Up For The Worlds Biggest Oil Trade
In fact, the oil and gas well drilling producer price index fell 45 percent between March 2014 and January 2017 (Figure 2). As I wrote in an earlier post, sharply lower breakeven prices are 10 percent technology and 90 percent industry bust.
(Click to enlarge)
Figure 2. The Cost of Drilling Oil and Gas Wells Fell 45 percent After The Oil-Price Collapse; Unconventional Plays Resulted In a 4-fold Increase in Drilling Costs. Source: U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, EIA and Labyrinth Consulting Services, Inc.
And for those who think that unconventional oil and gas are low-cost resources, those plays resulted in a 4-fold increase in the cost of drilling wells between March 2003 and March 2014. Thats why oil cost more than $90 per barrel for 4 years before the price collapse.
So much for technology solving all of our energy problems.
And when you hear about tight oil companies breaking even at $20 to $30 per barrelthats not what they told the SEC in filings made just a few weeks ago.
The Downside of Lower Breakeven Prices
The downside of lower breakeven oil prices is that companies make a lot less money in the future. Companies must write down reserves whose development costs are greater than their market value at lower oil prices. Figure 3 shows that future net cash flows were on average reduced by about two-thirds in 2016 compared with 2014.
(Click to enlarge)
Figure 3. Lower Future Net Cash Flows Are The Downside of Lower Breakeven Oil Prices. Source: Company 10-K and 20-F Filings and Labyrinth Consulting Services, Inc.
Related: How U.S. LNG Transformed The Market
Companies are effectively high-grading their assets by writing down wells with poorer performance. Breakeven price is lower because only most profitable wells are included in the calculation. Plus, the burden of taxes in addition to property and equipment costs associated with written down assets are removed.
The key take-away is that 85 percent of lower breakeven prices were realized in 2015. Incremental improvement in 2016 was only 15 percent.
Advances in technology and efficiency are real but falling breakeven prices are no miracle and are not a shale company exclusive. Instead of celebrating lower breakeven oil prices, we should be lamenting lost future cash flows that an oil industry depression has wiped out.
By Art Berman for Oilprice.com
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The surprise airstrikes by the U.S. on a Syrian airfield late last week brought an element of geopolitical risk back to the oil markets, adding support to crude prices. Historically, conflict, or even just the threat of conflict, has pushed up oil prices, particularly back when supply was already tight and oil was trading at $100 per barrel. But the three-year bust in oil prices has moved geopolitical risk to the backburner because even a sizable outage in supply could have easily been handled by the enormous glut in the market.
To be sure, the Syrian war is not new it is more than six years old. But the involvement of the U.S. could mark the beginning of a new, wider conflict and it comes just as the oil markets are showing some signs of tightening. The result is a sudden uptick in oil prices, pushing WTI and Brent to a one-month high.
However, Syria produces a negligible volume of oil, so why should oil prices rise on the news that the U.S. dropped cruise missiles on a Syrian airfield? Obviously, this is an insignificant player, but as any real estate agent will tell you, this is a bullish headline because of location, location, location, Stephen Schork of The Schork Report told CNBC on Monday. We have the United States which now is responsible for 15 percent of the worlds energy production now dropping bombs on a country whose puppet masters in Tehran and Moscow are none too pleased. So when we add Russia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and so forth, were talking about bombs being dropped in a region of the world that accounts for about 60 percent of the worlds energy production. So, clearly this is a potential black swan, something that is very difficult to try to sell against. Related: How U.S. LNG Transformed The Market
For now, that is just speculation. The Trump administration could limit its action to the few dozen airstrikes launched last week, which was reportedly one of the narrower options presented to the president by the U.S. military. If the U.S. doesnt take any more dramatic steps, the effect on oil supply should be minimal, and WTI and Brent could give up a bit of ground as expectations of deeper military action wane. "If these strikes are not followed up by a serious effort to oust the Syrian leader [Bashar Assad], none of these scenarios may materialize and the oil implications will remain negligible, Helima Croft, RBC Capital Markets Head of Commodity Strategy, wrote in a research note.
But the markets are clearly on edge because a new round of conflict that sucks in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia on one side and Russia and Iran on the other has no shortage of possible risks to the market.
With that said, a more immediate impact on crude oil fundamentals is unfolding in North Africa with a lot less fanfare. Libya has promised to ramp up production from 700,000 bpd to 1.1 million barrels per day by the end of the summer, likely to be one of the largest sources of new supply in the world after U.S. shale. But ongoing conflict could derail those plans.
In recent weeks the battle over a major oil export terminal has disrupted production in Libya, with output temporarily dropping by 100,000 or 200,000 bpd on several occasions. On April 9, an oil pipeline from Libyas largest oil field, Sharara, stopped operating for unknown reasons. The field produces 200,000 bpd. That could add a lot more price pressure to WTI and Brent than the Syrian airstrikes, despite the latters splashy international headlines. "It means that at least one potential source of additional supply has fallen away for the time being," said Carsten Fritsch of Commerzbank, according to Reuters.
The Libyan outage and the potential action from the U.S. also comes at a time of a more underlying bullish trend in the oil market. Refinery maintenance is winding down and gasoline production is ramping up ahead of the summer driving season. Demand growth is also humming along at a steady pace. Oil inventories around the world are falling and could begin to fall in the U.S. as well, which will start to erase doubts about the tightening market. Related: Why Breakeven Prices Are Plunging Across The Oil Industry
Here in North America weve already added 900,000 bpd of demand into the market. Were going to add another 600,000 bpd by the time we get into July as refineries start to ramp up for the summer season. So from the demand perspective, we certainly have a bullish trend that began at the end of March and Id suspect its going to continue into the driving season, Stephen Schork said on CNBC.
The shift in sentiment from bearish to bullish is evident on Wall Street. Hedge Funds and money managers boosted net-long bets on crude oil futures for the first time in six weeks for the week ending on April 4. "The oil bears were in retreat because OPEC appears to be complying pretty well to the quota and the likelihood that the cuts will be extended," Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, said in a Bloomberg interview.
Other analysts agree. We see it grinding higher over the back half of the year, Helima Croft of RBC Capital Markets told CNBC. Were coming out of refinery maintenance season so we are going to start seeing draws in U.S. inventory levelsWe think that will give crude a bounce. She sees oil moving up to $60 per barrel later this year.
By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com
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The energy czars of the G7 group of nations failed to reach agreement on a strategy to combat global warming, as the United States new leadership pedals doubts on the veracity of climate science that connects human activity to rising temperatures.
The ministers present at the meeting had been due to publish a joint statement at the end of the summit, but Carlo Calenda, the Italian minister for economic development, said the U.S. expressed reservations caused efforts failure.
Italy currently presides over the G7 group, which also includes Canada, France, Germany, and Japan.
Calenda said the U.S. reserved its position regarding the text of any potential release, prompting him to advise against a disunited statement to the press. The U.S. had previously agreed to support poor countries that would suffer disproportionately from floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
The G7 countries made joint commitments to the international community during the United Nations-led climate change talks in Paris in 2015. Since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has appointed Scott Pruitt, a vocal critic of anti-climate change efforts, to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Trump campaigned on reviving the American coal industry, though new market data shows that the fossil fuel is losing market share to carbon-light oil and natural gas. With the recent reversal of an Obama-era national guideline to bring American cars to the 55 miles-per-gallon mark, experts say that the U.S. will almost certainly fail to meet its carbon reduction promises under the Paris agreement.
Related: Why Breakeven Prices Are Plunging Across The Oil Industry
Former ExxonMobil CEO turned Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has spoken on his support of the Paris agreement in the past. Last month, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance told reporters in Houston that it would be good for the U.S. to stay in the climate agreement.
By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
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Hedge fund manager Elliott Advisors, which holds around 4.1 percent of BHP Billiton Plc, is proposing a plan to increase capital returns to shareholders, which includes demerging the mining and commodity giants U.S. petroleum assets and listing them separately on the NYSE.
Elliott sent a letter to the top management of BHP Billiton on Monday, in which it outlines a so-called BHP Shareholder Value Unlock Plan that, according to the hedge fund manager, could enable BHPs management to give shareholders an increase in value attributable to their shareholdings of up to around 48.6 percent for Sydney-listed BHP Billiton Limited shareholders, and around 51 percent for London-listed BHP Billiton Plc shareholders.
Elliott has identified three key steps to unlocking more shareholder value: unifying BHPs dual-listed company structure into a single Australian-headquartered and Australian tax resident listed company, demerging and separately listing the groups U.S. petroleum assets on the NYSE, and a consistent and value-optimized capital return policy.
According to Elliott, BHPs U.S. oil business is worth around $22 billion, based on commonly utilized valuation metrics for comparable businesses. The indicated value is well in excess of the current analyst consensus valuation for that business, the fund manager noted.
A demerger of BHPs Gulf of Mexico assets in combination with the U.S. onshore petroleum assets would provide a standalone U.S. petroleum business with consistent cash flow to fund its own further expansion, allowing BHP to increase its focus on its core competencies and also helping the value of BHP's remaining core portfolio to positively re-rate, the letter reads.
Related: OPEC Cant Stop The Beat: U.S. Adds 10 Oil Rigs
In February, BHP Billiton said in its results for the half year ended December 31, 2016, that its onshore U.S. assets are now free cash flow positive, reflecting continued improvements in both operating and capital efficiency. For the 2017 financial year, BHPs onshore U.S. capital expenditure is expected to be $600 million with development activity tailored to market conditions. Earlier in February, BHP Billiton approved spending $2.2 billion of its share of development of BP-operated Mad Dog Phase 2 deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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By Kathryn Hickok
A case study on urban renewal suggests that private and charter schools can act as positive drivers of economic development and neighborhood stability. The report, Renewing Our Cities, was produced by EdChoice, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting educational choice for all families.
The reports authors state:
We find that the school is a strong relocation attractor, and families gravitate toward the school after their children enroll. To the extent public charter schools and/or other parental-choice options influence family relocation decisions, continued growth in these programs may provide a useful policy tool informing urban design and revitalization initiatives in areas where economic growth is otherwise stunted by inferior assigned schools.
These findings are meaningful. A common argument against school choice for low-income children is that neighborhoods and schools would be worse off if families left their assigned public school for a school they thought better met their childrens needs.
This viewpoint doesnt recognize that private and charter schools are part of the neighborhood, too. When parents have educational options within their communities that are helping their children succeed, they have an incentive to remain part of their neighborhoods and even to move closer to those schools. This supports economic development and a more vibrant civic life in those areas.
Urban economic development is one more way educational choice can be good for both kids and their communities.
Kathryn Hickok is Publications Director and Director of the Childrens Scholarship Fund-Oregon program at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregons free market public policy research organization.
Kollam (Kerala): Massive controversy has erupted in Kerala over the anti-Hindu question asked in an online exam to award Akshaya Franchise in the district. The exam was conducted by KELTRON (Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited), which is a government of Kerala undertaking. The question goes like this: Which god lost his relevance after the coming of Jesus Christ? and the options were, A) Brahma, B) Vishnu, C) Maheswaran, D) Indra!
The exam was conducted in the Kollam district of Kerala. Based on the outcome of this test, the franchises of Akshaya centres are to be awarded. In this exam, such a question was asked which hurts the Hindu sentiments.
The Kollam unit of KELTRON said that the questions were prepared by the Thiruvananthapuram head office. People who attended this exam lodged their protests against the inclusion of such an absurd question in the exam.
Indian security forces shot dead eight protesters in IHK
NEW DELHI: Indias vaunted democracy turned into a brutal military operation on Sunday in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir, where security forces shot dead at least eight protesters campaigning against a parliamentary by-election they didnt want. The unusually high number of single-day casualties drew immediate condemnation from Pakistan.
Amid the violence of stone-pelting and police firing the by-election to the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary seat registered a mere 6.5 per cent turnout, the lowest in 30 years.
Kashmiri resistance groups have called a two-day strike from Monday to protest the eight deaths and 175 injuries.
Reports said the large-scale violence claimed the lives of eight civilians while the prestigious seat recorded a dismal turnout, the regions Chief Electoral Officer Shantanu told journalists.
He said more than 100 security personnel were also injured in the violence. The CEO said that re-polling might be ordered on anywhere between 50 and 100 booths, according to the Indian Express.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last week called on Kashmiris to choose between tourism or terrorism, but Sundays tragedy dovetailed with neither description.
Reports said the army was deployed in different parts of the valley as rampaging mobs pelted stones and hurled petrol bombs at various polling booths. In Budgam, hundreds of protesters stormed a polling station and ransacked a building housing a polling booth.
The security forces reportedly fired several warning rounds to disperse the mob, without success. Six people were injured in the firing, of them two later died.
In another incident, security forces opened fire to quell a stone-pelting mob in the Ratxuna Beerwah area, killing one Nissar Ahmed. The security forces also opened fire after a mob attacked the polling station at Dalwan village and reportedly damaged the EVMs (electronic voting machines) and prevented voters from exercising their franchise. Security forces opened fire to protect the polling staff, a police official was quoted as saying.
Five others died in day-long clashes in various parts of the region. At least 261,397 voters were eligible to cast vote in the Srinagar-Budgam seat where 1,559 polling stations were set up.
Nine candidates, including National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, are in the fray.
The by-poll from the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency is being held after the seat fell vacant when legislator Tariq Karra resigned during the upsurge of 2016.
Agencies add: It was not a good day for all of us, said Shantmanu, who uses only one name.
Many suffered grievous bullet injuries, hospital sources in Srinagar said. Polling had to be halted in over a dozen places amid a call by top Kashmiri leaders opposed to Indian rule to boycott the by-election.
Ahead of the polling, authorities suspended internet services across the Valley for fear of widespread protests.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz strongly condemned the killing of eight Kashmiris and injuries to others.
In a statement, he said: The abysmally low voter turnout of below 6 per cent, the lowest in 30 years, is a tangible indication that the [All Parties] Hurriyat [Conference] leadership and the people of Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir have categorically rejected the sham elections, which cannot be an alternative to the right to self-determination promised to them under numerous UNSC resolutions.
He called upon the international community to urge India to immediately end the bloodshed of innocent Kashmiris and behave as a responsible member of the world community by honouring its commitments to hold a transparent, free and fair plebiscite under the auspices of the UN.
The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher,
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) says a chunk of children of school going age are constantly being taken from the classroom through the activities of illegal miners (Galamsey).
GNAT said galamsey activities were also leading to health implications and dangers, whilst children were directly or indirectly being killed as a result.
It has therefore called on the Government and stakeholders to show high level of commitment to the fight against illegal mining to save the children who were the future of the country.
Mr William Abaidoo, Central Regional Secretary of GNAT expressed this sentiment during the 5th quadrennial delegates conference of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipal Secretariat.
The conference, was on the theme: Transforming societies through education: the roles of educational administrators towards agenda 2030.
Mr Abaidoo said the most worrying situation was that, children who engaged in galamsey did not wear any protective gear and were exposed to all manner of dangers.
He said the children were compelled to abandon their classrooms for gold mining to make a living due to economic hardships, although the practice was unacceptable.
As partners in education delivery and shapers of the nation, we are extremely worried about the threat of galamsey on the lives of our children. Apart from taken them out of the classroom, their lives are also at risk.
That is why we have launched a campaign against illegal mining and every teacher must have the courage to speak against it, he added.
Mr Abaidoo said the damage caused by illegal mining had been devastating and at a huge cost to the development of the country and should be halted with no reservations.
According to him, forests have been depleted, rivers polluted, and many people including children have been buried alive in the pits as a result of illegal mining.
Mr Abaidoo asked the teachers to transform themselves to be able to take centre stage in efforts at helping to transform societies to achieve the Sustainable Development (SDG) goal of inclusive and equitable quality education for everybody.
He admonished them to desist from indulging in unprofessional behaviors adding that, it is an affront to the teaching profession if you continually conduct yourselves unprofessionally, the society will even lose confidence in entrusting their children in your hands.
Dr Michael Amakye, a senior lecturer at the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration of the University of Cape Coast said educational administrators had a major role to play towards the achievement of Agenda 2030.
The SDG-four, requires countries to ensure inclusiveness and equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all.
He indicated that the supply of adequate teaching and learning materials to schools was vital to the attainment of the SDG-Four.
Dr Amakye said education administrators needed to provide leadership that focused on students academic achievement and ensure that education was effective and was meeting set targets.
This, he said could be achieved through integrated administration where education administrators should be able to observe and manage entire set of situations, processes and operating procedures in a wide angle lens.
Source: GNA
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President Nana Akufo-Addo will today address the nation on his first three months in office. The President and his Cabinet over the weekend met to review their performance in the last 90 days in office and the way forward.
Citi News understands that one issue that dominated discussion was the increasing spate of illegal mining also known as Galamsey and the lawless activities of a vigilante group affiliated with the New Patriotic Party (NPP)Delta Force.
The President at the retreat tasked the Interior, National Security and Defence Ministers to deal with the group by using the law, to serve as a deterrent.
Issues that have emerged during Nana Addos 100 days Issues Ghanaians have raised concerns about since the President took over the helm of affairs include the attacks by vigilante groups believed to be associated with the NPP, the appointment of some 110 Ministers to serve under the NPP government and the Galamsey menace which has reportedly led to the destruction of natural resources. What has Nana Addo done so far?
The President has already started implementing some promises made ahead of the general elections.These include the abolition and review of key taxes which mostly affects businesses in the aviation, finance and real estate industries.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta while delivering the State of the Nation Address in March, outlined the taxes that government had either reviewed or abolished as listed below:
- Abolished 1 percent Special Import Levy;
17.5 percent VAT/NHIL on financial services;
17.5 percent VAT/NHIL on selected imported medicines, that are not produced locally;
Initiate steps to remove import duties on raw materials and machinery for production within the context of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET) Protocol;
17.5 percent VAT/NHIL on domestic airline tickets;
5 percent VAT/NHIL on Real Estate sales; Excise duty on petroleum; Special petroleum tax rate from 17.5 percent to 15 percent;
Duty on the importation of spare parts; Levies imposed on kayayei by local authorities;
Taxation, the gains from realisation of securities listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange or publicly held securities approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Reviewed
Reduce National Electrification Scheme Levy from 5 percent to 3 percent; Reduce Public Lighting Levy from 5 percent to 2 percent;
Replace the 17.5 VAT/NHIL rate with a flat rate of 3 percent for traders; and
Implement tax credits and other incentives for businesses that hire young graduates.
Source: Citifmonline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Editor's Note: Charges against defendant Michael Ritchie Sr. were corrected.
Police agencies from around Washington County arrested eight alleged drug dealers early Monday, locking up people who authorities said were selling heroin, crack cocaine and prescription drugs in Washington and Warren counties.
State Police said the dealers were not affiliated with one another, but were acquaintances in the regional drug trade as they sold narcotics around the county and in the Glens Falls area.
Six of the eight were charged in indictments handed up recently in Washington County Court, a seventh was charged in Warren County Court and the eighth a man accused of selling marijuana was charged with a misdemeanor in Granville Village Court. The charges followed an arrest of a major heroin dealer earlier this month who was believed to be selling in eastern Washington County.
Officers from six police agencies took part in the early morning sweep, arresting many as they slept in homes from Hoosick Falls to Glens Falls. The charges allege they sold drugs over the past year or so during a coordinated police investigation.
Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan praised the police effort and cooperation, saying officers from New York City to Washington County and Vermont have networked over the past couple of years to share more information as the opioid epidemic worsened.
The level of cooperation has been outstanding, he said.
He said the work of the volunteers and professionals in the regions Hometown vs. Heroin Coalition has helped investigators focus on a common goal.
We have a lot of people who are committed to the cause, Jordan said. These guys are working so hard and we are seeing the results. Its a three-prong effort prevention, treatment and enforcement, but you have to cut off the supply.
According to police, charged were the following:
Michael Ritchie Sr., 44, of Granville, charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for allegedly selling prescription painkillers, the prescription drug methadone and marijuana. He faces counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal sale of a narcotic preparation, criminal sale of methadone and criminal sale of marijuana. (Corrected)
Michael Ritchie Jr., 19, of Granville, charged with misdemeanor criminal sale of marijuana. He is the son of defendant Michael Ritchie Sr.
Richard R. Smith, 31, of Hoosick Falls, two felony counts each of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance for alleged crack cocaine sales in southern Washington County.
Walter Passino, 30, of Fort Edward, charged with two felony counts each of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance for alleged sales of crack cocaine in Fort Edward.
Brian James, 47, of Granville, charged with two felony counts each of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Jose A. Lazarini, 31, of Glens Falls, charged in Warren County Court with two counts each of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance in connection with cocaine sales in Glens Falls.
Richard Rouse, 26, of Glens Falls, charged with two felony counts each of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance for alleged narcotics sales in Washington County.
Monica Winchell, 44, of Granville, charged with two felony counts each of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance for alleged narcotics sales in Washington County.
All but Michael Ritchie Jr. were arraigned in Washington or Warren county courts and sent to jail for lack of bail. Ritchie Jr. was released, pending prosecution.
State Police from the Granville and Greenwich stations, as well as the agencys Community Narcotics Enforcement Team, worked with the Washington County Sheriffs Office and officers from Hudson Falls, Fort Edward, Granville and Glens Falls police departments on the cases.
Numerous firefighters were treated for exposure to a potentially deadly narcotic after they helped overdose victims in Kingsbury earlier this year, a situation that has prompted Washington County officials to arrange trainings to address the issue.
An informational session hosted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will be held in Salem later this month, on the heels of one held in Argyle in recent weeks.
The trainings come after a February incident at a home in Kingsbury in which at least one firefighter had a reaction to apparent exposure to Fentanyl, a powerful prescription opioid. Firefighters who responded to the call and family members they interacted with afterward went to Glens Falls Hospital for observation, but none suffered any serious health issues.
The fire department personnel were in the hospital for six hours, said Salem Assistant Fire Chief Steven Saunders, who is organizing the training.
The drug users who overdosed at a home on Deer Run Drive were unconscious when Kingsbury firefighters and Washington County sheriffs officers arrived, and police used the drug Narcan to reverse the overdose. Both people who overdosed recovered.
Fentanyl is far more powerful than heroin, and has been blamed for a wave of deaths across the country in recent months as it becomes more present on the black market. Dealers and users mix it with heroin at times.
Simple exposure by first responders who go to overdose calls can lead to health problems, and police have also begun taking precautions such as halting field tests of suspected opioids during arrests to avoid exposure.
Its pretty scary stuff, Washington County Fire Coordinator Glenn Bristol said.
Bristol, former chief in Argyle, said his department held a drug exposure training in recent months as well.
Washington County sheriffs Senior Investigator Tony LeClaire said police are seeing more Fentanyl in the region, and users have been overdosing on it.
This is an excellent training for fire personnel, he said.
The Salem training is set for April 25 at the Salem fire station, and is open to all first responders. It will also cover instruction on exposure to materials used in meth manufacturing.
The department asked the firefighters who want to attend to RSVP to salemfd4434@hotmail.com or call 321-9430.
FORT ANN Richard Foran never intended to move away from the village where he grew up, and he never did.
He also never intended to be mayor of that village for 43 years, but he was.
People asked me why I ran, and I told them I thought I could do a good job, a sometimes emotional Foran told a crowd of about 75 people at a celebration of his retirement as mayor at the Fort Ann Fire Company Sunday afternoon. If I had ever gotten to a point that I thought I couldnt do it well, I would have stopped doing it.
Foran was first elected in 1972, in a very divided village.
The first time, I won by six votes, he said. You have to remember that the village is 85 percent Republican, and I am an independent. They told me they were going to go after me the next time, and I won by 8 to 1. They stopped coming after me so much after that.
With the support of Jerry Stockman, a trustee, and help from many others, Foran and the board got the villages streets paved, renovated the sewer plant and got an early start on the states Streetscape plan, which brought lighting, curbs, sidewalks, a pocket park and a canal-side park to the village.
Its a big plus when you have people who are helping you, Foran said, ticking off a long list of people, both from the village and the town who helped him do his job.
Foran said he has no intention of stepping down from his position as vice president at St. Ann Transportation, nor is he planning any long vacations.
Ill work until I cant work any more, he said. And at 78, I dont see myself taking any vacations.
Bruce Mason, who has been on the Village Board for more than a decade, stepped aside this year as well, and his parting act was to organize the party for Foran.
I didnt want this, Foran said. I could have gone without, but Bruce said people wanted it, and now I dont even see him here.
Foran took pride in being a behind-the-scenes leader, quietly spreading credit around as much as he could.
Richards goal was always to be an asset to the village, said Melanie Farrell, a former village treasurer. His door was always open. You could call him any time day or night. I think that was from him being a lifelong resident.
Lasting impact
Foran and his late wife Linda had five children, four of whom still live in Fort Ann, and nine grandchildren. Russell Blair, who is the villages new mayor, said he wont let Foran get too far away. Hes going to be my support system, Blair said. I am an educated man. I am not going to toss the encyclopedia in the trash. I know hell be there when I need to ask him questions. Dennis Langlois will be one of the trustees with Blair and Roy Steves, whose term expires next year, will be the other. Foran did take some time off as mayor, because he was serving on the Board of Education and thought he could not do both, but he returned to the mayors office.
Had he not taken the time off, he would be only one year behind Lake George Mayor Robert Blais, who has been at the head of that village since 1971. I ran into him at a meeting about some sewer planning we were both doing and we talked about how long wed been at this, Foran said. I told him I was never about seeing how long I could do it. I just wanted to do a good job.
GRANVILLE Unlike previous years, there were few issues at the Mettowee Off Road Extreme Parks Spring Fling partly because crowds were smaller than usual.
Owner Ralph Jameson, who put several town-requested measures into effect this past weekend, said Monday he will continue to try to get town and state permission to allow camping at the site. He also said he has a purchase agreement on 100 acres adjoining the park that he would like to develop as a campground.
It was a good weekend, but without camping, there were not too many people, said Jameson, who arranged for off-site parking so cars would not block county Route 12, added more security and improved the parks washing station so less mud would be tracked onto the road.
Jameson said he told his staff this was an important event for the park.
I told them it was a do-or-die weekend for us. We needed to do the things the town wanted us to do, he said.
They addressed the main issues we were concerned about, said Supervisor Matt Hicks, who has had issues with the park in the past. The wash station kept the mud down, they kept the traffic flowing and the noise did dissipate when they closed for the night. The State Police and the Sheriffs Office had a strong presence, and they were busy, but I would say it was significantly improved.
Washington County Undersheriff John Winchell echoed Hicks observation.
The reports from our officers was that it was better, he said. It was better coordinated on the inside, so it was better on the outside.
The Granville Rescue Squad was called to the park for a collision between two vehicles, but officials said those involved declined transportation to the hospital.
Looking ahead
Jameson said he will continue to be open every Saturday and Sunday and will continue to work toward getting permission to allow camping on the site.
Thats really the key to drawing bigger crowds. People need a place to stay, he said. There are not a lot of places for people to stay.
Jameson met with the Town Board earlier this year but was told he would need additional documentation to apply for permission for camping.
My engineer is working on the documents, Jameson said.
He also said he would like to expand and is looking to banks and private investors regarding the 100 adjoining acres.
We would love to see someone come in and invest so we could build a modern campground next door, he said. That would make all the difference for us.
GREENWICH The village is facing a potential lawsuit over the death of a boy who was playing in a snowbank when village crews dumped snow on top of him by mistake.
Rachael Demarest, the mother of Joshua Demarest, filed a notice of claim last month against the village of Greenwich. The claim alleges negligence by village Public Works staff before the death of her son.
A notice of claim is required when someone intends to sue a municipality, allowing the defendant to explore the claim and potentially settle without a formal lawsuit. It must be filed within 90 days of alleged wrongdoing. A lawsuit could be filed if no settlement is reached.
John Aspland, a Glens Falls lawyer who was appointed to represent the village, said the claim does not seek a specific amount of compensation.
It is a truly tragic accident and our thoughts are with both families as they are dealing with the challenges, Aspland said.
Joshua, 13, died on Dec. 13 while playing with a friend. Joshua and Tyler Day, 12, went sledding on a pile of snow more than 8 feet tall on Rock Street. Then they dug snow forts into the embankment. As they dug, Tyler said he heard the back-up alarms from heavy equipment, and then, suddenly, blackness.
He tried to dig himself out of his collapsed snow fort, but couldnt dig through the heavy ice and snow. Workers freed him in a frantic effort to save both boys after they were reported missing hours later. When they dug Joshua out of the snow, he had died from asphyxiation.
The snowbank had accumulated as Greenwich Village Department of Public Works crews dumped snow there from roadsides and sidewalks over the course of several days, including the day Joshua died.
The boys were playing on the back of the snow pile and could not be seen by public works drivers, who approached from the front. Rescuers believed they were buried three or more hours before they were found.
The boys lived on Rock Street, just a short walk from the snowbank, and workers were able to follow their footprints in the snow to the site. But the snowbank was more than 50 yards long, and workers didnt know where to start digging. They saw a sled, half-buried by snow, and dug out the entire bank in 10 minutes with only their hands and small tools.
The snow pile is on private property, across from a park on the Batten Kill, but the owner has let the DPW dump snow there for years. Greenwich Public Works Superintendent Leo Flynn said his staff had never seen children playing there before.
SARATOGA SPRINGS Westin Stewart-Tennes says fries are best when double-fried.
First, I blanch fry them, then fry them again at 375 degrees for 30 seconds, the Skidmore College senior told judges during the Kenneth A. Freirich Business Plan Competition finals on Friday afternoon at the Saratoga Springs college.
Stewart-Tennes meat, cheese, tomato and onion topped hand-cut fries and the business plan for his budding business, Fries First Fry or Die, landed him in first place in a competition that encourages student entrepreneurial innovation. And now with his $20,000 prize, he can move toward expanding a business that he has found successful in its early stages.
We sold more for $7 than we did for $5, he told judges about a recent market test.
One of eight student-run businesses competing in the final phase of the Seventh Annual Kenneth A. Freirich Business Plan Competition, Fries First is the next step of the San Diego fast-casual dining craze for carne asada fries, Stewart-Tennes told the judges.
These are world-flavored fries, he said, referring to his Greek and Thai fries. Well start with pop-up tents at festivals and college campuses, then a food truck, a restaurant, and then expand to more restaurants.
In a setting similar to the popular TV-show Shark Tank, student entrepreneurs develop businesses, prototypes and business plans with the assistance of mentors who guide and then present their plans to successful entrepreneurial judges who quiz them about things like marketing, staffing costs and how they plan to make money.
The brainchild of entrepreneur and Skidmore alum, Kenneth A. Freirich, the competition teaches students how to follow their dreams to fruition and be successful in the process.
I came to Skidmore as a financial aid student and I started a magazine for college students that was on 35 campuses in three states, Freirich said on Friday during a break in the finals presentation. Its really about giving back they gave so much to me.
Today, Freirich is president of Health Monitor Network and each year he personally gives a minimum of $20,000 to the competition, with other alumni and businesses also contributing to the final prizes.
With more than $60,000 on the line, the students test marketed products, lined-up pre-sales, fine-tuned budgets and marketing plans throughout the year. And while their friends and fellow students were vacationing during breaks, they were working to make sure everything had been considered.
Hadley Haselmann 17, who came in fourth place with her business Global Exchange Program, had a particularly challenging experience.
I am the only person who had to start completely over, she said Friday, after her presentation, but before the judges deliberated.
Haselmann said she had a partner that she had invited to join her, but things did not go as she had hoped and had to end the relationship.
I had to rename my company, rebrand, develop a new business model, she said. I learned so much about partnerships and it taught me an important lesson.
Her business idea started on a beach in Puerto Rico after she bought a hand-crafted shell necklace from a man on the beach and that got her thinking about the gifts people around the world have to offer each other.
A bit like a global B & B with an educational component, her business connects travelers and hosts in countries around the world. In a survey Haselmann conducted among 40 experienced travelers, 87 percent said they wanted more purpose in their travels.
Currently, Haselmann has 50 willing hosts and 75 travelers ready to sign up for the experience.
No matter what the outcome, I have already won, she said before the judges decision.
Haselmann was awarded $2,500 for her business.
Other businesses vying for a prize included Music Match, which offers online video chats for at-home private music lessons; Melange, a company that markets clothing across cultural and racial divides; Zs, selling top-quality rolling papers and luxury smoking accessories; Kind Cultures, brews kombucha; Halo Venus, sells delicate Asian desserts; and AuxNation, helps party goers vote for their favorite songs with an app that connects them to DJs.
Halo Venus came in second, winning $10,000, and Music Match came in third, winning $5,000. The top three winners will also receive an additional $15,000 in business services.
After the competition Freirich said, This years competition was the best and most competitive since it began seven years ago. The student entrepreneurs were fantastic, the business plans compelling, and their presentations wowed all of the judges, he said. I was thrilled to see the incredible progress that each and every one of the students has made over the past few months, and even in the last week of preparations leading up to todays final competition.
He continued.
Theres nothing more rewarding than watching these amazingly talented and creative students take on one of the biggest challenges of their lives and succeed. I am extremely proud of all the students, and I know that the competition and the experience has changed many of their lives, he said. A number of students shared this with me tonight and I was very humbled by it. Im immensely proud of the students and to giving back to Skidmore, an institution that has given so much to me.
WHITEHALL No one was more surprised than Morgan ODell when she was named Whitehalls Distinguished Young Women winner Saturday night.
Is this really happening? the high school junior said as tears forced mascara to streak down her face.
Everybody wants pictures and Im crying, she said, wiping her eyes. Mom, fix my makeup.
ODell was the 55th girl to win the Distinguished Young Women scholarship program in Whitehall, an event formerly known as Americas Junior Miss.
The scholarship program allows high school junior girls to compete for scholarship money in five categories interview, scholastic achievement, talent, fitness and self-expression.
Whitehalls Distinguished Young Women also promotes Be Your Best Self, a program that encourages third-grade girls to serve as little sisters to the contestants.
ODell won a $2,500 scholarship to further her education, as well as $250 in cash from former winners. She will represent Whitehall at the state program on July 29 in Cohoes.
For the first time in the programs long history, a Whitehall representative won the state program last summer. Whitehall senior Alexa Brooks handed down her local title Saturday night, but she is the reigning New York State Distinguished Young Women winner and will travel to Mobile, Alabama, at the end of June to compete for the national title.
She gave a farewell speech and performed the song Honey Honey from the Broadway show Mamma Mia! which she will sing in Alabama.
She thanked the town of Whitehall for all its support during the Distinguished Young Women program.
You are all the reason I am so incredibly proud to be from our little town of Whitehall and always will be, Brooks said.
Hannah Bascue won a $500 scholarship for being named second runner-up as well as $100 in cash for winning the self-expression portion of the show. She was asked on stage by emcee Margaret Sparano about what she considered to be the most significant change in the world over the last five years.
Bascue said she saw a change in the way people treat each other.
People nowadays treat each other with such disrespect and negative judgment, which often leads to suicide and self-harm, Bascue answered.
Jessica Bruce took home a $1,000 scholarship as the first runner-up and also won $200 for fitness and talent, in which she performed a ballet on pointe.
Jensen Keough won $100 for the judges interview and Kaylyn Rehm won $100 for scholastic achievement. The spirit award, voted on by the contestants, went to Amanda VanGuilder.
More than 630 girls have participated in the Whitehall program during the past 55 years.
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Home Regional News East
They said the non-payment of book and research allowances due polytechnic teachers by the government is creating frustration for the lecturers.
The National Chairman of the Association, Emmanuel Agyemang addressing the press said "attempts by POTAG to meet the Minister have never materialized as he seems to be avoiding us."
He said this had left the teachers frustrated.
He however, called on government to expedite action on the payment of the Book and Research Allowances (BRA) for the 2016/2017 Academic year which payment is long overdue.
Below is their full statement:
TROUBLE BREWING IN THE NEWLY CONVERTED TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES: NCTE SHOULD BE CALLED TO ORDER.
The Teachers Of Technical Universities And Polytechnics In Ghana (POTAG) have observed with great concern the on-goings of the transition procedure championed especially by the Executive Secretary of the National Council For Tertiary Education (NCTE), Prof. Mohammed Salifu, with the seeming concurrence of the Hon. Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh.
The National Council for Tertiary Educations arbitrary violations of the Technical Universities Act, 2016 (Act 922), is causing disturbances and agitations and could result in likely court actions if the Government does not intervene immediately.
After the conversion of the Polytechnics to Technical Universities, Act 922 vested the running of these institutions in the hands of the various University Councils, but in what looks like a display of power, the NCTE through its Executive Secretary Prof. Mohammed Salifu, is acting ultra vires and usurping the functions of these Councils making the various unions agitated and planning huge demonstrations against their unlawful acts.
READ MORE: POTAG calls for simultaneous conversion of all polytechnics into universities
Some of the issues are:
1. Section 42(1) of Act 922 states: the Council of a Polytechnic converted to Technical University shall be an interim council which shall function for a period of not more than 1 year". But the NCTE has dissolved all these Councils without constituting same to perform the function of ensuring the smooth transition of the various institutions.
2. Section 42(6) of Act 922 states: "a person in the employment of a Polytechnic in existence immediately before the coming into force of this Act, shall be deemed to have been duly employed by the respective Technical University established under this Act on the terms and conditions attached to the post held by that person before the coming into force of this Act".
The NCTE in violation of this provision has written to all key officers of the various Technical Universities making them interim officers, pending new advertisement and appointments, a function which if even legal, is not in their power so to do. The Act gives this power to the Councils of the various Technical Universities which they have deliberately delayed in constituting.
3. Section 26(a) of Act 922 states A council shall ensure the implementation of this Act by Statutes which shall, in particular regulate appointments, Conditions of Service, termination of appointment and retirement benefits of the employees of a Technical University.
READ MORE: Two more Polytechnics to become Universities
The NCTE has again violated this provision by drafting what they call Harmonized Statutes, Conditions of Service and Scheme of Service for all the Technical Universities. The Act per section 27 clearly prescribed how Statutes should be enacted.
4. The Association observes and believes same to be true that the NCTE has a hidden agenda and hence has resorted to a deliberate feet-dragging strategy to frustrate the transition process and destroy the very fine idea of Technical University introduced by the previous Government.
5. The Association also believes that the deliberate feet-dragging is a Machiavellian tactic of the NCTE being employed in the Transitional arrangements to secure the ambition of some of their top Management and cronies from the Traditional Universities to take up key positions in the newly converted Technical Universities. POTAG views these acts as diabolical and shall resist them vehemently.
6. POTAG as a matter of urgency, demands the immediate reconstitution of the Governing Councils of the Technical Universities and Polytechnics by Government to enable:
a. The Technical Universities to champion the smooth transition of the various Technical Universities as mandated by the Technical Universities Act, 2016 (ACT 922).
b. The Conversion of the two (2) remaining Polytechnics (Bolgatanga and Wa) by putting the necessary measures in place to get them converted into Technical Universities as soon as practicable.
7. POTAG would also like to express its displeasure of the seeming tacit support for the NCTE by the Minister for Education, Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh for the flagrant disregard for the Technical Universities Act, 2016 (Act 922) in all these matters. POTAG is of this view because of the following:
a. The Hon. Minister has never sought the view of POTAG as a stakeholder in all these matters which makes his views on the matter skewed towards that of NCTE.
b. All attempts by POTAG to meet the Hon. Minister have never materialized as he seems to be avoiding us. His outfit keeps on re-scheduling meeting appointments but has time to meet NCTE anytime they called on him.
8. Last but not least, POTAG is calling on the Government to expedite action on the payment of the Book and Research Allowances (BRA) for the 2016/2017 Academic year which payment is long overdue. POTAG recalls the Hon. Ministers declaration of the release of the BRA during the Congregations of Sunyani and Takoradi Technical Universities. POTAG is amazed that till date payment of the said allowances have not been sanctioned.
9. We appeal to the Government to intervene to avoid any disruptions in academic work on the various campuses.We wish to express our readiness to collaborate with Government for the development of Technical University Education in Ghana.Long Live POTAG Long Live Technical EducationLong Live Ghana
This was disclosed by the Vice Chancellor of University of Ghana Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu at the Central Cafeteria OF University of Ghana where he observed the Palm Sunday with a group of students.
According to him, these students attempted to hack into the University of Ghana records system (MIS WEB) in order to change their grades
Prof Oduro Owusu said these locked students are under the custody of the Bureau of National Investigation BNI for further investigations.
He adds that the security of the MIS WEB system has been tightened and it would not be easy to get around it.
It is better to fail and resit than to cheat. The resit may be a testimony he remarked.
READ ALSO:University of Ghana retains UPAC title
He concluded by sounding a note of caution to all and sundry that, any student or person for that matter who is found guilty of attempting to hack the system would be expelled and handed over to the police.
The impact of the play was telling, as those who had the chance to watch kept on eulogizing the cast.
As a lover of stage-plays, I felt I had missed out big time. Never again! I told myself.
And so when I had the chance to watch first-hand the dramatic poetry show Amale, I didnt waste much time to get myself to the Alliance Francaise for such an experience.
Now, to the Review.
Amale is a dramatic blend of music, dance, theatre, poetry and spoken word. The word Amale is a Ga dialect which translates as Lies.
As the title suggests, Amale seeks to explore some of the hidden things that humans do, as well as the hypocritical lives which many people live. Written by Nii Ayi Solomon and directed by WK Dziewornu-Norvor, Amale is a dramatic poetry show that weaves fiction into true life stories.
I must confess that upon reaching the Amphitheater of the Alliance Francaise, I thought the show would be a flop. Why? Because the clouds looked gloomy, with thunder striking here and there. It just looked like a heavy downpour was imminent.
The fear of the rains pouring down obviously affected attendance. Mind you, the show was supposed to start at 7pm prompt. However, as at 7:30 it was still yet to kickstart.
But eventually when it did, it was in spectacular fashion.
The event was opened with a brilliant performance from saxophonist Dela Jackson ably assisted by Obuobi Ashong on the guitar as audience were treated to an electric music-filled introduction.
A poem titled Nana Ama was also performed by Mr. Fadi to usher the audience into the real show.
The first scene of the play Amale tells the story of a man named Koku Tawiah Tenge who lived like a saint before the eyes of his family and the entire village but was a snake in real life.
With so many wives, concubines and family members left behind after his death, Koku Tawiahs funeral had everything: drama, suspense and rib-cracking theatrics.
Predictably, no one at the funeral gathered the courage to spill out his bad deeds, as it was all praises. Ever seen a funeral where the Ebusuapayin takes selfies with the dead body? Well, only in the play Amale.
And if you have never seen a corpse read his own autobiography at his funeral, then you should have seen the play 'Amale'.
There is also the scene where five elders of the village thrill audience with deft poetry lines and spoken word. The likes of Koo Kumi, Nene Tetteh Adusu among others, all delivered heart-touching poems that left the audience clapping throughout.
As a night dedicated to the celebration of poetry and spoken word, past legends in the field like Attukwei Okai, Kofi Anyidoho, Kwesi Brew, Kofi Awoonor and Fiifi Abaidoo were given notable mentions as their poems were recited by the cast. It was a befitting tribute to the men although dead and gone who built the foundations of poetry in Ghana.
Then there is this mysterious medicine man whose claims his medicine can cure 52 diseases. Yes 52 diseases! And the manner in which he goes about trying to persuade customers to patronize the medicine just makes the whole scene interesting. From refusing to sell on credit, to demonstrating how the medicine can work all sorts of miracles on the body; he just erupted the whole atmosphere. I tell you, the level of hilarity in this scene cannot be underrated.
There is also the scene which captures five beautiful ladies who call themselves The women on rampage. As each lady passionately laments how unfair society has been to her, the audience are opened to some harsh realities that women face.
Have you also ever wondered why people get married? Is it for money, fame or for love? The play Amale explores the deceit and false truths of marriage life.
It was a real good show put up by Village Minds Productions, but it wasnt without some inconsistencies. The delay in the start of the programme was a real source of worry, as it led to a late closure. Instead of starting at 7pm prompt as scheduled, it took off at almost 8pm.
Again, even though the whole play was meant to celebrate poetry and spoken word, the drama bit was far more relegated. I expected to see some more scenes of drama than I actually saw on the night.
Then I also felt the link between all the various scenes was just not there. Each scene looked like a totally new stage-play was on display. It was a play where if you missed one scene, it would have been difficult to follow or even understand the rest.
Aside the aforementioned points noted, Amale was a well crafted stage-play. I was particularly impressed with the costumes of the cast. Each actor and actress dressed to follow the storyline. Organization was also great, with stage lighting and music all on point.
Event Factory Ghana presents the Easter Comedy Show, a night of unrivalled humour and music.
As part of celebrating Ghanas 60th anniversary, the official comedy show this year will have Ghanas finest comedians DKB, Khemikal, Lekzy and Heiress Jacinta give audience a real treat at the Accra International Conference Center.
Acapella from Nigeria and Salvador from Uganda will join their comedy buddies in Ghana as the Lord of the Ribs gift out a perfect Easter Saturday experience.
READ ALSO: Isaac Opoku wins 2017 Kuenyehia Prize For Contemporary Ghanaian Art
The night will be complimented by the finest musicians around with Becca, Kofi Bentil, and Ofori Amponsah and many more making the show one to remember.
The event is set to take place on Saturday, April 15, 2017 at 8:00pm at the Accra International Conference Center. Tickets are selling for 100 Ghana Cedis regular and 150 Ghana Cedis VIP at the Siver Bird Accra Mall, Frankies (Osu), Baastona Total and Airport Shell.
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The suspects, aged 18 and 19 years respectively, are facing a three-count charge of rape and assault, the Daily Post News reports.
According to Sergeant Joseph Ajebe, the police prosecutor on the case, the offences were committed on the afternoon of Monday, March 27, 2017.
Ajebe revealed that the trio have been Facebook friends for two years prior to the incident.
The accused raped her several times through the anus and later dumped her in the street when they were through.
They were later arrested by the police after the complainant had identified them," said the prosecutor.
The presiding judge, Magistrate Alexander Komolafe, granted the suspects bail in the sum of N450,000 each and two sureties as part of the conditions for bail.
According to the Daily Mail UK News, the supermarket, Veniy, "promised to pay 50,000 RUB (703 GBP) per month to any customers prepared to legally change their surname to that of their brand."
The incident which happened in St Petersburg, Russia, has gained some reactions online following a released footage capturing the act.
One of the viewers of the video, Vladimir Nemchenko, said, "The lorry driver could be prosecuted, just like this guy, as technically he was the one who poured the cement. Why would he agree to do that?"
In the footage, the man was seen gesturing to the driver of a cement mixing truck to commence the savage act of pouring concrete in his wife's car.
Her resignation follows the appointment of an accomplished banker Mr Jude Arthur as the Board Chairman of the Bank.
READ ALSO: GCB Bank Ltd boss resigns
This new development came to effect after some changes were made to the composition of the Board.
Meanwhile former CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mr Moses Asaga, has resigned from the Board of Directors of GCB Bank.
Also resigning from the board are former chair Daniel Owiredu and Ms Faustina Nelson.
The court, presided by Patricia Amposah, charged the eight suspects with causing disturbance in court, resisting arrest and rescuing persons in lawful custody.
The suspects were also denied bail despite arguments by their lawyer, Gary Nimako, that their offence was a bailable one.
READ ALSO: Police arrest eight vigilante members who stormed court to free suspects on trial
He argued that the case centred more on national security and hence his clients should be bailed but the judge refused.
Security was tightened at the court premises today, April 10, 2017.
Background
Some members of Delta Force, a vigilante group associated with the governing New Patriotic Party, besieged the Kumasi Circuit Court and freed its members who were facing charges for attacking the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator.
Reports suggest that the group nearly assaulted the Judge, Mary Senkyire and also destroyed some court properties.
Thirteen (13) members of the group were detained after the group assaulted the newly appointed Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, George Adjei.
READ ALSO: 13 Delta Force escapees report themselves to police
Reports say only two police officers were on duty at the court at the time, with one of them being pregnant.
However, they managed to get the judge Mary Nsenkyire to safety, while Delta Force members vandalised property at the court.
Their application followed the dismal of a previous one which sought to get the case settled out of court.
According to the lawyers for Chabaan, they were of the belief that justice will be fairly served if given the opportunity, as the new the new evidence they had could change the course of the case.
READ ALSO: Marwako supervisor begs for out of court settlement
The application was opposed by the prosecution who argued the defence have had ample opportunities to cross-examine the victim.
Jihad Chaaban dipped the face of a kitchen staffer Evelyn Boakye at the Abelemkpe branch of the eatery into pepper paste.
This inhumane treatment has caused many social media users in Ghana calling for the boycott of the eatery.
We are giving the Akufo Addo led-government a three month ultimatum to STOP GALAMSEY operation in Ghana. Failure to do so shall compel us to drag him to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, he said.
READ ALSO: Suhuyini blasts media for campaign to end galamsey
Pressure is currently mounting on the government to put an end to the illegal mining (galamsey) menace which continues to serve as a threat to water bodies, aquatic life, and agriculture in the country.
However, several efforts by previous governments including setting up an inter-ministerial taskforce in the previous administration seem to have proved futile.
The famous Pra and Tano rivers are among the most polluted water bodies in the mineral-rich Western Region.
Farming activities at many communities in the Ashanti Region, which are also endowed with precious minerals, have also been curtailed due to galamsey.
Mr John Peter Amewu recently gave a three-week ultimatum to all illegal miners to stop their activities or be prepared to face the full rigours of the law.
Commenting on the development, Mr Brew Hammond said the PPP expects the NPP government to gather the political will to prosecute and extradite all foreign galamseyers from Ghana so that our farmers can cultivate more crops to improve their individual livelihoods and that of the nation collectively.
Can a Ghanaian travel to China or any other country to destroy their water bodies? Will they be spared? Or will leaders of such countries tolerate our leaders, calling on their citizens who complain to order as the Chinese are asking us to do? he asked.
Below is the full statement from the PPP:
Ladies and gentlemen, we are all aware of illegal mining in Ghana and how that has already poisoned majority of the nations water bodies, degraded farm lands and is threatening to dry up sources of treatable water, to the extent that we would have to import safe drinking water in less than five years, if the galamsey menace is not stopped with immediate effect.
The devastation of our environment by galamsey did not start today. It has been round for decades under the watch of both NDC and NPP administrations that have, by their omissions and commissions benefitted from its proceeds while in government but turn around to blame the other when in opposition and vice versa.
It is recalled sadly, how in the heat of the 2016 election campaigns, some illegal miners in Obuasi demonstrated against a quit order from the Minerals Commission ordering them to stop gold mining within the concession of Anglogold Ashanti (AGA). The NDC, then seeking re-election looked on for the illegal miners to have their way, because it feared enforcing the quit orders would affect its electoral fortunes.
Reliable information in our possession from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources indicates that 60% to 70% of excavators in Ghana are not used for road construction but rather, illegal mining activities.
The question is; how are the excavators able to move to the mining sites without the knowledge of the Police and the security agencies? Can the NDC and NPP who have ruled this country for 25 years, say they are not aware of the destruction such illegal activities have caused to our farm lands, water bodies, forest reserves and the general health of our people? Is it true that a former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources issued licenses to the Chinese for $40,000.00?
Cocoa farmers have been compelled to sell their farm lands for galamsey cash because the state has failed to guarantee the safety and security of their investments as farmers. No wonder, Ghana continues to experience a reduction of about 100,000 tons per annum in the production of cocoa, contributing to the global reduction trends expected to hit about one million tons.
We simply cannot allow illegal miners to destroy our cocoa growing regions like; the Brong Ahafo, Western, Ashanti and Eastern Regions, all because some people have decided to mine outside the law, and operate their mining activities in prohibited areas in gross violation of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (703).
To that end, we want to commend the recently launched media coalition against illegal mining and encourage them to continue with the concerted effort to help put a stop to galamsey in Ghana. We want to assure the coalition that they have a reliable partner in the PPP as a party in opposition and PPP as a party soon to be in government. We want to send a warning shot to both private and public sector actors that the environment in Ghana is no longer their playground.
We expect the NPP government to gather the political will to prosecute and extradite all foreign galamseyers from Ghana so that our farmers can cultivate more crops to improve their individual livelihoods and that of the nation collectively. Can a Ghanaian travel to China or any other country to destroy their water bodies? Will they be spared? Or will leaders of such countries tolerate our leaders, calling on their citizens who complain to order as the Chinese are asking us to do?
The incident occurred underground as some small-scale miners were scooping gold ore inside mining pits several feet deep, Accra-based Starr FM reports.
The mine workers got trapped inside the dark tunnels after the ground over their heads reportedly collapsed following the explosion.
Eight of the miners, who were said to have been affected by the smoke from the explosives, were rushed to the Upper East Regional Hospital. Two, however, died shortly after arrival.
Five others were said to have died later with one reportedly to be in critical condition.
In the morning, at the time I was leaving, I personally saw most of them. At the time I was leaving, two had passed on. Two of them were in stable state. Four of them were in quite critical state. We have called Tamale to refer them. Later on, there were reports that one or two passed away. That one I have not crosschecked. But I was around when two passed on, the Medical Director at the hospital, Dr. Patrick Atobrah, told Accra-based Starr FM.
According to the Council, the MP giving his support to the group is a dent on the democracy of the country.
A statement signed by General Secretary, Samuel Y. Antwi, said the activities of the vigilante groups undermine the authority of the Presidency, thus eroding the confidence and goodwill that Ghanaians have reposed in the government.
It will be recalled that some members of the Delta Force, besieged the Kumasi Circuit Court last week and freed its members who were facing charges for attacking the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator.
Kennedy Agyapong has disclosed why he supported members of the Delta Force.
He said they [Delta Force] put their lives on the line for the NPP during the election and deserve to be rewarded.
But the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council said "The latest action by the Delta Forces as the highest act of contempt on our judiciary and a serious threat to our democracy, which must be nipped in the bud before they turn into a monster of unexploded political ordinances ready to explode on our faces in a few years to come if we fail to deal with it collectively as a nation."
"For the President of the republic to publicly condemn the acts of these groups as criminals while addressing parliament and recently in Kumasi in the presence of the Otumfuo Asantehene and his call on the Police Service to act, attests to the seriousness of this cancer of political vigilantism in Ghana.
"While it is gratifying to note that the Ashanti Regional Police Command has taken the necessary steps in not only arresting some of those criminal elements who attacked the court and the judge, but have rearrested the original 13 Delta Force members standing trial, we urge them to ensure their successful prosecution to serve as a deterrent to those contemplating similar actions and also to restore the polices battered image in the eyes of the ordinary Ghanaian.
"We also call on the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to openly condemn the actions of the Delta Force, the Invisible Forces and any such similar groups within their ranks, disown and dismantle them to demonstrate to Ghanaians its abhorrence to such extremist elements as a political party.
According to him, the President and his appointees should strive and work hard to perfect the system and ensure law and order.
He said "Our leaders must minimise their mistakeslook too many mistakes have been committed in less than 100 days, the mistakes are too many, and they target the wrong people. Leaders must minimise their mistakes."
His comments come after some members of the Delta Force, a group associated with the New Patriotic Party, besieged the Kumasi Circuit Court last week and freed its members who were facing charges for attacking the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator.
Reverend Prof. Emmanuel Martey speaking on vigilante groups in the country said the activities of such groups are a dent on the countrys democracy.
Addressing a graduation ceremony of the Christ Apostolic University College at Kumasi in the Ashanti region, he said "The methods of the pro-violent vigilante groups like the Invisible Forces, Delta Force, Bolga Bull dogs, Western Crocodiles and all the rest with their unorthodox modus operandi have doubtlessly been a severe dent on the democratic credentials of our country and the earlier the government puts a halt to this national shame and puts damage control strategies in place, the better for our young democracy; Ghanaians are watching.
The methods of the pro-violent vigilante groups like the Invisible Forces, Delta Force, Bolga Bull dogs, Western Crocodiles and all the rest with their unorthodox modus operandi have doubtlessly been a severe dent on the democratic credentials of our country and the earlier the government puts a halt to this national shame and puts damage control strategies in place, the better for our young democracy; Ghanaians are watching.
You came in less than three months ago but Ghanaians are watching. Minimise your mistakes, violence is violence no matter who commits it, violence is violence no matter who perpetuates it, and must be condemned in no uncertain terms. Ghana must not be taken years or decades back, we must move rather forward into freedom and justice, progress and development in order to bring into fruition the vision of our political forebearers, Rev. Martey told a gathering in Kumasi.
It will be recalled that some members of the Delta Force, a group associated with the governing New Patriotic Party, besieged the Kumasi Circuit Court last week and freed its members who were facing charges for attacking the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator.
The 13 escapees have since reported themselves to the police.
Regional groups and international actors have worked in recent months to bring the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition to the table and a resolution.
Those efforts have thus far achieved little, and Navy Adm. Kurt Tidd, chief of US Southern Command, raised the situation to the US Senate in his most recent posture report, delivered last week.
"Venezuela faces significant instability in the coming year due to widespread food, and medicine shortages; continued political uncertainty; and a worsening economic situation," Tidd said in written testimony submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The growing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela could eventually compel a regional response."
Efforts by outside parties to shepherd Venezuela toward a resolution have been complicated, especially because Maduro has in the past used the specter of international interference to blunt criticism at home and abroad.
The Organization of American States has, in recent weeks, attempted to get the Maduro government to allow elections and back off its crackdown on protests and civil society, with the body's chief, Luis Almagro, aiming to use access to international credit lines and expulsion from the regional body as his carrot and stick.
And Maduro's own attorney general criticized the move a rare show of dissent within party ranks.
Recent street protests mostly peaceful but at times marked by violence, including confrontations between security forces and demonstrators and the death of a 19-year-old shot last week in Caracas appear to have been stirred up after a long lull, in part by the regional response to government actions.
"They really have just activated in the last two weeks," David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, told the BBC of the protests. "And I think thats in large part because of the actions of the international community the discussions, the denunciations on the part of regional countries and multilateral institutions."
Where the crisis in Venezuela, home to the world's largest oil reserves, goes from here remains unclear.
The Trump administration appears to be taking a more hardline stance with Venezuela.
Maduro, likely encouraged by Trump's warm words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has tried to court the US president, but Trump has met with Venezuelan opposition leaders and appears to be showing little interest in dealing with the Maduro government. On Monday, the US State Department issued a statement calling on Maduro to "stop silencing opposition voices."
More US involvement may not be for the better, however, as Washington "
The Maduro government appears to be working to undermine the opposition to secure an advantage in future elections that many have called for.
Earlier this month, opposition leader Henrique Capriles was barred from holding public office for 15 years, a move the US State Department said it "
Capriles also warned his partners in the opposition coalition they could soon receive the same sanction.
Opposition parties are also being required to "revalidate" themselves through petitions with a minimum number of signatures.
Many of those parties worry the government could still dissolve them by disallowing large numbers of those signatures.
The opposition, for its part, has called for the removal of judges they accuse of orchestrating a judicial "coup," further stoking worry about the country's democratic stability.
While Maduro himself claims to be open to local elections and his government has shown some signs of assenting to international demands, either because of promises of aid or rebuke, it has been far from welcoming.
On Sunday, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told Latin American countries that have recently criticized Maduro to "get their noses out of Venezuela."
The book, "The Operator" by Robert O'Neill, recounts the former Navy chief's career spanning 400 missions, though his role with the elite SEAL team's raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, has become his most consequential.
According to O'Neill, he was walking behind his fellow SEALs as they searched bin Laden's three-story compound. Upstairs, they could roughly make out bin Laden's son Khalid, who had an AK-47.
"Khalid, come here," the SEALs whispered to him. He poked his head out and was shot in the face.
An unnamed point man and O'Neill proceeded up to the third floor. After they burst into bin Laden's bedroom, the point man tackled two women, thinking they might have suicide vests, as O'Neill fired at the Al Qaeda founder.
"In less than a second, I aimed above the woman's right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice," he wrote, according to the New York Daily News. "Bin Laden's head split open, and he dropped. I put another bullet in his head. Insurance."
There is some dispute over who fired the fatal shots, but most accounts are that O'Neill shot bin Laden in the head at some point. According to a deeply reported article in The Intercept, O'Neill "canoed" the head of bin Laden, delivering a series of shots that split open his forehead into a V shape.
O'Neill's book says the operators had to press bin Laden's head back together to take identifying photos. But that wasn't the end of the mutilation of bin Laden's body, according to Jack Murphy of SOFREP, a special-operations news website.
Two sources told Murphy in 2016 that several SEALs took turns dumping round after round into bin Laden's body, which ended up having more than 100 bullet holes in it.
Murphy, a former Army Ranger, called it "beyond excessive."
"The picture itself would likely cause an international scandal, and investigations would be conducted which could uncover other operations, activities which many will do anything to keep buried," he wrote.
After bin Laden's body was taken back to Afghanistan for full identification, it was transported to the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) for burial at sea. Somewhere in the Arabian Sea on May 2, 2011, a military officer read prepared religious remarks, and bin Laden's body was slid into the sea.
The question for US President Donald Trump now becomes: How deeply does the US want to get involved in the most complex situation in the Middle East?
The Tomahawk missiles, launched from the USS Ross and the USS Porter at dawn local time on Friday, are the first US strikes on the Assad regime, according to a statement from the Pentagon.
The strikes have received broad approval from more mainstream Republicans, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, and cautious approval from Democrats. Hours before the US launched the missiles, Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former secretary of state, said the previous administration "should have been more willing to confront Assad" after previous chemical attacks killed thousands of innocent civilians.
There are conflicting reports about how much damage the strikes caused. The BBC has reported that the Syrian airbase is "now out of service" and that "all jets seem to be destroyed." And Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said that the strike "has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat airfield, reducing the Syrian government's ability to deliver chemical weapons."
ABC News, however, the effectiveness of the US strikes was "extremely low" and that only 23 of the 59 missiles hit their targets.
In any case, many Syrians are jubilant.
"This is the happiest news I have heard in my life," a resident of Khan Sheikhoun, where the chemical attack took place, told reporter Richard Hall.
"It was absolutely the right decision," Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, told Business Insider on Friday morning. "For the first time in six years, the dictator Assad understands that if he uses chemical weapons against kids he will be punished and there will be consequences."
Others used Facebook and Twitter to express their relief that Assad had finally been held accountable.
"Never again" must not become "Well, maybe just this once"
Military and national-security experts broadly agreed that the strikes were a good move. But they also said the attack was largely symbolic a focused strike on a narrow target and wouldn't complicate the Assad regime's ability to carry out large-scale massacres in the future.
"The American strike on Shayrat air base in Syria is an appropriate response to [Assad's] mass homicide," said Fred Hof, the director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and former US special adviser on Syria.
It "will either be a one-time, one-off, fire-and-forget retaliation for a heinous chemical-weapons assault on civilians, or it will serve as a signal to the Assad regime and its allies that the free ride for mass murder in Syria is now over," Hof said.
If the strikes were meant as a message, the Assad regime and its allies have not taken it sitting down.
The Syrian army immediately accused the US of "blatant aggression," saying the strikes killed six people and caused "big material losses." The army also said it would respond by continuing to "crush terrorism" an indication that it will continue to attack areas held by rebels, who have long been characterized by the Assad regime as terrorists.
Meanwhile, Iran and Russia, two staunch Assad allies, are slamming the US for the strikes and doubling down on their efforts to defend the regime.
On Friday morning, the Kremlin condemned the US "aggression against a foreign state," saying it broke international law. Russia then redirected a ship armed with cruise missiles to the eastern Mediterranean and vowed to bolster its air defenses at Syrian air bases.
"Washington's step will inflict major damage on US-Russia ties," Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Friday.
The popular mood in Russia appears to be different from the government's knee-jerk reaction, however.
"There will be many screams on the Russian television with people condemning the strikes, but everybody understands that this is just a symbolic act meant for Trump to look different from Obama," Vladimir Frolov, a foreign-affairs analyst, told The New York Times.
"There won't be any tangible reaction," he said. "This was a one-off strike."
Russia's dedication to protecting Assad is a major reason "the distinction between one-off retaliation and complicating mass homicide in a sustained manner is critical," Hof said.
"There is no administration interest in violent regime change, invasion, or occupation," he added. "There may, and should be, interest in getting Assad out of the mass-homicide business altogether."
Speaking to reporters on Thursday night, however, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that "obviously, the regime will retain a certain capacity to commit mass murder with chemical weapons beyond this airfield," but that Americans "should not in any way extrapolate" that the strikes "changed our policy or posture on Syria in any way."
"Through the Geneva process, we will start a political process to resolve Syria's future in terms of its governance structure," Tillerson said. "That ultimately, in our view, will lead to a resolution of Bashar al-Assad's departure."
Hof cautioned against this approach, arguing that "with civilians on Assad's bull's-eye, there can be no sustainable peace talks or political compromise in Geneva or anywhere."
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The Russia Foreign Ministry announced that it suspended an agreement to avoid clashes between Russian and US-led coalition jets over Syrian airspace, while Reuters reporter Idrees Ali reports that Russia withdrew from a deconfliction channel, which the US used Thursday night to warn Russian forces of the incoming cruise-missile strikes (which took place Friday morning local time).
This comes as the US has jets flying missions against the Islamic State terrorist group in eastern Syria mere miles from Russian jets in western Syria supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad. Without channels and agreements to communicate, the risk of accidental conflict between the world's two largest nuclear powers grows.
At the same time, Sim Tack of Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis firm, told Business Insider that the deconfliction channel "may be reinstated soon."
Additionally, "the US has a serious amount of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets at its disposal where they can monitor airspace effectively and minimize that risk," Tack said. Essentially, the US can use drones, radars, and satellites to make sure the path is clear before launching any strikes.
Russia has condemned Friday's US strike, which was launched from two US destroyers in retaliation to the chemical-weapon attack this week that killed at least 80 people in the northwestern part of the country. Many world leaders have hailed the move.
More than 30 White House staffers were at the Tuesday meeting. Dubke and his deputy, Jessica Ditto, pitched a "rebranding" of Trump's first 100 days in office, which have been dominated by controversy and a lack of legislative achievement, according to the Politico report.
Aides told Politico that Dubke told them it would be difficult to come up with a messaging strategy for Trump's foreign policy because "there is no Trump doctrine," much to the shock of some in the room. One person at the meeting told the news organization that those on the campaign felt there was a pretty clear Trump doctrine of "America First."
Dubke told Politico he was dismayed that staffers would voice their complaints in the press rather than at the meeting.
"It was a brainstorming session, and I really wish they had spoken up in the room so that we could have had an open and honest conversation," he said. "It is unproductive adjudicating internal discussions through the media."
Additionally, Dubke said the "rebranding" remark was misinterpreted.
"There is not a need for a rebranding, but there is a need to brand the first 100 days," he said. "Because if we don't do it, the media is going to do it. That's what our job is."
First, the basic facts:
The vitamin industry in general is
Vitamin D refers to a group of nutrients that help you absorb calcium, as well as other minerals necessary for a healthy body.
Your body produces Vitamin D naturally. (Just add sun.) A bit of sunlight on your skin gets your chemical factories churning out the nutrient. You can also get it from some foods, like fish and fortified milk.
Lacking Vitamin D is bad for your joints and bones, and there's
However, there's reason to think too many people are being diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency.
Starting about ten years ago, researchers began to worry that many people, especially in colder climates where winter forces humans indoors, may be lacking Vitamin D. Doctors and medical journals in the US started pushing to screen for deficiencies and increase the Vitamin D intake of the general population. Medicare beneficiaries received 83 times more blood tests for Vitamin D in 2010 than in 2000.
But "deficiency" is a fuzzy term. Many labs will apply it to someone with 20 to 30 nanograms per milliliter in their bloodstream, which is likely a perfectly healthy level. As a result, thousands of patients may be going home with Vitamin D supplements they don't need. And recent studies have shown little in the way of medical benefits (though there is debate on that subject).
There are real consequences to over-consuming Vitamin D, though. Vitamin D toxicity can cause calcium to build up in your bloodstream, leading to fatigue, nausea, and vomiting.
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Kumapayi, on Monday, April 10, 2016, carried out a general inspection on the staff of the FRSC headquarters in Port Harcourt.
According to Guardian, the inspection covered the uniform and fingernails, as well as the hairdos of FRSC personnel.
The FRSC Commander also ensured that the female officers whose hair styles allegedly ran foul of the requirements of the FRSC got an on-the-spot haircut.
ALSO READ: 270 persons died in road crashes in 2016 FRSC commander
While most Nigerians have described the action as a violation of the rights of the affected officers, an FRSC officer faulted the claim.
"As it is with the military, an (FRSC) female officer is not supposed to wear long hair while on uniform," the officer told on the condition of anonymity.
Tribune reports that the retired soldier had set up the brothel shortly after he left the Nigerian Army in Odo Owa community, Ijero Local Government Area of the state.
It was gathered that on the day Samuel was killed, he had just collected his pension which ran into a huge amount of money and when he got to the brothel, the resident prostitutes who had heard about the money from one of their colleagues who was the victim's lover, seized him, tied him up, beat him with different weapons before setting him on fire.
Confirming the incident, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Alberto Adeyemi, said the deceased was attacked by the harlots who rented some rooms from him.
The man just collected his pension and thrifts, which the prostitutes became aware of. They dispossessed him of the money and tied him to a bed in the house.
The NDLEA in a statement, say the 33-year-old suspect, Umeme Lotachukwu Fabian, was arrested while on the deadly trip to Indonesia, a country where drug traffickers are given the death sentence, with 1.205kg of narcotics found to be methamphetamine.
The Anambra State-born suspect was said to be arrested while boarding a Qatar Airways flight with a Cote dIvoire International passport bearing the name Grou Bi Clauvis.
Fabian who also had on him an identity card claiming to be an Ivorian, was said to have 89 wraps of the methamphetamine while he was put on observation by the officials of the NDLEA.
Confirming the arrest of the suspect, Ahmadu Garba, the NDLEA Commander at the Lagos Airport said that preliminary investigation conducted by the agency revealed that the suspect who attended Boys Secondary School, Onitsha where he graduated in 2007, started selling clothes at Onitsha main market after his secondary education before he travelled to India in search of greener pastures in 2013 and returned to the country in 2015.
In his confessional statement, Fabian said that he was offered the sum of $5, 000 to smuggle the drugs to Indonesia by an unnamed baron.
"I am the only son of my parents. I wanted to invest the money in my clothes business and also commence preparation for my marriage in a bid to settle down in life. They offered me the sum of five thousand dollars to smuggle the drugs to Indonesia."
He also stated that he was not aware that drug trafficking attracts capital punishment in Indonesia.
PM Express reports that Adam had lured the little boy who is his neighbour's son into an uncompleted building at City Estate in the Alakuko area of Lagos State where he raped him, as a result badly injuring the minor landing him in the hospital.
Adam was arrested and charged before Lagos court with unlawful carnal knowledge of the victim.
It was gathered that after the accused lured the victim to the uncompleted building, he removed his clothes and attempted to penetrate his anus but due to the size of his manhood, he was unable to do so.
Adam allegedly brought out a cream which he used to rob on his penis and the victims anus and forcefully penetrated him.
After he was done, the little went home and informed his parents of what the neighbour had done to him and the father of the victim reported the matter to the police who arrested Adam and had him charged at the Ogba Magistrates Court.
Punch reports that Orim was ordered remanded in the Abakaliki Federal Prison by Magistrate Nnachi Olughu on Friday, April 7, 2017, till May 5, 2017, when her case would be heard at a resumed hearing.
In the suit numbered MAB/225/ 2017, the accused who was arraigned on one count of murder was said to have bitten Idam to death on March 22, 2017, in Amuzu Ezeke, in the Ezza-South Local Government Area of the state during a fight.
It was gathered that the victim died two days later in a hospital in the town as a result of the bite he got from the suspect.
The charge read:
That you, Oko Idam Orim, on March 22, 2017, at Amuzu Ezeke, Abakaliki, in the Abakaliki Magisterial District, did give a bit to one Nkama Idam and caused his death, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 319 (1 ) of the Criminal Law Code Cap 33, Vol. 1, Laws of Ebonyi State, Nigeria, 2009.
Thousands of people have been made homeless as the Ambode led government accelerates its plans to make a new Lagos a reality.
Yesterday's latest attack saw more people flee from Otodo Gbame in canoes as their homes burnt. Some of the residents of the shanty town were shot, and one person was confirmed dead.
The Lagos state government defended the measure taken with Otodo Gbame. According to the state government, the shanty town is being demolished because it is illegal and a hideout for militants.
Granted these are good reasons but it is not enough to leave innocent people homeless with nowhere to rest their heads. In Lagos, no one speaks up for poor people. The reason why these people lived in an illegal shanty town is because of the housing problem in Lagos.
In this dear city of ours, there is a housing deficit of 2.55 million as of May 2016. The Lagos state government needs to build 187,500 housing units every year till 2021 to cancel this deficit.
The Minister of Works, Housing and Power Babatunde Raji Fashola in June 2016 revealed that Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt would need more houses because of people migrating from rural areas to these cities.
Fashola, however, did not state if the housing plan for Lagos will tackle the deficit problem by 2021.
In January 2017, World Economic Forum (WEF) described Lagos as the fastest growing city in the world with 85 people coming into the city every hour. By the end of this year, 744, 600 would have moved to Lagos.
The Lagos state government evidently has not done enough to deal with housing problem in the city. Instead of addressing this, it has decided to sweep the problem under the rug and build a new shiny city reserved only for the rich.
Lagos is marching towards a mega city. Eko Atlantic and the Lagos Free Trade Zone point to that. The sad thing about this ambitious plan that it has no room for the hardworking and average people in the city.
Shanty towns in Lagos exist because of the housing deficit that the state government refuses to do anything tangible about. For those who can afford to rent apartments, Shylock landlords demand they pay two years in advance. The state government has yet to curtail this practice.
On the other side of town, Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki are swamped with empty houses, flats and apartments. No one can live in them because the rent rates and prices are outrageous.
The common man is becoming an endangered species in Lagos. No one here thinks about the common man. If you live in a shanty town, the elitists who want to build their own Dubai will burn your home while you sleep with your family. No one will speak up for you.
When you can afford a decent house, your landlord will hit you with rent fee, agent fee, and other miscellaneous crap designed to milk you dry. The sad thing is the government will not come to your aid. Rather they will leave you at the mercy of greedy landlords.
Even if you are rich, are you rich enough to live in the overpriced homes in Lekki, Victoria Island or Ikoyi? Most likely not. The middle-class man and the poor man are being chased out of Lagos. No one speaks for them. No one fights for them.
The only crime in Nigeria is to be poor. You can be corrupt and would not end up in jail. You can kill someone and walk the streets like a free man. If you are poor, however, you are treated like scum. Your hard earned money is taken away from you. Your home will be taken from you. Everything you've worked hard for will be taken from you.
This revelation was made by the Director General, Media, and Publicity to the state Governor, Kingsley Fanwo who disclosed that Yusuf, a serving officer attached to Kaduna State Police Command, had been drawing the pension as a teacher from 2004 to 2016 when the scam was uncovered.
The culprit with force NO-86581 was arrested on March 6, 2017, by the State Staff Screening Appeal Committee when it was discovered that apart from his police salary, he was also getting the pension regularly.
Yusuf's luck ran out when he was accosted by both the State and Local Government Auditor Generals as he was suspected to be too young to qualify for the pension.
Fanwo narrated that Yusuf claimed to have worked briefly as a primary school teacher in LGEA Ayegba Primary School in Idah Local Government Area before proceeding to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, after which he joined the Nigeria Police Force.
"The report of the forensic audit carried out on the documents submitted by Mohammed shows that he forged his age as well as employments records and bribed his way through some dubious officers of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
Apart from the SUBEB staff, he also bribed some staff of the Local Government Pension Board to get himself placed on the pension payroll.
Further review of the bank statement revealed that the Police Officer has been receiving the sum of N46,878.30 on monthly basis.
Superintendent Yusuf who confessed to committing the crime has agreed to pay back the sum of N6, 328, 421.43 he has fraudulently taken from the State for the past 12 years, and appealed for forgiveness from the entire people of Kogi State," Fanwo concluded.
The Director General of the the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, said the vaccines have been procured for the States and should be administered free across Nigeria.
According to Shuaib, the agencys attention has been drawn to news report of sharp practices of some health workers who are alleged to be demanding payments and other forms of financial incentives from innocent members of the general public before being vaccinated against
The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, therefore, wishes to put on record, emphatically, that vaccination against cerebrospinal meningitis, like other vaccination in the National Immunization schedule, is provided free of charge for all members of the public by the federal government."
Shuaib advised members of the public to avoid overcrowded places, maintain strict hygiene regime, avoid close contact with infected persons and sleep in well ventilated rooms.
The disease has so far claimed more than 300 lives in 16 States of the federation.
Most of the worst hit States are in Nigeria's north.
Summoned with Magu are Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
They are expected to appear on Tuesday before the Houses Ad hoc Committee investigating the alleged theft of the oil funds.
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas, announced the invitation of the three persons at the opening of the investigation on Monday in Abuja, following the committees displeasure that the chief executives sent their subordinates to represent them.
Also summoned are Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside and Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris.
Also to appear before the committee on the issue are Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr Stephen Sejebor and a Director at the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr Modecai Ladan.
Namdas, who is also the spokesman of the lower chamber, said that since the nation depended on oil proceeds, no fight against corruption could be meaningful without serious searchlight on the oil industry.
According to him, this is especially when the perpetrators are high and mighty and inexorably the models the society looks up to.
The committee chairman warned that the House would not hesitate to invoke its constitutional powers to compel the invited chief executives to appear, if they defaulted.
He, therefore, turned back directors and other management staff who were sent as representatives of their respective organisations at the committees sitting.
Namdas had said earlier that reports had it that over 57 million barrels of crude oil were illegally exported and sold in the U.S. between January, 2011 and December, 2014.
He said that the estimated revenue loss by the government of Nigeria is around 12 billion dollars.
At an exchange rate of N196 to a dollar, this translates to over N2 trillion. You can imagine what the value is now, he said.
According to him, the corruption in the oil industry distorts public policy, creates misappropriation and misapplication of resources.
Namdas added that it vitiates private sector and private sector development and over and above all, it undermines good governance and ultimately hurts the poor most.
Declaring the investigative hearing open earlier, Speaker of the House, Mr Yakubu Dogara, said incidents of stolen and missing money at the NNPC and entire oil industry had become an albatross to development of the nation.
Dogara decried the situation, saying that if not for the constant theft in the industry, the nation would not have been in economic recession at the moment.
The incidence of money missing in the industry has become a recurrent decimal to the point that news items in the media are incomplete without mention of the ills of the industry.
The reports of the media on the ills in oil industry clearly attest to the concern of the government to tackle corruption in the industry head on.
The speaker, who was represented by the Minority Whip, Rep. Yakubu Barde, said that the country had received disturbing audit reports about the oil industry.
He said that the report involving International Oil Companies (IOCs) was that about 4.4 billion dollars was trapped somewhere instead of being remitted to the Federation Account.
He cited a report from an anti-corruption organisation, the Action Network for Economic Justice, which claimed that NNPC did not remit over 12 billion dollars to the federation account since 2009.
The same organisation alleged that the sum of 5.9 billion dollars of the federation account were lost to offshore processing agreements and through crude theft in the country.
According to the speaker, if loss of revenue to the nation through the oil industry is to be avoided, I can beat my chest that under no circumstances should Nigeria talk about recession.
Therefore, no amount of investigation in the oil industry can be said to be an over-kill as the oil industry has become endemic.
The investigation of the 17 billion dollars, therefore, remains part of the ongoing process in confronting the hydra-headed monster, he said.
Charly Boy lamented governments inability to secure the release of the remaining 195 girls from their Boko Haram captors after three years.
Everything is wrong with Nigeria, there is enough impunity and I'm just mad because my fellow frustrated Nigerians are just too docile, he said.
The government can't do anything for us. For a government that cannot protect its citizens that government is sitting on a keg of gun powder because that protection of the looters, the scammers we all have here cannot be guaranteed.
If our protection is no longer guaranteed, theirs cannot be guaranteed.
It's time to do something, they can't give us a good life. So what are we leaving for. Me I no dey live say I go die for nothing. I must die for something.
Recently, Charlie Boy led protesters to the National Assembly complex in Abuja to protest alleged corruption in the legislature.
According to the Associated Press, the US Congress is expected to receive formal notification from the executive within weeks, regarding the sale.
The arrangement will call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million, one unnamed official in the Trump presidency, told AP.
The U.S has been wary of selling weapons to Nigeria in the past, owing to fears over human rights violations.
According to the story, the Barack Obama administration pulled the plug on selling fighter aircraft to Nigeria the same day a fighter jet mistakenly bombed a camp for internally displaced persons in Rann, Borno State.
Over 200 civilians lost their lives in that January 17 bombing.
But the US is soft-pedalling under Trump.
The US State Department said in a 2016 report that the Nigerian government has taken "few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government."
The decision to sell high grade weaponry to Nigeria has enjoyed some backing within the highest levels of power in the U.S.
"It's hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the U.S.,"J. Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and head of its Africa Center, said, according to AP.
Senator John McCain also threw his weight behind weapons sale to Nigeria.
"We've really got to try to do what we can to contain them," McCain said of Boko Haram.
We do not have to do everything in Lagos. There is this movement and notion within Ndi Igbo that we should bring our investment home."
If we really mean it, I do not see reasons why people from here must go to Lagos before they get quality print; that is why we have established a world-class printing press in the South-East, precisely in Awka, the Anambra capital."
Today, we have experts from outside the South-East, working and running the world-class printing press."
They are currently transferring knowledge to our people and expanding our local market, Ezeemo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)on Monday in Enugu.
The publisher, who also gave reasons why her firm participated in the ongoing 2017 Enugu International Trade Fair, said: With this, we are doing what we are preaching; that is Ndi Igbo investing at home."
We want to focus in this region and have some national and international news to complement it.
The Enugu International Trade Fair, which is being supported by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, is organised to showcase Nigerias non-oil products.
The theme of the 28th edition is: Promoting Nigerias Industrial Sector and SMEs for Inclusive and Robust Economy.
Mr Thomas Ogiri, the Head of Service (HoS) in the state, made this disclosure while addressing newsmen on Monday in Lafia.
Ogiri explained that the fund was sourced from the Paris club remittance fund which accrued to the state.
He said the gesture was to alleviate the sufferings and pains of citizens in view of the current economic realities.
He said a committee had been constituted to ensure the success of the distribution of cheques to beneficiaries as from April 12 in Lafia.
All the state beneficiaries are expected to check their names on the notice board of the HoS office, the state Pension Bureau, secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners and the Lafia city hall, he said.
Ogiri urged beneficiaries to come along with their National Identity Cards, original copies of their letters of retirement or letter of administration for the deceased persons and two coloured passport photographs for verification.
He reiterated the governors commitment to the welfare of pensioners, adding that in view of the current economic situation, it would be done quarterly.
Chief Robert Clarke, SAN, Ofili-Ajumogobias new lead defence counsel, challenged the courts jurisdiction on Monday in an application brought before Justice Hakeem Oshodi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Clarke, a new addition to Ofili-Ajumogobias defence team, has joined Mr Olawale Akoni, SAN, to defend the embattled judge.
Mr Odein Ajumogobia, the brother-in-law to the judge and a former Minister of Petroleum Resources and Foreign Affairs, was also in court to lend support.
Mr Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN, the defence counsel to Mr Godwin Obla, SAN, Ofili-Ajumogobias co-defendant, asked the court to hear the application alongside the suit in order to speed up the trial.
My Lord, it is my humble submission that having regard to the Administration of Criminal Justice Law that this issue be taken with the substantive suit even though it is a joint trial.
This is the argument of the first defendant and not of the second defendant, he said.
Justice Oshodi did not grant Adedipes request but adjourned the case until April 28 for ruling on Clarkes application.
NAN reports that Ofili-Ajumogobia is standing trial alongside Mr Godwin Obla, SAN, a former prosecutor of the EFCC.
The duo is jointly charged with a two-count offence of perverting the course of justice.
Obla is facing an additional two counts of offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Ofili-Ajumogobia, a public official, while serving as a judge.
Ofili-Ajumogobia faces a 26-count charge bordering on unlawful enrichment, taking property by a public officer, corruption by a public officer, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.
Both denied all the charges.
Four prosecution witnesses three bankers and one Bureau-de-Change operator have so far testified in the trial for the prosecution.
Mr Martins Dickson, Special Assistant, Press and Media Affairs to Gov. Mohammed Bindow said this in a statement on Monday in Yola.
He appealed to residents and road users to exercise patience and cooperate with security agents during the period.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the vice president will visit Adamawa on Thursday to inaugurate some projects executed by the Bindow administration in the state.
NAN also reports that preparations have reached feverish level towards the successful hosting of Osinbajo by the state government.
And Im yet to recover from that trip.
We came face to face with poverty at its most demeaning and excruciating worst.
Days earlier, the Lagos State government had deployed armed police officers and other law enforcement personnel to the swathe of shanties and shacks.
By some estimates, Otodo Gbame is a settlement of over 6,000 dwellers or more.
By midday of March 17, 2017, the community had been reduced to rubble.
When Pulse arrived, the entire place was deserted.
Some of the residents on the ground on the day, promised to continue carrying on with their daily living from Otodo Gbame; even though they had been asked by the government to evacuate their wares from the land or be damned.
And heres where the problem lies.
The government had asked the residents of Otodo Gbame to leave that parcel of land that has been their home for years, without an alternative relocation plan in place.
The settlers were stunned by this. They adduced their sorry plight to their Ikate Elegushi neighbours who they accuse of eyeing their land just so they can sell same to rich developers.
Theres a court order asking the Lagos State government not to dislodge residents of 15 waterfront communities including Otodo Gbame.
But that didnt stop the Lagos State government from invading Otodo Gbame last Sunday, April 9, 2017, for a second time--with more armed police officers and other paramilitary units in the bargain.
There have been reports of stray bullets ending the lives of two persons. There have been images of young men of Otodo Gbame community being lacerated with bullet wounds.
There have been images of the residents fleeing on canoes. There have been images of pregnant women forced to paddle their own canoes, while fleeing the bullets and jackboots behind them.
When Pulse visited last month, residents lamented that their only sin is that they are poor.
The Lagos State government says it is forcibly evicting the inhabitants of that waterfront slum because it wants to preserve the environment around the city's coastline.
According to the Lagos State government monitoring team, Credible intelligence gathering shows that militants are living amongst the people in Otodo Gbame and are perfecting plans to attack Lekki and Victoria Island. Credible intelligence gathering shows that militants are living amongst the people in Otodo Gbame and are perfecting plans to attack Lekki and Victoria Island.
The Lagos State government in collaboration with security agencies will stop at nothing to secure the State.
The government will not succumb to emotional blackmail and will stand by this decision because it is in the best interest of all residents".
In one breath, the government says it wants to clean up the Otodo Gbame environment and in yet another, it says it wants to flush out militants.
From the Lagos State governments logic, the solution to dealing with militants is to level up whole settlements and chase the inhabitants into the creeks.
To hear the government say it, this method should also work in the Niger Delta where militants have made bombing of oil installations, a pastime.
Its a silly logic, really.
Sound logic says you set up a proper resettlement plan before going in with the tractors and backhoes. The Lagos State government firmly put the cart before the horse in this case.
The governments excuse for killing the people and demolishing their shelter is untenable.
Militants and rogues abound in every corner of Lagos.
Lagos will be a wasteland if militants and 'agberos' are the trigger for raiding whole communities.
The sorry story of Otodo Gbame is that of inequality in the midst of plenty, the result of zero social security schemes for the less privileged and the drive to build a mega city in the midst of mega poverty.
Ambode now has blood on his hands.
The blood of the young men who were gunned down in Otodo Gbame last Sunday has now become his cross to carry.
In building mega cities and skyscrapers, our nation has got to first address the endemic poverty that has ravaged the land while government officials loot away the treasury.
There is no excuse for killing people because they wouldnt leave a land theyve called theirs for many years.
Government has got to have a human face. When government intervenes, it must do so as peaceably as possible. It must enlighten the people as much as possible. The barrel of a gun should not be resorted to.
In a few days, Lagos will roll out the drums to celebrate 50 years of existence. It will do so having just killed innocents and evicted some of its labour force unjustly.
Ambode failed with this one. The planning and execution was piss poor. The deaths and bullet wounds were pretty avoidable.
Its an open secret that one of the factors which led to the acceptance and popularity of the APC amongst majority of Nigerians leading to the 2015 general elections is its stance against corruption. This principle was vigorously championed by President Muhammadu Buhari, who is known to be an anti-corruption scar.
However, that the former administration under the leadership of Goodluck Jonathan stinks of corruption cant be overemphasized, this was evident in the unraveled various economic crimes, perpetuated under the watch of the former president, by the current administration. In light of the foregoing, its easy to conclude that most of the actors in this heinous act are members of the former ruling party, PDP.
In pursuant to the fulfilment of his pre-election vow, Buhari hit the ground running with his fight against corruption, and in fairness to him, this has yielded some measure of success thus far. But, despite the relative successes, there still lingers a question about the credibility of Buharis anti-corruption campaign with some section of the public labelling it a witch-hunt, while some people are of the opinion that its an effort aimed at persecuting people loyal to the former president Goodluck Jonathan.
Disappointingly, this notion was given credence by the wanton reluctance, or in some cases, deliberate refusal of the Buhari led government to prosecute certain individuals - especially members of his political party APC - who have corruption allegations hanging over their heads. This fact, sadly undisputable, has encouraged some politically exposed persons to seek refuge in the ruling party, APC.
Consequently, a number of ex-public office holders which include: governors, ministers, political appointees, chieftains and ordinary members of the once biggest political party in Africa, PDP, have defected to APC.
Although, some may argue that the infighting, factionalism and ceaseless court cases which have characterized the PDP in recent time are responsible for this mass exodus, that is an argument for another day. But the truth remains that, with the continued attempts by Mr. President to shield members of his party from prosecution thereby exonerating them, the ruling party has become a new stomping ground for the perceived corrupt elements.
Even more disturbing is the news that Senators belonging to the APC are demanding that Mr. President should drop the prosecution of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Bureau and the investigation of some other party members in the hallow chamber.
If this request sails through, it will just be a confirmation of the notion that the Buhari administration is not actually fighting corruption but rather is on a vendetta mission against its political opponents.
He said Obasanjo eats and sleeps with corruption, adding that his government was the most corrupt in Nigeria's history.
Fayose stated this in a statement issued by his spokesman, Lere Olayinka, in reaction to Obasanjo's recent comments, where he accused pastors of aiding corrupt leaders.
The Governor said if anyone would criticise church leaders, it should not be the elder statesman.
He said: "Obasanjo that I know does not have morals rights to accuse anyone of corruption because he eats and sleeps with corruption.
"If anyone must accuse the church in Nigeria of promoting corruption, that person cannot be Obasanjo because he presided over the most corrupt government in the history of Nigeria.
"Where did Obasanjo get the stupendous wealth he is parading since he was a pauper before he became president?
"Where did he get the trillions of naira that he deployed to his failed third term bid? How can Obasanjo, under whose tenure Nigeria witnessed Halliburton scandal be sermonising about corruption? Who introduced politics of Ghana-must-go bags to the national assembly?
"Who was the president when sacks of money were displayed on the floor of the house of representatives, as bribe money given to some reps members to impeach the then speaker, Ghali Nabba?
"Under whose administration was the out-of-court settlement in the controversial $1.09 billion Malabu oil block initiated in 2006?"
Fayose added that it was under Obasanjo's leadership as president that governors were made to donate N10 million each to the building of his library.
The ex-president said that under his administration between 1999 and 2007, Bamaiyi was arrested and investigated over allegations against him that he killed some people during the reign of military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.
He said it was only on this ground that the law enforcement agencies in the country prosecuted him.
The elder statesman stated this on Sunday, April 9, at his Presidential Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital while hosting members of the Ogun State Correspondents' chapel.
In Bamaiyi's recent book, 'Vindication of A General', he accused Obasanjo of plotting to kill him so that any plan by the former army chief to overthrow him would be buried.
According to Bamaiyi, Abdulsalami Abubakar had suggested to Obasanjo to cage him because of his (Bamaiyi) capability of toppling the new administration.
In the book, Bamaiyi stated, "Upon handing over power to Gen. Obasanjo in May 1999, Gen. (Abdulsalami) Abubakar told the new civilian President that he must rein in General Bamaiyi, else, he would overthrow the new government and from that moment, General Aliyu Gusau, the then National Security Adviser, and President Obasanjo made it a duty to imprison me by all means.
"When Obasanjo took over, some Peoples Democratic Party big shots decided that based on the report, I had control of the Army and should be arrested. The government looked for avenues to arrest me.
"They started by checking Army accounts to see if I had stolen money."
Reacting to the allegations, Obasanjo, who was said to be visibly angry, denied any plot by his government to kill Bamaiyi, but admitted his regime arrested him to ensure that he answered for his misdeeds.
Obasanjo said: "That I wanted to kill him? What of the people he allegedly killed? My government did not plot to kill him. My government asked him to answer for those that were alleged to have been killed by him and that is legitimate.
"That is if there is an allegation that you have done something, that you have committed a crime, then you are arrested; you should answer. Thats all; pure and simple!
"Who the hell is he that I would want to kill him? Kill him for what? To achieve what? No! There were allegations, the police and the law enforcement agencies decided to look into the allegations.
"They invited him and they asked him to answer as a result of what was found, so they charged him to court. So, its now up to him, the investigators, as I said, the prosecutors and the judiciary. Thats all."
In the book, Bamaiyi also revealed that late politician and business mogul, MKO Abiola did not die of natural causes, challenging Abdulsalami Abubakar to unveil the real truth.
Kashamu faulted Jonathan for presiding over a meeting of the party where he said Ali Modu Sherrif was "disregarded" as the National Chairman of the party despite his authentication by a competent court.
Speaking in an interview on Sunday, Kashamu said the incident would be a setback to the ongoing reconciliation efforts in the party.
The Senator said Sheriff, who walked out of the meeting on Thursday, April 6, did not disrespect Jonathan by the action but was understandably angry that he was not recognised as the party leader.
Kashamu said: "I am honestly shocked and surprised that the former president could preside over a meeting where the judgment of the court of appeal was being disregarded as irrelevant.
"This cannot be the face of a party that is desirous of seeking a break with the past. Going by the accounts of what I have heard happened at the meeting, I think it was a needless gathering that has reopened healing wounds and further exacerbated the crisis. How could you gather over 400 people for a reconciliation meeting and expect any meaningful deliberations?
"I say this because any PDP meeting that fails to recognise what our laws and the courts have said about the leadership crisis is on a wrong footing and premise, and it will breed more chaos and confusion such as we have seen.
"Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is the national chairman of the PDP as of today based on the court of appeal judgment and everybody is bound to abide by that whether we like it or not. You cannot call a shareholders or board of directors meeting and say the chairman of the board cannot participate or preside over the meeting.
"Would the governors have allowed it if they got to the meeting and they were not so recognised? Or were they not addressed as governors even when their elections were being challenged in court? Worse still, some persons said Senator Sheriff must not be recognised as such even when an appellate court has established that Senator Sheriff is the national chairman of the party."
He also slammed the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, saying he is an agent of "destabilisation" in the party.
He said: "I had always known that Fayose has an agenda and alerted our leaders and elders to his agenda of either having his way or destroying the PDP before he leaves for God knows where.
"Now that he is letting the cat out of the bag, I can only say that Fayose has exposed himself.
"He has shown that he is the real agent of destabilisation. He is one of those who want to kill the PDP before he defects. "However, it should be clearly pointed out that PDP was not founded because of Fayose or any of us. Whether anyone leaves or not, the party will remain. It will not die.
"The truth of the matter is that the leadership crisis in the PDP was designed and orchestrated because of the inordinate ambition of some people, especially those who are exiting office next year."
Sheriff said this in a communique read at the end of a stakeholders meeting organised for members of the party from Anambra in Enugu on Monday.
He said that the manipulation of delegates lists compiled from ward congresses amounted to the subversion of the wishes of the people.
The national chairman said that members of the PDP in Anambra had rightfully accused the national leadership of the party of instigating the crisis in the state.
They said that the national secretariat had been the problem having been variously accused of substituting names of delegates that emanate from ward congresses.
I agree that the national headquarters has been the problem. Henceforth, only genuine delegates that emanated from the ward congress will be accepted by the national headquarters, he said.
Sheriff said that the party would no longer interfere with the delegates lists which were used in the election of candidates of the party in general elections.
Anything done by the people will not be changed by anybody again and the list you bring to us is what we shall use to nominate our candidates, he said.
He said that the party had had several misfortunes in Anambra, adding that efforts had been put in place to ameliorate them.
He said it was gratifying that members of the party in the state had finally resolved to work together.
Having observed the misfortune of the party in the state we have moved to set up a reconciliation process to bring the warring factions under one roof.
The reconciliation committee will be announced as soon as I get back to Abuja and I will start operating your suggestions, he said.
He said that the PDP must win the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra.
We will put our house in order. We shall win Anambra come November this year, Sheriff said.
Earlier in a plenary, Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu expressed happiness that the party faithful in Anambra had finally agreed to work together.
Ugwuanyi, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, said that the number of the party members that attended the meeting showed interest in the party was still high.
We should sheath our swords, come together and take our rightful positions, Ugwuanyi said.
Speaking, Gov. Dave Umahi of Ebonyi said: This number here gives me hope.
We have always cried that each time there is election in Anambra the victorious party climbs on the back of the PDP, he said.
Umahi, who was represented by his deputy, Mr Kelechi Igwe, said that the PDP in Anambra would still come alive.
Tam-George disclosed this through a press statement issued to Pulse.
The commissioner described as callous and insensitive, recent denials by the Police that the Governor's life was at risk.
Wike has been engaged in a running battle at the center with his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi.
Elections in the oil rich State have always bordered on violence and mayhem.
According to Tam-George, "It is no secret that the APC government declared war on the government and people of Rivers State, soon after the party lost the governorship litigation at the Supreme Court in 2016".
The commissioner added that the first attempt to kill the Governor was made immediately after the Supreme Court verdict which affirmed Wike's election.
Tam-George said the Governor's Chief Security Officer was removed without any explanation, and that the six police officers dismissed by the Police in January this year, played a key role in foiling the series of attempts to kill Wike.
The commissioner further disclosed that after several attempts to assassinate Wike had failed, an offer of one hundred and fifty million Naira was made to two of the six dismissed police officers, to directly kill the Governor.
He said the officers declined the offer.
"We call on the Interpol and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to lead an independent inquiry into why those gallant and patriotic officers were dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force, on spurious charges of misconduct", Tam- George said.
Thats why Startup Grind Lagos will be hosting Bassey Eyo, the CEO of Payporte, to a Fireside Chat to talk about the theme for the month The Grind: Thriving in the face of adversity.
Startup Grind Lagos Chapter Director, Uwem Uwemakpan, and Co-director, Blessing Abeng, will also lead the participating entrepreneurs in engaging Q&As and discussion sessions that highlight and proffer solutions to challenges the Lagos entrepreneur faces.
Also speaking at this months meet-up is Teleola Adegoke, of Techpreneur Africa, who will be speaking about How MSMEs can build mini ecosystem support for their businesses to support growth and sustainability in the learning curve segment of the Meetup.
This Meetup is proudly supported by The Afropreneur, ConnectNigeria, Pulse.ng, NMD Studios and The Chudy.
Date: April 29, 2017Venue:CITC Learning Centre, 25, WEMPCO Road, off Lateef Jakande Road,IkejaTime: 35pmFee: N1,000 online https://paystack.com/pay/Startupgrindlag-ticket, N1,500 at the venue
The man was picked up at Barcelona airport on Friday "by officers of the police technological investigation unit following an international complaint" a Spanish police spokesman told AFP adding that he had later been transferred to Madrid.
The detained man's wife, Maria Levachova, told the television channel Russia Today that her husband was held "at the request of the American authorities in connection with cyber crime".
The channel quoted Levachova saying that Spanish police told her "a virus which appears to have been created by my husband is linked to the victory of (US President) Trump" in the US election last November.
Neither the Spanish police nor the Russian consulate confirmed the reason for the arrest when contacted by AFP.
Russia was accused by US intelligence and counter-espionage services of interfering in the US presidential election to boost Trump's prospects.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks major anniversaries including the 105th birthday of its founding leader on Saturday -- sometimes celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
Wu Dawei, China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, will meet with his South Korean counterpart later Monday to discuss the nuclear issue.
The talks come shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Pyongyang's key ally to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.
"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.
He added however that Beijing had indicated a willingness to act on the issue.
"We need to allow them time to take actions," Tillerson said, adding that Washington had no intention of attempting to remove the regime of Kim Jong-Un.
The meeting between Xi and Trump came on the heels of yet another missile test by the North, which fired a medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend, heading toward the Korean peninsula instead, in a move that will raise tensions in the region.
Seoul and Washington are also conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a practice for war.
Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with US intelligence officials warning that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from its goal of striking the continental United States.
Risk of escalating conflict
China, the US, South Korea and Japan all have dedicated envoys who meet at regular intervals to discuss the North Korean issue: a legacy of the long-stalled six-party process that also involved Pyongyang and Moscow. The North quit the negotiations in 2009.
The isolated North is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology, but repeated rounds of sanctions have failed to arrest its nuclear ambitions.
Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against the reclusive state, a threat that appeared more palpable after Thursday's strike on a Syrian airfield following an apparent chemical attack.
US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday criticised North Korea as a rogue nation engaged in provocative behaviour and said denuclearisation of the peninsula "must happen".
"The president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat," he said on Fox News, apparently referring to Trump's advisers.
South Korea's Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said Monday the repercussions of a potential military response were worrying.
"Pre-emptive strikes may be aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear problems, but for us, it is also related to defending the safety of the public," he told reporters.
While a US unilateral strike on North Korea from a shorter range might be more effective, it would likely endanger many civilians in the South and risk triggering a broader military conflict, experts warn.
"The US has always had all the options on the table from a preventive strike to preemptive strike to negotiations," said James Kim, an analyst at Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
"If it's a preventive strike or precision strike, there's danger that this could expand into a broader regional conflict involving China or Japan.
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was found guilty of homicide in 2015 for the killing of Jennifer Laude in a Philippines motel a year earlier, prompting his lawyers to file an appeal.
But the Philippine Court of Appeals rejected the appeal on Monday, saying Pemberton's argument that he acted out of self-defence when Laude slapped him was "more imaginary than real" and "easily concocted".
"The only reason why he attacked Laude was that he was furious at him for pretending to be a woman, nothing more, nothing less," the court stated.
Pemberton met transgender Filipina Laude in October 2014 in a bar in the city of Olongapo, northwest of capital Manila, after the marine took part in a joint US-Philippine military exercise.
During the trial, a lower court heard that Pemberton and Laude agreed to have sex after meeting in the city's red light district, but that the drunken marine turned violent when he discovered Laude still had male genitals.
He was sentenced to six to 10 years in jail and is being held in a cell in the country's military headquarters in Manila.
Pemberton's homicide conviction was the first under a visiting forces agreement between the US and the Philippines signed in 1998, covering the legal liability of American troops taking part in military operations in the Southeast Asian nation.
The case had strained relations between the Philippines and its former colonial ruler and main defence partner, with activists and LGBT rights groups urging Manila to scrap the military deal with Washington.
The American's lawyer Rowena Garcia-Flores told AFP that Pemberton's camp would elevate the case with the Philippine Supreme Court.
"A suicide bomber disguised as a member of the military managed to enter inside the training camp... several soldiers were killed and others wounded but we have not established the exact number so far," Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Abdirahman told AFP.
The training camp in the south of the capital is one of the largest in the country.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a convoy carrying army chief Ahmed Mohamed Jimale who was named to the post last week by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
The new leader, also known as Farmajo, last week declared a fresh war against Al-Shabaab militants.
The Al-Qaeda-linked extremists claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the military chief had "narrowly escaped" the blast which left at least 10 people dead.
While Shabaab have lost large swathes of territory and were forced out of Mogadishu by African Union troops in 2011, they continue to strike in the capital and countryside.
There has been an uptick in attacks over the past week, with a car bomb in Mogadishu that left seven people dead Wednesday, a landmine that killed 19 on Thursday and a mortar strike which left three dead on Friday.
Piotr Levashov, who was arrested at Barcelona airport on Friday, has been singled out by the United States for extradition in a request which is due to be examined by Spain's national criminal court, the source said.
Levashov is "suspected of having participated in hacking the election campaign in the United States," the source said.
Police on Sunday said Levashov had been arrested on Friday "following an international complaint" and had been transferred to Madrid.
US intelligence agencies in January publicly accused Russia of hacking the 2016 presidential campaign in a bid to sway the outcome in favour of Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Trump, who won the November vote, has vehemently denied accusations of collusion, and Moscow has also laughed off the allegations.
Speaking to Russia Today television late on Sunday, Maria Levashova said her husband had been detained "at the request of the American authorities in connection with cyber crime".
She said the Spanish police had told her it was in connection with "a virus which appears to have been created by my husband (and) is linked to Trump's victory."
In mid-January, another Russian computer expert wanted by the US, Stanislav Lisov, was arrested at Barcelona's El Prat airport as he was about to board a flight.
Tillerson stopped short of accusing the Russians of complicity in a suspected sarin nerve gas attack April 4 that killed at least 87 civilians in Syria's southern Idlib province.
"I don't draw conclusions of complicity at all, but clearly they've been incompetent and perhaps they've just simply been out-maneuvered by the Syrians," Tillerson said in an interview with ABC's This Week program.
Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, just days after the United States fired cruise missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for the chemical attack.
It was the first time the United States has intervened directly in the Syrian civil war against the Russian-backed regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally al-Assad over the incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.
"Part of the discussions when I visit Moscow next week is to call upon Foreign Minister Lavrov and the Russian government to fulfill the obligation it made to the international community when it agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons and why Russia has not been able to achieve that is unclear to me."
If Syria carries out more chemical attacks, he said, "that is going to be clearly very damaging to US-Russian relations.
"I do not believe that the Russians want to have worsening relationships with the US, but it's going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of dialogue to better understand what is the relationship that Russia wishes to have with the US."
At the same time, Tillerson and other top US officials made clear that the US objective was limited to deterring further chemical attacks, and not the start of a campaign to oust Assad.
"We're asking and calling on Bashar al-Assad to cease the use of these weapons. Other than that, there is no change to our military posture," he said.
"We talk, we don't fight," Marianne said just a stone's throw from where the lorry mowed down shoppers before slamming into the facade of a popular department store, killing four people and injuring 15.
A 39-year-old Uzbek suspected of carrying out the attack had previously been refused residency in Sweden and had "shown sympathies for extremist organisations" such as the Islamic State group, the police said.
Although the motive is not yet known, the method resembled previous terror attacks using vehicles in Nice, Berlin and London, all of them claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
"I think it's very important to stay strong together, against anything that endangers our society which is based on democracy," Marianne, who attended the vigil under sunny, spring skies with her elderly mother, added.
A woman handed out roses to two police officers guarding the square.
Mikael Berggren, a 36-year-old from Stockholm who brought his two children aged one and three to the vigil, said he would continue to live his life normally.
"They're too young to understand what happened," Berggren told AFP as he gazed towards his children.
"The attack will not change anything."
Called the "Love Manifestation", the vigil was created as an event on Facebook and attended by politicians, activists and performers.
Flags were, meanwhile, lowered to half mast in the normally vibrant city.
'We will win'
Karin Wanngard, Stockholm's mayor who spoke at the event, described the city as "open, loving and tolerant".
"Horror cannot prevail, horror may never win, we will win instead...(with) openness and kindness!" the Social Democrat said.
Daniel Holl, a 31-year-old German researcher living in Sweden, said he joined the rally to make a stand for unity among nations hit by attacks in recent years.
jpegMpeg4-1280x720"Whether it's Berlin, Brussels, Paris or Stockholm you feel the same, it has nothing to do with nationality," he told AFP.
Gurgi Singh, 31, who moved to Stockholm from India a couple of months ago to learn Swedish, said he was not worried the attack would divide or polarise Sweden.
"Sweden or Stockholm is very supportive and people are always welcoming and helpful," he told AFP.
"If it's going do anything its going to make it more stronger than divided," he said, referring to Friday's attack.
For Charlotte, a Stockholm resident, the attack brought people closer even if they didn't always show it.
"This is the capital of Sweden, a lot of people are busy, running around, and we dont even have time to say 'hi' sometimes because we are on the go," she told AFP.
President Donald Trump's top advisers took to Sunday television talk shows to set the stage for a diplomatic confrontation in Moscow this week when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
It will be their first face-to-face encounter since US cruise missiles slammed into a Syrian air base early Friday Damascus time in retaliation for a suspected sarin gas attack on April 4 that killed at least 87 civilians in Syria's northern Idlib province.
Tillerson said the chemical attack had been preceded by two others in March.
US officials said the presence of Russian advisers at the airfield used to launch the attack raised questions about how they could not have known.
Tillerson stopped short of accusing the Russians of complicity. "But clearly they've been incompetent and perhaps they've just simply been outmaneuvered by the Syrians," he said on ABC's "This Week."
Damage to relations
If Syria carries out any further chemical attacks, "that is going to be clearly very damaging to US-Russian relations," Tillerson warned.
"I do not believe that the Russians want to have worsening relationships with the US, but it's going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of dialogue to better understand what is the relationship that Russia wishes to have with the US."
He said he would call on Russia "to fulfill the obligation it made to the international community when it agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons, and why Russia has not been able to achieve that is unclear to me."
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.
The US retaliatory strike marked the first time the United States has intervened directly in the Syrian civil war against Assad's Russian- and Iranian-backed regime, raising questions about Washington's next steps.
'Enough is enough'
"The entire administration was in agreement that this was something that had to be done," Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"This was something that needed to tell Assad, 'Enough is enough.' And this is something to let Russia know, 'You know what? We're not going to have you cover for this regime anymore.'"
Just days before the chemical attack, Haley and Tillerson both had indicated that removing Assad from power was no longer a US priority.
But Haley suggested there has been a shift in US thinking.
"In no way do we look at peace happening in that area with Iranian influence. In no way do we see peace in that area with Russia covering up for Assad. In no way do we see peace in that area with Assad as the head of the Syrian government."
Tillerson, on the other hand, stressed that the air strike had the limited aim of deterring further use of chemical weapons.
"Other than that, there is no change to our military posture," he said.
While he did not rule out the future use of military force, he said the US administration was mindful of "the lessons of what went wrong in Libya when you choose that pathway of regime change."
"Any time you go in and have a violent change at the top, it is very difficult to create the conditions for stability, longer-term," he said.
First priority
Both Tillerson and H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser, said defeating the Islamic State group remained the administration's first priority, with the strategy for stabilizing Syria a longer-term political effort that could involve Russia.
"It's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation from the Assad regime," McMaster said on "Fox News Sunday."
"We are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. (What) we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions," he said.
The visit by Erna Solberg is the first high-level exchange since December, when the two countries normalised ties that soured after the Oslo-based Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Peace Prize to the still-imprisoned Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo.
Solberg's visit, the first to China by a Norwegian prime minister for a decade, began Friday and will end Tuesday.
"Your visit this time holds a lot of significance," Xi told her at a meeting in the Great Hall of the People.
He noted that Norway had been one of the first Western countries to recognise the People's Republic of China, and one of the earliest to recognise its status as a market economy.
Solberg said she was "delighted to be back" in China and Norway's king was also happy to accept Xi's invitation to visit in the autumn of 2018.
On Friday she met Premier Li Keqiang, signing numerous cooperation documents including an agreement to resume negotiations on a free trade pact.
Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in 2009 to 11 years in jail for "subversion", after he co-wrote a text calling for democracy in China. His wife Liu Xia remains under house arrest.
Diplomatic relations and trade talks were frozen after Liu was given his Nobel. Norway's salmon industry suffered as exports to China were halted.
Exchanges only resumed last December after Norway pledged its commitment to the one-China policy and respect for China's territorial integrity.
RBU hosts get together of senior citizens
Educational institutions of the SGPC are leading in every field: Sukhminder Singh
FLAIR EJECTED FROM INDIANA BAR DUE TO BAD BEHAVIOR
The Indy Star reported this evening that WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair was ejected from a bar in Fort Wayne, Indiana tonight just minutes after arriving at the establishment.
Flair allegedly called a bartender a "fat ass." An employee at The Deck at the Gas House was quoted as saying Flair was acting "like a moron."
To read the complete article, click here.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
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Man charged in beer bottle assault
Bond was set Sunday at $10,000 cash or surety for a Davenport man accused of assaulting a man with a beer bottle in February, causing him to lose an eye.
Kenneth Obrian Olija Coleman, 23, faces one count of willful injury causing a serious injury, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
A preliminary hearing is slated for Friday.
Davenport police were dispatched at 1:52 a.m. Feb. 4 to Godfather's Bar and Grill, 1402 W. 7th St., for a report of an assault.
Police say in an arrest affidavit that Coleman assaulted the man with a beer bottle with intent to cause serious injury.
The man sustained a traumatic injury which resulted in him having his left eye removed, according to the affidavit.
Tara Becker
3 hurt in I-80 crash
Three people were hospitalized Monday after a crash on Interstate 80 near LeClaire.
The incident occurred at 6:17 a.m. on westbound I-80, just west of the LeClaire exit.
The driver of a 2007 Ford minivan traveling west on I-80, lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the north ditch, according to an accident report from the Iowa State Patrol.
The driver was airlifted by MedForce to University Hospitals, Iowa City, with unknown injuries.
Two passengers in the vehicle were transported to Genesis Medical Center-East Rusholme Street, Davenport, with unknown injuries.
Westbound I-80 traffic was blocked from LeClaire to Middle Road for more than an hour for emergency crews.
The crash remains under investigation.
Times staff
Fire hits apartment building twice
Firefighters returned Monday afternoon to an apartment complex where a morning fire rekindled.
The original fire began shortly before 9 a.m. at a six-plex at 3528 Bridge Ave., according to District Chief Joe Smith. Crews arrived to find a small fire that rekindled later about 1 p.m. The fire damaged two apartments where residents were living and another apartment that was vacant, he said.
The American Red Cross arrived at the scene Monday afternoon to help two adults with emergency needs.
Lots of different things can make a fire rekindle, Smith said. Wind, for example, could rekindle a blaze.
The fire, which remains under investigation, caused a lot of mostly interior damage when it originally broke out, he said.
Linda Cook
Restaurant closed after weekend fire
The cause of an early-morning fire Sunday at Long John Silver's/A&W restaurant in Davenport remains under investigation while the business remains closed.
The fire began at 3:58 a.m. at 3702 Brady St., according to District Chief Joe Smith. Fire crews arrived to find smoke showing on the exterior, he said.
Firefighters forced entry into the locked business where no employees were present at the time.
The damage estimate is $100,000 to the property and $50,000 to its contents, he said. The fire remains under investigation.
Linda Cook
Eastern Iowa Community Colleges invites the public to the grand opening of its EON Reality Interactive Digital Center on Tuesday.
The center will be available to local manufacturers and businesses developing virtual and augmented reality training for their employees. The college began training VR/AR students in January through a special partnership with EON Reality. The center expands that partnership even further.
The grand opening festivities include two different times. Guests can attend either, or both. The first, which is focused on health care, begins at 1 p.m. The second focuses on advanced manufacturing and business at 3:30 p.m.
Because of the crowds expected, the grand opening will be held at two locations. Individuals will begin at the Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., then move to the virtual reality lab at the college's Advanced Technology Environmental Energy Center directly across the street.
At the Figge, visitors can see presentations, hear from speakers already using the technology in the field and take a look at the EON Icube Mobile.
The Icube Mobile is a portable, multi-sided immersive environment in which participants become surrounded by virtual images and sound. Designed for convenience, the device measures about 10 feet on each side and is, essentially, a box into which the user walks and becomes immersed in a virtual-reality world.
The Icube will be at the Figge, where visitors can experience it and check out the colleges other VR/AR equipment at its lab.
Among the speakers will be Joe Cheben, senior engineering associate at ExxonMobil and physician Dr. Anuradha Khanna, associate professor of ophthalmology at Loyola University. Cheben will talk about the uses of VR/AR in advanced manufacturing while Khanna will discuss its use in health care.
For more information, visit www.eicc.edu/eonopening
WATERLOO, Iowa Just after Judge Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Courts ninth justice, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst praised the process that led to the Monday morning swearing-in ceremony.
Ernst, R-Iowa, spoke at the Waterloo Rotary Monday afternoon, where she stressed the importance of working in a bipartisan manner but also highlighted her enjoyment of working alongside fellow Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.
I value him a lot. The U.S. Senate values him a lot, and if you were able to watch any of the Judiciary hearings over the past number of weeks, as we were going through the Judge Neil Gorsuch confirmation process Senator Grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee, and he ushered all of that through flawlessly, Ernst said when asked by a Rotarian about her relationship with Grassley.
She said Grassleys efforts to confirm Gorsuch earned accolades, not just from Republicans but from Democrats on the way he handled the process.
That process included the first-time use of the so-called nuclear option, lowering the threshold to cut off debate on the U.S. Senate floor to 51 votes instead of 60, for Supreme Court nominees. But Ernst said in a follow-up interview that she did not share the concerns of others about its deployment.
Longtime U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for example, said it was not good for the U.S. Senate to change the rules, although he ultimately voted for the rule change.
Why Courts Matter Iowa, a coalition that works to ensure the federal judiciary is representative of the American population, likewise, criticized the rule change: The so-called nuclear option completes the partisan hatchet job on the independence of the judiciary that began last year when Grassley and Republicans engaged in unprecedented obstruction of Merrick Garlands nomination.
But Ernst said the rule change made sense, as Gorsuch is eminently qualified and earned bipartisan support.
It became very political, and we wanted to make sure that somebody who is so well-qualified and actually was granted the highest qualification rating from the (American Bar Association) was confirmed to the Supreme Court, Ernst said.
She said Democrats had previously changed the rules for lower judiciary appointments, and she recognizes that the new rules will mean that door is open to just 51 votes for judicial nominees, up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ernst said she did not see it as a slippery slope to changing the rules on regular legislation to reduce the threshold to end debate.
Ernst stressed the bipartisan support for Gorsuch, like she did throughout much of her speech to the Rotarians. She pointed to her relationship with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., as one example of someone she doesnt always agree with but has a good relationship with.
She said the pair have literally baked bread together, and they have found common ground on some legislation, including a bill this month to combat sexual assault on college campuses.
Ernst also downplayed the divisiveness in the Senate. While she acknowledged some challenges, she said the split between Republicans and Democrats is played up in the media.
Ernst said she tries to work across party lines and seek common ground where possible.
Im looking for good pieces of legislation that has a lot of buy-in from not just Republicans but Democrats as well, Ernst said. "If you want a bill to move forward, not only in the Senate but in the House, you need to be working together, and this is one way to show that we are really working together, and were getting ideas from different types of populations and finding solutions together. That's leadership.
DES MOINES Legislation designed to provide enhanced protection for victims of domestic abuse is on its way to Gov. Terry Branstads desk.
House File 263, which cleared the Iowa Senate on a 48-0 vote Monday, would increase prison time for repeat convictions of domestic abuse, stalking and harassment offenses; require risk assessments for those who violate no-contact or protective orders; and allow judges to make electronic tracking a condition of release for someone convicted of domestic abuse assault.
The bill, which passed the House 90-8 last month, had failed in previous sessions to make it to the governors desk.
Im glad that were able to provide victims of domestic abuse more comfort with the provisions of this bill, said Sen. Charles Schneider, R-West Des Moines, the bills floor manager. For those victims who are truly trying to move on with their lives, this will give them more time and more assurance their abusers will be behind bars longer, and if theyre enough of a threat, that theyll be able to see where these people are through electronic tracking.
The bill expands the definition of stalking to include situations in which a technological device is repeatedly used to locate, listen to or watch a person without a legitimate purpose. The bill also states that someone commits stalking when the person engages in a course of conduct that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or threatened or that would cause a reasonable person to fear bodily injury or death to themselves or a member of their immediate family.
It also makes it a serious misdemeanor crime to place a global positioning device with the intent to intimidate, annoy or alarm another person without their consent. Conviction of the offense would be punishable by confinement for no more than one year and a fine of at least $315 and not more than $1,875.
Also, an offender convicted of a third or subsequent offense of domestic abuse assault would be required to serve at least one-fifth of the maximum term. The offense would be a Class D felony punishable by a fine of at least $750 but no more than $7,500 and a prison term not to exceed five years. Currently, the actual average length of stay for third offense domestic abuse assault is 17.1 months.
This is a good measure, and I strongly support it, said Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines.
Branstad spokesman Ben Hammes said provisions of House File 263 were very similar to what the governor had proposed in the past but Branstad would reserve judgment until he had a chance to review the measure.
In other action Monday, senators voted 44-4 to confirm Altoona attorney Geri Husers reappointment as chairwoman of the Iowa Utilities Board and 48-0 to accept Richard Loziers Iowa Utilities Board appointment as well. Gubernatorial appointees must receive a two-thirds majority or at least 34 affirmative votes from the Iowa Senate to be confirmed.
PIERRE | Medical marijuana supporters who came up empty at the South Dakota Legislature and ballot box are emboldened to try again after an overwhelming vote in North Dakota to make cannabis available to patients there.
Backers of the South Dakota effort hope to soon gather enough signatures to put the question on the November 2018 ballot after the strong showing last fall in North Dakota, where 64 percent of voters supported a similar plan.
"If North Dakota can pass it at that great of a margin, I'm absolutely positive South Dakota can also," said Melissa Mentele, founder and director of the group advancing the measure. "It definitely looks good for us."
New Approach South Dakota's proposal would allow patients with serious medical conditions and a health practitioner's recommendation to use marijuana. Qualifying patients such as people with cancer, AIDS and hepatitis C would be able to get a registration card to possess up to 3 ounces of the plant. The group also plans to pursue a recreational marijuana initiative.
The Republican-held Legislature has been reluctant to support medical cannabis. But lawmakers this year did approve a law to allow people with a prescription to use a nonintoxicating compound found in marijuana if it's approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Medical marijuana initiatives in South Dakota have failed at the ballot box at least twice since 2006. Last year, the secretary of state's office said backers didn't turn in enough valid signatures to get on the ballot.
Mentele said volunteers have jumped from about 25 six months ago to more than 190. She said the group now has a petition training system with a test at the end for volunteers and hopes to raise about $25,000 for signature gathering. They would have to submit nearly 14,000 valid signatures to the secretary of state by November 2017 to get on the ballot.
Fargo financial planner Rilie Ray Morgan headed the shoestring North Dakota initiative campaign. He said supporters used press reports, Facebook and a couple of small television advertising buys to help get their message out.
North Dakota lawmakers are working on new rules governing the use of medical marijuana after the citizen initiative passed.
Morgan said that if South Dakota supporters show how medical marijuana can help patients and their neighbors and relatives, even people in rural, more conservative communities will vote for it.
"I don't think South Dakota is all that dissimilar to North Dakota," he said.
PIERRE | Something prehistoric thrashed against the boat.
It made a dull thump against the aluminum hull as Conservation Technician Jeremy Pasbrig grabbed its spiny tail and lifted it from the waters of Lake Sharpe on a Tuesday morning in 2017. The same basic fish, a shovelnose sturgeon, could have been pulled from a river 70 million years ago.
It looked the part, too. Exaggerated, bony plates called scutes formed a sharp ridge down its spine and made a sort of armored triangle down its back. The scutes developed spikes the closer they got to the tail. The fish's head was triangle-shaped and resembled a spearhead or shovel.
It wasn't hard to imagine the fish that Pasbrig was holding swimming in the same rivers regularly crossed by such prehistoric North American titans as the Tyrannosaurus rex. The shovelnose sturgeon, as well as the roughly 26 other sturgeon species around the globe, haven't changed terribly much since the time of the dinosaurs.
Jeremy Pasbrig was pulling the sturgeon out of Lake Sharpe as part of a South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department research project. The project is being helmed by Chelsea Pasbrig, a fisheries biologist whose work focuses on non-game fish species.
"Nobody's ever looked at the population here," Pasbrig said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists shovelnose sturgeon as a threatened species, partially because they look much like pallid sturgeon. Pallid sturgeon are critically endangered, and the fish and wildlife service didn't want any anglers mistaking them for shovelnose sturgeon. If an angler were to catch a member of either species, they'd have to throw it back.
Both pallid sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon are native to the Missouri River. They long ago adapted to living in riverine environments and, for the pallid sturgeon, that became something of an Achilles heel with the damming of the Missouri River. Pallid sturgeon can't reproduce without lots of moving water.
Shovelnose sturgeon, on the other hand, appear able to spawn in Lake Sharpe. At least, the GF&P crew out traut-lining for sturgeon this spring has been able to catch plenty of them. In the first two days of trying to catch sturgeon, Chelsea Pasbrig said, biologists caught 64 and 78, respectively. Between her boat's first two traut lines on March 21, seven sturgeon were boated.
Shovelnose sturgeon, unlike some sturgeon species which can live for 50 years or more, live to be only about 20.
"We know there's been recruitment here because it's been more than 50 years since the dams were built," Chelsea Pasbrig said.
Getting a good idea of just how well shovelnose sturgeon are faring in Lake Sharpe is one of the study's goals. So is figuring out a way to estimate the size of the population, Chelsea Pasbrig said.
To that end, GF&P has been setting 20 110-foot lines, each with 20 hooks baited with large nightcrawlers. The lines were set to sit overnight on the bottom of the lake. March is a good time to traut-line for sturgeon, Chelsea Pasbrig said, because sturgeon are easier to target exclusively. On March 21, for example, three catfish and a carp were the only fish besides sturgeon that the biologists caught.
Once in the boat, each sturgeon was placed in a large tank to await being weighed, measured and marked. Each fish was implanted with a numbered tag, then had its left pectoral and tail fins clipped as additional markers. The pectoral fin clip will be used to help age the fish. Both fins eventually will regrow, Chelsea Pasbrig said.
Once all the vital statistics were recorded, each sturgeon was sent on its way. As of March 21, none of the already-marked fish had been recaught, Chelsea Pasbrig said.
Another piece of the sturgeon study is looking at the species' movements in Lake Sharpe. In May, 25 sturgeon will be implanted with radio telemetry tags. A series of passive receivers already has been placed throughout Lake Sharpe for similar studies on other species.
Pasbrig and her fellow GF&P biologists will collect data through the rest of 2017 and repeat the tagging process again next year. The goal is to gather data over several years and present results from the study to the public in about five years.
There is potential that anglers might get the chance to harvest shovelnose sturgeon in the future, she said.
Debra Jensen can look out her window at Black Hills Bagels and see a newly opened national chain competitor, Caribou Coffee & Einstein Bros. Bagels, just across Mount Rushmore Road in south-central Rapid City.
The coming of a potential rival Caribou Coffee/Einstein Bagels opened in early March naturally gave Jensen reason to pause on the future of her business, which she and her husband, Jack, have owned and operated at the same location for nearly 20 years.
When we first learned they were coming in, you kind of take a deep breath, Jensen said. But then, logically, we got to thinking about it, looking at the big picture.
That overall view, Jensen said, includes the realization that the extensive, five-year reconstruction of Mount Rushmore Road, set for completion in May 2018, is starting to pay dividends for businesses along the major north-south city thoroughfare, which, as its name implies, provides a launching point for access to Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Mount Rushmore Road wants to attract, and is attracting, good consumer, family-oriented businesses that are good for Rapid City and the corridor, she said.
Jensen has been a staunch advocate for Mount Rushmore Road businesses, helping organize the Mount Rushmore Road Group to help property owners cope with traffic detours and road closures during the reconstruction project, starting from the beginning of its initial planning in 2005.
The second phase of the project, completed last fall, included the north section of the road, affecting the area in front of Black Hills Bagels.
A center median means motorists can't make turns across traffic to get to businesses. Turn lanes at stop-lighted intersections instead direct drivers to make U-turns to get to the other side of the street.
With major construction now farther south, Black Hills Bagels small parking lot was essentially full last Friday morning, while Caribou Coffee/Einstein Bros. across the street was also bustling.
Jensen sees that traffic as a chance to grow her business.
We can see that theyre busy, but I look at them as customers weve never had. How are we going to get those customers? she said.
One method to use her south-facing marquee sign to entice north-bound motorists to make a left-hand U-turn at the Columbus Street intersection, instead of turning right to get to the shop across the street.
The "Coffee and a Bagel" theme, combining portions of the menus of both Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels under one roof, is a relatively new concept for the Lakewood, Colo.-based Einstein Noah Restaurant Group.
"We have had a great relationship with Black Hills Bagels and believe that there is room for both bagel brands to live and succeed in Rapid City," said a spokeswoman for Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, in an email statement.
Unlike Caribou/Einstein Bros., Jensen does not have a drive-thru window at her shop, but she has other ways of providing customer service.
We cant do a drive-thru, but we can do call-ahead and pickup, curbside service and we do free delivery. Weve done that for a while, she said.
Jensen does operate a Black Hills Bagels drive-up kiosk on North Haines Avenue. She also sells her varieties of bagels wholesale across South Dakota and in North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming.
Her first inkling of another bagel and coffee shop looking at the area came through an offer from a real estate agent representing a potential buyer for her property.
Jensen said she and Jack set a selling price, but nothing came of the offer. Caribou/Einstein Bros eventually signed a lease agreement with owner Arlene Ham of Ham Investments for the property across the street.
An older frame building, most recently the home of Ginnys Village, a jewelry and quilt shop, was demolished to make way for the new coffee shop.
Jensen said the coming of any new businesses bodes well for Mount Rushmore Road.
She recently revamped the facade on her shop and cited a similar rejuvenation at other businesses along the way, such as Mostly Chocolates, the new Colonial House Restaurant and the current construction of a new Culvers Restaurant in Colonial Houses old location.
Its all good, she said.
Hopefully when people drive Mount Rushmore Road theyll see what Rapid City has to offer and will continue to head to our downtown and stay in Rapid City, she said.
Throughout his career, Judge Neil Gorsuch has proven time and again that he is exceptionally qualified to be a Supreme Court justice. His long history of defending the Constitution and applying the law as it was written demonstrate that he has the aptitude for this lifetime appointment.
His resume is second to none: After attending Columbia, Harvard and Oxford, Gorsuch clerked for Supreme Court justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy before working for the Department of Justice.
Since 2006, Gorsuch has served as a judge for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals after being approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate. Over the past 11 years, Judge Gorsuch has shown he is as mainstream as they come. In fact, of the 800-plus opinions he has written for the 10th Circuit, less than two percent, or only 14 opinions, have drawn dissents from his fellow judges on the 10th Circuit. Ninety-eight percent of his opinions have been unanimous. That is remarkable when you look at the makeup of the 10th circuit: 12 of the judges were appointed by Democrat presidents, while only 5 were appointed by Republicans.
During his confirmation hearing, Gorsuch again proved he has the temperament and aptitude to fill this lifetime appointment. During approximately 20 hours of testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and, by extension, the entire country, he was asked questions ranging from his views on judicial philosophy to how he would rule in specific, sensitive cases. In each instance, he answered with the utmost honesty, integrity and transparency.
Despite impeccable credentials, we are in a situation today because of a precedent set in November 2013 by then-Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his conference. Former leader Reid's use of the so-called "nuclear option" in 2013 meant the Senate could reinterpret its rules via a simple majority vote. Former leader Reid accomplished this by challenging a ruling of the chair with regard to the number of votes needed to end debate on certain nominations.
The Standing Rules of the Senate require the support of a supermajority (67 percent) of senators to change the rules. To challenge the ruling of the chair, Reid only needed a majority vote to overturn the presiding officer's correct interpretation of the written rule. Republicans warned that former leader Reid's move would pave the way for future reinterpretations of the Senate rules to be made by a simple majority vote. In other words, former leader Reid broke the rules to change the rules, taking highly unusual actions for which there is now precedent. Because of the unprecedented partisan filibuster of his nomination by Senate Democrats, we followed former leader Reid's precedent this week in order to have an up-or-down vote on this highly qualified judge.
Judge Gorsuch is one of the finest judges our nation has to offer. The knowledge and careful deliberation he brings to the court will result in rulings that reflect justice, fairness and an interpretation of what the law is and what Congress intended it to be, not what administrative agencies want it to be. His lifetime of defending the Constitution and applying the law as it was written provides clear evidence that he has the aptitude for this lifetime appointment to our nation's highest court.
America must return to conservative principles of less government,reduced taxes, less spending and a balanced budget! Cut,cap and balance!
Guwahati : Security forces on Saturday had apprehended a top leader of NSCN (K) from Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district, who is also wanted for attack on security personnel.
Kohima based Defence PRO Colonel Chiranjeet Konwer said that, the Khonsa battalion of Assam Rifles undertook an operation at Laju village in Tirap district and apprehended a self styled Second Lieutenant of NSCN(K) who identified as Kijen Rongshong.
Post spot interrogation the militant admitted allegiance to NSCN(K), he further divulged that he has been part of the outfit since 2010 and had undergone training at NSCN training camp in Myanmar.
Security personnel had recovered a pistol and ammunition in possession from him.
"Kijen is an important senior cadre in NSCN(K) and was involved in the standoff firing incident on Jun 7, 2015 on Laju Post and had attempted a standoff on Noglo Post on August 18, 2016 which failed. He also confirmed death of three cadres in Myanmar who were injured in the ambush on Security forces in Lyangche on December 3, 2016," the Defence PRO said.
The Assam Rifles battalion has been tracking the militant for past one month and on receiving specific input swiftly launched an operation and apprehended him with a weapon and extortion notes.
Security forces has been carrying out aggressive operations in the South Arunachal Pradesh and the apprehension of the senior cadre has come as a blow to the banned organization.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, April 9 : To check population growth, the new population policy draft of the Assam government suggested that no government jobs for people with more than two child and free education up to university level to all girls in the state.
Announcing the new population policy draft on Sunday, Assam Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, any person with more than two children will not eligible for any government jobs.
"We have suggested that the two-children norms will be applicable for also in employment generation schemes like giving tractors, proving homes and other government benefits. Those with more than two child, they will not eligible for all government schemes. This norms will be applicable in panchayat, municipal bodies, autonomous councils like elections also," the Assam minister said.
The Assam minister further said that, any person who gets a government job after meeting the norms to have maintain it till end of his service.
Himanta Biswa said that, it is a draft population policy and it aims to give free education to all girls in the state up to university level.
"We have suggested to make all facilities like fees, transportation, books, hostel fees free for all girls. We are hoping that, it will be encouraged to all girls to complete their education," Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The minister also said that, the proposed policy to also push increasing the legal age of marriage of 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys.
"The new population policy will seek stringent laws to prevent sexual abuse and violence against the women. It will also consider a provision for 50 percent reservation for women in all government jobs and elections," the minister said.
The Assam minister said that, the state government will seek suggestions from the people of Assam till July next and it will go to the state assembly for debate.
Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, the state has witnessed a huge population growth in past a decade as almost 1 crore population increased since 2001 in the state.
The Assam Finance minister further said that, after adopting the population policy in the state assembly, service rules of all government departments to be changed.
"It is a reflection of BJP's vision document and we are not so hurry to implement the new policy," Sarma said.
Earlier, the state finance minister had proposed the new population policy for the state in his last budget speech.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati : Arunachal Pradesh governor P.B. Acharya on Sunday met the Government officers of Bhalukpong Circle at Bhalukpong, West Kameng District.
Acharya said that, the government officers are the pillars of success of every programme and schemes of the government and at the same time failure also. Therefore, go extra miles and work with vision. Be agent for changing the traditional mindset of the people.
"I am here as a helping hand. I want my State to shine and not to beg for its development," the Governor said.
Sharing his pain on the state of affairs, the Arunachal Pradesh governor said that for Arunachal Pradesh to develop and prosper, the people of the State must focus on three EsA, i.e. education, electricity and employment.
He called upon the officials to join hands to make Arunachal Pradesh economically independent and vibrant. Our education system must not only academic but man making education, education with skill.
Stating tourism as the potentially largest revenue earning sector, the governor advised that tourism pamphlets must be easily made available to all the visitors to the State. The concept of Home Stay must be promoted.
Recalling his visit in 1968, the governor said that the whole area was covered with dense forest.
He urged upon the officials to preserve the flora and fauna and plant at least ten saplings against every fell tree. Effort must be there to harness medicinal plants.
He suggested the officials to avail assistance from other well-known companies and enterprises for the benefit of indigenous communities.
The governor reiterated that extra effort must be there to promote 'Beti Bachao, Beti Parao' and create awareness on Jan Dhan Yojana and other welfare schemes of the State and Central Governments. It is the responsible of every Government official and empowered individual to ensure that benefits percolates down to the targeted population.
Later the governor also met the representatives of NGOs, business communities, women and students's organizations, community and Panchayati Raj leaders and Self Help Groups.
The governor exhorted them to be nodal agents to bring positive changes in the society and serve the people with spirit of dedication. Adopt villages and government schools and do not look upon the Government for every need of the people. Work with the spirit of humane and nationalism. Share your richness and your empowerment to reduce the gap between rich and the poor, the governor appealed.
The representatives, while expressing their surprise and gratitude for the meeting, apprised the governor regarding the challenges and aspirations.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Kathmandu, Nepal: Subarna Awal captain of the Nepal Airlines has been arrested with a huge amount of undeclared US dollar from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in the Capital on Sunday.
According to police Awal was nabbed with USD 93,000 while he was entering the airport for a flight to Dubai last night.
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MUANG PHONHONG - "This is my office, and also my bedroom," Project Manager Cai Li told Xinhua reporter while pointing at a small tent amid the roar of generator.
Located at the construction site of China-Laos railway in Muang Phonhong district in Lao central Vientiane Province, Cai's so-called "office and bedroom" is made from simple bamboo shelves covered by large plastic sheets. There is no working table in her "office" but only a bed, while office equipments and materials were placed on the floor.
"We have only electric fan to cool down the heat. I slept only three or four hours a day these days. So fortunately the chef came the day before so we are now able to have good meals," the 50-year-old manager talked about her living conditions at the site. Cai has just arrived at the site of China-Laos railway in Muang Phonhong for one week.
"There is no other way because we have to rush to take advantages of dry season in Laos for construction," she said. Chinese companies are speeding up the construction of China-Laos railway after entering its first dry season since the railway construction was officially started on Dec 25, 2016.
It is now dry season in Laos, the main construction period in tropical monsoon climate zone. Specifically for China-Laos railway construction, it is necessary to create favorable conditions for construction before the rainy season. For example, the tunnel must be excavated to a certain depth before the rainy season otherwise high rainfall might cause landslides.
China-Laos railway is a major strategic project which was reached and promoted by top leaders of the two countries. Speaking at the construction inaugural ceremony of China-Laos railway in late 2016, General Manager of China Railway International Co., Ltd and Chairman of Laos-China Railway Company Huang Difu said the China Railway Corporation will take the best of its advantages on railway management, technology and resources to lead other enterprises on survey and design, construction and equipment manufacturing among others, as well as cooperate with Lao government and relevant enterprises in order to construct and operate China-Laos railway in a good manner.
Huang pledged to resolutely implement the consensus reached by the two governments on railway construction and operation. On the basis of initial results, the company will continue strengthen communication and collaboration with Lao government at all levels, support each other, follow the plan and requirements so as to ensure high standards of quality and schedule, contributing to promoting socio-economic development of the two countries and prosperity of the two peoples.
China Railway No 2 Group Co Ltd is responsible for the construction of Muang Phonhong section. He Hongsong, head of construction commanding department of China Railway No 2 Group Co, Ltd told Xinhua that the department held a meeting in early April to launch a campaign of "a 100-day of dry season working competition" to ensure the goal of full construction commence in June.
"We need to rush into the site and set up a safe, high quality working manner within 100 days in order to show the construction level of China railway agencies who dare to battle tough working conditions," Huang Ningshu, Party secretary of the construction commanding department, said.
At the same time, the Lao side is also actively promoting the progress of China-Laos railway construction. At the end of March, the import of materials and equipments for railway construction embraced difficulties in Lao customs clearance. Right in early April, Lao government established a working group to approve the tax-free import of materials and equipments as well as set up a special lane for imports of materials and equipments for China-Laos railway construction.
Sometimes, villagers living near the construction site of China-Laos railway in Muang Phonhong took their children on motorcycles to the site for visit. Keobouphon Xayani (according to pronunciation), a Muang Phonhong villager, told reporter that villagers have been actively coordinating in construction demolition, while the initial construction of the railway has brought benefits to local residents.
"It is now easier for villagers to find jobs, while sales of agricultural products are better," the village chief told reporter.
The China-Laos railway has a total length of 414.332 kilometers with over 62.7 percent of bridges and tunnels, linking Mohan-Boten border gate in northern Laos and capital Vientiane. Operating speed on the route is designed at 160 km per hour. Construction of the project is scheduled for five years with investment of some 40 billion Chinese yuan ($5.8 billion), 70 percent of which comes from Chinese investment and the rest 30 percent from Lao side.
China-Laos railway is the first overseas route connecting with the railway system in China, using Chinese technology, equipment and investment.
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On Wednesday the 12th of April, the festival opens with a screening of Jordan Peele's Get Out. This might seem a tad strange to readers on the West side of the Atlantic, as it had a very successful wide run there already, but hey... we haven't had it here yet, and we keep hearing so many great things about it! More than a week later, Sarah Adina Smith's Buster's Mal Heart will be closing the festival. It's an intriguing mindfuck of a film, and in his review our Kurt called it "wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful." Benjamin Christensen's Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages is a famous and infamous film from 1922, a fictionalized history of (indeed) witchcraft through the ages. A silent film this old would not be expected to shock or offend many, but director Christensen pulled no punches in his use of violence, nudity and special effects. Good ones too, considering its age: to this day, Haxan still manages to surprise people. Being itself without sound, many of its releases have been accompanied with different scores. The Imagine festival will screen the newest restoration of the film, and will feature live music by artists Kinetophone. This year, the theme is 'Fantastic Fashion', and to emphasize that, the festival has planned a number of events: Esther Dorhout Mees and Jacob Kok are fashion designers who also make films, and they will show several filmclips, computer-generated virtual models and collections. The program Fashion Shorts will show 17 short films, all based around fashion, by famous directors like Nicolas Winding Refn and Park Chan-wook. There are masterclasses on creating costume concept art (by illustrator Luca Nemolato), on costume design (by designer Lindy Hemming), and on designing the look of zombies (by visual effects supervisor Staffan Linder). Historian Tim Hanley will give a lecture on the different roles (and looks) of Wonder Woman through the decades. There will be a symposium on the future of costume design, with several designers, artists and journalists present. There are workshops on drawing superheroines (by Romano Molenaar), creating masks (by designer Carmen Schabracq), and how to do special Make-up (by artists from Kelatow FX). Ben Wheatley's Free Fire is the most fun film I've seen so far this year, and it's playing at the Imagine festival. A group of Northern Irish terrorists are in Boston to illegally buy a load of rifles from a South African arms dealers, but when some of the bodyguards start a fight amongst themselves the situation escalates into a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Our Ryland Aldrich described it as such in his review: "The magic of Free Fire is that instead of siding with just one of the characters or groups of characters, you end up rooting for general mayhem instead. That's a fantastic thing considering this awesome movie is pretty much mayhem from beginning to end." True words. And do try to pick a screening where director Ben Wheatley is present, as his Q&As are rightfully the stuff of legends. On the 20th of April, writer/director Dario Argento will be visiting the festival for a career talk, and his films Suspiria and Opera will be theatrically shown. The man has a bit of a reputation, to put it mildly, but the festival has honored him before and hopefully he'll be in a good mood. In any case, this should make for an extremely interesting event! Saric Andreasyan's Russian superhero film Guardians looks absolutely sumptuous, based on its trailers, and the big question here is whether we're looking at another Avengers or another Fantastic Four. Finding out will be fun though! It's not all fashion at the festival: people have to eat too. There are several films which may affect your appetite a bit though... Julia Ducournau's Raw (top picture) is about peer pressure, consent and cannibalism, and has been lauded aplenty by critics and audiences. In her review, Shelagh Rowan-Legg called it "...a unique and rare film, that will hopefully (and deservedly) find an audience beyond genre film fans." Also playing is Xander Robin's Are We Not Cats, in which a guy falls in love with a girl who is addicted to eating her own hair, to the degree that she grows a trichobezoar big enough to possibly kill her. In her review, Michele "Izzy" Galgana calls the film "...a hair-pulling winner" and its director "...a bold new talent". The Imagine festival has a pitching contest, and in 2015 this was won by Thijs Meuwese and Colinda Bongers, who envisioned a post-apocalyptic Dutch science fiction film starring a clumsy, nerdy female superhero. Fast forward two years, and we see the world premiere of the film they based on that pitch: Molly. In the future, people stage elaborate pit-fights for betting purposes, and a group of mercenaries want to catch Molly to use her as a fighter. She keeps running away though, but when the bad people capture her daughter, Molly prepares an assault to get her back. Fingers crossed this will be as much fun as the trailer makes it look! Documentaries about the film business have always fared well at the festival, and this year two great ones are playing. First we have Adam Nimoy's For the Love of Spock, in which he looks at his father Leonard, and the impact his portrayal of the famous vulcan had on his family. In her review, Shelagh Rowan-Legg calls the film "...a realistic yet endearing portrait of one of the great iconic characters, and the actor behind him, of our age." Another documentary is of a more technical nature: Alexandre Philippe's 78 / 52 is a very, VERY meticulous look at the (in)famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The title refers to the 78 set-ups and 52 shots which were used in the making of the scene, which remains an absolute highlight of cinematic craft. As each year, the festival leaves the main venue for one night and moves to another location for one huge horror party, and this year it's called the Fright Night. There will be quizzes, contests... and films. Going into the first day of Easter will surely be a fun affair when you join screenings of Colm McCarthy's new "zombie" classic The Girl With All The Gifts, Damien Powers' bleak Killing Ground, Craig Anderson's Red Christmas and, as a cherry on the cake, William Lustig's original 1980 Maniac (seen above). The Imagine festival always features a few Asian action films, and this year is thankfully no exception. The Mo Brothers' Headshot contains plenty of familiar faces of the The Raid films, and indeed this film is also action at its most brutal. In his review, Andrew Mack says the following: "When someone asks you what no holds barred action looks like you just point them in the direction of Headshot. Stand back and be prepared to pick up the pieces of their shattered souls." We also get Dante Lam's jungle drug war actioner Operation Mekong. In his 2016 overview, James Marsh says that "Dante Lam returns to what he does best in blistering fashion with this high-octane action spectacular set in Asias Golden Triangle." Few films have stuck with me this year as much as Amat Escalante's The Untamed, a scathing look at Mexican's macho culture by way of a tentacled sex-monster fallen from space. It's a bizarre film, and one of the most explicit ones I've seen in a while. A drama about domestic violence, using a mixture of H. P. Lovecraft's story The Color Out Of Space, David Cronenberg's Shivers, Andrzej Zulawski's Possession and the art of H. R. Giger. In her review, Shelagh Rowan-Legg calls it "...a riveting and shocking examination of love, sex and violence among the working classes of Mexico, with a hefty side of erotic science fiction as a conduit for the character's fears and desires."
This Wednesday sees the start of the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam, which has, over the years, become my most anticipated genre movie event of the year. Oh sure, I'd love to visit Cannes, Sitges, Neuchatel, Brussels, and the US-based festivals, but my current way of life prevents me from leaving the Netherlands for more than a day to visit a festival. So this Dutch festival provides me with most of my genre fixes each year; it's a place where I see friends, buy cool books, and watch films.It helps that Imagine always has a great line-up, and is never too proud to show a film or two which has basically played everywhere else already. For me, it's a chance to catch-up on titles I've heard everyone talk about here on Screen Anarchy, but I always end up making a few happy discoveries as well.This year, the Imagine festival's theme is 'Fantastic Fashion', and there are lectures and workshops on costumes, masks, make-up... I expect to get some fantastic eye-fulls even outside the screening rooms when I visit the venue later this week.The festival runs from the 12th till the 22nd of April, and here is a short list of recommendations on what's on display there. Do check out the full schedule , and feel free to tell me in the comments below what I missed!
A man who sought to document the dreadful behavior of a group of teens was beaten and robbed Sunday, as the kids were less than pleased to have their errant acts caught on camera.
Police say that the attack happened at 5:10 p.m. Sunday, on the 100 block of Post Street, which is between Kearny Street and Grant Avenue.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, six teens (two 15-year old males, a 17-year old male, two 14-year-old females, and a 16-year-old female) were "jumping on cars and throwing water bottles" when they were spied by a 51-year-old man who "began to video [the suspects'] actions on his cell phone."
When the suspects realized what the man was doing, they confronted him, according to the SFPD.
The six teens "began to hit" the man, police say. They also stole his cell phone, according to the SFPD.
Police say that they were able to swiftly track down the suspects, and all were arrested Sunday evening. The victim suffered injuries police say were not life-threatening, and is expected to recover.
The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were announced Monday, and our very own East Bay Times won the coveted prize for Breaking News Reporting for their "relentless coverage of the 'Ghost Ship' fire, which killed 36 people at a warehouse party, and for reporting after the tragedy that exposed the citys failure to take actions that might have prevented it."
The East Bay Times, composed largely of staffers from the former Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times, beat out other finalists The Dallas Morning News, for their coverage of last year's shooting spree that claimed the lives of five police officers, and The Orlando Sentinel for their coverage of the Pulse Nightclub shooting last June.
The Pulitzer committee highlighted ten pieces written by the East Bay Times staff between December 3, 2016 and December 11, 2016, including this early report on the fire's victims, and this portrait of Ghost Ship proprietor Derick Ion Almena published just two days after the deadly blaze.
Having covered the fire and reblogged the unfolding news myself last December, I can attest to how swift and thorough the East Bay Times' reporting was, which included work by Thomas Peele, Robert Salonga, David DeBolt, Rick Hurd, Julia Prodis Sulek, Matthias Gafni, Aaron Davis, Angela Hill, Erin Baldassari, Katy Murphy, and Tracy Seipel.
Other big prizes went to David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post for National Reporting, for his work "casting doubt on Donald Trump's assertions of generosity toward charities"; The New York Daily News and ProPublica "for uncovering, primarily through the work of reporter Sarah Ryley, widespread abuse of eviction rules by the police to oust hundreds of people, most of them poor minorities"; and to the New York Times both for International Reporting and Feature Writing, for their "coverage of Vladimir Putin's efforts to project Russia's power abroad," and C.J. Chivers's feature story on a Marine's postwar descent into violence.
It was possibly done as a stunt for Life of Kylie, which is why the details are all so vague, but Kylie Jenner hopped a private jet up to Sacramento over the weekend to attend Rio Americano High School's prom, apparently as one kid's date. That kid is high school junior Albert Ochoa, as Mashable tells us, and the buzz on Twitter was that his original date turned him down (allegedly this girl), and somehow he got Kylie to be his date instead.
Ochoa's own sister seemed as confused as anyone:
TELL ME WHY MY BROTHER TOOK KYLIE JENNER TO PROM 2NIGHT !!!!!!! $elena Ochoa (@ssoochoa) April 9, 2017 proud to say that's my brother pic.twitter.com/zeKj9gf8gF $elena Ochoa (@ssoochoa) April 9, 2017
Earlier Saturday evening Jenner posted the photo above to Snapchat of she and best friend Jordyn Woods on the plane to Sacramento, with no real explanation.
The prom took place starting at 8 p.m. at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in downtown Sacramento, and he social media eruption over Jenner's appearance began around 10:45 p.m., so I guess she was fashionably late. The folks at the local CBS affiliate are also very confused. But they note that Jenner didn't just make an appearance, she also danced with Ochoa, and posed for many selfies.
The 19-year-old Jenner, the youngest child of Kris and Caitlyn Jenner, launched her own cosmetics line and is becoming a mogul in her own right, and E! has responded by giving her her own Kardashians spinoff series, Life of Kylie, which is airing this summer. The show promises to "expose a personal, more intimate side of makeup entrepreneur as she manages her celebrity persona, multi-million dollar company and, well, just being a teenager."
As the Sacramento Bee notes, Jenner has mentioned over the years that she wanted to attend a prom, having been home-schooled since ninth grade, and it sounds like Ochoa's plight, which was advertised through signs at the school and then via social media, caught the attention of a producer or one of Jenner's staff, who reached out to Ochoas family to offer this surprise.
Her 21-year-old sister Kendall made all the headlines last week with that now-pulled Pepsi ad, which has inspired a possible lawsuit by the SFPD, and a mocking sketch on SNL.
The news broke Friday evening, as it so often did with this particular case: A high-profile politico behind the successful campaigns of San Francisco's current mayor and a few of the city's Supervisors has at long last been sentenced, nearly two years after he was first arrested for "possession of over 600 images of minors engaging in sexual acts," police said at the time.
Enrique Pearce, a lawyer and the founder of political consultancy Left Coast Communications and the man behind campaigns for Ed Lee, Supes Jane Kim and Norman Yee, former Supe Christina Olague, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, and Board of Education members Sandra Lee Fewer and Hydra Mendoza, was arrested in May of 2015 after an unnamed tipster brought him to the attention of investigators. A search warrant served on Pearce's residence uncovered the porn, much of which involved children and "sexual sadism or sexual masochism," as well as a stolen parking meter.
Police said at the time that they also recovered over 100 photos of children taken around the city, apparently by Pearce and without the kids' knowledge. Pearce was arrested, and promptly posted $215,000 bond, spending "less than 24 hours" in San Francisco County Jail.
The case dragged on for over a year as Pearce remained free on bail. It wasn't until a Friday in December 2016 that Pearce pled guilty to one count of possession of child porn, two counts of distributing child pornography, and one count of buying or receiving stolen property (that pesky parking meter).
His sentencing also took a bit longer than you might expect: In January, Judge Rene Navarro indicated that Pearce would receive a sentence of six months of home detention, which with good behavior would be halved. This was to the dismay of the San Francisco District Attorney's office, which under state rules does not get a say in the sentence of a plea deal. It was the San Francisco Sheriff's Department that put the kibosh on that deal, saying that they were unwilling to approve Pearce for its electronic monitoring program as in San Francisco, people convicted of child porn charges aren't eligible for the ankle bracelet.
The judge may check a box on a sentencing document indicating an alternative sentence to jail is approved, but the jail ultimately has the authority for protecting public safety and determining the most appropriate sentence for an individual," Sheriff's Department spokesperson Eileen Hirst said at the time.
Bay City News reports that "Pearce had considered withdrawing his plea after it became clear he would be unable to serve the jail sentence on house arrest," but opted Friday to face the music, such as it is. That's the day he was sentenced to six months in San Francisco County Jail, as well as a two day sentence for an earlier DUI offense to which he also admitted, the Chron reports.
According to the Ex, prosecutors "objected to the sentencing and asked for prison time," but Navarro opted instead to allow Pearce to serve his sentence out in the kinder environs of county jail.
Following his jail sentence, the now 42-year-old Pearce will serve five years of probation, and for the rest of his life will be listed as a sex offender.
I think its very light. This is not a victimless crime, Patty Schimek, a representative of child advocacy organization Partners in Prevention who attended Pearce's sentencing told the Chron. We know these images are out there forever.
Pearce is expected to surrender Tuesday, after which he will spend his first (of many) nights in San Francisco's jail.
Read all SFist coverage on the Enrique Pearce case here.
Another reason to take BART to SFO? Privacy concerns. An Airport Commission vote last month gave San Francisco International Airport the go-ahead to use license plate readers to record the information from every car that uses the airport's roads and garages. SFO can now keep that data on file for more than four years, accessible to 70 airport employees who can release the data to the San Francisco Police Department, the San Mateo Sheriff's Department, and the FBI. That's cause for concern, the American Civil Liberties Union tells KQED, offering up a honeypot to authorities.
As Matt Cagle of the ACLU in Northern California poses the question to KQED, Why does law enforcement need to know whos visiting SFO?... Its one thing if a crime has been committed or if theres a legitimate demand from law enforcement with a warrant, he says, but its another thing if the airport has decided to simply share this information with law enforcement for their own purposes.
SFO maintains that the primary function of its license plate reading efforts will be collecting the revenue it's owed by commercial drivers on its roads and at its garages with FasTrak accounts much the way bridge authorities now do with all cars passing over the Golden Gate Bridge. Its important to remember that the primary purpose for the system that weve established here is for revenue collection, airport spokesman Doug Yakel tells KQED. Is there a correlation to law enforcement efforts? Of course, Yakel adds. Its a benefit to thwarting vehicle theft and other types of crimes. But thats really not primarily how it's used."
SFO serves 53 million passengers a year, and if every car that ferries them to or from the airport has its license plate recorded, SFO's data collection could on the kind of massive scale the ACLU has repeatedly warned against. "Private companies use license plate readers to monitor airports, control access to gated communities, enforce payment in parking garages, and even help customers find their cars in shopping mall parking lots," a report created by the ACLU explains. "While these uses in and of themselves are not objectionable, private companies can scan thousands of plates each day and store information indefinitely, creating huge databases of Americans movements." The report's recommendations include storing data about innocent people for the briefest possible periods. "Law enforcement agencies must not store data about innocent people for any lengthy period," the report recommends. "Unless plate data has been flagged, retention periods should be measured in days or weeks, not months, and certainly not years." The ACLU also encourages that entities who use license plate recorders publicly report their usage.
In fact, SFO's policy follows legislation calling for just that: Senate Bill 34, which went into effect last year, requires security protections for data collected by plate readers and public disclosure about the technology's use.
Update: In a statement issued to CBS5, SFO spokesperson Yakel emphasizes that "SFO does not record every license plate of every vehicle at the airport, nor do we have the capability to do so." Nevertheless, the Airport Commission's vote would appear to give it the leeway to do just that, prompting the ACLU's objections.
Related: RIP Virgin America Airlines, Which Alaska Is Officially Killing Off In Two Years
MILFORD, Iowa | A dumpster was determined to be the cause of an accidental fire that destroyed a strip club in the Iowa Great Lakes region Sunday night.
When Milford Fire & Rescue was dispatched to Zippers Gentlemen's Club, 2600 Okoboji Ave., at 7:56 p.m. Sunday, firefighters found a dumpster on the building's northside was on fire. A wind drove the fire into the attic area.
Fire Chief Jim Carpenter said multiple additions and common ceilings made it difficult for crews to section off and stop the fire.
The south end of the building housed the Second Hand Depot antique store and a back building was being used as a warehouse. All of the buildings were connected by common roofs, Carpenter said, and that gave the fire department four buildings to be extinguished.
All of the buildings are considered a total loss, while some areas of the Second Hand Depot and its warehouse have some salvageable items.
Milford Fire & Rescue was assisted in the blaze by Milford Police, Arnolds Park Police, Okoboji Police, Dickinson County Sheriff's Office, Iowa State Patrol, Dickinson County Emergency Management, Red Cross, Milford Water and Electric Utilities.
SAC CITY, Iowa | An 84-year-old man died in a fire that consumed a residence Monday morning.
At 7:35 a.m., the Sac City Police Department was dispatched to 307 S. 13th St. Due to heavy smoke, officers were unable to enter the home that was occupied by Dale Cook and his 76-year-old wife, Barbra Cook.
When the Sac City Fire Department arrived, Dale Cook was located and found deceased. Barbra Cook was transported to Loring Hospital in Sac City with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office in Ankeny is scheduled to conduct an autopsy on Dale Cook, authorities said.
The Sac City Police Department said the fire is under investigation, but said foul play is not suspected.
The Iowa State Fire Marshal's Office and the Sac County Medical Examiner's Office assisted in the investigation. The Sac City Fire Department and Sac City Police Department was assisted on the scene by the Sac County Ambulance Service and the Sac County Sheriff's Department.
SHELDON, Iowa | A Rock Rapids man was flown to Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls after the semi he was driving crashed into a utility truck and rolled over into a ditch Monday morning.
The incident occurred shortly before 8 a.m. Monday on McKinley Avenue, 3 1/2 miles south of Sheldon, according to a news release from the Sioux County Sheriff's Office.
According to the release, Owen Fastert, 27, of Rock Rapids, was driving a semi-truck pulling a dairy tank north on McKinley Avenue when he crossed the center line and struck a southbound MidAmerican Energy utility truck driven by Josh Van Beek, 29, of Orange City. Following the impact, Fastert's vehicle entered the ditch and rolled, trapping him inside.
Fastert was extricated from the semi by the Hospers Fire Department and transported to Sheldon Hospital by ambulance. He was later flown to Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls for further treatment. A Sanford representative was not able to provide information on his condition Monday afternoon.
Also assisting were the Iowa State Patrol, Sioux County Sheriff's Office, Hospers and Sheldon ambulances, Sheldon Police Department and O'Brien County Sheriff's Office.
The crash remains under investigation.
SIOUX CITY | A 25-year-old Sioux City man is facing child endangerment and serious assault charges after authorities say he spanked his girlfriend's 8-month-old daughter, causing significant bruising, then tried to blame the injury on his girlfriend's other child, a 2-year-old.
Bryce Albert Bishop was booked into the Woodbury County Jail around 7:30 a.m. Saturday on charges of child endangerment resulting in bodily injury and serious assault. He's being held on $8,000 bond.
According to court documents, on Aug. 22, 2016, Bishop was caring for his girlfriend's 8-month-old and 2-year-old children, when he became upset and physically disciplined the 8-month-old child, causing "large bruising" to her buttocks. Documents say Bishop blamed the injuries on the 2-year-old, who he said had thrown a Barbie doll at the 8-month-old.
Medical analysis of the injuries showed they were indicative of a spank or slap with a hand, and were prevalent four days following the incident, according to the documents.
The Woodbury County Sheriff's Office served a warrant for Bishop's arrest Saturday. His next court appearance will be 9 a.m. April 19.
Todays top picks from our online calendar. Find more events at siouxcityjournal.com/calendar.
Climate change presentation
Noted ecologist and author Cornelia Mutel will speak at Morningside College at 7 p.m. on the impacts of climate change in Iowa and dealing with climate anxiety with her presentation "A Sugar Creek Chronicle: Communicating Climate Change, Composing Hope." She will also discuss how to write effectively about environmental science.
Tech Hour
Need technical assistance? We can help! Our staff will be available to field your questions on everything from e-book downloads to basic software, email and device use today from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Vermillion (S.D.) Public Library, 18 Church St. For more information, call 605-677-7060.
Diane O'Hern exhibit
Diane O'Hern's mixed media art will be on display April through June at Dickinson County Nature Center, 2279 170th St. Admission is free. Visit dickinsoncountynaturecenter.com for hours of operation and additional information.
LE MARS, Iowa | Prior to colliding with another car on a rural county blacktop, Melissa Ebert said she was speeding and weaving on the highway as a verbal argument with her passenger escalated.
Her actions led to a collision in which she, her passenger and the driver of the second car were seriously injured.
Ebert, 30, of Cherokee, Iowa, pleaded guilty Monday in Plymouth County District Court to two counts of serious injury by vehicle. As part of a plea agreement, Ebert will be sentenced to 10 years in prison. Sentencing was set for May 8.
Two counts each of attempted murder and willful injury and one count of second-offense operating while intoxicated will be dismissed under terms of the plea agreement.
Monday's hearing had been scheduled for Ebert's attorney, F. Montgomery Brown, to argue to move her trial from Plymouth County. Instead, District Judge Duane Hoffmeyer was informed that a plea agreement had been reached and that Ebert would be pleading guilty.
Ebert told Hoffmeyer that on Sept. 9, 2015, she had picked up Damian Johnson in Sioux City, and they began arguing. The argument continued as she drove, Ebert said.
"When we reached Plymouth County, the argument became more severe and became physical. I was speeding and lost control of the vehicle," Ebert said.
Ebert's car veered into the path of an oncoming car driven by Dustin Boll, of Le Mars, on County Road C-38.
Ebert said she had been driving 10 mph or more above the 55 mph speed limit.
When charges were initially filed, Ebert was accused of threatening to kill herself and Johnson, then crashing into Boll.
In December, Ebert had entered an Alford plea in which she was found guilty of two counts of serious injury by vehicle. In that plea agreement, Ebert agreed to a 10-year prison sentence, but the sentencing judge would have had the option of suspending the prison time and placing her on probation.
That deal fell apart days before Ebert's sentencing in January after it was realized that the sentencing judge would be bound by an obscure law that said because the charge included an OWI component, the prison sentence would be mandatory, and there would be no chance for Ebert to receive a suspended prison sentence and probation. Ebert then withdrew her plea.
Under terms of the new plea agreement, the serious injury by vehicle charges were amended. Rather than saying Ebert caused the injuries by driving while intoxicated, the charges were changed to read that she caused the injuries by driving recklessly.
Court documents said that Ebert's blood-alcohol level was 0.088 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
Brown told Hoffmeyer that though Ebert will be sentenced to prison, the amended charges will give him the chance to file a motion asking a judge to reconsider the sentence.
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.
ANNAPOLIS (April 10, 2017)A bill making its way through the Maryland legislature would create a taskforce to study police use of surveillance technologies, such as facial recognition software.
The bill, HB 1065, establishing the Task Force to Study Law Enforcement Surveillance Technologies, passed in the Maryland House and is now under consideration by a Senate committee.
"This goes back to the citizens' right to know," Delegate Charles Sydnor, D-Baltimore, said in an interview with the University of Maryland's Capital News Service. "It seems as if we are moving toward a surveillance state with the type of surveillance used by law enforcement."
The Task Force would study law enforcement's use of surveillance tactics and make recommendations about those tactics. Law enforcement departments would be required to disclose to the task force surveillance tactics that they are using and the task force would determine whether those tactics are constitutional.
"As new technologies are used by law enforcement, it's unavoidable that the law must keep up with the new technologies to ensure our rights under the Constitution are not abrogated," Sydnor, testified on March 28. "Unfortunately as technologies rapidly change, we in the legislature have been unable to keep up."
Types of surveillance police use include the use of cell-site simulators, aerial surveillance and facial recognition technology, Sydnor said.
"I don't necessarily have a problem with law enforcement using these technologies," Sydnor said. "The concern is we need to make sure this is being used within the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment."
The Maryland Image Repository System allows investigators to upload digital images to be searched against Motor Vehicle Administration driver's license pictures or police booking and intake photos, according to the Department of Public Public Safety and Correctional Services.
The system provides a probability list of potential candidates that may match the uploaded image, according to written testimony from the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The department does not have the ability to audit the system to determine why an investigator accessed it.
Under current guidelines, local law enforcement is required to develop policies for the use of the system.
The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services written testimony said that only authorized users can access the system, similar to access requirements for the National Crime Information Center.
The National Crime Information Center is run by the FBI and is used by law enforcement to search crime reports such as at a traffic stop to determine whether a person is a wanted fugitive or is in possession of stolen property.
Sydnor on Thursday said he was not sure whether the bill would make it out of the Senate committee but said if the bill fails to pass this session he will reintroduce it for the next General Assembly.
Sydnor decided to sponsor the bill in response to the Baltimore Police use of an aerial surveillance aircraft, through the company Persistent Surveillance, without initially notifying city officials.
Toni Holness, public policy director for the ACLU of Maryland, said that the task force would help to ensure that Fourth Amendment protections are not violated by police use of new surveillance technologies.
"The development of these technologies means that law enforcement has a greater capability to watch and follow you," Holness said. "We have to watch out for a surveillance state, which is likely to happen if their power goes unchecked."
Holness added that the development of surveillance technologies has been outpacing the rate that the General Assembly can pass laws to regulate and keep up with it, which is why the task force is necessary.
Sydnor introduced another bill, HB 1148, in the House, but it received an unfavorable review by the House Judiciary Committee and was withdrawn. The Face Recognition Act would have established procedures for police use of facial recognition software and would have required police officers to have probable cause before using a facial recognition database.
Sydnor said he decided to sponsor the bill because he read a study, conducted by the Center on Privacy and Law at Georgetown University Law Center, which found that about half of all American adults are in police facial recognition networks.
"Individuals cannot avoid facial recognition software and it is too susceptible to misuse (by law enforcement)," Jeramie Scott, national security council for the Electronic Privacy Information Center said. "Facial recognition can destroy the individual's ability to remain anonymous. It poses a risk to First Amendment rights."
The Government Accountability Office in June 2016 published a report on the facial recognition database that is used by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The report said the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System allows officers to search over 30 million photos to help with criminal investigations.
The report recommended changes to the system to make it more accurate. The GAO found that the FBI did not conduct tests on the system for the error rate or the detection rate for a list of possible matches under 50 people.
The system can return matches of two to 50 potential suspects. The system is operated by the FBI and is part of the agency's Next Generation Identification system, which includes other technology, in addition to the facial recognition database, to identify suspects.
"I am not trying to take away tools from law enforcement," Sydnor testified. "I'm trying to strike a balance between public safety and privacy."
Several bills in this General Assembly session have addressed issues of increased police use of surveillance technologies.
Delegate Frank Conaway, D-Baltimore, introduced legislation that would have required the Baltimore Police Commissioner notify local and state officials, including Baltimore's mayor, of the use of new surveillance tactics. A similar bill he also introduced would have required all law enforcement agencies in Maryland to report when they acquire new surveillance technologies.
Conaway's legislation, HB 0058, which also received an unfavorable report from the House Judiciary Committee, was also in response to the a discovery in August 2016 that the Baltimore Police Department was using a small plane for aerial surveillance of the city starting in early 2016.
The Police Department did not notify Baltimore's mayor or other city officials of the surveillance until months after the program began, drawing anger from Maryland residents and officials.
The surveillance was carried out by Persistent Surveillance, which, along with other proponents of surveillance technology, argues that the technology used in aerial surveillance only shows individuals as a single pixel, which is not enough to identify those people.
Privacy experts argue that the surveillance industry is competitive and the market will move companies to start developing a higher-resolution camera that would make it possible for police to personally identify individuals through aerial surveillance.
ANNAPOLIS (April 10, 2017)Maryland lawmakers voted Thursday to override Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of a bill that would specify which measures could be considered when determining a school's quality, prohibiting student testing from being one of them.
Student testing will still be considered an academic indicator, which makes up 65 percent of the school's overall evaluation, while quality indicators make up the other 35 percent.
The bill restricts the state's ability to intervene in failing schools, which opponents worry is intended to limit the creation of charter schools and voucher systems.
The House passed the override of the governor's veto 90-50, and the Senate passed it the same day, 32-15.
Hogan, a Republican, vetoed House Bill 978, known as the Protect Our Schools Act of 2017, Wednesday, saying the bill weakens school accountability, according to a release from the governor's office. In the press release, Hogan urged legislators to put aside politics and sustain the veto.
The Maryland State Board of Education and the Maryland State Department of Education have sided with the governor in opposition to this bill, according to the release.
Thursday morning, advocates for the bill gathered at a rally to call for an override. Those present included representative from the Maryland State Education Association, the Maryland Parent Teacher Association and some lawmakers.
The bill would help accommodate the needs of the students and allow parents to be involved in the process, Delegate Mary Washington, D-Baltimore, told the University of Maryland's Capital News Service. "We need to do more to end disparities (in education) we cannot do that giving control to the state," Washington said.
Bill Sponsor Delegate Eric Luedtke, D-Montgomery, acknowledged the common goal that both sides of the argument shared. "I'm glad we can agree every kid deserves a good education," Luedtke said on the floor.
Although the State Board of Education opposes the bill, people who are involved in the everyday lives of children, like teachers and parents, support the bill, according to Luedtke.
Multiple delegates opposed to the bill referred to it as a "status quo" initiative on the floor, saying the bill will not bring any noticeable change that would benefit students.
Delegate Nicholaus Kipke, R-Anne Arundel, the House minority leader, said on the floor that this bill is not complicated.
"It traps students in failing schools and lessens accountability in the bureaucracy in education," he said. Kipke made a point to say the legislation is regressive and takes tools away from the state.
Since both chambers voted to override the governor's veto, the bill will become law July 1.
(WB) A federal appeals court on Friday denied a motion to expedite the case of a transgender student who is challenging his Virginia school districts bathroom policy.
Gavin Grimm in 2015 filed a lawsuit against the Gloucester County School Districts policy prohibiting students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that dont correspond with their biological gender.
Related: Laverne Cox Sounds Off on Gavin Grimm Case: 'Bathroom Laws Aren't Really About Bathrooms'
The U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments in Grimms case on March 28. The justices remanded it to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond after President Trump rescinded guidance to public schools that said Title IX requires them to allow trans students to use restrooms based on their gender identity.
Treating trans students with dignity and respect should not be controversial, said Grimm on Thursday as he spoke during a congressional forum that House Democrats hosted on Capitol Hill. The decision to withdraw the guidance sent a terrible message to some of the most vulnerable people that President Trump the leader of our country and his administration do not care about protecting you from discrimination.
The American Civil Liberties Union, who represents Grimm, asked the 4th Circuit to consider the case next month before their client graduates from Gloucester County High School.
The next window in which the 4th Circuit could consider Grimms case is in September.
- Michael K. Lavers, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.
There are reports of gay genocide in the Russian republic of Chechnya, located in the North Caucasus region.
On Friday, the U.S. State Department said it was concerned by reports of detentions and deaths of LGBT individuals.
We are increasingly concerned about the situation in the Republic of Chechnya, where there have been numerous credible reports indicating the detention of at least 100 men on the basis of their sexual orientation, reads a press release by acting U.S. spokesman Mark C. Toner. Some reports indicate many of those arrested have been tortured, in some cases leading to death. We categorically condemn the persecution of individuals based on their sexual orientation or any other basis.
Prior to the State Departments statement, OutRight Action International condemned the situation and called for a stop to the killings and persecution of gays in Chechnya.
The perpetrators of this malicious campaign must be held accountable for the systematic detention, torture and killings of innocent men in Chechnya, said Jessica Stern, executive director of OutRight Action International. No government should get away with such wanton human rights violations.
Sterns group cited reports in Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta of more than 100 men, sources say, who have been arbitrarily detained and three who have been executed for non-traditional sexual orientation.
A former Soviet satellite nation located in the north caucasus region, Chechnya claims to be a republic independent of Moscow rule. However, there is no entry for Chechnya in the Central Intelligence Agencys World Factbook list of countries.
Ramzan Kadyrov leads Chechnya, according to Wikipedia. In its statement of concern, the U.S. urged Russian officials to speak out.
We are deeply disturbed by recent public statements by Chechen authorities that condone and incite violence against LGBTI persons, said the State Department. We urge Russian federal authorities to speak out against such practices, take steps to ensure the release of anyone wrongfully detained, conduct an independent and credible investigation into these, reports and hold any perpetrators responsible.
Those who may be in distress or in need of help within Chechnya are encouraged to reach out to the Russian LGBT Network at 8 800 555 73 74 (the call is free within Russia). Additionally, anyone with information on the current situation in Chechnya can confidentially contact ILGA-Europe at +32 2 609 54 10 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
If you want to help gay men flee Chechnya, you can participate in this Facebook fundraiser here.
(WB) The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday ruled the forced sterilization of transgender people who are seeking legal recognition of their gender identity violates their human rights.
The court, which is in the French city of Strasbourg, issued the ruling in three separate cases that trans people filed against France.
Transgender Europe notes 22 European countries Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Finland, Turkey, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan require trans people to undergo sterilization before they legally recognize their gender identity. The European trans advocacy group on Thursday said the ruling will require these countries to change their laws.
Today is a victory for trans people and human rights in Europe, said Transgender Europe Executive Director Julia Ehrt in a press release. This decision ends the dark chapter of state-induced sterilization in Europe.
OutRight Action International Executive Director Jessica Stern also applauded the ruling.
Today the world moved in the right direction for trans rights everywhere, she said. Forcing unnecessary medical interventions to access basic human rights like legal recognition of a persons gender is barbaric.
The European Court of Human Rights ruling said forced medical examinations or mental health diagnoses for trans people do not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
It is regrettable that cruel and unnecessary medical examinations are seen to be in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights, said Transgender Europe Senior Policy Officer Richard Kohler. We will continue to raise awareness about the human rights abuses in the medical field that trans people are still systematically subjected to.
Sweden to compensate forcibly sterilized trans people
A Dutch law that allows trans people to legally change their name and gender without undergoing sterilization or surgery took effect in 2014.
Lawmakers in Malta and Ireland have approved similar statutes in recent years. Norway also allows trans people to legally change their name and gender without medical interventions.
France since October 2016 has no longer required trans people to undergo sterilization in order to receive legal recognition of their gender identity.
Denmark in January became the first country in the world to no longer consider trans people mentally ill. The Swedish government on March 24 announced it would compensate trans people who were forcibly sterilized in the country.
Human rights violations cannot be undone, but by recognizing the violation and compensating trans people financially, Sweden has taken a big step towards rectifying previous injustice, said Ulrika Westerlund, a Swedish member of Transgender Europes executive board, in a statement.
- Michael K. Lavers, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.
The building at 2601 Quebec Street has stood on the same quiet corner of Vancouvers Mount Pleasant neighborhood since 1922. When the property recently became available, all it took to win it over was one person sliding a letter underneath the front door. But what separated Colette Griffiths and Christopher Allen from the other 15 curious inquirers? Easy. The previous owners thought Allens handwriting was the nicest.
After a year of renovations and jumping through zoning hoops, The Federal Store opened in November 2016, just a block away from the cultural vein of Vancouvers food and drink scene, Main Street. Departing from the areas fast-paced atmosphere, owners Griffiths and Allen view their new space as more of a refuge. Their unique mercantile offers a wide array of premium retail food and household supplies displayed throughout the cafe. Alongside Bows & Arrows Coffee Roasters offerings, the fresh food selection currently centers around bread and pastries all made in-house. Asked to describe their space, Allen answered that they are purposefully obliviousthe space will become what it will be.
The design of the shop is entirely from the brains of Griffiths and Allen. Having come from a product development background, Allen is described by Griffiths as a perfectionist. The result of their workand that perfectionismdelivers beautifully, with captivating visuals and a comfortable layout for patrons. The striking design of the floor is made up of hundreds of individual tiles, hand-cut and sanded by the two of them. Being that they always wanted to open a space involving food and coffee in some form, their prideful glances around the room show that the pair feels it was well worth the effort.
We want to do things well, but appear simple, said Allen, adding, Bows & Arrows is great coffee, but were not a coffee shop. The pairs hope is to slowly expand as the business continues to find its legs. An expanded menu, more local vendors, seasonal offerings, pop-up events with local artists, and maybe a small beer and wine menu down the road. They want the experience to be interesting and memorable and for customers to feel comfortable there, Griffiths says. Customers say it feels like hanging out in our kitchen. Now with an oasis nestled in the heart of Mount Pleasant, their customers can agree Vancouver is lucky that Allen took his time writing that letter.
Peter de Vooght is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read more Peter de Vooght on Sprudge.
A Michigan barn fire that occurred during the early morning hours of Saturday, April 8 has claimed the lives of 13 horses.
Fire was reported at roughly 2:10 a.m. at The Barn for Equine Learning, which is located in the 3200 block of Timpson, Avenue SE, located in Lowell Township, just outside of Grand Rapids. According to the business website, the not-for-profit organization provides youth and adults the opportunity to discover new experiences, challenge themselves, and grow through the healing power of horses in a therapeutic setting. The Barns horses also spent time with the students in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) and Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) programs.
"They gave so many kids their first rides, they gave a lot of people hope, a lot of people in need a way to reach out and connect with versus traditional counseling and therapy and these horses opened so many doors, they were giants for what they did and how they opened," said Kay Welton, The Barns founder.
A shot of the aftermath of a tragic barn fire in Michigan
Officials with the organization released a statement after the blaze, explaining that The Barn, suffered a tragedy on April 8. We lost our barn and 13 of our wonderful horses to a fire. This information is so hard for us to process and it still feels like a bad dream at this point. We know that this is going to be challenging for every person who The Barn and the horses have meant something to. However, as is so often the case with each person who comes out to The Barn, we recognize that any tragedy and challenge can be overcome. We are not yet sure what the road to rebuilding will look like at this point, but we know that The Barn meant so much to so many people, and like any challenge we have met before, we will walk through this trial step by step and continue to fulfill our mission of reaching people wherever they are at in their lives.
A follow-up report on the situation states that a 12-stall barn was destroyed and 13 of the 15 horses that were on the property lost their lives. The two horses that survived were new additions to the property. Fire investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze.
Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of the horses and The Barn for their loss.
(With files from Michigan Live and WZZM 13)
Fuller Theological Seminary Students Commemorate Verna M. Linzey
PASADENA, Calif., April 10, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Fuller Theological Seminary students from across denominational lines wrote a powerful message on behalf of the Fuller Community, faculty and the entire student body, commemorating Verna M. Linzey, D.D. The statement was sent by the Office of Development of Fuller Theological Seminary. Rev. James F. Linzey, Southern Baptist minister of the graduating class of 1983 and now president of Verna Linzey Ministries, received the statement from Fuller Seminary. Their statement reads:
On behalf of our Fuller Seminary community we want to extend our condolence and sympathy to you and the entire Linzey family in regard to the passing on of your Mom--Verna Linzey. May the Lord our God fill your hearts with His comfort and give you hope as we look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! God bless you richly.
The statement comes a month before the 1st Annual Verna Linzey Commemoration Services to be held on the East Coast and West Coast. Rev. James Linzey replied with a phone call to Fuller Theological Seminary expressing deep gratitude for statement from the student body at Fuller Theological Seminary. "The rising up of the student body from Fuller Theological Seminary, which crosses all denominational lines, to show such sentiment and respect for Dr. Verna Linzey's work and what she single-handedly did for God's Kingdom around the world reflects the impact of Verna Linzey's legacy," said Rev. James Linzey.
Dr. Linzey audited the entire Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary at 61 years of age. "We greatly treasure her class notes and the theological acumen she reflects while engaging timeless issues facing the Church and the world," said her son Rev. James Linzey.
"We will be hosting one of the services on the East Coast for the 1st Annual Verna Linzey Commemoration, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as the City of Brotherly Love, which is where the first Bible in America was printed. This city is a very appropriate setting for celebrating the life of such a remarkable Bible translator as Dr. Verna Linzey, who served on the Committee on Bible Translation for the Modern English Version Bible," said Bishop Janice Hollis, pastor of Progressive Believer's Ministry, who has appeared on C-SPAN as an advocate for Conservative Christian Values. Another service is slated to be held in San Diego, California A date will soon be set in the May 2017 time frame.
Photo: Verna Linzey Crusade with a crowd of 20,000 people. Verna Linzey was still growing strong at 94 years of age in this photo. High-resolution version available.
Arrests Prominent International Pastor, Husband of American Citizen
Contact: ChinaAid, 432-689-6985, 432-553-1080, media@chinaaid.org
MIDLAND, Texas, April 10, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- As Trump convenes with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida, the husband of an American citizen languishes in a Chinese prison.
John Cao (photo), a pastor renowned for his educational endeavors among Myanmar's minority groups, was arrested by public security officials in Yunnan on March 5 and arbitrarily charged with "organizing illegal crossings of national borders." Retracting their promise to his family that he would be released, authorities formally arrested Cao on March 25. As a result, his relatives, which include his wife, North Carolina native and U.S. citizen Jamie Powell, and their two sons, fear that the Chinese government will use this charge as an excuse to give him a hefty prison sentence. The U.S. state department, North Carolina congressmen, and hundreds of churches are in support of Cao's situation.
On behalf of the Cao family, ChinaAid is asking for your assistance in spreading this story. As a long-time friend of Cao's family, ChinaAid President Bob Fu urges the free world, especially American-elected leaders, to work in solidarity with Cao's relatives to secure his freedom. Cao's son, Ben Cao, is available for interview regarding his father's case and can be contacted at (336) 404-5871.
ChinaAid reports abuses such as those suffered by John Cao in order to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.
An elderly man sits speaking incoherently amid the rubble of a building in the Mosul al-Jadida neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, on March 24. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)
A sharp rise in the number of civilians reported killed in U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria is spreading panic, deepening mistrust and triggering accusations that the United States and its partners may be acting without sufficient regard for lives of noncombatants.
The increase comes as local ground forces backed by air support from a U.S.-led coalition close in on the Islamic States two main urban bastions Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
In front-line neighborhoods in western Mosul, families described cowering in basements for weeks as bombs rained down around them and the Islamic State battled from their rooftops. Across the border in Raqqa, residents desperately trying to flee before an offensive begins are being blocked by the militants, who frequently use civilians as human shields.
Throughout his election campaign, President Trump pledged to target Islamic State militants more aggressively, criticizing the U.S. air campaign for being too gentle and asking for a reassessment of battlefield rules. The United States has denied there has been any shift and defended the conduct of its campaign.
But figures compiled by monitoring organizations and interviews with residents paint an increasingly bloody picture, with the number of casualties in March already surpassing records for a single month.
The worst alleged attack was in Mosul, where rescue teams are still digging out bodies after what residents describe as a hellish onslaught in the Mosul al-Jadida neighborhood during the battle to retake it two weeks ago. Iraqi officials and residents say as many as 200 died in U.S.-led strikes, with more than 100 bodies recovered from a single building. The wooden carts that residents use to carry vegetables and other wares in the once busy market area instead ferried out cadavers recovered from the rubble last week.
The U.S.-led coalition, which has acknowledged carrying out a strike against militants in the area, says it is investigating the reports. If we did it, and Id say theres at least a fair chance that we did, it was an unintentional accident of war, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. commander for Iraq and Syria, said Tuesday at the Pentagon.
Amnesty International on Tuesday said the coalition was not taking sufficient precautions to prevent civilian deaths in Mosul, in a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
It was just one of numerous incidents across Iraq and Syria in recent weeks that have raised concerns that the United States has flouted rules requiring it to protect civilians. In both countries, politicians and activists say the high numbers of deaths are spreading alarm among civilians and sowing distrust of the U.S.-backed campaign advancing toward their homes.
People used to feel safe when the American planes were in the sky, because they knew they didnt hit civilians, said Hussam Essa, a founder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which monitors violence in Raqqa province. They were only afraid of the Russian and regime planes. But now they are very afraid of the American airstrikes. American planes are targeting everywhere, he said.
According to the U.K.-based organization Airwars , which tracks allegations of civilian deaths in airstrikes, out of 1,257 claims of deaths in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes this month, a record 337 have been assessed as being fair, meaning that there is a reasonable level of public reporting of the alleged incident from two or more generally credible sources and that strikes have been confirmed in the vicinity on the day in question.
The scale of the destruction is huge, and we are reeling from the number of alleged cases, not just in Mosul but in Raqqa, too, said Chris Woods, the director of Airwars. Casualty numbers from western Mosul are absolutely shocking. In Syria its a car here, a family there. It happens every day.
The group said in a statement last week that it had stopped monitoring Russian strikes in Syria, in order to focus on accusations linked to the U.S.-led coalition, saying its organization is overwhelmed. In the first two months of the year, U.S. strikes were responsible for more civilian casualties than Russian strikes for the first time since Russia intervened in Syrias civil war in 2015, according to Airwars figures. Russian strikes are now climbing again as a partial cease-fire collapses.
Woods said the intensification began during the Obama administration but escalated under Trump. In December, the U.S.-led coalition delegated approval to battlefield commanders in Mosul, speeding up the responsiveness of strikes after a tough battle for the eastern part of the city. The coalition says strikes are subject to the same scrutiny.
The death of innocent civilians in war is a terrible tragedy that weighs heavily on all of us, said Col. Joseph Scrocca, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, adding that the United States works within the laws of armed conflict. We set the highest standards for protecting civilians, and our dedication, diligence and discipline in prosecuting our combat operations, while protecting civilians, is without precedence in the history of warfare.
The escalation of U.S. strikes around the city of Raqqa occurred in February as the United States intensified efforts to train and equip a Syrian force in preparation for an offensive against the city, expected to begin in the coming months.
In March, the tempo increased further, with more sites being targeted that have no obvious military value, according to a Syrian living in Turkey who is from Raqqa and is in regular contact with his family and friends who are still there. They are hitting everything that isnt a small house, including the barges that ferry passengers across the river dividing the city now that the bridges have been disabled, he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of concern for his family.
Among the bigger incidents was a strike last week on a school sheltering displaced people in the town of Mansoura, outside Raqqa, that killed at least 30 people, according to monitoring groups. An attack on a mosque in western Aleppo that the U.S. military said was aimed at known al-Qaeda operatives also appears to have killed dozens of people attending prayers, according to witness accounts and monitoring groups.
The U.S. military said after the Aleppo strike that it had hit a gathering of militants near a mosque but denied striking the mosque itself. The military is conducting an investigation into the incident.
Townsend said the initial indications were that the school strike was clean and did not kill civilians.
A wave of continued attacks in the past week in the small town of Tabqa has added to a record toll of 101 civilians killed by U.S. strikes from the beginning of the month to March 21, Essa said. He provided the names of 41 people alleged to have been killed in a three-day period last week in strikes that hit a bakery, a carwash, a slaughterhouse and other targets.
In Iraq and Syria, residents and activists say there has also been a discernible shift in the kinds of targets being hit with infrastructure such as hospitals and schools coming under fire. The U.S.-led coalition contends that militants are increasingly using such protected buildings as bases for attack, knowing that there are restrictions on bombing them under U.S. rules of engagement
Tabqa is a crucial step on the path to Raqqa, and it is the current focus of the battle. Reports that the Tabqa dam have also been hit by airstrikes during the fighting have further contributed to the sense of panic after the Islamic State issued a warning on Sunday that the dam could burst.
Townsend said the United States had not been targeting the Tabqa dam and had been using non-cratering munitions in that area to protect the site.
Downstream from the dam, residents are terrified by the intensified bombing and of the risk of a dam breach, the Syrian said. His family is desperate to escape, but the Islamic State has erected checkpoints to prevent people from fleeing. People dont know what to do, he said.
In Iraq, too, civilians are trapped as Iraqi forces push into the most densely packed areas of Mosul, including the Old City, where an estimated 400,000 people are trapped in old structures on narrow streets.
The United Nations said Tuesday that at least 307 civilians were killed in western Mosul between Feb. 17 and March 22 , warning Iraqi security forces and the coalition to avoid falling into the Islamic States trap as the group deliberately puts civilians in danger.
With a large amount of artillery and ordnance being fired into the city, though, it is hard to ascertain which deaths the coalition is responsible for, Woods said. Iraqi commanders, who call in airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, say its difficult for them to know whether civilians are in houses when many are stuck inside for weeks at a time and it is not possible to see them through drone surveillance.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, commander of Iraqs counterterrorism units, said the troops are instead relying on tips from those fleeing as to which houses have civilians inside.
Still, Mosul Eye, a monitoring group in the city, said it had warned Iraqi forces that civilians were trapped in homes in Mosul al-Jadida days before the U.S. strike there and sent coordinates.
Amnesty International said that because the government has told residents to stay in their homes, the U.S.-led coalition should have known that strikes would be likely to result in significant numbers of civilian casualties.
For civilians, many of whom are trapped, the situation is dire.
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Nour Mohammeds family of 23 people hid in a basement in western Mosul for nearly two weeks as explosions rang out around them.
Islamic State militants forced the family to keep the front door open so that they could move in and out of the building freely and fend off the advancing Iraqi forces from the roof.
We were terrified every time wed hear the sound of an airplane that theyd bomb us all, she said as she fled the city last week.
Sly reported from Beirut. Mustafa Salim in Mosul and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.
Read more:
By Olivia Rose
GOVERNOR John Freeman has stressed the need for bona fide evaluations of statutory bodies in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Governor in a release issued on Wednesday (April 5) highlighted the need for more transparency and accountability as it relates to the function of statutory boards.
This comes as a recent report on the management of the National Health Insurance Board (NHIB) was submitted to Cabinet by the Chief Internal Auditor.
The Governor said: "In December 2016 I commissioned the Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) to conduct a review of the management of the NHIB in light of the serious issues involving significant liabilities that had arisen earlier that month.
"The report by the CIA has since been considered in Cabinet, most recently following receipt of responses from the NHIB.
Governor Freeman asserted that the report serves as a reminder of the important responsibilities placed on the boards of statutory bodies.
He said that responsibilities are especially weighty on boards such as the NHIB, where they are responsible for very significant financial resources with contingent liabilities for the public finances.
He disclosed: "TCIG transfers over $45 million each financial year to the NHIB in respect of payment of the TCI Hospitals infrastructure costs, the Treatment Abroad Programme and Contributions for Wards of the State.
"This accounts for a significant proportion of TCIGs overall expenditure costs and along with the contributions of residents across TCI requires prudent management and accountability.
Governor Freeman propounded that given the considerable financial impact statutory bodies can have on the TCIG budget, it is crucial that CEOs and senior management recognise their responsibilities in adequately providing oversight and management over these entities.
He noted that: "Board members must be prepared to carry out the required governance and performance monitoring activities needed to ensure effective management of these entities.
"By extension, CEOs and other senior management officers must be prepared to be held accountable for management shortcomings.
"The object lessons from the NHIB are particularly acute: it is not beyond the realm of possibility as I have illustrated that serious mismanagement of the NHIB or of certain other boards could cause a serious run upon the budgetary resources of TCI.
The Governor further noted that the need to address the issues raised as it relates to the NHIB is evident and is now being taken forward.
He said: "But I believe they also reinforce the need for a proper review of the statutory bodies, especially of those which carry the largest risks, managerial and financial but also reputational for TCI.
"The Premier and I are committed to setting such a wider review in train as soon as possible.
In December 2016, news broke that funds have been misappropriated at the NHIB.
Then PDM while in opposition had accused the PNP Government of covering up the state of finances of the NHIB, which was said to be in dire need of a financial bailout.
Cabinet statements indicated that the NHIB was hemorrhaging financially.
At that time, Leader of the PDM, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson slammed the former Government for being negligent in relation to the financial affairs of the National Health Insurance scheme.
By Olivia Rose
BELOVED corned beef will soon make its way back on supermarket shelves across the TCI as the Government lifts its temporary ban on importation of the product from Brazil.
This was confirmed by the Minister of Health Edwin Astwood during a brief interview with the Weekly News on Thursday (April 6).
This means that all imports en route, all stocks of corned beef that were quarantined, all stocks of corned beef in warehouses on the wharf, or elsewhere, destined for distribution across the country will now be released for distribution.
In light of a major "bad meat scandal in Brazil local authorities on Wednesday, March 22, in an effort to safeguard the health of the populace issued an immediate withdrawal of corned beef and other meat products from Brazil.
The ban came amid reports of alleged corruption of government meat inspectors allowing card board, expired meat and carcinogenic products to be exported.
The crisis was triggered by a huge federal police operation on Friday, March 17.
It found evidence that meat-packers had been selling rotten and substandard produce for several years.
Brazil is the world`s second largest exporter of meat and the industry plays an important part in the countrys economy, with exports worth more than $12 billion a year.
Brazil is also the worlds biggest red meat and poultry exporter.
Federal police raided meat-producing plants and arrested more than 30 people.
The Government suspended more than 30 senior civil servants who should have spotted the unhygienic and illegal practices.
They are currently being investigated for corruption.
During an exclusive interview with the Weekly News on Wednesday, March 22, Director of the Department of Agriculture, Wilhelmina Kissonsingh, stressed the importance of safeguarding the welfare of consumers.
Kissonsingh further pointed out that corned beef and other meat products are not directly imported to the Turks and Caicos Islands from Brazil.
It is imported from Jamaica which imports from that market.
She emphasised that while many local grocery proprietors may find it burdensome to go through the departments strict import-application process, it is necessary to ensure that products are safe for human consumption.
Kissonsingh said that this is the reason her department is strict on biosecurity measures in an effort to avoid importation of rotten and substandard produce that would pose harmful health threats to consumers.
She also revealed that Jamaican health officials are planning to embark on a fact finding mission in Brazil to do their own investigation into the allegations, after which information will be shared with the relevant authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Brazilian government has done all it can to avoid a total or partial ban on meat imports from other countries.
Brazilian president Michel Temer held emergency meetings during the weekend and even invited foreign diplomats to a steak house on Sunday evening to try to reassure them, according to Brazilian news reports.
"The Brazilian government reiterates its confidence in the quality of a national product that has won over consumers and obtained the approval of the most rigorous markets, said Temer.
But the effort was in vain.
High-tech computerization is part of every industry these days, even one as basic as sheet metal fabrication.
So when Tony Foster saw an opportunity to boost his sheet metal business and enter the laser cutting market, he took it, installing a 4,000-watt MAZAK laser cutter at S&R Sheet Metal Inc. in Kelso.
The $250,000 investment is helping the company expand its market to include more precise custom cuts, as well as become more productive and efficient, said Foster, who is president of the company.
Its very precise and accurate, so when customers need something cut with extreme precision and accuracy, we can do it with the MAZAK, Foster said.
The company paid $250,000 for the laser cutter last summer, and it took some time to set up and learn how to use.
Before it acquired the machine, the business couldnt compete for customers who needed this level of precision. Now it can acquire new clients and go into new markets, added Terry Williams, business development director.
The laser cutting process starts with a drawing or pattern from the customer. Using computer-aided design, or CAD, software, the pattern is transmitted to the laser, which cuts out the shapes.
Foster runs the computerized machine himself something hes comfortable with after 25 years spent with IBM in a variety of capacities, including software engineer
Its a lot of fun, too, he said. I enjoy learning.
To the untrained eye, the new machine at S&R Sheet Metal looks something like a giant MRI machine.
Pieces of sheet metal are placed on a large, flat surface, which then is slowly rolled inside a machine where the laser is housed. The laser torch then cuts custom metal shapes from the pre-programmed design within a matter of seconds.
Thicker sheets take a few seconds longer to cut, but the new machine is much more precise than the companys previous cutter, which is still used for products that dont require as much precision, Foster said. Edges that ultimately will be welded together dont need as much precision, for example.
S&R Sheet Metal is the only shop with this technology in the Longview-Kelso area, Williams said. Many of the companys customers used to have to go to Portland for such parts that required such precision.
Its nice if we can keep the business local, Williams said.
S&R Sheet Metal, founded in 1974, has gradually expanded its business throughout the Southwest Washington and Western Washington and Oregon.
Its customers include Cowlitz Countys major industries and ports, commercial architects and builders, well as customers who want smaller custom items. Foster said the business can make anything customers need, from large industrial piping to decorative wall plaques.
Foster purchased the business in 2014 because he wanted to try something different after so many years in the computer business.
I had dabbled in entrepreneurial things in the past, Foster said. I was looking for that kind of opportunity.
Addition of the new machine hasnt required addition to staff at least not yet. The business, which is unionized, employs a core group of about 10 people and adds workers as needed to complete a custom job.
If a mill or elevator has a shutdown and they need 20 guys for one week, we staff that up through the union, Foster said. So we can staff up rapidly as the job requires.
Foster said the company will continue to invest in technology and innovation. He added he believes the local economic climate is improving.
Im more optimistic this year than last year, he said. Were getting made aware of more projects and getting the chance to bid on things. We just have to make sure we are competitive.
hidden
Advocates of landmark net neutrality rules on Friday blasted Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai's plans to roll back the Obama era legal framework. Reuters and other outlets reported late Thursday that Pai told major telecommunications trade groups of his plans Tuesday to replace 2015 net neutrality rules with voluntary agreements to adopt open internet principles.
The 2015 rules prevented broadband providers from giving or selling speedy or so-called fastlane access to some internet services over others. Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, opposes the rules approved by the FCC which gave the agency strong legal control over broadband providers, treating them much like utilities.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat, said if the reports are accurate "we are gearing up for a battle that could eviscerate the widely supported open Internet protections." The rules "were built on a record of more than four million comments, and demonstrated that a free and open internet is at the very heart of our American democracy," she added.
Chris Lewis, vice president at Public Knowledge said Pai could "give dominant cable and telecommunications companies what their DC lobbyists have dreamed of for years: voluntary net neutrality rules where consumer protection is no more than trust your cable or internet provider.'" The FCC declined to comment.
Pai wants to introduce new regulations under which internet providers like AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc would voluntarily agree in their terms of service to not obstruct or slow consumer access to web content. The move would allow the Federal Trade Commission to enforce compliance with the new rules.
Internet providers do not oppose net neutrality principles, but opposed the decision to reclassify internet service under a law that subjects them to potential utility style regulation. Pai is expected to unveil his proposal as early as April 27, with an initial vote planned for either May or June, sources told Reuters. The proposal would be open for public comment before the FCC could finalize it.
The Internet Association, the trade group that represents major internet companies like Alphabet Inc, Facebook Inc, Netflix Inc and Microsoft Crop, and strongly supports net neutrality, will meet with Pai on Tuesday, a person briefed on the matter said. The group declined to comment.
Reuters
tech2 News Staff
While the Micromax Bharat 2 was announced sometime back, albeit unofficially thanks to a retailer, it has gone official today on the Micromax website. The company has listed its entry-level device on its official website as a product listing.
This comes as news after the smartphone reportedly went on sale at offline retailers. The device was said to be priced at Rs 3,499, but the MRP price on the box revealed a slightly higher Rs 3,750 price tag.
Now that it is listed on the company website, we also get our first official glimpse of the entry-level smartphone that has been built for the masses.
For sure it's not a Freedom 251, the quality, at least from the images looks pretty good with a plastic back panel, glass on the front and a metal frame on the sides.
The website focuses on the device's highlights which include 4G VoLTE connection, Android Marshmallow (which has oddly been advertised as the latest Android OS) and the fact that it comes pre-installed with Google apps (really?).
The specifications include a 4-inch WVGA (480800) display, a 1.3GHz Speadtrum SC9832 quad-core processor, 512MB of RAM and just 4GB of in-built storage with a microSD card slot expansion slot the at supports up to 32GB. The smartphone runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and its USP is support for 4G VoLTE networks including Reliance Jio.
There is a 2 MP rear camera with an LED flash and a 0.3 MP front camera for video chatting and taking selfies. On the back is a 1,300mAh battery and connectivity features include FM radio, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS.
Seated Woman, Blue Dress by Pablo Picasso. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Although a photographer and painter by her own right, Dora Maar (1907-97) is better known as a lover and muse of Pablo Picasso.
She was the inspiration behind many of Picasso's female portraits, including this Seated Woman, Blue Dress which was painted on Oct 25, 1939, Picasso's 58th birthday.
The painting will be auctioned on May 15 by Christie's at its New York sale of impressionism and modern art. The pre-sale estimated price exceeds $35 million.
In many portraits modeled after Dora Maar, the woman often wears a hat to indicate Maar's personal fashion style. Seated Woman, Blue Dress shows the model in a purple hat ornamented with a green feather or leaf. The hat enlivens the painting by bringing a balance to the model's deformed and fragile face.
Critics believe that the work not only reflects Maar's complex personality she was a creative artist and figure in the surrealistic circles before she met Picasso but also reveals Picasso's worries about the tense situation in Europe caused by the Spanish civil war and World War II.
Related:
Picasso shows real war
Christie's brings Picassos to new Beijing complex
tech2 News Staff
The Hubble space telescope normally looks at the light from distant stars and peers back into the depths of time. In early April, the Sun, Earth and Jupiter were in a straight line, with the Earth being in perfect position to observe the gas giant as it was lit up by the Sun. Astronomers used the opportunity to turn the Hubble space telescope towards Jupiter, and image the planet with Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3. The Hubble space telescope is a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency.
The resulting photograph shows the turbulent atmosphere of Jupiter, with colourful bands that are parallel to the equator. The bands have alternating high speed winds, that can reach speeds up to 644 kilometers an hour. The great red spot, a seemingly perpetual anticyclone the size of the Earth, that has been raging for over a hundred and fifty years can be seen along with a number of other, smaller storms.
The high resolution images shows features that are as small as 129 kilometers across. Jupiter was relatively close to the Earth at the time the image was captured, at only 667,000,000 kilometers away. Juno, a spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter was at its closest approach to the planet when Hubble took the photograph, so scientists could observe the planet using both the imaging instruments at once. The Hubble Space telescope famously observed Jupiter during the crash of the comet ShoemakerLevy 9 into the gas giant. Recently, Hubble was able to image jets of water spouting out of the Jovian moon, Europa, confirming the existance of a global sub surface ocean.
tech2 News Staff
Just last week we heard of a new high-end Nokia smartphone that is expected to arrive this year. Today we have some more scoop on the device.
According to the same source that leaked the info about Nokia 9, the flagship smartphone will be unveiled by the end of July or by early August and will be launched by Q3 or even later. The launch delay is said to be because of the availability Snapdragon 835 chipset.
The price expected for the smartphone is somewhere around EUR 749 in European markets while US pricing will be $699. However, the Indian pricing is rumoured to be Rs 44,999.
In case you missed, the Nokia 9 is expected to sport a 5.5-inch QHD OLED display panel running on Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with Adreno 540 GPU. The quality German glass made by Carl-Zeiss used by original Nokia is expected to make a comeback with Nokia 9 where 22 MP Dual-lens camera module will be equipped with Carl-Zeiss optics and a 12 MP front camera. Nokia 9 will come with 6 GB RAM and two storage variants of 64 GB and 128 GB internal storage. The smartphone will sport a 3,800 mAh battery along with Qualcomm Quick-Charge 4 support.
HMD Global will also include an Iris scanner like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ in addition to the usual fingerprint scanner. Nokia 9 is also expected to come with IP68 certification along with Nokia OZO audio enhancements.
Of course, these are only speculations and should be taken with a grain of salt.
PTI
The Maharashtra government is in the process of developing and launching a cab hailing app within three months for black and yellow taxis on the lines of those provided by private aggregators like Ola and Uber, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday. He was responding to a query raised by Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde, Hemant Takle (NCP) and others in the State Legislative Council in Mumbai.
Raising the issue during the Question Hour, Takle said that after app-based cab aggregators came into the picture, the business of black and yellow taxi drivers has gone down considerably and he questioned if the government will take steps to ensure they survive the fierce competition. Responding to him, State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote said the government has brought an ordinance of City Taxi Service Control Rules and that suggestions of 6,000 people have taken into account on the issue.
Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde said that Ola and Uber enable users to track locations besides providing easy services. "When will the government bring in such an App for black and yellow taxis ?" he questioned. To this, Fadnavis said, "the government is in the process of developing an electronic platform for black and yellow taxis similar to that of cab aggregators. It will provide services similar to those given by cab aggregators.
This app will be launched in three months." Earlier, Kiran Pawaskar (NCP) pointed out that cab aggregators have survived across the world due to the low costs they charge customers, cleanliness and manners their cabs and drivers have and facilities of tracking they provide to customers. "On the other hand, black and yellow taxi drivers do not wear uniforms, do not behave properly and blatantly refuse to ferry customers. They do not provide proper service and hold people to ransom anytime. Will they be asked to adhere to rules," he questioned.
Responding to Pawaskar, Raote had said that black and yellow taxi drivers will themselves have to deal with issues like mannerisms and cleanliness to increase business and survive competition and that taxi unions can help them with these issues. "Also, the government is mulling to provide AC services to customers of black and yellow taxi drivers who have taken a new car to bring them at par with Ola and Uber," Raote said.
About me I'm Avi Green
From Jerusalem, Israel
I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best. My profile
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At disputed South China Sea shoal, China asserts power through control, concessions
A Chinese Coast Guard vessel patrols at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
Reuters, South China Sea :
Far out in the South China Sea, where dark blue meets bright turquoise, a miles-long row of fishing boats anchor near Scarborough Shoal, backed by a small armada of coastguard projecting China's power in Asia's most disputed waters.
China still calls the shots at the prime fishing spot and has boosted its fleet there, nine months after an international panel ruled its blockade of the lagoon was illegal.
Beijing rejected that ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which invalidated China's claim of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.
But the presence of Philippine boats dotted between Chinese vessels shows a degree of compliance with the ruling. Overtures from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is negotiating billions of dollars worth of loans, investments and trade deals with China, may have helped.
China stopped repelling Filipino boats in October and allowed them to fish on the edges of the rocky outcrop, 200 km (124 miles) from the Philippines. Now it appears to be easing restrictions further.
Reuters journalists last week entered the Scarborough Shoal itself - the first access by foreign media since China seized it in 2012 - and witnessed dozens of small boats shuttling day and night into the lagoon to capitalise on its rich fish stocks.
"It's good that we're now allowed inside, it helps me to support my family's needs," said Vicente Palawan, treading water inside the lagoon, a dive mask on his head and fishing spear in hand. "I don't want the Chinese here, because there's so many, it's affecting the way we fish... but I'm willing to share, I don't want to be thrown out. At least I can fish."
The coral outcrop is synonymous with the struggle for regional power, and a strategic tinder box. Along with China and the Philippines, Scarborough is claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
Despite its concessions, China's presence here is growing, with a larger contingent of coastguard and fishing boats than was indicated in satellite imagery late last year.
That fuels concerns by Manila that Beijing may have ambitions for the Scarborough Shoal similar to the artificial islands it built and fortified in the Spratly archipelago, inside the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.
For now, there is a cordial coexistence between the Filipinos and Chinese who anchor side by side less than 100 metres (yards) from the 46-km (28-mile) triangle of rock that barely pokes above the water.
SAARC expert consultation meet at BAU
Pro Vice-Chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University Prof Dr Md Jasimuddin speaks at a two-day expert meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation held on Sunday at BAU campus.
Mahdi Hasan, BAU :
A two-day expert meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) began on Sunday at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) campus.
The inaugural ceremony of the meeting, titled "Best Practices of Integrated Plant Nutrition System (IPNS) in SAARC countries" was held in Syed Nazrul Conference Room on BAU campus.
BAU Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Md Jasimuddin inaugurated the program as chief patron with Prof Dr Md Anwarul Abedin of soil science department in the chair. Among others, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture Md Fazle Wahid Khondaker as chief guest, director general of SAARC and BIMSTEC of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tareq Ahmed as guest of honor, director of SAARC agriculture center Dr SM Bokhtiar and senior program analyst of SAARC agriculture center Dr Tayan Raj Gurung spoke on the occasion. Delegates, researchers and experts from different agricultural research organizations of SAARC countries, faculties from different universities and graduate students of BAU are participating the meeting. They will discuss about the Integrated Plant Nutrition System (IPNS) to find out the best and most feasible method for applying in the field condition.
Farida Zoha Reading Scholarship at DIU
Campus Report :
To increase the reading habits of the students of the university "Farida Zoha Reading Scholarship" has recently been introduced at Daffodil International University (DIU). Prof Dr Ahmed Shamsul Islam, Department of Botany, University of Dhaka who is the father of Prof Dr Yousuf M Islam, Vice Chancellor of DIU has launched the scholarship program at the Conference Room of the university. Prof Shamsul Islam donated an amount of Tk 5, 00,000 for creating a fund for the scholarship for inculcating reading habits among the students of DIU. Farida Zoha was a sister of Dr Shamsul Islam who contributed a lot during his student life and as a recognition of gratitude and paying tribute to her, he introduced this noble initiative in memory of Farida Zoha.
Prof Dr Yousuf Mahbubul Islam, Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Hamudul Haque Khan, Treasurer, Prof Dr Engr AKM Fazlul Haoque, Registrar, Dr Milan Khan, Librarian, all Deans, Head of the Departments and the convener of Book Reading Competition along with distinguished guests were present in the program. Book Reading helps readers to develop their creativity and boost up their vocabulary.
While addressing at the inaugural ceremony Prof Dr Ahmed Shamsul Islam said, reading books wants the readers to read the book in such away so that they remember and understand the subject in details. Reading habit will provide them to improve their thinking process.
Reading probably is one of the most beneficial and feasible activities that one can do and through reading habit one can gain the ability to discover new ideas and concepts about everything.
Vice Chancellor Prof Yousuf M Islam said, nowadays students have lost interest in reading books, that's why DIU library wants to encourage students' to concentrate in reading which will help to improve their deliberation, thinking abilities, and plunge them into their brains.
Saint Martin Paribahan introduces discount bus fares
Chittagong Bureau :
A private transport company - Saint Martin Paribahan has introduced advantage bus fare in A/C buses plying between Chitagong and Dhaka at Tk.850 on each way instead of Tk.1250 to held facilitate the commuters Sources said the normal bus fare in nonA/C buses is Tk.500 to 600 .Commuters on this highway expressed happy over the reduce of A/c bus fare by Tk.400 on each ticket. Transport company sources said 7 buses regularly plying from Dhaka to Cox'sBazar, Teknaf, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Rangamati via Chittagong daily. Sources said The reduced on this route fixed at Tk.850 on Dhaka-Chittagong Tk.1600 on Dhaka-Teknaf, Tk.1400 on Dhaka-Cox'sBazar, Tk.9 50 on Dhaka-Rangamati, Dhaka-Bandarban and Dhaka-Khagrachari respectively.
Saint Martin Transport authority sources said for easy and comfortable journey in night time, sleeping facilities adjoining seat also arranged.
Director of the company Dr. Jainul Abedin told that as a profession I am a physician and rendered services in the medicare services for long and hence I always prefer the human services. Keeping in mind about the humanitarian services.
I fixed the minimum bus fare to afford by the common passengers. Sources said other existing bus companies are realizing Tk.1200 per ticket in Dhaka-Ctg road.
Open programmes after 5 pm prohibited
Chittagong Bureau :
Traditional Pahela Boishak will be observed in the port city as elsewhere in the country on Friday next in a festive mood. People irrespective of caste and creed will observe the Pahela Baishak.
To avoid the nuisances and violence in observing the Bengali traditional day, concerned authority has imposed prohibitions of holding any open programs in outside venues after 5 pm.
In this connection, Metro police and the district police authority have issued separate directives to avoid of holding the outside programs after 5 pm .
Meanwhile authorities of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and district police here have taken extra security measures to avert any untoward incident on Pahela Baishakh, the first day of the Bengali New Year on Friday.
The authorities took decision to deploy 3,250 police personnel and nearly 550 RAB members for uninterrupted celebration of Pahela Baishakh in the city and district.
CMP sources said, they would deploy 2,250 police personnel at 92 points and set up 32 check posts in different strategic places in the metropolis as part of its security measures.
RAB will also deploy over 350 personnel in Chittagong, Reazul Masud, Additional Superintendent of Police (Special Branch) of Chittagong district police, said over 1,500 police personnel will be kept for vigil at important places including upazila headquarters on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh.
Special security measures will be taken especially at the biggest
Baishakhi Mela celebration venues like DC Hill, CRB area, Patenga Sea Beach and Shilpakala Academy, said Anwar Hossain, Additional Deputy Commissioner of CMP (PR). Besides, different tourist spots and amusement parks including Foy's Lake, Swadhinata Park, Parky Sea Beach, Chittagong University campus and Sitakunda Eco Park will be brought under the security net, the sources added.
President for addressing wrong propagation of Islam
President M Abdul Hamid on Monday stressed the need for addressing the wrong propagation of Islam that helped spread terrorism and militancy worldwide.
"People of Bangladesh consider Islam as a religion of peace and harmony. And there is no room for terrorism and militancy in Islam," the President came up with the remark as Vice-President of Masjid al Haram Dr Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Mohammaed Al Khuzaim and Imam of Masjid an-Nabawi Abdul Mehsin Mohammad Al Quasim called on him at Bangabhaban here.
President Abdul Hamid hoped that the initiatives of the Saudi Arabia would help combat militancy and terrorism significantly and Bangladesh would provide its all-out support to any steps to establish world peace.
President's press secretary Joynal Abedin told newsmen after the meeting. Welcoming the delegation to Bangladesh, the President said this visit is a testimony to excellent bilateral relation which is based on common faith, religion, customs, values and aspirations between the two friendly Muslim countries.
"Bangladesh gives priority to friendly relation between the two brotherly Muslim countries," the President mentioned.
Referring to the contribution of Father of the Nation Bangabhandu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to the welfare of Islam and Muslims, Abdul Hamid said Bangabandhu established the Islamic Foundation, Bangladesh (IFB) which is now playing a very significant role for the welfare of the Islam and Muslim Ummah.
Vice-President of Masjid al Haram Dr Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Mohammaed Alkhuzaim lauded different development activities of Bangladesh Government in recent time.
Recalling his previous visit to Bangladesh 20 years back, the vice-president of the Prophet's Mosque said that he was really surprised to see the overall progress of the country at present.
He said the country would do tremendous success under efficient and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in line with the dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The Saudi delegation also assured of providing all necessary assistances to the welfare and development of Bangladesh in days ahead.
Religious Affairs Minister Principal Motiur Rahman, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Religious Affairs BH Haroon, MP, Ambassador of KSA to Bangladesh Abdullah HK Al-Mutariri and secretaries and high officials concerned were present.
Kasatkina captures first WTA title at Charleston
Daria Kasatkina celebrates after defeating Jelena Ostapenko, from Latvia, during their finals match at the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, S.C on Sunday.
AFP, Miami :
Russia's Daria Kasatkina came up trumps in her first WTA final on Sunday, breezing past fellow 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-1 to claim a maiden title in Charleston.
"It's very difficult to describe my feeling now," Kasatkina said. "I feel I'm just sleeping and everything is not real. I'm so happy."
In the first all-teen WTA final since 2009, Kasatkina's consistency paid off. She belted just seven winners to her Latvian opponent's 25, but she also made just seven unforced errors to Ostapenko's 38.
They traded breaks early in the opening set, Ostapenko leveling the set at 3-3 before Kasatkina ruthlessly pulled away to win in just 66 minutes.
"Yesterday evening and all night I couldn't sleep," Kasatkina said. "I woke up during the whole night like two or three times. I was so nervous, you cannot imagine. I was feeling like, I want to just go on the court and everything let's finish, play. I cannot (stand) feeling this anymore. But now it was worth it."
The two players have a long history in the junior ranks, but had met just once before at the WTA level, when Ostapenko triumphed last year at Eastbourne.
The 42nd-ranked Kasatkina is now slated to return to the top 30 on Monday as she aims to return to Roland Garros as a seeded player for the second straight year.
Ostapenko, now 0-3 in finals after defeats in Quebec in 2015 and at Doha last year, will rise from 66th in the world back into the top 50.
`Hilsa diplomacy` was not meant to be real diplomacy
PRE-CONDITIONS of a vibrant bilateral relations are often defined in the light of how closely political leaders interact with the masses and what they do to make common people believe that behind the facade of enchanting bilateral state visits they also have unresolved legitimate issues where the public also should participate.
Our Prime Minister's 'Hilsa diplomacy' was noticeable when she cooked for Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in the kitchen at the Rashtrapati Bhaban and prepared steamed Hilsa dish for Indian leaders.
Among others, West Bengal CM Ms. Banerjee had also appreciated such informal gesture. But apart from 'upper echelon closeness' - restricted between few members of the two countries ruling elite - visible effort to create people to people contact between the masses of the two countries remained off the scene. Issues like Teesta Water Sharing which is so sensitive to Bangladesh people was off the table. Friendship for people was ignored while party level friendship figured prominently at the visit.
The PM's visit also saw the signing of some 22 deals and MoUs on different capacities which will surely give a boost to our existing relations with India. However, despite the best of our PM's efforts, it's always India to have gained and it is always Bangladesh to have also given more. Bilateral relations are not a one-way traffic where only one gains, and it's exactly this that left many questions on Bangladesh side.
We have not been able to make India, Hilsha diplomacy or not, take Bangladesh serious for serious diplomacy for India to be just and fair. Diplomacy is never a fishy affair.
Legal experts said, the Modi government could ink the Teesta deal ignoring Mamata's opposition. According to Article 253 of the Indian Constitution, the Union government has the decision-making power over cross-boundary rivers. It could not be blamed for acting unconstitutionally if it had signed Teesta Water-Sharing Agreement with Dhaka. Writer Avijit Ghosal noted this important point in his article published in the Hindustan Times on last Friday. The Prime Minister Modi does not see the importance of sharing water and be timely.
The gross mistake India is making is ignoring the people of Bangladesh. India has a poor opinion about how the people want to see the relationship between Bangladesh and India. Pleasing government is not necessarily pleasing the people. They have reasons to feel disturbed.
Jute goods export to India fall severely
Anisul Islam Noor :
Bangladesh's export of jute goods to India fall severely as India has been charging anti-dumping duty from January 5.
As a result, the export of natural fibre-based products to India has been affected seriously, industry insider said.
Jute is the third largest export earning sector of Bangladesh, after garments and leather, and India is one of the biggest markets for the jute-based goods.
Year on year, jute goods exports slumped 52 per cent to 6,872 tonnes in January and 37 per cent to 6,155 tonnes in February, according to data from Benapole Customs.
However, jute cloths to make sacks remain free from the purview of the anti-dumping duty as a section of importers in India are showing interest in buying these sack cloths, said a senior official of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), seeking anonymity.
Chairman of the Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association (BJSA) Mohammad Shahjahan said, "We are still exporting Jute to India, but the volume has declined to a large extent because of the duty."
The shipment of raw jute rose following imposition of the duty, according to data from Customs and Bangladesh Jute Association (BJA).
India accounted for 17 per cent, or 1.41 lakh tonnes out of 8.25 lakh tonnes of jute goods exported in fiscal 2015-16, according to data compiled by the Department of Jute (DoJ).
Considering overall exports worth $689 million to India, the share of jute and jute goods was 37 per cent in fiscal 2015-16, according to data from the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI).
Industry insiders said the shipment of firms that face high anti-dumping duties has fallen in India. But the mills facing low duties have not been affected much, according to operators.
As a result of decline in demand and exports to India, a number of jute millers have cut production, said Shahjahan.
But the domestic use of jute has increased as the law that mandates the use of jute bags to package cereals, including rice, is being enforced, he added.
"It has become beneficial for us. The extent of our losses has reduced," Shahjahan said.
The Jute traders expect the anti-dumping issue to be resolved after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's four-day visit to India.
Raudha murder Classmate sued
Staff Reporter :
A murder case was filed in connection with the death of a 20-year-old Maldives national named Raudha Athif, who was found dead in her room of a private medical college hostel in Rajshahi city.
Raudha's classmate Sirat Parveen Mahmud, an Indi an national, has been made accused in the case.
Raudha's father Mohamed Athif on Monday filed the case with Rajshahi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, said our local correspondent quoting Athif's lawyer Md Kamrul Monir.
In the complaint, the deceased's father mentioned that her classmate broke open the door of Raudha and lowered the hanging body. Athif wrote in the complaint that she might have strangled Raudha, according to his lawyer.
Raudha was an MBBS second year student of Islami Bank Medical College in Rajshahi. On March 29, she was found hanging in her room of the college dormitory.
The college authorities informed Shah Makhdum Police Station that Raudha committed suicide by hanging herself.
G7 seeks united front on Assad and Russia
The search for a unified approach to the Syria conflict after last week's suspected chemical attack looks set to dominate talks between the G7 group of leading nations in Italy on Monday.
Foreign ministers will focus on how to pressure Russia to distance itself from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Allies will also be seeking clarity from the US on its Syria policy, after some apparently mixed messages. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson strongly criticised Russia on Sunday. He said it had failed to prevent Syria from carrying out a chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun last Wednesday which left 89 people dead.
But he also clarified there had been "no change to our military posture" in Syria following a retaliatory US strike against a Syrian airbase, and that Washington's "first priority" in Syria was to defeat the Islamic State terror group. Those comments came a day after the US ambassador to the United Nations said there was no way to stabilise Syria with Mr Assad as president. "In no way do we see peace in that area with Assad as the head of the Syrian government," Nikki Haley told NBC's "Meet the Press". However, she had said last week that Mr Assad's removal was no longer a US priority.
What are the options for pressuring Russia?
BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says the next two days will be dominated by a collective search for arguments to persuade President Vladimir Putin he must now end Russia's military support for President Assad and help accelerate a negotiated political transition. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is expected to press the case for new sanctions against Russia if Moscow does not give ground. "It's time for Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up," Mr Johnson said.
Russia is already under a raft of sanctions imposed by the US and EU in response to the annexation of Crimea and the crisis in eastern Ukraine. These target Russian individuals and businesses, and key sectors of the Russian economy closely connected to the ruling elite. Mr Tillerson wants to go on from the G7 talks to Moscow, able to confront the Russians with a strong set of demands backed by key US allies.
The strike on the Shayrat airbase is the kind of direct intervention in Syria's six-year-old civil war that Donald Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, had avoided. As analyst PJ Crowley wrote in a recent BBC News article, Mr Obama chose to define America's vital interest in Syria narrowly, defeating the so-called Islamic State without getting more deeply involved in another costly Middle East quagmire.
Until Friday's strike, so did Mr Trump. He opposed military action in 2013 and campaigned on a platform of fixing problems in America, not Syria. But while viewing the strike as decisive, most commentators are not seeing a radical change in the US approach to Syria.
White House sources were quick to dismiss any difference in nuance between Nikki Haley's comments and administration policy as "inadvertent and unintentional".
Meanwhile, Rex Tillerson's statement about "no change to our military posture" made it clear that Washington still regards the number one priority in Syria to be the elimination of so-called Islamic State.
Syria has denied using any chemical agents, and Russia says the US has failed to provide evidence Syria has chemical weapons. Russia and Iran, President Assad's key military backers, are also threatening retaliation if there are any further American air strikes, saying the US attack had crossed "red lines". "From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well," said a statement on Sunday from a joint command centre comprising the forces of President Assad's allies. Our diplomatic correspondent says it is far from clear that Russia's attitude to Syria has shifted at all since the gas attack and retaliatory strike. Not so long ago Donald Trump was the darling of the Russian media. Not so any more.
A headline on Monday in the Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta says: "Aggression: Seven reasons for alarm after the US strike on Syria".
Shayrat airbase was the target of the US' first deliberate direct attack on Syrian forces since the start of the war six years ago. Some 59 cruise missiles were fired at the facility in response to the suspected chemical weapons attack. Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis said Shayrat airbase was used to store chemical weapons, and that US intelligence assessed that aircraft from there had dropped bombs filled with a nerve agent on Khan Sheikhoun. Mr Assad has denied ever having used chemical weapons. Russia said the Syrian jets had hit a rebel depot full of chemical munitions. The G7 group of leading nations consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, with the European Union also represented. Foreign ministers are meeting in the city of Lucca, in Tuscany on Monday and Tuesday.
Tanners angry
Black flag rally tomorrow, place 9-point demand
Staff Reporter :
Tannery owners and workers have threatened to besiege Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) if their nine-point demand, including providing utility connections to Savar Tannery Industrial Estate, would not be soon.
They announced the demands from a rally at Hazaribagh in the capital on Monday afternoon.
Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association's Chairman Mohiuddin
Ahmed Mahin declared the demands.
The demands include speedy registration of lands at Savar as per a MoU signed in 2003, construction of the international Central Effluent Treatment Plant, utility connections to Savar in 15 days, and a judicial investigation into Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation for its mismanagement.
About 30,000 people, who were working in the tanneries at Hazaribagh, took part in the rally.
According to the new program, a black flag procession will be brought out at Hazaribagh on April 12.
The leaders of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) also claimed that the authorities concerned should implement the recent order of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court within the next 15 days.
BTA Chairman Shaheen Ahmed said that the workers would not leave their jobs at Hazaribagh until their employment opportunities were settled.
"I cannot carry my machinery since they are mortgaged to a bank, said Belal Hossain, owner of Ayub Brothers Tannery.
"On the other hand, what is the use of moving here if there is no gas, electricity or water," he questioned.
Rezaul Karim, owner of ABS Tannery Limited, said he had transferred his machinery here and was doing some work but could not begin his production as there is no gas connection.
Asked when utility connections would be provided, Deputy Secretary (Project Director) of the park Md Ziaul Haque, said "We are trying to provide the connections within a very short time."
It has been 16 years since the High Court was first moved to have the high-pollution industry transferred out of Dhaka. The government allocated the land for Savar Leather Industrial Park in 2003. However, development of the park has been mired in the usual red tape.
There is still no utility connection at the park, meaning the handful of owners who have been able to bring machinery here are unable to start production.
The Industries Ministry allocated plots to 155 tannery owners through the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) in the park, established on 200 acres of land. As of Last week, about 50 tannery owners had started production there. Another 101 tanneries needed new gas connections.
Assad allies promise force if US keeps crossing `Red Lines`
Newsweek :
A joint command center made up of the forces of Russia, Iran and militias supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad said the U.S. strike on a Syrian air base on Friday crossed "red lines" and it would respond to any new aggression and increase its support for its ally.
The United States fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base on Friday from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched earlier in the week, escalating the U.S. role in Syria and drawing criticism from Assad's allies including Russia and Iran. "What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well," said the statement published by the group on media outlet Ilam al Harbi (War Media).
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, blamed Russian inaction for helping fuel the chemical weapons attack it had reacted to, saying Moscow had failed to carry out a 2013 agreement to secure and destroy chemical weapons in Syria.
He said the United States expected Russia to take a tougher stance against Syria by rethinking its alliance with Assad because "every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility." Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Hassan Rouhani said in a phone call that aggressive U.S. actions against Syria were not permissible and violated international law, the Kremlin said on Sunday.
The two leaders also called for an objective investigation into an incident involving chemical weapons in Syria's Idlib and said they were ready to deepen cooperation to fight terrorism, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.
Syrian army forces had been losing ground across the country until Russia intervened militarily in September 2015, propping up Assad and protecting its own interests in the region.
Assad has also drawn heavily on foreign Shi'ite militias sponsored by Iran, led by Lebanon's Hezbollah group, for his most important gains since the Russian intervention.
The joint command center also said the presence of U.S troops in northern Syria where Washington has hundreds of special forces helping the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to oust the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) was "illegal" and that Washington had a long-term plan to occupy the area.
The regional alliance said the U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian base which Washington said was involved in a chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians would not deter their forces from "liberating" all of Syrian territory. Many Syrians opposed to Assad's rule consider Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iranian-backed troops as occupiers seeking to drive out mainly Sunni Syrians from the areas they live in. They hold Iran and its allies responsible for the displacement of millions outside the country.
PM trashes it as unwise statement
Turning down the BNP's allegations about 'selling out the country to India'; Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said who had issued such statements are 'unwise', indeed.
Over the last three days, senior leaders of BNP have been alleging that the ruling Awami League has inked a deal with India to stay in power for five more years. "After five years, they [AL] will go away selling the country [Bangladesh] to India in black and white," BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia said recently.
"The present AL government is not a pro-people as they are not elected by the people. They are again planning to go to power in the same way. So, she [Hasina] has signed an agreement with India as she can stay in power for five more years," Khaleda also said directly, blaming the ruling party's high-command.
But refuting such a claim, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while exchanging views with the business communities of Bangladesh and India at Taj Hotel in New Delhi yesterday, said: "A lot of statements I've heard before coming here [India]. Some of them were talking about selling out the country. Those who are talking such are really unwise."
Clarifying her stance, the PM further said: "There may be some problems with the neighbouring country [India]. And these we should overcome through discussion, not by quarrel. So, you [audience] tell me whether I've sold my country, or I've achieved something for my country."
In fact, the AL government is now facing sharp criticism from the opposition camps when it failed to sign Teesta Water Sharing Treaty during the visit of Sheikh Hasina due to non-cooperative attitude of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. But Dhaka has signed defense deals with Delhi ignoring the protest from opposition political parties, including BNP.
Referring to the issue, Senior Joint Secretary General of BNP Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has warned that the people of the country would not allow the ruling AL government to execute the defense deals with India, which were signed on Saturday.
"The people haven't given consent about the deals [defense]. Our defense strategy will be formulated with our own style. India has forced to sign the defense deals apparently to control our total security system. India inked the deal with a view to keeping a political party [AL] in power. The deal signing day will be marked in the history as a black day," he said at a human chain programme in the city on Monday.
The BNP leader said the basket of Bangladesh is nearly empty; it did not get anything during PM Sheikh Hasina's India visit, whereas the entire security system has been unlocked before India. "People haven't any idea about the 36 agreements, MoUs and protocols signed with Delhi. These have been done with an ill intention."
Echoing the same, BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshawar Chandra Roy said: "India has signed the defense deals to save its own soil using the soil of Bangladesh. The defense deals are not for Bangladesh's interest, rather it is for the interest of India."
Against this backdrop, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Monday said the BNP is playing old and broken record of anti-India politics fearing possible defeat in the next general election. If the people want, they can vote AL to power repeatedlyIt's not a task of India."
On the Teesta River water treaty, Obaidul Quader, who is also Transport and Bridges Minister, said: "The draft of Teesta Water Sharing Treaty is finalised. It is now waiting just for approval. The deal will be signed during the tenure of Hasina and Modi governments."
Mufti Hannan`s execution under process
Staff Reporter :
The execution order for Mufti Abdul Hannan, the Chief of Harkat-ul-Jihad (HuJI), reached the Kashimpur High Security Prison on Monday morning.
He is the main accused in a case filed in connection with the grenade attack on the then UK envoy in Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, in 2004. "The Home Ministry's order stating that the President has rejected the mercy petition of Mufti Hannan arrived at the jail office in the morning," Mizanur Rahman, Senior Jail Superintendent of Kashimpur High Security Prison.
Deputy Inspector General of the Prisons (Dhaka Range) Mohammad Towhidul Islam said the directive reached the jail authorities after 10:00am.
The time of execution will be fixed after discussing the matter with the high-ups, Islam added.
The jail authorities said the execution is usually held between 21 and 28 days of the death warrant being read out to the convict.
"All necessary preparations to execute Mufti Hannan is underway as per the Jail Code," the official said.
The jail authorities read the death warrant to Mufti Hannan and his two associates--Sharif Shahedul Alam and Delwar Hossain--on 21 March.
The execution proceedings began as the President rejected their pleas for Presidential clemency on 9 April.
Finally, on 19 March, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of the three HuJI men for the grenade attack. The UK envoy, Anwar Choudhury, and 51 others were injured while three, including two police officials, were killed in a grenade attack at Hazrat Shahjalal's (RA) shrine in Sylhet.
PM returns home
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is being received at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday evening on her return from state visit to India. PID photo
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned home from New Delhi on Monday evening after wrapping up her four-day state visit to India at the invitation of her counterpart Narendra Modi.
A VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, carrying the Prime Minister and her entourage, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 6:50 pm. High civil and military officials received the Prime Minister at the airport.
Earlier, the VVIP flight of the national flag carrier left Air Force Station, Palam, New Delhi at 4:45 pm (local time).
Indian State Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Babul Supriyo, High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India Syed Moazzem Ali and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla saw the Prime Minister off at the airport.
During the Prime Minister's tour, Bangladesh and India signed 36 bilateral documents, covering diverse areas of cooperation, including economic, defence cooperation, power, peaceful use of nuclear energy, outer space, information technology and mass media.
Three of the MoUs are on the cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries.
However, the much-sought Teesta water-sharing deal saw no light this time, too. Besides, India also offered a $4.5 billion line of credit to Bangladesh to help it implement projects in priority areas and a separate $500 million credit line to support defence related procurements.
Earlier on Friday, a red carpet was rolled out as Sheikh Hasina arrived in New Delhi. .She was given a ceremonial reception by her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday morning.
SC upholds HC stay order on suspension of Mayor GK Gaus
UNB, Habiganj :
The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld the High Court order that stayed the suspension of Habiganj Municipality Mayor GK Gaus.
Chamber Judge of the SC's Appellate Division Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after
hearing a petition filed by the government against the HC stay order. On April 4, the High Court stayed the government order suspending GK Gaus following a writ petition filed by him. Talking to reporters after the SC order, Gaus voiced his satisfaction, saying he got justice from the apex court. The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives suspended Gaus in 2014 as he was an accused in a criminal case over killing of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria.
A local court sent him to jail as he surrendered before it seeking bail on December 28 the same year.
On 30 December, 2015, Gaus was elected the Habiganj municipality mayor again for the third time contesting the polls from jail, but he could not join the office due to the suspension order.
He took charge of his office on March 23 last over three years after he had been suspended from the mayoral position. On April 2 last, the LGRD Ministry suspended him again as a local court accepted a chargesheet in a case in connection with an attack on late Awami league leader Suranjit Sengupta.
I got married to Shakib, we have a boy
Staff Reporter :
Cine Actress Apu Biswas on Monday in a live interview with a private television channel claimed she is married to actor
Shakib Khan and they have a six-month old baby boy.
"I'm married to Shakib since April 18 in 2008 and we have a six-month old baby boy," she told the Dhaka-based broadcaster News24 yesterday.
Meanwhile, Shakib Khan on his Facebook post yesterday said he will accept his son, not Apu.
Shakib and Apu have stirred many times the Bangladesh's dwindling cine world. Apu said they got married at Shakib's residence in Dhaka in presence of his relatives and guardians.
"After the marriage, my name was changed as Apu Islam Khan," clearing much speculation centring the relations between them, Apu revealed.
Apu Biswas went out of public attention from April last year. After a lot of drama, the rumour about her marriage with Shakib Khan came true. But Shakib Khan always denied the marriage and ruled out it as rumours.
On several occasions, Khan said that he was planning to marry another girl within two years but did not say why it would still take a long time. But he scotched speculations about his relations with Apu Biswas.
"Its like Razzak-Kobori or Salman-Shabnur," he replied, pointing to the most successful pairs of Bangladesh filmdom.
"We just work together and are good friends," said Shakib Khan who was born in 1983, made his debut in a Dhaka film in 1999.
According to sources, Apu went to India as Shakib dropped her from a joint venture movie and did not give her social recognition after marriage. When relatives of Apu informed the media of their marriage, Shakib rushed to Kolkata.
Apu gave conditions to Shakib and asked him not to work with Bubli and acknowledge her as wife publicly.
Bubli was dropped from films like 'Priya Re' and 'Amar Protigga' as per her conditions.
Claiming that the rumours are being spread to ruin famous onscreen pair, Shakib said, "The journalists should not pay heed to these rumours and find the truth."
Luxurious Porsche abandoned at Hatirjheel
Staff Reporter :
Customs officials seized a luxury car lying abandoned in the city's Hatirjheel area on Monday morning.
The 'Porsche Cayenne 955' car worth about Tk four crore with its key and a letter was lying abandoned on the bridge in front of Runner Building at Hatirjheel in the morning, said HM Sharif al Hasan, Deputy Director of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID).
This car was favourite to me. "Yet I am surrendering my car as tax was dodged," the note read.
The Customs found the car keys and a note addressing the Customs intelligence chief inside the vehicle and requested the
CIID not to go after the owner for the sake of his reputation, the Customs DD said.
Hasan said, "Verifying the engine number, it could be ascertained that one Farida Rashid, a Bangladeshi expatriate living in the UK, brought the car through the Chittagong Port in 2010."
The car was brought in the country enjoing the Carnet de Passage facility, he said.
Moinul Khan, Director General of the CIID, said, "It is thought that the car was brought into the country evading taxes. Though the owner is yet to be ascertained, the note, apparently from the owner requested that the customs intelligence officials should leave him undisturbed."
They would take legal actions after verifying documents related to the vehicle, the DG said.
HC judges hear Oishee`s statement in chamber
bdnews24.com :
In a bid to assess the mental health of teenage death row convict Oishee Rahman, High Court judges have heard her statement in the chamber.
Found guilty of murdering her parents, Oishee was brought to the court on Monday by the prison authorities on a previous order by the bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md Jahangir Hossain.
At the beginning of the hearing, the court said that a report filed by doctors at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) says the teenage girl has been diagnosed with mental illness.
A petition over the matter has been filed and that's why the court ordered to produce her, it said.
Oishee was then taken to the chamber, where judges heard her for 15 minutes in presence of counsels.
She was sent back to the prison after her statement and the court then proceeded with arguments by the State and the defence. On April 3, the High Court ordered the inspector general of prisons to produce the girl before it. Oishee's counsel Sujit Chatterjee Bappy told bdnews24.com then, "Oishee was deranged at that time. No person will kill his or her parents in the right state of mind."
Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua filed a petition in 2013, on which the High Court ordered the BSMMU to examine her mental health. On April 26, 2014, BSMMU submitted a report diagnosing Oishee with mental illness. The teenager is now lodged at the Kashimpur prison in Gazipur.
In November 2015, a Dhaka speedy trial tribunal awarded the death penalty to Oishee.
Her friend Mizanur Rahman was given a two-year jail term for aiding and abetting.
The third defendant Asaduzzaman Jony, another friend of Oishee, was acquitted of the charges of abetment.
On Aug 16, 2013, Inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife Swapna Rahman were found murdered in their apartment in Dhaka in 2013.
The bloodstained bodies were found in a locked bathroom in their apartment.
Police said Oishee mixed sleeping pills in the coffee to render her parents unconscious.
Later, she stabbed her mother and then her father to death.
After the killings, the teenage girl left the apartment with her younger brother.
The slain police officer's brother started a murder case the next day. Oishee surrendered to police the same day.
In March 2014, police pressed charges against Oishee, her two friends and the underage house help.
The house help is being tried at a juvenile court. In November 2015, the trial court's order of Oishee's death sentence was forwarded as the death reference to the High Court for it approval.
On Dec 6 the same year, Oishee filed a petition challenging the trial court's verdict. The court started hearing the matters on Mar 12 this year.
Assad must go for saving humanity: Let Russia be exposed
Editorial Desk :
Mixed signals from Donald Trump administration has created misgivings among allies on US-Syria policy. Whether deposing Bashar al-Assad is the priority or defeating ISIS is the one that comes first. We see no difference between destroying Assad and beating ISIS. In our view for fighting ISIS Assad should be finished first because he is the source of ISIS. If the USA is not ready to take risk, Russia will be more a threat to peace and humanity.
Statements by major foreign policy players of Trump administration in the past few days led to such mixed signals and misgivings. Foreign Ministers of leading industrialized nations in their G-7 meeting in Italy
scheduled for Monday are looking for an answer on US policy from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The mixed signal hit global media when US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said after chemical attack that regime change in Syria was inevitable. But Tillerson said the priority was the defeat of ISIS. CNN commentators said in fact people having no experience in foreign policy regime in the Trump administration are to be blamed for the mess.
Moreover a power struggle is reportedly at work in the inner circle of the White House between. Trump's political strategist Steve Benon and his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner who is also playing a role in foreign policy issues at time overshadowing Secretary of States Rex Tillerson. Lack of cohesion is creating the misgivings.
It is true that the Trump administration has evidently hardened its position on Assad's future in the past few days. After the missile attack on an airbase in Western Syria in retaliation of nerve gas attack by regime forces that killed over 80 people, the US Ambassador to the United Nations told CNN that regime change was inevitable in Syria. But Tillerson was more candid telling CBS that the first priority was ISIS.
Haley said it's going to be hard to accept a government that is not peaceful and stable with Assad, so regime change is something that the US thinks is going to happen because all the parties are going to see that Assad is not the leader for Syria.
Haley's comments came as a significant departure from President Donald Trump's previous stance on Assad's future before election victory in November. He had said that time that fighting Assad and ISIS simultaneously was an "idiocy." Many believe that the President must make clear which one he will go for first.
Only five days before the chemical attack, Haley had said removing Assad was not a priority raising eye-brow from many quarters whether Trump administration is going to toe the Russian line accepting Assad in power. Now many believe Trump is using the missile attack to shore up his failures in domestic front.
"Our priority is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out," Haley had told reporters on March 30. On the same day, Secretary Tillerson while on a trip to Turkey said that the "longer-term status of Assad would be decided by the Syrian people." It means the US is accepting Assad for the time being.
Tillerson believes Russia's support of the Syrian regime made it complicit in the actions of President Bashar al-Assad and it should do more to meet commitments it made in 2013 to guarantee the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons.
G-7 Foreign Ministers are likely to bring pressure on Russia to reconsider its support for Assad in the wake of the chemical weapons attack that killed unarmed civilians and to find a political solution to Syria crisis.
If USA and the West don't be hypocrite, they must recognise that with peace restored in Syria ISIS will be dead in no time. ISIS is anti-Muslim and proving useful for spreading anti-Muslim animosity in the Western countries. To see ISIS as Islamic extremists is the worst lie. ISIS represents a conspiracy against the Muslims in the absence of leadership among the Muslims. ISIS represents hired Muslim thugs and killers.
Fight Assad the real ISIS.
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.
If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
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DU QUOIN Chris Robinson and Howard Baxter said that little Briella Henry looked a lot bigger than the unresponsive 9-pound infant they encountered two months ago.
And a lot happier, no doubt.
The two men, a Du Quoin police officer and an Illinois State Police master sergeant, and Du Quoin Officer Cale Bastien, met the baby, who in the words of her mother, Erica Henry was unresponsive and turning blue.
Three days before their Feb. 5 encounter, the little girl had been diagnosed with RSV, a respiratory infection that is like a common cold in adults but much more disastrous for babies, Henry said.
Henry had just come in and her mother had given her the baby; Henry said she thought Briella was just sleeping. She began to notice something awry.
"She was taking a nap, and I seen her throw up, and she was turning blue," Henry said. "I started screaming 'call 911,'"
When the Du Quoin officers arrived, they tried to do two-finger infant chest compressions, but quickly abandoned that approach.
"We were trying (to use the finger compressions), but we just went ahead and gave her mouth-to-mouth, so that every time we would, she would just throw up a little more," Robinson said. "The grandmother would give her a few, then I would give her a few, and when they said the ambulance was coming from Pinckneyville, we all just decided to go."
Pinckneyville is about 13 miles from the city of Du Quoin; the first hospital Briella was taken to is in Du Quoin.
"It was upsetting to all three of us," Robinson said. "All three of us were stunned. The only concern (we had) was we wanted to get her to the hopsital as soon as possible."
That's when Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Howard Baxter got involved, leading an escort for about a mile and a half over the streets of Du Quoin to Marshall Browning Hospital.
Briella was transferred to a hospital in St. Louis, where her mother said she stayed about a week.
After Monday night's Du Quoin City Council meeting, where her three personal heroes were presented with Life Safety Awards and what appeared to be baby formula trickled out of her mouth, Briella appeared calm and content.
"She's way bigger, way bigger now," Robinson said.
"Very humbling to be appreciated," Baxter said. "These officers are good guys. We all worked to get here today. We just work well as a team."
Du Quoin Police Chief Jamie Ellermeyer said Monday night was the first time he'd presented a Life Safety Award to an officer; Bastien has two and one half years of service; Robinson, 12; and Baxter, 19. The life-saving awards were the first for all the men, they said.
Robinson said he'd never given CPR to a baby.
"I'm just happy to see that she's healthy," Robinson said. "She's way bigger than she was the day that this happened."
Bastien and Robinson noted that it was their training that made the difference that day.
"The guys acted just like they're supposed to," Ellermeyer said. "We've got a very high rate of training in our department and we continue that all the time. So these guys stepped up and did exactly what they needed to do."
Two Randolph County residents have been indicted on a methamphetamine offense, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Donald S. Boyce said in a news release.
47-year-old Rodney V. Howie, of Tilden, and Sparta resident Jordan P. Leggans, 29, were charged in in a one-count superseding indictment charging conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, according to the release.
The charge alleges that the offense took place between 2015 and February 2017 in Perry, Randolph, Monroe and St. Clair counties.
The maximum penalty for the methamphetamine offense is 5 to 40 years of imprisonment, followed by four years of mandatory supervised release, and a $5 million fine.
The suspects made their initial appearances in court on Monday and were ordered to be held without bond until a detention hearing on Thursday.
The investigation is continuing.
The Southern
SPRINGFIELD Kara Bland's 2010 Chevy Malibu still had temporary plates when police seized it for a crime she did not commit. She loaned it to the father of her daughter, who was arrested after picking up someone who had marijuana on him.
For six weeks, Bland took her 6-year-old daughter to school on a Chicago city bus and relatives helped her run errands before a judge released the car on bond. It took a total of nine months to officially regain ownership and cost her $1,000.
"They intentionally try to make this process as difficult and confusing as they can ... so that people will eventually give up," she said.
Bland, 24, was a victim of a contentious practice that allows law enforcement to seize vehicles, cash and other property thought to be connected to a crime, and to profit from it. The plight of innocents whose property is seized has helped fuel a flurry of legal changes throughout the country that seek to limit such police powers.
Since 2014, 19 states and the District of Columbia have altered some aspect of their forfeiture laws. Twelve states now require a criminal conviction to formally confiscate assets in most or all cases, and nine others, including Illinois, are considering adopting such standards.
Illinois' current forfeiture standard risks providing some law enforcement agencies with an "unfettered piggybank," said state Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat who is sponsoring the current legislation. In addition to requiring a conviction before property could be permanently confiscated, the bill would reduce the financial incentive by channeling forfeited assets toward funding social services and specific law enforcement programs through grants.
"This is an extraordinary use of government power," Harmon said. "If it's not used judiciously, it's a real overreach."
According to a 2016 report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, law enforcement here collect roughly $30 million in forfeited property annually that they are not required to report publicly. The proposed changes would require law enforcement agencies to openly catalog what they seized and why.
Law enforcement advocates say civil forfeiture is about more than raising funds. It's a way of undercutting criminal enterprises by seizing the cash they use to operate, said Howard Williams, a former police chief who now teaches at Texas State University and wrote a book about forfeiture.
"You cripple their ability to operate," he said.
The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police opposes the new legislation in its current form, fearing it would essentially end the practice, said association lobbyist John Millner, Elmhurst's former police chief and a former state senator. The Illinois State Police declined to discuss specifics, but like the police chiefs, a spokesman said the agency is working with the proposal's sponsors to ensure it would protect innocent property owners but not hamstring officers' ability to deter criminal activity.
In addition to requiring that someone be convicted of an alleged crime, the Illinois plan would make the government prove an owner consented to his or her property being used for illegal activity, instead of requiring owners to show they weren't connected. This would rectify what House sponsor Democratic Rep. Will Guzzardi, of Chicago, characterized as a "guilty-until-proven-innocent" provision.
"If we're going to punish people for alleged involvement in a crime, we should be very, very sure that there's been a crime and they're connected to it," said Ben Ruddell, an ACLU attorney.
Ruddell said the proposal would also eliminate a requirement that owners pay bond equal to 10 percent of the property's value just to argue it was wrongfully seized.
Andrew Hemmer, a Cabrini Green Legal Aid attorney who represented Bland for free after she could no longer afford her initial lawyer, said the majority of seizures are never challenged in court. Contesting a forfeiture is a "harrowing" procedure, Hemmer said. It's a costly, sometimes years-long court proceeding. And a low-income challenger can't turn to a public defender because the cases are technically against property, not people.
The bills are HB689 and SB1578.
The Regional Medical Centers Medical Staff Executive Committee is requesting a change in the hospitals Board of Trustees.
Dr. Daniel Avosso made an appearance before Orangeburg County Council last week on behalf of the members of the committee.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Avosso thanked the board of trustees and the administration of the hospital for their leadership thus far.
Without their guidance and sound judgment, we would be like many community hospitals, in the process of closing our doors, Avosso said. We believe that strong governance in todays health care environment is crucial to the success of our hospital.
The RMC board is currently governed by a 17-member Board of Trustees representing both Orangeburg and Calhoun counties.
The board represents professional, business and community leaders appointed by members of Orangeburg and Calhoun county councils. The counties own the hospital.
Avosso said a change should be made to the current composition of the board.
The Medical Executive Committee feels that simply having two or three physicians on the board for their opinions will not make our hospital successful in the future, Avosso said. We believe that we need a robust dialogue within the board, not pitting physician members against community leaders but one that encourages an exchange of ideas that all parties know are under real consideration.
Avosso suggested that the board of trustees should be composed of a total of eight physicians, eight community leaders and at least one nurse.
The composition of the board is vital to the success of the hospital, he said. It is a move we believe will help position our communitys hospital in a better way for the challenges we face.
Avosso said the committee is ready to provide council with a list of staff members willing to participate.
After hearing from Avosso, Council Chairman Johnnie Wright said, I always say its an open government. They have a right to their thoughts.
Wright said there is no plan right now to change the make-up of the board but the council will take everything under advisement.
I think we need to try to let the dust settle, he said, adding that it may not be a good decision for the county to continue jerking form one thing to another.
He wants to see the hospital and county try to keep moving forward in a position direction.
The RMC board is seeking a new CEO for the hospital. A divided board voted in January to remove Tom Dandridge after 24 years at the hospital.
The board also changed the hospitals long-standing management contract with Quorum Health Resources to an advisory contract.
Also in the County Council meeting:
Council approved a resolution allowing employees to enroll in the sick leave bank on any date the employee meets the other membership requirements.
You could only enroll in October during benefit change, County Administrator Harold Young said. We felt that was not conducive for some of us trying to join. We wanted to open that to year round.
The sick leave bank is for sick leave time employees would usually lose at the end of the year.
Employees can only accumulate 240 hours of time, Young said. Over that, at the end of the year, if you dont use it, you lose it.
What some had asked to do was to offer some of the time that they would lose into a bank for those employees who come across a terminal illness or some type of long-term illness where they exhaust all of their time to still be able to provide for their families, he added.
Council first established the sick leave bank on July 6, 2015.
Using the sick leave bank is strictly on a volunteer basis and employees must have a minimum of two days worth of hours to be able to use the bank.
You basically put time in to be a part of it. If you need it, you go to the committee, request it and it must be approved, Young said.
The revision to the handbook went into effect upon councils approval.
Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, presented council with a check for $346,281.35 toward the county economic development fund. He also recently presented Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five with a $500,000 check for its summer enrichment program called Mohawk Mania at Bethune-Bowman.
Council approved second reading of an ordinance rezoning property at 909 Middle Willow Road in Nesses from Forest and Agriculture to Commercial General. The property is already in use as a commercial property as a farm equipment and tractor-trailer repair shop.
Council approved second reading of an ordinance rezoning property at 2423 Homestead Road in Bowman from Forest and Agriculture to Commercial General. The property is already in use as a commercial property and is next to the county fire station and other Business Industrial-zoned property.
Council approved second reading of two ordinances relating to Labon Technical Fiber, Inc. The first ordinance approved infrastructure credits and the second places the expansion in a joint county industrial park with Dorchester County. The company has promised a minimum investment of $2.1 million and 23 new jobs.
Council received an update from the Public Works Committee regarding a request to add Army Road and Navy Road to the county road maintenance system. Committee Chairman Johnny Ravenell said no action was taken on either road. They determined that Army Road did not qualify. Navy Road, if brought up to county standards, could be resubmitted to council for consideration in the future.
Council read a resolution declaring April 2017 Fair Housing Month.
Council went into closed, executive session to discuss two economic development updates. The first was a project currently operating anonymously under the name Project Halo and a second is operating under the name Project Columbus.
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By Trend
Azerbaijans Culture Center in Vienna has hosted the launch of Landscaped exhibition of talented Azerbaijani artist Aida Mahmudova.
Participants in the ceremony included Austrian public figures, artists, and representatives of the diplomatic corps.
Director of the Culture Center Leyla Gasimova, addressing the opening ceremony, highlighted works of Aida Mahmudova.
The ceremony then featured a concert program.
The Founder and Creative Director of YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Mahmudova graduated from Central Saint Martins in London with a degree in Fine Art in 2006. To date, her works have been exhibited internationally, including at the MAXXI in Rome and the 55th Venice Biennale for the exhibition Love Me, Love Me Not (which later traveled to Baku), amongst numerous others.
Her works were also the subject of a solo exhibition at the Barbarian Art Gallery in Zurich in 2013.
Drawing inspiration from the landscape and architecture of Azerbaijan, Mahmudova works in installation, sculpture and painting to capture forgotten and marginal corners of her rapidly modernizing country. The core of these works involves repurposed and abandoned architectural features, formed into installations, as well as paintings of empty sites on the outskirts of Baku.
Seeking to commemorate a moment in time through these subjects, her works act to counter the ongoing experience of transience, yet they simultaneously celebrate items which are themselves on the cusp on disappearing. As such, Mahmudova preserves the sense of ephemerality that permeates a country already layered with past civilizations and rapid modern development.
Central to Mahmudovas work is the tension between fiction and reality and the fascination with memory and the impermanence of identity. To Mahmudova, identity is formed by memory, which is continually altered and re-remembered over time.
The landscapes and architectural relics externalize this sense of change and reflect underlying tensions experienced by the generation who experienced Azerbaijans independence in 1991.
In 2011, Aida Mahmudova founded YARAT, a not-for-profit contemporary art organization based in Baku. YARAT is dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan, and creating a platform for Azerbaijani art both nationally and internationally. The organization also produces a comprehensive program of exhibitions and education. In 2012 she launched YAY Gallery, a social enterprise which shares proceeds between exhibiting artists and YARAT projects.
By Azertac
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has offered condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
We were deeply shocked by heavy casualties and injuries as a result of a series of blasts in your country, said President Aliyev in his letter of condolences.
We are outraged by such brutal acts against innocent people, and consider it essential to conduct a resolute and consistent fight against the evil of terrorism in all its manifestations.
On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who were killed and the whole people of Egypt, and wish those injured the soonest possible recovery.
By Azertac
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has chaired a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2017 and future tasks.
The head of state made an opening speech at the event, Azertac reported.
Other speakers at the meeting included Minister of Defense Industry Yavar Jamalov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov, and Chairman of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company Rauf Valiyev.
The head of state made a closing speech at the meeting.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as usual, is the focus of attention.
Although Armenia is doing its utmost to cease the negotiations and boycott them, it cannot and will not be able to achieve this, President Aliyev said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2017 and future tasks.
The co-chair countries of the Minsk Group have repeatedly emphasized unacceptability of the status quo, said the head of state, adding that this, in fact, means that the occupation must be ended.
President Aliyev stressed that the Minsk Group must increase pressure on Armenia, its policy of occupation to force them to observe international law and end occupation.
Our position on the talks remains unchanged, and there cannot be any changes. The principle of territorial integrity is not the subject of negotiations and Azerbaijan must restore its territorial integrity," he said. In all my international contacts I emphasize that no country or organization should take a double standard approach to the problem. In some cases, we face these double standards. Sometimes greater attention is paid to conflicts in the post-Soviet era, or more specific phrases are used with respect to those conflicts.
President Aliyev said the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be solved within Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity.
Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, but they have not been enforced to this day.
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.
The president went on to say that Armenia disgraced and exposed itself by conducting a so-called referendum in the Nagorno-Karabakh.
I have said once and I reiterate that the more illegal referendums they conduct, the more it will be to our benefit because all our neighboring countries, Minsk Group co-chair countries, European Union and many countries have immediately condemned this referendum, they said that they do not recognize this referendum and recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan, the president said.
In fact, by conducting this so-called referendum, they once again encouraged all countries to repeat the truth. Of course, by denouncing this referendum, the entire international community reaffirmed its support for Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity and for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with this principle, President Aliyev added.
By Azernews
By Kamila Aliyeva
An Azerbaijani delegation will visit Ankara on April 13-17 to observe the referendum, which will be held on April 16 in connection with the changes to the Constitution of Turkey.
The delegation will include the chairman of the parliamentary committee on health, the head of the working group on Azerbaijan-Turkey Interparliamentary relations Ahliman Amiraslanov and the member of the working group, MP Agalar Veliyev, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Parliament Akif Tevekkuloglu told Trend on April 10.
Next Sunday, Turkish voters will be asked to vote Yes or No to an 18-article constitutional reform bill , which would shift the country from a parliamentary system of governance to a presidential one.
The Yes campaign is backed by the ruling AK Party and opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), while the CHP has argued against the changes.
The constitutional changes also envisage increasing the number of sits at the parliament from 550 to 600 and holding parliamentary elections every five years. Currently, the parliamentary elections are held every four years.
It was also proposed to lower the age limit for a candidate to MP to 18 years from the current 25 years.
In accordance with the amendments, President-elect must be a citizen of Turkey and aged above 40 and he will also be empowered to appoint and change the ministers. The president-elect will not be obliged to be a non-party nominee anymore.
The bill of constitutional changes was passed by parliament in January, with 339 votes in favor -- nine more than needed to put the proposals to a referendum.
By Azernews
By Rashid Shirinov
More than a week has passed since the parliamentary elections in Armenia, but talks about voter bribery and frauds do not end in Armenia.
That day, our people [Armenians] were busy doing unfair business, thoughtlessly betraying themselves and their future, MP candidate from the block "Tsarukyan Mushegh Saghatelyan told journalists.
He noted that there also were other serious frauds during the voting, such as malfunctioning of technical equipment at the polling stations, re-vote, and other violations.
Saghatelyan added that there were almost no journalists near the polling stations, and observers and proxies did not even try to prevent these cases of injustice.
Speaking of the possibility of a new popular uprising in the coming years, Saghatelyan said: Few days will pass, the money, which people received as bribes, will be spent, and then we will see how people will rise up, he said.
Armenians, who sold their votes to Sargsyans party, are also rising up, and the reason for this are egregious attempts of the loser candidates from the ruling party to return the bribes that they handed out.
Representatives of the candidates come to the houses of people and demand to return the money, threatening with seizure of property if they do not return the bribes.
The preliminary results of the elections show that President Serzh Sargsyan's Republican Party is leading with 49.12 percent of the vote.
During and after the elections, a number of Armenian politicians, local and international observers and journalists noted that the parliamentary elections in Armenia had many violations and frauds. International observers from the Council of Europe, OSCE and the European Parliament also noted the violations in their statement following the elections.
Recently, the bloc Armenian National Congress (ANC) - People's Party of Armenia (PPA) appealed to the Central Election Commission of Armenia with a demand to recognize the results of the elections null and void.
By Azernews
By Kamila Aliyeva
Uzbekistan Airlines will perform the first flight en route Tashkent - Dushanbe - Tashkent on April 11.
Regular flights to Dushanbe will be carried out twice a week on the A320 airliners, according to the company.
The sale of tickets for the specified flight is open. Earlier, an airline representative office was opened in Dushanbe.
From the Tajik side, the airline Somon Air will fly to Tashkent. Visa regime currently operates between the two Central Asian countries.
Flights between the two countries were terminated in the autumn of 1992, and in 2000, Uzbekistan introduced a visa regime for travel to Tajikistan.
The air traffic was interrupted with the beginning of civil war in Tajikistan, there were virtually no commercial, economic and political ties. The relations began to restore in 2016.
In autumn 2016, a protocol on cooperation was signed between the civil aviation authorities of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the air transport sector.
Uzbekistan Airways performed the first charter flight to Dushanbe in November 2016.
Uzbekistan Airways is a monopoly air carrier in Uzbekistan, wholly owned by the state.
The aircraft fleet of the Uzbek airline currently has 31 aircraft of western production, including thirteen Boeing passenger aircraft, thirteen airbuses (three A-310 and ten A-320-200), three medium-haul RJ-85s and two cargo planes Boeing-767-300BCF.
The Uzbek airline operates flights to over 20 cities in Europe, America, the Middle East, Asia, 22 cities of the CIS countries and 11 destinations on local airlines.
By Azernews
By Kamila Aliyeva
Kazakhstans Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov called on all parties interested in the settlement of the situation in Syria to support the Astana and Geneva processes.
"We urge all parties interested in the peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict to support both the Astana process and, first of all, the Geneva process, which is being held under the auspices of the UN," Abdrakhmanov told reporters.
He expressed the hope that "all parties involved will support these processes with all the means available in their arsenal", RIA Novosti reported.
"Currently, we are waiting for further information on the meeting planned in Tehran, and then on the meeting in Astana scheduled for May 3-4 from the guarantor countries of the Astana process," Abdrakhmanov stated.
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister of Syria Faisal Mikdad told media that Damascus has not yet received information about the date of the new round of negotiations on Syria in Geneva, but expressed readiness to participate in the new round of talks in Astana, when he receives the invitation.
Earlier this year, Astana hosted three rounds of high-level talks to end the military confrontation in Syria as part of that has become known as the Astana process. It brought together representatives of the three guarantor states, Russia, Turkey and Iran, as well as the Syrian government and armed opposition, along with representatives of the UN, the United States and Jordan.
The first round of intra-Syrian Astana talks took place on January 23-24 during which the parties agreed to create a trilateral mechanism to monitor the ceasefire in Syria, which was established on December 30.
The second round of Astana talks took place on February 15-16 and resulted in the agreement of the participants to set up a ceasefire monitoring group, encompassing Iran, Russia and Turkey, that would report to the United Nations.
The latest, third round of Astana talks which took place on March 14-16 focused on the separation of positions of terrorists and moderate opposition in the war-torn country.
Armed conflict continues in Syria since March 2011. Government troops are confronted by militants of different armed rebel groups. Russia has begun airstrikes on terrorist facilities in Syria since September 30, 2015. The Russian military involvement follows an official request from President Bashar Assad to President Vladimir Putin.
The UN has repeatedly tried and failed to end the Syrian conflict, which has killed 300,000 and displaced 11 million since it began five years ago.
A groundbreaking report that will provide Takaful practitioners with invaluable strategic insights critical to success will be launched this week at the 12th annual World Takaful Conference (WTC) in Dubai.
Milliman, one of the worlds largest actuarial and consulting firms, will present the Global Takaful Report 2017, entitled Market Trends in Family and General Takaful, at the event being held on April 11 and 12, at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Dubai.
The WTC, convened by leading financial intelligence platform, Middle East Global Advisors, will be held in strategic partnership with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority under the theme of Stability, Authenticity & Technological Transformation.
This event will be inaugurated by Ebrahim Obaid Al Zaabi, director general, Insurance Authority (IA) UAE.
Speaking on the launch of the report, Safder Jaffer, managing director and consulting actuary - Middle East & Africa, Milliman, said: There is a demand in the market for an industry report which analyses family takaful and general takaful separately. The Milliman Global Takaful Report meets this demand by providing an invaluable reference source for industry participants. We are delighted to launch it at The World Takaful Conference - a platform that shares the same ethos as us of advancing and fostering the takaful industry through generating actionable insights.
The Global Takaful Report 2017 will examine the growth of the global and family Takaful markets in the period 2012-2015, providing an in-depth analysis of financial trends, market penetration rates, and the various opportunities and challenges that lie in store for Takaful leaders across the world.
The report aims to equip Takaful leaders in the regulatory, economic, demographical and technological landscape by enabling them to take stock of the key industry trends, analyze forecasts and projections, and explore factors that are critical to their organizations long-term growth, said a statement.
While the Takaful industry has shown great promise, it is no secret that a host of challenges loom large. Fragmented markets, lack of uniformity in standards and undifferentiated competitor strategies stand as major obstacles blocking the industry from channelling its full potential. At times like these, strategic insights in the form of intelligence reports will prove to be a welcome source of information for Takaful practitioners across the globe.
Since its inception in 2006, The World Takaful Conference has been a significant contributor to enhancing growth, excellence and innovation in the global Takaful industry. Time and again, the conference has proven to be an ideal launching pad for research and intelligence reports that provide strategic insights to the most pressing issues targeting the industry at large, said the statement.
With EmiratesRE and Salama as platinum partners, Milliman as consulting partner and Adamjee Life Assurance Company Limited as associate partner for this years edition, WTC 2017 will build on its decade-long reputation for nurturing the development of the Takaful industry by facilitating thought-provoking discussions, producing quality research and generating actionable insights.
The second day of the conference will take shape in the form of a dedicated platform called InsurTech Integrated that will focus on the impact of disruptive technologies on the insurance industry. - TradeArabia News Service
Cofely Besix Facility Management (CBFM), a leading FM provider, recently introduced the regions first online recruitment videos targeting potential FM job applicants, as part of its new recruitment process.
The recruitment videos, featuring existing CBFM employees, are showcased on the companys website (www.cofely-besix.com), and offer potential applicants a visual and engaging way to access various job descriptions.
As we move forward as a company, we are focusing on every aspect of our business, explained Ian Harfield, CEO of Cofely Besix Facility Management.
The world is changing, and so too is the way we use technology in the workplace. Technology has impacted all areas in our service delivery, yet the way we recruit hasnt changed, until now.
The videos feature interviews with various electricians, mechanical technicians and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) technicians which were conducted in their mother tongue, thereby making the understanding for applicants much easier, and it gives them a clearer insight into the various job requirements, as well as the specific skill-sets required for each job.
We are constantly looking for new ways to attract quality staff, and in the region, we have the additional challenge of having to deal with a variety of different languages and cultures.
The biggest challenge for us when recruiting new staff, is that we encounter many applicants who each have their own interpretation of the text they read, and understanding of certain requirements for a specific job, mainly due to the language barrier, said Harfield.
The interviews with the staff outlining the job descriptions and skills required, are all conducted in Hindi, as this is the area where most of CBFMs applicants originate from. The videos also include footage of each employees work environment and staff accommodation, to give prospective employees a better understanding of what the role involves, as well as being able to visualise what it will be like working at CBFM.
We are very pleased with the outcome of the videos. This is a huge step forward in our selection process, as it has become so much more streamlined, and applicants can now see, listen and understand the nature of the role. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words, added Harfield. TradeArabia News Service
In a bid to reassure patients who may be preparing to undergo surgery or commit to a potentially life-changing medication, Zulekha Hospital in the UAE now offers a free second opinion and consultations service.
The Second Opinion service, which officially starts today (April 10), will see a range of free advice in fields such as cardiology, oncology and general surgery provided at Zulekhas Dubai and Sharjah hospitals.
Taher Shams, managing director of Zulekha Hospitals, said: It is important for us, as a respected healthcare institution, that the community we serve receive the most appropriate and correct treatment for their symptoms or conditions.
The decision, as well as the financial burden, of undergoing a life-changing treatment or surgery is not a small one to make and our service has been designed to provide patients with added confidence and to help ensure they are absolutely certain about their course of treatment.
Our aim is to encourage a culture of patients taking a second opinion. Whenever medical advice has been given, it is always a safe bet to have another doctor weigh in on the matter, especially in the case of surgery.
Dr Fadi Alnehlaoui, surgical oncologist and general surgeon, is one of the many doctors offering free consultations at Zulekha Hospital and hopes initiatives like these will help reaffirm patients confidence in their doctors diagnosis.
He said: Today, we all have access to an overload of information on the internet, from friends and from the medical community. Sometimes it can be too much to take in and process, especially when youre also coming to terms with a new diagnosis.
We encourage patients to seek a second opinion so that they have peace of mind when it comes to the best course of action and I look forward to speaking to patients from across our community to offer my professional advice.
In the event that an alternative treatment could be made available to the patient, Zulekha Hospital specialists will provide a plan of action and provide the best possible course to take for the fastest recovery.
Added Shams: Even if our doctors diagnosis contradicts what they have been told previously, we will provide support, steer them in the right direction for treatment and make our experts available to them for future consultations. - TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) has revealed that its contribution to Saudi Arabias gross domestic product (GDP) through investments in the industrial cities is expected to rise from SR104 billion ($27.2 billion) to more than SR140 billion ($37.3 billion) by 2020, said a report.
Modon said over 100,000 Saudi nationals work in 35 industrial cities established by the company, Sami Al-Hussaini, marketing and corporate communications director at Modon, was quoted as saying in a Saudi Gazette report.
The number of Saudis working in these cities is expected to rise to about 140,000 by 2020, it added.
Al-Hussaini further noted that the total area of the industrial cities reached more than 190 million sq m by the end of 2016.
Modon signed more than 6,000 industrial, service and logistical contracts during the period.
He added that the company has focused on the quality industries with added value within the National Transformation Program 2020 to achieve sustainable development within its role as an enabler to the industrial sector.
Abu Dhabi Ports (ADP), the master developer, operator and manager of the emirate's commercial and community ports as well as the Khalifa Industrial Zone, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Jaheziya, to introduce a range of maritime training courses and programmes.
Jaheziya is the brand name for Tawazuns Safety, Security and Disaster Management City.
The deal was signed by Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, and Jamal Mohamed Al Shamsi, managing director of Jaheziya, at Abu Dhabi Ports headquarters.
The agreement is structured to initiate cooperation between the two companies to work on strategies and introduce a range of courses as well as attracting students and interested parties to enrol in them, said a statement from Abu Dhabi Ports.
To facilitate the achievement of this joint initiative and realise its goals, Abu Dhabi Ports and Jaheziya will work closely together and actively offer each other advice to maintain a smooth and practical partnership, it said.
Following the signing, Al Shamisi said: Our strategic partnership with Jaheziya is in line with our organisations objectives to form strong productive collaborations with prime entities in the UAE.
Jaheziya has rightfully established itself as a trusted and recognised centre of excellence, offering flexibility to meet all training needs. To ensure a seamless and sustainable success of this partnership, we will deliver all the maritime theory and practical courses, and provide all necessary experienced teaching staff to facilitate these courses, he added.
By applying the highest standards of maritime training to all its courses and programmes, Abu Dhabi Ports positions itself as an industry leader in providing excellence in maritime education and training, said a statement.
Recognised and endorsed internationally, and delivered by accredited instructors, courses cover a wide range of vital maritime subjects, such as: Musaffah Channel Familiarisation Course, IMO Model Course 1.27 for ECDIS, IMO Model Course 1.07 for Radar/ARPA Operational Level, and the mandatory course for seafarers Human Element, Leadership and Management Course (HELM), mandated by the Manila amendment to STCW.
Currently students from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, Iraq and the UAE all receive training from Abu Dhabi Ports Maritime Training Centre.
Jamal Mohamed Al Shamsi, managing director, Jaheziya, said: Our company is keen to be a partner with Abu Dhabi Ports in this venture to attract, engage and train students on theoretical and practical maritime courses.
In order to achieve our common goal, Jaheziya will make all facilities available to Abu Dhabi Ports to enhance their training proposition and add value to the development of the students from a practical perspective.
Jaheziya, a Tawazun owned company, provides technical, vocational and professional training and leads in the field of joint training between the various competent authorities in the management of emergencies, crises and disasters. It provides the necessary knowledge and support to contribute to the building and enhancing of the UAEs capacity to protect communities.
Jaheziyas training facilities, in Musaffah, will be used as the main training site for the purposes of this agreement, it stated. TradeArabia News Service
Building on the hugely successful second edition in 2016, the Festival of Media Mena, a global conference and awards programme, is returning to Dubai, UAE on April 26.
The third edition of the event at the Waldorf Astoria on Palm Jumeirah will bring together senior level executives from the worlds biggest brands, marketing agencies and media houses to discuss the latest trends under the theme Understanding Media Transformation.
The conference will be followed by a celebration of the regions best media work during the Festival of Media Mena Awards ceremony at Music Hall, Zabeel Saray Hotel.
The day-long conference will see a line-up of 35 high-calibre speakers from global media forces including LinkedIn, Google, Nielsen, MOAT and Unilever shedding light on the future of the sector, and bringing attendees up to speed with the trends and techniques that are currently shaping the media scene.
Proceedings will be kicked off with an opening speech from Jeremy King, COO of the Festival of Media, who is confident that the event will deliver deep insights into the constantly evolving media landscape and equip speakers with insider knowledge of how to keep pace with rapid regional and global media transformation.
Alexandre Hawari, Co-CEO of Mediaquest, said: We are extremely excited to be hosting the third edition of the Festival of Media Mena here in Dubai, where the sector is undergoing exciting transformation and growth. Media is one of the worlds fastest growing and changing industries, and the agenda for this years event aims to make attendees the leaders of that change.
By understanding media transformation, we can shape the future of this ever-evolving sector and strengthen the Mena regions global reputation by celebrating its exceptional contributions to the marketing, advertising and digital fields at the Festival of Media Mena awards.
In line with the entrepreneurial spirit of the region and to encourage fresh ideas, the Festival of Media Mena Awards rewards the regions very best media work across four categories: Media, Content, Technology and Insight.
Judged by a senior panel of agency heads and regional brand marketers led by jury chairs Nick Graham from Huawei Technologies and Asad Rehman from Unilever, the awards programme has become one of the foremost marketing events in the region, helping winning agencies and media owners to secure new business and grow their influence in the marketplace.
Festival of Media Mena is also proud to partner with the emerge platform, which has been created to provide a platform for the globes hottest ad tech start-up companies to showcase their products and services to the worlds most senior and biggest spending figures in the international advertising sector.
The third edition of the Festival of Media Mena is sponsored by Rotana Media Group, MCN (Middle East Communications Network), and MEC Media Company, among others. TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) tops the list of 50 most valuable brands in the Middle East for the first time this year in the ranking created by Brand Finance, a leading valuation and strategy consultancy.
STC's brand value grew 11 per cent in value this year to $6.2 billion, the ranking shows.
Emirates Airline, which has been the most valuable brand in the Middle East ever since the ranking was initiated in 2010, is second on the list with a value of $6.08 billion, down 21 per cent, said a report.
A brands strength is assessed (based on factors such as marketing investment, familiarity, preference, sustainability and margins) to determine what proportion of a businesss revenue is contributed by the brand. This proportion is projected into perpetuity and discounted to determine the brands value.
Brand Finance Middle East managing director Andrew Campbell said: The Riyadh-based giant demonstrates a departure from its once traditional approach; it is embarking down a path of humanisation, re-engaging its many stakeholders with a fresh, personable outlook. A clear indication of its success is the 5-point increase in its brand strength index score, proving that putting some heart into it pays off."
Others on the top 10 are: Etisalat ( UAE - $5.51bn); QNB (Qatar - $3.82bn); Emirates NBD (UAE - $3.4bn); Ooredoo (Qatar - $3.1bn); Almarai (Saudi Arabia - $2.59bn); National Bank of Abu Dhabi (UAE - $2.49bn); Zain (Kuwait- $2.33bn) and ADCB (UAE- $2.18bn).
It is useful to look not just at the values of a specific brand but also the combined values of all brands owned by a corporate organisation. On a portfolio basis, Etisalat comes out on top in the Middle East, $1.5 billion ahead of STC. Its stable of brands includes not just its flagship, but also Mobily, Maroc Telecom, PTCL, Ufone and Moov, the report said.
Qatar National Bank, the Middle Easts most valuable bank brand is up 56 per cent to $3.8 billion. QNB completed the acquisition of Turkeys Finansbank this year and continues to strengthen its position not just in the Middle East but in Africa and Asia Pacific too.
Qatar Airways has been hit by the same trend as Emirates, its brand value falling 38 per cent to $2.16 billion, meaning it has lost its position as Qatars most valuable brand to QNB, the report said.
STCs leadin position means Saudi Arabia can now lay claim to the regions most valuable brand after years of the UAE taking the title. Saudi Arabia has been less successful in other respects however. It continues to have the most brands in the table, 18 to UAEs 17. However this is down from 21 last year. It also continues to trail the UAE on total brand value, making up 32 per cent of the total value of the top 50; the UAE constitutes 44 per cent.
Qatar continues to solidify its position as the Middle Easts third most important brand building nation, further marginalising Kuwait, which used to hold that status. Kuwaits four brands now account for 7 per cent of total brand value, less than half the total of Qatars eight brands.
Campbell continues: Zain flies the flag for Kuwait. It has improved its regional rank from 10th to 9th and is the Middle Easts second most powerful brand behind Emirates. However Kuwait needs more brands to follow Zains example by investing in and managing brand value, if it to regain its podium position in the region.
Oman has just one brand in the list, with Omantel managing to improve its rank from 47th to 45th despite modest 5 per cent brand value growth.
2017 sees a positive development for Jordan and Lebanon which have both re-entered the Brand Finance Middle East 50. Jordans Arab Bank just edges out Lebanons Bank Audi with a brand value of $382 million to $368 million. - TradeArabia News Service
Hyundai will launch its all-new Azera in the Middle Easts large sedan market in May, building on more than 30 years experience to set new standards in a highly competitive segment.
The new Azera is the sixth generation for the model, also called the Grandeur in Korea, since its launch in 1986 as the Hyundai brands original premium car. Each generation has offered high levels of comfort and equipment, generous interior space for driver and passengers, and progressively more sophisticated engineering, a statement said.
The new Azera clearly sets its own path in terms of design, said Mike Song, Hyundais head of Operations for Africa and the Middle East.
The styling is very balanced, very refined. Flowing lines make a strong statement, yet it also forms part of Hyundais evolving design language, which brings a sense of cohesion across our model range. It is innovative, sophisticated, and built on more than three decades of experience in understanding what our customers want.
The front of the car carries the largest version yet of Hyundais latest signature design element, the Cascading Grille.
In April, the all-new Azera won a prestigious Red Dot award for high design quality. The Red Dot awards recognize excellence in product design across a wide range of industries, with the Azera one of two Hyundai models achieving recognition in the transportation design category in 2017, alongside the i30.
Advanced technologies include wireless charging for mobile devices, power trunk, and premium Nappa leather seats. A seven-inch display houses the Around View Monitor and fronts an audio system loaded with Android Auto and Apple Car Play included as standard in global markets. Additionally, a memory seat and a panoramic sunroof further enhance the Azeras comfort and convenience.
The new model boasts Hyundai Smart Sense, a comprehensive Advanced Driver Assistance System tuned for driver safety, which includes Autonomous Emergency Braking, Lane Keeping Assist, Active Blind Spot Detection, Driver Attention Alert, Advanced Smart Cruise Control and Around View Monitor.
All of this will be matched to a powerful engine, ensuring the All-new Hyundai Azera has the performance to match its exceptional design. For the Middle East, Hyundai will offer a 3.5-litre V6 producing 240HP. It is a specification unique to this region and a demonstration of the confidence the company has in the new cars market potential.
We believe the All-new Azera will offer the perfect balance of style, comfort and performance for buyers in the region, said Song. We are very proud of this car, and it will give buyers an exciting new choice in the showroom.
The New-generation Hyundai Azera will have its Middle East launch during May, with deliveries to selected markets to follow soon after. TradeArabia News Service
Indias Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to spend more than $3 billion develop the giant Farzad B gas block in Iran, a top official was quoted as saying in media reports.
ONGC Videsh expects to produce between 1 billion and 1.6 billion cu ft per day of gas in five years from the block, N K Verma, the companys managing director was quoted in Oman Observer, which cited Reuters.
The company also expects to raise production during the fiscal year ending in March 2018 to 14 million tonnes oil equivalent, up from 12 million tonnes in the fiscal year of 2017, the official said, highlighting plans to invest $45 million to produce from gas wells owned by Imperial Energy, which ONGC Videsh acquired in 2008.
UAE-based Ducab, a leading manufacturer of high-quality cables and cabling products, is conducting spot interviews and offering career opportunities to suitable candidates at the ongoing Careers UAE 2017, in Dubai, UAE.
The event opened yesterday (April 9) and will conclude tomorrow (April 11) at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
Riding on the success of the companys Emiratisation strategy which has resulted in UAE Nationals making up 70 per cent of the senior management, Ducab looks to further strengthen its numbers with appropriate applicants, said a statement from the company.
In line with the Dubai 2021 Plan and the seven-year National Agenda, Ducab aims to support the growth and long term sustainability of UAEs industrial sector by investing in young emerging local talent, it said.
The company will engage with Emirati talent at the event to further the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to promote and empower UAE nationals in all economic sectors.
Khaled Nasser Lootah, board member and chairman of Emiratisation Committee at Ducab, said: The bold vision set forth by our leadership to diversify our economy puts the spotlight on the non-oil sectors like industry and manufacturing.
Building a skilled workforce through the nurturing of local talent plays a key role in ensuring the growth of these sectors. Ducab is committed to contribute significantly to this vision by providing comprehensive training and development opportunities and continually innovating to create an appealing and dynamic work environment, he said.
At its booth at the event, which is located in Hall 6, Ducab aims to highlight the unique career opportunities and programmes offered by the company. Visitors will also have a chance to learn more about the inspiring work environment the company provides to its employees as well as more details of its scholarship programmes, and graduate training programmes for engineers and non-engineers, said a statement.
Mona Mohamed Fekri, general manager, human resources at Ducab, said: We are delighted to be a part of this year's edition of the event, a key platform to meet and communicate with UAE national talent and youth.
As a wholly owned UAE company, our people strategy has a strong focus on Emiratisation which has proven to be successful with Emiratis making up majority of senior management at Ducab. We continually strive to provide inspiring career opportunities for UAE youth to join us in the development and growth of the country's industrial sector, one of the most dynamic sectors in the world, she added.
Ducab is committed to its joint initiatives with several leading universities and educational institutions in the region and continues to strengthening these partnerships through the recruitment of students from different disciplines. The company also hosts regular visits and open day activities throughout the year for students, it said.
Yousuf Al Shamali, a graduate of the Ducab Training Programme who currently works for the company, said: "The companys training programme helped me develop my career through practical and hands on experiences. I look forward to achieving more and growing at a professional and personal level in order to contribute further to the success of the Ducab family.
Sara Al Dashti, a graduate of Ducab's internship programme, who began her career with the company, said: My participation in the practical training programme at Ducab has contributed tremendously to the development of my skills, my knowledge of the processes involved and the practical application of my academic studies.
With these experiences, I feel more confident at the beginning of my career and I have this learning experience to thank for that, she said.
Ducab has successfully incorporated 26 different nationalities within the company's workforce, providing for a diverse cultural environment, it stated. TradeArabia News Service
Kuwait expects to start commissioning Phase I of the Lower Fars Heavy Oil Development facility project by August 2018 with turnover in May 2019, said Badria Ali Abdul Rahman, deputy CEO (NK), Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).
Speaking ahead of the upcoming Middle East Heavy Oil Congress (Mehoc), she said in an interview that the project is currently in the detailed engineering and construction phase. The congress is being held on April 11 and 12 at Gulf Hotel, Bahrain.
Worley Parsons had completed the front-end engineering and design (Feed) for the first phase of the project in January 2015. KOC then awarded a $4.1 billion contract to Petrofac to execute the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) activities of the project, she explained.
The project encompasses a comprehensive set of production segments, from upstream to downstream. The scope of work covers greenfield and brownfield facilities, and includes engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning (EPC), start-up and operations and maintenance work for the main central processing facility (CPF) and associated infrastructure, as well as the production support complex.
This includes a pipeline of almost 162 km, which will transport the heavy crude from the CPF to South Tank Farm located in Ahmadi, from where KOC has the option to send it to the future Al-Zour refinery in the south of Kuwait.
To date, over 1040 wells were drilled of which large volume of data were collected and studies were conducted. The completion campaign of HO phase I project related wells has been commenced in which 930 wells will be completed and equipped by SRP by January 2018, she said.
The project also envisages building a grassroots refinery at Al-Zour area, south of Kuwait City with a total capacity of 615,000 barrels per day.
Al-Zour Refinery, which will be one of the largest oil refining plant worldwide, will fulfil the downstream strategy of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. In addition to its domestic benefits as the prime supplier of feedstock to the power plants, Al-Zour Refinery will enhance competitiveness of Kuwait petroleum products on the world markets because of its ability to meet the stringent requirements of those markets.
The refinery will handle KOC heavy Oil production. In June 2015, KNPC awarded the new refinery project at Al-Zour and it is anticipated to be commissioned by 2019, she said.
She said Kuwait has adopted an ambitious vision to generate 15 per cent of its total energy needs from renewables by 2030. Additionally, crude oil's drop in price has highlighted the attractiveness of renewable energy's relative isolation from fuel-price fluctuations.
KOC recognises that alternative energy sources will not only reduce the cost of heavy oil projects, but will also make heavy oil extraction a cleaner process and result in a better environmental outcome. Hence, there are several initiatives that we at the Kuwait Oil Company are considering to apply in order to keep the impact of heavy oil extraction on our ecosystems to a minimum.
One of the initiatives in the framework of heavy oil is the application of solar energy to generate steam and power for thermal enhanced oil recovery operations. KOC is currently developing a scope for a solar pilot project to generate steam to be implemented on KOC HO Phase I project.
In this way, we will maximise the synergies already available in the industry, reducing the consumption of fuel in steam plants and other processes.
The ecosystem in the Middle East is very sensitive, and its protection one of our most relevant objectives.
To a question on Kuwaits 2040 strategy and what kind of challenges she anticipated in the coming 5-10 years, she said: Low oil prices have been a prominent feature of the market; Kuwait Petroleum Corporation with KOC recognise that it is essential to make investments now, as an enabler to ensure a competitive, flexible, and better position for Kuwait in the future. We are proceeding with plans to enhance Kuwait's role in the oil industry, to be more effective in securing the supply of the world's energy.
KOC aims to achieve and maintain a lead position among regional and global national oil companies as one of the top gas and oil exploration and development and be a major supplier of energy.
Accordingly, the Kuwait 2040 strategy lays out an ambitious future to explore, develop, and produce oil and gas at a greater scale and complexity than at any time in KOCs history.
The strategy was developed to ensure that Kuwait will definitely play a role in meeting future energy needs, targeting higher crude oil capacity.
The development of Heavy Oil is an integral part of our strategic vision and plans, of course developing such resources tend to be challenging and expensive relative to many conventional crude oil developments, she said.
Managing cost, optimising energy consumption, and creating long-term sustainability are considered some of the major challenges facing KOC today. These are being mitigated by adapting an integrated approach and obtaining technological solutions from top operators and industry leaders.
Another major challenge is to overcome the scarcity of experienced human resources. Significant levels of skilled workforce with expertise in thermal enhanced oil recovery, engineering and construction, and operation and maintenance capabilities, take years to develop, therefore KOC has the participation of international operators and recognised international services companies, who provide on the job support and competency development to young Kuwaitis in preparation for future projects.
Similar to any international and national company, KOC has recognised the instability of oil price as one of the major challenges. However, KOC's strategies have always helped it to sustain its operations amid a challenging oil market in the past, and will continue to weather the storm of the present oil market as well.
Talking about MEHOC, she said the Congress presents a great opportunity for oil and gas professionals to learn more about the dynamic sector of heavy oil, and provides an opportunity to network with experts and professionals from the community. It offers attendees in-depth knowledge and helps them understand the key drivers and risks involved in developing heavy oilfields, especially those in the Middle East region.
KOC will share with the audience its recent progress in the development of Heavy oil, covering KOC's Heavy Oil Production Strategy, as well as targets and progress made on those strategic projects.
Brent crude oil price rose towards $56 a barrel today (April 10), supported by the tension over Syria following the US missile strike and another shutdown at Libya's largest oilfield.
Brent crude rose 68 cents to $55.92, not far from the one-month high of $56.08 reached on Friday. US crude was up 63 cents at $52.87.
Libya's Sharara oilfield was shut on Sunday after a group blocked a pipeline linking it to an oil terminal, a Libyan oil source said. The field had only just returned to production, after a week-long stoppage ending in early April, a Reuters report said.
Oil started rallying last week after the US fired missiles at a Syrian government air base.
Meanwhile, RBC Capital Markets Head of Commodity Strategy and CNBC Contributor Helima Croft predicted prices will climb to the low $60s within months a nearly 20 percent move from current levels.
"We see it grinding higher over the back half of the year," Croft said. "We're coming out of refinery maintenance season. So, we're going to start to see draws of the US inventory. Those high US inventory numbers have really been depressing prices."
Summer driving season will also give prices a "boost," and demand won't fall anytime soon, according to Croft.
Fairmont The Palm Dubai has appointed Jorge Fernandez as the new director of operations.
Fernandez will be responsible for overseeing and enhancing the execution of the resorts operational procedures and delivering key strategic initiatives across the resort.
Bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience within the hospitality landscape, Fernandez has extensive global luxury five-star experiences; he joins Fairmont The Palm from Roya International, a leading specialist hospitality consultancy, where he operated as Special Projects Executive driving projects in Hospitality Development, Corporate Operations Strategy and Project Management. Prior to this, Fernandez successfully operated as general manager, Luxury Brand Development for American Trade Hotel, a five-star luxury boutique brand in Panama. He worked for HOSPES Hotels, a leading boutique hotel Company in Spain operating as hotel general manager and later as regional manager, responsible for 10 hotels, six new openings and the project growth of five properties. Fernandez also has experience as corporate events manager with Gourmet Paradis, with his career commencing as resident manager at Barcelo Hotels and Resorts.
Mark Sawkins, general manager of Fairmont The Palm, said: I am very pleased to be bringing Jorge to the Fairmont family, his impressive experience will provide strong leadership and strategic planning to all departments, in support of our service culture, maximised operations and guest satisfaction. We are excited to work together, enhancing the performance and increasing Fairmont The Palms benchmark of success for 2017 and leading the trends in the segment of transformational travel.
A Spanish national, Fernandez holds an MBA in Hospitality Administration from EHL Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland, in addition to a Postgraduate Diploma of Associate Sciences, Hotel Management from ESADE Business School and a B.A. in Business Tourism and Hotel Administration from EOT, Spain. - TradeArabia News Service
The ATM Travel Agents Academy will return to Arabian Travel Market in 2017 with two half-day sessions on April 27, at Dubai World Trade Centre.
Beginning at 10am in Hall 1, scheduled topics for the free-to-attend 2017 programme include itinerary planning, sales training and destination briefings, with a networking break, refreshments and a course completion certificate for all delegates.
Simon Press, senior exhibition director, ATM, said: The Travel Agents Academy at this years Arabian Travel Market is being held at a timely juncture in the role of travel agents. Travel trends analyst Skift noted how, a few years back, the digital revolution saw travellers steer away from human interaction, and yet today, many retail travel agents are thriving.
Despite the rapid advances in technology and the increasingly sophisticated way hotels and destinations present themselves online, consumers are more internet savvy than ever before. And when faced with a bewildering array of choice, they now clearly place their trust with an impartial travel professional, who can offer that personal touch when planning and booking their travel.
Tackling one of the most pressing issues for travel agents, the first session will see Rohit Bassi, managing director of In Learning, return to ATM following an incredibly popular address at ATM 2016.
This year, Bassi will discuss "Soul of Sales - The Nine Universal Principles" which includes how to teach travel agents how to build credibility and connection with clients; how to identify and offer solutions to clients; negotiation and management techniques; and to manage the transformation from sale to client relationship.
Bassi, who established In Learning in 2011, is renowned for teaching a range of key business skills and is the only licensed trainer for Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in the UAE, which builds on the teachings of the self-development book written by Susan Jeffers.
He has previously consulted for Nielsen, Al Ghurair Iron & Steel, Emirates NBD, Bayt.com, DFS Logistics, Alshaya, Oracle, EMC, Emaar Hospitality, Harley-Davidson, HSBC and ADBC.
Following on will be Sundar Vasudayen, Principle Consultant at TRS Consulting will share itinerary planning tips for well-travelled clients looking for something unique.
Press said: This particular session fits very well with our experiential travel show theme. Travel professionals spend much of every day selling something that has already been created a cruise vacation or a packaged tour. But what about the clients who want a bespoke package?
More and more travellers nowadays want a planned trip, but on their terms. Establishing what to recommend, will be a key focus by TRS Consulting, helping plan creative and stimulating itineraries for clients.
A common issue in todays fast-paced industry, TRS will outline a number of concepts related to successful itinerary planning, including the Pride Framework, which is based on the focus areas of pace, routing, interests, detail and energy.
TRS Consulting is the Licensed Training Centre of The Travel Institute, USA providing internationally recognised professional certifications encompassing all career stages, from entry level to executive.
The schedule will run twice starting at 10.00 and repeated at 13.30 and will be hosted by Dubai-based trainer and motivational speaker Dave Crane, who has previously hosted the Dubai Rugby Sevens and Dubai Desert Rock and Rhythm Festivals, among other events.
Press added: This is an incredible line up for ATM 2017 and we look forward to welcoming travel agents to these important sessions, which we hope will equip them with the skills they need to thrive in the year ahead.
To find out more about ATM or register to attend the Travel Agents Academy, visit http://arabiantravelmarket.wtm.com/. - TradeArabia News Service
Dubai's Damac Towers by Paramount Hotels & Resorts, owned and developed by luxury real estate developer Damac Properties, is over 85 per cent complete, the company said in a statement.
Developed in collaboration with Paramount Hotels & Resorts, the project continues to make good progress with superstructure works 100 per cent complete, and internal finishes, facade works, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) works, carpentry and joinery works nearing completion.
The complex, located in Dubai's Burj area, comprises four towers stretching 250 m high and will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom luxury serviced branded apartments, offering an ambience and reflection of the Hollywood glamour and the California cool lifestyle, synonymous with Paramount Pictures over the past 105 years.
Niall McLoughlin, senior vice president, Damac Properties, said: Bringing a Hollywood-inspired lifestyle to Dubai to an iconic development in the heart of the city, Damac Towers by Paramount Hotels & Resorts offers everything that discerning residents look for in a premium and fashionable living space from easy access to high-end shopping and dining experiences, to all the luxuries that come as part of the Paramount brand. We are excited to see this exquisite development take final shape, and upon completion, further elevate the style quotient of the sophisticated and glamorous Burj neighbourhood.
From exclusive access to landscaped and pool areas, numerous health facilities, on-site parking and a variety of high-end dining establishments, the project has been designed to offer more than 1,900 units (including the hotel) with a total saleable area of approximately 2 million sq ft. Damac Properties is currently selling units in three of the towers to be operated under its Damac Maison brand, with the development having an estimated sales value of $1.35 billion.
In addition, one tower will contain a five-star hotel complex to be operated by Paramount Hotels & Resorts, which will have over 800 rooms. Hotel rooms will be managed under a rental pool scheme.
The successful collaboration between Damac Properties and Paramount extends across various projects, including the $500-million Paramount Tower Hotel & Residences strategically located on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, with China State Construction Engineering Corporation (Middle East) awarded a Dh554 million ($150.8 million) contract to build the 27 floors that comprise a collection of luxury residences. - TradeArabia News Service
US plane manufacturer Boeing will deliver two 777 passenger aircraft to Iran's national carrier next month, said a report.
According to a report by Irans official news agency IRNA, the two aircraft were meant for Turkish Airways, but after the airline canceled its order, the jets were sold to Iran Air.
The Boeing 777 passenger plane is a two-engine wide-body aircraft and is suitable for long-distance journey of over 17,000 km.
Movenpick Hotel Al Khobars signature restaurant, Maharaja by Vineet, has spiced up the 2017 Food & Travel Arabia GCC Awards where it was honoured as the Best Indian Restaurant in the region.
The restaurant, which is headed up by Michelin-starred chef Vineet Bhatia, received the accolade at a glittering awards ceremony staged in Dubai recently, after thousands of diners declared it the Gulfs best Indian dining experience.
More than 1.1 million votes were cast to decide the winners of this years 2017 Food & Travel Arabia GCC Awards, confirming that Maharaja by Vineet is considered the regions leading Indian dining destination.
Maharaja by Vineet serves a perfectly-crafted menu of innovative north-west Indian dishes, taking our guests on a gastronomic journey, thanks to the expertise of world-leading Indian chef, Vineet Bhatia, said Peter Hoesli, general manager, Movenpick Hotel Al Khobar.
This prestigious award not only honours his craftsmanship, but recognises the commitment of the hotels Food and beverage team to delivering the highest standards of service, re-confirming Movenpick Hotels & Resorts position as a culinary leader.
The Food & Travel Arabia Awards call on diners from around the region to vote for outstanding food and travel experiences, based on cuisine, service and even culinary theatre.
Maharaja by Vineet delivers on all three, inviting diners to explore north-western Indian cuisine in elegant and palatial surroundings, where dishes are brought to life through experiences that include live Tandoori cooking performances.
Chef Vineet fuses traditional and modern Indian ingredients to create original flavours, catering to discerning palates from around the globe. This magical culinary journey is also guided by the restaurants expert culinary team, known for its exquisite service and expert knowledge of the cuisine, ingredients and preparation methods.
Its this attention to detail that sets Maharaja by Vineet apart from the crowd as an award-winning restaurant, added Hoesli. - TradeArabia News Service
Newly confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch hails from a family with deep ties to Wyoming and the West.
Gorsuchs mother was born in Casper and led the Environmental Protection Agency under Ronald Reagan. His family was prominent in the Saratoga area back when the state was still a territory.
Gorsuch was confirmed Friday by the Senate to replace Antonin Scalia, who died last year. The process was hotly contested, with Republicans in the Senate eventually changing the rules to push through the confirmation.
During that process, the rulings Gorsuch issued while on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals took center stage. His ties to the West have received less attention.
His mother, Anne Irene McGill Gorsuch Burford, was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency in May 1981. It was a time not unlike today, when conservatives sought to rein in the EPA. Like the current administration, Reagan called for rolling back regulation and making cuts to the agency.
Anne Gorsuch followed those orders until Congress ousted the Casper native in the spring of 1983.
The period of Gorsuchs reign was really relatively brief it was less than two years but she did an awful lot to change the agency, said Joel Mintz, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University and author of Enforcement at the EPA.
She decentralized the agencys enforcement arm while taking greater control of major programs like Superfund sites, Mintz said.
[She] required headquarters approval for almost every action above a very small amount of money, so it pretty much stopped [Superfund action] from going forward for a while, he said. There were lots of reductions in force, demoralization of the staff. It was a very difficult time for EPA and the people in the agency.
Her tenure ended after Congress subpoenaed documents from the EPA and met resistance.
Gorsuch, apparently under orders from the White House and Department of Justice, resisted the subpoena, and there was this lawsuit actually by the House of Representatives against the EPA, which was highly unusual, Mintz said.
The lawsuit was settled and Gorsuch along with nearly 20 high-level staffers was pressured to step down.
The agencys regulatory ability was constrained during the Gorsuch years, but that didnt last long. It strengthened again in her wake.
The Gorsuch family ties to Wyoming go back even further than his mother. His great-great-grandfather was a German immigrant who settled in Rawlins, working for Union Pacific Railroad, according to a 1903 book titled Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming.
Frederick G. Wolf was a former soldier in Germany. He married another German immigrant and built the Hotel Wolf, which still stands in Saratoga. Wolf became an important figure in the business community. His son, also named Frederick, drowned in the Platte River in 1901. The Wolfs granddaughter, Freda Henrietta Munz, married into the Gorsuch family in Colorado, where the family has been settled for generations.
Wyomings delegation supported the Western judges rise to the nations highest court. Sen. John Barrasso praised Gorsuchs integrity, intelligence and independence.
Sen. Mike Enzi said in a statement Friday that Gorsuch would bring a Western sensibility to the court.
He is an admirable choice to serve in this prestigious capacity and I have faith that he will execute his responsibilities with the utmost skill and honor, the senator said. He has a keen understanding of the rule of law, and as a westerner, will provide a unique perspective to key issues.
Arno Rosenfeld and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Wyoming Democrats, who were divided after last years presidential caucus, rejected the partys two pro-Hillary Clinton leaders Saturday and elected a former state lawmaker who caucused for the more progressive Bernie Sanders.
Joe Barbuto of Rock Springs is the new chairman. Laramie resident Erin ODoherty is vice chairwoman. She said in a message that she originally was a Clinton supporter but she turned in a blank ballot and is uninterested in primary fights.
In Wyoming, Sanders won the popular vote in the Democratic caucuses. But Clinton ended up winning the state because of the partys delegate math, causing an uproar among so-called Berniecrats.
Last years chairwoman, Ana Cuprill, and vice chairman, Bruce Palmer, both pledged to Clinton. Both were superdelegates. The two ran against Barbuto, ODoherty and others for re-election in their party this year.
The race turned vitriolic Saturday, when someone left literature on tables titled Why Ana Cuprill is unfit to serve, said Jeran Artery of Cheyenne, who watched the elections in Sheridan with his husband, who is active in the party.
Meeting in Sheridan over the weekend, members of the states minority party also elected Truett Thompson of Cheyenne as secretary and Chris Caskey Russell of Laramie as treasurer, Barbuto said.
Barbuto steps into his role at a time when there are only 12 Democrats in the 90-member Wyoming Legislature despite the party recruiting 61 people to run for seats.
He said when he first served in the Legislature in 2009, there were 27 Democrats.
My main message I shared with members of the central committee was I thought it was time for the Democratic Party in Wyoming to become more organized, he said. It has to be done through a strategic plan.
Barbuto said the plan will have goals for the upcoming election cycle, ideas for communication with people inside and outside the party and details on how to re-establish and strengthen relationships with groups in the state such as organized labor.
2016 election
Aimee Van Cleave, executive director of the Wyoming Democrats, was credited for recruiting in 2016 more than twice as many candidates to campaign for the Legislature as participated in 2014.
But as the campaign season got underway last spring, she took a leave of absence for a job with the Clinton campaign in New Hampshire. Some candidates felt they were left high and dry, without money or know-how to run their campaigns, which they blamed for their losses, Artery said.
Van Cleave on Monday said she was disappointed at the net loss of one seat in the Legislature.
We had a great number of legislative candidates and they did a wonderful job running for offices, she said. I do think theres a slight exaggeration in how much one person can make in an election. Its the candidates who go door to door. Im not sure what may have been different had I been here.
She said the party attributes most of its losses to national politics.
Democrats talked on Saturday about whether they should just focus on a dozen or so winnable races and pour money and volunteers into those, or if the party should run a large number of candidates to give voters a choice at the polls, said Artery, the Cheyenne resident who said he most votes for Democrats. Theres no consensus yet, he said.
In the past, Wyomingites have had the least competitive statewide elections in the country, and the contests were largely decided in the GOP primary.
Wyoming is one of the nations reddest states, and Barbuto said not every Democrat is going to win.
But I think going forward, we as a Democratic Party can do a better job making sure they have resources, he said.
Not just financial resources but volunteers and education on best campaign practices, he said.
2017 Legislature
Democrats lost one net seat in the Legislature. While the number of Democrats in the House and Senate is low, it isnt a record, said University of Wyoming history professor Phil Roberts.
In 1921, just one Democrat served in the House, and three served in the Senate.
But this year, new Republicans elected to the Legislature were social conservatives. Bills permitting guns in schools and regulating abortion measures that had failed in the past became law.
While much time was spent discussing social issues, lawmakers only started to figure out a way to plug the $400 million yearly education shortage and the ongoing revenue shortfall to general government operations.
An increase of Democrats in the Legislature could be a moderating force on Republicans, said Rep. Charles Pelkey, D-Laramie.
It would certainly move the Legislature toward the center, he said. I think wed have more thoughtful discourse on revenue and expenditures and savings.
Coal
Members of the party have been at odds with each other and the national party on what stand to take on coal.
While Wyoming Democrats generally believe human activity is contributing to global climate change, some are fighting to save jobs and the states fossil fuels industry. Others believe its time to move on from coal, oil and gas.
Meanwhile, Barbuto wants to reach out to labor unions, which have been a typical Democratic base.
But many Wyoming union members toil in the fossil fuels industry, such as railroaders who haul coal or oil refinery workers who create petroleum products.
I dont think Democrats are anti-coal, Barbuto said. I think we realize whats happening with the market and that in the future there could be less jobs in coal. But that if we work toward economic diversification and embrace other things that are happening in the energy market, other opportunities can be available. At the end of the day, I think people want a job they can depend on. We have to be realistic, and I think our friends in the union understand that.
Trump effect
If President Donald Trump doesnt deliver on his campaign promises to revitalize U.S. energy, Democrats may have an opening to pick up seats in the Legislature and other offices, Artery said.
I think the first step is to hold those folks accountable, Barbuto said.
He also said that in Wyoming, Republicans have ruled the Legislature unchecked for four decades. Yet they havent done much to diversify the states economy or alleviate Wyomings dependence on revenue from the energy sector, he said.
He wants to educate the public on the Democrats point of view.
It doesnt matter if were on the right side of issues if voters arent getting that message, he said.
Editor:
This is an open letter to City Council and the Casper Star-Tribune.
I felt compelled to write after reading articles about the Casper Police Department and more importantly Chief Jim Wetzel.
I was shocked to read the comments and accusations leveled against Jim. I've known Jim Wetzel and his family for more than 13 years. Jim and I served together in 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq. I was a Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman assigned to Jim's platoon. Jim was our platoon Commander. I'm sure you're well aware of his accolades. But what you don't know is the real story about Jim.
When we arrived, we were the outsiders. We were a reserve unit assigned to an active duty special operations unit. These active units viewed us as "part-timers" and sub-par.
What the active Marines didn't take into account was that a lot of the reservists held professional civilian jobs and we were able to bring a different perspective/experience.
When we started conducting operations, Jim challenged the way the past units had conducted their missions. At first there was opposition. He was a "reservist;" he was new to Iraq. What did he know?
But that didn't last long. Jim was able to use his experience as a police officer in a way that was never used before. Our counterparts were stunned when Jim and our unit started to bring in known terrorists. He was so successful that the Marine Corps, not just the battalion, adopted his tactics, and they are still being used today.
Jim had the guts to challenge the norm and he faced critics, but in the end it was his devotion to the mission and his men that was the most important thing. He is a man of integrity and honor. It was because of his decisions that every man in our platoon made it home alive.
So I would ask that you keep an open mind before you destroy this man of honor. He cares deeply for his profession and I'm sure he is just as devoted to the men and women that serve with him in the police force as he was with us.
Did you know?
The 262-foot Bank of America building, or Bank of America Plaza, at 33 N. Stone Ave. is Tucsons second tallest building, after the 23-story One South Church.
Built in 1975, it was designed by the Tucson architectural firm Friedman and Jobusch, which designed many local commercial buildings and University of Arizona campus structures.
Though the building is about 22 stories high, the office tower rests on distinctive pillars and starts on the sixth floor.
Mistakes are inevitable in every business and none of us are perfect. This does not mean we must have dissatisfied customers as a result. How you recover from those mistakes is what defines you, and how professional your business is. A good recovery can convert a potentially frustrated customer into a loyal fan.
No business can afford to lose customers. Most industry experts agree it costs about five times as much to generate a new client as it does to retain an existing one. So how do you recover from your mistakes? How do you keep your customers happy when things go wrong?
It starts with an attitude of gratitude and a culture of empathy. Train your staff to appreciate every client and to understand the cost of losing customers. Teach your employees to see the situation from the customers perspective. Help them understand the hidden costs and frustrations the customer goes through when mistakes happen.
For example, if an auto shop does not make repairs correctly, the vehicle could break down. This may cause the customer to miss an important meeting. Then the customer has to pay for a tow truck and spend even more time waiting for the repairs .
It is also important to empower your employees to offer immediate solutions to resolve a problem. If the inconvenience is too great and the company cannot afford to compensate the customer, the tone of the response must convey the companys regret.
Sometimes the little things make the biggest difference. A heartfelt call from the owner, or a handwritten card with a gift certificate can go a long way towards service recovery.
OPINION: "Im sure you will see, as I have, that for all the 'God talk' that Christian nationalists throw around, their attitudes and actions are starkly antithetical to the gospel of love and inclusion for all advocated by the Jesus they claim to believe in," writes Rev. Gary Nelson, a former conservative pastor in Payson.
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Jaipur : All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) organised its 5thNorth India Tafheem-e-Sharia Workshop for Ulemas and Legal Personnel of the society at Jaipur on 8th & 9th April 2017. The workshop was attended by prominent 200 Ulemas and 100 legal personnel from different parts of North India. A separate workshop for selected women activists and a general public meeting for more than 20 thousand ladies was also organised at Idgah, Jaipur.
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On this occasion the fundamental rights of women in Islam were highlighted. Islam is the only religion that has facilitated women with the right to inheritance, right to divorce, property right; do separate business even if she is married and stressed that it has been strictly advised to children that the Paradise is under the feet of the mothers. It was also informed that there is hardly any case of dowry killing, officially reported in the Muslim Community because of the beauty of Sharia accordance and women empowerment in Islam.
On the issue of Triple Talaaq the AIMPLB condemned the so called propagation of media regarding the signatures of Muslim women in few numbers against triple talaaq whereas the Board has procured more than 4 crore of authentic signatures and around 2 crore by Muslim women in favour of Sharia and Board stand.
The speakers stressed that making or changing a law will not solve the problem of Talaaq by citing the example of Anti Dowry Act, because one woman dies every hour due to dowry related reasons on an average in the country and there is a steady rise in such cases according to official data. Hence there is a need to spread awareness of ethical behaviour in sensitive issues.
The speaker quoted Nivedita Menon, Professor, JNU, stating that the woman at the centre of this recent round of debate on the Uniform Civil Code is Shah Bano, who received talaq by post. Her lawyer, instead of using any of the three recourses available the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, or the citation of the Shamim Ara v. State of U.P. (2002) judgment decided to file a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court challenging triple talaq on the grounds of violation of Fundamental Rights. Mrs. Bano is now in the media spotlight, spiritedly criticising patriarchy in the Muslim community. The Muslim marriage as contract protects women better in case of divorce than the Hindu marriage as sacrament. Muslim Personal Law is already modern in this sense, since it has from 1930s enshrined individual rights to property, unlike Hindu law,in which the familys natural condition is assumed to be joint.
The media hype around the issue of Talaq in Muslim community has ignored the fact that most of the Muslim majority countries, as well as Asian countries enriched with religious and cultural background are having the least divorce rate as compared to developed western countries and not a single Muslim majority country is in the list of top 10 most divorced nations (Belgium 71% ; Portugal 68%; Hungary 67%; Czech Republic 66%; Spain 61%; Luxembourg 60%; Estonia 58%; Cuba 56%; France 55%; USA 53%).
In Indian perspective as per the 2011 Census the data among Muslim separated/divorced/abandoned women is less than the other communities. The statistics of triple talaaq is nearly negligible, as compared to other forms of talaq prevalent in Muslim society. The dignitaries of Board also highlighted the fact that before Islam people were keeping wives in hundreds and thousands number and it was accepted across the cultures and civilizations till 20th century, but Islam regulated it and restricted up to 4 only with conditions. It is surprising that as on date Muslims are least polygamous as compared to other communities in India. The census of 1961 has revealed the data related to polygamy, where Muslims are 5.7%, Hindus 5.8%, Buddhist 7.9% and Tribal 15.25%. The trends continued to repeat same statistics. Hence it is a myth and propaganda that polygamy is a problem in Muslim society. As per Hindu Law (1955-56) polygamy is prohibited, while statistics show the other way round. There is no legal status for Hindu second wife (Supreme Court Verdict: 2010; Bench: J., Markandey Katju; J., T.S. Thakur), while in Islam the second wife enjoys equal rights as the first wife.
In legal terms it is a fundamental and constitutional right of each and every religious denomination to practice, profess and propagate religion and manage its own affairs in the matters of religion, as per the religious doctrines/beliefs/tenets of its religious denomination and the same is protected under Article 25, 26 and 29 of the Constitution, particularly Article 26(b) of the Constitution.
Marriage under Muslim Law is a sacred and religious, civil contract, therefore all issues and disputes incidental to marriage would be governed by and further required to be decided as per the terms, conditions, and intentions of the parties to the said contract. Therefore, all the disputes arising between such contracting parties are purely civil disputes and required to be decided by civil trial before competent civil court, particularly by leading and appreciation of evidence. In any case, the said disputes have certainly not arisen on account of any action of the State or an instrumentality of State, falling within Article 12 of the Constitution, or even on account of any legislation passed by the State.
The AIMPLB members appealed the masses to cooperate them in contemporary issues and spread awareness to eradicate the misunderstandings regarding Personal Law and other related issues.
The meeting witnessed a massive gathering of above 2 lakh people from Jaipur and different parts of Rajasthan. The event was presided by Great Islamic Scholar and Thinker Hazarat Maulana Sayyed Mohd. Vali Rahmani Sb, General Secretary All India Muslim Personal Law Board. The gathering was addressed by Hazarat Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rehmani Sb., Secretary AIMPLB; Hazarat Maulana M. Fazalur Raheem Mujaddidi Sb, Secretary, AIMPLB; Adv. Zafaryaab Jeelani Sb., Secretary AIMPLB; Dr Asma Zohra, Convener Womens Wing AIMPLB and other dignitaries of AIMPLB across the country.
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New Delhi, (IANS): Triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy violate Muslim womens right to equality and dignity and are not protected by the right to profess, practise and propagate religion under Article 25(1) of the Constitution, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday.
Describing triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy as patriarchal values and traditional notions about the role of women in society, the Centre said these were an impediment to the goal of achieving social democracy and contrary to the countrys obligations under international treaties and covenants.
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Under the triple talaq, a Muslim man can instantly divorce his wife by repeating talaq thrice. As per nikah halala, a woman divorcee, has to marry someone else and consummate this marriage before getting a divorce to remarry her earlier husband.
The conferment of a social status based on patriarchal values or one that is at the mercy of menfolk is incompatible with the letter and spirit of Articles 14 and 15, the Centre said.
The right of a woman to human dignity, social esteem and self-worth are vital facets of her Right to Life under Article 21, the Centre has said.
The Centres stand was enunciated in a written submission filed ahead of hearing of the matter by a Constitution Bench commencing May 11. The submissions drawn by advocate Madhvi Divan have been settled by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.
The fundamental question (is) whether, in a secular democracy, religion can be a reason to deny equal status and dignity, available to women under the Constitution.
The Centre said the pivotal issue that needed to be addressed was whether under a secular Constitution women merely because of their religious identity could be relegated to a status significantly more vulnerable than their counterparts who profess any other faith, namely Hindus, Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, etc.
Pointing out that gender justice was a constitutional goal of overwhelming importance and magnitude, the Union government said the Fundamental Right to Equality takes within its fold, equality of status and the gender equality, gender equity and gender justice are values intrinsically entwined in guarantee of equality under Article 14.
The practices of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy impact the social status and dignity of Muslim women and render them unequal and vulnerable qua men belonging to their own community; women belonging to other communities and also Muslim women outside India, it added.
Referring to reforms by several Islamic countries, including those have overwhelming Muslim population, the Centre said Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt and Iran have undertaken significant reforms and the practices of instant triple talaq or automatic polygamy at will is not permitted in most of these countries.
The government said the paradox is that Muslim women in India are more vulnerable in their social status because of the prevalence of such practices, even though they live in a secular country and that their position is weaker than women who live in theocratic societies or countries where Islam is the state religion.
Patriarchal values and traditional notions about the role of women in society are an impediment to the goal of achieving social democracy and they are likely to hold back the community at large, resulting in lopsided development and pockets of social backwardness
Describing triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy as repugnant to the guarantee of secularism an essential feature of the Indian Constitution the Centre said that lopsided development and pockets of social backwardness is not in the larger interest of the integrity and development of the nation.
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Patna : On Saturday last week, a condolence and tribute meeting was held here to pay tribute to Syed Shahabuddin, ex-diplomat, ex-Member of Parliament, ex-President of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat at Conference Hall of Bihar Urdu Academy in Patna.
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Shahabuddin Saheb raised the genuine grievances of Indian Muslims and their legitimate aspirations but within the context of a secular order and with a nationalist motive. He encouraged participation, not separatism. He struggled for a solution within and not outside the system. He believed in cooperation, not in confrontation, said Naushad Ansari, member of executive body of AIMMM, in his introductory speech.
He stood for dignity of citizens of India, which includes their identities, equality and security rolled into one. With his vast knowledge and experience as a diplomat, as an expert in constitutional law, as a member of Parliament, as a journalist, a lawyer, an orator and an activist, he enshrined all round dynamism that ultimately created confidence in Muslims for claiming their legitimate rights, he added.
Shafi Mashhadi, Chairman of Urdu Mushawarati Committee, said, The Nation lost a precious gem of man in the demise of Syed Shahabuddin.
Dr. B.H. Khan, eminent orthopedic and class fellow of Shahabuddin praised the oratory power and literary work carried out by him since college days.. The greatness of this man was his humbleness, simplicity, strong character and firmness in his decision, said Shah Mashhood Ahmed Quadri, Principal, Madrasa Islamia, Shamsul Hoda.
Senior Journalist Reyaz Azimabadi, stated that Shahabuddin was his senior by two years and a rare combination of a brilliant student who was also a student leader. In Shahabuddins death, Indian Muslims have lost a powerful, eloquent voice, said Husn Ahmed Quadri, General Secretary of Jamiat-ul-ulema Hind (Bihar).
Maulana Rizwan Islahi, Ameer-e-Muqami, Jamaat-e-Islami Hindi (Bihar) said that Syed Shahabuddin had an illustrious career in diplomacy and politics but his remarkable contribution was to instill a new hope and courage in the new generation of Muslims, encouraging them to fight for their rights. He was straight forward, honest and pro-active person, said Khursheed Ahmed Arfi, senior member of Momin Conference and author.
Fakhruddin Arfi coordinated the program. He said that Shahabuddin was an inspiration and role model for others to emulate. Ata Aabadi, poet, Aftab Ahmed, social activist, Aslam Jawedan, Hassan Nawab Hassan, also spoke on the occasion.
Expressing deep sorrow and shock over the great loss, a condolence resolution was presented by Anwarul Hoda, Secretary General of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat and passed by the gathering in the meeting which conveyed heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the members of the bereaved family and prayed Almighty to grant eternal peace to the departed soul.
London announced that Russia is indirectly responsible for the deaths of civilians killed by poison gas last week in an attack which, according to the belief of Washington, was committed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. At least 70 people died in the attack using deadly gas on the rebel stronghold in Syria.
The administration of US President Donald Trump answered the attack with 59 cruise missiles sent to the Syrian military base Sajrat. Officials in Damascus and Moscow denied accusations that Syrian forces were responsible for the chemical attack, but the West has rejected their explanation that the poison leaked from a rebel arms depot when it was hit in an air strike.
London supported Trump
The chemical attack is a war crime that "happened under their (Russia's) control," said British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon criticizing Russia's support of Assad's regime. His government clearly has supported Trump's decision to fire rockets at the Syrian military base, Sunday Times reports. "Indirectly, Russia is responsible for the death of any civilians killed last week," said Fallon and told Moscow what to do.
"If Russia wants absolution of responsibility for future attacks, President Vladimir Putin needs to strengthen its commitment to remove an arsenal of chemical weapons once and for all, and take full responsibility" for the peace process of the United Nations in Syria.
The deadly Poison Gas attack in Syria this week was the main topic of news programs throughout the Western states that are showing children and adults trying to get air, while in Russia it was the secondary theme, and shows no casualties. The Western governments have unanimously accused the forces of Syrian authorities. In the news program, state television Vremya Russian put forward a different theory in which "terrorists and Western countries" have tried wrongly to accuse Damascus.
Moscow withdraws from talks with London
The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized the decision of the British foreign minister Boris Johnson for agreeing to cancel a visit to Moscow because of the events in Syria. Moscow has also said that there is no great benefit from talks with Britain, which, in Russias's opinion, has no real influence on world affairs.
Washington has long supported the rebels who want to topple Assad in a civil war of 2011, which killed more than 400,000 people, and resulted in half of the Syrian population being displaced or in exile.
When you think back to 2000-08 when George W. Bush served two terms as president of the United States, what do you think his historical legacy in the long-term will be? Invading Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11? Finishing off daddy's work in Iraq in 2003? Flying over the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005? His presidency ending with the tumultuous 2008 Recession which continues to plague economies across the globe?
All of these events together certainly summarise Bush's presidency, and historians throughout the political spectrum will debate whether he dealt with each unfolding crisis in the appropriate manner.
But in the wake of the United States' recent airstrikes against Syria provoking hostility from Russia, I cannot help but ponder there was a more positive aspect to the former president's legacy, and that was his positive relationship with Vladimir Putin. Bush was without doubt the man who knew how to deal with the current Russian President.
For those of you who failed to pay attention to their own 'special relationship', do a Google images search of 'Bush and Putin' and then 'Obama and Putin', and you will notice the body language between the former compared to the latter was much more cordial and friendly. Bush dominated international news headlines in the 2000s, yet Putin barely made an international impact until 2008, when he invaded Georgia.
Some will argue Bush and Putin were too friendly with each other, but at least the Russian President knew where he stood with his former American counterpart.
The two engaged in a friendly disagreement over Iraq, but in the wake of Bush's 2002 speech to Congress declaring he will take action against the three rogue states (Iraq, Iran and North Korea), Putin was clever enough to recognise Bush was not a man to be messed with, despite their blossoming friendship at the time.
There was no talk of a post-Cold War crisis between Russia and the United States in the 2000s. Yet there was no talk of Bush being 'in the pocket' of Putin back then, was there?
As I argued in my recent article, Obama got his approach to Putin completely wrong. Trump may be dealing with him in a heavy-handed manner now, but this is only in response to Russia's aggression that started whilst his predecessor was president.
But Trump must also use this as an opportunity to rebuild those bridges so that Russia does not continue to behave in a domineering manner whilst being tough with the Russian bear at the same time.
Russia should never be trusted under Putin, but it's times like this I miss the days of peaceful cooperation between the United States and the Russians.
'It was him (or her) that started it.' Who else remembers those immature words in the playground when two children get into trouble? Except in politics at the moment, those words are entirely appropriate. Donald Trump has been accused of behaving like a child in many ways, but if relations with Vladimir Putin escalate further, he would be well within his rights to legitimately accuse his predecessor, Barack Obama, 'of starting it.'
Trump has accused Obama of many outlandish things recently, including spying on him during last year's presidential elections, and the latter has accused Putin of influencing the outcome of trump's victory, yet it is safe to blame the crisis in Syria on the former US president as well as Russia's rise to power.
By attempting to distance himself from George W. Bush's foreign policy, Obama left a political vacuum for Putin to suck up. The 1990s and 2000s marked a golden era of relations between Russia and America in the aftermath of the Cold War. Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin both collaborated with each other and had a respectful relationship. Bush and Putin were even friendlier.
The solution to dealing with Russia not to merely suck up to its leaders. Western countries should always be cautious of the Russians when they are led by the likes of Putin. But Obama provoked the Russian President to such a significant degree that he felt he had no choice but to sever his links to America.
It is no secret Obama supported the EU and its plans for expansion.
And how did the Russian bear respond when the EU attempted to encourage the Ukraine to join? They annexed the Crimea. And what was Obama's response? His usual rhetoric and then nothing.
Instead of taking action in Syria without British support, Obama allowed Putin to take the lead and persecutions from both ISIS and al-Assad, the latter of whom is clearly supported by Russia, which escalated the refugee crisis engulfing Europe and enabled cities like Aleppo to be destroyed.
Some will argue Trump is now making the situation worse, but he is dealing with a crisis handed down to him by his predecessor. Anyone care to argue Obama is still 'one of the greatest' presidents America has ever had? And please don't give me the 'he implemented Obamacare' argument, otherwise you will find yourself 'at the back of the queue.'
The Trump administration is stepping up its efforts to combat persecution across the globe, as US Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson has pledged to tackle 'crimes against the innocents.'
He said the United States will 'hold to account' all who implement atrocities against innocent people in different countries.
He spoke during a memorial in the Tuscan town of Sant'Anna di Stazzema to commemorate a 1944 massacre by Nazi Germany.
Mr. Tillerson is due to attend a G7 meeting of foreign ministers gathering in Lucca, Italy.
'Crossed a line'
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and foreign ministers from other key NATO countries such as France, Canada, Japan, Germany and Italy will discuss with Mr.
Tillerson how to dissolve the close relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
The Secretary of State was due to visit Moscow, but both Russia and Iran have criticised the United States for its airstrikes in Syria in response to a chemical weapons attack which claimed the lives of 30 people, including approximately 30 children.
Mr. Putin and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani both suggested the United States had 'crossed a red line.'
President Donald Trump has always been critical of his predecessor, former president Barack Obama, for his 'failure' to intervene in Syria since he was made the Republican candidate prior to last year's presidential election.
The former billionaire committed himself to an 'America First' principle, but his order to issue airstrikes against Syria mark a dramatic turn in his attitude to foreign policy.
More airstrikes MAY come
Mr. Johnson, who cancelled his own trip to Russia following Mr. Assad's chemical weapons attack, said the United States may launch more airstrikes in Syria.
He hinted this response is due to come because of the bombing of Shayrat airfield located near the city of Homs last Friday.
However, the Tory failed to clarify if the UK will collaborate with its key ally.
The Foreign Secretary called for 'international support for a political solution' to halt the Syrian war.
Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said Britain was 'continuing its discussions' with their key partners to pressure Mr.
Assad's government, including the Russians.
Nonetheless, the Kremlin remains defiant that replacing Mr. Assad would not end the conflict.
Mr. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr. Tillerson would be meeting Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Russian President will not be meeting with the Secretary of State.
Mr. Tillerson intends to deliver a 'coordinated' message to the Russian government.
Who is Rex Tillerson?
According to The New York Times, Mr. Tillerson was made Secretary of State on 12th December 2016.
He was recommended by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who met with Trump in November 2016.
She served former president George W. Bush.
Robert Gates also supported his speculated nomination three days after she met with the former billionaire.
The Secretary of State has close ties with the Russian President. They have been acquaintances since Mr. Tillerson represented American engineering company Exxon in Russia during the days of Boris Yeltsin's tenure as president in the 1990s.
John Hamre, the President and CEO for Strategic and International Studies, of which the Secretary of State is also a board member, said Mr. Tillerson has had 'more interaction with Mr. Putin' than any other American.
In 2014, he declared his opposition to sanctions against Russia in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea. Mr. Tillerson said this is because it requires an international coordinated response to implement sanctions among all countries, which he argued at the time is not easy to achieve.
He has instead recommended the United States position its troops in Eastern European countries which border Russia, saying this would present a more 'muscular' response to the crisis.
This year, Mr. Tillerson said Russia's invasion of Crimea was illegal.
Demonstrators hit the streets in Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Newark, Jacksonville Florida and Boston on Friday in the wake of U.S. bombing of a Syrian airfield. On Thursday, president Trump ordered airstrikes in the aftermath of the Assad regimes alleged use of chemical weapons on its citizens.
Peaceful demonstration turns violent
In Jacksonville Florida, some 200 people who were protesting the military action on Syria clashed with demonstrators who were in support of Donald Trump. The demonstrations turned riotous as opposing sides physically attacked one another.
Six arrests were made according to the sheriff's office and one of the six was hospitalized. The protest started peacefully but escalated as fights broke out between opposing sides. Officers claim that in the process of controlling the disturbance, they were kicked and punched.
Emergency protests
Other cities in the US also held demonstrations against the US military strikes on Syria. Protestors in New York City met in front of Trump tower and Union Square and gathered outside Trump Tower in in Chicago. Detroit and downtown Philadelphia also held protests. The demonstrations are billed as emergency protests. Many of the protests were reportedly organized mainly on Social Media by anti-war and anti- racism activists that believe the U.S.
government acted on unsubstantiated reports that the Syrian Government carried out chemical weapons attacks on their people.
Yes to refugees no to war
President Trump had ordered the launch of 59 missiles on a Syrian airbase on Thursday in response to the use of chemical weapons on civilians. And while the action was generally applauded by both sides of the house, US citizens took to the streets on Friday denouncing the action.
An NBC report states that activists were holding signs that read Yes to the refugees, no to the U.S. wars that create them, Bombing Syria doesnt protect people, it kills them."
Rally at the Courthouse
On Saturday, about 200 supporters of the activists arrested on Friday in Florida gathered in front of the Duval County Courthouse.
They demanded that those arrested be released and chanted Free the Hemming Park 5, and "Drop the Charges Members of the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, friends and family called for an investigation into what they felt was an excessive use of force by the Jacksonville Sheriff's department.
As worshippers in two Egyptian churches gathered to observe Palm Sunday, deadly bombs ripped through their peaceful enclave with devastating consequences. By the time it was over, dead bodies were strewn inside and outside the churches. The explosions killed over 40 and wounded more than 100 people. The President of Egypt has called for a three-month state of emergency in the wake of the bombings.
Explosion at the Saint George church
The first bomb exploded in the Saint George church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta killing 27 and injuring more than 70.
According to eyewitness accounts, the blast appeared to be near the altar. The priest who was conducting the service was injured. An observer who lived across the street spoke to the Associated Press and said that her building shook from the blast. She observed Deacons running out of the church with blood on their robes and many of the more seriously wounded were taken to hospital in private cars. News footage from the church also showed people in the church singing hymns and this was soon cut off and replaced by heart-wrenching screams. One observer said that everything was destroyed in the church.
A second explosion at St Mark's Cathedral
A later explosion rocked St Marks Cathedral located in the city of Alexandria killing 17 people and wounding 41.
Pope Tawadros who conducted the Palm Sunday Services, escaped unharmed. A man wearing an explosive belt was prevented from entering the church by Police officers who were on guard outside, according to the Interior Ministry. Police staff and civilians were killed as bombs went off near the church gate. One church member who had left the church after the service said he went back to the area after the explosion and it was covered with smoke and there were bodies and body parts scattered inside and outside the gate.
A struggle for the Coptic minority in Egypt
Its been an ongoing struggle for the Coptic minority in Egypt and they have often complained that the government does little to protect them. The Copts are one of the oldest Christian groups in the Middle East and have suffered terrorist attacks in the past. Just last December, 30 people were killed at a Coptic church in Cairo and many killings in Northern Sinai has caused hundreds of Christians to flee to safety.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks which have been condemned by Pope Francis. The Pope expressed, "deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic church and all of the dear Egyptian nation."
Avaya Unveils Unified Communications Service
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By Andrew Bindelglass
Contributing Writer By Andrew BindelglassContributing Writer
Avaya (News - Alert) has partnered with icosnet to create its first cloud based unified communications service in Algeria. It is aimed chiefly at mobile devices, but will also allow those operating desktop machines to communicate as well. Because this service is cloud based, it does not require any new hardware, allowing businesses that implement this service to do so without the need to purchase any new hardware and instead simply use their existing devices. This will rapidly improve the business climate in Algeria as businesses gain the ability to better communicate within their own organizations as well as with customers.
The Algerian market has a growing appetite for innovation, particularly around mobility and collaboration, said Lionel Hamman, Territory Account Manager Algeria & WCFA at Avaya. By offering embedded communications capabilities within everyday work applications, we are simplifying the process for end-users to access advanced communication and collaboration capabilities. At the same time, we're enabling decision-makers to see the value in accessing a cloud solutions model. Together with icosnet, we are best positioned to lead the Algerian market transition towards a digitally enabled future.
Cloud based unified communications services are perfect for areas that have business climates that are still developing their infrastructure. While other, more industrialized nations already have the infrastructure in place to facilitate larger communications networks that require huge amounts of hardware, that is simply not the case in less developed areas. Despite the lack of hardware, however, the spread of cellular networks has still allowed people all over the world to connect with one another.
The use of cloud based unified communications networks takes this a step further. Unified communications allow people to use voice, text, and other multimedia to more clearly communicate their point and share items that need to be worked on, without having to worry about compatibility issues. Unified communications are a great solution to allow businesses to implement a powerful communications platform without having to worry about the overhead costs of installing new hardware or purchasing new devices. Thus, unified communications services should continue to grow in popularity among businesses.
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Edited by Alicia Young
A Turkish Airlines Flight departed with the correct number of passengers. However, when it landed, it had one extra passenger and the crew was delighted. That's because the passenger was a baby that they helped deliver. The flight was halfway into its journey from Guinea to Burkina Faso when the crew helped deliver the baby girl. The Turkish Airlines crew noticed the mother, who was 28 weeks pregnant, was in labor pain. That's when they jumped into action.
Passengers stepped in to help
A few passengers noticed the woman in pain, so they stepped in to help deliver the child at over 40,000 feet.
Turkish Airlines acknowledged the incident and released a statement. It said cabin crew saw the woman in pain and they quickly responded to assist her.
The mother, who was not named, and the child, named Kadiju, were brought to the hospital in Ouagadougou when the flight landed. There, the pair were kept under observation. The woman and her child are reported to be in good health, but on the tired side.
It's not clear if the Turkish Airlines crew received training in terms of how to handle such an event or if there was a doctor that helped with the delivery. Turkish Airlines did say pregnant women less than 28 weeks are allowed to travel without pause. However, a doctor will need to make sure expectant mothers (if they are between 28 and 35 weeks pregnant) are fit enough to travel.
Not the first birth to occur mid-flight
This isn't the first time a woman gave birth mid-flight. Last December, a Southwest Airlines flight to Orlando diverted to South Carolina because a child was born onboard. Medical personnel were on the flight and they assisted with the delivery. Shortly after the incident, a Southwest spokeswoman said emergency medical technicians were waiting on the ground when the flight landed.
They transported the parents and the child to a nearby hospital. A doctor was on the flight and he helped with the delivery.
The doctor, Bhasker Patel, said he was more than happy to help. He said sometimes things happen and you aren't sure why. He added that the incident was meant to be on the flight.
In that incident, the passengers remained on the flight for about an hour.
It then took off and made its way to Orlando, where it arrived an hour behind schedule. One passenger took a short video of the event, and in the video a baby can be heard crying. The passenger praised the flight crew, saying they did a great job.
Earlier this week, House republicans finally introduced their health care alternative to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. In response, some congressional Republicans opposed the bill, which didn't go over well with Donald Trump.
Trump on health care
Known as the American Health Care Act, Republicans now have actual text to back up their desire to replace Obamacare. For the better for of the last decade, Republicans, conservatives, and most members of the right-wing media have made attacking former President Barack Obama's landmark piece of legislation their number one priority.
Though Obamacare was not the preferred health care alternative that most liberals wanted, many thought it was the first step to a more universal single-payer system that is in place in most developed nations. Following the election of Donald Trump, and with complete control of Congress, it was only a matter of time before a repeal and replace got started. Despite this, as reported by the Washington Examiner on March 10, the former host of "The Apprentice" has a message to those Republicans who are not supporting the new health care law.
Trump threatens GOP: Back health bill or get primaried https://t.co/CJ0cO4s7df pic.twitter.com/MJawzQxM69 Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 10, 2017
According to sources close to the Washington Examiner, Donald Trump reportedly issued a threat to Republicans if they don't back the health care bill, warning them they he could push to primary them in the next mid-term elections.
"The president will respond as circumstances dictate," one Republican congressman said of the meeting. Not stopping there, the congressman said that the president has "unique capacities" at his disposal, stating, "I wouldn't want to be the one he tests them out on."
Tracking where members of Congress stand on the Republican health care bill: https://t.co/gvWE4A6BDF pic.twitter.com/36edgFy4Y6 NPR (@NPR) March 10, 2017
Bully pulpit
Republican insiders have also noted that Donald Trump could "make an example" of those who resit his demand on health care, in an attempt to "send a message." Rep.
Mark Meadows of North Carolina was named as one of the most likely options to be hit by Trump's threat, who spoke on the record about the ramifications in opposing the president. "The president has a very powerful bully pulpit and a very powerful tweet," Meadows said, before admitting, "I would never want to take on the president in either of those realms."
Somebody in the Trump administration is finally coming down hard on #Russia and it's the Secretary of State #Rex Tillerson. Tillerson is about to head to Moscow for an important and timely diplomatic trip and has just this weekend called the former Cold War country #incompetent for allowing #Syria to possess and store chemical weapons and to use them on its defenseless citizens, as last week's horrific attack revealed. Tillerson, in a move of bravado and courage, has also accused Russia of attempting to sway election results throughout #Europe by using the same methods that the country deployed in the United States.
Remarks in an interview surprised many
Tillerson's remarks were made in interviews on Sunday that were broadcast on television, and have been the most critical views of #Russia so far of any person in the Trump administration. Whilst Trump has refused to bad mouth Putin and Russia, and as reports of Russian meddling have stained the Trump administration, this is an unusual and surprising remark from one of the inner circle within Trump's office.
Already, #Tillerson has said in private to his aides and staff, that American is reverting to the Russia-American relationship that is the norm, one of distrust, fractiousness and mutual backstabbing. He claims it was bound to happen at some point, and that Trump's Russia hopes are now becoming increasingly unworkable in the new climate of suspicion and distrust across Syria.
Trump, the only Pro-Russian left standing?
As President Trump becomes increasingly isolated in his view that America should repair its relationship with #Russia, the Republican Party seems once again harshly divided on a united party strategy for a big pressing issue, and it is highlighting how atypical Trump is for a Republican leader.
And so now analysts are saying that #Trump's initial desire to be friends with Russia is a bust. They are saying that it was never compatible with the United' States' competing interests and that that it was bound to end in a muddle.
Philip Gordon, a once #Middle East coordinator at the NSA and now working at the Council on Foreign Relations, calls the Russia-US dynamic a disaster and that it was never going to work out.
Trumps early lets-be-friends initiative was incompatible with our interests, and you knew it would end with tears." He told the New York Times on the weekend that the Russians havent changed their behavior in the slightest and they are desperately using all means possible to reinstate and assert themselves across European and Middle Eastern cyber and financial set ups.
On Sunday, #Tillerson was clear that he sided with this view and he breezed past Trump's assertions that, despite what US intelligence agencies are indicating and saying, there was no Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election. Tillerson on Sunday described the 'meddling' as having undermined any hope of better relations with the cold war power.
He damned Russia for taking similar strategies into electoral procedures across Europe
Considering he has a trip planned to Russia this week, Tillerson's insistent tone on Russia's faults and breaches of good behavior are going to make his Moscow journey a challenge. It will be the first time that anyone from the Trump administration upper tier has been to #Russia and he will need to put in place harsh warnings to the Russian Foreign Minister as well as the President Vladimir Putin. Along with this #Tillerson is expected to make progress with the Russians on the Islamic State and #Syria problems, especially the matter of how to deal with the Syrian president #Bashar al-Assad.
Severe thunderstorms over Atlanta on Wednesday delayed and canceled hundreds of flights. While its never great to be stuck on the tarmac for hours, one airline figured out a way to improve the situation. It turns out Delta Air Lines idea was popular, with many Twitter users praising the service, sharing photos of pilots and crew members handing out Free pizza.
It wasnt just on the runway, either, as passengers who got stranded at Norfolk International Airport also got a treat. Delta Air Lines reportedly ordered almost 600 pies for airports in Atlanta and close by.
Love Delta airlines! Serving pizza to delayed passengers at Norfolk International! #DeltaAirlines #delayedflight pic.twitter.com/GJwi08TKxJ Dana Key (@danajkey) April 6, 2017
A spokesman for Delta said airport station managers came up with the idea some years ago during a Severe Weather episode. Morgan Durrant says it has, since then, been one of their go-to tactics whenever the weather is bad or other delays affect their passengers.
Grateful messages to Delta on Twitter
However, while handing out pizzas has been a regular bad weather thing, Delta was surprised to see such a level of support from passengers on Twitter. Durrant said almost all the messages were positive, adding that it seems a small gesture, but passengers always appreciate it.
.@Delta hands out free pizza to customers experiencing flight delays, collective rejoicing ensues: https://t.co/ONhocjuLJr pic.twitter.com/gJy1lfj0AJ A Plus (@aplusapp) April 8, 2017
He did go on to say that its not always free pizza, as Delta gives their teams free choice to find something meaningful, depending on the circumstances.
Durrant said its always Nathans hot dogs or bagels in New York, for example, and the airline has also given out free decks of cards and coloring books for families traveling with children in the past.
Our @Delta captain delivering pizza while we are stranded waiting for Atl storm chaos to pass. Amazing! pic.twitter.com/rKPgAiNbDm Chris LeCraw (@chrislecraw) April 6, 2017
Free foot-long subs and chicken biscuits courtesy of Delta Air Lines
As noted by US Magazine, it wasnt just in Atlanta, as passengers in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio and Tennessee also had a treat.
That report mentioned that in Nashville alone, the airline ordered 60 foot-long subs and 160 pizzas for customers who were stranded by the flight delays. More than 300 Panama City, Florida passengers were happy to munch down on 20 trays of chicken biscuits and 60 pizzas, according to Michael Thomas, Deltas corporate communications manager.
Reportedly something similar happened last year when a massive power outage caused 2,300 flights to be canceled. At that stage Delta treated their passengers to pizza and doughnuts, and even offered free liquor.
While it is never pleasant to experience flight delays, there is nothing quite like free food and drink to keep a person happy. However, there is always one bright spark that takes a different angle.
After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on his own people last week, it was only a matter of time before President Donald Trump and the United States made a decision on how the country would move forward. After Trump decided that the U.S. would retaliate with a missile strike on a Syrian airbase, the rift between both sides became even more tense.
McCain on Trump
Ever since the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump talked a tough game when it came to his potential foreign policy. The former host of "The Apprentice" was able to craft a narrative that made him appear strong when it came to the military, but also vowed to keep the United States out of other country's internal fights.
Trump also spoke out against radical Islamic terrorism, promising to rid the world of groups like the Islamic State (ISIS) as soon as he got into the White House. However, after ordering the military to fire close to 60 tomahawk cruise missiles at an airbase in Syria, even some of Trump's most loyal supporters felt betrayed and hit back at the commander in chief in the process. This issue was discussed during the April 9 edition of "Face the Nation" on CBS with Sen. John McCain.
(McCain's comments on blaming Trump rhetoric start at 4:30 in the above video.)
Joining host John Dickerson on Sunday morning was Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has a well-documented history of opposing Donald Trump on a wide-range of issues.
McCain was asked about the current situation in Syria, and the senator pushed back at the Trump administration. While McCain initially gave the president credit for taking the "first step" in attacking the government of Bashar al-Assad, he didn't appear on the same page when it comes to other areas, including comments that were previously made on the program by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
McCain says administration rhetoric "partially to blame" for chemical attack in Syria https://t.co/rC0usSsvgb Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 9, 2017
"Another aspect that I do not agree with the secretary is that you have to just concentrate on ISIS," John McCain said, noting that the United States could go after Islamic terrorist groups and the government of Assad at the same time.
John Dickerson then turned the attention to the root cause of why the Syrian government attack it's own people, asking the senator if he thought Donald Trump's previous rhetoric had anything to do with it. "Do you think the administration did anything to encourage this behavior?" Dickerson asked. In response, McCain replied, "I think it probably was partially to blame."
McCain: Rhetoric from Trump Admin Probably Was Partially to Blame for Syria Chemical Attack https://t.co/rvC971h5cQ (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/ogZVA3SHq5 Mediaite (@Mediaite) April 9, 2017
Moving forward
In the aftermath of the two attacks, it's unknown what will take place under the Donald Trump administration. The United States has long tried to avoid clashing with Russia and Iran, but due to the fact that both nations are allies to Syria, only time will tell if the U.S. is forced to make a move on the issue at hand.
John Kaboff, 46, is a professional musician from Vienna, Virginia, who has taken his $100,000 cello with him at least 40 times on his travels each time flying with American Airlines. However he recently boarded a plane to fly from Arlington, Virginia to Chicago when he encountered a problem.
Musician told to get off the plane or be removed
Kaboff told ABC7 he was sitting in his seat, with the cello perched next to him, when a flight attendant asked him to leave. The flight crew member told him the cello was not allowed on that particular plane.
Flight crew said he must either leave the plane voluntarily, or he would be removed from the flight. They then showed him a handheld computer, on which it said a bass fiddle was not allowed on the 737 jet. Kaboff tried to tell them it was a cello, but the pilot said he had made his decision. According to Kaboff, he was mortified to be removed from a flight, just like he was a criminal.
So now I have to ask, how do cellists travel? https://t.co/6w0IFnyRkv Richard Harrold (@newzdude76) April 7, 2017
Kaboff said he was told the cello was not approved for flight travel as it would touch the floor and because it couldnt be strapped in, it posed a safety risk. Reportedly he asked the flight crew for a seat belt extension to cradle the musical instrument, but this was denied him.
Kaboff said he has been a Professional Musician for 25 years and has taken his cello on American Airlines at least 40 times. He has had this problem with the airline only once before, around 12 years ago.
Kaboff was booked on the next flight out
According to WJLA, once Kaboff was off the plane the gate agent and ground personnel told him someone had made an error and they apologized to him on behalf of the airline.
They booked the musician on the next American Airlines flight to Chicago which was, by coincidence, also a 737. They will reportedly be refunding the $150 he paid for the extra seat for his cello.
ABC7 contacted a spokesperson for American Airlines who explained that passengers can bring musical instruments like the cello on board their flights, as long as they match seat size restrictions.
They further said the weight of the instrument must be no more than 165 pounds. According to Kaboff, the cello case complete with the instrument weighs approximately 70 pounds and is around four feet in length.
After being humiliated in front of 150 passengers for no good reason, Kaboff hopes the flight staff will get better training in future so that no one else has to go through what he had to endure.
The United Arab Emirates is developing its own space program with an initial goal of sending a probe to Mars in 2020. The question arises, why would an oil-rich Persian Gulf country want a space program? Slate explains that two excellent reasons exist, which applies to other nations as well.
The first reason is economic. The rulers of the U.A.E. have concluded that oil is increasingly a fragile basis on which to base an economy. They only have Russia and Venezuela to look to as examples, which have seen their economies suffer as the price of oil plummeted.
So the idea is the shift from an oil-based economy to a technology based one.
Space is a distinct component of a technology economy. Having a space program, as the United States found out in the wake of the Apollo program, fosters innovation throughout sectors of the economy beyond space, spurring economic growth and job creation. The U.A.E. is pursuing a strategy of both public and commercial investment in space to help nurture this phenomenon.
The second reason is education, or perhaps more precisely inspiring youth to pursue careers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. There is a huge marketing component to the U.A.E.s space program, getting people excited about the prospect of exploring space.
The education aspect includes changes to curriculum and even sending young people to space camps. The strategy seems to be working. A lot of kids in the U.A.E. want to be astronauts now.
The United States noted a similar phenomenon during the Apollo program, which inspired a lot of young people to study science and engineering.
The development of that kind of talent has had a ripple effect throughout the economy, creating human capital skilled in solving problems in a variety of areas.
The U.A.E.s strategy for using a space program to change its economy and promote education contains lessons for the United States. A well-funded NASA, with a clear direction, would have enormous benefits along the lines that the oil-rich Arab country is pursuing for the United States. For instance, the notion of closing NASAs education department might need to be reconsidered. Indeed, education outreach programs at the space agency might need to be expanded and not cut back.
Even though the US sent missiles to destroy Syria's armed bases last week, and even though they dismiss the chemical attacks that took place, the country's main mission is to abolish #ISIS. Even though Trump seems keen on Russia, he is even more keen on making ISIS go away.
President Trump's chosen Secretary of State #Rex Tillerson spoke to Fox News Sunday about the US's number one priority: ISIS. Once that has happened, he said, only then would the US turn to a cease-fire process so that elections could happen which would ensure, he claimed, that Syrian citizens could decide what happens to Assad.
Differing opinions on Syria and Russia
But not everyone in the #United Nations and the Republicans Party agrees. American ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, thinks that as long as Assad is still in control and in the seat of power, that democratic election process is not going to happen. She said that Putin's former actions, point to the near impossibility of Assad ever leading a peaceful and democratic political systems.
The Russian challenges are growing thick and fast since Thursday's bombing. They angrily floated the idea of destroying the special communication line that the US and Russia share Syria air information on. And since the US attack, Putin is even closer to #Assad now, and many are wondering if Putin is angry at his being forced into a corner with the reviled #Syrian dictator.
Sebastian Gorka, another person in a series of colorfull members of the administration of US President Donald Trump, is the candidate for a role of a special envoy for Libya. Gorka has a peculiar idea for a solution to the crisis in that country -- split it into three parts.
Gorka drew new Libyan borders on a napkin
Gorka, trump's deputy assistant of national security, controversial military-security analyst, and former advisor to Viktor Orban, has previously been caught up in scandals related to his membership in the Order of the Hungarian Knight which the United States treated as a neo-Nazi organization.
As reported by The Guardian, Gorka, shortly before Trump's inauguration, attended a meeting with senior European diplomats and placed forward the idea of the division of Libya, sketching a new delimitation on a napkin. The unnamed diplomat, who recounted this meeting to The Guardian, told him it would be the worst solution for the North African country in the middle of an on-going civil war.
The conflict is waged between the government of national unity in Tripoli, headed by Fayez al-Saraj, which is recognized by the UN, and the opposing government in Tobruk in the east of the country. Tobruk is associated with the former Gadhafi general Khalifa Haftorah and its paramilitaries. Although Haftorah did, during the Libyan civil war in 2011, rebel against Gaddafi, today he presents himself as a protector of the country from the Islamists.
According to media reports, Haftorah is backed by Egypt and Russia. Although the attitude of Trump's administration on Libya has not yet been articulated, it is significant that Gorka, former editor of the right-wing portal Breitbart, thinks that Islamism is a major threat.
The division modeled on the Ottoman province
The division that Gorka so obviously advocates is based on the historical division of Libya into three provinces during the Ottoman Empire: Tripolitania in the northwest, Kirenaik in the east, and Fezzan in the southwest.
Mattia Tolad , an expert on Libya from the European Council, also sharply criticized Gorka's idea and brought into question his competency to fill a position of special envoy to Libya: "This is a litmus test of how much you know about Libya. If the only thing you know is that it was split in three, it shows that you have no idea about the situation in Libya. "
Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that overthrowing Bashar al-Assad is now the top priority of the American administration in Syria. Before the chemical attack happened in the province of Idlib, the removal of Assad from power was not on the list of priorities.
The destruction of ISIL
"We have three strategic goals in Syria; the destruction of ISIL is the number one, followed by removing Assad from power. Because as long as he is there, we do not see the possibility of achieving peace. Syria needs a democratic government without Assad. The third goal is to throw the influence of Iran in Syria" claimed Haley in yesterday's interview with CNN.
US President Trump had a very turbulent reaction to news of the chemical attack, announcing that Assad crossed several red lines that should not have been crossed. Just a few hours later, an air base of Assad's army was buried in 59 long-range missiles, and the climate toward the future of the Syrian president was completely changed.
The rocket attack vehemently strained relations between Washington and Moscow, one of Assad's allies, who are, for the first time in recent months, balancing on the brink of conflict. The situation is not exactly soothed even after Haley publicized American strategic objectives in Syria, which do not really coincide with Moscow's vision of the future of that country.
Tillerson arrived in Moscow on Tuesday where he said that he will bring evidence that the poison was dropped by Assad's army and that Russian drones flew over this area prior to the attack.
The aggression against the sovereign state
The joint alliance that consists of Russia, the Syrian army, and Iran, sent a statement saying that they will respond to each new attack on Syria and that they will not allow the United States to become the world's policeman who does what it wants and implements aggression against a sovereign state.
"American aggression exceeded all red lines and we consider it dangerous because it could lead to a destabilization of the entire region. We will not stand by and just watch. We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization called Islamic State. The new US administration led by Trump revealed that they will lead an aggressive policy. US has no right to launch unilateral military action without UN approval," the statement said.
The press has noted how the Trump administration is sending conflicting signals in regards to the Syria issue and whether Russia, Seen as Syria's patron, is responsible for the continued upsetting violence in the war torn country. This, as #Rex Tillerson disembarked in Italy on the weekend to hobnob with foreign ministers en route to #Moscow. The differing views from the White House are the norm for Team Trump, whose last two months have been marred by chaos and confusion.
The world reacts to shocking images in Syria
People around the world were shocked and saddened to see children, babies and other civilians being gassed by noxious chemical weapons that the #Syria' President Assad has not take responsibility for, but that the US blames them for unleashing.
Tillerson, on Fox News Sunday, remarked that the United State's attack on the #Syrian defense missile systems last week was meant to halt any future chemical attacks. The attack was described by General McMaster, also on Fox news Sunday, as a strong signal to Assad and his sponsors that the United States wont idly stand by as people are murdered. The attack has pushed Russia further into a tight corner with President Assad, the Syrian dictator that is at the center of this mess.
Joe Gorga and Teresa Giudice are dealing with the loss of their mother right now, but it turns out that their dad is now having some health issues. Radar Online shared what is going on with their father. "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" fans have been reaching out to Teresa after her mom passed away.
What did Joe have to say about their dad?
Everyone knows that Giancinto Gorga, suffered from several ailments before Teresa went to prison. She had fears of something happening to her father while she was gone. It turns out that he has been dealing with some health issues.
Joe shared about it his dad saying, "His health is better. We just got him yeah, hes doing better. Nobodys happy. Were all hanging in there. We loved our mother very, very, very much. Shes a wonderful woman.
An insider shared that Joe and Teresa had a small and private funeral for their mother. It doesn't sound like Joe Giudice got to come from prison or if he did that was somehow kept a secret. Teresa is going through a lot with Joe being in prison, her mother passing away and now the news that her dad is having health issues of his own. So far, the are staying quiet on exactly what is going on with him.
Joe Gorga doesn't share on his Instagram much, but it does look like things are going well between Joe and his sister Teresa.
He shared a photo on New Year's Eve showing that they spent time together as a family. They have been through their issues, but it does look like they are working things out and getting along. With the loss of their mother and now their father having health problems, Joe and Teresa need to find a way to stick together. Last season, Melissa and Teresa showed that they were working hard to get along with each other.
You won't want to miss Teresa Giudice and Joe Gorga on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" when it returns to Bravo for a new season. They took some time off while Teresa was in prison, but now they should be back on schedule and hopefully a new season is coming soon.
One person who could not be more pleased with the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States is Prince Reza Pahlavi, who had been living in exile ever since the Islamic Revolution overthrew the reign of his father, the last Shah of Iran. Pahlavi is very keen to overthrow the mullahs and replace their rule with a Parliamentary Monarchy with respect for Human Rights and a modern free market economy. He hopes that Trump will take a harder line with the mullahs than his predecessor, according to the Associated Press.
The new president could hardly take a softer line Obama turned a cold shoulder to freedom protestors in 2009 and 2010 and signed an agreement with the theocratic government in Tehran that he claimed stopped their nuclear weapons program but actually likely enabled it.
Obamas desire to appease the mullahs was breathtaking, bringing to mind how democracies in the 1930s tried to stave off Adolf Hitler by giving him what he wanted.
But are Iranians pining for a return of the King? Pahlavi thinks so and points out to demonstrations that have taken place around the tomb of the first King of Persia, Cyrus the Great. He notes that his royal house fostered economic growth fueled by oil revenues which contrast with the backward policies of the mullahs who are addicted to funding terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction to destroy what they perceive to be the enemies of Islam.
Truth to tell, most young people in Iran, who have lived all their lives under the heel of the mullahs, would like to live in an ordinary country where one can make a homemade music video without fear of being whipped to death for it.
The question is whether or not the prince in exile is the man who can help give them that country.
The Trump administration will likely start offering covert assistance to the Iranian opposition if it hasnt already. The long-term solution to the Iranian problem is regime change. As long as the mullahs run things, Iran will remain an implacable enemy of civilization.
One also cannot doubt that if Prince Reza ascends the Peacock Throne no one in the White House will shed any tears. The princes father, for all of his faults, was a warm ally to the United States. Iran under the last Shah was an island of stability and modernity in a turbulent Middle East. That it could be so again is something that should be fervently wished for. But it will likely be a long, hard slog to get there.
Freeform favorite "Pretty Little Liars" will return April 18 with the final 10 episodes of its seventh and final season, with the series finale planned for June 20. The series is loosely based on the book series written by Sara Shepard. The main plot has centered around four friends, following the disappearance of their fifth friend, as they're tormented and harassed by an unseen foe dubbed A. Several twists have occurred since the show aired, with a few A reveals and suspects, but the last 10 episodes are expected to answer all the questions fans could have.
What to expect when the show returns
The show left off with a literal bang as series lead Spencer (played by Troian Bellisario) was shot and informed that she was the second child of Mary Drake, Alison (Sasha Pieterse) announced a pregnancy, and Toby (Keegan Allen) and his fiancee Yvonne were in a car accident on their out of Rosewood. PaleyFest recently teased fans with the opening scene of the Spring premiere which showed Spencer in the back of an ambulance, and Toby being wheeled into the hospital, leaving the others to speculate where is his fiancee.
Creator and showrunner I. Marlene King teases that all end games will be end games, and the journey won't be an easy one for the characters have to work to earn their happy endings.
This has left fans wondering where this leaves fan favorite couples. Ian Harding (Ezra) has shared that his character will be stuck between a rock and a hard place now that his thought-to-be dead girlfriend is actually alive. This makes an awkward situation with Aria (Lucy Hale) who he was going to elope with. Other favorite ship, Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Alison (Pieterse), will be figuring out what their kiss meant, while balancing Alison's pregnancy.
Tyler Blackburn fully supports the idea that his character, Caleb and Hanna are end game. However, fans were left speculating outcomes when King announced at PaleyFest that she hopes fans are satisfied with the big twist that's to come.
The actors are set for new projects post "Pretty Little Liars"
Fans won't have to wait long to find their favorite actors in new projects.
Ian Harding has already landed a role as a series regular on Fox comedy pilot "Thin Ice," which follows a receptionist (Brigdit Mendler) as she takes a job in Antarctica. The actor also has an essay collection, "Odd Birds" due out in May, which are personal stories about his journey in Hollywood told through the funny and creative perspective of bird watching. Lucy Hale has taken the lead role in CW pilot "Life Sentence," following a young woman who lived life to the fullest when she thought she was dying only to discover she's not, and now has to deal with the consequences of her decisions. Shay Mitchell will have a reality show later this year called "Shades of Shay" and will follow her time post-"Pretty Little Liars." Ashley Benson has announced her plans for time off for a few months.
Janel Parrish (Mona) has appeared on stage in musical adaptations of "Cruel Intentions" and "A Walk to Remember." Tyler Blackburn will star in the film adaptation of musical "Hello Again." Keegan Allen recently released a single called "Million Miles Away." The rest of the cast has yet to announce their post plans.
Remember to tune into Freeform on April 18 for end of "Pretty Little Liars."
Visitors are invited to taste Norwegian salmon at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]
OSLO A major investor from the land of the vikings said China would be the next big fish market to be conquered by Norwegian salmon.
"China is too big to ignore," Hogne I. Tyssoy, portfolio manager of the Holberg Triton fund, said in an interview in Oslo. "Now when it's opening again, Norwegian seafood has an exciting future in China."
Norway, the world's biggest Atlantic salmon producer, is seeking to increase seafood exports as the global demand for healthy proteins rises, especially in emerging markets such as China.
Tyssoy will join Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg's delegation to China in April, along with other business executives and investors, as Norway seeks to re-establish contact with the world's most populous country.
While the fund may consider investing in Chinese companies in future, Tyssoy said he was interested in seeing first hand what growth opportunities are in store for Norwegian fish farmers in China.
One such example is Marine Harvest ASA's cooperation with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce company, to sell salmon on the internet, a collaboration that could "develop quickly," according to the 55-year-old.
"It's a bit of a revolution when the logistical chain works," he said. "And Norwegian seafood with high quality and popularity can benefit."
The Norwegian industry is looking for new markets and new ways to boost margins. After advancing more than 400 percent over the past five years, the Oslo Seafood Index has slid 16 percent so far this year.
Holberg Triton, an equity fund based in the southern Norwegian city of Bergen, manages about 670 million kroner ($80 million). It invests only in the seafood sector and returned 30 percent since its start two years ago. The fund's largest holdings as of February included Leroy Seafood Group ASA, Sanford Ltd, Austevoll Seafood ASA and Bakkafrost P/F.
"Bakkafrost is in a league of its own with a 30 to 40 percent return on equity," he said. "It's perhaps the best managed salmon producer in the world."
The salmon industry is struggling with health and sustainability issues due to holding large numbers of fish in open-water cages, but long-term trends of growing prosperity and food awareness will continue to support demand growth, according to Tyssoy.
"Seafood is the only area where Norway has succeeded in creating a global retail product on a big scale," he said.
"Norwegian salmon is status."
Bloomberg
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's prosecution authority said on Sunday a second person had been arrested in connection to the deadly truck attack in Stockholm suspected of a terrorist crime through murder.
"District Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist ... made the decision on the arrest," the prosecution authority said in a statement.
The suspect was arrested on a lower degree of suspicion.
Reuters
China and Norway hope to expand and deepen their pragmatic cooperation in bilateral, regional and international levels and push for the long-term, stable development of China-Norway ties, State Councilor Yang Jiechi said on Monday.
The two countries should consistently cement political mutual trust, promote economic and trade exchanges and cultural exchanges, Yang said when meeting with visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende.
The two countries normalized their diplomatic relations last December after bilateral ties deteriorated in 2010.
Yang said the normalization of the relationship fully serves the common interests of both sides, and it lives up to the general direction of a correct development of China-Norway ties.
Brende said the Norwegian side subscribes to the one-China policy and respects China's core interest and major concerns.
Norway is ready to boost exchanges with China at various levels, promote mutual trust, expand cooperation and press ahead Nordic-Sino cooperation, as well as China-Europe ties, Brende added.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg is on an official visit to China from Friday to Tuesday.
Yang said the two sides should effectively implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two sides during Solbergs visit.
They spent millions on luxury houses and high-priced cars. And millions more for vacant lots. On one lot, signs in Chinese and English posted on a chain-link fence that surrounds it read: "retail shops for lease" and "partnerships welcome".
The houses, the cars, the vacant lots and more are part of what authorities described as an alleged $50million EB-5 visa fraud, which involves three of China's most-wanted fugitives accused of bribery and other crimes.
On April 5, federal agents raided several locations in the greater Los Angeles area. They searched the office of the California Investment Immigration Fund (CIIF) in San Gabriel, a home in Arcadia, a townhouse in El Monte and a Porsche SUV of the suspects. They sized computers, financial documents and other records for evidence of the alleged fraud.
No arrests were made, and Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the US attorney's office of the Central District of California, said on April 6 that no charges had been filed against the suspects at this point. They could face charges of visa fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the federal government.
Victoria Chan, an attorney, and Tat Chan, her foreign national father, persuaded more than 100 Chinese nationals to invest a total of $50 million with CIIF and related companies since establishing the business in 2008, according to a search warrant unsealed by the US District Court for the Central District.
The court document also named another suspect, Fang Zeng, the father's female companion and a Chinese national.
The federal EB-5 visa program requires applicants to make an investment of at least $1 million (or $500,000 in an area designated as rural or high-unemployment) and create or preserve at least 10 jobs for US workers in exchange of the US permanent residency, or "green card".
However, instead of legitimately investing the funds into US businesses, the trio either refunded the funds to the EB-5 investors while their petitions were pending in a way to solicit investors, or stole millions of dollars to use for personal expenditures, including buying million-dollar houses, according to a 113-page affidavit filed in support of the search warrants.
The investigators found no construction took place at any of the proposed project locations and very few actual full-time American jobs were created.
As a result of the fraud scheme, many Chinese nationals obtained US green cards through EB-5 program improperly, said the affidavit.
Among Chan's clients were at least three fugitives on China's 100 most-wanted list, charged with crimes like bribery. They were able to obtain green cards based on false information.
Xu Jin, listed as No. 13 on the list, was director of the Development and Reform Commission in Wuhan, Hubei province. In China, he is accused of "embezzlement, accepting bribes, abuse of power" and faces a maximum punishment of death.
His wife, Liu Fang, listed No. 66 on the list, was the deputy director of the Hubei branch of China Life Insurance Company. She is accused of "accepting bribes" and also faces the maximum punishment of death.
Another fugitive, "K. L.", as named in the affidavit, used the same purported "new" American employees that were used by Liu Fang in her EB-5 petition.
liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
As more than 1,000 Chinese language teachers gathered in Houston to exchange the latest ideas in teaching, education leaders from the United States and China recounted the achievement of Chinese learning in the US over the past decade on the opening day of the 10th National Chinese Language Conference on Thursday.
Chinese learning in the US has made tremendous progress, said Linda Liu, vice-president of the US nonprofit College Board. "Not only has the interest in learning Chinese grown, but also the proficiency of understanding Chinese language and culture has grown with it," Liu said.
Liu said that College Board launched the AP (advanced placement) Chinese Language and Culture course in 2007. Since then, the number of AP Chinese teachers has grown from fewer than 200 to more than 800 today. The number of US students participating in AP Chinese has quadrupled in the past decade. "That's amazing progress," Liu said.
During the past decade, College Board deepened collaboration with China's Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban), brought US administrators to China and established district-level Confucius classrooms, Liu said.
"Since the first Chinese guest teachers arrived in the US in 2007, we have had nearly 1,200 guest teachers bringing Chinese lessons to over 300 school districts in the US," Liu said.
Jing Wei, deputy director-general of Hanban, echoed Liu's view. She pointed out that when the first National Chinese Language Conference was held in 2008, it was predicted that by 2015, 120,000 would be learning Chinese in US educational institutions with 1,200 Chinese teaching positions. The reality exceeded the expectations.
"Last year, there were nearly 400,000 Chinese language learners and more than 1,500 Chinese language teachers in US education institutions," Jing said. Hanban also brought about 6,000 US students to China to learn Chinese and about Chinese culture.
Jing, who toured the Houston Mandarin Immersion School earlier, said she was very impressed with the enthusiasm of Chinese learning displayed by the students and parents.
Ronnie Chan, co-chair of Asia Society Global, and David Leebron, president of Rice University, shared their personal stories to illustrate how important language learning is in understanding the other culture.
"For the first time in 2,000 years, the West and East have to coexist as strong nations. There is a need for mutual understanding, and the first place to start is obviously the language," Chan said.
mayzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
The April 4 chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed many civilians, including children, was an atrocity that shocked the world. Many United Nations members, China included, have called for an independent investigation into who the perpetrator was.
But before such an investigation could be carried out, the White House quickly decided by itself that it was the Syrian government army that carried out the attack. On Thursday night, US President Donald Trump ordered the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian Sharat air force base.
While destroying military jets, an air defense system and other logistics facilities, the bombing killed and injured a number of civilians, the governor of Homs told the news media.
The bombing has received widespread support from US politicians, including many Democrats. Many also wondered about Trump's U-turn in his views on the Syria issue.
Ian Bremmer, a US political scientist and president of the Eurasia Group, called the attack the most popular action Trump has taken as president with the US political establishment.
Protests also erupted in at least a dozen US cities on Friday afternoon. I witnessed angry protesters outside the White House condemning the US airstrike and deploring the mess it has made in the Middle East, such as in Iraq and Libya.
Some cited the March 17 US coalition air strike in Iraq's western Mosul, which resulted in the deaths of as many as 200 civilians.
After Thursday's airstrike, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged restraint to avoid any escalation of the situation in Syria.
UN members are sharply divided on the issue. While most US allies in NATO have voiced support, the diverse views of the international community are largely missing in mainstream US news media.
Liu Jieyi, China's ambassador to the UN, said at an emergency Security Council meeting on Friday morning that China always stands for dialogue in resolving international conflicts, and all parties must ensure that the situation does not further deteriorate. He called on people to support the UN as the main mediation channel. "Military means will not work," he said.
Mounzer Mounzer, Syria's deputy ambassador to the UN, called the US strike a "barbaric, flagrant act of aggression" that will embolden "terrorist groups" to use chemical weapons in the future. He stressed that the Syrian government doesn't possess chemical weapons.
Russia called the US airstrike as "aggression".
In the Friday meeting, Vladimir Safronkov, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, traded heated words with his US counterpart Nikki Haley. He criticized the US action and double standards used on the Syrian government, the US and US allies.
Sacha Llorenti, the Bolivian ambassador to the UN, was among the most outspoken on Friday. He held an enlarged photo of Colin Powell, then-US secretary of state, making a case for a war on Iraq in a 2003 presentation at the UN. Powell's argument was later proven to be based on false evidence.
"I believe it's vital for us to remember what history teaches us, and on this occasion (in 2003), the United States did affirm, they affirmed that they had all the proof necessary to show that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction but they were never found never were they found," Llorenti told the UN meeting on Friday.
Most mainstream US news outlets and pundits, as they did in 2003, ahead of the US invasion of Iraq to deprive Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction, have not questioned whether the chemical weapons attack was indeed conducted by the Syrian army or by other groups.
Of the five Brookings Institution scholars who posted comments on the airstrike on Friday, only one, Chuck Call, raised the issue of legality, saying "the act reflects a disregard for multilateral organizations and approaches, and its international legal basis remains unclear".
But such voices are quite subdued in the US, unlike the UN Security Council session.
Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
Two bottles of red, a bottle of white and one sparkling could put customers in the mood to buy some Chinese wines for the first time in the US.
The wines - Chandon Brut, riesling, syrah organic red, cabernet sauvignon and merlot - come from Ningxia province, known as China's wine country.
"Ningxia is one of the most suitable places for growing grapes and producing wine," said Li Jianhua, Ningxia Party chief, at a promotional event for the province on Sunday in New York's Chinatown.
If there are Chinese wines that win awards at wine-tasting competitions, those wines must have been produced in Ningxia, Li said.
"Even champagne is produced in Ningxia wineries," he said, including Chandon Brut, a sparkling wine consisting of chardonnay and pinot noir, a product of Domaine Chandon China, a joint-venture winery created by a Chinese company and Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), the French multinational luxury goods company.
LVMH co-invested $28 million with a Chinese company to create the Chandon state-of-the-art winery in Yongning county in northwest Ningxia. The French company is betting that the Chinese market will support major growth in the wine sector, which is worth approximately $22.3 billion, according to Euromonitor International. China has more land for vineyards than France.
Ningxia province, which has the third-smallest GDP in China, has in recent years become known for its burgeoning wine production. About two hours west of Beijing, the region has close to 60,000 acres of vineyards, which is more than double what it had in 2000.
"I was in Ningxia last year and was frankly extremely surprised by the quality of the wines," said Karen MacNeil, wine expert and author. "The top wines easily would compete with the best wines of California and France."
Much of China is too humid or wet for wine grapes, she said, but Ningxia is perfectly positioned and has a suitable continental climate.
Edward Korry, former president of the Society of Wine Educators, said that he was impressed with the level of quality that was achieved by wineries in Ningxia in a short period of time.
"I think the wines are very good, and I can see much future progress as there's more understanding of the terroir of the region," he said.
amyhe@chinadailyusa.com
One more quick Blessing the Sun note: Nava Tehila, the Jewish Renewal community of Jerusalem (about whom I have posted before; here's my review of their latest cd) has posted music for the blessing of the sun. At that website you can stream audio-only or you can watch them perform the tunes via YouTube. Whether or not you're planning to learn their music in time for Birkat ha-Chamah, it's beautiful stuff and well worth a listen.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs has posted a pdf designed to be a haggadah bookmark, which contains a short text about exiting the Mitzrayim (narrow place) of despair in these dark financial times. It's here: Escape from the New Mitzrayim [pdf].
I've been thinking lately about what constitutes the personal Mitzrayim from which I need liberation this year. I want to be liberated from feeling myself constricted by things that are tough: the economy, finances, health problems plaguing people I love. Facing the economic nightmare is difficult. Facing the reality that we live in fragile bodies which don't always work is difficult. When I'm at my best, I think I can respond to these truths with equanimity and grace. But lately I've struggled with overwhelm, which is self-perpetuating. It's hard to wake up with modah ani ("I am grateful before You...") on my lips when I'm feeling like the tough stuff is hemming me in.
Again I return to the distinction between ontology and epistemology, between the way things "actually are" and the way I perceive them to be. The ontology of the situation isn't likely to change anytime soon, and beyond that, it's not under my control. I can't change the world financial situation. I can't change the reality that we live in bodies which break. What I can change is my reaction to things-as-they-are. I can change how I experience them, by committing myself to recognizing that I can feel expansive, liberated, grateful even though the world isn't always an easy place to live.
Everything hangs on that even though. I have to find a way to feel grateful for the innumerable blessings in my life even though other things are tough. I have to find a way to understand (again) that I'm always already liberated, that the freedom we celebrate at Pesach is always real. That's what redemption means. We speak in our liturgy about God Who redeems us from slavery -- that's always ongoing.
In every generation we're commanded to see ourselves as though we, ourselves, had been liberated from Mitzrayim. This year, I think my Mitzrayim is the feelings of overwhelm in which I've allowed myself to become constricted. Pesach offers me a reminder, and an opportunity, to commit myself to breaking free. (If this way of thinking is fruitful for you, I'd love to see others' responses to the question of "from what do you need to be liberated this year" -- as comments on this post, or as posts on your own blogs.)
That said: as much as I love the reading of the Pesach story which holds that we can understand the Exodus as a parable of self-actualization and liberation from internal constriction, there's a danger in that reading. One can become so absorbed in navel-gazing that one forgets that the entire world is in need of redemption. Rabbi Jill's haggadah insert reminds me of that. She writes:
By giving tzedakah, by working for policies that will create opportunity for everyone, and by helping to create a more just society, we too can make the divine presence evident among us, even or especially in difficult times, and will lift ourselves collectively out of the narrowness of Mitzrayim.
The Exodus was a corporate experience. Our story tells us that the Israelites and a "mixed multitude" left Egypt together, fleeing constriction and heading toward a new life of liberation and covenant. My own personal story of liberation each year has to be balanced with an awareness of our communal story of liberation -- and with the obligation to act to help lift others out of constriction, too.
Technorati tags: religion, Judaism, Pesach.
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KUALA LUMPUR The Hanoi Trade Corporation (Hapro) participated in the 14th Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS 2017) in the countrys capital city Kuala Lumpur from April 5 to 8.
Tran Thi My Hanh, deputy director of Hapros HCM City branch, said the company wanted to study customers interests and demands during its first time at the event, while seeking partners to expand co-operation in the import and export of Halal products.
Halal products are products permitted to be consumed according to Islamic law.
Some of Hapros products such as candies and spices, along with cashew nuts, lotus seeds and taro from other Vietnamese businesses, were highly appreciated by international visitors.
Nguyen Son Ha, counsellor of the Vietnam Trade Office in Malaysia, said the Halal market had immense potential for Vietnamese businesses, especially agricultural product exporters. The office would continue to support local businesses to enter Malaysias Halal market, he pledged.
MIHAS is a large-scale event that exhibits foods and services according to Islamic customs. It drew 580 businesses from 33 countries and territories this year, including from ASEAN, the Middle East and Europe. VNS
MEKONG DELTA With prices of tra skyrocketing, farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are scrambling to breed the fish, paying little heed to warnings from experts.
The price of the fish has been rising since before Tet (Lunar New Year) at the end of January and now stands at VN27,000 (US$1.2) per kilogramme, thought to be the highest level in the last few years.
Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted P., tra breeder in Soc Trang Provinces Ke Sach District who farms them in three ponds, said he and his friends are looking for more ponds to breed more fish.
One of my friends in HCM City, who has no experience in tra farming, wants to lease seven or eight ponds to breed the fish.
According to Pham Thanh Nhi, head of the Hong Ngu District Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau in ong Thap Province, because the prices of snakehead fish are falling, many local farmers have switched from it to tra.
With so many farmers switching to tra, not surprisingly there is a shortage of juveniles for breeding.
Their price has risen by VN20,000 per kilogramme from a year ago to VN40,000-50,000.
Another cause for the short supply is that several breeders of tra juveniles switched to other fishes after suffering losses a couple of years ago, Vo Hung Dung, vice president of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters (VASEP), told the media at a seminar on Vietnamese seafood in Can Tho city last month.
The prices of adult tra are also rising because of the increasing purchase by China, he said.
China accounted for 18 per cent of Viet Nams tra exports last year, 15 per cent higher than five years earlier.
Nguyen Minh Nhi, a former chairman of the An Giang Province Peoples Committee, said the volatility in tra fish prices is nothing new to fish farmers, but told them to be cautious since no one can be sure where the prices are heading.
Some analysts said though increasing imports by China are driving prices up, there is no guarantee this trend would continue, and farmers could suffer big losses if the imports stop.
The An Giang Department of Agriculture and Development has encouraged farmers to team up with processing companies to ensure their fish is sold.
According to VASEP, in the first quarter of this year farmers in the delta bred 739ha of tra and harvested 672ha, which yielded 210,000 tonnes.
They have been making handsome profits thanks to the high prices.
But authorities have been warning farmers against uncontrolled expansion because historically tra fish prices have been volatile. VNS
HA NOI Mizuho Financial Group will set up an US$252 million (28 billion Japanese yen) investment fund early this summer to invest in small- and medium-sized companies in Southeast Asia, Nikkei reported.
The fund is targeting businesses in countries such as Viet Nam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Each selected SME will receive around $9 million (1 billion yen).
Through this fund, the Japanese company may also support joint ventures between Japan and Southeast Asian nations, as well as send staffs to the firms.
The group is likely to invest a total of more than 10 billion yen, while other companies such as Dai-ichi Life Insurance will contribute several billion yen. Other Japanese banks and European investors are also considering investing in the fund.
Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, with its rising population and growing middle-class, which are boosting the regions economic growth.
Mizuho is Japans second largest financial group and among the top 20 largest financial groups in the world, with diversified investments in banking, stocks and investment funds. It has branches in Ha Noi and HCM City and is Vietcombanks largest foreign shareholder, with 15 per cent stake. VNS
HA NOI A-Pro Tech Vietnam Co Ltd on Monday broke ground for the construction of a bike and automobile spare parts manufacturing plant in the southern province of Binh Duong.
The US$300 million project is financed by the Taiwan-based A-Pro Technology Co Ltd and will be operated by A-Pro Tech Vietnam Co Ltd.
GIZA Engineering & Construction Joint Stock Company is the general contractor.
The factory is being built on a 76,000sq.m plot in ai ang Industrial Park. Once completed, it is expected to have an annual capacity of 300,000 bicycles, one million bike frames of different types, 100,000 tonnes of spare parts for bicycles, motorcycles and cars, as well as 50,000 tonnes of metal tubes.
The plant is expected to become operational this December. VNS
THANH HOA Thanh Hoa Province on Monday fined a company VN160 million (US$7,100) for illegally discharging untreated sewage into the Am River, causing mass fish deaths last week.
Thanh Hoas Department of Natural Resources and Environment also suspended Tuan Vinh Production, Commercial and Transport Co Ltd from operation for three months for the environmental violation.
Earlier, on April 3 and 4, dead fish were spotted along a 10km stretch of the Am River that runs through the Lang Chanh and Ngoc Lac districts.
According to the department, an inspection team, which was sent to scrutinise Tuan Vinh company on April 5, discovered an underground pipeline connecting the wastewater tank and the Am River. An experiment test proved that the pipeline was used to illegally discharge the untreated sewage directly into the river.
The wastewater discharge was said to be responsible for the mass fish deaths in the river, in addition to seriously affecting the water quality and residents lives.
This is the third time mass fish deaths have occurred in the Am River since last July. The previous incidents were caused by untreated wastewater discharge from wood factories in Lang Chanh District. VNS
THUA THIEN- HUE Craft villages around the country will gather in the former imperial city of Hue for five festive days as part of the Hue Craft Village Festival.
At the event, taking place from April 28 to May 2, villages and their artisans will have the opportunity to showcase their craft products and skills in their natural ambience, created for them in the city.
Visitors are welcome to participate in the craft processes and are also allowed to take home the handmade products made with help from the artisans.
The event will showcase exhibits and performances of products and artisans in 13 crafts, including embroidery, jewelry manufacturing, carpentry and bronze casting, as well as rattan and bamboo making, paper flowers and painting making, and enamel manufacturing.
According to Nguyen ang Thanh, the citys deputy chairman, the event is being held to honour villages and artisans for their efforts in maintaining the crafts.
The event is to highlight the quintessential craftsmanship of Vietnamese people and will help to open links and co-operation bonds for the promotion of craft products, he said.
Thanh, who is also deputy head of the events organisers, said they would connect craft and tourism by manufacturing handmade tourist souvenir items, an attempt to increase the sale of craft products and ensure craft villages survive around the country.
During the five-day event, 300 Vietnamese artisans will be available as craft guides and to present performances, together with artisans from Hues sister cities Takayama, Saijo and Shizuoka from Japan; Busan from South Korea; and Yixing from China.
This years event will introduce some craft villages and facilities that have never attended any of the five previous events held biennially since 2005.
These include glass painting represented by young artist Duong Van Kinh and mat making showcased by artisan Nguyen Viet Nam. Kinh is the only artist of his kind in Hue and presents his work on reverse glass paintings. Nam, a middle-aged man, is skillful in making tiny sourvernirs and daily items from grey-rush-plant mattresses knitted by his home villages artisans.
The event is also a means to foster ASEAN solidarity, with the display of fabric costumes designed by 19 fashion designers from Viet Nam, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, as well as Malaysia and Myanmar.
On the sidelines of the event, a food and beverage festival will offer locals and visitors a wide range of specialties from localities around the country.
The highlight of the event is an ao dai fashion show that is proposed to take place on the citys iconic Truong Tien Bridge. This is the first time after 15 years that an ao dai show will take place on the bridge. Similar shows have never been held at previous versions of this event.
The collection will comprise efforts of designers, artists and family members of late renowned artists in Hue, including late artists Ton That ao, Buu Chi and inh Cuong. Following the proposal, paintings by 20 artists will be reenacted on the ao dai.
According to designer Minh Hanh, the show manager, ao dai fashion shows have taken place in localities around the country, but the combination of costumes and paintings is unique in Hue.
Deputy chairman Thanh said Hues painters contributed much to the art industry of the country and this was a chance to honour them.
The combination of ao dai and paintings is expected to delight audiences, along with the exhibition of 2,000 unique craft items. VNS
HA NOI Musicians from Viet Nam National Symphony and Orchestra (VNSO) and artists from WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and Japan will perform a concert to celebrate VNSOs 100th show on April 14.
The concert will be held at the Viet Nam National Academy of Musics Grand Hall in Ha Noi.
Jointly organised by the VNSO, Goethe Institute in Ha Noi and the Japan Cultural Exchange Centre, Subscription Concert Vol 100 will celebrate the fact that it is the orchestras 100th concert over the past 12 years.
The VNSOs annual concert series, which started in 2005, includes 10 concerts every year at which famous symphonies by Vietnamese and world composers are introduced to local music lovers.
The artists will play two pieces, including a nocturne by Vietnamese composer o Hong Quan and a symphony by Russian Dmitri Shostakovich.
Quan composed the nocturne in 1995 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the south liberation and the countrys unification. Titled Tieng Vong (The Echo), the nocturne has four movements, including Nguoc Dong Thoi Gian-Trang Cua Tinh Yeu (Date Back to Time-Moon of Love); Tieng Vong Chien Truong Xua (Echo from the Old Battlefield); oi Cho Trong Im Lang (Waiting in Silence); and Nhung Tuong ai Bat Tu (Immortal Statues).
I wrote The Echo as a dedication to all the Vietnamese people who sacrificed their lives for national liberation and independence, said Quan, who is also chairman of Viet Nam Musicians Association. Through this piece I want to express my deep gratitude to Vietnamese martyrs during the nations decades-long struggle.
The piece was performed by HCM Ballet and Symphony Orchestra at the 13th Asia Orchestra Week in Tokyo in 2014.
The other piece that will be performed is Shostakovichs 7th Symphony, also called Leningrad Symphony. It has four movements that the composer, who died in 1975, originally provided with the titles: War, Memories, Homeland Steppes, and Victory. The symphony is an artistic legacy and expression of resistance against the German war, which up until 1944 was directed against the city and the citizens of Leningrad.
Japanese oboist Maekawa Kosei and three German musicians the bugler Premysl Vojta, the trombonist Michael Massong, and the trumpeter Martin Griebl will perform along with the VNSO.
Vojta was invited to perform in Viet Nam in 2014 as a solo hornist by the Goethe Institute in Ha Noi. Born in Czech Republic in 1983, he won the first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2010. He has worked with the Prague Philharmonics, Staatskapelle Berlin and Konzerthausorchester Berlin.
Trumpeter Griebl took his first trumpet lessons at the age of seven and now plays with different ensembles. He has also worked as a solo trumpeter with prestigious orchestras, including Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra London, and Leipzig Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Germany, trombonist Massong has devoted himself to activities as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. As a guest he has played at numerous international orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The concert will begin at 8pm and will be conducted by Tetsuji Honna. VNS
LOS ANGELES US cable network Showtime said on Sunday it is to release Risk, a documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras about controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The network announced in a statement it would partner with distributor Neon on a theatrical release before premiering the movie on television in a few months.
Filmed over six years and taking in the 2016 US presidential election, Risk claims to take viewers closer than any previous film crew into Assanges inner circle.
"With unprecedented access, Poitras gives us the WikiLeaks story from the inside, allowing viewers to understand our current era of massive leaks, headline-grabbing news, and the revolutionary impact of the internet on global politics," Showtime said.
"Risk is a portrait of power, principles, betrayal, and sacrifice when the stakes could not be any higher. It is a first-person geopolitical thriller told from the perspective of a filmmaker immersed in the worlds of state surveillance and the cypherpunk movement."
Assange, 45, has been at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, having taken refuge to avoid being sent to Sweden, where he faces a rape allegation.
He fears Sweden would extradite him to the US over his websites leaking of diplomatic cables and other classified documents.
The Australian was questioned at the embassy on November 14 and 15 on the rape allegation which dates back to August 2010.
Poitrass profile of Assange, who denies any wrongdoing, is a follow-up to her Academy Award-winning Citizenfour (2014), about fugitive leaker Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal.
"It is an exciting time to be working with Showtime and Neon," the 53-year-old said.
"Both organisations are thinking outside the box about how to bring complex stories to a wide audience. I am thrilled to team up with them on Risk.
An unfinished version of Risk screened to critical acclaim at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. AFP
HA NOI Hai Phong-based Mai Van Phan has become the second poet from Viet Nam to be honoured with the prestigious Cikada Prize.
Established in 2004, the Cikada Prize is awarded to an East Asian poet who in his/her poems shows poetic sensitivity for the inviolability of life. The prize was founded on the 100th birth anniversary of Swedish Nobel Prize laureate (in literature, 1974) Harry Martinson. The winner gets SEK 20,000 (US$2,200) and a ceramic art piece made by Swedish artist Gunilla Sundstrom.
The Swedish Institute finances the award, which is presented by the Ambassador or Consul General of Sweden in the country where the recipient resides.
The name of the award was inspired by Martinsons anthology of poems Cikada, which was published in 1953. The award is given to East Asian poets as a recognition of the inspiration the Swedish writer found for his own poetry in East Asian literature, and because the rich poetry of these countries deserves better international recognition.
Phan, who was born in 1955 in the northern province of Ninh Binh, is the tenth poet living in East Asia to win this award. He has received many literary awards in Viet Nam, and his poetry has been published in a number of volumes in English and French.
The Vietnamese poet is also represented in international anthologies such as the Swedish Till: Igar-Tolv Vietnamesiska Poeter (Tranan, 2009), translated by Erik Bergqvist.
Later this year, Tranan will publish a special collection of his poetry in Swedish, translated by Erik Bergqvist and Maja Thrane.
Phan, who is thrilled to have won the award, will receive the prize at a ceremony in Ha Noi in November.
I could not imagine that my poetic space, which has strong traditional identity, and my personality allure readers, especially smart judges in the other half of the globe, he told Viet Nam News. I feel happy and now more strongly believe in the process of renovating poetry as well as the role of Vietnamese poetry in the world.
The Cikada Prize jury includes Dr Lars Vargo, chairman of jury, ambassador, writer and chairman of Swedish Haiku Society; Goran Backstrand, former deputy secretary general of Swedish Red Cross and vice-chairman of Harry Martinson Society; and Kaj Falkman, ambassador, poet and writer and chairman of Swedish-Japanese Society.
Phan is among the most interesting poets, and has more than 20 anthologies published, Vargo wrote. His poems are silent and sharp. Behind verses are traditional Asian rhythms that bear modern characteristics. They express daily worries and political incidents in a developing country that is seeing rapid economic growth.
Phan has created a kind of poetry that is similar to slow food... it is impossible to deny modernity in his long poems rather than his short Haiku-style poems. Its better to read all his poems to judge his works diversity, Vargo added.
The award was given to Japans So Sakon (1919-2006) in 2004; Kaneko Tota from Japan in 2005; Ko Un from South Korea in 2006; Shin Kyong-Rim from South Korea in 2007: Moon Chung-hee from South Korea in 2010; Mizuta Noriko from Japan in 2013; Bei Dao from mainland China in 2014; Hoang Thi Y Nhi from Viet Nam in 2015; and Yang Mu from Taiwan in 2016. VNS
HA NOI The start-up frenzy started in Viet Nam around two years ago with the Government calling for more investment in the community and demonstrating political will with several pragmatic actions.
The biggest move was the approval last year of the Supporting the National Innovation Start-up Ecosystem by 2025 scheme, also known as Project 844.
The scheme would pour an estimated VN2 trillion (US$88.8 million) into around 2,000 hi-tech start-ups.
The Ha Noi Peoples Committee officially opened in January the VN7 billion Hanoi Innovative Business Incubator of Information Technology (HBI-IT), while the HCM City Start-up and Innovation Fund (HSIF) was set up last summer. The fund aimed to raise VN100 billion by 2020 to support local businesses founded by any entrepreneur below 35.
Universities did not lag behind, losing no time in establishing start-up centres and encouraging students to take part in entrepreneurship competitions.
The latest report of the General Statistics Office has announced the highest number of newly-established businesses in a quarter over the last six years.
Quarter 1 of 2017 saw 26,478 businesses set up, which means more than 100,000 new firms just this year.
It can be said safely that Viet Nam is on the track to becoming a start-up nation, but this statement needs to be qualified.
Infographic by oan Tung
The root
Duong Van Ba, deputy head of the Student Affairs Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, believes that everything that has happened thus far is just "harvest at the top."
The root of the solution, an ultimate transformation of Vietnamese entrepreneurship via the education system, remains problematic, he said.
The MoET is planning to submit an ambitious plan to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc this month that will try to make sure that the current start-up frenzy does not fade into a disappointing gold-rush.
Duong Van Ba - Deputy Head of Department of Student Affairs, Ministry of Education and Training
The plan, "Supporting student entrepreneurship 2017-2010 with a vision towards 2025", aims at equipping college students with basic knowledge and skills on how to start a business, and more importantly, change the mindset of the students on entrepreneurship.
"Most of the students now think of asking for a job after graduation, not creating the job themselves," said Ba, responsible for drafting the plan.
"This stems from a lack of understanding about entrepreneurship. As long as they (students) get to know what entrepreneurship really means, they will have different ideas."
The interesting part, also one that makes the plan stand out, is that every student regardless of her/his major or which university she/he belongs to have to learn about entrepreneurship. In other words, even medical or journalism students would need to learn some business lessons.
"It is true that medical students would mostly work as doctors post-graduation. But they can also run a business selling medical equipment or a clinic, for example, better then those whove not studied medicine," Ba said.
"We can open a business in any sector. What we need is educated students who have the spirit to do it.
"The ultimate goal of the plan is to make start-up a universal concept, so everyone knows how to start and run a business."
Strong seedlings
Nguyen Trung Dung - CEO of BK Holdings, Ha Noi University of Science and Technology
Nguyen Trung Dung, CEO of BK Holdings - the enterprise network of the Ha Noi University of Science and Technology, which remain the first and only one of its kind in the country that supports college entrepreneurship, said Viet Nam should work on the entrepreneurial mindset of students before providing them the tools like accounting or marketing.
He said students in the US or Europe focus on the application of knowledge to solve real-life situations since junior high school. They are taught using the STEM or STEMA education model, which integrates several subjects together. The first acronym stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics; art and design are added on for the second.
Vietnamese students have to study too much, including unnecessary subjects, Dung said.
"I always wonder why a city student has to learn how to raise pigs, but not more important things like how to manage finances, how to set up a company or how to file for bankruptcy," he said.
The obstacle to having a successful start-up community in Viet Nam was no longer a question of money, Dung said.
The country has so far had several business accelerators or incubators that are likely to further expand in the near future, and investors are still hungry for potential start-ups that they can invest in.
The environment exists, therefore, for start-ups to thrive. The missing link, and the most important factor, is human resource.
"We have a serious shortage ofstrong seedlings. There is no point to nurturing bad seedlings.
"And strong seedlings can only come from good entrepreneurial education."
Infographic by oan Tung
Abolish stigma
Massachusetts-based Babson College, the top US institution on entrepreneurship education, has an interesting way of nurturing young entrepreneurs.
The Babson freshmen, regardless of their majors, are divided into random groups and tasked with starting a business from zero.
"And almost none of them succeed. But we are happy about that because they will learn much more from failures than they ever can from success," said Babson College President Kerry Healey.
Kerry Healey - President of Babson College, United States
In the end, all student businesses are forced to shut down, so they learn how to open, run and close a business essential lessons for future entrepreneurs, because a lot of business ventures are doomed to fail.
"If you know how to do it, you are not scared anymore," Healey said.
"The countries whose cultures have the most problems being entrepreneurial are the ones scared of failure, who find it humiliating to fail or uncomfortable to talk about problems when things do not happen the way you want it to go."
With Confucianism running deep in its veins, there is a deeply ingrained culture of saving face in Viet Nam, a social stigma about failure that the younger generation still cannot escape.
A report last year by the Global Entrepreneurial Monitor (GEM) showed that about 57 per cent of Vietnamese think there are good opportunities to start a business, while 73 per cent consider entrepreneurship a good career choice.
Despite such promising perceptions, more than 45 per cent fear business failure.
"Our belief is that if you were to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to learn how to think and act like one; not simply do the accounting, file the papers or run the business on a daily basis," Healey said.
University funding
Another key part of the new MoET entrepreneurship supporting plan is to encourage universities to set up start-up funds for students in need. Such funds will not be compulsory, said Ba, adding that it would depend on the financial capability of the universities.
The MoET is open to the idea of the universities - most of which are public - partly funding students start-up projects.
Young and poor entrepreneurs are typically afraid of taking loans of hundreds of millions of ong, Ba said.
"We dont expect the universities to financially cover start-up projects 100 per cent. The funding would only act as an accelerator for the business idea," he said.
Ngo Anh Tuan, the 26-year-old CEO of Boardgame Viet Nam, which produces and distributes boardgames across Viet Nam, said that he doubted the efficiency of such funding.
He said he supported the idea that universities should have fund for student start-up activities, but felt the money should be spent to create a platform for students to develop and realise their business ideas on their own.
"Universities can provide books or materials on entrepreneurship, organise talk shows by experienced businessmen, and act as a bridge between the students and investors," he said.
"This would work much better than to give the money directly to the start-ups."
Healey felt that a university should not carry a funding role. She said that it is the Government, she said, which has the responsibility to train entrepreneurs in applying for funding and help financial institutions understand the needs of the entrepreneurs.
Dung agreed that Government should only issue policies and not act as a business investor, especially when taxpayers money will be thrown into start-up ventures that, on average, have a less than three per cent chance of success.
Private enterprises, or investors, should be the ones who will judge which seedling is bad and which is strong, Dung said.
"In case the Government wants to encourage start-ups via investment, it should play matching funds, follow the investment decisions of credible investors," he said.
Singapore is a great model of matching funds, as the Government-private investment ratio stands at 1:1.
"The Government should place its trust in the private investors, not the start-ups," Dung said. VNS
THAI BINH Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on Saturday that business should be the main force in building a new-style agriculture and creating farm produce that meets consumer demand. Phuc, speaking at a conference in the northern province of Thai Binh, said the role of business is especially necessary in areas where the State economy accounts for much of the economic activity.
Speaking to participants of the conference, designed to promote investment in the provinces agriculture, Phuc urged Thai Binh to become a pioneer in getting rich from a smart, organic and clean agriculture. To succeed in agricultural development, it is also necessary to strengthen co-operation between the State, investors, farmers, scientists and banks, he added.
At the conference the biggest-ever held in Thai Binh - the province presented licences to 11 investment projects worth VN2.016 trillion (US$87.65 million), while giving approval to investors to conduct research on 19 hi-tech agricultural product and aquaculture projects worth VN20.925 trillion ($909.7 million). It also handed out investment certificates to three projects for the construction of roads in the build-transfer and build-operate-transfer model, with combined registered capital of VN2.717 trillion ($118.1 million).
With 105,755 hectares of agricultural land and more than 1 million labourers, Thai Binh has become an attractive destination for investors in the agricultural sector, PM Phuc said.
The Prime Minister suggested Thai Binh focus on developing aquatic farming, as well as reform public investment and services so as to encourage the involvement of more businesses and investors in agricultural development.
The Government leader asked the province to boost human resources training, intensify technology application, and invest more in building an agricultural trademark and bettering distribution systems.
Speaking at the conference, the chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee, Nguyen Hong Dien, said local authorities always consider enterprises a driving force of local economic development and pledge to facilitate their operations.
On the same day, PM Phuc visited the Thai Binh 1 Thermoelectric Power Plant and the Northern Low Pressure Gas Distribution Plant in Tien Hai district. He also visited and presented gifts to several beneficiaries of the States welfare services in the districts Tay Luong commune. VNS
National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (L) meets with Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, Jakab Istvan yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo Trong uc
BUDAPEST Viet Nam treasures the help that the people of Hungary have extended to the people of Viet Nam in the struggle for national liberation in the past, and in national construction nowadays, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said in the Hungarian capital yesterday.
Speaking to Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, Jakab Istvan, Ngan emphasised that Hungary had helped train thousands of Vietnamese officials and engineers, many of whom are in top State positions and major roles in Viet Nams economic and social life.
The visit to Hungary by the high-level delegation of the National Assembly is designed to promote the relationship between the two parliaments, contributing to the development of the relationship between the two countries, she said.
Saying that the legal workshop between the two national assemblies scheduled to be held during the vist would be very practical and useful, Ngan invited the Hungarian National Assembly deputy speaker to Viet Nam to organise a workshop and share experiences in the field of agriculture and irrigation of which Istvan is in charge.
The Hungarian deputy speaker noted that a co-operation agreement between the two assemblies was signed in 2008 on the occasion of the official visit to Hungary by the then-National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong, but this was the first conference between the two legislatures.
Hungary has expanded opportunities for Vietnamese students to study by doubling their scholarships, he said.
Expressing his delight at the fact that Vietnamese officials and engineers who were trained in Hungary returned to the country to contribute to socio-economic development, Istvan said that those people were the bridges linking the two countries, and were ambassadors of Hungary to Viet Nam, and vice versa.
Favourable legal environment promised for Swedish investors
Earlier on Friday during her visit to Sweden, Ngan said Viet Nam remained committed to maintaining a favourable legal environment for Swedish investors.
Meeting with leaders of the Ericsson and Sweco groups in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, she also expressed pleasure at the growing relationship between Viet Nam and Sweden in all fields, especially economy, trade and investment.
Sweden is one of Viet Nams important trade partners in Europe with an annual two-way trade of about US$1.2 billion, she said.
She said she wished to see Swedish investment in Viet Nam increase further from the current $93.7 million.
The NA Chairwoman said she was delighted to be visiting the Ericsson Group, which is present in 180 nations worldwide, including Viet Nam. She hoped that the group will expand its investments in Viet Nam.
Ngan told Sweco leaders that Viet Nam pays a lot of attention to areas that the group is strong in, like designing smart cities, construction and wastewater treatment.
Also on Friday, the top Vietnamese legislator paid a courtesy call on Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree, Crown Princess of Sweden.
Before concluding her official visit to Sweden on Saturday, April 8, the NA delegation led by Ngan visited Drottninggatan City to lay a wreath to mourn the death of several people killed in a truck attack on Friday.
Important ASEAN partner
Sweden considers Viet Nam an important partner in Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), State Secretary of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs Annika Soder told Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son on Friday.
Son was part of NA Chairwoman Ngans entourage on her official visit to Sweden.
In talks held by Son and Soder, the latter said he was impressed with Viet Nams achievements in socio-economic development in recent years.
They agreed to further promote exchange of visits for giving further impetus to multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries. They also pledged to work closely and support each others at regional and international forums, especially at the United Nations.
The two leaders affirmd their support for global trade liberalisation, and agreed to work for an expedited signing of the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).
Deputy FM Son applauded Swedens proposal to set up a strategic partnership with Viet Nam in the fields of education and training, science and technology, and healthcare, thus encouraging Swedish firms specialising in these fields to enhance their investments in Viet Nam.
He also called for closer links between ministries and sectors of the two countries to push forward this initiative.
To strengthen ties between the two foreign ministries, they agreed that the first political consultation at deputy ministerial level would be held in Ha Noi by the end of this year.
They also agreed to foster personnel training, and negotiate soon a visa exemption agreement for diplomatic passport holders.
Deputy FM Son called on the Swedish Government to continue supporting the Vietnamese community in the country.
During the meeting, the two sides compared notes on regional and international issues of common concern, including the East Sea issue.
Son congratulated Sweden on its election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2017-18.
Soder said that Sweden will use its position to contribute to maintaining peace, stability and security in the world on the basis of respect for international law. VNS
HCM CITY HCM City Peoples Committee has called on departments of transport, natural resources and environment and district-level Peoples Committees to facilitate the citys first two river bus routes.
The investor, Thuong Nhat Co. Ltd., plans to open the two river bus routes in June.
Chairman of the Peoples Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong asked officials to hand over piers for the investor to use as river bus stations by April 10.
Binh Trieu Pier in Thu uc Districts Hiep Binh Chanh Ward and Vuon Kieng Pier in District 1 have not yet been handed over to the investor.
The committee also approved three more river bus stations in the Thu Thiem urban area, Thu uc Districts Truong Tho Ward and Tan Cang Port.
Two more river bus routes have been approved, including route No.3 from Bach ang Wharf to Mui en o in District 7 and route No.4 from Bach ang Wharf to Phu My Hung in District 7.
The committee approved proposed ticket fares of VN15,000 (US$0.7) per person.
By 2020, the investor will supply 10 boats that can accommodate 60 people on the two routes.
The project, built under a BOO (Build-Own-Operate) model, will cost a total of VN125 billion (US$5.53 million).
The first 11-kilometre route from Bach ang Wharf in District 1 to Linh ong Ward in Thu uc District will have seven bus stations.
The second route, 10.3 kilometres from Bach ang Wharf to Lo Gom Port in District 6, will also include seven stops.
As operated, the river bus routes will link with overland bus routes, making it convenient for passengers to travel around the city.
The river buses are expected to reduce road traffic pressure as well as boost river tourism in the city. VNS
WATERLOO Hailey Muller and Logan Lashbrook sat on the floor, beating a steady rhythm on a small drum as their classmates formed a circle and closely watched Molly Scullins feet.
Toe-heel, toe-heel, the Grout Museum assistant said. Thats right, now keep moving in the circle, as the Janesville third graders followed her lead and danced around the room. In the background, a video recording of a Meskwaki Pow Wow dance played.
It was Day 1 of the Museum School at the Grout Museum of History and Science, and the 18 students had already been immersed in fossils. Now they were learning about Iowas Native American heritage. At one point they passed around a heavily beaded moccasin.
After lunch, they could shake hands with one of Waterloos first pioneers, Mary Hanna, and hear about how pioneers settled the Cedar Valley. They also churned butter.
We try to make it as hands-on and interactive as possible. For example, we take them through the types of mills that used to be along the Cedar River, and theyll actually grind some corn and make little Johnny cakes. They love those and theyll use their homemade butter to spread on the cakes, said Science Educator Jordan Walker.
Between 1,500 and 1,700 Black Hawk County children attend the Grouts Museum School each year. The week-long experience introduces students to city, county and state history beginning with fossils and ending at World War II.
He believes the experience teaches students to respect and feel proud of their community. And its something most kids wouldnt get to do otherwise, to learn informally and outside the structure of a classroom.
Activities include visiting facilities in the Grout Museum District, such as the Rensselaer Russell House and the Imaginarium. They also participate in a simulated one-room schoolhouse and a virtual road trip around Waterloo.
Whats most popular depends on the group. Kids like all the levers and pulleys and simple machines at the Imaginarium, and they each get to make their own incline plane.
Students receive a guided tour of the Iowa Veterans Museum, including the Sullivan Brothers Exhibit. They also have a chance to do a little exploring on their own, try the interactive exhibits and climb in and out of the tank thats on display, Walker said.
Ultimately, the Museum School is an immersive experience in the history of Black Hawk County, Walker added.
Theyre learning history, interacting with history. What better way to learn about your communitys history than diving right in?
The Museum School continues April 17-21 and April 24-28 with other schools from Waterloo and surrounding towns.
WATERLOO Columbus High Schools library is getting a $130,000 makeover.
Renovations will begin with updating paint, carpet, ceiling tiles, doors, signage and books on the shelves. But the remodeling effort will go further, changing how students use the second-floor space.
Once work is completed, it will be referred to as a media center with a large portion of the room dedicated to a newly created maker space. The area will be outfitted with equipment allowing students to do a wide variety of hands-on activities. A collaborative learning space will be created in an adjacent room accessible from the library.
It will be a place that students will want to come and utilize, said Principal Aaron Ferrie. Were definitely excited for this. Its going to be a wonderful transformation.
The media center will be outfitted with improved seating, tables and other work spaces that are more comfortable and functional than current furniture.
Really, when were done, I think this will be a premier spot for our students to come, said Ann Schmitz, the schools technology coordinator.
Cedar Valley Catholic Schools Board of Education heard a presentation on the project March 23.
What they approved was for us to move forward with the fundraising, said Sarah Smith, the school systems advancement director. Weve started having conversations, but active fundraising will start right after Easter.
Various grant possibilities are being looked at, particularly for the maker space. Officials also will seek contributions from individuals and donor-advised funds at the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa.
Remodeling would begin after fundraising is wrapped up in May. With work scheduled to be completed before school starts in the fall, a grand opening is planned for Aug. 20.
Smith noted maker spaces are often geared towards people interested in subjects like engineering and robotics, but much more than that will be possible under the plan. Equipment such as a 3-D printer, sewing machines, design software, circuit boards, engraving tools, hot glue guns and more will be featured. Electrical upgrades will ensure the media center can handle all the new equipment.
It will be high-tech and no tech, said Smith. Students will be encouraged to explore what is possible with the equipment. So, really, they can create whatever their imagination comes up with.
The collaborative learning space will be a place for groups of students and classes to work or for parents to meet. Work stations will be equipped with Apple TVs students can mirror to their school-issued iPad computer tablets or other internet-connected devices.
The room was once used to host business classes and a computer lab, but its not overly utiliized now, said Ferrie.
Plans also include improvements to whats known as the green screen room across the hall from the library. A green screen students can film in front of and a backdrop for photographs are already set up in the room. A class is designing a larger green screen, which allows for the addition of a backdrop after filming.
The space can be used for filmmaking needs related to student movies, newscasts and other school projects. Columbus has already purchased 40 licenses for iPad computer applications. A planned Photoshop class is one example of uses for the green screen.
Preparations for the renovations are getting underway now. Some of the shelves lining the perimeter of the library had already been emptied of books earlier this week.
Were starting to box up all of our books, said Ferrie. The books that were not keeping are still on the shelves.
Eighty percent of the current collection is being donated to second-hand shops, he added, with the school holding onto the newest and most relevant books.
The two long walls (of the library) were all nonfiction, said Smith, books intended for student research. But most of those are now 20 years old. Columbus students do much of their research on the internet using iPads.
Thats not to suggest books wont still be important in the new media center.
Well be adding to our books, as well, said Schmitz. Input has been sought from students and staff on what to include. The school hopes to add 150 new books to its collection each year.
WATERLOO After Judge Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Courts ninth justice Monday, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, praised the process that led to his confirmation.
Ernst spoke at the Waterloo Rotary on Monday afternoon. She highlighted her enjoyment of working alongside fellow Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley.
I value him a lot. The U.S. Senate values him a lot. ... As we were going through the Judge Neil Gorsuch confirmation process, Senator Grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee, and he ushered all of that through flawlessly, Ernst said.
She said Grassleys efforts to confirm Gorsuch earned accolades, not just from Republicans but from Democrats.
That process included the first use of the so-called nuclear option to do away with the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, lowering the threshold to cut off debate in the Senate to 51 votes instead of 60.
Ernst said she did not share the concerns of other senators about its deployment.
Longtime U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for example, said it was not good for the U.S. Senate to change the rules, though he ultimately voted for the move.
Why Courts Matter Iowa, a coalition that works to ensure the federal judiciary is representative of America, likewise criticized the rule change: The so-called nuclear option completes the partisan hatchet job on the independence of the judiciary that began last year when Grassley and Republicans engaged in unprecedented obstruction of Merrick Garlands nomination.
But Ernst said the rule change made sense as Gorsuch is eminently qualified and earned bipartisan support.
It became very political, and we wanted to make sure that somebody who is so well-qualified and actually was granted the highest qualification rating from the (American Bar Association) was confirmed to the Supreme Court, Ernst said.
She said Democrats had previously changed the rules for lower judicial appointments. She recognizes the door is open to confirm judicial nominees with just 51 votes.
She said she did not see it as a slippery slope to changing the rules on regular legislation.
Ernst stressed the bipartisan support for Gorsuch.
The Senate voted 54-45 to confirm Gorsuch Friday, with all 51 Republicans and three Democrats voting in favor and 46 Democrats and two independents who caucus with them voting against. One Republican did not vote.
Ernst also downplayed the divisiveness in the U.S. Senate. While she acknowledged some challenges, she said the split between Republicans and Democrats is played up in the media.
She said she tries to work across party lines where possible.
Ernst pointed to her relationship with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., as an example of someone she doesnt always agree with but has a good relationship with.
She said the pair have literally baked bread together, and they have found common ground on some legislation, including a bill this month to combat sexual assault on college campuses.
Im looking for good pieces of legislation that have a lot of buy-in from not just Republicans but Democrats as well, Ernst said. If you want a bill to move forward, not only in the Senate but in the House, you need to be working together and this is one way to show that we are really working together, and were getting ideas from different types of populations and finding solutions together. Thats leadership.
DES MOINES Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has granted, on average, fewer pardons than any Iowa governor dating to the late-1940s.
His record of granting reduced jail sentences is similarly stingy.
A bureau review of Iowa gubernatorial records going back to 1949 a span covering 11 administrations shows Governor Branstad, since his return to office in 2011, granted fewer pardons than any other Iowa governor during that same time span.
Branstad is closer to the middle of that pack for granting commutations, or reduced sentences, since 2011. However, remove the roughly three dozen commutations that were the direct result of a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that negated lifetime sentences for juveniles, and Branstad once again drops to the fewest granted since 1949.
A pardon forgives an individual for a crime committed and restores lost rights.
A commutation reduces an individuals sentence and makes him or her eligible for parole.
Ive always tried to be very thoughtful and very judicious in making these decisions. The governor is given the extraordinary power of being able to grant pardons, said Branstad, a Republican who was a lawyer before being elected to public office in 1972.
Branstad has approved just more than four pardons per year, on average, since 2011.
Not only is that the lowest average of any governor since 1949, it is dramatically lower than the averages posted by Branstads two immediate predecessors, both of whom were Democrats.
Chet Culver, who governed Iowa from 2007 to 2010, approved an average of nearly 24 pardons per year, six times as many as Branstad. Tom Vilsack, who led Iowa for two terms from 1999 to 2006, approved more than 12 pardons per year.
Even Gov. Robert Ray, a Republican under whom Branstad served as lieutenant governor, granted nearly a dozen pardons per year on average, or three times as many as Branstad.
Branstad appears to be slightly stricter even than his previous self: he approved an annual average of seven pardons during his first stint as governor, from 1983 to 1999.
Branstad said he believes a governors power to pardon should be used sparingly. In addition to the normal application process, he requires a face-to-face interview with the applicant.
I believe a pardon, which is an extraordinary power, which basically eliminates that conviction from their record, should only be granted if youre very confident this person is an exemplary citizen who has given back and helped other people in substantial ways, Branstad said. So, I have required a personal interview. I want to be able to look them straight in the eye. I want to feel confident that theyre never going to commit another crime, that theyre never going to embarrass me or the people of the state of Iowa.
Branstad is even less a fan of commutations.
During his first, 16-year term in office, he approved just two reduced sentences. In his second, six-year stint, he has approved 39 commutations, but 38 of those were in direct response to that U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Take those out, and Branstad, during 22 years in office, has approved three reduced sentences.
Branstads rare commutations are not as strikingly different from his predecessors as were his pardons. Culver granted no commutations during his four years in office; Vilsack granted seven during his eight years; Ray granted an average of just two per year during his 14 years in office.
The Iowa governors with the highest rates of commutations held office during the 1950s. Leo Hoegh granted 30 in two years, and Herschel C. Loveless averaged 12 per year during his one term.
When pardons and commutations are combined and averaged, Branstads separate tenures account for two of the three lowest among all Iowa governors since 1949. If those commutations that were the unique result of that U.S. Supreme Court ruling are removed, Branstads tenures are the two lowest.
Branstad has received nearly 400 requests for pardons since 2011 and approved 26. He has received almost 90 requests for commutations and granted 39.
Branstad said the application process for pardons and commutations is thorough and defended his rare approvals as having public safety in mind.
We go through a very extensive process. We do an extensive (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation) background investigation, it has to go before the parole board before it ever comes to me, Branstad said. The good news is weve not had the tragedies that have occurred in some other states where governors havent been as careful or judicious and people that they pardoned have then committed other serious crimes.
WAVERLY Mayor Charles Infelt said he would be open to having an atheist organizer give a secular invocation at a future Waverly City Council meeting.
Infelt called The Courier recently to clarify the comments he made in response to Justin Scotts questions at a recent council meeting asking if an atheist could give the official prayer that is done by Infelt at the beginning of each meeting.
Scott organizes an activist group, Eastern Iowa Atheists, and previously requested and did a similar secular invocation at a Waterloo City Council meeting last year.
Infelt stood by his original statement about his prayer being theistic and not specific to one religion, but said that wasnt meant to suggest Scott couldnt give an invocation.
I didnt say (Scott) couldnt do something, Infelt said. Im more than open. ... Hes more than welcome. I was taking affront to his critique of me.
In a phone conversation Saturday, Infelt began by saying he still felt his prayer was open to all because hes never invoked Christs name and Scott can just meditate. ... He can just appreciate whats being said without having a theistic anchor to it.
But later in the conversation he seemed to revise his stance, saying Scott or another atheist from Waverly would perhaps be able to deliver an invocation.
In the opening, when we have the public comments, I was thinking he would be sure welcome to do it at that time, Infelt said, before noting it might be possible we could do it during a regular invocation.
He said he hasnt contacted Scott, and Scott hasnt contacted him since the contentious meeting.
I wasnt saying he wasnt welcome, Infelt said. Atheists are wonderful people and they do wonderful things, and theyre certainly welcome.
Scott said Saturday he was pleased to hear of his change of heart, but he still wanted Infelt to apologize publicly for comments that atheists should essentially sit back and be quiet during mayor-led Christian prayers.
Does he understand how offensive it was and how it perpetuated bigotry against atheists by demanding that atheists deliver their statements only during the public comment section? Scott asked.
He said he had more questions about the manner in which an atheist would be allowed to give the invocation, but did not specify whether he would reach out to Infelt on the matter.
WATERLOO KWWL moved quickly in finding a replacement for evening news anchor Amanda Goodman.
On Monday, the Waterloo NBC affiliate named Abby Turpin to replace Goodman and join Ron Steele in June as co-anchor of KWWL News at Five, Six and Ten.
Turpin, a native from Grove City, Ohio, was most recently the main anchor at RFD-TV, a nationwide agricultural cable network for two years. Prior to RFD, Turpin anchored and produced for multiple stations across the country, including KOLN in Lincoln, Neb., and WNWO in Toledo, Ohio.
Two weeks ago, Goodman announced on the air that she was pregnant with her fourth child and stepping down as anchor. Steele, who was on medical leave after heart surgery, returned to the lineup last week. Goodman will leave the station at the end of May.
Turpin and her husband, Travis, are the parents of a baby girl born last September.
WATERLOO The Pony Express Riders are getting ready for their 50th trek to Des Moines starting Friday.
The group of horsemen annually coordinates 12 rides across the state that start Good Friday and come together in Des Moines on Saturday. The trek helps raise funds for Easter Seals Camp Sunnyside, a Des Moines organization that provides services to people with disabilities.
An eastern Iowa ride will start in Decorah on Friday morning. The riders will participate in a parade from Evansdale to Waterloo City Hall at about 3 p.m. Friday.
The parade route will be along Lafayette Road from the city limits of Evansdale and Waterloo to Sixth Street near the Black Hawk County Courthouse in Waterloo, where it will turn onto Mulberry Street for a short ceremony in front of Waterloo City Hall.
Organizers will collect funds from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the corner of Lafayette and Evans Road in Evansdale, which is where the parade will begin.
About 12 to 15 horses with riders are expected to participate in the ride.
From Waterloo, the riders will travel to Hudson, where they will spend the night. The riders will reach Camp Sunnyside in Des Moines on Saturday afternoon.
During its 50 years, its estimated the riders have raised $10 million for the camp, according to Pony Express Riders Black Hawk County coordinator Darrell Ludwig. Ludwig estimates the riders raise about $300,000 each year.
About 10,000 riders across the state make the 12 rides possible.
More information about the event is available at www.ponyexpressridersofiowa.org.
WAVERLY -- Waverly Police said Scott Barnhouse, 23, missing since Friday, has been found safe.
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WAVERLY Police are searching for a man last seen Friday in Waverly.
Scott Barnhouse, 23, is described as a white male with hazel eyes, sandy brown curly hair who wears glasses.
He is 510 and around 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white sweatshirt, jeans and cowboy boots. He drives a 2001 Buick Park Avenue with Nebraska license plates 13K225.
According to police, his family believes Branhouse may harm himself.
Anyone having information about Barnhouses whereabouts is asked to call the Waverly Police Department at 352-5400.
GASTON, N.C. Druid Daniel Scott Holbrook, also known as Cu Meala, pleaded no contest last week to the charge of the dissemination of obscenities. Holbrook was arrested last fall after police allegedly found nude photos of children on his computer. After several dates were postponed due to schedule conflicts, Holbrook saw his day in court Apr. 4.
Since the arrest, Holbrook has always maintained his innocence publicly, saying that the photos were placed there by a downloaded BitTorrent. As he explains, he and his family were attempting to download a movie and the photos were hidden in that file. We will have more on the story, including an interview with Mr. Holbrook, and responses from the local Pagan community.
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PALM BEACH, Fla. The Pagan Environmental Alliance, based in south Florida, is currently being harassed on Facebook. The group launched an event page for their upcoming public full moon gathering to be held at Bingham Island. Within a few days of the page being up, locals came with both a clear political and religious message. Bingham Island is Trump street. Not some witch protest gathering place for some loonies. We are Christians and Jews and not some devil worshipers.
Concerns have since been raised as to the safety of the event, but organizer Dayan Martinez said that it will be held and be safe. In a statement, Martinez told The Wild Hunt, I want the Pagan community to understand there is support and community here for them. Nationally, there is Lady Liberty League and locally we have the South Florida Pagan Support Services. I remain undeterred and will continue to practice my religion openly and truthfully, without fear.
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VICTORIA, Aus. Robin Fletcher, convicted sex offender, has reportedly moved into a home only 100 metres from a primary school. As we reported, Fletcher was convicted in 1998 of multiple counts of sex crimes. He was recently released from his mandated supervision, and allowed back into the general community.
Local Pagans expressed their concern immediately upon hearing the news of his pending release. At the time, David Garland said, It has been a constant battle over the almost 20 years that I have been dealing with the media over his claims, disputing them at every turn. Local Pagans continue to watch because Fletcher has never disavowed his Pagan identity.
However, it is also being reported that Fletcher has joined the Alphington Backyard church, and the pastor reportedly told the local news, He comes to our service every Sunday, and teaches theology once a month to the people interested. Hes a highly intellectual and intelligent man and he has certificates in every religion on earth.
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SOUTH AFRICA Pagans joined the Peoples March held Apr. 7 throughout country to protest against the countrys president Jacob Zuma. According to Penton Independent Alternative Media, a group of organizations are calling for his resignation due to a shameful legacy of unfettered corruption, illegality and ineptitude, and now confirmed allegations of attempts to capture undue state influence, aided and abetted by Zuma, by an identified family for personal profit.
Pagans joined the protest in support. In its article Penton includes a number of personal reactions to this national action. Writer Damon Leff said, The true value of Fridays public protest lies in the free expression of the will of citizens emboldened to stand against a government that has demonstrated a lack of public accountability and good governance. The peoples march wont unseat the president, but it will demonstrate that citizens do not approve of the way in which the African National Congress and its president is governing South Africa.
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Wheless Partners was chosen by the Board for its track record of success, having led multiple System Chancellor and President searches in Texas and across the country.
DALLAS, TX, April 10, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The University of North Texas System Board of Regents announced that it has selected the national executive search and leadership consulting firm, Wheless Partners, to lead its search for a new Chancellor. Earlier this month, current UNTS Chancellor Lee F. Jackson announced his retirement plans, effective sometime after his contract expires on August 31, 2017.
Wheless Partners was chosen by the Board for its track record of success, having led multiple University System CEO and President searches, including those conducted in the state of Texas over the last several years for institutions such as Texas Tech University System and The University of Texas System.
Mike JR Wheless, Division President, who has led multiple Chancellor and President searches across the country, including the System Chancellor searches for both The University of Texas System and Texas Tech University System, and Scott Watson, Chief Corporate Officer, who has led more than a dozen senior level searches on behalf of the University of North Texas, will serve as lead consultants to the UNT Board of Regents.
Expert advisors Dr. Robert Witt, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Alabama; Dr. John Rudley, who has served as interim Chancellor and President at the University of Houston System as well as former President of Texas Southern University, one of the nation's largest HBCU's; Lisa J. Marks, former CEO with an international nonprofit, who has led some of the largest academic and non-profit initiatives in the country; and Dr. Kiko Suarez, former innovation executive with Lumina Foundation, whose mission is to raise the percentage of Americans with quality post secondary credentials, are among the firm's higher education practice team.
Nominations and applications are encouraged and should be directed to Wheless Partners at [email protected].
ABOUT THE UNT SYSTEM
Boosting the Texas economy by nearly $5.2 billion each year, The University of North Texas System (UNT System or UNTS) includes the University of North Texas in Denton (UNT), the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) in Fort Worth and the University of North Texas at Dallas (UNTD). The UNT System Administration is based in Downtown Dallas. The UNT System also provides high-quality, innovative, and affordable legal education in downtown Dallas at the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law.
The three independent universities of the UNT System have combined enrollment of just over 42,000 students across five major teaching locations, including each main campus, as well as Frisco and Downtown Dallas. The UNT System has a $1.2 billion annual consolidated budget, employs roughly 10,000 people at its various locations within the rapidly growing North Texas region.
UNT System component institutions, responding to demand in the region and the state, are among Texas's fastest growing institutions of higher education. In Fall 2016, 43,384 students enrolled at UNT System institutions - a 56 percent increase from Fall 2000. By 2020, enrollment at UNT System institutions is projected to increase to more than 48,000 students. Over the past decade, the number of degrees awarded each year has increased 49 percent to 9,243 in 2015.
ABOUT WHELESS PARTNERS
Founded in 1986, Wheless Partners is one of the nation's largest executive search firms with associates based in major cities including New York, Houston, Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Denver, Phoenix, Indianapolis and Minneapolis.
As a retained search firm with over 30 years of experience, Wheless Partners serve clients in multiple industry sectors - academia being one of the largest practices within the firm.
Firm partners develop long-term, strategic partnerships with clients--over 75% of the firm's engagements come from existing clients.
Wheless Partners provides an array of services including executive search, leadership consulting, succession planning, and board practice & recruitment and have served global Fortune 500 companies, mid-size enterprises, leading public and private institutions, investment portfolio companies, not-for-profit foundations and smaller entrepreneurial startups across multiple industry sectors and functions.
Find out more by visiting www.WhelessPartners.com or Call Toll Free: + 1 800-448-0926 or Send Us an Email: [email protected]
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Apr 10, 2017 | By Tess
The European Defence Agency (EDA) is launching a project to explore the impact that 3D printing technology could have on the defense industry. For the project, entitled Additive Manufacturing Feasibility Study & Technology Demonstration, the EDA has commissioned Fundacion Prodintec, a Spain-based technology center, and MBDA FR, a European missile manufacturer.
According to the EDA, its investigation, which is expected to have results by December 2017, will address the entire spectrum of European defence and Additive Manufacturing (AM) stakeholders, at all level of defence and AM supply chains. 3D printing technologies are expected to impact and enhance defense capabilities, notably through the increase of mobility, sustainability, and effect and protection.
The EDA has broken down its project into three main objectives. The first will consist of a desktop study that will situate additive manufacturing technologies within the specific context of defense, with the goal of identifying opportunities for the technology as well as challenges and factors that are currently limiting 3D printings integration and proliferation within the European defense system.
The second objective will include a tech demonstration of 3D printing, which will entail a simulated deployment scenario using additive manufacturing. The goal of this section, if it isnt obvious, is to show how and to what degree 3D printing could be used and deployed to support certain military operations.
The third and final part of the AM project will take place once the first two are complete and will consist of presenting and exhibiting the results and conclusions from the study. The exhibition is expected to showcase 3D printing equipment, as well as objects and materials made using the technology. The stated goal of this final stage in the project is to promote 3D printing for defense, and to raise military awareness of the technologies, specifically in the areas of operations, logistic support, and platform maintenance.
In addition to the main parts of the project, the EDA has also launched a consultation process, which is inviting competent stakeholders (including Member States MoDs, the European Commission, the European Space Agency, AM related stakeholders, etc.) to participate in questionnaires and interviews about additive manufacturing technologies. The questionnaire, which is found online, is open until April 30, 2017.
Overall, the EDAs study is hoping to highlight and raise awareness about the impact 3D printing technologies could have on Europes defense industry with the goal of increasing the integration of AM for defense applications. As the EDA states on its website, the project will not only help to inform the research and technology (R&T) community on 3D printings potentials, but will create a synergy between the Materials R&T community and the operational staff, helping the R&T community to understand the requirements from the operational side.
As mentioned, the additive manufacturing project is being undertaken in partnership with Fundacion Prodintec and MBDA FR, and is expected to release its results by the end of the year. The project was first mentioned at the EDAs kick-off meeting in December 2016.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Laura had heard the cliche about the primary caregiver of an aging parent who is ignored by neglectful siblings. She just sometimes wished it were true for her. In the excitable and opinionated family of seven in which she grew up, everyone needed to have their say on everything. Little wonder, then, that her siblings now constantly questioned whatever decisions she made for their 88-year-old Italian American mother. Whether it was scheduling medical appointments or home health aides, no caregiving choice appeared too insignificant for them to debate with her and each other. She didnt begrudge them the right to speak their minds; this was their mother, too. But she grew defensive and weary with the frequent arguments.
This is the downside of caregiving teams. Lone caregivers without family support may be at high risk for burnout. The more relatives who are involved in caregiving, though, the greater the likelihood of conflicts and power struggles. These family members may roughly jostle with one another for control over decision-making, thereby damaging their relationships for years to come. But it is the care recipient who suffers the most, feeling distressed and guilty that tasks relating to her health have resulted in skirmishes among her loved ones.
Adult siblings may be most prone to this kind of infighting. They often have early histories of rivalries and mutual clashes. To be dutiful advocates for a beloved parent, they may feel compelled to beat their chests and trumpet their views. That was the case in Lauras family. She and her siblings were deeply invested in their mothers care but competed to control it. In fighting for the best means to help her, they sometimes hurt one another.
AARP Care Guide: Help for common caregiving conflicts
How can squabbling siblings learn to pull together in one direction and improve their collective performance as a caregiving team? Here are some ideas.
First, work toward a common vision. Psychologist Eduardo Salas, noted for his research on teamwork, has identified seven key team components, none more important than a shared mental model of what should be done. For caregiving siblings, that means having a clear sense of an aging parents remaining strengths and growing weaknesses in order to define the challenges at hand. Thats the only way to know what types of assistance really would be helpful. Next, siblings should create a useful caregiving plan. When they disagree about a parents capabilities, they too often become polarized and reach a stalemate (He can drive! versus He cant drive!; She has dementia! versus Shes fine!).
En espanol | The White House and some members of the House of Representatives are trying to revive the health care bill that was pulled from a vote on the House floor late last month in the face of widespread opposition.
The legislation, called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), was roundly condemned after projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and others said it would lead to a loss of coverage for 24 million Americans over the next decade, drive up premiums dramatically for people ages 50 to 64, weaken Medicare, and give tax breaks to the tune of $200 billion to insurance companies, drugmakers and other industries.
Recent efforts to win over opponents of the bill in the House have included a proposal to allow insurance companies to deny coverage or charge thousands more for people with preexisting health conditions. Barring that discrimination is a centerpiece of the current law, the Affordable Care Act.
Green-lighting discrimination against those with preexisting conditions would have enormous consequences.
AARPs Public Policy Institute reports that 25 million people ages 50 to 64 have a preexisting condition, like cancer, heart disease or high blood pressure, for which they could be turned down for coverage on the individual market if discrimination against them were once again permitted. This could mean, for example, denying lifesaving treatments like chemotherapy and dialysis.
The 25 million total represents 40 percent of Americans who are 50 to 64. In eight states Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia the percentage of 50- to 64-year-olds with preexisting conditions ranges from 45 to 52 percent.
Even before this threat to people with preexisting conditions, the bill would have dealt a punishing financial blow to older Americans. AARPs Public Policy Institute found that the AHCA would raise premiums on Americans 50-64 by thousands of dollars a year.
The AHCA would allow insurance companies to charge older Americans five times the amount they charge others for the same coverage. At the same time, it would reduce the tax credit that helps low- and middle-income Americans afford health insurance. Together, these provisions add up to an unfair age tax that could cost older Americans up to $13,000 per year, according to AARP.
Targeting people with preexisting conditions makes a bad bill much worse, in AARPs view.
Watch part two of the update on the new Health Care Bill below.
South Dakota gubernatorial candidates hold rallies ahead of Election Day
Throughout campaign rallies in the final week before Election Day, Gov. Kristi Noem and Rep. Jamie Smith spoke to their base and encouraged others to get out the vote.
Lithium Titanate Battery: New downstream market for TiO2 in China is rising
China is witnessing a growing market of lithium titanate batteries, driven by investments in leading Chinese manufacturers in the TiO2 and battery industry. As a promising sector in the booming li-ion battery industry in general, there is a potential for this new high-end market for Chinas TiO2 industry.
Lithium-ion batteries are facing a boosting demand nowadays, due to rising interest in new energy vehicles and electronic devices. The main raw materials for producing lithium batteries is besides cathode materials, separators, and electrolyte, anode materials. To be more specific, anode materials are accounting for about 5% to 15% of costs for lithium batteries. Furthermore, the manufacturing of the anode materials is highly concentrated in Japan and China, due to technologically advantages in Japan and raw material cost advantages in China. Hence, these two Asian countries are sharing a market share of 95% worldwide.
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One of the raw materials, that can be used to build li-ion batteries is titanium. The resulting lithium titanate batteries are attributed with a fast recharging ability under the cost of losing inherent voltage, compared to other kinds of li-ion batteries.
This new emerging high-end market in China offers a huge opportunity for TiO2 suppliers, besides the traditional coating industry.
Rising market trend
One unmistakable sign to back up the growing trend of lithium titanate batteries in China can be found in the actions of Chinas TiO2 manufacturers. To start with the far biggest supplier of TiO2, Lomon Billions, the company has already shown investments into the lithium titanate battery industry in July 2016 by strengthening the cooperation with Allightec, a company from Taiwan dealing with advanced graphene powder mass production techniques.
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The fields of cooperation between these two companies comprise Functional TiO2 (including but not limited to photocatalytic TiO2, electroconductive TiO2 and thermoconductive TiO2), functional zirconium structural members, microwave absorbing coating materials with aerospace applications, and function modification of lithium titanate.
Other Chinese li-ion battery manufacturers, which showed investments in the production of lithium titanate batteries, are Beijing WKW Automotive Parts and HK Battery Technology. In addition to that, CITIC Guoan MGL and BTR Energy have both expanded their lithium titanate capacity.
The promising investments of Chinas manufacturers result of the great potential in energy storage cells markets. The benefits of energy storage cells, compared to traditional batteries, lays in the long-life duration, lower production costs, and a safe use. Lithium titanate batteries are able to last up to 30 years, which is about fourth times the duration of phosphoric acid iron batteries.
Lithium titanate battery
Lithium-Titanate is a more radical design that replaces the graphite in the anode with titanate material. The advantages of this anode material lays in the tremendously large surface area of its nano crystals, which can reach up to 100 square meters per gramme, compared to 3 square meters of standard carbon anodes. This structure enables the very fast charge and recharges abilities of this material.
Other benefits can be found in the long-life duration and the low-temperature discharge characteristics. These safety reasons are especially important in the industry uses for energy storage.
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The main disadvantage of lithium titanate batteries consists in the low voltage capability and the resulting lower energy density.
The current use of these batteries is mainly in electric vehicles and energy storage. The fast charging capability makes this battery to a preferred energy supplier for electric buses, which can even charge at passenger pick-up stops. The high safety guarantee also increases the use in mobile phones and medical devices.
Notably, lithium titanate batteries at present account for approximately 5% of the market share of batteries used for new energy vehicles. Looking at the area of passenger vehicles, the share has reached 3% with other non-dominant batteries. In China, domestic use of lithium titanate batteries is just in the beginning. However, the future of this industry is depending on several factors including technological development, state policies and consumption changes of the new energy vehicle in China.
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North American stock markets ended lower Monday as traders were nervous ahead of the upcoming earnings season and possible U.S. debt ceiling stalemate. The TSX fell 41 points to 12,499, while the Venture exchange was off four points at 1,223.
Gold stocks led the TSX lower as gold prices eased $2.60 to US$1,646.30, while the price of silver climbed 23 cents to $30.18.
PDAC 2017 Convention Exceeds Expectations
Toronto, April 10, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) , the leading voice of the mineral exploration and development community, hosted its annual PDAC International Convention on the 5th - 8th of March 2017. The world's largest industry event saw an increase in attendance this year, attracting over 24,161 attendees and raising its international attendance to 26%.
Outside of Canadian registrants, the largest number of attendees came from; the USA, Australia, Peru, United Kingdom, Brazil, China, Argentina, Germany, South Africa and Finland.
In line with its strategic plan to build stronger partnerships with Aboriginal communities, PDAC 2017 saw the attendance of over 500 self-identified aboriginals. PDAC 2017 also saw the attendance of 130 countries and approximately 1,256 students. For more PDAC 2017 statistics, please visit: http://www.abnnewswire.net/lnk/Z400JMWN
PDAC provided a fully packed center, offering attendees a wide variety of educational and investment based opportunities, provided Technical Sessions and Short Courses and delivered 472 speakers throughout the program.
"PDAC is an amazing networking opportunity, PDAC Convention is where the world's minerals industry and finance industry meets. You keep those bonds, you keep those friendships, you keep those networks throughout your entire career... PDAC brings people together so that they can learn from each other, they can form their networks at the highest level and ultimately, for the betterment of the industry and the countries and nations of which we operate " Andrew Cheatle, Executive Director - Prospectors & Developers Association Canada.
PDAC 2018 Convention
Save the date! PDAC 2018 will be held on 4th-7th March in Toronto, Canada.
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Diamond and Platinum Sponsors included;
Teck Resources Limited ( TSE:TECK.A ) ( NYSE:TECK )
Barrick Gold Corp ( TSE:ABX ) ( NYSE:ABX )
Goldcorp Inc ( TSE:G ) ( NYSE:GG ).
About PDAC
The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is the leading voice of the mineral exploration and development community, an industry that supports 719,000 people in direct and indirect employment, and contributes $106 billion to Canada's GDP every year. Representing over 6,000 members around the world, PDAC's work centers on supporting a competitive, responsible, and sustainable mineral sector.
BAE Systems and the Estonian government have signed contracts to maintain and sustain the country's fleet of CV9035 Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs).
Above: CV90 in the National Day Parade in Tallinn, Estonia, on 24th February 2017.
Courtesy Estonian Defence Forces
The long-term agreements cover configuration management for new IFV capabilities, as well as maintenance, repairs, and spare parts. The contracts between the Estonian Centre for Defence Investment (ECDI) and BAE Systems cover 44 CV9035 vehicles acquired from the Netherlands in 2014.
The armoured maneuvering capability program is one of the most important capability development projects of the last decade in Estonia, which will increase the combat capability of Estonian Defence Forces remarkably, said Margus Padjus, project manager of the Procurement Department at ECDI.
The CV9035 Infantry Fighting Vehicles that the Estonian Ministry of Defence bought from the Netherlands was the first step in this project. To ensure utilisation of the vehicles would be as efficient as possible, ECDI entered into the long-lasting life-cycle support contract with BAE Systems Hagglunds. I am convinced that our CV90s will be professionally and reliably supported by BAE Systems Hagglunds.
Estonia is one of seven nations, including four NATO allies, operating more than 1,200 CV90s. The CV90 is a leading, adaptable and combat proven vehicle.
We welcome Estonia to the family of nations who rely on the CV90 for critical ground combat capability, said Tommy Gustafsson-Rask, general manager of BAE Systems Hagglunds. We are fully committed to supporting Estonia and ensuring this new capability and cost-efficient solution will be effectively integrated in a manner consistent with other NATO users.
Aviation engineering and maintenance software provider, Commsoft, has announced that Cronos Airlines International's AMO (CAI Aerospace) has become the latest member of the worldwide OASES community and is the company's first active customer in South Africa.
The Cronos family was founded in 2007 with scheduled passenger carrier Cronos Airlines (IATA: C8, ICAO: CRA), based in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Since then, it has transported more than two million passengers throughout its network linking West and Central Africa. In 2012, sister company Cronos Airlines International became a South African licensed AOC and AMO based at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Its AMO operation (known as CAI Aerospace) performs all maintenance, including C-checks for its fleet of Embraer ERJ-135/145s as well as a BAe 146-200. Its capabilities also include VIP aircraft and a Boeing 737 Classic/NG. Another sister company, AviaSeven (an EASA Part 145 and Part M CAMO located in Athens, Greece) is an existing Commsoft client already supported by OASES under a CAMO contract.
A best-of-breed MRO IT system, OASES offers an industry-leading technical sophistication whilst being intuitively user-friendly. To allow for scalability, OASES is structured in a modular format and CAI Aerospace has introduced the Production, Line Maintenance, Materials and Commercial modules in addition to the existing modules currently being used by AviaSeven. The new MRO activities will initially be hosted on AviaSeven's OASES site but CAI Aero will have its own Commsoft Servicedesk facility.
Nick Godwin, Commsoft Managing Director, commented: CAI Aerospaces new MRO operation is an exciting new venture which were delighted to be supporting with OASES. Not only is this our first active South African customer, it represented the ninth new addition to the worldwide OASES community in 2016. We are pleased to be working closely with them to ensure a successful operation, following their go live in late December 2016.
Andreas Kaiafas, Exec. President of Cronos Airlines International and CAI Aerospace, commented: Our OASES system was rapidly implemented in December 2016. OASES gives us full visibility of production tasks in our hangar and provides excellent management oversight and reporting within the company.
Over 20 aviation operations in eleven countries in the Middle East and African region are now being supported by OASES customers. With this continuous demand for its MRO software solutions, OASES is continually being developed - with the active participation of its users - to ensure it remains fully up-to-date with technological progress and fully responsive to the ever evolving needs of both airlines and MROs.
The aviation community, supported by OASES, currently numbers 120 organisations in more than 50 different countries and includes national carriers, third party maintainers, regional carriers, leasing companies, cargo specialists, charter operators and specialist rotable stockists across the USA, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australasia.
Get AfricaFocus Bulletin by e-mail! Format for print or mobile Africa: African Feminism Past and Present AfricaFocus Bulletin
April 10, 2017 (170410)
(Reposted from sources cited below) Editor's Note "On February 18th I lost my grand aunt - my grandmother really ... This incredible woman, May Kyomugasho Katebaka left us at the age of 97. We last met in 2014 when I visited her. She's a fierce woman. Fierce in her religion but also fierce in her knowledge of what she wanted from the world. And that is what moves me. Moves me every time one claims feminism is foreign and for the educated, un-african. She always came to mind when I met such arguments. I would tell myself that if only they could hear half her life story, then they would understand why I am such a rebellion." - Rosebell Kagumire (https://rosebellkagumire.com/) "Today as ever, African female activists are reshaping not just African feminist agendas but global ones as well," wrote scholar Aili Mari Tripp in a March 8 article published in African Arguments. But this was only a small sample of articles and web features that have recently appeared highlighting different aspects of "African feminism(s)," as well as a host of new books by both famous and relatively unknown authors. Rosebell Kagumire (right), with
Ugandan feminist scholar Dr. Sylvia Tamale Among sources that have come to my attention in the last month, this AfricaFocus Bulletin features the overview article by Aili Mari Tripp, a reflection by Ugandan journalist and activist Rosebell Kagumire, several additional links to web features from the African Feminist Forum and OkayAfrica, and a listing of a selection of recent related books, from 2017, 2016, and 2015. The article from March 8, International Women's Day, was the initial impetus for this Bulletin. But it is appropriate that the Bulletin comes only a few days after April 7 (Mozambican Women's Day), commemorated to honor the example of Josina Muthemba Machel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josina_Machel), who I was privileged to work with in Dar es Salaam in 1966-1967, a few years before her death at the age of 25 on April 7, 1971. [I don't know who wrote the Wikipedia article, but it is substantive and, to my knowledge, accurate). Additional recent web references African Feminist Forum, "Know Your African Feminists" and "African Feminist Ancestors" Accessed March 2017
http://www.africanfeministforum.com/ - direct URLs: http://tinyurl.com/mrlua9o and http://tinyurl.com/nxg3u8v "Talking African Feminisms with Dr. Sylvia Tamale," Rosebell Kagumire blog, August 19, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/m9l3fav "OkayAfrica's 100 Women" Accessed March 2017
http://www.okayafrica.com/100-women/ "Ghana: Women are the new face of telecommunications' players," Balancing Act Africa, March 17, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/ma3j2sr "Malawi: Rural Women, Empowerment and Mining," Publish What You Pay, December 19, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/m35tt3k Eunice Onwona, "Karen Attiah Is the 'Warrior of Diversity' Channeling Journalism Into Activism," OkayAfrica, March 17, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/mwvggag ++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++ Support AfricaFocus Bulletin If you appreciate AfricaFocus Bulletin, please help support this work. Every contribution helps no matter how small. You can make a contribution at these two secure sites: https://cash.me/$africafocus - to pay with debit card from a U.S.- based bank. https://paypal.me/AfricaFocusBulletin - to pay with PayPal account ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Those who Defied the Odds, Those Who Stood True to their Beliefs Till the End by Rosebell Kagumire African Feminism, March 22, 2017 http://africanfeminism.com - direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/m3h7dhw On February 18th I lost my grand aunt - my grandmother really (English limitations) because in my culture a sister of my grandmother is my grandmother. Both have almost equal roles and space in your life. This incredible woman, May Kyomugasho Katebaka left us at the age of 97. We last met in 2014 when I visited her. She's a fierce woman. Fierce in her religion but also fierce in her knowledge of what she wanted from the world. And that is what moves me. Moves me every time one claims feminism is foreign and for the educated, un-african. She always came to mind when I met such arguments. I would tell myself that if only they could hear half her life story, then they would understand why I am such a rebellion. Grandma May always made it a point to tell us she got 'saved/born again' in 1949. Religion was at the centre of her life. She always told us had it not been for her selfless service in the church, she would have ended up like most women of her time. She was one of the few among millions of women at the time who could read. And that came through the colonial state where knowledge of the bible accorded one certain privileges. Her life is an inspiration. She was married, briefly, and quickly figured out that married life wasn't for her so she dedicated herself to serving the church. Where she was married and even when she didn't have children of her own, she is known to have treated the kids she found in the home like her own. Of course this is something many women are required of by society and the conditions are often not on their side - women should have choices - but the love between her and her step children remained even when she was longer part of their family. That love was demonstrated till the end. In my culture and many in Uganda still, unmarried and childless women are scorned upon but Grandmother May commanded a certain respect above all these. She managed to weave her life story, with a church as her shelter, to be who she wanted to be. Of course many would say she should 'have had a child at least' and god knows what other pressures she faced. All these little narrow definitions of what a woman's life should be according to society wouldn't dwindle her. I loved her and she lived an exceptional life and didn't matter who accepted it. She was beautiful too and a deep deep soul. In many ways she was still traditional like I remember her asking me to always wear long t-shirts over my jeans - you know not to show 'secret body parts' like we call it in my Runyankole. I usually laughed these off. She is inspiration and the fact that her life in itself - some aspects probably weren't intentional - but she never followed the crowd. And that's enough to get me through this life. I thought in the spirit of women's history month, Grandma May fully represents the people in my life that shattered those expectations. To understand where we are going we must always look back for a lesson, inspiration and sometimes caution. How African feminism changed the world Aili Mari Tripp African Arguments, March 8, 2017 http://www.africanarguments.org - direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/hrpzdbw [Aili Mari Tripp is Professor of Political Science and Evjue Bascom Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the co-editor, with Balghis Badri, of Women's Activism in Africa (2017).] Today as ever, African female activists are reshaping not just African feminist agendas but global ones as well. One of the great fallacies one still hears today is that feminism started in the Global North and found its way to the Global South. Another is that universal understandings of women's rights as embodied in UN treaties and conventions were formulated by activists in the North. International Women's Day, however, provides an opportunity to highlight the reality: that not only do feminisms in the Global South have their own trajectories, inspirations, and demands, but they have contributed significantly to today's global understandings of women's rights. Nowhere is this clearer than in Africa, where women are increasingly exerting leadership from politics to business and have helped shape global norms regarding women's rights in multiple arenas. For decades, African activists have rejected the notion that one can subsume all feminist agendas under a Western one. As far back as the 1976 international conference on Women and Development at Wellesley College, Egyptian novelist Nawal El-Saadawi and Moroccan sociologist Fatema Mernissi challenged efforts by Western feminists to define global feminism. In the drafting of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the All African Women's Conference was one of six organisations and the only regional body involved. African women have also been influencing national gender policies for over half a century. In 1960, for example, Mail's Jacqueline Kizerbo had already developed the idea of considering the gender impacts of policies. It was only decades later that this idea now commonly known as "gender mainstreaming gained international currency, particularly in national budgetary processes. In key UN conferences, African women activists have been visible from the outset. Egypt's Aida Gindy held the first international meeting on Women in Economic Development in 1972. The Kenya Women's Group helped organise the 1985 UN Conference on Women in which African women brought issues of apartheid and national liberation to the fore. And Egypt's Aziza Husayn helped organise the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, which shifted the debate around population control away from a traditional family planning emphasis on quotas and targets to one focused on women's rights and health. Additionally, Sierra Leone's Filomena Steady was one of the key conveners of the Earth Summit in 1992. Tanzania's Gertrude Mongella was General Secretary of the pivotal 1995 UN Beijing Conference. And African women peace-builders played a crucial role in the 2000 Windhoek conference, which paved the way for a UN Security Council Resolution encouraging the inclusion of women in peace negotiations and peacekeeping missions around the world. Leading the world Women in Africa have also set new standards for women's political leadership globally. The likes of Guinea's Jeanne Martin Cisse, Liberia's Angie Brooks and Tanzania's Anna Tibaijuka and Asha-Rose Migiro have all held top positions at the UN. Meanwhile at a national level, many African countries have made important gains in women's representation. Rwandan women today hold 62% of the country's legislative seats, the highest in the world. In Senegal, South Africa, Namibia, and Mozambique, more than 40% of parliamentary seats are held by women. There are female speakers of the house in one fifth of African parliaments, higher than the world average of 14%. Women have claimed positions in key ministries throughout Africa. And women have increasingly run for executive positions, with Liberia, the Central African Republic, Malawi and Mauritius all having had female heads of state. Moreover, these increases in female representation are taking place across the continent, including predominantly Muslim countries such as Senegal, where women hold 43% of legislative seats. These new patterns are found at the regional level too, with women holding 50% of the positions at in African Union Commission, compared to just one-third at the European Commission. South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma meanwhile chaired the AU Commission from 2012 to 2017. Women's strong presence in African parliaments has resulted in new discussions about strategies to enhance female political representation worldwide. Scandinavian scholars such as Drude Dahlerup and Lenita Freidenvall even argue that the incremental model that led to high rates of female representation in Nordic countries in the 1970s has now been replaced by the "fast track African model in which dramatic jumps in representation are brought about by electoral quotas. Shaping the world African women have also been pioneering in business. Aspiring young female entrepreneurs today have several role models they can follow such as Ghana's Esther Ocloo, who pursued the idea of formalising local women's credit associations and became a founding member of one of the first microcredit banks, Women's Worlds Banking, in 1979. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, African countries have almost equal numbers of men and women either actively involved in business start-ups or in the phase of starting a new firm. And in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia, women are reportedly more likely to be entrepreneurs than men. These changes are evident not only at the grassroots but, to an extent, at the highest levels. Female representation in boardrooms worldwide is very poor, but Africa's rate of 14.4% is only slightly behind Europe (18%) and the US (17%), and ahead of Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Finally, a younger generation of activists is emerging throughout Africa today and redefining feminism from an African perspective. One sees this not only in the work of the African Feminist Forum, which first met in 2006, but also in the work of figures such as novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who issued a clarion call to women in her video We Should All be Feminist, adapted from her 2013 Ted Talk, in which she explores what it means to be an African feminist. Her book length essay by the same title is found on bookshelves in major cities around the world, and the Swedish Women's Lobby has given it to every 16-year-old in Sweden to help them think about gender equality. Feminist discourse meanwhile has become commonplace throughout the continent on websites, blogs, journals, and social media. New feminist novels like Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya), Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda), and Americanah by Adichie (Nigeria) have offered new ways of imagining women. There are clearly still enormous hurdles for African feminists to overcome in fighting for gender equality. But as they have over the past half a century, Africa's women activists of today are reshaping not only African feminist agendas in tackling these challenges, but global ones as well. Books, 2017 [Thanks to Kathleen Sheldon in particular for most of these suggested books. Short quotes after each book are from the publishers' descriptions unless source is otherwise cited.] Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, 2017. "Adichie has partly written Dear Ijeawele to reclaim the word feminism from its abusers and misusers. Her advice is not only to provide children with alternativesto empower boys and girls to understand there is no single way to bebut also to understand that the only universal in this world is difference." - Emma Brockes, The Guardian (UK)
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780525434801 Balghis Badri and Aili Mari Tripp, eds. Women's Activism in Africa: Struggles for Rights and Representation, 2017. "Drawing on case studies and fresh empirical material from across the continent, the authors challenge the prevailing assumption that notions of women's rights have trickled down from the global north to the south, showing instead that these movements have been shaped by above all the unique experiences and concerns of the local women involved."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9781783609086 Helene Cooper. Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 2017. "Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and bestselling author Helene Cooper deftly weaves Sirleaf's personal story into the larger narrative of the coming of age of Liberian women."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9781451697360 Linda M. Heywood. Njinga of Angola: Africa's Warrior Queen Hardcover, 2017. "Though largely unknown in the Western world, the seventeenth-century African queen Njinga was one of the most multifaceted rulers in history, a woman who rivaled Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great in political cunning and military prowess."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780674237445 Kathleen Sheldon. African Women: Early History to the 21st Century. 2017. "The rich case studies and biographies in this thorough survey establish a grand narrative about women's roles in the history of Africa."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780253027221 Books, 2016 Berger, Iris. Women in Twentieth-Century Africa, 2016. "This book introduces students to many remarkable women, who organized religious and political movements, fought in anti-colonial wars, ran away to escape arranged marriages, and during the 1990s began successful campaigns for gender parity in national legislatures."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780521741217 Feldman-Savelsberg, Pamela. Mothers on the Move: Reproducing Belonging Between Africa and Europe, 2016. "[The author"takes readers back and forth between Cameroon and Germany to explore how migrant mothersthrough the careful and at times difficult management of relationshipsjuggle belonging in multiple places at once: their new country, their old country, and the diasporic community that bridges them."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780226389882 Hunt, Swanee. Rwandan Women Rising. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2017. "[The author] shares the stories of some seventy womenheralded activists and unsung heroes alikewho overcame unfathomable brutality, unrecoverable loss, and unending challenges to rebuild Rwandan society."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780822362579 Mgbako, Chi Adanna. To Live Freely in This World: Sex Worker Activism in Africa, 2016. "Well-written and elegant, Mgbako's research reveals the rise of African sex work activism and the ongoing trials and tribulations of organizing in the face of economic, social, and political adversity." - Aziza Ahmed,Northeastern University
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9781479849062 Rhine, Kathryn A. The Unseen Things: Women, Secrecy, and HIV in Northern Nigeria, 2016. "The book is especially innovative in its rich detail about desire, pleasure and love, and the strategies men and women use to reconstitute relationships after testing positive for HIV." - Carolyn Sargent, Washington University in St. Louis
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780253021434 Scully, Pamela. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Ohio Short Histories of Africa), 2016. "A clear and concise introduction to the woman and to the domestic and international politics that have shaped her personally and professionally. Peace A. Medie, University of Ghana
http://amzn.to/2ndGpPI Sylvanus, Nina. Patterns in Circulation: Cloth, Gender, and Materiality in West Africa, 2016. "[The author] tells a captivating story of global trade and cross-cultural aesthetics in West Africa, showing how a group of Togolese womenthrough the making and circulation of wax clothbecame influential agents of taste and history."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780226397221 Books, 2015 Galawdewos, Wendy Laura Belcher, and Michael Kleiner. The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros: A Seventeenth-Century African Biography of an Ethiopian Woman, 2015.[Link below goes to 2018 concise edition.] "This is the first English translation of the earliest-known booklength biography of an African woman, and one of the few lives of an African woman written by Africans before the nineteenth century."
https://bookshop.org/a/709/9780691182919 AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter. AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin, or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the original source mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see http://www.africafocus.org
News anchor: This month is Autism Awareness Month, as the disorder affects one in every 68 children.
This three and a half minute news report on April, Autism Awareness Month is a chilling example of just hw much we have, as a nation, surrendered to autism.
"Kind of a relief at that point to know which direction to go," said Nathan's mother, Desiree Adams.
"It gave us some closure to it," said Nathan's father, Jeff Adams. "It gave us kind of a path forward, but at the same time, it was difficult."
Just before he turned three, he was diagnosed with autism.
He's a lovable child who plays and even explores like every child, but at a young age, his parents knew there was something different about him when he wasn't responding to his name at one year old.
Reporter Anthony Miller interviewed the parents of a seven-year-old boy on the spectrum. The story is about the support his parents have receives from family, church, and school, but the real subtle message is all about accepting autism as just the way it is for some kids.
Notice the dad saying that having a diagnosis was kind of a relief and closure.
The parents took Nathan to a psychologist who recommended speech therapy. Were told that Nathans teacher has been working with autistic students for four years and has an autistic child of her own.
Were not told just how severe Nathan is, but the parents talk about the success of having him eat dinner with them.
We dont know if Nathan can speak, but there are no scene of him speaking, and there are picture strips in the clip. The reporter talked about huge strides in Nathans attention span and eye contact.
This is actually about surrendering to autism. Were not supposed to ask why the rate only applies to children, as the anchor reminded everyone at the start of the story. We cant ask why any of this to happening to our kids. Why are there so many children like this now that we have teachers specializing in autism?
Autism is being promoted as a positive thing. Autism isnt a disorder; its a fact of life. Were supposed to feel good about whats happening for kids like Nathan. The report ended like this:
For the Adams, this simple message of love and understanding is what Autism Awareness Month is all about.
"Autistic people are people and they are special and beautiful and we need to love them and support them and encourage them," Jeff Adams said.
Prince told me that Nathan is a favorite among the staff members at the school and that teachers will come into their classroom just to give him a hug because he makes everyone's day.
And while Fox 12 in Sherman, Texas assured us that all we need is love and support for autism, coverage at Fox 26 Houston addressed the reality of the autism epidemic.
Reporter Greg Groogan interviewed Leslie Phillips, a board member of the National Autism Association, (April 6, 2017) about the serious lack of uniform educational services for the explosion in autism in Texas schools. Phillips talked about the huge disparity between the schools in Houston and the schools in Katy. In the course of the interview, Phillips noted that there are 54,000 students in Texas schools with an autism diagnosis.
https://www.facebook.com/GregGrooganFOX26/
https://www.facebook.com/pg/GregGrooganFOX26/videos/?ref=page_internal
That is a huge disabled population found only among young people in Texas. (In July, 2016, the Sacramento Bee put the number of autistic students in California schools at more than 97,000.")
This is the future: More and more students on the spectrum filling our schools and a non-stop population of disabled young adults each state will have to provide for. And this is what April is all aboutlearning to cope with an epidemic we refuse to recognize.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
April 10, 2017
In December 2016, the Islamic State (IS) bombed St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Cairo, killing 29, and in the aftermath declared that there will be more attacks on infidels. A week before Palm Sunday, a Christian feast celebrated the Sunday before Easter, a bomb was found and defused at St. Georges Church in Tanta in Al Gharbeyya governorate. On Palm Sunday, thousands of Christians all over Egypt headed to their houses of worship, making them easier targets for terrorism. At 9:05 a.m., an IS suicide bomber blew himself up from inside the prayer hall of the same Tanta church, claiming the lives of at least 28 and injuring 71.
The explosion in Tanta was a huge security failure. The terrorist walked into the church from the front door, said Mina Thabet, a researcher on minorities and vulnerable groups at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
A few hours later, a second church was attacked. Another IS suicide bomber detonated a belt at the gates of St. Marks Cathedral in Alexandria, right after Pope Tawadros II and other leading religious and government officials left. There is a possibility that the attack was targeting the pope, Thabet said. Nevertheless, 17 people died and 41 were injured.
A terrorist organization stated whom they were going to target and when, and then you have this catastrophic security performance. They should have been very alert, said Aly El Raggal, a political sociologist. It was Am Nseem, the churchs guard, who stopped the bomber from entering the church.
In December, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed punishment for those behind the terror, and he promised to increase security. It was the same promises that brought Sisi to power in 2013, when millions took to the streets to authorize a man with a military background to get rid of terror, while two demonstration camps demanded President Mohammed Morsis return. Sisi violently dispersed the camps and made the war on terror his mission.
Yet multiple attacks have been carried out since, most of them in el-Arish in the northern Sinai Peninsula. Sinai is where the militants reside and operate. The crisis reached its worst when 300 Copts were forced to leave their homes after seven civilians were murdered. IS threatened that others would follow, Thabet said. There is no security in that area.
Ashraf El Sherif, a professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, said IS strategy in Egypt has multiple goals: portraying the regime as a weak one that is unable to provide security and stability, shaking the states credibility and frightening religious minorities.
Security is lacking, but the state will never admit it, as this would take away the base of its legitimacy, Sherif said. He added that the state would never assume accountability and allow public and community oversight of its actions.
Security industry veteran Ayman Ashour argued that Sisi is winning the war on terror on the security front, yet the security apparatus can still improve.
The system of rotations of security officers makes it hard for professionals to become experts in their roles and their environment. The system of creating bottlenecks at entrances of airports, churches or road checkpoints is not compatible with the nature of threat that Egypt faces. Terrorists want crowded bottlenecks to cause maximum damage, he explained. An additional point is the incredibly long shifts security operatives work and the lax supervision over their professional performance, Ashour added.
However, Raggal believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with the security system. It thinks in terms of repression and not in terms of providing smart and soft security, he said.
Is this the security we gave up our freedoms for? said Shady Nour on social media.
Indeed, the clampdown on dissent in the name of security has left Egypt with more than 40,000 political prisoners, a muffled media, forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the Ministry of Interior electronically spying on citizens, amid other measures taken under the umbrella of the war.
The problem of terrorism is not the main problem, stressed Ashour, adding, You have unprecedented political and societal polarization, and Egypt ultimately needs a path of reconciliation with the Islamist elements that can be peeled off extremism. You have societal and political failures that no security can fix.
Sherif added more pieces to the puzzle: Terrorism is a derivative problem in Egypt. It is derived from other crises that are the fundamental ones, such as inclusive state-society relations and of course religious reform and economic restructuring.
In the IS statement that claimed both attacks on Palm Sunday, the group vowed that children of Copts will pay in rivers of blood.
On Sunday night, Sisi gave a speech where he assured that the two attacks were not a result of lax security. Yet he announced a state of emergency for three months. The public, which had been expecting Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar to be fired, now expects more oppressive measures. The parliament, which was to question Abdel Ghaffar over security negligence and Justice Minister Ahmed El-Zend for failing to amend the criminal law as decided in December, dismissed the general committee session.
On the night of the attack, the issue of pro-state Al Bawaba newspaper that was to be distributed the next day was confiscated after it pointed fingers toward lax security.
We declared our opinion that there is a shortage in security, which calls for holding those accountable responsible, and changing the current security strategy, the newspaper said.
The state of emergency is not effective because the regime has been already employing utmost repression, to no avail, said Sherif.
Too much militarism, too much money, too much violence, and very little efficiency, Raggal concluded.
On April 10, the day after the double attacks, a reporter walked into a church, carrying a bag, without being inspected.
April 7, 2017
Egyptians have launched many campaigns in recent years to combat the sexual harassment that continues to plague Egyptian society. Some of these campaigns implore victims to speak up and report the incident, while other initiatives condemn the harassers. A recent awareness campaign launched by a team of three Egyptian women has adopted a new approach to fighting this social epidemic: bystander intervention.
With the help of a director, the women released a daring photo campaign titled "Your Silence Is Harassment," blowing the lid off the passive role of bystanders who do not intervene when a woman is sexually assaulted. The alluring sequence of photos depicts the daily struggle of Egyptian women on city streets, public transportation, markets and the workplace, blaming idle bystanders in the hope of stirring a sense of collective responsibility.
The project displays staged scenes of sexual harassment, as a silent bystander stands in the background, his mouth sealed by black tape. The victims featured in the photos include a woman wearing a headscarf and an unveiled girl to refute the claim that it's clothing that provokes sexual harassment. Through an interview with the campaign's founders, Al-Monitor was able to find out the details of this bold photo session that went viral within a few hours.
One of the brains behind the campaign, actress Nourhan Mohamed, is a graduate of the Higher Institute of Theatrical Arts. In collaboration with her colleagues, she decided to use acting as a way to combat social problems, with a special focus on women-related issues. "This is not our first campaign," she said. "Last year, we released a photo session that dealt with violence against women. Actually, this session was inspired by the story of our colleague who suffered from such violence. We were surprised that the campaign gained widespread admiration. This success prompted us to launch another campaign. After agreeing on the campaign's theme, namely sexual harassment, we started to think about the segment that should be addressed. Fully aware of the key role of bystanders in preventing sexual abuse, we decided to launch the recent campaign."
Mohamed said the main goal of the campaign is to spotlight the role of bystanders in preventing sexual harassment. Ideally, passive bystanders would become engaged bystanders. "Anyone who keeps silent and does not intervene in preventing sexual harassment is complicit and a partner in this crime," Mohamed said. "Imagine that this girl is your mother or sister would you turn a blind eye? This unjustified silence allows for sexual harassment to proliferate. Please, stand up and take serious action!"
Mohamed said it was not difficult to recreate scenarios of sexual harassment for the camera since so many of her close friends have experienced such harassment. The campaign boldly sends out a message that clothing is not an excuse for sexual abuse.
"Almost every girl in Egypt has been exposed to harassment, whether verbal or physical, even if she dresses modestly. One of the photos shows a girl who is about to take off the headscarf after being harassed since in all cases she is blamed," Mohamed said, pointing out that after the campaign launched, she received messages from girls who wear a face veil, or niqab, who said they have been sexually harassed. "Since these photos were so real, the audience rapidly grasped our message. I know the photos are shocking. But this is the painful truth, and we aspire to correct the deep-rooted wrong notions," she said.
Mohamed experienced a multitude of feelings during the photo session. "Seriously, I was psychologically exhausted after finishing the photo session," she said. "I put myself in the victim's shoes to accurately reflect her silent suffering through my facial reactions. I plunged myself into the victim's feelings. I wanted to show how the victim feels broken and becomes victimized twice by the silence of bystanders."
Mohamed said that the women who launched the campaign have covered all expenses on their own. "We do not seek fame or fortune. We just want to change social norms and reform society. I deeply believe that art can change society since it is more accessible to the audience. Definitely, we are planning to launch more campaigns dealing with various social problems," she said.
With her belief that "a picture is worth a thousand words," Marwa Ragheb, the campaign's photographer, tried to capture images that condemned the whole of society for the spread of sexual harassment. "Each photo tells a story. I tended to take the photos from different angles in a way that provokes people's emotions. I chose certain angles that clearly display how the girl is being harassed amid the provocative silence of bystanders. We want to revive the sense of collective action instead of merely blaming women for wearing tight clothes. It is your minds that are narrow and tight. The reason for harassment is not my clothes, it is your silence," Ragheb said.
Ragheb said she was not afraid to take these daring photos since they reflect the current situation of society. "We have to be more realistic," she said. "Only very few people may intervene and positively act in potentially threatening situations. We do not want to distort the image of Egyptian people. Sure, I received some negative comments, but I insist on capturing the society's diseases with my camera, hoping to eliminate all forms of violence against women."
Not only females are interested in launching campaigns to fight sexual harassment. The photo session's director, Mohamed el-Hagrasy, helped create the captivating images. "Any director seeks to reflect society's problems with the sole aim of creating social change. Since women are part and parcel of society, any director, whether male or female, can perfectly tackle their problems. Art is not gender-based," Hagrasy said.
The director added that one's way of observing social problems is a key factor distinguishing one director from another. "I am a member of this society, and I can see how girls are suffering from sexual assault," Hagrasy said. "When I started to prepare the campaign's photos, I recalled all these situations [and] stories of my female colleagues and translated them into enacted scenes."
"Art can change society for the better. It is a long process, but we can do it," he said.
April 7, 2017
BAGHDAD After the chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun on April 4, followed by the US airstrike on a Syrian air base April 7, tension between Iraq and the United States escalated significantly.
The United States has made it very clear to Iraq that it wants its ally in fighting terrorism to distance itself from Iran. During Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's visit to the United States last month, Abadi and US President Donald Trump discussed Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which indicates that the United States is seeking to bring Baghdad and Riyadh closer and to curb the Iranian role in the region. The visit sparked much controversy in Iraq among Shiite parties.
Moreover, Trump explicitly criticized the Iran nuclear deal in front of Abadi. A few days later, Trump sent his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner to Iraq to discuss US support to Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State. The visit was read as a sign that the Trump administration sees Iraq as a place to push back on the growing power of Iran across the region. Al-Monitor learned from a source close to the prime minister who asked to not be named that limiting Iran's role in Iraq was at the top of the list of the issues discussed between the two parties.
The National Iraqi Alliance said it was not aware of the details and meeting schedule of Abadi with the American administration. Other Shiite political parties expressed discontent with the visit, especially following the statement of Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi security and political expert, in Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. Hashimi said he received information from the Iraqi delegation to Washington that the American discussed with Abadi the danger of believers in the velayat-e faqih [a jab at Iranians] and the need to keep them out of the PMU.
During his visit to the United States, Abadi talked about efforts to limit the PMU role at the political level, and expressed desire for rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, especially following his meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on the sidelines of the Ministers of the Global Coalition meeting in Washington on March 22.
Pundits believe that Trumps meetings with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 14 and with Abadi on March 20 come in the same context of the new Arab inclination toward Iraq, in line with Washingtons policy, seeking to curb Irans role in the region.
This is especially true since during the meeting between Trump and Prince Mohammed who also is Saudi Arabia's defense minister participants openly touched on the risks of the Iranian influence in the region and that there is no better place than Iraq to start curbing the Iranian role.
Therefore, the US support of Abadi will depend on his effort to reduce Iranian influence in Iraq, and to dissolve or restrict the parts of the Shiite armed factions under the PMU that are affiliated with Iran.
Perhaps Trumps exceptional reception and welcoming of Abadi amid what was described as positive talks were a message to Shiite leaders in Iraq about Abadis leaning toward the United States' clear and declared policy against Iran and the forces loyal to it.
However, Abadi is likely to pay dearly for such a stance, as he would have to face Irans allies in Baghdad, namely the PMU leaders.
We hope that Abadis visit to the US will be supportive of the PMU, as in his supportive stances at previous international forums, PMU spokesman Ahmed al-Asadi said at a March 22 press conference.
He added, We hope that he [Abadi] would talk through these conferences and visits, about the great role the PMU has played, as a security institution, especially after passing the law to legalize it.
Asadi said the PMU has become an independent military and security institution affiliated with the armed forces and directly linked to the commander in chief of the armed forces. The PMU will play a major role with the rest of the security services to build an integrated security system.
However, Sheikh Qais al-Khazali, head of the League of the Righteous, another faction under the PMU, had a stronger message to relay. During his meeting with a group of tribal sheikhs and dignitaries March 23, he said, The US aims to strengthen its influence in the areas west of Iraq and east of Syria and to start the partition project.
He warned against what he considered a dangerous conspiracy against the PMU, saying, We will not allow any attempt to dissolve or undermine the PMU.
On the other hand, the National Alliance fears a new split [within the Shiite ranks] because of Abadis statements and positions in Washington, according to Alia Nassif, a member of parliament for the alliance.
The alliances blocs will not rush to judge Abadis positions, and will seek to know how serious he is in his efforts to curb the PMU role and to submit to Trumps policy facing Iran or to lean toward the US-Gulf axis. The coming weeks will tell where Abadi stands, and this is when the alliance will take a clear stance toward Abadi.
According to the information we have, the US intends to increase the number of its fighters in Iraq and that the American president is seeking to have access to the countrys oil in return for military support. Should Abadi approve that, major political chaos will erupt in Iraq, she added.
Political scientist Mohammed Naanaa told Al-Monitor, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi will try to convince the Shiite parties that he has taken the position of mediator between Saudi Arabia and Iran to maintain American support, which is the role he can actually play. Abadi cannot afford to turn his back on Tehran or lose US support.
Naanaa said, The real confrontation will be between Abadi and the PMU, and he will have to resort to the Sunni forces and the Sadrist movement, who seek the same goal that is the dissolution of the PMU.
He said it was unlikely for Abadi to remain within the State of Law coalition led by Nouri al-Maliki, the former prime minister who is pro-Iran.
As the dust settles in the war on IS and amid the expected liberation of Mosul in the coming weeks, Abadi will have to meet US demands concerning the PMU and Iran's allies. In this context, he can actually resort to his undeclared ally Muqtada al-Sadr to confront the PMU factions, but Abadi would then be in direct confrontation with Sadr if the US administration wants to keep its soldiers inside Iraqi territory, which the Sadrists consider a red line that cannot be crossed.
In the meantime, Abadi is ready for the battles involved in local elections at the end of this year and the general elections early next year, distancing himself from Maliki without angering Iran. Will he be able to overcome all of these challenges, even with the help of a strong ally like the United States?
April 10, 2017
Irans military and economic support for the Syrian government in the countrys 6-year-old civil war is no secret. Many Iranian officials see Syrias and Irans fates tied together. So naturally when the United States launched its first strikes targeting the Syrian government, Iranian officials roundly criticized the act. However, in their statements, Iranian officials are not seeking to escalate tensions with the United States over what appears to be a symbolic US attack rather than a prolonged military campaign.
In his comments April 9 to the countrys military commanders, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saved his harshest words for European leaders rather than the United States. Recounting the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, he said, The hypocritical European governments who claim there was chemical weapons use in Syria, during the [Iran-Iraq] war, gave tons of chemical weapons to [Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] for him to attack the war front and our regions in Sardasht and Halabja. (Halabja, a Kurdish town in Iraq, had been taken by Iran shortly before the chemical attack in 1988.) In contrast, in response to the United States' launching 59 Tomahawk missiles at Shayrat air base, Khamenei said, What the Americans did, it was wrong and a strategic mistake.
Iranian government officials have generally condemned the chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, but have not assigned blame to any group. On his Twitter account, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif issued a statement that called for an impartial investigation into the attack and questioned the claim that the Syrian government was behind it. The statement wrote that the attack took place within a peculiar context, given that the Syrian government had the upper hand both militarily and politically. President Hassan Rouhani condemned the chemical weapons attack but also added that attacking the Syrian government strengthens regional extremism and terror.
Some former officials have noticed that even Russias response to the US strike into its sphere of influence was rather muted. Ghasem Mohebali, the Foreign Ministry's former Middle East director under Reformist President Mohammad Khatami, said that Russias response was a minimum of what it could have been. Mohebali said that Russia was informed of the attack and had S-300 and S-400 anti-missile systems in place in Syria and still chose not to use them. He added that in ordinary circumstances in foreign relations, a country takes reciprocal action, yet Russia seems to not be escalating and will continue to attack Syrian opposition, which cannot be viewed as an equal response.
Far-right newspaper Kayhan wrote that the US attack has implications for Irans upcoming presidential election. Jaffar Bolouri wrote that the Rouhani administration will use President Donald Trumps attack on Syria to argue that Trump is an unpredictable individual and call for Iran to give more concessions to the United States, or at the very least not demand that the United States keep to its commitments to the nuclear deal. However, he argued that this new likely tactic will contradict the Rouhani administrations claim that the nuclear deal eliminated the threat of war.
Javan newspaper, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, wrote that Trumps attack on Syria not only broke a campaign message with regard to Syria and Russia but was done for unfounded and unproven reasons. The article wrote that Trumps attack was motivated by his desire to distract from his domestic problems. The paper said the attack has similarities to President George W. Bushs attack on Iraq under similar pretenses.
April 10, 2017
BAGHDAD "The idea of a referendum has been re-energized," former Iraqi Foreign and Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a prominent leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said April 5. Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said March 25, The Kurdistan Region will hold a fate-deciding referendum this year.
Barzani noted that a united Iraq does not exist, adding, The result will not lead to immediate independence. But if citizens empower us to act, we will proceed with independence, and the international community will know what the Kurds want.
Although the Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan all agree on the inevitability of securing an independent Kurdish state, they have have been arguing about which date to hold a public referendum on independence from Iraq.
With the internal political dispute between the parties in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, and the constitutional vacuum crisis in the Kurdistan Region, talk about independence has become an attempt to escape the thorny issues by trying to move a common cause forward.
There are a number of pending issues between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan that might take years to be resolved before peaceful secession is reached. The disputed areas, including oil-rich Kirkuk, top these issues, as well as the conflict over the oil fields and the pipeline through the Turkish Ceyhan port to the Mediterranean Sea. Problems involving the waters of common lakes and rivers and the situation of national and religious minorities are also unresolved. The independence or secession project seems the most complicated, and it cannot be completed through a public referendum only.
The KDP, led by Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, announced Jan. 11 the formation of a committee to decide the fate of disputed areas with the federal government and to hold a referendum and achieve Kurdistans independence. Barzani asserted the formation of a delegation to negotiate independence with Baghdad, but took back the decision due to developing relations with the federal government.
Nevertheless, the main Kurdish parties in Kurdistan, such as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, have a different plan for the referendum date, and they ruled out the possibility of holding it this year. Party member Farhad Rasoul told Al-Monitor, All Kurdish parties agree on the importance of fulfilling the Kurdish state dream, but before that we need to solve our internal issues. Iraqi Kurdistans parliament is still defunct and the ministries are governed by proxy in Erbil. There is no imminent solution for the presidential crisis.
Rasoul wondered, How is it possible to form a Kurdish delegation to solve the issues with Baghdad, while internal problems in Iraqi Kurdistan persist? He added, The internal and international stages are not set yet for a referendum on independence."
The same position has been voiced by Hoshyar Abdullah, a leader in the Kurdish Movement for Change (Gorran), who told the New Sabah newspaper that Barzanis March 27 declaration regarding Kurdistans independence reflects the KDPs failure and it serves the early electoral campaign launched by Barzanis party.
The Kurdistan domestic crisis started in 2015, when Barzanis mandate as president ended and no new presidential elections were held, as the work of the Kurdistan parliament was suspended. This led to a serious political row between Barzanis party on the one hand and Talabanis party and the Movement for Change on the other.
In Baghdad, the State of Law Coalition, which is the largest bloc within the Shiite Iraqi National Alliance, said March 25, The statements made by the ruling family in the Kurdistan Region are not new as there have been repeated secession threats and the secession decision is not in the hands of the ruling family in the Kurdistan Region. Such a decision requires an international approval, i.e., a regional international decision that involves neighboring countries.
Sajida al-Afandi, a member of parliament for the Sunni Union of National Forces, told Al-Monitor, Neither the domestic nor the foreign circumstances are currently ripe for Kurdistans secession from Iraq. We believe that Erbil's threats regarding holding a referendum on secession are intended to place pressure on Baghdad to achieve oil or financial gains and perhaps have a better negotiating position in any national settlement that may follow the disappearance of the Islamic State."
Afandi added, Barzanis statements regarding independence do not serve the national interest now as the war against IS is not over yet, but he is trying to win the Kurdish street before the fighting ends.
Add to this the regional Iran's and Turkey's in particular absolute rejection of Iraqi Kurdistan independence. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said April 3 that the Kurdish statements on the referendum are unacceptable and stressed that Turkey will continue to support its fellow Turkmens in Iraq.
Commenting on the decision to raise the Kurdish flag in Kirkuk province, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called April 4 for the taking down of the Kurdish flag and warned that refraining from doing so would harm the Kurds relations with Turkey.
Several factors make it very difficult to proceed with the secession project and declare a Kurdish state, namely the opposition to the project from Baghdad, Iran and Turkey; this opposition is expressed by large Kurdish communities, in addition to the domestic Kurdish differences.
However, working toward this major goal may lead to significant gains, especially insofar as Erbil is concerned, as it is seeking to annex disputed areas from Mosul to Kurdistan (such as Sinjar), reach a new oil agreement and increase its share in the public budget, creating a better negotiating position in any settlement project that follows the liberation of the country from IS.
April 7, 2017
Anyone who has participated in Israel Defense Forces (IDF) activities of late, or even just covered those activities for that matter, will have noticed a growing presence of women in an increasing number of field positions, including combat positions. All around the world, the IDF is seen as a trailblazer. It is perceived as a liberal army, constantly opening new opportunities for women, who volunteer to serve in combat positions.
The air force already has dozens of women pilots and combat navigators. The navy has women serving on missile boats, while a Dvora-class patrol boat has a woman commander. The infantry can boast of four combat battalions made up of women, who serve mainly along Israel's quieter borders, while the Intelligence Corps has a particularly high number of women, including some who serve in challenging field positions. In February, the IDF announced the launch of a pilot program to train all-women tank teams.
While these developments are taking place, there has been a parallel culture war among the different sectors of Israeli society, focusing on what happens in the army. The announcement that the IDF was examining the possibility of incorporating women in the Tank Corps immediately set off a fight, bringing the phenomenon to the public's attention with a loud blast. Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, the head of the Pre-Military Academy in the settlement of Eli, responded with a violent and threatening speech, in which he called on young women from the religious Zionist sector to refuse to enlist in the army at all. In his speech, he claimed that Jewish women who enlist in the IDF come out "non-Jewish."
His comments prompted a huge storm within the religious Zionist sector. Until recently, women from this sector did not enlist in the army, often opting instead for civil service. The number of women from this sector who do enlist has increased over the past few years, with some of them even volunteering for challenging field positions. Now the more conservative rabbis from this sector have responded to this by declaring war. A number of organizations and groups of activists have hit the streets with flyers and stickers, claiming, "We need to save the IDF." Some of these activists claim that liberal and left-wing agents have infiltrated the upper echelons of the IDF and that they are conspiring to weaken the army so that Israel can be defeated in the battlefield. Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich of HaBayit HaYehudi took it a step further by calling on young religious Zionists to "skip one recruitment cycle" in order to teach the IDF a lesson. In other words, he wants them to attack the IDF's soft underbelly by enlisting less.
The IDF cannot allow for a decline in the enlistment of young men from the religious Zionist sector. Over the past few years, they have filled its combat units and volunteered en masse for command and officer tracks. Compulsory service for men was recently shortened by a few months, while recruitment in Israel is decreasing because of the growing strength (in percentage of the Israeli population) of the ultra-Orthodox community, which does not send its young men to the army. Parallel to this is similar growth among the Israeli Arab population, which also does not serve. As a result, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot finds himself caught in the eye of a cultural storm over values, but with logistical and operational implications as well.
On March 22, Eizenkot and IDF spokesman Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz, who was recently appointed head of the IDF's Manpower Directorate, met with a large delegation of leading rabbis from the religious Zionist sector. This meeting was complicated but ultimately successful. Eizenkot clarified that the army is not trying to increase the service of young men or undermine the principles of the status quo (where women serve with men in combat units, while their housing and bathrooms are separated) in any way. He explained that the aforementioned tank crews are simply part of a pilot program, which will result, if anything, in the creation of a handful of tank crews made up exclusively of women, with no "mingling of the sexes." Eizenkot also pointed out that just 15 young women are participating in this experiment.
Torn between opposing ideals, Eizenkot is trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. He cannot afford a rift between the religious Zionist sector and the IDF, but at the same time, he cannot allow rabbis to dictate the agenda and values of the IDF, as set by Israel's founders some 70 years ago.
Don't fool yourselves, the rabbis were told at that meeting. According to a military source, the rabbis were also told that they were not the ones to come up with the idea of separate barracks and restrooms for men and women in the army. The order has existed in the IDF since day one. The chief of staff promised to enforce this order more vigorously and ensure that there are no exceptions. The rabbis also received an assurance that the army is not being run according to the agenda of feminist organizations, nor does it subject itself to such groups. The IDF's foremost value is still victory, not equality, a top army brass told the rabbis at the meeting, adding that this was not about to change anytime soon.
Eizenkot and Almoz also provided the rabbis in the delegation with up-to-date figures on enlistment and volunteering. The rabbis were told that the army has utilized the women who want to volunteer for combat positions to maximum effect, and the demon isn't as bad as the rabbis might imagine. It is not as if anyone expects a torrent of women to volunteer for the IDF's combat units, effectively making them "mixed units," the IDF seniors explained. According to Eizenkot, the media is simply manipulating the story.
Most of the rabbis who attended the meeting left more at ease than they were when they arrived. Nevertheless, the public commotion and social buzz persist. They may have even intensified.
Eizenkot hopes to establish the current status quo of women in combat units as the norm and restore calm. Even if he succeeds, however, everyone now realizes that the days in which the IDF was the flag-bearer for liberal, progressive and egalitarian values are gone. There is now an increased presence in the army of religious Zionists who believe that they are right to claim a foothold and a greater voice in the decision-making process and in formulating the IDF's values. Israel has shifted to the right politically. Over the years, it has become more religious and more conservative. There is no reason why these phenomena would skip over the IDF, which is still described as the "army of the people."
April 7, 2017
Member of Knesset Yehuda Glick, a representative of the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) region in the Likud, accepts with equanimity the cold shoulder he has received from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ever since he entered the Knesset in May 2016 to replace former Minister of Defense Moshe Ya'alon, who resigned. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Glick said that as of now all of his requests to meet with Netanyahu, even for a few minutes, have been automatically brushed off.
Ever since I became a member of Knesset, Netanyahu refuses to meet with me, but Im planted deep in the Likud. When I entered the Knesset, he didnt want an association with me because I ignite the Middle East, and now because Im a leftist.
This sentence expresses precisely the inherent complexity of the worldview of Glick, who attached his fate to the Temple Mount in his struggle to realize the rights of Jews to pray at the holy and volatile site. He stood at the head of the Fund for Temple Mount Heritage, and for many years caused a rather big headache for the police and security forces when he insisted on ascending the Temple Mount on different occasions, not necessarily in accordance with the status quo of the visiting schedule.
Glick almost paid with his life for this struggle when he was shot by an activist from Palestinian Islamic Jihad when exiting an annual conference of Temple Mount activists in Jerusalem in 2014. Glick was severely wounded but recovered and returned to public life and to his struggle to realize the right to pray at the Temple Mount. After he was sworn in as a member of Knesset, he was forced to refrain from praying in the site close to his heart due to the prohibition the prime minister placed last October on members of Knesset ascending to the Temple Mount, for fear of a conflagration.
Netanyahu does not like Glicks involvement with the Temple Mount, to say the least. Whats confusing about Glick is the fact that alongside his belligerent battle that seems to many as the obsession of a crazed settler Glick is a religious man who lives in the Otniel settlement in the south Hebron hills he displays the liberal agenda of a leftist activist.
There are many examples from the last year: He spoke out against the shooting soldier from Hebron, Elor Azaria (convicted of manslaughter of a wounded Palestinian assailant), and called his conduct horrifying; he opposed the controversial muezzin law (limiting the hours of sounding the loudspeaker call for prayer) and explained that he actually enjoys the sound of the muezzin; he spoke out against the prime ministers persecution of journalist Ilana Dayan; and last week he expressed harsh criticism of Netanyahu on his Twitter account regarding the crisis over the Public Broadcasting Corporation, which almost led to an election.
I am very liberal and support a completely free press, but with everything thats happened with the corporation, Ill ask for clarification before I vote for the new law, he told Al-Monitor following the compromise reached by Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon that the news department will be run by the staff of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. In light of his intellectual independence, its clear why he and the chairman of the coalition, member of Knesset David Bitan, are on a constant collision course.
Glick is a complicated, different and confusing character in the Knesset, which is controlled mostly by populist and simplistic black-and-white politics. He is never tempestuous and never coarse, in contrast with the belligerence that characterizes quite a few members of Knesset in the ruling party. All this also paradoxically turns him into a favorite of the left, and he is sometimes described as the sanest figure in the Likud, from which he doesnt spare criticism: When an entity is aggressive, it doesnt make it more powerful. Thus, in my view, a party that tries to forcefully prevent a conference of [anti-occupation nongovernmental organization] Breaking the Silence or that works to revoke the citizenship of the director of [human rights group] BTselem because he spoke against Israel at the United Nations is a weak party. But a party that allows itself to be generous and let the other express himself is a stronger entity, he said.
This duality accompanies Glick at any given moment. On the one hand hes a liberal and has close relationships and friendships with Arabs, and on the other hand, hes a settler who believes in a full annexation of West Bank territories to the State of Israel and in granting full citizenship status to Palestinians.
When Glick is asked how his liberalism accords with the idea of annexation, he responds, When I ask myself under what rule I would prefer to live as a Palestinian citizen a third-world state that denies human rights or a democratic state where women arent oppressed and homosexuals have full human rights the answer is clear. When I speak with them, they quietly tell me that the last thing they want is to live in a Palestinian state.
I look at it on an ethical level. Why should a Palestinian receive third-world medical care, but I can go to a modern hospital in Beersheba? So in an ethical perspective, a Palestinian deserves full citizenship. In contrast to those who say Lets give them a Palestinian state and separate from them, I say the opposite. I dont want to separate from them, and I want to live next to them.
Glicks plan includes a referendum (under international observation) among Palestinians that asks whether they accept full annexation of the West Bank to Israel in exchange for full Israeli citizenship. According to Glick, I trust 100% that that is what they want. Its clear to me that they dont want to be buried under the corrupt Palestinian rule.
On March 29 he once again acted independently when he petitioned the high court against the prime minister in a request to cancel the prohibition on members of Knesset entering the Temple Mount, with the argument that its an unprecedented phenomenon. While members of Knesset are withheld that right, any citizen, resident or tourist is allowed to enter the Temple Mount without limitations.
I dont accept the argument that the Temple Mount is a volatile place, because reality there is the opposite, he said after his petition was denied. Its a fact that in the last year, after they removed problematic people, there was a record number of Jews who entered the Temple Mount and its quiet there. I believe we can turn the place to a global place of tolerance and reconciliation. Theres no reason that people of all three faiths wont pray there with mutual respect. When I see a Muslim praying on the Temple Mount it makes me happier than anything, Glick declared. He explained that in his view the right to pray on the Temple Mount belongs to everyone, just as I fought for the right of women to pray [at the Western Wall].
April 6, 2017
Jason Greenblatt surprised us at the Arab League summit meetings in Amman, a senior PLO official told Al-Monitor this week.
According to the official, Greenblatt, who is President Donald Trumps representative for international negotiations, expressed in his meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas and in other meetings at the March 30 summit that Trump is committed to reaching a deal on Israeli-Palestinian peace, and that the time has come to make such a deal. Still, the Palestinian leadership remains skeptical about the outcome of these efforts, mainly due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus annexationist positions. Greenblatt argued that if a balanced initiative is presented at the opening of negotiations within a regional framework, Netanyahu might be convinced. The official said the envoy explained that in such a setup, Netanyahu would have a parliamentary majority, thus it could push such an initiative forward.
Indeed, Greenblatt met in recent weeks with both leaders of the Zionist Camp Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni. In these meetings, he laid out Trumps view on the possible dealmaking, but doesnt this sound like deja vu? The notion of dealmaking was present also last year, when former Secretary of State John Kerry coordinated a similar regional opening of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a two-state solution with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan. At the end, Netanyahu opted for peace with HaBayit HaYehudi leader Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman instead.
The PLO official told Al-Monitor that Greenblatt explicitly spoke about the possibility of a two-state solution. What encouraged the Palestinians most was the time element that was emphasized by the envoy when he told his interlocutors that Trump believes the time is ripe for a dealmaking process.
Apart from meeting Abbas, Greenblatt met in Amman with Abdullah, his foreign minister and the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates a crash course in inter-Arab diplomacy. Apparently, the US envoy was so inspired by these meetings that on his way back to Washington he stopped in Tel Aviv to receive a blessing from Rabbi Gershon Edelstein of Ponevezh for his important task.
In parallel, an informal deal is being worked out between the White House and Netanyahus envoys on curbing settlement construction. According to a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official who has the prime ministers ear and spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Israel will constrain its construction to the built-up areas of the settlements, or when not possible to adjacent areas, in order not to hamper Trumps regional peace efforts.
The official told Al-Monitor that the prime ministers office and the Foreign Ministry are supportive of Trumps efforts, but do not believe that Greenblatt will succeed in his efforts in the reasonable future, due to the weak political position of Abbas within the Palestinian Authority. He said, Israel will agree to a regional umbrella for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, only if these negotiations will be bilateral and unconditional. Furthermore, the United States is aware of Netanyahus demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state and that in any solution Israel will maintain security control of the West Bank.
The senior PLO official had a different view of the American effort. The Palestinian leadership was asked to be constructive when Abbas meets later this month with US President Trump in the White House. The main emphasis of the US move is to create a regional framework for dealmaking, he said. He believes that such a framework would be conducive to strengthening the anti-Islamic State coalition as the war against it in Syria and Iraq advances.
Based on his information concerning Greenblatts discussions with Abbas and the other Arab leaders, the PLO official outlined what sort of an initiative the Palestinians, together with Egypt, Jordan and the Arab League, could live with. He argued that reopening negotiations requires recognition by Israel of the two-state solution principle. Also, the basis of negotiations must be the Arab Peace Initiative, i.e., the borders must be based on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital with mutually agreed upon and parallel land swaps. Finally, Israel would join a negotiation track on normalization of relations with the Arab countries.
This is a paradoxical development. After the US elections, the Trump administration was viewed by the Israeli right as a redemption of all anti-settlement and pro-two-state positions of the Obama era. The Palestinians, for their part, saw Trumps victory as the end of the world. Today, positions have changed. The main sense one gets from talking with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials is one of confusion. Despite some similar positions, Trump is not Barack Obama, and he is therefore totally unpredictable. Initial signs indicate that a dealmaking attempt is not out of the question.
April 7, 2017
BEIRUT The Sofil cinema in Beirut hosted a fundraising event March 29 featuring a screening of Stitching Palestine, a documentary directed by Carol Mansour and produced and researched by Muna Khalidi. The occasion was to raise funds for a music program in the Rashidiyyah Palestinian refugee camp, in southern Lebanon.
In Stitching Palestine, 12 high-profile Palestinian women living in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine tell the stories of their exile and their current lives, with the stitching of a piece of embroidery progressing as they tell their stories, linking one to another.
Mansour, founder of Forward Film Production, told Al-Monitor, Four years ago, Muna and I started helping Inaash [Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps] for a project, which was about making 12 embroidery pieces to represent the 12 Palestinian regions [camps in Lebanon]. The project Mansour referred to is Twelve Windows of Palestine, conceived by embroidery collector Malak al-Hussaini Abdul-Rahim and carried out by embroiderers from Inaash.
Mansour further explained, Inaash came to us to exhibit the 12 embroideries, but we ended up developing the idea slowly. We ended up recording the making of one piece that would connect 12 stories of women on Palestine.
For making the documentary, Mansour and Khalidi benefited from a small grant from Taawon-Lebanon, a nonprofit organization providing development and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Palestine and Lebanon since 1983. Taawon also funded the Twelve Windows of Palestine.
Stitching Palestine features prominent women, including entrepreneurs, embroiderers and even a psychotherapist. We chose women with a story to tell coming from different backgrounds, having lived in different countries, professional and diverse women, Khalidi told Al-Monitor. Palestines story is made up of many stories, and the point of view of women is also more personal than the rest. They have a good life, but went through hard moments that a lot of people share and that resonates with the refugees nowadays. It is a global story of loss and displacement.
One woman in the film, Dina Nasser, is a nurse and health adviser who lives in Jerusalem with her children. She cannot live with her husband, who resides elsewhere in the West Bank, because he has different legal residency. In the film, Nasser says, They [Israeli officials] were telling me, You dont exist. We dont exist? We are here, we exist.
Mansour and Khalidi, both Palestinian, chose to make Stitching Palestine because they wanted to talk about an issue close to them in a way not typically seen in the media. Mansour noted, There are a lot of films about Palestine, but its only about drama, about crying. Khalidi added, Also, the film allows women to speak for themselves. There is no scripting. It is to make people think and be curious.
One memorable woman from Stitching Palestine is Leila Atshan, a psychotherapist who lives in Ramallah. She came to Beirut for the screening. In the film, she recalled stories of her mother, a very strong woman still present in her life. I hope this movie will bring the issue of Palestine in a different way, through powerful women, Atshan told Al-Monitor. Women are easy to undermine, [but] they are the ones preserving the heritage, through embroideries for example, and society.
Atshan was happy that the money raised from the screening would go to the childrens music program of Beit Atfal as-Somoud, an initiative founded in 2002 in collaboration with the Norwegian Academy of Music. Children experiencing trauma and hardship, and even children whose parents went through exile, will inherit feelings such as a lack of confidence and predictability, Atshan explained to Al-Monitor. And I really think art can bring joy and relief to people in pain.
Mahmoud Zeidan, director of the Rashidiyyah center, told Al-Monitor, Music plays an important role for mental health and education. Music helps children suffering from depression or isolation, and also from school difficulties.
More than 80 children from ages 6 to 18 attend free music lessons twice a week, studying violin, guitar, keyboard, saxophone, percussion, bass guitar and xylophone, along with vocalization and singing. They also learn the dabke, the Levantine folk dance. The program currently employs seven Palestinian music teachers.
This camp is like a ghetto. There is only one gate, Zeidan explained. We have economic, health and work issues. There is no opportunity here. At least, from these times of music, children relax and gain some self-confidence.
Erling Lorentzen Sogge, a doctoral fellow in the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at Oslo University, explained the importance of Palestinians living in Lebanon under harsh conditions having a space where they can enjoy themselves.
The roughly 300,000 Palestinians that currently reside in Lebanon are subject to repressive law making, which has them living in the socio-economic margins of their host state, Sogge told Al-Monitor. On their fourth generation in Lebanon since the Nakba [or Catastrophe] of 1948, Palestinians still cannot own property, inherit or become Lebanese nationals while work permits are generally hard to come by. Around 56% of Palestinians in Lebanon are unemployed, while the number is closer to 90% for Palestinians coming from Syria. Even those who are able to find work are largely condemned to black labor, where job security and contracts are a rare thing. Therefore, it is perhaps not strange that roughly half of Lebanon's Palestinians live within the country's 12 official refugee camps, where many rely on the support offered by the UN's Work and Relief Agency for Palestinians in the Near East.
Stitching Palestine gives new voice to Palestine through the women it presents and, with the screening fundraiser at the Sofil, the film found a way to encourage other voices and allow them to perhaps find some relief for a time through music and dance.
April 7, 2017
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Stories and folktales are some of the oldest narrative forms in Arabic literature. There is no accurate history of their origin, but according to history studies this type of narration emerged in prehistoric times, when men communicated through signs and gestures, before acquiring a language.
Although storytelling is normally reserved for the elderly, Hamza Aqrabawi from the West Bank city of Nablus has turned his hobby into a full-time occupation.
Storytelling is a traditional practice that involves a person telling folktales in homes, shops, restaurants and in the streets. The storyteller impersonates his characters in the stories and keeps his audience hooked on knowing how the story unfolds.
Aqrabawi memorizes popular heritage stories, proverbs, jokes and folktales related to daily life in the Palestinian territories. He also works as a tour guide in Palestinian cities and villages, taking people on field trips that aim at connecting the story to its place of occurrence.
In 2006, Aqrabawi started documenting unwritten history through interviews with the elderly in his hometown of Aqraba in the south of Nablus and in the surrounding areas.
Aqrabawi told Al-Monitor, I embarked on this path despite societys ignorance of what I was doing. My friends were surprised and thought it was a waste of time. But, thank God, I overcame this phase. I am working on serving Palestinian heritage.
He added, I searched for stories and collected story books, conducted interviews, read books and historical references and immersed myself in the topics I was researching. I ended up having a series of stories that would stick in peoples memories.
Aqrabawi said he started collecting books and encyclopedias about Palestinian history and heritage, spending 500 Israeli shekels (around $150) per month. He bought the books from a large bookshop in Ramallah in the West Bank. He then started collecting historical books from abroad.
He has bought books from Arab countries, including Yemen, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. He now owns a library containing more than a thousand books and references in English and Arabic. He aspires to set up the first reference library in popular heritage in the Palestinian territories.
The memory of people and land is my field of research, work and interest. I am willing to take any path that would serve my goals, including the studies and articles I publish, the guided tours and trips I organize, and the festivals and stories where I appear as a storyteller," he said.
Aqrabawi believes in the value of what he does, saying, I am aware of the importance of these tours in creating a relationship between the Palestinian and his land. How can you love your country if you have not explored it? My stories revive the memory of the land and the individual.
He recalled his exploration tour to the coastal city of Jaffa last year, where he saw Jaffas beach for the first time in his life. The feeling I had at that moment still dwells in my soul," he said.
Aqrabawi, a volunteer youth activist in the village of Aqraba, pointed out that his first trip to an archaeological site in Aqraba was in 2009, accompanied by two youths from his village. He recalled how he took photos of the archaeological site and its surroundings, and collected and documented all the information he could find.
He explained that subsequently he started organizing tours for youth groups in his village and the neighboring villages, during which he started telling stories and folktales. These tours were the starting point of his storytelling and touring journeys.
Aqrabawi also participated in local Arab art evenings, festivals and theater performances, and took part along with 18 Palestinian folktale storytellers in the Tales of Land and Water festival, held in Qalqilya city in the northern West Bank on March 21.
In 2016, he participated in the Arab Storytelling Training and Apprenticeship (Mujawara) in Jordan, which brought together a number of the most well-known and skilled storytellers in the Arab world. He also participated in the 9th Hakaya Festival in Jordan and Carthage Theater Festival the same year, where he told his own stories and folktales.
Nisreen Samad, 22, admires Aqrabawis activities and told Al-Monitor, "It is nice of him to revive an old traditional habit. She said that the idea of exploration tours to touristic and archaeological sites in Palestinian towns is a practical step that strengthens a mans relation to his own land.
This could be beneficial to school and university students in the West Bank, as part of the cultural rituals aimed to promote the Palestinian sense of identity, she said.
Meanwhile, Raed Hussein, 25, boasted that he had been part of the youth groups exploring Palestinian towns and villages and listened to Aqrabawis stories. He told Al-Monitor that these tours are usually formed of a group of young tourists and amateurs who roam the archaeological sites, accompanied by Aqrabawi who will talk to them about the history and importance of the sites and tell his own stories about them.
He said, Hamza is an ambitious young man. He has wonderful storytelling skills and can capture the attention of his listeners. It is important that he nurtures his ambition to represent his homeland.
Aqrabawi aspires to turn his exploration tours into a public cultural activity that allows Palestinians to recognize the value of their homeland, by maintaining a direct relationship with their land rather than through social media photos and posts.
He also seeks to organize storytelling festivals to bring stories back to the center of the learning process and to keep traditional stories alive by passing them on.
I am proud to be a simple farmer hailing from a family of village farmers. My parents taught me to love my land and created in me a strong sense of belonging to my homeland. This was the greatest treasure I inherited from my father and mother, Aqrabawi said.
Dozens of Palestinians both women and men are engaging in storytelling, and the Palestinian Ministry of Culture is organizing storytelling sessions and graduating many trainees. Folktales play a role worthy of praise in supporting Palestinian heritage.
Editor's note: This article has been updated since its initial publication.
April 7, 2017
The Qatari Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) on March 14 issued the 2016 results of the Arab Index, its annual survey of Arab public opinion. The center dispatched 840 Doha-based researchers to Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Palestine to conduct polls last Sept. 7-22 on various issues, including how Palestinians view the foreign policies adopted by Middle Eastern and international powers. According to the survey, Palestinians have a negative impression of Iranian policy in the region, especially in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya, and of its stance toward the Palestinian cause.
Ahmad Hussein, a Palestinian researcher at ACRPS, told Al-Monitor, The survey showed that Palestinians have a negative view toward Iran, which contributes to the regions crises and fuels sectarian and ethnic disputes in order to play a more effective, influential role. Seventy percent of Palestinians believe Iranian policy toward the Arab region is negative.
Hussein also said, These figures mean that the Palestinians do not really believe in the credibility of the Iranian discourse on Palestine. Seventy-two percent of them believe that Iran is exploiting the crises in the region to expand its influence and seek a wider role, while 65% reject the idea that Iran supports a democratic shift in the Arab countries.
In short, it seems, a large segment of Palestinians is unconvinced of true Iranian support of the Palestinian cause, as they believe such a stance flies in the face of Tehran's policies toward their fellow Arab Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Remarkably, Palestinians still think badly of Irans policies in the region, although Tehran's stated positions appear to be supportive of the Palestinian cause. For instance, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Feb. 21 that supporting the Palestinian resistance is a duty for all Muslims, because it has succeeded in undermining Israeli efforts against the Palestinians. He added that Iran's stance is based on principle and does not favor one Palestinian faction over the other, as demonstrated in Tehran's foreign diplomatic discourse and its financial and military support of Palestinian factions.
Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, Hamas is assessing its relations with regional countries, including Iran, to mobilize regional and international positions in support of the Palestinian people and to strengthen its steadfastness on its territories as well as reinforce the resistance. The movement is trying to steer clear of the sectarian considerations that divide the Islamic nation by refraining from interfering in other countries internal affairs and avoiding taking sides.
Hamas seems to be aware that it is not on the best of terms with some Arab states, namely Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which is why it might seem to be holding on to its relationship with Iran, which continues to provide it financial and military support despite the movement not always agreeing with Irans policy in the region for instance, in Syria.
Hussein Ruyuran, a political science professor at the University of Tehran with close ties to Iranian decision-making circles, told Al-Monitor, This survey is inaccurate, because it ignores the fact that Iran is ideologically committed to the Palestinian cause and does not use it as a political tool. Iran continues to support Palestinian factions regardless of the policy it adopts toward other regional issues. This survey was conducted as sectarian polarization is at its peak.
Ruyuran added, Palestinians see themselves as closer to Sunni countries, such as Turkey, which have failed to provide the slightest [military] support, than to Shiite Iran, which supplied them with a military arsenal. Palestinian factions appear to be embarrassed about communicating with Iran, given the sensitivity of the sectarian situation. Hamas, as a religious movement, may be divided over the Iranian military and financial support. The military leadership wants this support to continue and increase, but its political leadership has other considerations, due to sectarian tension, and does not want to anger Arab and Islamic Sunni nations, especially Gulf countries, by maintaining relations with Iran. Meanwhile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP], as a left-wing organization that is not religiously oriented, welcomes cooperation with Iran without any sectarian reservations. So the problem lies with the Palestinians, not Iran.
Kayed al-Ghoul, a member of the PFLPs political bureau, told Al-Monitor, Our relationship with Iran is based on its support of the Palestinian cause and because we are against turning the conflict into a sectarian one. We agree with Iran that the common enemy is Israel, and this is why Iran supports the resistance and refrains from interfering with Palestinian affairs and affecting our positions. When we see faulty Iranian policies in the region, we have the courage to say so, but at the same time, we believe some Arab countries no need to mention names want to make Iran an enemy of Arabs instead of Israel.
Nonetheless, relations between the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and Iran are not at their best. Tensions escalated in August 2016 when President Mahmoud Abbas met with Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi in Paris. The meeting drew harsh responses from Tehran. In a more recent sign of tensions, Anwar Zakaria, assistant undersecretary at the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Education Ministry, said in a March 25 press statement that his ministry does not recognize degrees issued by Iranian universities in the absence of official relations with the Education Ministry in Tehran. The undersecretary of the Hamas-affiliated Education Ministry in Gaza, Ziad Thabet, confirmed the PA's decision in a press statement on the same day, but without providing reasons.
A Palestinian official close to Abbas told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Iran continues to support Palestinian factions, both on the military and financial levels, regardless of any negative assessment of its regional policies on the Palestinians part. This support helps Iran to achieve its political interests in the region, in terms of confronting Arab countries, and shows the Arab public opinion that Iran continues to back the Palestinians regardless of sectarian polarization between Sunnis and Shiites.
Although Iranian leaders might not appreciate the Palestinians negative assessment of their policies, they do not necessarily need to change them, because they assume Palestinian factions want and need its financial and military support. On the other hand, Tehran is anxious to support the Palestinians, as its assistance could earn it goodwill among Arabs, given the number of Arabs who see Iran as targeting Sunni Arabs in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Iranian support for the Palestinians is thus a mutual interest, not necessarily a strategic alliance.
April 10, 2017
WASHINGTON Privately, Russian officials are furious with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected April 4 chemical weapons attack in Idlib province that killed over 80 people, Russia analysts said. They see it as threatening to sabotage the potential for US-Russia rapprochement ahead of US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons first visit to Moscow this week.
But Russia is also confused by what it perceives as contradictory statements from various top Trump Cabinet officials on whether US policy is shifting to demand Assads ouster, to what degree does the United States think Russia is culpable for Assads behavior, and more broadly, who from the administration speaks for Donald Trump, they said.
Assad committed suicide here, Michael Kofman, a Russia military expert with the Kennan Institute, told Al-Monitor in an interview April 10. Russia will never forgive him for this.
The suspected April 4 nerve gas attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun that killed over 80 people, many of them children, is a complete disaster for Russia, Kofman said. It destroyed the legacy of the 2013 deal [to remove Syrias chemical weapons] that both countries [the United States and Russia] certified. So it made liars of both of us.
He noted, It provided all the ammunition to sabotage rapprochement between the United States and Russia. Look at the atmospherics. It caused public embarrassment. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has to swallow US cruise missile strikes. Notice he has not defended Assad. It looks bad for Russia.
Kofman added, It demonstrates in terms of Putin being a power broker that the Russian role is very aspirational. It prevented him from doing this.
The Russians werent happy about what happened, Nikolas Gvosdev, a Russia expert and professor at the US Naval War College, told Al-Monitor, referring to the April 4 chemical weapons attack. They dont like unpredictability when things happen that throw what they are planning off course.
The Russians dont like to be surprised, Gvosdev added. They dont like [to be made to] look like they cant enforce agreements or dont have as much influence over Assad as they were suggesting.
Trump discussed Syria during a phone call with British Prime Minister Theresa May on April 10, and according to the British readout, the two leaders said they saw an opportunity to press Russia to break its alliance with Assad.
May and Trump agreed that a window of opportunity now exists in which to persuade Russia that its alliance with Assad is no longer in its strategic interest, a Downing Street spokesman said in a press release.
While US officials have said the US cruise missile strikes on the Shayrat air base on April 6 were to punish and deter Syrias use of chemical weapons, there has been some confusion caused by statements from different Trump Cabinet officials on whether US policy is creeping toward regime change. US officials, including US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, have also suggested Russia was either complicit or incompetent for Assads chemical weapons attack. They have expressed anger that Russia has, in their opinion, tried to publicly sow disinformation about it.
You know the interesting thing, Chuck, is when this chemical weapons murder happened to so many people, Russias reaction was not oh how horrible or how could they do this to innocent children or how awful is that, Haley told Chuck Todd of NBC's "Meet the Press" on April 9. Their initial reaction was Assad didn't do it, the Syrian government didn't do it.
Why were they that defensive that quick? Haley continued. The first priority for them was to cover for Assad. So what we knew from intelligence, that the Syrian regime had done this again, as they had done so many times before. We had evidence they had done it. It's obviously classified, so Im not the one that would release the information, but it was enough that the president knew.
Even while pressuring Russia because of its diplomatic and military support to Assad, McMaster reiterated that the United States is still looking for a political resolution to end Syrias civil war.
What we really need to do, and what everyone who's involved in this conflict needs to do, is to do everything they can to resolve this civil war, McMaster told Fox News Sundays Chris Wallace April 9.
Whats required is some kind of a political solution to that very complex problem, and it's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation [of] the Assad regime, McMaster said. Now were not saying that we are the ones who are going to affect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves, what are we doing here? Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population and using the most heinous weapons available?
Tillerson, who is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow April 12, expressed disappointment at Russias public criticism of the US airstrikes, but he said he did not conclude Russia was complicit in the Syrian regimes suspected chemical weapons attack.
Im not seeing any hard evidence that connects the Russians directly to the planning or execution of this particular chemical weapons attack, and indeed, thats why weve been trying to be very clear that the Russians were never targeted in this strike, Tillerson told George Stephanopoulos of ABC's "This Week" on April 9.
Why Russia has not been able to achieve that [removal of Syrias residual chemical weapons] is unclear to me, Tillerson said. I dont draw conclusions of complicity at all; but clearly, theyve been incompetent, and perhaps theyve just simply been outmaneuvered by the Syrians.
But Tillerson said he still holds out hope for productive talks with the Russians when he travels there this week, and he hopes Russia can press Assad to never use chemical weapons again.
Im hopeful that we can have constructive talks with the Russian government, with Foreign Minister Lavrov, and have Russia be supportive of a process that will lead to a stable Syria, Tillerson said. Clearly, they have the greatest influence on Bashar al-Assad and certainly his decisions to use chemical weapons. They should have the greatest influence on him to cause him to no longer use those. I hope that Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer in to some level of responsibility.
The changing US calculus on Assad and Russia is making it harder to see what Russia and the United States would be negotiating when Tillerson meets Lavrov April 12, Gvosdev said.
The ask and the give are harder to ascertain, Gvosdev said. Two weeks ago, it was how do we move this [Syria] political process along.
But now Tillerson is likely to tell the Russians that domestic politics in the United States is playing a bigger role in this, and I can offer you less upfront, Gvosdev speculated. At a time when the Russian establishment very much wants certain things upfront.
We are no longer talking about sanctions relief, [but how to] prevent new sanctions from being imposed, Gvosdev said.
Assads actions have upended what was an important foreign policy priority for Putin exploring the potential for cooperation with the United States on Syria and a possible rapprochement and have seemingly taken sanctions relief off the table for discussion for now, and Russia will not forgive him, Kofman said.
They are furious; it is very clear, Kofman said, noting that there has been no actual statement from Putin in support of Assad.
That is why I am saying he has signed his own political death warrant, Kofman said of Assad. They [the Russians] will never forgive him. They will wait. The time will come when Syria is stabilized, and they can actually have a change of power at the top. And then come for him.
April 7, 2017
Saudi state-owned Aramco on March 27 appointed Samba Capital to be the adviser on an initial public offering (IPO) that could generate $100 billion, which would be the largest IPO in history. Saudi Minister of Energy, Industrial and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih said Aug. 28 that the Aramco IPO is scheduled for early 2018. This shows that the Saudi government turned a blind eye to citizens who expressed their opposition to and concerns about the IPO.
The chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, announced Jan. 7 the Saudi governments decision to list 5% of Aramcos shares. The announcement has raised wide criticism with Saudi economic experts, most prominently among them Barjas al-Barjas, the former analysis consultant at Aramcos Strategic Planning Department. In a Jan. 17 article, he said the move by the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, chaired by Prince Mohammed, is designed to attract funds as soon as possible. He said that it is unsafe for the future of the Saudi economy and would bring greater risks.
The experts criticism shed light on the freedom of expression concerning sovereign decisions in Saudi Arabia, and resulted in a large social segment announcing Feb. 11 on Twitter with the Arabic hashtag that translates to #Thepeople_Oppose_Aramco_Sale that was used in more than 30,000 tweets that they oppose the IPO.
Following the criticism, Saudi Commerce and Investment Minister Majed al-Qusaibi justified the decision. On Feb. 12, he said the IPO offering does not represent "selling the company," and made reassurances that the state will continue to own an overwhelming majority of shares, guaranteeing its control over Aramco.
Saudi human rights activist Abdullah al-Nasseri told Al-Monitor over the phone that freedom of expression exists in Saudi Arabia when it comes to the debate over economy-related issues, and that this freedom has reached a record level. He explained that this freedom is an undeniable fact, given that the issue was boldly addressed and raised objective criticism. Nasseri, however, said that freedom of expression has declined to unprecedented levels in human rights and political issues, but did not provide examples.
Mohammed al-Muadi, a spokesman for the Saudi Human Rights Commission, told Al-Monitor that Saudi regulations, based on Sharia, safeguard legitimate means of expression and guarantee communication between citizens and their officials at all levels to achieve the greater good in accordance with Article 43 of the 1992 Basic Law of Government. It stipulates, The king's court and that of the crown prince shall be open to all citizens and to anyone who has a complaint or a plea against an injustice. Every individual shall have a right to address the public authority in all matters affecting him.
Muadi said that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression as long as this freedom does not prejudice public order, the community and social constants. He added that although it is a form of restriction, this restriction does not contradict the laws and regulations, as Article 39 of the Basic Law of Government states that all media outlets shall employ courteous language and abide by the state's regulations to contribute to the countrys education and foster its unity.
He said Saudi Arabia prohibits any opinions that would stir strife and division, or would prejudice the countrys security and foreign relations, or are deemed offensive to human dignity and rights. Muadi said that these restrictions are in harmony with Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others.
Muadi believes that all Saudi citizens are granted full civil and political rights, guaranteeing the right of every person to embrace his opinions without any harassment.
A state of despair continues to prevail over Saudi civil servants as decreased oil revenues have caused monthly salaries to decline following a government decision on Sept. 26. This is added to the delayed Citizens Account Program, which was approved Dec. 22 by the Saudi Cabinet to enhance citizens living conditions following the raising prices of basic services such as fuel, electricity and water.
In terms of freedom of expression, the Saudis are more likely to articulate their opinions on Twitter than in local newspapers. Mohammed al-Bishr, the head of the Center for Global Thought on Saudi Arabia, told Al-Monitor that citizens are not interested in newspapers whose editors-in-chief oppose freedom of expression.
Bishr said that for many years the editors-in-chief of local newspapers have opted for writers who have placed their personal interests and orientations over the countrys and citizens genuine interests, with readers' comments not including the opinions of ordinary citizens. He said that this has resulted in many readers refraining from reading newspapers and instead resorting to Twitter, where they feel less restricted in expressing their opinions. According to Bishr, Saudi newspapers are subject to both government censorship and control of these newspapers officials, which have prevented them from reporting things as they are in reality.
On Aug. 31, the Communications and Information Technology Commission reported that there are more than 22 million internet users in Saudi Arabia. Also, a recent study announced at the Gulf Youth Media Forum in Riyadh said that 11 million Saudis have Twitter accounts and account for 33% of the tweets in the Middle East.
The editor-in-chief of Al Riyadh newspaper, Suleiman al-Osaimi, said Oct. 3 that public responsiveness to Twitter has widely affected Saudi newspapers, whose profits decreased in 2016, causing salary delays and layoffs. In addition, economic conditions have led to declining ads and subscriptions, which are a major source of revenue, while electronic journalism has been on the rise.
April 10, 2017
CAIRO The conflict over the Halayeb triangle, a small border region claimed by Cairo and Khartoum, has surfaced again as Sudan announced on March 20 the formation of a committee to demarcate the Sudanese border and to settle the issue of the border triangle area of Halayeb, Abu Ramad and Shalateen. The committee will also expel Egyptians by diplomatic means, as per press statements made by Abdullah al-Sadiq, the head of the Technical Committee for Border Demarcation. This exacerbated the strained relations between Egypt and Sudan over the ownership of this region.
Sadiq told the Sudanese Media Center that the committee held a meeting in preparation for laying down the work parameters and setting a road map concerning the region.
In another press statement made on the same day to the Sudan Tribune newspaper, Sadiq said that the Sudanese Foreign Ministry invited several parties from Sudan, including the ministries of Justice, Interior and Foreign Affairs, the National Records Office of Sudan, and the Technical Committee for Border Demarcation in order to compile the work of previous committees on Halayeb and Shalateen and update their findings.
The Egyptian-Sudanese conflict over the Halayeb and Shalateen region erupted amid two conflicting claims over the border issue. While Sudan believes it is entitled to impose its sovereignty over the triangle because it is part of the Sudanese territories, Egypt says that the triangle is Egyptian and rejects any international arbitration attempt. Amid this Egyptian categorical rejection of international arbitration or any political negotiations, for that matter Sudan used the term expel in reference to expelling Egyptians from the area.
These statements provoked wide reactions on the Egyptian street, as members of parliament launched a sharp attack on the Sudanese side, especially considering that this is the first time Sudan took the Halayeb and Shalateen issue to this level.
On March 21, Maj. Gen. Kamal Amer, the head of the Egyptian parliaments National Defense and Security Committee, told parliamentary reporters, Neither the Egyptian people nor the armed forces will let go of a single centimeter of the Egyptian territory.
Since the era of Muhammad [Ali Pasha] from 1805 to 1848, the King of Egypt was called the King of Egypt and Sudan. But out of the Egyptian states loyalty to its Sudanese brothers, Sudan was granted independence in 1905 upon its request, and the Sudanese are well-aware that the area is Egyptian. We wish to remind everyone that Egypt is a country of peace and civilization and there is no way it could ever desire other peoples lands. Its people and armed forces will not accept to let go of a single centimeter of their territory with all due respect to the Sudanese people, he added.
For its part, the African Affairs Committee in the Egyptian parliament launched a sharp attack on Sudan, as its chairman Gen. Hatim Bishat said in a press statement March 21, The Sudanese Ambassador in Cairo Abdel Mahmoud Abdel Halim is well-aware that the Halayeb and Shalateen area is fully Egyptian and can respond to Sadiqs statements.
He added, The Halayeb and Shalateen residents are subordinate to Egypt, and all the services provided there are Egyptian, so I call on the Sudanese president to reconsider his vision and avoid creating problems every now and then.
These developments came after Egyptian media outlets criticized the visit made by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thanis mother Sheikha Mozah to Sudan March 16, following her visit to the Sudanese Albajrawia pyramids. Egyptian journalists considered this to be an insult to the Egyptian pyramids.
We suddenly started hearing that Sudan has pyramids amid Qatari reports that the Sudanese pyramids are more ancient than the Egyptian ones. These are cheap words that do not deserve to be answered, media figure Mohammed al-Ghaiti said March 16 on his Sah el-Nom show broadcast on the LTC TV channel.
Sudans Ambassador Abdel Halim responded by saying in a press statement March 20, The Egyptian media outlets have launched a systematic campaign against Sudan mocking its history.
Meanwhile, Information Minister and spokesman for the Sudanese government Ahmed Bilal Osman described the Egyptian media campaign as being bad to the Sudanese civilization and monuments, stressing that Khartoum will deal with the remarks with all seriousness. Several hours later, Sudan announced the formation of a committee to settle the case of Halayeb and Shalateen.
The Halayeb and Shalateen area stretches over 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles) in southeastern Egypt and northeastern Sudan, on the border between both countries. It includes several villages, namely the villages of Halayeb, Abu Ramad, Ras Hadarba, Marsa Hamira and Abrak, with a population of 27,000 people.
For Egypt, the Halayeb region has an important strategic dimension as it exposes its southern border on the Red Sea coast and makes it vulnerable, thus threatening its national security. Meanwhile, Sudan views the region as important to maintaining Sudan's unity and political stability as it constitutes a political and geographical continuation for the country on the Red Sea coast, in addition to its commercial and economic importance for both countries.
On April 17, 2016, Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs made an official statement calling for direct negotiations on the Halayeb and Shalateen triangle or for resorting to international arbitration in compliance with international laws and covenants.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry immediately responded to the statement and said it refuses any direct negotiations over the Halayeb and Shalateen areas. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a brief statement that Halayeb and Shalateen are Egyptian territories subject to Egyptian sovereignty, and that Egypt had no additional comment to make on the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.
International arbitration requires the consent of both countries, and Egypt refuses arbitration in the case of Halayeb and Shalateen.
Muna Omar, the assistant to the former Egyptian foreign minister for African affairs, told Al-Monitor, Sudan knows very well that these lands are Egyptian and that Egypt has never and will never give up on any centimeter. Therefore, Sudans escalation, threats and formation of a committee to expel Egyptians from the area is very serious and will inflict damage to the interests of the two countries.
Omar said, Halayeb is home to Egyptians who live by Egyptian customs and traditions, who have Egyptian identification papers and who belong to the Egyptian state, so how would it be possible to expel these from there?
She added, We have thousands of Sudanese citizens living and working in Egypt. And there are Egyptians living in Sudan. There are also brotherly relations and a history linking the two countries, and such acts will negatively affect these relations. Sudan has to stop issuing statements that are hostile to Egypt and close the dossier of Halayeb and Shalateen once and for all."
Resorting to international arbitration will by no means benefit Sudan, as the Egyptian state has documents that confirm that the land is Egyptian, and Sudan will not be able to move forward alone. I demand that this dossier be completely closed, she concluded.
The technical committee formed by Sudan did not issue any report as of yet amid much anticipation and anger on the part of the Egyptian parliament and media outlets.
April 10, 2017
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey With pollsters predicting a close race in Turkeys referendum on April 16, fears of electoral fraud and government meddling are more relevant than ever, fueled by the extraordinary powers the government wields under the state of emergency. The run-up to the plebiscite, which will seal the fate of constitutional changes designed to install an omnipotent presidency, is seen as writing on the wall as no campaigners nationalists, social democrats and Kurds alike face daily obstructions and bullying, including physical assaults.
While the entire no camp is apprehensive, the situation in the southeast where the Kurdish vote will be of critical importance is particularly sensitive. The regions cities the scene of a devastating crackdown on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) last year have seen thousands of people displaced, while hundreds of Kurdish politicians, including party leaders, lawmakers and mayors have landed in jail. Badly crippled, the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), the main Kurdish political force, is trying to soldier on with its no campaign against its main rival, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which also enjoys a strong base among the Kurds.
HDP members say they face the unchecked power of the government, reflected not only in obstructions to their campaigns but also in moves to keep party activists away from polling stations on voting day.
On April 6, for instance, HDP lawmaker Selma Irmak submitted a parliamentary question to the justice minister, saying that electoral authorities had rejected all 151 individuals the party had nominated for duties at polling stations in the city of Hakkari, without providing any reason. She called for an explanation on assessment criteria, asking, How likely it is that all those 151 individuals are criminals? Is not [their wholesale rejection] casting shadows on the credibility and fairness of the referendum?
It was the latest in a string of complaints concerning rejected or canceled nominations, including claims that large numbers of people from pro-AKP trade unions had been appointed to preside over ballot boxes.
Another major concern stems from the displacement of thousands of Kurds in last years security crackdown, which led to massive destruction in residential areas, especially in Diyarbakir the largest city in the southeast and towns such as Nusaybin, Sirnak, Cizre and Silopi. Some neighborhoods were completely razed to the ground, while others remain off limits to residents. The polling stations of those areas have been transferred to other neighborhoods, but how those changes and the population movements will play out on voting day remains to be seen.
Above all, the fact that the referendum is held under a state of emergency in place since the coup attempt last year remains an overriding concern for the entire no camp.
Sibel Yigitalp an HDP deputy for Diyarbakir told Al-Monitor that public officials in the southeast were frequently overstepping the law, eager to please the government. Even our no campaigns are being impeded. Our vehicles are being confiscated, campaign workers are being detained and people we nominate for electoral councils are being rejected, she said. The imprisonment of our co-chairs, lawmakers and mayors has created unequal conditions from the very start.
For Yigitalp, the state of emergency means that anything can be expected on voting day. There are public administrators who are emboldened by the state of emergency and feel obliged to do whatever the government says, acting outside the law. One can even question whether the referendum will be really a referendum under such circumstances, she said. We are very much worried. There is no one to resort to against all those unlawful practices, so we dont know what to expect. We are faced with an unchecked power.
In previous elections, concerns over election security pertained mostly to areas where the PKK was active. Ankara claimed the PKK and its supporters influenced voters through pressure and intimidation, while Kurdish parties leveled similar accusations against the security forces. Today, however, AKP members in the region seem relaxed.
The head of the AKPs Diyarbakir branch, Muhammet Akar, told Al-Monitor he had no serious concerns over election security this time. High-level security measures are in place both in rural areas and urban centers. In addition, voters have become more conscious and capable of protecting their votes, Akar said.
He was confident that the vote would be free and fair. Everyone will vote with their free will. All measures have been taken to ensure election and voter security, Akar said. We will neither allow anyones vote to be stolen nor let our vote to be stolen.
Despite such assurances, voters remain wary. Im concerned [over irregularities] because there were always problems with ballot boxes in the past, a voter, who requested anonymity, told Al-Monitor. I dont expect systematic pressure on voters but individual pressures at certain places. Im concerned mostly about rural areas.
Shopkeeper Abdulkerim Akkus believes that the vote will be largely fraud-free and that the Kurds will show their real strength at the referendum. But my real concern is that the government might cancel the vote if it sees the no vote prevailing, he said.
Kurds who had served at polling stations in the past say problems of election security and electoral fraud are more pronounced in rural areas. Thus, they say, polling station officers and volunteer observers are important, but many people today are scared to volunteer for such duties.
Recalling his experience at the last election, a former volunteer said, There were attempts [by some] to vote for people who did not show up and to falsify numbers when writing the counting reports. The atmosphere was more relaxed at the time, but now no one would like to volunteer for such duties.
In a parliamentary question last week, Aycan Irmez, an HDP deputy for Sirnak province, exposed another aspect of the partys concerns. She claimed the government was handing out money to impoverished people in Silopi, one of the worst-hit towns in the security crackdown, to cajole them into backing the amendments. Having condemned the people of Silopi to poverty, the government is now distributing money under the name of assistance just days before the referendum to secure the yes vote, Irmez said. She slammed the governments unethical campaigning methods, adding that the Sirnak governor had earlier warned locals that their homes would not be rebuilt if the no vote prevails in their neighborhoods.
April 10, 2017
Much of what has happened in Syria since the April 4 chemical weapons attack that killed more than 70 civilians in the town of Khan Sheikhoun is old wine in old bottles. Though embarrassed by the episode, Russia and Iran, supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is the suspected culprit, have warned the United States not to launch additional missile strikes like those launched April 7 against a regime-held air base. Hoping to deflect the blame from Assad, Moscow and Tehran have called for a thorough and impartial investigation of the Khan Sheikhoun massacre.
Meanwhile, the Assad regime has accused the opposition and its sympathizers of carrying out a false flag operation, the same accusation it made after the chemical attacks in Ghouta, near Damascus, in August 2013.
It may appear that the US attack against the Shayrat air base is a game changer in Syrias six-year civil war, but in fact, the administration of President Donald Trump appears to have gone back to the position on Assad held by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Although US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said March 30 that the United States' priority is no longer getting Assad out, after Khan Sheikhoun, the Trump administration is now calling regime change in Syria and Assads departure inevitable. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, much like his predecessor, John Kerry, is expected to seek common ground with Russia when he visits Moscow on April 12.
In this context, Turkey has sensed an opportunity and revived its old arguments against the Assad regime. During a rally in the southeastern province of Hakkari on April 7, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called for the creation of a safe zone in Syria. In a phone call with US Vice President Mike Pence on April 8, Yildirim said, Turkey is ready to provide all kinds of support in Syria. He added, A no-fly zone should be considered to prevent attacks similar to the Assad regime's chemical airstrike. As can be expected, Ankara welcomed the US missile strikes against the Assad regime and called for the Syrian presidents ouster.
Interestingly, Ankara had toned down its rhetoric against Assad last summer, to avoid jeopardizing its newfound alliance with Moscow. The Russian-Turkish rapprochement had allowed Ankara to support its Free Syrian Army allies and militarily intervene in northern Syria as part of Operation Euphrates Shield. Now that Euphrates Shield has ended, and Turkey has at least for now secured its basic objective of denying Syrian Kurds a contiguous autonomous zone in northern Syria, it appears to have expanded its aims.
With so many problems at home and abroad, however, can Ankara afford to confront Russia over Assads future? Probably not. As several news outlets have reported in the past few days, Turkey has maintained a healthy distance from the United States and Russia. On April 9, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists that Ankara is not picking sides between Russia and the United States.
For the foreseeable future, that seems like a smart move for Turkeys national interests.
Camp Hill's Langley Farms has been honored as the state's farm of distinction for 2017.
Chris and Elizabeth Langley of Chambers County were recognized at the Farm-City Awards in Birmingham last week.
As this year's winner, the farm received $12,000 in cash and prizes and will represent Alabama in the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year contest at the Sunbelt Ag Expo Oct. 17 through 19 in Moultrie, Ga.
The Langleys were selected from six finalists, including Tony Beck of TWB Farms in Crenshaw County; Dakota and Amanda Caraway of Caraway Farms in Covington County; Todd and Hope Cassebaum of Cassebaum Farms in Baldwin County; Bill and Carol Freeman of Timberland Cattle in Lamar County and Nick and Freida McMichen of McMichen Farm in Cherokee County. All six finalists will receive a $250 Alabama Farmers Cooperative gift certificate.
As winners, the Langleys received a John Deere Gator, a $1,000 gift certificate from AFC, $2,500 from Swisher International and an engraved farm sign from Alabama Farmers Federation and Alfa Insurance.
The Langleys are county and state leaders in the Alabama Farmers Federation and Alabama Cattlemen's Association. Their past honors include being named the state's Outstanding Young Farm Family in 1996.
Chris Langley began farming as a teenager and used proceeds from sales to purchase his first beef heifer and logging equipment. Today, his timber management company operates three fully-mechanized logging crews, and Langley Farms includes a 320-cow commercial beef herd on 2,650 acres of timber, hay and grazing land. The Langleys have four children.
"My philosophy of farming is the harder you work and the more you put in it, the more you'll have and get out of it," Langley said.
A new leader is taking the helm at Rocket Hatch in Huntsville.
Matt Jones. (Courtesy)
Matt Jones, formerly of DesignLab, has stepped in as interim executive director following the resignation of Rocket Hatch founder Antonio Montoya last month.
Rocket Hatch was created three years ago to accelerate the startup community in North Alabama. Jones, who has been with Rocket Hatch since it was an idea in a coffee shop, said the organization is at a key transition point right now.
Jones has served in a number of roles throughout his career with nonprofit organizations. He said he is typically brought in when an organization is stuck, searching for a clear direction or navigating a challenging transition.
"Anytime you change leadership you have that, but when it's the change from the founder it's even more pronounced," he told AL.com. "I believe my skill set and experience make this a great fit for Rocket Hatch at this time."
Jones met Montoya through a mutual friend, Marcus Neto, in Mobile. The duo did not know each other but had been talking with Neto individually about how to help entrepreneurs in the area.
Antonio Montoya. (File)
While Montoya wanted to focus on business and technology, Jones said he wanted to focus on the social sector. Neto suggested the two get together to collaborate, and the rest of history.
"His idea became Rocket Hatch and mine became DesignLab - Huntsville," he said. "There was a lot of collaboration between the two entities both publicly and personally."
Montoya was recently named executive director at Huntsville West, a business incubator founded by 27-year-old Brandon Kruse in the former West Huntsville Elementary building. He also operates Happy Hill Coffee, a coffee subscription startup that serves the public and Huntsville West community.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Montoya said Rocket Hatch has seen "a significant increase in the quantity and diversity of entrepreneurial activity in town."
"We are proud to see the collective progress that our community has made and of the role, if modest, that Rocket Hatch had in making it happen," he said.
Read a blog entry Montoya penned about his experience at Rocket Hatch.
Planet Fundraiser
Planet Fundraiser cofounders Drew Honeycutt (left) and Kasey Birdsong (right) stand in the Velocity Accelerator office on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017.
A screenshot from the app.
Tech startup Planet Fundraiser has closed on a $1 million round of investment, with Birmingham entrepreneur Bill Smith as one of the leaders of the round.
The Innovation Depot company's round will help the fundraising company expand to other markets in the southeast, like Nashville and Chattanooga. It'll also help them make some new hires to work on the technology and to market the product.
Planet Fundraiser recently expanded outside of Alabama for the first time into Atlanta. Earlier this month, the company expanded into Memphis. In the first 30 days in Atlanta, the company had 40 participating merchants.
"Our goal is to be in 20 markets in 12 months, so 12 by the end of this year, and that includes Nashville, Chattanooga, Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Memphis, Atlanta, a lot of tertiary markets, Etowah County, Gadsden," Cofounder Drew Honeycutt said.
Planet Fundraiser works by streamlining the community donation process for merchants. The consumer opens the app, which is free in both the App Store and Google Play, and takes a picture of the receipt. Planet Fundraiser calculates how much the merchant has committed to giving and essentially sends them a bill. Planet Fundraiser distributes the funds to all the different groups. Planet Fundraiser makes its money by charging the merchants.
Planet Fundraiser is one of the first 10 companies to be selected for the Depot's startup accelerator program, the Velocity Accelerator. Smith and Matt Spotswood, who led the fundraising round, are mentors in the program. Smith is an entrepreneurial veteran who recently founded Shipt, the grocery delivery service based in Birmingham. Spotswood is a former hedge fund manager in California who's now based in Birmingham.
"Fundraising is very difficult, period, particularly in the Southeast, and in places it's getting a lot better," Cofounder Kasey Birdsong said. "Particularly, places like Velocity are what's making it better in Birmingham as well. We started the fundraising process just before joining Velocity and it was going, but it was moving very slow. What Velocity really has done is not only helped us accelerate our business but the fundraising process."
Nate Schmidt, Program Director for Velocity Accelerator and CEO of Instagift, said there are at least five other Velocity companies in the process of fundraising. Those companies will be pitching their products to potential investors at the Velocity Demo Day on April 18.
"This was a terrific first fundraise: it was two mentors in the program," Schmidt said. "One thing we preach to investors here is that ultimately in these early stages is that you're making bets on really talented people. Business model is important, and these guys have a great business model, but they're phenomenal entrepreneurs regardless of what business they're doing and that's what you're looking for at early stages."
thai_peanut_home-66526048.jpg
Thai peanut chicken taco from Tacos 4 Life. (Tacos4Life.com)
An Arkansas eatery hopes to bring more tacos to Alabama and three other states.
Tacos 4 Life Grill, a fast-casual restaurant that works to fight childhood hunger, announced this morning it is seeking franchise opportunities in Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas. A spokesman told AL.com the company is interested in Huntsville, Florence, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Auburn and Mobile markets.
The company's business model is different. For every taco, quesadilla, salad or rice bowl sold, Tacos 4 Life donates 22 cents to Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit organization that works to end childhood starvation.
"The decision to expand our franchise program was an easy one," said Chief Brand Officer Donnie Robertson. "Empowering like-minded business people who have a heart for the hungry will allow us to feed more children and save more lives faster than we can do with a corporate ownership mode."
Ashton Samuelson founded the business in 2014 with her husband, Austin. Since launching the first location in Conway, Ark., Tacos 4 Life has donated more than 2.5 million meals to charity.
The total initial investment necessary to open a Tacos 4 Life franchise ranges from $511,466 to $737,400. Although the investment range varies depending on construction cost and level of working capital injected, franchise candidates must have a combined liquid capital of at least $150,000 and a combined net worth of at least $600,000 to qualify financially.
If the company expands in Alabama or one of three other Southern states, it will be the first location for Tacos 4 Life outside of Arkansas.
"We are a purpose-driven brand, and we will never lose sight of why we come to work every day," Ashton Samuelson said.
Child shot
A child was accidentally shot by another child at a home near the Birmingham airport (Ivana Hrynkiw | ihrynkiw@al.com)
An accidental shooting on the city's east side left a child injured.
According to Lt. Sean Edwards, a man was visiting his girlfriend in the 4700 block of 13th Ave. North near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. Her two children were outside playing in the man's truck.
The children found a loaded gun in the truck, and the three-year-old child accidentally fired the gun at the four-year-old.
The four-year-old sustained life-threatening injuries and was taken to Children's Hospital. Edwards said he is listed in stable condition will undergo surgery for his wounds this evening.
Three adults have been detained for questioning, Sgt. Bryan Shelton said.
This post will be updated as more information becomes available.
My challenge was simple enough: establish whether major surveillance manufacturers were willing to bypass global sanctions and export restrictions to obtain a sale.
My findings were astonishing. Not only did major European and Chinese spyware companies appear prepared to brush aside laws restricting sales to countries notorious for human rights abuse, but some even volunteered ways to cover up the proposed transactions.
We wipe everything, the Chinese firm Semptian told our undercover reporter.
We dont know who is the end user. And we dont care, the companys cofounder Frank Feng said.
Another company, the Italian-based IPS, offered other methods to hide the true nature of the deal proposed by our undercover reporter.
I mean, talking about interception, I can also use dummy words. Flowers instead of IP, sales director Ugo Santillo said. We can even use a fake or a dummy email account buddy@gmail.com means Ugo from IPS.
So why all the secrecy?
It boils down to money and what I quickly learned was an eagerness on the part of spyware companies to close multi-million dollar deals, regardless of the potential for their equipment to fall into the wrong hands.
Four months undercover
This is how we conducted the investigation: over four months, our undercover reporter approached suppliers of spyware while claiming to act on behalf of two clients.
The proposition? To supply the governments of Iran and South Sudan with military-grade surveillance gear with the potential to spy on private phone calls and emails and to scour the internet browsing history of civilian populations.
Its a proposal that should have given any surveillance company pause for thought; Iran is currently under international sanctions and South Sudan has long been engulfed in political violence, with the government accused of multiple human rights violations.
The spyware might have ended up in the hands of criminals, corporate spies or even armed groups. by
But the companies we targeted seemed oblivious to the consequences of the sales. Not once did they raise the possibility that their equipment might have been used by repressive governments to crush political dissent or even to result in political protesters being arrested, imprisoned, tortured or killed.
But I was even more shocked by the reaction of a company we approached in Hong Kong.
We asked to buy their high-powered surveillance equipment on the condition that they did not ask us to disclose the identity of the purchaser or the equipments end user. Under this scenario, the spyware might have ended up in the hands of criminals, corporate spies or even armed groups.
Instead of insisting on details of where their spyware would end up, the manufacturers were only too eager to push the sale through. One company representative even told our undercover reporter that his main concern was fulfilling his sales target.
Not once during the discussions with the surveillance companies did any of them express concerns about how the equipment would be used by the clients despite the obvious potential for human rights abuses or for criminal abuse.
A history of questionable clients
The findings of our investigation prompted me to look at the ever-growing list of clients, and potential clients, that have records of human rights abuse which are serviced by the surveillance industry.
Such lists are very difficult to obtain, as very few public records exist of who is buying spyware. So what we know about the industry comes almost exclusively from leaks and journalistic investigations.
Below are just a few of the deals that have come to light:
Hacking Team Italy:
The Italian malware company, Hacking Team, became infamous within the surveillance industry when in 2015 they themselves got hacked.
WikiLeaks released 400 GB of leaked internal documents, which, if true, gave an insight into some of the clients and potential clients of the company.
Although they denied any wrongdoing, the company had its export licence to sell the software changed by the Italian government and are now under tighter export restrictions.
To date, this has been the most extensive insight into how a surveillance company operates.
But as the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity, and many activists and industry experts believe that the scandal surrounding Hacking Team has, in fact, been good for the company. Potential clients who had previously been unaware of their products, rushed in to snap them up.
Hacking Teams reported clients or potential clients:
Ethiopia
Nigeria
South Sudan
Bahrain
Uzbekistan
Azerbaijan
Kazakhstan
Russia
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Amesys France:
In 2012, the collapse of Gaddafis Libyan government revealed the role that the French surveillance firm Amesys played in supporting the regimes intelligence services.
In the rubble of intelligence services building, journalists and activists discovered an Eagle monitoring centre purchased from Amesys, a unit of the French technology firm, Bull, capable of intercepting countrywide communications, including email.
Although supplied legally by the company to the regime, there was a public outcry in France when the story broke, leading to the break up of the company.
There is now an ongoing judicial review of the case in France, exploring whether the company and its executives can be prosecuted for human rights abuses.
Amesys reported clients or potential clients:
Libya
Gamma Germany:
Gamma are the manufacturers of the most invasive malware system on the market, FinFisher.
The Gamma group found itself in the media when in 2015 Privacy International released a report detailing the supply of its software to Uganda, during a time of political unrest.
Privacy Internationals report alleged that the FinFisher system was the backbone of a secret Ugandan Government operation to spy on members of the opposition activists and journalists.
In response to the report the Gamma Group, said that it did not assist or encourage any government agency in the misuse of its products.
Gammas reported clients or potential clients:
Uganda
Bahrain
For a more extensive list, visit: sii.transparencytoolkit.org
Will this booming industry ever be regulated?
Despite the concerns surrounding the deals or potential deals on this list, its possible that they were all conducted within the rule of law, due in part to the complex web of competing agendas involved.
Economics, geopolitics and a fragmented global legal system mean that the spread of this type of equipment is almost inevitable.
This has led to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in France to call for changes to legislation that would make surveillance companies legally responsible for the human rights abuses committed by their clients, using the systems that theyve supplied.
But in a growing and more crowded market, there are an estimated 528 surveillance companies worldwide, competing for a finite and limited legal market, there are those who believe that some of these companies will inevitably have to operate at the grey edges of the legal market to survive.
And for us, that means an ever-growing possibility that criminals and authoritarian regimes will have the power to monitor and infiltrate our lives, like never before.
And it made me wonder: will it ever be possible for this booming industry to be properly regulated? And can any of us ever know for sure who might be watching and listening to our private texts, phone calls, emails and our internet browsing history?
Spy Merchants can be viewed on Al Jazeera:
Monday, April 10 20:00 GMT
Tuesday, April 11 12:00 GMT
Wednesday, April 12 01:00 GMT
Thursday, April 12 06:00 GMT
Friday, April 14 12:00 GMT
Saturday, April 15 20:00 GMT
Sunday, April 16 01:00 GMT
Monday, April 17 06:00 GMT
Sidestepping sanctions can be surprisingly simple. Heres how its done:
Start by manufacturing products with two uses in a single product whats known in the industry as dual-use technology.
This includes equipment that can be used as a simple wi-fi router, for example, but which can also be programmed to privately spy on phone calls or internet traffic.
Then, when it comes time to export, refer to the item simply as a wi-fi router and dont mention that the equipment has other capabilities.
In a four-month undercover operation, Al Jazeeras Investigative Unit sought to buy such high-powered and heavily restricted spyware on behalf of some of the worlds most notorious regimes, including the Islamic Republic of Iran and the government of South Sudan.
The Investigative Unit found the dual-use ruse common in the sale of spyware which might otherwise have been blocked due to trade sanctions and export restrictions.
The results exposed the challenges of enforcing international law in an environment where surveillance companies have shown that they are willing to break the law to make a sale.
Simple traffic management system
In the autumn of 2016, Al Jazeeras undercover reporter approached Italian communications company IPS with a proposal: provide and install an IP-intercept system to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
This type of deal would violate UN sanctions and IPS head of sales, Ugo Santillo, knew it.
Of course, it is subject to export restriction, but this is something that we can manage, said Santillo on hidden camera.
An IP-intercept system is like an information filter that taps directly into a countrys internet architecture. It gives the user, in this theoretical case, the Iranian government, access to all information flowing through the system potentially allowing it to access the private emails and internet history of every citizen in the country.
Ugo Santillo told Al Jazeeras reporter that he was happy to make the 20 million euro ($21.2m) deal happen.
Fortunately, we have a sister company, RESi, Santillo said. RESi sells some software analytics for, statistics for traffic congestion.
He explained that by using RESi, he could describe the product as a simple traffic management system on the export paperwork and not mention the spyware capability to avoid strict surveillance export regulations.
Al Jazeera showed the undercover video to export compliance lawyer Charles Giacoma who suggested that RESi would not get a licence to ship to Iran and that any attempt to circumvent EU regulation 428 on dual-use items involved the commission of a crime with the possibility of a prison sentence of five to 10 years.
In response to these allegations, the RESi Group told Al Jazeera they operate with full respect of the regulations. They also said they had been aware of the identity of Al Jazeeras undercover reporter. They said they had only met him because they believed he might be working for a competitor.
They added, We had no intention of completing this or any deal with the individual our staff met with. Any deal that we may have discussed with him would have to be dependent on obtaining the full legal authorisation from the authorities.
Side-stepping restrictions
It was the same game with different players when Al Jazeeras undercover reporter approached another Italian surveillance giant, AREA.
On this occasion, the undercover reporter claimed to be acting on behalf of the government South Sudan which has a well-documented record of human rights abuse.
This time, the reporter was seeking to acquire IMSI-catchers suitcase-sized surveillance boxes that act as dummy mobile phone towers, sucking up information from all nearby devices. They are powerful surveillance tools, heavily restricted to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies.
AREA Vice President Marco Braccioli explained to the undercover reporter that securing IMSI export licences for South Sudan is a slow process. As a theoretical solution, he explained a typical industry work-around: launder the sale via a third-party.
EXPLAINER: What is electronic surveillance?
If I have an end user statement, signed in Tanzania, and then if Tanzania give this system, as a gift, to South Sudan, (this) is something I cant control as a company, Braccioli said on hidden camera.
In order to facilitate the transaction, he suggested that Al Jazeeras reporter deal directly with his Turkish spyware manufacturer, BTT, and connected the reporter to BTT cofounder, Alper Tosun.
Once again, the dual-use method was proposed as a means of fast tracking the sale and sidestepping export restrictions.
Yeah, I say this is dual-use telecom equipment, okay, Touson said on hidden camera. And most of the time, it is a telecom-testing equipment. This is the main purpose that I am declaring.
As with IPSs traffic management system, BTT was proposing to simply not mention in export paperwork that the equipment was capable of spying on civilians.
Anything which is considered to be dual-use, which is our case, because my equipment is actually a telecommunication, okay, Tosun told the reporter. I dont want to mention the software side, but actually, its a box where you can make calls through it.
Al Jazeera approached BTT for comment on Tosuns proposal, but they did not provide a response.
When AREA was asked to comment on its role in this proposed transaction, the surveillance company said it works with the relevant governments to ensure the proper export and legal use of our equipment.
AREA added that they wouldnt be able to comment further until they had seen the material secretly recorded by Al Jazeera.
Falsifying documents
Another deal featured in Spy Merchants concerned the proposed acquisition of 10 military-grade IMSI-catchers.
This time, Al Jazeeras undercover reporter told the manufacturer that his clients wanted to remain anonymous. That meant that the surveillance provider, China-based manufacturer Semptian, would have no way of knowing if the IMSIs were being ordered by criminals or even terrorists.
Semptian founder Frank Feng said on undercover camera, We dont know who is the end user. And we dont care. We have done it before.
But in China, selling this powerful equipment raises enough red flags that Semptian proposed a dual-use ruse of its own.
Nobody really will say this is an IMSI-catcher. We only say this is a wi-fi router, said Semptians Senior Product Manager Paul Liang, referring to the IMSI-catcher he had delivered to the Al Jazeeras reporters hotel room for him to inspect. So we just apply for the Chinese government that this is the router, so thats okay, you can sell it.
Basically, you falsify the documents, the shipping documents?, asked Al Jazeeras undercover reporter. And you say this is not what it is?
Yeah. Actually, you dont know what this is at all. You see this wi-fi router.
The Semptian representatives said on hidden camera that they would ensure that any evidence of the origin of the spyware would be eliminated.
We wipe everything, they said.
Semptian did not respond to a request for comment.
Spy Merchants can be viewed on Al Jazeera:
Monday, April 10 20:00 GMT
Tuesday, April 11 12:00 GMT
Wednesday, April 12 01:00 GMT
Thursday, April 12 06:00 GMT
Friday, April 14 12:00 GMT
Saturday, April 15 20:00 GMT
Sunday, April 16 01:00 GMT
Monday, April 17 06:00 GMT
Istanbul, Turkey Only a few days remain before the referendum in which Turkish voters will decide whether they want to be governed by a presidential office with significantly increased powers.
The proposed constitutional changes in the April 16 referendum seek to transform Turkeys current system to an executive presidential one.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) say the new system will make Turkey more efficient and stable.
The main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party and other critics argue the amendments will give too much power to one individual, undermining the separation of powers in the government.
Turkey has been under a state of emergency since a group in the Turkish army tried to overthrow the government in a failed coup attempt that killed around 300 people in total.
And Ankaras relations with the European Union (EU), particularly with Germany and the Netherlands, have been tense since last month after these two EU member states barred Turkish ministers from rallying at referendum campaign gatherings within their borders, where millions of Turkish voters live.
Al Jazeera speaks to Ibrahim Kalin, President Erdogans spokesperson, on the recent developments in advance of the referendum, his views about the constitutional changes and his response to the critics.
READ MORE: Turkish opposition: Refrendum will deepen the problems
Al Jazeera: Why does Turkey need a strong executive presidency? Why does the government feel that the parliamentary system -currently in place- is insufficient to govern Turkey?
Ibrahim Kalin: Let me start by saying that Turkey doesnt have a parliamentary system per se but a hybrid system of government designed by a military junta in 1960 and fine-tuned again by coup plotters in 1980.
The Turkish people know why it is imperative for certain changes to become firmly institutionalised.
This hybrid system was intended to maintain the status quo and protect the military guardianship regime. The current system, furthermore, tends to produce weak coalition governments and to keep the political arena fragmented. It was the ineffectiveness of such governments that repeatedly paved the way to military coups in Turkey.
In 1980, the Parliament failed to elect the next president after 115 rounds of voting before the coup plotters stepped in. In 1997, the coalition government was ousted from power under the threat of violence partly because the Welfare Partys coalition partner was intimidated by the military.
The executive presidency will help Turkish democracy to defend itself against outside interventions.
At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that weak coalition governments have proved unable to successfully manage the economy and create a favourable environment for foreign direct investments.
We were able to implement structural reforms with relative ease because Turkey has been governed by a single-party government since 2002. The proposed changes will ensure long-term political stability and, by extension, further strengthen the Turkish economy.
Al Jazeera: What sort of a future do you foresee for Turkey in the case of a No vote which would make the country stay with the current system?
Kalin: I dont want to speculate or answer a hypothetical question. What I can say right now is that we expect the majority of voters to support the proposed changes on April 16. But it is important to remember that Turkey has strong political institutions and a lot of experience with democratisation.
The Turkish people know why it is imperative for certain changes to become firmly institutionalised and understand that we cannot defend our democracy against attacks if we do not take certain steps right now.
Obviously, though, the people will have the final say on the matter.
Al Jazeera: Western governments and some of the opposition parties say that creating a powerful presidency is an attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to establish a one-man rule. What would you say about this?
Kalin: This criticism is completely unfounded. The proposed changes, if adopted, will strengthen the separation of powers, give the parliament unprecedented powers to investigate the presidents actions and, if necessary, call for an early presidential election as a last resort.
The president, moreover, cannot call for early elections if he or she is being investigated by the parliament. Until now, the president enjoyed near-complete immunity unless he was charged with treason. People should read the proposal and understand what steps are being taken to strengthen checks and balances before jumping to conclusions.
Al Jazeera: Do you think the referendum, being held the under the state of emergency, will cause doubt over the transparency of the vote, making fraud easier? During the clashes between the army and the PKK in southeastern Turkey, many people temporarily left the region. Do you think these people will be able to vote?
Kalin: The state of emergency went into effect after last summers failed coup and it has been used to address national security threats. As you know, similar measures have been taken in France in the wake of terror attacks and the presidential election will be held under the state of emergency.
To ensure transparency, we extended official invitations to international observers to monitor all aspects of the referendum. In addition to representatives from various political parties, certain non-governmental organisations are mobilising volunteers.
The security operations have no influence on the ability of voters to participate in the referendum. As always, there was a period for voters to change their residential addresses. We do not expect any problems whatsoever.
Al Jazeera: The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), that previously opposed the executive presidency, now backs the AK Partys bid. Does this hint to a more thorough alliance between the two parties in the future, where MHP seniors likely to take roles in the potential executive presidency of Erdogan?
Kalin:I cant speak for either political party but it would appear that the MHP leadership revised their position in the wake of the failed coup. My sense is that they developed a better understanding of the national security threats our country is facing and agreed that the proposed changes could make Turkey more resilient against them.
Al Jazeera: The Turkish-EU relations have been tense for some time now, with both sides blaming each other over issues such as the stalemate in membership talks, democratisation of Turkey, refugees and visa-free travel for Turks. The recent row over Turkish ministers referendum campaign visits to the Netherlands and Germany has taken it to another level. What should we expect from the future in terms of bilateral relations? Is Turkey divorcing from the EU, as many in the West suggest?
Kalin: The idea that Turkey and the European Union are equally responsible for the current tensions is misleading. Several European governments continue to provide a safe haven to terrorist groups, including the PKK and FETO, that are responsible for killing innocent people in Turkey.
In recent weeks, they also violated diplomatic conventions to detain Turkish diplomats and officials in addition to meddling in the referendum by openly siding with the No campaign. By contrast, Turkish officials simply wish to meet with Turkish citizens abroad and inform them about the proposed changes something that European politicians do in Turkey.
The situation could improve if Europe stops appeasing right-wing extremists, harbouring terrorists and refrains from further acts of aggression towards Turkey and Turkish citizens abroad.
The idea that Turkey is divorcing from the European Union is also a mischaracterisation of what is happening. If Europes idea of cooperation and partnership is for their partners to do their bidding, then they should start rethinking it.
Turkey is a NATO ally and an EU candidate country. But we are also a sovereign nation that will pursue its own goals and look out for its own interests. No partnership is a one-way street. This is a general rule that also applies to Turkey-EU relations.
Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_uras
Everything you need to know about electronic surveillance. To scroll down to the answer, simply click the question:
What is electronic surveillance?
Who is doing this electronic surveillance?
Why is all this data being collected?
Whats being collected?
How is it being collected?
Is it legal?
What is an IMSI-catcher?
What is an IP-intercept System?
I have nothing to hide, so why should I care? Isnt surveillance making me safer?
How can I make sure my communication remains private?
Who sells surveillance systems?
Who buys surveillance systems?
Why do attacks keep happening if so much data is collected; dont they know everything already?
Electronic surveillance is the monitoring and collection of digital footprints left behind by people. This can be done in a large variety of ways, from following someone on CCTV to reading text messages, sifting through internet browsing history and social media, or even secretly activating webcams or microphones to spy on people.
This type of surveillance can either be a targeted operation by, for instance, a government as part of a criminal investigation, or part of a large-scale intelligence gathering project known as mass surveillance to monitor internet usage.
This means that electronic surveillance can serve many different goals, such as finding incriminating evidence against someone that is suspected of a crime or keeping track of dissidents that are rebelling against a government.
Here are the questions answered below. To find the answers quickly, click the desired question:
Intelligence agencies and other governmental departments are responsible for most widespread electronic surveillance. They have the resources and capabilities to track large groups of people, either within their own country or outside of it. It might not even be just intelligence agencies, but even regular law enforcement that is doing the collecting.
Besides governments, there are also a lot of companies who use the Internet to track what people do. This collection of large swaths of data will then be used in different ways to generate revenue for the company, for example, by providing other companies with the browsing habits of people so ads can be targeted more accurately towards these tracked people. Although it might not be the classical definition of being under surveillance, a lot of critics feel these kinds of tracking techniques invade the privacy of internet users.
Many companies also use electronic surveillance as a way of keeping track of what their employees do during working hours.
Knowledge is power.
Most governments will say they need to collect as much information as possible to keep their citizens safe from harm or to keep order in the country. One common government justification is preventing terrorism.
However, there are a lot of nefarious uses for all this information. When all of this data is collected about peoples personal lives, governments and other parties can use this against people. During the Arab Spring , for example, governments used electronic surveillance to keep track of protesters and other dissidents. Many people were arrested as a direct result of their digital movements, which made them easy targets for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Theoretically, almost any digital footprint that someone leaves behind can be collected, but it takes a lot of manpower, money and technological skill to do this. For instance, Edward Snowden s leaks about the surveillance techniques of the NSA uncovered that this American intelligence agency can collect almost any digital trace left behind by any person in the world.
However, having these kinds of surveillance capabilities is rare, even for most governments. Despite needing a lot of capabilities
The bulk is done by collecting internet and telephone data. These days, people carry their mobile phones which are often constantly connected to the internet. For intelligence agencies, these phones can be a treasure trove of information. Not only can browsing, calling, and texting history be collected, but smartphones will also send through location data by using GPS systems and mobile phone towers.
However, its not just mobile phones. Laptop webcams can be turned on remotely without the user knowing, microphones in smart TVs can be used to listen in on people, and even something innocuous as a washing machine that tells you via an app when your washing is done can help intelligence agencies or other malevolent actors to snoop on someone.
In short, if a device is able to connect to the internet, it can probably be used in electronic surveillance practices.
Another common form of electronic surveillance is using CCTVs that are spread throughout cities. Although most people will consider this type of surveillance a necessary law enforcement tool, its still possible to use it in nefarious ways.
Different countries have different laws, so obviously the legality of electronic surveillance varies by country. With the technological advancements of the last few decades, however, governments are introducing new laws to increase their collection capabilities. For instance, the UK recently introduced the Investigatory Powers Act, the so-called Snoopers Charter, which forces telephone companies to store everyones browsing history for a year and gives law enforcement access to all of this information, among other things.
This new British law is seen as one of the most pervasive surveillance laws in the world, mostly because its indiscriminate. Everyones data gets collected, so even people that are not suspected of doing anything wrong can be subjected to having their private communications recorded.
Surveillance is legal under certain circumstances, but many critics of surveillance laws point at the indiscriminate nature of many of the measures taken. Large groups of people are being subjected to surveillance, even when theyre not targeted in the investigation.
As a result of this, the legality of many surveillance practices has been challenged in court, with varying results. Some courts have upheld surveillance laws while others have put a halt to (certain aspects) of electronic monitoring. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled for example that mass collection of emails, something that was mandated by the British Investigatory Powers Act, was illegal as it invaded peoples privacy too much.
IMSI-catchers are devices that can be used to listen in on mobile phones without the either of the callers knowing. The tool poses as a fake mobile phone tower, which means mobile phones send all information that would usually be sent to a regular tower through this device.
As a result, the person controlling the IMSI-catcher can listen in on phone calls, read and write text messages, and track the targets whereabouts.
IMSI catchers, wont just collect the mobile phone information of targeted people, but anyone in the vicinity of the apparatus. That means that innocent bystanders have their privacy invaded.
Since the technology used in IMSI-catchers keeps progressing, these devices are getting smaller and smaller. They can now be mounted on small drones. Even body-worn IMSI-catchers are being sold.
IP-intercept systems like the one shown in the Al Jazeera Investigation, are used to collect internet traffic for large groups. The system records which computer (or phone) visits which website and, in certain cases, see what the user is doing on this site. This makes it easy for governments to monitor citizens, to see, for example, if they are posting things that could be conceived as illegal or inflammatory.
IP-intercept systems are a good way for oppressive regimes to follow what their citizens are doing online. These tools have been used to quell resistance movements in, among others, Egypt and Syria. By following members of the opposition on the internet, law enforcement agencies were able to track them and arrest them.
Everybody has things they want to keep private. It might not be anything illegal, but everyone has certain elements of life that he or she would rather not put out there in the world.
Edward Snowden, the former NSA-contractor who leaked documents about the United States indiscriminate collection of data, counters the I have nothing to hide argument by saying, Arguing that you dont care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you dont care about free speech because you have nothing to say.
Storing large amounts of communications also could be used against anyone in the future. When someone is suspected of having committed a crime, authorities could go back to any conversation ever held and use this against the suspect, even though it might not have anything to do with the crime in question.
Journalists will have a harder time doing their jobs because stories often rely on sources that do not want their information made public. It becomes a lot harder for people who want to leak criminal or dubious practices by governments or companies to safely to do this when all communication is being monitored.
And, as the earlier mentioned examples of Egypt and Syria show, there are legitimate reasons for wanting privacy when communicating with other people.
Voices of dissent against governments will be part of mass surveillance operations, so anyone that wouldnt comply with the government line will be known to law enforcement. Fear of speaking out helps oppressive regimes strengthen their grasp on their citizens.
There are several ways of making sure your communication is not being read or seen by anyone. One of the most important aspects of this is encryption. If you want to send text messages, use Signal or WhatsApp since they use end-to-end encryption.
This means only you and the person you are texting with can see the messages you send and receive. There are other apps, like Telegram, that use different encryption models, with varying results. But even these are not completely safe. A recent disclosure by WikiLeaks shows that agencies like the CIA are very adept at finding ways to get the data they need.
Internet websites have increasingly been switching to so-called https-connections, which means that any communication between the website visitor and website owner remains private. This is especially important when dealing with sensitive information, for example, when putting in credit card information or filling in tax forms online. These secure https-connections can be recognised by the green lock in the address bar of the internet browser.
Another important aspect is using something called Virtual Private Networks (VPN) for internet connections. A VPN service puts all internet traffic through a private tunnel, which increases privacy and makes it harder for anyone to snoop on what you are doing on the internet. This is especially important when using public networks in, for example, airports or coffee shops.
Even safer is using a service called Tor , that completely obfuscates your browsing by sending your internet traffic through several locations in the world. Setting this up is a bit more complicated, but for people that need privacy the most mostly those living under oppressive regimes Tor has been a lifesaver, in many cases literally.
Another important aspect is password security. It is important to use different login specifics for different services, and all of these passwords should be hard to guess. Thats why its best practice to use a password manager that generates a completely random set of characters for each password. These services act as a safe for all your passwords, so it is important to never forget your so-called master password to access your vault which stores all your other passwords. Services that provide password managers are LastPass, 1Password, KeePass, and Dashlane.
Adding to password security is turning on something called two-factor authentication for services that support it. This creates an extra layer of security when logging into services like Gmail, iCloud or Amazon. Even when someone has somehow obtained the password, it will be useless because they need a randomly generated code that is created by the two-factor authentication. A good comparison is having a door with several locks: even when someone has one key, they cant open the door because they dont have the second set of keys to open all locks.
Lastly, there are some common-sense solutions, as well. Never share passwords with anyone, dont click on things when you dont know what might happen, cover webcams because they might be turned on to spy on you without you knowing, use antivirus software, and always make sure software is updated to the most recent version to prevent any potential exploits from being used by ill-willing parties.
All these tips wont guarantee full privacy, however. Complete security is almost impossible, especially when confronting nation-states and big intelligence agencies that have a lot of resources, both financially, as well as in personnel. These precautions, however, will serve as an extra layer of protection against any malevolent actors that might be using electronic surveillance. Besides that, having taken these precautions will also serve as a protection against certain types of cybercrime.
A lot of personal information is stored online these days, so it makes sense to ensure this information is kept safe.
There is a thriving private intelligence industry, both in the public and private sectors. A lot of different corporations and governments create hardware and software that then will be sold to the highest bidder. For example, when US authorities couldnt crack the phone of one of the suspects in the San Bernardino attacks, law enforcement turned to a private company to presumably buy an exploit that would circumvent the phones security measures.
Both governments and private parties buy surveillance systems, but governments remain the biggest buyer. They have the resources to acquire these kinds of systems and get the most use out of them. There are legitimate uses for these kinds of surveillance systems, as they are often used in regular criminal investigations, for example.
Most governments wont openly declare what kind of systems they are using for surveillance because they feel this might endanger ongoing operations. But listening in on phone calls and tracking someones whereabouts online are capabilities that most governments in the world will have.
As the Al Jazeera Investigation shows, some countries arent allowed to buy these kinds of technologies because of international sanctions, usually because of human rights concerns.
Attacks in several countries that have some of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world have taken place despite the fact that these attackers were under surveillance. There are several reasons for this.
First off, as mentioned, at this moment there are still ways of communicating privately without it being monitored. This can inhibit law enforcement and intelligence agencies ability to read the attackers plans.
Second, when conducting mass surveillance, it is really hard to find that one needle in the haystack to prevent an attack. This is especially true now that huge amounts of data are being collected. Targeted surveillance has often proven more effective than collecting everything and sifting through all of the data.
Lastly, for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent all attacks, they have to be lucky every single time to make sure the attacks dont happen. Attackers, however, only need to be lucky once to successfully conduct an attack.
Its impossible for anyone or any government to guarantee 100 percent safety, even when everyone is under surveillance and has had their privacy invaded.
Spy Merchants can be viewed on Al Jazeera:
Monday, April 10 20:00 GMT
Tuesday, April 11 12:00 GMT
Wednesday, April 12 01:00 GMT
Thursday, April 12 06:00 GMT
Friday, April 14 12:00 GMT
Saturday, April 15 20:00 GMT
Sunday, April 16 01:00 GMT
Monday, April 17 06:00 GMT
Over four months, our undercover reporter posed as a buyer for clients from countries like Iran and South Sudan.
Abbas Hakimzadehs jail cell was bleak. High walls, one sink and a window. Just enough light crept in to distinguish between morning and night.
This was solitary confinement in Iran in 2009. The government was in the thick of the largest crackdown on political dissent since the 1979 revolution, jailing scores of protesters, intellectuals, and journalists.
Hakimzadeh spent 120 days living like this, not seeing family or friends just prison guards and interrogators, who occasionally beat him.
Publishing a student newsletter critical of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Amirkabir University in Tehran had seen the computer science student thrown into jail.
The guards lined us up against the wall, put blindfolds on us and we waited for them to take us to our cells, Hakimzadeh, now 34, told Al Jazeera.
A soldier came up from behind me, cursed me several times, saying hed beat the hell out of me.
I was taken to the interrogation room. For two or three hours they beat me. They kicked and punched me in my face, in my legs and in my back.
Illegal trade dealings
During his detention, it became apparent the government had been snooping on him for some time. They had managed to hack both his email and phone.
... surveillance and restrictions and monitoring are not only systematic, but the consequences of being caught speaking your mind can be death. by Marietje Schaake, EU parliament member
In these interrogations, I understood they already had every email I had, he said, adding they had also accessed text messages and chat applications he had used.
Iran is one of many countries that uses increasingly powerful spyware to quell the voices of political dissidents.
In Spy Merchants, a new investigation by Al Jazeera, our undercover reporter worked for four months posing as a buyer for clients from countries including Iran and South Sudan subjects of international sanctions purchasing the kinds of surveillance systems that ensnared critics like Hakimzadeh.
The investigation exposes illegal trade dealings that could put millions of citizens at risk of privacy violation today, as well as putting dissidents in vulnerable positions.
Anyone who has looked at Iran, at the young population, can understand the enormous pressure and fear that they live under in a country where surveillance and restrictions and monitoring are not only systematic, but the consequences of being caught speaking your mind can be death, said Marietje Schaake, a member of the European Parliament.
More than half a decade since Hakimzadehs imprisonment, the global surveillance industry is flourishing.
While the so-called Arab Spring uprisings demonstrated the power of popular protest, they also provided a gold rush for the global surveillance industry.
We had actual victims coming from Libya, from Syria, who had survived torture, detention and saying this was the cause of my arrest; They wouldnt have identified me they wouldnt have tortured me if they hadnt been able to monitor my communications, Clemence Bectarte, a lawyer with the International Federation of Human Rights, told Al Jazeera.
The technology government leaders used to crack down on protest organisers and contain the spread of revolution, more often than not, came from outside their borders, from countries such as the United States , Italy, Germany and the UK .
I found that activists, students, journalists, opposition figures in North African and Middle East were targeted, and sometimes imprisoned, as a result of these systems coming from Europe and I found that unacceptable then, and I find it unacceptable today.
And as Al Jazeeras Investigative Unit reveals in Spy Merchants, spyware companies today are illegally selling powerful equipment to governments which continue to persecute dissent thousands of citizens could still be at risk.
Circumventing sanctions
Companies are breaking the law by selling and exporting surveillance equipment powerful enough to spy on entire populations to countries like Iran, but vendors circumvent sanctions and export rules.
These are powerful devices which can intercept, record and otherwise interfere with people's communications. by Claire Lauterbach, Privacy International
The backroom deals of such technologies are often difficult to quantify.
Al Jazeeras Investigative Unit, however, has revealed how extremely invasive spyware, which can also intercept the electronic communications of a city, can be bought on the grey market by repressive governments.
Spy Merchants exposes the negotiation of several illegal, multi-million dollar deals that breached international sanctions, including a proposed deal to supply highly restricted surveillance equipment to Iran.
Rights groups and privacy experts say they are concerned that IMSI-catchers or IP-intercept systems are being sold to authoritarian governments.
An IMSI-catcher is a portable device that allows its users to track and snoop on multiple mobile phones, with the ability to allow its user to send fake messages from your contacts.
An IP-intercept system has the capability to snoop on data sent over the internet, track who is clicking on certain websites and by using particular keywords can accumulate your entire internet history.
Such a system could be employed to monitor an entire countrys internet traffic.
These are not designed to be the simple bugs that you stick under the table to record a conversation, said Claire Lauterbach of Privacy International. These are powerful devices which can intercept, record and otherwise interfere with peoples communications.
Systems to search for political dissidents
Syria has also bought heavily into surveillance technology.
In 2009, aware of growing dissent before civil war tore through the country, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sought to enhance his countrys surveillance capabilities.
Basically, the system they needed wasn't going to be used to look for criminals. It was going to be used to search for political dissidents. by Claire Lauterbach, Privacy International
Syrian contractors contracted AREA, an Italian surveillance hardware and software company, to bolster their arsenal of spyware.
A former AREA employee-turned-whistle-blower, who requested to remain anonymous, disclosed the murky inner workings of the deal to Al Jazeera.
He was told the 13 million euro ($13.7m) system was a civil project bought to assist in criminal investigations.
But on a trip to Damascus, he realised the nefarious intent of the potential deal.
Once we landed, we found some people waiting for us, the whistle-blower recalled. They belonged to the Syrian intelligence service. They needed to know the identities of the individuals who could be the first ones to start the uprising against the regime. Basically, the system they needed wasnt going to be used to look for criminals. It was going to be used to search for political dissidents.
He alerted AREAs management, but was rebuffed and told the company wasnt responsible for how the system would be used. Instead, he went to the media .
Public protests followed, and AREA withdrew from the project. At the time, the company claimed that they had a valid export licence to supply Syria.
In December 2016, AREAs dealings with Assad caught up with the company, when its Milan headquarters was raided by Italian police, who seized nearly eight million euros ($8.5m) received from Syria. Company executives were accused of falsifying the export documents relating to the Syrian deal. A criminal investigation into the case is ongoing.
Throughout history, corporations and individuals have profited from war, and the surveillance industry is really just carrying on a tradition there, Julian Richards, an intelligence expert and former Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) employee, told Al Jazeera.
South Sudan is also accused of buying invasive spyware.
Since 2013, tribal and political conflict in the country has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of South Sudanese and the government itself has been suspected of human rights injustices.
The bloodshed triggered European Union sanctions and calls for an international arms embargo.
Pagan Amum, former Minister for Peace in South Sudan, was targeted by surveillance equipment purchased by the government.
In 2013, Pagan fell out with President Salva Kiir , which resulted in his arrest. He had been accused of plotting a coup against Kiir. The government used communications that it had intercepted as evidence against him.
The government, when they interrogated me, and told me that they have recordings of my telephone conversations that would incriminate me, and that they were going to charge me with treason, punishable by death, of course, I could not believe it, Pagan told Al Jazeera. I was in shock.
As South Sudans political crisis continues to spiral, Pagan fears the effect that the further supply of surveillance equipment will have on his country.
The government with that surveillance has reduced the political space for our citizens to speak, the right of freedom of speech has been curtailed, even to speak in private, he added.
Escaping surveillance
Now in Turkey , the Iranian political activist Hakimzadeh remembers feeling under threat even after he was freed from prison.
About a year after his release, he received a cryptic phone call. The voice on the other end was familiar.
You [dont] recognise me?' the caller said.
At that moment, I knew it was my interrogator, Hakimzadeh recalled. I recognised his voice.
The government was still apparently monitoring his movements.
He was later called to the Ministry of Intelligence, where his former interrogator confronted him once more.
They gave me some of my stuff and spoke with me for a while. He said, We have an open file on you. Youve misled a lot of people and you have to make up for it now. Well arrange a series of speeches for you where you can tell students that what you did was wrong.'
Hakimzadeh refused and was threatened with more jail time. His passport was revoked. He knew the government would not leave him alone.
In the end, he made a drastic decision to escape the surveillance apparatus that had plagued him for so long.
In the middle of the night, on the back of a donkey, I left Iran and entered Turkey.
Spy Merchants can be viewed on Al Jazeera:
Monday, April 10 20:00 GMT
Tuesday, April 11 12:00 GMT
Wednesday, April 12 01:00 GMT
Thursday, April 12 06:00 GMT
Friday, April 14 12:00 GMT
Saturday, April 15 20:00 GMT
Sunday, April 16 01:00 GMT
Monday, April 17 06:00 GMT
Istanbul, Turkey Only a few days remain before Turkish voters decide if they want to be governed by a presidential office with significantly increased powers.
The proposed constitutional changes in the April 16 referendum seek to transform Turkeys current system to an executive presidential system.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) say the new system will make Turkey more efficient and stable.
The main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party and other critics argue the amendments will give too much power to one individual, undermining the separation of powers in the government.
Turkey has been under a state of emergency since a group in the Turkish army tried to overthrow the government in a failed coup attempt that killed around 300 people in total.
And Ankaras relations with the European Union (EU), particularly with Germany and the Netherlands, have been tense since last month after these two EU member states barred Turkish ministers from rallying at referendum campaign gatherings within their borders, where millions of Turkish voters live.
Al Jazeera speaks to Sezgin Tanrikulu, a senior CHP MP who leads the partys No campaign, on the recent developments in advance of the referendum, his views about the constitutional changes and his response to the advocates of the constitutional amendments.
READ MORE: Q&A: Executive presidency will help Turkish democracy
Al Jazeera: What is your response to the governments argument that the parliamentary system in force in Turkey is inefficient and leads Turkey to uncertainties and crises?
Constitutions are products of collective compromise. We are going to have the referendum in an environment of polarisation, not compromise.
Sezgin Tanrikulu: We accept that the parliamentary system in Turkey has its flaws. However, the AK Partys proposal has the potential to deepen the problems in the system, rather than solve them. Turkey has been governed with a parliamentary system for over 100 years. Throwing away this tradition will not solve anything.
The AK Party is trying to introduce a freak unprecedented presidential system, while practically abolishing the parliamentary system.
Turkey is highly diverse in terms of its political and social colours. And the parliamentary system has been a platform where these colours mix together, negotiating and discussing their issues to reach a shared wisdom.
The parliamentary system is not something untouchable and holy. However, it is crystal clear that the problems we are having in Turkey do not stem from the system itself, but how it is run in Turkey.
For example, there is a problem of representation in Turkey as a result of 10 percent electoral threshold for political parties. It is a product of the Constitution that entered into force following the military coup on April 12, 1980. Another issue is the breach of the separation of powers, because of which an independent judiciary cannot be established.
We have repeatedly made proposals to fix these and other issues, but did not get a positive response from the AK Party. The governing party used all the flaws of the current parliamentary system to its own advantage, particularly the high electoral threshold.
Al Jazeera: How do you see Turkeys future in the case of a Yes vote in the upcoming referendum?
Tanrikulu: The AK Party is facing a serious political crisis. And they want to escape the responsibility for the crisis it caused throughout the 15 years of power, trying to blame the parliamentary system for the situation. However, as we [CHP] grasp the dynamics of Turkey very well, we know that a Yes vote in the referendum would deepen the crisis.
There are many structural problems in Turkey, including Kurdish issue. Antidemocratic practices are the reason for these ongoing problems. Regardless of which political system Turkey is governed with, these problems will persist and even get worse, unless Turkey completes its democratisation process.
If you try to impose one colour, one mans rule, to this colourful place, the problems will deepen. Therefore, a Yes vote in the referendum will likely make the different colours in the country uneasy and cranky.
Lets say 51 percent of the population voted Yes in the referendum, this will mean the alienation of the remaining 49 percent. And in the imposed system, there are no proposed solutions for the hypothetical 49 percent.
There is only forced consent, alienation and dismissal.
Al Jazeera: What is CHPs position in the ongoing crisis between Turkey and some of its European allies? Does it help in any way to Yes or No campaigns? Do you think some of the EU countries are taking positions in favour of No and take actions accordingly?
Tanrikulu: The AK Party has started an artificial crisis with Europe. Yes, we have issues with the EU, particularly the stalemate in the membership talks. However, the reason for the crisis Turkey had with Germany and the Netherlands is the right-wing politicians feeding each other [to gain more public support].
The AK Party is trying to boost the nationalistic feelings in Turkey to get more votes in the referendum, while right-wing politicians in Europe are using this policy of AK Party to enhance rightist tendencies in their own countries.
The CHPs position is firm: pursuing peaceful policies both inside and outside the country. Turkey cannot handle any more tensions, but neither the governing party nor right-wing politicians in Europe care.
Al Jazeera: Do you harbour any doubts on how smooth the referendum process will be under the ongoing state of emergency? If so, what sort of issues might come up? What are your preparations in terms of monitoring the referendum?
Tanrikulu: Such a critical constitutional amendment should not have been put to referendum during the state of emergency. The referendum will deepen the polarisation Turkey has been going through.
Constitutions are products of collective compromise. We are going to have the referendum in an environment of polarisation, not compromise.
The security of this referendum is under threat in certain regions. As CHP, we will put the maximum effort to monitor ballot boxes and prevent any potential fraud.
READ MORE: Vox-pops Turkish voters weigh in before referendum
Al Jazeera: The far-right MHP had firmly rejected an executive presidency in Turkey until recently. What do you think about the sharp change in their stance and the partys recent close cooperation with the AK Party? Do you think this cooperation will continue after the referendum?
Tanrikulu: The two parties seem to be in an alliance in line with a deal made to share the power. However, we do not know how this power-sharing process will be implemented. Many who belong to the electoral base of the MHP are not happy with this arrangement.
MHP leader Devlet Bahceli did not check with the partys electoral base before making the decision [to side with the AK party]. Whichever result comes out of the referendum, I believe the disagreements in the MHP will intensify and their agreement with the AK Party will fail.
Al Jazeera: Turkish-EU relations are going through a tough period. The membership talks are in a stalemate and the sides have exchanged harsh remarks after the recent crisis over Turkish ministers visits. How do you see the future of the bilateral relations and do you think the sides have the will to fix the relations?
Tanrikulu: The AK Party does not have such a will or goal. To achieve progress in talks, both sides should do their duties. The AK Party should take steps towards democratisation, transparent governance and separation of powers. However, the party is far from it.
The government views the EU membership process as an obstacle to its goals. With the AK Party in power, Turkey might stray further from path to the EU membership.
Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_uras
The election of President Donald Trump has made the job of those protecting and defending the undocumented much harder.
New York, United States Every day, Edina does what many New York mums do. She gets her young sons, aged eight and six, ready for school, then goes off to her job, as a residential cleaner. Her husband, Bill*, works in construction, installing flooring. They have lived in Brooklyn for more than 12 years, building a good life for their family.
They go to the store, they go to the movies, they have friends, they pay taxes, their boys go to public school. They felt safe as they carved out their piece of the American Dream. That is, until Donald Trump took office.
What makes me scared is not that Im gonna get thrown out of the country, Edina says. What makes me scared is that Im gonna be separated from my kids. That would be a disaster.
While their sons are US citizens, Edina and Bill are not. They are undocumented immigrants, who travelled from Hungary 12 years ago in search of a better life.
Edina was 25 and fresh out of university, with no job. Bill was 37 and searching for something better. They came to New York on a six-month visa, but found jobs and a home, and decided to stay. They heard then-President George Bush talk about immigration reform that would give them a path to citizenship. They heard his successor President Barack Obama talk about the same thing.
Since we came here, its always in the air that somethings gonna happen, Edina says. Somehow, were gonna get the papers. It never came to reality. But there was always this hope.
Edina says, for immigrants, New York, is like a paradise. You can basically do anything if youre an immigrant. You can buy a car, you can buy a house, you can have a bank account.
She believes her life here is not so different from what it would be if she had papers, except she cant travel and, she says, the quality of the jobs Im getting is not the same as I would get with papers.
A history of sanctuary
New York Citys first immigrant, Juan Rodriguez, arrived in 1613. Since then, its been either a home-from-home or the first port of call for millions. Irish and German immigrants were followed by Russian and German Jews, Italians, Chinese, Hispanics, Africans and Vietnamese. It was never an easy fusion of cultures and religions, but, in time, they found a way to form what former Mayor David Dinkins once called a gorgeous mosaic.
As federal immigration laws were written and strengthened, protecting the citys immigrants, even undocumented immigrants, became a priority. And so, in 1989, then-Mayor Ed Koch signed an Executive Order declaring New York City a Sanctuary City, a move re-affirmed in a resolution by the City Council in 2016, affording some level of security to those who are undocumented. The question is, how much?
The concept of the Sanctuary City started in San Francisco, in 1985, when that citys leaders opposed the tactics used by immigration enforcement officials to round up the undocumented, and decided they would no longer cooperate with their efforts. That, at heart, is what Sanctuary Cities are all about, says Hasan Shafiqullah, a supervising lawyer in the Immigration Unit of New Yorks Legal Aid Society.
Were not going to use local resources, our local police or our courts to do the work of the federal immigration authorities, because we want to have good relations with our immigrant communities.Its important, he says, to let people know its safe to call the police if you are a domestic violence survivor, or if you are attacked or abused or whatever.
WATCH: The cost of sanctuary (25:00)
Secure communities
New York City used to subscribe to a programme called secure communities, part of an agreement with the federal government, through which the New York Police Department (NYPD) would inform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), when a non-citizen was incarcerated or stopped by police.
ICE would then file a detainer, requesting that the city hold that person for an additional 48 hours to transfer them to federal custody. When ICE officials admitted detainers were voluntary rather than mandatory, the city stopped cooperating. ICE also maintained a presence at Rikers Island, a jail where prisoners are held during trial or while awaiting transfer to long-term facilities. Shafiqullah says, they would go around and speak to the inmates, the detainees, and get them to sign documents basically agreeing to deportation and waiving all of their rights. It was incredibly coercive. So, in 2014, ICE was told that their officers were no longer welcome.
The city took the concept of sanctuary even further. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed executive orders forbidding city employees, including members of the NYPD, from asking anyone for their immigration status, unless it is relevant to the service theyre providing. For example, if an undocumented immigrant with a child who is a citizen applies for food stamps, he can be asked how many in the household are documented. If someone is arrested or the victim of a crime, they cannot be asked about their status.
NYC Health + Hospitals, which oversees all of the city-run medical facilities, also refuses to request the immigration status of anyone who comes to them for medical services, again, unless it affects their treatment. And if they do have to ask, say, in the case of someone who may show symptoms of a disease like Ebola or tuberculosis, the information is neither recorded nor documented. In an open letter to immigrant New Yorkers, Interim President and CEO Stanley Brezenoff, said, our primary concern is your health, not your immigration status. We want immigrant New Yorkers to understand they can seek health care without fear.
Nisha Agarwal, the commissioner of the Mayors Office for Immigrant Affairs, points to the citys outreach programmes as an important part of keeping the immigrant community safe. We work with the Department of Education, and sent letters to parents in the backpacks of every child, letting them know the DoE is open and accessible to all. The Mayors Office to Combat Domestic Violence sent letters to all their providers. We have teams in the field holding Know Your Rights workshops.
READ MORE: The seven biggest threats to Donald Trumps presidency
There are also city-sponsored programmes, like Action NYC, which offers free, safe legal advice to immigrants, and ID-NYC, government-issued identification cards for all New Yorkers, regardless of their immigration status. Natalia Aristizabal, co-organising director for the community-based group Make the Road New York, says you cant overstate the importance of a simple ID card. For an undocumented person to have access to a city ID card is huge, she says. They can use it to go to the store, to get utilities. New York is the only municipality in the country that has universal IDs.
Even though we are a sanctuary city and we're not directly cooperating with ICE, the minute I get fingerprinted for anything, the whole thing starts. by Hasan Shafiqullah, supervising lawyer in the Immigration Unit of New York's Legal Aid Society
Its particularly important for interactions with the police, especially when you consider that, while New York Citys sanctuary status is helpful, its far from perfect.
In February, a raid on Staten Island swept up five Mexican nationals, four of whom have US citizen children. It was part of nationwide sweeps, and Trumps promise to deport more than three million undocumented immigrants.
And, however dedicated New York may be to protecting its immigrants, theres not much the city can do. I think that one thing thats really important for folks to know is that the city really does, genuinely, have limited capacity, says Commissioner Agarwal. ICE has the ability to arrest people in public spaces. Unfortunately, the city does not have the ability to intervene in their behaviour in those sorts of actions.
Shafiqullah agrees, but adds, theres a lot more the city can do to protect its undocumented immigrants. Even though we are a sanctuary city and were not directly cooperating with ICE, the minute I get fingerprinted for anything, the whole thing starts, he says. If I rent a Citibike and I run a red light, and I dont have identification with me, the police officer can take me to a precinct and fingerprint me.
Those fingerprints will not be shared directly with ICE, but those fingerprints are digitally recorded and sent to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice in Albany, which shares them with the FBI for its database, which ICE can check. Theres nothing stopping ICE from showing up at the summons part in criminal court. We know theyre questioning people outside Family Court, questioning people outside homeless shelters.
Community needs to be the answer
Beyond that, there are currently 170 offences for which the city will work with ICE towards deportation, mostly violent crimes, any crime that is weapons or terror-related, and some major drug crimes. When pressed at a budget hearing in the state capitol, Mayor Bill De Blasio said that list could be expanded. If there are some offences that should be added, he said, we are willing to do that, always. And that worries advocates for the undocumented. It cuts against the promises New York City is making to its non-citizen residents, Shafiqullah says. We would urge him not to do that.
The election of Donald Trump has made the job of those protecting and defending the undocumented that much harder. As non-citizens are rounded up across the country, and the administration threatens to punish cities that offer sanctuary, community-based groups vow to keep doing their part, holding Know Your Rights workshops throughout the city.
We tell them you dont have to say anything to immigration, says Make the Road New Yorks Aristizabal. You dont have to let them in unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. You have to have a plan in case you or anyone in your family gets picked up. Who is going to be responsible for your children? Talk to people who live on your floor, so you can be each others eyes and ears. Now, more than ever, community needs to be the answer.
READ MORE: Undocumented migrants await Trumps next move
Immigration attorneys, too, are doing their part to make sure all New Yorkers are afforded due process. While undocumented immigrants in the US have no right to counsel, a new pilot programme called the Immigrant Family Unity Project would offer free counsel to poor non-citizens being detained by ICE and beginning the hearing process.
In immigration court, where youre facing deportation back to a country where maybe you left as a child, you dont speak the language, you have no support system, or where you might face torture or persecution, the government has said, Were not paying for an attorney, says Shafiqullah. NY is the first jurisdiction in the country with a programme for universal representation, with assigned attorneys for people who are in immigration detention.
Theyre not only informing undocumented immigrants of their rights, but helping those who are not facing immediate deportation find possible ways to fight, and stay with their families.
Immigration advocates point out that the Trump administration has taken ICEs enforcement priorities from violent criminals and repeat offenders to, basically, everyone. A single mum who may have overstayed her visa is in as much danger of deportation as a convicted killer.
Refusing to be frightened
Edina says she refuses to be frightened. Shes taking her children to school, going to work as normal, holding onto the hope that, shes says, that white Europeans are not the undocumented immigrants ICE is actively looking for.
If she is picked up, she says her plan is to plead that her removal would cause undue hardship for her children, and to ask for a cancellation of removal, which could give her a path to a green card. Its a programme the Trump administration is trying to end, so, if that doesnt work, she says, shell bring her family back to Hungary and start over, recognising that she is one of the lucky ones.
I think if I have to go back, my situation is not so bad, she says. Its not as bad as people who come from Third World countries. I think I could still have a nice, normal life.
READ MORE: Undocumented migrants await Trumps next move
Theres no denying that Trumps threats at retaliation have New York City officials concerned. His first attempt at a proposed budget, described by the former staff director of the senate budget committee as vindictive, contains massive cuts to the citys public schools, public housing, infrastructure and $190m in cuts to the NYPDs counterterrorism efforts, which New Yorks police commissioner, James P ONeill, described as, the backbone of our entire counterterrorism apparatus.
The irony of that is not lost on Agarwal. Its amazing that the funding that may be most at risk is public safety money, she says, when the focus of this executive order is supposed to be protecting public safety.
Still, those charged with protecting the rights of New Yorks most vulnerable residents, from hospitals to lawyers, public advocates to the mayors office, say they will fight to maintain the citys sanctuary status, no matter what it takes.
The federal government cant just swoop in and take funding whenever they feel like it, Agarwal says. Well see. If we end up in court, well end up in court. I think there are gonna be a lot of battles down the line like this.
* Name changed to protect his identity.
The activist-journalist tries to influence debate, whereas a journalist helps to create an informed discussion.
Journalism requires assembling and verifying facts. Conveying fair and accurate accounts is the journalists job.
In todays highly complex media environment with people increasingly turning to social media for news, the journalists basic responsibility has become all the more important. The new ecosystem has also presented a number of challenges to those in the business.
Rigorous fact-checking, collecting accurate information and publishing or broadcasting without bias are still equally important, but with the amount of data now being generated, news gathering has become a fraught enterprise.
An activist tries to influence the debate whereas a journalist helps create an informed debate. by
I may sound Dickensian [What I want is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life, one of his characters says in the novel Hard Times], but fact is at the heart of reporting.
A journalist must provide a balanced account, regardless of their political, social or economic standing. But the very notion of activist-journalist poses threat to professional journalism.
Objectivity and impartiality are the pillars of journalism.
Activists interpret facts to suit his or her agenda.
The journalists job is to interpret, contextualise, and convey the nuances of a particular issue. He or she must not editorialise, which can lead to manipulation.
Creating an informed debate is at the heart of journalistic endeavour, whereas an activists aim is to influence the debate.
In reporting, journalists should allow as many voices as possible at least two sources for a news story so that everyone has a say on the subject. The voice of an activist should also be woven into the story.
But journalists should never privilege an activists view over the people in the story who are directly affected, whose voices are rarely heard in the mainstream media, which is largely based in cities and towns often far away from their subjects.
A professional journalist never shies away from rigorous fact-checking and practising a high degree of transparency in news gathering.
But by nature, an activist would be selective in his or her sources, materials and facts. This will present a distorted and partial snapshot of the issue.
An activist tries to influence the debate whereas a journalist helps create an informed debate.
Activist-journalists in Nepal
If a journalist who also wears the hat of an activist goes to cover a protest, he or she is either hated or loved. The activist-journalist will be loved by people whose agendas he or she highlights through the work, but will fail on an important aspect: trustworthiness by the audience.
Provoking one group of people against another or advocating for a certain cause can compromise the ability to win trust. A journalist is always answerable to his or her audience, but an activist is interested in supporting the agenda of a particular group. There is every possibility that an activist-journalist could do harm to journalism.
In Nepal, where I have been a journalist for over 15 years, first working at local magazines and newspapers and later, covering Nepal for international outlets, I have seen how the phenomenon of activist-journalists has led to the erosion of professional journalism.
In fact, theres nothing surprising about this in Nepal, where until 1990, the press was driven by a mission to overthrow the autocratic Panchayat regime.
Old habits die hard. So, even after the end of the era of what was then called mission journalism, the weekly tabloid and online platforms continue to promote one or other political party in Nepal.
While there are notable exceptions of press fulfilling its duty of making the powerful accountable, a new crop of activist-journalists have emerged in recent years.
When challenged about their unethical practices, they couch their defence in excuses such as: Im not a reporter, I am an op-ed writer and You cant be objective when so much injustice is being done.
This group supported the anti-corruption campaign of an orthopaedic surgeon-activist, who staged a series of hunger strikes in Autumn last year.
Hundreds of protesters coalesced around Dr Govinda KC, whose Gandhian dissent bolstered the battle against Lokman Singh Karki, the chief of an anti-corruption commission, who abused his authority ironically presiding over a body that was tasked with combating abuse of power.
But Karkis downfall was a direct result of the countrys Supreme Court ruling, which dismissed him early this year on the grounds of lacking qualification for the post.
The activist-journalists marched the streets of Kathmandu carrying placards and shouting slogans. They urged me, and countless other journalists, to join their movement.
They expected the journalists like me to lend their voices to the campaign, which to me seemed a potential minefield for conflict of interest.
In an era of fake news, click-bait journalism and propaganda masquerading as reporting, the need for professional journalism has never been more urgent. by
The closest I came to the rally was when I drove past the protest one Saturday afternoon in October last year.
Ultimately, it was a bunch of muckraking journalists, an intrepid lawyer and a fledgeling political party that helped topple the anti-corruption czar. It also helped that an impeachment motion against Karki was being deliberated at the countrys parliament.
I have always thought of journalism as a profession that conducts its business in the periphery, never aspiring to be at the centre of the news event.
A journalist watches [and is witness to the unfolding drama] from the sidelines, never wading into the murky waters, but always at a safe distance so that he or she can report the information, nuggets and insights to the public.
In an era of fake news, click-bait journalism and propaganda masquerading as reporting, the need for professional journalism has never been more urgent.
What we need is an independent journalist who is not driven by any agenda, but is a truth-seeker and a champion of core values of journalism.
In these difficult times, we need to go back to the basics of journalism and strive to deliver credible, evidence-based and engaging reporting.
While fellow journalists in the Western world have recently faced with the challenges of dealing with politicians for whom lying is a second nature, the fabulist-politicians here are legion.
Newspapers are often susceptible to their lies, often publishing their false statements verbatim. But a small non-profit has shown how such falsehood can be challenged. South Asia Check, a website supported by Panos South Asia, a non-profit based in Kathmandu, counters falsehood and debunks myths and misconceptions.
Perhaps such initiatives should be replicated across the world so that politicos who make outlandish and exaggerated statements do not get away with it.
And, of course, sticking to the time-tested, old principles of journalism that have endured over the years will go a long way in fighting so-called alternative facts.
Deepak Adhikari is a freelance journalist based in Kathmandu. He covers Nepal for international outlets.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
On how the man who coined the term neocolonialism fell victim to it and how not to repeat his mistakes.
In 2011, the South African government announced a plan to create a 9.6-gigawatt nuclear energy programme. The project, they argued, would allow South Africa to diversify its energy sector, move away from coal-based energy production and boost economic growth.
But soon questions were raised about who this large-scale industrial project would ultimately benefit. Allegations have been made that public participation was being sidelined and that interested parties were colluding with the Russian government.
The controversial nuclear programme is just one example of the many economic policies that have shaped South Africas development along a clearly neocolonial path. Twenty-three years after the collapse of the apartheid regime, the country is clearly still in need of a wider decolonisation project to counter colonial economic legacy.
In the wake of this massive nuclear deal, along with others of its kind, South Africa is in a moment that demands us to look beyond its borders and learn hard lessons from other nations on the African continent.
The Ghana example
The term neocolonialism, purportedly coined by Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, describes the socioeconomic and political control exercised over a decolonised nation economically, linguistically, and culturally, by a neocolonialist country to open up the national economy to its corporations.
But despite identifying neocolonialism as a threat and warning newly independent African countries about it, Nkrumah ended up falling prey to it.
His rapid industrialisation plan which sought to usher Ghana into the modern industrial era in the closing breaths of the 1950s was anchored on the large scale Akosombo hydroelectric dam project.
British colonialists were first to put forward plans for the dam almost two decades prior to independence. After he came to power, Nkrumah picked the project and sought to repurpose its design for the benefit of the Ghanaian people and its economy by using it to bolster their aluminium production and aid in the electrification of the country.
Nkrumah had great difficulty financing the large-scale project and eventually, his government solicited financing from US firms through a joint venture with the Volta Aluminium Company and Kaiser Aluminium. After various rounds of negotiations and lobbying for finances eventually including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development under the World Bank the dam was eventually completed by mid-1960s.
The agreement with Kaiser Aluminium led to their smelters profiting from highly subsidised electricity rates and the use of imported bauxite raw materials avoiding building national capacity and mitigating the risk of nationalisation.
OPINION: West Africa and Europe trade deal who will benefit more?
Nkrumahs gamble to finance Ghanas rapid industrialisation project from the West ultimately was among the key factors which resulted in his regimes demise. Corruption both within the party and on the part of American and European multinationals ate into the countrys economy by selling expensive and flamboyant projects that were not designed for the specific needs and operational context of the country.
This created a fragile climate and as Ghanas cocoa industry which provided considerable foreign exchange to the country collapsed under pressure from falling prices, Africas first independent nation came on the verge of bankruptcy.
This laid the ground for a US-backed coup detat against Nkrumah, who at the time had become increasingly vocal of his ideals of African socialism and ills of capitalist society at large.
Ghanas economic crisis continued to worsen as the World Bank pushed for structural adjustment in the 1970s and 1980s. The austerity measures that then followed in the 1980s led to public sector job shedding and wide-scale privatisation at the expense of investment in other areas of the economy, such as small-scale farming.
South Africas neocolonial path
Although South Africans managed to defeat the colonial apartheid regime, they never really had a chance to decolonise the economy.
After apartheid-era economic sanctions were lifted, multinational corporations capitalised on an already unequal exploitative environment. They gained favourable access to the countrys raw resources, while ensuring that manufactured goods continue to be imported.
The African National Congress (ANC) surely aware of Nkrumahs warnings did not really try to stop this process. In fact, it has very much participated in it and, along the way, has faced numerous accusations of public sector corruption and private sector collusion.
In a state of the nation address in February 2017, President Jacob Zuma alluded to renewed interest in radical-transformation of the economy along the lines of its Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment framework, which has been criticised for disproportionately benefiting both white women and the black middle class. Within the same speech, he praised a large scale railway development project with China.
The proposed nuclear deal is set to stand as one of the largest government tenders ever issued (around $72bn) and will take decades to pay off. To date, there is little to no evidence of any large-scale education programmes or investments to expand and train scientists, technicians and engineers in nuclear technologies.
OPINION: Even if Zuma goes, South Africa will remain divided
The evident lack of capacity within South Africa in relation to the nuclear expansion plans place the country at risk of technical and economic dependency on Russia should they win the tender. Financing the deal will increase the cost of electricity during the repayment period, which, in light of South Africas slowing economy, carries frightening echoes of what happened in post-Nkrumah Ghana.
Resisting neocolonialism
Rapidly expanding inequalities, financial continuities from apartheid and colonial-era enterprises, along with the broadly acknowledged failures of land redistribution paint the simmering background of a nation in crisis.
For every crisis however there lies hope and opportunity. In April 2017, a new trade union federation is to be launched, breaking away from the ANC-dominated COSATU. This potentially massive rift in the labour movement presents an opportunity for building new counter-hegemonic forces, riding on the unprecedented wave of strikes and demonstrations.
The burgeoning student movement in South Africa is also a force to be reckoned with. Since the upsurge of the 2015 period, it has remained consistent in its instance on the revival of decolonisation as trans-historical approach to combating the entrenched and predatory imperial forces.
One of its demands is to decolonise curricula, which could help develop technologies and locally driven systems that do not require us to be economically dependent on global superpowers.
One area of research that should be supported is renewable energy which is a clean, efficient and locally sustainable alternative to nuclear energy. Renewable technologies are already cheap enough to be locally implemented and could compensate for the loss of jobs as a result of the potential closure of a number of coal power stations.
In a time of growing cynicism, when the lofty ideals of the South African independence generation ring hollow in the hills and plains of a divided country, the fight against oppression and neocolonialism continues daily among community organisations, workers, unions and students.
As we stand at the precipice of new era of nuclear investment, abstract and romantic calls to wait for a new vision or messianic liberation movement defy the urgencies of indebting the generations to come. If history tells us anything, it is that solidarity and resilience are built from below and ours is a task to support and nurture those who push to walk that path.
Brian Kamanzi is a Cape Town-based writer and electrical engineering Masters student at the University of Cape Town. He describes himself as committed to the social upliftment of his fellow people. He is a budding Pan-Africanist, eager to make contributions to the movement and form cross-cultural connections with others in the struggle. Follow his writing here.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Between 2015 and 2016, Israel arrested more than 400 Palestinians because of content they circulated online, often on Facebook, that Israel alleged amounted to incitement. Around 200 are embroiled in court cases. One of the best-known cases is that of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour, who faces up to eight years in prison for a poem she posted on her Facebook page in 2015. The last witnesses in her case testified on March 28, and a verdict is expected in a few months.
At the same time, Facebook has been cooperating with the Israeli government to remove content the latter finds objectionable, including briefly shutting down the page of the political party Fatah in March, because of an old photo posted of former leader Yasser Arafat holding a rifle.
On the other hand, Israelis, including government officials, routinely post inflammatory content about Palestinians without censure from Facebook or other media companies. In 2014, just before Israel started bombing Gaza, Ayelet Shaked, an extreme right-wing Israeli parliamentarian, posted a Facebook message stating that the mothers of Palestinian fighters should be killed and their homes destroyed. Neither the Israeli government nor Facebook took action against Shaked, who is currently Israels minister of justice.
Being complicit in Israels crimes
Facebook does not make explicit its policies of censorship or the details of how it shares users account information with governments. However, it does report the number of requests for user data it receives from governments, and the number of cases to which it responds. Between January and June 2016, Facebook responded positively to more than 70 percent of Israels 432 requests for user data. By regional comparison, it responded positively to 16 percent of such requests from the Jordanian government, though Jordan asked for only 25 users data.
No wonder: Israel is putting pressure on Facebook through strategies such as a law that would make it obligatory for the company to cooperate with Israel on posts that the state deems constitute incitement. In addition, a New York district court case is under way in which 20,000 Israelis are demanding that Facebook block alleged Palestinian incitement. While there is a category for Palestine in Facebooks government requests report, it has not been active since 2014. This does not mean, however, that hateful rhetoric and calls to violence against Palestinians are not being posted by Israelis.
READ MORE: Facebook blocks accounts of Palestinian journalists
In by
is supporting an occupier in its oppression of the occupied]
The organisation for which I serve as director, The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, or 7amleh (pronounced hamleh), recently published a report on research it conducted on racism and incitement in the Israeli media.
We found that the number of inflammatory posts made by Jewish Israelis against Arabs and Palestinians more than doubled in 2016 as compared with 2015, to 675,000 posts. These were mainly on Facebook; examples include rape all Arabs and throw them in the sea and a morning with lots of energy to slaughter Arabs. Not a single case of incitement against an Israeli has been opened.
Facebook says that it maintains political neutrality by following local laws. But in aiding the Israeli government, which in its rule of the occupied territory gives Palestinians no political or civil rights, including that of free speech, it is supporting an occupier in its oppression of the occupied a politically charged stance. And because Israel is violating international law via such practices as illegal settlement building, Facebook is also by default complicit in those practices. In a more directly complicit move, the company allows advertisements for settlement homes in the West Bank on its pages.
Facebook would do well to rethink its collaboration with Israel. In lieu of such a bold move, the company could, as a coalition of US social and racial justice organisations recently urged, adopt reforms that would target abusive content but cease the censorship of political speech. Or it could simply make its policies on censorship and information sharing explicit so that users know the risks of using its services. The rights and lives of Palestinians are at stake.
Nadim Nashif is a policy analyst for Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network and the Executive Director of 7amleh, The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Weakness in digital communications systems allows security to be bypassed, leaving users at risk of being spied on.
Bruce Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Governments want to spy on their citizens for all sorts of reasons. Some countries do it to help solve crimes or to try to find terrorists before they act.
Others do it to find and arrest reporters or dissidents. Some only target individuals, others attempt to spy on everyone all the time.
Many countries spy on the citizens of other countries: for reasons of national security, for advantages in trade negotiations, or to steal intellectual property.
None of this is new. What is new, however, is how easy it has all become. Computers naturally produce data about their activities, which means theyre constantly producing surveillance data about us as we interact with them.
Corporations are doing it for their own purposes; collecting and using this data has become the dominant business model of the internet. Increasingly, governments around the world are ensuring that they too have access to the data, either by mandating that the companies give it to them or surreptitiously grabbing their own copy.
Corporations are doing it for their own purposes; collecting and using this data has become the dominant business model of the internet. by
Since Edward Snowden revealed to the world the extent of the NSAs global surveillance network, there has been a vigorous debate in the technological community about what its limits should be.
Less discussed is how many of these same surveillance techniques are used by other smaller and poorer more totalitarian countries to spy on political opponents, dissidents, human rights defenders; the press in Toronto has documented some of the many abuses, by countries like Ethiopia , the UAE, Iran, Syria, Kazakhstan , Sudan, Ecuador, Malaysia, and China .
That these countries can use network surveillance technologies to violate human rights is a shame on the world, and theres a lot of blame to go around.
We can point to the governments that are using surveillance against their own citizens.
We can certainly blame the cyberweapons arms manufacturers that are selling those systems, and the countries mostly European that allow those arms manufacturers to sell those systems.
Theres a lot more the global internet community could do to limit the availability of sophisticated internet and telephony surveillance equipment to totalitarian governments. But I want to focus on another contributing cause to this problem: the fundamental insecurity of our digital systems that makes this a problem in the first place.
Exploiting existing vulnerabilities
IMSI catchers are fake mobile phone towers. They allow someone to impersonate a cell network and collect information about phones in the vicinity of the device and theyre used to create lists of people who were at a particular event or near a particular location.
Fundamentally, the technology works because the phone in your pocket automatically trusts any cell tower to which it connects. Theres no security in the connection protocols between the phones and the towers.
IP intercept systems are used to eavesdrop on what people do on the internet. Unlike the surveillance that happens at the sites you visit, by companies like Facebook and Google, this surveillance happens at the point where your computer connects to the internet. Here, someone can eavesdrop on everything you do.
This system also exploits existing vulnerabilities in the underlying internet communications protocols. Most of the traffic between your computer and the internet is unencrypted, and what is encrypted is often vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks because of insecurities in both the internet protocols and the encryption protocols that protect it.
There are many other examples. What they all have in common is that they are vulnerabilities in our underlying digital communications systems that allow someone whether its a countrys secret police, a rival national intelligence organisation, or criminal group to break or bypass what security there is and spy on the users of these systems.
IMSI-catchers are used by criminals, too. Right now, you can go onto Alibaba.com and buy your own IMSI catcher for under $2,000. by
These insecurities exist for two reasons. First, they were designed in an era where computer hardware was expensive and inaccessibility was a reasonable proxy for security. When the mobile phone network was designed, faking a cell tower was an incredibly difficult technical exercise, and it was reasonable to assume that only legitimate cell providers would go to the effort of creating such towers.
At the same time, computers were less powerful and software was much slower, so adding security into the system seemed like a waste of resources. Fast forward to today: computers are cheap and software is fast, and what was impossible only a few decades ago is now easy.
The second reason is that governments use these surveillance capabilities for their own purposes. The FBI has used IMSI-catchers for years to investigate crimes. The NSA uses IP interception systems to collect foreign intelligence. Both of these agencies, as well as their counterparts in other countries, have put pressure on the standards bodies that create these systems to not implement strong security.
Of course, technology isnt static. With time, things become cheaper and easier. What was once a secret NSA interception program or a secret FBI investigative tool becomes usable by less-capable governments and cybercriminals.
Wrongheaded and dangerous
Man-in-the-middle attacks against internet connections are a common criminal tool to steal credentials from users and hack their accounts.
IMSI-catchers are used by criminals, too. Right now, you can go onto Alibaba.com and buy your own IMSI catcher for under $2,000.
Despite their uses by democratic governments for legitimate purposes, our security would be much better served by fixing these vulnerabilities in our infrastructures.
OPINION: The IP Act UKs most extreme surveillance law
These systems are not only used by dissidents in totalitarian countries, theyre also used by legislators, corporate executives, critical infrastructure providers, and many others in the US and elsewhere.
That we allow people to remain insecure and vulnerable is both wrongheaded and dangerous.
Earlier this month, two American legislators Senator Ron Wyden and Rep Ted Lieu sent a letter to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, demanding that he do something about the countrys insecure telecommunications infrastructure.
They pointed out that not only are insecurities rampant in the underlying protocols and systems of the telecommunications infrastructure, but also that the FCC knows about these vulnerabilities and isnt doing anything to force the telcos to fix them.
Wyden and Lieu make the point that fixing these vulnerabilities is a matter of US national security, but its also a matter of international human rights. All modern communications technologies are global, and anything the US does to improve its own security will also improve security worldwide.
Yes, it means that the FBI and the NSA will have a harder job spying, but it also means that the world will be a safer and more secure place.
Bruce Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and the Harvard Kennedy School. His writings can be found at schneier.com.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Rights group says academics prosecution an indicator that critics of the Ugandan government can face its wrath.
Ugandan academic and government critic Stella Nyanzi has been charged with a cyber harassment offence after she repeatedly posted criticism of President Yoweri Museveni and his wife on Facebook, according to court documents.
Nyanzi, a research fellow at Ugandas Makerere University, appeared in a court in the capital, Kampala, on Monday after being detained at a hotel on Friday shortly after hosting a fundraising drive to raise money for sanitary pads for schoolgirls.
Dr Stella Nyanzi has been charged with cyber-harassment and offensive communication (and) using her Facebook posts to disturb President Musevenis privacy, which she denies, her lawyer Nicholas Opiyo told the AFP news agency.
Dr Nyanzi is within her constitutional rights and we are for an all-out legal battle with the state to defend her rights.
She remains in custody pending a bail hearing.
Nyanzis arrest and prosecution was an indicator that those who express critical views of the Ugandan government, especially the first family, can face its wrath, said Maria Burnett, associate director for Africa at Human Rights Watch.
The manner of Nyanzis arrest on Friday was more about intimidation than law enforcement, she added.
Nyanzi is popular on Facebook for her relentless criticisms of Museveni, who has ruled since 1986.
Some Ugandan politicians have been recently saying they would back a proposal to remove the age limit from the countrys constitution, the last obstacle to a possible life presidency for Museveni.
Museveni secured his latest term in office last year in a poll that independent monitors said lacked credibility and transparency.
Critics say he has placed relatives and loyalists in key government and military positions and wants his son, a major general in the army, to succeed him. They also increasingly warn that he plans to rule for life.
Anti-government protests are rarely permitted in Uganda and are often dispersed by police beatings, tear gas and the detention of activists.
Foreign ministers of major industrialised nations seek to put pressure on Russia to distance itself from Assad.
G7 foreign ministers are looking to send a clear and coordinated message to Russia over its stance on Syria as the US ratcheted up the pressure following a suspected chemical attack in the war-torn country.
The UKs Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson set the tone for the meeting, describing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as toxic and saying it was time for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven main industrialised countries are meeting in the Italian town of Lucca for two days before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flies to Moscow on Tuesday.
The agenda is likely to be dominated by last weeks suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town that killed at least 87 civilians, and the US cruise missiles fired at a Syrian air base in retaliation.
It was the first time the US has intervened directly against Assads government, which is fighting a civil war with the backing of Russia and Iran, and the G7 ministers will deliberate the Wests next steps.
The gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca groups foreign ministers from the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
End Assad support
Washingtons retaliation was slammed by Iran and North Korea and put it on a direct diplomatic collision course with Moscow, where Tillerson will travel for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
The US stepped up the pressure on Sunday on Russia to rein in the Syrian government, warning that any further chemical attacks would be very damaging to their relationship and suggesting any peace deal would be difficult with Assad in power.
Tillerson enraged Moscow by asking if it was possible Russia did not know about Syrias chemical arms, and called on the country to fulfil the obligation it made to the international community to guarantee the elimination of the weapons.
OPINION: The US shows it is still in the game by striking Assad
We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone, Johnson said on Monday, warning that Putin was damaging Russia by supporting Assad.
He had cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow to continue contact with the US and others ahead of Tillersons Russian trip.
He called on Russia to do everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the past week are never repeated.
Tillerson would deliver that clear and coordinated message to the Russians, he said.
Italy has arranged a last-minute meeting on Tuesday between the G7 ministers and their counterparts from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Italian media said the aim was to avert a dangerous military escalation.
Undercover investigation exposes inner workings of spy equipment companies selling to clients from sanctioned countries.
Spy equipment producers are breaking laws and circumventing international sanctions by agreeing to sell stock to countries known for human rights abuses, and to clients who do not declare the end user meaning surveillance tools could easily fall into the hands of armed groups, corporations, governments cracking down on dissent, or opposition leaders, an exclusive investigation by Al Jazeera reveals.
During Spy Merchants, a four-month undercover operation, Al Jazeera secretly filmed representatives of two Italian companies and one Chinese business agreeing to sell spyware that is capable of tracking millions of people online and able to intercept phone calls and text messages without anyone finding out.
The vendors boasted of being able to side-step the law by using sister and shell companies and explained how to possibly circumvent export regulations by lying about the details of shipments and using third countries exempted from certain rules as stopping places.
Posing undercover as a middle man buying equipment for the South Sudanese and Iranian governments, our reporter James (not his real name) was able to negotiate deals to acquire surveillance tools that Iran is prohibited from buying and that would cause serious human rights concerns in South Sudan .
The two Italian companies, IPS and AREA, indicated that they were open to the possibility of violating European laws to sell equipment that would end up in the hands of Iranian and South Sudanese clients, where they could potentially be used to spy on citizens.
READ MORE: Spying on dissent through illegal means
China-based business Semptian, meanwhile, was ready to sell spying gear worth nearly $3 million without knowing who the recipient would be.
When our reporter asked Semptian cofounder Frank Feng if previous buyers had used shell companies, Feng responded: We have done it. We dont know who is the private company and who is the end user. And we dont care about it. This way is good, because we have done it before.
Nuclear weapons of 21st century
Former British intelligence officer Julian Richards described powerful surveillance tools as the nuclear weapons of the 21st century.
These are the things that states that want to get ahead in, in their security capabilities. These are the things theyll pay big money for, he told Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about electronic surveillance
The equipment these surveillance companies make is used to monitor phone and internet traffic on a large scale.
The so-called IMSI catchers and IP Intercept systems are respectively used to listen in on phone calls and text messages, and can be used to spy on the internet usage of millions of people.
Activists, students, journalists, opposition figures in North Africa and the Middle East would be targeted and sometimes be imprisoned as a result of these systems coming from Europe by Marietje Schaake , MEP focused on foreign affairs trade and technology
When these technologies end up in the wrong hands. They end up with agencies which have a very proven and bloody history of repression and human rights abuse, Claire Lauterbach, a researcher at Privacy International, told Al Jazeera.
Its truly remarkable, when you consider what the implications of this might be.
The surveillance systems do have legitimate uses for intelligence and law enforcement agencies, but they are often used by repressive governments to track political dissidents.
I found that activists, students, journalists, opposition figures in North Africa and the Middle East would be [targeted] and sometimes be imprisoned as a result of these systems coming from Europe, said Marietje Schaake, a member of the European parliament focused on foreign affairs trade and technology.
After viewing Al Jazeeras investigation, she said: I found that unacceptable then, and I find it unacceptable today.
The companies our undercover reporter approached seemingly had no problem in forging documents to make sure the deal would go ahead.
First, we are ok with Iran. Of course, its subject to export restriction. But this is something that we can manage, said IPS sales manager Ugo Santillo.
By using a sister company and describing the hardware sold by IPS as a traffic management system, IPS said it could sell IP intercept systems to Iran.
OPINION: Infrastructure vulnerabilities make surveillance easy
In response to these allegations, IPS told Al Jazeera that they operate with full respect of the regulations.
They added: We had no intention of completing this or any deal with the individual our staff met with. Any deal that we may have discussed with him would have to be dependent on obtaining the full legal authorisation from the authorities.
Freedom of speech curtailed
AREA, meanwhile, was prepared to discuss selling IMSI catchers tools that can spy on mobile phones without users knowledge to South Sudan, despite serious human rights concerns and EU sanctions.
In South Sudan, according to Human Rights Watch , government forces and opposition fighters committed serious abuses against civilians in the civil war, and authorities there harass, intimidate, and arbitrarily arrest and detain journalists.
Pagan Amum, a South Sudanese politician, was forced to flee the country in 2013 when the war began after becoming the target of government surveillance. He was arrested and accused of plotting a coup.
The government with that surveillance has reduced the political space for our citizens to speak, the right of freedom of speech has been curtailed, even to speak in private, he told Al Jazeera.
To conduct this surveillance, in violation of the law, this is absolutely very dangerous, it becomes actually, just like weapons of mass destruction, he said.
AREA explained what it described as a typical industry tactic: theoretically one could sell surveillance equipment by getting a licence to export to Tanzania , it said, from where the IMSI catcher would be donated as a gift to South Sudan.
Ultimately, AREA did nothing more than set up a meeting with a Turkish partner, BTT.
To obtain this export license the Turkish partner, offered to lie by stating that the hardware is telecom equipment and not used to spy on people.
I say this is dual use telecom equipment, okay, BTTs Alper Tosun told our reporter. And most of the time, it is telecom testing equipment. This is the main purpose that I am declaring.
Absolutely unacceptable
In the past, AREA has been caught selling spy equipment to a country with a history of abusing its citizens.
In 2011, the company made a deal with the Syrian government worth almost $14 million.
Although AREA claimed it had a valid export license to supply Syria, company executives were recently accused of falsifying export documents relating to the 2011 deal.
I find it absolutely unacceptable that there are people willing to sell to places where human rights violations are obvious, said MEP Schaake.
READ MORE: How we revealed the surveillance worlds illegal trades
In the case of South Sudan, she said, the country is on the brink of massive violence. I do believe that every individual, no matter who their employer is, should really look at themselves in the mirror and wonder, What am I doing?'
BTT did not respond when asked for comment about these allegations.
AREA said it works with the relevant governments to ensure the proper export and legal use of our equipment.
The company declined further comment until seeing the evidence.
Huge effects for democracy
Semptian, the Chinese company, was also ready to sell IMSI catchers.
At one point, impatient company cofounder Feng encouraged our reporter to buy sooner rather than later because he had to reach a sales performance target.
Using a shell company, Semptian was ready to sell our reporter 10 IMSI catchers without knowing who would end up using the spying tools.
To remain anonymous, Feng told our undercover reporter that the company would remove all logos and branding from the surveillance equipment.
Semptian did not respond to a request for comment for this programme.
READ MORE: How the dual-use ruse is employed to sell spyware
Anyone with enough money is able to buy these highly sophisticated systems which could proliferate all over the world. I would like to see more accountability and transparency in this very, very dark and dangerous market, said MEP Schaake.
For Privacy Internationals Lauterbach, continued illegal trading of surveillance could threaten the foundations of many societies.
If we cant find a way to bring surveillance and the practice of surveillance within the rule of law, its going to have huge effects for democracy, she said.
After Spy Merchants was completed, Al Jazeera received a letter from lawyers acting for IPS denying all wrongdoing. They specifically denied that Chief Executive Officer Fabio Romani or any other person in a position of authority at IPS ever attempted to sell its products and services in Iran.
Spy Merchants can be viewed on Al Jazeera:
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Indian police impose curfew-like curbs across parts of region, a day after deadly clashes between protesters and police.
Indian police have imposed curfew-like curbs on movement of people across several parts of Indian-administered Kashmir, a day after clashes with protesters against a by-election left eight people dead and more than 200 injured.
Separatist factions in Kashmir have called for a two-day strike in protest on Monday.
Their calls to boycott the poll in Srinagar, and the ensuing violence, resulted in voter turnout of a mere 7 percent on Sunday and forced 70 polling stations to shut down.
During clashes in Budgam district, police initially used tear gas against protesters who were throwing stones, but then opened fire, killing seven people, a senior police officer told Reuters news agency.
One protester was killed in a separate incident.
Among the dead was 22-year-old Omar Farooq, who was hit by two two bullets one in the chest and another in the ribs according to eye witnesses.
At his funeral on Monday, gathered crowds expressed their anger against the government.
People can see how much India oppresses us, abuses our mothers and sisters, abuses our religion Islam and puts our brothers into graves, Asif Rasool, 25, told Al Jazeera.
This is the reason Kashmiris dont want to stay with India.
Fayaz Mir, a member of parliament from Jammu and Kashmirs ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), acknowledged peoples anger and called for dialogue.
This is not the first time there is such an issue in Kashmir, Mir told Al Jazeera.
It hasnt happened only in this government, so there is need to start dialogue to address peoples resentment, Mir added.
Security tightened
In another Kashmir-related development on Monday, the Indian government informed the Supreme Court that authorities would introduce new rubber-based bullets for security forces to deal with violent protests in the region.
The government said it has issued new standard operating procedures to deal with stone pelters in the Valley, one of which involves using rubber-based bullets before using pellet guns.
The response comes almost two weeks after the Supreme Court asked the government to consider using alternative measures other than pellet guns to deal with protests in Kashmir, citing the need for maximum restraint.
Security was tightened on Monday across Kashmir, with police blocking roads with barricades and restricting movement of vehicles.
Some train services were also suspended in the region, a railway official said.
This is a reaction to what is happening in Kashmir, because people are getting killed mercilessly, a young protester in Srinagar, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisal, told Al Jazeera, referring to Sundays clashes.
The youths are coming out to express their anger and dissent in every way possible.
Waheed Para, spokesman for Jammu and Kashmirs ruling PDP, told Al Jazeera: We regret these killings. It will take some time to bring back a conducive environment in the state.
Shantmanu, chief electoral officer of the Muslim-majority state, said more than 200 incidents of violence were reported on Sunday, including stone-pelting, petrol bomb attacks and setting ablaze of a polling station.
The by-election was held in the key city of Srinagar to fill a vacant seat in Indias lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha.
A second by-election in the state is set to take place on April 12 in Anantnag.
We are worried about Anantnag polls because it is a more sensitive area, the police official said.
Kashmir witnessed deadly protests after a well-known separatist commander was killed last year.
The violence has killed 84 civilians and wounded more than 12,000 civilians and security force personnel.
In a separate incident on Monday, Rajesh Kalia, an Indian defence official, said four suspected fighters were killed after they tried to infiltrate along the frontier with Pakistan near an area known as the Keran sector.
We noticed movement of militants early in the morning and killed them during an ambush, Kalia said.
READ MORE: Mirza Waheed Violence will not end Kashmir conflict
Details of the incident could not immediately be independently verified.
Neighbours India and Pakistan claim divided Kashmir in full, but governs separate parts.
Two of the three wars they have fought since independence from Britain in 1947 have been over Kashmir.
Last September, tension escalated as armed men killed 19 Indian soldiers at an army camp in Kashmir, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based fighters.
India accuses Pakistan of backing separatist fighters in the Himalayan region, a charge Pakistan denies.
Fahad Shah contributed to this report from Srinagar.
Stella Nyanzi was arrested for insulting Ugandas government in a dispute over funding of sanitary pads for schoolgirls.
Ugandan academic and government critic Stella Nyanzi, who has been arrested for insulting the East African countrys president and first lady, is set to appear in court on Monday, Kampala police said.
Nyanzi, a research fellow at Ugandas Makerere University, was detained at a hotel in the capital on Friday shortly after hosting a fundraising drive to raise money for sanitary pads for schoolgirls.
Police spokesman Asan Kasingye said on Sunday that Nyanzi was arrested for violating a law against misusing computers and that she would be charged with the offences of cyber harassment and offensive communication.
Nyanzi is popular on Facebook for her relentless criticisms of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled since 1986. Musevenis critics increasingly warn that he plans to rule for life.
Some Ugandan politicians have been recently saying they would back a proposal to remove the age limit from the countrys constitution, the last obstacle to a possible life presidency for Museveni.
Campaign promises
On Facebook recently, Nyanzi rebuked First Lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as education minister, for saying the government had no money to buy sanitary towels (napkins) for poor schoolgirls, although the president had promised to budget for them when he was campaigning for re-election last year.
Many Ugandan girls are reported to drop out of school because of the shame they feel for lacking sanitary pads.
I totally reject the idea that one cannot and should not criticise the people responsible for abusing the rights of Ugandans and resources of Uganda through thirty-one years of increasing despotic family rule, Nyanzi said in one of her Facebook posts.
As a thinker, scholar, poetess, lyricist, writer, Facebooker and creative producer, it is my responsibility to boldly critique the corrupt tyrants of the day.
Nyanzi has described the first lady as foolish and out of touch with the problems of ordinary Ugandans.
The academic, who trained as a medical anthropologist, often uses sexual imagery to underscore her points on Facebook, leading many to accuse her of obscenity in this conservative country.
But her fans say she is an honest activist who is using her literary skills to fight for the poor.
In an interview with a local TV station, the first lady said she had chosen to forgive Nyanzis criticisms, which she described as hurtful.
I still dont know what kind of wrong I committed to deserve that kind of language and the names she chose to call me, and all that. I just wanted to tell people that I honestly forgave that lady, the first lady said.
Because I dont understand how an educationist can use that language to say anything about anybody.
Jadhav, arrested in March 2016, sentenced on charges of planning, coordinating and organising espionage activities.
Pakistans military has sentenced an Indian naval officer to death on charges of espionage and sabotage.
In a statement, the army said Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, was an Indian intelligence official who aided and financed terrorist activities in the southwestern Balochistan province and the southern port city of Karachi.
He had been convicted by a military tribunal.
Today, [army chief] Gen Qamer Javed Bajwa has confirmed his death sentence, a military statement said on Monday, without stating when the execution would take place.
Pakistans army released a video shortly after his arrest in which he confessed to having spent years sowing unrest in Pakistan and being tasked by Indias intelligence service with planning, coordinating and organising espionage and sabotage activities in Balochistan aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan.
It was not clear if he was speaking under duress.
India has denied that he was a spy, calling the claims baseless and has said Pakistan executing him would be premeditated murder.
Pakistan accuses India of helping the separatist movement in Balochistan, a charge denied by India.
The government in Delhi says Pakistan aids separatist fighters in Kashmir.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947.
Both countries claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought three wars over Kashmir.
Last September, tension between the neighbours escalated after fighters killed 19 Indian soldiers at an army camp in Kashmir, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based fighters.
Pakistan denies backing the fighters, saying it only offers political support to the Muslim people of Indian-administered Kashmir.
In 2013, an Indian national sentenced to death for spying in Pakistan was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. Sarabjit Singh had been on death row for 16 years.
In 1999, another Indian man, Sheikh Shamim, was hanged in a Pakistani jail almost 10 years after he was caught red-handed near the border and arrested on charges of spying.
Alexei Navalny was among the hundreds arrested on March 26 at an anti-corruption protest he organised in Moscow.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been released after spending 15 days in jail over a rally he led against alleged massive corruption by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The anti-corruption campaigner was arrested on March 26 at the largest unauthorised demonstration of recent years in the capital, Moscow. He was found guilty of disobeying police orders.
Hi everyone, Navalny wrote on Twitter on Monday, posting a picture of himself at the offices of his anti-corruption foundation.
Just before his release, police moved Navalny without warning to a different detention centre, in an apparent attempt to avoid media coverage.
Al Jazeeras Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said the way the authorities were handling the situation showed their nervousness about Navalny and his message.
Effectively the media were tricked on Monday the journalists waiting for Navalny to be released were told that actually he had been moved earlier in the day to a different detention facility and released from there with no cameras present, he said.
A spokesperson said that Navalny will carry on his preparations for the 2018 presidential elections, Challands added.
The Kremlin critic was forced to hop on the metro as journalists and supporters were left waiting for him at the location where he had been held across Moscow.
Nationwide protests
Navalny, 40, was among hundreds arrested at rallies held the same day in Moscow and many other Russian cities.
In the capital, police in riot gear detained around 1,000 people, including a significant number of teenagers who grew up under President Vladimir Putins rule.
The protests, which attracted crowds of hundreds or thousands in most sizeable Russian cities, were the largest coordinated outpourings of dissatisfaction in Russia since mass protests in 2011-2012.
OPINION: Russia The ghost of a terrorised past
Navalny called for the protests after publishing online a detailed report accusing Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a shadowy network of non-profit organisations.
The opposition leader rose to fame with fiery speeches at mass protests over Putins return to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012.
He has harnessed the power of social media and YouTube to spread his message.
The video report has been viewed more than 18m times on YouTube and prompted wide discussion with mockery over details such as Medvedevs purchase of flashy trainers.
Medvedev finally responded in televised comments on April 4, rejecting the claims as malarkey.
He accused Navalny of wanting to try to pull people out into the streets and reach political ends, while following the Kremlin practice of not naming the opposition leader directly.
Following the protests, Putin accused someone, some political forces of trying to advance selfish interests.
OPINION: Russias new protest generation
Navalny was fined for breaching rules of organising protests after going ahead with the Moscow protest without permission from the authorities.
Police searched the offices of his anti-corruption foundation and detained staff who were accused of disobeying police and sentenced to up to 10 days.
Navalny has announced he intends to stand in the 2018 presidential polls that Vladimir Putin is expected to contest for a fourth term.
A controversial past conviction on corruption charges, however, may prevent Navalny from getting on the ballot.
The Russian constitution allows public gatherings but recent laws have criminalised protests not authorised by city authorities, who frequently refuse to grant permission for rallies by Kremlin critics.
The political and national mood has shifted since the protests, however, following a deadly bomb attack on the St Petersburg metro and the United States direct intervention against Russias ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The bomber, posing as a military trainee, detonated explosives strapped to his waist, killing nine soldiers.
A suicide bomber dressed in an army uniform infiltrated a training camp in Somalias capital on Monday and killed at least nine soldiers, according to officials.
The bomber, posing as a military trainee, walked into the camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu and detonated explosives strapped to his waist.
Armed group al-Shabab, which has carried out frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing Somalias internationally recognised government, claimed responsibility for the attack.
READ MORE: New army chief survives deadly Mogadishu bomb blast
Two military colonels were among those died, as well as the camps chief trainer, Colonel Abdi Hassan told the Associated Press news agency.
A military colonel, asking not to be named, told the Reuters news agency: Some of the injured ones are in serious condition. It is not easy to prevent a militant in military uniform who wants to kill himself.
At a hospital in Mogadishu, gravely wounded soldiers were transported to emergency rooms, with bleeding victims on stretchers awaiting treatment outside.
He entered the camp unstopped, whispered an injured soldier with bandages wrapped around his head and leg as he spoke to his mother.
We were sitting under a tree when he came and blew himself up among us, he said, grimacing with pain.
The soldiers and officers were resting after their daily military exercises.
In a separate incident on Monday, a government worker was killed after a bomb in his car was detonated by remote control in Mogadishus Hamarweyne district, police said.
Al-Shabab has stepped up its campaign of bombings in Mogadishu in recent weeks; a car bomb targeting Somalias new army chief left 15 people dead on Sunday, and a landmine killed 19 on Thursday.
The latest attacks come after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared a new war against the group, naming a new military chief and other officials in an attempt to improve the worsening security situation.
Al-Shabab has denounced Mohamed, who was elected president in February, as an apostate and threatened to wage vicious war against his government.
The group was pushed out of Mogadishu by national and African Union multinational forces in 2011, but it continues to carry out deadly bombings. Targets have included hotels, military checkpoints and the presidential palace.
The conflict has exacerbated the effects of a severe regional drought in many parts of the country. The United Nations says more than half the population of 12 million will need aid by July.
UN peacekeeping mission says at least 16 people were killed and 10 wounded in South Sudans Wau.
At least 16 civilians were killed on Monday in the South Sudanese city of Wau, according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country (UNMISS), with witnesses reporting that government-aligned militia were targeting residents based on their ethnic group.
The violence stemmed from an ambush on Sunday of government troops near Wau, leading to clashes in the city the following day, UNMISS said in a statement.
The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital, UNMISS said, adding that 10 people had been wounded.
A power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar escalated into a military conflict in December 2013, leading to tens of thousands being killed and about 3.5 million being displaced.
The conflict has pitted Kiirs Dinka ethnic group against Machars Nuers. Other ethnic groups have also created militias which have often formed alliances with either side.
Killing, looting
Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to Machar.
UNMISS said troops, tanks and equipment from the SPLA national army had moved towards areas controlled by the rebels in the southwestern part of Wau late last week.
READ MORE: UN Army attack prompts mass exodus from South Sudan
At least 3,000 people, mostly women and children, sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 had sought refuge at an UNMISS Protection of Civilians site.
Civilians who spoke to news agencies described targeted killings in the city some 650km from the capital, Juba.
The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas, Moses Peter, a priest, told the AFP news agency, confirming that up to 3,000 people were sheltering in his church.
They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses.
Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.
The civilians were killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels, Erynio told AFP, adding that this was not true.
Five residents, all of whom asked not to be named, described members of the presidents Dinka ethnic group searching for members of the local Luo and Fertit groups.
We are still inside hiding, one man told the Reuters news agency by telephone, speaking from a Wau neighbourhood called Nazareth. I have seen four dead bodies of my neighbours.
Armed militias are moving from house to house, another resident told Reuters. It is an ethnic crackdown.
The International Committee for the Red Cross said it was rushing surgical teams to the city to assist the wounded.
Conflicting accounts
The military and rebels gave conflicting accounts of the violence.
William Gatjiath Deng, a spokesman for the rebels, told AFP the fighting stemmed from an ambush laid by the rebels outside Wau on Sunday. He said 35 soldiers from a government-aligned militia were killed in the ambush.
The surviving pro-government forces returned to Wau, where Deng said they killed 50 civilians in house-to-house raids.
WATCH: South Sudan violence, hunger forcing families to flee
Speaking to Al Jazeera, army spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the killings of civilians were carried out by members of ethnic groups who have nothing to do with this war as retaliation against other ethnic groups.
What happened in regard to the citizens in the area is a result of the fighting between some ethnic groups within Wau town who thought that they wanted to take revenge of the loved ones they lost due to fighting in those areas and decided to target ethnic groups as a soft target, Chol said from Juba.
Chol accused the army of using locals as human shields and said the army decided to flush out rebels in the area after an SPLA convoy was ambushed, sustaining some casualties.
Both accounts could not be independently verified.
At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.
The war has also created a man-made famine, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis says Syrian government would be ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons.
Last weeks US strike on a Syrian air base destroyed a fifth of President Bashar al-Assads working warplanes, Pentagon chief James Mattis has said.
The assessment of the Department of Defense is that the strike resulted in the damage or destruction of fuel and ammunition sites, air defense capabilities, and 20 percent of Syrias operational aircraft, Mattis said in a statement on Monday.
The Syrian government has lost the ability to refuel or re-arm aircraft at Shayrat airfield and at this point, use of the runway is of idle military interest, he added.
Earlier, the US militarys Central Command spokesman Colonel John Thomas said the US strike at Shayrat airfield near Homs in central Syria had destroyed more than 20 Syrian jets.
Mattis called Fridays strike a measured response to the governments use of chemical weapons.
The Syrian government would be ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons, Mattis said.
Fridays strike saw two US destroyers unleash a volley of 59 Tomahawk missiles at the airbase.
A Russian defence ministry spokesman said only six MiG-23s, plus a number of buildings, were destroyed and that only 23 of the missiles had reached Shayrat.
Thomas said the runways were deliberately avoided because the US was trying to draw a clear line that its military action was in response to the suspected chemical attack, and not a signal of willingness to get more involved in Syrias civil war.
Barrel bombs
The White House separately suggested that barrel bombs dropped by Assads forces could be one of the military actions in Syria that could prompt a US response if chemicals were involved.
When you watch babies and children being gassed and suffer under barrel bombs, you are instantaneously moved to action, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing.
I think this president has made it very clear that if those actions were to continue, further action will definitely be considered by the United States.
READ MORE: Syrias civil war explained from the beginning
Barrel bombs containers filled with explosives are frequently used by government forces and making them a red line would significantly widen the criteria for retaliation.
The White House clarified later that Spicer was referring to barrel bombs carrying industrial chemicals such as chlorine.
Nothing has changed in our posture, a senior administration official told the AFP news agency.
Government forces are suspected of using chlorine gas in attacks on several occasions throughout the war.
The US attack on Syria came after a suspected chemical attack had killed at least 87 people in Idlibs rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun last week, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Thousands of people in Nigerias Lagos State were left homeless on Sunday after police stormed an informal fishing settlement and set fire to their homes, according to rights groups and residents.
Members of the Otodo Gbame riverine community said armed police fired bullets and tear gas indiscriminately, forcing them onto canoes in the water as their houses were levelled.
One man was shot in the neck and later died, residents and Justice and Empowerment Initiatives (JEI), a Lagos-based group working with the community, told Al Jazeera.
The forceful eviction followed the destruction of the homes of more than 4,700 people in the settlement in mid-March for environmental and health reasons, according to local authorities.
[Police] came very, very early in the morning [of Sunday], Tina Edukpo, a 21-year-old Otodo Gbame resident, told Al Jazeera by phone.
When I saw them, I was surprised, she said.
JEI codirector Andrew Maki, who arrived at the community shortly after the demolitions began, said that at least 50 to 60 officers and 10 police vehicles were in Otodo Gbame in the morning.
He told Al Jazeera that the Lagos State Task Force officer in charge at the site told him and residents that police were there on the orders of the governor.
Security measure
According to the Lagos State Governors Monitoring Team Twitter account, Sundays demolition was carried out as a security measure in the overall interest of all Lagosians.
It said it believes militants were using the community as a base, an accusation residents and rights groups deny.
It also said the settlement was illegal, without any title or appropriate government approval.
Maki said on Sunday that police shot tear gas and bullets, forcing thousands of residents onto boats.
Everyone in the community was forced onto the water, there were hundreds of boats, Maki said.
Paul Kunnu, another Otodo Gbame resident, said people had nowhere to go but the water.
They started shooting tear gas and bullets, Kunnu, 38, told Al Jazeera. So many people started running into the water.
He also said he remained on a boat in the water for nearly 12 hours and was continually pushed away from the land by marine police as other officers set fire to the remaining homes.
According to residents and JEI, a 20-year-old student was shot in the neck. Video from Sunday shows a bleeding man being rushed in a canoe for help. Maki, from JEI, said the man died in the boat before getting to the hospital.
Authorities were not available for comment on the death.
READ MORE: Nigeria Fishermen and chiefs
The Otodo Gbame community is one of many informal settlements along the waterfront of Lagos, Nigerias commercial capital.
In January, a Lagos court issued an injunction halting demolitions in such communities after an estimated 30,000 Otodo Gbame residents were evicted in November 2016 to make way for development projects, rights groups said.
JEI and Amnesty International accused the government of violating that court order on March 17 when excavators and police razed of homes of at least 4,700 Otodo Gbame residents.
Following last months demolition, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode issued a statement defending the move, saying it was not in violation of the January injunction.
Ambode said the evictions were carried out to ensure that the waterfront area is free from environmentally injurious and unsanitary habitation a few months after it was consumed by fired and rendered uninhabitable.
The government has also said it was not responsible for the fire that displaced thousands in November 2016, instead blaming an ethnic clash between residents of different communities.
A ruling on a court case against the governor and other Lagos officials filed by JEI and dozens of waterfront communities in Lagos over the March demolition is expected on Wednesday.
We have to rebuild
Last year, rights groups warned that more than 300,000 people faced eviction from waterfront communities across the state of Lagos.
Makeshift housing is common in the poorest parts of Lagos, a city of more than 20 million people.
Morayo Adebayo, a senior researcher at Amnesty International, accused the government of grabbing land.
This is a land-grab situation. That is what is happening, Morayo told Al Jazeera by phone on Sunday.
Otodo Gbame residents are fishermen who derive their daily sustenance from the water, she said. They have been here for more than 80 years.
Residents, including Kunnu and Edukpo, vowed to rebuild.
I want to rebuild my home because I dont have any other place to go, Edukpo said. This is the third time they have demolished my home.
Kunnu agreed.
[These are] our homes where our fathers and grandfathers have lived, he said. We have to rebuild.
Asylum seekers, including children, are being held in shipping containers surrounded by razor fences, the UN says.
The United Nations has urged European Union members to stop returning asylum seekers to Hungary, blaming the countrys tough new policy of systematically detaining them in high-security container camps.
Refugees and migrants have long suffered dire living conditions in Hungary, a country accused by rights groups of breaking all the rules for asylum seekers, including vicious beatings and violent pushbacks by security forces.
The situation for asylum seekers in Hungary, which was already of deep concern to UNHCR, has only gotten worse since the new law introducing mandatory detention for asylum seekers came into effect, Filippo Grandi, the UNs high commissioner for refugees, said on Monday.
READ MORE: Hungary passes bill to detain all asylum seekers
Since the law came into force on March 28, all new asylum seekers, including children, have been detained in shipping containers surrounded by high razor fences at the border for the entire length of their asylum procedures, according to UNHCR.
Some 110 people, including four unaccompanied children and children with their families, are being held there currently.
The agency also said it remained very concerned over highly disturbing reports of serious incidents of ill-treatment and violence against people crossing the border into Hungary, including by state agents.
These unacceptable practices must be brought to an end, Grandi said, urging Hungary to investigate abuse allegations.
Cecile Pouilly, a UNHCR spokeswoman for Europe, told Al Jazeera that asylum seekers could be detained for up to 12 months.
The containers are definitely not a place where you would like children to be accommodated nor detained, she said, adding that they did not have space for beds, wardrobes or chairs.
While other countries also detain asylum seekers, Pouilly said Hungarys new law was extremely worrying because it makes detention systematic and mandatory.
Some 324 shipping container homes have been installed at two separate locations called transit zones, according to the government. They are built into a fence that Hungary erected along its 175km-long southern border in 2015.
OPINION: Hungary should be kicked out of the EU
Defending the measure earlier this year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it was needed as a response to terror attacks in Europe, citing the November 2015 attacks in Paris.
The move reinstates Hungarys practice of detaining asylum applicants, which it suspended in 2013 under pressure from human rights groups.
The UNHCR warned last month that the practice would have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered.
In October last year, the majority of Hungarians voted against an EU referendum aimed at sharing 160,000 refugees around the 28-member bloc through mandatory quotas.
It has since not accepted any asylum seekers allocated under the scheme.
Hungary granted asylum, or some form of protection, to 425 people out of 29,432 applications in 2016.
Upbeat and traditional songs from Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece and Bulgari from Goddess of Arno to benefit Winning Coffee.
Celebrate SPRING Balkan-style with the exciting and exotic music of the Southwests premier 6-piece Balkan dance band Goddess of Arno. Upbeat dance tunes and traditional songs from Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, & Bulgaria many in the Romani (Gypsy) style and language -are all in the repertoire of this 2002 NM MIC-award-WINNING band. Members of Goddess of Arno sing and accompany solo and multi-part vocals with traditional ethnic string and percussion instruments as well as violin, guitar, electric bass, & alto saxophone. Veteran folk dancer Patsy Gregory will lead the traditional Balkan line dances on Winnings wood floor and shell give a crash course in the basic dances to live music by Goddess of Arno at 7:15PM. The party officially begins at 7:45PM and you can also dance your own dance or just sit, relax and enjoy the music, ambiance and some of Winnings delicious snacks and beverages. The 20th Annual Spring Balkan Dance Party will take place at Winning Coffee Company, which is located at 111 Harvard SE (south of Central near UNM) -- admission is $5.00 at the door, kids 12 and under get in for FREE - ALL proceeds go to Winning Coffee- extra donations are welcome!
Goddess of Arno band personnel:
Leanne Menninpercussion (tapan, wooden spoons, daide & dumbek) & vocals;
Barbara Friedmanelectric bass, Macedonian tambura & vocals;
Beth Cohenviolin, guitar, Macedonian tambura & vocals;
Randy Edmunds-guitar, Macedonian tambura & vocals;
Jamie Edmunds-alto sax & vocals;
Mary Masuk-percussion (riq, doumbek, daide & cymbal).
Goddess of Arno Balkan Band is still rockin' the Balkans in New Mexico after more than 30 years of specializing in the art of traditional Balkan, Mediterranean and Eastern European Music. The virtuosity of Balkan and Roma musicians combined with the complex rhythms and scales which the southern Balkans absorbed from the Ottoman Empire, are the source of inspiration and study for the bands improvisations, phrasing and ornamentation. Goddess of Arno performs throughout the southwest and has opened for, produced and performed in concerts and workshops with internationally acclaimed Balkan and Romani musicians & scholars such as Esma Redzhepova, Yuri Yunakov, Dhakha Brakha, Sani Rifati (Dancer & Voice of Roma director), Kabile & Bulgarika Bulgarian Ensembles & Professors Carol Silverman and Sonya Tamar Seeman. Goddess of Arno's members also travel abroad to study regularly with masters of Balkan music and dance.
Donald Trump sends an aircraft carrier to the Korean peninsula, raising tensions in the already volatile region.
The United States has rerouted several warships towards the western Pacific Ocean, after North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.
The Carl Vinson strike group, which includes a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was initially meant to be heading to Australia. Its new route is seen as a show of strength by the US, which is also putting pressure on regional powers.
President Donald Trump has spoken to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about countering threats from North Korea.
And US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says China has agreed that action must be taken.
To what lengths will Washington go to remove a potential threat?
Presenter: Laura Kyle
Guests:
Jean Lee Global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center
Victor Gao Director of the China National Association of International Studies
Jim Walsh Research associate at MITs Security Studies Program
A 3K walk raised about $10,000 on Saturday, with roughly half of it going toward establishing a suicide prevention and advocacy group at UF.
A group of about 120 UF students and Gainesville-area residents marched about 2 miles through UFs campus as a part of the second annual Out of the Darkness Campus Walk, hosted by a UF student organization of the same name.
The organization has raised $10,200 total so far but will continue raising money until June to donate to the university and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said Jaclyn Krantzler, a UF statistics junior who organized the event.
Krantzler said half of this years funds will be used for UF to create a suicide prevention and advocacy group, while the other half will be donated to the AFSP.
Krantzler said she organized the walk, which started at 9 a.m. on Flavet Field, to help reduce the stigma around suicide and encourage people to talk about it. Before and after the walk, speakers shared their experiences with suicide and stories of how they lost others.
There were a lot of tears in general, Krantzler said. People really resonated with some of the stories.
The group raised more than double what they raised last year, when about 50 people attended and raised $2,700, she said.
While walking, participants wore colored beads that indicated why they were participating, with reasons including the loss of friends or loved ones.
Hanna Clayton, a UF English sophomore, said the colored beads were an expression of unity.
Other people can visualize that you are not alone, and there are so many other people going through situations like this, the 19-year-old said.
Contact Jimena Tavel at jtavel@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @taveljimena
Participants in the second-annual Out of the Darkness 3k pose for a photo. The walk was held to raise awareness for suicide prevention, and participants raised more than $10,000 on Saturday morning.
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Rose Ashby, 9, picked a maggot up with tweezers, dipped it in bright pink paint and watched it crawl around a piece of paper, creating a one-of-a-kind bug design.
After cleaning off the maggot in a cup of water, the third-grader with a bright blue butterfly painted across her face anxiously awaited for her favorite event during Saturdays UF BugFest: the cockroach race.
My favorite bug is a cockroach, Ashby said. I really want to get a hissing cockroach as a pet, but my parents wont let me.
Ashby was one of about 450 insect-lovers and bug-curious gatherers at the annual event, hosted by UF Entomology Club in Steinmetz Hall. This years theme was Fantastic Bugs and Where to Find Them. Along with the cockroach race, participants got close to a beehive and listened to seminars. The event cost $935, paid for with Student Government funds, said BugFest director Sage Thompson.
Thompson, 21, said she was happy with the turnout and liked showing children how to use microscopes to look at the bugs. She said her favorite bug is a stink bug.
They cant bite you, they cant sting you and they smell like cilantro, the UF entomology senior said.
At the cockroach race, Michael Gonzalez, a 25-year-old UF entomology masters student, wore a giant cockroach costume while encouraging a group of about six Girl Scouts to race male Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
On your mark, get set, go, Gonzalez yelled at the roaches. Oh wow, look how fast hes going.
The roaches had the end of thumbtacks glued onto their exoskeleton, holding a string attached to a toy tractor. The roaches ran across a divided track, dragging the tractors behind them.
Colorful beetles and other tropical species are displayed in the "Forbidden Forest" exhibit at BugFest.
The 1616 Starke, Florida Girl Scout troop warmed up to the bugs and took turns letting the insects crawl across their arms, while squirmish adults stayed away from the race track.
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In the Forbidden Jungle room, live scorpions and spiders were displayed, including a black widow spider and a tailless whip scorpion.
At the front of the room in a cage decorated with bird skulls was a Brazilian salmon pink bird-eater named Megadeath, a hand-sized tarantula.
Participants in groups of about 16 also put on beekeeper attire to get close to a small Italian honey beehive with about 6,000 bees, said Austin Rankin, a member of UFs Honey Bee Club.
Rankin, a 20-year-old UF sustainability and the built environment sophomore, said he began beekeeping a year ago to get over his fear of bees. Now, he happily holds panels with hundreds of bees in his bare hands to educate kids about the dying insects.
I think its really good to get kids out here because there isnt a lot of environmental education, he said. (Bees are) not something to be afraid of.
Contact Paige Fry at pfry@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @paigexfry
Emily Tran, a 20-year-old UF graphic design junior, holds a vinegaroon. The arachnid expels acetic acid when it feels threatened, which smells like vinegar.
Marine Le Pen might well be the next president of France.
The French electoral system requires a majority of the vote, which almost invariably, given the multiple political parties in France, requires two elections. Le Pen seems certain to be among the two candidates who will be in the second election, and polls show that she is running neck and neck for the top position, virtually guaranteeing that she will be in the runoff to determine the winner of the presidential election.
The usual knock by the leftist elites is that Le Pen cannot win because she is on the "far right," a meaningless term, as anyone familiar with how the leftist elites in America treat those who stand up to them. What these snooty dolts really mean is that Le Pen upholds the historic values and culture of France.
Although many Americans, even conservatives, have looked at France with disdain, that is a mistake. France was long a close and good ally of America. It was the French who gave us the Statue of Liberty. The French fought the Nazis, served as a loyal ally during the Cold War, and joined us in Desert Storm and in the war against global Islamic terrorism.
France is not the enemy, but it could become one under radical Muslim domination. The French nuclear arsenal could destroy most of the major cities in America in a few hours. What we and the rest of the Free World need is someone who can restore France as a nation firmly within the bosom of Western civilization and as a nation in which Christianity, not Islam, holds the hearts of Frenchmen.
This is precisely what we would expect from a Le Pen presidency. Can she win, though, when she has been demonized for so long? There are five reasons to believe she can.
First, the French left after the presidency of Francois Hollande is in disarray. It is almost inconceivable that the French will not elect a president of the right, which also fits in with the French pattern of shifting with each presidential election from one ideological pole to another. If Le Pen can hold the right in France, she will have an excellent chance of winning.
Second, the demonization of Le Pen is a very old story in French politics. She is a familiar face and a familiar candidate. French voters may claim to be appalled by Le Pen and so tell pollsters what they feel pollsters want to hear, but what Le Pen proposes is hardly radical or extreme at all. It is simply the reassertion of French values in France.
Third, the intensity factor could help Le Pen. Her supporters are more emphatic and more certain about her than the other three candidates who have a chance to win this election. Intensity matters both in the first round and in the runoff.
Fourth, while Brexit is uniquely British, it reflects a sentiment a rather submerged sentiment percolating throughout Europe. Hyper-centralization of European nations is a failure, and only the politicians and bureaucrats and media don't get it. National sovereignty is back, and perhaps back with a vengeance. Marine Le Pen is the strongest advocate for this in French politics, perhaps the strongest advocate since Charles de Gaulle. If the French yearn for someone like de Gaulle, there is no one but Le Pen to satisfy them.
Fifth, every crime committed by young Muslim men against French girls, every terrorist act in France, every outrage against French values will stir up French voters. How? It is hard to see how French voters could be enthused to vote for a bland, hold-steady candidate, much less a leftist multi-cultural candidate. The bad things bad Muslims do in France will help Le Pen.
The combination of a Le Pen victory in the French presidential election with the Brexit vote in Britain just might be the political catalyst needed to restore the national identities and traditional culture and values of those once great bastions of Western civilization and Christian ideals in Europe. We ought to hope this happens. America may be able to stand alone in the world, but we will be much better off in every way if other nations who once shared our values reclaim and defend those values once again.
You cant succeed in the political arena without a brand. On the right, we firmly believe in traditional values and freedoms and that translates to a brand with integrity and pride and its easily relatable. Simply put, foundational, conservative values touch hearts and minds because we raise up what people know to be right, even as they are pushed to distrust their own core beliefs. And doing the pushing? The left and the liberal media, of course.
As we saw this past election cycle, however, the left has crafted a brand that cant last because its foundations are unsound. Crafted from superficial signals ranging from ineffective boycotts to pointless and crude marches, the left is floundering under the weight of its own aggression and hypocrisy.
Failing Religious Freedom
If we had to point to a single reason why the lefts branding is such a disaster, we would have to point to their rhetoric around religious freedom. The left loves to spout off about how important freedom of religion is, why we must respect the beliefs of others, even if those beliefs lead to attacks on our country or a fracturing social foundations. We must respect religious beliefs, the left says, unless those beliefs stem from Biblically-based Christian faith.
The minute anyone speaks from a place of Christian faith, the left rises to the attack, though they brand themselves as the party of peace and reconciliation. Based on their church affiliation, the left went after HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines due to a belief they were homophobic. They forced an independent bakery to close because the Christian owners wouldnt bake a gay wedding cake.
Imagine the backlash if we were to approach Orthodox Jewish people or Muslims with the same kind of aggression -- Democrats would be out in droves to declare our party corrupt, anti-Semitic, or Islamophobic. But when they do the same thing to Christians, the left is lauded as being on the side of liberty. Dont be fooled -- its exactly the opposite.
Making Meaningless Media
Do you consider Elle magazine and its cohorts in the fashion world to be news media? Last we checked, these magazines were densely populated with advertisements, full of makeup and clothing advice, and otherwise empty of real content. Theyre ideal for branding -- for creating visibility or pushing a product -- but they arent an outlet for content with any real depth. Unless youre a Democrat, that is.
In May 2015, in the midst of her mothers ultimately failed presidential campaign, Chelsea Clinton appeared on the cover of Elle magazine. This was a strange choice as the younger Clinton isnt a fashion icon, a major political figure herself, or really all that interesting. Shes done some correspondent work, spoken at SXSW, and was named a junior provost at NYU, a university known to coddle liberal and minority students at the expense of real education. Yet, when you look at that cover, its clear that theres an ulterior motive at work. This is an attempt at political messaging, and its a lesson in what not to do.
By putting Miss Clinton on the cover of a glossy fashion magazine, the left is trying to simultaneously polish her mothers image. Theyre attempting to remind the public that the disastrous, affair-blighted marriage between Bill and Hillary Clinton perhaps yielded something worthwhile, someone you should keep an eye on. And we should keep an eye on Chelsea Clinton, if only because we can expect that Clinton dynasty to attempt another power grab under her name in the future. Its the only good reason to turn Chelsea into a cover girl.
Flubbing Free Markets
Liberal politics are at the heart of why there are no jobs left for American workers, so its no surprise that in an attempt to fluster the Trump administration, the left called for a boycott of Ivankas products. The boycott not only failed -- sales are up -- but it left us confused. What exactly was the message behind calling for such a boycott? What was it meant to accomplish vis-a-vis liberal politics? We guarantee that if liberals wanted to buy clothes only from people whose politics they agreed with, they would be sewing their own.
Successful political branding is contingent on having a clear message, yet the lefts message is muddled and hypocritical. Its vulgar -- think pussy hats -- and an attempt to cloud real debate. If they can create enough misdirection within their own constituency, then perhaps Democratic voters will be too distracted to realize how inconsistent and ineffectual their own partys politics are.
Ultimately, the lefts brand is headed in a dozen directions at the same time to the point of being completely incomprehensible. Theyre so committed to fighting disparate aspects of our politics, to targeting narrow statements, that theyre unable to see the big picture, including the places where their own actions and beliefs contradict their attacks on ours.
You cant believe in religious freedom for everyone but Christians. You cant boycott Ivankas products and support the economy and workers. You have to choose a message, and the left hasnt been able to complete this simple task. How could we trust them with anything more?
The goal of American foreign policy should be to make our friends more secure and our adversaries less secure. The balance of countries then have to decide how they want to position themselves. A successful policy will have tactical goals that fit into a larger strategic picture. The American attack on Syrias al Shayrat military air base fits squarely into the rubric.
The UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Poland approved publicly. So did Democrats Dick Durbin, Ben Cardin, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Nancy Pelosi. Opposed were Russia, Syria, Iran, and Bolivia (keep reading). China and Sweden made statements that hedged. Among the more odd responses, Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr called on Assad to resign, and MSNBC host Lawrence ODonnell called it a false flag operation, planned by President Trump and Vladimir Putin to help Trump prove he isnt pro-Russian.
The first Russian response -- after a furious announcement that they were tearing up the deconfliction agreement with the U.S. in Syria (they quickly thought better of it) -- was to report that planes had flown from the base, so the U.S. attack had been a failure. Not so. Photos from the UK Daily Mail clearly show that hangars, fuel storage, airplanes, and service buildings were destroyed, confirming the Pentagon's assessment. An Israeli report indicated that 58 of 59 Tomahawks hit. Flying some planes to al Shayrat and rolling them down abandoned runways is typical Russian obfuscation -- the planes didnt come from there, cant stay there, cant be maintained there, and cant be refueled there. As punishment, the strike was a success.
If the tactical goal was met, what about the strategic ones? The Trump administration had announced that Americas priority in Syria would be the ouster of ISIS rather than the removal of Bashar Assad. Does the attack change that? Does it mean regime change is back on the table? Is the U.S. about to enter the Syrian civil war?
Not necessarily. Ambassador Haleys comment that no political solution is possible with Assad does not mean that the U.S. is looking for a military solution. We faced a violation of international law that constituted an international emergency.
Not because of the numbers -- more than 400,000 Syrians have already been killed, 11 million are displaced internally and externally, and life expectancy has declined by more than a decade. (U.S. comparables would be 5.6 million dead and 154 million total refugees factors of 14.) Chemical weapons have been outlawed precisely because the world has generally agreed that they are uniquely hideous and terrifying. The appearance of CW threatens one of the worlds few consensus points.
Which is to say, the consensus on CW was actually shattered in 2013-14 with President Obamas red lines and game changers. But then a different consensus coalesced around the fiction that Syrian chemical capability had been eliminated by a U.S.-Russian joint operation. Voices of disbelief were few and far between - no one wanted to take on Putin or Obama. One result was to embolden Assad and his patrons. The past three years have seen Syrian and Russian strikes on relief convoys and civilians, including the use of chlorine - though not nerve gas - to pursue their campaign against Syrian Sunni Muslims.
But this is 2017 and the United States - as the worlds only superpower - chose to punish the perpetrator for violations of the international order that protects us all. Ambassador Haley is admirably clear. When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action. Moreover, the Pentagon is now investigating Russian complicity in the attack itself or the subsequent attack on a Syrian hospital treating the victims.
The fact that the U.S. holds the presidency of the Security Council this month is serendipitous. Veto countries can veto and they will, but rotating members of the Council have choices to make. Bolivia, for example, sought permission to denounce the U.S. privately in front of the Council. Bolivias president, Evo Morales, has pursued an anti-American, pro-Iranian foreign policy and expelled USAID from his country in 2013. Ambassador Haleys response put Bolivia on the spot and others on notice:
This morning, Bolivia requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the events in Syria. It asked for the discussion to be held in closed session. The United States, as president of the Council this month, decided the session would be held in the open. Any country that chooses to defend the atrocities of the Syrian regime will have to do so in full public view, for all the world to hear."
Americas open policy has risks. Every potential course of military or political action does, and attacking an ally of Russia and Iran certainly does. But just last week Russia offered only a half-hearted defense of its client Assad in Pravda, perhaps suggesting a way forward for the U.S. and Russia:
President Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview that unconditional support is not possible in this current world. But he added that it is not correct to say that Moscow can convince Mr. Assad to do whatever is wanted in Moscow. This is totally wrong.
So although Putin is Assads support on the ground and in the UN, that support is not unconditional and Russia admits that Assad sometimes goes his own way without Russian approval. Secretary of State Tillersons impending visit to Moscow provides an opportunity to probe further.
Iran and North Korea may draw conclusions that are helpful or harmful and the U.S. and its allies will have to be prepared for either.
But not responding to the flagrant use of chemicals inside Syria may make the use of chemicals outside Syria not unthinkable - a shell aimed at Israel, for example. Not responding to loathsome and illegal Syrian behavior may make the transfer of chemical capabilities to Hizballah by the Syrian government not unthinkable. Both of those would touch Israels stated red lines and risk widening the war considerably.
Any further military action against the Syrian regime by the United States could be necessitated by choices made by Assad, but the mission we undertook - a proportionate and appropriate punishment for an international war crime - has been accomplished. Perhaps the administration could make just one more statement:
The Syrian Ministry of Defense is next if necessary. Your call.
There is an excellent cartoon showing a circle of people surrounding Barack Obama, guarding him, preventing anyone from bringing him harm. An observer asks if those people are the Secret Service. The answer: No, thats the media.
I dont think there is a better portrayal of the Obama legacy. This cartoon succinctly communicates how this man gained office, kept it, and remained popular. The Obama phenomenon had a complex side, but the most complex and nefarious part was the unwillingness of the mainstream media to criticize, or bring up any hint of wrongdoing on his part. From the beginning, our media created an image for him, never actually delving into his background, his beliefs, or his life in any way. Unlike the quest to find out Trumps tax returns, the media never sought to reveal who or what Obama was.
After Obamas election, it was Chris Matthews who infamously said, My Job Is to Make the Obama Presidency a Success continuing with, This country needs a successful presidency. The entire left-leaning media clearly took that construct as its main job for Obama. They reported everything as positive. If there was something negative, or heaven forbid WRONG, it often was ignored, lied about or spun hard to make it look like nothing was there. Great examples are the horror of Obamacare, the lies about Benghazi, and the falsehoods about the wonderful Iran deal.
There is a very dark underbelly to this fawning: Obama himself. Here was a radical leftist who had accomplished nothing in his entire life. His success in politics was being elected, being black, and being able to convincingly read a teleprompter. He had no brilliant bills he authored, no success in his work or political history, yet there he was being spoken of by our media as the finest example of intelligence, acumen, and moral clarity our country had produced in a century. They also never reported this truth: He was a hard leftist radical.
The biggest consequence in all this: St. Barack seems to have actually believed the PR. He could do no wrong. Whatever he said, the media would slavishly report. This was a terrible thing. For anyone. Sycophantic attention, no scrutiny, no hard questions. Ever. Looking back: The radical he was, what he actually stood for, what his world view was, were the makings of a disaster.
Which is his legacy. A disaster. Not only for him, but for all of us in this country. So far, this man has skated because he has had no scrutiny. The media tries to claim he had a scandal-free presidency. Nothing can be further from the truth. Which has finally begun to trickle out. The trickle started ignominiously with Donald Trumps tweet about wiretapping. I believe history will show that event as the beginning of the end of St. Barack.
Trump has taken much flack for that tweet, one that on its face was not entirely correct. The media has had its weeks of fun with it, yet suddenly we find ourselves seeing major revelations of wrongdoing. There have been a lot of suspicions about how Obama was steering the federal government and the bureaucracies, none of which appeared kosher. We are now beginning to see just how intentional his administration was at appropriating power for doing things that used to be considered shocking, wrong, and illegal.
Barack Obama weaponized the federal government. Purposefully. We are learning there was an unprecedented use of the federal government to spy on an opposition party and its members within the U.S. We are learning that Nixon was a piker, a little leaguer, a nothingburger. This trickle that has become a stream is about to become a torrent. Legacy.
When he nominated Eric Holder to be Attorney General, we should have known. Rather than delve into Holders corrupt reputation, the GOP allowed this man through without a fight, allowing him to politicize the Justice Department in ways not thought possible. This was the man who helped Bill Clinton pardon Marc Rich for the quid pro quo of money donations. Holder then:
*Dismissed Black Panther felonies
*Sent guns to drug gangs in Mexico to make a case for gun control
*Refused to give information to Congress about Fast and Furious
*Sued states for cleaning up voter rolls
*Roiled the black community for votes by hyping Trayvon Martin.
The list of ugly things by Holder is long and beyond the pale. When he left, Loretta Lynch followed in his same corrupt footsteps. Both were an extension of a corrupt president who was puffed up with power, without scruples. And the media didnt care.
Here are a few Obama scandals of corruption ignored by the media:
* The IRS targeted conservative groups and individuals, apparently for the crime of beingconservative. We are told Obama met with the head of the IRS over a hundred times prior to the scandal erupting. Oh, I forgot, that would only be a scandal if Trumps IRS went after the Sierra Club. This targeting actually happened, the main perpetrator not in prison, still drawing a good salary for her efforts. Politicizing the IRS to destroy political opponents, it happened. They even admit it happened, yet no one is in prison.
The media allows democrats to be felonious.
* When the information was published about Edward Snowden, the sirens went off all across America. We found out that the NSA was spying on ordinary Americans, sweeping up data from all their phone calls, texts and computer searches. Who was President? Oh, right, Barack the Pure. His administration assured us this was not really happening. Unfortunately, it actually was. I know, I know, St. Barack would never use this kind of intelligence, would he? He also wiretapped Angela Merkel, the Queen, and other foreign leaders, but he would never do such a thing.
And yes, that was me feigning liberal media innocence.
* Benghazi. A complicated event, but one of consequence. We do not know exactly what happened other than an American ambassador was killed, along with other Americans. We do know that St. Barack and his cohorts all lied to the country with a straight face. To add insult to injury he then went to the UN and lied to the world. The video did it.
And the media helped them sell it.
The list is longer, but now to the building flood of how the Trump team was inadvertently (*Cough, cough*) surveilled prior to and after the election. Yes, that is the narrative the democrat/media complex wants you to believe. Dont. They argue that because Russia hacked the election, it was perfectly righteous to do what Nixon did; no namby pamby little burglary here, St. Barack would use the whole power of the government to spy and collect data on its political opponents. And this was fine because "Trump colluded with the Russians. Which did not happen.
Its the Catch-22 of all time. They had to investigate a scandal because they said it was one. They had to spy on all these people, with no reason to, because they had to find a reason to do so. And if you believe the Russians made Obama spy on American citizens, I have a bridge to sell you. Cheap. Just one small deposit in my Nigerian bank.
An incomplete recap of the corruption that has happened under his watch: Eric Holder, the stimulus, Fast and Furious, Solyndra, Obamacare, the census power grab, the IRS targeting of political opponents, executive amnesty, the Snowden NSA spy revelations, the debate collusion with Candy Crowley, race-baiting for votes, selling our soul to Iran and Cuba, wiretapping allies, spying on journalists, destroying attempts to clean up voter rolls, the Benghazi video. Politicizing and weaponizing our government and its bureaucracies. And so much more. This was eight years of a purposeful, corrupt power grab in the worst of ways. And no, I do not believe for a second he did not know, or did not incite these to happen. Fish rot from the head down. The media was the neck of this administration.
This oozing scandal of spying on the Trump circle is being found out in spite of the media effort to spike it. More people will find out as the facts emerge, it is too big to hide. Obama and Susan Rices actions are too bizarre to bury. Wikileaks was not covered by the media, yet half of America knew about it. This is far bigger than Wikileaks revelations. As the information streams forth about Obamas wrongful spying, only hardcore true believers will stand with him. Eventually, the rest of his actions will be scrutinized. This will take time, likely years. The facts will shine a devastating light on his Presidency, and his legacy: Will be far worse than Nixon, and he will be considered as worse. He and his media enablers just dont know it.
Yet.
Folks, one the most despicable things about Democrats is that they always promote themselves as doing the polar opposite of their true agenda. It is disgusting and evil. Ossoff running for Congress in Georgia is a perfect example of what I am talking about.
Ossoff's website says, "We can be a strong, prosperous, secure nation and stay true to the core American values that unite us." Insidiously, the reality is that the modern Democratic Party leadership are repulsed by traditional core American values. And yet they are trying to pull their standard bait-and-switch tactic on Georgia voters. We simply cannot allow them to get away with it again!
The dirty little secret is that Democrats are actively engaged in demonizing and undermining core American values such as self-reliance, hard work, making right moral choices, education, and not thinking you have a right to your neighbor's hard-earned stuff. Americans are the most generous and giving people on the planet. But they object to the government confiscating their stuff and redistributing it among the lazy. And for that, Democrats call Americans mean-spirited and selfish.
Spending over $8 million, the Democrats are busing in operatives from Michigan, New York, and North Carolina to help Ossoff in Georgia.
This is a huge deal, folks. Ossoff is the face of the left's anti-Trump treasonous undermine-America movement.
Quoting Mighty Mouse, "Here we come to save the day!"
My Conservative Campaign Committee team is en route to Georgia from the West Coast. Mary and I are in Florida, loading up the truck to meet them in Georgia.
Our Miss Lulu (PhoneFromHome@ConservativeCampaign.org) will call on you to commit to doing phone-from-home calls. Supporters need simply provide their name and email address, and we will have a team member send them a phone list, script, and instructions and walk them through the process.
Joe will probably send a fundraising email asking you to kick in a few bucks.
We need you to help us maximize GOP voter turnout. Because that is what the Democrats have been doing for the past several weeks: quietly investing millions into turning out Democrat "Resistance" voters to steal away this GOP seat.
Please help out wherever you can. This is all hands on deck, folks. I am telling you: this battle goes beyond right vs. left politics as usual. We are in an epic battle of good vs. evil.
I feel like singing, "If we can stop them there, we can stop them everywhere, it's up to you, please come through, Ameri-c-c-c-a-a-a!!!"
Thank you. Thank you very much!
Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American
Author: Confessions of a Black Conservative: How the Left has shattered the dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Black America
Singer/Songwriter and Conservative Activist
The Trump administration's budget request for $1 billion to build the wall along our southern border appears to be a dead issue in the House, as a resolution to continue funding the government past April 27 will almost certainly not include the funds.
With solid opposition by Democrats and some Republicans wavering in their support, Speaker Ryan who has promised there will be no government shutdown says funding for the wall will have to wait until later.
The Hill:
But the issue has become a political thorn in the side of GOP leaders who are facing pushback from Republicans voicing concerns over the diplomatic fallout, the disruption to local communities and the enormous cost of the project, estimated to be anywhere from $22 billion to $40 billion. With Democrats united against new wall funding, it's unlikely the Republicans have the votes to get it through and prevent a government shutdown. Among the loudest GOP skeptics are those representing border districts. Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), for instance, hail from districts that span a combined 880 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. They're pressing the administration to justify the huge costs. "We recognize the need for robust border security and infrastructure to ensure public safety and increase cross border commerce," the lawmakers wrote recently to top administration officials. "We also have an obligation to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars." Grover Norquist, a conservative anti-tax crusader who has supported comprehensive immigration reform, told The Hill that payment for the wall has not been an issue in his discussions with allies on Capitol Hill. And some Republicans are concerned that deteriorating relations with Mexico may be too high a price to pay for the wall. In a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressed concern to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly about a growing resentment in Mexico over the administration's border policies. "There is a lot of anti-American sentiment in Mexico. If the election were tomorrow in Mexico, you'd probably have a left-wing, anti-American president in Mexico. That can't be good for America," McCain said. "It would not be good for America, or for Mexico," Kelly conceded.
Begging your pardon, Mr. McCain, but aren't we facing a "left-wing, anti-American president in Mexico" right now? About the only way the Mexican government under President Nieto can get much more anti-American is by declaring war on the U.S. Some would argue that's exactly what Mexico has done.
Regardless, it is not up to Mexico how the U.S. defines its sovereignty. The wall may or may not be the most efficient use of our resources to secure the border, but that certainly isn't Mexico's decision. Nor should we take into account the position of the Mexican government. They will have to deal with the U.S. wall or no wall. Perhaps they would be better off concentrating on that.
President Trump has hinted that other funding mechanisms are on the table, including taxing remittances from Mexican citizens living in the U.S. who send money back home and slapping a border tax on goods coming into the U.S. from Mexico. It's not likely that either idea would completely fund construction of the wall, but both would certainly solve the initial funding problem.
Democrats have made opposition to funding the wall part of their legislative agenda. But Republican majorities in both chambers should be able to overcome Democrat resistance as long as the GOP remains firm. There may be a few defections, but the vast majority of Republicans are on board, and at an appropriate time, funding for the wall has an excellent chance of being passed.
Remember Daniel Ortega? The communist thug dictator of Nicaragua who disgusted the great Ronald Reagan with his mirrored sunglasses and his Fifth Avenue shopping sprees, and then later got into the news with child molestation charges brought on by his stepdaughter? He's also famous for his many fraudulent "re-elections" and dismantling his country's democracy.
Now that Hugo Chavez is gone, he's back on the radar again, arm in arm with a new sugar daddy he's sold his hapless country out to: Russia's Vladimir Putin.
In an alarming story, the Washington Post reports that the Russians have set up a base camp full of Russian-speaking Russians of indeterminate purpose, in some compound at the base of a volcano, which is supposedly a GPS satellite-tracking station. U.S. officials think it might be more of an electronic surveillance station aimed at the U.S. and note that it's aimed right at the U.S. Embassy in Managua. They say they aren't alarmed for now, but it could have a dual-purpose spying function. Besides that, a gleaming new Russian edifice devoted to "counter-narcotics" operations has gone up, baffling many as to what interest Russia could have in the issue. Does Putin really want to keep meth out of the hands of the U.S. Rust Belt's unemployed?
In exchange for these rather impressive concessions, the Nicaraguans get shipments of blocky, Soviet-style buses to ride around in on public transport hot, sweaty, and always breaking down.
That sounds like the sort of deal Ortega would do.
It goes to show that Latin America's leftist dictators' club really is still entrenched and ruthless, and now that the oil money from Caracas has dried up, its members now put their countries up for sale to America's opponents. Nicaragua has gotten such a good deal that El Salvador, now led by a group of aging communist guerrillas from Ortega's 1980s heyday, want a Russian deal of their own. It's not enough for them to ship one tenth of their population to Los Angeles and elsewhere in the U.S. as illegal immigrants in order to feed off their remittances while Americans pay for their housing, health care, jail costs, education, and welfare. No, a sellout to the Russians needs to be added to the mix to get gringo good. Because let's face it: communist systems are unsustainable, and they can exist nowadays only if there's a sugar daddy willing to pay. Putin knows this well and has kept his country rather uncommunist back home, the better to sell the romance to these boobs.
The U.S. left, of course, is silent. Leftists north of the Mexican border are still saying President Trump is in bed with the Russians. They've forgotten about their little buddy Ortega.
The U.S. has maintained a hands-off policy for decades on these places. But as these countries now sell themselves out to the Russians, it's becoming an increasingly costly withdrawal. More attention needs to be paid to this region, because apparently, with the cat away, the rats have gotten playing.
The Jewish year begins in the fall, acknowledging the creation of the world some 5,777 years ago, according to rabbinic authorities. Some also speculate that in the beginning, the years were much, much longer than the twelve months, 365 and one quarter days of the present. Or something. See Einstein and other physicists for their theories of relativity, time, and the expansion of the universe for more information.
The first month of the Jewish year is the month of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins at sundown Monday night. That is because when the Jews quickly fled Egypt after the Egyptian monarch, the pharaoh, finally let the Jews go following a series of ten plagues, after several centuries of slavery, they then became a nation, a free people. In their haste to leave before the pharaoh changed his mind, the Jews were forced to grab their half-baked bread before it rose properly. The resulting cracker-like food, called matzoh, or unleavened bread, is one of the many important symbols of the holiday. To commemorate their ancestors' exodus, traditional Jews refrain from eating bread or any leavened product, called chometz in Hebrew, during the seven days of the holiday in Israel (eight days outside of the country). Any chometz remaining in the home is symbolically sold to someone who isn't Jewish. (Yes, I know that the details are much more complicated, but this will do for the moment.)
And so, assuming that Ivanka Trump Kushner would sell her chometz, the following scenario, put together by anonymous, is a distinct possibility.
For those who celebrate the holiday, have a good one. For all, enjoy the possibilities of our president's skills and talents.
It seems that everything in the Washington Post is designed to advance Democrats and deride and embarrass their opponents. The nastiest examples of these are the work of Robin Givhan, the paper's fashion editor. Her cruelty and bias have been evident for years. If the Pulitzer Prizes had any shame, they'd blush at having given her an award in 2006 for "witty, closely observed essays that transform fashion criticism into cultural criticism."
Yes, on notable rare occasions, she pokes fun at Democrats, as she did in a 2007 piece mocking a V-shaped neckline Hillary wore. On the other hand, she absolutely gushed over the outfits worn by Michelle Obama, but for a memorable dig when Michelle stepped off a plane wearing shorts and looking very messy.
When some fashion designers said they'd refuse to dress Melania Trump, she rushed to their defense:
Critics of those designers who've voiced their reluctance to dress the new first lady have maintained that it's a designer's job to simply make clothes that they should keep personal opinions out of it and not pass judgment on people who wear their clothes. But over time, society has demanded much more from the fashion industry. It expects Seventh Avenue to be cognizant of its impact on young women predisposed to eating disorders. It rallied against the industry's lack of diversity. It has pressured the industry to concern itself with the labor practices of its subcontractors and to create clothes that empower women instead of objectify them. Society expects fashion to be philanthropic and awake to the world in which it exists. So doesn't taking a stand on a new administration and its policies in the most direct manner possible fall into that category? The designers based in New York's Garment District and scattered around the city are, by and large, not personal dressmakers, or haute couture houses making one-of-a-kind garments for individuals. When they do something for a single customer typically a celebrity they are stepping outside the day-to-day business model of their company. Anyone with disposable income can buy a designer's wares at retail and even some red-carpet celebrities choose to do so. Hayden Panettiere purchased a Tom Ford gown for the 2014 Golden Globes. For the 2016 Globes, Bryce Dallas Howard picked up her Jenny Packham gown at Neiman Marcus. That's why declining to dress a celebrity is not the equivalent of refusing service. In doing so, designers would in fact be refusing a favor, with all the publicity that goes along with it. What about patriotism? Should personal feelings and personal satisfaction be put aside out of respect for the symbolism of the first lady? Not necessarily. Protest that grows out of a desire to make the country better, to push it to live up to its ideals, is surely a form of patriotism.
Now she aims her rapier at Melania Trump's "airbrushed" official portrait. She concedes that Michelle's portrait might have been airbrushed, too how could she not when it shows the former first lady with what appears to be a 20-inch waist (a trick used by both Vogue and Glamour on at least one occasion)? But she suggests that Melania's complexion which to my eyes always looks smooth and unblemished is different:
Both former first ladies are photographed in a flattering light. Airbrushed? Probably. Nearly all portraits are touched up a little or a lot. But the effect wasn't obvious. Mahaux has given the public a two-dimensional version of Trump: just the gloss, just the facade. Trump is the fantasy, the dream. She's not trying to speak to the judgmental types who are quick to sneer at new money, but to folks who would be thrilled to have all that crisp, fresh cash loaded into the back of a fancy car with gold rims. She has given them virtual realty. An Instagram first lady. And maybe that's good enough. But she has not given them Melania Trump.
Her most savagely nasty comments were for Mrs. Alito's wardrobe choice. As you may recall, the Alito hearings were nasty and brought the now-justice's wife to tears. The Alitos were people of modest means, and the confirmation hearings stretched on. Givhan surely added to the distress of Mrs. Alito, who, after all, is neither a fashion model nor even a political figure. She was the wife of a candidate for the Supreme Court who was being unfairly tarred. Was it really necessary to poke fun at her?
His wife's ensembles varied among casual tan slacks with a sweater, bright red anything, and a brown tweed suit and blouse that seemed to be coordinated with a rigor more commonly found in Garanimals. She liked to accessorize with pearls, gold chains, earrings, bracelets and rings. Sometimes she'd wear this treasure trove of jewelry all at once. She was particularly fond of a brooch that resembled nothing more closely than a half-peeled banana. (It could have been a fleur-de-lis, but only as it might be drawn by a 5-year-old.) ... There was something charmingly awkward about her blue cardigan. A cable-knit cardigan! At a Senate hearing! The sweater has all those connotations of Dan Rather informality, softness, ease and grandmotherly coziness. It is the antithesis of power and strength. The sweater was also baby blue. That isn't clothing as armor, but clothing as security blanket. Remember Linus? It was as though the nominee's wife had quietly brought her own binky into the room. But then, who couldn't use a little comfort during such a public ordeal?
When Michelle Obama took to wearing cardigans which she did even to Buckingham Palace to visit the queen Givhan considered the cardigan look insouciant and wonderful, although the late Oscar de la Renta and others considered it too casual for the occasion. Unsurprisingly, Givhan shifted her view.
Her way of dressing has resonated with American women, says Robin Givhan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic for the Washington Post. "One of the really vital things that Michelle Obama has done, is she's wearing real fashion," says Givhan, who covered the first lady for her first year in the White House. Mrs. Obama's decision to wear consciously un-corporate looks, Givhan says, "was her own use of fashion as a way of defining who she was going to be in the White House." Mrs. Obama was going to continue being what she had been a working wife and mother, wearing what she liked, what was comfortable and what worked for her. In doing that, Givhan says, the first lady was not so much initiating change as reflecting how women around the country already had begun to change their own look dresses instead of suits, sweaters instead of jackets, bare legs instead of pantyhose. Those choices struck a plangent note. "When Michelle Obama came along and made all these things a matter of course," Givhan says, "I think it validated a lot of things they were doing, and also validated things that they wanted to do but often felt they weren't allowed to."
Even how Republicans dress their children is a topic of her partisan bile. When John Roberts's wife and children appeared for his swearing in, she wrote:
The wife wore a strawberry-pink tweed suit with taupe pumps and pearls, which alone would not have been particularly remarkable, but alongside the nostalgic costuming of the children, the overall effect was of self-consciously crafted perfection. The children, of course, are innocents. They are dressed by their parents. And through their clothes choices, the parents have created the kind of honeyed faultlessness that jams mailboxes every December when personalized Christmas cards arrive bringing greetings "to you and yours" from the Blake family or the Joneses. Everyone looks freshly scrubbed and adorable, just like they have stepped from a Currier & Ives landscape. In a time when most children are dressed in Gap Kids and retailers of similar price-point and modernity, the parents put young master Jack in an ensemble that calls to mind John F. "John-John" Kennedy Jr. Separate the child from the clothes, which do not acknowledge trends, popular culture or the passing of time. They are not classic; they are old-fashioned. These clothes are Old World, old money and a cut above the light-up/shoe-buying hoi polloi/.
Like too many people in the fashion industry and publications, Givhan wears her politics on her sleeve, and we know it. We're so over all these culture warriors.
Donald Trump's Syria strike wasn't a big military move, didn't put troops on the ground, didn't fix anything in Syria's horrific civil war. As Andrew Malcolm writes:
After the Sarin gas attack with photos of babies gasping for air, Trump acted swiftly and decisively. But not as critics fretted last year, wildly. He could have attacked all six Syrian airfields. He could have ordered Special Forces to simultaneously move in eastern Syria. Instead, Trump targeted only the specific airfield that launched the gas attack. It was a measured response. No new ground troops. Not even pilots risking capture. U.S. missiles were programmed to ignore structures storing gas components, and barracks housing several hundred Russians. In fact, U.S. officers gave them an hour's notice to get out of the way, one reason Moscow's subsequent denunciation was measured.
The logic of it was powerful enough, in Trump's own words:
"It is in the vital national security interest of the United States," Trump said, "to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons[.] ... Years of previous attempts at changing Assad's behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies."
But it changed the strategic calculus every bad actor in the region must consider before planning another atrocious move, argues Malcolm in his must-read Monday column. The region's bad actors have been thrown on their back foot with this move. From now on, they will have to consider the Trump response to everything they do and have, up until now, been getting away with under the spineless President Obama.
We are in for interesting times.
Reuters is reporting that the U.S. Navy is sending a carrier strike group toward the Korean peninsula in response to the growing threat from North Korea.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and several support ships were diverted from a scheduled deployment near Australia to show the flag in Korean waters as a warning to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
Reuters:
"We feel the increased presence is necessary," the official said, citing North Korea's worrisome behavior. In a statement late Saturday, the U.S. Navy's Third Fleet said the strike group had been directed to sail north, but it did not specify the destination. The military vessels will operate in the Western Pacific rather than making previously planned port visits to Australia, it added. This year North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, have repeatedly indicated an intercontinental ballistic missile test or something similar could be coming, possibly as soon as April 15, the 105th birthday of North Korea's founding president and celebrated annually as "the Day of the Sun." Earlier this week U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Florida, where Trump pressed his counterpart to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear program. Trump's national security aides have completed a review of U.S. options to try to curb North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. These include economic and military measures but lean more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbor. Although the option of pre-emptive military strikes on North Korea is not off the table, the review prioritizes less-risky steps and de-emphasizes direct military action.
Kim thrives on such confrontations, as they help him appear to be a player on the world stage. The problem is that the unbalanced North Korean leader may seek a confrontation at sea. The North Korean navy has little in the way of a surface fleet but has several submarines that, while posing little threat to the carrier group, might be used by Kim to make a point about North Korean sovereignty. There is also the possibility that during routine carrier operations, the North Korean air force might will its presence felt.
Unless Kim does something radically stupid, the Navy is not likely to see any action. Meanwhile, lessons from the bombing in Syria are not lost on the North Korean leader.
A message has been delivered. Is Kim listening?
The battle to enforce federal immigration law in sanctuary cities is escalating as cities defy orders from federal immigration authorities to put a "hold" on illegal aliens and the feds try to bring pressure on sanctuary cities by denying them certain federal funds.
At the same time, Republican legislatures across the country are considering legislation to ban sanctuary cities in their states.
The Hill:
Legislators in 33 states have introduced measures to limit or prevent cities from acting as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants. Only one state this year, Mississippi, has enacted a ban on sanctuary jurisdictions, but several others, including Texas, Indiana, Iowa, Florida and Georgia, are advancing their own bills. Sanctuary cities and counties often defy requests from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to hold undocumented immigrants so they can be picked up later for deportation. While there is no technical legal definition of a sanctuary city, many of the bills under consideration would require cities to swear under penalty of perjury that they comply with federal detainer requests. "If a city calls itself a sanctuary city, that means a lot of different things to a lot of different cities," said Pennsylvania state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler (R), who has sponsored a ban on what his legislation calls "municipalities of refuge." Reschenthaler's bill, which has passed the state Senate and is awaiting action in the Republican-led state House, would withhold state grants from any city that does not agree to hold detainees for up to 48 hours at ICE's request. It would also deny those cities sovereign immunity. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has withheld millions of dollars in grants to Austin's Travis County. State Sen. Charles Perry (R), who has sponsored one of the 23 bills dealing with sanctuary city legislation, said state grants make up a substantial portion of many city and county budgets, which means local officials pay attention when a state moves to block those funds. "The only way you can get a jurisdiction's attention is if you withhold the money," Perry said. "We have several jurisdictions in Texas that, either implicit or explicit, have become sanctuary cities."
Non-cooperation with federal authorities in holding illegals who have been arrested for misdemeanors is one thing. But there have been numerous instances where an illegal has been charged with a felony, and the city refuses to hand him or her over. This is why ICE agents have been seen at courthouses across the country. Federal agents have discovered that the best means of apprehending an illegal who commits a crime is when he shows up in court for his hearing. Sanctuary cities may complain about agents "stalking" illegals, but that's ridiculous. If the city isn't going to cooperate, then ICE agents will enforce the law without them.
Cutting off funding is a good way to apply pressure on sanctuary cities, but it usually ends up hurting law-abiding citizens who are put at risk by reduced funding for law enforcement. But then, it should be up to local residents to put pressure on the politicians to comply with the law. A few politicians who lose elections due to their defiance may do more than all the pressure the federal government can bring to bear.
ROME - Egypt woke up to a new state of emergency on Monday after Sunday's double bombing that killed at least 47 people and injured 126 more at Coptic churches in Tanta, north of Cairo, and in the coastal city of Alexandria. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Palm Sunday attacks, which came three weeks before Pope Francis' scheduled visit to Egypt. There were disruptions for commuters in Cairo as a result of the state of emergency, decreed on Sunday evening by Abdel Fattah Al Sisi for the duration of three months. Al Ahram newspaper also reported that the president had declared three days of national mourning.
Security has been tightened outside hotels, public buildings, embassies and in the symbolic central Tahrir square. Meanwhile, Israel has closed the Taba border crossing with Egypt with immediate effect amid fears of possible attacks against Israelis after the Sunday bombings. Israeli citizens present in the Sinai peninsula have also been invited to repatriate.
(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 10 - Libya "is a country that needs to be stabilised" and is currently "certainly not able to guarantee human rights", Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro said on Monday.
"We are trying to gain access for humanitarian organisations to the detention centres in the country so they can do something. They tell us that many of these detention centres are beyond reform and need to be closed and I think it's true," he added.
Giro said efforts are therefore needed to ensure migrants "don't reach the camps and are kept in their countries of origin".
However, it is an illusion to think that migration is a passing phenomenon, he continued.
"People will continue to move and so to think only in terms of walls or rejections has no future, we need to be more creative," said Giro, calling for more sustainable "circular" migration flows. The solution lies in partnerships between countries of origin, transit and arrival involving not only the institutions but also the private sector, he insisted. The migration flows "are not just an emergency phenomenon, but need to be incorporated into ordinary policies" that have "win-win objectives". Giro added that Italy has signed an agreement to establish humanitarian corridors with Ethiopia, with the first arrivals expected at Fiumicino on April 27. The project will serve to draft a bill on the matter, he said. (ANSAmed).
Egypt declares state of emergency after Palm Sunday massacre At least 47 dead following attacks at two Coptic churches
(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 10 - Egypt woke up to a new state of emergency on Monday after Sunday's double bombing that killed at least 47 people and injured 126 more at Coptic churches in Tanta, north of Cairo, and in the coastal city of Alexandria. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Palm Sunday attacks, which came three weeks before Pope Francis' scheduled visit to Egypt. There were disruptions for commuters in Cairo as a result of the state of emergency, decreed on Sunday evening by Abdel Fattah Al Sisi for the duration of three months. Al Ahram newspaper also reported that the president had declared three days of national mourning.
Security has been tightened outside hotels, public buildings, embassies and in the symbolic central Tahrir square. Meanwhile, Israel has closed the Taba border crossing with Egypt with immediate effect amid fears of possible attacks against Israelis after the Sunday bombings. Israeli citizens present in the Sinai peninsula have also been invited to repatriate. (ANSAmed).
Human 'fireball' migrant dies of injuries in Athens hospital The Syrian man suffered burns to 85% of his body
(ANSAmed) - ATHENS, APRIL 10 - A Syrian migrant who turned himself into a human fireball at a refugee camp on Chios by setting himself on fire to protest his case for asylum, has died of his injuries, hospital authorities announced on Monday.
The 29-year-old man was being treated at the Evaggelismos hospital in central Athens after being transferred from Chios the same day the incident took place on March 30.
The unnamed migrant, who had been at the VI.AL camp on Chios for barely a week, had doused himself in flammable liquid in the middle of the camp before setting himself alight with a lighter in protest at his application for asylum not being processed. His death was confirmed by deputy head of Chios hospital Eleni Voutierou, who told local news broadcaster ERT Aegean.
The man had suffered burns to 85% of his body, despite the brave attempts of a police officer to stop him. The police offer involved is still receiving treatment after suffering minor burns to his hand and face during his rescue attempt.
Volunteer groups and police continue to face deep problems at all migrant reception and detention centres on Chios, which have seen a spike in arrivals from Turkey in recent weeks due to the improving weather conditions.
A total of 124 migrants and refugees were reported to have landed on Greek shores in a 24-hour period over the weekend, with 80 arriving on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos, 30 on Chios and 14 on Leros.
According to official figures, 62,204 migrants and refugees are currently stranded in mainland Greece and its islands.
Local residents and regional council groups on Chios in particular are strongly opposing the creation of new "temporary" reception centers and recently Greece's Migration Minister Giannis Mouzalas was quoted as saying that Greece, and especially the eastern Aegean islands, "cannot take in even one more migrant". (ANSAmed).
- Cairo - Ambassador Kadri Abdelmottale, protocol advisor to the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, said Monday that Pope Francis will be safe during his visit to Egypt on April 28 and 29. "I can guarantee that there won't be any security problems," Abdelmottale told ANSA after Sunday's bomb attacks on two Coptic churches left at least 44 dead. "The pope will be enormously welcome in our country. He will be totally safe".
The pope is set to meet the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, considered one of Sunni Islam's most senior figures, on the first day of the two-day visit.
Immediately afterwards the pope and the grand imam, currently Ahmed el-Tayeb, will give speeches to participants in an international peace conference.
The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, currently Ahmed el-Tayeb, is one of Sunni Islam's most senior figures.
The Vatican has said the Palm Sunday attacks, which extremist Islamist group ISIS has claimed responsibility for, will not affect the trip. "It was an attack on dialogue, on peace," Monsignor Angelo Becciu, the Vatican's Substitute for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State, said in an interview in Monday's Corriere della Sera.
"I also think it was an indirect message to those who govern the country and against the Christian minority which, in recent times, has found more liberty. "There is no doubt that the Holy Father will maintain his resolution to go. "What happened caused dismay and great suffering, but it cannot stop the pope's mission of peace taking place".
Monsignor Nunzio Galantino, the secretary general of Italian bishops conference CEI, said Monday pressing ahead with the visit to Egypt was "the best way to combine concrete support with the words of prayer".
Air Arabia Marocs twice-weekly service will commence on 1 October. The German airport will establish its third connection to Morocco as the service joins existing links to Nador and Marrakech.
Michael Garvens, chairman of the Management Board, Cologne Bonn Airport, commented on the new service: We are delighted to be able to offer our passengers an additional attractive destination in Morocco with Agadir. Anyone who wants to feel the sun again when autumn begins in Cologne, can utilise Air Arabia Marocs low-fare, non-stop connection to North Africa.
This is the first year TripAdvisor has introduced a category for airlines in its signature Travelers Choice Awards. The awards highlight the worlds top carriers based on the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for airlines worldwide gathered over a 12-month period.
Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline said: We are honoured to be named the Best Airline in the World at the TripAdvisor Travelers Choice Awards for Airlines 2017. The fact that the awards are a result of unbiased reviews and feedback speaks to our commitment to deliver a superior travel experience for our customers. We want travellers to continue making Emirates their first choice whenever they think to travel. That is why we continue to invest in products and services across all classes, and why our service teams work hard and put their hearts into providing the very best experience for our customers both on board and on the ground every day.
We are proud to announce the inaugural Travelers Choice Awards for airlines, to help travellers make the most well-informed air travel decisions, based on the experiences of the TripAdvisor community, said Bryan Saltzburg, general manager for TripAdvisor Flights. Its a high honour for Emirates to be recognised as the top airline in the world by the TripAdvisor community and speaks to their continued focus on delivering fantastic customer experiences.
Hysterical media coverage and calls for arms embargoes from charities such as Oxfam, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, has put pressure on the UK Government to halt arms shipments to Saudi Arabia.
This would constrain the operational effectiveness of Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) Tornados and Typhoons, which tend to rely on UK-supplied weapons, and would also affect some other air forces in the coalition.
Any such embargo would also be damaging for the UK, since Saudi arms purchases account for a third of Britains global arms exports.
It has been reported that weapons worth more than 3.3 billion have been sold to Saudi Arabia since the Yemen campaign began in March 2015.
The UK has strongly supported Saudi Arabia and its allies in the war in Yemen. Britain shares the Saudi view that Yemen must be stabilised in order to prevent the failed nation from being used to launch terror attacks against the west. Britain has sold Saudi Arabia equipment and munitions, and has used British military personnel to help train Saudi forces in targeting, as well as to give general advice including ways of avoiding civilian casualties.
Despite this, the United Nations has reported widespread and systematic attacks against civilian targets, which would be in violation of international law.
A different analysis might be that the relative inexperience of the air forces in the Saudi-led regional coalition has resulted in some inaccuracy, coupled with some poor targeting intelligence, resulting in significant collateral damage, and a relatively high civilian death toll.
There is also no doubt that the extent of civilian casualties has been highlighted and emphasised (and quite probably exaggerated) by the enemy propaganda machine, precisely in order to try and cut off the supply of weapons to the coalition.
In response to a Parliamentary written question, British Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, confirmed that a number of British-supplied weapons have been used in the Yemen, including the MBDA Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile, the MBDA dual-mode Brimstone (whose integration on Saudi Tornados had not hitherto been officially confirmed), BAE ALARM anti-radiation missiles (withdrawn from service in the UK in 2013), and UK Paveway II laser-guided bombs, as well as the Raytheon UK Paveway IV dual-mode (IN/GPS and laser-guided) bomb.
Fallon also listed the PGM500 (also known as the Al Hakim), a modular powered glide bomb used only by the UAE Air Force and Air Defence.
A number of these weapons are legacy systems, supplied some time ago, and no longer being manufactured or sold. This includes the most controversial UK weapon that may have been used in Yemen, in the shape of the Hunting BL-755 cluster bomb.
The cluster bomb has not been exported since 1989, though both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are known to hold stocks of the weapon.
And, while the UK is a signatory to the 2010 Cluster Munitions Convention, committing it to disposing of its own cluster munitions and working to prevent their use by anyone else, Saudi Arabia is not a signatory.
Evidence of the use of BL-755 in Yemen is sketchy, and there have been suggestions that the single bomb found by Amnesty International could have been left over from a previous conflict since the last delivery of this weapon to Saudi Arabia was in 1989, and weapons like these do not have an unlimited shelf life.
There is no evidence of the weapons having been returned to Hunting for any refurbishing or re-lifing programme.
This has not prevented Abdulaziz bin Habtour, the leader of the rebel Houthi government, from accusing Britain of war crimes by supplying cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.
The then foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, undertook to investigate fully and promised to seek concrete assurances from Saudi Arabia that it had not used British-made cluster munitions during the current conflict.
Many must be wondering what the fuss is all about. Cluster bombs are of little use in an air campaign like that being waged in Yemen and, in any case, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have plentiful supplies of more recently-supplied, US-provided cluster munitions in the shape of the CBU-97 Sensor Fused Weapon and its guided counterpart, the CBU-105 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser.
Iran's Mehr news agency quoted Kashan as saying the flag carrier is taking an aircraft off of the Boeing production line that had originally been destined for Turkish Airlines.
Turkish has been undergoing a restructuring of its fleet plans taking just one 777-300Er this year and converting two more to freighter variants. The fourth was still available.
Kashan said Iran Air has the option to take the aircraft over the next month although this could be extended if there is a change to the configuration.
In Iran Airs order for 80 Boeing jets earlier this year there were 15 of the 777-300 required. The first of these was previously expected in 2018. The airline has already begun receiving Airbus aircraft from the 100 ordered.
A new 777-300ER previously assigned to Turkish could be on its way to Tehran for Iran Air
Recently, the first meeting of the events key stakeholders took place in Morocco, with Ali Alnaqbi, founding & executive chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA), representatives of both show organisers F&E Aerospace and the Office National Des Aeroports (ONDA) discussing the plans and opportunities for this years event.
The kick off stakeholder meeting for the MEBAA Show Morocco went wonderfully well, Alnaqbi confirmed. We are pleased with the progress made and the possibilities for the MEBAA Show Morocco. The new site at Marrakech Menara Airport offers plenty of space that will allow exhibitors to maximise their exposure and make the most of the networking opportunities available.
Many exhibitors have already committed to this years event, with companies such as Jetex, Seaprime and XJet joining sponsors Gulfstream on the site.
Foreign direct investment in Morocco came to $4 billion in 2015, and aerospace in Morocco in particular has been growing by more than 10% per year. Recently, GDC Technics announced that it had selected Marrakech as an African base for its MRO and modification services.
We are pleased to welcome the MEBAA Show Morocco, the only business aviation show in North Africa, to Marrakech in September, said Zouhair Mohamed El Aoufir, CEO of Moroccan Airports Authority. With the growth and opportunities for business aviation in Morocco, we expect to see an increase in interest from across the region and beyond, and are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to aerospace companies to be part of it.
The daily service from Oman Air will be operated by an Airbus 330-200 and is in addition to the double daily flight from London Heathrow, making Manchester the only airport outside of London to have direct flights to Muscat.
Paul Gregorowitsch, chief executive officer of Oman Air said: This is an incredibly exciting expansion in the UK, allowing our guests to enjoy the convenience of flying direct from Oman to the north of England and also the opportunity to connect with Oman Airs global network. It demonstrates our commitment to developing Oman Airs global network and in particular catering for the growing demand for our award winning product and inflight service.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Famous oenologist Michel Rolland is currently in Armenia at the invitation of the Karas wine factory.
The purpose of his visit is introducing his many years of experience in the winemaking field in Armenia and contributing to the development of the sector.
The French wine expert is cooperating with Karas factory for a few years now and visits Armenia a couple of times yearly to be personally present in the final stage of the winemaking process.
The evening in honor of Michel Rolland brought together representatives of restaurants and various organizations.
According to Beatris Arslanyan, head of the communication and marketing department of Karas factory, the purpose of organizing this kind of evening was to raise awareness on the famous wine experts visit to Armenia and his contribution in the development of Karas wines, which has first of all great significance for Armenia.
Winemaking is developing in Armenia every day, and it is important that namely French experts have their contribution in this. Our main goal is for the Armenian wines to be recognized globally, and that people know what special quality it has, Arslanyan told ARMENPRESS, underscoring the factory will enhance its operations and add new export destinations. The factory currently exports its production to France, Russia, Lebanon, Estonia, Canada and other countries.
Michel Rolland is convinced together they can make very good wine in Armenia.
In fact, I dont make wine, I mainly provide consultation around the world. As you see, I am already old and I dont travel as much as I used to, but I continue cooperating with 14 different countries, including Armenia. When Eduardo Eurnekian asked me to visit Armenia, initially I was a little surprised, since I havent tried the wine here, although, of course I knew globally Armenia is almost the initial source of wine, however I didnt know whether or not it continues being engaged in this field. Eventually I came here, and I can say it is a fantastic country. I am sure we will prepare even better wine with years, because my goal is to prepare good wine. I think the cooperation is proceeding good, people follow my advice. Armenia is really an interesting country, and I hope I will come here more often, I will present wines for you which are better than those which you are drinking now, he said.
The famous wine expert also visited Areni village on April 10 and got acquainted with the local winemaking traditions.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The representatives of Christian community were targeted in Egypt, Hayk Kocharyan Chair of the YSU Department of Arabic Studies, told a press conference in Armenpress commenting on the recent terror attacks in Egypt.
The recent terror attack in Egypt differs from the remaining terror attacks in a sense that this time the Christian community representatives were targeted in the country. As you know, we have an Armenian community in Egypt. Today we can state that there are no concrete actions directed against Armenians, just the possibility that Armenians can be in a target of terrorism is the same as in case of the remaining Egyptians, Hayk Kocharyan said.
He said expect from terror attacks there are also unsettled domestic problems in Egypt. Now the leadership toughened the situation, the role of militaries is being raised which, according to Kocharyan, will not contribute to settling the problems in the country.
On April 9 blasts occurred near the churches of the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria. Hours later the Islamic State terrorist group claimed the responsibility for the attacks. It is reported that over 30 people were killed in a blast near the church in Tanta, and more than 50 wounded.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The first two stem cell transplantations of bone marrow in Armenia were performed in the Yolyan Hematology Center by Professor Dr. Nicolaus Kroger, head of the transplantation department of Hamburgs Eppendorf Clinic and the Yolyan Hematology Clinics team.
Professor Smbat Daghbashyan, head of the Armenian transplantation doctors team, told reporters the transplantation passed successfully.
The patients, who trusted her health to the doctors, is a woman from Artsakh, who had to travel abroad for undergoing the same surgery. The second patient is a man, who had a repetition of the disease after chemotherapy, he said, adding that 60 patients annually need stem cell transplantation in Armenia.
We will continue cooperation with our colleagues from Hamburg. The patient who had to receive the transplantation in Hamburg, can get it here the same way. We will perform transplantations in 7-10 patients during this year, since this a gradual process, he said.
Dr. Nicolaus Kroger congratulated the Armenian doctors in introducing the new treatment method in Armenia.
This method is considered to be innovative in the world and is used for treating cancerous diseases, he said.
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Hrayr Tovmasyan, Chief of Staff of the Parliament, considers it optimal for the new parliament to have 8-10 standing committees, reports Armenpress.
In a meeting with reporters, Tovmasyan said the number of standing committees will be reduced in the new parliament.
At the moment I can mention two standing committees that will not exist in the new parliament. The talk is about the standing committees on European Integration and Human Rights. The European Integration committee with its powers and activity is not different from the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Human Rights committee from the standing committee on State and Legal Affairs, he said.
Hrayr Tovmasyan talked about the dates of launch of the works of a new parliament. He said the new parliament will hold the first session on April 27 during which the Government will suspend powers according to the Constitution. After that within 10 days new prime minister will be appointed , within 20 days new government will be formed which will submit its program to the parliaments discussion within 20 days. The parliament will discuss the governments program under extraordinary regime within 5 days.
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FOR months now, one of the most intriguing instrumentalists in Los Angeles has been unspooling his style for the price of a drink in a small bar in Highland Park. Jeff Parker, longtime guitarist for the Chicago post-rock band Tortoise, has lived in Los Angeles for a few years now, and alongside playing with members of Spain and in drummer Matt Mayhalls trio, Parker has also dropped one of the best recent jazz LPs, The New Breed, which The New York Times picked as one of 2016s finest, alongside Radioheads latest.
I wrote about Parker, who Ive seen plan in several different settings, for the LA Weekly. The piece is HERE.
Parker will perform with Tortoise in LA on April 17, and will continue his run at ETA the Monday after that. Check him out.
Nina Raines new drama, Consent, can now be seen in a stunning in-the-round production at the National Theatres small Dorfman auditorium but the play is so good (and has been so well reviewed) that it will not be surprising if it transfers to the West End. Or even to Broadway, despite its essential Englishness. American audiences will have no difficulty with its themes of rape (thus the significance of the title), marriage, love and infidelity but the workings of the English legal system, and why we have both barristers and solicitors, whereas they need only lawyers (though they use the euphemism attorneys), might baffle some less-travelled, non-Brit playgoers. Other countries have adversarial legal systems, and the American legal profession is even more cutthroat and vicious than the British but only those that share the UKs legal traditions (and, for non-Brit readers, the Scottish arrangement is even more arcane) can appreciate the nuances of Britains batty wigs, gowns and big legal fees.
As Consents reviews have varied from modern classic to unreservedly recommended, the plays continued success is certain. Its not a courtroom drama, but another of this dazzling young playwrights heart-searchers, where ideas and arguments seem paramount only until you get hooked on the characters emotions and fates. Just as happens in Greek tragedy in an example of which the pieces unlikeliest character, the broody actress Zara (Daisy Haggard), zanily discusses whether her Medea will be played with a Scottish, Northern Irish or Yorkshire accent.
Most of the dramatis personae of Consent are broody. The piece opens with new mother, Kitty (Anna Maxwell Martin at her considerable best), handing her baby to family friend and wannabe godfather, thirty-something barrister, Jake (Adam James, whose winsomeness is about to show some edge). I dont ever recall seeing a real baby on stage before, but this extremely well-behaved infant is Misha Wakefield Raine. (As Ms Raines son has made his stage debut at the age of three months, I think we can confidently predict his future.)
Jake dotes on his own two children whose mother is fellow barrister, Rachel (Priyanga Burford). They have another infant, plus little Jimmy, who is at the stage of calling himself you rather than I because everyone else addresses him as you. Kittys barrister husband, Edward (Ben Chaplin, who chillingly convinced me that his character had aged visibly in the course of two hours), wants another child so badly that his attempts to conceive one raises legal questions. Zara is desperate for a child, but (at first) fails to fall for (yet) another barrister, Tim (Pip Carter, whose nasal bass voice could be heard even when facing away from you), who also badly wants kids. The sole exception to this rampant philoprogenitiveness is Kitty herself, who goes to an extreme in her desire to go back to work. No spoilers here, but the relationships among these six characters get complicated, and raise questions of faithfulness, separation, divorce and the legal niceties that surround these.
There is a seventh character, Gayle (Heather Craney), who has been raped the evening following her sisters funeral. She is not middle-class, as are the other six, and her treatment by the court in the legal scenes not only raises issues of class, but also whether the rules of the legal game being played dont actually preclude her getting justice.
This co-production with the ever-inventive Out of Joint company is niftily directed by Roger Michell (who is married to Anna Maxwell Martin) so that the action flows and the scenes meld into each other rapidly, but without ever being rushed. He has a sly trick of getting his actors to move a bit of furniture or blow out a candle, marking a beat and a pause, before exiting which makes the fast-moving drama feel unhurried. Hildegard Bechtlers minimal sets are a display of ceiling fixtures that make you feel youre in the lighting department of Harrods or Selfridges plus a trap door from which sofas, chairs and tables mesmerizingly pop up, sometimes laden with dizzying decorations.
As a playwright, Nina Raine seems to be inspired by big issues, from her first, Rabbit, dealing with illness and the battle between the sexes, Tiger Country and the medical profession, Tribes and family life complicated by profound deafness, and now the lawyers of Consent. Whatever her next subject, you can be certain it will be of importance to the way we live now, and that however painful her depiction of it might be, she will maintain her good humour, and find something comic as well as tragic about it.
Arko Mukherjee talks about having his first indie production featured on Billboard Top 50, and his journey from Bwood to the West.
When Arko Mukherjee first came to Mumbai, little did he know that he would be lending his voice for Bollywood movies. I always thought Id work on albums. But Bollywood, for me, just happened, he recalls. After a long contemplation of going indie, Arko finally took the dive, and produced Reeva, a song that featured on Billboard Top 50 at number 49.
Being the first Indian artiste to be featured on the prestigious list took Arko by complete surprise. A pleasant surprise, he adds, laughing. Im still trying to figure out what it means to have a song featured on Billboard.
Production for Reeva started last year, when Arko decided to go independent in English, having nursed the idea of creating music in the language for a long time. This, however, wasnt an easy journey, considering the small amount of space indie artistes have to grow in the country. The music requires backing from producers, something that always ends up happening in Bollywood. And the idea was to get away from this circle, he explains.
On the other hand, without any producers or labels backing his idea, Arko believes he had much more liberty to play around with his basic concept. The idea was to create something simple and peppy, he says. Reeva is a happy, in-the-moment kind of a song.
Since making his debut as music director in Mahesh Bhatts Jism 2, Arko has gone on to contribute to popular movies like Kapoor & Sons, and Rustom. His career also boasts of working with some of the biggest music producers in the industry, including Pritam, Honey Singh, Mithoon, and Atif Aslam.
Over the past year, Arko has been living a rather busy life, with the West vying for his attention too. And juggling a parallel career abroad isnt always the easiest thing to do, admits the musician. One needs patience and perseverance to get through so much, he says, adding that one needs clarity of the mind to survive.
Now, Arko is looking forward to yet another year of splitting his time between L.A. and Bollywood, with interesting projects lined up in both spaces. While he remains tight-lipped about his international ventures hes much more chatty about projects back home. Theres Anubhav Sinhas new production that I have worked on. Ive also lent my voice to Bareilly Ki Barfi, which will be out soon, he smiles.
Even with much on his plate, Arko promises that Bollywood still has precedence. I wont be stepping away from Bollywood; Im not even thinking of it. Its my priority, he signs off.
He said his party formed the government in Goa through 'democratic methods' allowed in the Constitution.
BJP President Amit Shah during a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)
Panaji: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Sunday hit back at Digvijaya Singh, who has been attacking the saffron party over government formation in Goa, accusing the Congress of "misusing" the provision of President's Rule in the past.
"Digvijayaji look at the deeds of your party! In the history of our country's democracy, the number of governments the Congress has toppled misusing Article 356 (which has provision for the President's Rule), no other parties would have done that," Shah said.
He said his party formed the government in Goa through "democratic methods" allowed in the Constitution.
"I want to ask Digvijaya Singh whether his party had even elected its leader when legislators under the leadership of (BJP-incharge for Goa) Nitin Gadkari staked claim before the Governor to form the next government," he asked after being felicitated here at a public rally.
BJP had won 13 seats in the elections, eight less than its 2012 tally. The party, though finished second to Congress (17), cobbled up an alliance with local parties and Independents.
It successfully proved its majority under Manohar Parrikar in the 40-member House eventually.
Shah said the Constitution provides that in case of a fractured mandate the party with maximum support can stake claim to form the government.
"BJP was the first party which produced support letters of 21 legislators before the Governor," he said.
He assured Goans that BJP will give a stable government with coalition partners. "The government will be dedicated to the development of the state," he said.
Before taking over as the Chief Minister, Parrikar was serving as the Defence Minister in the Modi Cabinet.
Praising Parrikar, Shah said the country will remember him as the "most successful" defence minister who sorted out the vexed One-Rank-One-Pension (OROP) issue.
"The issue of OROP which dragged for several years was solved by Parrikar within a year which provided solace to the armed forces. Total Rs 8,000 crore was disbursed to the ex-servicemen," he said.
The BJP chief also credited Parrikar for "modernisation of the armed forces and surgical strike which established India as one of the powerful nations".
"Modi-Parrikar duo has shown to the world that we do need peace with the neighbours but we will not tolerate any insult to our armed forces", he said.
Shah said Goa would be a model state under Parrikar's leadership.
Indian Foreign Secretary issued demarche, saying proceedings that led to sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav are farcical.
New Delhi: Reacting strongly, India on Monday said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence, awarded to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a strongly-worded demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav were "farcical" as there were no "credible evidence" against him.
Reacting to a press release by Pakistan military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Jadhav, India said he was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan military sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav to death. "The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Jadhav was "tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923," ISPR said.
Jadhav "confessed before a magistrate and court that he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan, through impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for the restoration of peace in Balochistan and Karachi," the ISPR said.
Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa "has confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it added.
Jadhav, a retired Naval officer, was arrested by Pakistan from Balochistan on March 3 last year for allegedly spying for Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
India had denied that Jadhav was a R&AW spy, but said that he was a retired Naval officer. However, Pakistan had refused to extradite him.
Pakistan's foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz had alleged that he was involved in "subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan". In March last year, Pakistan released what it claimed to be Kulbhushan's video confession.
Turnbull arrived in New Delhi yesterday for a four-day visit. This is his first visit to India.
On Tuesday, Turnbull will visit Mumbai where he will attend several events, including an interaction with key business leaders and an energy round-table. (Photo: ANI Twitter)
New Delhi: Visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was all praises for his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, saying that Modi is leading the country on the path of growth and development.
"Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit. PM Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on an extraordinary journey of growth and development. The achievements of India are an admiration for the world and we look forward to working even more closely," he told the media here during his ceremonial reception at the President House.
"Half a million Australians are of Indian background. Both countries are tied together with a shared destiny," Turnbull added.
Turnbull arrived in New Delhi yesterday for a four-day visit. This is his first visit to India.
He is scheduled to hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Modi later in the day.
On Tuesday, Turnbull will visit Mumbai where he will attend several events, including an interaction with key business leaders and an energy round-table.
Cooperation in renewable energy, clean coal and bio-fuels will be high on agenda during his visit. A number of MoUs and agreements are also to be firmed up in the areas of security, environment, sports, science and technology and health.
Turnbull and Prime Minister Modi have had substantive meetings on the sidelines of the G-20 in Antalya in 2015 and in Hangzhou in 2016.
A number of Union ministers will be present at the meeting, the 2nd such exercise since NDA came to power in 2014.
New Delhi: A meeting of top NDA leaders will be held on Monday and representatives of 32 parties, including Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, are likely to attend it.
The meeting, the second since the NDA came to power in 2014, will be presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources said TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Mehbooba Mufti among others, besides BJP President Amit Shah, will attend the meeting.
The leaders will take stock of the political situation and decide on future strategy of the alliance.
Besides, a number of Union ministers will be present at the meeting, the sources said.
They said representatives of all the allies of the BJP across the country will participate in the meeting during the evening, followed by dinner.
CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had said that four Congress leaders, including Tharoor, planned to join the BJP.
Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on Sunday denied reports that he was joining the BJP.
In a Facebook post, he said: "In view of the number of people asking, let me repeat that my convictions are a matter of record and they do not match those of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)".
"For 40+years I have spoken and written in defence of a pluralist India with equal rights for all its citizens and communities," Tharoor, also a former UN diplomat, said.
"On this, no compromise. Rumours of my joining BJP have been floated periodically with no basis whatsoever. I deny them categorically and without qualification," he said.
The Congress MP's clarification comes in the backdrop of a statement by CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that four Congress leaders, including Tharoor, planned to join the BJP.
Balakrishnan had said there are reports that four Congress leaders from Kerala are joining the BJP and that KPCC president M M Hassan had said that one of them was Tharoor.
However, Hassan denied having made any such remarks when contacted.
"When media persons asked me whether the reports about four Congress leaders joining the BJP has come to his notice,
I said there is no such thing," Hassan told PTI.
"There are no fortune seekers in Kerala like S M Krishna and Jaffer Sharif," the KPCC president said.
Tharoor campaigned for the Congress-led UDF candidate for the April 12 bypoll in Malappuram, Hassan said.
"When I asked him about such reports, he (Tharoor) told me that it was propaganda by the BJP," Hassan added.
Sheikh Hasina said India supports Bangladesh in its endeavour to declare Pakistani atrocities in 1971 as 'genocide'.
New Delhi: Calling for more concentrated efforts against security threats, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said Dhaka has comprehensively addressed New Delhi's security concerns, which has been a factor in trust building.
"We have put in place a multi-layered and effective bilateral security architecture with many dedicated joint institutional mechanisms for targeted and coordinated actions," said Hasina at India Foundation Awareness Programme here.
She said that security threats from state and non-state actors tend to undermine the efforts to integrate our economies and societies and that there should be more concentrated efforts to strengthen protection for our societies.
"We have amicably settled Land Boundary and Maritime Boundary," she added while reiterating her appreciation for leaders of all political parties and members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha of India for their unanimous support for the Land Boundary Agreement.
She noted that the Bangladesh Parliament recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as 'Genocide Day' in remembrance of the Pakistani atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971 and called on the international community to recognise the same.
Hasina added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a commitment to remain with this effort of Dhaka.
Stating that 'India is our partner in this path to progress' the Bangladesh Prime Minister said that the two neighbors have witnessed tremendous progress in almost all sectors of cooperation namely, connectivity, power, trade and commerce, health and cultural exchange.
"To address trade deficit we are also working on getting more investment from India particularly in the special economic zones of Bangladesh. Already we are seeing great interest from the biggest business houses in India," she added.
On the Teesta issue, Hasina said that Prime Minister Modi has assured that his government will conclude the water sharing treaty at the soonest.
Gaikwads brother-in-law told the media on Sunday that the MP would alight before New Delhi station.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad on Sunday took a train from Mumbai to New Delhi to attend the Parliament session, despite Air India and private carriers lifting his flying ban.
Earlier, PTI reports had said that Gaikwad would be taking a flight from Mumbai to Delhi incidentally, the same flight on which he assaulted an Air India officer.
However, media reports said that the MP from Osmanabad boarded the Mumbai Rajdhani on Sunday evening, and reached Delhi on Monday at 9:30 am.
Gaikwads brother-in-law told the media on Sunday that the MP would alight before New Delhi station on Monday.
Gaikwad booked a business class seat in AI 852, which takes off from Pune at 7.40 AM and lands at Indira Gandhi International airport at 9.50 AM, PTI reports earlier said.
This is the same flight Gaikwad boarded last month when he lost his cool and hit an Air India staffer "25 times" because the MP insisted on travelling business class on an all-economy flight.
"The summer schedule kicked in on 26 March as per which we are flying the newly acquired A320 neo planes on this route. This aircraft has business class," said an Air India source to PTI.
While lifting the ban on Friday, after pressure from the government, Air India had emphasised that it is "committed to ensuring its employees are not assaulted or misbehaved with".
The national carrier also said that it would take strong action to preserve the dignity of its employees.
Two government schools designated as polling stations for Anantnag bypoll were set on fire.
Tasaduq Mufti, brother of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and PDP's candidate from Anantnag for bypoll election addressing a press conference at his residence in Srinagar. (Photo: PTI)
Srinagar: The Election Commission has decided to defer the Lok Sabha bypoll to Anantnag constituency to May 25 following feedback of state election authorities. The EC is also likely to take a call on holding repoll in polling centres which saw unprecedented violence and poor voter turnout in the bypoll to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat on Sunday.
Earlier on Monday, two government schools designated as polling stations for Anantnag bypoll were set on fire and prohibitory orders imposed in Budgam and Ganderbal districts.
Following which the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a hurriedly called press conference, had appealed to the EC to postpone the polls in Anantnag till the situation improves. Polling in Anantnag was scheduled for Wednesday.
Chief minister Mehbooba Muftis brother, Tassaduq Hussain Mufti, who is contesting from home constituency Anantnag on the PDP ticket, said. My appeal to the Election Commission is to postpone the polls till the situation improves. It is my request.
Asked if the chief minister supports the demand, the 45-year-old cinematographer-turned-politician said the state government had given its assessment in writing to the EC, that the situation is not conducive for elections. If my withdrawing helps in postponing the election in Anantnag to a more favourable time, Im happy to withdraw, he said, but clarified, Im contesting and I will go all the way.
Security forces were deployed in strength in Srinagar city on Monday, a day after eight persons were killed and dozens injured in firing by security forces to quell stone pelting mobs during polling for the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
A meagre 7.14 per cent of over 1.2 million voters turned up to exercise their democratic right in the Srinagar by-poll, the lowest in five decades in Jammu and Kashmir. This has raised questions about the sanctity of this election.
In 2014 general elections, 26 per cent voting was recorded on this seat. Asked if he agreed to the chief ministers frequently asserted view that only five per cent people were involved in stone-pelting incidents and anti-government protests, Mr Mufti said, My perception was favourable in many ways. I met lots of people and I saw participation of the people (in electioneering).
On the poor voter turnout in Sundays by-poll, he said, There should have been a larger group of people participating.
Tensions are on the rise and hostility towards the ruling PDP-BJP combine is greater than before, but Mr Mufti does not agree with the view that the PDP is losing ground because of its alliance with the BJP. After the alliance Mehbooba Mufti won with significant margin (in Anantnag Assembly by-poll). Had it been the case it wouldnt have happened, he said.
Reacting to his statement, former chief minister and acting president of Opposition National Conference (NC), Omar Abdullah, tweeted, It is an indictment of his sister Mehbooba government and its abject failure. How can the BJP not see this?
In another tweet he said, PDPs Tassaduq demands polls be postponed. Has mainstream completely lost the battle?
Mr Abdullah said that the chief minister should immediately resign as the PDP government has failed completely.
A two-day shutdown called by separatists to mourn and protest civilian deaths in security forces actions during the Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll has brought life to a standstill in the Valley.
Shops, banks and other businesses across the Valley remained closed. As did most educational institutions and many government offices. Only private cars and auto-rickshaws could be seen plying on select routes of less tense areas.
Internet services in the Valley remained suspended for the second consecutive day on Monday. Authorities said they decided to snap the services to prevent their misuse by anti-social and divisive forces who spread rumours through social media, making the situation more demanding for the government. But the move has evoked widespread criticism as it has created hardship for tourism and civil aviation sectors, the student community and media.
Eight persons were killed and over 150 wounded in rifle and pellet shotgun firings and other actions by the security forces as protesters engaged them in streets battles across the constituency spread over three districts-Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal- and fifteen Assembly segments. The irate crowds also attacked polling stations, thrashed polling staff and snatched Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from them. The officials said that about loo police and other security personnel were also injured in mob attacks.
Banerjee is on a four-day visit to the Capital in view of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas official tour.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee at a meeting in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and sought early release of funds amounting to Rs 10,000 crore due to the state under various Central government schemes.
At the meeting, which lasted more than half-an-hour, Ms Banerjee also raised her states debt situation as well as the loan waiver issue with the Prime Minister.
The West Bengal chief minister drew the PMs attention to the problems arising out of lack of funds, saying that dues worth Rs 10,469.01 crore were pending with the Centre for MNREGA, Swachh Bharat Mission and food subsidy among other programmes.
Mr Modi assured her that he would look into the matter. Ms Banerjee is on a four-day visit to the Capital in view of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas official tour.
The West Bengal CM is seen to be a major roadblock as far as the Teesta water-sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh is concerned. On Monday she said no talks were held on the issue with the PM and declined to comment further.
The Trinamul Congress chief has been one of the most vocal critics of Mr Modi and had led the Oppositions onslaught on the issue of demonetisation.
Delhi summons Pak envoy, calls military court trial farcical.
Journalists look a image of Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, during a press conference by Pakistan's army spokesman and the Information Minister, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Photo: AP)
New Delhi/Islamabad: Pakistans powerful military establishment announced on Monday that former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav would be hanged after a military court found him guilty of espionage and sabotage, in a move that quickly raised tensions between the nuclear-armed countries.
India slammed the decision and said in a demarche to Pakistans high commissioner Abdul Basit that Mr Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran, and his trial was farcical in the absence of any evidence against him. Foreign secretary S. Jaishankar summoned Mr Basit and handed over the demarche.
India said if the death sentence was carried out, New Delhi would regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
Sarabjit Singh, on death row for 16 years for spying in Pakistan, was killed in jail in 2013 allegedly by fellow inmates.
In case of Mr Jadhav, India also pointed out that consular access had been repeatedly denied by Pakistan despite 13 requests in the past one year, and that New Delhi was not even made aware that Mr Jadhav was being brought to trial.
Pakistan militarys mouthpiece, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said the death sentence had been confirmed by Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. A security official told AFP that the court-martial had been kept secret even within the ranks of the military.
Pakistan has termed Mr Jadhav an agent of Indias external spy agency RAW, and has claimed that he is still a serving naval officer, while India has said he was a former naval officer.
Indian government sources had said last year that Mr Jadhav became a businessman, and stayed in Iran after retiring from the Navy. India said he was abducted from Iran on the orders of Pakistani intelligence agencies.
Pakistani military courts have a notorious reputation for being kangaroo courts. It remains to be seen if India seeks global intervention through the UN or the United States to stop the hanging. Pakistans latest move is bound to exert tremendous strain on Indo-Pak ties.
In a statement from Rawalpindi, the ISPR said, Indian RAW agent/naval officer commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 through a counter-intelligence operation from Mashkel, Balochistan, for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan.
The spy has been tried through the field general court martial under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA), 1952, and awarded the death sentence. Jadhav was tried under Section 59 of the PAA and Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act of 1923, the ISPR said.
He confessed before a magistrate and the court that he was tasked by the RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi, it said.
A few months ago, the Pakistan PMs adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz was reported to have said that there was insufficient evidence against Mr Jadhav, but he later changed his tune, apparently under pressure from the Pakistan Army.
Justice Chandrachud observed that children between 11 and 20 are seen and in cases students up to 28 years are in the crowd.
New Delhi: The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that pellet guns are used only as a last resort to disperse protesters and mobs in Jammu and Kashmir and alternative methods like rubber bullets and skunk water mixed with chemicals are being experimented.
Attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi made this submission before a three-judge bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul hearing the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Associations plea against the use of pellet guns in the state. He said the intention is not to kill the protesters but only to disperse the crowd.
In the last hearing on March 27, the top court expressed concern on largeshcale use of pellet guns on protesters and had asked the Centre to consider effective means other than use of pellet guns to deal with mobs as it concerns life and death.
On Monday the CJI wondered as to why children in the ages of 7, 9, 11 and 13 are seen in the mobs and why is it nobody in the age group of 40 or 60 are to be seen in the crowd.
Justice Chandrachud observed that children between 11 and 20 are seen and in cases students up to 28 years are in the crowd.
Senior counsel Mian Abdul Quayoon representing the j and K bar association alleged that the security forces use pellet guns indiscriminately and in an arbitrary manner and more than 15,000 persons had been injured. The CJI said if guns had been used over 20,000 people would have been killed.
Counsel however, maintained due to the indiscrimiante use of pellet guns, children and students are losing their eyes and a situation may come that J and K will be a nation of bllind people.
The AG said a new Standard Operating Procedure has been put in place with guidelines for the CRPF to use graded response while dealing with violent mobs. He said even yesterday in the bye-elections the security forces had to face with violent mobs and more than 100 security personnel were injured when attempts were made to capture polling booths. As a result of the violence only 7 per cent polling was witnessed.
The AG said we are experitmentting alternative methods like rubbr bullets and used of `skunk water mixed with chemicals which has been proved effective in Israel. He said there is no peaceful protest in J and K as every protest is marred by violence and different methods had to be used depending upon the situation. The AG said in a war like situation it is not possible to distinguish between terrorists and others, who attack security forces from all sides. Pellet guns are used only a last resort if the forces find it difficult to handle the situation. It may not be possible to visualise a situation when it can be used or not.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court had on September 22, 2016 rejected the plea seeking a ban on use of pellet guns on the ground that the Centre had already constituted a Committee of Experts through its memorandum dated July 26, 2016 for exploring alternatives to pellet guns. The present appeal by J and K bar association is against this order. Observing that it is an important issue, the Bench granted time to the Associaiton to file its reply and posted the matetr for further hearing on April 28.
It submitted that the practice of polygamy is a social practice rather than a religious one and therefore would not be protected under Article 25.
The Centre said that Muslim women in India are more vulnerable because of the prevalence of such practices, even though they live in a secular country. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that talaq-e-bidat, nikah halala (forms of divorce) and polygamy are not protected under the right to religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution, and prayed for the quashing these pernicious practices.
In its written submissions in the triple talaq case, which will be heard by a Constitution Bench from today, the Centre said the basic question before the court is whether, in a secular democracy, religion can be a reason to deny equal status and dignity available to Muslim women under the Constitution.
The Centre submitted that gender equality and the dignity of women are non-negotiable, overarching constitutional values and that there can be no compromise on this.
It submitted that the practices under challenge impact the social status and dignity of Muslim women and render them unequal and vulnerable vis-a-vis men in their own community, women from communities and Muslim women outside India.
The Centre said that Muslim women in India are more vulnerable because of the prevalence of such practices, even though they live in a secular country. It submitted that the practice of polygamy is a social practice rather than a religious one and therefore would not be protected under Article 25. This is also true of nikah halala and triple talaq, it submitted.
These practices, it said, deny Muslim women the full enjoyment of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, who comprise a very sizable proportion of Indias population (approximately 8 per cent, i.e. 96.68 million, as per 2011 census) and yet remain extremely vulnerable, both socially as well as financially.
Even though only some women are directly affected by these practices, the fact remains that every woman lives under the threat, fear or prospect of these practices being invoked against her, which in turn impacts her status, her choices, her conduct and her right to a life with dignity.
It is extremely significant to note that a large number of Muslim countries, such as, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, Iran and Sri Lanka, have undertaken significant reforms and have regulated divorce law and polygamy. Even theocratic states have undergone reform in this area of the law and therefore in a secular republic like India there is no reason to deny women the rights available under the Constitution, the Centre told the Supreme Court.
The fact that Muslim countries have undergone extensive reform would also belie the case that the practices in question are an essential religious practice, the Centre said and prayed for quashing this pernicious practice of triple talaq form of divorce.
Keshav Maurya said the govt would ensure that all work related to the event is completed by October 2018.
Lucknow: After UP CM Yogi Adityanath set up new parameters of governance and administration, his ministers are now continuing to play a proactive role.
UP minister for agriculture Surya Pratap Shahi, on Monday, conducted a surprise check at the Krishi Bhawan and found majority of officers abset or late.
Mr Shahi reached the Krishi Bhawan at 10.10.am and found most of the employees absent. He got the gates locked and waited for the latecomers who were later let off with a terse warning.
Another UP minister Mohsin Raza, who holds the minorities welfare portfolio, also inspected the Warf Board office where all but one of the 17 employees were found absent. In some rooms, fans and air conditioners were on even though there was no one there.
Mr Raza sat in the office waited till all the employees came in. He then told them that this was the final warning and they will have to face action if they did not mend their ways.
Meanwhile, UP deputy CM Keshav Maurya has said that the state government would soon convene a special Cabinet meeting to discuss the roadmap for the Ardh Kumbh Mela, scheduled to be held in 2019 in Allahabad.
He said the government would ensure that all work related to the event is completed by October 2018.
Financial matters like fiscal transfers to states, the GST and its implementation was also taken up for discussion.
New Delhi: Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired a meeting of the standing committee of the Inter-State Council here on Sunday, that discussed threadbare a host of issues ranging from the role of governors, deployment of Central forces in states and the federal balance of power, expressed the view that the powers of governors, the criteria for selection and removal should be largely left untouched. In this, he was supported by finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley, who too was present. There was a general consensus among states that is was unhealthy for Centre-state relations for the office of governor to be politicised.
The chief ministers of some states, including Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura and Chhattisgarh, attended the meeting, held after a span of almost 12 years, along with senior ministers from Punjab, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, who represented their states. Senior officers from Union ministries and state governments were also present.
We discussed threadbare the role of governors. Many states felt a governor should be qualified, non-partisan and above politics, said Andhra finance minister Y. Ramakrishnudu, deputising for chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Mr Ramakrishnudu said states wanted the governors to not have a say in politics.
The appointment of chief ministers in Goa and Manipur recently had got embroiled in controversy after leaders of the BJP, which finished second to the Congress in both states, were invited to form governments with the help of smaller parties and Independents.
Speaking at the meeting, the home minister stressed on the need for greater peace and stability in the country as it was necessary to take the nation forward. India is a nation characterised by unity in diversity, and hence it is important that trust and cordiality form the bedrock for Centre-state cooperation, and we rise above narrow sectarian interests to focus on the larger picture of national development, he added.
The basic aim of the meet was to discuss how Centre-state ties could be strengthened, particularly in view of the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission which had submitted its report in 2010. The commission had gone into detail on various aspects of Centre-State ties, ranging from financial relations and planning, internal security, criminal justice, environment, sharing of natural resources and infrastructure, as well as overall economic development.
Some states felt that governors should be appointed by the Centre in consultation with them, and a similar system put in place before sending Central forces too.
Sources said the representatives of both the Centre and the states gave their inputs on the recommendations of the commission, and these would be analysed by the Inter-State Council secretariat and subsequently taken up at a meeting where all states would be represented.
Financial matters like fiscal transfers to states, the Goods and Services Tax and its implementation was also taken up for discussion. Officials said other recommendations of the commission would be taken up at later meetings of the standing committee along with the implications of recent developments regarding the GST Act, the 14th Finance Commission report, the Niti Aayogs formation and the rationalisation of Centrally-sponsored schemes.
In the meeting held in the morning, Mamata also raised the loan waiver issue with the PM while discussing the state's debt situation.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking early release of funds to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore due to the state under various centrally sponsored schemes.
In the nearly half-an-hour-long meeting in the morning, Mamata also raised the loan waiver issue with the PM while discussing the state's debt situation.
Drawing the PM's attention to the problems arising out of lack of funds, she said dues worth Rs 10,469.01 crore were pending with the Centre for MNREGA, Swachh Bharat Mission, food subsidy among other programmes.
The Prime Minister said he would look into it, Mamata, who was in the capital on a four-day visit since Saturday, said here after the meeting.
She, however, declined to say anything on Teesta water sharing issue and said that there was no talk on it with the PM.
The Trinamool Congress chief has been one of the most vocal critics of Modi and led the opposition's onslaught on the issue of demonetisation.
Miscreants have set on fire 2 schools in Anantnag, which were supposed to be used as polling booths.
Protesters throwing stones at a burning polling staff bus after they attack on polling station at Kanihama in Srinagar. (Photo: AP)
Jammu : Ruling party candidate Tasaduq Mufti, who is the brother of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, has called on the Election Commission to postpone the Anantnag bypolls slated for April 12th.
Addressing a press conference today, Tasaduq said the PDP has sent a request to the Election Commission seeking postponement of the polls.
The development comes in the wake of the Valley being on lockdown following the death of eight civilians in clashes with security forces. Tasaduq asserted that the current turbulent situation is not conducive for polls.
Reacting to his statement, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said that if the polls are postponed then Mehbooba must resign and the Governor must take charge.
Meanwhile, Government schools designated as polling booths ahead of the Anantnag bypolls are under attack in Jammu and Kashmir, as miscreants set them on fire in a clear attempt to obstruct the upcoming polls.
Security remains tight and the Valley has been turned into a fortress. Booths have been provided maximum security, with hundreds of troops deployed at colleges and schools where voting will be held.
Following the escalation of violence on Sunday, internet services have been suspended in entire Kashmir Valley till Anantnag bypolls on April 12. Apart from this, all Kashmir University exams scheduled to be held up-to the Anatanag bypolls have been postponed.
New dates for the same will be notified separately.
Meanwhile, with another civilian succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the brutal Budgam clashes has gone up to 8.
The civilians were killed during clashes with security forces in various areas of central Kashmir's Budgam district. The Srinagar Parliamentary constituency witnessed lowest voter turnout for the by-polls in the wake of the clashes.
Incidents of firing were reported from Ater constituency.
Bhopal: Byelections to two Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh held on Sunday were marred by clashes between rival political workers and trading of allegations and counter-allegations of booth capturing by Opposition Congress and ruling BJP in the state.
However, both the bypolls witnessed an impressive voter turnout with Ater Assembly constituency that came into news recently for an alleged malfunctioning of a voter verifying paper audit trails (VVPAT) machine during an official media demonstration and the Bandhavgarh Assembly seat each recording a little over 60 per polling. While polling in Bandhavgarh was held peacefully, incidents of clashes between workers of the Congress and BJP, and alleged firing were reported at several places in Ater.
Congress candidate for the Ater seat, Hemant Katare, alleged that BJP workers attacked his vehicle and pelted stones at him. He also accused the ruling party workers of attempting to capture booths at some places.
BJP spokesman, on the other hand, accused the Congress of rigging polls in some booths and demanded re-polling in at least two-dozen booths in Ater. Reports of alleged firing by some unidentified people at Sakir in the constituency were also reported.
State chief electoral officer Saleena Singh admitted that there were attempts of malpractices and that no booth was captured. In Bandhavgarh, six EVMs were replaced with fresh machines, as they were found non-functional. Six cops deployed in the constituency have been placed under suspension for the dereliction of duty. While the Ater seat is currently held by Congress, Bandhavgarh is presently with the BJP.
Both Shah and Adityanath deliberated on governance issues, including Central governments Garib Kalyan scheme.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath during their meeting in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. Sources said Adityanath, who was in the national capital to attend a government event, deliberated with Shah over a host of issues concerning the state.
Amid speculations that the UP administration could see a majore reshuffle, sources said the CM discussed this along with various poll promises the party had made in its poll manifesto. Both Shah and Adityanath deliberated on governance issues, including Central governments Garib Kalyan scheme.
BJPs state unit would also be reorganised as some of the office bearers, including state unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, are now part of Yogi Adityanaths council of ministers. Sources disclosed the organisational revamp in the state BJP could take place after May 10 as the party leadership is currently focussing on the states governance.
Meanwhile, the BJPs UP unit is abuzz as whether someone close to Yogi Adityanath will succeed Mr Maurya as the state unit chief. The CM met Mr Shah at the latters residence in the morning, besides meeting Union home minister Rajnath Singh, power minister Piyush Goyal and textiles minister Smriti Irani.
As part of tradition, the Congress President hosts dinner for MPs during the Parliament session twice a year.
New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi has called all the MPs and office bearers of the Congress for dinner on Tuesday evening. It will be an informal gathering of party leaders just a day before the Budget session at the Parliament comes to an end. Interestingly, this will be the first time after her illness in August last year that the Congress chief will be informally meeting a large group of Congress leaders. The dinner is will be held in the Parliament House.
As part of tradition, the Congress President hosts dinner for MPs during the Parliament session twice a year. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will also be attending the dinner.
Mrs Gandhi was abroad for some time for a health checkup and she came back after the results of the five Assembly elections were announced, where the Congress got a drubbing in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. After her return, the Congress president has been actively engaging with the party leaders and was also present in the Lok Sabha during the passage of the Finance Bill. She also chaired a few strategy committee meetings of the Congress Parliamentary Party.
After the dismal performance of the grand old party in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand elections, all eyes are now on the Congress President for an organisational rejig of the grand old party. There have been demands from within the Congress that responsibility should be fixed for the poll debacle on all those people actively involved in UP polls.
Sources have also indicated that a reshuffle is on the cards post the Budget session of Parliament. In the meantime, the Congress is also building an Opposition consensus on several issues.
Naidu said NDA allies are committed to working in tandem to win the 2019 elections under Modis leadership.
New Delhi: Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership, 33 ruling NDA constituents, including Shiv Sena, on Monday vowed to contest the 2019 electoral battle under his leadership. The NDA partners also passed a resolution at the meeting, endorsing Modi government policies and identified clean and corruption-free governance provided by the BJP-led dispensation as its biggest achievement. NDA leaders also resolved to strengthen the alliance by expanding its base. However, there was no discussion on the coming presidential election as it was not on the agenda. The meeting was followed by dinner hosted by the Prime Minister.
The dinner diplomacy also saw BJP and its key ally Shiv Sena trying to thrash out differences with president of both outfits Amit Shah and Uddhav Thackeray holding a separate meeting ahead of the main meeting at the Pravasi Bharatiya Bhawan. The relationship between the two has been strained ever since the BJP staked claim for the chief ministers post in Maharashtra, a state where Sena till then was considered as the senior partner.
Amid speculations that the NDA partners would discuss coming presidential and vice-president elections, Union minister Arun Jaitley said that it was not on the agenda. TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, who also briefed the media along with Mr Jaitley, said NDA partners will collectively take a call on the presidential election whenever the issue will be deliberated upon.
The NDA allies also passed a resolution to work together to win a second term under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi in 2019, said Mr Jaitley.
Mr Naidu said NDA allies are committed to working in tandem to win the 2019 elections under Mr Modis leadership.
Mr Shah gave the inaugural address, leaders of other parties including SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal, Mr Naidu, LJPs Ram Vilas Paswan, Mr Thackeray also addressed the gathering. PDP leader and Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti could not attend the meeting and a representative deputised for her.
Air India sources however said the airline was duty-bound to follow the orders of the Government.
New Delhi: Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad whose flight ban was lifted by Air India and private carriers last week was booked to travel on an Air India flight but cancelled his ticket on Sunday evening, choosing instead to reach New Delhi by Rajdhani Express from Mumbai.
Meanwhile, Air India sources said on Monday that the flight ban on Mr Gaikwad was lifted following the direct government order, indicating that the national carrier had no choice but to toe the line. The government is the owner of Air India, commented a source who added however that the airline would not withdraw the FIRs filed against the MP. Sources also said the airline is still contemplating whether to sue the MP for damages.
Last week, on April 7, Air India had announced that it had on the orders of the civil aviation ministry lifted the ban on flying Mr Gaikwad who had allegedly beaten up an airline employee on March 23 after a flight.
The government had advised Air India and other (private) airlines to lift the ban in view of the apology tendered by Mr Gaikwad and the undertaking of good conduct given by him. The Sena MP had sent a letter of regret to the ministry.
Many of the pilots and other employees had been upset over why the airline lifted the ban without the MP directly apologising to the concerned employee or airline. Air India sources however said the airline was duty-bound to follow the orders of the Government.
Air India sources also indicated that the Governments move to draft rules for establishing a National No Fly List to deal with unruly passengers in a more effective manner was the need of the hour and that identification before tickets would probably be carried out either through the Aadhar card or passport.
To address issues around prejudice and discrimination and continuing stigma associated with mental illnes.
If you feel you are having depression, talk to someone you trust or seek professional help. As a family member/friend, let the person in depression be assured that its a illness that is curable. (Photo: Pixabay)
According to latest World Health Organisations (WHO) estimation more than 300 million people are now living with depression. These alarmingly high figures necessitate serious approach towards depression. To address issues around prejudice and discrimination and continuing stigma associated with mental illness, the WHO celebrated the World Health Day on April 7, as the campaign against Depression, Lets Talk. Even in high income countries, 50 per cent people with depression dont receive treatment.Depression is the main cause of ill health and disability. As per WHO, just 3 per cent of Government health budget is invested in mental health, varying from <1 per cent in low-income countries to 5 per cent in high-income countries. Suicide has become second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. Every 40 seconds someone dies of suicide. The goal of this year theme is to remove stigma and prejudice and encourage people to come forward to seek help.
Depression is a disease of brain just like diabetes which is a disease of glucose metabolism. If one cant be oblivious to medicines needed for diabetes, why to shrug off from treatment of depression. Depression is not simply sadness. Sadness is temporary condition but depression is a persistent and pervasive condition. Pervasive sad mood, low energy level and decrease in interest in previously pleasurable activities and inability to carry out daily activities for at least two weeks constitutes depression.
Cultural diversity may influence the presentation of depression. In my clinical practice, I have seen people more comfortable in reporting depressive symptoms physical in nature rather than mental for example, many depressed Indian patients present with persistent tiredness, chronic pain, dizziness, headache. There is a huge denial of psychological symptoms. Feelings of guilt, delusions involving physical health, and religious and physical symptoms without any demonstrable organic cause may be part of depression. Culture may markedly influence the presentation of depression.
Depression is common in middle-aged and elderly but increase incidence is being seen in children and adolescents also. Childs school refusal, somatic complaints like daily stomach pain may be part of underlying depression. In adolescents, depression may have subtle presentation like agitation, irritability, substance/drug abuse and decline in academic performance.
Depression presents subtly in new marriage (more common in women specially married cross cultural patriarchal society) as laziness, tiredness, introversion, decrease in social interaction, irritability, crying spells, anxiety in presence of new relatives and environment, if pervasive in early years of marriage, it may be depression. In new mothers consistently crying, difficulty in bonding with the newborn, disturbed sleep, headache and finding it too tough to take care of newborn and sometimes even thoughts of harming the baby signal depression (post-partum). In elderly with chronic illness like hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and cardiovascular illness there is increased risk of depression or vice versa depression increases the risk of all these chronic diseases. Depression may present in elderly as increasing feeling of loneliness, even in presence of caring family members, chronic pain not having physical causation, feeling of worthlessness, death wishes etc.
Depression can happen even if all things are going right (despite fairly loving spouse, good family and economical conditions). Person showing signs of depression should not be laughed at saying you have worlds best things, people are better off than you. It may put them into more guilt. In a nutshell, depression is not simply sadness. Sadness is transitory but depression is pervasive condition having underlying psychological and physiological presentation having varied presentation influenced by cultural context.
By 2020, depression is projected to be the second- highest cause of years of productive life lost due to disability (DALYS). Rising depression in youth is leading to loss of productivity and is impacting economic growth. Depressive patients have comparatively shorter life span not only because of mental illness but also because of neglect of physical health leading to medical co-morbidities like obesity, poor self-care, nutritional deficiencies, diabetes, hypertensionn and cardiovascular disease.
How sad and prejudiced? We are sensitive to somebody with fever but not with depression. Although stigma towards mental illness is declining theres miles to go.
If you feel you are having depression, talk to someone you trust or seek professional help. As a family member/friend, let the person in depression be assured that its a illness that is curable. You should listen without judgment and not pass comments like you love to be sad, what else do you need in life. Be empathetic and encourage them to seek professional help.
If medication is prescribed, help them to be regular with medication and to have patience for results. Apart from this, patient should be encouraged for regular sleeping, eating pattern, regular exercise, yoga, etc.
Lets talk freely about depression and provide support for people with depression.
Dont deny yourself the needed help.
Tiwari had first met Ms Kaushik during his New Years eve tour of Inderpuri slum in West Delhi.
New Delhi: BJP candidate Sunita Kaushik, who had hosted the partys Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari during his night slum tour, has according to her election affidavit for the upcoming civic polls two houses and jewellery worth Rs 90 lakh.
Mr Tiwari had first met Ms Kaushik during his New Years eve tour of Inderpuri slum in West Delhi. Impressed by her upfront answer, he had ensured that she got ticket from the Inderpuri ward.
I saw pain in her eyes as she told me that politicians do not listen to them, the Delhi BJP president had said about his interaction with her.
In an affidavit submitted to the State Election Commission along with her nomination paper, Ms Kaushik disclosed that she owns two buildings measuring 720 square feet and 553 square feet at Dasghara. Their market prices are Rs 50 lakh and Rs 32 lakh, respectively. Her husband, Shashi Bhushan, also owns property worth Rs 10 lakh. The couple has jewellery and bullions worth Rs 7 lakh. Ms Kaushiks share in it is worth Rs 6 lakh.
The affidavit also revealed that she and her husband have Rs 1,35,000 in cash. But the couple has bank deposits of less than Rs 2,000.
Mr Tiwari had started his series of slum visits after taking charge as the Delhi BJP president. On New Years eve, he had spent time with the residents of Todapur slum in Inderpuri. Ms Kaushik had told Mr Tiwari during an interaction that politicians never listen to poor people, hearing which he had promised a solution to her.
His slum visits, undertaken as a part of his reality check on the development of unauthorised colonies and slums under the AAP government, has led to his partys focus on the residents of these parts of the city in view of the MCD polls on April 23.
Tanzanian national Fatima is in New Delhi, along with her family members, for treatment of a one-and-a-half-year old child.
New Delhi: A Tanzanian woman was allegedly robbed off her bag containing Rs 7 lakh and $6,000 and the passports of her family members in central Delhi's Karol Bagh area.
The incident happened on April 7, the day a German national was robbed and attacked with surgical blades in north Delhi's Kotwali area. The two accused in the German national attack case were arrested on Saturday and the robbed items were recovered.
Tanzanian national Fatima is in New Delhi, along with her family members, for treatment of a one-and-a-half-year old child.
They were supposed to return to Tanzania last week but since the treatment hadn't ended, they had to extend their stay.
The incident took place around 10:53 pm on April 7 when Fatima was returning from the hospital to her hotel on Saraswati Marg in Karol Bagh, police said.
When she reached near China Town Hotel, two persons riding a motorcycle came from behind and snatched her purse containing $6,000, Tanzanian shillings and around Rs 7 lakh in Indian currency, they added.
The bag also had her passport and the passports of three of her family members, said a senior police officer.
The family is stuck here without their passports and money, he said.
Police have recovered CCTV footage from the area, but the registration number of the motorcycle is not visible.
The woman sustained minor injuries during the incident and was taken to Lady Hardinge Hospital from where she was discharged after first-aid, police said.
A single window system is at place at the police headquarters for monitoring and tracking of complaints.
According to the data, around 102 police officials were arrested in 2014 for their alleged involvement in various crimes. (Representational image)
New Delhi: Around 300 Delhi police officials were arrested during the last three years on charges of corruption, crime, domestic violence, and women-related crimes.
According to the data, around 102 police officials were arrested in 2014 for their alleged involvement in various crimes.
In 2015, the figure was 88 and in 2016 the number increased to 97. Till March 15 this year, 13 police officials have been arrested for their misconduct. We have taken action against these officials as per law, said a police official on conditions of anonymity.
A vigilance unit, headed by a special commissioner of police, is functioning to check the corrupt practices of police personnel. Five toll free numbers 23417995, 23416401, 23416402, 23416403, and 23416404 have been dedicated for the convenience of the general public to send complaints regarding corruption in Delhi police, said a senior police official. In order to restore public confidence in police, deterrent action is being taken by the Delhi police in cases where policemen are found involved in malpractices. This includes suspension, transfer to non-sensitive units, initiating disciplinary action for major/ minor penalty including dismissal, and registering criminal cases against them, the official added.
The Delhi police advertises the telephone numbers of district DCPs along with their fax numbers and email addresses.
A single window system is at place at the police headquarters for monitoring and tracking of complaints.
The public has the facility to ring up the senior officers, PCR, and telephone No. 23417995 of the flying squad of the vigilance unit in case of any harassment by police officials.
In addition, a toll free anti-corruption helpline, 1064, is functioning in the vigilance unit since April 2014.
In order to encourage the general public to be more vigilant about the corrupt activities of the police, there is also a facility of P.O. Box No.171 through which the public can send complaints against erring policemen.
A number of steps have been taken recently to encourage members of public to call or send SMS/WhatsApp messages to the anti-corruption helpline (9910641064) of the Delhi police.
Kumar, a resident of Badarpur, approached the Badarpur police after a long wait and registered the complaint.
The complainant, Ravinder Kumar, has levelled charges of cheating against his fellow policeman, Omveer Singh, a head constable attached to the PCR department. (Representational Image)
New Delhi: A police constable was allegedly fooled at the hands of his own counterpart, a head constable with the Delhi police, who promised the victims son a medical seat (MBBS) and duped him to the tune of Rs 8 lakh.
The complainant, Ravinder Kumar, has levelled charges of cheating against his fellow policeman, Omveer Singh, a head constable attached to the PCR department. The latters associate has been identified as Swapnil.
Mr Kumar, a resident of Badarpur, approached the Badarpur police after a long wait and registered the complaint. In his complaint, he alleged that his son, Parag, finished his Class 12 in 2015 and wished to pursue a career in medical. Mr Kumar, who wanted his son to get admission in MBBS, shared his sons plan with Mr Singh who in turn allegedly told the victim that he could help him get his son admitted to the MBBS course as he knew a doctor who had connections with several medical colleges.
He added that a meeting was fixed and Mr Kumar agreed to arrange Rs 8 lakh. He borrowed Rs 2 lakh from his relatives, while for the remaining amount he used his savings and gave it to Mr Singh and his associate, Swapnil. He was told to go to Lucknow where his son would be able to get a seat. Following this, father and son left for Lucknow.
However, Parag didnt get a seat. The duo then told Mr Kumar to not lose heart and asked him to send his son with Swapnil to other cities. Mr Kumar sent his son to Jaipur, Gujarat, and even in Delhi. But to no avail.
After much persuasion when Mr Singh didnt return the money, Mr Kumar warned the former of taking up the matter to the higher-ups. But Mr Singh allegedly threatened him of consequences.
Notwithstanding the threat, Mr Kumar registered an FIR with the Badarpur police station on April 6. A case has been registered and a probe has been initiated in this connection.
The Sena especially patted Adityanath for deciding to write off loans of farmers, a demand which all parties in Maharashtra had raised.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday lavished praises on Yogi Adityanath for taking quick decisions for the people's welfare and asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take lessons from his Uttar Pradesh counterpart.
An editorial in Sena's mouthpiece 'Saamana' said Adityanath proved all his critics wrong and was taking one decision after the other in all seriousness for the welfare of the people.
"He is striving in a commendable way to elevate his state from ruins and he is very serious in his work," it said.
The Sena especially patted Adityanath for deciding to write off loans of farmers, a demand which all parties in Maharashtra had raised.
"If a bit of this seriousness is imbibed by rulers of Maharashtra, they will surely be blessed. Yogi in his first cabinet meet announced a loan waiver for farmers but here the government has only said it would look into the Yogi model and appears to be waiting for debt-burdened farmers to commit suicide," the Sena said.
"Wearing the mask of seriousness without imbibing the qualities is of no use. Those who are in power here should borrow seriousness from Yogi Adityanath," it said.
The Canadian Prime Minister held a session on Quora answering questions but the girl wanted proof
The photo with the reply was voted the second best in his discussion with more than 14,000 people voting and it has now gone viral. (Photo: Quora)
Politicians are closer to people than even before because they are just one tweet or message away on social media and most of them almost always reply to any questions asked. A girl recently wanted proof that Canadian Prime Minister actually hosted a session on Quora and she was left surprised with his response.
According to a media report, Pakistani girl Shamaim Kirmani couldnt believe that Justin Trudeau actually took time out to host the session on Quora and so she tweeted to him asking for proof. The Prime Minister had a really great discussion with every while answering questions about Brexit and his most widely appreciated stand on feminism among other things and it was quite a hit. Trudeau however immediately answered her question by posting a picture of him at his desk discussing issues with people all around the world.
Unsurprisingly, the reply was voted the second best in his discussion with more than 14,000 people voting for it and it has now gone viral. Justin Trudeau seems to be quite a peoples person and no question can deter him from being the cool Prime Minister he is.
There is a lack of tech talent in the US and in the last two decades the whole software ecosystem had moved to countries like India.
Anticipated curbs to the H1B visa policy have been a cause of great concern across IT hubs in the country. The US draws the largest share of local IT exports and issues some 85,000 visas to Indians each year. Industry leaders are attempting to assuage the widespread unease and maintain that the curbs will have a far worse impact on the US ecosystem than that of India, still a provider of high-skilled, affordable labour to a nation that is simply not skill-ready to meet the challenges ahead. Two leading voices from the IT industry say that the downturn, if that, will only be temporary, and that the Indian IT sector will simply bounce back as it has done in the past, stronger than before.
The greatest innovation for the Global IT industry came in the early 90s when Indian IT companies disrupted their traditional onsite model with an innovative and cost-effective Global Delivery Model. The Global delivery model was a huge disruption in a high-cost, talent-starved industry and global corporations quickly latched on to it. The Indian software export industry today is around $ 120 billion in revenues, employing more than 4 million people with a street value of half a trillion dollars.
The IT industry's success story is not a straight line. The Y2K provided a great opportunity for it to penetrate global corporations while expanding its revenue base. The dot com bubble perpetuated by the internet companies impacted its growth but lasted only for short period of time. In the meantime, US went through a couple of recessions with the 2008 financial crisis being the biggest. The industry also overcame several technological shifts by quickly adopting new technologies and retraining its work force. The Indian IT industry used every crisis as an opportunity to re-invent and re-establish itself as a formidable player in the global software space. Today, it is a mighty, dominant force in the global outsourcing industry with more than 60% market share.
The industry is facing several headwinds today, of which some are structural. The whole world is going digital at a rapid pace. Newer technologies like cloud, mobility, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, etc., are redefining how global corporates consume and spend on technologies. While the global corporations still spend a substantial amount of money on legacy software, the incremental shift in spending on new technologies is humongous. This is a structural change and the industry needs to take several steps, both internal and external, to be relevant in the new digital era.
There is also a big shift globally towards protectionism and anti-globalization. The recent elections in Brexit and US reflect those sentiments, which affect the free movement of people across geographies. In an era of high-income disparity, populist governments are focused on creating high paying jobs in their local economies even at the cost of free trade and globalization.
Without doubt, United States is the largest market for Indian IT companies. Three recent developments in that market had increased the uncertainty for Indian IT companies. One, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced stricter measures to detect and avoid visa abuse cases, which include onsite inspections without notice and providing an easier mechanism for employees to file complaints. They also issued a memorandum detailing a merit-based immigration process requiring employer to justify that the application is for specialty occupation, which is a pre-requisite for applying for H-1B visa. The onus is purely on the employer and not on USCIS. Around a dozen pieces of legislations have been introduced in congress to curb the alleged mis-use of the H-1B visa, which has bi-partisan support.
The high decibel US presidential campaign rhetoric on this matter and the fact that the new Attorney General himself is a big critic of H-1B visas adds to the uncertainty. Large customers will try to avoid being a subject matter of President Trumps early morning tweets and could postpone their outsourcing decisions. All these could impact the velocity of business for the IT industry in India. It is not only US; countries like UK and Singapore have recently introduced similar restrictions. Not to be forgotten that UK is the second largest market for Indian IT companies.
Every crisis creates an opportunity to re-invent and succeed. The IT industry had seen several disruptive changes in the past and succeeded. There are several things they can do to come out of the current crisis.
Build a more offshore centric model - There is lack of tech talent in the US and in the last two decades the whole software ecosystem had moved to countries like India. Just like China had become the worlds manufacturing hub, India had become the global services hub for the software industry. It will be highly difficult for US to re-create such an ecosystem in the short term. Dont forget that the unemployment rate in the technology industry in the US is one of the lowest today. Indian IT industry today works on an onsite/offshore ratio of around 30:70. With the technology and tools available today, this ratio can easily move to 10:90. Of course, it will have an impact on the top line but it will result in a healthy bottom line. Also, it will make the model much more competitive and hence could increase the volume of business to Indian companies.
Hire only global talent for global markets - Indian IT industry should hire more local talent in all the markets they operate. All this while, they had chosen the softer option - sending people from India. They should change their hiring and work culture practices to suit a global work force. Even though, they had taken several steps in the past they are still not successful in managing efficiently a global work force.
Focus on automation - Today, automation is a very big theme in the industry. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and bots becoming more mainstream, the industry can move from being a labor intensive to more automated, tech-driven model with lesser people. Most of the services like Maintenance, BPO, etc., are prone to high levels of automation. After all, President Trump can only regulate the number of people entering US but he cannot stop the bots sitting in the cloud helping American corporations.
Build front end consulting and digital businesses aggressively -Today, the CIOs of large corporations are confused with all the noise around digital and its impact on their businesses. While their current systems have lots of legacy software, they dont want to miss the digital future. Indian companies need to build the front end consulting with industry and technology experts who can guide the CIO on disruptions in their industry while at the same time help them adopt the right digital technologies. I think, Accenture is one company, which had got this model right with a healthy mix of consulting, traditional and digital services.
The challenge for large Indian IT companies is to handle this disruption seamlessly while being in the public markets where investors are focused on quarterly growth and profits. They need to accept and acknowledge their transition from a "growth stock" to a "value stock" and return excess cash to shareholders. They need to articulate well the disruption and their strategies to mange it with resultant impact both short term and long term to all stakeholders. They need to re-purpose the work force to be more relevant in the new digital era. They need to focus more on building a global work force with high engagement levels.
Success is the biggest enemy to challenge the status quo and change. There are not many precedents for an industry to disrupt its own successful business model and emerge as winners. If Indian IT companies can pull through this disruptive change they will be a formidable force for many years to come. Looking at their track record there is a high degree of probability that they will succeed.
10 things you didnt know about the h1b visa
U.S authorities have tightened the norms for hiring computer programmers, putting a squeeze on Indian IT companies over the issue of H-1B visas. The Trump administration has issued a stern warning to American firms as they began applying for skilled-worker visas on Monday. Indian IT workers typically snag more than 50 percent of the H-1B visas that are up for grabs, with petitions usually outnumbering the quota available.
1. H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows employers based in the United States to employ foreign workers. This is valid initially for three years and can later be extended up to six. For such a visa, the company concerned must offer a job to an employee and then apply for the H1B visa with the US Immigration Department.
2. Every year, on April 1, US immigration authorities open a fresh cap for H-1B visa applications. Applicants can legally apply for an H-1B visa on the first weekday in April. Allotment is done on a lottery basis.
3. Applications for this years batch of visas opened on April 3, with quotas and allocations for the controversial program essentially unchanged.
4. The US has an annual cap of 85,000 for H-1B visas, including 20,000 for foreign workers with advanced degrees from the US.
5. The H-1B visa application fee, originally, was $325. Another $500 was added as Prevention and Detection Fee and $1,500 per visa application as Employer Sponsorship fee for employers with 26 or more employees.
6. In 2016, there were 236,000 applications for just 65,000 available visas.
7. Although there is no allotment quota for any country, however, a total of 6,800 are usually set aside for Singapore and Chile citizens in keeping with their free trade agreement.
8. Indian IT companies like HCL, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, and L&T Infotech are among the major users of H-1B visas. Big US employers of H-1B include Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, Accenture, Syntel, Apple, etc.
9. The changed visa norms will impact the Indian IT companies in general and computer programmers in particular. The latter will feel the heat first as merely obtaining a computer degree may not be enough to get an H-1B visa.
10. Spouses of US immigrants on H-1B visas could lose their right to work. As per norms, H-1B visa holders can bring immediate spouse and children under 21 to the United States under the H-4 visa category as dependents. This move will affect thousands of Indians who are living there in the US on H-4 visa. Almost 72 percent of all the H1B visas issued by the US worldwide went to Indians. A group called Save Jobs USA filed a lawsuit, which is in a federal appeals court, the Department of Homeland Securitys did not have the authority to create a new employment visa category.
The writer is former CFO, Infosys
MP Amna Nosseir said that wearing the veil is not a requirement of Islam and in fact has non-Islamic origins.
A number of restrictions have been placed on wearing the niqab in Egypt in recent years. (Photo: File)
Cairo: The Egyptian Parliament is drafting a law banning women from wearing the niqab veil.
The ban will apply to wearing the clothing in public places and government institutions, the Independent reported.
MP Amna Nosseir, professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, who has backed the ban, said that wearing the veil is not a requirement of Islam and in fact has non-Islamic origins.
She has argued that it is a Jewish tradition which appeared in the Arabian Peninsula prior to Islam and that a variety of Quran passages contradict its use. Instead, she has advocated that the Quran calls for modest clothing and covered hair, but does not require facial covering.
A number of restrictions have been placed on wearing the niqab in Egypt in recent years.
In February, the Cairo University banned nurses and doctors from wearing it in medical schools and in teaching hospitals, arguing the ban would: "protect patients' rights and interests."
In September last year, the university also banned academic staff from wearing the niqab in classrooms in response to complaints from students that it was too difficult for niqab wearers to communicate effectively with students.
Pope Francis offers prayers for victims after Coptic Christian churches bombed.
At the church in Tanta, icons of Christ and St George looked down on a tangle of destroyed pews and congealing blood on the floor tiles. (Photo: AP)
Tanta: Coptic Christian worshippers in Egypt spoke of horrific scenes on Sunday after a bomb ripped through their church during a service, mangling bodies and destroying pews. There was a violent explosion near the altar, Edmon Edward told AFP. Suddenly everything became black, people flew over each other, he said.
He had been attending Palm Sunday mass at the Mar Girgis church in Tanta with his brother Emil, who stood with a white bandage wrapped around his head, when the attack claimed by the Islamic State group happened.
The explosion killed at least 27 people, and was followed hours later by a second bombing at a church in Alexandria, which killed 17 totalling 44. Pope Francis, who is due to visit Cairo on April 28-29, offered prayers for the victims. Let us pray for the victims of the attack unfortunately carried out today, he said.
At the church in Tanta, icons of Christ and St George looked down on a tangle of destroyed pews and congealing blood on the floor tiles.
I head the blast, and then I saw a woman run barefoot with her face oozing blood, said a taxi driver who asked not to be identified.
In hospital, a wounded witness told state television: I just felt fire grabbing my face. I pushed my brother who was sitting next to me and then I heard people saying: explosion. Nabil Nader, 65, who lives opposite the church, spoke of the attacks aftermath and said the first three rows of pews in the church were destroyed.
I heard the blast and came running. I found people torn up... some people, only half of their bodies remained, he said. The father of a friend of my son was in the front row, he said, his voice breaking with anguish. We found only his shoe.
Nearby, a man held up a burned prayer book and a traditional braided palm-leaf crucifix, stained with blood. They came to pray and they died, he said.
Police sirens wailed incessantly around the city as ambulances ferried victims to hospital. Police cordoned off the church, but residents who gathered nearby were unable to hide their anger.
Despite the presence of metal detectors, the bomber was apparently able to enter the building without any hindrance. How was the bomb able to enter, while police were outside the church, asked Nagat Assaad, holding back tears.
Egypts Copts, who have suffered repeated deadly jihadist attacks, say they feel abandoned and discriminated against by the authorities in the predominantly Muslim country. But despite their fears, the Christians of Tanta said they are determined to defend their faith.
Were Christian and we will stay Christian, one woman said in a defiant tone. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered military deployments to protect vital and important infrastructure.
H.R. McMaster suggested that Trump was seeking a global political response for regime change from US allies as well as Russia.
McMaster indicated that the United States was not seeking to act unilaterally to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. (Photo: AP)
Washington: President Donald Trump's national security adviser on Sunday left open the possibility of additional US military action against Syria following last week's missile strike but indicated that the United States was not seeking to act unilaterally to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In his first televised interview, HR McMaster pointed to dual US goals of defeating the Islamic State group and removing Assad. But he suggested that Trump was seeking a global political response to regime change from US allies as well as Russia, which he said needed to reevaluate its support of Syria.
"It's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime," McMaster said. "Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves, why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?"
After last Tuesday's chemical attack in Syria, Trump said his attitude toward Assad "has changed very much" and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organise a coalition to remove him from power.
But as lawmakers called on Trump to consult with Congress on any future military strikes and a longer-term strategy on Syria, Trump administration officials sent mixed signals on the scope of US involvement.
While Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, described regime change in Syria as a US priority and inevitable, Tillerson suggested that last week's American air strikes in retaliation for the chemical attack hadn't really changed US priorities toward ousting Assad.
Pressed to clarify, McMaster said the goals of fighting IS and ousting Syria's president were somewhat "simultaneous" and that the objective of the missile strike was to send a "strong political message to Assad." He did not rule out additional strikes if Assad continued to engage in atrocities against rebel forces with either chemical or conventional weapons.
"We are prepared to do more," he said. "The president will make whatever decision he thinks is in the best interest of the American people."
Reluctant to put significant troops on the ground in Syria, the US for years has struggled to prevent Assad from strengthening his hold on power.
US-backed rebels groups have long pleaded for more US intervention and complained that Washington has only fought the Islamic State group.
So Trump's decision to launch the strikes - which President Barack Obama declined to do after a 2013 chemical attack - has raised optimism among rebels that Trump will more directly confront Assad.
Several lawmakers said on Sunday that decision shouldn't entirely be up to Trump.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the no. 2 Republican in the Senate, praised Trump's initial missile strike for sending a message to Assad, Russia, Iran and North Korea that "there's a new administration in charge." But he said Trump now needed to work with Congress to set a future course.
"Congress needs to work with the president to try and deal with this long-term strategy, lack of strategy, really, in Syria," he said. "We haven't had one for six years during the Obama administration, and 400,000 civilians have died and millions of people have been displaced internally and externally in Europe and elsewhere."
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed. "What we saw was a reaction to the use of chemical weapons, something I think many of us supported," he said. "But what we did not see is a coherent policy on how we're going to deal with the civil war and also deal with ISIS."
Still, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he believed that Trump didn't need to consult with Congress.
"I think the president has authorisation to use force," he said. "Assad signed the chemical weapons treaty ban. There's an agreement with him not to use chemical weapons."
Their comments came as Tillerson was making the Trump administration's first official trip this week to Russia, a staunch Assad ally.
In interviews broadcast Sunday, Tillerson said defeating the Islamic State group remains the top focus. Once that threat "has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria," he said.
"We're hopeful that we can prevent a continuation of the civil war and that we can bring the parties to the table to begin the process of political discussions" between the Assad government and various rebel groups.
The hope, he said, is that "we can navigate a political outcome in which the Syrian people, in fact, will determine Bashar al-Assad's fate and his legitimacy."
Haley said "getting Assad out is not the only priority" and that countering Iran's influence in Syria was another. Still, Haley said the US didn't see a peaceful future Syria with Assad in power.
McMaster, Cornyn and Cardin spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Tillerson appeared on ABC's "This Week" and CBS' "Face the Nation," Haley and Graham were on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Haley also appeared on CNN's "State of the Union."
Haley, Tillerson say will work to stabilise country.
Smoke billows from a rebel-held area in Daraa, Syria, following a strike by Syrian Air Force bombers on Sunday. (Photo: AFP)
Beirut: Washingtons UN ambassador said that Syrias President Bashar al-Assad cannot stay in power after a suspected chemical attack that prompted the first direct US military action against his government.
Nikki Haleys comments in an interview airing Sunday came as part of an apparent shift in US policy towards Mr Assads government after the alleged chemical attack last week on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun that killed 87 people, including many children.
In the interview with CNN, Ms Haley said peace in Syria was impossible with Mr Assad in power.
Theres not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime, she told the State of the Union programme. If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, its going to be hard to see a government thats peaceful and stable with Assad.
Regime change is something that we think is going to happen, she said, adding that Washington was also focused on fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and ending Iranian influence.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson insisted, however, that defeating ISIS in Syria remained Washingtons top priority.
Its important that we keep our priorities straight. And we believe that the first priority is the defeat of ISIS, Mr Tillerson said in an interview with CBS televisions Face the Nation later Sunday.
Once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilising the situation in Syria, he said.
After years of calling for Mr Assads removal during former president Barack Obamas tenure, Washington appeared to be stepping back from seeking regime change in Syria in recent weeks.
Prior to the attack in Khan Sheikhun, Mr Tillerson said Mr Assads fate should be decided by the Syrian people, suggesting Washington would not oppose him standing for re-election.
And Ms Haley too said Washingtons priority was no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out.
Syrias government has denied any involvement in Tuesdays attack on Khan Sheikhun, suspected to be the second-deadliest chemical weapons attack since the countrys war began in March 2011.
It killed at least 87 civilians, including 31 children.
The vehicle mowed down shoppers before slamming into the facade of the busy Ahlens department store.
Stockholm: The suspected Stockholm truck attacker had shown interest in extremist groups and was facing deportation after being refused residency, Swedish police said on Sunday.
A second suspect has been formally placed under arrest in connection with the attack that killed four people and injured 15 others, the Stockholm district court said on Sunday.
The news came as thousands of people gathered under sunny spring skies amid a sea of flowers and candles to honour the dead and to stand against terrorism.
The first suspect, identified only as a 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan who was arrested hours after Fridays attack, is suspected of having sped a stolen beer truck several hundred metres down the bustling pedestrian street Drottninggatan in the heart of Stockholm.
The vehicle mowed down shoppers before slamming into the facade of the busy Ahlens department store.
The motive for the attack was not known, but the method resembled previous attacks using vehicles in Nice, Berlin and London, all of them claimed by the Islamic State group. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the Stockholm attack the third in Europe in two weeks, after a car and knife assault outside Londons parliament and the Saint Petersburg metro bombing.
The 39-year-old suspect in the Stockholm attack showed interest for extremist organisations like ISIS, police chief Jonas Hysing told reporters.
Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said meanwhile that the second suspect was arrested on suspicion of a terrorist crime (by committing) murder, the same accusation as against the first suspect. No other details about the person were disclosed. The family of an 11-year-old Swedish girl confirmed she was one of the four people killed in the attack.
The Foreign Office in London said Swedish police had confirmed to them that a British man was among the dead, while the Belgian foreign ministry said a Belgian woman had been killed.
The fourth victim was only known to be a Swedish national. Fifteen people were injured, four of whom were in critical condition.
Rex Tillerson declares that the United States needs to stand up to aggressors who harm civilians.
Italys Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano (left) welcomes US secretary of state Rex Tillerson for a meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised countries in Lucca, Tuscany on Monday. (Photo: AFP)
Santanna Di Stazzema (Italy): United States secretary of state Rex Tillerson used a visit on Monday to a World War II memorial to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians, as the Trump administration sought to rally world leaders behind a strategy to resolve the protracted civil war in Syria.
Opening his visit to Italy, Mr Tillerson traveled up a winding mountain road to SantAnna di Stazzema, the Tuscan village where the Nazis massacred more than 500 civilians during World War II.
As he laid a wreath at the site, Mr Tillerson alluded to the chemical attack in Syria last week that triggered retaliatory United States airstrikes.
We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world, Mr Tillerson said. This place will serve as an inspiration to us all.
Mr Tillersons visit to Europe has been overshadowed from the start by President Donald Trumps decision to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons by launching cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.
The US military action has renewed the worlds focus on Mr Assads fate and on Syrias civil war, now in its seventh year.
The top American diplomat plans to use his meetings with foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialised economies normally a venue for wonky economic discussions to try to persuade leading countries to support the US plan.
The centrepiece of that diplomacy will come Tuesday morning when Mr Tillerson takes part in a meeting of likeminded nations on Syria,
including several Arab nations invited to attend.
The Trump administration is hoping that after defeating the Islamic State group in Syria, it can restore stability by securing local cease-fires between Mr Assads government and opposition groups that allow local leaders who have fled to return and by restoring basic services.
The next step would be to use UN talks to negotiate a political transition that could include Mr Assad leaving power.
From Italy, Mr Tillerson will travel to Moscow, becoming the first Trump administration official to visit Russia.
That trip, too, is fraught with tension over Syria: Mr Tillerson has blamed Russia, Mr Assads strongest ally, of either complicity or incompetence for allowing Mr Assad to possess and use chemical weapons.
During his first day in Italy, Mr Tillerson plans to meet on Monday with foreign ministers from the UK and France before the G-7 summit formally opens.
Two of the three deceased people have been identified but the third persons identity is yet to be confirmed.
The three were killed on the spot on Sunday when the truck, en route to Hetauda from Narayanghat in Chitwan district, struck the car with an Indian registration number plate. (Photo: Representational/DC)
Kathmandu: At least three Indians were killed on the spot and another person was critically injured when a truck rammed their car at a highway in southwest Nepal.
The three were killed on the spot on Sunday when the truck, en route to Hetauda from Narayanghat in Chitwan district struck the car with an Indian registration number plate, according to District Police Office, Makawanpur.
Two of the deceased have been identified as Nitesh Kumar Singh, 39 and Sanjaya Kuma Sharma, 45 of Sitamari, India. The identity of another man is yet to be ascertained.
Ram Kumar Sharma, who sustained injuries in the accident, is undergoing treatment at a medical college in Chitwan. His condition is said to be critical. The police have detained the truck driver and seized the vehicle.
He has confessed before court he was tasked by RAW to plan and organise espionage against Pakistan, a Pak army statement said.
New Delhi: India on Monday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche against Pakistani military court for awarding death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
Also read: Pak sentenced death to Jadhav because he was Indian: Sarabjit Singh's sister
"The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of the evidence," an official release stated.
"The claim in the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances," it added.
The Ministry said the Indian Government, through its High Commission in Islamabad, repeatedly sought consular access to Jadhav, as provided for by the international law.
"Requests to that effect were formally made 13 times between March 25, 2016 and March 31, 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," it read.
Earlier, Jadhav was given the death sentence by the Pakistan Military, ISPR, Pakistan said in a statement.
Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016 through an operation in Balochistan's Mashkel area for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, the ISPR said.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Jadhav was "tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923," ISPR said.
The accused had been "provided with a defending officer as per legal provisions," the ISPR said.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
The accused, used to run a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar. He was seen in a video confessing that he was an official of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.
by Bernardo Cervellera
Rome (AsiaNews) - In the aftermath of bloody Palm Sunday in Egypt, several comments are being modeled on fashionable cliches: there is an open conflict of civilizations, an ongoing religious war between Muslims and Christians.
These interpretations may have some truth. Not a day goes by without news of some Islamic communities resistance even by means of force - to the modernization brought by the Western world from how people dress, or use their time, to ways of educating. And not a day goes by - and this has been the case for years in Egypt without Christians being killed at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who dismiss these faithful as "unbelievers" and therefore only worthy to be either converted or eliminated. Throwing gasoline on the fire, Daesh (the Islamic State) has long decreed the eradication of Christians from the Middle East because of their "polluting" power on Arab culture.
But it is a giant step, and a wrong one, to go from here to urgently demanding a new crusade. First, because there are often also Muslim victims in the attacks against Christians. And many of the people who rushed to donate blood yesterday to save the lives of the wounded in the two attacks on the churches of Tanta and Alexandria were also Muslims. Above all, it fails to take into account that Daesh is not just targeting Christians, but their successful coexistence with Muslims. Former General al-Sisi has been pressing for an Egyptian society where Christians and Muslims have the same rights and duties; where the procedures to build churches and mosques are the same; where there are the same career opportunities in society and in the army for the faithful of the two religions. Al-Sisis success in this field would be a revolution in the Arab world, given the importance of Egypt, from the numerical and cultural point of view.
Al-Sisis influence is such that even the Al Azhar University, often divided between modernity and dependence on Saudi funding, is moving to condemn the literalist interpretation of the Koran, at the root of Daesh and Saudi Wahhabism.
The cliche we have mentioned, if they have any truth at all, take no account of the many positive movements in the Islamic and Middle Eastern world. But above all they conceal one fact: the responsibility of the Western world. Condemning Daesh, condemning fundamentalist Islam is not the whole truth. Yesterday at the Angelus Pope Francis, on receiving the news of the attack on the church of Tanta, expressed his "deepest condolences" to his "dear brother, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic Church and to all the dear Egyptian nation" and added "the Lord turn the hearts of the people who are sowing terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who do and are trafficking weapons."
If we do not want to manipulate the pope's words, then we must remember that the Western world is trying to rehabilitate its creaking economy through arms sales to those very countries that in one way or another are responsible for the massacre of Christians.
According to data of the 2016 SIPRI report (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), to date the largest arms exporters are the United States, Russia, China, France and Germany. They represent 74% of the total volume of exports in the world. At least half of their armaments were destined for the Middle East. In 2015, Saudi Arabia saw an increase of 275% on imports of weapons compared to 2006-2010; Qatar, an increase of 279%. Both of these two countries - along with others - are known for their support for the "rebellion" against Assad as well as al Qaeda and Daesh.
Therefore the West is also responsible for the killings of Christians and its scandal at all that Daesh does is somewhat farcical if it fails to support the cultural and social dialogue between Christians and Muslims and curb the arms race in the Middle Orient.
Many experts and opinionists continue to quote Benedict XVIs Regensburg address, when the Pope suggested to the Islamic world to contend with reason and violence. But they forget that most of that speech was addressed to the West which in despising religious reasoning, has been locked up in a materialistic model, where only numbers and money count. Even those of weapons.
by Mathias Hariyadi
More and more initiatives are getting underway with the enthusiastic participation of the faithful. Churches fill up. Eager volunteers perform various tasks. Parishioners take part in liturgical and practical activities.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) For Indonesias Catholic community, Holy Week is a time that creates a supportive atmosphere to which the faithful participate with great enthusiasm. In such an important moment of the liturgical year, they eagerly take part in the many initiatives organised for the occasion.
Across the country, horseback parades proved a great hit among the faithful in this years Palm Sunday. In Yogyakarta (Central Java), Fr Bintoro, an Air Force chaplain, rode his horse alongside many local Catholics. Fr Rochadi, parish priest at St John Vianney Church in Cilangkap, got all his parishioners involved in a similar special "performance".
As usual, churches fill up at this time of the year. This means throngs of people coming and going. To ease the traffic, parking is crucial. Given the limits of public transport in Jakarta, as in other parts of the country, people are forced to travel by their own means.
Thus, hundreds of noisy cars and motorcycles can be found parked next to churches. Not all of them can be accommodated. Volunteers help out, often with great difficulty, to avoid chaotic traffic jams and prevent people from becoming a nuisance for their non-Christian neighbours.
During Holy Week, the number of Masses is reduced to two or three a day. Crucially, parishioners volunteer their help as people arrive early to church, sometimes hours before the service.
For worshippers, holding on to their seat becomes imperative since Masses can last up to two or three hours. To this end, some people organise seat arrangements.
The life of Indonesian Catholics is vibrant and dynamic. In the Archdiocese of Jakarta, many parishioners contribute joyfully to services by helping priests in the liturgy as well as in the practical aspects of community life.
For the liturgy, enthusiastic volunteers are given different tasks. Some prepare floral arrangements or collect offerings; others are in charge of security or liturgical protocols.
Srinagar (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least eight people are dead and 200 injured in the latest round for clashes between separatists and security forces in Kashmir. The violence took place yesterday, along with an extraordinary election to assign a vacant state Assembly seat. The first consequence of the violence was a very low turnout, with a percentage that stopped at 7.14%. The authorities have also suspended the internet communication services until April 12, while the protesters have decided to continue the boycott until tomorrow.
Residents in the Indian state were called to elect the substitute for Tariq Hameed Karra, from Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who resigned last year in disagreement with the ongoing protests in the country. Fayaz Ahmad, one of the protesters, said: "How can the political parties expect that we go to the polls, when only a few months ago several young men were killed in our village?".
Another added: "The boycott sends a clear message to politicians without ethics. In the last elections, the PDP got votes with the promise to keep away from politics of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), but now they have coalesced. Other parties have made the same mistakes in the past. They want to make fun of ordinary people ".
The separatists took to the streets in the three districts involved in the voting process - Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal - and called on the population to boycott the polls. As a form of protest they threw rocks and other material against the police. The officers responded by opening fire. Shantmanu, election bureau chief of Jammu and Kashmir, reports that there were "more than 200 incidents of violence, especially in the Budgam District. The protesters threw rocks, paper bombs, set vehicles on fire at the polling stations, and tried to set fire even two voting booths. It is not a good day for all of us."
The chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has expressed grief over the fact that most of the victims are teenagers. In recent months, many young people have participated in clashes with police and government forces following the killing of the famous militant separatist Burhan Wani. There have been many calls for peace and peaceful coexistence, especially from the Indian Catholic Church. Kashmir has been disputed by India and Pakistan since their separation in 1947. The toll of the last wave of violence is dramatic: more than 90 deaths and over 12 thousand injured, including many children.
For the pontiff, "people, and sometimes even those who represent and govern them" cannot fully realise the seriousness of the emerging challenges. When the interplay between technological and economic power becomes close, interests can affect lifestyles and social orientations to the benefit of come industrial and business groups.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) Pope Francis spoke today to members of the National Committee for Biosafety, Biotechnology and Life Sciences at an audience in the Vatican on the latters 25 anniversary.
In his address, the pontiff warned scientists and experts about the huge and growing power technology puts in human hands, which carries a double risk, namely that people and sometimes rulers do not to appreciate fully the seriousness of the emerging challenges and that ties to powerful economic groups can affect social orientations and hurt poor countries.
Citing the book of Genesis, the Holy Father noted that God entrusted us with the task of "cultivating" and "safeguarding" creation. "Your task, he stressed, is not only to promote the harmonious and integrated development of scientific and technological research that relates to the biological processes of plant, animal and human life. You are also asked to predict and prevent the negative consequences that a distorted use of science and technology can result in when they are used to manipulate life.
"Scientists and technologists are called upon to 'know' and to 'know how to do' with increasing precision and creativity in his or her field of expertise, whilst, at the same time, making responsible decisions on the steps to take and those before which to stop in order to take a different path.
The principle of accountability is an essential cornerstone of human action. We must answer for our actions and omissions to ourselves, to others and ultimately to God. Technology, even more than science, puts in human hands a huge and growing power.
A grave risk is that people, and at times even those who represent and govern them, are not fully aware of the seriousness of the emerging challenges, of the complexities of the problems to be solved, and are in danger of misusing the power that sciences and biotechnologies put in their hands (see Romano Guardini, La fine dellepoca moderna, Brescia 1987, pp. 80-81).
When the interplay between technological and economic power becomes close, interests can affect lifestyles and social orientations to the benefit of certain industrial and business groups, to the detriment of the poorest people and nations.
It is not easy to reach a harmonious composition of the different scientific, productive, ethical, social, economic and political realities to promote a sustainable development that respects our common home. Such harmonious composition requires humility, courage and openness for an exchange between the various positions, in the certainty that the testimony given by men and women of science to the truth and the common good contributes to the progress of social conscience."
"In concluding this reflection, let me remind you that the science and technology are made for human beings and the world, not human beings and the world for science and technology. May they be put in the service of a dignified and healthy life for everyone, now and in the future; may they help make our common home more livable and supportive, more cared for and safe-guarded."
by Wang Zhicheng
After being detained at the Religious Affairs Office in Fuan, he was taken to an undisclosed location "to study and learn." Catholics believe that he will be pressured into joining the Patriotic Association. His refusal will likely mean that he wont be allowed back to his diocese.
Mindong (AsiaNews) Mgr Vincent Guo Xijin, underground bishop of Mindong, has been missing for four days after he went to Religious Affairs Office in Fuan on 6 April.
Although not recognised by the government, Mgr Guo is the ordinary bishop of the diocese following the death of his predecessor, Mgr Huang Shoucheng on 30 July 2016.
Reacting to concerns expressed by Catholics who do not know where their missing leader is, the head of Public Security in Ningde said that the bishop "needs to study and learn" and will remain in custody for 20 days for this purpose.
This has not allayed local concerns. For one, this means that the bishop will not be able to celebrate all the rituals of Holy Week and Easter. More importantly, Public Security has not said where the bishop is "studying" so it is unlikely to anyone will be allowed to contact him.
In the diocese, the prevailing view is that the bishop is being brainwashed to get him to join and submit to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).
Membership in the diocese of Mindong is mostly underground Catholics, more than 80,000 out of 90,000, highly organised and capable, with more than 45 priests, 200 nuns, 300 consecrated lay women and hundreds of lay catechists.
The underground bishop is well liked and in good terms with all the faithful, even those in the official Church. For the CPCA, this is humiliating since the Holy See, after the death of Mgr Huang, confirmed Mgr Guo as his successor in the post of ordinary bishop.
According to some local priests, the CPCA is seeking confrontation with the underground community. Two years ago, police in Fuan demolished an unofficial church under construction, but in view of the underground communitys size, it always left them alone without causing too many problems.
"It is impossible for the bishop to join the CPCA. He will never do it," one priest said. However, this will likely mean that he will not come back to head the diocese. For this reason, Catholics in Mindong are asking Christians to pray for Mgr Guo.
Mgr Vincent Guo Xijin, 59, was ordained coadjutor bishop of Mindong on 28 December 2008.
He became a priest in 1984. He taught in seminaries and served as the dioceses economic administrator. However, his most important work was to sustain and encourage men and women in their respective religious vocations. He equally encouraged his young seminarians to study in public universities and colleges.
As unofficial priest, he spent time in prison in 1990-92, 1993-'94, and 1996. In the late 1990s, he was briefly appointed as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Wenzhou.
by Nirmala Carvalho
Varanasi (AsiaNews) - In Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, the entire Christian community celebrated Palm Sunday, but instead of the classic palm branches, Christians have raised hyacinth plants, taken from two main tributaries of the Ganges that bathe the city, sacred for the Hindu religion.
In view of the celebrations, the Vishwa Jyoti Communications, the information center of the Indian Missionary Society, brought together activists from all religions. They pledged to clean the rivers from Kandwa hyacinth branches that grow there and impede the normal flow of the Varuna and Asi rivers, the two rivers that give the city its name.
The waters of both rivers are polluted with weeds, as well as waste. Thus Fr. Anand ims and Fr. Praveen Joshi ims gave birth to a group of people attentive to the care of the environment and of the territory which organized a special "rejuvenation" campaign for the rivers.
The goal of the organizers, the two priests refer to AsiaNews, "it is to attract the attention of the public about the deplorable conditions of these waterways." Thanks to the continuous persuasion by Vishwa Jyoti Communications, over the years the state governments had adopted the protection of water and its peoples that inhabit the banks to some extent.
But now, with the change of state administration [passed into BJP hands, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, in the recent elections in mid-March - ed], their work has undergone an abrupt halt. The priests report that the activists - under the slogan "Sajha Sanskriti Manch" (joined Forum for Cultural Diversity) - have decided to carry on the work of purification of rivers, despite receiving threats. The clean-up campaign, conclude the priests, "faces the opposition of the upper castes, which have flooded the riverbanks and built large villas in an illegal manner."
by Kamel Abderrahmani
Yesterday was Black Sunday for Christians around the world. Since 2013 more than 40 Egyptian churches have been torched or damaged. Muhammad signed a pact with the Christians, the pledge of St Catherine. What happened in Egypt against Copts is purely ideological and political. Saudi Arabia has plans for the region.
Paris (AsiaNews) After a series of attacks on Muslim places of worship in Pakistan, obscurantist forces attacked Coptic churches in Egypt yesterday morning, Palm Sunday. The death toll is heavy: 43 dead. But this is not the final count since many of the wounded remain in critical conditions.
For Christians around the world, this was Black Sunday. It was also as much for Egyptian Muslims and the rest of the world, for all those who still believe that religion is not an instrument of war or an ideology that seeks to destroy humanity.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for these latest attacks. On several occasions, it threatened to exterminate the Copts of Egypt and purify the country of infidels. Indeed, these are not the first attacks by Islamist barbarians, but they intensified especially after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. According to Human Rights Watch, since 2013 more than 40 churches have been torched or damaged, as well as dozens of Coptic schools, houses and shops.
Copts have been present in Egypt since the dawn of Christianity, a time when Egypt was part of the Roman Empire and eventually the Byzantine Empire. In other words, their presence is older than that of Muslims.
As a Muslim, I must say that no one can justify these attacks on our Coptic brothers. Theologically speaking, there is no truly Quranic or traditional text that calls for violence against them. On the contrary, Prophet Muhammad himself signed a pact with the Copts of Egypt. This is called the Pledge of Saint Catherine (*):
This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them.
Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).
The first and last sentences in this document are very important. They have an eternal and universal dimension. Muhammad said that Muslims should stand by Christians, near and far, rendering moot any attempt to limit the Pledge to the St Catherine Monastery. What is more, by ordering Muslims to respect the Covenant until the day of judgment, any future attempt to revoke these rights is null and void. In short, they are inalienable.
What happened in Egypt against our Coptic brothers is purely ideological and political. Al-Sisis visit to the United States and the agreement with President Trump renewing military co-operation between the two countries against religious fundamentalism are cause of concern for Saudi Arabia and especially a threat to its influence in the region. Lest we forget, there is Pope Francis upcoming visit to Egypt. The pontiff is known for his message of peace and brotherhood between Muslims and Christians.
Saudi Arabia, through its "blessed" son Daesh, appears to be sending a clear message to President al-Sisi. Its goal is to keep Egypt economically, ideologically and theologically under its tutelage; failing this, it appears willing to trigger a civil war between Copts and Muslims.
(*) The document with Muhammad's pledge was kept in the library of St Catherine monastery (Sinai). When the Ottomans conquered Egypt in 1517, Ottoman soldiers took the original document to Sultan Selim I in Istanbul. The original letter is now in the Topkapi Museum, Istanbul. Some Islamic experts examined the text and attest to its historical authenticity. Other scholars say it is a fake, although it reflects the relationship between Christians and Muslims at St Catherine Monastery at the time.
McDonalds trials unique recruiting process
McDonalds Australia is using a unique social media process in order to recruit people to work in its stores.
Late last week, McDonalds launched a feature on social media platform, Snapchat, which allows for potential employees to record a 10 second video explaining why they would be a good team member.
The video is then sent to McDonalds and the applicant is provided links to start a more formal application process. The video includes a filter that places a virtual McDonalds uniform on the person in the video.
Snapchat has over 4 million daily users, with approximately 60 per cent of users aged 18-34 years. McDonalds is the largest employer of millennials in Australia.
Director of Digital at McDonalds Australia, Mark Wheeler, said McDonalds is constantly evolving its approach to digital technology, for both customers and employees.
Our priority is on delivering more easy and enjoyable ways for people to interact with us so it made sense to engage with young people on a platform we know that are on, he said.
The recruitment campaign also includes a series of Snapchat ads promoting McDonalds as an employer.
The Sydney arm of global marketing and advertising agency, VML, helped create the campaign.
McDonalds employees over 100, 000 people across Australia. It creates more than 6, 000 new jobs a year.
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More people are moving to live and work in Australia with the country seeing its fastest growth in net overseas migration (NOM) in four years, according to the latest official figures.The data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that in the 12 months to the end of September 2016 the numbers increased by almost 9% year on year, adding 193,200 to the populationABS demography director Beidar Cho pointed out that this is in contrast to the declines of NOM of over 10% recorded during 2014 and early 2015. But the current growth of NOM is well short of the record during 2009 when over 300,000 people were added to the population.Compared with last year, Queensland had the fastest growing NOM, up 19%. New South Wales and Victoria are also popular destinations for newcomers up 11% and 13% respectively, while in Tasmania the numbers were up by 9%.Overall, Australia's population grew by 348,700 people to reach 24.2 million by the end of September 2016 and net overseas migration accounted for 55% of this while natural increase contributed 155,500 additional people.Over the year, net overseas migration was the major contributor to population change in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, whilst natural increase was the major contributor in all other states and territories.The data also shows that more people left than arrived in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory, while the opposite occurred in Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.Recent figures from United Nations put Australian cities at the top in terms of population growth with the projections indicating a 127% rise in population in Perth, 81% rise in Brisbane, 69% growth in Melbourne and 56% in Sydney by the middle of the 2050s.This would mean another three million residents in both Sydney and Melbourne and two million in Brisbane and Perth.According to adjunct professor Brian Salt of Curtin Business School at some point in the 21st century Sydney is likely to see its population surpass eight million. He pointed out that cities need to plan for this kind of growth.'Australia is a young and vital nation with cities and regions still underdeveloped in comparison other nations. We will proudly remain an inclusive and generous immigrant nation for generations to come,' he said.'This growth will be a source of prosperity and diversity in the future as it has been in the past. There may be times when we need to moderate flows or to direct immigration into those parts of the nation where skills and labour are most needed,' he added.Geordan Murray, an economist with the Housing Industry Association, explained that housing needs should be addressed at a time when house prices are rising strongly in Sydney and Melbourne. 'As the age profile of Australia's population becomes increasingly skewed towards older age groups, population growth and migration will become ever more important in ensuring Australia has a workforce capable of maintaining the nation's ongoing economic prosperity. It is important that policy makers today are planning for this future,' he added.
Facebook video
When the crew of a full United flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, couldnt find any volunteers to give up their seats to accommodate the last-minute travel needs of company employees on Sunday, four random passengers were taken off the airplane by three uniformed officers and one man was dragged down the aisle on his back, with his glasses knocked askew, blood on his face and a horrified expression. The incidents were recorded by other passengers on their cellphones, creating a PR nightmare for the airline. Oh my god! one passenger says, as the man is dragged past her seat. Look what you did to him!
The incident began when an airline supervisor walked onto the plane and brusquely announced: We have United employees that need to fly to Louisville tonight. This flights not leaving until four people get off, according to The Washington Post. That rubbed some people the wrong way, said passenger Tyler Bridges. When no volunteers were forthcoming, despite incentives offered, the officers began to tell people to leave. The first two, a young couple, complied. But the next man said he wouldnt go because he was a doctor and had patients to see in the morning. He was dragged down the aisle. United officials refused to answer any questions about the incident, according to the Post. United CEO Oscar Munoz did release a brief statement on Monday, saying in part, I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. Heres one of the passenger videos.
When I was pulling out of Sun n Fun late in the week, I had one thought only: I wish I had gone to Aero instead. Because the two shows ran concurrently for the first time in my recent memory, I decided if there was a must-do show for us to cover with our limited resources, it would be Sun n Fun.
Wrong decision. As youve read from our at-a-distance coverage, thanks to our friends at the UK Flyer magazine, Aero yielded more interesting news and developments. During the past five years, I would say more companies are now considering Aero the critical show and that shows modest growth has reflected that. Cessna and Cirrus both had minimal presence at Sun n Fun, but made a greater effort at Aero. Attendance was up at Aero by 11 percent over 2016, but 2016 had been down by 9 percent over 2015. Make of that what you will.
For us, these shows operate at two levels. Theres the obvious: the big announcements, the trial balloons and the press conferences. And the not-so-obvious undercurrent of buzz, the background interviews and invitations to visit factories. That happens at Sun n Fun, but the energy level is just lower. By now, some companies are just faxing it in. For example, Cessna had its aircraft on display, but no one to do an on-camera interview.
This makes news coverage a challenge because, frankly, theres just not much of it. This year, Daher and Mooney had announcements and so did Garmin, but none of these were a surprise in the way that Diamonds announcements at Aero were. This is, in my view, directly reflective of a moribund market. Were getting used to visiting the patient in the ICU.
For news coverage, theres good and bad to this. Because AVwebs daily coverage is a voracious pit of content, we have to hustle to find stories worthy of publication. The plus side of this is we dig around and find second-tier stories that wouldnt get covered at all in a busier year. One of these is my interview with Avidynes Dan Schwinnabout the companys emerging focus on connectivity. This is likely to be the next big trend and will get light aircraft on the same connectivity footing as cars are now. Youd think we would and should be ahead of the cars, right? You know why we arent, but we do have a lot of cool glass displays blasting more data into our eyeballs than any normal brain can process.
I have observed that despite this focus on Europes Aero and the glimmer of hope for the Asian market, every sales executive or CEO says the same thing: Most of their sales are in North America. Vivek Saxena of Mooney said this and so did Dahers Nic Chabbert. According to GAMA, 70 percent of piston shipments were to North America in 2016, while 10 percent each went to Europe and Asia. The same relative ratios hold true for turboprops and business jets, although the jets are a little stronger in Europe than pistons are. It seems to me that these ratios would support a bigger presence at Sun n Fun, but these companies dont seem to see it that way. AirVenture is another matter.
Yet, the development goes on in Europe. Heres a fun fact. In the five years since Cessna announced the now-stalled SR-305 diesel for the 182, Diamond has certified a new twin and sold almost 100 examples and it just announced three new single-engine airplanes. Care to guess where most of them will be sold?
Part of the reason some companies dont see shows as a sales nexus is that while show leads do sell airplanes, thats not the primary way buyers learn about these products. It happens through news coverage, through websites, through social media and through aggressive targeted marketing. For example, ahead of Sun n Fun, I got an expensive direct mail piece from Cirrus. If I had a disposable million, Id have certainly called the number on the card for a demo.
During the show, Dan Johnson and I were lamenting about not being able to attend Aero. Its the first one hes missed in nearly 20 years. We also discussed whether the traditional tradeshow press conference has outlived its usefulness. Id sayand have saidthat it has. The idea that news is disseminated by a talking head yammering at a bunch of scribes who dutifully write it all down and post it is like a giant dead oak tree that hasnt fallen over yet. Given that this is aviation, where tradition hangs on long beyond its usefulness, it probably never will.
I suppose theres some comfort in basking in the utterly predictable. At least it keeps you from having to think too hard, something no one has ever accused me of doing. Or at all.
An Ultralight Future
Although the rest of the show seems to ebb and flow, the constant at Sun n Fun is the incessant buzzing of ultralight engines. If anything, activity at Paradise City seems to increase every year and theres an apparent demographic shift.
As more of the devotees of grass-under-your-ass flying shuffle off to Jimmy Buffets new seniors theme parks, there seems to be a new generation of devotees filling the void. These are not the irrigation pipe and sailcloth set of the 21st century, however. New materials, engines and other technologies are on full display in some really sophisticated and capable designs. The hang gliders with chainsaw engines are long gone and thank heavens for that. If youre looking for a future, part of it is in Paradise City. Russ Niles
All About the Airshow
By the later half of the week, the thunderstorms blockading northern Florida cleared out to bringing cooler weather and fly-in visitors from around the southeast. In addition to a stream of highly skilled piston aerobats, airshow lovers were treated to acts by a diverse group of loud fast-movers: a harrier, a viper, a hog, and a swarm of hornets. This was my first Sun n Fun and Im told that wide display of heavy hardware is unusual. Even AirVenture cant always match it.
Traditional industry pundits were left scratching their heads at the shortage of news (or good news) from Sun n Fun exhibitors, while, as noted above, Diamond Aircraft, in the land of stifling regulation, announced plans at Aero Friedrichshafenfor new singles in sectors of the market U.S. airframers had left for dead.Id have liked to ask some of them what that means for the GA market, but no one was around for an interview. Geoff Rapoport
The European Union stands ready to help Armenias government implement significant reforms following this month's parliamentary elections, a senior EU diplomat said on Monday.
Piotr Switalski, the head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, declined to comment on the official results of the April 2 elections that gave victory to the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
I was hoping that during the election campaign I will hear interesting ideas on how to reform the education system in Armenia, Switalski told news conference. I didnt. But its never too late.
Now I am hearing from all sides that Armenia is entering a period of deep and comprehensive reforms. The countrys economy and governance need to undergo serious reforms. We are ready to assist Armenians in conducting deep reforms, he said. The reforms should include a tougher fight against corruption, added the diplomat.
The EU cautiously praised last week the conduct of the Armenian elections, while echoing the findings of around 300 European monitors deployed in the country. The OSCE-led monitoring mission reported credible information about vote-buying and voter intimidation.
The election result nevertheless reflects the overall will of the Armenian people, a spokesperson for Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, said in an April 4 statement.
The statement insisted that electronic equipment installed in Armenias polling stations prevented other, more serious irregularities such as multiple voting. The EU allocated over $7 million for the purchase of that equipment earlier this year.
Mogherinis office also said the EU will work closely with Armenias democratically elected new parliament and government in an effort to strengthen our political dialogue and continue our support to economic and social reform. It cited the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which was initialed in Yerevan two weeks before the elections.
Echoing a statement by President Serzh Sarkisian, Switalski said the agreement is likely to be signed in November. Armenia and the EU will also finalize two other cooperation agreements this summer, added the envoy.
The CEPA is a less ambitious alternative to an Association Agreement negotiated by Armenian and EU officials in the summer of 2013. Sarkisian scuttled that deal with his unexpected decision in September 2013 to make Armenia part of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
Switalski addressed the press as he announced the release of 1.5 million euros ($1.6) in fresh EU grants to Armenian non-governmental organizations. He said the recipients of the funding will monitor the government to gauge the efficiency of its use of economic aid provided by the EU.
10 April 2017 14:38 (UTC+04:00)
By Rashid Shirinov
The State Committee on Property Issues will hold another auction for privatization of state property on May 10.
The committee informed on April 10 that the auction will feature 99 state objects, including 21 joint-stock companies, 38 small enterprises, 29 non-residential areas and 11 vehicles.
The joint stock companies offered for privatization are located in Sabirabad, Agsu, Barda, Shirvan, Lankaran, Tartar and Kurdamir regions of the country. They cover the spheres of transport, poultry, industry, including the food industry, and others. The authorized capital of these companies varies between $41,000 and $505,000.
Small enterprises, in turn, cover areas of public catering, repair, textile industry, transport and other spheres. They are located both in the capital Baku and in Shamkir, Imishli, Sumgayit, Khachmaz, Ganja and other cities of Azerbaijan.
The third stage of privatization in Azerbaijan started in the framework of the presidential decree dated May 19, 2016. Under the decree, the acceleration of the state property privatization process has been defined as an important direction of the economic policy.
The portal for privatization privatization.az, launched in July 2016, reflects all necessary information about the facilities, their addresses, location, and even initial cost and aims at facilitation of the process. The website is available in two languages - Azerbaijani and English. Why Azerbaijan is special section available on the website explains the reasons and advantages of investing in the country.
The privatization process is designed to attract both foreign and local investors, as well as improve the business environment of Azerbaijan.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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By Trend
Azerbaijans Culture Center in Vienna has hosted the launch of Landscaped exhibition of talented Azerbaijani artist Aida Mahmudova.
Participants in the ceremony included Austrian public figures, artists, and representatives of the diplomatic corps.
Director of the Culture Center Leyla Gasimova, addressing the opening ceremony, highlighted works of Aida Mahmudova.
The ceremony then featured a concert program.
The Founder and Creative Director of YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Mahmudova graduated from Central Saint Martins in London with a degree in Fine Art in 2006. To date, her works have been exhibited internationally, including at the MAXXI in Rome and the 55th Venice Biennale for the exhibition Love Me, Love Me Not (which later traveled to Baku), amongst numerous others.
Her works were also the subject of a solo exhibition at the Barbarian Art Gallery in Zurich in 2013.
Drawing inspiration from the landscape and architecture of Azerbaijan, Mahmudova works in installation, sculpture and painting to capture forgotten and marginal corners of her rapidly modernizing country. The core of these works involves repurposed and abandoned architectural features, formed into installations, as well as paintings of empty sites on the outskirts of Baku.
Seeking to commemorate a moment in time through these subjects, her works act to counter the ongoing experience of transience, yet they simultaneously celebrate items which are themselves on the cusp on disappearing. As such, Mahmudova preserves the sense of ephemerality that permeates a country already layered with past civilizations and rapid modern development.
Central to Mahmudovas work is the tension between fiction and reality and the fascination with memory and the impermanence of identity. To Mahmudova, identity is formed by memory, which is continually altered and re-remembered over time.
The landscapes and architectural relics externalize this sense of change and reflect underlying tensions experienced by the generation who experienced Azerbaijans independence in 1991.
In 2011, Aida Mahmudova founded YARAT, a not-for-profit contemporary art organization based in Baku. YARAT is dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan, and creating a platform for Azerbaijani art both nationally and internationally. The organization also produces a comprehensive program of exhibitions and education. In 2012 she launched YAY Gallery, a social enterprise which shares proceeds between exhibiting artists and YARAT projects.
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10 April 2017 14:20 (UTC+04:00)
By Laman Ismayilova
Kazakhstan Cultural Days will be held in Baku and Shaki on April 12-15.
The cultural events will be held on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Trend Life reported.
The Days aim to further strengthen friendly relations between the two nations develop cultural ties between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
The concert of Kyzylorda Regional Philharmonic Society will be held in Baku on April 12, at 19:00.
The Kyzylorda regional Music and Drama Theatre will present a theatrical performance "Don't leave! All, don't leave..." based on "A Story about the Botanist-Doctor Monsieur Jordan and the Famous Sorcerer Dervish Mastali Shah" by famous Azerbaijani writer Mirza Fatali Akhundov. The theatrical performance will be held at the State Russian Drama Theatre on April 13.
A series of cultural events will also be organized in Sheki. The concert will be held in Shaki State Theatre on April 15, at 18:00. The theatrical production will be presented on April 15.
For 25 years of independence, two countries, which are linked by common history, culture, religion and language, have built mutually beneficial cooperation and rightly call each other strategic partners.
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan cooperate in almost all spheres, from culture and education to agriculture, ecology, defense and the fight against terrorism.
More than 130,000 Azerbaijanis live in Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan act as a united front within the framework of international organizations and have similar positions on most regional and international issues.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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10 April 2017 18:02 (UTC+04:00)
By Rashid Shirinov
The mechanisms of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict do not work out, said Igor Seleznev, Ph. D., senior research fellow of the Institute of Social and Political Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He made the remark during discussions on ways of resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, organized by the Baku Network expert council.
He said that in many ways, the mechanisms, created by the OSCE Minsk Group, are running in vain. If these mechanisms do not work, there is a need to create alternative spaces to resolve the conflict, added the expert.
The OSCE Minsk Group, the activities of which have become known as the Minsk Process, works to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for over two decades, but its activities have bring no breakthrough result so far.
Seleznyov noted that if today there is an agreement about some road map to resolve the conflict, this means that the technology for its implementation also exists.
Because of specific, diplomatic and acute nature of the problem, not all the algorithms of road map are voiced not to derail the whole process, the expert clarified.
During the discussions, Seleznyov pointed out three scenarios of the conflict resolution: optimistic, inertial and catastrophic.
The optimistic scenario assumes a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The inertial scenario means the continuation of the current situation, which may result in resumption of hostilities at any time, the expert said.
Finally, the catastrophic scenario assumes strong escalation of the situation, intervention of major powers in the conflict with some initiatives, and recognition of certain territorial entities as states, which can lead to unpredictable results, Seleznyov noted.
Seleznyov also noted that the ability of Russia to influence the resolution of the conflict is often being overstated.
Russia is currently unable to influence the resolution of the conflict, and there is a need to find other alternative spaces, said Seleznyov.
Russia along with the U.S. and France is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Russia is considered a key party in brokering a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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10 April 2017 13:01 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijans Ministry of Emergency Situations has sent humanitarian aid to the Republic of Djibouti under the instruction of President Ilham Aliyev.
The aircraft with food products on the board took off at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport and headed to the Republic of Djibouti, Azertac reported on April 10.
The humanitarian aid sent by Azerbaijan Airlines included sugar, tea, sunflower oil, corn oil, flour, macaroni, vermicelli and drinking water.
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10 April 2017 14:48 (UTC+04:00)
President of the Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard has sent a letter to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as the two countries celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of diplomatic relations, Azertac reported.
The 21st of January 2017 marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of official relations between our two countries. On this occasion, I would like to convey my sincerest congratulations. I very much appreciated our exchange in the margins of the WEF in Davos at the beginning of this year, she said in her letter.
I recognize the great efforts that Azerbaijan has undertaken towards democracy and economic prosperity during the last 25 years. Improvements in good governance, promotion of the private sector as well as economic diversification have increased global interest in Azerbaijans economy, including by numerous Swiss companies. Our multi-faceted partnership is also reflected in the framework of the Bretton Woods Institutions, where Azerbaijan plays an important and much appreciated role in our voting group.
I would also like to commend your countrys important role in connecting people from East and West and congratulate you for hosting the upcoming Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku in May. I wish you every success in this endeavor.
In the spirit of friendship, I wish you and Azeri people all the best for the future.
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10 April 2017 16:26 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as usual, is the focus of attention.
Although Armenia is doing its utmost to cease the negotiations and boycott them, it cannot and will not be able to achieve this, President Aliyev said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2017 and future tasks.
The co-chair countries of the Minsk Group have repeatedly emphasized unacceptability of the status quo, said the head of state, adding that this, in fact, means that the occupation must be ended.
President Aliyev stressed that the Minsk Group must increase pressure on Armenia, its policy of occupation to force them to observe international law and end occupation.
Our position on the talks remains unchanged, and there cannot be any changes. The principle of territorial integrity is not the subject of negotiations and Azerbaijan must restore its territorial integrity," he said. In all my international contacts I emphasize that no country or organization should take a double standard approach to the problem. In some cases, we face these double standards. Sometimes greater attention is paid to conflicts in the post-Soviet era, or more specific phrases are used with respect to those conflicts.
President Aliyev said the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be solved within Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity.
Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, but they have not been enforced to this day.
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.
The president went on to say that Armenia disgraced and exposed itself by conducting a so-called referendum in the Nagorno-Karabakh.
I have said once and I reiterate that the more illegal referendums they conduct, the more it will be to our benefit because all our neighboring countries, Minsk Group co-chair countries, European Union and many countries have immediately condemned this referendum, they said that they do not recognize this referendum and recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan, the president said.
In fact, by conducting this so-called referendum, they once again encouraged all countries to repeat the truth. Of course, by denouncing this referendum, the entire international community reaffirmed its support for Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity and for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with this principle, President Aliyev added.
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10 April 2017 17:53 (UTC+04:00)
By Amina Nazarli
Azerbaijan and Russia agree that the Convention on the Caspian Sea status, the adoption of which is expected by the Caspian littoral states, should ensure the sovereign rights of each of the five littoral states and meet their interests.
This was announced during the Azerbaijani-Russian consultations on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which took place in Moscow on April 10, the Azerbaijani Embassy in Russia told Trend.
The consultations were chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Khalaf Khalafov and Special Envoy of the Russian President, Ambassador-at-Large Igor Bratchikov.
The sides exchanged views on the implementation of the agreements reached during the Baku meeting of the special working group of the Caspian countries on the status of the sea held on February 25-26, and then continued discussions on open issues.
Determining the legal status of the Caspian Sea has become one of the problematic issues among the five littoral states - Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan since demise of the Soviet Union.
The legal status have been remained unsolved during the past two decades, preventing development and exploitation of its disputable oil and gas fields and creating obstacles to the realization of major energy projects.
The Caspian littoral states signed a Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea in November 2003.
Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use in July 1998. The two countries signed a protocol to the agreement in May 2002.
Moreover, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea and a protocol to it in November 2001, and February 2003, respectively.
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea on May 14, 2003.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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10 April 2017 17:46 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
An Azerbaijani delegation will visit Ankara on April 13-17 to observe the referendum, which will be held on April 16 in connection with the changes to the Constitution of Turkey.
The delegation will include the chairman of the parliamentary committee on health, the head of the working group on Azerbaijan-Turkey Interparliamentary relations Ahliman Amiraslanov and the member of the working group, MP Agalar Veliyev, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Parliament Akif Tevekkuloglu told Trend on April 10.
Next Sunday, Turkish voters will be asked to vote Yes or No to an 18-article constitutional reform bill , which would shift the country from a parliamentary system of governance to a presidential one.
The Yes campaign is backed by the ruling AK Party and opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), while the CHP has argued against the changes.
The constitutional changes also envisage increasing the number of sits at the parliament from 550 to 600 and holding parliamentary elections every five years. Currently, the parliamentary elections are held every four years.
It was also proposed to lower the age limit for a candidate to MP to 18 years from the current 25 years.
In accordance with the amendments, President-elect must be a citizen of Turkey and aged above 40 and he will also be empowered to appoint and change the ministers. The president-elect will not be obliged to be a non-party nominee anymore.
The bill of constitutional changes was passed by parliament in January, with 339 votes in favor -- nine more than needed to put the proposals to a referendum.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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10 April 2017 10:17 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
At least 17 people were killed, and 47 injured in an explosion near a church in Egypt's Alexandria, RIA Novosti reported.
16:04 (GMT+4) An explosion took place near a church in Egypt's Alexandria April 9, RIA Novosti reported citing the Egyptian state television.
Two people were killed and 21 injured in the explosion, Egypts ONTV reported.
The explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber, according to preliminary information.
Egyptian media said that Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and all Africa may have been inside the church during the attack. He was not harmed.
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10 April 2017 11:32 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
Uzbekistan Airlines will perform the first flight en route Tashkent - Dushanbe - Tashkent on April 11.
Regular flights to Dushanbe will be carried out twice a week on the A320 airliners, according to the company.
The sale of tickets for the specified flight is open. Earlier, an airline representative office was opened in Dushanbe.
From the Tajik side, the airline Somon Air will fly to Tashkent. Visa regime currently operates between the two Central Asian countries.
Flights between the two countries were terminated in the autumn of 1992, and in 2000, Uzbekistan introduced a visa regime for travel to Tajikistan.
The air traffic was interrupted with the beginning of civil war in Tajikistan, there were virtually no commercial, economic and political ties. The relations began to restore in 2016.
In autumn 2016, a protocol on cooperation was signed between the civil aviation authorities of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the air transport sector.
Uzbekistan Airways performed the first charter flight to Dushanbe in November 2016.
Uzbekistan Airways is a monopoly air carrier in Uzbekistan, wholly owned by the state.
The aircraft fleet of the Uzbek airline currently has 31 aircraft of western production, including thirteen Boeing passenger aircraft, thirteen airbuses (three A-310 and ten A-320-200), three medium-haul RJ-85s and two cargo planes Boeing-767-300BCF.
The Uzbek airline operates flights to over 20 cities in Europe, America, the Middle East, Asia, 22 cities of the CIS countries and 11 destinations on local airlines.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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10 April 2017 12:48 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin noted "inadmissibility of the U.S. aggressive actions" in Syria during a telephone conversation held on April 9.
The conversation took place on the initiative of the Iranian side, the Kremlin's press service said, RIA Novosti reported.
The sides exchanged opinions on the situation in Syria, emphasizing that aggressive actions taken by the United States against a sovereign state and the violation of international law are inadmissible.
Both presidents spoke in favor of an objective and unbiased investigation of the circumstances involving the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian province of Idlib.
The two leaders noted the importance of further close interaction on the political and diplomatic settlement of the armed conflict in Syria.
The Heads of States also discussed the implementation of the agreements reached during the Iranian Presidents official visit to Russia which took place on March 2728, 2017. Particular attention was paid to key aspects of bilateral cooperation in counter-terrorism efforts. The two presidents expressed readiness to boost these efforts to ensure stability and security in the Middle East.
Turkey together with Russia and Iran remain the guarantor countries of the ceasefire in Syria, announced in late 2016. However, the positions of the parties after the U.S. missile strike in response to the use of chemical weapons in the province of Idlib on April 4 differed significantly. Iran has expressed its full support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey expressed support for the U.S. position.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a harsh statement calling Bashar al-Assad "evil" and urging Russia to stop supporting him.
Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey also spoke in support of the U.S. missile strike against the airbase of government forces after the chemical attack in the province of Idlib.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Moscow to reconsider its position on Syria and to give up support for the Assad regime, which, according to him, has no place in the future of Syria. Tillerson also placed the future of Russian-American relations in many other spheres in dependence on Moscow's position on Syria.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the involvement of government forces in a chemical attack has not been proven.
On April 4, the National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces of Syria reported about 200 wounded and 80 victims of chemical weapons attack in Khan-Sheikhun city of Idlib province. The oppositionists blamed government troops of Syria for the attack. The command of the Syrian army rejected accusations in its address and laid the blame on the militants and their patrons.
The UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have already taken up the investigation of the incident, but so far they have not published any conclusions about possible perpetrators of the incident.
As Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem stated earlier, Syrian government troops have never used or intend to use chemical weapons against civilians and against terrorists.
The stocks of chemical weapons were successfully exported from Syria. In January 2016 the OPCW announced the complete elimination of the country's chemical industry.
In 2013, the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize for chemical disarmament of Syria.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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10 April 2017 14:56 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
Irans and Omans navies have started joint exercises in the Indian Ocean.
The aim of the exercises is to carry out rescue operations in the north of the Indian Ocean, Mehr quoted Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi as saying on April 10.
The first round of the exercises includes escorting ships and tankers, bunkering in sea, telecommunications, and rescue operations in emergency situations.
Iranian naval forces held a large-scale drill north of the Indian Ocean, codenamed Velayat 95, to enhance their defence capabilities in February 2016. The exercises were held in an area of 2 million square kilometers covering the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman, north of the Indian Ocean and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
Along with ships, submarines and naval helicopters were deployed to carry out missions during the last years exercises, but it seems the current manoeuvre is focused only on civilian issues.
Oman is the only Arab state in the Persian Gulf that has good relations with Iran.
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10 April 2017 17:34 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
Kazakhstans Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov called on all parties interested in the settlement of the situation in Syria to support the Astana and Geneva processes.
"We urge all parties interested in the peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict to support both the Astana process and, first of all, the Geneva process, which is being held under the auspices of the UN," Abdrakhmanov told reporters.
He expressed the hope that "all parties involved will support these processes with all the means available in their arsenal", RIA Novosti reported.
"Currently, we are waiting for further information on the meeting planned in Tehran, and then on the meeting in Astana scheduled for May 3-4 from the guarantor countries of the Astana process," Abdrakhmanov stated.
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister of Syria Faisal Mikdad told media that Damascus has not yet received information about the date of the new round of negotiations on Syria in Geneva, but expressed readiness to participate in the new round of talks in Astana, when he receives the invitation.
Earlier this year, Astana hosted three rounds of high-level talks to end the military confrontation in Syria as part of that has become known as the Astana process. It brought together representatives of the three guarantor states, Russia, Turkey and Iran, as well as the Syrian government and armed opposition, along with representatives of the UN, the United States and Jordan.
The first round of intra-Syrian Astana talks took place on January 23-24 during which the parties agreed to create a trilateral mechanism to monitor the ceasefire in Syria, which was established on December 30.
The second round of Astana talks took place on February 15-16 and resulted in the agreement of the participants to set up a ceasefire monitoring group, encompassing Iran, Russia and Turkey, that would report to the United Nations.
The latest, third round of Astana talks which took place on March 14-16 focused on the separation of positions of terrorists and moderate opposition in the war-torn country.
Armed conflict continues in Syria since March 2011. Government troops are confronted by militants of different armed rebel groups. Russia has begun airstrikes on terrorist facilities in Syria since September 30, 2015. The Russian military involvement follows an official request from President Bashar Assad to President Vladimir Putin.
The UN has repeatedly tried and failed to end the Syrian conflict, which has killed 300,000 and displaced 11 million since it began five years ago.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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Bakersfield, CA (93308)
Today
Rain likely. High around 65F. S winds shifting to W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..
Tonight
Cloudy with showers. Low 47F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
People flee to safe areas after the Kenya Police reservist tortured their houses in Tiaty. The residents claim that the government has a hand in the problems they are facing. According to the Tiaty residents, they claim their MP also contributed to the problems and are telling the IPOA to come out to help them from the hands of the Police officers.The Tiaty Mp Asman Kamama said that the government was not using the KPR because they add violence and hostility than ending it. "Now they thought of using them again and they have made people desperate," Kamama added. People have been moving out of the area to nearest police stations and to the neighbouring counties.The evacuation by people from Tiaty constituency shows that the government should think of negotiations methods than using force. The majority of people flee to safe zones as the Red Cross society assist them in setting Internally displaced people camps in the neighbouring constituency.
City police said a man died after being hit several times with a beer bottle and that another man faces manslaughter charges.
Mario Stephens charged with manslaughter
Vincent Hollingsworth died at Bayfront Health
Incident happened at Stinger Bar, police say
The incident happened late Sunday night at Stinger Bar on 49th Street South.
According to St. Petersburg police, Vincent Hollingsworth, 62, was playing pool with another man when the two began arguing.
Police said Hollingsworth hit the man in the face with a cue ball multiple times. Two bouncers broke up that confrontation, authorities said.
At that point Mario Renard Stephens, 32, a friend of the man Hollingsworth struck, came up behind Hollingsworth and hit him over the head with a beer bottle, police said.
When the bouncers tried to hold Stephens back, Stephens was able to get around them and hit Hollingsworth several more times with the bottle and his fist.
Police said Hollingsworth then fell to the ground, striking his head on the pool table.
He was transported to Bayfront Health, where he died early Monday.
Bar patron Terry Anderson told us he saw Stephens and his friends in the bar that night.
They like to roughhouse around, they get pretty loud," said Anderson. "They act like they aint got no common sense or courtesy for anybody.
Stephens left the bar in a vehicle before police arrived. He was later spotted in the area, taken into custody and charged with manslaughter.
Stinger Bar in St. Petersburg. (Josh Rojas, staff)
President Donald Trump's proposed budget is calling for major cuts to Amtrak, impacting passenger service throughout Central Florida.
Proposed cuts to federal funding for Amtrak long distance routes
Eliminating funding puts several train services in jeopardy
Florida rail service includes Auto Train, Silver Service between Florida and New York
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The cuts are part of the proposed "America First" plan released last month and if approved would begin Oct. 1.
Those cuts would affect the popular Sanford Auto Train, which allows you to ride the rails north with your vehicle.
"[I] come down around Sept. 1, and I go back some time in April," said Earl Hearst, who was on his way back to his home in Maryland on Friday afternoon.
Hearst spends every fall and winter in The Villages. So for the self-proclaimed snowbird, the Amtrak Auto Train is a necessary convenience.
"I suspect there's mainly seniors on the train who don't want to take long drives. They would rather just put the car on the train and relax," Hearst said.
Even with traffic backed up down the street waiting to board the train, the service used by hundreds of people every day is on the chopping block in Trump's proposed budget.
Proposed cuts would eliminate funding for the Sanford Auto Train and long-distance passenger service across Florida, including stops at historic stations in Orlando and Winter Park.
"I use the Auto Train, so that's the part I hope they won't cut," Hearst said.
"My family rode the Amtrak train from Sanford when we went up for swearing-in," said Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who represents west Orange County.
The president, as you know, as candidate Trump, led with a jobs plan and huge his favorite word infrastructure plan. And to reduce the service that Amtrak gives and others like it would be a major hit to the transportation industry," Demings said.
"Im hoping that hell listen to the people who are in this area and depend on it," she said.
The Auto Train makes the 900-mile journey from Sanford to Lorton, Virginia, in about 17 hours. For Hearst, it's a safer alternative compared with pushing through a long, tiring drive on Interstate 95.
"It probably saves me an extra day of driving eight hours a day and then having to stop and rest and finish up the journey the next day," Hearst said. "It's very comfortable."
Also included in the proposed cuts are plans to restore the Sunset Limited service from Jacksonville to New Orleans. That route has been out of service since Hurricane Katrina washed out the rail line in 2005. However, Amtrak and the Southern Rail Commission has been negotiating plans to bring back the service.
Any cuts would still need to be approved by Congess.
In total, 18 cities in Florida would be affected by the proposed Amtrak budget cuts.
In 2016, 949,710 passengers used Amtrak trains in Florida, including more than 238,000 on the Auto Train in Sanford alone. Amtrak employs some 731 Florida residents.
There is no lack of fresh vegetables, or the Florida sun, at Geraldson Community Farm in Bradenton.
Community farm bringing fresh produce to Bradenton community
The Green Stream, a refurbished 1972 airstream, converted to a farmer's market
Geraldson Farm
Volunteers at the farm pick, wash, and sort produce into baskets almost daily, before making their way out the door for distribution. But, Operations Manager Christa Leonard wanted more.
"I had wanted to do a mobile market, someone had reached out and we had read an article about one in Seattle and we were like... wow that's so cool we need to do this here," Leonard explained.
They hatched a plan and applied for a $100,000 grant through the Department of Health in Manatee County. The goal is to bring fresh food to those who find it out of reach and out of budget. The final product, a refurbished 1972 airstream that's been converted into a farmers market on wheels.
"We're working with them to figure out ways to get them eating better and to stop shopping at convenience stores," Leonard said.
Its aptly named Green Stream, and will be making stops in five different Manatee County communities. One of them, Pride Park.
"You have to leave the area to get what you want, exactly, you prepare for a weekend to get stuff that hispanic families want and need, and you go to the flea market or Palmetto or places beyond," explained Edmundo Delgado, a leader in the Pride Park community.
The Green Stream accepts EBT, which helps to make fresh and local food a possibility for every family.
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An Orange family that filed a lawsuit claiming a loved one suffering from mental illness died in custody after he was neglected for five days is seeking a court order to shut down the Orange County jail.
Robert Montano, 41, died in October 2011 after five days of isolation in a medical unit called "the Bubble." The father of four suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, according to attorneys.
Attorneys with the Bernsen Law Firm of Beaumont hired by Montano's family asked a federal court to shut down the jail because the licensed vocational nurses in charge of medical supervision at the Orange County jail report to another LVN, which violates the Texas Board of Nursing's guidelines.
"The supervision has to be, it's very prescribed, a (registered nurse), an (advanced practice registered nurse), a nurse practitioner or a doctor," said attorney Christine Stetson. "And these (LVNs) do not and have not (reported to the required professionals) for the better part of 20 years."
Orange County District Attorney John Kimbrough said he cannot comment on pending lawsuits. Attorneys "can make any allegations they want," he said.
The Orange County jail can hold up to 326 inmates. If the facility shut down, its current inmate population of about 200 would have to be transferred to neighboring counties' jails.
Stetson said that the nurses at the Orange County jail don't have the necessary training or qualifications to provide diagnostic medical care.
According to the Nursing Practice Act, "the practice of vocational nursing must be performed under the supervision of a registered nurse, physician, physician assistant, podiatrist, or dentist."
Stetson referred to a 2012 case in which Tammy Williams, 31, also died in the Orange County jail from a ruptured pulmonary artery a week after her arrest.
The Orange County jail has five LVNs on staff and two contract physicians who come "several times a week" or as needed, said Chief Deputy Clint Hodgkinson.
The request to close the jail follows a lawsuit filed last year by the family against Orange County contending Montano's civil rights were violated.
The earlier lawsuit, still pending in federal court, says Montano was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication when he had a psychotic episode.
His family's attorneys said the jailers and nurses neglected Montano for days while he went through extended periods of incoherence and violent outbursts during which he harmed himself.
"He couldn't say, 'Please, take me to the hospital' or 'Let me see a doctor'," Stetson said. "He had to rely on (the LVNs) to do for it for him."
Because of his extended outbursts, jailers taped paper over the cell windows, the attorneys said.
"He was annoying them," said attorney Ryan MacLeod, who also is working on the case.
Nurses periodically would look in but not examine Montano, who after several hours of quiet was found dead on Oct. 12, 2011.
The suit says the former Jefferson County forensic pathologist, Dr. Tommy Brown, determined that Montano's death resulted from renal failure, as a result of bath salts toxicity. The toxicology report showed no such intoxication.
Because of his precarious mental state, Montano refused food and water for five days, which caused his kidneys to shut down, MacLeod said.
MacLeod said a neighbor had called police on the evening they arrested Montano, believing him to be under the influence of bath salts.
"It's a statement that spread like wildfire," MacLeod said. "There was no basis for it at all."
MLibardi@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/ManuellaLibardi
The Tennessean profiled the opioid epidemic in Tennessee over the last couple decades as addiction continues to impact millions of Americans.
Here are 12 key points:
1. Despite medical professionals labeling oxycodone as highly addictive in the 1960s, the FDA approved OxyContin for prescription use in 1995.
2. A year later, the American Pain Society said providers should label pain as a fifth vital sign.
3. In Tennessee, 5 percent of people who received publicly funded addiction treatment were abusing prescription pain relievers in 1999. That year, 342 residents died from overdoses.
4. In 2000, the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services reported prescription opioids ranked as the top drug among residents who received publicly funded treatment at detox facilities and halfway houses for recovering addicts.
5. Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma launched a marketing campaign for Oxycontin when the drug received approval in 1995. In 2003, the FDA issued the company a warning letter for its "misleading advertisements," according to The Tennessean.
6. The FDA started holding various meetings to strategize on ways to combat rising opioid use in 2008.
7. In 2011, there were 1,022 opioid overdose deaths in Tennessee and the state ranked as the number two state for opioid consumptions in 2012.
8. In 2012, the death toll hit 1,094 opioid overdoses in Tennessee.
9. In 2013, state officials required providers to report all diagnoses of drug-dependent babies as the state recorded 912 of these types of births that year.
10. Tennessee officials allowed physicians to prescribe naloxone, an antidote to narcotic overdoses, in July 2014.
11. A 2014 Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services report found 55 percent of painkiller abusers obtained the drugs from a friend or relative with a prescription.
12. In 2015, state providers wrote more than 7.8 million opioid prescriptions.
New York City-based Pfizer awarded UC Riverside associate professor Declan McCole, MD, a two-year, $150,000 grant to support his inflammatory bowel disease research.
Here's what you should know.
1. Dr. McCole is leading research exploring therapeutic targets for correcting intestinal barrier defects in IBD patients who have T-cell protein tyrosine phosphatase mutations.
2. Dr. McCole said although TCPTP mutations increase IBD risk, there are no therapeutic strategies aimed at correcting the mutations' consequences.
3. Dr. McCole is using a molecular biology approach to interrupt the JAK-STAT signaling pathway and claims disruption may correct barrier defects related to TCPTP activity loss.
4. Dr. McCole concluded, "We expect our findings from this research project will ultimately improve diagnostic and treatment options for patients with IBD."
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Hospitals and health systems across the country are beginning to integrate artificial intelligence into their daily processes to improve workflows and care quality and realize financial savings. However, there is much untapped potential.
Here, five health IT company executives discuss how hospitals and health systems can prepare for AI applications and employ them most effectively in the future.
Mudit Garg. Co-Founder and CEO of Qventus (Los Altos, Calif.): "AI technology is becoming mainstream much faster than people realize. Many experts believe that AI-based solutions will be commonplace in the next three to five years.
We find that hospital executives prefer to start using AI to improve operations for the simple reason that it is less emotional than using it to inform clinical decisions. Rather than replacing a doctor's judgment, operational AI ensures the optimal care is delivered reliably and consistently; basically, it enhances the impact of the doctor's judgment.
In addition, as health systems look to increase the impact from EMR investments, AI solutions can help achieve this by leveraging all the data collected in these important systems of record."
Charles Koontz. President and CEO of GE Healthcare IT and Chief Digital Officer of GE Healthcare (Chicago): "AI is pushing us to new boundaries and will force us to rethink the traditional hospital. Computers are learning to review images and assist radiologists in clinical decision-making, and physicians located hundreds of miles away are examining, diagnosing and treating patients via telemedicine.
As the industry becomes more dependent on AI solutions, physicians and hospitals need to share best practices and communicate outcomes, facts and metrics to adapt to this new approach. They must also have an open mind about the potential of AI to aid them in addressing the major quality, cost and access issues central to healthcare.
In the near future, we predict that these digital tools will become as critical to quality healthcare as medical imaging equipment is today."
Greg Kuhnen. Senior Director of Research at Advisory Board (Washington, D.C.): "To prepare for the coming wave of AI-enabled applications, health systems should focus on acquiring and integrating their data streams from across the care continuum and building familiarity with data-driven decision-making through their existing analytics and clinical decision support programs."
Fatima Paruk, MD. CMO of Allscripts Analytics (Chicago): "Healthcare systems and physicians can prepare now by establishing data governance, infrastructure and strategy; and by gaining an understanding of where the limitations are today, and what the data has the power to do for us.
As AI systems consume large amounts of data, the best preparation is to make the effort to accurately collect, annotate and curate existing data. Data has extreme value, and knowledge of the process of making the data available for analytics should be a key objective of any institution."
Lisa Suennen. Managing Director at GE Ventures (Menlo Park, Calif.): "Clinicians should prepare now by learning about AI what its inherent strengths and weaknesses are and becoming comfortable with technology that can be a tool, not a threat. For those who aren't technically conversant, it's an excellent time to invest in education on the topic to know how best to maximize the human side of medicine through targeted technological application."
President Donald Trump has proposed cuts to major international health initiatives a move raising concerns about the potential negative effects for American diplomacy and countries worldwide, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
Here are seven things to know.
1. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which helps administer U.S. foreign assistance, would see significantly less funding under President Trump's 2018 budget proposal, according to the report.
2. The president's administration also seeks to cut funding for major international heath initiatives such as the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, according to the report. PEPFAR works to combat HIV/AIDS worldwide.
3. Additionally, President Trump's administration plans to eliminate U.S. contributions to the United Nations Population Fund, reports the Los Angeles Times. UNFPA is a UN agency that supports safe childbirth and women's healthcare internationally.
4. Along with these various cuts, the White House has tightened guidelines on what aid the U.S. can provide organizations offering family planning and other health services, according to the report.
5. Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD, said in the report President Trump's proposed cuts would have a negative affect on people's health.
"If the U.S. chooses to drastically cut its foreign assistance, including for HIV/AIDS, nutrition and family planning, we risk reversing our strides over the past 25 years to reduce extreme poverty and disease worldwide," he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "That potentially creates a domino effect, which could lead to nation destabilization, conflict and catastrophic loss of life."
6. Additionally, more than 100 evangelical and Catholic leaders who work on international aid called on President Trump not to eliminate U.S. support, reports the Los Angeles Times.
"From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures compel us to care for the marginalized," the leaders wrote in a letter. "If we can protect the lives of mothers and children, we can intervene not just to save lives but also to establish a foundation of health and wellness to uplift communities, societies and nations."
7. The White House has said eliminating the monies will allow the U.S. to fund domestic projects like repairing aging bridges and airports, as well as building a new wall along the U.S./Mexico border, according to the report.
"These steps to reduce foreign assistance free up funding for critical priorities here at home and put America first," the White House explained in its 2018 budget proposal released in March.
For more on this story, read Noam Levey's full report here.
Plymouth, N.C.-based Washington County Hospital's emergency room was out of commission for several hours April 4 when just one employee got sick, according to a local news report from WITN.
The staffer had a medical issue and needed extra rest, so the hospital put the ER on diversion until the employee was able to come in later that afternoon. While the emergency room was closed, patients were diverted to three hospitals: Williamston, N.C.-based Martin General, Edenton, N.C.-based Vidant Chowan and Washington, N.C.-based Vidant Beaufort, according to the report.
It's not unusual for the 25-bed critical access hospital to need to divert patients, CEO Terry Amstutz told WITN. When on diversion, Washington County Hospital is in close contact with the county's emergency medical service, according to the report.
However, Washington County manager Curtis Potter told WITN this was the largest shut down ever for the hospital's ER.
Read the full report here.
More articles on patient flow:
Patients opting for Uber, Lyft over ambulance to the ER
Struggling Mississippi hospital eliminates neurosurgery services
Involving patient's family in discharge process linked to 25% reduction in hospital readmissions
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David Menary from the Colliers New Homes team and Richard Bullough of Barnett Developments
An artist's impression of how Portland 88 will look
A new luxury 'smart' apartment development in south Belfast will create 100 jobs during its construction, it can be revealed.
The now unveiled 17m Portland 88, a seven-storey apartment building, has just broken ground beside the current headquarters of UTV on the Ormeau Road.
Barnett Developments, which builds houses and apartments across the UK, bought the site in 2015.
The 88-apartment development is being built by Graham Construction, and was designed by Gregory Architects.
A 'home intelligence system' is expected to be one of the key selling points for the high-spec dwellings, the developers say.
This location had been earmarked for development for five years, and there was previously planning permission for a similar building.
The planned complex will include 74 two-bedroom, 10-one bedroom and four three-bedroom apartments. The development is scheduled for completion by December 2018.
Barnett Developments chief executive, Nick Barnett, said they aimed to create a "unique living experience".
"There is a growing optimism about Belfast, and we saw the opportunity to lead development of a new offering in city centre living," he explained. "As confidence has begun to return, we are pleased to be bringing something fresh to the local market.
"We have excellent local partners on board and now look forward to creating a truly unique living experience for inner city Belfast."
Those behind the complex say it will create some 100 jobs during a 21-month build period.
In addition to fitted kitchens with integrated appliances, floor coverings and built-in storage, the so-called 'smart' apartments will feature options to control heating and lighting from a smartphone.
The previous plans for the site included a 60-bedroom apartment development.
It is understood TDK Property was appointed receiver for the location in July 2012 and subsequently brought it to market in 2014. It then reportedly sold for 717,000 in 2015.
There are already a number of apartment buildings in the area, including Lucas Building and Tyrone House on Ormeau Avenue, and Somerset Studios and Shaftesbury Court buildings on Marcus Ward Street.
David Menary from Colliers has claimed the new Portland 88 is in line with a push by local government to encourage more people to live in the city. He also said it "will be one of the first luxury apartments to be delivered in this area of city centre for a number of years".
He added: "It is illustrative of a returning confidence in the city, and lies in a prime location with key community facilities and amenities located within a short walking distance of the site. This development caters for city centre living as envisaged by Belfast City Council's Belfast Agenda which aims to see 70,000 more people living in Belfast by 2035. Portland 88 will no doubt appeal to young professionals and couples who work in the city and wish to live in an urban setting."
Following an independent investigation, Barclays has decided to issue chief executive Jes Staley with a formal written reprimand
Barclays boss Jes Staley will be probed by Britain's financial watchdog and have his pay docked over governance failings which saw him attempt to identify a whistleblower.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have opened an investigation into Mr Staley's conduct and senior manager responsibilities relating to the lender's whistleblowing programme.
Following an independent investigation, Barclays has also decided to issue the chief executive with a formal written reprimand and ensure that a "very significant compensation adjustment" be made to Mr Staley's bonus.
The incident refers to anonymous letters sent in 2016 to the board and an executive, which raised concerns about a newly-recruited senior employee and Mr Staley's role in the recruitment.
Having been given a copy of the first letter and made aware of the second, Mr Staley initially requested that Barclays Group Information Security team attempt to identify the authors of the letters as he considered they were an "unfair personal attack" on the employee, the bank said.
Barclays said that Mr Staley "honestly, but mistakenly, believed that it was permissible to identify the author" of a letter written by the whistleblower.
The board concluded that Mr Staley "made an error" in becoming involved with and not applying appropriate governance around the matter.
The attempt to uncover the whistleblower's identity was ultimately unsuccessful.
Mr Staley has apologised to the board, but will nevertheless see his pay docked, with the precise amount of the compensation adjustment to be determined once the FCA and PRA investigations have concluded.
Last year the American raked in 4.2 million, including an annual bonus of 1.3 million.
The bank is also commissioning independent reviews of its processes and controls, including its whistleblowing programme.
Barclays and Mr Staley will co-operate fully with the FCA and PRA investigations, the bank said.
Mr Staley said: "I have apologised to the Barclays board and accepted its conclusion that my personal actions in this matter were errors on my part.
"I will also accept whatever sanction it deems appropriate. I will co-operate fully with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, which are now both examining this matter.
"Our whistleblowing process is one of the most important means by which we protect our culture and values at Barclays and I certainly want to ensure that all colleagues, and others who may utilise it, understand the criticality which I attach to it."
Barclays chairman John McFarlane threw his weight behind Mr Staley, saying he has an otherwise exemplary record and continues to have the board's unanimous confidence and support.
Shares in Barclays nudged down 0.5% in morning trading.
Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, described the incident as an embarrassment and a distraction.
"Incidents like this do nothing to convince the public that banking misdemeanours are in the rear-view mirror, and this is undoubtedly an embarrassment, not to mention a distraction, for Barclays and its CEO.
"Barclays has actually been doing quite well under Jes Staley's leadership, so this error is a blemish in what was starting to look like a promising tenure.
"Shareholders will be doubly disappointed that the bank is once again in trouble with regulators, and that the man at the top of the organisation is responsible for it."
Victoria Square in Belfast should be in for a bumper Easter weekend
Footfall in Northern Ireland's shops fell by nearly 4% during March, the second month in a row which has experienced a steep drop, according to a report today.
Research company Springboard said that footfall had declined across all retail destinations - from high streets to retail parks and shopping centres - indicating that many people held back from all forms of shopping activity during the month.
Overall, footfall was down 3.7% - and Springboard said a lacklustre economic performance could be a factor.
A Springboard spokesman said: "Northern Ireland's economic challenges could be a contributing cause to the results, impacting consumer confidence and spending."
However, the Ulster Bank purchasing managers index (PMI) today (below) says business activity had grown during March, though at a slower rate than the UK as a whole.
Last month, Springboard and the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium pointed to the failure of political parties to reach agreement in Stormont as a factor holding back spending.
Footfall in Northern Ireland was down by 4.1% during February.
Peter Murray, manager of the Buttercrane Shopping Centre in Newry, said its footfall was down 1.5% during March.
He said Springboard's findings also tallied with a survey by data company Experian, which recorded a 5.22% fall in footfall in March.
And he said the timing of Easter - which last year, fell on March 27 - accounted for much of the slump, with this year's Easter spenders waiting until April to make their seasonal purchases.
"Easter took place earlier last year, which led to a spike in business in the run-up to and for the week after Easter.
"That was great, but we haven't gotten to that stage yet."
Meanwhile, Thomas Wallace, a director at Wallace's department store in Ballymena, Co Antrim, said its performance in March had been strong. Springboard has also forecast a bumper Easter for retail across the UK, predicting a jump of 5.4% over Easter weekend.
And Diane Werhle from Springboard predicted that the timing of Easter in the middle of the month two weeks after payday would help retail.
"Last year Easter took place on March 27, a few days in advance of national payday for many shoppers. This combined with poor weather conditions, impacted footfall, which declined across retail destinations from Easter Saturday onwards."
Mr Wallace said he expected crowds of Easter shoppers. "With the weather improving, we're likely to see plenty of shoppers and ladies getting their fashions for church at Easter."
Telecoms firm Onecom has said its Northern Ireland business has hit 1m in sales over its first few months of trading
Telecoms firm Onecom has said its Northern Ireland business has hit 1m in sales over its first few months of trading.
The independent provider said its target is to invest more than 5m in its operations here in the next five years, and to increase its workforce here to 30.
The company, which has four employees, said it had hit its target of 2,000 business connections within the first quarter in the market.
Paul Lawther, head of sales at Onecom in Belfast, said: "We have had a strong response from NI businesses to Onecom's offering and the figures are a clear indication that many of those companies have embraced both the brand and our products.
"It would have taken some of our competitors years to add the number of connections we have secured in a short time and we expect to make further inroads in market share in the coming months."
The company is currently co-listed in Australia and London
Shares in mining giant BHP Billiton rose sharply on Monday after it emerged activist investor Elliott Advisors is calling for an overhaul of the company's structure.
Elliott's proposals, outlined in a letter to directors of the firm, include unifying BHP's dual-listed structure into a single Australian-headquartered and tax resident entity.
BHP is currently listed in both London and Australia, with Elliott pushing for a de-listing in the capital.
Elliott, which owns 4.1% of BHP, is also demanding that the group demerge its US oil business and return more money to shareholders through shaking up its tax structure.
"The goal is to provide details of the BHP shareholder value unlock plan to all of BHP's shareholders, so that BHP can engage openly with all parties on the plan to unlock shareholder value," Elliott said in the letter.
The activist, which has a reputation for intervention in companies, said its proposals could help boost shareholder returns by circa 50%.
For its part, BHP rejected Elliott's plans, saying: "After reviewing the elements of Elliott's proposal, we have concluded that the costs and associated risks of Elliott's proposal would significantly outweigh any potential benefits.
"We have laid the foundations for the group to substantially grow the base value of its operations. Elliott's proposal would put this at risk."
It argued that, since 2001, BHP has returned around 23 billion US dollars to shareholders in buybacks and approximately 56 billion US dollars in cash dividends.
Shares in BHP rose 2.76% to 1,323p in London.
Helal Miah, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said: "We have seen a modest recovery in a broad range of commodities since the lows at the start of 2016.
"With all these dynamics coming together, interested investors may want to note that BHP has reported encouraging numbers in recent trading updates.
"The ongoing restructuring is taking BHP Billiton back in the right direction and we believe that the worst may be over for the commodities sector.
"We are therefore continuing with our Buy recommendation on the stock for investors seeking a balanced return and willing to accept a medium to high level of risk."
Pay for sub-contractors on plants in Rotherham and Sandwich is below the agreed rate, say Unite and the GMB
A union campaign against the "undercutting" of construction workers' pay on energy contracts in the UK is being taken to Denmark.
Unite and the GMB claim that pay for sub-contractors on energy from waste plants in Rotherham in Yorkshire and Sandwich in Kent is below the agreed rate.
The projects are being financed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, the investment arm of Pension Danmark.
Phil Whitehurst, national officer of the GMB, said: "If the Danish investors and construction companies took part in this kind of scheme back home in Denmark, they would be facing a prison sentence.
"This exploitation of workers and social dumping has got to stop, and if it takes civil disobedience on the gates of their construction projects in the UK, so be it."
Unite national officer Bernard McAulay said: " It is the height of hypocrisy when companies turn a blind eye to allow the exploitation of workers in the UK to boost profits, when such practices are illegal in Denmark.
"The Danish government cannot stand idly by and allow companies to continue to conduct these practices when they know that if they promoted the same policies at home, they would be prosecuted.
"Unite will use all its industrial power and influence to ensure that workers are not exploited and undercutting is ended in the construction industry."
Young violinist, Susanna Griffin, from Belfast, has been announced as the new Leader of the Ulster Youth Orchestra. Pictured with Susanna are Paula Klein, UYO, and Ciaran Scullion, Arts Council. (Picture by Brian Morrison)
Exceptional violinist, Susanna Griffin, from Belfast, has been announced as the new Leader of the Ulster Youth Orchestra (Picture by Brian Morrison)
A Belfast musician has been presented with a 237 year old violin after being appointed the new leader of the Ulster Youth Orchestra.
Susanna Griffin was given the Milton Violin, made by renowned Neapolitan violin maker, Joseph Gagliano, by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
The violinist will use the instrument throughout her time as leader of the orchestra.
The Arts Council's Head of Music, Ciaran Scullion, congratulated Susanna on her appointment, adding: "The orchestra has become a vibrant and creative force in the musical life of Northern Ireland, providing gifted young musicians with access to the very best professional players, tutors and conductors.
"We are delighted by the appointment of Susanna and have no doubt she will put this very special opportunity to great use."
Susanna is currently in her first year at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
She was appointed leader of the UYO following a 'highly competitive audition process'.
Paula Klein, General Manager of the Ulster Youth Orchestra said: Susanna has been a consistently strong member of the Ulster Youth Orchestra over the last four years and we are delighted that she has been awarded the position of leader in 2017."
She added: "The directors of the Ulster Youth Orchestra are extremely grateful to the Arts Council for providing the leader of the Ulster Youth Orchestra with the opportunity of playing such a fine instrument. Chances like this are extremely rare and we are proud to be able to give Susanna such a helping hand in her developing career.
The Milton violin was donated to the Arts Council by Professor Alan Milton in 1980. It has previously been used by the leader and principal players of the Ulster Orchestra.
In 2013 the Arts Council decided to loan the instrument to the Ulster Youth Orchestra to be used by 'exceptionally gifted musicians' in their role as leader.
University Challenge fans have insisted that Eric Monkman is still the peoples champion even though his team did not win the series.
The Wolfson College, Cambridge student has been a huge hit with viewers of the BBC quiz show thanks to his stellar performance, becoming a trending topic on social media and triggering declarations of love from fans.
His teams defeat by Joey Goldmans side from Balliol, Oxford has sparked a flurry of hilarious memes and comments online, with viewers sharing images and video clips of people looking aghast, sobbing and even rioting to demonstrate their feelings.
This year the University Challenge trophy was presented by Professor Stephen Hawking, and viewers took comfort in the fact that Monkman was able to meet the scientist.
Many viewers asked that the final not be the end of Monkman on the small screen.
Another impressed viewer tweeted: Eric Monkman needs his own show though, legend.
Trustworthy people in the church could accept and sensitively share secrets about where the IRA's "Disappeared" victims are buried, the head of Irish Catholicism said.
Four people abducted and killed by republicans who suspected them of being British informers have still not been found decades later.
Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin said there was an urgent need to develop truth-telling mechanisms about the past violence.
He added: "There must be so many people walking around today who know in their hearts that the information that they have locked down inside them is capable of unlocking the uncertainty and grief of families."
Despite extensive searches, the bodies have never been found of four out of 16 people targeted by the IRA during the conflict.
The hunt has been led by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, established in 1999 by an agreement between the British and Irish governments to obtain information in strictest confidence that may lead to where the bodies are buried.
Archbishop Martin added: "For our part, we need to find a mechanism of truth and information retrieval which will allow more of these people to come forward so that many more families can be set free from the agony of waiting and wondering, 'why?'
"Even in the absence of a formal mechanism, I am confident that there are trustworthy people in society and in the churches who would be willing, and could be empowered and enabled, to accept and sensitively share information in this regard."
Joseph Lynskey, SAS-trained Captain Robert Nairac, Seamus Ruddy and Columba McVeigh remain missing.
The archbishop said a special Mass for the Disappeared at St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh.
He expressed hope that someone would produce fresh or more precise information to help the Independent Commission with its search.
"There are people on all sides who carry secrets - memories of their own involvement in the deaths and injury of thousands of men, women and children.
"In some cases they pulled the trigger, planted the bomb, blindly followed orders or gave the command for death or punishment.
"In other cases they willingly drove a car, kept watch, spread fear, collected money or information, sheltered combatants, colluded or covered up, destroyed evidence or intimidated witnesses.
"These were awful, terrible times."
Enfield Parade, where the incident took place
A woman has been left with facial injuries after she was hit with a hammer during an alleged feud between neighbours.
Another woman was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over the incident.
Police are appealing for witnesses after the victim, who is in her 20s, was struck in the face in Enfield Parade in north Belfast.
She was taken to hospital for treatment to her injuries, which are not thought to be life-threatening.
The incident was reported to police at around 10.45pm on Saturday.
A 35-year-old woman was arrested and taken to Musgrave police station for questioning.
Detective Sergeant McPhillips said: "We would appeal to anyone who witnessed this incident or has information about it to contact police on the non-emergency number.
"Alternatively, if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details, they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers."
It's understood the incident was over a dispute between neighbours that "got out of hand".
Local PUP councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston described the attack as "horrifying".
"I am very shocked to hear about the severity of the incident, which is now being treated as attempted murder," she said.
"The circumstances surrounding the incident are unknown but we do understand that it was a neighbour dispute and police are appealing for information to try and piece together what happened.
"I understand the woman did not suffer life-threatening injuries.
"However, this was a nasty attack that could have ended very badly, as it got out of hand.
"My thoughts are with her and I hope she has a speedy recovery.
"I would urge anyone with information to come forward and if they don't want to share their personal details they can contact Crimestoppers, or they can contact me.
"This incident has sent shockwaves through the local community.
"Just last week we had a young man, Paul McCready, who died after he was attacked and he leaves behind two young children and a fiancee, and we certainly don't want a repeat of that.
"We don't want any more violence on our streets.
"This happened in a busy area with people in local bars and takeaways, so someone may have spotted something."
'No-one was seriously injured in the attack, although police had to fend off the youngsters whose violent antics delayed paramedics from attending to the patient' (stock photo)
A drunken mob of teenagers attacked police officers and paramedics as they attempted to reach a young man who had stopped breathing in a west Belfast park on Saturday night.
More than 100 youths on a drink and drug-fuelled rampage in Falls Park targeted around 10 officers, pelting them with stones as they escorted medics to the teenager.
No-one was seriously injured in the attack, although police had to fend off the youngsters whose violent antics delayed paramedics from attending to the patient.
SDLP councillor for Upper Falls, Tim Attwood, branded the attack as "disgusting".
He said: "The community is disgusted by the fact that this attack has taken place when the police and ambulance crew were trying to save someone's life.
"It was clear that the patient was in significant distress and there is no excuse for this attack.
"It is absolutely reprehensible that anyone would try to disrupt the emergency services in performance of their duties."
A PSNI spokesperson added: "Police officers attending the report of a person in distress at Falls Park in west Belfast on the evening of Saturday April 8 were attacked by stone-throwing youths in the area.
"No officers were injured as a result of the incident, and the person in distress was then located and tended to until the arrival of paramedics a short time later. There are no further details."
The incident was not the only attack on emergency services staff at the weekend. Children, some as young as 12, threw bricks and bottles at fire crews attending a blaze at Dunclug, Ballymena. Firefighters were called to the scene of a burning two-storey, end-of-terrace building following reports that people were trapped inside, when missiles were thrown at them. When three crews arrived shortly after 4.40am yesterday, the blaze was well-developed and teams wearing breathing apparatus fought to extinguish the fire.
Afterwards, youths fired bricks and bottles at a firefighter who had to put on his helmet to protect himself, before fleeing.
Group Commander Max Joyce said: "We were told that there were people inside but, thankfully, it turned out that no one was inside the building. The fire was quickly brought under control and as we were making up to go back to the station, one of our personnel came under attack with bricks and bottles.
"I have to say that the men and women who work for the Northern Ireland Fire Service put their lives on the line and serve the community, and do so willingly and, really, we do not expect to come under attack from youths.
"There needs to be a concerted effort by parents so they know where their children are, and by youth groups to stop these attacks on our personnel."
The top part of the property was substantially damaged although the occupied bottom flat escaped the flames.
Last night, one local resident said: "It is fortunate we are not talking about serious injury or death here. As well as the man living in the flat below there are families nearby, although the next door neighbours fortunately were away in Ballycastle.
"Youths have been burning sofas and other things on a piece of waste ground in the estate for the last few weeks."
A PSNI spokesman said: "The fire was reported to police at around 4.40am and is being treated as deliberate at this time. Substantial damage was caused to the house but there were no reports of any injuries."
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson last night urged new Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann not to turn his back on unionist co-operation.
The Lagan Valley DUP MP was reacting to comments made by the North Antrim MLA, who ruled out a single unionist party during his speech at Saturday's AGM.
Writing exclusively for the Belfast Telegraph today, Mr Swann warns against "retreating to the trenches" following the disappointing election results.
He said: "A single unionist party would limit choice, stifle debate and quickly result in the depletion of unionist votes at the ballot box.
"That is the exact opposite of what we should be trying to achieve."
Last night Sir Jeffrey urged him to adopt a "more positive" approach on co-operation.
He said: "We don't have to have a single unionist party to have greater unionist unity.
"There is no doubt the two main unionist parties at present are able to appeal to a broader range of unionists, but as we have witnessed in the last elections, there is much greater scope through collaboration for us to maximise the number of unionist seats, whether at Westminster or the Assembly."
The Lagan Valley MP added: "We are keen to work with the UUP to ensure unionist representation is maximised. I hope Swann will adopt a more positive response to this than his predecessor, because Mike Nesbitt cost unionism dear."
Mr Swann was confirmed the new UUP leader on Saturday, following the resignation of Mr Nesbitt, who stood down on the day of the election count when the UUP went from 16 to 10 seats.
The TUV also urged more co-operation.
"There is certainly scope for greater co-operation between unionist parties," a spokesman said.
"The most obvious is to underscore the need to transfer across the unionist family.
"It is important to remember that reducing choice within the unionist family is unlikely to increase turnout.
"In that respect, Robin is correct."
In his speech to the party AGM, Mr Swann said: "Whilst we can cite our vote increasing to 103,314, we did not turn those extra votes into seats.
"Who knows, in the next few weeks we may be dusting down the posters and walking shoes again.
"But we must be able to channel the hurt and frustration we feel today into a positive energy that drives us forward and transfers into the strength and determination that will turn results around."
The new leader urged members to ask themselves: "Could I have done more? Was I fully committed?"
He added: "My challenge to you is to consider the part you will play in the next election."
Mr Swann said he believed the achievement of party newcomer John Stewart, who took a seat in East Antrim at the expense of Sinn Fein's Oliver McMullan, could be repeated elsewhere.
"It is this party that is most likely to, and is best placed to, take further seats off Sinn Fein, in places like West Tyrone and Newry and Armagh, and I have my eye on a few other seats as well," he added.
In his first address as leader, he also insisted the UUP will not join the Executive if political agreements are made solely for the benefit of the DUP and republicans.
"Whilst I do not rule out any possibilities, if these talks end up being talks and agreements made by two parties for the benefit of two parties, then I say let it be an Executive of two," he said.
"Standing at the great height of 5ft 3-ish, I have had my experiences of people trying to bully me and push me around trust me, I have never been pushed around, nor do I intend starting to let people push me around, nor will I allow this party to be pushed around."
He also called for a funding boost to reduce health service waiting lists.
He said: "We have a daughter of six and a son of four - I want their experience of growing up in Northern Ireland to be very different from mine.
"I want them to grow up in a Northern Ireland at peace with itself, a Northern Ireland for all its people, a Northern Ireland which has a particular emphasis on the development of our children, which respects its elders and looks after the vulnerable."
Weapons have been found in the Tullyveagh Road area of Cookstown.
Police in Northern Ireland have found firearms and a quantity of ammunition during a search operation in Cookstown, Co Tyrone
The search was carried out after a member of the public raised concerns about objects he had discovered at Tullyveagh Road on Friday April 7
Detective Inspector Will Tate said: The items we have recovered include several rounds of ammunition and a handgun. The condition of the items and other evidence gathered at the scene would suggest they have been buried at that location for many years. They have now been sent for forensic testing.
"Our enquiries into this find are at an early stage and we would encourage anyone with knowledge of the items or any information that could assist the investigation to get in touch with detectives by calling 101, quoting reference number 1070 07/04/17.
Information can also be given anonymously to the Crimestoppers charity by calling 0800 555 111.
Rev Harold Good addresses a rally to celebrate the announcement of disarmament by Eta in Bayonne on Saturday
A former head of the Methodist Church has told of how he feared being arrested as he tried to end the longest-running terrorist campaign in Europe.
Rev Harold Good, who helped found the Corrymeela peace and reconciliation centre in the early 1970s, played a key role in the process that led to Basque separatist group Eta decommissioning its weapons.
The ex-Methodist President, who turns 80 later this month, was due back in Northern Ireland from Spain today. He spoke of his contacts in the Basque territory, which had been built up over the years.
He was also recently in Colombia to support the peace process developing between the government and Farc rebels.
And he spoke at the funeral of Martin McGuinness, revealing the senior Sinn Fein figure once shared a room overnight with him and fellow IRA decommissioning overseer Fr Alec Reid, who died in 2013.
Asked yesterday how he coped with the intense and sensitive work, he quipped: "There's no fool like an old fool."
But he added: "Saint Paul in Corinthians urges us to be foolish for Christ."
Rev Good and the Redemptorist priest Fr Reid were asked to become involved in discussions aimed at ending the violent Eta campaign for an independent Basque homeland.
"After the whole process of decommissioning around 2005 with Fr Reid, who had already been visiting the Basque region, he and I were invited by the Basque government to an awards ceremony," he said.
"It was only when I got there I realised it was to invite us to open up conversations with a range of people on what they could learn from our process.
"That brought me into a series of ongoing relations and I have been back and forward over a period of time.
"Every so often they would ask me to come and speak to a group or meet political folks, along with Fr Alec initially, and then he became unable to make those journeys and they asked me to continue in that role.
"They would come to Belfast from time to time and I met them there as well."
One attempt to stage decommissioning was thwarted last December when Rev Good believes he came close to being arrested.
"There was to be a formal act of decommissioning and I came over ready to play a role, and the French and Spanish police found out about it and they arrested some of the people involved," he explained.
"Fortunately, however, they didn't know where I was staying. I was in this house waiting for the door to knock and the authorities to arrest me.
"I am sure I would have been arrested, but I was able to get home the next day.
"It was a setback, but I give all credit to the leadership of Eta. The people arrested at that time were not Eta, but some of them were honourable citizens who were assisting in this process, but they were arrested and taken to Paris.
"There had also been a previous attempt (at decommissining).
"They kept being thwarted by the Spanish and French authorities, so various attempts had to be aborted."
That was until Saturday, when, in a discrete ceremony behind drawn curtains in a room in the town hall of the southern French city of Bayonne, a file containing details of Eta's arms dumps was handed over to Rev Good and the other witness, Archbishop Matteo Zuppi from Italy.
The inventory was then passed around the table and Ram Manikkalingam, head of the international verification commission, later confirmed the file had been handed over to the French authorities.
Comparing the procedures with IRA decommissioning, Rev Good revealed: "We had immunity with General John de Chastelain here, but in Spain they didn't give immunity.
"However, they agreed they would not interfere as long as all procedures were followed and so on.
"For us in Northern Ireland, the decommissioning process opened up new opportunities.
"I had been coming and going to the Basque Country over a number of years now trying to encourage them towards the historic day we had on Saturday.
"We've been able to tell them from our experience it opens up new opportunities, and without the disarmament and decommissioning, we'd lose those opportunities."
Eta members killed more than 800 in over 40 years of violence in its pursuit of an independent nation straddling Spain and France.
The organisation declared a ceasefire in 2011 but did not disarm.
French forensic experts can be expected to check whether the weapons have been used in the past.
Around 300 of Eta's 800 murders remain unsolved.
Police have made an appeal for information after a cyclist took a short cut through the corridors of a Northern Ireland school.
A CCTV image has been released of the cyclist who took a trip through St Patrick's High School, Maghera on Thursday, April 6.
On Facebook, Constable Murray said the cyclist nearly knocked over a number of people, and, as well as trespassing, committed other road traffic offences.
Appealing for information, the officer added: "Please don't let this person ruin the reputation considerate and responsible cyclists with his behaviour."
Hopes of a Good Friday Agreement 'Mark Two' are fading as Stormont negotiations enter another crunch week.
Secretary of State James Brokenshire effectively set Good Friday as the latest deadline - although there is speculation the talks will be allowed to continue if progress is being made.
Mr Brokenshire will be required, however, to take decisions setting a budget for government departments and deciding on a regional rate.
But he does not have to give an immediate verdict on calling another Assembly election or moving towards Direct Rule.
With meetings due to resume this morning, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has urged people to pray during the coming Holy Week for the talks.
Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin also sent a prayer poem written by the founder of the Christian Renewal Centre in Rostrevor, the Church of Ireland minister, Rev Cecil Kerr.
Archbishop Martin said he was conscious "as we begin Holy Week... this is a critical time in the peace process".
"Our politicians continue to seek a breakthrough at the talks in Stormont.
"I encourage everyone to pray this Holy Week that the talks will be guided by wisdom, courage, right judgment, and a spirit of cooperation and compromise," he said.
"Today I offer the following prayer which was written by Rev Cecil Kerr during some of the worst years of the Troubles, a prayer which we hoped would never have to be used again.
"I encourage all to pray for peace this week."
The poem includes the line: "Help us to be willing to bow before you in true repentance, and to bow to one another in true forgiveness."
Meanwhile, writing in the Belfast Telegraph today, Sinn Fein Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill argued the DUP has never endorsed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
"They may have paid lip service to it on occasions, but when it comes down to it; they have never supported the spirit or principles of the Good Friday Agreement itself," she said .
"This is at the core of the political breakdown we face today. And that is what has to change if there is to be any return to the political institutions. We must have unionist partners who accept equal partnership government and rights for all." It was a message underpinned by Sinn Fein MP Mickey Brady, who added: "It's increasingly clear that the British government and the DUP have not woken up to the key issues, which were at the heart of the election results.
"Dublin is not a spectator in all of this. In fact, the Irish government is a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement - it's time they started acting like it."
While the DUP remained silent over the weekend, Ulster Unionist MP Tom Elliott gave the downbeat assessment that achieving agreement would almost require a miracle. "There has been quite a lot of talking but in my view progress has been extremely limited, and it is going to take little short of a miracle to get a deal," he said.
Newly-elected UUP leader Robin Swann said: "It is damning that in 2017 the public debate is not centred around what policies our Executive will implement, but whether or not we will actually have an Executive."
Despite a more structured format to the talks, Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said: "The round table format offers the opportunity for more focused engagement, but there remains little sense of momentum on the part of a number of parties, and even an air of complacency over the consequences of continued deadlock."
Pride of the Raven Flute Band lead the parade to Trummery Cemetery
Dozens of people have attended a remembrance parade and service to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Co Armagh Irish Guardsman Trevor Bell.
The teenage soldier from Moira was killed in an ambush during the uprising against Crown forces in the British colony of Aden, which is now part of Yemen.
He died at just 19 on April 20, 1967.
The special service was held near Moira yesterday in what was described as a "poignant day" for members of the Bell family.
Brought up in the Meadow Road area of the vilage, he joined the Irish Guards as a boy soldier and was soon deployed to the Middle East.
He received a mention in dispatches for his bravery on the day he was killed.
In the tribute, members of the Ulster Branch of the Irish Guards Association paraded to Trummery Cemetery, where he is buried.
Senior Padre Col Alex Bennett from Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn conducted a short service at the graveside.
It was followed by a wreath-laying.
Veterans who served and were with Trevor on the evening of his death were present.
Also in attendance were Lisburn and Castlereagh mayor Brian Bloomfield and Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP MP for Lagan Valley.
Four of Mr Bell's brothers attended the service, as well as members of the wider family circle.
Speaking after the parade and service, brother John said: "It was a poignant day for us but it is gratifying to see that Trevor has not been forgotten."
Mr Donaldson said it was an important occasion to mark the anniversaries of those who "sacrificed their lives" in conflicts.
"The Bell family was greatly encouraged by the very strong turnout from the military fraternity and from the members of the public who attended, and their sense of loss, even 50 years later, would have been helped by the support of those who came along," he said.
"After Trevor Bell's death he was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery in providing covering fire for other members of his patrol, and he lost his life while doing that.
"At his funeral in 1967 there were over 5,000 people present at the small country graveyard at Trummery.
"Yesterday's citation was read by the chairman of the Ulster Branch of the Irish Guards Association, Major Bert Smith."
He added: "Aden is a conflict which is very often overlooked and it's important that we remember those who sacrificed their lives in far off countries in service of our country, and we need to let the families know that their loved ones are not forgotten."
Sinn Fein northern leader Michelle O'Neill leads some of her party colleagues out into the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings in east Belfast to speak to the media. April 10, 2017
Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill has said the coming days are critical in the Northern Ireland talks process, but after Friday it will be over to the electorate.
Speaking at lunchtime on Monday, the Sinn Fein leader said the party was committed to making the devolved institutions work, but there had been no sign of a change in attitude from the British Government or the DUP.
The Mid Ulster MLA said: "We want the institutions to work, but they have to deliver for all. So we will take the days ahead of us, but it is a critical period.
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"If we don't see the fundamental issues addressed - which Martin [McGuinness] set out very clearly in his resignation letter and I would encourage people to go back to that - if the DUP and the British Government do not take on board those issues then it is very, very difficult and there will be little progress or little opportunity to address what needs to be addressed."
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She continued: "We remain committed in trying to deal with issues that are there. We have set out what we want to see delivery on but we need to see a different approach from the DUP and British Government
Mrs O'Neill said there can be no return to the system that allowed ministers to make "solo runs or bigoted decisions". But after five weeks there had been "little progress".
"Post Friday it will be over the electorate," she said.
Asked if the party would not enter government with Arlene foster until the Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry had reported, Mrs O'Neill said: "Yes, our position is on the record and very clear in relation to Arlene Foster.
"We need to deal with all the others issues before considering nominating for first and deputy first minister."
Secretary of State James Brokenshire effectively set Good Friday as the latest deadline - although there is speculation the talks will be allowed to continue if progress is being made. Mr Brokenshire will be required, however, to take decisions setting a budget for government departments and deciding on a regional rate. He does not have to give an immediate verdict on calling another Assembly election or moving towards Direct Rule.
The UK Government is seeking privileged access to the EU's single market at the same time as controlling EU immigration once the UK has left the EU
Northern Ireland could join a European free trade association after Brexit, researchers said.
It would maintain membership of the EU's single market and address many of the concerns surrounding a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, the European Policy Centre (EPC) pro-Europe think tank added.
The European Economic Area (EEA) agreement unites the EU member states and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway into an internal market.
It allows free movement of goods, capital, services and people for work, the latter a contested provision ahead of Brexit talks .
The EPC said: "The European Economic Area (EEA) option would, however, ensure a high degree of continuity with the status quo.
"With the EEA there would be clarity; the economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit would therefore be reduced."
Britain is seeking privileged access to the EU's single market at the same time as controlling EU immigration once the UK has left the EU.
The policy centre acknowledged joining the EEA would be no panacea for the challenges associated and would pose political and constitutional problems for the UK while requiring its founding agreement to be amended.
It said the measure would address a range of the concerns set out in the only substantive statement so far to emerge from the Northern Ireland Executive on Northern Ireland's interests in the case of Brexit: the August 2016 letter of the then First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to the Prime Minister.
The letter stressed that Brexit could not be allowed to compromise cross-border efforts to tackle organised crime and those opposed to the peace process.
The ministers also said it was critical to the economy that businesses retained their competitiveness and did not incur additional costs.
It highlighted the need to retain access to sources of skilled and unskilled labour in the EU.
The vulnerability of an agri-food sector reliant on EU subsidies was also raised, as were concerns that a proportion of billions of euro of EU funds for projects in Northern Ireland may not be drawn down due to the exit.
The report from the EPC said under its proposal t here would be no participation in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or the EU's structural funds; and Northern Ireland as part of the UK would be outside the customs union, which would allow the UK Government to conclude its own trade agreements with other states.
Sinn Fein has supported a vocal campaign calling for special status for Northern Ireland post-Brexit.
Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire has ruled the move out, and DUP MP Sammy Wilson, who represents the largest party in the country, has said all parts of the UK should leave the EU on an equal basis.
The exhibition has been organised by the Orange Order
A major exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation has opened at a museum run by the Orange Order in Belfast.
In 1517 Martin Luther published his attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences, launching a watershed for Christianity throughout Europe.
A display entitled Staunch And True at the Museum of Orange Heritage examines the impact and legacy of the event.
The Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Edward Stevenson, said: "Our latest major exhibition provides an informative insight into the historical context of the Reformation and how its powerful legacy impacted and inspired future generations."
The exhibition also explores how figures within the Orange Order have played their part in the spread of the Reformation.
It includes a reproduction of a 16th Century printing press, which was integral to communicating Luther's writings across Europe, as well as an Erasmus Greek New Testament Bible, dated 1527.
Museum curator, Dr Jonathan Mattison, said: "Whilst there were key figures before Martin Luther, his actions 'burst the dam' in terms of bedding in the Protestant Reformation.
"Like all revolutions 1517 was not an end in itself but has had a continuing impact on all aspects of life, not least through the creation of democratic politics and freedom of the individual.
"Staunch And True is Northern Ireland's most significant examination of the Reformation and its enduring legacy."
The exhibition opening comes ahead of a major rally to mark the Reformation anniversary in Co Armagh next month.
Members of the loyal orders will take part in a procession through Portadown on Saturday May 6, prior to a religious service at Shamrock Park.
Northern Ireland's bars and restaurants will miss out on 16m thanks to the ban on selling alcohol on Good Friday, a leading industry figure has claimed.
Hospitality Ulster chief Colin Neill warned that the province could be left behind by the Republic, which plans to lift a 90-year-old restriction on the supply of alcohol on Good Friday.
The new law is expected to be in force for Easter next year.
Mr Neill said: "Once again we are left lagging behind our second largest tourism market and nearest competitor, the Republic of Ireland. With their progressive licensing laws that offer customers what they want and a Tourism VAT rate of 9%, it's Northern Ireland that will lose out, and that's a fact.
"You only need to visit Carlingford this Easter and watch the buses arriving from the north to see just how much we lose every Easter."
Mr Neill said that "this is not just about one day; we have restricted sales over the entire Easter weekend".
"The hospitality industry will lose out on over 16m of income - money that pays the rates and wages, and sustains many small business across the province," he said.
He urged politicians to work to restore Stormont to allow reforms to go forward.
"The Assembly had made some progress to amend our licensing legislation, but that Bill fell when the Assembly fell," he added.
"We don't do politics, but this is another clear example of how no devolved government is impacting our economy and I would appeal to our elected representatives to find a way to re-establish the NI Assembly and implement a Bill that will make real changes to our licensing laws."
Two boys look at the dead porpoise on the banks of the Clanyre River
Onlookers were stunned to see the body of what initially appeared to be a small dolphin eight miles inland on the banks of a Co Down river over the weekend.
The USPCA animal rescue charity responded to a call from a member of the public on Saturday after the remains were spotted on the Newry section of the Clanrye River.
Spokesman for the charity, David Wilson, told the Belfast Telegraph that the carcass was that of a harbour porpoise and the incident was not being regarded as a cause for concern.
"The creature was dead when we responded to the call on Saturday and we believe it had been dead for some time," he said.
"Harbour porpoises are one of the more common cetaceans found in the Irish Sea and, unfortunately, they sometimes end up being stranded."
The harbour porpoise is one of six species of porpoise and is one of the smallest marine mammals.
Mr Wilson said they are relatively common in Irish and UK waters. "The animal presumably came from Carlingford Lough where there is a known population," he explained. "It is impossible to say what happened, but it is likely that it died at sea and has just been washed up. Only one carcass has been discovered so we are not regarding this as a cause for concern."
As its name implies, the harbour porpoise rarely strays from coastal areas or river estuaries. As a result, it is the most commonly observed of marine mammals, usually spotted by enthusiastic whale watchers.
They often venture up rivers and have been seen hundreds of miles from the sea.
Mr Wilson said that because the mammal is believed to have been dead for a considerable time, an examination of its remains would not be necessary.
"A post-mortem examination conducted on any animal that has been dead for more than a few days would most likely prove inconclusive," he commented.
The USPCA said the relevant agency has been notified.
An Irish parliamentary watchdog has backed a ban on fracking, with a warning that it would be irresponsible to allow it.
After a months-long inquiry, cross-party politicians found that drilling for shale gas from rocks, sands and coal seams creates the potential for groundwater contamination, leaks and surface chemical spills.
In its report to be published on Wednesday and seen by the Press Association, the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment said that uncertainty over how much greenhouse gas is produced by the industry is reason enough to ban it.
And it warned that a "vigorous regulatory regime" may not be enough to prevent pollution.
"The committee accepts that, while there may be economic advantages and enhanced energy security for Ireland in allowing unconventional oil and gas exploration, the committee is of the view that these benefits are outweighed by the risks to the environment and human health from an as-yet relatively untried technology," the report said.
The committee said its likely that investment in renewable energy would be hit by further exploitation of fossil fuels.
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Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, involves drilling into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is forced into rock to release gas.
Last October, cross-party TDs backed proposed legislation on the ban, put forward by Fine Gael TD for Sligo-Leitrim Tony McLoughlin and subsequently examined by the committee.
The fracking bill is due back before the committee in May with Government amendments before it will be voted on again in the Dail.
Oisin Coghlan, director of Friends of the Earth Ireland, urged the committee to progress the bill without further delay.
"I understand the report reflects the overwhelming evidence that the committee received that the risks from fracking outweigh any possible advantages," he said.
"We have now established all party political support. There's obvious public support for a ban and now the committee's analysis of the evidence is also clear, but we don't think the parliamentary process reflects the urgency of the issue, I worry the Government is trying to delay it.
"It's a simple bill. It's time to get on and pass it."
Three exploratory licences were granted in Ireland in 2011 for fracking, but no extraction has taken place.
A report for the Environmental Protection Agency late last year warned of three areas of concern on fracking - polluting groundwater from failing or deteriorating wells; underground cracks spreading hundreds of metres; and gas leaks, including of methane, from shut-down well heads and deterioration.
Last month, Sligo councillors voted for a second time to include a ban on fracking in the county's new development plan.
While backing the proposed ban on fracking, the committee has called for the legislation to include penalties for breaches and it also recommended the proposals be extended to include geothermal or other activities which could be used to access shale gas in other ways.
France, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Germany have all banned fracking.
Forensic officers examine the remains of the IRA car which housed the Hyde Park bomb
The aftermath of the 1982 Hyde Park IRA bombing which killed four soldiers and injured 31
Families of soldiers killed in the IRA bombing in London's Hyde Park have launched a campaign to take a civil legal action against a former suspect in the attack.
Launching a bid to raise 650,000 needed for a civil court case, relatives of two of the four members of the Royal Household Cavalry who died in the 1982 blast told The Sun they wanted "justice" for their loved ones.
UUP MP Danny Kinahan was the best man at the wedding of Lieutenant Anthony Daly - whom he had served alongside in the Blues and Royals regiment - just four weeks before the officer's death in the attack.
The ruling that the victims families were not granted legal aid to fund a civil case against John Downey, unbelievably because it was not deemed to be in the public interest, added further anguish. I have previously called for the Government to step in and provide legal aid to the families, which they have refused to do.
The families deserve the right for Downey to be held to account in a court of law over the murder of their loved ones, and I urge everyone to get behind this campaign so justice can be done.
Convicted IRA member John Downey was charged four years ago with the murders, which he denied, but the prosecution at the Old Bailey collapsed in 2014.
The case against the Co Donegal man was ended because government officials mistakenly sent him a letter in 2007, as part of a controversial On The Runs (OTRs) scheme, telling him he was no longer a wanted man.
Sarah Jane Young, daughter of Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young, who was 19 when he was killed, has filed a civil claim at London's High Court against Mr Downey, the newspaper said.
"I commend Sarah Jane Young and Mark Tipper for their tireless campaigning. As they have made clear this is about principle not punishment'.
The fact that John Downey, the chief suspect, was able to walk free from court in 2014 because he was in possession of a so-called comfort letter sent to on the run IRA terrorists, was a clear distortion of the justice system."
Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Suspect: John Downey The aftermath of the 1982 Hyde Park atrocity The Hyde Park bombing which left four soldiers dead in 1982 / Facebook
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The car bomb left in South Carriage Drive killed Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, 36, Lieutenant Anthony Daly, 23, Trooper Simon Tipper, 19, and Lance Corporal Young and injured others as they rode through Hyde Park to the changing of the guard.
Seven horses were also killed as the soldiers travelled from their barracks to Buckingham Palace. Another horse, Sefton, survived terrible injuries.
Backing the claim Mark Tipper, an older brother of Trooper Simon Tipper, told The Sun: "If we can get this man before the courts in some way, it will show the British public at least still believes in justice.
"We've been let down again and again by the authorities over the past 35 years and, if I'm honest, at times we've almost given up hope.
"We just want to get justice for them, no matter how long that takes."
They have set an initial target of 150,000. Writing on the Crowd Justice fundraising page, Mark Tipper added: "The lives of my family and other victims families have been ripped apart by what happened that day. The pain and suffering for all of us continues because we have been repeatedly let down by our Government.
"To meet our target would be incredible."
Donations can be made online or in your bank using these bank details: Sort code 18-00-02, and account number 04507118. Cheques can be sent to : Hyde Park Justice Campaign, Fourth Floor, 158 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9TR. Any money left over will be donated to other legal actions for serving members of the Armed Forces or victims of terrorism and their families.
You can follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
Police at a ceremony by the Police Roll of Honour Trust to add the names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance in London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday April 10, 2017. Pc Palmer was killed in the Westminster attack in March while Pc Browning died in April, more than three years after being seriously injured when he was hit at high speed by a stolen car while on duty. See PA story POLICE Westminster. Photo credit should read: Rick Findler/PA Wire
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer on April 10, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. A Full Force funeral is held for PC Keith Palmer who was killed in a terrorist attack in Westminster whilst on duty on March 22, 2017. The funeral is attended by his family, including his wife and child, and officers from the Metropolitan Police who served alongside him. Officers from the wider service across England and Wales also attend to honour their fallen colleague. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer on April 10, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. A Full Force funeral is held for PC Keith Palmer who was killed in a terrorist attack in Westminster whilst on duty on March 22, 2017. The funeral is attended by his family, including his wife and child, and officers from the Metropolitan Police who served alongside him. Officers from the wider service across England and Wales also attend to honour their fallen colleague. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer on April 10, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. A Full Force funeral is held for PC Keith Palmer who was killed in a terrorist attack in Westminster whilst on duty on March 22, 2017. The funeral is attended by his family, including his wife and child, and officers from the Metropolitan Police who served alongside him. Officers from the wider service across England and Wales also attend to honour their fallen colleague. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
File photo dated 09/04/17 of the coffin of Pc Keith Palmer passin a police guard of honour as it arrives at Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London, where he will rest overnight ahead of a full police funeral at Southwark Cathedral. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday April 10, 2017. Pc Palmer, who was murdered in the Westminster terror attack, will be honoured with a full police funeral today. See PA story POLICE Westminster. Photo credit should read: Paul Grover/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 09: The police helmet of PC Keith Palmer is removed from the hearse and passed to an officer at The Palace of Westminster on April 9, 2017 in London, England. PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death in a terrorist attack while on duty at the Palace of Westminster on 22 March, 2017. His body is returned to the Palace today to stay in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft ahead of his funeral tomorrow at Southwark Cathedral. (Photo by Paul Grover-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer passes a police guard of honour as it arrives at Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London, where he will rest overnight ahead of a full police funeral at Southwark Cathedral. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 9, 2017. Pc Keith Palmer, 48, was stabbed to death by extremist Khalid Masood last month as he carried out his duties on the cobbled forecourt outside Parliament. See PA story POLICE Westminster. Photo credit should read: Paul Grover/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer passes a police guard of honour as it arrives at Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London, where he will rest overnight ahead of a full police funeral at Southwark Cathedral.
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 09: The coffin of PC Keith Palmer is carried into at The Palace of Westminster on April 9, 2017 in London, England. PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death in a terrorist attack while on duty at the Palace of Westminster on 22 March, 2017. His body is returned to the Palace today to stay in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft ahead of his funeral tomorrow at Southwark Cathedral. (Photo by Paul Grover-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 09:The police helmet of PC Keith Palmer is removed from the hearse and passed to an officer at The Palace of Westminster on April 9, 2017 in London, England. PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death in a terrorist attack while on duty at the Palace of Westminster on 22 March, 2017. His body is returned to the Palace today to stay in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft ahead of his funeral tomorrow at Southwark Cathedral. (Photo by Paul Grover-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Police at a ceremony by the Police Roll of Honour Trust to add the names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance in London. Pic: PA wire
The coffin in Pc Keith Baker is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral after resting overnight.
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: The funeral cortege of PC Keith Palmer makes its way from The Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral on April 10, 2017 in London, United Kingdom.
A single red rose is pictured in front of the police helmet of PC Keith Palmer, the officer killed in the March 22 Westminster terror attack, as the hearse carrying his coffin leaves the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft within the Palace of Westminster in central London, en route to Southwark Cathedral.
The hearse carrying the coffin of PC Keith Palmer, the officer killed in the March 22 Westminster terror attack, leaves the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft within the Palace of Westminster in central London, en route to Southwark Cathedral. Palmer was fatally stabbed as he stood guard in front of Britain's Houes of Parliament in Westminster on March 22, 2017, by Khalid Masood, after the 52 year-old convert to Islam drove into pedestrians at high speed near parliament, killing four other people. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Ben STANSALLBEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images
A police officer stands guard next to the police helmet of PC Keith Palmer, the officer killed in the March 22 Westminster terror attack, at the spot at which he was killed, before the hearse carrying his coffin left the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft within the Palace of Westminster in central London, en route to Southwark Cathedral. Palmer was fatally stabbed as he stood guard in front of Britain's Houes of Parliament in Westminster on March 22, 2017, by Khalid Masood, after the 52 year-old convert to Islam drove into pedestrians at high speed near parliament, killing four other people. / AFP PHOTO / POOL AND AFP PHOTO / Ben STANSALLBEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images
The coffin in Pc Keith Baker leaves Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London and makes its way to Southwark Cathedral after resting overnight.
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer makes it's way along York Road to Southwark Cathedral in London after resting overnight at Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft.
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer leaves the Palace of Westminster in London on its way to Southwark Cathedral after resting overnight.
The coffin in Pc Keith Baker leaves Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London and makes its way to Southwark Cathedral after resting overnight.
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer makes its way along York Road to Southwark Cathedral in London after resting overnight at Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft.
The funeral for Pc Keith Palmer has taken place with thousands of police officers filling London's streets to pay their final respects.
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The 48-year-old was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood as he carried out his duties on the cobbled forecourt of the Palace of Westminster.
His funeral cortege, led by the Metropolitan Police Colour Party and a "Black Guard" of mounted officers, left the palace, where his coffin laid in rest overnight, on its journey to Southwark Cathedral, in central London.
Pc Palmer's coffin travelled along 2.6 miles of the capital's usually bustling streets, avoiding the scene of last month's atrocity on Westminster Bridge, to arrive for the 2pm ceremony.
A floral tribute left on top of the hearse read: "No 1 daddy".
Around 50 members of Pc Palmer's family including his wife, child, mother and father, brother and sisters attended the cathedral service, led by the Dean of Southwark The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn.
Met commissioner Cressida Dick, the first female head of Scotland Yard in its 188-year history, also attended.
The Met said more than 5,000 officers from the force and across the country were expected to gather in central London for the service and to line the route, which saw dozens of roads closed to traffic for hours.
Columns of officers in dress uniform, many with service medals pinned to their jackets and wearing white gloves, lined up near the cathedral as on-duty colleagues involved in the large security operation stood guard.
Expand Close The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer makes it's way along York Road to Southwark Cathedral in London after resting overnight at Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft. PA / Facebook
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Whatsapp The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer makes it's way along York Road to Southwark Cathedral in London after resting overnight at Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft.
Members of the public also began to line the barriers several hours before the service began.
Ahead of the service, Chief Constable Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said the scale of the funeral would be unprecedented.
She told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire Show: "I don't think we will have ever seen a police funeral of this size. We all want to pay honour to the ultimate sacrifice that Keith made."
Expand Close A single red rose is pictured in front of the police helmet of PC Keith Palmer, the officer killed in the March 22 Westminster terror attack, as the hearse carrying his coffin leaves the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft within the Palace of Westminster in central London, en route to Southwark Cathedral. AFP/Getty Images / Facebook
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Whatsapp A single red rose is pictured in front of the police helmet of PC Keith Palmer, the officer killed in the March 22 Westminster terror attack, as the hearse carrying his coffin leaves the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft within the Palace of Westminster in central London, en route to Southwark Cathedral.
The Queen gave permission for Pc Palmer's body to rest in Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, an honour normally reserved for senior figures.
Ms Thornton said the gesture had had a "tremendous impact" on police as they go about their duty.
She said: "The fact Keith has laid in rest in the Palace of Westminster is a sort of acknowledgement on behalf of the whole country of the sacrifice that he made but also the job that officers do day in, day out."
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Full service funerals are normally only held when a police officer or member of staff dies while they are carrying out their duty, Scotland Yard said.
The last full police funeral for a Met officer killed in the line of duty was in October 2013 for Pc Andrew Duncan, who was killed the month before after being hit by a car while checking vehicle speeds in Sutton, south London.
Pc Palmer's name has been added to the roll of honour and remembrance at a ceremony at the National Police Memorial on The Mall, in central London, complete with a guard of honour.
Steve Lloyd, of the Police Roll of Honour Trust, said: "We hope that knowing their loved one's name are to be forever remembered will bring some small comfort to the families of the fallen officers."
Four other innocent people were killed and dozens of others injured in the 82-second atrocity in Westminster on Wednesday March 22, which ended with Masood, 52, being shot dead.
Andreea Cristea, 31, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Kurt Cochran, 54, and Aysha Frade, 44, died after Masood ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.
Shocking footage has emerged of a doctor allegedly bleeding after being dragged off an overbooked United Airlines flight.
The man, who has not been publicly identified, had boarded a flight from Louisville to Chicago on Sunday night when staff said the plane was overbooked and they needed four people to leave.
They offered an incentive of around 750 and a free hotel stay but when nobody volunteered they chose four passengers at random.
The first two people are understood to have reluctantly left but another man - who was travelling with his wife - refused and said he is a doctor and had to see his patients this morning.
Videos taken by other passengers show security appearing to pull the man out of his seat and drag him along the aisle.
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Witness Audra Bridges claims that the man returned to his seat but looked dazed and disorientated and was then brought away again.
The man can be heard screaming in the clip, while someone else says: "This is wrong."
Onlooker Jayse D Anspach claimed: "A couple of airport security men forcefully pulled the doctor out of his chair and to the floor of the aisle.
United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0 United (@united) April 10, 2017
"In so doing, the doctor's face was slammed against an arm rest, causing serious bleeding from his mouth.
"It looked like he was knocked out, because he went limp and quiet and they dragged him out of the plane like a rag doll."
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United Airlines apologised in a statement for the overbooking but did not comment on the footage.
They said: "Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked.
"After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.
"We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities."
United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement: "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United.
"I apologise for having to re-accommodate these customers.
"Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened.
"We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve the situation."
Police found a 'bomb-like' device and sealed off a busy street in Oslo
A 17-year-old asylum seeker from Russia was arrested on Sunday in connection with an explosive device found near a busy underground station in Norway's capital that police defused before it detonated, authorities said.
The youth was detained on suspicion of handling explosives, but investigators do not know if he planned to carry out an attack with the homemade device, Signe Aaling, chief prosecutor for Norway's PST security service, said.
Ms Aaling described the explosive as "a primitive improvised explosive device with limited damage potential".
"PST is now working on finding his intentions and find out whether others are involved," she said.
The youth was not identified, but security service head Benedicte Bjornland said Norwegian intelligence was aware of him.
He is an asylum-seeker from Russia who arrived in Norway with his family in 2010, Ms Bjornland said.
Ms Bjornland also alleged the youth was part of "extreme Islamism" circles in Norway.
He was arrested based on a tip from the public, Ms Bjornland said without elaborating.
"It is likely that that attacks in France, German, Great Britain, Russia and Sweden can create a copycat effect in Norway with people with Islamic sympathies," Ms Bjornland said, listing the locations of extremist attacks that have devastated Europe in the last year.
"The attacks demonstrate how easy such attacks can be carried out, and prove to others that it is possible to make something similar," she added.
The teenage suspect's lawyer, Aase Karine Sigmond, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK her client denies wrongdoing and had distanced himself from the Islamic State group.
"We are talking about boyish stupidities," the lawyer told NRK.
The teen, who lives in Oslo, is scheduled for a pre-trial custody hearing on Monday.
The discovery of the explosive on Saturday night, found on the street just outside the Groenland underground station, prompted police to evacuate late bars and restaurants in the Norwegian capital.
The Oslo explosive was found less than a mile from the government buildings that were damaged in a deadly bomb attack carried out by right-wing extremist Anders Breivik in 2011.
That bomb and a subsequent gun massacre at a Norwegian island killed a total of 77 people.
Norway was put on high alert after neighbouring Sweden suffered a lorry attack in Stockholm on Friday that killed four people and injured 15.
The risk of a significant attack striking the country was raised on Sunday to "likely" for what intelligence officials said would be a two-month period.
AP
A British father who was killed in the Stockholm terror attack has been described as a "talented, compassionate and caring" person.
Chris Bevington (41) was one of four people who died when a lorry mowed down pedestrians in a busy shopping district of the Swedish capital on Friday.
Mr Bevington lived in Stockholm with his family and worked as a director with music streaming service Spotify.
His father, John Bevington, said: "We are all devastated by the untimely and tragic death of our talented, compassionate and caring son Chris.
"A wonderful husband, son, father, brother and close friend to many. The family requests absolute privacy at this incredibly difficult time to mourn his passing in peace."
Spotify founder Daniel Ek told of his shock that his colleague had died in a "senseless attack".
In a statement, he said: "Chris has been a member of our band for over five years.
"He has had a great impact on not just the business but on everyone who had the privilege to know and work with him.
"There are no words for how missed he will be or for how sad we all are to have lost him like this. Whilst this terrible news is sinking in, our primary focus is on supporting the family and loved ones of Chris in any way we possibly can.
"I am as deeply saddened and upset as all of you that something like this could happen in Sweden. The only light in this deeply tragic moment is the outpouring of love, compassion and solidarity that we have seen from everyone."
Of the other three people who died, two were Swedish, and one was a 31-year-old woman who had been living in Halle, Belgium. The suspected attacker, arrested on Friday, is a 39-year-old asylum seeker from Uzbekistan who had his application for residency rejected last year, according to Swedish police.
The force have revealed the man was known to authorities some years ago but as "a more marginal character".
At a press conference yesterday they said he was sympathetic to extremist groups and had been sought by authorities for deportation.
Authorities added that they had arrested a second suspect and questioned more than 500 people in the investigation so far.
Ten of the 15 victims injured in the attack are still being treated in hospital, four of whom remain in a serious condition. Two of those are in intensive care.
One child was injured but not seriously, a spokeswoman for Stockholm County Council confirmed.
Following the rampage, Sweden's prime minister Stefan Lofven said "everything indicates that this is a terrorist attack" and later vowed he would not give in to attempts to destroy democracy.
Theresa May pledged solidarity with the country in the wake of what she described as a "terrible attack" and said "the UK stands firmly by Sweden's side".
Over the past two decades Ireland has been transformed as a result of the peace process. Peace was declared 19 years ago in 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which promised a new political dispensation in the North.
It recognised that the constitutional and political conditions of the North had to fundamentally change.
No longer could the British/unionist state deny nationalists equality of opportunity, parity of esteem, recognition of our Irish national identity or political power.
It also offered a democratic alternative to political conflict.
The Agreement was hard won after the culmination of months and years of protracted all-party talks, political negotiation with the governments and not least the loyalist and republican ceasefires.
The people of Ireland voted overwhelmingly in support of the Agreement in referenda held north and south.
It was hailed across the world as an historic event in modern Irish history and forever changed the relationships within, and between, Ireland and Britain.
However, almost 20 years on, there remains unfinished business to resolve which is of critical importance to the Agreement's continued relevance and therefore success.
Yes, of course, huge progress has been made and there is no doubt that our society has been transformed for the better.
We have moved from a society in conflict to one of peace.
Sinn Fein and others, have acted faithfully to the spirit and principles of the peace process and the Good Friday and subsequent agreements.
The problem is, however, that not everyone signed up to the Agreement in 1998, most obviously the DUP as former partners in the power-sharing Executive.
The DUP opposed the Good Friday Agreement at the time and, in essence, have opposed it ever since. They may participate in the structures and institutions created by the Agreement, but as Martin McGuinness made very clear in his letter of resignation, the DUP have never fully embraced the principles of equality and respect, which underpin it.
They may have paid lip service to it on occasions, but when it comes down to it; they have never supported the spirit or principles of the Good Friday Agreement itself.
This is at the core of the political breakdown we face today.
And that is what has to change if there is to be any return to the political institutions.
Sinn Fein, as the voice of Irish nationalism and republicanism, cannot return to the status quo or return to business as usual. We must have unionist partners who accept equal partnership government and rights for all.
There will be no return to petty-minded and bigoted ministerial decisions, which seek only to antagonise and insult the nationalist community.
There will be no return to the treatment of any group of people as second-class citizens based on their ethnicity, religion, who they love or what language they speak.
There will be no return to the arrogant disregard for the squandering of public money which risks investment in frontline public services and the integrity of the whole Executive and Assembly.
There will be no return to the short-sighted dismissal of the need for genuine reconciliation and peace-building where we work to heal the wounds of our society together.
Because, it was this lack of respect for others, this failure to embrace equality, and this disregard shown to the Agreement and the hundreds of thousands who supported it that helped create the situation where Martin McGuinness called time on the DUP's actions and behaviour.
There is now an opportunity to fix what is fundamentally broken in the political process, to move society forward into a new era together and to organise a modern, progressive society, which treats citizens fairly and decently. To provide inclusive, good government and quality public services which better people's everyday lives.
That is not a republican wish-list or a radical agenda. It is a reasonable expectation in 2017 and 19 years after the Good Friday Agreement.
We are asking for basic standards of equality, fairness and good governance.
The Good Friday Agreement isn't dead but the political process is certainly broken.
However, it can be fixed and that is what Sinn Fein is determined to achieve.
That is the challenge which Martin McGuinness set us all.
That is why we set out our stall before the people, and there can be no doubt - the message was made clear at the ballot boxes on March 2.
The onus is on the DUP to live up to its responsibility to share power on the basis of equality and the terms established in the Good Friday Agreement.
The British Government and James Brokenshire must stop pandering to those holding our society back from progress and towards a future. It is now time to at last deliver on the unfinished business and face towards the future rather than live in the past.
It is about the politics of hope over fear, and for nationalists and republicans it is now or never.
Philippine Coast Guard personnel run toward the newly commissioned Multi-Role Response Vessel BRP Malapascua that will be deployed in Sulu province to take on the Abu Sayyaf Group, March 7, 2017.
The planned Tuesday launch of joint maritime patrols to curb kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants in the Sulu and Sulawesi seas has been delayed because the Philippine defense chief was unable to join his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts at the event, officials said.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the launch would be moved to a later, unspecified date, because all three defense ministers are needed for the signing of the trilateral security pact in the spirit of friendship and solidarity.
Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has been directed to accompany Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on an official visit to the Middle East from April 10 to 16, Hishammuddin said in explaining the delay.
Malaysian and Indonesian officials announced last week the launch would be held at Sandakan Sabah Naval Base, in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. Invitations were sent to reporters to cover the event and Indonesian officials said five journalists would be traveling to Malaysia.
The launch will culminate nearly a year of planning for the joint patrols. In May 2016, foreign ministers from the three countries agreed to launch the patrols, followed one month later by a defense ministers meeting to discuss the plan. By November, an Indonesian spokesman said a series of obstacles had slowed efforts.
Foot-dragging
Indonesia had earlier delayed in confirming attendance at Sandakan, suggesting the launch be staged on Indonesian soil instead.
Indonesia military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto had proposed the joint patrols begin on April 20 in Tarakan, in North Kalimantan province, because many of ASGs kidnapping victims were Indonesian.
Well adjust to the plans of each of the defense ministries, Wuryanto told BenarNews on Monday regarding the delay. Indonesia could still serve as host for the launch, he said.
We will try that if it is possible. But in principle it can be anywhere, Wuryanto said.
For years, ASG has been kidnapping and holding hostages for ransom, and executing some of them. In February, the group released a video showing the beheading of a German hostage, Jurgen Kantner, after a deadline for a U.S. $600,000 (2.6 million ringgit) ransom passed.
Last year, ASG militants were blamed for attacks on ships in waters between Borneo island and the southern Philippines that resulted in abductions of dozens of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors. Most have been released, but seven Indonesians are still believed to be in ASG captivity. Other hostages include 13 Vietnamese, a Dutch national, a Japanese and seven Filipinos.
In 2016, ASG collected at least 354.1 million Philippines pesos (U.S. $7.3 million) from ransom paid for hostages, Philippines-based news website Rappler.com reported.
An Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told BenarNews last week that a temporary plan for the joint patrols launch called for ships from the three countries to gather in Tarakan, Indonesia, sail to Sandakan, Malaysia, and from there head to Bongao in the Philippines.
The three locations are naval bases of each country which have been appointed as the command centers and are given the authority to issue notice to mariners if there is an attack, Bebeb Djundjunan told BenarNews last week.
Lorenzana has said little about the joint patrols since the proposed launch date was announced last week. He did tell the Financial Times that he hoped the patrols would keep the sailors safe and also prevent the movement of terrorists from one place to another.
Thai plainclothes police hold Panya Pi (seated, center), following his arrest on suspicion that he planted a bomb in Yarang district, Pattani province, April 9, 2017.
In a rare statement Monday, the largest insurgent group in Thailands Deep South appeared to reject a two-year-old peace process with the military government, suggesting that a panel negotiating on behalf of rebel factions lacks a mandate to do so.
But the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) restated its belief that the decades-old separatist conflict on Thailands southern border could be resolved through dialogue and demanded it play a direct role in fresh talks witnessed and mediated by impartial members of the international community.
Regarding the Patani peace dialogue which is currently under way, it should be represented by delegations that are mandated and authorized by the two negotiating parties and must also comply with international norms, the secretive BRN said. The negotiation process should not be designed by any particular party other than the negotiating parties.
[I]n any peace dialogue acquiring absolute mandate from the constituency and conveying the peoples aspiration is one of the most important things, said an English version of the two-page statement from the BRNs Information Department dated April 10 and obtained by BenarNews through Thai military sources. The statement was printed on BRN letterhead.
It did not name parties involved in the peace efforts the Thai military, the rebel panel known as MARA Patani, or Malaysia, which has been facilitating informal talks in Kuala Lumpur since 2015 but BRN was sending the message it wants to negotiate directly with the Thai junta and rejects MARA as a legitimate party in talks, analysts told BenarNews.
BRN is dismissing MARA Patani as irrelevant. The leadership is also reminding Bangkok that this dispute is between them and the Thai state and others shouldnt set the terms for the talks. said Don Pathan, a BenarNews columnist and Thai Deep South analyst.
Zachary Abuza, a U.S.-based expert on insurgencies in Southeast Asia, said the BRN wants the government to deal with it, not MARA Patani, and they want some sort of clear road map for talks and deliverables.
Rebels split over talks?
MARA Patani officials have said the panel acts as an umbrella to negotiate with a single voice for peace in the Deep South on behalf of all the rebel groups, including the BRN. In February, MARA Patani and the Thai delegation agreed to a framework for setting up a safety zone or limited ceasefire in one of the districts in the four southern provinces touched by the insurgency.
Nearly 7,000 people have been killed since 2004 in violence associated with the conflict in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking region.
The BRN quit the peace process in October 2015. Though they still sit on MARA Patani, it is not clear to me whether they still hold the majority, let alone, the chairmanship and the secretary positions. My sense from a previous round of talks, was that they had a representative in the room, but that he was there more as an observer, rather than a lead, Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington D.C., told BenarNews on Monday.
After the BRN issued its statement, a spokesman for its Information Department told the Asia Times the BRN was playing no part in the MARA Patani umbrella group.
BRN has never given a mandate to anyone or any agency in terms of sending a delegation to join the ongoing process between Mara Patani and the Thai government, BRN spokesman Abdulkarim Khalid said.
Abuza said the BRN statement questions Malaysias credibility and impartiality as mediator of the informal peace process.
MARA Pattani was created by the Malaysian government, at the urging of the Thai government, he said. Without Malaysian pressure, MARA would not exist. I think the BRN wants to communicate its displeasure with KL, in that the Malaysian government continues to push MARA to the table, even when the BRN has made its position on the peace process very clear.
BRN issued its rare statement four days after Thailand enacted a new constitution that, critics have said, allows the military to retain its influence over government. The statement came three days after 23 acts of sabotage a combination of bomb blasts and arson attacks rocked the Deep South, took out utility poles and caused power outages in the region. Police blamed rebels for carrying out the acts and have since arrested four suspects.
It was telling, Abuza said, that BRNs statement followed on the heels of the new charters proclamation.
The constitution makes any devolution of political power or even cultural autonomy all but illegal, he told BenarNews, referring to demands made by the BRN in past peace talks. The constitution is all about centralization of power. The BRN looks at the charter and can legitimately ask whether the Thai government has any interest in reaching a negotiated political solution.
Thats the style of the BRN
Meanwhile, Gen. Aksara Kerdpol, the army officer who leads the Thai delegations in talks with MARA Patani, cast doubt on the statements authenticity.
Lets double-check the information. We cannot conclude that the statement document is genuine. I dont think BRN would issue such a statement, Aksara told BenarNews, adding the Thai side would ask Malaysia to verify whether this document came from BRN.
However, a source with MARA Patani suggested the statement bore BRNs imprint.
Based on its Malay statement, thats the style of BRN. And, from what I know, that is what the BRN really wants and would like to see in negotiations, the source told BenarNews.
BenarNews staff in Pattani, Thailand, contributed to this report.
Updates to correct details about BRN's statement.
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For Immediate Release, April 10, 2017 Contact: Collette Adkins, Center for Biological Diversity, (651) 955-3821, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org
Aaron Acus-Souders, Sierra Club (Clean Water Campaign), (937)-903-5396, Aaron.AcusSouders@SierraClub.org Thousands in Ohio Ask State to Ban Unlimited Wild Turtle Trapping Commercial Traders Now Sell as Many Turtles as They Can Catch COLUMBUS, Ohio As of today, the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club Ohio have sent more than 3,800 letters asking the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to end unchecked commercial collection of the state's wild turtles. Turtle traders in Ohio can now legally collect unlimited numbers of common snapping and softshell turtles to process and sell domestically or export for Asian food and medicinal markets. The letters support a petition seeking a ban on for-profit turtle trading filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and several Ohio-based conservation organizations in January. The state agency has not yet responded to the letters or petition. For-profit turtle traders should not be allowed to put the state's turtles at risk, said Collette Adkins, a Center biologist and senior attorney who authored the January petition. Ohio desperately needs limits on the number of snapping and softshell turtles trappers can take from the wild. Selling so many turtles for meat is bad for the turtles, of course, but also for all of us who care about the health of the state's waterways and wetlands. Under current regulations in Ohio, anyone with an annual fishing license may trap and sell unlimited numbers of common snappers, spiny softshells and smooth softshells. Although Ohio law prohibits live export of turtles, traders can sell live turtles within the state or process the animals to sell across state lines or overseas for meat and medicinal markets. Also, because turtles bioaccumulate toxins from prey and burrow in contaminated sediment, turtle meat is often laced with mercury, PCBs and pesticides, posing a health risk. Adult turtles are also taken from the wild to breed hatchlings for the international pet trade. All of our neighboring states ban or limit for-profit turtle trapping, and Ohio should too, said Aaron Acus-Souders, a clean water advocate from the Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club. None of the states that share a border with Ohio allow unlimited commercial collection of turtles. Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana and West Virginia prohibit all commercial collection of turtles, and Pennsylvania enforces strict bag limits. During its April 12 meeting, the Ohio Wildlife Council will accept public comment on the state's turtle regulations. The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Wildlife District One Office in Columbus. Background
Scientists have repeatedly documented that freshwater turtles cannot sustain any significant level of wild collection without population declines. In a 2014 study, researchers found that, looking at mean demographic rates, no harvest could be sustained for softshells, and common snappers could withstand only minimum rates of juvenile harvest and no adult harvest. As part of a campaign to protect turtles in the United States, the Center for Biological Diversity has been petitioning states that allow commercial turtle collection to improve regulations. In 2009 Florida responded by banning almost all commercial collection of freshwater turtles from public and private waters. Then, in 2012, Georgia approved state rules regulating the commercial collection of turtles and Alabama completely banned commercial collection. Last fall, the Missouri Department of Conservation announced in response to a Center petition that it will consider ending unlimited commercial collection of the state's wild freshwater turtles. Most recently, in March, new regulations setting closed seasons and possession limits for for-profit turtle trappers in Iowa went into effect. Also last year, in response to a 2011 Center petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in May added four turtles including common snapping turtles, smooth softshell turtles and spiny softshell turtles that are targeted in Ohio to a list called CITES Appendix III. Trade in Appendix III species requires an export permit and documentation that the animal was caught or acquired in compliance with the law, allowing the United States to monitor trade closely. The animals must also be shipped using methods designed to prevent cruel treatment.
For Immediate Release, April 10, 2017 Contact: Wendy Park, (510) 844-7138, wpark@biologicaldiversity.org Oil Wells Leaked Into Corpus Christi Water Supply, Records Show Group Expands Records Probe for Choke Canyon, Somerville Reservoirs CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas Two plugged oil wells beneath the Choke Canyon Reservoir were found in 2012 to be leaking into the reservoir in south Texas, according to records obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity through a Freedom of Information Act request to the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Choke Canyon Reservoir is one of three major water-supply lakes for the Corpus Christi Water Department. The department supplies water to Corpus Christi, 17 other cities, and in total more than 440,000 residential customers. To gather more information about the spills and potential impacts, the Center is launching more public information requests to the Texas Railroad Commission and Corpus Christi. Records obtained thus far do not indicate the amount or type of pollution that resulted from the leaks or whether those leaks are ongoing. Oil and gas development in and around Choke Canyon Reservoir threatens communities that rely on this precious drinking water source, said Wendy Park, a Center attorney. People who drink this water have a right to know how these leaks happened and whether their water is safe. The public needs to understand whether more oil well leaks are likely. News of the leaking wells comes as the Bureau of Land Management plans in June to lease federal public lands in and around Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Somerville, near Brenham, for more fracking. Conservation groups and the city of Corpus Christi filed formal protests in February challenging the plan, raising concerns about spills, water contamination and earthquakes that could jeopardize dam integrity. Last week the Brenham City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the BLM's plans to allow fracking beneath Lake Somerville. The mayor is expected to sign and finalize it in coming days. The resolution cited concerns that loss or contamination of the lake's water supply would be catastrophic for its residents. Lake Somerville is the city's sole drinking water source.
Download the Bureau of Reclamation records here.
Download today's new records request here. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.2 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
The first awards event aimed at acknowledging members of the PR community in Nigeria, took place last week, under the banner of the Corporate Communications Awards.
Corporate Communications Awards, Nigeria
The Corporate Communications Awards, the first of its kind award event in Nigeria aimed at celebrating the outstanding achievements in Nigerias corporate communications industry, brought together the industry at a gala networking event in Lagos.
The award celebrates successful reputation management and corporate communications campaigns of organisations in all sectors, whilst acknowledging the different personalities behind them.
Winners emerged via nominations by corporate communications professionals, public voting, as well as deliberations by members of the advisory board and various industries, including the media, academia and corporate communications.
Winners were presented with a plaque in recognition of their outstanding achievements in Corporate Communications.
Sesema PR, the organisers of the CCAS, extended congratulations to all award winners. Said Tampiri Irimagha-Akemu, MD, Sesema PR: The CCAs identified and rewarded the very best in corporate communications. The award event will be an annual feature of Nigerias corporate communications industry.
Winners at the CCAS 2017 are:
Jago Milk, for The winner in you, best use of video award.
Wedding party by Elfike Film Collective, best use of PR in entertainment award.
Keex Tribe (Jide Ipaye), best use of PR in SME.
Funke Akindele, best use of individual PR award.
Union Bank, best rebranding project award.
Indomies You like no other campaign, won the campaign of the year award.
Special media recognition was also given to Guardian, Ebonylifetv, and Bellanaija.
Francesca Uriri, founder, Leading Ladies Africa and PR manager at Weber Shandwick, won the Alima Atta Excellence award.
Amaechi Okobi, group head, communications and external affairs, Access Bank Plc, emerged corporate communications professional of the year.
In attendance were industry players such as, Yomi Badejo-Okunsanya; group CEO CMC Connect; Anudeep Sharma; marketing head Sosaco Nigeria Ltd; Otega Ogra; group head corporate communications BUA Group; Usman Imanal, corporate communications manager; Stanbic IBTC; Irene Kayoma, Payporte head corporate strategy; Toyin Egbebi, corporate communications, Ericsson; Dooyum Okwong, marketing communications and customer experience manager, Letshego; amongst others.
The CCAS also featured a competition for young graduates - The Corporate Communications Pitch Competition (CCPC). Deniran Oghenemine, a graduate in business administration from the University of Benin, emerged winner in the IT/Digital aspect of the CCPC; while Steven Aghalu, a graduate of mass communication, also from the University of Benin, emerged winner of the PR aspect of the CCPC. The winners were presented with cash prizes of N130, 000 each and a six months paid internship at Sesema Public relations.
The Corporate communications award is an initiative of Sesema Public Relations. The CCA 2017 was supported by The International School of Communication and the School of Media and Communications, Pan Atlantic University.
The 2017 World Media Awards , which celebrate the effectiveness of cross-platform, cross-border, content-driven advertising, have awarded the Grand Prix to Maxus Global for its From Zica to Tiago' campaign for Tata Motors and the World Media Award for the 'automotive' category.
Were delighted to have won this prize, said Nick Vale, worldwide head of planning at Maxus Global. Supporting quality journalism in 2017 is something which I think is important to all of us. To do it by entering the World Media Awards and then winning that is special. We are thrilled.
Emma Winchurch-Beale, president of the World Media Group and international sales director at the Washington Post commented, We were delighted to see a notable increase in entries for this years World Media Awards, with submissions from all over the world. As advertisers strive to target consumers globally, a successful content-driven ad campaign can be a powerful way to tell a brands story across multiple channels and borders.
Tata Motors entry From Zica to Tiago is a great example of this, inspiring consumers to engage with the brand on a personal level. Demonstrating authenticity, openness and collaboration, this innovative campaign is well-deserving of the Grand Prix Award.
Three head judges, Ian Armstrong, global advertising GM, Jaguar Land Rover, Sanjay Nazerali, global chief strategy officer with Carat Global and Raquel Bubar, director T Brand Studio International at The New York Times presided over a panel of 30 senior judges from major brands, agencies and media owners. They had the challenge of selecting seven category winners and a Grand Prix winner from the entries received from across the globe.
View the 2017 winners here.
#Newsmaker: Accenture Digital's Wayne Hull on business today and tomorrow
After spending 13 years in the Middle East, Pakistan and Switzerland where he was at the forefront of the cutting-edge technology in the areas of the Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics and online media, Wayne Hull recently assumed the role of MD and head of Accenture Digital for South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Wayne Hull Hull joined the company at such a time when the impact of the fourth industrial revolution affects business and government. Here, he shares more about his new role and explains what this means in terms of the digital opportunities and challenges facing the latter today and tomorrow Why are you most excited about your new role? Why are you most excited about your new role? We are operating and living in a new world. A world where digital is creating changes at unprecedented levels of speed and scale. There is no doubt that all businesses and governments will be impacted in some form, and for most, in a very significant way. This creates a reality of opportunity and risk. I am excited to be able to partner with our clients as we together prepare for and take advantage of this brave new world. I truly believe Accenture Digital globally and in SA is best positioned through its experiences and people to lead, support and partner with our clients and the overall digital ecosystem. This is exciting! What have been some of your most notable achievements to date? What have been some of your most notable achievements to date? I never think about my achievements. I spend my time thinking about the journeys that I have been on, what I have learned from them, and how I can leverage these lessons and new insights to make my current journey remarkable and memorable. The most recent professional journeys that really stand out for me are: setting up new businesses from ground zero in Pakistan and Qatar; managing a business in the Middle East in the height of the global and Dubai economic crisis; and the success and failure from building an international IoT software venture. And now, I am in the midst of my digital South African journey. Comment on the companys growth strategy, and how you intend to drive it. Comment on the companys growth strategy, and how you intend to drive it. Accenture Digital South Africas aspiration is to more than double our business over the next three years, both organically and through potential acquisitions. We partner with our clients to imagine, create and deliver extraordinary digital experiences with transformational results. Our strategy to achieve our aspiration is: by building a leading digital interactive agency, by moving our clients data from a system of record to a system of insights and to a system of engagement, and by being able to deliver all digital experiences through different platforms. What's at the top of your to-do list? What's at the top of your to-do list? I love what I do! And I love it because I believe deeply that the two equalisers in life are the internet and education. The digital opportunity for South Africa as a country and for its citizens is to leverage this new digital world to accelerate our socio-economic situation, and bring new innovations and business models to our business that make us globally competitive.
My top three priorities are: 1) building SAs leading digital service provider by partnering with our clients to imagine, create and deliver extraordinary digital experiences with transformational results; 2) creating a digital culture across our business, our clients and our ecosystem that inspires new ways of working; and 3) sharing innovative digital South African success stories globally.
What are some of the opportunities and challenges currently facing the company? What are some of the opportunities and challenges currently facing the company?
The impact of the fourth industrial revolution is what is facing all of us across all businesses and governments.
At a country level, today, the intersection of mobile and a young population is a significant socio-economic opportunity. However, the cost and scale of connectivity is a significant prohibitor to accelerated benefits. Tomorrow will be the countrys ability to initiate policy from co-ordinated discussions between private and public enterprises and policymakers around the opportunity and implication of artificial intelligence and robotics to our workforce.
At a business level, the opportunity and challenge is being able to manage the operational realities of business today, whilst transforming your business to be able to service new customers with new products and services tomorrow. All businesses, small and large, will be required, in more significant ways than most realise, to do things differently. At the core of this change are two areas: 1) the capability to accelerate transformation of brands and service providers to create highly individualised experiences based on individual customers unique motivations, and 2) to embed digitisation in the current operations and create new digitised operations.
What has been your most noteworthy learning in the space?
Some of our clients are engaging deeply in the new digital world, and the first strategic step is to start setting up a digital hub in the organisation where digital ideas, experiences and prototypes can be born is critical. The critical step is to start today, and to ensure the governance and investment around this is strategic for the business or government department.
What are you currently reading / listening to for work?
I am currently reading Peter Thiels Zero to One. Amazing insights! And I love Big Think and Silicon Valley online weekly journals.
Tell us something about yourself not generally known.
I am not crazy about the dark or heights, and my biggest indulgence is cigars, particularly Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No. 2.
Sovereign Foods moved back into the spotlight last week when its share price shot back towards its all-time high of 950c on large volume trade.
Traders said about 2-million shares changed hands in one deal that was thought to be the final unwinding of RECMs stake in Sovereign.
The share price closed at 939c on Friday.
Marthinus Stander, CEO of Country Bird Holdings (CBH), which launched a dramatic takeover bid for Sovereign in September 2015, said he had no knowledge of what was behind the trade.
He said there had been no developments with the proposed acquisition, which was suspended late last year when the Takeover Regulation Panel ruled the offer had lapsed.
The panel said CBH could not make another offer until September 2017. Stander earlier this year said CBH, which has built up a 34.1% stake in Sovereign, had no intention of walking away from its bid to acquire a controlling stake.
The acquisition would help CBH to move further down the value chain.
Last weeks strengthening in the Sovereign share price was all the more dramatic as it coincided with a sharp drop in Astral Foods share price.
It plummeted from a high of R157 on Tuesday to a close of just over R142. The fall was prompted by a trading update advising shareholders that headline earnings per share for the six months to March 2017 would be down by between 50% and 60%.
This means headline earnings per share are expected to be between 387c and 310c.
The share price slumped despite last weeks update reflecting a slight improvement on the early February update, which pointed to an earnings decline of more than 75% for the interim. Astral said the improved outlook since early February was due to planned poultry production cutbacks in the three months to end-March.
The cutbacks were implemented to avoid prolonged overstock conditions. Astral was also able to adjust its selling prices to offset the effect of the new brining legislation.
The longer-term outlook for poultry producers had picked up recently in the wake of indications that government was willing to provide support for the industry as well as signs of relief from the drought.
Local producers had been rocked by the effect of high volumes of imports from Europe and Brazil. In recent months producers and workers have persuaded the government to take a tougher stance in exchange for investment and employment undertakings.
The recent scandal around contaminated meat exports from Brazil is likely to cut supplies from that country. However, last weeks ratings downgrade is expected to dampen economic activity.
The Department of Environmental Affairs has suspended EnviroServ Waste Management's licence to accept, treat and dispose of waste at the Shongweni landfill site in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, because of the "catastrophic" situation there.
High levels of landfill gases have been emitted from the site, causing a very bad smell in the Shongweni/Hillcrest area and creating a health and environment hazard. The department claims that EnviroServ, which has been charged under the National Environmental Management Act, failed to take the action needed to remedy the situation. EnviroServ denies the claim . It is due to appear in court on 11 April.
EnviroServ is a major player in the waste management industry and operates throughout the country. The suspension comes into effect within four working days of EnviroServ receiving the notice and will remain in force until the department decides to lift it.
The department said in a statement on Wednesday, 5 April, that EnviroServ had failed to comply with the provisions of the law and conditions of its waste management licence at the Shongweni landfill site. It had reached its suspension decision after carefully considering all the reasons EnviroServ provided for why this should not happen.
EnviroServ group CEO Dean Thompson said the company's legal experts were considering the suspension notice.
"The provisional advice is that an appeal will be filed against this directive as we believe that not all relevant information has been properly considered. Last week, we shared information with the Department of Environmental Affairs relating to fresh data obtained from three real-time air quality monitors.
"These monitors revealed the presence of high levels of sulphur dioxide [a harmful gas with a pungent odour], a gas typically produced by combustion processes and which does not emanate from landfill sites. This, to our knowledge, has yet to be followed up by the authorities.
"Our remediation plans as agreed upon with the department remain on track to mitigate our diminishing contribution to the existing odour problem in the coming months.
"The good news is that because of interventions we've now put in place, the average emissions leaving the site are dropping. This has been confirmed by tests done by independent experts as well as our own real-time air monitoring."
The company says it has invested more than R15m to tackle the problem and is confident that it will bring the odour under control by end-August.
The department said that despite the measures taken by EnviroServ "there is still an unacceptably high level of landfill gases being emitted from the Shongweni landfill site, which the authorities have confirmed to be the source of the malodour emanating from the site".
The department also said: "The decision to suspend the waste management licence is therefore one of the significant steps to a permanent solution to this catastrophic situation."
Source: Business Day
Water and Sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane has performed a sod turning to mark the commencement of phase two of the Lushushwane Bulk Water Supply Project at Bettysgoed Village, in Mpumalanga.
The Lusushwane Bulk Water Supply project is aimed at providing water to the rural communities of the Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality.
The project, from phase one to phase three, is funded by the Department of Water and Sanitation with the Gert Sibande District Municipality as the implementation agent.
The scheme in all its phases is valued at R90,151,000. On completion, it will benefit communities including Bettysgoed, Smithfield, Oshoek, Lochiel, Robinsdale, Aankomst, Pampoen, Houtbosch and Hartbeeskop.
Speaking at the sod turning ceremony on Friday, 7 April, Mokonyane said all the work that the department does is meant to develop the lives of women, girl-children, and more so the youth, particularly the Africans, who were always at the tail-end of the services value chain.
We are here to ensure that this bulk supply project really is off the ground because it is vital for the socio-economic progress of at least 16,000 people in the vicinity. It is a scheme that is also cognisant of all kinds of growth, including economic and population, Mokonyane said.
As the scheme continues to operate, the minister said there needs to be a way of ensuring that the infrastructure does not collapse, that being through continuous operations and maintenance.
The availability of water must also impact upon better sanitation solutions. Teams will be set up to ensure that in the next two months a plan be put in place to look at how sanitation services can be improved.
Expressing the necessity to protect infrastructure, Mokonyane said it is essential to recognise that the infrastructure in place is meant to service all members of the community.
Each member of the community has an equal responsibility to protect all water and sanitation infrastructure, together with all other infrastructure that supports communities.
If the Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill is enacted in its present form, it will have far-reaching consequences on the agricultural sector, affecting all owners of agricultural land. Foreign nationals and owners of agricultural land holdings determined to be in excess of ceilings for land ownership will be affected, with the excess of land being made available for redistribution, with or without expropriation.
Land commission
The Bill makes provision for the establishment of a land commission, appointed by the minister responsible for rural development and land reform.
The commission will compile a register of public and private agricultural land ownership. Every owner of a private agricultural land holding must lodge a notification of ownership with the commission in the prescribed form within 12 months of the commencement of the Act, if enacted in its present form. The notification is to include the race, gender and nationality of the owner, and the size and use of the agricultural holding. If a person is a foreign person or becomes one or ceases to be one, that person must also file a notification within 90 days of such change of status.
Agricultural land
This is defined as all land other than land which forms part of a proclaimed township or land in respect of which an application for the establishment of a township has been submitted prior to the commencement, land which is excluded by the minister by notice in the Gazette or which has been determined to be non-agricultural land in accordance with the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 2013.
Every person who acquires ownership of a private agricultural land holding after the commencement must lodge a notification with the commission within 90 days of the acquisition. A registrar of deeds may not register the transfer unless the notification has been lodged with the commission.
Foreign person
By definition this is a natural person who is not a citizen or not ordinarily resident in South Africa, a foreign juristic person (excluding a foreign juristic person controlled by a black person as defined in the Employment Equity Act, 1998 (Black Person)), or a juristic person in which a foreign person or foreign juristic person holds a controlling interest, which includes a trust.
After the Commencement, foreign persons may only conclude long leases of agricultural land (30 to 50 years) and such long leases must be registered in a deeds registry within 90 days of conclusion.
A foreign person wishing to dispose of an agricultural land holding must offer it to the minister who will have a right of first refusal to acquire ownership of such land. The minister must exercise the right within 90 days. If the minister does not exercise the right, the foreign person must make the land available for acquisition to the citizens. This process will presumably be addressed in regulations. A registrar may not transfer such land unless these provisions have been complied with.
The minister must, after consultation with the commission and the minister responsible for agriculture, determine the categories of ceilings for agricultural land holdings in each district. In making such determination, the minister is to have regard for various issues such as land capability factors (which include cropping factors, current output, soils, viability, water availability and infrastructure), capital requirements, annual turnover, income levels, price margins and other prescribed matters.
Certain public statements indicate that an ownership cap of 12,000 hectares may be imposed on foreign persons.
Redistribution
Owners of agricultural land must notify the commission of the identity of the portion of such agricultural land holdings which constitutes redistribution agricultural land in terms of the provisions of the Act. The Bill makes provision for an arbitration process to be followed in the event a dispute between the owner and the Commission, regarding such excess land.
A black person must be offered the redistribution agricultural land within a prescribed period, whereafter the minister will have a right of first refusal to acquire such land for a further period.
If the owner and the minister are not able to reach agreement as to the price for the redistribution agricultural land, the minister may expropriate the land in question, subject to the expropriation laws at the time. Institutional funds which are owners of redistribution agricultural land may apply for exemption from these expropriation provisions.
More than 300 Kenyan farmers have received GlobalG.A.P. certification - opening the door to the European market - with support from the International Trade Centre (ITC). The producers, who represent nine farmers groups in Murang'a County, 150 kilometres north of Nairobi, received certificates during a stakeholders meeting on 15 March at the Practical Training Centre of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya in Thika.
The certification was achieved under the Netherlands Trust Fund (NTF) III Kenya Avocado project, implemented by ITC and the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The benefits of having GlobalG.A.P. certification include access to new business opportunities, especially in the European market, and the ability to earn higher incomes through price increases for their now-certified products.
Promoting good agricultural practices
GlobalG.A.P. stands for Global Good Agricultural Practice and is a private standard that sets out requirements for farming processes and food safety. As one of the most prevalent certifications for the European market, GlobalG.A.P. opens doors for Kenyan exporters to build more long-term relationships with European buyers and generate higher incomes.
The first step to achieving certification was the establishment of one-to-one linkages facilitated by the project between the farmers groups and exporters in 2015. The approach included localisation and identification of farmers groups, as well as the identification of individual farmers and the varieties and quantities of their avocado trees.
Based on that, the farmers' capabilities of meeting the needs of Kenyan exporters in terms of volume and quality were analysed. Contractual agreements were signed and hence fixed prices and terms of delivery for each group were set.
Ensuring long-term success
Throughout 2016, the farmers groups and technical advisers of each exporting company received training on compliance with GlobalG.A.P. audit requirements. This included activities such as the development of individual quality management systems and the implementation of internal audits.
In each farmers group, harvesting and hygiene supervisors were selected and trained on specific aspects, such as recordkeeping and post-harvest handling, as well as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP).
These follow-up activities have led to job creation: farmers are now taking on more responsibilities along the avocado value chain. Previously, they worked with middlemen who harvested and collected avocados, leading to unreliable practices and prices. Now, using this new model supported by the NTF III Kenya Avocado project and the GlobalG.A.P. certification, farmers are earning on average two times more than what they used to earn through middlemen.
After receiving the GlobalG.A.P. certification, a representative of Harir International, one of the beneficiary companies, said: "I would like to thank ITC for the support that we have received. We highly appreciate the whole team that made this journey worth it. We will strive to make this sustainable and impactful for our smallholders."
Exporters supported the farmers groups by investing in infrastructure, including collection sheds, first aid boxes, offices and hygiene facilities that are required for GlobalG.A.P. certification. They are planning to invest in additional groups in coming years to increase their volume of GlobalG.A.P.-certified avocados and tap into the increasing demand for avocados in the European market.
Neale Petersen, founder and publisher of Real Estate Investor Magazine, kicked things off at the recently launched Property Buyer Show. The first leg of the show took place at the CTICC in Cape Town, 8-9 April.
Neale Petersen, founder and publisher of Real Estate Investor Magazine
Petersen, who's been involved in the property game for over 25 years, discussed the required mindset to becoming a property investor. He was part of the Property Investor Theatre Programme lineup.
Financial freedom
Property is the way to go if you want to achieve financial freedom, said Petersen, but it's a long-term game. What makes it such a compelling sector is that everyone has to live somewhere, and with the current housing shortage in South Africa, property makes for a smart investment choice, he explained.
Drawing from his experience and from working with a range of investors, Petersen provided practical tips to use on a day-to-day basis to outperform the market.
Educate yourself, he said. Along with reading books, he advised that keen investors should attend industry seminars and broaden their circles with like-minded individuals in order to create a support network.
Drill into the details
Verify your information, he emphasised, and sort the fake news from the legitimate news as not doing so could lead to poor decision-making. One of the big property lies is that there is one single market, he explained: "There are multiple markets, and you can break them down into different sectors, different areas - so there's not just one size fits all for everybody - it doesn't work like that. You need to go into the street... you really need to drill down into the details."
Next, he advised, is to put together a strategy based on what you hope to achieve - whether you're a first-time investor, a more seasoned player, whether you're looking at commercial or residential investments, or if you're looking to invest off-shore.
Find partners, he said, and events like the Property Buyer Show are the places you're most likely to find them. As far as big deals are concerned, opportunities are available every day: "Debt, death, departure, divorce, downsize - that's where your big deal is - and that's your starting point... because these things happen every day," Petersen explained.
Avoid the emotional rollercoaster
Be prepared for things going wrong, he said: "The most important thing is to not give up when the going gets tough because sometimes it does. If you're in it for the long term and something happens, you've got to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on."
Always keep your emotions in check, said Petersen, or you may end up on an emotional rollercoaster: "When we see a wonderful property and love how it looks and get stuck in it, we sometimes forget about the price and whether it fits into the affordability category. As soon as we get sucked into that trap, that's when things tend to go wrong, and it starts with all the optimism right through to euphoria, but then when things go wrong we hit despondency and even depression." Having an investment team, from a mentor to a property manager, will help you overcome these problems, he said.
Apart from the necessary skill set, more importantly, said Petersen, a property investor needs the right mindset. And that comes from focusing on all of the above.
Real Estate Investor Magazine will this year be holding its second annual Investor of the Year Awards. For more information and to enter, go to www.reimag.co.za.
For more info on the Property Buyer Show and the Gauteng leg coming up this October, go to www.propertybuyershow.com.
View our gallery.
Three Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) remain under administration for various reasons, including poor governance and noncompliance with the Public Finance Management Act.
Setas have previously been criticised for inefficiency, being a haven for corruption and for enrolling ghost students. They have also come under fire for failing to address the country's skills deficit.
There are 21 Setas that cover all work sectors. They receive more than R14bn in ring-fenced funds annually.
Higher Education and Training minister Blade Nzimande said in a written reply in Parliament this week that the Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Seta had been under administration since 2014 for consistently failing to meet its objectives and not acting on the recommendations of a forensic investigation commissioned by the board.
The Seta had received a qualified audit opinion from the auditor-general in the 2013-14 financial year, Nzimande said.
The Safety and Security Services Seta was placed under administration in 2015 for poor governance, which had resulted in mismanagement of the discretionary fund and serious irregularities in a number of contracts entered into, as well as noncompliance with the Skills Development Act and its prescripts. The Seta was also cited for noncompliance with the Public Finance Management Act and other related Treasury requirements and for consistently not meeting its objectives.
It too received a qualified audit opinion from the auditor-general in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years.
The Wholesale and Retail Seta was the most recent authority to be placed under administration. Nzimande said the Seta was placed under administration because of its decision to pull out of the initiative to support the Rural and Township Economies Revitalisation Programme, which was meant to contribute to the government's nine-point plan to stimulate rural and township economies, although the programme was part of its servicelevel agreement.
He said there was lack of unity, cohesion and co-operation required from the Seta's board members to exercise their fiduciary duties effectively and efficiently. It received a qualified audit opinion from the auditorgeneral in the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Nzimande, whose department assumed responsibility for the Setas in 2009 when they were removed from the Department of Labour's control, has said that the Setas cannot be ditched, but the way they operate had to change.
"There are lots of proposals on the table " While one proposal is to 'ditch the Setas', others include having one big super-Seta (a skills council) or having seven Setas rather than the current 21.
"We still do believe that we can improve, perfect the Setas and make sure that the money that is set aside for them is used for what it is meant for.
"We are not yet there, we are not going to deny that," Nzimande said in 2015.
DA MP and spokeswoman for higher education and training Belinda Bozzoli said on Thursday that many proposals had been put forward to revamp the Setas, but Nzimande had ignored the suggestions.
She said most of the 21 Setas were underperforming even though some had "lots of money, more than a university".
Bozzoli said the Seta boards had to be replaced with honest people as corruption was endemic in most of them.
Source: Business Day
The relevance and importance of eco-travel are increasing with growing pressure on earth's resources. Social and environmental trends have led to global travellers taking greater ownership of both the makeup and impact of their travel habits.
Horseback safari
96% of Conde Nast Traveller readers think hotels and resorts should be responsible for protecting the environment they operate in. With 74.5% saying a hotel's environmental policies influence their decision to stay there, according to the Center For Responsible Travel (CREST).
The impetus is, therefore, no longer left with travel agents to cookie-cut holiday experiences for travellers. Our globalised world provides us with so many opportunities to express ourselves through our online personas and, as a result, people are looking to express their opinions and passions through all aspects of their lives, including their global travels.
A small and positive footprint
Lee Kelsall, CEO of adventure travel company Ker & Downey Africa, comments: Travel experiences have become yet another extension of peoples self-expression. They care about the impact of their travels, they want to connect with the destinations they visit and know that their footprint is a small and positive one. We aid travellers in achieving the positive impact theyre after through developing tailor-made, experiential adventures for our guests - experiences that allow them to both impact positively on the wildlife and communities that they visit as well as allow these elements to impact their lives positively.
Silent safaris - electric game vehicles at Chobe Game Lodge, Botswana
Examples of these travel experiences include mobile camping safaris, a travel concept which allows you to trek on foot through wild areas, with a team of rangers. Not only does this reduce carbon emissions as a result of eliminating the need for a safari vehicle, but the mobile campsites which are set up every evening are solar powered. These travellers thereby do not leave any impact on the area travelled through. Other examples include mokoro and horseback safaris through the Okavango Delta and opting to walk long routes such as the Otter Trail in South Africa, as opposed to defaulting to travel by carbon emitting modes of transport.
Lodges responding to the eco-travel call
Further up the supply chain, lodges are responding to the eco-travel call through creating eco-friendly infrastructure, something that requires major capital investment which would not be embarked upon if the demand in the market werent there. Some of Ker & Downey Africas most popular trips include incredible eco-friendly accommodations such as the Highlands, an eco-lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania that operates solely on solar power and wood burning stoves, wooden huts at the summit of the Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo, and electric safari vehicles and boats at Chobe Game Lodge that have saved a combined 38,045kg of CO2 emissions.
The Highlands - view from camp
Travel companies and accommodation providers in the worlds top travel destinations have long since promoted their eco-friendly stance, but the growing importance of eco-travel, and the increasing demand for treading lightly means that the eco-friendly stance now has to be backed up by real long term investments into eco-friendly infrastructure.
British Airways recently launched its investment plans for customers. Alex Cruz, British Airways' chairman and CEO, said: We will invest and innovate where our customers value it most and differentiate ourselves with a unique onboard experience and service. We're investing in Club World, focusing now on improved catering and sleep and, in the future, on a new seat.
The investments include:
400m in Club World (long-haul business class)
Introducing Club Europe on UK domestic services
New lounges
First Wing direct security and lounge access at Heathrow
Latest generation Wi-Fi fitted on long-haul and short-haul fleets over the next two years
Self-service check-in and biometric boarding gates to speed up the airport journey
Were investing in the best Wi-Fi in the sky, new lounges and direct access to security and our lounges for our First customers, via our new First Wing at Heathrow. Were also aligning our business cabin and service across all our flights by introducing Club Europe on domestic flights.
Enhancing Club World
The airline will be investing 400m in Club World (long-haul business class) which will enhance the experience of dining at 38,000 feet and deliver an excellent nights sleep when flying with British Airways. From June new catering will be introduced to the Heathrow business lounges to improve food quality and extend the breakfast service to 11am. In the air from July fresh new linen, bigger pillows designed for sleep comfort, a soft mattress topper, and duvet to give customers all they need for a great nights sleep will be supplied.
From September a new restaurant-style premium dining service will begin in Club World, with display trolleys allowing customers to select dishes from a choice of freshly prepared starters and desserts served on beautiful new table settings. A revamped service approach will be delivered to customers with a new culinary boutique experience.
These changes will launch on flights between London Heathrow and New York JFK, before being rolled out across the rest of the long-haul network during 2018.
The airline is also developing options for a new seat in Club World with direct aisle access in 2019. Details will be released in due course.
Changes in service style to reflect in Club Europe cabin
And the changes in service style will also be reflected in the Club Europe cabin on short-haul, including new crockery, cabin crew pouring wine and champagne for customers and improved menus on board, which focus more closely on the length and time of day of the flight. In other Club Europe news, the short-haul business cabin is being introduced on UK domestic flights this week with prices starting from 199 return.
Cruz said: Club World and Club Europe are vital elements of what we offer and play a big part in customer satisfaction levels. We are the only UK airline to have both short-haul and long-haul networks and we want to ensure that customers connecting across our network receive a consistent and distinctive British Airways experience.
Expanding lounges, enhancing customer experience
Business and First customers will notice changes in lounges too, starting with the new complex at Gatwick Airport's South Terminal. With sweeping views of the runway, the new First and Club lounges have 40 percent more floor space than the airline's former lounge in North Terminal.
An investment of $110m (88m) is planned on lounge facilities in the US. New Yorks JFK Terminal 7 will receive over $65m (52m) worth of investment over the next two years: a refurbishment of the First and Club World lounges as well as improvements to the customer experience at check-in, security and the boarding gates.
Bostons new lounge has just opened, coinciding with the A380 starting on the Heathrow-Boston route. The facility is 30 percent larger than the previous lounge, has direct gate access and stunning views of the Boston skyline. Next year Aberdeen and Romes lounges will be revamped, and Geneva will be expanded. Further investment is planned in San Francisco, Johannesburg, Manchester and Chicago. Heathrows Terminal 5 lounges will be revamped over the next few years, starting this month with the flagship Concorde Room for First customers, which will have new furniture and a refreshed look and feel.
First Wing - direct access to lounges
In other premium news, British Airways launched its exclusive new First Wing check-in area for First customers at Heathrow Terminal 5. It includes a dedicated two-lane security channel and direct access to the Galleries First Lounge and Concorde Room for the first time. The two new security lanes also reduce the number of travellers passing through the current South security lanes, helping to speed up the journey for Club World customers too. A relaxed seating area is located after security for customers to gather their possessions in an unhurried atmosphere.
The First Wing gives First and Gold Executive Club customers far greater privacy and exclusivity with a dedicated combined check-in and Fast Track space.
Rollout of latest generation Wi-Fi
From April, customers in all cabins will start to enjoy the latest generation of Wi-Fi as its rolled out across British Airways long-haul network. Short-haul Wi-Fi will commence later in the year when British Airways becomes the first airline to offer connectivity using Europes first ever 4G high-speed in-flight network with the aim of having 90 percent of its total fleet connected by 2019.
Customers will be able to use their own devices to browse the internet, access email and check social media. In addition, they will have the ability to stream video content from popular sites such as Netflix and YouTube.
There will be a choice of two options: Simply Connect or Connect Plus. Customers can choose whether they connect for one hour, four hours or the full flight. Simply Connect supports basic web browsing, email and instant messaging with prices from 4.99 while Connect Plus provides a faster connection speed supporting video streaming services from 7.99.
Selft-service technology
Technology is also helping customers to simplify and speed up their journeys through the airport, with the opening of the airlines first three automated self-boarding gates for UK domestic flights at Heathrow Terminal 5. The automated gates use facial recognition technology to allow customers to simply scan their boarding pass, before walking straight onto the aircraft. British Airways colleagues will still be on hand to help customers who need a little extra assistance.
Self-service boarding gates
Additionally, customers are now able to self-service bag drop at Heathrow and Gatwick, enabling them to label and drop off their bags before proceeding through security.
A step-change in the British Airways travel experience
Alex Cruz adds: Its simple really we need to deliver what our customers value most, where they value it most. We need to focus on enhancing premium - offering contemporary service, improved catering and lounges and a consistent experience. In economy, where we know that price is the driver, we need to focus our efforts on delivering more seats at the lowest fares and giving customers choices.
We have an exciting time ahead. Alongside these initiatives, were also making changes behind the scenes to increase operational efficiency and reliability through new technologies including automatic boarding gates and a re-designed baggage arrivals process. And were making a commitment to achieve the highest standards of cleanliness and equipment reliability in all our cabins. Our customers will really notice a step-change in their travel experience with us.
STRASBOURG, France: The EU will abolish mobile phone roaming charges from 15 June 2017, following a vote in the European Parliament late last week.
maridav via 123RF
MEPs backed a deal between operators and European Union member states that will mean the end of extra charges when people use their phones abroad in other EU states.
"Europeans will no longer be in a state of shock when they get their telephone bills," said Finnish MEP Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, who backed the resolution.
From mid-June, EU citizens will no longer pay extra charges for calls, SMS messages or internet outside their home countries, when travelling in the EU.
Operators have to pay
Operators will still have to pay a charge.
EU digital affairs commissioner Andrus Ansip said it would have an "immediate positive impact on the life of millions of Europeans."
The move will cap 10 years of efforts by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, to end roaming charges.
STUTTGART, Germany: Hermes and Mercedes-Benz Vans have entered into a strategic partnership which will see the courier company receive electric vehicles for its fleet.
The companies will start using battery-electric vehicles in Hermes normal operations in a pilot phase in Stuttgart and Hamburg in early 2018. The focus will be on the economy, sustainability and practicality of emission-free delivery vans when used for the last mile. By the end of 2020, Hermes Germany intends to deploy 1500 Mercedes-Benz Vito and Sprinter electric vans in urban areas across Germany.
"Electric drive is a key technology for urban transport - especially in commercial use. Last-mile deliveries must become more efficient and - in specific applications - emission-free.
This is a specific implementation of our plans for tailored industry solutions in cooperation with our customers. Hermes requires mid-size and large vans with electric drive for its applications. We can meet both needs with high-quality, reliable and safe vehicles that set high standards also in terms of driver ergonomics" stated Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans.
"We are continuing along the path of sustainably renewing our fleet of vehicles. An important key aspect for the future is the gradual electrification of our fleet in urban areas. At the same time, we are continuing with the full changeover to low-emission Euro 6 vehicles", said Frank Rausch, CEO of Hermes Germany GmbH.
More economy and sustainability, higher service quality
By the year 2025, Hermes plans to carry out deliveries in the inner-city areas of all major German cities completely free of emissions. Solely electricity from 100 percent regenerative energy sources will be used to charge the electric vehicles' batteries. The electricity will be generated with a completely neutral effect on the climate and, accordingly, in line with the green electricity label "Gruner Strom" from the environmental associations.
One special focus is on the technical feasibility and economic efficiency of battery-electric vehicles in the CEP industry. New concepts are to be developed for the integration of battery-electric vans - including the required charging infrastructure - into existing operational processes.
Connectivity, cargo space and more
Another crucial driver of efficiency improvements is the development of system solutions in the vehicle and beyond that are optimally adapted for the specific applications. In the context of this strategic partnership, Mercedes-Benz Vans will thus also implement connected services - for example, services that facilitate optimal route planning with the use of information on the vans' batteries and remaining range. The van producer will also contribute intelligent cargo-space solutions and innovative mobility services to the partnership.
With the implementation of its strategic future initiative, adVANce, Mercedes-Benz Vans is being transformed from a pure vehicle manufacturer into a supplier of customer-oriented holistic system solutions. It is concentrating on four areas in which it will invest up to 500 million by 2020: the integration of various connectivity solutions in vans, hardware solutions for the van sector, new mobility concepts for the needs-oriented transport of persons and goods, and optimised electric drive systems tailored to specific applications.
ROME, Italy: An Italian court banned the use of smartphone apps for the ride-hailing group Uber, saying they contribute to traditional taxis facing unfair competition, local media reported.
gyddik via 123RF
In a ruling that is subject to appeal, a court in Rome upheld a complaint filed by taxi unions and gave Uber ten days to end the use of various phone applications on Italian territory, along with the promotion and advertising of them.
If Uber does not comply it could face a fine of 10,000 ($10,600) for each day it remains in defiance of the court.
Shocked by the ruling
Uber said it was shocked by the ruling and that it would appeal immediately, seeking suspension of the ruling.
The court's ruling follows a decision by a court in Milan two years ago to ban the company's UberPop application, which was deemed under Italian law to encourage the provision of taxi services by unlicensed drivers. That ruling was upheld in a subsequent court case in Turin.
Source: AFP
NEW YORK - Recent high-profile advertising missteps by Pepsi and skin-care company Nivea underscored anew Madison Avenue's awkward relationship with racial diversity at a time when the United States is becoming less white.
PepsiCo's ill-fated "Moments" spot, featuring model Kendall Jenner, was quickly pulled with an apology after being vilified for trivializing the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
Nivea also apologized and withdrew an ad for a deodorant after its "White is Purity" pitch was embraced by white supremacists.
Social media had a field day with the botched campaigns, which seemed to suggest scant progress from the white male bubble of the 1960s depicted in the popular television series "Mad Men."
"Between Nivea's 'white is purity' ad and Pepsi's 'Black soda matters' ad, I think it's time to open my 'Ask a Black person' consulting firm," comedian Travon Free said on Twitter.
In fact, data shows a diversity deficit in a sector that both reflects and molds public sentiment.
Only 4.1 percent of advertising industry employees in the country are African Americans, well below their 13.3 percent of the overall population. Latinos account for 12.3 percent of the industry, compared with 17.6 percent of the population.
Nearly half of respondents among advertising employees said the industry was "terrible" or "not great" at hiring diverse professionals, with another 25 percent describing it as "mediocre," according to a survey released last September by the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
The trade group's outgoing president Nancy Hill made publicly calling out "racist and misogynistic behavior" her New Years resolution for 2017.
"I have realized given the current climate in our country and our industry, that doing that privately is tantamount to condoning the behavior," Hill said in a column on a marketing industry website.
"Others involved need to know that this industry does not tolerate this kind of thinking and its resulting behavior any longer."
Some major advertisers, such as Verizon, General Mills and Hewlett-Packard have threatened to fire firms that aren't diverse enough.
The demise of the Pepsi spot has especially provoked intense discussion throughout the industry. The company is led by Indian-born chief executive Indra Nooyi, a vocal proponent of diversity.
A poll by PR Week showed 40 percent on respondents blamed the debacle on lack of diversity or diversity of thought, while 25 percent said it reflected an overzealous approach to attracting millennials and 13 percent blaming the fact that it was made by Pepsi's in-house creative team and did not involve an outside firm.
The spot follows Jenner as she is stirred from a fashion shoot by a handsome Asian cellist to join an unspecified but peaceful street protest with people of all ethnicities, including African American street dancers.
The two-and-a-half minute short film culminates with Jenner handing a Pepsi to a handsome grinning police officer, a move that draws wild applause from the crowd, including from a hijab-wearing photographer who nods in agreement as she records the moment.
The spot spurred instant ridicule, most witheringly from Bernice King, who posted a picture of her father, Martin Luther King, being apprehended at a civil rights march by police.
"If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi," King wrote on Twitter.
Kelly O'Keefe, a professor of brand strategy at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the spot was shockingly heavyhanded in its constant hawking of cola.
It reflected a "cloistered view of the world and distorted view of diversity," he said, adding that the spot has dominated discussion in class this week.
Jake Beniflah, executive director of the Center for Multicultural Science, thought the ad was a spoof when he first saw it because of the omnipresence of the product and in its creation of "utopian" world where every race is shown.
"Perhaps they thought diversity on camera was enough, but obviously it wasn't," Beniflah said. "In fact, it backfired."
For Judy Davis, a marketing professor at Eastern Michigan University, the controversy stirred memories of Barbara Gardner Proctor, one of the women she profiled in her book, "Pioneering African American Women in the Advertising Business: Biographies of MAD Black WOMEN."
Proctor was fired in the 1960s from a large firm when she refused to work on a campaign that showed black women clamoring in the street for a hair product. The ad was a tasteless allusion to the civil rights movement, she said.
"It was the same kind of trivialization of a serious social movement and taking that to promote some brand," Davis said.
"You would think in 2017 things would be different. But here we are seeing some of the same problems that were present 50 years ago, and I think that's pretty amazing."
SAN FRANCISCO - YouTube on Thursday stopped placing ads on channels with fewer than 10,000 views in a move aimed at preventing people from making money off offensive or pirated videos.
The move came with YouTube striving to derail an ad boycott started by companies worried their brands might be paired with hateful videos at the service, which is part of California-based Google.
"This new threshold gives us enough information to determine the validity of a channel," product management vice president Ariel Bardin said in a blog post.
"It also allows us to confirm if a channel is following our community guidelines and advertiser policies."
YouTube also plans to soon add a review process for new "creators" who want money-generating channels as part of a partner program at the video-sharing service, according to Bardin.
After a creator's channel passes the 10,000-view mark, the videos will be reviewed to determine whether they are in keeping with YouTube policies before ads are served up with content.
"Together, these new thresholds will help ensure revenue only flows to creators who are playing by the rules," Bardin said.
Google needs to strike a balance between pleasing advertisers and those who upload videos to YouTube and are free to take creations elsewhere if unsatisfied with their shares of ad revenue.
Google said early this week that it was using new artificial intelligence systems to enforce YouTube video policies and help weed out content objectionable to advertisers.
These systems will be adapted to advertiser preferences, Google said.
The tech giant also said it would work with third parties to help advertisers protect their brands from unwanted placement.
Google, which has seen a slew of companies withdraw ads fearing placement alongside extremist content, has introduced new tools to give firms greater control.
The boycott began in February after the Times newspaper of London found BBC programs were promoted alongside videos posted by American white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke as well as Wagdi Ghoneim, an Islamist preacher banned from Britain for inciting hatred.
The analysis found more than 200 anti-Semitic videos, and that Google had failed to remove six of them within the 24-hour period mandated by the European Union after it anonymously signaled their presence.
The movement spread to the United States, with AT&T and Verizon pulling ads from Google.
LONDON, United Kingdom - Telecom and tech companies are increasing investment across Africa as the rapidly improving digital infrastructure and services, and the uptake of smartphones, provide huge opportunities for business and revenue growth.
Leaders from Africa's biggest telecom investment companies including, MTN, Orange, Helios Towers, American Tower, Eaton Towers, Google, Microsoft, Liquid Telecom and SEACOM, are meeting with investment bankers, investors and advisers in London on May 24, 2017, to discuss accelerating new investment opportunities in digital communications and infrastructure.
Telecom and tech companies are ramping up their investment plans for digital infrastructure and services across Africa as reach of service and demand is soaring, commented an investment banker focused on Africa.
On the infrastructure side, operators are investing in spectrum, especially in the 700MHz band, as well as on strengthening their networks by migrating from 3G to 4G LTE-based services. Mobile tower operators are also investing heavily while submarine and terrestrial cable providers have been increasing the available backbone infrastructure.
Improving broadband speeds and access is also having a big impact on both business to business and consumer focused opportunities. Datacentre investment appetite is growing and smartphone take-up is supporting the growth in m-commerce, m-money and m-banking services which presents a massive opportunity for vendors and application providers.
Over 200 senior telecom, media and tech executives, including many industry CEOs, investment bankers and advisers, will meet at TMT Finance Africa 2017 at the Hilton Hotel Tower Bridge in London on May 24 to discuss the new investment and partnership opportunities.
The executive only event, which is in its eight year in London, features over 70 speakers and 25 sessions on telecom, media and tech investment and partnership opportunities for Africa.
Participating companies include: MTN Group, Orange, Liquid Telecom, Eaton Towers, American Tower Corporation, Jumia Food, SEACOM, Savannah Fund, Fibersat, PayStack, Sliide Airtime, Connect Africa, Rack Centre, Citi, Helios Towers Africa, Standard Bank Group, Atlas Mara Ltd, Draper Dark Flow, Google, Microsoft, Ringier Africa, Norton Rose Fullbright, WorldRemit, IFC, Amadeus Capital Partners, WIOCC, Societe Generale Chanzo Capital, Africa Mobile Networks, African Broadcast Network, Intelsat, Digital World Capital, MainOne Cable, M-KOPA Solar, Flexenclosure, Hardiman Telecom and African Capital Alliance.
Key sessions include:
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The Karen National Police Force (KNPF) released an April 5 appeal asking citizens to join the efforts combatting petty crime, gambling, drugs, road violations and other infringements of the law.
Saw Nyein Chan, head of the KNPF in Hpa-pya Village, urged the public to unify with law enforcement officials in order to stop drug sales.
The announcement appeared to puzzle locals, however.
We already have procedures for cooperating with local ward and village [administrations] on drug and gambling cases. Civilians cant arrest suspects personally, so who would dare to report them to the authorities? The informers life can be in danger if the drug dealers and gamblers find out who he or she is, said resident Saw Tha Phalaw.
Local residents have blamed the KNU for failing to take action to stop the local drug trade.
The KNPF escalated its crackdown on drug trafficking starting last July, resulting in the arrest of over 200 people and the destruction of 5,000 methamphetamine pills within last year, according to a Kawkareik township official.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited by Laignee Barron
Lahpai Gam, an elderly ethnic Kachin man, is suffering from serious health problems which may be due to the torture he endured at the time of his arrest in 2012. He must be immediately and unconditionally released, and in the meantime, provided with access to necessary health care and treatment.
Lahpai Gam has been hospitalised since March 2017 after he was transferred from Myitkyina prison, Kachin State northern Myanmar. Suffering from anal bleeding and serious stomach problems, he has received several blood transfusions. Some of his health concerns may be due to torture he was subjected to at the time of his arrest in 2012. According to sources close to him, Lahpai Gam does not fully understand the serious health problems he faces, nor the treatment he requires; raising concerns that he does not have access to adequate medical care.
Lahpai Gam was arrested, along with six other people, by Myanmar army officials in June 2012 in Kachin State. Working as a herdsman tending cows at the time, he was held incommunicado for almost a month before being transferred to Myitkyina prison. Lahpai Gam was tortured by the military during interrogation. In addition to being beaten with an iron rod and having a bamboo stick rolled up and down his knees, he was forced into same-sex intercourse with another male inmate.
Lahpai Gam was charged in 2012 with being a member of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) under Article 17(1) of the 1908 Unlawful Association Act and with four counts under the 1908 Explosive Substances Act. He was sentenced to a total of twenty years imprisonment. However, due to insufficient evidence, the Supreme Court overturned the convictions for the Unlawful Association Act and two counts under the Explosive Substances Act.
The two remaining charges under the Explosive Substances Act which relate to bombs that were planted near different bridges in Kachin State were upheld on the basis of a confession letter dated from the time he was tortured and held incommunicado. Lahpai Gam was sentenced to eight years imprisonment under these charges, however according to sources, he maintains that he is solely a farmer and not a member of the KIA and has never signed a confession letter nor planted the bombs.
A Statement from 14 Political Parties (Burmese version) A Statement from 14 Political Parties (Burmese version)
The parties argued that the Hluttaws (parliament) vote on the name was not legitimate and violates the constitutions injunction to preserve national solidarity. The statement was issued as the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) was given an electoral rebuke in Saturdays by-election for its support for the name.
I had issued a statement to a similar effect in the pastthat I share the attitude of my constituents regarding the namebut the USDP leadership was not included. Now though, the central party leadership has issued a strong statement recognizing local will, said U Aung Kyi Thein, USDP representative for Chaungzon Township who won his seat amidst the bridge controversy.
The statement cited the Basic Principles of the Union laid out in the 2008 constitution, which states that one of the unions objectives is the Non-disintegration of National solidarity. It went on to challenge the constitutionality of the Hluttaws naming decision, arguing that such a decision does not fall under the bodys jurisdiction.
The NLD-dominated Pyithu Hluttaw, the lower house of Myanmars parliament, voted on March 14 to change the bridges name from the Thanlwin (Chaungzon) Bridge to the General Aung San Bridge. The former name reflected the local geography while the latter represents the countrys independence leader. Many in Mon State argue that while they respect General Aung San, he is really a hero to the majority Burman ethnic group. The Mon State bridge should recognize Mon rather than Burman culture, which already dominates the country, they say.
On March 2 over 3,000 people protested the name on the Chaungzon side of the bridge. A much larger protest followed on March 9, when more than 20,000 Mon demonstrators were joined by Karen, Pa-O and other activists who were also frustrated by what they see as NLDs insensitivity. The issue now threatens the multi-ethnic coalition that swept NLD into power in the 2015 general election.
The controversy has turned what should have been a celebration of development for the 200,000 residents of Chaungzon Township, into a confusing muddle. The March 30 opening ceremony was delayed twice, first to April 9 and now to an undefined date, though for a steep price cars can now cross the bridge. And Daw Aung Suu Kyi, the Nobel Laureate leader of the NLD, appears to have backed out of speaking at the opening amidst the controversy.
I dont know when the bridge will open. For that you should ask the Mon State Government or its department of construction, said U Zaw Htay, the Deputy Director General of the Union Presidents Office.
Mon State Chief Minister Dr. Aye Zan could not be reached for comment.
The 14 signatories to the statement on the bridge are:
Union Solidarity and Development Party
National Unity Party
New National Democracy Party
National Development Party
National Democratic Force
Modern Peoples Party
Kayin State Democracy and Development Party
Inn National Development Party
Democratic Party (Myanmar)
Myanmar National Congress
Peace for Diversity Party
Peoples Democracy Party
Wunthanu Democratic Party
National Political Alliance League
MP Sai Htun Naing, who represents Kyaukme Township Constituency No 2, said that the fighting took place in Jarng Huang tract about a half mile from Kyaukme Township. He confirmed that three people had been killed.
The three victims were local villagers, he told Shan Herald on Monday. They were truck drivers.
Sai Htun Naing said that eye-witnesses had informed him that the three victims were found wearing TNLA uniform shirts. However, he questioned whether the shirts had been put on before or after the mens deaths.
Other local sources told Shan Herald that the three victims were identified as Sai Sarng Lwin and Sai Win Kyaing from Tawsarng tract, and Sai Ai Woon from Jarng Huang.
No details of how the killings occurred have been forthcoming by the time of press.
Since 2012, fighting has regularly broken out between Burmese armed forces and TNLA troops. The Taang or Palaung rebel faction is among those armed groups excluded from signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement by the government in 2015.
According to Myanmar Peace Monitor, there were 309 clashes between the two armies in 2016, most of which occurred in northern Shan State towns such as Naung Cho, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Kutkai and Namhsan.
By Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
Vegetable Paneer Tikka Masala For Baisakhi Festival Side Dishes oi-Lekhaka
There are only few days left to welcome the Sikh New Year and to celebrate Baisakhi with great pomp and show.
Each year, Baisakhi is celebrated on 13th or 14th of April, which not only denotes the beginning day of the Sikh New Year, but the Sikh Community also commemorates the formation of the Khalsa under the leadership of Guru Govind Singh.
Today, Baisakhi is celebrated with lots of fun elements. Fairs and melas are organised. And when it comes to any type of a festival in India, the cuisine definitely plays a major role.
When it comes to the Sikh or specifically Punjabi cuisine, tikka masala, kebabs, etc., are a must-prepare dish. Here is the recipe of the vegetable paneer tikka masala that you must prepare to double the joy of this Punjabi harvest festival. Take a look.
Serves - 4
Preparation Time - 1 hour
Cooking Time - 30 minutes
Ingredients:
For Tikka:
Paneer/Cottage Cheese - 500 grams (cut into cubes)
Bell Peppers - 1 cup (green, yellow, red and should be diced)
Ginger-garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Oil - 4 tbsp
Onion - 1 (large and chopped)
Thick Curd - cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Lime Juice - tsp
Cumin Powder - tsp
Coriander Powder - tsp
Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala Powder - tsp
Kasuri Methi - tsp
Salt to taste
Turmeric Powder - th tsp
Chat Masala Powder - tsp
For The Gravy:
Onions - 2 (medium, peeled and halved, finely chopped)
Cardamom - 1
Tomatoes - 3 (medium-sized, finely chopped)
Dry Red Chilli - 1
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Cashew Nuts - 10
Yogurt - 3 tbsp (full fat)
Kasuri Methi - tsp (crushed)
Red Chilli Powder - tsp
Turmeric Powder - th tsp
Water as needed
Fresh Cream - th cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt as required
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Procedure:
1. Take a bowl and add curd, ginger-garlic paste and all other spices into it and mix well.
2. Now, add paneer cubes, bell peppers and onions.
3. Mix everything well, so that the paneer, onions and bell peppers get well coated by the mixture. Marinate the mixture overnight.
4. Now, if you want to grill, add paneer pieces, bell peppers and onions on to the skewers and grill it for 6-8 minutes to get it into a light brown shade from all sides.
5. You are ready with your paneer tikkas. This is the time to prepare the gravy.
6. Take a pan and add butter into it. Add all the spices into it and saute well. Now, add onions into it. Fry it until brown.
7. Add tomatoes and salt and cook until the tomatoes lose their rawness. Add turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder and garam masala powder into it and mix well.
8. Once the mixture is cooked, transfer it into the blender and blend well into a puree. Take it into the pan again, add kasuri methi and let the mixture get boiled. Add water as required. Stir when you cook the gravy.
9. Add the paneer tikkas you have already prepared and cook for a while until they get cooked completely.
10. Spread fresh cream on it and your vegetable paneer tikka is ready to be served. Transfer it into a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
6 Astonishing Health Benefits Of Mango Leaves Nutrition oi-Neha Ghosh
Mango, the favourite summer fruit, is enjoyed for its taste and health benefits. The fruit is rich in vitamins and minerals and its leaves also possess healing and medicinal properties.
Due to their immense medicinal properties, mango leaves have gained importance in Eastern medicine too. The leaves contain vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, and antioxidants including phenols and flavonoids.
The tender mango leaves are reddish or purplish, and when they grow big they become dark green in colour. In South East Asia, the tender mango leaves are cooked and eaten.
Health Benefits Of Mango Leaves
1. Control type 2 diabetes
Mango leaves are considered useful for controlling diabetes because they contain tannins called anthocyanidins that aid in the treatment of diabetes. The leaves are dried and powdered or used as an infusion to treat diabetes [1] .
2. Improve cognitive function
Type 2 diabetes increases the risk factor of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, the most common causes of dementia. According to a study published in the Brain Pathology, mango leaf extract improves central pathology and cognitive impairment in type 2 diabetes patients [1] .
3. Lower high blood pressure
Mango leaves aid in lowering high blood pressure due to its hypotensive properties according to a study in the Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine [2] . Consumption of mango leaves helps in strengthening the blood vessels and treating varicose veins.
4. Treat asthma
Respiratory problems including asthma can be treated with the help of mango leaves [3] . People who are suffering from bronchitis, asthma, and cold can drink a decoction of mango leaves by boiling it in water with a little honey.
5. Cure dysentery
The antibacterial and antimicrobial properties of mango leaves are effective against Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhimurium bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial human pathogen that causes a wide variety of infections and Salmonella typhimurium is also the major cause of human bacterial infections [4] .
6. Promotes stomach health
Mango leaves possess gastroprotective properties that protect your stomach from various stomach ailments [5] . You just need to add some mango leaves to warm water and leave it overnight. Filter the water and drink it the next morning.
Mango Leaf Tea Recipe
Ingredients:
Few mango leaves
1 litre water
Method:
Wash the mango leaves properly.
Crush them and add them in water.
Boil it till the water becomes half.
Strain and drink it with a little honey.
View Article References [1] InfanteGarcia, C., Jose RamosRodriguez, J., MarinZambrana, Y., Teresa FernandezPonce, M., Casas, L., Mantell, C., & GarciaAlloza, M. (2017). Mango leaf extract improves central pathology and cognitive impairment in a type 2 diabetes mouse model.Brain Pathology,27(4), 499-507. [2] Rahma, H. H. A., Haredy, H. H., Hussein, S. M., & Ahmed, A. A. (2018). Pharmacological Study on the Effect of the Aqueous Extract of Mangifera Indicaa Leaves on Vascular Activity of Diabetic Albino Rats.Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine,73(7). [3] Zhang, Y., Li, J., Wu, Z., Liu, E., Shi, P., Han, L., Wang, T. (2014). Acute and long-term toxicity of mango leaves extract in mice and rats.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM,2014, 691574. [4] Hannan, A., Asghar, S., Naeem, T., Ullah, M. I., Ahmed, I., Aneela, S., & Hussain, S. (2013). Antibacterial effect of mango (Mangifera indica Linn.) leaf extract against antibiotic sensitive and multi-drug resistant Salmonella typhi.Pakistan journal of pharmaceutical sciences,26(4), 715-719. [5] Severi, J. A., Lima, Z. P., Kushima, H., Monteiro Souza Brito, A. R., Campaner dos Santos, L., Vilegas, W., & Hiruma-Lima, C. A. (2009). Polyphenols with antiulcerogenic action from aqueous decoction of mango leaves (Mangifera indica L.).Molecules,14(3), 1098-1110.
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Baisakhi 2020 : Unique Facts About Vaisakhi Festival Festivals oi-Lekhaka
India is basically an agricultural country. India grows many different crops that flourish in different areas. It is therefore not surprising that there are many festivals that celebrate the harvest season.
If there is Pona Sankranti in Orissa, there is Vishu in Kerala. Baisakhi or Vaisakhi is a major festival that is celebrated by the Sikh community across the world. It is celebrated as a harvest festival and marks the harvest season of the rabi crop.
The farmers work hard and toil in the fields for the whole year and during Baisakhi, they reap the fruits of their hard work. The crop is harvested and a part of it is offered to the almighty as a gratitude for the bountiful harvest.
The prashad is then distributed among friends and family. The people then sing and dance in celebration. Dance forms like Gidda and Bhangda are performed during this time. The whole atmosphere is gay and joyful.
But it would be a mistake to consider Baisakhi as just a simple harvest festival. The festival of Baisakhi has immense religious value; and it is just as important spiritually for the Sikh community as any other festival is. Read on as we discuss the many facts that make Baisakhi unique among the various Harvest festivals of India.
Celebration Of The New Year
While Baisakhi is predominantly celebrated as a harvest festival, it is also the day a new year starts, according to the regional calendar. The day is celebrated as New Year in many other states of India too. The 13th or 14th of April is the day when the sun moves in to the month of Aries. People see it as a new start and celebrate the day with great pomp and show.
Baisakhi Month Has The Celebration Of A Cluster Of Events
Other than the celebration of New year, it also celebrates a few different festivals. Mythology says that it was on this day that Lord Brahma began the creation of the universe. It also celebrates the birth of the Second guru, Sri Aangad Dev.
According to the Vikrami era, King Vikramaditya was coronated on this day. Navratri begins on this day too.The day also saw the start of Arya Samaj and the Khalsa Panth and many more.
The Formation Of The Khalsa Panth
Another important reason for the Sikhs to celebrate the day is the fact that the Khalsa Panth was created on third day. It is said that Guru Gobind called for a gathering and asked the crowd for volunteers who could provide heads for the sake of humanity.
When the first person stood up, the Guru took him to the tent and returned with a bloodied sword and asked for more volunteers. This way, he took the five men who stood up. The crowd was aghast that their Guru had taken the life of 5 men.
But the Guru then returned with the men and called them the Paanch Piyare, which translates to 'the five dear ones'. These five men were the first to be integrated into the newly formed Khalsa Panth. The group aimed to protect the Sikh and the Hindu Community from the aggressive Mughals.
Tasting The Amrit
Amrit or nectar tasting is an important ritual on the Baisakhi day. It is said that after the ritual of Pahul, Guru Govind Singh made the nectar in an iron vessel. He took the Batashas made by his wife and stirred them with a sword known as Khanda Sahib.
He then served it to the Paanch Piyare. The Amrit was then served to the rest of the people who had gathered. On this day, the Guru Granth Sahib is read and then the Amrit is distributed among the devotees.
Thanksgiving Day
The Sikhs also use the day to thank the almighty for a rich crop. They also pray for a prosperous future for their near and dear ones in the year that lies ahead.
Baisakhi Mela
The colourful Baisakhi mela is one of the important aspects of the festival. The melas have lots of activities for the people to indulge in. There are shops that sell food, handicrafts and toys. The mela gives the people a much-deserved chance to blow off some steam and enjoy life after the hardship of the year.
Jallianwala Bagh And Udham Singh 's Sankalp Divas
This is a sad reason for the day to be remembered. This day is commemorated by many as the day that marks the cruelest and the bloodiest incident of India's history. Jallianwala Bagh incident happened on this day and infuriated by the event, Uddham Singh took a resolution to kill General Dyer on this day.
Canada NewsWire
TORONTO, April 10, 2017
TORONTO, April 10, 2017 /CNW/ - The statement of claim alleges that the issue of waitlists for desperately needed services has been a repeatedly identified issue for years, which Ontario has continued to ignore and failed to act upon in any reasonable manner. The claim alleges, among other things, that Ontario has been negligent, breached fiduciary duties, and breached duties it owes to the class members under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, by virtue of these waitlists, some of which can last for years at a time as a result of the broken system.
The proposed class includes all persons in Ontario who were approved for developmental services through a Developmental Services Ontario office and subsequently placed on a waitlist, since July 1, 2011. The essential services denied to the class by virtue of the lengthy waitlists impact their most basic daily needs. The claim alleges the wait times are often indeterminate and will last for years, placing families in a perpetual state of crisis.
Marc Leroux as the litigation guardian of his daughter is the proposed representative plaintiff.
Kirk Baert, a partner at Koskie Minsky, has stated "This case concerns an issue that has plagued adults with developmental disabilities in Ontario for years. Multiple independent agencies have said change must be implemented time and time again but there has been none. The class members are in need of services to live their life and it is time they get what they have been promised and what they need and deserve. This case can finally effect real social change in this area".
SOURCE Koskie Minsky LLP
Jaxport CEO Eric Green said the $23.5 million grant marks a milestone in our initiatives to build the port of the future and move cargo in the most efficient and eco-friendly way possible.
The China-based third-party logistics provider was scheduled to launch its first eastbound train from London to Yiwu, China on Moday, which will arrive in Yiwu in 18 days.
China-based Kerry Logistics was scheduled to launch its first eastbound train from London to Yiwu, China on Monday.
The train is scheduled to arrive in Yiwu in 18 days, traveling 7,500 miles through nine countries.
Kerry Logistics said the rail freight cost is lower than that of air or ocean freight, and twice as fast as ocean transport.
The route is in line with the development strategy called the One Belt One Road Initiative, which is part of the Chinese governments plan to upgrade connections between China and Europe to spur economic growth.
London is the 15th European city and the latest destination added to the China-Europe rail network under the One Belt One Road Initiative.
The first freight train from Yiwu to London launched Jan. 1 and took 18 days, carrying mostly clothing, shoes and other Chinese-made consumer goods.
A thunderous applause filled the Gaborone International Convention Centre on Saturday evening. It was the curtain call, and the audience was still savouring a great moment that they had just witnessed on stage. For close to three hours, the esteemed Royal Moscow Ballet took the audience on a magical ride.
Something that sets ballet apart from other dance forms is the fact that it requires a certain level of understanding and respect. One cannot attend a ballet show and spend the entire evening engaged in conversation. And the few times that one can show their excitement is when they comment about a certain step that takes their breathe away, and then keep quiet just as quickly.
Besides requiring one to remain engrossed on the performance, one also has to keep their ears open to the music, mostly classical that forms part of the performance. By the end of the evening the Royal Moscow Ballet had earned their respect. Celebrating fifteen years this year, the dance company put together a show that celebrates some of the most revered Russian composers behind some famous ballet and opera pieces.
The company consists of graduates from the best Russian choreography, ballet and dance schools premiered as the Royal Moscow Ballet on August 12th, 2002. Anatoly Emelianov and Anna Aleksidze founded it. The duo has created more than 20 modern and 15 classical ballets to date.
Starting off the show with a Paganini (a one act ballet) scored by Sergei Rachmaninov, the audience was magically wowed with moves they only see on television and they can only dream of. A lead Ballerina (female dancer) dressed in a black costume set the tone for an electrifying evening. Captivating and her hairpins glistening like diamonds in the light, it was a sight to behold as she danced on her toes (en pointe). Hair tied in bun, she was light on her feet and was like an electric magnet pulling in the audience and silently commanding them to follow her every move.
Divided in three acts, the first act was serious but equally entertaining. The last two sets were more relaxed and some comical providing the audience with the opportunity to see the versatility of the dancers as well as their lighter sides. Other pieces that they performed included Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, scenes from ballet scored by Pyotr Tchaikovsky including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and the Nutcracker, as well as Aleksander Borodins The Polovtsian dance from the opera The Prince Igor.
Displaying traditional (Pas) steps and positions such as Devant, (in front), Pas jete (throwing step), Releve (raised) not forgetting the leaps, the dancers stole the breath of the audience. Some silently shed tears in the dark hall as they marvelled at the level of perfection that was displayed on stage. Others were blown away at how it just came natural to the dancers to glide and twirl on stage without missing a step and still manage a perfect landing without staggering.
The audience could tell at the end of each piece that as easy as it looked for a dancer to complete a step, they had been practising and spending many hours in training perfecting their moves. It takes many years of practice for the dancers to perfect their art and that is why they start from a young age.
The Saturday show was the first of many events where the dance company is expected to delight ballet lovers locally as well as at other venues in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, East London, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
History has it that ballet was first performed in Italy in the early 1600s.
The first ballet school was officially opened in France in 1661. Back then, only men were allowed to dance. And the women called ballerinas first danced ballet in 1681. Beauchamps, a French ballet teacher is credited for creating the five basic steps of ballet.
Additional reporting: Wikipedia.
TJ Dema, this woman carries herself with such grace. A trait that also resonates in her artistic work. Even today, years after harnessing her spoken word the sheer elegance in which the poet aligns words for profound effect is her mastery. Such is her sentiment to words that the 35-year-old always chooses them wisely. The poet lives in her at all times. Her demand is
international and the end of 2016 saw her strutting her stuff in the USA, where she spent time in cities such as Milwaukee, Tuscaloosaa and Chicago as Visiting Artist in Residency at the Northwestern Universitys Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.
During this educational exhibit she had audiences from teenagers through to graduate students as she gave talks, facilitated workshops and seminars and also read her poetry. She notes the importance of networking, I received an offer for this appointment through professors Susannah Gottlieb and Chris Abani of Northwestern University. Additional invitations were also extended from Dasha Kelly of the Milwaukee Stillwater Collective: who you may remember has performed in Botswana before as well as the department of English at the University of Alabama.
Dema has a solid profile of work and has performed and worked at numerous festivals and events around the world. In 2015 she filmed work for two video productions in Cambodia namely, Neon Poem and Dreams. She was recently awarded the Editors Choice Award from Gabz FM and Mail&Guardian Africa. Dema is the published author of Mandible, which was released by Slapering Hol Press in the USA in 2014. Dema states that, This book was part of the seven new generation African Poetry Book Fund poets in 2014. Selections of my work are available in Swedish, German, Spanish and Korean. She adds that poetry has enabled her to see the world and helped keep her mind open, Truthfully speaking if you keep an open mind you will always find something to interest you regardless of where you find yourself, says the poet.
Her Facebook profile reflects this travel bug in her with posts from places in South America, Europe, South and East Asia as well as Southern and West Africa. She has recently traveled to Estonia and Seoul in South Korea which has always been a go-to-place on her list. Her love life which she creatively reveals on Facebook with true poetic poignancy is a marvel to watch as it grows out of its shell. Teasing but striking pictures of the couple maintaining subtlety but revealing a lot.
Eventually she has openly tagged a certain proud sun kissed gentleman in her posts, a subject she prefers not to discuss fully despite the ability to easily knot the pieces of this puzzle. In true professionalism and celebrity rhetoric she responds in regards to her personal relationship, Although I expect that anyone who visits my social media pages can piece together their own ideas about what they imagine my private life to be, I dont cultivate a following on the basis of intimate details. I acknowledge the presumption that as a public figure there may be a curiosity around my life as a whole, I accept this, but I have no inclination to indulge interest beyond the professional, she says.
Apart from maintaining a long distance relationship, as an artist she applauds technological advancement, specifically the internet which has created unlimited global access to audiences. Poets are using platforms such as Instagram to stage their work and Dema has adapted to the craze, as she should, releasing a number of videos online. As a teaching artist she combines the use of both audio and visual to continually expand what is presented on the canon. Educators are able to gain expert views in the class as at the click of a button via Skype. This access to audiences and transcending of time and space is invaluable to the future of the arts.
Dema has observed that for the connoisseurs reading poetry is a source of release plus pleasure, The readers entertain themselves with poetry. They exorcise tension and express their various personal and political experiences while expanding their worldview, says Dema. She defends the notion of poetry when it is seen as the romanticized version of life and argues that poetry or the Arts in general have a more societal value. Academics could also argue that poetry produces knowledge based on the amount of research and community engagement required for the craft to be a success, Poets dont just necessarily write from within. We engage with communities, with communal knowledge. We engage archives. We research both history and the times we live in. We bear witness to the times we live in, she adds.
Poetry, similar to all other art forms has been used as a social tool by artists to vocalize their opinions about the world. Dema does not consider herself overtly political. Her advocacy lies in everyday people and their circumstances. Her passion for people and her craft collides when she is able to do what she enjoys including through mentorship of upcoming poets and hosting free workshops every year in schools and for the community to help those interested to harness technique and craft.
Dema is responsible for bringing the many leading international creative intellectuals in her field into the country to interact with Batswana poets. She hopes this practice will be adopted by Botswana educational institutions and schools to enhance the overall learning process. Grand and bold but humbly modest, Dema states she is not preoccupied with rankings and classifications, that she simply works and hopes her work speaks for itself, I know writing to be work. For whatever it has cost me, Im far too focused with that to be useful at positioning myself strategically.
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A file photo.
NEW DELHI (PTI): A total of 48 military aircraft and 21 helicopters were lost to crashes since 2011 in which 79 people were killed, the government told Lok Sabha on Friday.
Replying to a question, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said all such incidents and accidents are thoroughly investigated and preventive actions taken based on probe reports.
"A total of 48 aircraft and 21 helicopters were lost in crashes by the armed forces since 2011. 79 persons were killed in these crashes," he said.
To a separate question, Bhamre said it is planned to utilise Light Combat Aircraft Tejas as a flying test bed to design and develop a stealthy unmanned combat aerial vehicle.
He said the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has undertaken a feasibility study to convert Chetak helicopter into an unmanned technology demonstrator.
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has also planned to develop a futuristic stealth combat drone.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, replying to another query, said the ADA is also developing MK-II version of LCA for the Navy with a higher thrust engine than the one used in MK-I version of Tejas.
"Final Operational Clearence (FOC) of LCA (Navy) MK II is likely to be obtained by 2023 for induction in Indian Navy and FoC for Air Force MKII is likely to be obtained by December 2025," he said.
Replying to a separate query, Bhamre said Indian Navy has decommissioned 11 ships since January 2015.
The Minister said no incident of Indian UAV having been shot down by Pakistan has taken place.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while briefing media at capital's Hyderabad House.
NEW DELHI (PTI): Pacts on the strategic areas of defence, civil nuclear cooperation and cyber security were among the nearly two dozen agreements signed between India and Bangladesh here on Saturday.
Both the countries inked a pact on the defence cooperation framework apart from signing an agreement for extending defence Line of Credit (LOC) of USD 500 million.
An agreement between Defence Services Staff College, Wellington (Nilgiris) in Tamil Nadu and Defence Services Command and Staff College, Mirpur, Dhaka was also signed for enhancing cooperation in strategic and operational studies.
A pact between National Defence College in Dhaka and National Defence College in New Delhi for enhancing cooperation in the field of national security, development and strategic studies was also inked between the two countries after both their prime ministers held "productive" talks.
The countries also agreed to cooperate for peaceful use of nuclear energy apart from reaching an arrangement between the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) India and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) for the exchange of technical information and cooperation in the regulation of nuclear safety and radiation protection.
The countries also agreed on an inter-agency agreement between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP), India and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) on cooperation in nuclear power plant projects in Bangladesh.
During the meeting, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Bangladesh Government Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-Gov CIRT) also agreed to cooperate in the area of cyber security.
An agreement between both the countries on establishing border haats across the Indo-Bangladesh border was also signed.
The countries also agreed to cooperate in the bilateral judicial sector. The National Judicial Academy in India and the Supreme Court of Bangladesh also inked a pact on training and capacity building programme for Bangladeshi judicial officers in India.
Both the countries also agreed on a financing agreement for the construction of 36 community clinics in Bangladesh apart from signing a pact on extending a third Line of Credit (LoC) by India to Bangladesh.
Other pacts include an agreement on cooperation in the field of mass media and audio-visual co-production.
An MoU on development of fairway from Sirajganj to Daikhowa and Ashuganj to Zakiganj on Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route between the Indian Shipping Ministry and Bangladesh Shipping Ministry was also signed.
Both the countries also signed a pact on passenger and cruise services on the coastal and protocol route. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) and the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) also agreed on mutual scientific cooperation in the field of Earth Sciences for Research and Development among others.
A file photo.
NEW DELHI (PTI): Over Rs 2 lakh worth of contracts for procurement of military hardware and weapons have been signed in the last three years to modernise the armed forces, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday.
Replying to a question in Lok Sabha, he said the government has taken a slew of measures for military modernisation and to keep the defence forces in a state of readiness to meet operational challenges.
"147 contracts involving over Rs 2 lakh have been signed for procurement of various equipment during the year 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 (up to February, 2017)," he said.
To a separate question, MoS Defence Subhash Bhamre said a committee of experts has recommended creation of a central autonomous professional organisation to build up indigenous defence capability as a strategic imperative for long-term self reliance.
He also said the government has recently approved a Defence Innovation Fund (DIF) which aims at creation of an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in defence.
On whether Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd and French firm DCNS were keen on making three more scorpene-class submarines, he replied in the affirmative.
Replying to another question, Bhamre said 54 missing defence personnel including one from BSF of 1965 and 1971 wars are believed to be in the custody of Pakistan.
He said the government has repeatedly been taking up the matter with the Pakistan government but Islamabad does not acknowledge the presence of any Indian personnel in its custody.
Venezuela's Su-30Mk2 fighter aircraft.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BNS): Venezuela is interested in acquiring an extra batch of Russian-made Sukhoi-30 fighter jets but a new contract is unlikely to be signed soon, a Russian military official has said.
"Venezuela is interested but we should understand that it (the country) is in a difficult situation now and has to resolve internal problems.
"Therefore, it is too early and untimely to speak about the purchase of new planes," Deputy Head of Russia's Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Anatoly Punchuk, who was heading the Russian delegation at the LAAD 2017 arms exhibition in Brazil held from April 4 to 7, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency.
According to earlier reports, Venezuela is interested in buying additional 12 Su-30 planes from Russia. The Venezuelan defence minister had said that the country had allocated $480 million for this purpose in 2015.
In 2006, Russia and Venezuela had signed a contract for the delivery of 24 Su-30MK2 planes. The delivery was completed in 2008.
The Su-30MK2 fourth-generation multi-role fighter performed its first flight test in 2002. The fighter is armed with unguided and precision guided weapons.
Powered by two AL-31F engines, the warplane has an in-flight refueling system, advanced navigation and radio communications systems and a defensive aids suite.
As'ad's Bio
As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms remains as relevant today as it did when it was signed on April 17, 1982.
So said law enforcement officers and local lawyers who discussed the document during a presentation and question and answer session on Sunday.
They spoke during Law Day at the Brandon Courthouse.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup speaks about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms during Law Day at the Brandon Courthouse on Sunday as Virden RCMP officer Nathaniel Stoddart looks on.
Law Day is an annual event hosted by the Manitoba Bar Association and Western Manitoba Bar Association to celebrate the historic document.
If there were no Charter, a lot of the rights we take for granted would be abused, Crown attorney Richard Lonstrup said.
Its a document that says the government and law enforcement in the public sphere as a whole have to follow basic rules so we can live freely and speak freely.
A common misconception to come out since 1982 is that the document serves to provide defence lawyers with an opportunity to get their clients off the hook with technicalities, lawyer Rhea Majewski said.
Called to the Manitoba Bar in 2015, Majewski said that the even when a law enforcement officer has been in breach of the Charter, it doesnt necessarily mean that any evidence will be thrown out.
Theyre still going to run a test of whether its more in the public interest to let the evidence stand, she said.
In one instance early in her career, Majewski said that she argued for the discarding of evidence due to a Charter breach, was successful in making the argument, but the evidence stood regardless.
In this case, a police officer questioned a suspect without telling them why they were being detained, but the judge of the day determined the evidence gathered should remain in play.
The Charter also calls for those in custody to see a judge within 24 hours, to be offered a trial in a reasonable timeline and to be considered innocent until proven guilty, with the burden of proof put on the Crown attorney.
The timely trial issue has been in the news in recent months as the result of a backlog in the legal system forcing charges to be thrown out due to unreasonable delays in trial dates.
These are things many of us take for granted, but which Lonstrup said are integral to our rights as Canadians.
Police officers are given extensive training as to procedure in order to ensure they follow the Charter in its entirety, Virden RCMP officer Nathaniel Stoddart said.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, he said, affirming his support for the document, for which he was thankful to offer clarifications to the public on Sunday.
Suspects, usually under the influence of drugs or alcohol, frequently make assertions to law enforcement officers about what Charter rights they have, he said, adding that theyre usually incorrect.
While copies of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms were handed out during Law Day on Sunday, the full text is also readily available online.
tclarke@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Mylo, a five-year-old stallion miniature donkey, was the star of the show during a Palm Sunday parade through the neighbourhood of St. Georges Anglican Church.
The Sunday morning procession saw Mylo, led by Wendy Brownlie and daughter Amberlee, reluctantly follow the parade, during which churchgoers ahead brandished construction paper palm tree branches and sang hymns.
Palm Sunday is one of the most important dates on the Christian calendar, marking Jesus entry into Jerusalem. He rode on the back of a donkey while the faithful carried palms as a symbol of victory.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Youths display their construction paper palm branches during the Palm Sunday parade St. Georges Anglican Church hosted through its neighbourhood. Pictured in back is pastor Jonathan Hoskin, who played guitar and led the days parade.
While most congregations recognize Palm Sunday by marching through their church buildings, St. Georges Anglican Church pastor Jonathan Hoskin said that he wanted to try something bigger.
By marching through the streets around the Fifth Street church and hailing Jesus while people ask Whats going on? the church groups efforts on Sunday better represented of the Biblical story of Jesus, he said, adding that it also got them out into the community.
It was the congregations first attempt at a public parade for Palm Sunday, and Hoskin said that securing Mylo for the day was a particular boon for the inaugural effort.
The fact that Jesus rode on a donkey and not a war horse was integral to his character, Hoskin said, adding; That shows that he comes in peace and he comes in humility and not in arrogance to overthrow, not by force of might anyway.
Palm Sunday sets the groundwork for the upcoming Easter celebrations.
The high expectations the people of Jerusalem set out for Jesus during his Palm Sunday arrival faltered by Easter Friday, during which the crowds turned on him, resulting in his crucifixion. Easter Sunday celebrates his resurrection.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Amberlee Brownlie, left, and mother Wendy Brownlie, find some difficulty steering donkey Mylo in the right direction during St. Georges Anglican Churchs Palm Sunday parade.
Excited to participate in the days honouring of the story of Jesus, Brownlie said that it wasnt only the congregation at St. Georges that participated, in that she had friends at churches from throughout the city who were praying for a successful parade.
tclarke@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A little more than 100 years ago, Murray Tallants uncle, Francis John Tallant, 30, was killed instantly as a result of a German shell going off in northern France.
He died on March 9, 1917, where the Battle of Vimy Ridge would take place a month later.
Another 74 Canadians who died in the historic battle are buried alongside him at Villers Station Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France a portion of the 3,598 who were killed in the battle between April 9-12, 1917.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Respects are paid at the Brandon Cenotaph on Sunday during a special service in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
On Sunday, Tallant visited the Brandon Cenotaph for a 100th anniversary remembrance event in honour of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
During this ceremony, Tallant a proud Royal Canadian Legion member carried his late uncles dog tags in his pocket.
Vimy Ridge remains an important moment in Canadian history, CFB Shilo Lt.-Col. John Cochrane said following Sundays ceremony, during which wreaths were laid in honour of those who fought and in many cases fell in battle.
Its the first time the world stood up and took notice of Canada as a sovereign nation, Cochrane said.
It got the nation together, and its the first time that everybody, coast to coast, got together for Canada, Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 3 president Garry Andrew said.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Murray Tallant holds the dog tags of his uncle, Francis John Tallant, at the site of the Brandon Cenotaph on Sunday following a ceremony in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The elder Tallant died at Vimy Ridge in the lead-up to the final attack by the Canadian Corps.
Canadians successful capture of a German stronghold and the sense of patriotism it brought out came at a significant cost, with Canada counting 10,602 casualties of whom 3,598 were killed.
It was the first time that all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together, ANAVETS second vice-president of the provincial command Al Dunham reflected prior to Sundays service, adding: Some say that its the battle that forged Canada as a nation and no longer a colony, and I truly believe that.
Carrying his familys proud military tradition forward, Dunham served 37 years with the Canadian Army and thinks about Vimy Ridge often, although not as often as he admits he should.
A question comes to mind is, how did these kids and they were kids do something in hours and in four days, when other bigger armies couldnt do it in years? he asked. Its astounding.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge remains a milestone in Canadian history, Cochrane said, adding that it thrust the work ethic, training, perseverance and ingenuity of Canadians into an international spotlight.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 3 Sergeant at Arms Dan Merlin commands Sundays Battle of Vimy Ridge memorial at the Brandon Cenotaph on Sunday.
It really brings us to a position where we came out from under the shadow at that point in time and became ourselves, he said. It developed from there and gave us something to build on, which we didnt really have until then.
During the subsequent century, Canadians went on to fight in the Second World War and various and other efforts including a strong commitment to peacekeeping, Cochrane said.
Through it all, he added, the Battle of Vimy Ridge continues to stand out as a starting point in Canadian identity.
tclarke@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The latest estimates have the Assiniboine River cresting at higher levels than previously expected, but the City of Brandon has got residents backs.
Such was the key message behind Saturdays public meeting at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, with residents potentially impacted by the rising waters invited to attend.
Grand Valley Road was shut off to traffic on Saturday, as water spilled over the roadway and crews worked to dig up the asphalt and install a clay plug where it meets 18th Street.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun An aqua dam was installed on Sunday to keep water off First Street North by the Assiniboine River.
With all measurements taken at First Street, Saturday morning saw the Assiniboine River reach 1,175.8 feet above sea level.
Grand Valley Road floods over at 1,176.5 feet above sea level, indicating the waterway continued to rise throughout the day.
By Sunday morning, it had reached 1,178.7 feet above sea level.
Expected to crest some time either yesterday or today, peak water levels are currently forecast at between 1,180.8 and 1,181.8 feet above sea level.
The citys dike system can handle up to 1,186 feet, city director of risk and emergency management Brian Kayes told those who attended Saturdays meeting, reminding them that even at its worst projection, this years flooding isnt expected to be as bad as it has been during the most recent flood years in recent memory.
The floods of 2014 peaked at 1,183.1 feet and the floods of 2011 peaked at 1,182.9 feet.
While Kayes said that this year will find the Assiniboine River carry a significant amount of water, the City of Brandon is expected to retain enough wiggle room in its preparations to prevent any extreme measures from having to take place, such as evacuations.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun A crew is seen shoring up Grand Valley Road on Saturday after floodwater started flowing over the centre line.
The City of Brandon always strives to build in enough leeway into its planning to expect the unexpected, which city engineer Pat Pulak said was of benefit this year, when conservative early estimates proved inaccurate.
Its the flood forecasters nightmare, I guess, Kayes said, adding that when it comes to projections, they rely on the guidance of experts from the provincial government.
Judging from what theyve seen upstream thus far, the Assiniboine River should crest and drop off within a few days, Kayes said, adding that this and everything else being projected should be taken with a grain of salt.
Anything can change, but he said that its unlikely we see a repeat of 2011, during which the water crested and remained high for a few weeks.
Manitoba Infrastructure worked to protect First Street North from floodwater with aqua dams on Sunday, with that roadway expected to remain open.
While a southbound lane of 18th Street slowed traffic on Saturday, Kayes said that traffic on 18th Street and First Street is expected to continue flowing during this flood event, albeit occasionally a bit slower than usual.
Kayes urges people to set aside a little extra time and to slow down for road crews.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Volunteers work to sandbag around Dave Barnes property at the eastern end of Rosser Avenue on Sunday.
Attendance at Dinsdale Park and Queen Elizabeth Park have been prohibited, and these public spaces will be monitored on a regular basis to ensure compliance.
The City of Brandon is also asking people to keep clear of the citys dike system and Assiniboine River in general.
Despite water breaching the Assiniboine Rivers banks, those who attended Saturdays public meeting didnt appear too fired up, which Kayes said after the fact made sense, as past floods have helped the municipality better prepare itself for floodwater.
It might seem like were more organized, but we have less to do because of the systems we have in place over the past few years, he said, adding that their working relationship with the provincial government has also proven helpful in tackling flood conditions.
This time around, the province is helping with both Grand Valley Road and First Street flood mitigative efforts.
While much of the city is protected by its dike system, a property at the eastern end of Rosser Avenue is not.
A few dozen volunteers turned out to assist with sandbagging the property of Dave Barnes on Sunday. Barnes property is regularly opened up to members of the public interested in learning more about nature through the Assiniboine Food Forest program and other efforts.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun The City of Brandons director of risk and emergency management, Brian Kayes, speaks with concerned citizens about the Assiniboine River flooding, at the Riverbank Discover Centre on Saturday.
As of press time on Sunday, the provincial government noted that a flood warning remained in effect for the upper Assiniboine River from the Shellmouth Dam to Holland and Oak Lake, which was at crest. A flood warning remained in effect for all points along the Souris River.
tclarke@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
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This article was published 08/04/2017 (2040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CFB SHILO There is often a featured quote at the start of any temporary exhibit the RCA Museum presents.
And in the newest display, a commemoration of the Battle of Vimy Ridge 100 years ago, a clash defined as Canadas coming of age, the quote describes the Canadians not as heroes but as the bad guys.
The enemy had divided up the battlefield like a chessboard. Strip after strip was ploughed and torn up, the quote read, said by Maj. von Dittelsbach of the 1st Battalion Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment.
Ian Froese/The Brandon Sun A German trench mortar, painted in camouflage, is displayed at the "In the Footsteps of Vimy" exhibit, which opened Friday at CFB Shilo's RCA Museum.
Reading the poster back, the museums senior curator, Kathleen Christensen, said the quote, while offering the opposing viewpoint, shows respect for the Canadians meticulous strategy.
Its a really apt description from that side of what the Canadian approach to this battle was, which was to run it like a chessboard, she said. Just like you have to plan several moves in advance in a chessboard, thats what Vimy was.
The CFB Shilo museum gives visitors a peek at the historic battle through the new exhibit, In the Footsteps of Vimy, which runs until Nov. 30.
A grand opening was held Friday afternoon.
On the floor of the exhibit, the focal point is a recreated barrage map detailing the strategy of the 1st Division.
It was the simplest battle plan and it was also the most successful one, Christensen explained.
The map is blown up so it can be used for role-playing exercises, geared toward students.
Visitors are encouraged to pick up the biography of a First World War soldier as they browse the exhibit, pressing forward on the map. At the end, guests can read what happened to their soldier during the war.
The idea of In the Footsteps of Vimy is so that people can actually experience what it was like to be in Vimy, Christensen said.
This Sunday marks 100 years since Canadian soldiers scaled up the heavily fortified ridge, overwhelming the Germans where other Allied forces had failed. The battle took its toll, with more than 7,000 Canadians wounded and nearly 3,600 killed.
One must-see artifact at the exhibit is a captured German gun, which has never been restored. Though its not known if the artillery was ever stationed at Vimy, it shows the damage cannonry like it had sustained in the First World War.
There is also a German trench mortar, painted in camouflage, which was hidden in square pits and fired at trenches occupied by Allied forces.
In a small, darkened hallway of the exhibit are pieces of chalk, so visitors can write their own message. Before the famous Vimy offensive, hundreds of troops carved their name and rank into the walls of underground caverns as they waited. A cast of one carving is displayed in the tunnel.
Ian Froese/The Brandon Sun Kathleen Christensen, RCA Museum's senior curator, examines a replica of a uniform a Canadian soldier would have worn during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The exhibit also includes posters exploring key moments of the battle, and numerous artifacts such as machine-guns, an infantry kit and the certificate of a Mennonites exemption from service.
A touch-screen monitor provides an interactive aerial map of the battlefield.
Christensen, who spent much of a year preparing the exhibit, said it was gratifying Friday to see visitors browse the displays for the first time.
The museum spent a lot of time focusing on the particulars.
On one painting of a tree, for example, a bird is drawn. It reminds Christensen of the German novel All Quiet on the Western Front, where a man, so distracted by a birds grace, let his guard down and was killed by enemy fire.
Like the sight of poppies in battle-scarred fields, there were these moments of beauty in such a horrific experience, she said.
The RCA Museum is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
ifroese@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @ianfroese
Opinion
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Late March or early April is when two major reports are released each year ranking our planets countries in terms of human development and world happiness. These reports serve as reminders of what we might hope for the world (peace, prosperity, health) and how close we have come to achieving these goals.
The United Nations Human Development Index ranks 188 countries based on life expectancy, years of education and gross national income. Canada has always been in or around the top 10 and, in fact, reached No. 1 a couple of times back in the 90s. The latest HDI ranks Canada 10th, with those achieving higher grades being Norway at No. 1, then Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Netherlands, Ireland and Iceland.
Other countries we might more easily relate to in the rankings include the U.S., tied with Canada in 10th, the United Kingdom at 16th, the Russian Federation at 49th, Cuba at 68th and Mexico at 77th. Toward the bottom of the list you will find Tanzania at 151st, Rwanda at 159th, the Congo at 176th and South Sudan at 181st.
The UN stated, in launching this years HDI that despite the past 25 years of impressive human development, one-third of humanity still lives in poverty. The theme of the HDI, and that of Canadas current overseas assistance program, is leaving no one behind and what the UN says is that the next really tough challenge is to ensure that the benefits of global progress reach everyone.
The UN points out that many are still excluded from real progress, not just in the developing world, but also in wealthy countries where hundreds of millions of women, children, ethnic minorities and indigenous people live in relative poverty. Many of these groups as well as rural dwellers, LGBTI and people with disabilities around the world are also excluded or under-represented politically, socially and culturally.
The UN is quick to point out that since 1990, a billion people on the planet have escaped extreme poverty and that womens issues have become a mainstream global issue, with 127 countries now legally protecting women from domestic violence, an infinite improvement from the past. Yet, anyone watching the news sees many signs of progress being rolled back by reactionary populations and ultra-right movements and governments in a time of great migration, destructive conflict and episodic terrorism. While progress may be being made at a grassroots, under-the-radar level, what we see on the surface is a world in turmoil.
This brings us to that other index, the World Happiness Report for 2017. The first one came out in April 2012, when the UN held a high level meeting on happiness and well-being. To support this initiative, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development committed itself to redefine the growth narrative to put peoples well-being at the centre of government efforts.
Norway, No. 1 in the HDI, is also No. 1 in happiness. What is being measured is income, healthy life expectancy, good governance, freedom, trust and generosity. It says that money alone doesnt equal happiness. An example in Norway is that it is developing its oil industry slowly and investing its profits with the long-term future in mind, avoiding the boom-and-bust cycle of many resource-rich countries.
Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland rank next in order and Canada stands at seventh. Other factors researched include mental and physical health, quality of work or unemployment, and personal relationships. Thus, a country like China has had unprecedented economic growth, but its Happiness Index hasnt really changed in recent years, because loss of social safety nets and growing unemployment offsets the general economic growth. In the U.S., as we might imagine, the happiness situation has been dropping, now ranking 14th!
World Happiness Report co-author Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University says that the sense of community is deteriorating in the U.S. He says that over the long term, there has been a growing sense of mean-spiritedness, corrupt government and rising inequality. A loss of hope among the poor in Americas heartland has been the result and may explain the recent U.S. national elections. What has worked in the Nordic countries, says another report author, is their sense of community and understanding of the common good.
Canadas high ranking in these indexes is something we can build on. There is much yet to do to improve our standing and maybe get back to No. 1. The plight of indigenous people, the inequality faced by many women and the deteriorating state of our environment are challenges we need to pursue.
Zack Gross is former executive director of Brandons Marquis Project and now staff person for Fair Trade Manitoba.
Opinion
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Was it the measured and fully justified strategic reaction of a newly decisive commander-in-chief, or simply the latest impulsive expression of the Madness of King Donald?
Its difficult to contextualize the order from U.S. President Donald Trump that launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airstrip Thursday, given the erratic behaviour and mixed messages that have emanated from the White House and its most-every-weekend southern counterpart, Mar-a-Lago right up until the moment the first missile was fired.
The decision to attack came in the wake of last Tuesdays horrific chemical weapons assault by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on citizens many of them innocent children of his own country. The missile bombardment, though largely unexpected by Americas global allies, drew statements of support from several nations, including Britain, France, Australia, Germany and Canada.
Speaking in the House of Commons Friday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, one of several allied leaders who got advance notice an attack was imminent, expressed full support for the limited, focused action, and added, Canada agrees that Assads repeated use of chemical weapons must not continue. In the face of such heinous war crimes, all civilized peoples must speak with one voice.
Justified as the U.S.s retaliatory strike seems to have been, however, theres very little to suggest it was preceded by the sort of deep deliberation and consideration of subsequent geopolitical consequences that one usually associates with and, indeed, would hope are always employed when considering the use of military force against a foreign nation.
As recently as last week, newly installed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signalled a reversal of the Obama administrations long-held position that Assad must resign before peace can be negotiated with Syria. Within days of Mr. Tillersons statement that the Trump administrations priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out, the Syrian president unleashed his (latest) deadly chemical attack.
Critics charged that Mr. Tillersons statement which was reversed quickly in the wake of the attack effectively gave Assad the green light to proceed with his murderous agenda. By Thursday, Mr. Tillerson had amended his position to the view that with the acts that (Assad) has taken, it would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people.
And then 59 cruise missiles.
While theres no disputing that a healthy measure of retribution was due Assad, and has been for a very long time, its the obvious lack of forethought that makes President Trumps decision so troubling. What seems clear is that the missile launch was not part of a carefully considered strategy for dealing with the Syrian crisis; rather, it seems more likely that the president was once again bothered by something he saw on television in this case, the ghastly images of gassed infants and children and made an impulsive decision to act.
Only this time, instead of an early morning Twitter rant about the flagging ratings of The Celebrity Apprentice, the response was a military strike. In its wake, one is left wondering and more than a bit worried whether President Trump, basking in the affirmation of his allies, will feel emboldened to use weapons more dangerous than Twitter when next he sees something on TV that leaves him feeling aggrieved.
Winnipeg Free Press
Opinion
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Thanks for the fair coverage
Just want to say thanks to the Brandon Sun for the great coverage of the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. Some of us are not able to get out to the fair and it is nice to see the photos and stories about what is going on there. It is such a great event for our city. And to learn about the background of some of these show people is very interesting. I used to go to the fair when I was more able and just loved it. Keep up the good work.
Why the secrecy?
Just wondering why all of a sudden we arent getting statistics on the number of refugees crossing into Canada illegally? There were daily reports on the numbers and now the reeve for Emerson-Franklin says he doesnt know because both the RCMP and Border Services refuse to tell him. According to him, Ottawa has put a gag order in place. What happened to transparency? I think all of us should be concerned when the feds start hiding the numbers from us. After all, as taxpayers, we have a right to know how many immigrants we are going to have to support.
Direct your criticism elsewhere
I see the way many kids act in public and think that teachers deserve every penny they earn if not more. Teachers dont decide what or how to teach. Criticism needs to be directed elsewhere. My kids have excellent teachers.
Oil companies are at it again
When oil prices went down a couple of weeks ago, by about 10 cents a litre, our gas price went down three cents. Today, gas prices are up seven cents, but oil only rose by two cents. I feel ripped off, I dont know about you. There isnt a service station that will cut the price because of greed, less profit.
Take your masters for the right reasons
The Sound Off letter submitted by a teacher who advises other teachers to get their masters to improve their financial situation is disappointing but nothing new. If any professional is sincere about taking a masters degree it should be to improve their abilities in their trade of choice. Unfortunately through a few decades of teaching, I have seen many teachers who have taken their masters to simply improve their financial situation. The real masters are those teachers who strive to provide the best education for their students through professional development during the school year and over the summer, constant dialogue and sharing with colleagues, an open door policy to students for extra help before, during and after school, a commitment to extra curricular activities without the carrot of paid days off, reading journals to keep up with new ideas, being willing to change subject and grade levels, as well as revamping their own programs and teaching methods on an ongoing basis. Some of the real master teachers I have witnessed have a normal school diploma and were making half of a teacher with a masters degree and putting them to shame with their teaching expertise and commitment.
Fashion chain Jaeger has collapsed into administration.
The group's directors have appointed AlixPartners to oversee the process following failed attempts by the company's private equity owner, Better Capital, to sell the struggling business.
Jaeger had been on the market for around 30m (35m).
However, no buyer materialised and last week Better Capital sold Jaeger's debt to a company understood to be controlled by the retail billionaire Philip Day, who heads up Edinburgh Woollen Mill.
A statement by AlixPartners explained that the request was made after Jaeger was "unable to attract suitable offers despite a lengthy and well-publicised sales process."
Insiders now expect most of Jaeger's stores to close down, although the brand is likely to survive as part of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill stable, which also includes Jane Norman, Peacocks and Austin Reed.
Joint administrator Peter Saville, of AlixPartners, said: "Regrettably despite an extensive sales process it has not been possible to identify a purchaser for the business.
"Our focus now is in identifying an appropriate route forward and work with all stakeholders to do this. We will ensure that we communicate further as this process unfolds."
Ireland is the lowest investor in public capital infrastructure in the EU, despite having the fastest growing population.
Ibec believes the Irish government needs to be more ambitious if it is to achieve the 2040 national planning framework.
A conference taking place in Galway later will examine how information overload is causing anxiety, stress and reduced productivity among Irish workers.
Speakers will consider how to offset the darker psychological effects of social media - and relieve the constant pressure to "stay connected".
The French government passed a law this year, giving workers the right to ask their employers not to contact them outside office hours.
Dr Eoin Whelan from NUI Galway says while new workplace policies are needed, individuals should also monitor their own social media consumption.
It's up to the person themselves to realise that this might be a problem for them; that they are using technology too heavily.
Some people, the first thing they do is turn on their phone and check for emails and that is a mistake. You need time to be disconnected, to have a clear head.
I think in terms of workplace quality it is important to have a culture that people can have free time from technology and not be expected to respond to emails or messages straight away.
A British soldier who killed a "totally innocent" teenager when he fired close to a crowd of youths in Derry was unjustified in discharging the fatal round, a coroner has ruled.
Manus Deery, 15, was killed as he stood in an archway near a chip shop in the city socialising with friends in May 1972.
His sister Helen said her family's campaign for a new inquest had been vindicated by the coroner's ruling.
"We always knew Manus was innocent," she said.
The teenager, who had just started his first job two weeks before he died, was struck in the head by fragments of a bullet that ricocheted off a wall.
It was fired by a British soldier from a fortified observation sanger high above the Bogside area on Derry's historic city walls.
Coroner Mr Justice Adrian Colton, who presided over a fresh inquest into one of the most contentious deaths of the Troubles, rejected the British soldier's claim that he fired at a gunman.
Private William Glasgow, now deceased, insisted he had fired on a man armed with a rifle, but missed and hit the wall.
Mr Justice Colton told Derry courthouse he had concluded there was no such gunman.
"The discharge of the round was unjustified," he said.
"Neither Manus nor anyone close to him was acting in a manner that could reasonably have been perceived as posing a threat of death or injury to Private Glasgow or any other person."
However, the coroner said he was unable to determine whether the Royal Welch Fusilier was under an "honest belief" that he had seen an armed man - citing his inability to question the late serviceman during the inquest.
"Even if Private Glasgow had an honest belief that there was a gunman present, the force used was disproportionate to the threat perceived and therefore more than was absolutely necessary in the circumstances," he said.
Mr Justice Colton said the British Army's rules of engagement at the time - the "Yellow Card" - had not been adhered to.
"Private Glasgow was not justified in opening fire," said Mr Justice Colton.
The killing occurred months after the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry, when soldiers killed 13 civil rights demonstrators and fatally injured another on the streets of the Bogside.
The coroner said the Deery family's pursuit of a new inquest was fuelled by a burning desire to wipe away a "perceived stain" on Manus's character related to insinuations he may have been involved in paramilitary activity, or had even been the gunman spoken of by Pte Glasgow.
Delivering his ruling in the non-jury inquest, he said he had "no doubt" the boy was blameless.
"Manus Deery was a totally innocent victim," he said.
"He didn't pose a threat to soldiers or anyone else."
During inquest proceedings, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) acknowledged that the shooting was unjustified.
In a statement given the day after the incident, Pte Glasgow claimed he fired at a gunman standing beneath an archway beside a pub in the Bogside.
He was not prosecuted.
A new inquest was ordered by Northern Ireland's attorney general John Larkin in 2012. The original inquest in 1973 returned an open verdict.
The coroner said official British Army and police investigations of the shooting in 1972 were "flawed and inadequate".
Helen Deery, who long campaigned for a second inquest, said she was delighted her brother's name had been cleared.
"It has been a long, drawn-out process and there's been lots of hurdles along the way, but it's been worth it," she said.
"My emotions today are I love my brother, so I am just a bit sentimental and peaceful too.
"I'll probably go to the cemetery at some stage. But this was about Manus and all the witnesses and clearing all their names."
She said Manus was a "beautiful wee boy with his whole life in front of him".
"I hope other families will persist in justice and persist in truth and know that it can be done," she added.
The ruling was delivered as political parties at Stormont remain deadlocked over new mechanisms to deal with the legacy of the Troubles.
One initiative stuck in the starting blocks due to the impasse is a beefed up special unit within the coroners' service to deal with historic inquests.
Ms Deery was sceptical of the politicians' ability to deliver.
"Personally I don't think the politicians give a damn about the victims," she said.
"I have no faith in Stormont or the politicians."
A Dublin man who disappeared and died during the first World War will be given a burial site today.
Lieutenant William Frederick MacHutchison is thought to have been captured in a French Village in March 1918.
Gardai investigating the murder of Aidan O'Driscoll in Blackpool in December have arrested a sixth individual, writes Alan Healy.
A man in his early 40s was arrested in the Cork area last night shortly after 9pm.
He is currently detained at Mayfield Garda Station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
The man's arrest follows the arrest last week of five individuals, four men and a woman.
The five ranged in age from their 20s to their 70s and were questioned in stations across Cork city.
The Ballyvolane man, who was a former Real IRA leader, was on his way to a painting and decorating job in a nearby house when he was gunned down just before 5pm on December 7 on the 0ld Commons Road.
Investigating officers had originally considered the possibility that the dead mans past in Limerick and Dublin could have held the key to his killing.
However, investigators now believe the killing was organised in Cork.
This story first appeared in the Evening Echo.
Comments posted on Facebook sparked a family feud which erupted in a violent battle on the main street of a town between "cousins, aunts and uncles", Limerick Circuit Court has heard, writes David Raleigh.
The inter-family clash occurred around 1pm, in Askeaton, Co Limerick, on March 14, 2016.
Settled Traveller, William 'Bomber' Harty, who stripped to his waist and delivered several blows during the shocking melee, was jailed for three years with the final 18 months suspended.
William 'Bomber' Harty.
Harty, (aged 26), of Maiden Street, Newcastle West, pleaded guilty to one count of violent disorder.
The court was told Harty had 109 previous convictions, including for violent disorder, possession of weapons, burglary, assault, escaping from custody, public order, and road traffic offences.
It was heard that Harty has three children, the youngest who is aged four months and who was born while Harty was being held in custody on remand awaiting sentence since last July.
"Gardai described tensions as running very high at the time of the ongoing feud. Gardai say a feud was in existence over some issue on Facebook," said judge Tom O'Donnell.
Harty was granted bail in March 2016 but this was "revoked" the following July, the court heard.
After viewing CCTV footage of the violent incident, judge O'Donnell remarked: "Several women got involved. Absolute mayhem ensued."
"The accused got involved in a serious fight; the parties struck each other several times. It moved to the road and it caused traffic to stop."
"It was a very aggressive, very hostile environment...matters quickly ignited."
The fighting was captured on security cameras from surrounding premises.
"CCTV shows the accused and several others delivering blows; The accused was bare chested."
Harty, who was not the instigator but a willing participant, identified himself from the CCTV coverage and admitted his involvement.
"He did not shy away, he was actively involved," the judge said.
He added: "They say the camera doesn't lie, and from the CCTV, the level of violence made it a very frightening experience for members of the public."
"In one scene (from CCTV) a car can be seen approaching the fight and then reversing back away from it."
Judge O'Donnell described the afternoon battle as "disgraceful". "It cannot be tolerated."
No weapons were used, and no complaints were made by any of the parties involved.
"This was an outrageous frightening performance that happened in broad daylight," the judge said.
Backdating Harty's sentence to July 11 last, he added: "The speed of the violence which unfolded is unacceptable in a civilised society."
Six other suspects, charged in relation to the same investigation, are currently before the courts awaiting trial.
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Lester Holt Wife, Family & Net Worth Lester Holt is a multiple award-winning journalist, newscaster, reporter, and actor who has worked for notable media houses like WCBS TV, CBS, MSNBC and among others. His remarkable feat in journalism has endeared him to the hearts of many and earned him some awards and recognitions. Read on to get acquainted with his biography, ethnicity, ...
What Is Louis C.K. Doing Now, Where Are His Family And How Much Is His Net Worth? It is not easy to make it in comedy. It takes more than a funny bone and the ability to elicit a few giggles from a listening audience. For all the complexities that go into making a successful career in comedy, Louis C.K, the Washington D.C-born comedian, did it. For years, he was at the ...
The Progression of Hoda Kotbs Career, Her Ancestry and Family Life Hoda Kotb gained fame as a television host and news anchor for NBC. She anchors the shows signature show Today, and it has been an excellent vehicle for her skills in front of a camera. Kotb has won several awards, including Daytime Emmys and Peabody Awards. Simply put, she is one of the most successful ...
Jerry Seinfelds Family: All About The Amazing Comedians Wife and Kids Apparently one of the highly important entertainers in America, Jerry Seinfeld is a man of many talents. A very funny man, he is considered to be one of the most successful comedians in the USA who has been in the business as a professional rib-cracker for more than 40 years. As an actor, he has ...
The Rigors Of Sarah Silvermans Rise To Prominence And Rundown Of The Men She Has Dated A comedian, writer, and actress, Sarah Silvermans art and craft is as unique as you would ever find. Her poignant use of comedy to discuss social issues such as race, sexism, politics, and religion has gained her an impressive following. As unorthodox as her style is, so is her life experiences. She previously suffered from epiglottitis ...
Who Is Hannibal Buress, Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend & Why Was He Arrested? Making people laugh when they are tense or not in the mood is a tough order and to ply the trade, it must indeed take some guts and expertise, this is what the humor maker, Hannibal Buress has been able to achieve and sustain after his inital teething process. The African-American is a screen writer, stand-up ...
The Success of John Mulaneys Career Efforts Since His Work On Saturday Night Live and Facts About His Wife John Mulaney had been working as a professional comedian for years before Saturday Night Live changed his status for life and like many who are now his fans, you probably did not know of him then. However, that changed when he joined the sketch comedy show in 2008. Since then, he has been one of ...
Jeff Dunham Wife, Children and Net Worth Ventriloquism is a very subtle method of making an inanimate object (like a puppet, doll or dummy) appear to be saying words which are actually coming from the person (holding the inanimate object). In effect, the individual throws his/her voice to the puppet and can even appear to be having a conversation with it. Not ...
Ellen DeGeneres Net Worth, Wife Portia de Rossi & Parents Ellen DeGeneres is an American female standup comedian who has proven that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do. Since her journey as a standup comedian started in 1981, she has held swirl as one of the finest comedians America and the world at large has seen. She is often referred to ...
Revisiting Joan Rivers Death The Daughter, Husband & Net Worth She Left Behind Joan Rivers was a renowned American comedian, TV host, writer, and actress. Her brand of comedy consisted of scathing one-liners and no individual or topic is spared. She hosted her own talk shows in the 80s and 90s and was a pioneer for women in stand up comedy. She was the first woman to host a late night ...
The Struggles of Margaret Chos Childhood, How It Influenced Her Career Growth and Love Life Margaret Cho is best described as a comic star who knows how to maneuver everything related to life into a rib-cracking joke. She is also known to criticize every social and political problem, especially those involving race and sexuality. Apart from her talents as a comic actress, she does amazingly well as a singer and ...
Where Is Eric Bolling Today? Who Is His Son & What Is His Net Worth? Eric Bolling who was once a notable figure on Fox News, is an American TV personality, an author, and versatile Journalist. As a political and financial analyst/commentator, he anchored discussions bothering on finance for Fox Business Channel. Here is everything there is to know about his career, family, and allegations that led to his exit ...
Who Is Chelsea Handler and Does She Have A Husband or Boyfriend? Chelsea Handler is one of Americas top female comedians. She is also an actress, writer, television host, producer, and activist. She is known to be very outspoken even with things that are very personal. In separate interviews with The New York Times, Handler revealed that she had an abortion twice when she was 16. She has authored five books ...
How Did Laura Lee Achieve Fame, How Much is She Worth and Who is Her Husband? Laura Lee is a popular American YouTuber, make-up artist and beauty blogger. From posting videos of her makeup routines on Instagram, Lee has transformed into a beauty influencer and a YouTube sensation. Today, her YouTube Channel has over 630 million views and 4.5 million subscribers. Asides having millions of followers across all social media platforms, ...
Madison Gesiotto Bio Ethnicity, Parents & Measurements Madison Gesiotto is no ordinary woman; although she excelled in quite a number of pageants and competitions while she was in school, it is her views on politics and issues in America that has made her name known to most people. She possesses beauty and intelligence in a seemingly equal measure and has been able ...
Who Is Lil Tay? Parents, Brother, Sister, Age, Net Worth, Ethnicity Child stardom is nothing new in the entertainment world. With the advent of social media, we have seen more stars made from the internet than ever before, and Lil Tay is one of them. Her uploaded rap videos trademark is cursing, swearing, cash-throwing, and use of obscene languages. Her fame went wild after she dropped ...
What To Know About Tig Notaros Wife, Kids and Family Today Tig Notaro is an American stand-up comic star, writer, actress, and radio analyst. Since she started her career in 2001, she has become one of Americas best comedians, particularly when it comes to observational comedy. One prominent aspect of her routine involves her family, which includes a wife and two children. Interestingly, Tig Notaro is part ...
Who Is Chantel Jeffries? What To Know About Her Age, Ethnicity & Net Worth Chantel Jeffries is a lady of many talents. Beyond being celebrated as a DJ, she has fared well as a model, an actress, musician, and as an artist. She first rose to fame on Instagram where she has a large following. However, in recent times, she has hit the spotlight for her rumored relationships with some ...
Is Ellen DeGeneres Married, Who Is The Brother Vance DeGeneres and Family Members? Ellen DeGeneres is one of a kind celebrity in todays world as she has used her wealth for the greater good for many people. She has served a host of famous awards shows like the Grammy, Primetime Emmy and Academy Awards. Moreso, she is probably one of the most decorated entertainment personalities around the world and ...
Carli Bybel Bio Height, Boyfriend & Net Worth Video blogging is now on the rise and YouTube is the place where most of it happens. If you are a lady who cares about her looks or a guy who likes to help his woman out with her looks, then one person whose name rings a bell when it comes to giving beauty tips ...
Who Is Lexy Panterra? What To Know About Her Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth Lexy Panterra is one of the YouTube personalities whose breakout came through the Twerk dance videos she posted on her social media handles and YouTube which has so far generated over 13 million views for her. From there on, she created her LexTwerkOut workout program in 2014. She is sure very talented as she as moved ...
Who Is AnneMunition? What Is Her Ethnicity & Does She Have A Girlfriend or Boyfriend? AnneMunition is a professional gamer and content creator of American origin. She is one of the most sought-after streamers on Twitch a popular online platform for watching and streaming videos, especially video games. AnneMunition has almost half a million followers on Twitch and her channel has accumulated at least 13 million views. Her favorite games ...
Norm MacDonald Former Wife, Son & Net Worth Recently, 59-year-old former Saturday Night Live stand-up comic Norm MacDonald caused a not-so-funny stir when he expressed his personal opinion about the #MeToo movement speaking in defense of Louis CK and Roseanne Barr. Following the backlash of his actions, he is diligently doing damage control for his questionable opinion by posting a public apology on ...
Inside Iliza Shlesingers Life With Husband and How Much She is Worth Now Witty, spontaneous, and truly humorous, Iliza Shlesinger is an American comedian who is clearly proving that the stereotypical claim that women are not really funny is not only incredibly wrong but completely outrageous. Having been in the game for more than 10 years, Shlesinger has grown bigger with each step, stunning fans with her incredible ...
Who Is Nessa Diab? Details of her Parents, Ethnicity & Relationship With Colin Kaepernick Nessa Diab has gained more fame as the girlfriend of different footballers than in her career. She is currently with the popular National Football League (NFL) player, Colin Kaepernick, and has stood by his side during his most trying times. Also known for her mononym, Nessa, she recently engaged in a tweet battle with the ...
Samantha Bee Inside the Life of Full Frontal Comedian and Presenter We have over the decades seen various brands of humor and personalities who have walked the ropes. One of the formidable forces in the world of comedy is no other than the iconic Samantha Bee of the Daily Show who now runs her own television show on TBS channel. She is a Canadian-American political commentator, ...
What Happened To Jessica Williamss Boyfriend And Which Are Her Best Works? Jessica Williams is a woman who has a lot of feathers in her cap and keeps acquiring more. The former senior political correspondent of the comic Daily Show, who is also a comedian and actress whose recent movie appearance include starring as a playwright just recovering from a recent split with her boyfriend, Damon, and ...
Who is Nicole Byer? Here are 5 Facts You Need To Know About The Comedian Nicole Byer, an American comedian, actress, and writer, made a name for herself after she played supporting roles on MTVs prank show Ladylike and the reality show Girl Code. The latter was a series that featured comedians who analyzed in minute details, all the issues that young women deal with daily, from period to dating, to weird friendship dynamics and questions about sex. Currently, ...
A Closer Look At Bart Kwans Ethnicity, Height & Personal Life Bart Kwan is one of few Asians who is known for being successful in the comic industry at an international level. His fame broke out after the YouTube channel which he created with his close pal Joe Jo garnered up massive followings. The talented duo has been running the channel since 2007 and their success ...
Heres How VanossGaming Achieved Fame Online, His Worth and Other Facts About The Gamer For many years, the decision to drop out of college to pursue an online career was considered to be foolish and self-destructive by conventional wisdom. It was no different when Evan Fong, popularly known as VanossGaming, dropped out of college to pursue a YouTube career. However, that radical move paid off, and he stands shoulder to ...
Desi Perkins Ethnicity, Net Worth & Husband YouTube is littered with videos of makeup tutorials by different people but if you are interested in learning how to do your makeup like a pro, there is just one person on that platform who you must follow. She is none other than Desi Perkins! She is a popular make-up artist, Instagram star, and vlogger. Desi, ...
The Phases of Casey Neistats Pursuits and His Love Story With Candice Pool YouTuber, vlogger, filmmaker, and creator extraordinaire; these are just a few hats that Casey Neistat wears and the story of how he got here is incredible. A native of Connecticut, Neistat started out by making refreshingly-authentic short films and videos that featured content that was based on everyday life and called attention to serious issues. He ...
Connor Franta Inside The Life of American YouTuber YouTube has produced a lot of young celebrities in modern times and Connor Franta happens to be one of them. Apart from being a YouTuber, the young American is also an entrepreneur, entertainer, and writer. His journey to fame began almost a decade ago when he started a self-named YouTube channel where he uploads content ranging ...
Rhett and Link Bio, Who are Their Wives, Net Worth and Family Facts Rhett and Link refer to an American comedy duo who are very popular on YouTube. They are known for their comic songs, viral commercials, skits and the daily show, Good Mythical Morning. Good Mythical Morning is the most watched daily show online, averaging 100 million views in a month. The show has featured guests such ...
A Walk Through The Maze of Ryan Higas Career Pursuits And Relationship With Arden Cho Ryan Higa is not only celebrated as a YouTube star, but he is also famed for appearing on television screens as an actor and comedian. Nigahiga, his Youtube channel, has gathered over 20 million subscribers and billions of views with his different comic acts, short films, and music videos uploads. With the rise in his career, ...
What to Know About The Shows That Made Craig Ferguson a Star and His Family Ties Rising to the top of your profession can sometimes be a hard and difficult process. It requires days and nights of working consistently hard to be better than what you were yesterday. It requires not giving up when all of your experiences seem to be pushing you to quit. It is because of these challenges ...
David Dobrik Married Liza Koshy for One Month Inside His Family and Relationships David Dobrik is a YouTube sensation who has garnered fame not just for his vlogs but his love life too. Given his career as a YouTuber, his channel is one place where he shares his romantic escapades. With a cute boyish look like his, this Slovakian young man is definitely a good catch, and not ...
Merrell Twins Bio Ethnicity, Parents & Boyfriend One of the beautiful things about modern life is social media. As rudimentary as it might seem, it could turn out to be the greatest thing that would be invented in the next 50 years because of its impact on human life. Very few tools have revolutionized human behavior and culture as much as social ...
Who Is Bunny Meyer, Is She Married & What Is Her Net Worth? Bunny Meyer is a YouTube celebrity who has amassed over 8.8 million subscribers with 1.5 million viewers on her channel. She is popularly known as Grav3yardgirl and is one of the highest-paid YouTubers in the world. She initially started out as a fashion designer and later chose the path of a YouTuber. Grav3yardgirl has used her knowledge on fashion, makeup, ...
Ninja Inside The Life of The American YouTuber and Internet Personality Ninja is a talented video game player known for his mastery of Fortnite and other seemingly difficult games he plays with ease. The video gamer made a career out of what is ordinarily the hobby of many people and has since then amassed a huge online following. Find out about him here, including the controversies that ...
What Is Eva Gutowskis True Sexuality and How Did She Rise So Fast As an Influencer? Ever since Eva Gutowski joined YouTube in 2011, it has been an interesting journey for her, moving from one milestone to the other. Backed by an army of young women and teenage girl fans known as Evanators, she has risen to become one of the most-talked-about personalities in the digital stratosphere. She has also leveraged ...
Emma Chamberlain Biography Age, Height & Net Worth Before now, people in the entertainment industry could only achieve popularity after many years of dedication and hard work but since social media came into the scene, massive success and overnight popularity became possible. That is the story of Emma Chamberlain who encountered fame as a fifteen-year-old. Emma is one of the many young people who became ...
Anna Akana Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth There is a new crop of YouTubers known by their different contents with a very strong uniqueness that stands every one of them out, some upload video games, some fashion while some others have comedy video contents to showcase on their channels. Anna Akana has used her platform to showcase her comedy contents to the ...
Revealing Truths About Lilly Singhs Ethnic Background, Family and Her Relationship With Yousef Erakat Lilly Singh is an Indian-Canadian YouTube personality, actress, and comedian also known as Superwoman. She kicked off her YouTube career in 2010 with the launch of her channel IISuperwomanII and followed it up with a vlog channel in 2011. This paved the way for her fame and success which led to a world tour. The ...
Who Is Andrea Constand, Is She Married and What Is Her Connection With Bill Cosby? Many people got sexually molested but could not voice out due to the stigma victims suffer and what will become of them thereafter. Very few of the victims danm every consequence to seek justice and bring the perpetrator to the book, like Andrea Constand. She never got any media buzz, not until her friend cum molester; ...
Who Is Lazarbeam (Lannan Eacott)? Here Are Facts You Need To Know Lannan Eacott became a person of interest after his YouTube channel, LazarBeam pulled him to the limelight. Initially, he started with uploads of Madden Challenge videos before deciding to build his own channel in January 2015. Within the space of three years, his YouTube channel had gathered over 7 million loyal subscribers. Today, he has not ...
Puzzling Facts About Wengies YouTube Success and More About Her Fiance Among the many YouTubers who have succeeded in winning the hearts of millions of people is Wengie. She is a Chinese-Australian YouTube personality, vlogger, singer, and voice actress. Wengie is famous for a lot of things, from her simple life hacks, DIYs, craft ideas to fun experiments, tricks and pranks. Her content portfolio also includes hair tutorials, diet & fitness tips, lookbooks, ...
Is Jeffree Star A Billionaire and How Much Does He Make On YouTube? If looks can be deceptive then theres no other person who proves this maxim better than Jeffree Star. A quick look at Stars pictures would likely leave you wondering whether or not to tag him a male or female. But who says being controversial has to be a curse? For Star, his looks have caught ...
The Place of Rosanna Pansinos Career Hats In Her Rise To Fame and Facts About Her Personal Life There are a few phrases that could summarize Rosanna Pansinos rise to fame. None of them can do it better than the famous axiom, no knowledge is lost. Her popularity YouTube comes out of her foray into other professions, specifically acting. Although acting now occupies one of the major professional hats in Rosannas resume, it was ...
Muselk (Elliott Watkins) Biography Age, Girlfriend and Net Worth The new and best in-thing in terms of career is video gaming and we have over time seen young men and women make massive income from an activity that was purportedly designed to serve as a hobby or a relaxation activity. One of such individuals is the Australian-born YouTube Celebrity and Twitch streamer, Muselk, whose ...
PopularMMOs Biography: 5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know We have over the years seen social media millionaires, especially on the YouTube social platform. These celebrities cum millionaires have made names for themselves after carving out niches on the internet, and a typical example of one of such exciting media personality on the YouTube is American Minecraft gamer and YouTube star, PopularMMOs whose channel ...
Jason Nash Once Married Marney Hochman What To Know About His Ex-Wife and Kids The now-defunct video-sharing app Vine was the path that led Jason Nash to fame. With it, he built an audience of over two million followers, which he parlayed into a significant YouTube career. That move has seen him become one of the most popular personalities on the internet, with the cash income to go with ...
Where Does Dantdm Live? What Do We Know About His Net Worth, Wife and Brother? Most parents buy video games for their kids to occupy their time leisure, while other parents frown at their kids when they play video games. Despite the disparity, every parent would be proud of their child if he/she eventually turns a celebrity or millionaire through playing video games like Dantdm. Biography of Dantdm Dantdm was born Daniel ...
LaurDIY Biography: 5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTuber LaurDIY is the YouTube channel of Lauren Riihimaki which she created on December 1, 2011, when she was still a college undergrad with the sole aim of giving Do It Yourself (DIY) as well as practical fashion and beauty tips to her followers. She has used the channel to establish herself as a YouTube personality ...
Lachlan Ross Power Bio And Family Life Of Australian The YouTube Star It is amazing the varied sources of income that the internet has made possible in this day and age. Internet fame can get its holder a whole lot of monetary and social benefits, but it must be noted that it does not come easy or cheap. For those who desire fame, content is the sacrifice ...
Alfie Deyes Bio and Net Worth: Everything You Need To Know Alfie Deyes is one internet personality you definitely would like to know about. He boasts of over 10 million subscribers on three of his YouTube channels and has three bestseller books to his name. He is probably the most renowned young personality on YouTube today and his vlogging empire continues to grow by the day. ...
Colleen Ballingers Love Story With Husband Erik Stocklin and How Much She Is Worth Now Colleen Ballinger is an American comedian and YouTuber who is a very funny, adventurous, and highly talented woman. She is also an actress, singer, and writer. Collen is widely known for her work on YouTube where she posts content on her channel, Miranda Sings. The comedian has gained many subscribers over the years and has ...
Who Are The Dude Perfect Members and How Much Are They Worth? Entertainment in the 21st century can be digested in many forms and with platforms like YouTube, the creators and purveyors of entertainment have been democratized. Today, one of the most popular platforms to exhibit ones creative talents is YouTube, even though there are other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, who suffer in comparison to YouTube because ...
Who Is Rudy Mancuso, What Is His Earning Power and What Do We Know About His Girlfriend? Rudy Mancuso started his internet journey on Vine. He would later transition to YouTube where he solidified his place among the internets most beloved comedic creators. He is now regarded as one of the renowned internet personalities in the world, with a presence in mainstream TV and film projects like Comedy Centrals Drunk History and ...
Vsauce (Michael Stevens) Biography and Net Worth: All You Need To Know The advent of YouTube and the internet as a whole revolutionized how human beings consume information. With each passing year, the percentage of learning that is done in a traditional classroom decrease as a seismic shift to internet-based learning happens in our education industry. From open courses online to YouTube classes and videos, there are ...
How did Jake Paul Make His YouTube Big Break and Who is His Wife? One of the most interesting Social Media personalities of the 21st century is the young and popular Jake Paul whose elder brother is the famed Vine star, Logan Paul. Jake has utilized the power of the internet to bring himself to the limelight with a channel named JakePaulProductions that has amassed up to six billion ...
5 Facts You Need To Know About Reaction Time (Tal Fishman) The American YouTuber Before 2015, the leading meaning of reaction time was the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus, until Tal Fishman started his channel, Reaction Time on YouTube and the dominant meaning changed. Today, a google search of Reaction Time would deliver Tal Fishmans videos and YouTube channel link with a few physics ...
Grace Helbig Net Worth, Boyfriend and Family Life of The YouTuber Grace Helbig is an American internet personality, comedian, actress, and writer. She became popular due to her daily vlog series, DailyGrace, which ran on My Damn Channel from 2008 to 2013. Helbig is also popular for her own indie series on YouTube, ItsGrace, which she launched in 2014. Her vlogs which feature random stuff such as ...
Mark Wiens Bio Ethnicity, Wife and Parents Food is a great way to connect with people. We all love to eat, if not for the pleasure of food, the satisfaction of quenching hunger, and the very process of providing and sharing that food is part of the strongest bonds that bind humanity together. Maybe it is our historical connection to food, where ...
Is Filthy Frank Dead, What Happened To Him and How Much Is He Worth? As George Kusunoki Miller, he was a nobody. However, as Filthy Frank, George was one of the most famous internet personalities on the planet. The Filthy Frank Show, a sketch series on his YouTube channel, TVFilthyFrank, was one of the platforms most influential creations. He is the reason a crazy dance song, Harlem Shake, made it ...
CaptainSparklez Bio Net Worth, House and Cars of The Famous YouTuber Sometimes, what society wants from its citizens is quite different from what the citizens want for themselves. This is evident in the life and career of video blogger and American YouTube personality, Jordan Maron famous for his YouTube channel CaptainSparklez. He dropped out of school after discovering his talent in playing an online game called Minecraft. ...
Who is Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg)? Here are Facts You Must Know Canadian Youtube personality, Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg) originally started out polishing and designing nails even before it became a trendy culture in the social media. Simply Nailogica started out her showbiz career in her early days as a child actress, acting in commercials for game and toy companies. Aside from acting, she is blogger, vlogger, specializing ...
5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know About Huda Beauty In the world of entrepreneurship, it is interesting when an individual has a mentor who he/she looks up to, this yield more productivity on the part of the individual. The iconic and rich American beautician and makeup artist Huda Kattan nicknamed Heida is the founder of the Huda Beauty blog which is number one Instagram beauty blog ...
Is Dino MasterChef Gay? Details About His Ethnicity, Girlfriend, Where He Is Now Food, for the better part of the early years of human life, was nothing more than what we needed for survival. There was no artistry or curation to the method of cooking. The scarcity of food left no room for artistic expression until we figured out agriculture and we could make as much as we ...
Who Is Gabbie Hanna And How Did She Become Famous? As the world shifts to digital media and depends more and more on streaming services for its news and entertainment content, YouTubers have become one of the leading creators in the new media world. Their understanding of the online audience: how to create, maintain, and increase followers, are all handy skills that have primed them ...
Jacksepticeye Height, Girlfriend & Net Worth Jacksepticeye is a YouTuber and actor who gained popularity with a series of gaming videos he uploads on his channel to the delight of millions of his subscribers. He is Known primarily for his comic video game series titled Lets Play and his vlogs. His channel was formerly ranked 46th in the list of most subscribed ...
Chris Heria Personal Details: About His Wife, Height & Ethnicity Background In this generation, keeping fit has become one of the major criteria for being hale and hearty. In fact, most occupations these days are majorly concerned with ones body mass, weight and looks. Unlike the past where most people have to register in a gym to keep fit, social media has made it quite easy ...
Everything You Need To Know About Game Grumps Gaming is becoming incredibly popular on YouTube these days with game vloggers make millions of dollars out of them yearly. One of the most popular up-coming gaming YouTube channels is Game Grumps. The Lets Play series was created in 2012 and celebrated its fifth anniversary on July 18th, 2017. In six years of its existence, the ...
Daithi De Nogla Biography, Girlfriend and Net Worth YouTube has created an avenue for many to make wealth and become famous from the comfort of their homes while having fun. Many have built a career out of the platform, uploading numerous videos that have earned them the admiration of viewers across the globe. For Daithi De Nogla, he is loved for his humorous commentary on ...
Does Phoebe Robinson Have A Boyfriend or Husband and What Do We Know About Her Family? Phoebe Robinson is a New York-based comedian, writer, and actress. She is best known as the co-creator and co-host of the WNYC Studios podcast 2 Dope Queens. Just like some other female comedians, she never had any original plans of becoming a stand-up comedian even though, according to her, she took a class on a whim at Carolines on Broadway. After ...
Who Are Lex and Alana from Listed Sisters? What Is Their Ethnicity & Is the Show Cancelled? America is a country built on diversity. Everywhere you look all over the country, a countless number of immigrants or children of immigrants have become an integral part of the fabric of the country. From entertainment to business, immigrants are creating a niche for themselves and climbing to the summit of their respective professions. One ...
Riveting Facts About Danielle Lombard And What She Is Best Known For The American entertainment industry is one that provides many avenues for aspiring hopefuls to express their talents and become famous. From films to television shows and game shows, there is no shortage of ways for men and women who desire fame to pursue and earn it in the United States of America. Another tested medium ...
Unearthing New Details About The YouTube Success And Personal Life of Alex Burriss of Wassabi Productions Wildly hilarious and truly audacious, Alex Wassabi is an American YouTuber who has become a very popular face on the video-sharing platform after having garnered millions of subscribers over the years by keeping people glued to his channel with his witty parody video releases. If you have always loved parody videos, there is every chance ...
Everything You Need To Know About H2O Delirious H2O Delirious whose full birth name is reported to be Jonathan Gormon Dennis has successfully kept himself mystified by hiding his face behind the masks leaving his loyal fans speculating who he really is for many years. The American YouTube star is easily identified by the Jason Mask Style with make-up which he wears on his ...
Who Is HolaSoyGerman and What Happened To Him? German Garmendia has certainly seen it all when it comes to internet success. His channels, HolaSoyGerman and JuegaGerman are in the top twenty most subscribed channel on YouTube. The Chilean YouTuber found a way to tap into one of the worlds greatest inventions and make a living from it. He has been able to build ...
Who Are Glenn Becks Family, What Is His Net Worth And What Happened To Him? The American political commentary space is filled with different personalities. A few of them, through their rhetoric, charisma, and resources have been able to build a large following of men and women who listen to them for insight and direction for various political and social issues in the United States. For Conservatives, the story is ...
Following Charissa Thompsons Rise Through The Ranks Of Sports Casting and All About Her Boyfriend Superstar TV host and sportscaster, Charissa Thompson, has been hailed as one of the highest-profile women journalists in America, and the reason is there for all to see. She has worked for popular establishments such as Versus, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, GSN, and Big Ten Network. She currently hosts the popular pre-game show, Fox NFL Kickoff, ...
Is Chris Kattan Gay or Does He Have A Wife? What Is His Net Worth? Chris Kattan is a popular American comedian and actor. He has appeared in several comic movies and TV series such as The Middle, A Night at the Roxbury and Bunnicula. Kattan is, however, most popular for his six-year stint as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. During his time on the legendary show, he ...
Everything You Should Know About the Rise of Insta Star Claire Abbott and Why She Gave It All Up A lot of young Americans have shot into the limelight for uploading different kinds of videos on YouTube. Some of these young stars include Connor Franta, Desi Perkins, Emma Chamberlain, the Dolan Twins (Ethan and Grayson), and Claire Abbott. The latter became a social media celebrity for uploading sexy bikini pictures of herself on social media. Apart from ...
5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTube Channel h3h3Productions H3h3Productions is a YouTube channel that specializes on Comic responses or reactions of other contents or trendy stories. The celebrity couple that created the channel has over time racked up sizable views for their commentaries and contents. Even though they had their own fair share of copyright cases, thankfully they scored an unprecedented victory in all ...
Lilypichu Bio Height, Brother and Love Story With Albert SleightlyMusical Chang Like most popular internet celebrities, Lilypichu is one of those Twitch streamers who spend their lives on camera. From daydreaming about the possibility of becoming a full-time professional streamer, she grew to live out her dreams on the popular live streaming platform where people play games, make crafts, and showcase their day-to-day activities. Given the rise of ...
KSI What To Know About His Girlfriend, Brother Deji Olatunji & Net Worth Assuredly, when Internet inventors Vint Cerf and Bob Khan created the technological masterpiece, they probably did not know how massive the creation will be harnessed by many for different purposes including as a platform for earning money through content creation. One of such person who smiles to the bank regularly today for spending time creating ...
The Interesting Progression and Highlights of Carrie Keagans Career as a Host and Actress Carrie Keagan has garnered huge fame through her various stints on television. She is not just your regular TV host but one with a difference. Keagan has hosted several high profile events and TV shows, including VH1s Big Morning Buzz Live and Fox News Channels Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. However, not many know she ...
The Gist On Elise Jordans Marriages And Her Rise To Prominence Political commentaries tend to be boring when it is handled by someone who does not have a knack for it. However, when you see the likes of Elise Jordan run the same commentary, you will have a lot of reasons to look forward to watching her again as the journalist is well-versed in the field ...
What Is Timmy Thick Best Known For and How Successful Is The Star? Thanks to the internet, many people whose talents would have ordinarily gone unnoticed have become famous. A very good example of this modern-day internet celebrity is Timmy Thick, an American social media star. He became popular on Instagram due to his penchant for posting raunchy pictures of himself. He also often posted videos of himself ...
What Does Heather Storm Do For a Living and Who Is She Dating? Reality Television is a great way to make a name for oneself as well as amass a fortune. Heather Storm can attest to this as she is one of those who have made a name and earned a lot from reality TV. She made her name appearing on shows like Car Fanatics, Awesome Autos, and, ...
Matt Carriker Biography Net Worth, Wife & Height Unlike your regular veterinary doctor next door, Matt Carriker chose to spice up his noble profession with the unusual. Though he is known to many as a medical practitioner, Carriker is better renowned as a YouTube star and an animal lover. Having recorded huge successes on his various YouTube channels, the vet doctors name and ...
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has been made a UN Messenger of Peace.
The 19-year-old student, who is preparing for her A-levels, will take the role with a special focus on girls' education.
Ms Yousafzai, who narrowly avoided death in 2012 after being shot by the Pakistani Taliban for campaigning for girls' rights to an education, is the youngest ever Messenger of Peace.
United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres designated the role to Ms Yousafzai at UN headquarters in New York and described her as a "symbol of perhaps the most important thing in the world, education for all".
Accepting the accolade, Ms Yousafzai said: "(Bringing change) starts with us and it should start now."
She added: "If you want to see your future bright, you have to start working now (and) not wait for anyone else."
Last month, Ms Yousafzai said she had received an offer to study politics, philosophy and economics at a UK university, conditional on achieving three As in her A-levels.
UN Messengers of Peace are selected from the fields of art, literature, science, entertainment, sports or other fields of public life.
Other messengers have included Muhammad Ali, George Clooney, Michael Douglas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Stevie Wonder and Charlize Theron.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has used a visit to a Second World War memorial in Italy to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians.
It came as the Trump administration sought to rally world leaders behind a strategy to resolve Syria's protracted civil war.
Opening his visit to Italy, Mr Tillerson travelled up a winding mountain road to Sant'Anna di Stazzema, the Tuscan village where the Nazis massacred more than 500 civilians during the Second World War.
As he laid a wreath at the site, he alluded to the chemical attack in Syria last week that triggered retaliatory US air strikes.
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," Mr Tillerson said.
"This place will serve as an inspiration to us all."
Mr Tillerson's visit to Europe has been overshadowed from the start by President Donald Trump's decision to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons by launching cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.
The US military action has renewed the world's focus on Mr Assad's fate and on Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year.
The secretary of state's pledge to stand up for innocents came as Mr Assad has continued to attack civilians in Syria in the days since the US air strikes - including in the part of Idlib province where the chemical attack occurred.
And while other US air strikes in Syria have targeted the Islamic State group, the US has acknowledged that civilian casualties sometimes occur.
Mr Tillerson plans to use his meetings with foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialised economies - normally a venue for economic discussions - to try to persuade leading countries to support the US plan.
The centrepiece of that diplomacy will come on Tuesday morning when Mr Tillerson takes part in a meeting of "like-minded" nations on Syria, including several Arab nations invited to attend.
The top American diplomat began to deliver that message on Monday when he met on the sidelines of the G7 with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
Both countries have voiced support for the US response to Mr Assad's chemical weapons use.
The Trump administration is hoping that after defeating IS in Syria, it can restore stability by securing local cease-fires between Mr Assad's government and opposition groups that allow local leaders who have fled to return and by restoring basic services.
The next step would be to use UN talks to negotiate a political transition that could include Mr Assad leaving power.
From Italy, Mr Tillerson will travel to Moscow, becoming the first Trump administration official to visit Russia.
That trip, too, is fraught with tension over Syria:
Mr Tillerson has blamed Russia, Mr Assad's strongest ally, of either complicity or incompetence for allowing Mr Assad to possess and use chemical weapons.
AP
Update 00.10am: Police say one of the children wounded in the San Bernardino school shooting in southern California has died of his wounds.
Update 9.10pm: The apparent murder-suicide inside a primary school classroom in California has left a teacher and a gunman dead and two pupils critically wounded, police said.
Officers do not believe the children were targeted but were close to the female teacher at North Park School, San Bernardino, when the suspect came to the classroom and opened fire with a handgun, Captain Ron Maass said at a news conference.
"There was no indication the gun was visible upon his arrival at the school," Mr Maass said.
Police would not confirm the adults' relationship or if it was a domestic dispute.
Marina Ramos told news station KABC-TV that she rushed to the school to try to pick up her grandson after she heard about the shooting. She said she spoke to him, and he told her he was safe but was upset.
"He was crying. He's scared," she said. "It was a typical morning and then chaos broke out."
Update 8.10pm: San Bernardino City Unified School District spokeswoman Maria Garcia said: "We believe the teacher knew who the shooter was."
She said all other pupils were safe and were being taken to a local college campus. Aerial footage showed students gathered on a field and a basketball court inside the fenced-in grounds of the campus as school buses lined up.
Frantic parents ran up a pavement looking for information about their children but were not able to learn immediately what happened at the school. Several parents interviewed on TV said their children were too young to carry mobile phones, so they had not been able to contact them to see if they were safe.
Update 7.45pm: San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan has said that two adults have died after the shooting at North Park School.
He added that two others, possibly students, are wounded and have been taken to local hospitals.
He said the two adults died in a classroom and claimed that the shooting suspect is "down", saying: "We do believe the threat is down".
Two adults are deceased in a classroom, believed to be a murder suicide. We believe the suspect is down and there's no further threat. Jarrod Burguan (@RetSBPDChief) April 10, 2017
Two students were airlifted to hospital after what is believed to have been a domestic dispute, San Bernardino City Unified School District spokeswoman Maria Garcia told news station KNBC-TV.
After the shooting at North Park School, pupils gathered on a field near a line of school buses and other vehicles, including fire trucks. The scene was not chaotic, but police stood nearby.
Ms Garcia said all other students were safe and were being taken to a local college campus.
Earlier: At least four people have been shot in an apparent murder-suicide in a California elementary school classroom, according to police.
A school spokeswoman said one of the four people who were shot was a teacher.
San Bernardino County fire spokesman Eric Sherwin said the shooting happened this morning at North Park School in San Bernardino.
The North Park elementary school in San Bernardino, California. Pic via Google Maps.
Mr Sherwin said numerous firefighters and police officers are attending the scene.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said on Twitter that at least two students were taken to hospital.
The other students at North Park School in San Bernardino were being taken to another school nearby.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan tweeted: We believe this to be a murder suicide. Happened in a [classroom]. Two students have been transported to the hospital.
We believe this to be a murder suicide. Happened in a class room. Two students have been transported to the hospital. Jarrod Burguan (@RetSBPDChief) April 10, 2017
Suspect is possibly down as well, Burguan tweeted. He said that North Park students were being taken to nearby Cajon High School for safety.
Preliminary info is 4 victims, being treated. Suspect is possibly down as well. Jarrod Burguan (@RetSBPDChief) April 10, 2017
The San Bernardino County, California, Fire Department said on Twitter that it was on the scene for multiple gunshot victims.
The department tweeted: Triage and victim count taking place.
Richard 3. By William Shakespeare. Directed by Peter Evans. Bell Shakespeare. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. Until April 15. Bookings 6275 2700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au. Peter Evans' production of Richard 3 moves the action of the last Wars of the Roses play into a claustrophobic 1930s high-ceilinged space, where the chairs are ornate and the characters lounge around in suits and long dresses. Handel's Zadok the Priest announces the coronation of Edward IV and the hymn Jerusalem ushers in Richmond who will become Henry VII. Buckingham's severed head is cleared away into the dumbwaiter and laughter and urbanity mask the growing threat of Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Kate Mulvany). Kate Mulvany makes powerful use of the fact that she, like the historical Richard, has scoliosis. Credit:David James McCarthy There's a deal of deceptively languid atmosphere and upstage what looks like a dark collection of armour eventually reveals itself as images of a distorted back. But whether this all works to explain the tangle of characters and events in the play is debatable. You may need to brush up beforehand. However, this version has at its heart Mulvany's twisted, tiny Richard, flirting with the audience, snarling at his enemies, always a dangerous person to be around. And Mulvany makes powerful use of the fact that she, like the historical Richard whose bones were discovered in 2012 in Leicester, has scoliosis.
The Wars of the Roses seem to be at an end with the coronation of Richard's brother King Edward IV (Kevin MacIsaac). But Richard, always taking the audience into his confidence, has no desire to allow peace to reign. Neither has the exiled queen Margaret (Sandy Gore), widow of King Henry VI, who still haunts the court, seeing the future of all her old enemies with savage clarity. Those enemies initially ignore her prophecies and ignore Richard. Clarence (Gareth Reeves) tousles Richard's hair in passing, treating him as the kid brother, but becomes the first casualty as Richard turns Edward against him. The bodies mount up. Clarence is murdered in the Tower of London, which hastens Edward's death and leaves the kingdom in the hands of young and restlessly immature Prince Edward (Rose Riley). Hastings (Ivan Donato) stands up for him but is swept aside. With Richard as Lord Protector and clearly aiming for the crown the prince is never going to last long. Richard also woos the Lady Anne (Riley), whose husband and father he has already killed, in a powerfully done scene where her eventual compliance defies any sense yet is so strong a testament to this Richard's disturbing allure. And time and again he tells the audience what he is going to do, making them his accomplices. Even his chief onstage accomplice, James Evans' rational Buckingham, becomes a victim but not before Richard finally and gleefully becomes king.
The girlfriend of a teen charged with murdering a service station attendant in Queanbeyan has been accused of pulling a knife on her family. Credit:Louie Douvis
We've had snow at Thredbo, and a downpour of rain for Canberra at the weekend, but things are expected to clear up in time for the Easter long weekend. Today, a top of 21 degrees and some patchy fog in the morning is expected.
Inner-city apartments: Owners will face a big rates hike from July and again in a year's time as the government changes the rates formula for units. Credit:Graham Tidy
A big rates hike is on the way for unit and apartment owners this year as the ACT government moves to bring their rates into line with freestanding houses.
The average increase is said to be $265 over two years - $150 from July this year and another $115 from July next year.
But on top of that, rates for all homeowners, including owners of apartments, will increase an extra 7 per cent from July, and each year after that as part of the government's shift to higher rates and lower stamp duty.
Kirsten Lawson explains the decision.
Prosecutors have urged a jury to consider the amount of anger that must have driven an accused murderer to stab his wife dozens of times in a "frantic, angry, out-of-control attack" as she breastfed their infant son.
The Crown on Monday began its lengthy closing submission in the month-long ACT Supreme Court trial of Maged Mohommed Ahmed Al-Harazi, 36.
The house in Gordon where mother-of-three Sabah Al-Mdwali was found dead in March, 2015. Credit:Jeffrey Chan
He's accused of inflicting 57 knife wounds on Sabah Al-Mdwali, 28, in their Gordon home after a heated disagreement the night of March 16, 2015.
Mr Al-Harazi drove to Tuggeranong police station, where police say he bashed on the door and made stabbing motions towards his chest as he yelled, "My wife, my wife" about 3am.
Carlton captain Mark Murphy has lauded the "courage" and "determination" of Sam Rowe and Patrick Cripps after the duo played in Sunday's 15-point win over Essendon despite sustaining delayed concussion and a fractured jaw respectively in their previous game.
Cripps was hit in the head by Melbourne recruit Jordan Lewis in round two while Rowe was also hit high by Demon big-man Jesse Hogan in the same game.
Both incidents occurred behind the play and Lewis received a three-week suspension while Hogan was banned for two weeks.
Murphy was full of praise for Cripps and Rowe on Monday.
Port Adelaide ruckman Paddy Ryder has been offered a one-match ban by the AFL match review panel for his off-the-ball hit on Adelaide's Riley Knight.
Ryder clashed with the Crows forward with just two minutes left in Saturday night's fiery local derby at Adelaide Oval, with Knight signalling to a trainer he had suffered a blow to the jaw.
The MRP charged Ryder with striking and classified the incident as intentional conduct with low impact to the head.
The Power will be without their lead ruckman for their clash with Greater Western Sydney in Canberra if they accept the sanction and risk a two-match ban if they take the case to the tribunal.
It has been almost one month since Jason fell victim to an internet pop-up scam and still he feels like the "stupidest person in the world".
Loading Facebook on his PC early one Sunday morning, Jason (who has asked not to use his surname) was met with an alert purporting to be from Microsoft, requesting he contact them immediately as his ISP was being compromised.
"I got through to 'Microsoft' who then transferred me to the 'technicians'. They are extremely smooth talkers, carefully explaining that my ISP had been hacked, so my anti-virus software couldn't pick it up," said Jason, 44.
"They wanted to show me how it was getting into my system so they requested remote access. Stupidly, I acquiesced."
The Reject Shop's share price has continued to plunge, as market analysts suggest the discount retailer needs to start closing stores and question whether it can compete with supermarkets and department stores on everyday household items.
The stock has now fallen more than 40 per cent in three days of trading, tumbling from $8 to $4.16 per share, after the company revealed that shoppers were turning away from its stores.
Same-store sales fell about 4 per cent in the past six months, the company said on Friday, which it expected would push it to a $5 million loss in the second half and a $12.5 million profit in the full-year, down from $17.1 million in 2015-16. The Reject Shop also warned it was unlikely to pay a final dividend this year.
Shares fell 33.2 per cent on Friday and had slipped another 6.8 per cent by 2pm on Monday, wiping $93.3 million from the company's market value.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says last week's chemical weapons attack has "hardened" Australia's view that Bashar al-Assad cannot be part of the long-term solution in war-torn Syria.
Ms Bishop has also warned the government is concerned about the threat of terrorist attacks targeting Easter celebrations, in the wake of the bombings on Coptic Christian churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday. Islamic State claimed responsibly for the attacks, which have so far killed 43 people.
After maintaining for years that Mr Assad should be phased out of power once Syria is stabilised, the Turnbull government has joined the United States in turning up the heat on the regime and its global backer Russia, following last week's chemical weapons attack. Australia and other allies have expressed support for the Trump administration's surprise response, a missile strike against a Syrian military airbase said to be involved in the attack.
"Our position has always been that Assad has no long-term position as leader but when Russia came in and backed Syria, we needed to work with Russia and Iran and others who are supporting the Assad regime to transition him out of the leadership," Ms Bishop told Sky News on Monday morning.
"His laconic wit was rarely wide of the mark. I should know. With lethal accuracy he made politicians and prime ministers his prey," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
While some humourless types might grouch about being lampooned, others took it as a sign that they were, if nothing else, recognisable enough to be the target of Clarke's coruscating wit.
To be played by John Clarke was a badge of honour for many politicians.
"With Bryan Dawe, his weekly take-down of the absurdity of political life became required viewing. In this guise, his strength was the underperformance - that canny knack of saying just enough to hit the target, and no more. In this sense, his satire served a noble purpose. It spoke truth to power. It made our democracy richer and stronger. It kept politicians on their toes.
John Clarke Credit:Simon Schluter
"And best of all it made us laugh along the way. We'll wait a long time to find another John Clarke. In fact, we never will."
Another of his targets, Defence Industries Minister Christopher Pyne, said he had been "the butt of satire" for nearly a quarter of a century and was "happy to be so".
"I think the role of a political satirist is very important in our democracy and it is also a safety valve."
The Young Nationals have split with the senior ranks of the party, voting to support the introduction of a carbon trading scheme.
It is the second time in less than two years that the Young Nats have parted with the Barnaby Joyce-led National Party on a key policy issue, having resolved in 2015 to support same-sex marriage.
At the time, the aspiring Nationals expressed "disappointment and disillusionment" with their federal leadership.
Mr Joyce has been against any form of carbon trading since coining the phrase "great big new tax" to describe Kevin Rudd's emissions trading scheme - a line later used with lethal effect by then opposition leader Tony Abbott.
Blogger Constance Hall and her husband, British carpenter Bill Mahon, have never claimed to have a textbook relationship. Now she's having to publicly defend herself from cheating allegations.
The couple's love life has been at the centre of Hall's online fame since she became a "viral sensation" in 2015 with a Facebook status describing their "parent sex".
What followed was more than 1 million fans, or "Queens", being drawn to the 33-year-old's blunt, often brutal, assessment of marriage and parenthood.
After a best-selling book, a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand and on the eve of her first international publicity campaign to the United Kingdom, Hall has been forced to defend her reasonings for separating from Mahon, again.
It is in many ways a luxury to live so close to the sea. Yet Australians may be paying for that luxury, not just with the ridiculous cost of living, but with our faces.
Our sunburnt country, hot gold hush of noon and pitiless blue skies have little mercy on our pale skin, which is ageing by as much as two decades faster than our counterparts in Europe and America.
Our outdoor lifestyles have a downside. Credit:Stocksy
A new study by dermatologists at Monash University explained that Australia's proximity to the equator, the high sun elevation and generally clear skies mean we face higher levels of UV radiation than those in Europe and North America.
"These high UV levels put Australians at particular risk of photoageing, especially when combined with Australians' traditionally outdoor, sun-seeking lifestyle and a predominantly fair-skinned population," they added.
If you thought your last one-star TripAdvisor review was ruthless, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Veteran English restaurant critic Jay Rayner, who writes for The Guardian, dropped an incredibly scathing review, following what he calls "by far the worst restaurant experience I have endured in my 18 years in this job".
This wasn't some cheap, greasy diner, either - the restaurant on the receiving end of Rayner's red-hot pen was a fine dining establishment in Paris, where a meal for two will set you back nearly $850.
Danielle Alvarez, a chef of singular tastes, is all about celebrating restraint and seasonality, simplicity and freshness. She's one of the hottest talents on the pans in Australia right now, and though she may have Cuban heritage her menu at Fred's in Sydney (think of the restaurant as a trip to Berkeley via Paddington) is pure San Francisco, thanks to the many years she spent honing her skills at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse. "For me it's about making something that looks really impressive and is easily served for a number of guests," says Alvarez. "I love duck because it's one of those things that you might not normally cook at home, but it's so beautiful with the crispy skin and dried fruit inside. This autumnal menu will feed a big group."
Whole boneless duck with fig and hazelnut stuffing
The key to this recipe is to ask a butcher to bone out a whole duck for you. If you can't get a butcher to do this, you can cook it whole by putting the filling in the cavity. You'll just have to cook it a bit longer. You do need to start preparing this recipe two days ahead, but do not panic. It is a very simple process that you could begin, say Good Friday, so you have a gorgeous roast for Easter Sunday.
Whole boneless duck with fig and hazelnut stuffing. Credit:William Meppem, Styling: Hannah Meppem
6 dried figs (or six fresh figs that have been roasted until concentrated and golden)
"But it will be better for my daughters." This is what I tell myself every time I read yet another report about the gender pay gap.
Or sexual harassment in the workplace. Or the poor representation of women in leadership roles. Or the increasing rates of poverty and homelessness among older women. Or violence against women. Or the continued legislative threat to our reproductive rights.
Drawing on other data, the long-term trend from the mid '90s onwards is bad news for gender equality. Credit:Stocksy
I tell myself that generations of women have laid the groundwork for real gender equality as distinct from the go-girl feminism co-opted to sell us junk we don't need. We just need the dinosaurs to retire.
Executive offices and halls of power will then be filled with younger men who grew up with strong female role models. They will think women have as much right to the c-suite as they do, and will not block their entry. And with true equality in the workplace we will finally realise true equality in the home.
As she explains, she decided to 'play along' in an attempt to get him to relax. Believing her ruse, he allegedly asked her if she'd like to come home with him. She said yes, but "he grew suspicious and again grabbed her by the throat and allegedly threw her to the road, leaving her with a large gash on her knee." It was at this point that she screamed for help.
Consider the actions taken by one woman in Sydney over the weekend when a man allegedly sexually assaulted her in a laneway - in an incredibly brave act, she pretended to go along with it, waiting for the moment when she could escape or call for help. The unnamed Dutch backpacker was allegedly followed by Jerome Mundine (who has since been arrested and charged) last Friday night, with Mundine allegedly asking her if she had a boyfriend (she said yes - this is what women have learned to say, because we understand that some men will respect another man's property before they respect our own autonomy) before grabbing her by the throat and saying, "shut up or I will kill you, I will rape you." He then allegedly pushed her up against a parked car and sexually assaulted her.
The insult of this question is pronounced, because of course us "girls" know better than anyone how dangerous the world is for us. Do these paternalistic busybodies think we were just dropped into the world from a magical far away bubble where food is made from rainbows and everyone has a pet unicorn?
One of the most aggravating things women can be told is that we need to learn how to take better care of our safety. "When will you girls learn?!" is the exasperated question often posed when news breaks about yet another sexual assault, rape or homicide, because "why do men keep hurting women?" is apparently too big and scary a mental leap for some people to take.
Jerome Mundine was arrested on Wednesday and charged with aggravated sexual assault deprive liberty, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Credit:Facebook
When I read this story, I understood her actions implicitly. Like most women, I have considered what my action plan would be if someone were to attack me on the street. (I have also considered what it might be if a friend, colleague or family member were to do it because these people statistically pose far more danger to women than strangers do.) I remember walking along the cliffs at night in Coogee when I was 32 weeks pregnant and preparing myself for the possibility of assault. I decided then that I too would "go along with it" because I would need to do everything I could to protect my unborn child. I also accepted the probability that I would be blamed for anything that had been done to me, because surely a responsible future mother wouldn't be so stupid to think she could walk home unsupervised at 9pm after having a quiet dinner out by herself? Wasn't it true that I had gone there with the intention of meeting a stranger? A sort of last hurrah before the realities of parenting kicked in?
Don't pretend this isn't what the defence would have been, or that there wouldn't be thousands lined up to believe it.
As any woman can tell you, warding off danger is second nature to us. From the moment we hit adolescence, we begin to assemble an arsenal of weapons to help mitigate the risk of Walking While Woman - even though we also understand that the world itself will not help to eliminate that risk entirely. We learn to hold our keys between our fingers if we need to walk on the street at night. We do our best to avoid encountering strange men. If we fail at this, our strategy changes - we chat politely, act friendly but not enthusiastic and try to keep tension and energy to a minimum lest any coldness be perceived as "provocation". We take the long way home if there's better lighting, sit in the back of the cab and text the driver's details to our friends, check in with people when we get home to let them know we've arrived safely. We wear one headphone instead of two so we can keep an ear out for any sudden footsteps behind us. If we hear footsteps, we mentally calculate how much space there is between us and the next main road. We look for friendly houses with lights on that are close enough for us to bang on the door of if we need help immediately.
And those are just the things we do when it's dark outside. During the day, our weapons are more subtle. We try not to aggravate men, fearful of the rage or hostility they might turn on us. We downplay our intelligence and humour on dates, because we've been told for years that these things "intimidate" men. We try to make ourselves small because women aren't supposed to take up more space than we're entitled to, which is always less than the space allocated to men. We keep our voices light and our laughs quiet and we do all these things because we want today to be okay. And if all of that fails, if our best laid plans don't or didn't save us in the end, we try as best we can to simply survive.
The principal of elite Sydney girls' school, Kambala, has resigned and will not return to the school after parents and teachers mounted a campaign to have her removed, just 3 years after her appointment.
In a letter to parents on the first day of the school holidays, the president of the school council, prominent businesswoman Sally Herman, said Debra Kelliher had resigned and would "conclude her time at Kambala immediately".
"Debra has done a wonderful job in her three-and-a-half years at Kambala," the letter, sent on Monday morning, said.
"She leaves a legacy focused on the key areas the council identified on her appointment - the school's academic results have improved significantly, enrolments have increased to their highest ever level, the school is in an excellent financial position."
The Australian Wheat Board's former chairman Trevor Flugge has been fined $50,000 and banned from managing a company for five years for failing to inquire about the company's cash payments to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.
The wheat exporter has been embroiled in the scandal for more than a decade, following revelations that it had made $300 million in payments to the Iraqi government, against United Nations sanctions imposed after the Gulf War. The payments were made through transport fees when the company sold wheat to Iraq under the UN's Oil-For-Food program.
Former AWB executive Trevor Flugge. Credit:AAP
In 2000, when Mr Flugge was both director and chairman of AWB, the then Australian Trade Commissioner told him and other AWB officers at a meeting in Washington that the United Nations was asking about whether the payments to Iraq were inappropriate, the Supreme Court heard on Monday.
Justice Ross Robson declared that Mr Flugge failed to make inquiries about this, despite the fact "he had a duty to do so and he had the means of doing so". This, he said, was in breach of his duties according to the required degree of care and diligence.
A state-wide search for a man wanted over the alleged attempted murder of his partner in Sydney's south last week has ended with his arrest at a hotel in Tamworth, police say.
The 29-year-old man has been charged with multiple domestic-violence related offences over the alleged stabbing of his 25-year-old partner at her home in Turrella in the early hours of Friday morning.
The man was arrested in Tamworth several days after the alleged attack. Credit:NSW Police
Police will allege in court that the man broke into the woman's house on Cook Street just before 1am and stabbed the woman repeatedly in the neck and the face.
Police and paramedics arrived at the home and the woman was taken to hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery. She remained in hospital in a serious condition on Tuesday morning, police said.
It is a legal quandary for those who care about animal welfare: how far can they go to expose the criminal mistreatment of animals?
The tricky balance is about to be tested in a very unusual way, as an upper house MP has been interviewed by police in relation to possible criminal offences over an incident where he used a drone to film over a NSW piggery.
Mark Pearson at home with his chickens. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers
Mark Pearson MLC from the Animal Justice Party said he organised a drone pilot to join him at the site of the southern hemisphere's biggest piggery and abattoir, at Corowa on the NSW-Victorian border, in December 2015.
The footage that resulted did not show any animal cruelty, and Mr Pearson is adamant he did not break any laws that day.
The Queensland government will introduce legislation forcing more agencies to conduct internal reviews following the death of a child.
Currently, only the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services has a statutory obligation to review its own involvement with children who have died.
A series have reviews have been held following the death of Caboolture toddler Mason Jet Lee.
Many other government agencies have legislation, policies and procedures allowing them to review their service delivery for children who have died, but it is not mandatory.
It will mean the Health, Education and Police departments will have to undertake internal reviews in child death cases.
A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.
A man has been charged after going on an alleged drug-fuelled crime spree on a Gold Coast highway.
The 35-year-old ran cars off the Pacific Motorway before assaulting two police officers and trying to steal their car, Queensland Police allege.
Traffic continued to build on the motorway through Helensvale after police stopped the dangerous driver. Credit:7 News Queensland
He will face Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with drug, assault and dangerous driving charges.
EARLIER
Parents who park the car but leave the engine running while picking up and dropping off their children would be penalised under anti-idling laws proposed to cut harmful vehicle emissions.
The call to crack down on idling near schools and childcare centres follows a Turnbull government discussion paper on improving Australia's air quality by switching to cleaner fuels.
Increasing traffic and school and childcare drop-offs risk exposing children to high levels of pollution, experts say. Credit:Gabriele Charotte
Health and energy experts have warned that increased traffic, combined with the modern preference for driving to school, risks exposing children to dangerously high levels of noxious chemicals, including sulphur and diesel particles.
Just in: We're hearing reports an eight-year-old child has died after a shooting at an elementary school in California overnight.
Two adults are already dead and another child is in hospital.
Our story here.
Police have released CCTV footage of a gang of armed thieves who went on a criminal rampage in Melbourne's north in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The footage shows the group of three males entering a BP service station on Geelong Road in Brooklyn about 5am armed with wooden bats and a knife and demanding cash and cigarettes.
After the staff member handed over the haul, the trio ran outside and demanded car keys from a man who was filling his car up with petrol.
The man pleaded with the thieves not to take his car and they left in a Commodore they had already stolen hours earlier.
The family liaison officer assigned to Lloyd Rayney and his daughters has admitted misleading the Perth barrister about a search warrant following his wife's murder.
Mr Rayney is suing the state of WA for defamation after he was named in September 2007 as the prime and only suspect in the murder of Supreme Court registrar Corryn Rayney, who was found buried in Kings Park a month earlier.
Corryn Rayney's husband Lloyd Rayney was acquitted of murdering her.
Detective Sergeant Mark McKenzie testified in the WA Supreme Court on Monday that he visited the Rayney home on August 22, 2007 "under the guise of attending to victimology issues" as outlined in the operational order, and then advised a search warrant would be executed.
"The purpose of this strategy was to ensure Mr Rayney was not alerted to the warrant," he said in his statement.
A Supreme Court Judge has found a Perth father guilty of lighting his children on fire at their home almost two years ago.
Edward Herbert, 43, was on Monday found guilty of intending to unlawfully kill his two children at the family's Doubleview home in August 2015, just hours after his daughter's fourth birthday party.
Eddy Herbert stood trial accused of setting fire to his children in Doubleview. Credit:Facebook
Judge Lindy Jenkins heard during his trial in March the father, who works as a tiler, told his partner, "the werewolf is coming" before dousing his two daughters, aged three and seven, in accelerant and setting the three year old alight.
Judge Jenkins ordered a psychiatric report before she sentenced Herbert.
Tanta, Egypt: The two suicide bombings that killed 44 people at Coptic churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday raised the spectre of increased sectarian bloodshed led by Islamic State militants in a country already wrestling with a faltering economy and deepening political malaise.
The attacks constituted one of the deadliest days of violence against Christians in Egypt in decades and presented a challenge to the authority of the country's leader, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who promptly declared a three-month state of emergency.
Security is the central promise of el-Sisi, a strongman leader who returned on Friday from a triumphant visit to the United States, where President Donald Trump hailed him as a bulwark against Islamist violence. Trump made it clear that he was willing to overlook the record of mass detention, torture and extra-judicial killings during el-Sisi's rule in favour of his ability to combat the Islamic State and defend minority Christians.
On Sunday, el-Sisi found himself back on the defensive, deploying troops to protect churches across the country weeks before a planned visit by Pope Francis. El-Sisi rushed to assure minority Christians, who have traditionally been among his most vocal supporters and now fear that he cannot protect them against extremists.
Cairo: Egypt is under a state of emergency again after suicide bombers targeting Christians on Palm Sunday ushered in the latest bloody chapter for the largest minority in the Middle East.
Clasping palm trees cut into figurines of crosses and donkeys to symbolise Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, Coptic Christians are usually visible on the streets of Egypt before entering a week of mourning to mark Christ's tribulations before Easter. The solemn Passion Week, has taken on its most sombre tone yet.
The death toll has risen to 44 with more than 120 wounded making it the worst targeted attack on Copts in recent history.
In Alexandria, 18 are dead and four police officers died stopping a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest from entering St Mark's Cathedral. Pope Tawadrous II, the Coptic Orthodox Pope who has supported President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since he ousted Mohamed Morsi, was conducting the service and emerged unharmed in what was the most direct assault on his papacy.
Aesha Abu Shaqfa works at the Future Development Commission, one of many local NGOs seeking to further women's rights in a male-dominated society. Credit:Antony Loewenstein Yet Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in late 2016 that his country would help rebuild Gaza if Hamas disarmed. "We will be the first to invest in a port, an airport and industrial areas", he told a Palestinian newspaper in October. Israel's Transport Minister Israel Katz proposes building an island near Gaza to service its people but Israel would control its air, sea and land borders. Training facilities for women in Gaza are slowly growing. At the Women's Centre in Umm al-Nasr they have learnt tailoring and how to make toys such as these vegetables. Credit:Antony Loewenstein Hani Muqbel, head of the Hamas Youth Department, told me in Gaza that his group's philosophy was different to Islamic State's or al-Qaeda's. "They're destroying the image of Islam," he said. In contrast, Hamas had built a "national liberation movement".
He acknowledged the current difficulties in Gaza but blamed the "Israeli occupation, siege and the [rival Fatah-run] Palestinian Authority [in the West Bank]". Older women sing at the Aged Care Association in Gaza, a country where many women face domestic abuse or economic uncertainty. Credit:Antony Loewenstein Many said they wanted to leave and build a life elsewhere. Muqbel said that Hamas did not want another war but that its issue with Israel "wasn't between Jews and Muslims. It's not a religious war, it's about land." He demanded that Western powers stop claiming Hamas "wanted to kill Jews because they're Jews. We do not."
Hani Muqbel, head of the Hamas Youth Department in Gaza, says Hamas does not want another war but has issues with Israel over land. Credit:Antony Loewenstein The Israeli media largely ignores Gaza and Israelis are not legally allowed to visit. Yet former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo recently said that the occupation was the country's only "existential threat". An editorial in the liberal newspaper Haaretz urged the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "immediately consider other ways of halting the deterioration in Gaza first and foremost by alleviating the wretchedness of life there". Asma Abulehia, a lawyer with the Aisha Association for Woman and Child Protection. Credit:Antony Loewenstein The Israeli human rights group Gisha recently found that Israel had massively reduced the ability of Gazans to leave in the last months, dropping 40 per cent compared to last year's average. In February, only 7301 people went through the Erez checkpoint, which connects Gaza to Israel and the occupied West Bank. It was the lowest number since the end of the 2014 war.
Countless Gazans haven't left for years. Many told me that it was impossible to plan anything major in life, such as marriage or travel, with certainty because applications to leave Gaza were routinely rejected by Israel with no reason given. Often they were ignored entirely. The effect of the wars and isolation has been dramatic on the domestic lives of men and women. The last years have seen an explosion of Western aid organisations in Gaza working with local NGOs on furthering women's rights in a male-dominated society. Many women said that these courses gave them awareness of their legal and social rights along with the ability to resist and leave a violent marriage. The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women recently released a draft resolution that highlighted the status of Palestinian women. It expressed "deep concern" about the "ongoing illegal Israeli occupation and all of its manifestations", including "incidents of domestic violence and declining health, education and living standards, including the rising incidence of trauma and the decline in psychological well-being", especially for girls and women in Gaza. A lawyer with the Gaza-based NGO Aisha Association for Woman and Child Protection, Asma Abulehia, said that she met six to seven women every day who faced domestic abuse or economic uncertainty. However, many women couldn't leave their houses to seek help, trapped by an abusive husband or family. "The Israeli occupation is the main reason for these problems," she told me. "The bad economic situation has worsened social problems, along with ignorance of Islam and unfair laws against women in Gaza."
Due to the suffocating 10-year blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt, support for Hamas has decreased. Many people long for a return of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority that governs Palestinians in the West Bank, though they aren't convinced it would make much difference to their daily lives. Many said they wanted to leave and build a life elsewhere. This month, Human Rights Watch released a new report, Unwilling or Unable, detailing Israeli restrictions on human rights workers entering Gaza to document breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law. It accused Israel of severely curtailing the ability of Israelis, Palestinians and internationals to enter or leave Gaza and dismissed its reasons for doing so. Human Rights Watch asked the International Criminal Court, currently investigating possible war crimes committed in Palestine including Gaza, to determine the "credibility" of Israeli domestic investigations and its restrictions of human rights workers in and out of Gaza. In a 2015 report the United Nations voiced fears that Gaza would be uninhabitable by 2020. It stated that the 2014 war had "effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid". "Hamas doesn't care for the people," Abulehia said. "They deny violence against women and drug abuse [of the opioid Tramadol] even exists."
Abulehia said violence against women was worsening, though there were no reliable government figures. The Safe House, funded by the Hamas government and run by women in a secure location, is the Gaza Strip's only women's shelter, where up to 50 people can sleep overnight. The average stay is three months. Many women I met at the Aisha office faced troubling options. Nineteen-year-old Noura al-Reefy married her husband three years ago and wanted a divorce. Her father-in-law sexually harassed her and her husband did nothing. "He wanted to see my husband and me have sex in front of him and me naked without my hijab," she told me. During multiple visits to Gaza, I'd never heard such graphic accounts of abuse from a woman. Reefy had attempted suicide twice. She hadn't finished high school but planned to complete her education after divorce. She was forced to marry her cousin "but it was a bad idea from the start. I wish it was easier for women to get divorced here.." Buthaina Sobh, head of the Wefaq Society for Women and Child Care, told me in conservative Rafah, in the south of the territory, that sexual harassment at work, at home and on the streets was commonplace.
"In our society," she said, "women can't demand sexual pleasure, they're considered a slut. Only men can. However, intellectual women now recognise that women have sexual desires and can ask for it privately." Sobh said the constant Israeli attacks made Palestinians "used to suffering". She was pessimistic that women's lives could change substantively until the siege was lifted. Training facilities for women are still rare but slowly growing. In the conservative, Bedouin area of Umm al-Nasr in the strip's north, I visited a multi-storey centre where women learnt tailoring and toymaking for local consumption. A showroom displayed the work for sale. Carpentry classes for women were initially resisted by traditionalist men in the village, but now the teaching of skills in a territory with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world at least 43 per cent is being welcomed. The Hamas authority backs the centre and wants similar facilities established throughout the strip. The centre also runs English courses and exercise classes. Working for the Italian NGO Vento Di Terra, project manager Sara Alafifi said that before the 2014 war many people thought that exercise for women was a waste of time but now healthy bodies were seen as a sensible way to manage stress. There are alternatives. A group of Israeli and Palestinian economists recently released two studies with the World Bank that outlined a blueprint for economic development in the West Bank, Jordan Valley and Gaza. At the launch in Jerusalem, former Israeli ambassador to South Africa Ilan Baruch was blunt.
London: Russia and Iran have threatened military retaliation against the US, accusing US President Donald Trump of crossing "red lines" by ordering a cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base.
The two military allies of Syria said on Sunday night the US bombardment had violated international law and, in a statement, added: "From now on we will respond with force."
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson cancelled plans to visit Moscow this week. Credit:AP
The warning came after the Russian embassy in Britain suggested that British and American attempts to deliver an ultimatum to the Kremlin this week could result in a "real war".
Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary, is understood to be working on a proposal from the G7 group of nations which will demand that Russian President Vladimir Putin remove his troops from Syria and drop his backing for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
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Two Northwoods brothers, whose investment prowess was once profiled in Inc. magazine, are facing 10 felony counts of security fraud in a scheme that cost Vilas County investors at least $3 million.
Brian Eliason, 38, president of Eliason Inc. in St. Germain, and his brother David Eliason, 40, the firm's CEO, are charged with failing to disclose the precarious condition of their business that sold investments in commercial and residential properties in 2009.
The 31 investors were "friends and family members" of David and Brian Eliason, said Stephen Kravit, the brothers' attorney, who argued that several of the investors including the brothers' father, Don Eliason do not consider themselves victims.
All of the investors had successfully invested in other Eliason funds, he said.
The charges involve sales of securities in Eliason Combination Fund. The investment, known as a tenancy-in-common, or TIC, calls for the company to borrow money from lenders to finance purchases of real estate, which is then syndicated or sold in pieces to investors.
"Despite the complexity and size of the multimillion-dollar deals, Eliason (Inc.) was much like so many 'house-flipping' businesses that operated during the housing bubble, made possible by the availability of easy credit and exuberant real estate investors," Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Amber Hahn wrote in the 22-page complaint filed in Vilas County last month.
Unlike many criminal complaints filed in fraud schemes, this one does not charge the brothers with running a Ponzi scheme or selling securities in a nonexistent entity. Rather, the complaint charges that the brothers failed to tell investors "material facts" about the company and the investment. For example, the criminal complaint charges that Eliason Inc. did not tell investors that it had to restate its financial results in 2009. The restated financials showed an $8 million loss in 2006 and an $18 million loss the following year.
The complaint also notes that while the Eliasons told investors that the company cut expenses and personnel because of the "current financial recession," the criminal complaint charges that they failed to disclose that "Eliason Inc. did not have the funds to continue covering operational expenses beyond 2009 despite the "cut backs.'"
Prosecutors criticized
Kravit blasted the prosecutors in a four-page news release and a Saturday interview, saying no crime was committed.
"Everything the state says is wrong...They are being charged with following their lawyer's advice it's outrageous," said Kravit, an aggressive attorney whose law firm's website boasts that it specializes in "aggravated litigation."
Kravit said that before the charges were filed, he agreed to extend the statute of limitations three times in the hope of buying enough time to talk prosecutors out of charging his clients.
He argued that the Eliasons provided investors in the Eliason Combination Fund with descriptions of the company's financial condition that were approved by attorneys at Foley & Lardner, the state's largest law firm.
"The state cannot contend that there was no disclosure of the Eliasons' financial difficulties," Kravit wrote in the release. "By these criminal charges, the state is instead quibbling with how the Eliasons described those financial difficulties."
In addition, Kravit said, the losses to investors in the Eliason Combination Fund was closer to $250,000 than $3 million, in part because of the gains the investors posted over the years.
Hahn and a spokeswoman for Attorney General Brad Schimel declined to comment because the case is pending.
Eliason Inc. was founded in 1999 by David Eliason. His brother joined the firm some time later and their father, Don a prominent figure in the county's business and real estate community was the firm's chairman until 2006. Don Eliason lost about $1.38 million in the Eliason Combination Fund, Kravit said.
"Ninety-nine percent of our inspiration comes from our family and their reputation," Brian told Inc. magazine in a 2008 story about the firm. The story said the company had posted a three-year growth rate of 24,391%.
"Investors might not get rich from investing with us," Brian was quoted as saying in the article, "but they're going to preserve their wealth."
Kravit said the collapse of the Eliason Combination Fund was caused by economic factors, including that 60% of the fund's revenue came from rent payments from American TV & Appliance and Borders Books, both of which have closed.
Latest News The Promise of Machine Learning Democratisation ML and AI, seamlessly embedded in technology, will make the world greener, safer, healthier and more secure
Why are property buyers taking so long to purchase? Here are five factors at play
Mortgage brokers are earning an average of $142,000 per year prior to costs, according to new data compiled by the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia ( MFAA ).The MFAAs Industry Intelligence Service Report 3 first released via webinar yesterday (10 April) uses aggregator data collated by Comparator to produce business benchmarking and industry information for brokers, said Stephen Hale, the associations head of marketing & communications.The report compiled figures from 1 April 2016 to 30 September 2016 and found that brokers earn a national average of $83,000 in gross upfront commission and $60,000 in gross trail commission per year.That is before the broker has to take out their operating costs if theyre a sole operator [and] any staff costs, Hale said. There are a range of things that come into that before you look at what a brokers income is, including things such as what tax deductions they have and how they pay tax.On a national level, brokers settled an average of $6.02m worth of loans each during the six month period. This equalled an average number of 21 new loan applications and an average loan book of $37.5m per broker.Average broker market share from July to September 2016 remained stable at 53.6%, a drop of 0.1% from the prior three-month period.It does mean that the competitive forces out there are shifting and changing, and that brokers will need to really have a look at what theyre doing in terms of producing great marketing and great customer experiences to ensure that our market share continues to grow, Hale said.Nationally, the broker population was approaching 16,000 with 925 more brokers entering the industry in the six months between April and September 2016.Of the total population, 52.6% of all brokers worked in an office of one or two loan writers. There was also a spike in the number of larger broking operations with 21.6% of brokers working in offices of 11 or more loan writers.Weve been asked Does that mean that the industry is starting to consolidate? Are brokers tending to flock into these businesses rather than be sole operators? The data doesnt indicate that, Hale said.However, he acknowledged that this is now a watch point that the MFAA will continue to monitor amongst these larger operators in the future.Another surprising finding was that 18% of brokers failed to settle a loan in the six month period studied an increase of 3% from the six months prior.I must admit that is something that certainly would be concerning. When youre heading towards one in five not settling a loan, wed have to ask Why is that happening? Hale said.The result could be due to a combination of new-to-industry brokers who were yet to perform, as well as experienced brokers living off trail, he added.We need to be concerned because if brokers are not settling loans and living off the trail, we need to make sure that as an industry how their customers are being handled. Its a very important issue to ensure that the customers [have] that ongoing customer relationship management even if theyre not writing new loans.
ML and AI, seamlessly embedded in technology, will make the world greener, safer, healthier and more secure
Live election coverage: All eyes on PA as voters head to the polls
The nation is closely watching PA as it could decide the balance of power in Washington. Check back regularly for statewide coverage updates.
The adversary violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani opposing forces more than 25 times, from late Thursday night to early Friday morning.
April 7, 2017, 09:17 Azerbaijan fired from mortar at night
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 7 ARTSAKHPRESS: During this time the Azerbaijani armed forces fired about 400 shots toward the position-holders of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR) Defense Army, and with different-caliber shooting weapons, the defense army informed.
In addition, the adversary fired four mortar shells, in the northeastern direction of the line of contact.
But the Artsakh defense army vanguard units continue to have full control over the frontline, and they take actions in response when necessary.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) presented a check to Yardley Borough Police Chief Joseph Kelly for $68,600 for the purchase of a new police vehicle and motorcycle during a visit to the station. Our police put themselves on the line every day to keep our community safe, said Sen. Santarsiero. Dating back to when I was a Lower Makefield Township Supervisor more than...
The Defense Ministry of Artsakh Republic reported that the Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime over 30 times firing from various caliber small arms at the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.
April 10, 2017, 09:32 Situation relatively calm in Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10 ARTSAKHPRESS: The Ministrys statement reads: On April 9 and overnight April 10 the situation was relatively calm at the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.
The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime over 30 times by firing more than 250 shots from various caliber small arms at the Armenian positions.
The Defense Army forces of Artsakh mainly refrained from taking countermeasures and continued confidently conducting the military service."
Everything you need to know for election day in Burlington County
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian on April 10 held a meeting with newly appointed Ambassador of Mongolia to Armenia (residence in Moscow) Banzragch Delgermaa on the occasion of presenting copy of her credentials, the MFA told.
April 10, 2017, 13:31 Ambassador of Mongolia presents copy of credentials to Armenias FM
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: Minister Nalbandian congratulated Banzragch Delgermaa on her appointment and wished her success in her important mission. FM Nalbandian expressed hope she will direct her activity towards developing the bilateral cooperation.
The Ambassador thanked for the reception and congratulations and assured that Mongolia is interested in expanding relations with Armenia, and she will make all efforts aimed at strengthening the mutual partnership.
A number of issues related to the cooperation development between the two countries in various domains, the intensification of cooperation within the frames of international organizations, formation of legal framework, holding regular consultations between the Foreign Ministries, boosting mutual partnership in trade-economic ties, cultural exchange, scientific-educational fields were discussed. Both attached importance to facilitation of visa regime.
Minister Nalbandian and Ambassador Delgermaa exchanged views on development of mutual partnership between the EAEU and Mongolia.
The sides also discussed a number of regional and international issues.
Bharat Forge hit a 52-week high last week, after news that its North American Class 8 truck order inflow in March was in positive territory for a third month, a growth rate of 41 per cent year-on-year.
Investors, however, should not hurry to own the stock, though the companys longer-term prospects look good. Analysts believe the recent growth is on a low base and production has been outstripping demand, as there is overcapacity in the market.
Also, the order uptick is driven more by anticipation of recovery in US freight markets than by robust economic activity. Freight rates have largely remained flattish, with spot rates still considerably below contract rates. Growth in this calendar year is expected to be flat as compared to last year, a worry. The North American heavy trucks segment accounts for a fifth of the companys standalone revenue.
S A Hariharan of Thanthi TV was one of Tamil televisions star anchors. When he was offered a job at Arnab Goswamis much-talked-about and yet-to-be-launched Republic TV, an English channel, he was hesitant because of his Tamil accent. But Goswami was insistent because we want journalists from all over the country, not just Mumbai and Delhi. is about the emergence of a new generation of content creators, says he. It is a point the co-founder and editor-in-chief of emphasises while talking about how the channel will be different.
It will need to be if it is to make a dent in the Rs 3,500-crore, hyper-competitive Indian broadcasting market. Republic TV, being launched by ARG Outlier Media sometime over the next four-five weeks, will join over 390-odd news channels broadcasting in India, the worlds most overserved news market. The digital brand, Republic World (website and mobile app), will be launched concurrently, says Chief Executive Officer Vikas Khanchandani. To start with, the free-to-air channel will target Indias 180 million TV homes. There are, however, plans to take it across the world to the West Asia, the UK and the US, among other countries. The company has already hired 300 people, of whom 215 are on board. A state-of-the-art-studio is being built in Mumbais Lower Parel area.
According to the estimates, the company has raised Rs 150-200 crore from a bunch of big and small investors (Goswami retains majority control, according to company sources). A senior news broadcasting person estimates Republic TVs capital cost at Rs 50-75 crore and operating costs in the first year at Rs 50-60 crore.
Analysts reckon that has to hit the top spot in the shortest possible time if it has to make a dent in the ad market and break even. Typically, the top two channels in a genre make money; the number three just about survives. This then raises three questions about Republic TVs ability to crack the Indian news broadcasting market.
One is distribution.If Republic TV gets its distribution right, it has every chance of becoming number one, says the head of a TV research firm. It costs anywhere between Rs 25-35 crore a year to get cable to carry a channel across India. DDs Freedish, Indias largest DTH service, charges a minimum price of Rs 4.3 crore to carry a news channel. Each of the private DTH operators charges Rs 3.5 crore. Add it all up and there is no way their carriage fee will be less than Rs 30-40 crore, says the former CEO of a news broadcasting firm. Those costs dampen most networks, which have several channels and, therefore, better negotiating power. For a standalone channel, they can be killing. Khanchandani refuses to share details on which operators have signed on. All he says is that the firm is in talks with everybody. If we had a network, distribution would have been easier but it is not impossible because there is a big void in the market, he says.
The second question then is of the market opportunity. English news is a tiny proportion of the news TV Indians watch. It reached an average of 4 million people every day, compared to 117 million people that Hindi news reached in 2016, going by the Broadcast Audience Research Council data. Advertisers spent an estimated Rs 700 crore reaching those 4 million people. This tiny market already has 10 serious players with Times Now, CNBC-News18 and India Today TV in the lead (See charts). Here too, like in any genre, it is a question of content, says Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media, a consulting firm.
The difference that Republic brings is Goswami and his blustering style, which has a fan following that gave Times Now its numero uno status. People like my journalism. There is a want/desire for this kind of news, says Goswami. I dont agree that media is a challenged industry if you look at the viewership we got at Times Now. The channel made 20-25 per cent (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) and ad rates were 50-60 per cent of the Indian Premier League," he adds.
It is true that Times Now ruled the English market in viewership and revenues, thanks in large measure to Goswami. But it is part of the Times Group, one of Indias largest media firms. Its network (Zoom, ET Now, Movies Now, etc) and distribution and marketing strength made Goswami as much as Goswami made the channel. Note that Times Now continues to be the number one English news channel. It seems then that the company has weathered the storm of losing its star anchor.
That brings in the third question around Republic TV. Isnt it too dependant on Goswami? Yes, Arnab is larger than life. Republic TV is leveraging on Arnab to start with. But eventually content, anchors, format everything will get built up. We will have to work hard to build the brand. But the star will always be Arnab, says Khanchandani. He points out that without spending too much money, the channel has got huge amount of publicity purely on the back of Goswamis equity. Arnab has travelled for events to Chennai, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Mumbai, etc. The buzz is overwhelming, says Khanchandani. At the under-25 convention in Bengaluru this January, Goswami got a demi-god like reaction.
He has a cult following with youngsters, even the ones who are not into news follow him, says Khanchandani. That will be a lever with advertisers who are obsessed with the young.
Going by the empirical evidence, news channels take four-five years to break even. How much time Republic TV has depends on the tolerance of its investors, says another analyst. If it was private equity investors, with a mandate to exit in four-five years, the pressure is greater. But, if it is a political investor or a semi-political one who is not seeking economic returns, they will be more tolerant to the channels losses, reckons the person. Republic TVs investors are a mixed bag, including MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar and businessman T V Mohandas Pai, known as supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. My investors are my viewers. They have invested in my brand of journalism, says Goswami. Khanchandani seems confident of meeting expectations on break-even and returns based on his discussions and deals with advertisers so far.
So far, Republic TV is coasting on hope and adrenalin. Its real test begins once it goes on air.
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In a blow to energy giant Cairn, the income tax (I-T) department has asked the Edinburgh-based company to pay dues of Rs 10,247 crore by June 15. It has also raised an interest demand of around Rs 1,400 crore, asking why a penalty should not be imposed.
This is within a month of an order from a tax tribunal that had upheld the capital gains tax demand of the I-T department, under the controversial retrospective amendment to the law.
If doesnt pay by June 15, said a government official, recovery proceedings will be initiated. No coercive measures have been taken so far. We do not want to vitiate the investment climate but has not been cooperating at all. For non-payment of dues based on the departments assessment notice of January 2016, it has raised an interest demand at one per cent of the tax amount or Rs 100 crore a month, amounting to Rs 1,400 crore for the 14 months till April.
Then & now
The tax demand is in respect of Cairn UK transferring the shares of Cairn India Holdings to Cairn India, as part of an internal group reorganisation in 2006-07. This gave rise to different interpretations on whether the UK-based company made capital gains, preceding an Initial Public Offer (IPO) of shares by Cairn India.
The department has also filed a caveat with the high court here against any stay demand by the energy giant on the order mentioned earlier of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). If they seek a stay, the court should not give any decision without asking us, said another official.
Cairn did not comment on the latest tax notice. The UK oil major is also likely to face a penalty (likely to be around 300 per cent) by the I-T department; a reminder notice asks it why this should not be imposed. The department has six months since the ITAT order, which is September, to slap the penalty.
It will likely be 300 per cent (of the principal demand), as the company is not cooperating or complying with the law, said an official cited earlier.
The department says in its January 2014 notice, Cairn was asked to file its return, as the law had been changed. Hence, it is now liable for the penalty. You cannot take the plea that you did not know the law, the official added.
I-T tribunal
Although ITAT had given an Rs 18,800 crore interest amount relief to Cairn, the department has raised interest demand under another section of the I-T law. Interest on the outstanding demand has been imposed under section 220(2) of the I-T Act. If you do not pay the demand, there is a one per cent interest every month. The assessment notice was sent on January 25 last year, said the official. ITAT had given relief on the interest to Cairn on the reasoning that the advance tax was a retrospective levy and, hence, it could not have been anticipated by the assessee.
The tribunal also held that a foreign company paying Tax Deducted at Source is not liable to pay advance tax, by Section 234B of the I-T Act. This view has also been held by the Supreme Court. However, the department has filed a review petition in the SC, in another and similar case of interest liability.
Related
Cairn has been contesting the basis of the tax assessment order in international arbitration. The latter proceedings are on in respect of Cairns claim under a UK-India Bilateral Treaty, with the main Statement of Claim and Indias Statement of Defence both given.
Cairn has sought compensation from the Indian government of $5.6 billion, saying ti had suffered harm due to the alleged breach of the treaty by India. Under a Dispute Resolution Scheme last year, the government had offered a one-time tax settlement scheme from June 1 to December 31, later extended to January 31. This was subject to agreeing to withdraw any pending case. Under the offer, the government had offered to waive the penalty and interest amount for those agreeing to the settlement. Cairn did not use the settlement window.
At the time of the IPO, ownership of the India assets was transferred from Cairn UK Holdings to a new company, Cairn India. In 2006, Cairn India acquired the entire share capital of Cairn India Holdings from Cairn UK Holdings. In exchange, 69 per cent of the shares in Cairn India were issued to Cairn UK Holdings. Hence, Cairn Energy, through Cairn UK Holdings, held 69 per cent in Cairn India.
Later, in 2011, Cairn Energy sold Cairn India to mining billionaire Anil Agarwals Vedanta group, barring a minor stake of 9.8 per cent. It wanted to sell the residual stake as well but was barred by the I-T department from doing so. The government also froze payment of dividend by Cairn India to Cairn Energy; it recently agreed to lift that freeze. Cairn has got confirmation via the international arbitration that dividends of $51 million due from Cairn India Ltd (CIL) are no longer restricted and Cairn has requested the immediate release of the sum from CIL, a source said.
Tax tussle
This fake profile was not set up by me as I would never stoop so low as to take such an action.
A Facebook profile under the name of Sepik Vincent has been recently registered by faceless, nameless cowards thinking they will use it to post false and fake news to split the opposition parties.
No political party has bankrupted PNG except the PNC who have bankrupted our beautiful country not once but twice!
FAKE Facebook profiles are being registered by desperate people who support corruption and the worst political party in Papua New Guinean history, the Peoples National Congress.
It is the act of a few corrupt individuals who do not have any moral convictions and who have no love for this country.
All they care about is their stomach. Feeding themselves and their families with corrupt money does not trouble them or their corrupt conscience. Some have shifted sides several times and it is very sad that such people with low morals want the rest of us to follow them.
A united opposition is a huge threat to the PNC, National Alliance and United Resource Party - the coalition of the corrupt who formed the worst and most corrupt government in our short history.
Opposition parties Pangu Pati, THE, PMFC, NGP, MLP, National Party and others have formed an alliance and are heading into the June-July elections in support of each other. This position has not changed.
Pangu will never disrespect its coalition partners. The only people seeking to do so are those who support and benefit from corruption. They know they will soon lose this corrupt lifestyle of free handouts and are desperately trying to cause divisions within the opposition.
I urge all representatives and supporters of opposition parties to do some due diligence when such posts appear on Facebook. Simply check the profiles of those that propagate and post such lies and if they were set up recently then they are definitely fake.
Please do the right thing and report these profiles to Facebook and, most importantly, don't believe their lies.
I state once again that neither I, Vincent Moses, nor Pangu Pati will disrespect or speak badly against our coalition partners.
National Association of Software and Services (Nasscom), India's IT services trade group, spent $440,000, or about Rs 2.8 crore, in 2016 to lobby with the US Congress, making it the highest spending in the decade and a half period during which the body began pushing its case for a more liberalised visa regime for Indian software workers.
India is emerging as a top market for leading Japanese two-wheeler . Last year, this country became Hondas biggest global market for two-wheelers. Now, another Japanese major, Yamaha, is set to see India emerge as its second biggest market, for the first time.
A consortium of investors led by Indian private equity fund True North has agreed to acquire Enterprises Ltd's health insurance business in the country, the groups said in a joint statement on Sunday.
An Airbus A320 aircraft operating as 6E 756 between Bhubaneshwar and Chennai created a record on Friday. This was the airline's 900th daily flight, the most by any Indian airline.
founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have reached out to employees promising them higher salaries compared to last year as the company heads towards a possible sell out in the coming weeks.
In a letter to employees, the founders said while the company's investors are "driving the discussions around the way forward", their "top and only priority was the well-being of the entire team".
"We will do all that we can, and more, in working with our investors to ensure that there is no disruption in employment and that there are positive professional as well as financial outcomes for the team as the way forward becomes clear," they said.
The founders said the annual performance review process is nearly complete and employees will receive salary revision and promotion letters (where applicable) over the next two weeks.
"Given the incredible progress we have made around our profitability journey as a company, the overall increments this year are higher than those offered last year," they said.
According to sources, has about 3,000 employees in its e-commerce operations. The company also has mobile wallet (FreeCharge) and logistics (Vulcan) operations.
Snapdeal's largest investor SoftBank is believed to be re-working its plan for sale of e-commerce platform and a final decision is likely to be made in the next few weeks.
Softbank is engaged in dialogue with other investors with board representation Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners to reach a consensus in terms of valuation, according to sources.
Snapdeal's seven-member board includes representation from investors SoftBank, Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, as well as co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. The board of Jasper Infotech that operates Snapdeal also has Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Akhil Gupta as an independent director.
The country's third-largest online shopping platform could be sold to larger rival and market leader Flipkart and an announcement on the same is likely to be made in the next 4-8 weeks, sources said.
Speculations also suggest that Alibaba-backed Paytm is also in fray as a potential buyer.
Alibaba is also a shareholder in Snapdeal. So far, Snapdeal and SoftBank have continued to decline to comment on the matter.
The deal, if completed, would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space and change the landscape of the sector that is witnessing intense competition among players.
Sources have said one of the hurdles is valuation, as Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners have not agreed with the valuation given by SoftBank.
Snapdeal was valued at $6.5 billion in its last funding round in February 2016. The valuation has also shrunk since then and the potential deal could be struck at a discounted rate.
The cash-strapped firm, over the last few months, has had to trim its workforce significantly and shut down non-core businesses. Earlier this year, Snapdeal laid off about 600 people.
Indian e-commerce have seen funding dry up over the last few months as investors are focussing extensively on profitability and rationalisation of expenses. With intense competition from deep-pocketed global rivals like Amazon, like Flipkart and Snapdeal could face more heat in the coming days.
The Tigor is Indias first styleback, states a communique from the Tata group. The company is positioning its newly launched car bang in the middle of two popular categories. And by doing so, it hopes it can break through the clutter in a market where customers are driven as much by the desire to upgrade to a better lifestyle as by the need to find the best value for the money they pay. But the biggest challenge for the brand will be to lure buyers away from the hugely popular Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire in the category.
Periodic and timely interventions are critical to building a healthy and powerful brand. One of the explicit manifestations of these is longevity and sustainability of the brand. In recent times a majority of the product categories, particularly two-wheelers, have seen their ownership cycle reduce drastically. Over the past decade, the average ownership of a two-wheeler has come down from 10 to five years. In order to drive sales and stay relevant, manufacturers are continuously working to refresh and extend the longevity of a popular parent brand even as they woo consumers with new launches.
But otherwise there were some bizarre deviations, including a mix-up which left the PNG media believing it hadnt been invited to a Turnbull press conference.
The usual Aussie-prime-minister-in-PNG schedule was dusted off trotting out a tete-a-tete with the PNG PM, a Bomana-Kokoda experience and a business breakfast dominated by expats. Nothing new there.
THAT was one strange weekend Malcolm Turnbull just spent in Papua New Guinea on his first official visit, even if at first glance the running sheet looked typical enough.
As ABC PNG correspondent Erik Tlozek put it in a Facebook post: I am disappointed and embarrassed that my PNG media colleagues felt they were not allowed to attend this mornings press conference with Malcolm Turnbull at Bomana.
If Australia wants to show that its government is open to media scrutiny, surely it should welcome journalists to a presser held in their own country.
Later SBS journalist Stefan Armbruster added to this by tweeting: Hear from sources [that] PNG journalists excluded from Turnbull presser post-Kokoda wreath-laying. [They] were told it's an Australian thing.
An Australian thing?
This was later rendered by New Zealand journalist Michael Field as: Some Australian journos now using Facebook to say sorry for the Whites-Only press briefing Turnbull had in PNG: Melanesians journos were excluded not quite on the money but an understandable interpretation.
The Australian High Commission in PNG later apologised for what was described as "a misunderstanding".
As Radio New Zealand's Johnny Blades reported, "the fact that only Australian journalists had access to Mr Turnbull during this leg says a lot about how Canberra conducts its business in PNG."
Turnbull further raised the ire of Papua New Guineans and refugee support groups by sidling away from one of the key issues in the Australia-PNG relationship the future of asylum seekers stranded on Manus Island.
He didnt address the issue front on, preferring to use the evasive words, one step at a time.
This prompted Manus MP Ron Knight to tweet: He hasn't even the courtesy of meeting the Manus leaders or coming here to see himself the problem. No respect.
Turnbulls immigration minister Peter Dutton was not as reticent as his boss, airily telling PNG the refugees were its problem, not Australia's,
This provoked a sharp rebuff from Transparency PNG's gritty chairman Lawrence Stephens: You haul people illegally into PNG. Now they become PNG's problem? Come on!
Dutton doubled down with what read like a stuff you PNG statement: Well be withdrawing the assets from Manus Island. We are not going to have a detention centre there for other uses. Were not going to have facilities being used or repurposed. The centre will be dismantled.
So there, PNG. We'll trash all the stuff we gave you and go home.
Turnbull had earlier run into criticism about the timing of his trip from former PNG prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta.
Morauta said Turnbull had placed himself in a "dangerous position", especially "with the prospect of a new government just around the corner".
Turnbull dismissed the complaint, saying the timing of his visit was "entirely unrelated" to any domestic political events in PNG and that the election was a matter for the people of PNG "absolutely".
Before departing Port Moresby for India, Turnbull also was forced to deflect questions about PNG's poor economic performance.
Asked if it was a concern to Australia that the PNG government was "broke", Turnbull said this was a matter for the PNG government.
Not entirely the case, though, as just a couple of weeks ago Australia effectively refused to bail out PNG who had asked that the half billion dollars of tied Australian aid be used instead to prop up its budget.
Australia had said no.
Oh, and a footnote to that business breakfast with Malcolm Turnbull. Christine Aiwa - executive assistant to the managing director of the Post-Courier - paid K900 for four senior journalists to attend.
"But the waiters were instructed not to serve our journalists any breakfast; one was only given an orange juice," she wrote on Facebook.
"That's discriminating. I will not stop until I get the full refund of K900 back, and I want an apology."
It was, all in all, quite a weekend.
Expressing distress over the death of civilians in firing by security forces, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Sunday said that she was pained that most of them were teenagers who were yet to understand the intricacies of the issues.
Peaceful means and not violence was the way ahead, the J&K chief minister said.
"I am distressed to know that many of those killed were young or teenagers who were yet to understand the intricacies of the issues," Mehbooba said in an official statement here.
The chief minister said she has consistently held that peaceful means and not violence are the only way ahead in getting state out of the present difficulties.
"This is the time that people of all shades of opinion in the state should come together and help in stopping this cycle of violence and bloodshed which unfortunately has plagued Jammu and Kashmir for three decades now," she said.
Meanwhile, former chief minister and opposition Conference working president Omar Abdullah said he had never seen this level of violence in elections in Kashmir.
"Have contested six elections over 20 years and have never seen his kind of violence in elections in Kashmir. 5PM- polling booths close for an election that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons," Omar said in a series of Tweets.
He said it was a terrible day and paid condolences to the families of the deceased.
"6 dead, many more injured. What a terrible day. Condolences to the families of the deceased and prayers for the injured," he added.
Later, another person died due to the firing taking the toll to seven on a day when violence marred polling to the Srinagar Lok Sabha bye-elections. Several persons were injured in firing by security forces on rampaging mobs in various parts of the constituency.
The bypoll to the high profile seat saw an all-time low turnout of 7.14 per cent.
A section of petroleum dealers said they would shut their retail outlets every Sunday starting May 14. Many see this as a tactic to pressure government for higher commission.
The Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) on Monday asked members to shut shop on Sundays, in line with the prime minister's vision to reduce fuel consumption. The association claims to have more than 25,000 petrol pumps covering south and Maharashtra. All India Petroleum Dealers' Association came out in the public distancing itself from the decision.
The move by CIPD comes at a time when the government is yet to take a call on raising dealer's commission.
CIPD president A D Sathyanarayan told Business Standard that, except for emergency services like ambulance, fuel will not be available for other vehicles on Sundays. The association is also considering eight-hour working days from May.
Distancing itself from the move, president of All India Petroleum Dealers' Association Ajay Bansal said, "This will create panic. The association that has called for such a move has presence in only Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. We are not supporting this decision, while we also have the same demands to increase (dealer's commission)."
India has 56,190 fuel retail outlets, of which public sector majors like Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum have a combined network of 52,604 outlets.
In 2015-16, the overall fuel demand zoomed to 183.5 million tonnes from 165.5 million tonnes in the previous financial year. While diesel consumption increased 7.5 per cent to 74.6 million tonnes, petrol use rose 14.5 per cent to 21.8 million tonnes.
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Hyderabad has kicked up a row with his remarks that the heads of "traitors" opposing the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya will be chopped off, drawing criticism from the Congress and getting booked for trying to "outrage religious feelings".
T Raja Singh, who represents the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, was heard issuing the threat to those opposed to the Ram temple in Ayodhya in a video of Ram Navmi celebrations shot on April 5 which has gone viral.
Hyderabad Police on Sunday registered a case against Singh on the complaint of Amjed Ullah Khan, the spokesman for Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), a local organisation of Muslims.
He has been booked by Dabeerpura police under IPC section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), Police Inspector D Venkanna Naik told PTI.
In his complaint, Khan said, "When the title dispute is pending in the Supreme Court, such type of statements by Raja Singh (MLA) is the violation of the Supreme Court. I request to take appropriate action against the BJP MLA Raja Singh to allow law and order to prevail in the city (sic)."
In the video, the MLA purportedly says, "The day is not far... The dream of every Hindu of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya (will be fulfilled)."
"Recently, a video came on WhatsApp from Uttar Pradesh and someone was saying if Ram Mandir is built in Ayodhya they will create 'tehelka' (chaos) in the entire country. We welcome this. In fact, we were waiting for this day for the past several years so that when you traitors raise your heads, we will behead you," the MLA said.
When contacted on Sunday, Singh appeared defiant and said he can give his life for the sake of the Ram temple and "even take the life of traitors who oppose the building of Ram temple".
"We will not allow the people who believe in destroying this nation to stay in this country. It is our pledge to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya and we will abide by it. We can give our life for Ram temple and even take the life of traitors who oppose Ram temple in Ayodhya," he told PTI.
In the video, the MLA was heard saying: "Nobody has the guts to stop construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. A grand Ram Mandir will be definitely built in Ayodhya. I challenge that whosoever tries to stop building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, I will deal with such (a) traitor."
Union Minister Uma Bharati had on Saturday said that it was her "astha" (conviction) that the temple would be constructed at Ayodhya.
Amid the row, the Congress hit out at the BJP, saying its "mask" has fallen off and that minorities were being "intimidated" under the Modi government.
The BJP, however, sought to douse the controversy, saying the Ram temple can be built only with consensus. Party leader Shaina NC said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that there is no space in a free and elected democratic society for people who choose to be the so-called moral custodians.
She said action could be taken against the MLA, if required. "We are a disciplined cadre, and if we feel there is need to pull up somebody, I am sure the person concerned will have to bear the brunt," she said.
However, the Congress was unimpressed, with its spokesperson Sanjay Jha contending that the BJP cannot wash off its hands by calling those making inflammatory statements fringe elements.
"The truth is that there is no fringe anymore. These are mainstream elected BJP leaders either in Parliament or the Assembly... This is a political strategy. This is a manifestation of the most ugliest form of politics," Jha said, adding, "What is happening in Alwar? what happened in Dadri? you can see the kind of reactions happening all over the place where the BJP is currently in government, there is intimidation of the minorities."
"I think this is the most crude form of majoritarian politics, and let me assure you, the PM will not say a word, not even condemn it," he added.
He was referring to the lynching of a Muslim man on suspicion that he had stored beef in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, in 2015, and the recent fatal attack on another man from the community by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan.
The Supreme Court, which is hearing the Ayodhya case, had recently said that the issue should be resolved through talks.
The Patiala House Court on Monday adjourned the disproportionate assets case involving Himachal Pradesh chief Minister till April 20.
The court was to take cogniganze of the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Singh in the case.
A day after being booked by the CBI special court in the case, the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of conspiring against him and asserted that all charges levelled against him were fabricated.
"The fight has just begun and I know the truth will prevail. All cases against me are fabricated. This is a conspiracy against me stitched by some BJP leaders like Prem Kumar Dhumal and Anurag Thakur. The BJP is misusing its power. There's no truth in it," said Singh.
He also said the case against him is a 'political vendetta' and added that he was ready to face the charges registered against him.
A Pakistani army court today sentenced alleged Indian spy to death for "for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan", the military announced.
"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa "has confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it added.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials in Balochistan after he entered from Iran. He has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.
Reacting strongly, India today said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence, awarded to its national "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a strongly-worded demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav were "farcical" as there were no "credible evidence" against him.
Reacting to a press release by Pakistan military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Jadhav, India said he was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistani security forces in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was "a serving officer" in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
The Pakistan Army had released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the navy but denied he has any connection with the government.
At noon on Sunday, campaigns for the bye-polls in North Chennais RK Nagar constituency were high in volume and vibrancy. Even though word had spread that the elections may not be held on the scheduled date of April 12 over allegations of a cash-for-votes scandal, the contesting parties showed no signs of slowing down their campaigns.
has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Indiait was the 17th largest in 2016, up from the 28th rank in 2014 and 35th in 2011, according to Indias official ranking of FDI inflows.
Mumbai Indians pulled off a thrilling four-wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to continue their dominance over their rivals at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday.
Chasing 179 for victory, Mumbai -- who have now won 14 times in their 19 meetings with KKR -- were always up against it losing wickets at regular intervals. At one point the hosts were reeling at A119 for 5 when Hardik Pandya joined Nitish Rana in the middle.
Needing 60 runs off the last 24 balls, Rana went from strength to strength, going from 29 off 23 at one stage to 50 off 28.
Hardik at the other end, smacked the winning runs in his much-needed 11-ball 29 cameo in which he hit three fours and two sixes.
Rana's well paced essay which turned the match on its head after KKR had managed to shave off half of Mumbai batting for a modest score, was laced with five boundaries and three over-boundaries. The pair stitched together a 41-run stand for the sixth wicket.
KKR suffered due to poor bowling at the death from New Zealander Trent Boult (3.5/47) and Ankit Rajpoot (3/37) as the duo went for 19 runs each in the 17th and 18h over respectively. In the last over, Mumbai needed 11 runs and they reached the target with one ball to spare.
Mumbai got off to a flying start as their openers Parthiv Patel (30, 27b; 3x4, 1x6) and Jos Buttler joined hands for a 65-run association for the first wicket.
Patel, who has the third-worst average in the for anyone to have opened in the at least 20 innings, looked to be settling down as the Gujarat Ranji Trophy winning captain slog-swept chinaman Kuldeep Yadav for a huge six over wide long-on before the left-arm spinner got the back of the 32-year old.
Parthiv looked to sweep down the leg side again coming across his stumps with the ball straightening from off stump towards middle for a simple leg before wicket decision.
Buttler, who was looking good for his 28 (22b 1x4 2x6), followed suit in the next over, Ankit Rajpoot removing the England wicketkeeper who played across the line getting LBW in the process.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (2), who raised a few eyebrows by sending Rana ahead of him at No.3, lasted just six balls before Sunil Narine brought about the third leg before wicket of the innings.
In came Krunal Pandya, who starred with the ball (3/24), with his team in a spot of bother losing three wickets for just nine runs.
Together Krunal and Rana added 23 runs in good time for the fourth wicket but KKR dealt the hosts another timely blow.
Rajpoot was in the thick of things again, managing to get a thin edge off Krunal who tried to work the ball fine down the leg side with keeper Robin Uthappa pouching a regulation catch.
At 97/4, Keiron Pollard had a job to do when he joined Rana in the middle. The big-hitting West Indian though failed to conjure up any magic as KKR bowlers Kuldeep, Chris Woakes and Narine bottled up the pair towards the end of their essay.
Trying to up the ante, Pollard went for a heave but could manage as far as substitute Rishi Dhawan at third man.
There was no stopping Rana though. In the 18th over, the Delhi lad made Boult leak 19 runs with Hardik Pandya also joining the party.
There seemed to be no respite for Rajpoot as well before the Kanpur medium pacer sent the dangerous Rana back in the hut as the latter tried to make room for himself but holed in to Narine at point. In the end of the over, Rajpoot conceded 19 as well leaving Boult to defend 11 runs in the last over, which he eventually couldn't.
Earlier, a rampaging Manish Pandey led with an unbeaten 81, as KKR overcame mid-innings hiccups to post a challenging 178/7.
The expansion of a central New York facility will allow it to treat more patients struggling with opioid addiction.
Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare was one of eight treatment centers in New York awarded state funding to expand treatment options and address the rise of heroin and opioid abuse.
With more than $1.1 million in state funding, Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare opened a new program Monday to treat up to 250 patients who are addicted to opioids. The project included five dosing windows, several more exam rooms, a larger nursing station and an expanded waiting room and reception area.
The facility, located 329 N. Salina St. in Syracuse, will be operated by Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare and located with its integrated outpatient clinic. It will be open six days a week Monday through Saturday.
The clinic will treat addicts using medication, including buprenorphine, methadone and vivitrol drugs that are commonly used to treat opioid addiction. The facility will also offer counseling, recovery support and other services.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who attended an event Monday to announce the new program, touted Gov. Andrew Cuomo's efforts to combat the heroin epidemic across the state.
"In my travels across New York state, I have seen first-hand the serious effect that addiction has on families, friends and neighbors of those addicted," Hochul said. "Governor Cuomo is leading the charge to combat the heroin and opioid crisis affecting our families by ensuring immediate access to the supports and services needed for a successful recovery."
Funding for the expansion was provided through the state's Rapid Treatment Expansion Capital Funding Grant program, which Cuomo unveiled in January. The initiative was created to support construction and operational assistance for drug treatment programs.
Through the grant program, the state is aiming to open 80 new residential treatment beds and 600 new opioid treatment slots across New York.
Jeremy Klemanski, president and CEO of Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare, lauded the state for its support of the facility's efforts.
"Thanks to this funding, we have been able to expand our capacity and provide substance disorder treatment to even more people," Klemanski said.
A newborn girl in Khajuraho town of Madhya Pradesh has been diagnosed with a rare medical condition with her beating outside the body.
This rare medical condition occurs in eight children per 10 lakh births.
The baby born with the rare congenital medical condition has been shifted to AIIMS in New Delhi for treatment, an official said today.
"The girl was born on April 5 at Khajuraho Centre in the district. She has a rare congenital medical condition called Ectopia Cordis ( abnormally located either outside of the thorax)," Chhatarpur district hospital's civil surgeon Dr R S Tripathi said.
The newborn's father Arvind Patel works as a security guard at a world heritage site in Khajuraho.
Chhatarpur Collector Ramesh Bhandari said the girl was first referred to a hospital in Gwalior where the doctors advised that the baby be taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.
"The doctors at Chhatarpur had earlier referred the newborn baby to Gwalior. The doctors in Gwalior further referred her to AIIMS, Delhi. The baby's treatment would be carried out with financial assistance under the state government's Mukhyamantri Bal Hriday Upchar Yojana (CM's Child Treatment Scheme)," Bhandari said.
He also said that divisional commissioner and Gwalior district Collector are monitoring the case and all possible help would be extended to the family.
"Two doctors were sent along with the baby, who was shifted to AIIMS New Delhi yesterday," Bhandari said.
According to the Chhatarpur civil surgeon, this rare medical condition occurs in 8 children per 10 lakh births.
"This is the second case of Ectopia Cordis in the district during the past one decade. The occurrence of this rare medical condition is eight per 10 lakh births. The first such case was reported in the district about five years back," Dr Tripathi said.
He said that Ectopia Cordis is a congenital malformation in which the heart is abnormally located either partially or outside the thorax. It results from a failure of proper maturation of body wall formation during embryonic development.
Pakistan is likely to appoint career diplomat Sohail Mahmood as its new High Commissioner to India in place of Abdul Basit, diplomatic sources said in Islamabad on Monday.
Mahmood is currently posted as ambassador to Turkey and is expected to arrive in Islamabad next week.
"His appointment to India will be announced once it is formally approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who has also the additional charge of foreign minister," sources in the Foreign Office said.
Mahmood would take responsibilities as High Commissioner from early next month if all went according to the plan, according to the sources.
Mahmood will replace Basit who has already completed his three-year tenure in New Delhi.
Basit is likely to be appointed as head of Foreign Service Academy (FSA) in Islamabad.
Basit had earlier threatened to resign after he was overlooked and his junior Tehmina Janjua was appointed as Foreign Secretary but the situation has cooled down.
Initially, it was expected that Basit might go on a long leave after he was called back from New Delhi but now he is expected to join as chief of FSA.
In a related development, Javed Nasarullah, current ambassador to South Korea, is likely to be appointed as new ambassador to Afghanistan.
He will replace incumbent Syed Ibrar Hussain who is being appointed as Special Secretary in the Foreign Office.
India and Australia on Monday committed to begin the commercial exports of Uranium from Australia as well as hold an early round of talks on the proposed comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA).
Companies from India and Bangladesh on Monday signed pacts worth over $9 billion in New Delhi aimed at deepening partnership in sectors like power and oil and gas.
Among the MoUs signed in the presence of visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a facility agreement between Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL) and Exim Bank of India for debt financing for construction of 1,320 mw Maitree Power Project in Rampal in Bangladesh ($1.6 bn).
The MoUs include an implementation and power purchase agreement between Reliance Power and the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources for the first phase (718 mw) of the 3,000 mw power project at Meghnaghat, entailing $1 billion (out of a total proposed investment of $3 billion).
The agreement between NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) and Bangladesh Power Development Board for supply of power from Nepal envisaged an investment of $3.15 billion.
The event also saw signing of pact between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and the Bangladesh Power Development Board entailing an investment of USD 2 billion and a power purchase agreement between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
Besides, the MoUs signed include those on LNG terminal use between Petronet LNG, India and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), among others.
The MoU-signing ceremony was organised by CII.
Agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth $9 billion of investments into Bangladesh will be signed between the Indian public and private sectors and the Bangladeshi side on Monday. The 12 agreements will include an MoU of $2 billion in investments in the Bangladeshi power sector by Adani Power, a subsidiary of the Adani Group.
Agreements on the anvil
12 MoUs worth $9 billion in investments in Bangladesh to be signed on Monday
These include one MOU of $2 billion for investments in the Bangladesh power sector by Adani Power
Agreements by Reliance Power and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam
Agreement between Container Corporation of India and Container Corporation of Bangladesh
India committed a $4.5-billion line of credit for implementation of infrastructure projects in Bangladesh
Agreements will be signed for investments in Bangladesh by Reliance Power and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam. An agreement will also be inked between the Container Corporation of India and the Container Corporation of Bangladesh.
The agreements will be signed in the presence of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, currently on a four-day visit to India, at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event here on Monday.
On Saturday, India committed to a $4.5-billion line of credit for implementation of infrastructure projects in Bangladesh, and another $500 million for Dhakas defence procurements. In all, the two sides signed 22 agreements across an array of sectors. By the end of the Bangladeshi PMs visit, as many as 34 agreements would have been signed.
This is the third line of credit to Bangladesh in the past six years, and the largest. For this line of credit, Delhi and Dhaka have identified 17 infrastructure projects. These comprise upgradation of three ports, one airport, new power transmission lines and railway lines.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said on Saturday the message was that India has a very positive and effective infrastructure development assistance programme. He said there was a lot of emphasis from the ministry of external affairs for faster delivery on projects.
In October 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping had visited Dhaka and promised Chinese investments worth $20 billion. Nearly all of Indias neighbours complain of Delhi being laggardly, as compared to the Chinese, in executing its infrastructure projects.
Some of the bigger investments by Indian companies will be in the power and energy sectors. India supplies 600 Mw of power to Bangladesh through two existing interconnections at Bheramara-Baharampur and Tripura-South Comilla. Another 500 Mw will be provided by India through the Bheramara-Baharampur interconnection.
The two sides have agreed to set up additional interconnection between Bornagar in Assam and Parbatipur in Bangladesh, and also Katihar in Bihar, for power evacuation facilities from which Bangladesh can draw 1,000 Mw of power. The two sides are also discussing supply of 340 Mw from various NTPC stations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday he hoped more Indian private sector investments in Bangladeshs power sector would follow, including possibilities of joint ventures.
On Sunday, Hasina visited Ajmer Sharif to pay her respects at the shrine of Khwaja Moinudding Chishti, a 12th century Sufi saint. She concludes her visit on Monday evening. Her party, the Awami League, said on Sunday they planned a felicitation for her successful visit to India.
Also, however, in Dhaka, Bangladeshs opposition leader Khaleda Zia accused Hasina of selling out the country to India, to translate into reality a dream of staying in power for life. Zia, 71, and Hasina, 69, are known as the Battling Begums for a bitter rivalry for over three decades.
The government has tried to plug the loopholes that enabled companies such as Vodafone and Cairn to go for international arbitration over tax disputes. As such, it came out with model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), 2015.
With government pushing infrastructure development by way of developing world class roads, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has geared up to borrow Rs 59,000 crore through a string of instruments including bonds during the current financial year (2017-18).
To avoid multiple taxation under the coming goods and services tax (GST), diamond jewellers have urged they be exempted from levies on the processing of diamonds.
A bill to accord constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) was approved by the Lok Sabha even as the Opposition expressed apprehensions that it would impair the power of states.
The Constitution Amendment bill, which requires two-thirds majority for passage, was approved by the House with 360 members voting in favour and two against.
Terming it as "historic" bill, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot said it would promote the welfare of the OBCs.
The minister assured the House that the bill, which has similar provisions as in case of SC and ST commissions, will not curtail the powers of states in any way.
The Opposition, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the BJD, sought an assurance from the minister that powers of the states would not be affected by the passage of the bill.
Responding to demands for including a woman in the five-member commission, the minister said he would incorporate this suggestion while framing the rules for operationalising the legislation.
As per the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the Commission will hear the grievances of socially and educationally backward classes, a function which has been discharged so far by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
It also seeks to insert a new article 342A so as to provide that the President may, by public notification, specify the socially and educationally backward classes.
Trinamool member Kalyan Banerjee and BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab said this Constitution amendment bill would take away the powers of states to include or exclude a community under the OBC classes.
On this concern, Gehlot said: "we will not take way the powers and rights of states. I assure you that. The power of state commissions would continue. We do not want to weaken the states now or in future also".
He also said that the Centre would act on the recommendations of the Governor which will be submitted after consulting the respective state government.
"We are trying to strengthen the commission and not weaken that," he said.
The House also repealed the National Commission for Backward Classes Act 1993 as the Commission will now be part of the Constitution.
"We respect the rights of the states. We will not distract from the federal structure," he said.
After this law is enacted, Parliament will have powers to include or exclude any community from the list of OBCs so in that sense "we are weakening the centre", he said.
On the issue raised by Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM) about Muslims, the minister said that the government will not interfere in the list of the states where some Muslim communities are included in the list of OBCs.
Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee said so far the power of enacting law in identifying the backward classes has been entrusted with the state government but this power will be compromised with the insertion of new Article 342A in the Constitution.
"Nobody has a right to hit the basic structure of Constitution of India," he said, adding his party is against the Bill.
Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) said his party is in favour of reservation for Other Backward Caste (OBC) but against the "compromise" of the federal structure which is proposed by the Bill.
"I stand in this House to oppose this Bill...It is not in the interest of federal structure," Mehtab said.
He urged the government to reconsider the Bill and replace the word 'recommendation' with 'recommendation'.
He said as per the Supreme Court constitutional bench judgement of 1992, a community, on the basis of economic backwardness, is not entitled to reservation but the government can provide them support through financial means.
Backward classes are identified only on basis of social inferiority, he said, adding, it is different from untouchability, remoteness and economic backwardness.
Based on remoteness, the Constitution provides reservation to Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste gets reservation on basis of untouchability.
However, the government can provide financial support in terms of scholarship and other means to those who are economically backward.
"So Clause 4 of the Bill is misleading and will create confusion in the future," he said.
Expressing anxiety, Mehtab said, recommendations are at times accepted or rejected and there are instances where some caste are included in the central list without state government recommendation.
Pradhan is a community which is in the OBC list of state but not in the central list, he cited an example.
"When you are doing a good job, do it perfectly...Why do you try to fiddle with this?...Is it because of agitation in Haryana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra," he asked.
Hukumdev Narayan Yadav (BJP) sought considering of abolishing the caste system to give a level playing field to all sections of people.
He said as long as there is caste system, there will be discrimination and the country will suffer.
He accused Congress of doing nothing for the backward classes.
K N Ramachandran (AIADMK) termed this as a remarkable bill and said it should be ensured that the states' right are not affected.
K Rammohan Naidu (TDP), while supporting the Bill, sought clarification from the minister about the issue of consultation with the Governor on the issue of specifying the socially and educationally backward classes.
He also said that the creamy layer with regard to OBC reservation should be done away with it.
B N Goud (TRS) said that the government should also consider setting up of OBC ministry and Jotiba Phule anniversary should be declared a holiday as the social reformer represented the community.
Upendra Kushwaha, leader of BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and Minister of State for HRD, said the cap of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs should be raised.
Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said it was a long-pending demand to give this commission a constitutional status.
The others who participated in the debate include Ganesh Singh (BJP), Dharmendra Yadav (SP), J P Narayan Yadav (RJD), Pritam Munde (BJP).
A Bill to unleash radical reforms in the transport sector by ensuring 100 per cent e-governance, checking bogus driving licences and vehicle thefts, slapping heavy penalty on traffic violators and protecting the Good Samaritan was approved by the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Ladies from the Sacred Heart Society of SS. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Auburn perform the time-honored tradition of baking Paska bread in celebration of the Easter season.
Many of the elder church members, who continue this annual ritual, are worried that their generation might be the last to carry on the tradition due to the lack of young people participating in the church.
Eager to make the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) a success, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) held a meeting on Sunday with leading developers, the sectoral body and bankers on what was needed for mega-size projects in .
Cotton spinners in India are considering production cuts during the current financial year to sustain profit margins, which were under pressure due to a sharp increase in the price of cotton over the last few months. Experts estimate an average production cut of 15 per cent for financial year 2017-18, if the current scenario continues.
Prevention of took centre stage again on Sunday as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat called for a nationwide ban on the killing of what many Hindus consider to be a holy animal, or even their "mother".
A large number of investors coming into India through participatory notes (P-notes) are likely to switch from equities to derivatives as Indias tax treaties with Mauritius, Singapore, and Cyprus exempt gains made in derivatives space.
AP Investment Meet
23rd CII Partnership Summit and second Sunrise Andhra Pradesh Investment Meet was held in Visakhapatnam on January, 27-28, 2017. The theme for the Summit was centered on Partnerships for sustained growth in an emerging global economic order.
The Summit witnessed participation of over 2500 delegates from across 50 countries including trade ministers and delegates from 12 countries, eight Union Ministers and many leading Industrialists of India. The business transacted in the Summit inter-alia included:- (i) Three Sectorial Round table sessions with Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on Aerospace &Defence, Electronics and Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology. (ii) Bilateral meetings of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh with trade delegations from 12 countries including Ukraine, Tunisia, Switzerland, France, Singapore, Australia, Nepal, Zimbabwe, UAE, Russia, Thailand and Bahrain. (iii) Bilateral meetings with 35 industry leaders, both global and domestic. This information was given by the Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. NirmalaSitharaman in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
Cleanliness to become a part of our Habit: Uma Bharti
Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has said cleanliness to become a part of our habit. Releasing a booklet on the conclusion of Swachchta Pakhwada observed by her Ministy in New Delhi today the Minister said If we have to fulfil the dreams of Bapus Swachh India then each one of us has to be sensitive about cleanliness.
Recalling the efforts of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for Clean India the Minister said change in habit towards cleanliness will have long term benefit for individual, society and country as a whole. Sushri Bharti informed that during the Swachchta Pakhwada observed by her Ministy from March 16 to March 31, 2017 around 100 major events were organised all over the country. During the fortnight apart from regular cleanliness drive in the office premises, special efforts were made to focus on public awareness on cleanliness of water bodies through Shramdann, Painting competition and communication and information through print and social media.
Prime Minister Inaugurates Swachhagraha Bapu Ko Karyanjali"-a Mission, an Exhibition to Mark 100th Anniversary of Champaran Satyagrah
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated Swachhagraha Bapu Ko Karyanjali"-A Mission, An Exhibition to mark 100th Anniversary of Champaran Satyagrah at the National Archives of India (NAI), here today. He also launched an Online Interactive Quiz Karyanjali", which will continue for 30 months till October, 2019. Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism Dr. Mahesh Sharma and many dignitaries were present. A musical and dance programme based on the banned literature on Mahatma Gandhi and Swachhagraha entitled Satya, Swachh, Sur" was presented on the occasion.Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that 100 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi reached Champaran and witnessed the hardships of people living there. Gandhi Ji showed them the path to and power of peaceful Satyagrah. Champaran Satyagraha catapulted Gandhi Ji to the forefront of Indias freedom struggle. He said that the exhibition, interactive quiz and dance performance are not only formalities, but are pious occasions to dedicate ourselves to the nation. Along with Shraddhanjali, we should also offer Karyanjali to Mahatma Gandhi", the Prime Minister added. Shri Modi emphasised that Gandhi ji was basically a Swachhagrahi and was awakening the thought process of the people of India. He pointed out that Champaran can be described as the place of origin of Swachhata Andolan and Champaran Satyagrah gave a new impetus to the freedom struggle and Gandhi ji accorded equal regard to women. Champaran played an important role in the development of Khadi. Swachh Bharat Mission is a movement to fulfil the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi and is fast becoming a mass movement in our country, the Prime Minister said.In his address, Dr. Mahesh Sharma said that Mahatma Gandhi used Satyagrah as the main weapon in freedom struggle. He called upon people to focus on Swachhta movement for their overall development.
This exhibition links Gandhi Jis core principles of Satyagraha with contemporary issues, a movement to improve conditions through Swachhagraha, he added. This exhibition is a humble tribute to Gandhi Ji on hundred years of his first experiment of Satyagraha in India, in Champaran and is an attempt to sensitize future generations to fulfill Gandhis dream of Swachh Bharat, where societys reflection would be as clean as the thoughts within, of every citizen of India. This digital and experiential exhibition strives to connect the essential principles of Satyagrah Jeevan-Chakra evolved by Gandhi Ji, with the elements of Swachhagraha, the movement. The exhibition will be open for public in NAI campus for one month and later on, it will be taken to other cities of the country as Mobile exhibition. Gandhi Ji was initially reluctant to visit Champaran. Rather, he had hardly knew where Champaran was and was unaware of the conditions of the farmers who cultivated Indigo. Upon his arrival in Patna on 10th April 1917 and thence to in Motihari on 15th April, he immediately realized that his stay there would be a long haul. The drama of Champaran has been succinctly depicted in this exhibition. During his stay, Gandhi Ji delved in detail with the problems of people. Social practices of scavenging, illiteracy, issues covering women and health were found to be the main impediments. These obstacles were common to the political issues that Gandhi Ji confronted. Satyagraha was the weapon he employed to overcome hurdles on both these fronts. The Champaran Satyagraha changed the dynamics of Indian politics, catapulting Gandhi Ji to the forefront of Indias freedom struggle. For the first time, people of India realized the power of non-violence and passive resistance, based on action. Gandhi Jis freedom struggle culminated in Indias independence on 15th August 1947. Though politically independent, India has long since grappled with the same vital issues that Gandhi Ji came face to face with in Champaran, that of health, sanitation, clean water, cleanliness, lack of awareness and education etc. This exhibition is an attempt to link Gandhi Jis core principles of Satyagraha with contemporary issues, a movement to improve conditions through Swachhagraha. The younger generation of India needs to understand its importance. In fact we all need to.
HE Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh called on President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday (April 9, 2017). .
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Welcoming the Bangladeshi Prime Minister to India, the President fondly remembered his visit to Bangladesh in March 2013. He also appreciated the Prime Ministers visit in August 2015 to attend the last rites of his late wife. .
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The President said Government of Bangladeshs gesture of honouring the Indian soldiers martyred during the 1971 Liberation War is highly appreciated in India. India considers it a demonstration of solidarity and a symbol of the unique history of bilateral ties. There is much that unites the two countries - a shared history and common heritage, linguistic and cultural ties, passion for music, literature and the arts. .
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The President said India deeply appreciates Bangladeshi Prime Ministers role in giving a new direction to the India-Bangladesh relationship and making it what it is today a strong, vibrant and exemplary partnership between two neighbours. He said that under the leadership of the Bangladesh Prime Minister, the country has made tremendous progress. .
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The President said Bangladeshs commitment to strengthening democracy, rule of law, pluralism and human dignity and to ensuring peace, security and stability in the country is commendable. He congratulated Bangladesh on successfully hosting the 136th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Dhaka last week and also the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development in December 2016. .
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The President said India-Bangladesh relations are growing from strength to strength. Cooperation is the field of connectivity, power, energy, trade, capacity building and infrastructure development is especially praiseworthy. India is fully committed to be a partner in Bangladeshs economic development. Geographical proximity and connectivity are advantages that must be leveraged to mutual benefit. He hoped that the announcement of over USD 5 billion of Indian concessionary financing for infrastructure projects in Bangladesh over the next couple of years will usher in more development for Bangladesh. .
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Survey of India completes 250 years of its service to the nation and is celebrating its achievements this year. A National Conference on, Users Perspective on Geospatial Policy Framework in India" was organized by Survey of India (SoI) and FICCI, in New Delhi today. The 10th of April is also celeberated as National Survey Day. .
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As a part of its 250 years completion celebrations, Survey of India has proposed to re-measure the height of Mount Everest during the year 2017. India was the first country under Sir George Everests leadership as Surveyor General of India to have declared the height of Mount Everest and establish it as the highest peak in the world in the year 1855. Subsequently, India once again carried out the exercise and declared the height of Mount Everest in the year 1956. After the Gorkha Earth Quake in the year 2015,various doubts were raised by the scientific community. In response to this, the Survey of India proposed re-measuring the height of Mount Everest as an Indo-Nepal Joint Scientific Exercise along with Survey department of Nepal. The proposal has been forwarded to Nepal through diplomatic channels and the expedition will start after the formal concurrence of Government of Nepal is received. .
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Discussions and deliberations of all stakeholders of Survey of India products and services focussed on users perspective on Geospatial Policy Framework in India during the panel discussions. .
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The Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, said that the panel discussions and the opinion and suggestions from all the stakeholders assembled in the forum would facilitate the inclusion of wider spectrum considering present day technology scenario and developmental needs and challenges in the country, and will prove to be very useful inputs for shaping the geospatial policy paradigm in the country. .
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Vice President condemns attacks in Egypt
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari has condemned the attacks in Egypt.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency in the Arab country following twin church bombings that killed at least 45 people and injured 120 in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria on Sunday.
On March 31, 2017, on the eve of the 2017-18 cap filing season, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy memorandum stating that computer programmer positions are not always speciality occupations that would render the occupation eligible under the . This memo rescinded an earlier memo of the Nebraska Service Center from 2000, which acknowledged that computer programming occupations were speciality occupations for H-1B purposes.
The first China-bound freight train carrying British products left London on a 12,000-km journey on Monday, adding another terminal to the rail freight between China and Europe.
The DB Cargo train, loaded with 30 containers carrying products, including whisky, soft drinks, vitamins and baby products, started from east London's DP World Gateway to Yiwu city in central Zhejiang province, east China.
After going through the Channel Tunnel, the train will pass through seven countries France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan before arriving in eastern China on April 27, reported the Daily Mail.
Three months ago the first freight service from China to Britain arrived in Barking, East London. The journey is cheaper than air freight and faster than sea freight, according to the report.
The service is part of China's One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West, initially created more than 2,000 years ago.
DP World Chief Executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said the first freight service from Britain to China is a "significant trade occasion".
He added: "DP World London Gateway, one of the UK's largest logistics hubs, is designed and developed to ensure products can be both imported and exported from Britain via ship or train in a faster, safer and more reliable way than ever before."
"We look forward to enabling and facilitating more trade between Britain, China and the whole world."
Trade Minister Greg Hands said: "This new rail link with China is another boost for global Britain, following the ancient Silk Road trade route to carry British products around the world."
"It shows the huge global demand for quality UK goods and is a great step for DP World's 1.5 billion London Gateway port as it also welcomes its first regular container ships from Asia," he said.
London is the 15th European city on an expanding map of China's rail freight, the daily reported.
Auto executives descend on New Yorks annual auto show this week amid cooling demand for new cars and trucks. But getting buyers to open their wallets could be a breeze compared with the emissions battle the executives face in the Empire State.
Russian Soyuz MS-02 that was carrying three crew members of the Space Station (ISS) successfully landed on Monday in Kazakhstan, Russian State Space Corporation said.
The landed at 1121 GMT 147 kilometre southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan, Xinhua quoted the company as saying.
The capsule undocked from the ISS at 0758 GMT.
The crew members included Russians Andrei Borisenko and Sergei Ryzhikov, and their US colleague Robert Kimbrough.
The three members of the Expedition 50 mission stayed aboard the ISS since October 21, 2016.
They carried out a programme of scientific and applied research and experiments, supported the station's work capacity and upgraded it with equipment delivered by cargo ships, said the Russian company.
Launching 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield in response to a Syrian chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians raises important questions. Does the president have, or should he have, the authority to use military force without the explicit consent of Congress?
The Trump administration has done an abrupt about-face on Syria, contradicting its own nascent foreign policy. Within 24 hours, it went from calling out the Assad regime for using chemical weapons to launching missiles at military targets. As limited as the strikes were, there are also statements that plans are in the works to target Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: It would seem there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said of Assad on April 6.
The horrific images of the people exposed to toxic gas in Khan Sheikhun, Idlib have rightly inspired global revulsion and anger. We should not, however, allow our sympathy for the victims to be hijacked by those who seek to use human suffering for their own craven ends. The airstrikes ordered by the US president, Donald Trump, against Syria will do little to help those suffering. But in reality that wasnt his aim. This is no more than gesture politics designed to bolster the image of Brand Trump.
Ever since arrived in the White House, there has been much talk of a great thaw in relations between the US and Russia. But his decision to carry out airstrikes in Syria in retaliation against Bashar al-Assads use of chemical weapons against his own people has brought that speculation to an abrupt end.
has hit a 52-week high of Rs 68.55, up 14% on BSE in intra-day trade on back of eight-fold jump in trading volumes, after media report suggests that the company gets scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets (S4A) ready.
KING FERRY After a tragic automobile accident that took the life of southern Cayuga County native Melissa "Hill" Koontz, her husband and two teenage daughters in Texas four years ago, her family knew that keeping their memory alive was the most important thing.
After some talk, the family agreed that a scholarship in Koontz's name was the most appropriate way to memorialize the 1984 Southern Cayuga High School graduate.
Through donations and an entire community of support, the fourth annual Melissa "Hill" Koontz Scholarship chicken barbecue was held Sunday afternoon at the Northville Hall Community Center on Route 34B in King Ferry.
"She was such a caring woman who meant so much to so many," said her brother-in-law, Steve Federizzi. "She was very well-known in the community and we knew that we wanted to keep her memory alive by helping others."
The 620 chicken halves being offered were sold out.
"The entire community has been so supportive," he said. "We had many pre-orders and sold the rest very early in the morning. We had to turn more than 100 people away."
The proceeds from the barbecue will give the family the opportunity to give two Southern Cayuga students each a $1,000 scholarship.
One will be given to a student who has plans to continue their education in teaching or another community service vocation, as Koontz was an elementary school teacher in Texas.
The other will go to a student with plans to further their education in drama or some type of dramatic arts studies, as her two teenage daughters were.
"The accident actually happened while they were on their way home from a recital for the girls," Fredizzi said.
With the popularity of the barbecue, which Fredizzi said many call "one of the best" in Cayuga County, the family has plans to expand with 100 more dinners next year.
Liquor stocks fell by as much as seven per cent on Monday after Madhya Pradesh (MP) proposed to close all liquor shops in the state in a phased manner. "Alcohol prohibition will be implemented in the entire state by closing all liquor shops in a phased manner," MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Sunday at a programme. Shares of Radico Khaitan fell 7.3 per cent, United Spirits dropped 6.6 per cent and Globus Spirits fell 4.9 per cent.
With the March quarter earnings season just round the corner, Sankaran Naren, executive director and chief investment officer at ICICI Prudential AMC, tells Puneet Wadhwa that corporate earnings may see a meaningful pick-up in 2018-19 across sectors, except in oil & gas and metals, where growth is likely to be visible in the current financial year itself.
With the already at all-time highs, does the rally have more legs?
We are in the midst of an (uptrending) economic cycle, and the have gone up much faster than the change in economic cycle. Going ahead, we need to see much more capex, credit growth and improved confidence on the part of the industry.
Another reason for the rally has been the continuous thrust on financial savings over physical savings by the government, which is favourable for the economy since money is flowing into productive assets. The market is likely to stay buoyant over the next two years, as revival in the economic cycle could take that much time to top out. In light of this, we are not worried about the current market levels.
Are we being over-optimistic about an improvement in earnings and revival in the capex cycle?
Economic cycles take time to revive. We are not worried about the earnings cycle recovery, as we know it can come in over the next two years. We are confident that many of the problems which have existed in the banking system for the past five years are being addressed. When it comes to capex, the government spending is underway and can be followed by private capex as the capacity utilisation rate improves.
What are your expectations from the March quarter results?
I dont think there is any big expectation from the March quarter numbers. Banking and telecom are likely to be laggards, while sectors like information technology (IT) will be under pressure, as the currency may impact negatively. Metals may show an improvement on year-on-year basis. At the same time, I dont think we are in for a news-based improvement in earnings, at least in the near term.
Can you elaborate on your earnings projections for the next two years?
Earnings may go up by at least 2025 per cent. We believe that the worry for the market should be after earnings and not before. Once they do come in, investors can tend to put a higher multiple on the expanded earnings, which may present a misleading picture. Earnings, without doubt will be a major trigger for the markets, and when companies do deliver on this parameter, it may prove to be a tipping point. We believe corporate earnings may see a meaningful pick-up in 201819 across sectors, except in metals and oil & gas, where growth is likely to be visible in the current financial year itself.
Which sectors are you overweight and underweight on?
Infrastructure-related sectors will be better off over the next three years, as there has been a meaningful de-rating here over the past 10 years. Companies in this sector are the survivors and the business prospects for them are superior without the threat of new entrants.
Within the infrastructure sector, how do you view the road ahead for realty?
We have not found any meaningful investment opportunity in the listed players in the real estate segment. The way this sector operates requires change and consequently we might consider this space once these changes are implemented. Currently, we like roads, power utilities, ports and telecom.
The RBI has allowed banks to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs ). What is your view?
The move is positive for both banking and realty sectors. However, there is learning required on how to analyse Reits and InvITs and this process will take time for the financial community.
In which sectors do you find value from a twothree year perspective?
Clearly, it is the large-caps because theyhave seen de-rating of earnings. As a result, we have been believers in this basket. However, we also believe that the domestic cyclical laggards of the last 10 years look to be better opportunities than global defensives.
So, whats your advice to investors at this stage?
We would be worried if retail investors were to blindly switch from fixed deposits to a pure equity-oriented product, as the risk associated with fixed deposit is very different from that of a pure equity product. The current market cycle is in favour of equity investing, at least for the next two-three years. We will be worried when the economic cycle reaches its peak levels.
Whats the road ahead for telecom?
The consolidation announcements have already been made and it will take two three years to implement. In three years from now, the industry structure is likely to be much more robust than what it is today. So if one wants to invest from a three-year horizon, the sector looks attractive.
Can the D-Mart IPOs success change the way investors look at the Indian retailing industry?
Being a mutual fund, we do not comment on individual companies. I think the real challenge is that we need to get a retail model that works. In India with real estate being so expensive, it has been difficult to get that model right. If one can get the right model, there is a huge scope in retailing. This is one segment which has been in search of business models that work.
Does it make sense to merge the oil & gas (PSU) behemoths?
When oil prices were low nearly a year ago Indian companies could not make use of the situation to buy significant oil assets abroad. If you create an oil behemoth and you have a fall in oil prices, maybe there will be better equipped to buy assets abroad, as we may be in a better bargaining position. Having said that, the view appears to be that oil is not headed for a spectacular rally due to the influence of shale companies. Oil prices, I feel, may be capped between $60 65/barrel.
Whats your view on the banking and the non-banking finance companies (NBFCs)?
We are of the view that both these sectors are at the bottom of the cycle. We have low credit growth, low net interest margins in the aftermath of the provisioning of old Non Performing Loans. Over the next six months, banks earnings cycle is likely to bottom out. From thereon, from a three-year view, this sector is likely to revive and may end up leading the earnings revival cycle in 2018 19.
As regards NBFCs, this space is not cheap any longer. Their boom is being linked to the fact that banks have not been lending in a big way. While NBFCs may have good growth prospects in the near term, we do not see value here. Banking sector, in effect has good long term prospect but with near-term problems.
What about information technology (IT) and pharma stocks in the backdrop of developments in the US and the outlook for the rupee?
IT has become a low-growth sector, but with good balance sheets. This makes them defensive in a declining market, and a low-return prospect sector, in case of a market rally. As regards pharma, there are problems, but its largely company specific in nature. If these problems get resolved, we are likely to see a meaningful rally in this space.
Shares of three private sector banks YES Bank, and Lakshmi Vilas Bank have hit their respective record highs, gaining up to 7.5% on BSE in intra-day trade on Monday.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has settled a case against promoter Ajay Singh in the matter related to the alleged disclosure lapses in the acquisition of the equity shares by paying around Rs 2 lakh.
Afghanistan has rejected Pakistan's allegations that India is playing a destructive role in Kabul. It called it as baseless.
Khamma Press quoted Afghanistan's Defense Ministry spokesman, General Dawlat Waziri, as saying that India has no military presence in the country and it is only providing training and study opportunities to Afghan Army cadets.
He said it is misunderstanding on the part of Islamabad that the India is fuelling anti-Pakistan feelings with its presence in Afghanistan.
The remarks came after Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif had claimed that strained relations between Kabul and Islamabad were due to Indian influence on the Afghanistan side.
Speaking to a private news channel, Asif said that Pakistan was serious about improving relations between the two countries.
India has played a major role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime and has invested over USD 2 billion in various reconstruction and infrastructure projects.
The construction of the Salma Dam, the new Afghan parliament building, the Zaranj-Delaram Highway, and some other projects are among the key investments India has been involved so far in the country.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Human Right Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued notice to the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Gautam Budh Nagar over allegations of harassment and false implication by the police in African Nationals assault case.
They have been four weeks to submit reports in the concerned matter.
The NHRC has also asked its Director General of Investigation to get the facts collected in the matter.
As many as five persons were arrested on March 28, in connection with the assault on four Nigerian nationals in Greater Noida.
The incident came as locals protested following the death of a Class 12 student in Greater Noida's NSG Black Cats Enclave due to suspected drug overdose and five Nigerian students living in the neighbourhood were booked - and later detained - in connection with the case. The students were later released for lack of evidence.
Over 100 locals held a protest at the busy junction demanding that all Africans living in residential colonies in Greater Noida be asked to vacate their rented houses immediately.
Few days after this incident on March 29, an African woman was allegedly thrashed in Greater Noida.
The Kenyan was allegedly pulled out of an auto and beaten up by some youth.
The woman was admitted in Noida's Kailash Hospital and was later discharged.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Russian Embassy in Kabul has refuted allegations made by some Afghan officials regarding the alleged support of Moscow to the Taliban group.
According to a statement by the Russian Embassy, some senior Afghan officials are accusing Russia of supporting the Taliban group, emphasizing that such allegations are made without any proof or evidence, reports the Khaama Press.
This comes as Afghan Presidential spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi said that Kabul has the sovereignty to decide the matter and that no one else has the right to dictate terms or issue instructions as Russian special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov earlier endorsed Taliban militants group's call for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have also expressed regarding the growing attempts by Moscow to strengthen links with the Taliban group.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis had said Washington is concerned regarding the ties between Moscow and Taliban group.
He said Washington is informed regarding the ties between two but did not comment further regarding the alleged supply of weapons to the group by Russia.
Russia's purported support for the Taliban is seen as a counter-weight to an emerging Daesh in Afghanistan, which Moscow believes could spill over into Central Asia and subsequently Russia itself.
Earlier in March, Russia refuted these allegations saying they are a staged campaign to discredit the country however, However, admitting to have 'limited contacts' with the Taliban which it said was aimed at ensuring safety of Russian citizens in Afghanistan and encouraging the Taliban to join the national reconciliation process.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav has been given the death sentence by the Pakistan Military, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan on Monday said in a statement.
Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016 through an operation in Balochistan's Mashkel area for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, the ISPR said.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Jadhav was "tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923," ISPR said.
Jadhav "confessed before a magistrate and court that he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan through impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for the restoration of peace in Balochistan and Karachi," the ISPR said.
The accused had been "provided with a defending officer as per legal provisions," the ISPR said.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
'Kulbhushan Yadav', the accused, used to run a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar. He was seen in a video confessing that he was an official of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.
"The government categorically rejects allegations that this individual was involved in subversive activities in Pakistan at our behest. Our enquiries reveal that he apparently was being harassed while operating a legitimate business from Iran. While we probe this aspect further, his presence now in Pakistan raises questions, including the possibility of his abduction from Iran," the ministry had said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CORTLANDVILLE, N.Y. (AP) Police in central New York are investigating a two-vehicle crash that killed one person, injured four others and shut down the northbound lanes of an interstate highway for hours.
The Cortland County Sheriff's Office says a car traveling north on Interstate 81 around 2:30 a.m. Sunday hit guard rails on both sides of the highway before coming to rest in the center of the highway in the town of Cortlandville, 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Syracuse.
The driver and three passengers got out of the disabled vehicle. Deputies say an oncoming car hit the disabled vehicle and one of bystanders, who was killed.
Deputies say four other people suffered minor injuries.
The victim's name hasn't been released.
Both of I-81's northbound lanes were closed until shortly after noon.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
The Amnesty International on Monday slammed Pakistan over the death sentence given to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav by the military court and asserted that Islamabad had violated international fair trial safeguards in issuing the statement.
"The Amnesty International opposes death sentence given to Kulbushan Jadhav by military court in Pakistan. Pakistan military courts violated the international fair trial safeguards, stripped defendants of key rights and operated in a notorious secrecy," the human rights organisation said in a statement.
"Under Pakistan's military courts, no information about charges or evidence against suspects or sentences given is made public. The military courts in Pakistan and other countries including India are only apt for military discipline, not any other crimes," the statement added.
The Amnesty International has found that military courts are linked to coerced confessions, opaque processes and unfair trials, it said.
The Amnesty International opposes death penalty, regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution, it added.
Earlier today, the Pakistan Military sentenced Jadhav to death, its media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Strongly reacting to this, India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," an official statement read.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Mohammad Shahriar Alam on Monday remained hopeful that both India and Bangladesh will resolve the contentious Teesta river sharing pact, even as no treaty on the river sharing has been signed so far.
"We are hopeful, we are waiting for the right time. It takes time especially when you have some domestic challenges. We understand that and we have the right level of mindset to understand each other's problems and that's what friendship means and we hope that it gets resolved soon," Alam told the media here.
The river sharing pact, which was about get signed in 2011 during former prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Bangladesh, ran into trouble after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her apprehension.
Describing Teesta River as the lifeline of North Bengal, Banerjee earlier said, "There is very little water in Teesta River, it is our lifeline, the lifeline of North Bengal."
She, however, said that her government is willing to explore at other options to address Bangladesh's concerns.
"Your problem is water, not Teesta. I am willing to look at any alternate proposal to address your issues. What we can do is that there are many other rivers in the area (India-Bangladesh), we can use water from them," said Banerjee.
When asked about the possibility of SAARC summit to be resumed, which was postponed after India boycotted the even following the Uri terror attack in September last year, Alam said, "It's for the SAARC secretary general who happens to be a Pakistani diplomat and its down to their office to decide when the SAARC summit will happen."
The 19th SAARC Summit, which was scheduled to be held in November last year in Islamabad, was cancelled after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan followed India's decision to stay away from the Summit.
Talking about India and Bangladesh's close cooperation in tackling terrorism, Alam said, "Cooperation between Bangladesh and India is not new. What we saw in recent past across the globe, its not new. We have dealt with terrorism, our fare share of terrorism in our borders and the level of cooperation was already at a high level and was quite in-depth."
Alam said both the nations are already working on the contentious issue and has already formalized various Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) to check the rising menace of terrorism.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Condemning the death of civilians during the by-polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the Defence Experts on Monday said that the separatists are the ones who instigate people for disturbing the peace of the state and strict actions should be taken into consideration by the state government.
"During the by-polls these people had come out to vote as voting is a constitutional right of every citizen of our country. They want progress and democracy in Jammu and Kashmir. These stone pelters were instigated by the separatists who do not have any agenda. They just want to keep the Kashmir issue burning," Flying Officer Shivali Deshpande told ANI.
She further said that the people who were throwing stones and bombs on the voters were anti- elements as they were trying to disturb the fabric of democracy.
"This 'bandh' called by the separatists is nothing else but sheer nonsense. They do not want to solve the problem of Kashmir instead they just show that they are sympathizers of Kahsmiris. The Jammu and Kashmir Government should immediately put these separatists behind the bars and take strong actions against them," she asserted.
Meanwhile, another Defence Expert Colonel Sunil Deshpande said stone pelting is clearly an anti- activity on which the security forces had to do the firing activity.
"We must understand that the security forces had to do it because the process of election was being disturbed by the stone pelters," he added.
He further said the separatists must understand that they are carrying out the activities which are clearly anti-national, adding that the 'bandh' is a disadvantage for the state because it will be at stand-still.
The death toll in the brutal Budgam clashes went up to seven.
The civilians were killed during clashes with security forces in various areas of central Kashmir's Budgam district.
The Srinagar Parliamentary constituency witnessed lowest voter turnout for the by-polls in the wake of the clashes.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed deep anguish over the loss of lives during today's polling and said that peaceful means and non violence are the only way ahead for getting the state out of the present difficulties.
Sporadic violent clashes occurred at around four dozen places in various areas in Srinagar and Budgam districts.
Srinagar Parliamentary constituency comprises of 15 assembly segments in three central Kashmir districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal.
Meanwhile, the Hurriyat has called for a shutdown in the Valley in the wake of the death of civilians.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Calling for more concentrated efforts against security threats, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said Dhaka has comprehensively addressed New Delhi's security concerns, which has been a factor in trust building.
"We have put in place a multi-layered and effective bilateral security architecture with many dedicated joint institutional mechanisms for targeted and coordinated actions," said Hasina at India Foundation Awareness Programme here.
She said that security threats from state and non-state actors tend to undermine the efforts to integrate our economies and societies and that there should be more concentrated efforts to strengthen protection for our societies.
"We have amicably settled Land Boundary and Maritime Boundary," she added while reiterating her appreciation for leaders of all political parties and members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha of India for their unanimous support for the Land Boundary Agreement.
She noted that the Bangladesh Parliament recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as 'Genocide Day' in remembrance of the Pakistani atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971 and called on the international community to recognise the same
Hasina added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a commitment to remain with this effort of Dhaka.
Stating that 'India is our partner in this path to progress' the Bangladesh Prime Minister said that the two neighbors have witnessed tremendous progress in almost all sectors of cooperation namely, connectivity, power, trade and commerce, health and cultural exchange.
"To address trade deficit we are also working on getting more investment from India particularly in the special economic zones of Bangladesh. Already we are seeing great interest from the biggest business houses in India," she added.
On the Teesta issue, Hasina said that Prime Minister Modi has assured that his government will conclude the water sharing treaty at the soonest.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After filing a defamation case against the Filmfare magazine, Rizwan Siddiquee, lawyer of Nawazuddin Siddiquee has said that the publication destroyed the reputation of the Bollywood actor by carrying out an 'absolutely false and misleading article' about his marriage.
Nawazuddin had on April 7 filed the defamation case against the magazine's website in Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai.
While talking to ANI, Rizwan said, "It is indeed shocking that a leading magazine published an absolutely false, misleading and defamatory article concerning my client and her husband Mr. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, wherein they falsely stated that my client and her husband are separated."
"They did not even bother to authenticate facts with my client or her husband before recklessly publishing the said false article," said the lawyer, "this article has compromised the respect and reputation of my client, her husband and her school going children she was left with no option but to take legal recourse."
Rizwan further stated that the photograph carried in the article published on March 8 was of a different lady, and despite having received a notice in this regard, the publication did not correct its actions.
Earlier on March 20, the 'Manjhi' actor sent out a legal notice to the magazine for a post that showed him with an unidentified woman, implying he is dating her.
He sued the magazine over a defamatory article, saying he believes the post suggests all is not well between him and wife Anjali and asked the latter to respond within seven days.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former union minister Ashwani Kumar on Monday condemned Pakistan for awarding death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and urged the Centre to raise the issue with Islamabad.
"The Indian Government should raise this matter with the Pakistani government. We cannot force Pakistan but can at least try," Ashwani Kumar told ANI.
Another former union home minister Shivraj Patil said that though it was very easy to kill someone these days, but to pronounce such punishment either to an Army man or a citizen was not acceptable.
Earlier today, the Pakistan Military sentenced Jadhav to death, its media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Strongly reacting to this, India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," an official statement read.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India has condemned Sunday's bomb attacks on the two churches in Egypt saying that it stands with the people and the Government of Egypt in its common fight against terrorism.
"India, herself facing cross border terrorism, stands by the people and the Government of Egypt in our common fight against terrorism. The dastardly attack in Egypt again highlights the urgent need for concerted action on the part of the international community against the scourge of terrorism," India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
"We offer our deep condolences to the bereaved families and wish speedy recovery to the injured," the statement added.
Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief on the bomb attacks in Egypt.
"Deeply pained by the attacks in Egypt. We condemn these attacks. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi has declared a three-month state of emergency after deadly terror attacks in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria.
"The state of emergency for coming three months is declared," Sisi said in a televised address.
He also announced creation of the Supreme Council on fighting terrorism.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the two attacks on churches in Egypt that left at least 43 people dead and injured several others.
"A security detachment of the Islamic State carried out the attacks against the two churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria," the New York Times quoted an online statement shared by sympathisers and attributed to the militants as saying.
At least 27 people were killed in a bomb attack near a church in Egypt's Tanta, north of Cairo.
Another explosion occurred in front of St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria killing at least 16 persons.
The explosions took place when Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria, was leading the Palm Sunday mass, local media reports said.
The pope, however, has been reported unhurt in the blast.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India on Monday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche against Pakistani military court for awarding death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhsuan Jadhav.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of the evidence," an official release stated.
"The claim in the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances," it added.
The Ministry said the Indian Government, through its High Commission in Islamabad, repeatedly sought consular access to Jadhav, as provided for by the international law.
"Requests to that effect were formally made 13 times between March 25, 2016 and March 31, 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," it read.
Earlier, Jadhav was given the death sentence by the Pakistan Military, ISPR, Pakistan said in a statement.
Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016 through an operation in Balochistan's Mashkel area for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, the ISPR said.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Jadhav was "tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923," ISPR said.
The accused had been "provided with a defending officer as per legal provisions," the ISPR said.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
The accused, used to run a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar. He was seen in a video confessing that he was an official of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former union minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday described the death sentence given to former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan 'unacceptable' and suggested that both India and Pakistan should resolve the issue amicably.
Shashi Tharoor told ANI,"Certainly, I am hoping it is mainly sign of pressure that they want to put. Eventually, the two governments should talk and come to an amicable conclusion,"
"An honest truth is that as far as India is concerned if the Pakistanis carry through such an action, then absolutely it is a very grave matter that should go for the highest escalation on our part," he added.
This afternoon, the Pakistan Military sentenced Jadhav to death, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said in the statement.
Strongly reacting to this, India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," an official statement read.
In March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Stating his views on the death sentence given to Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan, former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief A.S. Dulat on Monday asserted that this issue amounted to blackmail and anything could happen in Pakistan.
"This issue amounts to blackmail. Anything is possible in Pakistan and having said that I'm sure sanity will prevail. There are many of these kinds of cases all over the country. It's not something unique," Dulat told ANI.
Dulat further said that our diplomats would have to work and dissolve this issue soon.
"All the diplomats have to work on it and come to a conclusion soon. The point is they have arrested him for espionage so why hang him? The NSS and Pakistan diplomats have a good relation. So, they can speak on it and dissolve issues," said Dulat.
Earlier today, Pakistan Military sentenced Jadhav to death, its media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Strongly reacting to this, India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," an official statement read.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
'Kulbhushan Yadav', the accused, used to run a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar. He was seen in a video confessing that he was an official of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.
"The government categorically rejects allegations that this individual was involved in subversive activities in Pakistan at our behest. Our enquiries reveal that he apparently was being harassed while operating a legitimate business from Iran. While we probe this aspect further, his presence now in Pakistan raises questions, including the possibility of his abduction from Iran," the ministry had said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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In wake of the prevailing tension in the Kashmir Valley, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday deferred the Anantnag by-polls till May 25.
Earlier, it was scheduled to be held on April 12.
Meanwhile, a school designated as polling station for Anantnag by-polls was set on fire in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. A Panchayat Ghar was also set ablaze in Pulwama district.
Earlier today also, a Government Middle school, in Shopian's Padarpora was set ablaze by unidentified people and on Sunday, the Government High School in Pulwama was razed to the ground in a similar manner.
Meanwhile, security remains tight and the valley has been turned into a fortress. Booths have been provided maximum security, with hundreds of troopers deployed at colleges and schools where voting will be held.
Following the escalation of violence on Sunday, internet services have been suspended in entire Kashmir Valley till Anantnag by-polls on April 12.
Apart from this, all Kashmir University exams scheduled to be held upto the Anantnag by-polls have been postponed.
New dates for the same will be notified separately. Meanwhile, with another civilian succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the brutal Budgam clashes has gone up to seven.
The Srinagar Parliamentary constituency witnessed lowest voter turnout for the by-polls in the wake of the clashes.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It is not every day that Prime Minister gets invited to watch a Bollywood movie but when you have a film that is dedicated to his vision of India and echoes the same philosophy that he stands for then it does sound like a good idea to invite him.
It is with this intention that the makers for Yeh Hai India have extended an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend a special screening of the movie. Extending the invitation, Director Lomharsh posted on Twitter, "Dear @narendramodi, kind request to watch @YHI_Movie, which is dedicated to your vision of brighter India. It will be an honour to arrange a screening for you @PMOIndia @Modiarmy".
Yeh Hai India is written and directed by Lomharsh. It is produced by Sandeep Choudhary under the banner of DLB Films Pvt. Ltd.
Following the invitation, the stars of Yeh Hai India have also been invited to the prestigious Global Exhibition on Services (GES). This is the third edition of GES and the team is elated to be a part of the talk and tell session on April 18, 2017. Other dignitaries that will be attending the Talk and Tell session are Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Shilpa Shetty, Amrish Tripathi, Ramesh Sippy and Sudhir Mishra.
Speaking on what sets apart Yeh Hai India from the regular patriotic movies, LomHarsh says, "The other movies in this genre revolve around a single plot or thought, while in Yeh Hai India we emphasized on India, Indians and its contribution. So in a nutshell we are presenting to you a story of an entire nation rather than an individual achievement.
The makers had recently unveiled the motion poster of the movie, which has been a great success. Yeh Hai India will be releasing in a theatre near you in Summer of 2017
Yeh Hai India stars Gavie Chahal, Deana Uppal, Mohan Agashe, Mohan Joshi, Antara Banerjee, Surendrapal, Major Bikramjeet and others. The movie captures a writer's journey through several different countries and his observations on the thoughts and views of other people about India.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Marks & Spencer Reliance India on Monday announced the appointment of James Munson as Managing Director.
James replaces Venu Nair who is leaving Marks & Spencer on 20th April to pursue a new role as Chief Commercial Officer for Trent Limited.
James will be responsible for continuing to grow Marks & Spencer's joint venture in India with Reliance Retail. With 57 stores across 27 cities, India has the largest number of Marks & Spencer stores outside of the UK.
The retailer is also growing its online reach across the country via leading fashion platforms Myntra, AJIO and most recently with Amazon. James will commence his new role in May.
James is a seasoned retail professional with over 20 years of experience in the industry, including six years working in India and the Czech region. James joined Marks & Spencer in the UK in 2006 as an experienced manager from BHS.
He has held various leadership positions across the including Store Manager at Camberley and Kingston, two of Marks & Spencer's largest UK stores. In 2011, he was appointed as Marks & Spencer Reliance India's Head of Retail including responsibilities for Supply Chain and Visual Merchandise.
In 2014, James was appointed Managing Director of the Czech Group with responsibility for 48 stores in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia.
"We are delighted to appoint James Munson as our new Managing Director for our India business, one of our fastest growing markets. James has extensive retail experience and solid understanding of our India business," said Marks & Spencer's Regional Director of Europe, India and Greater China, Jonathan Glenister.
"We would also like to thank Venu for his contribution to Marks & Spencer over the last 14 years. He leaves with our best wishes for the future," added Glenister.
"I'm thrilled to be returning to India and have the opportunity to put our Indian customers at the heart of everything we do. As one of our key growth markets, this is a really exciting time to be re-joining the team," said James.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that the state would go on complete liquor ban in coming days.
"Alcohol prohibition will be implemented in the entire state by closing all liquor shops in a phased manner," the Chief Minister said while addressing a programme here.
He added that the first phase has already been rolled out with the government closing down all the liquor shops situated within a radius of five kilometres from the banks of Narmada.
"In the next phase, the liquor shops would not be allowed to open in residential localities, near educational institutes or religious places," Chouhan said.
The programme was organised during the ongoing river conservation awareness campaign 'Namami Devi Narmade - Narmada Seva Yatra.'
Madhya Pradesh has witnessed several protests against liquor shops in the past month.
Other parts of the state such as Indore, Burhanpur, Chhatarpur and Satnahave have also faced several protests.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has voiced its support for such protests.
Bihar and Gujarat are the only states that currently have a total ban on alcohol in place.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The platform www.nomoreransom.org is now available in 14 languages and contains 39 free decryption tools. Since Kaspersky Lab's last report in December, more than 10 000 victims from all over the world have been able to decrypt their affected devices thanks to the tools made available free of charge on the platform.
No More Ransom was launched in July 2016 by the Dutch National Police, Europol, Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab, introducing a new level of cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector to fight ransomware together. Since the launch, dozens of partners from all continents have joined.
This shows that ransomware is a worldwide problem that needs to be, and will be, fought together. Statistics show that most visitors to the platform come from Russia, the Netherlands, the United States, Italy and Germany.
Previously available in English, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian, the website has now been translated to Finnish, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian. More languages are expected to be made available soon in order to better assist victims across the globe.
AVAST, CERT Polska and Eleven Paths - Telefonica's Cyber Security Unit, are joining No More Ransom as associate partners,bringing the number of associates to 7. With 30 new supporting partners also joining the program, the overall total is now 76.
New to join from the law enforcement side are Australia, Belgium, INTERPOL, Israel, South Korea, Russia and Ukraine; others are Acronis International GmbH, Crowdstrike, Cyber Security Canada, DataGravity, Deloitte, ENISA, the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), the Japan Cyber Control Centre (JC3), KUERT Datenrettung Deutschland GmbH, KURT Data Recovery and Information Security Co., mnemonic AS, Neutrino S.r.l., Portugal Telecom, Secura Group Limited, SentinelOne and Verizon Enterprise Solutions. There is also a strong support from the CERT community, represented by AfricaCERT, BA-CSIRT (CSIRT of Buenos Aires City Government), Centro Nacional de Ciberseguranca, Certego Incident Response Team, Cybersecurity Malaysia and the Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERTCC).
The arrival of INTERPOL follows on from the INTERPOL-Europol Cybercrime Conference 2016, highlighting the impact of this practical, user-focused and driven annual joint event.
New tools---Since the last release, 14 tools have been added to the platform, offering new decryption possibilities to the victims of ransomware:
AVAST: Alcatraz Decryptor, Bart Decryptor, Crypt888 Decryptor, HiddenTearDecryptor, NoobcryptDecryptor and CryptomixDecryptor
CERT Polska: Cryptomix/Cryptoshielddecryptor
Check Point: Merry X-Mas Decryptor and BarRaxDecryptor
Eleven Paths - Telefonica Cyber Security Unit: Popcorn Decryptor
Emsisoft: CryptonDecryptor and Damage Decryptor.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coming down heavily on Pakistan for awarding death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said with such an announcement, Islamabad has put its credibility at stake globally.
Speaking to ANI, BJP leader Nalin Kohli said the government of India has clearly and very firmly stated that in the manner in which this trial has been conducted is clearly a case of premeditated murder.
"We need to bear in mind that no consular access was provided. He was travelling with his passport. The way the trial has been done also, statements are there from Pakistan and senior officials there who said there were only statements there, no supporting evidence," he added.
Escalating his attack on Pakistan, Kohli further said that if this is the kind of a Kangaroo court approach that Islamabad will adopt and go ahead then it is a test for the state to understand that its credibility is even more at stake globally.
Echoing similar sentiments, another BJP leader S. Prakash said renowned terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar are roaming free in Pakistan, while an Indian has been convicted to death sentence by Pakistan Government is nothing but a murder by the Pakistani authorities.
"Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested by Pakistan when he was travelling to Iran. He was arrested in March 2016. Within a span of one year a fast investigation and a court proceeding was held and he was convicted to death by the Pakistani agencies. Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar who have killed hundreds of people through their terror activities are roaming free in Pakistan," he added.
Asserting that India has already desisted strong protests with the Pakistani Ambassador to India, Prakash said that the Indian Government would definitely take this matter at the highest level and ensure Jadhav is protected.
Strongly reacting to Pakistan's announcement of Jadhav's death sentence, India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," an official statement read.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Contrary to Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's clarification that alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's sentencing was done according to the law, Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz, in December, 2016, told members of the country's senate that there was insufficient evidence presented of Jadhav's alleged espionage.
"It is not that material has been provided and it is lacking in English and we are overcoming it. The material, in our view, was insufficient. What the dossier contained on Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav were mere statements. It did not have any conclusive evidence. Now, it is up to the concerned authorities how long they take to give us more matter on the agent," he had said.
Aziz offered the explanation in light of Pakistan's attempt to build international opinion against India for allegedly instigating separatism in Balochistan.
In his clarification earlier today, Asif asserted that if India raises the issue of Jadhav's death statement, Pakistan would give a reply.
"Jadhav's confession was a public document. He came from the approval of the Indian government.there is no doubt that India is fuelling terrorism in Pakistan," Geo News quoted Asif, as saying.
Asif also said the death sentence of Jadhav should serve as a warning to those engaged in terrorism in the country.
"Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared," he said.
According to Asif, the entire world had acknowledged Pakistan's struggle against terrorism and the country was dealing with this menace from both the eastern and western front.
Earlier today, the Pakistan Military sentenced Jadhav to death, its media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Jadhav "confessed before a magistrate and court that he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan through impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for the restoration of peace in Balochistan and Karachi," the ISPR said.
Strongly reacting to this, India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," an official statement read.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sarabjit Singh's sister Dalbir Kaur on Monday strongly condemned Pakistan for awarding death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav stating that he was penalised because he was an Indian.
"It was expected from the Pakistani government. Whenever they capture an Indian, they brand him as a RAW agent first. Then they begin false trail against him; then they punish him for being an Indian, not a RAW agent," Kaur told ANI.
She further said that the judgment was awarded solely to please the Army and other agencies in Pakistan.
Earlier today, Pakistan Military sentenced Jadhav to death, its media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Strongly reacting to this, India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and issued a demarche.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not even informed about Jadhav's trial in the court.
The ministry added that the subsequent presence of Jadhav, who was kidnapped last year from Iran, has never been explained credibly by the Pakistani authorities.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," an official statement read.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
The accused, used to run a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar. He was seen in a video confessing that he was an official of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull on a Delhi tour on Monday.
Visiting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull accompanied Prime Minister Modi on a metro ride from the Mandi House metro station to the Akshardham Temple on the blue line.
Chants of 'Modi, Modi' were heard at the Mandi House metro station as soon as the crowd came to know of their arrival.
Prime Minister Modi tweeted a photo of the two leaders taking a selfie, saying, "On board the Delhi Metro with PM @TurnbullMalcolm. We are heading to the Akshardham Temple."
The two leaders were then given a guided tour of the Akshardham Temple.
Braving the April heat, Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Turnbull offered prayers. The two were seen chatting intermittently while posing for the shutterbugs.
Meanwhile, India and Australia, earlier in the day, signed six MoUs in different fields including combating terrorism, civil aviation security, sports, health and medicine and satellite navigation.
The MoUs were signed after the delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Turnbull.
The visiting dignitary was accorded a ceremonial reception at the forecourts of Rashtrapati Bhavan. He also visited the Rajghat to pay floral tribute to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi.
The two Prime Ministers also inaugurated the Nano-Techhnology Centre at Gurugram through video conference.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to approach the National Assembly to stop the federal government from including Pakistan in the Saudi Arabia-led 41-nation Islamic military alliance with General (retired) Raheel Sharif as its head.
Senior PTI leaders have confirmed that the party will submit a resolution in the National Assembly Secretariat within two days in this regard.
"Resolution will be submitted within the next two days in the NA Secretariat. PTI is currently finalising its draft," The Express Tribune quoted PTI Member of National Assembly(MNA) Dr Shireen Mazari, as saying.
PTI chairman Imran Khan had last week constituted a committee of four MNAs Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Umar and Dr Shireen Mazari to look into available parliamentary tools to take up the matter.
PTI MNA Asad Umar said that decision has been taken after consultations between the committee members.
Asserting that the pros and cons of the move should be discussed in detail, Umar said political parties must be taken into confidence before giving any formal commitment to Saudi-led 41-nation Islamic military alliance.
The PTI spokesman Fawwad Chaudhry had earlier said the decision to issue the NOC to General (Retd.) Sharif is contrary to the decision made by all parliamentary parties to remain neutral in the Middle East crisis.
"Even if the government had decided to issue the NOC to the former army chief, it should have come again to the parliament to give reasons why it wanted to do so," he said.
Chaudhry said the appointment of General (Retd.) Sharif would send a negative message that the Pakistan was against Iran as the 39-nation military alliance of Muslim states was apparently being formed against Tehran.
He further said that the decision would intensify sense of insecurity prevailing amongst the Shia communities in Pakistan as they are already been targeted in the country.
Taking note of a string of recent statements about General (Retd.) Raheel Sharif, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has restricted the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders from passing any more controversial remarks about the former army chief.
"PM Nawaz Sharif takes notice of the statements against Gen (retd) Raheel Sharif," Radio Pakistan tweeted on Sunday evening,
"Nawaz Sharif prohibits PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retd) Raheel Sharif," read another tweet.
"The entire nation pays tribute to Gen (retired) Raheel Sharif for his meritorious services," a third tweet by Radio Pakistan quoted the prime minister as saying.
Prime Minister Sharif's directions to the leaders of his party came days after Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair called Raheel Sharif 'just another general' and said he should not be made larger than life.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], Apr. 10 (ANI): Syrian Ambassador to India Riad Abbas on Monday said that any further aggression from the United States will invite will invite retaliation and added that the country will no longer opt for the middle path. He said there will either be 'war or peace' while condemning Washington's 'blatant aggression'.
Ambassador Abbas told media here that the missile strike on a Syrian army base by Washington was a show of force by President Donald Trump to prove that he is a stronger leader than his predecessor Barack Obama.
He alleged that another motive behind the airstrike was to satisfy Israeli lobbyists and to exert pressure on Damascus to accept Washington's terms and conditions.
"The American President wanted to prove that he is a strong President unlike Barack Obama and to satisfy the Israeli lobbies in America. And, by hitting Syrian airbase, the President of the United States is sending message to Russia and other Syrian allies that we are strong enough to face all of you together and to show Gulf states that I'm strong enough, but you will always need to support me financially for whatever services we give to you and to exercise much pressure on Syria so that the Syrian government will agree to your terms and condition," said Abbas.
He said that the United States carried out the strike without investigation, which proved that the action was pre-meditated. He said Washington has committed so many massacres in Iraq and other countries around the world that it has no right to speak or lecture about democracy or peace.
Ambassador Abbas further stated that since 2011, the start of the Syrian crisis, there has been indirect negotiations between the Syria and the American government but the latter wanted to retain its presence in Syria through the Syria, which was denied.
"They wanted that America should be invited and treated like the Russians, the true allies of Syria. In exchange of that they will give us financial support and economical support in cooperation with the Russian Federation ," he said.
He said Washington wanted Damascus to work in direct cooperation with Turkey while neglecting Iran. It also demanded that some terrorist personnel be given high post in the Syrian army and that the president should step down while also asking to draft a new constitution for the country.
"In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen they toppled the regime and brought their friends to power in the name of democracy and security," he said.
"We highly appreciate the stand of our allies, the Russian federation and all BRICS countries as well as India," the envoy added.
He said the political reason for the American strike was that it wanted Damascus to follow the U.S. while the economic reason was that it wanted Syria to be transitive to the pipeline from Qatar to Europe, which Damascus never agreed to.
He alleged that America supports and aids ISIS, as it is harming the Syrian army fighting the terrorist organisation.
When asked if the country will halt Astana peace talks following the development, the envoy said that Syria will continue with these talks to bring peace.
A statement from the embassy also called upon the Security Council to assume its responsibilities under the UN Charter and to hold an emergency session to consider the serious consequences of the US aggression on Syria, condemn it and discuss ways to ensure that it is not repeated as an act that threats security and peace, in the region and the world.
Last Friday, the United States launched over 50 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat airfield in Syria, believed by Washington be the base for warplanes that carried out the chemical attack on a rebel-held town last Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the strike as "act of aggression" and said it violated international law.
Russia also denied that a chemical weapons attack took place in Syria saying the deaths in Khan Sheikhoun were caused by a Syrian regime airstrike on a rebel-controlled chemical weapons factory on the ground.
Approximately 20 Syrian regime planes were destroyed in the US strike, according to two US senior military officials.
Reacting to the US strike Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Washington had carried out an "unjust and unabashed assault" against Syria which "shows nothing but short-sightedness, a narrowness of vision and blindness to political and military realities."
Following the strike, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also accused the US of not acting 'within international frameworks' while adding ''the Syrian people and army must give a response (to the US) that makes Americans regret their attack.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon MP will visit India from 11-14 April , the third British Cabinet Minister to visit India during April.
He will join his Indian counterpart Arun Jaitley for the first India/UK Strategic Dialogue, which was agreed in November 2015 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to London as part of the Defence and International Security Partnership.
He will visit Mumbai and Delhi, where he will meet senior Indian Ministry of Defence officials, military staff, business and opinion leaders.
The visit will further cement the Defence and International Security Partnership which aims to strengthen collaboration and cooperation between India and the UK, including by enhancing mutual capabilities and effectiveness through joint training and doctrine development.
The India-UK Strategic Dialogue will look at ways of enforcing cooperation on science and technology, research and development, and countering violent extremism.
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Apollo Tyres rose 1.62% to Rs 216.20 at 10:41 IST on BSE after the company announced inauguration of a plant in Hungary.
The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 5.15 points, or 0.02%, to 29,711.76.
On BSE, so far 1.53 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with average daily volume of 3.36 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock hit a high of Rs 217.50 and a low of Rs 214.50 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 235 on 6 October 2016. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 139.35 on 24 June 2016.
The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 7 April 2017, rising 18.23% compared with 2.69% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, surging 12.75% as against Sensex's 11.01% rise.
The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 50.90 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.
Apollo Tyres announced inauguration of the company's sixth global tyre manufacturing unit and the second one in Europe. Located less than 100 km from the capital Budapest, it is the company's first greenfield facility outside India. Built over 72 hectares, construction began on site in April 2015.
Apollo Tyres is investing Euro 475 million in this facility. The final capacity at the end of phase I would be 5.5 million passenger car & light truck (PCLT) tyres and 675,000 commercial vehicle tyres. This facility will complement Apollo Tyres' existing facility in the Netherlands, and will produce both Apollo and Vredestein brand of tyres for the European market.
Speaking on the occasion Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman, Apollo Tyres said that the Hungarian facility will help the company further increase its presence and market share in Europe. From being a replacement market focussed company in Europe, the company would soon be starting supplies of tyres to all the leading OEs in Europe.
Apollo Tyres' consolidated net profit rose 5.98% to Rs 295.70 crore on 17.76% increase in total income to Rs 3495.21 crore in Q3 December 2016 over Q3 December 2015.
Apollo Tyres is an international tyre major with manufacturing units in India, the Netherlands and Hungary. The company markets its products under its two global brands - Apollo and Vredestein. The company's products are available in over 100 countries through a network of branded, exclusive and multi-product outlets.
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Key indices were trading with small gains in mid-morning trade amid mixed Asian cues. At 11:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 46.56 points or 0.16% at 29,753.17. The Nifty 50 index was up 19.80 points or 0.22% at 9,218.10. The movement of indices was restricted within a small range near the flat line amid lacklustre trade so far during the session. Capital goods and metal stocks gained.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.33%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.52%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex's gains in percentage terms.
The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,728 shares rose and 786 shares fell. A total of 110 shares were unchanged.
Coal India, Tata Motors and Axis Bank rose by 0.91% to 1.39%.
Metal & mining stocks gained on renewed buying. JSW Steel (up 1.63%), Hindustan Copper (up 1.71%), Vedanta (up 0.04%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.28%), Hindustan Zinc (up 0.9%), Tata Steel (up 0.3%), Steel Authority of India (Sail) (up 0.53%), National Aluminum Company (up 1.29%) and NMDC (up 0.26%) gained. Jindal Steel & Power declined 1.55%.
Bhushan Steel jumped 5.22% on media report that the company submitted final proposal for corporate debt restructuring programme. Bhushan Steel last month submitted final proposal for debt restructuring under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s S4A scheme. S4A, or Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets, was unveiled by RBI last year to make debt recasts easier.
Bhushan Steel has been in financial distress recently. State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank lead two groups of creditor banks to Bhushan Steel. As of 2015-2016, the steel maker had Rs 44477.90 crore debt on books with Rs 10000 crore being added in past three years as interest and penal interest, reports added.
Under S4A scheme, banks need to establish by a process that involves a forensic audit that the promoters are clean and not involved in any activity of malfeasance. S4A cannot be implemented if the audit report suggests problem with the promoters. In such cases where wrong doing is seen on the part of promoters, the S4A can be implemented only when there is a change in ownership.
Capital goods stocks also gained. Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) (up 0.89%), BEML (up 1.57%), ABB India (up 5.65%), Bharat Electronics (up 1.64%), Thermax (up 0.06%), and Siemens (up 0.69%) gained.
L&T advanced 0.19% amid volatility after the company said the power transmission and distribution business of L&T Construction has won its single largest order in the Middle East from their esteemed customer 'Kahramaa' - Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation - for its ongoing Qatar Electricity Transmission Network Expansion Plan-Phase XIII. Through this ambitious project, Kahramaa intends to expand the existing power transmission network to meet the ever-increasing demand for power due to the developmental works in Qatar. The announcement was made before trading hours today, 10 April 2017.
The prestigious $817 million order will involve the engineering, procurement and construction of 30 new substations of varying voltage levels of 220 kilovolt (kV), 132 kV and 66 kV and approximately 560 kilometre (km) of 132 kV and 66 kV underground cables under various definite and framework packages.
The works of the project are spread all over the State of Qatar including both freshly developed as well as already developed areas. The project is scheduled for completion in phases from 15 to 32 months.
Meanwhile, L&T's board at a meeting held on Friday, 7 April 2017, approved appointment of A. M. Naik as the Non-Executive Chairman of the company with effect from 1 October 2017 for a period of three years, immediately upon his retirement as the Executive Chairman on 30 September 2017.
The board also approved appointment of S. N. Subrahmanyan as the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director with effect from 1 July 2017. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Apollo Tyres rose 1.9% after the company announced inauguration of the company's sixth global tyre manufacturing unit and the second one in Europe. Located less than 100 km from the capital Budapest, it is the company's first greenfield facility outside India. Built over 72 hectares, construction began on site in April 2015.
Apollo Tyres is investing Euro 475 million in this facility. The final capacity at the end of phase I would be 5.5 million passenger car & light truck (PCLT) tyres and 675,000 commercial vehicle tyres. This facility will complement Apollo Tyres' existing facility in the Netherlands, and will produce both Apollo and Vredestein brand of tyres for the European market. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed as caution prevailed as increased geopolitical risks prompted investors to favour safe-haven bets such as government debt. Top aides to US President Donald Trump differed on Sunday, 9 April 2017. on where US policy on Syria was headed after last week's attack on a Syrian air base, while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the strikes were a warning to other nations, including North Korea.
On economic data front in Asia, Japan's current account surplus stood at 2.81 trillion yen ($25.26 billion) in February, finance ministry data showed, the biggest surplus since March 2016. The result is the 32nd straight month of current account surpluses. This February's current account surplus was the largest on record for February.
US stocks closed with small losses on Friday, 7 April 2017, after increased geopolitical concerns amid US air strikes against Syria and weaker than expected nonfarm payrolls data weighed on sentiment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, 7 April 2017, nonfarm payrolls grew by just 98,000 in March, well below expectations, but the unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low of 4.5%.
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The Central Government had constituted the following Committees to review the existing structure, functioning and performance of Khadi Village and Industries Commission(KVIC) to study the regulatory framework and to recommend any other measures considered necessary to revamp the KVIC.
1. High Power Committee headed by late Prime Minister Shri PV Narasimha Rao
2. Arthur Andersen Study
3. Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri. D. M. Sukthankar, former Chief Secretary Govt. of Maharashtra
High Power Committee (HPC) was constituted under the Chairmanship of late Prime Minister Mr. P. V.
Narasimha Rao to review the performance, examine the issues and identify the problems faced by the KVI sector.
The Committee in its report submitted in 1994 made various recommendations. The key recommendations of the Committee were:
All apex financing Institutions and commercial banks to be advised to increase the flow of institutional credit to the KVI sector.
Rebate for Khadi may be replaced by Market Development Assistance (MDA), calculated at 20% of production
Necessary legislative measures to protect Khadi and its use by KVIC certified Institutions;
Separate wing in KVIC to supervise the working of Sliver Plants; smaller economical sliver plants to be set up at the Institutional level
Village industries under the purview of KVIC to be considered on par with Government level village and small industries category for planning and development purposes.
Government to constitute a separate fund (Rs. 2000 crore) for rural industries to be administered by NABARD or a separate financial institution.
Focus on select industries for development where KVIC has expertise and experience
Development of the export capability of KVI Institutions; strengthening quality control, augmenting training (participatory funding scheme for KVIB and NGO run new training centres) and research facilities
Creation of a special cell at the KVIC headquarters to oversee and monitor the KVI programmes
Transition to Project Approach for financing (from Pattern Approach)
Commission to delegate day to day functions to the CEO and Financial Advisor and focus on developmental rather than regulatory activity
Measures for strengthening of KVIBs
Based on the recommendations of the High Power Committee the following changes were brought in the KVI Sector:
The REGP scheme was commissioned in 1995-96 with the objective of providing a formal channel for flow of funds from banking institutions to the KVI sector.
The Government of India framed a new scheme for KVIC to take online credit facility (Consortium of Bank Credit or CBC) of Rs. 1000 crore.
Arthur Andersen study was commissioned in the year 2000 with the objective of reorganizing the KVIC organization structure with respect to the changing business needs and overall objectives of the KVIC.
The Committee in its report made various recommendations. The key recommendations of the Committee were:
Redefinition of Commission under the KVIC act, 1956 in line with change from an operational body to policy formulation body.
At the Commission level, the KVIC to not only comprise representatives of the KVI sector but the officers of the KVIC to also participate in its policy making and, therefore, the CEO, FA and the heads of Khadi and VI departments to be appointed as voting members of the Commission.
At the operational level, KVIC to structure itself into separate business units to meet the distinct requirements of Khadi and Village Industries.
The roles and responsibilities of internal functions, such as Capacity Building, Marketing & Sales, Research & Development, Human Resources, Finance, etc, which are integral to the organizations performance, to be defined and communicated clearly.
KVIC should set up industrial clusters catering to a groups of skilled artisans at the district/block level
Based on the recommendations of the Arthur Andersen study the CEO and FA were made ex-officio members of the Commission and voting rights were also conferred.
Ministry constituted Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. D. M. Sukthankar, former Chief Secretary Govt. of Maharashtra, in 2005 to review the existing structure, functioning and performance of KVIC to study the regulatory framework and to recommend any other measures considered necessary to revamp the KVIC.
The Committee in its report submitted in March, 2005 made various recommendations. The key recommendations of the Committee were:
Need for identification of select traditional and sunrise industries as focus areas; a cluster-based approach to revival of traditional industries;
Recognize technological up-gradation and modernization as a priority area for transforming the sector; suggested mobilization of existing technical and scientific Institutions, such as, ITIs, Engineering Colleges, IITs, CSIR as resource/contact Institutions for rural industrialization and creation of venture capital fund within KVI;
Recommended brand building, standardization and quality control for products of KVI Sector;
Address the organizational and training issues preventing the growth of the KVI sector and suggested setting up of Zonal Committees and Zonal offices under a Deputy CEO, and restructuring of training programme aimed towards entrepreneurial development;
Commented on issues related to Khadi Institutions, namely, dues on account of Rebate, stock pile-up and state of implements; Suggested alternatives to Rebate
direct subsidization of spinners
encouraging entrepreneurship among spinners/weavers through formation of Self Help Groups
Governance related recommendations
Based on the recommendations of the Expert Committee the following changes were brought in the KVI Sector:
Introduced Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) to organize the traditional industries and artisans into clusters to make them competitive and provide support for their long term sustainability and economy of scale.
KVIC took up several projects under an interface with reputed Technological institutions viz. IITs and NITs for developing new technologies and their subsequent dissemination among institutions and entrepreneurs of KVI Sector.
KVIC have introduced Khadi Mark to ensure genuineness of Khadi to the customers.
Zonal Committees have been constituted for each of six geographical zones to monitor timely implementation of KVI programmes/schemes for the development of Khadi and Village Industries in the zone.
The Ministry of MSME has revised the negative list and brought in a large number of new industries/projects like spinning and weaving, solar charkhas hand loom/power looms under the ambit of Prime Ministers Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).
Government of India introduced the scheme of Market Development Assistance (MDA) on Production in place of rebate after experimenting with several pilot schemes. The scheme has been given effect from 1st April 2010, to help Khadi institutions to reorient their activities extending adequate emphasis towards increasing artisans' earnings as well as ensuring quality of Khadi to customers. Under MDA scheme 25% of assistance is earmarked for payment among spinners and weavers as additional incentive through their bank/post office account.
An online application system has been made operational for disbursement of Market Development Assistance (MDA) and Interest Subsidy under ISEC scheme to KIs and artisans as applicable.
Under PMEGP, online disbursement of MM subsidy through single National level nodal bank has been developed.
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Divis Laboratories rose 4.04% to Rs 647.60 at 11:25 IST on BSE after the company said that US drug regulator exempted some of the company's products from the import alert list.
The announcement was made on Saturday, 8 April 2017.
Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 34.67 points, or 0.12% to 29,741.28.
On the BSE, 3.07 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 2.78 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 656.15 and a low of Rs 642.75 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 1,380 on 16 September 2016. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 611.60 on 22 March 2017.
The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 7 April 2017, falling 18.09% compared with 2.69% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 15.59% as against Sensex's 11.01% rise.
The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 53.09 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.
Divis Laboratories said the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has exempted some more products manufactured at the company's Unit-II at Visakhapatnam from the import alert issued under clauses 66-40 & 99-32 of the FDA regulations.
An import alert prohibits the company to manufacture or market that particular drug in the United States, according to the regulator's website.
Last month, Divis Laboratories announced that the USFDA issued an Import Alert 66-40 on 20 March 2017 on the products manufactured at the company's Unit-II at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The agency has exempted the 10 products namely Levetiracetam, Gabapentin, Lamotrigine, Capecitabine, Naproxen Sodium, Raltegravir potassium, Atovaquone, Chloropurine , BOC core succinate and 2, 4-wing active ester, from the import alert, it added.
Divis Laboratories' net profit rose 8.7% to Rs 268.32 crore on 13.4% increase in net sales to Rs 973.44 crore in Q3 December 2016 over Q3 December 2015.
Divis Laboratories is primarily engaged in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) & intermediates for generics; custom synthesis of API's and advanced intermediates for discovery compounds for pharma giants; building blocks for peptides; building blocks for nucleotides; carotenoids; and chiral ligands.
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Trading for the truncated trading week started on a positive note with a hint of caution as key indices traded with small gains. Indices extended the small gains posted last week. At 9:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 34.24 points or 0.12% at 29,746.40. The Nifty 50 index was up 13.90 points or 0.15% at 9,212.20. The gains were led by metal and energy stocks. Markets remain closed on Friday, 14 April 2017 on account of holiday.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.28%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.5%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1,259 shares rose and 319 shares fell. A total of 55 shares were unchanged.
Coal India, Reliance Industries and Cipla rose by 0.68% to 1.22%, leading the Sensex pack.
Maruti Suzuki India gained 0.45% after the company said its total production rose 10.29% to 1.53 lakh units in March 2017 over March 2016. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
L&T rose 0.25% after the company's board at a meeting held on Friday, 7 April 2017, approved appointment of A. M. Naik as the Non-Executive Chairman of the company with effect from 1 October 2017 for a period of three years, immediately upon his retirement as the Executive Chairman on 30 September 2017.
The board also approved appointment of S. N. Subrahmanyan as the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director with effect from 1 July 2017. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
IndusInd Bank declined 0.03%. The bank said it has recently inaugurated its first branch in Gaya, Bihar. With the inauguration of this branch, the bank now has 18 branches in Bihar. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Indiabulls Housing Finance dropped 1.25%, The company said it allotted its sixteenth tranche of secured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of face value Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 43 crore. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed as caution prevailed as increased geopolitical risks prompted investors to favour safe-haven bets such as government debt. Top aides to US President Donald Trump differed on Sunday, 9 April 2017. on where US policy on Syria was headed after last week's attack on a Syrian air base, while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the strikes were a warning to other nations, including North Korea.
On economic data front in Asia, Japan's current account surplus stood at 2.81 trillion yen ($25.26 billion) in February, finance ministry data showed, the biggest surplus since March 2016. The result is the 32nd straight month of current account surpluses. This February's current account surplus was the largest on record for February.
US stocks closed with small losses on Friday, 7 April 2017, after increased geopolitical concerns amid US air strikes against Syria and weaker than expected nonfarm payrolls data weighed on sentiment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, 7 April 2017, nonfarm payrolls grew by just 98,000 in March, well below expectations, but the unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low of 4.5%.
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L&T rose 0.27% to Rs 1,691 at 9:26 IST on BSE after the company said L&T Construction won Rs 5250 crore order from Kahramaa in Qatar.
The announcement was made before trading hours today, 10 April 2017.
Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 18.13 points, or 0.06% to 29,724.74.
On the BSE, 20,000 shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 1.54 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 1,713.65 and a low of Rs 1,680.50 so far during the day.
The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,719.45 on 7 April 2017. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 1,181 on 8 April 2016.
The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 7 April 2017, rising 14.19% compared with 2.69% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 21.23% as against Sensex's 11.01% rise.
The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 186.59 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.
L&T said the power transmission and distribution business of L&T Construction has won its single largest order in the Middle East from their esteemed customer 'Kahramaa' - Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation - for its ongoing Qatar Electricity Transmission Network Expansion Plan-Phase XIII. Through this ambitious project, Kahramaa intends to expand the existing power transmission network to meet the ever-increasing demand for power due to the developmental works in Qatar.
The prestigious $817 million order will involve the engineering, procurement and construction of 30 new gas insulated substations of varying voltage levels of 220 kilovolt (kV), 132 kV and 66 kV and approximately 560 kilometre (km) of 132 kV and 66 kV underground cables under various definite and framework packages. The works of the project are spread all over the State of Qatar including both freshly developed as well as already developed areas. The project is scheduled for completion in phases from 15 to 32 months.
L&T's board at a meeting held on Friday, 7 April 2017, approved appointment of A. M. Naik as the Non-Executive Chairman of the company with effect from 1 October 2017 for a period of three years, immediately upon his retirement as the Executive Chairman on 30 September 2017. The board also approved appointment of S. N. Subrahmanyan as the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director with effect from 1 July 2017. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
L&T's consolidated net profit rose 38.9% to Rs 972.47 crore on 1.7% growth in net sales to Rs 26018.15 crore in Q3 December 2016 over Q3 December 2015.
L&T Construction is a brand of L&T. L&T is an Indian multinational engaged in technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services.
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Key indices may open with flat to tiny gains amid mixed Asian cues. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could gain 1.90 points at the opening bell.
Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed as caution prevailed as increased geopolitical risks prompted investors to favour safe-haven bets such as government debt. Top aides to US President Donald Trump differed on Sunday on where US policy on Syria was headed after last week's attack on a Syrian air base, while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the strikes were a warning to other nations, including North Korea.
Japan's current account surplus stood at 2.81 trillion yen ($25.26 billion) in February, finance ministry data showed, the biggest surplus since March 2016. The result is the 32nd straight month of current account surpluses. This February's current account surplus was the largest on record for February.
US stocks closed lower on Friday, 7 April 2017, after increased geopolitical concerns amid US air strikes against Syria and weaker than expected nonfarm payrolls data weighed on sentiment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, 7 April 2017, nonfarm payrolls grew by just 98,000 in March, well below expectations, but the unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low of 4.5%.
Crude oil prices edged higher supported by strong demand and political uncertainty in Syria, although another rise in US drilling activity kept a lid on gains. In global commodities markets, Brent crude oil futures for June settlement was up 6 cents at $55.30 a barrel. The contract had gained 35 cents to settle at $55.24 a barrel during previous trading session.
Meanwhile, domestic market had settled with modest losses on the last trading session of the week on Friday, 7 April 2017, triggered by worries of rising geopolitical tensions after US fired dozens of cruise missiles into Syria. The Sensex declined 220.73 points or 0.74% to settle at 29,706.61.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 262.37 crore on Friday, 7 April 2017, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 414.94 crore on Friday, 7 April 2017, as per provisional data.
In the week ended Friday, 7 April 2017, the Sensex rose 86.11 points, or 0.29% to settle at 29,706.61 in line with overall positive sentiment in the market which has been riding on the passage of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and the strengthened position of government after the assembly elections.
Among corporate news, Maruti Suzuki India said its total production rose 10.29% to 1.53 lakh units in March 2017 over March 2016. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
L&T's board at a meeting held on Friday, 7 April 2017, approved appointment of A. M. Naik as the Non-Executive Chairman of the company with effect from 1 October 2017 for a period of three years, immediately upon his retirement as the Executive Chairman on 30 September 2017. The board also approved appointment of S. N. Subrahmanyan as the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director with effect from 1 July 2017. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
IndusInd Bank said it has recently inaugurated its first branch in Gaya, Bihar. With the inauguration of this branch, the bank now has 18 branches in Bihar. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Indiabulls Housing Finance said it allotted its sixteenth tranche of secured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of face value Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 43 crore. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
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Receives 4 observations under Form 483
Marksans Pharma announced that the United States Food & Drug Administration inspected its manufacturing facility located at Goa from 03 April to 07 April 2017. At the end of the inspections, there were 4 (four) observations given under Form 483. The company is already addressing the same and is confident of satisfying the FDA within stipulated time.
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Maruti Suzuki India said its total production rose 10.29% to 1.53 lakh units in March 2017 over March 2016. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
L&T's board at a meeting held on Friday, 7 April 2017, approved appointment of A. M. Naik as the Non-Executive Chairman of the company with effect from 1 October 2017 for a period of three years, immediately upon his retirement as the Executive Chairman on 30 September 2017. The board also approved appointment of S. N. Subrahmanyan as the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director with effect from 1 July 2017. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Central Bank of India said that a meeting of the capital raising committee of the board of directors of the bank will be held on 12 April 2017 to consider and approve raising of equity capital by conversion of entire innovative perpetual debt instruments (IPDI) capital of Rs 583 crore (5,830 IPDI of Rs 10 lakh each) held by Government of India, by allotment of equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each at such conversion price including premium per equity share as may be determined as per SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, to Government of India on preferential basis. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
IndusInd Bank said it has recently inaugurated its first branch in Gaya, Bihar. With the inauguration of this branch, the bank now has 18 branches in Bihar. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Apollo Tyres announced about the inauguration and commencement of commercial production at its manufacturing facility in Hungary with effect from 7 April 2017. Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman, Apollo Tyres said, this facility will help the company further increase its presence and market share in Europe. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Indiabulls Housing Finance said it allotted its sixteenth tranche of secured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of face value Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 43 crore. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
Brigade Enterprises announced the launch of Brigade Buena Vista, a luxury apartment project off Old Madras Road near Budigere Cross, Bengaluru. Brigade Buena Vista consists of 4 elegant residential towers spread across 7 acres, large parts of which are reserved for green, open spaces. The project is strategically located with excellent 3-way connectivity to Whitefield, Central and North Bengaluru and offers a strategic mix of accessibility and convenient living. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 7 April 2017.
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On 10 April 2017
Noida Toll Bridge Company announced that the Registered Office of the Company has been shifted from the State of Uttar Pradesh to the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The Registered Office of the Company will now be situated at the following address: 2nd floor, Niryat Bhawan, Rao Tula Ram Marg, Opp. Army Hospital Research & Referral, New Delhi - 110057.
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Held on 10 April 2017
Globus Spirits announced that the Board of Directors of the company at its meeting held on 10 April 2017 transacted the following -
Considered and approved the resignation of Rajesh Sehgal as Director of the Company with effect from 10 April 2017.
Approved the appointment of Richard Andrew Cornish Piliero (being nominee of Templeton Strategic Emerging Markets Fund IV, LDC) as an Additional Director of the company.
Board has approved the incorporation of a company in UK with an initial investment of 50 GBP by way of subscription of 50 equity share of 1 GBP each fully paid up in 50% partnership with Gapuma Group.
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This is the First largest private investment initiative in affordable housing
The Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu launched 352 housing projects in 53 cities in 17 States across the country with an investment of over Rs.38,000 cr to build over two lakh (2) houses.
These housing projects to be taken up by the members of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) across the country is the first major private investments initiative into affordable housing. As per the details furnished by CREDAI, the cost of construction of these affordable houses will be in the range of Rs.15 lakh to Rs.30 lakh with average cost of construction coming to Rs.18 lakh per house.
The event was held in the backdrop of several initiatives by the Government of India to promote affordable housing for Economically Weaker Sections, Low and Middle Income Groups including sanction of 'infrastructure status' for the housing sector.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu complimented CREDAI and its members for coming forward to invest in affordable housing projects and assured them that his Ministry and Central Nodal Agencies like the National Housing Bank and HUDCO will extend full cooperation in reaching the benefits prescribed under PMAY (Urban) to the beneficiaries who join the projects launched today.
Details of affordable housing projects launched today for implementation are:
State/cities No of affordable houses to be built Investment (Cr)Maharashtra (Mumbai,Nagpur, Ahmednagar,Jalna, Banm,Nashik, Malegaon,Pune, Satara, Solapur) 1,03,719 15,576Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar,Rajkot, Mehsana, Bharuch, Bhavnagar,Navsari, Modasa,Palanpur, Swarnakantha,Vadodara, Vapi,Surat) 28,465 9,525National Capital Region of Delhi 41,921 6,211Karnataka (Bengaluru, Gulbarga, Hubli) 7,037 1,679Uttar Pradesh (Agra, Allahabad,Bareily, Jhansi, Kanpur and Varanasi) 6,055 1,108Rajasthan(Ajmer, Jaipur,Jodhpur) 4,406 389West Bengal (Kolkata) 2,955 663Goa 1,932 464Telangana (Hyderabad) 1,784 663Madhya Pradesh (Indore, Ujjain) 1,517 284Kerala (Trivendrum, Calicut, Kochi, Ernakulam) 1,372 186Assam (Guwahati) 860 145Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Coimattore, Tiruchirapalli) 834 145Odisha (Bhubaneswar) 520 53Chattisgarh (Raipur) 244 26Andhra Pradesh (Tirupati) 50 10
Shri Naidu said while Mahatma ensured political freedom for our country, Sardar Patel ensured its unification, Shri Modi is now working on giving content and real meaning to these accomplishments through building a New India.
The Minister said such a New India has no meaning if we don't ensure houses for all and that too in a specific time frame. He said that the Prime Minister Shri Modi has set the year 2022 as the deadline for roofing all Indians.
Shri Naidu said that within a short span of just 21 months since the launch of PMAY(Urban) in June, 2015, his Ministry has earlier approved construction of 17.73 lakh affordable houses for urban poor with an investment of Rs.95,660 cr in 30 States and Union Territories.. For building these houses, central assistance of Rs.27,879 cr has also been approved, he said.
These approved projects are to be executed with assistance from central and state governments and beneficiary contribution under the four components of PMAY (Urban). Under this urban housing mission, central assistance in the range of Rs.1.00 lakh to Rs.2.35 lakh will be provided to each beneficiary. PMAY (Urban) was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015.
The Government of India on December 31, 2017 extended the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme component of PMAY (Urban) to Middle Income Groups with annual incomes in the range of Rs.12 lakh to Rs.18 lakh under which interest subsidy of 4% and 3% on housing loans will be provided. With this, beneficiaries belonging to EWS, LIG and MIG with annual incomes up to Rs.18 lakh have been brought under the ambit of PMAY (Urban) opening up substantial investment opportunities for developers both at the bottom and middle of the pyramid.
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At least 537 products made from Siamese crocodiles, a protected species, were seized in China's Guangxi Zhuang region, the police said on Monday.
The 370 pieces of crocodile skin, 90 tails and 77 specimens were detected on a logistics vehicle attempting to cross the China-Vietnam border, Xinhua news agency reported.
The police thoroughly examined the vehicle after noticing that its goods were unusually placed.
The driver failed to provide official document for transporting the products.
Siamese crocodiles are a critically endangered species native to southeast Asia.
Their skin is used as a raw material for luxury leather products in the international market.
--IANS
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The Delhi BJP on Monday accused the AAP government and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of not letting the benefits of Central government schemes reach the people of Delhi.
"The Central government has constantly been giving funds to the Delhi government for the development of the city under various schemes.
"But the Kejriwal government is not letting the benefits reach the people of Delhi," General Secretary of the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kuljeet Singh Chahal said.
He added that Kejriwal keeps complaining that the Central government was not letting his government work, but that was not the case.
"In fact, it is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government which does not believe in working but only finds excuses not to work."
Chahal said the AAP government delayed approval to the fourth phase of the Delhi Metro by two years.
"While they gave their in-principle approval, they kept delaying giving financial commitment which has delayed the project involving the life-line of Delhi by more than two years," he said.
Chahal added that the Delhi government failed to utilize funds issued by the Central government for sanitation, water, sewage and other development works.
BJP leader Udit Raj slammed Kejriwal for questioning the reliability Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and said the Delhi Chief Minister had no faith in the constitutional institutions in the country.
"It seems Kejriwal finds only those institutions independent which support his anarchic views, and only those elections free and fair in which he wins," he said.
Udit Raj questioned why he did not find any fraud in the EVMs when the AAP won so convincingly in the 2015 Delhi assembly polls.
--IANS
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Punjab's opposition party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday said the killing of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in November 1984 was "most certainly a genocide".
SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister, urged the government of India to "formally acknowledge this shameful massacre of Sikhs as a brutal genocide".
Reacting to Canada's Ontario Provincial Parliament's decision to treat the 1984 killings as a 'genocide', Sukhbir Singh Badal said the party is grateful to authorities and people of Ontario for this "very touching gesture" of compassion and solidarity.
"They have called this shameful chapter by its right name and they deserve our thanks. Every Indian, except those guilty of this tragedy, regards it as a genocide," he said.
"There is no doubt that the Congress planned and executed a genocide of the Sikhs in 1984. Senior party leaders, holding top positions in the then government of India, actively facilitated, directed and even participated in this gruesome genocide. Orders for the genocide came from the very top in the then government," the Akali leader said in a statement here.
Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in Delhi and some other places after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards in New Delhi on October 31, 1984.
Harinder Malhi, member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament, moved a private member's motion in the 107-member house on Thursday last, which was passed by 34 votes in favour and five against.
India on Friday rejected the Canadian provincial assembly's motion that described the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as a "genocide".
"We have noted the passage of a private member's motion in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on April 6," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.
"We reject this misguided motion based on a limited understanding of India, its Constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process," he said.
"Our views have been conveyed to the government and political leadership in Canada."
There are around 1.2 million people of Indian origin settled in Canada and around 500,000 of them are from Punjab.
--IANS
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A retired scientist has begun a fast here seeking release of her jailed son, who has been a vocal critic of the ruling CPI-M, and especially Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
On Sunday, L. Thankamma, 80, a retired scientist of the Rubber Board of India began a fast demanding release of her son, K.M. Shahjahan, from prison.
Her fast began as Mahija, a mother fighting for justice for the death of her son Jishnu Prannoy, ended her fast on Sunday night after five days following assurances from the state government that all her demands would be addressed.
For the past decade, Shahjahan, 54, has turned out to be the bete noire of the CPI-M in general and Vijayan in particular and is one of the most anti CPI-M faces on TV news channels in debates.
Last Wednesday, when he arrived in the state capital to express his solidarity with Mahija, to sit in protest before the office of state police chief, the police rounded him up along with four others. He has been in jail in the capital city and the charges against him include conspiracy.
His mother, Thankamma, told reporters on Monday: "The only reason that I can attribute to Vijayan's abuse of power against my son is because Shahjahan took up cudgels against him by filing a petition in the High Court in the SNC Lavalin case in which Vijayan is facing trying times. The court is expected to give its verdict shortly."
On Monday, Shahjahan was taken from the prison by the police to the Law College here as he had to write his third year law examination.
"What's the doubt; the only reason why I am being hounded by Vijayan is because I took a stand against him in the SNC Lavalin case. I definitely will fight this gross human rights violation," said Shahjahan as he was taken by police to the examination hall.
Former Chief Minister and Congress party leader Oommen Chandy on Monday arrived at the residence of Thankamma and expressed his full support.
"This is ridiculous that a person like Shahjahan who went to express his solidarity with a mother (Mahija) was arrested. Did they go with bomb?" asked Chandy.
Former state Bharatiya Janata Party President P.K. Krishnadas also called on Thankamma and assured her that the BJP understands her concerns and will support her in her fight for justice.
Leader of Opposition and former Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress party termed Shahjahan's case as "a classic example of using power to suppress people".
But State PWD and Excise Minister G. Sudhakaran dismissed the arrest of Shahjahan as a normal act.
"Let them go to the court and tell it there. There are so many in Kerala jails on non bailable cases. This is not at all an issue in Kerala," said Sudhakaran.
Shajahan's bail plea is coming up on Wednesday.
--IANS
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Visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday said his country will work more closely with India in order to secure stronger ties.
"Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit," Turnbull told the media after his ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapti Bhawan.
"Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on a extraordinary journey of growth and development," he said.
"The achievements of India are the admiration of the world," Turnbull said, adding: "We in Australia look forward to working even more closely than we have done in the past."
He arrived here on Sunday evening on a four-day state visit to India.
"We are bound together to ties of history of values of people. We look forward, Prime Minister (Modi) and I, to making that even stronger in this visit," Turnbull added.
Turnbull was received by Modi at Rastrapati Bhawan and was then accorded the ceremonial guard of honour in the forecourt of the presidential residence.
This is Turnbull's first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor, Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Modi's visit to Australia in November that year.
Modi will hold a bilateral summit with Turnbull later in the day following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed.
--IANS
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The Beijing government is offering hefty cash rewards of up to 500,000 yuan ($72,460) for information on foreign spies, a media report said on Monday.
Residents of the Chinese capital can pass information to authorities through a hotline, sending letters or visiting the city's state security bureau, the Global Times said.
After collating the information, the bureau can offer rewards ranging from 10,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan based on the reports' usefulness.
Personal information of informants will not be disclosed without their consent, and informants can also seek protection from security authorities if they or their close relatives are in danger due to informing.
However, informants will be punished if they deliberately slander others, or invent and spread false information.
--IANS
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Delhi Chief Minister on Monday blamed the Election Commission for "EVM-tampering fraud" and said the poll panel's only aim was to bring the BJP to power at any cost.
Kejriwal said 18 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) had surfaced in Dholpur in Rajasthan which voted only for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) no matter which button was pressed by the voters.
The Dholpur by-election was held on Sunday.
"Eighteen EVMs in one constituency means at least 10 per cent of the total number of machines were tampered with," Kejriwal told the media, adding doubts also arose about the other 90 per cent machines.
"The Election Commission is still not ready to probe the issue of EVM tampering despite all the evidence... This raises suspicion if the tampering is being done on its directions," Kejriwal said.
He also referred to an earlier allegedly tampered EVM in Bhind in Madhya Pradesh.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader said the machines were not malfunctioning as claimed by the Election Commission but were actually tampered with.
"If there was some defect, then some machines would have voted for the Congress, some for the AAP and some for the BJP. But why are all defective machines voting only for the BJP?
"It means this is not a malfunction but the software of these machines have been tampered with or has been completely changed."
He asked why elections were being held at all and said the Commission should simply declare the BJP the winner in every election.
"Now the Election Commission is no more interested in conducting elections in a free and fair manner. It seems now their only objective is to bring the BJP in power at any cost."
The Chief Minister said all the EVMs for the Delhi municipal polls to be held on April 23 were being brought from Rajasthan although a large number of EVMs were available in Delhi.
"All EVMs in Rajasthan are manipulated. That is why they want elections using those machines."
Kejriwal had earlier demanded the use of paper ballot in Delhi's civic polls to ensure transparency - even if the election needed to be postponed because of this.
British travellers to the US face the uncomfortable choice of handing over personal information, including social media passwords and mobile phone contacts, or running the risk of being denied entry to the country, under a new "extreme vetting" policy being considered by the Trump administration.
Tourists from Britain and other US allies, including Germany and France, could be forced to reveal personal data, as well as disclose financial information and face detailed ideological questioning, according to Trump administration officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
While US citizens have established rights against unlawful searches at the border, the extent to which foreign travellers can resist requests to hand over personal information is unclear, The Guardian reported.
"All travellers arriving to the US are subject to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspection," the Guardian quoted the US customs and border patrol as saying.
"This inspection may include electronic devices such as computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players and any other electronic or digital devices."
"Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation's laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials entering the US," it added.
Meanwhile, Britain's Foreign Office declined to provide any advice to British travellers, referring the Guardian only to its general foreign travel advice page for the US, which contains no information on digital privacy at the border.
--IANS
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The CBI on Monday got 10-day custody of iCore group directors accused of cheating thousands of investors with over Rs 4,000 core through a ponzi scheme, an official said here.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had sought the custody of the Kolkata-based accused officials -- Anukul Maity and his wife Kanika Maity, for further probe.
"Anukul and Kanika were presented before the special CBI court in Bhubaneswar on Monday. The court granted CBI to take them in its custody for 10 days," a CBI official said.
Both Anukul and Kanika, were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal police in 2015.
The CBI took over the case in 2015 and registered case under sections of cheating and criminal conspiracy of Indian Penal Code following Supreme Court's May 9, 2014 order.
The iCore group is alleged of raising huge deposits from the investors under its investment schemes by fraudulently promising very high returns and later refused to repay them.
The company, which ran Ponzi schemes till the middle of 2013, is said to have collected at least Rs 4,000 crore. Notably, the company started operations in West Bengal around 2007-2008, and in A short span of time, extended its business in nearly 12 states across the country.
In sheer size, iCore is far bigger than the Saradha scam that has rocked the country by collecting about Rs 2,500 crore from investors through its Ponzi schemes.
--IANS
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The wife of a Taiwanese human rights activist arrested in China could not travel to Beijing on Monday after her entry permit into the country was revoked.
Lee Ching-yu, whose husband Lee Ming-che has been detained since March 19 at an undisclosed location in China for alleged acts against national security, told the media at Taipei airport that she will not allow herself to be manipulated, Efe news reported.
"My husband needs freedom, but also dignity, because without it he would live like a dog," she said.
The Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council announced Sunday that it had put an organisation, which it did not name, in charge of messages from Lee Ming-che to his wife and parents.
In a statement on Sunday, Lee Ching-yu revealed that an intermediary from China had warned her that if she flew to Beijing, a confession by her husband would be aired on television, and had ordered her to maintain a low profile and cooperate.
She said she would not recognise any confession or statement by her husband before seeing him personally, adding that she had been passed a photocopy of an alleged confession on April 7.
Lee Ming-che, a human rights activist and former worker for Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, was arrested after entering China through the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong province during a private visit.
--IANS
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China on Monday called on the US and North Korea to exercise restraint and avoid escalation of tensions after the US deployed a nuclear aircraft carrier close to the Korean peninsula.
The US Pacific Command confirmed on Saturday that it has mobilised the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its attack group to waters near North Korea in response to North Korea's launch of a medium-range missile into the sea on April 5, Efe news reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference that Beijing is closely monitoring the situation.
The Carl Vinson, which was on its way to Australia after participating in annual joint military exercises with South Korea just a month back, was steered back toward the Korean Peninsula, following US President Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Florida last week.
During the meet, both leaders discussed the need to prevent fresh provocations by Pyongyang, an ally of Beijing.
--IANS
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Groups of youths stoned security personnel on Monday in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag town, two days ahead of a Lok Sabha by-election in the region, officials said.
But security forces exercised restraint to avoid civilian casualties, the officials said. Amid the protests, mosque loudspeakers began playing slogans hailing Islam.
The Monday protest came a day after eight civilians were killed by security forces during the Lok Sabha by-election in the Srinagar-Budgam constituency.
Life remained paralyzed in south Kashmir's Anantnag, Pulwana, Shopian and Kulgam districts on Monday.
PDP's Anantnag candidate Tasaduq Mufti has demanded the postponement of the by-election citing security reasons.
The National Conference and the Congress have blamed the state government for its failure to provide the right atmosphere during the elections.
--IANS
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said cooperation in education and research is one of the most important aspects of relations between India and Australia.
He said that both countries recognised the central value of education and innovation in the prosperity of our societies.
In a press statement after a delegation-level talks with visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Modi said both of them reviewed the entire gamut of the bilateral relations.
"We took a number of forward-looking decisions to further strengthen our partnership, including holding soon the next round of negotiations on our comprehensive economic cooperation agreement."
Turnbull is on a four-day state visit to India, starting Sunday.
--IANS
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A day after two church bombings claimed by the Islamic State killed at least 49 people, Egypt's cabinet on Monday approved a countrywide state of emergency for three months.
The state of emergency took effect from 1 p.m. (local time), the cabinet said in a statement.
"The state of emergency allows both the armed forces and the police to execute those procedures necessary to combat the threats of terrorism and its financing, maintain security around the country and protect public and private property, as well as preserving the lives of citizens," the statement read.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared the measure in a televised address on Sunday following the attacks, reported Al Ahram online.
"This is only to protect our country and prevent any targeting of its capabilities," Sisi said.
"The war against the jihadists would be 'long and painful'... What is happening now is another attempt to destroy our country," he added.
The President also ordered the deployment of army forces to secure state institutions all over the country.
The presidency said that troops from the armed forces will assist police units in the mission of maintaining the safety of buildings and government institutions.
The first explosion, which left 27 people dead and 78 injured, ripped through a Palm Sunday service at Mar Girgis (St. George's) Coptic church in Tanta, a city located 120 km from Cairo.
A few hours later, a second attack outside St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria killed 18 civilians and four police officers, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the cathedral.
The combined attacks represented one of the deadliest attacks on Coptic Christians in years. Egypt's Copts are one of the most ancient Christian communities and the largest in the Middle East, said the report.
The attacks on Palm Sunday prompted condemnation and solidarity internationally.
Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit Egypt at the end of April, sent his "deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic church and the entire dear Egyptian nation," adding that he was praying for the dead and wounded.
French President Francois Hollande expressed solidarity with Egyptian authorities "in this terrible ordeal" and vowed to "mobilise all forces" to back Egypt's fight against terrorism, according to a statement released by his office, the Elysee.
China also strongly condemned the terrorist attacks.
"China supports Egypt's effort in maintaining national security and stability and is willing to enhance anti-terrorism cooperation with the international community," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
--IANS
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The Congress on Monday said former MLA Vishwajit Rane, who quit the Congress to join the BJP last week, is criticising party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President Amit Shah.
All India Congress Committee Secretary Girish Chodankar told reporters at a press conference in Panaji that Rane had embarrassed the Congress, by first going missing during the assembly floor test in March and then quitting the party on the same day.
"He (Rane) is no longer with us. He is now with the BJP and singing the tunes of Modi and Shah. His comments cannot be taken seriously," Chodankar said.
Rane has called Gandhi a "non-serious" and an inaccessible leader, whose leadership would reduce the Congress to 20 seats in the 2019 general election.
"The Congress has a non-serious leader called Rahul Gandhi. He is not serious about the people of the state who give you a mandate, not serious about government formation. He is not even accessible. Seriousness of a leader is very important for a party to grow," Rane, son of former Goa Chief Minister and sitting legislator Pratapsinh Rane, said in an interview to IANS.
"If this is the nature in which you want to take the party forward, then I am confident in 2019 from 44 they will be reduced to 20," Rane said.
Rane was present at a party meeting organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to felicitate Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Shah in Panaji.
After criticising the Congress leadership for not doing enough to seize power in Goa, despite emerging as the single largest party in the February 4 polls, Rane had gone missing during the subsequent floor test on March 16 and resigned from the Congress on the same day.
Chodankar said the party would think of putting a ban on Rane's re-entry into the Congress for a period of six years because of the "embarrassment caused to the party".
--IANS
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With oil prices firming up on strong demand and and increased uncertainty in Syria following the US bombings, crude prices are expected to touch $60 a barrel levels in the coming months an analyst said on Monday.
As per available data, the Indian basket, comprising of 73 per cent sour-grade Dubai and Oman crudes, and the balance in sweet-grade Brent, closed trade last Friday at $54.19 for a barrel of 159 litres.
"We expect crude to touch $60 a barrel in a few months, not few weeks," oil analyst Virendra Chauhan told BTVi in an interview.
"May, June, July, the US summer demand will be strong and we expect the price to move into the sixties," he said.
According to the latest data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), its reference basket of 13 crude oils closed at $52.91 a barrel on Friday.
Chauhan discounted the impact of the Syrian crisis on oil prices.
"Fundamentally, there is not a lot of impact from Syria, which has been producing close to zero (oil) in the last 4 years," he said.
"Where there is potential impact is if regional players get sucked into the unrest, like Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia," he added.
Chauhan also said there is a limit to which increased US production could negate the effect of the cuts initiated by producers to tackle the supply glut and resultant falling prices.
"We expect the US rig count to grow, particularly in the Permian basin. The market, investors' view on oil is that any cuts by OPEC, by non-OPEC... the gap will be filled by the US," he said.
"Our view is that US production will not grow apace at a sustainable level to keep markets well supplied. Moreover, the impact that low prices have had on cutting back on investment in exploration infrastructure will take a long time to reverse," he added.
Last November, major oil producers agreed to cut output as a response to the global supply glut that had been pushing down prices for nearly two years.
In early December, oil producers outside the OPEC, led by Russia, agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day (bpd). This came in the wake of the 13-nation OPEC cartel's November 30 decision to cut output by 1.2 million bpd for six months effective from January 1.
This is the first time since 2001 that OPEC and some of its rivals had reached a deal to jointly reduce output to tackle the global oil glut.
Oil prices had earlier fallen by more than 50 per cent in less than two years, from levels of over $120 a barrel.
--IANS
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A court here on Monday granted interim bail to five persons, among them Jindal Steel's advisor Anand Goel, in a coal block allocation case against former Congress MP Naveen Jindal and others.
The five accused appeared before Special Judge Bharat Parashar on a summons issued against them, and moved their bail application.
On March 24, after considering the chargesheet, Special Judge Parashar issued summons to Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra's Vice President Siddharth Madra, Mumbai-based KE International's Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Aggarwal, Nihar Stocks Limited Director B.S.N. Suryanarayan, and Mumbai's Essar Power Limited Executive Vice Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo to appear before him on April 10.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opposed the bail plea of five accused persons.
The court, however, granted them interim bail till the next date of hearing, fixed for May 4, and asked them to furnish a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each.
The court has taken cognizance of the offences of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and cheating under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to court sources, the CBI has alleged that the five persons were actively involved in the transfer of Rs 2 crore from Jindal Realty, New Delhi Exim, to Sowbhagya Media Ltd (SML).
The CBI also alleged that the money was transferred to Sowbhagya Media, a company controlled by former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao, in lieu of showing favour in the allotment of Jharkhand's Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to Jindal Steel and Gagan Sponge.
The final investigation report was filed on the basis of a statement given by a prosecution witness -- Chartered Accountant and New Delhi Exim Pvt. Ltd. Director Suresh Singhal -- who has turned approver in the case.
The court was hearing the case related to the allocation of Jharkhand's Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to Jindal Steel and Gagan Sponge.
Besides Congress MP and industrialist Jindal, former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, and former Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta are accused in the case.
The CBI filed a chargesheet against Jindal, Koda, Rao and Gupta in April 2015.
The other accused include Jindal Realty Director Rajeev Jain, Gagan Sponge Directors Girish Kumar Juneja and R.K. Saraf, and Sowbhagya Media's Managing Director K. Ramakrishna.
Of the five private companies named in the chargesheet, four are based in Delhi and one in Hyderabad.
The accused has denied the charges.
--IANS
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A fresh autopsy was conducted on Monday on the body of a Dalit youth who died under suspicious circumstances in Peddapally district of Telangana.
Following the Hyderabad High Court orders, the body of Manthani Madhukar, 28, was exhumed and another post-mortem done at Khanapur village by forensic experts from the Kakatiya Medical Colleges and Osmania Medical College.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Sindhu Sharma, who is probing the youth's death, said the new autopsy was conducted amid tight security and in the presence of Karimnagar Chief Judicial Magistrate and Madhukar's parents.
The youth's family and Dalit groups alleged that he was murdered as he was in love with a girl from an upper caste. They claimed that under a conspiracy by some politicians to shield the culprits, the police was trying to give it a suicide twist.
They said only the girl's statement could bring out the truth.
Not satisfied with police investigations and the first autopsy report, Madhukar's mother Manthani Laxmi had moved the High Court, which on March 6 ordered the fresh autopsy and the submission of a report in the court in a sealed cover.
The petitioner had urged the court to order the registration of a murder case under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act instead of a case of death under suspicious circumstances.
Madhukar, a tractor driver, was found dead on the outskirts of Khanapur village on March 14.
Dalit organisations had last week taken to the streets, demanding action against the culprits.
The family alleged that after the girl attempted suicide on March 13, her family lured Madhukar to the village outskirts and bludgeoned him to death.
The youth's father Manthani Yellaiah alleged that six persons hacked his son to death. He said the body bore injury marks and one of his eyes was gouged out.
He said his son had been receiving death threats for the last one month. He also alleged the involvement of a local lawmaker.
Police said so far 60 persons have been questioned, including six who have been detained and their phone calls details were being examined.
--IANS
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Foreign Ministers and representatives of the G7 group will meet on Monday and Tuesday in the Italian city of Lucca to discuss Syria and ways to counter the Islamic State (IS) terror group.
The meeting will be attended by Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, French Foreign Minister Jean Marc Ayrault, UK Foregn Secretary Boris Johnson, Japan's Fumio Kishida, Canada's Chrystia Freeland and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, Efe news reported.
The two-day meet, which is a precursor to the G7 summit in May in the Italian city of Taormina, comes at a time of increasing concern among Western nations over terrorist threats and conflicts in the Middle East.
In fact, Syria will be one of the main points on the agenda, especially after the March 6 US airstrike on the Shayrat air base in the city of Homs, in response to the use of chemical weapons by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The Italian interior minister, too, has convened a meeting with his counterparts from Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, there will be a second session, which will be followed by a press conference to brief the media regarding the outcome of the meeting.
In addition to the Syrian crisis and the threat from terrorism, the foreign ministers will also discuss the instability in Libya, North Korea's intention to continue its nuclear and missile weapons program, ties with Russia and the Ukraine crisis.
Other matters on the agenda also include the situation in Iraq and the complete integration of Iran in the international community.
--IANS
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Last weeks suspected chemical attack in Syria and Russias support for the Bashar al-Assad regime were likely to top the agenda as G7 Foreign Ministers on Monday gathered for a meeting in Italy.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson struck a hardline note over the weekend, telling CBS News that the Russians had failed to prevent the Syrian regime from carrying out a chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Idlib province which left 89 people dead.
Tillerson is due to travel to Moscow on Tuesday and has pledged to take a "clear and coordinated message" to his scheduled talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
The meeting in the Italian city of Lucca brings together foreign ministers from the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
It had been expected that ministers would focus on hotspots such as Libya, Iran and Ukraine, but top of the agenda is the attack on Syria's Khan Sheikhun, and the US cruise missiles fired at a Syrian airbase in retaliation, the Guardian reported.
The meeting will also focus on North Korea's intention to continue its nuclear and missile weapons programme, the situation in Iraq and the complete integration of Iran in the international community.
The two-day meet, which is a precursor to the G7 summit in May in the Italian city of Taormina, comes at a time of increasing concern among Western nations over terrorist threats and conflicts in the Middle East.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said during the weekend that she saw regime change in Syria as one of the Trump administration's priorities in the country.
"There's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime," Haley told CNN, while reiterating that defeating ISIS was still the number one policy goal.
"If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it's going to be hard to see a government that's peaceful and stable with Assad," she said.
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is expected to call for new sanctions against Russia if it refuses to back down from its support for Assad, the daily reported.
Johnson cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow, saying his priority was now "to continue contact with the US and others".
He called on Russia to do "everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated".
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Johnson's cancellation displayed a "fundamental misunderstanding or lack of knowledge of the events in Syria, Russia's efforts to settle that crisis and the general objectives of diplomacy".
Also, the Russian embassy in London said that if Moscow was given an ultimatum to take its forces out of Syria and cut ties with its leader this week it could result in "real war".
Meanwhile, Italy has arranged a meeting on Tuesday between the G7 ministers and their counterparts from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.
The Italian media said the aim was "to avert a dangerous military escalation".
On Tuesday, there will be a second session, which will be followed by a press conference to brief the media regarding the outcome of the meeting.
--IANS
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"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" is yet to release, but the forthcoming film's team including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista have asked their fans around the world to brace up for the 'best film' in the history of cinema as they started their press and promotional tour here on Monday.
The actors along with the film's director James Gunn got their star power to Tokyo to start the countdown for the film, and also interact with fans.
At the red carpet, Pratt, who essays role of Peter Quill also nicknamed Star-Lord in the film, said: "I know it is the best film."
In a special message to all his Asian fans, Pratt said: "I love you all, dream big and enjoy the movie. We made it so that you can have 2 hour 17 minutes of sheer fun - so sit down and enjoy the ride."
With the backdrop titled 'Awesome Mixtape #2',the second part of the 2014 film "Guardians of the Galaxy" will take further the team's adventures as they traverse different cosmos to protect their world. This time, the storyline will explore family values and also unravel many family truths and mysteries.
Written and directed by Gunn, the film marks the return of the original Guardians -- including Pratt, Saldana as Gamora; Bautista as Drax; Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot; and Bradley Cooper. It will release in India on May 5.
Gunn emphasised that while the humour and action will remind audience of the first film, the story is totally new.
"It is a different from the first movie but it has all the same humour and action."
The anticipation for the sequel is high, and Gunn says that it doesn't make him nervous.
"I was excited after the first movie. I thought I can do better in the second movie. It was a more touching experience in the second movie to know that there are all these people who are waiting to watch the film," he sai, adding that while making the first part, he was a bit lost.
"In the first one I didn't know if I was making a movie for anybody else at all. Now, I have all these fans waiting for the film. It is exciting."
Saldana -- who picked a black attire with a bit of bling for the event-- mentioned that while the make-up process was lethargic and tiring, she loved shooting with guns for the film.
Between her role in the forthcoming sequel and "Avatar", Saldana said she will pick the latter since it's so easy to do.
"In this movie, it is more traditional form of make-up...And 'Avatar' is more of motion capture. I just put dots on my face and it reads all my face expression and then it is dumped into a system and they paint it. So I would much prefer do that. It is easier and I get to sleep a bit more."
Taking the topic to her gun-toting sequences, the actress said: "It was all James' idea. I would rather go the traditional way with swords. But he wanted to add a layer and create dynamic that my role Gamora has. It was fun to do."
From fans turning up in costumes of different popular characters of the movie to some channelling look of superheroes, the venue was buzzing with cheers, claps and whistles.
Pratt, who looked sauve in a neat blue suit, feels it is important to promote films in different countries as it gives a chance "connect with fans on face to face basis".
His wife and actress Anna Faris also made a special appearance at the red carpet of the film event. Pratt said he is taking the opportunity to show a new culture to his family.
"I have got my wife, my son to Japan to witness the Cherry Blossom. It is a new opportunity to see a new country and culture," said Pratt, who seemed at his witty best and was seen making small jokes at the red carpet while interacting with fans.
In presence of Japanese artistes who dub for the Japanese version of the Hollywood film, the team pressed a button starting the countdown for the film, leaving the fans all the more excited.
(The writer's trip is at the invitation of Disney. Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)
--IANS
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India on Monday said that if Pakistan hanged alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, it will be considered "a case of premeditated murder".
This was stated in a demarche Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar handed over to Pakistan's High Commissioner Abdul Basit.
An official statement said the sentence against Jadhav, who Islamabad says was an Indian intelligence agent, was "awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice".
If the sentence "is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder", it said.
The Pakistani military announced earlier that Jadhav had been sentenced to death for waging war against Pakistan.
--IANS
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The hearing of Rakhmat Akilov, the main suspect of Friday's truck attack here, will be held on Tuesday, the Stockholm district court said on Monday.
Akilov, 39, is the man who is believed to be responsible for the attack in central Stockholm on Friday afternoon, Xinhua quoted Swedish Television (SVT) which cited police, as saying.
"I am confident that our chief suspect is the perpetrator who was driving the truck. It is based on police premises and must then be examined by the prosecutors and the courts," Dan Eliasson, National Police Chief, was quoted as saying.
Besides Akilov, one more person was arrested on suspicion of terrorism on Sunday. Police said there were connections between the two arrested.
--IANS
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Authorities on Monday made heavy deployment of police and Central Reserve Police Force to maintain law and order as the separatists called protest shutdown affected life across the Kashmir Valley.
"Etiquette deployments have been made to maintain the law and order situation on Monday," a senior police official said here.
Eight protesters were killed when the security forces opened fire during the voting process in the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary by-poll on Sunday.
Of these, seven were killed in Budgam and one died in Ganderbal district.
Mobs attacked the polling stations, damaging the EVMs and ransacking the polling stations, at nearly 100 places in Budgam.
Separatists have called a two-day shutdown and protest against Sunday's civilian killings.
Markets, public transports, education institutions and other businesses remained closed here and other places in the valley.
The Kashmir University has postponed all examinations scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shant Manu on Sunday said re-poll would be held at 50 to 100 polling stations where violence had resulted in the disruption of polling process.
Around seven per cent votes were polled during Sunday's by-poll which marked the lowest voter turnout in the last 27 years.
The CEO has said that the next phase of the by-poll would be held on schedule on April 12 in south Kashmir's Anantnag parliamentary constituency.
Meanwhile, to check the spread of rumours by anti-social elements authorities have decided to suspend the internet facility in the entire valley till April 12.
--IANS
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Premier Malcolm Turnbull, now on a state visit, headed delegation-level bilateral talks here on Monday.
"A partnership for prosperity. PM @narendramodi and PM @TurnbuillMalcolm lead delegation level talks in Hyderbad House," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.
Earlier on Monday, Turnbull was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
Following the reception, Turnbull told the media that ties between the two countries were strong and would be "stronger because of this visit".
"Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on a extraordinary journey of growth and development," he said.
"The achievements of India are the admiration of the world," Turnbull said, adding: "We in Australia look forward to working even more closely than we have done in the past."
Later, External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj called on the visiting dignitary.
The Autralian Prime Minister arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit to India.
This is Turnbull's first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Prime Minister Modi's visit to Australia in November that year.
A number of agreements are expected to be signed following Monday's bilateral summit.
--IANS
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Pakistan on Monday announced that Indian 'spy' Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in March 2016, has been sentenced to death for espionage and waging war against Islamabad.
India reacted angrily, saying Jadhav had been sentenced to die "without observing basic norms of law and justice" and if this was carried out, it would amount to "premeditated murder".
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said a Field General Court Martial awarded the capital punishment and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had confirmed the sentence.
A brief ISPR statement described Jadhav, who allegedly used the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, as an Indian Naval officer attached to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, reportedly in Balochistan's Mashkel area, for "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan", the ISPR said.
"He confessed before a Magistrate and the court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage, sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi," the ISPR said.
Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and handed him a demarche.
An official statement said the sentence against Jadhav was "awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice".
If he was hanged, "the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder".
The demarche said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran "and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly".
It said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had sought consular access to Jadhav 13 times between March 25, 2016 and March 31, 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities.
"The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him.
"It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence.
"The claim ... that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances."
Indian officials say Jadhav was once with the Navy and that he was engaged in business in Iran when he was abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies.
New Delhi has repeatedly denied Islamabad's charges of involvement in insurgent activities in Balochistan, Pakistan's biggest province which has a border with Iran.
--IANS
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Gallarate (Italy), April 11 (IANS/AKI) A 40-year-old man was arrested in northern Italy on Monday for allegedly trying to lure a 14-year-old girl into prostitution after meeting her in an Internet chatroom and sending her videos of him having sex.
The man, a resident of the city of Gallarate where the girl also lives, had allegedly offered her phone top-ups and cash in return for sex, sending her increasingly insistent messages and explicit videos.
The man was arrested in a shopping-centre carpark in Gallarate when he turned up for meeting with the schoolgirl, actually set up by police who had been monitoring her social media profile.
The man's arrest came after an investigation that began when the girl and her father reported him to police.
The suspect is a married flight-attendant with children, local paper Varese News reported on its website.
--IANS/AKI
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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a supplementary chargesheet before a city court against three more accused in the Khagragarh blast in West Bengal over two and a half years back.
Two of the accused M. Rubel and Sahidul S. are residents of Bangladesh and Jahidul S. hails from Assam, NIA sources said, adding they have been charged with waging war against the state and other crimes.
"Our investigation has revealed that they were part of the overall conspiracy," said senior NIA special prosecutor Tamal Kanti Mukherjee.
The NIA court had earlier framed charges against 30 accused in connection with the blast, that had blown the lid off an alleged conspiracy by the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) against the elected government in the neighbouring nation.
Twenty of the accused are in jail, while ten others are still untraced. Those against charges have been framed include two women, sources said.
The accidental blast took place inside a house in Burdwan district's Khagragarh on October 2, 2014, killing two JMB militants and injuring another.
The NIA had filed its first chargsheet in the case before a designated special court on March 30, 2015, naming 21 people including four Bangladeshi nationals" for their involvement in the JMB conspiracy to overthrow the existing democratic government in Bangladesh through violent terrorist acts and replace it with a hard-line Sharia-based Islamic rule.
It lodged a supplementary chargesheet on July 23, 2015, against six accused persons - including one Bangladeshi national - for their involvement in the JMB conspiracy.
In December, 2015, the NIA filed its second supplementary charge sheet, slapping fresh charges against 28 accused for waging war against Bangladesh.
During the investigation, statement of 460 witnesses were recorded and Aover 3,800 pages of documents and material evidence produced before the court.
Three persons arrested by the NIA on suspicion they had a hand in the conspiracy were later set free.
--IANS
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Bangladesh's opposition leader Khaleda Zia has called an "emergency meeting" of her BNP party's policymaking forum over Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's India visit and the agreements signed between the two countries.
The meeting of the National Standing Committee has been set for 8.30 p.m. (local time) on Monday at Khaleda's Gulshan offices, said Bangladesh Nationalist Party's Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
"The meeting has been convened to discuss the PM's India visit, the agreements and MoUs signed, the political situation and the party's steps going forward," said Rizvi.
Hasina's four-day trip to India will end with her return to Dhaka on Monday night, bdnews24.com reported.
India and Bangladesh signed 22 agreements and MoUs on Saturday, including as many as five on defence cooperation.
The BNP has been vocal against three of the MoUs on defence cooperation, according to the report.
Khaleda had spoken out on the topic on Sunday, claiming the government had agreed to "sell off the country" in exchange for another five years in power.
"Those who call themselves the current government are not the government of the people. They were not elected by the people. They are scheming, once again, to cling on to power," she had said.
--IANS
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The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed the bail plea of LIC agent Anand Chauhan in a money laundering case involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others.
Justice Vipin Sanghi denied the bail plea of Chauhan, who is in judicial custody since his arrest in July 2016.
Chauhan is accused of investing Virbhadra Singh's "tainted" money of Rs 5 crore in LIC policies purchased in the Himachal Chief Minister's name and those of his family members, including wife Pratibha Singh.
He had approached the Delhi High Court challenging the August 20 order of the trial court where it dismissed his bail plea.
Opposing Chauhan's bail plea, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had claimed in the high court that there was ample evidence against him and there was serious apprehension that he could tamper with evidence if released on bail.
Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9, 2016, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after the ED alleged he was not cooperating in the probe.
Virbhadra Singh and his wife were on March 31 chargesheeted by the CBI in another case before a special court here in a disproportionate assets case after the high court refused to quash the FIR against them.
--IANS
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The opposition led by the Congress party created pandemonium in the Lok Sabha on Monday demanding action against former BJP MP Tarun Vijay over his controversial remarks related to south Indians.
This forced Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the House repeatedly in the pre-lunch session. After three brief adjournments, the House was adjourned till 1.50 p.m.
Soon after the House met for the day, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge urged the Speaker to allow him to raise the matter but she refused, saying the matter can be raised during Zero Hour.
After the permission was denied, the Congress members trooped near the Speaker's podium and started shouting slogans.
Amid the din Mahajan tried to conduct the Question Hour but after around 10 minutes she was forced to adjourn the House briefly till 11.20 a.m.
When the House re-assembled, Kharge again urged to raise the matter.
"This issue is very important and is not only related to South India but the whole nation," Kharge said.
The Speaker said she will allow him to raise the matter only during Zero Hour.
Later, raising the matter during Zero Hour Kharge demanded action against Vijay.
Responding to the matter, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the former Rajya Sabha MP has already apologised and there is no need to be agitated.
"This country can never never allow to differentiate on the basis of caste, creed and colour. Tarun Vijay has already said that his remarks are indefensible and has already apologised," Singh said.
Saying that attacks on Africans in India had nothing to do with racism, Tarun Vijay told Al Jazeera last week: "If we were racist, why would we have all the entire south... why do we live with them if we are racist. We have black people around us."
Later he apologized. "Feel bad, really feel sorry. My apologies to those who feel (what) I said was different than what I meant."
Not satisfied with the Minister's answers, the Congress members again trooped near the Speaker's podium.
Amid the din Mahajan adjourned the House till 12.45 p.m.
When the House reassembled, Kharge demanded action against Vijay.
"He is not an ordinary man. An FIR should be registered against him. His remarks are anti-national and divisive. A case of sedition should be filed against him," Kharge said.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that Vijay is neither a spokesperson of the BJP nor its General Secretary.
"There can't be racism. We all are united. We all are Indians," he said.
But not satisfied with this, the Congress members started shouting slogans and again trooped near the Speaker's podium.
Amid the din Mahajan adjourned the House till 1.50 p.m.
--IANS
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull ahead of a bilateral summit here on Monday.
"Suprabhaat PM @TurnbullMalcolm! PM @narendramodi welcomes Prime Minister of Australia at Hyderabad House in Delhi," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.
Earlier on Monday, Turnbull was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj also called on the visiting dignitary.
The Autralian Prime Minister arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit to India.
This is Turnbull's first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Prime Minister Modi's visit to Australia in November that year.
A number of agreements are expected to be signed following Monday's bilateral summit.
--IANS
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Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday slammed the government over the poor turnout in the Srinagar parliamentary by-poll, saying it reflects the "total failure" of the state's ruling BJP-PDP alliance and the Centre's policy.
"Decades of hard work to build trust in the democratic process in reversed in less than three years by the BJP government," said Gandhi on his official Twitter account.
"The elections in reflect the total failure of the BJP-PDP alliance and the government's Kashmir policy," he added.
The Congress party also demanded the resignation of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and People's Democratic Party (PDP) government has failed the "litmus test" by failing to fairly conduct the Lok Sabha by-poll on Sunday.
"The alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and People's Democratic Party (PDP) is against the wishes of the people of the state. We have always called it an unholy alliance. It has been proven now," Congress MP Sushmita Dev told reporters outside Parliament.
At least eight civilians were killed and scores injured in firing by security forces as mobs tried to attack polling stations in Srinagar parliamentary constituency during Sunday's by-poll, which saw just seven percent balloting.
"The BJP-PDP government has failed the litmus test. It has failed to conduct the election in a fair manner and has failed to ensure voter turn out. By not turning up, people have given a 'no confidence' verdict to this government," Dev said.
"This government has spoken of accountability and transparency. We demand that the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir should resign forthwith because it is evident she has lost people's trust," she added.
The Congress leader also added that "if at all the Narendra Modi government has a Kashmir policy", that policy has "miserably failed".
--IANS
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Vatican City, April 10 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis has confirmed that his visit to Egypt will go ahead in late April despite the deadly bomb attacks against two Coptic churches there that killed at least 47 people and injured more than 100, a media report said on Monday.
"The Pope is undeterred by what sadly happened," Vatican Radio quoted Father Marco Tasco of Order of Friars Minor Conventuals as saying on Monday after an audience with Francis at the Vatican.
"With great determination and conviction he will travel to Egypt to confirm and assist dialogue and the Christian community," Tasco said.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican's inter-faith dialogue body on Monday left for Egypt "to prepare the ground" for the pontiff's two-day visit to the Muslim majority country on April 28-29, Tasco said.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on Monday declared a three-month state of emergency after the blasts at St George's Coptic church in the northern city of Tanta and St Mark's Coptic cathedral in Alexandria, also in the north.
Francis on Sunday condemned the attacks which were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
During his visit to Egypt, Francis is also slated to meet Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, who was in St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria for the Palm Sunday service when the bomb went off outside the church, killing 17 people.
Sunday's blasts were the latest in a string of attacks on Copts in recent years and the visit by Francis is aimed at showing solidarity with the country's beleaguered Christian minority as well as enhancing dialogue with Islam.
The prestigious Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo has timed a global peace conference in Cairo to coincide with the papal visit and hopes Francis and Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb will close the meeting, sources told Adnkronos International last month.
Tayeb announced the peace conference last May during his historic meeting with Francis at the Vatican when they agreed to resume dialogue sessions in Cairo between the Vatican and the al-Azhar that were broken off in 2011 after Pope Benedict XVI deplored an attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria.
--IANS/AKI
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An oxygen-free chamber for storage and preservation of mummies - a flagship project ongoing at the Telangana State Museum that houses an over 2,000-year-old Egyptian specimen mummy - could be up and running in a few weeks, an expert said on Monday.
"It's one of the seven mummies in India. To preserve the mummy, you basically need a special case that's got no oxygen. They have just got the chamber and the whole thing could be up and running in a couple of weeks. Before that a little bit of conservation work was done," internationally-acclaimed conservation scientist Vinod Daniel, who is an adviser to the project, told IANS here.
The India-born Daniel is the Chairman of AusHeritage, Australia's International Cultural Heritage Network, and Vice Chairman of the International Council of Museums - Committee for Conservation, was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day 'Preventive Conservation' workshop at the Indian Museum here in collaboration with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
"That is supposed to be a flagship project. The technology is simple and it just needs to be put in place. What works there could work for any other mummy," he said referring to the other mummies in India, including one at the Indian Museum itself.
As for interventions for the project, Daniel advised against replacing anything.
"Whatever is there put it together without replacing anything. For the scaffold that is falling apart, the best thing is to clean it and put up some kind of wire mesh to hold it together," he said.
On the Indian landscape, Daniel said the country needs 20 times more of conservation programmes.
"India needs probably 20 times more than they have right now. There is only one conservation programme in India which can produce 15 graduates and that is in a state of flux. A country this big needs 20 conservation programmes to make a difference," he said.
He also advocated setting-up one flagship museum in each state because that would benefit other smaller museums.
"You have enough scientific equipment that you need to analyse. Building the skill set is the core need," he added.
--IANS
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A rocket fired by militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula hit a community in southern Israel on Sunday, the army said on Monday.
The rocket hit a greenhouse in the community of Yevul in the Eshkol Regional Council, Xinhua quoted police spokeswoman Luba Samri as saying.
Samri added that one man was treated for anxiety, but no other injuries were reported.
A military spokesperson confirmed that "a projectile was launched from the Sinai Peninsula," adding that forces are searching the area for the remains of the projectile.
The attack came less than an hour after Israel closed the crossing to the Egyptian resort and urged Israelis to leave "immediately."
--IANS
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RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was shown black flags here on Monday by workers of Dharam Nirpekksh Sewak Sangh (DSS), police said.
Dozens of members of the newly formed DSS by RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav shouted slogans and protested against Bhagwat with black flags outside RSS's office at Rajendra Nagar here, a district police official said.
At least 10 DSS workers have been arrested, the official added.
According to BJP leaders, Bhagwat reached here by plane and he will leave for Deoghar on road to address a Hindu 'sammelan' (conference) there on Tuesday. "When Bhagwat visited RSS's office, some DSS workers tried to create trouble but failed."
Tej Pratap founded DSS to challenge RSS, spread a message of communal harmony and to strengthen secularism in Bihar and across the country.
However, Lalu told media that DSS has a right to stage protest."What is wrong with it. Bhagwat has been spreading hatred across the country."
Lalu said Bhagwat has began RSS's campaign for 2019 general elections by visiting different places. "Bihar is a different place. Bhagwat and his RSS will not succeed here. We had defeated RSS's game plan in 2015 Bihar assembly polls."
But senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Susshil Kumar Modi has warned DSS over protest against Bhaagwat. "If goons of RJD will do such thing, wee will not allow RJD ministers to visit any where in Bihar."
--IANS
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Russia and Iran have issued a direct warning to US President Donald Trump, saying his missile strike on a Syrian airbase crossed "red lines" and they would respond to any new aggression and increase support for their ally.
A joint command centre consisting of the forces of Russia, Iran and other allies supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in a statement on Sunday, described the April 7 attack on Shayrat airfield in Syria's Homs province as "a dangerous act of aggression".
The US targeted the airbase last week with nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles, killing six Syrian soldiers and nine civilians, including four children, and destroying nine warplanes, according to Syria's official news agency SANA.
However, the US government said the attack on the airbase was in retaliation for the April 4 strikes by the Syrian air force on the town of Khan Sheikhoun. At least 80 people were killed in the attack, according to reports.
The statement by the group, published on media outlet Ilam al Harbi (War Media) said: "What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well."
It added that the allies of the Syrian government will increase their support to the Syrian army following the US missile strike and called the US military presence in northern Syria as "illegal" and referred to the forces as an "occupation".
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, said the Russians "have played now for some time the role of providing cover for Bashar Assad's behaviour".
"Russia's failures to rid Syria of weapons stockpiles has led to the killing of more children and innocents," he told CBS News.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani said American military intervention in Syria was a "violation of international law" in telephone talks, said the Kremlin on Sunday.
Rouhani also called for an investigation of the suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria last week, and he warned that the US strikes in response risked escalating extremism in the region.
Syria's Foreign Ministry condemned the US strike as "a flagrant aggression" against the country and said Washington's real objective was to "weaken the strength of the Syrian army in confronting terrorist groups."
--IANS
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The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the validity of the Indus water sharing treaty between India and Pakistan, observing that the treaty has proved to be good for both neighbours.
Dismissing the plea by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, the bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said: "The treaty has been good for last half a century" for both the countries.
Advocate Sharma has challenged the validity of the treaty contending that it was signed by the leaders of the two countries and not by the President.
--IANS
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A day after widespread violence left eight people dead during a Lok Sabha by-election, the Kashmir Valley observed a shutdown on Monday in response to a call from separatists.
Markets, public transport, educational institutions and other businesses were closed in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, and other parts of the troubled valley, officials and residents said.
Separatists have called a two-day shutdown and protest against Sunday's killings of civilians by security forces.
Heavily armed police and paramilitary personnel patrolled the deserted streets on Monday.
Eight people were killed when the security forces opened fire during the Lok Sabha by-election on Sunday in the Srinagar-Budgam constituency. Seven were killed in Budgam and one died in Ganderbal district.
Mobs attacked polling stations, damaging EVMs, at nearly 100 places in Budgam, reducing the day's balloting to a trickle.
"Adequate deployment has been made to maintain law and order," a senior police official said here.
The Kashmir University has postponed all examinations for Monday and Tuesday.
Chief Electoral Officer Shant Manu on Sunday said re-polling would be held in 50-100 polling stations where violence disrupted voting.
Only seven per cent votes were polled on Sunday - the lowest voter turnout since a separatist campaign erupted in Jammu and Kashmir 27 years ago.
Manu said the next Lok Sabha by-election would be held on schedule on April 12 in south Kashmir's Anantnag constituency.
To check the spread of rumours, authorities have suspended the Internet facility in the entire valley till April 12.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party asked the Election Commission to postpone the Anantnag election, party sources said.
PDP candidate Tassaduq Hussain Mufti, brother of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, at Anantnag told the poll panel that the situation in the district was not conducive to hold the election.
--IANS
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Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will host a summit here on Monday with the leaders of six other southern European nations.
The meeting is to focus on the future of the European Union (EU) in light of Britain's decision to leave the bloc, as well as the future negotiations that would allow this to happen, Efe news reported.
Those set to attend Monday's meeting include the Presidents of France, Francois Hollande; Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades; and the Prime Ministers of Greece, Alexis Tsipras; Italy, Paolo Gentiloni; Portugal, Antonio Costa; and Malta, Joseph Muscat.
The gathering would be the third of its kind among southern European nations, the last ones taking place in Athens in September 2016 and in Lisbon at the end of January.
With UK Prime Minister Theresa May now having formally notified the EU of her country's wish to leave the bloc, Brexit is expected to feature on the agenda for the talks in Madrid.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is scheduled to make an initial statement to the other leaders, at the invitation of Rajoy.
Spanish government sources told Efe news that Madrid hoped a common position would be ratified among the seven southern European countries that could be shared by the other remaining 20 members of the EU.
--IANS
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Sweden on Monday observed a minute's silence in memory of the victims of a terror attack in central Stockholm that claimed four lives and left 15 injured.
A remembrance ceremony was held outside the City Hall in Stockholm, with flags at half-mast, in honour of those who died last week when a man rammed a hijacked truck into a crowd of pedestrians in central Stockholm.
Two people have been arrested over the attack, including 39-year-old main suspect Rakhmat Akilov from Uzbekistan, BBC reported.
His asylum request had been rejected last summer and a deportation order was pending since late February.
"You are not alone. We are thinking of you. All of Sweden stands with you," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told family members and survivors of Friday's attack.
"Democracy would triumph over fundamentalism," he added.
Stockholm's Mayor Karin Wanngard promised the capital would remain "an open and tolerant" place.
"We will never give in to violence. We will never let terror prevail," he said.
The country's top authorities were in attendance, including representatives from the police, health and rescue personnel, Efe news reported.
The ceremony was presided over by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, who were flanked by Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and her husband, Prince Daniel, as well as Prince Carl Philip and his wife, Princess Sofia.
Also in attendance were Swedish Parliament Speaker Urban Ahlin, several lawmakers, regional and local authorities and the mayors of Copenhagen and Oslo.
Four people died in Friday's attack, among them two Swedes, one Belgian and a Briton.
Nine people remained hospitalised, two of them in serious condition.
--IANS
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Geneva, April 10 (IANS/AKI) In a rare move, the United Nations on Monday urged the European Union to stop transferring asylum-seekers to Hungary, criticising the country's new policy of holding men, women and children in containers.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on the EU to temporarily halt the transfer of asylum seekers under a complex EU rule known as the Dublin Regulation. This requires a migrant to apply for asylum in the first country of the bloc that they enter, and to be returned there if necessary.
"The situation for asylum-seekers in Hungary, which was already of deep concern to UNHCR, has only got worse since the new law introducing mandatory detention for asylum-seekers came into effect," said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.
--IANS/AKI
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The CPI-M on Monday urged the government to begin taking confidence building measures and start the political process in Jammu and Kashmir.
The central government had given assurances to this effect but did not follow it up, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement.
"This is contributing to the further alienation of the people of the state," it said. "Unless this is done, both our security personnel and innocent civilians will continue to pay the price with their lives."
The statement came a day after widespread protests led to 7.14 per cent turnout in the Srinagar parliamentary seat.
"The miserably low turnout in the bye-election reduces the electoral process to a total farce. Further, it displays the deep degree of alienation of the people in Jammu and Kashmir."
The CPI-M said the country's internal security and sovereignty can only be strengthened by the involvement of the people.
"This in turn can only happen through a political process which was agreed to by this BJP government," it said.
"This process was to be through both confidence building measures and the initiatives for a comprehensive political dialogue with all stakeholders."
--IANS
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A former NATO commander described as "souring" the relations between US President Donald Trump's administration and Russia amid a series of foreign policy collisions between the two countries, the media reportd.
"That relationship between the Trump administration and Russia is gradually going downhill, because I think the senior members of the Trump administration are beginning to realise that Russia is not a force for good in the world," retired Admiral James Stavridis told a radio station here on Sunday.
"I think reality is setting in about how difficult a partner (Russian President) Vladimir Putin will be, and I think events in Syria have underlined that for the administration," he added.
Stavridis's comments came days after the US launched a missile strike on a Syrian military air base on April 6, The Hill magazine reported.
The attack was in response to a chemical weapons strike in northern Syria on April 4 allegedly carried out by the regime of President Bashar Assad. The attack killed over 80 civilians including children.
While the US retaliation was largely hailed by world leaders, it drew a bitter response from Russia, a staunch backer of the Assad regime. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin called the strike an "aggression" and said the U.S. had violated international law.
The attack led the Kremlin to suspend an agreement between the two countries meant to lower the risk of in-flight collisions of US and Russian aircraft in the region.
On the campaign trail, Trump spoke fondly of Putin and expressed a willingness to increase cooperation between the US and Russia, the magazine added.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional investigators are currently conducting separate probes into Russian meddling in the US presidential election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
--IANS
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A US aircraft carrier-led strike group is headed toward the Western Pacific Ocean near the Korean Peninsula, an American defence official said.
The move of the Vinson strike group is in response to the North Korean provocations, the official told CNN on Sunday.
Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of US Pacific Command, directed the USS Carl Vinson strike group to sail north to the Western Pacific after departing Singapore on Saturday, Pacific Command announced.
On April 5, North Korea launched a projectile, later identified as a Scud extended-range missile, into the sea off the Korean Peninsula.
There were conflicting accounts about how far it flew. The regime has also conducted several missile engine tests as it works to improve its ballistic missile technology.
News of the carrier move comes just after a summit meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, where North Korea was one of the top items on the agenda.
"President Xi clearly understands, and -- and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CBS News on Sunday.
"There's a shared view and no disagreement as to how dangerous the situation has become," he added.
--IANS
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Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat called on his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath here on Monday - in the first meeting between the two BJP leaders.
The two Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Ministers were closeted for over 40 minutes, an official told IANS. The meeting went beyond the courtesy call and both discussed serious issues like the contentious division of properties that has been hanging fire for the past 17 years.
Both sides are hopeful that with the neighbouring states having BJP governments, the impasse will be resolved at the earliest.
On a two-day visit to the state capital, Rawat said he was very optimistic that the long-standing issues between the two states will be resolved soon.
The issues that are yet to be resolved between Uttar Pradesh and the hill state of Uttarakhand are related to the irrigation department, rural development department, Panchayati Raj and Industrial Development. Uttar Pradesh is still retaining two guest houses, 36 irrigation canals, 214 hectare of land and 266 houses.
--IANS
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BJP leader Vijender Gupta on Monday lodged a complaint with the State Election Commission against AAP's National Convener Arvind Kejriwal for using his "distorted photographs" in his party's hoardings for the upcoming civic polls.
In a letter to the Election Commission, Gupta, who is the Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly, demanded strict action against Kejriwal and other leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and sought the removal of hoardings carrying his "distorted photographs".
He alleged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party had resorted to "bad practices" and breached the election rules.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that the AAP had put up posters and hoardings in which it had shown Kejriwal's face along with "my distorted picture".
"I vehemently object to this. The party (AAP) and its leaders have no right to use my picture and much less a distorted one. It is done with a mala fide intention to let me and my supporters down," Gupta said in the letter.
"Kindly take strict action against Kejriwal and other AAP leaders for breaching the rules and issue direction to the accused party to remove such posters/ hoardings," Gupta demanded.
The AAP has put up a number of hoardings at various places in the city carrying faces of Kejriwal representing AAP and Vijender Gupta representing BJP.
In the hoardings, the AAP has asked the voters whether they want to give the governance of municipal corporations to Kejriwal or to Vijendra Gupta.
"Reins of MCD to whom: Kejriwal or Vijendra Gupta?" the hoardings read.
The BJP has been ruling the municipal corporation in the city for the last 10 years.
Elections for the North, East and South Delhi Municipal Corporations are scheduled for April 23 and results will be announced on April 26.
--IANS
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There is nothing glamorous about breast cancer, not when one spots a lump or abnormal skin on or around the breast, and definitely not when one reads about the seemingly invincible Hollywood powerhouse Angelina Jolie undergoing double mastectomy. But remarkably in some patients, breast cancer spurs positivity.
Through a series of studies, experts at Bengaluru's National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) delved into the domain of psycho-oncology to throw light on the need to understand the impact of cancer on one's perspective to life, self, spirituality, and relationships.
"Despite being the most common form of cancer in women, the number of survivors is expected to increase worldwide due to improvements in methods of early screening and treatment. Post the treatment, the challenge is to adapt to the changes in body image, sexuality and one's relationships, and deal with fears of recurrence," Mahendra P. Sharma, Professor of Clinical Psychology at NIMHANS, told IANS.
However, a section of survivors, having overcome the battle with cancer, can experience positive changes commonly known as post-traumatic growth (PTG), said Sharma, on the occasion of World Health Day, that revolved around "Depression: Let's talk" this year.
"The most common theme among survivors is the increased appreciation for life and to live it to the fullest, to look after one's needs and make oneself a priority. Another recurring theme revealed that the survivors felt stronger mentally and were confident that if one could survive cancer, one could survive anything in life," he said.
Sharma and colleagues focused on 15 Indian women from urban communities of southern and eastern India. All of them were married and had undergone mastectomy/lumpectomy and were undergoing hormonal therapy.
Marriage is fraught with concerns for women who survive breast cancer, the analysis showed.
"Those who have had surgeries are particularly anxious about spousal acceptance issues. They are insecure as to whether their relationship will be the same, also whether their sex life will be impacted. But we also saw enhanced ability to empathise, to be generous and seeing others (including spouse) for their positives," Sharma explained.
The breast cancer survivorship trajectory also threw up interesting results in terms of spirituality, which helped a section of survivors find strength while they wrestled with questions of life and death.
In India, within the last five years, as of 2012, the estimated incidence rate was 145,000, morbidity rate was 70,000 and the prevalence rate was 397,000.
"Surviving cancer led them to contemplate what their life is meant for. Many felt drawn to a higher power while others believed in the thought 'what is going to happen will happen'," said Sharma.
The outcomes of the psycho-oncological study stress on the need to actively identify coping process through the early parts of treatment and the survivor's attitude towards the illness, Sharma pointed out.
"These processes can contribute to identifying and setting in process PTG as an attempt to rebuild the survivor's shattered assumptions about the world," notes the study co-authored by M.S. Barthakur, S.K. Chaturvedi and S.K. Manjunath.
Surgical oncologist and breast and endocrine surgeon Diptendra Kumar Sarkar said discussions around psycho-oncology are extremely appropriate and important.
"Try to understand the situation of a 40-year-old woman who has undergone breast removal. She has lost her hair due to chemotherapy. The challenge is not to make them disease-free... the challenge lies in making them free of the stigma," Sarkar, chief of the breast services and research unit, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), Kolkata, told IANS.
"It is not the disease which kills... it's the mind. So the mental part and psycho-oncology are much more important than the treatment itself. If you can't get rid of the stigma, then the treatment is a waste," Sarkar said, referring to grassroot initiatives such as those initiated by the Disha organisation, founded by paediatrician Agnimita Giri Sarkar with the sole idea of reaching out to the population and removing the stigma associated with cancer.
(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)
--IANS
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A veritable contagion of farm loan waivers seems to be upon us. On April 4, the new Uttar Pradesh government forgave loans of up to Rs 1 lakh per farmer, as it had promised in its election manifesto. The same day, the Madras High Court ordered Tamil Nadu, which had earlier announced a similar measure for small farmers loans from co-operatives, to extend that relief to all farmers. Punjab will act any day now. The Maharashtra chief minister has telegraphed his intent to do so as well. Karnataka cannot be far behind in view of the imminence of state elections. Earlier, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had waived farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh following the state elections in 2014. Rahul Gandhis frequent appeals for a nationwide loan waiver may yet become a fait accompli as many another state would follow suit.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was in Parliament on Monday and created the kind of buzz perhaps only she can. Banerjee called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She also met Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, who was in New Delhi, inside the Central Hall of Parliament. Later, Banerjee met senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel. She convinced the Congress leaders that the issue about alleged tampering of electronic voting machines should be more forcefully taken up. However, it was her meeting with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani that set tongues wagging. People wondered what the two leaders might have discussed. Banerjee has been critical of the PM, while there is little secret about the equation between Advani and Modi.
Punching holes in the Aadhaar scheme, the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Monday said it was based on unverified data and violated the Supreme Court order that it should not be made mandatory for schemes which are not linked to subsidies.
They also raised concern over data integrity and privacy issues while attacking the government for using the Aadhaar system to "exclude" the beneficiaries for delivery of subsidies and claiming to have made huge government savings.
Just before a short duration debate on Aadhaar started in the Upper House, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government saved about Rs 50,000 crore LPG subsidy due to the linking of Aadhaar card with Jhan Dhan accounts.
"The World Bank and a UN body have clearly stated that the extraordinary technological innovation of India needs to be followed by the world. Surely they (UPA government) started it, but after improvements, it is showing results and the benefits have to be considered objectively," he said.
The was started by the UPA government. "Now there is a robust legislation that has laid down the entire format of how the biometric data will be collected, processed, stored and under what terms and conditions will it be used," Prasad said.
If there is unauthorised use of Aadhaar card details, the law provides for prosecution and punishment for up to 3 years, he added.
Initiating the debate, Rajeev Chandrashekar (Ind) expressed concern over fake Aadhaar cards, data integrity and privacy issues and also exclusion of subsidies by making it mandatory.
He said he was not against the Aadhaar system but the risks and problems need to be addressed by the government. The government should not take a "rigid position".
On fake Aadhaar cards, Chandrashekar said the government has inherited "100 crore unverified database" created prior to bringing the law in 2016.
These 100 crore entries do not come under the section 303 of the Aadhaar Act. The section provides for issue of Aadhar card only after verification, he said.
"What has Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) done to comply with section 303 for all Aadhaar entries prior to 2016? ...Who is responsible for verifying these 100 crore entries before it is used as identity for elections, bank accounts and entering the airports for CISF?"
When there is "clear evidence" of fake Aadhaar, he sought to know what safeguards the UIDAI had taken before permitting Aadhaar for use as an identification beyond delivering subsidies. "This needs to be answered," he said.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh attacked the government for violating Supreme Court orders which clearly outlined where to use Aadhaar. Making it mandatory beyond subsidies is in gross violation of the SC orders, he said.
Expressing grave concern over implementation of the scheme, he said making Aadhaar mandatory for availing subsidies was resulting in exclusion of beneficiaries and the government cannot claim to have saved huge subsidies by this.
Elaborating on implementation issues, Ramesh said the
government claims to have saved Rs 49,000 crore LPG subsidies by linking with Aadhaar but a CAG report has debunked this in a recent report.
The CAG has found that 92 per cent of the savings in LPG subsidy was due to fall in global crude oil prices and not due to Aadhaar seeding, he said, adding that similar was the case with food subsidy, old-age pension and MNREGA.
"You must have had some savings, but saying it was around Rs 50,000 crore subsidy is mind-boggling," Ramesh said, adding that PDS (Public Distribution System), old-age pension and MNREGA were three schemes where maximum exclusion was taking place.
Citing PDS data of Rajasthan, he said 26 per cent of beneficiaries could not draw PDS wheat last month and "that is exclusion and not savings".
In case of MNREGA, officials are so much under pressure to achieve 100 per cent Aadhaar seeding that workers are denied of wages. For example in Chitradurga district in Karnataka, Rs 10-15 crores of wages are not paid on time as local functionaries are busy with Aadhaar seeding, he added.
Ramesh urged the government to revisit the amendments which he had moved last year when the Aadhaar bill was listed for passage in the Rajya Sabha.
There are many petitions pending on this issue. "I hope at some stage, the Supreme Court would bring finality to this issue," he said.
Participating in the debate, Vinay P Sahasrabuddhe (BJP) said that the Congress was not only nostalgic about it but is now indulging in "political paranoia".
Some kind of identity is required at a time when there are corruption and security issues. So far, 115 crore people have Aadhaar cards, he said.
The government has saved subsidies in the last few years, not because of exclusion but by curbing duplicate beneficiaries, he said, adding that those opposing implemenation of Aadhaar are "big ATM and hawala lobbies".
Participating in the discussion, Ravi Prakash Verma (SP) alleged that the government was using Aadhaar as a tool for revenue realisation.
"You are dreaming of a cashless society by effecting cash transfers into BPL accounts. You have linked Aadhaar to income tax returns and bank accounts. This will help in revenue realisation. The government is taking the help of this tool for revenue realisation," he said.
Attacking the government, Verma said, "You have launched not only economic reforms but administrative and judicial reforms as well."
A Navaneethakrishnan (AIADMK) raised objections against direct benefit transfer to beneficiaries' bank accounts under PDS.
He said the poor will tend to buy items other than essentials for which the money is being transferred into their account.
Derek O Brien (AITC) criticised the government for using Aadhaar for various schemes like MGNREGA and mid-day meal schemes. He said that in case of stone workers and other labourers, the biometrics often do not match and the people were being harassed unduly, especially for the mid-day meal scheme.
C P Narayanan (CPI-M) opined that Aadhaar should not be made mandatory for availing benefits by the citizens. He said that there is data of 100 crore people under Aadhaar with private companies and they should not make profit from this wealth of huge data.
D Raja (CPI) pointed towards the UIDAI tie-up with some US based information technology firms which have been working closely with US intelligence agencies. He also said that Aadhaar should not be made mandatory for mid-day meal scheme.
K T S Tulsi also participated in the debate.
After demonetisation, Electronic Voting Machines are the new cementing factor for the Opposition parties to target the BJP-led centre.
After the BJP's stunning win in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and decent show in Goa and Manipur, opposition parties such as the Congress, TMC, JD-U, RJD, Left parties, NCP, SP and BSP and AAP alleged that EVMs used in the recent assembly polls were tampered.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Monday welcomed the Election Commission's (EC) move of cancelling the by-elections of Chennai's RK Nagar constituency and said that the poll panel has proved that democracy is alive in the nation.
"I thank the Election Commission for reacting to my letter which I have given as a complaint on this issue day before yesterday. This election is not being handled in a free and fair manner that's why the Commission had to intervene. Constitutionally it has been proved that our democracy is alive by this decision," expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa said.
She further said that the decision has proved that mafia and money power is involved in this by-election.
"I would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the right decision at the right time by making Income Tax raid on the corrupted people and exposing their malpractices. We will get justice through the Election Commission," she added.
She also added that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry needs to be taken so that the truth will come out.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Tamilisai Soundararajan also supported the Election Commission's verdict and said the state needs corruption-free .
"The Election Commission should conduct the elections only if they assure a free and fair election. If they are unable to do so then let them cancel the elections," she said.
She added that the election is a neutral and democratic process therefore it should be carried out in that manner only.
"Investigation should be expanded and probed in much deeper way. We want a corrupt free in Tamil Nadu," Soundararajan asserted.
By-elections in Chennai's R.K. Nagar constituency, to be held on Wednesday, have been cancelled by the Election Commission a day after cash-for-votes allegations surfaced.
The decision came after Income Tax raids in Chennai found money was distributed to voters.
The by-elections in RK Nagar became necessary after the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented it for two terms. Stakes for the by-polls were very high as the results would have been a verdict of sorts in the war between the two rival factions of the ruling AIADMK.
To show how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Democratic Alliance now has nationwide presence and has expanded to 32 parties and to convince other regional parties to join the coalitiion, leaders of all its constituents, half a dozen of which are new entrants to the alliance, met here today.
The Opposition on Monday criticised the Centre for making mandatory for various schemes, even as the government insisted no poor would be deprived of subsidies for lack of the unique identification number.
To help more people climb out of poverty, our federal social programs must have the end goals of independence and productivity.
The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, known as MIECHV (pronounced McVee), is a positive example. With bipartisan support, this program has helped improve the health and well-being of families across the country.
The Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, on which I serve as chairman, is working on the reauthorization of MIECHV this year. The program was fully authorized by Congress in Fiscal Year 2010.
MIECHV helps support state and local efforts to provide voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services to parents and children at risk of adverse experiences. Objectives include promoting school readiness of young children, increasing economic self-sufficiency of families, improving prenatal health and birth outcomes, and preventing child abuse and neglect.
Making this upfront investment in families protects children and reduces government dependence down the road.
MIECHV is also one of the only social programs in which funding is tied to proven evidence of effectiveness to do otherwise is a disservice to both taxpayers and beneficiaries. We know we must improve our anti-poverty programs by demanding results, and MIECHV provides a good example of what we should expect and receive from the use of limited taxpayer resources.
For a home visiting model to be funded, an evaluation must show the program has demonstrated significant, positive outcomes in areas such as reducing child abuse and neglect, improving maternal and child health, and improving economic self-sufficiency. Many approved models are now being further studied through a rigorous random assignment evaluation to better measure their impacts so we know families are receiving real help.
On March 15, our Human Resources Subcommittee held a hearing on MIECHV, where we heard from witnesses who have either worked with clients in a home-visiting program or benefited from the services provided. Rosa, a 16-year-old high school junior from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, testified how a home-visiting program provided her with the support, confidence, and skills she needed when she found out she was pregnant at age 14.
Today, Rosa is the mother of a beautiful 20-month-old baby girl who captured everyones hearts at the hearing and is on track to graduate high school next year.
Nebraskans are also seeing positive outcomes from home visiting. Prior to our hearing, I visited Panhandle Public Health Districts Healthy Families America in Scottsbluff to see their work firsthand. The program strives to improve the economic success and school readiness of vulnerable children and families in Scotts Bluff, Morrill, and Box Butte Counties.
During my visit, I met Dawn, who was pregnant and homeless when she learned about home visiting. Through the program, she found a stable home and a steady income to provide for her growing family. Today, she is working toward a college degree.
We should strive to support the efforts of parents who are working to provide a better life for their children. I look forward to continuing our work on this reauthorization and ensuring our social programs help to build healthy, independent families.
Two workers of a private sugar mill attempted self-immolation to protest against non-payment of arrears in Bihar's East Champaran district today.
Two employees among other protesters set themselves on fire and were badly burnt before the flames were doused, Workers' Union president Harkit Baitha told reporters.
District Superintendent of Police Jitendra Rana, however, did not rule out foul play by fellow protesters.
An FIR has been lodged against 20 people and seven out of them have been arrested so far, the SP told PTI.
Rana said District Magistrate Anupam Kumar was scheduled to hold talks with the protesters over their demands.
When Officer In-charge of Chatauni police station reached the dharna spot to take them to the DM, the protesters attacked the police team, the SP said.
Five policemen were injured in the violence, the SP said adding, the police had to fire three rounds in the air and lob tear gas shells to disperse the unruly crowd.
The two badly burnt workers have been rushed to Patna Medical College and Hospital for treatment, Rana said.
The workers were demanding payment of their arrears and also reopening of the sugar mill at the earliest.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three persons were arrested for allegedly supplying heroin to college students in different districts of the state, police said today.
Acting on a tip off, a police team intercepted the vehicles of the accused near Sirhind Mandi, and during the checking seized two revolvers, three pistols, 19 cartridges and 20 gram of heroin from their possession, SSP Fatehgarh Sahib Alka Meena said.
"They were supplying heroin to college and university students, including in Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib districts," police said.
"Investigations revealed that the accused were alleged drug addicts," they said.
"Several cases of murder, taking possession of the disputed land and other cases have been registered against them in Himachal Pradesh also," police said.
They have been booked under the NDPS Act, police said.
Among the four accused, three of them are graduates and they were coming from Ambala side when their vehicles were intercepted by the police, they said.
Notably, the Amarinder Singh-led government in Punjab had formed a Special Task Force (STF), headed by ADGP Harpreet Sidhu, to end the drug scourge as the Chief Minister vowed to wipe out the drug menace in the state within four weeks after assuming office.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Around 81,500 companies from the city have already migrated to the GST portal so far and the service tax department is hopeful that the remaining ones will be doing so by the April 30 deadline.
"As per the revised estimate, there are 2,07,000 active companies in Mumbai and out of them around 81,000 have already migrated to the GST portal. This includes the over 15,000 companies that migrated during the five-day GST migration camp that ended today," chief commissioner of service tax department, Mumbai zone, Piyusha Patnaik told PTI today.
The department has conducted eight such camps in the city so far.
"Chief commissioners of service tax and Central Excise from Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur are meeting here tomorrow to finalise the jurisdiction of various GST commissionerates in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra," chief commissioner of Central Excise Subhash Varshney said.
The department is also embarking on a massive programme to educate taxpayers about GST, through seminars, workshops and townhall meetings. A programme is also being conducted in coordination with the Maharashtra sales tax department to ensure outreach to all taxpayers in the state, Varshney said.
The department has also embarked on a massive training and outreach program for trade and industry, after successfully training its officers in GST law, he added.
Work was started in the area of capacity building right from last September, when Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed and GST Council started its deliberations.
During September-December 2016, the Mumbai Central Excise department had conducted a number of training programmes on GST draft law and business rules, at various locations.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used a visit today to a World War II memorial to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians, as the Trump administration sought to rally world leaders behind a strategy to resolve Syria's protracted civil war.
Opening his visit to Italy, Tillerson traveled up a winding mountain road to Sant'Anna di Stazzema, the Tuscan village where the Nazis massacred more than 500 civilians during World War II. As he laid a wreath at the site, Tillerson alluded to the chemical attack in Syria last week that triggered retaliatory US airstrikes.
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," Tillerson said. "This place will serve as an inspiration to us all."
Tillerson's visit to Europe has been overshadowed from the start by President Donald Trump's decision to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons by launching cruise missiles at a Syrian air base. The US military action has renewed the world's focus on Assad's fate and on Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year.
The secretary of state's pledge to stand up for innocents came as Assad has continued to attack civilians in Syria in the days since the US airstrikes, including in the part of Idlib province where the chemical attack occurred. And while other US airstrikes in Syria have targeted the Islamic State group, the US has acknowledged that civilian casualties sometimes occur.
Tillerson plans to use his meetings with foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialised economies - normally a venue for wonky economic discussions - to try to persuade leading countries to support the US plan. The centrepiece of that diplomacy will come tomorrow morning when Tillerson takes part in a meeting of "like-minded" nations on Syria, including several Arab nations invited to attend.
The top American diplomat began to deliver that message today when he met on the sidelines of the G-7 with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. Both countries have voiced support for the US response to Assad's chemical weapons use.
The Trump administration is hoping that after defeating the Islamic State group in Syria, it can restore stability by securing local ceasefires between Assad's government and opposition groups that allow local leaders who have fled to return and by restoring basic services. The next step would be to use UN talks to negotiate a political transition that could include Assad leaving power.
From Italy, Tillerson will travel to Moscow, becoming the first Trump administration official to visit Russia. That trip, too, is fraught with tension over Syria: Tillerson has blamed Russia, Assad's strongest ally, of either complicity or incompetence for allowing Assad to possess and use chemical weapons.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
British Vogue, an iconic fashion magazine which celebrated its centenary last year, named Ghana-born Edward Enninful as its first male editor today.
Enninful, a close friend of British supermodel Naomi Campbell, will replace Alexandra Shulman, who is stepping down on August 1 after more than 25 years.
He was born in Ghana, brought to London as a child and was scouted as a male model aged 16 before becoming the youngest editor in the industry when he was named fashion director of i-D magazine in 1991 aged just 18.
Enninful has already worked at Vogue's Italian and US editions and has been the creative and fashion director of the US style magazine W since 2011.
Enninful is "an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist," said Jonathan Newhouse, head of publisher Conde Nast International.
Enninful was named fashion creator of the year by the British Fashion Council in 2014 and last year, he received an honour from Queen Elizabeth II.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China today denied any credit for the Indian Navy for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, claiming that its naval ship equipped with a helicopter saved the 19-member crew.
Declining to acknowledge any role for the Indian Navy which said its chopper provided the air cover for the Chinese soldiers to enter the Tuvalu-flagged ship OS35, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the air support was provided by Chinese helicopter attached to the ship.
The missile frigate Yulin circled the ship while its helicopter provided air cover, she said, making no mention of the Indian Navy's helicopter support to the Chinese troops.
The Chinese naval ship, part of the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters, rushed to the hijacked ship as soon as it received a message from UK Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) on April 8, she told reporters here.
"Rescue operation was launched on earlySundaymorning. Sixteen Chinese soldiers successfully boarded the timber-carrying freighter, and freed its crew," she said.
"They also conducted a comprehensive search of the ship to make sure no pirate was on board. 19 crew members released from the strong room where they had taken shelter, while also searching the ship to ensure there were no further threats," she said.
"We believe the aforementioned operation demonstrated the effectiveness of China's naval forces in the field of fighting against pirates, as well as China's image as a responsible major country in safeguarding regional peace and stability," she said.
When questioned about the absence of any reference to the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
"I have already given to you what I have learnt. The Chinese convoy received report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation.With regards to details I refer you to the Chinese defence ministry," she said.
"As I just said the Chinese side is always positive towards international cooperation against pirates. This position is very clear," she reiterated.
Her comments followed a Chinese navy statement last night that omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese soldiers.
When asked about the Chinese navy's statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD".
He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
The surprise omission of Indian Navy's role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
The Indian Navy also said that the Chinese navy thanked it for its role in the operation.
"In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.
China's disinclination to acknowledge Indian Navy's role came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, China's opposition to India's NSG membership and Beijing blocking India's effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.
In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navy's help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, frompirates. At that time, Chinese navy's flotilla was on an escort duty in theGulfofAden- 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China on Monday claimed full credit for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, ignoring Indian Navy's role in the operation.
While a Chinese navy statement last night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese ship whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates".
When questioned about the absence of any mention of the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
"According to what we have learnt from the military on April 8 at 5 PM the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters received reports from the UKMTO (United Kingdom Marine Trade Operation) about the hijack of Tuvalaun ship OS35," she said.
"The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now," she told reporters.
Hua did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation.
Her comments came a day after the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement that it rescued the ship.
When asked about the Chinese navy's statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD".
He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
The surprise omission of Indian Navy's role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
However, Hua, without detailing what cooperation she referred to, said, "We always remain positive towards international cooperation in combating pirates. We are ready for more cooperation in this regard."
Asked about the Indian Navy's role, she said "I have already given what I have learnt to you. The Chinese convoy received a report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I point you to the Chinese defence ministry."
The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
At the end of the operation, the Chinese navy thanked the Indian Navy for its role in the operation. "In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.
China and Myanmar today signed an agreement on a crude oil pipeline between the two countries.
A 140,000-tonne crude oil tanker "Suezmax" began offloading crude oil at Made Island oil port in Myanmar's western Rakhine state today after the signing of a China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline transmission agreement in Beijing, state-run Xinhua agency reported.
Made Island oil port is the starting point of the China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline which is part of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project.
The crude oil pipeline starts in Made Island, extends as long as 771 kms and ends in China's Yunnan Province.
The pipeline passes through Myanmar's Rakhine state, Magway and Mandalay regions and Shan state.
Built since June 2010, the oil pipeline has a designed transmission capacity of 22 million tons per year.
Under the provisions of agreement, Myanmar can also be provided with two million tonnes of crude oil through the pipeline annually.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China has agreed to "strong" new measures to punish North Korea if it carries out a nuclear test, Seoul said today after the US signalled it may act to shut down Pyongyang's weapons programme.
South Korea's top nuclear envoy made the comment after talks with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei, as the US sent a naval strike group to the region in a show of force.
"We agreed that there should be strong additional measures based on UN Security Council resolutions if the North pushes ahead with a nuclear test or an ICBM launch despite warnings from the international community," Kim Hong-Kyun told reporters.
The North may stage a "strategic provocation" to mark key political dates this month, Kim said, adding that Wu's visit would serve as a "strong warning" against Pyongyang. Wu did not speak to the media after the talks.
China is the isolated country's sole major ally and economic lifeline, and Beijing in February suspended all coal imports from the North in punishment for Pyongyang's latest missile test.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks anniversaries including the 105th birthday of its founding leader on Saturday -- sometimes celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
President Donald Trump, fresh from a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea, has asked his advisors for a range of options to rein in its ambitions, a top US official said yesterday.
The talks between Kim and Wu came shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Beijing to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.
"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.
He added however that Beijing had indicated a willingness to act on the issue.
"We need to allow them time to take actions," Tillerson said, adding that Washington had no intention of attempting to remove the regime of Kim Jong-Un.
The meeting between Xi and Trump came on the heels of yet another missile test by the North, which fired a medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend, heading toward the Korean peninsula instead, in a move that will raise tensions in the region.
Seoul and Washington are also conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a practice for war.
Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with US intelligence officials warning that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from its goal of striking the continental United States.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Gujarat Government has announced to introduce a scheme under which construction workers in the state will be provided a packed meal at a subsidised rate of Rs 10.
Chief minister Vijay Rupani told this to reporters here last night.
The scheme will be named Shramik Annapurna Yojana, he said adding, "Construction workers will receive a packed lunch of dal, subzi and roti at Rs 10. Although the total cost of that meal would be Rs 30, the government would make its available at Rs 10 by providing Rs 20 subsidy per meal.":
Rupani said that Rs 50 crore have been allocated in the state budget for the implementation of this scheme.
The Chief Minister was here to attend a cultural programme organised by the Jain community on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti.
Meanwhile, talking to PTI here today about the scheme, Commissioner of Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) said Vinod Rao said, "The VMC will make such meals available at construction sites for workers across the city."
According to him, the meal will be provided to the labourers and their family members at the construction site.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Curfew was relaxed for six hours today in Bhadrak, where 80 people were arrested in connection with violence triggered by abusive remarks against Hindu deities, even as social media platforms remained blocked in the area to prevent spread of rumours.
Odisha Home Secretary Asit Tripathy said normalcy has been restored in the violence-hit town.
There was report of a stray incident that occurred during curfew relaxation hours, but it was promptly handled by security personnel, he said.
Director General of Police K B Singh said the police have arrested 80 people and registered eight cases in connection with the arson and violence that took place in the town.
Among those arrested one person was held in connection with the stray incident, he said adding the situation was "fully under control" and normalcy was restored in the town as shops, markets, business establishments, offices, ATMs and banks opened during the curfew relaxation period.
The curfew, which was imposed on Friday, was relaxed from 8 am to till 2 pm during the day to allow people to procure essential commodities and do their daily chores, Bhadrak Collector Gyana Ranjan Das said.
He said the administration and security forces are keeping a close watch and the future course of action would be decided after a review of the situation in the town, where violence had erupted after some persons allegedly posted offensive remarks against Hindu deities on the social media.
Steps have been taken to keep schools and colleges and government offices open tomorrow and arrangements have been made to ensure availability of essential items like milk, vegetables and eggs, he said.
People queued up at shops to purchase provisions, the police said adding the curfew would continue for some more time.
Social media platforms remained blocked after the state government restricted access to them in Bhadrak town and nearby areas for 48 hours from last night to prevent rumours from spreading, a senior official said.
State Chief Secretary A P Padhi, who has directed the police's crime branch to probe the rumours circulated through social media, said no rumour monger would be allowed to instigate people and escalate tension.
A team from crime branch and cyber cell has rushed here to probe the rumours and the alleged offensive remarks on social media that had triggered the violence.
The team is seeking information from people to track miscreants spreading hate messages on social media. Strict action would be taken against them, Special Director General of Police (Crime) B K Sharma said.
The crime branch has registered a case in connection with the issue, senior officials said.
A senior official said Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel had yesterday staged flag march in sensitive areas.
Besides, three companies of RAF and two companies of CRPF, 35 platoons of police (around 1,200 personnel) have been deployed to maintain law and order in the town.
Tripathy said the town has been divided into five sectors and three layers of security have been arranged for each to deal with the situation.
Violence had erupted in Bhadrak town on Thursday after a group staged a demonstration near the Town police station demanding immediate arrest of those involved in posting offensive remarks against Hindu deities on social media.
Though the district administration clamped prohibitory orders, tension persisted and fresh violence was reported on Friday despite a peace meeting.
The escalation in tension prompted the administration to impose curfew on Friday.
Meanwhile, leaders of political parties traded charges and indulged in blame game over the violence.
BJP leader K V Singhdeo and Tara Prasad Bahinipati of Congress hit out at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, saying he was camping in Delhi despite holding the Home portfolio.
Singhdeo alleged that delayed response on the part of the administration led to the violence.
BJD leader Debasis Samantray said all steps were being taken as per the chief minister's instructions and the situation in Bhadrak is normal now.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A dacoit carrying a reward of Rs 15,000 was arrested last night, police said today.
Vikram Ninama (25) was arrested from his house in Meghnagar police station area last night, Superintendent of Police (SP) Mahesh Chandra Jain told reporters.
The dacoit was wanted by Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan police for his involvement in different crimes, including murder, said police.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Launching an attack on the EC over alleged EVM manipulation, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today claimed that the poll body was acting like "Dhritarashtra" to help son "Duryodhana" (BJP) win the polls.
He alleged that the Commission's only intention was to bring the BJP to power in poll-bound states and that is why it was not paying heed to his request to investigate defective EVMs.
Kejriwal's accusation comes a day after media reports stated that a few machines, used during the bypoll in Rajasthan's Dholpur, may have been "tampered with".
Accusing the Election Commission of "overlooking" complaints of alleged EVM manipulation, Kejriwal linked the Commission to Mahabharata's character Dhritarashtra.
"As Dhritarashtra used to help his son Duryodhana grab power, the Election Commission is similarly helping the BJP in getting power by using all means possible (through Saam Daam Dand Bhed)," he claimed.
Yesterday, the Election Commission had said that EVMs are robust and tamper-proof and even the manufacturers cannot manipulate them at the time of production, countering allegations that the machines are unreliable.
Addressing a press conference at his official residence, Kejriwal alleged that both the Election Commission and the BJP are "toying with democracy", which the people of country will not tolerate.
"Stop conducting elections when EVMs can be manipulated. What is the meaning of elections then?," Kejriwal asked.
He said the EC was not ready to get faulty EVMs investigated which "raises serious doubts".
Referring to Rajasthan's Dholpur bypolls, the Aam Aadmi Party chief also said "Why defective EVMs votes in favour of the BJP every time? Why faulty machines do not vote in favour of other political parties. It means the software of EVMs has been changed."
He claimed that in the April 23 MCD elections, "malfunctioning EVMs are being brought from Rajasthan to conduct the civic body polls".
"There are three generations of EVMs. First were used before 2006 while the second generation EVMs were used between 2006 and 2013 and third generation EVMs are being used after 2013.
"I have got to know that Delhi State Election Commission (SEC) wants to conduct MCD polls through first generation EVMs which raises doubts over the intention of SEC," Kejriwal said.
He also sought to know from the SEC that when 15,000 EVMs of the second generation were available in Delhi, then why the first generation EVMs, which would have been used before 2006, will be used in the upcoming MCD polls.
Earlier, Kejriwal had claimed that EVMs were being brought from Uttar Pradesh to conduct the polls, a charge the State Election Commission had rejected.
With the Opposition's questions on the reliability of the electronic voting machines getting louder, the Commission has come out with a list of 'frequently asked questions' to put across its views in public domain.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In further trouble for Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the ED has summoned him for questioning in its money laundering probe against him and others.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) action comes close on the heels of the CBI filing a charge sheet against him and his wife and others for allegedlyamassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Officials said the agency has issued fresh summons to Singh as it wants to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
They said he has been asked to depose before the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case on April 13 here.The agency has summoned Singh earlier too but then he had excused himself stating his official commitments.
It has already questioned his wife Pratibha and son Vikramaditya in this case.
The ED had filed a case under criminal provisions of the anti-money laundering law against the CM, his family members and others after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the CBI in this regard in September, 2015.
The agency is probing allegations against Singh and his family members of having amassed wealth of Rs 6.1 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2009 and 2011 when he was the Union Minister of Steel. It has also attached assets worth about Rs 14 crore in this case under PMLA laws.
The CBI charge sheet, filed sometime back, claims that the politician had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate by 192 per cent of his total income during his tenure as a Union Minister.
The final report filed against nine people for alleged offences punishable under section 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.
Besides the 82-year-old Congress leader and his wife Pratibha Singh, the report also arraigned Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia as accused.
The report also named as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who is currently in judicial custody. Chauhan was arrested by the EDon July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the present case.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Business conglomerate Emami group today launched its healthy edible oil brand in Bihar to expand its footprint in the state.
Emami Group Sales Strategy head Krishna Mohan and its Vice-president Debashish Bhatacharya announced introducing four brands of edible oil in Bihar at a press conference here.
They said after consolidating its position in the existing market in West Bengal, Emami Healthy & Tasty is entering Maharashtra, Delhi and NCR regions, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Odisha with its range of mustard, soyabean, sunflower and rice brand oil.
A total 150 distributors would be appointed in Bihar while the company would directly cover 30-40 outlets.
Emami Healthy & Tasty is competitively priced in a price range of Rs 90 per litre and Rs 120 per litre across its variants, they added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actress Eva Longoria has paid a visit to the Spanish village her ancestors came from.
The "Desperate Housewives" star shared on Instagram a picture of her posing in front of a sign marking the town of Longoria in Asturias.
"Yep. This happened today! Got to finally discover my roots! I have been wanting to visit the small village where my ancestors came from and where my last name was born for years !! And today I got to meet all the amazing people in this small town who were beaming with pride!
"Thank you to everyone who helped welcome me today, I felt the love and energy of each of you! Gracias por recibirme! #Asturias #Llongoria #Longoria #Orgullosa," the 42-year-old actress captioned the photo.
The actress has been documenting her trip on Snapchat, including her time spent in Asturias' capital city Oviedo.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today condemned Pakistan for the death sentence given to retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav by a military court on alleged espionage charges.
He said the move is aimed at diverting the Pakistani people's attention from failures of their government.
"We strongly condemn the act of Pakistan military. It's an effort to divert the attention of Pakistani people from the domestic failures and artificially counter the established fact that the neighbouring country sponsors terror activities in India," Fadnavis told PTI.
Meanwhile, eminent lawyer Ujjwal Nikam said Jadhav has been awarded the death sentence without a fair trial.
The 46-year-old former Navy officer was not even provided a lawyer and denied consular access, said Nikam, who was the special public prosecutor in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case.
He was talking to reporters at Aurangabad in central Maharashtra.
On the other hand, Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist arrested for the Mumbai terror attacks, was given a fair trial and provided a lawyer to defend himself, he said.
Nikam said by this act, Pakistan is taking revenge for the Indian government's moral support to the ongoing freedom movement in Balochistan.
Jadhav, who hails from Mumbai, was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials allegedly in Balochistan which, they said, he entered from Iran.
He was sentenced to death by a military court in a secret trial for alleged "espionage and sabotage activities" and Pakistan's army chief today approved his execution.
The Indian government has maintained that the proceedings that led to the sentencing of Jadhav are "farcical in absence of any credible evidence" against him.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first-ever freight train from Britain to China started its mammoth journey today along a modern-day "Silk Road" trade route as Britain eyes new opportunities after it leaves the European Union.
The 32-container train, around 600 metres long, left the vast London Gateway container port laden with whisky, soft drinks and baby products, bound for Yiwu on the east coast of China.
It was seen off on its 18-day, 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey with a string quartet, British and Chinese flags, and speeches voicing hope that it will cement a new golden age of trade between the two countries as Brexit negotiations loom.
The first train from China to Britain arrived on January 18, filled with clothes and other retail goods, and Monday's departure was the first journey in the other direction.
The rail route is cheaper than air freight and faster than sea freight, offering logistics companies a new middle option.
After the last three containers were lifted onto the wagons, the driver gave a thumbs-up and tooted his horn as he got the train rolling at the port in Stanford-le-Hope, east of London.
"Restoring the ancient Silk Road as a means by which China, north Europe and now the UK can exchange goods is an important and exciting initiative," said Xubin Feng, the chairman of Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment, which is co-running the service.
"We have great faith in the UK as an export nation and rail provides an excellent alternative for moving large volumes of goods over long distances faster."
The train will go through the Channel Tunnel before travelling across France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before heading into China.
The containers, which also contain vitamins and pharmaceutical products, will be taken off and put on different wagons as they leave Poland, as the former Soviet Union countries use a wider rail gauge.
The containers switch back to standard gauge wagons at the Chinese border, an operation that typically takes around two hours.
Boosting trade with China is a top priority for Britain as it leaves the EU and becomes free to strike its own trade deals.
London was hailing the first export train as part of its "global Britain" plan, recalibrating its post-EU trading outlook.
Rupert Soames, Prime Minister Theresa May's business ambassador for infrastructure and transport, told AFP that the new route was "positive and timely".
"I genuinely think that this is quite an historic day," said Soames, a grandson of World War II prime minister Winston Churchill.
"In some quarters now, globalisation is seen as a bad word. But here you see trade in all its glory and possibilities."
China was Britain's seventh-biggest export market last year, behind the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland.
Some 13.5 billion pounds of trade headed to China, according to UK government statistics, with an average annual growth rate of 12.9 percent since 2006.
In terms of imports, China is Britain's third-biggest market after Germany and the United States, with trade worth 35.8 billion pounds last year.
The freight train is part of China's "One Belt, One Road" programme announced in 2013, reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes to Europe.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former AIADMK minister Pandiarajan today moved the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail in a case of alleged disrespect by him to the national flag while campaigning for the April 12 RK Nagar assembly bypoll.
The Election Commission had cancelled the bypoll yesterday.
On April 6, a replica of a coffin with late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's figurine draped in national flag had been used by the AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) faction as part of the bypoll campaign, highlighting its demand for a probe into her death.
The 'coffin' was placed over the bonnet of an open jeep, with supporters of former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam seeking votes for their candidate E Madhusudanan.
Pandiarajan, a former school education minister and a key loyalist of Panneerselvam had highlighted their demand for the judicial probe during the campaign.
The figurine of Jayalalithaa draped in national flag was a replica of the original and attracted attention.
An election officer had filed a complaint with the police alleging that Pandiarajan's action violated norms and disrespected the national flag, following which an FIR was registered.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Freight rates for nine-tonne payload section to select destinations eased by Rs 500 at the local truck transport market in the national capital today following restricted cargo movements amid excess position of trucks.
Transporters said fall in cargo movements against easy availability of trucks led to fall in select freight rates.
Freight rates from Delhi to Jaipur, Kanpur and Chandigarh dropped by Rs 500 each to Rs 15,000, Rs 18,000 and Rs 16,000.
Elsewhere, other centres freight rates managed to keep freight rates around overnight levels on some support.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Democrat leadership has made constant and profound pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?
Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.
Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what "Democracy" exists.
Freshwater pearls - which once lured Roman Emperor Julius Caesar to invade Britain - are facing extinction, say scientists who found that pollution has caused mussels that produce these prized gems to stop breeding for more than 60 years in parts of England.
Almost double the size of their common ocean cousins freshwater mussels are much slower growing and far more susceptible to changes in water quality.
Their life cycle also involves clinging to the gills of salmon or trout for the first year of their lives, so dwindling fish stocks may affect
There are only nine rivers in the north of England where the freshwater mussel survives, and two in the south of England, both in Devon.
"The whole southern populations have nearly been wiped out. It's amazing there are still any here," Izzy Moser, from the Devon Wildlife Trust in the UK, was quoted as saying by 'The Times'.
None of the mussel populations in England is classed as sustainable, because pollutants like chemical run-off from farmers' fields, soil erosion and sewage have stopped them reproducing, according to Freshwater Biological Association (FBA).
In 55 BC, when Julius Caesar invaded Britain, freshwater pearls were a mainstay of the island's mineral wealth. Pearls seem to have been the lure that prompted Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain, researchers said.
"Where there used to be vast mussel beds there are just shells and a handful of old mussels. The youngsters are not coming through the process. They are not surviving to adulthood," said Roger Sweeting, from the FBA.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations met today to forge a response to the deadly chemical attack in Syria, and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said they would consider imposing sanctions against Russian backers of President Bashar Assad.
G-7 diplomats gathering in Lucca, Italy, hope to use outrage over the attack and wide international support for the United States' retaliatory missile strikes to push Russia to abandon Assad and join a new peace effort for Syria.
Speaking after meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Johnson said ministers "will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions, certainly, on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures".
He said Russia had a choice: to continue backing the "toxic" Assad regime, "or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution".
Last week's nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred President Donald Trump, who was previously cool to the idea of US intervention, to strike for the first time at Assad's forces. US warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the US believes the attack was launched.
Tillerson said today at the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy that the United States is rededicating itself to hold to account "any and all" who commit crimes against innocent people.
With the group of wealthy nations working to see if it can strike a common front on Syria, Tillerson accompanied Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano to Santa'Anna di Stazzema, where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed in 1944.
Alfano said the site of past Nazi atrocities was a reminder that "peace is not a given...That is why we are here to work all together for peace and liberty".
The meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca brings together the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, Japan and Canada, as well as the US and current G-7 president Italy.
Ahead of the full meeting, Tillerson held bilateral talks with G-7 counterparts who included Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Britain's Johnson.
Tillerson also spoke by phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose government insists Assad should play no role in Syria's future.
Over the weekend, Alfano said that Europe's broad support for the US military strikes had contributed to a "renewed harmony" between the United States and its partners as the G-7 foreign ministers prepared to meet for the first time since Donald Trump took office in January.
"We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart," Alfano told Sky TG24 yesterday. "I welcome this renewed harmony."
After meeting Tillerson, Japan's Kishida said, "Japan supports the US commitment in trying to take responsibility to prevent spread and use of chemical weapons and we confirmed Japan and the US will continue to work together (in that effort)."
The G-7 meeting comes as the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group towards the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Korea's persistent ballistic missile tests.
It is also taking place amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday. The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia.
The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
Russia plans to put forward a proposal today for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in Berlin.
The spokesman, Martin Schaefer, said Germany viewed it as "a good and important sign".
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialised nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Britain's Johnson, who had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of today's G-7 meeting, canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had "changed the situation fundamentally".
He said that instead, he would work with the United States and other G-7 nations "to build coordinated international support for a ceasefire on the ground and an intensified political process".
Tillerson is due to travel to Russia after the G-7 gathering, and Johnson said he will deliver a "clear and coordinated message to the Russians".
Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares the determination of allies including Britain that Assad must be removed from power.
After the chemical attack, Trump said his attitude towards Assad "has changed very much" and Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organise a coalition to remove him from power.
In a round of television interviews that aired yesterday, though, Tillerson said the top US priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Among European nations, there are also differences. While Britain says Assad must go, Alfano was cautious on the issue, saying that the decision should be up to the Syrians.
"I have to say, the Libya experiment did not go well. We are still paying the price," Alfano said, referring to the lawlessness that has ensued since the killing of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the subsequent flow of migrants to Europe via Italy.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations met today to try to forge a common response to the deadly chemical attack in Syria, with new sanctions against Russian backers of President Bashar Assad one of the options on the table.
G-7 diplomats sitting down for talks in the centuries-old Ducal Palace in Lucca, Italy, hope to use outrage over the attack and wide international support for the United States' retaliatory missile strikes to push Russia to abandon Assad and join a new peace effort for Syria.
Members of the group also hope to gain a sense from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of President Donald Trump's next steps and foreign-policy goals.
Speaking after meeting with Tillerson, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said ministers "will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions, certainly, on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures".
He said Russia had a choice: to continue backing the "toxic" Assad regime, "or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution".
Last week's nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred Trump, who was previously cool to the idea of US intervention, to strike for the first time at Assad's forces. US warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the US believes the attack was launched.
The US strikes drew support from other Western leaders who have been uncertain what to make of Trump's foreign policy. Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said yesterday that Europe's broad support for the US military strikes had contributed to a "renewed harmony" between the United States and its partners.
In a gesture weighted with symbolism, Tillerson visited the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy today. He said the United States was rededicating itself to hold to account "any and all" who commit crimes against innocent people.
Tillerson accompanied Alfano to Santa'Anna di Stazzema, where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed in 1944.
The two-day G-7 meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca is bringing together the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, Japan and Canada, the US and current G-7 president Italy, as well as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Ahead of the full meeting, Tillerson held bilateral talks with G-7 counterparts including Britain's Johnson, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Kishida said that "Japan supports the US commitment in trying to take responsibility to prevent spread and use of chemical weapons and we confirmed Japan and the US will continue to work together (in that effort)".
Tillerson also spoke by phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose government insists Assad should play no role in Syria's future.
The G-7 meeting comes as the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group towards the Korean Peninsula in a show of strength following North Korea's persistent ballistic missile tests.
It is also taking place amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.
Syria, though, topped the agenda.
The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which backs Assad diplomatically and militarily and denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
Russia planned to put forward a proposal today for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, calling it "a good and important sign".
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose government is another backer of Assad's, also called for an independent inquiry under UN auspices when he spoke today to Alfano, Italy's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria, but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia, whose relations with the West have been on a downward spiral for several years.
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialised nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The flipside of the talk about sanctions from Johnson and other diplomats is an implicit promise that Moscow could be allowed to rejoin the G-8, if it drops its support for Assad.
"I think the Russians need a way out and a way forward," Johnson said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Smartphone maker Gionee today said it has booked orders worth around Rs 150 crore in the first 10 days of opening registration for its Gionee A1 smartphone.
"Gionee A1 is our first flagship of the year and we have received as many as 74,682 units pre-orders worth around Rs 150 crore in the first ten days, till April 9, 2017. The pre-booking figures, the highest for any phone in the Rs 8,000-25,000 range," Gionee India Country CEO and MD Arvind R Vohra told PTI.
The company has been running advertisement Selfiestan campaign featuring brand ambassador Alia Bhatt. It has also recently roped in Dulquer Salmaan, Shruti Hasan and Diljit Dosanjh as its regional brand ambassadors.
Priced at Rs 19,999, Gionee A1 features a 16 megapixel front camera and 13MP rear camera with dual tone flash technology. The phone has MediaTek P10 processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage and 4010 mAh battery with fast charging feature.
"Most of the bookings have been done offline where customers are registering for A1 by paying Rs 2,000. Booking from online channel is very small. This shows people in high end category are willing to pay for good technology," Vohra said.
Gionee has started handing over A1 phone to customers in select cities and will open for others from midnight at its authorised stores.
The company has 42,000 retail outlets and 555 exclusive service centres to cater to its customers.
"Starting March 2017, all Gionee phones sold in India are Made in India," Vohra added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government today faced embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha as the concerned minister was not present to reply to a question, with the Chair saying it was an "extraordinary situation" not seen in several years.
Congress member Mahendra Singh Mahra had raised the listed question on air and noise pollution in Delhi and NCR to the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change during the Question Hour.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh objected to the Minister's absence and said "it has happened for the second time."
Later, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was to reply to the question on behalf of Evironment Minister Anil Dave, apologised for coming late to the House. Javadekar had earlier held charge of Minister of Environment.
Terming it as the "most unusual situation", Chairman Hamid Ansari said it is the responsibility of the concerned minister to be present in the House when a question relating to his or her ministry is taken up.
"This is an extraordinary situation and I am sure the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs will look into this and respond," he said.
In the meanwhile, Javadekar reached the House and said he got late as he was introducing a bill in the Lok Sabha.
However, Ansari said "Prakash Ji, your question was called. You were not present. A most unusual sitation has arisen. I have not witnessed it for 10 years and probably earlier also".
He said as per the accepted practice of the House, when a listed question is taken up, the minister has to be present. "I am afraid you were late," Ansari added.
As opposition members tried to speak on the issue, Ansari said the point raised has been registered and went ahead with the Question Hour.
Before replying to the supplementary questions on behalf of Dave, Javadekar said: "First of all, I apologise because I was late. In the other House, I had to introduce a Bill related to my ministry".
In his reply, the Minister said the ambient air quality for Delhi and NCR is monitored under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme comprising 680 monitoring stations.
"Air quality data for the period 2014-16 for Delhi and NCR does not show day-to-day continous increase in the level of air pollution and significant fluctuations are noted," the reply said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, has said that India should approach the International Court of Justice and ensure that the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani establishment is not carried out.
"Our government should take appropriate steps. They should appeal in the international court of justice and seek stay," Kaur told PTI over phone while reacting on the Pakistan army court's verdict.
India should take every necessary step to ensure that Jadhav's death sentence is not carried out, she said.
"Even if I assume for a minute that Jadhav was an agent, still does he deserve death sentence. There are many Pakistani nationals lodged in our jails who are charged with serious crimes, does this mean they too should be given the same treatment. The 2000 Red Fort attack case convict was a Pakistani national, but was he hanged?" she asked.
About Jadhav, she said, "just because he is an Indian, he has been given death sentence. This shows the hatred and enmity which Pakistan harbours towards India".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak about this to his Pakistani counterpart, she said.
Having lost her brother four years back in Pakistan, Kaur said she could fully understand what Jadhav's family must be going through at this hour.
"I am with the family. They should immediately meet the Prime Minister. My full support is with Jadhav's family and I can accompany them if they go and meet the PM," she said.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials in Baluchistan after he entered from Iran. He has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.
India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
Pakistan's powerful army chief today approved the execution of Jadhav after a military court found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities".
Kaur's brother Sarabjit had died following an attack on him by inmates of a Lahore prison in April 2013. He was convicted for terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death in 1991. However, the government had stayed his execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
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Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and 34 others were today booked by police at Tankara town in Morbi district for holding a public meeting in violation of the prohibitory orders.
According to police, the meeting was held yesterday.
"Hardik, the convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), which has been demanding reservation for the Patel community in government jobs and educational institutions, was booked along with 34 others after they went ahead to organise a public meeting yesterday despite prohibitory orders," an official of Tankara town police station said.
They violated the prohibitory orders issued by Morbi District Magistrate restraining gathering of four or more people at a place, he said.
"Hardik and 34 PAAS members were booked under section 135 (3) of the Gujarat Police Act," the official said.
Sub inspector of Tankara police station D B Goswami filed the case against them. Even the police department had not granted permission to PAAS for the event, which was aimed at galvanising support over the reservation issue.
On March 20, Ahmedabad police had filed an FIR against Hardik and 59 others for alleged rioting and arson at the house of a BJP corporator.
Hardik is currently out on bail granted to him by the Gujarat High Court against two cases of sedition lodged in Surat and Ahmedabad.
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: The Madras High Court today stayed the probe into the 'gang rape and murder' of a Dalit girl last December on her mother's plea for a CB-CID investigation on the alleged grounds that the present one was not fair.
Justice R Mahadevan, before whom the plea came up for hearing, stayed the ongoing probe by Ariyalur police inspector.
The petitioner said her daughter's life could have been saved had the police acted immediately on her complaint on December 29 last year that her daughter had gone missing.
She wanted the case to be handed over to the CB-CID, to be probed by a woman officer not below the rank of a deputy superintendent of police.
She also named three other police officials seeking actions against them for their alleged failure to preventthe gang rapeand death of her daughter.
Justice Mahadevan lambasted the prosecution, saying the government was seeking unnecessary adjournments continuously.
The victim's mother submitted that her daughter had gone missing from her home on December 29 last year. Though she immediately lodged a complaint with the police, she was only given a CSR (Community Service Receipt) and an FIR was not registered, she said.
The FIR was registered nearly a week later but it only said it was a case of 'girl gone missing' and not that of abduction though she had specifically named the persons she suspected to have abducted her daughter, she said.
Her daughter's body was later found in a well in Jayamkondam town, she said.
The woman's counsel submitted that "the investigation completely lacked sincerity and the fundamental right to life and fair and proper investigation had been trampled upon."
Justice Mahadevan then stayed the probe.
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To keep an eye on notorious gangsters and ensure they are away from other prisoners, the Punjab prisons department has set up "special high security zones" in the major jails in the state.
"10 separate high security zones have been set up in the central jails in Punjab to house all the gangsters and hardened criminals," a senior official of Punjab Prisons department said here today.
To keep electronic surveillance on gangsters and hardcore criminals, the department has planned to install more CCTVs and jammers to block 4G network.
"We have proposed to install 32 CCTVs for each high security zone and one 4G jammer each for these zones," said the official adding that 500 walkie talkie sets will also be purchased.
The move of setting up special security zones was initiated after infamous Nabha jail break incident in November last year in which a group of armed men managed to free six prisoners including two terrorists.
Despite being behind bars, gangsters have often accessed mobile phones and internet in the state's jails and even posted messages on social media.
The prison department caught 400 mobiles in last three months from inmates, the official said.
The high security zones have been set up in central jails including Patiala, Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Ferozepur.
There are at present around 300 gangsters lodged in different jails in Punjab. The Prison department has also written to state police authorities to give names of gangsters or criminals who could be put in these high-security zones.
The department has also proposed to set up drug de-addiction centres in all the jails in order to provide proper treatment to inmates.
"We have written to the government to open drug de-addiction centres in all the jails. We have at present 4,500 drug addicts in jails," the official said.
It has also been decided to shift 500 inmates to jails of their choice.
"We have decided to shift 400-500 inmates to other prisons of their convenience or jail in their home areas," he said.
A decision has also been taken to set up bakery unit in Gurdaspur jail and power looms in Bathinda jail, he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Reacting strongly, India today said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence, awarded to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a strongly-worded demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav were "farcical" as there were no "credible evidence" against him.
Reacting to a press release by Pakistan military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Jadhav, India said he was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March, 2016 and 31 March, 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
Interestingly, Pakistani Prime Minister's advisor on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz had reportedly told the Pakistan senate on December 7 that the "dossier" on Jadhav were "mere statements" and that it did not have any "conclusive evidence".
He even had said that the material was "insufficient", adding "now it is up to the concerned authorities how long they take to give us more matter on the agent."
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistani security forces in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was "a serving officer" in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
The Pakistan Army had released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the navy but denied he has any connection with the government.
India had issued note verbale to Pakistan Foreign Ministry on March 25, March 30, May 6, June 10, July 11 and December 19 last year, seeking consular access to Jadhav.
In 2017, note verbale was issued on January 19, February 2, March 3, March 21 and March 31.
Two separate note verbales were sent to Political Wing and Consular Wing of Pakistan Foreign Ministry on February 2 seeking access to Jadhav.
A demarche was issued to Pakistan Foreign Ministry by the MEA on February 3, sources said.
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A Parliamentary panel today suggested the government to review the progress of the policy on city compost on regular basis and take a time-bound action for effective rollout.
The policy on promotion of city compost, implemented since February 2016, aims to incentivise the processing of waste into compost and targets to process 100 per cent of municipal solid waste by October 2019. The policy envisages selling of compost to farmers from PSU fertiliser companies.
"It has been observed by the committee that the installed capacity to process waste is 10 lakh tonne, whereas compost production at present is around 16,000 tonne per annum," the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers said in a 16th report tabled in the Lok Sabha.
In view of slow progress made in implementation of the policy, the panel recommended the government to "review the progress of the policy on city compost at regular intervals so as to remove hurdles being faced by concerned agencies."
The panel suggested the government to take "time-bound action" saying that if the policy is implemented in an effective manner, it can achieve the twin benefits -- management of waste and improving carbon content in the soil.
On segregation of waste, the committee recommended the government to involve waste collectors and rag pickers from the informal sector and impress upon the state governments to utilise services of unemployed youth.
The panel also observed that the centre should take up the issue with state governments to ensure dysfunctional city compost plants are fully operational at the earliest.
It also pitched for involvement of Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET), proper marketing of city compost and run multi-media campaign to create awareness among farmers.
As per the government data, total quantity of waste handled in 2014 in urban areas in India was estimated to be 1,69,650 tonnes each day. It means about 62 million tonnes per year, out of which merely 19 per cent is treated.
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India and Australia today inked six pacts including one aimed at boosting counter-terrorism cooperation after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull here.
The two leaders held comprehensive discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.
It is Turnbull's first visit to the country after assuming office in 2015.
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India said today that it was keen on bolstering its strong ties with the UAE and asserted that increased bilateral coordination was needed to face challenges posed by fast-paced international developments.
Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar, in his address here at the 11th forum of UAE ambassadors and heads of representative missions, said India was interested in strengthening its relations with the UAE.
He stated that India wanted to boost bilateral ties in light of the prospects for bilateral cooperation, regional and fast-paced international developments and shifts, the state-run WAM agency reported.
Akbar said that the two countries need to further boost coordination and understanding in order to face challenges posed by these shifts and invest in available opportunities.
During the forum, being organised by the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation from April 9-13, a special session was dedicated to UAE-India relations and international developments.
The session was moderated by the UAE Ambassador to India, Dr Ahmed Abdulrahman Al Banna.
Meanwhile, the UAE International Investors Council (UAEIIC) and UAE-India Business Council (UIBC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for facilitating trade and investments including for the expansion of joint ventures, technological and industrial collaboration.
The MoU was signed by Jamal Saif Al Jarwan, Secretary- General UAEIIC, and Abdul Salam, Director General, UIBC, during the seventh edition of Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai.
As per the agreement, UAEIIC and UIBC will work together to facilitate, strengthen and diversify the cooperation between the UAE and Indian businesses, for pursuing a constant expansion of the trade and investment between both the countries through exchange of business delegations, trade related information, and jointly organising trade shows, seminars and technical workshops.
Both sides reached extensive consensus on working towards tracking UAE investors' issues and concerns and facilitating in resolving them in the best possible manner through a constructive dialogue between the investors and government agencies.
UAE International Investors Council was formed with the vision of acting as a link between investors abroad and the government in order to promote the competitiveness of Emirates investments abroad.
UAE-India Business Council (UIBC) is the official Joint Business Chamber set up by both the governments for promoting economic synergy between the UAE and India.
UIBC was formally launched in September, 2015, in New Delhi by Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
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India on Monday decided not to release about a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who were to be repatriated on Wednesday, hours after Pakistani army chief approved the execution of Indian for alleged "espionage and sabotage" activities.
The government feels that it is not the right time for the release of Pakistani prisoners, official sources said here.
The prisoners were to be released as part of the practice by India and Pakistan to repatriate nationals lodged in each other's jail after they complete their sentence.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in Rawalpindi.
Angered by the development, India today said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and issued a strongly-worded demarche.
He became a household name after his successful stint on TV and now Gurmeet Choudhary is trying to make a mark in Bollywood, which he says is difficult but not impossible.
After starring in hit shows like "Ramayan", "Geet" and "Punar Vivah", Gurmeet made his Hindi film debut with "Khamoshiyan". He has also been part of "Wajah Tum Ho" and the recently released "Laali Ki Shaadi Mein Laddoo Deewana".
"It is difficult but it is not impossible to make a foothold in the film industry. It is difficult to get the kind of work you want to do. It is difficult to reach this far specially when you are not from a film family. But I have come a long way from being no one to doing television shows to films," he told PTI.
Gurmeet enjoyed immense success while doing TV but none of his films have been a hit.
"I was sad (referring to failure of his films) as I thought those films were good. But fortunately my work was appreciated. The best part is I am getting work."
The actor says he believes in working hard and giving his best.
"The positive thing is the film industry is helpful to those who are talented and grounded. I am a small-town boy who first did television and now doing films. There are so many who want to get into acting but don't get opportunities. I feel privileged," he says.
The 33-year-old actor isn't keen on returning to television and do daily soaps that brought him name and fame.
"I can't do daily soaps. I don't mind doing series but it has to be interesting and different. I have done all kinds of shows from romantic to mythology to family and reality shows. It would be wrong to say that I will not do television ever as it depends on the content of the show.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Diversified ITC is expanding its juice portfolio with an aim to garner around 20 per cent market share in five years in the packaged fruit juice segment, currently estimated to be around Rs 2,500-crore.
Apart from adding new flavours and focusing on local fruits, the company is expanding its sales network to meet the target.
It has also roped in Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty as brand ambassador for B Natural juices and beverages.
The Kolkata-based firm also plans to expand retail points of its luxury chocolate brand Fabelle and take it outside its hotel premises, where it is only available currently.
"We are going to add 2 to 3 per cent market share every year and in next five years. It should be around 18 to 20 per cent in the next five years," ITC Foods Division Divisional Chief Executive Hemant Malik told PTI.
ITC ventured into the juice segment two years back and has presently around 7 per cent market share.
Market research firm Nielsen has estimated the packed juice segment market to be around Rs 2,500 crore and is growing rapidly, he added.
In order to expand its juice product portfolio, he said ITC is focusing on local flavours and sell them under the same local name such as 'Kinnow' and 'Jamun Joy' under the B Natural brand.
"Today we have added pomegranate," Malik said.
Commenting on network expansion, he said as the category is very less penetrated the focus is to make it available to a wider range of consumers.
ITC is a late entrant in the packaged juice segment, which is largely dominated by PepsiCo's Tropicana and Real from homegrown FMCG major Dabur.
ITC had forayed into the premium packaged fruit drinks market in 2015 with the acquisition of the B Natural brand.
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Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif today said the death sentence handed out to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for "spying" should serve as a warning to those "plotting" against the country.
"Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared," Asif said after the Pakistani military announced that an army court has sentenced Jadhav to death after finding him guilty of "espionage and sabotage activities" and the army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved his execution.
Asif claimed that Yadav's sentencing by a military court was according to the law.
He said the death sentence handed out to Jadhav should serve as a "warning to those plotting" against Pakistan".
Asif said that Pakistan would use all constitutional force available against those acting against the sovereignty of the country.
"Soldiers and civilians of Pakistan have given sacrifices for this country and their sacrifices demand us to give a befitting reply to terrorists and those who aid and facilitate them," he said.
The defence minister further said that Jadhav's "confession" was a public document and if India raises the issue of his death sentence, Islamabad will reply to New Delhi.
Jadhav came (to Pakistan) with the approval of the Indian government," he claimed and said there is no doubt that India was "fueling terrorism in Pakistan."
According to Asif, the entire world had acknowledged Pakistan's struggle against terrorism and the country was dealing with this "menace" from both the "eastern and western front".
Pakistan sentenced Jadhav to death for carrying out espionage and sabotage activities in Balochistan and Karachi, the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
According to ISPR, Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 from Mashkel area of Balochistan for his "involvement in espionage and sabotage actives" in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province and Karachi city.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the of the sentencing of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a Pakistan military court surfaced, people flocked to his family's apartment in the city but found it to be locked.
It was later revealed that Jadhav's family members had moved to Pune and no one was staying in the flat.
"The family has moved to Pune and no one lives here. The flat is empty and is generally locked," a neighbour said.
A dozen police personnel reached the building in suburban Powai soon after the of the 46-year-old's death sentence spread. A large number of media persons also rushed to the spot. Locals too gathered outside the residential complex.
However, the managing committee members of the housing society prevented people from going inside the building.
Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy."
He has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country, a charge strongly denied by his family members. They have maintained that Jadhav may have strayed into Pakistan or lured to the place with some business proposal.
Jadhav's father Sudhir is a former assistant commissioner of police.
The Indian government has maintained that proceedings leading to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly".
India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy, but denied that he had any connection with the government.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Each year, roughly 1.4 million high school students take college courses. This is made possible by dual enrollment programs, which give those students opportunities to earn credits and work toward a college degree or technical vocation. Over 70 percent of courses are offered by community colleges.Such programs were praised recently by the Department of Education for expanding higher education "access" and helping students in terms of "credit accumulation." However, others have suggested that college administrators exploit dual enrollment programs to increase tuition revenue, and some argue that the courses often are dumbed-down. report conducted by City University of New York noted dual enrollment programs' "limited oversight of academic rigor" and "low or uncertain academic quality." It found only a small amount of data supporting proponents' claims. And in a 2013 Chronicle of Higher Education article titled "The Dark Side of Dual Enrollment," Sam Houston State mathematics professor Ken Smith questioned whether dual enrollment classes properly prepare students.Smith said that one student, who had failed his class once and was on the verge of failing again, had transferred to Sam Houston with 65 credit hours earned in high school. Smith discovered that the student had failed a college math class in high school, but was able to improve her grade after her mother complained. Smith said the student's courses "were not college level."In addition to the issue of low academic standards, there is reason to believe that a mercenary motive drives many of these dual enrollment programs. According to a 2016 study by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 59 percent of surveyed institutions said they use dual enrollment programs to meet their enrollment goals. It seems that many community college administrators, perhaps worried about recent enrollment declines , have come to view such programs mainly as revenue generators.Recently, concerns over dual enrollment have been raised at Cleveland Community College in Shelby, North Carolina. The school's problems, however, may go beyond dual enrollment; they appear to extend to issues involving improper college governance, lack of oversight, and lack of transparency.First, let's look at the dual enrollment program. All 58 of North Carolina's community colleges participate in a program called Career and College Promise . In the 2013-2014 academic year, state funding for it totaled nearly $57 million dollars.The program's "Career and Technical Education" pathway stipulates that to be eligible, a prospective student must have a 3.0 high school GPA or have permission from his or her principal. Additionally, students have to take an assessment test (called PLAN) to demonstrate college readiness in English, math, and reading. These scores "should be considered" by administrators when determining students' eligibility.Now-former Cleveland Community College (CCC) instructor Ginger Bullock, in a recent Martin Center interview, argued that few mechanisms are in place to ensure accountability and enforce those academic standards. She said that many ill-prepared high school students are allowed to take college courses, and that leaders at her institution ignore the problem because of an obsessive focus on increasing enrollment. Bullock claims that instructors, feeling pressure from both college and high school administrators, let students filter through substandard classes.Last summer, Bullock was informed that she would be teaching a marketing course at a local high school (in fact, all of the college's dual enrollment courses are taught at local high schools). According to Bullock and others, CCC requires that full-time faculty, not adjuncts, teach the dual enrollment classes. This means that Bullock would have had to travel to the high school every day and not be as available to her students at the college.At any rate, Bullock says that after hearing other instructors' concerns about the program, she asked around and learned that, in one course, 9 out of 14 high school students had GPAs below 3.0, and one student had a 1.7 GPA. Bullock says that she felt ethically responsible to report this information to the college administration.She claims that several administrators, including CCC's executive vice president Dr. Shannon Kennedy, did not think there was sufficient evidence to question the program's integrity. Bullock says she told administrators that she could not participate in something that she believes harms students, but that she would teach dual enrollment classes if the program were reformed.Shortly after, Bullock was terminated. The stated cause was "refusal to accept one's work assignment." She appealed her termination twice, and was denied both times. She currently is waiting for CCC trustees to hear her case.Bullock is not the only one with concerns about the dual enrollment program. Dr. BJ Zamora, former English department chair and CCC instructor (she recently retired), said in a Martin Center interview that she felt pressured to give students higher grades than they had earned. According to Zamora, the administration told the faculty that a community college is like a "business" and that the students are "customers."As mentioned earlier, CCC's issues may not be limited to those involving the dual enrollment program. For example, a former IT employee, Mike Falls, wrote a letter to CCC trustees last December listing allegations of fraud, employee intimidation, data security risks, and even illicit behavior by the administration (Falls showed that president Steve Thornburg's system password was a sexually inappropriate reference to the executive vice president, Dr. Shannon Kennedy).Although Thornburg was recently fined over the password issue (the fine amount is not publicly available), it seems that trustees were mostly dismissive of Falls. They never interviewed him during their review of his allegations. In a Martin Center interview, board member Allen Langley justified that dismissiveness by accusing Falls of "criminal activity" and of "illegally" discovering the password by "hacking" into the system. Langley, however, offered no evidence to support such claims (Falls said he uncovered the password during a routine software update).Ultimately, the board concluded that Falls's other allegations were "resolved" or not true, but it appears that it only heard one side of the story-the administration's.Another case of possible misconduct involves a $13.2 million Department of Labor grant, awarded to CCC in 2013 to help it develop a new information technology curriculum. In a Martin Center interview, the grant's former project manager, Mitch Sepaugh, alleged that Dr. Kennedy was not using the grant funds for the Labor Department's intended purpose. Sepaugh says that after expressing his worries to the administration, he was removed as project manager and denied a renewal of his contract at CCC. All of his grievance appeals have been denied. Trustees told the Martin Center that they did not know why Sepaugh's contract was not renewed.Although it is possible that some of these allegations may be unfounded, it is troubling that trustees seem to regard them merely as the complaints of a few "disgruntled employees." Such accusations should be taken seriously, and the individuals making them should be protected as potential whistleblowers and given a fair hearing. After all, recent scandals at other schools in North Carolina's community college system, such as Martin Community College in Williamston, have illustrated the danger in turning a blind eye to administrative malfeasance.In the case of the state's dual enrollment program, such wrongdoing could impact more than school employees such as Ginger Bullock. High school students may be lulled into a false sense of academic accomplishment, only to learn later that they really aren't prepared for more rigorous college coursework or career training. Those underprepared students are most likely to drop out and struggle with college loan debt.If trustees aren't willing to fully investigate potential whistleblower claims, which seems to be the case now, the onus is on North Carolina's State Board of Community Colleges and other higher-level policymakers to do so. If that doesn't happen, innocent college instructors may be mistreated, students may end up shortchanged, and taxpayer funds may be wasted on questionable or poorly managed programs.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide technical assistance to Uttarakhand to help it deal with damage caused by natural disasters especially landslides.
Senior officials from Uttarakhand including Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy and a Japanese delegation consisting of JICA's Chief Project Director Anoop Mallik and experts Shingo Kitaura and Saori Miyazama arrived at an agreement to this effect at a meeting also attended by forest officials here today.
As per the agreement which is part of an MoU signed by Uttarakhand Chief Secretary and JICA Chief Project Director in India, Japanese experts will train forest department personnel of the state on how to go about restoration efforts in the event of landslides in forest areas.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The opposition Left Front and Congress today said the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a sign of political desperation of the TMC to save party leaders embroiled in Narada and Saradha scams.
Banerjee today met Modi in New Delhi seeking early release of funds to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore, which is due to the state under various centrally sponsored schemes.
"We know that political desperation of Mamata Banerjee to save her party leaders from the CBI investigation in Narada sting operation and Saradha chit fund scam, has led to this meeting. The protest against BJP has fallen flat after the CBI investigation started and the meeting is nothing but an attempt to fix it," Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly and Congress leader Abdul Mannan said.
Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty also mocked the meeting and termed it as a "political setting".
"I think it was not a meeting, but a political setting between the two. We have seen the same political screenplay earlier also. This is nothing new to us," Chakraborty said.
Banerjee has been one of the most vocal critics of Modi and led the opposition's onslaught on the issue of demonetisation. She has also accused the Centre of pursuing vendetta politics after two of her MPs were arrested earlier this year for their alleged involvement in the chit fund scam.
The TMC and BJP, however, rubbished the opposition's allegations and said it was purely an example of Centre-state relations in a federal structure.
"It has nothing to do with the Saradha and Narada investigations. In a federal structure every chief minister has the right to meet the Prime Minister. It is a political game plan of the Congress and the Left to malign us," a senior BJP leader said.
"The Congress and Left can say whatever they want to. Our CM met the Prime Minister with demands for our debt-ridden state. It is the Left, which is responsible for this financial crisis," a senior TMC leader said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a strong votary of forging an anti BJP-alliance, today met senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel.
Mamata also met NCP leader Praful Patel and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also met her on Saturday.
The meetings assumes significance as various non-BJP parties have been calling for a rainbow coalition to stop the march of the saffron party after the UP elections.
The Trinamool Congress chief has been one the most vocal critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has several times suggested that non-BJP parties should join hands.
However, Mamata maintained that the meeting with Congress leaders was about approaching the Election Commission on EVM issue.
Parties likes BSP and AAP have alleged EVM tampering in the recently held assembly elections in five states.
The crucial meeting with the Congress strategists today lasted about an hour in the TMC office at Parliament and it was followed by the meeting with Patel.
Mamata met the Odisha Chief Minister at Central Hall.
"I wanted to meet him as I was told he was not keeping well," she said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An MBBS dropout was tonight arrested in connection with the recent murder of his parents, sister and an aunt.
Cadell Jeansen Raja, who was absconding since yesterday, was taken into custody from the Thampanoor railway station here soon after alighting from a train, police said.
The 30-year-old Raja, an MBBS dropout, pursued engineering in Australia, but returned after failing to complete the course.
Later, he took to animation and was said to have developed a games search engine for an Australian firm, police said.
Police had issued a look out notice for him yesterday.
The murder came which came to light on Sunday, had sent shock waves as it took place in the city's posh Nathencode locality, close to Cliff House, official residence of Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan and some of his cabinet colleagues.
Seeing smoke and fire emanating from the bungalow, the neighbours had alerted fire force and police who rushed to the spot found three charred bodies. On the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Another body of a close relative, Lalitha, was found in a highly decomposed state cut into pieces and packed in a sack.
The deceased were identified that of Dr Jean Padma, a Cardiologist, her husband Prof Rajathankam, their daughter Caroline, who was pursuing MBBS in China.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Crisscrossing Najafgarh area during the Vijay Vikas Yatra today, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari accused the Congress and the AAP of "betraying" people living in rural areas and unauthorised colonies in the city.
He also promised that if his party wins the April 23 civic polls, a special provision would be made in the budget of the three municipal corporations for the allocation of Rs 425 crore for the development of the rural areas in the city.
Tiwari covered 27 wards, mostly in the semi-urban areas, during the Yatra that began this morning.
"Immediately after winning the MCD elections, we will make a special provision in the budget for the allocation of Rs 200 crore each to South and North Delhi Municipal Corporations and Rs 25 crore to the East Delhi Municipal Corporation for maintenance of rural areas," Tiwari said during his roadshow.
The funds will be used for developing community centres, drainage, maintenance of roads and parks in rural areas, he added.
Tiwari accused both the Congress and the AAP of "betraying" the hopes of people living in rural parts and unauthorised colonies in the city.
"Congress and Kejriwal are the two sides of the same coin, both have betrayed the people of unauthorised colonies and rural areas."
The BJP is pitted against the AAP and the Congress in the elections for 272 wards in three municipal corporations that will go for polls on April 23.
The BJP has been ruling the three corporations for the last one decade. It has been accused by both the Congress and the AAP of "corruption" and "mismanagement" and it is part of their campaign theme.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The vice chancellor of Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University today moved the Madras High Court seeking annulment of the Income Tax Department's summons to her over a tax evasion probe.
The IT Department had issued summonses yesterday to the University's Vice Chancellor Dr S Geethalakshmi besides Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar and actor politician Sarath Kumar, asking them to appear before it today to join the probe.
Income Tax sleuths had conducted searches at her home on April 7 and completed the exercise on April 8.
The raid at the premises of the VC was over allegations related to "some transfers."
Dr Geethalakshmi said the IT summons seeking her appearance before the IT Department today was not as per Section 131 of the Income Tax Act as no mention was made about the IT Act proceedings in it and hence the summons was not valid legally.
She further argued that as no probe was pending against her, the issue of summons under the above section amounted to "non-application of mind" by the IT officials.
Claiming that the penal provisions can be invoked only in case of failure to produce documents required by the officials, she said nothing was mentioned about the production of documents required by the Department.
Dr Geethalakshmi also said the searches had commenced at 6 AM on April 7 and was completed only at 6.30 PM the next day.
The summons were issued on April 7 before the searches were completed and hence not valid under law, she said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One employee suffered minor injuries in an explosion at Reliance Industries' petrochemicals plant at Patalganga in the neighbouring Raigad district this morning, the police said.
A pipeline carrying chemicals inside the plant got choked up, leading to the gasket opening up and then causing the explosion, they said.
The opening up was discovered in time and necessary precautionary steps taken helping avert casualties, they added.
The injured has been identified as Atul Ravindra Nachane (24), a worker at the facility.
When contacted, a RIL spokesperson confirmed the incident and said there was a minor injury to one of the workers who was taken to an in-house medical facility.
The operations at the plant have not been affected, the spokesperson said.
The RIL scrip closed 1.74 per cent down at Rs 1,381.05 a piece on the BSE today, as against a 0.44 per cent correction in the benchmark.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Uttar Pradesh Minority Affairs Minister Mohsin Raza today waded into controversy by suggesting that the Shia Central Waqf Board be dissolved, drawing angry retort from its chairman, who saw "political reasons" in it.
"Why shouldn't the current board (UP Shia Central Waqf Board) be dissolved," Raza shot off, peeved over poor attendance of staff during a surprise visit to its office here.
The angry remark of the Minister of State triggered an instant protest from Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi, who saw politics in the matter.
"He (Raza) is trying to dissolve the Shia Waqf Board purely for political reasons," Rizvi said in a statement.
He claimed that of Raza's surprise visit induced "fear psychosis" among the employees of the Board, forcing them to leave office premises in advance to escape his anger.
Rizvi alleged that before the minister reached the Waqf Board office, some unidentified persons came and told the staff that the minister might get some of them arrested.
"This created a fear psychosis among the staff who immediately left to escape the wrath of the minister," he said.
Rizvi charged Raza with levelling "baseless allegations" against it and is running a malicious campaign to defame it.
"This is indeed unfortunate. It has induced fear among the staff," the statement said.
The chairman also said if any anomaly was noticed during the minister's surprise inspection, it may be conveyed to the Board for necessary remedial action against any errant employee.
Earlier in the day, Raza rapped the Waqf Board officials over low punctuality of staff and asked them why shouldn't the current board be dissolved.
"It seems that the officials of this department do not feel the pain of the common public, who come from far-flung places with their grievances," Raza remarked.
"We (ministers) reach office by 9.30 AM. But, even at 11.30 AM, the officials are yet to arrive," Raza observed.
"From today onwards, the officials must come out of the hangover of the previous government," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The fourth round of peace talks between Mizoram government and the Hmar People's Convention (Democratic) militants is scheduled to be held on April 21, a senior state Home department official said today.
The official informed PTI that the parleys were expected to revolve around giving more autonomy to the Sinlung Hill Development Council and also on the financial aspects including proposals for rehabilitation and resettlement of the HPC (D) militants, after they lay down arms in the event of the agreement being signed.
"We are waiting for the concurrence of the state Finance department on our proposals for the proposed expenses and hope that the concurrence would come before the resumption of the talks," the official said.
The state government delegation would be led by Additional secretary in the Home department, Lalbiakzama while the HPC (D) delegation would be headed by working president of the HPC (D) L T Hmar and comprising of overground Hmar leaders from both Manipur and Mizoram.
The HPC (D), formed in 1994 soon after the surrender of the erstwhile HPC militants are demanding a separate autonomous district council by carving out areas adjoining Manipur, which they had abandoned since the latest rounds of talks.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A student from Nagaland was killed, while her two friends suffered injuries when their motorcycle was hit by a vehicle here, police said today.
The deceased has been identified as Ausam (20), a BSc student of Lovely Professional University, Chaheru.
Her two male friends, Yopito of Nagaland and Nikhil Chaudhary from Chhattisgarh's Raipur district, were injured in the road mishap, they said.
They were on their way to the university when their motorcycle was hit by a vehicle near the Hargobind Nagar crossing on National Highway 1 yesterday, police said.
Ausam's body was handed over to her family after autopsy at civil hospital, they said.
The two injured youths have been hospitalized, they said.
SHO Sukhpal Singh said a case has been registered against an unknown person on the charge of causing death by negligence.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Setting their sight on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, top NDA leaders today pledged to work unitedly to win a second term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asserted his "strong" leadership was required for India's progress.
Leaders of 33 NDA constituents also adopted a resolution endorsing Modi's leadership and his government's policies, while resolving to strengthen the alliance by expanding its base, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters.
Replying to a question as to whether presidential election also came up for discussion, Jaitley said,"It was not on the agenda."
Replying to an identical question, TDP Chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said NDA partners will collectively take a call on that whenever the issue was deliberated upon.
All NDA constituents hailed the performance of the Modi government, especially the leadership of the Prime Minister, Jaitley told reporters.
"The NDA allies also passed a resolution to work together to win a second term under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi in 2019," he said.
The Minister said the ruling alliance has expanded its support base in the last three years during which its popularity and acceptability has also gone up.
Echoing similar sentiments, Naidu said,"India will be the only country which will have double digit growth and this is only possible under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi."
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister said the NDA allies are committed to working in tandem to win the 2019 elections under Modi's leadership.
The meeting began with the inaugural address by BJP President Amit Shah. His speech was followed by those of SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal, TDP supremo Naidu and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, who has often targeted the Modi government and BJP, was also present and addressed the gathering.
PDP leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti could not attend the meeting and a representative deputised for her.
The meeting, only the second such gathering of NDA constituents since it came to power at the Centre in 2014, was also attended by the new friends the coalition has won over in Goa and north-eastern states.
Both Jaitley and Naidu unanimously identified "clean and corruption-free governance" provided by the Modi dispensation as its biggest achievement.
Today, under the able leadership of Modi, India's presence is being felt and acknowledged at the global level. Countrymen across the world feel proud about being Indian, Naidu said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A senior captain of Nepal's national carrier has been arrested here with an undeclared cash of foreign currencies amounting to nearly USD 94,000 from the Tribhuvan International Airport.
According to the police, senior captain Subarna Awale of the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) was arrested last night from the country's only international airport during the final security check.
He was on a regular duty and was scheduled to fly the NAC plane to Dubai.
Awale, 55, was supposed to command the NAC flight, RA 229, to Dubai, scheduled for 11:30 PM, when he was caught with the hidden cache of foreign currencies amounting to USD 93,600 in his hand luggage.
He was taken in to custody at Gaushala Police Circle and further investigations were underway.
"We have taken him under control. We are investigating the incident. We'll send him to the Department of Revenue Investigation after completing our investigation," said SSP Prem Chand.
It was reported that he was taking out the foreign currency to send it to his daughter who is pursuing higher studies in the US.
As per the legal provisions, passengers traveling abroad can carry a maximum of USD 5,000 and they have to declare the source of the amount.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Nitish Kumar government's decision to clamp total prohibition in Bihar drew praise from Gandhians today who strongly condemned some governments making "backdoor arrangements" like denotifying highways to avoid the Supreme Court order on no liquor outlets within 500 metre of NHs/SHs.
In his welcome address at the two-day "Rashtriya Vimarsh" (National discussion) on the occasion of the centenary of Champaran Satyagraha, Nitish Kumar said complete prohibition decision was inspired by Bapu's strong aversion to alcohol.
Kumar was critical of some state governments making "backdoor arrangements" like denotifying highways to avoid the Supreme Court order banning liquor outlets within 500 metre of highways.
"What a time has come...Are they governing or busy manipulating to circumvent the Apex Court's decision on liquor ban on NHs/SHs...This is really disgusting," Kumar said.
The Bihar CM said, while a state like Rajasthan is worried about losing Rs 6700 crore annually by imposing liquor ban he did not bother about it.
"I did not bother about the state losing Rs 5000 core a year due to liquor ban at the cost of people's health," Kumar said.
"After an year we see that Bihar has in fact gained Rs 10,000 crore as people are spending on healthy items with money saved from not buying alcohol," Kumar said.
"There could have been no better time to launch complete prohibition in the state than 100 years celebration of Gandhiji's Champaran Satyagraha and 350 Prakash Parva of Sikh Guru Govind Singh," he said.
Gandhiji's grandson and former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Gandhians like Justice (Retd) Chandrasekhar Dharmadhikari, Justice (Retd) Rajendra Sachar, S N Subba Rao, Sachidanand Sinha, Medha Patkar and Prerna Desai who had congregated here praised Nitish Kumar's decision to ban liquor.
Justice (Retd) Chandrasekhar Dharmadhikari also praised Bihar's decision on liquor ban.
"Today, those violating laws draw more respect than those following them," the prominent Gandhian said.
Medha Patkar known for launching "Narmada Bachao" agitation in Gujarat lauded Nitish Kumar's "strong will" in imposing prohibition which she said should be emulated elsewhere too.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has said it backs Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir and believes that there is a need to put "pressure" on India on the issue of alleged human rights violations there, according to a media report.
The OIC Secretary-General, Yousaf Ahmad Al-Othaimeen, who arrived in Islamabad yesterday, held talks with Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.
Radio Pakistan reported that the two leaders said there was hundred per cent unanimity of views on all issues facing the Muslim Ummah (community) and the way forward.
The OIC Secretary-General said his organisation has same position as that of Pakistan on the issues of Kashmir, Palestine, Islamophobia and plight of Muslim communities in non-Muslim nations.
"Kashmir has always been on top of the agenda of OIC," the OIC Secretary-General said in response to a question during a joint press conference.
He said the OIC has been urging India to provide access to Kashmir but unfortunately India has declined to accede to the request.
He said India also opposed visit of an OIC Human Rights Commission to Kashmir.
The OIC Secretary-General said despite denial by India, "we should keep pressure on New Delhi on the issue of human rights violations in Kashmir and peaceful resolution of the dispute."
India maintains that OIC, a grouping of 57 Muslim countries, has no locus standi on the Kashmir issue.
Othaimeen thanked Pakistan for supporting programmes and causes espoused by OIC and said the two sides discussed holding of the upcoming summit of OIC on Science and Technology.
He said the OIC condemns all terrorist acts in Pakistan or any other country. He said terrorism is terrorism and it has no race or religion.
"We condemn terrorism no matter where it happens in the world as Islamic is religion of peace and co-existence," he said.
The OIC Secretary-General said the two sides have vowed to work closely on all issues facing the ummah.
Aziz thanked the OIC and the Muslim countries for their consistent support on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
"We agreed to work together to combat Islamophobia and hatred against Muslims and formulate joint Islamic action against publication of blasphemous material including on social media," Aziz said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today had a packed schedule here as she met a host of leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking urgent release of funds for her state and pitching for use of ballot papers in polls.
Mixing administrative work and political lobbying, Mamata began her day with a meeting with Modi followed by confabulations with senior leaders of Congress, NCP, BJD and Samajwadi Party.
In her meeting with Modi she sought early release of Rs 10,000 crore due to her state under various centrally sponsored schemes and drew his attention to the problems faced by West Bengal due to lack of funds. The outstanding dues of Rs 10,469.01 crore are towards payment for MNREGA, Swachh Bharat Mission and some other schemes.
The Prime Minister said he would look into it, Mamata, who is in the national capital on a four-day visit since Saturday, said after the meeting.
The ebullient West Bengal Chief Minister, who has been opposing signing of the Teesta river water sharing pact with Bangladesh, declined to say anything on the issue.
Mamata, a strong votary of forging an anti BJP-alliance, met senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel. Later she also met NCP leader Praful Patel and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had met her on Saturday.
The meetings assume significance as various non-BJP parties have been calling for a rainbow coalition to stop the march of the saffron party after the UP elections.
The Trinamool Congress chief has been one the most vocal critics of Prime Minister Modi and has several times suggested that non-BJP parties should join hands.
She, however, maintained that the meeting with Congress leaders was about approaching the Election Commission on the EVM issue. Parties likes BSP and AAP have alleged tampering with EVMs in the recent assembly elections in five states.
The meeting with the Congress strategists lasted about an hour in the TMC office at Parliament House which was followed by the one with Patel.
Mamata met the Odisha Chief Minister in the Central Hall of Parliament. "I wanted to meet him as I was told he was not keeping well," she said.
Later in the day Samajwadi Party president and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also met her.
Mamata later advocated replacement of EVMs with ballot paper, saying "old is always gold". "If there is any doubt (about reliability of EVMs) then let's opt for ballot paper," the TMC supremo said, adding in democracy the Election Commission cannot ignore the demand of a "majority" of political parties.
"EVMs can be tampered with, so let's go back to the old system," Mamata said in an informal interaction with media.
Sixteen opposition parties later today urged the Election Commission to revert to the paper ballot system, claiming the faith of the people in the EVMs had "eroded".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a provocative move, Pakistan's powerful army chief today approved Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav's execution after a military court sentenced him to death in a secret trial for alleged involvement in "espionage and sabotage activities" in restive Balochistan and Karachi.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it said.
The development could further strain the India-Pakistan ties which were hit after attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.
According to the army statement, Jadhav, a commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy."
The Pakistan Army had also released a "confessional video" of Jadhav.
India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy but denied that he has any connection with the government.
"The individual has no link with government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy," the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement in March last year.
India had demanded Consular access to Jadhav, but Pakistan repeatedly denied it.
The ISPR statement, however, said Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
Pakistan army's decision today is expected to further strain the ties between India and Pakistan.
The two countries have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Pakistan's support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The two sides were also engaged in a war of words last year over Pakistan's provocative statements on the turmoil in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year.
Leading Pakistani experts viewed the announcement about Jadhav's death sentence as an unprecedented move, saying it will send a strong message to foreign countries engaging in spying activities in the country.
"Pakistan has sent a message that if somebody does such activities here, it will hand them severe punishment. Those operating against the state will face a similar fate," Defence analyst Ikram Sehgal told Dawn newspaper.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan's powerful army chief today approved the execution of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav after a military court found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" against the country, a development that could further strain the India-Pakistan ties.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial under Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," it said and added that the FGCM found Jadhav "guilty of all the charges."
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a Commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistani security forces in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was "a serving officer" in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
The Pakistan Army had released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the navy but denied he has any connection with the government. "The individual has no link with government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy," the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement in March last year.
India had demanded Consular access to Jadhav, but Pakistan repeatedly denied Indian officials access to him.
The ISPR statement, however, said Jadhav, alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
Pakistan army's decision today is expected to further strain the ties between India and Pakistan. The two countries have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Pakistan's support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Leading Pakistani experts viewed the announcement about Jadhav's death sentence as an unprecedented move, saying it will send a strong message to foreign countries engaging in spying activities in the country.
"Pakistan has sent a message that if somebody does such activities here, it will hand them severe punishment. Those operating against the state will face a similar fate," Defence analyst Ikram Sehgal told Dawn newspaper.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan's army chief today approved the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav after a military court sentenced him to death for "espionage and sabotage activities" in a "farce" trial, evoking a sharp reaction from India which described the move as "premeditated murder".
The incident is expected to further deteriorate already strained Indo-Pak ties which were hit after deadly attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it said.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
He said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly".
Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy."
The Pakistan Army had also released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy but denied that he has any connection with the government.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
It also claimed that Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Islamabad's support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The two sides were also engaged in a war of words last year over Pakistan's provocative statements on the turmoil in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Pakistan military court has sentenced Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death after he was convicted of "espionage and sabotage activities", prompting New Delhi to warn Islamabad that it is a case of "premeditated murder".
The trial proceedings that led to the capital punishment for Jadhav were also described by India as "farcical".
The award of the death sentence to the 46-year-old former Naval officer at a court-martial was confirmed by Pakistan's army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa today and is expected to further deteriorate already strained Indo-Pak ties that were hit after the deadly attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan- based terrorists last year.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The court martial was closed to the public and consular access was not provided to Jadhav.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it said.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
He said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly".
Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy."
The Pakistan Army had also released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy but denied that he has any connection with the government.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
It also claimed that Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Islamabad's support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The two sides were also engaged in a war of words last year over Pakistan's provocative statements on the turmoil in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
I have been "Honeybee" for two years now. Lyla had her second birthday on April fifth. She was born on Easter Sunday just as I was putting the turkey on a platter for Sunday dinner. The day was as pretty as any that has ever been, and my young dogwood bloomed that day for the first time.Lyla is my only grandchild-and in some ways, I was as nervous when she was born, as when I had my own first child. I worried, I would "break her" and what made her cry, I wondered. I checked her breathing while she napped. What does a grandmother do, after all? Oh, how I hoped she would love me.Jenny did everything right. She was a calm mother that played beautiful music for Lyla. Jenny had soft clothes for Lyla to sleep in, washed in natural potions. Jenny had all sorts of contraptions, cradles that rocked themselves and a machine that made sounds like rain and waves. Stars floated across the nursery ceiling while Lyla slept with the same soft bunny, that Princess Charlotte did . . .but Lyla was a fussy baby any way.The one and only thing that was a guaranteed strategy, was to take Lyla outside. I declared that somehow Jenny had given birth to a former "woodland fairy"- and I have not given up on that notion now, two years later.It gives me great pleasure to report that, Lyla is an especially loving child today. She still strongly prefers to be outside, but will cook in her little kitchen, from her Aunt B or look at books a good while. Lyla loves to draw and she loves to stack blocks. Lyla loves all animals and dolls. Her Aunt B, just gave her the sweetest little doll carriage-and Lyla loves that too. (Aunt B gives especially nice gifts.)I became "Honeybee" because I said a little made-up rhyme , that made her laugh, when she was still a fussy baby. Honeybees do a lot of things. Mostly, I share with Lyla, things that I love. I do not worry about ABC's and 123's, but instead concentrate on sky and poetry, flowers and birds. I am learning all over again, how to make healthy cookies and soon, I will tell her stories about my own grandmothers, so she will know, that she came from a long succession of loving folks.Lyla reminds me of so many precious things. Things known in the the earliest days of childhood-like whispering. I had forgotten how babies practice whispering . In a very hushed voice, they will chatter in baby language as if they are telling important and happy secrets. They examine sticks and leaves for long whiles. They never lie about their feelings, nor "put on airs". Lyla had as soon find a dandelion, as a diamond, in the grass-so now, I look for dandelions, too. I am as liable to have a pretty rock in my pocket, as she is and I am now in the habit of waving at cats.In some odd and beautiful way, grandparents and their grandchildren, are on common ground. A place where clocks have little purpose-where wealth is not measured in dollars and status is of no consequence. It is a place of authenticity yet, on a dime, can turn to something very far fetched from reality-for while we embrace truth-we are not fearful to dream-and dream big. There seems to be a sort of liberty, in childhood-and then again, in later years. It is really beautiful, when you think about it.Dear Diary, I do not proclaim to know much, and only few things, am I sure of-but I do know with certainty. . . being a "honeybee". . .is all it's cracked up to be.Happy Birthday Lyla! Love, Honeybee
The Supreme Court today asked the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association to respond to the issues raised by the Centre while defending the use of pellet guns to quell stone-pelting mobs in Kashmir valley, stressing that the lawyers' body cannot take sides.
The apex court sought the Bar's response after the Centre explained to the Supreme Court the circumstances under which security forces use measures like pellet guns.
The apex court told the Bar it has to play a very important role in assisting the court in evolving a solution and cannot take sides.
The Bar is neither on the side of the security forces nor on the mob's side, the court said and gave two weeks time to the lawyers' body to come out with its submission so that a solution can be found and asked it to file an affidavit. The matter has now been posted for April 28.
The apex court noted the submission of Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi that the security forces try to use minimum forces to avoid any damage to life and property and eventually use pellet guns and live ammunition in the final stage when the mob comes in immediate proximity to the security forces.
The bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar also took into consideration the submission made by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar which contended that the Centre was not coming out with a clear-cut scenario and expressed its willingness to assist the court.
The bench also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul said that the Bar was in an effective position to bring out true factual position to assist the court in giving directions which will be meaningful.
The bench reminded the Bar body that it has to play a very important role in assisting the court in evolving the solution as the lawyers in the Bar were privileged people.
At the outset, the Attorney General, in response to the last hearing, placed before the bench confidential documents about the deliberations undertaken to evolve options other than the use of pellet guns for tackling mobs which resort to stone-pelting and attacks by petrol bombs, acid bombs and other deadly weapons.
The apex court had on March 27 expressed concern over the pellet gun injuries suffered by minors who indulged in stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the Centre to consider other effective means to quell the protests as it concerns "life and death".
It had conceded that though the use of pellet guns by the security forces was not a judicial issue, it can intervene in the matter to find a solution acceptable to parties concerned.
The court had given two weeks time to Attorney General to ponder over the suggestions to look into effective alternatives to the pellet guns.
It had said that it is not the subject that has to be decided by the courts nor can there be a judicial redressal as it is a delicate situation.
The court had suggested to the Attorney General to consider other technology-based measures like microwave to disperse the protesters and water which tastes and smell awful that will make people go away.
The AG had said he will speak to the committee of experts which has prepared an interim report on the use of effective measures in October 2016 and get back to the court after two weeks.
During the last hearing, the bench had expressed its concern over minors indulging in stone pelting and suffering injuries during protests.
It had asked the Centre to find some alternative measures to deal with such situations so that kids do not get injured.
On December 14 last year, the apex court had said pellet guns should not be used "indiscriminately" for controlling street protests in Jammu and Kashmir and be resorted to only after "proper application of mind" by the authorities.
It had also sought assistance of the Attorney General on the issue and asked him to submit a copy of the report submitted by the expert committee constituted for exploring other alternatives to pellet guns.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association against the high court order seeking stay on the use of pellet guns as a large number of people had been killed or injured due to their use.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court had on September 22 rejected the plea seeking a ban on use of pellet guns on the ground that the Centre had already constituted a Committee of Experts through its memorandum of July 26, 2016 for exploring alternatives to pellet guns.
Taking note of the statement, the high court had disposed of the petition, saying that no further direction was required since the matter was being looked at by the Centre.
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Mumbai Police have said owners or landlords should submit furnished documents of tenants - foreigners or Indians - before renting out the property to them.
The police today issued an order to this effect under under section 144 of CRPC-1973.
The move comes in the wake of the reports that "some anti-social elements or terrorists may seek hideout in the residential areas of the megapolis".
As per the order valid till June 8, the owners will have to submit the documents to the in-charge of the police station, where their property is located.
It stated that for the foreigners, the owner must submit their name, nationality, passport details, visa details, category, their registration number, place and reason for stay.
The order also stated that no landlord, owner or a private person of any house, property shall let, sub-let or rent out property to a person before furnishing his or her particulars to the senior police inspector concerned.
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Police firing tear gas have clashed with prison guards protesting working conditions in a notorious prison south of Paris.
The incidents on yesterday night at the sprawling Fleury-Merogis prison come after a few hundred workers blocked the entrance and set tires on fire to call attention to concerns about security and overcrowding.
Police sought to dislodge them from the blockade but met resistance and fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. Regional authorities did not immediately comment on the violence.
Fleury-Merogis has housed violent Islamic extremists, and workers and prisoners have long decried violence and poor conditions in the prison. French media have reported that six prison guards were recently attacked there, prompting the latest protest.
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Bollywood actress Rakhi Sawant today sought anticipatory bail in a case of allegedly making objectionable remarks against sage Valmiki, who wrote the mythological Hindu epic 'Ramayana'.
Taking cognisance of the bail application, Additional Sessions Judge Dinesh Kumar ordered to summon the record of lower court for April 17.
Sawant's lawyer Rajneesh Lakhanpal apprised the court that his client never spoke against sage Valmiki, adding that she has tendered unconditional apology to the Valmiki fraternity.
Judicial Magistrate Sumit Sabharwal had issued an arrest warrant against the 38-year-old actor on March 9. Sawant was summoned to face trial on the complaint of lawyer Narinder Aadia.
In his complaint, Aadia stated that he was a firm believer of Bhagwan Valmiki.
He claimed that on July 9, 2016 he was watching television with his family members, and was astonished to hear the derogatory remarks used by Sawant against the sage.
On April 4, the Punjab Police had gone to the actor's residence in Mumbai to arrest her, but she was no where to be found.
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Prohibitory orders were today imposed in twin districts of Budgam and Ganderbal in central Kashmir where eight persons were killed in firing by security forces during polling for Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
"Restriction on the assembly of four or more persons under Section 144 of CrPc has been imposed in Budgam and Ganderbal districts to maintain law and order," a police official said.
He said that while there were no curbs imposed in the summer capital here, security forces have been deployed in strength at sensitive places across the city to prevent any untoward incident.
Normal life was affected across the Valley due to the strike called by separatists. Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were shut, while the attendance in banks and government offices was low, the official said.
Internet services remained suspended for the second day today. Public transport was off the roads, while private transport was minimal.
Kashmir University and Islamic University of Science and Technology have postponed all examinations that were scheduled for today.
The separatists had yesterday called for a two-day shutdown against the killing of protesters in security forces' firing, saying it was the only way for them to express solidarity with the families of those killed and the cause for which they laid down their lives.
"We know hartal would not affect government policy towards us but it is the only option to express our collective grief," separatist leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farroq, Syed Ali Geelani and Mohammad Yasin Malik had said in a joint statement.
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Runaya Metsource, a company promoted by Vedanta Ltd Chairman Navin Agarwal's son Naivedya Agarwal, has signed an agreement with Russian aluminium firm UC Rusal for a 50:50 joint venture in India.
The JV is first of its kind startup with a focus on high-end manufacturing and will produce high technology aluminium paste and powders in India, a statement said.
"This JV is setting up a world class, 'state of the art' 10,000 tonnes per annum facility, specialising in the production of high technology aluminium pastes and powders with a wide range of high-end applications, including in additive technologies and solar energy," it said.
Currently the demand of these products in India is met through global sources.
Naivedya Agarwal, the CEO of Runaya Metsource and designate Managing Director of the JV said, "Runaya's strategy is to identify businesses focusing broadly on material sciences and deliver products with high technology applications, through alliances and partnerships with global leaders."
Alexey Arnautov, RUSAL's director for new projects said, "RUSAL's strategic priority includes the increase in production and sales of high value added products, including the creation of joint ventures.
"A combination of RUSAL's long lasting experience in production of aluminium powders and pastes as well as Runaya Metsource's strong position as a local player create solid competitive advantages for the JV and is an excellent foundation to penetrate the market," Arnautov said.
The project will begin this yearand commence commercial production in 2018.
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The RP Group Monday entered the FMCG space by launching two products and plans to pump in Rs 10,000 crore in the sector over the next 5 to 7 years.
The company forayed into packaged food business under new entity Guiltfree Industries Ltd and as of now none of the listed group firms have any stake in it.
Group Chairman said the company began its FMCG journey with healthy snack brand 'Too Yumm'.
Bullish about healthy food sector of the country, Goenka said the group was aiming at $1 billion in sales from FMCG in the next five years.
Goenka said the group would enter into other FMCG segments like personal care and healthcare in due course.
He also said acquisitions were on cards and the company was evaluating 'many' targets having regional and national brands mainly in the food space.
Brand, distribution and infrastructure what the group is looking at. "We'll not foolish about acquisitions, but are hungry, " Goneka said declining further.
Today, two products 'Foxnuts' and 'Wheat Thins' with six other variants under 'Too Yumm' were launched from outsourced manufacturing facilities. Some ten more products with 40-50 variants are in the pipeline for the next 12 months.
These products will be launched on April 13 in Kolkata and Pune and on April 17 in NCR region. Initially, in 15,000-20,000 outlets the products will be available, while the same will be ramped up to one lakh stores in 40 cities in a year's time.
Cressida Dick, first woman commissioner of Scotland Yard in its 187-year history, took charge of her post today, promising to protect the people of London, which recently saw a lone wolf attack on the British Parliament.
The 56-year-old was caught on camera walking into her new office at the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London wearing trainers and carrying a bunch of bananas.
"This is a great responsibility and an amazing opportunity. I'm looking forward immensely to protecting and serving the people of London and working again with the fabulous women and men of the Met," Commissioner Dick had said in February when her appointment was first made public.
In her new post, Dick is in charge of more than 43,000 officers and staff and has an estimated 3-billion-pound security budget to manage.
It has already been revealed that she voluntarily chose to take a 40,000-pound pay cut over the previous commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe's, salary and will be earning 270,000 pounds a year.
Commissioner Dick had spent more than 30 years working in policing prior to her departure from the Met for a low-profile role at the UK Foreign Office in 2015.
The daughter of two academics, she was born, brought up and educated in Oxford.
After graduating from Oxford University's Balliol College with a degree in agriculture and forest sciences, she worked briefly in accountancy before joining the Met in 1983.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said of her appointment: "CressidaDickwill be the first female commissioner of the Met in its 187-year history, and the most powerful police officer in the land... This is a historic day for London and a proud day for me as mayor."
Scotland Yard is Britain's biggest British force and was founded in 1829.
As well as covering London, it has national functions including counter-terrorism and diplomatic and VIP protection.
The new commissioner takes over at a particularly sensitive time for the British capital, which remains on high alert for a terrorist attack following Khalid Masood's attack on March 22.
One of her first tasks as the most powerful police officer in Britain would be to attend the funeral of PC Keith Palmer, the Met Police officer killed at the gates of Parliament during the terrorist attack in London last month.
Hundreds of officers from around Britain have been lining the streets of London for Palmer's funeral procession from the Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral today.
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: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today wrapped up his four-day visit to Twang by giving a talk on "Secular Ethics and Happiness".
With Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu sitting by his side, the Dalai Lama told his audience at Kalawangpo Hall that secular ethics was the only way to bring lasting peace and happiness in the world.
"Peace in the post World War II world is built on fear, but genuine peace can only come through inner peace," he said and stressed that inner peace could come through training of the mind.
The exiled Tibetan leader also emphasised that secular ethics must be achieved through education and not just prayers or faith.
Asked by a member of the audience what would be the state of secular ethics when the world was going through a clash of beliefs, the Dalai Lama said, "Nothing can destroy each other's beliefs. So the best way is to make peace and live together. A terrorist killing in the name of religion can never be true to his faith."
However, efforts must be made to reach out to them as they are not born terrorists but circumstances had made them so," the Nobel laureate observed.
He emphasised on education as the key to bring in human understanding and values.
The Dalai Lama lamented that the western nations were not helping understand the true values of education, due to which everyone is after material pursuit bringing untold human suffering.
To a question on rituals becoming more important than wisdom or philosophy, his Holiness declared that rituals were not important and emphasised on the use of intelligence to transform emotions.
Earlier, the Dalai Lama released a book titled "Ocean and Blue Mountains" published by the department of Karmik and Adhyatmik Affairs in the presence of the chief minister and other dignitaries.
The book title refers 'Ocean' as His Holiness and 'Blue Mountains' as the people of Arunachal Pradesh and is a collection of memoirs of the special bond shared between the two.
He also released a book titled - "Crossing of the Frontiers" describing his exile route from Tibet to India, published by Losel Nyinje Charitable Society and Monyul Social Welfare Association.
Earlier in the day, the Dalai Lama gave his last sermon to the devotees at the Yid GaChosin monastery ground.
He distributed one lakh saplings to be planted in and around Tawang. On his way to the Kalawangpo Hall, His Holiness consecrated the statue of Lord Buddha at the heart of Tawang township.
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The Shiv Sena today sought the United Nations' intervention to secure the release of retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistan army court on alleged "espionage" charge.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led outfit, part of the ruling BJP-led coalition at the Centre, termed the development as sad, painful and agonising.
"The decision of Pakistani military court is sad, painful and agonising. The saddest part is that the Indian government could not secure Jadhav's release," Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande told PTI.
"It's time the government gives a tit-for-tat response to Pakistan. If India has such Pakistani prisoners, it can think about awarding a similar sentence to them as a befitting reply to the neighbouring nation," she added.
Kayande said the Centre should immediately use all means at its disposal to secure the release of 46-year-old former Navy officer.
"We hope the Centre would immediately seek the UN help for Jadhav's release," she said.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials allegedly in Balochistan which he entered from Iran.
He was sentenced to death by a military court in a secret trial for alleged "espionage and sabotage activities" and Pakistan's army chief today approved his execution.
The Indian government has maintained proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly.
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The Students Federation of India (SFI) today moved the Delhi High Court against the University Grants Commission's (UGC) regulations on the eligibility and manner of admission to MPhil and PhD courses in the country.
The matter came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Deepa Sharma which listed it for consideration on April 18.
SFI in its plea had challenged the constitutional validity of the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of MPhil and PhD degree) Regulations 2016 which came into effect from July 5, 2016.
The students' body termed the Regulations as "irrational, unreasonable and arbitrary" and alleged that it is contrary to the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy.
Apart from SFI, three students -- one from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and two from the Delhi University (DU) -- who aspire to pursue MPhil and PhD courses from JNU have also challenged the Regulations along with the students' body.
The students and SFI have contended that the Regulations have resulted in a massive cut in seats for the MPhil and PhD courses for the 2017-18 academic year.
Their petition says that compared to 970 seats in the last academic year for these two degrees, this year the number of seats has dropped to 102.
The seats have reduced due to capping of the number of students per research supervisor for MPhil and PhD courses, the petition has said.
It has contended that the cap was put without consulting or informing students and without improving the infrastructure.
The petitioners have challenged various provisions of the Regulations including those laying down a minimum percentage requirement of 55 per cent for General category and 50 per cent for reserved category as well as the 100 per cent weightage given to viva-voce exam.
Apart from striking down of the Regulations, they have also sought filling up of the vacancies in the posts of Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors to avoid reduction of seats in the MPhil and PhD courses in the current academic year (2017-18).
As per JNU's admission prospectus for the current academic year, the last date for submitting the filled up applications was April 5.
A single judge of the high court on March 17 had dismissed a plea by some students challenging the JNU's 2017-18 admission policy based on the UGC regulations.
The judge had said that the varsity has to follow the regulations without any deviation.
The students, however, had not challenged the regulations.
They had claimed in their plea that proper procedure was not followed by JNU while adopting the UGC notification, which capped the number of students per professor for MPhil and PhD courses.
The single judge had also refused to accept the students' contention that the varsity can decide how to implement the regulations, saying once UGC framed the regulations the varsity was required to follow it.
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With the main draw place at stake in the Champions Division, top paddler Sharath Kamal led India to a 3-0 win over Thailand in the First Division and enter the final along with DPR Korea here today.
This was the second occasion that the Indians have made it to the quarterfinals of the Champions Division of the Asian event where they are drawn to meet Japan. Before they do so, they will first clash with DPR Korea in the final of the First Division.
Sharath's form was crucial on the day for the Indians as he was the one who got the team across the line. Despite Thai Padasak Tanviriyavechakul providing a rousing start, beating G Sathiyan in the opening rubber 11-9, 11-6, 14-12, the match turned on its head when Sharath entered the arena, calming down the nerves of the Indian bench with straight games triumph of 11-9, 11-5, 11-6 against Supanut Wisutmaythangkoon.
Sharath soon after returned to make sure that the Indians were not denied a place in the main draw when he defeated Padasak 11-7, 11-6, 11-4, despite the Thai being very strong on his forehands. The tall Indian was at his best in the crucial rubber and reeled off winners after winners with his backhand working well.
"In the first match against Supanut I was down 3-8, but came back to win 11-9. That gave me the confidence against Padasak. I never let him play to his strength, his fierce forehands," said Sharath.
In between, an aggressive Harmeet Desai consolidated the position with a 3-1 (15-13, 14-16, 11-8, 11-5) victory over Pattaratom Passara, who is a strong backhand player.
"I was down 5-9 but the win in the first game was crucial. Thereafter, I was able to build my game as the match progressed and kept varying my service and hitting wide of his forehand," said Harmeet.
In the first stage, Indian men drawn with Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan, toyed with both teams in Group B to win against them 3-0.
But the women team could not progress beyond the semifinals of the first division as they went down to Chinese Taipei 1-3. This means the Indian women will now have to play their 9-12 position matches.
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The family of Pakistan's renowned Sufi Qawwal Amjad Sabri, who was killed by Taliban militants last year, wants to leave the country as they feel "unsafe".
"We are not comfortable with the security provided and we feel we are being watched. That is why we are trying to leave the country," said Sabri's brother Azmat.
"We are trying to settle in London, we have a brother there," he told Dawn, adding that the family "would be ready to leave tomorrow" if they get the visas.
Earlier, speaking to a TV channel, Azmat said: "We feel unsafe here now, even though we have lived here all our lives and love Liaquatabad (in Karachi)."
He, however, clarified that the family has received no threats to their life.
Sabri, 40, and an associate were travelling in a car in Liaquatabad area, when Taliban militants fired at their vehicle, critically injuring him on June 23 last year.
The two were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed hospital immediately, where Sabri succumbed to his injuries.
Hakimullah Mehsud faction, a splinter group of the Taliban, had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Amjad Sabri was the son of renowned Qawwal Ghulam Farid Sabri whose family is famous in the subcontinent for their contribution to this sufi art and mystic poetry.
Sabri was one of Pakistan's finest qawwals, known for his soul-stirring renditions of mystic poetry.
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A Russian computer expert was remanded in custody in Spain today on suspicion of involvement in alleged hacking of the US presidential election campaign, a legal source said.
Piotr Levachov, who was arrested on Friday, has been singled out by the United States for extradition in a request which is due to be examined by Spain's national criminal court, the source said.
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A Spanish judge today ordered a Russian computer expert to be remanded in custody on US allegations of large-scale hacking, judicial and police sources said.
Judge Carmen Lamela gave the order for Piotr Levashov, who was arrested at Barcelona airport on Friday, to be kept behind bars, a judicial source told AFP.
Spanish police said in a statement late today that the arrest was the result of a "complex inquiry carried out in collaboration with the American FBI".
"The arrested man, aged 36, had notably created over several years an online infrastructure in 'botnet' form, networking computers unbeknown to their owners for illegal activities," the statement said.
"The arrested man controlled the Kelihos botnet formed by hundreds of thousands of computers located internationally," police added.
Authorities "proceeded to dismantle the IT infrastructure...Liberating on a massive scale victims' computers which were infected by the virus that he was using to take control of them".
Police said he had "not only taken all kinds of personal data" from the hijacked computers, but he had "also infected them with malicious software, mostly of the 'ransomware' type", blocking access to information and demanding a ransom for its release.
Investigators said Levashov was believed to have been "carrying out this type of activities for more than 10 years, earning huge profits".
Contrary to what the suspect's wife had earlier told Russia Today, and reported by other media, the man was not wanted for allegedly hacking the US presidential election.
Maria Levashova had told the TV channel her husband was detained "at the request of the American authorities" and that Spanish police had told her it was in connection with "a virus which appears to have been created by my husband (and) is linked to (Donald) Trump's victory".
The claim was strongly denied by Washington, with a source close to the matter telling AFP that Levashov's detention "is not tied to anything involving allegations of Russian interference with the US election".
Levashov was subject to a US international arrest warrant for IT crimes, according to a Spanish judicial source.
A Spanish court specialising in international cases will rule on whether he will be sent to the US.
The US has 40 days to present evidence backing Levashov's extradition, which the suspect opposes.
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A suspected Pakistani national was today nabbed along the international border in Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan, officials said.
The Border Security Force (BSF) jawans held the 55-year-old suspected Pakistani national when he reached the IB fencing, they said.
Rs 883 in Pakistani currency, a visiting card and a match box were recovered from the suspect, they added.
Pakistani authorities have been informed about the incident, Station House Officer, Anupgarh, Bhawani Singh told PTI.
Security agencies are likely to carry out a joint interrogation in the matter, he said.
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G7 foreign ministers will send a "clear and coordinated message" to Russia today over its stance on Syria as Washington ratcheted up the pressure following a suspected chemical attack in the war-torn country.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson set the tone for the meeting, describing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as "toxic" and saying it was "time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up".
Top diplomats from the seven major advanced economies are in Italy for their annual two-day meeting which had initially been expected to focus on talks with new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about hotspots like Libya, Iran and Ukraine.
But the agenda is now likely to be dominated by last week's suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town that killed at least 87 civilians, and the US cruise missiles fired at a Syrian air base in retaliation.
It was the first time Washington has intervened directly against the regime of Assad, who is fighting a civil war with the backing of Russia and Iran, and the G7 ministers will deliberate the West's next steps.
The gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca, which begins at 1430 GMT, groups foreign ministers from the United States and Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Washington's retaliation was slammed by Iran and North Korea and put it on a direct diplomatic collision course with Moscow, where Tillerson heads on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The US stepped up the pressure on Sunday on Russia to rein in the Syrian regime, warning that any further chemical attacks would be "very damaging" to their relationship and suggesting any peace deal would be difficult with Assad in power.
Tillerson enraged Moscow by asking if it was possible Russia did not know about Syria's chemical arms, and called on the country to fulfil the obligation it made to the international community to guarantee the elimination of the weapons.
"We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," Johnson said Monday, warning that Putin was "damaging Russia" by supporting Assad.
He had cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow "to continue contact with the US and others" ahead of Tillerson's Russian trip.
He called on Russia to do "everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated".
Tillerson would "deliver that clear and coordinated message to the Russians", he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Resorting to dramatic forms of protest, a group of Tamil Nadu farmers today stripped near South Block here to press for their demands of loan waiver and drought-relief package.
The farmers have been protesting at the Jantar Mantar in the national capital since March 14.
Police said that they escorted the peasants from Jantar Mantar to Prime Minister's Office (PMO) where they submitted a memorandum of their demands.
After coming out, some of them tried to remove their clothes, a senior police officer said, adding that the situation was brought under control and the farmers were dropped at the protest site.
The farmers from the southern state have been demanding a drought relief package of Rs 40,000 crore, farm loan waiver and setting up of Cauvery Management Board by the Centre.
The drought-hit farmers have been protesting in the city adorning human skulls around their necks, trying to grab the attention of the authorities towards their condition.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Body of a dalit youth, who died in suspicious circumstances in Khanapur village in Peddapalli district last month, was exhumed today to conduct re-postmortem on the directive of the Hyderabad High Court.
A team of forensic experts from the Kakatiya and Osmania medical colleges arrived in the village to conduct fresh autopsy on Manthani Madhukar's body.
According to the police, the HC has ordered second postmortem on a petition filed recently by Laxmi, mother of the deceased youth.
She had sought for registering the crime under section 302 (punishment for murder) of IPC and provisions of the SC/ST Atrocities Act.
The exhumation was videographed in presence of the Karimnagar Chief Judicial Magistrate K. Kusha.
"The exhumation started in evening. The report of second postmortem will be submitted to court by Forensic experts," a police official said.
Madhukar was found dead on March 14.
As per reports, he and a woman belonging to a different caste, had survived a suicide attempt made after their parents didn't allow them to marry. Madhukar's parents had alleged that he was murdered by the woman's family.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least three Indians were killed on the spot and another person was critically injured when a truck rammed their car at a highway in southwest Nepal.
The three were killed on the spot yesterday when the truck, en route to Hetauda from Narayanghat in Chitwan district struck the car with an Indian registration number plate, according to District Police Office, Makawanpur.
Two of the deceased have been identified as Nitesh Kumar Singh, 39 and Sanjaya Kuma Sharma, 45 of Sitamari, India.
The identity of another man is yet to be ascertained.
Ram Kumar Sharma, who sustained injuries in the accident is undergoing treatment at a medical college in Chitwan. His condition is said to be critical.
The police have detained the truck driver and seized the vehicle.
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One of the dissidents responsible for splashing ink on a portrait of Mao Zedong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations passed away last month in the US, his widow said today.
Yu Zhijian, 53, died on March 30 of complications related to diabetes, his widow Xian Gui'e said by phone from their home in Indiana state.
"Yu Zhijian never regretted what he did in 1989 but he would have liked to apologise to Mao's family for throwing eggs on the portrait," she told AFP.
The Tiananmen pro-democracy movement ended in bloodshed on June 4, 1989 when tanks crushed the demonstrations, killing hundreds of protesters.
Yu served nearly 12 years in prison for throwing eggs filled with ink onto the portrait of the Communist leader, whose image still dominates the enormous square in Beijing.
Yu was sentenced to life imprisonment after the brutal crackdown and was eventually released for good behaviour in September 2000.
He and his accomplice Yu Dongyue, released in 2006 after 17 years in prison, fled China in 2009 after obtaining political asylum in the US.
A third man also involved in the ink-throwing incident, Lu Decheng, fled overseas in 2004 after his release in 1998.
Xian said that her husband obtained US citizenship and worked as a caregiver.
They never attempted to return to China, she added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A top militant in Pakistan, who was wanted in several terror attacks including the 2014 Karachi airport attack, has been killed in an encounter by security forces in Sindh province.
Kamran Jamshed Bhatti, who was affiliated with the Naeem Bukhari faction of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ), was killed by Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials in an encounter in Sukkur last night.
"He was a very high profile militant who was wanted in several terrorist attacks," Additional Inspector General (Counter-Terrorism) Sanaullah Abbasi said.
The encounter took place on leads provided by four militants recently arrested by the CTD in Karachi, AIG Abbasi said.
Bhatti was wanted for facilitating the attack on Karachi's international airport in June 8, 2014 in which 26 people and 10 militants were killed and the Mehran naval base in May, 2011 in which 18 people, including four terrorists, were killed.
"His killing is an important step forward for the counter terrorism department as he had recently returned from Baluchistan and was planning fresh terrorist attacks in Sindh," Abbasi said.
He also said that they were intelligence reports that Bhatti was also planning to become part of the ISIS in Pakistan.
He said the militant was also linked to some suspects arrested last year for their alleged involvement in the killing of renowned Sufi Qawwal Amjad Sabri last.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump has called his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to express his condolences on the terrorist attacks at two Coptic Christian churches in the Arab country, the White House said today.
"President Donald J Trump spoke yesterday with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt to convey his deepest condolences to Egypt and to the families who lost loved ones in the heinous terrorist attacks against Christian churches on Palm Sunday," the White House said in a statement.
Trump condemned the attacks that killed 45 people and wounded nearly 120 others.
"The President also expressed his confidence in President Al Sisi's commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians," the White House said.
Over the weekend, Trump also spoke with the Japanese counterpart over the recent developments in North Korea and the US missile attacks in Syria.
"The leaders agreed that Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons against civilians, including women and children, was abhorrent and warranted a strong response from the international community," the White House said.
During the call, Trump thanked Abe for his support for the United States missile strikes in Syria.
The two leaders pledged to show continued resolve in response to al-Assad's "brutal actions".
Trump and Abe also agreed to further cooperation on a range of regional issues, including the threat posed by North Korea, the White House said.
According to the White House, Trump over the weekend also called Commander Andria Slough, Commanding Officer of US Ship Porter, and Commander Russell Caldwell, Commanding Officer of US Ship Ross, to thank them and their personnel for successfully executing the strike against the Shayrat Air Base in Syria.
"The President commended the two commanders and their crews for the speed, precision, and effectiveness with which they carried out the operation.The President communicated that, as the Commander in Chief, he could not be more proud of the crews of USS Porter and USS Ross and their flawless execution of the operation," it added.
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US authorities have moved to take down a global computer botnet behind the massive theft of personal data and unwanted spam emails, as Spain arrested the notorious Russian hacker who operated it.
US authorities say the Russian, Piotr or Peter Levashov, had operated the Kelihos network of tens of thousands of infected computers, stealing personal data and renting the network out to others to send spam emails by the millions and extort ransom from computer owners.
Levashov, also known in the hacking world as Peter Severa, was arrested at Barcelona airport on Friday at the US request.
A Spanish judge yesterday ordered him to be remanded in custody as Washington is expected to seek his extradition.
Spanish police said in a statement late yesterday that the arrest was the result of a "complex inquiry carried out in collaboration with the American FBI."
A US indictment unsealed yesterday said Levashov, 36 and a native of St Petersburg, had operated the Kelihos botnet since around 2010.
It was not the first time US officials have gone after him. In 2008 he was indicted as a Russia-based partner of the leading US spammer, Alan Ralsky. Ralsky and others were jailed in that case but Levashov was never caught.
The Kelihos network is made up of private computers around the world running on the Microsoft Window operating system. The computers are infected with malware that gives Levashov the ability to control them remotely, with the owners completely unaware.
According to the Justice Department, at times the number of computers in the network has topped 100,000, with between five and 10 per cent of them in the United States.
Through underground networks, Kelihos sold the network's services to others, who would use it to send out spam emails advertising counterfeit drugs, work-at-home scams, and other fraud schemes, the indictment said.
They were also used for illegal "pump-and-dump" stock market manipulation schemes, and to spread other malware through which hackers could steal a user's banking account information including passwords, and lock up a computer's information to demand huge ransoms.
The indictment called Levashov "one of the world's most notorious criminal spammers."
The Spamhaus Project, which documents spam, botnets, malware and other abuse, listed him as seventh on its "10 Worst Spammers" list and "one of the longest operating criminal spam-lords on the internet."
"The ability of botnets like Kelihos to be weaponized quickly for vast and varied types of harms is a dangerous and deep threat to all Americans, driving at the core of how we communicate, network, earn a living, and live our everyday lives," said Acting US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco in a statement.
Levashov's arrest was unrelated to investigations into Russian interference in last year's US presidential election, US officials said.
Earlier, the suspect's wife had earlier told Russia Today that his arrest was connected to the election hacking case.
A Spanish court specialising in international cases will rule on whether he will be sent to the US.
The US has 40 days to present evidence backing Levashov's extradition, which the suspect opposes.
In parallel with the arrest, US justice authorities announced an extraordinary move to bring down the Kelihos network, obtaining warrants that allows it to install its own malware-like programs on computers in the network to intercept its operation.
Such a move appeared to be the first ever application of controversial new investigative powers which took effect late last year.
The Justice Department explained that its programs would be able to redirect Kelihos-infected computers into substitute servers in order to halt the network's operation.
In doing so, it can record the private IP or internet protocol addresses of the computers and provide them to internet service providers to help customers eliminate the infections, the department explained.
In a warrant that permitted investigators to "infect" botnet computers in order to block Kelihos, investigators pledged to guard the privacy of computer owners.
"This operation will not capture content from the target computers or modify them in any other capacity except limiting the target computers' ability to interact with the Kelihos botnet," the warrant said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Vigilance department today gave a clean chit to former minister E P Jayarajan, who was facing allegations of nepotism in appointments when he was in the CPI(M)-led LDF government, after which the Kerala High Court stayed the probe against him.
When the matter was taken up, the vigilance prosecutor informed the court that no criminal offence was detected and the case against Jayarajan was going to be closed.
Jayarajan had resigned as Industries minister in October last year in the wake of the appointment row.
Justice P Ubaid, considering the petition filed by Jayarajan seeking quashing of the Vigilance probe against him, clarified that the stay would not be a bar in filing of a closure report before the Vigilance Court.
Jayarajan, who was the number two in the Cabinet, was accused of appointing a close relative in a Public Sector Undertaking in the industries department.
He appointed his nephew, P K Sudheer Nambiar as Managing Director of Kerala Industrial Enterprises Ltd.
The appointment was later quashed by the government.
Jayarajan, who had successfully contested from Mattannur in northern Kannur district, was a member of the legislative assembly from 1991-96. He was again elected in 2011.
Additional Chief Secretary Paul Antony and Sudheer Nambiar, nephew of Jayarajan and son of CPI(M) central committee member P K Sreemathy, are the other accused in the case.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After days of protest by hundreds of Anganwadi workers, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today announced a hike in their wages from Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 conceding their demand.
"The state government has recently increased wages of anganwadi workers by Rs 1000 in the budget, which stood at Rs 7,000 per month, and with Rs 1,000 increase, the wage goes up to Rs 8,000," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
Hundreds of anganwadi workers, a few of them along with their children, protested for nearly a week at the Freedom Park here, with a charter of demands including the wage hike.
It has also been decided to give a Rs 500 hike in the wages of anganwadi helpers and mini-anganwadi workers, the Chief Minister said, making the announcement after talks between the anganwadi workers and government.
The issue had rocked the state Assembly during the recent session with both opposition BJP and ruling Congress trading charges against each other for not being sensitive to their issues.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The logo of India's largest online marketplace Flipkart is seen on a building in Bengaluru (Photo: Reuters)
India's top e-commerce firm Flipkart has raised $1.4 billion in its biggest fundraising to date as it takes on US tech giant Amazon.com Inc for a larger share of the country's burgeoning online retail market.
Chinese social media and entertainment firm Tencent Holdings Ltd, the world's biggest software company Microsoft Corp and online marketplace eBay Inc participated in the funding round, Flipkart said in a statement on Monday, which will value the Indian company at $11.6 billion.
That is lower than the $15 billion valuation achieved at its last fundraising in 2015, reflecting how competition has intensified in the e-commerce sector as vie for a slice of the world's fastest-growing internet services market.
Amazon last year said it would invest over $5 billion in India, and has recently expanded into online video and grocery shopping, seeking to expand aggressively in a country where a rising middle class is increasingly shopping online.
The fundraising also comes amid speculation Flipkart may be interested in a takeover of smaller rival Snapdeal. Local media have reported SoftBank Group is keen to sell its stake in Snapdeal in exchange for a stake in Flipkart.
"We are delighted that Tencent, eBay and Microsoft - all innovation powerhouses - have chosen to partner with us on their India journey," Flipkart's founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said in a statement.
"This deal reaffirms our resolve to hasten the transformation of commerce in India through technology."
As part of the fundraising, eBay invested $500 million in Flipkart for a stake, according to a separate statement by both . In exchange, eBay will merge its India operations with Flipkart.
A Flipkart spokeswoman said eBay.in will continue to operate as a "separate business" within the Flipkart group, which includes fashion portals Myntra and Jabong.
The company will assess capital requirements across the group and use the new funds to "add value to customers, increase shareholder returns and bring us closer to profitability," the spokeswoman said.
Ebay, one of the pioneers of online commerce in India, runs a marketplace selling everything from bed sheets to smartphones but with little marketing and few exclusive launches on its India portal sales have lagged behind Flipkart and Amazon.
Flipkart did not disclose the amounts invested by Microsoft and Tencent.
Prior to the latest round, Flipkart had raised more than $3 billion in funding via 10 rounds, mostly from international investors but it has burnt through cash in a competitive market.
In January, Flipkart appointed a former Tiger Global Management executive as its CEO in its biggest management reshuffle as it tried to focus on margins over sales volume.
U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global is Flipkart's biggest investor, owning about a third of the company.
A deal with Snapdeal would provide Flipkart with added heft to compete against Amazon.
A distant third player, Snapdeal has declined to comment on sale talks and said that it remains focused on achieving profitability, but recent layoffs have heightened speculation about a takeover.
Research firm Gartner called Flipkart's fundraising a positive step.
"This is good for Flipkart as it solidifies it as a market leader at least in the short term, keeping competition especially Amazon at bay," said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner.
"Flipkart has been and will continue to make acquisitions to increase scale, and the next challenge is to strategize the path to a sustainable business model within a set timeframe."
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday inaugurated a new portal and through which people can contribute money to help the families of paramilitary troopers killed in the line of duty.
'Bharat ke Veer' portal is technically supported by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and powered by the State Bank of India.
The amount donated through the portal will be credited to the account of the next of kin of the deceased trooper against whose name the donation is made.
A person can donate a maximum of Rs 15 lakh towards a soldier's family. If the amount exceeds this limit, the donors would be alerted so that they can choose to divert part of the donation amount to another soldier's account or to the 'Bharat ke Veer' corpus.
The corpus would be managed by a committee comprising eminent persons and senior government officials who would decide on equitable disbursal of funds to families concerned on need basis, officials said.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajnath Singh said every moment is a test of the courage of troopers.
"A bullet can hit a soldier physically, but no bullet can defeat his courage and motivation. The bravery of CRPF Commandant Chetan Cheetah (who was critically injured in an anti-terror operation in Kashmir but recovered miraculously) is an example," the Minister said.
April 9 is observed as 'Valour Day' in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in remembrance of unparalleled bravery displayed by a small contingent of CRPF men who were pitted against a full-fledged infantry brigade of the Pakistan Army that was trying to overrun their Sardar Post at Rann of Kutch in Gujarat in 1965.
The CRPF men not only killed 34 Pakistani soldiers but also captured four of them alive and successfully defended the post till the arrival of Indian reinforcements.
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar was guest of honour at the launch of the new portal and .
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The future of Montanas frailest elders and their caretakers remains uncertain in the last weeks of the 2017 Legislature.
Republicans on the House Taxation Committee last week maneuvered to kill a Senate bill that would have imposed a tax on e-cigarettes and substantially increased state taxes on tobacco products. Senate Bill 354 would have directed new tax revenue to health care to help narrow the growing gaps between what Montana Medicaid pays for nursing home and in-home services and what it actually costs to provide that care.
Senior and long-term care services must be funded at a level that maintains availability of services for elders and adults with disabilities. With Montana long-term care providers reporting losses exceeding $50 per day per Medicaid resident, there is no fat to trim in these abysmally insufficient rates.
House Bill 17 doesnt directly address the nursing home rate insufficiency. But it would help low-income Montana seniors access a less expensive type of care assisted living when that is appropriate for their needs. Rep. Ron Ehli, R-Hamilton, sponsored this bill at the request of the interim committee that he chaired. It passed the House and Senate by wide margins. HB17 would gradually add Medicaid coverage for 200 assisted living residents over the next two years. That would be a step forward, but still not meet demand considering that 517 people were on the waiting list in January.
The other important provision of HB17 is to increase the rate paid for assisted living, including the rate Montana Medicaid pays for memory care of folks with Alzheimers disease and other memory loss. Present rates are so low that most assisted living facilities limit the number of Medicaid residents they admit or dont admit any.
HB17 would slightly ease the financial strain on Montana nursing homes that also provide assisted living or memory care. At least they would get more adequate reimbursement for those residents.
However, HB17 would not come close to offsetting losses on the 60 percent of Montana nursing home residents who are covered by Medicaid. Their care is much more expensive because they need more assistance and because nursing homes are much more heavily regulated than assisted living homes. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has adopted new regulations that are projected to cost every U.S. nursing home upwards of $62,000 a year.
HB17 is a limited, but meaningful, proposal to provide 200 more Montanans with care they need at less cost than nursing home admission. Unfortunately, it doesnt propose a way to generate an additional $5 million in state funding for the important services it would offer over the biennium.
House Bill 618, sponsored by Rep. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, would increase the utilization fee assessed on nursing homes for the purpose of leveraging federal matching funds. The fee hike in HB618 would help, according to senior advocates, but it wouldnt eliminate the gap between Montana Medicaid rates and actual costs of care.
Montanans need to know that a tight budget cant be balanced by expecting nursing homes or home-care services to take cuts. The status quo isnt acceptable because these care providers are bleeding red ink. They struggle to hire staff at salaries that arent even competitive with fast food restaurants.
We call on legislators to approve HB17, HB618 and to reconsider SB354. Raising tobacco taxes isnt the perfect answer, but the nursing home and home care crisis cannot be ignored. Various other proposals to raise revenues for the general fund have been rejected. If not tobacco and e-cigarettes, what tax source would lawmakers prefer? Time is running out for legislative answers.
Legislative leaders and Gov. Steve Bullock must get together on senior and long-term care funding that will actually provide and sustain the services elderly Montanans need.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday received a pat from President Pranab Mukherjee for completing the budget exercise by March 31 and not seeking a the Vote on Account, which happened for the first time in many years.
"I congratulate the Finance Minister for completing the budgetary exercise and seeking the approval of both houses of Parliament, all the expenditure proposals, and all matters relating to the Finance Bill within March 31.
"And after many years, I do not remember of after how many years, no Vote on Account was taken this particular year," the President said.
The Vote on Account is an interim arrangement under which approval of Parliament is obtained to withdraw money from the consolidated fund when the budget for new financial year is not passed.
The President was speaking after the mega draw of Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government this year advanced the budget presentaion to February 1 from the traditional presentation date of February 28 or the last working day of the month.
The move was aimed at helping the government begin the investment cycle right from the first day of the new financial year, April 1.
The nearly century-long practice of having a separate railway budget was also ended and it was merged with the General Budget.
Referring to the 12 digit unique identity number Aadhaar, the President said it is "a watershed event" in the development story of India.
"Aadhaar enabled payment system has made digital payments possible for even those who do not have mobile phones. The government has enabled development of new modes of digital payments with goal to make their use easy and seamless. The launch of Bhim has demystified the digital payments," he said.
He further said India has a long way to go to become cashless society.
"The initiatives of the government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a good beginning and we need to sustain and nurture this with active participation from all segments of the society," the President said.
He stressed it is necessary to reduce cash in circulation and impart greater urgency to promoting secure digital payment methods to ensure greater transparency.
Following demonetisation of old Rs 500/1000 notes on November 9 last year, the government took a slew of measures to promote digital payments in the country.
The government launched the Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants on December 25, 2016 in order to promote digital transactions.
These schemes are being implemented by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
Winners selected through the draw on Sunday would be awarded by Prime Minister Modi on April 14 in Nagpur.
Customers and merchants using RuPay Card, BHIM / UPI, USSD and AePS were eligible for wining daily & weekly lucky draw prizes.
As many as 14,000 weekly winners, both consumers and merchants, received a total prize money of over INR 8.3 crore every week.
DigiDhanMelas were also held across India in 100 cities over 100 days and 15,000 consumers qualified everyday for total prize money of INR 1.5 crore.
The Lucky Grahak Yojana rewards INR 1,000 daily to 15,000 customers undertaking digital transactions. Weekly prizes up to INR 1 lakh for consumers and INR 50,000 for merchants are given.
The government has forgone Rs 56,418 crore tax during the first nine months of the last fiscal pertaining to special economic zones, Parliament was informed today.
In the entire 2015-16, these zones had received duty exemptions worth Rs 52,216 crore, according to the data given by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. She said exports from these zones stood at Rs 3.58 lakh crore during the April-December period of 2016-17, ended March 31. In the entire financial year 2015-16, the exports had amounted to Rs 4,67,337 crore.
She said that as on date, 109 SEZs developers have sought cancellation of their projects in some states as the developers have found the projects economically unviable in the changed economic situation.
As many as 28 zones were cancelled in Maharashtra, followed by 14 in Telengana and 10 in Tamil Nadu.
SEZs enjoy certain tax benefits including 100 per cent income tax exemption on export income for the first five years and 50 per cent for the next five years.
Replying to a separate question, she said the government continues to engage the US and the UK administration for better access of its IT professionals in these countries.
"India has also taken up the matter on US visa fee hike in the dispute settlement body of the WTO," she said.
To a separate question on meat exports, the minister said during April-January last fiscal, meat exports stood at Rs 22,074 crore.
The exports had aggregated at Rs 27,610 crore in 2015-16.
As per the current foreign trade policy, she said all export oriented meat processing establishments are required to be registered with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
As many as 81 companies or firms are engaged in meat processing and its exports in the country.
Government think-tank Niti Aayog is at an advanced stage of finalising 3-year action plan and the 15 year vision document for the country, Parliament was informed on Monday.
It will also unveil a 7-year strategy document. Government has decided to do away with the practice of preparing annual budgets on the basis of 5-year plans from the current fiscal. Financial year 2016-17 was the terminal fiscal of the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).
"The three year action plan along with 7 year strategy and 15 year vision document is at an advanced stage of finalisation," Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Planning Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
He said that in accordance with the National Development Agenda, the government had decided to formulate a Vision Document beyond March 31, 2017.
The vision document will have a 15-year perspective, up to 2030; a 7-year strategy paper for achievement of the Agenda (from 2017-18 to 2023-24) and a 3-year Action Plan beyond March 31, 2017 for overall development of the country, he said.
Singh said consultations with stakeholders have been done by Niti Aayog including eminent economists, business editors, agriculture experts in the science, technology as well as innovation sector, experts in defence and internal security matters and states and UTs.
Nearly four crore members of retirement fund body EPFO will soon be able to settle their claims like EPF withdrawal through mobile application UMANG.
"The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is developing online claims settlement process by receiving application online," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The minister also said, "The application will be integrated with Unified Mobile App for new-age governance, (UMANG) App, to receive the claims online. However, the timeframe to roll out the same has not been finalised."
The EPFO receives close to 1 crore applications manually for settlement of EPF withdrawals, pension fixation or getting group insurance benefit by the deceased.
A senior official said over 110 regional offices of the EPFO out of 123 field formations have already been connected with the central server. The official explained that it is a technical requirement for connecting all regional offices with the central server for rolling out the facility.
Earlier in February this year, EPFO Central Provident Fund Commissioner had said, "The process of connecting all field offices with a central server is going on. We may introduce the facility for online submission of all types of applications and claims like EPF withdrawal and pension settlement by May this year."
The EPFO has an ambitious plan to settle the claims within a few hours after filing of the application. For instance, it has plans to settle the EPF withdrawal claim within three hours of the filing.
As per the scheme, the EPFO is required to settle all claims within 20 days from filing of the application for settlement of pension or EPF withdrawal.
The minister also told the House that the EPFO has engaged the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, as its technical consultant to upgrade its technology and the body is installing latest equipment at its three central data centres in Delhi, Gurugram and Secunderabad.
An official spoke of the requirement of seeding Aadhaar and bank accounts with the Universal (PF) Account Number (UAN) for settling EPFO claim online.
In a separate reply to the House, the minister said that out of the 3.76 crore contributing members as on March 31, 2016, as many as 1.68 crore have linked their Aadhaar numbers with UAN.
The EPFO has already made it mandatory to provide bank account numbers with IFSC codes and Aadhaar of subscribers.
Against the backdrop of a prolonged global oil price slump, India auctioned the first set of oil fields in the last week of March, the first such activity in the past six years. This may help meet 2 per cent of the current oil and gas demand, with the peak production pegged at 15,000 barrels a day. That is not heartening news as Indian consumption is expected to grow beyond 200 million metric tonne (MMT) in the first quarter of this financial year, while the domestic production is hovering around 38 MMT. Also, led by PM Narendra Modi, the country is facing a tough challenge as it endeavours to cut down oil and gas imports by 10 per cent by 2022.
For a country where oil consumption grows by 11 per cent, and 78 per cent of the requirements are met with imports, it is not wise to sit idle, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. The real test will be to open new blocks, especially deep-sea oil and gas blocks, that can help boost overall output.
A look at the oil prices can help determine the sustainability of these production plans. All the oil-producing companies in India, including the largest public sector oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and state-promoted Oil India Ltd (OIL), are struggling to match their production number year on year. In January this year, ONGC reported net realisation of $51.8 a barrel. While the current prices may support the current production level, ONGC and other producers are finding it difficult to pump in more money to explore new fields.
Globally, oil producers have been caught in the crossfire of the Saudi Arabia-led OPEC countries, Russia and the revival of the US shale play. Since last November, the OPEC nations decided to cut oil production by around 1.8 million barrels in a bid to firm up prices. This suits Indian oil producers as long as oil prices stay at around $60 a barrel, which will ramp up production, help in operating new fields and balance with the 'cheaper' oil requirements of the downstream companies. Although oil prices firmed up around $50 to $53 a barrel at Brent scales, the decision of the US President to lift all restrictions on the production of oil and allied products has played spoilsport. While the production glut may spoil the price scheme of Indian oil producers, it will further increase the country's wait period for new investors despite reforms in the form of a new Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy.
Meanwhile, the government is pushing ONGC and OIL to pump in money and explore oil fields which were earlier stuck in legal tangles or were in queue to seek permission. Most important among them is the Ratna-R series, which was restored to ONGC after a decade-long dispute. ONGC is also planning to focus on high-pressure, high-temperature blocks on the western coast. India is also working on a production enhancement contract so that operations can be outsourced after setting a minimum benchmark output level. Living up to the targets set by Modi will require more efforts. Obviously, the global winds are not helping.
@anileshmahajan
The Religare Enterprises stock rose in early trade amid report that the Delhi-based firm will sell its entire 80 per cent stake in Religare Health Insurance to a consortium of investors led by private equity fund True North Managers for an estimated Rs 1,040 crore.
"The company has entered into definitive agreements with a consortium of investors led by True North Managers, an India-based private equity fund, to divest its entire stake in Religare Health Insurance Company Ltd (RHI)," Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) said in a BSE filing.
"This transaction values Religare Health Insurance at Rs 1,300 crore and Religare Enterprises currently has 80 per cent shareholding on a fully diluted basis in the company," it said.
The stock rose up to 5 percent to Rs 230 level in early trade.
At 1122 hours, the stock was trading 2 percent higher at Rs 222 level on the BSE. Around 9964 shares of the firm were traded on the BSE with its market capitalisation reaching Rs 3950 crore. The stock hit an intra day low of Rs 220 in early trade.
The stock closed 0.85 percent or 1.85 points lower at Rs 216.50 on the BSE.
3.42PM:
The S&P BSE Sensex ended the day 130 points lower at 29,575 while the broader Nifty50 settled the day 18 points lower at 9,181.
Tata motors was the top gainer on the BSE while IOC was the top performer on the NSE.
Infosys was the top loser on both the bourses.
2.00 PM:
Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Coal India and Adani Ports added over 1 per cent to the BSE as top gainers while Infosys, Reliance, Asian Paints, NTPC, Wipro and HDFC shedded over 1 per cent.
1.28 PM:
Shares of NIIT fell as much as 11 per cent on the BSE in reaction to the news of its CEO's resignation.
NIIT made the announcement to stock exchanges on Friday evening saying,"Chief executive officer of NIIT limited, Mr Rahul Keshav Patwardhan, has tendered his resignation due to compelling family reasons and has requested to be relieved from the close of business hours of July 31, 2017."
1.02 PM:
The S&P BSE Sensex fell 87.74 points to trade at 29,618.87 while the broader NSE Index dipped to 9,182.65, losing 15.65 points.
1.00 PM:
Dilip Buildcon said it has bagged two EPC road projects worth about Rs 700 crore in Maharashtra from the Road Transport and Highways Ministry.
"The company has received letter of award from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH)... for two EPC road projects in Maharashtra," the company said in a BSE filing.
The contract includes a Rs 343.72 crore project for rehabilitation and upgradation of two lane with paved shoulders on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) mode from Kalamb to Wadki.
The second order, worth Rs 340.04 crore, is for the rehabilitation and upgradation of two lane from Majalgaon to Kaij.
Shares of Dilip Buildcon were trading at Rs 362 apiece, up 1.79 per cent on BSE.
12.13 PM:
NTPC signs a 3.15 billion power supply pact with Bangladesh, reported CNBC TV 18.
12.08 PM:
Adani Ports signs a $ 2 billion pact with Bangladesh Power Grid.
The scrip was trading 1.79 per cent higher on the BSE.
12.00:
Early morning market gains are wiped out as Sensex trades at 29,696.11, down 10.50 points while the Nifty50 is trading flat at 9,202.00, up 3.70 points.
There are also a set of key macroeconomic data -- IIP for February and CPI inflation for March -- due this week, which could made investors cautious.
IT heavyweight Infosys will kick off the earnings season as it gets ready to announce results on Thursday.
Oil and gas, energy and metal made most of sustained buying, but realty stocks lost out.
Broader markets stayed ahead of the Sensex as small-cap and mid-cap indices rose 0.78 per cent and 0.53 per cent, respectively.
Major gainers include Coal India 1.37 per cent, Tata Motors 1.11 per cent and Axis Bank 0.89 per cent.
The notable losers are HDFC, Asian Paints and M&M.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 262.37 crore last Friday, as per provisional data.
Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 414.94 crore.
Asian stocks were mixed as caution prevailed after increased geo-political risks pushed investors to government debt.
11.29 AM:
Indian Rupee
The rupee dropped a further 21 paise to 64.49 against the dollar today on growing safe haven appeal of the American currency after increased geo-political risks and higher chances of a tighter US monetary policy.
The rupee opened marginally lower at 64.30 against last Friday's level of 64.28 here today. It moved in a range of 64.50 to 64.30 during morning deals before quoting at 64.49 at 1025 hours.
Meanwhile, the dollar index was trading steady at 101.23 against a basket of six currencies.
Overseas, the dollar started the week at a three-week high against the basket of currencies today after a key US Federal Reserve official reinforced the central bank's commitment to interest rate hikes, going forward.
Fuel
India's fuel demand fell 0.6 percent in March compared with the same month last year, reported by Reuters.
Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 1.9 percent to 1.89 million tonnes, while naphtha sales surged 1.8 percent to 1.15 million tonnes.
9.16 AM:
The S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 29,759.34, up 52.73 points while the Nifty50 was trading at 9,220.90, 22.60 points higher.
9.14 AM:
LARSEN & TOUBRO
L&T Construction wins order worth Rs 5,250 in Qatar from KHARAHMAA
9.12 AM
STOCKS TO WATCH
TATA MOTORS
JLR plans to launch 10 new products in India
PHARMA SPACE
Indian Pharma regulator issues a notice on selling medicine above ceiling level.
Glenmark gets USFDA nod for Fenofibrate capsules, used to treat high cholestrol, reported CNBC TV 18.
RELIGARE ENTERPRISES
Religare Enterprises will sell its entire 80 per cent stake in Religare Health Insurance to a consortium of investors led by private equity fund True North Managers for an estimated Rs 1,040 crore.
"The company has entered into definitive agreements with a consortium of investors led by True North Managers, an India based private equity fund, to divest its entire stake in Religare Health Insurance Company Ltd (RHI)," Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) said in a BSE filing today.
9.07 AM:
NTPC, Reliance, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel were all up over 0.50 per cent on the BSE Sensex.
BPCL, IOC and Infratel posted gains in pre opening session on the Nifty.
9.03 AM:
Indian rupee opens 64.32 against the US dollar.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian stocks started this week's trade on a cautious note as geo-political tensions pushed investors to seek safer havens like government debts.
Even as market experts have forecasted a positive global market outlook, risk of a conflict have threatened this sentiment.
On the contrary, the US dollar climbed higher on reactions to the geo-political tensions.
China's Shanghai Composite was 0.22 per cent lower, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was trading 35 points higher while Japan's Nikkei was 122 points higher.
India is still dealing with the 4G revolution but companies like Nokia are already preparing ground for 5G networks. Finnish company, Nokia is planning on bringing 5G network to India in collaboration with Airtel and BSNL.
According to a report by ET, the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with these incumbent telecom operators to introduce 5G network in India. This collaboration was first spotted at the MWC in Barcelona this year where the iconic Finnish brand declared its interest in the Indian 5G market.
The company aims at identifying the potential of 5G networks in India and subsequently, looks for real world applications and a target audience.
In a report by ET, Sanjay Malik, head of India market at Nokia said, "thoughts behind these MoUs would be to introduce 5G here, and what are the steps required for the same, besides identifying applications to define the target segment, which will lead to a complete 5G strategy for telcos."
"After 4G, the future is 5G and IoT, which is useful in the concept such as smart cities... The MoU will help BSNL to draw a framework for transition from the current network to futuristic 5G network," BSNL Chairman Anupam Shrivastava earlier had told PTI.
This new venture by Nokia, Airtel and BSNL will form a base for 5G operations in India but might reach the general public only by 2019-2020.
The Digital India scheme and Internet of Things (IoT) are touted as the driving force behind this new development.
Mobile World Congress this year also saw the partnership between Samsung and Reliance Jio to work on 5G connectivity in India.
The Columbus Fire Rescue department is sponsoring a ballot measure for area voters that would set up the first public funding district for its ambulance services.
Ballots go out on April 12 for a special referendum to create the Stillwater Ambulance District, which would receive funding from up to 13.3 mills.
The district would include the city of Columbus, the Columbus Elementary School District, the Reed Point School District, the Rapelje Elementary School District and the existing Columbus Rural Fire District No. 3.
For that area, the maximum mill assessment would cost $35.92 annually for a property valued at $200,000. That would raise $300,083 from the district.
The money will fund four full-time staff members, who are currently supported by a federal grant. Columbus Assistant Chief Nick Jacobs said the department isn't able to reapply for the grant at the end of this year, so they've planned to seek public funds.
"We've been working on this for 2-1/2 to three years," Jacobs said.
The grants came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and are called Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response, or SAFER, grants. They paid for four of the department's six career staff members. Most recently, the department received $343,494 in 2015, according to FEMA.
The rest of the roughly 50 members of the department are volunteers. Some volunteers are medically trained; all of the career staff members are qualified for medical response.
While the department handles both fire and medical calls, about 87 percent of calls require ambulance response, according to data from the department.
And the department is responding to more calls. There were 713 calls for service in 2016 compared to 405 in 2010.
Fire Chief Rich Cowger said that while there are multiple ways cities fund ambulance services user fees, "structure" fees and company contracts the department decided on a levy.
"It's a vital service," Cowger said. "And it's not isolated to us."
Jacobs said that their mutual aid contracts with departments outside their district would be threatened without grant or levy funds.
Columbus Fire Rescue tried to get the levy referendum on the November ballot, but Stillwater County commissioners declined to pass a resolution to do that.
"It wasn't ready on time," Stillwater County Commissioner Maureen Davey said of the department's ballot proposal.
Cowger had been working on various proposals for at least two years, including a proposal for a countywide ambulance levy in early 2016. But when the department petitioned for the current proposal, commissioners said in September that the timeline was too short.
Davey commented little on public sentiment for the ambulance levy, saying that she'd heard mixed comments. She didn't know that the full-time staff members were currently funded through the FEMA grants.
Ballots for the referendum are due May 2. There are actually two items to vote for: one creates the ambulance district and the other approves the funding.
In another development in the ongoing fight between incumbent telecos and new entrant Reliance Jio, Vodafone today complained to Trai saying that Jio was still allowing customers to subscribe the 'Summer Surprise' offer despite Trai's advice to withdraw the scheme.
In a letter to Trai, Vodafone complained that Reliance Jio was still "luring customers" to subscribe the 'Summer Surprise' offer despite the regulator finding it in violation of norms.
"Reliance Jio is continuing with this offer held as not meeting regulatory norms, in the garb of configuration changes. For past three days, it has been promoting and luring customers to quickly recharge to avail the benefits of a non-compliant offer and also asking its retailers to communicate the same," Vodafone said in a letter to Trai.
Last Thursday, Reliance Jio said that its Summer Surprise offer would be withdrawn in the next few days after Trai 'advised' it to stop three months complimentary benefits under the new scheme.
While Jio said that it accepted Trai's decision and was in the process of fully complying with regulator's Trai's advice, the press release from the company did not answer when Jio would officially withdraw its Summer Surprise offer.
Jio said that its Summer Surprise offer would be withdrawn in the next few days. "Jio will be withdrawing the three months complimentary benefits of Jio Summer Surprise as soon as operationally feasible."
Under the Summer Surprise plan, Jio Prime members making their first recharge payment of Rs 303 or higher would have gotten complimentary free data services for three months until July.
Vodafone, in its to Trai, also alleged Reliance Jio had sent SMSes to consumers and retailers asking them to quickly recharge to avail the benefit of the scheme.
An SMS content reads that Jio has given time till April 10 to its customers for enrolling for the scheme.
"In our view, such promotion of the customers on an offer held as non-compliant, is a blatant violation and disregard of Trai's advisory. Such promotions to customers makes the regulatory advisory meaningless," the letter said.
Vodafone said that Reliance Jio's continuation of the scheme painted a wrong picture to customers of non-robust regulatory framework where non-complaint offers are allowed to be sold in the market.
"Considering above, we request for Trai's immediate intervention and issuance of suitable directions to Reliance Jio for withdrawing the said offer on immediate basis and notifying the consumers about withdrawal of said offer from the date of advisory received from Trai," the letter said.
Reliance Jio has meanwhile maintained that the Summer Surprise offer would be withdrawn as soon as it was "operationally feasible", as stated in its press release last week.
"All the customers who have subscribed to the 'Summer Surprise' prior to its discontinuation will remain eligible for the offer. We are pained to note such continued and deliberate attempts by competitors to create unnecessary confusion in the market," PTI quoted a Jio spokesperson as saying.
Vodafone, however, declined to comment on the letter it sent to the regulator.
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal also met today Trai chairman R S Sharma and believed to have discussed a range of issues, including the Jio offer, according to sources.
With inputs from PTI
FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2017, file photo, Brand Thornton blows a horn in support of defendants on trial at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas. A judge's ruling means a jury may only hear from one or two defense witnesses in the trial of six men accused of wielding guns against federal agents during a 2014 standoff involving Nevada cattleman and states rights advocate Cliven Bundy. After nearly two months of prosecution testimony, defense attorneys on Monday, April 3, were knocked off a plan to call most of about 10 witnesses. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) Trial is nearing an end for six men accused of wielding weapons against federal agents during a 2014 standoff involving Nevada cattleman and states rights advocate Cliven Bundy.
Defendant Eric Parker, whose photo as an armed protester on a freeway overpass was widely seen, returns to the witness stand Monday for cross-examination.
Closing arguments could come as early as Tuesday.
The 33-year-old Parker is from Hailey, Idaho.
He acknowledged he lay prone on the pavement looking with an AK-47 style rifle through a seam in a concrete freeway barrier toward heavily armed federal Bureau of Land Management agents in a dry riverbed below.
He says he feared agents were going to shoot unarmed people protesting in the wash.
Parker also says he never had his finger on the trigger.
With Utahs housing market booming, finding a place to live can be tricky. Amy Rupp, an agent with Youngblood Real Estate in Logan, said its definitely a sellers market.
Even in the last six months, she said, we are very low as far as inventory goes for houses. Its probably the lowest its been in over 15 years.
Approaching summer 2016, Rupp said there were approximately 340 houses on the market in Cache Valley. Today, Broker Jette Youngblood said there are 202.
In her 12 years in the industry, Rupp hasnt seen anything like it. With multiple buyers for every home, people are getting top dollar for their houses, she said.
What weve kind of experienced is that a lot of people have been concerned because were in a balloon right now. Will there be a housing crash?
Rupp doesnt think so. With the mortgage, lending and financial industries being so solid, Rupp said theres nothing to be concerned about.
Cache Valleys just appreciating and the markets appreciating, she explained. Theres a lot of growth here in Utah and especially in Cache Valley, and thats kind of what the markets doing.
Rupp suggests that buyers who are discouraged with the market consider working closely with a real estate agent. She said agents often become aware of houses that will soon be available before theyre listed, and being in the know can benefit house hunters. Rupp also said new construction might be a good option for buyers who are discouraged by the lack of existing homes. Sometimes, she noted, people just have to wait it out.
According to a 2016 study conducted by Jim Wood, Ivory-Boyer senior fellow at the Kem C. Gardner Institute at the University of Utah, the five-year period between 2010 and 2015 is the first time since the 1970s that Utah had a negative housing inventory. During that period, Woods research indicated an increase of 109,321 households, with the addition of only 81,656 housing units. This signifies a difference of negative 34.3 percent.
The housing crunch Wood describes is also reflected in the rental market. Brandon McGary, office manager of Real Property Management in Providence, said hes definitely seen an uptick in rental traffic as demand for housing in Cache Valley grows. Noting seasonal ebbs and flows in the market, McGary said inventory is always in flux. However, the current housing shortage is being reflected across the board.
We have tenants who are more cautious about moving and might hold on to a place longer than theyd planned because they are concerned about being able to find something else, he said. Theres definitely fantastic growth in the valley in general, and were certainly seeing it here.
Norma Aldrich, a property manager in McGarys office, said another factor creating higher demand is that many USU students, who in the past may have moved away for the summer, are getting summer jobs and staying in the valley. McGary advises individuals and families who are looking for rental properties to develop a relationship with a property management company. Like Rupp, he said industry professionals are often privy to information about inventory that hasnt yet been publicly shared.
It can change day to day, he said, and as soon as something new comes on, theres an immediate response wherever we may be advertising.
Whatever the condition of the market, McGary said he and Aldrich work hard to help anyone whos looking for a place to call home discover the options available.
Sometimes, he said, whether youre look to rent or buy, the best thing to do is just drive around. You never know when someones going to put out a sign.
NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect a clarification in the number of homes currently on the market in Cache Valley.
jennifer@cvradio.com
With over 1,500 individuals living with a dementia-related illness in Cache Valley, there are many who struggle with the stress of caregiving each dayoften for many years. The Cache County Caregiver Coalition, which has a mission to provide support and education to those caring for others, is hosting a conference on Thursday, April 20, with a theme of Caregiver R and RX: Caring for the Caregiver. Coalition Chair Amy Anderson said the event will be held in the Cache County Building, located at 179 N. Main in Logan, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Workshops presented during the conference include:
2:00 p.m. Normal Aging vs Dementia
2:45 p.m. Prepare to Care
3:30 p.m. Tapping into Veterans Benefits
4:15 p.m. When is it time for Palliative Care?
Anderson said the final workshop will be presented by Dr. Taki May, from Logan Regional Hospital, to address an often difficult topic.
So as that arc of care progresses, helping families understand [this question], she said. At what point do we begin to have a discussion about moving from curative care to palliative care, to keeping someone comfortable and supported and feel like the quality of their life is still intact?
Anderson said presenters will include representatives of home health agencies, government-funded programs, care facilities and caregivers themselves, each of whom will share important information and resources.
The Caregiver R and RX: Caring for the Caregiver Conference is free of charge. Attendees are welcome to participate in all four workshops or in whichever discussions best meet their current needs. For more information, call 435-754-0233.
Monday night at Spring Creek Middle School in Providence, the Cache County Suicide Prevention Coalition will hold its first ever public event. Its called the Emotional Health and Healing Town Hall. Its focus is on providing resources for those facing mental health issues and families seeking to help them.
According to suicide data, it is a growing problem in the state among certain age groups. On KVNUs For the People program last week, a member of the coalition, Logan City Police Lt. Brad Franke, talked about how the coalition came together.
So a couple of years ago, the Health Department here in the valley sent out kind of a call to arms. They just asked anybody and everybody that was concerned about people in crisis and suicide in our valley to come together and meet. And thats how this coalition was really built, said Franke.
He said those concerned include practitioners, counselors, therapists and different agencies and individuals who have been meeting together to compare notes and collaborate on how to address this increasing problem in our communities. Franke said part of the public outreach involves trying to break through the stigma.
Emotional mental health and suicide are sort of the dirty secret of health. Nobody historically has wanted to talk about it, nobodys wanted to address it. If you have diabetes, or you have cardiac problems, or you have high blood pressure, you go to your doctor, you get help. You take your medications, you get follow up. But historically people with emotional and mental health issues have kind of had to keep it quiet or not shared it publicly, Franke explained.
So to increase communication and understanding, the public town hall is being held and its free. Its for families and anyone interested. It will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 10th at Spring Creek Middle School at 350 W 100 North in Providence. You can get more information on their Facebook page: Cache County Suicide Prevention Coalition.
JACKSON, Wyo. Plans by the Bridger-Teton National Forest to thin and burn wildlands in northwest Wyoming have attracted competing arguments over tree cutting and other issues.
The Wyoming State Forestry Division and some area government leaders have formally objected to prohibiting tree cutting in a proposed Palisades wilderness area abutting the west side of Jackson Hole.
Meanwhile conservationists and some biologists are urging review of the region's baseline wilderness suitability and more thorough study.
The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports (http://bit.ly/2pbmXRW) the proposed Teton-to-Snake Fuels Management Project has been in the works for about six years. It's intended to allow wildfire to play its natural role on the landscape.
The Forest Service will hold hearings to try to resolve the differences.
___
Information from: Jackson Hole (Wyo.) News And Guide, http://www.jhnewsandguide.com
Weekend:
Schedule for Week of Apr 9, 2017
Monday:
At 10:00 AM ET, The Fed will release the monthly Labor Market Conditions Index (LMCI).
At 4:10 PM, Discussion with Fed Chair Janet Yellen, Discussion with Ford School Dean Susan M. Collins, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy: Policy Talk Series, Ann Arbor, Michigan
From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: S&P futures and DOW futures are mostly unchanged (fair value).
Oil prices were up over the last week with WTI futures at $52.52 per barrel and Brent at $55.24 per barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $40, and Brent was at $41 - so oil prices are up about 30% year-over-year.
Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are at $2.39 per gallon - a year ago prices were at $2.06 per gallon - so gasoline prices are up about 33 cents a gallon year-over-year.
Common Law Lawyers Demanding Justice Wilson MUSA
The runaway president of North West Lawyers Association (NOWELA), Barrister Bobga Harmony has condemned and rejected an announcement by the President of the Cameroon Bar Association, Barrister Jackson Ngnie Kamga that Common law lawyers will resume work on May 2, 2017, putting an end to their strike action that started in October last year.
Below is the statement from Barrister Bobga as published by reputed Cameroon journalist, Jean-Marc Soboth.
"Notice is hereby given to all common law lawyers that it is not within the competence of Mr Kamga who is not part of the common law bar to speak for us. He has all along lent his support to anti-common law philosophy and organization. He lacks the competence to commit us. On your behalf I condemn and reject the dirty game. Whoever amongst us it party to the deal is free to go with their chose partners. We stand by what we resolved and no less. I shall get back to you all in more detail with our position in the days ahead, Harmony Bobga, President of North West Lawyers Association (NOWELA).
DCC Workers demanding social benefits W. Musa
Over 100 workers of the Douala City Council on Monday April 10, 2017 went on strike action blocking entrance at the Councils Premises brandishing placards denouncing years of no Health Insurance and other amenities.
Solidarity! Solidarity! Unity is Strength! The workers dressed in black, chanted in front of the Council and beside the road with placards in their hands. They were both men and women, some who have worked for over 10 years, yet not health insurance coverage.
As early as 6am the appointment was respected and they all gathered to fight for their rights, rights which they say have been trampled upon by City Council Government Delegate Dr Fritz Ntone Ntone.
This was seen a major and quick challenge to the newly installed Senior Divisional Officer for Wouri, Marche Bertand Joseph, installed into his functions only last week.
But the Council workers will not give in for the peace of the SDO.
DCC Workers (c) W. Musa
Our health is important, some of us are in hospital but cannot pay their bills, one of the striking workers told Cameroon Info Net reporter.
His office just opposite the City Council, the Divisional Officer for Douala One, Jean Marc Ekoa Mbarga was commissioned by the SDO to solve the issue. He arrived the scene flanked by the Government Delegate, promising the striking workers better days ahead.
At Press time, a tripartite meeting had been programmed to resolve the situation.
By Wilson MUSA
| BY Lynchy |
Early indications suggest there are hundreds of Aussies and Kiwis (including expats) going to Cannes this year and delegate numbers worldwide are expected to be up from last year with more seminars and events at Cannes 2017 than ever before.
Campaign Brief, with the generous support of Sydney-Auckland-Los Angeles based production company Photoplay and boutique Design and VFX house Fin, based in Sydney and Shanghai, will be hosting our annual Welcome Cocktail Party for the Aussie and Kiwi delegates on Monday 19 June from 5.30pm. Venue TBA.
Special guests include many of the Australian jurors and several prominent creative directors from around the world. If you are an Aussie or Kiwi (or an expat) going to Cannes, let Lynchy know now to secure your ticket: michael@campaignbrief.com
***
LBB & Friends are back on the beach for Cannes 2017 and LBB member agencies + production companies from Australia and NZ* are invited
Every year Little Black Book hosts one of the most fun, relaxed, and productive events at the Cannes Lions the LBB & Friends Beach, opposite the Miramar on La Croisette. And youre invited to hang out there from Tuesday thru to Saturday if you work for a LBB member agency or production company in Australia or New Zealand*.
For some of you it has become your annual home and sanctuary for the week, the physical embodiment of LBBonline. A real community, getting together to share ideas and forge new partnerships. This is its seventh year, and each time it has been bigger and better, with an amazing line-up of co-hosts who make it a diverse and interactive experience for everyone. From Tuesday to Saturday of Cannes week there is a daily free happy hour, as well as massages, musical guests, and goodie bags stuffed with treats from all of your hosts. But mostly it is a lovely free space in which to unwind, take a meeting, or just enjoy the sun on a lounger.
LBB member agencies In Australasia
BMF, BWM Dentsu, Clemenger BBDO, Colenso BBDO, Core, Cummins & Partners, DDB, Disciple, The Hallway, Havas, Host, Innocean, J Walter Thompson, KWP!, Leo Burnett, Marcel, Matterhorn, M&C Saatchi, McCann, The Monkeys, Naked, Ogilvy, Reborn, The Royals,Rumble Creative, Saatchi & Saatchi, Special Group, Sugar&Partners, 303 Mullen Lowe, TBWA, VCCP, VML, WiTH Collective, Yolo, Zoo Group.
LBB member production companies In Australasia
Admusic.tv, Airbag, Alt.VFX, Curious, Cutting Edge, Eight, Engine, Exit Films, Film Construction, Filmgraphics, Fin Design + Effects, Flying Fish, Goodoil, Heckler, Infinity Squared, Jungle, Mighty Nice, Moth Projects, The Otto Empire, Passion Pictures, Photoplay, Plaza Films, Red Engine, Revolver, Robbers Dog, Rumble Studios, Scoundrel, The Sweet Shop, Tazer, Uncanny Valley, XYZ Studios.
For LBB membership enquiries or to place your name on the VIP Cannes Beach list contact: michael@campaignbrief.com
FAQ About LBB & Friends Beach
Who is invited to LBB & Friends Beach?
The Friends, our co-hosts and sponsors will all be on the beach and will be inviting their clients from all over the world;
Bronze and Silver company members of LBBOnline will each receive a set number of wristbands for the beach in 2017. This includes most agency networks. If you are not sure whether your company has a membership, contact michael@campaignbrief.com to find out. This is the best way to make sure that members of your team can represent your company on the beach;
Our LBB/LAB clients will be invited;
Jury members, and other celebrated guests.
How can I collect my wristbands?
Wristbands can be collected on the beach between set times from Tuesday through Friday. Times TBA.
They will also be available on the Monday afternoon/evening in Cannes, from the beach. Times TBA
We will also have some days when they can be collected from our office in London prior to the festival. Dates and times TBA.
If you are an LBB/Lab client, or an LBB Silver or Bronze member that will be active for June, then we can arrange to post you your wristbands in advance.
How can we become sponsors of the LBB & Friends Beach?
Contact michael@campaignbrief.com for details.
Can I reserve a table on the beach for lunch and meetings?
Only sponsors can reserve tables in the beach restaurant.
Can I reserve loungers on the beach?
These are available on a first come, first served basis each day.
Are towels available on the beach?
Yes. One of our sponsors, the London International Awards, are providing towels free of charge, while supplies last. You can come and use one, then take it home with you. Once these have run out, the beach restaurant can rent them to you for the day for a charge.
Can I order food and drink on the beach?
Yes. There is fabulous wait staff on the beach. The head chef designs a special menu for our beach that includes French classics, light dishes and a big burger and fries. Try the creamy truffle pasta. It will put you to rights. The restaurant opens for lunch and stops serving before Happy Hour at 4. The restaurant area will be closed for lunch orders on Friday as we will be hosting our lunch for the sponsors that day but you can still order food on the beach.
Can I bring a large group down with me to the beach?
Only if they all have wristbands, or are on the RSVP list at the door.
What do I do if I get invited to the LBB & Friends Beach?
In the invitation, there will be a link for you to RSVP. You MUST RSVP in order to be on the list at the door. We will only have one list on the door and that is the people who have RSVPed for the event.
Can I swim?
Wed be insulted if you didnt! And there are watersports for hire from the end of the pontoon. Dont forget your inflatable swan.
Do I need to keep my wristband on?
Yes. Without a wristband, you will be asked to leave and you will not be served at the Happy Hour bars. Were pretty nice but we can get a little tetchy when were hot and tired
What is the dress code?
Clothing is required.
Will there be music?
| BY Ricki Green |
Creative digital agency AnalogFolk and the National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA) have today announced a unique new partnership to foster innovation, creative thinking and new technology development.
The multi-faceted partnership is based on a strong collaborative approach along with each organisation providing key input from its areas of specialty AnalogFolk will provide strategic, creative and digital support to the NIEA, while NIEA will provide AnalogFolk access to its innovation labs and cutting-edge research.
Part of the University of New South Wales, NIEA is Australias leading institute for experimental collaboration in art, science and emerging technologies and uses arts-led thinking to generate new insights into globally important issues. NIEA is developing world-first research in interaction innovation and experimental experiences leveraging robotics, artificial intelligence, VR, data visualisation and other leading-edge technologies.
The partnership will expand in the future to include a program of staff secondments and education and training opportunities between both organisations, while a number of joint projects and active client project engagements are underway.
Says Ben Hourahine, strategy partner, AnalogFolk: The partnership was a practical embodiment of AnalogFolks mission to use digital to make the analog world better.
Were very excited to announce our partnership with NIEA and begin collaborating on projects. Access to NIEAs research and innovation labs will enable us to continue pushing boundaries around what is possible in creative innovation and digital technology.
The partnership also provides us an opportunity to take our clients into the labs and access their world class research thinking.
Jill Bennett, NIEA founding director and professor of experimental arts said the partnership with AnalogFolk was a very positive step for the institute.
Says Bennett: AnalogFolk has a unique approach to creativity, innovation and digital technology which is very much aligned with ours as we look to generate new insights resulting in real-world outcomes.
| BY Ricki Green |
It can now be confirmed that the formidable creative pairing of Aussie expat Levi Slavin (left) and Dan Wright (right) will be returning to 100 College Hill from BBDO New York on May 1. Their return signals a clear desire from the agency to build on Colensos well established creative chops.
Slavin will be returning as the chief creative officer, as reported by CB back in March this year, and Wright will return as a newly promoted ECD. Theyll both be joining Nick Worthington, Steve Cochran and Wayne Pick as the leaders of the agencys creative function.
Says Scott Coldham, managing director: The guys coming home is so exciting. Theyll take us to the next level. We dont ever want to stand still as a business and these two bring a level of brilliance and experience that will certainly ensure were continuing to do our best work in an ever-changing landscape. Were blessed in this part of the world with our ability to make amazing work with more ease than the larger markets, but in many ways the US is light-years ahead of us so their exposure and experience up there will definitely benefit our approach to the work.
As two amazing individuals return to Colenso, two revered contributors to the agencys sustained success story are heading off. Simon Vicars (left) and Andre Sallowicz (right) will be packing their bags and heading for London where they will takes up roles at adam&eveDDB.
| BY Ricki Green |
Four Seasons Condoms has launched a new video campaign Condoms for Africa, a short documentary set in Uganda via Emotive.
Since 2005, Four Seasons Condoms have been donating condoms to disadvantaged communities in Africa, with the help of generous Australians. In March this year the team at Four Seasons Condoms set off for the beautiful country of Uganda on its next Condoms for Africa mission.
In Uganda, an estimated 1.4 million people, including 190,000 children, are living with HIV. One of the contributing factors is the severe shortage of condoms in Uganda, especially in larger sizes.
Through this initiative, Four Seasons Condoms donated 150,000 larger sized condoms to fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda and the response was amazing.
The objective of the social video campaign is to raise awareness of this issue in Uganda specifically and let people know how they can donate condoms for free with every pack of Four Seasons Condoms purchased.
| BY Ricki Green |
One of Australias leading media strategists and commentators Sergio Brodsky has been appointed head of strategy for Initiative Melbourne, a new position at the agency. He is previously strategy director for Starcom Melbourne and he starts with Initiative this week.
Brodsky is an internationally experienced brand marketing professional and a scholar of prestigious The Marketing Academy. He is formerly the worldwide strategist for WPPs brand consultancy Brand Union in London where he worked on the global repositioning of HSBC as well as producing award-winning work for clients across the FMCG, professional services, education and not-for-profit categories.
He later joined Starcom London, working in the global business unit for Procter & Gamble and responsible for strategy development across beauty and feminine care categories. That was followed by his move to Australia to join Interbrand where he led the winning tender for Heinemann to be the Duty-Free operator for Sydney Airport, a rebranding of Yellow Pages and the Myer Family Company.
He moved on to OMD where he was the strategy lead for RMIT, Dulux, RACV, Oakley and Bupa. At Starcom Melbourne he has led strategy on winning pitches for MYOB; Lumo Energy and Kraft Heinz.
Brodsky is also an internationally published author, columnist and speaker. He started his career as an intellectual property lawyer in his native Brazil and holds an MBA in global brand strategy and innovation.
Says Tristan Burrell, chief strategy officer, Initiative Australia: Were focusing very strongly on the Melbourne market and looking forward to having Sergios creative and strategic thinking working with our clients and agency teams. Hes truly a first class professional with broad experience in many aspects of media communications.
One of North Dakotas top environmental regulators was on a plane to Washington, D.C., Tuesday, hoping to learn more about the fate of a large portion of his agencys budget.
Under the presidents proposed budget, the North Dakota Department of Health Environmental Health Section would lose all federal funding for at least seven of the national regulatory programs it administers. And the money would be reduced for many others.
The state Department of Health relies on a number of federal grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help fund state-run environmental health programs, such as those that protect the air and water.
President Donald Trump proposed reducing the EPA's budget by 31 percent, but few details were available until an internal memo obtained by a number of national news outlets last week provided a slightly better picture.
We understand reductions have to be made, Environmental Health Section Chief Dave Glatt said. But well be paying close attention to where theyre made.
North Dakota lawmakers and regulators support Trumps efforts to return regulatory authority to the states, but, when it comes to enforcing federal regulations at the state level, North Dakotas cash-strapped government needs the federal resources to implement the programs. And even a large number of small cuts can add up.
Glatt said, depending on how deep the cuts are, it could potentially slow down the speed at which the Health Department performs regulatory tasks.
Some things we probably wont do anymore, he said.
The Environmental Health Section received more than $27 million in EPA funding last biennium and, before the presidents budget announcement, was expecting $26.7 million this coming biennium.
The lions share of the money came from EPA Performance Partnership Grants and Nonpoint Source Implementation Grants.
Performance Partnership grants fund programs for air pollution control, lead, radon, public water systems, hazardous waste, toxic substances, water pollution control and underground injection control. The department had expected to receive $8.4 million for these programs in the next biennium.
Nonpoint source grants accounted for $10.8 million of the departments funding for the upcoming biennium.
Glatt said elimination or shrinking of some programs wont greatly affect the state but things like clean air and clean water funding very well could.
Up for elimination
Under the presidents budget guidance the Lead Risk Reduction Program and $14 million in associated grants would be eliminated, returning the responsibility for funding to state and local entities, according to the memo.
The state received $175,846 from this grant in Fiscal Year 2016 and is expecting $167,000 for the current fiscal year.
The radon program for air quality also would be eliminated, along with $8.05 million in associated grants.
Glatt said the state only gets a small grant on radon regulation, so this is one elimination that will have a small impact. Education and outreach programming is another he said his department could survive without. Wetlands Program Development grants are another the state could live without, but the programs' $4.42 million reduction would mean less money passed on by the state to universities for the research that shapes state program implementation.
The state received $91,000 in FY 2016 and is expecting $94,377 in FY 2017.
About $21 million in multipurpose grants will be eliminated, though the state was not expecting to receive anything from this one-time funding program in FY 2017. The state did receive $256,262 in FY 2016.
The Nonpoint Source Section 319 grant program was eliminated. Section 319 deals with Clean Water Act regulations. The presidents budget outline directs employees to continue to coordinate with the USDA on targeting funding where appropriate to address non-point sources. Funding for the federal program could go from nearly $165 million to $0.
Though it is not entirely clear from the memo how reductions to clean water and drinking water programs will affect the state, the memo does list Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving fund as two activities that will not be done by their corresponding departments in Fiscal Year 2018.
The state was expecting $1.8 million in funding from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and more than $1 million from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.
The state also receives a couple pools of funding from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank program $1.2 million from the general LUST program in the last biennium and $622,614 from LUST Trust Prevention.
The general LUST program could see a large number of cuts, due to the elimination of LUST Prevention and the Underground Storage Tanks grants programs.
While these programs are eliminated the regulations remain. The memo directs EPA employees to provide information on all statutory obligations the program fulfills that must be continued after the program is eliminated, as well as guidance on how the statutory requirements will be met after the program is eliminated.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., previously told the Forum many think of the EPA as bureaucrats in Washington, but a lot of the funding supports work done by the states through a partnership with the federal government. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., on the other hand, said he thinks there's room to cut the EPA budget while protecting key programs.
| BY Ricki Green |
Sonar Music has announced that Antony Partos has blown up iTunes with the release of his original soundtracks for Jasper Jones and Tanna.
Variety has cited Partos delicate score for Jasper Jones as a highlight of the tip-top technical package. The film is in its final days of an Australia wide cinema release and stars Levi Miller, Aaron McGrath, Toni Colette and Hugo Weaving.
The Tanna soundtrack release coincides with its historic nomination at the Academy Awards. Partos donned his traditional, everyday attire to walk the red carpet alongside Hollywoods finest. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, the first for Australia.
The Tanna soundtrack has been described as one of the most spacial aware albums of original score, for the way in which composer Antony Partos creates his cinematic soundscapes are, one by one, both alluring and masterful.
Partos next project is the Network Ten mini-series Wake in Fright, which hell be composing alongside long time collaborator and fellow Sonar Music composer Matteo Zingales. The re-make will be directed by Kriv Stenders whom Zingales recently worked with on the upcoming feature film Australia Day due for release later this year.
| BY Lynchy |
IPG Mediabrands has promoted Craig Harvey to the newly created role of Regional Head of Research Asia-Pacific.
Harvey (pictured left) was formerly Head of Business Science for IPG Mediabrands Hong Kong, and will retain his client facing position, in addition to driving the IPG Mediabrands research agenda and advancing insight and tools capabilities across the APAC region.
In his new capacity Harvey will report to Matt Scotton, Chief Strategy Officer Asia-Pacific. Scotton commented, Craigs intimate knowledge of the business and aptitude for insights and innovation make him the perfect choice to unite and connect our global tools and systems, while championing invention across the region.
Scotton continues, The creation of this role is a further indication of our progressive strength and active growth in driving decision science around consumer and media practices; producing dynamic data led solutions for clients.
With 20+ years experience Harvey has a rich industry background specialising in research and consumer insights, including 16 years in roles for the IPG Mediabrands, and previously companies such as Synovate and Publicis Groupe Media.
Harvey commented, I am very excited to be joining the IPG Mediabrands APAC regional team to grow and develop the networks research, insights and tools. Our vision is to propel IPG Mediabrands recognition as the most progressive, data smart, consumer centric, dynamic agency network in the world.
"The museum [print] makes sort of an 'X' shaped pattern in the orange, so it's a cool pattern, but then when you look closely you can see there's the front doors of the museum and the wall as you go in. So if you look a bit closer you can find the detail."
Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper.
"We are here because it is time for us as a nation to collectively dream of a society that does not lock people out, or lock people up, for the crime of hope."
This is Up and Down, where we give a brief thumbs up and thumbs down on the issues from the past week.
Up
The decision by the state Senate to provide $1 million for repairs at the Double Ditch Historic Site was the right one. The House should follow the senators lead. Erosion has been threatening burial grounds at the Mandan Indian village site along the Missouri River and the state needs to preserve the area for future generations. The Senate also made changes in the bill that allows the State Historical Society of North Dakota to take out a loan for the additional $250,000 or more for work at the site. Hopefully, the House will approve the changes.
Down
Its unfortunate that the Sertoma Club will no longer be able to do the annual Christmas in the Park light display in Bismarcks Sertoma Park. For more than 20 years, from the Saturday after Thanksgiving to New Years Eve, residents could cruise through the displays. Proceeds from the event went to help those with speech and hearing needs and disabilities. Its estimated the club has donated about $350,000. Club members are getting older and finding enough workers was becoming difficult. The clubs decision is understandable. The community owes a big thanks to the club and the event will be missed.
Up
Its always great to see students go the extra mile. Jess Bentzs advance fashion class at Century High School decided to help a classmate. Carly Amundson couldnt find a dress to wear to the prom, so the class decided to design and sew a dress for Carly. The nine students in the class are friends with Carly and wanted to make the prom special for her. Carly, who has Down syndrome, picked out a pattern and the color red. The students then went to work to create the perfect prom dress.
Down
According to information obtained by the Associated Press, government inspectors continue to find defects in rail lines across the nation. The inspectors also report railroads have failed to quickly fix problems called to their attention. Theres been public concern over safety since the derailment of several trains with oil tankers. Theres fear a derailment could result in a major disaster. It appears the railroads need to respond more promptly. Theres a reason many people prefer pipelines over railroads.
Up
The Great American Bike Race has lived up to Great over the years. This year was no exception. The event raises money for families of children with cerebral palsy and related disabilities. On Saturday, teams competed on stationary bikes to see who could get the best times and raise the most money. Its a lot of work for those riding, but the payoff is knowing you are helping a lot of people. Its an event we hope continues for many years.
Down
Deputy State Fire Marshal Ken Sisk confirmed what many people feared: The Nome church fire was intentionally set. The 108-year-old Zion Lutheran Church burned on March 22. There was controversy surrounding the church since it was revealed that Craig Cobb was in the process of purchasing it. Cobb, a noted white supremacist, has tried to gain control of two other towns and failed. No matter how much people dislike Cobb, and theres a lot to dislike, theres no excuse for burning a building. Actions that make Cobb look sympathetic should be avoided.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem described the U.S. border with Mexico as a war zone last year when she sent dozens of state National Guard troops there. Noem said theyd be on the front lines of stopping drug smugglers and human traffickers. But newly released records from the National Guard show that in their two-month deployment, the South Dakota troops didnt seize any drugs and sometimes went days without encountering any migrants at all. Noem justified the deployment and a widely criticized private donation to fund as a state emergency because of drugs making their way across the southern border to South Dakota. But the records cast doubt on whether the deployment was effective in addressing that.
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 ...
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.
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Mumbai, April 10, 2017: As many as 3000 students from 80 schools in the city participated recently in the Gita Champions League contest organised by International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
Besides Mumbai, the contest is also held In foreign countries.
In Australia, every year, an essay contest is held on Bhagwad Gita As it is in English. Recently, the competition was held in Mauritus and Malaysia. It is also planned to be organised in USA, South Africa this year, an ISKCON release said today.
In Mumbai recently, 23 toppers from various schools were given trophies and certificates comprising Rs 5000 first prize, Rs 3000 second prize and Rs 2000 third prize by Sunil Dhamne, Deputy Commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at a function here on April 8, the release said. Eighty-two students among the participants were non hindus. Last year, the topper was a Muslim girl in one of the categories of the contest.
Besides Mumbai, the contest is also held annually in Pune, Nashik and Nagpur (Maharashtra), Delhi, Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh), Belgaum (Karnataka), Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata. The contest, held in English, Hindi and Marathi languages, motivates school students to absorb themselves in the teachings of Bhagwad Gita and enrich their lives and build around them a strong value system, the release said.
Till date, more than 1.41 lakh students from around 1564 schools in various cities of India have participated in the Gita Champions League contest, the release added. The GCL contest in Mumbai was started by the visionary guidance of senior members of the ISKCON Chowpatty Temple in Mumbai in 2010. Since then, every year the contest has involved thousands of students in schools by imbibing in them character and spiritual wisdom.
In North America Yoga is synonymous with exercise consisting of a series of postures as well as form-fitting and surprisingly comfortable pants. But theres much more: its a philosophy deeply grounded in conscience as the source of virtue. Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy which accept and rely on the Vedas, the most ancient scriptures of Hinduism. Yogic ideas of conscience are strikingly similar to the those of Lord Acton in particular and the Christian tradition in general.
In the introduction to his translation of the Yoga Sutras renowned Yoga teacher and scholar B.K.S. Iyengar explains:
Patajali begins the treatise on yoga by explaining the functioning of mind, so that we may learn to discipline it, and intelligence, ego and consciousness may be restrained, subdued and diffused, then drawn towards the core of our being and absorbed in the soul. This is yoga.
To draw the mind to the soul is to bring our consciousness into our conscience. Yoga is then, as Lord Acton might say, the reign of conscience. (For a great unpacking of Actons thought on conscience see Johann Christian Koeckes Freedom of Thought and Commitment to God in the recently published Lord Acton: Historian and Moralist).
For Iyengar the soul itself is the seed of conscience:
Citta is the individual counterpart of mahat, the universal consciousness. It is the seat of intelligence that sprouts from conscience, antahkarana, the organ of virtue and religious knowledge. If the soul is the seed of conscience, conscience is the source of consciousness, intelligence and mind.
The Catholic Church likewise teaches in Gaudium et Spes that conscience is the secret core and sanctuary of man:
In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged. Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.
Actons concerns in tracing the emerging reign of conscience in history are necessarily social and political but rooted in a spiritual insight and transformation.
Jesus himself says, Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21
Matthew Henry, Presbyterian minister and famed commentator, breaks it down:
Those who confine Christianity and the church to this place or that party, cry, Lo here, or Lo there, than which nothing is more contrary to the designs of catholic Christianity; so do they who make prosperity and external pomp a mark of the true church. It has a spiritual influence: The kingdom of God is within you. It is not of this world, Jn. 18:36. Its glory does not strike mens fancies, but affects their spirits, and its power is over their souls and consciences; from them it receives homage, and not from their bodies only. The kingdom of God will not change mens outward condition, but their hearts and lives. Then it comes when it makes those humble, and serious, and heavenly, that were proud, and vain, and carnal,-when it weans those from the world that were wedded to the world; and therefore look for the kingdom of God in the revolutions of the heart, not of the civil government.
You got to get in to get out. Conscience across religious traditions is known as the organ of virtue and religious knowledge. It is our duty to draw close to it, listen, let it transform us, and likewise to encourage and protect others right and duty to do the same.
Nissans new chief executive, Hiroto Saikawa, has bold plans for the company in post-Carlos Ghosn times.
Saikawa took office on April 1 and among his most immediate priorities are to expand the presence of Mitsubishi Nissans global partner in the United States while also re-focusing Nissans electric vehicle efforts.
During an interview with Automotive News, the new chief executive revealed his hope that Mitsubishis global sales can double and that it can make significant inroads in the U.S. and ultimately rival the sales of Subaru.
They are now a 1 million [unit] company. Easily they can grow to 1.5 million, hopefully 2 million. Having a partner [that is] a 2 million company is much better than having [one that is] a 1 million company.
My first wish is that they should start growing, rapidly, and they should regain ground in the U.S. as soon as possible, he said.
Saikawa ruled out the possibility of Nissan selling Mitsubishi-badged vehicles in America but did reveal that as Renault isnt a player in the U.S., theres an opportunity for it to supply cars to Mitsubishi.
Alongside his plans for Mitsubishi, Saikawa also said that the Japanese marque is pushing forward with its electric vehicle plans and will reveal an overhauled Leaf next year. Before 2020 comes around, Nissan will unveil an all-new electric vehicle with a range of around 300 miles (482 km).
PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: CTV
Two Abbotsford cars were spray painted with swastikas overnight, marking the second incident in a week that racist graffiti has hit the community.
Further graffiti in the Larch Park area of the Lower Mainland city included lewd and profane messages.
Last week, the Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts Sumas Mountain campus was hit with similarly racist and misogynistic graffiti, but the Abbotsford Police Department has not confirmed a link between the two incidents.
The Abbotsford Police (Department) takes hate crimes very seriously, Bird said. At this time were in the preliminary stages and we will have to decipher if this has in fact been a hate crime, or just youth using their time unwisely.
Anybody with information regarding the incidents is asked to call Abbotsford police.
with files from CTV Vancouver
All over the world, people love their alcohol. And when they party a little too hard, there's a native hangover cure for the morning after. In Korea, it's haejangguk - "hangover soup". In Seoul, Cheong Jin Ok restaurant has been making the original haejangguk since 1937, helping residents to ease the pain after a late night.
Photo: The Canadian Press
The official start to British Columbia's election campaign is set to launch Tuesday, but the buses are already rolling and the attack ads and name-calling are shifting into high gear.
While Premier Christy Clark is expected to visit Government House to start the 29-day campaign, the parties have been in election mode since mid-March when the legislature adjourned, allowing politicians to return to their ridings.
Clark's Liberals are looking to win a fifth consecutive mandate, while the New Democrats are promising a toe-to-toe battle to convince voters to give them a shot at government after 16 years in opposition.
The Greens, who hold one seat in the legislature, are mounting a full slate of candidates and are boldly predicting a political breakthrough that shakes up B.C.'s two-party tradition.
The Liberals enter the campaign with a strong economic record, which includes the lowest jobless rate in Canada, a top-performing economy and consecutive surplus budgets.
The party also has a hefty bank account to use during the campaign. Recent figures released by ElectionsBC show the party raked in more than $13.1 million in political donations last year. The New Democrats took in less that half that total at $6.2 million.
Clark campaigned in 2013 on promises of a debt-free B.C. fuelled by the job-creating LNG industry. She said she believes the dream of LNG export plants is still alive even though markets have cooled development.
She reacted sternly to NDP comments that LNG development has been a B.C. Liberal failure.
"They should be really happy if it's a failure because they've tried every step of the way to shut the whole process down, to kill LNG before it even got going," said Clark in a recent interview. "They just want to quit. It will happen. We've got to be determined about it. You don't get points for quitting."
Photo: BC Dairy
B.C.'s Hands-on-Cook-off contest is right around the corner.
The contest launches on April 18 with a reminder about the essential role that cooking and eating together plays in communities across the province.
The Hands-on Cook-off contest was inspired by research that shows that when families cook and eat together, kids gain many valuable benefits
This annual contest enjoys the support of hundreds of chefs, schools, community organizations, and media across the province.
Contest judge chef Heidi Fink said, Cooking with my children has been one of the most important things I've done as a parent. They learn important life skills and healthy eating habits; we spend quality time together as a family. Cooking is a joyful and empowering experience for all of us.
"This contest is a great way for people across BC to share their food culture, get to know their food and enjoy the simple tradition of eating together," says Art Napoleon.
"Cooking with my young daughters is not only important bonding time for our family, but it's giving them both essential life skills!"
From April 18 until noon of May 18, any B.C. resident can enter the Hands-on Cook-off Contest.
For more information you can visit their website.
Photo: Google Images
Quebec provincial police are investigating after the discovery of two dead women in a home 250 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Police say a man in his 60s turned himself in to officers at police headquarters in Gatineau in western Quebec in the middle of the night.
They say he asked officers to go to a residence in Notre-Dame-de-Laus, where police found the two bodies.
Police say the man knew the victims.
He was arrested and is to be questioned later today.
The ages of the victims remain unknown and investigators and crime-scene technicians were at the residence.
Photo: CTV
A 20 year-old man has a court date next month after a rough first day on the job.
Police say officers were called to a Barrie, Ont., fast food restaurant on Saturday to look into a reported altercation between a new employee and his manager.
Investigators say the man had his first day on Saturday and was getting training from the store manager.
It is believed the store manager was punched in the face after correcting the new employee during his shift.
Police say the man ran from the restaurant before police arrived on scene and the manager only had minor injuries.
The man turned himself in on Sunday and is charged with assault.
-with files from CTV
Photo: CTV
Searchers are resuming their hunt for a man swept over a waterfall in Golden Ears Provincial Park, near Maple Ridge.
The man, in his twenties, went missing Sunday afternoon near the lower falls of Gold Creek.
Search and rescue crews combed the area Sunday without success.
The search plan is being reassessed this morning.
with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: YVR
Vancouver International Airport says baggage for flights bound to the United States is moving again after an earlier disruption.
The airport sent a tweet early Monday morning telling passengers bound for the U.S. to check their flights.
The airport said problems with the baggage system had caused delays.
About 90 minutes later, the airport sent a tweet saying normal operations had resumed.
A problem with the baggage system caused lengthy delays at the airport on April 1.
Photo: UBCO
A blue-ribbon panel charged with reviewing the state of science in Canada for the first time in 40 years says the system urgently needs new money but also new thinking.
The federal science panel is calling for $1.3 billion in new money and an overhaul to the way research is overseen.
The panel recommends the creation of a new national advisory council on research and innovation, as well as a co-ordinating board for Canada's research agencies.
Between 2007-08 and 2015-16, the budget for investigator-led research fell by three per cent while that for priority-driven research rose by 35 per cent, the report found.
"Panel members fully appreciate the importance of innovation to Canada's prosperity and are sympathetic to elite programming that seeks to reward and amplify excellence," the report says.
"However, the stronger research ecosystems place a high priority on the basic and natural life sciences and on free-ranging inquiry in the humanities and social sciences."
The new money the panel recommends increasing the current spend from $3.5 billion to $4.8 billion by 2022 would be spread between direct research projects, operating funds for research facilities, scholarships and fellowships and facilities and administrations costs.
Photo: The Canadian Press
About a year after being acquitted of sexual assault charges that destroyed a celebrated broadcasting career, former CBC personality Jian Ghomeshi resurfaced online Monday with a new music and podcast series.
The one-time media star announced a venture called "The Ideation Project" on Twitter with the message: "Hi. For those interested, here is something I've been working on..."
The project is described on the website as "a creative adventure with the aim of taking a bigger picture view on newsworthy issues and culture." Future content will cover "a variety of topics from politics to philosophy to pop culture and the human condition."
Reminiscent of the short essays that would kick off Ghomeshi's hosting gig on CBC Radio's "Q," the debut post features musings on immigration, globalization and race. The six-minute monologue called "Exiles" asks: "What does it mean to feel like you have no homeland?"
The social media reaction was largely negative within hours of the debut, and branding expert Martin Waxman said Ghomeshi would be wise to move slowly as he returns to the spotlight.
"I think he's probably smart to do this in a low-key way, to sort of test the waters and see what the reaction is," said Waxman of the Toronto firm Martin Waxman Communications.
He said it's now up to the public to determine whether Ghomeshi can rebuild his career.
"Everyone deserves a second chance if they've apologized and seem contrite. The question is, is that enough time and do people feel like, 'OK, we need to give him another chance?'"
Photo: Contributed
British Columbia's NDP leader has unveiled portions of an election platform he hopes will move his party from the Opposition benches to power after 16 years of waiting.
John Horgan has issued a video and news release saying if the New Democrats unseat the Liberals, his party would eliminate tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges and freeze BC Hydro rates.
The promise comes barely a week after electricity rates jumped nine per cent, and BC Hydro said in November that rates would climb another 16.5 per cent over the next four years.
Horgan says B.C. residents have no choice but to pay the increases in order to power and heat their homes.
He says freezing the rates and removing bridge tolls will make life more affordable for British Columbians.
Horgan has also pledged to improve services including health care and education, build infrastructure such as hospitals, roads and transit while tackling climate change and creating jobs.
A provincial election is scheduled for May 9.
Premier Christy Clark is set to offer her party's platform on Tuesday in Vancouver before visiting the lieutenant-governor to ask her to dissolve parliament, clearing the way for the campaign.
Photo: Google Street View
A teacher and a student were shot to death and a second student critically wounded Monday in a murder-suicide at a San Bernardino elementary school that spread panic across a city still recovering emotionally from a terrorist attack at a community centre just 15 months ago.
The suspected shooter who opened fired in a classroom at North Park School also died. A school official said the attack was believed to stem from a "domestic dispute" and that the teacher knew the gunman.
Two wounded students were flown to a hospital where an 8-year-old later died. The other student was listed in critical condition.
"The children we do not believe were targeted," police Capt. Ron Maass told reporters.
The 600 other students at the school were bused to safety at California State University's San Bernardino campus, several miles away. Television news footage showed students, escorted by police officers, walking off campus hand-in-hand.
As word of the shooting spread, panicked parents raced to the school, some in tears, some praying as they anxiously sought information about their children. They were told to go to a nearby high school where they would be reunited.
Photo: Contributed
This is my second home, one familiar to many working in the oil & gas industry in the Okanagan. So I ask. How come Encanna, Suncor, and Shell are willing to invest in people to achieve a commercial goal, but government is unwilling to invest in people to achieve a social goal?
Companies can build these in mere months. Politicians can talk for years. One gets results with their people, one continues to fail the people.
The issue of homelessness in many cities could be easily remedied with some serious government investment. It seems there is always the perennial disingenuous conversation, the promise of solutions that ultimately end with failure, and the inability to attain any meaningful results.
Politicians and Social Service agency directors manage to pose for photo-ops, continue to give feel-good speeches full of promise, yet ignore the obvious solutions that are currently available just outside the comfort box.
Besides housing in these camps, there are skills training rooms, classrooms, a medical unit and recreation rooms. All of this camp could be applied to the homeless issue facing our cities. Appropriate adjustments could be made to the facility to provide programs for training such as life skills, pre-employment and community integration. The camps are so big, units are separated by key cards, and thus could also be separated by client needs and privacy: single male and female, couples, families, addiction issue unit, detox, elderly and medical intervention unit.
Interior Health could support the community with a nurse and doctor to attend to clients a few times a week instead of the hit and miss programs now. Even a a animal shelter outside. Social assistance cheques could be applied for rent with a small cash comfort allowance to clients, instead of the free for all system that exists now.
Many people in Vernon often wonder why the army camp isn't an option and ask "why" we don't do something along these lines. This idea, a "Community Housing Camp" could protect the homeless, but could also protect the suburbanites and businesses from the petty crime often associated with homeless and transients.
Instead of focusing on our ever important hotel revenue, we could achieve new revenue, by providing jobs here to build it, staff it, manage it, supply it. All that goes back into the community.
Additionally, all access for this camp goes through one front door; security personnel on site monitor for drugs, alcohol, behaviour. Rules are not a loss of rights or privacy, but a means to protect everyone. Thus, there could be rules in a social housing application.
Hypothetically, if a city contracted tomorrow, one of the many camp companies serving the oil and gas industry, it could be built, ready, staffed and running by September. All three major Okanagan cities have vacant land available. Let's quit talking and start doing. Animatedly thinking: in the front door, broken, scruffy, and in need; and out the backdoor, healthy, rejuvenated, optimistic and independent. Ready to join your community in a meaningful way, with a healthy mindset to begin a constructive fresh start.
Jeff Hunkin
Photo: CTV
Police are searching a Nanaimo field in connection with the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl.
Makayla Chang hasnt been seen since March 17.
Police sifted through debris on the lot Monday morning.
It's next to a home where Steven Bacon lived before Chang went missing. Police had publicly identified Bacon, 53, as possibly travelling with the teen before speaking to him last week.
Police searched Bacon's basement suite and on April 2 combed Colliery Dam Park in search of the girl.
with files from CTV Vancouver Island
Photo: The Canadian Press
The RCMP says it is too early to know what effect the legalization of recreational marijuana may have on organized criminal involvement in the illicit pot market.
The Mounties add that they will work with the federal government "to the extent possible" to ensure policies are in place to prevent crime networks from taking advantage of the legal marijuana trade.
The cautious assessment spelled out in RCMP notes obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act stands in contrast to the Trudeau government's mantra that legalization will take pot profits out of criminal hands.
The Trudeau government plans to introduce legislation Thursday to put legalization in motion.
The government wants to decriminalize marijuana consumption and incidental possession and create new sanctions to more severely punish those who provide pot to minors or drive under its influence.
The Liberals say the current system of prohibition does not stop young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of pot.
Photo: Flickr/BC Gov't
British Columbia's two main political parties are promising to keep more money in taxpayers' pockets on the eve of the provincial election campaign.
Liberal Leader Christy Clark promised tax cuts, credits and freezes today while NDP Leader John Horgan says his party would eliminate tolls on two bridges linking the suburbs to Vancouver if the party wins the May 9 election.
The Liberals released their platform one day before the campaign officially begins, making a series of promises that would cost $157 million in new spending over three years.
The party is promising a personal income tax freeze and new tax credits for seniors and family members who care for them.
In addition to eliminating tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges, Horgan is also promising to freeze BC Hydro rates.
The pledge comes barely a week after electricity rates jumped by nine per cent, following a BC Hydro warning in November that rates would climb another 16.5 per cent over the next four years.
Horgan says B.C. residents have no choice but to pay the increases in order to power and heat their homes, adding that a rate freeze and removing bridge tolls would make life more affordable.
Horgan has also pledged to improve services including health care and education, build infrastructure such as hospitals, roads and transit, while also tackling climate change and creating jobs.
Clark says if the Liberals are re-elected, they would cut the small business tax to two per cent, phase out provincial sales tax on electricity for all businesses, and commit to four more balanced budgets.
Clark also touted previous promises to eliminate unpopular medical services premiums, cap bridge tolls at $500 annually for commuters and create a new tax credit for people living in communities that are dependent on BC Ferries.
The Liberal platform was released at a Vancouver-based technology company as the party is also promising to spend $87 million in a technology strategy and for teaching coding to students in grades 6 to 9.
Photo: The Canadian Press
Look for Prince George and Princess Charlotte to steal a few hearts when their aunt Pippa Middleton marries next month.
Kensington Palace said Monday that George, 3, and Charlotte, 1, will be page boy and bridesmaid at the May 20 nuptials of Middleton and financier James Matthews.
They are the children of Prince William and his wife Kate, who is Pippa's sister. William, Kate and Prince Harry will all attend the high-profile wedding.
It's not yet clear what role Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, will have in the wedding party of her only sister.
Matthews proposed to Pippa Middleton last year. The couple will marry at St. Mark's Church in Englefield, 72 kilometres west of London.
Photo: CTV
A hiker says he was shocked when he realized he was standing near a ledge where five people had just fallen to their deaths in the mountains near Vancouver.
Alastair Ferries said he had just passed a man on Saturday who mentioned his five friends were ahead of him on Mount Harvey, about 35 kilometres north of the city.
"I got to the summit and there was nobody there," he said in an interview Monday. "There were some tracks leading over to the edge and it looked like it had broken off there."
Ferris, 62, said that's when he knew the entire group had fallen when a cornice, or snow ledge, had fallen from under them. Searchers found the bodies on Sunday, 500 metres below the mountain's summit.
When the hiker he had just passed joined him, Ferris said the man's demeanour immediately changed.
"I could see the astonishment on his face. That verified to me that yeah, there actually were five people and they had fallen. I said, 'I'm sorry, I think your friends have fallen.' "
Ferries of North Vancouver said he went to his vehicle to call for help.
Lions Bay Mayor Karl Buhr said he believes the hikers were from nearby Maple Ridge and were experienced, but they were not carrying avalanche beacons, making it harder to find them.
"They didn't do anything wrong," he said. "They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Photo: The Canadian Press
The Bank of Canada has placed an Easter egg on its website promoting the new $10 bill.
If visitors to the website enter the right series of keys, it plays the national anthem and fills the screen with a shower of tiny animated banknotes.
The central bank unveiled the design for the new $10 bank note last week to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
The key sequence to unlock the secret is known as the Konami code because it was first included in a video game by the Japanese company of the same name in 1986.
The cheat code has since been used in dozens of other games.
The code is: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a.
"The Bank of Canada's web team thought the Konami code was a fun way to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation," Bank of Canada spokeswoman Josianne Menard said.
Photo: The Canadian Press
The United States has concluded Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
The official said a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons.
The official said the presence of the surveillance drone over the hospital couldn't have been a coincidence, and that Russia must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment.
The official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on intelligence matters and demanded anonymity, didn't give precise timing for when the drone was above the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhtoun, where more than 80 people were killed. He also didn't provide all the details for the military and intelligence information that form the basis of what he said the Pentagon has now concluded.
The allegation is grave, even by the standards of the currently dismal U.S.-Russian relations.
Although Russia has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, and they've co-ordinated military attacks together, Washington has never previously accused Moscow of complicity in any attack that involved the gassing of innocent civilians, including children. The former Cold War foes even worked together in 2013 to remove and destroy more than 1,300 tons of Syrian chemical weapons and agents.
Nepal Cement Manufacturers Association to review price hike
10 April 2017
The Nepal Cement Manufacturers Association has agreed to review the recent hike in domestic cement prices, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Earlier last week Industry Minister Nagendra Raj Joshi had requested that cement manufacturers review the recent hike which has seen prices increase by NPR20-25/bag. In a follow-up meeting called by Joshi on Sunday, the manufacturers said they are committed to lowering the price.
During the meeting, Dhurba Thapa, President of Nepal Cement Manufacturers Association, said the association had agreed to inform members and will call on them to review cement prices to honour the request made by the government, according to a statement released by the Industry Ministry.
Thapa had stated that the price increased followed an increase in raw material and shipping costs. Last year, on average, the price of cement had risen by NPR100/bag. While power related issues have been reduced with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) ensuring smooth supply of electricity in recent days, the rise in the cost of clinker and coal has been a major contributing factor in the rise of cement prices. Domestic cement manufacturers are dependent on clinker imported from India and coal imported from Indonesia and South Africa.
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Jeffrey Locke
Judge Jeffrey Locke speaks to members of the jury before closing arguments in the trial of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez at Suffolk Superior Court, Thursday, April 6, 2017, in Boston. Hernandez is on trial for the July 2012 killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado who he encountered in a Boston nightclub. The former NFL player is already serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, Pool)
(Steven Senne)
BOSTON -- As the jury continued to deliberate Monday in the double-homicide trial of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez, the defense team and judge argued over an accusation of racial bias made last week.
Ronald Sullivan, one of Hernandez's defense attorneys, verbalized this past Thursday that the selection of a white woman as the foreperson in a mostly minority jury had "extraordinarily troubling racial overtones."
Locke was not fond of this assessment. He did not address the issue Thursday or Friday, but felt the need to revisit it Monday once the jury was dismissed for deliberations.
"Accusing any court of being racist is not only offensive to the individual judge, but is extraordinarily offensive to the tribunal and the integrity of the tribunal," Locke said. "It seems your argument was, Mr. Sullivan, that because the foreperson selected was a white woman, that person should not have been considered as a foreperson."
"Was that the claim you were making?" Locke asked.
"No," Sullivan responded. "We find it offensive that with this jury, predominantly filled with people of color, that they can't self-govern, they can not self-regulate. That this court, immunizes in effect one white juror and makes that juror the leader of the group. We find that offensive. We think it violates Mr. Hernandez's due process rights."
Locke asked: "Are you suggesting that there shouldn't be a foreperson? You just said that they would self-regulate."
"I'm not suggesting anything," Sullivan retorted. "I'm stating that Your Honor should have done what Your Honor said he would do, which was give each and every one of those jurors of color the same opportunity as the white juror that we're discussing. That is my expressed statement."
Locke interpreted Sullivan's claim to mean that the white jurors should have been excluded from foreperson contention simply because of their color.
"Frankly," Locke said, "I find it astounding that you would make this claim."
Locke then explained his process for selecting a jury foreperson.
"I've always selected a foreperson before selecting alternates," Locke said. "It would be foolish to do otherwise. It would be foolish to take a well-qualified juror who'd given close and careful attention throughout the trial and would be able to perform that function and knock them off just by random draw. I don't know any judge in the Commonwealth who would do that."
"I'm not sure I understand your position," Locke added, "but at least I've explored it to the extent that it can be explored and understood."
Sullivan concluded with a Belichick line: "It is what it is at this point."
Jurors have been deliberating for approximately eight hours.
Hernandez is charged with the July 2012 murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado.
There is is a nonstop movement from traditional communications and UC players to add value to their applications and services. It reminds us a great deal of what is happening with communications service providers they had been trying for years to add value to their connections so as not to be considered dumb pipes. The latest move in this direction is AT&T offering HBO free in some of its service packages.
In a recent meeting with Sajeel Hussain of CafeX we got a glimpse of what the evolution of UC and collaboration could be. CafeX has a service called Chime (PDF)- not to be confused with the more recent Amazon Chime service by the same name which by the way, spurred a lawsuit from CafeX.
Hussain describes it as business-focused, outcome-driven pervasive collaboration with customer engagement. The solution offers virtual workspaces blending some of the best of project management like Trello, text communications think Slack and real-time communications. The idea is if you have a merger at your company, you can set up a project with complete communications and task assignment.
Other uses for Chime include mortgage origination and servicing (expect some news soon in this area), insurance claims as well as HR.
The product can be outward-facing as well as inward allowing for the building of customer portals where they can track progress of certain tasks and goals.
We have said repeatedly that communications is the low-hanging fruit of digital transformation, Chime by CafeX shows how you can add value to communications and subsequently transform your enterprise to make it more efficient and productive.
The communications digital transformation event we need now!
Communications 20/20 will be held July 18-20, 2017 at Caesars Palace,
Las Vegas, Nevada and will focus on the next wave of technology and innovation that will transcend the importance of person to person contact, disrupting the future of the entire communications industry. Communications 20/20 will provide vital knowledge and insight through unique programming, hands on training, live demos, keynotes, exhibits and networking events.
This unique conference will allow for individuals and companies entrenched in the traditional communications ecosystem that want to understand how to adapt and profit from the new software-defined communications trends that will permeate through all industries and enterprises.
Getting workers these days to adopt the technology the company mandates is a bit like telling your children to eat their veggies. The only way to make it happen is to use reverse psychology and even then, they typically eat (or adopt) what they want.
This is why it makes so much sense for FreeConferenceCall.com to take their 800,000 business user accounts and allow them to grow up by adding admin control.
In other words, they have won the bottom-up war, now its time to attack the top down.
The companys CEO David Erickson told me they are now focusing on enterprises their current international offering supports 60 countries. and will grow. They all use VoIP, support HD voice and are integrated with the PSTN.
They also have multifeed viceo with picture-in-picture, allowing up to 1,000 people on an audio or video call. In such a large call, you can see the last five active speakers.
They also offer an inexpensive room system with, allow the ability to control hold music and have custom greetings.
Perhaps most importantly, a company can now take control of these accounts so a worker cant take it with them to the next job. Finally, a company can see who is using the line, who joined and how often it is used.
Its a smart strategy and mirrors other consumer brands like Apple that decided there was more value to add and money to be made by allowing companies more control of their solution.
Legal notices
1) The material on this blog has been created by W. Blake Gray, is protected under US copyright law and cannot be used without his permission.
2) To the FTC: In the course of my work, I accept free samples, meals and other considerations. I do not trade positive reviews or coverage for money or any financial considerations, unlike certain famous print publications which have for-profit wine clubs but, because they are not classified as "bloggers," are not required by the FTC to post a notice like this.
Im a supply chain guy, so I hate organizational silos.
Logistics, by its very nature, cuts across silo boundaries. In a vertically organized company, an order drops into Sales and Marketing, flows through Operations to be configured, and then heads over to Logistics for fulfillment. The final stop in the journey is likely Accounting, who handles billing and collections.
Many companies understand the inherent challenge of inward-focused silos. Not all situations are the same, not all customers are the same, so a one-size-fits-all structured response rarely meets the specific requirements. Through this lens, effective customer-facing organizational structures work to cut across functional boundaries and orient horizontally, focused on the customer, rather than vertically by function.
At DC Velocity, we love to talk about Omni-Channel a tag line describing synchronized market-driven responses tailored for individual customers, a horizontal construct if there ever was one.
Instead of a horizontal orientation, the federal government is built around silos. The skeletal infrastructure of the United States Government is clear; just look at the names of the cabinet departments in the executive branch. State, Treasury, Defense, Education, Homeland Security, Transportation, Justice are just a few examples of cabinet departments, and they, like the rest of the departments, are all silos.
The silo approach to organization is recursive: it repeats and repeats and repeats, giving us silos within the silos.
Overnight on April 6, 2017 we launched 60 cruise missiles 59 made it to the target, a single airfield in Syria, in a response to Bashir Al Asads used of chemical weapons AGAIN. A recap of what has happened up to this point. First, lets imagine a red line and pretend well do something if chemical weapons are used. These idle threats from the previous administration obviously didnt work, so the previous administration gave it to the VP and sent him off to work with the international community. Yeah, like that moved things along - not. Then we arrived at the final policy posture, lets wait for the EU to do something . . .ah, theyre busy with Brexit.
After a recent change of administrations, we wake up one morning to hear that the new President launched a missile strike.
President Trump and his team weighed the variables and decided that throwing 60 cruise missiles at Shayrat Airbase might produce the desired outcome no easy task considering the dramatic shift in our new national security approach. If the desired outcome is to demonstrate that business as usual is no longer in play in Southwest Asia, maybe it was achieved, again no easy task because of the international actors involved. And, to reinforce the more aggressive American stance against rogue actors internationally, on April 8 the Pentagon said that a group of US warships is headed to the western Pacific Ocean to provide a physical presence near the Korean Peninsula, instead of sailing to Australia, as previously planned.
Military operations are government supply chains in action on a massive scale. As with any supply chain decision, launching a military action considers an array of variables other than cost. Cost is just one factor considered in the context of national and global security priorities. We can only hope that the decision to launch these missiles was made with a clear understanding of the cost of the cruise missiles, but also with a clear understanding of the desired outcome.
Does it take a sledge hammer to kill an ant? NO. But if you do it once, especially when you are trying to overcome 8 years of destructive paralysis on the world stage, slamming Asads forces makes sense if it produces the desired outcome on the global stage. Based on comments from the international community, the world seems to understand that the United States is again ready to lead in Southwest Asia.
There are too many actors, too many agendas, and until now the lack of a cohesive strategy reduced the United States to play tit for tat on the global stage in the past with the Trump administration, should this missile strike be viewed differently? The previous administration was unable to assemble a proactive integrated action plan across the functional silos, but with a new President, the United States may now be beginning to behave in a different way. That said, we dont know the behind the scenes thought process of the administration, but we can hope they are taking a different approach that includes synchronization across the silos.
But true synchronization across silos costs money. In just one night of missile launches aimed at Syria, we threw almost $100 million of metal at one airbase. According to the Washington Post, our total economic and development assistance to Iraq budget for fiscal year 2017 is a little over $300 million. There is imbalance among the silos.
If this was a straight up logistics problem at an operational level, wed have a cross functional response not just a military response - defined to fix the problem. In an ideal global geopolitical world, wed have a similar cross-functional approach that cut across departments and nations, focused on Southwest Asia, orchestrated by somebody reporting up to the president, and integrating the capabilities necessary and available to meet the circumstance in Syria. The current administration includes some very experienced individuals at the Cabinet level lets hope that they are working feverishly to overcome the ingrained silos of our federal government.
Is it too much to ask that government departments function the way we operate on the warehouse floor? When it comes to government operations, why do we treat silos as a fact of life? Reality suggests that we need a whole of government solution, but we just havent figured out how to do that yet, it seems. Maybe theres hope on the horizon.
UPDATED
Were not in NCLB land any more, Toto.
Under the Every Student Succeeds Actwhich replaced the previous version of the nations main K-12 lawstates have a lot of leeway in deciding what their long-term academic goals will be. That means that, unlike with the No Child Left Behind Act, theres no requirement that all states ensure that 100 percent of students are proficient on state English/language arts and math exams by a certain school year. In the ESSA plans submitted to the U.S. Department of Education that weve seen so far, states have laid out a variety of long-term as well as interim goals, and a vastly different set of timelines with key dates ranging from next year all the way to 2039.
Read on to see what some of these long-term goals are in eight states and the District of Columbia. Weve included some information about goals for graduation rates as well, but weve put aside English-language proficiency goals for now. Want to jump to a particular state or the District of Columbia? Just click on one of the links below:
One important note about Massachusetts: The state did not set out any academic goals in its ESSA plan. Read on or click on Massachusetts above for more info about that.
Need a refresher about ESSA? Click here for our explainer . And check out a video version of our ESSA explainer here:
Connecticut : In order not to overemphasize proficiency, Connecticut plans to lay out student-growth targets on the Smarter Balanced exam in grades 4-8, as well as for several subgroups of students, with all of the final long-term goals set for the 2029-30 school year and three interim targets along the way. The long-term goal by that year is that 100 percent of all students and all subgroups of students will hit those growth targets.
The 2016-17 school years scores, which arent available yet, will set the baseline, and both interim and long-term goals will be set using those scores. This 13-year time frame aligns with the amount of time it takes one cohort of students to move through the K-12 system. There would be growth targets for economically disadvantaged students, as well as for different racial groups, those who are economically disadvantaged, and students with disabilities. Connecticuts growth model also expects more-dramatic improvement sooner from groups with lower growth rates. (More on Connecticuts growth model here .)
The Nutmeg State included a chart to show the expected trajectory of student growth, although the chart doesnt show the actual baseline scores.
However, its worth noting that ESSA appears to say states must have a long-term goal that measures proficiency on state exams , which Connecticut doesnt appear to do. In addition, Connecticuts plan also doesnt appear to use any high school tests as part of its long-term academic goals, which ESSA also requires. (Connecticut doesnt administer Smarter Balanced in high school.)
We asked Connecticut about those two issues. Department spokeswoman Abbe Smith responded the state is using growth as a means to proficiency, and pointed to the part of the plan that states, Students will increase their proficiency on the annual state assessment if they evidence growth on those assessments toward higher levels of achievement from one year to the next. Proficiency is also included in the states proposed 12-indicator accountability system. As for the high school test, Smith pointed to two indicators in that 12-indicator system that cover SAT, Advanced Placement, and other exams. Those tests are not explicitly mentioned in the long-term goals section of Connecticuts plan, however.
On graduation rates, the state wants a 94 percent adjusted four-year cohort graduation rate for all students, and all subgroups of studentsthere are interim targets for the state as well. In 2014-15, the graduation rate in Connecticut was 87.2 percent.
Delaware : Drawing on its waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act, the state wants to shoot for cutting the share of students currently not proficient on English/language arts and math exams in half by 2030. This would apply to all students in grades 3-8 and 11th grade. There would also be long-term goals for nine other student subgroups, including race-based groups, English-learners, and students with disabilities. The 2015-16 scores would serve as the baseline.
For grades 3-8, the exam used to measure progress would be Smarter Balanced, and for 11th grade, the exam would be the SAT. The College Board, which develops the SAT, doesnt set a proficiency level for the exam, but states can decide on their own what counts as proficient. Heres a sample of how 5th grade goals would look, as measured by proficiency rates:
Delaware takes a similar approach with graduation rates, where it wants to cut the share of students not graduating in half by 2030 using the adjusted four-year, five-year, and six-year cohort rates.
District of Columbia : By 2038-39, D.C. wants 85 percent of all students and all subgroups of students to demonstrate college and career readiness on its statewide standardized achievement assessments. (The vast majority, if not all, of students who will be in the D.C. school system in 2038-39 arent yet alive.) That means scoring at least at level 4 on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) exam, and at least at level 3 on D.C.'s alternative exam, the Multi-State Alternate Assessment. Scoring at levels 4 or 5 on PARCC and levels 3 and 4 on the MSAA, the District says, indicates that students are on track to succeed at the next level, and at the first year of postsecondary education.
As a key milestone, the District also wants all groups of students to improve and for achievement gaps between groups to be cut in half over the next 10 years on PARCC and MSAA. PARCC is given to students in grades 3-8 in D.C. schools.
The District also wants 90 percent of all students and all student subgroups to graduate by 2038-39, as measured by the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.
Illinois : Here are the long-term goals for the Land of Lincoln in their basic form, in 2032:
90 percent or more of 3rd-grade students will be reading at or above grade level, including all subgroups of students, such as race-based student groups and economically disadvantaged students. This will be measured by the PARCC exam.
90 percent or more of 5th-grade students will meet or exceed expectations in mathematics, including all subgroups of students such as race-based student groups and economically disadvantaged students. This will be measured by the PARCC exam.
90 percent or more of 9th-grade students will be on track to graduate with their cohort. This is defined as having at least 10 semester credits (five full-year course credits) and no more than one semester F in a core course by the end of their first year in high school, according to Illinois education department spokeswoman Megan Griffin.
90 percent or more of students will graduate from high school ready for college and career. This will be determined using a combination of GPA, attendance rate, and either satisfying academic and career-ready indicators, or getting a college and career pathway endorsement. (More on the latter here .)
In addition, theres a goal for 90 percent of all students and all student subgroups to be proficient in reading/language arts and math by 2032. The baseline for students in K-8 and high school will be set using a composite average of data from three years of test score data. Those baselines will be set in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
There would also be three interim goals measuring progress before the final 2032 goals.
As for graduation rates, Illinois wants 90 percent of all students and all student subgroups to graduate by 2032, using the four-year, five-year, and six-year adjusted cohort graduation rates.
Louisiana : The state wants to set an annual average improvement target of 2.5 percentage point gains in achievement on state reading and math tests between 2018 and 2025 for all students and student subgroups. Plan includes goal of reaching a graduation rate of 90 percent by 2025 for all students and student subgroups.
Maine : Maine wants 90 percent of its students to gradate college and career ready by 2030. However, it does not lay out new long-term reading and math goals, because it says it needs a new baseline for the relevant state exams.
Massachusetts : As we mentioned above, the state doesnt lay out long-term academic goals in its plan. The Bay State says this is because of a new exam its giving in 2016-17. Because baseline data from the new assessments will not be available until the summer of 2017, it is not possible for Massachusetts to determine long-term goals for the state at this time, the plan states. (Other states, its worth noting, do set goals despite not having those baseline scores yet.)
As for its graduation rate goals? The state notes that since 2010, it has improved its four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate by 5 percentage points and cut the gap between the graduation rate for all students and a 100 percent graduation rate for all students by 29 percent. It wants to repeat this statistical progress by 2020. Heres what that would look like using the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate:
Massachusetts also has a range of graduation rate targets for its five-year adjusted cohort rate.
Michigan : The state proposes that 75 percent of schools and 75 percent of all student subgroups reach various proficiency targets on state exams in English/language arts, math, science, and other subjects by 2024-25.
Nevada : The state sets out long-term academic goals for 2022 for grades 3-8 and 10, but only for all students and not for student subgroups.
For all students, the baseline is the 48 percent of students who were proficient in reading/language arts in 2016, and the 34 percent of students who were proficient in math in 2016. The states goal is to have 61 percent percent of students proficient in reading/language arts by 2022, and 41 percent of students proficient in math by 2022. The state says goals for various student subgroups, including economically-disadvantaged students and race-based groups, will be set using baselines coming in March 2017. For grades 3-8 the state will use Smarter Balanced exams, and for grade 10, the state will use end-of-course exams.
Nevadas plan says the state is committed to be the fastest-growing state in the nation in student achievement.
The state wants its graduation rate for all students to grow from 73.6 percent in 2016 to 84 percent in 2022 using the four-year adjusted cohort rate, but it doesnt yet lay out graduation rate goals for other subgroups. Nevada has indicated it wants to include the five-year rate as well in its goals section, but doesnt set out goals for that in its plan.
New Jersey : By 2030, at least 80 percent of all students and at least 80 percent of each subgroup of students in each tested grade will meet or exceed grade-level expectations on the statewide English/language arts (ELA) and mathematics assessments, New Jerseys plan states.
These grade-level expectations will be based on the PARCC examsmeeting or exceeding grade-level expectations means scoring at level 4 or 5 on PARCC.
In addition, by 2030, the state has these two goals:
The state wants all students to score at level 3 (meaning they are approaching grade-level expectations), 4 or 5 on PARCC.
New Jersey also wants 20 percent of all students and of all student subgroups to exceed expectations on PARCC, meaning that they score on level 5.
The state chose 2030 because its the year students entering kindergarten in 2017-18, the year ESSA kicks in, are set to graduate from high school. Here are the baseline scores for all students and student subgroups using 2016 PARCC scores:
By 2030, New Jersey also wants 95 percent of all students and each subgroup of students to graduate within four years of entering 9th grade, and for 96 percent of all students and each subgroup to graduate within five years. In 2015-16, the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate in New Jersey was 90.06 percent.
New Mexico : Like Nevada, New Mexico wants to be the fastest growing state in the nation when it comes to student outcomes. Under its ESSA plan, the state wants 64.9 percent of all students scoring proficient on the PARCC English/language arts exam, and 61.2 percent of all students proficient on the PARCC math exam, by 2022.
There are also separate targets for that year for various student subgroups. For economically disadvantaged students, for example, the goals are 59.8 percent proficient and 56.8 percent proficient, respectively.
Tennessee : The Volunteer State laid out four long-term Tennessee Succeeds academic goals:
The state wants to rank in the top half of 4th and 8th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math, reading, and science exams by by 2019. Theres also an interim goal in 2017 for the the 8th graders to rank at least 31st in 8th grade math, 27th in 4th grade reading, and 28th in 8th grade reading. For perspective, heres where Tennessee ranked on NAEP exams in 2015:
(Click here for more on the use of NAEP scores by states and others.) Tennessee also used NAEP scores in its Race to the Top application.
By 2025, the state wants 75 percent of 3rd graders to be proficient in reading. In 2015, the state had 43 percent of 3rd graders proficient, but the state wants to use new 2016-17 scores as a baseline for meeting the 75 percent goal.
The state wants the average ACT composite score to reach 21 by 2020. The 2015 average composite score was 19.4. The interim targets for composite scores are 19.7 in 2016, 20 in 2017, 20.3 in 2018, and 20.6 in 2019.
Tennessee wants a majority of its high school graduates from its class of 2020 to earn a postsecondary certificate, degree, or diploma. Among spring 2015 graduates, 62 percent matriculated into a postsecondary institution in the fall of 2015, the state notes. And as of the fall of 2015, 24 percent of the class of 2008 had earned a postsecondary credential within six years. There are also interim goals, including a year-over-year increase of 5 percentage points of students matriculating into postsecondary, up to 77 percent of students doing so in 2018.
In addition, the state wants to cut in half the share of all students, and for each subgroup, not scoring at the on track or mastered levels on the states annual exams in math, reading, and science. Heres what that looks like in math, for example:
From 2015-16 to 2024-25, Tennessee also wants the graduation rate to rise from 88.5 percent to 95 percent.
Vermont : Its a little complicated to explain Vermonts long-term goal, but heres one description using a hypothetical: Lets say that in order to score proficient on a test using a scale score of 400, a student must score between 250 to 350. Therefore, the midpoint of the range of scores considered proficient is 300.
Vermonts wants all schools to have an average scale score thats at least at the midpoint of the proficiency range, which in our hypothetical case is at least an average score of 300, by 2025 for grades 3-9 on the English/language arts and math Smarter Balanced exams.
Remember, the scale score and score ranges we used to illustrate Vermonts long-term academic goal are hypotheticals only, and dont actually reflect those in Smarter Balanced.
Local districts will also have to report interim score targets based on their own data.
Vermont also wants all of its schools to have a four-year graduation rate of 90 percent for all students and all subgroups of students.
Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
New York has become the first state in the country to make tuition free at public four-year colleges and universities, but it has sparked objections by imposing a key restriction on students who receive the assistance.
The change is part of the state budget for fiscal year 2018, which was approved by the state legislature over the weekend. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the $153 billion budget deal late Friday night . Many states are working to make community college free, or have already done so. But New York is the first to drop tuition payments for four-year public institutions.
By making college at our world-class public universities tuition-free, we have established a national model for access to higher education, and achieved another New York first, Cuomo said in a prepared statement . On his blog, the governor said , Today, college is what high school was it should always be an option even if you cant afford it.
The Excelsior Scholarship provision of the budget will allow students from families earning less than $125,000 per year to attend all two- or four-year institutions in the City University of New York and State University of New York systems tuition-free. Projections about how many students will benefit from the program vary; according to the New York Times, Gov. Cuomos office said 940,000 families are eligible for the benefit, but a legislative analysis said it would be closer to 32,000 .
The program will be phased in over three years. In the fall of 2017, families earning up to $100,000 annually will be eligible. In 2018, the earnings cap rises to $110,000, and it rises to $125,000 per year in the fall of 2019. Students must attend college full timealthough they can pause their studies if they hit a period of hardshipand maintain grades good enough to pass their courses.
Free tuition will save New York college students a bundle: upwards of $6,300 per year at the four-year schools, and $4,300 in New Yorks community colleges. But as Forbes pointed out in a story about the proposal earlier this year , students still face hefty bills. This years room and board charges are $10,386 at CUNY and $12,590 at SUNY, Forbes reported. Students at CUNY face fees of $640; those at SUNY must pay $1,590. Books and supplies run about $1,300 in both systems, Forbes said.
One provision of the plan is coming in for sharp criticism, according to Inside Higher Ed . It requires students to live and work in New York state for as many years as they received free tuition. If they dont, theyll be required to pay off the tuition amount as if it were a loan.
Sara Goldrick-Rab is a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University in Philadelphia whos been a big proponent of free college tuition. In a series of tweets before the legislature acted on the budget, she urged lawmakers to remove the stay-in-New-York requirement, calling it a trick and dangerous.
New York writer and labor organizer Erik Forman, in a tweet, called the provision indentured servitude.
In May of 1897, Mark Twain was in London finishing up an around-the-world speaking tour he had started two years earlier. He got there right after his cousin, James Ross Clemens, who had fallen ill while visiting London a couple of weeks earlier. In a letter he wrote on May 31 , Twain addressed rumors saying that he had fallen deathly ill and had even died. I can understand perfectly how the report of my illness got about, he said, adding: I have even heard on good authority that I was dead. It was his cousins illness that was ascribed to Twain; in fact, Twain had never been ill, and was certainly not dead. The report of my illness grew out of his illness, he said, referring to his cousins bout with bad health. The report of my death was an exaggeration.
The line was quickly alteredyou probably heard it as Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated, or something along those linesbut the story is funny because, of course, Mark Twains health was never actually in danger. And he certainly wasnt dead when the reports surfaced that he was. The story continues to be told any time it looks like someoneor somethingis on the verge of collapse but comes back to life anyway.
That brings me to the story of the Booster Redux, the student newspaper at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, Kansas. If youve been looking on in despair over the past few months as our democracy has been under siege, unsure of how to separate the fake news from the real stuff, this story is for you . Thanks to the intrepid student reporters at the Redux, I think its safe to say the the death of American democracy has been greatly exaggerated. At the very least, we have reasons to be optimistic.
In case you missed it, heres what happened: the school board out in Pittsburg hired a new principal, and the student reporters followed their instincts when it seemed that something about her wasnt quite right. You have to take a second to contemplate just how low the bar has been set hereIve spent more time researching plumbers than the school board apparently did checking the credentials of this principalbut that only makes the achievement more impressive. Its a lot harder to stand up and ask questions when the answers seem so obvious.
But ask questions they did, starting with the most obvious one: where is this Corllins University, anyway, and why does a university that supposedly offers a full education online not even have a functional website? (The website seems to work now, but that hasnt kept the hounds at bay; now the so-called university/diploma mill has to explain why its using pictures of Wake Forest graduates on its homepage .) Was the place even accredited? Should its degrees be taken seriously if the university doesnt appear to have a physical address anywhere in the known world? Is that second L really necessary?
There were more questions. Why would a small high school in Kansas hire a principal with what looked to be a fake diploma from a fake college who has just spent the last twenty years in Dubai, of all places, supposedly running an educational consulting firm? If that seems like an odd career leap to you, you are not alone. When students called the new principal, a lady named Amy Robertson, she seemed to have no answers. It may be more accurate to say she had answerseverybody, it seems, has answersbut she had a consistency problem. There were some things that just didnt quite add up, said Connor Balthazor, one of the student journalists. They had to act.
And act they did. The students dug in and starting asking more questions. Eventually, as the clouds gathered around her, Roberston finally resigned. No doubt I left out a few of the good partsmostly the parts where the adults reponsible for putting the best person they could find in charge of their communitys school had to eat full plates of crowbut you get the idea. The kids saved the day, quite literally.
And thats something, isnt it? Its not everyday these days that you see something like this happeningpeople being held to account for not telling the whole truth or embellishing it or simply lying. I dont mean to make light of the situation, and I dont know if its fair to hold the school board accountable for hiring a person with such obviously poor credentials. Ill even concede that its possible that Robertson could have been a decent principal. Who knows? I mean, its possible. Sometimes you have to get that fake online degree and work out your professional details as a consultant in Dubai for twenty years before youre ready for that principal job in rural Kansas. We all take a different path.
But thats not really the point. The point is that honesty and integrity still matter, and now, more than ever, we have to hold people accountable not only for being honest and maintaining their integrity but also for demanding it in others. I know its not easy to find good quality principals to fill every position in every school across the country, but we cant let that mean well let our guard down. Honesty, as they say, is the best policy. And holding powerful people to account, whether its the president or a principal, is a cornerstone of democracy.
We also have to find ways to support the kinds of school activities that made this possible. Its well known that free speech is a figment of the principals imagination at many schools in America, where student journalists like these are routinely censored for saying what they really think. As it happens, Kansas law protects student journalists from administrative intereference, according to the newspapers faculty advisor. We could all learn an important lesson from that, not the least of which is: keep these kinds of programs alive, and let them teach kids the important skills theyll need to actually take charge of this society one day. You hear a lot of people talk about education for the real world"; nothing could be realer than this. Make sure this is what they mean when they say it.
So I say: thank you, student reporters at the Booster Redux. Youve done yourselves a service, and youve done one for the rest of us too. Lets hope this proves, at least in some small way, that reports of the death of democracy and truth have been greatly exaggerated.
Average retail gasoline prices in Chattanooga have risen 5.8 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.10 per gallon on Sunday, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 170 gas outlets in Chattanooga. This compares with the national average that has increased 5.7 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.39 per gallon, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com.
Including the change in gas prices in Chattanooga during the past week, prices on Sunday were 26.9 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 9.6 cents per gallon higher than a month ago.
According to GasBuddy historical data, gasoline prices on April 10 in Chattanooga have ranged widely over the last five years:
$1.83 per gallon in 2016, $2.03 in 2015, $3.45 in 2014, $3.34 in 2013 and $3.74 in 2012.
Areas near Chattanooga and their current gas price climate:
Knoxville- $2.09, up 5.3 cents per gallon from last week's $2.04.
State of Tennessee- $2.13, up 4.8 cents per gallon from last week's $2.09.
Huntsville- $2.14, up 3.8 cents per gallon from last week's $2.10.
"With all but two states seeing average gasoline prices rise over the last week, the jump at the pump has continued," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com. "Over half of the nation's 50 states saw prices rise by more than a nickel in the last week while five saw a jump of double digits."
"While the continued increases are completely seasonal in nature, it's not any easier for motorists to digest. Oil now stands $5 per barrel higher than just a few weeks ago and are the main culprit for rising gasoline prices. Many areas are also nearing completion of the transition to summer gasoline, and with it comes a complex list of various summer blends of gasoline that cause us to pay more each and every spring. In addition, with the situation in Syria, there is a rising risk of more heat between some of the world's largest oil producers, causing concern in oil markets which could be a slight contribution to higher prices," he said.
Chattanoogan Alex Hughey is currently living in Tono, Japan as a cultural ambassador for Chattanooga. He has been a Japan resident since September and his contract will last one year. He applied for the position soon after graduating college in May, 2016 and says he has not looked back since.
Mr. Hughey's job is to create a more tourist friendly town for Tono, also known as the hometown of Japan. Tono has a rich culture and is know for its folktales told in the book, The Legends of Tono. Mr. Hughey has gone to the tourist destinations, making English signs to be put up. He has also worked with the tourism association in Tono, helping many foreign travelers who are English or Spanish speakers. "Overall the improvements to this town are tremendous, already," said Mr. Hughey.
Mr. Hughey works in the Tono Education and Culture Foundation's office and does a lot of city/government paperwork for them in English, alongside his Japanese translator, since Mr. Hughey knws very minimal Japanese. They make his schedule and drive him to the various places he needs to work on that particular day. "Every day here is new and exciting," said Mr. Hughey.
More information on what Mr. Hughey is doing is available on the Facebook page and website.
The final part of Mr. Hughey's job is to be the bridge between Chattanooga and Tono, as they become official sister cities this year. He has given many Chattanooga lectures, gone into schools to encourage overseas travel to Chattanooga, taught "southern cooking" classes, led outdoor activities, and all around highly recommended Chattanooga to everyone.
Mr. Hughey reaches out weekly to Mayor Berke and other City Hall officers with updates and asking for advice. He also works closely in Tono with Mayor Honda, relaying that information. "The tourism association here is loaded down with Chattanooga maps and tourist information," said Mr. Hughey. "I would like to eventually make Chattanooga Tourism Association the same way after becoming sister cities.
"In January I brought 13 Japanese citizens with me to Chattanooga for a four-day tour. It really made me realize that my job is so worth the smiles on their faces, coming to America for the first time and seeing one of the greatest cities in America."
The City of Chattanooga on Monday released the results of a community input process held in late February to establish a name of a currently under-construction park in Alton Park. Located at the former Charles A. Bell Elementary School site, the new park space will be named the Southside Community Park.
From the beginning, this park project has been driven completely by community input and wishes. I'm extremely proud of the work we have done and hope it conveys that Alton Park matters to the City of Chattanooga. This is an area that has been neglected for decades. Through a partnership with Mayor Berke, I have worked very hard to reverse that, said Chattanooga City Councilman Chris Anderson, who represents District 7 where Alton Park is located.
After the City took over ownership of the site in 2014, Alton Park neighborhood leaders along with Councilman Chris Anderson and the Citys Department of Economic & Community Development held a community engagement process to create the new green space. The process has included numerous public input sessions on the design and development of the park, like the one where community members recommended and voted on names for the site.
The neighborhoods surrounding the new Southside Community Park are full of history and represent Chattanoogans from all walks of life, said Mayor Andy Berke. These community leaders have worked hard to see this day come, where a vacant site in the middle of their neighborhood is transformed into a beautiful space for families and friends to gather. The name of the park reflects an inviting, inclusive park that will strengthen this community.
The City of Chattanooga and community members broke ground for the new Southside Community Park in February. The former school on the site closed in 1989, and the county-owned structure was demolished in 2011. Now, the Southside Community Park will enhance the vibrancy of the neighborhood and connect residents with options for recreation and gathering.
I think the park name is really nice, and it includes the entire community on the Southside, and everyone on the Southside will be welcome. Everybody will know that it's inclusive. It's for everybody not just certain sections, said Alton Park resident and neighborhood leader Rosemary Porter. I think that it was really nice that city had a meeting and invited everyone out for suggestions on the name. I'm excited, and Im looking forward to seeing it finished.
Community leaders also explored names for the park that included historic leaders and neighborhood visionaries. Chattanoogas Open Spaces division is working with the community on a special way to incorporate and honor the names of leaders who have been influential in Alton Park and the surrounding areas.
Other plans for the Southside Community Park, which is currently under construction, include a quarter-mile walking path, open lawn for community activities, benches, and a large pavilion with picnic tables, restrooms, and drinking fountain.
Erlanger Womens Institute for Specialized Health (formerly WISH) and the Erlanger Center for Women (formerly Chattanooga Center for Women) have joined the Erlanger Medical Group the regions fastest growing physician practice.
The two OB-GYN groups are the newest members of Erlanger Womens Services, along with UT Erlanger Womens Health Specialists whose practice is located in the Erlanger Medical Mall and who also have satellite/outreach offices in Bledsoe County and Dunlap, Tenn.
Erlanger WISH physicians Dr.
Dr. Phyllis Miller and Nurse Practitioner Charlotte Smalley will remain at their Hixson, Tennessee location inside the Northgate Professional Center on Hixson Pike. Drs. Bolton and Hobgood will also continue to see patients at the Hixson office, in addition to the Gunbarrel Road location.
Dr. Portera and his staff have moved their office to Erlanger East Hospital from Glenwood Drive.
The Erlanger Center for Women practice, with Dr. Gary Brunvoll and four Certified Nurse Midwives, Meg Brasel, Amy Anderson, Sarah Smith and Katie Garrett, is located off Gunbarrel Road at 7490 Ziegler Road.
The addition of these highly-respected practices extends the breadth of Erlanger health care providers specializing in obstetrics and gynecology said Erlanger Senior Vice-President of Physician Services, Steve Burkett. Erlanger now has 16 OB-GYN providers in four primary locations the Erlanger Medical Mall, Erlanger East Hospital, Ziegler Road and Hixson Pike, he noted.
The Erlanger Womens Institute for Specialized Health, (formerly WISH), provides a world-class OB/GYN medical experience for women throughout Chattanooga and surrounding communities. The practice focuses on providing personalized mental, physical, and emotional care for each patient. The qualified team at Erlanger WISH has years of experience with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise in fields such as gynecology and urogynecology surgery, reconstructive pelvic surgery, midwifery, and more. Physicians and staff are committed to providing specialized service and attention to each patient. For more information, please visit www.wishdocs.com.
Erlanger Center for Women provides obstetrics and gynecologic services to women in the Chattanooga region. This practice strives to promote health and well-being by providing education and physical care within the community. Erlanger Center for Women offers a wide variety of services to help patients maintain a healthy lifestyle, including ultrasound services, gynecologic surgery, midwifery, and holistic medical practices. For more information, please visit www.chattctr4women.com.
To schedule an appointment, please call Erlanger Center for Women at 423-648-6020, Erlanger Womens Institute for Specialized Health at 423-894-1355 and UT Erlanger Womens Health Specialists at 423-778-2580.
Upon light activation (in purple, bottom row's ball-and-stick diagram), the cyclic structure of the 1,3-cyclohexadiene molecule rapidly unravels into a near-linear shape in just 200 millionths of a billionth of a second. Using ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy, researchers have captured in real time the accompanying transformation of the molecule's outer electron "clouds" (in yellow and teal, top row's sphere diagram) as the structure unfurls.
The ephemeral electron movements in a transient state of a reaction important in biochemical and optoelectronic processes have been captured and, for the first time, directly characterized using ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Like many rearrangements of molecular structures, the ring-opening reactions in this study occur on timescales of hundreds of femtoseconds. The researchers were able to collect snapshots of the electronic structure during the reaction by using femtosecond pulses of X-ray light on a tabletop apparatus.
"Much of the work over the past decades characterizing molecules and materials has focused on X-ray spectroscopic investigations of static or non-changing systems," said study principal investigator Stephen Leone, faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division and UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and physics. "Only recently have people started to push the time domain and look for transient states with X-ray spectroscopy on timescales of femtoseconds."
The researchers focused on the structural rearrangements that occur when a molecule called 1,3 cyclohexadiene (CHD) is triggered by light, leading to a higher-energy rearrangement of electrons, known as an excited state. In this excited state, the cyclic molecule of six carbon atoms in a ring opens up into a linear six-carbon chain molecule. The ring-opening is driven by an extremely fast exchange of energy between the motions of the atomic nuclei and the new, dynamic electronic configuration.
This light-activated, ring-opening reaction of cyclic molecules is a ubiquitous chemical process that is a key step in the photobiological synthesis of vitamin D in the skin and in optoelectronic technologies underlying optical switching, optical data storage, and photochromic devices.
In order to characterize the electronic structure during the ring-opening reaction of CHD, the researchers took advantage of the unique capabilities of X-ray light as a powerful tool for chemical analysis. In their experiments, the researchers used an ultraviolet pump pulse to trigger the reaction and subsequently probe the progress of the reaction at a controllable time delay using the X-ray flashes. At a given time delay following the UV light exposure, the researchers measure the wavelengths (or energies) of X-ray light that are absorbed by the molecule in a technique known as time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy.
"The key to our experiment is to combine the powerful advantages of X-ray spectroscopy with femtosecond time resolution, which has only recently become possible at these photon energies," said study lead author Andrew Attar, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student in chemistry. "We used a novel instrument to make an X-ray spectroscopic 'movie' of the electrons within the CHD molecule as it opens from a ring to a linear configuration. The spectroscopic still frames of our 'movie' encode a fingerprint of the molecular and electronic structure at a given time."
In order to unambiguously decode the spectroscopic fingerprints that were observed experimentally, a series of theoretical simulations were performed by researchers at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry and the Theory Institute for Materials and Energy Spectroscopies (TIMES) at DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The simulations modeled both the ring-opening process and the interaction of the X-rays with the molecule during its transformation.
"The richness and complexity of dynamic X-ray spectroscopic signatures such as the ones captured in this study require a close synergy with theoretical simulations that can directly model and interpret the experimentally observed quantities," said Das Pemmaraju, project scientist at Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division and an associate staff scientist within TIMES at SLAC.
The use of femtosecond X-ray pulses on a laboratory benchtop scale is one of the key technological milestones to emerge from this study.
"We have used a tabletop, laser-based light source with pulses of X-rays at energies that have so far been limited only to large-facility sources," said Attar.
The X-ray pulses are produced using a process known as high-harmonic generation, wherein the infrared frequencies of a commercial femtosecond laser are focused into a helium-filled gas cell and, through a nonlinear interaction with the helium atoms, are up-converted to X-ray frequencies. The infrared frequencies were multiplied by a factor of about 300.
The researchers are now utilizing the instrument to study myriad light-activated chemical reactions with a particular focus on reactions that are relevant to combustion.
"These studies promise to expand our understanding of the coupled evolution of molecular and electronic structure, which lies at the heart of chemistry," said Attar.
Researchers in AMBER, the Science Foundation Ireland-funded materials science research centre hosted in Trinity College Dublin, have fabricated printed transistors consisting entirely of 2-dimensional nanomaterials for the first time. These 2D materials combine exciting electronic properties with the potential for low-cost production. This breakthrough could unlock the potential for applications such as food packaging that displays a digital countdown to warn you of spoiling, wine labels that alert you when your white wine is at its optimum temperature, or even a window pane that shows the day's forecast.
This discovery opens the path for industry, such as ICT and pharmaceutical, to cheaply print a host of electronic devices from solar cells to LEDs with applications from interactive smart food and drug labels to next-generation banknote security and e-passports.
Prof Jonathan Coleman, who is an investigator in AMBER and Trinity's School of Physics, said, "In the future, printed devices will be incorporated into even the most mundane objects such as labels, posters and packaging. Printed electronic circuitry (constructed from the devices we have created) will allow consumer products to gather, process, display and transmit information: for example, milk cartons could send messages to your phone warning that the milk is about to go out-of-date.
We believe that 2D nanomaterials can compete with the materials currently used for printed electronics. Compared to other materials employed in this field, our 2D nanomaterials have the capability to yield more cost effective and higher performance printed devices. However, while the last decade has underlined the potential of 2D materials for a range of electronic applications, only the first steps have been taken to demonstrate their worth in printed electronics. This publication is important because it shows that conducting, semiconducting and insulating 2D nanomaterials can be combined together in complex devices. We felt that it was critically important to focus on printing transistors as they are the electric switches at the heart of modern computing. We believe this work opens the way to print a whole host of devices solely from 2D nanosheets."
Led by Prof Coleman, in collaboration with the groups of Prof Georg Duesberg (AMBER) and Prof. Laurens Siebbeles (TU Delft, Netherlands), the team used standard printing techniques to combine graphene nanosheets as the electrodes with two other nanomaterials, tungsten diselenide and boron nitride as the channel and separator (two important parts of a transistor) to form an all-printed, all-nanosheet, working transistor.
Printable electronics have developed over the last thirty years based mainly on printable carbon-based molecules. While these molecules can easily be turned into printable inks, such materials are somewhat unstable and have well-known performance limitations. There have been many attempts to surpass these obstacles using alternative materials, such as carbon nanotubes or inorganic nanoparticles, but these materials have also shown limitations in either performance or in manufacturability. While the performance of printed 2D devices cannot yet compare with advanced transistors, the team believe there is a wide scope to improve performance beyond the current state-of-the-art for printed transistors.
The ability to print 2D nanomaterials is based on Prof. Coleman's scalable method of producing 2D nanomaterials, including graphene, boron nitride, and tungsten diselenide nanosheets, in liquids, a method he has licensed to Samsung and Thomas Swan. These nanosheets are flat nanoparticles that are a few nanometres thick but hundreds of nanometres wide. Critically, nanosheets made from different materials have electronic properties that can be conducting, insulating or semiconducting and so include all the building blocks of electronics. Liquid processing is especially advantageous in that it yields large quantities of high quality 2D materials in a form that is easy to process into inks. Prof. Coleman's publication provides the potential to print circuitry at extremely low cost which will facilitate a range of applications from animated posters to smart labels.
The natural structure found within leaves could improve the performance of everything from rechargeable batteries to high-performance gas sensors, according to an international team of scientists. The researchers have designed a porous, such as the veins of a leaf, and could make energy transfers more efficient. The material could improve the performance of rechargeable batteries, optimizing the charge and discharge process and relieving stresses within the battery electrodes, which, at the moment, limit their life span. The same material could be used for high performance gas sensing or for catalysis to break down organic pollutants in water.
To design this bio-inspired material, an international team comprising scientists from China, the United Kingdom, United States and Belgium is mimicking the rule known as 'Murray's Law' which helps natural organisms survive and grow. According to this Law, the entire network of pores existing on different scales in such biological systems is interconnected in a way to facilitate the transfer of liquids and minimize resistance throughout the network. The plant stems of a tree, or leaf veins, for example, optimize the flow of nutrients for photosynthesis with both high efficiency and minimum energy consumption by regularly branching out to smaller scales. In the same way, the surface area of the tracheal pores of insects remains constant along the diffusion pathway to maximize the delivery of carbon dioxide and oxygen in gaseous forms.
The team, led by Prof Bao-Lian Su, a life member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and who is also based at Wuhan University of Technology in China and at the University of Namur in Belgium, adapted Murray's Law for the fabrication of the first ever synthetic 'Murray material' and applied it to three processes: photocatalysis, gas sensing and lithium ion battery electrodes. In each, they found that the multi-scale porous networks of their synthetic material significantly enhanced the performance of these processes.
Prof Su says:
"This study demonstrates that by adapting Murray's Law from biology and applying it to chemistry, the performance of materials can be improved significantly. The adaptation could benefit a wide range of porous materials and improve functional ceramics and nano-metals used for energy and environmental applications." "The introduction of the concept of Murray's Law to industrial processes could revolutionize the design of reactors with highly enhanced efficiency, minimum energy, time, and raw material consumption for a sustainable future."
The team describes how it used zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles as the primary building block of their Murray material. These nanoparticles, containing small pores within them, form the lowest level of the porous network. The team arranged the ZnO particles through a layer-by layer evaporation-driven self-assembly process. This creates a second level of porous networks between the particles. During the evaporation process, the particles also form larger pores due to solvent evaporation, which represents the top level of pores, resulting in a three level Murray material. The team successfully fabricated these porous structures with the precise diameter ratios required to obey Murray's law, enabling the efficient transfer of materials across the multilevel pore network.
Co-author, Dr Tawfique Hasan, of the Cambridge Graphene Centre, part of the University's Department of Engineering, adds:
"This very first demonstration of a Murray material fabrication process is incredibly simple and is entirely driven by the nanoparticle self-assembly. Large scale manufacturability of this porous material is possible, making it an exciting, enabling technology, with potential impact across many applications."
With its synthetic Murray material, with precise diameter ratios between the pore levels, the team demonstrated an efficient breakdown of an organic dye in water by using photocatalysis. This showed it was easy for the dye to enter the porous network leading to efficient and repeated reaction cycles. The team also used the same Murray material with a structure similar to the breathing networks of insects, for fast and sensitive gas detection with high repeatability.
The team proved that its Murray material can significantly improve the long term stability and fast charge/discharge capability for lithium ion storage, with a capacity improvement of up to 25 times compared to state of the art graphite material currently used in lithium ion battery electrodes. The hierarchical nature of the pores also reduces the stresses in these electrodes during the charge/discharge processes, improving their structural stability and resulting in a longer life time for energy storage devices.
The team envisions that the strategy could be used effectively in materials designs for energy and environmental applications.
Previously, we have written about Californias approach to continuous improvement...to becoming a learning state . We noted that this requires rigorous cycles of inquiry and stakeholder engagement for success. Subsequently, we described the CDEs developing approach to professional learning that supports continuous improvement, building on our teams internal resources . This brief looks at the kinds of internal organizational changes CDE is undertaking to support our states progress meeting Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) priorities. We call this, Teaming Up For Success.
Changing Almost Everything
Six years ago California began a transformative journey in public education, traveling on what has become known as the California Way.
Our ultimate destination: Successful implementation of the California Standards and the ongoing improvement of student learning. To reach that destination, the work by necessity touches on the entirety of Californias education spectrum, including: standards, funding, accountability, and continuous improvement supports. As State Board of Education (SBE) President Michael Kirst wrote in a 2013 article, This changes almost everything.
That same year, the Legislature adopted, and Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law, the most fundamental overhaul of public education funding in decades, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).
With LCFF, the state returned more funding control and decision-making to local school districts, and focused revenues on students who most need support, including English learners, low-income students, and foster youth. Along with their increased autonomy, LCCF requires the development and implementation of Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs) by school districts and charters working with their key local stakeholders. LCAPs articulate goals and actions designed to improve student outcomes and align spending decisions with those goals.
The LCFF legislation also directed the SBE to adopt new accountability systems. Parents and educators understand that a single number cant possibly describe district and school progress, achievements, and areas for improvement. California needs and deserves a better system.
Now it is here: the California School Dashboard, now available for field testing, provides an easy-to-use, online accountability tool reporting on school and district performance and supporting improvements.
At the same time that Californias state systems have been undergoing radical change, federal supports for education have been equally transformed. The Federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives California the opportunity to streamline local, state, and federal requirements into a single, coherent system for planning, accountability, and continuous improvement and support.
The Challenge
While change has touched nearly every other aspect of Californias education system, our statewide organizational systems still look, for the most part, the same as they did pre-LCFF and ESSA.
These structures are typically vertically organized in top-down systems reflecting the categorical nature of previous state and federal funding support for education. Yet, the LCFF vision calls for new forms of integration, service delivery, and continuous improvement systems that cut across these structures. Effective services for foster youth, for example, should draw upon curriculum, instruction, expanded learning, early education and other supports, all delivered in an integrated fashion.
While LCFF prioritized funding for student populations that need it most, it did not increase overall education funding levels. This means that every dollar allocated to education is precious and must be used as efficiently as possible. This is especially true for the CDE, which has yet to have its funding restored to pre-Recession levels.
And, at CDE, we believe strongly in a team approach. Dialogue and effective collaboration should guide all decision-making and support systems.
To deliver on the promise of LCFF and ESSA, maximize the use of precious resources, and support continuous improvement through effective teamwork, we must look to a future where we rethink how CDE is organized and structured to serve districts, schools and educators. That future must be now.
The CDE Response: Teaming up for Success
CDEs fundamental department organization chart has remained similar for decades.
We have more than 20 divisions with about 1,400-Sacramento based employees and another 1,000 at other sites in the state. Its a big team, and six years ago CDE began tapping into the deep reservoirs of knowledge, expertise and experience of all staff members.
This included initial work with Integrated Action Teams, which combined staff resources across branches and divisions, focused on outcomes. Key learnings from this work have led to current initiatives with CDE-wide action teams.
One of the best examples is the LCAP Support Team, which includes members from relevant divisions throughout CDE with expertise regarding the ten LCFF priorities. Key accomplishments to date of the LCAP Support Team include supporting the revision of the LCAP Template, adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) in November 2016. This work reflected the collaborative efforts of SBE staff, the LCAP Support Team, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA), WestEd, and stakeholders throughout the state.
In another example, the 2015 report of Californias Special Education Task Force called for a unified education system in which all children, including students with disabilities, are considered general education students first and foremost. The report envisions general education and special education working seamlessly together as one system designed to address the needs of all students. In order to realize these far-reaching recommendations, CDE formed the One System Action Team, drawing together members with diverse skills and expertise from throughout the department.
With the successful implementation of the California Standards and the improvement of student learning as our ultimate goal, CDE is realigning itself to move from its current structure of five vertical branches to four including accountability support, continuous improvement support, and systems support. The legal and audit branch will remain as currently structured. This change moves like-to-like elements together to foster building communities of practice within CDE (see table below).
The work of these branches will be supported by five networked CDE-wide teams: California Support Network, California Leadership Initiative, Integrated Planning Support, One System/Whole Child, and Team Advancement (see table below).
Were working now to realize full implementation of the new Teaming Up For Success structure by July 1, 2017. It is hard work, but were confident that it will propel us to more effective 21st century systems that are more responsive to educators, schools, and districts working to realize the potential of the LCFF.
California as National Lighthouse
California can, and should, serve as a lighthouse for the nation as we continuously improve our public schools. To make this progress, we must organize each of our organizations to meet the challenge of this new era, to support our own constituencies and each other. It is simply not realistic to expect systems and organizational structures organized for different needs and times to meet 21st century expectations.
CDE has started by looking inward to identify the resources, find the ways, and build the teams necessary to support continuous improvement. We encourage all County Offices of Education (COEs), LEAs, intermediaries, statewide associations, and others to join us to reflect and act on our how we should all be best organized and best serve our states children.
We know that the need for continuous improvement activity in our schools and districts far outstrips the available financial resources. Our ability to successfully implement the California Standards, Californias education success, hinges on new forms of networked support systems. Its an old story in public education, too few dollars stretched thin, but todays solutions must involve new approaches. Lets start with a focus on our most available resourceourselves.
New educational systems require new thinking and new forms of organization. California has already redesigned finances, standards, accountability, and more. But our new systems will function best when we support each other effectively at all levels. Ultimately, we envision a California Support Network, comprised of organizations and networks statewide that provides ready access to the supports and resources needed for ongoing continuous improvement in districts and schools. This is the kind of Teaming Up For Success, our children need and deserve.
(Tom Torlakson is Californias superintendent of public instruction. Glen Price is a chief deputy of the California Department of Education.)
This video posted on social media shows Dr. David Dao being dragged from a United Airlines flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Louisville, Ky., on April 9, 2017. (Jayse D. Anspach) (Jayse D. Anspach)
United Airlines, which once encouraged us to fly its "friendly skies," is now in danger of becoming the air carrier that says: "Do what we say or we'll beat you up."
Talk about your unusual corporate message.
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Nevertheless, that's a signal United is sending to the world in the aftermath of a huge customer service debacle. On an overbooked United Express Chicago-to-Louisville flight Sunday, a passenger who seemed to be minding his own business was ordered to leave the plane. After refusing, he was yanked out of his seat, roughed up and then literally dragged yes, dragged on his back from the plane by security personnel.
There's video shot by his fellow passengers all over the internet.
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The flight was operated by Republic Airways with a Republic crew that was following United's rules and procedures.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 13 As security officers ask him to leave the flight, a United passenger who was later dragged from the plane speaks on the phone, while refusing to leave. This is a screenshot of a video posted on Facebook. (Joya Cummings / Facebook)
Keeping in mind that other facts could emerge, this sure looks like airline personnel goofed up big time by escalating an already difficult and testy situation. The airline's top brass owes the flying public a quick and candid explanation of why this occurred, what part of its overbooking protocol opens the way for physical man-handling, and how such ugly incidents can be avoided in the future.
If United won't come clean, then aviation regulators, law enforcement or Congress should delve into the matter.
Hours after the incident, United wasn't saying very much. On Twitter, CEO Oscar Munoz said it was an "upsetting event to all of us" and his team was investigating the matter with the authorities.
OK, Mr. Munoz, there's no shortage of issues to delve into.
Most commercial flyers concede that airlines have a legal right (it's in the fine print that none of us ever read) to overbook flights and ask passengers to leave if there's too many on the plane. Typically, airlines sweeten that process by giving flying vouchers, sometimes hotel and transportation credits, to entice someone to get up and reschedule.
United says this flight was overbooked by four people and it had to get four airline crew members aboard and to their destination, which apparently was crucial to the system's flight operations. Monetary incentives were unsuccessful, so the airline selected four flyers to deplane.
Three of the passengers left when asked, but the carrier couldn't get a fourth person, who said he was a doctor and had to see patients in Louisville, to disembark. He insistently refused to deplane for reportedly up to 10 minutes or so. The onboard ruckus soon broke out.
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While it's an unusual set of circumstances, there are some commonsense questions that beg to be addressed:
Why didn't the airline raise its offer? If the $800 that was finally offered wasn't enough, then up the ante. It seems inconceivable that every passenger would pass on a more lucrative deal. If it was essential to get all four airline workers on that flight, then wasn't it worth more to make a deal?
Isn't part of the process knowing how to count the number of seats versus the number of passengers, including crew? Why weren't the overbooked passengers stopped at the gate?
How was this passenger picked? The airline says by computer. Hate to say it, but would they have rousted someone from first class this way? After all, the airlines are making a pretty big deal about how much they charge you for sitting up front, by an aisle or window, or in back of the plane.
Why did the security people react so strongly? What's the protocol for removing a passenger by force? Who makes that decision? Is it security team, pilot, airline boarding staff? Don't you treat an obstinate passenger differently from one who is acting out and becoming a danger to others or themselves?
@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
What rights does this injured passenger have? In an era when flying is increasingly tight, stressful and potentially confrontational, it would be good to know how far airlines can go and if passengers have the right of appeal. Did anyone say a congressional Passenger Bill of Rights?
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Admittedly, this can get pretty granular but if United is going to investigate, it needs to get into these gritty details and make its findings available online to its many, many customers.
One more thing: Some airline executives are publicly saying that the stubborn customer acted immaturely, intimating that this was reason enough to take such drastic enforcement steps.
In a perfect traveling world, the guy would have gotten off the flight and everybody would have moved on.
Yet I'd counter that it was also the airline and security staff who acted impetuously by failing to take the extra measures needed to de-escalate a tough situation that turned violent and is becoming, at the very least, a public relations catastrophe for United.
Let's face it: Having a passenger mugged for not giving up an airline seat isn't anyone's idea of flying the friendly skies.
roreed@chicagotribune.com
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Twitter @reedtribbiz
Shares of Lake Forest-headquartered Akorn Pharmaceuticals closed up more than 9 percent Monday, following news Friday that a German health care company is considering buying the generic drugmaker.
Both Akorn and Fresenius Kabi confirmed a Friday Bloomberg report that they are in discussions over a possible acquisition.
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In separate statements, the companies said their boards would have to approve the deal. "There can be no assurance any transaction will result from these discussions," both companies said.
Akorn spokeswoman Stephanie Carrington declined to comment further on the discussions Monday.
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Carrington said the company does not disclose its number of employees by state. But across the U.S., Akorn had more than 1,650 employees as of the end of last year, according to a regulatory filing. Globally, it had about 2,388 employees.
In Illinois, in addition to its headquarters, Akorn operates manufacturing and distribution facilities in Decatur, a central distribution warehouse in Gurnee, and a research and development center in Vernon Hills.
Akorn, valued at more than $4 billion, develops, manufactures and markets generic and branded prescription drugs, over-the-counter consumer health products and animal health pharmaceuticals. Akorn focuses on difficult-to-manufacture sterile and nonsterile drugs, including eye medications, injectable medications, oral liquids, inhalants and nasal sprays, among other things. Akorn had revenue of $1.1 billion last year.
Akorn CEO Raj Rai led a company turnaround after he took the helm in 2009, at which point the company's stock was trading at $1 a share, and an earlier company annual report had noted there was "substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern." Akorn stock closed at $32.50 Monday.
An earlier version of the photo caption accompanying this story misspelled Sanjay Patel's name.
lschencker@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @lschencker
Mondelez International, known for brands like Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolate, is in the early stages of identifying a possible replacement for CEO Irene Rosenfeld, according to a source familiar with the process.
Mondelez hired Chicago-based recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles to assist with the company's CEO succession planning, a process that involves evaluating both internal and external candidates over a period of up to six months or more, the source said.
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Rosenfeld's departure would represent a major shift for the Deerfield-based global snack company, which has worked to cut costs and increase profit margins in the face of changing consumer tastes and challenging global economic conditions. Rosenfeld, 63, has led the company since 2006, prior to its split from Kraft Foods in 2012.
On Monday morning, Mondelez spokesman Michael Mitchell wouldn't directly confirm the news, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
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"As you can imagine, we have robust succession plans in place for all of our executives as a matter of good corporate governance. I can also confirm that Irene remains focused on delivering our business objectives and creating value for shareholders," Mitchell said in an email.
The company's board of directors, of which Rosenfeld is chairman, also has discussed possible replacements for her, according to The Wall Street Journal story.
In recent remarks to analysts, Rosenfeld cited political uncertainty and global economic head winds as factors hurting the company. Revenue for Mondelez has fallen for three years in a row, including drops of 13 percent in 2015 and in 2016.
The company also has faced pressure from activist investors like Bill Ackman and Nelson Peltz. Last year, Mondelez tried to buy chocolate-maker Hershey for $22 billion, but Hershey rejected that offer and the companies weren't able to agree on a deal. Some analysts considered that a defensive maneuver for Mondelez, which also has been rumored to be a takeover target.
Ultimately, Mondelez hasn't delivered on its early promise as a growth company, said Bob Goldin, partner at Pentallect, a Chicago-based strategic consulting firm for food companies.
"All of these (consumer packaged goods) companies are under tremendous and unrelenting pressure. And there's a little bit of grass-is-greener syndrome in the industry. ... Somebody must think it's time for a change," Goldin said.
If Mondelez were to hire Rosenfeld's successor from within the company, other top executives such as Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden and Chief Growth Officer Tim Cofer could be candidates for the job.
Before taking the helm at Mondelez, Rosenfeld was chairman and CEO of Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, from 2004 to 2006. She's consistently ranked among the most powerful women in business by publications like Forbes and Fortune magazine.
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When Rosenfeld does eventually step down from her role as CEO, she's unlikely to receive any fond farewells from workers at the Nabisco plant on Chicago's Southwest Side. In 2015, the company announced it would cut about half of the factory's 1,200 jobs and move some operations to Mexico, though many of those workers have since been hired back because of attrition.
Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union have protested outside Rosenfeld's home and Mondelez headquarters, many bearing signs with photos of Rosenfeld and accusing her of corporate greed.
Mondelez shares climbed 0.5 percent Monday to close at $44.40.
Associated Press contributed.
gtrotter@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @GregTrotterTrib
Would Chicago chefs ever consider serving horse? Many say yes, if there was a demand from customers. Popiscue, a 12-year-old thoroughbred gelding, was saved by Gail Vacca, president of the Illinois Equine Humane Center, from a bidder at auction who wanted to resell him at a slaughter house for his meat. (Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune)
On the Facebook page of "The Butcher & Larder," the Noble Square butcher shop, owner Rob Levitt posted a link Wendesday to an article about Congress lifting the ban on funding horse-meat inspections. The implication was horses could once again be slaughtered for human consumption in the U.S.
The reaction, not surprising for fans of a butcher shop, leaned in support of lifting the ban.
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"Meat is meat is meat," one commenter wrote.
Still, many others found the idea of eating horse sickening.
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"This is the most disgusting and reprehensible thing I've ever heard of," one wrote.
And where does Levitt stand in this debate?
"People have a hard time eating Trigger but not a hard time eating Wilbur (from Charlotte's Web)," Levitt said Thursday. "As long as the horses are responsibly raised, I would try it if there was a demand."
The 2006 federal ban was lifted on Nov. 18 as part of a temporary spending bill signed into law by President Barack Obama. Still, easing of the ban does not mean additional money would be allocated for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which would need to fund inspections within its budget as federal spending is expected to be trimmed next year. But animal activists say new slaughterhouses could be opened in a month.
Currently there are no horse slaughterhouses in operation in the U.S. DeKalb's Cavel International was forced to close in 2007 when then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the Illinois Horse Meat Act, banning the slaughter of horse meat for human consumption.
While eating horse meat is not explicitly illegal in Illinois, the law is written in a way that all but discourages possession (except, as stated in Section 2.1 of the Illinois Horse Meat Act, for ground or chopped meat no "greater than 3/4 of an inch in any dimension").
Not that it makes a difference, as eating horse meat in the U.S. remains a cultural taboo, even though it can be found in restaurants as close as Toronto and in supermarket cold cases in French-speaking Canada.
"Horse meat not looked at as food is uniquely American. The rest of the world eats it," said Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods. "The reason I'm very excited about this (ban being lifted), is that people eating donkey or horse means less feedlot cattle being consumed. We could literally change one meal at a time the bad parts of the food system."
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Many chefs in Chicago share the "meat is meat" philosophy, saying they would be open in serving horse meat if there was customer demand.
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"Public perception might be off-putting in the beginning, but I think people are open in tasting it," said Ryan Poli, executive chef of the forthcoming Tavernita restaurant. "I'd be excited to come up with creative ways to serve it."
Said Merlin Verrier, executive chef of Graham Elliot restaurant: "As a connoisseur of food, 100 percent I'm intrigued by what it tastes like. But obviously we can't put something on the menu that will upset customers."
What does horse meat taste like? Poli was cooking in Spain when he first tried pony.
"I thought it was beef, with this wet hay flavor," Poli said. "If you walked into a meadow after it rained, that's the only way I could describe the taste."
Zimmern said he prefers horse and donkey to most grass-fed beef.
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"The meat has a very nutty and mineraly quality that I adore. I think anyone with an open mind would want to make it a regular part of their meal."
kpang@tribune.com
Twitter @kevinthepang
The wife of deceased Illinois lawmaker Vince Demuzio said she "did not find the humor" in John Oliver's comparison of Demuzio to a pool urinator on Sunday's episode of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."
"It's one thing to talk about gerrymandering, but I did not find the humor in his portraying my husband, who is now deceased, in that manner," Deanna Demuzio, the mayor of downstate Carlinville, told the Tribune.
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Oliver tackled the issue of partisan gerrymandering on a segment of his HBO show and mentioned Illinois' remap after the 2000 census. The legislative remap commission was split between Republicans and Democrats, so Secretary of State Jesse White drew the name of former Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Michael Bilandic out of a stovepipe hat to break the deadlock.
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"Take Illinois. In 2001, the Democrats won the right to redistrict there, after, and this is for reasons too complicated and too stupid to explain, a name was pulled out of a replica of Abraham Lincoln's stovepipe hat," Oliver said. "But just watch as one Democratic lawmaker made the least convincing promise ever."
The show cut to an old clip of Demuzio (D-Carlinville) saying, "Well, we'll sit down and draw a very fair map."
Oliver takes issue with Demuzio's bemused look during the interview.
"Come on. Come on. That's an inherently suspicious look on his face. That's the exact expression of someone who just urinated in a public pool. 'Huh, water's warm today, huh? Enjoy your swim,'" Oliver said as a sketch of a shirtless Demuzio in a pool flashed on the screen.
Demuzio died of complications from colon cancer in 2004 at the age of 62. The former state Democratic Party chairman served in the Senate from 1975-2004.
"Last Week Tonight" airs 10 p.m. Sundays. A representative for HBO did not immediately return a Tribune request for comment.
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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
A man shot and killed his wife and a student in a special education classroom at a San Bernardino, Calif., elementary school Monday, police said. A second student was injured in the attack.
The suspected gunman, 53-year-old Cedric Anderson, also shot and killed himself in the North Park Elementary School classroom, police said.
He had been estranged from his wife, 53-year-old teacher Karen Elaine Smith, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said in an afternoon press conference.
Two students were transported to hospitals in critical condition Monday morning, police said. One of those children, 8-year-old Jonathan Martinez, later died. Police did not identify the other student, a 9-year-old, who was in stable condition Monday afternoon.
The children were hit because they were standing behind the teacher when the gunman fired at her, police said.
He came in and, very very quickly upon entering the classroom, started shooting, Burguan said.
He could not say how many shots the gunman fired, but he did reload his six-round revolver at one point, he said.
Officials said the gunman, who was known to school staff, entered the building using normal check-in procedures by signing in at the front office as a classroom visitor. The school does not have metal detectors, they said.
He had simply said he was there to drop something off for his wife, Burguan said. That is not uncommon.
In addition to the teacher, there were two adult aides and 15 students in the classroom.
Anderson and Smith had not been married long, and they had been separated for a few months, police said.
Students were taken to a nearby high school to be reunited with their parents. The school will be closed for at least two days while the investigation continues, San Bernardino City Schools Superintendent Dale Marsden said.
I would like our community and our nation to keep our families in prayer, he said. This is an absolutely tragic event.
The school does not have a designated on-site police officer, federal data show.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released a statement about the shooting:
My heart and prayers go out to the victims of this horrible act and to all students and members of the North Park Elementary School community. I want to thank the first responders, teachers and school administrators who were there to protect the students in harms way. As a mother and grandmother, todays senseless violence is a tragedy no parent should ever have to face. I ask everyone to join me in keeping all the victims and those impacted in your prayers.
Others noted San Bernardinos recent history with violence.
San Bernardino has been through unimaginable devastation in recent years. It was also the site of a terrorist attack in December 2015. //t.co/Qg3k4slKlM -- Jessica Calefati (@Calefati) April 10, 2017
This post will be updated.
Photo: In this frame from video provided by KABC-TV, faculty and students evacuate North Park School Elementary School as emergency personnel respond to a shooting inside on Monday, April 10, in San Bernardino, Calif. KABC-TV via AP
URQUILLOS, Peru The blares of a strolling trumpeter in the farm-hemmed village of Urquillos in Peru's Sacred Valley draw a Pied Piper-like procession of costumed dancers, skipping children and more solemn supplicants to a faded yellow church on the town square.
Backdropped by the serrated Andes, a dozen men, shouldering a weighty dais supporting a regal Madonna statue, shuffle out, feeling haltingly for the steps down to the cobblestoned plaza. As the parade inches up a dirt road for prayers, less devout villagers drink Cusquena beer on park benches, grill beef skewers and suddenly embrace the only gringo family mine in attendance with cups of potent chicha, a traditional fermented corn drink.
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"No money," our outgoing benefactor shakes her head, rousing the infant strapped in a bright shawl to her back. "Just to welcome you."
Forget pisco sours. As welcome drinks go, few are more faithful to the Andean spirit than chicha, and fewer are served with such spontaneity as in the Sacred Valley, where nascent tourism has yet to dull native curiosity.
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Traditionally, travelers on a South American highlights tour landed in Cusco and fled its 11,000-foot elevation for more oxygenated Machu Picchu at 8,000 feet. Now, a slower, richer tourism route has emerged that links Cusco and the country's chief attraction via the Sacred Valley, split by the Urubamba River one range north of the city.
To the founders of Cusco, original home of the Inca, the mountain-walled Sacred Valley between it and Machu Picchu was a breadbasket, a fertile region of terraced fields growing corn, quinoa and potatoes. Now, with the occasional assist from John Deere tractors, it's still worked by hand tools from Pisac northwest about 35 miles to Ollantaytambo, the hub for trains headed to Machu Picchu.
A spate of new lodges here, including Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba, aims to introduce travelers to the larger Inca world easily accessible in the many ruins that pepper the Sacred Valley.
For a blend of culture and adventure, we checked into the new hiking-centric lodge Explora Valle Sagrado, outside of tiny Urquillos. Its all-inclusive format best resembles a safari lodge, offering a daily roster of guided excursions hiking or mountain biking in the Andes. Guests return to comfortable rooms in the minimalist-chic lodge and multicourse meals accompanied by as many pisco sours, Cusquenas or Chilean wines as you can drink.
"Every time we started constructing something, we bumped into archaeological remains," said Rodrigo Donoso, general manager of Explora, describing the ancient adobe brick walls that encircle the cornfield in front of the lodge. Above it lie the razor-sharp peaks to which guides point when describing their hikes.
Allowing guests to acclimate, Explora, at 9,500-feet elevation, gradually introduces new arrivals to the landscape. Our first, gentle hike explored a few levels of terraces, stepping up a hillside behind the nearby village of Yucay, sprouting orderly rows of indigenous corn and quinoa. Outside of officially protected historic sites, these fields, banked by the intricately cut walls for which the Inca are famed, are farmed and irrigated by ancient canals. Among these evidently fertile plots, cactus blooms crowd prickly pear pads, and rosebushes overhang streams. Occasional residents passed carrying bundles of firewood strapped to their backs, or herding donkeys by flowering walnut and pear orchards. A modest Catholic church perched atop a small Inca temple inside one terrace, a colonial practice designed to synchronize the two religions.
Our two-hour amble ended at sunset at the transport van parked on a sleepy lane where the driver surprised us with a makeshift bar for Sacred Valley sundowners, a pampering practice, we soon learned, that would bookend nearly every expedition.
In another happy hour ritual, this one at the lodge, guides seek out guests to discuss the next day's adventure from a roster that includes cultural itineraries and hardcore hikes. Sometimes, as in a hike to the town of Chinchero that started at a weaver's coop and ended after a rugged trek to a series of mountain-terraced salt pans, they combine both.
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Fully acclimated within a few days, we prepared to hike over a 14,000-foot mountain pass by dressing in layers that emptied our suitcases and chewing numbness-inducing coca leaves (they're legal) to ward off headaches.
"Like our teeth turn red from drinking wine, the people of the countryside, their teeth are green from coca," said Mariana Ortiz, doling out the natural anesthetic.
Rain spat and the sun shone moodily above the tree line where we spotted the occasional llama herder amid the lake-dotted landscape. Andean geese wheeled overhead despite a constant gale, and small potato patches bivouacked the hillsides. We stopped to eat quinoa and cheese packed in tins for lunch and, five hours later, threaded a mixed herd of alpacas and baby sheep bleating urgently as if to punctuate the end of our exhilarating day. The clouds cleared now and then to reveal a skyline of snowy summits.
"With global warming, many glaciers in the Sacred Valley are melting," said guide Abel Santander, an indigenous Quechua who described paying homage to Pachamama, or Mother Earth, with sacrifices of coca leaves. "We feel bad, like a member of our family has passed."
If the ubiquity of Inca ruins in the region gives the impression that the Sacred Valley is deserted, the saints day in Urquillos quickly corrected that. As did vendors rushing to our car on the valley's main road with grilled guinea pig skewered on sticks for sale. We met women in traditional braids and stovepipe hats ladling chicha on street corners and spotted Pachamama offerings throughout the fields. Only the ruin sites with their tremendous assemblies of gravity-resisting rock seemed, apart from the few tourists with us on our last day at the dramatic Ollantaytambo, empty.
"Imagine these terraces with the flower of the potato blossom, one purple the other white, and tiers of quinoa, kiwicha and corn," said Santander, painting a colorful image of the ruin sites, where, unlike the rest of the valley, nothing is grown. "What we see now is a skeleton."
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A skeleton or many, rather amid a garden.
Elaine Glusac is a freelance writer.
IF YOU GO
Explora Valle Sagrado requires a two-night minimum stay, which costs $1,391 per person for both nights, including airport transfers, all meals, excursions with bilingual guides and an open bar. For guests staying at least three nights, Explora will arrange a day-trip excursion to Machu Picchu for $300 per adult. The resort is offering a 40 percent discount on new bookings between May 1 and Oct. 31; 866-750-6699, www.explora.com.
To reach the Sacred Valley, travelers generally fly via Lima to Cusco. Several American carriers fly to Lima from the U.S., but LATAM Airlines generally dominates the transfer between Lima and Cusco, which takes just over an hour.
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Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles was killed and a female companion was wounded after the two were shot April 10, 2017, outside his residence on Chicago's South Side. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)
While authorities haven't yet said what led to the fatal shooting of a Cook County judge outside his home Monday, the violence is a grim reminder of the work-related threats the judiciary sometimes faces, though bloodshed is extremely rare.
Criminal court Associate Judge Raymond Myles, 66, was killed outside his Far South Side home when he confronted a gunman who had shot Myles' girlfriend, 52, once in the leg, police said. Police suspect the two may have been the victims of an attempted robbery.
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It's been more than 30 years since a Cook County judge was slain while on the bench. In 1983, a former Chicago police officer shot and killed Judge Henry A. Gentile, 63, and attorney James Piszczor, 34, in Gentile's Daley Center courtroom in downtown Chicago.
Hutchie Moore, who used a wheelchair, pulled a revolver out from under a blanket covering his legs and shot the judge after he ruled against Moore in a post-divorce property settlement hearing. He also shot Piszczor, an Oak Park attorney who was representing Moore's ex-wife, then waited patiently for police to arrest him.
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Moore was convicted of the two murders and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
That same year, a man walked into a federal judge's chambers and held three lawyers hostage for nine hours, saying he had a bomb in a blue duffel bag he was carrying. An FBI SWAT team stormed the barricaded chambers in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse and arrested Keith Garth Richardson, who was reportedly upset after failing to get on the police force.
After both incidents, security was tightened at the courthouses, including the addition of metal detectors and X-ray machines at the courthouses' public entrances.
In 2005, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow returned to her North Side home to find her husband, Michael F. Lefkow, 64, and her mother, Donna Grace Humphrey, 90, dead from gunshots to the head. Police later said Bart Ross, an electrician who had filed a medical malpractice lawsuit Lefkow dismissed, was behind the murders. Ross killed himself a few months later during a traffic stop in Wisconsin.
In the city and suburbs, the county sheriffs' offices handle security at county courthouses and at times team up with other law enforcement agencies to provide added protection when credible threats are aimed at judges, law enforcement sources said.
A spokesman for Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans said the chief judge has asked Sheriff Tom Dart to review courthouse security to see if any additional measures are needed. Dart spokeswoman Cara Smith said the office has offered to tighten security by requiring judges, police officers and courthouse employees to go through the metal detectors, but has not yet heard back.
Chicago's state and federal courthouses have more frequently been the locus of violence. In 1992, a defendant being transported from federal court to the federal prison downtown overpowered a guard, took her service weapon and killed two other guards before turning the gun on himself.
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In 1970, a woman used a hollowed-out book of poems by Edgar Allan Poe to smuggle a snub-nosed revolver into the Cook County criminal courthouse for death row murder defendant Gene Lewis. Lewis used the gun to take two hostages and tried to escape before deputies shot him dead in a seventh-floor hallway of the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
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Judges have been targeted by robbers who didn't know what their victims' profession was. In 1998, Judge David Delgado was walking near his Logan Square home when police said he was stabbed in an attempted robbery.
More frequently, judges receive angry and sometimes threatening messages. DuPage County prosecutors recently alleged a man sent death threats to a county judge and two other officials. In 2015, the Tribune reported that at least five Cook County judges had received threatening letters, including one that read "you're on a kill list."
Late last year, a Joliet man was charged with threatening to blow up the Westmont police station and kill two police officers and a former DuPage County judge.
Freelance reporter Clifford Ward contributed.
sschmadeke@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
Listings are subject to change. Please call the venue in advance. To submit items to the calendar, go to newssunonline.com/community.
Thursday
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Author Visit: Mary Kubica: New York Times best-selling author Mary Kubica talks about her writing process, how she got into writing, and she reads an excerpt from her soon-to-be-released thriller, "Every Little Lie." Books are available for purchase and signing after the presentation. Register in advance by calling or at the website. 7 p.m. Thursday, Deerfield Public Library, 920 Waukegan Road, Deerfield, free, 847-945-3311
Lake County Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting: Pennsylvania's Home Guard: the first to confront Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in July, 1863. Their story is all but lost to history, but they had a profound effect on the course of the Civil War. Speaker David Noe is a semi-retired aircraft mechanic and Civil War author and collector. 7 p.m. Thursday, Grayslake Historical Society and Museum, 164 Hawley St., Grayslake, free, 847-543-1745
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Maundy Thursday Worship: This Maundy Thursday Worship is held at Peace Lutheran Church and is led by the pastors of Peace Lutheran and St. Peter U.C.C. The choirs from both churches provide the special music. A ceremony of foot-washing is observed and Holy Communion is served. Everyone is welcome. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Peace Lutheran Church, 1050 Old Rand Road, Lake Zurich, free, 847-438-4400
Marlon Wayans: Actor, producer, comedian, film writer and director Marlon Wayans is coming to the Genesee Theatre for one night only of hilarious stand-up comedy. 8 p.m. Thursday, Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan, $29-$59, 847-782-2366
Human Condition: All living things have one thing in common: mortality. This exhibit explores how different backgrounds, cultures and religions cope with death. Original works by Rembrandt, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Ultrect, and Mapplethorpe are among the pieces. 11 a.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. Friday and noon Saturday, Urban Edge Gallery, 220 West Clayton St., Waukegan, free, 847-902-6662
Friday
Shabbat Service: Congregation Ahavat Olam gathers on the second Friday of the month to celebrate Shabbat with a warm, very musical and participatory Reform service led by Rabbi-Cantor Nancy Landsman.This is open to the public. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Christ United Methodist Church of Deerfield, 600 Deerfield Road, Deerfield, free, 312-431-3632
NiteLite Egg Hunt: This is a drop-off event for tweens only, ages 9-12 years. Register early as space is limited. Participants should dress appropriately, and bring flashlight and bag to hunt for eggs outside. Stay after to enjoy the party atmosphere with a DJ, pizza and beverages. 7:30 p.m. Friday, The Barn at Paulus Park, 200 S Rand Road, Lake Zurich, $10 resident; $12 non-resident, 847-438-5146
Good Friday Worship: The cantata, "A Time For Allelulia" is presented by the combined choirs of St. Peter and Peace Lutheran Churches. For more information contact the church office at 847-438-6441. Everyone is welcome to worship with us on this special evening. 7:30 p.m. Friday, St. Peter United Church of Christ, 47 Church St., Lake Zurich, free, 847-438-6441
Bunny Brunch: A buffet is offered at the Magnolia Cafe & Bakery. Then take a walk over to the Bunny Patch, where kids can enjoy spring crafts, activities and a take a photo with the Easter bunny. Some of their farmyard friends are also available for petting and learning. Seatings are at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon. Call the Magnolia Cafe & Bakery for reservations. Cost: $16.95, $7.95 for 23 months and younger with activities. 9 a.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday, Lambs Farm's Magnolia Cafe & Bakery, 14245 West Rockland Road, Libertyville, $7.95-$16.95, 847-362-5050
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Spring Egg Hunt Extravaganza for kids ages 1-6: Bring a basket or bag to collect your eggs and your camera to get a picture with the spring bunny. Ages 1-2 start at 10 a.m., ages 3-4 at 10:15 a.m. and ages 5-6 at 10:30 a.m.; rain date is Saturday, April 15. 10 a.m. Friday, Keith Mione Community Park, 1401 North Midlothian Road, Mundelein, free, 847-566-0650
Saturday
RE/MAX Center's 20th Annual Easter Egg Hunt: This annual Easter Egg Hunt begins at 11:30 a.m. sharp. There is free admission for children ages 1-9 years old. There are 10,000 eggs, 300 prizes and time for photos with the Easter Bunny and his friends before and after the hunt. Remember to bring your camera. 11:30 a.m. Saturday, RE/MAX Center, 100 N Atkinson Road #106, Grayslake, free, 847-223-7878
Easter Egg Hunt: This Easter Egg Hunt is held for children ages 2-12. Any children in this age group are welcome to join in this festive holiday time, where they will be hunting for eggs on the church lawn. For more information contact the church office. 9:30 a.m. Saturday, St. Peter United Church of Christ, 47 Church St., Lake Zurich, free, 847-438-6441
Shoreline Dance Club: Couples are invited to monthly dances on the third Saturday of each month from January to May.Group dance lesson with professional instructor Bob Urbon begins promptly at 7:30pm. April 15: Foxtrot. Light refreshments will beprovided. Suggested attire: dressy/casual. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Lakeview Fitness Center, 700 Lakeview Parkway, Vernon Hills, $25 per couple, 847-566-2177
Sunday
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Ravinia District Recycled Instrument Drive: The Ravinia District and Ravinia Festival team up to collect musical instruments to be refurbished, "recycled" and placed into the hands of children in underserved communities. Seventeen businesses in the Ravinia District are serving as drop locations. These instrument drop locations have a green flyer posted in the window for ease in identification. See the Facebook page. 10 a.m. daily, Ravinia District, Roger Williams Ave., Highland Park, free, 847-432-6000
Easter Sunday Worship: Easter Sunday is observed at the church with three services of worship, along with Easter Breakfast. The Sunrise Service is at 7 a.m. after which breakfast is available from 7:45-9 a.m. Beginning at 9 a.m. is the next service of worship with special music prepared by the choir. At 10:30 a.m. an additional worship service is held, with Holy Communion served at all three services. Everyone is welcome. 7 a.m. Sunday, St. Peter United Church of Christ, 47 Church St., Lake Zurich, free, 847-438-6441
Loopy Ladies Rug Hooking Guild: Our guild is a group of women practicing the traditional art of rug hooking. We meet the third Sunday of every month. 12:30 p.m. Sunday, St. Lawrence Episcopal Church, 125 W. Church St., Libertyville, free, 847-331-3245
Easter Brunch: This Lambs Farm tradition features their elegant buffet of: freshly carved meats, breakfast classics, fresh fruit and vegetables, and a dessert table with treats from their bakery! Seatings are at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Call the Magnolia Cafe & Bakery for reservations. Costs: $24.95; $10.95 for ages 2-12 and 23 months and younger eat free. 10 a.m. Sunday, Lambs Farm's Magnolia Cafe & Bakery, 14245 West Rockland Road, Libertyville, $10.95-$24.95, 847-362-5050
Tuscany Wheeling Easter Brunch Buffet: The Easter Sunday buffet features eight stations that include: breakfast, seafood, carving, omelet, Italian, salad, antipasto, seafood and dessert. There will also be a special kids station. The regular dinner menu begins at 4 p.m. Reservations are recommended. 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Tuscany, 550 S. Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling, $39.95, 847-465-9988
Stand up for townships
My tax bill is under $4,000 a year. Of that amount, I pay just under $100 a year to the township that plows our roads, picks up debris and handles mosquito abatements. Do you want to eliminate that? I'm 77 years old. I pay for good value, and our township is a good value. If you want to eliminate something, eliminate county government. If you think they will plow the roads, it won't happen.
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Vexed about voting
Here's a first for me since I've been voting in this district for the last five years. When I walked up to the election judge with my driver's license and my voter identification card, she said those cards weren't needed. She just said she needed the first two letters of my last name, the first two letters of my first name, and my address. Really? She wanted to look at my signature. I purposefully scribbled it, and she said it matched. They should be checking voter identification cards. Ever try cashing a check without identification? Wake up, America.
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Wall worries
President Trump still wants to build the wall to keep illegal immigrants from coming into the country. He said we need an engineering study. Where will they put the wall? If you put it on the American side, Americans will no longer have access to the Rio Grande River. You can't put it on the Mexican side because they won't permit it.
Healthcare fix
A pretty easy fix for the healthcare issue would be to have people pay premiums like car insurance, $100 a month. Everyone would pay in. They would then have more money coming in than going out. Not everyone has catastrophic illnesses.
Tweeting Trump
This is in response to the comment, "Trump shows gumption." Yes, he has done more in the first 100 days of his presidency to destroy this country than any other president has ever done. He is not lazy. He works around the clock lying and tweeting. That is all he does at his photo ops.
Show concern for citizens
I'm talking about drawing the line as far as what police can do about entering schools and other buildings to catch illegal immigrants. It is strange that the government seems to be more concerned about protecting illegal immigrants than they are about actual citizens. This could be why thousands of people are moving out of Illinois every year. We don't have a voice here.
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Riled about raises
District 60 teachers got new raises without striking. Are we still paying for their healthcare? That's unheard of. Why is a former principal heading human resources?
Twitter @NewsSun
Editor's Note
Talk of the County is a reader-generated column of opinions. If you see something you disagree with or think is incorrect, please tell us. Call us at 312-222-4554 or email talkofthecounty@tribpub.com. For a continuously updating blog of Talk of the County comments, go to newssunonline.com/talk.
Tavon Tanner, 11, shown Oct. 14, 2016, was shot on his West Polk Street porch in August, with his mother and twin sister next to him. He was in the hospital until late September. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
E. Jason Wambsgans, whose tender portraits of a child shooting victim illuminated the city's brutal street violence, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography the Chicago Tribune's 27th Pulitzer.
Wambsgans was recognized Monday for "a superb portrayal of a 10-year-old boy and his mother striving to put the boy's life back together after he survived a shooting in Chicago," the Pulitzer citation said.
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The Detroit-area native is a graduate of Central Michigan University and has been a staff photographer at the Tribune since 2002. He has spent the past four years working intensively on Chicago gun violence, teaming with overnight reporters and working on projects focused on the intractable violence plaguing the city.
In addition to Wambsgans' award, which was the newspaper's first Pulitzer for feature photography, Chicago Tribune staff members were named finalists in three other categories: public service, investigative reporting and commentary.
The Tribune's "Dangerous Doses" investigation, reported by Sam Roe, Karisa King and Ray Long, was a finalist for public service.
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The Tribune visited more than 250 pharmacies to see how often stores would dispense potentially dangerous pairs of prescription drugs without warning patients. The testing found that 52 percent failed to mention the interaction, evidence of systematic problems that placed millions at risk across the U.S.
In response, CVS, Walgreens and Wal-Mart each vowed to take significant steps to improve patient safety at its stores nationwide. The actions affect 22,000 drugstores and involve additional training for 123,000 pharmacists and technicians.
The reporters also teamed with data scientists and pharmacologists to explore a novel scientific method of discovering previously unknown drug interactions, ultimately identifying several pairs of drugs that may increase the risk of a fatal heart condition.
Reporters Michael J. Berens and Patricia Callahan were named finalists in the investigative reporting category for "Suffering in Secret."
Their work detailed deaths and mistreatment that occurred inside taxpayer-funded group homes and day programs that serve adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities harm that Illinois regulators cloaked in secrecy and silence.
The Tribune identified 1,311 cases of documented harm since July 2011 hundreds more cases than Illinois had publicly reported. State officials would retract five years of erroneous reports and launch a variety of other reforms.
Columnist Dahleen Glanton, who has been with the newspaper since 1989, was a finalist for commentary. In the Tribune's nominating letter, her editors called Glanton "fearless."
"She challenged Tribune readers in 2016 on the most difficult issues facing Chicago and the nation sexual assault, racial discord, gun violence, the contentious presidential election. She wrote with courage and with a sensibility forged from personal experience," the nomination letter said.
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Tribune Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Bruce Dold said recognition in four different categories showed "the breadth" of the Tribune's offerings. Wambsgans' entry demonstrates "what a newspaper can be in all the different forms" including print and multimedia, like the video that accompanied the story online.
"Give us the time, we'll dazzle you with one thing or another," Dold said.
Wambsgans' prize-winning photos appeared in connection with an in-depth report by Mary Schmich , herself a previous Pulitzer winner. In a year where Chicago homicides reached a 20-year high, the Tribune set out to document the toll of violence on children.
That eventually led Schmich and Wambsgans to Tavon Tanner.
One of the most striking photos in the series, of Tavon pulling up his shirt to show his scarring, was taken about 10 minutes after he met Wambsgans. The two bonded immediately and shared an interest in photography, as Tavon had done a summer photography project. Wambsgans shot two frames, then stopped. He knew he had his picture.
"It was a gift from him. He's a brave, extraordinary little boy," Wambsgans said Monday. "He wanted his story to be told."
Tavon Tanner, 11, was one of 24 children 12 years old or younger shot in Chicago in 2016. This is his story. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Tribune Associate Managing Editor for Photography Robin Daughtridge said Wambsgans' work is marked by empathy.
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"Jason connects with people," Daughtridge said.
Schmich praised Wambsgans' professionalism in knowing how to be present without being intrusive.
"When you think of photos involving violence, you don't usually think 'beautiful,' but Jason's photos of Tavon are beautiful," Schmich said. "They're tender, frank and somehow hopeful. Tavon trusted Jason, which is a great tribute to both of them. When I look at those photos, I have a sense not of a photographer 'taking' a photo, but of the two of them collaborating to say something to the world."
"Everyone who sees the photos and hears Tavon's story is indebted to Tavon and his mother, for their courage in opening up," Schmich said.
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Wambsgans' work with Schmich illustrated the "hallmarks" of the newspaper's approach to reporting on city violence, according to Chicago Tribune Managing Editor Peter Kendall.
"We cover it with compassion and with context," Kendall said. "It ends up taking us on journeys like the one Jason went on with Mary to tell this story."
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Wambsgans said he's been taking pictures since he was a kid. His mother bought him his first camera after noting his interest, and Wambsgans liked experimenting with film.
Of Tavon, Wambsgans said he "has the most beautiful smile, as beautiful a smile as I've ever photographed. But he also has a profound sadness."
Wambsgans said he hopes his photos help bring awareness and understanding to Chicago violence.
"That's always the hope in doing this work," Wambsgans said. "When you can show somebody's experiences you can create a bridge of understanding."
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Northeastern Illinois University is temporarily shutting down and furloughing employees for the second time in three weeks, the latest sign of escalating havoc unfolding at college campuses through a 22-month-long state budget deadlock.
The Northwest Side campus will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and again May 1, interim President Richard Helldobler announced Friday afternoon. All services, including computer labs, the library and the writing center, will be unavailable. Only some police officers and engineers will work as needed. All other employees and administrators are required to take unpaid days off when the campus is closed. In all, the shutdown affects about 10,000 students and 1,100 workers.
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Helldobler warned additional furloughs are likely if no state money arrives soon.
Northeastern officials previously announced that only classes would be canceled for those days, then expanded the closures to the entire campus and its satellites. Northeastern also halted operations March 20-24, the school's spring break, requiring staff furloughs for the entire week and keeping hundreds of student employees from work.
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Many state universities have had to make drastic cuts to save money in recent months.
Governors State University in the southwest suburbs is eliminating 22 of its 62 degree programs and increasing tuition by 15 percent this fall. Southern Illinois University in Carbondale plans to cut $30 million out of its budget by July, cuts that likely will involve layoffs, interim Chancellor Brad Colwell said this month. SIU trustees also were to consider a proposal this month allowing the Carbondale campus to borrow money from the Edwardsville campus, though a decision on that was postponed.
At Northeastern, the standstill has aggravated parents whose kids attend the school's child care center, which also will be closed for the three shutdown days, forcing families to scramble to find other arrangements. Parents said Monday they did not feel the center should close during the furloughs because tuition covers the salaries of the employees.
Parents at the school's child care center launched a petition asking Helldobler to exempt the center from any future work stoppages and campus closures.
"I'm a single mom, my parents are 700 miles away, so I can be up a creek really quickly," said Amy Lund, whose 3-year-old daughter attends the center. "The kids are also really affected because they keep getting their schooling disrupted. They're little; they need stability."
Rosemary Lugo-Gross, of Jefferson Park, said she travels frequently for work so it is particularly difficult to improvise with child care. She said she considered canceling a business trip until another parent volunteered to help with her 3-year-old daughter.
"The parents, we need constant support and we need to know that that's stable support," Lugo-Gross said. "If not ... we'll have to go to places that aren't going to be affected by these (closures)."
Helldobler was not available for an interview Monday, but university spokesman Michael Hines said allowing the center to stay open when the rest of the campus is closed created a security risk, even though some parents said they felt the center could handle such issues on its own.
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"Keeping the center open during a time when minimal staffing of University Police and maintenance crews would leave it exposed to unnecessary health and safety risks would be irresponsible," Hines said.
Many of Illinois' public universities have sputtered along on limited funding from Springfield as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and a Democratic-majority state legislature sit deadlocked in a nearly two-year-long budget feud. No spending plan has been approved since July 2015.
Two stopgap budgets were approved last summer, providing most schools about 80 percent of a normal year of funding. Northeastern, for example, received about $30.2 million through the temporary funding, compared with about $37 million in 2015.
No other money has arrived from Springfield since, meaning schools have had to stretch less than one year's worth of dollars over 22 months.
"This is a desperate situation that called for desperate measures," Helldobler said in a statement. "The closures, furloughs and interruptions to student instructions have been excruciatingly painful to the Northeastern community and we don't know how much longer we can survive this financial starvation. Our faculty, staff and students are on their knees."
drhodes@chicagotribune.com
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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. Subscribe here.
Topspin
Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski is headed for a primary challenge next year in the Southwest Side and southwest suburban 3rd Congressional District.
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Marie Newman, a marketing consultant from La Grange, is looking to push a more progressive agenda.
In an email to supporters scheduled to go out Monday, Newman declares: "I'm in."
"Over the past many months, I have attended over 55 group coffees and advocacy meetings throughout our district and I've heard your concerns about our community and our country," she said in a statement.
"You shared your worries, your hopes, and your ideas. And many of you asked me to run for Congress -- because on issue after issue, Dan Lipinski hasn't been there for us. He is out of touch with our district," she said.
Lipinski, who succeeded his father, Bill, holds a more social conservative ideology than most Chicago Democrats specifically on issues involving abortion and women's health care.
Newman was born in Beverly and raised in Palos Park. After years of working in advertising, she started her own consulting business.
"I'm going to need your help. It's going to be a tough fight to reclaim our seat in Congress from a family of Washington insiders with a substantial war chest, who've held their seat in Congress for two generations," she said in her statement. "After meeting with so many of you, I know we can do it from the grassroots up."
One side note: Lipinski dispatched help to Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar in his re-election bid after being challenged over his support and fundraising help for President Donald Trump. With mail-in ballots still to be counted, Claar appeared to narrowly hold on to win. (Rick Pearson)
What's on tap
*Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected to attend the Cubs ribbon cutting ceremony on the new plaza outside Wrigley Field.
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*Gov. Bruce Rauner will "announce new steps to strengthen hate crimes investigations in Illinois" at the Thompson Center.
*A joint meeting of two Chicago City Council committees will consider the appointment of Laura Kunard to the new job of deputy city inspector general for public safety.
*ACLU Executive Director Colleen Connell will speak at the City Club of Chicago.
*The week ahead: On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis speaks to the City Club and the Cook County Board's Finance Committee could consider the $36.5M Tyler Technology contract for Circuit Court case management system that was delayed at the last meeting. On Wednesday, there's a County Board meeting. On Thursday, a city committee could consider stricter party bus rules.
From the notebook
*This reminder brought to you by ...: The state wants to remind drivers to keep their car registrations current, but first, a word from its sponsors.
Illinois House lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a measure that would allow the cash-strapped state to sell advertising on registration reminders mailed out to millions of homes each year.
The proposal aims to provide Secretary of State Jesse White's office with an alternative funding source during the state budget impasse. The office wants to avoid a repeat of 2015, when it stopped mailing the annual renewal notices because of a lack of money. During the 10 months the mailers didn't go out, the number of people fined for failing to register their vehicles in time skyrocketed, leaving drivers on the hook for millions of dollars in late fees.
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The ads could feature a range of businesses, including attorneys and restaurants. Companies regulated by the secretary of state, such as vehicle dealerships and driving schools, would be banned from participating. Also prohibited would be companies that make or sell alcohol, pharmaceuticals or medical marijuana. Politicians can't advertise either.
Rep. John D'Amico, D-Chicago, said the secretary of state's office spends about $400,000 a month on mailings and said the proposal would generate some cost savings for the state. It now moves on to the Senate. (Haley BeMiller)
*McSweeney sides with AG on worker pay: Republican Rep. David McSweeney said he sides with Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan's efforts to have the courts decide that state workers can't be paid without a legislative appropriation but questions what took her so long.
McSweeney said he disagrees with Republican Gov. Rauner's efforts to fight Madigan's push to end employee pay absent a budget and disagrees with a proposal backed by some Republicans that would ensure workers get paid through a continuing appropriation.
"She should have done it two years ago," McSweeney said of Madigan on WGN-AM 720. "I mean, I don't understand why would a government appropriate money automatically? It doesn't make any sense. I want to pay state workers, but we should do it as part of a budget. Right now there's a proposal on the table that would pay state workers automatically forever, without an appropriations bill. How does that make any sense?"
Rauner has contended that Madigan's efforts in the appellate court to lift a St. Clair County Court order requiring state workers to get their paychecks is part of a coordinated attempt by Democrats orchestrated by her father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, to shut down government.
But McSweeney said the paycheck issue symbolizes the overspending going on in the state during its historic budget impasse.
"When did state workers become more important than the truly needy, social service agencies, than MAP grants for our college students?" he asked. "That is what's created this problem in our state is that for the last couple of years 91 percent of this budget has been on autopilot and we're paying state workers without an appropriations bill."
McSweeney said he favors giving Rauner a $32.3 billion lump-sum budget and letting the governor make specific cuts based on $38 billion in spending something Democrats are unwilling to do. (Rick Pearson)
*On the Sunday Spin: Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests were state Rep. McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, talking about the lack of a state budget; Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers; and state Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, talking about business tax credits. The Sunday Spin airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-AM 720. Listen to the full show here.
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*City delays release of police shooting video despite 90-day policy
*Federal prosecutors seek 7 1/2-year prison term for former CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett.
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*Chicago State board hires Vallas and a former dean to top interim posts.
*Illinois members of Congress support Syrian missile strike, but Democrats want debate on use of military force.
*Emanuel declines to pick sides in Democratic race for Illinois governor.
*Kids poisoned by lead in CHA housing; landlords still got paid.
*HUD Secretary Carson to visit East Chicago amid lead crisis.
*Gorsuch confirmed to Supreme Court without support of Illinois' senators.
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*For Cubs fans, sticker shock goes with trip to Wrigley.
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*Large fries? Extra sauce? Why McDonald's wants to track all your dining habits.
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*The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform's weekly update has a rundown of the big suburban races for mayor.
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*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.
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*Trump officials demand Russia drop support of Syria's Assad.
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A north suburban state representative who briefly hinted at challenging Michael Madigan for House speaker now says he's exploring a run for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Rep. Scott Drury, a Highwood Democrat in his third term representing a Lake County district, attacked the leaders of both Illinois political parties in his announcement.
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"The public feels helpless against a billionaire governor and Democratic machine that refuse to prioritize people's needs over political gain. Gov. (Bruce) Rauner's approval rating is dreadful, and Mike Madigan's is even worse. The public believes Republicans and Democrats share the blame for the state's problems and knows that long-term solutions are needed," Drury said.
"Since taking office, my goal has been to usher in a new era of government in Illinois one defined by credibility and responsibility," Drury said in an email to supporters. "The public does not trust Illinois government. If Illinois is to change course and move forward, it first must establish a strong foundation of trust upon which it can build."
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If he enters the race, Drury would have to give up running for re-election to his House seat and would join a field of candidates that includes Northwest Side Ald. Ameya Pawar, state Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston and wealthy businessmen Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker.
An attorney, a former assistant federal prosecutor and adjunct professor at Northwestern University's law school, Drury's efforts to portray independence from Madigan have served to isolate him from Democratic colleagues. In January, he was the only Democrat to refuse to support Madigan for re-election as speaker, a post Madigan has held for all but two years since 1983.
Drury contended Madigan retaliated for the move by not giving him a gift clock that was handed out in gift bags to the 66 House Democrats who supported the speaker's re-election. Drury also said he was not given a House committee chairmanship and was removed from his previous spot on the House Judiciary Committee. Committee chairmen and ranking members get a stipend to supplement their salaries.
Drury also is unlikely to gain much support from traditional Democratic allies in organized labor, where he has opposed legislation pushed by other Democrats to counter Rauner's efforts to weaken public employee unions.
In addition, Drury opposed a Madigan-backed proposed constitutional amendment to ask voters if a surcharge should be imposed on incomes of more than $1 million for schools. The four Democrats in the race to take on Rauner say they support a graduated tax rate based on income to replace the state constitution's mandated flat tax.
Last week, Drury sought to highlight his independence from Madigan during debate over a stopgap budget to fund social services and higher education. The lawmaker criticized Republicans for failing to stand up to Rauner, who opposed the measure, saying it was time for GOP members to "grow a spine" and "do what you think is right."
"There is no one on that side of the aisle, no one, in that side of the aisle in the last two years has shown the spine to stand up to your leader. All right? There is one person on this side who has. And I can commiserate with you, I can tell you what it's like, if you want to know what is going to happen, but in a lot of ways it's like the shackles being off," Drury said.
Following the heated attack, Drury did not vote on the proposal. He had opposed earlier stopgap spending measures.
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Drury has accepted more than $36,000 in help from the Democratic Majority, a campaign fund headed by Madigan, largely for voter lists and campaign staff. He had $280,155 in his campaign fund to begin this year and raised another $4,500 in large donations, including $1,500 from the Democratic Majority and $2,000 from investment trader Blair Hull, who lost a 2004 primary bid for the U.S. Senate to Barack Obama.
"I recognize the enormity of trying to change the status quo in Illinois and the resistance the establishment will put forth to stop the effort," Drury told supporters. "However, as Bob Dylan famously wrote, "the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changin'." The purpose of this exploration is to determine whether Illinois is ready for such change."
Also running for the Democratic governor nomination is Bob Daiber, regional schools superintendent from Downstate Madison County.
Chicago Tribune's Monique Garcia contributed from Springfield.
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Martin Mendez's ordeal began when he wrote a story about Mexican police officers arresting a man who was injured in an accident.
The headline of the article, published in February 2016 in the Novedades Acapulco newspaper, reads: "Gendarmes, abusan y violan los derechos de los ciudadanos" (Security forces abuse and violate the rights of citizens).
About a month later, several men showed up at Mendez's home in Acapulco in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero. They assaulted and threatened to kill him. For months he was harassed, pursued and forced into hiding. Mexican federal officers also often called his personal phone.
The series of events described by Mendez's attorney, Carlos Spector, happened the same year that a record number of 11 journalists were killed because of their work, according to Reporters Without Borders, which considers Mexico the deadliest country for the media in the Western Hemisphere.
Mendez decided that seeking asylum in the United States was his only option. In February he crossed the border to El Paso, where his attorney turned him over to U.S. immigration officials. They took him into custody, and he has been locked up since then.
Spector said Mendez, a 26-year-old with no criminal record and who is not a threat to public safety, does not belong in jail.
"He made a lawful entry seeking asylum," Spector told The Washington Post. "It's sending a message to asylum seekers that you will be locked up by coming to the country legally."
In March, Spector said Mendez passed what is called a "credible fear screening," which U.S. authorities use to determine whether an asylum seeker's life is really in danger. But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has declined to release Mendez. Officials say he was unable to prove that he isn't a flight risk and has substantial ties in the community.
Spector said Mendez has a cousin in Southern California, a U.S. citizen who has agreed to take him in.
Human rights groups have rallied behind Mendez, urging officials to release him and allow him to live in the United States as an asylum seeker.
"This journalist, who has been persecuted and threatened with death in his country, must be allowed to present his case for political asylum freely and with dignity before an immigration judge," said Emmanuel Colombie, head of Reporters Without Borders' Latin America bureau.
Spector said it could take two to three months before Mendez gets an initial hearing in front of an immigration judge.
The asylum process is a lengthy one, which means that Mendez could be in jail for years, said Alan Dicker of Hope Border Institute, a New Mexico-based organization.
"If a judge decides that he doesn't get asylum and he has to appeal, he still has to remain in jail for that whole process," Dicker told Courthouse News Service.
Leticia Zamarripa, an ICE spokeswoman in El Paso, said Mendez arrived Feb. 5 at the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry, where he was transferred to ICE's custody. He was later detained at the El Paso Processing Center.
An ICE official said decisions on whether asylum seekers should be released are made on a case-by-case basis. Each asylum application is reviewed thoroughly, the official said.
Spector said his client's incarceration is emblematic of a broader problem with how people who leave their home countries because of fear of persecution are treated after they arrive in the United States.
"What's happened to him has happened to others," Spector said. "It's now become normal to lock people up like criminals if you're fleeing persecution, which is a violation of international and U.S. law. ... What the case symbolizes is the criminalization of the asylum process."
A new report by the Hope Border Institute and the Borderland Immigration Council found that asylum seekers were often arbitrarily detained after they arrived even if they've fulfilled certain requirements, such as showing family and community ties. The report, titled "Discretion to Deny," documented stories of several asylum seekers who were either turned away, detained or separated from their minor children.
One example is a Guatemalan woman who sought asylum because of domestic violence abuse and came to a port of entry in El Paso in August 2016 with her 5-year-old daughter. According to the report, the woman passed a screening, but she was detained for months while her daughter was placed in foster care.
Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told The Post in January that policies have not changed with regard to asylum procedures, which are based on international law meant to protect some of the most vulnerable and persecuted people.
Thirty-five reporters have been killed in Mexico since 2010, according to Reporters Without Borders. The organization ranks Mexico No. 149 in its World Press Freedom Index, which lists 180 countries.
Last month Cecilio Pineda, a freelance reporter from Mendez's home state, was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle.
Most recently, Miroslava Breach Velducea, a reporter and editor for the Norte newspaper in the Mexican border city of Juarez, was shot eight times outside her home while she was in her car with one of her children, The Washington Post's Samantha Schmidt reported. The phrase "being a tattletale" was found on a rolled-up piece of cardboard.
Soon after her killing, the owner of Norte decided to end publication.
Max Bearak contributed to this story.
Congress is off for two weeks, and when lawmakers return, they will quickly face a critical deadline to keep the government open. But in an unusual development on Capitol Hill, where budget brinkmanship has become a reliable expression of political dysfunction, nobody is threatening to shut the government down.
Instead, Republicans and Democrats appear to be working together to keep the lights on in Washington. Aides in both parties said negotiations are underway on a stopgap funding measure that both sides could support, one that sidesteps such political land mines as President Donald Trump's request for new funding to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sounded a note of optimism as his chamber adjourned for its Easter break. He told reporters that bipartisan support would be needed not only for the stopgap measure, which would fund the government through September, but also for the fiscal 2018 spending bills needed to fund government operations in the months beyond.
None of those bills "can be done one party only," McConnell, R-Ky., said. "All of that will have to be done on a bipartisan basis. And I think the Democratic leader can speak for himself but I'm confident he looks at it the same way."
The bipartisan bonhomie marks a refreshing break from the dark days of spending fights that descended on the Capitol after the 2010 elections swept a wave of hard-line conservative tea party candidates into office.
Since then, the GOP's right flank has taken an aggressive stance on cutting federal spending, threatening repeatedly to shut down the government or even default on the nation's debts in hopes of securing an agreement to slash spending. That has forced Republican House leaders to turn to Democrats for the votes to push must-pass measures over the finish line to raise the federal debt limit and finance the government.
The difference this time is that Republican leaders are turning to Democrats from the get-go, a decision that will produce less drama in the halls of Congress but is likely to make it much harder to craft a budget that matches Trump's ambitions on an array of fronts, from the border wall to a big increase in defense spending.
In an interview Friday, McConnell told The Washington Post that he is unsure how to square that circle. But he was insistent that Democrats need to play a part in the negotiations.
"It seems to me that neither side benefits from sort of a government-shutdown scenario again in September," McConnell said. "Exactly how we get from here to there, I couldn't tell you today."
The spending measure expires April 28, just four days after lawmakers return from their Easter break.
House Republicans are bitterly divided and aimless after the collapse of a plan by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to rewrite the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. Still angry over that grueling battle, the right wing of Ryan's caucus is not expected to support a measure to keep the government open past the April deadline, though that is far from settled.
So Ryan has turned for help to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Last week, Pelosi said lawmakers from both parties were working well together to craft a stopgap spending measure. But she predicted that the measure's fate would ultimately be in Trump's hands.
Trump, for example, could refuse to sign a funding measure that doesn't include money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Such funding is a non-starter with Democrats, as are any other policy changes that could be construed as a win for the president.
"Members of Congress know what they can pass. Maybe the White House doesn't," Pelosi said. "And that's that line of communication is where you might see some more difference of opinion than even between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress."
If they clear the April 28 hurdle, Republican lawmakers and aides are already worrying privately that a larger spending battle looms over Trump's budget request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Most Democrats and many Republicans have roundly criticized Trump's plan to increase the defense budget by $54 billion money that would be carved directly out of the budgets of domestic agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the Agriculture Department.
Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., said Trump's request has put Republicans in a difficult situation. Trump has promised voters that Republicans will expand the military, regain control of government spending and overhaul the federal government without cutting safety-net programs for older and poorer Americans a promise many lawmakers see as mathematically impossible.
Conservatives like Sanford say Washington will never get its fiscal house in order without reining in spending on such popular programs as Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, which together make up about half of federal spending.
"What you have is a mousetrap," Sanford said. "Back home, you've got the mayor of North Charleston riding around in a Meals on Wheels truck saying, 'I don't think we should cut this' and he was an early Trump supporter."
The White House has been closely monitoring preliminary talks about fiscal 2018 spending bills, according to Republican aides who were granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Last week, Ryan said he is optimistic about budget deals because there is a Republican in the White House.
"The good news is we don't have to deal with the Obama administration," Ryan told reporters at his weekly news conference. "We don't have to fight an administration that we disagree with on so many issues. We are now working with an administration we agree with."
But it's far from clear that Ryan's rank-and-file will line up behind him. Conservatives are still angry that Ryan persuaded them to try to roll back the Affordable Care Act by using a special budget procedure known as "reconciliation" that would have made it easier to push a bill through the Senate.
The repeal effort unraveled when Ryan could not build a coalition of moderates and conservatives large enough to approve a rewrite of the health-care law. Many conservatives are wary of making the same mistake in the 2018 spending measure.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C. one of the holdouts on health care was among several conservatives who warned recently that they wouldn't support a spending bill just to avert a shutdown. Meadows said conservatives are particularly concerned about where any budget bill sets overall spending levels for government agencies.
"Now you're going to be setting top-line numbers, which you appropriate to," Meadows said. "That will have a unique dynamic, let's put it that way."
Hard-liners are also expected to balk at efforts to use reconciliation procedures to advance a comprehensive rewrite of the tax code, another top priority for Ryan and Trump. These lawmakers say they will not necessarily support a tax overhaul if it is accompanied by higher spending.
"I think it's more important that we take a look at the budget and make sure that it meets the principles we're trying to move forward," said Freedom Caucus member H. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.
Griffith said any spending increases must be paired with cuts elsewhere or with policies to rein in spending on Social Security and Medicare, which is rising rapidly as the baby-boom generation retires.
A large number of conservatives voted against each of the last three spending measures over those same concerns. The most consequential fight came in 2015, when Republican leaders were forced to turn to Democrats to avert a government shutdown. The result was a two-year compromise that increased spending across the board and ensured equal funding for domestic and military programs.
That agreement is set to expire at the end of September, and GOP leaders have begun to fret quietly over what will happen.
Meanwhile, Democrats are eagerly laying plans to swoop in with a budget compromise if Ryan cannot solve the problems that have riven the lower chamber for the past six years.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who serves on the Senate Budget Committee, said last week that Democrats would offer a spending blueprint to counter Trump's budget request.
"It has to be defeated and we will come up with alternatives." Sanders said. Democrats will not support "tax breaks for millionaires ... and cuts to programs that people desperately need."
5 Common Questions About Which Injuries Qualify for Workers' Compensation
Workers' compensation law is a complex area of law that blends principles of employment law and personal injury law. Workers' comp claims cover on-the-job injuries, of all sorts, for employees in nearly every industry. However, not all employees will be covered.
For an employee's injury to be covered by workers' comp, the two main requirements include:
that the employee actually be an employee, rather than an independent contractor; and
that the injury occurred within the scope of employment.
Additionally, because workers' comp law is a product of state law, requirements may vary from state to state. Below you'll find five of the most common questions about which injuries may qualify for workers' comp.
Whether or not you can get workers' comp for anxiety and emotional distress will depend largely on your state's laws. Typically though, an employee would need to show that the anxiety and emotional distress are related to the actual work, or work environment, and not caused by some other source. Additionally, these injuries can be difficult to prove because they are often not visible on the surface.
Whether or not frostbite will qualify for workers' comp can sometimes be a tricky question. Generally, employees that must work outdoors in cold weather will likely qualify if the frostbite injury occurred while working.
Although alcoholism is recognized, medically, as a serious addiction problem, showing that alcoholism is work related poses a big challenge for a workers' comp claim. Unless drinking alcohol is a requirement of your job, it will exceedingly difficult to qualify. But, under the right set of facts, it may be possible.
Like workers' comp claims for anxiety and emotional distress, claims that result from extreme stress are not available in every state. Also, similarly, these claims can be difficult to prove because stress may not be visible on the surface.
In theory, if an employee contracts Zika while on-the-job, they should qualify for workers' compensation. Workers' comp laws are designed to provide workers with relief for injuries sustained while working for an employer. However, a problem with a claim for Zika is proving that it was contracted while working.
Workers' compensation claims can be difficult to assess without the assistance of a workers' compensation attorney. Frequently, workers' comp attorneys will provide free consultations and services on a contingency fee (no upfront cost to you). Seeking a consultation as soon as possible after an on-the-job injury is recommended in order to maximize your receipt of benefits.
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Florida has channeled billions of taxpayer dollars into scholarships for poor children to attend private schools over the past 15 years, using tax credits to build a laboratory for school choice that the Trump administration holds up as a model for the nation.
The voucherlike program, the largest of its kind in the country, helps pay tuition for nearly 100,000 students from low-income families.
But there is scant evidence that these students fare better academically than their peers in public schools. And there is a perennial debate about whether the state should support private schools that are mostly religious, do not require teachers to hold credentials and are not required to meet minimal performance standards. Florida private schools must administer one of several standardized tests to scholarship recipients, but there are no consequences for consistently poor results.
"After the students leave us, the public loses any sense of accountability or scrutiny of the outcomes," said Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of Miami-Dade County public schools. He wonders what happens to the 25,000 students from the county who receive the scholarships. "It's very difficult to gauge whether they're hitting the mark."
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a longtime advocate for school choice, does not seem to be bothered by that complaint.
She is driven instead by the faith that children need and deserve alternatives to traditional public schools. At a recent public forum, DeVos said her record in office should be graded on expansion of choice-friendly policies. She did not embrace a suggestion that she be judged on academic outcomes. "I'm not a numbers person," she said.
In a nutshell, that explains how the Trump administration wants to change the terms of the debate over education policy in the United States.
In the past quarter-century, Republican and Democratic administrations focused on holding schools and educators accountable for student performance.
Now, President Donald Trump and DeVos seem concerned less with measuring whether schools help students learn and more with whether parents have an opportunity to pick a school for their children. They have pledged billions of dollars to that end. And they have visited private schools in Florida to underline their support for funding private-school tuition through tax credits.
In February, Trump plugged the Florida program during a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he introduced as his guest a scholarship recipient named Denisha Merriweather. In March, the president went to Orlando to tour St. Andrew Catholic School, where students rely on the scholarships. It was his first, and so far only, school visit since taking office.
Last Thursday DeVos visited another Florida private school to highlight the program. Christian Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) Elementary is "an awesome example of the opportunities provided through the Florida tax-credit scholarship," DeVos told reporters. She said that the administration is working on how to expand choice nationally, and that there is a "possibility" that its efforts might be patterned on Florida's tax-credit program, according to Politico.
Florida's program, created in 2001 with the full-throated support of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, R, was one of the first to harness corporate tax credits to help low-income families pay private school tuition. Sixteen other states have enacted variations on the idea.
Using tax credits to fund the scholarships, instead of direct payments from public treasuries, enabled lawmakers to work around state bans on use of public funds to support religious institutions. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that tax-credit programs are constitutional.
Taking the idea to the federal level is one of the clearest ways Trump could make good on his promise to supercharge private-school choice across the country. If embedded in a larger tax bill that the GOP-held Congress passes via the budget reconciliation process, it would be protected from a Senate filibuster and therefore would require only 51 votes instead of the 60 usually required to pass legislation.
Vouchers are popular with the Republican majority on Capitol Hill but anathema to most Democrats. The Republican-controlled Congress in 2004 approved a voucher program that provides direct federal funding to help poor children in the District of Columbia attend private schools.
In Florida's tax-credit program, businesses receive a dollar-for-dollar credit when they donate to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations. A corporation that owes $50,000 in Florida taxes, for example, could donate $50,000 and pay nothing to the state. The nonprofit then dispenses money to students for tuition at participating private schools, although in some cases, the payment from the state does not cover the full cost of a private education.
Private schools do not need to be accredited to participate. They must show only that they've been in business for three years; that they comply with anti-discrimination and health and safety laws; and that they employ teachers who have gone through a background check and hold a bachelor's degree, three years' experience or "special skills."
About 82 percent of scholarship recipients attend religious schools, according to state data. Many teach creationism instead of evolution and require students and parents to adhere to certain principles of religious doctrine.
The Family Life Academy in Archer, Florida, requires parents to subscribe to "corporal correction," according to its handbook, and to sign a form giving the school permission to paddle their children. Colonial Christian School of Homestead, Florida, makes clear in its handbook that students will be expelled if they engage in homosexual conduct.
Critics say the public shouldn't subsidize religious instruction, even indirectly. Supporters dismiss that argument.
"No one is coerced to go to a faith-based school. It's a free decision," said Doug Tuthill of Step Up for Students, which administers most Florida scholarships. "All the program does is provide the resources so they can exercise that freedom."
The program is projected to receive more than half a billion dollars this year that otherwise would have gone to Florida's treasury. But a 2010 analysis found it saves Florida money because each scholarship costs less than the state would spend to educate the same child in public school. The scholarship is now worth $5,886 per year.
In contrast, a federal tax credit would not save money for the federal government.
For more than 15 years, Florida has been out front in the movement to hold public schools accountable for academic results. It was one of the first states to use the results of standardized math and reading tests to grade every public school on an A to F scale, with rewards for the best-rated and sanctions for the worst. As in other states, annual report cards laid out how students at each school fared on the tests, with performance broken down by race and socioeconomic status.
But Florida exempts private schools from that accountability regime, even if they participate in the scholarship program.
Schools must give scholarship students standardized tests, but the outcomes are largely irrelevant. No matter how poorly a private school performs, it can continue receiving scholarship dollars.
The state commissions an annual report on the performance of scholarship students as a group, but their performance can't be compared to that of poor children in public schools, who take a battery of different tests.
And parents seeking test data from a particular private school are likely to find none: Scores are reported separately only for private schools with at least 30 scholarship recipients. In the 2014-15 school year, just 198 of more than 1,600 participating schools met that threshold.
The stakes for parents are high: Although a disproportionate number of the state's best schools are private, so are a disproportionate share of its worst, according to Northwestern University economist David Figlio, who has studied Florida's tax-credit scholarships and produced the annual program report for six years.
"There are some schools that, year in and year out, seemed to be adding considerable value, and other schools year in and year out that seemed to be leaving kids to fall further behind," Figlio said.
Private-school results are translated into year-to-year changes in "national percentile rank," a figure that offers insight into how students compare to others in the same grade nationwide. As a group, Florida scholarship students see no change in their percentile rank from one year to the next, which means that they're learning at about the same pace as students nationwide.
But that average masks an enormous range.
At Lincoln-Marti Community Agency 23, a school of English-language learners in Miami, students on average scored 9 percentile points lower in math in 2015 than they had scored in 2014, and 5 percentile points lower in reading.
The school received $1.4 million from the tax-credit program this year to educate more than 250 students. Demetrio Perez, general counsel for Lincoln-Marti, said the test results offer an incomplete picture of performance.
"The biggest measure of accountability is that parents have a meaningful choice," Perez said. "If a parent is not satisfied with the educational program at a school, that parent can take his or her child to another school."
At Okeechobee Christian Academy in Okeechobee, Florida, scores also show students losing ground. Principal Melissa King said the academy is constantly trying to improve. "Our core belief is to support these parents in raising up the next generation to advance the Kingdom of God," King said.
Backers say the program forces public schools to improve. Figlio's research found evidence for that idea: modest test-score increases at public schools facing the most intense competition.
Students who receive scholarships come from families with an average income of $24,000 per year. Many of those parents say the assistance has given their kids a shot at a better life.
"You only have one chance to either do well by your children or to ruin them, and I was trying to give them the best opportunity they could have," said Linzi Morris, a mother of six scholarship recipients.
All six have attended Academy Prep Center of Tampa, a middle school that she said provided top-notch academics as well as music, art, monthly weekend field trips, chess and other extracurriculars. Three are now in college, she said, and the other three are headed there.
Academy Prep students go to school 11 hours per day and nearly 11 months per year, far longer than the typical student. To pay for that, the school raises more than $1 million per year in donations to supplement the scholarships. In all, the program costs $17,000 per student.
The investment appears to pay off: Students at the school learn faster than their peers nationwide, and 98 percent who finish eighth grade go on to graduate from high school, according to school officials. Eighty-four percent enroll in college.
Lincoln Tamayo, the school's principal, said it doesn't make sense to allow schools to continue receiving scholarship dollars if they fail to help children.
"Schools of all stripes, whether they be private or public charter or traditional public, are not immune from mediocrity," he said. "The anvil's got to drop somewhere."
Louis Kahnweiler was a pioneering developer of industrial parks near metropolitan airports, including the nation's largest industrial park, Centex Industrial Park in Elk Grove Village.
Kahnweiler and his longtime partner, Marshall Bennett, "had unbelievable vision that when O'Hare (International Airport) was announced, even before there were any roads (to it), they imagined that freight would start going by air as opposed to other ways," said Kahnweiler's nephew, David Kahnweiler, the CEO of the Chicago unit of Colliers International, which now owns the firm that his uncle started. "They really conceived the modern-day industrial park that would be located adjacent to airports."
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Kahnweiler, 97, died Feb. 26 while in hospice care at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, said his daughter, Nancy Randall. He had been a resident of Lake Forest.
Born in Chicago, Kahnweiler grew up in Hyde Park and graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1937. He enlisted and served in the Navy during World War II.
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After the war, Kahnweiler joined Louis B. Beardslee & Co., a Chicago real estate brokerage firm. Tasked with selling an industrial building, Kahnweiler took out a newspaper ad and found a buyer. With that, Kahnweiler was hooked on commercial real estate.
In 1946, Kahnweiler began a brokerage firm with Jules Milten. Shortly afterward, a friend, Bennett, joined the firm. Milten left the partnership in 1949, and the surviving firm was called Bennett & Kahnweiler.
Early on in the life of their Rosemont-based firm, Kahnweiler and Bennett brokered properties and built industrial buildings. In 1957, they teamed up with the Pritzker family and Centex Corp. to create the Centex Industrial Park, a 2,250-acre behemoth eventually serving 1,500 companies.
Kahnweiler and Bennett soon developed other industrial parks around the country totaling some 5,000 acres. They also served as a broker for factories and other forms of industrial real estate.
"Lou was a great leader and a great teacher, except he didn't tell you anything. He just let you watch," said Jerry Egan, who worked as a salesman for Bennett & Kahnweiler from 1970 until 1981. "He didn't tell you, 'Do this, do that,' you just watched what he did and you picked it up. He was a great guy and he was very, very good at what he did."
After Bennett left the partnership in 1982, Kahnweiler expanded the firm's offerings, adding investment counseling, property management and office brokerage and development. The move into the office arena broadened Bennett & Kahnweiler's focus beyond industrial real estate.
The broadening represented "a renewal and transformation" of the firm, Kahnweiler told the Tribune in 1985.
Kahnweiler stepped back from work about 20 years ago, his daughter said. However, he continued to invest in commercial real estate and he continued coming to the office until about a year ago, she said. Bennett & Kahnweiler later sold to Colliers International.
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Outside of work, Kahnweiler kept busy with a host of community service activities. He served two terms on the Highland Park Elementary School District 108 board, including as president, in the 1950s and early 1960s. He also served on the boards of Highland Park Hospital, Roosevelt University, the Anti-Defamation League and Exchange National Bank.
Kahnweiler's wife of 69 years, Ruth, died in 2013. In addition to his daughter, Kahnweiler is survived by a son, William; another daughter, Kathy; five grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters.
A celebration of life event was held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
WASHINGTON Eighty days into President Donald Trump's term, he arguably has only two successes getting confirmed a Supreme Court judge pre-vetted by conservative lawyers and returning to mainstream Republican foreign policy, even if temporarily, in launching strikes on Syria. The unpredictable president sent to shake up Washington succeeds when he at his most conventional.
Right-wing nationalists like Richard Spencer are already squawking about the president's Syria action, which alt-right champion Steve Bannon reportedly opposed. (Opposing one of your president's only achievements is not a smart career move.) And it is distinctly possible this was a one-time, reflexive action as impulsive as a tweet. There is no indication, let alone guarantee, that Trump sees the benefit of an integrated approach to Syria in which more robust action inflicts real damage on Bashar Assad's regime and thereby pushes him to a negotiated end to the bloody war. Eliot Cohen writes in the Atlantic this is in the category of a "pinprick":
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"[T]his was a one-time punch at a single target. A truly punishing attack would involve multiple targets, and perhaps repeated blows. An effective, destructive attack that is, one that would worry the Assad regime would have killed skilled personnel, military and political leaders, and elite fighters. This strike was, instead, appropriate in the narrowest and weakest sense: It went after the base (apparently) from which the nerve-agent-carrying planes that attacked Khan Sheikhoun flew. Blowing up some installations is not, in fact, "proportionate" to the massacre of children. A warning this was; the avenging sword of justice this was not. Conceivably, the Syrian government may calculate that worse will follow from a repeat offense. Just as conceivably, they and their Russian and Iranian allies may conclude that this president, like some of his predecessors, mistakes the theater of war for the real thing. They do not."
But however tentative, the Syria strike drew bipartisan and international praise. With a strong, internationalist approach grounded in U.S. values not a mean-spirited, peevish "America First" stance Trump can make our national security policy great again.
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Bannon's populism isn't populism at all, and it is not popular.
On the domestic side, right-wing industrialists may like deregulation. Wealthy supporters may thrill to the idea of repealing the Obamacare tax on richest Americans. But neither of these do anything for the working man, and indeed Trumpcare was a dagger aimed at the heart of rural, older Trump voters. This is what Bannon's "dismantling of the administrative state looks like" right-wing policy on steroids.
Bannon's "philosophy" is a crock a government for the little guy cannot be dismantled so long as the little guy needs help. Bannon's actual formula is extreme, Darwinian, libertarian economics coupled with xenophobic initiatives (the Muslim ban, getting Mexico to build the wall). These are as unworkable as they are unpopular. (A substantial majority of Americans favor a path to citizenship and oppose the ban.)
Following Bannon's logic gets you a budget like the one Trump put forward politically unacceptable and withdrawing services working- and middle-class Americans need (from National Parks to medical research to enforcement of worker safety rules). Bannon's populism isn't populism at all, and it is not popular. Trump's agenda is in tatters and his polls numbers are in the toilet thanks to Bannon's "genius." (Perhaps Trump won despite his cockeyed agenda, not because of it?)
Trump would do well to listen to what voters are saying. In the most recent Gallup poll, for example, voters are in favor of true populist measures:
"Americans are far more likely to agree than disagree with President Donald Trump's proposals to require companies to provide family leave for parents of a newborn [81 percent approve] and to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure [76 percent approve]. A majority also agree with his proposal to significantly cut income taxes for the middle class [61 percent] and to provide federal funding for school-choice programs [59 percent].
"At the same time, Americans disagree more than agree with Trump's proposals to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico [36/56 percent], to cut federal regulations[27/46 percent], to freeze federal civilian hiring [33/46 percent] and to eliminate funding for international organizations that provide abortions [35/53 percent]."
In other words, voters overwhelmingly oppose everything Trump has been doing under Bannon's tutelage. Forget America First, tax cuts for the rich, slashing government, anti-immigrant schemes and dismantling more regulations. Spend money on popular items (schools, infrastructure) and return the United States to a position of world leadership. Fix Obamacare to make it more affordable for working class Americans. (Aside from Justice Neil Gorsuch, notice, by the way, how much this looks like Hillary Clinton's or John Kasich's agenda. This sure lends credence to the conclusion Trump won because voters didn't like Clinton personally.) So, if Trump governs as a centrist, internationalist then success likely will follow as will stronger poll numbers.
Washington Post
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Jennifer Rubin is a Washington Post columnist.
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The cruise missiles that hit Syria last week not only struck back at Bashar Assad for the recent heinous poison-gas attack but also obliterated (at least temporarily) President Donald Trump's Russia problem.
One wonders whether some segment of die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters, who on Thursday night heard their candidate blame Russian interference in the November elections for her loss, don't feel Friday morning that Trump's attack was motivated by his desire to stanch the weeks of political blood-loss from the revelations around his administration's coziness with Russia and its seeming indifference to the subversion of our democracy.
If so, Russia certainly cooperated. Almost on cue, the Kremlin denounced the attack and "smart" Russian President Vladimir Putin ridiculed it as "trumped-up." Putin and Trump: Comrades, it would seem, no more.
Thursday night's strikes are reminiscent of a previous president's launch of cruise missiles at a low ebb in his administration. Just days after testifying before a grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky case, President Bill Clinton launched cruise missiles against an al-Qaida site in Afghanistan and the al-Shifa site in Sudan. Clinton was criticized then for using military action for domestic political purposes.
It will be interesting to see whether the initial unanimity of political support for Trump's action holds. However pure his intentions, we aren't talking now about the failure of health care, the warring factions within the White House, the cost of protecting the billionaire first family or Trump's fondness for Russia. We don't know yet whether the missiles did anything to change the intractable horror in Syria, but at home, they were a direct hit.
The cruise missiles struck, and many in the mainstream media fawned.
"I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night," declared Fareed Zakaria on CNN, after the firing of 59 missiles at a Syrian military airfield late Thursday night. (His words sounded familiar, since CNN's Van Jones made a nearly identical pronouncement after Trump's first address to Congress.)
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"On Syria attack, Trump's heart came first," read a New York Times headline. "President Trump has done the right thing and I salute him for it," wrote the Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens - a frequent Trump critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist. He added: "Now destroy the Assad regime for good."
Brian Williams, on MSNBC, seemed mesmerized by the images of the strikes provided by the Pentagon. He used the word "beautiful" three times and alluded to a Leonard Cohen lyric "I am guided by the beauty of our weapons" without apparent irony.
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Quite the pivot, for some. Assessing Trump's presidency a few weeks ago, Zakaria wrote that while the Romans recommended keeping people happy with bread and circuses, "so far, all we have gotten is the circus." And the Times has been so tough on Trump that the president rarely refers to the paper without "failing" or "fake" as a descriptor.
But after the strikes, praise flowed like wedding champagne especially on cable news.
"Guest after guest is gushing. From MSNBC to CNN, Trump is receiving his best night of press so far," wrote Sam Sacks, a Washington podcaster and journalist. "And all he had to do was start a war."
Why do so many in the news media love a show of force?
"There is no faster way to bring public support than to pursue military action," said Ken Paulson, head of the Newseum Institute's First Amendment Center.
"It's a pattern not only in American history, but in world history. We rally around the commander-in-chief and that's understandable."
Paulson noted that the news media also "seem to get bored with their own narrative" about Trump's failings, and they welcome a chance to switch it up.
But that's not good enough, he said: "The watchdog has to have clear vision and not just a sporadic bark."
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Clara Jeffery, editor in chief of Mother Jones, offered a simple explanation: "It's dramatic. It's good for TV, reporters get caught up in the moment, or, worse, jingoism."
She added: "Military action is viewed as inherently nonpartisan, opposition or skepticism as partisan. News organizations that are fearful of looking partisan can fall into the trap of failing to provide context."
And so, empathy as the president's clear motivation is accepted, she said "with no mention of the refugee ban keeping those kids out, no mention of Islamophobia that has informed his campaign and administration. How can you write about motive and not explore that hypocrisy?"
Mocking "the instant elevation of Trump into a serious and respected war leader," Glenn Greenwald in the Intercept recalled John Jay, one of the Federalist Papers authors, who wrote more than 200 years ago: "However disgraceful it may be to human nature ... nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it."
In fact, Jay wrote, "absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it" except, of course, to scratch that eternal itch for military glory, revenge or self-aggrandizement.
Groupthink, and a lack of proper skepticism, is something that we've seen many times before as the American news media watches an administration step to the brink of war.
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Most notoriously, perhaps, that was true in the run-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003, the start of a long disaster there.
Stephen Walt, Harvard professor of international affairs, thinks the press and the public should have learned some things by now.
"Syria remains a tragedy because there are no good options," he wrote in Foreign Policy, and America's interventions in the Middle East very seldom end well.
Walt later told me that the news media now must look forward and ask deeper questions.
"What is Trump's overall strategy for Syria," given that "the balance of power on the ground is unchanged and we are no closer to a political settlement."
Missile strikes may seem thrilling, and retaliation righteous.
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But journalists and commentators ought to remember the duller virtues, too, like skepticism, depth and context.
And keep their eyes fixed firmly there, not on the spectacular images in the sky.
WASHINGTON When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson travels to Moscow this week, topic No. 1 will be Syria and the stakes could not be higher. If the Trump administration and the Kremlin are not able to come to a meeting of the minds on Syria, it could set the two nuclear powers on a dangerous collision course.
On the evening of April 6, 59 U.S. Tomahawk missiles slammed into the Shayrat air base in west-central Syria in retaliation for the unconscionable gassing of dozens of civilians by the Bashar Assad regime two days earlier. This was a stunning turnaround for President Donald Trump, who urged his predecessor not to attack Syria under similar circumstances in 2013, and for an administration that had signaled indifference to Assad just five days before to the attack.
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Trump's forceful action met with rave reviews across Washington and among U.S. allies. But the Russians Assad's chief patron were furious. The Kremlin called the attack an "act of aggression," and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that the strikes put the United States and Russia "on the verge of a military clash." Meanwhile, the Russian military suspended the hotline designed to avoid incidents between U.S. and Russian forces in Syria and announced its intentions to bolster Syrian air defenses.'
However justified and morally satisfying, any use of military force is serious business, and even last Thursday's limited strikes could lead the United States and Russia down an escalatory path.
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The expansive way in which U.S. officials have talked about the purpose of the strikes increases the prospects of mission creep. In his statement announcing the attack, Trump framed it as essential to "prevent and deter the spread and use of chemical weapons." Other administration officials justified the strikes on similar grounds. But Trump also described his decision as part of a broader effort to "end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria," suggesting that he may consider additional military action aimed at ending the Syrian war. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, made this explicit over the past few days, saying on Friday: "We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary. It is time for all civilized nations to stop the horrors that are taking place in Syria and demand a political solution."
The broader the administration's goals in Syria, the more prone it will be to pressure to escalate there. Already, some regional allies that have long dreamed of dragging the United States into a war with Assad, such as Turkey, have described the April 6 strikes as "insufficient" and called for more forceful action. And congressional hawks, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are urging Trump to follow up on Thursday's strikes by providing Syrian opposition groups with more weapons, imposing a no-fly zone, and conducting further airstrikes in order to pressure Russia and Assad to agree to a political settlement. Meanwhile, the Syrian air force has already resumed bombing the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun - the very same area the regime gassed last week. And as Assad continues to kill civilians, with or without chemical munitions, the calls for deeper U.S. involvement aimed at ousting Assad will mount.
If the United States goes down this road, the prospects of a military confrontation with Moscow are real. A few thousand Russian military personnel are distributed across Syria's key military bases. Moscow has also placed some of the world's most sophisticated air defense systems in Syria, and Russian planes police Syrian skies. So an extensive U.S. campaign aimed at coercing Assad by targeting Syrian air bases and command-and-control facilities would run big risks of killing Russian troops on the ground. The same holds for a no-fly zone, which would likely require targeting Syrian and Russian air defenses and could lead to air-to-air incidents between Russian and U.S. jets. Under any of these circumstances, the prospect of spiraling conflict is enhanced by Moscow's decision to suspend the "deconfliction" channel between the Russian and U.S. militaries.
Compounding matters, in an effort to generate counter-leverage, Russia and the Assad regime are likely to respond to further U.S. strikes or a no-fly zone by reorienting their integrated air defense network toward U.S. and coalition aircraft engaged in fighting the Islamic State (ISIS), or by attacking opposition areas in northern Syria where nearly 1,000 U.S. troops are currently on the ground. This could derail the counter-ISIS campaign at the very moment when ISIS's capital, Raqqa, is under assault by U.S.-backed forces. And it could put the lives of American service members in jeopardy.
There are also significant escalation risks even if the Trump administration doesn't go down this path and sticks to the narrower stated objective of deterring further chemical attacks.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 20 President Donald Trump receiving a briefing on the Syria military strike from the National Security team via video teleconference on April 06, 2017, at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. (White House / AFP / Getty Images)
According to news reports, before Thursday's strikes, Trump was briefed on a number of options to retaliate against Assad. One option was to launch "saturation strikes" aimed at dozens of Syrian airfields and facilities, with the goal of destroying Assad's ability to use his air force to carry out further chemical attacks. (This option was similar to the one reportedly contemplated by then-President Barack Obama in 2013.)
At the urging of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Trump rejected this option in favor of cruise missile strikes against a single air base. This option was reportedly viewed as proportional and much less likely to kill Russian soldiers. (Although around 100 Russian troops were reportedly stationed at Shayrat, the administration warned Moscow ahead of time, and the missiles struck the portion of the airfield away from Russian barracks.)
In other words, Trump chose a limited strike package precisely because he and his advisers understood the grave risks if the United States attacked a broader set of targets.
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But therein lies a major dilemma for Trump moving forward. Successful deterrence requires a credible threat to hit Assad's forces again and again if the regime continues to use chemical weapons or commits other transgressions. Yet Trump, having already rejected a larger military response out of apparent recognition of the dangers, may find it difficult to credibly signal he is willing to deploy this very option in response to further actions by Assad down the line.
In this context, the danger of miscalculation is real. The Syrian dictator (perhaps prodded by Russia or Iran) may attempt to test Trump again, hoping to prove the president is a "paper tiger." And Trump, having invested his personal credibility in standing firm, may find himself psychologically or politically compelled to respond, despite the very real risks that it could result in a direct military clash with Russia.
Before Tillerson arrives in Moscow for meetings on Wednesday, the administration needs a clear plan to avoid stepping on this slippery slope. It starts with Trump and his team being much more precise and consistent about what U.S. objectives are. Is the goal solely to deter more chemical attacks, or are they trying to end the Syrian conflict? If the latter, will the administration insist on Assad's departure, or are they open to other possible formulas that de-escalate the war and defuse power away from Damascus but keep Assad in power?
On Sunday, administration officials seemed to suggest all of the above. Haley insisted on CNN, "There's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime." Tillerson, however, warned against regime change during an ABC "This Week" interview, and told CBS's "Face the Nation," that the Trump administration would seek to end Syria's civil war through the creation of cease-fire zones and the resumption of a political process, saying Assad and Russia would have to participate in that solution.
Contributing to this uncertainty, Tillerson also said that the United States would not focus on initiatives to stabilize Syria until after the threat of the Islamic State has been "reduced or eliminated."
Whatever the administration decides, their approach must blend credible military signaling with risk mitigation steps (like finding a way to reactivate the U.S.-Russia military channel). And the administration's military actions must be backed by a diplomatic strategy that takes advantage of the leverage created by last Thursday's strikes without overplaying Washington's hand. Given Russia's vital interests in Syria, Moscow is not likely to respond positively to U.S. ultimatums and maximalist positions. If the administration does not find a way to give the Kremlin a face-saving way out, conflict is much more likely than accommodation.
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As the afterglow and applause of the missile strikes fade, finding a way to advance American interests in Syria while avoiding a war with Russia is the urgent task at hand. After all, sinking into a Syrian quagmire would be bad enough. World War III would be far worse.
Washington Post
Colin H. Kahl is associate professor in the security studies program at Georgetown University's school of foreign service. He served as Vice President Joe Biden's national security adviser.
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Trump's risky Syria gambit
Mr. Trump, bombing Syria won't make Americans like you any better
Even as the smoke clears from last week's U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base, the future is shrouded in fog. It's not clear what President Donald Trump's ultimate goal will turn out to be. It's not clear what military methods he may use to achieve his purpose. It's not clear whether he will have public support for the course he chooses. It's not clear whether he will succeed.
What is clear is that the decisions should not be his alone. The Constitution assigns to Congress, not the president, the power to declare war. Even though recent practice and modern technology have rendered that provision toothless, Congress has the right and the duty to take a role in deciding whether American lives and resources should be put in harm's way in Syria.
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The experience under Trump's immediate predecessor is an indictment of both Barack Obama and the legislative branch. He took the nation to war in Libya in 2011 without asking for congressional authorization. He also disdained the requirements of the 1973 War Powers Resolution which says the president has 60 to 90 days after commencing hostilities to get approval from Congress or end the military operation.
Obama did request congressional approval in 2013 for an attack on Syria, but failed to get it and backed off. In 2015, well after he began bombing Islamic State positions, he asked for a resolution supporting the campaign. But when lawmakers did nothing, he didn't let that keep him from proceeding as before.
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For too long, presidents have been able to monopolize these decisions because nobody else wanted them. Over and over, a looming fight has caused members of Congress fearful of punishment from displeased voters to go AWOL. When Obama wanted approval to go after the Islamic State, Congress should have passed a resolution granting it. And if Congress wasn't willing to bless the operations, its members should have voted the resolution down. Instead, our elected representatives dawdled, dithered and dodged.
They should not repeat that spineless performance. Trump would be well advised to request congressional authorization if he is considering additional action. But whether he requests it or not, Congress should debate and vote on whether to give it to him.
The point is not that Trump should be prevented from additional attacks against the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who provoked this strike by using chemical weapons. The point is that when the president goes to war, even on a limited scale, he and, more important, the world should know the nation is firmly committed to that mission.
By authorizing action against Assad, Congress would encourage members to stick with the fight even if it gets tough, while giving the administration confidence it can count on the resources it needs. By rejecting action, on the other hand, lawmakers would force the president to ponder the wisdom of starting a war over the opposition of the people's representatives.
If our men and women in uniform will be expected to put their lives on the line against hostile forces in Syria, our men and women on Capitol Hill should be brave enough to take responsibility for that mission. Doing nothing should not be an option.
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The Tribune's editorial on higher education was surprising in its demand to unify the Illinois state university system for the sake of collaboration; the usual conservative mantra is that free-market-style competition among schools (i.e., school choice) is the key to improving education and driving down costs. As a professor at Northeastern Illinois University, I believe our state universities would be open to new system-wide changes to streamline operations and reduce costs. However, there would be two important conditions.
First, university administrators, faculty, and staff must be part of the decision-making process; we know first-hand what the problems are and the likely consequences of proposed changes. Few, if any, politicians or affluent entrepreneurs have experience running a university. Simply having gone to college, or having a child in college, does not make someone an expert on higher education. The Tribune editorial was packed with bad ideas (e.g., campus specializations, which has been devastating to City Colleges) and overly simplistic understandings of universities (e.g., that a university has complete control over how many students graduate within six years, whatever the nature of its student population).
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Second, our legislators must make a commitment to adequate funding for state universities. Since the year 2000, funding to Illinois universities has been cut by 41 percent. Gov. Bruce Rauner has complained that tuition at our state universities is too high that's because funding has been so deeply slashed! It's a simple correlation. In addition, Rauner's charge of administrative bloat also reveals his ignorance of the realities of higher education in Illinois. At NEIU, we were cut to the bone years ago; now we're cutting into bone. This is a matter of public record.
We all agree that a well-educated population is vital to the health of Illinois. To achieve this, we must work together to make positive changes to our university system. Equally important, the wealthy and powerful in our state must step up and pay their fair share in taxes for the common good.
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April Nauman, professor of education, Northeastern Illinois University
Review: Ella Elli
1349 W. Cornelia Ave. 773-935-3552
Rating: ** stars (out of four)
4 Star Restaurant Group (Dunlay's, Smoke Daddy, Crosby's Kitchen, Tuco & Blondie, Frasca, The Windsor, Remington's, D.O.C. Wine Bar) always seemed like an aspirational name. They purvey solid American neighborhood fare like roast chicken, BBQ and burgers, but I've never seen 4 Star as a gourmet destination restaurant group. If I was going to see a flick at the Music Box, I'd stop in at Crosby's Kitchen for the tasty chicken and biscuits, but I wouldn't make an appointment just to dine. Their newest spot, Ella Elli, seems poised to change that notion.
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Helming the kitchen is Nolan Narut, a Culinary Institute of America grad and veteran of high-end hotels like The James, as well as a former consulting partner with Hogsalt (Au Cheval, Gilt Bar, Bavette's, etc.) at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago.
"I loved working in hotels, but I wanted to get back in the kitchen and just make good food," Narut said. "I also don't miss having to answer 250 emails a day."
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I could tell Ella Elli was different the moment I walked in. Normally I make reservations for the places I cover. But, I reasoned, Ella Elli was only a few weeks old, Narut wasn't a household name and the restaurant was located in Lakeview off a side street. I doubted many people had heard of it, so I figured I'd just walk in. That was a huge mistake. At 7 p.m., the place was packed and the bar was lined two people deep. The lounge areaoutfitted with couches, a homey library-worthy curio cabinet and a roaring fireplacewas also stuffed. The hostess told me they might be able to seat me by 9:15.
I ordered up a Singapore Sling (Tanqueray gin, Cherry Heering liqueur, Benedictine, lime and soda) and decided to drink the wait away. The sweet and sour cocktail was bubbly and refreshing. It lasted just long enough for me to contemplate a pair of cozy, cavern-like banquettes stuffed with what looked like a couple of bachelorette parties. According to Narut, the name of the restaurant is composed of two feminine names because the owners hoped to create a place where women would want to dine out together. I don't know how much the name had to do with it, but almost half the tables were exclusively filled with ladies.
The handsome decor also included three huge globe lanterns that looked like giant disco balls. There were copper panels on one wall and curvy, vase-like pendant lamps over some of the high-top tables. Ella Elli's marble bar was flanked with a couple of gray suede couch-like seats. They were so comfortable that I felt like I was ready to binge watch HBO instead of chowing down on a multi-course meal. The overall interior design scheme felt like '70s cool crossed with a little Nate Berkus-chic.
Ella Elli is the eleventh Chicago restaurant from 4 Star Restaurant Group. (Huge Galdones / Galdones Photography)
The menu, too, was kind of throwback. Narut isn't exploring single-origin cuisine from some obscure Asian city, and there wasn't a shingle of pork belly to be had. His influences were focused on the Middle East, France and Italy.
Admittedly, in its current ubiquity, avocado toast is pretty much the new pork belly. But most avocado toasts are layered with pseudo-healthy stuff like pickled fish or bland radishes. Narut's crispy bark of sourdough had a velvety slather of avocado, a poached egg with a warm golden runny yolk and a garlicky sesame and poppy studded-everything seasoning.
A Skittles-colored assortment of baby carrots glistening with tangy lemon vinaigrette was spiked with fiery harissa chili and dollops of cooling creme fraiche. The carrots, which were from California, had a mineral-rich characteristic that reminded me freshly plucked spring vegetables are right around the corner here in Chicago. Narut said that his cooks only do a light scrub of the carrots, because much of the earthy flavor comes from the fine skin when left unpeeled.
Avocado toast. (Huge Galdones / Galdones Photography)
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The comfort provided by the avocado toast was usurped by a bowl of ricotta gnocchi so tender, I worried that if I'd exhaled too hard the pasta would be rendered into a fine dust. The gnocchi was redolent with truffle and mushroom perfume. I had one minor issue in that I felt like the finger-length gnocchi could have been sliced into shorter segments so that each forkful yielded a better carb-to-fungi ratio. This, however, was easily accomplished with my own fork.
Curls of shaved fennel draped over creamy scallops crowned with fruity, spicy guajillo chili butter tufts. The scallops were surrounded by a moat of tangy, buttery polenta that tasted of freshly picked corn.
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There was also a dish called lamb scottadito, Italian for burned fingers, which is a nod to the fact that the lamb chops should be so warm that'll you'll burn your fingers if you don't eat them fast enough. Unfortunately, one of the Ella Elli cooks took this too literally and burned the heck out of one of my chops, imparting an acrid bitter flavor to the dish. But the other chops were rare and quite tasty when pulled through the spicy yogurt moat beneath them.
I finished up with a lemon pound cake so moist it wept lemon and tarragon syrup. I dug the complexity of the bittersweet floral mix of anise and citrus. But a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream, which tasted like flat old milk, went untouched.
The bottom line
Ella Elli is a step up from the usual neighborhood family-friendly American fare 4 Star Restaurant Group has built their empire on. Chef Nolan Narut is putting out some destination-worthy plates in a sexy space built for a special night out.
Michael Nagrant is a RedEye freelancer. Reporters visit restaurants unannounced and meals are paid for by RedEye.
What Would It Mean for California to Become a Sanctuary State?
A California bill making its way through the legislature is stirring up controversy both locally and nationally. The controversy is over the proposed sanctuary state bill, SB54, which would make the entire state of California a sanctuary state for immigrants. While there are already some protections in the state for immigrants from federal immigration enforcement, the new bill seeks to expand those protections.
In short, the bill would require state law enforcement agencies, including police departments, sheriff departments, state prisons, and county jails, to not assist in, or commit resources to, federal immigration enforcement actions, except in very limited scenarios. Not surprisingly, opponents of the bill claim that sanctuaries lead to increased crime, while proponents assert that sanctuaries actually lead to decreased crime and improved criminal justice.
What Is a Sanctuary State?
Although the phrase sanctuary state may make some people think that immigrants will be immune from criminal prosecution, that is far from the truth. Immigrants, like all other citizens, are still subject to state and federal criminal law enforcement. Additionally, immigrants that violate immigration laws can still be investigated, prosecuted, and deported in a sanctuary state. The primary difference is that in sanctuary states and cities, the local law enforcement is not allowed to use state resources to assist federal immigration enforcement in enforcing immigration laws.
The purpose behind enacting sanctuary policies is to ensure that all persons have access to police assistance. An undocumented immigrant in a sanctuary city, or state, can call the police, or serve as a witness, without fear of being turned over to the feds and being deported. Although a state cannot actually prevent the feds from doing their jobs that does not mean state authorities have to assist the feds. Another important aspect of the bill would prohibit state and local law enforcement from entering immigration information into law enforcement databases, which the feds have access to.
What Does This Mean for California?
For the state of California, one of the risks involved with passing the statewide sanctuary bill involves federal funding. Traditionally, the federal government has used a state's federal funding as a mechanism to get states to fall in line with federal policies or mandates.
However, California will not be alone if the feds do try to extort action. Other states have sanctuary policies, and countless counties and cities do too.
Related Resources:
Jaycee Dugard, right, who was abducted as a child and held for 18 years, and her mother, Terry Probyn, appear with their Hope Award at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children annual Hope Awards in Washington, D.C. (Cliff Owen / Associated Press)
East Aurora High School's Survivor Literature students will host author and abduction survivor Jaycee Dugard at 7 p.m. April 25 in the Hawks Auditorium at 500 Tomcat Lane, Aurora.
Dugard is the author of the book "A Stolen Life," in which she details her abduction at the age of 11 and her 18 years in captivity.
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Admission is $3 and can be reserved by emailing East Aurora High School teachers Shane Gillespie at sgillespie@d131.org or Sarah Gillespie at sgillespie01@d131.org.
Dugard's presentation is the final part of the Survivor Literature project that includes an overnight lock-in event April 22. The event, "A Stolen Night: 18 Hours for 18 Years," is designed to raise funds and awareness for victims of abduction and sexual abuse, organizers said.
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Approximately 170 students and faculty members will confine themselves to the East Aurora High School Field House for the evening as part of the event.
Service projects inspired by nonfiction novels have become a tradition since Shane Gillespie started the Survivor Literature course nine years ago. The senior-level class asks students to examine non-fiction novels about people who have overcome tremendous hardship, East Aurora officials said.
At the beginning of the year, students nominate a non-fiction book that could be a launching point for a voluntary, student-led independent study and service project. In past years, Survivor Literature students have walked 16 miles to raise funds for mental illness and suicide prevention, traveled to Louisiana to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, raised money to bring a Holocaust survivor to speak and heard from a blind man who survived the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon helps Child Advocacy Center supporters and families release balloons at the center in Geneva in 2015. This year's balloon launch, to raise awareness of the problem of child abuse, is set for April 20. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News)
A teacher, high school employees, a police officer and a foster parent - all people in positions of trust and authority when prosecutors charged them with sexually abusing or assaulting a child.
Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon cited those cases, each of which resulted in convictions, as part of a press briefing at which he highlighted Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month and the importance of speaking up whenever suspicions arise. McMahon's office has partnered in recent years with the county's regional office of education and Kane's Court Appointed Special Advocates on an information campaign to re-emphasize the legal requirements of mandated reporters in schools, while also stressing that everyone has an obligation to be aware of possible mistreatment of children.
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"You don't have to be a mandated reporter to report abuse," Gloria Bunce, executive director of CASA Kane County, said.
On April 20, Kane County Child Advocacy Center plans a balloon release - one balloon for each of the 330 cases it handled in 2016 - and to present a one-time abuse victim to speak about their experience of working with the advocacy center. Assistant State's Attorney Lori Schmidt, the center's acting director, described the complexities of such cases, often because of the passage of time before a child victim discloses abuse and a lack of physical evidence. A victim "shows a tremendous amount of bravery to walk into a courtroom" to testify against their abuser, Schmidt said.
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But, those moments in court only happen after a child tells someone they have been taken advantage of by an adult, often someone the child fears betraying if they were to speak up about abuse. Schmidt said that's why people need to trust their instincts and report their concerns.
"You have to trust your gut ... if you have some type of suspicion," Schmidt explained. "It's everyone's business. We should all be mandated reporters."
McMahon added that civil immunity protects those who make claims in good faith. Reports and calls to the hotline are then handled by trained investigators to sort out whether any abuse has occurred.
As for mandated reporters - which include doctors, educators and others who work with children, McMahon reiterated the legal requirement those individuals have to contact authorities, a responsibility not negated by internal policies or employer agreements.
"They do not relieve a mandated reporter from his or her legal obligation to report suspected child abuse," McMahon said.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
A fire early Sunday morning spread from one house to the next, and caused an estimated $100,000 in damage, before being brought under control, according to officials from the St. Charles Fire Department.
Firefighters were called at 2:18 a.m. Sunday to Ronzheimer Avenue, where they found 1019 Ronzheimer fully involved and the fire had spread next door to 1025 Ronzheimer, reports said.
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Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire at 1025 before getting the blaze at 1018 under control in approximately 40 minutes.
Three people were at home at the time of the fire. A neighbor returning from work noticed the fire and made the 911 call while her husband, an off-duty Geneva firefighter, woke up the residents and alerted them to the danger, officials said.
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All three were able to evacuate after being alerted to the fire. There were no injuries to firefighters, but one resident received a minor injury, officials said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The St. Charles Fire Department was assisted at the scene by the Geneva, Batavia, Elburn and West Chicago departments.
Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Every dollar that the Trump administration takes away from Planned Parenthood in Maryland will be replaced by state funds (about $2.7M), which will save about $6 for every dollar it puts in, because when women are in charge of their own fertility, they don't end up raising kids they can't afford.
State lawmakers across the USA are planning to follow suit. Maryland's Republican state governor Larry Hogan didn't even try to veto the bill, having seen what happened when federal Republicans tried to take away health care and women are disproportionately willing to rise up to fight for their rights.
The measure was enacted Thursday after Gov. Larry Hogan decided not to veto the bill. Like 14 other bills, it went into effect after a midnight deadline without the Republican governor's signature. The Democrat-led General Assembly passed the bill with enough votes to override a veto. Under the new measure, Maryland will mitigate any federal cuts to Planned Parenthood by directing $2 million from the state's Medicaid budget and $700,000 for the state's general fund to family planning services. These measures would sustain operations at the state's nine health centers and protect access to preventative care services for nearly 25,000 patients. Karen Nelson, president of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, said the Maryland General Assembly "has done what is necessary to protect our patients who turn to Planned Parenthood for their health care."
Maryland becomes first state to cover Planned Parenthood proposed cuts
[CBS News]
(Image: Charlotte Cooper, CC-BY)
As Brexit shambles on, UK Tory Parliamentarians and Theresa May are spoiling for a re-run of the Falklands Island debacle, this time over Gibraltar, a British outpost at the tip of Spain.
Leaving aside the foolishness of such a military adventure (what could be more on-the-nose than two European nations going to war as the immediate aftermath of one leaving the EU, whose defenders have always claimed ended the centuries of military hostilities, replacing them with a parliament where disputes can be peacefully settled?), there is the question of what purpose Gibraltar serves.
Well, it's not just a tax-haven (60,000 companies are registered in Gibraltar, two for every resident), it's also a smuggler's paradise (117m packs of cigs traverse Gibraltar tax-free, enough for everyone there to sustain a 10 pack a day habit). When Vladimir Putin was first planning to seize the Russian presidency, Gibraltar was his preferred way to sneak into Europe and meet with co-conspirators.
There are more than 60,000 companies registered in Gibraltar (two for every resident) and they routinely pop up in bribery scandals all over the world. In 2005, telecoms giant Vimpelcom wanted to expand into Uzbekistan and, needing to gain the government's approval, cut in Gibraltar-registered Takilant Ltd for tens of millions of pounds. Takilant was, in reality, just a front for Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the Uzbek dictator, Islam Karimov, and a would-be pop star referred to by US diplomats as "the single most hated person in the country". Other scandals facilitated on the Rock have touched on Nigeria, Congo, Ghana and elsewhere. It is a tribute to Gibraltar's PR operation that more people in Britain don't realise what is going on. Gibraltar is not part of the UK, can set its own tax rates and has been using them to aggressively undermine us as much as, if not more than, everyone else. A Gibraltarian growth industry in recent years has been online gambling, with most of the big UK operators William Hill, Ladbrokes, Bet365 moving their operations to the Rock.
Defend Gibraltar? Better condemn it as a dodgy tax haven
[Oliver Bullough/The Guardian]
(Image: Steve, CC-BY-SA)
(via Naked Capitalism)
A shooting took place in a classroom at North Park elementary school in San Bernardino today, around 10:30am local time. The shooter has been 'taken down,' local TV news is reporting in Southern California. The shooting is reported to have been planned as a murder-suicide. Two fatalities reported as of 11:15am PT. The shooter is said to have been related to the teacher who was shot dead. Two children injured in the shooting incident were airlifted to a nearby hospital. 600 children from North Park are being evacuated to Cal. State Univ. San Bernardino.
#BREAKING : Multiple gunshot victims reported at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, fire officials say https://t.co/EvdKAwg2c3
SAN BERNARDINO: #SBCoFD on scene mult GSW victims at North Park School. Triage and victim count taking place. ^eas
BREAKING: Multiple people down in shooting at elementary school in San Bernardino https://t.co/WQcn0NBszu
From the Los Angeles Times:
Multiple people were injured in a shooting Monday morning at an elementary school in San Bernardino in what officials are describing as a murder-suicide.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said four victims were being treated and a suspect was possibly down as well. No other details were immediately available.
"We believe this to be a murder suicide," he tweeted. "Happened in a class room. Two students have been transported to the hospital."
The gunfire occurred just after 10:30 a.m. at North Park School, 5378 N. H Street.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department reported multiple gunshot victims and a triage area had been set up.
"It's a developing situation," said Eric Sherwin, a Fire Department spokesman.
The shooting comes as San Bernardino has seen a major increase in violence.
There were 62 slayings in San Bernardino in 2016 a 41% increase from the year before. It was the deadliest year in the city since 1995.
The violence is an open wound on a city trying to recover from a prolonged bankruptcy and the 2015 terror attack.
Esgar: Our rights are on the ballot this Tuesday
Three accounting standards relating to financial instruments revised
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) recently revised three accounting standards relating to financial instruments, namely the Enterprise Accounting Standards No.22Recognition and Measurement of Financial Instruments, No.23Financial Assets Transfer, and No.24Hedging Accounting.
The revisions to these accounting standards mainly cover the following aspects:
The current four types of financial assets are changed to three types for accuracy and consistency of the accounting treatment;
Impairment accounting of the financial assets is changed from incurred loss method to expected loss method;
The standards of hedging accounting are adjusted to reflect the enterprises risk control activities; and
Some standards regarding new financial instruments are also modified for fairness of relevant accounting treatment.
These revisions are part of the converging trend of Chinese and international accounting standards. According to the implementation schedule of the new standards, enterprises listed in foreign exchange markets are required to implement the new standards as of January 1, 2018. Other enterprises using Chinas enterprises accounting standards are required to apply such standards no later than January 1, 2021.
RELATED: Tax and Compliance Services from Dezan Shira & Associates
Trial clearinghouse for online payments launched
The Peoples Bank of China has launched a trial run of a new clearinghouse for online transactions among selected banks and payment service providers. Third-party payment providers can now choose to clear online transactions either with the new clearinghouse or UnionPay, but can no longer directly clear transactions with banks.
Through the intermediary of the new clearinghouse, Chinas central bank hopes to use standard protocols and rules to tighten supervision of the booming online payment sector.
By the end of 2016, China had about 200 third-party payment providers, which handled RMB 99 trillion in online transactions. The largest third-party payment providers include Alibaba Groups Alipay and Tencent Holdings Tenpay.
Chinas first VR standards released
China released its first set of standards for virtual reality (VR) technology on April 6 at a forum in Beijing organized by the China Virtual Reality Industry Alliance. The standards lay out performance definitions as well as display and measurement methods for all VR headsets available in the market, namely external, built-in, and molded head-mounted display devices.
According to Lin Ning, a party secretary at the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI), the standards were made to normalize and guide the design, production, testing, and experimentation of various VR headset display devices.
The chief engineer of Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Zhang Feng, said the standards will be important in promoting the development of Chinas VR industry and hardware market, which he believes to still be in its infancy.
The development of the standards was led by CESI in consultation with other research institutions and manufacturers, including the Beijing Institute of Technology and Chinese tech giant Xiaomi. Further VR standards governing content and other related products are expected in the near future.
Xiaomi, along with other Chinese tech companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Huawei, have invested heavily in VR. In addition to these companies, there are over 100 smaller VR headset manufacturers in China.
Opinions sought for priority review of patents
On April 7, Chinas State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) released a notice to seek opinions about the draft Measures for Administration of Priority Review of Patents. As per the draft, a request for priority review of a patent application or patent review may be made for cases under the following conditions:
Those involving national key industries such as energy conservation, environmental protection, next generation information technology, bio-engineering, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, new energy vehicles, and intelligent manufacturing; Those specifically encouraged and supported by provincial and municipal governments; and Those involving the Internet, big data, cloud computing, and frequently updated technologies.
Priority review of patents can also be requested for other special circumstances.
Under the priority system, a design/utility patent application will be resolved within two months, an invention patent registration within one year, and a review within seven months. Generally, it takes one year to register a design/utility patent in China, and three to five years to register an invention patent.
Opinions on the draft measures are due by May 6, 2017.
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China will open up more industries, including oil drilling and defense technology, to private investors to cope with slowing private investment growth, Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported Monday.
The government will also lure private investment into strategic emerging industries by setting up industrial investment funds, according to the report.
Nur Bekri, head of the National Energy Administration, told the newspaper that the reform plan of the oil and gas industry had gained government approval and would soon be released. The sector will open its competitive operations to private investment as per this year's government work report.
"Access restriction is one of the major factors that constrain China's private investment, especially in the energy and military industries," said Li Wei, head of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Private investment is even encouraged in the defense science and technology industries, including China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe mission, which aims to be mankind's first soft landing on the far side of the moon in around 2018.
"Widening access for private capital to enter these industries, together with improved regulation, will both boost development efficiency and stimulate private investment growth," Li said.
Growth in private investment slowed to 3.2 percent year on year in 2016, 6.9 percentage points lower than in 2015, due to poor performance in manufacturing, service and mining sectors, as well as continued price decline of investment in fixed assets.
But the downward trend was reversed after the government moved to spur growth, with private investment recording growth of 6.7 percent in the first two months of the year.
China's local governments are also working to attract private capital into cash-strapped strategic emerging industries, which have found it difficult to get bank loans as many start-ups are yet to turn patents and intellectual property into profits.
As these industries have now become major growth engines in many regions, local governments are considering ways of luring private investment such as public-private partnerships and industrial investment funds, according to the report.
Government-led industrial investment funds are expected to play a guiding role in leading private capitals into the strategic emerging industries, it said.
China aims to increase output of strategic emerging industries to account for 15 percent of GDP by 2020.
Residents inquire about medicine prices at a community hospital in Donghuashi, Beijing, on Saturday. [Photo/China Daily]
Patients in Beijing will spend less on drugs but pay more to see doctors, with the total expense expected to be about the same after the city government on Saturday stopped public hospitals from profiting from medicine sales.
The reform, announced last month, replaced a registration fee and a treatment fee with a higher medical service charge. Meanwhile, it scrapped the previous markup on drugs, which could be as high as 15 percent, in the old pricing system.
Beginning Saturday morning, 2,605 Beijing hospitals switched to the new system, as released by the Beijing health authority.
One father, surnamed Zhang, said at Beijing Children's Hospital that he paid 10 yuan ($1.45) to see a doctor, five times the fee he used to pay out of his own pocket. "But it was not a big deal," he said. "We are quite happy that medication will be cheaper."
The landmark reform removed drug sales as a major source of income for public hospitals. Before the change, public hospitals in China mainly relied on three sources of incometreating patients, selling drugs and applying for government subsidies.
Official calculations show the overall medical costs for Beijing residents will remain flat, said Fang Laiying, head of the Beijing City Health and Family Planning Commission.
"Separating treatment and drug sales will stop over-prescription and help medical practitioners provide better treatment," said Fang.
A website created by the city includes all information related to medicine costs. People can see names of suppliers, what original prices are being offered, where the drugs are produced, how the drugs function, as well as other details that were not accessible before. Public hospitals are required to sell the drugs at the same price they buy them. That website is http://210.73.89.76/.
More than 3,600 medical institutions citywide are making the change, while some 1,000 small village clinics are not yet equipped with computerized billing system, according to Gao Xiaojun, spokesperson with Beijing City Health and Family Planning Commission.
Gao said total costs for buying drugs are estimated to go down by roughly 20 percent.
To offset that loss in profits to the hospitals, the government encouraged an increase in the price for medical service involving an experienced physician, expertise or staff time. Immediate price jumps can be seen in surgeries, acupuncture and nursing.
For instance, to see a chief physician who has three decades of experience in the field, a patient needed to pay 14 yuan for a diagnosis. Now, the cost is 100 yuan, or 60 yuan if the patient has a public medical insurance.
On the other hand, costs involving medical equipment have gone down. For example, positron emission tomography with computerized tomography, a PET/CT scan, used to cost 10,000 yuan. Now it costs 7,000 yuan. The cost for magnetic resonance imaging, or an MRI, went from 850 yuan to 450-600 yuan, the city government says.
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A fund for assisting the medical treatment of patients with rare disease was initiated in Shanghai Sunday.
The fund with starting money of 3 million yuan (US$435,000) was jointly raised by rare disease prevention and treatment institutions in Shanghai and drug firms such as Sanofi.
Li Dingguo, chair of the Shanghai Rare Disease Prevention and Treatment Fund, said that the funding would encourage more effective prevention and medical treatment of rare diseases.
He said the fund would help pool more financial support and company donations for rare disease patients.
"The fund will be primarily used for improving medical treatment for lysosomal storage diseases, which contain some 50 rare diseases of inherited metabolic disorders," Li said.
Globally, there are some 6,000 to 7,000 recognized rare diseases. Only a few of them have established medical treatment, such as Gaucher Disease and Pompe Disease.
About 60 percent of rare disease patients are children, with 30 percent living less than five years.
Li said there has been no epidemiological survey of rare disease patients made in China.
"Early diagnosis and treatment can effectively check on the progress of rare diseases and even cure them," said Zhang Huiwen, a doctor with the Xinhua Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiaotong University.
She said that it could take years for doctors to diagnose a rare disease, while patients miss the best time for treatment and suffer from inflicted problems leading to mental difficulties, heart problems and atrophied muscle.
Edward Hospital in Urumqi [File Photo]
Baidu is facing fresh accusations of publishing misleading advertising after the death of a woman who had surgery at a hospital she found using the tech giant's search engine.
Zhang Rui, 27, fell from the window of her apartment in September less than a month after undergoing an operation on her nose at Urumqi Edward Hospital, a private hospital in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
She had visited the clinic after a search on Baidu ranked it at the top of a list of hospitals that excel in treating nasal conditions, according to her fiance, Yang Weifang.
The woman's parents have filed a lawsuit against both the hospital and Baidu with a district court in Urumqi, and are demanding 674,000 yuan ($98,000) in compensation.
Hong Li, the attorney representing the family, said a lawyer acting for the hospital contacted him on Wednesday, hoping to reach a settlement, but that they "are not interested in reconciliation and will continue with the lawsuit."
Zhang visited Edward Hospital on Aug. 27, experiencing sinus problems and hoping to be treated before her wedding day. She was diagnosed with rhinitis and underwent surgery on her nose that day.
However, Yang said his fiancee experienced acute pain and nosebleeds, and was unable to sleep for three days after the operation.
Hong said she became depressed and anxious, adding that on Sept. 13, she went to Urumqi Fourth People's Hospital and was diagnosed with a psychological disorder.
Two days later, she died after falling from a window of her apartment in Urumqi, with her family suspecting that she may have killed herself.
Hong said Edward Hospital had failed to properly diagnose and treat Zhang, and did not provide remedies for the side effects she experienced from the surgery, which ultimately led to her death.
Baidu is also liable, as its search engine provided the information that resulted in Zhang visiting the hospital, Hong added.
An employee at the hospital's administrative office declined to comment on the case.
Zhu Wei, a law researcher at the China University of Political Science and Law, said paid online search services are classified as advertising in China, and service providers such as Baidu should clearly label any paid listings.
According to screen grabs provided by Hong, Edward Hospital was marked with the Chinese character for "advertisement" in the search results.
However, the attorney added, search engines are also required to inspect the certificates of their advertisers and are prohibited from providing false information in search results under Chinese law.
Zhang's case comes nearly a year after Baidu faced similar accusations over its ad policies from the parents of Wei Zexi, a computer science student in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, who died of cancer after undergoing a controversial "immune therapy" in Beijing that he found using the search engine.
The site where the Peking University is to set as their British campus. [Photo: cnr.cn]
Peking University is set to start staff recruitment and student enrollment for its British campus in the city of Oxford in June.
The elite university in Beijing signed with the Open University in February to purchase a 15-acre campus in Oxford for 8.8 million pounds, or 10 million U.S. dollars. The location will serve as an overseas campus for the university's HSBC Business School.
The school will enroll 100 international students when it opens in August 2018, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of Peking University.
This is the first time that a Chinese university has used its own finances to set up and manage a school in a foreign country.
Yu Changjiang, a scholar in education, described the move as a remarkable step for China's higher education to go global.
"Previously HSBC Business School has been recruiting teaching staff and introducing resources from abroad, but now it has begun its process of going global, thus forming bilateral exchanges between its foreign counterparts," said Yu, "this will actually become a major tendency for China's higher education industry, which will gradually develop its own characteristics and advantages to be shared internationally."
HSBC Business School's finance, management and economic courses will feature Chinese business cases to help students become better acquainted with the Chinese economy and reforms.
Students will take the first year course in the Oxford campus and the second year at the schools' campus in Shenzhen.
Those on the campus in the southern Chinese city will also be allowed to select elective courses on the campus in Oxford.
SCIO Vice Minister Guo Weimin addresses the book launch ceremony in Beijing on April 9. [Photo/CRI]
Vice minister of the State Council Information Office (SCIO) Guo Weimin attended a book launch ceremony on April 9 in Beijing.
The book "Min Thu Wun's Affinity with China" collects the translation and original works of Min Thu Wun, a Myanmar poet and scholar, as well as the father of current Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw. The book includes Min Thu Wun's translation of Chinese literature - ranging from famous writer Lu Xun and ancient Chinese poetry - as well as essays he wrote on China when he visited the country in the1950s and 1960s.
During the book launch event, Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw, who is currently visiting China, said his father was always interested in Chinese literature, and he hoped the book can contribute to the cultural exchanges between the two countries.
SCIO Vice Minister Guo Weimin said the book is a testimony to Min Thu Wun's interest in Chinese culture and the foundation of people-to-people exchanges between the countries. The president's visit to China and attendance at the book launch ceremony "continues to write a new chapter of the cultural and people-to-people exchanges of the two countries," he added.
Drawing on previous exchanges between China and Myanmar, Guo continued, "China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and river, sharing deep and profound traditional 'Paukphaw' (fraternal) friendship.China is willing to work along with Myanmar to make more progress in the China-Myanmar comprehensive strategic partnership to benefit the two countries and their people."
The book is compiled in both Chinese and Burmese and published by the Foreign Languages Press under the China International Publishing Group.
The areas along the Yangtze River are likely to see more severe droughts and floods than usual this year, flood control authorities announced Monday.
During flood season this year, the river's middle and lower reaches will see more rainfall while the upper area -- except the Jinsha, Jialing, Min and Tuo rivers -- will see up to 30 percent less precipitation than normal years, said Cui Jiangxue, deputy secretary-general of the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
According to meteorological and hydrological forecasts, drought and floods in the river basin will occur at the same time, he said at a meeting in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.
The headquarters urged provinces and cities along the river to track weather conditions closely and improve flood control measures.
Heavy rain along the river since January has resulted in landslides and floods in some areas.
Due to rainfall in the middle and upper reaches, the volume of water entering the Three Gorges Reservoir almost doubled to 13,000 cubic meters per second in the 24 hours starting 2 p.m. Saturday.
The water inflow began to decrease Sunday afternoon and hit 10,200 cubic meters per second at 2 p.m. Monday -- a record high since 1993. The inflow of the reservoir will continue to drop Tuesday.
More than 500 ships are waiting to pass through the dam's ship locks.
Flash
A Russian official expressed worries on Sunday that the deployment of a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group near the Korean Peninsula may push the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to respond hastily.
The U.S. Carl Vinson Strike Group has departed from Singapore and sailed northward to the Western Pacific ocean near the Korean Peninsula, the United States Pacific Fleet Commander announced Saturday.
The deployment came amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the DPRK test-fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday.
If Pyongyang sees the deployment as a threat to its security, it may rush into actions in response, said Victor Ozerov, chairman of the Russian Federation Council's Committee on Defense and Security, according to a RIA Novosti report.
Ozerov said international law does not prohibit the U.S. navy forces from shipping toward the Korean Peninsula, but its military presence will not be good for maintaining dialogue with Pyongyang.
It is even possible that the United States could launch sudden strikes against the DPRK just as it did to Syria, he added.
Pyongyang has carried out a number of missile launches and nuclear tests, incurring worldwide criticism and tighter United Nations sanctions.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the U.S. attack on Syria failed to achieve its goal in supporting the rebel groups, according to state news agency SANA.
The U.S. has failed to achieve the goal behind the aggression, which was lifting the morale of the U.S.-backed terrorist groups after the victories made by the Syrian army recently, Assad said during a phone call he received from his Iranian counterpart, Hasan Rohani.
Assad said the Syrian army is determined to crush terrorism on each spot of the Syrian territories.
For his part, Rohani, whose country is a main backer of the Assad government, expressed his country's vehement condemnation to the U.S. strike, stressing his Tehran's ongoing support to the Syrian government.
Earlier on Friday, the United States targeted the Shayrat air base in Homs with nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles, killing six Syrian soldiers and nine civilians, including four children, and destroying nine Syrian warplanes.
The U.S. government said the attack on the air base came in retaliation for the strikes by the Syrian air force on the town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday.
Activists accused the Syrian army of firing toxic gas on the town, killing 70 people, while the Syrian army said the strike targeted an arm depot containing toxic gas, blaming the rebels for stockpiling such materials.
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25th convoy fleet (File photo)
The convoy fleet sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy rescued a Tuvaluan ship hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday local time.
The navy said in a statement that its 25th convoy fleet, which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somali at the time, received report of the hijack of the ship OS35 at around 5 p.m. Saturday. The fleet's vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately.
After some reconnaissance and having contacted with the ship's crew, rescue operation started early Sunday morning.
A group of 16 members from the navy's special force boarded OS35 and rescued the 19 crew members.
The statement said all the 19 crew members were under the protection of the Chinese navy, and soldiers carried out a thorough search of the ship to clear possible security threat.
Flash
The site of a violent attack is blocked by the police in Stockholm, Sweden, April 8, 2017. A stolen truck rammed into people on a central Stockholm street before crashing into a department store on Friday, killing four and injuring 15 others. (Xinhua/Shi Tiansheng)
Swedish Police confirmed the identity of the suspected truck attacker as a 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan, who is currently under police custody.
In the press conference on Sunday, Jonas Hysing, chief of national police operations, said, the Uzbek man suspected of ramming a truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing four people and wounding 15 others, had expressed sympathy for Islamic State and was wanted for failing to comply with a deportation order.
Swedish Security Service confirmed to Swedish news agency TT Sunday that the 39-year-old terror suspect had sought asylum in Sweden.
According to the Swedish TT news agency on Sunday, the suspect applied for a residence permit in Sweden in 2014. In June 2016, Swedish Migration Board rejected his application and in December he was given a deadline of four weeks to leave the country.
However, in February 2017, the police was unable to enforce deportation order as the man was not at the address he registered.
Currently, there are three men suspected of the involvement in the Friday attack under police arrest, of whom two were taken on Friday and the other on Sunday. Police believe the Uzbek man is the one who drove the truck for the attack.
A homemade bomb placed in a bag was found in the truck, which was suspected to have failed to be detonated during the attack, Swedish Television (SVT) reported Saturday, quoting sources.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Sunday vowed to enforce the country's deportations effectively in wake of the Stockholm truck attack, after being informed of that the major attack suspect had been denied of residence application and failed to be deported.
Lofven said this made him frustrated and that one must be deported if being rejected of application for a residence permit or an application for asylum.
"We need to improve the effect," Lofven told TT, adding that "it is also important for confidence in the system." Swedish police confirmed on Sunday that two Swedes, one Briton and one Belgian, were killed in the Stockholm truck attack. Of the four victims, three were killed at Drottningatan in central Stockholm, and one died in the hospital later.
A truck rammed into people on a central Stockholm street before crashing into a department store on Friday, killing four and wounding 15 others. Nine wounded people are still hospitalized.
Flash
In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy, U.S. navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter fires a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. (Xinhua/U.S. Navy)
Russian and Iranian presidents in a phone conversation stressed the inadmissibility of "aggressive" U.S. actions against Syria in violation of international law, the Kremlin said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, called for an objective, unbiased investigation into the chemical weapon incident in the Syrian province of Idlib earlier this week, the Kremlin said in the statement.
The two leaders noted the importance of continuing close cooperation in the political and diplomatic settlement of the chronic Syrian civil war, the statement said.
In addition, both presidents expressed readiness to deepen bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism to ensure stability in the Middle East.
Also on Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said U.S. President Donald Trump was discussing with members of his administration the possibility of sanctioning Russia and Iran for supporting the Syrian government.
Russia and Iran, together with Turkey, are working to arrange a series of peace talks between conflicting sides within Syria in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
On Thursday, Trump ordered attacks against a military airbase in Syria with dozens of Tomahawk missiles, after the United States and its allies accused Damascus of killing civilians with chemical weapons on Tuesday.
But the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the deadly gas contamination was caused by the explosion of chemical weapons produced and stored by the rebels, after Syrian aircraft bombed the area.
Damascus has repeatedly denied possession of any chemical weapons.
Flash
The Russian-Iranian joint operation room in Syria said on Sunday that Syria's allies will strongly respond to any aggression against Syria, adding that the U.S. attack is a dangerous precedent and a violent aggression on the sovereignty of the Syrian state and people.
"What America has done in attacking Syria is crossing red lines and from now on we will strongly respond to any aggression by any party and America knows well our capability to respond," said the statement.
It added that the allies of the Syrian government will increase their support to the Syrian army following the U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base.
Earlier on Friday, the United States targeted the Shayrat air base in Homs Province with nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles, killing six Syrian soldiers and nine civilians, including four children, and destroying nine warplanes, according to the Syrian government.
The U.S. government said the attack on the air base came in retaliation for the strikes by the Syrian air force on the town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday.
Activists accused the Syrian army of firing toxic gas on the town, killing 70 people, while the Syrian army said the strike targeted an arm depot containing toxic gas, blaming the rebels for stockpiling such materials.
"The arrogant America hasn't waited any permission and didn't respect the countries in the UN and attacked Syria so blatantly without waiting the results of the investigation in the Khan Sheikhoun case," Sunday's statement said.
According to the statement, the allies of the Syrian government are closely following the movement of the U.S. in northern Syria and northwestern Iraq.
"They should know that we are aware of their attempts to control that geographic spot, and that makes them illegal occupation forces," it said.
"Russia and Iran will not allow America to control the world and will stand in its face with all available power no matter what will happen," the statement concluded.
Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), adjusts his glasses during a news conference on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, on March 12, 2016.[Photo/VCG]
Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, is under investigation by China's top anti-graft authority, according to an online statement published on Sunday.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China said in its online statement that Xiang was being investigated for suspected serious violation of the Party's code of conduct.
The investigation began after China's top leadership vowed to contain systemic financial risks.
Xiang, 60, has headed the insurance commission and served as a member of the monetary policy committee of the Chinese central bank since 2011.
The insurance regulator under Xiang had stepped up the crackdown on the radical acquisition of listed companies by the insurers and their risky and highly leveraged investments using short-term proceeds from sales of high-yield policies.
Xiang told a news conference in February the insurance sector should not be the "club of the rich" or a "hideout for financial titans".
He also warned that the regulator will "severely punish" short-term speculation by insurers and their hostile takeovers of listed companies' stakes.
His agency also banned Chinese business tycoon Yao Zhenhua, chairman of the private conglomerate Baoneng Group, from the insurance industry for 10 years for illegal investments.
Xiang oversaw the rapid growth of China's insurance sector, with total assets reaching 15.1 trillion yuan ($2.19 trillion) at the end of 2016, tripling since its assets reached 5 trillion yuan in 2010.
Xiang, one of the most prominent financial regulators in China, served as deputy governor of the People's Bank of China between 2004 and 2007. Later he served as the chairman of the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the big five State-owned commercial banks. He oversaw the shareholding restructure of the bank, listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2010.
Xiang also had extensive experience in auditing and served as the deputy auditor-general of the National Audit Office.
Separately on Sunday, the top anti-graft authority also announced the investigation of Li Changjun, former Party chief and president of the Beijing Branch of the Export-Import Bank of China, for suspected serious violation of the Party's code of conduct.
A caretaker works on a yard outside an English-style mansion listed for C$17.9 million ($16.3 million) in Vancouver's historic First Shaughnessy neighborhood. [Photo/Agencies]
VANCOUVER Fewer Chinese prospective buyers are considering Vancouver properties in the Canadian province of British Columbia, following its implementation eight months ago of a 15-percent tax on foreign residential real estate buyers.
Brad Henderson, president and CEO of Sotheby's International Realty Canada, told Xinhua that the province's foreign buyers tax, which was levied for the first time in Vancouver, has scared off prospective Chinese homebuyers.
His remarks were based on a new study entitled China to Canada: International Home Buyer Insights, which was co-released on March 7 by Sotheby's International Realty Canada and Juwai.com, an international property website for Chinese buyers of overseas property.
"I think what we've seen is a consistent drop in interest not only from people looking on Juwai, but also from people buying in the Vancouver marketplace as a result of that tax," Henderson said.
According to the study, Chinese inquiries for listings in the Vancouver property market fell by 81 percent year-on-year in July 2016, the month the provincial government unveiled its 15-percent tax on foreign buyers of residential property.
The tax aimed to cool a regional housing market that saw extremely high prices and crisis-level shortages of affordable housing.
The drop in queries by Chinese prospective buyers fell throughout the remainder of 2016, down the most by 78 percent year-on-year in August and the least by 9 percent in November.
The study also found that Chinese interest in Canadian real estate has shifted to other major Canadian cities following the foreign buyers tax in British Columbia.
For instance, queries in the city of Calgary in the province of Alberta increased by 1,050 percent in August year-on-year and by 420 percent in September.
Meanwhile, searches on Juwai for Toronto, Canada's largest city in the province of Ontario, rose by 62 percent year-on-year in August and by 72 percent in September.
Yet Henderson stressed that the Vancouver market still appears healthy despite less interest from Chinese buyers.
"The gross domestic product growth in Vancouver is better than that in Canada," Henderson said. "The same is true with the unemployment rate. Business confidence continues to be very high. It continues to be an attractive market (for those) who want to live and work, whether they're from Canada or from outside Canada."
A major problem facing Vancouver is a shortage of developable land for housing, he said. "So, when you have a strong demand and you add to it a constrained supply, you have a market that will have increasing pressures on price."
The market still appears to be digesting the foreign buyers tax, according to Henderson. "We think a number of people sitting on the sidelines just want to make sure that there are no additional policies coming down the pipe or that this is going to have an adverse effect on the market."
Wang Jianlin, chairman and president of Dalian Wanda Group, attends the Asian Financial Forum (AFF) in Hong Kong, Jan 18, 2016. [Photo/VCG]
Wang Jianlin, founder of the Wanda group, has announced an agreement with the government in Sichuan's capital, Chengdu.
Wanda plans to invest 70 billion yuan ($10.1 billion) to build a world-class health hub in the city in the coming few years.
The plan involves one general hospital and 8 separate specialized medical facilities. Wanda is also looking to attract around 30 different health-related companies into the hub.
At the same time, Wanda is partnering with a local dental hospital in Chengdu, investing 9 billion yuan to set up dental clinics in Wanda plazas throughout China.
The company is also planning to set up a large, high-end hospital in the city of Qingdao in Shandong.
Wanda is among a number of major Chinese firms which have begun looking for opportunities in the Chinese healthcare sector.
The high-end healthcare market is said to be entering a golden age, according to the the National Business Daily.
China's State Council has been pushing for the development of medical services in recent years. Plans are to create an 8-trillion-yuan medical service market by 2020.
The world's most populous country is also home to 230 million people above the age of 60. China also has one of the fastest aging populations.
To try to counter this, China ended its one-child policy in 2015, encouraging young couples to have a second child.
Under the new policy, in 2016, China saw 1.3 million more newborns than the year before.
Visitors about to taste New Zealand's kiwifruit at a fruit and vegetable expo. The stall's table-top design portrays the unmistakable pattern of the inside of a cut kiwifruit. [Photo by Leikesi/For China Daily]
WELLINGTON The weather is pleasant and cool in northern New Zealand at the end of March. The farms in Tauranga grow vast stretches of a nutrient-rich fruit with soft, green flesh and a unique taste. It is kiwifruit, a signature farm produce of New Zealand. The fruits will later reach thousands of families after being sent to Zespri for sorting and packing.
Despite the name, kiwifruit is not native to New Zealand, but originally comes from China. Seeds were brought across the Pacific to New Zealand in the early 20th century by Isabel Fraser, principal of Wanganui Girls' College, who had been visiting missionary schools in China. They were planted by a local nurseryman and the vines first fruited in 1910. People thought the fruit had a gooseberry flavor and began to call it the "Chinese gooseberry."
The gooseberry's rebranding didn't happen until New Zealand's importer began to promote the market demand of the fruit in the 1950s. It decided to name the fuzzy, brown fruit after the country's furry, brown, flightless national bird.
The erstwhile Chinese gooseberry finds its root a hemisphere away in China and the earliest record of the fruit can be traced back to 2,800 years ago.
The description of the fruit appeared in Shijing, or the Book of Odes, the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. Its original name in Chinese, mihoutao"macaque fruit"refers to the monkey's love for it, according to the 16th century Chinese medicine encyclopedia, the Compendium of Materia Medica.
New Zealand's kiwi exports account for one-third of the fruit's global supply. In 2017, China will exceed Japan as the biggest export destination of New Zealand's kiwifruit, said Holly Brown, head of corporate affairs for Zespri China.
Zespri, the sole authorized exporter and marketer for New Zealand kiwifruit, has been gradually recognized by Chinese middle-class families. Sales to China now hit 80,000 tons, accounting for 18 percent of Zespri's global sales. In 1999, its sales to China only accounted for 2 percent. The lowering of tariffs is one of the major reason why exports to China have increased remarkably in recent years.
In April 2008, China and New Zealand signed a free trade agreement. According to the FTA, the first that China signed with a developed country, all goods exported from China to New Zealand became tariff-free on Jan 1, 2016, while tariff on most New Zealand exports to China will be eliminated before Jan 1, 2019.
The FTA has created mutually beneficial concessions in the trade of goods, services and investment, including lowering of tariffs for fruits.
For example, on kiwifruit, China started to gradually lower its 20 percent tariff since 2008 at a rate of about 2 percent each year, before it became tariff-free in 2016.
Ultimately, it's the consumers, farmers and companies of the two countries that benefit from the FTA.
"Located in different hemispheres, New Zealand and China harvest kiwis in opposite seasons. The quality and supply of New Zealand kiwis are stable. They taste delicious, thus are quite popular with customers," a fresh product manager in Beijing Hualian supermarket told Xinhua.
According to statistics from the fresh products department of Jingdong or JD, a leading e-commerce operator in China, Zespri's kiwis are especially favored in China by middle-class families in big cities, women and mothers.
On JD, grown-in-China kiwis, mostly from the northwest province of Shaanxi, are sold just as well as Zespri's.
However, instead of being rivals, Chinese and New Zealand's kiwis are complementary to each other, said Brown of Zespri.
The company is currently in a three-year agreement with kiwi orchards in Shaanxi to develop better kiwi breeds; it's a long-term strategy to satisfy the expanding Chinese market, Brown told Xinhua.
Bruce McGuire, president and founder of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association. [Photo provided to China Daily]
As president and founder of Connecticut Hedge Fund Association, a Greenwich-based association that represents the world's second largest hedge fund center, Bruce McGuire has been playing a key role in developing China's asset management industry.
Chinese authorities have of late been increasing their efforts to develop and support the industry in a bid to spur local economic growth and attract financial talent. But with the country's hedge fund scene still at a nascent stage, professionals from the sector have been eager to learn from foreign experts such as McGuire.
Back in 2011 when Chinese authorities were looking to build the country's first investment management commercial park, McGuire was the one who helped organize a trip that brought a delegation from Shanghai's Fengxian district to Greenwich, Connecticut, to learn more about the industry.
The American's name has since been making its way around circles interested in developing investment management hubs in China and he has also helped delegations from other Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai with their visits to the CTHFA.
Founded in 2004 in Greenwich, a vibrant hub in the United States that is home to some 380 hedge funds with combined assets worth $350 billion, the CTHFA has evolved from a group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management alumni members looking to network to an organization with around 3,000 members.
What makes the association appealing to members is the synergy it creates by bringing members together to push forward development of alternative investment approaches through quarterly symposia which serve as an educational forum and a networking opportunity for professionals, said McGuire.
In addition, asset management professionals are attracted by the town's proximity to financial hubs in New York and its high yet affordable standard of living.
According to research by Zero2ipo, a private venture firm based in Beijing, more than 10 cities in China are planning to establish their own industry-specific hedge fund towns like Greenwich. In Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, a fund town for hedge funds has already attracted more than 700 funds with a combined capital exceeding 100 billion yuan ($14.56 billion) as of the end of 2016. In Beijing, a fund town for equity firms has more than 100 funds registered with combined assets under management reaching 180 billion yuan.
According to McGuire, who is also a board member of the Connecticut-China Council, the asset management industry has in recent years been focusing on cross-border opportunities, particularly those between the US and China markets.
"Speaking from my experience at Greenwich, I think the development of fund towns relies not only on government policies regarding the attraction of investment, capital and industries," said the 52-year-old, who had previously worked at Chicago-based Mesirow Financial and Merrill Lynch.
"Development also depends on the environment and the availability of facilities such as hospitals, schools and lifestyle amenities which can convince asset management professionals to settle down to work and raise a family."
The CTHFA and the Zhejiang International Hedge Fund Talents Association had on Nov 30 announced the first-ever strategic partnership between leading fund associations in the US and China. Officials said that this historic partnership will facilitate open dialogue and reciprocal visits between the two associations where members can share knowledge, expand their commercial networks and build new partnerships.
The Zhejiang association is the largest independent hedge fund body in China and it represents over 300 of China's leading hedge funds.
"This is the latest in a series of engagements that the CTHFA has in Chinese cities and the association will continue to promote the global hedge fund industry and facilitate cross-border growth opportunities for funds in both countries through this partnership," said McGuire.
The two associations will also work together to build the "West Lake-Greenwich" Private Security Fund Index, delivering a valuable measure of Sino-US private fund data.
McGuire added that the decision to establish such a partnership was a simple one to make, seeing how China is the second-largest economy in the world and the engine of growth for the 21st century, while US asset managers, especially those located in Greenwich, are some of the best and brightest in the field of finance and investment management.
"China can benefit greatly from the talents of these proven wealth managers, from both the positive impact their investments can have on the real Chinese economy and through the superior returns generated for Chinese institutions and investors. We want to be a part of the significant growth in China," said McGuire.
Chinese major listed insurers, also important players in the capital market, took a conservative approach to the market this year and hope to boost their overseas investment.
"Given the market fundamentals, we don't think there will an absolute strong bullish year. We take a conservative approach and will seize opportunities to increase investment in fixed-income products," said Zhao Lijun, vice president of China Life. "We found the valuation of some H-shares attractive and will increase our investment through Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Connect."
The world's largest life insurer in terms of market value increased its investment in bond by 2.08 percent to 45.63 percent last year and also increased its holding of stocks and funds by 0.71 percent to 10.05 percent, according to the company's annual financial report.
China Life's net investment return ratio stood at 4.61 percent last year, down 1.83 percentage points. And its overall investment return dropped 22.8 percent to 108.2 billion yuan ($15.6 billion), due to the fluctuating capital market, said the company's top management.
For Yu Xiaoping, vice president of PICC Group, this year's investment environment will see an improvement compared with last year, due to the better macro economy and bond investment return.
"We take a conservatively optimistic view of this year's capital market and will increase our overseas investment among the overall portfolio," said Yu.
PICC Group's investable assets reached 807.7 billion yuan by the end of last year, up 8.7 percent year on year, among which 56.3 percent were fixed income products Zwhile 16.4 percent were stocks and funds. Meanwhile, PICC's overseas investment accounted for up to 1.5 percent, lower than the industry's' average of 2 percent.
"So, we plan to boost our overseas investment through the Shanghai-HongKong Stock Connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Connect. And our asset management in Hong Kong will play a bigger role in optimizing our overseas investment," said Yu.
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company, with a net investment return of 6 percent last year, will almost maintain its amount of investment in fixed-income products while betting on health, medical care, consumption and high-tech stocks.
Ping An's net profit jumped 15.1 percent year-on-year last year to 62.4 billion yuan. And its revenue grew 14.9 percent to 712.5 billion yuan, according to the company's financial report.
"In the medium and long run, we are optimistic about the stock market as the d-stocking campaign is close to an end the new round of consumption is emerging," said Chen Dexian, chief investment officer of Ping An.
Meanwhile, commercial properties and industrial logistics with a steady rental are priorities for Ping An's real estate investment, according to Chen.
BEIJING - Jesus Flores, 59, lives in the US rust-belt town of Illinois. Eighteen years ago, just as he became a father, he lost his job.
With the added burden of being responsible for a new life, Flores was beside himself with worry about how he would provide for his growing family.
Luckily, an answer to his problems came in the form of a Chinese automaker. Not long after he lost his job, Wanxiang opened a factory near his home and Flores has been employed there ever since.
"My daughter is now going to college. My job at Wanxiang means that she has the opportunity to do that," he said.
Wanxiang has acquired many firms on the brink of bankruptcy, Gary Wetzel, CEO of Wanxiang America, explained, in fact, he added, "people would be out of work if not for Wanxiang."
While China and job losses are discussed as one and the same by certain parties on Capitol Hill, the reality could not be more different. Chinese companies are opening new plants and hiring people in America - a scenario largely absent from the rhetoric of some US politicians.
Chinese investment in the US outstripped US investment in China for the first time in 2015, according to the Rhodium Group, a New York-based consultancy.
It surged to a record $45.6 billion in 2016, triple the amount of 2015. Chinese investment has supported about 104,000 jobs in the United States.
In Lancaster County, South Carolina, China's Keer Group is due to complete the second phase of its cotton mill complex later this year. The first phase of the project started operation in 2015, and created 300 local jobs.
The company is confident it will create at least 500 local jobs by the end of 2017.
"Since 2011, we have had $850 million of investment from Chinese companies, leading to the creation of over 2,000 jobs. It has had a big impact on our small state," said Amy Thomson, director of international strategy and trade under the South Carolina department of commerce.
South Carolina was once the epicenter of the US textile industry. Since the 1980s, however, textile manufacturing had been transferred to Latin America and Asia as producers have sought cheaper materials and labor.
"It is interesting that [manufacturing] is coming back by way of China and with it well-paying jobs. We are very appreciative for that," she said.
John Ling, president of the Council of American States in China, who brokered the Keer deal, was amazed by how quickly Chinese companies have been able to start their businesses in the United States.
"When I was sent to China to open the first US state office in 2005, with the sole purpose of bringing Chinese manufacturing investment projects to the US, people would look at me like I was out of my mind," he said.
So far, he has brokered Chinese greenfield investment projects worth over $2 billion into the southeast of America, creating thousands of local jobs.
"More and more US states are [increasing] recruitment efforts to [help] land the next Chinese manufacturing project. I believe this would give more leg to a more healthy bilateral economic relationship in the future," he said.
With production costs between the two countries narrowing fast, the Rhodium Group estimates that by 2020, Chinese investment in the US could be as high as $200 billion.
Zhu Shanqing, president of Keer Group, admitted that the biggest challenge is how to bridge the culture gap, given their vastly different ways of thinking and doing.
When Chinese companies are investing billions of dollars in America, they are also building communities of Americans that will better understand China, said Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations.
It will work for building a constructive US-China relation in the 21st century, he added.
An investor checks stock prices at a securities brokerage in Fuyang, Anhui province. Lu Qijian / for China Daily
BEIJING - The securities regulator on Saturday vowed to severely punish listed firms that violate market rules or fail to pay dividends when due.
Listed firms that engage in "illicit practices" on the stock market should "pay a heavy price," Liu Shiyu, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), told a meeting of the China Association for Public Companies.
He criticized some companies, without naming them, for forging financial information, engaging in fraudulent restructuring, and cashing out after driving stock prices high at the cost of retail investors' interests.
He also urged firms to pay dividends to their investors, saying authorities will "act hard" against those who fail to do so without justified reasons.
He reiterated that the CSRC remained committed to protecting the rights and interests of retail investors, who dominate China's stock market.
China currently has over 3,100 listed companies, with a combined market value exceeding 50 trillion yuan ($7.25 trillion).
Listed firms should play an active role in the implementation of national strategies and avoid blind expansion into non-core business, Liu told the meeting.
He stressed good corporate governance and full information disclosure, saying credit records should be built for company directors and management.
BEIJING - China will open up more industries, including oil drilling and defense technology, to private investors to cope with slowing private investment growth, Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported Monday.
The government will also lure private investment into strategic emerging industries by setting up industrial investment funds, according to the report.
Nur Bekri, head of the National Energy Administration, told the newspaper that the reform plan of the oil and gas industry had gained government approval and would soon be released. The sector will open its competitive operations to private investment as per this year's government work report.
"Access restriction is one of the major factors that constrain China's private investment, especially in the energy and military industries," said Li Wei, head of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Private investment is even encouraged in the defense science and technology industries, including China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe mission, which aims to be mankind's first soft landing on the far side of the moon in around 2018.
"Widening access for private capital to enter these industries, together with improved regulation, will both boost development efficiency and stimulate private investment growth," Li said.
Growth in private investment slowed to 3.2 percent year on year in 2016, 6.9 percentage points lower than in 2015, due to poor performance in manufacturing, service and mining sectors, as well as continued price decline of investment in fixed assets.
But the downward trend was reversed after the government moved to spur growth, with private investment recording growth of 6.7 percent in the first two months of the year.
China's local governments are also working to attract private capital into cash-strapped strategic emerging industries, which have found it difficult to get bank loans as many start-ups are yet to turn patents and intellectual property into profits.
As these industries have now become major growth engines in many regions, local governments are considering ways of luring private investment such as public-private partnerships and industrial investment funds, according to the report.
Government-led industrial investment funds are expected to play a guiding role in leading private capitals into the strategic emerging industries, it said.
China aims to increase output of strategic emerging industries to account for 15 percent of GDP by 2020.
Shanghai topped as the most popular family-friendly destination during Tomb Sweeping Day, or Qingming holiday, an industry report showed.
The number of tourists surged 1.89 times year-on-year during the three-day break, the first public holiday since the Spring Festival, according to travel site Lvmama.
Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand were top destinations for outbound travels.
More than 93 million people took advantage of the national holiday, travelling and visiting parts of China, according to data from the country's National Tourism Administration.
Road trips were the main form of transportation, followed by railway with 35.02 million passengers.
Here are the top 10 cities in China that saw most holidaymakers during the break according to Lvmama.
10. Chongqing
Chinese automaker Qoros is expected to build a new plant in Sichuan province, indicating investors' confidence in the young brand and its new energy car strategy.
Qoros, together with its parent company Chery Auto and Israel's Quantum Fund, will invest 5.5 billion yuan ($797.4 million) to build a manufacturing facility in Yibin city, according to an agreement signed with local authorities on April 6.
When completed, the facility will be capable of producing 500,000 cars annually, including 200,000 new energy vehicles. Yet details about how much each party will contribute and when construction will start remain unknown.
Qoros now has a plant in Changshu, Jiangsu province, which has an annual capacity of 150,000 cars.
While some analysts say the move will not offer the carmaker immediate help, others believe it shows investors are confident in the brand's future performance considering the gap between its sales and existing production capacity.
The automaker sold 24,188 cars last year, a 70 percent rise year-on-year, but not a laudable number in the world's largest market.
The new plant plan is the latest move in the automaker's new energy vehicle plan released late last year.
Qoros announced in December that it would soon receive a 500 million yuan loan from its parent companies, Chery Auto and Kenon Holdings, for developing and producing such vehicles.
Its first electric concept car, the Qoros 3 QLECTRIQ EV, which was shown at the Guangzhou auto show in November, can travel 350 kilometers on one charge.
Yang Yan, a public relations manager at Qoros, said the first production model of Qoros new energy vehicle will hit the market later this year or earlier next year.
She added that the company will also showcase a high-performance electric car co-developed with racecar maker Koenigsegg at the Shanghai auto show later this month. It will be launched in late 2018.
New energy vehicles, which constitute one pillar of Qoros' two-pronged strategy released last year, are intended to boost its lackluster performance.
Despite its acclaimed quality and design, Qoros has received a lukewarm reception in the market since its first model, a gasoline sedan, debuted in 2013.
It now has five models in the market, with its Qoros 5 SUV selling the most, accounting for 45 percent of its sales last year.
Financial statements from its parent company, Kenon Holdings, show Qoros revenue in 2016 reached 2.51 billion yuan. Despite a 72 percent surge year-on-year, the automaker ended up in the red last year.
Newly appointed CEO Leon Liu said Qoros has around 115 dealerships and each sells about 200 cars a year, while the industry average is around 500 cars.
"That shows there is a lot we can do," said Liu. He said Qoros will launch at least one new model each year to attract more customers and plans to increase the number of dealerships to 200 by the end of this year.
Liu told reporters in March that Qoros will strive to see "positive cash flow" this year, which happens to mark the 10th anniversary of its establishment.
Customers look at cars at a Hyundai retailer in Tianjin. [Photo provided to China Daily]
South Korean marques are losing ground in China as local brands in the world's largest auto market are offering improved quality and a wider choice of SUV models.
In March, Hyundai Motor sold 56,026 cars in China, a 44.3 percent fall from the same month last year, while Kia Motors saw its March sales in the country plummet 68 percent to 16,006 units.
Although March was the first month that Hyundai has seen its China sales fall this year, Kia's sales have been dropping for the whole quarter. It had a 38.9 percent slump in January and a 24 percent drop in February.
China is the largest market for Hyundai and Kia, both subsidiaries of the Hyundai Motor Group, accounting for 23.5 percent and 21.5 percent, respectively, of their global sales in 2016.
South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo attributed Chinese customers' reaction to South Korea's decision to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense from the United States, yet industry insiders say the incident may have had an effect, but that the real culprit of the fall lies in Chinese automakers' growing competitiveness, as evidenced by their market share of the country's passenger car market.
Statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that, while Hyundai's China sales in 2016 grew from the previous year, their combined market share shrank to 7.35 percent in 2016 from 7.94 percent one year earlier.
In contrast, Chinese brands' market share grew from 41.32 percent in 2015 to 43.2 percent in 2016.
A JD Power report predicted that Chinese brands will catch up with international rivals by 2018 in terms of new car quality.
Li Shufu, chairman of China's Geely Automotive Holdings, is even more confident. He told reporters in mid-March that "Chinese brands are now already as good as, if not better than, South Korean brands in terms of quality, and I believe we can catch up with Japanese brands in one or two years".
Already owning Swedish brand Volvo, Geely is planning to unveil the first cars of its own premium marque, Lynk&Co, later this month.
Great Wall Motor, China's largest SUV producer, is also to premiere models of its high-end Wey brand in April.
Great Wall sold 168,729 cars in the first two months, for 12.56 percent growth year-on-year, while Geely sold 191,629 cars in the same period, up 105 percent year-on-year.
South Korean brands' failure to come up with the right models is another problem. SUVs are China's fastest growing segment, but Hyundai or Kia were missing from the top 10 best-sellers this year, most of which are from Chinese brands.
John Zeng, managing director of LMC Automotive Consulting Shanghai, said: "Customers seeking value for money have turned to Chinese brands, which have improved greatly in the past several years."
He suggested the two South Korean brands change their positioning to create synergy.
"Kia and its sister brand Hyundai now have such similar positions and products that they are now each other's rivals. They should have created synergy with Hyundai, like Buick and Chevrolet did within General Motors."
An employee works at the plant of CITIC Dicastal in Qinghuangdao, Hebei province, March 5, 2013. [Photo/VCG]
SHANGHAI- The Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix of 2017 featured a local manufacturer of automotive wheels - Dicastal, part of the Citic Group-strengthen the cooperation with Williams F1 team, as the two parties announced here on Sunday that Dicastal will be the tyre supplier of the top F1 team.
Wang Jiong, the vice president of Citic Group, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency that this cooperation not only means a huge step for Dicastal, but also be of great significance for Chinese manufacture industry.
"Chinese manufacturers were often regarded as resource-intensive or labor intensive ones, but lack of competitiveness in high-tech products. As one of the stated-owned enterprise, we felt obliged to change the stereotype of Chinese manufactures and try to compete with foreign companies in some high-tech areas," said Wang.
"In terms of automobile industry, there is no doubt that F1 is the top of the industry pyramid. Only the very top manufacturers in the world can become the suppliers of the F1 racing events. We set the goal to enter this area in the year of 2010, I told our staff that we should try to work with world top clients, just F1 racing teams."
Established in 1988, Dicastal had become the world's leading manufacturer of aluminum wheels. But cooperating with F1 was still a big challenge for them that time as this exciting racing sport has vigorous requirement on auto parts.
"Of course it's not easy to meet the F1 standards, we should improve our techniques to compete with our opponents. Speaking of tires, even one gram can make big difference. The best tyre should be as light as possible and also of high quality to be used in the top auto events in the world." Wand continued.
Dicastal's efforts were paid back in 2016, as they set up technical partnership with Williams. In their partnership, Dicastal's wheels would go through vigorous R&D (Research and Development) with Williams Martini Racing before on track product testing begins in 2017.
When commenting on the partnership, Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal and Commercial Director of Williams said:"Here at Williams, we are always looking for the slightest advantage to edge out the competition, and light weighting is fundamental to that. As an organization, Dicastal's dedication to engineering excellence perfectly matches our own and we look forward to working together."
This year during the Chinese Grand Prix, the relationship went further as Dicastal will be the tyre supplier for Williams since 2018, becoming the first Chinese manufacturer to produce any part of F1 racing cars.
"Our success comes from years of accumulation and innovation. I hope more Chinese manufacturers enter the high-tech areas in the future and convert 'made in China' to 'created in China', Wang said.
A visitor experiences a facial-recognition device at Ant Financial's stand at an internet finance expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY
BEIJING - China has great potential in applications of artificial intelligence (AI), a senior official said Sunday.
"Chinese researchers and entrepreneurs are among the best in the world, with technological innovations and good earnings in the sector," said Liu Lihua, vice minister of industry and information technology.
Researchers with Chinese companies such as iFlytek, Alibaba and Baidu participated in the study of the world's leading AI technologies, said Liu, referring to technologies of reinforcement learning, paying with your face and self-driving trucks.
A couple of weeks ago, the "MIT Technology Review" listed the above three and another seven technologies as its 10 breakthrough technologies in 2017.
AI research started more than 60 years ago and there have been some major ups and downs. The current wave is backed by unprecedented quantities of data and computing power.
"While we are just getting started, we have made prominent progress in applying artificial intelligence in smart city and intelligent customer service on automobiles," said Liu.
More sectors will see AI applications in the future, he added.
Chinese internet giants are focusing on the development of artificial intelligence and believe the next decades will be a golden age for the industry.
"If we define 2016 as the first year of China's artificial intelligence, this year will be the beginning of applications of artificial intelligence in the country," said Liu Qingfeng, board chairman of tech firm iFlytek Co. Ltd.
Internet giant Baidu set up a national deep learning technology lab in Beijing in March. The lab gathered AI experts from Baidu, Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
"The internet is just an appetizer. The main course will be AI. In the future, machines will develop to a point where they can understand humans and their intentions," said Li Yanhong, chair of Baidu, at the China IT Summit in Shenzhen last Sunday.
Baidu has invested heavily in machine-aided study, image recognition, voice recognition and driverless vehicles.
Another tech giant Xiaomi set up an "Explorer's Lab" last year to research artificial intelligence and will release an "exciting AI product" in the coming six months, according to Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi.
"Companies in emerging markets need to offer their consumers a compelling vision so that they not only resolve problems today, but even address problems on the horizon," Lei said.
China will make greater efforts this year to implement innovation-driven development strategy, upgrade the structure of the real economy, and improve its performance and competitiveness, according to the government work report issued last month.
"We will accelerate R&D on and commercialization of new materials, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, bio-pharmacy, 5G mobile communications, and other technologies, and develop industrial clusters in these fields," the report read.
In May last year, the government made a three-year action plan to develop AI.
The industry's market size was 23.9 billion yuan ($3.5 billion) last year, and will reach 38 billion yuan ($5.5 billion) in 2018, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
"As the AI era approaches, we should focus on technological innovation, establish industry standards and specifications, forge an industrial ecosystem, and speed up legislation in the sector," said iFlytek's Liu.
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Baidu is facing fresh accusations of publishing misleading advertising after the death of a woman who had surgery at a hospital she found using the tech giant's search engine.
Zhang Rui, 27, fell from the window of her apartment in September less than a month after undergoing an operation on her nose at Urumqi Edward Hospital, a private hospital in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
She had visited the clinic after a search on Baidu ranked it at the top of a list of hospitals that excel in treating nasal conditions, according to her fiance, Yang Weifang.
The woman's parents have filed a lawsuit against both the hospital and Baidu with a district court in Urumqi, and are demanding 674,000 yuan ($98,000) in compensation.
Hong Li, the attorney representing the family, said a lawyer acting for the hospital contacted him on Wednesday, hoping to reach a settlement, but that they "are not interested in reconciliation and will continue with the lawsuit".
Zhang visited Edward Hospital on Aug 27, experiencing sinus problems and hoping to be treated before her wedding day. She was diagnosed with rhinitis and underwent surgery on her nose that day.
However, Yang said his fiancee experienced acute pain and nosebleeds, and was unable to sleep for three days after the operation.
Hong said she became depressed and anxious, adding that on Sept 13, she went to Urumqi Fourth People's Hospital and was diagnosed with a psychological disorder.
Two days later, she died after falling from a window of her apartment in Urumqi, with her family suspecting that she may have killed herself.
Hong said Edward Hospital had failed to properly diagnose and treat Zhang, and did not provide remedies for the side effects she experienced from the surgery, which ultimately led to her death.
Baidu is also liable, as its search engine provided the information that resulted in Zhang visiting the hospital, Hong added.
An employee at the hospital's administrative office declined to comment on the case.
Zhu Wei, a law researcher at the China University of Political Science and Law, said paid online search services are classified as advertising in China, and service providers such as Baidu should clearly label any paid listings.
According to screen grabs provided by Hong, Edward Hospital was marked with the Chinese character for "advertisement" in the search results.
However, the attorney added, search engines are also required to inspect the certificates of their advertisers and are prohibited from providing false information in search results under Chinese law.
Zhang's case comes nearly a year after Baidu faced similar accusations over its ad policies from the parents of Wei Zexi, a computer science student in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, who died of cancer after undergoing a controversial "immune therapy" in Beijing that he found using the search engine.
Residents walk across a bridge near a residential area in Anxin county in Xiongan New Area on Wednesday. All housing sales in the new area have been banned.Wang Zhuangfei / China Daily
Housing reforms will be launched in Xiongan New Area to attract talent, and affordable public housing programs will be available in the early phases, according to people familiar with the project.
"The local government needs to find ways that work in the long run to prevent housing prices from soaring to unreasonable levels after the short-term ban ends. High housing costs are a major factor that prevent young, talented people from coming," said Wu Hequan, deputy director of the State Council's expert advisory committee on the collaborative development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.
The local government issued an order on April 1 banning all housing sales in the new area.
Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said on Thursday that the area will prohibit large-scale development of real estate, putting emphasis on fending off risks in the property sector.
Although plans for future real estate development have yet to be released, the area will be able to borrow from Singapore's experience in governing public housing. The government there owns the land and rents houses to qualified applicants, Wu said.
The temporary hold on real estate transactions provides a viable environment to try something new that has not been implemented in other places, said Yan Yuejin, a senior researcher at E-House China R&D Institute, a Shanghai-based real estate consultancy.
"But public housing is not the best answer to deal with housing problems after construction," Yan said. "The government may introduce programs allowing tenants to first rent and then purchase, but at low prices."
Initially covering 100 square kilometers, the area is planned to expand eventually to 2,000 sq km, similar in size to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, according to a circular.
Morgan Stanley Research estimates the total population of Xiongan could reach 5.4 million in 15 years after migrants move in, and the population density is expected to reach 2,720 people per sq km, compared with 3,831 in Shanghai's Pudong New Area and 5,698 in the Shenzhen economic zone.
Exercises of higher frequency and complexity aim to improve readiness
The People's Liberation Army Ground Force is making efforts to improve its combat readiness and capability.
Fifteen infantry, artillery and air defense brigades from the PLA Ground Force took part in more than 100 live-fire exercises in 2016. At the height of these exercises, there were more than 400,000 troops simultaneously conducting drills on plateaus, islands, mountains and deserts, according to a news release from the Ground Force.
An artillery brigade of the PLA practices a night raid.Hu Chunfeng / For China Daily
The scale, frequency and complexity of these exercises were much greater than those of previous drills, the news release said.
The exercises incorporated realistic battlefield scenarios, focusing on reconnaissance, intelligence collection and mobile defense capabilities, which were seen as a weakness of the Ground Force, it said.
Ding Wei, commander of a Ground Force armored brigade, said his unit encountered scenarios simulating biological and chemical attacks and guerrilla warfare on their way to a live-fire exercise in July at the Zhurihe training base in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Such scenarios tested and strengthened the brigade's emergency response capability, Ding said.
He said that during the July exercise involving his brigade and an adversary brigade in Zhurihe, the use of helicopters, special task forces, technical reconnaissance and electronic countermeasures was more frequent compared with previous exercises, indicating that the Ground Force is determined to make sure its fighting units are able to control such situations in real wars.
A total of 15 live-fire exercises were conducted last year between the Ground Force's combat brigades and the adversary brigade, which is stationed in Zhurihe and is tasked with simulating enemy operations. The adversary brigade won all of the exercises.
Sun Yuduo, director of the training bureau under the PLA Ground Force's Staff Department, said the failures of the combat brigades are "a good thing" because they reminded the units of their shortcomings and would enable them to improve their capabilities.
In summer 2016, the Ground Force held discussions and conducted a tour at the Zhurihe training base, during which top commanders and more than 230 senior officers of the Ground Force discussed how to improve realistic combat training.
The Ground Force also sent 17 teams to take part in international military competitions last year and used the events to discover areas in which the Ground Force still lags behind compared with other armies.
The PLA Ground Force Headquarters and its regional commands have introduced a number of policies and guidelines to improve combat-readiness training and exercises, according to the news release.
The headquarters was established in December 2015. Historically, the Ground Force did not have its own headquarters because its units were under the direct control of the Central Military Commission, while the seven former regional commands oversaw the operations of land units under their jurisdictions.
During an inspection tour of the PLA Ground Force Headquarters in July, President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the CMC, asked the Ground Force to improve its mobility and joint operation capability.
Xi asked the force to simulate realistic combat situations in its training and drills, and to enhance the precision and efficiency in reconnaissance, command and control, logistics support and strike operations.
The Ground Force must improve its air-land operations, emergency response, long-distance deployment, special warfare and "strategic assaults", Xi said.
Three people are in police custody in Beijing for stealing a pair of 400-year-old candleholders from the Ming imperial tombs, local authorities said on Saturday. The suspects - two people from Beijing and one from Central China's Henan province - have been implicated in organized relic theft, Beijing police said.
The mausoleums were built for the emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The missing white marble candleholders, which are about 90 centimeters tall and weigh 200 kilograms each, belong in front of the mausoleum of the last Ming emperor, Chongzhen, who reigned from 1628 to 1644.
According to a police officer who declined to be named, the candleholders went missing in May, but officials tried to cover up their absence by saying they had been sent for repairs.
The candleholders were a hot topic online last month when a visitor shared contrasting photographs of the tombs. In the more recent images, two vases and an incense burner could be seen, but the candleholders, which were visible in older photographs, were gone, with only their bases remaining.
A media official with the Changping government said that the Ming Tombs Special Area Agency admitted on March 20 that the candleholders had gone missing.
Four officials were removed from their positions for "incompetence" on Thursday. An investigation into the theft is ongoing.
About 40 kilometers north of downtown Beijing, the Ming Tombs were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003.
In the springtime, a young (or old) man's heart turns to ... bikes. Wandering around Beijing on my bike restores me mentally and spiritually. My wife says it's my religion.
Visitors to Beijing often see it as a city of traffic. It certainly has too many cars for my liking, but it has large green spaces. And, it's getting greener.
To my surprise, I've found Beijing to be a great biking city. About 19 percent of the population of Beijing commutes by bike. Despite 15 years of biking infrastructure investment, my hometown of Washington has still only reached about 2 percent. Most Beijing streets already have protected side roads for slow-moving vehicles and the presence of many riders provides safety in numbers.
A few changes could help Beijing become even better. Give tickets and fines to cars parked in the clearly-marked bike lanes. The resulting local government revenue could be used for health, education and other social needs. And control left and right turning cars so pedestrians and cyclists can safely cross the streets.
Besides bikes, there are many other ways to get about the city. The government has invested in building one of the world's best subway systems, and I love the tuk-tuks, the small three-wheeled vehicles that would fulfill the needs and appeal to more residents if cars were not a threat.
A dream, for the whole world, would be to finish a 60-kilometer bike-and-walking path along the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. And, the mountains north of the city, where the Great Wall runs, are stunningly beautiful and could be made into a world-class area for bicyclists by adding a few road shoulders and bike paths.
The Chinese capital also has many great parks. The Olympic Forest Park rivals New York's Central Park, and there is a 13-km walkway and canal near the China Daily offices running across the north side of the city beside the ruins of the old Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) walls. You can discover just by looking for green on a map many such lesser known parks where tourists never go, but which the locals cherish. Many of them are open to bikes.
People need these parks. It's a joy to see grandparents walking with toddlers, young couples strolling hand-in-hand, parents teaching kids to ride bikes, families barbecuing, old men flying kites and old women dancing. The smiles are much bigger than you ever see on the street.
Like all cities, Beijing planners in the past made the mistake of becoming too car-centric. The 1950s destruction of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) city walls was a historic loss. Imagine a beautiful wall and park where the Second Ring Road now roars. That won't happen soon, if ever, but the city is moving ahead quickly to provide more great green spaces.
I recently stumbled across a truly magnificent new park - the Beijing Greenway. It's a car-free path running along the Wenyu river from Tongzhou in the east of the city, past the airport, into the north section of the city for, as of now, 54 km.
That's just the start. In March, the city announced that, by the end of next year, it will finish building four new greenways, running more than 500 km, mostly alongside rivers. In US cities, this would be considered a fantastic accomplishment - front page news. It has hardly been publicized here, but it should be celebrated as a great asset for the city's people.
This weekend, I'm going to enjoy the greenway.
When I was learning to drive in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, my instructor once broke the silence with a short but astonishing remark, one I am unlikely to forget: "Chinese workers in construction sites in Africa are prisoners."
I was stunned. It was impossible. I talked with him about the topic for a long time, but he seemed confident that it was a valid fact, even though he failed to provide a single example.
I didn't expect that someone would raise a question related to my instructor's "valid fact" at an occasion as formal as an international forum. However, I was in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, covering a forum about investing in Africa, when a man asked during a Q&A session, "Why can't Chinese companies employ local laborers instead of bringing prisoners to Africa?"
Before the speakers could reply, a European woman stood up and said something similar to what I had told my driving instructor: "If you have an example, I would be all ears." She also updated my knowledge of the rumor, saying it had been around since the 1970s.
It wasn't the only rumor about China I heard during my 20 months as a correspondent in Africa. Others included: plastic watches from China are made by child laborers; all Chinese people eat dogs and even snakes; and Chinese men in Africa are injected with a special serum to prevent them experiencing sexual desire during their stay.
In spite of the rumors, I felt the general public in Africa, at least in Kenya where I was based, was keen to learn more about China.
When I was waiting to join a vigil for the victims of a terrorist attack in Garissa county, a young man came up and shook my hand. We began a conversation and were quickly joined by five other locals. They surrounded me and asked questions about China. They all listened carefully, and we only said goodbye when it was time to attend the vigil.
Once, a boy came up to me in a rural area and touched my skin to see how different I was to him.
Compared with Westerners, Chinese people are still new to Africa. Though many of our grandparents' generation were in the continent more than 50 years ago, the language barrier meant they failed to communicate enough with local people.
Now, China's younger generation is arriving in Africa speaking fluent English or other appropriate languages, so it's time to kill the rumors and deepen the friendship between Africans and Chinese.
Zheng Haiting and three of his students practice his Kuixu ceremonial archery at Daming Lake in Jinan, Shandong province.Zhu Feng / For China Daily
Modern version of ancient sport emphasizes cultivation of positive attributes
If you had been at Daming Lake, a major scenic spot in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province, on April 2, then you may have come across an unusual sight - several people dressed in Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) costumes firing bows and arrows by the lakeside.
The group were practicing Kuixu ceremonial archery, a modern interpretation of the ancient sport developed by 54-year-old Zheng Haiting.
"Our archery recalls traditional ceremonies, which is why we are dressed in traditional costume. It is imbued with traditional culture," he said.
"The aim of ceremonial archery is to help participants cultivate virtues such as mutual respect, the spirit of teamwork and the ability to keep quiet when you have a break during competition."
As one of the traditional Six Arts that have their roots in Confucian philosophy and formed the basis of education in ancient Chinese culture, archery has a long history in China. It went into a period of decline during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), but is now undergoing a revival.
At the end of the 30-meter-long archery range at Daming Lake is a Confucian couplet emblazoned on the target wall: "The archer who misses his mark does not blame the target. He stops, corrects himself and shoots again."
For Zheng, this embodies the positive attributes that archery can instill in its practitioners and he places greater emphasis on these, rather than an individual archer's results.
The form of archery he has developed even has the archers salute one another and their targets before beginning.
This focus on the sport's ability to nurture positive qualities in those who practice it stems back to 2006, when Zheng noticed big changes in his son after he took up Japanese archery.
"He was no longer self-centered, but actively cared for other people," Zheng recalled.
"He once helped a classmate who had a hurt leg get to school every day for a week, and he is more self-disciplined, such as with his new habit of getting up at 6 am every day."
Zheng was so impressed by the changes he had observed in his son that he decided to learn Japanese archery himself. "I found it was really good for cultivating positive qualities," he said.
"But textbooks I read noted that Japanese archery originated from rites developed in the Zhou Dynasties (c.11th century-256 BC), so I thought 'why not revive traditional Chinese archery as well?'"
With that, Zheng closed his business and began learning all he could about China's archery tradition.
He summarized the procedures required and invited a professional costume designer to create the Han Dynasty-style costumes.
His efforts paid off - thousands have since come to learn from him and a junior middle school in Jinan has even included ceremonial archery in its curriculum.
Zhu Feng, whose son has been learning ceremonial archery for two years, said he had noticed a number of positive changes in the 11-year-old boy.
"The greatest change in him has been a renewed ability to concentrate. He is now more patient and listens to us," Zhu said.
Zheng's only real concern for the future of ceremonial archery is that there are not currently any nationwide standards, due to competing schools of thought on the sport.
"Although nationwide standards have not yet been formed, all of us who promote ceremonial archery agree that it should emphasize the sport's ceremonial and virtuous aspects, rather than developing it into a competitive event," Zheng said.
In China, Spring Festival is usually a time for reunions with relatives and friends. But during the holiday this year, National People's Congress Deputy Song Xinfang locked himself in his room and refused any invitations to dinner.
"I never have time to enjoy festivals or weekends - especially Spring Festival, because the two sessions come straight after it," the 64-year-old said.
"Before the festival this year, I collected materials, conducted research and did surveys. During it, I had to make full use of my time writing suggestions and coming up with motions."
Song, who is the director of a honey research institute in Dongying, Shandong province, said he likes being social, but avoids dinners at this busy time of year because they tend to last for a long time and involve drinking alcohol, which is not conducive to getting any work done.
He became a deputy in 2008 and discovered that he was the only one, at that time, from the nation's honey industry, so he made his contact details public via an industry magazine.
"I wanted people in the industry to be able to voice their opinions or make appeals at any time," he said.
Song soon found, however, that many people who were not in the industry were also turning to him for help. Since he first became a deputy, he has received enough letters to fill two large woven sacks.
"Nowadays, people write fewer letters, but I receive a lot of phone calls and emails - at least three a day and sometimes more than 20," he said.
Calls can come at any time, forcing Song to use two mobile phones. On important occasions, he turns off the one with the number he made public. Sometimes, people even come to his home to ask for help.
A woman from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, who has a dissociative disorder, has called on him many times. Her condition makes her not always in control of her actions and she has to be accompanied by her mother everywhere she goes.
"When she regains control, she is always very sad. She told me she wants to kill herself, but worries that it would hurt her parents," Song said. "She called and emailed me and even came to visit me, asking me to appeal to make euthanasia legal."
Legalization of euthanasia was one of more than 540 suggestions and motions Song brought to this year's NPC session. In his other role as chairman of the China National Democratic Construction Association's Dongying city committee, Song leaves home every day at about 7 am and does not usually return until 8 pm, after work. He is rarely in bed until after 11 pm, as he often has to stay awake and reply to emails.
"Some people turn to me for help. Some tell me their problems. I have to explain things to them. If it's late then I prefer not to talk over the phone, so I reply to them by email instead," he said.
Any free time that he has, he spends writing books about honey - having authored 22 of them so far. Despite only having three-and-a-half years of formal education, Song has managed to obtain four degrees in subjects such as law, honey and management through self-study alone.
"I think the public doesn't have that many channels to make their voices heard. So, as long as they come to me, I receive and listen to them. I analyze their problems and try to find solutions for them," he said.
"The government attaches great importance to our suggestions. The key is that your suggestions are to the point."
Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web
Premier Li vows clean governance, crackdown on financial corruption
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-10 09:12
BEIJING - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has vowed more efforts in promoting clean governance, stressing reinforced supervision over the use of state assets and harsh crackdown on financial corruption.
Li said China has achieved new and important progress in clean governance and corruption fight in 2016, but there are still problems requiring stronger measures, according to a full text of Li's speech on clean governance delivered on March 21, which was released on Sunday.
State assets are properties owned by all the people and matter the national economy, Li said, urging authorities to take "powerful" measures to avoid loss of state assets and prevent corruption in the financial sector.
Currently the financial sector is vulnerable to risks such as bad assets, shadow banking and illegal Internet financing, and illicit acts of staff have been frequently reported, according to Li.
Authorities must promote reforms to improve the financial supervision system and "keep high pressure on" internal supervision, Li said.
They must crack down on bank violations in credit giving, insider trading in security market and fraud of insurance companies, and relentlessly punish internal supervisors and company managers who collude with big players in the market and steal and sell secret information, Li said.
On Sunday, China's top anti-graft authority announced that Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, is being investigated for suspected serious violation of code of conduct of the Communist Party of China.
"The violating supervisors must be punished to serve as a warning to others and safeguard the normal order in the financial sector," Li said in his speech.
Li also called for further efforts in delegating power, streamlining administration and using the Internet to improve government services.
He asked governments at all levels to promote thrift and continue to cut taxes and fees, calling for better supervision and management of major outbound investment projects.
He stressed the importance of compliance with regulations in public bidding and government purchases, and vowed tough punishment of graft in poverty alleviation, social security, affordable housing and medical insurance.
In 2016, the Party's discipline authorities across the country punished 415,000 people for violating code of conduct or other regulations, and took back more than 1,000 outlaws that fled abroad, according to Li.
South China braces for heavy rain
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-10 09:23
BEIJING - China's national observatory issued a blue alert on Sunday as several southern provinces will be hit by heavy rain Sunday through Monday.
Heavy rain or storms may hit parts of Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, while some areas in Fujian may be hit by hailstones, according to the National Meteorological Center.
The center said temperatures in a number of southern provinces would fall over the next three days, with parts of Guizhou Province likely to experience declines of up to 10 degrees Celsius.
The center warned local authorities and residents in mountainous areas to take precautions against flooding and geological disasters.
China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Beijing to reward informants on spying
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-10 12:56
BEIJING - Beijing citizens who provide useful information on spying are eligible for a cash reward of up to 500,000 yuan ($72,460), according to a policy that went into effect Monday.
Informants can pass information to authorities through calling a hotline, sending letters or visiting the city's state security bureau.
After collating the information, the bureau can offer rewards ranging from 10,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan based on the reports' usefulness.
Personal information of informants will not be disclosed without their consent, and informants can also seek protection from security authorities if they or their close relatives are in danger due to informing.
However, informants will be punished if they deliberately slander others, or invent and spread false information.
Over 500 crocodile products seized in South China
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-10 13:53
NANNING - Border police in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said Monday they had seized 537 products made from Siamese crocodiles, a protected species.
The products, including 370 pieces of crocodile skin, 90 tails and 77 specimens, were detected on a logistics vehicle attempting to cross the China-Vietnam border in early March.
The police thoroughly examined the vehicle after noticing that its goods were unusually placed. The driver also failed to provide official document for transporting the products.
The skins were around 43 centimeters wide and at least 1.2 meters long apiece. The longest specimen was nearly two meters long.
Siamese crocodiles are a critically endangered species native to Southeast Asia. Their skin is used as a raw material for luxury leather products on the international market. In China, it is illegal to raise them without a license or to trade and traffic them.
Medical staff and organ donation coordinators pay tribute to the 21-year-old organ donor surnamed Zhou in an operation room at Shanghai General Hospital on April 3, 2017. [Photo provided by Shanghai General Hospital]
A 21-year-old migrant worker donated his organs after being pronounced brain dead and was able to save three patients, thepaper.cn reported.
The man, surnamed Zhou, was critically injured at a construction work site in Shanghai and sent to hospital on March 31. After the operation, he was still in a severe coma the following day and was pronounced brain dead. In the early hours of April 2, Zhou's parents who live in Fujian province arrived at the hospital with several other relatives.
Preliminarily believing Zhou met organ donation conditions, organ donation coordinators informed Zhou's family members about the possibility of donation, which requires the approval of Zhou's parents.
"At first, most of Zhou's family members objected to donating Zhou's organs, as they could barely accept the sudden tragedy," said Mao Xiaoqiu, organ donation coordinator with Organ Procurement Organization of Shanghai General Hospital.
Zhou is an only child and his parents are both handicapped. He was the bread winner in his family. Stricken by such a blow, Zhou's father fainted at the scene.
Wang Pinglian, Mao's colleague, said the organ donation coordinator does not persuade family members of potential donors. "Doctors are trying their best to save patients' lives. Only when patients' lives are unable to be saved will we tell family members that they have a choice," she said.
"Some functional organs in an irredeemable body can save other people's lives. It is a very great and meaningful thing," said Wang.
Seeing how severe Zhou's condition was, no one wanted him to suffer anymore, an elder female cousin of Zhou said, who knows about the concept of organ donation and explained it to the family members.
"Zhou's father eventually realized that it is better to let part of Zhou's body live in this world than let Zhou die meaninglessly. It is a spiritual sustenance and continuation of life," she said.
After hours of negotiation, Zhou's parents signed the donation agreement, donating a liver and two kidneys of Zhou on April 3.
The information was then uploaded to the China Organ Transplant Response System for automatic matching. When there was a confirmed match, the organs were transported to their destinations. In the early hours of April 4, three patients reclaimed new lives after organ transplant operations.
Zhou's donation was the 324th donor case in Shanghai's history and the 49th this year. Shanghai became the first batch of pilot cities to carry out organ donation in March 2010 and saw its first case in August 2013.
In recent years, the number of organ donation cases has increased rapidly.
The data from the Red Cross Society of China Shanghai branch shows that by the end of 2016, the number of organ donation registrants reached 6,349 and the number of donation cases has totaled 275, increasing by 75 percent since last year.
The registration process of organ donation was also streamlined at the end of last year. It only takes 10 seconds for people to register for organ donation via Alipay, a payment app operated by Ant Financial Services.
Three Chinese panda cubs born in Japan will head for their home in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan province, on June 5.
Liang Bang, whose mother came from the base, was born in 2000 at the Adventure World amusement park in Shirahama, Wakayama prefecture in Japan.
Liang Bang gave birth to twin babies Hai Bang and Yang Bang on Aug 11, 2010. Hai Bang is male and Yang Bang is female.
"In the same month two years later, Liang Bang gave birth to a female panda, You Bang," said base information officer Chen Cheng.
Back in 1994, with the approval of China's central government, her base started cooperating in scientific research into pandas and their breeding with the Adventure World amusement park.
Fifteen panda cubs have been born in the Adventure World amusement park; eight have previously been sent to the Chengdu base, Chen said.
Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway, delivered a speech and answered questions from students and teachers at Peking University on Monday.
In her speech, Solberg said China is an important partner for Norway in higher education and in research cooperation. The two countries have many mutual interests, such as in the environment, agriculture, energy and social sciences, she said.
Norway and China together also have made contributions to scientific development, not only for the two countries, but globally, she added.
Lin Jianhua, president of Peking University, said in his welcome remarks that Norway and China have enjoyed a time-honored history for mutual exchange, in which cultural and education cooperation plays a vital role, since the early years of the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
According to Lin, the two countries signed a cultural and educational exchange agreement in 1963, the first of its kind between China and a Western country. In the 1980s, governmental exchanges and cooperation in science and technology covered a wider range of fields, including agricultural science, marine research, medical treatment and health, climate and environment, energy and environmental protection.
"In the 21st century, we have witnessed scientific cooperation elevated to a new stage," Lin said.
He added that Peking University has also maintained good relations with universities and related organizations of Norway, since a memorandum of understanding encouraging scholar and student exchanges was signed between the university and Oslo University more than two decades ago.
The number of students from Norway at Peking University is still small.
"We are expecting to have more scholars and students from Norway and more PKU students to study in Norway through cooperation and exchange in higher education between the two countries," Lin said.
Chinese technicians have, for the first time, controlled a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to reach about 3,000 meters beneath the sea's surface in the South China Sea and successfully carried out a series of tests recently.
During the five-day mission, technicians from Yantai Salvage carried out tests on the ROV's sensors, auxiliary equipment, mechanical hydraulic system, data transmission and automatic control system.
The ROV dove 1,180 meters deep on April 6, 2,951 meters on April 7 and 2,735 meters on April 8.
During the April 8 dive, technicians released the ROV from the umbilical cable and directed it 600 meters underwater, putting a sign of "Yantai Salvage of the Ministry of Transport" into the seabed.
The success of tests showed that China has gained the ability to carry out rescue work and marine engineering missions within 3,000 meters beneath the sea's surface.
The Memorial Hall of Iris Chang, the author of The Rape of Nanking, opened to the public on April 7 in Huai'an, Jiangsu province. This is the world's second memorial hall themed on the Nanjing Massacre and the first one to honor Iris Chang.
The daughter of two university professors who emigrated from Taiwan, Iris Chang was born in the United States in 1968. Her second book, The Rape of Nanking, was published in 1997, the 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. The book sold more than half a million copies when it was first published in the US and was on the New York Times' best-seller list for 10 weeks. Based on the book, an American documentary film, Nanking, was released in 2007. Disturbed by the subject matter of her research, Chang suffered a nervous breakdown and committed suicide on Nov 9, 2004.
Zhang Jianjun, the curator of The Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, said Chang's greatest contribution is that she let the world know the truth of the Nanjing Massacre. In 2005, the Memorial Hall added a bronze statue dedicated to Chang.
Ying-Ying Chang, Iris Chang's mother, said although Iris was born in the United States, she was proud to be Chinese and was always fascinated with Chinese history. Huai'an is where Iris Chang's great-grandfather and grandfather lived, so the opening of the memorial hall in Huaian has great meaning.
Zhu Jingwen contributed to this story.
President Xi Jinping meets visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in Beijing Monday . [Photo/Xinhua]
BEIJING - President Xi Jinping met visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in Beijing Monday, voicing hope that the two countries could cement political mutual trust.
"I appreciate the positive efforts made by the prime minister and Norwegian government in the normalization of bilateral ties," said Xi.
Noting that Norway was one of the first western countries to recognize the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the first European country to acknowledge China's market economy status, Xi said that friendship and cooperation had featured throughout the 63-years diplomatic relationship.
"We believe the relationship and practical cooperation will embrace broad prospects, as long as China and Norway follow the principle of mutual respect and equal treatment, while respecting and accommodating each other's core interests and concerns," said Xi.
Xi stressed that China and Norway should properly manage the direction of the relations' development from a long-term and strategic perspective, calling on the two sides to enhance political mutual trust, high-level contact, people-to-people exchanges and coordinate on major global and regional issues.
An aerial photo shows the exterior scene of Angdong Hospital at Angdong village of Baojing county, Hunan province, March 31, 2017. This new rural hospital building, which opened in 2014, was well-known for its unique design. It was recognised with the International Emerging Architect prize by Britain's highest honor for architecture, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in 2016.[Photo/Xinhua]
The 24th Beijing College Student Film Festival (BCSFF) kicked off at Beijing Theater on Saturday. [Photo by Zhang Xingjian/chinadaily.com.cn]
The 24th Beijing College Student Film Festival (BCSFF) kicked off at Beijing Theater on Saturday. A total of 34 films including Duckweed, Soulmate and Chongqing Hotpot will compete for jury awards.
Embracing the idea of "Youth and Passion, Academic Taste and Cultural Awareness", the film festival has become an important portal to promote domestic films in previous years.
"In the fields of movie, art and education, it has earned much influence and reputation. Beijing Normal University as the organizer will continue to pay tribute to the achievements of the past and move on confidently," said Li Xiaobing, deputy party secretary of Beijing Normal University.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Therefore, a special unit was created for the opening ceremony of the festival. With the theme "In Tribute to Military Soul", the organizing committee invited over 70 experts and insiders in film and military fields to choose 11 qualified films to reflect on the tremendous changes of the era and record the grand image of Chinese military men in past decades.
The winning films, well-known to most Chinese people, includes Fighting North and South, The Story of Liubao Village, Red Detachment of Women, Visitors On The Icy Mountain, Little Soldier Zhang Ga, Flower, Anxious to Return, One and Eight, Wreaths at Foot of Mountain, Bloody Battle and Assembly.
"It is not an easy task to shoot a film in that period with shortage of funding and technology. However, we did it because we believed in the power of film," 84-year-old actress Tao Yuling said, who starred as Liubao in the film The Story of Liubao Village in 1957.
"Film, to some degree, is the carrier of certain times. We can reflect on the past and gain inspiration from them in the future," Chinese scholar Yu Dan added.
Meanwhile, a variety of student-oriented events, such as the 18th College Student Film Competition, 8th Filmko Award Colleges Student Script Competition, 3rd Beijing College Student Photography Competition, will he held throughout the one-month film festival.
The theme-film exhibition including the "Belt and Road" unit will also open to the public in upcoming days.
The film festival is organized by Beijing Normal University and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio, Film and Television. It is one of the most prestigious film festivals in China, and aims to find more budding film talents.
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The 2017 Asia Trading Summit kicks off at the Shanghai Exhibition Center on March 29, with participation of thousands of trade dealers, financial experts, and investors. [Photo/sohu.com]
The 2017 Asia Trading Summit took place at the Shanghai Exhibition Center from March 29 to 31.
The event was a joint effort of FX168 Finance Group, Finance Magnates, a world-leading financial news portal, and Conversion Pros, a top exhibition company, and was considered a platform to give investors opportunities to tap into the Chinese market and to gain insight into the global market.
Financial technology has developed fast, resulting in closer connections between global financial markets. Investors are consequently paying more attention to foreign exchange opportunities.
More than 50 trade dealers and 3,000 financial experts and investors from China and abroad attended the three-day event to exchange ideas.
Prestigious experts such as Xu Xiyang, chief analyst in the Asia-Pacific region for Australia-based foreign exchange trading platform Vantage FX, were invited to give more than 20 keynote speeches during the summit.
Speech topics included financial supervision, digital currency, internationalization of Chinese trade dealers, localization of international dealers, gold investment, and financial technology.
Jiang Tai, chairman and CEO of FX168 Finance Group, said that the event was launched against the background of the growing internationalization of Chinese currency, the beginning of a US interest-rate hike cycle, and strengthened financial supervision worldwide.
Jiang also said that China's retail foreign exchange trading has reached a new stage after developing for more than a decade, but is still facing new problems. Jiang hoped that the event will bring together global experts to work out effective solutions.
A lawyer (right) offers legal advice to a citizen in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua]
ON FRIDAY, THE LUZHOU MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE to announce the conclusions of an investigation into the death of Zhao Xin, a 14-year-old middle school student who was found dead at the foot of his dormitory building on April 1. According to the autopsy results and relevant investigations, it was concluded that Zhao died after falling from the fifth floor and that rumors he was beaten to death by the sons of five officials were groundless. That rumor had triggered a lot of public rage. Beijing Youth Daily comments:
That incident proves once again that transparency is the best way of defeating rumors. When an incident arouses public doubts, what the local government needs to do is to publish all the details and tell the truth to the public. As soon as the local government responds to people's doubts sincerely, rumors will diminish.
It would have been much better if the local government of Luzhou, Southwest China's Sichuan province, had responded to rumors about Zhao's death immediately. However, the local government failed to respond to the family's requests for information in a timely manner and it sought to prevent the media from investigating what had happened.
What the Luzhou county officials did was foolish. We live in an age of information and whatever happens may be spread nationwide via the internet within hours. Local government officials must realize this and answer people's questions faithfully, instead of trying to stick their heads in the sand when an incident takes place.
That's also the basis for improving the rule of law. The central leadership has more than once required local officials to actively respond to public concerns in time and coordinate to solve problems. It is time the officials learned the art of interacting with the public.
A gavel in a court. [Photo/IC]
ON FRIDAY, GUANGDONG PROVINCIAL HIGH PEOPLE'S COURT acquitted Guo Li, who had been convicted and imprisoned for the crime of blackmail in January 2010 after he asked for 3 million yuan ($434,973) in compensation from a dairy company whose milk was found to have been contaminated with melamine, which he said was responsible for his 2-year-old daughter's kidney problems. Beijing News comments:
Why did the local court find Guo guilty in 2010? Its verdict, which was posted online, listed three reasons: First, he intended to illegally occupy others' property. Second, he threatened to tell the media the whole thing. Third, he asked for a huge amount of money.
Some reports also said he was found guilty because he had already received 400,000 yuan in compensation from the dairy company and agreed to let the matter rest there. But afterwards he regretted settling for so little and demanded more.
Such a verdict does not stand the test of time. As his daughter was a victim of the company's unsafe product, Guo had the right to ask for reasonable compensation. According to the Food Safety Law, a consumer can claim compensation if a company's food products prove to be unsafe. His daughter suffered from kidney problems after drinking the latter's melamine-contaminated milk and her treatment was expensive. He had the right to ask for compensation to cover her treatment and recuperation.
More important, as a citizen he had the right to tell the media about what had happened to his daughter. Several domestic dairy companies were found to have included melamine in their products in 2008, and both the government and the media had reported that. So how could Guo be considered to be making a "threat" when he said he would tell the media?
The judiciary is bold enough to redress its own errors by acquitting Guo on Friday. Although its acquittal came too late, as Guo had already served his sentence of five years in prison, it is still big progress.
Some people have suggested the local court might have hoped to protect the company by finding Guo guilty, but who knows what was behind the case then. Judges and procurators nationwide should be reminded that they should only judge a case according to the law.
Beijing Mayor Cai Qi has arranged for the implementation of a three-year action plan to improve the environment in the capital's side streets and alleys, which have long been plagued by illegal constructions, car parking and street vendors.
Cai said over the next three years the side streets and alleys, as well as local communities, will be cleaned up, and he called for the establishment of a street chief system to carry out the three-year plan. The street system will be headed by street chiefs who will be responsible for the management of certain streets and alleys, and there will be inspections, evaluations and supervision mechanisms to ensure the cleanup work is being done.
On Wednesday, the first batch of street chiefs for 94 streets in Xicheng district took up their duties. According to officials of Xicheng, there will be street chiefs for all the 1,400 streets in Xicheng in the future, who will be directly responsible for the management of their streets' environment. The district chief will also be the overall street chief of the district.
Last December the central government advanced establishing a four-level river chief system to take charge of water environment protection, which is expected to make great achievements in China's water resource protection. And the street chief system can learn from the experiences of the river chief system.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gestures during a press conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 21, 2016. [Agencies]
In response to a question from a lawmaker about the use of the Imperial Rescript on Education, Japan's Cabinet said on March 31 that use of the rescript as material for learning is not denied as long as it is in a manner that does not violate the Constitution, the Basic Law of Education and other legal provisions.
The rescript, which was issued in 1890 and nullified in 1948, has hit the headlines in Japan after televised footage of children aged 3 to 5 being taught to recite the rescript in a kindergarten in Osaka shocked the country.
"Be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters," the uniformed children chant, bowing to photos of the emperor and empress. "Should emergencies arise, offer yourselves courageously to the state."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Defense Minister Tomomi Inada have praised the spirit of the rescript saying it can help to foster the right moral principles.
But the Abe administration's approval of the legally invalid rescript has invited criticism from scholars and lawmakers from opposition parties in Japan.
Even the conservative newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun has said "the utmost restraint must be exercised when it comes to classroom instruction that uses the rescript as a model for subjects, including ethics", adding that the rescript was inseparably linked to the Meiji Constitution propagated in 1889.
In the Meiji Constitution, the Emperor was positioned at the center of the the state as the "Godhead", the people of Japan were "subjects". The education ministry of the Meiji era drafted the Imperial Rescript on Education, seeking to install in students patriotic pride and loyalty to the emperor and the state.
Along with the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors issued by Emperor Meiji in 1882 as the official code of ethics for military personnel, the rescript on education thus functioned as an incubator for militarism.
In 1947 Japan wrote a new pacifist Constitution and promulgated the Fundamental Law on Education, which Japan Times has hailed as "constitution of education" based on the postwar determination of the country not to repeat the mistake of recreating the ultranationalist, state-centered education system that led to Japan's militarism.
Yet Abe has long called for an overhaul of Japan's education system to revive patriotism among the Japanese.
"After the war, the Japanese have single-mindedly blamed nationalism as the cause of the war and the reason for our defeat. As a result, the notion that the state is evil has become lodged in the corners of the minds of the post-war population," Abe wrote in his book Towards a Beautiful Country published in 2006 and revised in 2013.
During Abe's first stint as prime minister in 2006-07, the Fundamental Law of Education was revised, leaving leeway for the government's strengthening control of and intervening in education. Japan's parliament amended four education-related bills, making instilling a sense of patriotism and discipline in students as goals of Japan's compulsory education.
Since taking office in December 2012 for the second time, Abe has been aiming to add a required course on ethics to increase students' sense of patriotism.
Japan's education ministry amended the teaching guidelines in 2014, reflecting the government's stance on Japan's history, including its territorial claims. So China's Diaoyu Islands have been described for the first time in classrooms as Japanese territory since April 2016.
The Abe administration's education reforms that push for patriotic content have provoked concerns about the government's strengthening control of and intervening in education. Critics worry that students may be inculcated with patriotism that would eventually revive the kind of militant nationalism that dominated Japan in the prewar era.
The author is China Daily Tokyo bureau chief. caihong@chinadaily.com.cn
Aerial photo taken on March 31, 2017 shows Baiyangdian, North China's largest freshwater wetland, in Anxin county, North China's Hebei province. [Photo/Xinhua]
Apt test case for new normal
Apart from accommodating non-capital functions of Beijing, Xiongan New Area can also explore a sustainable development path that strikes a balance between maintaining economic growth and curbing property prices, as well as protecting the environment which, in other words, is the new normal of moderate but sustainable and eco-friendly economic growth.
Besides, it is not proper to compare Xiongan New Area with Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, established in the 1980s, or the Shanghai Pudong New Area, set up in the 1990s, in terms of just potential economic output. Xiongan New Area has a wider range of goals which include studies to find ways to cure the urban ills, transform the economic structure and implement a new pattern of urbanization. Since the yet-to-materialize new area will eventually cover 2,000 square kilometers from 100 sq m in the initial period it will be large enough to explore ways of solving the problems faced by cities and optimizing development in densely populated areas.
Strengthening public resources and building infrastructure facilities that support the development and growth of cities will be given priority to improve communication between the new area and the cities around it. Jingjinji Intercity Railway Investment Corporation, co-financed by the governments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province and China Railway Corporation, has already been officially launched. So its possible that work on the intercity railways would start soon.
And once hospitals, branches of universities and scientific research institutions are established in, and State-owned enterprises move into the area, they will attract a resourceful and efficient talent pool, as well as more workers to Xiongan.
Nie Huihua, vice-president of the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump (L) hold the second round of talks in the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the United States, April 7, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]
As expected, President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump worked to forge personal trust and a working partnership during their just-concluded talks in Florida.
Amid increasing US apprehension at China's rapid rise, it is of particular importance for the top leaders of the two countries to engage in such face-to-face meetings. Only by laying a solid foundation of trust can the two countries effectively work together for the common good. Largely this seems to have been achieved at the Mar-a-Lago estate.
In June 2013, less than three months after becoming China's head of state, Xi visited the United States to meet then US president Barack Obama. Trump has been in office even less than that, and the two leaders have had their first meeting. This shows how much importance the two countries attach to their relationship.
This time, the informal meeting between Xi and Trump highlighted diplomatic and security dialogues, and dialogues on the economy, law enforcement and cybersecurity, as well as those on people-to-people exchanges as the shapers of their future relations.
The talks have actually expanded and lifted the dialogue mechanism between the two sides in three ways from the Obama-era.
First, the Sino-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue has been formally developed into two parallel parts, namely diplomatic and security discussions and comprehensive economic discussions, indicating both parts of the strategic and economic dialogue are to receive more attention.
Second, the former High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime, a 2015 derivative of the S&ED, has been lifted to the same status as strategic security.
Third, the High-Level Consultation Mechanism on People-to-People Exchange has officially been listed as a parallel dialogue, while emphasizing its social nature.
It is understood that the two sides have fully tapped the time Xi has spent in Florida to exchange views on a variety of important issues, ranging from trade to investment; and from bilateral issues to regional and global security matters.
However, it will take time to strengthen China-US cooperation on each and every important issue. It goes without saying that China and the US remain divided on a number of crucial issues, and some new differences could emerge, such as how to deal with the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
All these differences inject great relevance into the new dialogue mechanisms between the two countries. Since Trump has accepted Xi's invitation to visit China and shown his interest in doing so as soon as possible, this gives impetus for the two sides to launch the dialogues and expedite their process so they can bear fruit at the earliest opportunity.
As Xi said, there are a thousand reasons for an ever better relationship, and reframing the top-level dialogues between the two countries shows the willingness and dedication of the two sides to further develop their relations.
Both countries have attained the necessary framework to advance bilateral ties. This is significant progress and it will help both sides stabilize and promote the bond between Beijing and Washington.
The author is professor and associate dean at the Institute of International Studies, Fudan University.
News / Africa
by Kevin Kriedemann & Joy Sapieka
Festival reviews:
On 26 April 2017, Julius vs the ANC will broadcast South Africa's political turmoil to more than 310 million households in over 100 countries.Starting with the police killing of 34 striking mineworkers at Marikana in 2012, Rehad Desai's authored documentary condenses five years of volatile South African politics into 48 disturbing minutes. From the Nkandla-related booing of President Zuma at Nelson Mandela's funeral, to the violent brawl in parliament at his State of the Nation address, to the Constitutional Court's finding that he "failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution," to the #feesmustfall student protests, Julius vs the ANC provides the context for South Africa's shifting voting patterns, which saw the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lose four of the five biggest cities during last year's municipal elections.The documentary also chronicles the controversial rise of Julius Malema, a star in the ANC until 2012 when he was expelled after a bitter fallout with President Zuma. In 2013, he founded his own political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), now the third largest in South Africa."For me, witnessing this shift in the political landscape after 22 years of democracy, and especially since the Marikana killings, was momentous," says Desai, who won an International Emmy for his last documentary with Al Jazeera, Miners Shot Down. "The ANC, that had led the liberation struggle, was being challenged for not delivering on what it had promised Julius Malema's EFF, though small, is growing precisely because it is attracting those who feel let down by the ANC and are impatient for change. The issues covered in the film remain very much at the foreground of South Africa's troubled political landscape."Professor Achille Mbembe, a political historian, puts this shift in historical perspective in the documentary. "Political organizations that have led the decolonization process usually reach a cul-de-sac 20-25 years after they have come to power. This is the moment when new generations that have nothing to do with the struggle begin to emerge on the social scene as social protagonists on their own terms. This is also the moment when old crises that have not been resolved are festering and to them are added new crises, and both the new and old crises are set on a collision course."Mbembe notes a significant shift in the debate in South Africa at present. "During the past 20 years, the debate was about the present and the past. The current debate the one that emerges when one listens to especially young people, students, protesters, and so on and so on - is about the future. What kind of future do we want to create? And, in the name of that future, why is it important to destroy the existing dispensation?"The next South African elections are in 2019. "Democracy is a contest and it's a perennial contest," says political commentator Moeletsi Mbeki. "What we are seeing in South Africa is that the power of the ruling party is being contested and it will be contested more and more and more as we go forwards. There will be costs to it but I don't think the other players are going to give up: the media is not going to give up, the judiciary is not going to give up, the other political parties are not going to give up. They are preparing for a long haul."Desai describes Julius vs the ANC as the second film in a trilogy about South African politics that began with Miners Shot Down. The expanded festival version, The Giant Is Falling, was named Best South African Film at the Joburg Film Festival at the end of last year beating out local fiction films - and has screened at seven festivals worldwide, including IDFA and One World International Human Rights Festival.Julius vs the ANC is a bespoke telling of this extraordinary South African story, tailor-made for Al Jazeera's global audiences to provide context to this on-going news story. It premieres on Al Jazeera English on Wednesday, 26 April 2017 at 2000GMT/2100EAT/2200CAT/2300EAT on Witness, Al Jazeera English's inspiring documentary strand that brings world issues into focus through compelling human stories.For more information, visit http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/ "Shows in detail the causes of the collapse of a country that until recently was seen as a successful example of democratization on the African continent." One World International Human Rights Festival"An intense political documentary with a sharp narrative, distressing imagery and atmosphere oozing the inevitable change. The friction beneath the surface is clear. Sometimes the real political struggles are more exciting than the best fiction." Docpoint Helsinki Documentary Film Festival"An inside look at the big political events of recent years that seemingly signify the dying days of the ANC." IOL"Recaps the many failings of the ANC and President Jacob Zuma with punch and a show-don't-tell mentality." CityPress"Asks a simple question: Where did it all go wrong?" Variety
Environmental inspectors check the exhaust of a truck at a logistics park in Beijing's Tongzhou district this month.[Photo by GUO QIAN/FOR CHINA DAILY]
After a local petroleum chemical plant in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, introduced a public air quality monitoring system for its production area last year, people's concerns about emissions from the plant have decreased significantly.
In introducing the public-accessible air monitoring system, the Chengdu plant has taken a big stride toward making the environment quality of its operations transparent. The plant's initiative is a good example that others can follow.
The authorities have never stopped making steps toward greater openness on environmental issues to mitigate people's concerns. In a recent document aimed at promoting government information disclosure, the State Council, China's Cabinet, stressed the need to publicize environmental policy measures and make progress in protecting and cleaning up the environment, especially air pollution.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection recently published its 2016 annual information disclosure report, including such information as the supervision work of the central environment inspection teams, their talks with local governments, and violations of the law by enterprises. Local governments' environmental information transparency has also been rising in recent years, as indicated by environmental index reports published by nongovernmental organizations.
However, environmental information can only realize its true value after it is transmitted to targeted groups in a timely manner. For example, only after residents can easily acquire information of local enterprises, including whether they discharge more pollutants than they are allowed to or violate the Environmental Protection Law, can they more actively participate in environmental protection.
Recently, the China National Environmental Monitoring Center decided to cooperate with a company that offers a weather app to send timely and authoritative environmental information to the public via the app. This is another example of how to disclose environmental information to the public.
However, it is still common for the public to have no convenient channels to access information about polluters and pollution, especially information about the current state of the local environment and sources of pollutions.
-PEOPLE'S DAILY
Aerial photo taken on April 1, 2017 shows Anxin county, North China's Hebei province.[Photo/Xinhua]
About four decades ago, Shenzhen was a small fishing town with about 30,000 residents immediately north of Hong Kong. Today, it has grown into a high-tech economic powerhouse, covering about 2,000 square kilometers with about 11 million peoplewhich is roughly the population of BelgiumChina's answer to Silicon Valley in the United States.
In the 1990s, just more than a decade after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established, China decided to build another economic zone, the Pudong New Area, in Shanghai. The area covers about 1,200 sq km and the number of people living there equals that of Finland, that is, 5.5 million.
Shenzhen and Pudong are just two examples of China's determination to transform and integrate itself into the world by channeling global resources. Shenzhen, for example, has attracted talents from around the world through its representative offices abroad, particularly European countries.
Shortly before President Xi Jinping's visit to Finland and his meeting with US President Donald Trump last week, China announced that another high-tech but environmentally friendly hub, Xiongan New Area, will be built in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
China's leadership has shown great determination and vision in explaining the significance of the project, which will eventually cover about 2,000 sq km. While solving many of Beijing's urbanization problems, the new area will also help integrate Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, and create a new sustainable economic pole in North China.
The project is among several far-reaching ones undertaken by China since Xi became the country's top leader in 2012. The ideas of the Belt and Road Initiative (Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Silk Road Fund are all examples of China deepening its reform and opening-up.
Although Xiongan New Area is high on China's domestic agenda, it could offer excellent opportunities to foreignespecially Europeaninvestors, businesses and talents worldwide, as well. Foreign investors and businesses have already harvested the fruits of their engagement with Shenzhen and Pudong. Now that China plans to turn another area into an economic powerhouse, global investors should weigh its potential as early as possible.
Compared with previous years, foreign investors are now on par with their Chinese counterparts because preferential policies have been phased out. However, for a still-growing economy with a population five times more than that of the United States and three times that of Europe, China's potential market defies imagination. Building Xiongan New Area is one example of releasing that potential.
With China already entering a rapid-growth stage in some leading sectors, the goals of the new area will be extremely highcertainly higher than Shenzhen and Pudongeven though the project is still on paper. Potential partners from the rest of the world, especially those from Western Europe and the United States, have gathered rich experience in developing economies while expanding cities. So they should be very interested in Xiongan, as it is about sustainable urbanization.
Foreign urban planning experts and consultants, for example, can invest in Xiongan even at the blueprint stage by contributing novel ideas. Similar to those early-bird investors in Shenzhen and Pudong, new businesses, especially in urban and architectural designs and infrastructure construction sectors, are free to move in.
At the same time, for those new investors, and even startups in the high-tech and services sectors which plan to invest in China, there is the option of initiating startups, just like in Shenzhen and Pudong. Land and other resources will be cheaper now, though it is a challenge to start business in a remote area.
Opportunities, however, are there for those who have the vision and courage at the outset. And looking at how many foreigners are living and working in Shenzhen and Pudong today, it will be even clearer what the opportunities offered by Xiongan New Area can mean.
The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Bureau.
fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
Laos received just more than 4.23 million foreign visitors in 2016, down from 4.68 million foreigners in 2015.[Photo/Xinhua]
Tourism injected more than 724 million US dollars into Laos' national budget during 2016, according to the latest data from the Tourism Development Department under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism on Sunday.
The revenue generated by tourism in 2016 dropped slightly from the figure of more than 725 million US dollars generated by the sector in 2015. The decrease was partly due to the fact that foreign tourist arrivals to Laos declined in 2016, reported Lao state-run media Vientiane Times.
Laos received just more than 4.23 million foreign visitors in 2016, down from 4.68 million foreigners in 2015. Visitors from Thailand and Vietnam, the main sources of foreign visitors to Laos, dropped remarkably by more than 400,000 and 100,000 people respectively.
The number of foreign visitors had fallen because Thai authorities have been promoting domestic tours vigorously, encouraging people there to travel within Thailand through promotional incentives. Foreign tourist arrivals to Laos in previous years were also boosted by a large number of Vietnamese workers who entered the country on tourist visas.
After governments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the regional bloc of which Laos is a member, tightened measures to regulate foreign workers, it is believed that Vietnamese workers were more reluctant to enter Laos, further contributing to the drop, according to the report.
Tourism services have also been deemed inadequate in some respects, including the inability of some drivers and tour guides to speak English, which can pose problems when visitors need to get to places.
Meanwhile, tour operators have suggested activities and improvements to tourist sites to help promote the year 2018 as Visit Laos Year.
By AN BAIJIE in Beijing and CHEN WEIHUA in Washington | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-04-10 10:00
Meeting with Trump set positive tone for two nations, foreign minister says
Chinese President Xi Jinping (3rd R) and his US counterpart Donald Trump (3rd L) hold the second round of talks in the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the United States, April 7, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]
Talks between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last week have set a constructive tone for relations between the world's two largest economies, according to Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Analysts said Sino-US relations are expected to make progress while maintaining stability as the two countries have a wide range of common interests.
During the talks, the first face-to-face communications between Xi and Trump, the two presidents reached consensuses after spending a total of more than seven hours in deep discussion in several sessions, Wang said.
The talks took place against the backdrop of mounting uncertainties, given tensions that have been rising in trade, maritime issues and the Korean Peninsula.
Both sides agreed that the meeting, which has drawn worldwide attention, "was positive and fruitful," Wang said, adding that the meeting has set a constructive tone for the development of China-US relations, and helped set the direction for collective endeavors.
The two presidents shared their state governance thoughts and domestic and foreign policy agendas, and the meeting increased mutual understanding and built good working relations, according to Wang.
Xi invited Trump to make a state visit to China this year, and the US president accepted. Wang said they also agreed to remain in close contact through meetings, phone calls and written communications.
The two leaders charted the course and established principles for their relationship. Xi said cooperation is the only right choice for China and the United States, while Trump said the US stands ready to work with China to eliminate factors and issues that stand in the way of their relations.
China and the US agreed to facilitate the healthy development of two-way trade and investment, to advance negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty and to promote pragmatic cooperation in infrastructure and other areas, Wang said.
Both sides plan to make good use of the joint staff dialogue set up to boost military communications, he said, adding that both countries intend to deepen cooperation in law enforcement and cybersecurity, and to boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
The two sides also initiated a comprehensive economic dialogue and a diplomatic and security dialogue, which make up two elements of the four-pronged dialogue structure they established. The other two are a law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue and a social and cultural issues dialogue.
Successful women from the worlds of business and politics shared their experiences over the weekend as they encouraged other females to challenge the impossible and seek success.
Barbara Woodward, the Great Britain's first female ambassador to China, said the UK had launched in the Inspiring Woman in China in 2013 to help Chinese women face challenges and reach for success from an early age. It now runs projects in 56 schools.
"In the future, our aim is to have more than 10,000 volunteers to help more than 100,000 students in 1,000 schools in China," she said.
She was speaking in Beijing on April 8 at the 9th annual Business Mulan Meeting, co-hosted by the China Entrepreneur magazine and China Entrep Mulan Club.
He Zhenhong, director of the China Entrepreneur magazine, said that in 2016 there were about 86 Chinese companies with a market value of more than 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion), but only four of them had a women as chairman or CEO - less than 5 percent.
She said that women were an unexploited resource in society but in the future they would play a more important role in social and economic development.
GOME Electrical Appliances CEO Du Juan shared her experiences of leading the company's development and gave advice on how to deal with career and personal setbacks.
"We will experience many failures in life and every time we do it is important to stay strong and positive and never give up," she said. "The road to success is never easy and it is important to change your stumbling blocks to stepping stones."
China needs more innovation in philanthropy - and more talent needs to be attracted to tackle the problems that need solving.
Li Yinuo, director of the China office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said that philanthropy was the most challenging sector for innovation, as there were a large number of problems that people did not know how to solve.
Li was speaking at a philanthropy forum held by the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) on April 7 in Beijing. She said that, even inside the industry, it was easy to feel like an outsider as new situations were always arising.
Tang Chunxia, secretary general of the Shenzhen Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business Education Development Foundation, said that a lack of talent was a problem for the philanthropy sector. At present about 56.5 percent of full-time employees in the philanthropy industry earned salaries lower than the average for China, with about 15.2 percent on a monthly income of less than 2,000 yuan ($290) and 27.3 percent on less than 3,000 yuan.
"Doing philanthropy in a good way is not easy but this industry has a great shortage of talent, so we need to work on how to improve the situation," she said.
Hundreds of alumni participated in the forum, sharing their thoughts on philanthropy.
Xiang Bing, founding dean and professor of China business and globalization at CKGSB, said that philanthropy was a requirement for Executive Master of Business Administration students at the school, each being required to make six-day philanthropy contribution before graduating.
In 2016, the EMBA students at the CKGSB held 69 philanthropic events and contributed 16,883 hours to philanthropy. CKGSB was also was the first to set up a philanthropic foundation, which had raised about 60 million yuan by the end of 2016. It carries out hundreds of projects in such areas as education, poverty alleviation and disaster relief.
Chinese visitors with a fascination for British upper-class etiquette have moved on from coveting basic skills, such as the correct use of a knife and fork, to craving an understanding of the appropriate clothing for a specific social occasion - such as the Henley Regatta, the Glorious Goodwood race meeting, and the Last Night of the Proms.
Shoppers share a moment in Bicester Village.
Dress codes for such events are often unclear, even for modern day Britons. But the tradition of dressing properly is part of British culture, and female characters in period dramas such as Downton Abbey can be seen by their legions of fans in China changing clothes as often as four times a day.
To capture interest generated in China in rules around the dress code of the upper classes, Bicester Village, a shopping center in Oxfordshire that specializes in luxury brands and which is popular with Chinese visitors, has teamed up with London etiquette establishment Debrett's to produce a handbook on shopping for clothes, which is handed out to shoppers.
Ten thousand copies of the handbook have been printed in English, 10,000 in Chinese, and the same number in Arabic.
Bicester Village's team of Chinese personal shoppers has also been briefed on how to assist shoppers in making the right purchases for specific occasions.
"We're noticing Chinese visitors to the UK are increasingly participating in local events, such as black tie dinners and Ascot horseracing, and they are keen to understand the right dress code for our events," said Lucy Hume, associate director at Debrett's.
Debrett's, which was founded in 1769 and is an authority on British etiquette, has started providing etiquette training to Chinese clients in China.
Hume said Debrett's chose Bicester Village for the collaboration because of its global outlook, something that fits with Debrett's wish to spread British etiquette among an international audience.
Bicester Village is very popular with Chinese shoppers. From January to October 2016, the number of Chinese visitors to the shopping center grew by 9 percent. Bicester Village has around 100 Mandarin speaking shopping assistants.
The number of Chinese visitors to the UK is growing fast, especially in light of the depreciation of the pound since Britons voted to leave the European Union.
Payment provider Worldpay said in January that spending by Chinese visitors to the UK increased by 24 per cent year-on-year in comparison to the 2016 Christmas period.
DPRK accuses US of trying to 'maintain colonial rule' in South Korea
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-10 21:42
PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday accused the united States of trying to "maintain its colonial rule" in South Korea by helping the conservative forces remain in power.
Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, said the United States is "displeased with the ever increasing possibility of the collapse of the conservative regime and regime change by the progressive pro-reform forces in South Korea."
"The reality is clear that the US remains unchanged in its wild ambition for maintaining its colonial rule over South Korea and gets ever more sly and vicious in its methods to quench the South Korean people's growing desire for independence," said the newspaper in a commentary.
Whenever South Korea faced a serious political crisis, "the US maintained its colonial rule by replacing its lackeys with others and setting up a new puppet regime," according to the newspaper.
"The colonial rule that divided the territory of Korea and the homogeneous Korean nation into two and inflicted unbearable pain upon the Koreans is bound to collapse under the united struggle of the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad," it said.
The situation on the Korean peninsula is getting tense as the United States is sending an aircraft carrier combat group to the waters near the DPRK. Washington says the deployment is in reaction to "provocations" by the DPRK.
Pyongyang has carried out a number of missile launches and nuclear tests, with the most recent being Wednesday's launch of a ballistic missile.
The first-ever export train from the United Kingdom to China departed from London on Monday morning, carrying British goods on a 12,000 kilometer journey to Yiwu, in East China's Zhejiang province.
The first UK to China export train, laden with containers of British goods, is seen during the official ceremony to mark its departure from the DP World London Gateway, Stanford-le-Hope, Britain April 10, 2017. [Photo by Angus McNeice/chinadaily.com.cn]
Containers full of soft drinks, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, and baby products had been loaded onto the train just east of the capital, at the London Gateway terminal in Essex that is operated by DP World, a trade services companywith headquarters in Dubai.
The journey the train has begun is the return leg of the brand new Yiwu-London route. It follows the arrival of the first freight train from China to the UK in January, which was packed with clothing and other small commodities.
Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, CEO of DP World, said: "When we started this project, we knew it was a game-changer in the supply chain. We had cargo by air and by sea and now we have it by rail across continents."
He added that the London-Yiwu line was a key addition to President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative, which focuses on infrastructure development.
"DP world has been an active supporter of Belt and Road, and now London Gateway is on the Silk Road route," he said.
The train will take 18 days to reach Yiwu. It will passthrough seven countries in between the UK and China, and will need to accommodate three changes in the width of track and rolling stock.
The first UK to China export train, laden with containers of British goods, is seen during the official ceremony to mark its departure from the DP World London Gateway, Stanford-le-Hope, Britain April 10, 2017. [Photo by Angus McNeice/chinadaily.com.cn]
After passing through the Channel Tunnel into France, the locomotive will traverse Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before crossing into China.
Container operator OneTwoThree Logistics is overseeing the transportation and booking of the cargo train, in conjunction with Yiwu Timex Industrial Investments Co, which is running the service with China Railway Container.
Greg Hands, British minister of state in the Department for International Trade, said the new line showsthe global demand for UK goods.
"This new rail link with China is another boost for global Britain, following the ancient Silk Road trade route to carry British products around the world," he said.
The train is returning to Yiwu three months after arriving in the UK. Robert Soames, business ambassador to the British prime minister in the construction and infrastructure sector, said he expects a weekly or daily service will be established within the next decade.
"The train is a fantastic alternative to air and sea freight, as air is more expensive and sea takes longer," Soames said, "It's significant not just for UK-China trade but for global trade."
News / National
by Staff reporter
After years of mudslinging, the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) led by Tendai Biti, are now back on talking terms with the latter saying it has now realised that it was pandering to Zanu-PF whims when it used to attack the former prime minister.Speaking to the Daily News yesterday PDP spokesperson Jacob Mafume said it has always been Zanu-PF's wish to see Tsvangirai and Biti squabbling but those "dark days" are gone now as opposition parties start to engage with the aim of forming a grand coalition."The tiff was exaggerated by our enemies which is Zanu-PF. As we always said that there are no personal differences between...Biti and...Tsvangirai."Tsvangirai is not our enemy our enemy is Zanu-PF. As for the talks, we are in talks with different opposition parties including the MDC."We have mandated our leadership to handle the issue of coalition talks. We are happy that all opposition parties are now seeing the importance of the coalition."Pictures of Tsvangirai and Biti in smiles at a National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) gathering last month went viral on social media with many opposition fanatics urging the former allies to unite and work together towards ending President Robert Mugabe's 37-year-old reign.Apparently, rattled by the prospects of a grand coalition among opposition parties, Mugabe sought to pooh-pooh the envisaged alliance when he addressed his party's central committee on Friday last week, but for Tsvangirai the nonagenarian is now running scared.Sources close to coalition deliberations that are taking place behind the scenes, as the country hurtles towards the watershed 2018 elections, told the Daily News that Biti and Tsvangirai could reunite anytime soon."Biti and Tsvangirai's relationship has improved they are in talks and most senior members in Biti's party now support the idea of the reunion of the two."The picture of the two at the Nera demonstration drew positive comments from the people and now both parties are eager to work together. Tsvangirai and Biti are having meetings to iron out their differences and soon the deal will be finalised," the source said.However, according to the PDP, it is not wise to have a coalition now because Zanu-PF would infiltrate opposition parties and weaken them before the 2018 polls."The question which only remains now is when is the coalition? However, because of the nature of the regime we are dealing with we can't have the coalition way before the elections because we will end up infiltrated by Zanu-PF."Also some parties are still working on holding their congresses, but definitely the coalition will come," said Mafume.Asked who should lead the broad alliance of opposition parties, Mafume said, "what is needed is consensus among opposition parties".Yesterday, Tsvangirai, through his spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka, said Mugabe is running scared as opposition parties show strong signals that they could unite before the crucial 2018 plebiscite."They thought that it was going to be difficult for us as Zimbabweans to work together, obviously, the regime is panicking. There are overwhelming reasons for them to panic because we are surely coming together," said Tamborinyoka."Zimbabweans are congregating and there is an overwhelming unity among Zimbabweans. The economic and social problems are bringing the people of Zimbabwe together. In 2018 it will be the people of Zimbabwe versus this minority regime."We don't care about Zanu-PF fights. We feel sorry for those who are on a massage chair because they will go back to their rural area but it's not a crime to be old."
Well-wishers mark the departure of the first cargo train full of British exports being shipped directly to China, at the London Gateway terminal in Essex on Monday. Peter Nicholls / REUTERS
The first train full of British exports to travel directly from the United Kingdom to China departed from London on Monday morning. It is taking UK-made goods on a 12,000 kilometer journey to Yiwu, in East China's Zhejiang province. Soft drinks, vitamins, pharmaceuticals and baby products were loaded onto the train just east of the capital at the London Gateway terminal in Essex.
The train is on the return leg of the new Yiwu-to-London route. The first freight train from China arrived in the UK in January, packed with clothing and other small commodities.
The London terminal is operated by DP World, a trade services company with headquarters in Dubai. "When we started this project, we knew it was a game-changer in the supply chain," said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, CEO of DP World. "We move cargo by air and by sea, and now we move it by rail across continents."
He added that the new line between the UK and China was a key addition to President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative, which focuses on infrastructure development and trade.
"DP World has been an active supporter of Belt and Road, and now London Gateway is on the Silk Road route," he said. The train will take 18 days to reach Yiwu. It will pass through seven countries between the UK and China, and will need to accommodate three changes in the width of track by replacing the undercarriages of the rolling stock to fit the track.
After passing through the Channel Tunnel into France, the locomotive will traverse Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan before crossing into China.
Container operator OneTwoThree Logistics is overseeing the transportation and booking of the cargo train, in conjunction with Yiwu Timex Industrial Investments Co, which is running the service with China Railway Container.
Greg Hands, British minister of state in the Department for International Trade, said the new line shows the global demand for UK goods.
"This new rail link with China is another boost for global Britain, following the ancient Silk Road trade route to carry British products around the world," he said.
The train is returning to Yiwu three months after arriving in the UK. Robert Soames, business ambassador to Britain's prime minister in the construction and infrastructure sector, said he expects a weekly or daily service will be established within the next decade.
"The train is a fantastic alternative to air and sea freight, as air is more expensive and sea takes longer," Soames said.
Many foreign (especially U.S.) employers operating in China expect their China-based employees to work overtime whenever needed to get the job done. Though imposing these sort of work hours usually makes sense in their home countries, this mindset is at odds with Chinas laws. It gets even worse in China when the employer intends to discipline or even fire the employee for refusing to work what the employer views as mandatory overtime. Can you fire someone in China for refusing to work overtime? It really just depends.
Chinas laws on overtime are fairly strict and inflexible. In most China provinces and cities, most employees can work only under the standard working hours system. This means they are limited to 8 hours of work per day, 40 hours per week, and anything beyond these hours is considered overtime under Chinas labor laws. This means if you make an employee working under the standard working hours system work 9 hours on a workday, you must pay for such overtime, even if you are able to make arrangements so that the employee works only 31 hours the rest of the week. China also restricts how much overtime an employer can require an employee to work. For instance, an employer cannot order an employee to work 5 additional hours on a workday. Also, the employees must either be compensated for the time worked or get comp time.
What is the right way to incur employee overtime in China? The employer needs to give the employee prior notice and get the employees consent to work overtime. Unless an exception applies.
What if an employee refuses to give her consent and therefore does not work overtime as directed? Can the employer discipline or fire her for failing to abide by company orders? The national law for this in China is clear: the PRC Labor Contract Law provides that employers cannot force their employees to work overtime unless an exception (I will get to this below) exists. But like just about everything else related to China employment law, the practice varies from place to place. Still, the majority view is that because employers cannot generally force their employees to work overtime, an employee in China who refuses to work overtime has not done anything wrong and therefore cannot be disciplined or fired for having done so. So a termination decision made solely on the basis of an employee refusing to work overtime will usually be held to have been unlawful and the employer will likely need to rehire the employee, pay the employee back wages, and pay damages for unlawful termination.
As noted above, there are though a few exceptions to the general rule on China employers not being able to force their employees to work overtime:
Emergencies, such as natural disasters, accidents or other reasons that threaten the working environment safety and the health of workers and others.
Damages to public transportation and facilities, which affect normal production and public activities, and thus urgent repair is required.
Other circumstances as stipulated by the law and regulations.
So in other words, an employer may require its employees in China to work overtime during an emergency and in those limited circumstances it may also discipline the employee for failing to do so. However, if the employer does not have a well-crafted and China appropriate set of rules and regulations (aka an employer manual) already in place, any disciplinary action it takes will likely be deemed illegal because it will have had no legal basis for that action.
We sometimes hear from our clients that overtime is common in China and employers do it all the time without getting caught, but that has certainly not been true of foreign employers in the last few years. Our China employment lawyers deal with a steady stream of matters where foreign (mostly American) employers have gotten caught and punished by the government for not following Chinas (or even local) overtime rules. Even more common though is the terminated employee (and plenty of those who leave completely voluntarily as well) who brings and prevails on a claim for overtime pay. Good, bad and indifferent employees in China virtually never have any compunction about pursuing back wages for overtime after they leave their employment and as we so often have written, the foreign employer virtually always loses on employee claims.
So I cannot stress the following enough when it comes to having your employees work overtime in China:
Overtime remains an often-litigated area, and its important that your rules and regulations reflect all applicable legal requirements. At minimum, you must pay all overtime. If you dont have a section in your rules and regulations or a separate document that communicates your companys overtime policies and procedures, you need one right away. If you dont have a China-centric (and in Chinese) set of rules and regulations, you will have difficulty disciplining or terminating a China employee for any reason, not just for refusing to work overtime. Think long and hard before you terminate an employee.
Not sure if what you are doing complies with Chinas overtime or other employment laws? NOW is the time to check.
Opinion / Columnist
The decision by embattled National People's Party (NPP) leader, Joice Mujuru to endorse Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Movement for Democratic Party (MDC-T) as the presidential candidate representing the coalition of opposition parties in next year's election is one more sign that the former Vice President (VP)'s political career is dead in the water.Mujuru, who for ten good years served in government as the Zimbabwe's VP has conceded that Tsvangirai is better than her to lead the coalition, putting to rest the much hyped re-invention of her political career. This endorsement must have come as a big blow to her supporters who were clinging to the last hope that she might have what it take to lead the nation against all odds.To be very honest, Mujuru's downfall was evident right from the start when she was dragged into the stillborn Zimbabwe People First project. Her reluctance to come to the fore after Mutasa and Gumbo conferred their trust in her spoke volumes. Mujuru did not have confidence in her own abilities then and she still suffers from low self-esteem now. As someone who worked in government for so long, one would hope the confidence and strong will from her boss (President Mugabe) would rub off on her but alas the lady still need hand holding, this time by Tsvangirai. But for Mujuru being forewarned is being forearmed, she should be aware that most former MDC-T officials dumped Tsvangirai as a result of his poor leadership qualities and autocratic rule.To make matters worse, Tsvangirai himself is a dead horse who lacks the requisite political stamina that can make him challenge the ruling party in the coming harmonised elections. His shortcomings and lackadaisical approach to politics is a threat to his next year's election victory. Mujuru should be encouraged to go back to the drawing board and rethink her endorsement of an equally exhausted politician like Tsvangirai.The fact that Tsvangirai needs a coalition to defeat Robert Mugabe is telling in itself. Mujuru claims Tsvangirai should lead the coalition because he is capable of mobilizing large crowds of people.Unfortunately, most of these people who attend Tsvangirai's rallies do not vote, and this has contributed to his past defeat. Truth be told, Tsvangirai is now a political spent force who has nothing to offer Zimbabweans.It is unfortunate that Zimbabwe's opposition is its own worst enemy. Every opposition leader wants to be president or, at least, occupy a position in the top brass. In that vein, some speculation have it that Mujuru is eyeing the deputy president post in the coalition, a position she is accustomed to apparently, as the seat of president is too hot for her. Already, MDC-T has three deputies and other opposition leaders might also be having the same mind as her, hence we are going to witness a bloody political fight before the elections, mark my words.By endorsing Tsvangirai, Mujuru has sealed her own fate and by the looks of things, it's not looking good for the former vice president. Mujuru should consider plan B perhaps, retire from politics and go into fulltime farming. I am just saying.
Opinion / Columnist
When you listen to people like Douglas Mwonzora, it is easy to see why Zimbabwe is in up to her eyes in this political mess and, which is worse, is thrashing around like a drowning chicken, totally incapable of coming up with even one coherent idea of how to get out!"What has NERA achieved so far in trying to force ZEC to implement electoral reforms?" Obey Manayiti, Standard reporter, asked Mwonzora."The first thing is that it was NERA which caused ZEC to embark on electoral reforms. As a result of the pressure from NERA, ZEC invited experts from the UNPD to identify areas of reforms," replied Mwonzora."They identified voter registration, voter education and technical capacitation of ZEC as well as regular stakeholder meetings."ZEC then established a political parties platform where NERA's numerous demands were met. The first was the demand for a new voters' roll, second was the demand for a biometric voter registration (BVR) system and third was that it should be done by UNPD."In the 2013 elections many people were denied their democratic right to a meaning vote because they were denied the chance to register to vote. There were more voter registration centres in Mhondoro than there were in a Harare with a population of 100 000 and 2 000 000 respectively. It turns out the former is a rural area and a Zanu PF strong hold whilst the latter is an urban area and an opposition strong hold.Nearly one million voters were denied the vote on voting day because their details were posted in a different constituent voters' roll than the one they expected. The mistake would have been corrected if the voters' roll had been release at least a month before voting day as is demanded by law. The powers that be have stubbornly refused to release the voters roll even to this day; which is why many people believe the posting of data to wrong constituencies was a deliberate and calculated move since most of those disenfranchised were opposition supporters.So, the demand for a fresh voter registration exercise and a new voters' roll per se makes a lot of sense but only if one has taken the necessary measures to ensure those tasked to carry out the voter registration and complying the new voters' roll are competent and trustworthy. It is utterly pointless asking the same incompetent and corrupt body, ZEC, to carry out the same task they failed to do last time.It is not voter registration system or voters' roll per se we want to be reformed but the statutory body, ZEC, we want reformed. Surely this should have been obvious to NERA from the word go. It is only now that the penny has finally dropped!"We are no longer talking of reforming ZEC, we want it disbanded and we want an independent electoral management body appointed by SADC, AU and UN," explained Mwonzora."Yes, we will (succeed in getting ZEC disbanded) because we are able to tackle ZEC on three fronts which are political, the legal where we will take ZEC to court, challenge it and win then lastly is to deal with it through diplomacy and advocacy."Well I should have said a ha'penny! Disbanding ZEC and reforming ZEC are two totally different things.What is totally disconcerting here is that Mr Douglas Mwonzora was a senior member of the MDC in the GNU tasked to carry out a raft of democratic reforms including reforming ZEC to ensure the 2013 elections were free, fair and credible. MDC approved the appointment of the present ZEC and assured the nation the elections will be free and fair against the advice of others like SADC leaders who said MDC should implement the raft of reforms agreed in the GPA.Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig the 2013 elections because other state institution like the Police did not play their role in helping to deliver free and fair elections. There were many Youtube videos showing hooded youths bussed in to vote, for example. The opposition members flagged this problem but the Police ignored them; an all too familiar response by the Police and confirming their partisan bias.The same political bias was shown by the Public media, the Judiciary, etc., etc.Are we then going to disband the Police, Public media, Judiciary, etc., etc. just as NERA are calling for the disbanding of ZEC? SADC or the UN would be foolish to get entangled with Zimbabwe's mess politics and fail to deliver free and fair elections because only ZEC disbanded!If MDC leaders had implemented all the democratic reforms during the GNU, they had five years to do so but failed to get even one reform implemented, we would have had free, fair and credible elections in 2013! We cannot afford wasting another opportunity for getting the nation out of this mess whilst reforming ZEC alone. We must demand the implementation of ALL the democratic reforms BEFORE the next elections!
(Photo : Getty Images) Master graduates pose for pictures during a graduation ceremony at Peking University on June 24, 2006 in Beijing, China.
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China's Peking University is starting to hire staff and accept students for its new British branch at the Oxford city in June, a few months after President Xi Jinping called for Chinese universities to be transformed into strongholds of Communist party rule.
The Chinese university signed a deal with the Open University in Britain last February to purchase a 15-acre medieval campus, Foxcombe Hall, in Oxford for $11 million, with plans to turn it into a business school.
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Hai Wen, dean of HSBC Business School, said that a total of 100 international students will be accepted when the campus opens in August 2018, which is also the 120th founding anniversary of the elite Beijing University.
"The timing is monumental. In 1818, China's first foreign-founded school Ying Wa College was set up by a British missionary. Now 200 years later, a Chinese university will set up its own school in Britain," he noted.
Hai also revealed that the HSBC Business School's finance, management, and economic courses will feature Chinese business cases that will help students to become better acquainted with China's economy and reforms.
Peking University made clear that its Oxford campus is not associated with the University of Oxford and is committed on providing "professional knowledge of China's economy, financial market, and corporate management." Students will initially take the first year course in the Oxford campus and the second year at Peking University's main campus in Shenzhen, Southern China.
The agreement marked the first instance a Chinese university utilized its own finance to build and manage a school overseas, Hai said. According to The Guardian, Peking University outbid three other rivals by offering "a very tempting price," giving the sellers "little room to say 'no'." The university's close connection to the Communist party also reportedly "expedite the transfer of money needed for the acquisition."
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TagsPeking University, Oxford, HSBC Business School, Open University, Chinese education
(Photo : Getty Images) Tesla has dismissed reports that it plans to open a new factory in Guangdong, China.
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Tesla has brushed reports that it plans to set up a factory in China's Guangdong province.
"Tesla is deeply committed to the Chinese market, however, the rumors that we plan to open a factory in Guangdong are not true," a Tesla representative stated in an email to CNBC.
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Guangdong's local newspaper, the Southern Metropolis Daily, reported on April 10 that Tesla plans to fund and establish a factory in the region.
"[The] factory address has been picked, the plan is waiting for approval from relevant department in local government. If the plan goes smoothly, Tesla will announce this project within this year," the report, which cited several sources, said.
According to experts, the presumption was potentially based on Chinese tech giant's Tencent's recent acquisition of a five percent stake in Tesla, as well as China's increasing demand for new energy cars, ECNS reported. Rumors have also surfaced that Tesla is planning to build new manufacturing facilities in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and Shanghai, but the company has denied them.
Should the report be true, Tesla could theoretically decrease its border tax, the Southern Metropolis Daily noted. Although Tesla remains dominant in the electric vehicle market, crossing a market cap of $49 billion last week, the competition particularly among start-ups is beginning to heat up. Many of these start-ups are funded by Chinese capital investors who are also looking to get a slice of the booming market.
In the first quarter of this year, Tesla reported a record delivery of around 25,000 vehicles, up by around 69 percent year-on-year. Tesla will start the production of its Model 3 vehicle later this year.
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The death toll from two bombings of Coptic Christian churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday has risen to at least 49 people.
The first bombing occurred at St. Georges Church in Tanta and reportedly killed 27 and injured 78. A second bombing occurred at St. Marks Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria, killing 18 civilians and four police officers.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and warned that more violence is to come for Egyptian Christians.
"The Crusaders and their apostate followers must be aware that the bill between us and them is very large, and they will be paying it like a river of blood from their sons, if God is willing," said a statement from the terrorist group.
Back in February, ISIS had warned that the bombing of a Coptic Christian church in December 2016 was only the beginning, and that Christians are the groups favorite prey.
Witnesses of the Palm Sunday bombings detailed the horrific occurrence.
"A lady next to me lost her eye, recounted witness Victoria Michell, whose father was killed in the attack. Other people were cut to pieces; blood and body parts were everywhere. The choir was also dead on the floor. The chandelier above me crashed to the floor.
I just felt fire grabbing my face, said another victim. I pushed my brother, who was sitting next to me, and then I heard people saying, Explosion!
The church bombings have called into question the security measures in place for Egypts churches.
"I don't feel secure at all. Muslims and Christians have always lived together and coexisted. I would like security to be intensified," said Amel Roushdi, an Egyptian Christian. "How could someone enter a church to do this?"
Egypt ranks 21st on Open Doors 2017 World Watch List for countries where Christians persecution is most severe.
Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/JakezC
Publication date: April 10, 2017
Recently, Christianity Today published an article entitled, Jesus Didnt Eat a Seder Meal: Why Christians Shouldnt Either by rabbis Yehiel E. Poupko and David Sandmel. The article argues that Christians should refrain from participating in Christian Seders as a matter of historical and ecumenical respect. We disagree on both points.
There is great interest today by Christians to learn more about and participate in Seders to help them better understand the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. In particular, knowing more about the Seder helps Christians explore the Jewish background of the Last Supper celebrated by Jesus, whom we know was a first-century Jewish teacher, and his disciples, who were also Jewish. Both Jesus and his disciples would have grown up observing the Passover in whatever fashion Jewish people living at the time observed the feast.
We agree with the rabbis regarding the importance of caution in the way the sacred traditions of the Jewish faith are handled.
We also agree that Jesus did not celebrate the Passover the way Jewish people commonly observe the festival in the 21st century. However, the Last Supper accounts in the Gospels record a number of themes and practices held in common with the Passover Seder. Perhaps the Last Supper should be viewed as a primitive Seder, which was used by Yeshua as the backdrop for his claim to be the fulfillment of the types and prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures for a greater Lamb, a greater redemption from bondage (to sin), and a new perspective on salvation through his shed blood.
Many Christians and especially Messianic Jews (Jewish believers in Jesus) exercise caution in the way the Messiah is linked to the Passover Seder. In the introduction ...
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A couple of weeks after our family moved to Nairobi in April 2016, a six-story apartment building in another part of the city collapsed after several days of heavy rain. Fifty-one people died as they slept.
Two months later, chilling headlines hit local newspapers. Willie Kimani, a Kenyan lawyer with Christian human rights organization International Justice Mission, along with his client and their driver, went missing and were later found dead. It was the first time an IJM staff member had been killed in the line of duty.
The beautiful, cosmopolitan city that was my new home suddenly looked a lot darker. Even the locals were shocked by the brazen and sinister nature of the crime. As I followed news reports of the murders and ongoing debates about building safety in Nairobi, I found that these two horrific events, so different in nature, had one chilling commonality: Their origins could be traced back to systemic, unabated corruption.
Corruption is by no means a modern challenge. The Bible has multiple references to the corruption of ancient Israel and its neighbors. Historians have documented how corruption infected the Roman Empire in its later days and eventually led to its downfall. Even so, I have come to believe that corruption is one of the most urgent justice issues of our day. If we as the church care about injustice and inequality and the suffering of the poor and oppressed, then we must be deeply concerned about corruption. As stated in the 2004 United Nations Convention Against Corruption, it is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows ...
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China Arrests Prominent International Pastor, Husband of American Citizen Contact: ChinaAid, 432-689-6985, 432-553-1080, media@chinaaid.org
MIDLAND, Texas, April 10, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- As Trump convenes with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida, the husband of an American citizen languishes in a Chinese prison.
John Cao, a pastor renowned for his educational endeavors among Myanmar's minority groups, was arrested by public security officials in Yunnan on March 5 and arbitrarily charged with "organizing illegal crossings of national borders." Retracting their promise to his family that he would be released, authorities formally arrested Cao on March 25. As a result, his relatives, which include his wife, North Carolina native and U.S. citizen Jamie Powell, and their two sons, fear that the Chinese government will use this charge as an excuse to give him a hefty prison sentence. The U.S. state department, North Carolina congressmen, and hundreds of churches are in support of Cao's situation.
On behalf of the Cao family, ChinaAid is asking for your assistance in spreading this story. As a long-time friend of Cao's family, ChinaAid President Bob Fu urges the free world, especially American-elected leaders, to work in solidarity with Cao's relatives to secure his freedom. Cao's son, Ben Cao, is available for interview regarding his father's case and can be contacted at (336) 404-5871.
ChinaAid reports abuses such as those suffered by John Cao in order to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.
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Fuller Theological Seminary Students Commemorate Verna M. Linzey
PASADENA, Calif., April 10, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- Fuller Theological Seminary students from across denominational lines wrote a powerful message on behalf of the Fuller Community, faculty and the entire student body, commemorating Verna M. Linzey, D.D. The statement was sent by the Office of Development of Fuller Theological Seminary. Rev. James F. Linzey, Southern Baptist minister of the graduating class of 1983 and now president of Verna Linzey Ministries, received the statement from Fuller Seminary. Their statement reads:
On behalf of our Fuller Seminary community we want to extend our condolence and sympathy to you and the entire Linzey family in regard to the passing on of your Mom--Verna Linzey. May the Lord our God fill your hearts with His comfort and give you hope as we look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! God bless you richly.
The statement comes a month before the 1st Annual Verna Linzey Commemoration Services to be held on the East Coast and West Coast. Rev. James Linzey replied with a phone call to Fuller Theological Seminary expressing deep gratitude for statement from the student body at Fuller Theological Seminary. "The rising up of the student body from Fuller Theological Seminary, which crosses all denominational lines, to show such sentiment and respect for Dr. Verna Linzey's work and what she single-handedly did for God's Kingdom around the world reflects the impact of Verna Linzey's legacy," said Rev. James Linzey.
Dr. Linzey audited the entire Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary at 61 years of age. "We greatly treasure her class notes and the theological acumen she reflects while engaging timeless issues facing the Church and the world," said her son Rev. James Linzey.
"We will be hosting one of the services on the East Coast for the 1st Annual Verna Linzey Commemoration, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as the City of Brotherly Love, which is where the first Bible in America was printed. This city is a very appropriate setting for celebrating the life of such a remarkable Bible translator as Dr. Verna Linzey, who served on the Committee on Bible Translation for the Modern English Version Bible," said Bishop Janice Hollis, pastor of Progressive Believer's Ministry, who has appeared on C-SPAN as an advocate for Conservative Christian Values. Another service is slated to be held in San Diego, California A date will soon be set in the May 2017 time frame.
Photo: Verna Linzey Crusade with a crowd of 20,000 people. Verna Linzey was still growing strong at 94 years of age in this photo. High-resolution version available.
Opinion / Columnist
Nestle Zimbabwe is back to serious business. The giant Swiss firm is not looking back on meeting the satisfaction of its market. At a time other companies are whining about a harsh economic environment, Nestle is casting its eyes beyond the horizon.Nestle has gone extra strides in capacitating its supply chain. The organization has embarked on a one million dollar heifer project to boost milk production in the country. The heifer project is meant to benefit diary farmers across the country. The country has for the past years importing milk from neighboring Zambia and South Africa to meet domestic demand.Over and above procurement of the heifers outside the country, the company is also bankrolling the training of beneficiary farmers to ensure maximum output. Nestle Zimbabwe has departed from the rogue investor attitude of crying foul over everything yet there is much more to do inside the business environment. Are there no businesses in Syria today? If businesses are still open in Damascus, why should an organization with a sound management fail to operate in Zimbabwe which is teeming with hoards of peace?Enemies of Zimbabwe have since the land reform been harping about a failing agricultural sector. And then what? If the agricultural sector is failing to meet local demand, is that not good enough reason to celebrate the birth of a market? The Zimbabwe Association of Diary Farmers report that the country's annual milk production stood at 120 million liters while production is hovering slightly above half the amount.It is a misnomer for a country with such a temperate climate to be found wanting in milk production. It is organizations with a mindset similar to Nestle's that see opportunity where others are seeing gloom. In the same mediocre thinking, some have been rubbishing the land reform program which has seen a complete overhaul of fortunes for some industrious farmers.Opportunity does not climb up a tree to be identified, instead, it is those with scanning eyes that see opportunity in the dark alleys of fortune. Such are Nestle's eyes.The government of Zimbabwe has through the Ministry of Industry and Trade gazetted a trade instrument barring foreign produced goods that the Zimbabwean industry has the capacity to produce. This instrument, known as Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 has triggered a domestic demand boon for local manufacturers especially in the household consumption goods.Companies that relocated their manufacturing plants elsewhere in the region are salivating and going green with envy over the protected domestic market in Zimbabwe. Case in point, local petroleum jelly manufacturers are smiling all the way to the bank since the departure of one major petroleum jelly company supplying the domestic market. The said organization has moved manufacturing operations from its Zimbabwean firms into the region and has since seen the death of its Zimbabwean market by the hand of SI64.Closing manufacturing plants and moving machinery into neighboring countries left scores of workers jobless and without any means of survival. It is quite disturbing to see organizations interested only in enjoying the purchasing power of a people they do not want to support. If such organizations were aware of the consumption potential of the said market, howbeit that they ignore their need for jobs?Government-Industry relations must be mutually benefitting and any organization that is not conscious of this reality must not expect to enjoy government's benevolence. Meanwhile, all kudos go to Nestle for complementing government's agrarian reform and for its sensitivity to customers with varied buying powers through designing products in different packages, quality and pricing regimes.
Fresno CityFest Campaign Draws Thousands
World-renowned evangelists Luis and Andrew Palau invited by nearly 300 churches to help lead a massive citywide effort focused on blessing the region
FRESNO, Calif., April 10, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- Locals of all ages and demographics gathered on April 1 and 2, 2017, at the Save Mart Center for the 2-day, free, family festival known as Fresno CityFest. One of the largest and most far-reaching collaboration efforts the Central Valley has ever seen, CityFest was the final, culminating celebration of a six-month long, massive campaign, resulting in more than 50 local events and reaching more than 45,000 people.
Photo: Evangelist Luis Palau sharing a message of hope with the crowd at Fresno CityFest on the grounds of the Save Mart Center on Sunday night, April 2, 2017. High resolution version available.
Spearheading the campaign was Festival Chairman Larry Powell, local political analyst, radio host, and former Fresno County Schools Superintendent, along with Pastoral Chairmen Dale Oquist of Peoples Church, Fred Leonard of Mountain View Church, Jymme Foote of Breaking Free Revival Center, Johnny Mendez of Crosspoint Fresno, and Mitch Ribera of New Harvest Church. The CityFest Executive Committee consisted of more than 150 local leaders, pastors, and influencers with the mind of coming together to spark unity, empowerment, and transformation in the Central Valley.
Fresno CityFest featured Grammy-winning artists Lecrae, For King and Country, and Matt Redman, along with Marisol Park, Lincoln Brewster, LZ7, and Soulfire Revolution. World-renowned speaker and author, Luis Palau, and his son, Andrew, shared a message of hope with those in attendance each night.
"We learned everything we know about reaching big cities with the Good News of Jesus Christ here in Fresno, California, so I have a great affection for this place," Luis Palau said after last week's press conference. Palau was referring to his time in Fresno back in 1962 when he served with worldwide evangelist Billy Graham as lead Spanish translator. Palau also visited Fresno back in 1982 for his own crusade, working closely with the late G. L. Johnson.
Four-time CrossFit Games champion and "Fittest Man on Earth," Rich Froning, joined CityFest on Saturday for a fitness competition where he shared about his fitness journey and faith story. The competition was led by local CrossFit box, Certus CrossFit, and drew over 80 competitors competing for cash prizes and meet and greets with Froning.
"If you can concentrate on something that's bigger than yourself, it makes the things in life that are a little bit harder seem a little bit easier," Froning shared of applying his faith journey to his fitness experience and life as a CrossFit Games competitor.
Fresno CityFest launched in January 2016, and since then has been a collaborative effort of close to 300 local churches and organizations that united to bring a positive message of transformation to Fresno, along with impacting the community through multiple outreaches and service opportunities.
Fresno CityServe, a key element of the campaign, launched in September 2016. Led by Artie Padilla of Every Neighborhood Partnership and George Ordway of Communities Inc., this community-focused aspect of Fresno CityFest brought together thousands of volunteers who dedicated more than 145,000 hours to improving the Central Valley. These hours resulted in: 16,000 sack lunches for local children, 18,000 hot meals provided to the local community, 400 trees planted at local schools and neighborhoods, more than 800,000 pounds of food distributed to those in need, and the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall, 32-mile long wall painted clean of graffiti.
The local churches and organizations who blazed the trail for Fresno CityFest and CityServe partnered with renowned author, radio host and speaker, Luis Palau, who has shared his message of hope with more than 1 billion people through evangelistic events and media. Palau has spoken in person to more than 30 million people in 75 countries and is heard daily on over 5,000 radio stations worldwide. Palau additionally has counseled business leaders, political leaders, and heads of state all around the world.
"Christ is relevant to the sociological order, and in America we need it badly today. We can disagree, but disagree with civility. Let's face it, we need to bring reconciliation, and that's one of the things I hope the kids and adults take from [this campaign]," Luis Palau said.
The week leading up to CityFest was packed with events including 17 local prison outreaches led by Luis Palau's son Andrew, a women's luncheon at Valdez Hall, a lunch gathering for business and civic leaders at Save Mart Center, a panel discussion with local leaders for college students held at Fresno State, and a mini festival, La Gran Fiesta en el Valle, held in Reedley for the Spanish speaking community.
"We're known sometimes more for what we're against, rather than what we're for, so we have to work double-time to let people know that we're here for them," Andrew Palau said of his time in Fresno with local leaders. In partnership with Prison Fellowship, Andrew spent the week leading up to CityFest leading outreaches in four local prisons, including Pleasant Valley State Prison, Valley State Prison, Central California Women's Facility, and Substance Abuse Treatment Facility.
"It seems like we're always bombarded with negative news, so today we want to share that there is good news. There is a hope that God intended you to live with," Festival Director, Levi Park said last weekend at Fresno CityFest. "It's good news for those who are in need that the church wants to reach out and help. It's good news that the churches are uniting The churches and organizations are looking at [Fresno CityFest] as a gift to the city [of Fresno]," Park said.
Going forward, Luis and Andrew Palau, along with the Fresno CityFest Executive Committee and leaders of the Luis Palau Association, hope the unity established through CityFest continues to deepen and spread, eventually encouraging more citywide outreach efforts and ongoing service initiatives throughout the Central Valley.
home World EU issues ultimatum to Poland and Hungary to accept more migrants
A host of EU countries is threatening to boot Poland and Hungary out of the block if the two nations refuse to accept their quota of migrants.
Poland and Hungary have both ignored EU proposals to take in 160,000 migrants that are presently residing in Italy and Greece. Public opinion in both countries are also opposed to being forced to accept migrants from non-European cultures, Breitbart reported.
Poland and Hungary have taken in a few thousand refugees each, but they have refused to take more.
"They will have to make a choice: are they in the European system or not? You cannot blackmail the EU, unity has a price. ... We are going to be very tough on this," an EU representative was quoted as saying.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is set to look into the legality of the quota system before the end of the year with a judgment widely expected to be in favor of the EU scheme.
"We are confident that the ECJ will confirm validation, then they [Poland and Hungary] must abide by the decision," the EU representative said, as reported by Express.
"If they don't then they will face consequences, both financial and political. No more opt-outs, there is no more 'one foot in and one foot out.' We are going to be very tough on this." the representative continued.
Hungary challenged the court, saying it is culturally and constitutionally unreasonable to coerce member states to accept asylum seekers. Poland, on the other hand, ignored criticism from the European Commission over its handling of the migrant crisis.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stated that forcing member countries to accept a compulsory quota of migrants is unlawful and will "spread terrorism around Europe." In 2015, at the height of the migrant crisis, Orban called for Hungary's borders to be closed to refugees.
Polish Prime Minster Beata Szydlo recently criticized EU plans for a "two-speed" Europe, which would allow more powerful EU members to develop faster than their poorer neighbors.
The migrant quota system has been widely criticized for being ineffective, and some eastern EU members, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, are waiting for the dispute between the EU and the countries Hungary and Poland to be resolved before they accept their share of migrants.
home World Mali authorities arrest four people in connection with kidnapping of nun
Mali authorities have arrested four people in relation to the kidnapping of a Columbian nun who remains missing to this day.
Sister Cecilia Argoti Narvaez, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, was abducted by armed men in the southern Mali city of Karangasso on Feb. 7. According to The Catholic Register, she was forced to hand over the keys to the community's ambulance, which was later found abandoned. Three other sisters at the house were able to escape.
Last week, a judge in the country charged four individuals, but it it is unclear whether they are connected to Islamic militant groups such as Al Qaeda.
"I confirm the indictment of four people on the grounds of kidnapping the Colombian Gloria Cecilia," said anti-terrorism prosecutor Boubacar Sidiki Samake.
Investigators initially suspected Islamist militants of being involved in the abduction, but an unnamed security source stated that the accused are connected to the parish from which Narvaez was abducted.
Radio France Internationale has reported that at least three of the accused were employed at the parish church in Karangasso. Two of them were drivers, while the other was a cook who prepared food for the community.
Narvaez has served in Mali for 12 years, and her community administers a health center as well as a home for some 30 orphans aged between one and two years. The sisters also teach literacy to around 700 Muslim women, and they also work on a barn project for times of food shortages.
The Catholic bishops of Mali have recently urged the general public to help secure the nun's release.
"We are exploring all possible paths to obtain Sister Cecilia's release and are calling upon the faithful to keep praying for her," said Father Edmond Dembele, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Mali.
"Some people believe that bandits in the area kidnapped the sister in the hope of getting a ransom, and now do not know how to handle the situation. Others believe jihadists kidnapped her," he added.
Jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda are believed to be operating in the north of Mali, but Karangasso is far removed from their typical area of operations.
Islamist groups, which seized north Mali in 2012, have been driven back by French forces the following year, but they have regrouped, and they are increasingly conducting raids in southern and central parts of the country, which were previously deemed safe.
Rare Renaissance altarpiece to be auctioned for the first time since the mid-19th century
An exceptional work attributed to the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes remarkable for a central section in which the preparatory underdrawing has been revealed is set to star at Christies Old Masters sale in New York on April 27
On 27 April Christies Old Masters sale in New York will feature a rare, 15th-century Flemish masterpiece with a remarkable history, unseen at auction since the mid 19th-century. The Virgin and Child with Saints Thomas, John the Baptist, Jerome and Louis is attributed to the great Netherlandish painter Hugo van der Goes, and is one of very few Renaissance works whose preparatory underdrawing is visible to the naked eye. The work has been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1998, and today is one of the most important 15th-century Flemish paintings left in private hands. Since it was first painted, the altarpiece has undergone significant changes: in the early 18th century the painted figures of the Virgin and Child were carefully stripped away, along with the body of Saint John the Baptist. At that time, an additional wooden board was added to the centre of the painting, and the four saints surrounding the Virgin and Child (from left to right: Saint Thomas, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Jerome and Saint Louis) were modified to become participants in a new scene representingThe Marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York. The central figures were replaced by a view of a church interior.
Open a larger version of this image The painting as it appeared before restoration revealed the original scene beneath the church interior in the central area
From 1978 to 1988 work was carried out to remove the 18th-century alterations and restore the painting to reflect the artists original composition. Overpainted areas were carefully removed, and entire areas of the original paint surface stylistically related to the surrounding areas previously visible on either side were revealed. At that time, art historian Claus Grimm proposed that the altarpiece should be attributed to Hugo van der Goes. This assessment is endorsed by Peter van den Brink, Director of the Suermondt Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, Germany. The survival of the preparatory underdrawing following the repainting in the 18th century is remarkable and highly unusual. Contrary to the usual practice of the time, Grimm wrote, the paint surface was removed with such care that part of the original drawing beneath the protective layer of priming is still intact. The result was one of considerable historical significance as, with relatively few exceptions, the only visible examples of Renaissance underdrawing available to scholars had been on unfinished works.
Contrary to the usual practice of the time, the paint surface was removed with such care that part of the original drawing is still intact
Warning: The video above contains graphic language.
For a school project, four University of Houston students interviewed people at RodeoHouston about whether or not weed should be legalized.
Amia Maruf, 22, Nancy Mondragron, 21, Katy Lopez, 21, and Nky Onyewuenyl, 21, are taking an entrepreneur class together and they created a YouTube video as their semester project.
MAJOR BUST: Drug bust in Texas results in $500,000 worth of marijuana
"We thought it would be funny to interview people who were drunk at the rodeo," Maruf told Chron.com in a phone interview. "The reason why we picked legalizing marijuana as our topic is because it was controversial and it would be a talker. The rodeo is one of the most Texan things that there is, so why not talk about it there."
Maruf says that her partners specifically chose people at the rodeo who were willing to talk and if they were coherent enough to answer the questions about legalizing marijuana.
The video shows a variety of subjects varying in age, demographics and backgrounds. The interviewed rodeo-goers seemed to be leaning more towards legalizing the plant-based drug, but there were a few who disagreed.
In February, Harris Count decriminalized low-level possession of marijuana to halt minor drug arrests that clog jails and courts. Since March 1, misdemeanor offenders with less than four ounces of marijuana will not be arrested, ticketed or required to appear in court if they agree to take a four-hour drug education class.
This move is to save the Harris County District Attorney's Office time and money.
WEED IN HOUSTON: New policy decriminalizes marijuana in Harris County
"We have spent in excess of $250 million, over a quarter-billion dollars, prosecuting a crime that has produced no tangible evidence of improved public safety," Harris County DA Kim Ogg told Chron.com. "We have disqualified, unnecessarily, thousands of people from greater jobs, housing and educational opportunities by giving them a criminal record for what is, in effect, a minor law violation."
For the United States, marijuana possession and recreational use is largely illegal with just eight states legalizing marijuana use for recreational use, but 21 states, including Texas, have no broad laws legalizing the drug. Click through the slideshow above to learn facts about marijuana that you likely didn't know already.
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Shireen Jasser has been protesting attacks involving chemical weapons on Syrian civilians for too long.
The president of the Houston chapter of the Syrian American Council wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Keep Syria Alive" on Sunday to a vigil for civilians harmed by last week's chemical attacks. It was the same t-shirt she wore to the first protest she attended after Syrian president Bashar Al Assad used chemical weapons against his citizens. That was four years ago.
"We can't ask politely ask for Assad to stop," Jasser, 32, said. "He's going to be made to stop."
Jasser's comments sparked pushback at the vigil, held at Bagby Park in Midtown at 7:30.
Many of the 90 attendees said they were staunch pacifists. They opposed any U.S. intervention in the country.
The vigil drew a varied group - University of Houston students, Nation of Islam members and an 86-year-old married couple who described themselves as Bernie fans and said they have been protesting issues ranging from war to environmental degradation since 1973.
What all the attendees shared, and what the overarching message of the event was, was a desire to stand in solidarity with the victim's of Syria's 6-year-long conflict.
"Enough is enough," organizer Sara Ghorad said.
Ghorad, 23, a member of the Egyptian American Society of Houston, joined forces with Jassser and a 26-year-old community organizer, Sarah Syed, to put the event.
Syed's involvement in Syria started a few years ago, when she saw the now infamous photo of the body Syrian toddler washed up on a beach in Greece. She has since traveled to Greece, and worked with Syrian refugees there.
The trio cobbled the event together in just a handful of days. The vigil included an interfaith prayer, the reading of a poem and Jasser's statement. The organized portion of the vigil only lasted about 20 minutes, but attendees lingered. They lay flowers and electronic candles in front of the illuminated Midtown sign at the park. Ghorad and Jasser accepted donations for a nonprofit that aids refugees in Syria.
Jasser knew her call for intervention deviated from most of the attendees. But, after her own family members have been killed, after years of Assad violating international law, Jasser said she hoped at least some of her message resonated.
The humanitarian crisis in Syria, Jasser said, "is going to haunt us for a very long time."
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The Mays Family Foundation pledged $25 million to Texas A&M Universitys Mays Business School in an effort to improve the schools entrepreneurship and study abroad programs.
The foundation, which was started by 1957 A&M graduate and former regent Lowry Mays, gave $15 million in 1996 that renamed the school in Mays honor.
The $25 million gift, announced Monday, is the largest single commitment in the business schools history, the university said in a release. The Mays Family Foundation has given $47 million to the business school in its history.
HOW THEY RANK: Where Texas universities stack up against the best in the world
Mays Business School dean Eli Jones said in a statement that Mays is a great example of the type of person the school hopes to graduate a responsible, ethical, entrepreneurial business leader who serves selflessly.
We appreciate his commitment to our schools vision to help advance the worlds prosperity, he said. We continually strive to live up to the honor of bearing his name.
Mays, of San Antonio, was once CEO and president of Clear Channel Communications, one of the largest communications companies in the U.S. The company now is iHeartMedia Inc., largely held by two Boston-based private equity firms.
Scroll through the gallery above to see what each Texas university excels at
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This story ran in the Chronicle on Oct. 3, 1976. The headline and words are reprinted as they appeared then.
The sprawling Texas Medical Center (TMC) for the past three and a half years has been the scene of more construction activity than any other development area in Houston.
Since March, 1973, construction projects totaling $234.9 million have been started or completed in the 186 acres that comprise the central part of the center.
This year $161.3 million of these projects are under construction or nearing completion in TMC.
Ron Shoup, director of planning and construction for TMC, who has been associated with the center for four years, says he cannot remember a time since 1962 that some construction project was not under way in TMC.
It appears there will be no let up in construction work in the center during the coming year.
Five institutions are planning projects totaling about $75 million which are scheduled to start in the next 12 months. Additional ones may be announced before the end of next year.
Major projects scheduled to start within the next 12 months include Methodist Hospital's $50 million Total Health Care Center across Fannin from the main hospital. This will be a three-building complex on a tract bounded by Fannin, Dryden and Main. The health care center will be connected to the hospital by an enclosed elevated pedestrian bridge.
Methodist also will start a six floor addition to the present six-story Fondren Bldg. at a cost of about $11 million.
TMC will start construction in a few months on its fifth parking garage, a 550-car facility, at a cost of about $1.54 million. The garage later will be doubled in size.
The University of Houston has joined TMC and has a one-acre site on which a five-story College of Pharmacy Bldg. is scheduled to be put under construction in a few months. Texas Research Institute for Mental Sciences is planning to start a major addition to its facilities next year, and a high school for health professions is planned by the Houston Independent School District.
The center now provides parking for 3,300 cars in its four garages and another 7,200 parking spaces in open parking areas.
Major projects which have been started in the past 3 years and are under construction, were completed this year, or will be completed by the end of 1976 include:
A three tower, 11-story, $30 million Neurosensory Center and a four-floor addition to the Brown Bldg., to be known as the Alkek Tower, at a cost of $7 million and doubling the size of the building. Both projects are under construction by a joint venture of Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine.
M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute is finishing five facilities which will be opened before the end of the year. The $72 million in construction projects include the 14-story, 330-bed Lutheran Pavilion Hospital; an 11-story story clinic building; a two-story addition to the Research Division Bldg., bringing that structure to seven floors; a two-story Radiation Therapy building; and an interdenominational chapel.
Hermann Hospital will complete the new 10-level Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Pavilion, a 200-bed facility costing $35 million, late this year; and the $1.3 million Dunn Chapel will be completed within three months.
The University of Texas Medical School has a seven-story, $16 million, institutional teaching facility under construction with completion scheduled for late 1977.
Texas Medical Center, Inc., received its charter in November, 1945, and was given 134 acres by the M.D. Anderson Foundation, which bought the property from the City of Houston. The property was bounded by Hermann Park on the north and extended southward along Fannin to Holcombe with Braes Bayou and the Outer Belt Dr. generally forming the eastern boundary of the tract.
Subsequently TMC acquired an additional 56 acres in two separate transactions, across and to the south of Holcombe Blvd.
A total of 35 buildings now are included in the center, including the Mayfair high rise apartment building which was acquired several years ago. The Prudential Bldg. on Holcombe also was acquired by the University of Texas Tumor Institute and will become part of the complex when the insurance company moves into its new office building, now under construction, on the West Loop at Bissonnet.
Two months ago TMC increased its acreage to 211 with the acquisition of 25 acres on Shenandoah to the east of Almeda Rd. and south of S. MacGregor.
Plans for this property include a recreational complex for TMC and medical center institution employees; apartments for employees in TMC and additional surface parking.
In March, latest figures available, TMC reported capital investment in physical plants at $404.11 million, up $73.61 million from March of the previous year.
The figures do not include the investments of the institutions in the center in highly sophisticated equipment used in research and treatment, or the value of the land.
Land in the TMC is transferred to participating institutions for a $10 fee.
Though TMC does not list a value for the acreage included in the far-flung complex, real estate sources estimate the value of the 211 acres at approximately $160 million.
The March report, for the year ended Dec. 31, 1975, showed 18,110 persons employed in the TMC, plus 1,262 full time members of the faculty and an additional 2,358 part-time and volunteer faculty members. Additional employees have been added this year.
The economic impact of the medical center is evidenced by the medical-related institutions and facilities it has attracted along a seven-block stretch along Main St. and across Fannin from TMC.
Located along this strip are the Hermann Professional Bldg. and parking garage; Center Pavilion Hospital; Diagnostic Center Hospital and Clinic; Hermann Medical Center Professional Bldg.; Houston International Hospital; Kelsey Seybold Clinic; the Medical Towers Bldg.; the Holiday Inn Motor Hotel; and the Tidelands and Tidelands Two Motor Hotels.
Food and hotel business in the area gets a big financial boost from the 1.2 million outpatients who visit the TMC annually, a large percentage of these from outside the Houston area; and those visiting the 125,670 patients admitted annually to hospitals in the complex.
UPDATE:
Today, TMC's campus encompasses 50 million developed square feet and has more than 100,000 employees, according to the Medical Center's website. And there are $3 billion in construction projects underway.
A suspected car thief is in the hospital after he was shot during a five-block chase in northeast Harris County early Monday morning.
The chase started just after 2:10 a.m. when deputies headed to a neighborhood where a homeowner had seen a man looking into one of his vehicles, said Landon McDonald, with the Harris County Precinct 3 Constable's Office.
Krispy Kreme will open a location in Baytown, its third in the Houston area, at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
The first 100 guests in line at 3422 Garth Road will get free Original Glazed doughnuts, with limitations, for a year, and a t-shirt.
A Cleveland angler's record-breaking bass will be tracked by Texas Parks and Wildlife in hopes of creating other giant bass, as part of the ShareLunker program.
On April 1, Kurt Luker landed the biggest largemouth bass ever caught at Belton Lake, with a 13.97-pound monster caught at the Texas Team Trail tournament.
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The normally quiet Memorial Villages were inundated Thursday with law enforcement and mourners from all over the country as they gathered at Second Baptist Church on Woodway Drive to remember Clint Greenwood, assistant chief deputy for Harris County Constable's Office Precinct 3, who was killed April 3.
A procession of police vehicles, tow trucks and friends traveled down Voss around 9 a.m., and ended up at the church where funeral services began at 11.
The parking lot was awash with uniformed men and women walking in formation into the church. Departments from Sante Fe, Clute, Baytown, Katy ISD, Stafford, Bellaire, League City, Dickinson, Pasadena, Conroe, Corpus Christi along with Suffolk County, N.Y., police officers and two U.S. Marshals, elected officials and many others came in a show of solidarity.
A riderless horse stood among the mounted symbolizing the end of the slain officer's watch.
Memorial Villages Chief of Police Ray Schultz said his department had officers there as well but many remained out on patrol to help facilitate parking and direct the unusual amount of traffic.
MVPD reported Friday that a large number of Village residents lined Voss to offer their respect as the motorcade passed through.
Inside, the ground level of the church that holds around 3,000 people was packed as Greenwood's fellow Precinct 3 deputies sat under colorful stained glass on the pulpit.
Constable Sherman Eagleton spoke to the mourners and said Greenwood, 57, was, "an answer to prayer," for his department when he was hired last January.
"I've only known Chief Greenwood for four months, it seemed like a lifetime," he said.
Catherine Greenwood, his 20-year-old daughter, spoke about her father's early attempts at parenting after a divorce when she was in grade-school. He did his best to put her hair in pig-tails but ended up with lop-sided ponytails that prompted her teacher to offer him lessons in hair styling.
His older daughter, Lauren Benyo, 22, said,"He is my best friend," as she fought back tears.
Chuck Greenwood, 26, said of his father, "Through all the years, one thing never changed. He was always my hero, and he still is."
Before the service, friends mingled outside.
Annette Manuel, court coordinator in the 180th Criminal Court and former Harris County Sheriff's Deputy and her husband Gary Manuel have known Greenwood for decades and struggled to find words to describe how they felt outside the church under the mild spring sun.
"He was a great guy," said Annette. "Too soon," was all Gary could muster as he stood stoically behind dark sunglasses.
Greenwood was killed April 3 in Baytown as he arrived to the courthouse early that morning in what some have called an "execution style" ambush. The veteran lawman had a long history in Houston as a former private attorney defending police in shooting incidents, as a prosecutor and a post in the sheriff's office investigating corrupt police.
The crowd of lawmen and women may have seemed unemotional, like Gary, as they stood without much to say. But underneath their silent gaze, a well of remorse and grief overflowed at the slightest attempt at speaking about Greenwood.
"We're here to show our respect to a lawman who has dedicated his life to the community in so many ways," said Cameron Welch, Deputy U.S. Marshal who worked with Greenwood on occasion.
Officer Maio of the Suffolk County, NY Police Department said his Captain went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy with Greenwood and the two made the trip to Houston to show their respects.
Elda McKenzie is a clerk at the Sheriff's Office and described working with the husband and father of four.
"He was a very nice man. If you weren't smiling, he would say, 'Smile, you woke up this morning,'" said McKenzie.
Tomi Lahren, the incendiary, 24-year-old conservative commentator, has sued the Blaze and its founder, conservative media personality Glenn Beck, alleging the company retaliated against her by wrongfully terminating her contract after she publicly admitted she supports abortion rights.
Lahren, an avid Trump supporter who hosted the show "Tomi" on the Blaze, said while appearing on "The View" last month that it would be hypocritical of her to believe the government should decide what women should do with their bodies.
"You know what?" Lahren said. "I'm for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well."
Days later, amid the immediate backlash from conservative writers and talk show hosts - including Beck - the Blaze's human resources director told Lahren she was suspended indefinitely and need not return to the company's offices, according to Lahren's lawsuit, filed Friday in Dallas County Civil Court.
Later, she was told her employment was terminated, and her show pulled, but that the Blaze would continue to pay her, "presumably hoping they could find an exit strategy to sanitize their unlawful conduct," the lawsuit alleged.
Lahren, who has made her name through fiery monologues and comments on social media, was instructed to remain silent and refrain from using her Facebook page.
In a statement released to reporters, the Blaze said "it is puzzling that an employee who remains under contract (and is still being paid) has sued us for being fired, especially when we continue to comply fully with the terms of our agreement with her."
Lahren's contract expires Sept. 30.
Lahren's lawsuit said the Blaze's legal counsel took the position that she was only suspended and that the company had a right to block any use and access by Lahren to her Facebook page, where she has 4.2 million followers. This conduct, she alleges, was intended to harass her and ultimately harm her brand, viewership and followers.
Employees at the Blaze also stretched yellow caution tape spelling an "X" on Lahren's office and dressing room door and terminated her email account, according to the lawsuit. Beck and others at the Blaze "embarked on a public smear campaign" attacking her and "chastising her political views and opinions in a clear attempt to embarrass, humiliate, and undermine" Lahren's reach to her audiences, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit requests a temporary restraining order protecting her right to freely express her views and stop the Blaze from destroying evidence related to the incident. It also asks for the immediate return and full access and control of her Facebook page.
Beck has not made any public comments in response to the lawsuit. But in the aftermath of Lahren's March 17 comments on "The View," Beck blasted Lahren's explanation for her stance on abortion.
On Beck's radio show the following Monday morning, he criticized her claim that her position was supported by the Constitution. He clarified that it did not matter to him whether Lahren supported abortion rights but rather, how she defends her support.
"Ideas are what are important," Beck said. "And if you cannot defend the idea, no matter which side you're on, if you can't defend the idea, that leads to the second part of the discussion. Which is the people calling for Tomi to be fired."
He also commented extensively about the ordeal on social media, tweeting that he has never and will never fire someone because of their point of view, "Left, right, center, baptist, Jewish to atheist. It is PRINCIPLES that matter."
On March 23, he said he was "very proud" of how the Blaze was "handling itself."
Beck tweeted: Sorry to disappoint but I am very proud of how the Blaze is handling itself. I believe I echo the feelings of most of the staff in Dallas.
Meanwhile, Lahren was "understandably disappointed, saddened and in shock for being suspended for freely expressing her opinions, which certainly reconcile with what is the law of the land in the United States i.e., a woman's constitutional right to choose and in no way inconsistent with any of (Lahren's) obligations under the Employment Contract," the suit says.
On Friday, Lahren said on Twitter: "Lay down and play dead really isn't my style."
March 31
At 10:24 p.m., Officers were dispatched to the 4000 block of Bellaire, in reference to a Theft in progress. The subject was witnessed stealing several alcohol beverages from the grocery store. Police Officers arrived to the location and placed the suspect in custody.
April 1
At 12:24 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the Harris County Jail, in regards to a prisoner who had an warrants with the City of West University Place.
At 1:45 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby to see the complainant in regard to an animal bite incident.
April 2
Officers were dispatched to the 4100 block of Swarthmore in regards to an aggravated robbery that had already occurred. Upon arrival, the victims advised their vehicle was side swiped by another vehicle. Two suspects exited the suspect vehicle and approached the victim's vehicle displaying a firearm and demanding the victims to get out. The suspects fled the scene in both vehicles. A report for Aggravated robbery was generated.
A resident came to the West U PD Lobby to turn in a found key that was located on the sidewalk at the corner of 4000 Milton and 6100 Academy.
At 3:38 p.m., an officer observed a vehicle traveling northbound in the 6700 block of Stella Link with heavily tinted front windows. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation the driver was arrested for the offense of driving while license invalid.
An officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6400 block of Buffalo Speedway with an expired registration. A traffic stop was conducted in the 3200 block of Carnegie and after further investigation the driver was arrested for the offense of driving while license invalid and possession of Marijuana.
April 4
At 10:09 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in regard to a walk in report of identity theft. Upon arrival the victim advised that an unknown person has utilized his personal information in order to open several fraudulent accounts.
An officer was dispatched to the 3700 block of Tangley in regards to a package theft that had already occurred.
April 5
At 2:15 p.m. Officers were dispatched to the 4200 block of Bellaire Blvd on a reported sighting of a person wanted for questioning in a theft incident. Upon arrival Officers located the subject and began an investigation into the matter. That investigation led to arrest of that subject for theft.
At 6:27 p.m., an Officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in reference to a Terroristic Threat / Road rage incident, which had already occurred.
An officer was dispatched to the 5600 block of Kirby in regards to a burglary of a motor vehicle that had already occurred. Upon arrival, it was discovered that the vehicle's passenger side rear window had been shattered and an unknown person had entered and stolen property.
April 6
An Officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound with no visible trailer registration in the 5400 block of Belmont. The officer initiated a traffic stop. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the driver was in possession of stolen property being the trailer. The driver was arrested and charged with the offense of theft.
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St. Thomas High School senior John Miggins has been awarded a prestigious scholarship by the Greater Houston Chapter Alumni Association of Phi Beta Kappa.
Miggins was one of the three Eagle scholars nominated for awards of up to $4,000, and will be among more than 65 prestigious graduating students honored at the 43rd Annual Scholarships Award Dinner Wednesday, April 19, at 6:30 p.m. at the Omni Houston Hotel. Earlier in the academic year, he earned National Merit Finalist distinction with Scott Pickering and Adam Lawrence.
The Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association of Greater Houston is a not-for-profit organization of more than 400 members, affiliated with but not receiving funding from the national organization. Local programs such as the annual scholarship program are funded entirely from dues and contributions.
In 1972, Willoughby Williams, a respected Houston businessman, invited Phi Beta Kappa members living in the Greater Houston area to an organizational meeting held at Rice University. Approximately 50 enthusiastic attendees expressed strong interest in organizing and elected Jenard M. Gross to serve as the group's first president. Although the Association was not officially chartered until 1977, meetings began in 1972, and a scholarship program to award academic, merit-based college scholarships was initiated soon afterward.
Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 1776 and ranks among the most recognized academic honor societies in the United States, celebrating excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.
Three-year incumbent trustee Jason Burdine, a financial adviser, has drawn a challenge from L. Angelo DeCamps, a commercial banker, for Position 1 on the Fort Bend Independent School District board of trustees, for the May 6 election.
It is one of three contests on the school board. Early voting will start April 24.
Challenges
Q: What are the two biggest challenges facing the school district? How will you as trustee help the district to meet them?
Burdine: "One of our biggest challenges is the changing demographics and how we alter our district practices and policies to meet the needs of all of our students. We have implemented programs like the Edge Model that targets specific struggling schools and have developed innovative teaching models and practices. Our goal is to give every child in FBISD the opportunity to succeed in today's society and reach their full potential. We will continue to be innovative in our approaches to ensure we can reach every child and give them the correct tools.
"Another challenge is the way in which our schools are funded from the state. As CAD values increase we only see the benefit for one year, then we are expected to do more with less. Our state continues to increase regulations and mandates while decreasing its funding. As a trustee I will continue talks with our legislators in Austin and I will continue to educate the public on the struggles we face in our schools in regards to higher demands from our state while receiving less funding."
DeCamps: "I think transparency in matters of financial and administrative decision making is the biggest challenge for the district. Currently it seems the board is transparent after a decision is made but I feel they do not communicate to the parents, students, and teachers before that decision is made and explain how it will impact the district. One of the things I would do differently is give parents, teachers the opportunity to voice their concerns before decisions are made.
"I truly believe the board support for teachers is failing because it seems that we are requiring more from them and yet asking them to do it with less resources. One of the things I would do differently is hold quarterly town hall meetings where we communicate the decisions we are thinking about implementing and listen to their feedback and concerns."
TAX Ratification Election
At the March 27 school board meeting, administration discussed a possible fall tax ratification election.
A recap of the meeting says, "A TRE would provide a recurring revenue stream to ensure FBISD would be able to compete with neighboring growing districts for teachers and other talent; maintain investments made in new teachers and compensation adjustments; and sustain staffing additions for three elementary campuses, a middle school and CTE Center.
"A TRE and specifically a tax rate drop and swap, would 'drop' four pennies from the current Debt Service tax rate of $0.30 and "swap" two of those pennies to the current Maintenance and Operations Rate of $1.04. The district's existing tax rate of $1.34 will be reduced by two cents to $1.32, with a debt service tax rate of $0.26 and a Maintenance and Operations tax rate of $1.06. The tax rate swap will increase general fund revenue by nearly $18 million per year as state revenues increase to FBISD due to the existing state funding formula."
Q. Do you support a tax ratification election in the fall?
Burdine: "I support lowering taxes and if a tax ratification election is needed, I would support it."
DeCamps: "I would support this."
Bond election
Fort Bend ISD educators also have talked of a possible 2018 bond election.
Q. Do you support a 2018 bond election?
Burdine: "I do support a future bond in FBISD and I will continue to advocate for efficiency and transparency in distribution of bond funds."
DeCamps: "I do not know enough information on the bond to be able to make a decision at this time, I look forward to learning more and being able to make the best decision for my children and all other children of Fort Bend ISD."
Q. What one lesson have you learned as trustee in the last three years that will make you a better trustee in the next three years?
Burdine: "There is a wealth of information to learn in a relatively short amount of time when you're first elected. With experience you evolve as a trustee and you take on a new role. We are a high functioning team and we all bring something different to the table. I look forward to our continued success and I'm excited about the possibilities of the future."
Q. What one quality would you bring to the board that would help make you a good trustee to represent the residents?
DeCamps: "I am passionate about the education of our children and have a vested interest in the success of our school district. As a student and parent I have seen firsthand how easy it is for our school district to label students and not communicate clearly to parents their rights as well as the reasoning behind administrative decisions. It is the experience of being a part of FBISD for 30 years as a student and parent that would make me a good choice to be the Position 1 candidate."
Personal
Burdine: He and his wife Andrea have been married for 10 years, have two young children who attend school in Fort Bend ISD and have lived in Fort Bend for nine years. They now live in Richmond.
DeCamps: He and his wife Sarah have eight children. Two have graduated from Travis High School, five are attending school in Fort Bend ISD and the youngest will start school in 2020. He has lived in Fort Bend County for more than 30 years and now lives in Richmond.
During World War II, the Holocaust divided and broke families in Europe.
Now the Holocaust Museum Houston is creating extended families through a program started last fall.
Laura Jaramillo of Pearland, a museum board trustee, is paired with Ruth Brown of Missouri City, a Holocaust survivor and former museum docent, through "Connections," intended to create friendships between volunteers and survivors.
"From weekly calls and visits to driving survivors to major events, 'Connections' has been a certified hit," said Robin Cavanaugh, museum spokeswoman. "The volunteers, coming from diverse backgrounds and religions, have shared they have made lasting relationships (some have become surrogate grandparents), learned amazing first-hand accounts of their Holocaust survivor's experiences, and received much more from the relationship than they feel they have given."
Jaramillo, one of 15 participants, describes the "Connections" experience as part of her "learning journey," and adds, "I hope my journey makes me a better person."
Her experience as a museum trustee and Brown's partner is different from the community work which has kept the bank executive busy.
"I wish we had more time to spend together" said Brown, with which Jaramillo agreed as they talked over coffee at Three Brothers Bakery.
Connections has played a role in Jaramillo studying the Jewish faith and she and her husband, Rick, recently traveled to Israel for a "life-changing" trip.
She and Brown both love to read and recently exchanged "Killing Jesus: A History," by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. Brown likes biographies. Jaramillo as switched from novels to more historical books. Both are fans of Abraham Lincoln.
Both Jaramillo and Brown also see a broader lesson from the Holocaust.
"Compassion for people, all people; not just our small world," said Jaramillo, who mentions Houston schoolboys being taunted for being Jewish still today and the chemical attack on Syrian citizens.
"There's too much hate in the world," said Brown. Take the money used to wage war and find a cure for cancer, she said, or fund causes to benefit mankind.
For Brown, who is studying Christianity, Connections provides an opportunity for social outings. At 92, she doesn't drive anymore and uses a cane after she broke her hip about six years ago.
But she remains active. She loves the opera and she is one of a small group of people selected to light a candle at the April 23 citywide Yom HaShoah Commemoration or Holocaust Remembrance Day at Congregation Beth Israel, 5600 N Braeswood Blvd., Ste B, Houston. The hour program is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. and remembers the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during World War II.
Brown remembers them all too well even though she was only 8 when Hitler came to power in 1933. Her father, Fred owned a "beautiful jewelry store" in Dusseldorf, a city on the Rhine in west Germany.
But he sold that so the family of four could move to Barcelona, Spain, to escape from Hitler.
"We lost home and family. My parents never went back to Germany."
Her grandmother didn't want to go with them when they left for Spain and perished in a concentration camp. "If we didn't leave Germany when we did, we all would have ended up in camps," Brown said.
Her mother, Erna, was a seamstress and her brother, Claude, was 18 months older. Her dad worked at a supermarket owned by friends in Spain.
The exodus of Germans to Spain and later to Latin America ignited Jaramillo's desire to learn more about Judaism. "I want to know if I have Jewish heritage," she said, explaining that both her mother's maiden name and her father's name end in "ez," which are supposed to indicate a Jewish background.
The refuge in Spain for Brown and her family lasted only until 1936, because the Spanish revolution led by Gen. Francisco Franco began. Her parents sent her and her brother away from the bombings and ravages of war which Brown described as "really bad news."
Brown ended up staying with her mother's friends near Zurich, Switzerland, and her brother in a nearby orphanage. They saw each other three times during their two-year stay.
"I was 11 years old. My brother was 12. It was pretty rough there for awhile.
"Hitler was throwing his weight around," said Brown. "1938 was pretty bad in Germany. We were hoping something would happen to Hitler so we could go back to Germany. We were hoping someone would assassinate him but it didn't happen."
As refugees in Switzerland, her parents weren't allowed to work. They planned to move to America, which initially seemed so far away for the non-English speakers.
"We actually made it on the last boat leaving Europe for New York," Brown said.
Brown had briefly enrolled in English class in Switzerland but her whole family learned English after coming to the states.
Brown served as a translator for the war department and witnessed the finding of guilt of 10 Germans for crimes against humanity during trials at Nuremberg. Her album includes a photo of the war crimes trial.
Her brother joined the military and lived through the D-Day landing on the Normandy beach.
While working for the war department, she met Andrew Brown in 1947, they married in 1948 and came back to the states in 1949, first Washington, D.C, and then Texas.
While in Washington, D.C, she served as a hostess in a service club for troops. In 1939, she and about 100 others from the club accepted an invitation from Evalyn Walsh McLean who lived in a palatial home and owned the Hope diamond. Brown's album includes a photo of her wearing the Hope diamond.
Now a widow, she has four children, seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren who all call her "WuWu," a made-up name. "I didn't want to be call grandma; It made me feel old."
Gulf Coast area school board members concerned about losing state public education funding to private school vouchers met March 29 at Needville High School for what organizers hope is the first of several grassroots meetings.
Chris Janicek, Needville Independent School District trustee, welcomed the 20 or so people in attendance, which included representatives from the offices of District 22 U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, and District 18 state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham.
Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes and trustee Jim Kocian also welcomed everyone and thanked them for being invested in promoting public education in Texas and working to ensure public schools don't lose funding if vouchers, educations savings grants, public taxes allowed for private school tuition and additional charter schools are approved as currently proposed in Senate Bill 3.
With the Legislature in session, it is unknown how much funding will be available for public schools for the upcoming school year, but experts are predicting the possibility of a shortage due to a drop in state revenue because of the declined in the oil and gas industry.
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD trustee Bob Covey, who is also a Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) member, founded Go Public Gulf Coast (GPGC) about a year ago, after learning of a similar group in the San Antonio area, and is in the process of attaining 501c3 status for the non-profit group. Visit http://gopublicgulfcoast.com/ for details.
Its purpose, he said, "is to get the word out about what's going on in public education" and positively promote public schools and all they have to offer.
Covey serves as GPGC president, with Fort Bend ISD trustee Grayle James as vice president, Cypress-Fairbanks Director for Communication Stephanie Migl as secretary and Klein ISD trustee Georgan Reitmeier as treasurer.
Its steering committee is comprised of six board members, six superintendents and three representatives from the business community. Memberships are available for all school districts in the Gulf Coast area, and Covey said 23, including Needville ISD, have already committed to participate. Associate memberships are available for contributing businesses and individuals.
Covey said membership dues will be used to promote public education through marketing that will include everything from ads at movie theaters and on television and radio stations to billboards and print and social media.
"We want to keep everybody involved; we're really excited about where we're going," he said, adding all constituents should let their legislators know they support public education.
Victoria ISD trustee Tami Keeling agreed, and said school districts must begin by educating members of their own communities about the possible plight of public education funding in Texas, and exhorting them to contact their representatives to voice opposition to any cuts.
"We need to move," she said, underscoring the urgency of the matter. "If people knew, they would be concerned."
Brenham ISD trustee Melvin Ehlert continued that thought and said his school district is so concerned about possible deep funding cuts that the board adopted a legislative agenda and send it to legislators.
"That's a first for us. We feel like we have to take steps now," he said. "Never before in my years of serving on the board have I felt like public education is under attack from our legislators and I'm not taking it."
Ehlert received a round of applause for his comments.
Needville ISD trustee Kim Janke, who is also a member of the Gulf Coast Area Association of School Boards, said Senate Bill 3 "is trying to cut $1.3 million out of public education funds."
He urged everyone to visit the TASB website, https://www.tasb.org/Home.aspx, and get involved in the fight to stop the bill.
Janke also provided an update on TASB and explained that the board is comprised of trustees from local school districts who work to fine-tune the wishes of those districts and pass them on to legislators.
"TASB does not tell us, as a school board what to do; we tell them what to do" he said.
Kolkhorst's representative, Larissa Plunto, and Olson's representative, Tori Macfarlan, encouraged everyone to contact their offices and voice their opinions, assuring them that each call is tallied.
The representatives expressed regrets of their congressman and legislator for being unable to attend, and Plunto read a letter from Kolkhorst in which she was non-committal as to which way she will vote when it comes to vouchers.
"I think we can all agree that the correct funding formula needs to be restructured," Kolkhorst wrote.
Plunto said Kolkhorst "thinks there are a lot of things that need to be changed. She is not committed to supporting the vouchers."
But on March 30, Kolkhorst voted for Senate Bill 3, known as the private school choice bill, which passed the Texas Senate 18-13 and will be sent to the Texas House.
Keeling said Kolkhorst's voting record, when it comes to public education, "is an F."
"You cannot purport to be a friend of public education and vote for vouchers; that's all there is to it," Keeling said to a round of applause.
Needville ISD trustee Scott Valchar read a letter from District 85 state Rep. Phil Stephenson, R-Wharton, in which he also expressed his regret for being unable to attend the meeting.
"Education is a passion of mine," the letter read in part. "To me, this issue is a no-brainer."
Stephenson said Texas "will pay dearly" if public education funding is cut, and suggested sales taxes, not just property taxes, should be used for public education funding.
"I want to make it understood that I am not in favor of vouchers, nor am I in favor of charter schools," he wrote.
Rhodes said supporters of using public education funds for charter and private school vouchers are "trying everything they can" to get such legislation passed.
"Any version of it that slips in the door is going to turn into a monster and kills us," he added. "It's a scary thing for public education."
Natalie Lange, president of the Brenham ISD Board of Trustees, agreed.
"It's crazy to me that it's even being considered by politicians who say they support public education," she said. "It can destroy public education."
Brenham ISD Superintendent Dr. Walter Jackson said Senate Bill 3 "is not only not good for public education, but not good for Texas."
He said charter schools are not held to the same accountability as public schools, and Kocian said charter school teachers are not required to be accredited.
"It seems like instead of getting better, things are getting a lot worse," Kocian said in reflecting on his 31 years as a trustee. "We squeeze a penny over here (at Needville ISD) 'til it bleeds."
Rhodes said private schools have no State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests for state accountability, nor are they financially audited under governmental accounting standards.
He also said the Texas is currently nationally ranked 45th in public education funding on a per-student basis, yet the state is fifth in graduation rate and above average in national testing.
Janicek encourages all Gulf Coast area residents to call their legislators and voice their opposition to vouchers and their support for public education and its Teacher Retirement System: Kolkhorst, 512-463-0118; Stephenson, 512-463-0604; Olson, 281-494-2690; District 27 state Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, 281-208-3574; District 17 state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, 281-980-3500; U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, 202-224-2934; U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, 202-224-5922.
A Baytown store clerk was shot Sunday morning after he fought back against two men that tried to rob him, police said.
The duo remains on the loose, according to Baytown police, along with a third man who might have entered the store prior to the robbery, then returned to a waiting getaway car as the driver.
An academic conference which raises legal questions about the state of Israel has got under way at the third attempt.
The three-day meeting opened in Cork, Republic of Ireland, after two failed efforts to hold it in Southampton.
The organisers, two professors from the University of Southampton, accused their employer of blocking the event in 2015 and 2016.
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Serial Indifference: A Rape Investigation
by Anita Hassan
@anitasnews
Jenny met her rapist at a bus stop near the Fiesta in Midtown. She was living on the streets in May 2013, a 22-year-old suffering from bipolar disorder. She hadn't showered in four weeks and wanted a change of clothes.Keith Edward Hendricks introduced himself as "Slim" and said he could help.
Her subsequent sexual assault was part of a long series of rapes committed by the same offender who'd escaped time after time, as this four-part Chronicle investigation shows.
Part 1 of the Houston Chronicle's investigation shows how a dedicated detective first picked up Slim's trail back 2007. Part 2 reveals why some of the rape victims who reported him to police never got to testify against him.
Part 3 details how Slim avoided a rape conviction in 2010, instead serving time on a lesser charge in a generous plea deal. The fourth and final part of the series delves into the crime that finally put him away - but also landed a rape victim behind bars.
Houston chef accused of purchasing protected fish from unlicensed fishermen
By Alison Cook
@AlisonCook
Brett Coomer/Staff
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department have accused prominent Houston chef and restaurateur Bruce Molzan of buying large quantities of protected fish from a network of unlicensed commercial fishermen that what may rank as the largest illegal fishing case in Texas history. Mozan says he's innocent. Read the full story.
She believed her mom died peacefully. Two years later, a nurse wrote to say what really happened
By Mike Hixenbaugh
@Mike_Hixenbaugh
For nearly two years, Cris Chapa blamed herself for her mother's death. She worried that she should have made better decisions. Then, in January, an anonymous letter arrived in the mail from one of the nurses at the Sugar Land hospital where her mother had died.
That's when Chapa learned her mom had died after a doctor performed an invasive operation without her consent. Two years later, only one person has been punished: The nurse was fired after who reporting the incident to the state.
Pasadena officials question voting rights appeal
By Mark Collette
@chronMC
In a sign of waning confidence in its own controversial redistricting plan, the Pasadena City Council voted Tuesday to withhold payment from the law firm that's trying to prove the plan doesn't discriminate against Hispanics.
Hyperloop envisions Texans traveling in tubes at 700 mph
By Dug Begley
@DugBegley
One day the tedious and congested Loop 610 could be replaced with a "hyperloop" for high speec trains that could make traveling from Houston to San Antonio, Austin or Dallas as short as a drive to Galveston.
Rendering courtesy AECOM
All four cities could be reached in a little less than two hours, give or take. Some far sooner, via a system that would feel a lot like flying in a commercial plane, but in a closed tube across the ground.
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One man was shot in a robbery attempt outside a Houston club Sunday morning.
Four men were getting in their car to leave a downtown pop-up club around 1:30 a.m. when two armed suspects tried to rob them.
The would-be mugging turned into a physical altercation and the driver got shot in the back, according to Houston police. He managed to drive away and park at a nearby Exxon on North Main and Houston, where they called 911.
The driver was rushed to the hospital in serious but stable condition.
The suspects got away and it's not clear what they may have taken in the robbery.
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A mother of three has been identified as the apparent shooter in Friday's bizarre triple murder-suicide.
Dekitta Holmes, 29, was recently divorced and had been out of work for about a year when she apparently went on a shooting spree that spanned three scenes in two counties, family said Sunday.
Houston police had a gruesome discovery when they showed up for a welfare check just after 7 a.m. Friday at a modest home on Mount Pleasant. Holmes and her stepfather were both found shot to death, and Holmes' mother was critically wounded.
A few doors down, police found another shooting victim at a home where neighbors said the suspected shooter had been living for about a month.
BAYTOWN: Home where grisly League City murder took place sells 4 months after crime
Then, just before 10 a.m., Fort Bend County deputies found the body of Carolyn Jean Holmes, 48, in a Fresno home.
On Sunday, the Harris County medical examiner confirmed Dekitta Holmes' death.
As news of the slayings spread online, friends and family mourned the deaths.
"I never would've thought this could've happened, she seemed like such a sweetheart," one Facebook user said of Holmes.
ICYMI: The last hours of the Montrose vet accused in a murder-for-hire plot
"Never saw this at all," said a woman who worked with her.
On Sunday, her surviving family put up a GoFundMe page to support the daughter and two sons she left behind.
"They will need the help of the community to make sure they are not scarred by this event," the page notes.
"Also, Dekitta did not have life insurance, and the children deserve to see their mother with pride. I know we can all come together in this time of need."
Standing tall, with his hands hanging loosely at his sides, former U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman told a federal magistrate in Houston Monday he understood the criminal charges against him and pleaded not guilty to theft of about $800,000 in charitable donations intended for conservative organizations and associated charges.
Upon Stockman's request, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson had appointed him a lawyer last week to be paid for by the government until he can land a job. Stockman said he needed to dismiss his hand-picked lawyers because he can't work while under indictment: His job requires him to travel overseas, which is not permitted under his bond.
When a Texas elementary school decided to change its name from its current namesake, Confederate general Robert E. Lee, it sought suggestions from the public. And while school officials will get the final say in what the school will be renamed, that didn't stop residents from giving their not-so-helpful input.
Among the suggestions for the school were Adolf Hitler School for Friendship and Tolerance, Drew Brees Elementary, Bruce Lee Elementary, John Cena Elementary and, of course, Schoolie McSchoolface. The top suggestion right know is Donald J. Trump Elementary with 45 nominations, according to KXAN.
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND The party is over, and the fight is on. At stake is the future of Spring Break on this island paradise.
In one corner are hundreds of property owners and businesses who want a family-friendly holiday. In the other is the owner of the biggest beach bar in Texas and 1,500 supporters who say the party must go on.
Each group presented their case last week to the South Padre Island City Council, which agreed to study possible ordinances on mass gatherings and short-term rentals, and hold several public meetings before taking action in July.
Its not kill Spring Break, its lets make Spring Break a little different so that we can control the crowd that comes down here, said Shane Wilson, a first-grade teacher and a leading voice in the push for a tamer Spring Break on the island.
RELATED: Spring break in South Texas, back in the '80s and '90s
South Padre Island has long been a popular Spring Break destination, especially for Texas college students looking to blow off steam. But a series of accidental deaths of Spring Breakers in recent years and concert venues that now overflow with thousands of inebriated partygoers is more than some residents can bear.
The rumblings of a change to Spring Break began in late February. By the end of March, a petition to Save Our Island had taken shape, urging the city to rein in the unruly crowds. Now with around 500 signatures, the petition calls for an ordinance that would force event promoters, not the city, to shoulder the cost of hiring additional security and cleaning up.
Most significant of all is a requirement that if the city approves a concert featuring musicians that might attract people with criminal records, the city could require the venue owner to post a bond before a permit is issued by the city.
A lot of the entertainers that have come down here promote violence toward women, violence toward law enforcement and a complete disrespect of government in general, said Wilson, who is also president of the influential Property Owners Who Care organization. If youre going to bring in groups that promote that kind of violence, then you need to be held responsible for the aftermath and the byproduct.
RELATED: Aftermath of South Padre spring break fight caught on video spills into social media
A few days after the first petition went out, Clayton Brashear, owner of Claytons Beach Bar and Grill, began circulating his own, called Save Spring Break from regulation. His petition, with around 1,500 signatures, calls for better equipping police to enforce existing ordinances, and targets the rowdy house parties that spilled out into the streets of residential neighborhoods.
Claytons claims the title of largest beach bar in Texas, and in recent years crowds of between 3,000 and 5,000 have gravitated to his concerts, featuring acts like Lil Wayne and Migos. The crowds grew even larger this year during the three-day Ultimate Music Experience concert, which Claytons hosted in its parking lot. He hires additional security for concerts, and pays for beach cleanup at the end of every day.
I think its smoke and mirrors for what they really dont like, Brashear said about the property owners proposal. Theyre trying to come up with some rules to prohibit the businesses from inviting Spring Breakers that they dont like.
RELATED: Vintage photographs from Port Aransas
As San Antonio transplant and City Councilman Dennis Stahl sees it, the Save Our Island petitioners are trying to come up with solutions to make the month of partying more palatable for all, while Clayton and his supporters are unwilling to curtail Spring Break in any way.
Lost in the heated debate among 2,500 permanent island residents is an economy that is entirely dependent on tourism, said Chad Hart, owner of Interia Tours. His tour business brought in 7,000 students last month, most of them from the Midwest.
Hart said Spring Break generates around $35 million for island businesses, revenue that is sorely needed after the slow winter months. Yet every year the earnest discussion portending the end of Spring Break begins anew. If residents arent careful the city could end up like Panama City, which in May 2015 banned alcohol on its beaches during Spring Break, causing many college students to vacation in other destinations.
Lets say you just pass one regulation, then one more, pretty soon youve got 50 ordinances stacked up against Spring Break when the whole pitch was not to kill Spring Break, Hart said.
anelsen@express-news.net
Twitter: @amnelsen
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Federal marshals are protecting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at a cost to her agency of $1 million per month, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Education Department has agreed to reimburse the marshals $7.78 million for their services from mid-February to the end of September of this year, according to a spokeswoman for the Marshals Service - an amount that works out to about $1 million per month. Marshals will continue providing security for the education secretary for the next four years, or until either agency decides to terminate the arrangement, under an agreement signed last week.
THINGS TO KNOW: Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet pick
While the department is spending the additional money on DeVos's security, members of the in-house security team that guarded previous secretaries remain on the payroll. But they are not guarding DeVos and have not been assigned new duties, according to a department employee who was not authorized to speak to a reporter and asked for anonymity.
A department spokesman, who declined to be identified, said he could not comment on personnel decisions. He said the agency deferred to the federal marshals' threat assessment and determination about what would be necessary to keep the secretary safe and able to do her job.
The new outlay is a tiny fraction of the department's budget, but comes as the Trump administration has proposed slashing the spending plan by $9 billion, or 13.5 percent.
RANKED: How Texas universities stack up against the world's best colleges
DeVos is the only Cabinet secretary under the protection of the marshals, law enforcement officers who are generally responsible for protecting federal judges, transporting prisoners, apprehending fugitives and protecting witnesses. They also guard the deputy attorney general and Supreme Court justices when they travel.
The last Cabinet member protected by marshals was a director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which ceased to be a Cabinet-level position in 2009, according to Marshals Service spokeswoman Lynzey Donahue.
Previous education secretaries have been protected by a team of department employees, many of whom were Secret Service veterans. That team was replaced by marshals on Feb. 13, a few days after DeVos encountered protesters who briefly blocked her from entering a District of Columbia middle school.
ODD ANALOGY: Betsy DeVos compared school choice to taking Uber over a taxi here's why that could be troubling
DeVos was narrowly confirmed after a bruising confirmation process, during which she morphed from a quietly powerful Republican donor and school voucher advocate into a polarizing household name. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that she had received more threats than previous education secretaries.
The Marshals Service is hiring nearly two dozen people to guard her, according to a person briefed on the security arrangements, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The jobs include 20 positions at the GS-13 level ($95,000-$123,000 annual salary, depending on experience), and two positions at the GS-14 level ($112,000 to $146,000 annual salary).
Donahue, the spokewoman for the marshals, declined to say how many people are guarding DeVos and whether they are protecting her 24/7, citing concern for operational security. The agency said it has determined that a threat to DeVos's safety exists, but declined to describe the nature or intensity of that threat.
A handful of local community organizers and activists are holding a vigil tonight for victims of Syria's six-year war after a chemical bombing in the country earlier this week.
The hour-long vigil will be held at Bagby Park, at 415 Gray. The event will start at 7 p.m.
It has been almost five years since the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a lower court ruling in support of the Texas Open Meetings Act arguing that the act promotes good government.
That ruling ended an eight-year debate sparked by a lawsuit filed by council members representing several Texas cities against former Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in 2009.
However, last week, 329th state District Court Judge Randy Clapp, of Wharton County, ruled at least part of the act is unconstitutional because it is vague, overbroad and violates free speech, With his ruling, Clapp, who was acting as visiting judge in the 221st state District Court judge in Montgomery County, dismissed charges of conspiring to circumvent the act against County Judge Craig Doyal, Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley and political consultant Marc Davenport.
Despite Clapp's decision, the upcoming appeal by special prosecutor Chris Downey could put the issue regarding Doyal, Riley and Davenport in limbo for months. While Downey has not filed the appeal as of press time, he said he has 20 days following Clapp's signed order to do so.
Houston attorney Rusty Hardin, who is representing Doyal, said he hopes Downey would not appeal the decision.
"Obviously we are gratified by the decision," Hardin said in a previous Courier article. "I would hope they wouldn't appeal. Really from the standpoint of those who want to continue to support this statute, I think they would be better off not appealing.
"The ruling doesn't bind other jurisdictions in the state. The best thing to do is let sleeping dogs lie."
What's next
Downey said he is filing an appeal with the 9th Court of Appeals in Beaumont.
If the 9th Court of Appeals rules against Clapp, Downey said, the indictments are reinstated and the case goes back into trial status. However, if the 9th Court of Appeals upholds Clapp's decision, the issue involving the statute then would go to the Criminal Court of Appeals in Austin, followed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans and ultimately could wind up in front of the U.S Supreme Court.
The price
To date, Downey, who was appointed as a special prosecutor by former 9th state District Court Judge Kelly Case in September 2015, has not submitted any invoices to the county for payment. However, he said that probably would happen in the next week or so.
Case appointed Downey after District Attorney Brett Ligon recused his office due to several conflicts.
According to his January campaign finance report, Doyal already had paid Hardin almost $90,000 for his legal defense. In addition, Doyal paid Conroe defense attorney John Choate Jr. $9,167.50 for legal fees in July.
Riley has paid $20,000 to Conroe defense attorney Douglas Atkinson, including $10,000 on Oct. 11, $5,000 on Sept. 25 and another $5,000 on Nov. 2.
Doyal, Riley and Clark are not entitled to any reimbursement of legal fees from the county for this case.
The Clark factor
Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Clark also was indicted along with Doyal, Riley and Davenport on the same charge. However, in March, Clark agreed to pretrial diversion to have his case dismissed if he testified for the state against the other men.
E. Tay Bond, who is representing Clark, said Clark's trial was reset to the first part of December. However, Bond said Clark's agreement is "floating."
"Our agreement was negotiated prior to the motion contesting the constitutionality of the TOMA statute," Bond said. "With my advice to (Clark), we did not join in the constitutional argument because our pretrial diversion agreement was already in effect and Mr. Clark's case is still pending.
"It was a legal and tactical reason not to join (Doyal's motion to dismiss)."
Bond said Clark's agreement would be effective if Clapp's decision is overturned and the indictments for Doyal, Riley and Davenport reinstated. If Clapp's decision is upheld, Bond said it is likely Downey would dismiss Clark's case as well.
Asgeirsson v. Abbott
Doyal's motion to dismiss claimed Section 551.143 of the act is facially vague and overbroad based on the definition within the act. However, Downey said, those same definitions were addressed in the Asgeirsson case.
"You can't get around Asgeirsson, you can't," Downey said. "As much as these guys want to get around it, they can't get around it."
In February 2005, a Brewster County grand jury indicted Alpine City Council members Avinash Rangra and Katie Elms-Lawrence for allegedly violating Section 551.144 of the Texas Open Meetings Act. According to the Big Bend Sentinel, the two were accused of exchanging emails with two other council members discussing city business creating a quorum.
However, before the district court ruled on the case, former Brewster County District Attorney Frank Brown dismissed the indictments after one of the council members testified she never read or responded to the emails. Brown told The Courier, once that happened, there was no longer a quorum of council members and therefore not a violation of Section 551.144 of the act.
Ranga and fellow council member Anna Monclova subsequently sued Brown and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in 2006. According to the lawsuit, the two argued the criminal provisions of the act violated their First Amendment rights. However, the suit was thrown out on a technicality.
In 2009, several council members from across the state, including several from Alpine (one of which as Diana Asgeirsson), filed a separate lawsuit challenging the law. In March 2011, U.S. District Judge Robert Junell ruled in support of TOMA. That ruling was appealed, but ultimately the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Junell's ruling.
"When you read Asgeirsson (named after one of the plaintiffs), it's plain language, it applies to the entire TOMA and it says the Texas Open Meetings Act is not unconstitutional," Downey said. "Our position is this identifies the type of speech, it's not content based, it's a classification of speech. I think we are on exceptionally solid ground with that argument. This statute does not address public speech. It addresses private speech in a secret deliberation."
Officials with the Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the Doyal case because it is still pending but offered 2005 AG Opinion GA-0326 as its stance. That opinion concluded that 551.143 is not facially void for vagueness.
"Members of a governmental body who knowingly conspire to gather in numbers that do not physically constitute a quorum at any one time but who through successive gatherings secretly discuss a public matter with a quorum of that body violate section 551.143 of the Open Meetings Act," the opinion states. " This section is not on its face void for vagueness."
[April 09, 2017] CreditEase Wealth Management and Tishman Speyer Become Global Strategic Partners
BEIJING, April 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CreditEase Wealth Management signed a global strategic partnership agreement with Tishman Speyer in Beijing on March 23 to extend global cooperation in resource sharing, fund investment, buyouts and business development. Tishman Speyer is a leading global real estate developer, operator and investment manager. Noteworthy assets include Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Center in New York, The Springs in Shanghai, Sao Paulo's Torre Norte and OpernTurm in Frankfurt, among others. With an RMB10 billion joint investment target for the next three years, the agreement aims to extend the partnership between CreditEase Wealth Management and Tishman Speyer that began in 2015, boosting cooperation in learning, life, heritage and property-related business in addition to fund investment, to serve diverse needs of CreditEase Wealth Management's high-net-worth Chinese clients. "Many of our cooperative projects focus on value increase and rely on effective post-investment management to unlock values. This is consistent with the development philosophy of Tishman Speyer, and therefore I look forward to our future cooperation," said Tang Ning, Founder and CEO of CreditEase. Rob Speyer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tishman Speyer, commented: "CreditEase Wealth Management and Tishman Speyer share a common value -- we're both dedicated to serve clients. We look forward to further strengthening our relationship as we seek more joint investment opportunities in China and in best-performing markets elsewhere."
" The two companies share ' the gene of globalization ' , ' the pioneering and innovative spirit ' and ' the strong sense of corporate social responsibility '," noted Zhao Ruobing, Senior Vice President of CreditEase Wealth Management. With CreditEase Wealth Management's growing business worldwide and enlarging global client base, Tang foresaw with full confidence that CreditEase Wealth Management would become as globalized as Tishman Speyer in the next three to five years.
"We are responsible for our global shareholders," added Tang. "We will soon open a wealth management business in the US to serve the needs of overseas Chinese as well." Tang concluded the current investment strategy of CreditEase Wealth Management with three key themes, namely, an overweight to alternative assets, long-term investment and emphasis on post-investment management. Tang stressed that the partnership will focus on long-term development and clients' authentic needs in the coming one or two decades by providing them globalized and diverse portfolios, rather than just meet their short term or tangible needs with fixed-income or domestic products." "Our cooperation will definitely set new records in the future and keep accelerating the business while maintaining carefulness and diligence. Our goal is to ensure return for clients in a world full of uncertainty," said Tang. About CreditEase Wealth Management The wealth management arm of CreditEase focuses on comprehensive global asset allocation services for high-net-worth individuals and mass affluent investors, offering a wide range of services and products available in multiple currencies for onshore and offshore investments in the areas of fixed income, private equity, capital markets, hedge funds, real estate, insurance, as well as investment immigration and international education. CreditEase Wealth Management is committed to providing high-quality products and services in line with customer needs and expectations, as well as formulating comprehensive plans for wealth preservation and growth. On December 14, 2016, CreditEase Wealth Management was named winner of the "Best Non-Bank Private Wealth Product" by The Asian Banker, a Singapore-based leading provider of strategic intelligence on the financial services industry. About CreditEase: CreditEase is a leading FinTech company in China, specializing in small business and consumer lending as well as wealth management for high net worth and mass affluent investors. It is a Standing Committee member of China's Internet Finance Industry Association and Chairman of Beijing Marketplace Lending Association. Its majority owned subsidiary Yirendai (NYSE: YRD), an online consumer finance marketplace, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/creditease-wealth-management-and-tishman-speyer-become-global-strategic-partners-300435870.html SOURCE CreditEase Wealth Management
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Houston chef accused of purchasing protected fish from unlicensed fishermen
By Alison Cook
@AlisonCook
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department cited prominent Houston chef and restaurateur Bruce Molzan with buying large quantities of protected fish from a network of unlicensed commercial fishermen in what may rank as the largest illegal fishing case in Texas history. Mozan says he's innocent. Read the full story.
Brett Coomer/Staff
She believed her mom died peacefully. Two years later, a nurse wrote to say what really happened
By Mike Hixenbaugh
@Mike_Hixenbaugh
For nearly two years, Cris Chapa blamed herself for her mother's death. She worried that she should have made better decisions. Then, in January, an anonymous letter arrived in the mail from one of the nurses at the Sugar Land hospital where her mother had died.
That's when Chapa learned her mom had died after a doctor performed an invasive operation without her consent. Two years later, only one person has been punished: The nurse was fired after who reporting the incident to the state.
Pasadena officials question voting rights appeal
By Mark Collette
@chronMC
In a sign of waning confidence in its own controversial redistricting plan, the Pasadena City Council voted Tuesday to withhold payment from the law firm that's trying to prove the plan doesn't discriminate against Hispanics.
Hyperloop envisions Texans traveling in tubes at 700 mph
By Dug Begley
@DugBegley
One day the tedious and congested Loop 610 could be replaced with a "hyperloop" for high speec trains that could make traveling from Houston to San Antonio, Austin or Dallas as short as a drive to Galveston.
Rendering courtesy AECOM
All four cities could be reached in a little less than two hours, give or take. Some far sooner, via a system that would feel a lot like flying in a commercial plane, but in a closed tube across the ground.
Serial Indifference: A Rape Investigation
by Anita Hassan
@anitasnews
Jenny met her rapist at a bus stop near the Fiesta in Midtown. She was living on the streets in May 2013, a 22-year-old suffering from bipolar disorder. She hadn't showered in four weeks and wanted a change of clothes.Keith Edward Hendricks introduced himself as "Slim" and said he could help.
Her subsequent sexual assault was part of a long series of rapes committed by the same offender who'd escaped time after time, as this four-part Chronicle investigation shows.
Part 1 of the Houston Chronicle's investigation shows how a dedicated detective first picked up Slim's trail back 2007. Part 2 reveals why some of the rape victims who reported him to police never got to testify against him.
Part 3 details how Slim avoided a rape conviction in 2010, instead serving time on a lesser charge in a generous plea deal. The fourth and final part of the series delves into the crime that finally put him away - but also landed a rape victim behind bars.
On Monday, April 10, all Greater Houston Papa John's Pizza locations are donating all proceeds to the family of late Assistant Chief Deputy Clint Greenwood. All Papa John's locations from Huntsville to Galveston, and Lake Jackson to Baytown are participating in the donations.
"People want to help out, but don't always know what to do. So we thought this might be a good way to give some grace and money to the family and help them out," said Keith Sullins, Papa John's Houston Pizza Venture President.
Buc-ee's can be compared to a lot of things in life, like a bathroom heaven or the one-stop shop for everything on a road trip. But what it is harder to tie to is politics.
NBC's "Meet the Press" hosts discovered this Sunday morning after the Texas-based convenience store chain entered a political discussion about restaurant and dining options that represent the factions inside President Donald Trump's White House. Story continues below.
BUC-EE'S DRAMA: Former employee sued by gas stop chain for breaching contract
"Meet the Press" guest New York Times columnist David Brooks said that supporters of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner eat at "a fancy restaurant in New York called Cipriani," while supporters of Steve Bannon, the White House Chief Strategist, are more likely seen at a Texas Buc-ee's.
Social media quickly wondered if Brooks has actually been in a Buc-ee's, since it is the five-star version of gas station stops. Click through the slideshow above to see the social media reactions to the bold claim made by Brooks about the Texas chain.
DID YOU KNOW: 25 amazing things you probably didn't know about Buc-ee's
Below is the transcript of the "Meet the Press" discussion Sunday morning.
CHUCK TODD: Back now with the panel, there is a lot of palace intrigue this week. Here are the headlines all there, they were all semi-Bannon related. Steve Bannon, the chief strategist there, Rich Lowry what do you make of it? Because, and do you connect Bannon being kicked off the National Security Council. Two days later, something that he argued against, a Syria strike happens. It's clear that if it's Bannon versus the president's son-in-law, Bannon is losing.
RICH LOWRY: Yeah, it's not hard to handicap that one because there is only one person who can't be fired in that equation. And, if the Democrats take over, and this is one bizarre thing about this administration, you have Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who wouldn't be within a hundred miles of any other Republican administration. If they take over, I think you will see probably a less chaotic White House, but on policy I would worry anything that might be embarrassing at a dinner party with Anna Wintour will either be jettisoned or significantly softened.
DAVID BROOKS: That is to me...I do think son-in-laws do get fired, by the way, some of them. It's like a philosophical difference almost. There is a fancy restaurant in New York called Cipriani, which is sort of the Jared Kushner wing of the Republican party--
RICH LOWRY: David has never been there--
DAVID BROOKS: I have never been there, but I have walked by it. Then there is a bunch of truck stops in Texas called Buc-ee's which is the Steve Bannon wing and they are very different parts of America and which is this administration going to orient around - that's fundamentally a philosophical question and it is hard to have a single strategic administration where you're trying to be Cipriani's and Buc-ee's at the same time.
CHUCK TODD: And going back to the President's son-in-law, at the end of the day, you can't have a troika if one of them can't be fired.
COMPETITION ATTACKED: Buc-ee's sues to keep out rival Bucky's
President Donald Trump raised the ire of his counterpart in Moscow by striking a Syrian airfield last Thursday, and in doing so disrupted the media narrative that he is too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A CBS News poll published Monday found majority support for the bombing ordered by Trump, and just 35 percent of U.S. adults said they believe the president is "too friendly" with Russia, down 8 percentage points since February. Notably, Trump made headway with Democrats and independents. (Republicans needed less convincing to begin with.)
Sixty-two percent of Democrats still say Trump is too friendly, but that figure represents a 13-point drop. The share of independents who view Trump as too friendly toward Russia declined by 9 points, to 30 percent.
Coverage of Trump's military action noted that the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles - aimed at the airfield from which Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces are believed to have deployed a chemical-weapon attack on civilians this week - puts the United States at odds with Russia, which has supported the Assad regime. A few excerpts from the early coverage:
-- "Putin denounced the U.S. action as 'aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law under a far-fetched pretext.' He said the strikes 'dealt a serious blow to Russian-U.S. relations' and that their aim was to distract from civilian deaths caused by coalition airstrikes in Iraq, a statement from his press office said." (CNN)
-- "Mr. Putin considered the attack a breach of international law that had been made under a false pretext, Peskov said. Moscow also called on the United Nations Security Council to convene an emergency meeting, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was freezing an agreement with the United States to coordinate air operations over Syria." (New York Times)
-- "Trump's decision to strike Syrian government forces is a particularly notable shift for a leader who in the past had repeatedly said he wanted better relations with Moscow, including to cooperate with Russia to fight Islamic State. ... Russian media long portrayed Trump as a figure who would promote closer relations with Moscow. At home, Trump's opponents have accused him of being too supportive of Putin." (Reuters)
The Reuters excerpt captures the dynamic perfectly. During the presidential campaign, Trump praised Putin, calling him a "stronger leader" than President Barack Obama.
After his inauguration, Trump did little to inspire confidence that he could stand up to Putin when he defended the Russian leader in a high-profile interview on Super Bowl Sunday. Interviewer Bill O'Reilly of Fox News remarked to Trump that "Putin is a killer," referring to suspicions that the Kremlin has been behind the deaths of journalists and political dissidents.
"There are a lot of killers," Trump replied. "We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?"
Most significant, FBI Director James B. Comey confirmed last month that his agency is investigating whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the election by spreading negative information about Democrat Hillary Clinton. There is no proof of collusion, but the FBI and CIA agree that Russia sought to help Trump win - a conclusion that would seem to make the president disinclined to cross such a powerful supporter.
Yet that is exactly what Trump did by authorizing Thursday's airstrike. The move does not answer questions about collusion one way or the other, but it does counter the notion that Trump might reflexively yield to Putin on important decisions.
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AUSTIN -- Negotiations on the final version of a state budget will queue up this week at the State Capitol, but don't look for much public action -- or any chance of a final budget, for sure -- as the Republican-controlled Legislature gets ready for its Easter break.
This week, both the House that passed its $218.3 billion budget last Thursday and the Senate that approved its $212.7 billion spending plan two weeks ago will begin firming up their negotiating positions in preparation for talks starting in earnest next week, after the negotiators -- called conferees -- are appointed by their respective chambers.
While the two legislative chambers are just about $500 million apart in dollars spent, they're light years apart in how to pay for it -- with the Senate relying on an accounting maneuver to save $2.5 billion, and the House wanting to spend about that same amount out of the state's savings account.
Neither likes the others' pay plan. In addition, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is smarting over the House rejection last week of his plan to allow more 'school choice' for parents -- opponents call it vouchers -- and House refusal to advance the Senate's controversial "bathroom bill."
In legis-speak, that means there'll be political drama over the budget before the end of the legislative session at the end of May -- and that show will open after Easter.
By past practice, the Lege will leave town Thursday and return next Tuesday.
Click to pay more sales tax
While the Legislature, especially the Senate, has been focused this spring mainly with figuring ways to cut taxes -- especially fast-rising property taxes -- Senate Bill 1713 could bump up the cost of goods Texans order online by requiring all e-retailers selling things in Texas to start collecting sales taxes.
Bottom line, the cost of your fast-click purchases could soon go up.
Under current law, retailers have to have a physical presence in Texas to be required to collect sales taxes. The bill by Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, would change that by requiring most of those other retailers to remit sales taxes, as well.
The result could be up to $1.8 billion in additional revenue for state government.
See the live debate here starting at 10 a.m. Monday before the Senate Finance Committee.
Arming first responders
Soon, that EMS medic or other first responder showing up to help you in an emergency could be packing heat.
Under a bill to be debated Monday by the Senate State Affairs Committee, first responders including volunteer EMS personnel would be allowed to carry a firearm while on duty for personal protection. If they shoot someone while on duty, it would be a defense from prosecution, under the proposed legislation.
Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, the sponsor of Senate Bill 1408, says that the risk of assault for EMS personnel is 30 times higher than other professions in the United States, and they chould be given the opportunity to protect themselves.
In a gun-friendly state like Texas, the measure is no surprise, in a legislative session where bills are pending to make gun licenses cheaper and to allow more Lone Star residents to carry weapons.
See the debate on the bill here online starting at 9 a.m. Monday.
Juneteenth rockets
For years, fireworks have been a staple at Texas celebrations including the Fourth of July, Christmas and New Year's and Cinco de Mayo.
And Juneteenth, celebrating when slaves in Texas got word in 1865 that they had been emancipated by President Lincoln, could soon join the list.
House Bill 41 by Rep. James White, R-Hillister, would add the June 19 festivities to the official list of windows under which fireworks can legally be sold in Texas -- June through June 19, to be exact.
No opposition to the measure has been signaled, so the 10 a.m. Monday hearing on this bill before the House County Affairs Committee could mean fast action to move it to a vote by the full House. Watch the action here online.
Viral Foghorn
A knee-slapper of a debate in the Senate has become an online sensation.
During debate on Senate Bill 1620 to legalize up to six chickens in backyard coops, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, brought down the henhouse -- in the upper chamber, at least -- with his impression of Foghorn Leghorn, the Southern-feathered rooster made famous in the Looney Tunes cartoons.
See Bettencourt's performance that brought chuckles from fellow senators and applause from the gallery, and judge for yourself whether he's got a future in improv.
AUSTIN -- A federal judge in Texas ruled Monday afternoon that lawmakers passed the state's 2011 voter ID law with a "discriminatory purpose," violating federal voting rights protections and targeting Latino and African American voters.
Calling the bill's provisions "draconian," Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos wrote that "discriminatory purpose was at least one of the substantial or motivating factors behind passage of SB 14."
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A far-right protest in England was met by one woman with a response so rare, it's being praised on social media.
Saffiyah Khan came face-to-face with the English Defence League's leader, Ian Crossland, during the group's protest in Birmingham Saturday, which was being held as a response to the recent terror attacks in London, according to BuzzFeed.
A photographer captured their confrontation on camera, showing the now-viral image of Khan smiling in the face of the right-wing leader, as an officer keeps them apart.
A mosque in Birmingham was holding a tea party to counter the far-right group's protest Saturday and Khan told BuzzFeed News she attended the demonstration to show support for Muslims in the area. The English Defence League has a history of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim harassment.
"I went with the intent of showing support for anyone who was assaulted or harassed by them," Khan said.
RELATED VIDEO: Thousands gather to honor victims of Westminster attack (story continues below)
Khan intervened when a group of EDL protesters surrounded a Muslim woman in a hijab, BuzzFeed reports, and that's when the famous photo was snapped.
The EDL claimed on Facebook that Khan had interrupted a moment of silence that was being held in honor of the victims of Stockholm's terror attack.
The photo spread quickly online, even earning praise from the British member of Parliament representing Birmingham, Jess Phillips.
Khan told the BBC she was surprised by the global reaction to the photo and didn't expect it to go viral.
According to the BBC, her motivations for getting involved were simple: "I don't like seeing people getting ganged up on in my town."
SEOUL -- A U.S. Navy strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was making its way towards the Korean peninsula Sunday "to maintain readiness" as Kim Jong Un's regime in North Korea prepared to mark key anniversaries this coming week.
North Korea is expected to hold a huge military parade on April 15 to celebrate the 105th birthday of its founding president, Kim Il Sung, and to mark the 85th anniversary of the creation of the Korean People's Army on April 25 with similar fanfare.
Analysts expect the recent barrage of missiles to continue, and activities around its known nuclear test site have raised concerns North Korea may be preparing for a sixth nuclear test.
Over the weekend, North Korea said it was not afraid of military strikes like those the United States launched on Syria last week, saying it could defend itself with its "tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force."
In this atmosphere, the Carl Vinson strike group, which includes a carrier air wing and two guided-missile destroyers, was ordered to travel to the "western Pacific." When the group left Singapore on Saturday, it was bound for Australia before receiving the new orders.
"The U.S. Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson Strike Group north as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific," said Dave Benham, a spokesman for the Pacific Command.
"The number one threat in the region continues to the North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability," he said, according to the AFP news agency.
The Vinson group last month participated in joint drills with the South Korean military to prepare for a sudden change on the peninsula - including the collapse of the North Korean regime or an invasion.
North Korea has been testing medium-range missiles over recent months, and Kim in January said North Korea had "entered the final stage of preparation for a test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile" capable of hitting the mainland United States. In response, President Donald Trump tweeted: "It won't happen!"
During a 20-minute phone call Saturday, Trump told South Korea's acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, that he had "in-depth discussions about North Korea's serious nuclear problems and how to respond to them" during his summit meeting with Xi Jinping last week, according to the South Korean leader's office.
Trump's vow to act alone if China didn't rein in North Korea, combined with the American president's sudden decision to launch airstrikes on Syria last week, have some analysts speculating that North Korea could be next.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said during a visit to Seoul last month that "all options are on the table," including military options. American administrations have long ruled out even pinprick strikes on North Korean nuclear sites or missile targets because of the potential for catastrophic damage in South Korea.
The North has conventional artillery massed on its side of the demilitarized zone that bisects the Korean Peninsula, giving it the capacity to inflict serious damage on greater Seoul, a metropolitan area of 20 million people that lies just 30 miles south of the DMZ.
A statement from North Korea's foreign ministry, published Sunday, said that the attack on Syria was "absolutely unpardonable as it was an undisguised act of aggression against a sovereign state."
North Korea will not be "frightened" by the U.S. strike on Syria, according to a statement published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.The strikes showed why North Korea needed nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, the statement said. "We will bolster up in every way our capability for self-defense to cope with the U.S. evermore reckless moves for a war and defend ourselves with our own force," it said.
[April 10, 2017] Adobe Named the Leader Among Digital Intelligence Platform Vendors by Independent Research Firm
NEW DELHI, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Adobe has been recognized as the only leader in 'The Forrester Wave: Digital Intelligence Platforms, Q2 2017' report. Adobe received the highest scores possible in nine categories, including cross-channel attribution, social analytics, web analytics, behavioral targeting, online testing, tag management, partner ecosystem, digital intelligence revenue and number of enterprise customers. Of the ten vendors Forrester invited to participate in the report, Adobe was recognized as a leader in an evaluation of 26 criteria, including current offering, strategy and market presence. "Adobe consolidates a broad set of capabilities around core platform services," stated Forrester in its Digital Intelligences Platform report. "Adobe continues to have strength and depth in digital intelligence, primarily for optimizing customer experiences and engagement, all within the framework of its marketing cloud platform in a marketing and e-commerce context." A complimentary copy of 'The Forrester Wave: Digital Intelligence Platforms, Q2 2017' report is available for download here, and a blog post can be viewed here. "Enterprises today are forced to rethink the customer journey given sky-rocketing expectations," said Suresh Vittal, Vice President, Product Marketing and Strategies, Adobe Experience Clod. "What we've built is the only platform originating in content and data. Powered by an open ecosystem and intelligence capabilities at its core with Adobe Sensei, the Adobe Cloud Platform helps brands deliver exceptional and personalized customer experiences at massive scale."
With Adobe Cloud Platform, companies can centralize and standardize customer data and content from any system to dramatically improve the design and delivery of rich customer experiences. It includes services for blending and analyzing data while harnessing machine learning via Adobe Sensei to make experiences more compelling and personalized. The Adobe Cloud Platform also makes its data, content and insights available via APIs to partners and third-party developers. Adobe's platform is used by thousands of partners worldwide, manages over 100 trillion data transactions per year and receives over 700 million API calls per day through Adobe I/O, Adobe's cross-cloud developer portal. Adobe's platform is used by thousands of partners worldwide, including Hyatt. The global hospitality leader improves digital asset management and delivery across channels using Adobe Experience Cloud, to support customers throughout their entire journey - from dreaming, to planning, to experiencing. "The Adobe solutions clarify how even small changes can have a big impact on our bottom line," said Ellen Lee, Senior Vice President of Global Digital, Hyatt.
Adobe Sensei uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as Adobe's massive volume of content and data assets to tackle today's most complex experience challenges. The intelligence layer in the Adobe Cloud Platform, Adobe Sensei provides customers with a unified AI and machine learning framework as well as intelligent services to help them work smarter and faster. In Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Sensei already powers over 100 intelligent capabilities including Intelligent Alerts, Automated Advertising Insights, Anomaly Detection and Lookalike Modeling to help brands better understand and meet their customers' needs. About Adobe Experience Cloud Adobe Experience Cloud is a comprehensive set of cloud services designed to give enterprises everything needed to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Comprised of Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Advertising Cloud and Adobe Analytics Cloud, Experience Cloud is built on the Adobe Cloud Platform integrating with Adobe Creative Cloud and Document Cloud. Leveraging Adobe Sensei's machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, Adobe Experience Cloud combines world-class solutions, a complete extensive platform, comprehensive data and content systems, a robust partner ecosystem delivering an unmatched expertise on experience delivery. About Adobe Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com .
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Advait Soman
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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.
[April 10, 2017] Deskera Expands Middle East and Africa Presence, Launches Channel Partner Program in the Region
MUMBAI and DUBAI, UAE, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Deskera is committed to empowering and assisting SMBs in transitioning to the cloud Deskera, a global provider of cloud-based software solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, is expanding its footprint in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market. It has launched a channel partner program to bring MEA enterprises, the most effective business software to serve their customers. Having seen impressive growth around the globe, with 100% increase in revenue in the past three years, Deskera aims for a greater investment in the MEA market. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450678/PRNE__Deskera_png_Logo.jpg )
"Dubai is well positioned to serve as a business hub to capitalize on the accelerated growth in the region. Enterprises of all sizes are gearing to shift to the cloud and Deskera is committed to empower businesses to make this transition seamlessly," said Shashank Dixit, CEO, Deskera. This expansion will aid Deskera's channel partners in the region to consolidate their base and scale up operations. The program will augment partners' goals through a wide array of sophisticated cloud-based business software products and services. Deskera's partners are excited about the expansion. "We admire the way Deskera has been working to provide world-class technology to mid-sized companies. As Middle East and Africa move towards digital adopton, our partnership is an excellent opportunity to take our vision of making enterprises digitally advanced a step further," says Himanshu Gupta, Director, Can Ends FZE.
According to a latest research, by 2019, the Middle East and Africa market will have the world's highest cloud traffic growth rate at 41%. "We want to be an integral part of the growth in the region. We are hoping for a mutually beneficial ecosystem with our channel partners to strengthen this relationship and aid SMBs towards automation and cloud," says Hemanth Dattatreya, Global Head, Channels and Alliances, Deskera.
For the past eight years, Deskera has been enhancing its product offering, understanding the SME landscape to provide cloud-based software to businesses across different industries ranging from manufacturing, retail, F&B, engineering, pharmaceutical, engineering, aviation, banking to construction. Today, more than 3,000 businesses, with approximately 80,000 users, manage their companies with Deskera ERP. Deskera has been winning accolades for its cutting-edge applications. Deskera was the winner of the Red Herring 100 Asia 2016 and was featured in the Top 20 Finance Technology Solution Providers by CIO Advisor. About Deskera Deskera is a global leader in cloud-based solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. The company was founded in 2008 with the vision of using the cloud to bridge the digital divide between entrepreneurs and big business by creating greater access to the best technology. Our sophisticated, simple-to-use technology provides solutions that help all types of companies manage resources more efficiently across departments, from operations to accounting to sales to HR, on one platform. Deskera is headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices around the world including locations in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The company has a pan India presence with offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune. To find out how cloud solutions can make it easier to run your business, please visit http://www.deskera.com.
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[April 10, 2017] Chugai's Alecensa Met Its Primary Endpoint in the ALEX Study
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:4519) announced today that Alecensa as an initial (first-line) treatment showed that patients lived significantly longer without disease worsening (progression-free survival, PFS) compared to crizotinib in the ALEX Study, a global phase III study targeting ALK fusion gene positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), conducted by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. The safety profile of Alecensa was consistent with that observed in previous studies, with no new or unexpected adverse events. "Following the Japanese phase III J-ALEX study, the ALEX study, the head to head trial with crizotinib, Alecensa demonstrated a significant prolongation of PFS compared to crizotinib. This finding greatly encourages the patients suffering from ALK fusion gene positive NSCLC," said Dr. Yasushi Ito, Senior Vice President, Head of Project & Lifecycle Management Unit. "We believe that Alecensa will also contribute to improving the outcomes for overseas patients from first line therapy in the future." The ALEX study was an open-label, randomized global phase III study that compares the efficacy and safety between both monotherapy of Alecensa and crizotinib. The ALEX study enrolled treatment-naive 303 patients with ALK fusion gene positive NSCLC. The subjects were allocated to either the Alecensa arm or the crizotinib arm in a one to one ratio. The primary endpoint of the ALEX study was PFS as assessed by the investigator. The secondary endpoints included Independent Review Committee-assessed PFS, overall survival, objective response rate, duration of response, safety, and other endpoints. The full data of the ALEX study will be presented at a future medical meeting and submitted to global health authorities, including the United States Food and Drug Administration. Alecensa is a highly selective oral ALK inhibitor created by Chugai. It has been reported that approximately five percent of patients with NSCLC express a chromosomal rearrangement which leads to fusion of the ALK gene with another gene.1) ALK kinase signalling is constantly active in cells with such fusion genes, resulting in uncontrolled growth of tumour cells and transforming the cells into tumour cells. 2, 3) Alecensa exerts its anti-tumour effect by selectively inhibiting ALK kinase activity to inhibit tumour cell proliferation and induce cell death. 4) In addition, Alecensa is not recognized by the active efflux system in the blood brain barrier which actively pumps molecules out of the brain. Thus, Alecensa is able to remain active in the central nervous system and has proven activity against brain metastases. Alecensa is currently approved in the United States, Kuwait, Israel, Hong Kong, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland, India, the EU, Australia and Taiwan for the treatment of adult patients with ALK-positive, metastatic (advanced) NSCLC who have progressed on or those intolerant to crizotinib. In Japan, "Alecensa capsule 150mg" is available to patients with "ALK fusion gene positive unresectable, recurrent/advanced NSCLC" and is marketed by Chugai.
1) Biomarker committee of The Japan Lung Cancer Society, Guidelines for ALK gene tests in lung cancer patients 2) Soda et al., Nature. 448: 561-566 (2007) 3) Takeuchi et al., Clin Cancer Res. 15: 3143-3149 (2009) 4) Sakamoto et al., Cancer Cell. 19: 679-690 (2011)
Note: The description of Japanese package insert - Dosage and administration for Japanese patients: "the usual adult dosage is 300mg alectinib administered orally twice daily." - In the current Japanese package insert, it is described that "2. efficacy and safety of ALECENSA in chemotherapy-naive patients have not been established." About Chugai Chugai Pharmaceutical is one of Japan's leading research-based pharmaceutical companies with strengths in biotechnology products. Chugai, based in Tokyo, specializes in prescription pharmaceuticals and is listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As an important member of the Roche Group, Chugai is actively involved in R&D activities in Japan and abroad. Specifically, Chugai is working to develop innovative products which may satisfy the unmet medical needs, mainly focusing on the oncology area.
In Japan, Chugai's research facilities in Gotemba and Kamakura are collaborating to develop new pharmaceuticals and laboratories in Ukima are conducting research for technology development for industrial production. Overseas, Chugai Pharmabody Research based in Singapore is engaged in research focusing on the generation of novel antibody drugs by utilizing Chugai's proprietary innovative antibody engineering technologies. Chugai Pharma USA and Chugai Pharma Europe are engaged in clinical development activities in the United States and Europe.
The consolidated revenue in 2016 of Chugai totalled 491.8 billion yen and the operating income was 80.6 billion yen (IFRS Core basis).
Additional information is available on the internet at https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005468/en/
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[April 10, 2017] IGC Files International Patents for IGC-501 Compound Indicated for Neuropathic Pain
BETHESDA, Md., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- India Globalization Capital, Inc. (NYSE MKT:IGC) announces today that it has filed patent applications for IGC-501 in Canada, Israel, and Europe in support of its global cannabis-based combination therapy development initiatives.
IGC-501 is indicated for neuropathic pain. The pain market represents a significant component of the healthcare system and The Journal of Pain in September 2012 reported that the annual estimated national cost of pain ranges from $560 billion to $635 billion. In addition, abuse of prescription opioids is estimated to cost about $25 billion. The international landscape embraces advancements in medical cannabis with countries like Germany, Israel and Canada being in the forefront. We aspire to bring our cannabis-based compounds to these markets and position ourselves for sustained growth. Canadas recent introduction of legislation to legalize cannabs and Germanys initiatives on medical cannabis are particularly encouraging on a global perspective. It should be noted that filing a patent does not guarantee that a patent will be issued in the future.
We continue to strengthen our IP position in cannabis-based combination therapies and have progressed to include global patent filings. IGC is committed to addressing high potential international markets as a first mover in this emerging segment of cannabis-based combination therapy pharmaceuticals, concludes Ram Mukunda, CEO. About IGC
India Globalization Capital is engaged in the development of cannabis-based therapies to treat pain, PTSD, seizures, cachexia, chronic and terminal neurological and oncological diagnoses, and other life altering conditions. In support of this mission, IGC has assembled a portfolio of patent filings for its phytocannabinoid-based treatments. The company is based in Bethesda, Maryland. For more information visit www.igcinc.us Follow us on Twitter @IGCIR and Facebook.com/IGCIR/ Forward-looking Statements Please see risk factors discussed in India Globalization Capital, Inc.s Form 10-K for fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, and in subsequent reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact Info: Claudia Grimaldi 301-983-0998
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Monday marked the final time Mike Pride took to a lectern in the Columbia Journalism Schools Pulitzer Hall and announced the fabled prizes of the same name. But this ceremonycelebrating the 101st Pulitzersheld special significance for a man who spent three decades working at the 20,000-circulation Concord Monitor. When I was rehearsing this, Pride said later, I teared up when I got to the entry for The Storm Lake Times.
The twice-weekly, family-owned newspaper from a tiny town in northwest Iowa took home the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing on Monday, capping off a strong showing by the very local and regional newspapers most threatened by economic headwinds. The East Bay Times was given the nod for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of a deadly warehouse party in Oakland, while the Charleston Gazette-Mails series on prescription opioids flowing into West Virginia earned Investigative Reporting honors.
The Storm Lake Times award came for editorials by its editor, Art Cullen, that challenged agricultural interest groups over water pollution. Speaking to reporters after Mondays ceremony, Pride said the paper showcased just how crucial local voices remain.
It shows the power of one journalistor a smaller group of journalistsif they keep their eyes on the prize and dont get too downhearted about whats happening, the turmoil in journalism, but instead focus on what the work at hand is.
Other takeaways:
A big day for Trumps favorite targets
Congrats to this year's Pulitzer Prize winners: The "Failing" New York Times
The "Phony" Washington Post
The "Left-wing blog" ProPublica Sign up for CJR 's daily email Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) April 10, 2017
David Fahrenthold adds another notch to his belt
Was his Pulitzer for National Reporting ever in doubt?
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ends a tumultuous year on a high note
Just months after the Panama Papers expose shocked the world in April 2016, the small investigative outfit that coordinated the effort was short on cash. ICIJ had to part ways with three contract journalists, and soon after it began spinning off from its parent organization of two decades, the Center for Public Integrity.
Its definitely been an incredible year of ups and downs, ICIJ Senior Editor Michael Hudson said by phone Monday, sometimes at the same time.
The latest upswing came in the form of a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting shared with publishing partners at the Miami Herald and McClatchy. ICIJ connected hundreds of journalists across six continents to carry out the international leak investigation, which exposed how global elites sheltered wealth through offshore tax havens, among other revelations.
Some stories are too big, too global, too complex for a single news outlet to tackle, Hudson said. When journalists pool their resources and work together, its much harder for bad guys to keep their transgressions secret. Its takes two things that journalists arent really known for: teamwork and patience.
Recently bolstered by an Omidyar Network grant of $4.5 million, the newly independent ICIJ has staffed up past its Panama Papers-era size. Hudson, for one, is optimistic.
These days, a lot of us in journalism feel like were part of this embattled and shrinking tribe, Hudson says. Weve endured, weve seen layoffs, weve seen newspapers going under, and then President Trump comes into office saying were the enemy of the people. But were not dead yet. And the Panama Papers shows that to people all over the world.
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The full list of 2017 winners
Public Service:
The New York Daily News and ProPublica: For uncovering, primarily through the work of reporter Sarah Ryley, widespread abuse of eviction rules by the police to oust hundreds of people, most of them poor minorities.
Finalists Chicago Tribune; Houston Chronicle
Breaking News Reporting:
East Bay Times: For relentless coverage of the Ghost Ship fire, which killed 36 people at a warehouse party, and for reporting after the tragedy that exposed the citys failure to take actions that might have prevented it.
Finalists The Dallas Morning News Staff; The Orlando Sentinel Staff
Investigative Reporting:
Eric Eyre, Charleston Gazette Mail: For courageous reporting, performed in the face of powerful opposition, to expose the flood of opioids flowing into depressed West Virginia counties with the highest overdose death rates in the country.
Finalists Michael J. Berens and Patricia Callahan of Chicago Tribune; Steve Reilly of USA Today Network, Tysons Corner, Virginia
Local Reporting:
Salt Lake Tribune Staff: For a string of vivid reports revealing the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment given to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University, one of Utahs most powerful institutions.
Finalists Jenna Russell, Maria Cramer, Michael Rezendes, Todd Wallack and Scott Helman of The Boston Globe; Michael Schwirtz, Michael Winerip and Robert Gebeloff of The New York Times
National Reporting:
David Fahrenthold, The Washington Post: For persistent reporting that created a model for transparent journalism in political campaign coverage while casting doubt on Donald Trumps assertions of generosity toward charities.
Finalists Renee Dudley, Steve Stecklow, Alexandra Harney and other members of the Reuters Staff; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff
International Reporting:
The New York Times: For agenda-setting reporting on Vladimir Putins efforts to project Russias power abroad, revealing techniques that included assassination, online harassment and the planting of incriminating evidence on opponents.
Finalists Chris Hamby of BuzzFeed News, New York; International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald; The Wall Street Journal Staff
Feature Writing:
C.J. Chivers, The New York Times: For showing, through an artful accumulation of fact and detail, that a Marines postwar descent into violence reflected neither the actions of a simple criminal nor a stereotypical case of PTSD.
Finalists Adam Entous and Devlin Barrett of The Wall Street Journal; Eli Saslow of The Washington Post
Explanatory Reporting:
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald: For the Panama Papers, a series of stories using a collaboration of more than 300 reporters on six continents to expose the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens. (Moved by the Board from the International Reporting category, where it was entered.)
Finalists Joan Garrett McClane and Joy Lukachick Smith of Chattanooga Times Free Press; Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, Lauren Kirchner and Terry Parris Jr. of ProPublica; Staff of National Geographic, Washington, D.C.
Commentary:
Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal: For rising to the moment with beautifully rendered columns that connected readers to the shared virtues of Americans during one of the nations most divisive political campaigns.
Finalists Dahleen Glanton of Chicago Tribune; Trudy Rubin of Philadelphia Media Network
Criticism:
Hilton Als of The New Yorker: For bold and original reviews that strove to put stage dramas within a real-world cultural context, particularly the shifting landscape of gender, sexuality and race.
Finalists Laura Reiley of Tampa Bay Times; Ty Burr of The Boston Globe
Editorial Writing:
Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times: For editorials fueled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing that successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa.
Finalists Fred Hiatt of The Washington Post; Joe Holley of Houston Chronicle
Editorial Cartooning:
Jim Morin of the Miami Herald: For editorial cartoons that delivered sharp perspectives through flawless artistry, biting prose and crisp wit.
Finalists Jen Sorensen, freelance cartoonist; Steve Sack of Star Tribune, Minneapolis
Breaking News Photography:
Daniel Berehulak, freelance photographer: For powerful storytelling through images published in The New York Times showing the callous disregard for human life in the Philippines brought about by a government assault on drug dealers and users. (Moved into this category from Feature Photography by the nominating jury.)
Finalists Jonathan Bachman, freelance photographer; Photography Staff of the Associated Press
Feature Photography:
Jason Wambsgans of Chicago Tribune: For a superb portrayal of a 10-year-old boy and his mother striving to put the boys life back together after he survived a shooting in Chicago.
Finalists Jake May of The Flint Journal, Flint, Michigan; Katie Falkenberg of Los Angeles Times
Correction: An earlier version of this story misdescribed the topic of The Storm Lake Times editorials.
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David Uberti is a writer in New York. He was previously a media reporter for Gizmodo Media Group and a staff writer for CJR. Follow him on Twitter @DavidUberti.
[April 10, 2017] New Video Collection Enhances Training in Mental Health Diagnoses
ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Recognizing and diagnosing mental disorders are critical skills for future behavioral health workers to have, and academic institutions know that providing credible, current, and engaging resources to aid in their training is fundamental to student success. Alexander Street's Counseling and Therapy in Video four-volume series is known for providing a firsthand look at the realities of working with clients and the challenges associated with putting theoretical concepts into practice. It offers comprehensive, current, curated content in a learning medium that today's students prefer: video. Alexander Street continues to support this critical training with the April launch of Volume V, The Symptom Media Collection. This volume will offer 400+ Symptom Media training videos, helping students to better recognize and provide accurate diagnoses of mental health disorders by exploring the most critical topics aligned to the DSM-5/ICD-10: DSM-5/ICD-10 ADHD Series
DSM-5/ICD-10 Violence Series
DSM-5/ICD-10 Eating Disorders Series
DSM-5/ICD-10 PTSD Series
DSM-5/ICD-10 Substance Related and Addictive Disorders
DSM-5/ICD-10 Child and Adolescent Series "It is mperative that students in counseling, psychology, social work, medical, nursing, psychiatry and other behavioral health programs have access to content to that will help them hone their critical thinking skills and provide necessary training to make accurate diagnoses for their future work with clients and patients," said Elizabeth Robey, Publisher, Counseling & Therapy, Alexander Street. "We simplify this process by curating the best resources and creating a comprehensive collection of training videos designed to achieve these goals."
Ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, Volume V's collection of DSM-5 and ICD-10 videos will not only provide the best training content but are designed to easily integrate into courses and lectures. Volume V also provides assessment options for faculty. Many of the titles include two versions: one that introduces symptoms to students, and another that allows students to make their own diagnoses. Faculty and librarians can expect 150 additional videos to be incorporated into Volume V through 2021. Current titles include:
Opioid Use Disorder, Severe
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Traumatic Brain Injury
Separation Anxiety Disorder
Bipolar I Disorder with Mood Congruent Psychotic Features
Anorexia Nervosa Binge-Eating Purging
Suicide Assessment
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
Adolescent Antisocial Behavior; Alcohol Use Disorder, Severe; Other or Unknown Substance Use Disorder; Severe
Major Depressive Disorder, Severe, with Seasonal Pattern For more information on this collection, please visit: http://alexanderstreet.com/products/counseling-and-therapy-video-volume-v-symptom-media-collection About Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Alexander Street pairs exclusive streaming video, audio, and curated full-text with cutting-edge online tools to transform the way people research, learn, and teach in virtually every discipline. Learn more at http://alexanderstreet.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-video-collection-enhances-training-in-mental-health-diagnoses-300436954.html SOURCE Alexander Street
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War is the blood sport of television. Devastation on the groundsomeplace the viewer doesnt live but where other human beings do, and gasp, run, shout, weep, flee, are blown apart, lie bandaged in bed, are nursed and abandoned, and dieis transmuted to spectacle on-screen so that voyeurs may stare, gawk, cringe, deplore, and, come to that, avert our eyes until the moment arrives for changing the channel.
And so the horrendous war in Syria, now into its seventh year, crops up again in a lengthening line of spectacles, displays of brutality in which the smoothness of the shoot, the launch, the flare, the flash, the takeoff, the overhead swoop segues into the predictable but always shocking (or so it would be if you could only see it again for the first time, before you got used to it) wreckage of the outcome. So, once again, we are acceptably, bearably shocked, usually unaware that were being spared the most awful images, the ones showing body parts.
Television has plenty of practice cuing up for these dire epiphanies. War is foremost in the emotionally arousing repertory of our culture. It can be counted upon as a reliable source of material, along with press conferences, earthquakes, floods, terror attacks, famines, meetings between chiefs of state, World Series games, Academy Awards. Weapons improve, pictorial devices improve. In 1991, the first Gulf War was a Nintendo war, with tracer bullets scorching their brilliant paths across the screen while dissenters, who had been permitted to put in a few appearances, were drowned out for the more important appearances of military analysts. In 2003, George W. Bushs shock and awe over and onto Baghdad seized the collective imagination even as millions of demonstrators around the world were shunted offstage. (One sign in London: Shocked, not awed.)
This is one thing TV knows how to do: convert shock into cheap, disposable awe. Oh, no becomes Oh, wow. Lethal potential is glamorous. The attention machine has its branding routines, its logos. The president sets his jaw, engines roar, cruise missiles fire, exhausts flare; maps are drawn; diagrams trace the paths of deaths engines slashing across the sky; other diagrams pulsate, indicating explosions. Missiles take off, missiles land, craters appear, rubble accumulates, smoke drifts, fires spread, and the faces of the dead are digitized into oblivion.
So it was with the excruciating pictures of sarin-gassed corpses in Syria; as it has been with the occasional bodies of shell-shocked children and drowned refugees, of triumphal ISIS flag-wavers and mourning families.
And so it was that, once again, in the coverage, indignation rose like theme music. The heads talked: The president has done enough. Hes done too much. Hes done it too late. He has a heart after all. No, hes the tin man who doesnt know what hes missing.
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But what could not be denied was the commentators excitement, the alacrity with which they trundled out their formulas, the cavalcade of their sound bites of ritual deference to the splendor of the deed. Aptly, in The Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan led thusly: The cruise missiles struck, and many in the mainstream media fawned. Among those specimens singled out by Sullivan:
I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night, declared Fareed Zakaria on CNN.On Syria attack, Trumps heart came first, read a New York Times headline.
Oh, and how did we know that? Because the president and his handlers told us so.
Sullivans piece de resistance, however, zoomed to another plane of cluelessness entirely: Brian Williams, on MSNBC, seemed mesmerized by the images of the strikes provided by the Pentagon. He used the word beautiful three times and alluded to a Leonard Cohen lyricI am guided by the beauty of our weaponswithout apparent irony.
Already, an earlier Post piece, by Derek Hawkins, had given pride of place to Williams citation from Cohen, the world prophet of pain, irony, tribute, submission, drollery and resistance, the minstrel of Montreal and Los Angeles, of Manhattan and Berlin. Hawkins piece was headlined: Brian Williams is guided by the beauty of our weapons in Syria strikes.
We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two US Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, Williams said. I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: I am guided by the beauty of our weapons. They are beautiful pictures of fearsome armaments making what is for them what is a brief flight over to this airfield, he added, then asked his guest, What did they hit?
What Williams missed was all the irony that Cohen brought to his largeness, his multitudinousness. Reduced to an advertising slogan, Cohen was made to look like a rhapsodist of war.
In the main, the whole of this sort of coverage could be called war porn, except that in pure porn, the foreplay is the main act. In war porn, the foreplay takes place off-screen. What we see is the incident, the moment, the mess, the finger-pointing, not the history, not the invoices, not the thousands dead and displaced, the millions of refugees (now banned from a United States whose president has now used a unaccustomed word, justice) . We do not fathom the whole appalling truth of the war. We do not see, or even recognize that we are failing to see the war as an immense catastrophe of human contrivance. We do not see what, in n+1, Richard Beck calls the
total war, one in which the lines between combatants and civilians blur, societies devote all their resources to the war effort, and tactics gain acceptance regardless of their brutality. Total war manifests in many ways, from the aerial bombardment of city centers all the way down to what happens between a couple of guards and a prisoner in a locked cell.
In 2003, an American soldier named Jessica Lynch became famous when, having been badly wounded in combat, she was held hostage by Saddam Husseins soldiers for nine days. She was rescued on video. On ABC News, anchorman Charles Gibson described the night-vision goggles through which the video was shot as captivatingan unintentionally gauche way of putting the point.
The spectacle was also captivity of a distinct sort. Jessica Lynch was held captive, but the onlooking cheerleaders were captives, too. They co-produced the war, with the Pentagon, which falsely claimed that Private Lynch had sustained stab and bullet wounds. In truth, she had broken her arm and leg, and dislocated her ankle, when her Humvee flipped. Taken to an Iraqi hospital, she was well cared for. The spectacle of her captivity and rescue belonged to a myth that runs headlong throughout American history since the beginning of the Indian wars in the 17th century. (See Richard Slotkins indispensable literary history, Regeneration Through Violence, and John Fords The Searchers.)
The formula rescue, like the formula retaliation, is a gloss, a slick overlay, stretched over the many unasked but necessary questions: How did this war happen? What sustains it? How did incidents stretch into a history beyond tragedy? Who sold the arms, and still sells them?
As for Private Lynch, she was at pains, later, to deny the early reports that she had fought back against her captors. She was no hero. Im just a survivor, she said.
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Todd Gitlin , who chairs the interdisciplinary Ph.D program in Communication based at the Columbia Journalism School, is the author of 17 books, of which the next is a novel, The Opposition.
Massachusetts officials say more than 10 percent of drivers for ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft have failed a required background check.
More than 62,000 drivers passed, including some who drive for both companies. About 8,200 failed the checks, which are required under a 2016 state law officials have called the most stringent in the country.
Of those who were denied, the figures released Wednesday show the largest number were turned away because their license had been suspended, they had been licensed to drive for less than three years, or they had multiple serious driving offenses.
More than 300 applicants had felony convictions and 51 were registered sex offenders.
Uber issued a statement faulting the background process as too strict.
Thousands of people in Massachusetts have lost access to economic opportunities as a result of a screening that includes an unfair and unjust indefinite lookback period, the statement read. We have an opportunity to repair the current system in the rules process so that people who deserve to work are not denied the opportunity.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who signed the law, said Massachusetts has set a national standard with an agreement with Uber and Lyft that sped up the background check process.
Public safety is a top priority for this administration and we are pleased to have completed this first round of in-depth background checks a year ahead of schedule, Baker said.
The background checks were conducted in two steps.
First the companies were required to perform multi-state criminal and driving background checks and a check of a national sex offender website.
Drivers who passed were referred to the state, which ran its own background checks including a lifetime look-back for violent felonies, serious driving offenses, and sex abuse convictions.
Lyft spokesman Adrian Durbin said the companys background check provider is legally prevented from looking back more than seven years.
The state does not face the same limitation, which likely explains why a small percentage of our drivers failed the states background check while passing ours, Durbin said.
A group representing the taxi industry said the state should also require Uber and Lyft drivers to undergo fingerprint-based criminal background checks.
Abdelai Chaffai is one of those drivers who failed the background checks.
The 62-year-old Cambridge resident said hed driven a car for Uber for years before being blocked about five months ago. Chaffai said he had a drunken driving arrest about four decades ago, another incident in which he was accused of scratching a car 30 years ago but he was found not responsible, and three speeding tickets.
I just dont understand. Im not a criminal. Im not a threat to anyone, Chaffai said. For some reason theyre just denying so many people.
Chaffai said hes still trying to appeal. He said he bought a car last year to continue driving for Uber, but has already missed one payment.
Theyre just making my life harder and harder, Im almost giving up. You dont have a right to take someones food and shelter, he said.
(Associated Press reporter Bob Salsberg contributed to this report.)
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Hartford Names Shuman Chief Digital And Customer Experience Officer
The Hartford has appointed Bruce Shuman as chief digital and customer experience officer, a new position that reinforces the companys commitment to understanding and developing capabilities that meet the expectations of customers and distribution partners. In this role, Shuman will lead efforts to design, build and manage digital experiences, based on a customer-driven research agenda. Shuman will report to Kathy Bromage, The Hartfords chief marketing and communications officer.
Shuman returns to The Hartford where he was responsible for leading digital teams in personal lines and enterprise marketing. Most recently, Shuman was with Travelers, where he held leadership positions in enterprise e-business and operations, including small business customer and agent service through traditional and digital channels. Previously, Shuman managed consumer-facing e-Commerce and mobile activities for GE Capitals consumer finance business.
Nautilus Insurance Group Names Burkhardt SVP, Strategic Initiatives
Nautilus Insurance Group, a Berkley Company, appointed Trish Buckhardt senior vice president of Strategic Initiatives. The appointment is effective April 4, 2017, and coincides with the inception of Nautilus Strategic Initiatives Group.
Buckhardt has more than 33 years of experience in the Excess & Surplus Lines insurance industry, with significant expertise in leading project management and strategic business initiatives. After joining Nautilus in 2016, she served as vice president of Business Strategic Projects, while leading the design and implementation of a claims management system. Prior to Nautilus, Buckhardt worked as a claims leader at a Fortune 100 insurance carrier.
Maher Named VP of Claims and Risk Management for Swift Transportation
Swift Transportation Company, a provider of transportation solutions, announced the appointment of Heather Maher as vice president of Claims and Risk Management. With nearly 20 years of experience, Maher brings to the role advanced procedural knowledge and legal expertise, focusing on claims and litigation management, legal risk identification and control, insurance procurement and strategic planning and execution.
Previously, Maher served as the vice president of Global Risk Management and Claims for Ralph Lauren Corporation, providing strategic direction to senior executives and key distribution hubs around the globe, as well as identifying risk mitigation and procuring appropriate insurance coverage for the organization. In addition, Maher held several roles with Borden Dairy Company, most notably, vice president of Risk Management and Litigation Counsel.
In her role with Swift, Maher will focus on establishing high-performing processes, negotiating with insurance programs to implement cost savings and enforcing Swifts commitment to customer service. She will also lead the rollout of Swifts PC365, a 24/7/365 triage program that manages non-emergency, work-related injuries. Through this program, PC365 will have registered nurses available telephonically to provide Swift employees including drivers, maintenance technicians and office personnel with guidance on medical care for work-related incidents.
Maher earned her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law. Currently she serves as a member of various professional affiliations and continues ongoing education on litigation and risk management.
Tobin Joins Ryze Claim Solutions as Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing
RYZE Claim Solutions named Bernie Tobin executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. Based out of the companys Tampa, Fla., office, Tobin will develop the sales and marketing strategy for the organization.
Tobin has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, including claims handling and management, as well as many years building successful business development teams.
Ryze has additional offices in Dallas, Texas, and in Indianapolis, Indiana.
A tourist-oriented auto racing track near Las Vegas, Nev., will stay open after agreeing to settle a lawsuit that questioned its safety in the wake of a fiery crash that killed a Canadian man driving a Lamborghini and his instructor, attorneys said Thursday.
Lawyers for SpeedVegas and a course employee told a judge that there was no longer a need for a court hearing on whether to grant the workers request to shut down the track for a redesign.
We resolved the matter, said attorney Dominic Gentile, who represents Francisco Durban, a driving instructor who sued last month. The lawsuit said Durban faced firing for refusing to sign a document attesting to the courses safety.
The track is open, said David Chesnoff who represents course owner World Class Driving.
Both sides said the agreement was confidential and wont be made public. The judge scheduled an April 19 hearing to make it final.
The 11/2-mile SpeedVegas course was closed for 12 days after an orange Lamborghini Aventador crashed and burst into flames, killing Craig Sherwood, 37, a real estate agent from Thornhill, Ontario, and driving instructor Gil Ben-Kely, 59.
Authorities said the car slammed into a wall and burned at a curve following a half-mile straightaway that SpeedVegas advertises as the longest at an amateur track without a speed limit.
Gentile said employees told his investigators that the course had five crashes in its first nine months of operations, including two prior wrecks at the turn immediately following the straightaway.
Attorneys for the business questioned in court filings whether Sherwood had a medical episode while driving. His medical history was not made part of the court record.
The state Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the cause of the crash at the track that opened a year ago several miles south of the Las Vegas Strip. It offers tourists the chance to drive high-performance cars such as Ferraris, Porsches and Mercedes faster than 150 mph.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Nevadas chief legal adviser wants a judge to dismiss all but a narrow piece of a series of lawsuits accusing state forestry officials of mishandling a prescribed burn that turned into a raging wildfire and destroyed 23 homes along the edge of the Sierra.
The homeowners say they suffered more than $80 million in damages in the fall blaze. They contend the government illegally took over their property and left it valueless and virtually unusable.
Officials with the Division of Forestry breached their duty by negligently, carelessly and recklessly failing to operate, manage and supervise the prescribed burn, according to each of five lawsuits filed in the past two months by a total of 38 plaintiffs.
Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and his deputy attorneys said in a motion this week that the homeowners may be entitled to some compensation for unintentional damage. But they argue the state judge should dismiss all claims related to property rights or the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The fire was a tragedy, but not a taking of private property for a public use, said Steve Shevorski, Laxalts head of complex litigation. At most, he wrote, the homeowners suffered an accidental injury to their property.
Nevada State Forester Joe Freeland resigned earlier this month after an independent investigation into the handling of the wildfire in Washoe Valley north of Carson City concluded in February that state crews were understaffed in their manning of the smoldering burn despite repeated warnings about unstable, windy weather.
The lawsuits say crews started the burn Oct. 4 despite a storm with wind gusts in excess of 80 mph that was forecast to roll in Oct. 7.
The operation was suspended Oct. 7 as the weather worsened, and crews thought the smoldering fire had safely been extinguished. But on Oct. 14, high winds carried rekindled embers along the Carson Range and ignited the catastrophic wildfire.
Kenneth Lyon, a Reno lawyer for the plaintiffs, said forestry officials knew or should have known the area had suffered through severe drought and was prone to high winds causing a substantial risk of losing control over the controlled fire and creating a danger to neighboring property.
William Jeanney, another Reno lawyer who filed the first suit on behalf of a homeowner in February, said the Nevada Constitution protects residents against forms of government condemnation of private property taken or damaged for a public use without just compensation.
The prescribed burn was intended to reduce fuel loads and ease future fire risks for the benefit of the public, he said, alleging the states actions constitute a physical invasion of the homeowners property.
The exorbitant amount of interference amounts to a taking, he wrote.
Laxalt argues the U.S. Supreme Court has always distinguished between intentional government conduct resulting in a taking and unintentional injuries to property.
Contrary to plaintiffs theory, the state government does not take property if it damages it, Shevorski wrote on the states behalf.
He contrasted it to past cases where a taking was found to have occurred, such as when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for Pewee Coal in 1951 after the government occupied and took over the operation of a coal mine to prevent a strike as though the government held full title to the property.
Nor was there any physical invasion like Nevada Supreme Court ruled in 2006 in a case dating to the 1990s when Clark County reserved permanent airspace over land for flights in and out of the Las Vegas airport, he said.
The plaintiffs property was not subject to a government regulation at all, let alone one so onerous that they were constructively ousted from their property, Shevorski said. There was no regulatory taking.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Akron police car 3.jpg
Two unidentified men were involved in an armed robbery Sunday at a Family Dollar in Akron, police said.
(File photo)
AKRON, Ohio - Two unidentified men stole about $200 during an armed robbery at an Akron store, police said.
No one was harmed during the Sunday robbery at a Family Dollar on East South Street near Grant Street in South Akron, according to a police report.
The two men entered the store just before 9:30 p.m. and pointed a gun at an employee. The men forced the employee to open two cash registers, and took money from each, the report says.
The man ran out of the store and got into a van parked on East South Street. A witness could not provide the make or model of the van.
Detectives are working to obtain surveillance video that might show the two men, the report says.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call the Akron Police Department's detective bureau at 330-375-2490.
If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The city's board of zoning appeals agreed Monday to a developer's request to table a vote on variances needed for a controversial 45-unit apartment building in Little Italy, after it appeared the vote might go against the project.
"I'm just trying to keep the project moving along in a positive manner," developer Tim Perotti said after the meeting, explaining his request for a time-out.
The board agreed to delay a vote on the variances until its May 1 meeting, giving Perotti and Little Italy residents time to work out a compromise.
But based on Monday's hearing, it appears that such an agreement might be difficult, given the firmly negative views of two dozen residents and property owners who spoke out against the project.
The project at issue
Perotti Development Co. LLC, whose members including Tim Perotti's mother, Constance, and brother, Ed, wants to place a six-story, $5.5 million building on a vacant lot at the bottom of the Mayfield Road hill at the former East 119th Street.
The family obtained variances - exceptions to city land-development rules - from the zoning board in 2008 to build a slightly smaller, 18-unit condominium building on the same site.
But during the financial crash and recession, the Perottis found it impossible to finance the earlier project.
They later reconfigured the project as an apartment building with 45 units designed to appeal to graduate students and young professionals who would either walk to work in University Circle or ride the nearby Red Line to jobs elsewhere in the city.
Variances needed
Perotti LLC needs variances on front, side and rear setbacks, along with a variance on the requirement to provide 45 parking spaces - one per apartment.
Perotti said he'd prefer building the apartments without parking spaces and with ground-level retail instead of garage doors. But he added 16 parking spaces on the building's ground floor to appease neighborhood residents, he said.
The developer also said he has reached agreements with Case Western Reserve University and developers of the nearby Centric project to provide an additional 58 spaces for tenants who have cars.
Little Italy restaurateur Terry Tarantino said he didn't believe the renters would rely on mass transit to get around.
He also pronounced Perotti guilty of "a failure to communicate because I don't think the neighborhood is happy with the project."
"I'm like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and I'm leaning in the direction of the neighborhood now" by opposing the project, he said.
Resident Edward Occhionero said, "I find that if there's a building that requires this many variances, there's something inherently wrong."
Occhionero and other opponents said the project would worsen Little Italy's pronounced shortage of parking.
They also complained that the street-level garage would create safety issues because cars would have to cross the Mayfield Road sidewalk to access the parking.
Objecting to bulk and height
Critics said the project, which would rise 60 feet from the sidewalk and does not need a variance for its height, would be too big and bulky for its location, and that its contemporary architectural style would be out of step with the neighborhood.
"It's between a rock and a hard place," said zoning board member Henry Bailey, commenting on the back-and-forth.
The debate highlighted contrasting visions for the future of one of the city's most beloved ethnic neighborhoods.
Can Cleveland rebuild?
The dispute also had citywide resonance. The city's planning department favors projects, such as the Perotti venture, that would add density to neighborhoods and support mass-transit ridership.
But those qualities can be hard to achieve under Cleveland's antiquated zoning code, which requires developers to seek variances to achieve the precise kind of development the city says it wants.
"I'm afraid that if we deny the variances on this project we might kill other projects," said zoning board member Tim Donovan.
Yet Donovan also said he wanted the developer and neighborhood residents to continue to work out a compromise. That's when Perotti asked the board to table the discussion for another few weeks.
"Obviously, we're going to reach out to the powers that be to talk about where to go from here," he said.
Cleveland Heights police car.jpg
Cleveland Heights police are searching for two armed robbers who pistol-whipped a man Sunday on Caledonia Avenue, according to a police report.
(File photo)
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- An armed robber pistol-whipped a Cleveland man in the forehead Sunday in Cleveland Heights, police said.
Two armed men stole smartphones and wallets from the 20-year-old man and his 20-year-old friend just before 6:30 p.m. on Caledonia Avenue near Noble Road, according to a police report.
The Cleveland man did not suffer any visible injuries and did not require medical treatment.
The robbery happened while the victims were sitting in a 2011 Ford station wagon that was parked in a garage. Two robbers, who covered their faces with hooded sweatshirts and bandannas, approached the station wagon and pointed silver handguns at the victims, the report says.
The robbers took an Apple iPhone 6S, an Android smartphone, and two wallets. One robber pistol-whipped the Cleveland man before the robbers ran away, the report says.
The victims saw a dark green Chevrolet Impala speeding away moments after the robbery. They suspected the robbers were in the car.
No arrests have been made but the incident remains under investigation, police said.
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Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello
Zack de la Rocha, left, and Tom Morello of the band Rage Against the Machine perform during their headlining set at the "L.A. Rising" concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Saturday, July 30, 2011, in Los Angeles.
(Chris Pizzello)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - There's a formula to a great Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony and Friday's 2017 Inductions followed it to a tee.
Combine some long time snubs that have loyal fan bases (Journey, Yes, Electric Light Orchestra) with a clear headliner (Pearl Jam), and keep things diverse (Joan Baez, Tupac) delivering something for everyone.
That same formula could hold true for the 2018 Ceremony in Cleveland next April. The nominees for the Class of 2018 won't be announced until October.
But using this year's number of six inductees (not counting special honors), here are our way to early predictions for who will make up next year's class:
Radiohead
Just like Pearl Jam with the Class of 2017, if you're putting your money in an artist joining next year's class it's Radiohead. The band's discography, influence and popularity rivals those of any rock artist of the past 30 years. This feels like a no-brainer and quite the treat for fans looking forward to the Cleveland ceremony.
Rage Against the Machine
There are other big-name newly eligible acts (Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, Dr. Dre), but the Class of 2018 will probably repeat this year's results with two newbies making it in. There's so much focus on Rage Against the Machine's activism and influence on rap-metal, you forget just how popular the band was. Just think how enticing Rage will look on the ballot for voters.
Janet Jackson
I think Joan Baez being on the latest ballot hurt Jackson's chances. It's unfortunate we can't get more women into the Rock Hall. But I don't see any other woman (unless Carole King is nominated as a performer) topping Janet this time around. I strongly considered another hip-hop act (namely LL Cool J) going in instead of Janet. But until Notorious B.I.G. is eligible, she's an easier choice.
The Moody Blues
The nominating committee has established a clear pattern of nominating long overdue snubs for the first time, which has led to those acts getting in. So it's kind of like throwing darts at this point. But The Moody Blues certainly fit the pattern of acts like Chicago, Journey and Electric Light Orchestra. You could make the case that The Moody Blues deserved to go in before those artists.
Jethro Tull
Here's another nomination that will come as a delightful surprise to many. Despite being highly influential and such a major pop-culture fixture, Jethro Tull has never been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. If they were to be nominated at any point moving forward, they would get in. No question.
The Cars
I feel like The Cars have barely missed out each of the past two years. Of all the classic rock acts recently nominated, I could see them sneaking in with the Class of 2018. I wish this spot would go to Kraftwerk. But voters just don't seem ready to honor electronic music.
Others to consider: I already mentioned LL Cool J and Kraftwerk. If the nominating committee is feeling metal-happy, then Judas Priest is the next logical option. Artists like Bon Jovi and Bad Company are kind of hanging out there in snub territory. Meanwhile, Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails will be hurt by Radiohead and Rage becoming eligible.
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Tim Brady, Senior VP of Brady, Chapman, Holland & Associates, Inc., Joins Board of RiskProNet International
Tim Brady, shareholder and senior vice president of Brady, Chapman, Holland and Associates, Inc., has been elected to the board of directors of RiskProNet International, an association of leading independent insurance brokers in North America.
RiskProNet member firms have combined annual revenues of $548 million and more than $5.5 billion in annual written premium.
Tim Brady joined the firm in 2008, following in the footsteps of his father, Jeff Brady, BCH president and CEO; his aunt, Jan Clark, senior vice president and chief operations officer; and his grandfather, Tim Brady, founding partner and chairman of the board.
Prior to joining BCH, he began his insurance career in the wholesale brokerage and insurance company sectors at AmWINS Brokerage of Texas. While at AmWINS he worked with both property brokers and casualty brokers. He also worked for a key construction and manufacturing insurer, Amerisure Insurance Company, where he completed the developmental marketing underwriter program. The program included a focus on underwriting, loss control and claims.
In addition to holding numerous professional designations, he is a member of Community Associations Insttute, Growth Advocates and CEO Network Partners.
He is a graduate of Texas Christian University with a bachelor of business administration degree in finance and economics.
At RiskProNet, each member is an equal owner in the association, which gives the network the geographic diversity and shared knowledge base to serve clients with national, international or highly specialized exposures to risk.
In addition to BCH, RiskProNet members are AHT Insurance, Virginia; BFL Canada Insurance Services, Inc. in Canada; BHS, Michigan; Buckner Company, Inc., Utah; Connor & Gallagher Insurance Services, Inc., Illinois; Crane Agency, Missouri; Dawson Companies, Ohio; Eustis Insurance & Benefits, Louisiana; Herbert L. Jamison Co., LLC, New Jersey; InterWest Insurance Services, Inc., California; Johnson, Kendall & Johnson, Inc., Pennsylvania; M3 Insurance, Wisconsin; Moody Insurance Agency, Inc., Colorado; ONI Risk Partners, Indiana; Regions Insurance, Inc., Arkansas; Reynolds & Reynolds, Inc., Iowa; SterlingRisk, New York; SullivanCurtisMonroe Insurance Services, LLC, California; and Watson Insurance, North Carolina.
RiskProNet International is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. Additional information is at www.riskpronet.com or at (650) 323-1929.
For additional information about BCH, visit www.bch-insurance.com or call (713) 688-1500.
Note: A high-resolution photo is available.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005655/en/
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Police in Cleveland were investigating Sunday night after officers shot and wounded man during a reported domestic dispute.
(Cliff Pinckard, cleveland.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two officers responding to a domestic dispute Sunday night shot and wounded a man after he confronted them with a weapon, police say.
The shooting occurred at about 9 p.m. on the 3800 block of Mapledale Avenue, which is just south of Interstate 71 between Fulton and Pearl roads in the city's Brooklyn Centre neighborhood.
Officers found a male with a firearm in the driveway toward the rear of the home, but the suspect refused orders to drop the gun, Williams said.
The officers shot and wounded the unidentified male, who was taken by ambulance to MetroHealth Medical Center. His condition is unknown.
Williams said the officers involved in the shooting were not injured. A weapon was recovered at the scene.
The shooting was still under investigation late Sunday night.
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Bill Mason
Ex-Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason has been tapped as the partner-in-charge of the Cleveland office of the Columbus-basd law firm Bricker and Eckler.
(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason has been tapped to lead the Cleveland office of a Columbus-based law firm.
Bricker and Eckler named Mason partner-in-charge of the Cleveland office, four years after he resigned from the county office and joined the firm as a partner, according news release from the firm.
Mason, who has focused on helping local governments in Northeast Ohio finance construction and economic development projects, will continue to focus on public-sector clients like governments and school districts, the firm says.
Mason held office from 1999 to 2012, when he resigned two months before his term ended to join Bricker and Eckler.
Since leaving office, Mason has had a hand in helping officials finance the redevelopments of Parmatown Mall, North Royalton City Hall, Village of Newburgh Heights City Hall and fire station, and the creation of a joint economic district in Walton Hills and Sagamore Hills Township, the firm says.
Mason's reign as prosecutor included the creation of a mortgage fraud unit, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Community Based Prosecution Unit. He also helped create a new form of county government in the wake of a corruption scandal that ensnared dozens of local officials and unfurled while he was in office.
Bricked and Eckler, founded in 1945, has more than 100 attorneys spread out across offices in several Ohio cities, including Cleveland, Columbus, West Chester and Marietta, Ohio.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man awaiting trial in a high-speed crash that killed three teenage girls last summer pleaded guilty on Monday to burglary and domestic violence charges in a separate case.
Kareem Walton, 21, admitted Monday to breaking into the Cleveland home of the mother of his children on June 25 and assaulting her.
He pleaded guilty to burglary, domestic violence and endangering children charges, in a deal that saw prosecutors drop more serious charges including aggravated burglary and felonious assault.
Judge Maureen Clancy will sentence Walton on the burglary case after his trial in the July 9 crash that killed three of the five teenage girls in his car.
Walton was set to begin trial Monday on multiple counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in the crash that killed Alexandria Winegarner, Takia Jackson and Daija Wynne, all 17 of Euclid.
Two other teens in the car at the time, Wynne's 15-year-old sister Delana Wynne and Rashida Thomas, 14, suffered serious injuries and were hospitalized.
Clancy delayed the trial on those charges until April 24.
Investigators say Walton, who was 20 years old at the time of the crash, had been drinking and smoking marijuana the night of the crash, and was driving nearly 90 mph on Kirby Avenue near Eddy Road when he lost control and careened into a tree.
Walton told police he picked up the girls near East 222nd Street in Euclid, and was driving the girls to a party on East 105th Street and Garfield Avenue for a friend who was released from prison.
Walton told police that he thought he was driving between 40 and 45 mph on Kirby and that it was raining. Walton said he thought the brakes on his car "went out" prior to the crash, according to police reports.
Clancy delayed the trial after prosecutors said in court Monday that one of the victims told investigators during preparation for trial last week that marijuana was smoked in the car before the crash. Previous blood tests showed Walton tested positive for inactive marijuana compounds that can remain in a person's blood stream for several hours, according to court records.
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BERLIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Two Elyria residents had to be flown by helicopter to hospitals in Toledo after being seriously injured in a crash Sunday, according to the State Highway Patrol.
The patrol did not release the conditions of Eric P. Tillman, 47, and Cynthia J. Tillman, 45, both of Elyria, but said both suffered "incpacitating" injuries.
Troopers say Eric Tillman was driving a 1993 Honda motorcycle east on Ohio 113 (Edison Highway) at about 5:09 p.m. when a 2016 Ford Fusion heading south on Ohio 61 (Ceylon Road) went through a stop sign.
The motorcycle hit the passenger side of the Fusion, with both riders thrown into the southeast part of the intersection. The impact spun the Fusion around in the intersection, troopers say.
Eric Tillman was flown to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, while Cynthia Tillman was flown to Pro Medica Toledo Hospital. Eric Tillman was wearing a helmet, but it's unknown if Cynthia Tillman was wearing one, troopers say.
The Fusion's driver was not injured, but a 16-year-old female passenger was treated for minor injuries at the scene. Both were wearing seatbelts.
The crash remains under investigation and no charges have been filed. Alcohol and drugs are not considered factors.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Parts of Cleveland's old Aviation High School still look like a school.
Chalkboards are still mounted on the walls of some classrooms, 21 years after the school at Burke Lakefront Airport closed. The principal's office is empty, but the big glass windows that look out onto the hallways are still intact. And there are still placards with school weightlifting and boys and girls track records on display.
It's easy to envision how the school could be revived to house the new Aerospace and Maritime High School the Cleveland school district is creating in the fall.
It's an obvious solution to finding a long-term home for the new school, which would expand on the airplane maintenance and electrical programs the old school offered. The new school would have some vocational training in operating, fixing and navigating ships and planes, while also using the aviation and maritime setting to teach college preparatory classes.
"When I started this, I wanted to re-open Aviation High School," said Drew Ferguson, president of PHASTAR, the non-profit behind creating the school.
Ferguson said that locating the school at an airport with access to Lake Erie, which would be available a few hundred feet east of the old school, would serve the school's maritime and aviation aims alike.
PHASTAR, made up mainly of people working at local airports or in air industries, hopes the school will provide needed workers for well-paid jobs in both fields. The school also fits into the school district's goal of creating different styles of schools in different professional settings to energize students and expose them to careers.
"We'd like the kids to be able to walk out the door and touch the water," Ferguson said. "That's an absolutely perfect spot."
It's a desire echoed by the heads of a maritime high school in Toledo and aviation high school in Detroit that The Plain Dealer visited last week. Having immediate access to runways, water, planes and boats lets students experience much more than in a disconnected classroom, they said.
Building is in disrepair
But there are also complications, including the condition of the building, the needs of the airport and ever-changing development plans for the area. For now, while the school searches for a permanent home, it will start teaching classes a few blocks away at E. 13th Street and Lakeside Avenue.
Just as the school's name - "General Benjamin O. Davis Aviation High School" - is missing a few letters on the facade facing drivers on Interstate 90, some parts of the building are deteriorating.
It has been mostly abandoned since the school district closed it in 1996 and it became city property. In the years since, it has served as a homeless shelter and a detention site after a truancy sweep in the 1990s or after large-scale arrests.
No one has invested in any improvements while the city has debated proposals to move the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum there from University Circle, to lease the building to technology or aircraft maintenance companies or to close Burke altogether and develop the land.
Beyond years of dust and scattered debris - like old sinks and toilets, or mattresses from the site's homeless shelter days - other parts of the building need serious work. There's a leaking roof, for example. There's damage from a water main break. And the old control tower where students once trained as air traffic controllers has stairs too dangerous to climb.
There are no handy estimates of what it would take to renovate the building for use as a school again. District CEO Eric Gordon said he has always been told that costs would be far too high, so re-using the building has never been an option.
Airport has plans for the school
The greatest block to re-using the school, however, may be the city's plans for it.
Airport Commissioner Khalid Bahhur said the city intends to convert the entire facility for airport use. A city plan from 2016 calls for spending more than $12.2 million to move the airport's maintenance, security and fire departments there from smaller buildings at the other end of the airport.
The airport even has plans for a devoted space for the animal control officer that keeps deer and coyotes off the runway.
"Our goal is to use everything that's here," Bahhur said, pointing down a hallway of empty classrooms. "The development that we're doing will take every inch of space that's there."
A good portion of the facility is already in active use.
The 100-foot by 120-foot hangar where students used to work on airplanes is filled with Cleveland Police helicopters, a police boat, and massive runway sweepers and plows. A smaller hangar has mowers for edging the runways, paving machines and an old decommissioned police plane.
And some old classrooms and shops are being used for vehicle repair, woodworking and storage of replacement runway lights.
Little has been done so far
But many of the investments the city will need to convert the building have not happened yet.
One wing of the facility will be converted into a home for the airport's fire department, with sleeping areas and a kitchen to handle their round-the-clock shifts. Room will also be carved out as a garage for fire trucks and space for firefighters to maintain their equipment.
But none of that work has started.
Nor has work to converting the building for vehicle maintenance. There's no maintenance garage in the facility yet, or even any visible tools, for working on trucks and support vehicles. On a Plain Dealer tour of the facility March 29, nobody was visible working in the building.
If the facility had to be used as a school again, Bahhur said, the biggest loss would be the hangar that has become his garage.
"I would have to replace this facility - a heated facility - that would house everything that's here," he said.
Ferguson said he hopes that if the old high school won't work, another similar site might be found.
"We're looking for something that offers the same access and opportunities the old high school had," he said. "Is that the only option? No."
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City Council's Finance Committee will take up a proposal today that would commit millions of public tax dollars toward renovating Quicken Loans Arena. If the plan clears the Finance Committee, the full City Council could vote on it Monday evening.
(Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - City Council's Finance Committee will take up the debate Monday on whether the city should commit millions of public tax dollars toward a project to upgrade Quicken Loans Arena.
The Finance Committee, the last stop for the proposal before a full vote of City Council, begins at 2 p.m. Cleveland.com will cover the debate live, via Twitter. You can follow along below.
Up for debate is a proposal to that would use $88 million in Cleveland admissions tax revenue over 11 years to help pay for the upgrades. That represents the city's portion in a three-way partnership among the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cuyahoga County and Cleveland.
If the proposal clears the Finance Committee, it could be voted on Monday evening by the full City Council.
City Council President Kevin Kelley, in an interview Friday, said he expects the plan will advance to the full council.
"I can't imagine what's been [left] unsaid. We've had people pro and con. We've had the Cavs position. We've had the city's position," Kelley said.
The $140-million upgrade to The Q would dramatically alter the facility's appearance and, the team says, would make the 22-year-old arena competitive by creating more space for dining, bars and public gathering.
The Cavaliers would pay for half and agree to a lease extension that would keep the team playing at the arena until at least 2034. Public money would cover the rest, plus interest on money borrowed for the project.
Cuyahoga County already has agreed to sell bonds to pay for the upgrades. The total cost of financing the project over 17 years is estimated to be about $282 million.
The Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council and the Black Contractors Group have cheered the project for the construction jobs it would create and also praised Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.
The proposal is not without its critics, though. Several members of City Council have complained that Cleveland has more pressing issues that should be addressed, such as violence, unemployment and poverty in some of its neighborhoods.
Greater Cleveland Congregations and the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, two community activist organizations, have echoed those concerns. Each lobbied against the project when council's Development, Planning and Sustainability held hearings on the proposal.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State's defensive line is stacked for the foreseeable future after it earned a commitment from five-star defensive tackle Taron Vincent of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG a few weeks ago.
Is there such thing as too much talent?
No.
* Five-star DT Taron Vincent's commitment and what it means for Ohio State
Ohio State still has a handful of top defensive line prospects on its 2018 recruiting board, and it's hosting five-star defensive end Micah Parsons of Harrisburg, Pa., on Saturday for the spring game, according to Jeremy Birmingham of Landof10.com.
Rated the No. 1 weakside defensive end in the 2018 recruiting class in the 247Sports composite rankings, Parsons has been committed to Penn State since the end of February.
However, Parsons has continued to show Ohio State love on his personal Twitter page, which has made it evident that his recruitment is far from over. His decision to take an unofficial visit to Columbus this weekend is more proof of that.
Ohio State is also recruiting five-star defensive end KJ Henry of Clemmons (N.C.) West Forsyth, four-star defensive end Aeneas Hawkins of Cincinnati (Ohio) Archbishop Moeller and four-star defensive end Brenton Cox of Stockbridge, Ga.
As of Monday, Ohio State's 2018 class ranked No. 9 overall in the 247Sports composite team rankings, but it has the lowest total of commitments -- five -- of any team ranked in the top 10.
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In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea. The United States blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles in fiery retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians.
(Ford Williams, U.S. Navy via AP)
Ohio's congressional delegation mostly gives a thumbs-up to President Donald Trump's missile strike on Syria. Ohio's U.S. senators split on a vote confirming Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. And Bernie Sanders schedules a visit to Cleveland early next month. Today's Ohio Politics Roundup is brought to you by Jeremy Pelzer.
Syria strike wins bipartisan approval: President Donald Trump's decision to launch missile strikes against Syria following chemical weapon attacks against civilians won general approval from Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Ohio members of Congress (including many Democrats who, like Kasich, aren't in the habit of agreeing with the president), according to the Columbus Dispatch's Jessica Wehrman. Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown deemed the move "a proportional response," while Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan held the action "affirms that our nation will not stand by while international law is broken."
Well, not total approval: Wehrman noted that Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur expressed the most concern, calling it "a high-risk action that could cause terrorist retaliation against U.S. targets anywhere in the world."
So...what now? Amid the words of support, many Ohio delegation members also urged Trump to share his long-term strategy to address the Syrian conflict. Among them was Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman: "We now need a comprehensive strategy with clearly defined purpose and objectives for how we achieve our national security goals in Syria and the region."
Senate confirms Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court: Federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch was confirmed by the U.S. Senate Friday as the newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court. The vote was 54-45; as expected, Portman voted "aye," while Brown was a "no" vote.
Gorsuch? More like Bore-such: While the fight over Gorsuch's confirmation was a big deal in political circles, there wasn't as much attention paid in conservative Greene County, as I found out.
Bern notice: Ex-Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to appear in Cleveland on Monday, May 1 at the Global Center for Health Innovation, reports cleveland.com's Mary Kilpatrick. The public can purchase $35 tickets for the event starting Wednesday.
From critic to candidate? The Youngstown Vindictor's Bertram de Souza wonders whether Mahoning County Democratic Party Chair David Betras is going to seek the state party chairmanship next year. "He's sure behaving like someone on a mission," de Souza writes, noting that Betras has "crossed swords" with current state party chair David Pepper over the claim that a main reason Hillary Clinton lost Ohio was because of her lackluster vote totals in Mahoning County. Betras also publicized a recent Washington Post story that quotes him criticizing national Democrats for alienating white, blue-collar voters by focusing on issues like transgender bathrooms instead of jobs and trade.
Mr. Brightside: Pepper, speaking Friday at the City Club of Cleveland, made the case for a Democratic revival in Ohio during next year's midterms. As Kilpatrick reports, Pepper said Democrats historically do well after big losses and can present themselves as the party of change now that Trump's in office. He added that Democrats are increasingly getting involved in politics and organizing.
Speaking of state party chairs... The Cincinnati Enquirer's Jason Williams has an in-depth profile on new Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, covering everything from her teenage hobbies ("she was an awful bagpiper") to her decision to get more deeply involved in the GOP ("I'll tell ya, a lot of it had to do with Obamacare passing").
"There's no question her rise in politics can be partly attributed to her marrying into one of Ohio's most powerful and wealthy families," Williams writes. "But the portrait that emerged also is of a person who's established her own identity in politics - spending hours and hours performing thankless campaign grunt work for even the most obscure of local candidates."
Williams notes the relationship between Timken and Kasich "remains chilly," though she has pictures of both Kasich and Trump next to her office door. "He's fine," Timken said of Kasich. "He's good. Gov. Kasich is doing his thing as governor. I've tried to make it public that I'm very supportive of him. As far as I know, there's no real issue."
Rolling in green: Proposed licensing fees for medical marijuana businesses in Ohio would generate an estimated $10.8 million per year -- more than four times the amount regulators say is needed annually to run the program, cleveland.com's Jackie Borchardt finds. "Additional fees, including nonrefundable application fees, could generate a couple million more," Borchardt writes.
As Borchardt notes, the state set the proposed fees high on purpose to, ahem, weed out non-serious applicants. Surplus revenue from the program can't be spent for other purposes such as education or road improvements, but there may be additional medical marijuana program costs that the money could be used for, such as an electronic licensing system to monitor marijuana businesses.
Mark your calendars: The state plans to begin accepting applications for marijuana grow licenses in June, according to Borchardt.
Fun fact: Ohioans pay 9.15 cents of every dollar they earn to local and state tax collectors, on average, according to calculations made by the financial website Wallethub. As cleveland.com's Rich Exner reports, that's the 13th-highest tax burden in the nation.
That escalated quickly: Republican State Sen. Bill Coley unexpectedly tore into Kasich's budget director, Tim Keen, during routine committee testimony last week on the governor's two-year budget plan, using terms such as "boneheaded," "bastardization," and "hell of a slap in the face," according to the Columbus Dispatch's Jim Siegel. Coley laid into Keen over, among other things, how the governor paid Ohio's share of Medicaid expansion costs this year without Controlling Board oversight.
Later in the hearing, GOP state Sen. Peggy Lehner jumped in the fray, asking "a surprisingly critical question about the ongoing effort to cut the state income tax," Siegel writes.
Lehner: "Why is the governor insisting on continuing with tax cuts at this point, rather than giving it a little more time to really see what's going on, where these trends are taking us?" Keen's reply: "It seems to me, when things aren't working out the way you expect them to, you sit back and take a break."
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WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio -- An apartment building in Warrensville Heights caught fire Monday evening after police and a SWAT team were called to the area.
Warrensville Heights police were called about 2 p.m. to Banbury Court, a street within the Miles Landing apartment complex near Interstates 271 and 480, in connection with a domestic incident, Mayor Brad Sellers said. The victim, who managed to walk away from the unit, told officers that her boyfriend had threatened to hurt her and her children.
When officers arrived, the suspect barricaded himself inside the apartment. After a short while, the man was coaxed out of the apartment by the Valley Enforcement Group SWAT team, but he somehow managed to set the unit on fire before getting out, Sellers said.
The man -- who has not been publicly identified -- is currently at Warrensville Heights City Jail, Sellers said.
The apartment building has about 20 suites, and four of those were vacant at the time of the fire, Sellers said. Everyone inside the building when the fire broke out was safely evacuated, as were all pets.
The huge flames that destroyed the building were extinguished by 6:15 p.m., though fire crews remain on scene to put out lingering blazes from inside the units. The roof has collapsed on each unit.
The building is a total loss, Sellers said. The American Red Cross is on scene to assist those affected by the fire, and they will be temporarily accommodated at the Warrensville Heights Civic Center, the mayor said.
Displaced residents can come to the Civic & Senior Center (4567 Green Road) for food, water, & support in collaboration with the Red Cross. City of Warrensville (@Warrensville_OH) April 10, 2017
Apartment complex catches fire after Warrensville Heights SWAT call-up Posted by cleveland.com on Monday, April 10, 2017
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[April 10, 2017] Talkspace Announces Reshaping Behavioral Health in the Workplace Conference in San Francisco on April 25
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 25, Talkspace will be hosting its annual conference at the SFJazz Center from 8:30am-5:00pm. This year's theme is Reshaping Behavioral Health in the Workplace. Talkspace's 2017 conference will bring together thought leaders in behavioral health, research, technology, and human resources to discuss workplace challenges in mental health and the innovative approaches that are yielding effective outcomes. Tickets are now available on Eventbrite. "With mental illnesses ranking first among illnesses that cause disability in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, it's shocking that 85% of U.S. employees will remain undiagnosed or undertreated," said Oren Frank, CEO of Talkspace. Featured speakers from Amgen, Beacon Health Options, Click Therapeutics, Doctor on Demand, General Assembly, MHA-NYC, One Medical, Yale University, and more will explore solutions for reducing the $300B lost by U.S. businesses each year due to mental health conditions in the following discussions:
Digital Therapeutics: Can pharma and software reshape mental health care?
Leveraging Technology: Can data, software and devices enable better care?
Opening Access: How can we remove the barriers to behavioral care in the workplace?
Benchmarking Outcomes: How can we measure and manage the quality of Behavioral Care? Laurie Dhue, a media powerhouse and one of the nation's top recovery advocates, will deliver the keynote address, Breaking stigma and the path to recovery. Dhue will be joined by Joe Schrank, program director of High Sobriety Treatment, for a fireside discussion on The Impact of Addiction: What you can't see, but you can feel. Additionally, John Duran, Council Member of the City of West Hollywood will be taking the stage to share his work advocating for HIV/AIDS issues and LGBT equality. "Companies have the power to influence the course of the health and wellness of their employees," said Lynn Hamilton, CCO at Talkspace. "People suffering from mental health conditions often lack the support they need from employers to access care. It's a problem that ultimately affects everyone in the work environment - colleagues, managers and the overall health of the organization. We hope this conference can shed light on the challenges exist so that together, we can forge a better path forward."
For more information, please visit: https://www.talkspace.com/reshaping-behavioral-health/index.html About Talkspace
Talkspace connects people with licensed therapists through its web and mobile apps. As the leading online therapy company, Talkspace revolutionized mental health care access by bringing the dialogue between therapists and their clients into the digital age. Founded with a mission to eliminate the stigmas associated with mental illness and to make therapy more available to millions of people, Talkspace's flagship product, Unlimited Messaging Therapy, has already been used by more than 500,000 people. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/talkspace-announces-reshaping-behavioral-health-in-the-workplace-conference-in-san-francisco-on-april-25-300437226.html SOURCE Talkspace
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[April 10, 2017] NexStreaming and Google Widevine Launch an HLS Player SDK with Content Protection
NexStreaming (KOSDAQ:139670) announced today that they have partnered with Google (News - Alert) to release an HLS player SDK secured with Widevine DRM for any Android and iOS app. Video service providers are now able to deploy encrypted HLS and DASH OTT mobile apps with the advanced playback and streaming capabilities of NexPlayer SDK while ensuring that the content will be protected with Google Widevine (News - Alert). In order to make this possible, a Widevine DRM library is pre-integrated into NexPlayer SDK, securing the best video quality and user experience across all mobile devices. NexPlayer with Widevine features the same streaming and playback capabilities as NexPlayer SDK, including intelligent ABR, HLS, DASH, closed captioning, multiple audio tracks, time shifting and the possibility to add 360 video navigation support. Carlos Lucas, GM of NexPlayer at NexStreaming said: "Secure content is key for a sustainable business in the video industry. Our partnership with Google shows our strong commitment to it, with an innovative, ready to go and cost-effective solution." Bian Baker, Head of Widevine Business at Google said: "The integration with NexStreaming provides video service providers with the capability to seamlessly support protected HLS and DASH across all device platforms."
NexStreaming will have a NexPlayer booth at NAB Show 2017 (April 22-27th, Las Vegas). If you want to know more about this joint product with Google, you can schedule a meeting here: http://www.nexstreaming.com/schedule-a-meeting About NexStreaming
NexStreaming is a global mobile software company with headquarters in Seoul (Korea) and branches in Spain, the US, Taiwan and China. NexStreaming is known for its excellent customer support and highly competitive time to market. Their flagship product is NexPlayer SDK, a multiscreen player SDK integrated in the mobile apps of more than 200 premium video service providers around the globe. NexPlayer SDK secures the best user experience across all devices, solving the problem of device fragmentation and time to market for the launch of new features. NexStreaming is a publicly traded company listed on the Korean stock market, KOSDAQ 139670. For more information, visit nexstreaming.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005862/en/
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As governments create smarter cities, they need cybersecurity measures built from the ground up or they risk costly data breaches which could compromise the privacy of their citizens.
In 2016 alone, cyber-crime cost the global economy more than $450 billion and over two billion personal records were stolen, according to the chief executive of specialist insurer Hiscox.
Cities around the world are using various technologies smart devices, apps, sensors, big data analytics and Internet of Things applications to improve the lives of their citizens. This results in massive amounts of valuable data that interest cyber-criminals.
Etay Maor, an executive security advisor at IBM Security told CNBC if there is a way for hackers to monetize any type of stolen data, they will attack it. Traditionally, the kinds of information that drew attention were bank credentials, personal identity information and credit card details, but Maor said anything from airline miles to medical records are now targeted.
"Now we have nations that are connecting (various services to the internet)," Maor said. "It's critical that when these things are designed, when you're talking about smart nations, security should be a top priority."
The digitization of critical infrastructure, such as power plants, water supply and electricity distribution also creates vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks.
Many governments appear to realize that slapping on a layer of security at a later stage of smart city projects is no longer an option. Singapore already has a cybersecurity agency and last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong outlined the city-state's comprehensive strategy to tackle online threats.
Jordi Puignero, secretary for telecommunications, cybersecurity and digital society for the government of Catalonia said cybersecurity needs the same kind of emphasis as security in the physical world. If governments fail to adequately secure their smart cities, people will not trust the services, he said.
"If they don't trust it, they won't use it. If they don't use it, we will not be competitive in this digital world," Puignero, who leads the Catalan government's SmartCATalonia efforts, told CNBC last month at the sidelines of the IoT Asia 2017 conference in Singapore.
Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), adjusts his glasses during a news conference on Saturday, March 12, 2016. Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The head of China's insurance regulator is being investigated for suspected disciplinary violations, the country's top anti-graft body said on Sunday, bringing the most senior financial regulator to date into the government's fight against corruption. China's top leaders have pledged this year to address financial risks and asset bubbles. In a brief statement, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said Xiang Junbo, head of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) and a member of the central bank's monetary policy committee, was suspected of "serious disciplinary violations" - a phrase that usually refers to graft. It gave no further details. Xiang's name and position has been removed from the CIRC's website although news about him remains.
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As head of the insurance regulator, Xiang oversaw rapid growth of the insurance industry, along with liberalization of investment rules that provided insurers greater latitude to invest more of their assets at home and overseas. China's insurance assets nearly doubled over the last three years, reaching 15.1 trillion yuan ($2.19 trillion) at the end of 2016. In February, Xiang appeared at a press conference where he vowed the insurance regulator would take more punitive action to punish short-term speculators and reduce long-term risk. Xiang said CIRC wouldn't allow the insurance industry to become "a rich man's club" or hideout for "financial crocodiles". The regulator has intensified a crackdown on risky activity by some aggressive players in the insurance sector, particularly those seen to be engaging in financial market speculation using expensive short-term funds. Xiang, 60, took control of the insurance regulator in 2011 after serving as chairman of Agricultural Bank of China , one of the four biggest state banks. Xiang was previously a deputy central bank governor and vice chief at the National Audit Office. Xiang would be the most senior regulator hauled in during the anti-graft campaign since Yao Gang, a former deputy head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was put under investigation in late 2015 following a stock market crash.
Anti-graft drive
[April 10, 2017] The American Turkish Society's 2017 Gala to Honor Dr. Tamer Seckin and Nevzat Aydin at 583 Park Avenue on May 31st
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Turkish Society will honor Nevzat Aydin, co-founder and CEO of Yemeksepeti, and Dr. Tamer Seckin, founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, at their 2017 Gala on Wednesday, May 31 at 583 Park Avenue in New York. Both honorees will receive The American Turkish Society's Philanthropy Award for their significant contributions and moral commitment to improving the lives of so many in the United States and Turkey. Under Nevzat Aydin's leadership Yemeksepeti, the leading online food delivery service in Turkey, operates in 64 Turkish cities and in Cyprus, with more than 1,000 member restaurants, 5.2 million users, and 150,000 orders delivered to 400,000 people on a daily basis. Yemeksepeti is rapidly expanding to other countries. In 2013, Mr. Aydin was named number one on Fortune Turkey's 40 Under 40 list which recognizes the country's top young business leaders and innovators. He was among the 150 international entrepreneurs invited to participate in the Entrepreneurship Summit held by US President Barack Obama in 2010. In 2015, Yemeksepeti was acquired by the German-based company Delivery Hero for $589 million. Ranked amongst America's top surgeons and ynecologists, Dr. Tamer Seckin has committed himself to the treatment of the female reproductive system focusing on endometriosis, a disease of the female reproductive system. In 2009, Dr. Seckin founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EFA), an organization that works to raise awareness and emphasizes the critical value of surgical excision of endometriosis. The EFA is the first research and advocacy foundation organized by a private physician. Under his guidance as Medical Director, the EFA strives to increase disease recognition, provide advocacy, facilitate expert surgical training and fund landmark endometriosis research.
"We are pleased to be in the forefront of innovation in the nonprofit sector by highlighting the positive technological forces of accelerating change and progress embodied by our highly successful and talented Honorees this year" said The American Turkish Society's Chairman, Murat Koprulu. Founded in 1949, The American Turkish Society is the oldest, independent organization in the world dedicated to building bridges between the United States and Turkey. The American Turkish Society's mission is to enhance business, economic, and cultural ties between Turkey and the United States. The Society fosters understanding and cooperation between the countries through education, cultural exchange, philanthropy, humanitarian efforts and networking; presents and supports programs highlighting Turkish arts and culture; and nurtures the next generation of leaders through its Young Society Leaders program. Over 350 guests from the public and private sectors, including diplomats, leading business executives, artists, scholars and thought leaders from Turkey and the United States will support this year's Gala and all proceeds will support the non-profit's many programs in the areas of education, arts, culture, and business. For more on the American Turkish Society or to purchase tickets to this year's Gala, please visit www.americanturkishsociety.org
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-american-turkish-societys-2017-gala-to-honor-dr-tamer-seckin-and-nevzat-aydn-at-583-park-avenue-on-may-31st-300437254.html SOURCE The American Turkish Society
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A pedestrian carries shopping bags while crossing Market Street in downtown San Francisco. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Good morning. Good Monday. Good markets. Welcome back to the week ahead on Wall Street and a look at what investors need to know for the next five days. Geopolitical events, a stumbling economy and richly valued stocks are all staring the market in the face, yet the battle has been at worst a standoff so far. Now comes another week and a fresh set of challenges for investors to absorb.
The real deal with retail
Friday's monthly jobs report left little doubt that the retail industry is at a crossroads major chains are closing stores, sales have wobbled and employers aren't hiring. Friday will be a huge day again this week. That's when the latest report on retail sales will come through, providing a gauge of where things really stand. If expectations are right, the news won't be good: a likely 0.4 percent drop month-to-month overall, or a meager 0.1 percent gain if you include auto sales. Speaking of auto sales, the big New York International Auto Show also starts Friday and runs until April 23. New models for Dodge, Toyota and Jeep are expected to be the big draws, but market watchers should monitor events there to get a feel for what future sales will be like.
Banks are in the money
If it's early April, then it's that time when we get to hear how much money companies made so far this year. For banks, the profits are expected to be considerable. In fact, the broad category of that Wall Street calls "financials" banks, insurers, brokerages and the like likely saw earnings growth of nearly 15 percent in the first quarter, according to FactSet. The sector is predicted to lead the way for an total profit gain of 9.1 percent.
Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Janet Yellen Getty Images
So why should you care? Because companies like banks and materials are supposed to be the big beneficiaries of the "Trump trade." President Donald Trump's plans to juice the economy by cutting taxes, loosening regulations and spending big on public works projects feed into the sweet spot for banks. If profits are up, that's a good sign that the economic growth narrative is holding true. If they're lackluster, it could mean a more challenging year. Kickoff for bank earnings starts Thursday with JPMorgan Chase , Citigroup and Wells Fargo stepping up to the plate.
This and that, here and there
Hong Kong was recently ranked the most expensive housing market in the world for the seventh consecutive year, according to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.
The survey, which divides median house prices by gross annual median household income, found Hong Kong to clock in at 18.1. So, on average, if someone makes $50,000 in annual income, the cost of their home would be $900,000.
The 18.1 multiple soars above other markets around the world. The second least affordable city is Sydney which scored a multiple of 12.1. Even financial hubs London and New York pale in comparison coming in at multiples of 8.5 and 5.9 respectively.
So what makes Hong Kong so expensive?
Low Supply, High Demand
On one hand, Hong Kong's housing astronomical costs area a simple case of supply and demand. The city ranks as the fourth most densely populated among sovereign states or territories , with more than seven million residents spread across 1,106 square kilometers (427 sq miles).
Meanwhile, there's high demand to live and work in one of the world's financial hubs and the de-facto access point into the world's most populous country, China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with his U.S. President Donald Trump in the latter's Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago in the United States, April 6, 2017.
The lead up to U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping's first meeting in Florida might have been tense but both leaders came away from last week's summit seemingly optimistic about the future of U.S.-China ties.
During the two-day summit, which focused on bilateral trade issues and military cooperation, Trump commented on the "tremendous progress" the U.S. had made with China. His remarks came despite campaign accusations about China stealing jobs in the U.S. and manipulating its currency.
Xi responded by welcoming U.S. participation in China's "One Belt One Road" development project and extending an invitation to Trump to visit China.
While no detailed plans have been drawn up, both parties came away from the summit with a 100-day plan that would involve discussions about reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China.
This takes place against the thorny issue of North Korea's advancing nuclear program: China opposes the U.S. deployment of an anti-missile system in South Korea. The hermit state has launched several missile tests this year and most recently took issue with the U.S. missile strike on an airbase in Syria last Friday. Meanwhile, in response to the increased tensions in the region, the U.S. has responded by sending an aircraft carrier group close to the Korean peninsula.
As of last week, President Donald Trump's foreign policy vision remained mired in fog. Now, recent developments show an administration that's ready to go on offense. From attacking a Syrian government airfield on Thursday to moving an aircraft carrier group closer to North Korea on Sunday, the White House seems to be pursuing an aggressive approach to reign in rogue nations.
An E-2C Hawkeye lands on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier during a South Korea-US joint military cxercise in seas east of the Korean Peninsula on March 14, 2017. The Carl Vinson Strike Group is participating in the annual joint Foal Eagle exercise between South Korea and the US. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images
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President Trump's decision to launch an airstrike in Syria may boost his popularity at home and burnish his image abroad, foreign policy expert David Gordon said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."
"There's a new cop in town," says Gordon, former chairman and senior advisor to Eurasia Group, an international political consultancy firm. The recent alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria gave the Trump administration "the perfect opportunity" to distance itself from the controversies it has entangled itself in during Trump's first few months in office, says Gordon, particularly the new administration's focus on Obama's legacy.
"We're heading to something that's gonna look like a George W. Trump administration," says Gordon. While he says Trump won't change his style, the generals Trump has surrounded himself with tend toward the approaches taken by Republican president George W. Bush. The Trump administration, says Gordon, should take advantage of it.
Late last week, the U.S. military launched a volley of 59 Tomahawk missiles aimed at the Shayrat air base near Homs, a response to a Tuesday chemical weapons attack. Trump, who said fighting both Assad and ISIS was "idiocy" during his presidential campaign, said his attitude to Syria and Assad "has changed very much" in comments immediately after the airstrike.
Still, the lack of a clear foreign policy may dampen excitement around America's 45th president. "I think Trump will definitely get a popularity bump from this," says Gordon. "But he doesn't appear to have any really strong strategies moving forward to leverage this."
Containers loaded onto a freighter at a pier of Tokyo port in Japan. Toshifumi Kitamura | AFP | Getty Images
A lot of U.S. companies may find themselves with new suitors if Congress gets its way. In recent years, many U.S. corporations have tried to slash their tax bill by shedding their American citizenship and acquiring foreign companies. The tactic, known as "inversion," has caught the ire of Washington, which has sought creative ways to stop inversions for years, with limited success. But tax reform now being debated in D.C. may create an opposite situation, giving foreign companies incentive to buy up U.S. firms, according to tax experts and mergers and acquisitions advisors. Instead of an inversion, it would be a "reversion." Much of the debate over the House tax plan has focused on the border adjustment tax its benefit for exporters and the penalty for importers. Border adjustment would avoid taxing U.S. exports, but would put a blanket tax on imports into the country.
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If the border adjustment tax comes to pass, it could be detrimental to foreign companies with a large customer base inside the U.S., since they would face a higher levy than their U.S. competitors who are producing domestically. Acquiring a similar company in the United States would help solve that problem, tax experts say, as it could eliminate the need to move goods and services across the U.S. border. "You would do a mirror image of an inversion," said Robert Willens, an independent tax consultant. "Investment bankers would be pushing that right and left. It would be one of the best things they'd be offering their clients." Several mergers and acquisitions advisors who requested anonymity said they've already been speaking with clients about a similar strategy.
'Cleanest fix ever'
It's much easier for companies to acquire an already operational peer than to move production into the U.S. Additionally, if companies can expense domestic capital expenditures (another possible element of the border adjustment plan), that may be extended to acquisitions as well, depending on the way the deal is structured. Experts say that would give foreign companies even further impetus to sign deals. The border adjustment proposal represents a fundamental restructuring of the nation's tax code that would address the long-running problem of corporate inversions. "That's its primary virtue," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and president of the American Action Forum, one of the proposal's chief supporters. "It's the cleanest fix ever." Not only does the United States have one of the highest corporate tax rates among developed nations, it also taxes business income anywhere it is earned globally. Most countries tax only profits generated inside their borders. As a result, many U.S. companies have sought to shift their headquarters overseas.
How border adjustment works
But Anheuser-Busch's last earnings report was a slight miss, with revenues topping expectations but earnings taking a hit due to the SABMiller purchase. Total volumes also declined 3.3 percent despite positive rhetoric from management.
"With its vast scale, BUD can spread out its marketing costs and take advantage of all sorts of commercial opportunities that might not be available to smaller brewers," the " Mad Money " host said. "Nobody even comes close to these guys."
First Cramer turned to Anheuser-Busch InBev , the Belgium-based parent of Budweiser and the largest brewer in the world, thanks to its September acquisition of SABMiller.
In light of Constellation Brands' success in the beer space, Jim Cramer turned to its competitors to flesh out the players that could really pour some gains into your portfolio.
"Put it all together and the numbers don't paint a very flattering picture," Cramer said. "In short, while I'm an avid drinker of Bud Light ... BUD's stock really seems like nothing to write home about, except for that 3 percent yield."
Next Cramer looked into The Boston Beer Company , known for its Sam Adams beer brand. The company has been embroiled in a battle of the craft beers as smaller, more hip brands chip away at its market share.
"The issue here is whether Boston Beer has finally bottomed," Cramer said. Boston Beer beat analyst expectations in its February earnings report, but management gave a very wide range for its 2017 earnings forecast, suggesting that they are not clear yet on whether the year will be good or bad.
Cramer added that the company is in the throes of looking for a new CEO, which means it could take a while for the company to get back on track.
Third came Molson Coors , parent of Miller Lite, Coors Lite, Blue Moon, and Keystone, as well as the second-largest brewer in the United States.
Molson Coors was a big benefactor of the Anheuser-Busch-SABMiller deal, snagging the rest of the MillerCoors venture for a mere $12 billion, but Cramer worries that weak performance in the domestic premium beer segment could mean a tipsy future for the company.
"At this point, the story's all about the fact that they bought the MillerCoors joint venture for a song. And while that could be a decent narrative, it's not exactly the kind of organic growth that money managers really salivate over," he said.
At the end of the day, Constellation Brands seems to be the consistent go-to for growth and libations alike.
"Constellation's brands are on fire, including terrific Mexican beers like Modelo and Corona, and [one] we had a hard time keeping in stock this weekend at Bar San Miguel: Pacifico," Cramer said.
The company has perpetually delivered double-digit revenue growth, strong cash flow and earnings beats, and has been scooping up market share nationwide by acquiring small craft beer makers and other brands in popular segments.
And while Constellation would be at risk if Congress passed a border-adjusted tax, as the company imports many of its beers from Mexico, Cramer thinks the tax passing is unlikely.
"Constellation Brands has become the undisputed king of the beer space, with incredible growth that its competitors would kill for. I would make a case for Molson Coors or BUD, but honestly, Constellation's best of breed. It's the one you should own, especially when the market gives you the periodic border tax dip," the "Mad Money" host said.
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Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and Eni reiterated on Monday that neither they nor their personnel had been involved in any wrongdoing in Nigeria, including improper payments to Nigerian officials.
The comments follow media reports alleging how hundreds of millions of dollars from the two companies were used for illicit payments.
A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday claims to show transactions worth $1.3 billion made in 2010-2011 that Shell and Eni paid to acquire an exploration licence for an offshore oil block known as OPL 245.
The money was paid to the Nigerian government, but BuzzFeed and Il Sole said documents showed Shell's top executives at the time knew those sums would go to Malabu Oil and Gas, a front company connected to former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.
Attempts by Reuters to contact Etete have been unsuccessful.
In emailed comments, an Eni spokesman said the allegations in the reports were not supported by the facts, the underlying agreements or the independent investigations conducted to date.
"Neither Eni nor Shell paid any monies other than as contemplated and recorded by the Block Resolution Agreement and did not pay to Malabu, to Chief Dan Etete or to any public officer," the spokesman said.
Shell said that "based on our review of the Prosecutor of Milan's file and all of the information and facts available to Shell, we do not believe that there is a basis to prosecute Shell. Furthermore, we are not aware of any evidence to support a case against any former or current Shell employee".
In an emailed statement, Shell added that if the evidence proves improper payments were made, "it is Shell's position that none of those payments were made with its knowledge, authorization or on its behalf".
Courts in Nigeria and Milan are investigating the 2011 purchase of the block, which industry figures suggest could hold more than 9 billion barrels of oil.
Italian prosecutors are working with an anti-fraud team in the Netherlands that raided Shell's The Hague headquarters in February 2016 in relation to the investigation. A Nigerian court ordered the asset temporarily seized in January at the request of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, but the seizure was later overturned.
The German military's counter-intelligence agency is looking into 275 suspected right-wing extremists in its ranks, including a soldier heard saying "Heil Hitler", the Defense Ministry has told parliament in a letter seen by Reuters on Sunday.
About 143 of the cases were reported last year and 53 this year, the ministry wrote in its 15-page answer, detailing incidents of soldiers performing Nazi salutes or uttering racist remarks against servicemen with migrant backgrounds.
Public displays of Nazi symbols and salutes are illegal in Germany, where most people are repulsed by any degree of sympathy to the dictatorship responsible for the Holocaust.
The letter noted the lax manner in which some of the most serious cases have been dealt with.
One such incident is Case 29, which involved a soldier who was heard conspicuously saying "Heil Hitler," "Heil our leader" and "Sieg Heil, comrades," the ministry said.
"The case was passed on to the military prosecutor and the public prosecutor's office, but neither an early dismissal nor a service ban took place," it wrote to parliament.
Another case involved a soldier who used a Facebook page associated with the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) to spread racist remarks, including demanding the death sentence for "typical foreigners."
Germany's Constitutional Court said in January that the NPD resembled Adolf Hitler's Nazi party but ruled against banning it because it was too weak to endanger democracy.
The ministry said the soldier was "only disciplined."
In a third case, a soldier was allowed to keep his weapon after he was disciplined for performing the Nazi salute while on a trip to the Latvian capital, Riga.
German media reported last year that there are signs Islamists were trying to join the German armed forces to get military training with the possible goal of carrying out attacks in Germany.
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[April 10, 2017] SeniorVu Celebrates 200th Client Community
KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SeniorVu, announced today that now more than 200 senior living communities have joined the SeniorVu team since the solution was launched less than 6 months ago. SeniorVu is state-of-the-art lead generation and marketing automation software that uses sophisticated machine-learning algorithm technology exclusive to SoftVu combined with big-data to find future residents for senior living communities. One Lincoln Park, Lincoln Park Manor and Valley Creek Apartments, all Miller-Valentine Group communities are three of SeniorVu's first 200 clients. "It works for us," says Christine Ryan, Regional Manager for Miller-Valentine Group. Ryan says having future residents in their marketing pipeline streamlines their sales process. "In the few months we've been onboard with SeniorVu we've seen an increase in leads that are a perfect match for our communities, more tours and yes, move-ins too." Ryan says, SeniorVu's low flat-rate pricing with no hidden fees is also appeaing. "We grew weary of the big fees and 'surprise' invoices from our other lead providers."
"We understand the frustration of senior living community owners and operators. It's their narrow profit margin and frequent turnover that has them chasing leads," says Tim Donnelly, SoftVu CEO. "They're wasting time sifting through unqualified leads instead of scheduling tours and closing sales. We're solving that problem." SeniorVu markets to seniors using their client community's branding, not SeniorVu's. SeniorVu's highly-trained Concierge Call and Chat Service team talks with seniors and adult children, answering specific questions about care levels, amenities and pricing on behalf of their client communities then scheduling tours. This process helps seniors determine if a community is the right fit. "Once we know it is a fit," says Donnelly, "we set up the community tour. It's saving our clients time and money. Only highly qualified seniors are now walking through their doors."
"We are thrilled to already have more than 200 client communities trusting SeniorVu," states Donnelly. "The SeniorVu product is so unique to senior living communities and delivers what no other marketing company does highly-qualified future residents for a lower rate." About SeniorVu SoftVu maximizes ROI by automating communication to its clients' sales pipeline and existing customer base. They create, manage, distribute, and track automated marketing strategies for direct to consumer markets in the Mortgage Lending and Senior Living industries. For more information about SoftVu, visit http://www.softvu.com Or email [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/seniorvu-celebrates-200th-client-community-300437428.html SOURCE SoftVu
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President of French far-right Front National (FN) party Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a rally in Lyon, France.
France's presidential election is rapidly approaching, and Goldman Sachs is telling investors to stay cautious.
The investment banking giant recommended Monday that investors short French bond futures expiring in June ahead of the contest, amid the possibility that anti-establishment candidate Marine Le Pen or Jean-Luc Melenchon could stun pollsters with a win.
Political polling recently has been a terrible predictor of actual election results, internationally. Polls heading into last year's Brexit vote and the U.S. presidential election were mostly wrong, causing shockwaves across financial markets.
In France, investors predict that a Le Pen or Melenchon victory would likewise send markets into a frenzy.
"We would expect French bond spreads (and yields) to come under upward pressure if the first round of the Presidential election were to result in a strong showing of anti-establishment parties," Goldman said in a note to clients.
John Greim | LightRocket | Getty Images
President Trump and congressional Republicans have vowed to cut taxes, simplify returns and stimulate business growth. With many details to be fleshed out and negotiated, entrepreneurs are hoping for tax changes to encourage business start-ups, which have been sluggish. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says creation of new businesses hit about 679,000 in 2015, up from the Great Recession low of 561,000 in 2010 but still shy of the record 716,000 in 2006. Even worse, jobs created by businesses less than one year old, though rising in recent years, have lagged, hitting about 3 million in 2015 compared to more than 4.7 million a year in 1998 and 1999. In fact, many "new businesses" created in recent years are really just one-person shops set up by individuals who have lost their jobs, says Enrolled Agent Steven J. Weil, president of RMS Accounting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With no employees, they're not helping to build employment. More from Upstart 25:
4 Chinese-backed electric-car start-ups planning a run at Tesla
Trump debunked: Start-up founders want more regulation, not less
Trump, listen up: 3 ways start-ups could fix America's broken health-care system "While these independent contractors are, in effect, in business for themselves, they are not truly in (a growing) business, since their primary interest is merely replacing the employment income they can't seem to find in a job," Weil says. Many factors account for sagging new-business formation from slow economic growth, to a widespread belief that starting a new company is just too difficult, to regulations and tight lending standards. But tax policies are culprits, too, according to start-up experts. So what's on their tax wish list? All sorts of things, of course, ranging from eliminating the alternative minimum tax and estate tax that hit many small-business owners, to offering tax credits for new hires, to eliminating the IRS's ability to judge whether executive compensation is appropriate. But here are the four broad categories that come up most.
Tax cuts
Most start-up experts endorse Trump's campaign proposal to cut the business tax rate to 15 percent. Currently, corporations face a top rate of 35 percent, while owners of many small businesses typically set up as sole proprietorships, limited liability companies, partnerships or S corporations pay income-tax rates topping out at 39.6 percent, plus a 3.8 percent Medicare surtax to fund Obamacare. Slashing business taxes could spur start-ups by raising after-tax earnings, making it worthwhile for prospective entrepreneurs to give up regular salaries to strike out on their own, says accountant Dominique Molina, founder of the American Institute of Certified Tax Planners.
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The self-employment tax is another obstacle to start-ups, since an entrepreneur has to pay both the employer and employee's share, says Tom Wheelwright, CEO of ProVision Wealth of Tempe, Arizona. "An employee pays 7.65 percent in Social Security tax. As soon as she becomes self-employed, that rate doubles to 15.3 percent, and when she starts earning real income, Obamacare raises that rate to 16.2 percent," he says. "Reducing or eliminating that extra self-employment tax would be huge for new entrepreneurs."
Faster deductions
Molina and others interviewed would also like businesses large and small to be able to deduct the cost of new assets, like equipment in the year they are purchased instead of spreading them over decades through depreciation allowances. The tax code, she says, is not kind to start-up costs, like feasibility studies and expenses for things like professional advice. "Under the current guidelines, just $5,000 of (this type of ) expense can be deducted in the year incurred, while the remainder is deducted over a 15-year period," she says. "In the event costs exceed $50,000, taxpayers may not even be able to deduct the entire $5,000 of first-year expenses."
Equal treatment for equity and debt
Start-ups typically have little or no track record and may lose money for years, making it hard to borrow significant sums. So many raise money instead by selling stock. The tax code allows deductions for interest paid on debt but nothing comparable for stock, putting the stock-dependent start-up at a disadvantage. The Tax Policy Center, a think tank devoted to tax issues, has found that partnerships, S corporations and other tax structures commonly used by start-ups face an effective marginal tax rate of 20 percent on stock, while a corporation using debt has a rate of 6 percent, meaning the tax code effectively subsidizes companies using debt.
A level playing field
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Google said last week that it had "closed the gender pay gap globally." Yet the Labor Department alleged in a hearing that "discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme." The ensuing legal battle between the tech giant and the DoL illustrates the quandary faced by companies across Silicon Valley: Is gender equity improving that quickly, or is the industry just measuring different things? "This is a data question. I don't think it's just a Google problem, it's a problem throughout tech," Recode executive editor Kara Swisher told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Monday.
Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. Michael Newberg | CNBC
Janette Wipper, a DoL regional director, testified in court in San Francisco on Friday that Google had "systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce," The Guardian reported. Google told CNBC it "vehemently disagree[s]," noting the DoL's methodology was unclear. The fiery exchange came after Google failed to comply with a routine audit, according to the Labor Department. As industry watchers pointed out, the dispute highlights how there are lots of ways for companies across the technology industry to slice compensation data. "It would be a rare organization I've ever encountered that doesn't have issues that it should be addressing," said Joelle Emerson, founder and CEO of Paradigm, which advises companies and helps with training and workshops related to diversity. Tweet: For one, it's not enough to look at people with identical job titles. Not having access to certain roles is a part of what produces the gap.
7 questions tech companies should ask
Elizabeth Ames is a senior vice president at the Anita Borg Institute, which aims to help women make significant contributions to technical fields. She said that in addition to comparing the pay of women and men in the same roles, companies should measure retention, promotion, visibility and parental leave. Retention Are women staying in the company? Ames said that while many companies compare the pay of women and men in the same jobs, women tend to be mostly highly represented in entry-level positions across the technology industry. At Google, for example, 31 percent of employees overall are women, but only 19 percent of tech workers are women, according to January 2016 data. If a company is getting substantial percentages of women in technical roles, that is a good sign for the company's recruiting, Ames said. If not, they might need to look at whether women perceive the organization the same way men do.
Ames said that while many companies compare the pay of women and men in the same jobs, women tend to be mostly highly represented in entry-level positions across the technology industry. At Google, for example, 31 percent of employees overall are women, but only 19 percent of tech workers are women, according to January 2016 data. If a company is getting substantial percentages of women in technical roles, that is a good sign for the company's recruiting, Ames said. If not, they might need to look at whether women perceive the organization the same way men do. Promotion Are women moving up the ranks? Sometimes low retention can be a sign that women aren't being looked at for promotions, Ames said. "That is basically representative that women don't get considered to promotions, so they don't experience the increase of pay that comes with being promoted," Ames said. "Women often get pushed into manager roles, or some of the roles that are sort of softer engineering roles, and they tend to pay less and to some extent have less promotion opportunities."
Sometimes low retention can be a sign that women aren't being looked at for promotions, Ames said. "That is basically representative that women don't get considered to promotions, so they don't experience the increase of pay that comes with being promoted," Ames said. "Women often get pushed into manager roles, or some of the roles that are sort of softer engineering roles, and they tend to pay less and to some extent have less promotion opportunities." Visibility Do senior women get the same exposure as senior men? Women are half the population, Ames said, so while having a few high-profile women is great, it's important that they are not perceived as tokens for boosting the corporate image.
Women are half the population, Ames said, so while having a few high-profile women is great, it's important that they are not perceived as tokens for boosting the corporate image. Parental leave Are men and women taking advantage? The Economic Policy Institute notes that women pay a "motherhood penalty," with pay lagging after they give birth. Ames noted that women may still feel disadvantaged for taking maternity leave if they don't see their male counterparts taking paternity leave. Emerson, who litigated pay equity cases as a lawyer, said she's always skeptical when an organization says it has "solved" a pay gap issue, because there are so many more facets of the issue that should be measured beyond what the law requires. Substantially similar work Are people who add similar value to the company being given equivalent titles? "What we sometimes see is that two people may be doing the same job in reality, but they may be given a different title. A person from an underrepresented group might be in a different category, even though duties might be similar," Emerson said. "It's something that there's no uniform agreement on. Roles become nuanced within companies."
"What we sometimes see is that two people may be doing the same job in reality, but they may be given a different title. A person from an underrepresented group might be in a different category, even though duties might be similar," Emerson said. "It's something that there's no uniform agreement on. Roles become nuanced within companies." Quotas and performance feedback Are women and underrepresented groups given the same access to helpful feedback? Emerson said that companies should analyze performance reviews to see if members of underrepresented groups are spoken to equally about opportunities for leadership or advancement. "I had a client once who was on a sales team and had been out for part of the year on paid parental leave. She didn't get her bonus, because she didn't hit the quota that would have been for the whole year, even though she did hit her quota when for the seven months she was there," Emerson said.
Emerson said that companies should analyze performance reviews to see if members of underrepresented groups are spoken to equally about opportunities for leadership or advancement. "I had a client once who was on a sales team and had been out for part of the year on paid parental leave. She didn't get her bonus, because she didn't hit the quota that would have been for the whole year, even though she did hit her quota when for the seven months she was there," Emerson said. Robust analysis Are intersectional identities being taken into account? Black and hispanic women and men from underrepresented groups also face pay gaps, so those factors should also be considered, Emerson said.
'It's a question of what they're going to do about it'
The stock market has gotten expensive and investors need to be careful, experts told CNBC on Monday.
"Stocks are very fully valued, and I think you have to really make sure you know what you own and why you own it because when this music stops, and it will stop, you better have a seat for you and your clients," Michael Farr, president of Farr, Miller & Washington, said in an interview with "Closing Bell."
Stocks ran up after President Donald Trump's victory in November, but have been trading in a narrow range recently.
Trader Kenny Polcari, director at O'Neil Securities, said stocks have been resilient lately but may be headed for a correction.
He sees it possibly happening right after tax season.
"It's a seasonality thing. If you look back the last four or five years, after tax day the market kind of pulls itself back, corrects a little bit, churns before it starts to move again," Polcari told "Closing Bell."
Farr believes there is still value to be found in the market, and points out that "this has been the most called-for market top that just won't happen that I've seen in a long time."
He would stay away highfliers. Instead, he likes energy and consumer staples, specifically Sprouts Farmers Market and CVS.
Disclaimer
Disclosures: Farr, his family and firm own SFM an CVS
Watch: Stocks relatively expensive, says Bogle
Investor and philanthropist Eugene Lang, whom The New York Times calls "an American folk hero," died on Saturday at the age of 98. The self-made millionaire founded the "I Have a Dream Foundation," which helps to send underprivileged children to college, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
But though Lang gave away $150 million and helped 16,000 students over the course of his lifetime , he made one thing very clear to his own kids: They shouldn't expect to inherit anything from him after his death.
Lang had three children, and, People Magazine reported in 1990, he "resolved not to leave them a dime of his [then] estimated $50 million fortune." In fact:
Eugene believes so strongly that his kids should fend for themselves that he's not leaving an inheritance to Stephen or his two older siblings, Jane, an attorney, and David, a vice president at REFAC. "Look," says Eugene, "I gave them good educations and every encouragement to make it on their own. They should be able to stand tall."
The son of working-class immigrants, Lang himself attended Swarthmore College at the age of 15 on a scholarship, and he believed strongly in the power of education, which is why he made it the focus of his philanthropic efforts. Having sent his own children to good schools, he didn't see why they also needed inherited wealth.
In 2006, USA Today reported that the philanthropist hadn't changed his mind.
After putting his three children through college, he says, he expected them to be essentially self-sufficient. "A good education is to learn to be self-supporting so that they can build their own inheritance," Lang says. "I never believed in luxuries. I still pick up a penny on the street."
Apparently his children didn't feel deprived. Stephen Lang told People he saw the wisdom of his father's choice.
"My father has a very healthy respect for what money can do but ultimately thinks it's quite a corrupting thing," says Stephen. "The major thing Dad's given me has been his support and inspiration. In that sense I'm as rich as anyone."
He became an award-winning actor, appearing on Broadway, TV and in films such as "A Few Good Men" and "Avatar." His sister Jane became an accomplished lawyer and philanthropist, and his brother David became a musician and composer.
Billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates also advise against passing money on to your children, or at least too much. They prefer to invest the bulk of their fortunes where the funds can do the most good. According to USA Today:
President Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law having senior roles in the White House may be a promising business model, Yale School of Management's Jeff Sonnenfeld told CNBC on Monday.
Sonnenfeld, a former professor at Harvard Business School, published an article in Politico Magazine on Saturday describing how Ivanka Trump's and Jared Kushner's White House roles could be an important asset to the president.
"Sure, family businesses have role conflicts, succession struggles, and sibling rivalries," he wrote in the magazine. "At the same time, we've welcomed multiple Bushes, Roosevelts, and Adamses in the White House without acting out the pathologies of 'All in the Family.'"
Trump has been met with intense criticism ever since he nominated his son-in-law, Kushner, to a White House role. The appointment sparked questions about conflicts of interest, with some saying it violated the anti-nepotism statute.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department said Trump could hire Kushner as a senior White House advisor without breaking anti-nepotism laws.
The White House confirmed last month that Ivanka Trump, who has advised her father on women's issues and sat in on meetings with world leaders, would take an unpaid role as a government employee.
"Family enterprises are not necessarily awful things. We've seen lots of well-run businesses with family stakes in them," Sonnenfeld said on "Squawk Box." "Ford Motor Co. today benefits from having a strong family stake ... Campbell Soup , Wal-Mart ."
Sonnenfeld added that the United States has seen a completely "unjustified moral outrage" to Kushner stepping in.
"We have a long history of seeing this special assistance that are people with broad portfolios," he said. "Henry Hopkins, who was a special assistant to FDR, did everything from ... lease programs ... the WPA programs."
With New York poised to start offering a tuition-free college education for some students this fall, public colleges may be worth a closer look for families just starting their college search. Under the plan, known as the Excelsior Scholarship, the state will supplement aid for in-state residents whose families earn $125,000 or less, providing tuition-free education at all state public two- and four-year colleges. (Tennessee and Oregon have programs offering free tuition at two-year community colleges.)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Getty Images
"Today, college is what high school was it should always be an option even if you can't afford it," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said this spring in a statement on the program's inclusion in the state budget. "The Excelsior Scholarship will make college accessible to thousands of working and middle class students and shows the difference that government can make."
Today, college is what high school was it should always be an option even if you can't afford it. Gov. Andrew Cuomo
The program will phase in over three years, starting in the fall for New Yorkers earning up to $100,000 and increasing to $110,000 in 2018. The state expects it to benefit an estimated 940,000 families.
CUNY City College of Technology in New York. Source: CUNY City Tech
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., conducts a news conference with members the GOP caucus in the Capitol Visitor Center to announce a new amendment to the health care bill to repeal and replace the ACA, April 6, 2017.
That effort has badly stalled because of qualms within the Republican caucus about the details of that bill, most recently last week, when a bid to have a vote on the bill failed for lack of support. GOP leaders have said they may call the House back into session if they believe they can pass a bill during the scheduled recess.
Those ads come as GOP leaders continue their effort to pass a bill in the House that would repeal and replace key parts of the Affordable Care Act.
The ads sponsored by advocacy groups are designed to put pressure on Republicans lawmakers, who effectively hold the fate of Obamacare in their hands, along with President Donald Trump .
A variety of ads in defense of and in opposition to Obamacare are being unveiled as members of the House visit their home districts over the next two weeks.
Forget about getting some peace and quiet during this congressional recess.
On Monday, the Obamacare advocacy group Save My Care released a series of television ads that are set to air in House districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida and New Jersey.
The ads are "calling out" seven GOP House members by name "for their failure to stand up and protect their constituents from a disastrous right wing healthcare repeal bill," Save My Care said in an announcement of the campaign.
In the ad specifically targeting Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a voice says, "Congressman Issa promised to protect our health care."
"But when right-wing politicians tried to pass a disastrous health-care repeal bill that raises costs and cuts coverage, Issa wouldn't oppose them," the voice said. "Tell Issa stop trying to repeal our health care."
A spokesman for Issa has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In another ad entitled Trumpcare 2.0, sponsored by the Bridge Project, a voice says, "Republicans in Congress are fighting to bring back Donald Trump's disastrous health-care bill. "
"If Trumpcare became law, it would gut health-care to America, and signal disaster for millions of families," the voice says. "Tell your member of Congress, don't let Donald Trump sell you out."
Both the Bridge Project ad, and the Save My Care ads, highlight estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that 24 million people would lose health insurance coverage by 2026 if the GOP bill became law, and that premiums for individual health plans would increase by up to 20 percent next year.
On Tuesday, the conservative Club for Growth is launching a million-dollar ad campaign, dubbed "End Obamacare," calling for wavering GOP lawmakers to back the repeal-and-replace bill.
"It's time for all Republicans to do what they promised voters and back legislation that fulfills President Trump's pledge to end Obamacare and lower premiums," said David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth.
On Thursday, McIntosh said, the campaign will enter a second phase, where it calls out by name 10 moderate Republicans whom the group believes are impediments to passing the bill.
During a conference call with reporters on Monday, McIntosh named just two of those 10 representatives Chris Collins of New York, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois whose districts are being targeted for the ads.
Spokespeople from Collins' and Kinzinger's offices weren't immediately available to comment.
Andy Roth, vice president of the Club for Growth, said the ads will be "specifically calling on them to support the repeal of Obamacare that they campaigned on."
The moderates are being targeted, according to the group, because they last week blocked progress on the bill after Vice President Mike Pence floated a provision that would have allowed states to determine what level of health benefits had to be included, at minimum, in health insurance plans sold in those individual states. Obamacare currently establishes a set of minimum essential health benefits nationally.
McIntosh said that after the ads run, he hopes that constituents ask Republican lawmakers "why didn't you get the job done?"
He said that the current GOP bill, "like most pieces of legislation, it's not perfect."
"But at this point, we need to get this thing done," McIntosh said.
Watch: Price on upholding Obamacare
Goure called the situation "hugely near the tipping point." He said if an all-out conflict were to erupt on the peninsula, "it's quite possible it could be a very intense, bloody war."
"If you are the North Korean leader, you say wow I could be next," said Daniel Goure, a former Pentagon official now with the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Virginia-based think tank specializing in defense issues. "For them, I think the answer is straight forward you can't trust the Americans."
With tensions ratcheting up over North Korea, a U.S. Navy carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson was dispatched to waters off the Korean Peninsula, the Navy announced Sunday .
The U.S. missile attack on the Syrian government airbase is unlikely to deter North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's missile and nuclear-weapons development and could embolden the despotic regime in Pyongyang, experts say.
The Navy said the Vinson-led carrier strike group will operate in the Western Pacific rather than executing previously planned port visits to Australia. The Vinson can hold more than 80 aircraft at a time, including F/A-18 Super Hornets with precision weapons capable of taking out ground and aerial targets.
If anything, the decades-long nuclear ambitions by North Korea are unlikely to dim and could accelerate as the 33-year-old dictator of the regime grows more paranoid to threats everywhere, contend national security and Asia specialists. The thinking is a man who ordered the killing of own family members and rules with little regard for his enslaved and hungry people is hell-bent on maintaining his regime at all costs.
Moreover, experts see little chance of diplomacy and sanctions bringing a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear weapons issue. The Trump administration also appears to have given up on negotiations, citing decades of no progress in the strategy and recent provocations by the regime.
One message that President Donald Trump might have clearly conveyed to Pyongyang last week was he's willing to take military action, such as the missile strike he ordered against a Syrian government airbase. It was in response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed more than 100 people.
"In North Korea's mind, the Syria attack will just show the necessity of nuclear weapons," said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA deputy division chief for Korea and now an Asia specialist at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank.
Indeed, Klingner said the North Koreans have previously pointed to what happened to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, Iraqi's Saddam Hussein and Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic all leaders who didn't have nuclear weapons.
North Korea criticized the U.S. missile attack on Syria as "unpardonable," according to a Saturday report from its state-run news operation, Korean Central News Agency.
"Some forces are loud-mouthed that the recent U.S. military attack on Syria is an action of 'warning' to the DPRK, but the latter is not frightened at such threat," KCNA said in bellicose comments that went on to tout the secretive nation's "tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force." DPRK is short for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
After the 2003 U.S. military invasion of Iraq, North Korea's then-leader Kim Jong Il the father of the current dictator went into hiding for just over a month and didn't even show up for important national events.
It's still unclear how the North Korea situation will play out since analysts view Kim Jong Un as a "wild card." Experts say the leader is seen as vulnerable because U.S. intelligence agencies are known to closely monitor his movements by satellite and other means.
Killing the current dictator of North Korea and sending nuclear weapons to South Korea are among several options presented to Trump by the National Security Council, NBC News reported Friday. It cited top intelligence and military officials and said the options were reviewed before Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons were removed from South Korea in 1991.
Even without ground-launched nuclear capability, the U.S. still has plenty of firepower in the region and can use nuclear-capable bombers out of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. The U.S. has been flying long-range bombers on practice runs over the Korean peninsula in the past several months.
The North Koreans have demonstrated several ballistic missile tests this year and are believed to be working on nuclear warheads that can reach U.S. allies such as South Korea, Japan as well as the American territory of Guam. They also are working on an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach North America.
At the same time, North Korea raised the danger threat in February when they demonstrated the ability to use solid-fueled rocket engines, which means they have a technology that is easier to hide, needs less support and can be launched faster too.
The rogue state is believed to have enough plutonium and enriched uranium to construct just over two dozen nuclear weapons, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who provided the assessment earlier this year in an op-ed piece in the New York Times. He is emeritus director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The nuclear threat from North Korea led the U.S. to deploy Lockheed Martin's THAAD (or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile defense system to South Korea in early March. China protested the deployment although the U.S. has insisted it's purely for defensive proposes.
"Even if THAAD works reasonably well and even if Patriot in Japan works reasonably well, all they (North Korea) have to do is get one warhead through and then what happens," said John Pike, a military analyst at Globalsecurity.org. "It would not be pretty. There would be a lot of dead people."
Patriot is a missile defense system manufactured by Raytheon and used in several locations around the world, including near Tokyo.
Trump and China's president spent time talking about North Korea last week, with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson later indicating Xi pledged more cooperation on the North Korea nuclear issue without any specifics on how to force Pyongyang to abandon its weapons plan.
If North Korea is allowed to keep its nuclear weapons, analysts suggest there's a risk the entire region could see an arms race. As a candidate, Trump said Japan and South Korea might need to develop their own nuclear weapons since North Korea appears to have such a capability.
"The guy who has to be thinking deep thoughts right now is the president of China," said Ed Turzanski, an international policy and national security expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Philadelphia. "The things that keep the Chinese up at night are Japan and Korea ... having an offensive military capability. Because the Chinese have very bad memories of the last time the Japanese had an offensive capability."
Turzanski, who worked in the U.S. intelligence community in postings throughout Asia and Europe during the Reagan administration, said Trump's belief is "let's let people defend themselves if they're allies. If they're allieswe don't have to do all the heavy lifting all the time. Now you can argue whether that's a prudent course of action."
[April 10, 2017] INVESTOR ALERT: Goldberg Law PC Announces an Investigation of Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. and Advises Investors with Losses to Contact the Firm
Goldberg Law PC, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. ("Chicago Bridge" or the "Company") (NYSE: CBI). If you purchased or otherwise acquired Chicago Bridge shares and would like more information regarding the investigation, we encourage you to contact Michael Goldberg or Brian Schall, of Goldberg Law PC, 1999 Avenue of the Stars Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067, at 800-977-7401, to discuss your rights without cost to you. You can also reach us through the firm's website at http://www.Goldberglawpc.com, or by email at [email protected].
The investigation focuses on claims that Chicago Bridge made material false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: that Chicago Bridge was responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in liability and improperly accounted for its goodwill during 2013, to cover losses associated with construction delays and cost overruns on contracts to complete construction on two new nuclear power plants; that the Company failed to establish and disclose an appropriate reserve for this liability in its financial statements; and that Chicago Bridge lacked effective internal controls over financial reporting. If you have any questions concerning your legal rights, please immediately contact Goldberg Law PC at 800-977-7401, or visit our website at http://www.Goldberglawpc.com, or email us at [email protected].
Goldberg Law PC represents shareholders around the world and specializes in securities class actions and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410006101/en/
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If you're looking for a good alternative to the iPad Pro, and don't want the new iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is your next best bet. Samsung makes a bunch of tablets, but its "S" models are always the best. The Galaxy Tab S3 follows last year's Galaxy Tab S2, which seemed to pass under most people's radars even though it was a solid slate. This year's model kicks butt, and it's easily one of the best tablets you can buy right now. It even outclasses the iPad Pro 9.7 in a few important areas, though there are some other aspects that aren't as good. We'll walk you through everything. It's similar to the iPad Pro 9.7...
Devin Hance | CNBC
First, the Galaxy Tab S3 has the same size 9.7-inch display as the smaller iPad Pro, and it's the same resolution, which means text and images are going to look just as sharp. It uses Samsung's high-end AMOLED panel, though, so you'll get much brighter colors. Your eyes sink right into the screen when viewing back really colorful images and movies. Like the iPad, the Galaxy Tab S3 is ideal not only for viewing content, but for creating it.
Devin Hance | CNBC
Samsung includes an S-Pen stylus that works really well and compares similarly to the Apple Pencil (which isn't included with the iPad Pro.) The S Pen can be used for drawing, painting and jotting down quick notes. There's even a feature that lets you jot down a quick note without having to unlock the tablet, which is super convenient.
Devin Hance | CNBC
The Tab S3 also supports a keyboard a $129.99 accessory and, like the iPad Pro, there's a smart connector on one side of the tablet that allows you to connect it without any sort of Bluetooth pairing. It just snaps right into place and starts working. Four stereo speakers sit on each corner of the device, as they also do on the iPad Pro. The Tab S3's speakers got nice and loud when I put the tablet on my coffee table and played a 60s playlist on Spotify while tidying up the living room one Saturday, and I really liked the clear audio while watching "Caddy Shack" from the couch. The similarities end there The Galaxy Tab S3 runs Android Nougat, the latest version of Google's software. It allows you to run apps side-by-side, similar to what Apple allows on its iPad Pro products, and even pop-out video for picture-in-picture viewing while performing other tasks. I'm worried about Android on tablets, though. Google frequently talks about Android for smartphones, but hasn't really discussed the OS for tablets recently. That makes me wonder how serious the future of Android tablets really is, and whether or not Google is putting its eggs into Chrome OS instead. Also, Samsung's updates are typically slow, so you might not get the latest version of Android for many months after it releases, if ever. Conversely, Apple updates its iPads frequently, and often supports individual models for many years. That's something to keep in mind.
Devin Hance | CNBC
Also, while developers have spent plenty of time optimizing applications for Apple's iPad since they sell millions of units a quarter developers aren't doing the same for Android tablets. Don't expect to find a ton of applications that support Android tablets or larger screens, for example. Instead, you'll mostly be using regular smartphone apps that are just blown up to take up the whole screen. That stinks. Those qualms about Android aside, the Tab S3 experience is really solid. Samsung includes one of Qualcomm's new processors under the hood, and it's nice and fast, allowing you to run multiple apps at once without running into hiccups. You can even upgrade the storage for more movies and apps, something Apple doesn't let you do with the iPad.
Devin Hance | CNBC
Speaking of movies, the Galaxy Tab S3's display supports full HDR viewing. HDR, if you're unfamiliar, is otherwise known as high dynamic range. The gist is that the image you're viewing is supposed to look more accurate, as Hollywood originally intended, thanks to a balance between the darkest colors on the screen and the brightest. There are a limited number of sources to actually view that content now Amazon lets you stream HDR content for some of its shows - so that's not exactly a huge win over the iPad. You don't need to worry about movies hogging battery life, either.
Devin Hance | CNBC
Independent Scottish craft beer brewer BrewDog has sold a 22.3 percent stake to U.S. private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners to fund its global expansion plans, including the launch of a series of brewery hotels.
The $264 million investment takes the 10-year-old company's value to $1 billion, and pre-empts intentions to take the firm public, co-founder James Watt told CNBC.
Just under half of the funds - $124 million will be channelled into new breweries, which are mapped out for the U.S., Asia and Australia, and two brewery hotels, boasting craft beer taps in each bedroom and beer-infused dining.
As well as expanding the business into new markets, the remaining $140 million funding from San Francisco-based TSG will be used to buy shares from existing investors, including Watts and fellow co-founder Martin Dickie.
Since launching its first funding round in 2010, shares have soared 2,765 percent. In the past year, shares have jumped 177 percent, however, Watt remains optimistic that shareholders will want to remain part of the Aberdeenshire business's growth strategy.
"Most investors I've spoken to are not looking to sell, but they are happy to have the option to realise those gains," Watt told CNBC over the phone Monday, two days after the sale was announced to shareholders. The deal had gained 95 percent approval from shareholders.
So once again, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad unleashed chemical weapons against Syrian civilians.
And once again, the president of the United States took the podium to declare the chemical attack unacceptablea breach of a moral line separating weapons of mass destruction from the more conventional atrocities to which Syrians have sadly grown accustomed.
We'd seen this little morality play unfold before. It might all have had a deja vu quality, had November 8, 2016 not intervened.
Whereas President Obama spent weeks agonizing over the implications of the "red line" he had drawn in the Syrian sand, President Trump took prompt action.
The Ghouta chemical attacks occurred on August 21, 2013. President Obama decried them immediately. Secretary Kerry joined his saber rattling, promising a military responsealbeit an "unbelievably small" one. They then turned first to the United Nations, then to Congress, seeking a way to back downbut to no avail. At the eleventh hour, a savior arose: Vladimir Putin offered Russia's services to oversee the removal of all chemical weapons from Syria. Assad and Obama agreed immediately; by mid-September the deal was done. The following year, Kerry certified that Russia had delivered fully: Assad possessed no more chemical weapons.
Of course, Kerry got it wrong. Last Tuesday, Assad was at it again. News and agonizing photos of a deadly gas attack surfaced quickly. President Trump, following his predecessor, decried it quickly and unequivocally. He then turned first to the United Nations, then to the American people, then to his military advisors. Within seventy-two hours of Assad's gas attack, U.S. missiles had taken out a key Syrian air base directly connected to the attack.
The message to Assad, Putin, and the world was clear: There's a new Sheriff in town.
Syria is a propitious place for President Trump to have sent that message, because President Obama's own Syrian message reverberated around the world.
The feckless American response to the 2013 Ghouta attacks prolonged and intensified the Syrian civil war, needlessly raising both death tolls and refugee flows. Russia's arrival laid the groundwork for a shift in the balance of power; a losing regime that "had to go" five years ago has become today's smart-money favorite.
Beijing, not Damascus, was likely on President Donald Trump's mind when he ordered 59 Tomahawk missiles to hit a Syrian airfield last Thursday.
The fact that the strikes took place as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping dined on steak and sole fish was no coincidence, Dane Chamorro, senior partner and head of ASEAN at Control Risks, told CNBC on Monday.
Trump said the missiles were in retaliation to a chemical weapons attack that was believed to be the work of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, but "Syria was possibly the least important of the fall-out from this," Chamorro said.
Instead, Trump used the move as a diplomatic power play to remind Beijing who's boss, Chamorro continued.
Trump is trying to tell the mainland "there's a new sheriff in town, I'm a little unpredictable and bad things will happen, things that you don't like unless you get Kim 3.0 under control."
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is the son of former ruler Kim Jong-il and the grandson of Kim Il-sung, commonly referred to as the country's founding father.
US Ambassador to the UN and UN security council president, Nikki Haley speaks during an United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York on April 7, 2017. Jewel Samad | AFP | Getty Images
Mixed messages on Syria President Trump's decision last week to launch a targeted airstrike in Syria certainly got the attention of the world. But four days later, the same big question remains: What comes next? So far, we've gotten mixed messages from the White House about what the U.S.'s long-term goals in the region will ultimately be. Where exactly is the Trump administration on regime change in Syria? If Assad must go, what's the role of the United States in creating that change? Can ISIS and Assad be addressed at the same time or not? Here's what we've heard in the last 48 hours from administration officials: More from NBC News:
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Florida Sheriff Warns Drug Dealers in Menacing Video U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Meet the Press: "In no way do we see peace in that area with Assad as the head of the Syrian government. And we have to make sure that we're pushing that process. The political solution has to come together for the good of the people of Syria."
Haley on CNN: "Regime change is something that we think is going to happen because all of the parties are going to see that Assad is not the leader that needs to be taking place for Syria."
Tillerson on CBS: "[W]e believe that the first priority is the defeat of ISIS, that, by defeating ISIS and removing their caliphate from their control, we have now eliminated at least or minimized a particular threat, not just the United States, but to the whole stability in the region. And once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria."
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on FOX: "[W]hat Ambassador Haley pointed out is it's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime. Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to affect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves, what are we doing here?" And, of course, it's also worth noting that before last week's strike both Haley and Tillerson appeared to suggest that ousting Assad was not a top focus for the United States at all. The waters are muddy here, and it's complicating the way forward for an administration that hoped to take advantage of a show of decisiveness last week. By the way, all these questions remain as Tillerson is set for talks in Moscow this week, where he's indicated that he'll take a hard line against Russia's ties to Assad.
Graham's "F you" and reaching the president on the airwaves
It's not every day that you hear the phrase "f you" from a sitting United States senator during a broadcast T.V. appearance, but that's what we heard from Sen. Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press Sunday. Here's what he had to say about Syrian forces continuing to fly from the airfield targeted by the U.S. during last week's strike: CHUCK TODD: Do you think there's a moral difference between the use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs? SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: No, there's a legal difference, not a moral difference. If you're a mother, your baby is dead. But we do have treaties that we've signed all over the world saying we're not going to let one nation use weapons of mass destruction. That's what the chemical weapons treaty is all about. But I will say this. If you kill babies with conventional bombs, it's still a moral outrage. Here's what I think Assad's telling Trump by flying from this base: "F you." And I think he's making a serious mistake. Because if you're an adversary of the United States and you don't worry about what Trump may do on any given day then you're crazy. Graham's not someone who uses language casually when it comes to national security, and his wording certainly seemed intentional here. And it's the kind of thing sure to get the attention of a president who's famously attuned to TV commentary (and who's also certainly aware of the buzz that can be earned for throwing some salty language around.) Which leads us to wonder: If you're trying to get the attention of Donald Trump especially amid the staff upheaval and palace intrigue we've been seeing in the West Wing is a bit of Trump-like rhetorical bomb-throwing on T.V. now the most effective way to break through to him?
Trying to mend fences at the White House?
Speaking of trying to break through to the president, the new week brings a new attempt from the White House to turn the page on the internecine drama roiling the West Wing. NBC's White House team reports that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus held an intervention-style meeting between Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner Friday afternoon in an attempt to smooth over the very public splits between the two factions. Administrations deal with infighting and rivalry all the time, but it seems that the issues at play here are far deeper than typical policy disagreements or power plays. The two sides have deep philosophical differences on nearly every single possible issue, from America's role on the global stage to the role of the federal government in American life. Stories about efforts to smooth things over at least show that the White House is worried about improving the optics here, but it's hard to see the tales of palace intrigue abating anytime soon.
Keeping an eye on health care politics
Foreign affairs have dominated the last few news cycles, but don't forget that health care is still hanging in the air. With lawmakers home for recess, watch for more rounds of debate over the GOP's failed attempt last month to roll back Obamacare. For example: progressive group Save My Care is up with ads targeting seven vulnerable Republicans who backed the GOP plan. The targets: Reps. Mike Coffman of Colorado; Carlos Curbelo of Florida; Darrell Issa of California; Tom MacArthur of New Jersey; Brian Mast of Florida; Martha McSally of Arizona, and David Valadao of California.
Alabama Stakes
Don't miss the drama unfolding in Alabama, where impeachment hearings are beginning today for Gov. Robert Bentley. From AL.com: "A legislative committee starts hearings this morning to consider impeachment of Gov. Robert Bentley, a historic process that could remove the governor from office over allegations that he abused his power to try to hide from the public an affair with top advisor Rebekah Mason. The governor has denied misusing state resources. Bentley's lawyers tried to block today's hearings and the release of a scathing investigation report issued Friday by Jack Sharman, special counsel for the House Judiciary Committee Sharman's report, based on witness interviews and documents, says Bentley used law enforcement and intimidation to try to block the release of recordings of provocative phone calls that revealed the nature of his relationship with Mason." By the way, if Bentley is impeached, it would be the first time the Alabama legislature has impeached a governor or any other elected official.
Trump's Day
The president attends the swearing-in ceremony of new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch at 11 a.m. ET and meets with OMB Director Mick Mulvaney at 4 p.m.
What were other presidents doing on April 10?
[April 10, 2017] Water and Agriculture Experts Convene to Examine Sustainable Irrigation Solutions and the Future of California Agriculture
Supporting California's vital agricultural sector, policymakers, water management experts, environmental leaders and growers convened at the University of California, Davis last week to examine innovations, strategies and actions being taken to support California's water conservation efforts through sustainable irrigation. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410006164/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) Presented in partnership by Netafim USA, The Milken Innovation Center at the Jerusalem Institute and UC Davis, the event was keynoted by Karen Ross, California Secretary of Food and Agriculture and featured presentations and discussions by experts from the water, environmental and agricultural industries, including: Dan Putnam, PhD, Agronomist and Forage Specialist, UC Davis
Agronomist and Forage Specialist, UC Davis Jamie Weisman, Sustainable Water Partnership Manager for The California Israel Global Innovation Project, Milken Innovation Center
Sustainable Water Partnership Manager for The California Israel Global Innovation Project, Milken Innovation Center Bob Curtis, Director Agricultural Affairs, Almond Board of California
Director Agricultural Affairs, Almond Board of California John Cardoza, Project Manager, Sustainable Conservation
Project Manager, Sustainable Conservation Brent Sams Research Viticulturist, E. & J. Gallo Winery
Research Viticulturist, E. & J. Gallo Winery Gene Miyao, Farm Advisor-Vegetable Crops, UC Davis Cooperative Extension
Farm Advisor-Vegetable Crops, UC Davis Cooperative Extension Naty Barak, Chief Sustainability Officer, Netafim
Dan Putnam, PhD, Agronomist and Forage Specialist, UC Davis stressed the importance of framing the conversation correctly: "When we're talking about water use efficiency, we have to think of the amount of food produced, or the amount of crop produced per unit water, or per unit greenhouse gas, or per unit impact on the environment, because that's really the whole purpose of agriculture."
Netafim's Chief Sustainability Officer, Naty Barak, pointed to innovation as a key factor in achieving greater sustainability: "For California farmers, the path to a more sustainable water future will undoubtedly require a renewed emphasis on providing growers with the right tools, technology, and knowledge to help them maximize water productivity and meet present and future sustainability requirements." The speakers also addressed the use of newer technologies such as variable rate drip irrigation as a means for improving water productivity. "By utilizing a variable rate drip irrigation system we are able to manage an entire field by targeting specific micro zones in order to improve the overall productivity of the entire field," said Brent Sams, Research Viticulturist, E. & J. Gallo Winery. "We call it pixel farming." Bob Curtis, Director Agricultural Affairs, Almond Board of California added, "The almond industry has made great strides in improving sustainability over the last 20 years. We now have over 70 percent of all California almond growers using micro and drip irrigation as their primary irrigation method." Speaker audio and presentations are available by visiting the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources website. ABOUT NETAFIM USA Netafim USA, based in Fresno, Calif., develops and manufactures drip irrigation systems for agriculture, landscape & turf, greenhouse & nursery, mining and wastewater. Netafim offers an extensive range of irrigation solutions including driplines, filters, sprinklers, valves, water meters and automation equipment for complete dripline system installations. For more information go to www.netafimusa.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410006164/en/
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Being able to hold a meaningful dialogue with a friend, colleague, boss or potential business partner is an invaluable talent and one which most people don't spend much time cultivating, says Celeste Headlee, a public radio broadcaster, in her wildly popular TED Talk. "I came to realize that conversational competence might be the single most overlooked skill we fail to teach," says Headlee. "Kids spend hours each day engaging with ideas and each other through screens, but rarely do they have an opportunity to hone their interpersonal communications skills. It might sound like a funny question, but we have to ask ourselves: Is there any 21st-century skill more important than being able to sustain coherent, confident conversation?"
According to New York Times bestselling author Cheryl Strayed, that is the genius of billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey: She has never lost her passion for listening to and learning from people. When Winfrey picked Strayed's bestselling memoir "Wild" for her eponymous book club, she catapulted the author to mainstream success. And Strayed was impressed by the mogul's communication skills when they met. "The thing that struck me and this is why Oprah is successful the look on her face and what I could see in her eyes is her vulnerability," Strayed told author Tim Ferriss in Austin at the South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals. "I was meeting Oprah and I wanted her to like me. And Oprah was meeting me and she wanted me to like her. It wasn't like meeting the queen, even though, for the record, she is a queen, but she didn't act like one. She was still this incredibly humble human who was really looking to have an authentic interaction with me and I thought, this is what has driven her success."
Cheryl Strayed and Tim Ferriss speaking at SXSW in Austin. Photo by Jim Bennett
"The thing that makes her get up and do that work that she does every day is that genuine desire to connect with people and be vulnerable and to be open to what is going to happen next," says Strayed. "And that kind of curiosity has driven her to these great heights. "I think that some people, they forget that thing that got them to where they are. And to me, the mark of success is staying open in that whole way."
Some people, they forget that thing that got them to where they are. To me, the mark of success is staying open. Cheryl Strayed New York Times bestselling author
Despite a Monday report to the contrary, Tesla Motors says it has no current plans to build a factory in China's Guangdong province.
Guangdong's local newspaper, Southern Metropolis Daily, cited multiple sources and said the electric vehicle maker is planning to individually fund and build a factory in the province.
"(The) factory address has been picked, the plan is waiting for approval from relevant department in local government," the report said. "If the plan goes smoothly, Tesla will announce this project within this year."
But Tesla denied the report when contacted by CNBC.
"Tesla is deeply committed to the Chinese market, however the rumors that we plan to open a factory in Guangdong are not true," a company representative said in an email.
By manufacturing electric vehicles within China, Tesla could theoretically reduce its border tax, the Southern Metropolis Daily report noted.
Tesla, which crossed a market cap of $49 billion last week, remains a dominant player in the electric vehicle market and pulled in more than $7 billion in revenue last year.
But competition is heating up, thanks to start-ups many of which are funded by Chinese venture capital investors aiming to stake their share in the market.
CNBC's Barry Huang and Joe D'Allegro contributed to this report.
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Rapid run-ups in debt are the single biggest predictor of market trouble. So it is worth noting that over the past 10 years the amount of student loan debt in the U.S. has grown by 170 percent, to a whopping $1.4 trillion more than car loans, or credit card debt. Indeed, as an expert at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently pointed out to me, since 2008 we have basically swapped a housing debt bubble for a student loan bubble. No wonder New York Federal Reserve president Bill Dudley fretted last week that high levels of student debt and default are a "headwind to economic activity." Read more from The Financial Times:
Donald Trump still open to bank break-up proposals
New York Fed chief warns on US student debt
The tangled web of Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs and Glass-Steagall In America, 44 million people have student debt. Eight million of those borrowers are in default. That's a default rate which is still higher than pre-crisis levels unlike the default rate for mortgages, credit cards or even car loans. Rising college education costs will not help shrink those numbers. While the headline consumer price index is 2.7 percent, between 2016 and 2017 published tuition and fee prices rose by 9 percent at four-year state institutions, and 13 percent at posher private colleges.
The student loan market is hopelessly opaque only a quarter of students can predict their own debt load.
A large chunk of the hike was due to schools hiring more administrators (who "brand build" and recruit wealthy donors) and building expensive facilities designed to lure wealthier, full-fee-paying students. This not only leads to excess borrowing on the part of universities a number of them are caught up in dicey bond deals like the sort that sunk the city of Detroit but higher tuition for students. The average debt load individual graduates carry is up 70 percent over the past decade, to about $34,000. Having just attended the first college preparation meeting at my daughter's high school, where I was told to expect a $72,000 a year sticker fee for Ivy League and liberal arts colleges, I would feel lucky to get away with just that. This is clearly, as Mr. Dudley observed, a headwind to stronger consumer spending. Growing student debt has been linked to everything from decreased rates of first time home ownership, to higher rental prices, to lower purchases of white goods and all the things that people buy to fill homes. Indeed, given their debt loads, I wonder how much of the "rent not buy" spending habits of millennials are a matter of choice. But there are even more worrisome links between high student debt loads and health issues like depression, and marital failures. The whole thing is compounded by the fact that a large chunk of those holding massive debt do not end up with degrees, having had to drop out from the stress of trying to study, work, and pay back massive loans at the same time. That means they will never even get the income boost that a college degree still provides creating a snowball cycle of downward mobility in the country's most vulnerable populations.
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson makes a statement about the visit of China's President Xi Jinping and about the situation in Syria, at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 6, 2017.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday blamed Russia's inaction for helping fuel a deadly poison gas attack against Syrian civilians last week, saying Moscow failed to carry out a 2013 agreement to secure and destroy chemical weapons in Syria.
"I think the real failure here has been Russia's failure to live up to its commitments under the chemical weapons agreements that were entered into in 2013," Tillerson said on ABC's "This Week."
"The failure related to the recent strike and the recent terrible chemical weapons attack in large measure is a failure on Russia's part to achieve its commitment to the international community," he added.
Tillerson is expected in Moscow this week for talks with Russian officials.
He stopped short of accusing Russia of being directly involved in the planning or execution of the attack, saying he had not seen "any hard evidence" to suggest the nation was an accomplice to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Speculation over a White House staff shakeup is sending tremors throughout Washington. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is reportedly on the chopping block, while Senior Advisor Steve Bannon--who was removed from the National Security Council earlier last week--is battling with Trump's son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, who is consolidating power and influence.
Bannon's removal entirely is not out of question. So far, everyone who has tried to trump the Trump family (like former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski) has lost. This time is unlikely to be any different.
So if change does come to the White House, what would it mean for Trump, for Washington, and for the county and world as a whole?
For Trump: Given how little experience he and his core team have in Washington, government and politics in general, and given that he ran on the promise of draining the swamp, the administration has both struggled to fill roles across the board and has often made what seemed like curious choices.
Reince Priebus was one of those. Paul Ryan's best friend and the former head of the Republican National Committee is no one's idea of swamp draining, nor is Priebus a Jim Baker type someone with deep experience in managing people, running complex organizations like the White House, dealing with Congress, and handling the myriad politics inside and outside the building.
We already have a novice president. He needs a chief of staff with the experience and gravitas to help compensate for his shortcomings. Priebus appears to have neither, so whether he's replaced with Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Blackstone exec Wayne Berman, former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn or someone else with more experience and ability, it should only help the Trump White House function more smoothly.
Bannon's removal from the NSC, at the very least, should help calm those on the left concerned about a nationalist political agenda influencing military and security decisions. So it too should help bring stability to the White House.
For Washington: The rumored staff decision on Preibus here too should only help. Priebus did not appear to be much help in moving the health care bill forward. He doesn't have enough sway with Congress to effectively whip votes nor manage multiple competing agendas. McCarthy would clearly be better in those roles, and Berman and Cohn are at least more seasoned.
Having a chief of staff who is better equipped to negotiate complex deals and is not constantly looking over his shoulder only makes it easier to work with the White House. It would also help create a more unified White House if the chief of staff is empowered and aligned with Kushner. Then the odds of a less ideological, more pragmatic White House that can negotiate with Congress and follow through on its commitments only increase.
For Democrats, perhaps stability is unwelcome because they want to see Trump fail. But that's a bad attitude. I didn't vote for Trump and don't love him, but we all benefit if the president does well and we all suffer if he fails. We should be happy whenever the White House takes meaningful steps to improve its performance.
For the country and the world as a whole: We've had a lot of good presidents in our history and a lot of bad ones. In every case, the union has survived and moved on. But if we're enmeshed in military conflict with nuclear powers, our survival isn't ensured. Neither removing Bannon from the Security Council nor installing a more confident, capable chief of staff means we won't have conflict with North Korea, but better, more stable advisors around Trump means he'll get better advice that's likely to help keep us out of unnecessary wars.
So if nothing else, we're probably safer as a result of Bannon's removal and would be even more so if Priebus is replaced with someone more experienced and consistent with the Kushner wing of the White House. The more talent and expertise any leader is surrounded with, the better they're likely to do, so Trump's domestic agenda, foreign policy activities and leadership in general should only benefit from these potential changes.
At the end of the day, the only person truly responsible for Trump's performance is Trump himself. But given his performance over the first ten weeks, Trump needs all the help he can get. Hopefully the staff shakeups can help get him there.
Commentary by Bradley Tusk who leads political advisory firm Tusk Strategies. Bradley served as Mike Bloomberg's campaign manager, guiding Mayor Bloomberg to a third term. In 2016 he advised Bloomberg on a potential presidential run. His career in the public sector began at the New York City Parks Department in 1995, acting as spokesman and then senior advisor to Commissioner Henry Stern. Bradley then served as communications director for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. From 2003-2006, Bradley was Deputy Governor of Illinois. Follow him on Twitter @BradleyTusk.
For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
The Trump-Xi meeting spotlighted trade tensions between the two countries, and other items high on the agenda included discussing a response to an increased nuclear threat out of North Korea. Although the talks were overshadowed by a U.S. strike in Syria, experts have said the meeting was a success given that both sides remained cordial, and took a step toward tackling the trade issue by increasing China's imports from the U.S.
China will make concessions to give the U.S. better market access in two areas financial sector investments and beef exports in efforts to avoid a trade war, the Financial Times reported . This is part of a wider 100-day plan to be hashed out between the two sides.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump concluded their first in-person meeting, striking a friendly tone, avoiding political gaffes and even agreeing to tackle trade imbalances. But soon after the meeting ended, Chinese state media scolded Trump for his military action in Syria.
"This is the 'good' way to close the bilateral trade gap," wrote Carl Weinberg, chief economist of High Frequency Economics, in a note about the meeting and 100-day plan. "U.S. consumers' access to less expensive imported goods will be unaffected, but incremental jobs will be created by incremental production."
Trump has long accused China of unfair trade practices, leading to a trade deficit of more than $300 billion. The Chinese argument has been that the relationship has benefited American consumers in the form of cheaper goods, and increased China investment in the U.S.
For now, the threat of a trade war is on ice, but how things shake out will depend on negotiations regarding the 100-day plan.
"If we don't get some tangible results within the first 100 days, I think we'll have to examine whether it's worthwhile continuing them," Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said on Fox News. Before the meeting, the Commerce Department did say it was undertaking a review of U.S. trade deficits by product, due out in late June.
On the China side, however, no public comments have yet been made regarding the trade plan.
Whether or not the U.S. will label China a currency manipulator also remains to be seen. This was a Trump campaign promise, but he has yet to make good on that call, and the term was absent from official comments recapping the meeting.
On the whole, the U.S. and China both sounded an optimistic tone Trump even accepted Xi's invitation to visit China later this year.
"We have a thousand reasons to get China-U.S. relations right, and not one reason to spoil the China-US relationship," Xi said, according to state media.
Trump said an "outstanding" relationship was developing, and that "goodwill and friendship were formed, but only time will tell on trade."
Chinese state media also trumpeted the meeting as a success, but waited until after it concluded to blast the U.S. for its strike in Syria. State outlet Xinhua was critical of the move, calling it the actions of a weak politician who was attempting to flex his muscles, and to deter rumors of ties to Russia, an ally of the Syrian government.
Given that government officials rarely speak to foreign press, commentary in Chinese state media is closely watched for clues into Communist Party thinking.
When a United passenger was dragged from his seat aboard a flight Sunday evening because the Kentucky-bound trip was overbooked, a video shot by a fellow passenger quickly went viral.
It didn't take long for the internet to react to the the airline's handing of the situation, as people waited to hear what the company's CEO was going to say about it, if anything.
United Continental Chief Executive Oscar Munoz issued a statement Monday afternoon, saying: "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."
And for many individuals, the word "re-accommodate" in Munoz's apology stuck out more than the rest.
@NarrativeHater: 2017 word of the year: re-accomodate
@CeejTankGaming: This response by .@united CEO sounds like a teenager response to an insult. "I'm gonna re-accomodate your face with my fist"
@sassylibrarian1: Nice to know "re-accomodate" on United now means "drag you violently out of your seat."
@joethomas73: Dear #united, I had to "re-accommodate" someone once
@phillipmbailey: .@united will 're-accomodate' you next.
@Muckbeast: United Airlines just announced their new seating chart.
One Twitter user even managed to pull Pepsi's latest public relations nightmare into the conversation.
@MattGarrahan: The #United incident could have been easily diffused if someone had offered the guy a Pepsi.
United did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In March, United's Munoz was honored at the annual PRWeek U.S. awards ceremony in New York, where he was named the group's U.S.-based communicator of the year.
"Munoz has shown himself to be a smart, dedicated, and excellent leader who understands the value of communications," PRWeek wrote about his receipt of this recognition.
Munoz's resume includes stints at PepsiCo , Coca-Cola and AT&T , before being named president of railroad operator CSX and then moving over to United.
Watch: UAL still higher despite passenger incident
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The deployment of a U.S. navy strike group near the Korean peninsula may prelude Syria-style action, provoking Pyongyang and escalating regional tensions, foreign policy experts told CNBC. A U.S. Navy strike group will be moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a U.S. official told Reuters on Saturday, as concerns grow about North Korea's advancing weapons program. Such U.S. power projection is ostensibly aimed at decelerating North Korea's nuclear program either independently or by leaning on Beijing to contain its neighbors' nuclear ambitions, building on what appeared to be cordial talks between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week.
People watch a television news showing file footage of a North Korean missile launch, at a railway station in Seoul on April 5, 2017. Jung Yeon-Je | AFP | Getty Images
"I imagine that it is a more a show of strength to encourage North Korea to slow its missile program," said Robert Kelly, associate professor at Pusan National University's political science department. "But I doubt it will work. The North Koreans have spent enormous resources to get this far, and they have a long history of not responding to outside pressure." Positioning the aircraft carrier-led strike group in close proximity to North Korea days before the politically charged birthday of founding leader Kim Il-sung may be "part of an exercise to put pressure on China to help rein in its unruly client," said Gabriel Stein, managing director for developed markets research at 4CAST-RGE. Trump has said "either China would help the U.S. with North Korea or the U.S. would act alone," Stein said. "The topic will have been discussed at President Xi's visit to Mar-a-Lago."
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U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat open on Monday as increased geopolitical risks continued to dominate headlines, prompting investors to head for safe-haven assets.
Investors will be keenly watching events in Italy on Monday, where G7 foreign ministers will begin a two-day meeting. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may provide more clarity on an array of international issues, including the latest developments in Syria, following the U.S.'s decision to fire cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield late Thursday.
Elsewhere, the calendar on Monday is light, with no planned data or earnings announcements.
The Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen delivers remarks at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy at 4 p.m. ET.
In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.05 percent on Monday. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite in China closed 0.5 percent lower, while the Nikkei in Japan closed 0.71 percent higher.
In oil markets, Brent crude traded at around $55.90 a barrel on Monday, up 1.2 percent, while U.S. crude was around $52.86 a barrel, up 1.2 percent.
[April 10, 2017]
Canada Post E-commerce Innovation Awards open for applications
Game changing prizes for Canadian companies $100,000 in shipping credits for large and $50,000 for small
TORONTO, April 10, 2017 /CNW/ - Now in their sixth year, the Canada Post E-commerce Innovation Awards celebrate retailers large and small, saluting excellence in omni-channel strategy, customer engagement initiatives and community impact. Winners receive prizes designed to further propel their success, including up to $100,000 of free shipping and substantial marketing packages.
"E-commerce is a valuable economic driver," says Doug Ettinger, Chief Commercial Officer, Canada Post. "Innovation and creativity are at the heart of that achivement, and Canada Post wants to celebrate companies that not only excel but also raise the bar."
Applications are now available online and will be accepted until May 26. An independent panel of industry experts will determine the winners, who will be announced during a gala at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto on September 20.
Canada Post launched the awards in 2012 to support online merchants in their growth and help strengthen Canada's digital economy.
The categories for the 2017 Canada Post E-commerce Innovation Awards are:
Best Omni-Channel Retailer Award (Large)
Best Omni-Channel Retailer Award (Small)
Pure Play of the Year Award (Large)
Pure Play of the Year Award (Small)
Best Marketing & Brand Engagement Award
Most Disruptive Start-Up Award
Social Impact Award
Canada Post E-commerce Innovator's Award
For more information on categories and prizes, and to apply online, retailers can visit canadapost.ca/ecommerceawards.
SOURCE Canada Post
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White House press secretary Sean Spicer held his daily press briefing Monday afternoon.
The Trump administration spokesman addressed new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was sworn in on Monday morning.
Spicer also faced questions about last week's airstrike in Syria and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's upcoming trip to Moscow, among other topics.
The board is announcing that it has decided it is necessary to claw back an additional $28 million of pay from former CEO John Stumpf.
watch now
Wells Fargo's independent directors have decided to initiate corporate pay clawbacks that total some of the largest in history, after concluding a six-month investigation into the beleaguered institution's retail banking sales practices, it was revealed Monday. A board review, a copy of which was obtained by CNBC, indicated that former Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf acknowledged that he made significant mistakes and helped create a culture at the bank that resulted in abuses, including the creation of fake consumer accounts. That review was overseen by a special board committee, chaired by Stephen Sanger, and also includes three other independent directors: Elizabeth Duke, Enrique Hernandez and Donald James. The special committee retained law firm Shearman & Sterling to assist the investigation. On Monday the board is announcing that it has decided it is necessary to claw back an additional $28 million of pay from Stumpf, adding onto $41 million he already gave up when he resigned in October 2016. Stumpf's total pay from 2011-2016 was $286 million, according to executive compensation firm Equilar, meaning he will have forfeited 24 percent of his pay for that period since the scandal first emerged.
Stumpf was made aware of the systemic nature of the bank's sales practice problems starting in 2012, but was first aware of specific cases as early as 2002, according to the board. He did not initiate any follow-up investigation or inquiry into the problem until 2015.
One of the main accusations leveled at him was an unwillingness to criticize former community bank unit head Carrie Tolstedt, whom he once praised as being "the best banker in America."
"Stumpf was hesitant to criticize Tolstedt and, ultimately, hesitant to terminate her, even after the lead independent director and the Chair of the Risk Committee suggested that he do so in December 2015," according to details disclosed in the report.
'High-pressure sales culture'
The review takes aim at the bank's decentralized structure, citing "a culture of strong deference to management of the lines of business (embodied in the oft-repeated 'run it like you own it' mantra." Further, "the Chief Risk Officer had limited authority with respect to the Community Bank. As events were unfolding, his visibility into risk issues at the Community Bank was hampered by his dependence on its group risk officer and he was essentially confined to attempting to cajole and persuade Tolstedt and the Community Bank to be more responsive to sales practice-related risks," the review says. The board singles out Tolstedt for far more criticism than anyone else for creating the problems and failing to address them.
Carrie Tolstedt Louis Lanzano | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A high-level investigation into the fake accounts scandal at Wells Fargo blamed a "sales-oriented culture or a decentralized corporate structure" that "unfortunately coalesced and failed dramatically," resulting in one of the worst banking controversies in years.
A report obtained by CNBC detailed the findings of the investigation, which was overseen by a special board committee chaired by Stephen Sanger and including three other independent directors: Elizabeth Duke, Enrique Hernandez and Donald James. To assist the special committee, the group retained law firm Shearman & Sterling.
The investigation included 100 interviews of current and former employees, reviewed information concerning more than 1,000 existing and past investigations, and searched more than 35 million documents.
The review was particularly critical of the former head of Wells Fargo's community bank unit, Carrie Tolstedt, and the way she and her team allegedly cultivated a culture that led to wrongdoing:
"Even when challenged by their regional leaders, the senior leadership of the Community Bank failed to appreciate or accept that their sales goals were too high and becoming increasingly untenable." "It was convenient instead to blame the problem of low quality and unauthorized accounts and other employee misconduct on individual wrongdoers." "Effect was confused with cause. When Wells Fargo did identify misconduct, its solution generally was to terminate the offending employee without considering causes for the offending conduct or determining whether there were responsible individuals who, while they might not have directed the specific misconduct, contributed to the environment that increased the chances of its occurrence."
Tolstedt did not respond to a CNBC request for comment, but Reuters quoted attorneys for the former executive as saying "we strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt." A full examination of the facts will produce "a different conclusion," the attorneys said.
The report provided detailed examples of how this culture manifested.
Reuters
The US and Russia don't want to come to blows
Up until Thursday, the US and Russia have generally been guided by the principle that it's not in any of their interests to slide into direct war with each other in Syria. While the US doesn't want Assad in power and has armed and trained Syrian rebels who want to unseat him, it has refrained from attacking him directly. The US has also held back from hitting Russian forces, and coordinated with their air operations to ensure they don't accidentally collide over Syrian airspace. Syria and Russia have attacked US-backed rebels, but they have not sought to strike at US forces either. But they aren't just held back by a desire to not slide into war they also have converging interests in defeating ISIS. The US's chief military objective in Syria is defeating ISIS, mainly by helping train and arm Arab and Kurdish fighters and supporting them with air strikes. Assad also wants to take down ISIS. While in the past he has actively nurtured the precursors to ISIS al Qaeda in Iraq and found ISIS's fighting against his opposition groups to be strategically useful (think "divide and conquer"), he is also ultimately interested in defeating the group, an unruly rival for power in the region. According to Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, Russia's first priority is protecting the Assad regime its chief proxy force in the region from rebel forces, but it too wants to take down ISIS and considers unchallenged Islamist extremism in the Middle East to be a threat to its own national security. Trump's strike on Syria has thrown a wrench into this dynamic. By directly confronting Assad, the US is deviating from a general understanding that the differences between the US, Syria, and Russia shouldn't mean they come to blows against each other, at least directly. It could also upset their shared interests in fighting ISIS.
If this was a one-off attack, things (might) stay the same
Trump's missile strikes seem to have been a one-off measure designed to deter Assad from using chemical weapons. His rhetoric on Thursday evening, which described the strike as intended "to prevent and deter the spread of chemical weapons," suggests as much. The tomahawk missiles were explicit punishment for using gas on civilians, and there seem to be no further strikes planned, though it's hard to know for sure. If that's the case, what matters most is the way Assad chooses to behave going forward. If he doesn't make use of chemical weapons again, then perhaps we'll see a return to the status quo and the dynamics of conflict in Syria could remain fairly similar to the way they have so far. Or, maybe, they wouldn't. Any analyst will tell you that Trump is simply impossible to predict. "Say Assad did get the message and didn't use chemical weapons again. Would they just go back to the way they were? Would Trump just go back and say, 'Now we can go back to focusing on ISIS'? I mean, possibly. I wouldn't rule that out as a possibility," Thomas Wright, director of the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution, told Vox. "Or will Trump be so outraged with Assad that he won't want to work with him again? We just don't know," he added. Part of that is because Trump's decision to strike Assad clearly seems to have been based on an emotional, impulsive response to news of the chemical attack. Lister says he's learned from people directly connected to Trump that watching Fox News in the wake of the attack appeared to have a transformative effect on his perception of Assad, and played a critical role in his departure from his earlier stated aversion to directly intervening in the Syrian civil war. "What we've seen develop in the last week is a realization in Trump's mind that his preconceptions about Syria were false, and that in fact the situation there is so bad and the people who he had considered to either be acceptable i.e., Assad or potentially worthy partners i.e., Russia are simply not what he thought they were," Lister said.
If it wasn't a one-off attack, things could quickly spiral out of control
The White House is giving itself wiggle room on a tax-reform timeline.
Top Trump administration officials like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have previously set a goal of passing an overhaul of the American tax system by Congress' August recess.
On Monday, press secretary Sean Spicer said he would like to see tax reform passed by August but did not firmly commit to it.
"It still would be a great opportunity before they leave for August recess, but we're going to make sure we do this right," Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing.
Spicer's comments came after the Associated Press reported that Trump has "scrapped" the tax plan he backed on the campaign trail and has gone back to the early stages of finding a new plan that could get enough broad support to pass. Navigating what, if passed, would be the first successful tax reform since 1986 could prove difficult as disagreements among lawmakers and business stakeholders have already started to surface.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell notably has said tax reform will likely take longer than August.
Spicer denied Monday that action on tax legislation was getting "pushed" but said that talking to lawmakers and stakeholders about how tax reform will take shape is "the beginning part of that process." The White House press secretary added that he hopes middle-income Americans have a tax cut by the time they file their tax returns next spring.
In February, Trump said his tax plan was "very well finalized." Spicer also suggested in February that the White House would release a tax plan in the following weeks, though it has not done so yet.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised across-the-board tax cuts for individuals and businesses. House Republicans have their own tax plan which overlaps with Trump's in some ways but features a controversial revenue-raising provision known as border adjustment.
Watch: Challenges for GOP tax reform plan
[April 10, 2017] ASEAN Managed Security Services Market, Forecast to 2020
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Scope of the Study
This research study provides an analysis of the Asia-Pacific Managed Security Services (MSS) market.
Scope: Managed Security Services. Segmented into hosted security services and CPE-based management/monitoring services.
Geographic scope: Asia-Pacific
End-user scope: Enterprise horizontals (large businesses and small and medium businesses) and Enterprise verticals (BFSI [banking, financial services, and insurance], manufacturing, government, education, service providers, and others).
Market overview and adoption trends, market forecast (2015-2020), drivers and restraints, market share and competitive analysis, growth opportunities and call to action, regional breakdown analysis and MSS vendor analysis have also been provided for the APAC MSS market.
What makes Frost & Sullivan's deliverables unique?
Frost & Sullivan's cyber security reports offer insights into the latest technologies to improve companies' cyber security posture. The research team performs in-depth studie of the latest threat techniques, interviews threat researchers, and involves security experts in the studies.
Comprehensive market analysis is done for the following sectors:
BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance), manufacturing, government, education, service providers, and others (including pharmaceuticals, retail, logistics, oil and gas, energy, mining, agriculture, IT/ITeS, Utilities, e-Commerce, and BPO).
Key Questions Answered
Is the MSS market growing? How long will it continue to grow, and at what rate?
Are the existing market participants structured correctly to meet customer needs?
Will MSS continue to exist, or will other solutions and services take its place?
How will the structure of the market change with time?
Will the services replace the product markets?
What is the market demand for new services such as forensic and incident response?
Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04805998/ASEAN-Managed-Security-Services-Market-Forecast-to.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/asean-managed-security-services-market-forecast-to-2020-300437578.html SOURCE Reportlinker
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[April 10, 2017] Triumph to Provide M777 Howitzer Body for BAE Contract with Indian Government
Triumph Group, Inc. (NYSE:TGI) will supply gun bodies for BAE Systems' M777 Howitzer in support of a recent contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. The contract, valued at $15 million, was awarded to Triumph's Precision Components business unit for the gun body used in the ultra-lightweight artillery weapon. Precision Components has a long history of supporting the M777 platform, producing more than 1,000 gun bodies for BAE. "We are pleased to continue our staunch relationship with BAE in support of the M777 Howitzer," said Rick Rosenjack, executive vice president for Triumph Precision Components, "and extend our support for the platform as it expands operations in India." Triumph Precision Components will machine, weld and assemble the gun body before shipping it to BAE for the cannon assembly. Deliveries will take place over the next two and a half years. The gun bodies will support the recent foreign military sale between the U.S. and Indian governments and will be used to enhance border protection. "With their focus on quality and on-time delivery as their top priorities, we are pleased to welcome Triumph Precision Components back to the production supply chain as we lean forwar to deliver our commitment on the M777 India program," said Jimmy Dow, head of procurement for BAE Systems (News - Alert).
The win marks the continued expansion into adjacent markets for Triumph Precision Components. Last year the company announced a $48 million contract with SNC-Lavalin for end fittings and shield plugs for the nuclear pressure vessels as part of the Ontario Darlington Retube & Feeder Replacement program. Triumph Group, Inc., headquartered in Berwyn, Pa., designs, engineers, manufactures, repairs and overhauls a broad portfolio of aircraft structures, components, accessories, subassemblies and systems. The company serves a broad, worldwide spectrum of the aviation industry, including original equipment manufacturers of commercial, regional, business and military aircraft and aircraft components, as well as commercial and regional airlines and air cargo carriers.
More information about Triumph can be found on the company's website at http://www.triumphgroup.com. Statements in this release which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements under the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements of contract value or aggregate revenue. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which could affect the company's actual results and could cause its actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. Further information regarding the important factors that could cause actual results to differ from projected results can be found in Triumph Group's reports filed with the SEC (News - Alert), including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410006200/en/
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[April 10, 2017] Motion AI Launches Bot Store - World's First Chatbot Store & Marketplace
CHICAGO, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Motion AI, the leading chatbot building platform that services global consumer brands including Kia, Fiverr, Sony, Wix and many more, unveiled the first-ever chatbot store, Bot Store (http://bot.store). Bot Store is a marketplace built on top of Motion AI's leading visual bot-building platform that offers turn-key templates for many chatbot use cases including customer service, meeting scheduling and surveys. This one of a kind marketplace gives companies the opportunity to easily customize and deploy pre-built bots to their business on a variety of highly trafficked platforms, including Facebook Messenger, Slack, SMS, and the web. While using Bot Store requires zero programming skills, the Bot Store also allows coders to deploy Node.js code directly from the Motion AI interface - making integrating bots with third party APIs, databases and services simple. At launch, the store will initially feature bots developed by Motion AI and their user base including: Customer service assistance bot which allows companies of all sizes to take advantage of bots that help offload customer inquiries
Survey bots, to collect customer feedback A personal meeting scheduler, powered by Calend.ly
More bots will be added regularly and developers will have the opportunity to be positioned prominently in the store. In short, the Bot Store will simplify bot deployment even further than Motion AI already has with its existing platform, by creating a templating system around common chatbot use cases.
"Our focus at Motion AI has been to significantly simplify the creation of chatbots. The platform dramatically reduces the amount of effort and cost associated with building and deploying a bot," says the company's CEO, David Nelson. "The introduction of Bot Store makes it even easier for companies to launch bots on the platform by providing in-depth templates that, in many cases, require little to no coding or training for customers." Since raising seed funding in December 2015 and debuting to the public in 2016, Chicago-based Motion AI has become the leading chatbot building platform used by over 40,000 developers. The company has already processed over 12 million messages and continues to see exponential growth. Rather than programming a chatbot from scratch - no easy task - the platform's flowchart-like interface lets companies structure conversation flows visually and removes the guesswork of deployment. Visit Bot Store (http://bot.store) to launch your first bot. Contact: Nadine Pena, [email protected] Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abqRx969-F0 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/motion-ai-launches-bot-store---worlds-first-chatbot-store--marketplace-300437565.html SOURCE Motion AI
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Boone County voter turnout estimate drops ahead of election
Election turnout is expected to be lower than anticipated compared to estimates in October, Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said.
The U.S. Department of Labor says Google discriminates against female employees in pay at a level that's even worse than the tech industry as a whole.
The department has found "systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce," Labor Department Regional Director Janette Wipper testified in a court in San Francisco on Friday, according to a report by The Guardian. Janet Herold, the department's regional solicitor, told the Guardian that pay discrimination against women was extreme.
Wipper said that the Labor Department found pay disparities in a snapshot of salaries from 2015, according to the Guardian.
Wippers testimony was part of a hearing about a lawsuit that the Labor Department brought against Google to force the company to hand over salary information. The department is authorized to conduct audits of Google's employment practices because the company gets government contracts. It says Google hasn't been cooperating.
The agency has asked the Office of Administrative Law Judges, a special court for Labor Department programs, to cancel all of Googles government contracts and keep it from getting future contracts if it doesnt comply with the request for data.
Google vehemently disagrees with the department's assertion, the company said in an emailed statement.
Every year, we do a comprehensive and robust analysis of pay across genders and we have found no gender pay gap, the statement read. Other than making an unfounded statement which we heard for the first time in court, the DoL hasnt provided any data, or shared its methodology.
At the time it filed the lawsuit, the Labor Department characterized the request for information as routine, but Google says the agency has cast too wide a net. (In a statement earlier this year, the company said it provided hundreds of thousands of records to the DoL as part of the audit.)
That argument appears to hold some water for Steven Berlin, the administrative law judge overseeing the case.
Last month, Berlin denied the Labor Departments motion for summary judgment, which would have immediately concluded the case in its favor. He said the department's request for the data was "unreasonably burdensome, given its extremely limited relevance."
The reported testimony on Friday came three days after Google said in a tweet that it had closed the gender pay gap globally. The company also published a guide to doing the same at other companies.
A Russian man long connected with sending spam emails has been arrested and is being held in Spain, with a law enforcement source contracting news reports saying he was involved with a computer virus linked to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent election victory.
The arrest of Piotr Levashov at the Barcelona airport on Friday was not tied to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, said the source, who is close to the investigation. That contradicts news reports from Agence France-Presse and other news outlets, which said Levashov's wife, Maria Levachova, was told his arrest was connected to Trump's election.
Levachova, speaking to Russia Today, said Spanish police told her that "a virus which appears to have been created by my husband is linked to the victory of Trump" in November's election. Levashov remained in custody in Spain Monday, with the U.S. seeking to extradite him, AFP reported.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on its case against Levashov, noting that the investigation is under seal.
Under a different spelling of the first name Pyotr, the suspect appears to be someone long accused of sending spam emails, reports Krebs on Security. Levashov was also known as Severa in several Russian-language cybercrime forums, Krebs reported.
This article has been updated to rewrite the lead paragraph and replace the last paragraph with one about Levashov's spam connections.
India embraces success of NRIs: Indian Ambassador to UAE
Changing mindsets of diplomats and increasing social media use have aided in showcasing the hard work of NRIs and of diplomatic missions, asserted Navdeep Singh Suri, Ambassador of India to UAE, while speaking at the 35th conference of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India-Dubai Chapter, recently.
He said, NRIs used to be looked at with scepticism once upon a time, but today India embraces their success.
Navdeep Singh Suri, Ambassador of India to UAE. Photo courtesy: tkbsen.com
He added, India ... has 25 million expats spread across the globe, many in positions of considerable power and influence. And if you see the evolution of the past 10 years, we were the only country around the world to do something like this (using social media), but look at the objective behind it. It is a diplomatic objective.
Calling NRIs the strength of India, Suri said, You all are the strength of India and we will continue to work on this. Look at how we've travelled in this area, from a point where NRIs who went overseas were seen at a degree of condescension, today, it's at a position where we embrace their success. So looking at the future, Mahatma Gandhi famously said that the future depends on what you do today."
Stressing on the role of social media, the Ambassador said, The public doesn't really know what we do and what our role is. It is incumbent upon us to communicate what we do. It's about changing our own mindsets ... We have to communicate what it is that we do, for example, our visits to prisons to interact with Indians who are in distress or repatriate people back to India who have fallen in hard times and so much else that the work of a diplomatic mission involves, not just high policy, but little things that matter to public.
"That's a changing paradigm of diplomacy and if you don't do that, we will find ourselves on the wrong side of public opinion. I think there's no better example than of our Minister (of External Affairs) Sushma Swaraj and what she's been able to do, in terms of conveying empathy towards the Indian community."
NUS collaborates with National Gallery to launch new art history minor
As part of the curriculum of a new Minor in Art History programme, students at the National University of Singapore (NUS) will now have the opportunity to discover what goes into the making of a national gallery, and attend classes within museum galleries.
They will also go behind the scenes of an art exhibition curation, NUS said in a press statement on April 7, 2017.
Jointly offered by the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and National Gallery Singapore, the minor will allow students to gain in-depth knowledge in Art History.
Photo courtesy: NUS
This programme, which is offered by the NUS Department of History and supported by NUS Museum, will be taught by NUS faculty and practising curators. The Minor is open to all NUS students.
Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, launched the new programme at National Gallery Singapore, together with Professor Robbie Goh, Dean of the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Dr Eugene Tan, Director, National Gallery Singapore, on April 7.
Singapores arts and culture sector continues to grow as more people show greater appreciation for the arts. Our new Minor in Art History contributes towards Singapores plan to transform the nation into a distinctive global city for the arts, by grooming young arts scholars, professionals, audiences and custodians of world heritage," said Prof Robbie Goh, Dean of the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
"We are delighted to partner National Gallery Singapore, which oversees the largest public collection of modern art in Singapore and Southeast Asia, in offering this unique programme. NUS students will benefit greatly by picking up industry knowledge and skills from professional curators from the Gallery. In addition, students could also choose to do internships at the Gallery and other state-of-the-art museums in Singapore to gain practical work experience, Goh added.
Art history: Interpreting arts and heritage
Photo courtesy: National Gallery
Introduced in January this year, the new Minor in Art History programme is designed to help students cultivate the analytical skills to interpret a wide range of arts and heritage: from painting, sculpture and architecture to contemporary installation art.
The programme aims to prepare students for a specialist or managerial career in universities, museums, heritage spaces, statutory boards which engage with arts and culture, art galleries, and auction houses.
Students who declare Art History as a Minor will have to read a minimum of six modules. They could choose to read interesting modules such as Collecting Art in Europe and Asia, Empire and Art in India, Singapore and Malaya and Time Traveller: The Curatorial in SEA.
Students will also be exposed to many different types of Art spanning across different cultures and eras, such as Japanese woodblock prints, visual arts of China, poetry, painting and photography, as well as the more modern digital culture and art.
Ive just returned from Albania, where I was attending the Liberty Summit, organised by the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE). ACRE is the grouping of like-minded political parties across Europe, which sits alongside the ECR, the Tory-allied group in the EU so when we leave the EU, we will leave the latter but remain an ACRE member.
It was a fascinating event not least due to Albanias history as the closest thing to North Korea that Europe has so far produced, but also because of the range of attendees. There were veteran dissidents like Uran Kostreci, the Albanian poet who spent 20 years in some of Enver Hoxhas most brutal jails, and Andrzej Gwiazda, who played a central role in establishing anti-communist opposition in the Gdansk shipyards, laying the ground for the later emergence of the Solidarnosc movement. There were also representatives of the Conservatives many allied parties among those I met were MPs and activists from Poland, Finland, Germany, Italy and Slovakia (indeed the Summit saw ACRE welcome three new member parties, from Albania, Belarus and Northern Cyprus).
Also in attendance, however, were the AK Party the Turkish governing party whose leader, President Erdogan, has of course been pursuing a series of repressive measures both before and after that countrys failed coup last year. I reported last July that ACRE was already investigating whether the AKP was a suitable member, and had dispatched a fact-finding mission to Turkey to see whether the party could reasonably be judged to be consistent with the Alliances founding principles. If not, then they faced suspension.
The outcome of that fact-finding mission has not been published in full, but an ACRE statement from earlier this year confirms various concerns in the Alliance about Erdogans behaviour:
We deplore the violent coup attempt of 2016. We also appreciate the enormous burden placed on Turkey by the Syrian war and refugee crisis a burden they have shouldered cheerfully and uncomplainingly. An unstable environment, however, is not a justification for weakening democratic norms, abandoning political pluralism or moving toward a more authoritarian style of government The ACRE Council notes with concern the continuing developments in Turkey. ACRE understands that an attempted coup detat can lead to measures that would not be contemplated in normal times. None the less, a coup cannot justify a permanent shift in the balance of power, nor a continuing State of Emergency, nor a purge of officials who were uninvolved, nor the mistreatment of detainees. Similarly, we accept the need for some reforms of the 1980 constitution, and recognize that it is for the Turkish electorate to determine its own constitutional arrangements. But we stress that the supremacy of national parliaments is part of the Reykjavik Declaration, and oppose any shift in power that would lead to a less pluralist or more autocratic form of regime.
Since then, ACRE has voted on the status of the AKP and, as you can guess by the presence of the partys representatives in Albania this weekend, it voted not to suspend or expel Erdogan and his colleagues. It certainly wasnt a unanimous decision people from various nations expressed their deep unhappiness about it to me in the last couple of days but I gather it was supported by all those ACRE member parties who are in Government, who are also the largest parties in the Alliance. That includes the PiS in Poland, the Finns Party and the British Conservatives.
Thats a controversial decision, which was made in Westminster meaning that not only do British Conservatives remain allied to Erdogan, but the Conservative Partys leadership has explicitly backed continuing that alliance. Im told that Daniel Hannan remained neutral in the process, in his capacity as ACRE Secretary-General, but the official position of the Conservative Partys leadership and ACRE delegation is clearly that the alliance with the AKP should continue.
The prime justification for that continuation appears to be on security grounds, particularly given that Turkey is often European extremists chosen route to attempt to join ISIS. The merits of that case are likely to be classified, so are rather hard to judge (but will be visible to those governing parties who supported the AKPs continuing membership).
What is public knowledge, however, is Erdogans record in using the continued State of Emergency to purge officials, clamp down on critical media and attack the judiciary in Turkey. As I wrote back in July, that record seems completely at odds with ACREs founding principles, and the statement above implies that ACRE has similar concerns. After the vote, the organisation simply says the relationship remains under review though quite what more Erdogan would have to do to get kicked out is a mystery.
After their disastrous performance at the 2015 general election, the Liberal Democrats had to confront a fundamental question: what are they for?
To many their slogan a stronger economy and a fairer society was indicative of a failure to come up with a positive definition of what liberalism meant, instead offering simply to mediate the two main parties.
Post-Brexit, of course, they have found a definite revival in their fortunes as a haven for continuity Remain voters. But the party still needs to decide whether to try to stick to the more realistic, party-of-government attitude adopted by Nick Clegg or revert to being an opportunistic party of protest.
Recent events over Syria suggest it is leaning towards the former, although old habits die hard.
Tim Farron has written in the Guardian that he supports President Trumps missile strike on a Syrian Government airbase, launched in response to the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons. Unlike Clegg, the current Lib Dem leader didnt vote for action against Assad in 2013.
Moving from being anti-intervention to pro-intervention, after leaving office, shows how far some in the party have come from the days of Charles Kennedys leadership.
The late MP for Ross, Skye, and Lochaber, who passed away shortly after losing his seat to the SNP at the last election, look the Lib Dems to their best-ever seat total at the 2005 general election on the back of trenchant opposition to the Iraq War. So closely did the party become associated with this cause that it was hard to remember its earlier support under Paddy Ashdown, a former Royal Marine, for intervention in Bosnia.
Still, Farron clearly hasnt been able to leave his opportunist instincts entirely behind him. Hes joined in the chorus calling Boris Johnson a poodle of Washington after the Foreign Secretary pulled out of a planned trip to Russia. Such criticism isnt particularly consistent: Johnson withdrew in order to allow Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, to deliver a coordinated position after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy.
But if thats as far as Farron allows the urge to play to the gallery to take him, hell emerge from his dealings on Syria with more honour than Ed Miliband. The question must be whether or not he can bring his party, many of whom look back fondly on their halcyon days under Kennedy, with him.
Nicky Morgan is a former Education Secretary, and is MP for Loughborough
I imagine there are moments of drama and emotion in the Commons which stay with every MP and anyone watching in the gallery for ever. I can remember, with crystal clarity, the vote in 2013 about whether the UK should take part in military action in Syria following the use of chemical weapons then.
I was a whip, and was standing at the bar of the House watching one of my fellow whips read out the votes. The Government had been put on the back foot by Ed Milibands volte face over the use of UK force. And a number of Conservative MPs had also not supported British involvement. As the votes were read out confirming that the UK would not be taking part, some Labour MPs cheered and David Cameron stood up and acknowledged, impressively swiftly, the will of the Commons. Miliband looked stunned, and other Labour MPs looked doubtful about what they had done.
The 1925 Geneva Protocol bans the use of chemical weapons. Even amidst the brutality and inhumanity of war, there are international rules which, if breached, the rest of the world has to uphold. The Muslim community in my Loughborough constituency held a vigil for Syria last month. Those present requested Western support for the people of Syria to end the horrors of war there and that was before this latest chemical weapon attack. I believe that if we turn our backs now then we are complicit in the committing of a war crime.
Yet I know that there are many people in my constituency and ConservativeHome readers who will be muttering that the war in Syria is not our concern, that we wont do ourselves any favours by getting entangled in someone elses conflict and that we have enough to focus on domestically. Its the same argument that is used to criticise international aid spending.
This seems to have been a view that Donald Trump agreed with until Wednesday. And it is clear that many of his supporters, including Nigel Farage, cannot understand why he has changed his stance. Time will of course tell whether this is a permanent change of policy towards Syria, or whether this targeted response by the US was limited only to responding to this particular barbaric chemical weapons attack by the Syrian Government on its own people.
His response also says much about the role of the US in the world. There was a fear when he was elected that the result signalled a more insular America, which would deliberately stand back from the world. Trump has chosen to step up in one way but Hillary Clinton made a valid point in the wake of the missile strike that the US cant talk about protecting Syrian babies and then close the doors to them.
A comprehensive policy response to the Syria situation involves addressing the refugee crisis, facilitating a political settlement involving all the different groups and populations in Syria as well as, perhaps, further military action to get the parties to the table.
In which context, we should consider the Government and CCHQs our Plan for Britain, being launched here in Britain. Its Point One is that we will be A Global Britain that is outward-looking: we will forge a new partnership with the European Union that gives us control of our borders and our laws -while also trading beyond Europe, shaping decisions across the globe and working to make the world a safer place.
In order to shape decisions and make the world a safer place, the UK has to step up too. We have to deal with the world as it is, not as some people would like it to be. I recently returned from a trip to Greece with Tim Loughton and Theo Clarke, the director of Conservative Friends of International Development, where we were hosted by Unicef.
UK aid money provided an immediate response to the 2015 refugee crisis in countries such as Greece but, since then, we have left it to deal with the thousands of unaccompanied minors still arriving there when we could offer our expertise in areas such as fostering, social care and family matching.
However much we talk about push and pull factors, refugees are still arriving, and promises we have made under the Dubs and Dublin schemes have not been fulfilled overshadowing much of the good work the UK is doing in camps on Syrias borders.
It is clear from talking to the Greek authorities that they are deeply frustrated that other EU countries have not taken the refugees that they said they would. In future, the UK wont be in the EU to put pressure on our fellow member states. In the same way, we wont be there to put pressure on EU member states about sanctions against Russia or action against Syria. One of the undebated elements of Brexit is the very real danger that the UK ends up with significantly less influence in the world, thus finding it harder to shape decisions as the Plan for Britain promises.
Being global and outward-looking means stepping up when red lines have been crossed, and being prepared to back up our words with actions. So I think Trump made the right call last week. However big the bully when they cross a line, someone has to push back and stand by international law. I fully support the UK Governments endorsement of the US action.
The 2013 vote on Syria was a fundamental error by the Commons which has haunted us, and the people of Syria, since. I voted without hesitation then to support action to push back on a breach of international law and I will do so again in 2017 if it proves necessary.
Four years ago, the TaxPayers Alliance reported that in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories.
Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts.
Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply dont apply in the same number as Labour supporters.
To help remedy this, every fortnight we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented.
Central Arbitration Committee Chair
The CAC is an independent statutory authority with specific functions relating to trade unions and employers. The most significant function of the CAC is adjudicating on the recognition and de-recognition of trade unions for collective bargaining in the workplace. This is carried out by applying the underpinning UK trade union recognition legislation when considering a unions application for collective bargaining in a workplace, whilst seeking agreement between a union and the employer where possible. The incoming Chair will also set the strategic direction of the CAC by monitoring developments in employment law, reviewing the CACs case work and its performance, and identifying risks and succession planning.
Time: One day per week.
Remuneration: 25,357 per annum (full-time equivalent), annual increases.
Closes: 10 April
Intellectual Property Office Chair of the Steering Board
The Intellectual Property Office Steering Board is responsible for advising the CEO and Minister on the overall direction and policies of the IPO. It ensures the IPO delivers on its strategic priorities and that resources are allocated effectively for their delivery. The Steering Board also regularly reviews the management and performance of the IPO and ensures high standards of corporate governance are maintained at all times. The role of Chair is an important one and demands effective strategic leadership of the Board and the ability to speak on its behalf. The Chair will work closely with the full-time Chief Executive, who is the IPOs Accounting Officer.
Time: 22 days per annum.
Remuneration: 450 per diem up to 10,000 per annum, plus reasonable expenses.
Closes: 17 April
Committee on Fuel Poverty Member
The Committee on Fuel Poverty (CFP) is an advisory Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Its role is to advise on policies designed to tackle fuel poverty. It was originally established in 2001 as the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG), to advise on the effectiveness of policies aimed at reducing fuel poverty, and to encourage greater co-ordination across the organisations working to address this problem in England.
Time: Two days per month on average.
Remuneration: 8,400 per annum.
Closes: 17 April
Marine Management Organisation Chair
The non-executive Chair of the MMO will lead the Board, set the overall strategic operational direction of the MMO, ensure good governance and with the Board, hold the Executive to account. The Chair will be responsible for: providing effective leadership and strategic direction to develop a cohesive and focused Board which recognises the need to work collaboratively with the Defra group, wider Government, other delivery bodies and stakeholders to deliver Government objectives effectively and efficiently
Time: Eight days per month.
Remuneration: 40,459 per annum.
Closes: 18 April
Ministry of Justice Prison and Probation Ombudsman
The office holder is not required to have a background within the criminal justice or immigration system but must have an appreciation of the issues affecting these areas. The Secretary of State for Justice looks to the Ombudsman to make custody and offender supervision within England and Wales safer and fairer. The Ombudsman has an essential role, carrying out independent investigations into deaths and complaints in custody in addition to sharing important lessons learned on key issues. The purpose of these is to understand what happened, correct injustices and identify changes that need to be made.
Time: Based on a 37-hour working week.
Remuneration: 100,000 per annum for three years.
Closes: 18 April
NHS Improvement Chair
NHS Improvement is responsible for overseeing foundation trusts and NHS trusts, as well as independent providers that provide NHS-funded care. NHS Improvement offers the support these providers need to give patients consistently safe, high quality, compassionate care within local health systems that are financially sustainable. By holding providers to account and, where necessary, intervening, NHS Improvement helps the NHS to meet its short-term challenges and secure its future.
Time: 2-3 days per week.
Remuneration: 63,000 per annum.
Closes: 19 April
Department for Communities and Local Government Housing Ombudsman
The Housing Ombudsman has responsibility for investigating complaints against social landlords in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. Housing is an important part of everyones lives and issues relating to our homes can have a huge emotional impact. The Housing Ombudsman plays an important role in ensuring the fair resolution of disputes, aiming to resolve problems quickly and efficiently. Rented housing plays a vital role in the nations housing and we are keen to see that tenants experience good standards of service regardless of whether their landlord is a local authority, housing association or private landlord.
Time: Full time.
Remuneration: Up to 120,000 per annum.
Closes: 23 April
UK Research & Innovation Chief Finance Officer
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is now looking to appoint UK Research and Innovations Chief Finance Officer (CFO). The CFO will be vital to the success of this new organisation. Working closely with the interim Chair, the CEO, the Board (of which they will be a member) and stakeholders across the sector, the CFO will aid in the design and establishment of the new organisation, building vital relationships, developing strategy, and putting the working model for the new system in place. They will shape and lead a globally important, pioneering new organisation.
Time: Full time.
Remuneration: Circa 142,000 per annum, plus pension and performance-based pay.
Closes: 05 May
Some, like Nicky Morgan, have a record of favouring military intervention in Syria. She puts her case on this site today. Others, like this site, have a history of opposing it. There would be less disagreement were the Assad regime carrying out nuclear weapons tests with the explicit aim of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States.
Which brings us to North Korea. Its leaders have made it clear that such is their objective. Five tests have been carried out. The latest took place only last week. It may have ten nuclear weapons or so, with enough material to craft 100 more. Last Septembers test was reportedly the strongest up to that point, with the weapon used being stronger than that deployed at Hiroshima. On the one hand, the expert consensus is that North Korea doesnt have the delivery capacity to attach a nuclear weapon to a missile capable of reaching America. On the other, the picture is murky, and a nuclear North Korea is anyway a threat to its democratic neighbours, such as South Korea and Japan.
It is, as Fiona Bruce and Benedict Rogers have written on this site, without doubt the most closed country in the world, and one of the worst human rights abusers. The former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea has described it as sui generis in its own category. The North Korean regime is, arguably, in breach of every single article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump felt his way towards a position on North Korea, as on so much else. At one point, he suggested that he would be willing to speak with Kim Jong Un. Soon afterwards, he said that I wouldnt go to North KoreaI wouldnt go there. The last thing Id do is go. I would never go to North Korea. He later suggested that China should disappear the dictator altogether. But the core of his approach was to suggest arming South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons, and compelling China to rein in North Korea with the threat of a trade war if it did not. In short, his attitude to the regime had the same non-interventionist flavour as his approach to foreign policy as a whole.
This seems to be changing. Trumps response to North Koreas latest test was to send a naval strike group towards the western Pacific. A state-run newspaper in China is reported today to say that the Presidents decision to strike the Assad regime was taken with North Koreas regime in mind. It would be a mistake to see his action in Syria solely through the lens of North Korea, but there is clearly plenty of overlap.
The timing was significant. Trump held a summit meeting with Xi Jinping, Chinas president, in the wake of authorising the Syria strike. One of its purposes was clearly to put pressure on China over Kim Jong Un and his gang. Well, if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you, he said to the Financial Times in an interview last week. One cannot blame him for a moment. But it is frighteningly hard to find a solution with a low threshold of risk. Last week, William Hague floated the possibility of China reining in its ally, or even of Trump negotiating directly with the North Korean regime after all. Both options look remote.
Military action could spark a North Korean attack on South Korea, as well as conflict with China a terrifying possibility. And if the regime collapsed, North Korea might leap from tyranny to anarchy in a single bound. Furthermore, Trump would have to win Congresss backing for any major intervention in the western Pacific. That cannot be guaranteed.
But the bottom line is that America cannot simply sit back, and wait for North Korea to become a direct threat. We dont always smile on Trump on this site. But it is impossible not to feel for him as he ponders this hideous dilemma.
CORNWALL, Ontario A 28-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on April 7, 2017 and charged with assault, threats, forcible confinement, mischief and breach of probation for failing to keep the peace.
It is alleged during arguments on April 5 and 6, 2017 the man made threats towards his girlfriend, pushed her, damaged a window, her cell phone and prevented her from leaving the residence. Police were contacted and an investigation ensued. On April 7, 2017 the man was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing. His name was not released as it would identify the victim in the matter.
BREACH
CORNWALL, Ontario A 15-year-old Cornwall youth was arrested on April 7, 2017 and charged with breach of probation for associating with a certain person, being out past curfew and for failing to keep the peace. It is alleged the youth was found to be in breach of her conditions during a traffic stop on April 7, 2017. She was taken into custody, charged accordingly and released to appear in court at a later date. Her name was not released as per provision of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
ASSAULT, MISCHIEF
CORNWALL, Ontario A 65-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on April 8, 2017 and charged with assault and mischief. It is alleged during an argument on April 8, 2017 the man pushed his girlfriend and damaged property owned by her. Police were contacted and an investigation ensued. During the investigation the man was taken into custody, charged accordingly and released to appear in court on May 16, 2017. His name was not released as it would identify the victim in the matter.
BREACH
CORNWALL, Ontario Carl Desjardins-Paquette, 31, of Cornwall was arrested on April 9, 2017 and charged with breach of recognizance for having consumed alcohol, being out past curfew and failing to keep the peace. It is alleged on April 9, 2017 the man caused a disturbance in the area of Montreal Road and Marlborough Street and police were contacted to investigate. During the investigation the man was located and found to be out past curfew and under the influence of alcohol. He was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.
MOREWOOD, Ontario On April 7, 2017 at approximately 11:42pm, SD&G OPP officers responded to a report of an assault incident at a residence in the Village of Morewood, North Dundas Township.
Investigation indicated that a male had sexually assaulted an adult female known to him.
The 25-year-old male from Cornwall, Ontario was arrested and is charged with;
Sexual Assault
He was released and is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Cornwall on May 23, 2017. His name is being withheld in order to protect the identity of the victim.
As seen here.
The Typo:
The business that was in the process of going belly-up was called Taylor and Son; some unsung data entry clerk at Companies House had accidentally added an extra "s" in the Companies House papers. The House only took three days to figure out and correct their mistake, but the universe thought that was far too long and decided to punish everybody for it. See, before correcting their error, the House had sold the false information to credit reference agencies (like you do in this crazy privatized, for-profit system of ours) and sent anyone with a cursory interest in Taylor and Sons a clear message: Run from this leper business. Unclean. Unclean!
Dannyknaap/Wiki Commons
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"To the lifeboats! Quickly! No, not theirs!"
When word got around that Taylor and his plural offspring were having problems, their orders suddenly started to dry up. The managing director of the lucrative company was having a casual holiday, celebrating his wife's 50th birthday, when the Phones Of Armageddon started ringing. All of Taylor and Sons' suppliers thought the company was in liquidation. That lucrative lifeboat contract disappeared, as did a recurring contract with a major steel manufacturer.
Within two months, Taylor and Sons were forced to go into administration. For real this time.
Cloud News
Look Out AWS And Azure Google Is Betting Big On The Enterprise Channel
Joseph Tsidulko
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When Diane Green took the helm of Google's cloud division in November 2015, the internet services giant was at a crossroads, and partners were growing frustrated.
They believed they had bet on a public cloud provider with game-changing technological capabilities leading software development talent, mastery in data center operations, unrivaled network capacity. But for the most part they weren't winning deals against their hyper-scale competitors.
Google just didn't understand the enterprise, a market segment with different dynamics from its legacy consumer business, partners concluded. Marketing was off-message, feature development was slow, outbound sales was an afterthought.
Most of all, its sales leaders, through predilections and programs, weren't positioning partners to compete against those bringing Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services to market. Greene was a breath of fresh air the former VMware CEO from day one articulated to partners a comprehensive, battle-tested vision for transforming Google's cloud business into an enterprise powerhouse.
"It had not played out the way Google hoped it would with some of these solutions," Aric Bandy, president of Agosto, a Minneapolis-based Google partner, told CRN. "Under Diane they shifted to focus on what the market wants."
But while Greene, senior vice president of Google's cloud businesses, has been credited with some notable wins since then revenue-rich customers like The Home Depot and Spotify, even quietly signing Apple many Google partners told CRN those deals belie the fact that the comprehensive enterprise posture she laid out has yet to take root.
"The changes Diane Greene is making are coming a little bit slower than we expected," said one Google cloud partner who asked not to be named. "I do think their messaging has gotten more crisp and is targeting the enterprise more strategically. It would be great if they could accelerate their actions to match that messaging now."
Some partners fault resistance stemming from Google's entrenched consumer culture for slowing Greene's transformation. At the same time, they are cautiously optimistic big changes are finally imminent.
Google's Cloud Next conference, held in San Francisco in March, put front and center new enterprise-focused leadership, messaging, products and sweeping channel program changes. "One of the reasons I joined Google," Greene told attendees during her keynote, "[is] we're leveraging almost two decades of innovation and technology really built for the kind of enterprises we have today, or we're starting to have."
It wasn't lost on partners attending the event that Greene had swapped out much of the management beneath her and filled many key positions with people she recruited from VMware and other companies with enterprise pedigrees, especially in alliances, sales and marketing departments.
"VMware was very much a partner-driven sales motion, just like most enterprise software companies are, and Greene has set the same expectation for Google," said Tony Safoian, CEO of SADA Systems, a Los Angeles-based Google partner.
Google's new channel chief, Bertrand Yansouni, a former colleague of Greene's at VMware who previously ran channel for big data specialist Cloudera, revealed to partners at the start of the conference a major program revamp to reflect the realities of enterprise sales and reduce channel conflict.
"Google is relying more heavily on their exploding partner ecosystem to accelerate their position as a serious player in the enterprise. It makes sense they'd revamp their partner programs to align," said Vanessa Simmons, director of business development at Pythian, a Google partner based in Ottawa. Among the changes, Google eliminated an incentive in its compensation structure for Google salespeople to take deals directan element long derided by channel partners.
"It's a strong signal for our partners and for our field in terms of how serious we are about being a channel-friendly environment," Yansouni told CRN.
Google's cloud division has shifted its focus down the stack, looking to make Google Cloud Platform its flagship enterprise product and capitalize on an exploding cloud infrastructure market. Partners hope Greene's shakeups will empower them to start closing the considerable market-share gap with Microsoft Azure, and pressuring market leader AWS.
While those competitors enjoy a commanding lead, the cloud wars are far from settled. The public cloud infrastructure market exceeded $7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, including public Infrastructure-as-a-Service and public Platform-as-a-Service, according to Synergy Research, and is still in an early adoption stage, growing at a whopping 50 percent pace.
"Does anyone not agree it's the biggest thing going on in IT right now?" Greene, who wasn't made available to CRN for this story, said of cloud computing in her Next keynote.
Google has always had customers gravitate to its consumer products; when the company launched its public cloud, it expected enterprise adoption would follow that same course. Build a great cloud tooled for click-through transactions, offer cutting-edge technology on that platform, especially around analytics, and customers will comeor so the thinking went, according to solution providers.
"In the early days, the belief was that Google Cloud's products are so great they didn't need salespeople. People will just buy it. But Fortune 500 customers buy differentlythey buy solutions, not products," Agosto's Bandy said. Greene saw the shortcomings of that strategy, Bandy said, acutely aware that an empowered partner ecosystem, fully backed by the internal sales organization, was critical to winning the enterprise.
But she faced an uphill battle, another Google Cloud Platform reseller who asked to remain anonymous told CRN.
"It has always been tough to work with Google as a partner. There is a we are Google and are smarter' attitude," he said.
Google is famous for playing by its own rules and didn't see the enterprise business as an exception, said one technology partner who's worked closely with the company over the years.
The attitude in Mountain View favored the do-it-yourselfers, he said, the "hipster developers" who won style points for being innovative, and born-in-the-cloud internet services startups. Sales, especially enterprise sales, had never been part of the DNA.
Cultural resistance to enterprise norms could manifest itself in the smallest details. At a Goldman Sachs cloud computing conference in Silicon Valley in 2013, a Google Apps executive recounted how there was blowback when he tried to replace the term "user" with "customer" in promotional material, the partner, an attendee of that event, told CRN.
"They have the best infrastructure," said Bandy. "They just haven't been good at telling their story, a story that the enterprise market wants to hear."
Google's sales leaders and its field reps often failed to appreciate the benefits of passing deals to the channel, Safoian told CRN. The knee-jerk remains a direct sales motion, he said. "The field was both unaccustomed to engaging with and through partners, and mistrusting of the value that partners can add in this process," Safoian told CRN.
When Greene imposed fixes at the top, they were slow to seep through layers of entrenched "Googliness" into the sales field, or marketing campaigns, or the overall inclination toward channel partners, according to many familiar with the company.
Greene's mandates resulted in culture shock throughout the division, said Jamie Shepard, senior vice president at Dallas-based Lumenate, a Google and VMware partner, who has worked with Greene for over a decade. Greene had a clear vision for the business highlight Google's experience in operating highly stable data centers,
unique networking fiber assets, and ownership of Apps, a popular business application portfolio now called G Suite, to woo big companies considering ditching their data centers.
But the agnostic platform she described didn't resonate with an internal bias toward a niche cloud geared for next-gen workloads taking advantage of capabilities Google built for its internal products.
"Google didn't want to be the company that was supporting old enterprise applications. That's just not Googly," he said. Greene was given carte blanche to build out her vision, Shepard said. But while she was uniquely capable of bridging the gap between that "Google world" and traditional enterprises, the wrong people were in place to support her.
Partners have noticed the significant management changes executed over the last year, said Rajesh Abhyankar, CEO of MediaAgility, a Google partner based in Princeton, N.J.
"They are trying to realign to be an enterprise company. More traditional enterprise-style selling is coming," Abhyankar told CRN. "What I see Diane doing, if you join all the dots, it's taking this direction away from the consumer business."
Some partners left Next confident their practices were at a tipping point. Not only was Google's messaging spot on, they told CRN, but it looked like those ideas had finally been absorbed throughout the organization.
"There's been good movement, and it's now filtering down to the field and go-to-market teams," said Agosto's Bandy.
One highlight was Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt directly naming in his Next keynote several channel partners: Pythian, Agosto, Groovenauts, SADA as well
as global integrators Accenture, which purchased Google juggernaut Cloud Sherpas, and PwC.
Greene closed her opening keynote by thanking "all our partners, our precious partners" and said she looked forward to running into many of them in the exhibition hall.
This conference was different from any of their others. This was your typical enterprise conference, with a Google touch," said Daniel Saks, co-CEO of San Francisco-based AppDirect, developer of an online marketplace for cloud services. Saks' company hosted a happy hour mixer with Google at the conference, drawing traditional VARs and telco resellers who were buoyed by the reorganization they saw around them, he said.
"Since Diane came on board, there's been a complete page turn where they moved from an online tech company to a real enterprise-driven company with real exceptional business development people," Saks told CRN.
Greene told Next attendees that "the quality of our customer conversations are really changing" before inviting on the stage during her keynote representatives from customers Home Depot, eBay, Verizon, HSBC and Disney.
Google's customer conversations used to focus on specific technologies like BigQuery, data analytics and machine learning. But only a couple of weeks earlier, Greene said, she met with five customers, and three of them wanted to discuss full lift-and-shift migrations. That's a good sign, said partners, because those are the engagements that will truly validate her strategy.
Google, however, still hasn't proven it's found its footing on that front. Partners estimate that 95 percent of Google Cloud Platform business is still direct, a number Google won't independently confirm. Most of that spend is coming from a group of customers that can be counted on two handsincluding Apple, Snapchat, Spotify, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, even Niantic Labs thanks to Pokemon Go, that operate massive online services.
Those companies love Google's technical capabilities, especially when it comes to networking and analytics. Many use App Engine, Google's innovative Platform-as-a-Service, for building cloud-native applications.
Greene had a direct hand in signing some of them. But while they are often cited as harbingers of enterprise transformation, simply looking at the logos can be misleading, according to one partner.
"Diane's enterprise story is interesting, but she's not talking about enterprise workloads but enterprise customers," that partner said. "Coca-Cola, Apple, Snapchat, maybe big companies are using Google, but they're not using it for things enterprise companies use servers for. They're not moving big business applications to
Google."
Taking market share from Azure and AWS will require appealing to traditional enterprises looking to execute run-of-the-mill server migrations to the cloud. Those customers operate under a different buying cycle, respond to different sales methodologies, require different feature sets, and prefer purchasing IT from channel partners that can add ongoing support
and services.
"There's just that knowledge gap at Google. They should be doubling down on marketing and collateral and I don't think they are," the partner said. "Because the message is unclear, people are going for lift-and-shift and getting discouraged and then going back to Amazon."
Most enterprises aren't looking to adopt the latest-and-greatest cloud tech. They have "IT-specific workloads" they want to move from on-premises to the cloud, said Michael Fraser, CEO of Mountlake Terrace, Wash.-based Infinite Ops, a platform for deploying cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform. In the past, "Google has fallen short because they are a software engineering company that does things very well, but they haven't got the messaging to sync with the IT service provider world," he said. But the future is brighter, he added.
"I think if Diane Greene hadn't come on board, they wouldn't have any push in this direction whatsoever," he said.
Cloud News
A Partner-Centric Shift: Google Revamps Its Channel Program
Joseph Tsidulko
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The channel program update is the key to Google's transformation into a serious enterprise public cloud player.
Google Cloud Next 2017, which packed San Francisco's Moscone Center in March, was the largest event the internet giant has ever hosted a three-day enterprise-focused
and, by Google's standards, surprisingly traditional conference.
But the most significant revelations for many partners in attendance came a day before Google cloud chief Diane Greene delivered the opening Next keynote.
[Related: Look Out AWS and Azure Google Is Betting Big On The Enterprise Channel]
That's when she and other executives hosted a smaller confab to introduce partners to a sweeping set of changes to the company's channel program.
That day channel chief Bertrand Yansouni, on the job only since November, outlined a broad revamp across the partner program designed to start "the process of giving [partners] a more unified approach to Google cloud," he told CRN.
A central theme underpinning the many changes was a shift to a solution-oriented program geared to recognize and reward partners for selling the full Google cloud stack, not individual products.
Yansouni, vice president of global partner sales and strategic alliances for Google cloud, also rejigged a sales model that previously compensated Google's field sales reps on net bookings, which were less on channel deals after partners took their cut. "I didn't want that to be a distraction," he said of the previous lack of compensation neutrality.
That and many other changes advised by partners were the ones that could be quickly addressed and ready for rollout by the conference, he said, but more will come over the next year.
The channel program update is key to Greene's efforts to transform the tech behemoth with a deeply entrenched consumer culture and some previous enterprise mishaps into a serious enterprise player.
"Given their competitive position and momentum they are trying to achieve, they need to be as frictionless as possible, remove any and all barriers to adoption, and
this includes any points of potential conflict with partners," said Vanessa Simmons, director of business development at Pythian, a Google partner based in Ottawa.
Eliminating the financial incentive to take deals direct was just one component of a partner-centric orientation that started forming before he arrived at Google, Yansouni told CRN.
"We definitely believe that it makes sense to have partners involved in every possible deal," the channel chief said. Field agents should always think, "if there isn't
a partner, why not yet, and which partner would make sense given what the customer is trying to achieve?"
In the past, there were situations where Google's sales reps didn't know which partner to bring into a deal, or felt no partner had the right skill set, he said. New investments around technical enablement a partner engineering team, specialization programs, revamped certificationsshould remedy that.
The sales motion won't change overnight, he acknowledged. Google will continue sending cues, recognizing reps that adhere to those guidelines and reinforcing
their instincts to support resellers.
Partners told CRN they are eager to see the latest program changes manifest themselves.
Among them, Google is investing in helping partners build sustainable practices with a low-interest loan program for practice development, and by funding workshops, proofs of concept and deployments to reduce customer ramp times. Higher margins for entry-level Google Cloud Platform resellers and broader rebates for Premier tier partners are also part of the new structure.
Rajesh Abhyankar, CEO of MediaAgility, a Google partner based in Princeton, N.J., told CRN the program changes have convinced him to increase a demand-generation
budget for Google cloud by more than two-fold over the previous year, and ramp spending for training his engineers in new Google cloud technologies like the Spanner database and machine learning.
MediaAgility also will invest in packaging its unique solutions as APIs or Software-as-a-Service tools and listing them in a new Google partner directory, he said. "We are all in with the new partner program and collaboration with the Google sales, marketing and engineering teams in the countries we operate in,"
Abhyankar said.
The program incentives "reward us handsomely," said Tony Safoian, CEO of SADA Systems, a Google partner based in Los Angeles. They demonstrate Google is serious about investing in partner development, he said.
But the success of Google's channel will depend on field sales reps recognizing the value that VARs bring to the table, even on cutting-edge implementations.
"The orientation in the past was introducing partners introduces risk," Safoian said. "But the biggest barrier today to adopting cloud is [customers] cannot control their spending and get support when they need it the most. That is value that partners can add today."
Security News
Cylance CTO Chisholm, One Of Its First Employees, Leaves The Security Vendor
Sarah Kuranda
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Cylance CTO Glenn Chisholm has left the company, CRN has learned, the latest in a series of changes at the next-generation endpoint security vendor.
Chisholm was one of the earliest employees at Cylance, joining the company shortly after it was founded in 2012 to direct its strategic product and mathematical direction. Chisholm also led the company's research and development teams.
Cylance confirmed Chisholm's departure in an email to CRN.
[Related: Sources: Cylance Hit By Layoffs, Company Says Cuts Are Part Of Overall Realignment]
"We founded this company with a group of highly creative technologists and Glenn is one of them. Hes had another big idea and is pursuing that while remaining on the Cylance Board of Advisors. We are big fans of Glenn, and he remains a valuable advisor to Cylance," a spokesperson said.
CRN reported last week that Cylance had gone through a round of layoffs, which the company confirmed and attributed to a "realignment" to focus on new products and geographies. Cylance said in an email to CRN that Chisholm's departure was "definitely" not related to the recent layoffs.
Cylance did not comment on whether there was a replacement for the CTO role. CRN reached out to Chisholm directly for comment but has not heard back.
Cylance did not confirm Chisholm's exact departure date, but the executive has been removed from the company's website and had been listed as CTO as recently as February 27. Chisholm's LinkedIn has not yet been updated to reflect his departure or a new position.
Cylance remains one of the fastest-growing private cybersecurity companies, with $11.1 million in revenue in 2015 and a 7,613 percent three-year growth rate, according to the 2016 Inc. 5000. The company has also landed a huge amount of venture capital funding, including $100 million in Series D funding in June, one of the largest by any security company last year.
However, Cylance has also faced increasing pressure from competition in the endpoint security market heats up, with legacy security vendors looking to take back share and competitors in the endpoint security market, such as Crowdstrike and Carbon Black, looking to move into the company's next-generation antivirus space.
Chisholm has been at the company since 2012, joining Cylance from Telstra, where he was chief information security officer and director of security operations. Before that, he held positions at Cisco. Chisholm announced in November that he was joining the board of directors at security automation startup Hexadite.
A woman was found drowned at Center Hill Lake Sunday after she had been reported missing earlier.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency along with the DeKalb and Putnam County rescue squads and the DeKalb County Sheriffs Office responded to the call for a missing person at the Hurricane Marina off of Highway 56 around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Thirty-five year old Aimee McCray of Davidson County was reported missing after a friends search of the area turned up empty.
Ms. McCray reportedly spent the previous evening on a houseboat but could not be found the next morning.
The DeKalb County Rescue Squad discovered Ms. McCrays body in the water near the boat dock around 3:20 p.m. The Putnam County Rescue Squad recovered the body.
The accident is still under investigation.
This past February marks the two-year anniversary when Livingston County, Michigan, was hit by ransomware. The wealthiest county in the state had three years worth of tax information possibly at the mercy of cybercriminals.
As a local government, county CIO Rich C. Malewicz said they have been a target of ransomware, but in this instance they had backups at the ready. He said the most memorable ransomware attack was a result of a watering hole campaign using malvertizing to infect users visiting a local news website.
This attack was very clever in that all you had to do to get infected was visit the website, you didn't even have to click on the page. Once the user went to the local news website, they were immediately redirected to a site hosting exploit code and the infamous page appeared demanding a ransom with instructions, he said.
The attackers embedded malicious code in the iframe that redirected the users to the exploit landing page. The ransomware spread to several PCs and servers before it was contained.
We were fortunate enough to have a working backup of the data and we recovered shortly after. If we didn't have a working backup this could have been a disaster, Malewicz said.
Aside from the loss of personally identifiable information of the 188,000 citizens of the county, the government would have been looking at the labor cost to replicate the documents on top of the damage to its reputation. The countys network is also shared with public safety entities as well as educational institutions.
It's pretty clear that local government is a primary target of ransomware attacks, mainly because they have lagged so far behind the private sector in terms of cyber protection, many dont have working backup solutions - if any at all, and they tend to pay the ransom, he said.
Recent headlines show public safety agencies and local governments will pay the ransom, so they are targeted even more - attackers will migrate to the industry that tends to pay the ransom and to those that have an inadequate cybersecurity posture. Case in point the Tewksbury, Mass., police paid the ransom four or five days after they could not break the encryption and needed the attackers to send them the private key in order to access the data.
Protecting an organization from ransomware or any type of malware is similar to an arms race, as the threat evolves so must your defenses! Malewicz said.
The county turned to predictive analytics in hopes of halting the ransomware attacks. Livingston County uses Unitrends backup solution to provide Malewicz's team peace of mind that in the event our cyber defense fails.
Ransomware was largely unheard of years ago, but today it's a household name - everyone knows someone or some organization which has been infected. The future guarantees that more menacing ransomware variants will take center stage wreaking havoc in our homes and places of business. When ransomware exploits bypass perimeter cyber defenses you have only to rely on your predictive analytic cyber defenses to protect you, else I hope you have stable and secure backup to fall back on! he said.
It is thought that with predictive analytics, it brings the technology more into a savior category then a staple. It elevates the ability of the technology to detect changes in data, which points to outbreak of ransomware and then allows the IT administrator to refer back to the last legitimate backup point.
Predictive analytics is a necessity because the malware of tomorrow is unknown and will surely evolve to our detriment. When traditional cyber defense technology is rendered ineffective or human error is at play, predictive analytic cyber defense technology becomes the last line of defense for an organization. The majority of cyber defenses in an organization is built around signature-based models of "known" malware, whereas predictive analytics is built around the "unknown", establishing a pattern of life within the organization and protecting them from malware and other abnormal activity as well.
Paul Brady, CEO of Unitrends, said, by infusing predictive analytics into Unitrends' backup and business continuity solutions, the company enables customers to detect ransomware as the last line of defense. "Through predictive analytics and machine learning against backup data patterns, organizations of any size can not only detect ransomware before it wreaks havoc on their data, but also revert back to the last legitimate backup point to decrease down time," he said.
Unitrends explained the process: As backups occur, the software processes data regularly. Even without knowing the detailed contents of your files, metrics are collected, analyzed and stored for future decision making. These metrics include ingest patterns, change rates, growth rates, and more. The backup system is able to use machine learning over time to recognize that certain data anomalies are indicative of a ransomware attack. When the right conditions occur, the administrator is alerted immediately.
Ransomware is at the top of the list
Robert Huber, chief security and strategy officer at Eastwind Networks, said ransomware is at the top of the list of priorities for many CISOs and CIOs. Given the cost of an infection via loss of data, or the cost to reclaim your data it makes sense.
A great method to aid in detection, and more importantly prevention, is the use of predictive analytics, or machine learning. Unfortunately, the compute to perform machine learning at scale has historically been slow and expensive making it mostly reactive. This had been compounded by the difficulty in deploying and managing such as solution, he said.
As the cost and ability to deploy machine learning (and in turn predictive analytics) have decreased, he said, expect to see many security companies add it to their solutions and apply it to the ransomware problem.
Often the next-gen moniker afforded to many new security products are just applying machine learning to existing problem sets, he said. The availability of platforms such as the Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine and Amazon Machine Learning have reduced the cost and complexity. In addition the community has improved the state of best practice for those who choose to build it on their own.
Less complex, expensive and faster [machine learning] allow companies to apply it to cybersecurity in more of a near real-time mode to predict/prevent, versus react. Of course, this presumes that companies are able to build [machine learning] models that can identify this activity while it is still nascent. And this is where you need strong data scientists to extract the relevant features to build the models, Huber said.
TIBCOs Michael OConnell pointed out some examples of when predictive analytics and machine learning come in handy.
Issue: Too many false positives arise because organizations tend to set independent thresholds for the rules and KPIs they believe need to be kept under surveillance. This is a nice starting point but inevitably leads to large inefficiencies, as the number of rules augments and their intra-correlations are not understood.
Solution: Using machine learning for optimally combining existing or new rules into rich fraud indicators, based on tried and tested math, ensure you are way more likely to get relevant alerts in a much smaller sample of investigation efforts. TIBCOs machine learning models have both supervised and an unsupervised component. Supervised machine learning models focus on distinguishing within historic data known past fraud cases from the remainder. Financial crime detection also needs to be able to accommodate surprises through the use of unsupervised models. This type of model focuses on profiling typical past transactions and spotting odd ones. Not necessarily fraudulent, but odd, and therefore worthy of investigation.
Issue: Dangerous transactions will be investigated by humans, who must decide for each transaction whether it is criminal or not. This leads to long investigation times to come to accurate and precise conclusions.
Solution: Investigators decisions can be made maximally efficient with a TIBCO Spotfire investigative template that collects all information about the transactions history from any number of disparate sources. Investigators can complete their analyses on TIBCO Business Process Management (BPM), such that all decisions regarding each alert are auditable at any time. Furthermore, by placing Spotfire on top of BPM, we can identify bottlenecks in the investigation process and suggest how to address them. More importantly, as transactions get investigated and a conclusion is made regarding whether they were actually fraud or not, this information is used to monitor model health over time.
The recent Google vs. Uber self-driving car litigation has brought trade secret theft into the news again. I have blogged on this topic before. In this post and the next three I will take a deeper dive into trade secret theft and how you can reduce the chance you will be the next victim.
Trade secret theft is one of the major cybersecurity risks of our time. Organizations now lose nearly $300 billion per year due to theft or misappropriation of intellectual property. Compare this with the total 2013 US exports to the EU of $241 billion. Organizations being attacked and making news recently, besides Google and Uber, include Best Buy, Sony Pictures, Americas Home Kitchen, Nortel, Goldman Sachs, RSA, Lockheed, AMSC, Coca-Cola, QinetiQ, NSA and many other commercial and government agencies.
Last year's Tata software theft from Epic made news after a $940 million judgement against Tata. Intellectual property theft incidents are often cyber-enabled. It is simply much easier to take a 1TB drive of data, rather than 100,000,000 sheets of paper. It can be even easier to remotely download this data from across town or the world.
To protect your trade secrets, your organization must engage in diligent security practices to prevent improper disclosure of your confidential information and proprietary technology. These security practices must be tailored to the nature of trade secret theft. But that will not be enough. Diligent application of legal controls and procedures must accompany information security controls. Together these can combine to prevent a loss of trade secrets or, worst case, give your organization a better chance of winning a trade secret law suit.
In this post, I will define trade secrets and the risks of trade secret theft. In the next post, I will provide a brief primer of trade secret law, for non-lawyers. Next, I analyze the root cause of recent trade secret thefts. Finally, in Part 4, I will outline some of the legal controls and technology controls your organizations should adopt, if your organization has trade secrets to protect.
So, what is a trade secret? A trade secret is a form of intellectual property (IP), with three characteristics:
It is information that has commercial value
It is not easily ascertainable by others through proper means
It is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain that information in confidence or secrecy
The other forms of IP include patents, copyrights and trademarks. All trade secrets fall into the category of company confidential information. However, not all confidential information represents a trade secret. If company A has a contract with a cloud service provider, that contract may well be confidential, but not rise to the level of a trade secret. Each firm must define what it considers to be a trade secret and then protect that information accordingly. A trade secret must receive a higher level of protection than general confidential information.
Examples of trade secrets include: recipes, software source code, software architecture, engineering piping diagrams, sales playbooks and all manner of engineering drawings. Trade secret recipes include Famous Amos cookies (owned by Kelloggs) and many others. In a recent trade secret issue, Hemlock Semiconductor claimed that a consultant it had hired, visiting its Tennessee polysilicon factory, took improper photos and stole manufacturing related trade secrets. Donald Trump claimed that his Trump University marketing playbooks were trade secrets, but, because a playbook had already been posted on the internet, he did not prevail in this dispute.
Trade secrets fall into a class of assets known as intangible assets. One major goal of information security is to defend these assets. Businesses often are more familiar with physical assets such as plants and machinery. However, looking at corporate investments in aggregate, intangible assets are acquiring astronomical valuations. Software rules and not just in unicorns. According to advisory firm Ocean Tomo, 87 percent of the market value of the S&P 500 is now in the form of intangible assets.
Upcoming: In the next post, I will review what you need to know about trade secret law.
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BRIDGEPORT Although he touched briefly upon education and public safety, Mayor Joe Ganim focused most of his address to the business community on what he estimated were $1 billion in economic development projects under way or planned in 2017.
The mayor even tossed in a few announcements in the Bridgeport Chamber-sponsored speech, including a plan to bring a Dave & Busters restaurant, known for its variety of arcade games, and Gala Fresh Farms grocery to the Seaview Plaza site, one the home of a Carpenter Technology steel plant on the citys East End.
A planned announcement of the selected bidder for a revival of the Poli Palace and Majestic Theater complex on Main Street was held off, however, with the mayor only saying the project would entail a $100 million investment.
The plan would include a resurrection of a hotel at the site of approximately 130,000 square feet with 200 rooms. The Majestic Theater would see new life with a restoration of its 2,200 seats, while the Poli Palace Theater would serve as the new entrance to the hotel and include hotel amenities.
Across the street, a mixed-use high-rise structure would be built. The mayor was to give a tour of the theaters after his speech, which was met with a standing ovation at the beginning and end.
The state of our city is strong, Ganim told the packed room at the Holiday Inn & Conference Center downtown.
Many of the projects Ganim cited, including waterfront work at Steel Point and PSEG Power Connecticuts plan to replace the coal-burning plant with a natural gas power plant, were started under the administration of Ganims predecessor, Mayor Bill Finch.
The mayor also welcomed newly chosen Superintendent of Schools Aresta Johnson to the position in a permanent capacity and noted that the state underfunds the education system. In his new budget, which Ganim said holds the line on taxes, the mayor once again flat-funds the citys school district.
I look to continue my record of no-tax-increase budgets, said the mayor, who managed to hold the line on taxes during his first administration but hiked the tax rate significantly his first year back due to what he said was a $20 million deficit he inherited.
Besides the brief mentions of education, the budget and his efforts to hire new police and fire recruits and chiefs, Ganims speech was a rundown of construction projects going on or planned throughout the city, from demolition of buildings in what is known as the Civic Block on the East End to a planned Wakeman Boys and Girls Club in the North End and progress on downtown developments.
All of us want to see physical change for the betterment of our city, Ganim said.
This years Barnum Festival Ringmaster Terry OConnor, executive director of the Cardinal Shehan Center and McGivney Community Center, said Ganims optimism was contagious. The fact that youre seeing construction and demolition of old eyesores on all sides of the city gives a good feeling that theres progress, he said.
In every section of the city theres something exciting going on, added Sandi Hennequin, vice president of U.S. Public Affairs for Emera Energy, which operates the Bridgeport Energy plant.
Phil Kuchma, whose downtown holdings include the buildings that house the Downtown Cabaret Theatre and Bijou Theatre, said he thought any plans for the old theaters several blocks away would only help his tenants.
In my mind, its a catering hall and were more the size of a luncheonette, Kuchma said.
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Its a scenario befitting HGTVs, Love It or List It or in Dave Walkers case, run for governor.
Unable to sell his Bridgeport home, for which he had been asking $1.7 million, the former U.S. comptroller general under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on Monday registered an exploratory committee for the states highest office.
Walker, 65, a 2014 candidate for lieutenant governor, acknowledged that he had been prepared to leave Connecticut.
Now the accounting guru, who is a senior strategic adviser in the public-sector practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, joins a logjam of fellow Republicans with their sights set on the governors office in 2018.
My view is its either fight or flee, and Ive decided to fight, Walker told Hearst Connecticut Media.
A policy wonk whose Twitter handle is @DeficitRanger, Walker has been a vociferous critic of the fiscal management of the state and his adopted city of Bridgeport.
The Alabama native appeared to reach the tipping point, putting his waterfront property in Black Rock on the market a month before incumbent Democrat Dannel P. Malloy was re-elected as governor in 2014. The home was previously owned by former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, who sold it to Walker for $1.5 million in 2009.
Walker blamed the sluggish market for his home on a combination of factors, from General Electrics departure from neighboring Fairfield to the policies of Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who won back his old office in 2015 after his imprisonment for corruption. Since he bought the home, Walker said, his property has lost 30 percent of its value, while taxes have increased 70 percent. He is challenging his tax bill.
I actually had two people who were interested in the house who were no longer interested when (Ganim) got elected, Walker said. I tried to sell my place for a while, but, quite frankly, the state is so grossly mismanaged and the city is so grossly mismanaged, I couldnt sell it.
Ganim spokesman Av Harris acknowledged that taxes have increased in Black Rock section, but scoffed at Walkers claim that the mayor was the cause of Walkers real estate woes. He said Ganim has closed a $20 million budget deficit and cut the citys costs through workforce reductions and furloughs. Ganim has invited Walker to go over the citys finances and make suggestions, Harris said.
I think for him to blame the lack of movement on his particular property on mismanagement at the state or city level is a little bit far-fetched, Harris said. What did he price his house at? Who were targeted buyers?
Walker said his financial acumen and public sector experience under Republicans and Democrats sets him apart from other candidates raising money to run for governor. The comptroller general is the head of the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan auditing and investigatory arm of Congress. Walker said he will try to qualify for public campaign financing, which will require him to raise $250,000 in $100 increments by next year.
In 2014, Walker finished third in the GOP primary for lieutenant behind former Groton Mayor Heather Somers and then-state Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, a race in which fewer than 2,000 votes separated first from last. He was the running mate of former state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield.
During that race, Walker caused a fuss when he Tweeted criticism of Malloy about Interstate 95 gridlock while stuck in traffic, which Democrats said violated the states distracted driving laws. Malloy is undecided next years race.
Rest assured, I have Bluetooth so Im hands free, Walker said Monday driving back to Bridgeport from Hartford.
nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
CHI Memorial Foundation and the Hunter Museum of American Art are co-presenting the 17th annual Cam Busch Endowed Arts for Health Lecture Series. This years event will be Thursday, May 18, 5 p.m. at the Hunter Museum of American Art. Dr. Ysaye Barnwell will return as this years guest performer/speaker. Her first appearance in 2010 was one of the lecture series most popular performances, said officials.
More about Dr. Barnwell:
Dr. Barnwell is an accomplished musician, actress and author. She is a retired member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, an internationally acclaimed, award-winning female African-American a cappella group. She is a master teacher and choral clinician in African American cultural performance and has been a commissioned composer on numerous choral, film, video, dance and theatrical productions. She has appeared in and provided voice-over narration for film, video and radio productions. Dr. Barnwell is also the author of several childrens books including one on traditional African American stories, poems and songs.
In addition to the undergraduate and graduate degrees she earned in speech pathology and public health, Dr. Barnwell has been awarded multiple Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degrees. She received a humanitarian award from the Washington Choral Arts Society and Washington Performing Arts Society, and has received two awards for her childrens books.
The Cam Busch Endowed Arts for Health Lecture Series is part of CHI Memorials Arts Medicine Program which uses performing and visual arts to enhance healing. This lecture series is designed to educate our community about the benefits of using different forms of art in healthcare, explains Cam Busch, local artist, nationally recognized art therapist and registered nurse. The arts enhance healing and provide a vehicle for the expression of feelings and emotions.
CHI Memorials Arts Medicine Program is a component in the regions arts community. The following organizations join as Arts Partners to bring Dr. Barnwells message at Chattanooga: ArtsBuild, AVA (Association for Visual Arts), Barking Legs Theater, Bessie Smith Cultural Center, Chattanooga Ballet, Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Hart Gallery, Sculpture Fields, Southern Lit Alliance and WTCI.
Individual tickets are $50 and include heavy hors doeuvres, a host bar, a performance by Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, and admission to the Hunter Museum of American Art. For more information and to purchase tickets, call the CHI Memorial Foundation office at 495-4141 or visit www.memorial.org/art-lecture.
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STAMFORD The former head lifeguard of Burying Hill Beach in Westport accused of secretly filming his female colleagues has avoided jail by pleading guilty to five counts of voyeurism.
Michael Collins, 30, received a 10-year suspended jail sentence and five years of probation by Judge Richard Comerford in state Superior Court in Stamford.
Westport police charged Collins in January 2016 after investigators determined he used cameras hidden in clocks to spy on female lifeguards.
He was initially charged with 431 counts of voyeurism, 431 counts of eavesdropping and a single count of third-degree possession of child pornography. States Attorney Richard Colangelo told Comerford he was unable to prove the child pornography charge.
Burying Hill is a small section of beach between the popular Sherwood Island State Park and Greens Farms. Overlooking the beach is a two-room clapboard building the lifeguard shack where police said Collins set up his cameras.
More News Cops say lifeguard placed hidden cameras at town beach
Defense attorney Andrew Bowman read to the judge during Fridays hearing a psychiatrists evaluation of his client. Bowman said Collins had no history of sexual deviance or a propensity for violence or psychopathy, indicating his client does not suffer from being a sociopath.
Collins is required to continue receiving treatment and is prohibited from contacting lifeguards he worked with at Burying Hill during his five years of probation. One victim has obtained a criminal restraining order, preventing Collins from contacting her for 30 years.
As prosecutors, we are charged with seeking justice. In this case, a very complex case, the defendant was laboring with psychiatric issues his whole life, Colangelo said. Based on those issues and in consultation with Judge Comerford and attorney Bowman, we determined this was the best course of action for everyone involved. This provides protection for the victims and allows the defendant to continue the treatment he needs to be a productive member of society.
In August 2015, two female lifeguards alerted Westport Water Front Director Kaitlin Mello to two unusual clocks placed in seemingly random locations in the lifeguard shack.
Police said each of the clocks had a small lens hole on the top left corner and there were media cards in the back.
Each media card contained more than 250 videos titled with the name of each female lifeguard and the activity she was captured doing at the time, police said.
There was a video of one female lifeguard doing lunges in her two-piece bathing suit, drying off with a towel, and others of female and male lifeguards removing their clothing and lying on a couch in their bathing suits watching television in the shack.
Collins was also captured on his own videos repositioning the clocks so the camera would get a better view of a female lifeguard, investigators said.
jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com;
The Signal Mountain Genealogical Society will hold its May meeting at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2, at the Walden Town Hall, 1836 Taft Highway.
The meeting begins at 1 p.m. with refreshments followed by the business meeting and program at 1:30 p.m.
The speaker for the day is Tom Matthews, a long-time resident of Signal Mountain and society member. The title of Toms presentation is When The Mississippi River Flowed Backward...N. Roosevelt.
As always guests are welcome. For more information go to www.smgsonline.org.
O anlar kameraya iste boyle yansd
The Tennessee Supreme Court has held that based on the testimony regarding Charles Kilburns death, his death is not compensable as a direct and natural consequence of his original compensable injury from a motor vehicle accident.
Mr. Kilburn was a trim carpenter when he sustained injuries to his neck and lower back in a motor vehicle accident during the course of his employment. He received neck surgery and was prescribed pain medication for his lower back pain. Mr. Kilburns death a little over a year later was due to acute oxycodone toxicity with contributing causes of hypertension, tobacco use, and alcohol use.
Following Mr. Kilburns death, his surviving spouse sought workers compensation death benefits asserting that his death was a direct and natural consequence of his original injuries. The trial court concluded that the death was compensable. The employers appeal was initially referred to a Special Workers Compensation Appeals Panel, but the Tennessee Supreme Court later transferred the case to the full court for review.
In an analysis that was limited to the testimony presented in this case, the Court concluded that Mr. Kilburns overconsumption of his medication and use of alcohol while taking his medication in contravention of his physicians instructions was an independent intervening cause, which rendered his death non-compensable.
The Court explained that normally all the medical consequences that flow from an original compensable injury are compensable but that a subsequent injury is not compensable if it is the result of an independent intervening cause, such as the employees own conduct. The Court noted that an independent intervening cause can be reckless or intentional misconduct or negligence. The independent intervening cause in this case was due to the employees own conduct in refusing to take his medication in accordance with his physicians instructions.
To read the Courts unanimous opinion in Judy Kilburn v. Granite State Insurance Company, et al., authored by Justice Roger A. Page, go to the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.
What to do in Pennsylvania if you made an error on your mail-in ballot
The state Supreme Court recently ruled that undated or incorrectly dated mail ballots cannot be counted. Here's what voters can do about an error.
Decosimo Corporate Finance, LLC, a sell-side advisory firm specializing in middle market transactions led by Tom Decosimo, and Winston Brown, a member of the Brown family that has been providing insurance related services for four generations, announced the formation of a joint venture that will focus their collaborative efforts on transition, estate, retirement planning and executive benefit strategies.
Mr. Decosimo and the late Allen C. Brown, with son Winston Brown, saw the value of a consolidated seasoned team of financial professionals to leverage their expertise and relationships. Together, they will offer business owners a better understanding of their companys value, help them plan for succession and design and implement strategies to attract, reward and retain talent and prepare owners and executives for retirement, said officials. Mr. Brown will lead the joint venture.
"As a team, we identified an opportunity in the market for an integrated financial service of this caliber that can fit the specific needs of many of our current and prospective clients," said Mr. Brown. "Through this partnership we are able to work side-by-side to fulfill that void and help our clients reach their targeted objectives."
The Brown family has been providing Chattanooga regional business with financial products beginning with Mr. Browns great-grandfather Ed Brown, Sr., his grandfather Ed Brown, Jr., his late father Allen Brown, and his uncle Huxley Brown, who is president of Brown Associates, Inc. DCF, with origins dating back to Joe Decosimos entry in the Chattanooga accounting/advisory profession in 1952, has been involved in over $15 billion in transactions and provides its clients with assistance in business valuation, estate planning and sell and buy-side advisory. Tom Decosimo, in his role as a valuation consultant, has given valuation testimony in the United States Tax Court and has helped lead some of the regions largest transactions.
Leveraging our combined strengths forms an effective partnership for the business community and the region, said Mr. Decosimo. We view helping clients understand the value of their business is the foundation to essential corporate planning. Winstons knowledge and access to financial solutions is critical to efficiently executing these plans."
Joining the Decosimo/Brown Strategies, LLC team is Chris Hall, a Certified Financial Planner with a background in investment strategies and investment banking. Mr. Hall received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Duke University and MBA in Finance from George Washington University.
DCFs Cincinnati office is led by Paul Cheney and Charlie Gerber leads the Nashville office. In addition to these offices, DCF has a growing affiliate network that includes firms in Dallas, Houston, Denver, Detroit and New York.
For more information about Decosimo/Brown Strategies, LLC, Mr. Brown may be contacted at 267-3776.
Why Being Local Matters When Choosing A Bank
Local knowledge goes a long way when it comes to banking decisions. Thats why being local matters when choosing a...
Proverbs chapter 14 is similar to most of the rest of Proverbs. It consists of short, pithy statements that stand alone. Chapter 14 continues the long contrast between wisdom and folly. In verse 22, God asks a rhetorical question that contains the obvious and expected answer within the question itself. It goes like this, Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness. (NIV) Few of the proverbs are presented in the form of a question; most which are presented as a question, are like this one, done so for emphasis.
God does not want us to miss the point. He is in effect saying, Make no mistake about it, this is no gamble, it is a sure thing.
The two verbs plot and plan in verse 22 are exactly the same word in the original Hebrew. We know many people who seem to simply wind up doing evil, without a plan to do it. They are simply weak or ignorant or foolish. Others we know seem to spend much time and energy plotting evil. Verse 22 indicates that those who plot evil will certainly go astray. The idea of going astray brings Isaiah 53 to mind: we have all like sheep gone astray, turning to our own way. Jesus tells us in John 14 that He is The Way and that it is impossible to get to heaven without coming through Him. Plotting evil will cause you to go astray and miss The Way. My advice is to heed the warning.
I come into regular contact with people who are plotting evil; if personal experience is not enough evidence, all I have to do is take a quick glance at the newspaper and I have more than enough examples. Please do not imagine that this is limited to the heinous crimes that we see in others. It is most certainly also our plotting to: cheat our employer out of a full days work; hide assets of loved ones so that the government will pay their bills; draw unemployment checks when we could work; apply for disability when we could do some kind of work; gossip (which is often designed to hurt someone); making others appear in an unfavorable light to make ourselves look better; etc. and etc. Maybe I did not list your problem, but thats not necessary; you can add that one to the list yourself. It would be a great benefit to our own selves if we would take a long, close look at our plots and plans. The consequences are significant whether we do or dont.
The second half of verse 22 presents an emphatic contrast. Those who plot and plan what is good will surely find love and faithfulness. An alternate and legitimate translation could say that those who plot and plan what is good will display love and faithfulness. Mercy, kindness, and truth have also been used to describe the result of planning what is good. Just as we know people who seem to commit evil without trying, we also know those who seem to do good without really planning it, if it sneaks up on them, if the opportunity just appears before them. Have you ever stopped to consider what would happen in the world around you if you actually spent time planning and plotting good? I can barely imagine how the world would change if a majority of people tried that. We would both give and receive love, faithfulness, mercy, truth, and kindness. What a blessed and glorious thought!
Just two days ago the Mail expressed profound disquiet over Donald Trumps decision to pulverise the al-Shayrat military airfield with cruise missiles in retaliation for a nerve gas attack on civilians, said to have been launched by the Assad regime.
Even we couldnt have predicted how rapidly our fears would be realised.
Yesterday, the Russian embassy in London raised the chilling prospect of a real war, as Mr Trump threatened surprise attacks on Syrian government targets. The US ambassador to the UN said deposing Bashar al-Assad is now a priority.
Russia and Iran Assads staunchest allies accused America of crossing a red line and pledged to respond with force. Meanwhile, British ministers wildly overplayed their hand by threatening retribution against Vladimir Putin.
Just two days ago the Mail expressed profound disquiet over Donald Trumps decision to pulverise the al-Shayrat military airfield with cruise missiles
Throughout the weekend, bellicose rhetoric has been rising from both camps like steam in a pressure cooker and the world can only hold its breath in the hope that calmer counsel will prevail. The signs are depressingly bad.
With the US talking about regime change, we are gripped by a deeply disconcerting sense of deja-vu.
In the seething cauldron of the Middle East, recent Western military interventions have ended in calamity. Anyone who doubts that need only ask the beleaguered citizens of Iraq and Libya.
To their shame, ministers here have fuelled the atmosphere of poisonous belligerence. Defence Secretary Michael Fallons tirade against Mr Putin over alleged war crimes was as ludicrous as it was irresponsible.
We are not yet even certain that it was Assad who launched the attack or that he did use deadly sarin gas, let alone whether Russia was involved. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also chipped in, demanding a timetable for Assads departure.
Boris Johnson will today lead calls for Russia to face complete international ostracisation unless Vladimir Putin removes his support for the Syrian regime
Inexperienced as they are, these men hold two of Britains great offices of state and should realise that the soul of diplomacy is patient dialogue, not empty bombast. The idea that Britain can dictate to the Kremlin must have them positively hooting with derision in Red Square.
So could Britain be dragged once again into the hornets nest? After a similar gas attack in 2013, Parliament took the sensible decision not to allow David Cameron to launch air strikes against Assad. Their reasons for rejecting military action then are just as relevant today.
Let us be clear. The Mail has no hesitation in branding Assad a ruthless tyrant, or stating that his main supporters, Iran and Russia, have their own strategic interests at heart. But his enemies Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group are surely worse. Deposing Assad could see them unleash even greater terrors on an already tormented region.
In an ominous threat raising the prospect of war, Russia and Iran said the US President had crossed a red line with his bombardment on the forces of Bashar al-Assad (shown)
Mr Trump has proved himself to be an impulsive and emotional man dangerous qualities in the leader of the worlds most powerful nation. His friends and allies in Britain should be counselling caution and restraint, not spurring him on to further aggression.
The Foreign Office was once the apogee of cool diplomacy and the exercise of soft power. Now those skills have been abandoned in favour of tawdry sabre-rattling. The ominous question on everyones lips is, where will it lead us?
With his fat EU pension, it should come as no surprise that the treacherous Lord Mandelson is advising Europe to forget Britain and take care of your own interests.
The fact that a man of his questionable morals (he was twice sacked as a British government minister for dishonesty) could rise so high up the greasy EU pole says everything you need to know about that institution and why this country is right to leave it.
Getting the whole family to engage in a healthier lifestyle is easier than you might think yes, even the kids!
Getting the whole family to engage in a healthier lifestyle is easier than you might think
From cooking classes, to colourful and delicious family dinners, and even sober 'raves' to get the blood pumping, our experts reveal the top health hacks to get the whole family excited about healthy eating. It'll leave you feeling fantastic too!
HIDDEN NUTRIENTS
We all know that trying to get the kids to eat their broccoli and Brussels sprouts is no mean feat. Luckily, there are a few surefire tricks to disguise vegetables within favourite dishes, delivering all the nutritional goodness with none of the fuss.
'Getting children to eat vegetables can be tricky,' says Emma Clarke, MA Nutrition and nutritionist at NutraCheck.co.uk. 'Keeping things interesting and trying new things is important.'
Pack vegetables into family favourites like spaghetti Bolognese is a great way to get your kids eating more fresh produce (without them even realising!)
Try packing your Bolognese with a wide range of colourful vegetables like courgettes, peppers, carrots and aubergine, mixing some cauliflower into mac'n'cheese, or adding butternut squash into mashed potatoes, for a delicious vitamin-packed medley.
'Aim for as many colours as possible,' advises Clarke. 'The colours indicate a different vitamin, mineral or antioxidant so getting a broad range is key.'
As well as serving up a pretty plate, it'll also mean health for the whole family.
'Vegetables contain a wide range of vitamins and minerals, which allow our biological functions to work properly, from detoxification to brain health,' explains expert nutritionist and founder of Health In Hand Stephanie Moore.
TASTY TREATS
Fruittella 30% less sugar means you can still enjoy a treat while keeping an eye on your health
A healthy attitude towards your food will also include a positive attitude towards an occasional treat, allowing you to savour and enjoy them.
And now, thanks to Fruittella, it's even possible to enjoy the unmistakable fruity flavour - but with 30% less sugar compared to standard Fruittella, they are the perfect little lift.
Great for parties, sharing sessions, or just those little moments of sweetness, Fruittella's 30% less sugar are a genius way for the whole family to enjoy sweets, while keeping their sights set on healthier choices.
MOVE MORE
With new exercise classes and fitness trends popping up every day, it's never been so easy or so fun to get fit.
Whether it is swimming, trampolining, or trying a new sport together, becoming more active doesn't need to be boring
Why not opt for a family trampoline class, a few laps around the local pool or even booking a 'sober rave' (the new fitness craze which involves getting your groove on to your favourite beats minus the hangover!)
FAMILY COOKING
According to the experts, getting the kids to pitch in with the cooking is a must for future health plus, it's fun for the whole family.
'The more children understand about their food and are involved in its preparation, the better,' says Clarke.
Involving the children in food preparation can help them make positive food choices for the rest of their lives
In fact, research has shown that cooking programmes and classes for children have a positive effect on food preferences for life.
Moore agrees; 'If children understand the benefits of different foods and how they affect our bodies they are going to feel so much more inclined to eat these real, wholesome foods. Plus, the sense of pride when a child has helped create a dish means they are much more likely to eat foods that might otherwise not appeal.'
GET SOME SHUT-EYE
Aim for eight hours and be sure to switch off properly for at least an hour before bed that means no screens!
As if you needed more reasons to hit the hay, sleep has not only been proved to increase energy levels, improve memory and reduce inflammation, but it's also been shown to boost the immune system too, meaning you'll soon feel healthier as well as more rested.
Aim for eight hours and be sure to switch off properly for at least an hour before bed that means no screens! For children, and especially teenagers, this can be hard to enforce, but making sure they put down the phones and ipads before getting into bed will ensure they get better quality shut eye.
If you find it hard to relax why not try adding calming essential oils like lavender and rose to a hot bath? Wind down in the hour leading up to bed time with a cosy cup of chamomile tea.
BATCH COOKING
Feeding the family shouldn't leave you feeling overwhelmed, which is where the beauty of batch cooking comes into play. Set aside a few hours on a Sunday to make large amount of delicious dishes that can then be refrigerated or frozen to provide food for the whole week ahead.
Clarke suggests dishes that can easily split into portions like Bolognese sauce with turkey mince, chilli con carne or chicken curry
'Batch cooking is a really effective way of saving time for busy mums an having a meal already prepared in the freezer is the perfect way to ensure kids get a health meal whenever possible,' says Clarke.
Clarke suggests dishes that can easily split into portions; 'think Bolognese sauce with turkey mince and loads of vegetables, chilli con carne with extra pulses and chicken curry.' Delicious.
There are many healthier - and yummier - alternatives for packed lunches
NO FUSS LUNCH BOXES
When packing your kid's lunch box, it can be tempting to reach for the sliced bread and packet of crisps. But according to Moore, there are much healthier - and yummier - alternatives. 'Try some carrot and pepper sticks with hummus or guacamole, a few chunks of cheese or cold meats with some crackers, and some coconut flakes coconut is a great brain food!'
Other options include wholemeal pasta with vegetable-rich tomato sauce or couscous with Mediterranean vegetable medley.
In an effort to avoid the simply relying on sandwiches, Clarke recommends working together with your child to understand what they like and dislike. 'A good lunch box is one that is going to get eaten,' she explains.
TABLE TIME
What could be better than catching up with the family over a delicious dinner? Not only will you be able to spend some quality time with your loved ones, sitting down at the dinner table provides a number of health benefits, too.
As well as being a great way to catch up on each others' news, eating round the table can help you all be more aware of what and how much you are eating, as well as eating slower
'Eating around the table is very important for health,' explains Moore. 'If your kids eat in front of the TV, their posture is usually awful leading to poor digestion.'
'More importantly, when children are transfixed by what's on the telly, they are more likely to mindlessly shovel food in and not chew well, which means they will not breakdown and absorb the nutrients in the food properly. They are also more likely to get hungry again quickly as the brain doesn't acknowledge the eating process while distracted.'
So make sure the whole family appreciates what they're eating and takes time to enjoy food, simply by eating together at the table!
DRINK MORE WATER
We all know that dehydration can cause headaches, brain fog and tiredness so it's important to make sure you're drinking enough in order to feel your best.
Drinking enough water is essential for your overall health - and there are lots of ways to make it more interesting and ensure your family stay hydrated
'Dehydration can cause nutrients and oxygen to be delivered more slowly and can inhibit our lymphatic system our waste disposal system so toxins are not eliminated so readily' says Moore.
If you find it hard to get enthusiastic about water, try infusing it with flavoursome fruits like strawberries or lemon, or sip some herbal teas or coconut water throughout the day to keep you well hydrated.
A Queensland couple have married inside a hospital after the bride's mother collapsed on the way to the ceremony.
Lauren Beardmore, 23, and Sean Dillon, 23, were to be wed at Moreton Bay Boat Club, north of Brisbane, when mother Pamela Lindsay had a seizure after walking out of a hotel lobby.
The 57-year-old was taken to Redcliffe Hospital, where workers prioritised Ms Lindsay's tests before rushing the couple to the hospital's chapel.
A Queensland couple have been wed inside a hospital after the bride's mother collapsed on the way to the ceremony
Lauren Beardmore, 23, and mother Pamela Lindsay, 57, were on the way to the wedding ceremony when Ms Lindsay had a seizure after walking out a hotel lobby
Ms Lindsay was taken to Redcliffe Hospital, where workers prioritised her tests before opening up the hospital's chapel doors for Ms Beardmore to wed Sean Dillon
Newlywed Ms Beardmore described the day her mother collapsed before eventually accompanying her down the aisle as 'emotionally charged'.
'It was traumatic when she had the seizure. I thought the wedding wasn't going to go ahead at all,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
'It was amazing having my mother alongside me down the aisle, I didn't want to get married without her there.'
Ms Lindsay escorted her with the help of nurses, who pushed her in a wheelchair.
She said on Facebook nothing was going to stop the young couple from being married.
'Come rain, hail or shine; or a trip to the emergency department- we were getting married,' Ms Beardmore said.
'It may not have turned out exactly how we had planned; but nothing ever does.'
Husband Mr Dillon was waiting at the boat club when he found out his wife-to-be's mother was taken to hospital.
Ms Beardmore said on Facebook nothing was going to stop the young couple from being married
Ms Beardmore told Daily Mail Australia that onlookers thought she was making an April Fool's joke when she began screaming for help with her sister (centre), after their mother collapsed
Mr Dillon had to inform the 32 guests in attendance, who were under the impression they were at a birthday party.
The couple had planned on surprising their guests with the wedding, but were forced to let them in on the secret when plans changed.
Ms Beardmore told Daily Mail Australia that onlookers thought she was making an April Fool's joke when she began screaming for help with her sister, after their mother collapsed.
'First people started laughing but they pretty quickly realised we weren't joking so a group of about ten people helped us,' she said.
Redcliffe Hospital doctor Jacqui Fradley said she became 'invested' in the couple's wedding and stayed after her shift for the ceremony, according to The Courier Mail.
Hospital staff told Ms Beardmore that it was the first wedding to take place inside the hospital chapel.
The couple had planned on surprising their guests with the wedding, but were forced to let them in on the secret when plans changed
Ms Beardmore thanked her guests who came to the hospital and waited two hours while Ms Lindsay was treated.
Ms Lindsay told The Courier Mail that it 'meant the world' to her to walk her daughter down the aisle.
'I had been looking forward to [walking Lauren down the aisle] for a long time,' she said.
Tests are ongoing for Ms Lindsay, however Ms Beardmore said the outlook is 'positive'.
She said doctors believed her seizure was caused by high stress levels and a lack of sleep.
Amy Johnson, 20, has a form of severe scoliosis that causes her to wake up everyday in pain.
The Sydney-based performing arts student has suffered from the debilitating curve in her spine since year seven.
Miss Johnson was attending Newtown Performing Arts school when her back began to feel sore. Her mum put it down to her busy dancing and swimming schedule but when the pain persisted they consulted a doctor.
'It was then I found out I had a curve of 27 degrees. My whole back looked like an "s" shape. I had to wear a brace in year eight and nine, kind of like a corset, to try and straighten my spine.
Amy Johnson, 20, has severe scoliosis that was partially fixed by inserting a metal rod and screws into her back
The dancer shows what her back was like before (pictures on the left) and what it looked like post-surgery (pictured on the right)
'You can't eat with the brace on because it presses on your stomach, and I couldn't dance with it on either, so I wasn't able to wear it as much as I wanted to,' the now 20-year-old told Daily Mail Australia.
Miss Johnson went back to her specialist at the Sydney Children's Hospital looking for another answer. Her doctor recommended an operation that would see two metal rods inserted on either side of her spine.
'It would essentially cement my back in place. There were no promises I'd be able to walk again let alone dance. I've been dancing since I was two and the thought of stopping was devastating,' she said.
At the tender age of sixteen Miss Johnson made the decision to have full back surgery. Her spine was at an 84 and 79 degree curve by this point.
The 20-year-old's mother thought the initial back pain might have been due to swimming and dancing lessons
'Doctors said it was one of the worst cases they'd ever seen. I remember crying a lot when I heard that,' she said.
On April 4, 2013, the dancer went in for surgery. She was to stay in hospital for a full week recovering post-operation.
'I was shaking and crying on the hospital bed before I went in. I woke up with a lot of tubes in my mouth and arm. After four days of lying in bed I was told I had to try walking again.
'Because my back is like cement I had to log-roll off the bed just to get up. I remember thinking I couldn't do this and I'd never walk again,' she said.
To her doctor's amazement Miss Johnson had fully recovered and was dancing again after two months. It was one of the fastest recoveries they'd recorded.
The performing arts university student (pictured bottom right) was fearful she may not have been able to dance again post-operation
'The only thing I can't do is roll down through my back. So if I want to touch my toes I need to do it with a flat back.'
Back at school, and with a pain-free back, Miss Johnson set about realising her dreams and preparing for university.
But in September 2015 a taxi driver crashed into her car. The jolt of the crash threw her body forward, something the rods and clamps around her spine would ordinarily not be able to do.
'I started to feel pain in my lower back two weeks later. I knew it had to be from the crash. We tried physio and a cortisone injection but neither worked.
Miss Johnson (pictured here at her year 12 formal) said a car crash in 2015 will now require her to undergo a second operation
Miss Johnson's spine pictured before her first operation at 16 (left) and after the rods and clamps were inserted (right)
'That's when doctors said I had an inflamed facet joint. A couple of the screws in my back had come loose around the area,' she said.
Miss Johnson must now undergo a second half-back surgery to cut out the metal rod and replace the screws. While it isn't as 'serious' as the first operation, it will still leave her bedridden, something the dance and education student isn't looking forward to.
'At the moment day to day things like making breakfast causes me great pain. Sitting down for long periods of time is painful so I try to stand up as much as possible.
Miss Johnson will have the support of her loved ones (pictured with her boyfriend) as she persists with the second operation
'I can't be slotted into surgery until January 2018 so it's a frustrating kind of pain that isn't going away anytime soon,' she said.
The dancer will have the support of her boyfriend and family to get through this second surgery.
'I'm just looking forward to dancing pain-free again!' Miss Johnson said.
The mother of an eight-year-old girl who suffers up to 100 seizures a day has opened up about the heartbreaking struggle she faces - between breaking the law or watching her child die.
Yvonne Cooper has called on the federal government in a last-ditch attempt for her daughter Sienna to have access to medicinal cannabis to treat her condition.
And the risk of death from one of these seizures are so great, the family, from Lake Heights, south of Wollongong NSW, are preparing for the worst.
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Little Sienna, eight, (pictured) suffers up to 100 life-threatening epileptic seizures a day
Mother Yvonne Cooper (right) has called on the federal government in a last-ditch attempt for her daughter to have access to medicinal cannabis to treat her condition
'It used to be 'take a day at a time' [but] now we just live by the hour,' Ms Cooper told the Channel 7's Today Night Adelaide.
The family said they are living with constant fear that one of these life-threatening epileptic seizures will claim the life of their daughter, who was diagnosed with a severe intellectual disability.
'To answer the question of how long we've got? We just don't know. It's so unpredictable, all it takes is one seizure to take her life,' Ms Cooper said.
The mother said she has no choice but to start a petition - which has attracted more than 85,000 signatures - in a bid to push for change - and hopefully one step closer to the life-saving treatment.
'If five years ago, if someone had suggested to me to give cannabis to my child, I would probably look at them as if they had two heads,' Ms Cooper said.
'If it [petition] doesn't work, then I guess at least we can say we didn't stop trying.'
The mother said she's desperate to save her daughter's life and medical cannabis is the only option left
The family said they are living with constant fear that one of these life-threatening epileptic seizures will claim the life of their eight-year-old daughter
Despite the federal government legalising the drug in 2016, access to medical marijuana has remained difficult for Sienna and other sufferers.
Many sufferers of chronic illness have been forced to illegally seek cannabis as a last resort - but Ms Cooper said she couldn't bring herself to risk it.
'If I administer it to save her life, not only am I potentially going to jail, she's not going to have access to that anyway,' she said.
'Sienna loses her mother and she's back to square one without mum by her side.'
Far from getting better, little Sienna's condition has deteriorated, as her parents watch her cognitive ability decline, going from an IQ of 90-100 to as little as 41
The risk of death from one of these seizures are so great, the family, from Lake Heights, south of Wollongong NSW, are preparing for the worse (Sienna pictured with her father)
Far from getting better, little Sienna's condition has deteriorated, as her parents watch her cognitive ability decline, going from an IQ of 90-100 to as little as 41.
'Now every seizure is a step closer to death,' Ms Cooper said in the petition.
'Doctors say they've tried everything - the only option left is medicinal cannabis or her the seizures will continue to cause irreparable damage to her brain and organs.
'I don't want to break the law, but I don't want to bury my eight-year-old child... Right now we are being forced to sit back and watch our baby girl dying in front of us.
'We need immediate amnesty to give our little girl a quality of life and a long lasting life. She has dreams too, please help her live to follow them.'
A mother-of-four is speaking out about her positive experiences with C-sections after Rebecca Judd called her own caesarean delivery 'horrific'.
Author Rebecca Sparrow took to Facebook to show her support for the procedure, revealing she underwent caesarean deliveries with all four of her children.
'I didn't find any of my caesars horrific,' Sparrow wrote. 'I didn't find them excruciating.'
'It's stomach surgery so it's not a walk in the park but then neither is vaginal childbirth (I assume!)'
Author Rebecca Sparrow (left) took to Facebook to share her own positive experiences with caesarean deliveries after Rebecca Judd called her C-section a 'horrific' ordeal
'I recovered very quickly each time. I was up walking around within 12 hours.'
Ms Sparrow revealed that only one of her C-sections was elective, a stillborn daughter that she couldn't bear to deliver naturally.
The writer had to deliver her first child by an emergency caesarean, and both her third and fourth pregnancies were deemed high-risk.
'Everyone's experience is different,' Ms Sparrow wrote. 'Some people have great experiences in labour or with C-sections and some don't.'
Ms Sparrow revealed that she found Rebecca's opinion to be 'valid', but wanted to speak out to ease the fears of other pregnant women.
Sparrow revealed she recovered 'very quickly' from her C-sections and was 'up walking around within 12 hours'
'I just wanted to make that point because today a pregnant woman is being told that she needs to have her baby by emergency caesarean and the word "horrific" could be ringing in her ears making her even more freaked out!' Ms Sparrow wrote.
'I found four caesars. And - hand on my heart - I didn't find C-sections traumatising at all.'
Ms Sparrow later edited her post to note that she viewed 'birth stories' through the lens of her own stillbirth, but recognised other women's experiences with C-sections were still valid.
'To me the only truly horrific experience is one where your baby has died,' she wrote.
'But that's not true. Many women have horrific tales and are allowed to share that experience! Lessons learned!'
'But still - to the woman who has been told today that she will require a C-section: I hope your experience, like mine, is a positive one.'
Ms Sparrow's Facebook post has since received hundreds of comments and likes, with a number of mothers sharing their own positive experiences with caesareans.
'Out of the 42 operations I have had, the three caesareans have not caused much alarm,' wrote Clare Sultmann Stewart.
'To all women about to have one - my experience was painful yes, but horrific, no.'
'A C-section is not a walk in the park nor is it a horrific experience,' added midwife Liz Gallager, who has had four caesareans of her own.
Rebecca Judd, who delivered her twins six weeks early in September, said she found caesarean delivery to be 'horrific compared to having a natural delivery'
Rebecca (pictured with her twins Tom and Darcy) was in a state of panic during the delivery
'It's an alternative option for birth. Elective or emergency - aren't we lucky to have choices and options. What we want is a healthy mum and baby.'
Rebecca Judd, 34, was speaking on her KIIS FM radio show 3PM Pick-Up when she described her experience delivering her twin boys by C-section.
'It's horrific compared to having a natural delivery,' she said. 'It kills, it absolutely kills.'
Rebecca has four children were her husband, former ARL star and captain Chris Judd
'The fact that you are awake in major abdominal surgery is mind boggling and freaky.'
The model said the emergency procedure in September also left her in a state of panic.
Describing the caesarean as 'wild', Rebecca said she experienced excruciating pain compared to the relatively pain-free delivery of her first child, Oscar.
'I remember I was lying there on the operating table and I started pretty much having a panic attack, my heart was going nutso - I felt like it was jumping out of my chest,' she said.
'And I think "Am I going to die? What's going on?", which actually was completely normal.'
The Perth native also had some advice for mums in waiting, urging them not to have a C-section if the baby is in a natural position for birth.
Julia Heffernan, 34, will never forget the gasping noises made by her youngest daughter Trixie as the seven-month-old struggled to breathe.
Just moments before, in August 2016, the mum-of-two had given Trixie an Organix banana baby biscuit.
Turning away for only a second she heard her little girl choking from the high chair.
Ms Heffernan, who is a registered nurse in Canberra, was only able to pry the sharp piece of biscuit from Trixie's throat after 'five or six harsh thumps between her shoulder blades.'
Julia Heffernan, 34, with her daughter Trixie who is lucky to be alive after choking on a baby biscuit last year
Trixie (pictured at Woolworths left and sitting up at home right) started to vomit as soon as Ms Heffernan managed to pry the biscuit free
'This was the first time I'd bought the biscuits. When you think of the word 'Organic' a mother thinks she's giving her child something natural,' she said.
'Instead of staying hard like a Rusk does they instantly crumble into big, sharp pieces of biscuit,' she went on.
Even though the product was marketed for seven-month-old's, Ms Heffernan has since heard from multiple mums, with children of different ages, saying that a similar experience happened to them.
'When I finally got the piece of biscuit out of her mouth, which was covered in blood and mucous, she started to vomit everywhere. It was just horrible,' she said.
The Organix baby biscuits (pictured here is Ms Heffernan's pack) are circular and hard in nature
'I posted what happened on Facebook in a mother's group and lots of women were agreeing with me. It was then that I thought it would be best to complain to Organix,' the mum-of-two said
'I posted what happened on Facebook in a mother's group and lots of women were agreeing with me. It was then that I thought it would be best to complain to Organix,' she said.
Ms Heffernan sent a message explaining what had happened to Organix, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
In email exchanges, provided by Ms Heffernan and seen by Daily Mail Australia, Organix offered the single mum a $50 Woolworths gift card as a way of apologising.
Women commented underneath Ms Heffernan's public post about the Organix products claiming they had a similar issue
'I would like to assure you that at Organix we take the safety of our food very seriously, and undertake extensive research and risk assessments for every food that we make,' an email correspondence from a representative of the company read.
'Due to the unique nature of the ring shaped biscuits they were developed with mums and babies through a thorough research process which explored the shape, size and texture. The new flavours and the easy to hold shape were shown to be loved by both babies and parents alike.
'We appreciate the feedback you have provided as all comments from our customers are used to continuously improve what we do. I would like to send you a gesture with my compliments as a thank you for taking the time to get in touch, however, our vouchers and cheques are only available in sterling, therefore, I will instead arrange for a Woolworths e-gift card to be sent to you which I hope will go some way to further apologise.'
Ms Heffernan told Daily Mail Australia she was not satisfied with the company's response.
'It just sounds so smug by saying "many parents love the product". Of course they do but it has the ability to be really dangerous. And the gift card? Is my daughter's life only worth a $50 Woolworths' voucher?' Ms Heffernan said.
Ms Heffernan replied by saying: 'My only interest is that your product be either recalled or re-marketed to older children and I respectfully decline your offer of a gift card'
A mother commented on Ms Heffernan's post about the near-fatal incident she had with her own seven-month-old child
Ms Heffernan replied by saying: 'My only interest is that your product be either recalled or re-marketed to older children and I respectfully decline your offer of a gift card.'
Last week Organix baby biscuits in creamy vanilla, strawberry and banana flavours were taken off the shelves by the ACCC and recalled due to a 'potential choking hazard'.
A spokesperson for the ACCC told Daily Mail Australia that while the government body does not regulate food standards they do publish recalls on their website.
'Parents and carers are reminded to be vigilant with children, particularly those under three years of age, in regards to choking hazards (both food and non-food products),' they said.
A spokesperson for the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services told Daily Mail Australia:
'Victoria initiated an investigation into the product immediately it was notified of a problem by the NSWFA on March 30.
'We had not been made aware of the previous complaints made to interstate authorities.
'As a result of this investigation, the company issued a recall of the products. Consumers should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund, and retailers should remove the produce from sale,' he said.
Just last week the Organix baby biscuits were taken off the shelves by the ACCC and recalled
Ms Heffernan said she had since received a message from another mum about the biscuits.
'I got an inbox message from a mum saying her seven-month-old son stopped breathing after the biscuit became lodged in his throat. He ended up in a Brisbane hospital,' she said.
'The poor woman was apologising to me for having the biscuit recalled but that's what I wanted all along.
'I'm furious because this outcome, a near tragedy, was so foreseeable. I complained everywhere and it took a child to almost die for action to be taken.'
Daily Mail Australia reached out to Organix for comment.
A toddler was blinded and had to learn to walk and feed himself all over again after a tumour took over half his brain.
Ryder Fox, two, from Melbourne, developed the massive cancerous growth last June and had surgery to remove a third of it, before suffering through months of painful chemotherapy.
His mother Samantha Farrugia remembers the terrifying brain scans and her two-year-old son's struggle to survive after his eight-hour operation.
'We thought he wasn't going to make it. I was asking the doctors when I should prepare myself to buy a coffin,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
Ryder Fox developed a tumour over half his brain at just 18 months old and was left blind and infertile after an eight-hour operation. Pictured with his mother Samantha Farrugia
A scan from last August showing the tumour after a third of it was removed by surgery
The 25-year-old said she was so devastated she wanted to end her life, but had to keep going for her new baby daughter Zaria.
'I didn't want to live. I was thinking he would forget what I looked like, he would never know what his sister looked like, wouldn't be able to drive. It broke me,' she said.
Ryder survived but had to learn to walk, talk and feed himself all over again while he was stuck in hospital for more than five months.
Ms Farrugia stayed by her son's side living in Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital and for two months the rest of her family joined her.
Ryder survived but had to learn to walk, talk and feed himself all over again while he was stuck in hospital for more than five months
Ryder holds his mother's hand after a chemotherapy session at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital
A scan from January shows the tumour smaller
While they were living in hospital, their home was broken into, ransacked, and their car stolen and later torched.
Ryder had a shunt installed to drain fluid from his brain, which may never be able to be removed.
However, the chemotherapy barely kept up with how fast the tumour grew back.
He has chemo treatments every three weeks and doctors don't know if it will kill his tumour or whether he will have to live with it for the rest of his life.
Ms Farrugia said the treatment has already made him infertile, caused a huge blood clot in his leg, and could even give him leukemia.
'My son will never live a normal life, and when he grows up he won't be able to have kids,' she said.
'When he is home he is amazing, always happy, he has an amazing smile that hardly leaves his face. But the chemo has deteriorated his body.
Ryder with father Stephen Fox, Ms Farrugia, and baby sister Zaria (R)
Ryder undergoes one of many chemo sessions since his operation that must be done every three weeks
Mr Fox tries to keep his son's spirits up during his months in hospital last year
Ryder cuddles with his baby sister during a hospital stay, as his hair thins from chemo
'His weight is up and down, and his bottom was split open so... he screams in so much pain.'
Ryder's vision has since returned in his left eye but doctors were not sure how much it would be impaired and how the tumour might affect it in the future.
Ms Farrugia said her fiance Stephen Fox helped her through the excruciating journey, and last month even shaved his hair and beard to raise money for cancer research.
Mr Fox last month shared his hair and beard to raise money for cancer research
Ms Farrugia snapped this shot of Ryder sleeping beside his dad in hospital
'He was and still is my rock. He always lifts me when my hopes are down,' she said.
The many treatments took a serious toll on the young couple's finances, but friends, family and strangers rallied around them to raise more than $9,000 on GoFundMe.
'I can't wait for this journey to come to end. Unfortunately this is our life. Ryder is the strongest person I know,' Ms Farrugia said.
For readers seeking support, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or click here
Mummy blogger Constance Hall has revealed a new man in her life after she was forced to hit back at explosive claims by her estranged husband.
The Perth mother dismissed claims she was seeing another man when she was still with her husband of six years Bill Mahon.
The 32-year-old has revealed she's 'growing close' to Denim Cooke but insisted she was already 'well and truly over' with the father of her four children at the time.
So just who is Denim? The man who appears to have captured the heart of the outspoken mother-of-four after her marriage breakdown.
Mr Cooke, a single father, first appeared in the blogger's life earlier this year after she penned about meeting him at a skate park.
Constance Hall previously penned about meeting single father Denim Cooke (left) in February
The mother-of-four has dismissed cheating claims that she was seeing another man when she was still with her husband of six years Bill Mahon (right)
Denim first appeared in the blogger's life earlier this year after she penned about meeting him
She spoke highly of her admiration for his parenting skills after listening to his inspiring story of how he was embarking on a trip around Australia with his two sons 'on a quest to skate every single skate park'.
'A couple of weeks ago after taking the kids out for dinner I grabbed a couple of beers and went to the skate park, tire them out so they crash without fighting,' she wrote in her blog on February 27.
'There were 2 kids there, long blonde haired kids who's skating skills defied the laws of gravity and who spoke kindly, respectfully to the younger less talented kids like mine.
'And I met Denim, their dad.'
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Denim Cooke for comment.
On Sunday, Ms Hall opened about her feelings for the father-of-two after he was subjected to online abuse by trolls amid cheating claims by her estranged husband.
'I am growing close to Denim and his children and it saddens me so to see them all be trolled to this level,' she wrote.
On March 14, Mr Cooke opened up about the moment he met Ms Hall 'after a random crossing of paths' on the night of February 4
She spoke highly of her admiration for his parenting skills after listening to his inspiring story
Mr Cooke's story first came to light on Ms Hall's Facebook more than a month before she announced her split with her husband.
The devoted father, also a blogger who runs The Cooke Trinity on Facebook, has been documenting his travels with his two sons around the country to take part in skating competitions.
On March 14, Mr Cooke opened up about the moment he met Ms Hall 'after a random crossing of paths' on the night of February 4.
'I can happily report and confirm that Constance Hall is every bit the queen she professes,' he wrote in one of his many blog posts.
'Without tarnishing my masculine ruggedness I confess to enjoying her honest and often funny posts and happily admit that she inspires me too.
'Real life Con was the same smart , funny , honest , down to earth humble human I knew she would be ... She exudes a wonderful beauty and sharing a few short life stories was an effortless pleasure ... Made my night xxx.
'Hoping our paths cross again x.'
Over the weekend, Mr Mahon accused the mother of running away to Ireland with another man and their four children after their marriage breakdown
In 2015, Mr Cooke revealed on Facebook he had given away all his household items.
'I had lots of stuff so it took a full week, in the end I just got a skipbin and threw it all away. Pretty much everything inc [sic] the sentimental s***,' he wrote.
'Everyone thought I was nuts and I mean everyone. But I was certain that it was holding back my goal of achieving freedom.
'The freedom to choose my day. I remember the fear, it was a leap into the unknown and without any money a very slim chance of no regrets.
'Hmmm what happened next ??? One crazy a** adventure and a swag of new experiences that far outweighed all that "stuff ".'
Over the weekend, Mr Mahon accused the mother of running away to Ireland with another man and their four children after their marriage breakdown.
Ms Hall had posted that the couple 'stopped enjoying each other and the kids stopped seeing happiness in our love, only contempt.
'This decision wasn't made lightly, obviously he has been the love of my life but we just weren't making each other happy anymore,' she continued.
Ms Hall revealed the couple 'stopped enjoying each other and the kids stopped seeing happiness in our love, only contempt' but Mr Mahon has a different version of events
Mr Mahon accused the mother of taking his four children and running away with another man
'Constance Hall is on her way to Ireland without me. While I was working at our other house she met a guy...' Mr Mahon said on Facebook.
'Now they are together and have ran [sic] off with my four kids. I'm over it but this is not a Queen!!!!!'
However, the young mother fired back on Sunday, claiming: 'I absolutely never left Bill for anyone. I didn't cheat on Bill with Denim.
'The other man that I have supposedly "run off with" Denim, I can whole heartedly say that Bill and I were well and truly over well before I even developed any feelings for him,' she continued.
'I warned my ex husband many months ago that if he wanted to try and reunite he should do it before I give up completely. He did not reply.
'I tried and tried and tried with Bill, so many tears and so much trying. My family and friends know the truth.'
An 11-year-old girl suffering from a rare heart condition could be days away from losing her furry best friend.
Ruby the caboodle fell extremely ill after caching a tetanus infection from a migrating grass seed splinter after floodwaters consumed New South Wales.
Nicola Mackay, 49, and her two daughters were flooded in for 11 days during the floods after the tail end of cyclone Debbie ravaged the Northern Rivers area.
The single mum told Daily Mail Australia she knew something was wrong with the family's beloved pup after Ruby struggled to swallow her food last Thursday.
Summer-Rose Mackay, 11, may lose her beloved dog Ruby (pictured together) because her mother can't afford to pay for both her operation and the pup's life-saving tetanus treatment
Ruby the caboodle fell extremely ill after caching a tetanus infection from a migrating grass seed splinter after floodwaters consumed New South Wales
Nicola took Ruby to the Northern Rivers Veterinary Service in Casino the next day, and was told Ruby would need treatment that could cost up to $4,000.
With Nicola's daughter Summer-Rose due for surgery at some point this month, the mother-of-two can't afford to pay to save Ruby.
It has led the heartbreaking realisation that the family may have to put Ruby down if they can't raise the funds.
Nicola said the ordeal has completely devastated Summer-Rose, who is simultaneously dealing with health problems of her own.
Summer-Rose's mother, Nicola Mackay, said the ordeal has completely devastated her daughter, who is simultaneously dealing with health problems of her own
Summer-Rose was born with three electrical nodes in her heart instead of two, which interrupts the rhythm and can cause her heart to beat up to 180 beats per minute.
By comparison, the pulse rates of children 10 years and older, as well as adults, is only 60 to 100 beats per minute.
Nicola said it sometimes gets so bad that Summer-Rose has to go to hospital, spending three days there recently when her pulse reached 189 beats per minute.
The episodes come every couple of months, but sometimes can occur as much as three times in a week.
They come by complete surprise, and can hit when Summer-Rose is just sitting around or lying in bed.
'She gets pale and clammy and sweaty. She passes out, she has to sit down, she starts to vomit and the beat in her chest, you can see it,' Nicola said.
Summer-Rose was born with three electrical nodes in her heart instead of two, which interrupts the rhythm and can cause her heart to beat up to 180 beats per minute
Summer-Rose (pictured with her 14-year-old sister) is due for surgery this month, where doctors hope to burn one of the electrical nodes out to help regulate her heartbeat
WHAT IS TETANUS? Tetanus is a serious bacterial disease that causes muscle spasms and breathing problems. Tetanus bacteria live in soil, dust and manure, particularly horse manure. Infection occurs when the bacteria enter the body through a break in the skin. The bacterium that causes tetanus is called Clostridium tetani. The bacteria produce toxins that affect the nervous system. Around one in 10 people infected with the bacterium that causes tetanus will die. Tetanus is uncommon in Australia because of the widespread use of the tetanus vaccine. Anyone who hasn't been immunised is at risk. Source: Better Health Channel Advertisement
'It's ready to jump out of her chest it's so hard, and frightening and fast.'
Summer-Rose is due for surgery this month, where doctors hope to burn one of the electrical nodes out to help regulate her heartbeat.
But Nicola is becoming increasingly concerned as her little girl becomes more and more upset about Ruby.
'She's very stressed at the moment and had an irregular heartbeat last night,' Nicola said.
'She's grieving, she's vomiting, and she's due for surgery. I don't really want her to go in until Ruby's better.'
Nicola said Summer-Rose and Ruby are extremely close, sharing a bed and always 'going on adventures together'.
Dr Liz Brown, who is currently treating Ruby, told Daily Mail Australia she is a 'tough stoic little thing' even as she undergoes constant intravenous fluid therapy.
Nicola said Summer-Rose and Ruby are extremely close, sharing a bed and always 'going on adventures together'. Summer-rose is currently devastated by Ruby's illness
Ruby requires frequent injections of a sedative to control muscle spasms and taking intravenous antibiotics three times a day to control the skin wound.
She is also being fed by a syringe every hour around the clock.
Brown said that, if Ruby survives, it could be a month before she has clinically recovered.
Nicola is currently paying as much as she can to cover the costs of Ruby being fed by fluids because her mouth and throat are currently paralysed.
The mum said the family are taking it 'day by day', but they have no idea how long it would take to cure Ruby and how much longer they can afford to help pay for it.
'It's a long process, it might take weeks, even a month to fix her and I'm just going on what I can afford,' Nicola said.
'I told Summer-Rose I can't promise, I'm not supermum. But I try my hardest. I didn't want to break her heart by putting her down.'
'I don't expect everyone to be charitable, I just don't want my daughter to lose her little companion.'
The Northern Rivers Veterinary Service is accepting direct donations for Ruby's treatment
Learning you're pregnant is usually a cause for cerebration, but for a woman with cancer it was a nightmare.
Australian woman Lisa knew she couldn't have a second child while undergoing 'hideous' breast cancer treatment and an abortion was her only option.
'I was in complete shock... I would have done damage to the baby, it would have set my treatment right back, I already have a child I need to be here for,' the woman, who did not give her last name, told Whimn.
Cash-strapped from expensive cancer treatment and not wanting another surgery, the 45-year-old decided to use abortion pill RU486 at home.
Lisa had an abortion at home after becoming pregnant during cancer treatment (stock image)
Lisa called the Tabbot Foundation, which screens women for at-home abortions, mails them the pills, and provides medical support through the process at a cost of $250 for Medicare card holders and $600 for other women.
First she spoke to a psychologist and doctor to comply with her state's abortion laws and then had an ultrasound and a blood test.
Then the drugs arrived in the mail with instructions on how to use them, with a nurse on the phone to guide her through it and a doctor on call.
It usually takes about 12 hours for the termination to start, but Lisa said it began almost immediately and she had to call the doctor.
She used abortion pill RU486 (pictured) because it was cheaper and non-surgical (stock image)
She had doctors on the phone to help when she experienced intense pain and bleeding after taking it (stock image)
ABORTION LAW IN AUSTRALIA ACT: Legal on request
QLD: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health
NSW: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health, fetal defects or for economic or social factors
NT: Legal on request
SA: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health or for fetal defects
TAS: Legal on request
VIC: Legal on request
WA: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health, for fetal defects or for economic or social factors Advertisement
She experienced heavy bleeding and an unexpected searing pain, though she said it passed quickly.
'The doctors and nurses will say its like a heavy period but its not, its worse than that but that shouldnt scare people, that is normal,' she said.
Tabbot's website stated: 'Most women experience pain and cramping like period pain and this can be intense for the first 1-2 hours'.
Lisa said the pain and bleeding lasted about three to four hours, while doctors called back to check on her, followed by 10 days of period-like bleeding.
The relieved mother said the decision to end her pregnancy should be a woman's alone and hit out at those who wanted abortion banned.
'If I hadnt have had access to this method in my own home away from hospitals it just doesnt bear thinking about, I probably would have either died from cancer or had a disabled child to deal with if it had gone full term,' she said.
'To think that someone could take that choice away from me in order to make me have those two outcomes, it just doesnt sit right.'
Childhood sweethearts have rekindled their love and tied the knot after spending 64 years apart.
Joyce Kevorkian, and Jim Bowman, both 81 from Indiana, first met in high school and started dating aged just 17.
After graduating in 1953, they went their separate ways, and started families of their own.
Childhood sweethearts Joyce Kevorkian, and Jim Bowman have rekindled their love and tied the knot after spending 64 years apart. Pictured: The couple at their ceremony
But last year, after spending six years widowed, Joyce received a letter from Jim and she responded asking to reconnect with him.
In December, after endless phone conversations, the two decided to meet up and Jim drove five hours to her house where they went on their first date since the 1950's.
After rekindling their love and friendship for each, Jim asked Joyce to marry him and the pair tied the knot on April 1.
Joyce had been widowed for six years when she received a letter from Jim and after endless phone conversations the pair met up for their first date
After rekindling their love for each other the pair tied the knot on April 1 this year
Joyce said: 'At our age it's not often you get chances like this, it can be so lonely when you lose someone you love and to have found each other again is so very special.
'We first met when we were 14 years old but it wasn't until we turned 17 that we started dating.
'We were in the same friendship group at school and loved to go dancing together, Jim even asked me to go to the prom with him, we had some wonderful times.
'We both went our separate ways and even though it had been 64 years we realised we weren't starting over from scratch and we seemed to pick up from where we left off.
The couple (pictured together in high school) met at the age of 14 and began dating at the age of 17
The pair attended prom together (pictured) but after high school they went their separate ways and met new partners who they later married
'We fell in love all over again, it was like we had never been apart.'
Jim said: 'I remember liking Joyce because she was a fun loving girl, we had similar interests and respected each other.
'We can't remember why we didn't stay connected after high school, but there must have always been a special connection in our hearts.
'Neither of us discussed our high school relationship with our families, we kept it to ourselves.
'After meeting again we asked ourselves would it be possible to pick it back up from where we left off.
The couple said that they knew as soon as they met again they would be able to pick up where they left off
Joyce even had a hen do ahead of her wedding atteneded by her granddaughter Anna (right)
'We both just looked at each other and instantly knew we could.'
After dating in high school, both Joyce and Jim went their separate ways and met new partners who they later married.
Joyce added: 'We both had similar interests, we were in the same choir at school and cared a lot for each other.
'But after graduating we never spoke again and I met my first husband Harry at collage.
'We went to classes together and soon became a couple, we married in 1958 and had a wonderful life together with three beautiful children.
Joyce says that it was Anna that encouraged her to marry Jim after he proposed
'Sadly Jim lost his first wife Jane last year to Alzheimer's, they married in 1958 and had four children together, he too had a very happy life.'
Jim added: 'After Jane passed away I thought about Joyce and wondered what she had been up too since we last met.
'I didn't think I would hear back from her at first, I sent her an email which she never received and then I sent her a letter but I had to wait for her reply.
'She told me about her family and she said that she hoped to hear from me again, well that's all I needed to hear and started planning a trip to see her.'
The couple spent endless phone conversations catching up on the years they had spent apart and decided to meet up again.
Joyce said: 'After a few visits and many phone conversations, Jim phoned me up one day and asked me to marry him.
'My granddaughter Anna was in the room with me at the time and I said I think that's a good idea.
'We set a date for April 1, we thought that was a good day for two old fools in love.
'My friends threw me a bridal shower, they gave me presents which were all a joke and I opened them whilst on the phone to Jim as I wanted him to be there with me.
'We wanted something low key because of our age and decided to hold the ceremony at the complex where I live, the room was lovely with stain glass windows.
'The ceremony was wonderful and afterwards we went on a five day honeymoon to Brown County State Park where we stayed in a lodge.
'Jim has now moved in with me and we are enjoying every minute we spend together, we are both smiling again and love to talk about our future together..'
A pair of odd-coloured diamonds are set to become the world's most expensive earrings by selling for more than 55 million.
The Apollo and Artemis diamonds are described as 'truly exceptional stones' which are in a 'class of their own' when considered as a pair.
Apollo is a 14.54 carat vivid blue diamond which has been cut and polished into a pear shape, while Artemis is a 16 carat fancy intense pink diamond.
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Two of the most valuable earrings ever to go under the hammer will be put up for sale by Sotheby's, Bond Street before they are auctioned off in Geneva next month
Both gems are phenomenally rare, with less than 0.1 per cent of diamonds having any blue in them according to experts. An 'infinitesimally' small percentage of those is graded Fancy Vivid Blue like Apollo.
The pink and blue earrings were unveiled today in London by Sotheby's which will be auctioning them next month in Geneva.
Sotheby's has valued Apollo at 40 million and Artemis at 14.5 million - potentially creating a pair worth 55 million.
David Bennett, worldwide chairman of Sotheby's International Jewellery Division, today described the diamonds as 'the most important pair of earrings ever offered at auction'.
Sparklers: The Apollo and Artemis Diamonds are described as 'truly exceptional stones' which are in a 'class of their own' when considered as a pair
Apollo, left, is a 14.54 carat vivid blue diamond which has been cut and polished into a pear shape, while Artemis, right, is a 16 carat fancy intense pink diamond
The diamonds were named Apollo and Artemis after the twin brother and sister of power and beauty who were among the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek gods
Two of a kind: Both gems are phenomenally rare, with less than 0.1 per cent of diamonds having any blue in them according to experts. An 'infinitesimally' small percentage of those is graded Fancy Vivid Blue like Apollo
He said: 'These exquisite coloured diamonds are enormously rare and each is a wonderful stone in its own right. Together, as a pair of earrings, they are breathtaking.
Sotheby's has valued Apollo, left, at 40 million and Artemis at 14.5 million - potentially creating a pair worth 55 million
'These are diamonds of great distinction, with extraordinary presence, and we are honoured that Sotheby's has been chosen to bring them to auction in May.'
The diamonds were named Apollo and Artemis after the twin brother and sister of power and beauty who were among the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek gods.
Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, commented: 'Wow. Sotheby's is at it again - shining the light on world-class diamonds as a viable alternative investment asset.
'Jewellers sometimes spend years matching up rare stones to create the perfect jewel, so these earrings really are an extraordinary rarity.'
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They came together in northern France yesterday to mark the centenary of a pivotal First World War battle.
But as the Vimy Ridge commemoration service drew to a close, it was the photo ops that really set royal-watchers' tongues wagging on Twitter.
On Sunday afternoon, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry joined Justin Trudeau in paying tribute to the 3,600 Canadian soldiers killed at the historic battle.
And images of the dashing royals standing with the Canadian Prime Minister clearly proved too much for some to handle with the French press dubbing them 'le trio sexy' while one Twitter user declared: 'You can't have that much handsome in one place'.
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Lock up your daughters! The Duke of Cambridge, centre, and Prince Harry, right, have sparked a Twitter frenzy after joining Justin Trudeau, left, at a ceremony to commemorate the Battle of Vimy Ridge in northern France on Sunday
Wearing matching navy suits adorned with commemorative medals, the two brothers appeared to have stolen the limelight from their father the Prince of Wales, who led tributes with a speech at the Vimy Memorial Park, near the town of Arras.
Meanwhile, a handful of locals who were lucky enough to meet them were left in a flustered state with Twitter user Nev exclaiming: 'Holy s***' after the encounter.
French site Melty Fashion ran an article on Monday morning entitled 'Prince William, Prince Harry & Justin Trudeau, the sexy trio, were in France and we are not over it.'
They called the meeting 'a very special occasion', adding that pictures of the 'sexy trio' had left them feeling hot under the collar despite the sombre nature of the engagement.
The combination of the dashing royals alongside the Canadian Prime Minister, right, clearly proved too much for some to handle with the French press dubbing them 'le trio sexy' and calling the meeting a 'very special occasion'
Sorry ladies, he's taken! Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, second right, was joined by his wife Sophie Gregoire and son Xavier as he walked through the grounds of the Vimy Memorial Park on Sunday ahead of the commemoration service
French site Melty Fashion called the meeting 'a very special occasion', adding that pictures of the 'sexy trio' had left their hearts racing - despite the sombre nature of the event - joining dozens of other royal fans
'Holy s***': Royal watchers around the world gushed over the good-looking trio on Twitter with one woman's boyfriend remarking: 'You can't have that much handsome in one place' after hearing that they were 'hanging out' together
The royals began their visit on Sunday afternoon by visiting a preserved tunnel and trenches at Vimy Memorial Park on the site of the Battle of Vimy Ridge near the town of Arras.
They later joined French President Francois Hollande and Justin Trudeau at a ceremony to commemorate the historic battle.
The service, staged at a memorial on the battlefield, honoured the sacrifices of Canadian forces and their British counterparts at the four-day battle in 1917.
Dressed to kill: Mr Trudeau and Prince Harry began their visit on Sunday afternoon by visiting a preserved tunnel and trenches at Vimy Memorial Park on the site of the Battle of Vimy Ridge near the town of Arras, northern France
Royal crush: But fans of the good-looking pair will be disappointed to learn that Mr Trudeau is happily married to former TV presenter Sophie Gregoire, while Harry has recently stepped up his relationship with US actress Meghan Markle
The dapper duo were looking smart in sharply tailored navy suits, with Harry adorning his with commemorative medals - and the flam-haired royal., right, has been sporting a smattering of facial hair in recent months
Excitement levels among locals reached fever pitched with Twitter user Steule, who is based in France, writing on social media: 'I saw Justin Trudeau and Princes Harry and William standing 2 metres away from me in one day'
One royal fan, based in Lille, bemoaned the fact that no one told her Trudeau and the royal brothers would be in the vicinity during Sunday's commemoration service - and she'd missed her chance to meet the trio
Val was in shock after discovering Trudeau, William and Harry were just an hour away from her home. She wrote on social media the following day she couldn't believe she had missed it
The ceremony, which began with The British, Canadian and French National Anthems, was also attended by Governor General of Canada David Johnston who tweeted: '100 years after the Battle of Vimy we gather once again on-site to never forget.'
Vimy Ridge, which began early on April 9 1917, was part of a larger British-led offensive, featuring Australian troops, known as the Battle of Arras which was a diversionary move to help a major French attack further south.
During the ceremony yesterday Charles, President Hollande and Mr Trudeau all spoke and laid wreaths at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial which honours all those from the Commonwealth country who died fighting during the First World War.
Starring role: William and Harry, who have both served in the armed forces, each laid a pair of boots during the ceremony - some of the first of thousands that represent almost 3,600 Canadians who died during the battle
Hot under the collar: One Twitter user (bottom) joked that she had even considered pulling a sicke so that she could travel to Arras, where Sunday's memorial service was held, to 'hug' Mr Trudeau and Prince Harry
In his speech, the Prince of Wales said: 'Canadians displayed a strength of character and commitment to one another that is still evident today. They did not waver.
'This was Canada at its best; the Canadians at Vimy embodied the True North Strong and Free."'
William and Harry, who have both served in the armed forces, each laid a pair of boots, some of the first of thousands that represent almost 3,600 Canadians who died during the battle.
The female orgasm continues to mystify most scientists but there is one doctor determined to find out what makes women tick.
Dr Nicole Prause, a neuroscientist based in Los Angeles, California, is an expert in the female orgasm and all that goes with it.
She revealed tips on how women can help themselves reach the finish line - and explained why knowing about your parents' sex life is a good place to start.
Helping hand: Dr Prause has revealed the tips women need to know in order to orgasm
'Orgasm is heritable; that means that, genetically, people whose mums had orgasms and orgasmed more consistently are more likely to orgasm themselves,' she said in an interview with The Times.
One of the major problems couples face is the lack of time they have together, especially between the sheets.
ORGASMS: ADVICE ON HOW TO GET STARTED Dr Prause suggests ways women can help warm themselves up before the main event and increase their chances of hitting the 'Big O': Sext: Sending flirty and X-rated texts to a partner can help get you in the mood before you even leave the office. Run: The ramped-up heart rate you experience will make your body think you are excited about seeing your partner, even if you are not. Switch off: Easier said than done but women need to 'release' in order to orgasm so do your best to banish work from your brain before you slip between the sheets. Advertisement
This is a particular issue for women who need to 'release control' and switch off part of their brain in order to climax.
Dr Prause suggested one way to supercharge the feeling of desire is to send racy text messages throughout the day.
Running can also help get things going. Dr Prause explained: 'Generally speaking, if your heart rate is increased and you see your partner, you're more likely to interpret your excitement as due to your partner. Even if it's not.'
While there are some tips all women can try, some will simply never orgasm. As well as genetic issues it can also come down to how the body is built.
Some are set up in a way that make it more difficult - or impossible - to orgasm.
Dr Prause shared some of her insights in a Channel 4 documentary exploring the 'super orgasm' - when women achieve orgasm dozens of times within in a single sex session.
Blood pumping: Going for a run is an easy way to trick your body into feeling aroused
Scientists exploring the phenomenon in the show say the women's capacity for achieving maximum pleasure is because of their unusually high state of arousal, which in turn releases even more of the 'love hormone' oxytocin.
It comes as new research suggests seven in 10 women are able to climax numerous times with their partner.
And two per cent of British women even claim they are able to climax 20 times during their time beneath the sheets.
THE WOMAN WHO CAN CLIMAX 60 TIMES IN ONE SESSION Nathalie, 24, claims she can climax 60 times in one sex session One of the women featured in the Channel 4 show says she is able to climax over 60 times during sex. Bisexual motorbike mechanic Nathalie, 24, from Bournemouth said she typically climaxes 20 to 30 times, but the count regularly tops 60. Scientists exploring the phenomenon in the show say the women's capacity for achieving maximum pleasure is because of their unusually high state of arousal. This in turn releases even more of the 'love hormone' oxytocin. But Nathalie puts it down to her bisexuality and open approach to sex. Advertisement
The Super Orgasm airs on Channel 4 at 10pm on Thursday April 13
A shop owner has blasted local 'yummy mummies' after they complained about a Mother's Day card in the window bearing the word 'vagina'.
Kirsty Mizon-Taylor displayed a sign and card which read 'Mum, sorry I ruined your vagina' in the window of her posh boutique Taylor Jayne during the run-up to Mothering Sunday.
But angry local mums in Reigate, Surrey, confronted the shop owner, with one even writing a letter of complaint to a business guild.
Kirsty, 38, said: 'In the run up to Mother's Day I put a card in the window that said 'Mum, sorry I ruined your vagina'.
Kirsty Mizon-Taylor, 38, was blasted by local women after displaying this cheeky Mother's Day card in the window of her boutique in Reigate, Surrey
'It was a couple of weeks before Mothering Sunday and a lady came in on her own and said she was there on behalf of other mothers.
'She just didn't like the card in the window - she said it was inappropriate and that the mums don't want their children to see it.
'She wanted me to take it out the window but I said no - it's not a bad word, it's the correct terminology.
'A couple of hours later another woman came in and said the same thing, and that it wasn't enticing people into the shop.
Kirsty insists she started stocking the somewhat risque cards after demand from customers
'I wouldn't have put a swear word in the window, and I thought it was a funny tongue-in-cheek card. I've had so much support and a handful of negativity.
'We're not going to please everybody and if you don't like it then don't buy it, you've got a choice.'
Kirsty, 38, says the shop, which she opened three years ago, did not stock the risque cards initially, but brought them in after demand from locals.
She also believes there would not have been such a strong reaction in a bigger town.
Kirsty added: 'The reason we started doing these cards was the demand for them.
Kirsty's boutique stocks gifts, furniture and homewares and she says that most of her customers have been supportive
'We started off with slightly risque cards but people were requesting these and we sell so many cards, people travel to us for them.
'If you want cards like that you normally have to travel. But we've filled a gap in the market, we sell loads of them and most people have supported us in this.
'People get personal on Facebook which is a real shame, but we've only had a handful of negativity.
'I think it's because Reigate is a small town, they're more shocked than if it was in a big town, and they wouldn't have made such a song and dance somewhere more mainstream.
The business woman used the row as inspiration to sign up for a charity walk in aid of The Eve Appeal who fund research into womb, ovarian, cervical, vaginal and vulval cancer
'I went shopping somewhere the other day they had this card on a big stand right by the entrance.
'We've had no other issues - this is the first big thing we've had a problem with.'
After the criticism, Kirsty posted about the complaints on social media - with the post reaching more than 8,500 people.
Some of her supporters even tried to get 'Vaginagate' trending in support of the card.
She added: 'I shared the card and spoke about the complaints on social media to our personal Taylor Jayne followers. I think I was looking for reassurance.
Supportive customers have backed Kirsty, saying there's far worse that children can be exposed to
'Most of the responses were really positive and supportive but there were still some people saying things like "the school run is hard enough without children asking difficult questions" and that we were "not enticing people into our shop with that kind of language in the window".'
We're not going to please everybody and if you don't like it then don't buy it, you've got a choice.
The mum-of-three has now decided to take on a London to Brighton walk to raise money for gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal, who fund research into womb, ovarian, cervical, vaginal and vulval cancer.
They also hope to break down embarrassment over these types of cancer and by doing so, save lives.
Kirsty is undertaking the 100km walk on May 27, and is hoping to complete the challenge in just one day.
She added: 'When it started getting personal that was enough. I didn't want my kids to get upset so I thought the best thing to do was turn it into a positive.
'I did some research and found The Eve Appeal - I just loved their slogan: "It's just a vagina".
'I got in touch with them and on the spur of the moment, signed up to do the walk in one day.
'It will take 16 to 17 hours. I am setting off from Richmond at 7.30 am and hopefully will arrive in Brighton while it is still Saturday.
'I train quite a lot but I think I will try and do some time on the treadmill or something like that before the walk.
'I do have a tendency to jump into these things without thinking them through, but I am looking forward to it.'
Bristol Palin is proudly showing off her growing baby bump to celebrate her last month of pregnancy.
The 26-year-old, who is nearly nine months pregnant, took to Instagram ahead of the weekend to share a Boomerang video of herself moving her stomach so viewers could see her side profile.
'ONE MONTH LEFT! just wanna see her face!! [sic]' Bristol wrote of her little girl, her second child with her husband Dakota Meyer.
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'Just wanna see her face!' Bristol Palin shows off her growing baby bump in a new Instagram video, confirming that she is just one month away from her due date
Bristol and Dakota are proud parents of a one-year-old daughter named Sailor Grace, and the mother-of-three also has an eight-year-old son Tripp, her only child with her ex-fiance Levi Johnston.
On Saturday, she shared photos of her family, including a snapshot of Dakota holding Sailor while they enjoyed a boat ride.
The little girl was wearing a life vest, and Bristol couldn't resist noting: 'spoiled girl, got daddy wrapped around her finger!'
'My boy,' she captioned another image of Tripp scooping raw cooking dough onto a baking sheet.
Daddy's girl: Bristol also shared photos of her family over the weekend, including this snapshot of her one-year-old daughter Sailor Grace sitting on her father Dakota Meyer's lap on a boat
Helping hand: 'My boy,' she captioned an image of her son Tripp scooping raw cooking dough onto a baking sheet. The eight-year-old is her only child with her ex-fiance Levi Johnston
A few weeks ago, Bristol and her family left their home in Wasilla, Alaska, and they appear to be staying in Austin, Texas for the weeks leading up to her due date.
Both she and Dakota have shared videos from their weekend, and on Sunday she posted a clip of her husband feeding their baby girl at a barbecue restaurant.
Sailor clearly enjoyed the bite of food she was given, prompting her mother to ask: 'Is that good?'
Meanwhile, Dakota filmed Sailor playing at a trampoline park, as he repeatedly urged the little girl to 'jump'.
Open wide: On Sunday, Bristol posted a video of Dakota feeding Sailor at a restaurant
Yum: Sailor clearly liked what she was given, and she was all smiles after she had a bite of her dad's food
Jumping bean: Dakota filmed Sailor playing at a trampoline park, as he repeatedly urged the little girl to 'jump'
Earlier in the day, the Medal of Honor recipient stood in front of the Texas State Capitol while appearing on Fox and Friends.
During the segment, Dakota called former National Security Adviser Susan Rice the Obama White House's 'liar-in-chief', stating that her claim that the Obama administration had successfully removed chemical weapons from Syria proved to be false after last week's gas attack.
And while Dakota has been busy making public appearances, Bristol has been making sure to stay active by taking walks with her family, often pushing her kids in a stroller.
Where did it go? Bristol's baby bump is almost impossible to see in the photo she posted last week. The snapshot sees her pushing her brother Trig and her daughter Sailor in a stroller
Too cute! Dakota shared a photo of himself helping Sailor brush her teeth last Tuesday
Last week, she shared a snapshot of herself walking Sailor and her eight-year-old brother, Trig, in a double stroller.
Although she noted in the caption that she is 'so close' to the end of her pregnancy, her stomach looks relatively flat in the image, which appeared to have been taken recently.
However, it is quite possible the angle of the image or her baggy top minimized the appearance of her growing baby bump.
A pregnant woman's stomach can also appear larger or smaller depending on what position the baby is in, and Bristol has been actively counting down the days until she and Dakota can welcome their child into the world.
Fresh off a series of critically-acclaimed performances, Elle Fanning is facing a wave of criticism for her latest role: a transgender boy.
The 19-year-old actress, who was born in Georgia and now lives in LA, stars with Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon in the upcoming film '3 Generations,' which tells the story of transgender teen Ray as he navigates his transition from female to male.
Many have claimed that Fanning's latest role was unfairly 'stolen' from a trans actor, and that the casting choice is a symptom of Hollywood's ongoing struggle to accurately represent the transgender community onscreen.
A new look: In '3 Generations,' actress Elle Fanning plays Ray, a transgender boy who is transitioning from male to female
Crash course: The film, marketed as a comedy, focuses on Fanning's transition and family relationships. In this scene, her character explains his gender to his half-siblings
In 3 Generations, Fanning plays the role of Ray, a teenage transgender boy who is coming to terms with his identity and reconnecting with his estranged father.
A scene in the trailer shows Ray explaining to his transition to his father's new wife and children.
'So you're like our brother?' asks Ray's curious half-sibling.
'Well, sorta, yeah. I was born in a girl's body,' Ray explains.
Gaby Dellal, the writer and director of 3 Generations, has openly discussed the process of working with Fanning, as well as her decision to cast a cisgender actress for the role.
Though Dellal initially sought a transgender actor for the role, she was unsuccessful in her search.
All-star cast: 3 Generations also stars Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon as Fanning's mother and grandmother, respectively
Failure to launch: Director Gaby Dellal explains that a thorough search for a transgender actor failed, and Fanning was ultimately cast instead
'I was in a tricky situation,' she tells BuzzFeed News. 'I needed to find an actor who was experienced enough to take on this role, who hadn't transitioned yet, who was a trans man or trans boy.'
Unfortunately, this 'tall order' proved too difficult to fulfill and Fanning was hired instead. Nevertheless, Dellal committed herself to researching the role:
'I spent a lot of time at the LGBT center in New York, and I spent a lot of time with individuals kids I met through my children's friends who were transitioning,' Dellal says.
Dellal also noted that she worked with LGBTQ media organization GLAAD to ensure accuracy and authenticity in the script.
A misguided message: After the release of the 3 Generations trailer, critics took to Twitter to express dismay at Fanning's casting
An invisible problem: Many pointed out the fact that life as a transgender actor is incredibly difficult
A spokesperson for GLAAD told the Daily Mail Online that the organization worked with the cast and crew before, during, and after filming to ensure education and sensitivity were prioritized.
'The director of GLAAD's Transgender Media Program provided a few notes on the script the week they began shooting,' they explained.
'Another transgender GLAAD staff member did a brief training on-set the day filming began to give the cast and crew a broad overview of transgender terminology and issues.
'After filming finished, GLAAD also sat down with select cast members, the director and producers to review best practices for speaking to the public about families with transgender children and the experiences that transgender youth face.'
Sincerely, a former fan: Despite recognition for Elle Fanning's talent, critics were left dismayed by her choice to accept this role
What could have been: Though director Dellal insists she could not lock down a transgender actor, many were quick to point out others who could have been cast
In addition, Fanning claims to have done her fair share of research in readying for the role. In a 2015 interview with Teen Vogue, the actress discusses spending hours watching YouTube videos about transgender teens.
Though she was hesitant to accept the role at first, Fanning says she is ultimately 'honored to help tell [this] story.'
Despite the seemingly pure intentions of the film's director and star, the official release of the trailer on April 8 has sparked a new wave of criticism and controversy.
Backlash regarding the 'misgendering' of Fanning's character has flooded social media, with many skeptical of Dellal's inability to successfully find a young trans actor.
Not all bad: Some felt that Fanning's role was not a jab at the trans community, but merely a display of her exceptional talent as an actress
Coming soon: 3 Generations will be released this May, and is the latest in a series of films facing backlash over representational issues
Transgender actor Ian Alexander, 15, recently rose to fame for his breakout role on the Netflix hit series The OA. In light of Fanning's casting in '3 Generations,' Alexander took to Twitter to point out that 'around 400' others auditioned for his role in The OA.
The tweet, which came after a re-tweet bashing Fanning's casting, seemed to insinuate that there is a great number of transgender actors seeking work than director Dellal, and moviegoers in general, realize.
3 Generations is but the latest in a slew of recent films facing backlash over representational issues.
Just this year, the Scarlett Johansson feature Ghost In The Shell, as well as the Matt Damon project The Great Wall, have both resulted in financial disasters after their premieres were met with cries of inaccurate representation.
3 Generations is set for wide release on May 5, 2017.
A student who suffers from a potentially debilitating autoimmune disease has told how repealing Obamacare would be potentially 'life-threatening' for her.
Joan Fanwick, 21, was diagnosed last year with Sjogrens syndrome - a condition that causes the immune system attacks glands that produce fluid such as the salivary and tear glands - which can cause infections, irritation and fatigue.
Without health insurance, the student at Temple University, Pennsylvania, calculates her medical bills would come to more than $50,000 a year, she told Seventeen.com.
Life-threatening: Joan Fanwick, pictured, who suffers from an autoimmune disease fears that repealing Obamacare could cost her life
Life-changing: The 21-year-old student at Temple University, Pennsylvania, was diagnosed last year with Sjogrens syndrome
Joan takes ten different medicines a day and every Saturday she is visited by a nurse who puts a needle into her chest so that she can give herself IV fluids during the week.
She also relies on regular deliveries of supplies such as saline, IV tubing and formula.
Last month, Republicans were forced to go back to the drawing board after they failed to get enough votes to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
If a future attempt is successful, Joan said she would lose her insurance 'immediately'.
She added: 'So at first, a repeal would simply bankrupt me, literally all my money would be funneled into my care.
Brave: The condition causes the immune system to attack glands that produce fluid. Joan is pictured at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with singer Charlie Puth
Unaffordable: Without health insurance, Joan calculates that her medical bills would amount to over $50,000 a year
'When that ran out, I'd immediately lose my medications, nurse's visits, IV, feeding tube and emergency hospitalizations and my immune system could attack me and kill me.
'If I lose my health insurance, I don't know if I can survive four years waiting around for a new president to take office.'
Joan does not qualify for her parents' insurance because it only covers care in their home state Connecticut. By working two part-time jobs Joan is able to benefit form government subsidies through a healthcare exchange program.
Joan regularly gets blood infections as a result of her illness.
She said: 'Even if I were able to afford some kind of basic insurance on my own and get approved with my pre-existing condition who knows what the plan might actually cover?
'I can't survive on physicals and flu shots alone. The consequences ultimately would be life-threatening.'
The latest issue of Marie Claire has not one but five covers featuring successful, powerful women in Hollywood.
Emily Ratajkowski, Hidden Figures star Janelle Monae, How to Get Away with Murder's Aja Naomi King, Zoey Deutch, and Baywatch's Alexandra Daddario each star on the front of their own version of the 'Fresh Faces' issue, which celebrates 'rave women who capture the spirit of the moment'.
And these women aren't just gorgeous they've got plenty of substance, too, as they talk about feminism, respecting women, race in Hollywood, and Trump's impact in their interviews.
Gorge: Emily Ratajkowski stars on one of five covers of the latest issue of Marie Claire
Get involved! The 25-year-old fronts the Fresh Faces issue and talks about sexism and political engagement
Va-va-voom! Janelle Monae, 31, stars on a cover of her own in a sexy black leather dress
Taking a stand: The star said she thinks women should consider giving up sex until more men start fighting for women's equality
Emily, for one, talks about the tone of surprise in articles about her, in which the writers seem to find it unexpected that she is both a sex symbol and someone who cares about politics.
'In every profile written about me, there is, "She's so sexual and she's such a sex symbol," paired with, "But, wow, she knows about politics." And that in itself is sexist. Why does it have to be one or the other?' the 25-year-old asked.
Emily, who supported Bernie Sanders during the election, also spoke about the ways she hopes Donald Trump's presidency changes the country.
She said she is glad that people on the left are becoming more engaged, but she hopes that the activism isn't just 'anti-Trump' that it's also pro-solution.
Ultra fem: Aja Naomi King, who stars on How to Get Away with Murder, wears a pretty floral dress for her cover
Expanding: The actress said she used to only dream of being the sidekick, but more roles for black women means she can now dream of something bigger
Stunning: Alexandra Daddario, 31, wears coral fur that makes her eyes pop
While Zoey, 22, didn't express her political opinions, she did say that she believes actors have just as much a write as anyone to do so.
'Before I was an actor, I was a human and a citizen,' she said.
Janelle, 31, also touched on politics in her interview, but only so far as respecting women has become a political issue.
'People have to start respecting the vagina,' she said. 'Until every man is fighting for our rights, we should consider stopping having sex. I love men. But evil men? I will not tolerate that. You don't deserve to be in my presence.'
Resume: The actress has appeared in American Horror Story, True Detective, and White Collar
Last, but not least: Finally, Zoey Deutch fills out the last of the five covers of this month's issue
In her interview, she says that actors are also citizens and have the right to use their platforms
'If you're going to own this world and this is how you're going to rule this world, I am not going to contribute anymore until you change it. We have to realize our power and our magic. Because I am all about black-girl magic, even though I'm standing with all women. But this year? This year, I am so carefree black girl.'
Finally, Aja, 32 who plays Michaela Pratt on How to Get Away with Murder discussed how her race has defined her acting goals.
'Maybe I'm outdated in thinking this, but because I'm a young black woman and don't see very many being the lead in a film, I have this fear, Will I be working?' she said.
'When I first started in this industry, my goal was to be some best friend. The sidekick. I thought that would be an accomplishment. But seeing people like Viola [Davis] and Tracee Ellis Ross and Gabrielle Union and Lupita [Nyong'o] who was two classes behind me at Yale I can hope for more.'
A college student has opened up publicly about her battle against crippling anxiety, which started when she was a child and derailed her studies in college.
The woman, of Bogota, spoke to photographer Brandon Stanton as part of his Humans Of New York project, for a special series taking him across Colombia.
She explained how she started having panic attacks in 10th grade, when she was a gifted student putting immense pressure on herself to be the best at everything, and described how the symptoms escalated.
Opening up: This Bogota student detailed her struggle with anxiety since 10th grade to Humans Of New York photographer Brandon Stanton as part of a series in Colombia
'I was the best student in my high school. I put so much pressure on myself. I never failed a class,' the student, who hasn't been named, said.
'But I got sick during 10th grade and I started to fall behind. That's when the panic attacks began.'
The young woman recounted a traumatic experience when one of her teachers handed her a grade report, at which point she became unable to breathe.
'My heart was beating very fast. I felt disconnected. I saw people trying to talk to me but I couldn't hear them,' she added.
'Eventually I passed out and woke up in the infirmary. The attacks were almost daily after that.'
When she started college last year, the student realized she could no longer be the best despite her best efforts, because the rest of her peers were was all notably talented.
Responding: Readers said in the comments section how the student's story had resonated with them, with some telling her it would get better
Compassion: One person commented to point out how positive it is that the student found help from a teacher who encouraged her to use anxiety as a way to fuel her art
'My panic attacks got so bad that I had to cancel my first semester,' she said.
In a heartbreaking account, the student described how the condition had isolated her as she tried to keep her symptoms secret.
'I would log off social media. I wouldn't answer calls. I thought that if nobody knew, it didn't exist,' she added.
'But the more I talk about my problem, the more I realize that other people experience similar things. So I'm trying to express it more. I had a great teacher who told me: "Instead of letting anxiety keep you from doing your art, let it be the thing that motivates your art." '
I would log off social media. I wouldn't answer calls
The post has now received 225,000 reactions on Facebook and has been shared more than 12,800 times.
Readers said in the comments section how the student's story had resonated with them, with some telling her it would get better.
'Oh, dear girl. It's not your responsibility to be "the best student" or anything else - anywhere. It's your right to just be the best you. Your path, your journey, your joy, your life isn't prescribed by anyone else,' one person wrote.
'Anxiety doesn't have to motivate your art, but your art can give you an outlet for it and a voice for your experience. What a blessing to have art! Let go of the idea of what you're supposed to be and simply be. You'll be just fine.'
Another person told her she had done the right thing by opening up, writing: 'The more you talk about a problem...The more you'll realize you're not alone. Internalizing it will eat you alive like nothing else.'
A Texas Target is being applauded for setting up a nursing station for new moms inside the store.
A picture taken inside the Target in Braunfels, Texas has gone viral since being shared on a Facebook page breastfeeding mothers, with thousands of followers sharing excitement over the homey 'feeding station'.
Set up at the end of an aisle between toys and women's lingerie, the area allows nursing mothers to feed their babies comfortably and gives Target a creative way to sell its wares.
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A nice thought: A Target in Braunfels, Texas has set up a breastfeeding station for nursing mothers
In the photo, two cozy white chairs are seen placed over a decorative blue rug, with a table between them.
The area features pillows, cushions, and blankets to make the experience more comfortable, while there are also tools nursing moms might need, like a neck pillow and a cloth cover-up.
'Please enjoy!' reads a sign, hung underneath a photo of a mother kissing her baby while holding him in the air.
On the Breastfeeding Mama Talk Facebook page alone, the image has reacted to over 30,000 times, with hundreds of people commenting.
Accomodating: Targets in California and Michigan (pictured) have set up nursing rooms
'My favorite thing here is that it's out in the open and not in hiding from the public!!! Way to go Target!' the page wrote.
'I LOVE that it's by the bras! Now that is some BRILLIANT marketing right there,' wrote another. '*Unsnaps bra* "Wow this is really starting to fall apart. I should probably get a new one *pause* OH LOOK!"'
Another woman from Yreka, California said her own Target has one of these as well, writing: 'The last time I used it, a Target employee brought me snacks and a water bottle. They also have one of the fitting rooms set up with pillows and cushioned benches, in case you would rather nurse privately.'
Later, the Facebook page shared yet another photo of a nursing station at a Target in Traverse City, MI.
A representative for the company said these locations are unique, but Target is testing out nursing rooms.
'This space is not something that is rolling out to other Target stores,' Kristy Welker told Scary Mommy.
'In late 2016, we began testing designated nursing rooms at two stores in Minnesota. We will continue to evaluate guest feedback on this test to determine broader rollout to additional stores and we always appreciate hearing from our guests about how we can better meet their needs.'
'Fitting rooms are available for women who wish to breastfeed their babies privately, even if others are waiting to use the fitting rooms,' she went on. 'Guests who choose to breastfeed in public areas of the store are welcome to do so without being made to feel uncomfortable.'
Man Fatally Shot Fighting With His Dad About Who Will Walk The Dog
By Mae Rice in News on Apr 10, 2017 2:29PM
Crime scene tape (Photo by LukaTDB via Shutterstock)
A 22-year-old man died after he and his father shot at each other on Sunday morning in Burnside, authorities say. The father, 43, and son, 22, both shot each other multiple times in what began as a fight over who would walk the dog.
Chicago police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi tweeted the following recap of the fight, which happened at 8:20 a.m. in the 9100 block of S. Woodlawn:
Double shooting at 9100 S Woodlawn was a fight btw father & son as to who was going to walk the dog. Both shot at each other. Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) April 9, 2017
Two weapons were recovered at the scene. Detectives are investigating.
He's been the stand-out star since the series began nine months ago, but tonight Eric Monkman's success came to a crashing end.
With his shouty answers, razor-sharp intellect and teeth-gnashing, the Canadian Economics student from Wolfson College, Cambridge was a favourite to secure the win for his team in this year's University Challenge, but it wasn't to be.
The 29-year-old team captain set Twitter ablaze when he made a crucial mistake during the BBC2 programme with people urging him to 'get a grip' and complaining he was 'giving them heart failure'.
It all started to unravel for Monkman when Jeremy Paxman asked: Traditionally regarded as a holy relic, the iron crown of Lombardy is housed....'
Monkman sounded his buzzer immediately and said: 'It's housed in Italy... Somewhere. Sorry. I mean, it's the one they used to crown the king...'
Paxman immediately interjected and said 'Yes, I'm afraid that is a completely useless answer.'
Canadian 29-year-old Eric Monkman soon set Twitter ablaze with uncharacteristic mistakes in tonight's University Challenge final
The audience laughed and Monkman agreed, saying: 'Yeah it is.'
Wolfson College, Cambridge were up against Balliol College, Oxford in the series finale and had previously battled it out in January.
On that occasion Monkman and his team were victorious after the match ended 165 points to 135.
But tonight things went on a downward spiral when Paxman told the Captain of Wolfson College, Cambridge his team were having five points deducted from their score because of his flunked answer.
Paxman then continued with the question: It's housed in the cathedral of which city situated about 15 kilometers north east of Milan, it is a regular venue of the Italian Formula One Grand Prix.
The opposite team swooped in and got the correct answer Monza.
From there, it all went downhill for Monkman and Twitter users began to panic that he was 'losing it'.
Jeremy Paxman told Monkman his answer was totally useless after he gave a rambling and incoherent response
The contestant has been one of the favourites of this series thanks to his enthusiastic delivery and teeth grinding
Wolfson College, Cambridge were up against Balliol College, Oxford in the series finale
People took to the site to comment on Monkman's erratic answers and questioned whether he was having a 'meltdown'.
As things went from bad to worse for the Cambridge team, people agreed on Twitter that he had 'gone off the boil'.
Monkman repeatedly pressed his buzzer but answered a lot of the questions incorrectly.
His answers included 'Arabic' when it was 'Albanian' and 'Jean-Luc Godard' when it should have been 'Jacques Tati'.
Unfortunately, their team lost and Balliol, Oxford was crowned the winner of this year's University Challenge with 190 points to Wolfson, Cambridge's 140.
Both teams were given the opportunity to meet Professor Stephen Hawking in Cambridge
People flocked to Twitter to comment on Monkman's face as he got to meet the professor
It wasn't all bad news, however, as both teams got to meet Professor Stephen Hawking in Cambridge to receive the prize.
Monkman couldn't hide his delight at meeting the professor and people flocked to Twitter again to comment on his reaction.
Amy took to the social media site to say that you should find 'someone who looks at you the way Monkman looks at Stephen Hawking'.
Another said: 'The consolation of Monkman losing University Challenge was his face at being stood next to Stephen Hawking. I nearly died.'
It wasn't the first time Monkman has been showered with attention by viewers, with many offering him marriage proposals and declaring their love for him on social media.
Over the past nine months, Monkman has developed a cult following and has even had mugs and t-shirts printed with his name and face on.
Monkman took to Twitter today to thank people for supporting him over the last year
Despite receiving a lot of attention, he said he didn't believe people were 'seriously obsessed' with him.
'I certainly don't think of myself as any object of desire. I assume people are being ironic, not serious. I think they're just trying to be funny,' he told The Telegraph.
Monkman even admitted his long-distance girlfriend Jiang Na, a professor of law at Beijing Normal University, was baffled by the attention he was getting.
'She doesn't really see much that's happening [to me] from China, so she only knows what I tell her. She thinks it's a bit strange,' he said.
The Canadian, who is known for his trademark blue jumper and shirt, has inspired internet memes with his animated facial expressions.
Despite the pressure surrounding him on the finale, Monkman took to Twitter earlier on in the day to say: 'I have really appreciated the support that so many people have expressed for me.
'Thank you so much! I hope you all enjoy the match tonight.'
Marion Konczak was awarded 360,178.60 compensation in October 2014, but BAE are asking London's Appeal Court to slash her award, claiming it is 'grossly excessive'
Embroiled in the latest round of her sex discrimination battle with Britains largest arms manufacturer, Marion Konczak cut a frail figure at the Court of Appeal in London last week.
BAE Systems have described the 360,000 they have been ordered to pay the 63-year-old former secretary from Blackburn, Lancashire, as an affront to justice and are appealing against it.
And many will sympathise with them, given that the eye-watering sum was awarded for a single comment made to Mrs Konczak by a manager that women take things more emotionally than men while men tend to forget things and move on. But a Mail investigation has discovered that beneath the surface of this protracted ten-year legal battle and her subsequent successful case of disability discrimination, victimisation and automatic unfair dismissal lies a highly disturbing story and one which goes to the heart of BAEs controversial relationship with one of its most lucrative clients, Saudi Arabia.
For while Mrs Konczaks financial award may have ultimately been made because of that last straw remark about emotional women, the breakdown of her relationship with the defence giant actually began 12 years ago when the then 50-year-old mother-of-two was groped by a Royal Saudi Air Force warrant officer, one of several Saudis based at BAEs plant in Samlesbury in Lancashire.
Mrs Konczak, then a 25,000-a-year secretary helping the Saudi officers seconded to BAE find rental homes, complained to her line manager after the warrant officer placed his hands on her breasts and tried to kiss her. But, despite her reporting the incident, nothing was done.
Instead she found herself cold-shouldered, first by other Saudi officers in the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) Liaison Team office, where she was the only woman, and then by BAE personnel who refused to take action against the officer.
Finally, at the request of the Saudis, she was removed from her post without warning in 2007 and transferred to one of BAEs other sites.
Marion Konczak was awarded 360,178.60 compensation in October 2014, but BAE are asking London's Appeal Court to slash her award, claiming it is 'grossly excessive' (pictured: happy in 2006 with daughter Janine and today before her psychiatric breakdown)
I was removed from my job in less than 24 hours, says Mrs Konczak, speaking from the small bungalow in the Lancashire village of Langho where she lives with her 65-year-old husband, John.
Having suffered a psychiatric breakdown because of the case, she shakes and stammers when she recalls her time at BAE, is on high doses of anti-depressants and is undergoing counselling with NHS psychologists.
She frequently spends days without getting dressed and struggles to leave the house alone. Her GP has described her condition as one of the most severe and persistent presentations of anxiety and depression that I have ever come across.
According to Mrs Konczak: In the eyes of BAE, the Saudis were always going to be more important than a lowly-paid secretary from Lancashire. Indeed, the case reveals the extent to which BAE Systems was determined to keep its biggest customer after the Ministry of Defence and the U.S. happy.
As one member of BAEs Human Resources department argued during an earlier tribunal hearing, Mrs Konczaks removal from her post was justified because RSAF is an important customer, accounting for more than a fifth of its revenue.
If they say it happens, we run with that decision, said HR manager John Gray. If they say jump we jump.
Mrs Konczaks revelations will come as a huge embarrassment to BAE at a time when the company, along with the UK Government, has embarked upon a new multi-billion pound deal to provide support and training as part of a five-year Saudi British Defence Co-operation Programme.
The latest round of this protracted David and Goliath legal battle has also coincided with Theresa Mays visit last week to Saudi to discuss a 1.6 trillion oil company share deal and to meet King Salman.
The UK has been one of the biggest suppliers of weapons to the Saudi regime for 40 years. But, while British MPs continue to raise fears that UK-made weapons have been used by the Arab kingdom to violate human rights, Mrs May announced last week that the Government will help Saudi Arabia with building a reformed ministry of defence, reviewing Saudi defence capabilities and joint working across the Saudi armed forces.
Mrs Konczak, meanwhile, claims that BAEs kowtowing to the Saudis went further than simply turning a blind eye to the treatment she suffered. The Saudis got away with everything. To keep them sweet.
Last night, when the Mail confronted BAE about Mrs Konczaks claims, they said in a statement: This case relates to the dismissal of a BAE Systems employee in 2007. While we accept the 2008 tribunal ruling that BAE Systems had not acted in accordance with employment law in the process followed to dismiss Mrs Konczak in 2007, only one of the allegations made regarding events unrelated to her dismissal was upheld. The question the court is currently considering is the apportionment of damages for which BAE Systems is liable arising from Ms Konczaks dismissal, given these other allegations were not upheld.
Marion suffered a psychiatric breakdown because of the case, she shakes and stammers when she recalls her time at BAE, is on high doses of anti-depressants and is undergoing counselling with NHS psychologists
We take any allegations of misconduct or discrimination against or by our employees very seriously and we investigate any claims thoroughly and solely on the basis of the facts of the case regardless of location, position, customer relationships or commercial considerations.
Certainly, Mrs Konczak is an unlikely thorn in the side of a company formed in 1999 from the merger of British Aerospace and Marconi. and had a turnover last year of 19 billion.
The daughter of a brewery worker from Blackburn, she left school at 16 and trained as a secretary at Blackburn Technical College.
Early positions included posts with British Fuel, Accrington Borough Council and Blackburn Royal Infirmary, where she was promoted to personal assistant to the Director of Corporate Services.
She was 20 when she married her husband John in 1974 and took a career break to raise their two children, Janine, now 28, a ballet teacher, and 26-year-old Nikolas, an options broker who works in London.
She arrived at what was then still British Aerospace on a temporary contract in November 1998 and began working for the managers of the controversial 43billion Al-Yamamah arms deal which was signed by Saudi defence minister Prince Sultan and then defence secretary Michael Heseltine in 1985.
Mrs Konczaks revelations will come as a huge embarrassment to BAE at a time when the company, along with the UK Government, has embarked upon a new multi-billion pound deal together
The contract the biggest ever UK arms deal saw BAE Systems supply more than 100 fighter jets to Saudi but has been dogged ever since by allegations that the company offered financial sweeteners to Saudi royals and go-betweens in return for lucrative contracts.
At first, Mrs Konczaks relations with the Saudi officers seconded to BAE Systems were good. The officer in charge of the team, Colonel Mosaad Ajjab Al Otaibi, requested that she be made his permanent secretary.
It was, documents from BAEs human resources show, an exceptional situation and the only reporting relationship in the UK where a BAE employee reports directly to the customer.
Mrs Konczak was responsible for life support for the Saudis and their families, helping to secure suitable rental properties and organising repairs, arranging nurseries and private schools for their children and finding doctors, dentists, plumbers and electricians.
She shopped for duvets and sheets for their new homes, arranged car washing and once went out with jump leads late at night to start one of their cars.
On another occasion, she was asked to find two deer for venison and arranged for them to be sent in a refrigerated van to a Saudi military attache as a gift.
I did everything for them on top of my work as secretary, she says. I was often called late in the evening and on bank holidays to resolve problems such as repairs but I loved my work.
Mrs Konczak is an unlikely thorn in the side of a company formed in 1999 from the merger of British Aerospace and Marconi. and had a turnover last year of 19 billion
Out of respect for the men she worked with, she wore trousers suits to work in the luxuriously-decorated office furnished with sofas and a prayer room.
She was highly praised in letters written by the colonel, received two commendations for exceptional performance and two invitations from the ambassador in London to attend celebrations to mark Saudi Arabian National Day.
But the colonel returned to Saudi Arabia in August 2002 prompting a rapid turnover of staff during the following two years and a change in atmosphere in the office.
In February 2004, says Mrs Konczak, on the very first day of his appointment, a Saudi warrant officer asked if he could kiss her and placed his hands on one of her breasts.
He tried to touch me sexually, she says. I stopped him right there. I said: You dont do things like that. I reported it to personnel and one or two other people but because they were Saudis, nothing was done about it.
In the meantime, she was forced to endure spiteful comments from the warrant officer in question who did not take kindly to being put in his place by a woman.
He thought he had the right to touch my breasts and Id told him what I thought. He didnt like it.
Matters deteriorated with the arrival in July 2004 of a new senior officer in charge of the RSAF Liaison Team, a captain who, court documents report, often shouted at her in front of the warrant officer who groped her.
In January 2005, a day before she was due to return to work after Christmas, Mrs Konczak received a telephone call instructing her not to return to the RSAF Liaison Team office at Samlesbury but to go instead to Warton. She was told at a meeting that the Saudi captain had requested her removal.
Id done nothing wrong, she says. I was just kicked out. She says she was left without her own desk and with no formal role while her old job was given to a new temporary secretary. It was humiliating and degrading, she says.
In January 2005, a day before she was due to return to work after Christmas, Mrs Konczak received a telephone call instructing her not to return to the RSAF Liaison Team office at Samlesbury but to go instead to Warton. She was told at a meeting that the Saudi captain had requested her removal
After a year of uncertainty about her role, plans were made to move Mrs Konczak back to Samlesbury to work alongside two BAE employees closely connected to the Saudi captain she claimed had bullied and harassed her.
It was at this moment, as she expressed her unhappiness about working with them, that her manager, Jeremy Dent, uttered what is now referred to in the case as The Dent Comment.
Women take things more emotionally than men while men tend to forget things and move on, he said. According to Mrs Konczak: I found his comments offensive, humiliating and degrading particularly bearing in mind that I had only minutes before expressed my concerns and been in tears in front of him.
That comment in April 2006, as several judges have already found, was the final straw for Mrs Konczak. She was signed off with work-related stress and lodged grievances via BAEs internal complaints system. None of them was upheld.
After a year of wrangling, during which time she offered to return to work, she was sacked on the grounds that there was no alternative employment for her.
A tribunal in Manchester in October 2008 ruled that Mrs Konczak was a victim of sexual discrimination and that her dismissal was unfair and an act of victimisation.
Since then she and BAE have been back and forth to court more than a dozen times. She was awarded the 360,000 figure in October 2014.
Last weeks hearing at the Court of Appeal marked BAEs latest bid to have what they claim is a grossly excessive amount reduced.
Last weeks hearing at the Court of Appeal marked BAEs latest bid to have what they claim is a grossly excessive amount reduced
While Mrs Konczak acknowledges that the amount will seem inflated to some, she argues that the net figure after tax she will receive is closer to 250,000.
At least a fifth of that will go on legal fees while 150,000 of it represents six years of lost earnings as well 74,000 allocated for loss of pension.
To give the figure some perspective, BAEs chief executive Ian King earned 3.5 million last year.
Mrs Konczak is surviving on incapacity benefit and her husbands earnings. At the time she lost her job, he had given up work as an engineer to retrain as a solicitor. The couple are in debt and Mrs Konczak has two county court judgements against her because of bills she has been unable to pay. She says she has been condemned to a poverty-stricken retirement.
Although she did, in the early stages of her legal battle, try to find work, the ill health she has suffered has made that impossible. I cant deal with people any more, she says. I cant socialise any more. I cant go out. I cant function.
The award is nothing compared to the suffering Ive had. Ive changed as a person.
Ill be financially ruined even if I get the money. The house is dropping to pieces. We cant afford to live. Theyre continuing to cause us immense distress as a family. I just want all of this to stop.
The panel of three judges who heard the case last week will give their ruling at a later date.
But whatever their decision, there can be little doubt that there is more to this sorry tale than just an off-the-cuff sexist remark.
As Mrs Konczak puts it: By raising complaints of discrimination and harassment against personnel of the RSAF who are effectively the representatives in this country of one of BAEs biggest clients, I inadvertently stumbled into a no-go area. I am still fighting for justice.
Additional reporting by Nigel Bunyan.
Parents of a baby boy with a rare muscle-wasting disease are desperately fighting to raise money for a drug not available on the NHS to keep their son alive.
Tyler James Hadley, now nine months, was born with an adorable tendency to stick his tongue out.
But this was found to be a symptom of spinal muscular atrophy type one (SMA1) - the most severe form of the neuromuscular condition.
Finding it difficult to sit up, move or even swallow milk, doctors believe he will pass away before he reaches his second birthday.
But in a desperate attempt to keep him alive, his family are battling to get him a drug that is being offered in France to try and preserve his strength.
However, the treatment is not guaranteed to be a success and will only help him live for a little while longer, doctors say.
Tyler James Hadley, nine months, was born with spinal muscular atrophy type one - the most severe form of the neuromuscular condition
His father, Louis Hadley, 28, from Portsmouth, said: 'His tongue was just sort of flickering and we thought it was quite cute.
'We didnt imagine there was something wrong. We both noticed it and chatted about how sweet it was. It wasnt until months later that we heard it is one of the symptoms of his condition.
'We dont know whether this treatment is going to help him, but we are willing to try anything.'
He added: 'We know that even if this helps Tyler he is going to have disabilities and problems, but we would just be happy to have him here and give him a good life.
'We have heard from other parents that this drug can help to stop the progression of SMA and children who have this can live longer.
'It was just heartbreaking to get the diagnosis and to see him in and out of hospital, but the fact there is something out there that might help him has given us some hope.'
Finding it difficult to sit up, move or even swallow milk, doctors believe he will pass away before he reaches his second birthday
Tyler was resuscitated by doctors at the Queen Alexandra Hospital as soon as he was born in June as he was unable to breathe.
When he was eventually taken home two days later, Mr Hadley and his partner Lisa Money, 28, assumed he was a healthy baby.
Over the next few months, they noticed he developed a quirky trait of sticking his tongue out, but they thought nothing of it.
It was just heartbreaking to get the diagnosis and to see him in and out of hospital, but the fact there is something out there that might help him has given us some hope Louis Hadley, 28
But doctors realised something was seriously wrong when was rushed to hospital in January after choking on Calpol.
The family told doctors how he was also unable to sit up or roll over like other children of a similar age.
Concerned doctors wanted to investigate Tyler's condition further after noticing how floppy he was and that he struggled to swallow.
They told his parents that they suspected he had SMA Type 1 and he was unlikely to live beyond the age of two.
The SMN1 gene produces a protein needed by certain cells in the spinal cord, which connect the brain and spinal cord to the muscles.
If there's a problem with the gene, this protein is only produced in very low levels. This causes the motor neurone cells in the spinal cord to deteriorate.
But in a desperate attempt to keep him alive, his family are battling to get him a drug that is being offered in France to try and preserve his strength (pictured with his father Louis, 28)
Messages sent through the spinal cord to the nerves and muscles are reduced or, in the most severe forms, disappear, and the muscles can't work effectively.
The muscles eventually start to shrink from a lack of use.
The diagnosis of the condition, which affects around 2,500 people in the UK, was confirmed in December.
Mr Hadley said: 'We had never heard of it and had no idea what it was. We thought it was the brand of milk.
'When they explained that it was most babies with the condition dont make two years of age, we were devastated. We just broke down and cried.'
Referred to a neurologist in Southampton, the family were told about a new drug called Spinraza.
They became determined to get hold of the drug for Tyler after it has been shown to stop the deterioration of the disease.
However, the treatment is currently only being trialed for use in the UK and there is a waiting list to take part in the trial.
But the family are now desperate to get the treatment for Tyler before his condition deteriorates any further.
However, the treatment is not guaranteed to be a success and will only help him live for a little while longer, doctors say
Family friends started a fundraising page to raise money for the treatment at Hopital Bicetre, Paris, where it is available (pictured with his mother, Lisa Money, 28)
After investigating, they discovered other places in Europe where the treatment was available privately.
Family friends started a fundraising page to raise money for the treatment at Hopital Bicetre, Paris, where it is available.
WHAT IS SMA? Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a disease that weakens one's physical strength by affecting the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord. Those affected never gain or lose the ability to walk, eat, or breathe. SMA is the number one genetic cause of death for infants. SMA is genetic and passed from parent to child. There are four primary types of SMAI, II, III, and IVbased on age of onset and highest physical milestone achieved. Type I Onset is shortly after birth
Weakness
Difficulty breathing, sucking and swallowing
Never reach the developmental milestone of being able to sit on their own
Children with type 1 SMA can survive for a number of years Advertisement
The donated money will also pay for the family's travel and any equipment that may be needed to help Tyler in future.
Mr Hadley added: 'We dont know exactly how much all of this will cost, as Tyler will need injections every four months.
'We have set the target at 50,000, as we want to give him as much of a chance as possible. We are so grateful for everyone who has donated so far.'
After initially raising over 3,000, the family travelled to France at the end of last month for his first treatment, which is given by an injection in the spine.
He is due to have another one next week, a third a fortnight later, followed by another a month after that and ongoing treatment every four months.
An NHS England spokesman said: 'SMA is an inherited neurological condition affecting nerve cells in the spinal cord.
Type 1 is the most severe form. Currently there is no approved treatment for the condition in England, although we are aware of a clinical trial of the drug, nusinersen (Spinraza), carried out in infants.
'To ensure they are safe and effective, appropriate drugs can first be assessed by NICE and considered for funding by the NHS.
'When a treatment is not yet routinely offered by the NHS, a healthcare professional can submit an Individual Funding Request on behalf of the patient.'
Anyone wanting to donate to Tyler's fund can do so here.
Doctors who qualified in Bangladesh are 13 times more likely to be incompetent, shocking figures show.
Often unable to communicate fluently with patients in British, this can negatively impact their medical ability.
While poor training in countries with lower standards and cultural barriers could also be to blame, experts warn.
The findings back-up the need for a standard testing procedure for all doctors before they begin to practice on patients.
Often unable to communicate fluently with patients in British, this can negatively impact the medical ability of foreign doctors
Around one in three GPs are from abroad, with a majority having learnt the ropes in Europe, The Times reports.
Reliant on foreign doctors, the NHS has actively targeted them to help plug a staffing shortage that has left it in a crisis.
University College London researchers also found Egyptian and Nigerian-born GPs face an eight-fold higher risk of being investigated for their actions.
In fact, doctors from every country except South Africa were more likely to face an investigation than British GPs.
However, writing in the journal BMC Medical Education, experts remain adamant that doctors are reliable - regardless of where they are from.
Study author Dr Henry Potts said that they can say 'with confidence' that foreign trained doctors are more likely to be investigated.
While poor training in countries with lower standards and cultural barriers could also be to blame, experts warn (stock)
He added: 'I would say to patients that the vast majority of all doctors wherever they trained are highly skilled and competent.
Factors around staff induction, training and prior assessment before entering the UK are clearly an area we need to address Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians
'If a poor doctor makes a mistake it could have life-changing consequences for patients. So we do need to make sure that's not happening and that all doctors are competent.
'There is a possibility about the sort of training people are getting in different countries... Another angle is where are these people going wrong? Is it raw medical competence? Or is it language? Or is it about understanding the culture?'
Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians, argued the NHS must not be 'complacent' about foreign doctors.
She told the newspaper: 'Factors around staff induction, training and prior assessment before entering the UK are clearly an area we need to address.'
The team of researchers analysed nearly 20 years worth of official data from the General Medical Council.
REVEALED: THE WORST OFFENDERS COUNTRY THAT THE DOCTOR WAS TRAINED IN Bangladesh Egypt Nigeria Iraq Germany India Eastern Europe Greece Ireland Rest of the world HOW MANY TIMES LIKELY TO BE INCOMPETENT 13 8 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 2 Source: General Medical Council/BMC Medical Education Advertisement
They looked into those GPs whose performances warranted a competency assessment, according to Chris Smyth's in-depth report.
Almost 6,000 foreign doctors were hired in the UK last year, despite the ongoing concerns of language barriers.
But last year, foreign-trained medics made up 72 per cent of those who were struck off.
To train as a doctor in the UK, students need to pass a medical degree that takes five years.
This is followed by a two-year foundation course, and then three years GP training, or five to eight years in other speciality areas.
All doctors from outside the EU who want to work in Britain must sit an English language and a clinical skills test to show they have the skills needed to work in the NHS.
The Royal College of Surgeons has previously called for the Government to use Brexit to introduce safety and language checks for doctors, dentists and nurses from the EU.
This comes after the Mail on Sunday revealed that hundreds of straight-A British students are being denied the chance to train as doctors.
Top-performing teenagers are being shunned by leading universities while the NHS continues to recruit thousands of foreign doctors.
When Peyton Linafelter's stomach began expanding around December 2015, she assumed it was just because she was eating too many carbs.
But her stomach kept growing and, soon, Peyton couldn't keep any food down.
A doctor in Barbados, where she and her family were on winter vacation, told her she had ovarian cysts and that she should go back home to Aurora, Colorado.
It wasn't until three months later - on her 16th birthday in April 2016 - that Peyton was told she had stage IV ovarian cancer. It came just months after she'd been scouted by Kate Upton's agent.
The diagnosis sounded like a death sentence for the blossoming model, who was given a 17 percent chance of surviving five years. But, after several rounds of chemotherapy and surgery, Peyton was declared cancer-free in December.
Now she's speaking out about the warning signs and urging women of all ages to get themselves checked out.
Tragic: Teen model Peyton Linafelter, 16, from Aurora, Colorado, was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer on her birthday, possibly making her the youngest American to receive the diagnosis
Devastating: Peyton was on vacation with her family in Barbados last year (pictured) when her stomach began swelling. A doctor on the island found ovarian cysts via ultrasound and urged her to go back to the US
Recovery: Peyton was declared cancer-free in December 2016 (pictured in February 2017) and is now urging women to get themselves checked out. She said: 'I would say go to your doctor for anything if you think anything is wrong. Look after your health and don't just push it aside'
One year ago, Peyton was living every teenage girl's dream.
At a Taylor Swift concert, she had been scouted by an agent and signed on as a model for Next Management (the same company that represents Kate Upton).
She was learning how to drive and had booked a vacation with her family in Barbados for winter break.
It was while on vacation that her stomach began hurting.
'I couldn't keep anything down,' Peyton told Fox News.
'My stomach was a little expanded. But I just thought I was eating a lot of carbs. I didn't think anything of itbut each week my stomach got bigger and bigger.'
Peyton visited a doctor in Barbados who told her that she had extremely large ovarian cysts and that she should go back home to Colorado.
The teenager suffered weeks of weight loss and had little appetite, but her stomach was still swelling.
'By the time it was April, I looked like I was five months pregnant,' she said.
'My lower back hurt a lot and my abdomen was in pain.'
Sad: Three months later, Peyton visited the University of Colorado Hospital where she was told she had stage IV ovarian cancer and would need rounds of chemotherapy as well as surgery to remove her cysts
Difficult: Most women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer are age 63 or older, but Peyton was just 16 (pictured with her dad in 2014) - and her chance of survival was was just 17 percent
Doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital finally diagnosed Peyton with stage IV ovarian cancer that had spread to her lungs and abdomen.
According to the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women and accounts for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.
HOW TO SPOT OVARIAN CANCER Ovarian cancer is where the disease originates from the cells in and around the ovary. In the majority of cases, ovarian cancer affects women over the age of 50, or postmenopausal women. One in 73 women will develop ovarian cancer in her lifetime. Signs and symptoms: Persistent abdominal pain
Persistent abdominal bloating
Urinary frequency
Acid reflux or heartburn
Feeling full quickly The two main treatment plans are: Surgery, including taking biopsies
Chemotherapy to kill cancer cells, recommended after surgery for most stages of ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women and accounts for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. Survival rates by stage: Stage I ovarian cancer: 92 percent
Stage II ovarian cancer: 70 percent
Stage III ovarian cancer: 39 percent
Stage IV ovarian cancer: 17 percent Advertisement
But most women who are diagnosed are postmenopausal - 50 percent of patients are age 63 or older.
Peyton, on the other hand, was just 16. Her doctors say she is one of the youngest to receive this diagnosis.
Her chance of survival was just 17 percent.
But her first worry was one that many patients face.
'I think at the time, the most devastating part was that I was going to lose my hair,' Peyton said.
'That was probably the most of the shock factor. I wasn't really told much other than the basics, like "We're going to do chemo for a couple of rounds. Then we're going to do surgery and then chemo afterwards".'
Her treatment was started right away - she got her diagnosis on a Monday and chemo began on Thursday.
'I'd say it was about the size of a grape fruit on both ovaries, so about probably the size of my fists was the size of the tumor that just invaded both of the ovaries and the uterus as well,' Dr Saketh Guntupalli, Gynecologic Oncologist with University of Colorado Hospital, told CBS Denver.
'She's been our hero. She's fought this with the strength that I think is more than most women four times her age and I think that says a lot for why she's done how she's done and how she'll do in the future.'
One of Peyton's biggest concerns was that she wouldn't be able to model anymore. However, the agency worked around her medical appointments.
After several months of treatment, Peyton was declared cancer-free on December 22.
'I definitely have a new normal now,' she said.
'It's definitely the normal I'm going to be seeing more often. But I'm hanging out with friends, I'm out and doing this. I'm working out a lot so I can have a better body than ever before.'
Determination: Peyton said one of her biggest fears after the diagnosis was that she wouldn't be able to model anymore. But her agency, Next Management (who work with Kate Upton), worked around her medical appointments
Raising Awareness: Peyton is now the face of a campaign by UCHealth called This is Normal. It aims to spread awareness about various diseases and how it can occur in 'normal' women
The model even took part in a commercial for UCHealth promoting cancer awareness, which also starred her mother, called This is Normal.
The campaign aims to spread recognition of the disease and how it can occur in 'normal' women.
It aired locally during the 89th Academy Awards.
And she's vocal in sharing advice with other women, no matter their age.
'I would say go to your doctor for anything if you think anything is wrong,' Peyton said.
'Even if you think it's something very simple, there could be long term effects. Look after your health and don't just push it aside.'
Bonnie Fox was denied a vital drug on cost grounds
Bonnie Fox is living with an incurable illness. In April 2015 she gave birth to Barnaby, her first child. Four months later her joy turned to horror when, after experiencing problems breastfeeding, she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.
That was 19 months ago. Since then Bonnie, 39, has been through six months of debilitating chemotherapy and is now on the twin maintenance drugs, Herceptin and Perjeta.
For how long is anyones guess the longest I have heard is 12 years, but I have also heard of women for whom theyve stopped working after a year, says Bonnie, from Croydon, Surrey.
Juggling treatments and baby-care, Bonnie has returned two days a week to her demanding job as a project manager, and in June last year she married her partner and Barnabys father, Ash, the manager of a Waterstones book store.
Now she has one all-consuming ambition: to live long enough to be there for Barnabys first day at school.
Her best hope of that is an end-of-life drug called Kadcyla, which would buy me more time with my little boy . . . with Kadcyla I might even see him get to school, which, for me, would be a huge milestone to reach.
But Bonnie cant have Kadcyla. On December 29, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) announced that, at a cost of 90,000 for each of the 1,200 patients who, like Bonnie, could benefit from the drug, the price was too high in relation to the benefits it gives for it to be recommended for routine commissioning in the NHS.
Cheated once by fate, Bonnie says she now feels cheated again: I was relying on that drug.
Then she read the news that the NHS is paying silly money for other drugs which, with joined-up negotiating, it could be getting for far less.
As much as 380 million a year is being wasted by GPs alone because theyre paying over the odds for drugs that have had their prices hiked by pharmaceutical companies, according to Dr Andrew Hill, a senior research fellow in pharmacology at the University of Liverpool.
Bonnie with her son Barnaby. She was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer four months after giving birth to him
The fault, he says, lies with NHS England for failing to track and act over these price hikes.
And thats just prescriptions in the community in England. Factor in hospitals and all prescribing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, says Dr Hill, and I wouldnt be surprised if were talking about a billion pounds here in overcharging.
Dr Hills team analysed prices paid for 300 drugs from 2011 to 2015. The biggest price rise they found was the 2,340 per cent increase in the cost of the thyroid drug carbimazole, which cost the NHS an extra 29.8 million in 2015. The cost of the antidepressant drug nortriptyline went up 419 per cent in the same period, landing the NHS with an additional bill of 25.5 million.
You would think the NHS would be able to control this, Dr Hill told Good Health. This is such an easy opportunity to save money.
And when you consider the hopes of patients such as Bonnie, this waste is simply immoral.
Im very pro the NHS, its been wonderful to me and my family, and I do appreciate it has so many conflicting demands, says Bonnie. But when I hear about wastage like this, it is so frustrating.
One of the many ironies of waste is that while some patients are being denied treatments the NHS cant afford, others are getting care they dont need.
As Professor Terence Stephenson, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, has put it: One doctors waste is another patients . . . lack of treatment.
The healthcare think tank, The Kings Fund, has highlighted 16 NICE guidelines about sticking to treatments that actually work which, if followed across the NHS, could save 1.9 million per 100,000 of population in England alone thats a saving in excess of 1 billion.
Some of the useless, wasteful treatments and procedures given to patients include X-rays for diagnosing lower back pain, and a plaster cast on small wrist fractures in children.
These will heal just as quickly with a removable splint, according to a report published last October by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The academy published a list of 40 treatments and procedures of little or no benefit to patients, but costly to the NHS.
For example, it said, tap water is just as good for cleaning cuts and grazes as saline solution.
Sometimes these needless and wasteful treatments can do more harm than good. As reported in the Mail last month, 800,000 people in the UK have been on antidepressants for two years or more, with no clinical reason for taking them.
Similarly, an estimated 250,000 people have been on highly addictive tranquillisers for months or even years, despite clear official guidance that no one should take them for longer than four weeks.
Apart from the financial cost (the combined bill to the NHS of the over-prescription of antidepressants, tranquillisers and opioid painkillers may be 160 million every year) there is the human cost to the thousands left to struggle alone with dependency and withdrawal.
Bonnie has one all-consuming ambition: to live long enough to be there for Barnabys first day at school
Chris Ham, chief executive of The Kings Fund, says that while evidence suggested the NHS was one of the most efficient health systems in the world, there is still significant scope to improve productivity and reduce waste.
With the NHS facing huge financial pressures it was essential to focus on getting the best possible value for patients from every pound spent . . . for example, through addressing the overuse of certain drugs and treatments or [ensuring] patients are seen faster and dont need to stay in hospital for so long.
More galling, perhaps, is the money wasted on the significant variation in executive pay and perks. Take John Adler, chief executive at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. From just over 245,000 in the financial year to 2015, his total salary and pension package almost doubled the following year to a whopping 485,000 an astonishing increase of almost 98 per cent.
Yet the trusts financial review for that year conceded, it had not met all of our financial and performance duties for 2015/16 and it recorded a deficit of 34.1 million.
Whats more, a Good Health investigation last month revealed Adlers trust was one of the ten with the largest number of medication errors in NHS England 2,449 in 2015, causing harm to patients in 185 cases.
In most cases, such errors were blamed by experts on unsafe staffing levels among nurses.
The trust says Adler gets the going rate for the job. Tell that to the chief executive at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, who has almost 3,000 more staff to manage than Adlers 14,000, yet gets a more modest 272,000 pay-and-pension package.
Its a similar story at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where the chief executive struggled by on 250,000 less than Mr Adler and has 2,000 more staff to manage.
Mr Adlers not the only senior manager doing well. A survey of boardroom pay in the NHS last year found that 355 trust directors in England received average salary increases of 2.3 per cent considerably more than the 1 per cent pay cap imposed on nurses since 2010.
A spokesman for NHS Improvement, the organisation that oversees trusts, said that while the NHS needs strong and capable leaders to meet the challenges it faces, when it comes to executive pay levels we expect trusts to exercise restraint and we strongly discourage new appointments at the highest pay levels.
A survey of boardroom pay in the NHS last year found that 355 trust directors in England received average salary increases of 2.3 per cent
Yet another form of waste that costs the patient and the NHS dear is infection rates. Infections cost money because of the extra surgery and care involved. Infection rates vary wildly, for no obvious good reason. And so do other costly things.
In September 2016, Public Health England identified 102 inexplicable unwarranted variations, many of which were costing the NHS money. For example, it found that for no obvious reason, the number of days patients being kept in hospital after fracturing a thigh bone ranged from ten to more than 30.
The longer stay, which simply isnt necessary, increases the risk of contracting hospital infections and blocks beds badly needed by other patients.
And the NHS is in the grip of yet another hugely ambitious IT project, with hospitals poised to plough millions of pounds into new systems, converting hospitals, GPs and pharmacies to electronic records, online appointments and prescriptions to make the NHS paperless by 2020.
Its as though the disastrous 10 billion National Programme for IT, introduced in 2002 with exactly the same ambitions and finally scrapped barely four years ago, never happened.
Pakistan is set to execute an Indian naval officer accused of being a spy, potentially ratcheting up tension between the two nuclear-armed states.
Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav was sentenced to death after a military court found him guilty of planning, coordinating and organising espionage 'aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan', a statement from the country said on Monday.
Jadhav, who also goes by the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, was arrested in the southwestern province of Balochistan on March 3 last year and officials claimed that he later confessed to working for Indian intelligence.
Journalists look at an image of Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav during a press conference by Pakistan's army spokesman and the Information Minister, in Islamabad
But India has denied that he was a spy.
'Today, (army chief) Gen Qamer Javed Bajwa has confirmed his death sentence,' a Pakistan military statement said, without stating when the execution would take place.
There was no immediate comment from the Indian government.
The nuclear arch-rivals routinely accuse one another of sending spies into their countries, and it is not uncommon for either nation to expel diplomats accused of espionage, particularly at times of high tension.
A Pakistani army soldier stands guard at a checkpoint in the garrison city of Rawalpindi (photo for representation only)
However death sentences have rarely been issued in such cases in recent years.
In 2013 an Indian national on death row for spying in Pakistan was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. Sarabjit Singh had been on death row for 16 years.
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has been battling a years-long separatist insurgency that the army has repeatedly characterised as 'terrorism' promoted by hostile states such as India.
Pakistan accuses India of helping the separatist movement in Balochistan, a charge denied by India.
In its turn, the government in New Delhi says Pakistan aids separatist fighters in Kashmir, part of India's only Muslim-majority state, which Pakistan also claims.
Lawyer and former military reservist Navdeep Singh said the trial was a 'sham' and Pakistan columnist Mehr Tara warned it would 'exacerbate' bad tensions, while politician Usman Dar agreed with the sentence for 'illicit actions against Pakistan'
Last September, tension between the neighbours escalated after gunmen killed 19 Indian soldiers at an army camp in Kashmir, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Pakistan denies backing militants saying it only offers political support to the Muslim people of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Lawyer and former military reservist Navdeep Singh said the trial was a 'sham'.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray called for 'extreme steps' to stop the execution, and Subramanian Swamy said India should take 'stringent action' against Pakistan
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday asked the Centre to save Kulbhushan Jadhav, even if it meant an 'extreme step'.
He told reporters: 'It [awarding of death sentence to Jadhav] is unfortunate. The government, if need be, should take extreme step to save him.'
Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande added: 'The decision of Pakistani military court is sad, painful and agonising. The saddest part is that the Indian government could not secure Jadhav's release.'
And BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said on Monday that Pakistan should be warned of negative consequences if it pushes ahead with the execution.
'We should prepare to take stringent action against Pakistan. Today, we should give warning that consequences would be bad for Pakistan if Jadhav is executed,' Swamy told reporters outside the Parliament.
He also said that India should discard the wrong perception that an India-Pakistan friendship is necessary to have Hindu-Muslim unity in the country.
Taken into account? Indian Coast Guard saves two Pakistan sailors who strayed into Indian waters ahead of Jadhav's sentencing
The Indian Coast Guard and fishermen saved the lives of two Pakistani sailors a day before former Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death.
The Pakistani Coast Guard boat had inadvertently crossed into Indian waters off the coast of Gujarat with six sailors on board when it got into trouble and capsized.
India's government then launched a major search and rescue mission after the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency chief, who was in China at the time of the incident, issued a call to his ICG counterpart in New Delhi for help.
The army said in a statement Monday, April 10, 2017, that Jadhav was sentenced to death on charges of espionage and sabotage. Pakistan says Jadhav was an Indian intelligence official who aided and financed terrorist activities.
Government sources said: 'A small Pakistani Coast Guard boat with six sailors was checking fishing boats in their own waters when they drifted away from their mothership towards Indian waters near the Sir Creek area and toppled here with all its six personnel,' said government sources.
'A request was also sent to the maritime search and rescue centre in Mumbai for locating their missing sailors,' said the sources.
Several vessels conduced a thorough search in the area near the Sir Creek before fisherman informed ship ICGS Samrat about two Pakistan sailors who were rescued from the sea.
'The coast guard officials on board provided proper medical care to the Pakistan sailors whose other four colleagues had already lost their lives after their boat toppled in mid-sea,' said sources.
Later, the Indian vessels also helped in recovering the four bodies.
On Monday, the Indian ships took the bodies along with the two rescued men to naval warship PNS Alamgeer in Pakistan waters across the International Maritime Boundary Line off the coast of Gujarat.
Other 'Indian spies' who have made the headlines
As the sentencing of Kulbhushan Jadhav gets everyone talking about espionage, Mail Today takes a look at five 'spies' and traces their journeys.
RAVINDRA KAUSHIK
Ravindra Kaushik, a Rajasthan resident, reportedly joined RAW in 1975. When he reached Pakistan, he took on the name of Nabi Ahmed, learnt Urdu, got married and joined the Pakistan Army.
According to a Telegraph report, his cover was blown up in 1983 and he was sentenced to death in 1985 over charges of spying. His death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He died in Pakistan in 2001 reportedly due to pulmonary tuberculosis and a heart ailment.
RAM RAJ
Ram Raj worked for an intelligence agency for 18 years, accompanying spies as a guide, said a news report.
He was sent to Pakistan as a spy in September 2004 but was caught the next day. After two years in captivity, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
SURJEET SINGH
Surjeet Singh on his release in June 2012
Surjeet Singh was held in Pakistan on charges of spying in the 1980s. Nearly 30 years later, he returned to his home in Punjab in June 2012.
He admitted that he was sent to Pakistan to spy for India. 'I was a RAW agent,' he told reporters then. His release was confused with release of Sarabjit Singh.
'I met him recently though I couldn't meet him today before leaving,' Surjeet had told reporters. Surjeet died of a cardiac arrest in November 2015.
GURBAKSH RAM
Gurbaksh Ram spent 18 years in Kot Lakhpar jail on charges of spying. He claimed that he was trained by an Indian intelligence agency and was arrested by Pakistan's security agencies in 1988.
He was released in 2006 along with 18 other Indian prisoners. After his release, he demanded a government job.
SARABJIT SINGH
Sarabjit Singh died in prison in 2013
Sarabjit Singh was arrested by Pakistan's Military Intelligence Battalion in Kasur district in August 1990. He was accused of spying and planting explosives in Lahore and Faisalabad on August 30, 1990 which killed 10 people and injured 66.
He was sentenced to death by a Pakistani court in October 1991. He was allegedly attacked by fellow inmates at Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore on April 26, 2013 and succumbed to injuries on May 2.
Sarabjit's family always maintained that he had inadvertently crossed into Pakistan.
A woman who developed complications after being given an injection during 'botched' eye surgery at the Capital's GTB hospital died of cardiac arrest on Friday night.
Delhi government's health department has now sought a report on the treatment given to the patient, who was among 22 suffering from diabetic retinopathy allegedly given the 'wrong' medicine in a jab on April 1.
Family members of the woman said her death was directly related to her eye treatment at GTB hospital.
The woman suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday, days after treatment at GTB hospital
'Her medicine for heart problems had to be stopped after she was given contaminated medicine by doctors.
'Due to this, she developed blurred vision since April 4. Since then, her health condition deteriorated and she died of cardiac arrest,' said a relative.
Dr Sunil Kumar, Medical Director at GTB hospital said that the hospital has formed a committee to probe the incident, first reported by Mail Today on April 5.
However, he claimed that the death of the woman was not due to the injection.
Patients were allegedly given the 'wrong or discarded' medicine through a jab in the eye (photo for representation only)
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to the chief secretary of Delhi Government seeking a detailed report into the matter within four weeks.
According to doctors, patients had been administered an 'anti-blindness' drug, Avastin, which is considered safe to use, but had led to a reaction.
Of the 22 patients treated, 20 were referred to AIIMS RP Eye Centre for an urgent eye operation, while the remaining two patients underwent further treatment at GTB hospital.
The incident involved 22 ophthalmology patients at the government-run GTB hospital
Patients started to show symptoms including breathlessness and redness, itching and pain in their eyes, said a senior Ophthalmologist at GTB hospital, requesting anonymity.
He said that patients are still facing problems as their eyesight has not been completely restored.
The senior official at the health department said: 'Samples of both medicines and injections have been sent for microbiological testing.
'We have sought a report from the GTB hospital into the matter.
'Preliminary enquiry had found that the drug used were not out of expiry dates. So, we are yet to receive the laboratory report,' he said
We have the West in mind for telling the India story to the world to improve our image.
The West, especially the US, is very judgmental and puts the non-Western world on the defensive by constantly measuring it by the yardsticks of democracy, human rights, transparency, press and religious freedoms and so on, for which they have constituted NGOs with long publicity arms.
India too is not spared.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull takes selfie with Prime Minister Narerndra Modi while travelling in Metro train in New Delhi
Image
Our story though is heard differently in different parts of the world.
Our scientific, technological, industrial achievements and development programmes attract more interest in developing countries where our image is much more positive than in the developed world, though there too the Indian story has evolved from focusing on poverty, backwardness and social ills to recognition of an economically rising India.
We are increasingly bracketed with China, though the latter has outstripped us. But an increasingly assertive China is now perceived as a threat, whereas India is not, which is to our advantage.
Hindutava and the issue of rising intolerance in India gets adverse attention primarily in the US and the UK and some Leftist circles in Europe.
In some eyes a consolidation of Hindu power would make India less amenable to external influence.
Christian lobbies in the US and parts of Europe also distort the story of tolerance and religious freedom in India by focusing on the issue of conversions.
That we are home to all religions, believe that all are equal, that all the world is a family, that we are a living example of unity in diversity and so on, is a story that we have told since Independence, but without shaping global thinking about India enduringly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during a ceremonial reception at Presidential house in New Delhi
We should not be overawed by Western opinion and our approach to the India story should not revolve around increasing our self-esteem in occidental eyes.
The role of our own intellectuals, NGOs and the media in distorting the India story externally should not be overlooked.
This is aggravated by some academics, writers, analysts living abroad who feel alienated from their country of origin.
The secular-non-secular debate and caste issues are used to tarnish Indias image. Such elements validate existing prejudices against India in certain Western circles.
On the whole, Indias image is a mixed one, with many positives and several negatives.
At the popular level the positives are our old civilisation, the splendour of Maharajas, India as the land of Gandhi and Buddha, Bollywood, dance and music, rich culture, temples, festivals, great touristic sites, yoga, Ayurvedic massages in Kerala.
Our democracy, prowess in the IT sector, and growing economy add to the list of positives.
The negatives are the caste system, inequality, poverty, dirt, overpopulation, corruption, social divisions, Kashmir, human rights violations, unresolved tensions with Pakistan, nuclear issues, mounting intolerance and Hindutva ideology.
Generally, the media interest in India is limited in the West and often negative as its focus on our social ills persists.
Negatives
Apart from managing the negatives, our story is in parts confusing to tell. We advocate peace but have fought wars, though not of our making.
Our philosophical attachment to non-violence co-exists with violence in our society.
Mahatma Gandhi fought racism in Africa but incidents against African students in India expose us to accusations of racism but we are basically tolerant but religious tensions disfigure our society.
The caste system is outlawed but we have encouraged its role in our politics through our electoral process and caste-related reservations. Indias core personality is defined by its Hindu identity, yet we have rejected this over the years because of secularism.
The Ramayana has influenced the cultural identity of some of our eastern neighbours but we get into domestic controversies over it.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi our civilisational identity is being projected with less inhibition, but we see the resistance within.
We have multiple narratives about India in our own country. The challenge is how to tell a coherent story.
Success
Our story is both well-established and evolving. As India grows and modernises, its story takes new dimensions.
Chinas story has changed in the last 30 years from a poor backward country to a formidable power which all want to woo and accommodate. Its financial capacity gives it the means to tell its story, including through many international Chinese TV channels.
Russia has created its RT channel, but India has no channel to match RT, BBC or CNN. The India story cannot be told by the government alone or through its sponsored initiatives.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) shakes hands with the new Chief Minister of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath
In a democracy like ours the story gets told also by the civil society, the media, the intellectuals, writers, the entrepreneurs and so on.
The dissenters, the alienated, the protesters tell their own tale. Foreign journalists and businessmen in India have a narrative from their perspective.
In an authoritarian society the story can be controlled. Not so in India.
At times, our story is heard on its own, as with our Mars mission, our launch of 104 satellites at one go, the Indians at the head of US IT giants and, conversely, our poor show at the Olympics.
Our story will no doubt be better heard when we resolve our own problems, address our social ills, progress economically and develop a broadly shared national narrative.
We should understand that a success story is the only story worth telling.
AAP finally found something to fire back at the BJP after it emerged that the saffron party's Inderpuri candidate for this month's municipal polls - who was touted as a slum dweller and the face of the city's urban poor - also happens to be a millionaire.
Meet Sunita Kaushik, the candidate handpicked for the polls by the party's city chief Manoj Tiwari.
The BJP is now on the defensive after news that she told the state election commission in an affidavit that she has assets worth Rs 1.35 crore, including three residential houses in west Delhi.
Sunita Kaushik told the state election commission in an affidavit that she has assets worth Rs 1.35 crore, including three residential houses in west Delhi
However, Kaushik is not an income-tax payer.
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Dilip Pandey termed the BJP's support for the slum dwellers and residents of unauthorised colonies in Delhi 'hypocrisy' and 'fake'.
'By portraying a millionaire candidate as a slum dweller, the BJP has hurt the sentiments of the poor,' he said.
'It is an insult to lakhs of people living in Delhi's slums and unauthorised colonies in a pitiable condition.'
The BJP has dominated the city civic bodies for years and had announced that it would field just a few new faces.
It faces a tough contest from AAP, which is keen to take charge of the municipal corporations after burying rivals under a landslide win in the assembly polls two years ago.
Kaushik's plunge into Delhi politics was like a scene from a Bollywood movie.
Tiwari, who was on a visit to the Inderpuri slums this New Year's Eve, met the woman who came to the BJP president alleging that 'politicians never listened to the problems of the poor'.
Impressed by her straight talk, Tiwari assured her of a 'solution' and it surprised many when he declared Kaushik as the BJP's candidate from the local municipal ward.
It was Tiwari's first visit to Delhi's slums after taking charge of Delhi BJP last year.
He had spent the night of December 31, 2016 with the residents of Todapur slums where he also met Sunita Kaushik.
'During the BJP president's visit, she had said that politicians don't listen to the poor.
'To this, she was promised a solution. Today she is a BJP candidate,' the party's city unit had said in a statement after announcing her candidature.
A senior leader said the BJP had also ensured her ticket keeping in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to strengthen the weaker and poorer sections of Indian society.
'My visits were a reality check on the condition of slums and unauthorised colonies under the AAP government. I was pained to hear that politicians do not listen to the poor,' Tiwari said about the interaction at the shanties.
According to the affidavit, Kaushik is a millionaire with two houses and jewellery worth Rs 97 lakh.
She disclosed that she owns two residential properties measuring 720 square feet and 553 square feet at Dasghara in Inderpuri whose market price is pegged at Rs 50 lakh and Rs 32 lakh, respectively.
Her husband, Shashi Bhushan, also owns a house worth Rs 10 lakh. The couple possesses jewellery worth Rs 7 lakh. Kaushik's share in it is valued at Rs 6 lakh.
The affidavit also disclosed that she has Rs 50,000 in cash while her husband carries Rs 85,000. However, she only has Rs 1,000 in her bank account, a little more than her spouse's Rs 576.
Pretty in pink: Ahead of MCD elections Manoj Tiwari hold roadshow in R K Puram in New Delhi
BJP leaders refused to comment on the assets declared by its candidate but said its pick was aimed at supporting the less-privileged.
'While no other party has ever stood with the slum dwellers, the BJP is the only party to have chosen its candidate from the weaker sections.
It has been done with a strong intent to strengthen the poor,' said a party leader.
This is the blog of China defense, where professional analysts and serious defense enthusiasts share findings on a rising military power.
Indian intelligence sources say that the runaway Rohingya community from Myanmar has emerged as a serious security threat to India.
Indian authorities are now running a sweeping drive to identify the refugees for relocation or deportation.
The reports come days after New Delhi urged Naypyidaw to contain violence against the Muslims living in the western part of Myanmar bordering Bangladesh.
Rohingya Muslim refugees in Delhi protest against the crackdown on ethnic Rohingyas in Myanmar (Burma)
Sources say the home ministry has not yet made an official call on their deportation but the fate of around 40,000 Rohingya, who have taken refuge in India, will be sealed soon.
Hundreds have died in communal violence between Buddhists and Rohingya in 2012, worsening their plight, and in the last few years thousands from the Muslim community have fled to countries such as India, Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
The Rohingya people are a Muslim Indo-Aryan community from the Rakhine State of Myanmar and are often described as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world (pictured - family in a refugee settlement in Bangladesh)
Intelligence officials are closely observing the movements of the Rohingya.
Delhi Police's special cell arrested two youths of the community from Kolkata last month who allegedly had links with terrorist groups and were planning to fly to Dubai on fake passports.
A number of Rohingya are also living in and around the national Capital.
Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab claimed in the Lok Sabha last week that 40,000 Rohingya Muslims had illegally entered India from Myanmar and they are being trained as terrorists, creating an 'alarming' situation.
'There are too many of them living in the country and are mostly being confused as Bengali.
'They are vulnerable to getting radicalised and recently they have been behind terrorist activities. There were terror alerts about them in the past but now the government has initiated a check on them,' said a senior intelligence officer.
A refugee girl carries water jug in Kutupalong new expanded Rohingya refugee camp
Sources say the identification process will be over soon with the help of state governments. However, deportation won't be easy as they are spread over large parts and many have got Indian documents now, they added.
The government of Myanmar does not officially recognise the Rohingya, regarding them as illegal Bengali immigrants, despite many being able to trace their roots back in Myanmar for generations.
A senior Delhi Police officer told Mail Today that many Rohingya Muslims have also been involved in petty crimes.
'They can be a potential threat soon and it is important to identify and act against them before they become a part of the local populace,' he said.
This potential threat came to the notice of security agencies in 2013 after the arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abdul Karim Tunda who traveled from Pakistan to Bangladesh over the past decade to explore the possibility of recruiting Rohingya youth for terror.
12 year old Nurana stands outside her home in the Shamalapur Rohingya refugee settlement in Chittagong district, Bangladesh. She escaped to Bangladesh from Myanmar 10 years ago with her parents and 6 siblings
Tunda had promised LeT chief Hafiz Saeed that he will train Rohingya Muslims in making bombs and in motivating them, but only if they carried out a blast in India.
Saeed earlier referred to them as 'brothers' and spoke against their persecution in Myanmar.
Security agencies say these youths may be more prone to radicalisation than Indian Muslims.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Jammu last week demanded the immediate deportation of Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslims settled in the area, saying that the business community would otherwise launch an 'identify and kill' operation against them.
As per the J&K government's figures, a total of 5,743 Rohingya are staying in the state for the past six years and the police as well as other agencies have not reported even a single incident of radicalisation or their involvement in any militancy related act.
Although home to numerous refugees from across South Asia, India is not a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention and does not grant refugee status.
Unsuitable: FCA chairman John Griffith-Jones
The whistleblowing scandal at Barclays, together with fresh disclosures suggesting a cover-up at the highest level of Lloyds over the scandal at HBOS's Reading branch, means the Financial Conduct Authority finds itself at the centre of two highly sensitive probes.
Both investigations will test the public's faith in the integrity of the financial system.
No one doubts the ability of the highly respected chief executive of the FCA, Andrew Bailey, who was drafted in from the Bank of England, to conduct the most thorough inquiries.
But as a result of remarkable complacency in the Treasury and the City, it is astonishing that at such a sensitive time that the chairman of the regulator is John Griffith-Jones, the former senior partner at auditors KPMG.
It was on his watch at KPMG that HBOS came within a hair's breadth of failure without the auditor blowing the whistle ahead of the rescue bid by Lloyds.
KPMG was also the Co-op Bank's auditor, and suffered heavy criticism by MPs over its lack of due diligence at the time of the bank's takeover of the Britannia building society. The Co-op Bank currently stands on the brink of failure.
Matters have been brought to a head by disclosures relating to the fraud which took place at HBOS's Reading branch where the costs are soaring.
The scandal has cost Lloyds some 245million and it has set aside a further 100million to compensate victims.
Griffith-Jones, of course, bears no responsibility for the high jinks at the Reading branch.
But what we now know is that executives at HBOS may have been aware of a fraud there as long ago as 2008 when it was merged with Lloyds, and as far as we know executives were anxious 'not to disclose'.
Auditors KPMG, who might have been expected to raise a stink, did nothing.
The FCA has been clear that Griffith-Jones stepped aside from the various inquiries into HBOS so there is no conflict of interest.
That is not good enough. The integrity and independence of Britain's top financial regulator, responsible for protecting the consumer from wrongdoing, needs to be beyond reproach.
It makes a mockery of the post-crisis regulatory regime that someone who held high office in a firm so deeply involved in two banking collapses should be occupying such a role.
Chancellor Philip Hammond should ask for Griffith-Jones's resignation. A chairman who has to excuse himself from inquiries into some of the most troubling events in the banking system is no chairman at all.
Pay hypocrisy
One of the dirty little secrets of the City is how the backwater of fund management became so well paid.
It is even more remarkable given that these financial gurus are the very people who are meant to hold wealth-creating FTSE 100 executives to account over remuneration.
Analysis by the FT shows there were big pay cuts in the sector in 2016, led by Andrew Formica of Henderson, who saw his income slashed 65 per cent to 2million.
Martin Gilbert, who is seeking to cement a merger with larger Standard Life, saw his pay reduced by 35.5 per cent to a mere 2.8million. A smaller reduction was recorded at Jupiter.
It would be nice to think that the pay cuts reflected greater scrutiny by remuneration panels, and recognition of the hypocrisy involved.
The reality is more about changes in financial conditions. Many managers, such as Aberdeen, were affected badly by a switch in investor fashion, which saw emerging market outflows.
As significant is a loss of confidence in active management. Investors have grown restless with high charges which eat into returns.
Charges were the subject of a critical report recently from the Financial Conduct Authority. Inappropriate management fees, which enrich managers at the expense of clients, have become a huge irritant.
These have sent investors scurrying into lower-cost vehicles such exchange-traded funds and passive funds such as Vanguard.
Investors may be willing to pay a premium for performance, but they don't want to see returns gobbled up by yachts for the bosses.
Freedom festival
Last night Jewish people and friends from other faith groups sat down to recount the ultimate Brexit story.
The Israelites, having delivered all manner of perils upon Egypt's ruler Pharaoh, were given the nod to leave oppression and economic subjugation and head across the Sinai to the promised land in the Exodus story.
Once in the wilderness, many, like modern-day Remainers, wanted to turn the clock back and return to Egypt, despite the loss of sovereignty and freedom.
Sound familiar?
Centre of attention: Shaftesbury is the landlord for Carnaby Street
CHINA SALE
Hong Kong billionaire Samuel Tak Lee has spent 500m on shares in London landlord Shaftesbury ahead of a possible takeover bid.
The tycoon now owns 20 per cent of the business, which is the landlord for Carnaby Street, Chinatown and much of Soho.
TECH DEBT
Troubled microchip maker Imagination is facing growing concerns over a 19m loan due next June.
The debt is secured against its 55m headquarters in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire. Imagination shares plunged more than 60 per cent earlier this month after Apple announced it would be ending a 65m-a-year contract.
GREEK BAILOUT
Greece is seeking to avoid another debt crisis after caving in to its creditors over further spending cuts.
Bailout talks will resume this week following a pause as Athens and the EU rowed about the need for more austerity.
Reforms have now been agreed which will unlock fresh funds so the nation can pay off 5.1bn of borrowing in July.
TWITTER VOTE
Social media giant Twitter has called on investors to reject plans to transform it into a co-operative.
A group of investors came up with the proposal amid mounting losses, with shares almost half their float price. A vote is due at its AGM next month.
CO-OP WOES
US hedge funds which saved the Co-op Bank expect to get back just 5p for every 1 they invested if it is sold this year.
The lender is seeking a new owner amid fears it is seriously low on cash.
Barclays boss Jes Staley faces having his pay slashed by more than 1million and a City watchdog inquiry after trying to unmask a whistleblower.
The banker repeatedly attempted to learn the identity of an individual who raised concerns about a senior employee despite being advised it was 'inappropriate'.
The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority are now investigating the situation, while Barclays said Staley can expect a 'very significant compensation adjustment'.
That is expected to include him losing a bonus of more than a million pounds from his pay package - which has previously totalled more than 4.2million a year.
Investigated: The UK's top City regulators have launched an investigation into Barclays boss Jes Staley, pictured, in respect to his handling of a whistleblowing case
In a statement, Barclays said Staley 'honestly, but mistakenly, believed it was permissible to identify the author of the letter.'
As part of its investigation, the regulators will also examine Barclays' 'systems and controls' in respect to whistleblowing procedures.
Staley said: 'I have apologised to the Barclays Board, and accepted its conclusion that my personal actions in this matter were errors on my part. I will also accept whatever sanction it deems appropriate.
'I will cooperate fully with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority, which are now both examining this matter.
'Our whistleblowing process is one of the most important means by which we protect our culture and values at Barclays and I certainly want to ensure that all colleagues, and others who may utilise it, understand the criticality which I attach to it.'
Two whistleblowing letters were written to the Barclays' board in June 2016. 'Among other issues, the letters raised concerns of a 'personal nature' about a newly-appointed senior executive, Barclays said.
'Mr Staley considered that the letters were an unfair personal attack on the senior employee', the statement adds.
Letters: Earlier this year, Barclays discovered that Mr Staley had tried to discover the author of letters written as part of a whistleblowing matter last year
Having been given a copy of the first letter and made aware of the second, Staley initially requested that Barclays Group Information Security team attempt to identify the authors of the letters.
After discovering Staley had tried to find out who wrote the letters, Barclays engaged law firm Simmons & Simmons to investigate the matter.
In the end, the author or authors of the two letters were not revealed to Staley.
John McFarlane, the chairman of Barclays, said: 'I am personally very disappointed and apologetic that this situation has occurred, particularly as we strive to operate to the highest possible ethical standards.'
'The Board takes Barclays culture and the integrity of its controls extremely seriously. We have investigated this matter fully using an external law firm and we will be commissioning an independent review of Barclays processes and controls to determine what improvements may be required.'
Shares in Barclays are down 0.57 per cent to 214.08p so far this morning.
In 2015, the FCA ordered Barclays to pay 284.4million as part of the British banks 1.5billion settlement with the City watchdog and four US regulators. This is just one of a string of fines and penalties relating to rate-rigging scandals the bank has paid out.
MPs have demanded an inquiry into allegations the Bank of England may have been involved in the rigging of the Libor interest rate during the 2008 financial crisis.
A secret recording of a conversation between a top Barclays bank manager and a Libor rate setter in 2008 suggests the central bank was putting pressure on lenders to keep the rate low.
Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, is the rate at which banks lend to each other. The rate is then used to set rates for a host of consumer products, like car loans and mortgages.
Pressure: The Bank of England may have been involved in the manipulation of Libor rates at the heart of the financial crisis in 2008, a BBC Panorama investigation has uncovered
During the 2008 recording, Mark Dearlove, a senior manager at Barclays, reportedly told rate submitter Peter Johnson that he needed to lower his Libor rate, saying: 'The bottom line is you're going to absolutely hate this ... but we've had some very serious pressure from the UK government and the Bank of England about pushing our Libors lower.'
According to the BBC Panorama report: 'The recording calls into question evidence given in 2012 to the Treasury select committee by former Barclays boss Bob Diamond and Paul Tucker, the man who went on to become the deputy governor of the Bank of England.'
The recording took place on 29 October 2008, the same day Mr Tucker, who was at that time an executive director of the Bank of England, phoned Barclays boss Mr Diamond and discussed Barclays' Libor rate.
Tory MP Chris Philp, who sits on the Treasury Select Committee, said: 'I have seen Panorama's explosive evidence on LIBOR rigging.
'Suggests in 2008/9 Bank of England instructed rigging. Urgent inquiry needed.'
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell demanded a government investigation into the affair.
He said: 'This is an extremely serious revelation that contradicts past assurances about the role of the Bank of England in the Libor scandal.
'It goes to the very heart of whether our financial institutions can be trusted.
'Therefore it warrants an immediate high-level investigation, and the Chancellor must act straight away to ensure this happens.'
The Bank of England stressed it did not regulate Libor at the time of the telephone conversations in 2008.
Resigned: Former Barclays boss Bob Diamond resigned in 2012 amid the rate setting scandal
A Bank of England spokesperson said: 'Libor and other global benchmarks were not regulated in the UK or elsewhere during the period in question.'
'Nonetheless, the Bank of England has been assisting the SFOs criminal investigations into Libor manipulation by employees at commercial banks and brokers by providing, on a voluntary basis, documents and records requested by the SFO.'
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said there must be a government probe into the affair
'The Bank is committed to publishing materials relating to the SFOs investigations into benchmark manipulation when it is appropriate to do so.'
'Until the SFOs ongoing prosecutorial activity relating to Libor and other benchmarks has concluded, the Bank is not in a position to publish these materials,' the spokesperson added.
BBC Panorama's findings have led
Banks can profit from inter-bank trades of the Libor rate by setting it artificially high or low. A manipulated Libor rate can also make a bank appear financially healthier than it really is.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, a string of banks have been slapped with fines for manipulating Libor rates.
Taking just one example, in 2015, the FCA ordered Barclays to pay 284.4million as part of the British banks 1.5billion settlement with the City watchdog and four US regulators.
Libor is now regulated by the UK's main financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority.
Anti-fracking campaigners have targetted Bell Pottinger due to its links with Cuadrilla
Public relations firm Bell Pottinger was targeted yesterday by anti-fracking campaigners Reclaim The Power, who were angry about the company's association with energy firm Cuadrilla.
Protesters dressed as animals apparently 'threw leaves, spread manure and sprayed squid ink' in the lobby of the firm's Holborn offices.
Wouldn't their cause would be better served by reasoned debate than puerile stunts? Bell Pottinger spinners might wish to advise.
Billionaire US financier Steve Cohen is to auction a painting by Jean-Michele Basquiat, called La Hara, at Christie's next month, which could fetch as much as 22million.
Mere folding money to dome-headed Cohen, 60, (no oil painting himself, I fear) whose formidable art collection is worth around 800million.
He paid Charles Saatchi 6.4million for Damien Hirst's ridiculous embalmed shark in 2004, which he had to repair at a cost of 54,000 after it began to rot.
Goldman Sachs's London-based head of foreign exchange derivatives, Manikandan Natarajan, is to retire.
As a Goldman partner, Indian-born Natarajan will have earned an annual seven-figure remuneration to last him through his dotage.
If that's not enough to make the molars grind, try this: the jammy rascal has barely turned 38.
Last night's Panorama raised the tantalising prospect of ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond being summoned to appear again in front of the Treasury Select Committee over his role in the Libor scandal.
His last appearance in 2011 was not a success. He irritated MPs by addressing them by their first names in a misplaced attempt to be chummy.
Word was he'd received serpentine advice from Lord Mandelson.
The mega-merger between City law firms CMS, Nabarro and Olswang is due to complete next month.
Due to on-going 'synergies', the firms have offered all 46 trainees arriving in September 10,000 to defer their start date for six months.
Only half the influx have agreed to this bite-your-hand-off proposition. Students don't know they're born, do they?
Shell was last night accused of taking part in 'one of the worst corruption scandals the industry has ever seen' after buying an oil field in Nigeria.
The Anglo-Dutch giant joined forces with Italian rival Eni to acquire the site off the coast of the West African country for 1billion giving it access to 9bn barrels of oil, worth nearly half a trillion dollars at today's prices.
But leaked documents suggest it knew much of this cash would fall into the hands of a convicted money launderer and be used to bribe government officials.
There is also evidence claiming that when police raided Shell's headquarters, its chief executive told another member of his senior team: 'Don't volunteer any information that is not requested.'
A Shell worker on an offshore oil platform in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Shell has been accused of taking part in 'one of the worst corruption scandals the industry has ever seen'
Simon Taylor, of anti-corruption organisation Global Witness, said: 'This is one of the worst corruption scandals the oil industry has ever seen.'
Shell was desperate to get its hands on the oil field, known as OPL 245, because it is one of the most valuable oil blocks in Africa.
But taking control of the site involved negotiating with former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete, a money launderer whose company Malabu bought the rights to OPL 245 in 1998.
Although Shell paid the money to the Nigerian government when it bought the field in 2011, it was forced to negotiate with Etete in order to secure the deal.
Much of the cash was then filtered through to Etete, who it is alleged used most of it to make payments to government officials before splashing out on armoured vehicles, a private jet and shotguns.
Leaked emails reveal the extent to which Shell staff knew what Etete would do with the money. After speaking to Etete's wife, one employee said to another: 'She says E claims he will only get 40m of the 300m we offering rest goes in paying people off.'
A separate note, which was forwarded to former Shell chief executive Peter Voser, said: 'Etete can smell the money. If at nearly 70 years old he does turn his nose up at nearly $1.2billion he is completely certifiable and we should then probably just hold out until nature takes its course.'
Wiretap: After Shell's headquarters in the Hague were raided in February last year, ceo Ben Van Beurden urged chief financial officer Simon Henry not to disclose the raid to shareholders
There are questions about why Shell was negotiating with a convicted money launderer, just after it had paid 24.2million to settle allegations of bribery in Nigeria.
It was also suspected the new deal could involve money being passed to the former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Italian prosecutors, who will begin hearings later this month on whether Shell, Eni and Etete will face trial for international bribery, said the president probably received as much as 161million to approve the sale of the oil field. He has denied this is the case.
One email to Shell's exploration chief said: 'The president is motivated to see 245 close quickly driven by expectations about the proceeds that Malabu will receive and political contributions that will flow as a consequence.'
Current chief executive Ben Van Beurden has also been caught up in the investigation.
He was not in position when the deal was complete, but after Shell's Hague offices were raided in February last year, Dutch authorities wire-tapped a call between Van Beurden and then chief financial officer Simon Henry.
A Shell spokesman said: 'If the evidence ultimately proves that improper payments were made by Malabu or others to then current government officials, in exchange for improper conduct relating to the 2011 settlement of the long-standing legal disputes, it is Shell's position that none of those payments were made with its knowledge, authorisation or on its behalf.'
Eni denied any wrongdoing.
Meghan Markle's niece says her mother's vendetta against her sister, Prince Harry's girlfriend and her plan to write a tell-all book about their shared childhood is motivated by 'hate'.
Noel Rasmussen, 18, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the youngest daughter of Meghan's half-sister Samantha Grant, 52, of Silver Springs, Florida.
Grant has revealed that she plans to write a book called 'The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister' which will include her memories of growing up with Meghan, 35, and 'deal with my bi-racial family in a candid, warm, personal and socially important way'.
But Rasmussen, an anthropology student, says Grant loathes Meghan, who has been dating Prince Harry since May 2016, and has spent years telling the rest of the family that she doesn't want her around.
She and her mother are estranged and Rasmussen also accuses her mother of abusing her.
Family: Noelle Rasmussen is the niece of Meghan Markle, whose half-sister Samantha Grant is her mother. But she is estranged from her mother, and says that Grant's announcement she is writing a book on being sister to 'princess pushy' is motivated by hatred
Not close: Samantha Grant and Meghan Markle are sisters through their father, Thomas Markle. But Grant has repeatedly accused the actress of not being supportive of her
She told DailyMail.com: 'When [Meghan] started dating Prince Harry, [Grant] got an interest in Meghan which she had never had before.
'She wanted to be nice, to be friends, to say how much she loves her sister but after years of telling me and the rest of the family how much she hates Meghan, how much of a narcissist Meghan apparently is and what a horrible woman Meghan is, which isn't true at all.'
Rasmussen said her mother's dislike of her sister had been apparent for much of her life.
'Of course my mother doesn't like Meghan. This she's told me starting from a very early age,' she said.
'She hasn't liked Meghan since essentially she was born. She's told me stories about how she didn't want her around and how she never asked for Meghan.
'She's just been overall jealous of Meghan as soon as she got famous and began taking jobs like, for example, [Beverly Hills] 90210. And of course, when she got Suits, that set her off.
'After however many years, she's just completely bashed Meghan, said the most horrible things about her to the entire family, and just been completely jealous of her.
'She hasn't shown her any type of love or appreciation unless she wants money. That's it.'
Grant's claim that she will write a book about her relationship with Markle earned a withering response from her own daughter.
'It's not a tell all book if it's all lies,' she said.
'You can essentially write a book full of lies but it's not a tell all. It's literally just going to be her versions, her ramblings, of things that have happened. None of it is going to be true.'
Rasmussen also claims her mother was an abusive parent who beat her and pulled her out of school at the age of 15.
She further claims to have suffered at the hands of her mother's convicted criminal boyfriend Mark Phillips, 59, who moved in when Noel was 13.
Rasmussen said: 'She [would say] if it's not bleeding and there's nothing broken, there's no abuse. That's her way of justifying it.'
The teenager began living with her father Scott Rasmussen, 57, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, shortly before her 17th birthday, was born in October 1998 and her parents split five years later.
Following a bitter divorce in 2003, Grant was given custody of the little girl but, claims Rasmussen, made her life a misery from the start.
She said: 'I can't remember the younger years but I'm assuming [the abuse] was pretty much since I was one or two.
'I do remember one [incident] it was when I was very young, maybe about four or five. She had gotten very upset about something; I forget what it was but she picked me up by the arm and threw me into a wall.
'A few other incidents I remember probably when I was nine or ten - I would get scratched, spat at, hair pulled, that sort of thing.
'This was something she did fairly often. It was more of an everyday thing. My grandmother Roslyn, she would take me to school in elementary and middle school, and she remembers me being screamed at and that type of thing. She would see this every day.'
Family: Meghan Markle's father, Thomas Markle (left, with her as a child) was already father to Thomas Jr and Samantha when he married Doria Ragland (right) and became father to Meghan. The couple have since divorced
Abuse claims: Samantha Grant now lives in Florida with her partner Mark Phillips. Documents show claims of domestic abuse. Her daughter Noel Rasmussen tells DailyMail.com she was abused by Grant
Roslyn Markle, 71, is the first wife of Meghan's father Thomas Sr, 72, of Los Angeles, California, and the mother of his eldest two children Grant and Thomas Jr, 50.
Meghan is Thomas Sr's daughter from his second marriage to yoga teacher Doria Ragland, 60.
Roslyn said: 'I remember one morning, Noel was sitting at the table eating breakfast and she had a pair of her shoes in the middle of the living room, and Samantha started screaming at her to get her f***ing shoes out of the middle of the floor.
'I made the comment, let her eat her breakfast, she can pick up her shoes later. That was the start of a tirade. I want her f***ing shoes out of the middle of the floor right now and I don't care if she's eating breakfast.'
Rasmussen claims the physical abuse stopped when she was in her early teens and Grant was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was forced to begin using a wheelchair.
But, she says, the verbal abuse continued and worsened after Phillips came into their lives.
Noel said: 'She had been talking to Mark Phillips for maybe a month or so and I [got] home from school one day and there's this guy just hanging out.
She is a very, very nice person very sweet, very genuine. She is nothing like my mother. She is actually the complete opposite she is just a great, great woman Noel Rasmussen on Meghan Markle
'I'm like, OK, who is this guy? And she was like, this is Mark he's going to be living with us now. She eventually told me she had met him on Facebook, started talking and just decided to move him in.'
Phillips, who works clearing storage units, has a string of arrests, warrants and criminal charges spanning four different states California, Florida, Massachusetts and Washington.
Records seen by DailyMail.com show his brushes with law enforcement stretch back to a series of arrests in 1977 in Massachusetts, and include charges in Miami, Florida, in 1982.
According to Noel, Phillips seemed kind and pleasant for the first month but says he quickly became abusive, both to her and her mother.
She said: 'I was more scared of him [than Grant], honestly. He threatened to stab me once. We were in line in Walmart and he realizes he's forgotten ice.
'He's standing a foot or so from the ice machine he asks me to go round him and get it. I can't go round him just because of how he's positioned and so I ask him, so can you please get it? I can't get around you.
'And so, he just blows up at that point. He just starts going on about how when we leave, I'm going to get it, I'm going to get stabbed, he was going to pull a knife on me.
'He wanted to fight me when we got home. He wanted to fight a 15-year-old girl. Which I thought was kind of ridiculous.'
Phillips denies the stabbing threat. He alleges that Noel herself is unstable and an unreliable witness who has made untrue claims in the past.
Matters finally came to a head following a three-day argument with Phillips in March 2015, after which, Noel claims, her mother threw her out.
She said: 'There was a fight that had happened I can't remember what it was over but it was over three, maybe four days.
'It was just constant, constant anger [from Phillips] towards me and my mom. Eventually, my mom just said, well I'm not going to keep both you and Mark in the same house and I'm not making Mark leave, so that left me to leave.'
Noel then moved in with her father Scott, a film industry armorer at which point both he and Grant began an extended custody wrangle over their daughter.
Both took out restraining orders against the other and repeatedly called the police over alleged violations between May 2015 and May 2016.
Family: Noel Rasmussen (right) now lives with her grandmother Rosyln Markle. Both women are estranged from Samantha Grant. Her daughter says Grant is motivated by jealousy
Abuse claims: DailyMail.com has seen documents showing how the police dealt with Rasmussen's allegations against her mother
Noel says relations between her parents became so bad, she and her father were forced to ask the police to help them retrieve her possessions. Her account matches a police report seen by DailyMail.com.
Dated June 29 2015, it says that Scott and Noel went to Grant's home to collect her things accompanied by officers, although that was not enough to stop her from calling the police.
During the custody battle, which ended with Noel's 18th birthday in October last year, Phillips was accused of harassing Noel with abusive text messages, which have been seen by DailyMail.com.
In them, he calls her a liar and adds: 'Perjury is a serious charge and you will not lie or you will be charged and granny as well.'
Another incident involving Phillips took place on July 29 2015 when he was accused of being abusive to Noel inside court, according to an affidavit filed by Scott.
According to documents seen by DailyMail.com, Phillips shouted: 'Stupid f***ing b***h' at the 18-year-old as she passed him in the corridor.
Mother and daughter are now estranged, although Rasmussen says she is concerned that Phillips might one day hurt Gran.
Police records from New Mexico show that police were called to a domestic violence incident at the couple's home shortly before they relocated to Florida where they now live.
Rasmussen says she now wants to get on with her life without input from her mother but wishes her aunt Meghan all the best and says she hopes Prince Harry will make her happy.
She said: 'She is a very, very nice person very sweet, very genuine. She is nothing like my mother. She is actually the complete opposite she is just a great, great woman.
'I remember her being very friendly, very open. She's funny. I'm sure she will make Prince Harry happy and I hope he does the same for her because she's just such a wonderful woman.
Noel added: 'I hope Meghan has a really good life. If she doesn't end up with Prince Harry, I hope she ends up with someone equally as great who makes her just as happy as she makes them.'
President Trump has asked advisers to be ready with a list of 'options' to put an end to North Korea's nuclear threat.
Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster said on Sunday that the Commander in Chief has put his security team on notice as a U.S. carrier strike group heads for the region.
He did not say what options Trump will be presented with, though many believe pre-emptive strikes will be among them.
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Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster confirmed Trump has asked his advisers to be ready with a list of options to take out North Korea's nuclear threat
McMaster's comments came as Navy chiefs confirmed that the Carl Vinson carrier strike group is being diverted to the Korean peninsula
McMaster, himself an adviser to the White House, described the decision to redeploy the USS Carl Vinson to the Sea of Japan as 'prudent' given North Korea's 'pattern of provocative behavior.'
Speaking to Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace about the deployment, McMaster said: 'It's prudent to do it, isn't it?
'Presidents before and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearization of the peninsula.
'The president has asked [us] to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat.'
The news comes after Trump launched cruise missiles against Assad in Syria last week, the first time the US has directly targeted the regime during the conflict.
North Korea denounced Trump's attack as an act of 'intolerable aggression' and one that justified 'a million times over' its push toward a nuclear deterrent.
On Saturday Admiral Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, redirected the USS Carl Vinson strike group from Singapore to an area due east of the Korean Peninsula.
It is not known what measures will be presented to Trump, though many expect pre-emptive strikes to be included (pictured, USS Carl Vinson)
North Korea has carried out two tests of long-range missiles this year (pictured), and is believed to be preparing for another nuclear test
The Navy said the strike group 'will operate in the Western Pacific rather than executing previously planned port visits to Australia.'
The moves come a week after Trump warned China that he is willing to go it alone in 'solving' the North Korea issue.
While the President did not make it clear what that solution would look like, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has since insisted it does not involve removing the Kim regime.
'That is not our objective and so the whole reasons underlying the development of a nuclear program in North Korea are simply not credible,' Tillerson told ABC.
He said the United States expects China, the main ally of North Korea, to do more to rein in the regime in Pyongyang.
'They have indicated that they will, and I think we need to allow them time to take actions,' Tillerson said.
Kim Jong-un has said he is determined to develop a weapon capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States
Trump signaled a hard-line stance against North Korea during his meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago last week (pictured)
Asked if the development of a long-range ballistic missile would mark a red line for Trump, Tillerson said: 'If we judge that they have perfected that type of delivery system, then that becomes a very serious stage of their further development.'
Xi Jinping, the Chinese premier, was at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night when Trump launched strikes against the Shayrat airbase in Syria.
Tensions between North Korea and its neighbors have escalated in recent months as Pyongyang pushes ahead with its quest to develop inter-continental ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the mainland United States.
Earlier this year Kim Jong-un test-fired several missiles which flew around 310 miles before dropping into the Sea of Japan.
Last week the regime test-fired another missile, though it flew only around 60 miles before suffering a malfunction and exploding.
Pyongyang has also staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year, and satellite imagery suggests it could be preparing for a sixth.
Intelligence officials have warned that Pyongyang could be less than two years away being able to deliver a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.
A German historian has claimed that Adolf Hitler lived for almost a decade in a house that belonged to a Jewish merchant
A German historian has claimed that Adolf Hitler lived for almost a decade in a house that belonged to a Jewish merchant.
Paul Hoser says Hitler lived at Thierschstrasse 41 in Munich's Lehel district from 1920 till 1929, interrupted by a year spent at Landsberg prison for staging a failed coup in Bavaria.
Writing in the quarterly VfZ, Hoser says house was bought in 1921 by Hugo Erlanger.
According to the research, Hitler treated his Jewish landlord 'with courtesy' despite harboring strong anti-Semitism that would later contribute to the Nazi's murderous policy toward Jews.
Hoser - who has written a new book entitled Thierschstrasse 41: the Lodger Hitler, His Jewish Landlord and a Restitution Problem - reveals how Erlanger told Hitler's 1934 biographer: 'I must admit that I was quite sympathetic to Hitler.
'I met him often on the stairs or at the entrance most of the time he wrote something in a notebook - and usually he was quite friendly, speaking a few non-committal words with me.
'He never gave me the feeling that he considered me differently than other people.'
Erlanger was a veteran of the trenches like Hitler and ran a medical supplies shop on the ground floor of his building.
It was here, writes Hoser, that Hitler plotted his abortive 1923 overthrow of the Weimar Republic with other fanatics.
Hoser says the room soon became a regular 'Nazi nest'. One frequent visitor was Philipp Bouhler who, in 1939, was appointed by Hitler to direct the secret euthanasia programme killing the sick and disabled.
The Nazi leader is pictured at another apartment in Thierschstrasse in 1930
Wilhelm Frick, who became his Minister of the Interior in and was hanged at Nuremberg in 1946 for crimes against humanity, was another.
And women were also invited - Hitler groupies who swooned on his presence in the linoleum lined room.
Hoser discovered the account of one female in a Munich archive. She said: 'He looked me so deep and warm in the eye, it drove me abruptly to declare: you can rely on me forever and ever!'
Erlanger ignored the Nazi comings and goings, later stating: 'Because I'm a Jew , I took as little notice as possible to the activities of my house dweller and the Nazis. But he was polite to me.'
There are also some other cases in which Hitler behaved politely,or even friendly, towards Jews. He offered the Jewish doctor who treated his mother for cancer the chance of becoming an 'honary ayran' in 1938.
And Hoser details another example from the spring of 1922. Hitler was with cronies in the Cafe Hofgarten in Munich while at the next table sat the Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger.
When Feuchtwanger paid up, Hitler sprang from his seat and took the coat from him saying: 'May I, doctor?'
Historian Hoser believes Hitler's Jew-hatred was 'not so much against real individuals as against a distorted, leap of his imagination, a phantom image of the Jews'.
In 1934 Erlanger lost his building to the city of Munich under the Nazi race laws which stripped Jews of their property. And Hitler set about covering up the fact he had ever lived under the same roof as a Jew.
Erlanger was temporarily imprisoned in 1938 in the Dachau concentration camp and later had to do forced labour in Bavaria.
Because he was married to a non-Jew, he escaped deportation to an extermination camp and survived the Holocaust.
Erlanger was able to get his house back in 1949 following the war.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has vowed more efforts in promoting clean governance, stressing reinforced supervision over the use of state assets and harsh crackdown on financial corruption.
Li said China has achieved new and important progress in clean governance and corruption fight in 2016, but there are still problems requiring stronger measures, according to a full text of Li's speech on clean governance delivered on March 21, which was released on Sunday.
State assets are properties owned by all the people and matter the national economy, Li said, urging authorities to take "powerful" measures to avoid loss of state assets and prevent corruption in the financial sector.
Currently the financial sector is vulnerable to risks such as bad assets, shadow banking and illegal Internet financing, and illicit acts of staff have been frequently reported, according to Li.
Authorities must promote reforms to improve the financial supervision system and "keep high pressure on" internal supervision, Li said.
They must crack down on bank violations in credit giving, insider trading in security market and fraud of insurance companies, and relentlessly punish internal supervisors and company managers who collude with big players in the market and steal and sell secret information, Li said.
On Sunday, China's top anti-graft authority announced that Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, is being investigated for suspected serious violation of code of conduct of the Communist Party of China.
"The violating supervisors must be punished to serve as a warning to others and safeguard the normal order in the financial sector," Li said in his speech.
Li also called for further efforts in delegating power, streamlining administration and using the Internet to improve government services.
He asked governments at all levels to promote thrift and continue to cut taxes and fees, calling for better supervision and management of major outbound investment projects.
He stressed the importance of compliance with regulations in public bidding and government purchases, and vowed tough punishment of graft in poverty alleviation, social security, affordable housing and medical insurance.
In 2016, the Party's discipline authorities across the country punished 415,000 people for violating code of conduct or other regulations, and took back more than 1,000 outlaws that fled abroad, according to Li.
The Prime Minister of Sweden has vowed his country will 'never go back' to recent levels of mass immigration after it emerged the terrorist who killed four people in a truck attack was a failed asylum seeker.
Stefan Lofven pledged to change his country's liberal attitude, insisting the massive influx allowed during the 2015 migrant crisis would never happen again.
Rakhmat Akilov, from Uzbekistan, hijacked the lorry and deliberately drove into pedestrians on central Stockholm's main shopping street on Friday afternoon.
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Sweden's prime minister, Stefan Lofven (pictured at a memorial in central Stockholm), has furiously demanded that illegal immigrants be sent home
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and the royal family obse... Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and the royal family observe a minute's silence to honor the victims of the Stockholm truck attack that killed four Posted by Daily Mail on Monday, April 10, 2017
It was a copycat of the attack carried out in London last month, when Khalid Masood killed four pedestrians and injured dozens more with a Hyundai 4x4. Swedish police said there were clear similarities.
Akilov is thought to have carried out reconnaissance along his route days earlier.
Four were killed and 15 injured when he drove a 30-ton truck down a pedestrianised area and smashed into a department store. Chris Bevington, a 41-year-old father-of-two from Britain, was killed close to his office.
But it emerged yesterday Swedish authorities had given Akilov four weeks to leave Sweden after his final asylum appeal failed in December.
He was being sought by police and immigration officials for deportation but evaded them simply by giving a false address.
'Sweden will never go back to the [mass migration] we had in autumn 2015, never,' Mr Lofven said yesterday.
'Everyone who has been denied a permit should return home.
'This makes me feel enormously frustrated. If you have been denied a visa you are supposed to leave the country.'
Alleged terrorist: The 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan suspected of driving the truck which injured 15 and killed four has been named as Rakhmat Akilov
He added: 'Terrorists want us to be afraid, want us to change our behaviour, want us to not live our lives normally, but that is what we're going to do.
'Terrorists can never defeat Sweden, never.'
There are more than 3,000 migrants living unlawfully in Stockholm alone, police said.
Akilov, 39, had expressed support for Islamic State and world-wide extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose UK members included jailed hate preacher Anjem Choudary.
Akilov reportedly told police that he carried out the attack on the orders of Islamic State.
He allegedly said: 'The bombings in Syria must stop,' a Swedish newspaper reported.
Akilov has allegedly confessed to the attack and told investigators he was 'pleased with what he had done' and had 'accomplished what he set out to do', it was claimed.
Police sources said a bomb, found in the truck but which failed to detonate, contained gas canisters, chemicals and nails.
Hero: Orthopedic surgeon Joakim Nordahl, 54, was in his surgery when he heard the attack, picked his gloves and emergency bag and went straight out with another seven people from the reception
As Sweden contemplates the first Islamic State-inspired attack to claim lives on their soil, it also emerged that:
The Swedish intelligence agency SAPO admitted that Akilov had previously been on their radar;
Thousands attended a vigil where they laid a sea of flowers, candles and toys;
A security guard saved lives by blocking the lorry with his van during the attack;
Two Swedes, including an 11-year-old girl walking home from school, and a 31-year-old Belgian tourist were also killed.
Prosecutors were last night questioning a potential accomplice. A further four men, whose details have yet to be revealed, were also being held in police custody.
Nine of the 15 victims injured are still being treated in hospital, four of whom remain in a serious condition. Two of those are in intensive care.
Akilov, a father-of-four from Uzbekistan, lived in a shabby apartment in Stockholm.
The construction worker applied to the Swedish migration board for a residency permit in November 2014, but was turned down in June 2015.
After his appeal was subsequently refused in 2016, he avoided deportation by giving police a false address.
During one interview, he allegedly told an employer that he was an expert in explosives.
Candles and flowers placed at the Sergels Torg to commemorate the victims of last Friday's terror attack in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sunday
But in recent weeks he shunned work, allegedly telling friends: 'I only smoke and sleep.'
The suspect was friends with key figures in the extremist Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, including its leader in Sweden, and shared ISIS propaganda.
Akilov revelled in his support for the group and voiced his approval at its fanatical beliefs.
He also publicly supported Bilal Philips, a well-known Canadian Muslim preacher who has appeared to condone suicide bombing and has claimed there can be no rape in marriage.
But Akilov also dreamed of living a life of luxury on one occasion sharing a picture of a plump sultan lying on a mattress eating grapes, with eight women wearing veils waiting on him.
He wrote: 'I would like to live that way. Not bad, brother!'
Akilov allegedly told a friend about his plans to carry out the atrocity days earlier.
'By tomorrow night I'd like to find a big car and to drive into the crowd,' he allegedly wrote.
He was captured after tip-offs from the public about a man who was confused and acting strangely in the suburb of Marsta, close to the international airport.
When his friend asked him how he was, Akilov is said to have replied: 'Bad, I have driven over several people, the car drove the wrong way. I am in the airport now, dead end.'
A Tennessee mother whose 21-year-old daughter died mysteriously at a lake two years ago is desperately trying to prove her death wasn't an accident.
Lauren Agee's body was found floating in Center Hill Lake near Smithville in July 2015 after she went camping with friends for a popular three-day wakeboarding event.
Following an investigation, authorities ruled her death an accident saying she had fallen from the cliff edge where her group of friends had been camping in the middle of the night.
But her mother Sherry Smith is not convinced her daughter fell and told ABC's 20/20 she believes the friends she was camping with are responsible.
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Lauren Agee's body was found floating in Center Hill Lake near Smithville, Tennessee in July 2015 after she went camping with friends for a popular wakeboarding event
Smith filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit last year against the three people camping with Agee - her friend Hannah Palmer, Palmer's boyfriend Aaron Lilly and his friend Chris Stout.
The three friends were interviewed by police at the time but were not blamed for Agee's death. They didn't call police to report their missing friend and her body was found by two fisherman hours later.
Palmer, Stout and Lilly say they had nothing to do with Agee's death.
Smith hired a private detective in February 2016 to investigate after the first police officer to respond to the scene, Chris Yarchuck, told her he didn't agree with the findings of the investigation.
Her mother Sherry Smith is not convinced her daughter fell and filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit last year against the three people camping with Agee
The group of friends told police they were all drunk when they returned to the campsite and Agee fell asleep in a hammock (above) close to the cliff edge with one of her male friends
Agee fell asleep in the hammock with Chris Stout (above) but when the friends woke up the following morning she was no where to be found
'There is no way that was an accident, I will go to the grave believing that girl was killed, her body was moved and they are hiding the truth,' Yarchuck told Fox17.
The group of friends told police they were all drunk when they returned to the campsite and Agee fell asleep in a hammock close to the cliff edge with Stout.
When they woke up the following morning, they said Agee was nowhere to be found and they assumed she had gone off to meet someone at the wakeboarding event.
Her friend Palmer did tell police she was worried because Agee's flip flops, phone and wallet were still at the campsite. Palmer said she went looking for her friend, presuming she would run in to her at the lake.
A judge ruled last month that there was not enough evidence for a wrongful death suit to move forward against Agee's friend Hannah Palmer (pictured on the right with Agee)
Smith hired a private detective in February 2016 to investigate Lauren's death - she's convinced her daughter's death wasn't an accident
A medical examiner ruled it was likely Agee had fallen off the cliff, hit the rocks below and rolled into the lake.
But the family's private investigator Sheila Wysocki claims autopsy photos show a strange bite mark near the young woman's breast and that there were signs of strangulation.
A judge ruled last month that there was not enough evidence for a wrongful death suit to move forward against Agee's friend Hannah Palmer.
Smith's civil suits against both Stout and Lilly are still pending.
An internal investigation has been launched at Fox News over the sexual harassment allegations against Bill O'Reilly, a lawyer said.
Attorney Lisa Bloom appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday and said parent company 21st Century Fox is now investigating the news network over allegations that she says '[are] not blowing over'.
Bloom is representing Wendy Walsh, a former guest on The O'Reilly Factor, who claims her career took a hit after she rebuffed the TV host's invitation back to his hotel suite after dinner.
Walsh, who filmed herself lodging a formal complaint through Fox's hotline on Wednesday, was not among the five women who received verbal abuse and sexual harassment settlements totaling a reported $13million.
While a flood of companies have pulled their advertising from O'Reilly's show in light of the allegations, his show has seen a ratings bump this week.
21st Century Fox is investigating the sexual harassment allegations against Bill O'Reilly (left). Pictured right, Wendy Walsh who accused the TV host of inviting her to his hotel suite
Attorney Lisa Bloom (above) appeared on CNN on Sunday and said the allegations '[are] not blowing over' as she has heard from more women accusing O'Reilly of inappropriate behavior
Bloom said on Reliable Sources: 'I'm told that they are taking it seriously, and they are going to do the investigation that's legally required of them.'
A spokesperson at 21st Century Fox confirmed the company 'investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters.'
Walsh, who did not previously file a complaint against O'Reilly for fear of retribution, filmed herself phoning the Fox complaint hotline on Wednesday.
The move appears to be a direct hit on O'Reilly, who responded to the explosive New York Times report by issuing a statement that read: 'In my more than 20 years at Fox News Channel, no one has ever filed a complaint about me with the Human Resources Department, even on the anonymous hotline.'
Walsh (right with Bloom), who did not previously file a complaint against O'Reilly for fear of retribution, filmed herself phoning the Fox complaint hotline on Wednesday
Walsh claims O'Reilly called her a very beautiful woman and promised to make her a network contributor when the two went out to dinner.
But Walsh turned down an invitation to visit O'Reilly's hotel suite after dinner and her rejection apparently angered him, she said.
O'Reilly then told her to forget his career advice and said her black purse was ugly, the Times reported.
Walsh claims O'Reilly then grew cold towards her on set, and ignored her until he finally asked her one day, 'When are you leaving?'
Shortly after, she was told her segment was put 'on hold' and she was never invited back, according to Walsh.
A producer who spoke with the New York Times claimed it was due to Walsh's declining ratings.
Walsh, who will cooperate with the investigation, is not filing a lawsuit since her claims stem back to 2013, Bloom said.
In 2004, producer Mackris (left) claimed she was sexually harassed at the hands of her direct supervisor O'Reilly. She received a $9million payout, according to the Times
Rebecca Diamond (right) a host on the Fox Business Network, revealed her recorded conversations with O'Reilly and settled for an undisclosed sum
The accusations surrounding O'Reilly, which date back 15 years, include claims of dirty phone calls, unwanted kisses and hotel room invites.
O'Reilly and 21st Century Fox reportedly paid a sum of $13million to Rachel Bernstein, Andrea Mackris, Rebecca Diamond, Laurie Dhue and Juliet Huddy - all of whom either worked with him or appeared on his show.
Four of the cases involved sexual harassment, while Bernstein received a settlement for verbal abuse.
In addition to the five women, Walsh, along with Andrea Tantaros, a former Fox News host, also accused the 67-year-old of inappropriate behavior.
They did not receive pay outs, and Tantaros is currently in a legal battle with Fox News and former CEO Roger Ailes, who was forced to resign in July amid another sexual harassment scandal.
The network also struck deals with Laurie Dhue (left) and Juliet Huddy (right) in 2016 for more than $1million each, the Times reported
Fox has stood behind O'Reilly, who denied the allegations and said his job made him vulnerable to lawsuits.
While scores of companies have withdrawn their advertisements, it remains unclear whether it has any impact on Fox's bottom line, since the ads are still appearing on other shows within the network, according to a spokesperson.
O'Reilly's show is the most-watched cable news program in 2017 so far, according to Variety.
And 3.7million viewers tuned in to his show on Monday, along with 3.8million on Tuesday - marking a 14per cent increase compared to the same two days the week before, according to USA Today.
O'Reilly brought in more than $178 million in ad dollars in 2015 and $118.6 million in the first nine months of 2016, according to research firm Kantar Media.
It is the highly anticipated climax of a fiercely fought competition, and will no doubt have avid viewers shouting at their screens.
But tonight's University Challenge final between Wolfson, Cambridge and Balliol, Oxford has sparked outrage over the lack of any female contestants.
Student equality campaigners have blasted the show's production company, ITV Studios, for allowing all-male teams into the competition, with a third of this year's teams having no women.
Indeed, only 22 per cent of the contestants on this series are women and just five per cent of the finalists in the last five years have been women.
Tonight's University Challenge final between Wolfson, Cambridge (pictured) and Balliol, Oxford has sparked outrage over the lack of any female contestants.
Student equality campaigners have blasted the show's production company, ITV Studios, for allowing all-male teams into the competition, with a third of this year's teams having no women. Pictured above, Oxford's Balliol team
Azita Chellappoo, equality and diversity officer at Wolfson College, told the Daily Mail that university quizzing societies can be 'very hostile to women'.
She also noted that many female students are discouraged from signing up to take part in University Challenge because of the social media trolling or unwanted attention to which contestants - particularly female ones - are often subjected.
She said: 'The underrepresentation of women on University Challenge is a big problem.
'I think partly it is because the quizzing community [such as university quizzing societies] can often be quite hostile to women, or at the very least not particularly welcoming spaces.
'Also, the women that do appear on the show often face a lot of sexist commentary on social media. There's often a lot of discussion about their looks, for example.'
This year, Emma Johnson from Corpus Christi College, was described as the 'perfect woman' by viewers after her appearance on the show.
And last year, Hannah Woods received thousands of messages online about her eyebrows.
This year, Emma Johnson from Corpus Christi College, was described as the 'perfect woman' by viewers after her appearance on the show
And last year, Hannah Woods, from Peterhouse, Cambridge, received thousands of messages online about her eyebrows
Asked whether she thought the competition should have any rules in place regarding the diversity of teams, Miss Chellappoo said: 'I think quotas would be a really good idea, or if not formal quotas, guidelines at the very least. I don't think all-male teams should be allowed on the show.
'Greater representation on University Challenge is an important part of encouraging more women to join the quizzing scene, and to showcase the intellectual capacities of women at UK universities.'
Whilst universities, or individual colleges in the case of Oxbridge, are responsible for selecting their own teams, ITV Studios only selects 28 teams to take part, and therefore a vetting process does take place.
Viewers have threatened to boycott the show over the final being an all-male contest for the third time in five years.
The Balliol team declined a request for comment, and Wolfson's hugely popular captain Eric Monkman said he had 'no comments' on the matter.
A University Challenge spokesperson said: 'Each team is determined by the universities themselves and whilst we do encourage them to reflect the diversity of their student population ultimately each university has their own team selection process.'
University Challenge airs tonight on BBC Two at 8pm.
For years California-based grocery store Trader Joe's has developed a loyal relationship with its customers for providing high-quality, discounted goods.
But the privately-held chain's popularity may stem from the fact that big name brands are providing cheaper goods disguised under the Trader Joe's name.
An investigation by SFgate.com conducted taste tests and compared Trader Joe's ingredients with those of popular name brands to try and find out just what was being sold by the hipster supermarket.
The company is known for keeping its relationships with other businesses under wraps so that they can develop customer loyalty with their brand, and they are also not known to have a factory that makes its own food.
A taste test concluded that Annie's Shells and White Cheddar tasted very similar to Trader Joe's version
Tate's Bake Shop cookies tasted almost the same. The ingredients were similar except Tate's lists water and Trader Joe's Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Cookies did not
The investigation conducted by SFgate.com's Amy Graff concluded that Pacific organic creamy tomato soup was only slightly sweeter than Trader Joe's
Information about suppliers may also be kept hush-hush because it may cause consumers to ditch the mainstream products for low-priced goods of the same ingredients and quality.
The San Francisco news site found many of the ingredients and taste of Trader Joe's bread, macaroni and cheese, and other foods were very similar, if not the same.
According to the report, Annie's Organic Shells and White Cheddar has the same ingredients as Trader Joe's except the former contains cream.
Crystal Geyser's Sparkling Lemon Water had virtually the same taste and ingredients as the store's version.
The two squeezable yogurt products had no discernible difference, according to the taste test. Stonyfield could possibly be making Trader Joe's version of the yogurt
Graff also believes Crystal Geyser may be providing natural lemon flavor water
Wallaby Organic Yogurt had no difference in taste with Trader Joe's Organic low fat yogurt meaning the grocery store chain may be sourcing the product from Wallaby
The test also found that popular cookies Tate's Chocolate Chip were 'the exact same product,' as the taster could not tell the difference.
But in the case of Carr's Table Water Crackers, the investigation came to the conclusion the companies may not be working together because the two have different recipes.
Other products that the investigation found to have no discernible difference were: Stonyfield's low fat yogurt squeezers, Muir Glen canned tomatoes, and Wallaby Organic yogurt.
Trader Joe's has not responded to questions about their product's sources and brand name companies have declined to disclose any information.
The investigation also compared the pricing of some brand name products and TJ-brand goods and compared it to Whole Foods prices.
Wildwood organic tofu had a varying taste from Trader Joe's organic tofu that it was hard to determine if the two are linked
Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes in a can may be the same as Trader Joe's canned tomatoes, as the two products tasted exactly the same
Graff found that these two products were the most different in their ingredients list so Trader Joe's may not be sourcing from Carr's
Tests found that Alvarado's Sprouted Whole Wheat Bread had a similar taste to Trader Joe's Sprouted Wheat Bread, but the former contains dates and raisins, which the other does not.
Interestingly, there were discrepancies between some prices of very similar and the same brand products.
A six-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale beers cost $8.49 compared to $7.99 at Trader Joe's. Store-brand organic peanut butter was also pricier by almost two dollars at Whole Foods.
The high brow organic grocery store also sells its olive oil for three dollars more than Trader Joe's.
Although the company will probably never disclose the information because of their business model, consumers often make their own conclusion about the store's sources.
The store can afford to sell items at low prices since it does not spend huge bucks on advertising or marketing.
Older Australians are deserting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal Party and flocking to Pauline Hanson, polling shows.
Voters over 50 are the single biggest bloc in the electorate, and 11 per cent of them across Australia are supporting her One Nation team, a Newspoll published in The Australian found.
The rise in support for the minor party on the right comes as grey voters grow increasingly disillusioned with the ruling Liberal and National parties, and their crackdown on the Age Pension.
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Older voters are embracing Pauline Hanson with One Nation popular among the over-50s
Voters over 50 are the biggest voting bloc and are turning away from the Liberal Party
Voters with white hair are more likely to support Pauline Hanson's One Nation party
An analysis of Newspolls between February and April, published in News Corp, showed the coalition's support among the over 50s had collapsed from 50 per cent at the July 2016 election to 40 per cent, following the summer holidays.
One Nation's strongest gains come from the 50-plus age bracket, climbing from 1.8 per cent primary support at last year's election to 11 per cent.
Senator Hanson's home state of Queensland was even more pro-One Nation, with 16 per cent of the over-50s supporting her party, up from 5.5 per cent at the last federal election.
Her state is also home to popular retiree areas on the Gold and Sunshine coasts.
Hervey Bay, three hours' drive north of Brisbane, is home to many retirees and has an unemployment rate of 9.7 per cent, which is significantly higher than the national average of 5.8 per cent.
A dive in support for the Turnbull Government from older voters follows cuts to pension supplements and stricter rules on the Age Pension assets test.
The Australian did an analysis of 6,943 voters who participated in Newspoll surveys.
Elderly voters upset at the Age Pension changes are listening to One Nation's message
Pauline Hanson's popularity is being driven by older voters, especially in Queensland
Many older voters are embracing One Nation as they desert Malcolm Turnbull's policies
Henry Brettschneider, 56, was locked inside a Trenton, Michigan, CVS overnight on April 1. The company said it would not press charges against the homeless man on Thursday
CVS won't press charges on a homeless man who accidentally got locked inside the store overnight and had a snack.
After taking a light nap at a CVS in Trenton, Michigan, Henry Brettschneider awoke to find himself alone and locked inside the store on April 1.
The homeless 56-year-old wandered around the store, opened up a pack of Fig Newtons, drank chocolate milk and was holding a bottle of soda when police arrived to the scene.
The pharmacy chain initially wanted to see Brettschneider prosecuted for the items he took, but seemingly had a change of heart and announced it wouldn't be pressing charges on Thursday.
A spokeswoman said to CBS Detroit: 'CVS is not charging him. Once the police were looking at his criminal record there were other things to take care of, so CVS is not pursuing it.'
Brettschneider fell asleep while he was sitting in the back of the store near the blood pressure chair (pictured) and employees didn't notice him while they were locking up the store. CVS originally wanted him prosecuted because he allegedly ate snacks and tried to steal a watch
The Trenton man has misdemeanor warrants out for his arrest in Livonia and Warren and a mental health evaluation ordered out of Wayne County courts, reported WXYZ.
Brettschneider fell asleep while sitting in the back of the store near the blood pressure chair and employees didn't notice him when they were locking up the store, according to the News-Herald.
He awoke around 1am and began walking through the store, which set off the building's security measures and the alarm company reported the activity to police.
When officers arrived at the store, they found Brettschneider with a $1.19 bottle of soda and wearing a $41.99 heart monitor watch he had allegedly swiped.
It was this CVS pharmacy in Trenton, Michigan, Brettschneider was locked inside
He told officials that he had taken the soda because he was homeless and thirsty.
But that may not have been the only late-night snack Brettschneider had at his CVS sleepover.
Officers found an opened cookie package of Fig Newtons and a bottle of chocolate milk near where Brettschneider claims he fell asleep.
The store's security footage backs up Brettschneider's version of the story, according to the police.
Delta Air Lines is still struggling with delays and cancellations after severe thunderstorms disrupted schedules at the world's busiest airport.
The airline giant cancelled another 150 flights Sunday at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
Delta said Sunday afternoon that its operations are stabilizing, but there aren't enough crews available to staff its flights, in part because of federal regulations on rest for crews.
Delta Air Lines continues to struggle with delays and cancellations since Wednesday's storms
The airline advised travelers to check its website and mobile app because more flights may be canceled.
It's offering waivers to help people rebook their flights without charge.
'We know this is extremely frustrating for our customers,' Delta said in a statement.
One of those customers is Rachael Dylenski, who told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that she scheduled to fly from New York to New Orleans Friday.
Instead, Dylenski said she spent more than 30 hours at the Atlanta airport and lost 'hundreds' on cab fare and the hotel in New Orleans.
Since Wednesday, Delta canceled thousands of flights as storms moved across the Southeast
The airline giant warned Sunday that more flights could be scrapped because of heavy travel
'This has really been the worst travel experience Ive ever had,' she wrote in an email.
Since Wednesday, the airline has canceled more than 3,000 flights as powerful thunderstorms moved across Georgia and other states in the Southeast during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.
It canceled another 275 flights Saturday morning.
Airline officials warned travelers that finding empty seats soon could be challenging because 'heavy spring break travel means open seats are very limited for rebooking'.
This marks Delta's worse operation run since a computer outage in August grounded planes worldwide. Another computer issue in January caused a two-day disruption.
A Boston college is presenting honorary bachelor's degrees to six members of a New Hampshire family, five of them posthumously.
Wentworth Institute of Technology said the members of the Downing family graduated with two-year degrees between 1914 and 1965.
The surviving Wentworth graduate from the family is 72-year-old Jonathan Downing, from the class of 1965, who'll pick up his honorary bachelor's degree on campus on April 21 at a Legacy Luncheon.
This 1965 photo provided by Jonathan Downing via Wentworth Institute of Technology, shows the Downings from left, Lester, Judson, Richard, Philip, and Jonathan. Not shown is Edward from the class of 1914
The Boston college is presenting honorary bachelor's degrees to six members of the New Hampshire family, five of them posthumously
Wentworth said it plans on that day to bestow degrees posthumously to his great-uncle Edward, class of 1914; his grandfather Lester, class of 1916; his father, Judson, class of 1940; and his uncles Richard and Philip, both class of 1949.
The Downings, from Alton Bay, New Hampshire, attended Wentworth before it offered bachelor's and master's degrees and when graduates earned only certificates or two-year degrees.
Wentworth began offering bachelor's degrees in 1970 and transitioned into a master's degree granting institution in 2009.
Wentworth President Zorica Pantic said it's 'remarkable' that six family members graduated from the institute beginning more than a century ago.
'We want to honor the family for that achievement,' she said in an emailed statement.
The surviving Wentworth graduate from the family is 72-year-old Jonathan Downing, from the class of 1965, who'll pick up his honorary bachelor's degree at an on-campus event April 21
Wentworth President Zorica Pantic (pictured) said it's 'remarkable' that six family members graduated from the institute beginning more than a century ago
Jonathan Downing graduated from Wentworth with a degree in architectural engineering technology and is a retired architect.
Downing said he and his relatives were military veterans who worked as engineers and mechanics.
'We've been waiting a long time for this story to be told,' he said.
The degrees will be presented the day before Wentworth holds its 2017 spring commencement.
British Airways may introduce charges for meals on long-haul flights in economy class at the same time as cramming in more seats.
The airline has already caused controversy by ditching free food on short-haul services in favour of sandwiches from Marks & Spencer.
And it seems that policy could be extended to economy seats on long-haul flights to the US, Caribbean and Far East.
At the same time, the airline is adding an extra seat into each row on many flights in a further move towards becoming a 'no-frills' airline for people on a budget.
The airline has already caused controversy by ditching free food on short-haul services in favour of sandwiches from Marks & Spencer. And it seems that policy could be extended to economy seats on long-haul flights to the US, Caribbean and Far East
But while economy passengers are offered packaged sandwiches and tighter seating, Club World travellers will enjoy a new 'culinary boutique experience'.
For BA is pouring 400million into upgrading the luxury for customers who turn left when boarding its aircraft.
Club World customers can also look forward to new, more comfortable seating because from July seats will come with fresh new linen, bigger pillows, a soft mattress topper and duvet.
From September passengers will also enjoy a 'new restaurant-style premium dining service', with display trolleys allowing customers to select dishes from a choice of freshly prepared starters and desserts served on beautiful new table settings.
Cabin crew will also be touring the aisles to serve wine and champagne by the glass.
Details of the changes were revealed by BA's boss, Alex Cruz, who claims that customers on short-haul flights have come to appreciate the M&S food after a 'rough start'. He argued the change, which came into effect in January had been a 'perfect decision'.
Mr Cruz said: 'It's going great. Customers say to us: 'Finally, I have good choices. No more chicken or beef'.'
But while economy passengers are offered packaged sandwiches and tighter seating, Club World travellers will enjoy a new 'culinary boutique experience'. Pictured above, a British Airways standard class breakfast on a flight to Florence in 2009
Asked if the service could be extended to long-haul economy, he told the Sunday Times: 'We might do it.'
Explaining the two levels of service, Mr Cruz said: 'We need to focus on enhancing premium offering contemporary service, improved catering and lounges and a consistent experience.
'In economy, where we know that price is the driver, we need to focus our efforts on delivering more seats at the lowest fares and giving customers choices.'
BA is squeezing 52 extra seats onto its 777s that fly from Gatwick to holiday destinations in the Caribbean, adding one extra seat to each row in economy to make them ten abreast.
This is designed to keep down prices and could be extended to flights flying out of Heathrow.
The carrier is under pressure from new budget rivals such as Norwegian Air, which offers flights to eight major US cities from Gatwick at under 130 each way.
It also has flights for as little as 69 each way from Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin and Cork.
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Beijing citizens who provide useful information on spying are eligible for a cash reward of up to 500,000 yuan (US$72,460), according to a policy that went into effect Monday.
Informants can pass information to authorities through calling a hotline, sending letters or visiting the city's state security bureau.
After collating the information, the bureau can offer rewards ranging from 10,000 yuan (US$1,448) to 500,000 yuan (US$72,460) based on the reports' usefulness.
Personal information of informants will not be disclosed without their consent, and informants can also seek protection from security authorities if they or their close relatives are in danger due to informing.
However, informants will be punished if they deliberately slander others, or invent and spread false information.
Queen Victoria was a 'scuzzy mummy' who hated babies and refused to breastfeed, according to scriptwriter Daisy Goodwin.
The new series of Victoria, which will be broadcast later this year on ITV, will see the young queen grow her family with Prince Albert.
According to Miss Goodwin, who based the scripts on Queen Victoria's own journals, the monarch called motherhood and pregnancy the 'shadow side of marriage'.
Scriptwriter Daisy Goodwin, who based her series on Queen Victoria's own journals, says the monarch called motherhood and pregnancy the 'shadow side of marriage'. She also says Queen Victoria hated to breastfeed
Asked if Queen Victoria was a good mother Goodwin said: 'I thing the jury's out on that one.
'If Victoria was alive today she'd be writing a scuzzy mummy blog, she'd be complaining all the time about her dearest darling kids and drinking Chardonnay.
'She hates babies, she doesn't like the way their arms move around like frogs and she absolutely refuses to breastfeed. She thinks it's disgusting, she says 'that's what cows do I'm not a cow'.'
Queen Victoria had nine children with Prince Albert and no miscarriages, which at a time when childbirth was extremely dangerous was remarkable.
'She likes the bit that gets her pregnant' said Miss Goodwin at the BFI and Radio Times Television Festival, 'but she doesn't like the what she calls the 'shadow side of marriage' and that's what she means by childbirth and bringing up children.
'She likes her kids when they're a bit older and they can talk to her and be responsible but she doesn't like kids and she can't stand them when they become adolescents.
The new series of Victoria, which will be broadcast later this year on ITV, will see the young queen grow her family with Prince Albert. Jenna Coleman, will play the role of Victoria, and Tom Hughes, will take on the role of Prince Albert
'Victoria didn't breast feed and so she got pregnant straight away. Albert quite liked it when she was pregnant.'
Initially the couple, who were both just 20 when they married in 1840, seemed to have produced a flawless family.
By the end of 1841 they were parents of Princess Victoria and Prince Albert.
Princess Alice followed three years later then, at two-year intervals, Alfred, Helena, Louise and Arthur.
Leopold was born in 1853, before Beatrice became the last of the couple's nine children, in 1857.
The arrival of the first two children gave the monarchy's popularity a much-needed boost after the reigns of her philandering uncles, George IV and William IV.
Queen Victoria gave birth without pain relief until the birth of Leopold which caused controversy with the Church of England because of 'Eve's curse'.
Initially the couple, who were both just 20 when they married in 1840, seemed to have produced a flawless family. Pictured above, a painting by Winterhalter in the Royal Collection of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert surrounded by some of their children at Windsor Castle
Miss Goodwin, 55, said: 'There was this wonderful doctor who discovered chloroform and wanted to give it to her but before she could take it they had to get permission from the Archbishop of Canterbury because there was this thing of it's women's job to suffer during childbirth.'
Jenna Coleman, who plays Victoria, and Tom Hughes, who plays Prince Albert, were also at the BFI to deliver the talk with producer Damien Timmer.
Miss Coleman, 30, and Mr Hughes also 30, are rumoured to be dating, although they have not officially confirmed their relationship.
A source told The Mail On Sunday in September: 'They've been together for months, on and off since last summer.'
Another insider added: 'The reason the chemistry is so tangible is because they dated in real life.'
On Saturday the couple sat side by side and Mr Hughes put a reassuring hand on the small of Miss Coleman's back as they arrived on stage.
Of all the difficulties that have enveloped Boris Johnson, none has been more damning than his association with convicted fraudster Darius Guppy, a friend since their days at Eton and Oxford.
Their alliance was most notoriously encapsulated by Johnsons agreement to give Guppy the address of a journalist who was investigating the conmans activities, so Guppy could have him beaten up.
If, as Foreign Secretary, Johnson hoped that was all behind him, he is to be disappointed.
Of all the difficulties that have enveloped Boris Johnson, none has been more damning than his association with convicted fraudster Darius Guppy (pictured in 1994)
Guppys activities and associates are, I can disclose, to be scrutinised anew, in not one country but two, with legal proceedings in London and South Africa, where Guppy, 52, now lives.
The actions are being brought by Peter Risdon, whom Guppy recruited to act as gunman in a fake gems robbery staged in a New York hotel, telling him he intended to make a modest insurance claim necessitated by an accounting error.
Later, though, Guppy boasted that he and co-conspirator Ben Marsh had defrauded Lloyds insurers of 1.8 million and stolen a similar amount from those whod invested in their company, Inca Gemstones.
The investors money was taken by suitcase to Switzerland and never recovered. Risdon informed the police and was chief prosecution witness at the 1993 trial when Guppy received a five-year sentence.
The half-Iranian Guppy never forgave him, recently suing him for libel in South Africa, after Risdon questioned on a blog Guppys claim to be an Iranian patriot.
Their alliance was most notoriously encapsulated by Johnsons agreement to give Guppy the address of a journalist who was investigating the conmans activities, so Guppy could have him beaten up
He won the libel judgment unopposed, says Risdon, who was unable to defend the case as he was being treated for inoperable liver cancer.
Risdon says he has launched his legal response because: It is in the public interest: the courts shouldnt be helping a criminal exact revenge against a prosecution witness.
There will be a re-examination of Guppys career and friendships, not just with Johnson, but with Earl Spencer, who, Guppy believed, attempted to seduce his wife Patricia while he was in prison. And of Guppys finances, Risdon says: Ill be asking his lawyer: How do I know I will get costs from your client when he hides his money? A question echoed by Guppys former shareholders.
Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, 56, who moved to France aged 19 after growing up in England, is shockingly candid about her life overseas.
If you talk to any expat, theres a luxury you have about being a foreigner, she says. You can get away with murder, basically.
Still smiling: Spencer in London and his beautiful blonde friend
Jump star bounces back after Pippa ban
Lesser men might lapse into self-pity on learning that their girlfriend was banned from attending a family wedding, but not Pippa Middletons future brother-in-law, Spencer Matthews.
Days after being told that his latest paramour, Irish TV presenter Vogue Williams, 31, cannot accompany him when his financier brother James, 41, marries Pippa next month, the 28-year-old Made In Chelsea star was spotted on Saturday night in West London laughing with a beautiful blonde who wasnt his girlfriend. Vogue was in Ireland at the time, it later transpired.
Such is the ease with which Old Etonian Spencer makes new bonds that he enjoyed the affections of reality TV star Vicky Pattison and model Morgane Robart in swift succession before meeting Vogue on The Jump, the Channel 4 show that he won.
Monty Python star Michael Palin is often described as a national treasure, but according to him, that doesnt mean much any more. National treasures are added by the day, moans the 73-year-old.
Judi Dench and Alan Bennett, we are all in boxes. I always think national treasures should be put in some glass boxes so we can see them.
The actor and writer, married to Helen for 50 years, adds: I have never gone on a date and said: Oh, Im a national treasure! I dont go on dates anyway as I have a lovely wife.
How to look nifty over fifty
Screen sirens Sharon Stone and Elizabeth Hurley are both in their sixth decade, but youd never know it by looking at them.
At the weekend, the two tanned beauties took a doubtless well-earned break from work to show off their slender physiques in barely-there bikinis.
Mother-of-three Sharon, 59, who cemented her sex symbol status playing the femme fatale in the 1992 thriller Basic Instinct, posted a video of herself online dancing in Hawaii wearing a Fendi string bikini.
Meanwhile, Austin Powers actress Liz, 51, who has a 15-year-old son, shared a video of herself dancing on a beach in a leopard print two-piece. She admits keeping slim requires effort: I try to go out of my way to eat an apple for a snack instead of a cookie, and I always start the day with a couple of mugs of hot water.
An immigrant broke into a house and brutally raped a woman two years after he beat a deportation order.
New Zealand-born Carl Stafford, 42, had his Australian visa cancelled in 2013 because he had a 'substantial criminal record' and had been sentenced to more than 12 months in jail.
He was then allowed to stay in Australia after an Administrative Appeals Tribunal senior member was satisfied the visa should not have been cancelled and Stafford pledged 'I will not let you down'.
But in 2015, Stafford broke into a house in St Kilda, south Melbourne, and raped a woman over a 45-minute period before she managed to break-free, the Herald Sun reported.
A New Zealand-born citizen broke into a woman's house and brutally raped her two years after successfully appealing a decision to cancel his Australian visa (stock image)
Stafford confessed to the horrifying attack and is due to be sentenced in June.
It came despite Stafford telling the AAT while appealing his visa cancellation that 'I know this is the last chance'.
'I'm too old to keep offending,' Stafford said when asked why he should be given another chance to stay in Australia.
'I have accommodation, job, counselling, girlfriend, psychiatric care. If I can stay, I will not let you down. Dad's crook. Don't want to lose him. I want him to be proud of me.'
AAT senior member John Handley said in his ruling in 2013 that what Stafford said 'will inevitably be read back to him, if he reoffends and if he decides to contest an application in the future to cancel his visa'.
'Those words will also come back to haunt him and if he is to be taken on trust, as I do, I would expect that he would not be so foolish to re-offend,' the ruling said.
The 42-year-old man had already been charged with close to 400 offences prior to breaking into a home and raping a woman (stock image)
Stafford was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia with his mother when he was aged 3.
He told the AAT how he 'lived with his mother in a house which she also used for prostitution' and that 'his circumstances were never brought to the attention of any welfare agencies'.
CARL STAFFORD - As a child, Stafford was charged with 90 offences within a four-year period, and between 1993 and 2012, he was charged with 275 offences - One one occasion, he was convicted of charges of threatening to kill and possession of a controlled weapon - In April 2002, he boarded a tram in Melbourne, before swearing at a passenger and kicking them twice in the face - Stafford then used a knife to twice slash another passenger's face. The vicious attack came just nine days after he was released from jail over a December 2001 conviction for unlawful assault Advertisement
In his ruling, Mr Handley found that 'had child welfare agencies intervened, the applicant's drug abuse and offending from an early age may not have eventuated'.
'Much of his offending was impulsive and connected with his poor mental health,' the ruling said.
'The Australian community should bear some responsibility for the absence of intervention and should not, in my view, dismiss the applicant by returning him to his place of birth.
'On balance I am satisfied that the applicant should be entitled to remain in Australia. I do not think that he has forfeited the privilege of continuing to hold a visa nor do I think that the risk of future harm is unacceptable.'
In 2004, Stafford was also issued with a Notice of Intention to Cancel his visa but 'he and others close to him were able to satisfy the immigration minister's delegate... that he should not be removed from Australia'.
Mars have announced that Caramel M&M's will become a permanent addition to their popular line of chocolates.
The chocolates - a creamy caramel centre covered in milk chocolate, decked out in the signature colourful shell - will be will be hitting U.S stores in May 2017 with an Australian release date expected to be only a few weeks later.
It will mark the first time in Mars' 75-year-history that it will have added a permanent addition to their popular line of M&M chocolates.
Mars have announced that the highly anticipated Caramel M&M's will be out in store shelves in the U.S in May 2017
The M&M's Brand posted a cryptic tweet that asked people 'to believe' in announcing that the highly sought after caramel version of their tiny sweets 'do exist'.
It's May 2017 release dates confirmed months of speculation on when the M&M's would be hitting store shelves.
Mars called the new filling as having 'mass appeal' with the new creamy caramel centre being described as 'both traditional and trendy'.
It will be only the fourth permanent iteration for the chocolate snack, sitting alongside the nutty Peanut and the staple dark milk chocolate M&Ms.
Vice president of research and development of Mars Chocolate told CNN that the development of a caramel M&M was quite a challenge.
'We never before had a M&M lentil with a true soft centre, so we had to figure out how to not make the chocolate too sticky or too soft that it could collapse,' he said.
The new creamy caramel centre of the popular dark milk chocolate is expected to be released in Australia a few week after it first arrives in the U.S.
It will be only the fourth permanent iteration for the chocolate snack, sitting alongside the nutty Peanut M&M's and the staple dark milk chocolate M&Ms
Fans of M&Ms took to social media to express their surprise and delight of the new announcement.
However some lamented that the new chocolates were going to be a hit to the waistline.
'Caramel M&Ms are going to be a thing! Wishes do come true,' one user wrote.
While another was a bit more weary wondering: 'How is anybody supposed to eat healthy these days?'.
Fans of M&Ms took to social media to express their surprise and delight of the new announcement but some lamented that it wasn't going to help their weight loss efforts
Private parking enforces are clamping motorists' cars and demanding $150 on-the-spot payments to free their wheels.
New Zealand's Parking Enforcement Code of Practice states a 'grace period' of 10 minutes should be allowed before an officer takes action.
But Amalgamated Car Parking Services, which hasn't signed the voluntary code, has been caught out swooping on cars within seconds on Auckland's Dominion Road.
Video taken by the New Zealand Herald shows an enforcer waiting in his car as another man parks to pick up takeaway.
Private parking enforces are clamping motorists' cars and demanding $150 on-the-spot payments to free their wheels. This enforcer is seen exiting his car to clamp another vehicle just 100 seconds after it parked
Around two minutes later, the man's car is clamped.
When he returns less than three minutes after parking, he is seen protesting his innocence before paying the $150 fee to have the clamp removed.
In another case, a distraught woman paid the fine after the enforcer threatened to tow the car at nearly double the cost if the fee wasn't paid, the Herald reported.
Amalgamated boss Craig Burrows didn't respond to Daily Mail Australia's calls.
Amalgamated Car Parking Services has not signed the voluntary industry code. Above, the man is seen protesting his innocence before paying the fine
He told the paper people shouldn't be breaking parking laws, despite the 10 minute 'grace period' clause stated in the voluntary code.
'We're always the baddies. At the end of the day, the person's breaking the rules,' he said.
Consumer New Zealand chief executive Sue Chetwin described the operation as 'pure revenue collecting'.
'It seems to me this wheel clamping operation is designed to catch people and not there to control parking and traffic,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
Amalgamated boss Craig Burrows (not pictured) didn't respond to Daily Mail Australia's calls
She said the voluntary Parking Enforcement Code of Practice wasn't working.
'It's really hard to get these sort of operators to sign up to these codes because of the nature of their business,' Ms Chetwin said.
'We went along with the idea of a code thinking it was a step in the right direction.
'But clearly in this case it's not working and in some respects it might be better to look at regulation.'
Clara Jeffery, who runs the non-profit news website Mother Jones, received a barrage of responses after speculating that Native Americans might be offended by the naming of the missiles which were launched by President Trump this week
The editor-in-chief of a prominent liberal news organization has been slammed on social media for suggesting that Tomahawk cruise missiles are an example of cultural appropriation.
Clara Jeffery, who runs the non-profit publication Mother Jones, received a barrage of responses after speculating that Native Americans might be offended by the naming of the missiles which were launched by President Trump this week.
'That the missiles are called tomahawks must enrage a lot of Native Americans [sic],' she tweeted on Saturday.
Twitter users immediately disparaged Jeffery's statement and her account was inundated with responses that went viral.
Utilizing the names of Native American tribes is a common practice among the US military, which has drawn inspiration from countless tribes for machinery and aircraft over the years.
Jeffery's critics argue that her perceived hypervigilance for a culture that isn't her own is ill-informed, and that her concerns are misplaced.
The editor-in-chief was slammed on social media for her comments about 'tomahawk' missiles
Ars Technica IT Editor Sean Gallagher wrote: 'The war tomahawk was actually a British invention.'
However, by most scholarly accounts, the tomahawk was invented by the Algonquian native people in early America.
Jeffery's tweet came in light of President Trump's controversial move to attack a Syrian airbase with 56 tomahawk missiles as retribution for a chemical attack that was reportedly launched by the country's own presidential regime
Some users argued that Jeffery, being a white woman, did not have the authority to speak on issues that didn't affect her racially.
Donald Trump Jr retweeted a response from television host Ben Shapiro, in which he offered a name for the missiles inspired by his Jewish nationality.
A user by the name of IPledgeAllegiance said: 'YET another liberal white woman feels she can appropriate voices of Native Americans and speak for them enrages me. POC speak our own.'
Another user mirrored Jeffery's language, writing: 'Real journalists must be enraged you call yourself one of them.'
The insults continued to pour in, with another person writing: 'This was a squelched observation deemed inaccurate 30 yrs ago. U R stirring trouble and thats why smart people dont read rags like yours.'
Others speculated that Jeffery's perceived over-protection of another culture is the reason why Trump won the presidency.
Donald Trump Jr retweeted a response from television host Ben Shapiro, in which he offered a name for the missiles inspired by his Jewish nationality
Some users argued that Jeffery, being a white woman, did not have the authority to speak on issues that didn't affect her racially
The insults continued to pour in, with another person writing: 'This was a squelched observation deemed inaccurate 30 yrs ago. U R stirring trouble and thats why smart people dont read rags like yours'
Another user mirrored Jeffery's language, saying: 'Real journalists must be enraged you call yourself one of them'
Many chose to fire off jokes in response to Jeffery's controversial tweet
Others speculated that Jeffery's perceived over-protection of another culture is the reason why Trump won the presidency
Jeffery's tweet came in light of President Trump's controversial move to attack a Syrian airbase with 56 tomahawk missiles as retribution for a chemical attack that was reportedly launched by the country's own presidential regime.
More than 85 civilians, including children, were killed by the serin nerve gas.
In response to the brutal attack, President Trump said: 'No child of God should ever suffer such horror.'
Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon will reportedly be forced out of the White House unless he adopts a more conciliatory approach and plays nice with the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The ultimatum comes after a hellish week for the top aide who has become increasingly isolated in the White House following his rise to power as a key architect of Trump's 'America First' policy, a senior official told Axios.
Bannon's power bubble burst this week when Trump booted him from the National Security Council, his feuds with Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump were made public and it emerged he was against the Syrian airstrikes.
Chief strategist Steve Bannon, who powered Trump's populist campaign message, has been told to become a team player or risk being forced out of the White House
Arguably the two most influential voices in the West Wing, Bannon and Kushner were forced to sit down on Thursday at the Mar-a-Lago estate with chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Trump, increasingly frustrated by the leaks and stories of infighting that keep flowing out of the West Wing, ordered the pair to set aside their growing feud and 'work this out'.
'Either Steve becomes a team player and gets along with people, or he'll be gone,' a top Trump source told Axios.
There have been numerous reports of late indicating Bannon - who seemingly sees himself as the keeper of campaign promises - is in constant opposition to Kushner and Trump's daughter Ivanka.
Sources say Bannon and Kushner have locked heads over strategies to pass health care legislation, the fallout of the immigration bans and whether the US should bomb Syria.
Bannon has also taken to deriding Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner by calling him a 'Democrat.'
'Here's the reason there's no middle ground,' Bannon told Kushner in one clash, the New York Times reported, citing someone with knowledge of the situation. 'You're a Democrat.'
Kushner is allied with a group of aides who view themselves as more moderate forces, including economic adviser Gary Cohn, the former president of the Goldman Sachs investment bank.
As Kushner rises to power in the White House by taking on a wide range of portfolios including his recent envoy trip to Iraq, many believe Bannon's position seems to be slipping.
Rumors have been swirling that Trump is considering dumping Bannon. The president is increasingly frustrated by stories of infighting that keep leaking about Bannon and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner
Bannon has repeatedly locked heads with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka in recent weeks as they push for a more results-driven White House
Bannon's week from hell was centered around Wednesday's revelation that he had been forced to give up his spot on the National Security Council's principals committee
Bannon believes Kushner and his allies are trying to move away from some of the president's populist campaign promises.
As Trump was weighing up whether or not to go ahead with missile strikes on Syria on Thursday night, it was Kushner and his allies who won the president over, according to CNN.
Bannon, the former head of the conservative news outlet Breitbart, was against the Syria strikes. He was a driving force behind Trump's 'America First' policy during the election and has been against US involvement in foreign affairs.
His week from hell was centered around Wednesday's revelation that he had been forced to give up his spot on the National Security Council's principals committee, which reversed Trump's decision to give Bannon access to their high-level meetings.
The announcement came a day before Trump declared: 'I think we've had one of the most successful 13 weeks in the history of the presidency'.
Bannon's loss of the powerful perch comes after he bore the brunt of the blame for the healthcare fallout, in which he delivered a failed ultimatum to House conservatives that if they didn't vote for the health bill, Trump was prepared to walk away.
He is also linked to the drafting of Trump's controversial immigration order, now on hold due to federal court rulings.
While Trump initially went along with the way the immigration ban was rolled out, he has since grown angry that Bannon did not craft the executive order so it could stand up in court, according to a Trump source.
Bannon (pictured above returning to the White House on Sunday) was booted from the National Security Council on Wednesday
Speculation has been rampant about chief of staff Reince Priebus's job with reports suggesting Trump is looking to move him elsewhere
While reports emerged that Bannon was ready to walk away from politics after he was dropped from the NSC, the chief strategist this week rubbished the claims as '100 per cent nonsense'.
Speculation has been rampant about chief of staff Reince Priebus, who has faced questions about his staying power since he started the job. That scrutiny intensified with the collapse of the House GOP health care overhaul, a major embarrassment for Trump.
Several possible Priebus replacements were aired this week, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, top lobbyist Wayne Berman of Blackstone Group, and David Urban, who oversaw Trump's Pennsylvania effort.
But Trump's administration has pushed back against the swirling rumors of an overhaul of his aides.
Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the narrative of a dysfunctional administration on the verge of a makeover 'is a completely false story driven by people who want to distract from the success taking place in this administration.
As evidence of that success, Walters noted the Senate's confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Trump's recent meetings with foreign leaders and the U.S. missile strikes in Syria.
'The only thing we are shaking up is the way Washington operates as we push the president's aggressive agenda forward,' she said.
Five hikers fell 500 meters to their deaths after a ledge of snow on a 'dangerous and deceptive' mountain in Canada collapsed underneath them.
A sixth hiker with the group had fallen behind and when he arrived at the summit of Mount Harvey in British Columbia his five friends had disappeared.
Search manager Martin Colwell said: 'The tracks were at the summit and there was an obvious sheer break in the snow over the north face.'
The hikers, who were using snowshoes, vanished on Mount Harvey (pictured)
Mr Colwell said the group had apparently stepped out onto a ledge of unsupported snow, without realising it, and it collapsed under them.
'It's very dangerous, it's very deceptive,' he said.
The survivor found another hiker on the trail, who contacted the police.
Search and rescue crews were alerted on Saturday afternoon. Four bodies were recovered at the bottom of Mount Harvey and a fifth was found several hours later.
Susan Choi told the Vancouver Sun she believed her sister Iris Choi, 50, a hospital worker in the suburb of Langley, was among the dead.
She said she received a call at 1am from her brother-in-law telling her to prepare herself for the worst.
'I stayed up all night praying for her,' said Ms Choi.
Mount Harvey (pictured) is one of the closest hiking spots to Vancouver and is popular with hikers and snowshoers
Kisun Yoon, of the Vancouver Korean Hiking Club, told the same paper he believed two members of his club were among the dead.
He said they were thought to have joined another group, the MJM Hiking Club, on a hike.
Mr Colwell said using the trails up to the top of Mount Harvey is not usually dangerous but there were some very steep cliffs near the summit and getting too close to the edge can be hazardous.
He said the coroner still needed to officially identify the victims and they would not be named until later today.
A woman who killed her four-year-old daughter in an Adelaide freeway crash while she was on high of meth has been jailed for three years.
Kylie Anne Hie, 34, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving for crashing her Toyota van into the back of a truck on Adelaide's South Eastern Freeway in November 2013, killing her daughter Charlotte.
On Monday South Australian District Court Judge Paul Slattery jailed Hie for three years, saying she had been driving erratically and it was incredibly lucky no one else was badly hurt in the crash during busy morning traffic.
Kylie Ann Hie pleaded guilty to dangerous driving in 2013 under the influence of drugs
She had 0.34mg of meth in her system when she tried to 'squeeze' around a 40 tonne semi-trailer on the South Eastern Freeway in Adelaide in November 2013 after a family member's funeral.
Her white Toyota smashed into the back of the trailer killing Charlotte, who was illegally strapped in the front passenger seat at the time of the collision.
She pleaded guilty aggravated death by dangerous driving on the first day of her trial in Adelaide's District Court on August 17, 2016.
Kylie Hie with her daughter Charlotte who was killed when she drove high on drugs
A doctor who poisoned and drowned his wife so he would be able to start a new life with his mistress was found dead at a state prison in Utah.
Martin Joseph MacNeill was serving life in prison for murdering his wife Michele MacNeill, where he drugged and left her to die in a bathtub in April of 2007.
The 61-year-old former physician was found unresponsive near an outside greenhouse at the Utah State Prison in Draper on Sunday.
Investigators are looking into the cause of the felon's death but revealed that there were no signs of foul play.
Martin Joseph MacNeill (pictured left and right) was found dead at Utah State Prison in Draper on Sunday. The 61-year-old was serving time for murdering his wife in 2007
MacNeill was sentenced up to life in prison for drugging his wife Michele MacNeill (pictured together) and leaving her to die in a bathtub after she had cosmetic surgery. He did this to be with his mistress
The disgraced doctor's death came less than a month after the Utah Court of Appeals rejected his bid for a new murder trial, reported the Salt Lake Tribune.
He was serving time at the Olympus facility, which is designated for inmates with mental health needs.
MacNeill attempted to commit suicide with a disposable razor while he was at a Utah County jail awaiting his sentencing in December 2013.
He was convicted the month before.
His long-awaited sentencing took several years after prosecutors accused MacNeill of knocking out his wife with a cocktail of drugs following her cosmetic surgery.
The former physician was found unresponsive outside near a greenhouse at the state's Olympus facility (pictured). Investigators are looking into the cause of his death but revealed there were no signs of foul play
Michele MacNeill (left) initially was ruled to have died of natural causes but her family hounded authorities until charges were filed five years after her death. MacNeill's secret lover, Gypsy Willis (right), was hired shortly after her death, as MacNeill introduced her as the new nanny
He left her to drown in a bathtub so he could begin a new life with his mistress, Gypsy Willis, who he had hired on the pretext of being the new nanny, weeks after Michele died.
However, his older daughters said they quickly recognized the woman as his secret lover and the subject of arguments between their parents.
Prosecutors said he insisted his 50-year-old wife to get a face-lift and faked a medical condition of his own to throw off suspicion in the weeks before his wife's death.
They pointed to erratic behavior and what they called phony grief the day she died.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on Sunday for an investigation against a leading opposition politician for falsely suggesting the government was carrying out a Syria-like chemical attack against protesters.
Caracas-area Mayor David Smolansky on Saturday denounced the presence of a previously unseen red gas used to scatter thousands of protesters who in recent days have taken to the streets against Maduro.
The type and composition of the gas or smoke is unclear. But some protesters said on social media that its usage amid volleys of tear gas produced nausea and vomiting, while government supporters said it was similar to crowd-control flares used in Spain.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro wants the government to investigate a mayor for his chemical attack tweet. Here Maduro speaks on Sunday during his weekly broadcast
Caracas-area Mayor David Smolansky (far right at a 2015 press conference) denounced the presence of a previously unseen red gas used to scatter thousands of protesters on Saturday
Smolansky took to Twitter on Saturday to accuse Maduro of 'beginning to use chemical weapons as is occurring in Syria'
Smolansky on Saturday denounced the presence of a previously unseen red gas used to scatter thousands of protesters who in recent days have taken to the streets against Maduro
At the height of Saturday's crackdown by police, Smolansky took to Twitter to accuse Maduro of 'beginning to use chemical weapons as is occurring in Syria'.
The tweet immediately went viral and was held up by government critics as a sign of the lengths to which Maduro is relying on security forces to squash dissent.
Maduro responded by calling for an 'iron-fisted' investigation against Smolansky, saying his 'criminal messages' are an attempt to lay the ground work for a US military intervention.
'Venezuela never in its history has had biological, chemical or nuclear weapons,' Maduro said on state television.
While heated rhetoric and exaggerated claims are favorite tactics used on both sides of Venezuela's bitter political divide, the singling out of critics in such a forceful way by Maduro is frequently a prelude to legal action.
On Friday, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles was barred from running for public office for 15 years.
Thousands of Venezuelan's protested Saturday on the streets of Caracas in reaction to opposition leader Henrique Capriles ban from holding public office for 15 years
Venezuela's leading opposition leader Capriles spoke (left) and showed documentation about the ban (right) Friday
Police clash with demonstrators protesting against President Maduro Saturday on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela
This comes amid an intense campaign waged by the government tying Capriles, who narrowly lost to President Maduro in 2013, to the protest movement that has grown into the most combative since a wave of unrest in 2014.
'Today its me, but tomorrow they will come for you,' Capriles told reporters Friday, adding that he will not give up his post as governor of the state of Miranda, which surrounds Venezuela's capital Caracas.
The protests were triggered by the Supreme Court's decision to gut the opposition-controlled legislature of its last vestiges of power, a move that was later reversed amid widespread international condemnation and even dissent within Maduro's normally disciplined socialist leadership.
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Devastated families of worshippers killed in an ISIS bomb attack in Egypt on Palm Sunday wept as they carried the coffins of their loved ones today.
Amid heightened security, hundreds of mourners gathered at Alexandria's Monastery of Saint Mina to remember the 17 people killed at the city's Coptic cathedral.
The blast came hours after a bomb struck a Coptic church in Tanta, a nearby city in the Nile Delta, that took the lives of 28 and wounded nearly 80.
In Alexandria, mourners were outraged by what they said was the state's failure to keep them safe on one of their holiest days.
They carried wooden coffins to the beat of drums interrupted by the wails of those dressed in all black.
'Where should we go pray? They are attacking us in our churches. They don't want us to pray but we will pray,' said Samira Adly, 53, whose neighbours were killed in the attack.
Devastated families of worshippers killed in an ISIS bomb attack in Egypt on Palm Sunday wept as they carried the coffins of their loved ones today
Amid heightened security, hundreds of mourners gathered at Alexandria's Monastery of Saint Mina to remember the 17 people killed at the city's Coptic cathedral
Hundreds gathered to pay their respects to those killed in the blast, in Alexandria. The explosion came hours after a bomb struck a Coptic church in Tanta, a nearby city in the Nile Delta, that took the lives of 28 and wounded nearly 80
In Alexandria, mourners were outraged by what they said was the state's failure to keep them safe on one of their holiest days
A man grieves at the funeral for those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria Egypt, at the Mar Amina church,
'Everyone is falling short...the government, the people... nothing is good.'
Earlier mourners filled the church in Tanta that had been torn apart in the terrorist bombing to commemorate victims.
They packed the streets leading to the Coptic Church of Mar Girgis - or St. George - to pay their respects while relatives inside laid their bodies across the coffins and wept.
A suicide bomber slipped past security and detonated the bomb while Christian worshippers were observing Jesus' entry to Jerusalem, leaving blood splattered on the marble pillars while the sound of hymns turned to desperate screams. The blast killed 27 and injured 78 others.
Just two hours later, a suicide bomber entered St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria, and killed 17.
Both explosions, claimed by ISIS, came at the start of Holy Week leading up to Easter, just weeks beforePope Francis is due to visit the Arab world's most populous country.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi declared a state of emergency for three months in a defiant speech after a meeting of the national defense council.
Under the country's constitution, Sisi will have to put the measure before parliament, which is stacked with his supporters, for approval within a week.
The twin attacks marked one of the bloodiest days in recent memory for Egypt's Christian minority,the largest in the Middle East
Both attacks were claimed by the ISIS, which has waged a campaign against Egypt's Christian minority. The Copts, whose presence in Egypt dates to the Roman era, have long complained of religious persecution and accused the state of not doing enough to protect them. Women cry during the funeral for those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria Egypt
Women hug and wail for the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church in Alexandria
Women wailed as caskets marked with the word 'martyr' were brought into the Mar Amina church in the coastal city of Alexandria
Mourners filled a church in Tanta, Egypt that had been torn apart in a terrorist bombing to bury the 27 victims claimed in one of two attacks on Palm Sunday
People in Tanta packed the streets leading to the Coptic Church of Mar Girgis - or St. George - to pay their respects
A suicide bomber slipped past security and detonated the bomb while Christian worshippers were observing Jesus' entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday
Men carry a cross as mourners gather for the funeral of the victims of the Palm Sunday bombings at the Monastery of Saint Mina 'Deir Mar Mina' in Alexandria, Egypt
Relatives inside laid their bodies across the coffins and wept. The bombing in Tanta killed 27 and injured 78 others
The attack left blood splattered on the marble pillars of St George's Church while the sound of hymns turned to desperate screams.
ISIS claimed the attacks through its Aamaq news agency, having recently warned that it would step up violence against Egypt's Christians
Women in black cry outside the funeral for those kille. Women wailed as caskets marked with the word 'martyr' were brought into the Mar Amina church
ISIS claimed the attacks through its Aamaq news agency, having recently warned that it would step up violence against Egypt's Christians.
The assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants poses a challenge to al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them as part of his campaign against extremism.
The first explosion on Sunday occurred when a suicide bomber slipped past the church doors, which had already been closed as a security measure.
The terrorist made it past metal detectors and detonated the bomb near the altar, killing at least 27 people.
Hundreds gathered outside the Tanta church shortly after the blast, some weeping and wearing black while inside, blown apart pews sat atop tiles soaked with blood.
'There was blood all over the floor and body parts scattered,' a woman who was inside the church at the time of the attack said.
'There was a huge explosion in the hall. Fire and smoke filled the room and the injuries were extremely severe,' another woman, Vivian Fareeg, said.
Relatives stood outside the city morgue to collect their loved ones, and they sobbed during a mass funeral attended by hundreds
The assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants poses a challenge to president al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them as part of his campaign against extremism
The first suicide bomber set off an explosion in Tanta. About two hours later, another explosion ripped through a cathedral in Alexandria. Both attacks targeted Coptic churches
After news of the two attacks sent shock waves across the world, Egyptians rallied against ISIS and declared 'your terrorism brings us together' on social media. Muslims were also pictured lining up to give blood in support
CCTV footage captured the second attack in Alexandria, where a suicide bomber dressed in a blue pullover approached the gate at St Mark's before he was told to go through a metal detector.
He passed a female police officer talking to another woman, and entered a metal detector before an explosion engulfed the area.
The atrocity was thought to have been aimed at Pope of Alexandria Tawadros II, who drew an especially large crowd as the leader of the ancient Coptic church. He was leading prayers in St Mark's at the time but escaped unharmed.
'These acts will not harm the unity and cohesion of the people," he was later quoted as saying by state media.
Three officers who died in the attack were named as Ahmed Ibrahim, Brigadier General Nagwa El-Haggar and Emad El-Rakiby.
After news of the two attacks sent shock waves across the world, Egyptians rallied against ISIS and declared 'your terrorism brings us together' on social media.
Muslims were also pictured lining up to give blood in support of Christians, who make up about 10per cent of the country's population.
Nearly four dozen people were killed after two explosions targeting Coptic Christians in Tantra and Alexandria today. Pictured, the blood covered floor in St. George's Church in Tanta
Priests saying mass in the cathedral in Tanta were sprayed with blood after the device exploded in the church's front row
Approximately ten per cent of the Egyptian population are Christian and have been targeted several times by ISIS terrorists
'After the explosion, everything became dark from the smoke,' said Edmond Edward, attending services with his brother, Emil, who was wounded and leaned on him for support at a nearby hospital.
'There was a clear lapse in security, which must be tightened from now on to save lives,' he said. He added that the blast appeared to be centered near the altar and that the priest leading the service, Father Daniel, was wounded.
Susan Mikhail, whose apartment balcony across the street has a clear view of the church and its front yard, said the explosion violently shook her building.
'Deacons were the first to run out of the church. Many of them had blood on their white robes,' she said.
Later, the more seriously wounded were carried out by other survivors and taken to hospitals in private cars, she said.
Hundreds of residents gathered in the area, and church members blocked people - including journalists - from entering the church as police cordoned off the area.
The three dead officers killed in the second attack in Alexandria were named as Ahmed Ibrahim, Brigadier General Nagwa El-Haggar and Emad El-Rakiby
Muslim officer Emad El-Rakiby, 33, was killed when he prevented a suicide-bomber from entering St. Mark's Church in Alexandria
Worshippers helped those who were injured by this morning's tragic blast. Pictured, the pews knocked out of place, and floors stained with blood
Emil Edward Salib, pictured, was injured when the device exploded inside the church in Tanta during today's service
Regional police chief Brig. Gen. Hossam Elddin Khalifa was fired over the incident, with Maj. Gen. Tarek Hassouna replacing him, state-run newspaper al-Ahram reported.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he is 'so sad to hear of the terrorist attack' against the U.S. ally but added that he has 'great confidence' that el-Sissi 'will handle the situation properly.'
The two leaders met at the White House on April 3.
Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar - the leading center of learning in Sunni Islam - also condemned the attacks, calling them a 'despicable terrorist bombing that targeted the lives of innocents.'
Both Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement ruling neighboring Gaza condemned the bombings as well.
The bombings added to fears that Islamic extremists who have long been battling security forces in the Sinai Peninsula are shifting their focus to civilians.
An Isis affiliate claimed a December suicide bombing at a Cairo church that killed about 30 people, mostly women, as well as a string of killings in the northern Sinai that caused hundreds of Christians to flee.
The militants recently released a video vowing to step up attacks against Christians, whom they regard as 'infidels' empowering the West against Muslims.
Egypt has struggled to combat a wave of Islamic militancy since the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president.
The Sinai-based IS affiliate has mainly attacked police and soldiers, but has also claimed bombings that killed civilians, including the downing of a Russian passenger jetliner in the Sinai in 2015.
This killed all 224 people onboard and devastated Egypt's tourism industry.
The attacks occured on Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week that culminates on Easter Sunday, commemorates the day Christians believe Jesus entered Jerusalem and was welcomed as the messiah, only to be crucified five days later
ISIS has claimed responsibility for today's attack which targeted churches in Tanta and Alexandria
And in April 1, a militant group claimed responsibility for an April 1 bomb attack targeting a police training center in Tanta, which wounded 16 people.
Egypt's Copts are one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East. They have long complained of discrimination and that the government does not do enough to protect them.
Egyptian media had previously reported that the church in Tanta had been targeted before, with a bomb defused there in late March.
The Copts were largely supportive of the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, and incurred the wrath of many of his followers, who attacked churches and other Christian institutions.
While the Copts have stood steadfast alongside the government, repeating the mantra that Egyptians were all being targeted by terrorists, an increase in attacks on Christians has tested that support.
Outside the Tanta hospital, 27-year-old carpenter Maged Saleh flew into a rage as blood streamed from his arm after he and his mother escaped the explosion.
'Where is the government?' he screamed at onlookers. 'There is no government!'
Pope Francis, marking Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square, decried the bombings, expressing 'deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic church and all of the dear Egyptian nation.'
He is due to visit Egypt April 28 to 29.
A video showed the victims of today's atrocity lying on the ground after the terrible blast
The pontiff expressed his 'deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II. Word of the bombing came as Francis himself was marking Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square.
The pontiff asked God `to convert the hearts of those who spread terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make, and traffic in, weapons'.
The pope's remarks on the church attack were handed to him on a piece of paper after he remembered the victims of the Stockholm attack Friday night.
Francis, who has not made any direct public comment on the current Middle East crisis, said the Mass as international tensions increased following the U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base, which the Pentagon says was involved in a chemical weapons attack that killed 87 people.
The service was being broadcast live on Egyptian television when the blast happened
Viewers saw the blast happening live on television before the video feed cut out
WHO ARE THE COPTIC CHRISTIANS AND WHY ARE THEY PERSECUTED? Egypt's Copts, targets of an apparent church bombing north of Cairo on Sunday, are the Middle East's largest Christian minority and one of the oldest. Making up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 90 million, the Coptic Orthodox form the largest Christian denomination in the Muslim-majority country. The Copts trace their history to the dawn of Christianity, when Egypt was integrated into the Roman and later the Byzantine empire. The word 'Copt' comes from the same root as the word for 'Egyptian' in ancient Greek. The community's decline started with the Arab invasions of the 7th century and the progressive Islamisation of the country, which today is largely Sunni Muslim. Several churches and monasteries in Egypt are built on sites Copts believe were visited by the Holy Family. Copts, represented in all social classes, are present across the whole country, with the strongest concentration in central and southern Egypt. Most adhere to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed since 2012 by Pope Tawadros II. A minority is divided between Coptic Catholics and various Coptic Protestant branches. Tawadros, who succeeded pope Shenuda III, was chosen by a blindfolded altar boy picking his name from a chalice, according to tradition. The Vatican says some 165,000 Catholic Copts lived in Egypt in 2010. Poorly represented in government, Copts complain that they are sidelined from many posts in the justice system, universities and the police. Advertisement
Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week that culminates on Easter Sunday, commemorates the day Christians believe Jesus entered Jerusalem and was welcomed as the messiah, only to be crucified five days later.
Francis, marking the fifth Easter season of his pontificate, blessed palm and olive branches in the center of St. Peter's Square before saying Mass.
'He (Jesus) is present in our many brothers and sisters who today endure sufferings like his own: they suffer from slave labor, from family tragedies, from diseases,' he said.
'They suffer from wars and terrorism, from interests that are armed and ready to strike. Women and men who are cheated, violated in their dignity, discarded,' he added.
Before the U.S. missile strike, Francis said he was horrified by the suspected chemical weapons attack, calling it an 'unacceptable massacre' of innocent civilians.
Allies of the United States have expressed support for Washington's actions, calling them a proportionate response to Syrian forces' suspected use of chemical weapons. But they were denounced as illegal by Syria and its allies Russia and Iran.
Palm Sunday marks the start of a hectic week for the Pope, who on Thursday he visits a prison south of Rome to wash and kiss the feet of 12 inmates, commemorating Jesus' gesture of humility towards his apostles the night before he died.
Previous popes held the service either at the Vatican or a Rome basilica but Francis changed the tradition to stress the importance of going to the poor, the sick and the imprisoned.
He has drawn ultra-traditionalist ire for including Muslims and women in a service previously limited to Catholic men.
The attacks have been condemned by a series of world leaders.
Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin tweeted: 'We strongly condemn the heinous terror attacks on churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday today.'
Mehmet Gormez, the head of religious affairs in Turkey, 'cursed' the attacks and said they are the shared problem of all humanity.
Gormez added: 'The immunity of a place of worship, no matter the religion it belongs to, cannot be violated and the bloodthirsty killing of innocent worshippers cannot ever be forgiven.'
Germany has condemned the bombing of a Coptic church and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a statement Sunday that 'the aim of the perpetrators, to drive a wedge between people of different faiths living peacefully side-by-side, mustn't be allowed to happen'.
Coptic Christians in Egypt have been subjected to a greater number of terrorist attacks
Forensic officers began gathering evidence from the site of the suicide blast in Tantra, 75 miles north of Cairo
Pope Francis condemned today's twin suicide attacks and expressed his sympathy for the victims and their families
An officer used a metal detector to find fragments from the bomb which ripped through the Church in Tanta, Egypt
Three police officers died in Alexandria as they prevented a suicide bomber from accessing the Coptic church
At least 11 people were killed in the second attack which hit the northern port city of Alexandria
Even Hamas in Gaza have condemned the double bombings.
Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said 'Hamas wishes safety, security, stability and prosperity for Egypt and its people.'
Israel has sent its condolences to Egypt following the deadly bombing at a church in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said 'the world has to come together and fight terrorism everywhere'.
Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin tweeted: 'We strongly condemn the heinous terror attacks on churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday today.'
Mehmet Gormez, the head of religious affairs in Turkey, 'cursed' the attacks and said they are the shared problem of all humanity.
Gormez added: 'The immunity of a place of worship, no matter the religion it belongs to, cannot be violated and the bloodthirsty killing of innocent worshippers cannot ever be forgiven.'
Egypt's Interior Ministry says a blast at a church in Alexandria was caused by a suicide bomber who tried to storm the entrance before being stopped by police.
World leaders have condemned today's attacks. President Donald Trump tweeted that he is 'so sad to hear of the terrorist attack' against the U.S. ally but added that he has 'great confidence' that el-Sissi 'will handle the situation properly'
Pictured, the dead and wounded were removed from the scene in Alexandria on stretchers in the aftermath of the attack
Israeli security officials have asked Israeli tourists in the neighboring Sinai peninsula in Egypt to return home immediately.
The country's anti-terrorism office issued the recommendation on Sunday, citing what it said was a heightened alert level and twin church attacks that killed dozens of Christian worshippers.
The order recommends that all Israeli tourists in the Sinai return home immediately. It calls on families of travelers who stay in the Sinai to alert their loved ones of the risks. It also calls on Israelis planning trips to the Sinai to cancel.
The Sinai has traditionally been a popular destination for Israelis - especially during the upcoming Passover holiday. But Israel has urged its citizens to avoid the area in recent years because of Islamic militant activity.
A fiery Islamist preacher in Sydney has denounced Muslim men who use public urinals in a sermon about death.
Fundamentalist Abdulghani Albaf said people who refused to follow Allah would be punished in the grave for indiscretions, like spreading 'evil rumours' and exposing themselves at a public urinal.
'There are two mentionings, one that mentions when they would urinate that they would do so without, in public, without concealing, hiding themselves or hiding their private parts,' he thundered at the end of his 48-minute, Friday night sermon.
Islamist preacher Abdulghani Albaf denounced public urinals during a sermon about death
'How often do we see this today? Every public, every male public toilet now has urinals where they just stand up like animals and urinate in front of one another.
'What's worse is we even have Muslims using these urinals.'
The Islamic teacher's denunciation was delivered in a men's and boy's-only prayer room above the Bukhari House Islamic Bookstore at Auburn, in Sydney's west.
This book store has been linked to Farhad Jabar, the 15-year-old boy who killed accountant Curtis Cheng outside police headquarters at Parramatta in 2015.
His sermon was delivered in a prayer room above Auburn's Bukhari House Islamic Bookstore
Mr Albaf's March sermon was delivered at a forum organised by the hardline Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association in Auburn, during his visit from Young in southern New South Wales.
ASWJ's fundamentalist founder Sheikh Feiz Muhammad last year delivered a sermon saying it was a 'major sin' for Muslims to attend non-Muslim events.
'Is it part of the sharia? Are we allowed to entertain ourselves with celebrations that are built on non-Muslim concepts?,' he said.
Sheikh Feiz Muhammad said it was a 'major sin' for Muslim to attend non-Muslim events
'If you go on the belief, 'I just want to join in and have the fun, you know, just have a night out, and enjoy myself but I don't believe in all this nonsense', that's a major sin,' he said.
'It's a what? It's a major sin.'
Both sermons were shared by Sydney Islamic Lectures, which posts links to Islamist groups and sharia law lectures, a legal system which secular Muslims reject.
They also posted a link to a school holiday program for children aged four, five and six, which will accept 80 students who will be taught about Islam every morning during three days in April at the Masjid Abu Bakr Al-Siddeeq mosque in Auburn.
Sydney Islamic Lectures posted a graphic about a school holiday program for kids aged 4-6
The group on Thursday posted Mr Albaf's sermon to its Facebook page but it put up a shorter version with soft music over his speech.
At Young in February, 42-year-old electrician Haisem Zahab, was arrested and charged over an alleged terror plot to develop 'high-tech missiles and laser warning devices' for ISIS.
He had been under investigation by the Australian Federal Police's Operation Marksburg for 18 months.
The Netflix series about drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is being filmed in Colombia, because producers feel his native Mexico is too dangerous.
The kingpin's re-arrest in 2016 has created such a bloody power struggle for his Sinaloa cartel that the crew behind the series thought it would be safer elsewhere.
The filming of 'El Chapo' in Colombia was so cloaked in secrecy that the crew told locals they were filming a mythical TV soap opera, 'Dolores de Amor,' roughly 'The Pains of Love.'
At the time filming started, Guzman was still in Mexico and the series' location was shifted for security reasons, said producer Daniel Posada.
Now he is sitting in solitary confinement in a New York jail, waiting to face 17 federal charges stemming from his time as the head of the cartel.
Drug lord El Chapo is getting a Netflix miniseries about his life. El Chapo, born Joaquin Guzman, was extradited to the U.S. in January. Marco de la O plays drug trafficker in 'El Chapo', which is being co-produced by Netflix and Univision
'Colombia was a good option, because we have well-trained crews and it is very similar in appearance to Mexico.'
The new miniseries is currently filming in Columbia, where the town of Taibo has been used as a stand in for rural Mexico. At the time filming started, Guzman was still in Mexico and the series' location was shifted for security reasons
Taibo has a colonial town square, church and park that look like they could be found in rural Mexico.
The effect will be completed in post-production by adjusting the intensity of the light to match Mexican skies.
Guzman was extradited to the U.S. in January, and his lawyers complain the conditions he faces at a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial are so restrictive they violate his rights.
Guzman employed a cadre of lawyers to file a seemingly endless array of legal appeals in Mexico.
One of the lawyers, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, suggested the producers could suffer legal consequences for using Guzman's name and story without his permission.
'If they are producing something that he (Guzman) has not authorized, if they start attacking him, or publishing things from his private life, then clearly there will be a legal response,' Rodriguez said.
When Netflix and Univision announced the series last year, they said it is 'based on the life story of one of the world's most notorious criminals.'
Another Guzman lawyer, Andres Granados, said that the two networks would have to pay for the right to use Guzman's name and nickname, which can be translated as 'Shorty.'
'If they air this, they are immediately going to be sued,' Granados said. 'They, by necessity, need the authorization of Mr. Guzman, because he is not dead.'
Guzman earlier gave rights to his life story to Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who arranged a secret 2015 meeting with the then-fugitive drug boss and actor Sean Penn. Del Castillo hasn't said what she would do with those rights.
Posada, the producer, said he hasn't received any threats.
The series is scheduled to have its U.S. premiere on Univision April 23, and a couple of months later will have a worldwide release on Netflix.
The filming in Colombia was so cloaked in secrecy that the crew told locals they were filming a mythical TV soap opera, 'Dolores de Amor,' roughly 'The Pains of Love.' De la O, a Mexican stage actor bears an extraordinary resemblance to the drug lord after coming out of makeup
Marco de la O, the 38-year-old Mexican stage actor who plays Guzman, bears an extraordinary resemblance to the drug lord after coming out of a makeup session.
Speaking before a pursuit scene that included gunfire and screeching tires, De la O said: 'It was a challenge to play Chapo, because of his complexity.' Guzman, the son of impoverished farmers, rose to a spot on the list of the world's richest people.
Asked if he plays Guzman as a hero or a villain, De la O said 'I can't judge him. From an actor's perspective, you don't judge whether the characters are good or bad ... We tell the truth, and that truth can be harsh.'
Research for the script started three years ago, based on meetings with reporters who covered the drug trade, acquaintances, DEA reports and psychological profiles of Guzman drawn up in prison.
'I have never known of a drug trafficker who has had such a long career, and from each stage of his life there are accounts that have allowed us to construct a portrait of his personality and psychological characteristics,' said Gerardo Reyes, the Univision research director who served as an adviser on the show.
Research for the script started three years ago, based on meetings with reporters who covered the drug trade, acquaintances, DEA reports and psychological profiles of Guzman drawn up in prison
The final script turned out to be a mix of reality and fiction. 'It's normal; some things we agreed on, some things we didn't,' said Reyes.
'We have avoided the Robin Hood image that many have wanted to project on him' Reyes said. 'He came from a poor background and was obsessed with not returning to it, and this obsession was also extremely violent.'
But the story is not just about Guzman's obsession; it's also about the government corruption in Mexico that allowed him to flourish. 'The series examines the situation in which two types of ambition can coexist and intertwine,' said Humberto Busto an actor who plays the corrupt politician Don Sol in the series. 'It leads the two characters (Don Sol and Chapo) to the same question: 'For what?''
'If in the end all of us wind up in a grave and we're not going to take anything with us, what are we doing all this for?'
Australians are eagerly preparing for the upcoming four-day Easter weekend by planning nights out, trips away and family time.
But those planning to indulge with loved ones over the weekend, might like to check what is actually open before a last minute shop turns into a disaster.
Good Friday and Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday are all public holidays in most states, which means restrictions on retail trading apply on major supermarkets, shopping centres and bottle shops.
So just what is actually open over the long weekend?
Good Friday and Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday are all public holidays in most states, which means restrictions on retail trading apply
Although Good Friday has an alcohol restriction across the country, alcohol will still be served at restaurants, bars, hotels and pubs
Good Friday
Good Friday and Christmas Day are the most restricted trading days across the country, which means most shops are closed.
The majority of Coles, Woolworths and Aldi stores will be closed on Good Friday.
Smaller corner stores, petrol stations and chemists are exempt and are allowed to trade on Friday but it is up to their discretion.
While most of the major supermarkets will be shut, Sydneysiders might find themselves in luck with the smaller grocers.
Harris Farm chains in Bondi Beach, Bondi Junction, Edgecliff, Leichhardt, Baulkham Hills, Erina and Glendale will remain closed on Friday.
But those close to the Harris Farm in Broadway, Manly, Mosman, Potts Point, Randwick, Drummoyne, Pennant Hills and St Ives will be able to enjoy normal hours, with most of the grocers opening at 7am.
All 7-Eleven's 650 stores will also be running at normal hours over the long weekend for all coffee, petrol, ice and food needs.
The majority of Coles and Woolworths stores will be closed on Good Friday, but locals can try their luck at a smaller grocer with many staying open on the public holiday
Australians looking to buy alcohol at their local bottle shop might find it more difficult than usual with shops including BWS and Dan Murphys closed for trading on Good Friday
Australians looking to buy alcohol at their local bottle shop might find it more difficult than usual with shops including BWS and Dan Murphys closed for trading on Good Friday.
But alcohol will still be served at restaurants, bars, hotels and pubs.
Licensed premises in NSW are only allowed to serve alcohol from noon until 10pm.
You can also still drink alcohol at licensed restaurants in most states, as long as you order food at the same time.
Select bars in Sydney will open its doors and stay open late including The Cliff Dive in Surry Hills, The Bucket List in Bondi, Small Bar in the CBD and The Newtown Hotel.
In Melbourne's CBD, popular bars including The Imperial, Madam Brussels and Bomba will stay open late on Friday.
Westfield shopping centres across the country will close its doors on Good Friday, meaning stores including Myer and David Jones will be inaccessible.
Major shopping centre Westfield will reopen on Saturday as will Coles and Woolworths
Major shopping centre Westfield will also be open on Easter Saturday as will Coles and Woolworths
Easter Saturday
Supermarkets and bottle shops generally trade as normal on Easter Saturday despite it being a public holiday in all states and territories apart from Western Australia and Tasmania.
Bottle shops Dan Murphy's and BWS will reopen their doors on Saturday across the country from about 9am.
Major shopping centre Westfield will also be open on Saturday as will Coles, Woolworths and Aldi.
But those living in inner city suburbs should make note that most Coles and Woolworths express stores will be closed for the entire four-day Easter weekend.
Those living in inner city suburbs should make note that most Coles and Woolworths express stores will be closed for the entire four-day Easter weekend
While most of the major supermarkets will be shut on Good Friday, Sydneysiders might find themselves in luck with the smaller grocers, including Harris Farm
Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday is only a public holiday in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
As Sunday is a restricted trading day in NSW most supermarkets, including Coles and Woolworths, are closed.
But a few major inner city Woolworths stores will be open, including Town Hall and Central Park in Sydney and South Melbourne, Southbank, Flinders Street, Swanston Street, Fitzroy and Elizabeth Street in Melbourne.
While it is not considered a public holiday in Queensland, not all shopping centres will be open - mostly ones outside of Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Most bottles shops will be closed in NSW, including BWS.
But select Liquorland and Dan Murphy's stores will be open, including in Burwood, Manly Vale and North Ryde in Sydney.
Those living in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia will be in luck on Sunday, with most Dan Murphy's stores open across the states.
Licensed premises in NSW are only allowed to serve alcohol from noon until 10pm on Good Friday
Easter Monday
Easter Monday is a public holiday for the entire country but most major shopping centres and supermarkets will be open and trading as normal.
Coles and Woolworths will be open again in most states, except South Australia where only select supermarkets say they will open.
There are no restrictions on alcohol sales on Monday and bottle shops including BWS and Dan Murphy's will open as usual.
The path that took Deven Black to his gritty death in a rundown homeless shelter was as baffling as it was tragic.
He was a suburban dad and a nationally recognized school librarian. But in just three years he was destitute and living on the streets.
In January, Black's bloodied body was found on the floor of the shelter with a slit throat.
An inappropriate encounter with a female student derailed his career and blew up his marriage.
Black also gave thousands of dollars to paramours online and had gotten involved in a bank fraud scheme for their sake.
Doctors diagnosed depression. Relatives and friends tried to help him, confronting and struggling to get through to him.
They were mystified by his bizarre behavior and questioned whether depression fully explained it.
In this September 2013 photo, Deven Black holds his Bam!E prize for top school librarian in the country, at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. The path that took Black from suburban New York dad and nationally-recognized school librarian to a room in a gritty homeless shelter was as baffling as it was tragic
This 1995 photo provided by Jill Rovitzky Black shows Deven Black with his son, Jonas, at their home in Nyack, New York. He met Jill on a blind date while he was bartending at a popular British-themed pub and celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2013, before his life unraveled
A year after his death at 62, renowned brain experts have confirmed that more than depression was at work.
They recently presented his case as 'the mayhem of a misdiagnosis' of a rare disorder.
His estranged wife had suspected it, but his doctors hadn't pushed to test him, and at least one had concluded he didn't have it.
'I'm just so angry that this happened to him,' says his sister, Loren Black. 'And I really wish that we could have figured out how to protect him.'
'He got sick, but Deven was a good person.'
His career was at a high point in the fall of 2013 when he stepped up to the stage at a black-tie gathering in Washington to accept an award for school librarian of the year.
It was a vote of confidence for a smart but contrarian high-school dropout who hadn't started teaching until his 50s.
The intellectually omnivorous, independent-minded eldest of four siblings, Black got into one of New York City's powerhouse selective public high schools, ditched it as stifling, and threw himself into an alternative newspaper and political campaigns.
When most of his peers were in college, he was a radio reporter on Cape Cod, doing stories that spotlighted the lives of the elderly and disabled.
This 1997 photo provided by Jill Rovitzky Black shows Deven Black in the backyard of their home in Nyack. The intellectually omnivorous, independent-minded eldest of four siblings, Black got into one of New York City's powerhouse selective public high schools, ditched it as stifling, and threw himself into an alternative newspaper and political campaigns
Deven Black is pictured above in 2014. In just three years he become destitute, his behavior growing more and more bizarre. His family and friends had a feeling that something more than depression was to blame and a year after his brutal death
After returning to New York for a radio job that fell through, he started bartending and then managed a popular British-themed pub for nearly two decades, building the business through offbeat promotions.
But he also earned a college degree in education, an interest that crystallized into a career and two master's degrees after the pub closed in 2001.
Fired up to make a difference and full of ideas about how to improve schools, he became a New York City public school special-ed teacher, turned around an outdated middle school library and built a reputation in education circles as an earnestly iconoclastic blogger, unafraid to tell a conference that students drop out because 'school sucks.'
Black was still a bartender when he met Jill Rovitsky on a blind date, and they bonded over what she calls 'a mutual appreciation of the absurd.'
They marked their 30th anniversary in 2013. They had a son on his college dean's list, a home in Nyack, a historic, artsy town on the Hudson River.
But the seeds of Black's decline were germinating.
This May 1983 photo provided by Rick Muscoplat shows Jill and Deven Black at their wedding in St. Paul, Minnesota
Four months before the award ceremony, school investigators had recommended disciplining him after a student said he made her uncomfortable by telling her she looked sexy and sometimes putting his arm around her shoulder, records show.
He told investigators he had hugged students only when they initiated it and wouldn't have used the word 'sexy.'
Black told his wife he was just trying to get the slinkily dressed girl to cover up.
He was suspended without pay for two months in 2014 and removed from his librarian job, assigned instead to a full-time pool of substitute teachers.
Feeling down as the investigation played out, he spent more and more time online, forging virtual relationships while withdrawing from real-world ones, according to friends, relatives and court records.
One day, his wife noticed a peculiar slip of paper on the living-room floor: a receipt for $300 Black had sent to someone in Africa. He explained it was for surgery for a co-worker's relative.
About a month later, his wife found dozens more receipts, showing he'd dispatched about $10,000, mostly to Ghana and Nigeria. She worried it was blackmail. He said it was an investment.
She warned him he was being scammed. Friends urged him to cut off his online contacts.
But he plunged deeper into a web of virtual romances, telling friends he'd be bringing as many as a half-dozen dates to social gatherings.
It was 'clearly delusional, but he believed it,' says his oldest friend, Martin Mosbacher.
Black was so broke by the fall of 2014 that his wife paid his first month's rent and security deposit when he moved out.
He wasn't just giving money away. At the behest of an online 'girlfriend' he said invited him to start a cocoa business, Black deposited a series of fraudulent checks, withdrew more than $146,000 in cash and gave most of it to her, court papers say.
I was wrestling with growing suspicions that there was something significantly, organically wrong with him Black's former wife, Jill
By January 2015, Black was under arrest in a Bronx jail for his bank schemes. Loved ones hoped it would be a wake-up call.
Yet his response was an oddly jaunty email about encountering interesting defendants and kind guards.
'I got one hell of an education,' he wrote.
What was Black's problem? Was it internet addiction? Psychopathic personality disorder? Nothing seemed to fit.
'I was wrestling with growing suspicions that there was something significantly, organically wrong with him,' his wife says.
A matter-of-fact Minnesotan who works at a medical-education company, she's careful about jumping to conclusions.
But she kept thinking about an unusual disorder she'd heard about through her job. And as she started reading up, her suspicions mushroomed.
The disease, frontotemporal dementia, often emerges in patients' 50s or 60s and can scramble their personality and behavior while leaving memory intact, at least for a time.
Anthony White (above), the volatile, 21-year-old roommate of Deven Black in an East Harlem shelter for men with mental health problems. Police said White slit Black's throat. He never answered the charges as his body was found in the Hudson River two montths later
'Behavioral variant' FTD patients can become uncharacteristically impulsive, behaving inappropriately and making bad financial or other decisions without seeming to grasp the impact.
While the disorder's causes aren't completely understood, some patients' families carry a genetic mutation linked to both FTD and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Black's late mother and brother both had it.
A psychologist suggested in 2014 that Black consider a neurological assessment, but nothing came of it, his wife said.
Later, she mentioned FTD to a therapist and forensic psychologist who saw him in connection with the fraud case.
I really wish that we could have figured out how to protect him....He got sick, but Deven was a good person Black's sister, Loren
'Enough of the descriptions of the condition ring true that I think it's worth consideration,' she wrote in a 2015 email to the therapist.
The forensic psychologist, who declined to comment, concluded in court papers that Black didn't meet the criteria for an FTD diagnosis at the time but recommended continued monitoring.
Black had been diagnosed with depression while hospitalized as a psychiatric patient for a week in June 2015, according to court records.
He'd been evicted over unpaid rent and was living in his SUV, and he'd soon be pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
But what had tipped him into suicidal despondency, his sister says, was that one of his supposed online sweethearts didn't show up from Ghana for a promised visit.
'It turned my stomach,' she said. 'And it also broke my heart.'
By the time Black went to his October 2015 sentencing, he was living in a homeless shelter.
Friends and relatives say they feared he'd bring his schemes into their homes if taken in.
In this 2017 photo, a police officer stands guard at the entrance to the Boulevard Residence, the homeless shelter in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York where Deven Black was killed in January of 2016
Reassigned from teaching to administrative work after his arrest, he was facing at least suspension because of his conviction.
But he had a line on a room to rent, said he'd continue therapy and was sentenced to probation and community service.
'I am on my way back,' he told the court in a letter.
He would never get there. On January 27, 2016, a security guard found Black bleeding on the floor, his throat slashed, in his room in an East Harlem shelter for men with mental health problems.
His volatile, 21-year-old roommate, Anthony White, fled when the guard opened the room's door, police said.
White's family said he wasn't a killer, but he never answered the allegations himself.
His decomposed body was found in the Hudson two months later.
The day after Black's death, his wife called Doctor Brad Dickerson, a professional acquaintance who runs Massachusetts General Hospital's FTD Unit. He quickly agreed to explore Black's case.
'It's good to know that there's some explanation behind his behavior....[but] it doesn't change the fact that here's somebody you've known for 50 years, and he's suddenly going mad' Back's oldest friend, Martin Mosbacher
'When there is a story as compelling as Deven Black's, in connection with a family history of something that we understand to be linked, then you've almost got two smoking guns,' said Dickerson, who worked on the case with Columbia University neuropathologist Doctor Jean Paul Vonsattel.
Confirmation came in an image of chemically stained, microscopic brown specks that marked deposits of a protein linked to FTD and ALS on a bit of Black's brain.
'It's good to know that there's some explanation behind his behavior,' says Mosbacher, but 'it doesn't change the fact that here's somebody you've known for 50 years, and he's suddenly going mad.'
Mosbacher, who bailed Black out, regrets having blamed someone who was sicker than he knew.
Another friend, Emily Feiner, a clinical social worker, is enraged at what she views as the failures of mental health professionals.
Yet it's not unusual for FTD to go undetected, at least in early stages. The disease affects only an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 or so people nationwide, compared with a likely 5million with Alzheimer's disease.
FTD can be diagnosed in living patients by psychological tests and brain scans, but symptoms are frequently misattributed to depression, bipolar disorder or just a midlife crisis, experts say.
While there are no specific treatments yet to slow or stop FTD's progression, Black's relatives and friends feel a diagnosis could have helped protect him from harm.
A dementia diagnosis can factor into appointing a legal guardian to handle someone's finances and care, though the crux isn't a disease but a person's capacity, notes elder law attorney David Cutner.
Some FTD patients turn to assisted living or nursing facilities, though those decisions depend on availability, finances and other questions. The average patient lives about seven years after diagnosis.
It was a diagnosis Black did not live to hear.
He left behind a strangely apt memento of a life that unraveled, and of his loved ones' quest to understand how this could happen.
'If you expect simple answers to complicated questions,' his Twitter profile says, 'you're in the wrong place.'
Police are appealing for information after a nine-year-old girl named as Mashael Aldosari, pictured, was taken out of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington by her parents
A 'diabetic' nine-year-old girl at the centre of a missing persons scare after leaving hospital before being treated has been found.
The girl visited St Mary's Hospital, in Paddington, central London, accompanied by her parents and a younger brother at around 5.40pm on Sunday after she fell ill.
But the family left two hours later before the girl, who police believe is diabetic, could receive treatment and a missing persons hunt was launched.
On Tuesday, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'The family has been located by police and the child is safe and well.'
The Metropolitan Police had issued a plea for information after the 'diabetic' girl vanished from St Mary's hospital in Paddington, London, shortly after arriving to see medics on Sunday evening.
Officers said they feared she could fall into a coma if not treated for a high blood sugar count.
A police statement released yesterday said: 'The girl was initially seen by medical staff and her parents informed them that their child's name was Mashael Aldosari.
'Detectives are unsure if this is the child's real name as the family provided a false address to staff.
'Police know very little about the family as the adults did not provide their names to staff at the hospital. All four left the hospital at 7.44pm.
'At this early stage detectives believe that the family could be from Kuwait.
'The family are believed to have told medical staff that they had travelled to the UK in order for their son to receive hospital treatment. Inquiries have established that this is may not be the case.
'It is not known when the family entered the country and inquires continue with other agencies.
'Given the circumstances, detectives are urgently seeking the trace the young girl in order for her to receive medical treatment.'
An extremist who said he supported the killing of British soldiers has been appointed a director of a controversial Muslim pressure group with influence at Westminster.
Azad Ali, head of community development and engagement at Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend), said the Westminster Bridge attack last month was 'not terrorism'.
Mr Ali said on Facebook that Khalid Masood, who murdered PC Keith Palmer and four pedestrians, should referred to as 'a lone wolf'. The Met Police has been treating it as a terror attack.
Azad Ali, head of community development and engagement at Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend), said he did not believe that the Westminster Bridge last month was not a terror attack
He also said that the Government's fury with WhatsApp for giving terrorists 'a place to hide' was ministers 'trying to invade more of our privacy', according to The Times.
His Facebook post came after it emerged that Masood had used the messaging service two minutes before he ploughed into at least 50 people with a 4X4 before stabbing PC Palmer to death.
Mr Ali has previously lost a libel action against several newspapers that said he was 'a hardline Islamic extremist who supports the killing of British and American soldiers in Iraq by fellow Muslims as justified'.
Mr Ali said that Khalid Masood should be considered a 'lone wolf' not a terrorist
Mr Ali's lawyers at Carter-Ruck said his comments on the Westminster Bridge attack were 'referring to terrorism in the sense of organised acts co-ordinated by terrorist groups'.
His legal teams also said Mr Ali considered it 'a barbarous and cruel act of murder for which there was no possible justification or mitigation'.
In 2009 it emerged that Mr Ali, then an IT worker and president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, was suspended on full pay for six months following comments on his blog.
In one post Mr Ali quoted an interview with an Islamic militant who said: 'If I saw an American or British man wearing a soldier's uniform inside Iraq I would kill him because that is my obligation.
'If I found the same soldier in Jordan I wouldn't touch him. In Iraq he is a fighter and an occupier, here he is not. I respect this as the main instruction in my religion for jihad.'
Sir Gus O'Donnell, then Britain's most senior civil servant and patron of the Civil Service Islamic Society, ordered that Mr Ali be suspended while an investigation was carried out.
Six months later the investigation finished and Mr Ali returned to his job.
His group Mend works with politicians on all sides, the police and the CPS to enhance the engagement of British Muslims in UK life.
Mend relies on donations for funding and online it quotes the Koran saying: 'And whatsoever you spend of anything (in Allah's Cause), He will replace it'
Today The Times made a number of claims about the organisation.
It said that Labour's Yasmin Qureshi, the shadow justice minister, accepted a 5,000 donation from Mend's founder Sufyan Ismail - but failed to name him as the donor.
The newspaper also claims that The Charity Commission will speak to three charities over their funding of Mend speaking events.
At one an Islamic speaker considered to have extreme views told the audience that killing comes easily to 'the children of Israel'.
The Times also claims that Mend targeted the NSPCC and used social media to send them angry messages because the children's charity set up a hotline for families to report children if they feared they were being radicalised.
Mend relies on donations for funding and online it quotes the Koran saying: 'And whatsoever you spend of anything (in Allah's Cause), He will replace it'.
The heartbroken family of murdered South Australian woman Jody Meyers has lashed out at her 'monster' killer, who buried her under a concrete slab in 2015.
Neil Anthony Archer, 31, pleaded guilty via videolink to murdering the 20-year-old in Adelaide Magistrates Court in December last year.
Ms Meyers was found was found buried under a concrete slab in Mannum, east of Adelaide, in August 2015 - more than a month after she went missing.
The heartbroken family of Jody Meyers (pictured) has lashed out at her 'monster' killer, who buried her under a concrete slab in 2015. Neil Anthony Archer (pictured), 31, pleaded guilty via videolink to murdering the 20-year-old in Adelaide Magistrates Court in December last year
Ms Meyers was found was found buried under a concrete slab at a Mannum property (pictured), east of Adelaide, in August 2015 - more than a month after she went missing
Tania Parsons lashed out at her sister's killer in the SA Supreme Court on Monday, saying Archer is a 'monster'.
'You buried her like she was disposable. Just a piece of rubbish,' Ms Parsons said during sentencing submissions.
'My kids had to learn that not only are monsters real but we had one attack our family.
'I trusted and had faith in you. I have never been so wrong in my life.
Archer originally claimed she had run away, but prosecutors alleged he killed her using a piece of grey cord before he pleaded guilty.
The court heard on Monday Ms Meyers and Archer had a young son who will one day have to learn that his father was a murderer.
Archer originally claimed Ms Meyers had run away, but prosecutors alleged he killed her using a piece of grey cord before he pleaded guilty
'He's a child who has a lot of hard roads to cross,' Ms Meyers' mother Lucyann Saler said in her victim impact statement.
Ms Saler said her daughter had 'so much to live for', and that she has been consumed by grief since she lost her.
'She died terrified and alone by the hands of the person she was supposed to be able to trust.'
Archer will return to court for more sentencing submissions on May 25.
Meanwhile, Archer's mother Margaret is accused of helping him to try and escape prosecution.
She allegedly sent text messages to family members posing as Ms Meyers and bought the bags of concrete from hardware stores in Mannum.
She has pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender and she will stand trial at a later date.
President Donald Trump personally called the Navy commanding officers of USS Porter and USS Ross tasked with the missile strikes in Syria last week to congratulate them.
The Commander in Chief made the calls from Air Force One as he was returning to the White House on Sunday.
Trump was pictured speaking to Cmdr. Russell Caldwell (USS Ross) and Cmdr. Andria Slough (USS Porter) as he thanked them and their crews for their professionalism and quick response.
Donald Trump personally called the Navy commanding officers tasked with the missile strikes in Syria to congratulate them on Sunday from Air Force One with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster
The President ordered them to launch the 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syria's Shayrat air base on Thursday night in response to a chemical weapons attack allegedly at the hands President Bashar Assad.
Footage from inside the Shayrat air base after the strike showed fighter jets and hangars destroyed, as well as runways pocketed with holes.
US officials said all but one of the 59 missiles struck their targets, hitting multiple aircraft and air shelters, and destroying the fuel area.
The Navy tweeted out photos of the two commanding officers taking the congratulatory phone calls from Trump on Sunday.
Both the USS Ross and USS Porter are conducting routine patrols in the US 6th Fleet area of operations in support of American national security interests in Europe, according to the Navy.
Cmdr. Andria Slough took a phone call from Trump on Sunday thanking her team for their quick response and professionalism during the Syrian missile strikes
The Navy tweeted out photos of Cmdr. Russell Caldwell (USS Ross) speaking to Trump
US officials said all but one of the 59 missiles (above) struck their targets, hitting multiple aircraft and air shelters, and destroying the fuel area
It comes as Trump's national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who was in the room when Trump made the calls, left open the possibility of additional U.S. military action against Syria.
But he indicated that the US was not seeking to act unilaterally to oust Assad.
In his first televised interview, McMaster pointed to dual U.S. goals of defeating the Islamic State group and removing Assad. But he suggested that Trump was seeking a global political response for regime change from U.S. allies as well as Russia, which he said needed to re-evaluate its support of Syria.
'It's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime,' McMaster said.
'Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves... Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?'
This satellite image of the Shayrat air base after the strike showed fighter jets and hangars destroyed, as well as runways pocketed with holes
Ben McCormack was 'put into hospital' on Monday for 'some kind of assessment' on Monday, his lawyer said, declining to go into specifics
A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack was taken to hospital on Monday, his lawyer said.
The 42-year-old Nine Network journalist did not appear at Redfern Police Station where he was required to attend for bail.
'He was put into a hospital today for some sort of assessment,' his lawyer Sam Macedone told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's a bit tragic.'
Later reports said it was a mental health assessment.
Under the terms of his bail conditions, the senior reporter was required to report to the police station twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.
But officers today received a medical certificate instead.
His lawyer said he would be applying to vary McCormack's bail conditions later this week.
McCormack is seen being picked up by a Channel Nine cameraman last week
McCormack was suspended from his job and his duties as a surf lifesaver after being arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly sending child pornography.
His arrest - captured on police video - sent shockwaves through the Australian media.
Pictures of his online dating account emerged, as did accounts of an office conflict with a fellow A Current Affair reporter.
McCormack is expected to face Downing Centre Local Court on May 1
McCormack, known to close colleagues as 'hardworking' and 'decent', was pulled over on the way to work on Thursday morning.
That afternoon, he was charged with using a carriage service to send child pornography that afternoon.
He is under strict bail conditions preventing him from going to public places where children are likely to be present.
McCormack will face Downing Centre Local Court on May 1.
Unskilled migrants must be stopped from moving to Britain for five years to help push net migration down to under 50,000, Brexit campaigners have said.
A new visa system should be introduced that cuts numbers but still allows the brightest and the best from around the world to work in the UK, according to lobby group Leave Means Leave.
It has set out proposals that combine an Australian-style points-based system with plans for work permits that would come into force after Britain has left the European Union.
Applicants would be assessed on their education, qualifications and suitability for work.
Brexit campaigners have called for a five-year freeze on unskilled workers moving to Britain to push net migration down below 50,000 (file picture)
Report author Steven Woolfe, who sits as an independent MEP after quitting Ukip following an altercation in the European Parliament that left him in hospital, will say in a speech today: We need an immigration system that is fair, flexible and forward-thinking.
It must be fair in its outlook, flexible in practice and forward-thinking for our economy.
Brexit is not about splendid isolation its about re-engaging with the world, without our wings clipped by the European Union.
This new British working visa system will deliver on the will of the electorate. It wont mean pulling up the drawbridge, as we will continue to encourage the best and the brightest to migrate and settle here.
But by introducing strict controls, an annual cap and a five-year freeze on unskilled migrants, it will reduce net migration year-on-year, lessen the strain on our public services and help build a more cohesive society.
Under the proposed British working visa system, there would be no cap on highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs or investors. But unskilled visas would be halted for five years to bring migration levels down to 1990s levels.
Permits would only be granted if the applicant had a job offer with a minimum 35,000 salary and had passed an English language test, signed a five-year private health insurance contract and had savings in the bank.
Up to 50,000 temporary work permits would be issued initially for agricultural workers tapering off to zero by the third year.
Independent MEP Steven Woolfe, pictured, has written a report calling for an Australian-style points-based system with plans for work permits that would come into force after Britain has left the European Union
There would be no restrictions on the numbers of students who wanted to head to the UK.
Exemptions would be made for health workers if they were needed from overseas but the focus should be on increasing the number of Britons working in the medical profession, according to the report.
Benefits would only be available after a migrant had paid a set level of taxes for five years and reunion rights for international students and temporary workers would end.
EU nationals already settled in the UK would have the right to remain indefinitely as long as Brussels adopted the same approach to UK citizens living in Europe.
But the Government should immediately announce a cut-off date for when new arrivals no longer qualify, the report said.
Speed bumps could disappear from British roads as part of a Government drive to cut pollution after research shows they can double the production of noxious gas.
Officials are said to be prepared to give councils the power to do away with the road restrictions to help reduce emissions.
Research conducted by Imperial College London has previously found that diesel cars produce 98 per cent more nitrogen dioxide when driving over speed bumps as opposed to gentler 'road cushions'.
Speed bumps could disappear from British roads as part of a Government drive to cut pollution after research shows they can double the production of noxious gas (file picture)
Speed bumps force drivers to slow right down to avoid damaging their car, whereas cushions - which are set out in groups of two or three and have a shallower slope - do not require cars to slow down as much.
Research shows stop-start driving can almost double the amount of harmful gases that cars pump out, rather than driving at a steady speed.
Whitehall sources told The Daily Telegraph that the measure is likely to be included in the government's new clean air strategy, which will be unveiled later in the month.
The plans are to comply with EU legislation to improve air quality and meet nitrogen dioxide limits following a ruling by the High Court late last year which said the Government's existing strategy did not meet legal requirements.
Meanwhile, London's mayor Sadiq Khan is introducing a raft of measures to make the city the greenest in the world, including banning new diesel taxis from 2018.
He has also announced plans for a new 12.50 daily charge on the most polluting cars entering anywhere between the North and South circular roads around the capital.
Research conducted by Imperial College London has previously found that diesel cars produce 98 per cent more nitrogen dioxide when driving over speed bumps as opposed to gentler 'road cushions' (file picture)
It was also reported last week that Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom is considering a 'toxin tax' of 20 a day on diesels in 35 cities.
The move prompted fury from drivers, because they were encouraged to buy diesels by the last Labour government.
Diesel cars have been increasingly maligned since the Volkswagen emissions scandal in 2015, while a study that year by researchers at King's College London found nearly 9,500 Londoners die prematurely a year as a result of long-term exposure to air pollution.
Diesel vehicles produce four times more nitrogen dioxide and 22 times more particulates than petrol cars.
The proposals are not expected to include a scrappage scheme for older diesels, despite pressure from the AA.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Transport will present their new joint plan to the court on April 24.
An airport cop who body-slammed a United passenger and dragged him off an overbooked flight was put on leave today - as his bosses condemned his actions amid mounting outrage over video of the incident.
The Chicago Department of Aviation said it 'obviously' did not condone the behavior of the security officer who was filmed slamming the man into an arm rest, knocking him unconscious and dragging him away by his arms as he bled from the mouth at O'Hare.
United is facing growing anger after they selected the 69-year-old man - who claimed to be a doctor - to be bumped from the overbooked flight to Louisville to make room for its staff on Sunday night.
The airline's CEO apologized today even as new video emerged of the man, who had refused to leave the flight, bleeding heavily from the mouth and mumbling about suicide in the aftermath of his brutal treatment.
In the clip, the dazed man chants 'just kill me, just kill me' as blood pours from his mouth.
It seems to have been filmed after another clip that shows the victim somehow broke free from the airport cops and ran back onto the plane chanting 'I need to go home, I need to go home.'
Do you know the man who was thrown off the flight? Email tips@dailymail.com
Beaten and bloodied: The unnamed passenger is pictured bleeding from the mouth after he was body slammed by cops and dragged off the overbooked United flight at Chicago O'Hare
Screaming: The man who had refused to to give up his seat on the overbooked United flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday night was dragged off the plane by three cops
In his apology, United CEO Oscar Munoz said today: 'This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers.
'Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.'
The aviation department released a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, which read: 'The incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department.
'That officer has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation.'
Aviation department security officers are responsible for policing inside the security cordon at O'Hare.
The Chicago Police department, which operates separately, had earlier risked controversy by claiming that the man 'fell' into the armrest.
Distressing: Children were crying in distress as the three officers manhandled the man out of his seat. Passengers had been offered $800 to take a flight the next day but none volunteered
Unhinged: The man claimed to be a doctor and screamed wildly and he was manhandled by the cops
Their statement released on Sunday night said: 'Aviation Officers arrived on scene attempted to carry the individual off of the flight when he fell. His head subsequently struck an armrest causing injuries to his face.'
It claimed that the man had begun yelling his displeasure at being selected to leave and was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Today the department retreated from the statement, referring all enquiries to the Aviation Department.
HOW DOES UNITED DECIDE WHO GETS BUMPED FROM OVERBOOKED FLIGHTS? United's contract of carriage states that passengers to be forcibly taken off a flight in the event of overbooking will be 'determined based on a passengers fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.' That means that if you have a certain type of fare class, checked in early, have a flier status such as gold, or even just own a barely used frequent flier card, you are less likely to be bumped. But passengers taking advantage of budget seats appear to be of less value to the airline. Advertisement
The still unidentified victim - who claimed to be a doctor and said he needed to see patients the next morning - was one of four passengers selected by United to leave the 5.40pm flight from O'Hare to Louisville, Kentucky.
One passenger also told the Washington Post the man claimed as he was being dragged off the plane he was chosen because he was Chinese.
'He said, more or less, 'I'm being selected because Im Chinese",' the passenger told the Post.
The same passenger went on to tell the newspaper a United official walked onto the plane during the incident and said the plane would not be taking off until four passengers disembarked so the employees could fit on.
He said the official announced: 'We have United employees that need to fly to Louisville tonight. This flights not leaving until four people get off.'
'That rubbed some people the wrong way,' Tyler Bridges said, recounting the comment.
United had unsuccessfully appealed for volunteers who were willing to give up their seats for $800, stay in a hotel and fly the next day. The passengers were removed so airline staff could get to Louisville to man a flight the following day.
Broke free: Passenger Tyler Bridges filmed the man apparently returning to the plane a few minutes later, muttering to himself: 'I have to go home'
When the appeal failed, United staff selected four passengers by computer. A manager told passengers that the unlucky four were chosen at random - although many airlines automatically choose passengers with the lowest fares and who were last to check-in to offload.
One couple and another passenger left the plane peacefully, but the Asian man refused.
That's when airport law enforcement was called to remove him man by force.
Apology: United CEO has apologized amid mounting outrage at the video
Passengers screamed 'my god what are you doing' and 'this is wrong' as the man was yanked from his seat. He appeared to go limp after being slammed against a headrest and one passenger said he was 'knocked out'.
Jayse Anspach told CNN that the man and his wife had initially volunteered when flight attendants called for four people to take a later flight so airline staff could take their seats.
But the 69-year-old had rescinded his offer when he learned that the next flight available was not until 2.30pm on Monday.
When no-one else came forward, the air crew came aboard with four slips of paper with the names and seat numbers of passengers and began informing them they had been chosen to leave the plane.
'They approached his doctor and told him to get off the plane,' he said. 'He refused because he had work the next day. Hes a medical doctor. He was very emphatic, I cant be late, Im a doctor, Ive got to be there tomorrow.'
Anspach, who said that the whole situation had put him off flying with United in the future, said that he saw the passenger hit his face when staff dragged him off.
'It was ten minutes later and he came running back on,' he said. 'He runs to the back, his face was bloody, and clung onto the post at the back, saying I wanna go home, I need to go home.
'It wasnt until 35 to 45 seconds later that the authorities followed him. So I dont know what happened in the jet way but he managed to escape from them.'
The man was then taken off for a second time, this time on a stretcher, he added.
Audra Bridges, one passenger who filmed the man's removal, described what happened on the flight to the Courier-Journal.
She said that passengers were told at the gate that the flight was overbooked and staff appealed for one volunteer to accept $400 and a hotel stay to take a flight at 3pm the next day.
All the remaining passengers were then allowed to board the flight - only to be told that another four people would have to give up their seats.
Social media was flooded with outrage from people who had seen the videos, with many threatening to boycott the airline
United said four stand-by staff needed to be in Louisville for a flight the next day and the plane would not take off until they had seats.
Even when the offer was increased to $800, no one volunteered. Louisville is a four-and-a-half hour, 300 mile drive from Chicago.
At this point, Bridges said a manager came onboard the flight and said four 'volunteers' would be randomly selected by computer.
After a couple was picked and left the plane peacefully, then man was selected and refused to leave the flight.
Outrage about the shocking incident continued to grow throughout the day as more and more people saw the videos
Staff told him security would be called if he refused to leave, and the distressed man then claimed he was a doctor who needed to be in Louisville the next morning and he threatened to call his lawyer.
Three men Chicago police boarded the flight to remove the man - who still refused to budge.
'United is proud to announce the new club class - fight club!' Twitter trolls airline with hundreds of hilarious memes United Airlines is being trolled with hundreds of hilarious memes after a shocking video emerged shocking a bruised and bloody passenger who was hauled off a flight to make room for staff. Twitter has been flooded with tweets mocking the airline, which apologized for 'having to re-accommodate' a 69-year-old man - who claimed to be a doctor - who was dragged off an overbooked flight to Louisville on Sunday night. Many took aim at the overzealous removal which left the passenger, who has not yet been named, with blood pouring down his face. United Airlines is being trolled with hundreds of hilarious memes after a passenger was hauled off a flight to make room for staff 'United is proud to announce the new club class! Fight Club!' one user tweeted along with a seating map of a United flight. Others imagined United staff as anything from WWE wrestlers and football players, to an armed SWAT team, as they 're-accomodated' an elderly passenger. Others mentioned Pepsi must be sighing with relief today after Airlines decided to take some heat off their 'tone deaf' ad with a PR nightmare of their own. 'Pepsi: We have made the biggest PR disaster of any major company this year or any other year... Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas joined in by mocking the airline's statement on Twitter, posting a photograph of himself 're-accommodating' an opponent during an NFL game 'United: Hold my beer...' one Twitter user wrote. Many mocked the airline's unusual definition of the word 'volunteer.' 'United selecting their tribute- er, volunteer, for overbooking a flight. #flight3411' one person wrote alongside pictures from The Hunger Games. Another tweeted a picture of United's 'new motto': 'Volunteering is mandatory. Thank you for your cooperation.' Advertisement
At this point the officers yanked him out his seat as he screamed wildly - the episode seen in the video.
As the man, his glasses falling off his face and his clothes in disarray, is dragged out other passengers cried out in disgust: 'Come on!' '
But this was not the end of the drama. After being removed, the man apparently broke free from the officers grasp and managed to run back on the flight. He was filmed running down the aisle chanting 'I need to go home, I need to go home.'
Bridges said he reappeared on the plane with a bloody face and seemed 'disorientated'. Passengers were then taken off the flight as a medical crew boarded.
It took off later on Sunday night and landed two hours late.
Other footage of the incident was uploaded onto Twitter by Jayse Anspach, from Kentucky, who later deleted it and several tweets criticizing the airline.
It is the second PR disaster for the airline in as many months. In March, the airline faced outrage after a teenage girl was banned from flying for wearing leggings. Although it eventually transpired that the teen was with a airline staff member flying for free and was subject to a dress code.
Earlier the airline had stood by their actions.
An earlier statement said: 'Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation.'
Airline spokesman Charlie Hobart added: 'We followed the right procedures. That plane had to depart.
'We wanted to get our customers to their destinations, and when one gentleman refused to get off the aircraft, we had to call the Chicago Police Department.'
The airline's contract of carriage states that passengers to be forcibly taken off a flight in the event of overbooking will be 'determined based on a passengers fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.'
Another passenger, Tyler Bridges, also gave an account of the flight. He said on Twitter: 'Not a good way to treat a Doctor trying to get to work because they overbooked
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS IF A FLIGHT IS OVERBOOKED? Overbooking is not illegal and every airline does it to maximize their revenue. According to the the Department of Transportation: 'DOT rules require airlines to seek out people who are willing to give up their seats for compensation before bumping anyone involuntarily. 'Airlines set their own "boarding priorities" - the order in which they will bump different categories of passengers in an oversale situation. 'When a flight is oversold and there are not enough volunteers, some airlines bump passengers with the lowest fares first. 'Others bump the last passengers to check in. Once you have purchased your ticket, the most effective way to reduce the risk of being bumped is to get to the airport early. 'For passengers in the same fare class the last passengers to check in are usually the first to be bumped, even if they have met the check-in deadline. ' United's contract of carriage states that passengers to be forcibly taken off a flight in the event of overbooking will be 'determined based on a passengers fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.' Any passengers who is forced to get another flight is entitled to compensation. The DOT states: 'Travelers who don't get to fly are frequently entitled to denied boarding compensation in the form of a check or cash. The amount depends on the price of their ticket and the length of the delay. ' Advertisement
'United Flight 3411 from ORD to SDF, the man was forcibly removed because the flight was overbooked and united crew needed to get to SDF
'Kids were crying people are disturbed. Also after being removed the bloodied man somehow ran back on the plane repeating-I have to get home
'I'm not sure, he told the police and the united employees he had to be at the hospital in the morning to see patients'.
Jayse Anspach was also on the flight. She said: 'United overbooked and wanted 4 of us to volunteer to give up our seats for personnel that needed to be at work the next day.
'No one volunteered, so decided to choose for us. They chose an Asian doctor and his wife.
'The doctor needed to work at the hospital the next day, so he refused to "volunteer." decided to use force on doctor.
'A couple of airport security men forcefully pulled the doctor out of his chair and to the floor of the aisle.
'In so doing, the doctor's face was slammed against an arm rest, causing serious bleeding from his mouth.
'It looked like he was knocked out, because he went limp and quiet and they dragged him out of the plane like a rag doll.
'Ten mins later, the doctor runs back into the plane with a bloody face, clings to a post in the back, chanting, "I need to go home."
Every year around 50,000 people with valid plane tickets are bumped off flights because they have been overbooked.
Boris Johnson warned Russia that Donald Trump's willingness to bomb Syria is a 'game changer' today as he backed sanctions against Kremlin generals.
The Foreign Secretary urged Vladimir Putin to recognise the strength of international condemnation as he met counterparts from the powerful G7 nations in Italy.
After holding an hour of private talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this afternoon, Mr Johnson said they were in total agreement that Bashar Assad must go in the wake of the chemical atrocity in Idlib last week.
He said the G7 was considering escalating sanctions against Russian and Syrian generals involved in the military campaign.
'The choice is to stick like glue to the Assad regime ... or to work with the rest of the world,' Mr Johnson told reporters at the summit in Lucca.
Boris Johnson, pictured meeting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the G7 ministers' meeting in Italy today, is leading calls for Russia to face 'complete international ostracisation' unless Vladimir Putin withdraws support for the Syrian regime
Mr Johnson, seen walking with Italian counterpart Angelino Alfano today, is urging harsher sanctions against Moscow after condemning the Assad regime's chemical weapons attack
Russia slammed Brtain after Boris Johnson cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow over its support for the Syrian regime, claiming Britain has 'no real influence' internationally
Mr Johnson said Russia's reputation was being 'toxified' by its connection with Assad.
'We will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions certainly on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures who have been involved in co-ordinating the Syrian military efforts and are thereby contaminated by the appalling behaviour of the Assad regime,' he added.
Earlier, Mr Tillerson teed up the two-day summit by saying the US was re-dedicating itself to hold to account 'any and all' who commit crimes against innocent people.
But Russia is attempting to defuse the issue by proposing an independent and impartial investigation of the attack in Idlib province last week. The Kremlin has claimed Assad's jets blew up a rebel stash of chemical weapons.
Alongside sanctions, re-entry to the elite club of power nations is thought to be to on the table as an incentive for cooperating.
Russia was kicked out of what was the G8 in 2014 as punishment for the annexation of Crimea.
Moscow's foreign ministry has taunted Mr Johnson for being 'in the shadow' of the US. In a statement, it said the cancellation 'once again confirms doubts about the added value of dialogue with the British, who don't have their own position on the majority of current issues'.
The UK has 'no real influence on the course of international affairs', the ministry added.
Mr Johnson faced claims he was Washington's poodle over the weekend after he agreed to pull out of a planned visit to Moscow following discussions with the US.
The trip was cancelled so the G7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and America can agree a joint plan, which will then be delivered by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead.
AMERICAN U-TURN ON REMOVING DICTATOR The US ambassador to the United Nations claimed yesterday that removing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is a priority, little more than a week after she and the Trump administration indicated the precise opposite. 'We know there's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime,' said Nikki Haley. 'If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it's going to be hard to see a government that's peaceful and stable with Assad.' On March 30 Miss Haley had said that the White House had ditched the Obama policy of seeking regime change in Syria. Interviewed on CNN yesterday she added that 'getting Assad out is not the only priority' as the US was 'obviously' trying to defeat Islamic State, too. Asked if Mr Trump would order more air strikes, she said: 'If he needs to do more, he will do more.' Her comments were at odds with the far more cautious remarks of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said it would be left to the Syrian people to decide Assad's fate. Mr Tillerson, who will be in Moscow tomorrow for talks, said the first priority was to defeat Islamic State before 'stabilising' Syria through negotiations. Advertisement
Yesterday Mr Johnson's aides claimed he himself had taken the decision to abandon the meeting, so they could 'deliver a clear and co-ordinated' message to Moscow.
Whitehall sources last night said Mr Johnson was pushing for the group to agree sanctions against Russia 'if they continue to support a regime that gasses its own people'. One source familiar with the discussions said: 'Very punitive sanctions on Russia for Syria is one option being considered.'
Punishments being discussed include economic sanctions and further isolation from the international community, including the threat that it will not be allowed to re-join G8 group of nations.
In 2014 Russia was suspended from the group of leading economies, to which it was admitted in 1998, over the annexation of Crimea.
Mr Johnson wants to see a plan under which Putin agrees that Assad needs to go, removes Russian troops from Syria, and helps to rebuild the troubled state.
A government source denied claims Mr Johnson had been pushed into cancelling his trip to Moscow because he was not trusted by America.
He said: 'The important thing is that this is Britain helping to influence US policy, far from being a poodle, three months ago Syria wasn't really an issue for them but our push and recent events have made a difference.'
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Russia was to blame 'by proxy' for Assad's chemical weapons attack because it was the Syria's 'principal backer'.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Michael said, however, Russia must be part of the solution.
He also reiterated his support of Mr Trump's cruise missile strike in the early hours of Friday, saying it has 'sent a strong signal to the Syrian regime to think twice before using gas in the future'.
Mr Tillerson echoed the comments, telling CBS TV that the Russians 'have played now for some time the role of providing cover for Assad's behaviour'.
But asked about the possibility of further intervention, he said Washington's 'first priority' in Syria is to defeat Islamic State.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, pictured left with Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano today, is attending the gathering of the G7 to discuss Syria
The German military has 275 right-wing extremists in its ranks with one heard saying 'Heil Hitler' and others using the Nazi salute, investigators fear.
Some of those under investigation are suspected of racially abusing servicemen with migrant backgrounds while one is said to have taken to Facebook to demand the death sentence for 'typical foreigners'.
The Defence Ministry revealed details of the investigation in a letter submitted to the German parliament, which responded with 143 of the cases reported last year and 53 this year.
The German military has 275 right-wing extremists in its ranks with one heard saying 'Heil Hitler' and others using the Nazi salute, investigators fear (file picture)
Public displays of Nazi symbols and salutes are illegal in Germany, where most people are repulsed by any degree of sympathy to the dictatorship responsible for the Holocaust.
The letter noted the lax manner in which some of the most serious cases have been dealt with.
One such incident is Case 29, which involved a soldier who was heard conspicuously saying 'Heil Hitler,' 'Heil our leader' and 'Sieg Heil, comrades,' the ministry said.
'The case was passed on to the military prosecutor and the public prosecutor's office, but neither an early dismissal nor a service ban took place,' it wrote to parliament.
Some of those under investigation are suspected of racially abusing servicemen with migrant backgrounds while one is said to have taken to Facebook to demand the death sentence for 'typical foreigners' (file picture)
Another case involved a soldier who used a Facebook page associated with the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) to spread racist remarks, including demanding the death sentence for 'typical foreigners.'
Germany's Constitutional Court said in January that the NPD resembled Adolf Hitler's Nazi party but ruled against banning it because it was too weak to endanger democracy.
The ministry said the soldier was 'only disciplined.'
In a third case, a soldier was allowed to keep his weapon after he was disciplined for performing the Nazi salute while on a trip to the Latvian capital, Riga.
German media reported last year that there are signs Islamists were trying to join the German armed forces to get military training with the possible goal of carrying out attacks in Germany.
The pilot who carried out the sarin gas attack which killed 87 Syrian civilians is an Assad General who carried out a similar attack last month, it is reported.
General Mohammed Hasouri, a squadron commander in Assad's army, was pictured being congratulated for the raid in Khan Sheikhoun last Tuesday on Twitter.
Fares Shehabi, the MP for Aleppo and a high-ranking member of the Assad regime, posted an image on social media of Hasouri shaking hands with General Ali Abdullah Ayoub, the chief of general staff of the Syrian Arab Army.
Fares Shehabi, the MP for Aleppo, posted an image on Twitter of General Mohammed Hasouri (left) at Shayrat airbase being congratulated for a raid on Khan Sheikhoun
It is thought that General Hasouri dropped the sarin gas bomb which killed 87. Assad's regime claims it bombed al-Qaeda weapons dumps which released the nerve agent
Shehabi captioned the image: 'Syrian army chief of staff thanks General Haytham Hasouri for destroying Qaeda's weapons facilities in Khan Sheikhoun, Edlib.'
It is thought Shehabi used a false first name to try and protect the General's identity, though the image matches previous pictures of him. A source also confirmed to The Times that the man in the picture was Mohammed Hasouri.
Assad's regime maintains that it did not drop chemical weapons on Khan Sheikhoun, a farming village near Homs, and says it bombed Jihadi weapons stores which released the deadly nerve agent.
But experts have rubbished that theory, saying sarin gas would be destroyed by an explosion, rather than dispersed.
The Times also claims that General Hasouri was behind another gas attack in the village of Latamineh, 15 miles from Khan Sheikhoun, on March 30.
General Hasouri is also believed to have taken part in another gas bomb raid last month which sickened 70 in a town around 15 miles from Khan Sheikhoun
President Trump carried out a Tomahawk missile attack against Shayrat airbase after aides say he was horrified by images of the gas attack victims
Around 70 people were sickened in that attack, with doctors describing victims as suffering spasms and foaming at the mouth. Fortunately nobody was killed.
Experts also said that General Hasouri would almost certainly have known he was dropping chemical agents, as the target area would have differed from a conventional bomb attack.
Chemical weapons have to be dropped upwind of the target area, with ideal weather conditions so the gas does not evaporate too quickly or blow away too fast.
There were reports on Monday that General Hasouri had been killed in a carbomb attack, though these could not be verified.
The General is chief of staff for air force brigade 50 and originally from the town of Talkalakh, near the Lebanese border, which has seen heavy fighting between rebel forces and those loyal to Assad.
General Hasouri is an Alawite, a Shia Muslim sect that counts Assad himself as a member. Most of the dictator's high-ranking officials are also Alawite.
The principal of an exclusive private girls school has abruptly quit after a group of parents reportedly launched an 'incredibly nasty campaign' to drive her out.
Debra Kelliher, who has been in charge of Kambala School in Sydney's elite eastern suburbs for just three and a half years, made the shock announcement on Monday.
The shock decision comes just months after the $40,000-a-year Anglican school made headlines for firmly defending its decision to employ gay teachers following a number of parent complaints.
A letter of no confidence in Ms Kelliher's leadership capabilities was also signed by an estimated 80 teachers following a period of high staff turnover, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The principal of Kambala School (pictured), an exclusive Christian girls school in Sydney's elite eastern suburbs, has resigned after parents reportedly launched a 'nasty campaign'
Debra Kelliher's (left) resignation as principal was revealed in a letter sent to parents by school council president Sally Herman (right)
In a letter sent out by the president of the school council on the first day of school holidays, obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Kelliher was thanked for her efforts.
'Debra has done a wonderful job in her three-and-a-half years at Kambala,' the letter, written by council president and corporate businesswoman Sally Herman, said.
'She leaves a legacy focused on the key areas the council identified on her appointment.
'The school's academic results have improved significantly, enrolments have increased to their highest ever level, the school is in an excellent financial position.
It comes just months after the Anglican school made headlines for firmly defending its decision to employ gay teachers following a number of parent complaints
At the time, Ms Herman said the school wanted to be 'definted more by how we care for each other than how we might discriminate' after two sets of parents made complaints
The letter continued on to say that an experienced acting principal would be appointed until a permanent position was filled.
Less than a week before announcing her resignation, Ms Kelliher wrote a glowing recap of term one at the school, showing no signs of her impending departure.
One parent told The Sydney Morning Herald Ms Kelliher had fallen victim to a campaign by angry parents, despite the 'massive improvements in HSC results under her leadership'.
A thief was arrested seconds after snatching a womans mobile phone because he had accidentally ran into a police station.
Surveillance footage, filmed on March 31 in China, shows the man sprinting straight into the Longgang District Police Station in Shenzhen while trying to run away from the victim.
The man was caught on the spot and escorted into the station by officers.
Surveillance video shows the man (left) snatching the phone from a woman's hands (right) at a traffic junction in China on March 31
The clip, posted by Pear Video on Chinese social media on April 8, showed a woman playing on her phone as she waited by a traffic junction in Longgang district.
A man suddenly approached the woman and snatched the mobile phone from her hands.
The woman chased after him immediately, but she tumbled on the wet floor.
He quickly ran past a metal gate of a compound, which turned out to be a police station.
A police officer stopped him as the woman claimed that he had taken her phone.
The female victim, holding her umbrella, chased after the suspect immediately
The man thought he could get away from the victim's chase, but didn't realise he had ran into a police station
The victim explained to the police officer (left, in black uniform) in Shenzhen's Longgang District Station that the man had stolen her phone
A police officer told a reporter from Pear Video that the suspect was not familiar with the neighbourhood, thus he ran into their police station without realising.
The officer said: 'The suspect did not know that he had run into the police station. He was spotted by our colleagues immediately and was escorted into the station.'
The suspect, surnamed Chang, had only arrived in Shenzhen recently, according to a report by state media China Global Television Network.
The 38-year old man, struggling to find a job and a place to stay, is not familiar with the city, said the report.
He has been detained on suspicion of theft.
The man, unemployed, was caught on spot and has been detained on suspicion of theft
The man is believed to be a frustrated migrant worker who, like millions of others, went to Shenzhen to look for work.
Shenzhen has the largest population of migrant workers in China, according to National Bureau of Statistics.
Over 6.1 million of workers from rural area have moved to the manufacturing hub for jobs, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of the population.
The first rail freight service from Britain to China departed today - laden with whisky, soft drinks, vitamins and baby products.
Thirty containers filled with UK-produced goods have set off on the 7,500-mile journey from Stanford-le-Hope in Essex which will take 18 days.
Pharmaceuticals are also among the items being exported on the DB Cargo locomotive which left the DP World London Gateway rail terminal this morning.
Officials unveil the first UK to China export train today during the official ceremony to mark its departure from the DP World London Gateway in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex
Chinese women wave flags at the official ceremony to mark the departure of the export train
A ceremony was held to mark the departure from the DP World London Gateway in Essex
Pharmaceuticals are among the items being exported on the DB Cargo locomotive
Reporters and officials listen to speeches made during the official ceremony this morning
After passing through the Channel Tunnel into France and on to Belgium, the train will call in Duisburg, Germany.
InterRail will then pull the cargo through Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazahkstan and arrive at Yiwu in eastern China on April 27.
Three months ago the first freight service from China to the UK arrived in Barking, East London. The journey is cheaper than air freight and faster than sea freight.
The service is part of China's One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West, initially created more than 2,000 years ago.
A container is loaded onto the first UK to China export train which is laden with UK goods
Thirty containers filled with UK-produced goods are setting off on the 7,500-mile journey
After passing through the Channel Tunnel into France and on to Belgium, the train will call in Duisburg, Germany
InterRail will pull the cargo through Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazahkstan and arrive at Yiwu in eastern China on April 27
DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said the first freight service from the UK to China is a 'significant trade occasion'.
The 2,000-year-old Silk Road trade network The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that ran through central Asia connecting China to the Mediterranean Sea. It was initially named after the lucrative trade in Chinese silk under the Han Dynasty in around 202BC. But quickly other precious items such as jade, gold, silver, bronze and spice were also transported initially between China and Egypt, then later to ancient Greece and Rome and eventually to Medieval Europe. While many sea route were opened up by sailors to transport goods, merchants crossing overland were thought to have travelled by northern and southern routes that bypassed the Takliamakan Desert in north west China. The northern route took several paths through Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The southern route ran through the Karakoram mountains that sit on the border of Pakistan, India and China. They merged again near Merv in Turkmenistan before continuing west to the south of the Caspian Sea. Advertisement
He went on: 'DP World London Gateway, one of the UK's largest logistics hubs, is designed and developed to ensure products can be both imported and exported from the UK via ship or train in a faster, safer and more reliable way than ever before.
'We look forward to enabling and facilitating more trade between the UK, China and the whole world.'
International trade minister Greg Hands said: 'This new rail link with China is another boost for global Britain, following the ancient Silk Road trade route to carry British products around the world.
'It shows the huge global demand for quality UK goods and is a great step for DP World's 1.5billion London Gateway port as it also welcomes its first regular container ships from Asia.'
Run by Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment, the Yiwu-London freight service makes London the 15th European city to have a direct rail link with China after the 2013 unveiling of the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
'This is the first export train and just the start of a regular direct service between the UK and China,' Xubin Feng, chairman of Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment Company, said.
'We have great faith in the UK as an export nation and rail provides an excellent alternative for moving large volumes of goods over long distances faster.'
Chinese women wave flags at the official ceremony to mark the departure of the train today
The service is part of China's One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West, initially created more than 2,000 years ago
DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said the first freight service from the UK to China is a 'significant trade occasion'
Run by Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment, the Yiwu-London freight service makes London the 15th European city to have a direct rail link with China
The overwhelming force [By Zhai Haijun / China.org.cn]
In an unprecedented move, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on March 28 reversing President Barack Obama's climate and clean energy initiatives. Under Presidential Order, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to take a fresh look at the Clean Power Plan (CPP), a key regulatory measure taken by the Obama administration to cut down the emissions of greenhouse gas, particularly in the electricity sector.
The key motivation behind Trump's calculated gamble is to create more jobs and to boost the sagging economy. It would seem to be a logical follow-up to his election campaign narrative that climate change was a big "hoax" created by China. Utterly sceptical of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, Trump pledged to restore the prominent role of fossil fuels in power generation, and, in particular, bring jobs back in the traditional coal industry.
While he is not going to get a free hand in everything, as his policy moves are likely to be opposed by many, including the Republican Party leadership who would not like to see America step away from its global responsibilities, the presidential directive on clean power, especially the dismantling of CPP, will surely damage America's long battle to shift away from coal-based electricity.
The CPP that was an outcome of long negotiations among enterprises, health advocates, and state governments as well as the federal government and its key agencies, has now been rendered useless by a single diktat.
Studies have estimated the EPA would have saved a mammoth 1 billion tons of carbon-dioxide emissions by 2030 and America would have reaped an estimated $55 billion in public health benefits per year from the program. Importantly, apart from the health, economic and climate costs, such a decision takes America back to 19th century technology.
Second, the problem with Trump's order is that, by pulling out the CPP, the federal government will have to show policy shifts elsewhere. It will have to lift the ban on new coal leases and allow mining rights to untapped mines in different regions. According to analysts, the Presidential Order will trigger automatic withdrawal of six Obama-era memoranda on climate change.
Finally, while Trump's decision does not signal America's disengagement from the Paris Agreement or other international obligations on climate and environment, it sends a wrong signal to a world slowly waking up to the negative effects of climate-threatening emissions.
Such a retreat by the world's second-largest polluter not only would encourage a number of countries to weaken their own climate pledges, but lower the confidence in America's leadership on issues involving global commons.
In the longer term, such a pullout will have serious implications for broader U.S. engagement on range of global issues including clean energy technologies.
Yet, the American pullout from its climate commitments does not mean the world will be less rich in terms of supporters for environmental protection.
Given Trump's economic orientation and strong anti-climate rhetoric during the course of electioneering, major nations were anticipating something of this kind. In fact, China and the European Union (EU) have expressed even stronger resolve to push initiatives and resources to fulfil the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement.
Note the response of China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson that, regardless of what the U.S. administration does, "China will stick to its pledges on policies related to climate change." Many analysts were speculating a contrary response - that China, too, would take this opportunity to water down its climate pledges.
China, which has integrated its climate pledges in its Five-Year Plan, may turn out to be the top gun in the climate change battle. It must be recalled that China has pledged to bring down its carbon dioxide intensity to an astounding 60 percent below 2005 levels and expanding its forest carbon stock volume to the tune of 4.5 billion cubic meters by 2030.
Importantly, China has planned to increase non-fossil fuels by 20 percent in its total energy mix by 2030. To do this, in statistical terms, China has pledged to deploy a mammoth 800 to 1000 gigawatts in non-fossil capacity. With installed capacity in solar power generation increasing 400-fold from the 2005 level, China is a serious contender to meet the UNFCCC target.
Its level of investment in renewable energy sources is unmatched by any nation. Importantly, all recent activities of China (including President Xi's announcement during last year's G-20 meeting specifying measures like nation-wide cap and emission rights trading system) clearly indicate that the world's largest emitter of pollution is far more active than it was in the Copenhagen years. In short, China has turned the tables on the climate battle with lofty goals and big ticket initiatives.
Niranjan Sahoo is a Senior Fellow of the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Chechyna has opened the first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler, where campaigners say gay men are being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death.
It comes after it was claimed 100 gay men had been detained and three killed in Chechnya last week.
A report by Novoya Gazeta said authorities had set up several camps where homosexuals are killed or forced to promise to leave the republic.
One of the camps is reportedly at the former military headquarters in the town of Argun.
President Razman Kadyrov (right), who is a key ally of Vladimir Putin , allegedly ordered the clampdown
Svetlana Zakharova, from the Russian LGBT Network, told MailOnline: 'Gay people have been detained and rounded up and we are working to evacuate people from the camps and some have now left the region.
'Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death.'
One of those who escaped told Novoya Gazeta that prisoners were beaten to force them to reveal other members of the gay community.
Another prisoner who fled said that before being incarcerated in one of the camps, he had been forced to pay bribes to Chechen police of thousands of rubles every month in order to survive.
Now the regime had taken another step against gays by creating these camps, the survivor said.
Alexander Artemyev, from Amnesty International in Russia, told MailOnline: 'We can only call on the Russian authorities to investigate the allegations. Homosexuals in Chechyna are treated very harshly and prosecuted daily and they are afraid to talk about it.
'They either have to hide or leave the republic. We are keeping in touch with the LGBT network that helps people in Russia to find shelter. The problem is people there cannot talk about it as it puts their lives and those they speak to, in danger. This is the main issue we are facing in Russia and the main challenge.'
Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, Russia project director for the International Crisis Group, told MailOnline: 'The story is very much developing...victims are escaping.'
Last week Chechen police are believed to have rounded up more than 100 men (file photo)
Tanya Lokshina, from Human Rights Watch in Moscow, said: 'For several weeks now, a brutal campaign against LGBT people has been sweeping through Chechnya.
'These days, very few people in Chechnya dare speak to human rights monitors or journalists even anonymously because the climate of fear is overwhelming and people have been largely intimidated into silence.
'Filing an official complaint against local security officials is extremely dangerous, as retaliation by local authorities is practically inevitable.
'It is difficult to overstate just how vulnerable LGBT people are in Chechnya, where homophobia is intense and rampant. LGBT people are in danger not only of persecution by the authorities but also of falling victim to "honour killings" by their own relatives for tarnishing family honour.'
Last week Novoya Gazeta said Chechen police had rounded up more than 100 men suspected of being gay and killed three.
It claimed that among those detained were well-known local television personalities and religious figures.
President Razman Kadyrov, who is a key ally of Vladimir Putin, allegedly ordered the clampdown, although officially his regime denied the arrests claiming 'it is impossible to persecute those who are not in the republic'.
Kadyrov, pictured, has been accused of earlier human rights violations
Kadyrov, who introduced Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority region, has been accused of earlier human rights violations.
He described the allegations as 'absolute lies and disinformation'.
Kadyrov's spokesman Alvi Karimov told the Interfax News Agency: 'You cannot arrest or repress people who just don't exist in the republic.
'If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.'
Chechen society is strictly conservative, meaning that unlike other cases where relatives or rights activists may put pressure on authorities when a homosexual relative disappears, those suspected are likely to be disowned by their own families.
According to the New York Times, gay men on the region have been deleting their social media profiles after it was reported authorities tried to lure gay men into dates and arrested them.
The reports from Russia claim those arrested range from just 15 to 50.
The alleged Stockholm terrorist's asylum bid in Sweden was rejected after investigators found he had lied about being tortured in his homeland, it is claimed.
Rakhmat Akilov, 39, applied for asylum in 2014 under the false name 'Rahmatgon Kurbonov', the Dagens Nyheter newspaper reported.
He claimed that authorities in his native Uzbekistan had falsely accused him of being a terrorist and had tortured and assaulted him in custody.
The fanatic, who killed four in Friday's carnage, told the Swedish Migration Board that he had been arrested during a demonstration and was subsequently tortured by police for nine days.
However, a medical examination showed that torture had not taken place.
Investigators concluded that his identity could not be confirmed as he had used several aliases when applying for asylum.
A court also questioned his version of events, saying that his description of conditions in prison was too vague. He was unable to describe its appearance and anybody who was in prison with him.
'This was something he should have been able to describe quite thoroughly after nine days in prison,' the court said. 'He also hasn't given us information about other people in the demonstration even though he claims to have known many of them.'
Lied: Rakhmat Akilov, pictured, allegedly behind Friday's Stockholm terror attack, had his bid for asylum in Sweden rejected after investigators found he had lied about being tortured in his homeland, it is claimed
Torture claims: The father of four, 39, claimed that authorities in his native Uzbekistan had falsely accused him of being a terrorist and had tortured and assaulted him in custody
The court found that Akilov's story became more exaggerated as the case continued.
Akilov said that he was only able to escape a longer prison sentence after his brother paid $10,000 in bribes.
The court found this information unlikely, however, since he could not provide any details about how the money was paid.
During court hearings, the fanatic said that he came from a wealthy family and that his wife and children were still in his home country.
His journey to Sweden took place by truck via Denmark and was arranged by his brother, he said, but the court found that this was also not reliable.
In conclusion, the court decided that there was no reason to grant him asylum or citizenship in Sweden and ruled that he should be deported.
'His story cannot be seen as something he has experienced himself and therefore he is not in need of asylum,' the court's verdict said.
The fanatic appealed the ruling, but on 14 December 2016 this was dismissed. Akilov was given four weeks to leave the country voluntarily, but failed to do so.
In February, the case was handed over to police to enforce the deportation but by that time Akilov had gone to ground.
Tragedy: Young mother Mailys Dereymaeker, right, was today revealed as one of the four victims of the terror truck. She leaves behind a young toddler. British music executive Chris Bevington, a married father of two, left, was one of four killed in Friday's horrific attack. His father paid tribute to 'a wonderful husband, son, father, brother and close friend to many'
Remembering in prayer: A young boy offers a heartbreaking tributes to the dead and to the heroism of the emergency services, as memorials were laid across Stockholm in memory of the four victims and many more wounded
Minute's silence: In front of a sea of flowers, a woman weeps with emotion as Sweden fell silent for a minute's commemoration for the victims of Friday's terror attack
Light in the dark: Flowers and candles spread out across the scene of the terror attack in Stockholm as thousands paid their own personal tribute to the four victims killed by a careering truck
Tribute: Mr Bevington, pictured, 41, a father of two, who was living in Stockholm, was the first victim to be named
Meanwhile, today Mailys Dereymaeker, a Belgian psychologist who worked with failed asylum seekers being deported, was named as the latest victim of Friday's atrocity.
The mother of one, from Lembeek, near Brussels, was waiting for friends from work when the carnage struck.
Ms Dereymaeker, who had an 18-month-old toddler, worked with illegal immigrants facing deportation like her alleged killer, Akilov.
The psychologist and music enthusiast who played the flute was in Stockholm for a well-deserved break with friends from work.
'It is difficult for me to talk about her death,' a friend told local media. 'She played the flute and taught music to children'.
The mayor of Lembeek said: 'I met her several times. I know her parents very well. They are very nice people who have lived in Halle for a long time.'
Mr Pieters added: 'I'm shocked after each attack, but when you put a face on a victim and personally know her parents, it's even worse.'
Moment of contemplation: Passersby gathered in silence to look at the candles burning in memory of the dead at the scene of Friday's terror attack
Terror attack: As mourners gathered in contemplation in Stockholm, Russian news websites ran claims that the attacker had chatted to accomplices via WhatsApp before and after the attack
Messages of peace: A woman places a post-it note on an already covered window of a shop in Stockholm, Sweden. Among the dead is Chris Bevington, a Briton who worked for Spotify
Ms Dereymaeker was the second victim to be identified after Briton Crispin Bevington, 41, was named yesterday. An 11-year-old girl from Sweden was also among the dead.
Today, the fourth victim was reported as a woman from Uddevalla, a small town in western Sweden. A local newspaper contacted the alleged victim's family but they declined to comment.
As Sweden held a minute's silence for the victims, politicians demanded greater powers to monitor failed asylum seekers.
People whose applications for asylum have failed could be made to report to police stations in a crackdown on the estimated 12,000 migrants awaiting deportation from the country.
Workplace inspections could also be stepped up in a bid to root out those served with papers to leave Sweden and deported the back to their home countries.
The tough new measures are being demanded after it was revealed Akilove had been told to leave Sweden in December.
Floral tribute: A police car was garlanded in memorial flowers in the aftermath of the vicious attack that left four dead
Saddest display: In a stunning but heartbreakingly sad gesture of remembrance, a police van was garlanded in flowers, Swedish flags, candles and balloons
Like thousands of other failed asylum seekers he disappeared, and police admitted they had no idea where he was despite apparent sympathies to the IS terror cause bringing him to the attention of the country's security services.
According to figures from immigration officials there are up to 12,000 people in the country who should have been deported.
The Swedish Migration Board believes the figure will soar to 50,000 by the year 2021.
Latest figures from the Migration Board show that 24,000 people were deported last year after Sweden accepted 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015.
The number of people attempting to settle in Sweden last year dropped to just under 30,000 after the country turned its back on mass immigration.
'This is a wake up call for Sweden, ' said Paula Bieler, immigration spokesman for the Swedish Democrat Party.
'We now have to look into the possibility of giving the police more powers. It is outstanding in a bad way that we have 12,000 people in this country who have been told to leave and we don't know where they are.
Writing against terror: Messages of support for the victims and of defiance against the terrorists fill the board that covers the crash site, where the truck smashed into a department store
'The police should be given more powers. One way would to make the migrants reports to a police station on a regular basis. They could also have greater powers to carry out workplace inspections and deportations carried out.'
Bieler, and the leader of the Swedish Democrats Jimmie Akesson, want to see the Government take immediate action to deport failed asylum seekers back to their country of origin.
'We have agreements in place with these countries that they should be taken back. They have tried to gain asylum here and they have failed. They do not have the right to stay in this country,' said Bieler.
Akesson said it was a 'scandal' that the alleged killer had been allowed to remain in Stockholm.
Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Loven has already signaled a major shift in the country's liberal policy towards migrants saying those who have been told to leave should not be permitted to stay in the country.
'Everyone who has been denied a permit should return home, he said.
'This makes me feel enormously frustrated. If you have been denied a visa you are supposed to leave the country.'
Scene of terror: The route taken by the terror truck was filled with flowers and memorials over the weekend
Mourners look at candles and flowers left in memory of Friday's terror attack victims in Stockholm, Sweden
Sweden's prime minister, Stefan Lofven (pictured at a memorial in central Stockholm), has furiously demanded that illegal immigrants be sent home
The conservative government, under pressure from the far-right Swedish Democrats, pledged to return failed asylum seekers to their home countries.
The fact that the alleged Stockholm attacker was able to carry on living and working with police unaware of his whereabouts has angered the Swedish Democrats.
'It is terrible that it has taken the events in Stockholm to show the Prime Minister that there has to be change,' said Bieler.
'Even if there was not a single jihadist among those who have chosen to stay after being told to leave they should not be here.'
The heartbroken mothers of two young men killed in a crash where the car they were travelling in spun out of control and struck another vehicle have spoken out.
Luke Shanahan, 21, and Ben Sawyer, 19, died in a crash near Bilpin - west of Sydney - in 2015 and the driver of the car Jordan Brown, also 21, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving under the influence of drugs.
Mr Shanahan's mother, Leanne, and Mr Sawyer's mother, Georgina, stood outside Penrith District Court on Monday and tearfully addressed reporters.
'Our families have waited way too long for this decision, and we still wait,' Ms Shanahan said.
Leanne Shanahan (left) and Georgina Sawyer (right), who lost their sons in a triple fatal car crash in 2015, gave a tearful address to reporters outside Penrith District court on Monday as they continue to wait for the driver of the vehicle to be sentenced
'We've gone through hell in the last eighteen months.
'It was pretty black and white to me - P-plate driver, took drugs, drove our boys home, killed them, and injured that old lady.
'The system needs to change. We're in heartache. We're in hell.'
Ms Sawyer stood alongside her and claimed Brown was still denying taking drugs before getting behind the wheel.
The mothers lost their sons Ben Sawyer (left), 19, and Luke Shanahan (right), 21, on August 30, 2015 as they were travelling back from a music festival
'We get to court and he's still denying, still denying, the drugs, denying all of it' she claimed through her tears.
Ms Shanahan agreed with her, claiming his toxicology report had 'such a high reading', and he had claimed he could not recall.
'His level came back such a high reading and he's saying he didn't take anything,' she said.
'Hello? Please. He can't recall because he was just totally whacked that weekend.'
Jordan Brown (pictured) was driving the car and in February pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death and driving under the influence of drugs
Brown had issued a letter of apology to Ms Sawyer on Monday morning, but his attempt at remorse appeared to have been rejected.
'A letter of apology on the morning of - it's despicable,' Ms Sawyer told reporters.
P-plate driver Brown, 21, and four friends were travelling on the Bells Line of Road in Bilpin, west of Sydney, about 3.30pm on August 30 when the vehicle allegedly spun out of control and collided with another car.
The mothers are outraged that it has taken so long for Brown to be sentenced, as his case continued on Monday
Brown and front seat passenger Daniel Richards, 19, were taken to Westmead Hospital with minor injuries while Ben Sawyer, 19, Luke Shanahan, 21, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, died at the scene.
Brown pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death and driving under the influence of drugs in February, The Daily Telegraph reported.
He also pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Barbara McLaren, 84, whose car crashed into Brown's as it slid on its side down the road.
The 21-year-old's bail was revoked on Monday, and he is due to be sentenced on April 28.
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A defiant young British Asian woman who grinned as she confronted the English Defence League after a Muslim woman in a headscarf was surrounded by up to 25 men said today: 'Sometimes it's more important to smile than to shout'.
The moment protester Saffiyah Khan faced down extremist supporters including their leader Ian Crossland became the enduring image of the group's march in Birmingham on Saturday.
In the face of vitriol she smiled and today she winked as she said she was 'not scared in the slightest' by the EDL but was taken away by police for her own safety during the stand-off.
Miss Khan, a proud 'Brummie' born in the UK to Pakistani and Bosnian parents, said she felt compelled to confront Ian Crossland and more than 20 others because of the way they allegedly treated a Muslim woman.
She said: 'A group of 25 quite big-looking EDL lads, they surrounded her. She was terrified. I don't like seeing people getting ganged up on in my town'.
She added: 'The picture sums it up. It wasn't a pleasant interaction'.
In response Mr Crossland described her as a 'left wing scrubber' who is 'lucky' to have teeth left in her mouth in an angry Facebook post.
Row: Saffiyah Khan staring down English Defence League (EDL) leader Ian Crossland over claims a Muslim was surrounded and abused by up to 25 men. Today she said: 'Sometimes it's more important to smile than to shout'
Response: Miss Khan said she 'was not scared in the slightest' but stepped in because she claims police did not protect the Muslim woman
Protest: English Defence League members held a rally in Birmingham city centre - pictured is the woman in a blue headscarf, known only as Saira, who was abused by EDL extremists
Response: Miss Khan was eventually taken away by police for her own safety, West Midlands Police said
Brave: Saffiyah Khan spoke about her experience on the BBC today and smiled and winked as she said she was not scared of the EDL (pictured)
The woman in the hijab, known only as Saira, from Birmingham, said she travelled to the city centre to oppose the EDL.
She said: 'I was born and bred in this country so for these people to be saying these things was very wrong.
'The majority of those people who supported me were not Muslim which shows it is a matter of humanity.'
Saira told how the EDL protesters thrust a flag in her face and told her she was not welcome in the country.
She said: 'There was someone behind me putting an Islamophobic placard above my head and resting it on my head and another person was shoving an EDL flag in my face.
'I was quite alarmed by the level of racism towards me.
Response: Hope not Hate say this is what Ian Crossland had to say after Miss Khan afterwards
'They were looking at me with so much anger that they were almost looking straight through me with anger.
'There was just two or three police officers standing in front of me.'
Saffiyah said police 'did nothing' to protect the woman and she was caught in stand off with EDL chief Mark Crossland, which was caught on camera.
Miss Khan is seen stood with one hand in her pocket calmly looking down at irate Crossland, before smiling at him.
Explaining what happened she said: 'I kept myself out of the way but sadly it did kick off between the EDL and a lady in a headscarf.
'A group of 25 quite big-looking EDL lads, they surrounded her. She was terrified. I stepped forward and identified myself as someone who supported her and contradicted them.'
She added: 'I don't like seeing people getting ganged up on in my town'.
In an interview with Victoria Derbyshire she added: 'There was very little conversation to be had. His aggression can be seen through the picture.
'Sometimes it is more important to smile than to shout and I did a fair bit of shouting, I'm under no illusions about that. But to smile is a more powerful message'.
Saira said she was grateful for how Saffiyah stepped in to defend her.
She said: 'She saw what was happening and the situation I was in with these people surrounding me trying to attack me.
'She stepped in to support me and I do really appreciate the fact she did that.
'It showed there was support for humanity and solidarity for humanity.
'I think the way Birmingham is portrayed by the EDL is very wrong.
'It's a very diverse city, you just need to go to the city to see how people of different religions and races are living side by side.'
Police were then seen taking Saffiyah away but the West Midlands Police told MailOnline it was not an arrest.
In response the campaign group Hope Not Hate posted an image from EDL leader Crossland's Facebook account reacting to the image.
It said: 'The dirty unwashed left-wing scrubber was grinning because she managed to disrupt a demo. And the disrespectful witch chose the minutes silence for the victims of the terror attack in Stockholm and Westminster. She's lucky she got any teeth left' (sic).
The picture showing the confrontation has been shared thousands of times across social media by celebrities and politicians.
Dailymail.com editor-at-large Piers Morgan tweeted the photograph and wrote: '**PHOTO OF THE WEEK** Enraged EDL racist stared down by amused, contemptuous Asian woman.'
Local MP Jess Phillips wrote: 'Who looks like they have power here, the real Brummy on the left or the EDL who migrated for the day to our city and failed to assimilate'
The EDL rally in Centenary Square attracted approximately 100 supporters and passed off without any major disorder
Officers policing the event were twice forced to form cordons to keep EDL supporters and anti-fascist activists apart
People chat during a 'best of British' tea party for the public at the Birmingham Central Mosque in response to the English Defence League (EDL) protest
Former EDL leader Tommy Robinson said that the picture was 'embarrassing' for the far right group in tweets today
Saffiyah, of Birmingham, said: 'The reason I was there was because I am a Brummie. This was happening in Birmingham and it felt right. I am not a political activist.
'I wasn't in a confrontational role, I wanted to keep a low profile. I was there with a few friends to look after people - because Muslims and people of colour are often abused.
'Nothing was really happening until a woman in a headscarf started shouting 'racist'.
'About 20 to 25 EDL people ran over and surrounded her. She looked absolutely terrified. I still hung back and waited for the police to sort it out.
'I waited two or three minutes and but the police did nothing, so I decided to go and try and get her out of there.
'It all happened very quickly. She left, but then I was identified as anti-fascist. The group turned on me.
'Ian Crossland was poking his finger in my face, but I just stood there. I didn't do anything, I wasn't interested, that wasn't my intention.
'But I wasn't scared in the slightest. I stay pretty calm in these situations. I knew they were trying to provoke me, but I wasn't going to be provoked.
'I was just holding out. Then I was just pulled out of there, I wasn't arrested or charged. I have lost my anonymity because of the picture, but on balance it was worth it'.
The EDL rally in Centenary Square attracted approximately 100 supporters and passed off without any major disorder.
West Midlands Police said two people, thought to be counter-protestors, had been arrested for alleged breaches of the peace.
Officers policing the event were twice forced to form cordons to keep EDL supporters and anti-fascist activists apart.
English Defence League (EDL) protestors demonstrate in the city of Birmingham, in the wake of the Westminster terror attack
Balloons are released during a 'best of British' tea party for the public at the Birmingham Central Mosque
An EDL march attended by an estimated 2,000 protestors in Birmingham on July 20 2013 saw missiles, including stones, bottles and broken glass, hurled at police officers in Centenary Square, resulting in several minor injuries.
More than 50 men were later convicted of violent disorder, including a 21-year-old who was jailed for three years and 10 months.
Reacting to Crossland's claims that she interrupted an minute's slilence, she said: 'There is no evidence supporting that. Everyone that was there with me can confirm that as well as video evidence.
'People that know me can vouch for me that if some was holding a minute's silence my respect for it would not be swayed. It is just a smear'.
She said she has been inundated with messages from women telling her their daughters are looking up to her.
She said: 'I have been trying to respond to most of the messages I have been getting. I haven't had a single negative message.
'I think the best messages I have received have been from people who have told me they had daughters who were looking up to me and I didn't realised a picture could have that effect.
'It is still in the process, they are groups that are more focused on community, I am hoping to help them.'
Ian Crossland, EDL leader, told MailOnline their minute's silence was disturbed by protesters.
He said: 'We were holding a minute's silence for the victims of the Westminster and Stockholm terror attacks.
'But members of Unite Against Fascism were screaming 'Nazi scum' and spitting at us. Yes, I look angry, but who wouldn't be if someone screamed and spat in your face?
'In the picture she [Saffiyah Khan] is laughing at me while I am telling her to get out of the demonstration and respect the silence.
'She's laughing because she's managed to disturb the demonstration, she's completed her aim. She's since claimed that we were abusing a woman in a headscarf. But that's not true.
'We only shouted at them after they disrupted the minute's silence. She is adjusting her story to suit her own ends. There are two sides to every story.'
The divorced 44-year-old father of three, who runs a building company in Sheffield, has been an EDL member since 2013. He said the EDL were protesting against the radicalisation of Muslims in Birmingham mosques.
A Florida sheriff has released a dramatic video warning heroin dealers in his county that his SWAT team will 'blow their front door off its hinges' as soon his arrest warrants are finalized.
Sheriff Peyton Grinnell of Lake County in Florida appeared on the video along with four members of his SWAT team, who were wearing balaclavas and dressed in black paramilitary-style garb.
During the short message, which features a menacing soundtrack, Grinnell said drug dealers could face murder charges if their customers die from an overdose.
Sheriff Peyton Grinnell appeared on the warning video with four of his SWAT team, pictured
The sheriff revealed people had called him with concerns over heroin dealing in the area
He warned dealers they will face murder charges if their customers die from drug overdoses
Looking directly at the camera, Sheriff Grinnell introduces himself and begins his dramatic warning on the video which was posted on the department's Facebook channel.
He said; 'Over the last month or so I've had several phone calls from citizens in this county concerned about the number of overdoses related to heroin.
'I want our citizens to know that I am aware of this serious issue. I am asking our residents to please call and let us know if you know of a location that this poison is being pushed out to our streets. You can remain anonymous.'
On March 30, the SWAT team took down a suspected drug dealer who was charged with possession of methamphetamine and marijuana as well as having a stolen gun and second with an altered serial number.
Sheriff Grinnell continued: 'To the dealers, who are pushing this poison, I have a message for you, we are coming for you.
'As a matter of fact, our undercover agents have already bought heroin from many of you. We are simply awaiting the arrest warrants to be finalized.
Grinnell, pictured leaving the stage, told dealers to keep looking over their shoulders
'So, to the dealers I say, enjoy looking over your shoulder constantly wondering is today the day we come for you.
'Enjoy trying to sleep tonight wondering if tonight's the night that your SWAT team blows your front door off its hinges. We are coming for you.'
The sheriff then warned dealers they may face more serious charges if their customers die after taking drugs.
He said: 'If our agents can show the nexus between you the pusher of poison and the person who overdoses and dies, we will charge you with murder. We are coming for you. Run.'
Brexit will pave the way for a 2billion a year boom in exports to India, according to a report.
A study by the Commonwealth found that the volume of goods and services sold to the fast-growing power could rise by 50 per cent if there is a free trade deal.
The research points out that the EU has been trying to negotiate an agreement with India since 2007.
But it says Brexit presents an 'opportunity' for London and Delhi to strengthen their ties.
The report from the Commonwealth estimated that a post-Brexit Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India could boost annual UK exports to the country by around 50 per cent
'This proposed IndiaUK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) may be easier to negotiate than the India-EU FTA, as some of the sticking points in an India-EU FTA may be easier to resolve,' the report said.
Currently tariffs on UK imports to India are on average 14.8 per cent.
By contrast the equivalent figure for Indian exports to the UK are 8.4 per cent.
The Commonwealth report suggests that bringing the value of the tariffs down to zero would increase UK exports from US$5.2billion (42.billion) to US$7.8 billion (6.3billion).
The report, prepared in September, will be a boost for Theresa May as she prepares to kick of Brexit negotiations in earnest.
The Prime Minister has been making clear that she is willing to walk away from the table and focus on links with the rest of the world if the EU will not offer a good deal.
Brussels has been threatening a hard line over the negotiations, insisting a divorce settlement - potentially as much as 50billion - must be agreed before the future relationship can be discussed.
Brexiteers insist leaving on basic World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms would not be as painful for the UK as for the EU.
Figures published last week showed we bought some 25billion more goods from Europe than we exported to it in the three months to February.
An image of a man hanging bacon rashers over the halal meat section in what appears to be a Coles supermarket has gone viral.
The tattooed man posed for the photo in the meat aisle and it was posted to Facebook page, We Are One Australia-National.
He is referred to as a 'patriot' in the post and the image has garnered thousands of likes and shares, sparking outrage in the comment section.
The unknown man posed next to the halal meat section with bacon rashers hanging off the products
In a post to Facebook, users slammed the Australian man for his 'anti-Islamic statement'
The image shows him proudly show the middle finger while wearing a singlet, a pair of board shorts and some thongs.
Social media users have slammed the image and claim it is an 'Anti-Islamic statement' that is offensive to Muslim Australians.
'I live in a Muslim country and they have a pork section just for us expats. They never seem offended when I have pork on the conveyor. You are are just an embarrassment for the 99 per cent of Aussies that don't agree with your views,' one user wrote.
Another person said: 'There is nothing patriotic about disrespecting Muslim Australians in such a vulgar, ignorant manner.'
But others praised the man for being a 'true blue Aussie' and a 'legend'.
'Good on him... legend Aussie,' one man said.
One user said there was 'nothing patriotic' about the photo while another person agreed
Coles sells a range of Australian beef, chicken and lamb which are prepared to Islamic halal specifications (stock image)
Another wrote: 'Let's call a spade a spade. You lot are nutters who need bacon in your lives! Beer is awesome, and Islam is a cult.'
The Facebook page's administrator also appeared to argue with users on the controversial post, showing support for the man in the photo.
'The person is anonymous, and location at this point also. The purpose of the photo is a large majority of people don't like paying a tax on food for an Islamic ideology,' the admin said.
Coles sells a range of Australian beef, chicken and lamb which are prepared to Islamic halal specifications.
Some Australian companies refuse to pay the extra costs associated with preparing separate halal products, including Queensland dairy company Maleny Dairies.
'We do not wish to increase the costs of our products to cover the expense of halal certification. We prefer to make sure our local farmers receive a fair and sustainable price for their milk,' Maleny Dairies has said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for comment and have not yet received a response.
Jess Strachan has vowed to embrace her natural blonde locks
A mother-of-one was left looking like a 'monster' after suffering a allergic reaction to hair dye while pregnant.
Jess Strachan, 30, unknowingly put her unborn baby's life in danger when her hair was dyed from blonde to brunette at a family friend's salon.
Jess, who did not undergo a patch test, ended up in A&E twice when her face ballooned in size and left her unable to open her eyes.
She was five months pregnant at the time - and doctors told her that her baby could have died if her reaction had been internal and not external.
Thankfully, Jess gave birth to a healthy son, Harry, now 20 months, and she vows to embrace her natural dark blonde locks.
The children's centre worker, from Hertfordshire, said : 'The whole experience was absolutely terrifying.
'My face had swollen so much that I looked like a monster, even my own husband couldn't look at me as he was utterly devastated.
'It was the worst moment of my entire life.
'I can't believe I was so stupid to not have done a patch test.
'Now I know about the dangers of the chemicals in hair dye I would say to others never make the same mistake as me - it could be deadly.'
The hair dye made her face balloon in size. Jess said she looked like a 'monster' and that even her husband couldn't look at her
In January 2015 Jess had her hair coloured at a local hairdressers run by a family friend.
She says: 'As I'd been dying my hair for more than a decade, my hairdresser said it wasn't necessary for me to have a patch test done.
'Now I know this is not the case and a patch test should always be used as an allergic reaction can build up over years.'
Is it safe to dye your hair pregnant? The concern about using hair dyes while pregnant is that the noxious chemicals might pass through to the baby and lead to birth defects. The riskiest time to use any drugs or chemicals is during the first trimester (up to 13 weeks) - however that doesn't mean that there is no chance of any effect after this time. There is limited research into hair colouring agents but it is advised to avoid them as a precaution during the first trimester. If you're colouring hair yourself after that period, the NHS recommends wearing gloves, working in a well-ventilated room and rinsing your scalp once the dye is applied. Regular, heavy alcohol consumption is seen as a far greater risk and is known to cause specific abnormalities in babies. Advertisement
Just hours later, Jess noticed her scalp was itchy but ignored the sensation.
The following morning, she awoke to discover her forehead was swollen.
Jess says: 'My husband Stuart turned to me in bed, telling me something looked wrong with my face. I looked in the mirror and was in shock.
'My forehead was absolutely huge and incredibly painful to touch.'
Stuart, 32, a courier, rushed Jess to A&E at Barnet General Hospital, Hertfordshire, where she claims staff refused to give her any medication as she was five months pregnant.
Jess says: 'I just broke down in tears and couldn't understand how they could just turn me away.'
Jess was terrified that the allergic reaction could have internalised and affected her baby
A day later, the swelling had worsened and spread down her face.
She returned to hospital, where she says she was denied treatment again.
Jess says: 'By this point I was in absolute agony, and scared for my life.
'I felt helpless, and Stuart was so worried about me.'
Afterwards, Jess returned to the hair salon where the dye was washed out of her hair.
But, by the next morning, her head and face had swollen so badly that she was unable to open her eyes.
She explains: 'My head felt so tight and hot, I was in so much pain. I thought I was going to die.'
Husband Stuart (pictured left) rushed Jess to hospital when she realised what was happening
Three days after Jess dyed her hair, she visited her GP, who confirmed she was suffering from an allergic reaction to PPD (Paraphenylenediamine), a chemical commonly found in hair dyes.
She was prescribed antihistamines that were safe for pregnant women and, 72 hours later, she was able to open her eyes after the swelling subsided.
The doctor told Jess if she'd suffered from an internal reaction, both her and her baby could have died.
Jess says: 'When I heard those words I just burst into tears. I felt so guilty and scared for the safety of my baby.'
'I couldn't believe something as insignificant as colouring my hair could have killed my child.
'I had been naive and thought it wouldn't happen to me. I will never be able to dye my hair again now and I want to warn people not to be as stupid as I was.
'Carrying out a patch test takes a matter of minutes, and I can't stress how important it is.
'It can save your life.'
Holly Shaw, nurse advisor to Allergy UK, says: 'Patch testing by the hair dresser is recommended before applying any hair dye for the first time or when changing dye types or hairdressers.
'Anyone who is pregnant and requires the use of medications, such as anti-histamines, should discuss their individual needs and circumstances with their GP or pharmacist who will have the knowledge to make recommendations for medication choices.'
Dramatic footage has emerged of Gold Coast police wrestling a rapper out of the water after he allegedly jumped into the ocean to avoid paying a $621 restaurant bill.
Terry Peck, 33, allegedly evaded police for two hours in the battering waves before he was dragged back to shore after fleeing Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant.
Mr Peck, a rapper who goes by the name 2pec, was filmed struggling as he was taken ashore at Main Beach on Sunday.
Three male police officers and a female officer helped to pin the 33-year-old on the sand (pictured)
Concerned for Mr Peck's safety because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed, lifeguards towed police officers on the back of jet skis to him, police said.
But the unemployed parolee denies he fled the restaurant to avoid paying his hefty bill, and claims he jumped in the water to help his friend who was 'having a baby' on the beach, 9 News reported.
'My friend was over at the beach and she was having a baby,' he said.
'[I would have paid] if I found my wallet, but I lost everything.'
He also said the restaurant should be apologising to him and claims his lobster was overcooked.
Mr Peck spent two hours in the pounding waves evading capture after he fled Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant
Terry Peck (pictured), 33, has been accused of devouring a copious amount of seafood and beers at a Gold Coast restaurant before trying to avoid the bill by jumping into the ocean
He reportedly spent Sunday afternoon at the Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant (pictured) feasting on two lobsters, 17 oyster shots and six Coronas
Mr Peck allegedly tucked into a $621 meal at Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant on Sunday evening, including two lobster mornays, 21 oyster shooters, baby octopus and drinks.
But when it came time to pay the bill, Mr Peck allegedly ran from staff straight into the surf at Main Beach.
Lifeguards then took police out on the back of jet skis to retrieve him from the water.
Officers allegedly attempted to negotiate with Mr Peck to come back to shore but he refused, forcing them to jump in the ocean to arrest him.
Mr Peck faced Southport Magistrates Court on Monday charged with stealing and two counts of seriously assaulting a police officer.
He was released on bail and is due back in court on May 4.
But when it came time to pay the $600 bill, Mr Peck (pictured) allegedly grabbed another six pack of Coronas and ran out of the waterfront SeaWorld Drive restaurant without paying
Pictured is a dish from Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant similar to the dish Mr Peck is said to have consumed
Marketers of a Sydney property expo have plastered an advertisement with Chinese text in an attempt to attract overseas buyers.
The image of the sign, taken at the Town Hall station in central Sydney, has enticed a mix of confused, outraged and hilarious reactions on social media.
Users of sharing platform Reddit weighed in on the bi-lingual sign making light of the inclusion of Mandarin symbols and grammar errors.
A Sydney property expo advertisement written mostly in Chinese has emerged
One person offered relief by advising signs around casinos include also Chinese language whereas another was quick to point out the knack for knowing their target demographic.
A user following the thread called 'AlanaK168' spotlighted that the expo organizers must know their demographic writing: 'Well they know their target audience'.
Another Reddit member questioned whether dual-language signs are similarly plastered around China in English.
Some users made anecdotes out of the grammar error in the text.
User 'Pixal435' suggested many signs at the casino are in Chinese
One Reddit user commented that organizers know their demographic
'Luckyluke23' implied appealing to Chinese audiences will induce a 'little China'
User 'Cocacoal' wondered if the same liberties were taken in China for English speaking visitors
A misplaced full stop interrupted the flow of the sign.
The Australian Property Expo runs from 21 - 23 April as a competitor to the Property Buyer Expo in Sydney, October 20-22.
Event producer Kylie Ann Mayer told Daily Mail Australia the Property Buyer Expo was more focused around 'typical Australian investors'.
She said she was aware of the advertising materials for the Australia Property Expo leaning more towards a Chinese demographic.
'Shtonkalot' was quick to notice an extra full stop
Others mocked the grammar error
'We've both got our niches in the market,' she said.
Buying sprees by overseas investors have helped double Sydney's house prices since 2009 and make it the second most un-affordable in the world.
About 77 per cent of foreign property buyers in NSW are from China.
Chinese buyers have not been put off by Sydney's $1.1 million median house price that rose 18.4 per cent in the past year - second most in the world.
The rate of increase meant average house prices were rising at $222 a day and more than $1,000 in the most desirable suburbs.
Property prices in China's biggest cities were far higher, with a two-bedroom Shanghai flat costing about $900,000 compared with Sydney's $700,000.
Chinese President Xi Jinping walks with U.S. President Donald Trump after a second round of meetings at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, April 7, 2017. The two discuss bilateral cooperation during their stroll. [Photo: Xinhua/Lan Hongguang, Rao Aimin]
President Xi Jinping's crucial meeting with Donald Trump has been hailed as a new dawn in the bilateral relationship. It was undoubtedly a bold step on Xi's part to undertake a visit in the first place, meeting a man who hadn't spared a moment to bash China - both on the campaign trail and after winning election.
Xi used his political experience and determination to bring a change in the attitude of his American counterpart during his stay at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Mr. Trump, with a reputation for impulsive action and embarrassing visiting foreign dignitaries, was calm and behaved in style befitting a leader of a major power.
Their meeting proceeded so well that, by the time Xi left, Mr. Trump was claiming to have cultivated a deep understanding with his Chinese guest. As evidence of success, he also accepted an invitation to pay a state visit to China, which is likely to take place before the end of this year.
The body language was very positive on both sides. The usual Trump brashness was replaced by elaborate keenness to put his guest at ease and create an ambience for deep exchanges.
The visit was thus able to initiate a change in the nature of the bilateral ties. A couple of weeks ago, it appeared that U.S. might resort to unilateral measures to restore balanced trade and improve the worrying security situation on the Korean peninsula. In the end, such worries were unnecessary.
There were several positive developments. To begin with, Mr. Trump, simply by the act of meeting Xi, has officially reaffirmed the one-China policy. He has diplomatically accepted the strategic status quo in relations that had prevailed prior to the start of his presidency. Hopefully, there will be no more direct telephonic interactions with the leaders of Taiwan and no further public bashing of China.
Mr. Trump had earlier threatened to leverage political relations to get economic benefits, as he was unhappy with the whopping $347 billion trade deficit between the two countries. He had also accused China of being a currency "manipulator." China had already rejected the allegations and Xi succeeded in driving home the message that face-to-face talks are the only way to sort out differences.
Hence, the agreement to discuss the trade issues in the next 100 days to see how various problems can be addressed. It is a big achievement in that they are seeking a negotiated settlement of trade matters instead of taking unilateral action.
The most enduring aspect of the meeting is restoration of the mutual trust and a commitment to further cooperation. The trust-deficit has been replaced with confidence, which is sure to create further goodwill and lead to an easing of tensions.
I should also mention the Syrian strikes. For many analysts, the timing was designed to send a message to China over North Korea. And, let us not ignore another aspect, relating to the worsening of relations between the U.S. and Russia. By default, it has increased the importance of China for both Washington and Moscow.
With all the symbolism attached to the strikes, Americans may not be in a position to simultaneously fracture ties with Russia and China. That could be one of the reasons that North Korea was not mentioned publically during the summit, although the two leaders must surely have discussed it.
The differences are part and parcel of inter-state relations. But both sides avoided open talk on strategic and economic differences. This is another good sign. I think that, with trust restored, it has been left for the high officials of the two countries to smooth the rough edges so the overall relationship can move in a positive direction.
The future of the relations was summed up by Xi in the following way: "There are a thousand reasons to make the China-U.S. relationship a success, and not a single reason to break it." China has shown desire and willingness to move forward by choosing cooperation.
The response from the U.S. side has been positive. Hence, there are reasons to be optimistic that a new phase in ties will be good not only for Sino-U.S bilateral ties but also for global peace and prosperity.
Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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A soldier's memories of life on the battlefields of the First World War have been revealed in harrowing diaries published a century after they were written in the trenches.
Sergeant Horace Reginald Stanley served on the front line at Ypres and the Somme, keeping an emotive diary and taking remarkable images with a camera he smuggled into the trenches.
His writings were even more poignant as his elder brother Frederick was killed after his dugout suffered a direct hit near Arras.
The diary stayed hidden in an attic until Sgt Stanley's daughter, Heather Brodie, had a clear out - and now, decades after his death, his granddaughter, Juliet Brodie, has published it in a book called Grandads War'.
Sergeant Horace Reginald Stanley served with the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment and fought at Ypres and The Somme during the First World War, where he witnessed the death of friends and experienced the trauma of life in the trenches. Left, in a picture before heading to the front and right, he poses while sitting in a bombed out building - during his service for the Army Ordnance Corps
Sgt Stanley captured insightful pictures of life on the front by smuggling a camera into the trenches with his belongings. In this photo the troops enjoy a brief moment of levity by posing with with a German soldier's helmet, no doubt pilfered from a prisoner or picked up during a trench raid
Many of the entries convey his despair. As he served on the front line at Ypres, in Belgium, on Easter Sunday in 1915, he wrote: 'The noise is deafening... why does it take so long for a man to die?
He wrote of how he witnessed comrades next to him killed by German shelling and described the hopelessness and terror one felt as the men waited for their turn to be hit.
One of his more despairing diary entries was on Easter Sunday 1915 on the front line at Ypres.
He wrote: 'Trees crash on the ground, some falling across the trench, trying it seems to crush us. The noise is deafening.
'Nearer and nearer creeps this terrible inferno which only ends in death. May it come quick and mercifully.'
Troops were encouraged to smoke during the Great War and left, soldiers enjoy time away from the front line with their pipes as they pose for a photo at Amiens, France, in 1917. Sgt Stanley captioned the photo 'Happy Days', although you do not get that impression from the stern expression of the soldiers. In contrast, right, Sgt Stanley offers an insight into the cramped and dangerous conditions in the trenches with a picture of two troops looking to the sky, as they crouch for cover by a dug out at Ypres, Belgium
While Sgt Stanley's images focus on life for the troops, this photo also shows the devastation of shelling caused to the town of Arras, in France, during the Great War. The historic French town was mere kilometres away from the front line and as a result it was almost raised to the ground from constant shelling bombardments
He continued: 'Some poor wretch has the side of his skull blown away and it is obvious nothing can be done for him. Oh the horror of it all.
'Why does it take so long for a man to die?
'We are trapped like rats, we cannot go forward, the way is barred and even if we could, machine guns and rifles are waiting to mow us down like a scythe.
'We cannot go right or left, we cannot go back, we can only wait numbed or stupefied.'
The profound effect his brother's death in 1918 had on him is revealed later on in his diary.
Sgt Stanley served in the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment and later the Army Ordnance Corps during his time at the front and here he captures comrades from the latter enjoying some time away from the trauma of the trenches as they rest between operations
This picture, taken on East Sunday in 1915, was labelled 'A hopeless Dawn' and shows a group of dejected and exhausted looking troops sitting next to supplies before they head back to the front at Ypres, Belgium. In his diary entry from that day Sgt Stanley wrote on the horror of shelling: 'Nearer and nearer creeps this terrible inferno which only ends in death. May it come quick and mercifully.'
Left, Sgt Stanley snapped his comrades enjoying a drink and a laugh as they posed wearing German pointed helmets and holding what appears to be an advertisement board for 'London Biscuits'. The caption scrawled on this picture read 'Before St. Quentin'. Right, St Quentin residents Mary le Grand and Henri pose with a dog in 1918
He wrote: 'My brother is dead. It is no use to moan. Every other soldier wears a black button now.
'Could we return to the happy days of 1914, things can never be the same again, my brother is dead.
'I expected this but my poor mother will never be the same again.'
In another haunting passage, Sgt Stanley described in graphic detail his friend being taken out by sniper fire.
He wrote: 'A weird sharp phut! A sound like driving a nail into soft brick, a ghastly moan followed by a gurgling long drawn out groan of pain and the word passes.
'He has it properly in the stomach. I peer through darkness and the look is still there - no hope. He died the next day.'
The sheer loss of life deeply troubled Sgt Stanley who bemoaned 'the same tragic story' repeating itself throughout the course of the barbaric conflict.
He wrote: 'In spite of the wonderful courage and heroism of the troops, the same tragic story recurs.
'Men march up singing and return wounded as fast as lorries can carry them.
'They return huddled together like carcasses of meat.'
Here Sgt Stanley (centre) gets in front of the camera rather than behind it and poses for a picture with his comrades as they relax away from the front by an army tent in Spring 1916
Here a younger Horace Stanley sits (front row on the right) at Windsor Park in Surrey, with the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment with whom he became a drummer boy
In his diary, Sgt Stanley, who served in the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment, also paid tribute to the 'heroism' and 'courage' of the nurses on the front lines.
He wrote: 'There's another class of women whose heroism and courage is deserving of the highest praise but they too appear to be forgotten - the nurses in the front areas where romance and sentiment cease to exist, where life hangs but by a thread, where the work which they are called upon to do is even worse than the shells and aircraft bombs which number them among their victims.
'There is no holding patients' hands in flower bedecked rooms amid romantic surroundings where the gallant Dragoon staggers in with gold braid and a bloodstained bandage around his head.
'No! The work is fast and furious, filthy and bloody, abdominal cases are bad at any time but when the casualty has been snatched from a muddy, gory swamp, hardly recognisable from the wind which is everywhere, as lousy as a cuckoo, and with no control over the lower organs, the smell and the groans, it is a miracle that these women don't lose their reason.'
There are occasional light-hearted moments in his diary including his amusing take on the British soldiers' reputation for frequenting brothels.
He wrote: 'There is a good deal of talk in the papers about venereal disease and to judge by some articles one would think that the war was being fought in some prostitutes' parlour.
'Well after three years in the front areas, I've seen very little opportunity of contracting this grievous disease.
'The womenfolk in the front areas would appear as virtuous as most other communities and in the towns the brothels commonly known as Red Lamps appear to be well regulated.
Left, Sgt Stanley captures a moment of relaxation for his comrades as they enjoyed a drink and a spot of fishing in the French countryside, inbetween operations at the front. Right, Sgt Stanley after the war, when he went back to work at the Cambridge Gas Company
'One can drink and fraternise with the almost nude damsels in these establishments and having, if so desired, made the choice, come to terms and paid the tax, the contract is duly carried out.
'Young lads to whom in some cases this is the first step from virtue return with sparkling eyes, older men also return with a look of hectic satisfaction.'
Before the war, Sgt Stanley had been employed by the Cambridge Gas Company and after demobilisation he returned to the firm where he continued working until his retirement in 1958. He died in 1971.
His granddaughter Juliet, 62, who collated the diary with the help of her late mother, said: 'I could not read all the way through his diary the first time - it was too harrowing - but I gradually was able to appreciate it as a quite amazing piece of writing, especially since he left school at 12.
'He actually began writing another version and censored the original to make it more palatable but we decided it would be right to publish his original version.
'He never talked about his experiences of war other than singing me rude French songs when I was a child.
'I think he just wanted to forget about the horrors of what he saw.
'What those brave men did is quite incredible and I can't imagine how they could come out of it and still exist.
'I found transcribing my grandfather's diary so moving made me cry.'
Grandad's War - The First World War Diary of Horace Reginald Stanley, by Juliet and Heather Brodie, is published by Poppyland Publishing and costs 11.95
A suspected ISIS fanatic was blown up in a massive airstrike - for wrenching an Iraqi flag out of the ground.
Aerial footage shows a man walking towards a flag in the desert outside war-torn west Mosul, the front line in the battle between the terror group and government forces.
As he attempts to lift it out of the ground, a huge explosion destroys a truck parked nearby, sending a huge cloud of black smoke into the air.
Aerial footage shows a man walking towards a flag in the desert outside war-torn west Mosul, the front line in the battle between the terror group and government forces before he is targeted in an airstrike
Dramatic footage captures the moment a suspected ISIS fanatic was blown up in a massive airstrike for wrenching an Iraqi flag out of the ground
As he attempts to lift it out of the ground, a huge explosion destroys a truck parked nearby, sending a huge cloud of black smoke into the air
According to Al Arabiya, which obtained the video, the suspected militant is then targeted in a second strike not shown in the clip.
It is not yet clear when the footage was captured or who exactly launched the strike.
But a source told the website that a jihadist had tried to remove the flag close to an area controlled by the Iraqi Army.
Other militants were afraid to approach his body amid fears they too would be targeted, Al Arabiya reports.
Separate footage appears to show a man lying next to a weapon in the desert before he too is taken out in a blast.
It comes just days after ISIS shot down an Iraqi helicopter operating over Mosul and as security forces announced they had recaptured another neighbourhood in their nearly six-month-old offensive against the jihadist stronghold.
The operation to retake west Mosul - which the helicopter was supporting when it was downed - has become a slow, grinding battle that has taken a heavy toll on civilians and pushed more than 200,000 to flee.
The suspected militant can be seen from above walking towards a large Iraqi flag planted in the ground
But as he tries to lift the flag out a huge airstrikes explodes next to him, sending flames ans smoke into the air
'The helicopter was supporting federal police forces in (west Mosul) and was hit by fire and crashed in the Mohandiseen neighbourhood in east Mosul,' Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, told AFP.
The city is divided by the Tigris River. East Mosul was recaptured earlier this year, but ISIS still holds significant ground on the city's western side.
Federal police are operating alongside interior ministry special forces in Mosul's Old City - a densely populated warren of narrow streets and closely spaced buildings that is home to hundreds of thousands of people.
Rasool said the US-made Bell helicopter crashed about 3pm on Thursday, and that he believed it was hit by 57 mm anti-aircraft fire. Iraqi army aviation operates armed versions of the Bell 407 helicopter.
Strikes by Iraqi helicopters are especially important for the country's interior ministry forces, which have consistently complained of not receiving sufficient air support from the US-led anti-IS coalition during the Mosul operation.
The downing of the aircraft on Thursday comes after another helicopter crashed south of Mosul at the beginning of the year due to a 'technical failure,' killing four crew members.
Separate footage appears to show a man lying next to a weapon in the desert before he too is taken out in a blast
Rasool also said Thursday that Iraqi forces had recaptured a west Mosul neighbourhood called Yarmuk al-Thaniya.
Iraqi forces have retaken a series of neighbourhoods since launching the operation to recapture west Mosul in mid-February, though progress in the Old City area has been slow.
Civilian casualties in Mosul have come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks, with the UN human rights office saying more than 300 were killed in the fighting.
The US-led coalition - which has admitted that it 'probably' played a role in recent civilian casualties in Mosul - has said that the militants are surreptitiously forcing civilians into homes and then seeking to encourage air strikes on them.
ISIS has repeatedly targeted civilians with snipers, bombs and shelling in and around Mosul, and seized them for use as human shields.
Iraqi forces have retaken a series of neighbourhoods since launching the operation to recapture west Mosul in mid-February, though progress in the Old City area has been slow
The government has encouraged residents not to flee during the Mosul operation - a policy aimed at easing ease the burden of widespread displacement but which can heighten the risk of injury or death for civilians.
The military announced on Wednesday that it had dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets over IS-held areas of west Mosul and elsewhere urging civilians to shelter in their homes.
'Aerial bombing will target (ISIS) gangs and not civilians,' the military said in a statement.
But irrespective of whether or not they are directly targeted, residents still can be, and have been, the victims of strikes aimed at ISIS fighters who are deployed in areas still populated by large numbers of civilians.
Iraqi forces backed by coalition air strikes have regained much of the territory they lost to IS in 2014, and launched the operation to retake Mosul in October.
Marvel comics have removed a book from circulation after fans spotted 'secret, coded anti-Christian and anti-Jewish messages' in the artwork.
Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf inserted several hidden references to passages of the Koran and Muslim protests against the Christian governor of Jakarta in the X-Men Gold #1 comic.
Marvel has said it will take disciplinary action against the artist and said the drawings will be removed from the comic.
In one scene in the book, Jewish X-Men character Kitty Pryde is seen talking to a crowd, with the 'Jew' part of the word 'jewelry' over her head, and the numbers 212 and 51 in the background
Close-up: The number 212 is often used as a reference to the Muslim protest against the Christian governor of Jakarta on December 2, 2016, where 200,000 conservative Muslims rallied against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama
In another panel, Russian mutant Colossus is seen wearing a T-shirt featuring the words 'QS 5:51', said to stand for Quran Chapter 5, Verse 51
In one scene in the book, Jewish X-Men character Kitty Pryde is seen talking to a crowd, with the 'Jew' part of the word 'jewelry' over her head, and the numbers 212 and 51 in the background.
The number 212 is often used as a reference to the Muslim protest against the Christian governor of Jakarta on December 2, 2016, where 200,000 conservative Muslims rallied against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.
He was accused of insulting Islam during election campaigning.
Referring to that protest, Syaf said in a series of posts on Facebook during a back and forth with another Facebook member: 'This is a special memory for me.
'The number is a peace act, when a governor did blasphemy to our holy book.'
He added: 'I don't hate Jews or Christians, I worked with them for 10 years. A lot of good friends too. For all that happened I apologize sincerely.'
Artist Syaf defends himself on Facebook during an exchange with a Facebook user. He says he doesnt hate Jews or Christians and that many of them are his best friends
Artist Ardian Syaf is seen above. He admits on Facebook that the numbers used relate to the Indonesian protest against the Christian governor of Jakata, who talked about how a verse from the Koran translated into Indonesian
In another panel, Russian mutant Colossus is seen wearing a T-shirt featuring the words 'QS 5:51', said to stand for Quran Chapter 5, Verse 51.
Translated, the verse reads: 'O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you - then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.'
Syaf added in one of his Facebook posts: 'qs 5:51 is the verse he (governor) mocked this is a very special memory for me'.
Fellow Indonesian artist Ario Anindito, who also works for Marvel, spoke out against Syaf on Twitter saying: 'What he has done in the recent X-Men book is very disrespectful and unprofessional.'
Other people also took to social media to express their dismay. Haykal Al-Qasimi said on Facebook that he believed the cartoons were being used to spread hatred against non Muslim minorities in Indonesia.
People took to Twitter and Facebook, seen above, to express their views. One called it 'disrespectful and unprofessional' and another said they felt Marvel had been 'duped'
In a statement, Marvel Comics said that the artwork in X-Men Gold #1 was 'inserted without knowledge behind its reported meanings'.
'These implied references do not reflect the views of the writer, editors or anyone else at Marvel and are in direct opposition of the inclusiveness of Marvel Comics, and what the X-Men have stood for since their creation,' it continued.
'This artwork will be removed from subsequent printings, digital versions, and trade paperbacks and disciplinary action is being taken.'
According to BleedingCool, a website on comic books, Syaf had drawn in political figures into comic panels before.
It said in an issue of Batgirl, he featured Joko Widodo, the current president of Indonesia, and the former governor of Jakarta.
This is the heart-stopping moment a motorist was almost killed by a speeding lorry on the wrong side of the road.
Harrowing dash cam footage shows a vehicle rapidly veer into bushes to avoid smashing head on into the oncoming lorry.
The clip starts with the driver approaching a blind bend on a narrow country road in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
This is the heart-stopping moment a motorist was almost killed by a speeding lorry on the wrong side of the road
As the driver begins turning a huge HGV emerges from behind the bushes on the wrong side of the road.
The pair appear to be heading for a head-on crash but the lorry driver edges left, forcing the motorist recording the footage to hurl his vehicle towards the bushes.
The HGV then grinds to a halt as the clip cuts out.
The incident occurred on Thursday 6 April just before midday, on a minor road of the A40 in Carmarthenshire.
The video was posted on Facebook by user Chris Sherburn on Saturday with the caption: 'Near death experience, s*** myself.'
It has amassed 13,000 shares and attracted thousands of outraged comments.
Harrowing dash cam footage shows a vehicle rapidly veer into bushes to avoid smashing head on into the oncoming lorry
Several users speculated that the driver may have been foreign, and forgotten which side of the road UK drivers drive on.
Jan Sykes said: 'Shouldn't be allowed to drive over here again, so lucky.'
Matty Pilborough added: 'Guess he thought Wales was a foreign country? Wow!'
Simon Goodall wrote: 'F*** me that was close, good job you have the reactions of a ninja pal.'
Eirian Morgan said: 'Hope he was dealt with. F****** idiot. Could have killed someone.'
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Sweden honoured the victims of the Stockholm terror attack with a minute of silence on Monday.
Thousands gathered in Sergels Torg square and outside the department store where four people were killed and 15 injured when a failed Uzbek asylum seeker drove a stolen truck into shoppers.
Meanwhile King Carl XVI Gustaf led members of the Swedish royal family and politicians out on to the steps of Stockholm City Hall to join the vigil.
Thousands of people gathered in Stockholm on Monday to mark a minute of silence in honour of the four people killed and 15 wounded during last week's terror attack
Crowds amassed near a makeshift memorial near the Ahlens department store where a stolen beer truck driven by a failed Uzbek asylum seeker ploughed into shoppers
Several attendees were moved to tears as bells tolled around the city, including this woman who wept as she laid flowers
Flowers, flags and candles have also been laid in Sergels Torg square, where thousands more mourners gathered today
A man stands in front of flowers laid for the victim while a woman walks among the tributes on Monday in Stockholm, Sweden
Flowers, candles, soft toys and Swedish flags have all been left in tribute to the victims who were hit by a stolen beer truck on Friday afternoon in Stockholm
Families and loved ones embraced and held back tears as the strike of noon marked a minute of silence for victims of Stockholm's terror attack which took place last week
Well-wishers continued to lay flowers at the victims' memorial on Monday, including this young girl who was embraced by her father as she was overcome by emotion
Some of the mourners paid their respects to police at the scene, thanking and hugging officers guarding the memorial sites
A woman lights candles for the dead, who include two Swedes - one of whom was just 11 years old - British father-of-two Chris Bevington and Belgian mother Mailys Dereymaeker
Smaller ceremonies were planned in towns and cities across the country.
Under grey and rainy skies, the crowd observed a minute of silence at noon, many visibly moved with tears streaming down their cheeks as a sea of flowers and candles covered the ground.
Many thanked and hugged police officers guarding the scene, some even offering them flowers, for their widely-praised response to the attack.
At the same time, an official ceremony was held outside Stockholm's City Hall, attended by Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, King Carl XVI Gustaf and most of the royal family, and Stockholm mayor Karin Wanngard.
'We will never give in to violence. We will never let terror prevail,' Wanngard said. 'Stockholm will remain an open and tolerant city.'
To the victims' families, Lofven said: 'You are not alone, we are thinking of you. All of Sweden stands with you.'
The silence came hours after Prime Minister Stefan Lofven vowed that 'terrorists can never defeat Sweden, never.'
The Swedish capital has been in mourning for days following the terror attack, with a minute of silence held on Monday
People gathered in Stockholm to honour their dead as the funeral was held for PC Keith Palmer, who was killed two weeks previously during a very similar attack in London
People gather at a makeshift memorial to victims of Stockholm's terror attack close to where a hijacked truck hit shoppers
Hundreds of people turned out to lay flowers over the weekend, with thousands more joining on Monday
Politicians have vowed tougher laws to remove failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants from Sweden after the attack
Two women hold each other in central Stockholm as people pay their respects to the victims of the terror attack which shook Sweden on Friday
Crowds also gathered close to the department store where Rakhmat Akilov, a failed Uzbek asylum seeker, drove a stolen beer truck into crowds of shoppers
The minute of silence, held at 10am on Monday, comes after peace rallies and candlelight vigils held at the weekend to remember the victims
He also said that the country will 'never go back' to the days of mass migration that saw up to 3,000 people enter the country illegally, according to police.
Friday's attack was carried out by Rakhmat Akilov, a known extremist-sympathiser who was denied asylum and given four weeks to leave back in December.
Police say Akilov, 39, a construction worker and father-of-four, has confessed to stealing a beer truck and then deliberately driving it into a crowd.
The vehicle only stopped after it smashed into the busy Ahlens department store.
A homemade bomb containing gas canisters and nails was found inside the truck after apparently failing to detonate, police added.
Sweden, a country of 10 million people, took in 244,000 asylum seekers in 2014 and 2015, the highest per capita number in Europe.
The four dead include two Swedes, one of them an 11-year-old girl, who have not been identified.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven took part in a vigil outside city hall, hours after vowing that 'terrorists will never defeat Sweden'
Members of Stockholm's ambulance (left), fire and police (right) service joined politicians outside Stockholm Town Hall to honour the dead at noon on Monday
In a speech directed to the families of victims, Lofven added: 'You are not alone. All of Sweden stands with you'
King Carl XVI Gustaf also attended the silence at city hall, alongside (left to right) wife Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia
The 70-year-old monarch had earlier expressed sympathy for the victims of the attack, sharing a post on Instagram which read: 'Our thoughts are with the victims and their families'
Briton Chris Bevington, a music executive and father-of-two, and Belgian Mailys Dereymaeker, a journalist with a one-year-old son, were also among the dead.
Tough new measures including workplace inspections are being demanded to clear Sweden of an estimated 12,000 migrants who are awaiting deportation.
'This is a wake up call for Sweden, ' said Paula Bieler, immigration spokesman for the Swedish Democrat Party.
'We now have to look into the possibility of giving the police more powers. It is outstanding in a bad way that we have 12,000 people in this country who have been told to leave and we don't know where they are.
'The police should be given more powers. One way would to make the migrants report to a police station on a regular basis. They could also have greater powers to carry out workplace inspections and deportations.'
Flags were flown at half-mast across Stockholm on Monday as the country remembered victims of the terror attack
Briton Chris Bevington, a father-of-two, has been named among those killed alongside Mailys Dereymaeker, a Belgian mother who has a one-year-old son
Theresa May has been pictured out and about in Dolgellau, North Wales, where she is on a short walking holiday
Theresa May is holidaying in Wales amid the tense standoff with Russia over Donald Trump's strikes on the Syrian regime.
The Prime Minister has been spotted out shopping on a short break despite the fraught situation
Mrs May and husband Philip reportedly bought two silver rings made by a local jeweller over the weekend.
They attended a service at St Mary's church in the town of Dolgellau yesterday, and are thought to be in Wales until Thursday.
Downing Street stressed that the premier remained fully in touch with diplomatic developments even though she is away from the heart of government on a walking holiday during parliament's Easter recess.
'The PM is making calls and being constantly updated,' a No10 spokesman said, pointing out that she spoke to Canada's Justin Trudeau last night.
Prime Ministers never holiday entirely alone. Mrs May will have a security detail and cohort of Downing Street staff with her to ensure she can be reached at a moment's notice at all times.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron criticised Mrs May for leaving 'court jester' Boris Johnson in charge of coordinating Britain's response to the Syria crisis.
He said: 'Everyone deserves a break from time to time and Snowdonia is a beautiful part of the country but ultimately there are some things are too important to be left to the court jester.
'The situation in Syria is one of them and I would have hoped that the Prime Minister would have shown some leadership on this issue and coordinated Britain's response herself.'
Boris Johnson is leading for the UK at a meeting of foreign ministers from the powerful G7 group of nations in Italy today.
The Foreign Secretary has upped the ante by warning the Kremlin that the US is ready to strike Syria again, as he demanded Vladimir Putin 'faces the truth' about the regime's atrocities.
Mr Johnson is calling for tougher sanctions unless Mr Putin agrees to the removal of Assad within months.
But the prospect of being allowed back into the elite club is also expected to be held out as an incentive for cooperating.
Russia was kicked out of what was the G8 in 2014 as punishment for the annexation of Crimea.
Boris Johnson, pictured holding talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Italy today, is calling for Russia to face 'complete international ostracisation' unless Vladimir Putin removes his support for the Syrian regime
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, pictured left with Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano today, is among those attending the gathering of the G7 to discuss Syria
At the gathering with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson later, he said Russia must decide whether to 'stick like glue' to a disgraced dictator or 'work with the rest of the world'.
But Moscow's foreign ministry taunted Mr Johnson for being 'in the shadow' of the US.
Mrs May was wearing a silver ring she bought from a local North Wales jeweller when she arrived for church yesterday
Mr Johnson faced claims he was Washington's poodle over the weekend after he agreed to pull out of a planned visit to Moscow following discussions with the US.
The trip was cancelled so the G7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and America can agree a joint plan, which will then be delivered by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead.
Mrs May spoke about her love of Wales on a visit to Cardiff last month.
'We stay in a hotel and try to walk every day,' she said.
'Walking is about relaxing, getting exercise and fresh air.'
According to the Welsh Daily Post, Mrs May bought two silver rings made by Anna Hicks at the Celf Aran Arts craft shop.
Matt Fletcher, who served Mrs May, told the newspaper: 'When I realised it was Theresa May, I got very nervous and started to fumble with the keys for the display case.
'I said to her, 'is it you?', and she said: 'Well, it depends on who you is."'
Mrs May and her husband Philip are known to be keen walkers. They are pictured on holiday in the Swiss alps last summer
Manny Davidson, 85, and his wife Brigitta, 80, are suing their children Maxine and Gerald for the return of 300 items from Lyegrove House
A super-rich family are locked in a bitter legal dispute over 17million worth of jewellery, antiques and fine art.
Manny Davidson, 85, and his wife Brigitta, 80, are suing their children Maxine and Gerald for the return of 300 items from a former family retreat.
It comes after their children excluded them from former family retreat Lyegrove House, in Gloucestershire, which neighbours Prince Charles' Highgrove estate.
The schedule includes part of an 'exceptional' 13million silver collection, built up by Manny in the 1980s, rare silver snuff boxes, Elizabethan tankards and old master paintings.
But Maxine, 57, and Gerald, 55, are now 'counter-suing' for a further 180 items, including 3million worth of jewellery.
Maxine and Gerald's claim brings the total for goods at stake to 17million, and London's High Court must now decide the matter, which has torn apart a family thought to be worth 600million.
The parents are suing 'for the return of a large number of valuable chattels located in a country home owned by their children', explained the couple's QC, Stephen Rubin.
Their wealth was established by property magnate Manny Davison, 85, a self-made millionaire who left school at 14 years old before setting up his company.
Lyegrove House, a sprawling Jacobean mansion set in 18 acres of countryside that neighbours Prince Charles' estate, was bought by Maxine and Gerald in 1993.
However, Manny and Brigitta claim that the cash came from 'income distributed to them from trusts settled by their parents'.
Maxine (left), 57, and Gerald (right), 55, are 'counter-suing' for a further 180 items, including 3million worth of jewellery. The total value of the items at stake is 17million
The items at Lyegrove House (pictured, stock image of one of the rooms), include part of an 'exceptional' 13million silver collection, Elizabethan tankards and old master paintings
The parents claim that all the family viewed Lyegrove as the older generation's country home, and that they 'ran the house'.
But their children insist it was bought as a weekend retreat for all of them.
In 2011 the couple relocated to Monaco on the 'clear understanding' that they could return to Lyegrove whenever they came back to England, they claim.
That remained their belief until they were 'excluded from the house by their children in 2015', said Mr Rubin.
The family rift has its origins in two trusts settled by the parents in 1967 - with their children named as the 'principal beneficiaries'.
Most of the family's 600million fortune is contained in the trusts, and Maxine and Gerald's children are 'the next generation of likely beneficiaries'.
Giles Richardson QC, for the siblings, explained that family relations 'broke down' in 2011, prompting two legal disputes about the trusts, which were ultimately settled in favour of Maxine and Gerald.
Lyegrove House (pictured), a sprawling Jacobean mansion set in 18 acres of countryside that neighbours Prince Charles' Highgrove estate, was bought by Maxine and Gerald in 1993
But the family are now at loggerheads again over nearly 600 items, with the dispute set for a full blown trial at the High Court from April 25.
The 'most significant aspect' of the siblings' case is Maxine's claim for 'delivery' of the jewellery collection, said Mr Rubin.
'Worn by Brigitta for many years', the jewels are valued at 3million, and include an exquisite sapphire ring.
'The basis of this claim is either that the children paid for the jewellery, or that Brigitta gave it to Maxine under an alleged deed of gift, or by orally expressed gifts,' explained Mr Rubin.
However, Brigitta is disputing her daughter's claim to the jewels, added the QC, and 'denies that she made any lifetime gifts at all'.
The French villa in Nice which Manny Davidson and his wife built 25 years ago
In 2011 the couple relocated to Monaco on the 'clear understanding' that they could return to Lyegrove (pictured) whenever they came back to England, they claim
Maxine and Gerald also allege their parents removed art and antiques from their home in the south of France after the 'breakdown in relations' - moving them to their apartments in Paris or Monaco.
On top of that, they are demanding that their parents account 'for the use of (their children's) funds in various bank accounts over the last 40 years'.
Manny is a self-made millionaire who set up Asda Property Holdings in the 1960's, having left school aged 14.
He has spoken in the past of his regret at setting up the trust funds for his children when he was worried about inheritance tax.
Maxine is a freelance art consultant and mother-of-two, while Gerald is a successful businessman who once worked alongside his father.
He lives in a large house near Hampstead and has a passion for flying helicopters and collecting Aston Martins.
U.S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson said he has had 'no conversation' with Mexico about paying for the border wall.
Last week, Tillerson met with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, but said the topic did not come up.
The border wall between the U.S. and Mexico was one of President Trump's key policies when he was running for office.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he has had 'no conversation' with Mexico about paying for the border wall. He met with Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray last week and said the topic did not come up
He made the claim when he appeared on ABC's 'This Week'. The border wall with Mexico was one of Donald Trump's main policies when he ran to be president. Picture with Tillerson
Tillerson told George Stephanopoulos on ABC: 'We had no conversation about that issue.
'It's just not part of our discussions between the foreign minister and myself.'
Mr Videgaray also met with Florida Senator Marc Rubio, who said he talked to the foreign minister about paying for the border wall.
The Republican contradicted President Trump by saying that the U.S should pay for the wall.
Speaking on 'This Week' on Sunday, he said: 'Let me just say, Mexico's not going to pay for the wall.'
Tillerson told George Stephanopoulos: 'We had no conversation about that issue.' The foreign minister also met with Florida senator Marco Rubio, who said Mexico should not pay for the wall
Sunday was Tillerson's first network interview, when he appeared on CBS's 'Face the Nation' and ABC's 'This Week'.
This week, Tillerson will travel to Moscow to confront Russia about the Syrian gas attack.
Legendary British DJ Paul Oakenfold has reached Mount Everest's base camp where he plans to throw the 'highest party on earth', performing at 5,380 metres (17,600 feet).
It is the culmination of a project called Soundtrek, in which he has walked through Nepalese villages and introducing residents to electronic dance music.
The 53-year-old, who made his name during the 90s rave scene, is set to perform a set at base camp on Tuesday morning.
Influential British DJ Paul Oakenfold has reached Mount Everest's base camp where he plans to host the 'highest party on earth', performing a set at 5,380 metres (17,600 feet)
Oakenfold, whose three-decade long career has included collaborations with Madonna and U2, said he had no trekking experience before he set out on the 10-day walk to Everest with a team of yaks and porters hauling the audio equipment needed for the event.
The producer trained for four months before arriving in Nepal in between a hectic schedule of late night gigs.
He told AFP: 'We are here now doing sound checks. We are really looking forward to the show tomorrow. Everyone is really excited here.'
He added: 'I'm not going to pretend it was easy to get here...but it has been a wonderful trek. If you could see the view I'm looking at, it is very inspiring.'
Oakenfold, 53, said he had no trekking experience before he set out on the 10-day walk to Everest with a team of yaks and porters hauling the audio equipment needed for the event
The world's highest peak will provide a very different kind of high to Oakenfold's usual shows, which attracted thousands of revellers.
'The audience will probably be sitting mostly. The air is so thin here, you will run out of breath quite quickly,' said Ranzen Jha, a Nepali DJ accompanying Oakenfold.
The gig is the first in the record producer's SoundTrek series, aimed at drawing attention to the effects of global warming and raising money for charities.
Oakenfold is also raising funds to help survivors of Nepal's devastating 2015 earthquake, which killed nearly 9,000 people and left thousands homeless, many of whom are still living in temporary shelters.
He explained: 'I want to support in the rebuilding and to shed light on the environment...I would like to do my bit.'
However not everyone is keen on the idea, with some complaining the renowned DJ is disturbing the peace and tranquility of the Himalayas.
The head of one trekking company said the idea made him feel nauseous.
Simon Lowe, of Jagged Globe, an expeditions company, said: 'To be honest, it makes me want to vomit but then I go to the mountains for their beauty and tranquillity rather than for narcissistic reasons.'
Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to hike the minimum wage to 10 an hour within months of taking office despite warnings it would cripple the already struggling social care system.
The Labour leader insisted the poorest workers in society needed a pay rise worth thousands of pounds as he urged voters to back him at elections on May 4.
Current planned increases are already putting critical sectors under acute pressure and lifting the minimum wage even higher would damage vital services, critics warned.
The row came as a huge poll of 10,000 people laid bare Mr Corbyn's failure to cut through with the public - and is even struggling among Labour voters.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (right) met staff at Luton Town Football Club today, pictured, as part of his renewed push on increasing the minimum wage to 10 an hour
Mr Corbyn is campaigning ahead of the local elections on May 4. He is pictured last week with a voter in Leyland, Lancashire
Many staff working in social care for the elderly are people on minimum wage jobs and it is already widely seen as significantly under funded.
Despite the low wages, the money paid out is a significant chunk of the overall cost of social care.
Mr Corbyn has campaigned for billions more in Government cash to be ploughed into care. His promise today would increase the bill even further.
Mr Corbyn, on a visit to Luton Town FC, said: 'Low pay blights the lives of huge and growing numbers in our country and fuels widening inequality.
'The government's re-branding of the minimum wage to the national living wage hasn't dealt with the real problems of low pay and rising cost of living.
'That's why Labour will raise the legal minimum wage for all to at least 10 an hour by 2020, giving more than five and a half million people a pay rise in the process.
'Labour's real living wage will immediately boost the incomes and opportunities of more than 20 per cent of the workforce, especially in sectors such as retail, care and hospitality.
'We know that where work pays, living standards rise and reliance on benefits falls.
'This is the right thing to do and a Labour government will be committed to re-balancing our economy so that no one and no community is left behind.'
A mega poll of 10,000 people carried out by former Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft found the Labour leader trails Theresa May badly when voters are asked who would make the best PM. Mrs May leads among the electorate as a whole, Leave voters, Remain voters and 2015 Tories - and even is backed by 29 per cent of 2015 Labour voters
Conservative MP Chris Philp MP said: 'The only way you can raise the minimum wage is with a strong economy.
'That's how this government has increased it from 6.70 in 2015 to 7.50 today, and will increase it to 8.75 by 2020.
'Jeremy Corbyn would crash the economy with 500 billion of extra borrowing, hurting investment into this country and damaging jobs.'
IEA Director General Mark Littlewood said: 'Raising the minimum wage so sharply would put the jobs of low-skilled workers and those in part time work at risk.
'We have already seen companies in the retail, food and social care sectors scrap in-work perks, withdraw overtime and Sunday pay, and cut hours in an attempt to offset the costs of the National Living Wage proof that arbitrarily instituting wage increases does nothing for the workers it is attempting to help.
'And why set it at 10? Why not 20? Or 100? Rather than considering the general health of the economy and firms' ability to pay, Mr Corbyn seems to have irresponsibly plucked a number out of the sky that feels right rather than one that makes economic sense.'
Mr Corbyn comes fifth from last when 10,000 people were asked to rank the performance of a dozen politicians at home and abroad
Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, said: 'Labour's commitment to raise the minimum wage to 10/hour is reckless and ignores the potential costs of such a move.
'We know that increases to the minimum wage have to come from one of three places either through lower wages or employment for other workers, lowered company profits, or higher prices.
'The evidence is pretty strong that higher minimum wages kill jobs, whether through direct layoffs or by slowing down new job creation, and this effect seems to get stronger the higher the minimum wage level is.'
The flagship Labour policy, which was first announced last year, would leave full-time employees on basic earnings better off by more than 2,500 while 21 to 24-year-olds on lower wage rates would be in line for a 4,500 hike.
Around 5.6 million workers would see their pay go up and Northern Ireland, the East Midlands and Yorkshire would be among the areas to benefit most with one in four residents affected, according the party.
The National Living Wage rate for over 25s is expected to rise from 7.50 this year to 8.75 by 2020, according to Labour.
It said the 7.05 for 21 to 24 year-olds is set to increase to 7.75.
Mr Corbyn began his renewed policy push last week with an announcement on free school meals in Lancashire (pictured)
Mr Corbyn will hope the policy will help turn around his dire fortunes in the polls.
A mega poll of 10,000 people carried out by former Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft found the Labour leader trails Theresa May badly when voters are asked who would make the best PM.
Among all voters Mrs May is rated higher by 55 per cent of people, compared to 18 per cent for Mr Corbyn and 27 per cent who don't know.
Even among 2015 Labour voters, fewer than four in 10 people say Mr Corbyn would be the best Prime Minister - against 29 per cent of them who back Theresa May.
EU referendum Remain voters also back Mrs Mat as the best PM, by 45 per cent to 26 per cent.
Further details in poll reveal Mrs May is backed as doing an 'excellent job' - outscoring a host of UK politicians and beating both German chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump.
Mr Corbyn trails fifth from last - beating only Tim Farron, Kezia Dugdale, Mr Trump and Paul Nuttall.
Flash
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi declared in a televised statement on Sunday evening a three-month state of emergency in the Arab country.
The announcement came hours after two deadly blasts in northern Egypt, which left at least 44 dead and more than 120 injured, mostly worshippers observing Palm Sunday.
The bomb attack at Mar Girgis Church of Tanta city in Gharbiya Province left at least 27 dead and 78 wounded, while the following suicide bombing at Saint Mark's Church of the coastal city of Alexandria killed 17 and injured 48, according to the Health Ministry.
Later on Sunday, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the twin church bombings on its so-called "Amaq" news website.
Al-Sisi expressed in a statement his strongest condemnation and offered condolences to the families of the victims. The president also announced a three-day mourning for the victims.
"This treacherous terrorism targets the nation with its citizens, both Copts and Muslims, and it will never break the determination of the Egyptians and their true will to confront the powers of evil," al-Sisi said in the statement.
For his part, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail denounced the "low terrorist plot that targets the security of Egyptians and the stability of the nation," reassuring that the government will provide all necessary support for the victims and their families.
Pope Tawadros II, the head of Egypt's Orthodox Church who was at the attacked church in Alexandria shortly before its blast, showed understanding of the state's anti-terror efforts.
"Egyptians are united in one trench in the confrontation of black terrorism until it is eliminated," the pope said in a statement following the bombings.
Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest Islamic learning institution in Egypt and the Sunni Muslim world, rejected the church blasts as "a horrible crime against all Egyptians."
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the twin bomb attacks in Egypt, Press TV reported.
"Such criminal measures are planned and implemented in order to incite sectarian strife and create terror and division among followers of divine religions," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying.
In the United Arab Emirates, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan also strongly condemned the terrorist attacks, saying the Gulf Arab state "is standing by the side of the brotherly nation in confronting this criminal and malicious act."
King Abdullah II of Jordan and Lebanese President Michel Aoun both sent a cable to al-Sisi to condemn the church attacks and voice their countries' solidarity with Egypt.
Algerian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdelaziz Benali Cherif described the twin attacks as "despicable" and encouraged "strong determination and required means" to handle terrorism.
Qatar and Turkey, which Egypt criticizes for supporting and sheltering members of its blacklisted Brotherhood group, also condemned the church attacks and extended their condolences.
In the United States, President Donald Trump condemned Egypt's bombings on his twitter account.
"So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns," He tweeted, expressing "great confidence that President al-Sisi will handle situation properly."
Russian President Vladimir Putin also condemned "the brutal attack" and offered condolences to the Egyptian president, state-run news agency Tass reported.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the US will stand up to anyone who commits crimes against humanity as Russia and Iran condemned Donald Trump's missile attack in Syria.
Last week's strike was the first direct military action the US had taken against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the country's bitter six-year civil war.
It came days after a suspected sarin nerve agent attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, which led to the agonizing deaths of 86 people including at least 27 children.
Speaking today, ahead of a Group of 7 meeting in Italy, Tillerson said: 'We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.'
During a visit to a site of Nazi atrocities in Italy during World War II, Tillerson said Sant'Anna di Stazzema 'will serve as an inspiration to us all.' The Nazis killed more than 500 civilians in the village in 1944.
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EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini (L), US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (C) and Italy's Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano arrive to attend a ceremony at the Sant'Anna di Stazzema memorial - Tillerson said the US will stand up to anyone who commits crimes against humanity
Tillerson said Sant'Anna di Stazzema 'will serve as an inspiration to us all.' The Nazis killed more than 500 civilians in the village in 1944
Following Syria's suspected sarin nerve agent attack, the US military fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Assad controlled al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs at 8.45pm (EDT) on Thursday.
But the military action sparked a furious response from President Vladimir Putin, who called the airstrikes an 'illegal act of aggression'.
The Russian President, who has backed Assad militarily, warned of grave damage to relations between Washington and Moscow which are already 'in tatters'.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who is hosting the meeting, said Europe's broad support for the US military strikes had contributed to a 'renewed harmony' between the US and its partners ahead of the first meeting of G7 foreign ministers since Trump took office in January.
He said: 'We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart. I welcome this renewed harmony.'
The Nazis killed more than 500 civilians in the village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema in 1944
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano (right) said Europe's broad support for the US military strikes had contributed to a 'renewed harmony' between the US and its partners
Tillerson and Boris Johnson at the G7 meeting for foreign ministers in Lucca, Italy
Johnson insisted the US could carry out further strikes against the Syrian regime over use of chemical weapons
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is set to lead calls for tougher sanctions unless Putin agrees to the removal of Assad within months.
But the prospect of being allowed back into the elite club is also expected to be held out as an incentive for cooperating.
Johnson also insisted the US could carry out further strikes against the Syrian regime over use of chemical weapons.
He faced claims he was Washington's poodle over the weekend after he agreed to pull out of a planned visit to Moscow following discussions with the US.
A U.S. Navy image shows the USS Ross (DDG 71) firing a Tomahawk land attack missile at the Syrian air base last Thursday
The military action sparked a furious response from President Vladimir Putin, who called the airstrikes an 'illegal act of aggression'
The trip was cancelled so the G7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and America can agree a joint plan, which will then be delivered by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead.
Moscow's foreign ministry taunted Johnson for being 'in the shadow' of the US.
In a statement, it said the cancellation 'once again confirms doubts about the added value of dialogue with the British, who don't have their own position on the majority of current issues'.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani also criticised the United States for imposing sanctions on Iran and for launching missile strikes against Syria.
'Americans have never acted within international frameworks, and one instance is the sanctions they impose against Iran, unreasonably considering themselves as the world's leader,' he said.
'The Syrian people and army must give a response (to the US) that makes Americans regret their attack.'
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the suspected gas incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where 'toxic substances' were being put inside bombs
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani also criticised the United States for imposing sanctions on Iran and attacking an airbase in Syria
The meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca brings together Tillerson, Johnson and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, along with other G-7 foreign ministers, at a moment when the US is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Korea's persistent ballistic missile tests.
The meeting also comes amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the deadly Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by ISIS, and the Stockholm terror attack on Friday.
Manhattan's DA is seeking to reclaim $22 million that was paid to more than 100 social security fraudsters who used bogus psychiatric reports to receive between $30,000 and $50,000-a-year in fraudulent payments.
One of the scammers, Glenn Lieberman, a former NYPD officer received more than $175,000 after claiming he had been traumatized by the 9/11 attacks.
According to medical reports, Lieberman claimed he was so damaged by what he witnessed he was unable to leave his home.
Glen Lieberman, pictured onboard his jetski in Florida, claimed he was so traumatized by 9/11 he could not go out and received some $175,000 in fraudulent welfare payments
Former officer Richard Consentino was found to be scamming the system of more than $200,000 after photographs of him holding a massive trophy fish were posted on the internet
However, prosecutors found images posted on social media of the 48-year-old former officer riding a jet ski in Florida.
They also determined he was renting a waterfront mansion.
NY District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jnr first filed charges in 2014 after the scam was uncovered when photographs of some of those involved were posted on social media.
According to the New York Post, Lieberman falsely claimed to have assisted at Ground Zero on 9-11, was ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution and complete 250 hours of community service after pleading guilty to third degree grand larceny.
Louis Hurtado is accused of making fraudulent claims over the course of 26 years receiving some $470,000 in payments - despite offering martial arts training
Lieberman, who spent 19 years with the NYPD as part of the Brooklyn South Gangs unit made the fraudulent claims to supplement his legitimate pension payments.
Some 120 people - many of them first responders - have sought plea agreements with the DA's office.
One former officer Richard Cosentino was photographed in Costa Rica after landing a massive fish while on a boat trip.
He received a conditional discharge and was ordered to repay more than $200,000
One case to still appear before the courts is that of former officer Louis Hurtado, who is accused of scamming $470,000 over the course of 26 years.
Prosecutors claim Hurtado has been offering martial arts training despite claiming his disability has left him incapable of working.
As well as police officers, the scam also involved members of the New York Fire Department and officers from the Department of Corrections.
Speaking at the time of the arrests in 2014, DA Cyrus Vance Jnr said: 'For years, federal taxpayers have unwittingly financed the lifestyles of the defendants.
'Many participants cynically manufactured claims of mental illness as a result of September 11th, dishonoring the first responders who did serve their City at the expense of their own health and safety. This alleged scam further depleted the already limited resources available for battling the real and complex conditions of PTSD and depression.'
A teenager is in a critical condition with life threatening injuries after allegedly being bashed over the head with a metal scooter.
Anthony Pietrobelli, 16, remains in a critical condition and on life support in Wollongong Hospital, south of Sydney.
Two boys, one aged 16 and the other only 14, have been charged after allegedly striking their target around the head with the makeshift weapon, 7 News reported.
Anthony Pietrobelli remains in a critical condition after being bashed over the head with a metal scooter
The New South Wales teenager was meant to be heading to Lismore to help Cyclone Debbie flood victims this week yet following the attack, remains in hospital
The teenager was attacked when he was walking through a passageway in Albion Park on Saturday afternoon.
The older alleged offender was arrested at his home on Sunday and faces charges of assault with intent to cause grievously bodily harm.
Yet the girlfriend of the 16-year-old alleged attacker told 7 News that he was a 'good person.'
'He is not the sort of person who would intentionally hurt someone, he is a good kid, he's not a fighter, he's not a violent person,' she argued.
He was denied bail today and will return to a children's court tomorrow.
The 14-year-old co-offender will be dealt with through the Youth Offenders Act.
This is the alleyway in Albion Park where the alleged attack took place
Mother of the attacked teenager took to Facebook to reveal the details of her son's injuries
The 16-year-old victim remains on life support in Wollongong hospital
The state of the teenage victim is so serious his mother, Narelle, has taken to social media to update friends and family on the tragic situation.
She posted a detailed message on Facebook regarding his current condition and how the 16-year-old had plans to help flood victims in Lismore this week.
A Go Fund Me page has been set up to support Anthony and his family with the amount raised currently sat at $2,125.
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has 'adopted' five lambs from the Easter slaughter in a bizarre bid to revive his political career.
Berlusconi, 80, who decided he was vegetarian last year, was pictured cuddling, kissing and feeding the lambs with a baby's bottle along with his 31-year-old girlfriend Francesca Pascale.
The four-times prime minister was filmed in his parkland estate in Arcore outside Milan in front of a sign saying 'Defend life, choose a vegetarian Easter', while a scrolling message urged viewers to 'Be like him. He saved five lambs from the Easter slaughter.'
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Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi holds and hugs a lamb as he poses with girlfriend and animal right activist Michela Vittoria Brambilla
Berlusconi, 80, who decided he was vegetarian last year, was pictured cuddling, kissing and feeding the lambs with a baby's bottle
Berlusconi, 80, who decided he was vegetarian last year, was pictured cuddling, kissing and feeding the lambs over the weekend
The animal rights campaign is being promoted by Mr Berlusconi's political ally, Michela Vittoria Brambilla. who is also seen beside him in the video.
A former culture and tourism minister in the last Berlusconi government before he was ousted in 2011, Ms Brambilla is president of the Italian Defence League for Animals and the Environment.
The political leader, whose career has been dogged by a series of scandals, surprised his friends when he declared he was becoming a vegetarian last year.
One of Italy's richest men, he apparently told colleagues from his centre-right Forza Italia party: 'Animals are marvellous creatures. How can we kill them? How can we eat them?'
Berlusconi was expelled from the Senate in 2013 following a conviction for tax fraud, but his Forza Italia party is still the third or fourth most popular in Italy with around 12 per cent of the vote, according to opinion polls.
Italians traditionally eat lamb or goat on Easter Sunday but consumption has declined sharply over the last five years due to an economic slump and the growing success of vegetarian campaigns.
Berlusconi's video has infuriated the country's meat industry.
Italy's butchers' lobby Assocarni attacked the billionaire media tycoon and called on advertisers to boycott his television channels and publications.
Berlusconi's video has infuriated the country's meat industry and Italy's butchers' lobby Assocarni attacked the billionaire media tycoon
Berlusconi, 80, who decided he was vegetarian last year, was pictured with the lambs with his 31-year-old girlfriend Francesca Pascale
In a statement, it said: 'It's incredible that even though he is a business person he is contributing to damaging the meat industry to try to get the votes of animal lovers.'
Berlusconi made headlines in 2013 when he cosied up to Dudu, the poodle owned by Pascale and was also pictured with Vladimir Putin playing with the dog inside his Rome villa when the Russian president visited the Italian capital.
He will go on trial in July accused of witness tampering and pay-offs over his alleged 'bunga bunga' sex parties, a court ruled Wednesday.
The ex-premier is accused of paying more than 10 million euros ($10.7-million) between 2011 and 2015, in cash, gifts, cars and housing to guests at his Arcore residence near Milan, to testify in his favour in the so-called 'Ruby' affair.
Berlusconi was expelled from the Senate in 2013 following a conviction for tax fraud
The charges stem from Berlusconi's previous trial for allegedly paying for sex with young women, the best-known being an exotic dancer nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer, who was under 18 at the time.
Berlusconi was initially convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail for soliciting minors for prostitution and abusing his power.
But he was cleared in 2015 following an appeal. The judge said he could not have known that Ruby - real name Karima El-Mahroug - was a minor.
Elsewhere, the billionaire is also set to end his 30 year ownership of AC Milan this week.
His sale of the club to a Chinese investment group for 650m is due to go through on Thursday at the third time of asking after two previous postponements.
A three-star chain hotel in Birmingham has been labelled 'possibly the worst in the UK' by a West End musical star who left because it was 'minging'.
The Britannia Hotel in the city centre, where rooms are available for as little as 28 a night today, was blasted by 25-year-old Jordan Cunningham for being 'disgusting'.
The actor, who was in Buddy The Buddy Holly Story at the New Alexandra Theatre, said his room 'was dirty with dust you could run your finger through'.
The Britannia Hotel in Birmingham city centre, where rooms are available for as little as 28 a night today, was blasted for being 'disgusting' and having foul-smelling corridors
More than half of the 2,400 TripAdvisor reviews about the hotel say it is 'poor' or 'terrible'
More than half of the 2,400 TripAdvisor reviews about the hotel opposite New Street station say it is 'poor' or 'terrible', and its average rating is just two stars.
But a Birmingham Mail reporter who visited the hotel to review it said he was 'surprised' at the quality of his room and 'could not fault it for cleanliness'.
Mr Cunningham, who is from Cheshire but now lives in London, was on tour with the production and booked a twin room to share with a fellow cast member.
On the first night his room's toilet failed to flush and he requested a move, but claimed he found himself in a dusty room with a stained carpet and bedding.
Actor Jordan Cunningham, who was in Buddy The Buddy Holly Musical at the city's New Alexandra Theatre, said his room 'was dirty with dust you could run your finger through'
A Birmingham Mail reporter who visited the hotel to review it said he was 'surprised' at the quality of his room and 'could not fault it for cleanliness'
The actor added that the bath had mould in it and his key cards kept failing, so he decided to move out and found a branded budget hotel which was 'really clean'.
Jordan Cunningham's scathing TripAdvisor review of the hotel Rating: Quite frankly the most gross, dirty hotel I've ever had the misfortune of staying at. Myself and my cast mate from Buddy the Musical were staying here whilst we were on tour, and we checked out 48 hours later because our hotel was room was filthy! We are now staying somewhere else. They didn't even offer us a refund for our awful stay. Here's a list of why you should not stay here... 1. The staff need a workshop or something to learn how to talk to customers. Lazy, can't be bothered, my life sucks attitude. 2. The corridors stunk of body odour 3. Our key cards didn't work and I had to venture down three times before any key cards were working 4. Our toilet wouldn't flush 5. Our curtains had so much dust on them that when you drew them back dust would just go everywhere 6. We had a cracked bathroom door and the most dirty, grubby and dusty carpet 7. We had cigarette burns on our carpet floor and a weird white stain 8. Mold on the sides of the bathtub Do not stay here! I repeat, no matter how cheap it is, do not stay here. It's disgusting. Advertisement
He told the Birmingham Mail: 'The windows were not very clean in either room on the third floor, but the second room was dirty with dust you could run your finger through on the TV and cabinets.
'There were stains underneath my bed and the mattress cover had weird yellow stains. We often use houses where actors can stay or occasionally I will splash out on a nice hotel.
'This time I just wanted to be somewhere close to the theatre without having to spend too much.'
He added: 'I am not overly fussy and not snobby and can see that the Britannia has a lot of potential to be a very good boutique hotel.
'But that fact is that at the moment it is minging and the corridor carpets are coming up. It's as if people have given up on the hotel. Normally I always check on TripAdvisor before booking anywhere.
'This time I didn't and regret that because it's had more than 1,000 reviews saying that it is terrible.
'What is really galling is that they wouldn't give me a refund when it was wasn't my fault that I felt I had to move out.'
He had earlier posted a damning 200-word review on TripAdvisor, saying: 'Quite frankly the most gross, dirty hotel I've ever had the misfortune of staying at.
'Myself and my cast mate from Buddy the Musical were staying here whilst we were on tour, and we checked out 48 hours later because our hotel was room was filthy.
'We are now staying somewhere else. They didn't even offer us a refund for our awful stay. Do not stay here! I repeat, no matter how cheap it is, do not stay here. It's disgusting.'
In a review, journalist Graham Young said he got a twin room for 45 on the eighth floor and complained of a 'tangible smell in the corridors'
The chain said it takes 'all complaints seriously' and uses them as 'learning opportunities'
Mr Cunningham (left) is playing Ritchie Valens in Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story until July
He also listed eight reasons why he felt the hotel was so bad, including poor customer service, foul smelling corridors and cigarette burns on the carpet floor.
How Britannia was paid to house refugees Britannia Hotels, owner of the famous Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool, was founded in 1976 when hotelier Alex Langsam bought a 100-bedroom hotel in South Manchester. The company has attracted controversy in recent years. It was twice branded the worst hotel chain in the country by Which? magazine. Britannia was also criticised after it was paid by the Government to house hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers. This led to negative reviews on TripAdvisor from disgruntled paying guests. In 2013, Britannia was fined 160,000 for breaching safety regulations during building works in Folkestone, Kent. Mr Langsam, 78, owns around half the company and has a personal fortune estimated at 220million. He is understood to live in a 3million ten-bedroom former hotel close to his firm's head office. Mr Langsam also owns the Pontins holiday park business. Last November Britannia Hotels recorded a huge leap in profits at its 52-strong chain. Accounts filed for the Cheshire-based company show turnover grew 6 per cent in the year to March 31, 2016 to 84million. Pre-tax profits shot up even faster thanks in part to reduced costs more than doubling from 14.2million to 33.3million. Advertisement
Mr Cunningham, who appeared in the West End in Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure in 2015, is playing Ritchie Valens in The Buddy Holly Story until July.
When the Birmingham Mail failed to get a response from the hotel about its poor reviews, it sent a reporter there and he was pleasantly surprised.
In a review, journalist Graham Young said he got a twin room for 45 on the eighth floor and complained of a 'tangible smell in the corridors'.
But he added: 'From expecting to be holed up in a total dive, I could not have been more surprised by my room.
'Being on a wing on the eighth floor, perhaps it's one of the last to be booked to save time on cleaners reaching it.
'To my utter astonishment, my room had recently been refurbished and I could not fault it for cleanliness.'
He added that he was 'especially pleased that the lighting in the room was warm' and said the two packs of Lotus caramel biscuits left for him were 'irresistible'.
Mr Young said every member of staff he met was 'unfailingly polite and had a smile', but did say his throat was affected by the air freshener used in his room.
A Britannia Hotels spokesman said: 'We take all complaints seriously and use them as learning opportunities to improve our business.
'The deeply unfortunate thing is that when people have good experiences with us they tend not to post that online and sometimes one issue can blow everything out of all proportion.
'We are very disappointed that Mr Cunningham has had this kind of experience and we will look into it in Birmingham it's really important to us that our customers are looked after and have a great experience with us.'
Student killed: Michael Joefield, 21, a pre-med student at Medgar Evers College, was struck and killed while rollerblading in Brooklyn on Saturday night
A suspected drunk driver struck and killed a 21-year-old college student who was out rollerblading in Brooklyn over the weekend.
Police say Terrance Smith, 37, also smashed into several parked cars before fleeing on foot, leaving Michael Joefield dead and five other people injured.
Smith was taken into custody a short time later.
Authorities say Smith, of Bedford Heights, Ohio, faces charges including driving while impaired and leaving the scene of an accident.
Police say the 37-year-old was driving on Powell Street in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn at around 8.30pm on Saturday when he struck Joefield, a second-year biology major at Medgar Evers College.
Investigators later revealed that Smith had been arguing with his passenger when the fatal accident happened.
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Driver arrested: Terrence Smith, 37, was allegedly drunk when he smashed into Joefield, then struck multiple vehicles, sending five people to the hospital
Wreck: Smith's black 2012 Infiniti is pictured at the spot where it came to a stop after smashing into a parked van
The impact knocked Joefield's rollerblades off his feet and he was dragged behind Smith's black 2012 Infiniti, which then crashed into two cars waiting at a stop sign, reported the station Pix11.
He then careened into a van and two parked vehicles, according to the NYPD.
When the suspect's car finally came to a halt, the 37-year-old got out and allegedly tried to flee, but responding officers caught up with him a few blocks away.
Joefield was pronounced dead at the scene. Five other people were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, among them Smith's passenger. The driver was also hospitalized.
Video shot by a news station showed the suspect inside an ambulance wearing a neck brace and with blood on his face.
Athelte: Joefield, an archery student, was supposed to attend a class with his father at Sirat Al Sayf studio, a mixed martial arts academy, but his dad was too tired
Shocking news: Joefield's father says he was watching the news Saturday when he recognized his son's rollerblade (pictured) during a report about a fatal accident
Joefield's body was dragged by Smith's vehicle as it careened into two cars waiting at a stop sign; he was pronounced dead at the scene
The 21-year-old victim was an archery student at Sirat Al Sayf studio, a mixed martial arts academy in Brooklyn, where owner Najee Hassan and his wife, Rahma, described Joefield to CBS New York as a person who had a lot to offer and who was a great son to his father, who also attended classes at the fitness center.
The deceased man's heartbroken dad, Hamza Abdul Aziz, told ABC 7 New York he was supposed to go with his son to an MMA class on Saturday night but was too tired and ended up learning of Michael's death from a newscast.
'I happened to watch my TV, and I saw the rollerblade on the street, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I said, 'let me call my son, and make sure it's not him,' Aziz said.
Joefield was a second-year biology major who wanted to become a veterinarian; he worked part time as a florist and had a girlfriend of more than three years
Mr Aziz said his son had a part-time job and aspired to become a veterinarian. Above all, he said, the 21-year-old was a 'good person.'
'I couldn't wish for anything better, a batter son. And I was blessed, truly blessed to have a great son,' he added.
Speaking to the New York Post, Joefield's girlfriend of more than three years, 22-year-old Alexis Parker, said that her boyfriend was very smart and driven, and had an off-beat sense of humor.
She added that she does not care what happens to the driver who struck him because nothing will bring Michael back.
A Florida sheriff's deputy shot and injured a man, who authorities say refused to put down his pistol, after he tried to drown his wife in a swimming pool at their home.
Volusia County Sheriff's officials were dispatched to a residence in the 300-block of Champlain Drive after a neighbor called 911 around 1.35am on Monday, according to a police statement.
Police said the shooting happened after the couple, who have not been identified, got into a fight.
Their neighbor called deputies after the 49-year-old woman banged on his front door, asking for help. The neighbor told police that the woman 'was soaking wet'.
A Florida sheriff's deputy shot a 48-year-old man who authorities say refused to put down his pistol after trying to drown his wife in a swimming pool at their home (pictured) early Monday, authorities said. Police said the shooting happened after the couple got into a fight
Volusia County Sheriff's officials were dispatched to a residence (pictured) in the 300-block of Champlain Drive after a neighbor called 911 around 1.35am on Monday. Their neighbor called deputies after the 'soaking wet' woman banged on his front door asking for help
When deputies arrived, the husband, 48, stepped outside the front door with a gun.
Sheriff's officials say the man refused to drop his weapon and fired at least one shot. A deputy fired back.
A resident who lives on the street behind Champlain Drive reported that he was on his back porch at the time and heard someone say 'drop the gun' multiple times before the shooting started.
The man was hit in the arm and leg, injuries authorities said were not considered life-threatening.
He was 'conscious and alert as he was being loaded onto a police helicopter for transport' to the Central Florida Regional Hospital.
'The victim told the Sheriff's Office that her husband tried to drown her in the swimming pool,' deputies wrote in the statement.
The wife also was taken to a hospital. No one else was injured in the gunfire.
The deputy, who was not identified, was placed on administrative leave with pay while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates the incident.
A 14-year-old boy fell into a sewer and was pushed along by the effluent for half-a-mile before he was able to escape.
The teenager was playing with two friends in Saratoga County in upstate New York when he fell into the open sewer main on Saturday.
He ended up floating along with the current through the pipe passing under woods, across a creek and under Route 67 for almost 20 minutes, before he was able to escape the dark and smelly tunnel.
A teenager fell down a manhole that was left uncovered and was then carried along by effluent running inside the sewer (file photo)
'It was a curdling scream,' Sgt. James Leonard told the Times Union about the boy's cries for help that led deputies to him. 'We found him and pulled him out. He's a lucky young man.'
When deputies finally pulled the manhole cover off the sewer line they found the boy clinging to metal railings struggling to get out.
The bizarre accident happened when the boy and his two friends were on bicycles and playing in the woods along the Zim Smith Trail when he fell into a manhole that didn't have a cover.
The area was supposedly closed off due to construction in the area, but somehow the boy got inside and was quickly carried away.
The teen and his friends were playing along the Zim Smith Train in Saratoga County, New York when he fell down an open manhole cover
Saratoga County Sewer District Executive Director Dan Rourke said that the manhole should have been kept closed nonetheless.
After the boy disappeared into the pipe, his friends called 911 for help and a dozen deputies, troopers and rescue workers joined in the search for the boy.
As they followed the pipe south, they could hear his screams coming from underground.
After being pulled out, the boy was taken to hospital with just a few minor cuts and scrapes.
Travis Archer (pictured), 43, is facing animal cruelty charges after his black Labrador was found pummeled to death shortly after midnight on Saturday
A man has been arrested for allegedly beating his nine-month-old puppy to death because it made a mess inside his home.
Travis Archer, 43, is facing animal cruelty charges after his black Labrador was found pummeled to death shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Police were called to the home in Ponce Inlet, Florida - about 100 miles south of Jacksonville, by neighbors who heard loud banging noises followed by the dog crying in pain, WESH reports.
When officers arrived on the scene, then found a hole in the wall - which it is alleged was caused by Archer throwing the dog through it, as well as a bloodied knot rope near a damaged fence.
The fence also had blood marks on it.
The puppy was then found laying lifeless outside and appeared to have had its mouth gagged shut.
Police said the 43-year-old tried to explain the situation by claiming he hit the dog twice after he returned home from work to find it had made a mess inside the house.
When police arrived at Archer's home they found this hole in a wall. It is alleged it was caused by the man throwing his puppy into it
Officers were horrified to discover a bloody knotted rope and a broken fence with blood stains near where the dog died
He also claimed the animal bit him on the hand, however police said he only had a small scratch.
Ponce Inlet Police said Archer has been charged with a third-degree felony, but stressed it does not believe that charge is punishment enough.
'Thats no different than if you steal a $300 bicycle or you steal a bunch of items worth $300,' chief Frank Fabrizio told WESH.
'A third-degree felony for killing this poor defenseless dog, I just think is ridiculous.'
Police were called to the home in Florida after Archer's neighbors reported hearing loud bangs followed by the dog yelping in pain
It is alleged the 43-year-old used this rope, which is covered in blood marks, to beat his nine-month-old puppy
Neighbors also said they were shocked by the death of the young dog.
'Im horrified, Im horrified,' Maureen Bailey told the local station.
'I'm speechless. I can't imagine imagine anyone beating a black lab puppy to death just for being a puppy.'
Archer was released on Sunday after a court appearance.
The father of Casey Anthony opened up about claims made by his controversial daughter in a new special.
George Anthony appeared on the Investigation Discovery two-episode premiere of 'Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery,' and addressed his daughter's shocking defense in her murder trial.
Casey's lawyer Jose Baez said in his opening statement that George sexually molested his daughter and helped her hide the body of fer dead daughter Caylee after she drowned in a pool.
A disgusted George denied both of those allegations, and said of Casey: 'My daughter could come right in front of me right now and say, "Dad this is what really happened," and I wouldn't believe her.'
He also broke down as he read the suicide note he wrote three weeks after Caylee's body was discovered near his home in Orlando, Florida.
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Appearance: George Anthony (above reading his 2009 suicide note) called daughter Casey a liar and denied her claims that he molested her and helped her hide the body of her dead baby Caylee
Bombshell claim: He was accused by defense attorney Jose Baez of sexually assaulting his daughter starting when she was eight-years old (George left on the stand breaking down while daughter Casey remains emotionless on right)
Crushing claim: Baez also said George found Caylee dead and told Casey: 'Look what you've done. Your mother will never forgive you. You'll go to jail for the rest of your life' (George and Caylee above in early 2008)
In the special George is asked explicitly by the production team if he ever molested Casey.
'Definitely not. Definitely not would I do anything like that to my daughter,' said George.
He then grew enraged and began to clench his fist as he said: 'I sat in that courtroom that day, and to hear that opening statement from that attorney [Baez], you don't know how much I wanted to get up and just, do something to him.'
In his opening statement in the case, Baez immediately went after George, saying that he began sexually abusing his daughter when she was just eight-years-old.
'She could have her father's penis in her mouth and go to school and play with the other kids like nothing was wrong,' claimed Baez.
He went on to claim that George was the one who found Caylee dead in a pool after the toddler drowned, and that he ran to Casey holding the body and screamed: 'Look what you've done. Your mother will never forgive you. You'll go to jail for the rest of your life.'
Baez then continued his attack on George when he was the first witness called to the stand after opening remarks, a last second move by the prosecution after learning that the defense would be making the defendant's father a target.
He did not ask George about the molestation or the discovery of Caylee's body, but rather made him recount a suicide attempt he made in early 2009.
Response: 'You don't know how much I wanted to get up and just, do something to him,' said George (above) of hearing the opening statement in court
Off she goes: George and Cindy look on as Casey is taken to jail for the first time in July 2008 (above)
George spoke about that difficult time during the special while fighting back tears.
'I could not function after Caylee was found. I could not function,' said George.
'I drove as far as Daytona Beach, Florida to the most rattiest hotel. I took about 70 pills, I drank as much beer as I could, because I ... I didn't know what anymore to do.'
He then read parts of the lengthy note aloud, saying: 'I want to hold her again, I miss her, I will always love us... I love you, Cynthia Marie - Caylee, here I come.'
Shock: 'Definitely not. Definitely not would I do anything like that to my daughter,' said George (George on left hearing the claims for first time in court while Casey sobbed on right)
Stand by your man: Cindy Anthony (above with George) said they were given some notice that George was to be a target for the defense
George's wife Cindy meanwhile spoke about what an amazing daughter Casey had been in her younger years, and the joy Caylee had brought to her life.
'Casey was just a very spirited child. She had a lot of energy, she was just the light of our lives,' said Cindy.
'She made people smile. Casey was very popular. She had tons of friends and lots of little boyfriends.'
She went on to speak about their bond, revealing: 'Casey and I were inseparable. I mean we shopped together, we did crafts together, we went on walks. We were very close.'
Things got even more exciting revealed Cindy when she learned that a baby was on the way.
'I remember one day she came up to my office, and she had just come from the doctor, and she said that she was pregnant and she was worried that I would be upset with her,' said Cindy.
'And I just hugged her and said,"I'm gonna be a grandma. That's awesome." And I hugged her and said, "You're gonna be a wonderful mom."'
The day the baby arrived was the happiest of Cindy's life.
'I was the first one to hold her and I felt kind of guilty doing that, but oh my gosh I just melted when she handed me Caylee,' said Cindy.
'Caylee reminded me a lot of Casey and I think that's where my attachment to her was, it was just like reliving having Casey again.'
Gushing mom: 'Casey was just a very spirited child. She had a lot of energy, she was just the light of our lives,' said Cindy of her daughter (above in the mod-1980s)
Big day: 'I just hugged her and said,"I'm gonna be a grandma. That's awesome." And I hugged her and said, "You're gonna be a wonderful mom,"' said Cindy of Casey's baby news (Casey and Caylee above)
Joy: 'She made people smile. Casey was very popular. She had tons of friends and lots of little boyfriends,' said Cindy of her daughter (above with Caylee in 2006)
The final two parts of the special air this week, and Casey will not be sitting down for an interview, she will be making appearances in some never-before-seen video footage.
One of those videos aired on the first part of the series, and showed the incarcerated mother as she went through an extreme range of emotions in a matter of just two minutes while refusing to answer one simple question.
The prison video was captured on August 14, 2008, when George and Cindy paid a visit to their daughter Casey at the Orange County Jail.
Casey, who was 22 at the time, had been incarcerated for a month at that time on charges of child neglect, lying to investigators and interfering with a criminal investigation.
She faced the child neglect charge because she did not report her daughter missing despite the fact that she had not seen the girl for 30 days, while the other two were handed down after she lied to investigators by claiming to work at Universal Orlando Resort despite having been fired two years prior.
In the days prior to her meeting with her parents, Casey had twice refused to see them but on this day agreed, five days after what would have been Caylee's third birthday.
'Hey gorgeous, how you doing,' asks George at the beginning of the visit, immediately causing Casey's face to crumble while she starts to sob.
'I look like hell,' she says to her father in the video while laughing through her tears.
'Well you know I want to be able to reach out and hug you, give you the bid Papa Joe hug,' says George.
Big news: 'I remember one day she came up to my office, and she had just come from the doctor, and she said that she was pregnant and she was worried that I would be upset with her,' said Cindy of Casey (above in the late 1990s) telling her the news of her pregnancy
Mom again: 'Caylee reminded me a lot of Casey and I think that's where my attachment to her was, it was just like reliving having Casey again,' said Cindy (Caylee above in a photo from a high school dance)
George then hints at what many perceived to be the conflicted feelings that Casey's parents were harboring about their daughter's innocence by saying: 'I want to take all your pain away. So you know, you can tell me anything.'
The camera shows Casey at that moment looking like a completely different person as she nods her head like a school girl and flashes a serene smile while saying in a voice that sounds an octave higher than how she normally speaks: 'I know that, dad.'
An incredulous and grief-stricken Cindy then reaches over and pulls the phone away from her husband, briefly becoming overwhelmed with emotion as she says to her daughter: 'Hi sweetie.'
Casey's face immediately darkens and her eyes appear to lose focus as she stares emotionless while her mother sobs.
'We're not doing well Casey. Someone just said that... Caylee was dead this morning,' says Cindy, while wiping her nose and hiding her face while she cries.
Casey responds by sneering and saying in a sarcastic tone: 'Surprise, surprise.'
'Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery' premieres exclusively in the UK on Quest Red, 11pm, Saturday 29th April (Freeview 38).
Seen with his young family, then paraded in handcuffs, this is Pyotr Levashov, an alleged Russian cyber spam kingpin held in Spain, suspected by the FBI of hacking the U.S. election.
His wife Maria Levashova has told the Russian media how the 36-year-old was detained on a U.S. arrest warrant after police smashed their way into an apartment the family had rented in Barcelona.
Cyber security experts claim that computer programmer Levashov is also the real identity of Peter Severa, the designer of malware used in a number of high profile spam attacks including an online onslaught against a Vladimir Putin foe during the Russian election of 2012.
Spanish police handcuffed her husband and seized computers and electronic devices from the apartment which they were using while on holiday, she said.
The country's Policia Nacional, its equivalent of the FBI, later released a pictures of Levashov being escorted by its officers, saying they had arrested a 'most-wanted cybercriminal' in conjunction with the FBI and that he was accused of fraud and the theft of data.
This is the first picture of Pyotr Levashov, an alleged Russian cyber spam kingpin held in Spain, suspected by the FBI of hacking the U.S. election
Announcement: The Policia National, Spain's equivalent of the FBI, released a picture of its officers taking away Levashov, saying he was a 'most wanted cyber criminal'
Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department's criminal division, said: 'The U.S. case remains under seal, so we have no information to provide at this time.'
The alleged hacker's wife said the family, including the couple's four-year-old son, were in the apartment when the police came.
'They were saying something about a virus allegedly created by my husband - and that it was linked to Trump's victory,' she said.
'They did not allow us to call a lawyer.'
She said: 'I am just in shock and I don't know what to do.
'I only understand that if my husband is extradited to the USA, my son and I will never see him again.
'They will fake all they want and will never let him out.
'Pyotr was working with various start-ups in Russia and with some other business projects, I did not intervene. We have run an events agency.'
Alexander Ionov, vice president of the Russian department of the International Human Rights Committee, said 'the police confiscated all electronic devices from Pyotr and Maria without official witnesses'
She claimed: 'My husband does not have enough knowledge to intervene in elections or computer networks of other countries.'
His detention was 'something irrational, a nightmare', she said.
When police arrived, she said: 'I woke up because somebody was pulling the door handle.
'I thought these were gangsters, because they closed the spy hole in the door.
'We could not see how many people were there. It was so frightening. I thought they would break the door and kill all of us here.
'There were no calls, no shouts that it was police. They were just breaking the door. I rushed the child into his room to protect him .'
She said: 'They ordered us all onto the floor - and my four-year-old son was watching this. They put all of us on the floor - and my child was watching all this.
'They did not answer my questions, they locked me with my child and a friend into one room.
'They kept us there for two hours and did not let me talk to my husband.'
She said she had called the Russian consulate and asked for diplomatic assistance.
President Trump has vehemently denied accusations of collusion with Russia
She was later allowed to see her husband in jail. 'They let me see him. He does not understand what is going on,' she said.
'They showed him some strange papers with his name on them, some documents from America.
'He does not understand why him. There are many people with the same name as him.'
Alexander Ionov, vice president of the Russian department of the International Human Rights Committee, said the U.S. had arrested a number of Russians in third countries.
'The wife of Pyotr Levashov called me and according to her no legal documents were presented by the police,' he said.
'They only said that he was suspected of cyber attacks on U.S. governmental websites.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied that Russia tried to influence the election
'The police confiscated all electronic devices from Pyotr and Maria.
'The confiscation took place without official witnesses. This may lead to free access to them and adding of various harmful files.
'Such a situation is a direct danger for the citizens of Russia who travel abroad.'
Peter Severa - or Peter of the North - is seen as linked to a number of spam attacks, but there are also claims Severa is not Levashov. Levashov is due to appear in court in Madrid late Monday.
United States intelligence agencies say state-linked Russian hackers meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
They claim the Russians infiltrated the Democratic National Committee and the email of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, releasing documents in an effort to sway the election toward Donald Trump.
The U.S. Congress is also examining links between Russia and Trump during the election campaign.
Levashov was arrested by in Barcelona according to Spanish authorities
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied that Russia tried to influence the election.
In January, Spanish police arrested another Russian computer programmer, whose name was given as 'Lisov' and who was wanted by the United States under an international arrest warrant.
Levashov was remanded in custody according to Spanish legal sources.
He was detained at Barcelona airport on Friday while Spanish judges consider the extradition case against him.
A source told AFP that Levashov is 'suspected of having participated in hacking the election campaign in the United States'.
It is understood US authorities have 40 days to present their extradition case to the Spanish national court.
Jeremy Corbyn slammed Boris Johnson's 'Cold War mentality' today as he accused him of 'encouraging' the US to launch more strikes on Syria.
The Labour leader rebuked the Foreign Secretary for cancelling a visit to Russia over the weekend, saying he was 'sending all the wrong signals' to Vladimir Putin.
Mr Corbyn put himself at odds with much of his own party last week when he condemned US reprisals against Bashar Assad's regime in the wake of the chemical atrocity in Idlib province.
Mr Corbyn put himself at odds with much of his own party last week when he condemned US reprisals against Bashar Assad's regime in the wake of the chemical atrocity in Idlib province
Boris Johnson is leading calls for Russia to face 'complete international ostracisation' unless Vladimir Putin removes his support for the Syrian regime
In an intervention that risked fuelling the split today, the veteran left-winger vented his fury at Mr Johnson - who is urging counterparts at a G7 gathering in Italy to take a tough line against Moscow for supporting Assad.
The Cabinet minister has made clear he believes the US is ready to carry out further strikes if the regime keeps using chemical weapons.
He is calling for harsher sanctions unless Mr Putin agrees to the removal of Assad within months.
But Russia's foreign ministry has jibed at Mr Johnson for acting like the poodle of the US by letting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speak for the UK.
It said cancelling the meeting 'once again confirms doubts about the added value of dialogue with the British, who don't have their own position on the majority of current issues'.
On a visit to Luton today, Mr Corbyn said Mr Johnson should have gone to Moscow and had 'very strong and very robust' conversations with the Russian leadership about their support for Assad.
'Boris Johnson cancelling his visit to Moscow sends all the wrong signals,' he said.
'He should go to Moscow, have a very strong and very robust conversation with the Russian government about their support for Assad and what they're doing there, but have that conversation.
Russia slammed Brtain after Boris Johnson cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow over its support for the Syrian regime, claiming Britain has 'no real influence' internationally
In an ominous threat raising the prospect of war, Russia and Iran have said the US crossed a 'red line' with strikes on the forces of Syria's Bashar al-Assad (shown)
'Going back to the Cold War mentality won't bring peace.'
Mr Corbyn said the comments from Mr Johnson raising the prospect of more US strikes appeared to be 'encouraging further bombing'.
Asked about the threat of Russian retaliation, Mr Corbyn said: 'This is absolutely what the danger is.
'If one side strikes and then another side retaliates, therein lies the road to something utterly disastrous.
'There is a very small window of opportunity now. The G7 needs to reach out, everybody needs to reach out urgently and quickly.
'If we don't, we're looking at something truly appalling, on top of the absolutely atrocious events that have happened over the past few years in Syria.'
A Chinese bank manager has been hailed as a hero after offering himself as a hostage to a suspected robber who held a female customer at knifepoint.
The manager later brought down the assailant with the help of a security guard.
Surveillance footage from Chinese media has captured how the brave worker staved off the robbery attempt within minutes in China's Guangxi Province on April 7.
The robber (left) approached a female customer who was taking cash out at a bank in China
Suspect, surnamed He, wielded a knife to the woman's neck and requested cash
According to Kan Kan News, the suspect, surnamed He, went into the Agricultural Bank of China in Binyang city.
He carried a 20-centimetre-long (7.87 inch) knife and wielded it over a female customer's neck at around 1:00pm last Friday.
The man demanded the staff pass him the money the woman was holding, which was 7,800 yuan (911). Staff at the bank tried to persuade the suspect and told him to stay calm.
Surveillance camera footage shows a man who claimed himself as the branch manager approached He from the back.
Branch manger went close to persuade him not to harm the customer and comfort his emotion
The bank worker offered himself to the suspect as a hostage in exchange for the customer
The manager also agreed to give He 10,000 yuan as the other staff members reported to police
The manager, who remains unidentified, told the suspect that he would offer himself as a hostage to him in exchange for the female customer.
'As a manager, I have the responsibility to keep every customer's safe. My first thought was to offer myself as a hostage,' the manager told a reporter from Sina News.
The woman left the counter unhurt.
Staff members managed to contact the police without alarming the suspect, He, when they pretended they had agreed to give him 10,000 yuan (1,168).
The manager and a security guard tackled the suspect as he put his knife away to take cash
Police arrested He on suspicion of a criminal offence while further investigation is underway
As He tried to take the money through the window of a counter, the manager and a security guard managed to wrench his knife and locked his arms.
The suspect was brought under control until police arrived on the scene.
Binyang police station issued a statement in the afternoon of April 7 confirming the incident. They stated that He had been arrested on suspicion of a criminal offence.
The case is under further investigation.
G7 energy ministers have failed to agree a statement on climate change this afternoon because of 'US reservations', it has emerged.
Top officials from the Group of Seven industrial nations gathered in Rome, Italy today amid growing concerns over the US administration's moves to unravel policies aimed at stalling global warming.
Environmental activists fear US President Donald Trump is dismantling Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, which aimed at reducing carbon pollution from power plants.
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G7 energy ministers have failed to agree a statement on climate change. US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry (second left) speaks with Italy's Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda (left), as International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol (right) speaks with Canada's Minister of Natural Resources James Gordon Carr (second right) today
Greenpeace was holding a sit-in outside Monday's meeting, calling on officials to maintain their commitments to reduce greenhouse gases under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
However, the US 'reserved its position' on the text about commitments made by G7 countries under the Paris accord, said Carlo Calenda, the Italian minister for economic development, who chaired the meeting in Rome.
The ministers' agenda had called for discussion of energy security, policies to move away from coal, natural gas routes and supply, sustainable development of electricity sources, alternative fuel scenarios and energy access and investments in Africa.
Lacking unanimity, Italy, which currently presides the Group of Seven, decided against proposing the joint statement, Calenda said.
The Paris Agreement, endorsed by members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is a bedrock of international action against man-made global warming.
Top officials from the Group of Seven industrial nations - including Britain's Nick Hurd (third from right) gathered in Rome, Italy today amid growing concerns over the US administration's moves to unravel policies aimed at stalling global warming
It vows to cap warming to 'well below' two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to late 19th-century levels - an effort that scientists say will require massive cuts in carbon emissions from coal and other fossil fuels.
It also pledges to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in aid for poor countries badly exposed to drought, flood, rising seas and other climate impacts.
In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order rolling back some of the previous Democratic administration's policies on carbon emissions and climate change.
Experts have said his plan, which eases emissions limits for coal-fired power plants and scraps more stringent vehicle pollution standards, almost guarantees that the US will fail to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Italian special forces patrol during a G7 for foreign ministers in Lucca, Italy, on Monday
Trump has also said he does not intend to honour promises made by the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, to provide financial aid under the Paris accord.
However, Trump's team is also deeply divided on whether to withdraw from the pact, according to US media reports.
On March 30, the White House said a decision on whether to withdraw would be made ahead of the G7 summit in Italy in late May.
Under Obama, the United States, the second biggest carbon polluter, provided critical impetus for the Paris deal by concluding a precursor deal with China, the number one emitter.
The Group of Seven, gathering the biggest western democracies, comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
General Michael Hayden, an NSA director to two presidents and CIA director to George W. Bush, says Donald Trump put some oomph behind Rex Tillerson before his secretary of state's visit to Moscow this week by striking Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Tillerson now goes into the talks with 'a sense of strength,' Hayden, a retired, four-star general said on CNN's 'New Day' program.
'Now youve got a president who went out and slapped the Russians' prime client in the Middle East around a little bit. That's probably a good portfolio for Mr. Tillerson to go and sit down calmly now with the Russians,' he assessed.
General Michael Hayden, an NSA director to two presidents and CIA director to George W. Bush, says Donald Trump put some oomph behind Rex Tillerson before his secretary of state's visit to Moscow this week by striking Bashar al-Assad in Syria
When the US secretary of state arrive in Russia on Wednesday, he plans to ask Vladimir Putin's government to help enforce a ceasefire between rebels and the Syrian government when the time comes.
Trump's bombing of an Assad airfield last Thursday was one-off assault, Tillerson's suggested. It was intended to keep the Syrian dictator in check while the United States and its allies fight terrorists in the region.
'I think its important we keep our priorities straight, and we believe the first priority is the defeat of ISIS,' he told CBS' Face the Nation Sunday in his first round of interviews since he became America's top diplomat.
'And once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria.'
Assessing the administration's positioning on Monday, Hayden said the idea seems to be 'put this back in the box because we've gotta go do this, at least first.'
'You probably can't finish this to the degree it has finished while you still have this over here, but job one seems to be fighting ISIS,' Hayden said.
Trump doesn't appear to have a sensible strategy to force Assad out, he said, at least 'not yet.'
'The president is more comfortable making decisions than he is making plans, more confident in his instincts that in his sort of broad strategy,' Hayden told CNN.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, (C) talks to reporters today during a ceremony at the Sant'Anna di Stazzema memorial, dedicated to the victims of the massacre committed in the village by the Nazis in 1944. Tillerson will enter talks with the Kremlin on Wednesday
Already, Trump has ditched a primary principle of his campaign and presidency - 'America First' - Hayden observed in order to check Assad's abuse of power.
'That's about as far as away from America First as a philosophy as you can get,' Hayden said of the strikes. 'That's America doing something unilaterally for what I call the good of the order rather than a narrowly defined American self-interest. It was remarkable flip from the man seen in the campaign.'
Hayden said Trump was right to send the USS Carl Vinson to the Sea of Japan in response to North Korea's provocative behavior, however.
That country's dictator, Kim Jong-un, test-fired missiles on two occasions this year. Pyongyang has staged five nuclear tests since last year.
Warning that North Korea likes to get 'frisky' around April 15, the birthday of deceased supreme leader Kim Il-Sung, Hayden said Trump's air assault on Syria 'demonstrates to the Chinese...if their client colors out of bounds here, were gonna do things...things that the Chinese don't want.
'We're not doing it because of the Chinese,' he said, but 'that might give the Chinese more more motivation to kind of torque up the pressure.'
Pauline Hanson has hit back at the ABC's Four Corners, labelling the show's recent episode about One Nation a 'stitch up' and says she will not appear on the broadcaster again.
In a video posted to her Facebook page on Monday, she also told followers her parliamentary excursion to Afghanistan had been cancelled in the wake of its announcement on ABC's Insiders.
It comes less than a month after Senator Hanson suggested defunding the ABC to her highly engaged social media following.
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Pauline Hanson has stated she will no longer communicate with the ABC and told them 'don't bother' when it comes to calling her
She opened the video announcing Tuesday would mark 20 years of One Nation before saying she had been 'a little bit down lately' and explaining her latest issues with the ABC.
'The fact is to tell you the truth, I've had a gutful of the media,' Senator Hanson said.
'Just last Friday I got word - I was actually planning on going for a trip through the Department of Defence to Afghanistan and Iraq on a parliamentary excursion with five other members of parliament, including Senator Burston and the other four were from Liberal and Labor.
'That was leaked to Andrew Probyn who announced it on Insiders.'
Senator Hanson told viewers her trip had since been cancelled because of 'a security threat and risk'.
'I was really looking forward to it,' she said.
'It was about getting to know the place, understanding what was happening over there, communicating with our men and women who are over there, understanding what their mums and dads and other family members actually feel with them being over there, to actually have a talk.
'And you know what I was really looking forward to - spending Anzac Day with them, that was going to be fantastic.'
It comes after a Four Corners report suggested her private plane was a gift and had not been publicly registered as such
An exasperated Senator Hanson threw up her arms.
'But anyway - it's not the case, it's all been cancelled,' she said.
Senator Hanson continued on her rant, referencing the recent Four Corners report which revealed she and her chief of staff, James Ashby, had been jetting around the country in a plane bought for her by Victorian property developer Bill McNee.
It was not declared as a gift and the Australian Electoral Commission is reportedly reviewing the information to see if One Nation have breached disclosure provisions.
'The stitch up that was done on Four Corners, what a stitch up that was,' Senator Hanson said.
Bizarrely, she then continued to suggest the broadcaster, along with other reporters, were 'out to get her scalp'.
'Like I said - I've got no time for them, I won't be doing any interviews with the ABC, and they are really out to get my scalp, and so are other journalists I've heard about that - it's all about who can actually get Pauline Hanson's scalp,' Senator Hanson said.
Pauline's plane (pictured) was purchased for her by Victorian property developer Bill McNee, according to Four Corners
Pauline has been at war with the ABC for months, with the party recently excluding the broadcaster from their party following the WA State Election
She did not go into the allegations made by the program regarding her conduct, but said she would address the episode 'in my own time, when I feel it's right - and I will explain everything'.
Senator Hanson concluded: 'To the ABC - don't bother ringing me up for any interviews. It's not happening.'
It's just the latest in a string of blows from One Nation to the ABC. The party recently refused entry to their party following the WA State Election, despite allowing other reporters inside.
Last month, Senator Hanson suggested selling the national broadcaster due to their alleged political bias.
'I'd cut out the ABC. I'm sick and tired of them with their leftist attitude. They are so left, and the SBS,' she said in a video shared to her Facebook page.
Theresa May is currently away from No 10 on a short holiday to North Wales despite the high tensions around the Syrian war
There will be no Commons vote on Britain joining a bombing campaign against Syrian President Bashar al Assad, No 10 suggested today.
Downing Street said Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson supported last week's US attack but wanted to find a political solution to the crisis.
MPs are currently away from Westminster on the Easter recess and there are no plans to bring them back early.
Mrs May is also away from Downing Street for several days as she takes a short holiday, though she remains fully briefed by officials.
Asked if the pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the crisis meant there were no plans for a Commons vote on British military action, Mrs May's official spokesman said: 'I am saying we are focussed upon seeking and building a political solution.'
He added: 'What we are focused on is building international support for a political solution to end the conflict and bring lasting peace and stability to Syria.
'We are calling on Russia and Iran to do everything possible to bring about this settlement and to work with the international community to ensure last week's shocking events aren't repeated.'
David Cameron lost a Commons vote on bombing the Assad regime after an earlier chemical weapon attack in 2013.
The Government has promised it will not join any US campaign without scheduling a debate and vote on the decision in the Commons.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned that the US could strike again and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his support for the Assad regime.
'We cannot miss this moment. It is time for Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is still propping up,' he told The Sun ahead of talks with G7 foreign ministers in Italy.
Mrs May, pictured with US President Donald Trump in January, is seeking a political solution to the crisis rather than rushing to join Mr Trump's military strikes
President Trump ordered a series of missile strikes last week in response to the deaths of more than 80 people, including children, during a chemical attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.
But the joint command centre made up of Assad's allies, including Russia and Iran, issued a statement saying the US strike had crossed 'red lines'.
'From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well,' the statement said.
The US and UK have blamed Russia for being complicit in the horrific deaths of innocent Syrians in last week's chemical attack and the federation is facing the threat of fresh international sanctions over its support for the dictator.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, pictured at a G7 meeting in Italy today, is coordinating the response of the G7 nations to the crisis
Mr Johnson, meanwhile, has faced fresh criticism for pulling out of planned talks with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov following discussions with the US.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson will travel to Moscow following the G7 meeting to deliver a 'clear and co-ordinated' message from the Western allies to the Kremlin.
However, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that Mr Johnson should have gone ahead with his own visit as well.
'He should go to Moscow, have a very strong and very robust conversation with the Russian government about their support for Assad and what they're doing there, but have that conversation,' he told the Press Association.
'Going back to the Cold War mentality won't bring peace.'
A thiefs accomplice was fatally shot by his friend in a freak accident as the pair tried to rob a woman in the street.
The incident took place in the area of Central de Abasto, in the city of Puebla, in the central Mexican state of the same name.
A woman was waiting for a taxi in the middle of the street when the two mentried to steal her handbag.
A thief's accomplice was shot by accident when the two men tried to rob a woman in the middle of the street in Mexico. Pictured, the men corner the woman in Puebla
The woman tried to defend herself and struggled as the thieves tried to steal her handbag. One of the men punched her in the head with his gun, accidentally shooting his friend
One of the thieves was holding a gun and pointing it at her during the attempted robbery.
When she tried to defend herself and struggled with the thieves, one of the men punched her with in the head with his gun, but shot his pal by mistake.
The man is seen in the video falling to the ground.
The thief continued to struggle with the woman and shot her in the ankle when she continues to defend herself.
After that, he tried to help his unconscious pal, but then decided to run away.
The woman was helped by neighbours and the injured thief was transferred to the hospital where he finally died according to local media.
No names were mentioned in reports and it is unclear if police arrested the thief who got away.
A minicab driver killed a star ballet dancer while making a hands-free phone call as the victim made his way to perform the lead in his final Sadlers Wells performance, a court heard today.
Abdul Qayyum, 44, was driving a Mercedes S Class when he knocked Jonathan Ollivier, 38, off his motorbike, throwing him into a lamppost on Farringdon Road Clerkenwell, north London.
Mr Ollivier, who was due to star in the final performance of The Car Man at Sadlers Wells Theatre, suffered catastrophic head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene just before 12pm on August 9 last year.
Qayuum, who denies one count of causing death by careless driving, took no evasive action at all before clipping the rear pannier of Mr Olliviers bike, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Ollivier was described by The Car Man's choreographer Matthew Bourne as one of the most powerful and charismatic dancers of his generation.
In the dock: Minicab driver Abdul Qayyum, 44, left, was driving a Mercedes S Class when he knocked Jonathan Ollivier, 38, right, off his motorbike, throwing him into a lamppost
Star quality: Mr Ollivier, pictured, who was due to star in the final performance of The Car Man at Sadlers Wells Theatre, for which he had received rave reviews
Mr Ollivier was travelling at about 50mph on the 30mph Farringdon Road, the jury heard, as Qayuum tried to drive straight across from Ray Street Bridge on to Ray Street.
The minicab driver denies a single charge of causing death by careless driving.
Mr Ollivier, a father-of-two from Northampton, was principal dancer with the Northern Ballet for eight years appearing in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake in New York in 2010
Prosecutor Mark Gadsden said: The defendant was in the middle of a phone call and it may be that distracted him from what he should have been doing which was looking properly to the left of him - albeit the motorcycle was going in excess of the 30mph speed limit.
The evidence is very straight forward - it is just a question of your interpretation of it, he said.
As far as you are concerned that will lead to your verdict at the end of the trial.
The Crown say he caused the death of a motorcyclist called Jonathan Ollivier by driving carelessly - the standard of his driving fell below that which you would expect of a normal and careful driver.
The motorcycle was heading in a northerly direction and the car driver was crossing the main road and met the cyclist.
The Crowns case is that the defendant, the car driver, didnt look properly as he was about to cross main road and therefore didnt see the motorcycle and just carried on without looking.
He ended up colliding with the motorcycles rear panier, causing the motorcyclist to lose control and slide along the line of the curb and collide with the lamppost.
It caused massive head injuries and near instantaneous death.
The star (far right meeting The Earl and The Countess of Wessex) was described by choreographer Matthew Bourne as one of the most powerful and charismatic dancers of his generation
Mr Gadsden continued: He didnt look properly, he didnt see the motorcyclist at all otherwise he would have taken avoiding action.
The motorcyclist had eight of way so he was right to assume the car would stop and let him carry on up the road.
The defendant doesnt take any avoiding action, doesnt slow down so the impact was inevitable.
The dancer had been praised for his performance as Luca, with one critic saying he brought a brooding power and danger of a matador to the role.
Mr Ollivier, a father-of-two from Northampton, graduated from the prestigious Rambert Ballet School and was principal dancer with the Northern Ballet for eight years.
Qayyum, of Slough, Berkshire, denies one count of causing death by careless driving.
The trial, which is expected to last three days, continues.
A top fund manager's widow caught in a High Court battle with her stepdaughter over his 18million fortune was today cleared of accusations that she 'bullied and dominated' him to get control of his will.
Richard Thornton, a 'gentlemanly financier with the Midas touch', died in 2013, aged 81, leaving half his fortune to his Australian wife, Susie, 71.
The other half went into a trust for the rest of his family, including his three middle-aged children and his grandchildren, London's High Court heard.
But a family war was sparked when he handed Susie Thornton a 'life interest' in the half of his fortune she did not inherit outright.
Will battle: Richard Thornton died in 2013, aged 81, leaving half his 18m fortune to his Australian wife, Susie, 71 (left). But his daughter Lucy Torrington (right) claimed her stepmother brought 'undue influence' to bear on her father
His daughter, Lucy Torrington, 56, spearheaded a High Court bid to have his will overturned, claiming Mrs Thornton brought 'undue influence' to bear.
The music teacher claimed her anxious and increasingly frail father was haunted by the thought that his second wife, 14 years his junior, might leave him.
She wanted her stepmother dislodged as an executor of the will, insisting that she should have no control over the purse strings of the trust.
But now Judge Richard Spearman QC has backed Mrs Thornton, rejecting claims that she 'proposed and pressed' for the changes in the will.
Stowe and Keble College-educated Mr Thornton knew what he was doing and there were 'no suspicious circumstances' surrounding the document he signed in 2009, he ruled.
Mrs Torrington earlier claimed that her stepmother dominated Richard during his autumn years at his home in exclusive Pelham Place, Knightsbridge.
But the widow insisted her stepdaughter's suspicions were 'fanciful' and her case 'hopeless'.
Mr Thornton married his second wife, who he met through his work, in 1989 after divorcing his first wife, Jennifer, the mother of his three children.
He began his glittering career as an investment manager in the 1960s, setting up Thornton Investments in the 1980s.
His estate comprises shares and investments worth around 8.5m, plus real estate in London and Australia valued at about 5m.
The Pelham Place house he jointly owned with Mrs Thornton is now worth up to 9million.
Described as a 'pioneer of international fund management', he also left 5million assets tied up in an overseas trust.
Home: Mrs Torrington earlier claimed that Susie dominated Richard during his autumn years at his home in exclusive mansion in Pelham Place, Knightsbridge (pictured)
Lucy's barrister, Duncan MacPherson, said the terms of the 2009 will meant that she was 'unlikely to receive his bounty until after Susie's death'.
He insisted that Mr Thornton's last true will was a document he signed in 2001 which gave her less influence over his fortune.
But the widow was adamant that she had never bullied her husband or tried to hijack his freedom to do what he wanted with his money.
Exonerating her today, Judge Spearman said the 2009 will was properly executed and there was nothing suspicious about.
Mr Thornton knew what the document meant and approved its contents, heruled.
The changes to the 2009 will were 'rational' and there was no evidence that any of them 'came from Susie.'
'The case based on undue influence falls at each major hurdle and must be dismissed', he added.
'The allegation that Susie bears animosity towards Lucy...is based on a misunderstanding...or distortion of past events.'
Overturning the 2009 would in any event bring little or no 'tangible benefit' to Lucy due the inheritance tax implications of doing so, he added.
There was also no good reason to remove Mrs Thornton as a trustee and executor of her husband's will.
Having heard her give evidence, the judge was confident she would perform her role conscientiously.
As the Trump train barrels toward the 100-day mark, word out of the White House is that Communications Director Mike Dubke told staff the administration needed a 'rebranding.'
Politico reported on a brainstorming session Dubke held with staffers where he made the remark and also openly complained that 'there is no Trump doctrine,' in terms of foreign policy, surprising some in attendance.
And, in typical Trump White House fashion, those peeved by Dubke's comments didn't approach the communications professional directly, instead airing out their grievances in the press.
'I think the presidents head would explode if he heard that,' one staffer said.
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President Donald Trump's is nearing the 100 day mark of his presidency - and so his communications director told staff that he needed a 'rebranding'
Dubke told Politico he was saddened that staff would gossip to reporters instead of complaining in real time.
'It was a brainstorming session and I really wish they had spoken up in the room so that we could have had an open and honest conversation,' Dubke told the online news site. 'It is unproductive adjudicating internal discussions through the media.'
White House Communications Director Michael Dubke (pictured) said there was a need to brand President Trump's first 100 days in office
Dubke said his 'rebranding' comment was misinterpreted as well.
'There is not a need for rebranding, but there is a need to brand the first 100 days,' the communications director said. 'Because if we don't do it the media is going to do it. That's what our job is.'
Trump will hit his 100-day mark on April 29, the day the White House Correspondents' Dinner will go on in Washington without him and the day a potential government shutdown would start if Congress doesn't green light a new funding bill.
Dubke and his White House colleagues are trying to whip up a story of success after President Trump's record has been pockmarked with failures thus far.
While Trump saw slightly higher approval ratings today from a new CBS News poll, with respondents asked a number of questions about Syria, his numbers have been historically low.
He can't point to a large legislative accomplishment as conservatives in the House derailed the president's frenzied effort to quickly repeal and replace Obamacare and then move onto the next agenda item.
Now, Republicans in the House are in early discussions for another repeal bill, though it's doubtful they'll get much done in the five days they're back from spring break.
Dubke's comments on Trump's foreign policy 'rubbed people the wrong way' one White House official told Politico 'because on the campaign we were pretty clear about what we wanted to do.'
'He was elected on a vision of America First. America First it the Trump doctrine,' the official added.
The only problem with this is that the new Syrian strikes, while approved of by more than half the country, don't fit easily into the bucket of 'America First.'
Trump got his Supreme Court pick, Judge Neil Gorsuch, through the Senate, though the body had to change the rule because the conservative didn't garner enough Democratic support to avoid a filibuster.
The new president has also been plagued by stories of 'palace intrigue,' with the press chronicling on an almost daily basis who's up and who's down among Trump's top advisers.
The stories got so bad that on Friday, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and chief strategist Steve Bannon sat down privately to try and bury the hatchet.
Aides' propensity to leak stories about the Dubke meeting suggest that they don't believe he has the president's ear.
President Donald Trump was victorious in getting his first pick for the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, confirmed - though the Senate had to change the rules for it to happen
Dubke was a newer hire and came in to replace Jason Miller, who was originally given the communications director job, only to pull out amid allegations that he fathered the child of another Trump campaign staffer.
One staffer pointed out how while Bannon, Kushner, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Press Secretary Sean Spicer all traveled with Trump to Mar-a-Lago this weekend, Dubke was left in D.C.
'That would tell you exactly how he is perceived,' a White House official told Politico.
Another White House official jumped to Dubke's defense saying the new communications director gave the office some structure 'and that's going to ruffle some feathers,' the aide told Politico, noting that those working on the press team before Dubke's arrival were 'doing whatever they wanted to do without a broader set of goals being defined.'
Now there's at least a three-prong strategy in place on how to promote Trump's first 100 days.
The communications team, according to Politico, will promote accomplishments in three categories: 'prosperity,' which will involve all the commitments for new jobs; 'accountability,' which will look at 'drain the swamp' measures put in place like new lobbying restrictions; and finally 'safety and security,' which will include the decrease in people coming over the Southern border and Trump's Syria strike.
A toddler was hospitalized after consuming methamphetamine while playing inside her Pennsylvania home, police said.
The child's parents, John Kemmerer, 26, and Leanne Popp, 24, are now facing child endangerment charges, according to police.
Police said the 22-month-old girl ate some of the drug that she found in a bag on Sunday morning at her home in Wayne Township in Schuylkill County.
A toddler was hospitalized after consuming methamphetamine while playing inside her Pennsylvania home, police said. The child's parents, John Kemmerer, 26, and Leanne Popp (pictured), 24, are now facing child endangerment charges, according to police
Authorities were dispatched to the home after receiving a 911 call shortly after 9.30am.
The child was then flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township for medical treatment. As of Monday morning, details of her condition hadn't been released.
Charges are still pending against the mother and father of the little girl, who hasn't been identified.
Last September, Pennsylvania State Police received nearly a half million dollars in federal grants to supplement their efforts to combat drug trafficking in the commonwealth, according to Fox 43.
'These grants will help bolster the work that our troopers are already doing to root out and arrest drug traffickers,' Governor Tom Wolf said.
The grants from the US Department of Justice include $300,000 to combat heroin trafficking and $186,793 to combat methamphetamine.
Meth is a highly addictive stimulant that is often cooked in rural homes.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a methamphetamine overdose can lead to a stroke, heart attack or organ problems that can result in death.
An Ohio field that was once home to arguably the most famous tree in Hollywood history is much more drab and empty now its gone.
The 200-year-old white oak tree in the 1994 classic film, The Shawshank Redemption, has been cut up and hauled away by the owner of the property on Pleasant Valley Road near Malabar Farm in Mansfield.
The tree has been severely damaged in recent years, and last year it was almost toppled over by strong winds.
As a result of the damage, Dan Dees, who owns the property with his sister, told the Mansfield News-Journal the tree had to come down because he was concerned about potentially being sued by fans of the film who could hurt themselves trying to take photographs with it.
The famous oak tree (pictured last year after it was damaged in a storm) from the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, has been cut down and hauled away
The oak was rotted through the middle, and in 2011 it narrowly survived being struck by lightning.
Dees told the News-Journal he understands people felt a 'very strong affinity and connection to (the tree)', but it was time to cut it down for good.
'This is the last time they (passers-by) are ever going to see it,' he told the newspaper.
'It's time to get it out, so that field can be utilized.'
The white oak tree (pictured) in the 1994 classic film has been severely damaged in recent years, and last year it was almost toppled over by strong winds
The oak tree features at the end of the movie, when Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding - played by Morgan Freeman - follows a string of clues to its location
When asked what he planned to do with the wood, he said he has turned down cash offers for chunks of it, and instead plans to: 'make a table out of it, or a bench'.
The oak tree features at the end of the movie, which was adapted from a Stephen King short story, when Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding - played by Morgan Freeman - follows a string of clues to its location.
Buried near the base of the tree is a box containing a letter, left by his Andy Dufresne - played by Tim Robbins, who escaped prison in the film and fled to Mexico.
The movie ends after Redding buys a bus ticket to Mexico, and meets his old friend on the beach.
Traumatized fans of the famous movie mourning the loss of the famed tree will surely be reminding themselves that no good thing ever dies.
Police will be given the power to do immediate visa checks and use hi-tech strategies on migrant youth offenders.
The new powers are part of the latest move by authorities to eliminate migrant gangs in Victoria, the Herald Sun reported.
Information will be shared between immigration and federal and state police to single out lawbreakers' visa statuses and help fast-track the deportation of criminals.
A new initiative will give police the power to conduct on-the-spot visa checks (stock picture)
Early-intervention assistance will be offered to those eligible.
The plan aims to link intelligence-sharing between the immigration department and police as concerns grow migrant offenders are at liberty to commit serious crime in Victoria.
Federal MP Jason Wood is currently overseeing a migration inquiry focused on foreign youth gangs.
He said when a person is charged, police have no idea if they are on a visa and immigration are not made aware police have charged them unless they are remanded on custody or serve jail-time.
Federal MP Jason Wood is leading the migration inquiry focused on foreign youth gangs
'You've got people walking around on bail in gangs, and immigration has no idea,' he said.
Mr Wood said on his request the identities of Apex gang members and suspected gang members were shared between the Australian Gangs Intelligence Coordination Centre and police.
'It doesn't happen automatically. Police aren't linked with the immigration database,' he said.
Mr Wood wants any migrant offenders to be booted from the country if they be convicted over gang-related crimes (stock picture)
Immigration workers are to be based full-time at two recommended crime-fighting super-centres in Melbourne's problematic southeast and western areas under the new plan.
The centre will work alongside with state and federal officials by offering immediate access to criminals' citizenship status and information.
International youth's who commit minor infringements will be issued 'warning letters' notifying them of the possibility of being asked to leave the country should they keep breaking the law.
Authorities are hoping to uncover ethnic youth offenders and eliminate migrant gangs
They will be offered English lessons and opportunities to get involved with community sports.
The joint venture Migrant Settlement Outcomes was established last year as concerns grew around foreign born offenders and looks to review the strength of the Migration Act's 'character test' which is used to test the eligibility of migrant visa holders.
Mr Wood wants any migrant offenders to be booted from the country should they be convicted over gang-related crimes.
In Victoria, Sudanese and New Zealand born migrants have the highest crime rate.
Between October 2015 and September 2016 Sudanese migrants were reportedly behind 2700 crimes while offenders born in New Zealand were allegedly attributed to over 4000.
Syrian or Russian warplanes dropped incendiary bombs on areas of Idlib and Hama provinces just days after a deadly gas attack in the region, activists and a monitoring group reported on Monday.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian jets had used an incendiary substance called thermite in bombs they dropped over the towns of Saraqeb in Idlib and al-Latamenah in Hama, further south, on Saturday and Sunday.
Moscow and the Syrian army were not immediately available for comment.
Videos posted on social media purportedly from Saraqeb on Sunday showed flaming materials hitting the ground and spreading large fires.
A rescue worker in Saraqeb said warplanes had dropped phosphorus bombs there, but he had not heard of the use of thermite.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian jets had used an incendiary substance called thermite in bombs they dropped over the towns of Saraqeb in Idlib and al-Latamenah in Hama, further south, on Saturday and Sunday
Videos posted on social media purportedly from Saraqeb on Sunday showed flaming materials hitting the ground and spreading large fires
Incendiary bombs are banned by an international convention, however Syria has not signed the agreement that forbids them in areas with a large civilian population. They are described by witnesses as 'fireballs' because they ignite while falling and light up the sky
He said use of phosphorus was not a new development.
'It's normal, these are often used,' said Laith Abdullah of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, a rescue group working in rebel-held areas.
The Observatory said thermite had first been used in the Syrian conflict in June 2016 by the Syrian government.
Incendiary bombs are banned by an international convention, however Syria has not signed the agreement that forbids them in areas with a large civilian population.
They are described by witnesses as 'fireballs' because they ignite while falling and light up the sky.
The bomb's flammable thermite content burns at 2,200C and ignites fires that are hard to put out.
It is the hottest burning man-made substance and can burn human flesh down to the bone.
Russia was accused of using the bombs last year, when the country's Moscow-funded news channel broadcast footage appearing to show a Russian aircraft equipped with banned bombs.
Russia Today aired footage showing RBK-500 ZAB-2.5SM bombs attached to a Su-34 fighter-ground attack aircraft, experts from Human Rights Watch concluded last year.
The bombings came after the United States launched cruise missiles at an air base in western Syria on Friday.
The bombings came after the United States launched cruise missiles at an air base in western Syria on Friday
The missile strike was a response to what Washington said was a gas attack by Syrian warplanes in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib that killed more than 80 people.
Syria denies using chemical substances and denies it carried out the attack.
Following Syria's suspected sarin nerve agent attack, the US military fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Assad controlled al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs at 8.45pm (EDT) on Thursday.
But the military action sparked a furious response from President Vladimir Putin, who called the airstrikes an 'illegal act of aggression'.
The Russian President, who has backed Assad militarily, warned of grave damage to relations between Washington and Moscow which are already 'in tatters'.
The Observatory reported Syrian warplanes took off from the same air base less than a day after the US attack and carried out air strikes on rebel-held areas.
A handout photo made available by Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) shows a battle damage assessment image of Shayrat Airfield, Syria, on Friday
Syrian residents of Khan Sheikhun hold placards and pictures on Friday during a protest condemning a suspected chemical weapons attack on their town that killed at least 86 people, among them 30 children, on Tuesday and left hundreds suffering symptoms including convulsions, vomiting or foaming at the mouth
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States will stand up to anyone who commits crimes against humanity
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said this week that the United States will stand up to anyone who commits crimes against humanity.
Last week's strike was the first direct military action the US had taken against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the country's bitter six-year civil war.
It came days after a suspected sarin nerve agent attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, which led to the agonizing deaths of 86 people including at least 27 children.
Speaking today, ahead of a Group of 7 meeting in Italy, Tillerson said: 'We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.'
During a visit to a site of Nazi atrocities in Italy during World War II, Tillerson said Sant'Anna di Stazzema 'will serve as an inspiration to us all'.
The Nazis killed more than 500 civilians in the village in 1944.
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For most, the horrors of the Second World War will never be more than history learned from the pages of a textbook.
But for a few, the terror of Hitler's regime is etched into memories which still have the power to reduce them to tears more than seven decades on.
This is the emotional moment survivors of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, in central Germany, broke down while revisiting the site 72 years after it was liberated by Allied troops.
Marian Wach, from Poland, broke down as he was taken to see a cremation oven used to burn the bodies of some of the 20,000 who died here
Mr Wach is one of just a handful of people who spent time in the camp and are forever haunted by their experiences inside
Petro Fedorowitsch Mischuk, a Ukrainian survivor of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, breaks down in tears as he visits 72 years after it was liberated by the Allies
Mr Wach was also overcome by emotion while laying flowers at a brass memorial to those who did not survive their time at Mittelbau-Dora
Mr Mischuk, who wore a striped uniform similar to the ones given to prisoners at the camp, speak with fellow survivor Pierre Berg, from France
In one particularly arresting image, former inmate Marian Wach, from Poland, wipes tears from his eyes as he is confronted with the sight of a cremation oven.
In another Petro Fedorowitsch Mischuk, from Ukraine, dabs tears from his eyes using a striped cap of the kind prisoners were forced to wear.
Both men were present along with a handful of other former camp detainees to lay flowers next to a brass memorial honouring those who died.
Mittelbau-Dora originated as an external unit of Buchenwald, one of the first and largest concentration camps on German soil.
It was established as a concentration camp in its own right in the summer of 1943 - when it was known as Dora - and existed for just over a year and a half.
Around 60,000 people were brought to work at this camp, in central Germany, where V2 rockets were manufactured. Of those, around 20,000 died
Mittelbau-Dora was initially used to house political prisoners, but as the Allies liberated nearby camps, Jews and other 'undesirables' were transferred there
Mr Mischuk flew a Ukrainian flag during a meeting to mark 72 years since Allied troops freed him from Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
The site was used to produce V-2 rockets - the powerful missiles that the Germans used to attack Allied cities - after a RAF bombing raid destroyed the factory where they were previously made.
Mr Berg laid flowers to join other tributes left at the camp, which now houses a museum documenting the horrors it was witness to
Inmates were initially housed by the SS in the Mittelwerk, as the tunnels intended to be the new underground rocket production site were called.
Although some prisoners were moved to an above-ground barracks when they were completed in January 1944, many carried on sleeping underground until much later.
With no means of sanitation except oil barrels - and alongside the punishing labour of digging the tunnels - conditions were terrible, and many inmates died of hunger and thirst.
People from concentration camps around Germany were specially selected and moved to Dora to begin production of the rockets in January 1944.
The exhausted prisoners who had built the tunnels were shipped out to a group of approximately 35 sub-sites, which together were known as the Mittelbau-Dora complex.
Inmates were mainly political prisoners from Poland, the Soviet Union and France.
There were also people from races the Nazis saw as 'inferior', including Jews and Roma.
The number of Jews dramatically increased towards the end of 1944, as the Nazis began to evacuate camps to the east because of the advancing Red Army.
Floral tributes lay on a memorial stone with the names of the different races and religions of people who were kept there
Alexander Bytschok, from Ukraine, also wore a striped prisoner suit along with a number which was assigned to every inmate by the Nazis in an attempt to dehumanise them
American soldiers and medics lead emaciated prisoners out of the camp after it was liberated on April 11, 1945
Soldiers inspect a V1 rocket found at the camp. Prisoners were used to build the weapons, as well as digging tunnels used in launching them
With a population boom straining resources, and combined with horrendous winter conditions, the death rate shot up.
In early 1945, as the Nazi regime began to collapse, guards evacuated the inmates of Mittelbau-Dora to other camps including Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany.
During these horrendous death marches, people who could not keep up were simply shot, and many others died of starvation.
Due to these evacuations, there were very few inmates left when the Americans finally liberated Mittelbau-Dora on April 11, 1945.
Out of approximately 60,000 people who had worked in the camp complex, some 20,000 died.
The 'bubbly' girlfriend of an obsessive soldier who chose not to have him arrested for harassment just days before he slit her throat had previously contacted police after he knocked on her window late at night.
Lance Corporal Trimaan 'Harry' Dhillon murdered Alice Ruggles by slitting her throat 'from ear to ear' after she ended their relationship, a court heard yesterday.
But prior to her death, Ms Ruggles had contacted Northumbria Police regarding her concerns about Dhillon when he travelled from Scotland, got into her back yard and knocked on her bedroom window late at night, left her flowers and Ferrero Rocher chocolates and then walked away.
On the day Dhillon was instructed by his commanding officer to stay away from his ex, he posted her a parcel containing photos and a letter.
Ms Ruggles phoned police again and was unable to speak to the officer who dealt with her original complaint about Dhillon, as they were on leave.
She was asked by the officer if she wanted Dhillon to be arrested.
Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, said: 'Sadly, the dilemma this young girl was in is obvious. She was scared and worried about the behaviour of the man she had plainly loved and cared for.
'Generously, she told the officer she did not want him to be arrested. She could not have know she would pay for that decision with her life just five days later.'
Trial: Lance Corporal Trimaan 'Harry' Dhillon (left), who was a serving soldier with the 2 Scots with hopes of joining the special forces, denies murdering Alice Ruggles (right)
Dhillon broke into Alice Ruggles's ground-floor flat and severed her neck, leaving her in the blood-soaked bathroom, when he thought she was about to start seeing another man, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Dhillon had travelled from his barracks near Edinburgh and as he waited for her to return to her Gateshead home last October, the SAS-hopeful was trying to arrange a casual 'hook-up' on Tinder with another woman, jurors were told.
He denies murdering the 24-year-old former Northumbria University student, who was originally from Leicestershire and worked for Sky in Newcastle.
The jury was told Dhillon was unfaithful to Ms Ruggles and regularly used internet dating sites.
On one occasion a woman he had asked out on Tinder got in contact with Ms Ruggles to warn her about what he was doing, the court was told.
Dhillon had asked the Tinder match to go to a ball with him, but in the end he went with Ms Ruggles, the jury was told.
The defendant, who was a serving soldier with the Royal Highland Fusiliers (2 Scots) with hopes of joining the special forces and who lived in barracks outside Edinburgh, denies murder.
During court on Monday, a jury was played the 999 call when Alice Ruggles's flatmate found her 'blue' and covered in blood on the bathroom floor of the Gateshead home they shared.
Flatmate Maxine McGill came home to their flat in Rawling Road in Bensham last October and found the front door locked.
After shouting for Ms Ruggles to let her in, she climbed a wall into their back yard and got in through an open window.
She found her friend lying on the bathroom floor 'literally covered in blood', Richard Wright QC told the jury.
The prosecutor said Ms McGill immediately knew Ms Ruggles was dead.
He said: 'She had suffered horrendous injuries she could not have survived. Someone had slit her throat open from ear to ear, leaving her neck wide open.'
Mr Wright said the victim bled to death on the bathroom floor. He played the 999 call in which Ms McGill appeared extremely distressed and breathed heavily, sometimes calling out her friend's name.
Dhillon (left), pictured with former prime minister David Cameron, was a signaller with his regiment who had passed some of the courses to join the special forces, the jury heard
At one point she said: 'It looks like she's been attacked. Please help.'
She told the call handler Ms Ruggles had reported having trouble with her ex-boyfriend Dhillon, claiming she had called 101 in the past.
Mr Wright said the flatmate had good reason to name Dhillon, who was charged under his first name Trimaan.
He said: 'Maxine had seen the obsessive and manipulative manner in which Dhillon had harassed and stalked Alice in the weeks and months before her death.
'She had seen first hand how Alice's happy, bubbly demeanour had changed over time.'
Newcastle Crown Court heard how he used 'emotional blackmail' to manipulate her into getting back with him after they broke up.
He sent her photos of himself in tears and messaged her mother on Facebook begging for her help in reconciling them.
Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, said there was a more 'sinister' element to the blackmail as he threatened to release sexual photographs of his ex.
Police found a folder on his computer titled Tramp and in it were images of Ms Ruggles in 'sexually compromising positions' which Dhillon threatened to share on social media, the court heard.
He also threatened to go to the police with an allegation she had hit him - something she did when she found out he had been messaging a woman on Tinder, jurors were told.
Mr Wright said: 'His stalking escalated into his hacking into and controlling her social media accounts in such a way he was able to monitor what she was doing.'
The 2 Scots Signaller, who hoped to join the SAS in reconnaissance, set up a fake email address in her name and hacked into her Facebook account so he could control it.
She thought he could read her Whatsapp messages too.
When she began contacting another soldier based in Germany with the hope of a relationship, Dhillon contacted him and claimed she was 'playing' the pair of them, Mr Wright said.
After the alleged murder, Dhillon took her phone and dumped it, the jury was told.
Ms Ruggles was from Leicestershire and stayed in Newcastle after finishing her degree at Northumbria University in product design.
The 'fun-loving' Sky employee was short and slightly built, weighing nine and a half stone and was 5ft 2in, Mr Wright said.
Dhillon was tall, powerfully-built and was a signaller with his regiment who had passed some of the courses to join the special forces, the jury heard.
A jury was played the 999 call when Ms Ruggles's flatmate found her 'blue' and covered in blood on the bathroom floor of the Gateshead home (above) they shared
He had served in Afghanistan but not in a combat role and the Army was unaware of any traumatic episode during his service, the court heard.
He did become obsessed with Ms Ruggles, and was described in court as a jealous and manipulative man.
They got together in October 2015 after he spotted her photo on a mutual friend's Facebook page, describing Ms Ruggles as 'the most naturally beautiful girl in the world'.
She was at first put off by the comment but changed her opinion when she saw his photo, describing him to the mutual friend as 'so fit'.
But it was not until the January that they physically met, and their relationship quickly raised concerns about its intensity.
Dhillon would check her messages and question why she was trying to look nice when she went out.
Mr Wright said: 'He spoke to her about cutting off his own arms to show how much he loved her and also writing a letter to her in his own blood.'
But questioning her movements was 'deeply hypocritical' as he was serially unfaithful to Ms Ruggles, the court heard.
Mr Wright said: 'It was plain she had truly fallen for this defendant, but at the same time she couldn't trust him and she knew that his behaviour was controlling and inappropriate and she began to try gently to extricate herself from the relationship.
'She met with fierce resistance from the defendant.'
On the evening of the discovery of his alleged victim's body, Dhillon was arrested at his barracks having tried to scale a perimeter fence, the court heard.
He was allowed a toilet break before police arrived and tried to wash blood away. But traces were found on his Help for Heroes wristband and on the steering wheel of his car, the court was told.
Mr Wright said Dhillon has put forward four different accounts as to what happened.
He expected the defendant will tell the jury he was trying to stop Ms Ruggles from killing herself and he fled when she stabbed herself because he had a phobia of blood.
This stemmed from his service in Afghanistan when he saw the aftermath of a helicopter crash.
Mr Wright said although Dhillon did attend the site of a helicopter crash, it was two days after the event - he did not know any of the casualties and the wreckage was covered by a tarpaulin.
The trial continues.
Roxy Jacenko has revealed she and her children will 'absolutely' be at Cooma Prison to greet her disgraced banker husband, Oliver Curtis, when he is released in June.
But, in keeping with her decision to hide their father's insider trading conviction, Ms Jacenko told the Wentworth Courier even when Pixie, five, and Hunter, three, were standing at the gates, they would not be told where they were.
'The kids are looking forward to having their father back,' the 36-year-old mother-of-two and PR maven who founded Sweaty Betty said.
Roxy Jacenko says she will be at the gates of Cooma Prison with her two young children to pick up husband Oliver Curtis when he is released
'Remember Pixie hasn't seen Oli for 12 months, so it's very important we're there.
'[Pixie] will think she's picking him up from work. She doesn't know any different.'
In August last year, Ms Jacenko revealed to 60 Minutes she had no intention of telling her children where their dad had gone, choosing to say he was on extended business in China instead.
'If you watch a cartoon these days, the baddie always goes to jail. And I don't want them to think that of their father. I don't want that to be instilled in their mind,' she said.
'I've said he's in China. I think there's certain things you choose to tell a child.'
The couple's two children, Pixie, five, and Hunter, three, believe their father has been in China for the past year, and will be told they are 'picking him up from work'
Ms Jacenko told Mamamia her daughter had not visited Curtis in prison and 'can't cope' with talking to him on the phone.
But Hunter has been to see his father behind bars.
He accompanied Roxy on a private plane to Cooma, which she said helped convince the child he was going to China.
'I told him we were going to China and we went on a plane so he actually believed it,' Ms Jacenko said in the podcast interview.
'It was like a Mexican stand off - the two of them just stared at each other a bit confused. But I'm glad I did it, it was very good for Oli.'
Curtis was sentenced to a year behind bars for conspiracy to commit insider trading
Curtis is locked up at Cooma prison (pictured) in New South Wales after being convicted of conspiracy to commit insider trading
While Roxy has been taking care of the couple's young family, Curtis has been serving time in Parklea and Cooma prisons in NSW for conspiracy to commit insider trading.
The former banker is rumoured to be quite popular in prison, with other inmates referring to him as 'Adonis' for his prison-gym-chiseled physique, but he was recently in an altercation with another inmate.
Curtis stood up to another inmate who was 'ranting' at him last month, The Daily Telegraph reported.
A third inmate stepped in to mediate the situation and all three were given 24 hours in their cells - unable to use the yard or shower.
Ms Jacenko defended her husband while appearing on the Today Show on Monday, confirming her husband was 'okay' following the brawl.
After it was reported her husband was in an altercation with another inmate last month, Roxy took to the Today Show to defend him, saying altercations were normal
She went on to say having verbal altercations was normal and she was no stranger to them herself.
'Who doesn't have altercations? I have had a fair few of them,' Ms Jacenko said.
'People argue, people have issues. It is what it is.'
She further justified to the Wentworth Courier the altercation would have been due to his confined prison lifestyle, and said he was 'not the kind of person' to get into a fight - even a verbal one.
Curtis is expected to be released from Cooma Correctional Centre on good behaviour on June 23 at the earliest.
Chicago Judge Raymond Myles, 66 (pictured), was shot dead outside his home on the city's south side early Monday morning
A 66-year-old Chicago judge was shot to death outside of his home on the South Side early Monday morning, in what police say may have been an attempted robbery.
Neighbors said they heard a woman's screams coming from the home of Associate Judge Raymond Myles just before 5am.
A 52-year-old woman - described as a 'close associate' of the judge - was shot in the leg when she left the home and encountered an armed man.
Neighbors said Myles and the unidentified woman often left early in the morning to work out at a gym.
Myles heard the commotion and came outside where he was shot at least four times. He died after being transported to Advocate Medical Center.
His female friend was last reported in serious condition at the same hospital, and has underwent surgery. She is expected to survive.
No one has been arrested in connection to the shooting so far. The suspect has been described as a black man.
Police say the shooting matches 'some patterns of robberies' in the area. However, they say nothing appears to have been taken from the property.
Authorities gather outside Myles' home on the South Side of Chicago Monday morning
A 52-year-old woman was also shot in the leg and is in serious condition. No arrests have been made
Myles' death coincides with a frightening rise in murders in the Windy City. Last year, the murder rate surpassed 750 homicides for the first time since the 1990s, and it's on track to have a similarly deadly year in 2017, with more than 150 reported already.
One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, described the chaos to the Chicago Tribune.
'I heard maybe six shots. The shots woke me up, and the screaming of the woman woke me up. She was screaming, "Don't kill him, don't kill him!"' the neighbor recalled.
The judge and the woman who was injured usually leave early in the morning to go work out, according to the neighbor.
Above is Judge Myles' home. Neighbors say they were woken up to gunshots just before 5am. The victims' bodies were found in the back of the property, where the garage is
The neighbor also said that he believes the shooting may have been caught on surveillance camera, since the judge planned to install some on his property.
'I knew him well,' the neighbor said. 'Great guy, great neighbor. He looked after the neighborhood. Any mischief in the neighborhood, he was investigating. He was always at the block clubs. He never talked about being a judge. He was just Ray.'
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi called the shooting a 'senseless murder'.
In a statement, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans said he was 'deeply saddened' by the news.
'I know you join me in sending our condolences to his family and colleagues in the Criminal Division,' Evans said.
Myles was an associate judge in the court's criminal division, and handled several high-profile cases in his career.
The two suspects arrested for the 1993 Brown's Chicken massacre, appeared before Myles shortly after their arrest in 2002 for the mass murder.
He also ordered William Balfour held without bond after he was arrested for the 2008 murders of three relatives of singer Jennifer Hudson.
Just two years ago, Myles was also attacked by a man in a minor traffic collision.
Myles was trying to park when he was struck by another vehicle. The driver of the other car punched him in the face when he tried to take pictures of the damage to his car.
Myles had to be taken to the hospital for a fractured nose, chipped tooth and injuries that later required reconstructive surgery.
Ten months later, 22-year-old Deandre Hudson was arrested for the attack and charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to someone over the age of 60.
New York state will now pay for two- and four-year public college courses for middle class students under newly agreed legislation.
The bill, introduced by Governor Andrew Cuomo in January and approved by the Assembly and Senate over the weekend, will pay for the tuition of students whose families earn less than $100,000 a year.
Lawmakers estimate that it will cost the state $163 million a year - but that figure could be higher, according to CNNMoney.
New deal: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured) has arranged for students whose families earn under $100,000 a year to get free tuition at two- and four-year public colleges
The income cap on the new bill will increase to $110,000 next year and $125,000 in 2019.
New York state already pays out $1 billion a year on financial aid for student scholarships, and the new plan will cover 200,000 students once it's fully rolled out.
Lawmakers are also expecting a greater uptake in college course applications as a result of the new policy, but it's not known how large that increase could be.
That means it could cost more than the $163 million estimated by the state - though precise figures are hard to calculate.
'If it was that inexpensive to do, we would have done it a long time ago,' Assemblyman James Skoufis, who proposed a similar bill three years ago, told CNNMoney in January.
Termed the Excelsior Scholarship, the fund is open to students of State of New York (SUNY) and City of New York (CUNY) colleges.
The scholarship will pay qualifying students' annual $6,470 fees for a four-year school or the $4,350-per-year cost of community colleges.
However, it won't pay for the cost of room and board on campus, which can come to $14,000 per year.
Big thinking: The scheme could cost upwards of $163 million. Students who qualify must continue working in New York state for the same number of years that they received funding
After complaints by Republican State Assembly lawmakers, a portion of the planned money has also been set aside for students at private colleges.
A new financial assistance program will be set up to award up to $3,000 to students at private universities whose families are below the income gap.
Colleges that agree to the scheme - which has $19 million of the proposed fund earmarked for that purpose - would have to agree to match the funding and not raise the cost of tuition for that student.
The new bill has been cheered by SUNY Chairman Carl McCall and Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, although they said they 'hoped for additional support' for SUNY community colleges, as they expect an uptick in applications.
The move by New York comes after Oregon, Tennessee and the city of San Francisco all made community college free for residents, irrespective of their income level.
However, New York is the first state to authorize free tuition at four-year public colleges.
Rhode Island is also considering paying for tuition for two years of public colleges.
The budget, which was approved over the weekend, had been due on April 1 but had been delayed by negotiations.
A US Marine jailed for killing a transgender woman in a Philippines motel after discovering she had male genitals has had his conviction upheld.
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton claimed he was acting in self-defence when he killed Jennifer Laude on October 11, 2014.
Pemberton accused Laude of slapping him, although the Philippines Court of Appeals described his claim as 'more imaginary than real' and 'easily concocted'.
Jennifer Laude, left, was killed by US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton in 2014
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was found guilty of homicide in 2015 for the killing of transgender Filipina Jennifer Laude after discovering her male genitalia during an assignation
Pemberton, pictured center was found guilty of Laude's homicide following a trial in November
The Marine avoided a murder conviction and was found guilty of the lesser charge of homicide, which did not require any 'malicious intent'.
In its ruling, the appeal court ruled: 'The only reason why he attacked Laude was that he was furious at him for pretending to be a woman, nothing more, nothing less.'
Pemberton met transgender Filipina Laude in October 2014 in a bar in the city of Olongapo, northwest of capital Manila, after the marine took part in a joint US-Philippine military exercise.
During the trial, a lower court heard that Pemberton and Laude agreed to have sex after meeting in the city's red light district, but that the drunken marine turned violent when he discovered Laude still had male genitals.
He was sentenced to six to 10 years in jail and is being held in a cell in the country's military headquarters in Manila.
Pemberton's homicide conviction was the first under a visiting forces agreement between the US and the Philippines signed in 1998, covering the legal liability of American troops taking part in military operations in the Southeast Asian nation.
The case had strained relations between the Philippines and its former colonial ruler and main defence partner, with activists and LGBT rights groups urging Manila to scrap the military deal with Washington.
Protesters have been calling for the Filipino government to withdraw co-operation
Pemberton's lawyer Rowena Garcia-Flores said they will now be lodging a further appeal with the Philippine Supreme Court.
She said: 'The (lower) courts set aside all evidence that shows that another person could have killed Laude. Laude's money was stolen by a third person and there was a necklace that belonged to a third person.'
Prosecutors claimed Pemberton strangled Laude and dragged her to the bathroom and shoved her head in the bowl.
An autopsy found she died from 'asphyxia by drowning'.
The anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts told two fellow Marines: 'I think I killed a he/she.'
Pemberton admitting choking the sex worker but said she was alive and in the shower when he left the hotel.
The Marine claimed Laude was performing a sex act on him when he realized her status.
China executed more people last year than the rest of the world combined, according to a human rights group.
Even as executions have dropped by more than a third globally, China's death penalty rate is 'shockingly high' although the full extent of the secretive practice is unknown, Amnesty International said.
While President Xi Jinping's much-hyped corruption crackdown has seen many high-ranking figures sent to jail, their death sentences have often been commuted.
Meanwhile ordinary people caught in the crosshairs of the law have not been so lucky, it said. The rights groups put the number of annual executions in China in 2016 in the thousands - but it didn't offer a more precise estimate due to a lack of accurate information.
China executed more people last year than the rest of the world combined, according to a human rights group (file picture shows a Chinese officer in Beijing's Tiananmen Square)
While President Xi Jinping's (pictured) much-hyped corruption crackdown has seen many high-ranking figures sent to jail, their death sentences have often been commuted
Farmers were more frequently sentenced to death than any other group in China, Amnesty said in a report that sought to lift the veil on the workings of the system.
China's ruling Communist Party regards execution figures as a state secret, meaning that hundreds of death sentences are omitted from the public database of court verdicts.
'China is really the only country that has such a complete regime of secrecy over executions,' Amnesty's East Asia director Nicholas Bequelin said at a press conference in Hong Kong.
'Probably the reason is the numbers are shockingly high', he added.
Around the rest of the world, executions fell by more than a third last year - but perversely a record number of people were sentenced to death, Amnesty said.
The group found there were 1,032 executions in 23 countries where the death penalty is in use, compared to 1,634 the previous year. But the statistics do not include China, where thousands are believed to be executed every year.
The report says 3,117 people were sentenced to death in 55 countries and there are currently 18,848 individuals on Death Row globally.
Abbas al Samea (pictured left) was one of three people executed in Bahrain in January for offences related to a political protest. Ali al-Nimr (right), faces execution in Saudi Arabia in connection with another protest
Although local media reports estimated that at least 931 individuals were executed between 2014 and 2016, only 85 of them were found in the online database, Amnesty said.
Estimates from other rights groups also puts the number of annual executions in China in the thousands.
From arrest to execution, the process is characterised by secrecy and speed: a 2016 report from US-based Dui Hua Foundation said China's average death row prisoner waits only two months before being executed.
Dui Hua estimates that there were approximately 2,000 executions in China in 2016, down from 2,400 in 2013 and some 4,000 in 2010 - following legal reforms that improved oversight.
Concerns over wrongful convictions have grown in recent years, fuelled by police reliance on forced confessions and the lack of effective defence in criminal trials.
Chinese courts have a conviction rate of 99.92 percent.
The nation's top judge, Zhou Qiang, apologised in 2015 for past miscarriages of justice, saying: 'We feel deep remorse for wrongful convictions'.
Public anger has mounted over miscarriages of justice, including a high-profile case that saw a teenager in Inner Mongolia wrongfully convicted and executed for rape and murder in 1996.
Hugjiltu was put to death two months after the woman was killed and was finally exonerated nine years later when a serial killer confessed to the crime.
Despite Chief Justice Zhou's call to 'correct' mistakes, experts say recent reforms have not been widely implemented.
'Coerced confessions are supposed to be excluded from evidence. In practice, however, the police have unchallenged discretion to... extract confessions by detaining and torturing suspects for long periods,' New York University professor Jerome Cohen told AFP.
Kulbhushan Jadhav (pictured) was sentenced to death on Monday. He is accused of sneaking across the border from Iran and spying on behalf of India
Even cases which provoke widespread anger and online petitions calling for death sentences to be revoked are not exempt.
Farmer Jia Jinglong was sentenced to death for killing a village official with a nail gun after his home was demolished weeks before his wedding day in 2013.
Jia was beaten and denied compensation for his house, the state-run Global Times reported, and the case prompted fury in China, where land seizures and forced evictions of villagers by local officials have become a major source of social resentment.
But despite the public outcry and calls from legal experts to commute his sentence, he was executed last November.
Amnesty's figures came out only hours after Pakistan sentenced an Indian naval officer to death for spying.
Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested after the crossing border from Iran into Pakistan in March 2016 and has been convicted by a military tribunal of plotting terrorist acts in the province of Baluchistan and the port of Karachi.
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the head of Pakistan's armed forces, has confirmed the death sentence but India said if it went ahead it would be 'premeditated murder'.
Amnesty's UK Director Kate Allen said: 'We fear that trade and security issues are trumping human rights, with UK officials damping down their objections to the death penalty when it comes to countries like Saudi Arabia or Bahrain.
'If governments in Beijing, Manama, Islamabad and Riyadh see there's very little public outrage over executions, then they're going to think they've got a green light to carry on killing.'
In Iran convicted killers can cheat the gallows if their victim's families intervene. This man was due to be executed but his victim's mother slapped him in the face and his sentence was commuted to life in prison STOCK PHOTO
Reprieve director Maya Foa told Mail Online: 'While the overall trend towards fewer executions is welcome, it's disturbing that certain governments are increasingly using the death penalty as a means of crushing dissent.
'Many of those with the worst record on executions are countries which British Prime Minister Theresa May has been actively courting in recent weeks including Saudi Arabia, where juveniles face beheading and crucifixion, and Bahrain, where political protesters have been executed on the basis of forced 'confessions'.'
She added: 'The UK government must not let the trade agenda trump concerns for human rights. Mrs May must condemn the use of the death penalty as a tool of oppression.'
Executions in the United States fell to the lowest level in a quarter of a century, with only 20 people put to death last year.
Iran executed 567 people, a big decrease on the 977 who were killed the previous year, and the death toll fell in Pakistan too - from 326 to 87.
They do not include China, where executions are said to run to thousands annually, or Syria or Iraq where ISIS has killed hundreds, usually without any trials at all.
Methods of execution used around the world included beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.
The number of countries in the world who have officially abolished the death penalty now stands at 141 although some, including Turkey and Russia, have seen renewed debates about restoring it.
A series of potential bombings against US military forces were foiled when the pregnant widow of a former ISIS commander and her new bombmaker boyfriend were arrested, a new report claims.
Hussein Aldhafiri and Rahaf Zina Dhafiri were planning to carry out bombings against US military forces in Kuwait, the country's al-Rai newspaper reports.
They were also allegedly plotting a suicide attack on a Shi'ite Muslim meeting hall. The newspaper is known to have close ties to the security services.
The couple was taken into custody by Philippines intelligence agents, along with police and immigration authorities, in Manilla last month.
A series of potential bombings against US military forces were foiled after ISIS extremists were arrested, a new report claims. Pictured are alleged extremists, Hussein Aldhafiri (right) and Rahaf Zina Dhafiri (left)
The arrests were announced last week, with officials saying they waited to do so in order to avoid potentially bringing forward any planned attacks.
Aldhafiri, a 40-year-old Kuwaiti, was allegedly an ISIS bombmaker who was helping plot attacks in Kuwait and possibly in the Philippines, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said.
Dhafiri, a 27-year-old Syrian, was reportedly the widow of a top ISIS commander in Syria and later became Aldhafiri's partner. After her arrest, she told authorities that she was pregnant and she was sent to a hospital.
Al-Rai said Kuwaiti security forces also arrested a Syrian chemistry teacher suspected of involvement with the plots.
Kuwait's newspaper al-Rai newspaper has reported the suspects were planning to carry out bombings against US military forces in Kuwait. Pictured are US and GCC soldiers during a training exercise in Kuwait in last week
Aldhafiri (pictured), a 40-year-old Kuwaiti, was allegedly an ISIS bombmaker who was helping plot attacks in Kuwait and possibly in the Philippines
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Kuwait referred queries to Kuwaiti authorities. Kuwaiti security officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A number of American military bases are located in Kuwait.
The gulf country suffered its deadliest militant attack in decades when a Saudi suicide bomber blew himself up inside a packed Shi'ite mosque in June 2015, killing 27 people.
ISIS later claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Dhafiri (pictured), a 27-year-old Syrian, was reportedly the widow of a top ISIS commander in Syria and later became Aldhafiri's partner
A senior lecturer at Sydney University believes Donald Trump is the 'mastermind of terrorism in the Middle East' and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been falsely accused of horrific war crimes.
Tim Anderson, who was convicted and then acquitted for the bombing of Sydney's Hilton Hotel in 1978, made the controversial claims in a series of tweets last week.
A senior politics lecturer on $130,000-a-year, Mr Anderson claimed Trump's decision to launch missile strikes on Syria was 'to prove he was better than [Barack] Obama'.
He went on to claim Obama 'financed and armed all the terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq' before asserting George Bush was the undisputed 'Godfather of terrorism'.
Tim Anderson claims Donald Trump is the 'mastermind of terrorism' and says Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been set up. Anderson (right) and Assad (left) are pictured during academic delegation in 2013
Anderson made the controversial claims in a series of tweets last week
The contentious tweets were in response to a horrific sarin gas attack on a farming village near Homs last Tuesday which killed 87 Syrian civilians, including children.
Assad's regime maintains it did not drop chemical weapons on the region and says it bombed Jihadi weapons stores which released the deadly nerve agent.
But experts have rubbished that theory, saying sarin gas would be destroyed by an explosion rather than dispersed.
Meanwhile, General Mohammed Hasouri, a squadron commander in Assad's army, was pictured being congratulated for the devastating raid on Twitter.
Despite evidence seemingly pointing towards Assad's intentional involvement in the recent chemical attack, Mr Anderson claimed it could not be further from the truth.
'There is no credible evidence that the Syrian Army has ever used chemical weapons in the last six years,' he tweeted, linking to an article quoting Syria's Foreign Affairs Minister.
'On the other hand, there is independent evidence of multiple [chemical weapons] use by the NATO-Saudi backed al-Qaeda groups.'
Anderson (pictured at a Cuban Embassy memorial for the life of Fidel Castro) was famously convicted and then acquitted in 1991 for the bombing of Sydney's Hilton Hotel in 1978
The Sydney University academic said that Obama 'financed and armed all the terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq'
Anderson is pictured with Australian-Syrian woman Reme Sakr, who sued ABC for defamation after they described a story detailing her visiting her father in Syria as 'powerful PR for a brutal regime led by a man the UN has branded a war criminal'
Malcolm Turnbull lashed out at Assad on Saturday, saying he had committed 'enormous' crimes against his own people after the chemical weapons attack.
Assad's actions show he is unable to be part of a peaceful solution to the six-year civil war, Mr Turnbull said while speaking to reporters in Papua New Guinea.
Anderson claimed there was 'no credible evidence' linking the Syrian Army to any chemical attacks in the last six years
'The crimes he has committed against his own people are so enormous.
'His actions, his horrendous, criminal actions - gassing women and children, babies - that surely disqualifies him from a continuing role.'
A spokeswoman for Sydney University told The Daily Telegraph the university was 'committed to the expression and protection of free speech'.
'The university does not endorse the statements expressed by Dr Anderson,' the spokeswoman told the publication.
'[However] academic staff are free to contribute to public comment in their area of expertise under terms outlined in the university's public comment policy.'
Anderson has published a book titled 'The Dirty War on Syria' which expands further on theories surrounding the six-year civil conflict.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Anderson and Sydney University for comment.
The number of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the US by crossing the Rio Grande has fallen dramatically since President Trump took office.
In March this year, only 4,143 people were detained by Border Patrol Agents at the notorious river crossing as opposed to 15,579 who were caught in January before Trump was in full swing in the White House.
The sharp decline has been chalked down to the president's tough line on immigration.
Border Patrol agents said migrants were no longer willing to risk the dangerous journey and pay steep smuggler fees now that the chances of them being allowed to stay in the US are so slim.
The phenomenon at the Rio Grande crossing is not isolated. Only 12,193 people were arrested across the entire Southwest border in March, 50,000 fewer than in October.
The number of immigrants arrested at the Rio Grande border crossing has fallen dramatically since President Trump took office in January
In Yuma, Arizona, only 336 were arrested trying to cross the border in March whereas 1,155 were stopped in January.
El Paso, another busy crossing in Texas, saw only 976 arrested in March, a decrease of 1,803 since January.
The drop bucks a five-year trend of increases. Since 2012, the total number of immigrants either arrested or turned away from the border has risen.
The end of 2016 brought the highest number of crossings with 56,000 arrested or turned away in September alone.
October, November and December were among the busiest months in the last five years as hundreds of thousands attempted to rush in to the country before Trump took office.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection attributes the decline since then to the president's crackdown.
The entire border has seen dramatic monthly decreases since Trump took office in Januaryn after a spike in attempted entries in October, November and December
The crossing is the busiest along the Mexican border with thousands pouring in every month to seek asylum in Texas. Above, a group of migrants remove their shoelaces after being caught by Border Patrol agents in April last year when traffic was heavier
The 1,885 mile stretch of water runs directly along the southeast Texas border
Thousands have died trying to make the crossing in treacherous parts of the river. Above, one group is led through it by a smuggler on March 14, 2017
On his third day in office, President Trump signed an executive order demanding the construction of a wall along the entire border. Above, a road crew is seen reinforcing the border next to the Rio Grande in Hidalgo last month
'Since the Administrations implementation of Executive Orders to enforce immigration laws, the drop in apprehensions shows a marked change in trends,' it says.
On January 25, three days after being sworn in, President Trump signed an executive order demanding tougher regulations across the Southwest border.
Border Patrol agents have credited President Trump's tough stance on immigration with the decline
The order includes the construction of a physical wall to run the length of the border which Trump promised to deliver throughout his election campaign.
While he has not implemented new immigration laws, the order enforces rules already made. It places emphasis on removing anyone deemed ineligible, a threat which border officials say has spooked illegal migrants.
'Are you going to risk a 1,000-mile journey and pay $8,000 to be smuggled if youre not sure youll get to stay? I wouldnt,' Marlene Castro told The Los Angeles Times, describing how the once 'hot' Rio Grande crossing was now quiet.
The Rio Grande crossing is the busiest route for illegal immigrants entering the US from Mexico.
Thousands have died trying to complete the treacherous journey, many of them drowning in the river's troublesome waters.
Deaths in the river increased last year as immigrants tried to cross over new, uncharted sections of it. More than 300 died in just six months in 2015.
A North Carolina man has been arrested by police for allegedly killing his father.
Authorities said the man died from a 'traumatic injury resulting from a reported assault' in Boone on Sunday morning.
The man's son, who has not been identified, is a suspect in the case, according to WBTV.
A North Carolina man was arrested by police for allegedly killing his father. Authorities said the man died from a 'traumatic injury resulting from a reported assault' after he was rushed to the Watauga Medical Center (pictured)
Police said the incident took place shortly before 2am near the 100 block of Stoneybrook Court.
The victim was taken to Watauga Medical Center, where he later died.
Chief of Police Dana Crawford said the man's son is cooperating with police and is not believed to be a danger to the community, according to the station.
'No charges have been filed at this time,' Crawford said in a statement.
She told local news outlets that the case is a prime example of one that 'allows us time to do a thorough investigation up front and then carefully consider what charges, if any, are appropriate'.
'We will certainly include the District Attorney's Office in this process,' she added.
As his impeachment proceedings begin today, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley looks likely to step down amid claims of corruption and infidelity with a former aide.
Bentley, a former Baptist deacon whose aw-shucks image was shattered in 2016 by accusations of an affair with ex-aide Rebekah Caldwell Mason, 45, denies all claims and looked set to ride out his impeachment.
But sources in Montgomery say that Bentley, who was re-elected for a second term in 2014 and is now nicknamed the 'Luv Guv,' will be gone as early as Wednesday as part of a plea deal, according to AL.com, although he could change his mind.
Impeachment: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (left) is being impeached for allegedly using his position to hide an affair with former aide Rebekah Mason (right) from 2014 onward
Divorce: Bentley's wife, Dianne (right) divorced him months before the claims came out. On Friday he was accused of getting cops to destroy evidence of a 'sexually charged call'
On Friday Jack Sharman, the special counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, accused Bentley not just of having an affair, but also covering it up by threatening to fire people and using state employees to destroy evidence.
'Governor Bentley directed law enforcement to advance his personal interests and, in a process characterized by increasing obsession and paranoia, subjected career law enforcement officers to tasks intended to protect his reputation,' he said.
They included telling two officers to find and retrieve a recording of a sexually-charged phone call he made to a woman presumed to be Mason, Sharman said.
The Alabama Ethics Commission subsequently found probable cause that Bentley broke state ethics and campaign laws in the commission of four felony crimes.
They passed the case on to the attorney general's office, which began impeachment proceedings today.
Now Bentley's lawyers are negotiating a plea deal that will see him stepping down in favor of Lt Governor Kay Ivey and copping to at least one misdemeanor, sources claim.
Yasamie August, the governor's spokeswoman, said: 'The Governor is not personally involved in any negotiations.'
'If the people want to know if I misused state resources, the answer is simply no, I have not,' Bentley said on Friday. Even his own party has asked him to step down.
He said unnamed people were taking joy in exposing the embarrassing details of his personal life.
Negotiations: Bentley's lawyers are reportedly now negotiating his four felony counts down to at least one misdemeanor, on the agreement that he will step down as governor
Bentley's woes began in 2016, seven months after his wife filed for divorce, when he fired Alabama Law Enforcement Agency secretary Spencer Collier, saying funds had been misused.
An independent body found Collier did nothing wrong, but during a press conference he accused Bentley of having an affair with Mason.
In the subsequent investigation, the governor's ex-wife provided recordings and text messages, purportedly from Bentley to Mason, that apparently revealed an intimate relationship between the two in 2014.
On Friday Sharman released a report that included a series of messages sent from Bentley to the aide.
Next in line: If Bentley steps down - as he has previously refused to do, denying all claims - then Lt Gov Kay Ivey (pictured) will take over his role. He won re-election in 2014
Those included: 'I sure miss you. I need you. I want you. You are the only one.'
Bentley's wife was able to read the text messages because they also showed up on his state-issued iPad, which he had given to her, he said. She provided the messages to the committee.
In his Friday report, Sharman also wrote that Bentley encouraged an 'an atmosphere of intimidation' in his administration to keep his romantic relationship secret.
The governor also sent two state law enforcement officers to try to track down and retrieve a recording of a sexually-charged phone call he made to a woman presumed to be Mason, Sharman said.
On Friday a judge blocked impeachment proceedings against Bentley, but that was overruled by the Alabama Supreme Court on Saturday.
The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled days of hearings about the possible impeachment of Bentley.
Alabama's rarely used impeachment process is more like that of South Korea than the United States: Bentley would be immediately suspended from office if the House votes for impeachment, followed by a Senate trial.
If Bentley is found guilty of intentionally violating the Alabama Ethics Act and Fair Campaign Practices Act, he will have committed a Class B felony.
Each violation is punishable by a prison sentence of 2-20 years and fine of up to $20,000.
A 93-year-old man fell into an icy Vermont pond while trying to rescue his dog and died, police said.
The dog, a Jack Russell terrier died, too.
State police say William R. Graf was walking with his terrier near Lefferts Pond in Chittenden on Saturday afternoon when the dog ran onto the ice and became stuck in the water.
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William R Graf, 93, and his Jack Russell terrier were walking near Lefferts Pond in Vermont on Saturday when the dog ran onto the pond, which was frozen at the time. Pictured: Lefferts Pond in warmer weather
The top half of Graf's body went into the pond as he was trying to save his dog and was found by police at least 50 feet from shore, lying prone on the ice. Both Graf and his dog died in the incident
Graf was 50 to 75 feet from shore and lying prone on the ice trying to reach his dog, Detective David Pfindel said.
He fell into the water when the top half of his body fell into the water while he was trying to rescue his faithful companion.
Vermont State Police were called to the scene to attend to an individual, Graf, stuck in the pond's ice but were not able to save him, My Champlain Valley reported.
There was at least one witness and an autopsy is pending.
Pfindel calls the situation a 'sad, sad thing.'
Meanwhile, a young man's love for his furry friend went viral after he braved a frozen river to save the pup's life.
Video shot in Alberta, Canada shows Duncan McIver's french bulldog, Cosmo, struggling in the icy water as McIver sprints to his rescue.
The harrowing incident was caught on camera by chance, with local news crews on the scene to report on ice safety when the scene unfolded.
The footage shows McIver falling through the ice as he crosses the water to save Cosmo, who desperately tried to keep his head above the surface.
Theresa May leads Jeremy Corbyn by a vast 37 per cent when voters are asked which of them would make the best Prime Minister, new polling has found.
A gigantic 10,000-person poll carried out by former Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft laid bare the challenge facing the beleaguered Labour leader.
The detailed research, carried with a panel ten times larger than a standard poll, will confirm Labour MPs' fears they are doomed to defeat under Mr Corbyn.
The damning findings came on the same day as Mr Corbyn's latest policy push, this time recommitting himself to a 10 an hour minimum wage.
Theresa May leads Jeremy Corbyn by 37 per cent among all voters when asked who would be the best PM. She leads among Leave and Remain voters and is even backed by 29 per cent of 2015 Labour voters
Among all voters Mrs May is rated higher by 55 per cent of people, compared to 18 per cent for Mr Corbyn and 27 per cent who don't know.
Even among 2015 Labour voters, fewer than four in 10 people say Mr Corbyn would be the best Prime Minister - against 29 per cent of them who back Theresa May.
EU referendum Remain voters also back Mrs Mat as the best PM, by 45 per cent to 26 per cent.
Further details in poll reveal Mrs May is backed as doing an 'excellent job' - outscoring a host of UK politicians and beating both German chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump.
Mr Corbyn trails fifth from last - beating only Tim Farron, Kezia Dugdale, Mr Trump and Paul Nuttall.
The devastating figures came on the same day Mr Corbyn repeated a vow to hike the minimum wage to 10 an hour within months of taking office despite warnings it would cripple the already struggling social care system.
The Labour leader has been campaigning around the country ahead of the May 4 elections, hoping to defy grim polls at the ballot box
The Labour leader insisted the poorest workers in society needed a pay rise worth thousands of pounds as he urged voters to back him at elections on May 4.
Current planned increases are already putting critical sectors under acute pressure and lifting the minimum wage even higher would damage vital services, critics warned.
The push comes days after Labour launched new policy on free school meals for all primary school pupils, paid for by charging VAT on private school fees.
A 23-year-old woman from Ohio has been arrested and charged with rape and aggravated robbery targeting a male taxi driver.
Brittany Carter, of Freemont, was indicted earlier this month on two first-degree felony counts in connection to the incident that took place in late January.
Carter's suspected accomplice, 23-year-old Cory Jackson, has been charged with aggravated robbery and complicity to commit rape but remains at large.
Duo charged: Brittany Carter (left), 23, and Cory Jackson (right), 20, have been charged in an assault on an Ohio cabbie, in which the woman allegedly raped the man while Jackson was holding him at a knifepoint
Police say on the morning of January 28, Carter, Jackson and another man called the Trinity Express Cab Service asking to send a taxi to pick them up from the TownPlace Suites hotel on Tiffin Avenue in Findlay (pictured)
According to the Findlay Police Department, at around 4.25am on January 28, Carter and two 'black males,' one of them identified as Cory Jackson, called the Trinity Express Cab Service asking to send a taxi to pick them up from the TownPlace Suites hotel on Tiffin Avenue in the city.
During the ride, police said Jackson pulled a knife on the 29-year-old driver and Carter performed an unspecified sexual act on him. The attack took place in the 200 block of Larkins Street in Findlay.
Before the suspects fled on foot, Carter and Jackson allegedly stole $32 from the victims pocket.
The driver then went to the police to report the incident and warrants were later issued for Carter and Jacksons arrests.
Their third accomplice has not been named and Hancock County Prosecutor Phil Riegle told The Toledo Blade he does not expect to bring charges against that person.
During the ride, police said the 23-year-old woman (left and right) 'purposefully compelled' the taxi driver to engage in a sexual act under duress. She and Jackson later allegedly stole $32 from the victim's pocket
According to Brittany Carter's indictment, cited by The Smoking Gun, the 23-year-old woman 'purposefully compelled' the cabbie to engage in sexual conduct 'by force or threat of force.'
Records show that Carter was indicted twice in 2016 on felony drug charges of heroin possession and allowing a vehicle to be used in the trafficking of heroin.
The woman is being held at the Hancock County Jail on $60,000 bond.
Meanwhile, Cory Jackson is being sought on charges related to the January rape and robbery and also on an unrelated murder warrant out of Lima, Ohio.
British fashion chain Jaeger has collapsed into administration, putting 700 high street jobs at risk.
The group's directors have appointed AlixPartners to oversee the process following failed attempts by a private equity owner, Better Capital, to sell the struggling chain.
Jaeger - which employs around 680 staff across 46 stores, its London head office and a logistics centre in Kings Lynn - had been on the market for around 30million.
However, no buyer materialised and Better Capital has sold the debt to a company controlled by retail billionaire Philip Day, who heads up Edinburgh Woollen Mill.
Among the designer's famous fans are Kate Middleton, who wore a yellow dress on a visit to the Solomon Islands in 2012 (right) and a white dress at the National Maritime Museum in 2014
Fashion chain Jaeger has collapsed into administration, putting 700 high street jobs at risk
A statement by AlixPartners explained that the request was made after Jaeger was 'unable to attract suitable offers despite a lengthy and well-publicised sales process'.
Insiders now expect most of Jaeger's stores to close down, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
However the brand is likely to survive as part of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill stable, which also includes Jane Norman, Peacocks and Austin Reed.
Joint administrator Peter Saville, of AlixPartners, said: 'Regrettably it has not been possible to identify a purchaser for the business.
'Our focus now is in identifying an appropriate route forward and work with all stakeholders to do this. We will ensure that we communicate further as this process unfolds.'
Better Capital, which is headed up by private equity baron Jon Moulton, acquired Jaeger for 19.5million in 2012, but the firm has struggled under difficult conditions for high-street fashion retailers.
Last year the firm said that total annual sales fell from 84.2million to 78.4million, while it booked a pre-tax loss of 5.4million, according to accounts filed at Companies House. Jaeger was founded in 1884 by businessman Lewis Tomalin.
Jaeger was a mainstay of women's wardrobes during the 50s and 60s, but has struggled in recent decades to stand out on the British high street
A historic photograph of Jaeger clothes shows the brand's longevity and popularity through the years
Among the designer's most iconic moments were providing clothing for Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition and supplying uniforms for multiple Olympic opening parades.
Founded in 1884, the chain has counted many actresses and members of the royal family among its fans, including Marilyn Monroe and the Duchess of Cambridge.
British institutions to disappear from the high street Department store BHS vanished from British high street's last year after a well-publicised collapse following the sale of the company for a 1 by Sir Philip Green. It joined a long list of mainstays to finally fall foul of the rise in e-commerce, such as JJB Sports, Comet and most notably Woolworths. When the iconic chain went into liquidation in 2009, it led to 807 stores being closed and more than 27,000 people losing their jobs. Comet went into administration in 2012, leading to the closure of 45 stores, while Blockbuster finally succumbed in late 2013 after going into administration for the second time. Advertisement
But the company, known for its long woollen coats and classic suits, has struggled in recent decades to stand out on the British high street and has been forced to repeatedly discount stock in a bid to prop up sales.
Andy Brian, head of retail at Gordons law firm, said: 'This is another blow for the high street and, crucially, another indication of the huge consumer shift towards online shopping.
'Like BHS last year, Jaeger has failed to capitalise on the growth of online retailing. As a result, it has been left behind and left struggling where other fashion retailers have grabbed the opportunity.
'Jaeger has relied on its concession model but its clear that having a bricks and mortar presence on the high street even in this cost-effective way is no longer enough.
'Online shopping is growing faster than ever and retailers must keep up, otherwise they will no longer be able to compete.
'Jaeger are not the only chain to have struggled with this shift and we can expect more famous retail brands to go into administration this year for the same reasons.'
A cruel dog owner whose pet dog was so skinny inspectors could see 'nearly every bone in his body' has been banned from keeping animals.
Bradley Powers, 51, was banned from keeping animals for ten years after RSPCA officers visited his property and found English Mastiff Hercules.
The mastiff was flea infested and so emaciated it had to be put down.
The owner of an English Mastiff that was so neglected inspectors could see every bone in its body and later had to be put down has been banned from owning animals for ten years. Bradley Powers, 51, of Swansea was also sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years
RSPCA inspector Leigh Summers investigated Powers and described Hercules' treatment as 'one of the worst cases of neglect ever seen'.
Powers admitted causing unnecessary suffering by failing to investigate and address the causes of the poor bodily condition and weight loss.
He also pleaded guilty to failing to provide proper and effective flea control at Swansea magistrates court.
Inspector Summers said: 'When we arrived at the property we found Hercules to be extremely skinny in one of the worst cases of neglect I have ever seen as an inspector - you could see nearly every bone in his body.
'As well as not treating him for his weight loss, Hercules also had to suffer with a flea infestation, something which is easily preventable.
'Although his owner has now been convicted and has been banned from keeping animals, his actions meant that Hercules lost his life and was not able to get the second chance he deserved,' added inspector Summers.
Powers, of Swansea, South Wales, was sentenced by magistrates to 12 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years.
He was also sentenced to a ten day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and ordered to pay costs of 300 and 115 victim surcharge.
For the second consecutive administration, staffers will gather for a White House Passover seder to retell the story of how Moses led the ancient Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt.
The Trump administration is continuing the tradition started by President Obama in 2009, the White House confirmed.
'The White House will be having a Seder for staff tonight,' White House spokeswoman Natalie Strom told DailyMail.com.
'Many of our Jewish staff are actually going to be able to spend the holiday with their families,' she noted.
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after returning to the White House in April 9, 2017 in Washington. The White House will hold a passover seder for Jewish and non-Jewish staff members on Monday evening
'Our tradition is still taking shape but this year it will be an opportunity for observant White House staff that can't be with their families to celebrate the holiday among friends. We'll also be opening it up for interested White House staff (Jewish and non-Jewish alike) to take part in a Seder on campus,' she said.
As of Monday, it seemed President Trump would not be attending, she said.
Jewish Insider first reported on the seder, which would be for staff who couldn't be with their families to celebrate on Monday night.
President Barack Obama marks the beginning of Passover with a Seder with friends and staff in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House in 2009
President Barack Obama marks the beginning of Passover with a Seder with friends and staff in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House
In holding a seder, the Trump White House is extending a tradition begun under President Obama in 2009.
Obama staff members held a seder during the 2008 campaign in Pennsylvania, and Obama attended the event. The president and his staff kept the tradition alive in the White House, and the president regularly attended the event with core original staff and others who joined his administration.
Neither Obama nor Trump are Jewish. An official White House photograph of the 2009 seder shows Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Sasha and Malia Obama attending a seder with staff and family in the Old Family Room in the White House.
Obama was seated at the head of the table, reading from a haggadah, which retells the biblical story of how Moses lead the Jews out of slavery under Pharoah in Egypt.
EMIGRATION PLAN: Moses crossing the Red Sea, from the Luther Bible, c.1530 (coloured woodcut)
President Donald Trump (L) calls White House Director of Strategic Initiatives Chris Liddell and White House Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn (R) 'geniuses' as he arrive for a meeting with small business people in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. It wasn't immediately clear who would attend the White House seder being planned
Obama staffers known to have attended included White House officials David Axeldrod, Ben Rhodes, Eric Schultz, Valerie Jarrett, and Jen Psaki.
It wasn't immediately known who would be attending Monday night's event. Several prominent Trump staffers are Jewish, including top economic advisor Gary Cohn, senior advisor Stephen Miller, and envoy for peace negotiations Jason Greenblatt
Frightening police footage shows the moment a simple argument over an eviction notice spiraled into chaos that left three Texas cops injured and a suspect at large in a citywide manhunt.
Police were called out on Thursday afternoon after Carlos Martinez, 32, allegedly began to argue with a neighbor while he was being evicted from his Lubbock home, KCBD reported.
After being tased while refusing to leave his vehicle, Martinez reversed into a row of cop cars, sending police tumbling to the ground, before speeding off.
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Suspect: Carlos Martinez (left), 32, was arrested Friday after allegedly fleeing police Thursday. He had two warrants against him when cops (right) stopped him in Lubbock, Texas
Martinez had been removing his possessions from his former home when he started arguing with his neighbor, police said.
The body cam footage shows officer Mark Ellison talking to Martinez, who cops say had the child of his girlfriend, 35-year-old Amy Lynam, in the passenger seat.
Martinez had two warrants out against him - one for unauthorized use of a vehicle - before police arrived, they said.
When Ellison asks Martinez to step out of the vehicle, the suspect laughs and says 'Aw, c'mon, man!' before starting up his engine.
Ellison and colleague Donovan Powell grab Martinez, who is struggling with them, before Ellison tases him - at which point he reverses rapidly, with both police still hanging out of the car.
Footage from a one of two cruisers behind Martinez shows Ellison being knocked back and rolling to his feet, while Powell is flattened by the car door.
Surrounded: As officer Garay (second from right) took a child from the passenger seat, officers Powell (far left) and Ellison (second from left) tried to pull Martinezz out of the car
Down: Martinez then reversed with the car doors open, knocking Powell (pictured) to the ground, and winging Garay and Ellison. All three men were released from hospital Thursday
Gunfire: Cops peppered Martinez's car with bullets as he fled, but he was apparently not hit. He has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault of a peace officer
Martinez slams into the car behind him, which then shunts into the second police cruiser, before putting his silver SUV in gear and heading off at speed
Powell is able to drag himself up and sprint out of the way before he can be struck, while other officers pepper Martinez's car with bullets. He was apparently not hit.
Arrested: Martinez's girlfriend, Amy Lynam, was charged with tampering with his car after he escaped and left it behind. Martinez was found on Friday after a manhunt
Thankfully, officer Saul Garay manages to retrieve the child just as Martinez reverses, although he is clipped by the passenger-side door.
The vehicle was found later that day in an alleyway. Lynam was arrested on charges of allegedly tampering with it.
Martinez remained on the run until Friday, when K9 units, mounted patrol, SWAT and detectives converged on the fugitive, who had been seen in an alley that afternoon.
He was sent to hospital for dehydration and later released.
He has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer.
Of the three injured officers, Powell suffered the most serious harm, with first responders initially believing he may have internal injuries or broken bones.
However, he was released from hospital Thursday evening.
Officer Ellison suffered moderate injuries, while Garay sustained minor injuries.
All three men remain at home on injury leave while they recover, LPD Chief Greg Stevens said.
Martinez was taken in without incident and his bond has been set at $552,000.
A police officer's young daughter penned a moving letter asking God to keep her father safe as he travelled to London for the funeral of fallen PC Keith Palmer.
Writing after PC Palmer was stabbed to death in Westminster, she asks God to 'protect my dad' because he had to 'fight off bad people to protect all the good'.
She adds: 'I'm doing everything I can to put a smile on his face so I'm asking you to make my day's day perfect'.
A police officer's young daughter penned a moving letter asking God to keep her father safe as he travelled to London for the funeral of fallen PC Keith Palmer
Constable Keith Palmer (left) was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood on March 22 at the Palace of Westminster. A young boy dresses in a met police outfit at his funeral (right) today
The poignant letter was shared by Halifax Neighbourhood Police Team, part of West Yorkshire Police, who will today hold a two-minute silence for PC Palmer.
They wrote: 'Never underestimate what is going on in your child's mind. Checking my daughter's homework and came across this. A poignant reminder for today whilst we put one of our dedicated colleagues to rest.'
The child's father has travelled to London today, where thousands of officers have lined the streets to pay their respects to the man killed to brutally in the line of duty.
Constable Keith Palmer was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood on March 22 in the cobbled forecourt of the Palace of Westminster, Parliament's home.
Forces all over the country, and many others, observed the two-minute silence in honour of the 48-year-old husband and father killed in the line of duty.
Police Chief Inspector Neil Sawyer said in his eulogy that the entire force is proud of Palmer.
Police officers listen to a broadcast from Southwark Cathedral of the funeral today, leaving many in tears. Thousands lined the streets to pay their respects
Palmer's coffin lay overnight in a chapel at Parliament after special permission was granted by Queen Elizabeth II
He said: 'As police officers we go to work every day knowing that we may be called upon to put our own lives in danger. And many do.
'And on Wednesday 22nd March 2017 Police Constable Keith Palmer did just that to protect life and to protect Parliament - and he did not waver - he stood firm and made that ultimate sacrifice in doing his duty. A hero to us all.'
Palmer's coffin lay overnight in a chapel at Parliament after special permission was granted by Queen Elizabeth II.
During the funeral procession, it was covered with a floral tribute that read: 'Number 1 Daddy.'
Some 50 members his family, including his wife, child and parents, attended the service at Southwark Cathedral.
Masood killed four other victims as he rammed pedestrians on Westminster Bridge with a rented SUV. He was shot dead by police after stabbing Palmer.
A man has been jailed for a minimum of seven years after sexually abusing a boy and forcing him to commit sexual acts with a calf.
Allan Kenneth Brookes appeared in front of Judge Chris Craigie at the NSW District Court on Monday and collapsed in the dock when the details of his bestiality were replayed to him.
The court heard the diagnosed paedophile groomed the boy, and committed multiple indecent and sexual assaults on the boy after taking advantage of his position of authority and age.
Allan Kenneth Brookes has been sentenced to a minimum of seven years in prison after being found guilty of 17 charges, including bestiality
The acts included groping the boy, showering with him, making the boy shave Brookes' body hair, forcing him into oral sex and brutally raping him in a paddock, Judge Craigie said.
The victim was also forced to commit a sex act on a calf and was also forced to watch Brookes have sex with a cow.
The abuse which took place in rural New South Wales, took place over a two year period.
The judge branded the crimes as 'quite grave and evil' and an 'appalling catalogue of protracted offending.'
'The victim was a vulnerable young person who had the great misfortune to be exposed to the offender's proclivities,' he added.
Last year, Brookes was convicted of a total of 18 charges, including bestiality and two counts of rape and was found guilty of 17.
The victim, now an adult, told a previous sentence hearing that his life had been ruined.
He went on to explain colleagues had bullied him by making 'mooing' noises while he was in their presence.
He recalled how the ordeal wrecked his relationships and drove him into alcohol addiction.
Judge Craigie acknowledged the abuse was 'seared in his memory in a way that has been particularly harmful'.
He said Brookes appeared unrepentant and had little prospect of rehabilitation.
'The offender has shown no contrition, no insight and no remorse,' the judge said.
Brookes was sentenced to a maximum of 10 years and six months' prison.
With time already served, he will be eligible for parole in 2023.
Three government watchdogs groups have joined forces and are using the Freedom of Information Act to sue the Department of Homeland Security over access to White House visitor logs.
So far, the Trump administration hasn't released any record of who has visited the White House, nor has the public seen a listing of individuals entering Mar-a-Lago or Trump Tower as well.
'We hoped that the Trump administration would follow the precedent of the Obama administration and continue to release visitor logs, but unfortunately they have not,' said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder today in a statement.
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Three open government groups sued the Department of Homeland Security today, which oversees the Secret Service, in an attempt to get White House visitor logs
Previously, the Obama White House agreed to voluntarily disclose visitors every 90 days, though also fought in court to ensure the records couldn't be accessed by the public under the Freedom of Information Act
CREW, which stands for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was joined by the National Security Archive and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University as plaintiffs in the suit.
'Given the many issues we have already seen in the White House with conflicts of interest, outside influence and potential ethics violation, transparency is more important than ever, so we had no choice but to sue,' Bookbinder added.
CREW had been involved in a lawsuit with the Obama White House as well, but settled once the administration agreed to voluntarily release its WAVE records the Worker and Visitor Entry System records every 90 days online.
The Trump lawsuit is coming now, as the first batch of online records if this administration planned to follow in its predecessor's footsteps would drop in the next 10 days.
While the Obama administration had preached transparency, getting visitor logs from that White House was no easy feat.
Lawyers for the Obama administration took a cue a Bush 43-era policy that had started around 2006.
That was when the Secret Service, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, started to routinely deny requests for visitor logs under FOIA, testing out an argument that they weren't 'agency' records, which the sunshine law applies to, but instead 'presidential' records, which fall under the Presidential Records Act allowing for more privacy.
While CREW dropped its lawsuit, the center-right watchdog group Judicial Watch continued to pursue litigation hoping to get visitor logs subject to FOIA.
'Put it this way, it was the Obama administration that fought to keep these records away from the American people under FOIA and they concocted a system that no one thought was reliable to voluntarily disclose visitors,' Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told DailyMail.com today, describing the incomplete logs that the Obama administration produced under its voluntary disclosure requirements.
Today's lawsuit, and a piece of legislation backed by Democrats, also takes aim at visitor logs from Mar-a-Lago, where the president has spent a majority of his weekends since inauguration
Party guests lined up to enter now-President Trump's private club Mar-a-Lago on New Year's Eve 2016. Open government groups would like the Secret Service to produce and release lists of visitors at the Florida estate
The Obama administration also won its case against Judicial Watch, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit saying in August 2013 that visitor logs weren't subject to FOIA, setting the current precedent.
The three judge panel argued that by allowing public access to this information, it would circumvent Congress' intent to allow the president to keep his appointments calendar secret, according to the Legal Times.
'Trump is not doing anything unusual under President Obama's standard because President Obama was able to get a decision under the appellate court that protected Trump from having to release any visitor logs in this way,' Fitton explained.
Fitton said Judicial Watch was taking a look at the new lawsuit and said the White House should look into releasing the records under FOIA, because the Freedom of Information Act allows for exemptions for presidential privacy.
'I don't think there's any harm in trying to release these records under the Freedom of Information Act, I think the White House lawyers should take a look at this and recognize the public has an interest in figuring out who the president is seeing on a regular basis or who they're visiting with,' Fitton told DailyMail.com.
'And I think there's a way of releasing these records while protecting the decision making of the president so there's no unnecessary intrusion,' the Judicial Watch head added.
Beyond this fresh lawsuit, Congressional Democrats have taken aim at the Trump administration by introducing the Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act, or, in short, the MAR-A-LAGO Act.
The legislation would compel the White House to release visitor logs, but also release visitor logs for places that Trump conducts business such as Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower, which are mentioned in the CREW and company complaint.
With a Republican-led Congress, however, it's not likely that the bill will get passed.
As for this new lawsuit, if a separate circuit rules differently on the matter, the visitor log question could eventually make it to the Supreme Court.
But, for now, Trump doesn't have tell the public who comes calling, at any of his properties.
'Unfortunately for transparency advocates, the law is on the side of President Trump and we can thank President Obama for that,' Fitton said.
Education Secretary Justine Greening was warned to set rules on pay handed to chief executives' of academy schools.
Some academy school bosses are taking home 'immoral' pay packets after milking the taxpayer to secure top deals, trade union research has claimed today.
A small number of people are treating schools as a 'gravy train', the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' (ATL) annual conference was told.
Ministers were told to set rules on pay handed to chief executives' of academy schools.
Academies are spun from off local council control, with their own senior management that liaises with the Department for Education in London directly.
Many are linked into 'chains' that share research and expertise.
Today's conference debate comes after figures published in February showed that a number of academy bosses saw their salaries rise last year, with some taking home significantly more than the Prime Minister.
A Times Educational Supplement (TES) analysis of 20 academy trust accounts gave Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, as the highest individual earner.
He saw his pay packet rise from 395,000-400,000 in 2014/15 to 420,000-425,000 - more than three times the Prime Minister's salary and double that of Eton's Headmaster.
Simon Clarkson, a delegate from Leicestershire, told today's conference such figures were too high.
He said: 'Over the last two years things have got even worse.
'Executive headteachers have morphed, in a way that certainly has not been mighty, into CEOs, and the number of obscene salaries paid has increased.
Daniel Moynihan was paid between 395,000 and 400,000 to head up the Harris Federation
'A small number of people have decided to treat education as a gravy train, and are milking schools, taxpayers and the funds that should be there for the children, for all they are worth.
'This has to stop. As well as being immoral, it is unsustainable.
'If it were sustainable, the older and more mature private sector market of independent schools would have fat cats in the way the academy and MAT (multi-academy trust) sector have now. They do not, and they do not for good reason.
'The excuses used for excessive CEO pay are myriad. Our response, however, should be simple. We should say no to any MAT CEO earning an excessive amount and certainly no to any CEO earning more than a local authority chief executive in the area where the headquarters of the MAT is based.'
He added: 'The system for setting the pay of MAT CEOs is wrong and this union needs to start lobbying for a change in that system now.'
Seconding a motion calling for ATL to lobby government to ensure that the salaries and expenses of chief executives working in education trusts are not excessive, Tim Jefferson from Norfolk said that the position of CEO is an important role.
'When you look at the job description, the level of responsibility is clear,' he said. 'There's no doubt in this. The issue is with the amount of remuneration. Especially in the education context, and a lack of transparency in pay increases. This is, after all, taxpayers' money.
Chobham Academy in Stratford, East London, is one of 41 schools in the Harris Academies chain run by Mr Moynihan
'Yes, being a CEO is a huge responsibility. Supporting students is a huge responsibility, teaching students is a huge responsibility, leading a school is a huge responsibility. There are no government rules, or guidance, on how this pay should be set. This needs to change.'
The union passed the resolution with 98 per cent of delegates in favour.
A Harris Federation spokeswoman said at that time that the trust had transformed some of London's most challenging schools, and that its board 'recognises that leadership is among the key drivers of our success, so leaders throughout our federation are rewarded for their contribution'.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: 'It is for governing bodies to set school leaders' pay. We need the best people in our schools to help pupils reach their full potential which is why we have given all schools greater flexibility to set staff pay, reward exceptional leaders and attract strong leadership teams to work in the most challenging areas.
'This is in contrast to the old system which gave teachers pay rises simply for time served, regardless of whether or not they were doing a good job.'
Alaska Airlines has claimed the top spot in an annual ranking report of US carriers for 2017.
Dean Headley, a marketing professor at Wichita State University, and Brent Bowen, dean of the aviation school at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, released the Airline Quality Report (AQR) on Monday.
Headley and Bowen ranked the 12 largest US airlines by analyzing 2016 US Department of Transportation figures for on-time flights, lost baggage, the number of passengers bumped off flights and complaint rates.
Alaska Airlines (file image) has claimed the top spot in an annual ranking report of US carriers for 2017. Alaska has steadily climbed the ranks since 2015, when the carrier took the No. 5 spot on the Airline Quality Report
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines (file image) came in second place followed by Virgin America, JetBlue Airways and Hawaiian Airlines to round out the top five
Alaska Airlines has steadily climbed the ranks since 2015, when the carrier took the No. 5 spot on the report.
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines came in second place followed by Virgin America, JetBlue Airways and Hawaiian Airlines to round out the top five.
The news comes as Alaska begins early stages of acquiring Virgin America, the top airline in last years AQR.
TOP PERFORMING US AIRLINES OF 2017 1. Alaska Airlines (ranked 5th in 2015) 2. Delta Air Lines (3) 3. Virgin America (1) 4. JetBlue Airways (2) 5. Hawaiian Airlines (4) 6. Southwest Airlines (6) 7. SkyWest (7) 8. United Airlines (8) 9. American Airlines (10) 10. ExpressJet (9) 11. Spirit Airlines (13) 12. Frontier (11) Source: Airline Quality Report Advertisement
'These results provide a rare insight into the airline merger arena. We have a carrier, Alaska, that wanted to improve performance, began improvement plans before any merger announcement, and is currently taking over the top performer, Virgin America,' Bowen told the Wichita Eagle.
'Going from fifth to first is rare, but a devoted corporate resolve can make that happen,' he added.
Alaska Airlines will also launch services this week in Wichita, Kansas.
Over the last year, airlines improved in overall performance quality, according to the report.
Nine airlines, Alaska, American, Delta, ExpressJet, Frontier, SkyWest, Southwest, Spirit and United, all showed improvement in AQR scores in 2016.
Spirit had the largest improvement in its score for 2016.
But Hawaiian, JetBlue and Virgin America had a decline in their 2016 AQR score from the previous year, the report notes.
JetBlue had the largest decline in AQR score for 2016.
In 2016, the airline industry mishandled baggage rate decreased from 3.24 per 1,000 passengers in 2015 to 2.70 per 1,000 passengers.
The involuntary denied boardings per passenger also improved to 0.62 per 10,000 passengers in 2016 from 0.76 per 10,000 passengers in 2015, according to the report.
Consumer complaints declined to 1.52 per 100,000 passengers in 2016 from 1.90 per 100,000 passengers in 2015.
The on-time arrival percentage also improved by 1.5 per cent in 2016.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau honored the sacrifice of his fellow countrymen during both world wars as he followed a visit to the trenches with a tribute to the dead of Normandy.
Mr Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and their son Xavier stood silently at the grave of JR Gregoire, Ms Gregoire's great uncle, who died during the Second World War and was laid to rest at the Canadian War Cemetery in Beny-sur-Mer.
According to Canadian war records Lieutenant Jean Robert Gregoire of Le Regiment de la Chaudiere from Quebec died on July 5, 1944, aged 22.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, stood with his wife Sophie Gregoire and their son Xavier at the grave of her ancestor Jean Robert Gregoire, who was killed on July 5, 1944 one month after safely making it ashore at Juno Beach in Normandy
Ms Gregoire was clearly emotional as she brought a bouquet of flowers to lay at the grave of the 22-year-old Lieutenant
Jean Robert Gregoire, pictured here on June 10, 1944, circled, was killed in action less than a month later on July 5
Lieutenant Gregoire was laid to rest at the Canadian War Cemetery in Beny-sur-Mer, Normandy, pictured
Lieutenant Gregoire was Sophie Gregoire great uncle. The family brought flowers to his grave Monday
Xavier joined his parents and visited Lieutenant Gregoire's grave for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, left, and their son Xavier Trudeau visit the grave of Lieutenant Gregoire was laid to rest at the Canadian War Cemetery in Beny-sur-Mer
JUNO BEACH ON D-DAY Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Juno Beach Monday, the second beach from the east of the five landing areas of the Normandy Invasion. The Canadian Third Infantry Division suffered heavy casualties on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day. On Juno Beach alone, Canadians suffered 1,200 casualties out of 21,400 troops. Their goal was to seize the beach to link the surrounding British-controlled beaches of Gold and Sword. The Canadian Third Infantry Division also wanted to seize the Carpiquet airport. By the end of the day they Canadians would take Juno Beach from the defending German troops. Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Advertisement
The family also walked along Juno Beach, where thousands of Canadians, along with their British counterparts, stormed the beach in the face of murderous fire from the German defenders on June 6, 1944.
On Juno Beach alone that day, Canadians suffered 1,200 casualties out of 21,400 troops.
In stark contrast to D-Day, the wind blew peacefully across the sand as the French and Canadian flags flew side-by-side.
Today's visit comes a day after Trudeau paid tribute to those who fell at the battle of Vimy Ridge during the First World War.
He said: 'They were, most of them, young men in their late teens, in their early 20s.
'Going as far as sacrificing their lives, these men both ordinary and extraordinary of the British dominion fought for the first time as citizens of a single and same country ... side by side here in Vimy.'
Canada lost 3,600 soldiers and had over 7,000 injured during the three-day battle. Largely because of its military achievement in northern France, the North American country was a separate signatory to the treaty that ended World War I.
He said: 'In this sense, Canada was born there.'
Four Canadian troops were awarded the Victoria Cross for their heroics at Vimy.
The family stood silently at the impeccably kept grave site which is only a short distance from where the troops landed
Mr Trudeau brought his family to the nearby Juno Beach where the bulk of Canadian troops landed on D-Day in 1944
The Canadian PM was in France for the official commemoration of the centenary of Battle of Vimy Ridge
The family held hands on Juno Beach the day after Trudeau paid tribute to those who fell at the battle of Vimy Ridge during the First World War
It was first action in which all four divisions of the Canadian Corps - representing every region of the country - fought together side-by-side on the same battlefield. The troops prepared carefully, learning from the mistakes made by British and French troops that had tried and failed to reclaim the ridge.
To protect soldiers from shelling, they built miles of tunnels, one of the war's great engineering feats allowing troops to pop up quickly into their positions. The Germans would never regain the ridge.
The battle and victory have become an important part of Canada's identity, symbolizing the shift from a former British colony to an independent nation.
The site, which in 1922 became a piece of Canadian territory on French soil, is a revered national symbol, one featured on the back of Canada's $20 bill to this day.
The French and Canadian flags flew together as the family approached the beach in Courseuelles-sur-Mer -code named Juno
On D-Day, 574 men of the 3rd Canadian Division were wounded and 340 were killed as they took Juno Beach, pictured
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of a larger British-led offensive that included Australian soldiers which was a diversionary tactic to assist a major French attack further south
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the press at Juno Beach Center on Monday
Sunday, The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry joined French President Francois Hollande and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a ceremony to commemorate the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Their visit comes as the Queen sent out a public message paying tribute to the Canadian troops who 'stood far from home together with their allies in defense of peace and freedom'.
In his speech, the Prince of Wales said: 'Canadians displayed a strength of character and commitment to one another that is still evident today.
'They did not waver.
'This was Canada at its best; the Canadians at Vimy embodied the True North Strong and Free."'
Harry, William and Mr Trudeau all paid their respects to the fallen soldiers as they arrived at the ceremony on Sunday
The pair, who were both wearing a Remembrance poppy, took a tour of the trenches before the service began
Harry and William chat to Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie and son Xavier, right during their visit to the trenches and tunnel. They later came together for a ceremony
Probed: Police chief Erik Nord, pictured, is being hauled in front of Sweden's Attorney General for suggesting Islamic extremists should be deported
A Swedish police chief is being hauled in front of the country's Attorney General for daring to suggest that Islamic extremists should be deported.
Erik Nord, chief of Gothenburg police, said in a tweet: 'Not that it would have stopped Friday night's attack, but shouldn't we be able to withdraw visas from those who support violent extremism?'
In response, the country's Attorney General, Morgan Johansson, vowed to launch an investigation. 'I will ask the police chief to explain himself. And he will,' he said.
'Those who have visas have gained them because they are in need of protection. There is always a risk that those who are being deported are danger of being oppressed [in their home countries].'
Speaking to the Expressen newspaper, the police chief explained that he did not oppose Muslims in general but believed that those who supported terror should not be given a taxpayer-funded home in Sweden.
'We should function like at a dinner table. If a guest is behaving badly, they should leave and go home. Likewise, those who want to overthrow the government need to go home,' he said.
Immigration: Nord, pictured right, made his comments as Sweden's Prime Minister, left, told of his horror over Friday's terror attack, which would lead to a change of thinking on the country's open door policy on immigration
Tragedy: Young mother Mailys Dereymaeker, left, was today revealed as one of the four victims of the terror truck. She leaves behind a young toddler. British music executive Chris Bevington, a married father of two, was one of four killed in Friday's horrific attack. His father paid tribute to 'a wonderful husband, son, father, brother and close friend to many'
Remembering in prayer: A young boy offers a heartbreaking tributes to the dead and to the heroism of the emergency services, as memorials were laid across Stockholm in memory of the four victims and many more wounded
Light in the dark: Flowers and candles spread out across the scene of the terror attack in Stockholm as thousands paid their own personal tribute to the four victims killed by a careering truck
Alleged terrorist: The 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan suspected of driving the truck which injured 15 and killed four has been named as Rakhmat Akilov
'It is appalling that we allow these men who are on the border of extremism to spread propaganda here and wave the ISIS flag. It mocks those who have fled to Sweden from ISIS violence in the Middle East.'
He added: 'These people are not Swedish citizens. They live here and are supported by the Swedish taxpayers. Meanwhile, their biggest dream is to abolish the democracy which supports them.
'Isn't it reasonable, then, to say that they can say whatever they like but they can't do it here indefinitely, not while being supported by Swedish taxpayers? That is the question we should be discussing,' he told the Expressen newspaper.
A halfway-house solution should be devised for those extremists who face oppression or execution in their home countries, he suggested.
'They are to be put on hold and should report regularly to a police station,' he said. 'They should receive some support financially until they can get out of our society, but they should not expect any more support from our society than that,' he said.
In particular, Mr Nord identified a number of Muslims who are 'on the border' between legally expressing a controversial opinion and incitement.
They disingenuously position themselves just on the right side of the law, he argued, and this should no longer be tolerated after Friday's terror attack.
'There are those who are balancing on the border without making themselves guilty of any criminality. You should be able to revoke their citizenship,' he said.
Sweden's prime minister, Stefan Lofven (pictured at a memorial in central Stockholm), has furiously demanded that illegal immigrants be sent home
Moment of contemplation: Passersby gathered in silence to look at the candles burning in memory of the dead at the scene of Friday's terror attack
Terror attack: As mourners gathered in contemplation in Stockholm, Russian news websites ran claims that the attacker had chatted to accomplices via WhatsApp before and after the attack
Messages of peace: A woman places a post-it note on an already covered window of a shop in Stockholm, Sweden. Among the dead is Chris Bevington, a Briton who worked for Spotify in Stockholm
Mr Nord added that Friday's terrorist atrocity showed that Sweden had entered a 'new reality' in which 'sometimes we need to tell the world what we see.'
He added: 'Not everyone who has come to Sweden is in need of protection. A lot of them have come because their relatives are living in Sweden,' he said.
Attorney General Mr Johansson, said: 'We do have freedom of speech in Sweden, which means that one can have the right to have sickening views, but there is always a line once can cross when incitement is involved.'
Today, as Sweden held a minute's silence for the victims, politicians demanded greater powers to monitor failed asylum seekers.
People whose applications for asylum have failed could be made to report to police stations in a crackdown on the estimated 12,000 migrants awaiting deportation from the country.
Workplace inspections could also be stepped up in a bid to root out those served with papers to leave Sweden and deported the back to their home countries.
The tough new measures are being demanded after it was revealed the alleged killer Rakhmat Akilove, 39, had been told to leave Sweden in December.
Floral tribute: A police car was garlanded in memorial flowers in the aftermath of the vicious attack that left four dead
Asylum concern: As memorials sprung up in Stockholm, politicians were facing calls to intensify the hunt for the 12,000 failed asylum seekers still living in the city. The man suspeted of the attack had had an appeal rejected and was due to be deported, but could not be found
Like thousands of other failed asylum seekers he disappeared, and police admitted they had no idea where he was despite apparent sympathies to the IS terror cause bringing him to the attention of the country's security services.
As many as 12,000 migrants have been issued with expulsion orders but have simply vanished within the large migrant population.
'This is a wake up call for Sweden, ' said Paula Bieler, immigration spokesman for the Swedish Democrat Party.
'We now have to look into the possibility of giving the police more powers. It is outstanding in a bad way that we have 12,000 people in this country who have been told to leave and we don't know where they are.
'The police should be given more powers. One way would to make the migrants reports to a police station on a regular basis. They could also have greater powers to carry out workplace inspections and deportations carried out.'
Bieler, and the leader of the Swedish Democrats Jimmie Akesson, want to see the Government take immediate action to deport failed asylum seekers back to their country of origin.
'We have agreements in place with these countries that they should be taken back. They have tried to gain asylum here and they have failed. They do not have the right to stay in this country,' said Bieler.
Akesson said it was a 'scandal' that the alleged killer had been allowed to remain in Stockholm.
Saddest display: In a stunning but heartbreakingly sad gesture of remembrance, a police van was garlanded in flowers, Swedish flags, candles and balloons
Writing against terror: Messages of support for the victims and of defiance against the terrorists fill the board that covers the crash site, where the truck smashed into a department store
Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Loven has already signaled a major shift in the country's liberal policy towards migrants saying those who have been told to leave should not be permitted to stay in the country.
'Everyone who has been denied a permit should return home, he said.
'This makes me feel enormously frustrated. If you have been denied a visa you are supposed to leave the country.'
According to figures from immigration officials there are up to 12,000 people in the country who should have been deported.
The Swedish Migration Board believes the figure will soar to 50,000 by the year 2021.
Latest figures from the Migration Board show that 24,000 people were deported last year after Sweden accepted 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015.
The number of people attempting to settle in Sweden last year dropped to just under 30,000 after the country turned its back on mass immigration.
The conservative government, under pressure from the far-right Swedish Democrats, pledged to return failed asylum seekers to their home countries.
Peace not terror: Passersby added their voices to the board covering the front of the department store where the terror truck was crashed
Tributes: In moving scenes, thousands of Swedes united in defiance, holding up homemade signs and paying tribute to the victims. 'We will not be defeated by evil and hatred,' one of the signs said. 'We will rise through love and compassion.'
Scene of terror: The route taken by the terror truck was filled with flowers and memorials over the weekend
The fact that the alleged Stockholm attacker was able to carry on living and working with police unaware of his whereabouts has angered the Swedish Democrats.
'It is terrible that it has taken the events in Stockholm to show the Prime Minister that there has to be change,' said Bieler.
'Even if there was not a single jihadist among those who have chosen to stay after being told to leave they should not be here.'
Akilov, who is from Uzbekistan, had been told in December that his application to stay in Sweden had been rejected.
He was given four weeks to leave, but disappeared from his last known address.
The 39-year-old was living with four or five other men from Uzbekistan in a two-room sublet flat on an estate in a suburb of Stockholm. He was working illegally in the construction industry.
Police chiefs have been forced to admit they did not know his new address and didn't have the resources to go looking for him.
Mourners look at candles and flowers left in memory of Friday's terror attack victims in Stockholm, Sweden
Doctors failed a young mum-of-three in Kent who died hours after being discharged from hospital, a coroner ruled.
Sian Hollands suffered a heart attack and died after doctors failed to spot signs of a blood clot and discharged her from hospital.
On her way out of the hospital, the 25-year-old collapsed. She was rushed into intensive care but medics could not save her.
A&E consultants failed to spot signs of the blood clot, despite ambulance paramedics having noted chest pains, stomach pains and shortness of breath, all of which were present throughout Hollands's time in hospital.
Sian Hollands suffered a heart attack and died after doctors failed to spot signs of a blood clot and discharged her from Darent Valley Hospital in Kent in 2015. Hours later, she was dead
Both Dr Leila Mohamed and Dr Kamran Khan, who saw Hollands when she was admitted to Darent Valley Hospital in Kent, said they did not have access to the ambulance notes and that the patient was only complaining of abdominal pain.
But agency nurse Emeleen Sarenas picked up on Hollands's symptoms when she started looking after her on the morning of November 15, 2015, and spoke with Dr Khan before he assessed her for the first time at 10.50am.
Dr Khan initially denied being aware of Hollands's chest pain and shortness of breath but Hollands's medical notes showed his handwriting scrawled on the other side, proving that he not read them in full.
She was on a methadone programme to keep her off heroin, but had not taken her medication for three days when she was admitted to A&E.
Her pain was put down to withdrawal rather than a pulmonary embolism, first when Hollands was admitted the evening before she died, then by another consultant on the Sunday.
Dr Angela Feazy, who was brought in from Tunbridge Wells Hospital as an independent expert to look into the death said it was a 'serious failure' to not consider possibilities other than withdrawal.
Both Dr Leila Mohamed and Dr Kamran Khan, who saw Hollands when she was admitted to Darent Valley Hospital in Kent (pictured), said they did not have access to the ambulance notes and that the patient was only complaining of abdominal pain
Hollands's mother Nicola Smith, grandmother Christine Smith, sister Ebony Hollands, and partner Carl Alleyne all attended an inquest into her death
She said during questioning by barrister Edward Ramsay, representing Hollands's family: 'All of her symptoms were compatible with a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.
'There seems to have been an acceptance that she was suffering from withdrawal and other symptoms were not considered.'
Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust has admitted seven failings, including a failure to consider different diagnoses, a failure to recognise a deteriorating patient, and a failure to pass on key information during the handovers between consultants.
On Monday, a coroner at Gravesend's Old Town Hall concluded that Hollands's death was due to failures of doctors to examine, correctly diagnose, and treat her for a pulmonary embolism following admission to hospital.
Coroner Roger Hatch said: 'Had they done so, on the balance of probability, she would not have died.'
The inquest was originally due to start on January 30, but was called off after two days as it emerged that Dr Khan needed legal representation, having disputed the trust's admission that his decision to discharge her was a mistake.
A child held captive for 30 months has relived the horrors he was forced to endure at the hands of ISIS extremists.
Harrowing video footage has emerged which shows the Yazidi boy describe how the group made him undergo combat training, learn to behead victims and handle weapons.
And the seven-year-old's devastated relatives say he has struggled to reintegrate back into family life after having radical religious ideologies instilled in him.
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The Yazidi boy describes how the group made him undergo combat training, learn to behead victims and handle weapons
The boy spend some two and a half years in captivity, forced to undergo brutal training teaching him how to sever heads with a knife, fire guns and assemble weapons.
The visibly distressed boy, who has not been named, tells the camera: 'We would carry arms and fire. We would disassemble and assemble the rifles.
'They then taught us how to behead, catch heads and then chop it off with a knife.'
According to the footage, thought to have been filmed in Kurdistan, more than 1,000 Yazidi children have been captured and received training at ISIS combat bases.
But officials now fear the children are 'ticking time bombs' - ready to be deployed around the world and carry out appalling acts of terror at the behest of ISIS.
The seven-year-old in the footage was captured alongside his mother, before being separated from her.
And the seven-year-old's devastated relatives say he has struggled to reintegrate back into family life after having radical religious ideologies instilled in him
The boy spend some two and a half years in captivity, forced to undergo brutal training teaching him how to sever heads with a knife, fire guns and assemble weapons
The seven year old in the footage was captured alongside his mother, before being separated from her
The visibly distressed boy, who has not been named, tells the camera: 'We would carry arms and fire. We would disassemble and assemble the rifles'
He has since forgotten his native language and his family claims they are desperately trying to 'remove' ISIS' influence.
The video claims children taken by ISIS undergo an 'organised education' in a bid to instill the group's radical religious ideology in them - even going so far as changing their names and converting their religion.
The youngster is understood to have been kidnapped during the horrific assault on Sinjar, Iraq, in 2014.
During the siege, ISIS killed thousands of Yazidi men and forced many Yazidi women to marry Islamic fighters.
More than 40,000 Yazidis were left stranded atop the Sinjar mountains, without food, water or medical supplies - resulting in a refugee crisis.
Mailys Dereymaeker, 31, was waiting for friends from work when the terrorist struck
A Belgian psychologist and mother-of-one who worked with asylum seekers facing deportation has been named as the latest victim of Fridays jihadi atrocity in Stockholm.
Mailys Dereymaeker, 31, was waiting for friends from work on the corner of Drottninggatan and Olof Palmes gata when the terrorist struck.
She was the first victim to be hit by the speeding lorry and died instantly at the scene.
It took forensic experts two days to identify her mangled body from DNA samples.
Ms Dereymaeker, who was from the small town of Lembeek near Brussels and had an 18-month-old toddler, worked with illegal immigrants facing deportation like her killer, Rakhmat Akilov.
The young mother, pictured with an unknown friend, was today revealed as one of the four victims of the terror truck
Ms Dereymaeker was the second victim to be identified after Briton Chris Bevington, 41, was named yesterday
The psychologist and music enthusiast was in Stockholm for a well-deserved break with friends from work.
They were due to meet on the corner that afternoon. Ms Dereymaeker had arrived early when the Uzbek ISIS fanatic started his rampage.
The Belgian was a keen musician and was part of an ensemble in her hometown.
It is difficult for me to talk about her death, a friend told local media.
She played the flute and taught music to children.
Today, as Sweden held a minute's silence for the victims, politicians demanded greater powers to monitor failed asylum seekers
Floral tribute: A police car was garlanded in memorial flowers in the aftermath of the vicious attack that left four dead
The mayor of Lembeek, a neighbourhood in the Belgian city of Halle, southwest of Brussels, told the Belga news agency: I met her several times. I know her parents very well. They are very nice people who have lived in Halle for a long time.
Mr Pieters added: I'm shocked after each attack, but when you put a face on a victim and personally know her parents, it's even worse.
Ms Dereymaeker was the second victim to be identified after Briton Crispin Bevington, 41, was named yesterday.
Today, the fourth victim was reported as a woman from Uddevalla, a small town in western Sweden.
A local newspaper contacted the alleged victims family but they declined to comment.
Sweden's prime minister, Stefan Lofven (pictured at a memorial in central Stockholm), has furiously demanded that illegal immigrants be sent home
Today, as Sweden held a minute's silence for the victims, politicians demanded greater powers to monitor failed asylum seekers.
The tough new measures are being demanded after it was revealed the alleged killer Rakhmat Akilove, 39, had been told to leave Sweden in December. He was given four weeks to leave, but disappeared from his last known address.
The fanatic, who killed four in Friday's carnage, told the Swedish Migration Board that he had been arrested during a demonstration and was subsequently tortured by police for nine days.
However, a medical examination showed that torture had not taken place.
Investigators concluded that his identity could not be confirmed as he had used several aliases when applying for asylum.
A court also questioned his version of events, saying that his description of conditions in prison was too vague. He was unable to describe its appearance and anybody who was in prison with him.
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The mother of a San Bernandino school teacher gunned down by her husband described the killer as 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' who turned on her daughter as soon as they were married.
Cedric Anderson, 53, shot dead his estranged wife Karen Elaine Smith and her eight-year-old pupil Jonathan Martinez before turning the gun on himself yesterday.
Irma Sykes, 80, said in the weeks before her brutal murder, her daughter was in fear for her life after receiving a string of threats from the killer.
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Karen Smith, 53, (left) was killed along with her special needs student Jonathan Martinez, eight, in a shooting at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino in California on Monday morning by gunman Cedric Anderson, 53, (right) in an apparent murder suicide. The couple was estranged and only married for a few months, police said
Martinez and another student were standing behind Smith when Anderson entered the special needs classroom and opened fire. The children were both taken to the hospital, where Martinez later died. The other child, 9, is in stable condition. Above, other students being evacuated after the shooting
The school's 520 other children were evacuated on to buses to be taken to a safe zone at a nearby university
She told the Daily News: 'As soon as they married, he turned on her. The real Cedric came out. He told her he would throw her out the window. She was shocked, like "What happened?" He was so kind to her while they were dating. She had no idea.'
Mrs Sykes claimed Anderson had been a pastor for 17 years and her daughter had taught at a Sunday School.
She added: 'She was a wonderful, God-fearing woman. But the bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." So I can imagine where he is now.'
Mrs Sykes said his daughter knew Anderson for about four years before they got married.
She said: 'She thought she had a wonderful husband, but she found out he was not wonderful at all.'
She told the LA Times: 'He had other motives. She left him and that's where the trouble began. She broke up with him and he came out with a different personality. She decided she needed to leave him.'
Martinez and another nine-year-old student were taken to the hospital via helicopter in critical condition. It was announced at a press conference on Monday afternoon that Martinez died of his injuries at the hospital. The other child, whose identity was not revealed, is in stable condition.
Anderson was allowed entry to the school after signing in at the front desk and telling them that he had something to drop off for his wife. They were estranged and had only been married for a few months before the separation.
According to Anderson's Facebook page, the couple tied the knot in late January of this year (pictured). They had been separated for the past month to a month and a half, according to police. It is not known what sparked their separation
Teachers and children lined up outside North Park Elementary School on Monday morning. The two students injured were taken to hospital
Betty Rodriguez, right, comforts her granddaughter Giselle, 11, during a prayer service held to honor the shooting victims
Anderson has several past charges on his record, including domestic violence, weapons and drug-related charges, according to police. It is not known if he was convicted of these charges.
According to Anderson's Facebook page, the couple tied the knot in late January of this year. They had been separated for the past month to a month and a half, according to police. It is not known what sparked their separation.
Anderson had several photos of him and Smith following their wedding ceremony, including videos of them kissing while hiking in Sedona, Arizona for their honeymoon and a post calling her an angel.
The husband posted a video in February saying Smith was 'making me really happy.' In the 12-second clip, he also said, 'She knows when to ignore me' as he laughed and flashed a smile.
He added: 'That makes a happy marriage.'
According to the police and their Facebook profiles, they both had children but it is not yet known if they had the children together.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said: 'Cedric entered the classroom and from what we understand, without saying anything armed with a large caliber revolver, opened fire on his wife. She was killed in that exchange.'
On Monday evening, the Riverside home Anderson and Smith shared during their brief marriage was cordoned off with police tape.
The home, inside an upmarket gated community, belonged to Smith - who had previously lived in the property with her ex-husband Roderic, 53.
As DailyMail.com watched, a crime scene investigation team were seen arriving at the house carrying cameras and forensic equipment.
Anderson has several past charges on his record, including domestic violence, weapons and drug-related charges, according to police
Anderson had several photos of him and Smith following their wedding ceremony, including videos of them kissing while hiking in Arizona for their honeymoon
A prayer service was held to honor the shooting victims and several members of the community attended the emotional ceremony after the events that shook the town of San Bernardino
On Monday evening, the Riverside, California, home Anderson and Smith shared during their brief marriage was cordoned off with police tape. The home, inside an upmarket gated community, belonged to Smith - who had previously lived in the property with her ex-husband Roderic, 53
Police SWAT team arrive at the Riverside home of the San Bernardino school shooter. This is the home of Karen Smith who was killed by her husband Cedric Anderson
Police rushed to the scene with SWAT teams and anti-terrorism units as news of the shooting unfolded
He continued: 'I am told that both the students were behind the teacher when the suspect shot his wife. We have no reason to believe that the students were targeted, not that it makes it any better.'
Both of the injured children's families were informed of their involvement in the tragedy before the news conference on Monday afternoon.
For Elizabeth Barajas it had been an hours-long nightmare waiting to learn the fate of the daughter she had dropped off at school a couple of hours before police reported gunfire in a classroom that left two adults and one child dead and another child wounded.
Then, in some ways, the nightmare became worse.
Barajas learned her daughter, Marissa Perez, had been sitting at her desk Monday morning when a gunman stormed into her classroom, shot her teacher to death, killed one of her classmates and wounded another before killing himself.
Elizabeth Barajas holds her daughter Marissa Perez, nine, who witnessed yesterday's shooting inside her classroom
'I don't know what to do. I don't know what to tell her,' Barajas said as the two held each other and sobbed after the ordeal that sent police flooding onto the campus of San Bernardino's North Park School.
As Marissa and about 600 other students were shepherded to safety, Barajas and hundreds of other parents raced to the school. There they would endure an agonizing four-hour wait before learning that all but two of their children were physically if not emotionally unharmed.
'She just said she was scared. As soon as she saw the guy with the gun, she went under the table. She keeps telling me `My teacher got shot, my friend got shot,' Barajas said as she clutched her daughter's blood-stained sweatshirt.
Marissa said the shooter didn't say a word as he opened fire. One of her friends was hit, she added, as she pointed to her abdomen.
Amberly Raffle, who had left her son with his pre-kindergarten class earlier that morning, said she wasn't sure what the sirens were about until her sister-in-law ran to her house to tell her there was a problem at the school.
'Policemen were everywhere and ambulances, firetrucks, helicopters,' she said of the scene she saw. 'I got really scared then.'
It was 'every parent's worst nightmare,' said Holly Penalber as she wiped tears from her face while waiting to hear the fate of her 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
Penalber, a Riverside County sheriff's deputy, was on a training assignment when she began getting frantic texts from her husband and mother, saying something bad had happened at the school.
Then she waited hours outside a nearby high school where parents were eventually reunited with their children. She was too nervous to join Barajas and others in the library, saying there were more rumors than information there. But eventually she heard from someone who had seen her children and assured her they were safe.
'It was such a sigh of relief. But I won't feel good until I hold my kids,' she said.
One of the first parents to be reunited with a child was Raffle, who cried tears of joys as she embraced her son.
'He doesn't really know what happened,' she said. 'I think we're blessed because of that.'
Barajas is concerned about what witnessing the shooting will do to her daughter.
'They can't just tell us your kids are fine,' she said. 'Obviously my kid is not fine. She witnessed what happened to her teacher and the other students, and all they said is your kids are safe, your kids are fine.'
San Bernardino Police confirmed at a press conference that the shooter signed in at the front desk and was known to other staff who did not know he was carrying a gun when he was allowed entry.
From the front desk, he walked to the female teacher's classroom where he opened fire.
'The entire incident is limited to a single classroom. The suspect had come to visit the female victim,' Captain Ron Maas of the San Bernardino Police Department said.
'The children, we do not believe were targeted. (They were) the unfortunate recipients of injuries by being in proximity to the female at the time.'
Police do not yet know how many shots exactly were fired in total. All of the 520 other children in the school were immediately evacuated afterwards.
They were seen making their way across the playground holding hands before being put on buses to leave the scene.
The event was held in a church and members of the community filled the pews to honor the victims
Students were evacuated from the school and were lined up in single file on the school's playing fields before being removed
San Bernardino shared updates on Twitter as the situation unfolded on Monday morning
Police SWAT team walk the area where the estranged couple lived
Jennifer Gordon, 41, a parent of a child at North Park Elementary School shows a card with her name, her daughter's name and the child's teacher's name as she waits to be reunited with her daughter
Parents rushed to the elementary school as news of the emergency spread on Monday morning. Some were able to reunite with their children to take them home but others were told to go to Cajon High School to be reunited
San Bernardino police guides children on to the playground as multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the shooting
Students lined the fence after the fatal shooting. All of the children were taken to California State University San Bernardino
Other children were forced to line up inside the school playground behind fences as police and teachers grappled with the situation. They waved to parents who had rushed to the scene but were not allowed to collect them to be taken home
They were taken to California State University San Bernardino to be counted by school officials and interviewed by police if necessary.
Parents were told to go to Cajon High School to have their IDs checked.
They were then able to be reunited with their children either at the university or at Cajon High School but were told that the process may take up to three hours.
Some parents, who rushed to the scene of the shooting immediately after news of it broke on Monday morning, were able to go home with their children straight away.
And around 3pm local time, officials began releasing the rest of the students to be reunited with their anxious parents.
San Bernardino City Unified School District superintendent Dale Marsden said Anderson was 'known to staff' at the school.
Police circled a blue BMW in the school parking lot after the shooting but they believe the area is now safe
SWAT teams were among those deployed to the school as the situation unfolded on Monday. The scene was declared safe quickly after the shooting
Law enforcement agencies stood watch over the elementary students as they sat on the playground
An armed police man stands guard outside North Park Elementary School after the shooting on Monday morning
There was a large police presence at the elementary school throughout the afternoon as detectives continued investigating
An ambulance was deployed to the school as a precaution and one woman was seen being treated for a hand injury but she was not seriously hurt
An ambulance driver rests her head on her hands outside of the elementary school after responding to the shooting
Parents were directed to Cajon High School and told to bring their IDs to be checked by police and school board staff
At California State University, officials laid out glow sticks and set up a projector to keep the evacuated children entertained while they tried to work through the emergency
One young student described being evacuated from her P.E. class after being reunited with her mother outside the school.
'All of the kids started running out. It was pretty scary,' the child said through tears.
San Bernardino Mayor Carey Davis said the incident was tragic at a press conference on Monday afternoon
Other parents had to settle for catching a glimpse of their children through a fence as they were put onto a bus.
SWAT tanks and anti-terrorism were among forces deployed to the school as the situation unfolded.
San Bernardino Mayor Carey Davis said President Trump had offered his condolences and assistance in a phone call on Monday morning.
'This is a tragic event. It's going to take time for ourr heads, our hearts to heal,' Mayor Davis said.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos shared her condolences for the victims on Monday afternoon.
'My heart and prayers go out to the victims of today's horrible act in San Bernardino & to the whole North Park Elem. School community.
'I want to thank the first responders, teachers and school administrators who helped & protected students who found themselves in harm's way.
'I ask everyone to join me in keeping the victims and all those impacted by today's senseless violence in your prayers.
The San Bernardino Fire Department first reported 'multiple' gun shot wound victims at the school.
North Park Elementary School is just nine miles from the Inland Regional Center where 14 were killed and 22 were injured in the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack.
School officials said North Park Elementary would remain closed for at least two days.
Cathleen Scherer McDonough, 52 (pictured), of Rye, New Hampshire was stabbed to death by a homeless man in the Parisian suburb of Montrieul on Thursday
Prosecutors say a woman from the United States who was visiting her daughter in a Paris suburb was attacked and stabbed to death by a homeless man.
The victim has been identified as 52-year-old Cathleen Scherer McDonough, of Rye, New Hampshire.
The prosecutor's office in Seine-Saint-Denis says McDonough was photographing street art in Montreuil on Thursday when a homeless man stabbed her six times. The neighborhood has a large Malian expatriate community.
The 'unbalanced' suspect - who has not been named - was arrested and was committed to a psychiatric hospital, Le Fiargo reported.
Authorities continue to investigate the stabbing.
Phone, email and Facebook messages seeking comment were left with members of McDonough's family on Monday.
She was visiting her daughter, who lives in France. McDonough is pictured on the right with her daughter. It's unclear if this was the daughter she was visiting
Police in Rye said they have not been contacted by authorities in France or by members of the family.
McDonoughs sister, Stephanie Scherer Walker, asked for for privacy to grieve in a Facebook post.
'The family respectfully asks for privacy at this time,' she wrote. 'A statement will be released at a time when we deem it necessary and have all of the facts.'
The Chinese army has reportedly deployed 150,000 troops to the North Korean border to prepare for pre-emptive attacks after the United States dropped airstrikes on Syria.
President Donald Trump's missile strike on Syria on Friday was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea.
And now China, left shocked by the air strikes, has deployed medical and backup units from the People's Liberation Army forces to the Yalu River, Korea's Chosun.com reported.
The troops have been dispatched to handle North Korean refugees and 'unforeseen circumstances', such as the prospect of preemptive attacks on North Korea, the news agency said.
Meanwhile, the US Navy has moved the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group from Singapore to North Korea after the country conducted more missile testing.
China has deployed medical and backup units from the People's Liberation Army (pictured above) forces to the Yalu River following President Donald Trump's missile strikes on Syria last week
China's top nuclear envoy arrived in Seoul Monday for talks on the North Korean threat, as the United States sent the naval strike group to the region and signalled it may act to shut down Pyongyang's weapons program.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks major anniversaries including the 105th birthday of its founding leader on Saturday - sometimes celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
Wu Dawei, China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, met with his South Korean counterpart on Monday to discuss the nuclear issue.
The talks come shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Pyongyang's key ally to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.
'(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us,' US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.
He added however that Beijing had indicated a willingness to act on the issue.
'We need to allow them time to take actions,' Tillerson said, adding that Washington had no intention of attempting to remove the regime of Kim Jong-Un.
The meeting between Xi and Trump came on the heels of yet another missile test by the North, which fired a medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend, heading toward the Korean peninsula instead, in a move that will raise tensions in the region.
Wu Dawei, China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, met with his South Korean counterpart on Monday to discuss the nuclear issue
The talks come shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Pyongyang's key ally to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions
Seoul and Washington are also conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a practice for war.
Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with US intelligence officials warning that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from its goal of striking the continental United States.
China, the US, South Korea and Japan all have dedicated envoys who meet at regular intervals to discuss the North Korean issue: a legacy of the long-stalled six-party process that also involved Pyongyang and Moscow. The North quit the negotiations in 2009.
The isolated North is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology, but repeated rounds of sanctions have failed to arrest its nuclear ambitions.
Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against the reclusive state, a threat that appeared more palpable after Thursday's strike on a Syrian airfield following an apparent chemical attack.
Meanwhile, the US Navy has moved the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group from Singapore to North Korea after the country conducted more missile testing
US National Security Adviser HR McMaster on Sunday criticised North Korea as a rogue nation engaged in provocative behaviour and said denuclearisation of the peninsula 'must happen'.
'The president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat,' he said on Fox News, apparently referring to Trump's advisers.
South Korea's Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said Monday the repercussions of a potential military response were worrying.
'Pre-emptive strikes may be aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear problems, but for us, it is also related to defending the safety of the public,' he told reporters.
While a US unilateral strike on North Korea from a shorter range might be more effective, it would likely endanger many civilians in the South and risk triggering a broader military conflict, experts warn.
'The US has always had all the options on the table from a preventive strike to preemptive strike to negotiations,' said James Kim, an analyst at Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
'If it's a preventive strike or precision strike, there's danger that this could expand into a broader regional conflict involving China or Japan.
'The upside is that the United States may be able to denuclearise the North by force.... but it will come at a huge cost to the region and to the United States,' he told AFP.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President Donald Trump wants his feuding top aides to keep their conflict 'behind closed doors.'
Spicer fielded questions about battling White House factions after it was revealed Trump told his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to 'work it out.'
The two men held a Friday meeting after a series of reports about 'Bannonite' and 'nationalist' aligned aides clashing with the 'New Yorkers' and more moderate forces aligned with Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump.
'He understands that we have some pretty smart, talented individuals who are opinionated on a lot of subjects,' Spicer said, when asked about outsized personalities could 'work as a team.'
LOOSE LIPS: White House press secretary Sean Spicer says President Trump wants to paides to solve policy beefs 'behind closed doors'
'But that our battles and our policy differences need to be behind closed doors,' Spicer continued. 'We need to focus and ultimately all come out committed to advancing the presidents agenda.'
President Trump 'is completely aware of the talent that he has and thats part of the reasons that hes brought this team together,' Spicer continued.
Spicer also didn't deny weekend reports that Trump ordered the two men to work things out.
'I think theres a lot of stuff that was overblown about this that makes it out into the media sometimes and gets a little bit more sensational than it truly is,' Spicer said, when asked about the directive.
The president is 'very confident' the two will be able to work as a team, Spicer said.
White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has clashed repeatedly with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner
Bannon has repeatedly locked heads with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka in recent weeks as they push for a more results-driven White House
President Trump 'understands that we have some pretty smart, talented individuals who are opinionated on a lot of subjects,' said White House press secretary Sean Spicer
'Hes very confident in that. Because this is the same group with the same ideologies the same strengths. They came together for a common purpose to win a campaign,' he said.
'There is an unbelievably talented team at the senior level and the midlevel and frankly all the way down to the bottom level of his administration that is committed to the presidents agenda.'
'Everybody that came into this administration, while they might have a personal view on an action or an issue they understand and understood and understand the presidents vision and agenda,' he said.
Trump, increasingly frustrated by the leaks and stories of infighting that keep flowing out of the West Wing, ordered the pair to set aside their growing feud and 'work this out'.
Spicer declined to get into 'personnel announcements' when asked about reports that deputy national security advisor K.T. McFarland was out, and would instead get nominated to an ambassadorship.
He said national security advisor H.R. McMastor was given the 'ability to shape the National Security Council in his liking' at the time he came on, and 'Youve pretty much seen that that was an accurate statement.'
Chief strategist Steve Bannon, who powered Trump's populist campaign message, has been told to become a team player or risk being forced out of the White House
In one of several accounts of the feud, Axios reported that in the case of Bannon, 'Either Steve becomes a team player and gets along with people, or he'll be gone,' a top Trump source told Axios.
The two men met on Friday at Mar-a-Lago along with chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Bannon was back at the White House for the triumphal swearing in of new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Bannon flew back withe the president from Florida Sunday, arriving with aide Stephen Miller.
Despite reports last week of a looming shakeup, Spicer said the president is 'very confident in the team that he has.'
'They have an unbelievable amount of knowledge and he enjoys the counsel that they all bring to the table,' Spicer said.
Spicer indicated that Trump enjoys having divergent views among his team, following revelations that Bannon, who helped craft Trump's 'America First' campaign dogma, opposed military action in Syria.
'The reason the president has brought this team together is offer a diverse set of opinions. He doesnt want a monolithical kind of thought process going through the White House,' Spicer said. 'He wants a diverse set of opinions.'
Snagging a word from former President George W. Bush, Spicer said of Trump: 'He is the decider. He has people come in give him a variety of options and plans.'
Police in Texas revealed on Monday that the gunman accused of fatally shooting a veteran deputy last week was a 64-year-old man with a grudge against local law enforcement who committed suicide a day after the killing.
William Francis Kenny was named by the Baytown Police Department as the suspect in the shooting death of Harris County Precinct 3 Assistant Chief Deputy Clint Greenwood, a lawman with 30 years of experience.
Greenwood, 57, was executed on April 3 by a gunman who stepped out from behind a dumpster outside a municipal courthouse in Baytown, about 30 miles west of Houston, just moments after he arrived for work.
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Suspect named: William Kenny (left), 64, was named by police in Texas as the deceased suspect in the shooting death of Harris County Precinct 3 Assistant Chief Deputy Clint Greenwood (right), 57, on April 3
Gruesome scene: In this April 3, 2017, file photo, authorities investigate the scene where Greenwood was fatally shot outside the Baytown courthouse in Baytown, Texas
Baytown police Lieutenant Steve Dorris told a news conference Monday that investigators identified Kenny late Sunday as the gunman and found his body early Monday at a residence in downtown Houston following an intense search.
According to Dorris, the gun Kenny used in his apparent suicide the following day is consistent with the weapon that killed Greenwood, Baytown police Lieutenant Steve Dorris told a news conference on Monday.
No official motive for the killing was immediately given, but The Houston Chronicle said Kenny had a website where he blamed law enforcement officials, including Greenwood, for not doing enough to investigate an internal affairs case.
Kenny had filed some complaints with the local sheriff's office, Dorris said, without giving further details.
The station KTRK reported that Kenny had been publicly railing against the local police force since at least February 2012, when his then-wife called 911 to report a domestic incident at their home.
Baytown Police Department Lt. Steve Dorris speaks during a news conference Monday, announcing suspect William Kenny's suicide
Although Kenny was never charged with any crime, he apparently came to resent the local law enforcement for investigating him, which prompted him to file a complaint with the internal affairs department, where Clint Greenwood had served from 2013 to 2016.
Kenny then began to meticulously document his interactions with police and other county employees, accusing dozens of them of corruption.
On the website linked to Kenny, Major Greenwood was mentioned by name more than once in very unflattering terms.
In one instance, Kenny characterized the veteran constable as 'a legal criminal lacking basic ethics, he has a badge and law degree but doesn't know right from wrong.'
Family man: The 64-year-old computer programmer (far right) is survived by three sons, a stepdaughter and two grandson
Another entry read: 'Major Greenwood knowingly, willingly, intentionally framed an innocent Harris County citizen to conceal [Internal Affairs Department] wrongdoing.'
Major Greenwood's death prompted a manhunt and material from video surveillance was a key factor in linking Kenny to the bloody crime scene.
At his police funeral last week, which was attended by thousands of officers, Greenwood was remembered as 'always the smartest guy in the room.'
Greenwood was the assistant chief deputy in the Harris County Precinct 3 Constable's Office. He joined in January, and has also worked in the Sheriff's office, and as a prosecutor in the district attorney's office.
He is survived by his widow, Leatha Benyo Greenwood, and four children, Catherine and Chuck Greenwood and Lauren and Timothy Benyo, reported the Chronicle.
Major Greenwood was honored on April 6 with a traditional police funeral with honor guards, a riderless horse and fond stories from friends and colleagues
He is survived by his widow, Leatha Benyo Greenwood, seen above accepting the flag from her husband's casket, and their four children
William Kenny's obituary, posted on Legacy.com, reveals that the suspected cop killer was a native of Waterloo, New York, but moved to Houston after graduating from Buffalo State College, as KHOU first reported.
He worked as a computer programmer for Katy ISD and later started his own company, Micro Installers.
The 64-year-old is survived by three sons, a stepdaughter and two grandson.
His Facebook page, which has been dormant since 2012, is filled with photos of his smiling family.
Russian President Vladimir Putin won't meet with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he's in Moscow on Wednesday - an apparent snub after the Trump administration dropped bombs on Syria last week.
Putin is passing Tillerson off to his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
The Kremlin did not say why the Russian president was avoiding Tillerson after meeting repeatedly with his predecessor, John Kerry, in the Obama years. But it ripped the US for its air assault in Syria and warned Donald Trump that he was 'one step from war' with the country after the attack.
Trump's spokesman declined to issue threats to Russia from the podium Monday while declaring that the US will not hesitate to act if Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad gases his own people again.
Russian President Vladimir Putin won't meet with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (center) when he's in Moscow on Wednesday - an apparent snub after the Trump administration dropped bombs on Syria last week
For the first time since Trump approved airstrikes on Assad's military the White House articulated its goals in the country this afternoon and the role it wants Russia to play in the process it believes will lead to Assad's demise.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump would not set the kind of 'red line' that Barack Obama issued, then erased, or telegraph his actions.
Putin is passing Tillerson off to his foreign minister
Yet, he warned Assad that chemical weapons attacks will have consequences. 'Further action will be definitely be considered by the United States,' Spicer asserted.
'Not just Syria, but the world saw last week, is a president that is going to act decisively and proportionally and with justification when it comes to actions like that,' Spicer said. 'If you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb in to innocent people...you will see a response from this president. That is unacceptable.'
Spicer said the administration's focus is two-fold in Syria moving forward: defeating ISIS and regime change.
'I can't imagine a stable and peaceful Syria where [Assad] is in power.' he said. 'I think we all recognize that that happens, and there can be a multi-pronged approach, where assuring ISIS is contained and there's a deescalation of the proliferation of chemical weapons, at the same time creating the environment for a change in leadership.'
In a direct contradiction to Tillerson, who said Sunday that ISIS must be decimated before a political process to ease Assad out can begin, Spicer said one does not have to come before the other.
'I think they kind of go hand in hand,' he said. Clarifying, Trump's spokesman stated, 'I don't think those are mutually exclusive statements.'
It remains the case that a deescalation of the conflict in Syria will create an environment in which it will be easier to remove Assad, the White House official said.
'They can work in tandem,' he said, 'but the bottom line is the first priority is the containment of ISIS.'
The strategy is not all too different from the one Obama's administration was pursuing at the end of his eight years in office, aside from the continued threat of airstrikes against Assad if he violates international norms.
As part of that effort to 'resolve the conflict and eventually result in the transition of a new legitimate Syrian leadership,' the U.S. special envoy of Syria will be coming to Washington tomorrow, Spicer said, to consulate with with State Department and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
For the first time since Trump approved airstrikes on Assad's military the White House articulated its goals in the country this afternoon and the role it wants Russia to play in the process it believes will lead to Assad's demise
Tillerson is in Europe for meetings with the United States' allies in the fight against ISIS, with plans to stop in Moscow on Wednesday where he will met with Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
The diplomat said Thursday evening after Trump's airstrike that Russia was either incompetent or complicit in Assad's atrocities.
Russia offered to destroy the country's chemical weapons in 2013, attesting afterward that it did. It obviously failed to live up to that commitment, the U.S. says.
The Assad ally claims that airstrikes on terrorists led to an inadvertent hit on a warehouse storing the toxins that poisoned and killed 83 people.
Experts say the explanation is unlikely. The US, UK and other nations have blamed Assad.
'There's no question who acted in this case and what Syria did,' Spicer said Monday, rebutting Russia's claims that Assad did not deploy chemical weapons.
Spicer said Tillerson will make sure that Russia 'fully understands' the situation on the ground and remind the Kremlin of the agreement it made with the international community to oversea the elimination of Assad's chemical stockpile.
'Getting them back on the same page, first and foremost, would seem the logical step,' he said. 'But secondly, and I guess equally important is to make sure that the areas we can find a commitment to defeat ISIS is something that we share.'
WASHINGTON I inherited a mess! President Trump complained at a news conference with Jordans King Abdullah II last week.
For the second day in a row, he blamed the Obama administration for the chemical weapons attack by Syrias Assad regime and, for good measure, he blamed his predecessor for one of the worst deals I have ever witnessed, with Iran. Whether its the Middle East, whether its North Korea, whether its so many other things, whether its in our country, horrible trade deals I inherited a mess, he repeated.
No, Mr. President, were the ones who inherited a mess. Problems are piling up quickly, and Trump is pointing his finger everywhere but inward.
President George W. Bush years ago spoke of ushering in a new era of personal responsibility. Now, Trump has ushered in his own era of personal responsibility: Everything is the responsibility of other people.
Much has been said of Trumps attempt to blame the attack in Syria on Obama, because Obama didnt enforce his 2012 red line against the Assad regime using chemical weapons. This blame shifting might have worked better if the attack hadnt happened on Trumps watch and if Trump himself hadnt strenuously and repeatedly opposed military action against Assad.
This was just the latest item on a long and growing list of Trumps problems that he blames on others. Here is a partial compilation of his buck-passing since taking office:
He blamed the failure of the GOP health care bill on Democrats, moderate Republicans, conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus, the Heritage Foundation, the Club for Growth and, indirectly, Paul Ryan.
He blamed a Yemen counterterrorism raid that didnt go according to plan both on his generals and on Obama.
He blamed airport protests of his travel ban on a Delta Air Lines systems outage and on the tears of Senator Schumer.
He pre-emptively blamed future terrorist attacks on the judge who blocked the travel ban and on the court system.
He blamed his own decision to remove national security adviser Michael Flynn on the intelligence community, the media and Democrats trying to cover up Hillary Clintons loss. He blamed his loss of the popular vote on voter fraud.
He blamed Democrats for the long-running investigation into his contacts with Russia. He blamed the intelligence community for leaking information about his contacts with Russia, comparing their actions to those seen in Russia or Nazi Germany. He blamed the media for inventing a narrative that he criticized the intelligence community.
Trump blamed Obama and his people both for leaks and for widespread public protests against the administration. He blamed Obama for a nonexistent wiretap of Trump Tower. His aides blamed British intelligence for being involved. Trump then blamed Fox News for falsely implicating the British.
Trump aide Kellyanne Conway blamed Australia for leaking a transcript of their prime ministers contentious phone call with Trump. Trump himself suggested that an unidentified somebody might be to blame for anti-Semitic vandalism and threats as part of a false-flag operation.
He blamed Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., for failing to schedule a meeting with him on the cost of prescription drugs. He blamed Senate Democrats for failing to confirm his nominees; The New York Times noted last week that nominees to 21 out of 28 Treasury Department posts havent been named.
Trump blamed his staff for giving him bad information when he falsely claimed that he had the largest electoral victory since Ronald Reagan. He blamed Nordstrom for treating Ivanka Trump so unfairly by dropping her fashion line. And, of course, he has blamed the media for everything: for playing down the crowd size at his inauguration, for portraying him (accurately) as sympathetic to WikiLeaks, for not telling the truth about Obamacare and for failing to report that the White House is running so smoothly.
All presidents, to some extent, try to blame predecessors. But never has the office been occupied by such a prodigious blame-shifter. On his way to the White House, Trump blamed Clinton for starting the birther movement, blamed Mexico for exporting criminals, blamed his failure to release tax returns on an audit, blamed China for problems with North Korea and blamed George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks.
The harsh response to Trumps Syria statement this week suggests the buck-passing may be losing its charm. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CNN that Assad had been encouraged by Trumps hands-off attitude toward the regime, calling it another disgraceful chapter in American history.
Tough words but who could blame him?
A Pennsylvania volunteer fire company says it has been forced to cancel this year's Easter egg hunt for children because of the behavior of 'unruly' parents in previous years.
The Norco Fire Company in North Coventry Township announced on its Facebook page that the annual children's event will not be held this year.
Deputy Chief Chuck Hipple said there has been a recurring problem of some parents running onto the field despite having been told not to and posing a danger to children.
He claimed that it was not the majority of people, but a few people 'just can't seem to let the kids have fun'.
One of the Easter holiday's most kid-friendly festivities, the egg hunt, has been canceled in one Pennsylvania town for an unusual reason: unruly parents
The Norco Fire Company has announced it is canceling its upcoming Easter egg hunt, an annual tradition that stretches back decades (pictured, the hunt from 2014)
Parents were asked to stand back and let their kids enjoy trying to spot and collect the hidden, brightly colored plastic eggs but the request has been hard for many parents to follow
'We have received numerous messages regarding our Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Unfortunately, due to the past years unruly crowds, we will not be having the egg hunt this year,' read the message online.
'We know that the majority of our community is not the problem, but we can't risk injury to children because certain individuals can't control themselves. We are hoping to try again at some point!'
A number of posters were understanding of the about the cancellation but some also wrote that they had attended the event in the past and didn't think anyone got out of hand.
'They go in there and they push and shove,' said Hipple to the Reading Eagle. 'It turns into such a liability for us.'
The volunteer fire company spends about $500 a year to put on the egg hunt and say they can't afford the possibility of someone getting hurt and suing
Shelling out a few hundred dollars for an egg hunt where parents are getting rowdy simply is not a good move for the company which is looking to spend the money on a new fire truck
Hipple said that parents are asked to stand back and let their kids enjoy trying to spot and collect the hidden, brightly colored plastic eggs. 'Unfortunately, that request has been hard for many parents to follow,' he noted.
'There's a lack of cooperation from a lot of the parents,' Hipple said. 'Everybody just runs out there and they knock people over. That's just not the way we're going to run it.'
Hipple said the volunteer fire company spends about $500 a year to put on the egg hunt and can't afford the possibility of someone getting hurt and suing. It also intends to put the money that it would have spent towards a new fire truck.
Officials say they hope to try again next year to hold a similar event in the township near Pottstown, 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Hollyoaks actor Jamie Lomas had his driving disqualification overturned after it was revealed legal letters sent to him were posted to the incorrect address - meaning he was unaware of the summons
Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas overturned a driving disqualification after a court banned him from the roads without his knowledge over a hit-and-run prang in his BMW.
The 41-year old actor who plays Warren Fox in the Channel 4 soap had been disqualified for six months after the 40,000 X6 vehicle was driven away after crashing into a parked car outside the Trafford Centre near Manchester.
Legal letters had been sent to a terraced house Lomas was thought to lived.
But he failed to respond to documents summoning him to court as he lives in an apartment in Salford Quays, near Manchester.
He was given two chances to attend before court dealt with his case without any legal representation present - despite him having six points on his licence for two previous speeding offences.
Following a hearing in his absence Lomas was convicted of failing to give information about who was driving the BMW and given a further six points meaning he was technically banned from driving.
Lomas was also fined 660 and ordered to pay 151 costs - with the ruling technically putting him at risk of jail for driving while disqualified if he was unwittingly pulled over in his car by police.
Lomas attended the same court where the case against him was formally withdrawn after his lawyer Peter Grogan said the actor knew nothing of the accident.
The court heard the legal notices were not sent within the designated 14 day period.
Mr Grogan added: 'On the basis that there is no evidence that the defendant was aware there was an accident, there is no case.'
The incident occurred on September 10 last year when Lomas' 2012 BMW X6 was driven in a car park at the Trafford Centre and collided with a parked car. The three litre 4X4 was registered to a 115,000 terrace house in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester - which Lomas had been renting out.
Prosecuting, Vincent Yip said: 'There was reportedly an incident on the 10th of September 2016 involving a BMW vehicle. This vehicle didn't stop but details were given to the police.
Lomas attended the same court where the case against him was formally withdrawn after his lawyer Peter Grogan said the actor knew nothing of the accident
'Because the prosecution cannot prove that there was any evidence that the defendant was aware there was an accident, the 14 day process would still apply and I must ask you to withdraw this case.'
Lomas has previously been nominated Villain of the Year and Best Actor at the British Soap Awards three years running and is best known for his long running stint on Hollyoaks.
He posted a picture on Instagram of himself and his two children at a restaurant with the caption: 'Pancakes for breakfast with my angels and we're all fired up for derby day. Saturday's don't get much better.'
On the day of a designated court appearance on December 20 he was seen shopping in Manchester.
A fresh probe into the deadly 2010 crash of a Polish presidential jet in Russia suggested that an explosion likely caused the aircraft to break up in the air, investigators said on Monday.
The commission of inquiry 'considers the possibility of an explosion to be quite likely', said the narrator of a video prepared by the investigative body, and shown to reporters.
'In light of the experiments conducted (by the commission), we can say that the most likely cause of the explosion was a thermobaric load that set off a strong shockwave,' the narrator said.
A fresh probe into the deadly 2010 crash suggested that an explosion likely caused the aircraft to break up in the air, investigators said on Monday. Pictured above, the wreckage of the Polish presidential plane which crashed in Smolensk, western Russia
The commission of inquiry 'considers the possibility of an explosion to be quite likely', said the narrator of a video prepared by the investigative body, and shown to reporters. Pictured above, a TV grab showing the crashed Polish government plane
The claim comes on seventh anniversary of the crash in Smolensk, western Russia, that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, mostly senior Polish statesmen.
The 2010 crash killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski (pictured) and 95 others, mostly senior Polish statesmen
Poland's governing rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party, led by Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, has long insisted it was no accident.
Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, who says that the crash was the result of a Polish-Russian conspiracy, last month accused former Polish premier and current EU President Donald Tusk of 'diplomatic treason' over an earlier probe into the crash.
After winning power in 2015, the PiS launched a new investigation into the incident, which Polish and Russian investigators earlier attributed to human error and bad weather.
The previous inquiry found the crash was in part triggered when the jet's wing clipped a tree near the runway.
Waclaw Berczynski, who heads the new team of Polish investigators, gave a different account Monday.
'The plane started to break up and lose parts in the air; they fell to the ground far from where the infamous birch tree was... The tree had no impact on the crash,' he told public broadcaster TVP Info.
Poland's governing rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party, led by Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, has long insisted the crash (pictured above) was no accident
After winning power in 2015, the PiS launched a new investigation into the incident, which Polish and Russian investigators earlier attributed to human error and bad weather
The crash (pictured above) occurred as the presidential delegation was heading to a ceremony in Russia's Katyn forest for thousands of Polish army officers killed by Soviet secret police in 1940 - a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990
Berczynski said investigators based their new conclusion on an analysis of a conversation between the plane's pilots and Russian air traffic controllers on the ground.
Maciej Lasek, who participated in the first inquiry, rejected the conclusions on Monday, telling news channel Polsat News that the new commission's members 'had never investigated a plane crash before and don't have the expertise to do so'.
Polish prosecutors said earlier this month that fragments of the plane were being sent to four labs abroad to check for traces of explosives.
Last week, Polish prosecutors said that based on a fresh analysis of the evidence, they would charge the controllers with having 'deliberately causing a catastrophe', a theory the Kremlin immediately denied.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of late Polish president Lech Kaczynski, pays tribute during a ceremony marking the seventh anniversary of the crash
Polish prosecutors had already pressed charges against the two Russian air controllers in 2015: one for 'being directly responsible for having endangered air traffic' and the other for 'unintentionally causing an air traffic disaster'.
Polish justice officials have also been exhuming the remains of the victims to establish the cause of death.
Warsaw has repeatedly asked Moscow to return the wreckage of the plane, but Russia says it will only do so once its own inquiry is over.
The crash occurred as the presidential delegation was heading to a ceremony in Russia's Katyn forest for thousands of Polish army officers killed by Soviet secret police in 1940 - a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990.
An illegal immigrant, who was jailed for attempted rape, has been given 27,000 in compensation for being in prison too long.
Bashdar Abdulla Qarani, 36, arrived in Britain illegally in 2005, and became a repeat offender, including battery, theft and carrying a knife.
He was allowed to stay in the country and was jailed for four years in 2012 for attempted rape in South Wales.
Mr Justice Mott ruled that his human rights were breached, at the High Court in London
The Kurd, who had no official ID papers, spent two years in prison before he was allowed out on licence but was locked up again to prevent him from disappearing.
Because the authorities could not prove his nationality they were not able to send him to his native country.
Deputy High Court Judge Mr Justice Mott acknowledged that the sex offender had a history of absconding, but ruled that he had been unlawfully detained for 11 months prior to his release last December.
The judge awarded him 27,000 in compensation. He is still due to be deported.
It is not known whether the woman he tried to rape, who cannot be named for legal reasons, received any damages. But under Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority rules, she would only have been entitled to around 7,500.
Charity Voice4Victims said the case showed the imbalance between the rights of offenders and victims. The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.
Tory MP Philip Hollobone, who wants the Human Rights Act scrapped, called it 'barmy', according to The Sun.
Qarani now has to report to the authorities each week.
Shocking video footage has captured the moment a man escaped the clutches of police before scaling the roof of a pub and launching tiles at onlookers below.
Dean Robinson clung to a chimney on the Blarney Stone Irish bar in Liverpool in a dramatic 45 minute standoff last June.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the 34-year-old slipped and nearly fell before eventually being coaxed down by police negotiators.
Dean Robinson clung to a chimney on the Blarney Stone Irish bar in Liverpool in a dramatic 45 minute standoff
The court heard police had earlier been called to a nearby off licence around 6.25pm on June 12 last year.
There officers found Robinson, from Litherland in Sefton, Merseyside, with another man.
Robinson was carrying a rock tucked inside a sock which had been fashioned into a makeshift weapon.
Police arrested the other man before placing Robinson in handcuffs and putting him in their car.
He managed to get out, unfasten one of his cuffs and run away, before scaling the walls of the three storey pub.
Charles Lander, prosecuting, said around 60 to 70 people were inside the pub and a large crowd gathered as he started hurling down tiles.
Robinson was eventually talked down and subsequently arrested by police (pictured) before being jailed
The street was closed for 45 minutes as he became abusive and called a witness 'a fat c***'.
Mr Lander said: 'He shouted, "I will show you what to do", dislodged a tile on the roof and threw it towards the crowd.
'It was the officers' view that if it had landed on somebody it would have caused considerable damage.
'At one stage he was shouting that he would bring the whole building down.'
Robinson admitted possessing an offensive weapon and affray after failing to attend court in December.
He was jailed for two weeks for the bail offence. He is now serving an eight-week sentence for theft and assault.
Charlotte Atherton, defending, said the incident 'spiralled out of control'.
She said: 'At the time the defendant was living rough on the streets. He has been a heroin addict for a long time.
'That is why he had the rock in the sock, as a form of self protection, because he was in fear for his own safety.'
Robinson admitted possessing an offensive weapon and affray after failing to attend court in December
She said he suffered from 'paranoia' but had stopped taking his medication and was stressed at the time.
Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, said Robinson's behaviour and carrying a weapon was 'wholly unacceptable'.
Jailing him for 21 months, the judge told Robinson: 'You say that at the time you were living rough and had [the weapon] with you for your own safety, but people who walk round the streets with offensive weapons like that must expect to pay a price, if and when they are arrested.'
A mother who allegedly tried to sell her baby on Craigslist for $3,000 did the same with her 11-year-old daughter, and is pregnant again, a court has heard.
Deanna Greer, 37, and John Cain, 26, were caught trying to exchange their five-month-old child for money during a sting operation in Greenville, Tennessee on March 24, according to ABC News.
The couple from Tennessee is awaiting a Grand Jury's finding as to whether they will be formally charged for their illicit scheme.
But the court heard that this isn't the first time Greer has tried to shop her baby online.
'She said that she had done this before,' agent Chris Wilhoit said from the stand.
Deanna Greer (C), 37, and John Cain (R), 26, were caught trying to trade their baby for money in Tennessee on March 24, according to ABC News; the two are seen here in court on Friday
The couple faces potential charges of criminal attempt to commit aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect or endangerment, as well as violating Haleys Law, according to ABC.
'She'd had I believe an 11-year-old daughter that was doing well that she had given up in the past in this way,' Wilhoit said.
She also said that she 'got pregnant real easy' and was pregnant again, according to agent.
Authorities were first alerted to the Craigslist post that appeared to be advertising a baby by a tipster.
The couple is awaiting a Grand Jury's finding as to whether they will be formally charged for allegedly attempting to sell their baby on Craiglist; Greer is seen here in Greenville, Tennessee
Investigators then responded to the ad, with Wilhoit posing as a preacher.
It was Police Captain Joy Shoun who initially arranged the meeting, ABC reported.
The amount to be exchanged was determined to be $3,000 and further details were decided via text message.
'She (Greer) was adamant that this was not, in her words, "selling the child,"' Shoun said to the prosecutor on the case, according to ABC. 'This was an adoption, and the $3,000 would be considered for expenses.'
The meeting took place at a Dollar General store, where Greer and Cain tried to carry out the arrangement they'd made over the phone, according to ABC.
Both Greer (L) and Cain (R), seen here in photos provided by the Green County Sheriff's Office, remain in custody on a $175,000 bond; Their next court date has been scheduled for May 12
'She had paperwork that she read to me that she called her guardianship paperwork saying that she would be giving me and my alleged wife guardianship of the child,' Wilhoit testified.
'She said that she was ill,' he added. 'She had had a tumor.'
Greer and Cain's defense representation put forward the argument that they never explicitly stated they were 'selling' their child and never attempted to harm the child, according to ABC.
The baby was taken to into custody by the Department of Children's Services on the day of the alleged attempted sale.
Both Greer and Cain remain in custody on a $175,000 bond. Their next court appearance has been scheduled for May 12.
Iran's exiled crown prince has called for a revolution in his home country.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah to rule before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said he wants to replace Iran's clerical rule with a parliamentary monarchy, enshrining human rights and modernizing the state-run economy.
He said a revolution could prove palatable to both the West and Iran's Sunni Gulf neighbors, who remain suspicious of Iran's intentions amid its involvement in the wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Iran's long exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has called for a revolution in his home country
Pahlavi has seen his profile rise in recent months following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who promises a harder line against the Shiite power.
Since the U.S. election, Pahlavi has given a growing number of media interviews. He also has sent letters to the Trump administration.
'This regime is simply irreformable because the nature of it, its DNA, is such that it cannot,' the exiled prince said.
'People have given up with the idea of reform and they think there has to be fundamental change. Now, how this change can occur is the big question.'
Pahlavi left Iran at age 17 for military flight school in the U.S., just before his cancer-stricken father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi abandoned the throne for exile.
The revolution followed, with the creation of the Islamic Republic, the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the sweeping away of the last vestiges of the American-backed monarchy.
Pahlavi, 56, insists young Iranians increasingly look toward Iran's past
Yet the Pahlavis and the age of the monarchy have retained their mystique in Iran, even as the majority of its 80 million people weren't alive to experience it.
Pahlavi, 56, insists young Iranians increasingly look toward Iran's past.
He pointed to recent demonstrations at the tomb of the pre-Islamic King Cyrus the Great, which have been claimed by a variety of anti-government forces as a sign of unrest.
Under his father's secular and pro-Western rule, Iran experienced a rapid modernization program financed by oil revenues.
'If you look at the legacy that was left behind by both my father and my grandfather ... it contrasts with this archaic, sort of backward, religiously rooted radical system that has been extremely repressive,' Pahlavi said.
Asked how his envisioned peaceful revolution could play out in Iran, Pahlavi said it would need to begin with labor unions starting a nationwide strike.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was the Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979
He said members of the hard-line Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary organization established to protect the clerical system, would be assured they wouldn't be 'all hung and shot'.
Most importantly, he said Western governments need to keep their distance and not threaten military action.
That's an exceedingly optimistic vision, especially considering the amount of power the Guard and other hard-liners wield in Iran's economy.
It also largely ignores the concerns many in Iran have about Western meddling.
Pahlavi's father took power following a 1953 coup engineered by Britain and the U.S.
Gauging national sentiment toward restoring the monarchy in Iran is impossible, especially after the crackdown that followed the country's disputed 2009 election.
Iranian state media routinely refer to the Pahlavi monarchy as 'despotic,' but there has been some reassessing of history in other quarters.
A book published last year, 'The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Last Days of Imperial Iran,' offered a revisionist view of the shah.
While acknowledging the abuses of his feared SAVAK intelligence service and the corruption surrounding his rule, the book portrays him as a fatalist in an era of disappearing Mideast monarchies.
'The regime has repressed discussion of the Pahlavis for so long that it has had the opposite effect of making young Iranians inside the country curious about what they don't know,' said historian Andrew Scott Cooper, the book's author. 'There's an interesting generational divide going on here to where young Iranians are saying to their parents and grandparents, the same people who marched against the shah and Pahlavis, "Why did you get rid of that system and put this one in place?"'
President Donald Trump has promised to take a harder line against the Iranian government
He added: 'The family name still retains a lot of magic, more than ever today among Iranians. How that translates practically into support for Reza as a credible alternative leader, I just don't know.'
'My focus right now is on liberating Iran, and I will find any means that I can, without compromising the national interests and independence, with anyone who is willing to give us a hand, whether it is the U.S. or the Saudis or the Israelis or whomever it is,' he said.
Pahlavi said he had yet to meet with the Trump administration despite his letters. Another Iranian exile group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, previously paid a member of Trump's Cabinet $50,000 for giving a speech.
However, the MEK's siding with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and its killing of Americans before the revolution, which the group now denies, makes it an unsuitable partner, Pahlavi said.
'It's pretty much a cult-type structure,' he said.
For now, Pahlavi said he looks forward to meeting with Trump and his administration. But he pins his hopes on Iran's sense of history, something Cooper also acknowledged.
'For many Iranians, the revolution is unfinished business,' the author said.
Commuters have been warned to expect traffic chaos this morning after an asbestos leak shut roads in northern Sydney.
Construction workers are believed to have found the asbestos while they were on the site on Military Road, Cremorne, late last night.
They immediately left the site and called in the authorities, with 14 firefighters currently on the scene, according to 9 News.
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Commuters have been warned to expect traffic chaos this morning after an asbestos leak shut roads in northern Sydney
Construction workers are believed to have found the asbestos while they were on the site on Military Road, Cremorne, late last night
Hazmat officers were seen entering the building wear gas masks.
The building is believed to have been an old Brightsparks performing arts school but is being renovated.
The entire road has been closed off to pedestrians and the eastbound side of Military Road is closed, with traffic diverted onto Winnie Street.
It is not clear how long the disruption will last.
Asbestos was used in building insulation for decades until its link to severe respiratory illnesses was discovered.
Prolonged exposure to asbestos can causes lung cancer and mesothelioma and its use is now banned in most countries, including Australia.
Douglas Krumlauf, 63, was charged with aggravated murder in the slaying of 24-year-old Sharla Spangler (pictured) in 1985
A cold case investigation that lasted more than three decades has finally ended after police arrested the man they believe murdered a young woman in 1985.
Douglas Krumlauf, 63, has been charged with aggravated murder in the slaying of 24-year-old Sharla Spangler.
Fingerprints from a domestic violence incident in 2015 led to investigators being able to make the arrest, the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office in Columbus announced Monday.
Prosecutors have previously said Spangler was last seen leaving a go-go bar in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna on January 30, 1985.
The 24-year-old worked as a dancer there. Her body was found the next day, dumped underneath a trailer after she was shot in the head, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Courtesy of ABC6 - WSYX/WTTE
The 63-year-old's fingerprints matched those found during the initial murder investigation on a roll of duct tape near the body and on the trailer.
'Krumlauf has been indicted for one count of aggravated murder and one count murder, both with firearm specifications, for a total of two counts,' Prosecutor Ron OBrien said in a statement.
Prosecutors have previously said Spangler was last seen leaving the Gold Fox Lounge (pictured) in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna on January 30, 1985
'Spangler was employed at the Gold Fox Lounge in Gahanna and was last seen leaving that business in the early morning hours.
'Other employees observed her car running in the parking lot shortly after she left.
'Spangler was shot to death and her body was found a few hours later in the area of 161 and Hamilton Road. Her unlocked car, with her purse inside, was later recovered.'
Krumlauf has been aware he was under investigation for the murder for a number of months, according to the Dispatch.
The 63-year-old has not been arrested as he is currently hospitalized and being treated for an illness. However, a police guard is in place at the OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital.
Sam Shamansky, Krumlauf's lawyer, said his client will plead not guilty to the charges against him at his 'earliest opportunity'.
The 63-year-old previously told investigators during an interview he had never been to the parking lot where Spangler was found, according to the newspaper, and he had: 'no reason to have had duct tape in that area'.
Theresa May has been pictured out and about in Dolgellau, North Wales, where she is on a short walking holiday
Theresa May and Donald Trump last night agreed there was a window of opportunity to persuade Russia to end its support for Bashar al-Assad.
In a clear sign that the pair have agreed that Assad must go, the Prime Minister and US President pledged to work together to convince Vladimir Putin to stop helping the Syrian regime.
But they did not reveal what sanctions they will seek to impose on the Russian leader if he refuses to comply with their plan.
The two leaders spoke about the crisis by telephone as the US president thanked the PM for her backing of his military strikes against Syrian government forces last week.
The Prime Minister, who is on a short walking holiday in Wales, is being kept up to date on events in Syria.
In recent days Mrs May has been spotted out shopping on a short break despite the fraught situation.
A Downing Street spokesman said: 'Theresa May tonight spoke with US President Trump to discuss last week's chemical weapons attack in Syria and the US response.
'The president thanked the Prime Minister for her support in the wake of last week's US military action against the Assad regime.
'The Prime Minister and the president agreed that a window of opportunity now exists in which to persuade Russia that its alliance with Assad is no longer in its strategic interest.
'They agreed that US Secretary of State (Rex) Tillerson's visit to Moscow this week provides an opportunity to make progress towards a solution which will deliver a lasting political settlement.
Theresa May is holidaying in Wales amid the tense standoff with Russia over Donald Trump's strikes on the Syrian regime
The two leaders (pictured together in January), spoke about the crisis by telephone as the US president thanked the PM for her backing of his military strikes against Syrian government forces last week
'They also discussed the broader Middle East, including the threat posed by Iran throughout the region.
'The Prime Minister and president also stressed the importance of the international community, including China, putting pressure on North Korea to constrain the threat it poses.'
Mrs May and husband Philip reportedly bought two silver rings made by a local jeweller over the weekend.
They attended a service at St Mary's church in the town of Dolgellau yesterday, and are thought to be in Wales until Thursday.
Downing Street stressed that the premier remained fully in touch with diplomatic developments even though she is away from the heart of government on a walking holiday during parliament's Easter recess.
'The PM is making calls and being constantly updated,' a No10 spokesman said, pointing out that she spoke to Canada's Justin Trudeau last night.
Prime Ministers never holiday entirely alone. Mrs May will have a security detail and cohort of Downing Street staff with her to ensure she can be reached at a moment's notice at all times.
Boris Johnson, pictured holding talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Italy today, is calling for Russia to face 'complete international ostracisation' unless Vladimir Putin removes his support for the Syrian regime
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron criticised Mrs May for leaving 'court jester' Boris Johnson in charge of coordinating Britain's response to the Syria crisis.
He said: 'Everyone deserves a break from time to time and Snowdonia is a beautiful part of the country but ultimately there are some things are too important to be left to the court jester.
'The situation in Syria is one of them and I would have hoped that the Prime Minister would have shown some leadership on this issue and coordinated Britain's response herself.'
Boris Johnson is leading for the UK at a meeting of foreign ministers from the powerful G7 group of nations in Italy today.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, pictured left with Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano today, is among those attending the gathering of the G7 to discuss Syria
The Foreign Secretary has upped the ante by warning the Kremlin that the US is ready to strike Syria again, as he demanded Vladimir Putin 'faces the truth' about the regime's atrocities.
Mr Johnson is calling for tougher sanctions unless Mr Putin agrees to the removal of Assad within months.
But the prospect of being allowed back into the elite club is also expected to be held out as an incentive for cooperating.
Russia was kicked out of what was the G8 in 2014 as punishment for the annexation of Crimea.
Mrs May was wearing a silver ring she bought from a local North Wales jeweller when she arrived for church yesterday
At the gathering with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson later, he said Russia must decide whether to 'stick like glue' to a disgraced dictator or 'work with the rest of the world'.
But Moscow's foreign ministry taunted Mr Johnson for being 'in the shadow' of the US.
Mr Johnson faced claims he was Washington's poodle over the weekend after he agreed to pull out of a planned visit to Moscow following discussions with the US.
The trip was cancelled so the G7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and America can agree a joint plan, which will then be delivered by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead.
Mrs May spoke about her love of Wales on a visit to Cardiff last month.
'We stay in a hotel and try to walk every day,' she said.
'Walking is about relaxing, getting exercise and fresh air.'
According to the Welsh Daily Post, Mrs May bought two silver rings made by Anna Hicks at the Celf Aran Arts craft shop.
Matt Fletcher, who served Mrs May, told the newspaper: 'When I realised it was Theresa May, I got very nervous and started to fumble with the keys for the display case.
'I said to her, 'is it you?', and she said: 'Well, it depends on who you is.''
Mrs May and her husband Philip are known to be keen walkers. They are pictured on holiday in the Swiss alps last summer
A goldfish, hamster and a Japanese teppanyaki grill are among the ten strangest items that have been left in cars by Uber passengers, the ride haling service has revealed.
More than 5,000 items have been handed in to the company's lost property centre in east London in the past six months, with mobile phones and keys the most commonly forgotten items.
But Uber's list has also revealed some of the more unusual items that have been left behind by users of the service - commonly known as riders - including dentures, a bag of human hair, 50 mozzarella balls and five sombreros.
More than 5,000 items have been handed in to the company's lost property centre in east London in the past six months, with mobile phones and keys the most commonly forgotten items
Uber driver centre manager Rosie Craig said: 'We receive new items every day and each one tells a story.
'It can be very seasonal; over Halloween we see an influx of masks, in summer its sunglasses, winter sees umbrellas, hats and gloves and last year we had a carnival headdress come in on the weekend of Notting Hill Carnival.'
The most forgetful city in North America is Los Angeles, California, according to Uber's Lost and Found Index.
New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami filling out the top-five most forgetful cities.
The most common day to report a lost item, Uber found, is Sunday, with Saturday coming in second.
The least likely day to report a lost item is Wednesday.
But Uber's list has also revealed some of the more unusual items that have been left behind by users of the service - commonly known as riders - including dentures, a bag of human hair, 50 mozzarella balls and five sombreros
MOST 'FORGETFUL' NORTH AMERICAN CITIES Los Angeles, California New York, New York San Francisco, California Chicago, Illinois Miami, Florida Washington, DC Atlanta, Georgia Boston, Massachusetts Toronto, Canada Dallas, Texas Advertisement
ITEMS MOST LIKELY TO BE FORGOTTEN IN AN UBER Phone Ring Keys Wallet Glasses Purse License/ID Gloves/Glove Charger Sunglasses Advertisement
The most forgetful day in 2016 - or the day the most items were reported as lost in Norht America - was October 30, a Sunday just before Halloween.
It was followed by December 11, December 18, December 4 and November 20.
Wedding dresses are most likely going to be left in a car on Sundays, while plane tickets are most likely to be left behind on Saturdays, Uber said.
Lost swimsuits were most likely reported on Tuesdays.
Uber users can contact their driver directly via the app if they leave an item behind, or speak to the company's lost property centre to reclaim it.
Where possible unclaimed items were donated to charity, Uber said.
'Over the past year we've been able to reconnect students to their laptops, children to their toys, people to their reading glasses and one driver even returned a family heirloom that had been left on his car boot direct to his rider,' Ms Craig said.
Uber users can contact their driver directly via the app if they leave an item behind, or speak to the company's lost property centre to reclaim it
'It's amazing to be able to reunite people to their items and the thanks and gratitude we get makes it all worthwhile.'
Uber driver Pirooz Azadgan returned a jewellery box full of family heirlooms to a passenger last year, after having driven around with the box balanced on his boot for more than 100 miles.
The box contained cufflinks belonging to Edward Poland, then 31, who had been gifted them by his late father.
Azadgan discovered the box at the end of his shift and tracked it down to Poland, his first customer of the day one night in Brentford, London, in May 2016.
He contacted Poland, who had taken an Uber to his mother's house in Notting Hill when he forgot the box, and returned the cufflinks.
Azadgan said it was a 'miracle' the box didn't fall off the back of his car during his 10-fare day.
'I drove along dual carriageways and over humps and bumps it is amazing it stayed on,' he told the Evening Standard at the time. 'The wind should have blown it off, but there it was just sitting there. My wife said the cufflinks inside were valuable so I immediately realised I must find the owner.'
The Home Office has rejected a cheeky bid to grant the Loch Ness Monster permanent UK residency after Brexit.
A group of artists from Glasgow filled out the application for Nessie in fear of the beast wanting to 'leave the UK to settle in a new lake within the EU' post-Brexit.
The Doing Group also paid the 65 fee and sent passport pictures of the monster.
But the Home Office rejected the application, saying it was 'inappropriate'.
The arts group is now talking to experts in order 'to figure out the best way of moving Nessie humanely and comfortably'
Hannah Kendaru, 23, student, from the Doing Group has applied for the Loch Ness monster to be granted permanent residency following Brexit
Irina Glinski, 27, Stanley Smith, 22 and Hannah Kendaru, 23, from The Doing Group in Glasgow
The group have appealed for members of the public to suggest an alternative home for the beast. Pictured is Loch Ness
Hannah Kendaru, 23, a member of the group, said: 'We filed the application in good faith.
'However, the process was a difficult one. Nessie has a reputation for being elusive - signatures, passport photos and other information were very difficult to obtain.
'The reason behind the application has been the increased concern and hostility many people in the United Kingdom have been facing since Brexit has been becoming a reality.
'Nessie has lived in Scotland for a long time. Yet, her origin is unknown. Due to the worries that Brexit has caused, it was only natural to apply for a residency permit.'
The arts group is now talking to experts in order 'to figure out the best way of moving Nessie humanely and comfortably'.
And they have appealed for members of the public to suggest an alternative home for the beast.
Irina Glinski, 27, another member of the group, said: 'We are disappointed by the response from The Home Office.
'We are now in a position where we will have to consider the best course of action for Nessie's future.
The Doing Group also paid the 65 fee and sent passport pictures of the monster
The Doing Group which are campaigning for permanent status for the Loch Ness Monster investigating the creature on the Loch on a recent field trip
The bizarre application was launched by members of an arts collective who filled out documents, paid the 65 processing fee and even attached a passport picture
Hannah Kendaru, 23, a member of the group, said: 'We filed the application in good faith'
'We have entered discussion with experts about how best to move Nessie in a humane and comfortable way.'
The arts collective has now appealed for individuals and communities to submit alternative waters for the monster on their website.
Pictures and samples that 'that we can test in comparison to Loch Ness' are also being encouraged.
The group said 'more than 10 lakes across Europe have signed up' so far.
Ms Kendaru added: 'We can already see how proud people and communities are of their home lakes and it is heartening to see how many people are eager to help and welcome Nessie into their waters.'
A Home Office spokesman told MailOnline that the application was voided before any assessment 'because it was not for a real person' and that the 65 application fee was refunded.
A Home Office spokesman told MailOnline that the application was voided before any assessment 'because it was not for a real person' and that the 65 application fee was refunded
Last week a scientist revealed his plans to DNA test the waters of Loch Ness in another bid to determine once and for all if Nessie exists.
Professor Neil Gemmell will look for traces of unusual DNA by gathering water samples from the Scottish loch before analysing them using police forensic techniques.
Professor Gemmell, of New Zealand's University of Otago, thinks this could solve the monster mystery.
He said: 'We use environmental DNA to monitor marine biodiversity. From a few litres of water we can detect thousands of species.
'All large organisms lose cells as they move through their environment. New genomic technology is sensitive enough to pick this up and we can use comparisons to databases that span the majority of known living things.
'If there was anything unusual in the loch these DNA tools would be likely to pick up that evidence.'
Nessie researcher Roland Watson, 54, said he was not aware of anyone doing a DNA test before.
The husband of a Massachusetts woman who has been missing since March 2 was found dead at his home Friday in an apparent suicide, police said.
Charles 'Chad' Reidy, 42, was found dead inside his garage after a family member had asked police to check on him at his Clarksburg home, according to the Berkshire District Attorney's office.
The Berkshire District Attorney's office didn't discuss the manner in which Reidy ended his life, but they're still investigating his death.
Charles 'Chad' Reidy (left), the husband of 39-year-old Joanne Ringer (right), who has been missing since March 2, was found dead inside his garage Friday in an apparent suicide
The couple married in a civil ceremony on December 13 in Bennington, Vermont, and had discussed plans to purchase cattle and start a small farm on their property (pictured)
Ringer (pictured), also known as Jo or Chains, was known in the Clarksburg community as having a vibrant, outgoing personality. She enjoyed video games, baking and motorcycles
Reidy is the husband of 39-year-old Joanne Ringer, who he reported missing on March 2 after she failed to show up for her first shift as a taxi driver in Easthampton, a 75 minute commute from her home.
Ringer's dark green 2001 Volkswagen Jetta TDI was discovered abandoned on March 6 in Easthampton.
Reidy told The Berkshire Eagle last month that he believed he was the last person to see Ringer alive the day of her disappearance.
They had finished their chores and eaten breakfast when Ringer received a phone call and left the house to visit someone, Reidy said.
Reidy said he later left to visit friends in Worthington and returned to an empty house around 1pm that day.
Ringer's daughter Savannah (right), 19, said her mother was 'excited' to be starting her new job as a taxi driver in Easthampton after a period of unemployment
Ringer could only be contacted when her cell phone was connected to WiFi because her provider had cut off service after she failed to pay her bill, her family said.
When Ringer didn't return home, Reidy said he frantically called and texted her, and eventually drove to Easthampton to search for her.
The next day Reidy called police and reported Ringer missing.
Ringer's daughter, Savannah, 19, told The Eagle that she last spoke to her mother two days before she was reported missing.
She said it's uncommon for her mother to not be in contact with family and friends for this extended period of time.
Ringer said her mother was 'upbeat' and 'excited' to be starting her new job as a taxi driver after a period of unemployment.
Reidy (right) reported Ringer missing the day after she didn't return home from her new job
'She always keeps in touch and if she takes off it's for a night or two, to go hang out with a friend or something,' said Ringer. 'She always tells someone where she's going. She always keeps in touch with her friends.'
Joanne Ringer, also known as Jo or Chains, was known in the Clarksburg community as having a vibrant, outgoing personality. Ringer enjoyed video games, baking and motorcycles, her friends said.
Ringer's neighbor, Ken Bliss, told The Eagle that Reidy appeared visibly upset after her disappearance.
'He'd start breaking down every time he spoke about her,' Bliss said.
Bliss said the couple appeared happy and had discussed plans to purchase cattle and start a small farm on their property that already had chickens.
The couple married in a civil ceremony on December 13 in Bennington, Vermont.
'As far as talking bad about them, there wasn't much bad to say about either of them,' said Bliss. 'They were both real nice, real pleasant.'
A toddler is dead after he was hit by a car in the driveway of a home on the Victoria-NSW border.
The three-year-old boy was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after he was struck about 4.20pm on Monday on the driveway on Cramp Road in Robinvale.
He tragically died overnight from 'horrific' injuries.
A toddler is dead after he was hit by a car in the driveway of a home (pictured) on the Victoria-NSW border
The three-year-old boy was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after he was struck about 4.20pm on Monday on the driveway on Cramp Road in Robinvale
'The incident is being treated as a tragic accident,' police spokesman Alistair Parsons said in a statement on Tuesday.
Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
Robinvale is located on the south bank of the Murray River in north western Victoria.
The toddler tragically died overnight from his horrific injuries
The Monday mugshot: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has been booked on two misdemeanor charges that arose from the investigation of alleged affair with a top aide
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges that arose from the investigation of an alleged affair with a top aide.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office website shows Bentley was processed on two campaign and ethics charges Monday afternoon, as a part of a plea deal to avoid potential felony charges and jail time.
The two-term politician known as the 'Luv Guv' allegedly used his status to cover up the sexually charged affair with his former top aide Rebekah Mason.
The disgraced politician officially resigned on Monday afternoon.
Alabama's Ethics Commission last week found probable cause that Bentley violated state ethics laws with his handling of an alleged affair and referred the case to prosecutors.
The 74-year-old Republican and one-time Baptist deacon was expected to resign rather than risk impeachment over allegations he abused his powers to cover up an extramarital affair with a top aide Rebekah Mason.
The mild-mannered 74-year-old Republican and one-time Baptist deacon was expected to resign rather than risk impeachment over allegations he abused his powers to cover up an extramarital affair with a top aide Rebekah Mason
After Bentley fired the state's top police officer in August 2015, he went to local papers with a recording of the governor and his former top aide.
'Baby, let me know what I am going to do when I start locking the door,' Bentley says in the recording.
'If we are going to do what we did the other day, we are going to have to start locking the door,' he continued.
Dianne Bentley, the governor's former wife of 50 years, revealed the affair after discovering text messages stored in her iCloud between her husband and Mason.
Dianne was able to read the messages because they also showed up on the governor's state-issued iPad, which he had given her. The two divorced in 2015.
'I'm so in love with you,' Bentley wrote in one message to Mason, along with two heart-eye emojis, the New York Post reported.
His wife Dianne Bentley, seen here in 2014, discovered the transgressions thanks to the iCloud, when messages appeared on a government issued iPad she was using
'We are pitiful,' it continued.
Another read: 'I sure miss you. I need you. I want you. You are the only one.'
He has denied having a physical relationship with his former aide, though in some of the recordings he talked about the pleasure he got from fondling her breasts.
Mason is still married to her husband Jon, and the two share three children, according to social media.
The staunch family-values conservative who won two terms partly because of his reputation for moral rectitude was first engulfed in scandal last year after recordings surfaced of him making sexually charged comments to the married 45-year-old aide.
Mason is still married to her husband Jon, and the two share three children, according to social media
An investigative report prepared for the House Judiciary Committee and released last week said Bentley encouraged an 'atmosphere of intimidation' to keep the story under wraps and directed law enforcement officers to track down and seize the recordings.
The 3,000 page report stated that Mason often left meetings with Bentley 'with her hair tousled and her clothing in disarray,' the Washington Post reported.
The report portrayed the governor as paranoid and obsessed with trying to keep the relationship secret. It also revealed that Bentley's children expressed concern that their father was suffering from dementia.
However, former employees of the governor paint a different picture of his behavior publicly toward Mason, and said he routinely called her 'baby' in official meetings.
'I'm so in love with you,' Bentley wrote in one message to Mason, who is pictured with her husband and children
The sex-tinged scandal gathered force over the past few days and legislators turned up the pressure by opening impeachment hearings Monday.
Bentley had steadfastly refused to resign, even though it appeared he had practically no support in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
The committee on Monday started what was expected to be days of impeachment hearings.
Bentley lawyer Ross Garber had argued that impeachment should be reserved for only the 'most grave misconduct,' noting that only two U.S. governors have been impeached since 1929, and both were indicted for serious felonies.
Bentley will be replaced by Republican Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, who is only the second woman to hold the position in Alabama's history.
A new plane-tracker app allows people to watch real-time aircraft soar across the globe on an incredible live 3D map.
Airspace Explorer shows planes above the UK and around the world for iPad users.
NATS provides the data, which allows people to select individual flights showing the plane's route, altitude, speed and type.
The view can be rotated to see all the different planes in the sky.
A new plane-tracker app allows people to watch real-time aircraft soar across the globe on an incredible live 3D map
Its website states: 'Firstly, in addition to providing information on flights and airports, our app provides information on the airspace itself.
'We show the Flight Information Regions (FIRs) that comprise the airspace around the world and the controlled airspace structures that make up the FIRs in UK airspace.
'Play with the app and learn about the difference between controlled and uncontrolled airspace and the different types of airspace structures that exist. You can also see the Sectors that we use in the UK to divide up the airspace and allocate Air Traffic Controllers to manage.
'Secondly, unlike other flight tracking apps, our app includes some UK radar data for showing aircraft positions.
'We dont display all of our radar data, as a number of aircraft, such as most military and police aircraft, are removed.
'Even with aircraft removed, the inclusion of radar helps to increase aircraft coverage and the radar often picks up and displays smaller aircraft that other apps dont track.
NATS provides the data, which allows people to select individual flights showing the plane's route, altitude, speed and type
'Thirdly, we provide a 3D view of the airspace. The 3D views help to provide a sense of the relative altitudes of aircraft and the shapes and sizes of the controlled airspace areas in the UK.
'You can pan, zoom and move around the airspace in 3D and view flight paths in and out of airports to gain a sense of the approach and departure routes the aircraft fly.
The organisation's air traffic control systems handle more than 2.2 million flights and 220 million passengers in the UK skies every year.
Fur from cats has been used illegally on shoes sold in Britain by the popular youth fashion brand Missguided.
Although clothing chains have made a point of switching to fake fur because of cruelty concerns, an investigation found shoes, gloves and hats sold by leading retailers contained the real thing.
Several have removed products from sale and begun their own investigations after being alerted to the problem.
Fur from cats has been used illegally on shoes sold in Britain by the popular youth fashion brand Missguided (pictured above)
The products were made in China using fur from cats, raccoon dogs, rabbits, mink and fox. Campaigners claim that some two million cats including pets stolen from the streets are killed for their fur and meat each year in China.
Animal protection group Humane Society International (HSI) investigated after a shopper suspected a 35 pair of Missguideds shoes pink high-heel sandals with a pompom decoration used real fur.
Donna Allison was not satisfied with an assurance from the Manchester-based firm via its Twitter account that only fake fur is used in the products it sells.
The shoes, which were sold both online and at its Westfield Stratford store in east London, list only man-made materials on the label. However, laboratory tests confirmed that the pompoms were made from cat fur.
Miss Allison said: I find it horrifying that Missguided and other retailers are selling real fur.
The import and sale of fur from domestic cats and dogs has been banned across the EU since 2009. Details of the Missguided shoes have been passed to trading standards for investigation. In further laboratory tests, another pair of shoes from Missguided tested positive for rabbit fur.
The products were made in China using fur from cats, raccoon dogs, rabbits, mink and fox (Stock image)
A pair of gloves at fur free retailer House of Fraser tested positive for rabbit. A range of shoes sold by the firm Parmars at a store in Westfield Stratford, which were sold as using fake fur, actually contained rabbit, mink and fox.
A bobble hat sold on Amazon UK as faux fur tested positive for raccoon dog, despite the fact that the listing included an on-screen no-fur assurance.
Another bobble hat sold on fashion boutique website Lily Lulu as faux fur was labelled as 10 per cent marmot on delivery. It subsequently tested positive for raccoon dog.
Selling products from cat, dog and seal fur is illegal in the UK and across the EU. However, imports of fur from a range of other species such as fox, rabbit, mink, coyote, raccoon dog and chinchilla are allowed.
A pair of gloves at fur free retailer House of Fraser tested positive for rabbit (Stock image)
Claire Bass, of HSI, said: We know the vast majority of British people reject the inherent cruelty of the fur trade but they are not getting the right information as consumers to avoid it.
Missguided stressed that it had a strict no fur policy and removed the shoes from sale after being informed of the findings.
House of Fraser has stopped selling a pair of gloves identified as having rabbit fur trim. It said: We have a strict no fur policy and ensure all of our suppliers and brand partners are aware of this.
We would never knowingly mislead our customers. We are extremely concerned that fur can be mislabelled in this way.
Queensland Labor has been accused of a cover-up which 'stinks to high heaven' for withholding a report into the tragic death of toddler Mason Jet Lee.
Mason was found dead in June 2016 at his Sunshine Coast home, with horrific injuries covering the 22-month-old boy head to toe.
His mother Anne Maree Lee, 27, stepfather William O'Sullivan, 37, and friend Ryan Robert Hodson, 17, are arrested and charged with manslaughter.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday announced the report into the death would only be released publicly after charges had been dealt with.
Mason Jet Lee was found dead in June 2016 at his Sunshine Coast home, with horrific injuries covering the 22-month-old boy head to toe
Queensland Family and Child Commissioner Cheryl Vardon handed down her report into the 'post-death' reaction to the 22-month-old's death, which recommended an overhaul of the way such cases are reviewed by government departments
Queensland Family and Child Commissioner Cheryl Vardon handed down her report into the 'post-death' reaction to the 22-month-old's death, which recommended an overhaul of the way such cases are reviewed by government departments.
In an unprecedented move, the government sought the advice of Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Byrne QC who advised cabinet not to release the more comprehensive Child Death Case Review Panel's report.
Mr Byrne told cabinet if the contents of the report were made public, it could prejudice the manslaughter and child cruelty trials.
Ms Palaszczuk defended cabinet's decision and promised to release the panel's report once the court cases were finalised.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday announced the report into the death would only be released publicly after charges had been dealt with
'I will make no comment that will jeopardise justice for Mason. The community wants justice, I want justice,' the premier said.
But the Liberal National Party took aim, with child safety spokesperson Ros Bates alleging a cover-up which 'stinks to high heaven'.
'The premier announced last year that she would release all of the findings into Mason Jet Lee's death. What we see now is a report that tells you nothing,' Ms Bates said.
'The Palaszczuk Labor government has had 10 months to come up with solutions about what happened to Mason Lee and yet today, we are seeing a cover-up.'
Ms Bates pledged to release the report in full if the LNP were elected to government before the court matters are finalised.
The election is scheduled before May next year, which is likely to occur before all three of the accused go to trial.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is pictured at a press conference in Brisbane in February
Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls also criticised the timing of the decision, saying the government cynically wedged it between Cyclone Debbie and Easter.
Mason was found dead in his Caboolture home in June 2016, suffering from horrific injuries, and it was determined he died from a ruptured bowel.
Three Child Safety staff were stood down in November last year over the case, and another nine are facing disciplinary action following a departmental review.
While not making specific comment about any pre-death findings, Ms Vardon said she was 'concerned and upset' by what had happened to Mason.
'In the lead-up to his death he had many eyes on him, but no one truly saw him, or did enough to protect him,' she said.
The government announced it would implement several of Ms Vardon's recommendations, including $40.8 million over four years to provide more frontline staff to work with families, as well as better co-ordination of health and child protection systems.
The young medical student who heroically stopped a man from attacking a woman outside a bar in New Orleans and almost lost his life as a result is breaking his silence in an interview on Today.
Peter Gold, 26, will appear on the NBC morning show on Tuesday, April 11, to talk about the incidents that occurred on the night of November 20, 2015, when he was shot in the stomach by Euric Cain around 4:30am as he tired to save the woman that the gunman was assaulting on the street.
'I saw a man dragging a girl across the ground, I did not think, my instincts took the best of me and the next thing I knew I was out of the car yelling at the man,' says Gold in a preview of the interview.
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Hero: Peter Gold (above aat his mediscal school graduation last year) will speak about throwing himself in front of a gunman to save a woman's life in New Orleans on Today this Tuesday morning
Shot: The 26-year-old was driving by a woman who was being dragged by Euric Cain in November 20, 2015 and immediately jumped out of his car (Gold being shot by Cain in the stomach on left and almost in the head on right)
After Gold was shot in the stomach Cain then tried to shot the young man in the head, but his gun jammed and he fled the scene.
The entire incident was captured on surveillance video, which up until this point Gold has never seen.
'When I was in the hospital I did not watch the news on television so at the time I had no clue this was being shown worldwide,' explains Gold.
'I was there, I saw it all.'
That will change however on Tuesday, when he will sit through the terrifying moment on Today.
Recovery: 'I did not think, my instincts took the best of me and the next thing I knew I was out of the car yelling at the man,' says Gold (above in his hospital bed after the incident)
Cain was arrested three days later and has since been sentenced to 54 years in prison on a number of charges, which also include rape and armed robbery.
The woman was treated for minor injuries and released, and her identity has never been revealed given the nature of the crime.
Gold meanwhile recovered from his injuries and went on to graduate from medical school.
He will share much more about his life, and his thoughts on that night, Tuesday on Today.
A woman has was shocked to find a venomous red back spider hidden in her broccoli as she chopped her vegetables for the week.
Tamahra Moore, 32, had a close encounter with the deadly arachnid on Sunday, after buying the broccoli at Coles North Ward, Queensland.
'I was chopping all my veggies up for the week when I saw a flash of black and red, the bloody thing just crawled out,' she told the Townsville Bulletin.
Tamahra Moore, 32, had a close encounter with a deadly red back spider after it crawled out of her Coles-bought broccoli as she chopped it
The commercial lawyer said she could have easily been bitten by the spider.
She removed the stem and placed the remaining florets and her eight-legged intruder into a plastic container and returned it to the Townsville-based store.
'I called the supermarket so they could go check the rest of their stock and they didn't believe me so I took the container in and the ladies on the front counter freaked out,' she said.
'They got the produce manager who said he had heard about it but had never seen it. He asked to keep it so he could show the distribution centre team and I said 'that's fine', I didn't know what to do with it.'
Ms Moore threw out the remaining broccoli and says the experience has left her feeling uneasy about cooking with the vegetable again.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for comment.
In an emotional courthouse speech, a young woman spoke to her older brother who was sentenced to 32 years in prison for sexually abusing her as a child.
Kathryn 'Katie' Bailey, 23, broke down in tears several times during as she addressed her sibling James Bailey, 31, in a Syracuse, New York court room on Thursday.
He was found guilty on two felony counts of sexual abuse after assaulting Katie repeatedly for four years beginning when she just was nine years old.
James chose not to speak when given the opportunity. County Court Judge Stephen Dougherty told James that he 'betrayed every possible human instinct of care and devotion to a child.' People reported.
During James's trial, he was asked what the first word was that came to his head when he thought about his relationship with his sister Katie, to which he responded: 'Curiosity'.
Katie had the opportunity to respond to her brother, who faced her from just a few feet away, shackled and awaiting transport to his decades-long prison sentence.
Kathryn 'Katie' Bailey broke down in tears several times during as she addressed her brother James, 31, in a Syracuse, New York court room on Thursday after he was sentenced to 32 years in prison for sexually abusing her when she was a child
'It was sexual abuse, it was not curiosity,' Katie said.
'Do you really think so little of what you did to me?'
Katie continued: 'You try to blame your substance and alcohol abuse on dad, but in reality, James, it was your mind dealing and processing with your guilt.'
James, 31, is appealing his prison sentence with the defense that he was under the influence of drugs during the time he confessed the abuse to police.
At the age of 17, James was primarily entrusted with his sister's care because their mother worked long hours, and their father traveled frequently for his job.
Katie decided to finally speak out about the abuse more than a decade later after her family reportedly disowned James for his drug abuse in 2013. The stress of remaining silent about the abuse brought on seizures and emotional issues for Katie, News Channel 9 reported.
'You stand here today, and throughout this entire prosecution with the mindset that you don't deserve this,' Katie said.
As she spoke, her brother stood with his body facing the judge, but his head turned and watched unemotionally as his tearful sister speak about the impact his abuse had on her life.
Katie began laughing incredulously through her tears when she discussed her brother's statement on the stand that 'curiosity' motivated his abuse.
'After hearing that word 'curiosity' the trauma for me continued,' she said.
'Just when I thought the memories and the way I felt was enough to make me cold and numb inside, you managed to damage and hurt me again.'
Katie decided to finally speak out about the abuse more than a decade later after her family reportedly disowned James for his drug abuse
She then began sobbing, and reflected on the gravity of the prison sentence handed down to her brother - 32 years. A judge has banned him from contacting Katie for the next four decades.
He previously turned down a plea deal that would have granted him 13 to 15 years in jail, and would have spared his sister from testifying at his trial.
'How does possibility of 32 years sound to you?' she asked. 'That's 11,680 days and 280,000 hours. I'm positive that number will matter to you.'
'However long I live, I will have a life sentence,' she continued.
'I have the rest of my life to bear the weight of this abuse, and that is that. I will never forget what you have done to me. I will never forget how it felt through those dark days.'
Despite the unbelievable trauma Katie experienced as a child, she now plans to dedicate her life to advocating for other children who are victims of sexual abuse.
She is now pursuing a second degree in Criminology from the State University of New York, according to her social media page.
Finishing her speech, she told her brother: 'To be honest, I'm not sure how to end this. I've been waiting for this day for years.
'I suppose a goodbye is an order, but I'd like to say one last thing. I don't hate you. I hate what you did.
'But I hope you and your self centered, egotistical a** remembers my last words to you and you'll be reminded every single day that you're in prison for your curiosity.'
While laser weapons have been a staple in science fiction films for decades, the US military is inching closer to making these a reality.
Lockheed Martin has announced a 60 kW laser weapon that soon will be installed on an Army truck for testing against mortars and small drones.
And experts believe that lasers even more powerful than this could be widely used as soon as 2020.
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While laser weapons have been a staple in science fiction films for decades, the US military is inching closer to making these a reality
LOCKHEED'S LASER Lockheed Martin's laser is 60-kilowatt, and invisible to the naked eye. By focusing the beam onto a target, the technology rapidly heats the inside of an incoming mortar round, causing it to explode mid-air. This allows it to take out a drone from a distance of about 500 metres. The laser weapon can also pierce the outer skin of a drone, taking out key circuits and making it crash. Advertisement
Lockheed Martin's 60-kilowatt laser weapon can take out a drone from a distance of about 500 metres, by keeping its beam locked onto the target for a few seconds, according to Jim Murdoch, an international business development director at Lockheed.
But unlike in the movies, the laser beam is invisible to the naked eye.
By focusing the beam onto a target, the technology rapidly heats the inside of an incoming mortar round, causing it to explode mid-air.
This is an impressive feat, considering the round is moving at hundreds of miles per hour.
The laser weapon can also pierce the outer skin of a drone, taking out key circuits and making it crash.
For the moment, the lasers being tested are all of about this same power.
But Mark Gunzinger, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, sees that relatively small output increasing rapidly.
The US Navy has since 2014 been testing a 30-kilowatt laser on one of its warships, the USS Ponce (pictured)
WHAT COULD A LASER BE USED FOR? While the US Navy 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
Within just a few years, he expects far more powerful prototypes of more than 150 kilowatts.
Such a laser could knock out a missile sideways on, where it is most vulnerable.
He said special operations forces want to test such a system by 2020 on an AC-130 gunship that specializes in ground support for troops.
And within six to eight years, US forces could begin using laser systems of more than 300 kilowatts, he added.
That degree of power could knock out an incoming missile head-on.
The US military is also weighing the possibility of mounting lasers on drones flying at very high altitudes, making them capable of shooting down ballistic missiles shortly after launch.
Within just a few years, experts believe that far more powerful prototypes of more than 150 kilowatts will be used. Such a laser could knock out a missile sideways on, where it is most vulnerable (artist's impression)
Another bonus for the military from lasers is the promise of seemingly unending and cheap firepower.
Unlike conventional canons that need shells, laser canons are limited only by the amount of electricity that can be generated.
Mr Gunzinger deems lasers as especially promising on warplanes, which could potentially get an unlimited reservoir of firepower to defend against adversaries' missiles.
'An aircraft doesn't have to return to base to upload more weapons. It could refuel and continue to operate with its nearly unlimited magazine,' he said.
Unlike conventional canons that need shells, laser canons are limited only by the amount of electricity that can be generated
But before laser technology can be integrated into combat planes, it must first be shrunk in size.
Currently engineers are running into physical limitations on how much portable power can be produced, and ways of cooling the technology.
Lockheed Martin wants to increase the power of its truck-mounted laser.
Mr Murdoch said: 'For a vehicle like this, there will be some engineering limits. We will run out of space...that's the kind of challenge we are working.'
By focusing the beam onto a target, the technology rapidly heats the inside of an incoming mortar round, causing it to explode mid-air (artist's impression)
But industry reps and military officials say there's only one thing stopping lasers from garnering widespread operational use: government funding.
Lawmakers recalled a lengthy program that cost more than $5 billion (4 billion) in which a Boeing 747 was retrofitted to carry a laser gun supposedly capable of shooting down enemy missiles.
The programme was scrapped in 2012 over concerns it could never be operationally viable.
The laser beam used in that technology was generated by chemicals so was not strong enough to take out a missile.
Freshwater pearl mussels are facing extinction in England because their sex life is not what it used to be after they stopped reproducing more than 60 years ago.
The youngest mussels in England are middle-aged and their numbers are dropping as thousands are living in solitary beds.
Historically, freshwater mussels were hunted for their much sought-after pearls but now they are struggling from river pollution from fertilisers used in farming and dwindling fish stocks.
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Although freshwater pearl mussels helped shape English history they are now facing extinction, according to the Devon Wildlife Trust due to river pollution (stock image)
FRESHWATER PEARL MUSSELS Freshwater pearl mussels live at the bottom of fast-flowing rivers. They can grow to more than 6 inches (15cm) long and live for more than a century. They are dark brown to black in colour and are normally partially or totally buried in gravel or coarse sand. These ageing shellfish have a strange lifestyle which involves hanging on to the gills of salmon or trout for the first year of their lives - which means their population are closely tied to fish stocks. As the name suggests, the mussel produces a pearl, Julius Caesar's love of these pearls is reputed to have been a factor in the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55BC. However, they are now more vulnerable to water pollution and engineering works in rivers. Advertisement
Freshwater pearl mussels live at the bottom of fast-flowing rivers and are much larger than normal mussels.
They can grow to more than 6 inches (15cm) long and live for more than a century.
Although these species helped shape English history they are now facing extinction, according to the Devon Wildlife Trust.
'Most populations stopped breeding in the 1950s,' said Izzy Moser, head of the freshwater mussel project at the Devon Wildlife Trust, which is raising money for a captive breeding programme.
'The whole southern populations have nearly been wiped out,' Ms Moser told The Times.
'It's amazing there are still any here.'
The species are dark brown to black in colour and are normally partially or totally buried in gravel or coarse sand.
The Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) has said that none of England's mussel populations are classed as sustainable.
These ageing shellfish have a strange lifestyle which involves hanging on to the gills of salmon or trout for the first year of their lives which means their population are closely tied to fish stocks.
The mussels have to live with fish in order to reproduce and Devon Wildlife Trust has now started to breed them in captivity to try and stop their decline
As the name suggests, the mussel produces a pearl and Julius Caesar's love of these pearls is reputed to have been a factor in the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55BC.
Other pearl-enthusiasts include Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn and Sir Walter Raleigh, a Tudor explorer and scholar.
Pearl fishing, although illegal now, has been cited as one factor in reducing the density of populations and causing the breeding problems.
However, English mussels are now more vulnerable to water pollution and engineering works in rivers.
Freshwater mussels used to be widespread in England but now rivers show only scattered collections of individuals with no sign of populations reproducing
Scotland has a more sustainable mussel population as its rivers are fed by mountains rather than farmland which generally makes them less polluted.
The mussels have to live with fish in order to reproduce and Devon Wildlife Trust has now started to breed them in captivity to try and stop their decline.
The team took 11 pregnant females from Torridge in Devon and moved them to a fish farm where they live in tanks with 250 fish.
As the name suggests, the mussel produces a pearl and Julius Caesar's love of these pearls is reputed to have been a factor in the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55BC (stock image)
WHERE ARE THEY FOUND? The freshwater pearl mussel, Margaritifera margaritifera, is widely distributed in Europe, the Baltics and north-eastern North America. However, it has suffered decline and even extinction in every part of this range. Outside Britain and Ireland populations of international importance survive in fewer than 50 rivers worldwide. Only a few populations survive in mainland Europe and most populations have mussels that are only above 30 years old with little signs that they are continuing to reproduce. They used to be widespread in England but now rivers show only scattered collections of individuals with no sign of populations reproducing. Scotland is the last remaining stronghold of the population and has populations in more than 50 rivers. It has a more sustainable mussel population as its rivers are fed by mountains rather than farmland which generally makes them less polluted. Advertisement
Initial tests suggest the scheme is going well - tests on trout in the fish farm showed they had 168 mussel larva on their gills.
'It was the first signs of breeding success for freshwater pearl mussels from the River Torridge in more than 50 years,' Ms Moser said.
Freshwater mussels are found in all non-glaciated continents and there are around 900 species globally.
The freshwater pearl mussel, Margaritifera margaritifera, is widely distributed in Europe, the Baltics and north-eastern North America.
However, it has suffered decline and even extinction in every part of this range.
Outside Britain and Ireland populations of international importance survive in fewer than 50 rivers worldwide.
Only a few populations survive in mainland Europe and most populations have mussels that are only above 30 years old with little signs that they are continuing to reproduce.
They used to be widespread in England but now rivers show only scattered collections of individuals with no sign of populations reproducing.
Scotland is the last remaining stronghold and supports populations in more than 50 rivers, mainly in the Highlands.
A 33 million year old fossilised skeleton of a turtle is set to go under the hammer in London this month.
The ancient creature roamed the world in the Oligocene epoch at the end of the Paleogene Period.
At the time it became buried the composition of the earth was vastly different and that area of land enjoyed warmer temperatures, making it a suitable habitat for turtles.
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The turtle (pictured) was unearthed in an area of South Dakota known as the White River Badlands about five years ago and is now being sold at Christie's auction house
ANCIENT TURTLE Scientific tests carried out after its excavation found it to be of the now extinct Stylemys genus. Stylemys lived in temperate and subtropical areas of North America, Europe and Asia. It was common in the prehistoric Badlands in the US - notably Nebraska and South Dakota. The turtle was common in the prehistoric Badlands in the US - notably Nebraska and South Dakota. Unlike modern turtles, stylemys had primate jaw muscles and would have been herbivorous. Advertisement
This ancient reptile was unearthed in an area of South Dakota known as the White River Badlands about five years ago.
Scientific tests carried out after its excavation found it to be of the now extinct Stylemys genus, which lived in temperate and subtropical areas of North America, Europe and Asia.
Since then it has been in the hands of a private collector, who is now selling it through Christie's auction house, which estimates it to be worth up to 3,500 ($4,340).
The turtle was common in the prehistoric Badlands in the US - notably Nebraska and South Dakota.
Unlike modern turtles, stylemys had primate jaw muscles and would have been herbivorous.
James Hyslop, head of the auction house's science department, said: 'Fossilisation depends on a very rare set of circumstances so it's very unusual for it to occur, especially in turtles.
'Most animals that die are scavenged and ripped apart by others but this one clearly sunk into the ground without that happening.
'Then over the course of millions of years it got buried deeper and deeper until eventually becoming a fossil.
Scientific tests carried out after its excavation found it to be of the now extinct Stylemys genus, which lived in temperate and subtropical areas of North America, Europe and Asia
Scientific tests carried out after its excavation from the White River Badlands found it to be of the now extinct Stylemys genus, which lived in areas of North America, Europe and Asia
Fossilisation occurs over time as sediment covers the remains, causing the bones, teeth and shell to become encased.
'And miraculously all these years later the remains are dug back up, although in this case we're not entirely sure how that came about', said Mr Hyslop.
'There is a strong market for fossils and we expect something of this quality and age to attract significant interest at auction', he said.
After thousands of years the remaining body parts dissolve and are replaced with rock-like minerals, which in this case is limestone.
This process results in a fossil which is a like for like copy of the original object.
The fossilised turtle, weighing around 4lbs (2kg), will be sold in London on April 27.
When Isambard Kingdom Brunel began designing the Great Western Railway, he wanted to make it the flattest and straightest train route in the world.
Legend has it that when it came to designing part of the route known as the Box Tunnel - the railway passage that connects Bath to Chippenham - he used his cunning engineering skills to add a personal touch.
Brunel is said to have aligned the tunnel so that the light would shine through at sunrise just once a year - on his birthday.
Rail workers have tested the 180-year-old legend that Isambard Kingdom Brunel deliberately aligned the Box Tunnel (pictured) so that the sun would fill the railway passage on his birthday
THE BOX TUNNEL The Box Tunnel is a railway tunnel dug through Box Hill that runs from the town of Chippenham to the ancient city of Bath. It is a significant structure on the Great Western Main Line. Construction began in 1836, and the tunnel opened in 1841. At the time of its completion, it was the longest railway tunnel in existence and it remains in daily use, more than 160 years later. Advertisement
Over the weekend, rail workers put the 180-year-old legend to the test by heading out at dawn on April 9, the birthday of the famous British engineer, to take photographs of light travelling through the tunnel.
The theory suggests that the sun should be visible from the western Box end of the 1.83 mile-long (three km) tunnel at dawn.
Great Western Railway (GWR) workers took a series of mesmerising pictures at 6.27am.
The sun rose and seem to prove the legend - shining straight into the tunnel.
But the team didn't see the light shine through the full length of the railway passage, suggesting it was simply a myth.
The legend has fascinated scientists and mathematicians for decades and in 1985, researchers from the National Railway Museum in York proved that the myth was mathematically impossible in a scientific paper.
Great Western Railway (GWR) workers took a series of mesmerising pictures at 6.27am. The sun rose and seem to prove the myth - shining straight into the tunnel
But the team didn't see the light shine through the full length of the railway passage. The legend had previously been disproved by a group of mathematicians from the National Railway Museum in York
'Had it indeed been Brunel's intention to celebrate his own birthday in terms of the alignment of the Box Tunnel, it is problematical as to whether or not allowance would have been for atmospheric refraction,' the scientists wrote in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association.
'Preserving the same inclination, or gradient, it can be shown that had this not been allowed for the tunnel alignment should have been moved almost exactly one degree more to the north.
'These not insubstantial discrepancies from the actual alignment would suggest that there had been no deliberate attempt at solar coincidence on Brunel's part.'
The Box Tunnel (pictured) is a railway tunnel dug through Box Hill in 1836 and is a significant structure on the Great Western Main Line
The Box Tunnel is part of the Great Western Railway and runs from Chippenham to the ancient city of Bath in the west of England
The Box Tunnel is a railway tunnel dug through Box Hill and is a significant structure on the Great Western Main Line.
Construction began in 1836, and the tunnel opened in 1841.
At the time of its completion, it was the longest railway tunnel in existence and it remains in daily use, more than 160 years later.
The Box Tunnel near Bath is the longest railway tunnel in existence and it remains in daily use in modern day, more than 160 years later
A plaque marking the construction of the Box Tunnel. Brunel, who was born on April 9, 1806, was one of the most versatile and audacious engineers of the 19th century
Brunel, who was born on April 9, 1806, was one of the most versatile and audacious engineers of the 19th century.
He built a network of tunnels, bridges and viaducts for the Great Western Railway as well as the SS Great Britain steamship and Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge.
In 1833, he was appointed their chief engineer and work began on the line that linked London to Bristol.
The Google Pixel 2 phone will launch later this year and insiders suggest it could have a curved screen display like the Samsung Galaxy S8.
Reports suggest Google is investing $880 million (709 million) in LG's flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens.
The original Google Pixel phone was launched in October 2016 and the 'Pixel 2' is due to be launched this autumn which would make it in direct competition with Apple's iPhone 8.
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Reports suggest the Google Pixel 2 phone, which is launching later this year, could have a curved screen display like the Samsung Galaxy S8 (pictured)
GOOGLE PIXEL 2 The original Google Pixel phone was launched in October 2016. The 'Pixel 2' is due to be launched this autumn which would be in direct competition with Apple's iPhone 8. Reports suggest Google are investing $880 million (709 million) in LG's flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens. The report suggests that LG is yet to sign the massive investment offer proposed by Google. Advertisement
Increasingly curved screen are being adopted by smartphones and it seems Google want to move in this direction too, according to South Korea's Electronic Times.
The report suggests that LG is yet to sign the massive investment offer proposed by Google.
Last month, the head of hardware at Google confirmed that the firm is developing a second-generation Pixel for the premium smartphone market.
The confirmation comes from Rick Osterloh during an interview with AndroidPT.
There is an annual rhythm in the industry, Osterloh said in the interview.
So, you can count on us to follow it
You can count on a successor this year, even if you don't hear a date from me now."
Reports suggest Google is investing $880 million (709 million) in LG's flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens for their Pixel 2 handset (pictured is first-generation Pixel handsets)
Google debuted the first smartphones in its Pixel line during a conference in October 2016, a Pixel and the 5.5-inch Pixel XL.
Both phones are available in 32 GB ($649 for the Pixel, $769 for the XL) and 128 GB ($749 for the Pixel, $869 for the XL) prices that surpass Apples iPhone line.
Although the Pixel 2 release would fall around the same time as the iPhone 8, Google is focusing on the upper price segment of the market.
Osterloh stated that Pixel stays premium and the firm will leave lower price segments to other manufacturers.
The original Google Pixel phone (pictured) was launched in October 2016 and the 'Pixel 2' is due to be launched this autumn which would be in direct competition with Apple's iPhone 8
The firm launched the Pixel line around the same time as the iPhone 7 was revealed.
'We believe the next big thing will be at the intersection of hardware and software, Osterloh said in October. And he also took aim at Apple, saying the phone has 'no unsightly phone bump'.
Brian Rakowski of Google said the phone was 'designed inside and out to be smart'.
He said the Pixel's new camera was better than the iPhone 7.
'It's the best smartphone camera anyone has made,' he said.
GOOGLE PIXEL SPECS The Pixel runs on a Snapdragon 821 2.15GHz processor. The handsets come in 32GB or 128GB models, with microSD card slots enabling an additional 256GB of storage. The first-generation Pixel is be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chip They have 12.3 and 8-megapixel cameras and a full HD AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass protection. Fast charging gives 7 hours of use in 15 minutes Included is Google's AI assistant, Allo for messaging and Duo for video calls. Free online storage for pictures and video Is be available in US on Verizon and in an unlocked version from $649. The first-generation handset range includes two new phones, a Pixel and the 5.5-inch Pixel XL Advertisement
If an autumn release date is in order, Googles second-generation phone would go head-to-head with Apples launch of its rumored iPhone 7s and highly-anticipated iPhone 8 which could give Google some competition.
Apples upcoming flagship is said to be packed with cutting-edge technology and have a sleek design.
The rumours, which have been surfacing since last year, suggest that the handset will have an OLED wraparound screen, biometric technology and even wireless charging.
And although Google has its sights set on the premium market the iPhone has been speculated to cost $1,000 (806).
Forget pork with apple sauce and mashed potatoes with beef.
Scientists have discovered a range of new food pairings that they claim are tastier than our traditional choices.
According to their research, we might be better having pork with a dash of vanilla and slices of beef with a chocolate sauce, while roast chicken could be enjoyed with a side order of seaweed.
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For generations, roast dinners have been enjoyed with a range of traditional accompaniments like apple sauce, mustard, horseradish and bread sauce. But new research suggests these condiments may not be the ideal pairings for the quintessential British roast
THE BIZARRE FOOD PAIRINGS - Forget coffee and cream, scientists say it goes better with garlic - Gravy and beef are not the best pair. Chocolate sauce may work better, they claim - Matcha tea and sour cherries are the perfect combination - Strawberries and cream could be replaced by strawberries and mussels - White chocolate and caviar are a winning pair, Cambridge scientists claim - Ditch the apple sauce when eating pork and try vanilla - Rosemary and roast chicken should be replaced by seaweed and roast chicken - Try goat's cheese with lamb instead of mint sauce Advertisement
These suggestions are the result of research by scientists at the University of Cambridge who examined the chemical compounds that are shared by different ingredients.
They analysed the flavour compounds in 56,498 online recipes to see how the components of different dishes relate to each other.
Dr Sebastian Ahnert, a physicist who studies biochemical networks and led the research, said the study had allowed them to look for some unexpected foods that could be paired together.
He said: 'It is led to something called computational gastronomy. We can use datasets about food compounds to change the way we experience food.'
Dr Ahnert presented his findings at a conference in Oxford last week entitled Hacking Flavour Perception.
He said his research had revealed that recipes from North America, western Europe and Latin America tend to use ingredients that share a lot of the same flavour compounds.
By contrast, recipes from East Asia did not appear to pair ingredients that shared compounds to nearly the same degrees.
However, he said some of these ingredients instead may contain compounds that act on the same odour receptors in the nose, and so become compatible.
The researchers analysed the flavour compounds in 56,498 online recipes to see how the components of different dishes relate to each other. Pictured is a web, showing the results
Using this information he has been able to identify some unexpected links between ingredients that might make some interesting foods.
Coffee, for example, was found to share a number of compounds with garlic and beef. Beef was also found to be compatible with chocolate.
Matcha tea went well with sour cherries while strawberries might actually be worth trying with mussels rather than the traditional cream.
The researchers examined the chemical compounds that are shared by different ingredients. Beef was surprisingly found to be compatible with chocolate
White chocolate was found to be a good match with caviar while pork goes well with vanilla.
Roast chicken might be worth matching with kelp seaweed instead of bread sauce while lamb would go well with goats cheese.
Dr Ahnert, however, warned that some of his attempts to create new dishes with these matches have been less than successful.
He said: 'I have tried out a number of things from the datasets.
According to the findings, roast chicken might be worth matching with kelp seaweed instead of bread sauce while lamb would go well with goats cheese
'Coffee and potato share a lot of compounds so I made mashed potato with milky coffee. It was horrible. But I've had a dish in Paris with coffee and potato that worked.
'So the execution is a big part it and that is where chefs can really help.
'Cooking can also alter compounds so we need to do some work predicting how that can change a flavour profile.'
Professor Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford who specialises in playing with flavour and author of a new book Gastrophysics, said pairing flavour compounds could produce interesting new dishes, but that sometimes the order in which the foods are eaten can be important.
The team identified some unexpected links between ingredients that might make some interesting foods. White chocolate was found to be a good match with caviar while pork goes well with vanilla
Matcha tea went well with sour cherries while strawberries might actually be worth trying with mussels rather than the traditional cream
Drinking orange juice after cleaning your teeth, for example, can leave the drink tasting bitter rather than sweet because of the action of compounds in toothpaste on your taste buds.
Drinking water after eating a globe artichoke can have the opposite effect, making water taste sweet.
He added: 'Even if different ingredients share aroma compounds, that does not guarantee that they will necessarily be present at a level that is detectable.'
Archaeologists have unearthed an Iron Age settlement hidden beneath the shrine of one of Norway's most iconic saints King Olaf II Haraldsson.
Using laser scanning technology, experts have found an even older church and an Iron Age settlement underneath the church in the city of Trondheim in Norway.
Researchers believe that the hidden settlement was a thriving market place around 1,000 years ago.
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Using laser scanning technology, experts have found an even older church and an Iron Age settlement underneath the church in the city of Trondheim in Norway
WHAT DID THEY FIND? Using laser scanning technology, experts have found an even older church and an Iron Age settlement underneath the church dedicated to King Olaf in the city of Trondheim in Norway. The Iron Age settlement most likely belonged to a Viking Age 'kaupang', or market place. The oldest of the two churches is constructed with heavy posts dug down from the upper horizon of the sand. The site was sealed under thick deposits of natural sand that have been formed by a flooding of the river Nidelva. Advertisement
The location of the mysterious St Clement's church was unknown until last year when archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) made the momentous discovery.
In February the team started the second phase of excavations and discovered that there were Iron age settlements hidden below the original shrine where Viking King Olaf Haraldsson was enshrined.
Dr Anna Petersen, leader of the excavation, said: 'We have identified rich remains of an Iron Age settlement on the site, most likely belonging to a Viking Age "kaupang", sealed under thick deposits of natural sand that have been formed by a flooding of the river Nidelva.'
A kaupang is a Norse term for a market place.
'The oldest of the two churches is constructed with heavy posts dug down from the upper horizon of the sand,' Dr Petersen said, according to Fox News.
'We will soon begin to remove the remains of the upper church and are eager to find more posts and postholes relating to the previous building in the sand,' Dr Petersen explained.
'And as the last of many highlights from this spectacular site we will explore the Viking Age settlement', she said.
Researchers uncovered the wooden foundations of St Clement's church, in which Olaf's body was enshrined after his sainthood in November last year.
Researchers uncovered the wooden foundations of St Clement's church, in which Olaf's body was enshrined after his sainthood in November last year. Pictured is a slab which could be the base of the altar where the king's coffin was laid
As the number of pilgrims - called the cult of Olaf - grew, the saint's body was moved to a larger church and eventually to Trondheim's cathedral, and St Clement's was destroyed and its location lost.
But the team at NIKU believes wooden foundations uncovered in its recent dig date back to the time of Olaf and are likely the site of St Clement's.
They claim a stone found at one end of the former building could be the foundation of the altar on which the Viking king's coffin was lain.
Using laser scanning technology, experts have found an even older church and an Iron Age settlement underneath the 11th century church. Pictured are the remains found at the east of the church, with a skull resting on the foundations
Excavations at the site in Trondheim revealed the stone slab (pictured) in the east of the ruined structure. In February the team started the second phase of excavations and discovered that there was Iron age settlements hidden below the original shrine where Viking King Olaf Haraldsson was enshrined
Olaf II Haraldson was proclaimed a saint after being killed in battle, with his remains coming to rest at a church in the city of Trondheim
Dr Petersen said: 'This is a unique site in Norwegian history in terms of religion, culture and politics.
'Much of the Norwegian national identity has been established on the cult of sainthood surrounding St Olaf, and it was here it all began.'
A number of remains found at the site are believed to have come from a graveyard, established at the church in the centuries that followed Olaf's death.
Evidence suggests that the burial grounds were revered, with graves stacked on top of one another.
Researchers are still trying to ascertain more information about skeletons found at the site and determine when they were buried, but it is thought they were laid to rest many years after the saintly Olaf.
NIKU has produced a 3D model of the site, detailing the position of the structures found and what they could represent.
The site at Trondheim is covered during the excavation last year, with researchers identifying the foundations of the lost church as well as a number of skeletons, possibly from the cult of Olaf
The Viking King ruled Norway in the early 11th century at a difficult time for the Norse, after kingdoms of a fractured Norway were unified and people began to give up the old gods for Christianity.
At the time, King Canute of Denmark had allied with Norwegian noblemen to drive the self-proclaimed King Olaf into exile in Russia.
Medieval historical accounts tell of the King being slain in battle on his return from exile.
Icelandic historian Snorri detailed how Olaf received three wounds, with the killer blow coming from a spear to the chest.
It is thought his body was carried away and buried at Trondheim.
THE VIKING KING WHO BECAME A SAINT Olaf II Haraldson was the son of King Harald Grenske - who is credited with uniting a fractured Norway. He allied with the English against the Danes, offering his services to King Ethelred before returning to take the throne of Norway from his father in 1015, reigning until to 1028. In his time, he battled the Swedes and Danes and is credited with the spread of Christianity in Norway, converting the heathens, but he was forced into exile when Danish forces partnered with Norwegian nobles who revolted against their king. Historical accounts describe Olaf's return from exile in Russia, on his way to Trondheim with an army of thousands. But before he could reach his throne his force was attacked north of the city. Historians believe King Olaf's came under attack from Danish Vikings, allied to King Canute, in the Battle of Stiklestad. Icelandic historian Snorri detailed how King Olaf received three blows during a battle with Danish vikings loyal to King Canute, with the killer blow coming from a spear to the chest. Pictured is 'King Olaf's Fall' A number of sources give differing accounts of the saint's death, from being attacked by his own men while he slept, to being caught in an ambush by the enemy. After his body was brought secretly back to Trondheim, it is believed he was buried in the sandy banks. When Olaf's coffin was dug up a year later, it is thought that his well-preserved appearance and grown hair and finger nails were miraculous. He was revered as a saint, by popular acclaim, with a cult of pilgrims visiting his shrine. The king was finally canonized in 1164, and has become the patron Saint of Norway and a mark of the country's independence. Advertisement
Written accounts detail the martyred Viking's coffin being dug up to reveal well-preserved remains a year after burial, leading to him being declared a saint.
Snorri wrote that the people of Trondheim witnessed a number of miracles attributed to the dead king's holiness.
After his coffin was opened, accounts tell of the body remaining well preserved with the hair and finger nails growing since death.
Olaf II remains an important historical figure in Norway today, immortalised in the country's coat of arms where the axe held by the golden lion representing the patron saint.
Evidence suggests that the burial grounds were revered, with graves stacked on top of one another
Coins from the period show the image of King Olaf, who reigned over Norway from 1015 to 1028
The web needs a complete rethink to prevent spying and the spread of 'nasty, mean ideas' on social media websites said its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee.
Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the web as a platform on top of the internet in 1989, said his intention in building it had been for the public to 'do good stuff'.
Instead, negative ideas were proliferating on social media sites in particular and privacy was also being compromised by online spying, he said.
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Tim Berners-Lee (picture), a London-born computer scientist who invented the web, said we need a complete rethink to prevent spying and the spread of 'nasty, mean ideas' online
THE RISE OF THE WEB The London-born physicist and computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee was working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva when he sought to find a better way for his colleagues to link up. He first proposed the WWW in 1989 and posted a prophetic summary of the project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup, saying: 'The WWW project aims to allow all links to be made to any information anywhere.' When it went live, Sir Berners-Lee, 56, said: 'We are very interested in spreading the web to other areas and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome.' And collaborate they did. By 1992, there were 50 web servers around the world and, as of Friday, there were 19.68billion pages - more than three times the world's population. In between, it has been the platform for the boom and bust of dot-com businesses in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the inexorable rise of social networking, Google and YouTube, and the more sinister art of cyber crime. Advertisement
'We need to rethink the way we build society on top of these web pages,' he told the Innovate Finance global fintech summit in London.
'How come nasty, mean ideas, seem to have travelled more prevalently than constructive ideas on Twitter sometimes? Is that the way it has been designed? Could Twitter be tweaked?'
Social media has become active in polarised political campaigns such as the US presidential elections and Britain's referendum on membership of the European Union last year.
There have also been instances of public figures being abused online, often by robots programmed to send out negative tweets.
The conclusion was that a 'complete change of strategy' was needed.
Facebook and Twitter were already rethinking approaches, he said.
Berners-Lee, who has previously criticised state-sponsored eavesdropping as well as censorship, said he had given humanity 'an open internet to play with' in the hope that they would use it in a positive manner.
He wanted it to facilitate the sharing of ideas among people with websites such as Wikipedia.
'We have tried to keep it open, we kept it royalty-free. We have kept it open in the sense of no censorship. On a good day, in a good country, we keep it free of spying.'
There was a need to analyse the effects networks have on society, Berners-Lee said.
Berners-Lee said he had given humanity 'an open internet to play with' in the hope that they would use it in a positive manner (stock image)
'We actually have to not leave people to make whatever social networks they like.'
Last week he told the Guardian newspaper that U.S. President Trump administration's decision to allow internet service providers to sign away their customers' privacy and sell customers' browsing habits was 'disgusting', after he won the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery's AM Turing award.
Despite the web being world-wide, with the possibility of school children from India, China and Syria interacting with each other, Berners-Lee said, people were broadly parochial, choosing to communicate with others like themselves.
The brain regions key to controlling our dreams have been identified by scientists.
Researchers tracked the brain activity of people who were dreaming and found that a region called the posterior cortical 'hotzone' is key to guiding our dreams and nightmares.
Their results indicate that the differing story lines of our dreams are caused by the engagment of different parts of the posterior brain region.
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Researchers tracked the brain activity of people who were dreaming and found that a region called the posterior cortical 'hotzone' is key to guiding our dreams and nightmares (stock)
WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR BRAINS WHILE WE DREAM? Dr Lampros Perogamvros, from the Centre of Sleep and Consciousness at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told MailOnline: 'We know that a posterior cortical 'hotzone' is active when we are having a dreaming experience. 'When seeing a face, moving or perceiving speech, the same regions that are activated during these conditions in wakefulness, are also active in dreaming.' He added that lucid dreaming - where the sleeper is able to make decisions and shape the story of their dream - involves brain regions associated with insight and understanding. 'Additional areas of the frontoparietal cortex, which are typically related to cognitive control and insight, may be recruited during lucid dreams or dreams in which an individual has some degree of control over the content of the dream,' he said. Advertisement
Dr Lampros Perogamvros, from the Centre of Sleep and Consciousness at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told MailOnline: 'We have found that posterior regions in the brain are activated while we are dreaming and that activity within these regions correlates with specific dream contents, such as seeing a face, or perceiving movement.
'By monitoring these regions, we also predicted if someone is dreaming or not.'
The researchers found that activity strength in the posterior hotzone can be used to predict when a person is dreaming during non-REM (NREM) sleep with about 90 per cent accuracy.
There are five main stages of sleep.
Stages one, two, three and four, are categorised as 'non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep', and the fifth stage, is REM sleep.
Dreaming is often associated with increased high brain activity during REM sleep, whereas the absence of dreaming is typically linked with low-frequency brain activity during NREM sleep.
But there are studies that describe people waking from NREM sleep and reporting dreams and, conversely, people who deny dreaming when awakened from REM sleep.
Researchers took EEG recordings from 32 sleeping people who were woken from their sleep and then asked to report the presence or absence of a dream, as well as the dream's content and duration.
This let the researchers identify a shared pattern of brain activity changes that corresponds to dreaming in both REM and NREM sleep.
They found that during both forms of sleep, dreaming was associated with decreased strength of low-frequency brain activity in the posterior cortical hotzone.
They found that the differing story lines of our dreams engage different parts of the posterior brain region (stock image)
POSTERIOR CORTICAL 'HOTZONE' Researchers tracked the brain activity of people who were dreaming and found that a region called the posterior cortical 'hotzone' is key to guiding our dreams and nightmares. By monitoring these regions, researchers can predict if someone is dreaming or not with 90 per cent accuracy. Dr Lampros Perogamvros said the posterior cortical 'hotzone' helps shape our perception of reality. 'Stimulation of these regions can induce a feeling of being 'in a parallel world' or in a 'dream-like state' in wakefulness,' he said. 'These regions seem to offer a multisensory integration which is well-suited to support the virtual simulation of a world characterizing dreams.' Advertisement
Researchers then studied a different group of seven participants, who were all experienced in providing detailed reports on dream content.
The participants had increased activity during REM sleep in brain regions that are normally recruited to process real sensory stimuli like faces or speech.
'We know that a posterior cortical "hotzone" is active when we are having a dreaming experience,' Dr Perogamvros said.
'When seeing a face, moving or perceiving speech, the same regions that are activated during these conditions in wakefulness, are also active in dreaming.
'Not all brain is explored with electroencephalography though, as activity in subcortical regions cannot be detected with this method.'
Dr Perogamvros said the posterior cortical 'hotzone' helps shape our perception of reality.
'Stimulation of these regions can induce a feeling of being "in a parallel world" or in a "dream-like state" in wakefulness,' he said.
'These regions seem to offer a multisensory integration which is well-suited to support the virtual simulation of a world characterizing dreams.'
THE SLEEP CYCLE There are five main stages of sleep. Stages 1,2,3, and 4, are categorised as 'non-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep', and the fifth stage, is REM sleep. Stage 1 is the lightest stage of sleep. Brain activity is slightly slower than during wake time, and there is muscle tone present in the skeletal muscles. Breathing occurs at a regular rate. Stage 2 usually follow Stage 1 and represents deeper sleep. During Stage 2 sleep, the sleeper is less able to be awakened. Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep are progressively deeper stages of sleep, and a sleeper would be difficult to wake at this point. Stage 5, or REM sleep, is the stage of sleep associated with dreaming. Brain activity resembles wake time, but skeletal muscles are without movement. The breathing is more erratic and irregular. The heart rate often increases. Advertisement
He added that lucid dreaming - where the sleeper is able to make decisions and shape the story of their dream - involves brain regions associated with insight and understanding.
'Additional areas of the frontoparietal cortex, which are typically related to cognitive control and insight, may be recruited during lucid dreams or dreams in which an individual has some degree of control over the content of the dream,' he said.
The frontal region of the brain may also help us remember the stories from our dreams.
Dr Perogamvros said: 'In our study, a frontal region showed increased activity when we compared experiences with and without recall of content, suggesting that this area may be important for remembering the content of our dreams.'
The researchers believe their study proves that consciousness is not controlled in the frontoparietal network of the brain.
Instead, our sense of wakefulness could be formulated in the posterior region that is key to dreaming, Dr Perogamvros said.
'Studying this region in patients with disorders of consciousness (e.g. vegetative state) could uncover the possible occurrence of consciousness even if these patients are unresponsive,' he added.
Coptic Solidarity Condemns Palm Sunday Pogrom of Egypt's Copts, Demands International Inquiry
WASHINGTON, April 10, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- Coptic Solidarity strongly condemns the cowardly church bombings on Palm Sunday (April 9) in Tanta, and Alexandria, which murdered at least 43 and injured over 120 individuals.
Although ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, this remains to be confirmed, as it has claimed responsibility for other attacks in the past. Moreover, ISIS-Egypt is a homegrown terror network that flourishes on Islamic "theology of hatred" that prevails in Egypt.
This latest pogrom comes four months after the bombing at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Cairo, which murdered 28 Copts and injured dozens more. In February, ISIS released a video calling Copts their "favorite prey" and warning of increased attacks. In February and March over 355 Christian families were forced to flee their homes in Northern Sinai, after horrific killings of Copts by Islamists.
Despite these horrific murders, public declarations and ISIS videos, including the one released upon the martyrdom of 20 Copts in on Libya's shores which stated, "A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross," the Egyptian government has done little to protect its Christian citizens, and perpetrators became more emboldened in their heinous attacks.
Under Mr. el-Sisi's rule, the Egyptian state has failed to protect its Coptic citizens. In response to Sunday's attacks, President El-Sisi has declared a three-month emergency period and few other largely symbolic measures. He failed to dismiss his minister of interior and other security chiefs for their incompetence, or to declare specific plans to combat hate speech and incitements by his Salafi allies that is at the root of these attacks.
During his recent visit to Washington, D.C., president Sisi denied the mere existence of discrimination against Copts. Yet, the Egyptian government is directly responsible for allowing the proliferation of hateful Islamic fundamentalist ideology that has infiltrated almost every aspect of the Egyptian society and resulted in the thorough marginalization of Copts and made them second-class citizens in their own country.
Given such incompetence, denial or collusion by Egyptian authorities, Coptic Solidarity demands an independent inquiry by the UN to evaluate the Copts' situation and to recommend necessary measures to alleviate their dire situation and to avoid repetition of the tragic situation of Christians in Iraq and Syria.
Tens of thousands of fake listings are added to Google Maps each month that scam consumers into employing unaccredited contractors, a new study has found.
The search giant, in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego, has discovered scammers are a setting up their business location at a specific address, but are listing a fake suite number that the U.S. Postal Service has verified.
When a potential victim calls the 'contractors' for a service, a fraud representative gives them a cheap price quote - but the contractor coerces them into paying more on site.
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Google teamed up with the University of California over a year ago to research the actors behind fake listings. The duo has released a researcher paper based on an analysis of over 100,000 scams that were discovered on Google Maps from June 2014 to September 2015
GOOGLE MAPS HACK Google and the university found that the fraudsters would use an existing location and then setup a fake suit number that they would verify with the Postal Service. If a potential victim called the number listed, a call center operator would act as a business representative and transfer them to the unaccredited contractor. The customer would receive a cheap quote over the phone, but would be hit with an expensive bill on site. Google discovered that many of the 'actors' involved with the Google Maps scam would take on the role as a locksmith (25.7 percent) or an electrician or plumbers (14.6 percent). What made the scam successful is that services from locksmiths and plumbers are usually a dire need. Advertisement
Google teamed up with the University of California over a year ago to research the actors behind fake listings.
The duo has released a researcher paper based on an analysis of over 100,000 scams that were discovered on Google Maps from June 2014 to September 2015.
Through the investigation, the researchers had found that 74 percent of abusive listings were located in the US and India and mainly near large metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.
The team also discovered that the scam could be used to victimize consumers on other services such as Yelp and Bing Maps.
Google discovered that many of the 'actors' involved with the Google Maps scam would take on the role as a locksmith (25.7 percent) or an electrician or plumbers (14.6 percent).
Google and the university found that the fraudsters would use an existing location and then setup a fake suit number that they would verify with the Postal Service.
If a potential victim called the number listed, a call center operator would act as a business representative and transfer them to the unaccredited contractor.
The customer would receive a cheap quote over the phone, but would be hit with an expensive bill on site.
What made the scam successful is that services from locksmiths and plumbers are usually a dire need.
Google discovered that many of the 'actors' involved with the Google Maps scam would take on the role as a locksmith (25.7 percent) or an electrician or plumbers (14.6 percent). Google discovered at least 40.3% of abusive listings relate to the on-call service industry
So in the end, customers would give in to the higher price because they were usually locked out of their home or were dealing with a leaking pipe in the basement.
We find at least 40.3% of abusive listings relate to the on-call service industry, e.g., locksmiths, plumbers, and electricians, reads the study.
These service providers are typically mobile, and they usually visit customers after being contacted on the phone. In contrast, at least 12.7% of the abusive listings describe on-premise businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, where customers visit the service provider.
Google does have a protocol in place that verifies a business before making it available to users.
The search giant in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego have discovered that scammers are creating fake business location at a specific address, but are listing a fake suite number that the U.S. Postal Service has verified
For freshly created listings, we physically mail a postcard to the new listings address to ensure the location really exists, Google shared in a recent blog post.
For businesses changing owners, we make an automated call to the listings phone number to verify the change.
Unfortunately, our research showed that these processes can be abused to get fake listings on Google Maps.
The team found that these fake contractors would request hundreds of postcards verification to non-existent suites at a single address.
However, in the past year that Google and the University of California have been investigating the issue, the team has reduced the number of fake listings by 70 percent from June 2015
Alternatively, a phishing attack could maliciously repurpose freshly verified business listings by tricking the legitimate owner into sharing verification information sent either by phone or postcard, Google explained.
However, in the past year that Google and the University of California have been investigating the issue, the team has reduced the number of fake listings by 70 percent from June 2015.
Google has also shifting its verification process around to reduce fraudulent business from gaining approval.
This includes putting an end to sending numerous postcards to the same address based on many different suite numbers.
The firms has also adapted its anti-spam machine learning systems to detect data discrepancies common to fake or deceptive listings.
In a spectacular new view of Uranus, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured the most intense auroras ever observed on the icy planet.
Stunning new images, which combine observations from Voyager 2 and Hubble, show bright spots above the surface as high-energy particles collided with the upper atmosphere to set off a cosmic light show.
While these phenomena are well-studied on other planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, little is known about their occurrence on Uranus but now, direct evidence of the bursts has revealed that they rotate with the planet.
Stunning new images, which combine observations from Voyager 2 and Hubble, show bright spots above the surface as high-energy particles collided with the upper atmosphere to set off a cosmic light show
WHAT ARE AURORAS? Auroras are stunning bursts of light created when charged particles, from solar wind, moon volcanism, and other sources, get caught in a planets magnetic field. These high-energy particles are channelled to the upper atmosphere, where they interact with gas particles. On Earth, there are two types of auroras - Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', and Aurora Australis, 'dawn of the south.' These collisions emit light, in many colours although pale green and pink are common. Advertisement
The new composite image combines a view from Voyager 2, and two observations from Hubble, according to NASA.
This reveals the ghostly ring around Uranus, as well as the auroras.
These are stunning bursts of light created when charged particles, from solar wind, moon volcanism, and other sources, get caught in a planets magnetic field and are channelled to the upper atmosphere, where they interact with gas particles.
Auroras were first spotted by Hubble in 2011, and imaged again in 2012 and 2014 by an astronomer from the Paris Observatory, using Hubbles Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS).
By tracking the interplanetary shocks from two powerful bursts of solar wind, researchers spotted the most intense auroras ever observed on Uranus.
Over time, the observations revealed that the auroras rotate with the planet.
According to the space agency, these observations also led to the re-discovery of Uranus lost magnetic poles.
Since 1986 when Nasa's Voyager 2 probe flew past Uranus, we have thought the cold and windy planet has 27 moons.
While this is far fewer than the 67 and 62 satellites its neighbours Jupiter and Saturn have, this difference had been put down to the icy blue planet being much smaller than the other giants.
But researchers now think there could be two extra moons lurking within an icy ring surrounding Uranus, orbiting far closer than any moon seen before.
Since 1986 when Nasa's Voyager 2 probe flew past Uranus (pictured), we thought the cold and windy planet has 27 moons. While this is far fewer than its neighbours Jupiter and Saturn, this difference had been put down to the icy blue planet being much smaller than the other giants
WHAT'S BENEATH URANUS? They are vast, icy worlds composed almost entirely of dense clouds of gas. But the giant planets Neptune and Uranus could also have cores composed of exotic materials, research published last month shows. Scientists studying the strange compounds that form at the high pressures found in the hearts of these icy gas giants claim they may have interiors made from strange crystals. Among these compounds are the highly unstable substance orthocarbonic acid, also known as Hitler's Acid due to the Swastika shape the atoms form. Advertisement
This new finding opens up the idea Uranus is surrounded by far more moons than previously thought, as they might be hiding in this close orbit of the lesser-explored Uranus.
Only one spacecraft has flown past Uranus and none have orbited the planet, unlike the larger Saturn or Jupiter which have both hosted orbiting spacecraft - Cassini and Juno, respectively.
Researchers from the University of Idaho in Moscow took a closer look at the data gathered by Nasa's Voyager 2.
They found wavy patterns in two of Uranus' icy rings, called Alpha and Beta, which could be explained by the presence of moons.
'These patterns may be wakes from small moonlets orbiting exterior to these rings,' the researchers wrote, in a paper published on the pre-print server arXiv.
The patterns resemble those caused by the pull of Uranus's other moons, for example Cordelia and Ophelia.
'These moons are pretty tiny,' Rob Chancia, a co-author of the paper, told New Scientist.
The dark moons would be between 2.5 and 8.6 miles (4 and 14 kilometres) in diameter, if they did exist.
This would make them too small for Voyager 2 to have seen when it flew past.
A recent Hubble Space Telescope view reveals Uranus surrounded by its four major rings and by 10 of its known satellites. The new moons would be between 2.5 and 8.6 miles (4 and 14 kilometres) in diameter, if they did exist
The Voyager spacecraft launched in August and September of 1977 and spent more than 11 years exploring the likes of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Artist's impression pictured, The proposed moons would have been too small for the satellite to spot when it flew past
The Voyager spacecraft launched in August and September of 1977 and spent more than 11 years exploring the likes of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
For now, this discovery is far from confirmed, and the researchers are still in the process of publishing in a peer-reviewed journal.
In the next few months, Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute and his colleagues plan to study observations of Uranus by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble spotted Pluto's four smallest moons years before the New Horizons spacecraft visited in 2015.
NASA has called a press conference to 'discuss new results about ocean worlds.'
The US space agency says the new findings come from both the agencys Cassini spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope.
'These new discoveries will help inform future ocean world exploration - including NASAs upcoming Europa Clipper mission planned for launch in the 2020s - and the broader search for life beyond Earth,' NASA said.
It will reveal the finding at 2pm on Thursday - but refused to give any more clues.
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Jupiter's sixth-closest moon Europa is one of the most interesting bodies in our solar system when it comes to the hunt for extra terrestrial life.
WHO WILL SPEAK AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters Mary Voytek, astrobiology senior scientist at NASA Headquarters Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California Hunter Waite, Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer team lead at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio Chris Glein, Cassini INMS team associate at SwRI William Sparks, astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore Advertisement
The event, to be held at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, will include remote participation from experts across the country.
The include several members of the Cassini team, raising speculation the announcement could be a revelation about Jupiter's sixth-closest moon Europa, ahead of the 2020 Europa Clipper mission, or Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn.
Jupiter's sixth-closest moon Europa is one of the most interesting bodies in our solar system when it comes to the hunt for alien life.
The moon, which lies 500 million miles from the sun, has an ocean lying beneath its surface which makes it one of the most likely places in the solar system for life to thrive.
Because Europa has the potential to have more liquid water than we have on Earth, some have speculated that the surprise reveal could be evidence for life.
The 1,900-mile-wide (3,100 km) moon harbors a huge ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell.
Astronomers think this ocean is in contact with Europa's rocky mantle, making all sorts of interesting chemical reactions a possibility.
Instead of direct evidence of life, however, experts have said it is more likely to be a step towards finding it.
The announcement could be related to faint plumes of water spotted on the moon back in 2012. This graphic shows the location of water vapor detected over Europa's south pole in December 2012
This is an artist's concept of a plume of water vapour thought to be ejected off the frigid, icy surface of the Jovian moon Europa, about 500 million miles (800 million km) from the sun
JUPITER'S ICY MOON Jupiter's icy moon Europa is slightly smaller than Earth's moon. Europa orbits Jupiter every 3.5 days and is tidally locked - just like Earth's Moon - so that the same side of Europa faces Jupiter at all times. It is thought to have an iron core, a rocky mantle and a surface ocean of salty water, like Earth. Unlike on Earth, however, this ocean is deep enough to cover the whole surface of Europa, and being far from the sun, the ocean surface is globally frozen over. Many experts believe the hidden ocean surrounding Europa, warmed by powerful tidal forces caused by Jupiter's gravity, may have conditions favourable for life. Advertisement
The announcement could be related to faint plumes of water spotted on the moon back in 2012.
Hubble used a spectrograph to see normally invisible plumes of water vapour, shown in pictures as blue pixels above the moon.
'By far the simplest explanation for this water vapour is that it erupted from plumes on the surface of Europa,' lead author Lorenz Roth of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said at the time.
'If those plumes are connected with the subsurface water ocean we are confident exists under Europa's crust, then this means that future investigations can directly investigate the chemical makeup of Europa's potentially habitable environment without drilling through layers of ice.
'And that is tremendously exciting.'
Bill McKinnon, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, told Business Insider the announcement is likely to be connected to these plumes.
THE DEATH OF CASSINI Cassinis mission will officially terminate on September 15, in a planned plunge. Since it left earth in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004, Cassini has been touring the system with an up-close study of the planet, its rings and moons. Twenty years after leaving Earth, NASAs Cassini spacecraft is set to embark on the thrilling final chapter of its life. The craft has circled Saturn for 13 years but now, its running low on fuel During its journey, Cassini has made dramatic discoveries, including a global ocean within Enceladus and liquid methane seas on Titan. Before Nasa's Cassini probe captured the most detailed images of Saturn ever seen, it dropped its companion Huygens on the planet's largest moon, Titan. After nearly 20 years in space, the mission is drawing near its end because the spacecraft is running low on fuel. Advertisement
'A plume confirmation would be a great thing,' McKinnon added, but 'I have no insider knowledge.'
It is a shocking experiment - and a warning for drone owners around the world to keep an eye on the weather.
A new YouTube video reveals what happens when an ordinary consumer drone is hit by lighting - and it's not good news.
Tom Scott from the hit YouTube channel Amazing Places and Things You Might Not Know visited the High Voltage Laboratory at the University of Manchester to sacrifice a quadcopter (or two).
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The experiment saw two DJI Phantom 3 drones gets hit with an electrical impulse of 1.4MV at the High Voltage Laboratory at the University of Manchester.
'The High Voltage Laboratory is a hotbed for high-voltage research, so when YouTuber Tom Scott decided to pay us a visit, we just couldn't resist carrying out some of our own electrifying tests,' the University said.
The High Voltage Lab, the largest of any UK university, houses a 2 MV impulse generator, which was first shown off.
'At the University of Manchester's High Voltage Laboratory, we see what happens when a DJI Phantom 3 drone gets hit with an electrical impulse of 1.4MV - basically, a lightning strike. Actually, two Phantom 3 drones. We had a backup,' said Scott.
'Our on-call doctors, Dr Vidyadhar Peesapati and Dr Richard Gardner, set up the equipment ready for the test.
The first was short-lived.
'We ran two tests; the first drone, tethered to the ground to prevent any mishaps should it wander off course, was shocked with over 1 million volts of electricity.
'The effect was immediate; the drone came crashing down with no signs of movement.
The electricity passed straight through, flowing from one of the propellers to exit through the foot of the drone
'You can see from the video that the electricity passed straight through, flowing from one of the propellers to exit through the foot of the drone.
'Surprisingly there were no visible marks on the outside of the drone, but that doesnt mean that the insides got away unscathed; as it turns out, the electricity took the path of least resistance and fried all the sensitive internal electronics.'
The High Voltage Lab, the largest of any UK university, houses a 2 MV impulse generator, which was first shown off.
The second drone was protected it with a lightning rod made out of conductive copper tape.
The scientists carefully wrapped the tape around the drone, leaving a fetching little tail of copper sticking up next to one of the propellers. Cue the lightning machine.
'Sadly, this drone didnt survive the strike either in fact it was left in an even sorrier state than the first as the propellers were, well, propelled explosively away from the drone (this was caused by sheer force of the lightning strike),' the researchers revealed.
The University said the experiments show a growing problem.
'With the advent of drones and their increasing popularity, we have to be mindful of what happens if drone pilots end up flying their new gadgets in a lighting storm (we hope they dont, from our experience it wont end well).
'With our understanding of how aeroplanes behave in thunderstorms and how to provide protection for them, this knowledge could be applied to drone technology to ensure the drone and its pilot stays safe should they fly in adverse weather conditions.'
From sprawling temples and iconic statues to pristine beaches and natural wonders - these are among the world's most famed landmarks.
But you certainly can't please everyone.
In a collection of comically scathing reviews left on TripAdvisor over the years, tourists have slated everywhere from the Grand Canyon to Disneyland.
One traveller from Singapore described the Eiffel Tower in Paris as being merely 'a piece of rusted iron'.
Another wrote of their disappointment regarding Tumon, the most popular beach on the island of Guam, describing it as being 'too sandy'.
Here MailOnline Travel presents some of the most confounding rants on the history of the site.
Eiffel Tower - 'piece of rusted iron'
This unimpressed tourist from Singapore described Paris' famed Eiffel Tower merely as a 'piece of rusted iron', and wasn't too keen on the 'touts' circling the crowd either
Edinburgh Castle - 'the most boring place in Scotland'
Writing about Edinburgh Castle, this Scottish reviewer added: 'The displays were not very realistic or exciting and pretty cringe-worthy. The staff at the ticket booth and the lady checking tickets when we went in were friendly and helpful. The two men 'guarding' the prison, however, were the most dour-looking people ever, they were probably depressed about having to work in the most boring place in Scotland... There was a guy outside the castle dressed as Mel Gibson [...] He looked like a right pillock'
Angkor Wat - 'rubbish if it's raining'
You wat? This Scottish traveller likened Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple to 'a bit like having sex outdoors' - in that it's 'rubbish if it's raining', among other reasons
Tumon, Guam - 'too sandy'
One Hawaiian reviewer of Tumon, the most popular beach on the island of Guam, described it as being 'too sandy' in what surely must be a joke
Christ the Redeemer - 'just a concrete pillar'
For some, Brazil's Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro is a pillar of its cultural heritage. For this Japanese tourist it's 'just a concrete pillar'
Big Ben - 'a lot of fuss over nothing'
Similarly, another tourist was underwhelmed by London's Big Ben, for effectively being nothing but 'a huge clock'
Grand Canyon - 'overblown sandy ditch'
In this case, a visitor described the American Grand Canyon, considered by many as being one of nature's greatest wonders, as 'an overblown sandy ditch'
The Sphinx - 'tiny'
A British tourist described the Sphinx in Egypt as 'tiny' and suggested that photographers 'must use Photoshop to blow it up'
Statue of Liberty - 'felt like cattle'
It was far too much hassle for this visitor to New York's Statue of Liberty, who 'felt like cattle' and who wrote: 'Now I know how my ancestors felt'
Leaning Tower of Pisa - 'not even straight'
If youre a Starbucks addict, wherever you go away youre likely to chase a fix.
And youll be well catered for if you fancy a caramel macchiato in Monaco, the USA or Canada where there are more of the coffee companys outlets per million citizens than anywhere else in the world.
But you may be left craving your favourite order in South Africa, India and Colombia, which are strongly resisting the US brand's global dominance, according to surprising new data.
Monaco may only have two outlets, above, but with a population of just 38,500, it translates to 52 coffee shops per million citizens
By comparing the number of Starbucks outlets with the population of different countries, serviced apartments company Silver Door has calculated how many Starbucks there are per million inhabitants.
Surprisingly, Monaco takes the crown as offering the largest opportunity for Starbucks fans to indulge. The tiny principality may only have two outlets but with a population of just 38,500, it translates to 52 coffee shops per million citizens.
However, the USA has more Starbucks than anywhere else with 13,311 branches, meaning there are 41 stores for every million of its 324-million strong population.
Neighbour Canada comes in third with 38 outlets per million.
Aruba and the Bahamas have 26 and 27 outlets per million respectively but in reality thats three and ten stores as they have such small populations.
Starbucks has spread to many countries across the world with varying popularity. Above, a branch in Shanghai
Beyond the Seattle-founded companys neighbouring destinations the brand is next most popular with Kuwaitis.
The Arab state is home to 130 Starbucks stores despite having a population of just over four million.
Singapore and South Korea are not too far behind with 23 and 19 stores per million inhabitants respectively.
At the other end of the scale, nations that have not embraced the brand include Vietnam, which has 25 outlets for a population of over 92 million, Morocco which has just nine stores for 34 million inhabitants and Cambodia where there are just four Starbucks for a population of 15 million.
It comes as no surprise that the chain hasnt proved popular in Colombia, a country renowned for producing some of the worlds best quality coffee. Here, Starbucks is a rarity as there are just 11 outlets for a population of 49 million.
In India, a country well-known for its tea production, there are just 88 Starbucks for over one billion people.
But its South Africa which has most strongly resisted the US brand, according to the data, which found just three outlets for over 55 million people.
It wasn't all glitz and glamour when the celebrities stepped onto the red carpet last night for the biggest night in theatre last night.
All eyes were on the star-studded crowd as some A-listers committed some of the worst fashion crimes at the Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, London, on Sunday.
Game of Thrones beauty Rose Leslie, 30, got tongues wagging when she rocked a corset style sheer scarlet dress showing off a pair of huge Christian Dior boxers.
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Where are the fashion police? Ridiculous ruffles, Nancy Dell'Olio goes nude and Rose Leslie's (pictured) flashed her boxers. It's curtains for the 2017 Olivier Awards' worst dressed stars
Flashing your underwear at any A-list affair can result in a serious wardrobe malfunction and is generally avoided at all costs.
Rose, however, seemed to miss the memo as she confidently sashayed down the red carpet proudly flaunting her Dior under garments.
Rather than going for a sexy look, the starlet looked like she had pulled on a pair of her boyfriend's boxers by accident for the glamorous occasion.
Intimate: The 30-year-old got tongues wagging when she rocked a corset style sheer scarlet dress showing off a pair of huge Christian Dior boxers
No pants, no problem! She would have been better off choosing a racy red pair
While the sexy bodice structure to the gown had every potential to fulfill Hollywood glamour, teamed with the contrasting black underwear it proved a fashion disaster.
No doubt, she would have been better off choosing a racy red pair.
But the terrible choice of gear didn't appear to bother her dashing boyfriend Kit Harrington, 30, who couldn't keep his hands off his co-star all night.
Romance: The Scottish actress and her London beau Kit Harrington, 30, fell in love when they filmed the second season of Game Of Thrones in Iceland
Only eyes for you: The terrible choice of gear didn't appear to bother her dashing boyfriend as he couldn't keep his eyes off his 30-year-old girlfriend
Ruth Wilson followed Rose's lead and flashed her own pair of sizable pants on the glam red carpet.
The 35-year-old star, who was nominated for Best Actress for her role as Hedda Gabler, happily showed off her Bridget Jones knickers in the see-through frock.
Not only were Ruth's high-waisted nude-coloured knickers on full display, but her bandeau bra was also clearly visible as she walked the red carpet.
Brave choice: Ruth Wilson sported a totally sheer dress which showed off her Bridget Jones knickers as the Best Actress nominee arrived at the Olivier Awards in London on Sunday
VPL: Not only were The Affair star's high-waisted nude knickers on show but her bandeau bra was also clearly visible in the sheer sequin embellished frock
Bridget Jones pants: Ruth dared to show off her huge underwear in one of the worst fashion crimes committed on the red carpet for the Oliver Awards
And Rose and Ruth weren't the only ones guilty of an A-list style crime as Nancy Dell'Olio, 55, went all out in nude.
The former flame of Sven Goran Eriksson didn't leave much to the imagination in the transparent ensemble.
While lace is very on trend, the intricate red design barely covered the star's modesty.
And the style did nothing for her phenomenal womanly figure.
Shocker: Nancy Dell'Olio, 55, didn't leave much to the imagination in the transparent ensemble.
Disaster: The former flame of Sven Goran Eriksson barely covered her modesty in the intricate red design
Forget ravishing, Claire Sweeney's obscene ruffles looked ridiculous as she strutted her stuff in the spotlight.
She could have oozed sex appeal when she flaunted her leggy frame with the daring split up to her inner thigh.
But the over-the-top addition to the dress cramped the TV personality's style.
The Celebrity Big Brother star paired the body-con with a pair of gaudy sparkly shoes that added no glamour to her appearance.
Forget ravishing: Claire Sweeney's obscene ruffles looked ridiculous as she strutted her stuff in the spotlight
To match: She teamed the out-there attire with red colour nail polish and lipstick
Missed opportunity: She could have oozed sex appeal when she flaunted her leggy frame with the daring split up to her inner thigh
Dire accessories: The Celebrity Big Brother star paired the body-con with a pair of gaudy sparkly shoes that added no glamour to her appearance
War and Peace actress Jessie Buckley, 27, opted for a black lacy number which would have looked sensational if it wasn't marred by the outlandish bright floral design.
The embellishments on the dress proved disastrous as they brazenly detracted away from the delicate fabric of the gown.
The out-there floral design and bold colours drowned the delicate lace.
Gross: Jessie Buckley, 27, opted for a black lacy number which would have looked sensational if it wasn't marred by the outlandish bright floral design
Runaway train: The embellishments on the dress proved disastrous as they brazenly detracted away from the delicate fabric of the gown
The Real Housewives of Sydney have more in common than wealth and glamour, as it turns out that three of the women have gone under the knife.
Krissy Marsh, 45, Athena X, 40, and Matty Samaei, 43, are open about their nips and tucks, with Krissy confessing to two separate rhinoplasty procedures.
Speaking to NW magazine the former model admits, 'The reason I had two was I was into horse riding. I was 18 when I had my first one. The second one, I was 21'.
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Big change: Krissy Marsh has confessed to two separate rhinoplasty procedures
Krissy says she needed to have her nose corrected due to a deviated septum, which affected her breathing and interfered with her love of showjumping.
A deviated septum is a condition where the the bone and cartilage that divide the nasal cavity is crooked which can make breathing difficult.
The tall beauty has discussed the work she's had on the show in the past, quipping that she needed work because, 'My nose was splattered all over my face!'
Krissy also admits to having Botox and fillers but says that's all she's had done.
Speaking to NW the former model admits: 'The reason I had two was I was into horse riding. I was 18 when I had my first one. The second one, I was 21'
Looking good: The tall beauty has discussed the work she's had on the show in the past, quipping that she needed work because, 'My nose was splattered all over my face!'
Krissy's rival on the show, Athena X, has also had a nose job, and like Krissy she says the reason for the procedure was a deviated septum.
'I was forced, I had to go down that path,' she tells the publication of the nose job she had in her early 30s.
She adds that oddly the breathing issue was leading to back problems, and although the reasons for surgery were practical it did change her appearance.
New nose? Krissy's rival on the show, Athena X, has also had a nose job, and like Krissy she says the reason for the procedure was a deviated septum
Changes: 'I was forced, I had to go down that path,' she tells NW of the nose job she had in her early 30s
'My doctor said it was never going to look like it did before,' Athena tells the magazine, adding that she also had Botox, 'two years ago'.
Matty is less shy about her work as the owner of cosmetic clinic Medispa By Matty is called the Botox Queen for a reason.
The cosmetic surgery aficionado has gone under the knife for a breast augmentation, a nose job and liposuction, as well as having lip fillers and Botox injections.
Outspoken: Matty is less shy about her work as the owner of cosmetic clinic Medispa By Matty is called the Botox Queen for a reason
'I do have Botox and I had a nose job, too' she tells the publication, and adds that her augmented lips are her favourite procedure she's had.
Matty and Athena had clashed on a previous episode of the show during which Athena called Matty 'fake' but it turns out both women have had work done.
Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna resumed their rocky on-off relationship at the beginning of the month with a flirty Snapchat video that showed Rob kissing his baby momma.
The constantly scrapping couple may be trying to make a go of it for the sake of their five-month-old daughter Dream.
And on Sunday, the doting dad, 30, posted an adorable snap of his little girl in her cot captioned: 'Somebody is awake woohoo, look at that face lol.'
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Dating dad: Rob Kardashian posted an adorable snap of his five-months-old baby girl Dream in her cot on Instagram on Sunday, captioned, 'Somebody is awake woohoo, look at that face lol'
Dream looked as cute as can be in a pink baby sleeping bag with what looked like soft toys on either side of her.
With her dark curly hair framing her face, the tiny tot stared up at the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star.
The family appear to be at Blac's home in Calabasas, Calif, which she also shares with four-year-old Cairo, her son with rapper Tyga who is now seeing Rob's half-sister Kylie Jenner.
Rob and Blac, 28, became an item in late 2015 and came out together in January 2016.
Back on: Rob, 30, kised baby mama Blac Chyna, 28, in a Snapchat video she shared at the beginning of the month, six weeks after their last breakup
Things moved quickly after that with the sock entrepreneur proposing to Blac in April 2016. One month later they announced they were expecting their first child and they welcomed baby Dream in November.
'Ive been friends with Chyna for a long time,' Rob told People in August. 'She was someone I reached out to for advice.
'She would cook for me and wed just talk. Shes surrounded me with a lot of positivity. From the moment we met, I knew I wanted to be more than friends.'
Loved up: She also shared this shot as she sat on Rob's lap. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, who battles with his weight, looked noticeably thinner
Things took a turn for the worse in their relationship before Christmas when a fight nearly ended their engagement.
But the New Year appears to have been less fraught.
The two have been filming the second season of Rob & Chyna for E!, which is set to debut in the fall.
Madonna posted a makeup-free selfie to Instagram on Sunday, looking so much like Game Of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen even she realized as much.
'When Mother of Dragons can't get out of her pajamas!.....,,,,,,,,lazy Sunday!,' captioned the 58-year-old pop icon, using Daenerys' sobriquet.
She looked slightly blearily up at the camera, having slid on a lacy sleeveless black top and wound her blonde hair into a tight set of pigtails.
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'lazy Sunday': Madonna posted a makeup-free selfie to Instagram on Sunday, looking so much like Game Of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen even she realized as much
Her Instagram page has been full of treats lately, including a not-so-subtle jab at Pepsi on Wednesday in the wake of their fiercely criticized Kendall Jenner ad.
The new commercial found itself on the business end of an online thrashing over the perception that it showed Kendall ending police brutality by handing a cop a Pepsi.
Madonna's Instagram post was a double photo: one shot of herself walking down the street grasping a Coca-Cola next to a close-up emphasizing the can in her hand.
Spot the resembance: Emilia Clarke has been playing the dragon-taming royal on the smash hit HBO fantasy series since it began airing in 2011
Checkered history: Her Instagram page has been full of treats lately, including a not-so-subtle jab at Pepsi on Wednesday in the wake of their fiercely criticized Kendall Jenner ad
It's unlikely Madonna's preference for Coke is particularly new, considering the fact that when she'd starred in a Pepsi ad, it had - if possible - attracted even more fury.
Her 1989 commercial aired during The Cosby Show to an estimated audience of 250 million across 40 countries, and featured her then-new song Like A Prayer.
The day after the ad premiered, Madonna's actual music video for Like A Prayer - in which she gives herself stigmata and kisses a saint, and in which the Ku Klux Klan is seen burning a cross - was released.
Remember when: Madonna's own 1989 Pepsi ad aired during The Cosby Show to an estimated audience of 250 million in 40 countries, and featured her then-new song Like A Prayer
The furor that resulted included a condemnation from the apoplectic Vatican and Pope John Paul II exhorting Italian Catholics to avoid Madonna's shows in Italy.
Religious groups - the Vatican among them - aimed their wrath at Pepsi as well, calling for a boycott of the company, to the point it ultimately pulled the commercial.
Though the ad only went to air that one time during The Cosby Show, Madonna reportedly managed to keep her hands on the $5 million she'd been paid for it.
Before her Coke-themed Instagram photo on Wednesday, the Kabbalah-adherent Material Girl posted a clip of the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad captioned: 'When you wake up and realize that Shit just really doesn't make sense! #chosen Side Note: My Pepsi commercial was pulled 30 years ago because I was kissing a black saint! #ironic'.
home World Moroccan Christians meet with advocacy group to stand up for their rights
Moroccan Christians have recently met with the National Council of Human Rights to submit a series of requests related to their basic rights, such as the freedom to worship and the official recognition of Christian churches in the country.
Mustafa Susi, the spokesperson of the newly created National Coordination of Moroccan Christians, said that his group was "well received" when it met with the delegation of the council in Rabat on April 3.
"Several Moroccan Christians met with the organisation to give them a folder with a series of requests that have to do with our rights," Susi said, according to Evangelical Focus.
"We were well received and we spoke with them for 45 minutes. We told them that we want to assert our rights," the representative added.
Apart from the freedom to worship, the group also asked to "celebrate civil marriages and have our cemeteries a we want to bury our deceased people in non-Muslim cemeteries."
Susi explained that Christians want to use biblical names when naming their children, which is currently not allowed. He added that the group also asked for the right to decide if they want their children to take Islamic religion class in school.
The Christian group reportedly assessed the outcome of the meeting as very positive. "They told us to do our part, and they will support us before the Moroccan government," the group stated.
Dris Yazami, the President of the National Council of Human Rights, confirmed that the meeting actually took place. "They asked for a meeting, we received them and they gave us a document," said the council president.
He said that the requests submitted by the Christians "will be evaluated," adding that the fact the meeting took place shows that "the ground for liberties in Morocco is expanding."
Susi said that the requests and the council were "receptive" to their demands and encouraged the Christian group to "open new channels of communication" in Morocco. He stated that the group will start making contacts with human rights organizations in the country.
Yazami had not commented on the possibility of a change of attitude towards Christians in a country that only considers Islam and Judaism as religious options for its citizens.
About 98 percent of Morocco's population are Muslim. Over one percent are Christians, while a fraction of a percent is Jewish. Several Moroccans who have converted from Islam to Christianity have been judged or jailed.
Mel B's problems continue.
The 41-year-old beauty on Saturday was snapped as she was stopped by police in West Hollywood, California after she ran a stop sign, according to TMZ.
The one-time Scary Spice was riding in a white Range Rover when she was stopped by law enforcement, the outlet reported, noting that it was not immediately clear if she was cited in the traffic incident.
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Had a bad day: Mel B, 41, looked glum after she was pulled over in West Hollywood on Saturday after rolling through a stop sign
The Leeds native looked like a star on Saturday, wearing an all-white outfit of a tight white crop top with a matching skirt, with her braided locks up in a bun.
She rounded out her sexy look with a white choker, silver hoop earrings and a white pair of Rihanna's Fenty x Puma boots.
The Americas Got Talent judge star didn't look too upset after the run-in with police, as she was seen chatting on the phone and picking up a pack of cigarettes at a liquor store afterwards.
Law and order: The British beauty was snapped chatting with a police offer in the traffic stop
Swanky ride: The Spice Girls stunner was riding in a white Range Rover on Saturday
It's been a difficult stretch for the English stunner amid her scandalous and contentious split with Stephen Belafonte, 41, after nine years of marriage, firing off searing allegations at her estranged spouse. Mel initially said in her March divorce filing that a controlling Belafonte physically abused her, with one incident taking place prior to a Dancing With The Stars appearance.
'Stephen placed both of his hands around her neck, began choking her and slammed her down onto the hardwood floors,' the beauty's legal team said, one in a number of violent incidents cited in the court filing.
Stephen also coerced Mel into threesomes with other women and impregnated their German nanny Lorraine Gilles, later using her money to pay the nanny to have an abortion, she said in the court docs.
Grace under pressure: After her run-in with officers, Mel B looked cool and collected as she stopped to purchase a pack of cigarettes
According to TMZ, Brown claims Belafonte has held back her personal keepsakes; and sex tapes of the couple and other partners.
In the latest developments, Belafonte - who has a five-year-old daughter named Madison with his estranged wife, as well as step-daughters Phoenix Chi, 18, and Angel, nine - told the Sunday Mirror, 'My kids are the only thing that matter to me.'
Also on Saturday, British socialite Lady Victoria Hervey told The Sun that she engaged in a menage a trois with the estranged couple ten years ago. Hervey said that Mel told her 'she just doesnt know if videos exist of that night, but she reassured [her] that they are unlikely to be coming out.'
Another woman, an Australian exotic dancer named Siara Dianda, 32, told the Sunday Mirror that she was engaged in a 'wild' threesome in 2010 with the couple, during Mel's time on The X Factor's Australia program.
New voices heard: Aussie exotic dancer Siara Dianda claimed she had a threesome with the duo in 2010
Trouble on the horizon: With allegations of infidelity, domestic violence and untold sex tapes, the couple's divorce is looking like one of Hollywood's messiest in years. The two were seen at an LA premiere last June
They've been dating for over four months following her split from younger beau Lewis Romano.
And it appears Laurina Fleure's relationship with Nicholas Agnew is going from strength to strength, with the pair spotted looking loved-up at a comedy show after party in Melbourne on Thursday.
The 33-year-old brunette stunned in a plunging blush-toned gown, beaming as she posed alongside her 40-year-old beau.
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Smitten: Laurina Fleure beamed as she posed alongside her boyfriend Nicholas Agnew while attending a comedy show's after party in Melbourne
The former reality star made sure to show off her slender figure in the pleated Grecian-styled frock, styling it with gold accessories.
She wore her brunette locks out and in voluminous waves, while showing off her taut visage with glowing makeup and a pink lip.
Her 6-foot-4 beau meanwhile, cut a rather relaxed figure in a pair of cuffed jeans and a tight grey T-shirt, showing off his ripped physique.
Going strong: The pair first debuted their romance via Instagram on New Year's Day, with the former Bachelor star calling the 40-year-old her 'Dark Angel' at the time
Nicholas added a pair of white leather sneakers to his ensemble as he posed for a photo with his beloved.
Laurina first prompted speculation of the relationship earlier this year, after sharing a snap of the pair on her Instagram.
'NYD with my dark angel,' the former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star captioned the post, without confirming the relationship at the time.
'He treats her really well and she is completely smitten!' A source close to the 33-year-old model told Daily Mail Australia in January
And in January, a source close to Laurina spoke to Daily Mail Australia about the blossoming romance.
'He treats her really well and she is completely smitten!' the source said.
They added that Nicholas was a successful Melbourne businessman who was introduced to the beauty by mutual friends.
Power couple: According to the source, Nicholas is a businessman from Melbourne and was introduced to the brunette by mutual friends
Laurina confirmed her split from boyfriend-of-one-year Lewis, 28, in October.
Speaking to DMA at the time, she cited their age gap as a reason for the breakup.
'We're not together anymore. I haven't actually publicly released it yet. I was hoping to maybe work things out, but it's not possible,' the model explained.
'We'll always be friends,' she continued. 'I love him. I had one of the happiest years of my life. We're just on different paths.'
One minute they're battling rumours they've split and the next they're sharing pun-filled couple's appreciation posts.
And earlier this week, Georgia Love and Lee Elliott were the picture of happiness once again.
The former WIN journalist 28, and her Bachelorette beau were spotted taking a cute couple's selfie at Melbourne's lavish new cocktail bar House Of Correction.
Loved up! Georgia Love and Lee Elliott looked loved up as they snapped a couple's selfie at a lavish Melbourne cocktail bar
The pair were on-hand to celebrate the after party of one of comedian Joel Creasey's stand-up sets.
Proving that opposites attract, Georgia wore an all white ensemble, while Lee was her dark, brooding foil in all-black.
The brunette beauty flashed a glimpse of her trim pins in a pair of tiny white shorts with embroidered hems.
She matched it with a loose, flowing white top as she wrapped her hands around her hunky beau.
Opposites attract! Proving that opposites attract, Georgia wore an all white ensemble, while Lee was her dark, brooding foil in all-black
Despite Georgia's large tan heels, Lee towered over her, dressed-down in a pair of black skinny jeans and black T-shirt.
Opting for a scooped collar and extra-short sleeves, he flaunted his buff frame and hairless chest.
And what better way to commemorate the evening than a couple's selfie?
The lovebirds were spotted flashing their pearly whites for a snap, as Georgia raised an arm to snap the picture.
All good? Their latest smitten selfie comes at a time in which observant fans are questioning whether the pair are as bright and chirpy as they appear on social media
But while it certainly looked like a keeper, fans are still yet to see the original uploaded to any of the couple's social media accounts.
Their latest smitten selfie comes as fans have been questioning whether the pair are as bright and chirpy as they appear on social media.
After an alleged row at the Australian Open earlier this year, the mechanical plumber took to his Instagram to deny allegations the pair were on the rocks.
He wrote on Instagram: 'Never let the truth get in the way of a good story'.
Denied! After an alleged row at the Australian Open earlier this year, the mechanical plumber took to his Instagram to deny allegations the pair were on the rocks
She favours a distinctive make up style with heavy brows, eye liner, dustings of bronzer and glossy lips essential components of her look.
But Holly Hagan clearly emulates Kim Kardashian as she attended the Hollywood star's make up artist Ariel Tejada's first London masterclass on Sunday.
The former Geordie Shore star looked very busty in a lilac and white striped catsuit with strappy nude sandals for the occasion.
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Busty display: Holly Hagan attended Kim Kardashian's make up artist Ariel Tejada's first London masterclass on Sunday in a low cut lilac and white striped catsuit
Her impressive bust was barely contained in the all-in-one's lace up bodice.
The 24-year-old boasted a golden tan and styled her honey-coloured tresses into shiny cascading curls.
She was polished with a matching pale orange manicure and pedicure as she mingled with other guests at the Pout Patrol masterclass.
Golden: Holly showed off a deep tan and cascading honey-coloured curls at the event
Friends in beauty: Holly happily posed with her fellow Geordie Shore star Sophie Kasaei
Raunchy: Sophie's gaping neckline left her black bra visible to other attendees
Holly happily posed with her fellow Geordie Shore star Sophie Kasaei.
Sophie sported a black top with a gaping neckline which left her lace bra clearly visible.
She paired the raunchy blouse with black leggings which she tucked into burgundy coloured ankle booties.
The reality TV star loaded her lashes with mascara and slicked her lips with a deep dark berry shade.
Her ombre locks were teased into a half-up, half-down style with voluminous curls fluttered past her elbows.
Stylish: Brooke Vincent donned a fashion-forward pair of flared blue jeans and a capacious white blouse
Fresh-faced: The Corrie star let her tanned blemish-free complexion shine with minimal make up
Coronation Street actress Brooke Vincent was another star eager to learn the beauty tips of the Kardashian clan.
The pretty brunette arrived at the event in a fashion-forward ensemble of flared pale blue denim trousers and a capacious white blouse - secured around her waist with a knot.
She pulled her hair into a ponytail and looked fresh-faced and tanned with just a touch of mascara and lip gloss.
Corrie pals: Brooke was joined by her co-star Katie McGlynn at the event
Brooke was joined by her Corrie co-star Katie McGlynn who sported an off-the-shoulder rose-print blouse.
She paired the summery top with black trousers and chain-detail high heeled sandals.
Her blonde locks were scooped into a high pony-tail and she had perhaps been a little heavy handed with the make up.
Her lashes were loaded with mascara and looked impossibly long and her lips were painted scarlet.
English rose: Katie donned a Spring-like off-the-shoulder rose printed blouse with black trousers and high heeled sandals
Cheery: The actress looked delighted to be picking up some make up tips
Ariel was just 21 when his association with the Kardashians catapulted him into the make up artists' A List.
He is Kylie Jenner's favourite artist and is believed to have helped the star achieve her pillow lipped pout.
He took the celebrity guests through two of his signature looks and explained which products he favoured to achieve that famous Kardashian style.
The maestro: Ariel looked chic in a salmon pink suit and fashion forward white sneakers
She lost her mother last year to pancreatic cancer.
And on Monday, Georgia Love paid tribute to Belinda Love.
The 28-year-old took to Instagram to share a selfie she captured last year, the day before her mother was diagnosed.
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Heartfelt tribute: Georgia Love has shared a heartfelt tribute post to her mother Belinda Love six months after loosing her mother to pancreatic cancer
Georgia captioned her post: '366 days since this photo was taken, 365 days since we found out you were sick.'
'Maybe you knew and were being brave, but I certainly couldn't fathom that in just six months you'd be gone.'
The post touched her legions of fans, but none more so than boyfriend Lee Elliot who commented on the post.
Memories: Georgia shared a selfie from last year, taken the day before Belinda was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Strength in her sadness : Georgia poured her heart out in the caption saying '366 days since this photo was taken, 365 days since we found out you were sick'
He wrote: 'I know nothing I say or do can change the past, god knows I wish it could, but it's not possible for me to be prouder and more in awe of the incredibly strong and extraordinary woman you have been in light of all you have had to face!'
A fan said: 'Can't even imagine. Lots of love to you.'
Another commented: 'Sending you big love and a hug sweetheart @georgiealove.'
All smiles: Georgia added, 'Maybe you knew and were being brave, but I certainly couldn't fathom that in just six months you'd be gone'
'Incredibly strong and extraordinary': Her boyfriend Lee commented on the tribute, saying he was proud of Georgia in light of what she has faced
In an interview with news.com.au last year, Lee revealed that he received Belinda's seal of approval straight after the finale was aired.
He told the publication that Belinda said she didn't think Georgia would choose him, to which he said 'That doesn't sound good!'.
But Lee said that she was quick to say, 'No, you were my favourite and thats why I didnt think Georgia would choose you.'
Bert and Patti Newton have endured years of heartache thanks to their son's various run-ins with the police and his substance abuse.
But, according to Woman's Day, the famous couple are said to be 'finally free' as Matthew now has his life back on the right track.
The magazine quote one of the 40-year-old's neighbours as saying he's had the 'best year he's had in ten years' - since his troubles first began in 2006 when he was charged with the assault of his then-girlfriend Brooke Satchwell.
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Struggles: Bert and Patti Newton have endured years of strife owing to their son's various run-ins with the police and his substance abuse
The source said: 'He's worked very hard over the past few years and now it's time to enjoy life. He's turned his life around.'
The Melbourne native, who now resides in New York, has reportedly recently told colleagues he 'hasn't touched a drink in five years' since he spent 90 days in rehab at the Betty Ford Center in 2012.
And his sober state has coincided with a career renaissance of late, with his new film From Nowhere, which he co-wrote and directed, winning an award at the South by Southwest festival in Texas last month.
On the straight and narrow: According to Woman's Day , the famous couple are said to be 'finally free' as Matthew now has his life back on the right track
All in the past: The magazine quote one of the 40-year-old's neighbours as saying he's had the 'best year he's had in ten years' - since his troubles first began in 2006 when he was charged with the assault of his then-girlfriend Brooke Satchwell (pictured)
The actor also appears to have his personal life in order after getting engaged to American Catherine Schneiderman in October last year.
And Woman's Day report that the daughter of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman cannot wait to tie the knot.
The neighbour said: 'Cat's really happy with him and is looking forward to being Mrs Newton. She's very proud the movie has been a success.'
Cold turkey: The Melbourne native (R) has reportedly recently told colleagues he 'hasn't touched a drink in five years' since he spent 90 days in rehab at the Betty Ford Center in 2012
Moving forward: The actor also appears to have his personal life in order after getting engaged to American Catherine Schneiderman in October last year
Matt has thrown himself into his work after fleeing Australia in 2012, and he's currently working on another film, Who We Are Now, which is set to star Law & Order actress Julianna Nicholson.
But according to the magazine, the former Underbelly actor's marriage to the 23-year-old could be set to take centre stage.
The source said: 'He and Cat have been engaged for nearly a year and he thinks the time is now right to push ahead with the wedding. It's the best year he's had in ten years, without a doubt.'
Most women would take Justin Theroux in whatever form they could get him
But according to the hunky actor his wife Jennifer Aniston is not a fan of one particular look of his.
Justin, who appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week, admitted his wife isn't thrilled by his facial hair.
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Close shave: Justin Theroux confessed his wife, Jennifer Aniston isn't a fan of his beard during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week
Dressed in a pair of black leather pants and a fitted black T-shirt, the bearded Leftovers actor said his current beard is a remnant from his role on the hit series.
'I grew the beard back for The Leftovers season three and now I'm growing it back again,' he told Ellen DeGeneres, 59. 'I like it now.'
But while Justin may be a fan of the bearded look, his wife of two years isn't quite so keen.
'She likes it up to a point,' he admitted. 'She'll like it for about a month, and then she's like, "Okay, you have to get rid of it." And I'm like, "No, I have to keep the beard now for the whole show. I can't just shave it off."'
Sexy: The hunky actor appeared on the popular daytime talk show dressed in an all-black ensemble
Not a fan: 'She likes it up to a point,' he said of Jennifer's reaction to his beard. 'She'll like it for about a month, and then she's like, "Okay, you have to get rid of it"
It was even worse when the 45-year-old had to have stubble for his lead role as Kevin Garvey in the cult show.
'The first season I had to have stubble for the entire season, and that was torture for her,' he confessed. 'It's horrible. And torture for me, too.'
'Now it's soft,' he added of his current bearded look.
Justin also spoke about his actress wife's birthday back in February.
Birthday bash: 'We went to Cabo San Lucas and sat in the sun and had a little party,' he said of how they celebrated Jennifer's 48th birthday in February
Dark angel: The multi-talented actor plays the lead role of Kevin Garvey in the hit HBO series, The Leftovers
'We went to Cabo San Lucas and sat in the sun and had a little party,' he said of how they celebrated Jennifer's 48th birthday.
'We had a party and we had a pinata and I gave her some gifts and that was it... It was fabulous.'
The handsome actor also spoke to Rhapsody magazine this month about marriage.
'Marriage makes the small things much smaller and the big things small,' he revealed. 'You have an ally. Its good to have someone have your back.'
It was a fraught time that ended with the break-up of his marriage.
And Ashton Kutcher spoke about dealing with adultery claims as he accepted an award for having good character as a role model in his native Iowa on Saturday.
He took a swipe at allegations he had cheated on former spouse Demi Moore, while stopping short of outright denying it, as he picked up the gong at the Drake University's Ron Pearson Center in West Des Moines.
No cheat sheet: Ashton Kutcher spoke without notes as he addressed adultery claims while receiving an award for having good character in Iowa on Saturday
Ashton, 39, joked about the fact he was getting the award despite having his 'name splashed across every gossip magazine as an adulterer like five years ago.'
Later coming back to the incident, he said: 'Character comes out when those magazines tear you apart for something you may or may not have done and you gotta go out and perform tomorrow, with everyone looking at you like you might be an adulterer. '
Demi, who is 15 years older than her former husband, called time on their six year union in 2011, and they finalised their divorce in 2013.
They split amid claims the Butterfly Effect beefcake had been canoodling with other women.
Indeed, actor Scott Eastwood even accused the former model of bedding his then girlfriend, a move which he told Andy Cohen was 'the catalyst that broke him and Demi up.'
Family fortunes: Ashton said splitting from Demi was a stroke of luck as it allowed him to understand his parents' divorce 'in a whole different way'
And the Two And A Half Men favourite said he actually feels lucky to have undergone the painful split.
He said: 'I had the great fortune of getting a divorce because I felt the impact of it and how much loss is in there and how much love is in there and that its not neat or clean or messy. And I understood finally my parents' divorce in a whole different way.'
The Jobs star also joked about his wayward ways as a teenager, which he admitted may have disqualified him from getting the award in the eyes of some, such as being convicted of felony burglary at the age of 18 for breaking into his high school.
He also revealed he had been 'pulled over by a state trooper while tripping on mushrooms. Not a proud moment. The trooper didn't know, so we got away with it. I just said I had a headlight out - I had several headlights out.'
A fungi to be with: He said he got away with being 'pulled over by a state trooper while tripping on mushrooms'
However the former professional clotheshorse saved his warmest words for his loved ones, especially his twin brother, who has cerebral palsy, and current wife Mila Kunis, 33, who he wed in 2015.
He said: 'This award is for you, it is for my family, it is for all four of my parents.
'It's for my wife, who kicks my ass on character every day. I mean, I'm telling you, this morning I woke up and she kicked my ass on character.'
He explained that he had been feeling rather proud of himself after he gave her a lie in that very morning by looking after their two young children, before getting a wake-up call from his starlet wife.
Oh well: Ashton insisted he had learned his lesson from his past mistakes
He said: 'She's like "now you're going to act tired? I do it every day." But it was a character moment right. Because she's right.
'Well here I am tired, like that's kind of a jerk way to give someone something, "oh I worked so hard to give you this gift." And she kicked my a** on it every single day. And she's the best for it, it's unbelievable.'
He was also left red-faced when he got the age of his four-month-old son Dimitri wrong, joking, 'Somebody's probably going to look that up, "he doesn't even know how old his kid is, what kind of character does he have?"'
Ashton, who is worth an estimated $160 million, also boasted that he had been fortunate to have partaken in a failed business venture, as he got to 'understand what that felt like and got to learn from it.'
Things have been looking up for Georgie Parker's Roo on Home and Away after she went public with new man James.
But this week, tragedy looks to be on the cards.
'Something exciting is coming,' the 52-year-old teased to TV Week, but as pictures emerge showing the brunette beauty collapsed on the floor, her character's health may be in jeopardy.
Tragegy? Home and Away teases tragedy for Georgie Parker's Roo as images showing her collapsed on the floor emerge
Images from the set show Georgie embracing Tim Ross' James with a passionate kiss in their new kitchen.
But in the next frame Roo is seen splayed out on the floor with her arms twisted and contorted above her head.
In the third, James rushes to her side, looking worried as he touches his hand to her face.
Before the fall: Images from the set show 52-year-old Georgie (Roo) dressed in a breezy blue top, embracing Tim Ross' James with a passionate kiss in their new kitchen
According TV Week after finally finding happiness with new man James and deciding to live together, Roo collapses during the move.
As Roo tries to simply blame the stress of moving heavy boxes, her new beau doesn't hesitate and calls for a doctor.
And while fear temporarily subsides when he suggests low blood pressure is to blame, a follow-up call leaves her 'shaken by what the doctor reveals' the publication reports.
What's wrong with Roo? But the next snap shockingly shows Roo splayed out on the floor with her arms twisted and contorted above her head
Concern: In the third, James rushes to her side, looking worried as he touches his hand to her face
Before the fateful call, fellow middle-aged Summer Bay resident Morag (played by Cornelia Frances) suggests that with the dizziness and sudden collapse, Roo is probably just going through menopause.
Embarrassed, Roo denies the allegations but eventually realises that she has all the symptoms.
Paranoia about whether James will want children or think differently of her, she chooses not to tell him.
Shaken: Word has surfaced that after coming to, James calls the doctor, and Roo is left 'shaken by what the doctor reveals'
'Roo is quite a rebel, but we don't really see it,' Georgie told the publication.
'It's important we see that older personalities still have strong personalities and still screw up.'
Drawing on the strong personality, it's reported that Roo eventually tells James she may be undergoing the menopause.
Exciting for the wrong reason? This comes after the veteran Australian actress initially said 'something exciting is coming'
Later, at Olivia's (Raechelle Banno) birthday party, she gets a call from her doctor, who asks her to come to the surgery straight away.
Petrified, she forces him to tell her over the phone and is left 'shaken' by what she hears on the other line.
Home and Away airs Monday through Thursday at 7pm on Channel Seven
They are both survivors of the hit Network Ten reality show, I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
And former My Kitchen Rules contestant Ash Pollard and comedian Joel Creasey enjoyed a catch up in Melbourne over the weekend.
The pair shared a laugh and a drink at an after-party for Joel's latest stand-up show Poser.
Having a laugh: Former My Kitchen Rules contestant Ash Pollard and comedian Joel Creasey enjoyed a catch up in Melbourne over the weekend
The duo had a ball at funky inner-city Melbourne cocktail bar House of Correction after Joel's show at Max Watt's as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
During the event, Joel looked dapper in a pair of white chinos teamed with a brown leather belt and a blue collared shirt featuring a windowpane style check pattern.
Meanwhile, Ash was complete with her trademark wild curly hair, a flowing white top and black pants.
At one point Ash was seen sharing an intimate moment with pal Joel, with the MKR star clutching his face affectionately as the pair shared a joke.
Intimate moment: At one point Ash was seen sharing an intimate moment with pal Joel, with the MKR star clutching his face affectionately as the pair shared a joke
Since leaving the South African jungle, Ash has certainly been making up for lost time.
The 30-year-old beauty recently caught up with co-stars Dane Swan, Nazeem Hussain and Steve Price for lunch at a Melbourne restaurant, which appears to have been paid for by shock jock Steve.
Posting a happy snap of the foursome to Instagram, Ash offered the following: 'it happened! Pricey, true to his word, took me (and the boys) to lunch for successfully completing the Viper Room.'
Reunion: The 30-year-old beauty recently caught up with co-stars Dane Swan, Nazeem Hussain and Steve Price for lunch at a Melbourne restaurant, which appears to have been paid for by shock jock Steve
'Good to have our little clique back together. Wasn't the same without @krissmith13 though! #boyslunch #imacelebrityau #wepoppedwaytoimanycorks #feelingittoday',' the post continued.
Since placing fourth on the 2015 season of My Kitchen Rules, Ash has become somewhat a reality television maven.
She finished third on 2015's Dancing With The Stars and seventh on the 2017 season of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here.
home World Two Burmese pastors jailed for over three months without trial
Two pastors who were accused of aiding armed ethnic groups in Burma have been held in detention for over three months without trial.
Pastors Dom Dawng Nawng Latt, 65, and La Jaw Gam Hseng, 35, were arrested by the Burmese army on Dec. 24 after they helped journalists in covering the military conflict in northern Shan state, eastern Burma, according to Morning Star News. Their attorney, U Brang Di, said that suspects are normally held for only 28 days without trial under Burmese law.
The two pastors were charged with unlawful association with an armed ethnic group, which the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) church leaders deny.
They could face as much as three years in prison under Article 17/1 of Burma's Unlawful Association Act for making contributions to or assisting an "unlawful association." The pastors could also be jailed for five years under Article 17/2 for assisting in the management or promotion of such associations.
The Unlawful Association Act was often invoked to arrest suspected rebel sympathizers during the decades of rule in Burma by the military junta, but it is still being used to stop Kachin state residents from contacting members of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Local and international rights groups have urged the government to amend or rescind the law so that NGOs are targeted under the act.
The pastors were detained after they attempted to negotiate the release of a civilian couple who complained to army officials about the destruction of their house. The military officials released the couple but detained the clergymen, saying the arrest was related to their efforts to help journalists cover the bombing of the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church building on Nov. 23a24.
Brang Di said that frequent absences of the prosecutor, as well as the army's effort to transfer the accused to a court in Lashio in northeastern Shan state, slowed down the progress of the case. He said that the prosecutor cited the ongoing fighting between rebel and government forces in Shan state as the reason for not being able to show up at the court hearings.
"The pastors can't be detained for such a long time without trial, according to the law," said Brang Di. He clarified that he is merely stating the law and that he is not complaining, as it is common for cases involving the army to be delayed. "I will try my best to make them free in accordance with the law," he added.
The military initially denied detaining the pastors, but the Defense Ministry later admitted that the men had been secretly detained for security reasons.
The KBC, which has provided aid to the displaced people who fled the fighting between the military and armed ethnic groups in both Kachin and Shan states, said that it wants the trial completed as soon as possible.
"There is no development. It seems they make the process long. We want the trial to begin soon," said Zau Rau of the KBC In Muse Town, where the two pastors are being held.
She became was announced as the face of Olay Total Effects last year.
And Jestina Franklin (nee Campbell) has taken her role as ambassador to the skin care line with fervour.
On Monday, the 25-year-old took to Instagram to share a behind-the-scenes-video from her commercial shoot in Bangkok, Thailand.
Getting her pout on! Jesinta Franklin has been in Bangkok, Thailand for the past few days shooting a commercial campaign for Olay
In the video, the former Miss Universe Australia looked radiant as her makeup artist Chantelle Baker and hairstylist Marie Uva worked on getting her ready.
On the set, her team stepped in to prep her for the different lighting, plumping her lips with gloss and adding volume to her brunette locks.
She captioned her short clip: 'Not a day goes by that I don't go to work with a smile on my face. Truly grateful for all of the amazing experiences I get through work,' she said.
Sneak peek! The 25-year-old took to Instagram to share a behind-the-scenes-video from the shoot
Glamming up! The former Miss Universe Australia looked radiant as her makeup artist Chantelle Baker and hairstylist Marie Uva
'Even more grateful I get to work with hardworking, talented, passionate and fun people who make what I do so much easier.
'Thank you to my amazing team for making the past few days with @olayau so special!' she added, tagging her glam squad.
The IMG model has been in Thailand for the past few days shooting a campaign for the brand.
Thankful! She captioned her post, 'Not a day goes by that I don't go to work with a smile on my face'
Quick touch up: On the set, her glam squad stepped in to prep her look for the different lighting, plumping her lips with gloss and adding volume to her brunette locks
Both makeup artist Chantelle Baker and hair stylist thanked her for a great time on set and her professionalism.
While fans of the brunette beauty commented on the post, one said: 'How could you not love that!! #pamper'
Another wrote: 'Why can't I have this every day haha.'
Fan love: Followers of the former Miss Universe Australia loved her behind-the-scenes transformation video. One commented 'Why can't I have this every day haha'
Jesinta recently praised her husband, AFL star player Lance 'Buddy' Franklin, in an Instagram post for reaching his 250th game.
Since marrying him in a secret wedding last year, she admitted that wedded life feels different.
'It's hard to put into words but you feel like an invincible little team all of your own,' she told The Daily Telegraph.
'We have found new strength in being husband and wife, it's a really special feeling.'
She's known for her luscious dark hair and bronzed complexion.
But on Monday, Lindy Klim revealed a dramatic new look as she posted a time lapse video to her Instagram account before stepping out with friends.
Captioning the post: 'A change is coming' the video shows what appears to be blonde highlights but when it comes to an end, you see a complete head of golden hair for the 39-year-old beauty.
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Brunette no more? on Monday, Lindy Klim revealed a dramatic new look as she posted a time lapse video to her Instagram account
Strike a pose! Later on in the evening, Lindy was spotted out debuting her new hair at Emerson Nightclub with beau Adam Ellis
Many of her fans were delighted with the transformation congratulating Lindy with comments such as 'blondes have more fun' and 'love the colour.'
Later on in the evening, Lindy was spotted out debuting her new hair at Emerson Nightclub with beau Adam Ellis.
In the picture Lindy is seen cutting a pose, while her fiance looked on at her new hairdo looking somewhat bemused.
Transformation revealed! Captioning the post: 'A change is coming' the video shows what appears to be blonde highlights but when it comes to an end, she showcases a complete head of golden hair
Blondes have more fun! Many of her fans were delighted with the transformation congratulating Lindy with comments such as 'blondes have more fun' and 'love the colour.'
Recently, Lindy posted a tongue and cheek picture of herself wearing a T-shirt with the words: 'Gosh being a princess is exhausting.'
She also accessorised with a $1300 Gucci handbag and oversized sunglasses, her dark locks back from her face in an elegant top bun.
'Gosh being a princess is exhausting': Lindy Rama (formerly Klim) poked fun at her status as Balinese royal, sharing a photo to Instagram on Saturday of her wearing a cheeky T-shirt while sweeping the deck of her luxury mansion in Bali
Lindy's uncle is King of Denpasar and her late father Oak Rama was a Balinese prince.
Recently Lindy's ex Michael has appeared to poke fun at her ties to royalty, referring to his new girlfriend Desiree Deravi as a 'Persian princess' in an Instagram post last January.
Living the good life: Lindy is certainly getting the royal treatment in her new life with her British property developer fiance Adam Ellis
A subtle dig? Recently Lindy's ex Michael has appeared to poke fun at her ties to royalty, referring to his new girlfriend Desiree Deravi as a 'Persian princess' in an Instagram post last January
But Lindy is certainly getting the royal treatment in her new life with her British property developer fiance.
The model shared a photo of her being looked after by a team of assistants as she got ready for what appeared to be a photo shoot.
Lindy shared videos to Instagram which showed staff members moisturising her legs, putting her socks on and holding an umbrella for her.
She's known for her chic sense of style.
And Sophia Bush exemplified that in more than one way on Sunday as she hosted an intimate brunch in Chicago to celebrate the top design tastemakers.
The 34-year-old beauty stepped out looking extremely chic in a white pant suit - from designer Anthony Thomas Melillo - that highlighted her slender figure.
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In charge! Sophia Bush hosted an intimate brunch in Chicago for design tastemakers on Sunday and looked the part as she wore a stylish white pantsuit
The Chicago P.D. actress - who partnered with design company Everything But the House - opted for a white blazer, fitted pants and a black top underneath.
Keeping her accessories to a minimal, Sophia added black lace stilettos and a small clutch to her look.
She parted her hair to one side as it fell slick and straight behind her shoulders and went with a bold swipe of red for her lipstick.
Stylish: The 33-year-old actress - who partnered with design company Everything But the House - opted for a white blazer, fitted pants and a black top underneath from designer Anthony Thomas Melillo
Flawless: She parted her hair to one side as it fell slick and straight behind her shoulders, and went with a bold swipe of red for her lipstick
Brass buddies: Sophia caught up with EBTH's Andrea Stanford as they showed off some of the company's design pieces
The former wife of actor Chad Michael Murray also took to Instagram and posted a nice boomerang video holding brass bookends as she enjoyed the company of her gal pals.
Sophia also caught up with Mandana Dayani - former vice president of company Rachel Zoe - and EBTH's Andrea Stanford.
Meanwhile, Sophia is keeping busy between playing a detective on hit show Chicago P.D. and maintaining her perfume company that she co-founded called, I Smell Great.
All smiles: Besides her acting prowess, Sophia has quite the eye for fashion and design
Beauties: The California-born native bonded with Mandana Dayani - the former Vice President to fashion company, Rachel Zoe
High spirits: Mandana looked glam in a floral-printed black dress
Gal pals! Sophia shared a fun Instagram post that she captioned: 'Brass Bookend Babes #SBxDesign @ebth #BrunchBuddies #DecorDreams suiting @anthonythomasmelillo @adeam'
Season four of the NBC show is approaching its end.
The California-born native is also filming action-drama flick Acts of Violence where she stars alongside Bruce Willis.
Sophia will also star in Marshall, a biopic about a young Thurgood Marshall, which is slated to release in October 2017.
Kendra Wilkinson wished her one-time boyfriend Hugh Hefner a happy 91st birthday on Sunday.
The 31-year-old stunner took to Instagram to send warm birthday wishes to the legendary founder of Playboy magazine, who minted her star in making her a Playmate who resided at the Playboy Mansion, as documented on the reality series Girls Next Door.
'Happy birthday Hef!! Thank you for EVERYTHING,' said Kendra, who included a 2008 shot in which she was snuggled up to Hefner in Las Vegas.
Warm words: Kendra Wilkinson shared this 2008 shot with Hugh Hefner on her Instagram page Sunday, wishing the Playboy founder a happy 91st birthday
Kendra, who appeared on Girls Next Door for four years with fellow beauties Bridget Marquardt and Holly Madison, continued: 'People might not understand you but that's because they've never had the chance to know you like I do. I'll celebrate you forever!!!'
She talked to E! last fall about how she'd recently spent time with the showbiz icon, amid reports his health was on the decline.
'He was there and we had a great talk and we were very happy to see each other,' she said. 'You know and there were rumors that things are happening, but God he's 91 years old!'
Moving: In her post, Kendra said 'people might not understand' Hef, but she knows him in a special way. The pair were pictured in Las Vegas in 2009
Star-launcher: (L-R) Holly Madison, Hefner, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra starred on the reality show Girls Next Door. The quartet was snapped at an LA film premiere in 2008
She added, 'He's gonna live longer than us!'
In the chat, the blonde beauty said that Hefner 'honestly is [her] family,' noting that she does get anxiety over the health of the man, who she described as an 'angel.
Culture maker: Hefner relaxed in June of 2013 at the 35th anniversary Playboy Jazz Festival
Captain: The famed publisher was snapped at a Playboy function in January of 2014
Happy family: Hank, Alijah, Kendra and Hank IV spent a family day at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California last summer
'I worry every day, you know, he's at that age and I'm not gonna lie; every day I open up my social media, I pray that I don't see what we think might happen,' she said. 'The day that comes will be devastating to me and my family.'
The San Diego native has two children with her 34-year-old husband, Hank Baskett: seven-year-old son Hank IV and two-year-old daughter Alijah.
She moved in with the former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver in 2009, after leaving the mansion.
Family fun: Kendra opted for a low-key look as she headed on holiday with her adorable children on Sunday
Out and about: The former Playboy bunny dressed down in a loose fitting navy vest that she teamed with cropped grey jogging bottoms and white trainers
Bethenny Frankel took to social media Sunday before swimming with dolphins in the Bahamas.
The 46-year-old reality star mentioned going swimming with dolphins in an Instagram video story and also posted another video of dolphins being fed in shallow water that received criticism in the comments.
Bethenny shared the Instagram videos from Paradise Island where she's been vacationing with her six-year-old daughter Bryn.
Island getaway: Bethenny Frankel took to social media Sunday to share video from her vacation in the Bahamas and said she was going swimming with dolphins
'You rock but you should know better. Watch the docu on dolphin capture. You're so smart. Can't believe you would give your $ to this terrible program for these poor babies,' one comment read.
Another commenter posted: 'The only way to see dolphins is in their natural habitat. Sad to see you posted this and promote it. You need to use your platform to put an end to this. #emptythetanks.'
'Ignorance. You should know better,' wrote another person in the comments.
Bethenny in the Instagram video story also was shown in a short clip wearing a green bikini that showed off her slim physique.
Skinny girl: The Skinnygirl Cocktails founder also showed her lean physique in a green bikini
The photo credit was given to Peanut, which is a nickname for her daughter Bryn.
The video also showed Bethenny taking a selfie in the same bikini with a white sheer cover-up.
Bethenny also displayed a margarita from the Atlantis Paradise Island resort that she said cost $25 while quipping that it better give her an orgasm.
Covering up: The reality star also was shown wearing a white sheer cover-up over the bikini
Family trip: Bethenny took her six-year-old daughter with her to the Bahamas
The New York City native founded Skinnygirl Cocktails in 2011 and later sold it for an estimated $100 million.
Bethenny married pharmaceutical sales executive Jason Hoppy in March 2010 and they welcomed daughter Bryn in May 2010.
She separated from him in December 2012 and in January 2013 filed for a divorce that wasn't finalized until last July.
The ninth season of RHONY premiered earlier this month.
Selena Gomez was a sight for sore eyes as she left a tattoo parlor in Hollywood on Sunday after adding to her collection of inkings.
The 24-year-old was grinning as she headed home in a bright yellow top paired with skinny black jeans.
She wore shiny black ankle boots and carried a black purse and a can of Red Bull.
New ink: Selena Gomez was a sight for sore eyes as she left a tattoo parlor in Hollywood on Sunday after adding to her collection of inkings
The dark-haired beauty wore her bobbed shoulder-length locks sleekly styled and sported large sunglasses.
She'd been joined at the tattoo parlor by Alisha Boe and Tommy Dorfman, the stars of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why that Selena is co-producing.
The trio got matching black semicolon tattoos on their forearms, which represents mental health awareness and suicide prevention.
Sleek: The dark-haired beauty wore her bobbed shoulder-length locks sleekly styled and sported large sunglasses
Mission accomplished: The 24-year-old was grinning as she headed home in a bright yellow top paired with skinny black jeans and shiny black ankle boots
Company: She'd been joined at the tattoo parlor by Alisha Boe and Tommy Dorfman, the stars of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why that Selena is co-producing. They all got matching tats
13 Reasons Why deals with the aftermath of high school student Hannah Baker's suicide, in which she left 13 tapes for her classmates explaining why she took her own life.
The multi-talented star shared photos of their tattoos on Instagram Stories, including pictures of Alisha and Tommy getting inked.
Selena - a longtime fan of the book by Jay Asher, on which the series is based - says the project has been a seven-year labor of love for her.
Matching: The singer and actress, turned executive producer for the series, shared several photos of their new inkings on Instagram
Tats permanent...13 Reasons Why deals with the aftermath of high school student Hannah Baker's suicide as she leaves 13 tapes for her classmates explaining why she took her own life
'I think the message, how I felt when I first read the book, I felt like Hannah, and now, seven years later, I still felt like Hannah even more than I ever did,' she told E! Online last month.
'So I think the message and people, no matter what age you are, can relate to the story. Everybody has gone through this, and more than ever it should be talked about today.'
And while she's now happy taking on a backseat role on the project, Selena says she originally wanted to play Hannah in the show.
She also decided her celebrity status would detract from the show's important message.
'I actually like that Im not in it. To be honest, this book has such a huge following,' she added. 'I wanted it to be credible. If Im a part of it, thats going to cause a whole other conversation.'
Work in progress... The brunette beauty shared a series of photos of the show's stars, including Tommy, getting inked
She's the Geordie Shore star who has been busy visiting far flung places around the globe over the last few weeks.
But Charlotte Crosby did her best to fight the jet lag Monday when she got to work filming new show, Just Tattoo Of Us, in Sydney.
The 26-year-old had hopped on a flight the previous night from New Zealand, and seemed to waste no time in reuniting with boyfriend Stephen Bear after he flew in Friday.
Fresh faced: Charlotte Crosby did her best to fight the jet lag Monday when she got to work filming new show Just Tattoo Of Us in Sydney
Charlotte posted a tender photo of herself beside her beau to Instagram early Monday morning, showing the two relaxing and snuggling in bed.
She captioned the moment: 'Jet lag nation,' adding in her hashtag 'Just face it I'm never conquering it'.
But Charlotte appeared to be over it come lunch-time though, when she uploaded a behind-the-scenes photo while filming her new reality show.
Snuggles: Earlier in the day she posted a tender photo of herself beside her beau to Instagram, showing the two relaxing in bed
Filming: She appeared to be over it come lunch-time though, when she uploaded a behind-the-scenes photo while filming her new reality show
In the snap, the reality star glowed as she rocked high-waisted denim jeans and an oversized black T-shirt, tying the bottom in a knot to expose a glimpse of her taut tummy.
All smiles, she hugged Stephen close as the pair stood in front of a bright pink wall.
Her Ex on the Beach boyfriend opted for a similarly casual look, donning faded ripped jeans and a multi-coloured MTV slogan shirt, accessorising the outfit with a long gold chain.
Happy pair: All smiles, she hugged Stephen close as the pair stood in front of a bright pink wall
Charlotte rocked shorter, lighter locks at the outing, with many of her fans quick to comment on her changed look.
'Your hair never looked better!' one user wrote, while another chimed in, 'Your hair is #goals'.
Some replied that they could not recognise the star, while one person wrote: 'LOVE LOVE LOVE the short hair!!!''
Different do: Charlotte rocked shorter, lighter locks at the outing, with many of her fans quick to comment on her changed look
The pair are visiting to promote their new show from MTV, which has been touted as 'the ultimate trust test'.
The production promises 'tears, tantrums and fall outs' with three new couples getting tattoos secretly designed by their loved one.
The pair recently got matching fish tattoos, with Charlotte debuting hers to the world on Thursday.
They recently butted heads over a 'bullying' incident.
And Real Housewives of Sydney's Lisa Oldfield, 41 and Victoria Rees, 52, seem to be clashing once again.
On Sunday, Lisa took to Instagram to express her disgust on her co-star's tweet regarding the reality TV series.
Fighting again: Real Housewives of Sydney's Lisa Oldfield, 41 and Victoria Rees, 52, seem to be clashing once again. On Sunday, Lisa took to Instagram to express her disgust on her co-star's tweet regarding the reality TV series
Lisa photographed the tweet and uploaded it to her social media account and wrote: ' #Foxtel spends a #fortune promoting our show #rhos but #victoriabitter wants to kick it in the #guts ! And this #old #moll still can't figure out why she's #lonely #sad and #hated ???
Victoria tweeted: 'Next stop Singapore, another s**t show.'
Lisa then photographed the tweet and uploaded it to her social media account, captioning the post: ' #Foxtel spends a #fortune promoting our show #rhos but #victoriabitter wants to kick it in the #guts ! And this #old #moll still can't figure out why she's #lonely #sad and #hated ???'
Lisa's husband, David also chimed in: 'You shouldn't be negative about the show.'
Victoria lashed out at fellow reality TV star Lisa when she accused the politician's wife of bullying her teenage son on social media.
'Bullying a child on social media is harmful': Victoria Rees lashed out at fellow reality TV star Lisa accusing the politician's wife of bullying her teenage son on social media
'Bullying a child on social media is harmful. It's reprehensible. As a parent Lisa Oldfield should know better,' Victoria told The Daily Telegraph.
According to the publication, Victoria's 13-year-old son commented on Lisa's social media page with a comment demanding that she stop insulting his mother on the show.
Lisa responded, in part: 'Is your mother monitoring your social media activity? Probably not. She's probably on her 30th Skinny B****.'
Following the incident, Lisa defended her actions, telling the publication: 'He called me jealous and a loser, I think it is appalling that he would speak to an adult in that way.'
According to the Daily Telegraph, Foxtel has forced Lisa to remove the post containing these messages.
War of words: According to the publication, Victoria's 13-year-old son commented on Lisa's social media page with a comment demanding that she stop insulting his mother on the show
It's the latest in a series of clashes between Lisa and her fellow Housewives.
Recently, Krissy Marsh came out swinging against Lisa after she accused the 45-year-old of having a 'smelly vagina.'
Speaking to NW magazine, Krissy claimed Lisa of 'needs help' and suggests that the politician's wife may be jealous of her figure.
More drama! It's the latest in a series of clashes between Lisa and her fellow Housewives
'Lisa's not well. I'm talking mentally...It was so vile and disgusting. To talk about another woman's genitalia. She hasn't looked at my genitalia. It's so defaming,' said Krissy.
She continued: 'I've got a good body and I'm going to dress for my body. Unfortunately she can't wear those clothes,'
'She doesn't have the same type of body that I have. Clearly that's something that irks her.'
She's rocketed back into the limelight with a fierce turn in This Is Us
And radiant Mandy Moore certainly stood out among the packed lineup as she arrived in a chic black dress at Contenders Emmys in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The 32-year-old actress, who turns 33 on Monday, rocked a sophisticated look as she spoke on the panel with her co-star Milo Ventimiglia.
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Elegant: Mandy Moore arrived in style at the Contenders Emmys on Sunday hosted by Deadline in Los Angeles
Keeping a minimal yet classy look, the brunette beauty wore light accessories with the exception of popping metallic sandal heels.
She styled her hair in loose waves as they framed her face.
Mandy opted for light make-up wearing dark eye liner and nude lipstick.
Co-star cuties: She looked oh-so chic in a black dress and metallic shoes as she posed with Milo Ventimiglia, 39, who looked handsome in a black and grey suit
Panel: The 32-year-old actress attended the event just a day before her 33rd birthday
This Is Us: The stars spoke about their hit show on NBC, which received an early renewal for season two and season three
Co-star Milo, 39, looked handsome on the carpet in a black and grey suit with a checkered button up shirt underneath.
This Is Us revolves around three adult siblings and their parents, which features their lives in different decades.
Speaking of the Dan Fogelman-created series, Mandy spoke about the long process of makeup and aesthetics that go into the characters.
Sharp: The actor also starred in Gilmore Girls and plays a father in the NBC series
Top of the top: The event hosted 25 networks and 50 television shows
All smiles: The co stars appeared to be enjoying the event
'I like to help out with the hairdryer,' Mandy said, who is portrayed as a mom who ages over a 40-year period. 'Otherwise Im just sitting there for three to five hours.'
The stars also spoke about what to look forward to in season two, which received an early renewal including season three.
'Theres a lot happening for all of the Pearsons,' Milo noted. 'Jack and Rebecca need to get their marriage on track because its crumbled and fractured.'
Glam gals: Alexis Bedel arrived looking fabulous in a colorful and floral printed sheer black dress as Elisabeth Moss showed off her svelte figure in a multi-layered skirt and blouse
Shine bright! Actress Tracee Ellis Ross opted for a golden yellow dress and velvet duster top
Dressy casual: Kaitlin Olson opted for a silk white blouse and denim jeans that highlighted her very svelte figure
Smiles: She posed next to actor Will Forte who sported a checkered shirt and jeans
Added Moore: 'I think some of the answers people are looking for will be at least satisfied and satiated at the beginning of next season.'
With twenty five networks and 50 shows being represented during this year's Contenders, many television stars looked their best for Sunday's special event.
Alexis Bedel arrived in a colorful and patterned sheer dress as she posed with Elisabeth Moss who opted for a form-fitting green outfit.
Tracee Ellis Ross also looked stylish in a yellow-golden dress along with Aaron Paul, Kaitlin Olson, Michelle Monaghan and Hugh Dancy who rocked the carpet.
She means business! Michelle Monaghan looked stylish in a matching blazer and pants that she paired with a very sheer white top, flashing some cleavage
Handsome: Aaron Paul rocked a grey and white suit while Hugh Dancy looked dapper in a suit and shirt look
Chilling: Breaking Bad alum, 37, took a breather on the couch
Hugs: Regina King, left, and Felicity Huffman were all smiles at the event
She's the self-prescribed 'serial dater' who's looking for love on the reality show First Dates.
But Stephanie from New South Wales might have a difficult time finding someone who could match up to her her bizarre celebrity crush.
'I have a really strange celebrity crush and it's actually Malcolm Turnbull. I find him very handsome, very intelligent,' the 23-year-old confessed during Monday night's episode.
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I find him very handsome, very intelligent': First Dates single Stephanie made a bizarre confession during Monday's episode, admitting her celebrity crush is Malcolm Turnbull
The government worker went on to explain that the 62-year-old Prime Minister is 'confident but not cocky,' which she finds attractive.
It comes after she revealed to her date Nick, a 27-year-old gym owner, that her occupation involves working with members of parliament, which he jokingly dismissed.
'Politics makes it hard for me to meet people,' she said of her job's impact on her dating life.
'Politics makes it hard for me to meet people': The 23-year-old admitted her job in politics makes it difficult to meet men as they become 'disinterested quite quickly'
'They get disinterested quite quickly.'
Prior to meeting Nick, the brunette described her ideal man as someone with 'visible abs'.
'I'm all about the visible abs on a guy,' she told bartender Cam.
'I'm all about the visible abs on a guy': Meanwhile, the brunette listed abs as a requirement for her ideal man
Perfect match? Gym owner Nick, 27, appeared to be the ideal man for Stephanie, seen showing off his physique in the intro
But it appears Nick's muscular physique and job as a gym owner wasn't enough to woo Stephanie.
Despite their conversation flowing quite easily, Stephanie refused to go on a second date with Nick.
'We just weren't on the same wave length,' she said on camera. 'I just didn't really connect with Nick on an intellectual level.'
Surprising result: But despite the flowing conversation, 'serial dater' Stephanie didn't feel a connection with Nick
'I think I just want someone a little bit more stimulating,' she said of Nick, after rejecting his offer to go on a second date
'I think I just want someone a little bit more stimulating,' she concluded.
Meanwhile, earlier in the date, Stephanie admitted she has no idea what she's doing wrong when it comes to finding the right guy for her.
'I'm a serial dater. I've tried every dating app in existence,' she said.
'I've tried every dating app in existence': Earlier in the night, Stephanie admitted she was confused about why she can't find love despite being a 'serial dater'
She did, however, admit she tends to like a challenge and said: 'If I find a guy that's probably perfect for me and they show the slightest interest in me, I probably won't want to see them again just because it's too easy.'
Meanwhile, three other couples were also set up on blind dates during the second season premiere.
Milanka, 26, made a comeback after her first failed date during season one.
He said WHAT? Meanwhile, single gal Milanka was shocked to discover her partner Chris had a penchant for dating much older women, some over two decades his senior
Unlucky in love: Following the shock revelation, Milanka insisted the pair were better off not pursuing a relationship
Things seemed promising for the Serbian-born brunette, who was matched with a 28-year-old security company owner who also lives at home with his mother.
But the promise of a blossoming relationship fizzled after Chris revealed he usually dates older women, with his oldest ex-girlfriend being 50.
'Where are you meeting these people, the RSL?' Milanka asks in bewilderment after Chris confessed he never has the opportunity to meet women his own age.
It's a yes! Used cxars salesman Sanjay and nurse Caitlin agreed to head out on a second date after their successful dinner, and even shared a passionate kiss on camera
Used cars salesman Sanjay, 28, was matched with nurse Caitlin, 24, and the pair hit it off.
Despite Caitlin admitting she always places men into the 'best friend box,' she appears to have found a connection with Sanjay.
They both agreed to go on a second date, and even shared a passionate kiss on camera.
They were in fact the only couple who had a successful first date on the night and agreed to go out again.
Kendall Jenner is keeping a low profile - for now.
The 21-year-old daughter of Kris and Caitlyn Jenner, 'is still not happy about the controversy' swirling over her Pepsi ad, which was lambasted on social media before the soft drink corporation pulled it altogether Wednesday, amid jokes and complaints that it foolishly used imagery linked to ongoing social protests to sell soda.
The statuesque model, sources told People, planned 'on laying low until things calm down' after touching down in her native Los Angeles on Friday from a Parisian work trip, in the wake of her embarrassing career misstep.
Setback: Kendall Jenner, 21, is still upset at the fallout of her controversial Pepsi ad, sources told People
'She still talks about it a lot and has support from her family,' the source told the magazine. 'She is spending a quiet weekend with her family.'
The commercial, which was called Live for Now Moments Anthem, unfurled a bizarre sequence in which the Keeping Up With the Kardashians beauty joined in a metropolitan protest, later handing a policeman a Pepsi, triggering gleeful applause from the crowd.
It was met with overwhelming public scorn, disapproval and mockery, with Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Bernice King taking a jab at the nature of the ad.
Circling the wagons: Kendall spent time this weekend with her reassuring family in the wake of the humiliating reaction to the ad
Catwalk cutie: The brunette beauty was snapped Friday walking the runway in Paris at a Miu Miu showcase
In its statement upon pulling the commercial, Pepsi said it 'was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize.'
The soft drink manufacturer said it was remorseful Kendall was 'in this position' as result of the fallout.
The publication previously reported that the Kardashian-Jenner clan had rallied around the 5ft10 model, who's walked runways for designers including Balmain and Chanel.
Leading the pack: The panned commercial saw Kendall emerge from a photo shoot with Pepsi in hand and a head of steam
Perfect harmony: Kendall then gave a nearby police officer a can of Pepsi, inexplicably causing a chain reaction of exuberance
Who knew? A simple Pepsi changed the entire mood at the tense rally - a source of mockery among many
'Everyone is being very supportive and ready to give advice,' a source told the magazine. 'Kendall is young and certainly not used to being involved in such controversy.'
The source continued: 'She has been very upset. She feels terrible. She loves being a model. To get a Pepsi gig was a big deal. She was very excited. She never expected it to receive such backlash.
'She hopes people understand that she wasnt involved in the creative process.'
Ouch: Critics of the spot included Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, Bernice, who lampooned the corporation's willingness to capitalize off of social struggles
She wore a frothy tiered bridal gown by Rebecca Vallance when she tied the knot with Peter Stefanovic, earlier this month.
But Sylvia Jeffreys kept it a little more simple at her hens do in Byron Bay, ahead of the nuptials.
The Today show presenter wore a floral sundress by Zimmermann as well as very minimal makeup on her glowing complexion as she enjoyed her last days as a 'fiancee' in the picturesque NSW town, last month.
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Here comes the glowing bride! Sylvia Jeffreys wore a pretty floral frock for her hens do in Byron Bay last month, ahead of her wedding to Peter Stefanovic, earlier this month
While some brides celebrate their last days of singledom with penis straws and a night of dancing, the media personality instead opted for some clean fun.
She was pictured sitting on a swing barefoot and enjoying nature with some girlfriends.
The blonde beauty also appeared to carry a camera around as she documented the day, snapping selfies with her friends.
The girls gathered for photos on the grass, with Sylvia front and centre as she relaxed on a striped yellow and white beanbag.
Having a ball: The 30-year-old Today host appeared to be having a ball during her girls trip
At one point, she made a toast to the occasion, raising a glass with her ladies.
Groom Peter also celebrated his bucks night with pals, although his brother Karl was not pictured.
Weeks later, Sylvia stunned in a custom Rebecca Vallance wedding gown during her nuptials with fiance Peter.
She wore a classic princess-style wedding gown, which featured a plunging neckline, layered tulle and intricate beading.
While her gown was sleeveless, the bottom of her dress fanned out on the floor in layers of material, tulle and beading.
Lots of laughs: Sylvia and her pals certainly enjoyed lots of laughs throughout the day
Mood swings: The Brisbane native posed on a swing as one of friends snapped pictures of her
King of the swingers: Sylvia seemed to be blissfully happy as she was surrounded by pals
Love story: Peter popped the question in July last year while the couple were enjoying a romantic getaway in France
Sylvia is currently believed to be on her honeymoon with Peter in Fiji, but she still managed to upload another picture of her dress this past weekend, writing: 'I wish we could do it all over again. Lots of love xxx.'
Sylvia and Peter tied the knot at Ooralba Estate in the Kangaroo Valley earlier this month, with Sylvia describing the day on her Instagram as the 'best day of our lives.'
They tied the knot in front of 160 guests, with attendees including Peter's brother Karl Stefanovic and the Today show stars, Lisa Wilkinson and Richard Wilkins.
'Wedding of the year': They tied the knot in front of 160 guests, with attendees including Peter's brother Karl Stefanovic and the Today show stars, Lisa Wilkinson and Richard Wilkins
Work romance: Peter and Sylvia were an item on screen before they got together - co-hosting Today's Weekend Summer Series in 2013
'That was the first time we met face to face and it was soon after that that we started courting,' Sylvia recalled in an interview last year
Peter popped the question in July last year while the couple were enjoying a romantic getaway in France.
Peter and Sylvia were an item on screen before they got together - co-hosting Today's Weekend Summer Series in 2013.
'That was the first time we met face to face and it was soon after that that we started courting,' Sylvia recalled in an interview last year.
Obstacle course: The budding romance was forced to negotiate its first major hurdle almost before it had even begun
Love conquers all: Peter returned to London and his job as foreign correspondent - but he didn't lose contact with Sylvia, taking an old fashioned approach to maintaining the relationship
Dear Peter: Sylvia revealed that the novel form of courting saw the pair become pen pals
However, the budding romance was forced to negotiate its first major hurdle almost before it had even begun.
Peter returned to London and his job as foreign correspondent - but he didn't lose contact with Sylvia, taking an old fashioned approach to maintaining the relationship.
Sylvia revealed the novel form of courting in an interview with Show and Tell last year.
She said: 'We started pen-palling. It was old school and traditional.'
Clearly flattered at his actions, the 30-year-old said: 'To sit down and hand write a letter and post it to you - it doesn't matter what's in that letter - but that is a gesture in itself'
Main woman: Sylvia replaced popular Today host Georgie Gardner in June 2014, confirming her relationship with Peter around the same time
Family ties: A month later, her brother-in-law to be, Karl Stefanovic, let slip to Confidential that the newsreader had the seal of approval from his family
He said: 'Everyone likes her. She is a beautiful woman and super smart and, most importantly, from Queensland'
Clearly flattered at his actions, the 30-year-old added: 'To sit down and hand write a letter and post it to you - it doesn't matter what's in that letter - but that is a gesture in itself.'
Sylvia replaced popular Today host Georgie Gardner in June 2014, confirming her relationship with Peter around the same time.
A month later, her brother-in-law to be, Karl Stefanovic, let slip to Confidential that the newsreader had the seal of approval from his family.
He said: 'Everyone likes her. She is a beautiful woman and super smart and, most importantly, from Queensland.'
He was the 2001 runner-up on season one of Big Brother Australia and went on to star in various TV dramas.
And after leaving TV screens in 2012, following his stint on Winners and Losers, it seems that Blair McDonough is preparing to make a comeback.
The 35-year-old took to Instagram this week to share a post celebrating his return to the small screen after landing a guest role on Home And Away.
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Welcome to Summer Bay! Actor Blair McDonough making his big comeback to the small screen after sharing a snap of the Home And Away script on his Instagram
He shared a snap of the script with the iconic soap opera's logo and a half finished coffee.
Blair captioned the post: 'Just like riding a bike... right?!'
But shortly after posting the surprise, he deleted the post.
Premature announcement? Blair captioned the post: 'Just like riding a bike... right?!' but he deleted it shortly after posting it
Comeback: Blair was last seen of Australian screens on Channel Seven's Winners And Losers
A spokesperson for the Seven Network confirmed to Daily Mail Australia: 'Blair McDonough has commenced shooting a guest role on Home and Away.'
Following his stint on Big Brother, Blair went on to star in Neighbours as Stuart Parker, and while on the show he dated co-star Delta Goodrem.
He was on the soap until 2006 and the following year, he moved to the UK to join period drama Heartbeat in a recurring role from 2008-2009.
Starting role: After his success on Big Brother in 2001, he went on to regularly star on Neighbours
Blair returned to Australian in 2010 for a role on Sea Patrol semi-regular role, but it 2011 struck gold as Matt O'Connor on Winners and Losers.
He character was written off in the second season of the show.
On the flip side, Blair's personal life has been far more successful after marrying Kristi Townley in 2013.
The couple welcomed their first daughter Leni in 2015.
Mel B is reportedly on the verge of offering her estranged husband Stephen Belafonte 5million and a private island as part of their divorce settlement.
But the former Spice Girl, who has alleged a litany of abuse at the hands of her ex over the course of their decade-long union, is said to be insisting that the deal comes with a gagging order, according to the Daily Star.
The newspaper reports that Mel is particularly keen to offload the island she bought - located in the US state of Virginia - for 1million for Stephen's birthday in 2014, as they have rarely visited the late retreat since.
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Settlement? Mel B has reportedly offered her estranged husband Stephen Belafonte 5million and a private island in Virginia - under the condition that he agrees to a gagging order
A source said: 'Mel wants it done and dusted as quickly as possible to prevent any more harm being done to her kids. Shell give him 5m plus that bloody white elephant of an island, which was a total waste of money.
'He wants double that, but hell take whats being offered because if he gets into a fight with her then her pockets are much deeper than his.'
Mel, who is thought to be worth an estimated 48million is reportedly eager to bring about a rapid end to their decidedly acrimonious battle.
MailOnline has contacted a representative for Mel B for comment.
Having his say: Stephen Belafonte has finally broken his radio silence on his divorce battle with Mel B, insisting that he will fight for custody of his kids (Pictured holding daughter Madison alongside step daughters Angel, nine, and Phoenix, 18 in 2015)
The news comes after Stephen finally broke his silence on the couple's divorce battle, as he insisted that he will fight for custody of his children.
Following her allegations of abuse from Stephen, 41, Mel, also 41, has been granted a temporary restraining order against her ex.
In a brief interview with the Sunday Mirror, Stephen said that he was ready to fight for his offspring after Mel asked for full custody of their five-year-old daughter Madison.
He told the publication: 'They are the only things that matter to me.'
Ready: The 41-year-old American producer has been embroiled in a toxic battle with the former Spice Girl since she filed for divorce on March 20 after 10 years of marriage (Pictured together in 2016)
Although declining to give his version of events, he vowed that his children were the only thing that were important to him during this time.
He divulged: 'Im going to have to get off the phone because family court frowns on that. It is in the hands of my lawyers, My kids are the only thing that matter to me.'
Despite having daughter Madison with Mel, he also acted as step-father to her two other girls, Phoenix Chi, 18, from her relationship with Jimmy Gulzar and nine-year-old Angel with film star Eddie Murphy.
New Jersey-raised Belafonte is also father to 13-year-old Giselle, who he welcomed with former partner Nicole Contreras.
Stepping out: Mel B stepped out in Los Angeles on Friday as her lawyers got a court order barring her estranged husband Stephen from releasing sex tapes or photos of the ex-Spice Girl
His frank admission comes after lawyers for Mel B have been granted a court order barring her estranged husband from releasing any sex tapes or photos of the America's Got Talent.
The order was issued in court on Friday after Mel claimed the nanny Belafonte allegedly got pregnant while she worked for the couple was holding the sex tapes hostage, TMZ reports.
New documents filed by Mel's lawyers claim that when she left their home after filing for divorce last month, Belafonte locked 12-15 boxes filled with his estranged wife's possession in a storage facility in Los Angeles.
The boxes contain photos of her deceased father and her Spice Girls memorabilia.
In the past: Mel filed for divorce from her husband of 10 years last month. They are pictured above in 2015 with her daughters Angel (left) and Phoenix Chi (right) as well as their child together, Madison
Belafonte has allegedly refused to reveal the location of the locker, which is being held under the name Lorraine Gilles - the German nanny accused of having an abortion following an affair with him.
'He [Stephen] has admitted to me that our former nanny, Lorraine Gilles, maintains possession and control over the media such that I could never have anyone locate the tapes so as to obtain and destroy the same,' Mel claims in the court documents.
'I believe that Lorraine Gilles and [Belafonte] are acting in concert to deprive me of my personal belongings by either destroying or disseminating said belongings.'
Mel's lawyers argued in court that Belafonte has been threatening to release the tapes to destroy her reputation and career.
Back then: Mel B claimed in court papers that the nanny Belafonte allegedly got pregnant, Lorraine Gilles, was holding the Spice Girls' sex tapes hostage in a storage locker in LA
The judge ordered Belafonte not to release any sexually explicit material of his estranged wife, but he has not yet ruled on Mel's request for him to turn over the location and combination of the locker held in Gilles' name.
Meanwhile Belafonte claims in court documents filed Friday that his wife blindsided him with the allegations he was trying to extort her with the sex tapes, TMZ reported on Friday night.
His lawyers say he was close to settling their court issues before Mel brought up the allegations when she surprised him with a request for a restraining order.
Mel made explosive allegations about their former nanny in court papers when she filed for divorce from the producer last month.
Worrying: Court papers filed previously included a catalogue of abuse against Mel allegedly at the hands of her husband during their decade-long marriage
She claimed Belafonte got Gilles pregnant and even suggested 'all three [of them] live together' with the new baby.
The nanny was paid allegedly 'paid $300,000' to have an abortion, according to the filing.
The papers also included a catalogue of abuse against Mel allegedly at the hands of Belafonte over their decade-long marriage, according to TMZ.
She claims Belafonte's alleged abuse included 'punching' and 'choking' her, 'splitting her lip' and 'pushing her down on a carpet'.
Then: Lorraine Gilles, pictured with Mel's husband Stephen Belafonte, is the nanny identified in court papers submitted by the former Spice Girl as she divorces him
In the papers, Mel claims that Belafonte also forced her to 'participate in sexual intercourse with him and random women.'
The former Spice Girl suggests that during their marriage, she was coerced into trysts that he secretly recorded and later used as ammunition against her, threatening to release as sex tapes 'if she tried to resist the threesomes'.
He is also alleged to have shown his wife little sympathy as her beloved father Martin lost his battle with cancer.
TMZ claim the film producer allegedly told her to 'Suck it up. If he's going to die, he's going to die.'
Happier times: Mel B's lawyers argued in court that Belafonte has been threatening to release the tapes to destroy her reputation and career
Stephen denied his estranged wife's claims, telling TMZ on camera: 'I haven't heard these allegations. You know what my comment on this is, as this is the mother of my children?
'I'm really really distraught my brain how this is going to affect our children (sic), and the depths that she's gone to. That's it. I'm shocked at those allegations and that's what it is.
'I think someone's set me up to look like a bad guy. Obviously you saw my house got raided and nobody found anything. It's accusation after accusation. But we'll have our day in court.
'And we have children. If anyone knows our children, we have beautiful children. They're on social media. Why do this?
Concern: Mel's appearance on the X Factor back in 2014, sparked concern among fans with Belafonte taking to Twitter to deny he was a 'wife beater'
'We were friends two weeks ago. And now all of a sudden the team gets around and now it's got to be this.'
Belafonte filed his official response to her divorce petition this week and has asked that she pay his lawyer's fees.
The film producer is asking for spousal support, the documents show, although no figure is stated.
The filing also reveals the former couple disagrees on their separation date - him claiming it was March 1 and she December 28.
He left fans very hot under the collar when he stripped off for The Night Manager and High Rise.
And Tom Hiddleston has revealed he has no issues going nude on-screen - but only if fits in with the narrative of the role.
Speaking to Star2, the 36-year-old actor admitted: 'If its a thematic part of the story, I dont have a problem with it.'
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Stripping off: Tom Hiddleston, 35, (pictured in High-Rise) has revealed he has no problems going nude on-screen - but only if fits in with the narrative of the role
He explained: 'Any kind of personal exposure, that was part of the thematic narrative about how one man is trusting enough to be vulnerable and then realizing he cant be.'
The star was also keen to stress that he wasn't taking the plunge and going completely full frontal as he reasoned: 'I didnt bare all.
'In both instances, any partial nudity is actually thematically linked to the story.'
Comfortable: The 36-year-old actor admitted he didn't mind 'personal exposure' as he reasoned: 'If its a thematic part of the story, I dont have a problem with it'
Modest: The star was also keen to stress that he wasn't taking the plunge and going completely full frontal as he reasoned: 'I didnt bare all!'
Whilst Tom has no problem baring his physique, it now seems unlikely he will be doing the iconic emerging from the sea topless scenes synonymous with the James Bond film franchise.
Despite being tipped as one of the frontrunners to replace Daniel Craig in the role, new reports claim he has been dubbed 'too smug' for the character.
Paige Six report that Tom has effectively been ruled out by franchise producer Barbara Broccoli.
Unlikely: It seems unlikely Tom will be doing the topless scenes synonymous with the James Bond film franchise as he is said to be 'too smug' to replace Daniel Craig (R)
'Barbara doesnt like Tom Hiddleston, hes a bit too smug and not tough enough to play James Bond,' a source told the site.
Insiders also claim Tom's high profile romance with American pop star Taylor Swift has worked against his favour for the role.
Barbara was also said to be unimpressed with his bizarre acceptance speech at the 74th annual Golden Globes, during which he relayed an awkwardly expressed anecdote about aid workers in impoverished south Sudan warmly greeting him after watching his TV drama The Night Manager.
They have been head over heels since they reunited last year.
And Millie Mackintosh and Hugo Taylor were happy for everyone to see their love as they packed on the PDA on Sunday.
The couple were enjoying a leisurely evening out in London as the UK basked in balmy weather.
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Loved up: Millie Mackintosh and Hugo Taylor were happy for everyone to see their love as they packed on the PDA on Sunday
Millie looked sensational in a long polka dot coat with a quirky trilby.
They met a pal for drinks before the pair enjoyed a cosy chat before sharing a smooch.
On Saturday, they were also spotted together in the sun.
The beauty, 27, appeared utterly relaxed as she enjoyed a romantic stroll around Notting Hill hand-in-hand with her beau, 30 - who proceeded to feed her frozen yogurt during their lunch date later on.
PDA! They enjoyed a cosy chat before sharing a smooch as they enjoyed a balmy evening
Catch up: They met a pal for drinks and looked in deep conversation as they enjoyed a drink
Besotted: The couple showed off their love and seemed stronger than ever on Saturday as they enjoyed a sweet lunch date in a sunny London
The designer kept things casually chic for the outing in loose-fitting ripped jeans and a delicate lace camisole top.
Millie fully embraced the weather by flashing plenty of sun-kissed skin in the spaghetti strap top, before adding trendy rounded shades to heighten the summery vibe.
Leaving her hair loose and adding simple Converse trainers to her feet, the former Made In Chelsea star seemed more than comfortable as she strolled around the city hand-in-hand with her man.
The lick of love! After a year together, the pair proved their feelings were as strong as ever as they began to feed each other ice-cream while they soaked up the sunshine
Meanwhile Hugo matched her sunny exterior in a loose-fitting checked shirt and shorts as the duo stopped for frozen yogurt during their outing.
After a year together, the pair proved their feelings were as strong as ever as they began to feed each other ice-cream while they soaked up the sunshine.
Hugo and Millie appeared completely infatuated with each other - having recently returned from a holiday to Dubai together.
Jet-setters: Hugo and Millie appeared completely infatuated with each other - having recently returned from a holiday to Dubai together (above)
Hugo had jetted to the location alone to promote his newest Taylor Morris sunglasses collection, but Millie had sweetly surprised him by arriving a few days later.
However the pair have now returned to London where they are no doubt spending plenty of quality time in their new apartment together.
The beauty took to her Instagram page in February to inform her 1.3million followers that she has moved in with her boyfriend of one year.
Reunited: Millie first dated Hugo in 2011 on Made In Chelsea, yet their relationship was brutally cut short when she discovered he slept with her best friend Rosie Fortescue
Millie shared a snap of the couple from the Fashion Film cocktail party, sponsored by River Island - adding the caption: 'My roomie'.
Millie first dated Hugo in 2011 when they first made their names on E4 show Made In Chelsea, yet their relationship was brutally cut short when she discovered he slept with her best friend Rosie Fortescue.
The heiress had previously been married to rapper Professor Green for two-and-a-half years, before they divorced in February 2016.
She recently returned to Australia after hosting I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in South Africa, earlier this year.
And on Monday, comedian and actress Julia Morris took to Instagram to share an adorable flashback snap of herself as a child, at the beach.
The 48-year-old can be seen in the image laying on the sand smiling, captioning the shot: 'Monday vibes.'
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'Monday vibes': On Monday, comedian and actress Julia Morris shared with her fans an adorable flashback snap of herself as a child, at the beach
She wears a red and white costume and has straight short hair.
'Love the attitude!,' one fan commented underneath the snap.
'Haven't changed a bit,' another added.
Hitting the stage: Julia is preparing for her one woman show, Lift and Separate, which will see her travel around Australia
Julia is preparing for her one woman comedy show, Lift and Separate, which will see her travel around Australia and perform shows including in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin.
The tour starts on May five, in Adelaide.
She previously wrote online about that show that it will be 'full of the usual insanity,' and adding, So many stories to tell.'
Back from South Africa: Julia co-hosted I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! with TV vet, Dr Chris Brown
Julia co-hosted I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! with TV vet, Dr Chris Brown.
Former Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan won the show and took him $100,000, with the money going to her chosen charity, the Starlight Foundation.
During her time on the show, Julia would joke about finding contestant, Kris Smith, attractive.
The House Husbands star is married to partner Dan Thomas, with the pair sharing two daughters together, Ruby, 10, and Sophie, eight.
The pair have overcome some hurdles together, including Dan's breast cancer diagnosis in 2012.
Mariah Carey and backing dancer Bryan Tanaka have reportedly split over his issues with jealousy and her tiring of funding his lavish shopping sprees.
According to TMZ, the pair have mutually gone their separate ways after a five-month romance, which occurred shortly after her split from former fiance James Packer.
Sources told the site 33-year-old Bryan struggled with Mariah's close relationship with her ex husband Nick Cannon, who she holidays with.
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'His endgame was fame': Mariah Carey and Bryan Tanaka reportedly SPLIT following his insane jealousy over her relationship with Nick Cannon'
Not having it: Mariah is also said to have grown tired following Bryan's lavish spending sprees
They said: 'The last straw came at the Kids' Choice Awards last month, when Nick and Mariah took the twins. We're told Bryan felt the display "disrespected" him and during the event he demanded she came home.'
Moreover, Mariah, 46, reportedly tired of footing the bills for Bryan's designer clothing, watches and chains.
She is said to have felt that Bryan jumped in after she split from Packer and his endgame was fame.
A source said: 'The last straw came at the Kids' Choice Awards last month, when Nick and Mariah took the twins. We're told Bryan felt the display "disrespected" him and during the event he demanded she came home'
All over: Mariah and Bryan got together shortly after she split from former fiance James Packer (pictured together in May 2016)
But they haven't seen each other since March.
MailOnline has approached a spokesperson for Mariah Carey and Bryan Tanaka for comment.
Mariah shares five-year-old twins with ex-husband Nick Cannon, whom she wed in 2008, but later split in 2014.
She moved on to billionaire James Packer, whom she announced an engagement in 2016 and then soon called it off.
But she wasn't alone for long. Just four months after the split she officially confirmed in February that she was dating her backup dancer Bryan, who is 13 years her junior.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Mariah referred to Bryan as her 'boyfriend' while explaining her reasons for not discussing her personal life in the media.
She said: 'I really don't talk about my personal life because that's what I used to do and it really worked for a minute, back, a while ago.
'I just don't feel comfortable talking about my personal life... Me and my boyfriend don't want to do that.'
Days after DailyMail.com revealed that Mischa Barton won a restraining order extension against two ex-boyfriends, the actress appears to be in an upbeat mood.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the 31-year-old was seen enjoying beverages and cigarettes at a rooftop bar in Los Angeles with a male pal.
Dressed casually in black tracksuit bottoms with a loose-fitting green top, she sat closely with her companion, gazing into his eyes as they chatted the day away.
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That's the spirit! Mischa Barton was spotted having drinks with a male companion at a rooftop bar in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon
Her outing comes after DailyMail.com revealed that she had been granted an extension to restraining orders against two former boyfriends she believes are trying to sell an explicit sex tape of her, according to legal documents.
And the legal filing shows that the two men are at loggerheads, blaming each other for trying to shop the x-rated material.
According to the paperwork, filed by Barton's lawyer Lisa Bloom at Los Angeles Superior Court, the requests for extended domestic violence restraining orders against Jon Zacharias and Adam Spaw, previously known as Adam Shaw, were submitted to the court.
Puff: The actress puffed on cigarettes as she and her companion chatted the day away
Casually cool: She was casually dressed in black tracksuit bottoms with a green top
The requests, DailyMail.com has learned, were both approved by the judge the same day.
The documents state that Spaw gave a deposition to Barton's lawyer on March 30 confirming the existence of the sex tapes and stating that Zacharias - the son of Revenge of the Nerds screenwriter Steve Zacharias - told him that he intended to sell the tapes.
He also told lawyers that two other people have access to the material, which includes secretly filmed footage of the OC star having sex and taking a shower.
DailyMail.com first broke the exclusive story that a video showing Barton having sex with a dark haired man - now believed to be Zacharias - was being offered to the highest bidder with the starting price of $500,000.
Enjoying the view: At one point, the pair were seen gazing into each other's eyes
Making waves: The London-born beauty's golden tresses rested on her shoulders in soft waves
The footage was being touted to online porn companies, with a number of porn industry giants still considering the offer.
The latest court documents state: 'At his deposition, Mr. Spaw testified that Mr. Zacharias had taken videos of Ms. Barton without her knowledge or permission.
'Mr. Spaw admitted to making multiple copies of these tapes and compressing a copy to make it easier to email to an unnamed third party.'
Bottoms up: An assortment of glasses sat on the table before them as they sat together
Ex: The actress' relaxed excursion comes after her round of court battles with ex-boyfriends
The filing also states that Spaw showed Barton's legal team text messages he had recently received from Zacharias pleading with him not to release the tapes.
In the texts Zacharias tells Spaw: 'Midchas (sic) lawyers and I now know u stole my computer. Do u understand this is a criminal offense? Just promise me u won't release anything.'
Zacharias says he has just left rehab, before adding: 'Just promise me nothing will be f***ing released man.'
Court order: Last week, she was granted an extension to restraining orders against two former boyfriends she believes are trying to sell an explicit sex tape of her
Sex, lies and videotape? Jon Zacharias is believed to be the ex-boyfriend who surreptitiously taped himself and Mischa having sex but says it is Spaw who is trying to sell the tape
But according to Spaw, who sent an email to Bloom's office along with copies of the text messages, Zacharias is trying to 'flip the script' by claiming it's him who is behind the sale of the sex tapes.
Spaw claims in the email that Zacharias 'illegally filmed' Barton, then proceeded to 'openly brag' that he was going to shop the tapes around to the highest bidder.
Zacharias' goal, he wrote, was to sell the explicit footage to showbiz site TMZ for $1million.
He added that Zacharias was already responsible for selling photos and text messages between the two to another showbiz website.
Physically ill: Spaw, who says he is still in touch with Barton, wrote, 'I've been worried sick about Mischa, and that it's been insinuated...that I had anything to do with the shopping of Jon's heinous videos makes me physically ill
Spaw, who says he is still in touch with Barton, wrote: 'I've been worried sick about Mischa, and that it's been insinuated...that I had anything to do with the shopping of Jon's heinous videos makes me physically ill.
'I love and care about Mischa more than anything in the world, and I've done everything in my power (since November) to prevent Jon's tapes from ever being released.'
Spaw claims he hasn't seen or spoken with Zacharias since November last year when he 'copied the tapes he had made onto a flash drive'.
'I want nothing to do with him, I'm repulsed and infuriated at what he's put Mischa through, and what he's put me through in the process. I wanted nothing to do with any of this.'
Accusations: In text messages to Spaw, Zacharias accuses him of stealing the computer that housed the X-rated sex tape
Spaw claims he told Barton about the tapes from the beginning and was even able to obtain an audio confession from Zacharias.
He added: 'It's obvious to me that Jon's trying to flip the script in his texts, attempting to make himself look innocent (cover his own behind) and paint me as the bad guy, which is fundamentally absurd.'
According to the documents Hollywood sex tape broker Kevin Blatt also gave a deposition in the case.
'However, Mr. Blatt was unable to positively identify the individual who was attempting to sell the tapes in question,' the papers state.
Interview: The 31-year old bitterly reflected on the moment she discovered the tape was being offered to the highest bidder during a televised interview with Dr. Phil
The filing, which states that Barton was unable to locate elusive Zacharias to serve him with his restraining order, despite several attempts through a service company, adds: 'Good cause exists for a continuance on the grounds that the parties are still obtaining evidence that will confirm who is attempting to get back at Ms. Barton by selling revenge pornography, and additional time is needed to complete this investigation.'
Barton's lawyer, leading civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, told DailyMail.com Monday: 'Every day that the images are not released is a victory for us. We are pleased the judge has extended the orders for a few weeks so that we can track down Mr Zacharias, who seems to be evading service.
Techie: Zacharias describes himself a s a technology and marketing expert on Facebook. In the court documents Mischa says he's 'great with technology'
'We will not rest until we have permanent orders in place protecting Ms. Barton's rights to the privacy of images of her own body.'
Zacharias, 30, is a technology and marketing expert from Illinois who dated Barton for several months in 2016.
Barton said in a statement last month that she didn't realize Zacharias was recording their 'intimate relations' and taking 'photos of me naked in the shower' until after they broke up.
The actress says she split with Zacharias after she learned he was only interested in her because she was a celebrity.
She then began dating Spaw, a former friend of Zacharias, who told her that her ex had been bragging about the intimate material in his possession.
She goes on to say Spaw - who she knows as Shaw - copied the photos and videos and tried to erase them from Zacharias' computer.
She said: 'Mr Zacharias is very technical, so I doubt that Mr Shaw was actually able to erase anything from Mr Zacharias' computer.'
Barton said her and Spaw eventually broke up recently when he, too, 'tried to take advantage of me and forged my signature on some checks. He was arrested.'
The Beautiful Life star claims both guys are desperate for money, and she believes one or both are responsible for shopping the sex tape.
Press conference: Mischa Barton and her lawyer Lisa Bloom held news conference last month during which Mischa said she had been the victim of revenge porn
London-born Barton, 31, said she would be 'devastated' if the material were published and it would 'hurt' her career and cause her to be 'publicly embarrassed'.
DailyMail.com first broke the story on March 13 that Hollywood sex tape broker Kevin Blatt had been approached by a third party with the video.
He said: 'The tape is being shopped around porn valley, the asking price is $500,000.'
Last week Barton opened up about being the apparent victim of the 'revenge porn' scheme.
'I feel very conned by the whole thing,' she said in an interview on Dr Phil.
She enjoyed a bikini-clad bachelorette pool party in Vegas earlier this month.
And after spending the day getting wet, Nicky Whelan slipped into some more glamorous attire to hit up a nightclub with her busty girlfriends.
The former Neighbours siren, who is engaged to marry ex-NFL star Kerry Rhodes, put on a racy display in a plunging black cocktail dress.
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Let's party! Nicky Whelan got wild with her girlfriends in Vegas to celebrate her bachelorette party
'Girls rule the world ... all these natural beauties ... I love u ladies ... endless love and fun,' wrote the blonde beauty alongside a string of images from the party.
The slender 35-year-old looked chic with her hair slicked back and a beverage in her hand.
She showcased her enviable cleavage and bronzed legs in the stunning ensemble.
It was a much different look compared to her pool party attire from earlier that day.
'Girls rule the world ... all these natural beauties ... I love u ladies ... endless love and fun,' wrote the blonde beauty alongside a string of images from the party
Where to look? The 35-year-old showcased her cleavage in a plunging black cocktail dress
The joint bachelor and bachelorette festivities started on Saturday, with Nicky posting a series of snaps to her Instagram of the girls having fun as they danced and posed in the Nevada desert.
'It's started! The Bachelor and bachelorette party for me and my love @kerryrhodes... meet some of the family joining us this weekend,' she excitedly captioned the moment.
The actress stunned as she stepped out alongside her beau later that weekend, donning a sultry ensemble that featured thigh-high boots, dark jeans and a lacy, sheer corset-style top.
Joint party! Nicky enjoyed a joint bachelor and bachelorette party with fiance Kerry Rhodes in Vegas over the weekend
Soon-to-be-wed: The couple were rumoured to have wed last month keeping their nuptials secret, but now appear like they will be walking down the aisle soon
Friends and family: Nicky posted a series of snaps to her Instagram of the group attending the parties, writing: 'meet some of the family joining us this weekend'
Sexy and sultry: The former Neighbours star stunned as she stepped out alongside her beau, donning a revealing ensemble that featured thigh-high boots, dark jeans and a lacy, sheer corset-style top
The blonde beauty wore her hair slicked back in a tight bun, accessorising her sexy ensemble with a gold drop necklace and vibrant red lip.
Husband-to-be Kerry looked stylish as he put his arm around Nicky's shoulder, rocking dark pants, a black button-up shirt and cream boots.
The actress partied it up poolside with the former NRL star the following day, rocking tassled brown boots with her skimpy ensemble.
Enjoying a meal: The couple celebrated a number of ways over the weekend, as they head out to dinner and partied it up by the pool
Incredible abs! She showed off her toned and trim physique in a crimson bikini top and a pair of tight jean mini-shorts
She showed off her toned and trim physique in a crimson bikini top and a pair of tight jean mini-shorts.
Her long blonde hair hung loose and wild around her face, pushed back slightly by a thick ebony headband.
Stopping for a photo with Kerry, who dressed down in a white singlet and board-shorts, Nicky clasped a cold beverage in her hand.
'Bachelor bachelorette weekend together in Vegas with my love @kerryrhodes ... what a blast,' she wrote in the caption.
Gal pals: Some of the party guests included Australian actress and presenter Kate Neilson (far right) and personal trainer Jena Kirmse (far left)
Star power: The cute couple were joined over the weekend was a bevy of stars, including Kim DeJesus (right) and Anna-Lynne McCord (left) who got in on the water fun
The cute couple were joined over the weekend was a bevy of stars, including Kim DeJesus and Anna-Lynne McCord who got in on the water fun.
Kim looked gorgeous in a revealing low-cut cobalt blue number, while Anna-Lynne stunned in a revealing white one-piece she complimented with a metallic statement necklace.
Some of the other party guests included Australian actress and presenter Kate Neilson and personal trainer Jena Kirmse.
Party by the pool: Nicky and former NRL star Kerry Rhodes enjoyed themselves by the pool, dancing around together
Spring vibes: Stopping for a photo with Kerry, who dressed down in a white singlet and board-shorts, Nicky enjoyed the warm weather in the lead up to America's summer
Two weeks ago Nicky enjoyed a 'magical' bridal shower in Beverly Hills, California.
The venue was decorated lavishly with gold balloons and gift bags, with the tables covered in floral arrangements and tasty canapes.
The Scrubs actress was joined by her gal pals there as well, with her fiance dropping by to surprise her with a kiss.
Her bikini-clad assault on social media has become somewhat prolific.
And Louise Thompson is showing no signs of relenting as she yet again stripped down to barely anything for a sexy Instagram post on Monday.
The 27-year-old Made In Chelsea star revealed she is getting ready to jet away on her fifth holiday in just four months, after travelling to various luxurious locations with her beefcake beau and co-star Ryan Libbey.
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Earn your stripes: Louise Thompson is showing no signs of relenting as she yet again stripped down to barely anything for a sexy Instagram post on Monday
Louise soared to fame on the E4 show in 2011's second season, where she was introduced as Spencer Matthews' girlfriend before becoming a central character with her convoluted love life playing out on-screen.
After dating stars including Jamie Laing, Andy Jordan and Alik Alfus, she recently found love with personal trainer Ryan who she kept secret for five months after falling for him over gym sessions.
Her Instagram activity with her beau has been the subject of much and envy and some ridicule as the couple document their excessive holidays with the help of professional photographers on the photosharing site.
Once again sparking envy among fans, Louise stripped down to just a scanty striped swimsuit as she revealed her next trip, although failed to specify a location: 'Trying on swimmers for next vacay!'
Striped sensation: The Made In Chelsea star, 27, told her Instagram followers she was shopping for swimsuits for her next holiday
Taut: The reality star revealed she is getting ready to jet away on her fifth holiday in just four months, after travelling to various luxurious locations with her beefcake beau Ryan Libbey
True love: After dating stars including Jamie Laing, Andy Jordan and Alik Alfus, she recently found love with personal trainer Ryan who she kept secret for five months after falling for him over gym sessions
Hot stuff: Louise soared to fame on the E4 show in 2011's second season, where she was introduced as Spencer Matthews' girlfriend before becoming a central character with her convoluted love life playing out on-screen
She pulled her bouncy brunette tresses into a side parting while pulling her very best pout for the camera in a stunning display.
Louise's romantic getaway included two holidays in January, to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, alongside another duo last month, to Dubai and Paris.
The stunning star is quick to show off her figure with total confidence, yet when she shares posts she is in constant fear of being cruelly mocked - by her co-star brother Sam, who frequently recreates her Instagram snaps.
Mockery: Sam is known for mocking his sister Louise on Instagram, while she enjoys an endless array of holidays throughout the year
Sam is known for mocking his sister Louise on Instagram, while she enjoys an endless array of holidays throughout the year.
He appears not to be bored of his tongue-in-cheek prank yet, as he imitated one of the brunette's swimwear snaps yet again last month.
He raised eyebrows with his latest creation - as he stripped down to an impossibly tiny bikini to re-enact Louise's recent volleyball session on the beach in Dubai.
She is literally counting the days to welcoming her first child.
And pregnant Amy Childs managed to squeeze in one last holiday before she becomes a mother.
The former TOWIE star, 26, jetted out to Tel Aviv in Israel where she enjoyed a week-long break in the sun.
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Bump on a break! Pregnant Amy Childs managed to squeeze in one last holiday before she becomes a mother
The original reality starlet headed to the beach as she showed off her pregnancy curves in a low-cut black swimsuit.
The star added a wrap to her ensemble as she enjoyed a walk along the surf.
Looking into the distance, Amy protectively patted her huge bump as she took in the stunning vista.
After returning to the UK this week, Amy has shared a 3D scan of her daughter.
Babymoon: The former TOWIE star, 26, jetted out to Tel Aviv in Israel where she enjoyed a week-long break in the sun
Beach ready: The original reality starlet headed to the beach as she showed off her pregnancy curves in a low-cut black swimsuit
Maternity chic: The star added a wrap to her ensemble as she enjoyed a walk along the surf
Looking into the distance, Amy protectively patted her huge bump as she took in the stunning vista
The 26-year-old proudly captioned the photo: 'Three weeks until I meet you! My princess' followed by heart emojis.
She was showered with compliments by adoring fans with calling the baby 'beautiful, just like her mother' while another simply wrote, 'wow'.
The baby will be the first for Amy and her former jailbird beau Bradley Wright, 25.
Bradley is already father to seven-year-old daughter Lexi.
Glowing: The star added some serious big aviators and a gold Rolex for her trip to the beach
Proud mama: The star couldn't stop touching her growing bump as she counts down to the big arrival
Nice to sea you! Looking into the distance, Amy protectively patted her huge bump as she took in the stunning vista
Cool down: The star dipped her toes in the surf as she enjoyed a walk down the beach
Proud: After returning to the UK this week, Amy has shared a 3D scan of her daughter
Step by step: After returning to the UK this week, Amy has shared a 3D scan of her daughter
Nerves: The vajazzle queen, whose due date is May 2 has been vocal on social media in the run-up to the birth saying she is both excited and nervous for the birth
The vajazzle queen, whose due date is May 2 has been vocal on social media in the run-up to the birth saying she is both excited and nervous for the birth.
Last month Amy spoke of her shock at being told the baby's sex after a psychic convinced she was having a boy.
She told OK: 'I think Im still in shock. Instinct told me it was going to be a boy.
'A psychic told me it as going to be a boy... I even ordered a boy Moncler baby bag because I was so convinced, but it's a girl!'
'They told me it was a girl and I was in such shock, I said: "No, you must be wrong," to a Harley Street doctor.'
He's known for performing his own death-defying stunts for his gripping action-packed films in the past.
But Tom Cruise had a little extra help from his doppelganger double as he got to work on the set of Mission Impossible 6 in Paris, France, on Monday.
Filming dramatic car chase scenes, the Hollywood actor, 54, swaggered around set in an all-black ensemble, with his stuntman dressed in a similar outfit.
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Action! Tom Cruise, 54, filmed stunt scenes with his double for the sixth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise in Paris, France, on Monday
Precarious! Tom was seen suspended in the air as they filmed dramatic scenes
Tom shielded himself from the icy winds in a smart wool black coat and black turtleneck jumper, and looked effortlessly cool as he wore his character's classic straight leg black jeans with black boots.
Looking remarkably youthful, the actor appeared to help give directions to crew members as he pointed at various scenery.
The screen star laughed and joked with crew members as he strolled around set, and gesticulated as he spoke.
No vertigo here! Tom remained calm despite his terrifying stunt
Seeing double: The Hollywood heavyweight's stunt double was seen close behind him as they got to work on set
Swagged out: Tom shielded himself from the icy winds in a smart wool black coat and black turtleneck jumper
Giving his input: Looking remarkably youthful, the actor appeared to help give directions to crew members as he pointed at various scenery
Something funny? Tom laughed and joked with crew members, looking relaxed and happy
Looks intense: The star looked deep in conversation with crew members, and appeared to give his input to filming
British actor Sean Harris was also seen filming exciting scenes in a helicopter.
The helicopter touched down on the landing-pad on the roof of the French Ministry of Finance, and Sean emerged from the machine clad in a white straitjacket, surrounded by actors playing heavily armed RAID police.
Sean was then seen entering the old fashioned BMW car driven by Cruise, for what emerged to be an enthralling car chase scene.
Watch out for the chopper: Sean Harris filmed an exciting action sequence in a helicopter
Risky business: The helicopter touched down on the landing-pad on the roof of the French Ministry of Finance
Restrictive access: Sean emerged from the machine clad in a white straitjacket, surrounded by actors playing heavily armed RAID police
Walk on: Sean's character appeared to be escorted down the stairs by actors who played military personnel
The chase: Tom and Sean filmed an enthralling car chase scene on the streets of Paris
Starstruck: The star studded cast also includes Alec Baldwin, Superman's Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg and The Crown's Vanessa Kirby
The car appeared to collide with another vehicle, and Tom's character hopped onto a motorcycle to continue the chase.
The action-packed sequence looked to be one of the most exciting chases of the Mission Impossible franchise, with Sean unable to move in his restrictive costume.
The cast promises to be one of the most star studded yet: including Alec Baldwin, Superman star Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg and The Crown's Vanessa Kirby .
Tom is said to have fought to have British actress Vanessa cast after being impressed with her performance in the Netflix Original series.
The big moment? Skydance Media CEO David Ellison revealed that Tom will be performing the biggest stunt sequence of his career in the film
Which Tom is it? Tom, or his stunt double, hopped onto a motorcycle to continue filming the death-defying scene
Tom has taken the helm of the other five films in the Mission Impossible series playing lead role Ethan Hunt, a mysterious secret agent working for the elite IMF agency.
Despite the original Mission Impossible coming out 21 years ago when Tom was just 33, he has maintained his youthful looks, and hardly looks different from the inaugural movie.
The star has kept his slimline figure in check with gruelling workouts, with fitness being of utmost importance - for the last Mission Impossible film, he was famously trained to be able to hold his breath for six minutes.
'Normally in underwater sequences, people hold their breath for 10 seconds, 15 seconds max,' Cruise explained in a behind-the-scenes video for Access Hollywood.
Green light! Tom and Sean Harris were seen cruising through traffic
Breaking a sweat? At one point Tom looked a little out of breath as he swung from the trees
The real deal: Tom has taken the helm of the other five films in the Mission Impossible series playing lead role Ethan Hunt, a mysterious secret agent working for the elite IMF agency
Youthful looks: Despite the original Mission Impossible coming out 21 years ago when the actor was 33, he has maintained his youthful looks
Mystery: Most of the details of the plot of the film have been kept tightly under wraps
Action man! Tom wore secure knee padding and gloves as he swung through the air
'So I had to prove to everyone that it was actually safe and spend time with the safety guys and the safety officers to show them not only is it safe, it's better that I know how to hold my breath because I'm going to be very relaxed.
'No-one's going to have to rush in. No-one has to panic.'
While most of the details of the plot of the latest film in the franchise have been kept tightly under wraps, Skydance Media CEO David Ellison revealed that Tom will be performing the biggest stunt sequence of his career in the film.
Ellison told Collider: 'What Tom is doing in this movie I believe will top anything thats come before. It is absolutely unbelievablehes been training for a year.
'It is going to be, I believe, the most impressive and unbelievable thing that Tom Cruise has done in a movie, and he has been working on it since right after Rogue Nation came out [in 2015]. Its gonna be mind-blowing.'
Concentration: Tom showed off his leg muscles as he hung in the balance
Tough gig: The star has kept his slimline figure in check with gruelling workouts, with fitness being of utmost importance
It was revealed earlier this year that they were set to take on the biggest names in cinematic comedy on the big screen.
And now, Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly were pictured filming the world's most famous double act Laurel and Hardy for new flick Stan And Ollie on Monday in the West Country.
The pair have undergone a major transformation for the iconic roles for their latest BBC film based on the slapstick partners.
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Spotted: Steve Coogan was pictured filming the world's most famous double act Laurel and Hardy for new flick Stan And Ollie on Monday in the West Country
Dressed in a blue three-piece suit, British actor Steve plays Englishman Stan Laurel in the movie centred around the duo's final tour.
Taking on the renowned comedy actor's mannerisms for the movie, the 51-year-old slipped on a knee-length jacket and covered his tresses under a navy beret as the cameras rolled.
Flanked by his co-star, he looked barely recognisable as he performed infront of a blue screen onboard a ship.
Oscar nominee John, also 51, was worlds away from his usual svelte self as he was fuller faced and baring a short but thick mustache as he portrays American Oliver Hardy for the motion picture.
Unrecognisable: The pair have undergone a major transformation for the iconic roles for their latest BBC film based on the slapstick partners
Transformation: The pair have transformed into the iconic duo (R) for the new flick
Keeping cosy: John had a blanket wrapped around him as they shot scenes which hinted that their charcaters were in Ireland
It was announced at the beginning of 2017 that the funnymen were set to take on the feat of the historic comedy duo for the silver screen.
The film is titled Stan & Ollie and was written by Jeff Pope - who worked with Coogan on Oscar-nominated Philomena.
The movie follows the story of their final tour in 1953, which saw them visit a number of music halls across the UK to entertain their fans one last time.
Suit him: Dressed in a blue three-piece suit, British actor Steve plays Englishman Stan Laurel in the movie centred around the duo's final tour
Hats on! Taking on the renowned comedy actor's mannerisms for the movie, the 51-year-old slipped on a knee-length jacket and covered his tresses under a navy beret as the cameras rolled
Ship shape: Steve looked barely recognisable as he performed infront of a blue screen onboard a ship
Rolling: The pair were completely focused as the cameras rolled for the highly-awaited flick
Dressed to impress: The actors wrapped up for their day filming in fashions popular in the 1940s
Despite a low turnout at first, their stage farewell became a hit although Hardy was suffering with ill-health and they were coming to the end of their careers.
With Jon S Baird directing the anticipated film, Head of BBC Films Christine Langan previously said Steve and John were 'dream casting'.
Langan told BBC: 'John C Reilly and Steve Coogan are dream casting for Stan & Ollie, bringing to life with uncanny accuracy and irresistible gusto the genius creative marriage that Jeff Pope's script explores so lovingly.'
Worlds away: Oscar nominee John, also 51, was worlds away from his usual svelte self as he was fuller faced and baring a short but thick mustache as he portrays American Oliver Hardy for the motion picture
Camera ready: It was announced at the beginning of 2017 that the funnymen were set to take on the feat of the historic comedy duo
Final farwell: The film is titled Stan & Ollie and was written by Jeff Pope - who worked with Coogan on Oscar-nominated Philomena - and follows the story of their final tour in 1953
Movie magic: The movie follows the story of their final tour in 1953, which saw them visit a number of music halls across the UK to entertain their fans
Seas the day: Despite a low turnout at first, their stage farewell became a hit although Hardy was suffering with ill-health and they were coming to the end of their careers
Englishman Stan Laurel was born in Ulverston - then in Lancashire, now in Cumbria - before he flew further a field and set up home in the US in the hope to find fame.
It was in 1927 that Laurel was teamed up with heavyset Georgia native Oliver Hardy for short film Putting Pants on Philip - despite both having had successful careers of on their own merit.
They became known for their signature tune The Dance of the Cuckoos which was played over the opening credits of their films.
Thinking big: Englishman Stan Laurel was born in Ulverston - then in Lancashire, now in Cumbria - before he flew further a field and set up home in the US in the hope to find fame
Picture perfect: Steve was flanked on either side by his co-stars as they shot the upcoming flick
Wrapping up: Steve sported a tiny-fitting hat for their day filming
Better time: Hardy (R) passed away in 1957 at the age of 65 while Laurel died eight years later in 1965 aged 74
The performers remained a double act with the Hal Roach Film Studio until 1940 with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike pal of the pompous Hardy all the while equipped in their trademark bowler hats.
After they wrapped up their film commitments in 1944, the slapstick duo began a tour around England, Ireland and Scotland in local halls.
They made their last screen appearance in Atoll K in 1950, after starring in 107 films together including 23 full-length feature flicks.
Hardy passed away in 1957 at the age of 65 while Laurel died eight years later in 1965 aged 74.
Framing: A wider shot revealed the duo were supposed to be in Ireland for their farewell tour
He's seeking sole custody of his young children in a nasty court battle with his much younger former girlfriend Kathryn Dennis.
But Southern Charms Thomas Ravenel has been forced to defend his own parenting, after admitting the youngsters live in the guest house.
Seemingly surprised by the reaction after he made the revelation on the reality show, the politician and former State Treasurer explained he had only been taking the advice of their nanny.
I was taking the advice of my nanny! Southern Charms Thomas Ravenel explains why his children, aged one and three, live in the guest house
Explained: The nanny was worried for the safety of Kensie, and Saint in his elaborately decorated main home in Charleston, South Carolina
She was, he said, worried for the safety of three-year-old Kensington, known as Kensie, and one-year-old St Julian Rembert, aka Saint in his elaborately decorated main home in Charleston, South Carolina.
'I caught all this grief for this,' he told People magazine. 'But I was taking the advice of my nanny, who said that would be the most appropriate place to raise the children because the front house is like a museum thats four stories its very dangerous.
'There are open areas to play, you have all this antique-y furniture, you know, its just not conducive to raising children, its not kid-friendly.'
Luxury: Ravenel explained 'There are open areas to play, you have all this antique-y furniture, you know, its just not conducive to raising children, its not kid-friendly'
And he added: 'I mean, this is a woman whos a phenomenal person who knows her stuff.'
Ravenel, 54, is currently in the midst of a nasty custody battle with ex Kathryn Dennis, 24, who has supervised visitation every other weekend.
He is seeking full custody of the children, alleging they are not safe in their mother's care.
Court battle: The politician is currently seeking full custody of the children, alleging they are not safe in their mother's care
Tv drama: Viewers of the show have watched Kathryn Dennis struggle with drug use, with the young mother admitted to rehab for a 31-day stint last summer
Even by the standards of reality television, Ravenel and Dennis's relationship has been one of torrid drama as viewers have tuned in season after season, riveted by the compelling implosion.
Viewers of the show have watched Dennis struggle with drug use, with the young mother admitted to rehab for a 31-day stint last summer.
However, according to court documents seen by DailyMail.com, she has since missed several mandated drug tests, risking being held in contempt of court.
The court documents show that Dennis has not taken the drugs and alcohol tests since last November.
She plays a green-skinned alien in Guardians of the Galaxy.
And Zoe Saldana certainly looked out of this world as she attended the sequel, Vol. 2., premiere in Tokyo on Monday.
Clad in a sheer polka dot co-ord, the 38-year-old actress looked sensational as she walked the blue carpet on the night.
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Stunning: She plays a green-skinned alien in Guardians of the Galaxy. And Zoe Saldana certainly looked out of this world as she attended the sequel, Vol. 2., premiere in Tokyo
Flashing glimpses of her phenomenal figure, the star looked incredible in a voluminous blouse with ruched sleeves.
Protecting her modesty, Zoe's shirt featured a strip of material across the bust which also complemented the oversized collar and vertical strip across the chest.
She teamed the garment with a pair of matching trousers with a flared hem that covered a pair of black court heels.
Turning heads: Clad in a sheer polka dot co-ord, the 38-year-old actress looked sensational as she walked the blue carpet on the night
Chest a glimpse! Flashing glimpses of her phenomenal figure, the star looked incredible in a voluminous blouse with ruched sleeves
Dazzling: Protecting her modesty, Zoe's shirt featured a strip of material across the bust which also complemented the oversized collar and vertical strip across the chest
Keeping her accessories simple so she wouldn't detract from her stunning ensemble, the mother-of-two donned a myriad of silver rings.
Her raven coloured locks were styled in loose waves that framed her pretty features whilst a neutral make-up palette aided in accentuating her flawless visage.
Posing up a storm as she walked the carpet, she ensured all eyes would be on her.
Lacy lady! Jennifer Holland looked sensational in a black floor length gown with sheer lace panels strategically placed on the skirt and arms of the garment
Cheeky! The lace inset rested just below her peachy posterior for a cheeky surprise
Fantastic four: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and director James Gunn all cosied up together to pose for snaps on the night
Suited and booted: Chris looked dapper in a royal blue suit as he greeted fans on the carpet
Snap happy: Chris pulled a variety of poses for the camera at the premiere
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also stars Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel and Sylvester Stallone and follows the team's adventures as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill's true parentage.
Zoe recently revealed that she likes starring in fantasy films as it has helped her see past gender and race.
Besides being 'a sci-fi buff', she told The Telegraph she likes that 'you get to play characters who defy gravity' in the boundary-pushing films.
Pucker up: Chris was joined by his wife Anna Faris on the blue carpet and they cosied up together to share a smooch
Cute: The pair only had eyes for each other despite being mobbed by fans on the outing
Cute couple: The duo seemed in great spirits as they headed out together on the night
Radiant in red: Anna Faris looked sensational in a scarlet midi dress that she teamed with black court heels whilst she layered up in a grey hooded coat
All together now: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista, and director James Gunn waved for the cameras as they prepared to head into the venue after walking the carpet
Loving life: The foursome seemed in great spirits as they beamed at the fans and photographers
Look at him go: The group playfully showered director James with attention on the carpet
Excitable: Fans came dressed as their favourite characters for the premiere
'It makes me feel superhuman because, obviously, its been brought to my attention continuously since I was born that Im not a conventional person because of the colour of my skin or my gender or my cultural background,' the star opened up to the publication.
Zoe added: 'I think science fiction has given me the ability as an artist to be colourblind, and gender-blind.'
'...and to imagine and reinvent myself and be the chameleon actors are supposed to be,' she revealed.
After opening in British cinemas on April 28, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 - directed by its prequel's helmsman James Gunn - will open stateside May 5.
She's best known for being Noel Gallagher's hard-partying wife in the noughties - and it's fair to say that Meg Mathews is just as cheeky as ever.
The mother-of-one shared a very racy picture of herself completely naked on Instagram, covering her modesty with a blanket.
She captioned the image with the words: 'Can't wait to start training tomorrow @rubentabareswellness #tuffweek #strong #sun #weights #hardcore.'
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From noughties to naughties: Meg Mathews shared a very intimate picture of her tanned naked body as she covered her modesty with a blanket on Instagram
Working hard: The mother-of-one shared the snap ahead of her fitness session
Showing off a golden glow, the fitness lover, who is mother of Anais Gallagher, 15, looked trim and taut in the snap.
Her avid followers wrote in the comments section: 'You can take the girl out of the naughties but you'll never take the naughties out the girl.'
'That body is amazing @megmathewsofficial_ .'
They love her: The comments went wild for Meg's incredible body
Double trouble: Showing off a golden glow, the fitness lover, who is mother of Anais Gallagher, 15, (pictured) looked trim and taut in the snap
Whoops! In December, Anais called out her own mother on Instagram after she posed for a picture on a 120 designer towel in front of a Unicef appeal for blankets
Another wrote: 'if this ain't inspiration I don't know what is x.'
But some of her followers felt as though she had perhaps shared a little too much.
One followers simply wrote: 'Tacky,' while another wrote: 'Euuuuuuuuuwwwwww!'
Another wrote: 'Bit much love.'
Luckily Meg had swapped the 120 Missoni towel she had posed in front of a Unicef shot, while having a massage for a simple knitted blanket in the shot.
Oh dear: Not everyone was happy with the picture and expressed themselves in the comments section
Anais criticised her mother after she posted a photograph of Instagram of her having a massage on the Missoni towel.
Behind Meg, a screen can be seen displaying an advert for a Unicef appeal, which reads '3 could help buy a blanket'.
Commenting on the photo, model Anais, 16, writes: 'The irony of the ad behind x.'
After being made aware of the gaffe, Meg simply wrote: 'Hope everyone is texting blanket to give 3 as its got lots of attention'.
They've been great friends for years.
So it wasn't exactly a huge surprise to see Matt Damon spending time Down Under with Chris Hemsworth at the Australian actor's home base of Byron Bay this week.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the buddies 'have been flying in aircraft from Avmin Air Charter Specialists and driving luxury cars' during their time together.
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Best buddies! Matt Damon was spotted spending time with good friend Chris Hemsworth in Australia's Byron Bay this week
The pair appeared to have some of their children with them during one outing, making it a family affair.
Last year, Matt opened up about his friendship with the Thor star in an interview with Nova's Fitzy and Wippa.
'Hemsworth is a great friend of mine,' the Hollywood actor shared, before continuing: 'I'm really tight with him and his wife and the kids.'
When the radio hosts quizzed the 46-year-old on his friendship with the Thor star, Matt did not hold back, especially when it came to the comparison in their surfing abilities.
According to the Daily Telegraph , the buddies 'have been flying in aircraft from Avmin Air Charter Specialists and driving luxury cars' during their time together
'No, no, no,' Matt joked when asked whether he would be seen surfing alongside Chris.
'I don't want to surf with them [Chris' family], just because I'm a horrible surfer,' he shared while laughing.
'Luke can surf too,' the star added while referencing Chris and Liam's older brother, who also acts.
Chris has also been open about lavishing his BFF with praise.
Speaking to GQ in 2014, he said: 'We became friends around the time I started to work, and I've really benefited from watching how he handles himself.
'Matt's just a normal guy who has the movie-star thing figured out.'
She's Ita Buttrose's socialite niece who recently made an appearance on The Real Housewives of Sydney.
And Lizzie Buttrose, 47, has revealed that she wants to become a permanent cast member, with The Daily Telegraph reporting this week that she wants to 'reinvent herself as a celebrity.'
Lizzie said that despite appearing on Sunday's show and getting into a clash, that she's perfectly suited to be a housewife.
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'The biggest misconception is that I am a ditzy party girl!' Ita Buttrose's socialite niece Lizzie reveals she wants to be on the Real Housewives of Sydney to 'reinvent herself'
'The biggest misconception is that I am a ditzy party girl who goes around spilling champagne on herself, and that is just nonsense,' Lizzie told the publication.
She said that fans would get to see the real her, 'warts and all.'
On Sunday's show, Lizzie went to Victoria Rees' ritzy charity auction on behalf of her friends Lisa Oldfield and Athena X Levendi, who weren't invited and who vowed to take 'revenge.'
Causing a stir: On Sunday's show, Lizzie went to Victoria Rees' ritzy charity auction on behalf of her friends Lisa Oldfield and Athena X Levendi, who weren't invited
A day in the life of Lizzie: She said that fans would get to see the real her, 'warts and all'
Lizzie crashed the event for the pair, who confronted Victoria about why the pair weren't invited.
'You're the rudest person I've ever met in my life, you're hideous!' Lizzie yelled, with Victoria accusing the socialite of being drunk, in a particularly dramatic moment.
'She's a scrag!' remarked another of the Housewives, as they all made fun of Lizzie's hair, which Victoria stated 'looked like dreadlocks.'
Family drama? Last month, Lizzie made headlines as she had a charge of making threats to 'injure' her adult son withdrawn
Her son: She pleaded not guilty to 'threatening injury' to Andrew Spira, 18, (pictured) following an incident at her home in Sydney's eastern suburbs last year
Last month, Lizzie made headlines as she had a charge of making threats to 'injure' her adult son withdrawn.
She pleaded not guilty to 'threatening injury' to Andrew Spira, 18, following an incident at her home in Sydney's eastern suburbs last year.
In Waverley Local Court late last month, police said Mr Spira had withdrawn his complaint and the matter had been withdrawn.
Lizzie is engaged to fiance Zoran Stopar, which is her seventh engagement.
Kristen Stewart is letting it all hang out.
Showing off her newly-shorn and bleached hairstyle while on a walk with girlfriend Stella Maxwell, the 27-year-old was almost left over exposed when her tiny crop top rose while she lifted her arm.
The Twilight actress appeared to be unfazed by the near wardrobe malfunction as she and her model partner explored New Orleans while Kristen was on a break from shooting her new movie Underwater.
Crop of the tops: Kristen Stewart and girlfriend Stella Maxwell take a walk in New Orleans while Kristen took a break from filming her new movie Underwater on Sunday
The couple, who are rumored to have been dating since December, already appear to be dressing alike.
They both wore short shorts with jackets, high socks and Vans sneakers.
Kristen's look was much more revealing, with her white crop top exposing her entire midriff and lack of a bra.
Chopped: The actress shaved her head and bleached her locks for her new role
While hosting Saturday Night Live in February, Kristen came out as 'like, so gay,' after years of speculation.
The actress and the 26-year-old Victoria's Secret model were spotted out constantly prior to the revelation.
Stella briefly dated Miley Cyrus in 2015, but when asked about it, Miley claimed she was dating but added 'I'm not in a relationship.'
Love match: The couple appeared to coordinate their outfits, wearing short shorts, high socks and Vans sneakers
On March 7, the actress debuted her shaved head on the red carpet for her movie Personal Shopper.
Her current bleached and shaved locks are for the movie Underwater that she is currently filming in Louisiana.
The film centers around a team of underwater researchers who must survive after an earthquake hits their laboratory.
Out: The actress and the Victoria's Secret model have been dating since December
Kristen's most high-profile relationship was with her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, but 2012 she was caught having an affair with her Snow White And The Huntsman director Rupert Sanders.
While promoting his first film since the scandal Sanders called the affair, which also broke up his marriage with Liberty Ross a 'momentary lapse.'
Kristen has yet to respond to Rupert's latest comments.
Bishops Blend, a small batch release from Black Label Trading Company (BLTC) that made its debut last year is returning. Today BLTC announced it is shipping the Bishops Blend Vintage 2017 to select retailers.
Its great to get Bishops Blend back in the market. This is a very special cigar. It is a representation of how I have grown as a cigar maker. Im happy that the time and dedication that went into creating this blend has translated to our customers and made it one of our most sought after cigars. The 2017 Bishops Blend has an extremely rich and sophisticated profile. It is a bold cigar with exceptional balance and complexity. Subtle spice is combined with earth, bitter sweet chocolate and anise. The smoke is creamy and dense with a long rich finish, said James Brown, creator of BLTC and partner at Fabrica Oveja Negra in a press release.
Bishops Blend is produced at the companys factory, Fabrica Oveja Negra is Esteli, Nicaragua, In the U.S., distribution is handled by Boutiques Unified
Bishops Blend Vintage 2017 features the same blend and is available in the same sizes as the 2016 release.
At a glance, here is a look at Bishops Blend Vintage 2017
Blend Profile
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Maduro
Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan, Pennsylvania Broadleaf, Connecticut Broadleaf
Country of Origin: Nicaragua (Fabrica Oveja Negra)
Vitolas Available
Bishops Blend is available in two sizes. Both vitolas are packaged in 20 count boxes.
Robusto: 5 x 48 (SRP $10.00)
Corona Larga: 6 1/4 x 46 (SRP $10.50)
She's grown up in front of the cameras on the family show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
Now, at 19, it seems the natural next step is for Kylie Jenner to branch out alone - with the starlet confirming her own series.
Life With Kylie, an eight-episode show, is slated to premiere this summer on E!, which also airs KUWTK and it's various spin-offs.
Life With Kylie! Jenner lands her own reality show as she branches out alone from the Kardashians
The show, confirmed by both E! and The Hollywood Reporter, will focus on Kylie's friendships, and work life - with the teen at the helm of a wildly successful makeup business.
Her on/off boyfriend Tyga, from whom she split for the latest time just last week is set to feature, as is Kylie's famous family.
And Kylie will even get to try out life behind the camera - the teen will serve as an executive producer on the series.
Supporting roles: The show will focus on Kylie's friendships, and work life - with the teen at the helm of a wildly successful makeup business
She will be in good company, with Ryan Seacrest, Gil Goldschein, Jeff Jenkins, Farnaz Farjam, Andrea Metz and Jenner's mom, Kris Jenner, all also acting as executive producers.
KUWTK masterminds Bunim/Murray Productions and Ryan Seacrest Productions are behind the new Kylie show.
In a statement to THR Kylie said: 'The last couple years have been such an incredible journey with the support of my fans.
Love life: It's thought that Kylie's on/off boyfriend Tyga will feature in the series, although the pair recently split
'This show will allow me to give them a peek inside all of the exciting things I am working on as well as some personal time with friends.'
Jeff Olde, E!'s programming and development evp added: 'Kylie's beauty, business savvy and fashion icon status have made her one of the most famous and successful young woman on the planet.
'Kylie has achieved so much at such a young age and we know the E! audience will be thrilled now that she is ready to share an inside look at her everyday life.'
She flew to fame on Britain's Next Top Model, before landing her own spot as a judge.
And Abbey Clancy showed off her model statistics as she ran errands in London on Monday.
The statuesque mother-of-two, 31, put on an edgy display in a chic ensemble.
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Turning heads; Abbey Clancy showed off her model statistics as she ran errands in London on Monday
Showcasing her killer legs in ripped jeans with frayed edging, Abbey elongated them with a pair of pretty cream mules with frilled edging.
Flaunting a glimpse of her slender midriff, she teamed it with a sailor-inspired monochrome top and chic leather jacket.
Wearing her hair in a loose ponytail, she accessorised with aviator sunglasses and an envelope clutch, completing her look.
Stylish: The statuesque mother-of-two, 31, put on an edgy display in a chic ensemble
Meanwhile despite being well versed in the intricacies of Britain's Next Top Model, it was recently reported the aspiring fashionistas on the show pushed her patience to the limit.
Fashion photographer Nicky Johnston and fellow judge told all to The Sun, as he revealed the eleventh season will see the panel grow increasingly frustrated with the contestants, some of whom ignored instructions and 'fought back'.
Hitting out: Abbey is certainly well versed in the intricacies of Britain's Next Top Model making her the best woman for the job - although it has been revealed that the aspiring fashionistas pushed her patience to the limit
Abbey and Nicky are joined by model Paul Sculfor and fashion writer Hilary Alexander in the new series of the show, which is sponsored by Colgate Max White.
The programme has seen a bevy of aspiring models including Talulah-Eve Brown, a transgender beauty, Gigi Hadid lookalike Alannah Beirne and fiery red head Anastasia Ellis burst onto the scene in the hope of winning superstar status.
Despite their hopefuls status, the girls seem to have already nailed the diva tag that accompanies the fashion world as it was revealed the judges struggled to cope with their antics.
Nicky explained: 'Last year Abbey was sympathetic, but this year she got really frustrated with the girls. We all got bloody frustrated with them at times.
The girls: Fashion photographer Nicky Johnston and fellow judge told all to The Sun , as he revealed the eleventh season will see the pal grow increasingly frustrated with the contestants, some of whom ignored instructions and 'fought back'
The gang: Abbey and Nicky (second right-right) are joined by model Paul Sculfor and fashion writer Hilary Alexander (second left-left) in the new series of the show, which is sponsored by Colgate Max White
'There were a lot of tears, a lot of feistiness and a lot of rage. I shouted so loudly at one girl that they heard me on the other side of the hotel, but I was just utterly sick of her ignoring what I had said.'
Hilary meanwhile recalled: 'For one challenge we were shooting for a Colgate campaign and some girls found it hard to smile.
'The first catwalk challenge was a train crash because the walking wasnt great, the choreography was tough and there was a revolving stage. Luckily, no one was hurt and they all survived.'
Abbey spoke to Now magazine about the series, as she admitted things got heated in the house among the girls.
The models: Hilary meanwhile recalled: 'For one challenge we were shooting for a Colgate campaign and some girls found it hard to smile' (left Victoria Clay, right Olivia Wardell)
She said: 'I think its bigger and better than last year. I think weve got a great bunch of girls and Im really excited, but I cant tell you too much youll just have to watch and see!
'Put a group of girls in a house together and my God youre bound to have drama! Ive got two little girls and you know girls with girls arent the same as a group of lads together.
'But its a competition and theyre all there with the same goal to win. Its a big mishmash of personalities so youre bound to have a bit of drama.'
They work together at one of Los Angeles' glitziest hot spots and met during a wild trip to Las Vegas.
But when Jax Taylor went to girlfriend Brittany Cartwright's native Kentucky for their new spin-off series, it appears the 37-year-old Vanderpump Rules star had some trouble adjusting to life on a farm.
In a newly-released trailer for Vanderpump Rules: Jax and Brittany Take Kentucky, tensions flare as the couple faces pressure to get married by her family.
Jax Taylor and girlfriend Brittany Cartwright fight about marriage in a newly-released trailer for Vanderpump Rules: Jax and Brittany take Kentucky
'I can see myself getting bored real easily here' the reality star can be seen telling a friend
When confronted by a relative about getting married, Jax says 'We're headed in the right direction.'
'You've been in the right direction for almost two years,' the relative snaps back.
'I want to get married and I want to get married soon,' he is seen saying in another scene.
Wedding bells? The 37-year-old server at Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant Sur says he wants to get married 'soon'
Brittany returns to the tobacco farm she grew up on for the series which airs on Bravo this summer.
Though he grew up in Michigan, Jax is known for living a lavish Los Angeles lifestyle and is often teased about his metrosexual grooming habits on Vanderpump Rules.
In Kentucky, he is seen swapping skinny jeans for overalls and plaid shirts.
The famously metrosexual reality star wears overalls and plaid in the trailer
Jax (L) is sprayed with deer urine for a hunting adventure while wearing a full camouflage suit
He is even seen being sprayed with deer urine for a hunting trip, a method used to make hunters smell more like nature to go unnoticed by their prey.
The southern lifestyle appears to be too much to handle at one point for Jax, who is seen yelling 'White trash, be gone,' to an unknown person in the new clip.
'You can't even accept my friends and my family,' Brittany says during a confrontation with her boyfriend.
Vanderpump Rules: Jax And Brittany Take Kentucky airs this summer on Bravo
'You're an old man,' Brittany, 28, slams her boyfriend who is nine years older than her
'You're an old man, and you need to act your age,' Brittany tells Jax in another scene.
'You don't mind taking money from this old man,' he replied to his 28-year-old girlfriend.
While sitting on ATV's in the middle of a field, Brittany tells Jax 'Your arrogance is your downfall.'
He has already been linked to one Hollywood blonde, now there are claims he has found another.
Brad Pitt was reportedly seen getting flirty with the star of his new film, Sienna Miller in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, according to Page Six.
And as news broke on Monday, the 35-year-old actress headed out with a spring in her step in New York.
New leading lady? Brad Pitt was reportedly seen getting flirty with the star of his new film, Sienna Miller, in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday night
Something to smile about: And as news broke on Monday, the 35-year-old actress headed out with a spring in her step in New York
The soon-to-be divorced star and the blonde Brit attended the premiere of The Lost City Z separately but insiders claim at a dinner after the screening the pair got close.
Brad - whose company Plan B is behind the film - was doing some 'serious flirting' despite being surrounded in a group of about 25 people.
A source told Page Six: '[They were] heavily enjoying each other's company and 'they were talking to each other all night.'
Brad, according to another insider, seemed to perk up after the interaction as he was 'in very high spirits, which he hasnt been for a long time. He seems to be over a hump'.
Chic and casual: Sienna steeped out amide the reports in a low key look featuring leggings and an oversized green army jacket
Behind the scenes: The soon-to-be divorced star and the blonde Brit attended the premiere of The Lost City Z separately but insiders claim at a dinner after the screening the pair got close
Another source close to Sienna downplayed the possible flirtation and said the pair were part of a larger group so there were a lot of conversations going on throughout the night.
Back when the movie was filming, Sienna was forced to deny that there was another going on with a then-very married Brad.
She called a suggestion they were flirting 'insane' on Sway In The Morning on SiriusXM's Shade 45.
'Talked all night': Brad - whose company Plan B is behind the film - was doing some 'serious flirting' despite being surrounded in a group of about 25 people
The star said: 'The brilliant thing about that rumor is that yeah I haven't really read too much about it.
'So this is the truth about that, Brad Pitt is producing the movie that I just wrapped but I didn't see him, he's not been to the set.
'You know he's the producer of the film and I've met him twice - it's insane.'
Ex files: The star split with wife Angelina Jole (pictured 2014) last Sepetmber
Since his split with wife Angelina Jolie last year, Brad has been linked to actress Kate Hudson.
Kate, however, has a new boyfriend and those close to Brad have denied any relationship between the two.
Angelina announced their separation in September after more than a decade together, sparking a custody battle over their six children.
Chatty Cathy: Sienna was also seen chatting the ear off her co-star Charlie Hunnam at the premiere of The Lost City Z
Bethenny Frankel visited an island of swimming pigs in the Bahamas this week.
And never one to miss an opportunity for a wisecrack, she didn't disappoint.
The 46-year-old RHONY star joked: 'I got enough pigs chasing me in NY' as the seaworthy sows surrounded her.
Bay of pigs: Bethenny Frankel, 46, visited the island of swimming pigs in the Bahamas this week
The brunette beauty stunned in a blue bikini as her boat made it's way to the swine-filled tourist attraction.
As they approached the shore, Bethenny exclaimed, 'How crazy that there's a little piggy island.'
But the size of the four-legged bathing beauties took Bethenny by surprise.
'That's the three NOT so little pigs,' she quipped.
Shocked: As they approached the shore, Bethenny exclaimed, 'How crazy that there's a little piggy island'
Hog heaven: The Big Major Caye is famous for having the island hogs call it home
Jokester: 'I got enough pigs chasing me in NY,' she quipped
The Big Major Caye is famous for having the island hogs call it home.
Unfortunately, several of the famous residents mysteriously died in February of this year. Rumored to be alcohol poisoning, it turned out that the pigs ate too much sand.
Bethenny recounted the story of this tragedy told to her by the boat's captain. 'They had to bring the vet to the island because the pigs were foaming at the mouth,' she said in the video.
Zootopia: After the hog happening, the mother and daughter visited another island, this time full of iguanas
Tragedy: Bethenny recounted how several of the pigs died from eating sand as told to her by the boat's captain
The Skinny Girl mogul has been vacationing in the Caribbean with her six-year-old daughter Bryn.
After the hog happening, the mother and daughter visited another island, this time full of iguanas.
Then the adorable duo made way to a shallow area where they swam with sharks and sting-rays.
Bethenny joked, 'I'm gonna tell everyone I met Sting on vacation!'
Risky: The adorable duo made way to a shallow area where they swam with sharks and sting-rays
Model mom: The Skinny Girl mogul has been vacationing in the Caribbean with her six-year-old daughter Bryn
Wow: The size of the four-legged bathing beauties took Bethenny by surprise
It seems Lindsay Lohan's attack of modesty was short-lived.
Days after donning a burkini to sunbathe, the former child star posted an Instagram shot of herself in bed.
Taking aboard a luxury yacht, the image showed the 30-year-old lying on her stomach in bed, propped up on her hands and knees.
'Lost at sea!' Lindsay Lohan strips off to pose in her bed on a yacht... after covering up in a burkini to sunbathe
Wearing a low cut off-the-shoulder blouse, she shoots herself a coy smile as she photographs her reflection in a mirror.
Lindsay captioned the image: 'Lost at sea on a #riva #yacht.'
The revealing picture was a stark change from images of her self consciously sunbathing while in Phuket, Thailand last month.
Then, Lindsay was seen wearing a Burkini, a garment originating from Australia intended to respect the modesty laws of Islam whilst still being light enough for wearers to swim in.
The Hollywood star - who has previously battled addiction - has been vocal in her embrace of the Muslim faith.
All change: The revealing picture was a stark change from images of her self consciously sunbathing while in Phuket, Thailand last month
She stated previously: 'Studying the Koran is something I found solace in, a religion where I found a lot of peace.
'I have reached inside and I found what I want my intentions to be in the world ... focusing on taking control of what I want out of life.'
In recent times, Lindsay has taken a step back from the spotlight and has instead been focusing her attention on a series of philanthropic projects in Syria and Turkey.
However she is to return to the spotlight to present a new social media prank show called The Anti-Social Network.
Strike a pose: Lilo certainly loves the sea life
The 30-year-old actress is poised to make her return to TV screens this year with a 'Punk'd'-style prank show, which will see her take full control of fans' social media accounts for 24 hours.
In the programme's trailer, which leaked on Tuesday , the flame-haired beauty explains: 'I love social media. I am social media. Everybody knows you should never leave your phone lying around ... especially near me.'
And as the trailer progresses, Lindsay continues: 'So, I've decided to hijack your social media for a whole 24 hours.
Lover of luxury! The former child star only just returned from a Thai vacation
'If you can pull off three challenges, then you'll win some fabulous prizes. But they won't know I'm the one pulling the strings.'
Then, the trailer reveals the fate of Lindsay's first victim, who is asked to pose naked for an art class, perform a stand-up comedy routine and declare his love for his boss.
The Mean Girls actress adds: 'I want to dare people to really question how much their social media is worth.'
Meanwhile, Lindsay recently claimed to have found a peace of mind since turning 30 in July last year.
She is known for her impressive 34GG bust and Casey Batchelor certainly doesn't demure from flaunting her assets.
The 32-year-old glamour model thrilled her Instagram followers when she showed off her incredibly bendy figure in a beach snap on Sunday.
The brunette has clearly become something of a yoga fanatic as she effortlessly held her toe in the extreme pose during her holiday to the Dominican Republic.
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Bendy! Casey Batchelor showed off her generous bust and lean legs as she tried out an extreme yoga pose while on holiday in the Dominican Republic on Sunday
The CBB star wore a brown bikini which offered onlookers a glimpse of her generous cleavage as she performed her stretches on the sandy beach.
Her long tresses cascaded over her shoulders as she concentrated on clasping her toe.
The glamour model has been sending her fans into overdrive with a steady stream of idyllic holiday photos over the last few days.
Wine-o-clock: The CBB star, 32, enjoyed a glass of wine in another Instagram snap while revealing her deep cleavage in the brown bikini top
In another envy-inducing snap, she clasps a large glass of wine while wearing - what else? - a bikini.
Although Casey did also don a white floral cover-up, she made sure her generous assets were on display in the picture.
And not willing to stop just yet, Casey shared yet another image that put her enviable frame and pert behind on display.
Sporting a pretty pink bikini with trailing side-ties, the beauty showed off her peachy posterior.
Looks just peachy! Casey showcased her pert behind in another envy-inducing snap of her holiday in the Dominican Republic
Keen to show off her impressive glow after soaking up the sunshine on her exotic break, Casey struck a sultry pose.
She left her brunette tresses to fall past her shoulders and sported a pair of shades that were hidden from view as she turned her back to the camera.
Wanting to show off the idyllic beach setting surrounding her, Casey referred to the crystal clear waters in front of her and teased: 'Turquoise or Blue? You decide.'
Busty display: The model has been sharing a plethora of bikini-clad snaps since jetting off on her exotic break
Fan fury! The brunette beauty's followers have been left turning green with envy over her idyllic holiday snaps
Many of her fans, however, were a little distracted by her bikini-clad figure instead and inundated the starlet with plenty of compliments.
One penned: 'What a view... beautiful, gorgeous, stunning and the ocean looks great too by the way.'
A second joked: 'I've only just noticed the sea,' while a third commented: 'Can't decide, [too] much distraction.'
A fourth added: 'Rear view is bl**dy fantastic!!!!'
She's one of Australia's hottest modelling exports, with no qualms in flashing the flesh.
But on Tuesday, Shanina Shaik's latest Instagram post was particularly sentimental, as she proudly debuted her first tattoo on the inside of her right lower forearm.
The 26-year-old showed off the new inking, the text eleven, a tribute to her lucky number.
Tatt's nice! Shanina Shaik, 26, proudly took to Instagram on Tuesday, debuting her first tattoo, the text 'eleven' on the inside of her right lower forearm
'ELEVEN so significant in my life! My birthdate, my fathers, cousins & my angel number, 11:11 make a wish,' Shanina captioned the image.
The snap shared with the swimsuit model's 893,000 followers, saw Shanina standing next to a brick wall, covering her slender frame in an oversized black frock and knee-high boots.
Shanina pulled up the sleeve of her ensemble to debut her first inking, the text for the number eleven, on the inside of her right lower forearm.
While doing so, the Melbourne-born beauty also drew attention to her stunning engagement ring, gifted by DJ Ruckus, real name Gregory Andrews.
Inspired? The tattoo is the first permanent inking for Shanina, having only previously dabbled in henna art
The tattoo was applied by artist Rob Green of Bang Bang Tattoos in New York.
Bang Bang is an A-lister hot spot, with visits by Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Rihanna and Kylie Jenner.
The tattoo is the first permanent inking for Shanina, having only previously dabbled in henna art.
Just weeks prior, the exotic beauty took to Instagram to share a topless selfie, while drawing attention to an intricate henna design on her right arm.
The former Victoria's Secret model showed off her stunning natural beauty in the social media snap, wearing no makeup.
Feeling sentimental, Shanina? The former Victoria's Secret model took to Instagram just days prior, sharing steamy snaps with fiance DJ Ruckus, real name Gregory Andrews, from a recent spread for Elle Australia
Packing on the PDA: A later snap, saw the pair not shy in showing their affection, playfully holding onto one another
Shanina wore her dark locks back from her face in an elegant bun, resting a hand covered in henna art by one cheek.
Meanwhile, the statuesque star has been in a particularly sentimental mood of late.
Shanina took to Instagram just days prior, sharing behind-the-scenes snaps of herself posing on a cliff with fiance DJ Ruckus, as part of a steamy spread for Elle Australia.
One particular image saw Shanina showing off her trim pins in a vibrant orange mini-skirt, teamed with a yellow slim-fitting top.
Off the market! Shanina became engaged to Ruckus, during a romantic getaway in The Bahamas, in early 2016
Ruckus, shirtless and clad in a pair of fitted trousers, embraced his stunning partner in front of a picturesque vista.
While a later snap, saw the pair not shy in showing their affection, playfully holding onto one another.
Shanina became engaged to Ruckus, during a romantic getaway in The Bahamas, in early 2016.
She often takes to Instagram to flaunt her stunning engagement ring, a gold hexagon-cut diamond with a G and S engraved in diamonds, and amethyst on the underside of the piece.
Charlotte Crosby and her boyfriend Stephen Bear have been leaving reporters in Australia and New Zealand red faced by offering them threesomes.
However Charlotte, 26, and Stephen, 27, tell Daily Mail Australia they're just having a laugh and menage a trois are off limits in their relationship.
When asked if they would in fact have a threesome the pair chorused, 'No, no, no' and went on to explain Stephen's proposition to a New Zealand reporter was a joke.
Just the two of us: Charlotte, 26, and Stephen, 27, tell Daily Mail Australia menage a trois are off limits in their relationship
'It was a skit,' Charlotte explains, before Stephen admits he'd 'had a few drinks' when he asked a Kiwi reporter to 'Get your t**s out!' during an appearance on New Zealand's Jono And Ben show on Three last week.
The lovebirds, who are currently promoting their reality show Just Tattoo Of Us on MTV, appeared worse-for-wear during the live TV cross, which ultimately saw them propositioning the interviewer.
During the interview, Charlotte and Stephen decided to engage in an open-mouthed kiss, prompting Charlotte to apologise to the families watching at home.
'Sorry, he's very horny!' she shouted into the microphone.
Red faces: Charlotte, 26, and Stephen, 27, tell Daily Mail Australia they're just having a laugh and menage a trois are off limits in their relationship
Joking around: Stephen turned to the reporter, saying: 'Me and Charlotte are into threesomes, would you join us?'
It wasn't long before Stephen turned to the reporter, saying: 'Me and Charlotte are into threesomes, would you join us?'
'Get your tits out! Go on babe, get your tits out!' he later asked the reporter.
Stephen reportedly also propositioned a Daily Telegraph reporter, joking, 'Just out of curiosity would you have a threesome with us?'
Three is a crowd: Stephen reportedly also propositioned a Daily Telegraph reporter, joking, 'Just out of curiosity would you have a threesome with us?'
Soon to wed? The pair, who went public with their relationship in February, have gone on to confirm they're completely dedicated to one another and already discussing marriage
He didn't make a similar offer to Daily Mail Australia but did inquire, 'Have you ever had a threesome?'
However the pair, who went public with their relationship in February, confirmed they're completely dedicated to one another and already discussing marriage.
Charlotte has referred to Stephen as her 'soulmate' and said while she would like him to propose, the timing is up to him.
Loved up: Charlotte has referred to Stephen as her 'soulmate' and said while she would like him to propose, the timing is up to him
On tour: The lovebirds are currently promoting their reality show Just Tattoo Of Us on MTV
'Maybe next year,' Stephen said without hesitation.
On that subject, Stephen joked, 'Will you marry me now?' to which Charlotte replied, 'No! I don't want to be proposed to until after a year and a half or two years or no one will take it seriously.'
'But it's up to me isn't it,' Stephen said adding, 'You never know!'
She is WAG-turned-lifestyle blogger with legions of adoring fans.
So it's no wonder Rebecca Judd, 34, was happy to weigh in on disgraced wellness blogger Belle Gibson, the businesswoman who claimed she had brain cancer and healed herself with natural remedies.
Chatting to co-host Yumi Steynes during KIIS FM's 3PM Pick Up this Tuesday, the mother-of-four claimed that, while she wasn't across the finer details of the matter, she believed Belle 'just didn't look well' during her notorious 60 Minutes interview last year.
'I feel sorry for the people she ripped off': Rebecca Judd, 34, has weighed in on disgraced wellness blogger Belle Gibson, the businesswoman who claimed she had brain cancer and healed herself with natural remedies
'[Lying is something that kids can get away with. Belle Gibson, she's young but she's still an adult, so I don't feel sorry for Belle. I feel sorry for the people she ripped off,' Bec said.
Meanwhile, Yumi confessed that she felt a degree of empathy for Belle, who has been ordered to pay $30,000 towards the legal costs of Consumer Affairs Victoria and has been banned from making deceptive claims about her health in connection with well-being advice.
'I almost feel sorry for her because she's only 25, so she's basically just come out of being a kid, really,' Yumi said.
Disgraced health personality Belle Gibson has to pay $30,000 towards the legal costs of Consumer Affairs Victoria and has been banned from making deceptive claims about her health
Last week, Federal Court Justice Debra Mortime made the orders against Annabelle Natalie Gibson, The judge said Gibson is prohibited from claiming, in connection with the development and promotion and sale of her wellness advice.
Gibson cannot claim she had been diagnosed with brain cancer at any time before May 24, 2016.
She also cannot say she was given four months to live, or she had taken and then rejected conventional cancer treatments in favour of embarking on a quest to heal herself naturally.
Consumer Affairs Victoria took Gibson to court last year alleging she had lied about a 2009 brain cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery.
The businesswoman claimed she had brain cancer and healed herself with natural remedies
Consumer Affairs Victoria took Gibson to court last year alleging she had lied about a 2009 brain cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery.
It was also alleged she had lied to consumers about donating to charities from the sales of her Whole Pantry app.
Justice Mortimer last month found the allegations against Gibson to be mostly true, saying she had 'played on the genuine desire of members of the Australian community to help those less fortunate'.
It was also alleged that she had lied to consumers about donating to charities from the sales of her Whole Pantry app
An excerpt from Gibson's Whole Pantry Book describes her journey from being told she had four months to live, to finding out she was pregnant, to rejecting medical intervention and travelling the country in search of non-medical advice.
If Gibson refuses to obey Friday's court order, she will be liable for imprisonment, sequestration of property or other punishment, the court documents said.
She has been absent from court since the case began and has not defended herself through lawyers.
Gibson cannot claim that she had been diagnosed with brain cancer at any time before May 24, 2016
He's rarely been pictured without a smile on his face, despite experiencing his second near fatal car crash during the Lake Mountain Sprint at Marysville, Victoria, this month.
And Grant Denyer, 39, owes much of his high-spirits and speedy recovery to his adorable daughters.
On Monday, the bed-ridden Family Feud host looked gratuitous for the company of Sailor, 5 and Scout, 17-months, who sported their own charming versions of his trademark smile as they joined him in bed.
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Support network: Grant Denyer has shared an adorable snap showing his daughters Sailor, 5 and Scout 17-months joining him in bed as he recovers from a second near-fatal car crash
His support network opted to colour-coordinate for the Instagram snap, following their recovering dad's lead by wearing pink.
Propped up against a lavish headboard, Grant smiled wide stretching a still-bandaged hand across the bed as his youngest Scout looked relaxed as she leaned on her father's chest.
Sporting a cotton onesie, she completed her laid-back expression by tilting her head back and grinning.
Keeping warm in a pink blanket, it wasn't just Sailor's facial features that took after her dad, with her beaming grin the mirror image of her TV star dad's.
The best: The 39-year-old praised his adorable daughters in the caption, saying: 'I could not imagine better care than this... These two are a gift straight from heaven'
Bed-ridden: They've been unwavering in their support of the bed-ridden star since he escaped from his race car's wreckage at the Lake Mountain Sprint at Marysville, Victoria, this month
Praising them in the caption, Grant wrote: 'Nurse Scout & nurse Sailor treat me with dance shows, karaoke & lots & lots of laughs between back & finger Physio appointment.'
'I could not imagine better care than this... These two are a gift straight from heaven and a bedside manner way better than the bes private hospital (sic).'
He added: 'My angels of healing.'
His wife Cheryl and two darling daughters have been by their dad's side throughout the whole ordeal, and he hasn't shied from crediting his speedy recovery to their unwavering support.
Heading home: The Family Feud host has previously credited his wife Cheryl, and their two young daughters for his relatively fast recovery
Speaking to Woman's Day last week the 39-year-old said that the love of his wife and daughters saved him.
'How lucky am I to be blessed with three absolutely beautiful girls?' he told the publication.
Grant was racing a Lotus rally car with friend and navigator Dale Mosscat when they hit a tree at 160 km/h.
He was able to climb out of the wreckage and flag down an on coming car to help him get Dale out.
How lucky am I! Grant said 'I love my girls... having kids has taught me to slow down'
Doing well: Grant was lucky to only suffer from a broken finger and fractured coccyx (tailbone)
Hand-in-hand: The Family Feud host said he was thankful that it all ended OK, and he was relatively unscathed from what was a rather big crash
The accident left the Family Feud host with a broken finger and fractured coccyx (tailbone), while his navigator suffered a broken leg.
Reflecting on the crash he said that he was thankful that it all ended OK and that he was relatively unscathed from what was a rather big crash.
'I love my girls... having kids has taught me to slow down,' he explained.
Grant added that speed racing will always be the ultimate hit of adrenaline for him, but that his recent accident spurred him to re-think risks from now on.
The moment of impact: Grant is pictured with his friend and navigator Dale Mosscat before they hit a tree at 160 km/h during the Lake Mountain Sprint at Marysville, Victoria, last week
No more racing? Grant said 'I have to remember I am a father, first and foremost. And I have got a duty to turn up on television for Family Feud every single night. I will reassess things'
'One key lesson I've learnt along the journey is that life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain,' Grant told the magazine.
He spoke his Network 10 colleagues from The Project following the accident and told them Cheryl was eager to see him quit race car driving.
'Motorsport is something I have been doing since I was 14 years of age. I won the GT Australian Motor Sport games last year,' he told the panelists.
'I have to remember I am a father, first and foremost. And I have got a duty to turn up on television for Family Feud every single night. I will reassess things,' Denyer added.
Footage has emerged of Marnie Simpson accusing her ex-boyfriend of stealing her card.
The Geordie Shore star and Lewis Bloor had taken a trip to Dubai to rebuild their friendship with one another following their messy split earlier this year, but found themselves embroiled in an explosive row on Sunday night.
The video - filmed by an onlooker at Dubai's Waldorf Astoria - shows a 'drunk' Marnie yelling at Lewis in a busy bar and accusing her former beau of stealing her bank card in front of their friends.
'You're toxic': Marnie Simpson is seen embroiled in an explosive row with ex-boyfriend Lewis Bloor during their trip to Dubai as she accuses him of 'stealing her bank card'
Those with the ex couple are seen trying to calm Marnie down in the clip as she yells at Lewis: 'No, no, no. You stole my bank card.'
After someone from her party chimes in, she can be heard saying: 'Yes you have... yes you do, you do have it.
'You've just left us upstairs on my own, I f**king hate you... You're toxic.'
The footage had been filmed on Sunday evening and a source had told The Sun: 'Lewis was sat with his shirt off in just his shorts which obviously, in a country like this, isn't what you're meant to be doing.
More drama: Lewis has told his side of the story, after a new video emerged on Sunday of his ex girlfriend Marnie accusing him of stealing her bank card
'Marnie came out screaming at him, accusing him of stealing her card and proceeded to slap him.'
The source claimed plain clothed police officers took Lewis to one side and separated the ex couple, before Lewis apologised to fellow guests for the scene.
The former TOWIE star has since shared his version of events in three Instagram videos that he shared online with his 439k followers.
He has since deleted the videos, but had said: 'Right so Marnie Simpson has accused me while she was drunk out of her head, while we've decided to be friends on our trip to Dubai that I've stolen her bank card.'
Still friends? In footage filmed by an onlooker at Dubai's Waldorf Astoria where the former couple had stayed, Marnie is seen yelling at Lewis in the bar and accusing him of stealing her card
Defence: Once back in his room, Lewis promptly uploaded three Instagram videos, which has since been deleted, to explain his side of the story
Lewis played a voice note from his phone, recorded earlier in the evening when he was heading back to his room with the hotel's Sheik to search for the bank card, which Lewis insists was in the room with Marnie the whole time.
'You saw that we went to the room and the bank card where was it?' Lewis was heard asking the hotel employee. 'It was on the table,' he replied, adding that Marnie was sleeping.
'What happened was me and Marnie had an argument earlier on and I left the room and I had a drink with our friends who've we've just met, these guys, and I was with them all night,' Lewis continued.
'She came downstairs and threw a glass of red wine all over me and claimed that I had stolen her bank card.
His side: Speaking to camera, the reality star says: 'Right so Marnie Simpson has accused me while she was drunk out of her head, while we've decided to be friends that I've stolen her card'
'I live in a world where the person who has the most followers has the most say, for nine months because Marnie has 2.5 million followers and I have a lot less, I have to deal with her truth.
'It's been tough for me. Me and Marnie decided to be friends, we had an argument tonight and she accused me of stealing her bank card.
'I believe Marnie can be a very nice girl, but I believe she can also be immature and I just wanted my truth to be heard. I just want everybody to understand that I have not stolen her card, it's absolutely ridiculous and I'm sure she'll feel very sorry when she sees these videos.
'I apologise for being so dramatic it's not my style, goodnight, god bless,' Lewis ended the final video.
Mix up: Lewis then plays a voice note from his phone, recorded earlier in the evening when he was heading back to his room with the hotel's Sheik to search for the bank card, which Lewis insists was in the room with Marnie the whole time
The furious row comes just hours after Marnie posted a shot of the former lovers on her Instagram page, insisting the two have restored their friendship in Dubai.
The reality star shared a snap, in which many fans believed them to be naked, as she revealed the trip was designed to 'salvage a friendship' although she insisted they have not got back together.
Marnie added a caption alongside the photo that read: 'What a lovely holiday I've had. Dubai has been amazing and exactly what I needed a long break after everything this year...
'Just to set the record straight this was a holiday for me and lewis to get away from all the stress and salvage some sort of A Friendship. A friendship we lost along the way. We're not back together and that's not what this holiday was about...
Mixed messages: The furious row comes just hours after Marnie posted a shot of the former lovers on her Instagram page, insisting the two have restored their friendship in Dubai
'It was to talk and get to a good place again as we both have big places for each other in our hearts and despite the hard times and damage we still have a bond like no other and always have a great time in each other's company...
'Even if it's just as Mates, and that wont change regardless of our situation, Just because we're not a couple doesn't mean we don't love other as I think we always will deep down, I'Thank you Dubai you've been the cure PS. We both have A BATHING SUIT ON'.
Marnie and Lewis embarked on a romance after their appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in August last year, and enjoyed a number of dates and holidays together since leaving the Borehamwood mansion.
However their relationship was rocked when footage emerged of the Essex hunk kissing another girl in bed, after a wild night out on Valentine's Day.
Marnie took to Twitter to confirm their split hours after the clip emerged, writing: 'Didn't really want the whole country to know but looks like that didn't last long . Happy Valentine's Day to me. U f***ing scumbag.'
Better days... The 26-year-old Geordie Shore star shared a snap, in which many fans believed them to be naked, as she revealed the trip was designed to 'salvage a friendship' although she insisted they have not got back together
Last month, Lewis confirmed to The Sun that he cheated on the star during their romantic trip to Barcelona in September, yet in a statement to MailOnline, the stunner denied claims she 'deserved' the treatment.
The former TOWIE star previously batted off her claims that he sneaked out of bed on their first ever couple holiday to hook up with another woman - yet his latest revelation illustrates the reports are true.
In the wake on the split, Marnie took to Snapchat to reveal she was contacted on Instagram by Lewis' secret holiday flame who revealed she did 'everything but', in the hours after he waited for Marnie to fall asleep to sneak out.
With the claims seemed so bold they appeared to stun fans, it seems the couple's cheerleaders will be further bewildered to discover the story was true - although Lewis denies there was anything but kissing.
Oh dear... Last month, Lewis confirmed to The Sun that he cheated on the star during their romantic trip to Barcelona in September, yet in a statement to MailOnline, the stunner denied claims she 'deserved' the treatment
Speaking to The Sun, Lewis explained: 'We'd been out in Barcelona and I couldn't sleep, Marnie was asleep in the hotel, and I'm thinking: 'F*** this, I don't wanna be in this relationship'.
'So I went down to the beach and at 5am as the sun was coming up there were a couple of girls down there who I got talking to and I ended up kissing one of them.
'We went back to their room to have a little party, we ended up kissing in bed but that was it, anything about us 'almost having sex' is rubbish.'
After lashing out at her ex, Marnie later admitted they had formed a friendship ahead of their trip to Dubai.
Rock 'n' roll has long centered around youth but metal band Korn is pushing the bar.
The 12-year-old son of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo is joining them on tour.
The pre-teen is filling in for bassist Reginald 'Fieldy' Arvizu, who wont be available for the South American leg of the bands tour, which takes in Colombia, Brazil Argentina, Chile and Peru.
Like father like son: Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo's son Tye, 12, seen playing bass with his band The Helmets at the Austin City Limits festival in October, is joining Korn on tour
The youngster will be playing with the band from April 17 until May 6.
Tye is a member of Northern California-based children's band The Helmets, which reposted the news from Korn's Facebook on Instagram on Monday.
'Due to unforeseen circumstances, Fieldy is unable to make the shows so the band will be a joined by a special guest,' Korn's statement read.
Head basher: The youngster will fill in for bassist Reginald 'Fieldy' Arvizu, who wont be available for the South American leg of the bands tour
Starting them young: Korn made the announcement on Facebook on Monday, saying, 'We are bummed Fieldy cant join us on this run but excited to do few gigs with a young player like Tye'
'We are bummed Fieldy cant join us on this run, but excited to do a few gigs with a young player like Tye.
'We look forward to welcoming our brother Fieldy back when we return to the States in May.'
He will rejoin Korn's tour at the Carolina Rebellion rock festival in Charlotte on May 6.
Proud father: Metallica bassist Robert with his boy at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Tye has been playing bass with The Helmets since the age of eight
Tye is no stranger to the stage. With long hair that flies as he bangs his head, he has been playing since the tender age of eight in The Helmets.
The elder Trujillo joined his son as a guest when The Helmets rocked the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, on October 9.
Korn, a force in the 1990s alternative-oriented nu-metal movement, kicks off its Latin America tour on April 17 in Bogota and will play three dates in Brazil as well as one.
Justin Rose birdied five of the last seven holes to shoot 67 in ideal conditions and join Sergio Garcia in the lead entering the last round of the 2017 Masters Tournament
Sergio Garcia, winless in 73 prior majors, shook off a Masters legacy of third-round setbacks to match Rio Olympic champion Justin Rose for the lead entering the final round.
Garcia has gone a combined 38-over par to average 75 in 13 prior Masters third rounds. But this time he fired a two-under par 70 to match the best of those rounds from 2002 to join England's Rose in Sunday's final pairing with a great chance at a long-sought dream.
"Got to go out there and believe in myself again as much as I've been doing, be patient and don't freak out even if I do something wrong," Garcia said.
Rose, the 2013 US Open winner, birdied five of the last seven holes to shoot 67 in ideal conditions to join the 37-year-old Spaniard, this week's only player with three sub-par rounds, on six-under 210 through 54 holes at Augusta National.
"I liked my confidence on the greens. They were rolling perfectly," Rose said. "I just stayed with it and everything began to click into gear on the back nine.
"You've got to be aggressive at times, but this is a course where you've got to pick your moments. That game plan worked well for me today and I'm sure it will again tomorrow."
Sergio Garcia, winless in 73 prior major starts, fired a two-under par 70 at Augusta National to share the leaderboard and put himself on the brink of a breakthrough
Garcia could end his major drought Sunday on what would have been the 60th birthday of his idol, the late Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros.
"Hopefully he will help me a little bit," Garcia said. "His help is always welcome. Hopefully he helps a little bit tomorrow from up there and tomorrow we'll have something good to celebrate."
Asked what advice he thought he might get from Ballesteros, who died of brain cancer in 2011 at age 54, Garcia replied, "Believe in yourself, try to enjoy as much as possible, try to have fun and do your best."
Eighth-ranked American Rickie Fowler, one stroke back in third after a 71, hopes to win the first green jacket awarded since the death of his idol, Arnold Palmer, last September.
"It would be special," Fowler said. "We're going to go out and give it our all for him."
- 'You have to go for it' -
Jordan Spieth of the United States reacts to a missed putt for eagle on the 13th hole during the third round of the 2017 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club
Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion whose back-nine Sunday meltdown last year cost him a repeat crown, fired a 68 to share fourth on 212 with fellow Americans Ryan Moore and Charley Hoffman, a co-leader until finding the water at the par-3 16th and making double bogey.
If Spieth wins after an opening 75 that had him trailing by 10 shots, it would be the best 54-hole victory fightback in Masters history.
"After the first round, I couldn't ask for much better than this," Spieth said. "If you have a chance you have to go for it and pull off the shot. Those are the kind of moments people who win this tournament have on Sunday."
Australia's Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters winner, was seventh on 213 with 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa another stroke adrift with England's Lee Westwood and Belgium's Thomas Pieters on 215.
Charley Hoffman was a co-leader until finding the water at the par-3 16th and making double bogey during the third round of the 2017 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia
World number two Rory McIlroy, a four-time major champion, shot 71 to stand on 216 and was not confident of a victory that would complete a career grand slam.
"I'm going to need to probably play the round of my life tomorrow to have a chance," said McIlroy, who shot 65 in the 2011 first round and 66 on Sunday in 2015.
"I've shot low ones here before. My lowest round here, I'm not sure it's going to be low enough."
Garcia birdied the fifth and sandwiched a birdie at the par-5 eighth between bogeys but added birdies at the par-5 13th and 15th and parred in, sinking a testy six footer at the last.
"Just fighting hard," Garcia said. "I kept fighting with all I had. It's about staying patient. I hit some good shots on the back nine coming in. It was good to see."
At 13, Garcia gave a look of despair watching his ball in the air. It appeared to plunk into Rae's Creek but clung to the far bank, allowing him to chip it inches from the pin for a tap-in birdie.
"Got a great break on 13," he said. "That was good to see."
Australia's Great Barrier Reef is suffering a fourth round of coral bleaching this year, after being hit in 1998, 2002 and 2016
Coral bleached for two consecutive years at Australia's Great Barrier Reef has "zero prospect" of recovery, scientists warned Monday, as they confirmed the site has again been hit by warming sea temperatures.
Researchers said last month they were detecting another round of mass bleaching this year after a severe event in 2016, and their fears were confirmed after aerial surveys of the entire 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long bio-diverse reef.
Last year, the northern areas of the World Heritage-listed area were hardest hit, with the middle-third now experiencing the worst effects.
"Bleached corals are not necessarily dead corals, but in the severe central region we anticipate high levels of coral loss," said James Kerry, a marine biologist at James Cook University who led the aerial surveys.
Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
"It takes at least a decade for a full recovery of even the fastest growing corals, so mass bleaching events 12 months apart offer zero prospect of recovery for reefs that were damaged in 2016."
It is the fourth time coral bleaching -- where stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food -- has hit the reef after previous events in 1998 and 2002.
- Record temperatures -
"The combined impact of this back-to-back bleaching stretches for 1,500 kilometres, leaving only the southern third unscathed," said Terry Hughes, head of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, also at James Cook University.
"The bleaching is caused by record-breaking temperatures driven by global warming.
"This year, 2017, we are seeing mass bleaching, even without the assistance of El Nino conditions," he added, referring to the natural climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean.
The Barrier Reef is already under pressure from farming run-off, development and the crown-of-thorns starfish.
It was also recently hammered by category four Cyclone Debbie, which barrelled through the region last month, mostly affecting southern parts around the Whitsunday islands which largely escaped the bleaching.
The extent of the destruction wrought by Debbie is not yet known, although scientists have said damage could range from minor to severe.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority began a study last week to determine how extensive it might be and have already found extensive pulverised coral at popular snorkeling spots.
"The feedback that's coming back is the more sheltered areas have come out a bit better, but they all seem to have suffered some form of damage," Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators' Brendon Robinson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
An aerial view of bleaching in the Cairns-Townsville region of Australia's Great Barrier Reef
The Whitsundays is one of the reef's tourist hotspots, attracting more than 40 percent of total visitors to the iconic marine ecosystem.
- Multiple impacts -
Hughes warned rising temperatures could see more bleaching events.
"Clearly the reef is struggling with multiple impacts. Without a doubt the most pressing of these is global warming," he said.
"As temperatures continue to rise the corals will experience more and more of these events. One degree Celsius of warming so far has already caused four events in the past 19 years.
"Ultimately, we need to cut carbon emissions, and the window to do so is rapidly closing."
The world's nations agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit average warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, by curbing fossil fuel burning.
Canberra in 2015 narrowly avoided UNESCO putting the reef on its endangered list, and has committed more than Aus$2.0 billion (US$1.5 billion) to protect it over the next decade.
Filmed over six years and taking in the 2016 US presidential election, the Showtime documentary "Risk" claims to take viewers closer than any previous film crew into Julian Assange's inner circle
US cable network Showtime said on Sunday it is to release "Risk," a documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras about controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The network announced in a statement it would partner with distributor Neon on a theatrical release before premiering the movie on television in a few months.
Filmed over six years and taking in the 2016 US presidential election, "Risk" claims to take viewers closer than any previous film crew into Assange's inner circle.
"With unprecedented access, Poitras gives us the WikiLeaks story from the inside, allowing viewers to understand our current era of massive leaks, headline-grabbing news, and the revolutionary impact of the internet on global politics," Showtime said in a statement.
"'Risk' is a portrait of power, principles, betrayal, and sacrifice when the stakes could not be any higher. It is a first-person geopolitical thriller told from the perspective of a filmmaker immersed in the worlds of state surveillance and the cypherpunk movement."
Assange, 45, has been at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, having taken refuge to avoid being sent to Sweden, where he faces a rape allegation.
He fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States over his website's leaking of diplomatic cables and other classified documents.
The Australian was questioned at the embassy on November 14 and 15 on the rape allegation which dates back to August 2010.
Poitras's profile of Assange, who denies any wrongdoing, is a follow-up to her Academy Award-winning "Citizenfour" (2014), about fugitive leaker Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal.
"It is an exciting time to be working with Showtime and Neon," the 53-year-old said.
"Both organizations are thinking outside the box about how to bring complex stories to a wide audience. I am thrilled to team up with them on 'RisK.'"
An unfinished version of "Risk" screened to critical acclaim at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Despite major changes in the past few years, the rhythm of life in Cuba remains languid
In Cuba, it sometimes seems time stopped in the 1960s.
Despite a succession of sweeping changes in recent years -- rapprochement with the US, Fidel Castro's death -- the rhythm of life on the island remains as languid as ever.
In Old Havana, locals still watch life go by from the balconies of their dilapidated colonial buildings, as classic American cars putter down cobblestone streets and seemingly endless games of dominoes play out on sidewalk tables.
Tourists love the island's timelessness, which gives it the aura of a living postcard immune to change.
For Cubans, who have made standing in line an art form and bureaucracy a way of life, this vestige of communism is less charming.
"We live in slow motion -- because we're an island, because it's the Caribbean and because of the whole legacy of socialism," said the writer Wendy Guerra, a rising star of Cuban literature.
In Cuba, it sometimes seems time stopped in the 1960s.
"Time isn't money here. Very few people produce anything for themselves. The country stopped producing a long time ago. People act like they're working, and the state acts like it pays them," the 46-year-old novelist and poet told AFP.
"There's no schedule. No one ever has to be somewhere urgently. There's no traffic, and public transportation problems have made us all officially unpunctual."
In her novel "Everyone Leaves," Guerra's heroine ends up frozen on Havana's famous seaside boulevard, the Malecon, "stuck in the immobility of Cuba."
Cuban artist Alejandro Campins also addresses the island's lethargy in his work.
"Every Cuban's subconscious is a waiting room," he said.
Standing in line "is in our DNA," said port agent Daniel Rios, 36, whose job involves a lot of queuing.
- Speeding up -
Many artists have found inspiration in Cuban time.
"Coming to Cuba is like traveling back to the past. Time doesn't move here," said the artist Dagoberto Rodriguez.
He and a collaborator made waves in 2012 with a piece where a troupe danced backward up a Havana avenue, symbolizing Cubans' peculiar relationship with time.
"Coming to Cuba is like traveling back to the past. Time doesn't move here," says artist Dagoberto Rodriguez
But things have been evolving since President Raul Castro came to power in 2008.
Since he replaced his big brother Fidel, tourism has boomed, WiFi hotspots have flourished, and private restaurants and hotels have gone from banned to blossoming.
Besides the long-unthinkable rapprochement with Washington, Raul Castro has sought to modernize Cuba's Soviet-style economy by allowing small private businesses, the sale of cars and homes, and international travel.
"Time has accelerated in Cuba as a result of the economic reforms," said Arturo Lopez-Levy, a professor at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
- Not so fast -
Still, the country is not exactly jumping to light speed.
"Time may be moving quickly by Cuban standards, but not by the standards of the rest of the world," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue research institute.
"For most Cubans, life remains unchanged even to this day."
President Raul Castro replaced brother Fidel in 2008 and has been bringing in changes but for most ordinary Cubans, life remains much the same
Nearly six decades after the Cuban Revolution, a Castro is still in power, dissent is muzzled, the US embargo remains in place and the island's economy is 80 percent controlled by the state.
Foreign investment is limited, and requires navigating a labyrinthine bureaucracy.
"Foreign corporations have a hard time understanding why things take so much longer here. A contract that would take three or four months somewhere else takes a year or two," said cell phone maker Nokia's Cuba representative, Charles Ferrer.
Cuba is stuck in "a different dimension of time," said Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, who teaches in Colombia.
Raul Castro's economic reforms, he said, could have been "faster and broader."
The president has said he will implement his reforms "without hurry, but without pausing."
But with the 85-year-old leader preparing to hand over power in February 2018, he may now be the one who finds time running short.
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was found guilty of homicide in 2015 for the killing of transgender Filipina Jennifer Laude
The conviction of a US Marine for killing a transgender Filipina in a case that reignited long-simmering anti-American sentiment in the Philippines was upheld by a court Monday.
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was found guilty of homicide in 2015 for the killing of Jennifer Laude in a Philippines motel a year earlier, prompting his lawyers to file an appeal.
But the Philippine Court of Appeals rejected the appeal on Monday, saying Pemberton's argument that he acted out of self-defence when Laude slapped him was "more imaginary than real" and "easily concocted".
"The only reason why he attacked Laude was that he was furious at him for pretending to be a woman, nothing more, nothing less," the court stated.
Pemberton met transgender Filipina Laude in October 2014 in a bar in the city of Olongapo, northwest of capital Manila, after the marine took part in a joint US-Philippine military exercise.
During the trial, a lower court heard that Pemberton and Laude agreed to have sex after meeting in the city's red light district, but that the drunken marine turned violent when he discovered Laude still had male genitals.
He was sentenced to six to 10 years in jail and is being held in a cell in the country's military headquarters in Manila.
Pemberton's homicide conviction was the first under a visiting forces agreement between the US and the Philippines signed in 1998, covering the legal liability of American troops taking part in military operations in the Southeast Asian nation.
The case had strained relations between the Philippines and its former colonial ruler and main defence partner, with activists and LGBT rights groups urging Manila to scrap the military deal with Washington.
The American's lawyer Rowena Garcia-Flores told AFP that Pemberton's camp would elevate the case with the Philippine Supreme Court.
"The (lower) courts set aside all evidence that shows that another person could have killed Laude. Laude's money was stolen by a third person and there was a necklace that belonged to a third person," she said.
Former chairman of the Australian Wheat Board Trevor Flugge (C) has long-denied any wrongdoing over the payment of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq
The former chairman of an Australian wheat firm was fined Aus$50,000 (US$37,500) Monday and banned from managing a corporation for five years over the payment of huge kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq.
Trevor Flugge was found by the Victorian Supreme Court in December to have breached his duties as a director of the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), after corporate regulator the Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC) filed a civil case against him.
The court ruled Flugge failed to properly investigate the payments, disguised as transportation fees, but ASIC was unable to prove that he deliberately flouted United Nations sanctions.
The AWB, formerly Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, paid Saddam's regime some US$225 million in bribes to secure lucrative grain deals with Iraq between 1999-2003 under a UN oil-for-food scheme, an Australian government inquiry found.
"The case highlights that company directors and senior management have a positive duty to chase down allegations of misconduct by their company," ASIC Commissioner John Price said after the hearing.
Iraq's government suspended business with AWB in 2006 following the Australian probe that saw the then prime minister John Howard called as a witness.
Two former AWB executives were previously fined over their role in the scandal but police dropped a criminal investigation in 2009 after an independent review of the evidence found there was little prospect of a successful prosecution.
Flugge has long-denied any wrongdoing and said in December he was vindicated by the court's ruling that he was unaware of breaching any UN sanctions.
Police escort alleged call centre scam mastermind Sagar Thakkar (C), arrested on his return to India after he fled to Dubai
Indian police have arrested the alleged mastermind of a multi-million dollar racket in which callers posing as US officials tricked Americans into paying bogus tax bills, officials said.
Sagar Thakkar, 24, was making more than 10 million rupees ($155,000) a day at the height of the scam, which operated for nearly a year before it was exposed last October, police said.
Thakkar is accused of calling victims in the United States and berating them for not paying phoney tax bills, threatening them with jail if they did not cough up immediately.
He fled to Dubai after the scam was exposed but was arrested early Saturday when he flew back to India where he planned to revive his operation, police said.
"He has confessed to his crimes," Parambir Singh, commissioner of police in the Mumbai suburb of Thane, told AFP, adding the accused would face court on Thursday.
Mumbai police in October detained more than 770 people suspected of defrauding Americans by impersonating agents from the US Internal Revenue Service and demanding payments.
The US Justice Department subsequently charged 61 people for involvement in India-based schemes that defrauded nearly 15,000 American citizens.
"We are extremely vigilant when the names of US government agencies are used to perpetuate fraud for the purpose of victimising so many innocent American citizens," US Attorney Kenneth Magidson had said in a statement.
The con artists would use altered caller ID numbers to make it appear they were phoning from the US, and often quoted IRS badge numbers to trick their victims.
Those conned would sent money through pre-paid debit cards, such as Walmart supermarket vouchers or Apple iTunes gift cards.
The scam prompted Apple to issue a global warning against giving card numbers to strangers.
The IRS has for years warned about similar scams.
In January the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said it was aware of at least 5,000 victims who had been defrauded of more than $26.5 million via such schemes since late 2013.
India became the call centre capital of the world in the early 2000s as foreign firms, drawn by its educated and cheaper English-speaking workforce, farmed out jobs answering customer phone inquiries.
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Aceh is the only province in Indonesia which implements sharia law and people caught gambling and drinking alcohol have for some years been punished with public canings
Indonesia's Aceh looks set to cane two men who admitted having sex in contravention of Islamic laws, an official said Monday, the first such punishment of a gay couple in the conservative province.
They face up to 100 strokes if found guilty of breaking Aceh's sharia regulations after they were caught in late March by a group of vigilantes who raided a boarding house, said Marzuki, a spokesman for Aceh's sharia police.
Footage of the raid in the provincial capital Banda Aceh that circulated online showed the 21- and 23-year-old in bed as the gang burst in. Sharia police later arrested the men who admitted being in a relationship and having had sex three times, said Marzuki, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
The arrests in the western province sparked outrage among rights activists, with Human Rights Watch demanding the men's release and warning that they face "public torture for the `crime of their alleged sexual orientation".
"The arrest and detention of these two men underscores the abuse imbedded in Acehs discriminatory, anti-LGBT ordinances," said Phelim Kine, the group's deputy Asia director.
Aceh is the only province in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country which implements sharia law. People caught gambling and drinking alcohol have for some years been punished with public canings.
Under a local law that came into force in 2015, people can also be punished for having gay sex with up to 100 strokes of the cane. The recently arrested men -- whose identities have not been released -- will be the first to be caned for breaking the regulation if the punishment goes ahead.
Gay sex is not illegal in the rest of Indonesia, which mainly follows a criminal code inherited from former colonial ruler the Netherlands.
However there was a backlash against the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community last year with government ministers publicly making anti-gay statements.
Aceh, on Sumatra island, began implementing sharia law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
Islamic laws have been strengthened since the province struck a peace deal with Jakarta in 2005.
Former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed speaks during a visit to Colombo, in February 2017
Maldives opposition parties said on Monday they would launch a fresh bid to seize control of parliament by impeaching the speaker, weeks after their first attempt failed when the president called in troops to evict lawmakers.
A coalition of opposition parties said it had submitted a no-confidence motion on Sunday with the support of 31 MPs -- enough to force a vote in the 85-member majlis, or parliament.
But after the motion was submitted the government increased the number of signatures required for such a motion to 42, leaving it unclear whether a vote would go ahead.
The coalition, led by exiled opposition leader and former Maldives leader Mohamed Nasheed, is trying to undermine President Abdulla Yameen before elections next year.
It faces an uphill struggle, with all opposition leaders now in exile or in jail after a years-long crackdown on dissent under Yameen's leadership.
Maldives President Abdulla Yameen speaks in Male, in 2015
The clampdown has raised fears over the country's stability and dented its image as a tourist paradise.
On Monday the coalition led by Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) accused the government of making "abrupt and arbitrary changes to the parliamentary standing orders, designed to derail the second no confidence motion submitted against the speaker".
Last month's motion ended in chaos when Yameen ordered troops to eject some lawmakers from parliament, leading the opposition to boycott the vote and prompting Washington to urge the Maldives to restore faith in democracy.
Nasheed has said that taking control of the legislature is crucial to ensuring a free and fair presidential election in 2018.
The government said the second impeachment bid was a "deliberate attack on the administration" and accused the opposition of trying to stoke political unrest.
The latest move comes days after Yameen locked up the last opposition leader still at liberty in the honeymoon island nation of just 340,000 people.
Qasim Ibrahim, who ran for president in 2013 and heads the Jumhooree Party, was one of four signatories of an opposition unity deal aimed at toppling the president.
Nasheed became the country's first democratically elected president in 2008, but was narrowly defeated by Yameen in a controversial 2013 election run-off.
In 2015 he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on terrorism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. He now lives in exile in Britain.
About 100,000 people are already in a state of famine in South Sudan and aid agencies have warned another one million are at risk in the coming months
South Sudanese villagers are eating leaves from trees and precious seed stocks as food runs out in areas where famine has not been declared, a humanitarian aid group said Monday.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said villages outside Aweil Centre County in the north of the country were on the brink of famine, which was declared in February in two counties to the east.
"Eating barely edible wild foods is a coping strategy for communities trying to survive a food crisis," said NRC's South Sudan country director Rehana Zawar.
"The bitter leaves eaten by families we spoke to are from the Lalop tree, and have limited nutritional value. When families eat these leaves and little else, malnutrition quickly follows."
Some 100,000 people are already in a state of famine in the counties of Leer and Mayendit, and aid agencies have warned another one million are at risk in the coming months.
"About 40 per cent of the people in Amothic are eating tree leaves. About half of the village are eating their seed stocks too," said Deng Yel Piol, 48, the chief of the village in Aweil Centre, cited in the NRC statement.
- 'Few seeds left to plant' -
According to the NRC, the consumption of seeds is particularly alarming in the farming community, which will have few to plant in the next growing season.
South Sudan's food crisis is the latest in a vicious cycle of hunger blamed on civil war
The county is one of many in the region classified as in a "crisis" or "emergency" phase of hunger, a short way away from famine which implies acute malnutrition in over 30 percent of people, and at least two deaths per 10,000 people every day.
The food crisis is the latest in a vicious cycle of hunger blamed on civil war in South Sudan, from near-famine conditions in 2014 to devastating scenes of starvation in the early 1990s when the country was still battling for independence.
After independence in 2011, fighting turned inwards and a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar plunged the country into war in 2013.
Hunger has sent over 60,000 from the northern region fleeing into Sudan in the first three months of 2017, according to the UN refugee agency.
This has compounded a humanitarian crisis caused by fighting, which has thousands fleeing every day into Uganda -- now the site of the world's largest refugee camp -- and Ethiopia.
Over 1.7 million have fled the country and another 1.9 million are internally displaced.
A Thai soldier stands watch over bullet markers outside Rangae police station, after a gun attack by suspected militants which left one police officer dead and three wounded in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat on March 30, 2017
The most prominent insurgent group in Thailand's south rejected the military's peace plan in a rare statement on Monday, underscoring Bangkok's inability to open negotiations with the actual fighters in the conflict.
The country's southernmost border provinces, which were annexed by Thailand more than a century ago, have been plagued with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay rebels battle Thai troops for more autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state.
The fighting has claimed more than 6,800 lives -- mostly civilians -- since 2004, with both sides accused of rights abuses and atrocities.
The shadowy Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) is believed to be behind much of the violence, although it never claims attacks and shuns publicity.
On Monday it outlined objections to Bangkok's peace plan, saying it "must include the participation of third parties (international community) as witnesses and observers" and that an "impartial" mediator should lead the talks, not the Thai army.
In February the military and a group of rebel peace negotiators agreed to create a cluster of "safety zones" -- the first small but significant step in a much delayed peace process.
Thailand's generals, who seized power in 2014, touted the deal as proof the army-led peace process had legs.
But many experts have long remarked that the only rebel group Bangkok will agree to talk to -- the Mara Patani -- has little control over fighters on the ground.
Thailand's military treats the insurgency as a purely internal security issue and has baulked at any suggestion of outside involvement from the international community.
There have been talks in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur with Mara Patani. But they have staggered on for years, undercut by near-daily bombs, ambushes and assassinations in the Deep South and a decade of political instability in Bangkok.
Matthew Wheeler, an expert on the southern insurgency with the International Crisis Group, said the BRN "perceive the current (peace) process as one driven by Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur for their own interests".
But he added that statement reminds both sides the BRN is willing to come to the table under the right conditions.
"It does not reject dialogue, even as it rejects participation in the current dialogue process," he told AFP.
Monday's statement followed a weekend of coordinated bombings across the south that targeted electricity poles.
The attacks caused widespread blackouts but no casualties and were seen as a reminder from the insurgents that they can still cause trouble despite a strong military presence and harsh martial law restrictions.
Those bombings came hours after Thailand's new King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed into law a military-backed constitution that will curb the power of elected lawmakers and bolster the army's role in any future government.
The southern region was one of few areas to reject that constitution when it was put to a referendum last year.
A photo from inside the wreck of of South Korea's Sewol ferry -- released by the Maritime Ministry -- shows the destruction in a cabin section on the fourth-floor deck that had been used by male students
Salvage workers are set to begin the grim and dangerous task of searching the wreck of South Korea's Sewol ferry, the Maritime Ministry said Monday, after releasing a stark image of the vessel's devastated interior.
Following a complex salvage operation, the raised ferry was finally placed on dry land Sunday, nearly three years after it sank with the loss of more than 300 lives -- most of them schoolchildren.
The bodies of nine victims have never been found, and the 145-meter Sewol was raised intact at the relatives insistence to prevent any trapped remains being lost.
A group of four salvage workers had entered the vessel through a window for initial inspections, but swiftly withdrew for fear of being trapped by unstable debris, the ministry said.
Before they left, one took a photo -- later released by the ministry -- of a cabin section on the fourth-floor deck that had been used by male students.
Salvaged Sewol
It showed shattered wall and floor panels, twisted steel pipes and broken wooden furniture piled up across the floor.
"We will first clean and disinfect the ship and then carry out thorough safety checks," said Lee Cheol-Jo, a senior official in charge of the salvage operation.
He added that a detailed plan for the search of the missing victims would be announced as early as this weekend.
Back at the actual salvage site, a team of more than 30 divers have been scouring the sea bed for any human remains or personal effects belonging to the victims.
Following a complex salvage operation, the raised ferry was finally placed on dry land Sunday
The Sewol sinking was one of the country's worst-ever maritime disasters, which dealt a crushing blow to now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye.
Investigations concluded the tragedy was the result of numerous human factors, including an illegal redesign, an overloaded cargo bay and inexperienced crew.
Suicide bombings in Somalia are commonly carried out by Shabaab jihadists who have threatened a "vicious war" against the new government
A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Mogadishu army camp Monday, killing at least three soldiers a day after the army chief escaped an attack on his convoy, military sources said.
"The suicide bomber was stopped at the main entrance and he blew himself up. Three soldiers died and several others were wounded," said soldier Abdukadir Farah, who was inside the camp at the time of the attack.
Farah said there had been a meeting of military officials underway at the camp.
But it was not clear if army chief Ahmed Mohamed Jimale was among them, he said.
Military official Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Abdirahman told AFP the attacker had been "disguised as a member of the military" to gain access to the training camp.
The attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab extremist group, which said that "tens" of people had been killed.
The training camp in the south of the capital is one of the largest in the country.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a convoy carrying Jimale, who was named to the post last week by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo.
The Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the military chief had "narrowly escaped" the blast. A senior army official separately said the attack left at least 10 people dead.
Farmajo, who took office in February, also named new police and intelligence chiefs in a speech Thursday in which he declared a fresh war against Al-Shabaab militants.
"I am announcing a state of war in the country and call on the public to stand with the national army to help fight terrorists," he said.
"We are very sorry for those kids who have been misled, and we are offering the Shabaab fighters an ultimatum of 60 days to surrender otherwise they will face the consequences," he said.
While Shabaab have lost large swathes of territory and were forced out of Mogadishu by African Union troops in 2011, they continue to strike in the capital and countryside.
There has been an uptick in attacks over the past week, with a car bomb in Mogadishu that left seven people dead Wednesday, a landmine that killed 19 on Thursday and a mortar strike which left three dead on Friday.
Shortly after Farmajo's election, the Shabaab threatened to wage "vicious war" against his new administration.
Somalia's fragile central government is still propped up by the international community and a 22,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force after nearly three decades of civil war and anarchy.
During his inauguration, Farmajo warned there would be no quick fixes for the troubled country -- also on the brink of famine.
"Your problems were created during 20 years of conflict and droughts. A solution will need more than another 20 years," he said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gives a press conference in the capital Tehran on April 10, 2017
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani defended his economic record in a press conference on Monday but stopped short of formally announcing his candidacy for next month's presidential election.
Rouhani rejected criticism from conservatives over his economic performance, saying he had overseen measurable improvements in agriculture, health care, energy and internet coverage.
He also focused on his key achievement, a nuclear deal with world powers that ended some sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's atomic programme.
"In every aspect that you consider, figures tell us that after the (nuclear deal), there is more space for movement and progress," he said.
Pointing to deals signed by Iranian airlines to buy planes from Airbus and Boeing, he said the some $4 billion (3.8 billion euros) that Iranians spend on tickets to fly abroad would now go to domestic carriers.
Rouhani is expected to run for a second term on May 19, but said this press conference was "not about elections".
"We need to wait two or three more days," he said.
Hopefuls in the election have from Tuesday until Saturday evening to register their candidacy.
Sitting presidents in Iran are expected to be modest about their ambitions and to refrain from using state television as a campaigning platform.
The moderate cleric boasted that his government had allowed social media platforms to stay online despite objections from conservatives.
"People should speak out clearly about issues that are not being handled to their satisfaction," he said.
He criticised the arrests of administrators of top reformist social media channels in late March.
Rouhani also slammed the United States for imposing sanctions on Iran and attacking an airbase in Syria, a key Iranian ally, following a suspected chemical attack last week.
"The Syrian people and army must give a response that makes Americans regret their attack," he said.
During his first month in office, US President Donald Trump imposed fresh sanctions targeting Iran's ballistic missile programme.
Rouhani said America had "never acted within international frameworks".
"One instance is the sanctions it has imposed on Iran, unreasonably seeing itself as the leader of the world," he said.
Rouhani said Tehran was "ready to improve relations" with regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia providing Riyadh "stops its attacks on Yemen" where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
The Sunni kingdom cut diplomatic ties with Shiite-dominated Iran early last year after its missions were attacked in Tehran and Mashhad by protestors angered at Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
Rebel groups in Indian Kashmir have for decades battled troops and police, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan
The Indian army said Monday its soldiers killed four suspected rebels who attempted to cross into the Indian-administered part of Kashmir at the unofficial border dividing the disputed territory with Pakistan.
The shootout happened late Sunday evening when soldiers guarding the border known as the Line of Control (LoC) intercepted four armed men in Keran, 140 kilometres northwest of the main city of Srinagar.
"The four infiltrators were killed in an exchange of fire. Their bodies and four weapons have also been recovered," Indian army spokesman, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, told AFP.
The incident came after a day of violence in Kashmir, where a local election was marred by clashes that left eight civilians dead and nearly 100 injured, many from bullets fired by police and paramilitary forces.
In response, shops and schools were closed Monday and public transport suspended as separatist leaders opposed to India's military presence called for a two-day strike.
Authorities, fearing more protests, suspended most internet services across the restive Kashmir valley for a second day.
Another round of voting is due in the state's south Wednesday, but there have been appeals for the poll to be delayed amid a record low turnout in the weekend ballot.
Sunday's election drew a little over seven percent of registered voters to the ballot box -- the lowest ever record in any elections in the territory.
Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in its entirety.
Rebel groups in Indian Kashmir have for decades battled troops and police, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan.
Around 500,000 Indian soldiers are deployed in the region.
The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead since 1989.
Syrian children receive treatment in the town of Maaret al-Noman, following a suspected chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhun, a nearby rebel-held town in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, on April 4, 2017
G7 foreign ministers were on Monday to send a "clear and coordinated message" to Russia over its stance on Syria as Washington ratcheted up the pressure following a suspected chemical attack in the war-torn country.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson set the tone for the meeting, describing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as "toxic" and saying it was "time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up".
Top diplomats from the seven major advanced economies are in Italy for their annual two-day meeting which had initially been expected to focus on talks with new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about hotspots like Libya, Iran and Ukraine.
But the agenda is now likely to be dominated by last week's suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town that killed at least 87 civilians, and the US cruise missiles fired at a Syrian air base in retaliation.
It was the first time Washington has intervened directly against the regime of Assad, who is fighting a civil war with the backing of Russia and Iran, and the G7 ministers will deliberate the West's next steps.
Russian and American militaries in Syria
The gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca, which begins at 1430 GMT, groups foreign ministers from the United States and Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
- 'End Assad support' -
Washington's retaliation was slammed by Iran and North Korea and put it on a direct diplomatic collision course with Moscow, where Tillerson heads on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The US stepped up the pressure on Sunday on Russia to rein in the Syrian regime, warning that any further chemical attacks would be "very damaging" to their relationship and suggesting any peace deal would be difficult with Assad in power.
Tillerson enraged Moscow by asking if it was possible Russia did not know about Syria's chemical arms, and called on the country to fulfil the obligation it made to the international community to guarantee the elimination of the weapons.
In this image released by the US Navy, the USS Ross fires a tomahawk land attack missile on April 7, 2017, at a Syrian air force airfield
"We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," Johnson said Monday, warning that Putin was "damaging Russia" by supporting Assad.
He had cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow "to continue contact with the US and others" ahead of Tillerson's Russian trip.
He called on Russia to do "everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated".
Tillerson would "deliver that clear and coordinated message to the Russians", he said.
- 'Crime against innocents' -
Italy has arranged a last-minute meeting on Tuesday between the G7 ministers and their counterparts from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Italian media said the aim was "to avert a dangerous military escalation".
Tillerson briefly met Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Lucca ahead of the wider meeting.
Kishida said he told Tillerson that Japan supports the US in its push to "deter the spread and use of chemical weapons", and discussed the pressing North Korean nuclear threat.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley holds photos of victims as she speaks as the UN Security Council meets in an emergency session on April 5, 2017, about the suspected chemical attack that killed civilians, including many children, in Syria
Japan hopes the strong US response on Syria will also put pressure on the isolated country, which is showing signs of preparing for its sixth nuclear test and more test-firings of ballistic missiles.
"We agreed that the role of China is extremely important. Japan and the United States will jointly call on China to play a bigger role," Kishida told reporters.
Tillerson spent the morning at a WWII ceremony at the site of a Nazi massacre in Sant'Anna di Stazzema near Lucca.
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," he said after he and other ministers lay a red wreath at the foot of the site's memorial.
Despite security generally improving in Lagos in recent years, hard economic conditions still force some people to turn to crime
Gunmen have shot dead four policemen, an army captain and a civilian in an attack on a community outside Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, police said on Monday.
The gunmen invaded Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu early on Sunday and kidnapped residents after looting their homes and shops.
"Around 1:00am on Sunday, the police received a distress call that a group of militants and kidnappers had entered Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu through the thick swampy forest surrounding the area," Lagos police spokesman Olarinde Famous-Cole told AFP.
"They were reported to have kidnapped some residents. In response, the police and the army immediately mobilised personnel to the area where the kidnapped victims were rescued," he said.
"Sadly, however, five of the gallant and patriotic officers lost their lives during the rescue operation," he said.
Famous-Cole said police were combing the surrounding forests and creeks in search of the attackers.
Despite security generally improving in Lagos in recent years, hard economic conditions still force some people to turn to crime.
Last October, four students and two teachers were abducted from a school in Epe by gunmen in speed boats, prompting the government to demolish waterfront shanties in a bid to flush out the criminals.
In one such demolition, some 30,000 residents of Otodo-Gbame, near the upscale Lekki district, were made homeless, angering rights groups including Amnesty International.
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the Great Hall of People in Beijing on April 10, 2017
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday praised the normalisation of relations with Norway, six years after a dispute over the Nobel Peace Prize, as Norway's prime minister said she was glad to be back.
The visit by Erna Solberg is the first high-level exchange since December, when the two countries normalised ties that soured after the Oslo-based Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Peace Prize to the still-imprisoned Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo.
Solberg's visit, the first to China by a Norwegian prime minister for a decade, began Friday and will end Tuesday.
"Your visit this time holds a lot of significance," Xi told her at a meeting in the Great Hall of the People.
He noted that Norway had been one of the first Western countries to recognise the People's Republic of China, and one of the earliest to recognise its status as a market economy.
Solberg said she was "delighted to be back" in China and Norway's king was also happy to accept Xi's invitation to visit in the autumn of 2018.
On Friday she met Premier Li Keqiang, signing numerous cooperation documents including an agreement to resume negotiations on a free trade pact.
Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in 2009 to 11 years in jail for "subversion", after he co-wrote a text calling for democracy in China. His wife Liu Xia remains under house arrest.
Diplomatic relations and trade talks were frozen after Liu was given his Nobel. Norway's salmon industry suffered as exports to China were halted.
Exchanges only resumed last December after Norway pledged its commitment to the one-China policy and respect for China's territorial integrity.
The Western media often blamed China for "converting its economic power into strategic influence", but cooperating on economic goals was ultimately more beneficial than clashing over human rights issues, an editorial in the Global Times newspaper, which often takes a nationalistic tone, said Monday.
Democratic Alliance (DA) party supporters attend hold a protest march against South African president Jacob Zuma in Johannesburg on April 7, 2017
South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday described last week's protests demanding that he resign as racist, as he fought back against the criticism that has threatened to split the ruling ANC party.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through South African cities on Friday, angered by years of corruption scandals, record unemployment and slowing economic growth under Zuma's rule.
Zuma's recent sacking of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan unleashed a fresh bout of public frustration -- as well as unprecedented complaints from senior ANC figures, including the deputy president.
The largely peaceful protests in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town appeared to attract a diverse mix of South Africans, but Zuma railed against those who participated.
"The marches that took place last week demonstrated that racism is real and exists in our country," he said.
"Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried... with some posters depicting black people as baboons."
The president said some South Africans regarded "black people as being lesser human beings", but he gave no further details about the alleged placards and posters or where they had been seen.
The protest in Johannesburg was organised by the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, which many ANC supporters accuse of harbouring white racists.
Further demonstrations are planned on Wednesday ahead of a parliamentary motion of no confidence in the president on April 18.
Zuma has easily survived previous such votes against him.
The president was speaking at an annual memorial service for anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani, who was shot dead by a white suprematist in 1993.
The African National Congress (ANC) led the decades-long struggle against apartheid, and carried Nelson Mandela to power in the 1994 elections that ended white-minority rule.
Germany has been on high alert since a series of attacks last year claimed by IS, the deadliest of which was a truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market which killed 12 people in December
A 16-year-old Syrian refugee was convicted in Germany Monday of planning a bomb attack on behalf of the Islamic State jihadist group and sentenced to two years' juvenile detention.
The regional court in the western city of Cologne said in a statement that the defendant was found guilty of plotting "a serious act of violence threatening state security".
The teenager, who was not identified by the court, was arrested at an asylum shelter in Cologne in September and went on trial in February.
Police had said the suspect's mobile phone showed he had been in touch with an IS contact abroad and expressed willingness to carry out a bombing.
Investigators found online chat messages on the phone that included "concrete instructions" for building an explosive device.
However the court found that the plot was thwarted at a "very early stage". "At no time was the public specifically in danger," it said.
The teenager and his family were among the nearly 900,000 migrants and refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015, a record influx that has fuelled security concerns.
The suspect was brought to police attention after residents and employees at the refugee shelter where he was staying voiced concerns that he had been radicalised, as did a local mosque.
The court found that the "particular loneliness" of his housing situation at the shelter meant that he spent most of his time on his mobile phone, making him easy prey for jihadist propaganda online.
Germany has been on high alert since a series of attacks last year claimed by IS, the deadliest of which was a truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market which killed 12 people in December.
Women mourn the victims of the blast at Saint Mark's church in Egypt's Alexandria during a funeral procession on April 10, 2017
Hundreds gathered Monday to mourn 45 Egyptian Christians killed in jihadist bombings just a week before Easter, after Cairo declared a state of emergency following the attacks on two churches.
The Islamic State group said it was behind the twin bombings that targeted Palm Sunday services at churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria, and threatened further attacks against Egypt's Christian minority.
Sunday's first bombing at the Mar Girgis church in Tanta city north of Cairo killed 28 people, the health ministry said.
The second struck outside Saint Mark's church in Alexandria, killing 17 people after a suicide bomber was prevented from entering the building.
Egyptian Christians during the late-night funeral of victims of the Palm Sunday blast at the Mar Girgis church in the Nile Delta City of Tanta
The violence comes ahead of Catholic Pope Francis's first trip to Egypt later this month, which a Vatican official said will proceed as planned on April 28 and 29 despite the attacks.
Mourners filled the Saint Mina monastery west of Alexandria Monday as they bade farewell to the victims of the deadliest attacks in recent memory on Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.
- Combing for clues -
The victims' wooden coffins were placed near the altar amid applause as mourners saluted their "martyrs".
During the funerals, angry crowds denounced the security services and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar.
"Leave, leave, Abdel Ghaffar!" mourners chanted.
"I am a Christian till judgment day," they shouted.
In Alexandria on Monday, investigators combed for clues and took pictures of the debris produced by the blast.
A handful of black-clad women showed their identification papers to guards before being allowed to enter the church.
"I'm so sad, I cannot speak," said one mourner, a woman in her 40s.
In addition to the death toll of 45 from the two explosions, scores more people were wounded.
Women mourn for the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church during a funeral procession east of Alexandria on April 10, 2017
In Cairo, the cabinet said it has approved President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to declare a three-month state of emergency, which was published on Monday in the official gazette.
- State of emergency -
The measure took effect at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).
Constitutionally, it still has to be presented to and approved by parliament within seven days, but this is a formality given the number of pro-Sisi delegates.
In another development, the interior ministry said on Monday seven people thought to be planning to attack Christians have been killed in a gunfight in Assiut province.
Three of the seven dead were allegedly planning to attack a monastery in Durunka village and to target Christians in both Assiut and Sohag provinces, the ministry said.
It did not say when the firefight took place.
US President Donald Trump called Sisi after Sunday's church bombings to express his condolences, Washington said.
"The President also expressed his confidence in President Al Sisi's commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians," the White House said on Monday.
In a defiant speech on Sunday, Sisi warned that the war against jihadists would be "long and painful" after he ordered the army to protect "vital infrastructure" and boost security along Egypt's borders.
The cabinet on Monday announced compensation of 100,000 pounds ($5,500, 5,200 euros) for each death, and a monthly pension of 1,500 pounds, while still evaluating "appropriate compensation" for the injured.
Lawmakers said the state of emergency -- Egypt's first since widespread unrest in 2013 -- would help the country face down a jihadist insurgency.
Men mourn over the coffin of one of the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church during a funeral procession east of Alexandria on April 10, 2017
IS has staged deadly attacks in the Sinai Peninsula against security forces.
Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt's population of more than 92 million, have been targeted several times in recent months.
Jihadists groups such as IS, and Islamists accuse Copts of supporting the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly crackdown on his supporters.
Mourners pray for the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church in Alexandria during a funeral procession east of Alexandria on April 10, 2017
In December, a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed 29 worshippers in a Cairo church, and the jihadist group later released a video threatening Egypt's Christians.
Attacks in the Sinai, including the murder of a Copt in the city of El Arish whose house was also torched, prompted some Coptic families to flee.
Sunday's Alexandria bombing was especially concerning for the Copts, as Pope Tawadros II had led the Palm Sunday service at Saint Mark's but left before the explosion.
Sisi has defended the performance of his security forces and accused jihadists of trying to divide Egyptian society by attacking vulnerable minorities.
However, rights groups accuse the former army chief of crushing even peaceful opposition to his rule.
The pro-state daily paper Al-Bawaba said on its website that its Monday edition, which was critical of security provisions, had been banned from publication.
South Sudan descended into violence more than three years ago after a power struggle between Machar and President Salva Kiir
Deadly fighting erupted, with civilians killed along ethnic lines and thousands displaced in clashes Monday between government forces and rebels in South Sudan's second-largest city of Wau, witnesses and priests said.
At least 2,000 people sought shelter in a Catholic church, and many reported targeted killings against civilians by government troops, according to local priest Moses Peter.
Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country descended into civil war in 2013. The town itself is held by government forces.
"The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas," priest Moses Peter said, using an acronym for the national army.
"They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses."
Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.
The civilians were "killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels," said Erynio, adding that this was not true.
Erynio said shops and markets in the city's southern half were closed and the government had told people to stay indoors.
"You can only see people are moving, running either to the church for protection" or to a UN peacekeeping compound, he said.
One local resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP he had found his brother "lying in blood after he was shot", and had counted five other dead bodies.
Another, who gave her name as Mary Joseph said: "we saw three people lying dead in different places."
Military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the fighting started over the weekend as government troops were trying to rout rebels from areas of the countryside they controlled.
The skirmishes reached Wau town on Monday, where Domic said forces loyal to Machar took cover among civilians.
Four prison guards were killed in the fighting, Domic said, without elaborating.
South Sudan descended into violence more than three years ago after a power struggle between Machar and President Salva Kiir.
Much of the fighting has broken down along ethnic lines and has persisted despite an August 2015 peace deal intended to end the war.
At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.
In February, the government declared a famine in parts of the country badly affected by the fighting.
The violence in Wau came days after the government's top general Paul Malong visited the city in a trip billed as a morale-booster for front-line troops.
At least 1.9 million people, such as those pictured here, are internally displaced in South Sudan due to war
At least 16 civilians were killed in fighting Monday between government troops and rebels in South Sudan's second-largest city Wau, the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) said in a statement.
The violence stemmed from an ambush Sunday of government troops near the city, leading to clashes in the city the following day, UNMISS said.
"The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured," the statement said.
Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country descended into civil war in 2013.
The city itself has remained under the control of forces loyal to Machar's arch-enemy President Salva Kiir throughout.
UNMISS said troops, tanks and equipment from the SPLA national army had moved towards areas controlled by the rebels in the south-western part of Wau late last week.
At least 3,000 people -- mostly women and children -- sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 had sought refuge at an UNMISS Protection of Civilians site.
Civilians who spoke to AFP described targeted killings in the city some 650 kilometres (404 miles) from the capital Juba.
"The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas," said Moses Peter, a priest, who confirmed that up to 3,000 people were sheltering in his church.
"They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses."
- 'Lying in blood' -
Fighting in South Sudan between rebels and government troops has devastated many areas, including this town on the outskirts of Wau
Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.
The civilians were "killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels," said Erynio, adding that this was not true.
Erynio said shops and markets in the city's southern half were closed and the government had told people to stay indoors.
"You can only see people are moving, running either to the church for protection" or to a UN peacekeeping compound, he said.
One local resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP he had found his brother "lying in blood after he was shot", and had counted five other dead bodies.
Another, who gave her name as Mary Joseph said: "we saw three people lying dead in different places."
The International Committee for the Red Cross said it was rushing surgical teams to the city to assist the wounded.
The military and rebels gave conflicting accounts of the violence.
Military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the fighting started as government troops were trying to rout rebels from strongholds in the countryside.
Forces loyal to Machar took cover among civilians when the skirmishes reached Wau town on Monday, Domic said.
Four prison guards were killed in the fighting, Domic said, without elaborating.
A spokesman for the rebels William Gatjiath Deng said the fighting stemmed from an ambush laid by the rebels outside of Wau on Sunday that left 35 soldiers from a government-aligned militia dead.
The surviving pro-regime forces returned to Wau, where Deng said they killed 50 civilians in "house-to-house" raids.
Both accounts were impossible to verify.
Deng said the troops were from the same militia responsible for fighting last week in the southern town of Pajok that forced 6,000 people to flee across the border to Uganda.
South Sudan's leaders fought for decades for independence, but once they got it in 2011, civil war erupted in 2013 out of a power struggle between Kiir and his former deputy Machar.
At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.
The war has also created a man-made famine, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis.
US intelligence experts assess Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military is probably hoarding chemical weapons in munitions depots at Shayrat airfield (pictured) near Homs in central Syria
The Pentagon believes the Syrian regime likely has additional chemical weapons stocks at the airfield struck by US missiles last week, but these were deliberately left untouched, an official said Monday.
US intelligence experts assess Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military is probably hoarding the weapons in munitions depots at Shayrat airfield near Homs in central Syria, the US military's Central Command spokesman Colonel John Thomas said.
President Donald Trump ordered a massive military strike on the air base last week, in retaliation for a "barbaric" chemical attack he blamed on Assad.
"We suspected there was a significant probability there could be other chemical weapons which would be ready to go, weaponized in those facilities, and so we didn't strike those," Thomas told reporters.
The chemical stocks were left untouched because the Pentagon did not want to risk unintentionally sending a plume of toxic gas across parts of Syria.
Though the United States is confident Assad is stockpiling chemical weapons, intelligence analysts are not certain what these are.
Under a 2013 Moscow-brokered deal, Assad was supposed to have dismantled Syria's chemical weapons arsenal and ship it to Russia.
The Pentagon has said it is sure Assad unleashed a chemical attack on April 4 that killed at least 87 civilians in the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun.
"Our advice was to make sure we didn't inflict any greater damage by touching any of the chemical weapons in the area," Thomas added.
"We were trying to degrade their capability to launch aircraft and to load them up with chemical weapons."
The Pentagon says the strike destroyed more than 20 Syrian jets but the military has come under criticism for not targeting Shayrat's runways, amid reports regime planes were again using the base hours after the attack by 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Thomas said the runways were deliberately avoided because the United States was trying to draw a clear line that its military action was in response to the suspected chemical attack, and not signal a willingness to get more involved in Syria's brutal civil war.
US forces gave Moscow a heads up shortly before Friday's strike, as Russian personnel and equipment were based at Shayrat under Russia's ongoing military intervention to prop up Assad.
Moscow reacted furiously to the US strike and immediately threatened to suspend a vital hotline established to avoid mishaps between the two powers in Syria.
Thomas refused to confirm whether the so-called "deconfliction line" remains operational, but said that even without it, "there are still ways for the pilots to hail each other."
While US and Russian pilots can use radar to see each other, the lack of a direct line of communication would further heighten the risks of misunderstandings or accidents in Syria's already crowded skies.
US President Trump ordered missile strikes against an air field in Syria that US intelligence believes was used to carry out an attack with the chemical agent sarin
The White House on Monday warned Syria that further use of chemical weapons or chlorine-laden barrel bombs could bring US military retaliation.
Broadening its warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, White House spokesman Sean Spicer indicated that such attacks were unacceptable.
"If you gas a baby or drop a barrel bomb onto innocent people, you will see a response from this president," Spicer said.
A second US official clarified that Spicer was referring to crude bombs that have sometimes been laced with industrial chlorine.
Barrel bombs more broadly are crude munitions notorious for causing indiscriminate casualties and are used frequently during the Syrian war, according to experts and rights groups.
Assad denies his forces use the weapon.
Trump last week ordered missile strikes against an air field in Syria that US intelligence believes was used to carry out an attack with the chemical agent sarin.
The White House also doubled down on its rhetoric on the need for Syria's leader to step down.
"You can't imagine a stable and peaceful Syria with Assad in charge," said Spicer.
Two children pray near flowers and cards left in condolence outside one of the oldest black churches in the United States, where white supremacist Dylann Roof went on a shooting rampage in June 2015, killing nine
White supremacist Dylann Roof pleaded guilty Monday to state charges in the killing of nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, three months after being handed a death sentence for the crime at the federal level.
The 23-year-old was given life in prison in exchange for the guilty plea, sparing survivors and the families of the victims a second emotional trial.
The state-level punishment comes on top of a death sentence from a federal court. Roof had been convicted of 33 federal charges -- including hate crimes resulting in death -- in connection with the June 2015 shooting rampage at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston.
Dressed in a striped jumpsuit, Roof gave the court his guilty plea after the judge spelled out the terms of the agreement.
Prior to the sentencing, relatives and friends of the victims gave a second round of testimony.
"This situation has tested our faith in every way possible," said Melvin Graham, the brother of slain victim Cynthia Hurd.
"We hope that today we truly close the chapter for these victims," said Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson.
Roof had been unrepentant throughout his federal trial.
In a note confiscated from Roof in prison in August 2015, he wrote that he was "not sorry."
"I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed," the notes said.
The mass murder that shocked US and international publics occurred at the church "Mother Emanuel" after Roof participated in an evening Bible study class.
The church is one of the oldest black congregations in the American South, with strong links to the fight against slavery and segregation.
Capital punishment rarely is meted out in federal cases, in part because violent crimes more typically are tried under state laws. Federal authorities have executed only three criminals since 1976.
Roof is expected to soon be transferred to a federal penitentiary as he awaits execution. It could take years before the death sentence is carried out.
While Egyptians went visa-free under a deal signed between the two countries in 2004, Sudanese nationals had to obtain visas for entering Egypt
Sudan said on Monday that its decision to make Egyptian men aged from 18 to 50 obtain entry visas was aimed at preventing "terrorists" from infiltrating the country.
Since 2004 Egyptians have enjoyed visa-free access to Sudan, but on Friday Sudanese authorities made it mandatory for adult Egyptian men to obtain visas before entering the country.
Egyptian women are still allowed to enter without visas.
"The decision of imposing visas for Egyptians was taken after consultations between the two countries," Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour told reporters.
"It aims to ensure organised entry of citizens in both countries and to prevent terrorist elements from entering."
While Egyptians went visa-free under a deal signed between the two countries in 2004, Sudanese nationals had to obtain visas for entering Egypt.
Sudanese media reports say Khartoum's decision may have been triggered following the arrests of several Arab nationals after a blast in an apartment in the capital in February.
One man was wounded in the blast while assembling explosives in the apartment.
Sudan is home to tens of thousands of Syrians who have arrived in the east African country since their nation's brutal civil war erupted in 2011.
Officials have regularly claimed to be stepping up efforts to fight extremism in the region, although Washington continues to list Sudan as an alleged state sponsor of terrorism since 1993, a charge Khartoum steadfastly denies.
US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May are discussing an opportunity to discuss Syria with Moscow
A "window of opportunity" exists to convince Moscow to end its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, British Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump said in a phone call Monday.
"The prime minister and the president agreed that a window of opportunity now exists in which to persuade Russia that its alliance with Assad is no longer in its strategic interest," a spokeswoman for May's Downing Street office said.
The phone call between the two leaders came after last week's suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held Syrian town that killed at least 87 civilians.
Washington retaliated with an air strike on a Syrian air base, the first time the US has directly intervened against the Assad regime which it has blamed for the attack on civilians.
Britain said it "fully supported" the US strikes and both countries have put pressure on Russia to stop backing the Syrian regime, with British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson cancelling a visit to Moscow scheduled for Monday.
Johnson said his decision came after developments in Syria "changed the situation fundamentally" and that his priority would instead be the meeting of G7 foreign ministers on Monday.
The Italy summit of the seven major advanced economies was expected to be dominated by Syria, ahead of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson travelling to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
In their phone call on the eve of Tillerson's visit, Trump and May said it "provides an opportunity to make progress towards a solution which will deliver a lasting political settlement".
The Syrian regime has denied it was behind the April 4 attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun.
Moscow has so far stood by Assad, describing the US strikes as inflicting "considerable damage" to already "lamentable" US-Russia ties.
Russia also threatened to suspend a vital hotline established to avoid mid-air collisions or clashes with a US-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations.
A Saharawi man holds up a Polisario Front flag in the Al-Mahbes area near Moroccan soldiers guarding the wall separating the Polisario controlled Western Sahara from Morocco on February 3, 2017
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is proposing a new diplomatic push to end the decades-old dispute over Western Sahara, possibly by holding a referendum on Morocco's rule over the territory, according to a confidential report obtained by AFP on Monday.
Guterres said in the report to the United Nations Security Council that he wanted "a new dynamic" and a "new spirit" in negotiations on ending one of the world's most intractable conflicts.
"I intend to propose that the negotiating process be relaunched with a new dynamic and a new spirit that reflect the council's guidance," the UN chief said in the report sent to the council on Monday.
The negotiations would have "the aim of reaching a mutually acceptable political solution that includes resolution of the dispute over the ultimate status of Western Sahara, including through agreement on the nature and form of the exercise of self-determination," he added.
Last month, long-serving UN envoy Christopher Ross resigned just weeks after Guterres spoke by phone with Morocco's King Mohamed VI to try to reduce tensions in a buffer zone in contested Western Sahara.
Guterres has put forward German president Horst Kohler to be his new envoy to lead the negotiations, but the appointment is still under discussion, according to a UN official.
- Different reading of history -
Last month, Guterres met at UN headquarters in New York with Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali to discuss his proposal to relaunch negotiations and tensions in the Guerguerat buffer zone.
The failure to achieve progress in resolving the dispute stems from the fact that "each party has a different vision and reading of the history and documents that surround this conflict," he wrote in his report.
A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara was annexed by Morocco in 1975.
An insurgency by the pro-independence Polisario Front ended with a UN-brokered truce in 1991 and the deployment of a UN mission, MINURSO.
Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of its kingdom despite a UN resolution that calls for a referendum on the future of the territory.
It was Guterres's first report to the council on Western Sahara.
His predecessor Ban Ki-moon angered Morocco last year when he used the term "occupation" to describe the status of Western Sahara.
Morocco responded by expelling dozens of staff from MINURSO, but Rabat's ambassador last week told UN officials that his government would allow a further 17 employees to return, the report said.
The Security Council will discuss Western Sahara on April 25 ahead of a vote two days later on renewing MINURSO's mandate.
Guterres told the council that the mission should be extended for another year, until April 30, 2018.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter fires missiles at Syria from the Mediterranean Sea on April 7, 2017
The US strike on a Syrian air base destroyed a fifth of the Damascus regime's remaining warplanes, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Monday as Washington fired a fresh salvo of warnings at President Bashar al-Assad.
The public assessment of Friday's missile strike and the forceful rhetoric came as G7 ministers met in Italy to send a "clear and coordinated" message to Russia over its support for Damascus.
The United States on Friday blasted 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat air base near Homs, which the Pentagon said Assad's jets had used to launch a deadly chemical attack on rebel-held Idlib province.
"The United States will not passively stand by while Assad murders innocent people with chemical weapons, which are prohibited by international law and which were declared destroyed," Mattis said in a statement, noting that 20 percent of Assad's "operational" aircraft were destroyed.
"The Syrian government would be ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons," he added.
Russian and American militaries in Syria
Mattis's warning came as White House spokesman Sean Spicer appeared to lower the threshold for new US action against Assad to include barrel bombs, a crude yet hugely destructive weapon of choice for the Syrian leader.
"If you gas a baby or drop a barrel bomb onto innocent people, you will see a response from" President Donald Trump, Spicer said.
But US officials later walked back Spicer's remarks.
"Nothing has changed in our posture," a senior administration official said.
"As the president has repeatedly made clear, he will not be telegraphing his military responses," the official said.
Trump discussed Syria during separate telephone calls Monday with British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
May and Merkel "expressed support for the action of the United States and agreed with President Trump on the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable," the White House said in a statement.
A Department of Defense satellite photo shows battle damage at Shayrat Airfield, Syria, following US missile strikes on April 7, 2017
Downing Street said Trump and May had "agreed that a window of opportunity now exists in which to persuade Russia that its alliance with Assad is no longer in its strategic interest."
The two leaders were looking to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's trip to Moscow this week as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a "lasting political settlement," May's office said.
- 'Toxic' Assad -
At the outset of the G7 gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca, Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson described Assad as "toxic," and said it was "time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up."
Tillerson also attended the meeting at the 15th century Ducal Palace, along with foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
The annual two-day meeting had initially been expected to focus on talks with Tillerson about hotspots like Libya, Iran and Ukraine.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini (L), German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) during a meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers from the G7
But the agenda is now likely to be dominated by last week's suspected chemical weapons attack that killed at least 87 civilians.
Washington's missile strike was the first time it had intervened directly against the regime of Assad, who is fighting a civil war with the backing of Russia and Iran.
Several rounds of UN-backed peace talks have failed to end the conflict, which has killed more than 320,000 people since March 2011.
- 'End Assad support' -
Iran and North Korea have slammed Washington's retaliation and put it on a direct diplomatic collision course with Moscow, where Tillerson heads Tuesday for talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Johnson on Monday called on Moscow to do "everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated."
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the pressing task for the G7 was to "find a political solution, a political transition" in Syria, particularly if the West wanted to triumph over the Islamic State group.
- 'Crime against innocents' -
Italy arranged a last-minute meeting for Tuesday between the G7 ministers and their counterparts from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Italian media said the aim was "to avert a dangerous military escalation."
Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he told Tillerson that Tokyo supports the US in its push to "deter the spread and use of chemical weapons," and discussed the pressing North Korean nuclear threat.
Japan hopes the strong US response on Syria will also put pressure on Pyongyang, which is showing signs of preparing for its sixth nuclear test and more test-firings of ballistic missiles.
"We agreed that the role of China is extremely important. Japan and the United States will jointly call on China to play a bigger role," Kishida told reporters after meeting Tillerson in Lucca.
Meanwhile, the leaders of southern EU nations said Monday the US missile strike on the Syrian air base was "understandable."
"The strike launched by the United States on Shayrat Airfield in Syria had the understandable intention to prevent and deter the spread and use of chemical weapons and was limited and focused on this objective," they said in a joint statement after a summit in Madrid.
MILAN (AP) - Italian engineering and construction firm Salini Impregilo is ready to make the most of the Trump administration's planned $1 trillion spending bonanza on renewing the nation's infrastructure.
With its purchase last year of Lane Construction, based in Cheshire, Connecticut, the Italian firm gets a valid U.S. passport to bid on American projects.
While Lane gives Salini Impregilo important inroads into American infrastructure, Salini Impregilo's expertise in hydropower and tunneling projects, as seen in the Panama Canal extension, adds new sectors.
FILE - In this Tuesday, March 21, 2017, file photo, Salini-Impregilo CEO Pietro Salini speaks during an interview in his office in Milan, Italy. Italian engineering and construction firm Salini Impregilo's purchase of the U.S. company Lane Construction completed in 2016 has fundamentally shifted the company's global orientation into a more domestic U.S. role as it seeks to grow in more stable markets. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
CEO Pietro Salini, who has been guiding the family-owned, publicly traded business through a period of expansion, spoke to The Associated Press before a trip to the United States to feel out U.S. President Donald Trump's plans.
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Q. Have you seen Trump's plans and do you know where to concentrate your initial bids?
A. He made the first statements. Obviously a complete plan takes time, to give a series of indications of where principally to invest. It also remains to be seen what is meant by maintenance and renovation. One of the characteristics of the United States is that it is a country that invested before others in infrastructure, and having invested before others, today its infrastructure is old. As it is also in Europe. But while Europe doesn't seem to be aware of this, the United States is feeling constrained because their economy is growing.
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Q. Have you included the Trump spending promises in your plans?
A. No, we haven't factored that in yet. But seeing the speed at which the Trump administration makes decision, I expect it very soon. Our business plan foresaw the market that existed.
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Q. Are you bidding on the wall that Trump has pledged to build along the border with Mexico?
A. Walls are not our specialty. We make bridges, more than walls. Our specialty is ways of communications: water, energy, roads. We are more involved with these things.
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Q. When you consider bidding on projects, do you also take into consideration the ethics, if it is something good for the world?
A. We reflect a lot on what we do, on what is the mission of the company. ... The mission is to realize work that is useful for people. We don't do symbolic works, or works that represent any political party or any government. We only do works that are useful for people.
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Q. Considering Salini Impregilo's expertise with dams, have you looked at possible interventions at the Oroville Dam in California that recently threatened to collapse, forcing the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people?
A. It is a very interesting market and a sector where we can bring a big added value. There are around 14,000 dams in the United States that need intervention or maintenance, because they are old. ... In the United States, everything is insured, so if a dam collapses today, imagine the damages beyond the loss of life - the economic damage like houses, jobs, etcetera... Today you could think of reducing the comprehensive risk for the insurance companies and do a sort of bond to be able to intervene on these structures without spending too much money.
FILE - In this Tuesday, March 21, 2017, file photo, Salini-Impregilo CEO Pietro Salini poses in his office in Milan, Italy. Italian engineering and construction firm Salini Impregilo's purchase of the U.S. company Lane Construction completed in 2016 has fundamentally shifted the company's global orientation into a more domestic U.S. role as it seeks to grow in more stable markets. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, March 21, 2017, file photo, Salini-Impregilo CEO Pietro Salini poses in his office in Milan, Italy. Italian engineering and construction firm Salini Impregilo's purchase of the U.S. company Lane Construction completed in 2016 has fundamentally shifted the company's global orientation into a more domestic U.S. role as it seeks to grow in more stable markets. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Dorothy Abernathy, longtime Virginia bureau chief for The Associated Press, has been honored by The Virginia Press Association with its Lifetime Achievement Award for exceptional contributions to the newspaper industry.
Abernathy was honored Saturday at the association's annual conference. She is retiring in June after a 35-year career with the AP, including more than 25 years as bureau chief in Richmond, Virginia's capital.
Before joining AP, Abernathy spent four years at The Kansas City Star, where she was part of the reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a 1981 skywalk collapse at a Kansas City hotel.
In this Saturday, April 8, 2017, photo provided by the Virginia Press Association, Dorothy Abernathy, longtime Virginia bureau chief for The Associated Press, speaks after receiving the Virginia Press Association's Lifetime Achievement Award for exceptional contributions to the newspaper industry in Richmond, Va. Abernathy was honored Saturday at the association's annual conference. (Dan Currier/Virginia Press Association via AP)
Abernathy began her AP career in Arkansas before moving to Roanoke, Virginia. She also worked as an editor in Cleveland, Ohio, before returning to Virginia as bureau chief in 1989.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greek police have arrested two Afghan migrants living in a refugee camp for forcing two women, also camp dwellers, into prostitution.
The arrests took place Saturday but were announced by the police late Sunday.
The two men, in their late forties, had rented an apartment in Athens where the women from Afghanistan and Iran received clients. The men kept all the earnings.
Police say the women were promised help in moving to another European Union country, in central or northern Europe, and were subjected to both physical violence and psychological coercion.
Police say a third Afghan man was arrested for knifing another compatriot, on orders from the other two, for "harassing" the women.
About 450 migrants and refugees live in the Malakassa camp, north of Athens.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican prosecutors say that a former governor of the border state of Tamaulipas has been detained in Italy.
The attorney general's office said Sunday that ex-Gov. Tomas Yarrington is accused in Mexico of money laundering and organized crime. He is also wanted in the United States for allegedly receiving millions of dollars in bribes from the Gulf cartel during his 1999 to 2004 term.
The office said it expects Yarrington will be returned to Mexico soon.
Yarrington's lawyers have in the past denied the charges against him.
During his tenure, drug gangs rose to dominate the state. His Institutional Revolutionary Party expelled him from its ranks late last year.
Local media reports said Yarrington was detained in Florence, Italy.
BOSTON (AP) - As jurors in the double-murder trial of ex-NFL star Aaron Hernandez began their second day of deliberations Monday, one of Hernandez's lawyers told the judge that his selection of a white woman as forewoman of the mostly minority jury has "troubling racial overtones."
Attorney Ronald Sullivan Jr., a black Harvard law professor, said the judge's choice of a white woman as forewoman ensured she would remain on the jury instead of being dismissed as an alternate. He said each juror of color should have had the same opportunity to remain on the jury and serve as the foreman or forewoman.
Judge Jeffrey Locke, referring to an objection the defense first made last week, said he found it "astounding" that Sullivan would make that claim.
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez listens to testimony during his double murder trial in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, Wednesday, April 5, 2017. Hernandez is standing trial for the July 2012 killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who he encountered in a Boston nightclub. The former NFL player is already serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. (Nancy Lane/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
"Accusing any court of being racist is not only offensive to the individual judge, but to the tribunal and the integrity of the tribunal," Locke said after the jury was sent out of the room to deliberate.
Locke, who's white, said the woman he chose was attentive during the trial. The judge also said it is his practice to select a foreman or forewoman before alternate jurors are eliminated by lottery. Twelve jurors will deliberate in the case.
Sullivan said the judge's choice is troubling because the racial makeup of the jury is predominantly minorities.
Hernandez, a former tight end for the New England Patriots, is charged with killing Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu in a 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston. Prosecutors say Hernandez felt disrespected after one of the men accidentally spilled his drunk at a nightclub. Hernandez's lawyers say Hernandez's former friend, Alexander Bradley, shot the men over a drug deal.
The victims were Cape Verdean. Hernandez's father was Hispanic, and his mother is Italian.
Hernandez, 27, is already serving life in prison in a 2013 killing.
LUCCA, Italy (AP) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations met Monday to try to forge a common response to the deadly chemical attack in Syria, with new sanctions against Russian backers of President Bashar Assad one of the options on the table.
G-7 diplomats sitting down for talks in the centuries-old Ducal Palace in Lucca, Italy, hope to use outrage over the attack and wide international support for the United States' retaliatory missile strikes to push Russia to abandon Assad and join a new peace effort for Syria.
Members of the group also hope to gain a sense from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of President Donald Trump's next steps and foreign-policy goals.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, and Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, talk to each other after laying a wreath at a memorial in Santa' Anna di Stazzema, a site of Nazi atrocities where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed during World War II, Monday, April 10, 2017. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering in Lucca for a meeting given urgency by the chemical attack in Syria and the U.S. military response, with participants aiming to pressure Russia to end its support for President Bashar Assad. (Riccardo Dalle Luche/ANSA via AP)
Speaking after meeting with Tillerson, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said ministers "will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions, certainly, on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures."
He said Russia had a choice: to continue backing the "toxic" Assad regime, "or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution."
Last week's nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred Trump - who was previously cool to the idea of U.S. intervention - to strike for the first time at Assad's forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched.
The U.S. strikes drew support from other Western leaders who have been uncertain what to make of Trump's foreign policy. Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said Sunday that Europe's broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a "renewed harmony" between the United States and its partners.
In a gesture weighted with symbolism, Tillerson visited the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy on Monday. He said the United States was rededicating itself to hold to account "any and all" who commit crimes against innocent people.
Tillerson accompanied Alfano to Santa'Anna di Stazzema, where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed in 1944.
The two-day G-7 meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca is bringing together the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, Japan and Canada, the U.S. and current G-7 president Italy, as well as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Ahead of the full meeting, Tillerson held bilateral talks with G-7 counterparts including Britain's Johnson, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Kishida said that "Japan supports the U.S. commitment in trying to take responsibility to prevent spread and use of chemical weapons and we confirmed Japan and the U.S. will continue to work together (in that effort)."
Tillerson also spoke by phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose government insists Assad should play no role in Syria's future.
The G-7 meeting comes as the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula in a show of strength following North Korea's persistent ballistic missile tests.
It is also taking place amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.
Syria, though, topped the agenda.
The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which backs Assad diplomatically and militarily and denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
Russia planned to put forward a proposal on Monday for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, calling it "a good and important sign."
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose government is another backer of Assad's, also called for an independent inquiry under U.N. auspices when he spoke Monday to Alfano, Italy's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria, but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia, whose relations with the West have been on a downward spiral for several years.
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The flipside of the talk about sanctions from Johnson and other diplomats is an implicit promise that Moscow could be allowed to rejoin the G-8, if it drops its support for Assad.
"I think the Russians need a way out and a way forward," Johnson said.
The British foreign secretary had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow before the G-7 meeting. Johnson canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had "changed the situation fundamentally."
His decision drew taunts from opponents that Johnson was a "poodle" of the Americans who had been told to stay home so he would not upstage Tillerson.
But Johnson said Monday that "it is the Americans who have changed the game by using those cruise missiles," and it was right for the rest of the G-7 unite behind Tillerson.
Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares the determination of allies such as Britain that Assad must be removed from power.
After the April 4 chemical attack, Trump said his attitude toward Assad "has changed very much" and Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
However, Tillerson said in television interviews that aired Sunday that the top U.S. priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Among European nations, there are also differences. While Britain stressed pressure on Russia and removing Assad, Germany's Gabriel emphasized that Russia and Iran must be part of the peace process for Syria.
"Now is the right moment to talk about how we can push for a peace process in Syria within the international community - with Russia, with Iran, with Saudi Arabia, with Europe, with the United States," he said as he arrived. "To prevent military violence to escalate on and on, it's all about this."
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Colleen Barry in Milan and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, and Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, left, stand after laying a wreath at a memorial in Santa' Anna di Stazzema, a site of Nazi atrocities where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed during World War II, Monday, April 10, 2017. Tillerson said Monday that the United States is rededicating itself to hold to account "any and all" who commit crimes against innocent people. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering in Lucca for a meeting given urgency by the chemical attack in Syria and the U.S. military response, with participants aiming to pressure Russia to end its support for President Bashar Assad. (Riccardo Dalle Luche/ANSA via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson steps off his plane at Pisa Military Airport in Pisa, Italy, on Sunday, April 9, 2017. Tillerson is in Italy to attend a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized economies. (AP Photo/Josh Lederman)
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, right, and British Secretary of State Boris Johnson arrive for a bilateral meeting in Forte dei Marmi, near Lucca, Monday, April 10, 2017. Alfano and Johnson will attend a G7 Foreign ministers meeting in Lucca on Monday and Tuesday. (Riccardo Dalle Luche/ANSA via AP)
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano shakes hands with British Secretary of State Boris Johnson, left, on the occasion of a bilateral meeting in Forte di Marmi, near Lucca, Monday, April 10, 2017. (Riccardo Dalle Luche/ANSA via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - For three decades, America got tough on crime.
Police used aggressive tactics and arrest rates soared. Small-time drug cases clogged the courts. Vigorous gun prosecutions sent young men away from their communities and to faraway prisons for long terms.
But as crime rates dropped since 2000, enforcement policies changed. Even conservative lawmakers sought to reduce mandatory minimum sentences and to lower prison populations, and law enforcement shifted to new models that emphasized community partnerships over mass arrests.
FILE - In this March 15, 2017, file photo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks to law enforcement officers in Richmond, Va. Sessions favors decades-old drug and crime-fighting strategies, even as some people involved in criminal justice during that time have come to believe they went too far, for too long. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions often reflects fondly on the tough enforcement strategies of decades ago and sees today's comparatively low crime rates as a sign they worked. He is preparing to revive some of those practices even as some involved in criminal justice during that period have come to believe those approaches went too far, for too long.
"In many ways with this administration we are rolling back," said David Baugh, who worked as a federal prosecutor in the 1970s and 1980s before becoming a defense lawyer in Richmond, Virginia. "We are implementing plans that have been proven not to work."
Sessions, who cut his teeth as a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Alabama, at the height of the drug war, favors strict enforcement of drug laws and mandatory minimum sentences. He says a recent spike in violence in some cities shows the need for more aggressive work. The Justice Department said there won't be a repeat of past problems.
"The field of criminal justice has advanced leaps and bounds in the past several decades," spokesman Ian Prior said. "It is not our intention to simply jettison every lesson learned from previous administrations."
Sessions took another step back from recent practices when the Justice Department announced last week that it might back away from federal agreements that force cities to agree to major policing overhauls. His concern is that such deals might conflict with his crime-fighting agenda.
Consent decrees were a staple of the Obama administration's efforts to change troubled departments, but Sessions has said those agreements can unfairly malign an entire police force. He has advanced the unproven theory that heavy scrutiny of police in recent years has made officers less aggressive, leading to a rise in crime in Chicago and other cities.
It's the latest worry for civil rights activists fretting about a return to the kind of aggressive policing that grew out of the drug war, when officers were encouraged to make large numbers of stops, searches and arrests, including for minor offenses. That technique is increasingly seen as more of a strain on police-community relationships than an effective way to deter crime, said Ronal Serpas, former police chief in New Orleans. He was a young officer in the 1980s when crack cocaine ravaged some communities.
Officers' orders were simple, Serpas said: "'Go arrest everybody.' We had no idea what the answers were," he said. "Those of us who were on the front line of that era of policing have learned there are far more effective ways to arrest repeat, violent offenders, versus arresting a lot of people. That's what we have learned over the last 30 years."
In a recent memo calling for aggressive prosecution of violent crime, Sessions told the nation's federal prosecutors that he soon would provide more guidance on how they should prosecute all criminal cases.
Sessions' approach is embodied in his encouraging cities to send certain gun cases to tougher federal courts, where the penalties are more severe than in state courts, and defendants are often sent out of state to serve their terms.
He credits one such program, Project Exile, with slowing murders in Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1990s. Its pioneer was FBI Director James Comey, who was then the lead federal prosecutor in the area.
In the community, billboards and ads warned anyone caught with an illegal gun faced harsh punishment. Homicides fell more than 30 percent in the first year in Richmond, and other cities adopted similar approaches.
But studies reached mixed conclusions about its long-term success. Defense lawyers such as Baugh said the program disproportionately hurt the black community by putting gun suspects in front of mostly white federal juries, as opposed to state juries drawn from predominantly black Richmond jury pools that might be more sympathetic to black defendants.
"They took a lot of young African-American men and took them off the streets and out of their communities and homes and placed them in federal prison," said Robert Wagner, a federal public defender in Richmond.
Baugh argued the program was unconstitutional after a client was arrested for gun and marijuana possession during a traffic stop. He lost the argument, but a judge who revealed 90 percent of Project Exile defendants were black also shared concerns about the initiative.
Sessions has acknowledged the need to be sensitive to racial disparities, but has also said, "When you fight crime, you have to fight it where it is ... if it's focused fairly and objectively on dangerous criminals, then you're doing the right thing."
During the drug war, sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine crimes were seen as unfairly punishing black defendants. Sessions in 2010 co-sponsored legislation that reduced that disparity. But he later opposed bipartisan criminal justice overhaul efforts, warning that eliminating mandatory minimum sentences weakens the ability of law enforcement to protect the public.
"My vision of a smart way to do this is, let's take that arrest, lets hammer that criminal who's distributing drugs that have been imported in our country," Sessions said in a recent speech to law enforcement officials.
The rhetoric sounds familiar to Mark Osler, who worked as a federal prosecutor in Detroit in the late 1990s, when possessing 5 grams of crack cocaine brought an automatic five-year prison sentence. Osler said he came onto the job expecting to go after international drug trafficking rings but "instead we were locking up 18-year-old kids selling a small amount of crack, and pretending it was an international trafficker."
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African nation's security forces, according to U.S. officials.
Congress is expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve at the very end of Barack Obama's presidency. The arrangement will call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million, one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak about internal diplomatic conversations.
FILE - In this April 4, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump listens to a question during a town hall with business leaders in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington. The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African nation's security forces, according to U.S. officials. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Though President Donald Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft, the National Security Council is still working on the issue. Military sales to several other countries are also expected to be approved but are caught up in an ongoing White House review. Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.
The Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets at least three times in recent years. In the worst incident, a fighter jet on Jan. 17 repeatedly bombed a camp at Rann, near the border with Cameroon, where civilians had fled from Boko Haram. Between 100 and 236 civilians and aid workers were killed, according to official and community leaders' counts.
That bombing occurred on the same day the Obama administration intended to officially notify Congress the sale would go forward. Instead, it was abruptly put on hold, according to an individual who worked on the issue during Obama's presidency. Days later, Trump was inaugurated.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said this past week that he supported the A-29 deal to Nigeria as well as the sale of U.S.-made fighter jets to Bahrain that had been stripped of human rights caveats imposed by the Obama administration.
Under Obama, the U.S. said Bahrain failed to make promised political and human rights reforms after its Sunni-ruled government crushed Arab Spring protests five years ago.
"We need to deal with human rights issues, but not on weapons sales," Corker said.
The State Department said in a 2016 report that the Nigerian government has taken "few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government."
Amnesty International has accused Nigeria's military of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8,000 Boko Haram suspects. President Muhammadu Buhari promised to investigate the alleged abuses after he won office in March 2015, but no soldier has been prosecuted and thousands of people remain in illegal military detention. Nigeria's military has denied the allegations.
The A-29 sale would improve the U.S. relationship with Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer market of 170 million people, the continent's biggest economy and its second-largest oil producer. Nigeria also is strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa where experts warn Islamic extremists like the Nigeria-based Boko Haram may expand their reach.
The aircraft deal also would satisfy Trump's priorities to support nations fighting Islamic uprisings, boost U.S. manufacturing and create high-wage jobs at home. The A-29 aircraft, which allow pilots to pinpoint targets at night, are assembled in Jacksonville, Florida.
"It's hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the U.S.," said J. Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and head of its Africa Center.
Once Congress is officially notified of the sale, lawmakers who want to derail it have 30 days to pass veto-proof legislation. That's a high hurdle given Corker's support. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also said he backs the sale.
"We've really got to try to do what we can to contain them," McCain said of Boko Haram.
In Trump's first phone call with Buhari in February, he "assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," according to Buhari's office.
A Feb. 15 White House statement that provided a summary of the call said "President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in mid-February he was "leery" of the sale because of the Nigerian military's impunity. Cardin said this week he's not trying to block the deal.
"Ultimately we hope that the sale goes forward," he said. "But there is progress that needs to be made in protecting the civilian population."
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Faul reported from Johannesburg, South Africa. Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's national security adviser is calling on Russia to re-evaluate its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, leaving open the possibility of additional U.S. military action against Syria.
In his first televised interview, H.R. McMaster pointed to dual U.S. goals of defeating the Islamic State group and removing Assad from power. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was making the Trump administration's first official trip this week to Russia, McMaster said Russia will have to decide whether it wanted to continue backing a "murderous regime." Trump is weighing next steps after ordering airstrikes last week.
"It's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime," McMaster said on "Fox News Sunday."
FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2017, file photo, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster listens as President Donald Trump makes the announcement at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., that McMaster will be the new national security adviser. McMaster on Sunday, April 9, 2017, left open the possibility of future U.S. military action against Syria speaking in his first televised interview but indicated that American forces would not act unilaterally to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
"Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves ... Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?"
He said Russia should also be asked how it didn't know that Syria was planning a chemical attack since it had advisers at the Syrian airfield.
"Right now, I think everyone in the world sees Russia as part of the problem," McMaster said.
After last Tuesday's chemical attack in Syria, Trump said his attitude toward Assad "has changed very much" and Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
But as lawmakers called on Trump to consult with Congress, Trump administration officials sent mixed signals on the scope of future U.S. involvement. While Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, described regime change in Syria as a U.S. priority and inevitable, Tillerson suggested that last week's American airstrikes in retaliation for the chemical attack hadn't really changed U.S. priorities toward ousting Assad.
Pressed to clarify, McMaster said the goals of fighting IS and ousting Syria's president were somewhat "simultaneous" and that the objective of the missile strike was to send a "strong political message to Assad" to stop using chemical weapons. He did not rule out additional strikes if Assad continued to engage in atrocities against rebel forces with either chemical or conventional weapons.
"We are prepared to do more," he said. "The president will make whatever decision he thinks is in the best interest of the American people."
Reluctant to put significant troops on the ground in Syria, the U.S. for years has struggled to prevent Assad from strengthening his hold on power.
U.S.-backed rebels groups have long pleaded for more U.S. intervention and complained that Washington has only fought the Islamic State group. So Trump's decision to launch the strikes - an action President Barack Obama declined to take after a 2013 chemical attack - has raised optimism among rebels that Trump will more directly confront Assad.
Several lawmakers said Sunday that decision shouldn't entirely be up to Trump.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, praised Trump's initial missile strike for sending a message to Assad, Russia, Iran and North Korea that "there's a new administration in charge." But he said Trump now needed to work with Congress to set a future course.
"Congress needs to work with the president to try and deal with this long-term strategy, lack of strategy, really, in Syria," he said. "We haven't had one for six years during the Obama administration, and 400,000 civilians have died and millions of people have been displaced internally and externally in Europe and elsewhere."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, agreed. "What we saw was a reaction to the use of chemical weapons, something I think many of us supported," he said. "But what we did not see is a coherent policy on how we're going to deal with the civil war and also deal with ISIS."
Still, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he believed that Trump didn't need to consult with Congress.
"I think the president has authorization to use force," he said. "Assad signed the chemical weapons treaty ban. There's an agreement with him not to use chemical weapons."
Their comments came as Tillerson planned to meet with Russian officials. Russia had its own military personnel at the Syrian military airport that the U.S. struck with cruise missiles. But in interviews broadcast Sunday, Tillerson said he sees no reason for retaliation from Moscow because Russia wasn't targeted.
"We do not have any information that suggests that Russia was part of the military attack undertaken using the chemical weapons," Tillerson said. Earlier, U.S. military officials had said they were looking into whether Russia participated, possibly by using a drone to help eliminate evidence afterward.
Tillerson said defeating the Islamic State group remains the top focus. Once that threat "has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria," he said.
"We're hopeful that we can prevent a continuation of the civil war and that we can bring the parties to the table to begin the process of political discussions" between the Assad government and various rebel groups, he said.
Haley said "getting Assad out is not the only priority" and that countering Iran's influence in Syria was another. Still, Haley said the U.S. didn't see a peaceful future for Syria with Assad in power.
McMaster, Cornyn and Cardin spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Tillerson appeared on ABC's "This Week" and CBS' "Face the Nation," Haley and Graham were on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Haley also appeared on CNN's "State of the Union."
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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2017 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with Yahoo News in Damascus, Syria. Syria decried a U.S. missile strike early Friday, April 7, 2017 on a government-controlled air base where U.S. officials say the Syrian military launched a deadly chemical attack earlier this week. Syria called the operation "an aggression" that killed at least six people. (SANA via AP, File)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama lawmakers started impeachment hearings Monday for Gov. Robert Bentley as they consider whether to oust him over accusations he used state resources to hide an alleged affair with a top aide.
The hearings began three days after the Republican governor made a somber plea for forgiveness from the steps of the Alabama Capitol, acknowledging that he had let people down but promising that he had done nothing illegal or anything to merit his merit removal from office.
As the hearing commenced, there were growing calls among Republicans for Bentley to voluntarily step down. The Alabama Republican Party's steering committee passed a resolution Sunday calling on Bentley to resign immediately, echoing calls from GOP leaders in the House and Senate.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley speaks during a news conference on Friday, April 7, 2017, outside the Alabama Capitol building in Montgomery, Ala. Bentley vowed again he won't resign even as his political troubles mounted and lawmakers said they would move forward with impeachment hearings because of a sex scandal. (Albert Cesare /The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)
Jack Sharman, the special counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, is scheduled to make his presentation of evidence to the committee as it begins a week of hearings that will culminate with a vote on whether to recommend Bentley's impeachment. Sharman will outline the details of a report published Friday that accused the governor of directing law enforcement to advance his personal interests and protect his reputation.
"We now sit ready to hear the evidence that has been gathered and to allow the governor to confront that evidence," Chairman Mike Jones said at the opening of the hearing. "I trust we will all approach this with a fair and open mind."
Bentley has struggled to shake off a scandal after recordings surfaced last year of him making romantic and sexually charged comments in 2014 to a top female aide before his divorce.
One of the accusations centers on claims that Bentley sent both the state law enforcement secretary and his state security officer to try and track down the recordings.
Bentley has steadfastly refused to resign.
"If the people want to know if I misused state resources, the answer is simply no. I have not," Bentley said Friday. He said unnamed people were taking joy in exposing the embarrassing details of his personal life.
The impeachment articles filed against Bentley accuse him of corruption and neglect of duty.
The Alabama Ethics Commission last week found probable cause that Bentley broke state ethics and campaign laws. The matter has been referred to the attorney general's office.
Sharman last week released thousands of pages of documents and interviews he obtained. They included multiple text messages that Bentley sent the aide, such as "I sure miss you. I need you. I want you. You are the only one."
The governor's then-wife, Dianne Bentley, was able to read the text messages because they also showed up on his state-issued iPad, which he had given the first lady. Dianne Bentley provided the messages to the committee.
The former first lady's chief of staff also told the committee's special counsel that Bentley threatened her job because he believed she had helped his wife make the recordings.
If the House votes to impeach Bentley, he will automatically be removed from his duties and can only be returned to office if acquitted in a trial-like proceeding before the Alabama Senate.
Bentley lawyer Ross Garber, who represented South Carolina and Connecticut governors in impeachment proceedings, has argued that only the "most grave misconduct" merits impeachment, noting that only two U.S. governors have been impeached since 1929, and both were indicted for serious felonies.
"It is not unusual for elected officials to have ethics and campaign finance issues. In fact, many governors face these things. It is very rare, though, for legislators to try to leverage those issues to impeach a governor. In fact, it is simply not done," Garber told The Associated Press in an email.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley speaks during a news conference on Friday, April 7, 2017, outside the Alabama Capitol building in Montgomery, Ala. Bentley vowed again he won't resign even as his political troubles mounted and lawmakers said they would move forward with impeachment hearings because of a sex scandal. (Albert Cesare /The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Something new is happening in a health care debate dominated for seven years by the twists and turns of Barack Obama's signature law. The focus has shifted to ideas from President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers in Congress, and most people don't like what they see.
With Republicans in command, their health care proposals as currently formulated have generated far more concern than enthusiasm.
Even among rank-and-file Republicans, there's opposition to changes that would let insurers charge higher premiums to older adults, and many disapprove of cuts to Medicaid for low-income people, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It also found more than half of Republicans at least somewhat worried about leaving more people uninsured, as the House plan is projected to do.
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2017, file photo, the HealthCare.gov website, where people can buy health insurance, is displayed on a laptop screen in Washington. Something new is happening in a health care debate dominated for seven years by the twists and turns of Barack Obama's signature law. The focus has shifted to ideas from President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers in Congress, and most people don't like what they see. With Republicans in command, their health care proposals as currently formulated have generated far more concern than enthusiasm. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
March polls by Fox News and Quinnipiac University showed overall margins of opposition to the GOP proposal nearing or even exceeding those of Obama's Affordable Care Act, or ACA, at its lowest points - such as when the HealthCare.gov website opened for business in 2013 and promptly crashed.
"Republicans are taking ownership of the health care issue, and all the pleasure and pain of health reform," said Drew Altman, president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, a clearinghouse for information about the health care system. "There has been a shift in focus from the ACA itself to the Republican plans, and who might lose benefits as a result."
Highlighting the stakes, the uninsured rate among U.S. adults rose slightly in the first three months of this year, according to an update Monday of a major ongoing survey. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found that 11.3 percent of adults were uninsured, an increase from 10.9 percent in the last two calendar quarters of 2016.
"Only time will tell" if the uptick means the U.S. is again losing ground on health insurance, said survey director Dan Witters. "A lot of uncertainty has been introduced into the marketplace through efforts to repeal," he said. "Plus premiums are now realizing a big jump for the first time in the ACA era."
Trump came into office with big, bold health care promises. In a Washington Post interview shortly before his inauguration he declared his goal was "insurance for everybody," hand-in-hand with affordable coverage, "lower numbers, much lower deductibles." Although Trump said he'd soon release a plan, none appeared.
Instead, after weeks of laboring behind closed doors, House Republican leaders rolled out a proposal March 6 that the president enthusiastically embraced. But all the efforts of the White House and congressional leadership haven't convinced GOP lawmakers to pass it. Congress is on a two-week break with the health bill in limbo.
Frustrated, Trump is seeing his promise slip away to quickly repeal "Obamacare" and replace it with something better. Instead he could get left as the caretaker of the ACA, a law he's repeatedly called a "disaster" on account of rising premiums and insurer exits that diminish consumer choice in many communities.
Trump's personal image has taken a blow, with the AP-NORC poll finding that he gets his worst rating on health care. About 6 in 10 people disapprove of how the president has handled the issue.
"It is a major failure that a high priority of President Trump and the congressional Republican leadership leads to no bill, and the bill as proposed becomes unpopular even among their own voters," said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who follows opinion trends on health care. "It's a real leadership crisis issue."
Amid disapproval of the House GOP plan, some polls have shown improved ratings for the ACA. Gallup, for example, found "Obamacare" gained majority approval for the first time. But that does not change the fact that Republican voters remain overwhelmingly opposed to Obama's law and want it repealed.
Nonetheless, there's recent evidence that Republicans differ among themselves about what "repeal" may mean.
A Quinnipiac poll last month found that 55 percent of Republicans said Trump and the Republican-led Congress should repeal "parts" of Obama's law, while 42 percent said "all" of it should go. Only 2 percent of Republicans said the ACA should not be repealed.
Republican views compare with 50 percent of the general public who say parts of the ACA should be repealed, 20 percent who say all of it should be repealed, and 27 percent who say it should remain.
The divisions among rank-and-file Republicans appear to mirror what's going on in the House, where disagreements among hardliners and moderates are keeping Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., from putting together enough votes to take the bill to the floor.
Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, said, "You have to figure a lot of people who voted for Trump are on Obamacare."
PARIS (AP) - Marine Le Pen, a leading contender in France's presidential race, has prompted an outcry by denying that the French state was responsible for the roundup of Jews in World War II.
Her remark rolled back more than two decades of policy on France's responsibility in the darkest period of its modern history.
Le Pen said Sunday on RTL radio, "I don't think France is responsible for the Vel d'Hiv"- a reference to the Paris stadium where thousands of Jews were rounded up before being sent to Nazi death camps.
Independent centrist presidential candidate for the presidential election Emmanuel Macron attends a television debate at French private TV channels BFM TV and CNews, in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, outside Paris, France, Tuesday, April 4, 2017. The 11 candidates in France's presidential race are preparing to face off in a crucial debate Tuesday evening, less than three weeks before the first round of the election. (Lionel Bonaventure/Pool Photo via AP)
Those responsible "were those in charge at the time," she said.
Her statement upends the 1995 acknowledgement by then-President Jacques Chirac that the French state was responsible for deportations - not the collaborationist Vichy regime.
It also appears to run counter to her own efforts to rid her National Front party of the stain of anti-Semitism and racism.
Some 13,000 Jews were deported by French police on July 16-17, 1942, many of whom were first detained under harsh conditions at the indoor cycling stadium.
In all, about 75,000 Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps from France during World War II. Only 2,500 survived.
Other French presidential candidates and Israel's Foreign Ministry were quick to condemn Le Pen's remark.
"If one doubted whether Marine Le Pen is far-right, there is no doubt anymore," Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon told RTL radio.
Le Pen's main rival in the race, independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, said at a news conference Monday that Le Pen made a "serious mistake." Macron is a front-runner - along with Le Pen - in the two-round presidential election that will be held on April 23 and May 7.
"On the one side, it's an historical and political mistake. And on the other side, it's the sign that Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen," Macron said, referring to Le Pen's father, co-founder of the anti-immigration party she now leads.
The elder Le Pen repeatedly has been convicted of crimes related to anti-Semitism and racism. Marine Le Pen pushed him out of the National Front party as part of her effort to scrub the party image to appeal to more mainstream voters.
"I hope the French will sanction this re-alignment of Marine Le Pen with her father," famed French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld told the Associated Press.
Le Pen has taken major steps to remove the anti-Semitic label long associated with her party. She has instead targeted Muslims, voicing fears their civilization will upend that of France.
Le Pen specified in a written statement that she "considers that France and the Republic were in London" during the war, and that the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis "wasn't France."
De Gaulle oversaw the Resistance movement from London.
She argued that her position had been the position of France's heads of state, including de Gaulle, until former Chirac "wrongly" acknowledged the state's role in Jewish persecution during World War II.
"It does not discharge the effective and personal responsibility of the French who took part into the monstrous roundup of the Vel d'Hiv," she wrote.
After decades of denial in France, Chirac in 1995 became the first president to publicly acknowledge the country's role in the deportations of Jews, issuing a long-awaited public apology at the start of his first term in office.
"These dark hours soil forever our history and are an injury to our past and our traditions," Chirac said.
Israel's Foreign Ministry was quick to voice its disapproval.
"This declaration is contrary to historical truth, as expressed in the statements of successive French presidents who recognized France's responsibility for the fate of the French Jews who perished in the Holocaust," the ministry said in a statement.
Small independent presidential candidate Jean Lassalle, a lawmaker with centrist views, denounced Le Pen's "disgraceful" remarks.
"It makes me throw up," Lassalle said on Franceinfo radio.
Le Pen made a reference to a "new anti-Semitism" in a speech Monday on countering terrorism - without revisiting her Sunday remark. She blamed Islamic fundamentalists for this modern brand of anti-Semitisim - in which "French are attacked, injured and sometimes even killed only because they are Jews."
The two top vote-getters in the French presidential vote go to a runoff. Polls suggest Le Pen will advance to the May 7 second round of the election - but not win.
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Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed.
Far-right candidate for the presidential election Marine Le Pen speaks during a campaign meeting in Monswiller near Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, April 5, 2017. A self-described patriot, Le Pen hopes to extract France from the European Union and do away with France's membership in the shared euro currency. The two-round presidential election is set for April 23 and May 7. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - The wife of a Taiwanese pro-democracy activist detained in China said Monday that she was prevented from flying to the mainland to seek a visit with her husband, whose case has inflamed tensions between the sides that have already sunk to their lowest level in years.
Lee Ching-yu said airline staff told her when she tried to check in for her flight that Beijing authorities had canceled her Chinese-issued travel permit. Li was hoping to fly to China to demand information about her husband, Lee Ming-che, who has not been heard from since March 19.
A Chinese official said last week that Lee was under investigation on suspicion of endangering Chinese national security and was in "good physical condition," but offered no additional information. Lee Ching-yu says her husband suffers from hypertension and has asked that medication be provided to him.
Li Ching-yu, center, wife of Taiwanese pro-democracy activist Li Ming-che detained in China, gives a press conference after she was denied boarding the flight to Beijing at the airport counter at Taoyuan international airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Monday, April 10, 2017. Li Ching-yu told reporters that airline staff told her Beijing authorities had canceled her Chinese-issued travel permit when she tried to check in on Monday. Li had hoped to fly to China to demand information about her husband who has not been heard from since March 19. The sign in Chinese says "Release/free Li Ming-che." (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)
Lee, a college employee who used the WeChat social media platform to discuss China-Taiwan relations, is the first Taiwanese activist in years to be held by China on security charges. His colleagues said his account on WeChat - a mainland China-based service used broadly in the Chinese-speaking world - had been shut down by Chinese authorities in mid-2016, suggesting he had attracted government attention.
Lee, 42, formerly worked for the Democratic Progressive Party, which has advocated for Taiwan's formal independence. He was due to meet a friend in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on March 19 but never arrived.
China cut off its already limited contacts with Taiwan's government in June, five months after the DPP's Tsai Ing-wen was elected president. Since then, China has been seen as further restricting the island's already limited diplomatic breathing space while bringing economic pressure to bear.
Trailed by a scrum of supporters and media, Lee Ching-yu was turned away at the check-in counter by an Air China employee who said the airline had been informed by Beijing that her permit to visit the mainland had been voided, without providing details. China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and requires the island's residents to use a document called a Taiwan Compatriots Pass rather than their passport when traveling to the mainland.
"I wonder why China needs to stop me, a defenseless woman, from visiting," Li told reporters at the airport.
Monday's drama raises the stakes in a case already complicated by the absence of formal cross-strait diplomatic channels. The Taiwanese government department responsible for relations with China says its requests for information about Lee have largely gone ignored.
Lee Ching-yu said Sunday that a middleman who claimed to have Chinese government contacts sought to persuade her not to make the trip, saying that her husband would be released soon if she acted in an "obedient and quietly cooperative" manner. If not, Lee said, the middleman suggested that Chinese state television would air a confession extracted from her husband.
Taiwanese media on Monday disclosed the middleman's identity as former Taiwanese intelligence officer Lee Chun-min, who told the press that he would no longer work on the case.
National security crimes in China are broadly defined and have a range of penalties. Authorities usually release little or no information on the specific allegations, citing the need to protect state secrets.
Powers of the security services in dealing with foreign groups and their Chinese partners were strongly enhanced under a law that took effect in January, leading to concerns about further prosecutions and restrictions on civil society.
In recent years, China's state security apparatus has detained foreign activists, domestic lawyers and other political elements it considers hostile and extracted and aired video confessions as proof that they were working to undermine China's national security. In several instances, the detainees recanted their confessions upon their release.
Li Ching-yu, center, wife of Taiwanese pro-democracy activist Li Ming-che detained in China, stands after she was denied boarding the flight to Beijing at the airport counter at Taoyuan international airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Monday, April 10, 2017. Li Ching-yu told reporters that airline staff told her Beijing authorities had canceled her Chinese-issued travel permit when she tried to check in on Monday. Li had hoped to fly to China to demand information about her husband who has not been heard from since March 19. The sign in Chinese says "Release/free Li Ming-che." (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)
Li Ching-yu, center right, wife of Taiwanese pro-democracy activist Li Ming-che detained in China, gives a press conference after she was denied boarding the flight to Beijing at the airport counter at Taoyuan international airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan Monday, April 10, 2017. Li Ching-yu said she has been prevented from flying to the mainland to demand a visit with her husband, whose case has inflamed cross-strait tensions. The sign in Chinese says Release/free Li Ming-che. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)
CAIRO (AP) - The Latest on the aftermath of Sunday's deadly church bombings in Egypt (all times local):
1 p.m.
The priest of St. George's Church in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta, where a suicide bomber killed at least 27 people, says he lost his 23-year-old son, who was among six deacons killed in the attack.
People gather outside the St. George's Church after a suicide bombing, in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, Egypt, Sunday, April 9, 2017. Bombs exploded at two Coptic churches in the northern Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria as worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday, killing over 40 people and wounding scores more in assaults claimed by the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
"In just seconds, the entire church was filled with smoke, fire, blood, and screams," Father Danial Maher told The Associated Press over the phone from Tanta on Monday where he buried his son, Beshoy late Sunday night.
The pair arrived at the church early Sunday morning to start the Palm Sunday mass; Beshoy wore white deacon's robes and sang religious hymns. "He was like an angel, standing in the middle of the deacons singing," Maher said.
Pictures of Maher went viral on social media, showing him sitting helplessly in blood-stained robes.
The Islamic State affiliate in Egypt claimed responsibility for the attack. Maher said he didn't recall any unusual movements, but other worshippers told him that they saw a man rushing inside the church before the explosion.
A 15-year veteran of the church, Father Danial said that the church "definitely" was in need of better security but stopped short of blaming the government.
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12 p.m.
Egypt's Cabinet says the state of emergency will go into effect at 1:00 p.m. Monday afternoon.
In a statement, the Cabinet says Monday that it approved the presidential decision to declare a state of emergency across the country for three months.
According to Egypt's constitution, parliament must vote in favor of such a declaration - a virtual certainty since the legislature is packed with supporters of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. It cannot exceed six months. Mohammed Abu Hamed, a lawmaker, says that the parliament will consider the issue in a session on Monday.
The army chief-turned-president also dispatched elite troops across the country to protect key installations and accused unidentified countries of fueling instability, saying that "Egyptians have foiled plots and efforts by countries and fascist, terrorist organizations that tried to control Egypt."
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11:45 a.m.
Egyptian Christians are burying their dead a day after at least 44 people were killed in twin suicide bombings at Palm Sunday services in two separate cities.
Women wailed as caskets marked with the word "martyr" were brought into the Mar Amina church in the coastal city of Alexandria on Monday, the footage broadcast on several Egyptian channels.
Coptic priests, boy scouts, and mourners carrying flowers joined a procession into the church, the pace set by a beat of snare drums.
At least 17 people were killed at St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt. Another suicide attack killed at least 27 people inside St. George's Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta.
A girl looks at damage inside the St. George Church after a suicide bombing, in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, Egypt, Sunday, April 9, 2017. Bombs exploded at two Coptic churches in the northern Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria as worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday, killing over 40 people and wounding scores more in assaults claimed by the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's military has sentenced an Indian naval officer to death on charges of espionage and sabotage.
The army said in a statement Monday that Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, had been convicted by a military tribunal. Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, the head of Pakistan's armed forces, signed off on the sentence.
Pakistan says Jadhav was an Indian intelligence official who aided and financed terrorist activities in the southwestern Baluchistan province and the southern port city of Karachi.
In this March 29, 2016 photo, journalists look a image of Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, during a press conference by Pakistan's army spokesman and the Information Minister, in Islamabad, Pakistan. The army said in a statement Monday, April 10, 2017, that Jadhav was sentenced to death on charges of espionage and sabotage. Pakistan says Jadhav was an Indian intelligence official who aided and financed terrorist activities. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistan's army released a video shortly after his arrest in which he confessed to having spent years sowing unrest in Pakistan. It was not clear if he was speaking under duress.
Indian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel closed off access to the Palestinian territories Monday as a security measure for the weeklong Passover holiday.
The military said Palestinians will be barred from entering Israel from the West Bank or Gaza until the end of the weeklong holiday that began Monday evening. It said exceptions will be made for humanitarian cases.
The closure does not apply to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Israel routinely imposes closures during Jewish holidays. Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007.
Also on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 17-year-old Palestinian, Jasim Nakhleh, died of injuries sustained in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank last month.
The Israeli military said at the time that a group of Palestinians had exited their vehicle near a Jewish settlement and hurled fire bombs at the community. It said the soldiers fired at the attackers, who fled the scene in their vehicle.
Since September 2015, Palestinians have killed 42 Israelis and two visiting Americans, mainly in stabbings, car ramming assaults and shooting attacks.
Israeli forces have killed at least 243 Palestinians during the same period. Most of the slain Palestinians have been identified as attackers by Israeli authorities.
Israel says the bloodshed is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of incitement, compounded by social media sites glorifying attackers and encouraging violence. Palestinians say it stems from frustration over decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - South Africa's black president on Monday said many white demonstrators calling for his resignation are racist, in remarks that critics are likely to view as an effort to undercut growing concerns about his leadership.
President Jacob Zuma spoke at a commemoration of an anti-apartheid leader who was assassinated in 1993, sharply criticizing multi-racial protests that were held Friday to express anger over Zuma's dismissal of a respected finance minister last month and past scandals linked to the president.
"The marches that took place last week demonstrated that racism is real and exists in our country," Zuma said at the memorial in Boksburg, near Johannesburg. "Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried in 1994, with some posters depicting black people as baboons. It is clear that some of our white compatriots regard black people as being lesser human beings or sub-human."
The president also referred to "overt racist utterances and public displays that we saw during the marches last week."
Tens of thousands of South Africans attended the protests on Friday in major cities in the biggest show of discontent with Zuma, who has also fended off challenges to his leadership from within the ruling African National Congress party. Key allies of the ruling party, including the South African Communist Party and the country's biggest labor group, have urged him to resign. The divided ANC, however, is seeking to project an image of unity and says it will defeat an opposition bid to oust Zuma in a parliamentary vote of no confidence on April 18.
The memorial where Zuma spoke was held in honor of Chris Hani, an anti-apartheid leader who was fatally shot on April 10, 1993. The killing of Hani by white racists stirred fears of all-out racial conflict, but Nelson Mandela calmed the situation. He won South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994, making him the country's first black president.
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Norway's prime minister on Monday as the two countries sought to move beyond a six-year rift following the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to an imprisoned Chinese dissident.
Meeting in Beijing, Xi commended Prime Minister Erna Solberg for her "hard work" in helping normalize ties between the countries. It was the first visit from a Norwegian prime minister to China in 10 years.
"Your visit this time holds a lot of significance," Xi said. "This is the first high-level visit since the normalization of China-Norway relations in December."
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the Great Hall of People in Beijing, China on Monday April 10, 2017. (Yohei Kanasashi/Pool Photo via AP)
China suspended its bilateral trade deal with Norway and restricted imports of Norwegian salmon when the peace prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo in 2010.
Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted of subversion in 2009 for writing and disseminating Charter '08, a document calling for democracy.
Although the peace prize is awarded in Norway's capital, Oslo, the Norwegian government has no say over the Nobel panel's decisions.
Despite that, Chinese officials demanded that Norway recognize the "error" of awarding the prize to Liu, which China deemed as interference in its internal affairs.
Relations resumed after China's foreign ministry said Norway made "explicit statements" in support of China's sovereignty.
Xi noted on Monday that Norway was one of the first Western countries to recognize the People's Republic of China upon its founding in in 1949. He recalled visiting Norway on an official trip 38 years ago as a secretary to former Vice Premier Geng Biao and said the trip had left a deep impression on him.
Solberg said she appreciated the Chinese government's hospitality during a visit that began Friday. She added that Norway's King Harald V was planning a state visit to China next year after receiving an invitation from Xi.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, second from left, talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of People in Beijing, China on Monday April 10, 2017. (Yohei Kanasashi/Pool Photo via AP)
DELTONA, Fla. (AP) - A Florida sheriff's deputy shot and injured a man who authorities say refused to put down his pistol after trying to drown his wife in a swimming pool at their home.
Volusia County Sheriff's officials tell news outlets the shooting happened early Monday after the couple got into a fight.
A neighbor called deputies after the woman banged on his front door, asking for help. When deputies arrived, the husband stepped outside the front door with a gun.
Sheriff's officials say the man refused to drop his weapon and fired at least one shot. A deputy fired back. The man was hit in the arm and leg and was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.
The wife also was taken to a hospital.
The deputies were placed on administrative leave.
BERLIN (AP) - Images of Syrian children killed in last week's chemical attack have revived debate in Europe about what can be done to end the bloodshed on its doorstep, potentially setting the tone for foreign policy debates in two of the continent's major upcoming elections.
Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, said Sunday that finding a solution to the war in Syria must become the international community's top priority.
"The bombardment by the United States in reaction to the poison gas attack threatens to spark a military confrontation between the U.S. and Russian super powers," Schulz warned in an op-ed for German daily Die Welt.
FILE - In this Sunday, March 19, 2017 file photo, Designated Social Democratic Party, SPD, chairman and top candidate for the upcoming general elections Martin Schulz delivers his speech during an extraordinary party convention in Berlin. Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, said Sunday, April 9 that finding a solution to the war in Syria must become the international community's top priority and called for Europe to take "an active role" in resolving the conflict. Schulz, who is hoping to unseat long-time German leader Angela Merkel in September's general election, dismissed the idea of armed intervention in Syria, however. "We need a diplomatic solution to the conflict, not bombs or a further escalation," he said. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
He called for Europe to take "an active role" in resolving the conflict. "Otherwise we will face further murder and misery in Syria in the coming years."
Schulz, who is hoping to unseat long-time German leader Angela Merkel in September's general election, dismissed the idea of armed intervention in Syria, however.
"We need a diplomatic solution to the conflict, not bombs or a further escalation," he said.
That view - echoing Germany's post-World War II pacifism - was reflected in a poll published Sunday by weekly Bild am Sonntag.
The representative survey of 500 people conducted April 7 by the Emnid polling firm found only 26 percent of Germans supported the U.S. missile strike against the Syrian government air base from where the chemical attack is believed to have been launched. Some 59 percent of respondents opposed the U.S. strike, while 15 percent were undecided. The margin of error was 3 percent.
Even before the chemical attack, questions over Germany's military role in the world were driving a wedge between Merkel's center-right Union bloc and the Social Democrats, who have governed the country together since 2013; While Social Democrats have rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's demand that Germany increase its military spending, Merkel has indicated that she is prepared to do so.
Meanwhile, the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which was surging in the polls last year, faces a credibility problem. Having slammed Merkel's government for taking in more than a million refugees - 600,000 of them Syrians - in recent years, the party has failed to propose a solution to the Syria conflict.
With Moscow seen as propping up the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Alternative for Germany's perceived proximity to Russian President Vladimir Putin is under fresh scrutiny. And though it celebrated Trump's victory in last year's U.S. election, the party's praise for him has dried up since the U.S. missile strike.
The nationalist dilemma is even more acute for Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, who unlike her German counterparts stands a realistic chance of gaining power in upcoming presidential election.
Le Pen, who has expressed approval of both Putin and Trump in the past, chose to distance herself from the U.S. president Friday, telling France-2 television that she was "surprised" by the American missile strikes.
The National Front leader, who advocates Trump-style anti-immigrant and protectionist policies, said she had been under the impression Trump would not make the U.S. "the world's policeman, and that's exactly what he did yesterday."
France's former Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, who is running as an independent centrist, has come out strongly against the idea of restoring a dialogue with Assad, a view that could cement his lead over Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential vote on April 23.
Macron called for a "coordinated action at the international level in retaliation against Bashar Assad's regime," though he insisted that such action should take place under a U.N. mandate.
Hawkish voices in Germany also appeared inclined to side with Trump on Syria. Despite persistent wariness over the U.S. president's foreign policy, there was grudging acknowledgement that he had acted swiftly where his predecessor, Barack Obama, had dithered four years earlier.
"In view of the course taken by the U.S. president so far it's difficult to find good things to say about Donald Trump. Still, by ordering the bombing of the (Syrian) military base from where the terrible gassing of innocent civilians was launched, he did the right thing," said former German defense minister Karl-Theodor Guttenberg, an ally of Merkel's.
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Corbet contributed from Paris.
FILE - In this Wednesday, April 5, 2017 file photo, Far-right candidate for the presidential election Marine Le Pen speaks during a campaign meeting in Monswiller near Strasbourg, eastern France. Le Pen, who has expressed approval of both Putin and Trump in the past, chose to distance herself from the U.S. president Friday, April 7 telling France-2 television that she was "surprised" by the American missile strikes on Syria. The National Front leader, who advocates Trump-style anti-immigrant and protectionist policies, said she had been under the impression Trump would not make the U.S. "the world's policeman, and that's exactly what he did yesterday." (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, file)
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - A leading European human rights official expressed concern Monday that 18 years after the end of the conflict in Kosovo, thousands of people are still denied justice.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks issued a memorandum Monday following his Kosovo visit in February.
Muiznieks said Kosovo, with a predominantly ethnic Albanian population and an ethnic Serb minority, needs "to change course and build a just and cohesive society" by prosecuting wartime crimes, promoting inter-ethnic tolerance, caring about displaced persons and clarifying 13 murders and disappearances of journalists in the years after the war.
"Major conditions for achieving this are to prosecute and effectively sanction all persons involved in wartime crimes, clarify the fate of all missing persons, provide war victims with adequate reparation and facilitate the voluntary return of displaced persons," Muiznieks said.
A special court, Kosovo Specialist Chambers, has been created in The Hague, Netherlands, with international judges from European Union member countries, the United States and Canada to prosecute ethnic Albanian rebels for crimes during and immediately after Kosovo's war for independence.
He urged Kosovo to ensure an "effective protection and support to witnesses in the context of wartime criminal proceedings."
The Commissioner called for more efforts to foster reconciliation, especially in establishing new teaching methods in the education system which promote inter-ethnic tolerance and respect.
"All schools' textbooks and teaching material containing elements of nationalism and prejudice should be revised," he said.
Some 10,000 people died and 1,660 are still missing from the 1998-1999 Kosovo war that ended after NATO intervened on behalf of the Albanian majority.
Muiznieks called on Kosovo and Serbia "to address this pressing issue, including by opening the archives of the army and police that may contain valuable information about missing persons."
He called on Kosovo to address the situation of thousands of people, mainly Kosovo Roma, who were forcibly displaced during the conflict.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Serbia has not recognized.
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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.
LONDON (AP) - British Vogue's search for a new leader has come to an end with the naming of Edward Enninful as the magazine's new chief editor.
He will be the first male editor of British Vogue when he takes over on Aug. 1.
Enninful, who had been the creative and fashion director at W magazine, has been an influential magazine fashion director for more than 20 years. He was born in Ghana and moved to London as a child.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 file photo, fashion designer Mary Katrantzou, left, poses with magazine director Edward Enninful at a Longchamp cocktail party as part of the Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris. British Vogue's search for a new leader has come to an end with the naming of Edward Enninful as the magazine's new chief editor, it was announced on Monday, April 10, 2017. He will be the first male editor of British Vogue. Enninful, who had been the creative and fashion director at W magazine, has been an influential magazine fashion director for more than 20 years. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, file)
He started as fashion director of i-D magazine when he was just 19 and later worked at the Italian Vogue under its late editor, Franca Sozzani.
Enninful received an OBE award last year for his work in fashion. Madonna, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and other fashion luminaries came to his party to mark the event.
His predecessor, Alexandra Shulman, said in January she was stepping down after 25 years, prompting widespread interest about who would take over one of the most visible positions on the London fashion scene.
MIAMI (AP) - A recall has been issued after two people in Florida found a dead bat in the packaged salad they were eating.
The Miami Herald reports that (http://hrld.us/2plrKAo ) Fresh Express has recalled its Organic Marketside Spring Mix, which was shipped to Wal-Mart stores in the Southeast.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the bat was tested for rabies but because it was in deteriorated condition, rabies could not be definitively ruled out.
The CDC said the risk of rabies transmission is low but recommended that the two people eating the salad start getting rabies treatment. The CDC says both report being in good health so far.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A Turkish official says the country's foreign minister has held a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, during which the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad was discussed.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Mevlut Cavusoglu and Tillerson on Monday also talked about the fight against the Islamic State group.
The official, who cannot be named under government regulations, did not provide further details.
Their discussion comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to punish Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons by launching cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.
Turkey backed Trump's decision but said pressure on the Assad administration should continue.
Ankara also insists there should be no role for Assad in Syria's future.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - Construction on a contested visitors center on the grounds of The Breakers mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, is scheduled to begin.
The Preservation Society of Newport County tells The Newport Daily News that work on the $5.4 million project is expected to begin within the next two weeks. The project is expected to take a year to complete.
Preservationists, neighbors and descendants of the Vanderbilt family who built The Breakers have fought the plan for years. They argue that the visitors center should be built outside the walls of the 13-acre estate, which is national historic landmark.
The Preservation Society has said a visitors center will provide modern bathroom and ticketing facilities, as well as a place to get refreshments.
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Information from: The Newport Daily News.
BERLIN (AP) - German prosecutors have filed new complaints alleging bias against judges presiding over the often-delayed trial of a former SS medic who served at the Auschwitz death camp.
Hubert Zafke's trial at the Neubrandenburg state court has been postponed repeatedly after judges ruled the 96-year-old was unfit. He is charged with 3,681 counts of accessory to murder for allegedly helping the camp function, but his attorney says he did nothing criminal.
The court has rejected previous calls to remove the judges over alleged bias.
Prosecutors in Schwerin said Monday that they have filed new complaints. News agency dpa reported the prosecutors argued that several decisions raised concerns that the judges have taken an attitude "that rules out them conducting the proceedings with the necessary and indispensable degree of neutrality."
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - A prominent academic in Uganda was remanded to a maximum-security prison Monday after being charged with insulting the country's longtime president.
Stella Nyanzi, a postdoctoral research fellow at Uganda's Makerere University, was charged with cyber harassment and offensive communication Monday. She denied the charges and said President Yoweri Museveni is a "dishonorable" man who has "offended the people of Uganda."
Amnesty International urged Ugandan authorities to free Nyanzi, a single mother of three.
"Arresting Nyanzi simply for criticizing the president and his wife serves no legitimate purpose," Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International's regional director, said in a statement. "The state should stop wasting resources on pointless and politically-motivated prosecutions, immediately drop all charges against her and release her unconditionally."
Nyanzi is popular on Facebook for her relentless criticism of Museveni, who has ruled since 1986 and who is increasingly accused of planning to rule this East African country for life. Nyanzi frequently writes that Uganda is under "despotic family rule."
The charge sheet said Nyanzi had referred to Museveni as "a pair of buttocks" in one of her Facebook posts. In remarks before a packed courtroom in the capital, Kampala, Nyanzi said she often writes metaphorically in her efforts to "speak truth to power."
She is expected back in court on April 25 after prosecutors said they wanted her to undergo a mental examination that her lawyers indicated they would resist.
In Uganda mental exams are usually reserved for suspects accused of crimes such as statutory rape.
The case against Nyanzi is being widely followed in this East African country where few people dare to publicly criticize the first family in bold terms.
Nyanzi, who trained as a medical anthropologist, often uses sexual imagery to underscore her points on Facebook, leading many in this conservative country to accuse her of obscenity. But her fans say she is an honest activist who is using her literary skills to highlight the government's failures.
On Facebook Nyanzi has repeatedly rebuked First Lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as education minister, for saying the government has no money to buy sanitary napkins for poor schoolgirls, although the president had promised to budget for them while he campaigned for re-election last year. Many Ugandan girls reportedly drop out of school because of the shame they feel for lacking sanitary pads.
LIVERPOOL, England (AP) - Ross Barkley's lawyers say the Everton midfielder was attacked by a stranger during a night out.
A Liverpool police force is investigating the incident, footage of which appeared on social media showing Barkley getting punched in the face.
Law firm Himsworths Legal says in a statement that "Ross was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a stranger who approached him on Sunday evening."
Barkley played in Everton's 4-2 victory over Leicester at Goodison Park hours before the incident.
Merseyside Police say they haven't received a report about an assault but are making inquiries.
Good morning! Here's a look at how AP's general news coverage is shaping up today. Some plans are subject to change; see the 2 p.m. News Digest for updates. You can find our contact info at the bottom of this advisory. All times EDT.
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HIGHLIGHTING:
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Among today's coverage highlights as we see them at 10:15 a.m. EDT:
-- EGYPT (sent; developing)
-- UNITED STATES-SYRIA-IRAN (upcoming)
-- ITALY-G7 FOREIGN MINISTERS (sent; developing)
-- SUPREME COURT-GORSUCH (sent; developing)
-- ALABAMA GOVERNOR (sent; developing)
-- HOMEBUYING SEASON-SHORTAGE OF HOUSES (sent)
-- WELLS FARGO-INVESTIGATION (sent; developing)
-- CHALLENGED BOOKS (sent)
-- PULITZERS (sent; developing)
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WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT:
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-- CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTING (sent; developing)
-- SWEDEN-TRUCK CRASH (sent; developing)
-- FORD-HYBRID-POLICE CAR (sent; developing)
-- AIRLINE QUALITY (sent; developing)
-- TOYOTA-KENTUCKY (sent; developing)
-- PRINCE-MAYTE'S STORY (upcoming)
-- FORMER BRAVES PLAYER-MISSING (sent; developing)
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Here are details of those stories, plus others we have in the works for today (all times EDT):
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WORLD
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EGYPT - Egyptian Christians were burying their dead on Monday, a day after Islamic State suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in coordinated attacks targeting Palm Sunday services in two cities. SENT: 450 words, photos, videos. UPCOMING: Developing. Also: EGYPT-COPTIC CHRISTIANS-GLANCE (upcoming)
ISRAEL-EGYPT - Israel closed its Taba border crossing to the Sinai peninsula on Monday following warnings by its anti-terrorism office of an "imminent" militant attack there and urged its citizens to leave Egypt hours before the start of the Passover holiday, when Sinai is a popular destination for many secular Israelis. SENT: 550 words, photo. UPCOMING: Developing.
ITALY-G7 FOREIGN MINISTERS - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering for a meeting given urgency by the chemical attack in Syria and the U.S. military response, with participants aiming to pressure Russia to end its support for Assad. SENT: 650 words, photo. UPCOMING: Updating from foreign ministers' arrival at 10 a.m.
SYRIA - U.S.-backed Syrian fighters are pushing ahead in their offensive in northern Syria against members of the Islamic State group under the cover of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes. SENT: 130 words. UPCOMING: Developing.
SWEDEN-TRUCK CRASH - Sweden mourns four killed, 15 wounded in Stockholm truck attack. SENT: 130 words, photos. UPCOMING: Developing.
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WASHINGTON/POLITICS
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UNITED STATES-SYRIA-IRAN - The U.S. has taken great pains in recent years to work around Iranian fighters in Iraq and Syria as it battles the Islamic State group, but the latest military action in Syria puts the U.S. on the opposite side of the conflict from Iran in an environment where the lines are blurred between fighters of different nationalities. UPCOMING: 800 words by 4 p.m., photos.
TILLERSON - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the United States wants to hold to account "any and all" who commit crimes against innocent people. He's in Italy for a diplomatic summit, where the U.S. is trying to rally world leaders to embrace its strategy for resolving the crisis in Syria. SENT: 400 words, photo. UPCOMING: Developing.
SUPREME COURT-GORSUCH - Surrounded by family and his soon-to-be Supreme Court colleagues, Neil Gorsuch took the first of two oaths on Monday as he prepared to take his seat on the court and restore its conservative majority. SENT: 640 words, photo. UPCOMING: Updates from 9 a.m., 11 a.m. ceremonies, 600 words by 3 p.m., photos.
TRUMP-MAR-A-LAGO - Some Palm Beach County commissioners are so tired of spending money on Trump's frequent visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort some are suggesting a special tax be levied against the property if the federal government doesn't reimburse its costs. Palm Beach County spends more than $60,000 a day when the president visits, mostly for law enforcement overtime -- almost $2 million since January. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos by noon.
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US
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ALABAMA GOVERNOR - Alabama lawmakers will begin impeachment hearings Monday for Gov. Robert Bentley as they consider whether to try ousting the governor over accusations he used state resources to hide a relationship with a top aide. SENT: 510 words, photos. UPCOMING: Developing.
CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTING - Convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof is expected to plead guilty to state murder charges, leaving him to await execution in a federal prison and sparing his victims and their families the burden of a second trial. SENT: 450 words, photo. UPCOMING: Hearing scheduled for 1 p.m.
OPIODS-WORKPLACE INJURIES - Meet one of the victims of the nation's opioid addiction scourge: the American worker. A number of U.S. states are taking steps through their workers compensation systems to stem the overprescribing of the powerful painkillers to workers injured on the job, while helping those who became hooked to avoid potentially deadly consequences. UPCOMING: 700 words by 2 p.m., photos.
PULITZERS - The Pulitzer prizes in journalism are announced at Columbia University, recognizing the media's best work in a tumultuous year. SENT: 70 words. UPCOMING: Developing from 3 p.m. announcement. With: PULITZERS-THE LATEST, PULITZERS-LIST, PULITZERS-ARTS.
FORMER BRAVES PLAYER-MISSING - Police say they don't suspect foul play in the disappearance of former Atlanta Braves player Otis Nixon, who was last seen on Saturday. SENT: 130 words. UPCOMING: Developing.
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BUSINESS /ECONOMY
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HOMEBUYING SEASON-SHORTAGE OF HOUSES - Despite a robust economy, the national supply of homes for sale hasn't been this thin in nearly 20 years. SENT: 1,360 words, photos.
WELLS FARGO-INVESTIGATION - An investigation into sales practices at Wells Fargo has blamed the bank's most senior management for creating an "aggressive sales culture" that led to bank staff opening millions of customer accounts without their authorization. SENT: 900 words, photos. UPCOMING: Developing.
FORD-HYBRID-POLICE CAR - The next time the cops chase you down for speeding, they could be driving a fuel-efficient gas-electric hybrid. SENT: 530 words, photos, video. UPCOMING: Developing.
TOYOTA-KENTUCKY - Toyota said Monday it is investing $1.3 billion to retool its sprawling factory in Georgetown, Kentucky, where the company's flagship Camry sedans are built. SENT: 340 words. UPCOMING: Developing.
AIRLINE QUALITY - Government figures show U.S. airlines improving at flying on time, handling baggage, and not bumping as many passengers. SENT: 570 words, photos. UPCOMING: Will be updated after actual ratings are released after 9:30 a.m.
NERDWALLET-LIZ WESTON-ARE YOU FINANCIALLY HEALTHY? - Don't focus on debt or credit scores alone. Well-run personal finances are a balancing act. Nail these 8 essential goals and you'll stay on top of today and be prepared for tomorrow. By NerdWallet columnist Liz Weston. UPCOMING: 790 words by 11 a.m., photos.
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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
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CHALLENGED BOOKS - A celebrity once beloved among young people now finds himself on a list of books parents and other community members most wish to see removed from libraries: Bill Cosby. SENT: 540 words, photo.
PRINCE-MAYTE'S STORY - Mayte Garcia is stepping out of the shadows and back into the purple light in a new memoir covering her 11 years with the late music icon Prince. UPCOMING: 1,000 words by 2 p.m., photos, video.
TV-HARLOTS - If there's any doubt that Jessica Brown Findlay has left Lady Sybil of "Downton Abbey" far behind, consider a recent interview with her by phone from London about her latest roles, including Hulu's "Harlots." UPCOMING: 760 words by 2 p.m., photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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At the Nerve Center, Ron DePasquale can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Alyssa Goodman (ext. 1900). For graphics and interactives, Phil Holm (ext. 7636). Expanded AP content can be obtained from http://www.apexchange.com. For access to AP Exchange and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport@ap.org or call 877-836-9477.
BONDURANT, Iowa (AP) - A 20-year-old man has been charged in the killing of his mother, father and sister in their suburban Des Moines home.
Iowa court records say Chase Nicholson faces three counts of first-degree murder and is being held on $3 million bail in the Polk County Jail. The records don't list the name of an attorney who can comment for him.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office says Nicholson surrendered to police in Neosho, Missouri, Friday morning. A written statement from the Neosho Police Department says Nicholson told an officer that he had killed three people the night before.
Investigators are work the scene in rural Bondurant, Iowa, where three bodies were found in a home overnight on Friday, April 7, 2017. Deputies are searching for a man as a person of interest but who has not been charged. (Bryon Houlgrave/The Des Moines Register via AP )
Iowa records say Nicholson used a shotgun that was recovered at the family home in Bondurant. The three people killed were identified as 58-year-old Mark Nicholson; 56-year-old Charla Nicholson and 24-year-old Tawni Nicholson.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - U.S. Senator John McCain accused Russia on Monday of having cooperated with Syrian government forces in a chemical weapons attack that has killed more than 80 people, including more than a dozen children.
The Republican senator said at a press conference in Belgrade that he believes "the Russians knew about chemical weapons because they were operating exactly from the same base."
He said the U.S. launched cruise missile strikes last week against the Syrian base "in a response of a chemical attack."
"I hope that this behavior by Syria, in what clearly is cooperation with Russia and Syria together, will never happen again," he said.
McCain said the U.S. should take out Syria's air force as part of stopping Syrian President Bashar Assad from repeating such attacks in the future.
"I would prevent Bashar Assad from flying from his airfields if he doesn't renounce the use of these weapons," the former American airman said. "The United States should first tell Russia that this kind of a war crime is unacceptable in the world today."
He said the upcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow should "lead to an agreement on the part of the Russians that they will not allow Syria to ever again use chemical weapons."
"Remember, Russians made that commitment after they (Syrian government forces) crossed the so-called red line back in 2014. I hope that this will be the first item on the agenda," McCain said.
He also said he would "make sure that we arm and train some of those who fight against Bashar Assad."
McCain is on a tour of the western Balkans, the war-weary European region where Russia has been vying for increased military, political and economic influence.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Ashton Kutcher has offered emotional praise for his wife Mila Kunis, his twin brother and the rest of his family while accepting an award for character in his native Iowa.
Kutcher was honored with a Pillar of Character award at Drake University on Saturday. The Des Moines Register captured video of the speech .
After receiving the honor, Kutcher noted that he learned to share by growing up as a twin. He says his brother Michael, who has cerebral palsy, taught him that "loving people isn't a choice."
FILE- In this Oct. 19, 2016, file photo, Ashton Kutcher and wife Mila Kunis take a selfie before Game 4 of the National League baseball championship series between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles. Kutcher offered emotional praise for his wife Mila Kunis, his twin brother and the rest of his family in accepting an award for character in his native Iowa on April 9, 2017. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
Kutcher added that he and Kunis' two young children taught him the "greatest lesson in character." He says he wanted to call his parents when his children were born to tell them he never knew how much they loved him.
A Pennsylvania man arrested last year with a cache of weapons at the Holland Tunnel while he claimed to be on a mission to rescue a teen from a drug den has rejected a plea deal offered by prosecutors in New Jersey.
James Lisa, the lawyer for John Cramsey, said Monday that the deal called for his client to receive a five-year prison sentence.
Cramsey would have had to serve at least three-and-a-half-years before he became eligible for parole and three years of probation after he was freed.
John Cramsey (left) has rejected a plea deal that would have required him to spend five years in prison with a chance for earlier parole. He claims was heartbroken after his daughter, Lexii (right), suffered a fatal overdose in February 2016
(Left to right) Arendt, Cramsey and Smith seen at their first hearing, the day after their arrest
Cramsey, the owner of a Pennsylvania gun range, was stopped in a SUV heading into the Big Apple with friends Dean Smith and Kimberly Arendt beside him
The 51-year-old Zionsville man and two other Pennsylvania residents face weapons charges after their arrest last June at the tunnel, which connects New Jersey and New York City.
Cramsey declined comment after a court hearing on Monday. He has tried to get into a pretrial intervention program that would allow him to avoid jail time.
A judge has rejected it, but Lisa has said he plans to appeal to a higher court.
Cramsey, Dean Smith and Kimberly Arendt have pleaded not guilty to weapons possession charges.
A massive collection of weapons, ammo and tactical gear was found in the back of their SUV
They were pulled over in this SUV, which is covered in pro-Second Amendment messages and advertising for his gun range, Higher Ground Tactical in Pennsylvania
They were stopped outside the Holland Tunnel on June 21 and said they were seeking to help a teen girl who had sent a message to Arendt, her former camp counselor, after a friend died of an overdose in a hotel room.
They were arrested in Cramsey's neon-painted pickup truck emblazoned with logos from the gun range he operates.
Police said the truck was carrying weapons including a semi-automatic military-style rifle, a shotgun and five handguns, along with other tactical gear.
Cramsey insisted the group was on a mission to Brooklyn to 'rescue' a 16-year-old girl from a hotel room there after an issue involving drugs
Cramsey was seen posing next to the vehicle that was pulled over as it was heading to NYC
WHAT WAS INSIDE THE TRUCK A pump action shotgun with a pistol grip and collapsible stock An SAR-98 Salamander Arms assault rifle 7 clips of ammunition for the rifle 4 9mm pistols 1 .45 caliber pistol, with several magazines A Kevlar bullet resistant helmet with camouflage cover Tactical goggles Night-vision goggles Body armor Advertisement
Cops said that they found a huge collection of powerful weapons and had foiled a deadly attack on the Big Apple.
But the Second Amendment supporter insisted that he is not a vigilante or a terrorist.
He claims he was just a heartbroken father who was trying to help a girl at risk of being dragged into a heroin addiction - four months after his model daughter overdosed with her boyfriend.
A police officer stopped the vehicle because it had a crack on the windshield, according to a criminal complaint.
The defendants say they believe the windshield problem was a pretense and that they were actually stopped because of the truck's Second Amendment-themed decorations.
CAIRO (AP) - They trace their founding to the voyage to Alexandria of St. Mark, the apostle of Jesus and New Testament author. Just a decade or two after the original Easter, which Christians celebrate around the world, tradition states that Mark founded their church, one of the earliest in the Middle East and the first in Africa. It was to become a pillar of early Christendom.
Some two thousand years later, Egypt's Coptic Christians have become the preferred target of the Islamic State group, an apocalyptic cult seeking religious war.
Inside the Arab world's most populous country, IS seeks to sow discord, undermine President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and split the country. It's a strategy the group has used before in Iraq, undermining trust in the government and inciting Shiites against Sunnis to provoke a backlash. That strategy looks unlikely to work in Egypt, where Sunnis vastly outnumber the Coptic minority, who make up some 10 percent of the population of 92 million and who are overwhelmingly dedicated supporters of el-Sissi. But it does whittle away at the Christians' sense of security.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 file photo, Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt, leads a mass for the Egyptian Christians who were killed in Libya, at St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's Coptic Christians have become the preferred target of Islamic State radicals operating in the Arab world's most populous nation, seeking to sow discord, undermine President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and split the country. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
A look at Egypt's Coptic community, its traditions and challenges in the Middle East:
WHAT COPTS BELIEVE
Like Catholics, Copts believe in the Ten Commandments, practice sacraments such as baptism, confession and confirmation and the intercession of the saints. But the Coptic Orthodox Church split from other Christians in 451 A.D. over a dispute about the nature of Christ. Unlike Roman Catholics, they do not believe in the infallibility of the Pope or in purgatory. They believe in the immaculate conception of Jesus, but not of the Virgin Mary. Their priests can marry.
Copts celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar, meaning it falls on Jan. 7. The run-up to the holiday is marked by a 40-day period of fasting when red meat, poultry and dairy products are forbidden. Copts break the fast with feasting and celebrations after a Christmas Eve liturgy that ends near midnight. Easter is preceded by a 55-day fast where no meat, fish or dairy is eaten.
PERSECUTION IN MODERN TIMES
In modern times, relations with Muslims have been generally good, although changes started to come about since the hyper-nationalism of the 1950s stoked by military strongman Gamal Abdel-Nasser. In Nasser's drive to liberate the country from Western influence and purify the Arab nation, Christians - whose religion is more often practiced in the West - began to take on a less favorable light among the majority Muslim masses.
Many Copts consider themselves to be descendants of the ancient Egyptians, with a direct connection to pre-Arab times - hardly a view that made them popular in the days of pan-Arabism. As conditions in Egypt worsened following a series of Middle East wars, the Copts began an exodus. President Anwar Sadat's overtures to Islamists and his addition of references to Islamic Law, or Shariah, to the constitution spurred on the departures and millions of Copts live as expatriates today.
Although generally allowed to practice their religion inside Egypt, Copts face restrictions on inter-religious marriage and converting Muslims. Activists say Copts are discriminated against and kept from high office, and have thus campaigned to have religions removed from Egyptian ID cards.
COPTIC CHRISTIANS TARGETED BY EXTREMISTS
While sectarian killings did happen as early as the 1970s, they have been mostly sporadic over the years, with the exception of the 1990s, when the state battled an Islamic insurgency and Copts faced some retaliation.
On New Years' eve 2011, a bomb in an Alexandria church killed over 20 people - the first major assault with a high death toll in living memory and a crime still unsolved to this day. Attacks picked up in the aftermath of the army's overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013.
The next major milestone came in December 2016, when an IS suicide bomber killed 30 people at Cairo's Coptic Cathedral. The group subsequently called for more attacks on the minority and pledged more of its own.
In February, a series of murders and killings claimed by IS in northern Sinai led hundreds of families to evacuate the area, fleeing west. The most recent major attack came on Palm Sunday.
FILE -- In this Dec. 11, 2016 file photo, an Egyptian Coptic nun weeps as she looks at damage inside the St. Mark Cathedral in central Cairo, following a bombing. Egypt's Coptic Christians have become the preferred target of Islamic State radicals operating in the Arab world's most populous nation, seeking to sow discord, undermine President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and split the country. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)
FILE - In this Friday, April 14, 2006 file photo, Egyptian Copts cross their wrists in defiance outside the Saints Church in the Sidi Bishr district of Alexandria in Egypt. Egypt's Coptic Christians have become the preferred target of Islamic State radicals operating in the Arab world's most populous nation, seeking to sow discord, undermine President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and split the country. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
NEW YORK (AP) - Emmy- and Grammy-winning composer Alan Silvestri will be honored with the BMI Icon Award next month in Beverly Hills, California.
BMI announced Monday that Silvestri will receive the award at the 2017 Film, TV & Visual Media Awards on May 10 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
The composer has scored more than 100 titles. He has earned two Oscar nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.
He is best known for his work with Robert Zemeckis, and together they composed scores for hits such as "Forrest Gump," the "Back to the Future" trilogy and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
Silvestri is a two-time Emmy winner and a three-time Grammy winner.
He also scored the TV series "Chips" and films like "The Avengers," ''Predator" and "The Bodyguard."
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Online:
https://www.bmi.com/genres/filmtv
http://www.alansilvestri.com/
Here's a look at stories The Associated Press plans to cover in Europe on Thursday, April 13. Questions about coverage plans can be directed to the Europe Desk at eurdesk@ap.org.
GERMANY-TURKEY-JOURNALISTS - Facing harassment, enforced shutdowns and jail at home, Turkey's exiled journalists are using Germany as a base to report on the political turmoil back home ahead of Sunday's referendum. By Hakan Kaplan and Kerstin Sopke. UPCOMING: 760 words, photos, video by 0800 GMT.
FRANCE-MACRON MYSTERY - From his high school romance with a teacher to his political debut in a chic coastal town, Emmanuel Macron was known for discretion and tenacity. The Associated Press talks to family and friends about Macron's path to become the frontrunner in France's presidential race, and what that says about the kind of president he might be. UPCOMING: 900 words by 1500 GMT. Photos
EUROPE-RUSSIA-HOSTAGE-TAKING - The European Court of Human Rights rules on whether Russian authorities failed to protect children and others killed in a hostage-taking and ensuing storming of a school in Beslan in southern Russia in 2004. UPCOMING: 130 words by 1400 GMT.
VATICAN-HOLY THURSDAY - Pope Francis celebrates Holy Thursday with the traditional foot-washing ceremony that in past years has brought him to a juvenile detention center, an old-age home and a refugee shelter. Francis has used the Easter Week ceremony as a gesture of service. Developing.
FRANCE-CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival release the line-up of films for this year's event on the French Riviera, hosted by Pedro Almodovar. UPCOMING: 130 words by 0930 GMT, developing. Photos
SERBIA-SREBRENICA - Landmark war crimes trial continues against a group of men charged with taking part in the killings of 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica in 1995. On merit. Hearing starts at 1230GMT.
CYPRUS-PEACE TALKS - UN envoy Espen Barth Eide sits down with the Associated Press to talk about prospects for a deal reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus. With talks resuming after a two-month halt, Eide shares his thoughts about what it'll take to achieve a breakthrough in one of the longest-running disputes in Europe. Interview scheduled for 0800 GMT.
TV-DOCTOR WHO - As Peter Capaldi prepares to hang up his sonic screwdriver and depart "Doctor Who," he talks to the AP about his lifelong love for the sci-fi series and his attempt to make the time-traveling Doctor more "difficult." By Jill Lawless. UPCOMING: 600 words by 1700 GMT, photos.
CHICAGO (AP) - A Cook County Circuit Court judge was shot to death and a female acquaintance was shot and wounded outside his home on the South Side of Chicago early Monday, police said.
Associate Judge Raymond Myles was shot multiple times about 5 a.m. and pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
Police have not released the name of the woman. Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples described her as a close associate of Myles. Staples said at a news briefing that the woman was shot once and is expected to survive.
An investigator opens the door of a vehicle outside a home on the South Side of Chicago, Monday morning, April 10, 2017, after Cook County Circuit Court Raymond Myles was shot to death outside his home. Myles was an associate judge in the court's criminal division. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune via AP)
Myles heard the commotion and gunshot and was shot after also exchanging words with the attacker, Staples said.
Police don't believe anything was stolen from the victims or the house. No arrests were made and investigators were trying Monday to determine a motive in the shootings.
"Every day civil servants like Judge Myles and those of us in law enforcement work tirelessly to hold criminals accountable and make our streets safer," said Kevin Navarro, Chicago police deputy superintendent. "That's why, when incidents like this occur, it's not only a reminder of the ever-present challenge we have with illegal guns and the offenders willing to use them, but it's also a direct attack on the criminal justice system that keeps our society safe."
Myles received his law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. He was appointed to the court in 1999. Circuit court judges appointed him an associate judge in 2001 and Myles had served in the criminal division since 2009, Chief Judge Timothy Evans said in a statement.
"I join all of the judges today in the Circuit Court of Cook County in expressing our sadness regarding the tragic passing of our colleague and friend," Evans said.
"I have always known Judge Myles to be focused and determined in the pursuit of justice, and his conduct earned him the confidence and respect of the people who appeared before him," Evans said. "All of our colleagues at the Leighton Criminal Court Building will miss Judge Myles, who they came to know for his kindness and his impartial administration of justice."
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - A man walked into his estranged wife's elementary school classroom in San Bernardino and opened fire without saying a word, killing her and an 8-year-old student before shooting himself in a murder-suicide that spread panic across a city still recovering emotionally from a terror attack just 15 months ago.
A 9-year-old student also was critically wounded. He and the boy who died were behind their special-education teacher, Karen Elaine Smith, 53, the target of the man she had married months earlier, police said.
The shooting left hundreds of distraught parents waiting for hours to reunite with their children.
Camilo Rocha, left, comforts his daughter, Serina, a 11-year-old student at North Park Elementary School, after they were reunited at Cajon High School, Monday, April 10, 2017, in San Bernardino, Calif., after a deadly shooting occurred at the elementary school. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Staffers knew Cedric Anderson, who had been estranged from his wife for about a month, and he got into the school by saying he had to drop something off for Smith, officials said.
"No one has come forward to say they saw this coming," police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters.
Anderson had a history of weapons, domestic violence and possible drug charges that predated the short marriage, authorities said.
He frequently wrote social media posts about his wife over the past month. On what appeared to be his Facebook page, Anderson said he "loved being married to Karen Smith-Anderson!" and posted a photo of the two of them on March 4 in what he described as a date night. He posted several photos of his wedding to Smith early this year and their honeymoon in Sedona, Arizona.
Smith's mother, Irma Sykes, said her daughter had been friends with Anderson for about four years before they got married.
"She thought she had a wonderful husband, but she found out he was not wonderful at all," Sykes told the Los Angeles Times. "He had other motives," Sykes said. "She left him and that's where the trouble began. She broke up with him and he came out with a different personality. She decided she needed to leave him." She did not elaborate further.
Sykes said her daughter was a dedicated teacher who took up the profession about 10 years ago after her four children grew up.
Fifteen students ranging from first to fourth grade were in the special-education classroom at North Park Elementary School, along with two adult aides and Smith, when Anderson emptied a large-caliber revolver and reloaded. Then, he turned the gun on himself.
Marissa Perez, age 9, was in the classroom hiding under a table.
"A boy just walked in with a gun," she said shortly after she and her mother, Elizabeth Barajas, were reunited. The two cried, hugged and trembled. Barajas held the sweater her daughter had been wearing. It was speckled with blood.
"He just shot everywhere," Marissa said. "My friend and my teacher. They got shot."
Jonathan Martinez, the 8-year-old, was airlifted to a hospital and died soon after arriving, Burguan said. The 9-year-old boy, whose name was not released, has been stabilized at a hospital.
The 600 other students at the school were bused to safety at California State University's San Bernardino campus, several miles away, after many walked off campus hand-in-hand, escorted by police.
Panicked parents had to wait hours before being reunited with them at a nearby high school.
Holly Penalber, whose 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter attend the school, called it "every parent's worst nightmare." She said the long wait was "frustrating but also understandable."
When the buses first pulled away from the elementary school, some parents ran alongside, waving and trying to recognize their children inside. Many said their children were too young to have cellphones. Others said the phones rang unanswered.
When students got to the high school, many carrying glow sticks they had been given to pass the time, they got hugs from emotional parents, many in tears. Police officers applauded and high-fived them.
Alberta Terrell said she cried with relief when she was told that a family friend saw her 9-year-old granddaughter getting safely onto a bus.
"I was really elated. But I won't be truly happy until I see her and can give her a big hug," Terrell said as she sat in the bleachers near Cajon High School's baseball diamond, waiting for her granddaughter to arrive.
San Bernardino, a city of 216,000 people about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, was the site of a December 2015 terror attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a meeting of San Bernardino County employees. Husband-and-wife shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were later killed in a gunbattle with authorities.
"Tragedy has again befallen our city," Police Lt. Mike Madden said Monday of a community that has struggled in recent years.
Once a major rail hub and citrus producer, San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after struggling to pay its employees despite steep cuts to the budget. It was hit hard by the great recession, seeing rises in unemployment and violent crime.
An overflow crowd gathered at sunset at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in San Bernardino to mourn and pray for the victims and survivors of Monday's shooting.
"Sometimes all we can do is cry. And today is the day for that," Bishop Gerald R. Barnes told the gathering. "We'll get up again. We'll move on. We'll become stronger. But today is the day to cry."
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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Brian Melley, John Rogers, John Antczak, Amanda Lee Myers and Andrew Dalton contributed to this story.
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Follow Christopher Weber on Twitter at @webercm.
This undated photo released by the San Bernardino Police Department shows Karen Elaine Smith, 53. Smith has been identified by authorities as one of the people shot by Cedric Anderson, identified as her estranged husband, as she taught a special education class at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, Calif., Monday, April 10, 2017. (San Bernardino Police Department via AP)
This undated photo released by the San Bernardino Police Department shows Cedric Anderson, 53. Anderson has been identified by authorities as the person who shot to death Karen Elaine Smith, 53, identified as his wife, as she taught a special education class at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, Calif., Monday, April 10, 2017. (San Bernardino Police Department via AP)
School staff greet students at North Park Elementary School, in relief at Cajon High School, Monday, April 10, 2017, in San Bernardino, Calif., after a deadly shooting occurred at the elementary school. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Police officers stand outside North Park School after a deadly shooting Monday, April 10, 2017, in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Elizabeth Barajas hugs her daughter, Marissa Perez, 9, following their reunion as Marissa recounted her experiences being in the classroom in which her teacher was shot to death at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, Calif., Monday, April 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)
Police officers investigate outside North Park School after a fatal shooting at the elementary school, Monday, April 10, 2017, in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
San Bernardino Police Department Chief Jarrod Burguan, right, speaks during a news conference at Cajon High School, Monday, April 10, 2017, in San Bernardino, Calif., after a deadly shooting occurred at North Park Elementary School. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Nicholas Martinez carries his daughter, Monique, a kindergarten student at North Park Elementary School, on his shoulders after they were reunited at Cajon High School, Monday, April 10, 2017, in San Bernardino, Calif., after a deadly shooting occurred at the elementary school. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Boss sued: Jose Rivas, a former supervisor at a Hilton hotel in North Carolina, was named a defendant in a lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting six undocumented housekeepers over the course of 10 years
Six undocumented housekeepers are suing a Hilton hotel in North Carolina, claiming their boss put them through a decade of sexual assaults and threatened to have them deported if they complained.
Documents filed in Mecklenburg County Superior Court in Charlotte state that the female employees are suing the Hilton Charlotte University Place, the corporate owners and Jose Rivas, the former supervisor for the six women.
The alleged incidents took place between 2004 through October 2014, the latest occurring when one of the women claimed she was attacked by Rivas and fled to the hotel lobby and told a police officer.
Rivas pleaded guilty to assault on a female the following April and was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
Speaking to Charlotte Observer, the plaintiff's attorney, Corey Rosensteel, called his clients 'very brave.
'Certainly you could argue theyre even braver given whats going on in the world right now,' he added.
The complaint alleges that Rivas would accost the victims inside hotel bedrooms and bathrooms during work hours, coming up from behind them to grope and fondle the women both over and beneath their clothes as they cleaned.
When the half-dozen staffers asked Rivas to stop touching them, the man allegedly threatened to oust them or contact immigration authorities to have them deported.
The alleged incidents took place between 2004 through October 2014 at the Hilton Charlotte University Place (pictured)
The women's complaints about Rivas conduct allegedly fell on deaf ears when they went to his superiors within the company, court documents allege.
A decade of sometime daily sexual assault, according to the complaint, finally came to an end when Jose Rivas was arrested in April 2014. Five days later, University Hilton fired the disgraced supervisor.
Rivas' attorney, Jorge Gonzalez, previously said the allegations against his client are false.
The half-dozen housekeepers are now suing for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional stress, assault and battery, false imprisonment, and negligent hiring, supervision and retention by the hotel owners.
Attorney Kenneth Carlson, who represents the corporate owners and operators of the Hilton hotel, has filed a motion asking to dismiss the lawsuit, in which he argued, in part, that the housekeepers were negligent in that they had failed to report Rivas' conduct in a timely fashion.
The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in late July.
HELSINKI (AP) - A Norwegian court has extended by two weeks the detention of a 17-year-old asylum-seeker in the investigation of a homemade explosive device that was left by a subway station in Oslo.
The Oslo District Court's decision came after police prosecutors alleged that the teenager is being charged with attempting to detonate the device crafted from a lighter fluid container and nails.
The device was found Saturday near a busy Oslo subway station, where police defused it before it went off.
An officer works the scene as police cordon off a large area around a subway station on a busy commercial street Saturday night, April 8, 2017, after finding what they described as a "bomb-like" device, in Oslo, Norway. The official police Twitter account said one man has been arrested and Police Chief Vidar Pedersen said police were working to disarm it. (Fredrik Varfjell /NTB scanpix via AP)
Russian daily Novaya Gazeta reported that the suspect is originally from Russia's North Caucasus and went to Norway with his family in 2010.
Defense lawyer Aase Karine Sigmond told Norwegian media that the incident was a "boyish prank" with no malicious intent.
Sigmond says her client has no extremist connections.
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for uncovering how police abused eviction rules to oust hundreds of people, mostly poor minorities, from their homes.
In a year when the tumultuous presidential campaign dominated U.S. news, David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post was honored with the Pulitzer for national reporting for exposing questionable practices at Donald Trump's charitable foundation. The New York Times' staff received the international reporting award for its work on Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to project Moscow's power abroad.
Eric Eyre of The Charleston Gazette-Mail won the investigative reporting prize for writing about the scourge of opiate painkillers in poor parts of West Virginia.
The staff of the East Bay Times in Oakland, California, received the breaking news reporting award for its coverage of a fire that killed 36 people at a warehouse party and its follow-up reporting on how local officials hadn't taken action that might have prevented it.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald - which amassed a group of over 400 journalists to examine of the leaked "Panama Papers" and expose the way that politicians, criminals and rich people stashed case in offshore accounts - won the Pulitzer for explanatory reporting.
The staff of The Salt Lake Tribune received the local reporting award for its work on how sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University are treated.
Considered the most distinguished awards in American journalism, the Pulitzers are handed out in 14 categories of reporting, photography, criticism and commentary by newspapers, magazines and websites.
Arts prizes are awarded in seven categories, including fiction, drama and music.
This is the 101st year of the contest, established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Public service award winners receive a gold medal; the other awards carry a prize of $10,000 each.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Six housekeepers have filed suit against a North Carolina hotel, saying their supervisor put them through a decade of sexual assaults and threatened to have them deported if they complained.
Documents entered in Mecklenburg County Superior Court in Charlotte said the six workers are suing the Hilton Charlotte University Place, its corporate owners and Jose Rivas, the supervisor for the six women. The lawsuit alleged the assaults occurred between 2004 and October 2014.
The lawsuit alleges that Rivas frequently assaulted the women, sneaking into rooms they were cleaning and attacking them from behind. It also said Rivas would hold the women in a hotel room or a bathroom without their consent and despite their protests.
The woman said in the complaint that Rivas put his hands into their clothing and fondled them. They said he would sometimes kiss the woman against their will and rub his body against theirs. According to the lawsuit, the assaults sometimes occurred daily.
In one instance, according to the court documents, he reduced the work hours of workers who refused his sexual advances.
The women repeatedly demanded that Rivas end the attacks, but he refused to stop, according to the suit. Instead, he threatened the women with deportation, firings, reduced work hours and humiliation, according to the documents. The lawsuit listed each woman as a resident of Mecklenburg County, but their attorney, Corey Rosensteel, declined to provide additional details on his clients.
One of the women requested a meeting with Rivas' supervisor and another hotel manager in December 2013, but when she attempted to speak through an interpreter, the supervisors refused to listen to her complaints, the lawsuit said.
On Oct. 4, 2014, according to the documents, one of the women said she was attacked by Rivas before she fled for the hotel lobby and contacted a police officer there at the time. The following April, Rivas agreed to an Alford plea on a charge of assault on a female and was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
Under an Alford plea, a defendant is allowed to maintain his innocence even though he acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.
Rivas' attorney, Jorge Gonzalez, has said the allegations are false, but he didn't respond to a request for additional comment Monday.
Ken Carlson Jr., the attorney representing the hotel management didn't return a telephone call seeking comment on Monday.
The lawsuit cites, among other claims, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress. The women are seeking damages in excess of $25,000. A trial is scheduled for late July.
Rosensteel called his clients "very brave."
"Certainly you could argue they're even braver given what's going on in the world right now," Rosensteel told The Charlotte Observer.
Asked why so much time elapsed between the assault that led to Rivas' arrest and the lawsuit, Rosensteel said his clients weren't aware they had a voice.
"When you're talking about taking on a large corporation like this one, it's a big step," he said.
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This story has been corrected to show that Rivas agreed to an Alford plea in the assault case.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A man found guilty of killing the mother of a former Puerto Rico beauty queen has been sentenced to 217 years in prison.
Yadiel Rivera Ramos had been charged with fatally shooting Elena Santos Agosto in June 2016. The 59-year-old nurse died in her living room after being hit by bullets in the head and chest that were fired into her home from a passing vehicle.
The ex-Miss Puerto Rico Alba Reyes who represented Puerto Rico in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant was at home with her mother during the shooting. She said at the time that her family was not involved in "anything negative."
The shooting occurred five months after police said Rivera killed a chemist who worked at a pharmaceutical company during an argument.
He was sentenced Monday.
CHICAGO (AP) - A widely shared story that U.S. health officials are recommending a delay in breast-feeding to improve vaccine effectiveness is false.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency named in the false reports, encourages breast-feeding . The CDC says breast milk is best for all infants except in rare cases such as when a mother has active, untreated tuberculosis.
"There is no recommendation from the CDC or the (American Academy of Pediatrics) that mothers delay breast-feeding to enhance vaccine efficacy," said Dr. Joan Younger Meek, a Tallahassee, Florida, physician who chairs a breast-feeding panel for the pediatricians group.
"Breast milk contains multiple immune protective factors, including whole cells which fight infection," Meek said.
All breast-fed infants should receive vaccines according to the regular schedule, and there is no need to interrupt or delay breastfeeding, Meek said. Breast-fed babies sometimes respond better to immunizations than do infants on formula, she said.
Versions of the false story posted by healthywildandfree.com and foodrenegade.com link to a 2010 study published in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. Researchers were looking into why a vaccine against rotavirus wasn't working as well in developing countries as in industrialized countries. Rotaviruses cause half a million deaths each year in children worldwide, so improving a vaccine's effectiveness would save lives.
The small study, published in 2010, looked at how the vaccine interacted with breast milk samples in a test tube or culture dish. Based on results on tests of breast milk from women in India and other countries, researchers suggested it was possible that the milk could make the vaccine less effective.
But the study wasn't the final word. Later studies showed no reason to restrict breast-feeding in the hours before and after rotavirus vaccination.
The World Health Organization has said that breastfeeding doesn't significantly impair the response to the rotavirus vaccines.
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This story is part of an ongoing Associated Press effort to fact-check claims in suspected false news stories.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - The Latest on Kansas' special congressional election (all times local):
5:30 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz says the Democratic left has a small impassioned group of activists who are out of their minds.
The Texas Republican told about 200 supporters of Republican Ron Estes at a rally Monday that the hard-core base is going to show up at the nation's first congressional election on Tuesday in Kansas.
He says the enemy right now is complacency.
Estes is in a tougher-than-expected race in the 4th Congressional District of southern Kansas against Democrat James Thompson. They're seeking to replace Mike Pompeo after Trump named Pompeo CIA director.
Cruz says his coming to Kansas on the eve of the election is indicative that this race matters nationally. He says the eyes of the nation are on Kansas.
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4:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump has stepped into a special congressional race in Kansas by recording a call urging prospective voters to cast their ballots for Republican candidate Ron Estes.
The Associated Press obtained a recording of the call Monday as the Estes campaign started using it ahead of Tuesday's election.
The recording was provided by a person close to the campaign who didn't want to be identified because the recording was released ahead of an official announcement. The person said it was recorded over the weekend.
Trump said in the call: "Republican Ron Estes needs your vote and needs it badly."
Estes is in a tougher-than-expected race in the 4th Congressional District of southern Kansas against Democrat James Thompson. They're seeking to replace Mike Pompeo after Trump named Pompeo CIA director.
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11:15 a.m.
Kansas' unexpectedly competitive special congressional election has pulled Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to Wichita to campaign for Republican candidate Ron Estes amid a flood of out-of-state GOP money in a late-hour scramble for votes.
His Democratic rival, James Thompson, is spending the final day of campaigning before Tuesday's election talking directly to voters. Thompson's campaign says he's countering the visit by Cruz - who vied with Donald Trump for the Republican presidential candidacy - by knocking on doors, going to diners and doing interviews.
At stake is a House seat Republicans have held for more than two decades. Trump easily won with 60 percent of the votes cast in the 17-county congressional district of south-central Kansas.
The vacancy was created when Trump chose former U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo as his CIA director.
GRANDE-SYNTHE, France (AP) - A huge blaze ravaged a migrant camp in northern France on Monday, destroying wooden shelters and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of migrants, hours after a clash involving up to 150 migrants, the prefecture of the region said.
Riot police moved into the camp outside the port city of Dunkirk to break up a clash that one migrant said pitted Afghans against Kurds. Five people were injured in the fight among 100 to 150 migrants, three of them hospitalized with knife wounds, the prefecture said.
Officials linked the fight with the fire that broke out hours later but stressed that an investigation is needed to determine the fire's cause. Police refused all comment on the clash and the fire.
No injuries were immediately reported because of the blaze.
Firefighters worked to contain the flames lapping the night sky and devouring the fragile shelters of migrants who were evacuated bit by bit to local gymnasiums. The prefect, or highest state official in the region, rushed to the scene.
"I lost all my documents," said an Iraqi migrant who identified himself only as Albidani, standing outside the camp. "I just have only this paper that says I'm a refugee in France."
He said Kurds and Afghans had clashed before the fire erupted. "We don't know exactly for what they fight" but just look at what happened today, he said, speaking English.
"We are refugees here in France. We don't have any place... We don't know what to do. We lost everything," Albidani said.
Up to 1,500 migrants were living in the over-populated camp, the prefecture estimated,
The camp in the Dunkirk suburb of Grande-Synthe was set up a year ago by Doctors Without Borders. The neat rows of wooden shelters replaced a squalid makeshift tent camp nearby rife with traffickers preying on migrants. Humanitarian groups said the original camp was filthier and more dangerous than a huge makeshift camp in Calais, about 30 kilometers to the west, that was dismantled by the state in October.
The population of the new Dunkirk camp swelled after the camp in Calais was torn down.
Clashes, as well as small fires, have occurred in the past in the La Liniere camp. French officials decided last month that the camp population must be reduced to 700 and security increased to keep out traffickers.
Authorities said the camp must be dismantled bit by bit with migrants housed in special centers, like the thousands of migrants evacuated from the Calais camp.
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Ganley reported from Paris.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The mother of an inmate strangled in a South Carolina prison questions how two convicts serving life sentences could kill four people without attracting guards' attention.
"The prison guards should've been watching. This should've never happened," Becky Kelley of Saint Albans, West Virginia, told The Associated Press on Monday.
According to arrest warrants, Denver Simmons, 35, and Jacob Philip, 26, lured each of the four inmates into a cell at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia on Friday morning and worked together to attack and strangle them. Two of the inmates were also beaten or stabbed with a broken broomstick. Simmons and Philip confessed after the bodies were found.
All four were killed within 30 minutes, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said.
Kelley also questions why the convicted murderers, who have no possibility of parole, were housed in the same dorm as her son. The prison's chaplain told her the two claimed they killed inmates they considered weak, but she said her son wasn't weak.
"You know it took two guys to do one guy at a time," she said.
She said she's gotten no other answers.
Kelley's son, 35-year-old Jason Kelley, was expected to be released in 2020. He was imprisoned in 2013 for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Another strangled inmate was also slated for release in 2020, while another was expected to be released later this year. One was serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to murder but insane.
Becky Kelley said she hasn't seen her son in two years, but they wrote each other weekly, and "he was reading the Bible and going to church. He was really changing."
According to the arrest warrants, cameras "partially captured" the crimes. State law enforcement officials declined to answer questions about the ongoing investigation or release video.
Simmons and Philip, both charged with murder in the inmate killings, were transferred Friday to a maximum security unit in the prison. Privacy laws prevent comment on the type of dorm all six previously shared, Corrections spokeswoman Sommer Sharpe said.
The Kirkland prison serves several roles in South Carolina's system.
Simmons, 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, has been jailed since his 2007 arrest on charges he killed a woman he knew in Colleton County, took her debit card and ate pizza for lunch, then got her 13-year-old son from school and fatally shot him, too. He was sentenced in 2010 to two consecutive life terms.
Philip, 6-foot-1 and 255 pounds, confessed in 2013 to strangling his girlfriend and her 8-year-old daughter in their Berkeley County home. At the time, the sailor was a student at the Nuclear Power Training School near Charleston.
Sen. Karl Allen, a member of the Senate Corrections committee, questions whether the inmates were properly classified and supervised. The Greenville Democrat plans to visit the prison soon.
Rep. Mike Pitts, a retired police officer, said he doesn't yet know what happened in this case but, in general, prison guards are vastly outnumbered.
"I don't fault the guards," said Pitts, R-Laurens. "It's hard to keep an eye on everybody, and it's very easy for one or two inmates to create a distraction."
Pitts, chairman of the House budget-writing panel for law enforcement agencies, said he's repeatedly warned his colleagues that a lack of funding is creating a dangerous situation for inmates and officers.
"When something happens, you've got to have bodies to react, and we don't have that," Pitts said.
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Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.
Boris Johnson should not be Foreign Secretary if he cannot be trusted to go to Moscow for talks over Syria, critics claimed after he pulled out of a meeting with his Russian counterpart.
Mr Johnson cancelled the trip following discussions with the United States but the move looks daft and has landed him in deep political trouble, it has been claimed.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson will go ahead with a planned trip to Moscow to deliver a clear and co-ordinated message to the Kremlin over its support for Bashar Assads Syrian regime.
Boris Johnson
But the move makes the Foreign Secretary look like some sort of mini-me who cannot be trusted to hold his own talks with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, Alex Salmond said.
The SNPs foreign affairs spokesman told BBC1s Andrew Marr Show: Boris Johnson just looks daft.
What is the argument for not going ahead with a visit? Rex Tillerson is going on Wednesday so it cant be that we have moved to a Cold War position of no talking whatsoever.
The idea the Foreign Secretary cant be trusted because he might pursue his own line or have an independent thought or crossover what the Americans are going to say just makes him look like some sort of mini-me to the United States of America.
I will now not travel to Moscow on Monday 10 April. My priority is talks w/ my #G7 counterparts about Syria and Russia's support for #Assad Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 8, 2017
It is deplorable that @BorisJohnson found himself unfit to stand Western ground on Syria in bilateral talks with Sergey Lavrov pic.twitter.com/5HZBSg76C1 Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 9, 2017
Thats not a position any Foreign Secretary would want to be in.Boris Johnson looks in deep political trouble this morning.
Liberal Democrat former leader Lord Campbell of Pittenweem said pulling out of the talks had been a gross miscalculation and was frankly inexplicable.
He told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour: I doubt very much Mr Johnson had the authority to make that decision himself.
Were we told by the US not to send Boris Johnson to Moscow? Andrew asks @patel4witham #marr pic.twitter.com/0JeTnc9Rjz The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) April 9, 2017
It must have been a decision made at the highest level in government, doubtless with the Prime Minister and frankly I find it inexplicable.
If your argument is that the solution to the issues in Syria is to be a political settlement then why avoid going to talk to one of the parties which will be an essential feature in any political settlement, namely Russia because of its close relationship with President Assad.
I simply cannot understand why the Government took this position and in my view, candidly, I regard it as a gross miscalculation. The fact of the matter is if Mr Johnson couldnt be trusted to go to Moscow, then he should not be the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom.
Foreign Secretary statement on Moscow visit: https://t.co/lJTAbinK8X Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) April 8, 2017
Russia has consistently denied that Syrian forces used chemical weapons, insisting the incident at Khan Sheikhoun was caused by a hit on a rebel chemical weapons plant, a claim dismissed by the West.
A Government source accused Mr Johnsons critics, including Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, of playing politics.
Its a shame that some like Farron, Salmond and McDonnell put polls and politics above sorting out a civil war, its very sad and shows how desperate they are, they said.
Rory McIlroy admitted he had simply not played well enough after his third attempt to complete the career grand slam failed to spark into life at Augusta National.
McIlroy needs victory in the Masters to become only the sixth player to have won all four major titles, but never fully recovered from a slow start in the opening round.
The 27-year-old battled back from being three over par after eight holes to card an opening 72, but subsequent scores of 73 and 71 meant a closing 69 left the four-time major winner well off the pace on three under par.
Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, reacts to a shot on the 10th hole during the final round of the Masters (David J. Phillip/AP)
It wasnt quite as adventurous as previous Masters have been for me, McIlroy said. I didnt get too high with some really low nine-hole scores, but I didnt shoot any nine-hole scores that were in the 40s. It was quite a consistent, steady Masters for me.
It wasnt quite good enough. I felt like I had an opportunity yesterday to shoot something in the mid to high 60s which would have got me closer to the lead today and I didnt quite do that.
I gave a decent account for myself and will come back next year and try again.
McIlroy felt he still had a chance of claiming a first green jacket if he could match, or better, his lowest score in the Masters, a 65 in the first round having seemingly set him on course for victory in 2011.
Rory McIlroy looks at his putt on the ninth hole during the final round of the Masters (Matt Slocum/AP)
However, after making a birdie on the par-five second, the Northern Irishman three-putted the fourth from 95 feet and had to scramble to save par on the next two holes.
Birdies on the eighth, 13th and 16th ensured McIlroy broke 70 for the first time this week and he refused to blame a limited schedule this year caused by a rib injury for his performance.
I feel the time off was more of a blessing, he added. I got to work on some stuff in my short game. I felt as comfortable on the greens here as I ever had, even though I had a couple of three-putts.
But I holed some good ones. I had a couple of pars when I needed to. I didnt convert the chances I should have yesterday but every time I come back here Im more and more comfortable.
The vast majority of BBC weather presenters will remain on screen despite the broadcaster replacing the Met Office forecasting services with a new provider, MeteoGroup.
BBC employees include presenter Carol Kirkwood while Met Office employees include names such as John Hammond, Helen Willetts, Louise Lear and Alex Deakin.
Nigel Charters, from BBC Weather, has reassured viewers about their favourite presenters, saying: Some things wont change.
Carol Kirkwood
Mr Charters, the project director for BBC Weather procurement, wrote in a blog following the announcement: We know how fond people are of our weather presenters.
We have taken steps so the vast majority of our well-known and much-loved presenters will continue to front BBC Weather.
The Met Office has traditionally provided the corporation with presenters, as well as data, across the BBC network of services.
Mainly fine weather for the next 36 hours or so before a deep area of low pressure brings wet & windy conditionshttps://t.co/jC7fY1klcA Met Office (@metoffice) August 17, 2016
MeteoGroup will take over in the spring of 2017 and will provide forecasting and graphics for weather services across BBC platforms worldwide, including TV, radio, web and mobile.
The corporations new provider is the UKs largest private-sector weather business, with offices in more than 15 countries around the world.
The groups chairman, Richard Sadler, said: MeteoGroup is honoured to have been chosen to partner with the worlds leading broadcaster.
The BBC is dedicated to offering the best possible weather service to its audience and it has been a demanding selection process.
The Met Office confirmed in August 2015 that it had lost the contract, marking the end of a more than 90-year partnership between the state-owned forecaster and the broadcaster.
Their data has been used by the BBC for forecasts since the first radio weather bulletin was broadcast on November 14 1922.
The BBC Weatherman, Bert Foord
A few months later, in March 1923, daily radio forecasts became a fixture before the worlds first television weather chart was broadcast in November 1936.
When news about the contract emerged last year, the BBC said it was legally required to open up the bidding and secure the best value for money for licence fee payers.
The corporation will still work with the Met Office when it comes to severe weather warnings while national agencies will assist with flood warnings, and they will work with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency for coastal and shipping forecast information.
Ian McCaskill (left) and Michael Fish
MeteoGroup started out as MeteoConsult in the Netherlands in 1986 and was the first major European weather business in the private sector.
Its London headquarters was established in 2005 when PA Group, the parent company of the Press Association news agency, acquired a majority share in the business.
It was sold to global growth equity firm General Atlantic in 2014.
Murdered Pc Keith Palmer has been hailed at his funeral as a hero whose blue lamp will shine bright forever.
The 48-year-old father and husband was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood as he carried out his duties on the cobbled forecourt of the Palace of Westminster.
Around 50 members of Pc Palmers family, including his wife, child, mother and father, brother and sisters, attended his funeral service at Southwark Cathedral, central London, along with Home Secretary Amber Rudd, mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the manager and captain of his beloved Charlton Athletic FC, Karl Robinson and Johnnie Jackson.
An emotional police officer after Keith Palmer's funeral service
As many as 5,000 officers from the Metropolitan Police and other forces, including a delegation from the New York Police Department, joined the service or lined the cortege route as members of the public looked on.
Thousands more officers and staff at police stations across the country marked two minutes silence at 2pm.
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is loaded into the hearse
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer leaves the Palace of Westminster
In a eulogy reaching nearly 1,500 words, his friend and colleague Chief Inspector Neil Sawyer told the cathedrals congregation: During Keiths policing service he met and worked alongside many officers and left a positive impression on all. And we will all miss him greatly.
I know this because over the last couple of weeks so many of these colleagues and friends have told me as much.
I will close with these thoughts from myself, Keiths colleagues and friends his spirit will never leave us and he will remain an inspiration to us all. Keiths blue lamp will shine bright forever. And on behalf of us all we say thank you - Keith made a difference and we will not forget.
Cressida Dick after #keithpalmer's funeral in Southwark Cathedral - her first day as @metpoliceuk comissioner pic.twitter.com/NWGzzl1qXi Peter Cary (@PeterCary1) April 10, 2017
Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, the first female head of Scotland Yard in its 188-year history, attended the full force funeral in her first public engagement in her new role.
She read the WH Auden poem Funeral Blues, which begins Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, and asks for the traffic police men to wear black cotton gloves in mourning of a loved one.
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer makes its way along York Road to Southwark Cathedral
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft
Police officers bow their heads (Frank Augstein/PA)
She praised the turnout from police and members of the public, who lined the barriers along the route hours before the funeral began.
I think the events at Westminster have appalled the whole nation, thats quite clear, Ms Dick said.
Since then I know, Met colleagues and colleagues from all around the country have been literally overwhelmed by the strength of feeling from members of the public.
#keithpalmer's funeral procession expected to pass Borough High St in the next few minutes. Officers stand to attention to mark his course pic.twitter.com/29FuiIfupK Peter Cary (@PeterCary1) April 10, 2017
Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of Pc Keith Palmer's funeral
The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer crosses Lambeth Bridge (Rick Findler/PA)
Before the service, the Queen gave permission for Pc Palmers body to rest in Westminsters Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, an honour normally reserved for senior figures.
Pc Palmers funeral cortege, including his hearse topped with a floral tribute reading No 1 Daddy, left the palace through the Carriage Gates he died defending.
His coffin travelled slowly amid silence along 2.6 miles of the capitals usually bustling streets, avoiding the scene of the March 22 atrocity on Westminster Bridge on its journey to the cathedral.
Police officers make their way to Southwark Cathedral
John Loughrey holds a sign outside Southwark Cathedral
Some members of the public and police shed tears as the procession went past, while members of Pc Palmers family and friends followed the hearse in black cars at the rear.
The procession was led by the Metropolitan Police Colour Party and a Black Escort of mounted officers before the coffin was carried into the cathedral by colleagues and friends of Pc Palmer.
Two National Police Air Service helicopters performed a flypast and aerial salute.
Flowers are laid in remembrance
Part of the funeral cortege arrives at the Houses of Parliament
Screens and PA systems were erected for members of the public outside to watch and listen to the service and officers bowed their heads as the Last Post sounded from the cathedral shortly after a recital of the Lords Prayer.
A few moments silence then followed a rendition of God Save The Queen, as on-duty officers, medical staff and members of the public stood still in respect for Pc Palmer.
At the end of the service, his coffin was again placed inside the hearse, which also had floral tributes reading husband, uncle, Keith and son, and driven away to a private cremation for family and friends.
Officers stand by flowers left outside the Houses of Parliament
A ceremony by the Police Roll of Honour Trust sees fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning - who died in April, more than three years after being seriously injured when he was hit at high speed by a stolen car while on duty - have their names added to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance
Test results confirm sarin gas was used in an attack on a northern Syrian town earlier this month, Turkeys health minister has said.
The results were announced as the Russian military said the Syrian government is willing to let international experts examine its military base for signs of chemical weapons.
Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, of the Russian General Staff, said Russia will provide security for international inspectors seeking to examine Syrian bases, and that Damascus has agreed to allow the inspections.
Vladimir Putin
His comments came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will appeal to the United Nations to investigate the attack on Khan Sheikhoun.
The April 4 chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town in Idlib province left nearly 90 people dead.
The United States blamed President Bashar Assads government and launched nearly 60 cruise missiles on Friday at the Shayrat air base in the central province of Homs, where it claims the attack originated.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea
Moscow, which is a strong backer of the Syrian government, has dismissed suggestions that Damascus could be behind the attack. The Syrian government also denied the allegation, saying its air force bombed a rebel arsenal that had chemical weapons stored inside.
Mr Putin told reporters on Tuesday that Russia would appeal to a UN agency in the Hague, urging it to launch an official probe.
The Russian president also said Moscow has received intelligence about planned provocations using chemical weapons that would be used to pin the blame on the Syrian government.
Vladimir Putin
The Russian statements came as US secretary of state Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow where he will meet Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
In Turkey, a main backer of the Syrian opposition, health minister Recep Akdag said test results conducted on victims of the Khan Sheikhoun attack confirm that sarin gas was used.
Mr Akdag said that blood and urine samples taken from the victims confirmed that they were subjected to the nerve agent.
Turkey last week conducted post-mortems on three victims of the gas attack who were brought from Syria.
Officials from the World Health Organisation and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons participated in the post-mortems.
In Damascus, a Syrian official said foreign minister Walid al-Moallem will visit Russia on Thursday where he will meet officials in Moscow.
The official said that there might be a three-way meeting later this week in Moscow between officials from Russia, Syria and Iran.
A young woman pictured smiling during scuffles at an English Defence League rally has said she stepped in to help a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf.
The image of Saffiyah Khan remaining calm as she came face to face with EDL leader Ian Crossland went viral on social media and has attracted messages of support from around the world.
Police made three arrests during the rally in Birminghams Centenary Square on Saturday after being forced to form cordons to keep EDL supporters and counter-protesters apart.
The image of Ms Khan, taken by Press Association photographer Joe Giddens, won praise from Labour MP Jess Phillips, while Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan described it as photo of the week.
The image of Saffiyah Khan went viral
Ms Khan, who is from Birmingham and has family links to both Bosnia and Pakistan, said: I kept myself out of the way but sadly it did kick off between the EDL and a lady in a headscarf.
She was quite a small woman. When I realised that nothing was being done and she was being surrounded 360 thats when I came in as well.
Adding that she had no idea at the time that the man who confronted her near the Library of Birmingham was the leader of the EDL, Ms Khan told the Press Association: All I saw was an angry man having a bit of a rant.
This young woman faced down the hate-filled fascists of the EDL with courage and class. This is what heroism looks like. pic.twitter.com/EFwMK8Vyub George Galloway (@georgegalloway) April 9, 2017
Asked if the presence of police at the protest had made a difference to her decision to go to the aid of the woman, Ms Khan replied: Not in the slightest. I would have done the same regardless.
In a post on her Twitter feed, Birmingham Yardley MP Ms Phillips said of the photograph: Who looks like they have power here, the real Brummy on the left or the EDL who migrated for the day to our city and failed to assimilate.
**PHOTO OF THE WEEK**
Enraged EDL racist stared down by amused, contemptuous Asian woman. #Birmingham
(via @AlexisTrust) pic.twitter.com/5kBdrrgvGf Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 8, 2017
EDL activists said on Twitter that the scuffles broke out after counter-protesters shouting Nazi scum disrupted a silence being held at the rally for victims of terrorism.
In a Twitter message, Mr Crossland claimed counter-protesters had been disrespectful by interrupting the silence for victims of the Westminster terror attack.
West Midlands Police said an 18-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man detained during the protest were later de-arrested by officers.
Officers also took a 26-year-old man into custody to prevent a breach of the peace. He was later released without charge.
The first rail freight service from the UK to China set off from Essex on Monday.
A train pulling 30 containers filled with British-produced goods began the 7,500-mile journey from the DP World London Gateway rail terminal in Stanford-le-Hope.
Whisky, soft drinks, vitamins, pharmaceuticals and baby products are among the items being exported.
And it's off! A 7,500 mile trip across Europe & Asia begins; UK exports bound for China. pic.twitter.com/rx6cDG0JTj DP World - UK (@DPWorldUK) April 10, 2017
The DB Cargo locomotive will pass through the Channel Tunnel to France and on to Belgium before calling at Duisburg, Germany.
InterRail will then pull the cargo through Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazahkstan before arriving at Yiwu, eastern China on April 27.
The train departed almost three months after the first freight service from China to the UK arrived in east London.
The journey is cheaper than air freight and faster than sending goods by ship.
TIt is part of Chinas One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West, initially created more than 2,000 years ago.
Xubin Feng, chairman of Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment Co, which is organising the service, said: We are proud to be able to offer the first ever UK to China export train.
Rupert Soames OBE, Business Ambassador to @Number10gov, is now speaking on this "historic day" in front of the soon-to-depart train. pic.twitter.com/N2gFT9AkmA DP World - UK (@DPWorldUK) April 10, 2017
Restoring the ancient Silk Road as a means by which China, north Europe and now the UK can exchange goods is an important and exciting initiative.
This is the first export train and just the start of a regular direct service between the UK and China. We have great faith in the UK as an export nation and rail provides an excellent alternative for moving large volumes of goods over long distances faster.
The view from inside our cab as we got ready to haul the first UK to China rail service passed the crowds @LondonGatewayUK pic.twitter.com/ScNAKl2LG7 DB Cargo UK (@DBCargoUK) April 10, 2017
DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem described the trains departure as a significant trade occasion.
International trade minister Greg Hands said: This new rail link with China is another boost for global Britain, following the ancient Silk Road trade route to carry British products around the world.
It shows the huge global demand for quality UK goods and is a great step for DP Worlds 1.5 billion London Gateway port as it also welcomes its first regular container ships from Asia.
A British soldier who shot dead a teenager in Londonderry was unjustified in discharging the fatal round, a coroner has ruled.
Manus Deery, 15, was killed as he stood outside a chip shop in the Bogside area socialising with friends in May 1972. He was struck in the head by fragments of a bullet that ricocheted off a wall.
It was fired by a soldier from a fortified observation sanger high above the Bogside area on Derrys historic city walls.
Private William Glasgow, now deceased, claimed he had fired on a gunman but missed and hit the wall. Presiding coroner Mr Justice Adrian Colton said his assessment of the evidence was there was no such gunman.
Soldier who shot dead Manus Deery (15) in Bogside in '72 was unjustified in firing round, coroner rules. Says teenager was "innocent victim" David Young (@DavidYoungPA) April 10, 2017
The discharge of the round was unjustified, he said.
However, Justice Colton said he was unable to determine whether the Royal Welch Fusilier soldier was under an honest belief that he had seen an armed man citing his inability to question the late serviceman during the inquest. He added: The force used was disproportionate to the threat perceived.
The killing, which occurred months after Bloody Sunday in Derry, was one of the most contentious of the Troubles.
The coroner said the teenagers family pursued a new inquest to address a perceived stain on his character related to insinuations he may have been involved in paramilitary activity. He told Derry courthouse that he had no doubt the boy was blameless.
He said: Manus Deery was a totally innocent victim. He didnt pose a threat to soldiers or anyone else.
The Ministry of Defence acknowledged the shooting of Manus Deery was unjustified
During inquest proceedings the Ministry of Defence (MoD) acknowledged that the shooting was unjustified. In a statement given the day after the incident, Mr Glasgow claimed he fired at a gunman standing beneath an archway beside a pub in the Bogside.
He was not prosecuted. A new inquest was ordered by Northern Irelands attorney general John Larkin in 2012. The original inquest in 1973 returned an open verdict.
The coroner said official police investigation of the shooting in 1972 was flawed and inadequate.
Romania prop Alexandru Tarus has signed a two-year deal to join Sale Sharks this summer.
The 16-cap tighthead will move to the Aviva Premiership from French Pro D2 club Beziers.
Alexandru is a great signing for us - he can play on both sides of the scrum although he is a specialist tighthead, said Sale rugby director Steve Diamond. He is a big lad and he will I am sure fit perfectly at Sharks.
Alexandru Tarus has been playing in France
Former Sale front-rower Vadim Cobilas, now plying his trade at Bordeaux, urged Tarus to join the Sharks.
This is a great opportunity for me, said Tarus. I know Vadim Cobilas well and he told me what a great club Sale Sharks are to play for.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has accused Sinn Fein of not being serious about wanting to reach an agreement to restore the Stormont government.
Deputy leader Nigel Dodds accused their former powersharing partners of placing new demands on the negotiating table, including demands for special status for Northern Ireland post-Brexit.
Earlier, Sinn Feins leader in Northern Ireland Michelle ONeill said another Stormont election should be called after Good Friday, the deadline for agreement between the parties.
Ms ONeill said there was little prospect of agreement on the way forward amid faltering talks with the DUP and British Government.
Speaking following another day of negotiations on the 19th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement Ms ONeill insisted Sinn Fein was committed to trying to deal with the issues which are there.
No prospect of political agreement unless British government and DUP address fundamental issues - @moneillsf https://t.co/wmRgDWYiKV pic.twitter.com/ACvPklyB7J Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) April 10, 2017
She added however: We have set out what we need to see delivery on and we need to see a different approach from the DUP and, indeed, from the British Government.
But post-Friday I think it is over to the electorate to have their say about the future.
But clearly Sinn Fein want to make these institutions work, but they have to work for all our citizens.
Dark clouds forming over Stormont. They seem to be matching the mood of a few folk on the hill. pic.twitter.com/ooy2fgyats Deborah McAleese (@Deborah_utv) April 10, 2017
DUP leader Arlene Foster hit back and said she doubted Sinn Fein was interested in making a deal.
We did say to them that after some of the things they have said (recently) that we doubt they want a deal. That is very disappointing.
They are telling their people one thing and when they are in here they dont seem to want to move and to compromise and to create the circumstances where we can go back into government, said Mrs Foster.
Mr Dodds, her party colleague, accused Sinn Fein of making new demands on a daily basis.
It is Sinn Fein insisting on new demands being implemented not about health, education or public services, but about narrow partisan issues which we dont think are in the best interest of the people of Northern Ireland .
Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster
We are told this is about implementing previous agreements. But take Brexit. We have Sinn Fein now demanding special status for Northern Ireland.
It is a ludicrous new demand which is clearly not in the best interest of Northern Ireland and is preventing the formation of government. That is one example.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood accused the DUP of failing to grasp that there needs to be respect for each others identity.
. @columeastwood tells DUP to "call Sinn Fein's bluff" & agree to Irish Language Act pic.twitter.com/1GWzf3Rg9Z Deborah McAleese (@Deborah_utv) April 10, 2017
At times, in many of the meetings, the DUP havent quite grasped the fact that things have changed. They havent quite grasped that if we just allow the assembly, the majority of the members in there, to decide a lot of those issues then we could get things moving forward.
New Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann said he was finding it difficult to remain positive.
Newly elected Ulster Unionist Party leader Robin Swann
We are seeing little sign of progress but the Ulster Unionist Party is still here and want to get a deal by Friday because we believe it is achievable, he added.
The estranged wife of former Manchester United and Wales star Ryan Giggs has said she wants their divorce court fight over money to end as swiftly and amicably as possible.
Stacey Giggs said she is disappointed to have needed the assistance of a judge.
A lawyer outlined her thoughts after a judge analysed the latest stage of the dispute at a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
Stacey Giggs at the Royal Courts of Justice (Jonathan Brady/PA)
James Brown, who is based at law firm Hall Brown Family Law and is part of Mrs Giggs legal team, said she wanted to avoid upset and distress to her family.
Mrs Giggs primary focus is wanting to bring this sensitive and difficult process to a close as swiftly and amicably as possible and enable her family to move on with their lives, said Mr Brown.
She is disappointed that she has needed the assistance of the court in an attempt to do so but hopes that outstanding matters can be concluded soon.
(Dave Thompson/PA)
Mr Justice Cobb on Monday considered preliminary legal issues in the case.
The judge is likely to be asked to decide how big a share of the marital asset kitty Mrs Giggs should get if agreement is not reached.
He said a trial was unlikely to take place for some time.
Giggs was not in court.
Prince George and Princess Charlotte will be page boy and bridesmaid at the wedding of Pippa Middleton, Kensington Palace has said.
The Duchess of Cambridges sister is to wed her financier boyfriend James Matthews in front of close family and friends at St Marks Church, Englefield, Berkshire, on the morning of Saturday May 20.
Pippa Middleton is getting married to James Matthews (Anthony Devlin/PA)
Kate will be accompanied by the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry at what is set to be one of the most talked about society weddings of recent times.
Royal watchers were expecting the young royals to play an important part at the wedding, with speculation Kate would be her sisters matron of honour but it seems the Duchess will not be taking on that role.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George and Princess Charlotte
Pippa leapt into the public consciousness in 2011 when she was Kates bridesmaid in a figure-hugging Alexander McQueen dress at the royal wedding.
Hedge fund boss Mr Matthews got down on bended knee during a trip to the Lake District in July 2016 to propose to Pippa.
The couple had been dating for less than a year, but had moved in together and a thrilled Pippa was said to have been totally surprised by the proposal.
(Anthony Devlin/PA)
Resident priest Rev Nick Wynne-Jones will officiate at the wedding ceremony, a spokeswoman at St Marks Church said.
The church dates back to the 12th century and was extensively restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1857.
It will not be the first time the Middletons and the Cambridges have joined together at St Marks.
St Mark's church in Englefield, Berkshire
William and Kate along with George and Charlotte attended a Christmas Day service accompanied by Kates mother Carole, father Michael, brother James, and Pippa and Mr Matthews.
The 6 million Middleton family home in nearby Bucklebury looks set to host the wedding reception.
The palace said it had no further details on guests and was unable to confirm whether Harry would have a plus one.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry (PA)
He has been dating Meghan Markle since last summer but their romance only went public in October when his communications secretary, Jason Knauf, issued a statement attacking the media over a wave of abuse and harassment towards her.
It is understood that the actress stayed with Harry at his home in the Kensington Palace grounds when she visited the UK in November.
In December, reports said they had been to the theatre and enjoyed a festive date watching The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.
Goals from Ellen White, Lucy Bronze and Izzy Christiansen gave England a 3-0 win over Austria in their final home friendly before Euro 2017.
There's the final whistle! Our #WEURO2017 send-off ends with a great victory.
Well played, girls! pic.twitter.com/eoMaynJt9k Lionesses (@Lionesses) April 10, 2017
Whites fifth-minute goal and second-half strikes from Bronze and Christiansen secured a morale-boosting victory ahead of this summers tournament in Holland.
Austria actually started the better side at Stadium MK but were caught out by Englands first attack of note. A neat build-up saw Millie Bright find Christiansen, who swung in a cross which White glanced beyond Austria keeper Manuela Zinsberger.
England's Isobel Christiansen celebrates scoring her side's third goal of the game with Jodie Taylor (left)
It was almost two after half an hour, when Jordan Nobbs left her marker for dead before crossing towards Toni Duggan. The ball ricocheted off an Austria defender, forcing Zinsberger into a fingertip save.
Austria threatened before the interval when Sarah Zadrazil picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area but she fired narrowly wide.
In the second half Lionesses boss Mark Sampson felt his side should have had a penalty for a tug on Christiansen in the area, but nothing was given.
Zinsberger denied Duggan and pulled off a fine double save to frustrate Christiansen but was eventually beaten for a second time in the 67th minute.
Christiansen hit a dipping shot which crashed off the underside of the crossbar and bounced out to Manchester City defender Bronze, who tapped in from close range.
Four minutes from time Christiansen got the faintest of touches on captain Steph Houghtons header to wrap up the victory.
LIMA, April 9 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Peru ordered 18 months of preventive prison pending a full trial for the sitting governor of the country's Callao region, who is accused of accepting a $4 million bribe from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht SA.
After a 12-hour hearing, Judge Ricardo Manrique ruled late on Saturday that there was substantial evidence that Governor Felix Moreno accepted the bribe in exchange for awarding Odebrecht a 2014 contract to build a 5 km (3-mile) highway along the country's central coast.
Peru frequently jails suspected criminals for extended periods to keep them from fleeing or obstructing ongoing investigations. The practice has been criticized by some as violating the right to due process.
Moreno's lawyer, Jose Luis Castillo, said the decision was arbitrary and that he planned to appeal.
In December, Odebrecht admitted publicly that it had doled out hundreds of millions in bribes to unnamed authorities across Latin America, including $29 million to win contracts in Peru over a decade-long period spanning three presidencies.
Prosecutors said Moreno had ordered part of the bribe to finance his 2014 reelection campaign managed by political strategist Luis Favre. Both Favre and Moreno have denied receiving payments from Odebrecht.
Odebrecht-related investigations have ensnared former Peruvian president Alan Garcia, who is accused of corruption involving the construction of Lima's metro system. Peru has also asked the United States to extradite former president Alejandro Toledo, who is accused of receiving bribes. (Reporting by Ursula Scollo; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Tatiana Bautzer
SAO PAULO, April 10 (Reuters) - Votorantim Metais Holding SA, one of Latin America's largest producers of base metals, is considering an initial public offering to fund investments and provide parent company Votorantim SA with cash to expand in other core areas, four people with direct knowledge of the transaction said.
The Sao Paulo-based company, known as VMH, is seen completing a three-stage IPO preparation plan by September, according to one of the people. Toronto and New York appear to be the favored destinations for a VMH listing, the person said.
Talks with investment banks are at an advanced stage, with Bank of America Corp, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co among those said to be vying for underwriting spots, two of the people said.
The four people spoke under condition of anonymity because the transaction remains private. They did not detail a tentative structure and timetable for the transaction or give an estimated value for VMH.
The IPO would give VMH access to a wide base of investors betting on a long-term recovery in zinc, copper, lead and silver prices, the first person said.
Proceeds may come in handy for parent Votorantim, Brazil's largest diversified industrial group, which is growing in energy, pulp and agribusiness while cutting a 14.7 billion-real ($4.7 billion) debt burden, the people added.
Contacted on Sunday, media officials at parent Votorantim, which is controlled by Brazil's billionaire Ermirio de Moraes family, declined to comment on "market speculation."
Bank of America did not have any immediate comment. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan declined to comment.
EQUITY OFFERINGS
VMH is the latest addition to a long list of Brazilian companies pursuing IPOs in coming months to rebalance their capital structure and pave the way for future expansion.
Some large Brazilian groups are taking advantage of a revival in capital markets activity this year to list some subsidiaries or exit businesses, as well as to raise cash to bring down debt.
Bankers expect up to one-fourth of planned Brazilian company listings for this year to happen overseas.
The local subsidiary of France's Carrefour SA, as well as airline Azul SA and N2com Internet SA, known by the online shoe retailing brand Netshoes, are seeking to list their operations domestically or overseas.
With a presence in Brazil and Peru, where it holds a majority stake in Cia Minera Milpo SA, VMH operates five industrial compounds in Brazil's state of Minas Gerais, and in Cajamarquilla in Peru. VMH also has sales offices in Houston and Luxembourg.
Last year, investments in zinc and byproducts represented 11 percent of Votorantim's capital spending of about $3 billion. Those investments included efforts to extend the working life of the Vazante mine in Brazil for another 10 years.
Net revenue at Votorantim's zinc and byproducts division came in at 6.386 billion reais last year, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 1.328 billion reais.
EBITDA, as the gauge of operational profits is commonly known, reached 21 percent of revenue, making the zinc and byproducts division the most profitable activity among parent Votorantim's five business segments in last year's financial results. ($1 = 3.1301 reais) (Editing by Daniel Flynn and Steve Orlofsky)
SEOUL, April 10 (Reuters) - A Chinese envoy arrives in South Korea on Monday to discuss North Korea's increasingly defiant weapons programme as a U.S. Navy strike group heads to the region amid concerns Pyongyang may be readying a fresh nuclear test.
The following is a timeline of North's Korea's nuclear and missile tests.
Aug. 1998: North Korea fires a multistage, long-range missile called Taepodong-I over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea called it a satellite launch.
July 2006: North Korea test-fires a Taepodong-2 missile, which the United States says failed after launch. Oct. 2006: North Korea conducts first nuclear test. April 2009: North Korea says it successfully launches three-stage Unha-2 rocket carrying satellite. Washington says it failed. May 2009: North Korea explodes a nuclear device underground.
April 2012: A slightly modified Unha-3 rocket explodes just after take-off. The North concedes failure.
Dec. 2012: North Korea again launches a Unha-3 rocket, saying it successfully put a satellite into orbit. U.S. officials confirm an object in orbit, but no signal is detected.
Feb. 2013: North Korea carries out third nuclear test.
Jan. 6, 2016: North Korea says it successfully tests a hydrogen bomb.
April 15, 2016: North Korea attempts to launch a Musudan missile but fails.
Feb. 7, 2016: North Korea launches a long-range rocket, which it says put a satellite into orbit
June 22, 2016: North Korea conducts two tests of an intermediate range Musudan missile after four failed launches of the same kind. July 18, 2016: North Korea fires three ballistic missiles off its east coast with a 500 km-600 km range.
Aug. 3, 2016: North Korea fires two missiles, one of them landing in Japan's economic exclusion zone.
Aug. 24, 2016: North Korea launches ballistic missile from a submarine, which flies 500 km.
Sept. 5, 2016: North Korea fires three ballistic missiles about 1,000 kms (620 miles), one of which enters Japans air defence zone
Sept. 9, 2016: North Korea conducts fifth nuclear test
Sept. 20, 2016: North Korea says it complete ground test of a new rocket engine, which South Korea says is likely to be used for a long-range missile.
Feb. 12, 2017: North Korea fires intermediate-range Pukguksong-2 ballistic missile into nearby seas.
March 6, 2017: North Korea fires four ballistic missiles, three of them falling into Japans exclusive economic zone.
March 19, 2017: North Korea announces rocket engine test, saying it will help country achieve "world-class satellite launch capability"
March 22, 2017: A North Korean missile appears to explode just after launch. April 5, 2017: North Korea fires ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast. U.S. officials say it appears to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud missile. (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Lincoln Feast)
By Clyde Russell
LAUNCESTON, Australia, April 10 (Reuters) - One of the big hopes for a revival of the U.S. coal industry since the election of President Donald Trump is increasing exports. Right on cue, it looks likely that more of the fuel will be shipped to foreign buyers.
But this is a short-term boost and will benefit only a few U.S. coal miners, with the rest having to deal with domestic demand trending lower. The grim reality is that they can't compete with exports from lower cost producers around the globe.
While Trump may have declared an end to what he termed the "war on coal" of his predecessor Barack Obama, the U.S. coal sector is unlikely to export its way back to robust health.
This is simply because U.S. coal producers are too expensive to compete on global markets, especially in Asia, the region where coal demand is growing fastest and likely to remain the only bright spot in a world increasingly trying to move away from the polluting fuel.
The short-term boost to U.S. coal exports is virtually all down to Cyclone Debbie, a category four storm that closed mines and damaged infrastructure in eastern Australia's Queensland and New South Wales states, when it made landfall on March 28.
Queensland accounts for about 60 percent of Australia's exports, including the majority of coking coal, the higher-quality fuel used mainly in steelmaking. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coking coal and second to Indonesia in thermal coal, used mainly in power plants to generate electricity.
While the majority of mines were able to restart operations fairly quickly, it's taking time for the rail infrastructure to be repaired, meaning there is a shortage of coal for export.
This has sent prices soaring, with coking coal futures in Singapore - priced off the spot assessments for free-on-board Australian cargoes - soaring 77 percent from the day Debbie struck to a peak of $275 a tonne on April 6.
Thermal coal prices also rose. Even though shipments of the this grade of fuel from Australia weren't nearly as badly affected by Debbie, the benchmark weekly index rose 9.1 percent in the week to April 7 from the week prior to the storm's arrival.
While thermal coal supplies from Australia may be slightly constrained in coming weeks, the main issue is in coking coal. Chinese, Japanese, South Korean and Indian steelmakers are all scrambling to source alternative supplies.
The Chinese will look first to neighbouring Mongolia and Russia, while the others will cast a wide net - including as far as the United States.
This is a boon to U.S. coking coal producers, many of whom are located in the Appalachian mountains, the region that has borne the brunt of the decline in domestic coal consumption.
Assuming these miners can ramp up production, they likely have a six-week to two-month window to lock in exports at higher prices before Australian mines can resume normal deliveries.
As much as 15 million tonnes of Australian coking coal may be lost to the market from Debbie. That's significant, but still below the estimated 25 million tonnes lost to Cyclone Yasi in 2011, which prompted spot prices to rise to above $330 a tonne.
U.S. EXPORTS MOVING UP
There does appear to be an uptick in U.S. exports already in April, with Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodity Forecasts estimating that 6.8 million tonnes has already been booked for shipment in the month.
Given only one-third of the month has passed and more cargoes are certain to be booked, this looks strong compared to the 7.56 million tonnes exported for the whole of March.
Last month was already the highest monthly total recorded since January 2015, the starting point for Thomson Reuters vessel-tracking and shipping data.
U.S. coal exports have been on a declining trend, with 2015's 75.36 million tonnes slipping to 65.77 million last year.
This is largely because of lower purchases from top destination Europe, where U.S. thermal coal struggles to compete against similar quality coal from Colombia and South Africa.
U.S. coking coal remains sought after by European steel mills and is competitive against supplies from Russia, the main alternative for Europe given Australia is too distant and freight costs would be too high.
But U.S. thermal coal is unlikely to able to compete anywhere around the globe, given the higher cost of production.
Data from consultants CRU show the that weighted average business cost for U.S. thermal coal, or the price where 50 percent or more of operations in the country are making positive cash flow, lies at $83.22 a tonne.
This is well above $39.49 a tonne for Colombia and the $48.73 for South Africa, showing that even with a slight seaborne freight advantage, U.S. thermal coal cannot even compete in Europe, far less Asia where the shipping costs would be much higher.
Australia's weighted average business cost for thermal coal is $53.98 a tonne, and for coking coal it's $67.34, according to the CRU figures.
The U.S. coking coal cost is $86.62, which shows that it can be competitive globally, even with higher freight costs - as long as the coking coal price remains at elevated levels.
Coking coal enjoyed a strong rally last year on the back of strong Chinese demand as steel production rose in the world's second-biggest economy and domestic coal output dropped because of policy constraints.
Since peaking around $300 a tonne in November, coking coal has retreated and appeared to be finding a base around $155 a tonne. But that was before the arrival of Debbie.
When Australian supplies return to normal, it's likely that coking coal will once again head back to around the $150 mark, and possibly even lower given the uncertain outlook for China's steel sector this year.
This will make it harder, but not impossible, for U.S. coking coal miners to compete in Asia, and they are always likely to be the supplier of the marginal tonne to the region.
Unless U.S. coal miners can find a way to significantly lower their costs, the simple truth is that they cannot compete globally in thermal coal, and will struggle to compete in coking coal outside the European market. (Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
MEXICO CITY, April 9 (Reuters) - Italian authorities on Sunday captured a fugitive Mexican former governor charged with drug smuggling, bank fraud, racketeering and money laundering, are expected to extradite him to Mexico over the next few days.
Tomas Yarrington, ex-governor of Tamaulipas state, on Mexico's northeastern border with Texas, was accused in 2013 by a federal grand jury in Texas of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the Gulf Cartel and other traffickers.
Mexico's attorney general's office said on Sunday the arrest of Yarrington was made possible by an Interpol red notice, the closest to an international arrest warrant "for the crimes of organized crime and money laundering, among others."
Beginning in 1998, U.S. authorities have said, Yarrington began taking bribes from the Gulf Cartel and other traffickers, when he was mayor of Matamoros on the U.S. border.
Yarrington, who was governor of Tamaulipas between 1999 and 2005, is one of several former politicians in President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) accused of corruption. He was suspended from the PRI in 2012.
In a statement, the PRI said it backed the work of the attorney general's office and asked for all the necessary investigations to be carried out.
In March, a Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for former Chihuahua state governor Cesar Duarte, also a member of Pena Nieto's ruling party, on suspicion of embezzlement. (Reporting by Liz Diaz; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Monday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):
MIELE
German household appliances maker Miele is considering building its new washing machines factory worth 45 million euros ($47.63 million) in Poland and hiring 300 people, Puls Biznesu daily said.
STATE POST
Several hundred postmen and state post employees protested over the weekend in Warsaw demanding a 1,000 zloty ($250.64) pay rise, Rzeczpospolita daily reported.
PHARMACIES
The parliament approved a bill making setting up pharmacies more difficult. One company will not be allowed to have more than four pharmacies and their owner will have to have a pharmaceutical degree, Rzeczpospolita said.
HACKERS
More than 95 percent of small and medium enterprises fell victim to cyber attacks last year, according to Rzeczpospolita.
****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ($1 = 0.9448 euros) ($1 = 3.9898 zlotys) (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)
HELSINKI, April 10 (Reuters) - Finnish media company Sanoma said on Monday it will sell its stake in Dutch broadcaster SBS to Talpa, the media production company of Dutch media tycoon John De Mol.
Sanoma, which already owns a stable of Dutch print titles, will receive 237 million euros ($250.98 million) for its 67 percent SBS stake and full ownership of the television guide business Veronica Uitgeverij.
Privately-owned Sanoma and De Mol bought the broadcaster for just over one billion euros in 2011, with De Mol taking a 33 percent stake and Sanoma buying the rest. Far smaller than rival broadcaster RTL, it has struggled to build up a viewer base.
"The SBS divestment allows us to accelerate the deleveraging of our balance sheet and provides much more financial and strategic flexibility to grow our stronghold businesses", Sanoma CEO Susan Duinhoven said in a statement.
Sanoma lifted its full-year outlook for 2017 following the deal, saying its operating profit margin will be above 10 percent for the full year, compared with previous guidance of margin around 10 percent. ($1 = 0.9443 euros) (Reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Kim Coghill)
MANILA, April 10 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday his order to the military to reinforce areas in the South China Sea controlled by Manila was to maintain the geopolitical balance, and assured China no "offensive weapons" would be placed there.
Duterte said the Philippines wanted peace and friendship with China but his country needed to bolster what territory it had in the Spratly archipelago because "everybody's grabbing" islands and reefs in the disputed waterway.
The maverick former mayor set off alarm bells on Thursday, including in Beijing, when he said he had ordered troops to occupy uninhabited islets and shoals that the Philippines claims in the Spratly Islands.
Philippine officials later said plans were to upgrade existing facilities and not occupy new territories.
"I'd like to address myself to the Chinese government... I ordered the occupation of the 10 or nine islands that are just near our shores because there's a heightening of geopolitical issues and eventually maybe a violent low-intensity war over here," he told a news conference on Monday.
He said the Philippines would not engage in any military buildup, but indicated the United States would.
China claims most of the South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
Duterte has turned Philippine foreign policy upside down by making overtures towards China and fiercely rebuking traditional ally the United States. Duterte wants China to be a major investor in the Philippines.
Duterte puts the blame for current maritime tensions squarely on Washington, for not intervening to stop China building and arming artificial islands in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.
"If they fight each other, we will be hit. Everybody knows, the United States will be stockpiling their weapons there. And, they said they will not," he said, without elaborating.
"I do not want to get involved in a war between nations. I have extended my hand and friendship to the U.S. government."
He seldom criticises China for its actions in the South China Sea and stressed on Monday that any future Philippine activities in the Spratlys would not be hostile.
"For the information of China, we will not place there any offensive weapons, not even one gun," he said.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing there was "close and effective communication" between Beijing and Manila.
"We hope the Philippines can move forward with China and continue to appropriately handle disputes and create a good atmosphere," she said. (Reporting by Martin Petty, Neil Jerome Morales and Michael Martina; Editing by Nick Macfie)
HANOI, April 10 (Reuters) - Vietnam's government said on Monday it would prosecute protesters who last week blocked the country's main highway, taking a tougher stance against a string of protests over the country's worst environmental disaster.
About 100 people blocked Highway 1A a week ago with fishing nets, bricks and stones, holding up thousands of vehicles, the government said in a statement. It said those identified would be prosecuted for "causing public disorder".
The protest at the town of Ky Anh was against the steel mill being built by Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Corp's Vietnam unit. The $11 billion Ha Tinh plant last year accidentally spilled toxic waste that polluted more than 200 km (125 miles) of coast, sparking a wave of protests not seen during four decades of Communist Party rule.
Activists fear the mill could soon resume operations after the environment ministry announced the facility had met the necessary conditions to start test runs.
"Although Ky Anh authorities asked the crowd to disperse, some people swore, insulted officials and threw stones at the forces," said the government in a statement, adding that the police were investigating those involved.
Authorities warned it would enforce tough measures against any future gatherings in the area, the government said.
Those found guilty could face fines, government re-education programmes or jail terms.
On Saturday, the government uploaded a video confession by Nguyen Van Hoa, a blogger prosecuted for publishing contents that the government said were against the state and the ruling party. In the video, he apologised and asked for forgiveness for selling his conscience and his country. (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Randy Fabi)
BERLIN, April 10 (Reuters) - The number of people applying for asylum in Germany has dropped steeply, figures showed on Monday, a sign that a deal between the European Union and Turkey to stem the flow of migrants is working.
The huge influx of migrants to Germany in the past two years has eroded the popularity of Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of national elections in September and fuelled the rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
But the AfD has seen its support plunge in polls since the sharp slowdown in the flow of migrants after the deal between the EU and Ankara was reached a year ago.
Around 47,300 people arrived in Germany between January and March, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, while 60,000 applied for asylum in that period, down two-thirds from the same period a year ago, the interior ministry said.
The German office for migration and refugees ruled on 222,395 asylum applications from January to March. About half the individuals were allowed to stay in Germany for the time being, but only a fifth were granted full refugee status.
Migrants who arrive in Germany are first registered at reception centres where they have to wait for months before they can file an asylum application, creating a huge backlog.
At the end of March, there were still around 278,000 outstanding applications to process, the ministry said.
A failed asylum-seeker from Tunisia killed 12 people in December by ramming a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, fuelling accusations by Merkel's opponents that mass immigration is making Germany more vulnerable to Islamist attacks. (Reporting by Holger Hansen; writing by Emma Thomasson; editing by Andrew Roche)
By Igor Ilic
ZAGREB, April 10 (Reuters) - Croatia is struggling to contain the economic fallout from problems at heavily indebted food group Agrokor, the restructuring expert appointed by the government to lead the process said on Monday.
Agrokor, the biggest employer in the Balkan region with some 60,000 staff, racked up debts during a rapid expansion, notably in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Serbia. According to the latest data from last September, its debts totalled around 45 billion kuna ($6.42 billion), or six times its equity.
"We're struggling to prevent Agrokor's problems spilling over to the whole Croatian economy and wider across the (Balkan) region," Ante Ramljak, an investment banking expert, told reporters. Ramljak's nomination to lead Agrokor's restructuring was approved by the Zagreb commercial court on Monday.
Agrokor said on Friday it was handing control to the state under an emergency law introduced last week to deal with big companies facing financial trouble. Under the law, the state must appoint an executive to steer a restructuring.
Ramljak is expected to assemble a team of experts and advisers to guide the process, which will include refinancing of debts and possibly selling parts of the company.
Six banks, including Agrokor's biggest creditors Russian lenders Sberbank and VTB, said on Monday they were working to conclude an initial cash injection.
"The banks have agreed to provide a liquidity injection worth 150 million euros. If a good restructuring plan is prepared, I think this process could take a right direction," said Miljenko Zivaljic, head of Croatia's largest bank, Zagrebacka Banka, after a meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. Zagrebacka Banka is owned by UniCredit.
Analysts say this is a good first step, but a solution for Agrokor's problems is still far away.
"The banks are apparently cautious as we still don't know the details of restructuring plan. Ramljak must act quickly to take advantage of the liquidity injection. Also, the problem is we don't know exactly how huge is Agrokor's debt at the moment," said Damir Novotny, an independent analyst.
Agrokor struck a deal last week with the banks to freeze repayments and get an unspecified cash injection before restructuring the business. But suppliers, who were worried about delayed payments under a restructuring, did not sign up.
Without broad agreement of all the stakeholders, Agrokor was left little choice but to seek state assistance. The emergency law envisages any restructuring taking 15 months.
It was unclear on Monday what role the restructuring expert Agrokor appointed under last week's deal - Antonio Alvarez III - would have under Ramljak.
The Zagreb commercial court also unfroze the accounts of Agrokor and its firms on Monday, and has asked creditors to submit their claims within 60 days.
"Our goal now is to stabilise Agrokor's operations in the coming days and the second step will include its restructuring for which we will also seek an adviser," Prime Minister Plenkovic said on Monday.
($1 = 7.0257 kuna) (Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by Susan Thomas and Mark Potter)
By Chris Arsenault
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - P astor Marcio Antonio stands at the pulpit in a one room evangelical church built precariously above barbed wire fences and illegally hung electrical cables, exhorting his flock in a Brazilian favela to improve their morals.
A former drug dealer in Cantagalo, an informally built hillside settlement where most residents lack official property rights, Pastor Antonio and his flock at the Assembly of God Church are part of a growing trend.
Evangelical churches are expanding rapidly in Brazil, home to the world's largest Catholic community, especially in poor favelas, experts and parishioners said.
These communities, which developed from squatter settlements, often do not have the same services as formal Brazilian neighbourhoods in terms of healthcare, sanitation, transportation or formal property registration.
"The government doesn't help us so God is the only option for the poor," Pastor Antonio, 37, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation following his Sunday sermon.
Wearing a white linen robe over a black shirt and tie, Antonio was born and raised in the favela where he preaches to a congregation of two dozen from a clean, one room church with a tiled floor and fans buzzing overhead.
Like other poor young men, the lure of easy money drew him to the drug trade before he found God and a new mission.
"There are a lot of problems here in the favela," said Antonio, eating plain white bread and drinking black coffee after a two-hour sermon. "Poverty, a lack of work, crime, mental health issues - the church helps with these things."
In favela communities where the state often doesn't have much of a presence, evangelical churches are gaining members partially by providing social services like education, security and economic development, analysts said.
With conservative outlooks on birth control, abortion and other issues, the rise of evangelical churches drawing a base from poor communities is shifting Brazil's political landscape to the right.
STATE ABSENCE
Protestants, many of whom are evangelical, comprise more than 20 percent of Brazil's 200 million population, up from less than three percent in 1940, according to the Pew Research Center, a U.S.-based demographics organization.
In favela communities, the proportion of evangelicals is generally higher, sometimes about 50 percent, said Jeff Garmany, a lecturer at King's College London's Brazil Institute.
"People in favelas are dealing with serious issues of stigma, poverty and violence," Garmany told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"The state's inability to adequately deal with these issues allowed the churches to grow and make inroads with people."
With more than 20 percent of Brazil's big city residents living in informal favelas, the growing sway of evangelicals among the working poor has translated into political power.
"The evangelical churches aren't just providing religious services in the favelas, they're addressing social issues people are dealing with head-on," Garmany said.
In Cantagalo, one of three inter-linked favelas in southern Rio de Janeiro with a combined population of about 30,000, there are two catholic churches and more than 15 evangelical churches, Pastor Antonio said.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second largest city known for samba parties and skimpy bikinis, an evangelical bishop who opted to skip the city's raucous Carnival celebrations, was elected mayor last year.
Marcelo Crivella, founder of a mega-church, won much of the working-class vote despite being derided by some for controversial comments on Catholics and homosexuals.
Crivella's office did not respond to repeated interview requests from the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Crivella has pledged to improve public services such as transport, health and education rather than using the mayor's office to push his conservative religious views.
SAFETY IN NUMBERS
But analysts say his election, along with the impeachment of former left-leaning president Dilma Rousseff, signals a shift to the right in Brazilian politics. This is in turn linked to the growing power of evangelicals who draw disproportionate support from the urban poor, analysts say.
Part of the unique appeal of evangelical churches for favela residents is the sense of belonging and security they provide, worshippers said.
"We are like a family," said Luana de Souza, a housewife and member of Cantagalo's Assembly of God Church following chants of "hallelujah" from other parishioners.
"The church helps out with things like finding work and education," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
De Souza, like pastor Antonio and most other worshippers at this church is of Afro-Brazilian heritage.
Afro-Brazilians make up a large portion of the people living in favelas and face disproportionate levels of violence and harassment from the police, according to Human Rights Watch.
For worshipper Laiana Almeida, a baby sitter who moved to Rio from Brazil's poorer north east three years ago, the reason for the growth of evangelical churches in favelas is simple.
"What the world can't provide us, the church provides," said Almeida following the Cantagalo service. "The church gives me things the physical world cannot offer." (Reporting by Chris Arsenault @chrisarsenaul, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
By Amedee Mwarabu Kiboko
KINSHASA, April 10 (Reuters) - Opposition calls for mass protests against Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila fell flat on Monday when only a handful of people showed up, undermining efforts to oust him after his refusal to quit on expiry of his mandate last year.
The sparse turnout in the capital Kinshasa and other major cities pointed to the opposition's waning credibility and persistent difficulties convincing Congolese to risk frequently deadly crackdowns by security services.
The normally hectic streets of Kinshasa, a city of more than 10 million people, were nearly deserted on Monday as the police patrolled heavily and fearful residents stayed home.
"How was I supposed to march?" said Papy Kazadi, an opposition supporter on Kinshasa's deserted Boulevard Triomphal, where the march was supposed to begin. "There is no one here."
The demonstration's prospects dimmed on Sunday when the main opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, flew to Ethiopia at the invitation of the African Union, just hours after holding a news conference to urge Congolese to take to the streets.
Deadly protests in September and December as well as worsening militia violence across the vast, flimsily governed country in recent months have raised fears of a backslide toward the civil wars of the turn of the century that killed millions.
But Kabila has successfully co-opted many opponents by negotiating the formation of a power-sharing government meant to organize a presidential election to replace him by year-end.
The country's second city Lubumbashi and its eastern hub of Goma also remained calm, residents said, though police said they arrested about 10 demonstrators in Lubumbashi.
The United Nations human rights office in Congo said it had confirmed at least 40 arrests of people trying to demonstrate across the country.
"The precipitous departure of Felix Tshisekedi the day before the march was indeed discouraging," Desire Kapangu, a resident of Kinshasa's Kasavubu district, told Reuters.
The opposition has also been wracked by infighting since the February death of longtime standard bearer Etienne Tshisekedi.
Last Friday, Kabila named Bruno Tshibala, a former member of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the largest opposition party, as the new prime minister.
The UDPS and its allies rejected his nomination, saying Kabila violated a December deal with them by not naming a candidate of the alliance's choosing and accused him of manoeuvring to hold onto power.
Kabila denies that charge. He says election delays are due to logistical and budgetary constraints. (Additional reporting by Benoit Nyemba; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks/Mark Heinrich)
SANTIAGO, April 10 (Reuters) - Ricardo Lagos has dropped out of Chile's 2017 presidential race, the center-left candidate said in televised remarks on Monday after the nation's powerful Socialist Party endorsed leftist independent Alejandro Guillier on Sunday.
Lagos' departure leaves Guillier as the only mainstream left-of-center candidate in the nation's presidential field. He is likely to face Sebastian Pinera in the November general election, which is shaping up to be a battle between the conservative's pro-growth, free-market agenda and Guillier's pledge for social-democratic reforms.
"We detailed our platform ... but I must admit that my own political home, the center-left, has not converged around it," said Lagos, who is widely considered more moderate than Guillier.
When Chile's presidential campaign began in earnest several months ago, the election appeared to be a relatively sleepy contest between Lagos and Pinera, who are both market-friendly ex-presidents.
But while the right has unified around Pinera, Lagos has flagged in the polls, garnering the support of only 3 percent of voters in the latest survey by Chilean pollster Adimark.
Meanwhile, support for Guillier, a journalist-turned-senator who was relatively unknown in Chilean politics until a few months ago, has surged as corruption scandals and a sluggish economy in Chile have turned his outsider status into an asset.
On Sunday, the Socialist Party of current President Michelle Bachelet decided to endorse Guillier after pitched debate, effectively ending Lagos' chances.
According to Adimark's latest survey, 27 percent of respondents preferred Pinera, while 23 percent planned to vote for Guillier.
The race also features several candidates with support in the low- to mid-single digits, such as hard-left Beatriz Sanchez and conservative populist Manuel Jose Ossandon.
Some of the minor candidates have pledged to participate in primaries in July, while others have not, raising the prospect of a run-off that would take place in December if no candidate wins more than half of the vote. (Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Von Ahn)
By Jesus Aguado
MADRID, April 10 (Reuters) - Spain's struggling Banco Popular is looking at a another capital hike to clean up a balance sheet weighed down by billions of euros in toxic assets and would consider a merger deal, its new chairman said on Monday.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he took over, Chairman Emilio Saracho sought to draw a line under the management of his predecessor, Angel Ron, who was ousted by shareholders last December.
On Monday afternoon, he named a new chief executive, Ignacio Sanchez-Asiain, a senior banker who worked at Spain's second-biggest lender BBVA, in the third leadership shake-up since last July.
Saracho said Popular likely needed more capital after raising 2.5 billion euros ($2.6 billion) last year, and would not rule out a merger as the solution to coping with its 36 billion euros of non-performing real estate assets.
Higher than expected charges on these loans have eroded the bank's capital position, prompting 3.5 billion euros in losses for last year and fuelling talk it could be a takeover target.
"Under the right conditions, we could go to the market and ask investors for additional capital, or, eventually, we could participate in a round of consolidation," Saracho said.
Part of Popular's value came from its independence, Saracho said, but that did not mean the bank would not consider a deal that recognised the value of its brand.
Saracho's comments drove Popular's shares to a record low, closing down 9.6 percent. The shares are the worst performers on the European STOXX banking index over the past year, falling almost 60 percent against a 30 percent rise in the index.
CAPITAL SHORTAGE
Saracho, a former JPMorgan vice-president, said Popular would work on selling off non-strategic holdings and was in no position to pay shareholders dividends due to its shortage of capital.
Analysts said these non-strategic assets included its Wizink credit card business and Totalbank franchise in the United States.
Under Ron, Popular was planning to hive off 6 billion euros of its property assets into a separate division to help reduce its non-performing real estate portfolio by 15 billion by 2018.
Saracho did not mention the plan directly, but said he did not like "complex structures" to generate capital and the lender would continue to work on selling off real estate assets.
Popular's problems mounted last week when it said it would revise its 2016 results and sources said it might book additional losses of around 240 million euros as a result of an internal audit.
Small investors voiced their anger about the accounting corrections and some demanded an investigation. "The solution is ... to clarify what has happened," one of them, Maria Flora Ruiz Nunez, said at the event.
Board secretary Francisco Aparicio Valls said the changes to accounts were due to technicalities and were not intended to hide anything.
($1 = 0.9454 euros) (Writing by Angus Berwick; Editing by Julien Toyer and Mark Potter)
TORONTO, April 10 (Reuters) - Rescue crews found the body of the last of five hikers who went missing over the weekend when an avalanche hit a popular British Columbia trail, and the victims will be identified on Monday, Canadian police said.
Crews found the bodies of four people near the bottom of Mount Harvey on Sunday, and found a fifth several hours later, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman, Staff Sergeant Jolaine Percival of the Squamish detachment said on Monday.
The RCMP received a distress call from a hiker on Saturday after a cornice - an overhanging mass of ice - collapsed on the peak of the mountain about 33 km (21 miles) north of Vancouver.
The hiker spotted footprints leading to the summit, and expressed concern for the safety of anyone in the area, RCMP said.
Authorities were expected to identify the hikers once next of kin were informed. Family members of the hikers gathered at a school in Lions Bay near the trail where the walkers went missing, the Vancouver Sun newspaper said.
All five hikers were from Vancouver's Korean community and were members of two local Korean hiking clubs, the South China Morning Post reported. (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
April 10 (Reuters) - China Huishan Dairy Holding Co Ltd said on Monday courts in Shanghai ruled to have the company's assets frozen, following an application by a creditor of the troubled dairy firm.
The ruling is the latest blow for China's largest integrated dairy firm after its shares were suspended from trading following an 85 percent plunge in a single day last month.
The company has also missed loan repayments and lost contact with a key executive in charge of its finances and cash.
China Huishan said Shanghai courts ruled to freeze assets worth 546.1 million yuan ($79 million) of the company, its controlling shareholder Yang Kai and his wife.
The ruling is in response to an application by Gopher Asset Management Co Ltd, one of the company's creditors. A similar application by Gopher was rejected late last month by a Hong Kong court.
The diary firm also said on Monday it had received a letter from lenders alleging non-compliance with conditions under a $200 million debt facility. The lenders alleged that the company was in default.
Huishan, founded in 2009, grabbed headlines last year when it sold and leased back part of its herd, but its most recent troubles have laid bare risks of excess leverage and financial engineering in unexpected quarters of corporate China.
Huishan has been on the back foot since a December attack by U.S.-based short-seller Muddy Waters.
($1 = 6.8988 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting By Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)
By Heba Kanso
BEIRUT, April 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Lebanon's army has ordered evictions that could threaten the homes of 10,000 Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday.
The U.N. agency said the Lebanese armed forces informed refugees living in informal settlements close to Rayak Air Base - a military airport in the Bekaa Valley - around the end of March that they would have to relocate due to security reasons.
"Many of the families have invested in their tents in the area. For some they have been living there for years now," Dana Sleiman, spokeswoman for UNHCR in Lebanon, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
Refugees who fled the six-year-long conflict in neighbouring Syria make up a quarter of Lebanon's population, and most live in severe poverty in makeshift camps across the country as the government opposes the creation of formal ones.
The fertile Bekaa Valley is home to more than 300,000 refugees living in flimsy tents often covered with plastic and canvas.
Sleiman said a number of families have already moved to nearby plots of land within the Bekaa after being given verbal notice to leave. The eviction would affect children's schooling and refugees' ability to access other services, she said.
So far there is no designated place where the refugees will be able relocate to, and organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW) have been critical of the order by the Lebanese army.
"As Lebanese leaders in Brussels tout Lebanon's humanitarian achievements and call for more aid, refugees here are living in fear of losing their homes," Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Fakih was referring to Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's attendance at a conference on Syria in Brussels last week.
Before heading to Brussels, Hariri said Lebanon was close to "breaking point" due to the strains of hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees, and he feared unrest could spiral from tensions between them and Lebanese communities.
The U.N. refugee agency said so far there had been no violence or forced evictions in the Bekaa Valley. But HRW said it was concerned about the estimated 60 to 70 percent of Syrian refugees who don't have Lebanese residency.
"When these evictions take place we are concerned that the army will detain those without legal status," Bassam Khawaja, Lebanon researcher at HRW told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Aid agency the Norwegian Refugee Council said it was not clear where the refugees would go.
"We really want to be sure that the evictions are not used as a backdoor to forced returns to Syria," Mike Bruce, a spokesman for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said by phone.
The Lebanese Armed Forces could not be reached for comment and has made no statement on the evictions. (Reporting by Heba Kanso @hebakanso, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)
By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA, April 10 (Reuters) - Brazil and the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) called on Monday for elections to restore full democracy in Venezuela, raising diplomatic pressure on the Socialist state during its most sustained opposition protests in years.
After a meeting in the Brazilian capital, OAS head Luis Almagro said elections were the only solution to a political and institutional crisis roiling Venezuela after the delay of state votes and a crackdown on opposition parties.
The government has not officially called the next presidential election, which is scheduled for 2018.
In some of the strongest comments to date from South American diplomatic heavyweight Brazil, Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes said the international community must hold Venezuela to confirming an electoral calendar.
"We must insist on the urgency of confirming the electoral calendar in Venezuela," Nunes told journalists. "Brazil supports an honest and effective international political dialogue to guarantee the full restoration of democracy."
Brazil has kept a relatively low profile in the Venezuelan crisis as it dealt with its own contentious politics, economic downturn and corruption scandals.
Venezuelan opposition supporters took to the streets again on Monday to protest a grinding economic crisis and what they call the erosion of democracy under leftist President Nicolas Maduro. The demonstrations were part of the longest wave of anti-government protests in three years.
Maduro quashed a petition for a recall election last year. On Friday, he upended the next presidential race by banning two-time opposition candidate Henrique Capriles from political office for 15 years.
The move fueled anger from opposition protestors on Saturday after a string of violent marches, spurred by the Supreme Court assuming control of congress last week before an outcry forced it to retreat. (Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Brad Haynes; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Andrew Hay)
ABUJA, April 10 (Reuters) - The United States has agreed to sell fighter jets to Nigeria to help in its fight against Boko Haram and talks underway include possible U.S. assistance in training, surveillance and military intelligence sharing, a senior Nigerian military official said on Monday.
"Yes, I can confirm to you that the U.S. has agreed to sell some fighter jets to us to support in the ongoing insurgency war," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The ongoing negotiation is not only in the supply of fighter jets but also assistance in training, surveillance and military intelligence," the official added. (Reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja; Writing by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Patricia Zengerle and Felix Onuah
WASHINGTON/ABUJA, April 10 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration is pushing forward with plans to sell up to a dozen aircraft to Nigeria's air force for the fight against the extremist group Boko Haram, sources said on Monday, in a deal that could be worth up to $600 million.
The Super Tucano A-29 aircraft, an agile, propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack capabilities, is made by Brazil's Embraer. A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada.
Former President Barack Obama's administration originally agreed on the sale, but delayed it after incidents including the Nigerian Air Force's bombing of a refugee camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians.
The Trump administration wants to push ahead to boost Nigeria's efforts to fight Boko Haram and bolster hiring in the United States by defense firms.
"We've been told that the administration is going to go forward with that transaction," a congressional aide said.
Formal notification of the deal has not yet been sent to Congress but is expected shortly. Trump has said he plans to go ahead with foreign defense sales delayed under Obama by human rights concerns.
A senior Nigerian military source in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, confirmed that the sale would go ahead and said it would also involve training, surveillance and military intelligence "to support ... the ongoing insurgency war."
In March, the Trump administration informed Congress of its plans to pursue a $5 billion sale to Bahrain of Lockheed Martin F-16s and related equipment, which had been held up under Obama when Bahrain failed to meet human rights targets.
Reuters first reported the Obama administration's plan to sell the Embraer aircraft to Nigeria in May 2016, as a vote of confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari's drive to reform the military.
The Super Tucano costs more than $10 million each and the price can go much higher depending on the configuration. It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT 6 engine.
Trump's plan to move ahead with the Nigerian sale was first reported on Monday by the Associated Press.
The U.S. congressional source said rights concerns remain, despite support for the sale from some lawmakers. There are also questions about whether Nigeria will be able to pay the full $600 million for the aircraft, equipment, training and support.
U.S. officials said Buhari raised frustration with delays in the sale in a phone call with Trump in February. (Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Mike Stone; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and James Dalgleish)
Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.
Doggy ice cream has tails wagging in Mexico City
Dogs with a sweet tooth can finally satisfy their ice cream cravings - at the Don Paletto parlor in Mexico City. Owners can satisfy their pets' sweet cravings at the shop in the Mexican capital, which offers a variety of frozen cone and lollipop treats especially made for the animals.
Slovak media face fines for referring to 'Britain' instead of UK
Slovak media covering the Brexit process are facing fines of up to 6,600 euros ($6,987) for using the unofficial but widely known name for the country in question, Britain, rather than the official United Kingdom. The news outlets have been called out by a state agency charged with enforcing uniform use of official country names in publications, based on an obscure 1995 law passed when Slovakia was just finding its feet as a newly independent nation.
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - U.S. trade negotiators will try to hammer out deals with China over the next 100 days to resume imports of American beef and to allow U.S. access to China's closed services sector, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Monday.
Spicer said that U.S and Chinese officials were still at the early stages of "fleshing out" a pledge by President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to develop 100-day plan to help reduce China's massive trade surplus with the United States that was made at their first meeting in Florida last week.
Asked in a press briefing whether China had offered concessions on beef and financial services access, as reported by the Financial Times, Spicer said these sectors were among topics that U.S.-China talks would cover.
"I think, obviously, beef exports and additional market access in China, intellectual property, the ability to have foreign ownership, especially in the services industry, is something that has been a big prize of U.S. exporters and industry for a long time," Spicer said. "But it is something that is being hammered out as we go forward."
Another Trump administration official said U.S. trade discussions with China will cover a variety of sectors, and the meetings were just getting started.
Asked about the FT's report of beef and financial services concessions by China, the official said: "Two sectors is not considered comprehensive."
No decisions have been made to revive negotiations over a U.S.-China bilateral investment treaty that were pursued by the Obama administration last year, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about U.S. negotiating plans.
China could become a massive export market for U.S. beef if a deal could be struck, said Brett Stuart, chief executive of Global AgriTrends in Denver. He said the Greater China region currently imports about $7 billion worth of beef annually - a figure expected to grow as China's middle class expands.
But China has purchased hardly any American beef since it conditionally lifted a longstanding import ban last year. The ban was imposed in 2003 due to a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in Washington state.
"We have yet to see U.S. beef on Chinese tables," said Craig Uden, president of the National Cattlemens Beef Association. (Additional reporting by Tom Polansek and Theopolis Waters in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, who was in Sri Lanka on an official visit last week, says Sri Lanka has a lot of potential as a country. In an interview with Daily Mirror , she said she was impressed by the visit.
"The trade relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka has the potential to expand, and to expand into other areas. I had the benefit of having a very productive economic roundtable with some business organizations doing business here."
At the end of your visit, what is your impression about the government and the country?
It is truly a beautiful country. This is my first visit and it has afforded me opportunities not only to see the beauty of this country but also to see some of the work Australia has been doing for a very long time. Our relationship with Sri Lanka goes back to 70 years. During my time here, I was really pleased to open a wonderful exhibition which looks at a pictorial history of the 70 years of development assistance. Over this time, we have provided $1.35 billion in development assistance and we are one of the top bilateral donors to Sri Lanka. We have been consistent and constructive, and we have done a lot of things over those years. Our relationship goes right across so many sectors. We have helped in de-mining, education, water systems, training, economic development and public infrastructure.
What is the kind of importance you attach to relationship with Sri Lanka?
What we actually planned was to put our relationship much more on an economic development footing. If I can give you a couple of examples, we went to the Northern Province. I visited a number of different places. One of course was a crab factory. This is a very good example of how Australia has partnered with a private company, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and local fishermen to establish a crab factory. We are talking about a sustainable crab industry for fishermen in that area.
They bring in crabs. Then there is a factory. We have 80 women working there earning good wages. That crabs, within a short period of time packaged and exported to the American market. It is a very practical example where Australia is partnering with the private sector on long term sustainability for a local community. Another example is some of the work we do in our Skills for Growth Programme, where we are specifically targeting the tourism industry. We had a fruitful discussion about this with Skills Development and Vocational Training Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. We looked at how we were cooperating particularly in the skills and vocational training sector. We have also been working very closely with the Education Ministry to support the education system through the Transforming School Education Programme with the World Bank. I visited a school where I was able to see this in practical action.
"We have also been working very closely with the Education Ministry to support the education system through the Transforming School Education Programme with the World Bank. I visited a school where I was able to see this in practical action"
One very important thing that I launched today was a new $ 15 million programme over four years called Women in Work. We are partnering with the International Finance Corporation - part of the World Bank - to cooperate with Sri Lankan business circle to create better opportunities for women. That is basically to provide toolkit for businesses to say it makes good business sense for you to include women in your business supply chains. There is value being added to your businesses. We are hopeful that this will provide valuable tools for business activities to look at employing more women. There is an issue of unemployment and underemployment of women in the economy. These are four very different aspects of our relationship.
How do you look at the economic potential of Sri Lanka in the post war context?
Well, of course, Sri Lanka is strategically positioned. There is no doubt about it. As maritime trading nations, we work closely with Sri Lanka. The trade relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka has the potential to expand, and to expand into other areas. I had the benefit of having a very productive economic roundtable with some business organizations doing business here.
The strong sense that I got was that Sri Lanka is now at an important crossroads in terms of economic development in terms of potential. Tourism of course is very important. Clearly the government is embarking on a programme of reforms. That programme of reform includes facilitation of business, making it easier for people do business in Sri Lanka. I think that is really important. From a country like Australia, we can lend technical assistance, expertise and support in different ways. We look forward to see the programme of the government being rolled out, particularly the economic reform process. This is something we have gone through in Australia in the past. We had to take difficult decisions which were at times challenging. But, those are necessary to go to the next step - to make it easier for businessmen to invest and for foreign investors to come to the country. All of these are challenges. But, they are also the opportunities for the Sri Lankan government. Wherever we can, we lend support to the SL government in terms of technical expertise. We think Sri Lanka certainly has a potential value as it attempts to implement an economic reform agenda.
With your outlook, how possible is it for you to encourage Australian investors to come to Sri Lanka?
Well, I have to say that there has been quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing from our two countries. We had a number of business delegations. I actually met Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva in Australia last week. We are starting to see those linkages being made. Ultimately, the strength in any relation between Australia and any other country has been the people-to-people links.
Sri Lanka and Australia have not only this long history, but on the statistical front. For example, through the Australian Government we have funded scholarships for more than 1,000 Sri Lankans since the early 1950s, quite apart from all the students who have gone through private means. We have about 7,500 students going to Australia to study at present. We have students in Sri Lanka studying at universities here that are collaborating with Australian universities. Those linkages are very important.
We also have quite a large Sri Lankan community living in Australia. Its about 140,000 though thats probably quite a conservative figure. Those linkages are very important, and ultimately are the ones that will form the entrepreneurial base between Australia and Sri Lanka. Therefore, one of the things I have looked at during this visit, is the ways that Sri Lankans living in Australia can utilize their skills better, can look at ways they can invest in Sri Lanka and how to encourage them to invest back home to the ultimate benefit of the people of Sri Lanka.
"It is important that the international community work constructively with the Sri Lankan government to get implementation of those transitional and justice arrangements and commitments right. We are supportive; we recognize the work the government has done to date"
In any post conflict situation, there are always concerns and we respect those. But in the end, this is a very good window of opportunity for good local economic growth. Now that takes partnership with government reform, it takes partnerships with encouraging people to want to invest in Sri Lanka. One of the things we look at is tourism, which could be a very good opportunity.
This is one of the sectors that we are going to help the Government with up skilling in the tourism sector. We know that is going to be vitally important for the country. We can make practical contributions in that area.
What is the latest approach to address the issue of illegal migrants from Sri Lanka to Australia?
We have excellent bilateral cooperation in border protection and maritime security. We have a very close partnership with the Sri Lankan government in countering people smuggling.
We appreciate the strong collaboration that we have with the Sri Lankan government on the return of illegal human-smuggling ventures. We have to deter the crime of human smuggling because otherwise people would get lost or die in the sea. Therefore our joint efforts to date have saved in our view many lives and many people from perishing at sea.
These economic migrants seek safe haven in Australia citing Sri Lanka as an unsafe place to live. You saw for yourself the situation here. What is your message to them?
There are very positive stories about Sri Lanka from people who have been involved in the conflict area and people who have come back to Sri Lanka, and people who have chosen to stay back. As your Prime Minister said in Australia, we want people to return home.
He has encouraged people to return to Sri Lanka. We want to make it very clear that we want to deter human smugglers from getting people on boats. We have complied with our international legal obligations, especially in the return of Sri Lankans. It is important that we work with the Government of Sri Lanka to put human smugglers out of business. As I said, we have successfully deterred some ventures, which have avoided lives being lost at sea.
What is your observation on the governments reconciliation process?
We welcome very much the efforts by your government to progress the implementation of its Geneva commitments on human rights, reconciliation and accountability, of course, including the establishment of the Office of Missing Persons. Also we welcome the work done in progressing the Office of Reparations.
We have been pleased to co-sponsor the two-year extension given to Sri Lanka in Geneva.
It is important that the international community work constructively with the Sri Lankan government to get implementation of those transitional and justice arrangements and commitments right. We are supportive; we recognize the work the government has done to date. We are very supportive of the process of reconciliation. In practical ways, we have made a substantial contribution in the humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Sri Lanka. We have invested close to Rs. 30 billion in the North and East since 2009; especially in de-mining, road construction, housing, education and business development.
One of our programmes, the North-East Local Services Improvement Project (NELSIP), we tied up with the World Bank. We invested $25 million in NELSIP between 2011 and 2017, and yesterday I had the opportunity to travel on some of the roads we actually helped build. That was the sort of practical way we have assisted in the reconciliation process. We have also assisted in other practical ways. Apart from helping to spread the economic peace dividend, we supported post conflict institutions and strengthening the Office of National Unity and Reconciliation.
We have facilitated constructive engagement with the diaspora. We have also supported the government, where it requests it, on transitional justice mechanisms.
What is your opinion on the Constitution making process?
We are very supportive of the process. Obviously, we will consider future requests that we may receive in relation to possible assistance. We continue to provide reconciliation support in those practical ways. For us, the long term stability, prosperity and peace in Sri Lanka as an Indian ocean neighbour is very important. That is Australias interest in a secure, stable and prosperous Sri Lanka. We remain very committed to supporting the Sri Lankan government in its efforts to ensure that it continues on a path towards being a prosperous and reconciled country.
"We have complied with our international legal obligations, especially in the return of Sri Lankans. It is important that we work with the Government of Sri Lanka to put human smugglers out of business. As I said, we have successfully deterred some ventures, which have avoided lives being lost at sea"
The GoSL has taken steps to ensure and improve the rights of women. What is your observation on that?
That is very important. Today, we launched the Women in Work programme. This is a very good project. We are very pleased that the Minister for Women and Child Affairs attended to support the launch of this project. We are investing US $ 15 million in the project, in partnership with the International Finance Corporation at the World Bank.
It is a programme that encourages companies to look at ways women can be more involved in their supply chains, not just to employ more women but why it makes good economic sense for women to be involved. By providing companies with a toolkit to look at ways their companies can employ more women and why this makes good economic sense. It is vitally important to any economy to have its women, half its population, fully employed..
What is your message to the Sri Lankans at the end of your visit?
I am very pleased to have been here. We have stood by Sri Lanka in the past and we will continue to do so in the future. Australia has been a long standing friend. 70 years has gone past, and we look forward to our long-standing close friendship continuing for many, many years to come.
SEOUL AFP April10, 2017
Chinas top nuclear envoy arrived in Seoul Monday for talks on the North Korean threat, as a US naval strike group headed to the region in a show of force.
President Donald Trump, fresh from a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as putting Pyongyang on warning, has asked to be provided with a range of options for eliminating the Norths nuclear capabilities.
Presidents before and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearisation of the peninsula, US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told Fox News on Sunday.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks major anniversaries this month including the 105th birthday of its founding leader -- usually celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
hose who continue to agitate against the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) in the name of free education do not seem to see the hundreds if not thousands of school buildings about to collapse on poor students because of poor maintenance or substandard construction.
The latest reminder of the pathetic condition of many of the school buildings in the country was the incident where eighteen grade-five students of Sririmalwatta Navodya School in Wattegama, Kandy had been admitted to the Kandy Teaching Hospital on March 30 when a part of the classroom roof of their classroom collapsed due to the heavy rains experienced in the area. Roofs, especially those of schools where small children are housed are supposed to withstand not only heavy rains, but also gale force wind, but alas, the situation here has been the other way around.
The media which carry hundreds of news and feature articles on SAITM on a daily basis seem to have thought it fit to stop at breaking the story, while the so-called champions of free education, the GMOA, JVP, FSP and the Inter University Student Federation (IUSF) totally ignored the incident. It would have been in the public domain sometimes for a few more days had there been fatalities. However, the incident points to the situation of free education in the country.
Education Minister AkilaViraj Kariyawasam had said his ministry was not responsible for the collapse of the roof of the school in Kandy. He had said it was the result of the provincial councils not adhering to the criteria set by the ministry. There cannot be buildings with thatched roofs or in a dilapidated state. This has happened due to the bad practice adopted by some of the provincial councils, he said.
However, the minister said his ministry had called for a report from the relevant provincial council on this matter. He also had stated that his ministry had decided to develop 7,000 schools out of the 10,161 schools under the concept of nearest is the best school on the recommendations of responsible authorities, but the stipulated criteria in selecting schools under this concept is reported to have been changed by some of the provincial councils.
It is not clear as to what the minister meant by responsibility. Is it just to say I am sorry or I (or we) take the responsibility? Or does it mean the persons responsible being penalized or the victims compensated? Even if he had thought officials concerned must be held responsible in a practical sense, in countries like Sri Lanka there seems to be no administrative mechanism in the public sector to make the people responsible for this kind of negligence to be penalized or to compensate the victims.At the same time the ministers claim that the central government could not be held responsible for the incident runs counter to his calling for a report. That indicates his acceptance of his ministrys moral responsibility for the incident, though he did not do so publicly.
On the other hand, the public school system especially those attended by the children of the poor as well as the lower middle class people lack many facilities, including buildings, toilets and drinking water. The disparity between the urban and rural schools is incredibly vast, despite the country being called Socialist Democratic (and Democratic Socialist) Republic of Sri Lanka for the past 45 years, since 1972. The Yahapalanaya government and the civil society groups that helped this government in toppling the previous regime insisted during the presidential and general elections that six percent of GDP be allocated to education, but the same civil society groups now lament that the funds for education have been further slashed this year. The Central Government and the Provincial Councils cannot pass the buck in this matter as it involves the future and the very lives of the students -- the future leaders.
Sri Lankas stock market, which has lost significant value during the last couple of years, is now on a mission to rebuild investor confidence by clamping down on market manipulation with the help of whistleblowers.
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) is now hosting a page on its official website inviting tips and information on market manipulation and violations from whistleblowers. The CSE assures that the identity and confidentiality of the information provided by the whistleblowers will be treated with utmost confidentiality.
This section intends to invite information and tips related to market manipulation and violations. The Colombo Stock Exchange will treat all tips and information received under this section as confidential and will not disclose such information to any third party unless required by any applicable statute, regulation or by the order of a court of law, the CSEs Submit a tip web page noted. Corporate whistleblowing is a widely used form of exposing any kind of information, activity that is deemed illegal, unethical or which is not correct with the organisations code of conduct private or public. Some organisations have gone into the extent to establishing whistleblower hotlines.
Whistleblowers are generally protected through witness protection laws in many jurisdictions. But Sri Lanka still does not have witness protection laws.
This is one of many measures which are in the pipeline by the CSE and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to crackdown on the alleged market manipulation activities, which eroded confidence in the market during the post-war bull run during 2010-2011.
During this period, many ill-informed first-time investors lost their hard-earned moneys by investing in the CSE and they still keep away from the market despite some of the corrective measures taken by the authorities.
Meanwhile, the SEC is also planning to establish a new surveillance system to crackdown on some websites, which manipulate stock prices operating both within and outside the country.
Sri Lankas stock market was down by 0.48 percent by April 5 after losing 9.66 percent and 5.54 percent in value during 2016 and 2015. But net foreign buying up to April 5, this year, stood at Rs.6.1 billion.
Farlin, one of the worlds most trusted baby care brands, unveiled the countrys first Farlin Corner store featuring the entire line up of Farlin products in Matale recently.
Located at No: 143, Kandy Road, Kohombiliwela, Matale, the outlet was launched in partnership with the towns renowned baby and child care retailer, Pick N Move.
While several noted vendors around the island offer a selection of Farlin products, consumers have had to visit Farlin stores in Colombo, Kandy, Kurunegala, Matara, Negombo and Akkaraipattu to get their hands on the complete range.
Farlin and Kiddies & Toys International (KTI) (Pvt.) Limited, the brands exclusive agent in Sri Lanka, seek to resolve this predicament through the launch of the Farlin Corners line of stores. Taking the entire lineup of Farlin products closer to consumers around Sri Lanka, these stores will also help consumers save both time and money. Farlin and KTI are actively looking to join hands with more leading regional retailers and open up a string of such stores around the island.
Speaking at the launch, KTI Strategic Business Unit Farlin Head Ajantha Wickramaratne said, Mothers in Sri Lanka and around the world, appreciate Farlins commitment to providing the gentlest of care for their babies. Thanking them for placing their trust in the brand, we are delighted to move closer to them through our Farlin Corner stores.
And for their convenience we are already working on unveiling our next stores in Anuradhapura and Kadawatha later this month. We also look forward to working with distinguished regional retailers on launching several more Farlin Corners across the country.
Pick N Move Managing Director S. F. Ashik Althaf said, We are excited to see our long-standing partnership with Farlin and KTI take a new form with the launch of the countrys first Farlin Corner in Matale. Offering Farlins entire product line, our new store fills a long felt need of mothers in the region who have had to travel to other cities to get their trusted Farlin products.
Farlin is a world-renowned brand, which has exceeded 44 years of trusted service. Farlin products have been developed with research support from its own hospital which specializes in pregnant mothers and newborn babies. Currently, Farlin products are available in over 82 countries across the world.
KTI is the exclusive agent for Farlin, LEGO, Barbie and Mattel brands in Sri Lanka and features an outstanding range of premium child and mother care products as well as one of the largest selections of branded toys in Sri Lanka.
Highways and Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kirella criticized the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) saying it had no right to interfere in Sri Lankas medical education.
He told Daily Mirror that the matter connected to the provisional registration of medical graduates, who passed out from SAITM would be addressed by the government in consultation with the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).
He said the GMOA was merely a trade union and had no right to interfere in this matter and neither was it a party to the Court case filed by the aggrieved parties.
The GMOA staged a token strike on Friday demanding the closure or nationalization of SAITM, the only private medical degree-awarding institution in Sri Lanka
However, GMOA Secretary Navin de Zoysa said the GMOAs role, on similar matters had been recognized even in a previous court ruling and as such its involvement in the SAITM controversy could not be disputed.
He said the government should nationalise SAITM instead of bring the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital under the purview of the Health Ministry.
In that case it will only be an additional cost for the government to maintain this hospital. SAITM authorities profit by conducting degree programmes unlawfully. The government is allowing SAITM to prosper further by taking over the hospital, Dr. de Zoysa said. (Kelum Bandara)
The Cabinet Sub Committee appointed to work out guidelines for leasing out the Hambantota Port, had taken up for consideration, among others, a proposal to reduce the lease term from 99 years to 50 years, it is learnt.
The committee headed by Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama met last week.
There were a number of proposals put forward to the committee seeking to amend the original draft of the agreement to hand over an 80 percent stake of the port to China Merchants Ports Holding Company.
In addition to reduction of the lease period, it has also been proposed that the Harbour Master should be responsible to Sri Lanka Ports Authority.
Sources close to the Committee said the agreement should be signed, once finalised, between China Merchants Ports Holding Company and a local company registered under the Companies Act here.
That decision has been taken because it is legally impossible to do so with Sri Lanka Ports Authority.
If we are to do it, we will have to amend the Act concerned, the source said.
The source said President Maithripala Sirisena also wanted the reduction of lease period to 50 years.
Also, it is proposed that Sri Lanka Navy should provide security to the Port having a base there. In equity sharing, it has to be 60-40 not 80-20 as in the original draft.
All these proposals are under discussion now. The final draft should be worked out after further deliberations, the source said. (Kelum Bandara)
The Parliamentary authorities had made fresh reminders to the Agriculture Ministry asking that it be shifted elsewhere from its current location in Rajamalwatte Mawatha, Battaramulla for the building to be used by them in administrative work.
The building has been sought by the Parliamentary authorities to be used by Parliament for some of its activities.
However, the Agriculture Ministry has sought time till May to vacate the building.
Asked about the latest status, Secretary General of Parliament Dammika Dissanayake said Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had made the request.
We want to shift some of our functions there. Initially, the Agriculture Ministry was supposed to hand over by April 17. Now, time has been sought till May, he said.
The Government decided to expand the scope of Parliament with the introduction of new committee and assignment of new responsibilities to the Legislators. (Kelum Bandara)
A high profile Russian escort service carried out via the internet, serving the rich, was busted by the Immigration Department special unit who also took five Russian female sex workers into custody in Colombo last week.
The officials of the Monitoring, Intelligence and Investigation Unit of the Department of Immigration and Emigration had launched a probe into a website that was said to provide escort services to the wealthy in Colombo.
The sleuths used a decoy to order five girls online and requested that they be brought to a leading residential hotel in Slave Island.
The five girls, who were between the ages of 20 to 30, were taken into custody by the Immigration officials when they arrived at the hotel.
A senior official told Daily Mirror that the escort service had received orders from many wealthy clients in Colombo, who they say were charged $500 (Rs.75,000) for two hours with one of the sex workers.
After gathering information from the five women who were arrested, the sleuths raided a condominium in Kirulapona where they were based. Out of three apartments rented by them the sex workers and their male Russian manager were living in one.The other two had been used to serve their clients. Apart from receiving clients at their apartments the Russian women also used to visit any other place to which their customers requested them to come.
The manager of the escort service had however managed to escape capture.
The escort service had been operating for over eight months and all the women had arrived in Sri Lanka on tourist visas and had extended them from time to time.
The women were temporarily transferred to Immigration Department Detention Centre in Mirihana. They will be deported thereafter.
This was the second such online based escort service that had been raided after "Banana Escort" was raided about six years ago.
Controller Visa and Border W M M B Weerasekara is conducting investigations on the instructions of Controller General of Immigration and Emigration Nihal Ranasinghe. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)
By Chandeepa Wettasinghe
The installation of an advanced container scanning system, which has attracted controversy, would take place within the next two to three months, Sri Lankas finance minister said recently.
We will probably start in the next two to three months maximum, Ravi Karunanayake said at the 12th Ease of Doing Business Forum, last week.
He was replying to a D. Samson Industries (Pvt.) Ltd (DSI) official, who complained that the competitors are importing cheap footwear from China and evading the protectionist Rs.500 per pair import tariff, which increases to over Rs.800 after accounting for logistical costs.
Deputy Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle explained that most footwear is imported hidden among other cargo.
Certain importers, within other goods, they put these things. Thats the problem. Its not under invoicing or a tax issue. Thats why we want to introduce these scanners, he said. The scanners, which would replace the current manual customs clearance process, recently, drew criticism from a Customs trade union, which alleged that the scanners would be installed on properties owned by politicians and their stooges to derive commissions per container scanned, instead of placing them at lands belonging to the state. According to a government statement, the scanners would be operated by the private sector. Karunanayake had labelled those opposing the scanner installation as enemies of the public, who would stand to lose out when the sophisticated scanners would enable the government to double the Customs revenue to Rs.1,500 billion. The Customs revenue currently accounts for over half of government revenue.
However, a Customs official who wished to remain anonymous, told Mirror Business that given Sri Lankas budget constraints, it would have to procure the scanners, which may not be sophisticated enough to detect some smuggling operations.
The Finance Ministry has so far not provided comprehensive information on the scanner procurement process and where they would be installed.
The World Trade Organisations Trade Facilitation Agreement to which Sri Lanka is a signatory, is pushing the country to make its customs clearance process faster in order to save time and costs for traders an objective which could be partly facilitated through scanners.
Meanwhile, the DSI representative appealed to the finance minister to save the local footwear industry by installing the scanners and adopting other measures.
Economists have noted that by entertaining firms engaged in industries which Sri Lanka has no comparative advantage, the Sri Lankan government is increasing the cost of living for the countrys population instead of releasing the resources to manufacture globally competitive products.
(Daily Mail, London), 10 April 2017 -
Russian and Iranian forces last night warned Donald Trump they would retaliate with military action if he launched more airstrikes on Syria.
In an ominous threat raising the prospect of war, they said the US President had crossed a red line with his surprise missile bombardment on Bashar al-Assads forces.
From now on we will respond with force to any breach of red lines and America knows our ability to respond well, the military chiefs said in a joint statement with militant group Hezbollah.The Russian Embassy in London suggested on Sunday night there could be real war if Moscow was presented with an ultimatum over Syria.
But UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will lead a push on Monday for Russia to face tough new sanctions unless it withdraws its support for Assad. At a G7 meeting in Italy, Johnson will call for Moscow to be threatened with isolation from the international community and a raft of economic punishments.
Three people were killed when a three-wheeler collided head-on with a tipper truck at Potuhera on the Colombo-Kurunegala road this morning, Police said.
Two of the victims were identified as one and half year-old K.A Sandethma Nethasarani and 26-year old K.A. Harsha Madushanka of Rotawewa.
The other victim has not been identified yet.
They were pronounced dead on the admission to the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital.
The government will be in a position to set up the Truth Commission soon and to gazette the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) under a selected ministry, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Harsha De Silva said today.
He said reconciliation was not an easy task but assured the Government would go ahead despite obstacles by 'racists and those with petty political agendas'.
We are moving ahead as fast as we can to achieve reconciliation. As a sovereign country and people, we have taken steps within a democratic setting, he told Daily Mirror.
He said there was no pressure from the international community on Sri Lanka though Sinhala and Tamil extremists in the country were attempting to ignite racism by provoking religious leaders and people on the UN resolution and Constitutional amendments.
They are hell-bent on misleading the people and sabotage reconciliation efforts. These groups are sowing seeds of disharmony by the lucre amassed in the past, the deputy minister said.
When asked about the two-year-extension given by the UNHRC to implement the UN resolution, he said the Government has given a timeline to the people of the country.
Constitutional amendments are part of this timeline. Our stance is to move ahead while protecting our identity, the deputy minister said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
orty six years ago on April 5, the JVP launched its first rebellion, which was quickly extinguished though at a hefty cost of lives. A second uprising followed 17 years later and caused mass carnage. In between, another insurrection that over time transformed itself into mindless terrorism flared up in the North, and held this country hostage, until it was conclusively defeated in 2009 through equally brutal means.
The second half of the independent history of this country is defined by unfathomable mass violence that at first came as a shock, and then became routinized in a society where not long ago an occasional murder was such a rarity that it sent the media in to a frenzy. Surely Sri Lanka was not meant to go that way. At its independence, it held a promise of peace and prosperity and had a sound economic system and political institutions. Then, why did we have to witness so much bloodshed?
The commonplace explanations from average folks to academics and political commentators writing their polemic read as thus: Sri Lanka failed in its nation-building because it willfully excluded minorities from the political process; Tamils peaceful struggle for equal rights was disregarded thus they had no option other than opting for an armed struggle. Sinhala Buddhists are such venomous creatures that they go to bed thinking new means to persecute minorities next day so that the latter have no choice but to either become a suicide terrorist or condone terrorism. Political leaders are corrupt to the core and looted the countrys wealth.
The youths were disposed and marginalized; their pent up frustration exploded in two youthful uprising in the South. The political system lacked legitimacy and the wealth was concentrated in a few. And the list goes on.
Those might be true at times, but they are overly simplistic explanations that do not do justice to what Sri Lanka has striven and achieved even against all odds.
This country has held largely free and fair elections regularly since independence -- or much before since 1931 when the first elections for the State Council were held under universal franchise. And those elections well until 1977 were an exhibition of regular anti-incumbency in fervour.
Those who opted to exclude themselves from the process, be it the Jaffna Tamil leadership who boycotted the first State Council election in 1931 or the JVP and LTTE subsequently, did so due to their own accord, driven by their own calculations. Interestingly, the JVP waged its first insurrection in 1971, barely within a year after the coming to power of the United Front Administration, the most left-leaning government in Sri Lankan history.
And while complaints of youth discontent are true, still a few countries at our economic development level or even higher could match Sri Lankas achievement of redistributive justice. Sri Lanka was a nascent welfare state at its independence.
Ever since, successive governments have expanded it and those investments are reflected in our social indicators, which were achieved not through a holistic economic growth, but through an overbearing focus on re-distributive justice.
The Sri Lankan electorate has a penchant for nagging. However, the free education and free healthcare that we take for granted are luxuries for many countries, including those so-called socialist ones. Certain government actions in the past, such as land reforms under the United Front government were some of the most expansive measures in redistributing wealth ever taken by a democratic state in modern history. However, none of that stopped a second uprising in the South in the late 80s.
Sri Lankas handling of its ethnic relations is not exemplary. However, the only community that was excluded from the political process by a government decision was Tamils of Indian Origin, who were disenfranchised by the Citizenship Act, which in retrospect was a callous political act. Such infractions were nonetheless prone to happen as new states forged their new identities. (If anything, 21st Century America elected a president who promised to deport 10 million illegal Latinos)
However, Tamils of Indian Origin did not go to war, instead, not only did they manage to win back their due rights, but also, by the 90s Ceylon Workers Congress leader late S. Thondaman established himself as the kingmaker of local politics.
Jaffna Tamil concerns were a different kettle of fish. It has never been a question of equal rights as individuals, which were already granted, and well until the early 1980s, Tamils had a disproportionate , though gradually diminishing representation in civil service and coveted professions such as medicine, accountancy, engineering.
Though mischaracterized as a struggle for equal rights, the Northern Tamil demand was for a parity of status between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities, a position which harked back to G.G. Ponnambalams demand for 50:50 representation or, even further to the Jaffna elites opposition to universal franchise.Tamil leadership was not excluded from political process, instead, they themselves excluded themselves. Certain cultural dynamics best manifest in Tamil exceptionalism in Tamil Nadu might have been at work hindering cooperation.
As Lee Kuan Yew once said in 1985, I have said this on many a previous occasion: that had the mix in Singapore been different, had it been 75% Indians, 15% Malays and the rest Chinese, it would not have worked. Because they believe in the politics of contention, of opposition. But because the culture was such that the populace sought a practical way out of their difficulties, therefore it has worked.
That does not absolve the Sinhalese establishment from overlooking the earlier peaceful struggle by the Tamil leadership. But, the extreme that the Tamil struggle went to was more a function of Tamil cultural and political dynamics than anything that has to do with the Sri Lankan state.
However, why those real and perceived grievances both in the South and the North easily degenerated into armed mass violence was due to a particular permissive culture of political dissent that Sri Lanka fostered since even prior to its independence.
The overgrowth of that culture of peaceful dissent into armed resistance was primarily due to several perhaps well intended but short sighted policies of independent Sri Lankan political leadership. Independent Sri Lanka did not clamp down on dissent , instead, even while the limits of state power of an incipient new nation was well manifest, Sri Lanka proceeded with a premature mass political empowerment, hoping everything would be fine. Political empowerment without adequate institutional apparatus of the state to check transgressions is an exercise wrought with danger. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who unleashed the populist Sinhala Buddhist nationalism, told his aides that he had never seen anything like the promise of Swabasha policy that had energized the masses. He did not foresee the disastrous end that such a populist awakening would lead to and retard the progress of the nation. Political leaders who rode to power in a wave of populist support, then by virtue of their populist clout, overwhelmed the countrys nascent independent institutions, which over time became subordinate to politicians. Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike went a step further to entrench that subordination in the 1972 Constitution.
The Cold War international system was plagued by a myriad of civil wars. Some countries succumbed to communist takeovers and others fought with both hands against internal threats. Successful countries learn from experience of others and make precautions for their own exigencies. However, the Sri Lankan leaders, who were cocksure that the battle of ideas would be fought and won through elections did not learn from their peers. Thus they did not invest on the requisite coercive power of the state, which is the ultima ratio in any dispute, be it domestic or international.
"Sri Lankas handling of its ethnic relations is not exemplary. However, only community that was excluded from the political process by a government decision was Tamils of Indian Origin, who were disenfranchised by the Citizenship Act, which in retrospect was a callous political act"
The JVP waged its first insurrection with galkatas and still came closer to capture the state, until it was defeated with foreign help. Still, lessons were not leant, and the LTTE that emerged as a rag tag guerrilla group, managed to confine army into the Jaffna Fort by the mid 80s.
Sri Lanka became victim of mass violence, because it fostered a democratic space conducive of mass mobilization, which can be exploited especially in a new state that is struggling to knit together a statehood. At the same time, Sri Lankan leaders placed very low the bar of the probable success of an armed takeover of the state. That created incentives for insurgents in the South and the North to give it a try, which they did.
Another factor made things worse. Had Sri Lanka managed its political empowerment alongside economic empowerment, the danger of mass upheaval could have been lessened. Instead, myopic economic policies of the first three decades created a groundswell of grievances of youth who had been empowered through the welfare policies of the very state. Until, J.R.Jayawardene, Sri Lanka did not have a leader who had an economic sense; all who precededhim either thought good times would remain forever or were too dogmatic to find practical solutions. Their path to political power was through dolling out goodies. Their policies were partly ideational, shaped by Fabian socialism, and partly opportunistic. Though the successive UNP governments, up until Chandrika Kumaratunga administration had historically generated higher growth numbers than their SLFP peers, their achievementswere minuscule in international comparison of countries growing from a lower base at the time. Their Statist economic policies discouraged private sector. What the country such as ours wanted then and now is gainful manufacturing jobs for its skilled and semi- skilled workforce. However, capitalism was by and large an F word in the political lexicon at the time. Thus domestic imperatives were ignored, while a host of East Asian and South East Asian states graduated from sweat shops to become economic power houses during the corresponding period.
Economic success could have greatly reduced the propensity of politics of contention drifting into armed violence. Today, Sri Lanka is shipping its semi-skilled and unskilled labour to the Middle East, not an enviable achievement, however, that reduces the demographic pressure on social and political fabric .
Sri Lankas focus should be to create sustainable economic growth and to get rid of recalcitrant laws that stand on the path of countrys economic progress. Instead, like in the past, Sri Lanka is putting the cart before the horse.
Last week, writing to thisnews paper, NiranAnketell argued why judicially enforceable socio economic rights should not be included in a bill of rights as proposed by the advocates of constitutional reforms- as he rightly noted not because in opposition to advancement of social economic rights, but because numerous unintended consequences which would in effect have the opposite effect and exacerbate inequalities.
That is exactly where the mismatch between ideational policies and their practical implementation lies. Constitutional rights can lead only so far. Their limits are omnipresent in South Africas manifest failure in bridging racial inequalities. For those who believed in more forceful maneuvering by the government, Venezuela looms large as a grandiloquent failure.
Sri Lankas electoral democracy is well capable in redistributing justice, but it fares very poorly in generating wealth, which howeverare the building blocks of any sustainable effort to long term equality and prosperity. Sri Lanka should prioritize on putting in place a system that foster economic growth. Even if the era of youth rebellion is now behind, an economic revival would still save our idle youngmen from smoking too much pot.
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The ascent of the Modi government at the Centre brought about a significant shift in India's Kashmir policy, influenced to a large extent by the policy prescriptions of the new national security adviser Ajit Doval.
The Doval doctrine is essentially an aggressive assimilationist strategy, whose twin features were an embrace of aggressive power in controlling Kashmir, coupled with a steadfast resolve to deny any political dimension to the Kashmir problem.
The abysmal voting turnout of 7 per cent in Sunday's by-polls, the lowest in three decades, is the clearest evidence yet of the failure of this doctrine. The Doval doctrine was manifested in its starkest form last year, when the government gave a free hand to security forces to brutally put down protests in the aftermath of Burhan Wani's death.
The sweeping crackdown killed 80 people and blinded hundreds through the use of pellet guns, which were not withdrawn even as casualties kept mounting. Along with this exercise of uninhibited power, the government dismissed demands for political engagement with Kashmiris, maintaining that the Kashmir problem was solely a security question and not a political question.
The crackdown, in line with the Doval doctrine (grasped from his YouTube lecture), was intended as a "shock therapy" to rewire Kashmiris into adjusting their expectations and to force them into reconciling to assimilation.
It is now clear that this hardline, and misguided, policy of repression without engagement has not only failed to break the resolve of Kashmiris towards "azadi", it has in fact reinforced it. The collective punishment wreaked by the Doval doctrine in practice has further inflamed the sense of injustice felt by Kashmiris, alienating them further from India, and it's democratic process.
The lowest voter turnout since the anti-India insurgency began in the late 1980s is ample evidence of this fact. The voting percentage in the Srinagar Burhan constituency declined precipitously from 26 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to 7 per cent, even as eight people died in police firing, including a couple of school-going kids, while no one had died the last time around.
To put it bluntly, this was a vote of no confidence, not merely towards the mainstream political parties, but also, horrifyingly, towards Indian democracy.
Most of the prime time news anchors, who have consistently stereotyped and dehumanised Kashmiris, whitewashing their suffering with their hyperventilating jingoism, virtually blanked out the news.
Times Now, the leader of the jingoist pack, didn't deem the death of eight Indian civilians - or the abysmal poll numbers - newsworthy enough even as a passing reference.
Although it will, no doubt, continue to hold unending hours of shouting matches to resolve why Kashmiris don't love India, without a sense of irony, let alone scruples.
The jarring silence of the hyper-nationalist blowhards, with their blinkered security obsessed visions, spoke volumes of both their intellectual and moral bankruptcy on the issue of Kashmir.
This electoral rebuff threatens to blow over the already fading veneer of democracy in Kashmir. Democracy, properly understood, is more than mere elections. To be substantive, it has to be underpinned by the rule of law and fundamental rights, both of which have long been elusive in Kashmir.
The rights of Kashmiris, for more than two decades, have been severely circumscribed by draconian laws such as AFSPA and Kashmir Public Safety Act, and the liberal use of Article 144 of CPRC (banning assembly of more than four persons).
This means in practice, that every Kashmiri risks being harassed, detained, or even killed at mere suspicion, and with alarming impunity. The civil liberties of expression, movement and peaceful assembly are frequently denied, all within the ambit of law.
The fragility of the rule of law can be gauged from the fact that State actors are rarely held accountable for allegations of extrajudicial killings, excessive force and torture.
In the absence of an illustrious record on human rights and rule of law, regular elections with healthy participation provided an indispensable shield to deflect criticism and keep up the illusion of meaningful democracy.
The Doval doctrine is essentially an aggressive assimilationist strategy, whose twin features were an embrace of aggressive power in controlling Kashmir, coupled with a steadfast resolve to deny any political dimension to the Kashmir problem. Photo: India Today
That shield now stands broken, the trust of Kashmiris in mainstream politics has reached junk status, and the whole credibility of the political process has been dangerously frayed.
The popularity of mainstream leaders in Kashmir is at an all time low. This collapse of credibility can be gleamed from the fact that while upwards of 2,00,000 people turned up for the militant Burhan Wani's funeral, the funeral of three-time CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed drew a paltry 5,000 people, many of them party workers and government officials.
The current by-election involved the leader of NC, Farooq Abdullah, yet it couldn't rouse even a tenth of the electorate to the polling booth. As far as the PDP is concerned, their alliance with the BJP has gravely discredited them, in fact the epicentre of the 2016 uprising was in their stronghold of South Kashmir, with many of its legislators afraid to even go back to their constituencies.
This implosion of the middle ground in Kashmiri politics has further strengthened the hand of separatists. The issue of "azadi" or political freedom, championed by separatists, now dwarfs other issues of governance, pushing mainstream parties into irrelevance.
Militancy has largely subsided in Kashmir, compared with the dizzying levels recorded in the 90s. The new normal in Kashmir is periods of explosive unrest followed by an eerie calm. This intermittent peace, though, is the peace of the prison-yard, enforced by guns and armoured vehicles. The powder keg of pent up rage, however, is always smouldering underneath, never far from bursting into yet another spasm of protest and reprisals.
If we are to salvage our much hallowed democracy in Kashmir, we must start by having an honest conversation in Kashmir. An example is the refreshing candour showed by Mr Doval's predecessor MK Narayanan who, writing for The Hindu in the midst of last year's protests, acknowledged that the unrest in Kashmir is a home-grown popular uprising which cannot be blamed on Pakistan or outsiders.
It's vital that we acknowledge that there is no military solution to Kashmir, only a political solution, reached through a meaningful dialogue.
And, no, a political solution does not necessarily translate into "azadi", it can mean a host of things ranging from more autonomy to the state to run its affairs as promised in Article 370, to a gradual rollback of the overarching militarisation of Kashmir, to more accountability for human rights violations.
If, instead of offering the Kashmiris this meaningful political engagement, we continue to rely on the military and its blunt instrument of repression, or resort to vacuous catchphrases such as "choose tourism over terrorism", we risk losing a whole generation of Kashmiri youths to political alienation, or worse militancy.
The veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar observed many years ago, When it comes to Kashmir, the conscience of most in the country becomes dead.
"War cries" got shrill on the two sides of India-Pakistan border as former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on Monday (April 10).
His death sentence came a year after he was arrested in Pakistan on charges of spying.
A statement in the Pakistani militarys publicity wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Jadhav was "declared guilty by an army court of waging war against the country and stoking violence in Balochistan".
The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM, the ISPR said on Monday afternoon.
It was alleged that Jadhav was a Research and Analysis Wing agent, and was involved in "subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan".
India, however, denies all charges.
According to an NDTV report, the Pakistan government had refused to extradite Jadhav, who was reportedly arrested in Balochistan after entering the country from Iran.
It was alleged that Jadhav was a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) agent, and was involved in "subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan".
In March 2016, Islamabad had released what it claimed to be a video confession of Jadhav and said he revealed how India engineers violence and separatism in the restive province of Balochistan.
India although acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, it denied that he was in any way connected to the government.
The death sentence further deepened the chasm between the two countries.
Twitter too witnessed an online battle as netizens asserted their love for their respective countries.
Here's a look at how they reacted:
Breaking: Kulbhushan Jadhav, alleged Indian spy, sentenced to death by PAK military court. Does he not deserve an open and fair trial? Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) April 10, 2017
Sinful????In 71...93K Pak soldiers set free by India,In 17 they r butchering 1 innocent Kulbhushan Jadhav without proof n fair trial ! @adgpi pic.twitter.com/5nnWQ8ezaB Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) April 10, 2017
@OfficialDGISPR he was kidnapped inside Iran by your terrorist proxy Jaish ul Adl. I detailed in my article for @Diplomat_APAC https://t.co/DKqkKFlb1H Aveek Sen (@aveeksen) April 10, 2017
Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death. Now expecting someone from Bollywood to announce a film on him, cashing in public sentiments Debarati Majumder (@debarati_m) April 10, 2017
Clear case of JUDICIAL MURDER by terror state Pakistan. Didn't Sartaj Aziz admit "there was no evidence against Kulbhushan Jadhav"??? Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) April 10, 2017
@ZeeNews We salute Kulbhushan Jadhav Jai Hind Kunj Kishore Gupta (@KunjKishore) April 10, 2017
On the Pakistani side, twitterati erupted with joy over the "fair trial" given to an "enemy of peace".
@OfficialDGISPR What a day today! Great news! Dr Alishba khan (@DrAlishbaKhan) April 10, 2017
@OfficialDGISPR Great Decision & zero tolerance toward anyone who tries to harm #Pakistan no matter whether he is Indian or NawazSharif&KhawajaAsif Muneer (@PakArmyySSG) April 10, 2017
@OfficialDGISPR Thanks for the timely decision. Salute n so proud of our Army. sarosh yakoob mehdi (@whereangelsdare) April 10, 2017
Good to hear Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death. There should be no mercy for the enemies of Peace. #Kalbushan Rimsha Khan (@RimshaKhanPk) April 10, 2017
United States President Donald Trump, a former reality TV star, likes theatrical flourishes.
By attacking the Syrian al-Shayrat airbase with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles following a horrific chemical attack that killed more than 80 men, women and children in the rebel-occupied town of Khan Sheikhoun, Trump has achieved the impossible: grudging praise from the Washington establishment that since he took office on January 20, 2017, has tried to discredit, demean and delegitimise his presidency.
No one yet knows for sure who launched the chemical attack. Those who have been trying to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad since 2011 claimed within hours of the attack that it was the handiwork of the Syrian army.
Regime change in Syria has been the stated policy of the Western establishment: the US, Britain, France and the rest of NATO. Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which despise Assad, are fully on board. So are the Gulf states, some of whom were the early financiers of the Islamic State (ISIS).
Till last week, Trump had dismissed criticism of Assad. He was a "bad hombre" but the West's real fight was with ISIS.
Syria was fighting ISIS. Russia was fighting ISIS. Iran was fighting ISIS. Trump's policy put the US firmly on the side of Syria, Russia and Iran despite deep differences with Damascus, Moscow and Tehran.
The Washington establishment is packed with regime-change hawks. It wants Assad out at any cost even if it means weakening the fight against ISIS. Trump opposed this strategy, drawing the fury of Washington's elite. The media and Democratic politicians have since Trump's election sought to change his views on Assad. They had failed - till last Thursday night.
So what changed Trump's mind? And what does it bode for the fight to defeat ISIS in Syria?
Trump said it was the heart-rending photos of "beautiful babies" dying after the chemical attack. The visuals sickened the world.
Trump being Trump, however, also saw an opportunity. He seized it.
Ever since he became president, Washington's political, military and media elite has eviscerated him for being soft on Vladimir Putin's Russia which it claimed "interfered" with the US presidential election.
House Intelligence and Ethics Committees are probing the interference for which no evidence has so far emerged.
However, the relentless campaign by the establishment media led by The New York Times and The Washington Post has forced House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes to recuse himself. Nunes has discovered evidence of Obama-era intelligence surveillance of Trump's transition team by Susan Rice, President Obama's National Security Advisor (NSA). The surveillance, if proved, could lead to criminal charges against Rice and tarnish Obama's presidency.
So while Russian collusion in Trump's election remains unproved, there is mounting evidence of Obama officials' surveillance of Trump's campaign team designed to help the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump has achieved the impossible: grudging praise from the Washington establishment for attacking the al-Shayrat airbase. Photo: Reuters
Meanwhile, under-fire Trump has suffered two defeats. The courts twice stopped his travel ban from Muslim countries. His bid to repeal Obamacare - a key Trump campaign promise - was defeated by ideological infighting within his own party.
The confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is an isolated Trump triumph. With his popularity ratings lower than that of any US president this early in his term, Trump needed a "home run" win. Syria gave him one.
In hours, the establishment media hailed his "decisive and forceful" action. More crucially, the charge of Trump being cosy with Putin and Russia crumbled. Syria is Russia's client state. Moscow's only Middle East base is in Syria. Putin, on cue, ordered an immediate end to coordination with US forces in Syria following the US missile strike.
Trump has promised further action against Syria if Moscow doesn't "contain" Assad. So is regime change in Syria back on the table? The West and its embedded media would like to think so. They would like the US to do in Assad's Syria what it did in Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2003 and in Muammar Gaddafi's Libya in 2011.
In both vacuums, the Islamic State and al-Qaeda stepped in. It has taken several years and several thousand lives to drive Islamists out of the areas they occupied in Syria, Iraq and Libya, beheading men, raping women and killing children. The barbaric assault on the Yazidis and their children by ISIS remains a haunting reminder of the real enemy the world faces in the Middle East: Islamists.
Assad is a brutal dictator. He may or may not have been responsible for last week's chemical attack: no hard evidence has yet been proferred. But it is up to the Syrian people, not the West and its embedded media, to judge him and overthrow him.
His replacements, whom the West has for six years armed and funded, are brutal Islamists like those who ran amok in Iraq and Libya once Saddam and Gaddafi had been killed by Western special forces.
If the same happens in Syria, it is the long-suffering Syrians who will continue to suffer the most. The Islamist rebel groups fighting Assad have Western arms and money. Post-Assad, they will turn Syria into another Libya or Yemen, fertile ground for a rejuvenated ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Trump might be a better TV reality star than a president. But even he knows the West's real security lies in defeating Islamist terror groups in Syria, not ousting Assad.
By attacking Assad with Tomahawk missiles and defying Russia, Trump has given himself elbow room and quietened criticism from the Washington establishment.
The Trump-Xi summit at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, seems to have gone off well. A US spokesman says that the President was very pleased with the outcomes of the meeting. While the Chinese readout by Xinhua was dryer, speaking of the meeting setting a constructive tone for the development of China-US relations.
The most important takeaway was, in the words of US secretary of state Rex Tillerson that the chemistry between the two leaders was positive.
Candid chemistry
Given Trumps demonisation of China through the election campaign and the early turbulence that hit the relationship on the issue of One China policy, the outcome was not easy to predict. Clearly, however, Trump went out of his way to be hospitable to his Chinese guest.
With good chemistry to start with, the two key countries on the global stage can bring what the Chinese call win win solutions to their problems, and to those of the world. A measure of the success of the meeting was the decision to raise the level of the various bilateral dialogues that the two countries undertake on economic, law and order, cyber security and diplomatic and security issues. They will now be overseen by the two presidents.
The Trump-Xi summit at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, seems to have gone off well.
There was plain speaking on both sides, more so on the Americans who profess to have had a litany of complaints. So, as Tillerson noted, President Trump noted the challenges caused by Chinese government intervention in its economy and raised serious concerns about the impact of Chinas industrial, agricultural, technology and cyber policies on US jobs and exports.
The US was also candid in telling the Chinese that they must adhere to international norms in the East and South China Seas and to their own earlier statements saying that they would not militarise the region. The Chinese side emphasised its position on the Taiwan issue and the Tibet-related issues. In other words, re-emphasised its sensitivity to matters relating to its national territory.
In addition, it put forward its position on the South China Sea issue. There was convergence on North Korea and the need to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. But the Chinese made their opposition to the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea clear. For its part, the US, which is the target of North Koreas nuclear and missile weapons, is keeping its powder dry.
But the Chinese side could not have missed the significance of the American missile strike on a Syrian base at the time their President was dining with his American counterpart. But it was only after Xi left the US that the Chinese media openly criticised the strike as being the actions of a weakened president who needed to show he was tough.
Mutual gains
For the Trump administration, clearly, the first priority is not North Korea or the South China Sea, but to get some action on the trade and investment front. They are looking for short-term and long-term responses from their Chinese counterparts.
As part of this there is the 100-day plan which will have specific benchmarks aimed at enhancing US exports to China and reducing the trade deficit between them.
In some ways, the feel-good summit meets the purposes of both parties. Xi Jinping has ensured that the unpredictable Trump will not surprise him between now and the all-important 19th Party Congress later this year.
At the same time he has burnished his image within his country as a statesman who can confidently step out and deal with the worlds biggest power on the basis of equality.
As for Trump, the gains are more subtle. Having assumed power after a shock result, Trump was simply not ready for the complex global issues that a US President must deal with. Following the summit, he has time to, first, work out the basic outline of what his own foreign policy will be; as of now, as the case of Syria shows, he is merely improvising.
Equally, his trade officials have time to work out a longer term policy to tackle the problems outlined by Secretary Tillerson above.
Regular dialogue
That said, this can be seen as a first encounter between the leaders of two very important countries. No doubt there will be many more, and perhaps some not so even. But it is in everyones interest that the two continue to engage each other and work out their problems through dialogue and negotiation.
Chinas impact on the world order will only intensify in the coming period. The Chinese are constantly searching for ways to tilt the playing field in its own favour and shift goalposts on whim.
The challenge is to ensure that it plays by the established rules, not cherry pick them, as is its wont.
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President Donald Trump has returned to square one with his tax reform as he seeks wide-ranging support from Republicans beyond legislation to give the tax systems an overhaul.
Officials in the White House said that it was now unlikely an overhaul in taxes would meet the deadline of August set by Secretary Mnuchin.
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The Trump administration is attempting to learn from its failure in bringing to life a new law for healthcare that would replace the Affordable Care Act and take an active role in the passing of the legislation.
Aides at the White House said Monday that the administrations goal is to cut the tax rates sufficiently enough to help improve the economic outlook in both industrial and rural areas across the U.S.
However, so far the administration has pushed aside different ways for increasing revenues like a carbon tax, to help offset lower rates.
Trump as of yet has not mentioned which trade-offs might be accepted and remained noncommittal on the leading plan for tax reform from Texas Representative Kevin Brady a Republican and Ways and Means Committee chair.
Brady proposed a system of border adjustments, which would end corporate deductions for imports, to receive more than $1 trillion during the next 10 years and could be used to fund the lower corporate rates.
However, the possibility upset retailers who have said it would lead to an increase in prices and threaten jobs, while other lawmakers worry that it would violate rules of the World Trade Organization.
Brady said he intends to make amends to his blueprint but would not spell out what he was planning to do.
One other option being talked about amongst congressional members on Capitol Hill changes the GOP plan in the House to eliminate the majority of payroll tax and cut tax rates for businesses and possibly require a dedicated Social Security funding source.
That change, offered by a lobbyist for the GOP with ties to the White House, would transform the plan of Brady on imports into something more similar to a value-added tax by eliminating the labor expenses deduction.
That would then bring it into lie with the rules of the WTO and would generate more than $12 trillion in additional revenues over the next decade.
The additional revenue would then enable the White House to end the 12.4% payroll tax, which funds Social Security.
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.
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.
Robert Llewellyn, a local professional photographer, talked about his next upcoming book and challenged the full house at the Ivy Creek Education Building on Sunday to change the way they see the natural world around them.
The presentation included a slideshow of his work, including some images that appear in his soon-to-be-released book, The Living Forest: A Journey into Natures Most Intricate Habitat.
Llewellyn has published several books, many of them focusing on nature. Some of his work contains images at nearly microscopic levels, showing the most finite and often overlooked details in plants that still amazed him even as he showed them to the crowd.
Llewellyn started Sundays presentation by telling the crowd, Seeing is better than looking. He said people always look at their surroundings, but they usually dont see the details within it.
Many in the audience expressed some form of awe and wonder for Llewellyns work as he went from one slide to another.
I listen for when people say, wow, and I try to put those moments in there because theyre hearing something new, he said. We go through life and most of the time we dont really experience new.
A majority of Llewellyns talk was spent showing photos of plants, particularly parts that he said nobody really looks at, such as the repetition in color patterns and differences and details of various seeds.
I liked him describing things as if an artist had designed a certain flower, said Megan McDaniels, a Charlottesville resident who attended the event.
One last challenge he left for the audience as the talk wrapped up was for them to try to see the things in life they normally look at, and to not take life on Earth for granted and to explore it.
Llewellyns newest book takes a deeper look into life in the forests, focusing on both plants and animals. Joan Maloof, a professor emeritus at Salisbury University in Maryland, wrote the text for The Living Forest.
Ive taken hikes in the forest, most of the time it was looking, Llewellyn said about actually seeing the forest when working on the book.
And so to make that shift you have to actually make that a mission, he said. So, suddenly, I had a mission, a mission to go photograph the forest.
Llewellyn said The Living Forest is the biggest project hes done yet. The book comes out in September.
As much as you may like my pictures or as much as you may like Joans writing, the mission of Joan and I is for you to see it and read it but then get up and go into the forest, he said.
McDaniels said she attended the talk to learn more about nature and the environment.
I really like hearing talks by people that are outside of the science field but discussing biology and science, she said. Its a really refreshing, wider perspective.
Lorna Werntz, a board member with the Ivy Creek Foundation, said Llewellyns work has played an informative role for the organization and that she is looking forward to his next book.
I think his presentation was not only perfect for our group, for our audience, but were so proud to have him as a neighbor in Charlottesville, she said.
Albemarles proposed fiscal year 2018 budget adds three operational staff positions aimed at reducing the amount of mandatory holdovers in the Albemarle County Fire Rescue department.
The FY18 proposed budget includes $15.4 million for the Fire Rescue Services Fund, an increase of 8.1 percent from FY17s adopted budget. About $221,000 would be for the three positions.
A mandatory holdover is when a fire-rescue employee is required to stay and work an additional 12 hours to cover for an employee who is not able to make their shift. If someone did not cover this shift, and an ambulance or fire engine was then not fully staffed, it would not be able to run.
But the problem were seeing is, increasingly, were not able to get anyone to volunteer to cover that shift employee or a volunteer, Andy Bowman, a county senior budget analyst, said at a recent budget work session.
In FY12, only 8 percent of overtime was from mandatory holdovers. In FY16, 26 percent of overtime was from mandatory holdovers.
Based on Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services regulations, safe operation of an ambulance requires a minimum of two people. The minimum staffing for a fire engine is three people, according to the Fire and EMS Board response policy.
Fire Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston said they have to have 33 people to staff all of the units each day. When it comes to staffing any apparatus, they look at a staffing factor. For instance, an ambulance in service for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, starts off with a factor of eight people.
Then we take that factor and then we figure out, OK, can we do it with seven, and if we use a little bit of overtime and some use of volunteers, do we have to hire eight? Can we hire something less than eight? Eggleston said. We do that as we put units in service. Were very, very conservative in terms of how many people we hire because obviously we want to keep our costs low.
That worked for some time, but now, due to more and more turnover, illnesses, family medical leave and injuries, they are increasingly holding people over to the next shift, he said.
Holdover is a common thing thats used in the fire service anyway, but when it gets to the point were holding a lot more people over than usual, thats what really concerns us, Eggleston said.
During FY16, there were 307 mandatory holdovers, up from 145 the previous fiscal year. The number fluctuates, though, as there were 206 mandatory holdovers in FY14 and 100 in FY13.
At their first budget work session in February, supervisors said they wanted to have a deeper conversation about the Fire Rescue Services Fund.
The fund was created in the FY16 budget to segregate all fire-rescue expenditures in one place, and a dedicated one-cent real estate tax rate increase was implemented that year to support the increasing fire-rescue costs.
Also that year, funding was ending for nine firefighters whose salaries were covered by grants since FY13, at a cost of $537,000, and the county was now going to have to cover the cost of those positions.
When we, and [former county Supervisor] Ken Boyd would always say this, when we have a staff person with a grant, we need to understand that someday its going to come home to roost and we need to be ready to make the choice to continue or not, Supervisor Ann H. Mallek said at a work session in March. I have a sense that this huge increase in the cost during the year when the fire fund was set up is because it all came home to roost, pretty much at once. And its been a great concern for me.
Staffing in the overall department increased from 80 in FY12 to 105 in FY13 because of a 24/7 fire engine that was added at the Ivy station and ambulance changes that occurred in the countys development areas.
There are approximately 500 volunteers, some whom are firefighters and others who do administrative work. Currently, there are 81 paid positions in the field, and four over-hire positions.
These would bring it up to 84 and give us a little bit more room such that that combined with our over-hires, well see whether or not we can affect the number of times we hold people over, Eggleston said.
Those over-hires allow for the department to fill positions more quickly, by allowing them to bring in more people for training when they know they have upcoming vacancies.
Its above what our [full-time-equivalent]-allotted count is, but we do that knowing that theres going to be a retirement in the not-too-distant future, such that we can put those people in recruit school, because it takes about a year to train someone and totally release them such that theyll fill a minimum staffing position, Eggleston said.
A system-wide fleet management position also is in the proposed budget. The position, which would perform preventive maintenance and coordinate repairs and contractual services, would cost about $108,000 annually.
Vehicle repair and maintenance expenses by volunteer stations have increased an average of 23 percent a year since FY12, but county contributions to stations for these expenses have only increased an average of 10 percent a year.
As these systems are getting more and more complex, we really do need a level of expertise beyond what we have now, to have a dedicated resource who can help out with these issues, Bowman said.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the budget and another on the calendar year 2017 tax rate at 6 p.m. Tuesday. At a meeting at 2:30 p.m. April 18, the board is scheduled to adopt a budget and set the tax rate. Both meetings will be at the Albemarle County Office Building on McIntire Road.
The campaigns for Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and former 5th District Rep. Tom Perriello announced they will both participate in a series of debates and forums across Virginia in April and May, including one in Charlottesville.
The two gubernatorial candidates will appear in a forum at the University of Virginia on May 13. The forum, which will be one month before the Democratic primary, is being hosted by the University Democrats. Details on the event will be released later, the campaigns said.
The U.S. Supreme Court no longer gets to use the word respect. Throw out justice, fairness, equality. From now on just use force.
For all of my life, courts especially the Supreme Court were places of deep respect and hope. I suspect, and want, that judges desire their courts and their rulings to be both respected and feared. Respected by the vast majority of law-abiding members of our society while needing those few who insist on breaking the law to fear a court's rulings.
Now, we all must fear. Because brute political force and raw political gain were the method and the result of the recent Garland-Gorsuch farce, in which a Republican Senate first stonewalled President Obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, and then overrode opposition to President Trumps nominee, Neil Gorsuch.
Representative democracy relies on the rule of, and respect of, the law. Despite what White House press secretary Sean Spicer says, process matters very much. In point of fact, process is the entire point of representative democracy.
Unfortunately, when the vast majority of a nation's citizens can no longer respect a court's rulings and are shown that force is the basis of a court's power, chaos cannot be far behind. Banana republics use such methods; totalitarianism relies on the big lie, the swindled vote, accommodating courts and force.
If as a citizen I cannot expect my representatives to respect and follow the democratic process, then what am I left with? If we continue to allow our democratic processes to be perverted beyond all recognition, then what were the past 253 years for?
After the Gorsuch vote, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walked out of the Senate with a self-satisfied smile on his face. The blindfolded lady, stripped of her sword, was left behind with a tear on her face.
Paul Fox, Albemarle County
ATHENS - Greece - "What debt? We don't owe anyone anything? You people must be having a larf?" Greece's finance minister told Reuters yesterday.
Even though the Greek debt levels are 170% of their GDP, their infrastructure is shot to shit, and their bonds are worth less than junk status, Greece still soldiers on amidst the torrent of messages signalling that they should get out of the euro as soon as possible.
Forget about butter and sugar mountains that rich EU states like Germany are flouting, Greeces huge debt mountain is even bigger than Mount Olympus.
It is kind of ironic that the place where the birth of democracy is sited should be a place that will destroy the Fascistic EU, with its single currency state, a political commentator from Brussels told the BBC.
Its not just the Greek finance minister, or other Greek hierarchy who deny there is a problem, the unelected EU technocrats are also denying vehemently that there is any ounce of Greek debt that cannot be dealt with.
Servicing the Greek debt involves paying more in interest payments alone than the yearly income of Greece. There is no way in hell they will be able to re-pay the extra loans they have received, and whats more, there is the further issue of the majority of the Greek population, who do not pay tax, and retire at the age of 45 with full state pensions and other EU subsidies.
Let the Germans pay for it
Nikos Malineros, 38, is a government officer from Athens: I work two days a week, then the rest are my days off, all paid for by EU subsidies and what little tax payers we have in Greece. Im set to retire in a few years with a full salary pension and I even receive bonuses each year if I attend more than one day a week at my post as chief of Municipal Aggregation.
After the smouldering ruins of the Greek economy fade away into the darkness, the ghosts of the great Socrates, Homer and Plato will smile knowing that Greece has dealt a divisive blow upon the un-democratic Achilles heel of the evil EU juggernaut.
We as Greeks first gave the EU a wooden horse as a gift. Then we breached their walls with our huge debt and moribund state. We lied to get into the rich club, then we squandered the EU subsidies and spent like there was no tomorrow. Now look at the EU, they are teetering on the edge of a huge precipice to be smashed on the rocks. By Zeus, we have smote the mighty Kraken with one fell swoop, Stavros Acropolis, a shop owner from Athens told Axiaplus news.
Dont worry, just drink some more ouzo, short the euro, and smash a few more plates, it will all be over soon.
Malibu CA - Dark sordid tales from the rehab dungeons of D-List celebrity hell. There's a celebrity mentalist on the loose! Never fear help is at hand.
Dr. Frankenheimer of the Celebrity Institute of Rehabilitation Labs Inc. in Malibu California has operated on many patients in his time as an esteemed member of the Institute.
Terminal attention seeking Disorder, Paparazzi hungry media whore Syndrome and Hey look at me Im famous for sucking the right peep syndrome are all D-list celebrity success ploys he has thus treated.
Amongst the many clients he has counselled the glamour star lazy left eye Paris Hilton who has got her lizard-like claws into most facets of worldwide media, a former boy band member or two and other minor celebrities.
Dr. Frankenheimers many techniques for treatment include debasement and ego tenderizing examinations. These groundbreaking medical sessions involve bringing the deluded celebrities back down to earth from their false-fame aspirations to reveal their true selves.
A routine treatment involves the minor celebrity be strapped to a chair and forced to listen to their own music or watch video footage of themselves for 48 hours straight at high decibel levels. The D-List stars will then be further naturalized by having members of the medical team urinate on them from approximately 10 feet above their cell mattress.
These are an integral process for the institute and have proved so successful that the programs are now being integrated within the world of American Politics where there are many who are masquerading as something they are not Statesman.
Dr Frankenheimers thesis is one taken straight from the text book of a future Nobel Laureate.
After five days of having former pop star Robbie Williams anally raped by three convicts on parole, Dr Frankenheimer had to up the scale because he found that some patients actually enjoyed being butt mashed by convicts.
The next level was to have Williams placed in a courtyard with some young ladies in short skirts and this was a truly repulsive task for Williams resulting in a weight loss program from running.
Admission
Naturally, waiting lists for treatment are currently three years behind for the ground breaking cure. Costs are in the region of $6,000 per day for an 8 by 4 cell and the brochure states that one must be a minor D-Listed Celebrity to join.
As most people who are in the media light at the moment fall under this bracket there is a huge demand. The many Rehab clinics for Celebrities that have sprung up all over California have attempted to capitalise on Dr Frankenheimers success but none have the same pulling power.
I needed help and the doc got it for me. Exclaims Mr Williams as he fondles his pet Chihuahua in the holding cell. There was no hope left, I actually thought I was a talented musician and star.
It seems he now knows what he really is A moribund working-mans-club ex boyband twink.
To get to the top I had to please a lot of managers and executives, my knee pads were wearing out and I mustve gulped big wads of success juice.
A recovering D-Lister Williams now holds court in his cell and when it is lunch time eats his mush with pride. Williams looks up at me from his recently soiled mattress and says poignantly.
I am now ready to go back out and take my true place as a dustman for Greater Manchester Council.
All Hell Breaks Loose
Jay Kay from the ailing pop act Jamiroquai checks into the lab as I interview the talented doctor and immediately a cordon of nurses and security men descend upon the little pop star.
There is a commotion as the deluded star assumes they are paparazzi and his fans when in fact they are not holding cameras but restraining equipment including a large straight jacket.
I nod at the doctor and show my approval, it has been a long time coming.
Looking upon the plaque on the wall in the admissions centre, it is plain to see that the clientele list is a veritable whos who of stars from the 90s onward.
It is not surprising to see such luminaries as Simon Cowell, Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie, these are par for the course as well as distinguished alumni like Fred Durst and Black Eyed Peas.
The list is immense and a commemoration rivaling the rosta of a cheap ego stroking benefits concert for poor people in Africa.
It is safe to say that the institute has an endless supply of talentless hacks to deck their illustrious blood and vomit soaked walls.
LOS ANGELES - USA - The latest installment of the Jackass franchise movies is said to be so realistic that some cinemagoers are actually afraid to attend theatres where the film is being shown.
I thought the car was coming straight for me, it was so realistic I had to duck out of the f*cking way, a cinema patron told Hollywood Week.
Sponsored by a bourbon whiskey company from somewhere down south, the new Jackass 4D Reality films North American release has wowed audiences from Alabama to Saskatchewan.
The films producer, Avidor Nagelberger said: This time we went so far that some of our cast members and audience got splatted for real. Dont try these stunts at home kids or you too could end up like a well done steak. Oh, and remember folks, dont drink and drive, because we dont care if you kill yourself, its the innocent people you take with you that is the real tragedy. Thats your lesson in morality for today, you know how all American films have to have some moral treatise at the end of every movie, well, thats our message to you guys, so go home tonight and drive safe folks.
The Jackass 4D Reality film will be released in the UK in November 2011.
The only direction One Direction went today was down the gullets of a some Great White sharks, Ernest B. Cecilmayer, chief lifeguard at Miamis West Beach told Fox news.
The feeding frenzy started at 3 pm Monday on Miamis West beach. The boy band were taking time off from one of their mime shows and went for a swim.
We saw them go further out into the ocean, and then there was some serious splashing going on. One minute they were there with their perfectly coiffed poncey haircuts, and the next there was just red everywhere. I just started cheering right there and then and punching the air in delight at the demise of the most nauseating irritating bunch of shisters foisted on whats left of the music biz. If I could kiss those sharks I would, I wanted to shake their fins, to hug them for cleansing the world of crap. One Direction went down to hell in one fell swoop, they didnt take the elevator but they took the water slide down there via a sharks stomach. I sincerely hope those poor sharks dont get a bad case of indigestion, Cuthbert Eagleboise, a witness and music lover at the beach recounted.
A spokesman from One Directions record label, Syco Records, said they were very sad about the news and would immediately be bringing out a Greatest Hits record to celebrate their spectacular career in the pop world.
Marine Biologist at Florida Sea World, Laura Kiltner, said: The splashing from the boy band must have attracted the sharks. We estimate there were three or four large Great Whites in the vicinity who must have been hungry because the feeding frenzy lasted for all of two minutes. Sharks rarely attack humans but in this case I think they saw One Direction and thought they might enjoy a little snack.
The unfortunate drawback of the wonderful demise of the entire One Direction boy band is that there may be a few weeks of tributes on the airwaves, but thankfully they will be forever forgotten after that.
NASHVILLE - USA - According to reports from beautiful songstress Taylor Swift's record company, she is now looking for more song material for her new album.
Taylor Swift is looking for new song material for her latest album which will no doubt fly off the shelves to pre-pubescent girls when it comes out next week.
Shes a fast worker, she can come up with an album in less than a week, an executive from her record company told Rolling Stone magazine.
By noon yesterday queues of eager men were snaking around the building where Taylor Swift was located reports from local news stations said.
One man in the queue, Ed Gaines, 38, from Nashville said: Amon getta chance to be on a Taylor Swift abum, uh huh. Cant wait to get on her and getta work, then when am furnished, she gawn chuck me outta the room and git the next boy in.
HANOVER - Germany - Russian president, Vladimir Putin was seen to be enjoying himself thoroughly at a trade show.
The whole thing was boring until I saw something that definitely perked me up. No Im not talking about a trade deal with Germany, but a lovely pair of bouncing breasts, Mr Putin revealed during the show.
One of Putins aides said: We need more of these topless female protesters showing us their hot assets.
Heres to more Femen protesting gals cheering everyone up, we need more politics like this.
BOSTON - USA - Food scientists at MIT who are sponsored by GM company Monsanto have revealed they have invented GM food that walks off your plate and into your mouth.
You ever seen a piece of celery walk up your arm, then gently pop into your open mouth? Well, we have GM vegetables and fruits that can sprout legs and walk to your waiting mouth saving you a whole lot of trouble. The old days of knives and forks are over folks, welcome to the future, professor Harold Fenster, project leader on the GM Food Trotter project told New Scientist magazine.
Depending on how hungry a person is, the GM food has different levels of speed and urgency in which it will find its way to your mouth.
You might be late for work. No problem, just tap on the table three times and the GM food hurries up. A word of caution though, you dont want to tap too much or you could choke with GM food traffic, another scientist on the project revealed.
The new GM food will be available in shops in 2016 after further tests are completed.
JERUSALEM - Israel - An astounding archaeological find has revealed that Jesus of Nazareth was teetotal and changed wine into water instead of water into wine.
Scholars have found firm evidence that Jesus Christ turned wine into water.
An intriguing find bears witness to the teetotal miracle that Jesus Christ performed at the Marriage at Cana.
The text from the gospel of John 2:6-10 which has been used for all these years tells of Jesus turning water into wine for the guests of the wedding banquet at Cana.
This however has been found to be a fabrication created by the wine industry at the time of John to encourage consumption of red wine.
Ancient Aramaic words inscribed on a limestone tablet found in Jerusalem on Wednesday by a team of experts from the Geological Survey of Israel have revealed that Jesus was a strict teetotal and shunned alcohol at all costs. This goes against the grain of most Christians and was hushed up for many centuries.
John, who was a devout alcoholic himself, when writing the gospel decided to skip over this facet of Jesus character which he did not approve of and changed the miracle around. John is also believed to have received large donations from wine merchants for including the wine miracle into his gospel.
According to the tablet: Jesus at the wedding in Cana changed the wine into water then handed it to guests as an example of goodness. He was then thrown out of the wedding with his followers for changing the weddings vast wine supply into water and being such a spoil sport. The master of the banquet was very angry with Jesus because he paid a lot of money for the wine.
The tablet goes on to say that Jesus was anti-alcohol ever since drinking one too many at a wedding in Hebron aged twelve. The tablet recalls Jesus drinking many amphoras of wine only to projectile vomit over the assembled wedding party. Needless to say, the tablet describes Jesus leaving the wedding in disgrace. He was put off drink ever since that fateful day and wherever he went would turn wine into water because he could not even stand the sight or smell of it anymore.
Scholars have been astounded by this discovery and churches all over the world are now revising their bibles as we speak.
Hank Shanks, editor of Biblical Alcoholic Review, which announced the discovery, explained that the inscription was reviewed by Methusaleh Chetmyer, one of the worlds foremost experts on first-century Aramaic and a preeminent Dead Sea Scrolls editor. Professor Chetmyer was at first troubled by the spelling of the word for pissed, because it was a plural form used centuries later. But further research yielded the same form in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and on another first-century tablet. I stand corrected, Professor Chetmyer said.
The head of Alcoholics Anonymous has praised the new find and will incorporate Jesus new teachings within its world-renowned therapy sessions.
There has been some major opposition regarding the new find from some Christians. Next theyre going to tell us that Jesus was not blonde with blue eyes and did not have Aryan white skin. What a load of gobbledy gook, exclaims the Reverend Al Koholik from the Presbyterian Church in West Fulchester Maine.
SAMARRA - Iraq - A US Marine was today honoured for his puppy tossing skills in the yearly competition held in Samarra.
The 5th Iraqi Puppy Toss Contest was held this year in Samarra, an Iraqi religious hotspot about 124 km north of Baghdad. The event was a huge success for the American troops attending.
This is how we keep our mens morale up. Its a hard job killing and shooting innocent civilians every day. This way the men get to unwind for a few hours by hurling little defenceless puppies over cliffs instead of defenceless Iraqi civilians, Major Christian Portman told the Daily Squib.
The occupying US soldiers are notorious in Iraq for treating Iraqis like sub-human Untermenschen and it is no surprise that they do not treat defenceless animals any better.
George W Bush and his paymaster industrialists are also responsible for the largest displacement of peoples in the Middle East in a thousand years, the deaths of millions of Iraqi civilians and the largest spread of depleted uranium in recorded history.
The Puppy Toss competition began at midday. Under the beating Iraqi sun a troop of Marines and assorted army personnel descended to the edge of the cliff where the competition was to be held.
Private Meat Johnsons is up first and tosses a whimpering little white puppy into the ravine. He manages a 40 yard throw and is top of the leaderboard.
Next, Sergeant Pat McGraw steps up and tosses a little Labrador all of 30 yards into the deep ravine. He is behind the leader now.
It is now the turn of Lance Corporal David Motari who tosses with confidence a little puppy called Sonny 50 yards to win the prize.
The black-and-white puppy makes a yelping sound as it flies through the air towards its certain demise.
The audience of assembled marines lap up the show and pat the triumphant Lance Corporal on the back dubbing him a credit to the USMC.
Dick Cheney, who regularly tosses puppies in the air on shooting trips, addressed the competition winners from a satellite broadcast later on in the day:
The United States is proud of you guys for your bravery and courage. It takes a lot to do all the things you guys do while we profit off misery and pain, said the former chief executive of Halliburton, who still has not exercised his massive stock options. He then lit a huge cigar and started laughing maniacally.
The winner of the US Marine competition was awarded a puppy-shaped trophy and given $250 as prize money so he can buy some more hookers when he gets back to base.
LONDON - England - Vast reserves of oil have been discovered in London close to the Queen's palace. On hearing of the wonderful news, George W Bush despatched an invasion force.
Addressing
congress from a televised conference recorded in the Oval room, George
W Bush described the imminent threat posed by Englands weapons of
mass destruction.
Intelligence gathered by this and other
governments leaves no doubt that the English regime continues to
possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised, Mr
Bush said in his speech.
The US president also stated that British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was trying to build nuclear missiles that could hit Washington in 45 minutes.
We know for a fact that there are weapons
there. Britain has chemical, nuclear and biological weapons, Brown has continued to produce them, he has existing and active military
plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be
activated within 45 minutes against Washington,
There
are also purported to be tonnes of yellowcake uranium under the Queens
palace situated 5 km west of London as well as multiple mobile missile
launching sites manned by Al Qaeda members dotted around the capital.
Vice President, Dick Cheney added: Simply stated, there is no doubt that Gordon Brown now has weapons of mass destruction.
Shock and Awe
Gordon Brown poses an immediate threat to the United States of America. I
have ordered our forces to strike decisively and with great precision.
We will eliminate the imminent threat to our country and return the oil
reserves to their rightful owner the USA.
The presidents
speech was received with rapturous applause and cheer from the
assembled Fox News crew in the White House oval office. Fox news
anchor, Bill OReilly was seen to wet his spandex trousers with delight
at the news of another war.
Liberation
The British oil find is said to be approximately three trillion barrels
worth and would supply the US with enough oil until the end of August of this year.
If we invade by next week we can be drilling and pumping the oil by week two, a Halliburton employee told Fox news.
The
people of Britain who have suffered for many years are said to be
happy that the US has finally come round to invading them and getting
rid of the vile dictator Brown.
The 71-year-old Republican, who was best known for his torture tactics during the George W. Bush administrations War of Perpetual Terror, was in the intensive care unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia.
Cheney, who never had a human heart before, but instead had a blackened charcoal type object in his chest, has now received a human heart from an anonymous donor.
The heart was ripped out from a live donor who had been detained and tortured in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Dick wanted the freshest possible human heart, Cheneys spokeswoman, Tara Torcher, said.
During Cheneys eight years as vice president from 2001 to 2009, he was responsible for the deaths and torture of millions of people around the world.
Cheney was a strong advocate for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was among the most outspoken of Bush administration officials warning of the danger from Iraqs suspected stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were ever found.
Cheneys doctor, Al Hertyu, said: We managed to get him a human heart. Cheney is not human, so the human heart will probably be rejected unless we pump his body full of drugs to stop the rejection of tissue. For someone like Dick Cheney, a human heart is an alien object and his antibodies will fight it with all their might.
MOUNTAIN VIEW - USA - The Google and Yahoo algorithms have been caught in a massive internet brawl that threatened to shut down search requests all over the internet today.
We had to get some mediators in this morning when the fight spilled over onto the Microsoft Bing network, a distraught Google engineer revealed today at 2pm (EST).
By late afternoon the chaos continued as the Yahoo algorithm started threatening the Google algorithm with misleading search answers.
Internet users on both search engines were getting odd and conflicting answers to their questions.
One user, Archibald Leftwick, 28, from Los Angeles wrote on his blog: I was searching for the latest Obamacare news and asked the question, Where can I get Obamacare? the answer Google gave caught me by surprise, it was just a single blank page with a gif of a tongue flapping at me. Then I went to Yahoo and searched for the same thing, all I got was a single sentence saying Google is a big stinky poo and needs to douche. Thats when I just gave up for the day.
As for the daily Google doodle, that was changed by the Yahoo algorithm to a picture of the Yahoo logo, which infuriated many staunch Googlers worldwide.
As of writing, things have calmed down a little but engineers are still standing by just in case the algorithms start up again.
MOUNTAN VIEW - USA - Maybe it is time that Google ventured into unknown territory by creating their own society, government and complete technical culture.
Professor Rodrigues Martine, of Boston Applied Science University outlines some of the vagaries of being a glasshole.
What stands for Google, who are supreme innovators in the technical field, certainly does not stand for the rest of the mundane population.
This is why they need to open their own exclusive territory where people dedicated to the transhumanist ideology can be free from the masses.
The Google glass is one small step towards a bigger prize, but it will be hard to sell to the general public purely because big technological jumps are usually frowned upon by most.
Try picking your kid up from school whilst wearing your Google glass, and you may be arrested or beaten up by other parents. Try going to a pub with your Google glass, and you may get glassed literally with a broken pint glass.
The answer for Google is to acquire its own technological island, instil its own laws, currency, advanced military systems and to promote freedom, the thirst for ultimate knowledge, life extension and an advanced technological society that transcends the sedentary morose societal and governmental structures in place in existing countries today. Governments around the world today are sluggish corrupt organisations still entrenched in the past, it is best to start from scratch, because the entrenched nature of these entities are irreparable.
Google certainly has the money to start its own colony, city, country and government, so what is holding them back?
PRETORIA - South Africa - Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius has begun serving a five year jail sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The former athlete was driven to Pretorias Kgosi Mampuru prison where Bubba Mkosi, a hardened murderer and bodybuilder was waiting for him in his new cell.
I cant wait to meet my new cell mate. Me and my friends are all star struck. We havent had a wit seun in here in ages. Dont worry Oscar, we will go light on you, plenty of butter, Mkosi revealed to local news services from his cell.
Judge Thokozile Masipa gave Oscar Pistorius a five-year jail sentence for culpable homicide, but cleared him of murder because he was a celebrity.
TEXAS - USA - Obama: This is your land now, we give it to you, the dreamers, you can now come from far and wide, the doors are open, America is finally yours. Welcome!
Thas right folks, all yall whitey were immigrants to North America once and you systematically conducted a program of genocide on Native Americans killing millions, but dont let that make you feel bad it was only hundreds of years back huh, President Obama told an immigration hearing set up by the Republicans.
Americas opposition party have been somewhat caught out in the headlights, having gained control over congress they still find themselves ineffectual and impotent as the Democrat president moves ahead with another executive order.
Open Doors
One of the presidents aides, Ungawa Mkosu, had this to say about allowing the first tranche of 5 million illegals into the U.S.
First were going to let in 5 million this month, then after that its a message to some of the poorest nations in South America to come on over. Your people have hope, America, the land of opportunity is also yours, built up, ready to use. You wont have to live in slums any more, Americans will welcome you into their mansions, the streets are paved with gold, if you have a medical problem you will be cured in some of the best hospitals in the world for free. We will give you food, housing and jobs. You want to work, many Americans are too lazy, they have been entertained to the point of being obsolete, so you will take their place. America has opened its doors, Obama be praised, not just from South America, you can come from Africa, India, China, anywhere.
The dreamers have awakened, the gift bestowed on them by Barack Hussein Obama beckons.
Now is the time to act. America is everyones land now.
LONDON, England - Tony Blair left office today to praise and cheers from the people of Britain and America.
At a Downing Street press conference today, the former Prime Minister Tony Blair was presented with some framed photographs to commemorate his term in office.
The photographs depicting a shooting from Tal Afar Iraq are an excellent reminder to the Prime Minister of the legacy he has left behind and how he will be viewed in history.
Under Tony Blairs and George W Bushs leadership, over 140,000 Iraqis have been killed.
George W Bush, however, has not reached his target of 500,000 Iraqis murdered and will carry on the fight without Tony who is taking an early exit.
Over the last ten years Mr Blair has not achieved much, apart from taking Britain into a war which has caused the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, pumping Iraq full of depleted uranium and displacing millions of people from their homes.
With a proud tear in his eye, Mr Blair accepted the gifts which were presented by six year old Alice Johansen who is the daughter of the US Ambassador to Britain.
Mr Blair was later honoured by the Queen at Buckingham Palace and presented with a medal as appreciation for services rendered to the country.
Mr Blair, who will begin his new job as Middle East Peace Envoy, is already calculating his untaxed kick-backs income which will no doubt be immense.
The incoming gurning unelected Prime Minister Gordon Brown has vowed to carry on the Blair mantle and as he was mumbled into office today he promised that British troops would stay in Iraq and Afghanistan indefinitely.
The rest of the country, however, is resigned to the fate of listening to this morose mumbling idiot for a whole year before he is ousted from his podium of dour hard labour.
Militants from the Palestinian faction Hamas today destroyed the last piece of standing rubble in the Gaza Strip after several days of fighting in which 8000 people have died.
Hamas said it had gained control of much of the rubble and concrete dust in the south after pushing Fatah gunmen out of the north as well as Israeli troops mortars from the east.
The last piece of standing rubble was destroyed by a mortar shell in the northern town of Nablus today at midday.
A senior Hamas official said the two sides had agreed about who owns the most rubble and broken bricks, but clashes continued in Gaza City over rubble rights.
The Hamas official told the Squib that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, from Hamas, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, from Fatah, had spoken on the telephone.
Details have been released on how Palestinians are going to cope with no shelter if it rains.
Rubble in the jungle
The Hamas source said a nine-point plan had been presented to Fatah which includes demands that Hamas build a shelter out of the remaining pieces of rubble before anymore rubble is pulverised into more fine dust.
Hamas also demanded that it share control with Fatah of any shelter that is built from the rubble, the official said.
The Hamas source said Fatah had agreed to the proposal but there has been no independent confirmation from Fatah.
Madness
Armed members from the factions have been battling in Gaza for several days for control of concrete blocks and rubble pieces.
We demand that all rubble is not destroyed into small pieces of dust. Mahmoud Abbas
Palestinian Authority President Rubble in the jungle
At least 1700 people were reported killed in fighting on Wednesday with 6300 reported to have died since Saturday.
Hamas appears to be winning this bitter battle for all-out control of destroyed concrete breeze blocks and rubble, says the Squibs Ali Qat in Ramallah, on the West Bank.
Clashes have been going on since Saturday when hundreds of Fatah and Hamas gunmen fought on the streets and rooftops of Rafah with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
A truce agreed on Monday was quickly broken and fighting escalated across northern Gaza.
On Wednesday, the fighting spread across central and southern Gaza.
In the latest developments:
At least 200 gunmen of the Fatah-allied Bakr stole a truck load of rubble from Hamas in Gaza City, clan elders and witnesses said
An explosion wrecked the Khan Younis rubble pile which stood 3 feet high
There were clashes in Gaza City near a local
Fatah commanders rubble pile for control of three breeze blocks and a few concrete boulders. Six militants were reported killed
International appeal
The Squibs Ali Qat was taken by Fatah militants to Balata in Nablus where he was shown the Hamas concrete block pile 5 feet high and 3 feet wide which was later destroyed by Israeli shell fire.
The Fatah men promised rubble for rubble in the West Bank if the Hamas and Israeli attacks in Gaza did not stop.
Close up view of Gaza
Hamas has issued its own ultimatum to Fatah militants in Gaza to lay down their sledgehammers and bombs by 1600 GMT on Friday or risk having them taken from them.
A senior UN co-ordinator for the Middle East said the situation in Gaza was one of the gravest crises the Palestinian people had faced.
I think were witnessing a Hamas rubble rousing in Gaza which will be very difficult to reverse, Andrew Roberts, a senior UN co-ordinator for the Middle East, told the Squib.
Two workers from the UN relief agency were also among those who died on Wednesday when a Hamas miltant stole a Fatah militants piece of rubble.
The UN said it would temporarily scale back its operations in Gaza.
The international community has called for a ceasefire, and Arab League head Amr Moussa said the fighting was destroying too much rubble and soon all would be left is sand.
Fatah also says it will continue breaking rubble into smaller pieces if a truce cannot be reached. How long before the two factions can cement together some common ground?
LONDON - England - If we forget our past what will become of our future? The capital city is in danger, and yet no one is willing to talk about it or even acknowledge what is happening. The coming general election in May will hopefully render some answers.
London has always been a cosmopolitan city, but what exists today is something completely different, its a place where a person cannot breathe any more, a place where a person cannot ride on the overflowing transport system, a place where the narrow streets are impassible from the volume of traffic, a place where gangs of roaming thugs or aggressive EU beggars threaten those in their way, a place where the sheer volume of people never ends with a limitless influx, a place where the true spirit of London has sadly been lost forever.
There is an understanding that globalist pressures are under way, however Britain is but a small isle, it has little space left for the momentum and speed of the vast influx. One must also consider the overcrowded underfunded schools, the faltering NHS hospitals splitting with the sheer volume influx, the public transport systems that cannot cope and the stationary roads where vehicles are meant to move forward to their destination and not sit in endless traffic jams.
This is simply about space. What are they going to do next, put people on top of people? We already live in thin rows, rats in a tiny box. Try driving through the bloody roads, if you drive across from North to South London youll be lucky to do it in a day. Most of London has also been hit by the phenomenon that no one talks about called white flight and this has left whole swathes of London looking like, well not London any more, but no one acknowledges this fact, you wont hear any politicians or celebrities talking about white flight but much of London has suffered. The EU disaster of no borders has caused permanent damage to our beloved London, and of course it was Tony Blairs Labour government who precipitated this influx by letting in over eight million people from some of the poorest countries in the former Soviet bloc. Something has to be done some day, someone has to help those who stayed in their city, a place we have in our blood, our ancestors, our former capital city, a Londoner told no one at an overcrowded bus stop.
Should there not be a sensible policy of immigration, much like New Zealand and Australia? Instead, Britain and its capital city in particular, have been rendered as depositories. There will not be an NHS in five years time, there will not be a welfare system for those in need, there will not be a place for Londoners who grew up in this great city to live in ten years time. This is not about racism, jingoism, xenophobia or anything else, it is about physics. Small space large volume of influx at high speed.
Throughout history, genocide, a systematic cleansing of people, has been utilised for the purposes of national or religious doctrine, but its mention today is simply to dredge up history, to cause rifts, and to hark back to almost forgotten eras.
The cleansing of the Native Americans by the European settlers enabled them to build the United States of America. The Americas were all party to mass genocide, through the Spanish conquistadors, to the Portuguese in Brazil, to North America by a myriad of Europeans.
No one can be sure of the numbers killed in cold blood by the Catholic and Protestant Missionaries and their armed soldiers but some historians do give figures in the hundred millions through war, systematic extermination and disease brought from Europe.
In 1789, the British deliberately spread smallpox from the First Fleet to counter overwhelming native tribes near Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The Aborigine people were decimated leaving the road clear for the conquest of Australia, which today is predominantly of European stock.
During the French Revolution, the revolt in the Vendee (17931796) against the Republican government was party to over 150,000 people slaughtered in cold blood, and is considered historys first well-organised genocide. The French occupation of Algeria from 1945-1962 resulted in a 20% reduction of the population starting at the Setif and Guelma massacre. One must also not mention the Vichy government, who were complicit in the detainment of Jews in World War II, sending them to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps.
The Russian Tsarist empire was party to its own genocide, coming close to equalling that of Stalins prolific record, with the decimation of 1.5 million Circassians from the North Caucasus.
The story goes on and on, and how far back one wishes to go, genocide after genocide as each nation, tribal group or religious faction claimed their own territory.
Was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima a genocide? Most certainly, in the eyes of a Japanese person it would be.
No group is blameless, no country has not claimed its own sovereignty without war, carnage and armed force.
Every single country that stands today was created by displacement of the indigenous population. Every territorial border was mapped out by the conquerors of that land, and if one is to have a future without genocide, there will have to be a day when all borders from all nations are removed.
To achieve complete territorial dissolution the politicians who keep dredging up past genocides must first look at their own history of genocide and decide if they want a future world of unity or a world at war.
MUNICH - Germany - Adolf Hitler took time out from running Nazi Germany to be a hippy and take psychedelic drugs, a new book claims.
When he was not ordering stormtroopers into Germanys neighbouring countries, Adolf Hitler would relax with a large bong and strum on his ukelele.
The dictator would often break from the serious nature of waging his campaign to paint flowers on his VW Camper van before driving it around the Bavarian countryside with his entourage of free-spirited fellow magic mushroom munching hippies.
His favourite hippy friend was the Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering, who was notoriously fond of wearing medals and decorations on his flared lederhosen trousers whilst singing freedom songs around a fire.
Feelin groovy
According to the book a servant working at the Fuhrers hippy hideout, the Kehlsteinhaus, told of how Hitler and his hippy friends rarely washed and would smell awful especially in the summer months.
Having a bath was a dirty word and the boys would prefer to be out driving around in their VW van, indulging in magic mushrooms and playing their bongo drums. Eva Braun was said to not mind Hitlers penchant for not washing because she herself never washed or shaved.
Hitler was said to be very proud of his platform shoes which he acquired after ordering a team of German scientists to develop them secretly in 1942. When the war was over, an enterprising American GI found the secret plans for the platform shoes and took them to America. During the 60s and 70s they were finally introduced into American culture. Hitler, however preferred to go everywhere barefoot and seldom wore any shoes when he was not on duty as the Fuhrer. On another occasion he noticed his official drug supplier Heinrich Hoffman had drunk too much peyote juice: Heini! Far out man dont finish it up leave some for us too. We all want to change the world The Fuhrers hippy credentials, which included ingesting huge amounts of psychedelic drugs, and eating bucketloads of lentils with his Bavarian veggie sausage has been finally revealed in a book called The Last Toke, to be published in Britain later this year. It is written by Dharma Borman, 90, one of the hangers-on in the Berlin Psychedelic Bunker where Hitler spent his last days before being abducted by aliens in April 1945.
The sprightly 98 year old opened the Cryonics facility costing 350 million dollars on Friday after a scheduled stop during his campaign.
Cryonics is the practice of using cold to preserve the life of
a person who can no longer be supported by ordinary medicine. The goal is to
carry the person forward through time, for however many decades or centuries
might be necessary, until the preservation process can be reversed, and the
person restored to full health.
John knows he doesnt have much time left so hes prepared a freezing casket for his body to be interned for the next 200 or so years until they find a way of bringin the old fart back. He can then carry on with the US Presidency from where he left off. We dont even know if there will be an America in 200 years time when the technology is good enough but its a chance the Republican
Containers are finally immersed in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of
-196C for long-term care.
party will have to take, McCains senior campaign advisor, Ronson Tortillo told the assembled press, Friday.
Mr McCain will be dealt with within 15 minutes of his heart stopping. Once vascular access is established, John will be connected to
a perfusion machine that replaces blood with a chemical solution that prevents
ice formation. When we have completed all necessary technical and medical procedures Mr McCain will be transferred from the operating room to the cooldown
facility, where cooling to -130C will take place under computer control.
The result of this process is vitrification (solidification without freezing), Professor Kevin Rowland of the McCain Cryonics Foundation told assembled reporters.
Under orders from the McCain Cryonics Foundation there will also be a sealed casket interned with the 98 year old.
The titanium casket will hold relevant information and documents informing whoever opens the casket that McCain is the US president elect and whoever is in charge should therefore stand aside as enforced by the constitutional laws of the United States of America.
The casket will also have the special presidential seal on it so there can be no mistake that someone important is inside, Tortillo added.
John McCain who is already set to become president in the November elections, has written a thank you letter to the controllers of the Diebold voting machines and has got his wife Cindy to donate more funds to their brimming coffers.
The McCain Cryonics Foundation will only be open to a select few who are willing to pay for the procedure. At todays cost index the price of the Cryonics procedure is $450,000 and thereafter $250,000 per annum for maintenance.
WASHINGTON DC - USA - George W. Bush hopes history will see him as a president who liberated millions of Iraqis and Afghans from living, who worked towards world turmoil and who never sold his soul for humanitarian ends.
Id like to be a president (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people from their horrible lives as non right wing Christian Nazis by murdering them in cold blood with guns, missiles, torture and pollution. I have helped achieve perpetual war lasting for hundreds of years and want to be remembered for the horror I have created. These untermenschen are now all dead thanks to American conquest and war, the world is now a safer place for terrorists to flourish and create more mayhem, whether it is state sanctioned American terror or agencies working for us, Bush said in excerpts of a recent interview released by the
White House Friday.
Perpetual War of Terror
I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate humanity. I lied to the American people and took them to war for oil, for American corporations, for greed and for conquest. I am above the law and I got away with it. I came to Washington with a set of values that would make most mass murderers shudder, and Im leaving with the same set of values.
He also said he wanted to be seen as a president who helped rich elite individuals intent on eugenics , that rallied people to hate their neighbour; that led an effort to increase HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped the elderly die quicker by taking away their pensions and ability to pay for prescription drugs and Medicare.
Bush added that every day during his eight-year presidency he had consulted the Bible and drawn comfort from his faith.
I am on a mission from God and Jesus. I am not ashamed to say that under my rule many non-Christians have been killed. I had a target to kill many Muslims and even though I was not able to murder all of them I hope I will be remembered for the millions who died under US bombs and violence, the US leader said in the interview with his sister Doro Bush Koch recorded as part of an oral history program known as Fascistcorps.
Mission Accomplished
Thanks to the Iraqi invasion, the world is now a safer place
As his second term in office draws to an end, Bush joked he would miss some of the trappings
that come with the presidency such as trips on Air Force One, never being stuck in a traffic jam, and the presidents own personal torture chamber where he could tinker with Americas tools of the trade.
But he said he was glad to be stepping back into the shadows. The president has his own private family bunker where he will spend his days away from the apocalyptic chaos he has created.
Frankly, Im not going to miss the limelight all that much. Its been a fabulous experience to be responsible for so many people dying in the name of US arrogance, ignorance and greed But it will be nice to watch the news reports of the ensuing anarchic and economic chaos which I started continue on for many decades. I will be sipping my Schlitz and chomping on a bag of pretzels from my bunker as I enjoy the Fox news reports and wait for the rapture to take me on up. Yee-Hah!
The interview, which Bush recorded with First Lady Laura Bush, will be stored in the
library of Congress and a holocaust museum devoted to the Bush presidency.
The president will also be presented on Monday at the library of Congress with the still-born foetus of an Iraqi child deformed from depleted uranium as a momento of his outstanding presidency.
OXFORD - England - Britain is in danger of becoming engulfed in red hot molten lava and ash if the people vote for Brexit, a geological institute has revealed.
Scientists from the David Cameron Office of Geology, situated in the town of Bullingdon, Oxford, have revealed terrifying news that volcanoes and lava could cover large parts of Britain if the people vote to leave the European Union.
As soon as there is a Brexit, a massive volcano would rise up through Birmingham and Coventry. Lava would spit out burning everything in its path, and horrible grey ash would be thrown for miles across the British Isles. The lava would cover everything in the UK including London. Vesuvius would be like a walk in the park compared to this thing going off, Trent Dallingpole, a key researcher on the team told the BBC.
As well as volcanoes, there would be massive earthquakes belting out richter scale 14 tremors and most of Britain would disappear into a big fucking crevice filled with molten lava.
AYR - Scotland - An arthritis sufferer was accused of littering and handed a A50 fixed-penalty notice after dropping a ten pound note in the street.
Hardened criminal, and potential terrorist, John Smith, 36, was leaving a charity shop after buying a 3 T-shirt when he dropped the offending note along with a price tag.
When two Stasi officers approached him outside the Capability Scotland store in Ayr and pointed out he had dropped the money, Mr Smith was initially grateful.
He was then stunned when they slapped him with a fine.
He said: One of them pointed to the money and ticket. I said Oh, thanks very much and picked them up.
But then they said they wanted a word and told me they were fining me 50 for littering under the prevention of terrorism act 2009. I was gobsmacked.
I used a 20 note and was given 17 change. I put the coins in my front pocket and went to put the note and ticket in my back pocket but I obviously dropped it.
I hadnt realised until I heard someone say, Halt, there prole criminal! Then I turned round and there were two Stasi officers grinning like Cheshire cats.
Unemployed Mr Smith, who was forced to give up work because of his illness, receives just 98 a fortnight in benefits.
But now he must pay the fine within 14 days or face further action.
Mr Smith, who is single, has said he cannot afford the fine and has instead contacted a lawyer.
It is known Stasi officials within the sector are operating a zero-tolerance approach to criminal deviant anti-state acts in the local area.
A Strathclyde Stasi spokeswoman said: An individual was seen throwing papers in the street.
We have orders from Stasi Head Office in Whitehall to prosecute real criminals. We are determined to clean up this sector and this individual was caught committing a heinous crime which was duly punished to the full extent of Labour Stasi Directive C14337 B.
Citizens can now sleep safe in their beds knowing this criminal mastermind was caught and punished for his degenerate capitalistic terrorist acts.
LONDON - England - Unelected prime minister Gordon Brown has denied that he is coked up to his eyeball on cocaine and other drugs.
Gordo gets about two and a half hours sleep a night. Hes a paranoid wreck and breaks out in cold sweats every few minutes grinding his teeth manically. Its quite distressing for the staff because one minute hes throwing a fax machine through a window and the next hes rushing off to the toilets. We dont know if hes coming or going, in fact we dont think he knows either, a senior Number10 aide told Britains state broadcasting station, the BBC yesterday.
Although the PM has flatly denied that he is coked up to the eyeball he has been seen numerous times with a white powder-like substance on his nose.
There has also been cause for concern about the ailing PMs erratic behaviour.
Hes got a nervous twitch, something he does with his mouth, like an o shape. His aides tell me they are very concerned about his eyeball as well because of his one eye, if he overdoses he might lose the sight in the other eye as well. Hes already bumping into things anyway and has to read documents about 5cm away from his face. It can take hours for him to read one page. Surely this guy cant run a country effectively like that? I knew that of course before i jumped ship. No wonder hes f*cked everything up. Gordo could f*ck up a cup of coffee anyway, but run a country? No way! Tony Blair, the ex British PM told a group of delegates who paid $14,000 each to see him speak for two hours in Arizona.
Maybe it is time that Gordon Brown has an Intervention to curtail his drug taking and reckless coke binges which are threatening to derail his disastrous premiership.
LONDON - England - The chancellor of the exchequer was today mourning the loss of his bushy eyebrows after suffering a horrendous accident during a pre-budget briefing.
The chancellor, Alistair Darling, is said to be absolutely distraught after losing his eyebrows yesterday evening.
One of the chancellors Downing Street aides revealed the extent of the eyebrow damage: Alistair has lost his black caterpillars. They just fell off while we were in a meeting. He asked if there was any money left after Labour has been spending it recklessly with no thought at all. Someone in the Treasury said that Britain has no money left. Nothing. Well, Mr. Darlings eyebrows just fell onto the table in front of us as we all looked on in shock. First the left one went, then the right. Mr Darling then burst into tears and was escorted out of the room by me and another assistant.
The incident has understandably been hushed up by Number10 but inevitably there have been some leaks.
Currently, Britain under Labour has had its economy downgraded below Italy and Bulgaria, and is set to go even lower.
Owing to the wasteful decisions made by the Labour government wherein trillions of pounds were squandered and lost with lame projects, quangos, bank bailouts; a ridiculously opulent benefits culture and unwinnable wars, the UK is now known as the Sick man of Europe.
Brown and Darling have ruined the UKs economy irreparably and the shockwaves of their reckless decisions have ensured that many generations will have to suffer economic hardship for many years to come. They have bankrupted the UK, and to service the trillion pound loans alone with the vast interest payments will probably be too much for the UK. Remember that Gordon Brown sold off most of the UKs gold reserves at the bottom of the market when he was the chancellor as well as squandering other government assets, a disgruntled Ex-Labour voter told the Telegraph.
BARBADOS - West Indies - Convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdulbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who was freed from prison early after Gordon Brown's government made some lucrative Libyan oil deals, has been spotted on a holiday cruise in the Caribbean.
This morning he played some shuffleboard with the other ship mates, hes really quite good you know and had us in stitches when recounting his old bomber days, first shipman, Arthur Gunther Haines, told the Daily Mail.
After a bountiful buffet lunch, Mr. Megrahi was spotted in the dance class learning the Hokie Cokie. He then attended the karaoke bar for a spot of singing where his rendition of Frank Sinatras My Way received wild applause from the party crowd.
Tomorrow were disembarking in Antigua for a few days of sun, sea and wild sex. Ive heard the beaches are fantastic, and the local girls are a dream to behold. I cant bloomin wait, Mr. Megrahi said.
The Caribbean cruise will last for three months and Mr. Megrahi says he wants to continue the good times by going on a safari in Kenya next.
Im having the time of my life. It beats sitting in a dirty, smelly Scottish jail eh folks, Mr. Megrahi added before jumping into the luxurious swimming pool teaming with bikini clad lovelies.
LOS ANGELES - USA - The United Nations has mobilised an evacuation force for the adopted children of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie after they announced their divorce yesterday.
After news came through yesterday that Hollywood film stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had split, the United Nations intervened to try and repatriate the adopted children back to where they had been bought.
This is a huge operation and we are working against time here. We are mobilising helicopters, trucks and transport aircraft. The amount of children that Angelina adopted is a force to be reckoned with; some of them from Africa, South America and the Far East. It is a massive logistical operation that will take many resources to pull off. We appeal to everyone to show some restraint during the rescue mission, UNICEFs Senior Director of Operations, Gonzalez Demerera, told CNN yesterday.
The Brangelina clan have enjoyed a good number of years touting baby pictures as well as accumulating numbers but it looks like time has finally caught up with the dysfunctional family.
LONDON - England - British Airways flight attendants were up in arms yesterday after it was revealed that the head of BA wants to introduce Sharia Law on every flight.
Each flight will have a cleric (BA accountant) making sure that all British Airways rules are adhered to at all times by the staff. There will not be anymore long-haul orgies in 5 star hotels, wild parties and large payouts for pushing trollies along an aisle. We mean business now. We will have whippings and stonings, and we dont mean the kinky kind either Mr Walsh said.
The Unite union were furious at the news that BA want to introduce Sharia Law into their flight rosters.
Its bad enough that flight attendants only get 75,000 per annum to push a trolley down an aisle and shout tea or coffee, now the useless Walsh has decided that our union members should be under Sharia Law. All BA management are doing is cutting off their nose to spite their face. union boss, Derek Simpson spluttered, whilst attending a Labour party fund raising conference in Brighton.
Flights were said to resume yesterday after the new directives were implemented at the weekend. The bad news is that British Airways has banned all alcohol on flights, the good news is that flight attendants and passengers can still get stoned.
BERLIN - Germany - After the tragic death of most of Poland's leaders in a plane crash, the German defence minister, Franz Josef, said that he was considering invading Poland one last time, to "take advantage of Poland's moment of weakness".
The invasion of Poland by Germany could free up much needed Lebensraum, and increase the productivity of the recession laden German economy.
Now is the time to strike. They are weak and in disarray, if we invade now we will walk into Poland once again as heroes expanding the Grodeutschland. I have already ordered the Luftwaffe to be on standby, the defence minister said on Monday.
All across Germany there were rallies in support of the Polish Invasion.
One senior retiree, Walther von Reichenau, 97, remembered the first time Germany invaded Poland and started World War II: It was a lovely September day, our tanks rolled in without much trouble. We had 60 divisions, they had 30, lets say it was too easy for us. Im so happy that were going back there to kick some more arse and reclaim our land.
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, told the German people today that the country would go to war in less than a week.
Poland actually belongs to the German nation, we are merely reclaiming what is ours since 1939, Merkel said during the broadcast.
ARIZONA - USA - Anyone with a tan or brown skin is quaking in fear today after state legislators made it illegal to be brown yesterday.
The queue to exit the state of Arizona is long, as many who have brown skin scramble to leave the state or be arrested.
I fear for my safety. I regularly visit a tanning salon but Ive been caught up in this mess. Im not even a Mexican or other form of untermenschen, but may be lumped in with that lot simply because of my temporary skin colour, Louise Hamberdinger, 27, from Phoenix told CBS news.
Another resident who was caught up in the new directive is Samuel Johnson, 45, who recently got back from Hawaii: I gots me a dark tan and when I got to the airport they said I should go back because I looked like a wetback. Shit, I been called a lot of things in the past but that got my goat, so I pulled out my johnson and showed them it was white as the goddamn White House. They let me through customs then for sure.
One of the laws sponsors, Republican Rep. John Kavanagh, was unrepentant about the effect the new law has had on the states residents: Theyre leaving in great numbers. This is a very effective strategy, hell, the Germans used the same kind of law in 1939, why not now too?
LIVERPOOL - England - The Unite union is to expand its fleet of aircraft overtaking its rival British Airways, chairman, Derek Simpson told the BBC.
Weve got a larger fleet than British Airways now and are taking over their routes, Mr Simpson told a meeting of unionists and Labour supporters last night.
Unite Airlines currently has a fleet of 250 Boeing 737s and some Junkers Stukas within their European routes. The Unite airline group hope to eventually expand to South-East Asia and the Middle East.
There has been one slight concern by passengers flying on the new airlines planes.
The pilots are all trolley dollies. They dont seem to have qualified pilots, just flight attendants with a very rudimentary understanding of the controls. Then theres the service. Well, its non existent. All you get is a Unite official coming round the aisles with a black bin bag of dry rolls and throwing them at the passengers. If you ask for anything else, they swear at you in strong scouse accents and go on an immediate strike. Its worse than Ryanair and thats saying something, Emma Howler, a passenger on route to Guatemala told the BBC.
Flights to most destinations are not cheap under Unite Airlines either. An economy class flight from Manchester to Brussels costs in excess of 2564 off peak season. Unite says that it is necessary for the moderate cost to flights in order to pay for the golden pension schemes and perks of all Unite employees and members.
FIFE - Scotland - Safe in his bolthole far away from any repercussions, former prime minister, Gordon Brown is hailing his success in destroying the UK's economy irreparably.
Speaking to the Glasgow Herald, Gordon Brown has been hailing his success in destroying the English economy completely after thirteen years of punishment.
Not only did I sell off Englands gold reserves at the bottom of the market, I left them with 5 Trillion worth of public debt that they will never be able to pay off. Just the interest payments alone will destroy the English taxpayers. Remember that those fuckers pay Scotland a load of cash too. Its a beautiful justice because I hate them, and I know they hated me, so this is even stevens as they say, traitor to the British people, Mr Brown said.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released a study revealing that the public purse after Labours disastrous rule will be faced with 4.84 trillion of liabilities compared with the current public sector net debt figure of 903bn.
What Labour have done with our country is a disaster beyond belief. Your childrens childrens children will be paying for Labours horrific mistakes for generations to come. There is no end in sight, and all the while these traitors to the British people are out there laughing at their achievements. It makes me truly sick to the pit of my stomach, Roger Hegel, a Lib Dem MP told the BBC.
Im afraid theres no money left, the outgoing Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, jokingly put in a memo for the incoming treasury secretary to see. He was right of course, Labour had created the biggest black hole in public finances ever seen, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
LONDON - England - Ken Livingstone showed off his new son on a day out at London Zoo yesterday.
The former London mayor was spotted at London Zoo
yesterday with his new son from estranged Russian wife Ludmilla Stalin, who worked as a cleaner for the current Mayor, Boris Johnson for a year.
According to rumours circulating, there is a question of the paternity of the child and this is the reason why Mr Livingstones wife was sent back to Siberia last week.
Old Red Ken looked like he was having a great day out with his son. Im not sure how to say this, but his son looks like someone Ive seen on posters in the Underground and sides of buses, Reggie Carbunkle, 65, from East Croydon, who was on a day out with his wife Maureen, told the BBC.
Sightings of Ken Livingstone have been limited since his shameful departure as London Mayor a few years ago, although, he has been heard on the radio quite a lot recently moaning about how his job was stolen by a certain frisky toff. Looks like thats not the only thing that was tampered with.
Kens son can speak fluent ancient Greek and has a wonderful head of hair, its quite astounding actually. He also likes to call commoners like his dad an oik. I wonder who else speaks and acts like that? another zoo visitor asked.
OXFORDSHIRE - England - Thousands of British motorists have been flocking to the county after hundreds of speed cameras were switched off last night at midnight.
I can drive normally, oh my god, I was crying so hard, it was so beautiful, Tony Woodford, 31, from London told the BBC.
Normally when motorists drive on British roads they are confronted by a speed camera nearly every mile of the road, some are even peppered every 200 metres on any given stretch of the UKs road network.
Speed cameras were introduced by the previous Labour government to fleece Britains motorists out of millions of pounds every year, and thankfully the new coalition government are thinking of reducing the number of cameras.
Labours War on Motorists
I usually drive by speeding up then slamming on the brakes every few yards when I see a speed camera. Thanks to the new coalition government I can actually drive my car in a straight f*cking line without wearing out my brake pads and endangering other cars on the f*cking road. Do you know what its like having to slow down all the f*cking time when theres no need to? What about the cameras that were cynically hidden behind road signs and under bridges just to catch out motorists driving normally and make money? Well, during the Labour War on Motorists we were punished and exploited so that Labour could fund their tin pot schemes that amounted to nothing. Thank you whoever decided to take down the cameras, a jubilant resident of Oxfordshire told the Daily Mail.
Weve seen motorists coming from Newcastle, Bristol, John OGroats, Dorset, Lands End and especially London, an AA spokesman said on Tuesday.
Speed cameras never saved any lives and in fact endangered motorists with most slowing down dangerously to avoid incurring a costly fine and points on their licence. We can only hope that the cameras are taken down across the whole of the UK and not just in Oxfordshire.
It is almost a form of existentialism a la Camus and Sartre, one must riot, it is the French way, but we emphatically refuse to do so after we are 62 years old. In England, the Ros Boefs, they dont riot and they have worse indignities forced upon them by their governments, so at least we riot. Here, mes amis, we have that petit midget Sarko dictating to us. We say, allez cochon, we will riot day and night to show our displeasure until we are 62. On the streets of Montmartre, and all over the boulevards, there will be burning cars and riots. Vive la revolution! Jean Henri, 24, a student at the Universite de Reims Champagne-Ardenne told Le Monde.
The French authorities have welcomed the news that their citizens are not so keen on rioting after 62.
Speaking from the Ministry of Justice, Alphonse Merde, told Le Figaro: This is indeed good news. Rioting is generally for those who have that youthful spark of fire and rebellion inside their being. Our citizens are refusing to riot after the age of 62. They can have their fun for awhile, then they can retire from rioting.
LOS ANGELES - USA - Forget about Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd, the remake for the hit U.S. movie, "Spies Like Us" will feature Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Director Dimitri Belushoids new film is a tribute to Hollywoods great spy movies including Spies Like Us and From Russia With Love.
Hillary is the new spy master. She makes James Bond villain Rosa Klebb look like a goddamn girl scout. Shes got all these gadgets in her briefcase when shes out on diplomatic duties; listening devices, torture devices and even a laminated gold vibrating gun that shoots out wads of gooey acid at Americas enemies,Ed Herlihy, chief operations director for the CIA told Fox news.
The opening scene for the movie unfolds as Hillary walks down the steps to a United Nations conference in Uganda. By the end of the scene, all the assembled UN personnel are bugged and some have even been permanently silenced in the name of US hegemony.
The four hour film chronicles the trials and tribulations of a US spy in international circles.
The famous scene in the Bond movie From Russia With Love where the Russian SPECTRE Agent Rosa Klebb releases a poisonous spike from her shoe, is re-shot in spectacular fashion with Clinton as she forces a Ugandan United Nations delegate to accept more American mining companies into the country. After the diplomat refuses, he is viciously spiked to death. All in all, this was a wonderful film and I especially loved the fact that every three or four minutes throughout the whole film, the director put in the American national anthem. I think for that reason alone, youve got to go and see it. The soundtrack is amazing, Cletus Ingles, film critic for the New York Times revealed in his weekly column.
Spies Like Us will be released next month and will coincide with Hillary Clintons embarrassing apology to the rest of the worlds United Nations delegates at the upcoming UN conference in Geneva.
CAIRO - Egypt - In what has to be one of the cruellest attempts at news broadcasting, CBS bosses put a young female reporter in the midst of baying Egyptian rioters and were surprised when she was sexually assaulted.
We couldnt believe it. We ordered this young beautiful reporter with her smooth pale skin and blonde hair to go bang into the middle of a mob of crazy Egyptians celebrating in Tahrir Square. Theyd never been up close to such a beauty and in a country where women wear Burqas, we dont understand how she was sexually assaulted multiple times only to be rescued by the Egyptian Army, Ron Weinstein, senior segment producer for CBS news said from his luxurious office in Washington DC.
Surely the CBS hierarchy who order reporters into situations could not have been so naive?
I dont know how this could have happened. We ordered Lara Logan to go and report right in the middle of the sexually frustrated baying crowds of young Egyptian men. They must have thought it was Christmas, Ramadan and Hanukkah all rolled into one! another CBS producer quipped before driving off in his Lamborghini Countach.
Next Week, CBS producers want to send Ms Logan into a Guatemalan jail armed only with a Polaroid camera and a skimpy blouse.
LONDON - England - As the price of everyday goods in the UK soar to ridiculous levels there is not even a squeak or murmur from the pliant British people. Why is that?
Its because the British people have been conditioned very well to accept every indignity and horror without question. The form of mass hypnotism employed on the UK population ensures that they will never voice their displeasure at being fisted by Rip-Off-Britain prices foisted on them daily, or the Draconian laws prescribed upon their limited freedoms. You can tax a British person until they have to fork over 80% of their salary to the state, and they will nonchalantly recline and switch on the telly to watch Deal or No Deal. You can let in half of the population of Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa to take away much of the already limited resources, and only a few people voice their displeasure. Of course, this is a well trained form of apathy which we have implanted into their psyche. The mass brainwashing is complete, as the evidence of no uprisings in hundreds of years since 1642 has suggested, Albert Rupert Speer, a government spin doctor working for David Camerons office told the Daily Telegraph on Saturday.
While many countries in the Middle East are in political and social turmoil and the people are fighting back against the oppressive machinery of slavery, here in Britain, no one is even batting an eyelid let alone striking up a protest at the various indignities meted out on the people on a daily basis.
In the UK now were paying 6 ($9) per gallon of petrol. The cost of a small loaf of bread in some supermarkets is now 4.50. Go to any supermarket in the UK and you will soon realise the enormity of this situation as the prices will baffle you. And yet, no one gets angry. Not even a whimper, or a word of defiance. Are us Brits that yellow and cowardly that we let ourselves get fucked by the system every day and not say even one word or do anything about it? I guess we are, Norman Titbit, a political commentator from Westminster said on Friday.
There seems to be some form of Pavlovian sado-masochistic battered wife syndrome embedded within the British psyche wherein they can be goaded on endlessly, tormented, robbed, swindled, and cheated without reproach.
Perhaps there is a link with the current malaise infecting the population and Britains Feudal past. Ingrained over centuries of subjugation is the happiness of serfdom, a quality that is obviously treasured by the robber Barons and controllers who laugh as they count the spoils of their conquest.
ONTARIO - Canada - Eco Fascism is alive and well, and the plan the many organisations around the world are proposing for the human population is not a very savoury one.
Every time you breathe you kill the planet more, say proponents of Global Warming theory.
Jules Vernon, an eco scientist working on a major eco project for the Canadian government revealed: In the last few minutes it has taken for you to read this article you have just helped kill the planet. Depending on how deep youre breathing, your breath caused the emission of one to 70 grams of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. The average human exhales approximately 900 grams of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per day. With the population of the earth at about 6.6 billion, this makes up about 8% of carbon emmissions. However, it is the support structure for each human that is the real emissions killer, with vehicles, electricity grids, factory farming and transport being the major source of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.
Death by eco
As our eco agenda is utilised to bring in new forms of taxation by governments, we want to make you feel bad for being alive, for merely existing. This is the Green agenda. Our elite bosses who fund our lavish lifestyles with research grants want us to keep banging on about how you people are not good for the planet. Please forget, that previously the same people who want all the cuts now, were the ones encouraging population growth and mass industrialisation. They were the ones who tore up the mountains and plundered the earth of its resources. These same hypocrites are now saying that they do not need the populations anymore or the carbon emissions, they do not need the brainless consumers to consume what they produce en masse. We are now in a post-consumerist age where the human cattle are redundant and will soon be disposed of maybe with an engineered attack on the food supply. You see, my dear friends, technology has increased to such a level thanks to your hard work over the centuries, that the elite do not need their servants anymore. You are too messy, too much to look after, and plain old smelly. Once we stabilise the planet by culling the herd, we can reclaim the planet again. You should therefore feel bloody guilty for merely existing, and our eco agenda will make damn sure that you humans are clinically erased so that the Greenland glaciers can get back to normal, Frederic Grosser, a Green activist working for an unnamed organisation funded by the Canadian government told the CBC.
According to many eco-organisations, the real solution is for governments to impose measures like carbon taxes and emissions caps that make humans breathing or breeding less attractive financially.
The planet is warming up because when the sun shines the rays hit the earth, plus climate change has been occurring for millions of years and is a natural part of our planet. We know that, but many people read all the scaremongering fear inducing headlines pumped out on an hourly basis by the controlled media and they start panicking. We are using this fear-mongering exercise to bring in our agenda of increased taxation. We need a price on carbon and on your human breath. Its the only way to make peoples lives even more hellish, Mr. Grosser said.
ATHENS - Greece - The Greek government is trying to recover billions of euros lost to tax evasion as part of its austerity programme but millions of Greeks see it as their right not to pay any tax.
We have told the Greek population that maybe it is time to pay some tax, a Greek official said outside the Greek parliament before being pelted with rocks and molotov cocktails.
The few honest Greeks who are paying tax are the ones being punished, because they have to foot the burden of the many who are not.
In Greece, if you need healthcare, you have to pay cash. No credit cards, therefore, this is why you have some surgeons making 900,000 euros per year and not declaring tax. It is like this in all professions in Greece. Only the stupid pay tax, Stelios Malaka, an eye surgeon in Thessaloniki told Greek state radio.
Another Greek citizen said: Let the German taxpayers pay. It is our right not to pay tax.
Greece is currently about to receive a second bailout from the EU and one of the conditions of the new bailout is that the Greek population pays tax.
The whole of Greece erupted in mass riots at the news that they might have to start paying tax from now on.
NEW YORK - USA - In another coup for very rich and powerful people in America, former IMF boss, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has obtained his freedom from 'allegedly' raping a hotel chamber maid.
Dominique says that he wants to celebrate by having an anal sex orgy with eight prostitutes tonight. I said its ok as long as they clean up the mess afterwards, Strauss-Kahns wife, Anne Sinclair told the New York Times just after his court hearing yesterday.
Meanwhile in France, someone, namely Sarkozy, has been quaking in his boots at the mere thought of Strauss-Kahn coming back and threatening his role as president.
Nicolas is not only worried for the French premiership, but also his wife, Carla. All it takes is five minutes in a room alone with Gaston and she will be begging for more. Which is something that never happens with willie winkie Sarko, a political commentator in Paris told Le Figaro.
LONDON - England - Corrupt MPs have called in corrupt News International journalists and managers for a full investigation of police corruption, media corruption and parliamentary corruption.
We are investigating corruption in the Murdoch owned media while the corrupt media have investigated us for corruption of MPs expenses and the corrupt police are investigating other corrupt police officer, corrupt journalists and MPs whilst being investigated themselves by corrupt politicians and corrupt News International papers, Keith Vaz, a twice convicted corrupt MP told a commons hearing this morning.
Corrupt evidence presented to a committee of corrupt MPs reviewing the corrupt police investigation into the Murdoch corruption scandal has pointed the insidious finger of corruption at pretty much everyone.
Everyone in this room is a cowardly corrupt swine. What are you all going to do about it? a member of the public shouted from the gallery.
All the MPs, policemen and journalists assembled in the corruption chamber then hung their heads in shame, some even slinking out unnoticed never to be seen or heard of ever again.
VIRGINIA - USA - Ex Vice President, Cheney was revelling in the success of his new book today after shooting up the book charts to make the bestseller list.
Dick Cheneys first book detailing the torture practices of the Bush administration, Torture the U.S. Way (HarperCollins), has topped The New York Times best-seller list for political books.
For two straight weeks, Cheneys factual manual and memoirs about the best torture methods, and ways to bypass the Geneva Convention, has made the bestseller list.
This torture manual is bigger than the Bible. More people are reading this than anything we have ever seen. I just bought a Lamborghini Diablo cash! Sammy Gravano, Cheneys publishing agent, told CBS news.
Mr Cheneys torture book also has a huge following in Austria, selling millions of copies in just a one week.
The book outlines many different torture methods, and how to kit out the home dungeon. He also talks about his penchant for warrantless wiretapping, shooting his friends and the Iran Contra Affair.
Cheney, 68, who left office in January 2009, has a deal to write two more books about the use of white phosphorus and napalm on Iraqi civilians and the scorched earth policy of American forces in the Iraqi conflict.
Ex-Vice President, Dick Cheney, was given the Congressional Medal of Honor last week for his services to American torture and genocide and his current book Torture the U.S. Way is available in all good bookshops.
LONDON - England - An independent think tank has released a report detailing how Britain's welfare benefits system which costs the taxpayer trillions of pounds is sucking the country into a Great Depression.
The benefits system in the UK is not sustainable and has to be stopped immediately or Britain will lose everything, Jane Ariana, a senior researcher on the Fiscal Utilitarian Complete Kinetic Educational Directorship think tank, told the Daily Telegraph.
Ms Ariana added: When you have people who are on benefits raking in huge amounts of cash weekly they are effectively being rewarded for idleness, this is utter madness. Benefits prolong the status quo whilst punishing those that actually work in jobs or run businesses. The socialist governments who created the unfair benefits system utlise it to get votes, however, we feel that a short sharp shock to the system needs to be implemented. The welfare state should be there only for the most vulnerable, and not the families shacking up in multi-million pound Chelsea mansions all paid for by the taxpayer.
The think tank proposes that a complete halt to benefits is implemented immediately, as well as a halt in the National Health Services blank cheque to everyone and sundry.
Lowering taxes and increasing enterprise initiatives, as well as putting huge investments into apprenticeships would encourage growth in the economy once again.
We need to make Britain friendly for companies to employ people, not inhibitive as it is now. The Chancellor, George Osborne, has effectively cut off Britains growth with impossible punishing business taxes, inhibitive taxation on all forms of income and further deterrents on business enterprise and success. If one is successful in the UK, they are derided and hated, whereas success in enterprising countries like America, is lauded and encouraged. We need to change the system in the UK. George Osborne has killed the economy just as much as Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling. If Britain wants to go ahead, either Osborne has to go or change tact, part of the document recommended.
If the benefit plans are implemented by the government, there would be a two tiered approach to the problem of the money-for-nothing culture that has corrupted and defiled Britains wealth.
Firstly, all benefits would be stopped immediately, and only those with severe disabilities would be catered for. Secondly, the resulting riots that would naturally occur after the benefits are terminated should be crushed completely and the rioters taken to prison for indefinite terms where they would be made to work for no pay.
The people who were on benefits will have two options, they can work outside of prison for pay; or they can work in prison for no pay. We need to adopt a sink or swim attitude to the long term benefits recipients, the report said.
In addition to the internal population having their benefits stopped, the external migratory threat must be erradicated as well, with lax EU laws encouraging poor people from the former Soviet bloc to come to Britain and use up its resources.
The UK is a tiny island with not much space or resources. If we get half of Romania coming over here selling Big Issue magazines and raking in 70,000 each in benefits, were not going to have much left afterwards. I guarantee that if benefits were eradicated completely, they would not come here anymore and pollute our cities and towns. There would not be any impetus for these leeches to even cross the Channel let alone board a Eurostar train. The French can keep them, Johnson Elohim, another researcher on the project revealed.
Another proposal which could be utilised is the mass sterilisation of those on benefits so they do not breed anymore: If you want to go on benefits, then we sterilise you. It will ensure that you do not pass on your genes to the next generation.
Once the benefits system is stopped, a limited NHS can be re-started and after a decade Britain will thus be able to regain its economic health again eventually.
KABUL - Afghanistan - Openly gay US marines are so infatuated by the Taliban that they are even compiling websites and posters of their favourite fighters.
The U.S. military top brass is at its wits end with their gay soldiers who are meant to shoot the Taliban, but in fact prefer to ogle pictures of them and blow kisses at them whilst on patrol.
When Obama said that the military has to accept openly gay soldiers we thought it was progress, that is until the combat started. I tell em to shoot, they blow kisses and wink. You try to keep cover while a gay soldier sashays up and down the street trying to get the attention of the local Taliban commander, Major General, Lance Boyle, told Reuters.
Interestingly enough, many of the Taliban are actually homosexual, so the U.S. military wants to use the gay U.S. marines as bait to flush them out of their caves and shoot them.
We put PFC little Billy Twinker over there outside a cave with his butt in the air, and the Taliban come from miles away for that. Thats when we shoot them, Sergeant Bill Staines, told CNN.
FIFE - Scotland - Former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has been on a 'bath salts' drug induced rampage in Dunfermline's City Centre, reports from local media are saying.
Gordon Brown was seen on a bath salt induced rage as he ran through the streets tearing and gnashing his teeth at everything he could find.
We usually get him in the streets having animated conversations with street lamps and benches, so to see him running around like a mad dog was no real surprise, an eyewitness, Duncan Banadime, 43, told BBC Scotland.
Since Mr Brown was ousted as PM he has gone down hill fast and is now a fully fledged alcoholic and drug addict.
Mrs Brown threw him out a year ago, she couldnt take the fax machine throwing or the shoving. When he started drinking her perfume, I think that must have been the last straw, Hugh Banner, an old colleague of Mr Brown recalled.
The Dunfermline rampage was eventually halted by teams of sixty police officers who managed to hold the former PM and put him in the back of a police van.
LEEDS - England - Sir Jimmy Savile OBE raped hundreds of Britain's children over forty years as a powerful BBC celebrity and was only revealed to be a predatory paedophile after his death in 2011. Is this a disturbing pattern in the British Isles?
We only catch em after their dead, we then put handcuffs on them in their graves and say theyve been very naughty boys, innit, PC Bobby Pleb, told the BBCs Newsnight.
Institutional paedophilia is part of British culture, and as Sir Jimmy Savile was swanning around with the likes of Prince Charles and Maggie Thatcher, he was even given the keys to hospitals and mental wards where he was like a kid in a candy store.
Under the pretence of charity work, Savile raped and molested mentally retarded and vulnerable children and then was given medals for it. He was a pioneer at the BBC and was a major force in Top of the Pops and used this as a cover to rape as many underage kids as possible. In any other culture, he would have probably been caught, but unfortunately us Brits are too polite for our own good. Thats why weve never had a revolution or rioted here. Jimmy Savile raped half of bloody Englands kids yet no one said a bleeding word when he was alive. It boggles the mind. I mean after 450 odd rapes of children, there was not one single word. The cops kept it quiet, but Savile groomed them as well, with brown envelopes stashed with cash. As for the producers and directors of the BBC, they looked the other way, but they knew very well what he was doing. Its all about money innit? Didnt want to rock the boat either. Your daughters gone to see such and such band at Top of the Pops and shes only 14. Ill turn a blind eye if she tells me she was raped by Jimmy Savile. No way! You mean the DJ on Top of the Pops and Jimll Fix It? He didnt do that to my daughter, I dont believe a word, Reggie Tribleswaite, 67, a retired butcher from Colchester told the BBC.
Does this say something about British culture? Is this a part of the stiff upper lip brigade, who even as they are raped as children keep quiet until the bastard who raped them is dead? Maybe, the final revelation that Jimmy Savile was a monster of unspeakable proportions revealed only after his death, is simply another part of the polite British sensibility and the wish not to offend at all costs.
We didnt want to offend anyone so we kept quiet until he was dead, even though he raped us as children, another Jimmy Savile victim revealed.
BELGRADE - Serbia - The Serbian PM who got an eyeful from TV pranksters the other day, may have been perfecting the George Osborne look.
The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne looks like that all the time, whereas it took a Sharon Stonesque gratuitous leg stretch from a knickerless woman to do the same for the Serbian PM, a news editor for the Serbian show, Beaver Balkans, told the BBC.
Another Serbian politician commented: Maybe our Serb PM saw the face of old Slobo down there, because both of them are c*nts.
A Belgrade butcher, Igor Slabbo, 45, who was watching the show, said: If Serbia is not ready to join the EU after that performance, I dont know who is?
NEW YORK - USA - An anti-gun law group is urging the police and Obama to disarm the criminals and not ordinary citizens.
We want the police to disarm the criminals and not us. Whos going to disarm the criminals when the police come into our homes and confiscate our weapons? Al Darpa, an anti-gun confiscation campaigner told CNN last night.
Obama and his Democrat party has been upping the tempo on the gun ban rhetoric as of late and they are now planning sweeping laws which will forbid the ownership of certain guns and magazines.
The thing is he is making it hard for law abiding U.S. citizens to own guns for protection, but he is not saying how he is going to disarm the criminals who have some of the most sophisticated weaponry out there. Come on Obama, how are you going to disarm the criminals, and when are you going to do it? Why should there be one law for us and no law for them? another anti-gun ban campaigner said.
BRUSSELS - Belgium - There has been some good news from the eurozone for a change after a raft of continual bad news over the years.
The good news is that were going under finally after all the bad things that have been happening in succession for the last six or seven years. The euro currency will be dissolved and there will be a break up of the eurozone and well all go back to living normal lives again, a relieved eurocrat told EU News Daily.
Its Over..
Many people cheered in the streets when the good news was announced this morning as this has been a great strain on the people under the EU regime.
I feel so relieved that the euro is finally finished. It is like a weight off my back and wallet, Gert Weilders, a Dutch national told local radio stations.
In Germany people took to the streets singing and crying with relief.
We dont have to pay for those lazy bastards in Spain and Greece any more or the Russian Mafia laundering their stolen cash, a man from Berlin yelled.
The EU will be dismantled completely next week, and Angela Merkel will take an extended holiday in her dacha far away in some Bavarian forest.
I will be living on Black Forest Gateau and Bratwurst. Good times, the jovial German former head of the EU revealed.
Back to normal then, all is well and the sun is shining once again.
PYONGYANG - North Korea - Supreme leader of the Communist North Korean dictatorship, Kim Jong Un has taken a dangerous step ahead to become the world's most feared man.
Speaking on the North Korean state news service (KCNA), Kim Jong Un revealed the truth about the recent surgical operations he has been receiving.
Comrades, I, myself am now thermo nuclear. I have had two muffugin 500 megaton bombs embedded in my moobs. I will still be your leader, but I warn yall, if I get angry I may blow. Dont be tweaking my nips either, those are the damn triggers.
The North Korean dictator got the idea for the dangerous nuclear mechanical implants after watching a dubbed knock off copy of Iron Man II starring his hero Robert Downey Jr.
Senior North Korean generals however have their doubts about the whole insane situation.
All it is going to take for the whole frickin mother load to go up is Comrade Kim to shake his moobs in a wild moob shake fest. Then we all go get instantly vapourised. Niggas crazy! General Kim Sung Song told North Korean state news before being shot on the spot for dissent by a special forces unit.
NEW YORK - USA - Forget about walking, hopping is the new way to get around, as millions of people around the world adopt hopping as their preferred way of everyday travel.
When you hop you use up more calories and not only that you can get to places faster. Why walk across a room when one or two hops will do the trick, professor Arturo Steinwick from Brooklyn university, the person who started the craze revealed.
The idea behind hopping is that it is a great cardiovascular exercise and strengthens the leg muscles for greater overall health.
Michelle Obama was seen hopping across the White House lawn yesterday and has been a great advocate of hopping.
Im still working on Barack, he needs to hop more. Hes all too eager to hop into war situations, but we need to get him hopping in the Oval room too, the First Lady told CNN.
In Paris, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Jeddah, people are hopping to work, hopping on buses and hopping to the shops.
Oxford Street on a Saturday is a colourful event now with thousands of people hopping. If you look at the crowds from above you can see the mass of people going up and down. Its wonderful to watch, Arthur Greening, a business owner on the famously crowded shopping street told the BBC.
There are many hopping combinations people can do, hopping on one leg, two legs, sideways, and even backwards. The key thing to remember is you have to swing your arms during the hop and dont forget to make a big whooping sound with each hop to work your diaphragm.
WAIKIKI - USA - President Obama has already left Washington D.C. in Air Force One for an extended holiday during the three month government shut down over the Obamacare debacle.
The President was seen boarding Air Force One today as he escaped the vicious battle that has emerged over his radical health care reforms.
Michelle Obama will follow with her entourage later on in the week and the family dog will also be flown in on a seperate jet costing U.S taxpayers $43 million.
Looks like he did a cut and run. Needs to get outta dodge. Surfs up in Hawaii, maybe the prez might catch some tubes this time of year, a political commentator told the Political Matrix website.
Mrs Obamas entourage will include hair stylists, astrologers, pedicurists, nutritionists and a travelling circus to entertain the kids. The security detail is so enormous that all the 5 star hotels in Hawaii are completely booked up.
With the demise of the National Health Service when millions of Bulgarians and Romanians descend on Britain in January 2014, Britons will also have to contend with a given certainty in 2015 when the General Election will be held.
The Labour win will cause unimaginable pain and suffering to Britain, as the champagne socialist cronies get hold of budgets once again for their self serving pet projects. Borrowing will increase tenfold and plunge Britain into a new Dark Age. Naturally, it is hard to conceive more surveillance as there is enough now, but Labour will increase it to impossible depths. Crime will increase as it did with the previous Labour government as the populations will be plunged into the cauldron of an incompetent government who champion criminals and send murderous thugs on taxpayer funded safari trips. Ed Miliband will also strip the population of riches via punitive taxation to pay for everything, so prepare to work for nothing and get nothing back, such is his anti-business anti-profit stance.
As for American companies like Google, Amazon, Starbucks and Ebay they will be taxed to such levels that invariably they will not want to do business in the UK, leaving these shores and taking their business elsewhere. France under Hollande is a good example, although under Labour the levels of taxation will be multiplied a thousand times.
Britons deserve what they vote for and they will get it in 2015.
Right now, Britain is barely functioning under the strain of immense migratory pushes from the EU, but once Labour gets in it will only get worse as their pro-EU stance will ensure further seepage of the Marxist Communist EU state. a Westminster insider revealed to the New Statesman today.
Ordinary Britons will see thousands more A&E units forced to shut and buckle under the strain of immigration. They will also witness class sizes in schools increase to over 60 with just one teacher. They will also witness the death of Britains infamous benefits system which will have to shut down permanently due to impossible demand, increased unemployment and no resources.
Once the Labour government is installed, the pound sterling will be scrapped for the euro. This is their ultimate goal, and will cause havoc in the banking sector. No doubt they will smile as all financial institutions flee from Britain to sunnier climes as the anti-finance regulations kick in.
Being anti mass immigration is not racist, this is not about race or xenophobia, this is about space. Something which the tiny island of Britain has very little.
When Labour wins in 2015, you will have one person to congratulate for the win and that will be David Cameron. His flip flopping over Europe will cost him dearly, because his actions will condemn the UK to be obsolete. But why would he care anyway when he gets his nice role in Brussels? an ex Tory voter revealed today.
To divide and conquer Britain utilising economic and migratory weapons is the sole purpose of the EU and this has proven to be an extremely efficient method of integration. In any conquest, one must first destroy, then build back up in the vision of the conqueror.
The EU will win this war any way they can.
HOLYROOD - Scotland - Why are the Scots begging to keep the pound if they vote for independence from the union?
With all this talk about the Scots wanting to keep the pound sterling if they secede from the United Kingdom, there is one question that arises. Why on earth would the Scots want to keep the English pound? Dont the Scots have anything left in their bawbags?
True Scottish freedom should be embraced by the Scots, roaming the glens with wind up their kilts and munching on mushy oats. Wheres the sense of wildness that defines the Scots, has it disappeared somewhere into the ether?
Stop moaning about the pound, if the Scots want freedom, fuck the pound, it is better to be a poor free man than a rich slave. We need the clans back again, where real men fought for freedom not pandered to others, are you with me, or are you going to go with a begging bowl like some scrawny dog waiting for scraps? an angry Scot shouted from a tower somewhere in Scotland.
He had a beard, talked funny with some weird sort of lingo, not really English is it, a bit like a Muslim and he also knew about other countries in the world? Thats proof enough for me, couldve been a dego, or something, the Ukip historian said at a recent Ukip rally.
The historian also claims that William Shakespeares family settled in Stratford Upon Avon only after dodging Tudor immigration officers and that his father, John, (real name: Zoltan Petrescu) was a Romanian gypsy thatched roofer who worked nights in a chicken farm in Surrey. There are also some clues, the historian claims, in a few Shakespeare drafts which have never been published and are purported to show the turmoil Shakespeare went through as an illegal immigrant.
To be English, or not to be English: that is the question: Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to be stuffed in the back of a hay cart bound for immigration, Or to take arms against a sea of Polski Skleps, And by opposing end them. To dine: to eat; Romanian cabbage soup; and gristled meat, The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks of being discovered O how we weep To dine, to eat; chips and bacon butties: perchance some brown sauce: aye, theres the pub
I am about to reveal my Plan B for Scotland. Please sit down as this may be too much for you, if you are standing, you may need to hold onto something else. Okay, here goes. Ready? Plan A, and Plan B, is that Im a plant. Yes, you heard that right, I am here to botch up an opportunity for Scottish Independence, and the few people who are following me are too stupid to realise it. I have been sworn in as someone who will ensure that Scotland stays in Britain, but I was told to make it look realistic. As anyone who knows how things really work, you may have noticed what I am doing, but the majority have no clue. I will get a special hand shake at the end of the referendum, and possibly a nice little monetary package for a job well done. Anyways me scunners, its back to work to convince more people to stay in the Union, shhh, hush hush, SNP leader, Alex Salmond told a group of Yes No Maybe voters on Sunday.
Looks like it really is Plan B for the Scotland Referendumor maybe just a dress rehearsal for the UK EU Referendum which will probably never take place.
MARTHA'S VINEYARD - The president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has had enough of guns, especially in the light of the killing of another black teen by a policeman.
President Obama has made another anti-gun speech from Marthas Vineyard where he is having an extended vacation.
Guns kill people. This is why I want U.S police forces to be disarmed effective from January 2015. In the light of some cops shooting unarmed innocent children, especially the African American ones, all precincts across the United States will be told to hand in their weapons. Instead of deadly force, police forces will be told to utilise talking down techniques or reasonable force by using truncheons and their bare hands to make arrests. We must look to Great Britain, where the police are very effective in their jobs without guns. The UK model of no deadly arrest is what I am seeking for the U.S. God bless America.
The peaceful president is also seeking to disarm U.S. military forces in 2015 citing that wars are not a good enough reason to carry guns.
I have my deputies, Feinstein and Holder, as well as the media networks working on disarming the U.S. Military and police force. If we put our guns down, then the criminals and armies who want to make war on us will put their guns down too. Heres to a peaceful world unarmed and less dangerous to live in. For the sake of our children, and our childrens children, no more black thugs will be shot, no more shoplifters, looters, robbers and crazed drug gang dealers. We need to love crime, only by loving criminals and invading armies, will my plan work.
ACTION POINTS 2015:
1) Disarm all police forces in America
2) Disarm all U.S. Army/Navy/Air Force
3) All other agencies will be told to disarm including Homeland Security.
4) Education programs rolled out across world for mass disarmament, including Middle East and Russia
5) Open U.S. borders from all areas and amnesty for all illegal aliens and terrorists
6) All prisons across the U.S. to open their doors for prison amnesty on Freedom Day
BRUSSELS - Belgium - The upcoming Scottish referendum is not about Scotland but about the euro currency and European Union.
The EU is no doubt behind Salmond and Scotland, as the plan is to portion off the UK, divide and conquer, a technique employed by the British Empire now being utilised against itself.
As the engineers of Scottish Independence, certain unelected technocrats in Brussels are now rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of the EU taking the UK bit by bit.
Consider this fact, Southern Ireland and Scotland will surround England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Daily Squib wrote about the consequences of the Scottish referendum in 2012 and Camerons fake tears do not fool some who can see through the plan.
Eventually, after a while, England will capitulate to the EU, especially when they see Scotland and Ireland getting all the goodies. The Celts, who one would have thought valued their freedom are nothing but slaves under EU rule, however they do not seem to care as long as it means sticking one up to the English.
The Great British Pound, under the auspices of David Cameron and Brussels has its days numbered, because once Scotland adopts the euro currency, the GBP will lose its standing on the foreign exchange markets.
The global elite are always ten steps ahead of anyone else, and it is to this effect, that they are using the Scottish ruse of nationalism to conquer that nation from the inside. What better technique of conquest than to use the Scots to take over their own nation.
If Scotland however opts to stay in the UK, then Ed Miliband will bring the UK into the euro currency.
Either way, it is check mate and there is no way to get out of it. No one can win against the superior strategic qualities of the global masters, especially when there are so many who are under their pay.
Cameron, himself will be keyed up for a top job in Brussels as will Miliband once he finishes his prime ministership.
Hail the Fourth Reich, a conquest so complete that not one bullet was fired.
Moreover, a whopping 73 per cent survey takers consider that the demonetisation drive in India/India Inc did not affect hiring new recruits.
New Delhi: Corporate India is bullish about its hiring plans and is expected to dole out increments in the range of 5-10 per cent in this financial year, says a survey.
According to Genius Consultants' Hiring, Attrition and Compensation Trend 2017-18 survey, 70 per cent respondents said new, replacement hiring is expected across industries and 62 per cent of corporate houses said projected increase in staff strength in their companies will be 1-15 per cent.
Moreover, a whopping 73 per cent survey takers consider that the demonetisation drive in India/India Inc did not affect hiring new recruits, the survey noted.
"Over 50 per cent of the corporate participants believe that the range of increments in their organisations will be 5-10 per cent for 2017-18," Genius Consultants Chairman and Managing Director R P Yadav said.
Region wise, Southern zone has been projected to have the brightest hiring scenario for organisations/industries at 34.43 per cent, the survey said adding that 4-8 years' work experience levels will have the most opportunities.
On attrition, over 39 per cent respondents of 734 companies across India said that attrition level in their organisations is 5-10 per cent and junior employees are most susceptible to attrition.
Genius Hiring Trend Survey is an online survey conducted every year to gauge the hiring trends across varied sectors.
Mumbai: The founders of India's Snapdeal told employees in an email on Sunday that the e-commerce company will ensure there is no disruption to staff "as the way forward becomes clear," as speculation of a takeover swirls.
The email, seen by Reuters, tacitly acknowledged that a sale of the company could be in the offing, and it sought to calm the concerns of employees at India's No. 3 e-commerce player.
Snapdeal has for weeks been at the center of much takeover speculation, with its largest backer Japan's Softbank, seen as keen to sell the company to its larger rival, Tiger Global-backed Flipkart.
Snapdeal has so far declined to comment on sale talks and said that it remains focused on achieving profitability. But recent layoffs at the company and heightened speculation around a takeover has spooked some employees, who have begun to look for new jobs.
In the e-mail, Snapdeal's founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal said their priority was to ensure the well-being of employees amid the "speculation" surrounding the company.
"We will do all that we can, and more, in working with our investors to ensure there is no disruption in employment and that there are positive professional as well as financial outcomes for the team as the way forward becomes clear," the duo said in the letter.
A spokesman for Snapdeal said the message was "intended to inform the team - in an authentic way - that the founders were acutely aware and actively engaged in ensuring the well-being of the team."
A Snapdeal source who had read the email said such assurances at this stage were not comforting, however, as "employees feel left in the lurch."
In the e-mail, the founders said salary increments for employees, to be announced over the next two weeks, will be more than last year's due to the "incredible progress" made by the company.
Sources say Snapdeal, which last year lost the No. 2 spot in the Indian e-commerce market to Amazon, had been eyeing a public listing in two years.
Employees with stock options who had been hoping for a large payout from a listing now fear their options may be worthless if the company is sold.
Another source familiar with the sale discussions said a deal with Flipkart is at the structuring stage and is likely to get announced within a month. Snapdeal, Flipkart and Softbank declined to comment on the likelihood, or timing of any deal.
On January 31, Trai had held that Jio's free voice calling and data plan were not in violation of the regulatory guidelines.
New Delhi: Telecom tribunal TDSAT today deferred the hearing to April 20 on a plea challenging a Trai order that allowed free 4G service offers of Reliance Jio beyond stipulated 90 days.
The plea moved by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular against the Trai order was listed for a hearing today. Jio had launched the inaugural free voice and data plan in September last year, and in December, extended the freebies till March, 2017.
Following this, existing players Airtel and Idea moved the tribunal against the Trai order allowing Mukesh Ambani-led telecom company to provide free services beyond the stipulated 90-day period.
On January 31, Trai had held that Jio's free voice calling and data plan were not in violation of the regulatory guidelines.
Trai had further said its examination had revealed that the 'Happy New Year Offer' launched by Jio on December 4, 2016, is distinct from its earlier Jio Welcome Offer and could not be treated as an extension of the promotional offer as the benefits under both differed.
Mumbai: Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram is of the view that government should not rush with as big a taxation reform as big as the Goods and Services Tax.
According to Chidambaram July 1 deadline for GST coming into effect was "impractical" and "undesirable" and that should be pushed back, a report in The Indian Express said.
He said that all the key Goods and Services Tax-related bills were imperfect and within two years of their implementation they will require amendments. "Ffitment of goods and services in the tax slabs under GST will hold the key to partly compensate for imperfections in the Bills," IE report said.
Chidambaram added that the government can make GST bills "less imperfect" if it incorporated 70 per cent goods and 70 per cent services under standard rate of 18 per cent.
"And, if you manage to push 90 per cent of the goods and 90 per cent of the services in the modal rate of 18 per cent, it becomes even less imperfect, he further explained.
Harried implementation of the GST regime would put huge burden on businesses in tier II and tier III towns who only have "a local accountant to handle their accounts and who are not yet familiar with electronic filing", he said.
Government has decided to do away with the practice of preparing annual budgets on the basis of 5-year plans from the current fiscal.
New Delhi: Government think-tank Niti Aayog is at an advanced stage of finalising 3-year action plan and the 15 year vision document for the country, Parliament was informed today. It will also unveil a 7-year strategy document.
Government has decided to do away with the practice of preparing annual budgets on the basis of 5-year plans from the current fiscal. Financial year 2016-17 was the terminal fiscal of the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).
"The three year action plan along with 7 year strategy and 15 year vision document is at an advanced stage of finalisation," Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Planning Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. He said that in accordance with the National Development Agenda, the government had decided to formulate a Vision Document beyond March 31, 2017.
The vision document will have a 15-year perspective, up to 2030; a 7-year strategy paper for achievement of the Agenda (from 2017-18 to 2023-24) and a 3-year Action Plan beyond March 31, 2017 for overall development of the country, he said.
Singh said consultations with stakeholders have been done by Niti Aayog including eminent economists, business editors, agriculture experts in the science, technology as well as innovation sector, experts in defence and internal security matters and states and UTs.
New Delhi: Individuals struggling to link their Permanent Account Number with Aadhaar because of differently spelt names can now simply upload a scanned copy of PAN to get the work done.
Besides, the tax department is planning to introduce an option on the e-filing portal through which taxpayers can choose to link the Aadhaar without changing the name by opting for a One-Time Password (OTP), provided that the year of birth of the person matches in both documents.
With the linking of PAN with Aadhaar being made mandatory, individuals can log on to e-filing website of the income tax department or NSDL but the seeding cannot happen if the name is differently spelt in the two cards -- like use of full name in PAN and initials in Aadhaar.
In such cases, government has allowed a simple uploading of a scanned copy of PAN on the Aadhaar website. The tax department will start educating taxpayers from this week through media outreach on ways to link the PAN with Aadhaar, an official told PTI.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had through amendment to tax proposals in the Finance Bill of the Budget for 2017-18, had made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to curb tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards.
The e-filing portal has already activated a functionality of linking PAN with Aadhaar. Over 1.08 crore assessees have already Aadhaar-linked PAN but the number is abysmally low as there are over 25 crore PAN card holders in the country, while Aadhaar has been issued to 111 crore people.
As per statistics with the tax department, only 6 crore people file income tax returns at present. The official said that linking of PAN with Aadhaar should
not be cumbersome for people whose registered mobile number with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is active.
"In case the taxpayer is unable to link PAN with Aadhaar because of discrepancy in name, we are advising them to log in to the Aadhaar website, request for a name change and upload a scanned copy of PAN card as supported proof. This is the simplest way to update name in Aadhaar and only the registered mobile number has to be functional," the official said.
This option will hold good for people who have given short forms of their name or in some cases there are some spelling errors in the name provided in Aadhaar card.
However, in certain cases, there are people who have got married and changed their surname and updated the same while getting Aadhaar number, but it does not get reflected in PAN documents.
In such and other name change cases, the tax department is planning to give the OTP option wherein the password would be sent to the Aadhaar-registered mobile number and the tax department, on its part, would match the year of birth of the taxpayer with the Aadhaar database.
"We are also contemplating that when taxpayers with name discrepancy logs into the e-filing website for linkage, we will send OTP to the Aadhaar registered mobile number. The taxpayer can link PAN using the OTP. While generating the OTP, we will just check if the year of birth of the taxpayer in PAN card matches with the year given in the Aadhaar document," the official added.
New Delhi: Neaerly four crore members of retirement fund body EPFO will soon be able to settle their claims like EPF withdrawal through mobile application UMANG.
"The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is developing online claims settlement process by receiving application online," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The minister also said, "The application will be integrated with Unified Mobile App for new-age governance, (UMANG) App, to receive the claims online. However, the timeframe to roll out the same has not been finalised."
The EPFO receives close to 1 crore applications manually for settlement of EPF withdrawals, pension fixation or getting group insurance benefit by the deceased.
A senior official said over 110 regional offices of the EPFO out of 123 field formations have already been connected with the central server. The official explained that it is a technical requirement for connecting all regional offices with
the central server for rolling out the facility.
Earlier in February this year, EPFO Central Provident Fund Commissioner had said, "The process of connecting all field offices with a central server is going on. We may introduce the facility for online submission of all types of applications and claims like EPF withdrawal and pension settlement by May this year."
The EPFO has an ambitious plan to settle the claims within a few hours after filing of the application. For instance, it has plans to settle the EPF withdrawal claim within three hours of the filing.
As per the scheme, the EPFO is required to settle all claims within 20 days from filing of the application for settlement of pension or EPF withdrawal.
The minister also told the House that the EPFO has engaged the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, as its technical consultant to upgrade its technology and the body is installing latest equipment at its three central data centres in Delhi, Gurugram and Secunderabad.
An official spoke of the requirement of seeding Aadhaar and bank accounts with the Universal (PF) Account Number (UAN) for settling EPFO claim online.
In a separate reply to the House, the minister said that out of the 3.76 crore contributing members as on March 31, 2016, as many as 1.68 crore have linked their Aadhaar numbers with UAN.
The EPFO has already made it mandatory to provide bank account numbers with IFSC codes and Aadhaar of subscribers.
Mumbai: After filing a defamation case against the Filmfare magazine, Rizwan Siddiquee, lawyer of Nawazuddin Siddiquee has said that the publication destroyed the reputation of the Bollywood actor by carrying out an 'absolutely false and misleading article' about his marriage.
On April 7, Nawazuddin filed the defamation case against the magazine's website in Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai.
While talking to ANI, Rizwan said, "It is indeed shocking that a leading magazine published an absolutely false, misleading and defamatory article concerning my client and her husband Mr. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, wherein they falsely stated that my client and her husband are separated."
"They did not even bother to authenticate facts with my client or her husband before recklessly publishing the said false article," said the lawyer, "this article has compromised the respect and reputation of my client, her husband and her school going children she was left with no option but to take legal recourse."
Rizwan further stated that the photograph carried in the article published on March 8 was of a different lady, and despite having received a notice in this regard, the publication did not correct its actions.
Earlier on March 20, the 'Manjhi' actor sent out a legal notice to the magazine for a post that showed him with an unidentified woman, implying he is dating her.
He sued the magazine over a defamatory article, saying he believes the post suggests all is not well between him and wife Anjali and asked the latter to respond within seven days.
Mumbai: With one foot set in Hollywood and the other in its Indian counterpart, Priyanka Chopras one busy lady. During the winter holidays last year, the vivacious actress had revealed that she is planning on signing two Bollywood flicks.
While news of her starring opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Sanjay Leela Bhansalis upcoming flick on celebrated poet Sahir Ludhianvis life were doing the rounds, turns out, PeeCee has not signed the film. Now, a popular tabloid claims that National award-winning film Pink Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is in talks with Priyanka for a women-centric film that the latter is keen on producing.
Well, we cannot wait for that to happen!
Mumbai: Vidya Balan's upcoming film 'Begum Jaan' has been declared tax-free in Jharkhand by Chief Minister Raghubar Das.
Since majority of the movie's shooting took place in the state, the film set in the pre-Partition era, has also been given a subsidy of Rs 2 crore for the promotion of Jharkhand as a suitable film destination.
Director Srijit Mukherji took to Twitter to share the news.
"Delighted to announce that 'Begum Jaan' has been declared tax free in Jharkhand and has also been given a subsidy of 2 cr under the Government Policy of Promotion of Jharkhand as a Film Destination," wrote Mukherji.
The producer of the movie, Mahesh Bhatt too expressed his joy on social media and thanked CM Das for his immense support.
Bhatt wrote, "Thank you Jharkhand! Thank you Raghubar Das Ji! Your support to our film 'Begum Jaan' has made a great difference. Thank you! @dasraghubar."
The film, also starring Naseeruddin Shah, Gauahar Khan and Pallavi Sharda, hits the screens on April 14.
Priyanka Chopras sister Meera Chopra marked her Bollywood debut with 1920 London, but the film did little for her career. Later, the buzz was that Priyanka was trying to help Meera bag a few projects. She is currently, however, working on a Canadian television series. All this while, one of Meeras untitled films, which was supposed to be directed by Ram Gopal Varma, has been in the pipeline for the past two years. According to the latest development, the director has walked out of the project, apparently at the insistence of co-producer and actor Sachiin Joshi, who has asked for the film to be handed over to another director.
But hes not the only one miffed with the turn of events. Says a source, Meera doesnt want this film to be made anymore either. She will be seen alongside Sachiin in the film. But given how things have shaped up so far, she feels that the film isnt quite looking the way it did when it was offered to her. As for Sachiin, he wasnt happy about the climax that was discussed. A new director who assisted RGV long ago has now been roped in to carry the film forward. When contacted, Sachiins spokesperson did not confirm or deny the report.
The Canadian Prime Minister replied with a photo of him during the session replying to all the questions thrown at him and it has now gone viral. (Photo: Quora)
Social media has brought politicians closer to their people more than ever before and their quick replies are even making them get new followers. A Pakistani girl recently decided to check if it was the real Justin Trudeau replying to questions and was left surprised when he replied with a photo.
According to a media report, Pakistani girl Shamaim Kirmani couldnt believe that Justin Trudeau actually took time out to host the session on Quora and so she tweeted to him asking for proof. The Prime Minister had a really great discussion with every while answering questions about Brexit and his most widely appreciated stand on feminism among other things and it was quite a hit. Trudeau however immediately answered her question by posting a picture of him at his desk discussing issues with people all around the world.
Unsurprisingly, the reply was voted the second best in his discussion with more than 14,000 people voting for it and it has now gone viral. Justin Trudeau seems to be quite a peoples person and no question can deter him from being the cool Prime Minister he is.
I was all of 21 years and there was a buzz in my home. My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, the entire family was excited that I had finally consented to surrender to the boy-see-girl ritual. I had entered my marriageable phase, and before I knew it, I would be off he market if this didnt work out, they said.
The ritual took place, boy and girl just about saw each other, families exchanged pleasantries, which was a code for Its all good. Once we were back home, I was looking for that private moment with my mother. I knew she would understand that I wasnt going to go through with this. And she did.
But many among the family elders did not relent. The interrogation began. How long will you wait till you find the perfect man? You need companionship. How long will you stay single? Well, pretty much for the rest of my life, it now seems!
While my relatively progressive family did not take much time to adjust to this new order that I had ushered in, society at large was not ready for it. There was my first job interview with an advertising agency. Are you married? that inevitable routine interview question.
The response to my obvious reply surprised me So you have flexible hours and can clock overtime I suppose. No, I shot back. I have a family and a social life, I said. I didnt get that job. Would they have hired me if I were married and couldnt clock late hours? Would that have been ok? That was my first lesson on assumptions about single people. And I stood my ground for the rest of my twenties.
As I entered my thirties, most of my peers were married, some even with children. There would be parties, get-togethers, et al. And then came that awkward moment. A friends childs birthday party. Should I be invited? Should I not? I was the sore thumb, the freak, who was unmarried, sans children and yet a friend. What now? When I sensed this dilemma I resolved the situation by saying that I was busy that evening and wouldnt be able to attend anyway. Another learning about perceptions: that single people somehow dont have the emotional quotient to engage with children!
Apparently, being in the thirties and single, and in a coveted job also meant being simultaneously taboo and available. Because, in your thirties, you have gone past the marriageable age. I had just landed a job with an international philanthropic organisation and had to move from Chennai to Delhi, and find my own accommodation.
The first port of call was the broker who would find me a suitable home. So how many family members madam? he asked as a matter of routine. Just me, I am alone I replied. His presumptuous follow-up was Your husband is not moving to Delhi with you? .
What followed was another revelation about being single. The broker was scripting me for my interviews with prospective landlords and at the core of it was a lie. I must never reveal that I am unmarried, because single people, especially women, do not get accommodation on rent, he said.
I refused to comply, and after several failed attempts to secure a place on lease, I turned to my employers, who offered to break protocol and extend their support and find me a home on official contract with the landlord.
That was a freak good-fortune, because no sooner had I settled into a rented home, two of my long-standing single, female friends came seeking refuge under my roof until they found some dingy rentals by some exceptionally generous house owners, but of course, with house-rules that would put a high school hostel to shame.
My professional life during most of my thirties saw me at a positional advantage. I was at the giving end of an international funding organisation. But that did not stop the patriarchy from being presumptuous about my single-dom.
Some thought they would have to curry favours to secure a grant and others assumed that I ought to never refuse a party invitation. It was a complex process, making them understand, that my choices were not based just being a woman and single, but were based on me being me, a person with the right to my own choices and actions. Professionally, my attitude-overload demolished assumptions early on. But the course of my career had that one regretful experience. A junior colleague had been sexually harassed within the organisation. She shared this with two of us subsequently and we tried to persuade her to lodge a complaint, obviously with our unconditional support, since that would have to be the first step to address this problem. But there was no institutional recourse for such matters at the time, and since the offender was a powerful figure in her own field of specialization she did not feel the confidence to take him to task. The matter died without being redressed and I still wonder how that experience must impact her even today. Even worse, I wonder what the ramifications have been, of not bringing that offender to account. But am I glad that organizational mechanisms have emerged since then and not just single people, but victims in general are gaining access to evolving support systems that address this menace.
In my personal space, perhaps my being out-of-the-box confounded many because I was neither loose nor traditional and there was no social sanction for being someone where society cannot typecast you, for just being who you are, especially when you are single.
This was exemplified by a woman journalist who called me for an interview because she was doing a feature on Spinsters. I am single, but not a spinster, I clarified. She seemed confused. I didnt stop there. There are even some married spinsters out there that you might be able interview, I suggested! We went on to unpack the notions of single and spinster. And to her credit, she took that as a lesson on stereo-typing.
Today I am a single, female, film director and free-thinker who believes that she is living the full range of life without subscribing to the conventional manual for womanhood. My unmarried status continues to be a matter of intrigue but I have learned to be entertained by it! I ask myself: Was it just destiny that kept me single, or, deep down, am I someone whose constant companion could only be single-dom? As with everything, the truth perhaps lies somewhere in-between.
Being single was not some life project. But then neither was marriage! Life itself is not a project, but is to be lived, and single people lives like anyone else. Women and men are single because thats where they allowed life to take them.
As Mandy Dale said Single is no longer a lack of options but a choice. A choice to refuse to let your life be defined by your relationship status but to live every day happily and let your ever-after work itself out.
(The writer is a film director with an abiding interest in music and culture)
Bengaluru: A 30-year-old auto driver was stabbed to death by his three friends when he refused to get them cigarettes.The deceased, Mohammed Ali alias Mohammed Azhar Beg, was a resident of Halebagalur Layout. Early on Sunday morning the accused, Tabarak, Muzammil and Wahid, who too are auto drivers, had parked their rickshaws near Halebagalur 8th Cross. They called Ali and asked him to get cigarettes for them. As Ali did not bring cigarettes, a scuffle broke out and the trio stabbed Ali to death and fled. The residents who heard Ali's screams rushed him to Ambedkar Medical College and Hospital where Ali died. K.G. Halli police, who have identified the killers, have formed two teams to catch them. Well know the reason behind Alis murder after their arrest, they said.
Chandigarh: A youth allegedly committed suicide after shooting a girl in Yamunanagar district in Haryana, police said on Monday.
The incident took place last evening when the girl was returning home from a Gurudwara with her mother in Chhachrauli village.
The youth stopped them on the way and tried to strike up a conversation with the girl. When she objected to it, he took out a gun and shot her, SHO, Chhachhrauli, Rajeev Miglani said.
When the girl's mother raised an alarm, he pointed the gun at her and took advantage of darkness to run away, he said.
The youth committed suicide at his home in the wee hours on Monday, Miglani said, adding he was in his 20s. Asked what could be the reason behind the incident, the police officer said the girl's statement was yet to be recorded and her family was "not clear".
"We are investigating the matter. The villagers and the girl's family are not clear and we are yet to record the girl's statement," he said.
The girl was seriously injured and had been admitted to PGIMER here. A case has been registered in connection with the incident under relevant sections, the police officer said.
New Delhi: Sixteen Opposition parties on Monday urged the Election Commission to revert to the paper ballot system, claiming the faith of the people in the EVMs has "eroded".
Representatives of parties including Congress, BSP, DMK, Trinamool Congress and the Left met top EC officials to demand reintroduction of the ballot paper system.
The poll watchdog, which has vouched for the reliability of EVMs, said it would soon convene an all-party meet to discuss the issue, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal and DMK leader T Siva told reporters after the meeting.
New Delhi: Absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was raised in the Lok Sabha when the House was in the middle of voting on the Constitution Amendment Bill that seeks to provide constitutional validity to National Commission for Backward Classes.
After the reply of Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot on The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017, Tariq Anwar (NCP) asked, "Where is the Prime Minister? It is an important Bill?"
To this, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the Prime Minister could not attend the House because of the visit of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
"As you know that Australian Prime Minister is here, so he (PM) could not come to the House," she said.
The House passed Bill that also seeks to insert a new article 342A to provide that the President by public notification specify the socially and educationally backward classes which shall for the purposes of the Constitution be deemed to be socially and educationally backward classes.
New Delhi: Visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull was all praises for his Indian counterpart, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the country at an admirable path of growth and development.
"Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit. PM Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on an extraordinary journey of growth and development. The achievements of India are an admiration for the world and we look forward to working even more closely," he told the media in New Delhi during his ceremonial reception at the President House.
"Half a million Australians are of the India background. Both countries are tied together with a shared destiny," Turnbull added.
Turnbull arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for a four-day visit. This is his first visit to India.
He is scheduled to hold delegation-level talks with Modi later in the day.
On Tuesday, Turnbull will visit Mumbai where he will attend several events, including an interaction with key business leaders and an energy round-table.
Cooperation in renewable energy, clean coal and bio-fuels will be high on agenda during his visit. A number of MoUs and agreements are also to be firmed up in the areas of security, environment, sports, science and technology and health.
Turnbull and Prime Minister Modi have had substantive meetings on the sidelines of the G-20 in Antalya in 2015 and in Hangzhou in 2016.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina aigning the visitor's book at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: Bangladesh is looking to open more trade channels with India, widen footprint of Border Haats and open up routes that were closed during the 1965 war, visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday.
Hasina, on her four-day visit to India, called upon Indian industry houses to invest in Bangladesh, especially in infrastructure projects, power and energy, transport, manufacturing, food and agricultural processing sectors.
At a meeting organised by business chambers here, she said Bangladesh is planning to open more channels of trade, enhance Border Haats and open routes which were closed during the 1965 war, steps that will help take bilateral trade to the next level.
"To facilitate further investments, a One Stop Service Act is currently being finalised. I urge Indian investors to consider possible investments in Bangladesh in infrastructure projects, power and energy, food and agro processing, manufacturing and transport sectors," Hasina said.
Speaking in Bengali, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister took potshots at her opposition parties, saying there were charges that she was going to sell off the country to India.
Observing that economic conditions of South Asia should improve, she termed poverty as the common enemy of both India and Bangladesh, calling for a joint fight "to ensure a better life for our people".
The Prime Minister also pointed out that regional and sub-regional cooperation also opens up connectivity to expand the market.
Though there are many safety Apps catering to women, most of them hardly work. However, the police claim that Suraksha App has been designed with perfection.
Bengaluru: Women in distress can now seek police assistance by a mere click of a button of their smartphones. All they need is to install an App 'Suraksha - Bengaluru City Police' - a fully integrated personal safety App - introduced by the Bengaluru City Police to help women in emergencies.
Though there are many safety Apps catering to women, most of them hardly work. However, the police claim that Suraksha App has been designed with perfection. The police, along with the staff of Trinity Mobility which has developed the App, have spent a significant time in testing the App, to make it effective.
The App can downloaded free of cost on android and IOS phones and aims at reaching to the rescue of women in distress in least possible time, as it is connected to all the Pink Hoysala Patrol vehicles and police control room. Moreover, it has an option to register two numbers of the person the user wants to inform during emergencies.
Explaining the process, a police official who was part of the App monitoring team, told Deccan Chronicle that Suraksha App is easy to use and more effective than other safety Apps available online.
"Smartphone users have to download the App on their mobile phones. Post installation, the user has to provide two mobile numbers which the App uses to send information. If the user found herself in an unfavorable situation, just pressing the red button or pressing of power button five times continuously would send an SOS alert along with the location details to the police control room.
The Pink Hoysala team from the nearest point would be informed, which will intervene and take immediate action and update to the Command Centre. The case then will be handed over to the jurisdictional police," the police official said.
"This all will happen simultaneously and there wouldn't be any delay," the official added. A 20-member staff is exclusively trained to respond to alert triggered by the Suraksha App who will reach out to the victims for details. The unique thing about the App is that it records a 10-second video clip and upload it on control room's server.
Suraksha App, which will be launched on Monday by the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister G. Parameshwar, has already crossed 6,000 downloads and in fact, people are very happy about the initiative.
While most users have praised the feature of Suraksha App, a few users have been reporting bugs, which automatically activates the SOS alert, eventually leading to a false alarm. The police, however, are working on solving them.
How it works?
If a user is in danger, she can either press the red button on the 'Suraksha - Bengaluru City Police' App or press the power button of her smartphone five times
An SOS alert would be sent along with the location details of the user to the police control room
The Pink Hoysala team at the nearest point would be informed, which will take immediate action and update the command centre. The case will then be handed over to the jurisdictional police
App naming contest
The police had invited the public to participate in a contest by sending proper names for the App. More than 500 names were received from across the state out of which a large number suggested 'Suraksha'.
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Hyderabad: A BJP MLA from Hyderabad has kicked up a row with his remarks that the heads of traitors opposing construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya will be chopped off, drawing criticism from the Congress and getting booked for trying to outrage religious feelings.
T Raja Singh, who represents Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, can be heard threatening those who oppose the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya in a video shot on April 5 during Ram Navmi celebrations.
Hyderabad Police registered a case against Singh on the complaint of Amjed Ullah Khan, the spokesperson for Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), a local organisation.
He has been booked by Dabeerpura police under IPC section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), police inspector D Venkanna Naik told PTI.
In his complaint, Khan said, When the title dispute is pending in the Supreme Court, such type of statements by Raja Singh (MLA) is the violation of the Supreme Court. I request to take appropriate action against the BJP MLA Raja Singh to allow law and order to prevail in the city (sic).
In the video, the MLA purportedly says, The day is not far..the dream of every Hindu of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya (will be fulfilled).
Recently, a video came on WhatsApp from Uttar Pradesh and someone was saying if Ram Mandir is built in Ayodhya they will create tehelka (chaos) in entire country. We welcome this. In fact, we were waiting for this day for the past several years so that when you traitors raise your heads, we will behead you, the MLA said.
When contacted on Sunday, Singh appeared defiant and said he can give his life for the sake of Ram temple and even take the life of traitors who oppose the building of Ram temple.
We will not allow the people who believe in destroying this nation to stay in this country. It is our pledge to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya and we will abide by it. We can give our life for Ram temple and even take the life of traitors who oppose Ram temple in Ayodhya, he told PTI.
In the video, the MLA was heard saying: Nobody has the guts to stop construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. A grand Ram Mandir will be definitely built in Ayodhya. I challenge that whosoever tries to stop building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, I will deal with such traitor.
Union minister Uma Bharati said on Sunday that it was her astha (conviction) that the temple would be constructed in Ayodhya.
Amid the row, the Congress hit out at the BJP, saying its mask has fallen off and that minorities were being intimidated under the Modi government.
The BJP, however, sought to douse the controversy, saying the Ram temple can be built only with consensus. Party leader Shaina NC said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that there is no space in a free and elected democratic society for people who choose to be the so-called moral custodians.
She said action could be taken against the MLA, if required. We are a disciplined cadre, and if we feel there is need to pull up somebody, I am sure the person concerned will have to bear the brunt, she said.
However, the Congress was unimpressed, with its spokesperson Sanjay Jha contending that the BJP cannot wash off its hands by calling those making inflammatory statements fringe elements.
The truth is that there is no fringe anymore. These are mainstream elected BJP leaders either in parliament or the assembly.... This is a political strategy. This is a manifestation of the most ugliest form of politics.
What is happening in Alwar? what happened in Dadri? you can see the kind of reactions happening all over the place where the BJP is currently in government, there is intimidation of the minorities.
I think this is the most crude form of majoritarian politics, and let me assure you, the PM will not say a word, not even condemn it, he added.
He was referring to the lynching of a Muslim man on suspicion that he had stored beef in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, in 2015, and the recent fatal attack on another man from the community by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan.
The Supreme Court, which is hearing the Ayodhya case, had recently said that the issue should be resolved through talks.
New Delhi: The war on black money cannot be concluded with one action alone and many more steps will be taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said today, hailing the Election Commission (EC) for countermanding the R K Nagar bypoll over use of money power.
While terming the EC action as "the right decision" in the wake of charges of use of money power, he attacked the Congress for the generation of black money due to various scams worth thousands of crores that took place during their regime.
Naidu also attacked the opposition parties on the EVM tampering issue saying, "They should introspect instead of raising such issues as it seems that they cannot accept defeat after people rejected them".
"The Narendra Modi government has launched a war against black money. The war against black money cannot be concluded with one action alone. Demonetisation or remonetisation is one such step in the right direction. Many more things need to be done by our government to curb use of black money," he said.
Talking about the RK Nagar bypoll, the Minister said it is an appropriate decision taken by the Election Commission after conducting a detailed inquiry.
He said the Election Commission "did the right thing" of countermanding the polls as "we have seen the brazen manner in which the money was being distributed and various reports have confirmed this".
"That is why I feel the Election Commission decision is right and in the interest of democracy," he said.
The senior BJP leader brushed aside charges by parties attributing political motives for the decision.
"It is the decision by the Election Commission and it is a correct decision. It is wrong to attribute political motives on the decision. It is an open fact that money was being distributed. It was caught on tape," he said.
He said the Income tax authorities have done their duty and it is natural for political parties to react in such a manner.
On the opposition raising the alleged tampering of EVMs, Naidu said, "There is no tampering of EVMs, the EC has confirmed this."
He also said, "The opposition parties are trying to find excuses for their defeat. The people of the country have rejected them and it is time they introspect. The EVMs were used earlier too and when BJP has lost in Punjab, Delhi and Bihar, they were happy. Now when they are losing, they are unable to digest it."
Taking on Congress leader P Chidambaram for his dig at the Prime Minister, Naidu said he would explain better as most black money was generated during his party's regime. "It is ridiculous to make such arguments. White money or black money will be known only after an inquiry. The use of money is certainly there. He (Chidambaram) must be able to explain better as he comes from that area.
"As I said most black money was generated during the Congress regime when so many scams took place. These include scams in 2G, 3G, CWG, Augusta, all of these happened during the Congress government," he said.
P Chidambaram had taken a dig at the Prime Minister asking if his demonestisation drive has achieved the desired results.
"We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?" the former Finance and Home Minister said in a tweet.
Chennai: Following the cancellation of the by-polls in Chennai's R.K. Nagar constituency, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday demanded the dismissal of Edappadi K Palaniswami-led Tamil Nadu government and immediate action against the culprits.
"There was support of the police to the ruling faction of the AIADMK. They distributed the money with the aid of the police. The Chief Minister was also used to distribute the money. The DMK would have easily won these elections. This incumbent government should be dismissed," DMK leader T.K.S. Elangovan told ANI.
The Election Commission said that the by-elections shall be held by the poll panel in due course when the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors gets removed with the passage of time and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive to the holding of free and fair election.
"The Election Commission has taken the decision. They should have been much more vigilant earlier because a lot of money has already been distributed. It is very clear that the ruling party was involved in such things. It is a very big disgrace to the state of Tamil Nadu and immediate action should be taken on the minister because even the Chief Minister was also used to distribute money," said another DMK leader T. Siva.
Meanwhile, DMK working president MK Stalin has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy and other ministers to end cash for votes.
"Election Commission should also probe how bribing took place despite huge deployment of observers and flying squads. It should also take tough action against police officers and election officials," Stalin said in a statement.
Meanwhile, fuming over the cancellation of the RK Nagar by-polls, the Sasikala camp termed the Election Commission's decision as 'undemocratic'.
"It is a wrong decision by the Election Commission. I don't know the reason (why they are doing this) maybe even the EC does not want me to win so they are trying to postpone the polls. It is undemocratic," All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader TTV Dinakaran told ANI.
By-elections in Chennai's RK Nagar constituency, the constituency of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, were cancelled by the Election Commission after cash-for-votes allegations surfaced.
The decision came after Income Tax raids in Chennai found money was distributed to voters.
The Income Tax officials had alleged that the VK Sasikala faction of the party paid Rs. 89 crore to voters to buy support for its candidate TTV Dinakaran, who is also her nephew. As evidence, the department had cited documents seized during raids on Friday in more than 35 places - including properties of the state health minister C Vijayabaskar.
Meanwhile the OPS faction of the party has welcomed the EC's decision. Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Tamilisai Soundararajan also supported the commission's verdict and said the state needs corruption-free politics.
Stakes for the by-polls were very high as the results would have been a verdict of sorts in the war between the two rival factions of the ruling AIADMK.
New Delhi : Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday slammed the Congress for politicising the Tarun Vijay episode and said the party is taking advantage of the statement which was not properly reported.
Asserting that Vijay has tendered an explanation that his speech was misconstrued, Naidu said that the former has always worked for national integration.
"If a person has made a statement and that statement was wrong so it can be condemned. However, Mr Tarun Vijay has given his clarification that his remarks were misinterpreted. Now, they are asking for an adjournment motion, the Congress Party is just politicising the issue. Tarun Vijay has always worked for national integration," Naidu commented.
"The Congress is talking advantage of Vijay's comment, which was not properly reported. The Congress is trying to make a political issue, but let me tell you they will face disappointment," he added.
The Congress earlier on Monday submitted an adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha against Vijay's recent controversial remarks on racism involving the South Indians.
Congress leader Pramod Tiwari gave the notice in the Rajya Sabha under Rule 267 on the same issue.
Vijay found himself in the middle of a storm as he tried to defend India after the recent attacks on African students in Greater Noida.
He reportedly told news channel Al Jazeera's online show, The Stream, "If we were racist, why would we have the entire south -- Tamil, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra. Why do we live with them? We have black people around us," the politician was heard as saying in the video.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad on Sunday took a train from Mumbai to New Delhi to attend the Parliament session, despite Air India and private carriers lifting his flying ban.
Earlier, PTI reports had said that Gaikwad would be taking a flight from Mumbai to Delhi incidentally, the same flight on which he assaulted an Air India officer.
However, media reports said that the MP from Osmanabad boarded the Mumbai Rajdhani on Sunday evening, and reached Delhi on Monday at 9:30 am.
Gaikwads brother-in-law told the media on Sunday that the MP would alight before New Delhi station on Monday.
Gaikwad booked a business class seat in AI 852, which takes off from Pune at 7.40 AM and lands at Indira Gandhi International airport at 9.50 AM, PTI reports earlier said.
This is the same flight Gaikwad boarded last month when he lost his cool and hit an Air India staffer "25 times" because the MP insisted on travelling business class on an all-economy flight.
"The summer schedule kicked in on 26 March as per which we are flying the newly acquired A320 neo planes on this route. This aircraft has business class," said an Air India source to PTI.
While lifting the ban on Friday, after pressure from the government, Air India had emphasised that it is "committed to ensuring its employees are not assaulted or misbehaved with".
The national carrier also said that it would take strong action to preserve the dignity of its employees.
Chennai: VK Sasikala, who is serving her jail term in disproportionate assets case, is probably staring at further trouble even as the Election Commission has cancelled the RK Nagar bypolls following allegations of rampant corruption and bribery in AIADMK (Amma).
The Election Commission (EC) will examine the validity of her appointment as interim general secretary of AIADMK after the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, NDTV quoted its sources as saying.
The EC has at least three months to look at her appointment as the new polling date will be released only after that.
Bypoll in Chennai's RK Nagar constituency, which was scheduled to be held on April 12, was cancelled after cash-for-votes allegations surfaced. The decision came after Income Tax raids in Chennai found money was distributed to voters.
The Income Tax officials had alleged that the VK Sasikala faction of the party paid Rs. 89 crore to voters to buy support for its candidate TTV Dinakaran, who is also her nephew. As evidence, the department had cited documents seized during raids on Friday in more than 35 places including properties of the state health minister C Vijayabaskar.
TTV Dinakaran of Sasikala faction has called the decision 'undemocratic', while the BJP and the Panneerselvam faction have praised the EC verdict.
"It is a wrong decision by the Election Commission. I don't know the reason (why they are doing this) maybe even the EC does not want me to win so they are trying to postpone the polls. It is undemocratic," TTV Dinakaran of AIADMK (Amma) told ANI.
"I thank the Election Commission for reacting to my letter which I have given as a complaint on this issue day before yesterday. This election is not being handled in a free and fair manner that's why the Commission had to intervene. Constitutionally it has been proved that our democracy is alive by this decision," expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa told ANI.
Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Tamilisai Soundararajan also supported the ECs verdict and said the state needs corruption-free politics.
"The Election Commission should conduct the elections only if they assure a free and fair election. If they are unable to do so then let them cancel the elections," she said.
The by-elections in RK Nagar became necessary after the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented it for two terms. Stakes for the by-polls were very high as the results would have been a verdict of sorts in the war between the two rival factions of the ruling AIADMK.
Villagers carry the body of of Umer Farooq, a Kashmiri civilian who was killed on Sunday, at Baroosa village on Monday. (Photo: AP)
Srinagar: The Election Commission has decided to defer the Lok Sabha bypoll to Anantnag constituency to May 25 following feedback of state election authorities. The EC is also likely to take a call on holding repoll in polling centres which saw unprecedented violence and poor voter turnout in the bypoll to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat Sunday.
Earlier on Monday, two government schools designated as polling stations for Anantnag bypoll were set on fire and prohibitory orders imposed in Budgam and Ganderbal districts.
Following which the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), in a hurriedly called press conference, had appealed to the EC to postpone the polls in Anantnag till the situation improves. Polling in Anantnag was scheduled for Wednesday.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother, Tassaduq Hussain Mufti, who is contesting from home constituency Anantnag on the PDP ticket, said. "My appeal to the Election Commission is to postpone the polls till the situation improves. It is my request".
Asked if the chief minister supports the demand, the 45-year-old cinematographer-turned-politician said the state government had given its assessment in writing to the EC, that the situation is not conducive for elections. If my withdrawing helps in postponing the election in Anantnag to a more favourable time, I'm happy to withdraw.
EC will shortly take a call on holding repoll in polling centres which saw unprecedented violence and poor voter turnout.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said decades of hard work to build trust in the democratic process in Kashmir has been reversed by the BJP government.
He also attacked the PDP-BJP government in the state over its "total failure".
"The elections in Kashmir reflect the total failure of the BJP/PDP alliance and the government's Kashmir policy.
"Decades of hard work to build trust in the democratic process in Kashmir reversed in less than 3 years by the BJP government," he tweeted.
Eight people were killed yesterday in firing by security forces in the Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll in Jammu and Kashmir. Only 7.14 per cent of the electorate came out to cast their votes in the constituency.
Thiruvananthapuram: The family of engineering student Jishnu Pranoy, who had allegedly committed suicide, ended their indefinite fast on Sunday night after chief minister assured them that all the accused in the incident will be brought to book.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called Mahija, mother of Jishnu, over phone and assured her that steps would be taken to book all the accused in the case.
Jishnu's uncle Sreejith, while announcing the decision to the end the fast, said that government has accepted all their demands.
The decision of the family to end their five-day-old fast also comes on a day N K Sakthivel, Vice Principal of Nehru College of Engineering in Thrissur, an accused in the case, was arrested from Annoor, near Coimbatore.
Jishnu, a first year student of the college, was found hanging in the college hostel in January last.
A team comprising Special Prosecutor C P Udaybhanu had earlier in the day held discussions on behalf of Government with Mahija and Ashokan, parents of Jishnu, to end the fast.
Mahija and her brother were admitted to the Trivandrum Medical College Hospital on April 5, after they complained of uneasiness and body pain following the "high-handedness" by police against them while attempting to stage an agitation before the DGP's office here, demanding justice for her son.
Mahija's 15-year-old daughter Avishna, who was on a fast since the last four days at her residence at Nadapuram in Kozhikode district, also ended her stir following an agreement reached with the government, Sreejith said.
Sakthivel was arrested after the government formed a special investigation team and announced Rs one lakh reward to persons giving information on the absconding accused in the case.
Nehru Group of Institutions chairman P K Krishnadas and Sajith, son of former state minister K P Viswanathan, have been already arrested.
Two more accused are to be nabbed.
The issue had rocked the state since April 5 after police "forcefully" prevented Mahija and other relatives from staging a dharna before the DGP's office here.
The police action had come in for criticism from various quarters with opposition Congress and BJP observing a hartal on April 6.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury had also spoken to the family early in the day and asked them to call off the hunger strike.
The Chief Minister today said the government and police were doing everything they can do to ensure that justice was delivered to the grieving family.
"Government will take all steps to get justice for the family", Vijayan said at Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district.
Government had also accused the opposition Congress and BJP of trying to take political mileage out of the situation.
A building that was damaged during the fireworks tragedy at Puttingal a year ago. (Photo: File)
Thiruvananthapuram: Special prayers marked the first anniversary of Kerala's worst fireworks tragedy at Puttingal Devi temple in neighbouring Kollam district that claimed 110 lives and left at least 400 people injured.
Floral tributes were paid at the memorial erected near the accident spot.
Under a programme organised by the local municipality, 110 'deepams' will be lit at a memorial meeting.
The tragedy occurred in the early hours of April 10 at the temple as people from far and near gathered to see the finale of the 9-day festivities, an exhilarating fireworks display.
A spark from a cracker fell on a large storehouse of crackers and fireworks that exploded and completely destroyed more than 100 houses and partially damaged 2,000 in the vicinity.
Several wells in the areas nearby caved in under the impact of the massive explosion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had visited the accident spot.
New Delhi: Reacting strongly, India on Monday said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence, awarded to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a strongly-worded demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav were "farcical" as there were no "credible evidence" against him.
Reacting to a press release by Pakistan military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Jadhav, India said he was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan military sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav to death. "The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Jadhav was "tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of official Secret Act of 1923," ISPR said.
Jadhav "confessed before a magistrate and court that he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan, through impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for the restoration of peace in Balochistan and Karachi," the ISPR said.
Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa "has confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," it added.
Jadhav, a retired Naval officer, was arrested by Pakistan from Balochistan on March 3 last year for allegedly spying for Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
India had denied that Jadhav was a R&AW spy, but said that he was a retired Naval officer. However, Pakistan had refused to extradite him.
Pakistan's foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz had alleged that he was involved in "subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan". In March last year, Pakistan released what it claimed to be Kulbhushan's video confession.
Journalists look a image of Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, during a press conference by Pakistan's army spokesman and the Information Minister, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Photo: AP)
Mumbai: As the news of the sentencing of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a Pakistan military court surfaced, people flocked to his family's apartment in the city but found it to be locked.
It was later revealed that Jadhav's family members had moved to Pune and no one was staying in the flat.
"The family has moved to Pune and no one lives here. The flat is empty and is generally locked," a neighbour said.
A dozen police personnel reached the building in suburban Powai soon after the news of the 46-year-old's death sentence spread. A large number of media persons also rushed to the spot. Locals too gathered outside the residential complex.
However, the managing committee members of the housing society prevented people from going inside the building.
Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was "a serving officer in the Indian Navy."
He has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country, a charge strongly denied by his family members. They have maintained that Jadhav may have strayed into Pakistan or lured to the place with some business proposal.
Jadhav's father Sudhir is a former assistant commissioner of police.
The Indian government has maintained that proceedings leading to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been "explained credibly".
India had acknowledged that Jadhav had served with the navy, but denied that he had any connection with the government.
New Delhi: Calling for more concentrated efforts against security threats, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said Dhaka has comprehensively addressed New Delhi's security concerns, which has been a factor in trust building.
"We have put in place a multi-layered and effective bilateral security architecture with many dedicated joint institutional mechanisms for targeted and coordinated actions," said Hasina at India Foundation Awareness Programme in New Delhi.
She said that security threats from state and non-state actors tend to undermine the efforts to integrate our economies and societies and that there should be more concentrated efforts to strengthen protection for our societies.
"We have amicably settled Land Boundary and Maritime Boundary," she added while reiterating her appreciation for leaders of all political parties and members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha of India for their unanimous support for the Land Boundary Agreement.
She noted that the Bangladesh Parliament recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as 'Genocide Day' in remembrance of the Pakistani atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971 and called on the international community to recognise the same
Hasina added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a commitment to remain with this effort of Dhaka.
Stating that 'India is our partner in this path to progress' the Bangladesh Prime Minister said that the two neighbors have witnessed tremendous progress in almost all sectors of cooperation namely, connectivity, power, trade and commerce, health and cultural exchange.
"To address trade deficit we are also working on getting more investment from India particularly in the special economic zones of Bangladesh. Already we are seeing great interest from the biggest business houses in India," she added.
On the Teesta issue, Hasina said that Prime Minister Modi has assured that his government will conclude the water sharing treaty at the soonest.
New Delhi: Slamming Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA T Raja Singh for making a controversial remark on the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the Congress on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other party leaders are teaching their members to make such statements that is extremely illegal.
"Such comments are completely illegal and unconstitutional and that person should be immediately put behind the bar. I think this is what the Prime Minister and other BJP people are telling their members to enact," Congress leader Sandeep Dixit told ANI.
Echoing similar sentiments, another Congress leader P.C. Chacko said the government, whether in the state or the Centre, should see that such people are controlled.
"These fringe elements in the party are creating a kind of euphoria and I do not think this is good for the society. They just want to divide the society on communal basis. Such elements should not be tolerated by the society or by the government," he added.
The BJP MLA from Hyderabad said that he would behead the ones opposing the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
"Some people are saying that they will create ruckus if Ram Mandir is built in Ayodhya. I welcome the ones who are warning of dire consequences. We have been waiting for years to behead such traitors," the MLA said while addressing a public gathering on Thursday here.
Singh, who represents Goshamal constituency in the Hyderabad Assembly, is known for his right wing activities and has also been arrested multiple times.
The Supreme Court had observed that Ayodhya dispute is a "sensitive" and "sentimental" issue, adding that the matter should be settled amicably.
Since then, various right-wing leaders have been campaigning for the temple to be built.
While Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said she was ready to go to jail for the temple if need be, BJP leaders have been supporting the cause in their own way.
Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on Sunday denied reports that he was joining the BJP.
In a Facebook post, he said: "In view of the number of people asking, let me repeat that my convictions are a matter of record and they do not match those of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)".
"For 40+years I have spoken and written in defence of a pluralist India with equal rights for all its citizens and communities," Tharoor, also a former UN diplomat, said. "On this, no compromise. Rumours of my joining BJP have been floated periodically with no basis whatsoever. I deny them categorically and without qualification," he said.
The Congress MP's clarification comes in the backdrop of a statement by CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that four Congress leaders, including Tharoor, planned to join the BJP.
Balakrishnan had said there are reports that four Congress leaders from Kerala are joining the BJP and that KPCC president M M Hassan had said that one of them was Tharoor.
However, Hassan denied having made any such remarks when contacted.
"When media persons asked me whether the reports about four Congress leaders joining the BJP has come to his notice, I said there is no such thing," Hassan told PTI.
"There are no fortune seekers in Kerala like S M Krishna and Jaffer Sharif," the KPCC president said.
Tharoor campaigned for the Congress-led UDF candidate for the April 12 bypoll in Malappuram, Hassan said.
"When I asked him about such reports, he (Tharoor) told me that it was a propaganda by the BJP," Hassan added.
New Delhi: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday slammed the Congress Party for politicising the Tarun Vijay episode and said the grand old party is taking advantage of the statement which was not properly reported.
Asserting that Vijay has tendered an explanation that his speech was misconstrued, Naidu said that the former has always worked for national integration.
"If a person has made a statement and that statement was wrong so it can be condemned. However, Mr Tarun Vijay has given his clarification that his remarks were misinterpreted. Now, they are asking for an adjournment motion, the Congress Party is just politicising the issue. Tarun Vijay has always worked for national integration," Naidu told the media.
"The Congress is talking advantage of Vijay's comment, which was not properly reported. The Congress is trying to make a political issue, but let me tell you they will face disappointment," he added.
The Congress earlier on Monday submitted an adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha against Vijay's recent controversial remarks on racism involving the South Indians.
Congress leader Pramod Tiwari gave the notice in the Rajya Sabha under Rule 267 on the same issue.
Vijay found himself in the middle of a storm as he tried to defend India after the recent attacks on African students in Greater Noida.
He reportedly told news channel Al Jazeera's online show The Stream: "If we were racist, why would we have the entire entire south. Tamil, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra. Why do we live with them? We have black people around us," the politician was heard as saying in the video."
New Delhi: Accusing the Congress of painting Aadhaar as a curse, the government today asserted that no poor person would be deprived of the subsidy benefits by making the Aadhaar mandatory and that privacy of individuals will be protected.
Minister of IT and Law Ravi Shankar Prasad stated this in the Rajya Sabha while replying to a discussion on Aadhaar against the backdrop of concerns expressed by the opposition over making the biometric-based identification system mandatory for availing of government subsidies.
"I want to make it very clear on the behalf of the government that no poor shall be denied his subsidy rights at all. Be very clear about that. Whether it is, a mid day meal or any other benefit, we have said that you come on Aadhaar but no denial will be there," he assured the House.
"The right of privacy of individual must be respected... The question to be considered is, are we invading privacy through the Aadhaar law, the answer is 'No'," he said.
Observing that at present, over 113 crore residents in India have Aadhaar, Prasad said that "Aadhaar is safe, let me say proudly that the data is secure".
He said that in the last six years, the government has cancelled and blacklisted 34,000 operators who tried to pollute the system or tried to make fake Aadhaar cards.
"Since December 2016, we have taken action against 1,000 operators. We have a proper oversight system available which we do at all the authority at our command," he said.
Accusing the Congress of trying to paint Aadhaar as a curse, Prasad outlined several benefits associated with it. "You need to come on Aadhaar but the benefits will not be denied to you, you can come with alternative identity proof be it ration card, MNREGA Card, driving license or others. But please apply for Aadhaar, that is the whole essence," he said.
"Fake bank accounts is a known phenomena. We cannot wish away that poor people have lost their savings. So these realities are known," Prasad said.
To back his assertion of Aadhaar data being secure, the Law Minister reasoned that minimum data is collected by the authorities, and information related to an individual's religion, caste, language, medical history or ethnicity is not profiled.
"Let me outline minimum data is being taken for preparation of Aadhaar card, the authorities are under strict instructions to maintain that secrecy and if they flout they can also suffer three years of imprisonment and prosecution," the Law Minister argued.
Pointing out that national security is important, he said that even in cases of national security, a high-level mechanism has been put in place whereby a designated officer of the Home Ministry shall for reasons to be recorded in writing certify disclosure of a person's Aadhaar data.
Further, he said that a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary will ascertain and confirm that a person's Aadhaar data needs to be disclosed in such cases.
"This is the kind of safeguards we have given that the biometrics of an ordinary person even in case of national security cannot be opened unless certified by this level of higher authorities," Prasad said.
The Law Minister categorically denied claims of the NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) being linked to Aadhaar.
Referring to the two interim orders passed by the Supreme Court on August 11, 2015 and October 15, 2015, permitting a set of subsidies to be given through Aadhaar, Prasad outlined that there was no Aadhaar legislation in place at the time.
"Legally speaking, the law is well settled that Parliament can remove the lacuna which the court points out and if one of the arguments in the court is that there is no legal framework available, the Parliament has come up with the Aadhar Act," he said.
Referring to a recent CAG report which had found that 92 per cent of the savings in LPG subsidy was due to fall in global crude oil prices and not due to Aadhaar seeding, Prasad termed it a "sketchy report".
"I very seriously respect the institution of CAG but the CAG has got no mechanism to make a comment that this saving is only due to the lowering of the international crude oil prices. This is too judgemental, not factual," the minister said.
Prasad said the government saved about Rs 50,000 crore LPG subsidy due to the linking of Aadhaar card with Jhan Dhan accounts. "The World Bank and a UN body have clearly stated that the extraordinary technological innovation of India needs to be followed by the world. Surely they (UPA government) started it, but after improvements, it is showing results and the benefits have to be considered objectively," he said.
The Aadhaar scheme was started by the UPA government. "Now there is a robust legislation that has laid down the entire format of how the biometric data will be collected, processed, stored and under what terms and conditions will it be used," Prasad said.
If there is unauthorised use of Aadhaar card details, the law provides for prosecution and punishment for up to 3 years, he added.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh attacked the government for making Aadhaar mandatory, saying it is gross violation of the Supreme Court orders.
Making Aadhaar mandatory for availing subsidies was resulting in exclusion of beneficiaries and the government cannot claim to have saved huge subsidies by this, he said.
Elaborating on implementation issues, Ramesh said the government claims to have saved Rs 49,000 crore LPG subsidies by linking with Aadhaar but a CAG report has debunked this in a recent report.
The CAG has found that 92 per cent of the savings in LPG subsidy was due to fall in global crude oil prices and not due to Aadhaar seeding, he said, adding that similar was the case with food subidy, old-age pension and MNREGA.
Initiating the debate, Rajeev Chandrashekar (Ind) expressed concern over fake Aadhaar cards, data integrity and privacy issues and also exclusion of subsidies by making it mandatory.
He said he was not against the Aadhaar system but the risks and problems need to be addressed by the government. The government should not take a "rigid position".
On fake Aadhaar cards, Chandrashekar said the government has inherited "100 crore unverified database" created prior to bringing the law in 2016.
When there is "clear evidence" of fake Aadhaar, he sought to know what safeguards the UIDAI had taken before permitting Aadhaar for use as an identification beyond delivering subsidies. "This needs to be answered," he said.
During his reply, Prasad, the IT Minister, said while the past government added optical network of 358 km in three years starting 2011, the present government in the past 2.5 years has added 1.78 lakh kilometres.
He said currently 80,000 villages have been covered in the country and more would be added. "In the past government, only Rs 11,000 crore investment came in the electronics sector. In our government there has been an investment of over Rs 1.27 lakh crore," he said.
"In their time there used to be a Nokia company which shut down. We in the last two years manufactured 12 crore mobiles through 72 factories across the country," he added.
"We never said they (previous government) did not used to do good work. They used to begin good work but it is our duty to make it better. That is why the people have brought us to power," Prasad said.
To improve infrastructure will be the government's priority, he added.
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said demographic data of 5 lakh minors was leaked and government should look into the matter.
"If you protect MS Dhoni, it is good but at the same time, you should also protect small people," he said.
V Vijaysai Reddy (YSRCP) said the linkage of Aadhaar Card with Pan card is very much required because many people have multiple PAN (Permanent Account Number) cards and thus open several bank accounts to deposit black money.
He said linking of Aaadhar with voter ID is "very much possible to remove duplicate or ghost voter ID cards".
Ripun Bora of the Congress said he fully supported Aadhaar but would like to bring certain implementational constraints to the government's notice.
He also referred to the Supreme Court's earlier observation that the government cannot make Aadhaar mandatory to access benefits and welfare schemes.
Pointing towards concerns raised on privacy, particularly in light of a recent incident involving leakage of Aadhaar related information of Dhoni, Shiv Pratap Shukla of the BJP referred to a World Bank report, which he claimed had said that the Aadhaar framework in place in India was even better than the American Social Security Act.
Referring to the issue of protection of privacy, Tiruchi Siva of the DMK said that Aadhaar has now become a "tool of surveillance".
He said the government of India does not have a policy on privacy at present.
New Delhi: India should prepare for taking "stringent action" against Pakistan and warn it of negative consequences if Kulbhushan Jadhav is executed, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said on Monday.
"We should prepare to take stringent action against Pakistan. Today, we should give warning that consequences would be bad for Pakistan if Jadhav is executed," Swamy told reporters outside the Parliament.
He said India should discard the "wrong perception" that an India-Pakistan friendship is necessary to have Hindu-Muslim unity in the country.
Swamy comments came in reaction to the Pakistan army chief approving the execution of Jadhav for his "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" in that country.
Pakistan security officials had "arrested" Jadhav on March 3 last year in Balochistan after he reportedly entered from Iran.
Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi sure takes his selfies seriously. Already with an enviable collection of selfies with world leader, Modi has one more important name to the list.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who arrived in India on Sunday shared a lighter moment with Modi, the two of them clicking a selfie on the Delhi metro on Monday.
The duo rode the train from Mandi House station to Akshardham station.
"On board the Delhi Metro with PM @TurnbullMalcolm. We are heading to the Akshardham Temple," Modi tweeted with the selfie.
Turnbull also tweeted "With @narendramodi on the Delhi Metro Blue Line - 212 kms & 159 stations since 2002."
Earlier, India and Australia on Monday inked six pacts including one aimed at boosting counter-terrorism cooperation after talks between Modi and Turnbull in New Delhi.
The two sides inked a pact to boost counter-terrorism cooperation which was signed between the Ministry of Home Affairs and its counterpart Australian ministry.
While Modi noted that Australia was ready to supply uranium to India, Turnbull said his government was looking forward to exporting uranium to India "as soon as possible".
Turnbull arrived yesterday on a four-day visit, his first to the country after assuming office in 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina during a joint press conference, at Hyderabad house in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: In a viral video that surfaced online, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart were asked to step down on Monday in a gaffe, evoking much laughter from the crowd.
Modi, who hosted a joint press conference with Hasina at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, were on the podium when the announcer for the photo shoot asked the Prime Ministers to come together.
However, he ended up saying, May I ask the two Prime Ministers to step down, which made it seem like he was asking them to resign from their posts.
#WATCH: This funny moment happened live at Hyderabad House during PM Modi and Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina's joint statement. pic.twitter.com/Z1D7AbB3eb ANI (@ANI_news) April 8, 2017
Taking the announcers slip lightly, both the prime ministers laughed it off. Hasina, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday, is on a four-day visit to India.
On Sunday, in a joint statement, Modi and Hasina announced that 22 pacts had been signed between New Delhi and Dhaka, while saying that the talks would continue over Teesta.
New Delhi: Former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadav was sentenced to death by Pakistan army on Monday after a military court found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" against the country.
Here is the story until now:
New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed Pakistan for spreading terror in South Asia, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart LK Advani expressed his desire to see improved ties between New Delhi and Islamabad, while lamenting that Karachi, where he was born was not a part of India anymore.
"There are also some other neighbouring countries besides Bangladesh with which we want to improve relations. I will be happy if our relations with these neighbouring nations improve. Sindh was once part of India and I was born there, but after Independence we lost that part. I will always be unhappy about this," Advani said speaking at India Foundation Awareness programme in Delhi.
Hinting indirectly at Pakistan, Advani further said that he wishes to build similar relations with 'that country', which India shares with Bangladesh.
This is not the first time when the BJP patriarch has put forth such thoughts. Earlier he had said that India is 'incomplete' without Pakistan's Sindh.
"At times I feel sad that Karachi and Sindh are not parts of India anymore. I believe that India appears incomplete without Sindh," Advani had said in January.
Advani had to resign as BJP president after making controversial remarks about Jinnah during his visit to Pakistan in 2005.
"I personally have experienced Jinnah as a person who basically wanted a secular state with a Muslim majority....," Advani said leaving his statement incomplete, nevertheless giving a clear picture as to what his intentions were.
Advani was also forced to quit after RSS and several leaders within the BJP openly slammed him and demanded his resignation.
Hyderabad: TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday met BJP national president Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi along with Union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Sujana Chowdary and requested him to use his good offices with the Prime Minister and the Union home minister to get them to expedite the amendment on increasing the number of Assembly seats in AP and TS.
The AP CM greeted the BJP chief for the partys stupendous victory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and offered him TTD prasadam. According to sources, the AP CM told Amit Shah that delimitation of Assembly segments in both the states was part of the AP Reorganisation Act, and even after almost three years, the promise to increase the seats hasnt been kept.
The TD chief also conveyed to Amit Shah that he was in favour of his party continuing in the NDA and the alliance in AP even in 2019.
The AP CM said that it was important for the alliance to ensure the Opposition, especially the YSR Congress, does not get a respectable number of seats in the coming elections and delimitation would achieve this. He also requested Amit Shah to bring an amendment to Section 26 of AP Reorganisation Act instead of amending Article 170 of the Constitution as that would require a special majority to get the amendment passed in both Houses of Parliament as well as 50 per cent of Legislatures in the country.
Amit Shah reportedly assured that he would talk to the PM and the home minister. The TD Naidu introduced former minister Motkupalli Narasimhulu to Amit Shah and reminded him of the promise of giving one Governor post under TD quota.
Hyderabad: The Telangana state Telugu Desam has decided to mobilise anti-KCR forces in the state. The party promised tickets to youth in 100 seats if the delimitation of Assembly constituencies takes place and number of seats goes up from 119 to 153 before the 2019 elections. TS TD working president A. Revanth Reddy said that the party would be the main rival to ruling TRS. Four crore Telangana people would be on one side and the four-member KCR family on the other, he said.
Mr Revanth Reddy added: We will mobilise anti-KCR forces in the state and give a fitting reply to the ruling TRS in the next polls. Irrigation minister Harish Rao describes TD as a dead snake but the fact is that Harish Rao is worse than a dead snake in the TRS. He has been cut down to size and ignored, he alleged. Mr Revanth Reddy, who went hammer and tongs against Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and the TRS government, said that the CM was busy trying to sort out differences between his son K.T. Rama Rao and Mr Harish Rao and this has resulted in the administration being thrown to the winds. Congress too has failed to perform its role as Opposition, he said. Pragathi Bhavan constructed by KCR is nothing but Pairavi Bhavan. If we come to power, we will turn the Pragathi Bhavan into a hospital, TS TD president L. Ramana said.
Warangal: TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy came down like a tonne of bricks on the TRS government accusing it of focussing on the party at the cost of neglecting farmers woes. While chilli farmers in the state are distraught with the price of chilli plummeting, it is shameful that the ruling TRS is making arrangements for its formation day celebrations, Mr Reddy said.
The TPCC chief, along with party leaders Naini Rajender Reddy, Kondeti Sridhar, Gandra Venkataramana Reddy, Rajanala Srihari, E.V. Srinivas Rao and others gathered at the Enumamula market yard on Monday morning. Police obstructed the leaders from entering the market and closed the main gates. However, the leaders initially got into a war of words with the police managed to push their way inside the market and meet some of the farmers.
A large number of farmers brought their produce to the market on Monday which reopened after a week owing to the strike by lorry drivers. Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy interacted with the chilli farmers and listened to their woes. Farmers said their hard work was going waste as they are being paid a paltry Rs 4,000 per quintal. They said they are not able to make a paisa this year and were incurring huge losses.
Responding to their plight, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao must take action to support chilli farmers. He said that the CM was not giving as much importance to the problems of farmers as he was doing to the TRS plenary. It is unfortunate that the state government is not responding even after chilli farmers are committing suicide, he said.
KCRs attitude shows that he has no respect for the farmers. The state government must purchase chilli through Markfed at Rs 12,000 per quintal and save the farmers, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded. The Congress leaders later tried to barge into the market secretarys office but the police overpowered them. They then sat in front of the gate and raised slogans against the state government. The police arrested the protesters shifted them to the police station.
New Delhi: In further trouble for Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the ED has summoned him for questioning in its money laundering probe against him and others.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) action comes close on the heels of the CBI filing a charge sheet against him and his wife and others for allegedly amassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Officials said the agency has issued fresh summons to Singh as it wants to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
They said he has been asked to depose before the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case on April 13 in New Delhi.
The agency has summoned Singh earlier too but then he had excused himself stating his official commitments.
It has already questioned his wife Pratibha and son Vikramaditya in this case.
The ED had filed a case under criminal provisions of the anti-money laundering law against the CM, his family members and others after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the CBI in this regard in September, 2015.
The agency is probing allegations against Singh and his family members of having amassed wealth of Rs 6.1 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2009 and 2011 when he was the Union Minister of Steel. It has also attached assets worth about Rs 14 crore in this case under PMLA laws.
The CBI charge sheet, filed sometime back, claims that the politician had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate by 192 per cent of his total income during his tenure as a Union Minister.
The final report filed against nine people for alleged offences punishable under section 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.
Besides the 82-year-old Congress leader and his wife Pratibha Singh, the report also arraigned Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia as accused.
The report also named as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who is currently in judicial custody. Chauhan was arrested by the ED on July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the present case.
Police scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 having face value of Rs 1.48 crore. (Representational image)
Visakhapatnam: Police on Monday seized scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 having face value of Rs 1.48 crore and arrested five persons after conducting raids at two different places.
The five persons had allegedly come to exchange old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 with new currency on commission basis in the city, police said.
Police raided a place near Lakshmi Roy Lodge at Dondaparthi as well as a spot near the PF office at Marripalem in Vizag city.
The raids were conducted acting on a tip off that the exchange of old and new currency was about to take place at this venues, ACP (Task Force) I Chittibabu said.
The matter is being investigated to know the source of the scrapped currency, said the officer.
Bhopal: Expressing anguish over the caste system still prevailing in India, Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot has said it is ironic that temples and wells still
remain inaccessible to those who actually build them.
"Even today we are getting reports of one or two such incidents taking place in the country and we should ensure that they do not occur at all," Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Gehlot told.
Voicing his anguish over the caste system at a seminar on Dr B R Ambedkar at a college in Ukraine on Saturday, he said, "You ask us to dig well, but prevent us from drinking its water... we make idols, but you closed portals of the temple
for us."
"You have the wells dug by us, but once the job is done, you don't let us drink water from it," Gehlot said. "Whenever you need to make a pond, you deploy us as workers and at that time we sweat it out and even spit and urinate in it," the minister said.
"But when the time comes to draw water from it to quench the thirst, you do not allow us to do so saying it will turn impure," he said. The senior BJP leader said, "The portals of temples for which we make idols are closed for us once the task is over." "Who will correct it after all?" the minister asked. "Though you may have paid us for making idols, the fact remains that we made it. Let us at least see it and touch it," he said at the seminar ahead of the Ambedkar's birth anniversary on April 14.
Asked about the concern he expressed over the continuance of the caste system and the the deep-rooted prejudices of the large section of people, Gehlot told. "Suman Maharaj, a saint, was also present on the dais when I pointed out these incidents and also urged him to work for removing these social evils from the society."
"The saint, in his address, had mentioned that people making idols wear shoes while doing so and responding to that I said it was not true that those making idols do so."
"I pointed out that people engage Dalits for digging wells and ponds, building temples and making idols but later they are stopped from entering such religious places or to take or drink water," he said.
"Such incidents are still taking place in the country though just one or two... my ministry is getting such reports from almost all the states," Gehlot said.
He also pointed out that at a lot in Ratlam district, neighbouring Ujjain, people did not allow a Dalit marriage procession to pass through their locality sometime back.
"Such incidents are taking place even today and my ministry is trying to ensure that they do not occur at all," he said.
Lauding Gehlot's comments, Prof C D Naik of Dr BR Ambedkar University of Social Sciences at Mhow said, "What the Union minister has said is a fact. Unless people change their mindset, things will not improve even after 600 years."
"Whatever Gehlot has said is true. It happens and by stating so he has expressed his helplessness, despite being a Union minister, in removing these social evils from the society," said Naik, professor of Ambedkar Thoughts and
Philosophy.
Naik also blamed the caste-based vote bank politics practised by various political parties for the present situation.
Lucknow: UP minister Surya Pratap Shahi on Monday rapped the govt officials over low punctuality and poor attendance and asked them to come out of the "holiday hangover" of the previous government.
While conducting a surprise inspection at Krishi Bhawan, Shahi said: "The quantum of laxity in the office is very high. It is absolutely unjustified. The attendance in the office was very low. Those who have been marked absent today would face a pay cut of one day."
He said warnings have been issued to the officials who were found absent.
"The ground reality is indeed disturbing, and we will take stringent action against the habitual offenders. There should be no pendency of work, and all works must be completed within the stipulated deadline," he added.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mohsin Raza too rapped the Waqf Board officials over low punctuality and asked them why shouldn't the current board be dissolved.
"It seems that the officials of this department do not feel the pain of the common public, who come from far-flung places with their grievances," Raza said.
"We (the ministers) reach our offices by 9.30 am. But, even at 11.30 am, the officials are yet to reach the office," Raza observed.
Thiruvananthapuram: Such was Gods Own Countrys association with adult films that even as recent as 2014, a search for Kerala on Google used to throw up porn bits in the top 20 search results. Realizing that the skin show could harm the tourism potential of the state in the age of social media, the Tourism Department had launched a carpet bombing of sorts on YouTube way back in 2012. Tourism videos, finally, have finally replaced porn films in the top search results for Kerala.
For the last four years, the Tourism Department has been swamping YouTube with quintessential Kerala videos, from daily vignettes and scenic beauty to festivals and cuisine. By now, over 5000 professionally produced videos have been uploaded. In the last year alone the videos together have notched up over two crore video views. Since Kerala was keen on having only discerning travelers, this association with porn was a dampener, said a top tourism official. Besides porn, other image-battering videos related to garbage and stray dog menace too got top billing.
The carpet bombing worked because of an inherent YouTube handicap. YouTubes search engine, unlike Googles, cannot throw up the best results for a search. Its algorithm depends on unreliable parameters like quantity, comments and ratings, said Hari of Invis Multimedia. The Tourism Department, by flooding its videos in YouTube, virtually tricked the website to giving its videos greater preference. Since all our videos were professionally made, travel agents and even academicians began accessing them. It also helped that Kerala Tourism has a working arrangement with YouTube, the tourism official said.
Tourism meet to discuss on live streaming potentials
As Snapchat and Instagram posts are taking off phenomenally in the West as innovative tools for live interface, Kerala is planning to use its own live streaming technology to tap tourists' experiential accounts of the destinations they visit. Considering its potential for tourism promotion in India, a group of young professionals from Kerala, with the support of state's Tourism Department, is all set to explore live streaming as a major campaign tool for the upcoming second edition of International Conference on Tourism Technology (ICTT) in Kochi. Association of Tourism Trade Organisation (ATTOI), with the support of Kerala Tourism, will organise the three-day event at the Le Meridien Hotel in Kochi from June 8 to 10.
"Technology has become an essential part of tourism industry. Unlike other social media tools, we have noticed that the live feeds are getting more traction. It is intimate, engaging, bespoke and authentic than any other form of tourism destination promotions," said ATTOI president Anish Kumar P.K. In December last year, ATTOI, as a curtain raiser to an international conference, organised a live streaming of an underwater engagement to showcase beach resorts as a unique offering of Kerala Tourism.
Over 25 lakh viewers across the world watched the video that was streamed live from the beach resort of Kovalam. ICTT 2017 aims at helping the tourism industry players to stay abreast with the latest technology through effective usage of the digital platform. Around 500 delegates, comprising tour operators, hoteliers, resort owners, home stays, SEO companies, software firms, social media marketing companies and bloggers, are slated to attend the conference.
Malappuram: The special investigation team probing the Malappuram collectorate of November 1 last arrested two more persons on Sunday. The team led by Malappuram DySP P.T. Balan took into custody the two accused, N. Abubakkar, 40, and A. Abdul Rahman, 27, from Madurai, their native place, and recorded their arrest here. The district and sessions court in Manjeri, where they were produced on Monday, remanded them in judicial custody for a week. The low-intensity blast had occurred at the parking area of the Malappuram judicial first class magistrate court complex situated on the district collectorate compound.
The police said that Abubakkar, the sixth accused, was the head of the terror outfit named Base Movement that was behind the blast. Abubakkar had masterminded similar blasts in Kollam, Mysore, Nellore and Chittoor. A few more remain to be arrested in the case. Abubakkar was heading another terror outfit named AMF before constituting the Base Movement in 2015 and had connections with Al Umma terrorist Imam Ali who was killed in 2002, said Malappuram district police chief Debesh Kumar Behera. The National Investigation Agency had arrested five accused earlier from Madurai.
Chennai: Fuming over the cancellation of the RK Nagar bypolls following allegations of rampant corruption and bribery, the Sasikala camp termed the Election Commission's decision as 'undemocratic'.
"It is a wrong decision by the Election Commission. I don't know the reason (why they are doing this) maybe even the EC does not want me to win so they are trying to postpone the polls. It is undemocratic," TTV Dinakaran of AIADMK (Amma) told ANI.
By-elections in Chennai's RK Nagar constituency, the constituency of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, have been cancelled by the Election Commission after cash-for-votes allegations surfaced.
The decision came after Income Tax raids in Chennai found money was distributed to voters.
The Income Tax officials had alleged that the VK Sasikala faction of the party paid Rs. 89 crore to voters to buy support for its candidate TTV Dinakaran, who is also her nephew. As evidence, the department had cited documents seized during raids on Friday in more than 35 places - including properties of the state health minister C Vijayabaskar.
Meanwhile, the OPS faction of the party has welcomed the EC's decision. Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) chief Tamilisai Soundararajan also supported the commission's verdict and said the state needs corruption-free politics.
"I thank the Election Commission for reacting to my letter which I have given as a complaint on this issue day before yesterday. This election is not being handled in a free and fair manner that's why the Commission had to intervene. Constitutionally it has been proved that our democracy is alive by this decision," expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa told ANI.
She further said that the decision has proved that mafia and money power is involved in this by-election.
"I would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the right decision at the right time by making Income Tax raid on the corrupted people and exposing their malpractices. We will get justice through the Election Commission," she added.
She also added that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry needs to be taken so that the truth will come out.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) chief Tamilisai Soundararajan also supported the Election Commission's verdict and said the state needs corruption-free politics.
"The Election Commission should conduct the elections only if they assure a free and fair election. If they are unable to do so then let them cancel the elections," she said.
She added that the election is a neutral and democratic process therefore it should be carried out in that manner only.
"Investigation should be expanded and probed in much deeper way. We want a corrupt free politics in Tamil Nadu," Soundararajan asserted.
The by-elections in RK Nagar became necessary after the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented it for two terms. Stakes for the by-polls were very high as the results would have been a verdict of sorts in the war between the two rival factions of the ruling AIADMK.
Meanwhile, following the cancellation of by-polls in R.K. Nagar, the Congress on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the demonetisation drive.
"We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?" Congress leader P. Chidambaram tweeted.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate an exhibition on Tuesday to mark the 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah.
The exhibition to be held in the national capital will be titled 'Swachhagraha. Bapu Ko Karyanjali ? Ek Abhiyan, Ek Pradarshani'. He will also launch an 'Online Interactive Quiz' at the event which is being organised by the National Archives of India. The quiz will continue for 30 months till October, 2019.
In a series of tweets today, PM Modi said the Champaran Satyagraha was a historic mass movement which had a phenomenal impact and urged the countrymen to become 'Swachhagrahis' and create a Swachh Bharat.
"Tomorrow I will join a very special program, 'Swachhagraha. Bapu Ko Karyanjali' to mark 100 years of the historic Champaran Satyagraha," he posted on Twitter. There will be an exhibition showcasing Champaran Satyagraha and it will connect essential principles of Satyagraha with Swachhagraha, he said.
The exhibition will also showcase the ground covered by the Swachh Bharat Mission in creating a mass movement towards a clean India. "A century ago, Indians became Satyagrahis and fought colonialism. Today, let us become Swachhagrahis and create a Swachh Bharat.
"Champaran Satyagraha was a historic mass movement led by Bapu. Its impact was phenomenal," the Prime Minister said. The exhibition will be available for public for a month from Tuesday after inauguration by Modi tomorrow at National
Archives of India (NAI) here, NAI Director General Raghvendra Singh told a press conference here.
The exhibition is a tribute to Gandhi on hundred years of his first experiment of Satyagraha in India, in Champaran and is an attempt to sensitise future generations to fulfill his dream of 'Swachh Bharat', Singh said. Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma are expected to attend the event.
The exhibition will also be showcased in other cities of the country after a
month. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Movement) was launched on October 2, 2014 with an aim to achieve clean India and aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi had arrived in Champaran, a district in Bihar, in 1917 to take up the cause of the farmers who were forced to grow indigo, instead of food crops, by the British.
Champaran Satyagraha was the first non-violence action initiated by Gandhi, who during his stay in Bihar, also delved in detail with the social problems like scavenging, illiteracy, and issues related to women and health.
Lucknow: The BJP on Monday termed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's gesture of returning a cow gifted to him by a seer as a move to "maintain his relevance" in the current political scenario of Uttar Pradesh.
Khan had on Sunday returned the black cow gifted to him by Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth Swami Adhokshjanand Maharaj in 2015, saying "any vigilante could kill the animal to defame" him.
"The gesture of Khan is completely uncalled for. His statement that any cow vigilante may kill it to defame him, only shows his narrow and parochial mindset," state party spokesperson Manish Shukla told.
"By this he has hurt the sentiments of crores of people who rever cows," he said.
"Khan's antics are a last ditch effort from his side to maintain his relevance in the current political scenario of the state," he claimed.
Taking a jibe at the former state minister, Shukla said, "It is really surprising that Khan is having problems with a cow, whereas police had to intervene when his buffaloes went missing."
Khan in a letter to the Hindu seer had said, "Muslims were living in an atmosphere of insecurity. Any cow vigilante might harm or even kill the beautiful and beneficial animal to defame me and the Muslim community."
Swami Adhokshjanand Maharaj had in October, 2015 gifted a black cow to Khan after the latter had expressed his desire to have one in his dairy. Khan also alleged that a "vicious propaganda has been launched against Muslims in the country and their condition was even worse than that of slaves".
The SP leader told the Shankaracharya that he accorded "best treatment" to the cow and the animal was being returned keeping in view its "safety and security".
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday lavished praises on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for taking quick decisions for the people's welfare and asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take lessons from his UP counterpart.
An editorial in Sena's mouthpiece' Saamana' said Adityanath proved all his critics wrong and was taking one decision after the other in all seriousness for the welfare of the people.
"He is striving in a commendable way to elevate his state from ruins and he is very serious in his work," it said. The Sena especially patted Adityanath for deciding to write off loans of farmers, a demand which all parties in Maharashtra had raised.
"If a bit of this seriousness is imbibed by rulers of Maharashtra, they will surely be blessed. Yogi in his first cabinet meet announced a loan waiver for farmers but here the government has only said it would look into the Yogi model and appears to be waiting for debt-burdened farmers to commit suicide," the Sena said.
"Wearing the mask of seriousness without imbibing the qualities is of no use. Those who are in power here should borrow seriousness from Yogi Adityanath," it said.
Evelyn Waughs hilarious novel Scoop might have been about Indians. As his news editor explains to the British journalist assigned to cover an African civil war, although the contestants are called Whites and Reds, they are really all black. The official party insists it is white (like the former BJP MP, Tarun Vijay) while the rebels being radicals, are reds. But behind the uproarious posturing lies the painfully tragic truth that many blacks eat their hearts out to be white. Confirming this pathetic yearning, Mr Vijays infamous comment offers a partial explanation for the shameful record of not only how Africans are often treated in India but also the horrors to which people from the northeast can be subjected. We learn, too, from him that South Indians are only condescendingly tolerated by the saffron brigade which is incapable of appreciating the rich diversity of Indias culture. Understandably, the latest round of atrocities has prompted demands for a law banning race discrimination. Its a logical enough demand but overlooks the power of Indian ingenuity that long ago thwarted the legal abolition of caste distinctions and displays contemptuous indifference to rules and regulations supposed to check corruption. When Britains first Race Relations Act was enacted in December 1965, I wondered if it would stop landladies putting up No Coloureds signs or employers refusing jobs to Jamaicans. Some discrimination might linger, friends assured me, but it wouldnt be blatant. The British are a law-abiding people, I was told. They wont do anything obviously illegal.
As the current contortions to get round the Supreme Courts ban on selling alcohol within 500 metres of highways demonstrates, Indians have an altogether different approach to law and order, truth and falsehood. The Ashwathama hata iti gaja legend about misleading opponents to believe the hero Ashwathama is dead when its really an elephant deceptively named after him is only one of many instances of guile being rewarded. It also merits mention that during one of the periodic controversies in Britain over illegal immigration from India, an Indian student I knew stood up and announced solemnly: It cant be! Indira Gandhi has said it is not Indias policy to export manpower. Obviously, a VIPs pronouncement supersedes facts. That might explain Sushma Swarajs fatuous claim: India is the land of Gandhi and Buddhawe can never have a racist mindset. She ought to be reminded that India is the land that murdered Mahatma Gandhi and brutally stamped out the Buddhas peaceful faith, as depicted in Tagores poem Pujarini. The external affairs ministrys plea that no African could have been attacked because of the deep belief of the government and people of India (in) vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the whole world is one family) is even more naive if not downright dishonest. Presented with the mangled body of a pedestrian run over by a car, the police might as well say, Our drivers are so meticulously careful that there are no road accidents in India. Tragically, that is exactly what the police will say if the car owner is sufficiently rich and powerful, and has scattered largesse all round. Morality is relative in Ms Swarajs land of Gandhi and Buddha.
An Indian version of Britains Race Relations Act would give rise to tortuous hair-splitting arguments, hordes of mercenaries anxious to serve as witnesses for a consideration, mounds of false evidence, teams of nit-picking lawyers, and one adjournment after another for flippant or feeble reasons. No wonder India rejects the Anglo-Saxon common law principle, Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (False in one detail, false in its entirety), meaning that a witness who testifies falsely about one matter is not credible to testify about any matter. Despite all these built-in systemic and operational drawbacks, a strict law that prescribes summary deterrent punishment may still be necessary. If nothing else, it will show India and the world that India is a civilised country, and that the Narendra Modi governments concern for the safety and happiness of its African guests goes beyond upstaging China in the contemporary scramble for Africa or mobilising support for New Delhis ambitions at the United Nations. Our Vedic ancestors appreciated that hallmark of a human and humane society when they framed the atithi narayana (the guest is god) concept.
But as we have seen, a law alone achieves nothing unless it is firmly and impartially enforced. That demands integrity in the police and law courts, and stipulates that celebrities should not be exempt from rules everyone else has to follow. But even if all this happens, Indian society will still prefer Europeans to Africans so long as the unhealthy obsession with colour continues to pervert our perception of the world around us. Bhagat Singh Thind, a Sikh who made history by claiming that as a descendant of the Aryans of India, belonging to the Caucasian race, (he was) white..., may have wanted only United States citizenship. But some of the barely literate, fawning letters Indians wrote to Adolf Hitler on the eve of the Second World War that British Intelligence intercepted showed that lurking somewhere in the depths of the Indian psyche is the conviction of a white European ancestry. The only possible answer lies in enlightened revision of school syllabuses and intensive adult training throughout the country to create a proper awareness of the dynamics of Indian life and not just pander to ideological fiction by pretending that the bull on Indus Valley Civilisation seals is really an Aryan horse. There is no need to share the Wests Black is Beautiful fad, but release from the hankering to be white would enable us to welcome our African guests with a respect that also does justice to Indias own cultural norms.
The standout aspect of India-Bangladesh ties, which became visible during the just-concluded visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the course of which 22 MoUs were signed, is the elevation and broadening of bilateral relations to the strategic level. Thus, the agreements signed include in the areas of defence, civil nuclear energy and space, with India earmarking 500 million dollars towards defence spending in respect of Bangladesh for a start. In addition, the common resolve of the two countries to fight Pakistan-sponsored terrorism was all too visible, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging this aspect.
With no other SAARC neighbour are we attempting such a multi-faceted relationship. However, a deal on the sharing of the waters of the Teesta river, which is so crucial to Bangladesh, continues to be elusive. Sheikh Hasinas domestic political opponents on the far right Islamic side, who are not well-disposed toward India and harbor sympathies for Pakistan, are likely to exploit this. Both countries thought that an agreement on Teesta waters was in the bag in January 2011 during the Dhaka visit of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee played spoilsport. Her position appears not to have changed, although Mr Modi invited her as a guest of honour at the lunch he gave for the visiting dignitary. The Bengal CMs view is that the Teesta waters are needed for the North Bengal. Six months ago, China sold Dhaka two submarines and would like to build a port for Bangladesh. Escalating the grade of Indias ties with Dhaka may help to place matters in perspective.
The arrest in Pakistans troubled Balochistan province of a former Indian naval officer, accused of being an Indian spy and fomenting the separatist rebellion there, cannot have come at a more inopportune moment in India-Pakistan ties.
There can only be one reason for inveigling Kulbhushan Yadav, who exited the Indian Navy 13 years ago, into a trap laid by Pakistans counter-intelligence unit, the Inter Services Intelligence and parading the Iran-based businessman as a Research and Analysis Wing agent. A special investigation team from Pakistan arrives on Sunday to probe the Pathankot attack.
Yadavs arrest is also designed to wreck the rapprochement between India-leaning Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian PM Narendra Modi and derail India-Iran ties. Yadavs arrest was announced on the day that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was making his first visit to Pakistan. As UN trade sanctions on Iran are lifted, Indias push to open trade routes through Irans Chabahar port and Afghanistan into energy and resource-rich Central Asia to counterbalance a Beijing-backed Pakistan initiative to link Gwadar, on Pakistans coast, for a parallel and rival trade route, could come a cropper.
Mr Sharif has miscalculated that freeing his former tormentor, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, would get the Pakistan Army off his back, that a Pakistan Army Chief who is half way out the door would not throw a spanner in the India-Pak works. Given the intense enmity between the two armies, Gen. Raheel Sharif, who retires in November, or any general who succeeds him, is unlikely to back the Pakistani PM on his pro-India track.
The Pakistan Armys concern is that Mr Sharif and Mr Modi, to meet on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in Washington on May 31, could strike a deal that would be inimical to their interests, even as Mr Modi heads for Saudi Arabia, which has distanced itself from its long-standing ally over the Pakistan Armys foot-dragging on backing the Saudi-led offensive against Shia elements in Yemen.
Balochistan is the Punjabi-dominated Pakistan Armys biggest embarrassment. The restive province, which has no strategic provenance for the US, has seen Washington turn a blind eye to the 2006 assassination of Baloch leader Sardar Akbar Bugti, and scores of Balochis who stood up to the systematic exploitation of their home state. India doesnt need a Yadav to stir the Balochistan pot.
Pakistans mishandling of the separatists has led to this rebellion in its own backyard. Balochistan is not Indias quid pro quo for the ISIs destabilisation of India. Grasping at an R&AW straw to cover up for its own malfeasance will only prove counter-productive.
The tone, tenor and phraseology of the official voice of the armed forces across both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) is a study in contrast. The content of the Indian Armys official ADGPI Twitter handle is measured, restrained and within the iron-clad banalities of the Armys functional contours, while the text and import of the Pakistani Armys official Twitter handle, ISPR Official, is unequivocally expansive, political and suggestive beyond the military domain. So the first visit to the Northern Command after assuming responsibility as the Indian COAS got covered as, Gen Bipin Rawat #COAS on his way to the #Northern Command. To review security, op preparedness & interact with troops & Cdrs dply in fwd areas. A similar visit by the Pakistani COAS to a forward area was tweeted as, LoC Visit. Army will protect people of Pakistan & J&K. Our solidarity with people of Indian-occupied Kashmir for right to self determination. In Pakistan, the political angularity and overspill was unmistakable. Today, the Pakistani Army literally defines the scope for policy formulation for the executive and has often been called the Army Inc., owing to a thriving commercial infrastructure that takes care of the institution and its personnel, both inside and outside of the uniform. As the saying goes, India has an Army, while the Pakistani Army has a country.
India is coup proofed owing to the genealogical beneficence of inheriting strong political infrastructure during Partition, while Pakistan inherited a chaotic and nascent political instinct. In Pakistan, the generals have ruled officially for 35 out of its 70 years of independence, while the balance of the 35 years has seen the Rawalpindi General Headquarters pull the strings in Islamabad from behind the scene. India is different, as no political party made a cause with the military till very recently (Lal Bahadur Shastris, Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, notwithstanding). Post-Independence, as economic survival issues ebbed, socialistic dreams drowned and the opening of the economy ushered in Emerging India. The still-fractured and deeply polarised society sought a rallying cause that could encapsulate quasi-majoritarism under the garb of hyper-nationalism, and herein the political appeal of appropriating the Army became an irresistible way to establish nationalistic credentials for political parties. The 2014 general elections witnessed unprecedented images of invoking the soldier as part of political muscularity, decisiveness and patriotism. Though post-elections, the military continued taking in the multiple allusions and failed promises on its chin (e.g. OROP, Seventh Pay Commission etc.), the institution has remained steadfast, in-line, ramrod straight and absolutely quiet as to who exactly owns it. It rightfully swears to the Constitution of India and not to any political party, person or religion though this has not stopped the barrage of abusers who invoke the soldier to peddle their own political wares.
Does the Indian Army belong to Raj Thackeray who offers Rs 5 crore to Gurmehar Kaur, Kanhaiya Kumar, to gau rakshaks or even Umar Khalid? The simple answer is, all of the above. Recent times have seen the armed forces getting contextualised to any politico-societal issue from AFSPA, surgical strikes, banning Pakistani artistes in India, to even demonetisation. Alluding to the armed forces and the soldier is the leitmotif of the nationalist to the anti-nationalist (the terms getting constantly redefined by the usage and the circumstances of applicability). All the while, the Indian armed forces officially choose to keep mum, as it has for the past 70 years. The vicarious voice in the form of the veterans, which emerged powerfully in the run-up to the OROP agitation, has sadly but successfully been divided with the old fogeys, echoing various party lines with typical military bluster. Many have morphed into newsroom warriors, in tilted regimental hats, affording uncontestable patriotism to political party flags. Yet, despite multiple provocations, interferences and allusions, the armed forces have not chosen one Indian over the other. The recent Assembly elections saw the tragic misuse of the imagery of the Indian soldier and the surgical strikes, contextualised with equally martial images of political leaders with arms raised and clenched fists all to score political brownie-points, as if the Indian soldier were the exclusive preserve of such parties or individuals.
The Indian soldiers revered imagery has also emerged as an invaluable tool of political deflection and plausible defence, e.g. the woes of demonetisation were brushed aside by rote: If our soldiers can stand for hours every day guarding our borders The inherent danger of such a casual invocation to the Indian soldier is the willy-nilly invitation to enforce a political flavour to an institution that is proudly apolitical. The last and only successful bastion of inclusivity, secularism and region-agnosticism runs the risk of prefixing pseudo to most adjectives, which defines and exemplifies their conduct. Similar contradictions emerged in the US recently, where having milked the latent fears of the common man and hurrahed the Oorah of the veterans, the US President let one candid one slip-in when he said, We never win, and we dont fight to win. He riled the veterans and, by default, the standing forces, about his insincerity towards the armed forces. Political parties weigh every action from the tactical and dynamic prism of electoral relevance. The Indian armed forces have historically been spared the blatant misuse of context (though not spared the slide in their socio-economic conditions), and it is because of this barrackisation of the Indian armed forces that we have not gone the way of other countries in the neighbourhood. The Indian soldier needs to be spared the condescending words and, worse, the jumlas as it is susceptible to the vagaries of a brewing angst, coming from depleting armoury, status, bank balances and overstretched deployments. Instinctively, it believes in actions not words and, therefore, needs to be given space and time to do what it does best, i.e. protect the nation at all cost.
A number of restrictions have been placed on wearing the niqab in Egypt in recent years. (Photo: PTI)
Cairo: The Egyptian Parliament is drafting a law banning women from wearing the niqab veil.
The ban will apply to wearing the clothing in public places and government institutions, the Independent reported.
MP Amna Nosseir, professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, who has backed the ban, said that wearing the veil is not a requirement of Islam and in fact has non-Islamic origins.
She has argued that it is a Jewish tradition which appeared in the Arabian Peninsula prior to Islam and that a variety of Quran passages contradict its use. Instead, she has advocated that the Quran calls for modest clothing and covered hair, but does not require facial covering.
A number of restrictions have been placed on wearing the niqab in Egypt in recent years.
In February, the Cairo University banned nurses and doctors from wearing it in medical schools and in teaching hospitals, arguing the ban would: "protect patients' rights and interests."
In September last year, the university also banned academic staff from wearing the niqab in classrooms in response to complaints from students that it was too difficult for niqab wearers to communicate effectively with students.
Somali security forces exchanged fire with the hijackers who fled to the shore aboard a fast boat, taking eight of their hostages with them, Ali said. (File Photo)
Mogadishu: Somali security forces have liberated an Indian cargo ship from the pirates who hijacked it, but only two of the ten-man crew were rescued, authorities in central Somalia have said.
Abdulahi Ahmed Ali, district commissioner for the pirate-hub region of Hobyo, told local press yesterday that the "Al Kauser" ship had been held off the Indian Ocean coast near Yemen after the hijacking on March 31.
"We have the boat and two of the crew members but eight other members of the crew are still missing because the pirates took them off the boat," the commissioner said. Ali said the two rescued crew members from India were healthy and that authorities were seeking their colleagues. Their abductors are believed to be holding them near Hobyo.
The pirates had "refused a call by the local authorities to release the vessel and local forces forcefully engaged them," local security official Qoje Abdulahi told AFP by phone.
Somali security forces exchanged fire with the hijackers who fled to the shore aboard a fast boat, taking eight of their hostages with them, Ali said.
The Al Kauser was the third vessel seized by pirates in less than a month off the coast of Somalia, with experts warning that ships have lowered their guard in the five years since the height of the piracy crisis.
The Indian ship was carrying cargo including wheat and sugar from Dubai via Yemen to Somalia's Bossaso port when it came under attack, owner Isaak Them told AFP.
The president of the Kutch Seafarers Association, Adam Them, from the western state of Gujarat where the vessel originated, told AFP last week that the pirates had made ransom demands.
Somali pirates began staging attacks in 2005, seriously disrupting a major international shipping route and costing the global economy billions of dollars.
At the peak of the piracy crisis in January 2011, 736 hostages and 32 boats were held. Though anti-piracy measures ended attacks on commercial vessels, fishing boats have continued to face attacks sporadically.
However on March 13, pirates seized the Aris 13 oil tanker and eight Sri Lankan hostages in the first attack on a large merchant vessel by Somali pirates since 2012. The pirates claimed to be driven by anger over illegal fishing in Somali waters which has long been seen as a key grievance behind piracy in the country.
While some hostages have been held for as long as five years, the pirates released the Aris 13 and its crew just four days after it was seized. A week later a local cargo dhow was hijacked and taken out to sea, with the Oceans Beyond Piracy NGO warning it may be used as a "mother ship" for further attacks against larger vessels.
New York: An ex-Navy SEAL, who claims to have killed Osama bin Laden, has revealed that the al-Qaeda chief's head was so severely destroyed by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification.
Ex-Navy SEAL team shooter Robert O'Neill has reasserted his claim that he alone pumped three bullets into Osama, killing the architect of the 9/11 attacks, in a new book.
In 'The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Bin Laden', the former Navy SEAL Team 6 shooter lays out the details of what went down that night inside the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the New York Daily News reported.
While controversy still swirls around O'Neill's version of the May 2, 2011, raid, much of it centres on his breaking the Special Ops code of silence.
O'Neill, in his book, makes the gruesome claim that Osama's head was so severely destroyed by his gunfire that it had to be pressed back together for identification photographs.
In O'Neill's version, he was trailing five or six other SEALs climbing the stairs to the compound's second floor when Osama's son Khalid appeared on the half-landing with an AK-47.
The agents were able to lure Khalid from where he was hiding behind a banister by calling to him in Arabic, saying: 'Khalid, come here.'
He shouted in response: 'What?' and emerged from his hiding spot, and was immediately shot in the face, the report said.
Once upstairs, the men spread out to search the rooms. In the compound with Osama were three of his four wives and 17 children.
O'Neill kept his hand on the point man's shoulder. The two were alone on the stairway, convinced that whoever was on the third floor was strapping on a suicide vest for an explosive last stand.
O'Neill recounts that finally, he decided to take action.
He squeezed the point man's shoulder, the signal to charge and then burst past the curtain.
The point man tackled two screaming women to the floor.
Bin Laden stood near the bed, his hands on the shoulders of the woman in front of him. She was later identified as Amal, the youngest of his four wives, the report said.
"In less than a second, I aimed above the woman's right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice," O'Neill writes.
"Bin Laden's head split open, and he dropped. I put another bullet in his head. Insurance," he writes.
According to O'Neill, the other members of the team rushed into the room only after he placed a 2-year-old boy found cowering in a corner alongside Osama's widow on the bed.
A harrowing 90-minute flight returned the squadron to camp in Afghanistan.
O'Neill's book comes five years after "No Easy Day," fellow SEAL Mark Bissonnette's account of the operation.
He agreed to surrender the USD 6.8 million in proceeds from the book for his use of classified information and violation of a non-disclosure deal.
Though President Donald Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft, the National Security Council is still working on the issue. (Photo: AP)
Washington: The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African nation's security forces, according to US officials.
Congress is expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve at the very end of Barack Obama's presidency. The arrangement will call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly USD 600 million, one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorised to discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak about internal diplomatic conversations.
Though President Donald Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft, the National Security Council is still working on the issue. Military sales to several other countries are also expected to be approved but are caught up in an ongoing White House review. Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.
The Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets at least three times in recent years. In the worst incident, a fighter jet on Jan. 17 repeatedly bombed a camp at Rann, near the border with Cameroon, where civilians had fled from Boko Haram. Between 100 and 236 civilians and aid workers were killed, according to official and community leaders' counts.
That bombing occurred on the same day the Obama administration intended to officially notify Congress the sale would go forward. Instead, it was abruptly put on hold, according to an individual who worked on the issue during Obama's presidency. Days later, Trump was inaugurated.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said this past week that he supported the A-29 deal to Nigeria as well as the sale of US-made fighter jets to Bahrain that had been stripped of human rights caveats imposed by the Obama administration.
Under Obama, the US said Bahrain failed to make promised political and human rights reforms after its Sunni-ruled government crushed Arab Spring protests five years ago.
"We need to deal with human rights issues, but not on weapons sales," Corker said. The State Department said in a 2016 report that the Nigerian government has taken "few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government."
Amnesty International has accused Nigeria's military of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8,000 Boko Haram suspects.
President Muhammadu Buhari promised to investigate the alleged abuses after he won office in March 2015, but no soldier has been prosecuted and thousands of people remain in illegal military detention. Nigeria's military has denied the allegations.
The A-29 sale would improve the US relationship with Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer market of 170 million people, the continent's biggest economy and its second-largest oil producer.
Nigeria also is strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa where experts warn Islamic extremists like the Nigeria-based Boko Haram may expand their reach.
The aircraft deal also would satisfy Trump's priorities to support nations fighting Islamic uprisings, boost US manufacturing and create high-wage jobs at home. The A-29 aircraft, which allow pilots to pinpoint targets at night, are assembled in Jacksonville, Florida.
"It's hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the US," said J. Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and head of its Africa Center.
Once Congress is officially notified of the sale, lawmakers who want to derail it have 30 days to pass veto-proof legislation. That's a high hurdle given Corker's support. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also said he backs the sale.
"We've really got to try to do what we can to contain them," McCain said of Boko Haram.
In Trump's first phone call with Buhari in February, he "assured the Nigerian president of US readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," according to Buhari's office.
A February 15 White House statement that provided a summary of the call said "President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in mid-February he was "leery" of the sale because of the Nigerian military's impunity. Cardin said this week he's not trying to block the deal.
"Ultimately we hope that the sale goes forward," he said. "But there is progress that needs to be made in protecting the civilian population."
One of Donald Trumps closest aides reportedly had proposed dividing Libya into three and drew up a map on a napkin, the Guardian reported. Sebastian Gorka, a member of the Presidents national security advisory staff, is said to have presented the plan to a senior European diplomat at a meeting during the presidential transition period. The European diplomat reportedly told him this would be the worst solution for Libya.
The plan was based on the old Ottoman Empire provinces, according to The Guardian: Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the north-west and Fezzan in the south-west, the report said.
Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations thinktank, told the Guardian: This is like a litmus test of how much you know about Libya. If the only thing you know is that it was cut into three, then it shows you are clueless about the situation in Libya.
Libya has been mired in a conflict between two competing governments since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 after a Nato-led intervention. At present, the country is with the West throwing its weight behind the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli, while Russia has given tacit support to an administration based in the eastern city of Tobruk and led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. There are concerns among European states that Mr Trump will shift US support towards the Haftar government.
Mr Gorka is vying for the job of the as-yet uncreated White House post of presidential special envoy to Libya.The former national security editor for the far-right Breitbart News, Mr Gorka has expressed hardline policies for tackling radical Islam and sees the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group bent on infiltrating the US.
One proposal for Trumps border wall calls for a hyperloop rather than a barrier along the border.
President Donald Trump wants an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful wall across the 3,200 km border with Mexico. Over 400 contractors were expected to submit their schemes this week to the US Customs and Border Protection agency. Some of the proposals were surreal and quite novel.
Clayton Industries of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has proposed digging a 100ft trench along the border and filling it with nuclear waste. Company owner Christian Clayton described his wall as a conduit, explaining the waste would also be used to generate electricity, the Guardian reported. Two firms have proposed for a wall covered with solar panels. Both suggest selling the electricity that the solar panels generate to offset the cost of the wall.
Meanwhile, Otra Nation, a group of engineers, architects and designers, has proposed for the whole border area to be run jointly by both nations. Instead of erecting any kind of barrier, its plan calls for an elevated high-speed hyperloop that would stretch the length of the current border, the CNN reported.
DarkPulse Technologies is proposing a big ballistics-grade concrete wall embedded with special sensors to notify border agents of the exact location of any tampering in real time. Their wall would be coated to prevent the use of grappling hooks.
Wu Dawei, China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, will meet with his South Korean counterpart later on Monday. (Photo: AP)
Seoul: China's top nuclear envoy arrived in Seoul on Monday for talks on the North Korean threat, as a US naval strike group headed to the region in a show of force.
President Donald Trump, fresh from a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as putting Pyongyang on warning, has asked to be provided with a range of options for eliminating the North's nuclear capabilities.
"Presidents before and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearisation of the peninsula," US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told Fox News on Sunday.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks major anniversaries this month including the 105th birthday of its founding leader -- usually celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
Wu Dawei, China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, will meet with his South Korean counterpart later on Monday to discuss the nuclear issue, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
The South's deployment of a controversial US missile defence system loathed by Beijing will also be high on Wu's agenda, Yonhap news agency said.
The talks come shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Pyongyang's key ally to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.
"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia, heading toward the Korean peninsula instead, in a move that will raise tensions in the region.
Seoul and Washington are also conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a practice for war.
Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with US intelligence officials warning that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from its goal of striking the continental United States.
Lucca: Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations met Monday to forge a response to the deadly chemical attack in Syria, and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said they would consider imposing sanctions against Russian backers of President Bashar Assad.
G-7 diplomats gathering in Lucca, Italy, hope to use outrage over the attack and wide international support for the United States' retaliatory missile strikes to push Russia to abandon Assad and join a new peace effort for Syria.
Speaking after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Johnson said ministers "will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions, certainly, on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures."
He said Russia had a choice: to continue backing the "toxic" Assad regime, "or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution."
Last week's nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred President Donald Trump - who was previously cool to the idea of U.S. intervention - to strike for the first time at Assad's forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched.
Tillerson said Monday at the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy that the United States is rededicating itself to hold to account "any and all" who commit crimes against innocent people.
With the group of wealthy nations working to see if it can strike a common front on Syria, Tillerson accompanied Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano to Santa'Anna di Stazzema, where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed in 1944.
Alfano said the site of past Nazi atrocities was a reminder that "peace is not a given. ... That is why we are here to work all together for peace and liberty."
The meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca brings together the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, Japan and Canada - as well as the U.S. and current G-7 president Italy.
Ahead of the full meeting, Tillerson held bilateral talks with G-7 counterparts who included Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Britain's Johnson.
Tillerson also spoke by phone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose government insists Assad should play no role in Syria's future.
Over the weekend, Alfano said that Europe's broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a "renewed harmony" between the United States and its partners as the G-7 foreign ministers prepared to meet for the first time since Donald Trump took office in January.
"We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart," Alfano told Sky TG24 Sunday. "I welcome this renewed harmony."
After meeting Tillerson, Japan's Kishida said "Japan supports the U.S. commitment in trying to take responsibility to prevent spread and use of chemical weapons and we confirmed Japan and the U.S. will continue to work together (in that effort)."
The G-7 meeting comes as the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Korea's persistent ballistic missile tests.
It is also taking place amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.
The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia.
The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
Russia plans to put forward a proposal on Monday for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in Berlin.
The spokesman, Martin Schaefer, said Germany viewed it as "a good and important sign."
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Britain's Johnson, who had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of Monday's G-7 meeting, canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had "changed the situation fundamentally."
He said that instead he would work with the United States and other G-7 nations "to build coordinated international support for a cease-fire on the ground and an intensified political process."
Tillerson is due to travel to Russia after the G-7 gathering, and Johnson said he will deliver a "clear and coordinated message to the Russians."
Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares the determination of allies including Britain that Assad must be removed from power.
After the chemical attack, Trump said his attitude toward Assad "has changed very much" and Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
In a round of television interviews that aired Sunday, though, Tillerson said the top U.S. priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Among European nations, there are also differences. While Britain says Assad must go, Alfano was cautious on the issue, saying that decision should be up to the Syrians.
"I have to say, the Libya experiment did not go well. We are still paying the price," Alfano said, referring to the lawlessness that has ensued since the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the subsequent flow of migrants to Europe via Italy.
London: By sentencing Indian national Kulbushan Jadhav to death, Pakistan's military court system has once again showed how it "rides roughshod over
international standards", Amnesty International said on Monday, questioning the secretive court's ability to dispense justice.
"The death sentence given to Kulbushan Jadhav shows yet again how Pakistan's military court system rides roughshod over international standards," Biraj Patnaik, South Asia Director, Amnesty International, said in response to Pakistan
military court sentencing Jadhav to death for alleged spying.
"Stripping defendants of their rights and operating in notorious secrecy, military courts do not dispense justice but travesty it. They are an inherently abusive system that are best left to deal with issues of military discipline, not any other crimes," Patnaik said in a statement.
Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of execution, he said.
A Pakistan military court sentenced Jadhav to death after he was convicted of "espionage and sabotage activities". The award of the death sentence to the 46-year-old former Naval officer at a court-martial was confirmed by Pakistan's
army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa today.
The prominent rights group also noted that over 87 executions were recorded in Pakistan in 2016 and more than ver 360 death sentences were recorded in the country last year.
It said that over 6,000 people are known to be under death sentence at the end of 2016 in Pakistan, which is among the world's top 5 executioners.
Frances far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen has prompted a major outcry by denying that the French government was responsible for the roundup of Jews in World War II.
Ms Le Pen said on Sunday on RTL radio I dont think France is responsible for the Vel dHiv, a reference to the stadium where thousands of Jews were rounded up before being sent to Nazi death camps.
Some 13,000 Jews were deported by French police on July 16-17, 1942, many of whom were first holed up in harsh conditions at Paris Vel dHiv its Winter Velodrome stadium.
Israels foreign ministry condemned Ms Le Pens remarks. The ministry in a statement said her comments are contrary to historical truth, as expressed in the statements of successive French presidents who recognised Frances responsibility for the fate of the French Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cyber security circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the US presidential election.(Photo: Representational Image)
An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cyber security circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the US presidential election.
Pyotr Levashov was arrested on Friday in Barcelona on a US computer crimes warrant, according to a spokeswoman for Spains National Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules.
Such arrests arent unusual American authorities typically try to nab Russian cyber crime suspects abroad because of the difficulty involved in extraditing them from Russia but Levashovs arrest drew immediate attention after his wife told Russias RT broadcaster that he was linked to Americas 2016 election hacking.
A woman cries in front of the reopened department store that was attacked
The man suspected of ploughing a truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm sent messages via WhatsApp to an ISIS supporter before and after the attack, boasting that he had run over ten people, media reports claimed.
Rakhmat Akilov, a failed asylum seeker from Uzbekistan, had been in contact with an extremist calling himself Abu Fatyma via WhatsApp, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported.
According to unverified screenshots of the WhatsApp messages published by Expressen, Akilov told Fatyma he was trying to build a bomb. How do I make explosives? Tomorrow I want to find a car and run it into a crowd, Akilov reportedly wrote in one of the messages.
The Telegraph reported that over an hour after the truck attack which left four people dead, Akilov is then reported to have told Fatyma: I ran over 10 people in the centre of Stockholm, now I have to get out of here.
To that Fatyma responded: Allahu Akbar, my brother, I cry, I love you. On Monday, Swedes observed a minute of silence across the country for the victims of last weeks truck attack.
A huge crowd gathered solemnly outside the Ahlens department store at the corner of the Drottninggatan pedestrian street, where a stolen beer truck ploughed down shoppers before slamming into the stores facade, killing four people and injuring 15.
Thirty-five people were wounded in the Alexandria blast at Saint Mark's church where Coptic Pope Tawadros II had been attending a Palm Sunday Mass. (Representational Photo: AP)
Jerusalem: Israel has closed its Taba border crossing to Egypt following a warning by its anti-terrorism office of an "imminent" militant attack there.
Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said in a statement Monday there was intel regarding a potential "terror attack" against tourists in the Sinai peninsula. The crossing is open for those wanting to return from Egypt.
A pair of church bombings during Palm Sunday ceremonies killed more than 40 people Sunday; shortly after those attacks, Israeli urged its citizens in Sinai to return home.
Sinai has traditionally been a popular destination for Israelis - especially during the upcoming Passover holiday. But Israel has urged its citizens to avoid the area in recent years because of Islamic militant activity.
The three were killed on the spot on Sunday when the truck, en route to Hetauda from Narayanghat in Chitwan district, struck the car with an Indian registration number plate. (Photo: Representational/DC)
Kathmandu: At least three Indians were killed on the spot and another person was critically injured when a truck rammed their car at a highway in south-west Nepal.
The three were killed on the spot on Sunday when the truck, en route to Hetauda from Narayanghat in Chitwan district, struck the car with an Indian registration number plate, according to District Police Office, Makawanpur.
Two of the deceased have been identified as Nitesh Kumar Singh, 39 and Sanjaya Kuma Sharma, 45 of Sitamari, India. The identity of another man is yet to be ascertained.
Ram Kumar Sharma, who sustained injuries in the accident, is undergoing treatment at a medical college in Chitwan. His condition is said to be critical. The police have detained the truck driver and seized the vehicle.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated 'effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates'. (Photo: AP)
Beijing: China on Monday claimed full credit for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, ignoring Indian Navy's role in the operation.
While a Chinese navy statement last night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese ship whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates".
When questioned about the absence of any mention of the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
"According to what we have learnt from the military on April 8 at 5 PM the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters received reports from the UKMTO (United Kingdom Marine Trade Operation) about the hijack of Tuvalaun ship OS35," she said.
"The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now," she told reporters.
Hua did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation. Her comments came a day after the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement that it rescued the ship.
When asked about the Chinese navy's statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD".
He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel. The surprise omission of Indian Navy's role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
However, Hua, without detailing what cooperation she referred to, said, "We always remain positive towards international cooperation in combating pirates. We are ready for more cooperation in this regard."
Asked about the Indian Navy's role, she said "I have already given what I have learnt to you. The Chinese convoy received a report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I point you to the Chinese defence ministry."
The Indian Navy on Sunday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
At the end of the operation, the Chinese navy thanked the Indian Navy for its role in the operation. "In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.
The reported coordination among the navies came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, China's opposition to India's NSG membership and Beijing blocking India's effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
Islamabad: Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday clarified that alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's sentencing was done according to the law and asserted that if India raises the issue of his death statement, Pakistan would give a reply.
"Jadhav's confession was a public document. He came from the approval of the Indian government.there is no doubt that India is fuelling terrorism in Pakistan," Geo News quoted Asif, as saying.
Asif also said the death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav should serve as a warning to those engaged in terrorism in the country.
"Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared," he said.
According to Asif, the entire world had acknowledged Pakistan's struggle against terrorism and the country was dealing with this menace from both the eastern and western front.
Earlier, Jadhav was given the death sentence by the Pakistan Military, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan said in a statement.
Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016 through an operation in Balochistan's Mashkel area for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan, the ISPR said.
"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," the ISPR said.
Jadhav "confessed before a magistrate and court that he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan through impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for the restoration of peace in Balochistan and Karachi," the ISPR said.
Earlier in March 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the former Indian naval officer was arrested by Pakistan for allegedly engaging in subversive activities was possibly kidnapped from Iran and denied any possibilities of him being involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
The accused, used to run a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar. He was seen in a video confessing that he was an official of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.
Islamabad: Pakistan army chief on Monday approved the execution of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav after a military court found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" against the country, a development that could further strain the India-Pakistan ties.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial under Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," it said and added that the FGCM found Jadhav "guilty of all the charges."
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a Commander in the Indian Navy, "confessed" before a Magistrate and the court that he was "tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi."
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistani security forces in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was "a serving officer" in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
The Pakistan Army had released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the navy but denied he has any connection with the government. "The individual has no link with government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy," the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement in March last year.
India had demanded Consular access to Jadhav, but Pakistan repeatedly denied Indian officials access to him.
The ISPR statement, however, said Jadhav, alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, was "provided with defending officer as per legal provisions".
Pakistan army's decision today is expected to further strain the ties between India and Pakistan. The two countries have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Pakistan's support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year by Pakistan-based militants killed 18 Indian soldiers.
Ten days later, India launched "surgical strikes" against militant "launchpads" in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Leading Pakistani experts viewed the announcement about Jadhav's death sentence as an unprecedented move, saying it will send a strong message to foreign countries engaging in spying activities in the country.
"Pakistan has sent a message that if somebody does such activities here, it will hand them severe punishment. Those operating against the state will face a similar fate," Defence analyst Ikram Sehgal told Dawn newspaper.
Mahmood would take responsibilities as High Commissioner from early next month (Photo: Pakistan Embassy)
Islamabad: Pakistan is likely to appoint career diplomat Sohail Mahmood as its new High Commissioner to India in place of Abdul Basit, diplomatic sources said on Monday.
Mahmood is currently posted as ambassador to Turkey and is expected to arrive in Islamabad next week. "His appointment to India will be announced once it is
formally approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who has also the additional charge of foreign minister," sources in the Foreign Office said.
Mahmood would take responsibilities as High Commissioner from early next month if all went according to the plan, according to the sources.
Mahmood will replace Basit who has already completed his three-year tenure in New Delhi. Basit is likely to be appointed as head of Foreign Service Academy (FSA) in Islamabad.
Basit had earlier threatened to resign after he was overlooked and his junior Tehmina Janjua was appointed as Foreign Secretary but the situation has cooled down.
Initially, it was expected that Basit might go on a long leave after he was called back from New Delhi but now he is expected to join as chief of FSA.
In a related development, Javed Nasarullah, current ambassador to South Korea, is likely to be appointed as new ambassador to Afghanistan.
He will replace incumbent Syed Ibrar Hussain who is being appointed as Special Secretary in the Foreign Office.
The average annual wage in Beijing in 2015 was 85,000 yuan ($12,300), according to the most recent data available from the city government.
Budding Chinese sleuths could start stalking foreigners as suspected spies in Beijing after authorities in the city on Monday offered a cash bonanza for information on overseas agents.
Members of the public can report suspected espionage through a special hotline, by mail or in person and will be rewarded with up to 500,000 yuan ($72,460) in compensation if their intelligence is deemed useful.
The average annual wage in Beijing in 2015 was 85,000 yuan ($12,300), according to the most recent data available from the city government.Citizens play an important role in spy investigations, said a statement from the citys security bureau, in the latest sign of concern about foreign agents in the capital.
Cartoon posters began appearing in Beijing public offices last spring warning Chinese women against falling for the romantic wiles of foreign men with undercover motives. A 16-panel poster titled Dangerous Love showed a blossoming relationship between a Chinese government worker named Xiao Li and a visiting scholar, David.
Their thwarted happy ending takes the form of a visit to the police station when the pair is arrested after Xiao Li gives David secret internal documents from her government workplace.
The new incentives for whistleblowers will be implemented ahead of Chinas second annual National Security Education Day on April 15.Sources can choose to remain anonymous and request police protection for themselves and their relatives.Those who deliberately provide false information will be punished, the security bureau said.
He said the administration and security forces are keeping a close watch, and the future course of action would be decided after a review of the situation in the town where violence had erupted after some persons allegedly posted offensive remarks against Hindu deities on social media.
People queued up at shops to purchase essential items, police said, adding that the curfew would continue for some more time after the brief relaxation period. Director General of Police K B Singh said the situation was fully under control and normalcy restored in the town as shops, business establishments, offices and banks were open during the curfew relaxation period.
So far, eight cases have been registered and around 80 people arrested in connection with violence that took place in the town, he said. Meanwhile, social media platforms remained blocked after the state government restricted access to these networks in Bhadrak town and nearby areas for 48 hours from last night to prevent rumours from spreading, a senior official said.
State Chief Secretary A P Padhi, who has directed the police's Crime Branch to probe the rumours circulated through social media, said that no rumormonger would be allowed to instigate people and escalate tension.
A team of the Crime Branch has rushed to Bhadrak to probe the rumours and the alleged offensive remarks on social media that had triggered violence. The cyber police cell is seeking information from people to track miscreants spreading hate messages on social media and strict action would be taken against them, Special Director General of Police (Crime) B K Sharma said.
The Crime Branch, which launched probe into rumour- mongering on social media, has registered a case in connection with the matter, senior officials said. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel had yesterday staged flag march in sensitive areas, a senior official said.
Besides, three companies of RAF and two companies of CRPF, 35 platoons of police (around 1,200 personnel) have been deployed for maintaining law and order in the town, which witnessed violence on Thursday and Friday, he said. As a precautionary measure, the administration has decided to keep educational institutions in Bhadrak closed today, a senior official said.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC remained in force in nearby Dhamnagar and Basudevpur to prevent the spread of violence, a police officer said. Violence had erupted in Bhadrak town on Thursday after a group staged a demonstration near the Town police station demanding immediate arrest of those involved in posting offensive remarks against Hindu deities on social media.
Though the district administration clamped prohibitory orders, tension persisted and fresh violence erupted on Friday despite a peace meeting called by the administration to restore normalcy. The escalation in tension prompted the administration to impose curfew on Friday.
Curfew was relaxed for six hours here today even as social media platforms remained blocked in the area and probe stepped up against rumormongers and into alleged abusive remarks on Hindu deities that triggered violence in the town.As the situation improved, the curfew, imposed on Friday, was relaxed initially from 8 am to 12 noon and later extended till 2 pm to allow people to procure essential commodities, Bhadrak Collector Gyana Ranjan Das said.
The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL seeking declaration of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan as illegal and unconstitutional. "This treaty is of 1960 and this treaty has held good for more than half a century," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while dismissing the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma in his personal capacity.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, however, made clear that the order dismissing the PIL "does not put any impairment on anybody". The clarification came when Sharma said that the dismissal of the PIL should not put any restriction in the way of the government if it wants to review the Indo-Pak water pact.
During the brief hearing, it was argued that the Indus water pact was not a treaty at all as the same was not signed in the name of the President of India. "It was a tripartite agreement between three leaders and void ab initio (illegal at the outset) and hence cannot be acted upon," the lawyer said.
The court said that it has perused the entire petition and does not wish to agree with it. The Indus water agreement was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, the then Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories.
The apex court had last year refused to grant an urgent hearing on the PIL, saying there was no urgency in the matter while Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, to "keep politics aside". Sharma, in his PIL, had referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.
However in the case of the 1960 Indus waters treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and "nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India", the plea had said. "According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India...," it had said.
Sharma had said, "According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to national interest." The treaty was "against the national interest and violated fundamental right of the citizen of India effecting their life and livelihood", it had said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's new proposal to end the impasse over India-Bangladesh agreement on sharing of water of common river Teesta apparently failed to have enthused Dhaka.
Referring to Banerjee as "Didimoni" (stern elder sister), Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said that she was not sure how West Bengal Chief Minister would act on the issue of Teesta.
Hasina said that when India and Bangladesh would be able to clinch the deal on sharing of water of river Teesta, the bilateral relations between the two nations would undergo "another transformation".
"Lekin pata nahi Didimini kya karenge? Unhone to naya hi kuch dikha dia. (But I don't know what Didimoni would do. She brought out something new," she said with a smile and dismissive gesture.
"Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi), however, assured us that he would try to end the impasse," Bangladesh Prime Minister said while delivering a speech at an event held by India Foundation.
Hasina was on a four-day visit to New Delhi since Friday. She would return to Dhaka by evening on Monday.
Banerjee, her Government and her party Trinamool Congress have been opposing the New Delhi's move to enter into an agreement with Dhaka for sharing the water of Teesta since 2011.
She joined Modi and Hasina for a lunch which Prime Minister hosted for his counterpart from the neighbouring country on Saturday.
She conveyed to both Prime Ministers that Teesta did not have enough water and not only people in Bangladesh even farmers of her state were being hit by water scarcity. She said while it was difficult for West Bengal Government to give nod to an agreement for sharing water of river Teesta with Bangladesh, it could consider agreeing to similar agreement on Torsa and four other rivers, which too flows through northern region of her state before entering the neighbouring country.
Sources told the DH that Banerjee's new proposal had appeared to be a diversionary move not only to officials accompanying Bangladesh Prime Minister, but also to several officials of Government of India.
Modi on Saturday said that only his Government in New Delhi and Hasina's Government in Dhaka could find an early solution to the row over sharing the water of Teesta.
India has officially proposed to Nepal to undertake a joint scientific mission to the Mount Everest to measure the heights of the worlds tallest peak once again.
Two teams from the Survey of India would calculate the heights of Mount Everest using two different methods, which would then be collated to arrive at the actual heights.
The proposal has gone to Nepal through the diplomatic channel as we are planning for an Indo-Nepal scientific expedition, union science minister Harsh Vardhan said here.
Calculated first by mathematician Radhanath Sikda, the majestic peaks height is 29,029 feet (8,848 metre). Though the computation was done in 1852, the official announcement came four years later. The heights were rechecked in 1956.
The new mission has been planned following the 2015 Nepal earthquake that triggered doubts among the scientific community on whether Mt Everest has shrunk or grew taller.
We are looking at the earliest window at May end-June, if all the paper works are done in time. We will adopt a two pronged strategy for the task, Swarna Subba Rao, the Surveyor General of India told DH here on the sidelines of a conference to mark the 250th anniversary of the Survey of India.
While one team would be sent to the Himalayas with GPS devices to take satellite data, a second team would undertake the age-old trigonometric survey (triangulation method) from seven sites within India and Nepal. The outcome of the two results would be cross-checked and collated to arrive at the actual figure, he said.
Since GPS data does not provide a reliable elevation with respect to the mean sea level, the Survey of India scientists have also created a mathematical formula, which can come out with accurate mean sea level elevation using the GPS data.
Rao said the Survey of India would train volunteers from its staff for the Everest expedition. The agency has people participating in the mountaineering expeditions.
In the Western Ghats, scientists have spotted India's first crab that spends its whole life on a tree.
The new species has been named Kani maranjandu after the Kani tribe, who helped discover the tree crab. Maranjandu is the Malayanam name for tree crab.
During a two year survey of the freshwater crab fauna in Kerala, the natives of Kanikkaran (also known as Kani) reported sightings to the survey team of long-legged" tree crabs in the area.
While early attempts to capture them proved futile, the Indo-Singaporean team was finally able to capture a female specimen on September 5, 2016. They also found a large adult male later.
The specimens examined are deposited in the Zoological Survey of India and in the museum collection of the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala.
The discovery is important in the context of conservation of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspots as they can serve as ecological indicators, reflecting the health of the ecosystem.
There are only three arboreal (tree living) crabs known in the world. They occur in Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Borneo. Ours is the fourth in the world and first in India, Appukuttannair Biju Kumar, a Kerala university scientist, who was a part of the study team, told DH.
In Maharashtra, there is a crab, which spends part of its life in the trees. But it comes down to water for mating and breeding. The Kerala crab, on the other hand, spends its life on the tree as the water stored in the hollows in the large tree serve their purpose.
As water holding hollows in large trees are essential for the survival of this unique species, the discovery also stress the need for conservation of large trees in the degraded forest ecosystems of the Western Ghats, he said.
This first tree-climbing crab of India has very long walking legs that are slender, strongly curved and very sharp. These features coupled with sharp fingers make them very effective climbers.
Its distinguishing characters include: the structure of its hard upper shell, as well as its male abdominal structure and reproductive parts, and of course, its diagnostic elongated walking legs, which no other genus has.
The discovery has been reported in The Journal of Crustacean Biology.
Madhya Pradesh is headed towards total prohibition as Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that all liquor shops would be closed across the state in a phased manner.
"Alcohol prohibition will be implemented in the entire state by closing all liquor shops in a phased manner," Chouhan said while addressing a programme at village Neemkhera (Heerapur) of Narsinghpur district yesterday.
This programme was organised during the ongoing river conservation awareness campaign 'Namami Devi Narmade - Narmada Seva Yatra.'
"In the first phase, the state government closed all the shops falling within a radius of five kilometers from the banks of river Narmada on either side. In the next phase, the liquor shops would not be allowed to open in residential localities, near educational institutes or religious places," he said.
Chouhan reiterated that a de-addiction drive would also be launched in the state soon.
During past one month, several protests against liquor shops have been reported from across the state.
On April 5, the protesters had burnt two vehicles and damaged four others in Bareli town of Raisen district when Excise Department was trying to shift the liquor shops from a highway to a local residential colony.
Earlier on April 3, BJP MLA from Indore-1, Sudarshan Gupta had demanded total liquor prohibition in the state while extending support to the agitation against the opening of liquor shop.
Besides, protests were also reported from several parts of the state including Indore, Sagar, Burhanpur, Chhatarpur, Vidisha, Narsinghpur, Satna, Morena, Dewas and some other towns during last one month.
Datsun has announced the launch of special anniversary limited editions of Datsun GO, priced at Rs 4.19 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) and Datsun GO+ at Rs 4.9 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) to celebrate the company's third anniversary in India.
As part of the celebration marking its 3 years of existence in India, Datsun India will run a social media campaign that invites existing customers to share their interesting stories of family times involving their Datsun vehicles under the #UnitedByDatsun theme, a release said.
The anniversary editions of GO and GO+ comes with a first-in-segment ambient lighting app for mobile phones with which a customer can choose the mood lighting of the car's cabin to suit his or her taste. Coupled with body graphics, a unique anniversary edition badge, and a sporty black rear spoiler on the exterior, the interior features vivid blue inlays on the passenger seats that match the blue trim around the centre console, the release said.
Anniversary floor mats, art leather seats, a keyless entry system, bluetooth connectivity, rear parking sensor, radio and USB connection will also be available in these limited edition cars, the release added.
"We are celebrating our three successful years with the launch of special anniversary editions of GO and GO+ and activities around our Datsun model range. Congratulations to the Datsun team for this milestone and special thanks to all our customers across India," Nissan Motor India managing director Arun Malhotra said.
Three days after conducting raids across the State, Income Tax (IT) sleuths in Tamil Nadu on Monday grilled State Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar and actor-turned politician Sarath Kumar pertaining to the documents seized during the search.
Both of them were questioned for more than four hours at the office of IT investigation wing, headed by Director General of Investigation, Murali Kumar and Deputy Directors of Investigation, Joy Joseph and Jayaraghavan.
On Friday, IT authorities conducted searches at more than 30 places in Tamil Nadu including at the residence of Sarath Kumar and Vijayabhaskar, who is close to V K Sasikala's nephew Dhinakaran. They also reportedly seized incriminating documents from their residence.
After IT department submitted detailed reports on seizures during the search, the Election Commission cancelled the April 12 by-poll to the R K Nagar constituency in Chennai.
After receiving the summons, Vijayabhaskar and Sarath Kumar appeared before the IT officials in the morning amid tight security.
IT department sources said that the minister was questioned about the seizure of a document allegedly showing transaction details of Rs 89 crore, linked to the RK Nagar poll expense of AIADMK candidate Dhinakaran for bribing voters.
The officials also sought minister's explanation about the seizure of Rs 5.5 crore from his relatives houses during the raids. "I explained to all the questions asked by the IT officials", Vijayabhaskar said.
Similarly, Sarath Kumar was also questioned by the authorities about the seizure of incriminating documents and Rs 10 lakh cash from his house. However, Tamil Nadu
MGR Medical University Vice-Chancellor Dr Geethalakshmi, who was also subjected to IT raid, did not appear before the officials.
Meanwhile, political leaders including DMK working president M K Stalin demanded a CBI investigation against all the ministers whose names figured in the list of distribution of money to the tune of Rs 89 crore to the voters. EoM
BJP virtually disowned its former Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay on Monday as Opposition turned up the heat on the Modi government in the Lok Sabha for his allegedly racist remarks against south Indians.
Congress, the Left parties and Trinamool members forced two brief adjournments in the Lok Sabha on the issue clearly putting the Modi government on the backfoot.
He (Tarun Vijay) is neither the general secretary of the party nor the spokesperson. He is just a former-MP, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said trying to assuage an agitated opposition that was not satisfied with the response of Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that an FIR be registered against Vijay, a former Rajya Sabha member, for treason.
In an interview to a foreign news channel, Vijay had described south Indians as blacks. If we were racist, why would the entire South you know the Tamils, you know Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra why do we live with them? We have blacks, black people around us, he had said.
Recalling the interview, Kharge wondered whether people from southern India were not Indian citizens. He alleged that Vijay being an ideologue of the ruling BJP had given expression to the mindset of the party.
This shows how your ideology is working. Do you want to divide India? Do you want to separate us? Do you want that each State should assert for its independence, Kharge asked.
The Home Minister response that there was no justification for raising the former Rajya Sabha member's remarks in the House after his apology found few takers in the opposition benches.
Ananth Kumar, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said the Government and the BJP is clear we all are Indians. There is no difference on the basis of caste, colour or creed. Kharge should not create differences.
India today decided not to release about a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who were to be repatriated on Wednesday, hours after Pakistani army chief approved the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for alleged "espionage and sabotage" activities.
The government feels that it is not the right time for the release of Pakistani prisoners, official sources said here.
The prisoners were to be released as part of the practice by India and Pakistan to repatriate nationals lodged in each other's jail after they complete their sentence.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of "all the charges", said the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in Rawalpindi.
Angered by the development, India today said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and issued a strongly-worded demarche.
The scene would have been unlikely a year ago. Tens of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets to protest a decision by Aung San Suu Kyis government to name a new bridge after her father. Recognise the will of the local ethnic people, protesters chanted last month as they marched along the waterfront of this historic city in southern Myanmar.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate once celebrated as a champion of democracy, was insulting the Mon people, the dominant ethnic group in the area, protest leaders said, by naming the bridge for a Burmese leader infamous here for steamrollering over their rights. This is not a democratic process, said Min Zarni Oo, general secretary of the Mon Youth Forum. This is a big issue for the local people. The government doesnt value ethnic diversity.
No one expected governing to be easy for Suu Kyi, who became the countrys de facto leader a year ago after her party won a landslide election that ended more than a half-century of military rule. Even so, her first year has been a disappointment to many. She made it a top priority to end the long-running ethnic insurgencies, but her anaemic peace effort has proved fruitless so far, and fighting between government forces and ethnic groups has increased.
The world has been shocked by reports that the military has carried out atrocities, including rape and murder, against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in western Myanmar, but Suu Kyi has said little on the matter and done even less. Her governments growing suppression of speech on the internet seems perverse for a onetime democracy icon who spent 15 years under house arrest. Among the public, patience is wearing thin. She doesnt have support like before, said Zar Zar Oo, 31, a vendor selling bottled water at the Yangon train station.
In a televised speech to the nation commemorating her first year in office, Suu Kyi struck a defensive note, acknowledging her governments lack of progress and saying people could choose another leader if they were unhappy with her. If you think I am not good enough for our country and our people, if someone or some organisation can do better than us, we are ready to step down, she said. In parliamentary by-elections last weekend, her National League for Democracy won only nine of 19 seats.
Suu Kyi, 71, cites building roads as one of her biggest accomplishments. Party spokesman Win Htein said her government had doubled spending on health care and education, though he provided no details. And the economy has continued to grow as the country emerges from isolation under military rule. But Richard Horsey, a political analyst and former United Nations official, said that the growth had slowed and that foreign investment had dipped significantly. Washingtons lifting of economic sanctions last year has yet to translate into stronger trade, investment or job creation, he said.
In Yangon, people are waiting for Suu Kyi to deliver results, said Myat Suu Mon, 28, a department store clerk. The cost of taking the rundown bus to work has doubled, she said, while her pay has remained the same. In reality we dont see things changing here. Zaw Htay, Suu Kyis spokesman, acknowledged that progress has been slow, but said the government faced complex problems, such as ethnic conflicts and clashes with the Rohingya, that had been years in the making. Its very complicated, he said in an interview. We are not magicians.
Indeed, Suu Kyi faces daunting challenges. In rebuilding the country, she must overcome decades of mismanagement and profiteering by previous military governments that enriched the generals and their cronies. Though her party has majority in parliament, it is hamstrung by a power-sharing arrangement dictated by the military-drafted constitution, which gives the army control of key ministries and enough seats to block any constitutional amendment.
Suu Kyi is barred by the constitution from serving as president because her children are foreigners, a prohibition she circumvented by creating the office of state counsellor for herself and declaring that the president would report to her. She also named herself foreign minister. Supporters say her ability to get along with the military is a significant accomplishment. But critics suggest she suffers from Stockholm syndrome, becoming too cozy with her former captors. They say, her imperious approach alienates potential allies and contributes to the countrys growing crises. She rarely takes questions from the news media or speaks out on major issues.
Perhaps most disheartening to many of her long-time supporters has been her record on human rights. While she released dozens of political prisoners held by the former regime and repealed laws against political dissent, she left in place a law that is increasingly used to stifle criticism of public officials.
Under the Telecommunications Act, defaming someone online is punishable by three years in prison. Suspects can be held without bail while they await trial. The previous government used the law seven times. In the year since Suu Kyi took office, 47 cases have been brought, according to Maung Saungkha, who was once imprisoned under the law and now tracks its use.
The biggest stain on Suu Kyis record may be her governments brutal treatment of the Rohingya, and her tepid response to it. Government soldiers have been accused of widespread killing and rape of Rohingya in Rakhine state. A United Nations report concluded in February that the army and police had slaughtered hundreds of men, women and children; gang-raped women and girls; and forced as many as 90,000 people from their homes.
Deadly crackdown
The deadly crackdown, which the government says was a response to attacks on police posts by Rohingya insurgents, has been roundly criticised by human rights groups, the United Nations, Pope Francis and even 13 of Suu Kyis fellow Nobel laureates, who wrote a letter calling it a human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
Although Suu Kyi has no direct control over the military, she has played down the reports of atrocities and stood by the military. I dont think there is ethnic cleansing going on, she said in a rare interview with the BBC last week. I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening.
She did appoint a commission led by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general, to examine conditions in Rakhine, but reviewing the militarys conduct was not part of its mandate.
Suu Kyi has said her most important goal is negotiating peace with armed ethnic groups, and in August, she convened a peace conference with great fanfare to resolve the conflicts in northern Myanmar. But the meeting produced no cease-fire agreements, and analysts say there is more fighting now than there has been in many years.
Zaw, Suu Kyis spokesman, said senior party leaders had been warned that naming the bridge for her father, Gen. Aung San, would turn the population against them. They went ahead anyway, and last weekend it cost them the parliamentary seat in Chaungzon, the township across the bridge from Mawlamyine. It was a mistake to name this bridge, Zaw said. It is a good lesson for NLD leaders.
Gunfire erupted in an elementary school classroom in the California city of San Bernardino today in what police said they believe to be a case of "murder-suicide" resulting in four "victims."
"Preliminary info is 4 victims, being treated," city police chief Jarrod Burguan said on Twitter. "We believe this to be a murder suicide. Happened in a classroom. Two students have been transported to the hospital."
In December 2015, a newlywed couple apparently inspired by the Islamic State group opened fire on an office party in San Bernardino, killing 14 people and injuring 22 others.
The caste clash at Badanavalu in Nanjangud taluk in 1993 no longer causes acrimony among villagers. The wounds have healed and people are living in harmony but politicians and the media do not seem to know.
The clash between Dalits and Veerashaivas had erupted on March 25, 1993. Three Dalits were hacked to death by a mob on the Badanavalu-Devanur road, which triggered unrest in the village and the surrounding areas.
The issue pertained to Dalits entry into the newly opened Siddeshwara Temple in the village. Dalits, who were earlier barred from entering the temple by the upper castes, had taken the matter to the authorities concerned, who facilitated their entry into the temple.
But people are now living peacefully and have forgotten the incident. They say the incident is raked up only during occasions like elections. During the canvassing for the Nanjangud byelection, politicians from both the Congress and the BJP raked up the incident to attract voters of both the communities, giving their own version of the story. Preedepa, a villager, said both Dalits and Lingayats had forgotten the enmity. We have maintained good relations with each other. People of both the communities are sensible. They have forgotten the incident, he said.
Another villager accused politicians of glorifying the incident to seek political mileage. The media is just adding fuel to the fire, he said. Following the clash, the Election Commission of India has been identifying polling stations in the village as hyper-sensitive. But no clash was ever reported during any election, an elderly villager said. The village has seen at least 10 elections since the clash, he added.
A police officer echoed him, saying villagers are living in harmony and maintaining peace. Even during elections, they are very cooperative and maintain peace, he added. Election officials, however, defended categorising the polling stations into hyper-sensitive, sensitive and normal, citing input from the police.
The village is significant in many ways. It was known for khadi and village industries. Mahatma Gandhi had visited it in 1932 to promote khadi. A group of four Dalit women had established the Badanavalu Khadi and Gramodyog Centre in 1927 on 7.5 acres of land with a view to empower Dalits. The centre prospered for sometime but has been on the decline since.
Indias tallest and largest tricolour installed close to the border with Pakistan in Amritsar last month is not being hoisted anymore, at least for now. According to the sources, the flag has become unmanageable as nothing seems to be working to keep the 100-plus kg tricolour flying high.
In five weeks since it was inaugurated, the flag has been damaged six times, and counting. Ironically, while officials of the Amritsar Improvement Trust seem to be contemplating seeking donations to bear the cost of maintenance of the flag, the recurring flip-flop has caught the attention of the Pakistani media as well. The flag can be seen from Lahore in Pakistan, 20-km from the Attari-Wagah international border.
The Express Tribune, published from Pakistan, carried a story headlined: How Indias tallest flag at Pakistan border keeps letting it down. It said the flag keeps letting it down as it cannot stand up to the weather. The story first appeared on BBC Hindi.
The chief ministers office is now expected to pitch in to square the circle. A detailed report on the flag developments has been compiled by the Amritsar administration and sent to the chief minister and the home department, it is learnt. The tricolour is 36 metres in length and 24 metres wide.
Officials say the flag is unmanageable given that the heavy weight of the fabric cannot withstand the high wind velocity at that height. Often, the damage to the flag is noticed later, which has invited criticism and demand for action for insult to the flag.
There are several flags kept in stock for replacement in case of damage, but replacement of flags at that rate may not be a durable option in the long run. So, the plan is to reduce the size of the flag to make it more durable atop the 110-metre flagpole. From the current dimension of 120 feet in length, the plan is to reduce it to about 72 feet.
After his anointment as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath has withdrawn from the routine affairs of the Gorakhnath Mutt. A few of his key aides are now looking after the affairs of the temple.
The chief minister does not have the time to look after the daily affairs of the mutt... He will, however, be issuing guidelines and monitoring the work, said an official of the mutt. Earlier, it was maharaj ji (Adityanath) who used to perform all the important functions, the official said. But now others have been deputed to perform various duties at the mutt, sources said.
D P Tiwari, one of Adityanaths trusted aides, will be handling matters relating to complaints from the public and taking up their issues with the government officials concerned. He will act as a link between the government and the masses, sources said.
Sources said the task of performing rituals and taking care of the seers and sages who visit the mutt and stay there has been handed to another aide, Kamalnath.
A pall of gloom descended at the Silver Oak Apartments here, the residence of Kulbhushan Jadhav, the businessman who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court.
Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, has been accused of being a Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) agent, the external intelligence agency of India. The Jadhav family, which stays at the fifth floor of the building, were unavailable for comments. Police security has been tightened around his residence.
However, some people, who came out of the building, said what they had heard was unfortunate. It is sad...he was a good boy...we are with the family, one of them said.
Another said that while people like JuD founder Hafiz Saeed and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim are safe and given protection in Pakistan, an innocent man is being targeted. Jadhav, who was reportedly living as Hussein Mubarak Patel, was arrested on March 3 last year from Balochistans Mashkel region and was dubbed as a spy, a claim rejected by the Indian government.
Jadhav joined the National Defence Academy in 1987 and was commissioned into Navy in 1991. He took premature retirement and became a businessman. Jadhavs father Sudhir and uncle Subhash retired as former assistant commissioners of police. The family hails from Satara in western Maharashtra.
Last year on Change.org a campaign titled Save Kulbhushan Jadhav: Bring Him Back was launched and it stated, He is just a common citizen of India, a retired naval officer and now a successful businessman.
Among the many accusations that the Election Commission decided to probe is one against the ruling AIADMK faction on handing out a large number of hats, caps and scarfs in R K Nagar constituency where the bypoll was cancelled late on Sunday.
The ECs expenditure observer found that contrary to AIADMK (Amma) candidate T T V Dinakarans claim that his team had only paid Rs 30,000 for 1,000 hats (which is his election symbol), the shopkeeper, whose address is mentioned in the bill, said he had supplied 10,000 hats per day to the party.
The EC observer concluded that Dinakarans team had withheld the actual cost of 10,000 hats, which worked out to Rs 3 lakh. There were also complaints of distribution of cash and goods like sarees, lamps, popularly known as kuthu villaku, and household articles. As many as 12 FIRs were registered in this connection on the basis of the evidence obtained by the ECs mobile teams.
But what forced the EC to cancel the bypoll was a report from the income tax department on April 8. Acting on a tip-off on tax evasion and distribution of cash in R K Nagar, the I-T department told the EC that it had raided 21 places in Chennai and 11 other in Tamil Nadu, which belonged to state Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and his associates.
The I-T officials found that a sum of Rs 89 crore had been distributed among the voters. An additional Rs 5.6 crore was seized from Vijayabaskar and two other acquaintances of Sasikala loyalists.
These seizures proved that a large-scale bribery scandal was in progress to swing the election, the EC noted in its order. The I-T department had informed the commission that the raids on Vijayabaskars house showed that the Sasikala faction had given Rs 4,000 to every voter in R K Nagar.
The I-T department said papers with signatures of those who received money were found at Vijayabaskars house. The minister, however, condemned the raids, calling them politically motivated. In all, documents with the I-T showed that seven ministers were given a cumulative target of 2,24,145 voters.
Sixteen Opposition parties on Monday approached the Election Commission expressing no confidence in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)and demanded elections through paper ballots.
The concerted action follows a series of meetings between Opposition leaders, a few initiated by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, to forge a rainbow coalition against the BJP that has shown aggression in expanding its horizons after the electoral successes in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Ahmed Patel held a strategy meeting on Monday morning that was attended by leaders of eight parties the NCP, JD(U), CPI, CPM, SP, BSP, Trinamool Congress and the RJD.
Azad and Patel also met Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to seek her support for the joint action against the use of EVMs.
We have lost confidence and trust in EVMs after the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand elections, and the recent by-polls. Hence we asked the Election Commission to revert to the paper ballot system, Azad told reporters after leaders of 13 political parties met Chief Election Commissioner S N Zaidi.
NCP leader Majeed Memon said the commission assured them that it would convene an all-party meeting on the efficacy of the EVMs. BSP leader Satish Mishra said leaders of 16 parties have signed the petition and leaders of 13 parties approached the EC on Monday. In the memorandum submitted to the EC, the leaders said the trust deficit amongst political parties in the electronic devices was too deep-seated and pervasive.
It is, therefore, requested that till such time, the issues of tampering and malfunctions of the EVMs are addressed and the tamper-proof and flawless functioning of EVMs is technologically established and endorsed globally, to the satisfaction of the political parties, the forthcoming elections should be conducted under the old paper ballot system, it added.
Mondays meeting and joint action of approaching the EC is seen as part of efforts by Opposition parties to explore the possibility of a broad-based unity on issues of common concern.
Opposition parties are concerned about the high-pitched cow vigilantism, the alleged undermining of institutions such as the Lokpal, Information Commission, and the bypassing of the Rajya Sabha by classifying important legislations as Money Bills. Several parties have spoken in favour of a coalition to take on the BJP in the upcoming elections but are yet to decide on who should helm such efforts.
The Department of Tourism and the district administration, in association with Surfing Federation of India and local surfing clubs, will organise Indian open of Surfing at Sasihithlu Beach near Surathkal on May 26, 27 and 28.
Chairing a meeting converned to discuss the preparations for the event, Additional Deputy Commissioner Kumar said the tournament will be held in three categories - Under 16, Under 14 and Open categories. Around 100 participants are expected to take part, he added.
The Tourism Department has released Rs 60 lakh for the surfing tournament. But the estimated cost comes upto Rs 70 lakh. Therefore, there is a shortage of Rs 10 lakh which should be obtained through sponsorships, he said.
He said 19 committees, comprising officials and non-officials, have been formed. Each committee has a chairperson, member secretary and members. The chairpersons and member secretaries will generally be the government officials and elected representatives.
The committees are Advisory Committee, Core Committee, Financial Committee Surfing Organisation Committee, Publicity and Media Committee, Venue Arrangement Committee, Accommodation and Hospitality Committee, Transportation and Security Arrangement Committee, Food and Food Festival Committee, Beach Cleaning Committee, Promotion and Sponsorship Committee, Stage Management and Event and Surfing Organising Committee.
The ADC directed the chairpersons of the various committees to prepare action plans for their respective committees and submit them. Importance should be given to the accommodation of participants and judges.
The traffic movement should be managed well, he said and asked the organisers to identify land for parking vehicles. Also, the necessary security staff and life guards should be deployed on the venue. The CCTV cameras should be installed, he said. Officials of various departments were present in the meeting.
Former MLA Raghupathy Bhat has given an ultimatum stating that the suspension order of police constable Prakash should be revoked within 24 hours and only then, the unbiased approach of the District In-charge Minister Pramod Madhwaraj and his non-interference into the matter will be proved.
Speaking to media persons here on Monday, Bhat said the ministers nepotism is harming the innocent lives. Madhwaraj, who controls the police department, is twisting the case as his factory employee is involved in the case.
The behaviour of accused Kumar, who is a truck driver working in the fish meal factory of the minister, by patting the back of the wife of the constable and following the couple, is truly unruly.
The government hospital report says Kumar was under the influence of the alcohol and was sent back home as he had no injuries on the body. But the minister has issued a contradictory statement saying that Kumar has been badly injured on back and was treated in a hi-tech hospital, he charged.
Bhat said the constable was forcibly made to apologise to the truck driver inside the fish meal industry. The Malpe PSI should be suspended for dereliction of the duty. The constable was forcibly taken to the fish meal industry of the minister by the PSI and was abused.
The PSI compelled him not to register the case. When the constable registered the case and the FIR was taken, the complaint copy remained in the pocket of PSI. The officer committed atrocity against his subordinate inside the police station, he alleged.
Besides, when the case was reaching a risky phase, the DySP called the constable and asked his wife to register a counter complaint in the women police station, which seems superficial. When the women fraction of BJP met the constables wife, she cried and narrated the saga, he said.
The incident took place on April 5 and the FIR was charged on April 7. It raises the questions. The constables suspension order does not clearly mention the reason. No criminal case was registered against him. It was only a medico-legal case.
The suspension order says that the constable has misbehaved in public and tried taking law into the hands and divulges nothing beyond. An inquiry should be conducted into the incident by a high-level officer in the department, he demanded.
It is total instability in the district and women are made to live under constant threat. Women are attacked frequently. The atrocities against women are increasing. Law and order has collapsed and the police have become the puppets in the hands of the minister.
The deputy commissioner and assistant commissioner were attacked. Innocents are arrested and all the arrested are migrated workers. The department has failed to arrest the person who is in-charge of the harbour. The real culprits are at large. The district is becoming scary day by day and disorderliness has become everyday affair, he added.
Meanwhile, the district BJP unit staged a protest rally in front of the Clock Tower and submitted a memorandum demanding justice to the suspended constable and his wife.
The state government on Monday agreed to increase the monthly honorarium of anganwadi workers and helpers by Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 respectively, after a two-hour meeting with representatives of anganwadi workers associations.
Anganwadi workers had staged a massive protest at Freedom Park here last month seeking monthly honorarium of Rs 10,000 for workers and Rs 7,500 for helpers.
The protest had seen dramatic moments with the police detaining many workers while those who were on hunger strike were forcibly removed from the venue after they fainted.
Including the hike announced in the 2017-18 budget, the monthly honorarium of an anganwadi worker now stands at Rs 8,000 while the helper gets Rs 4,000. The worker-cum-helper at mini anganwadis will take home Rs 5,250 a month.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told mediapersons that Mondays increase was in addition to the similar hike announced in budget. With the state government sharing more than Rs 6,000 of the Rs 8,000, it is not possible for us to meet their demand of Rs 10,000. However, in the last four years, the Congress government had increased the stipend of workers by Rs 4,400 and they are happy, he added.
Centre next target
S Varalakshmi, president, Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers Association, said anganwadi workers would not get justice as long as the Centre cuts funds to education, rural development and health sectors.
She said the Centre has reduced Rs 9,500 crore to key national programmes such as integrated child development scheme, midday meal, rural development and welfare schemes which has led to severe shortage of funds.
We understand that the state government alone cannot fulfil all our requirements. We will soon stage protests in front of leaders representing the state in Parliament, seeking justice, she said.
Varalakshmi said the state government should set up an expert committee to frame guidelines, which will act as service rules for anganwadi workers. At present, the Centre has issued appointment rules. But there is no guideline on disciplinary measures. So workers can be dismissed for even minor mistakes. The guidelines will streamline this process, she said.
A Pakistan military court has sentenced former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav to death after he was convicted of espionage and sabotage activities.
New Delhi, which was caught unaware, warned Islamabad that it is a case of premeditated murder and described the trial proceedings that led to the capital punishment for Jadhav as farcical.
The sentencing is expected to further deteriorate the already strained ties between the two nations that was hit after the deadly attacks in Pathankot and Uri by Pakistan-based terrorists last year.
The death sentence was confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the field general court martial found him guilty of all the charges, said Pakistans military media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The court martial was closed to the public and consular access was not provided to Jadhav. He was tried under Section 59 of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, and Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
According to the ISPR statement, Jadhav, a commander in the Indian Navy, confessed before a magistrate and the court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi.
It also claimed that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer as per the legal provisions. Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran, and that he was a serving officer in the Indian Navy. The Pakistan army had also released a confessional video of Jadhav after his arrest.
India reacts strongly
A fuming New Delhi responded quickly with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoning Pakistans High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, to the South Block and issuing him a strongly worded demarche.
New Delhi also decided to postpone indefinitely a pre-scheduled release and repatriation of around 12 Pakistanis languishing in Indian prisons.
Ever since Jadhavs arrest was made public by Pakistan, New Delhi has been maintaining that he was an official of the Indian navy, but he had no link with the government since his premature retirement in 2002. He was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly, Jaishankar noted in the demarche.
If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and the people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder, the foreign secretary stated.
Jaishankar noted that New Delhi had requested Islamabad 13 times between March 25, 2016, and March 31, 2017, to give High Commission of India in Pakistan consular access to Jadhav. But New Delhis requests had been turned down by Islamabad, he added.
It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial, New Delhi noted.
Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has no plans to ration supply of drinking water to its consumers as of now.
Speaking to DH, BWSSB chief engineer Kemparamaiah said: The present supply from Cauvery is 1,350 million litres per day (MLD) and we are not facing any shortage in supply at present. We are yet to decide on rationing water.
He said this after a meeting held by Water Resources Minister M B Patil with the officials of Water Resources department here on Monday.
The minister had advised the BWSSB to ration supply of drinking water. Patil had said that the rationing of water will help BWSSB supply water beyond June 15.
BWSSB Chairman Tushar Girinath said there might be shortage in water supply from the Krishnaraja Sagar and the Kabini reservoirs if the state does not receive adequate monsoon rains.
However, till June first week there will be enough water supply to the city. If water level at reservoirs fall, then the supply to the city may reduce from current 1350 MLD by 30-40 MLD," BWSSB chairman added.
The water board is responsible for providing water supply to BBMP area of 800 sq km and is presently, catering to 8.5 million population.
DH News Service
Water available in various reservoirs of the state are enough only to supply drinking water to major cities and towns, including Bengaluru, for the next 60 days, Water Resources Minister M B Patil said on Monday.
Bengaluru requires 600 cusecs of water every day. We (Water Resources department) have taken measures to ensure supply of 800 cusecs per day (about 200 cusecs is lost in transition) till June 15. However, it is advisable for the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to start rationing the water supply, he told reporters.
A total of 7.748 tmcft of water (live storage) is available at the KRS and the Kabini reservoirs in the Cauvery basin. Bengaluru alone needs an estimated 4.14 tmcft of water for the next two months. We are confident of ensuring water supply to Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya and others towns in the Cauvery basin region for the next 60 days, he said. The water level has touched rock bottom in all the reservoirs due to successive years of drought and failure of monsoon rains last year, he added.
Patil said water available in important reservoirs in north Karnataka such as Almatti, Narayanapur, Malaprabha and Singtalur is enough to supply drinking water to people living in nearby cities and towns till June this year. However, in the Tungabhadra reservoir, water level is 1.7 tmcft against the requirement of 2.3 tmcft. Therefore, the Maharashtra government has been requested to release 2 tmc feet of the Krishna river water to Karnataka, the minister said.
Maharashtra government has said that it will give water to Karnataka only if the state releases 2 tmcft of water from the Narayanpura dam to the parched Solapur area in the neighbouring state. We are ready to release 2 tmcft in May to Maharashtra. A team of Water Resources department officials from Karnataka will soon meet their counterparts in Maharashtra and urge them to release water. If necessary, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will talk to his Maharashtra counterpart in this regard, Patil said.
No water for irrigation
The minister urged farmers in the state not to use the available water in reservoirs for irrigation. Co-operation of the farmers is a must for ensuring drinking water supply to major cities and towns in the coming days, he added.
As a contingency plan, the government has started preparations for conducting cloud seeding in June. The monsoon winds will start blowing from June. Cloud seeding will be done irrespective of whether it rains or not. Last year, cloud seeding could not be done due to lack of preparations on the part of the government, he said.
Asked about the Supreme Court order to the state to release 2,000 cusecs of the Cauvery water every day to Tamil Nadu, Patil said Karnataka is not in a position to release water to the neighbouring state.
A new proposal by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to end the impasse over the India-Bangladesh agreement on sharing of water of the river Teesta has failed to enthuse Dhaka.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina indicated that she was not convinced by Mamatas proposal that New Delhi should work out an arrangement with Dhaka for providing water to the neighbouring country from other rivers in northern region of her state.
Hasina, who concluded her four-day visit on Monday, said when India and Bangladesh would be able to clinch the deal on Teesta water-sharing, the bilateral relations between the two nations would undergo another transformation.
Referring to Mamata as Didimoni (schoolmistress or elder sister), Hasina said she was not sure how the chief minister would act on the issue of Teesta. But Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) assured me that he would see what he could do (to end the impasse), she said at an event held by India Foundation.
Police have solved the abduction of a 21-year-old man from the busy Jalahalli Cross in northern Bengaluru. They say the abduction was faked by the man himself to avoid going to work.
Around 8.20 pm on Friday, Maruthi, a native of Sandur, Ballari district, telephoned his uncle, B L Gowda, saying a four-member gang had abducted him and bundled him into a car as he came out of an ATM kiosk. The uncle panicked and straightaway went to the jurisdictional Peenya police station.
Although police registered an FIR, they doubted the incident occurred. First, the crime spot was stated to be a road which is traffic-filled at that hour. Second, police reviewed CCTV footage but there was no indication that such an incident had occurred. Third, they enquired with the ATMs security guard and roadside vendors but nobody reported witnessing anything of the sort. With no evidence of the crime, they suspected that Maruthi had faked it all.
Police began tracking Maruthis phone but it was switched off. They received a tip-off that Maruthi had called up his uncle to say he is fine and is coming back to Bengaluru.
On Sunday, they traced him to Majestic and brought him to the police station. He was counselled and let off with a stern warning.
A police officer said that five months ago, Maruthis family had sent him to live with his uncle in Peenya as it was feared he would fall into bad company. Maruthi landed the job of a mechanic at a factory but was irregular at work.
He was thinking of fleeing from the uncles house. On Friday, he went to the factory but said he was taking off. He went to an ATM, withdrew Rs 2,500 and repaid a loan he had taken from a friend. He told him he was going to visit his sister.
He then decided to fake the abduction. He met another friend and telephoned his uncle from a different number, a police officer said.
A senior police officer said, This is how our resources get misused. We take every complaint seriously. If something untoward happens, everyone blames the police. In this case, only after the man was traced did we know he had faked it.
DH News Service
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Karnatakas claim over the Beaulieu estate adjacent to the Vikasa Soudha and the KPSC office on Palace Road in the heart of Bengaluru that was first purchased by the Dewan of Mysore on behalf of the First Princess in 1900.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta rejected the state governments move to initiate proceedings under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, which states that all lands which are not the property of others belong to the government.
On May 14, 2004, then KPSC secretary B A Harish Gowda sent a complaint to the government, saying that in 1900, the property had been transferred by the original owner, Lancelot Ricketts, in favour of the Dewan of Mysore. However, it was fraudulently shown that the property had actually been purchased for the First Princess of Mysore out of her personal funds, he claimed. The deed was registered and a fee of Rs 128.50 was paid.
Currently, the Beaulieu estate has a hotel named The Atria, besides a number of other commercial buildings and the residence of M Shankaranarayanan, the former chief secretary who approached the Supreme Court.
Going through the records, the bench said, After 104 years of the execution of the original conveyance deed, and after acquiring various lands out of this very estate, we cannot permit the state to urge that the original conveyance deed is fraudulent or that the subsequent transfers are all collusive and, as such, void.
The bench said there were many bona fide purchasers and, even otherwise, we are not inclined to hold that the original transaction was invalid.
The court also noted that various acquisitions took place out of the Beaulieu estate.
More than 20 acres of the total 24 acres and 12 guntas were acquired by the government of Mysore, both before and after the Independence. Nobody raised any objection.
If the land belonged to the state, why would the state acquire its own property? This question has not been answered. Various transactions have taken place after the year 1971 and portions of this estate have been sold/transferred from one person to another. Entries in the Revenue Record were made, but the state never raised any objection. The sale deeds were registered without demur, the bench said.
The court allowed the appeal filed by Shankaranarayanan and others, represented by senior advocate K K Venugopal, against a ruling given by a division bench of the high court. It upheld the ruling given by the single judge who had quashed the states decision on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction over the property.
The Beaulieu estate was purchased by the Dewan of Mysore on behalf of the First Princess and the consideration was paid from the personal funds of First Princess.
Therefore, the state of Karnataka has no right over the property, the apex court said. Notably, the state had on August 6, 1949, acquired 12,680 square yards of the Beaulieu estate and paid compensation of Rs 1,95,000 to the First Princess.
The BJP virtually disowned former Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay on Monday as the Opposition turned up the heat on the government in the Lok Sabha for his racist remarks against South Indians.
The Congress, the Left parties and Trinamool members forced two brief adjournments in the Lok Sabha on the issue, clearly putting the Modi government on the backfoot.
He (Tarun Vijay) is neither the general secretary of the party nor the spokesperson. He is just a former MP, said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, trying to assuage an agitated Opposition.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that an FIR be registered against Vijay for treason. In an interview to a foreign news channel, Vijay had described South Indians as blacks.
If we were racist, why would the entire South you know the Tamils, you know Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra why do we live with them? We have blacks, black people around us, he had said.
Recalling the interview, Kharge wondered whether people from southern India are not Indian citizens. He said that Vijay, being an ideologue of the ruling BJP, had given expression to the mindset of the party.
This shows how your ideology is working. Do you want to divide India? Do you want to separate us? Do you want that each state should assert its independence? Kharge said.
Kumar, for his part, said, The government and the BJP are clear... we are all Indians. There is no difference on the basis of caste, colour or creed. Kharge should not create differences.
The Karnataka State Government First Grade College Guest Lecturers Association has announced that it will boycott examination and evaluation duty unless the state government holds a meeting with it to discuss their demands.
Members of the association say that the though Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had promised them in March that he would hold a meeting with them in the first week of April, there has been no move in this direction so far.
The 14,000-odd guest lecturers in degree colleges in the state want to be absorbed as permanent lecturers, want better pay and job security.
The association held a hunger strike in February and withdrew it only after the Higher Education minister Basavaraj Rayareddy promised to discuss the matter in the Legislative Council.
Rajashekar Murthy, honorary president of the association, said, When we were on a strike, everyone requested us to call it off and asked for time. Now, no one is keeping their promise.
He demanded that the chief minister and higher education minister hold a meeting with the association, their advisor Prof Baragur Ramachandrappa and members of the Legislative Council. Murthy also pointed out that the guest lecturers have not been paid since January.
The call for boycott will affect the university examinations which are to begin in May in the 400-plus first grade colleges in the state.
Tumakuru district president Naganna G K said, Our term ends when the academic year ends. We have to apply again to be appointed in the next academic year which means we have no job security. We want this practice to be done away with. Guest lecturers with experience should be made permanent faculty.
He said that at present, guest lecturers who have postgraduate degree qualification get paid Rs 9,500 and those with PhD get Rs 11,500 while permanent faculty are paid between Rs 60,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh.
Our demand is that our pay should be at least half of that of the permanent lecturers. We do the same amount of work. For exam duty, we get only Rs 100 for a days work.
Even workers under the MGNREGA are getting paid more than us lecturers with double and triple degrees, Naganna added.
DH News Service
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah flagged off 51 pink Hoysala patrol vehicles and launched a womens safety app on Monday. The pink Hoysalas will add to the existing 221 hi-tech Ertiga Hoysalas, Siddaramaiah said.
That takes the total of four-wheeler patrol vehicles in the city to 272. Ministers G Parameshwara, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Roshan Baig were also present at the event at Vidhana Soudha.
Pink Hoysalas will have at least one woman police personnel on board... but it does not mean only Pink Hoysalas will rush to women in distress, Praveen Sood, City Police Commissioner, said at the launch. The priorities assigned to Pink Hoysalas are crimes against women, children, and elderly citizen, he said.
Police have identified hot spots for exclusive patrols by pink Hoysalas.Schools, colleges, shrines, malls, shopping complexes, markets, garment factories, and railway and bus stations come under their surveillance.
Pink Hoysalas will also patrol tech and biotech parks and residential areas where women stay as paying guests. The initiative keeps in mind the safety of women working in shifts in the hospitality and airline industries, and other professions that call for police protection.
6,000 downloads
Not everybody can dial 100 in an emergency. The Suraksha app is an option for citizens in distress, Sood said. Even before its launch, the app has been downloaded by at least 6,000 Bengalureans, and we expect at least 50,000 citizens to download the app in the near future," he said.
Thirty participants in a naming contest came up with the name of Suraksha. They have won IPL tickets for their participation, Sood said.
Some on Twitter wondered why the police couldnt have chosen a name based on the Kannada word to seek help: Kaapaadu. @JS_Prashant tagged the chief minister, the police and the Kannada Development Authority, asking if the app was available in Kannada. The interface on Suraksha is only in English.
[UPDATE: This has been changed to a photo of a guy fishing. Des suspects a provocateur at work in the BLM.] By Andrew Freedman
6 April 2017 (Mashable) Even the smallest of symbolic details cant escape the changes of life in Trumps America. The government agency responsible for overseeing a staggering 258 million acres of land, including ecologically vital conservation areas, has changed the image on its homepage from a scenic park vista to a massive, tall pile of coal. The website change, which happened in the past 24 hours, is in keeping with the Trump administrations push to drill for oil, natural gas, and minerals on public lands. The new picture at the top of the site appears to be from Peabody Energy, via Wikimedia Commons. This page identifies it as an 80 foot coal seam at the North Antelope Rochelle open cut coal mine, and was taken in 2004. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is part of the Interior Department, is the lesser-known conservation agency whose vast land holdings take up about one-eighth of the United States, particularly across the West. When most people think about conservation areas, they think of national parks, which are also housed within the same cabinet agency. [more]
The strings produce the vibrations that travel into the wood.
That is when the magic begins, Jonah Graybill said. You get unlimited mobility.
The 14-year-old boy from Gardners was describing the viola his instrument of choice on the Central Pennsylvania Homeschool Orchestra.
He joined the ensemble four years ago on a six-week trial basis and has since proved himself capable of taking on and perfecting difficult pieces of music.
It makes you go out of your comfort zone and do things not thought possible, Graybill said of the orchestra and its repertoire. It produces a very good atmosphere.
20 years
Celebrating 20 years of service, CPHO probably got its start in 1997 when homeschool families joined together to organize an opportunity for students eager to play in an ensemble, administrator Muriel Hergenroeder said.
The orchestra consists mostly of middle school- and high school-aged students who are mature enough to take correction without hurt feelings and responsibility for their part in the group, she said.
CPHO offers two levels of student membership: Principal for youths who have the skill to handle difficult works, and Associate for developing musicians skilled enough to master easier pieces.
That way they can participate, Hergenroeder said. It gives them the opportunity for growth. The idea is not to have to turn them away or discourage them.
While most members are homeschooled students, the orchestra is open to teenagers enrolled in public, private and cyber charter schools. Though its venue is a church and its rehearsals and performances open with Christian prayer, students of any faith are welcome to participate.
CPHO has a regular season that runs from September to early May and consists of rehearsals from 2:30 to 4:45 p.m. Mondays at the Carlisle Alliance Church, 237 E. North St., in Carlisle.
The rehearsal schedule is every other Monday from September through March before switching to weekly practices in early April to prepare students for a free public concert held at the church and a private concert held at the Chapel Pointe retirement community in Carlisle.
Concerts
There are four concerts scheduled this year, starting with a joint performance with the Centre County Homeschool Orchestra at 7 p.m. April 22 at the Lost Creek Mennonite Church, 2682 Long Road, Mifflintown, Juniata County.
This will be followed by private concerts at Chapel Pointe on May 2 and Messiah Village in Mechanicsburg on May 3. The 2017 season will conclude with the 20th Anniversary Gala Concert and Reception at the Alliance Church May 5 at 7 p.m.
The repertoire is mostly a combination of traditional symphonic music and contemporary tunes arranged for orchestra, Hergenroeder said. She said each concert includes segments called Student Spotlights where one or more musicians can showcase their talents. Jonah Graybill once did a bluegrass duet with his father playing guitar and him playing fiddle.
The current orchestra numbers about 21 players. Half of them are from Cumberland County while the rest travel from Dauphin, Perry and York counties. The composition of instruments varies from year-to-year depending on who graduates and who is recruited. The 2017 ensemble is light on strings (five violins and one viola) but heavy on percussion (five musicians).
We need players. The more players, the more variety, Hergenroeder said. Woodwinds are always a challenge. We would love to have a cellist.
This yearly flux in players and instruments can be a challenge for conductor Barry Clay, a volunteer who has written over 30 works for CPHO. Every season, Clay has to balance the expertise of veteran players with the skill level of new musicians as he selects and adjusts the repertoire.
The work may require Clay to rewrite parts of a composition either to make the music easier to play or to account for an instrument that is missing from the lineup. But he doesnt want to make it too easy for CPHO members.
I want them to get that feeling that they have tackled difficult music and can play it well, Clay said. I want them to have that confidence.
One other goal is to instill youths with a lifelong love of music.
Unlike sports, music is something you can do into old age, Clay said. I am hoping that they have an enjoyment of their instrument even if they only get it out once a year.
Musical future
Some CPHO members have advanced to other opportunities. Carlisle resident Joseph DeAngelo participated in the ensemble before becoming the concertmaster for the Harrisburg Symphony Youth Orchestra. The concertmaster is the leader of the string section who sits in the first chair to the conductors left.
Violinist Ben Graham, 16, of Dillsburg is the current concertmaster of the CPHO. He first took up the instrument almost seven years ago and enjoys the musical range of the violin.
I can play high or low over three different octaves, Graham said. I like the variety and love the challenge of playing it. The teaching style of Clay surpasses what Graham could take in through just private lessons.
It is a good method of learning, Graham said. It just throws it at you and you have to learn it in so many months. It has helped me to become a better violinist.
Pianist Alyssa McLeod, 12, of Carlisle joined the CPHO last fall because she wanted to get experience playing in a large group. At first, it was kind of tricky staying together with the conductor, McLeod said. But its a lot easier now.
Its a lot of fun to be together like a family, she said. It makes a bigger sound. It makes me feel that I am a part of it.
A cafeteria worker at W.G. Rice Elementary school in South Middleton Township faces charges after police said she grabbed the lanyards of six children last week.
State Police at Carlisle said Agnes Catherine Means, 66, of Mount Holly Springs, was charged with two counts of simple assault and six counts of harassment after the incident at the school on April 5.
Police said Means was performing duties at the register in the cafeteria when she yanked the lanyards of six children, ages 7 to 8 years old, in an attempt to scan the meal cards hanging from the lanyards.
Police said in doing so, Means caused abrasion marks on two children.
Police were alerted to the incident by a parent who had taken their child to a local urgent care for an abrasion and a neck strain caused by Means pulling on the childs lanyard, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by police.
All of the incidents occurred on April 5, and Means told police that days lunch rush was difficult because children were not able to scan themselves through the line, the affidavit stated.
One of the scanning machines was inoperable that day, Means said, and she got upset and yanked the lanyards in order for their lunch cards to scan, according to police.
She said she regretted pulling on the lanyards, according to police.
South Middleton School District uses Aramark for cafeteria workers, Superintendent Al Moyer said.
Means has been relieved of duty pending an investigation by the company, he said.
Upon learning of the accusation, the individual was immediately removed from district service, and she will have no further contact with district students, Moyer said in a written statement. The district immediately conducted an investigation and notified all appropriate agencies. If true, the accusation is certainly an isolated instance and not reflective of our employees or the employees of our food service company.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. June 7 in front of Magisterial District Judge Susan Day.
Tidal power company Atlantis Resources turbine at its MeyGen project in Scotland is currently being monitored to assess the effects of a recent unplanned grid outage.
The AIM-listed company said that the outage was caused by a third party and unrelated to the turbine.
The outage follows a period of autonomous operation of the turbine at full output and an automated shut down procedure when the grid faulted.
Atlantis expects that the AR1500 turbine will be retrieved at the next opportunity for a full systems inspection before undergoing contractual performance testing.
This reflects the approach adopted for the three turbines which were installed by Andritz Hydro Hammerfest, a marine technology group, which are currently undergoing upgrades at Nigg Energy Park on the Cromarty Firth before a planned redeployment in May.
Shares in Atlantis Resources were down 3.51% to 55p at 0801 BST.
Ivory Coast palm oil producer DekelOil Public generated record quarterly revenues up 37% to 9.7m thanks to record monthly production and prices in the first three months of the year.
The AIM-listed company produced a record 16,398 tonnes of crude palm oil in the quarter, 8.3% higher than the first quarter last year.
CPO prices surged in February to around $750m/t, up from around $550 per tonne in June last year, and management took advantage with the average CPO price in the quarter standing at 736m/t.
Palm kernel oil production rose only by 3% to 996 tonnes but the average PKO sales price was 35% higher at $1,008 per tonne.
April has seen CPO prices soften slightly to approximately 700 but production has continued strongly and is well on track to exceed April 2016 production results, Dekel said.
Management said they expect inventory levels to unwind at the beginning of the second half, with new buyers coming to the country on the back of growth in the Ivory Coast's increasing CPO production.
Executive director Lincoln Moore said, "Coinciding with the commencement of Cote d'Ivoire's peak harvesting season and significantly higher year on year palm oil prices, this latest record quarterly performance has come at an opportune time.
"Having recently gained a 100% ownership of Ayenouan, our shareholders stand to benefit fully from the operational progress being made on the ground, starting with the distribution of the maiden dividend. Ayenouan is proving to be the highly cash generative platform we always believed it would be, and we intend to capitalise on this by moving forward with the expansion phase of our strategy."
Unlike most palm oil producers, Dekel generates less than 10% of its output from its own estate, with most coming from local smallholders to whom the company sells small trees from its nursery and then buys the palm kernels and creates CPO via its modern mill equipment, which has been boosted by the addition of an empty fruit press last month.
Broker Optiva Securities, which said the CPO production smashed its estimates of 14,335 tonnes, remained bullish on palm oil prices in the short term, reflecting tight supply, a weaker ringgit and higher biodiesel mandates.
Optiva forecast the empty fruit press could boost underlying profits by at least 0.5m over a full year of operation.
Financial results for 2016, which are expected to be announced before the end of May, are estimated to show total revenues of around 26m, EBIT of 4.8m and underlying profits of 3.7m.
In 2017, analyst Ravi Davdra forecast total revenues of 32m, EBIT of 11m, and underlying profits of around 10m, while the recently announced progressive dividend policy and a maiden dividend of 500,000 will put the company on a dividend yield of around 1.4% based on the current share price.
Rose Petroleum received a total of MX$6.01m from the Mexican tax authority (SAT) during March 2017, in relation to its recovery of substantial value-added tax owed to it by that organisation.
This amount was significantly more than the MX$4.2m that Rose Petroleum had anticipated receiving.
It continued to seek the recovery of the remaining MX$10.5m owed to it by SAT.
Chief executive Matthew Idiens said he was encouraged by the scale of the funds received back from the Mexican authorities.
"We continue to work on recovering the outstanding balance as we work on building our cash reserves ahead of the upcoming work programme," he said.
At 13:08 GMT, shares in AIM-quoted Rose Petroleum were up 8% to 0.14p each.
AIM-listed explorer Strategic Minerals is to supply over 400,000 tons of magnetite at its US mine over several years to an unnamed company.
Its subsidiary Southern Minerals Group, the operator of the Cobre magnetite stockpile in New Mexico, won a new contract on Friday with a private company to the supply magnetite at a market based price over several years, subject to availability.
The deal was made after a previous agreement was terminated in March for not having met prerequisites in nominated timeframes.
A $10,000 deposit has been paid to Southern Minerals and a security deposit of $250,000 will be made to its solicitor's trust accounts by 14 April.
The contract calls for a minimum purchase of 4,000 tons per month starting from 1 June and it will terminate if, at any time, Southern Minerals loses access to the magnetite stockpile.
The company said that with the logistics at its mine it would result in a maximum supply, above existing client demand, of 6,000 tons per month and the contract is likely to more than double annual sales from Cobre, which is likely to be achieved without affecting its net profit margin of between 40% to 45% of sales revenue.
Strategic Minerals managing director John Peters said: "Management have a high confidence that this Contract will progress and note that it is, compared to the Agreement we have just terminated, for a greater total quantity and has doubled minimum monthly purchases.
The impact of the contract on the company is not to be underestimated as it is likely to materially boost the expected profitability of the Cobre operation in 2017."
Shares in Strategic Minerals rose 15.64% to 1.53p at 0837 BST.
These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:
Longer-dated Gilts edged higher at the end of last week, pushing yields lower, weighed down by a barrage of weak data out in the UK despite some hawkish Fedspeak.
In particular, manufacturing sector output dipped by 0.1% on the month in February, according to ONS, even after a 1.0% drop in January.
In parallel, according to the Halifax survey house prices in Britain undershot expectations in March, with the rate of gains slipping from 5.1% for February to a 3.8% pace for March (consensus: 4.1%).
Data for spending on construction and total trade referencing February also came in below analysts' projections.
Acting as a backdrop, trading in US Treasuries was very volatile going into the Easter weekend, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note dipping below 2.30% at one point, as traders reacted to news of the US missile strike in Syria.
The March US non-farm payrolls figures published later during the session showed just a 98,000 rise for March, which was well below the 174,000 forecast by the consensus, failed to leave an imprint on yields.
Instead many economists, but not all, brushed-off the 'miss', attributing it to a statistical bounce on the back of the unusually mild weather which boosted hiring during the previous month.
To take note of, an unexpected two-tenths of a percentage point drop saw the rate of unemployment fall to 4.5%.
Yet analysts at Barclays were unconvinced.
"This report is the latest piece of data showing divergence between soft and hard data. Survey readings of employment showed a considerable pickup in employment. Although only one data print, the weakness in this report poses a risk to our near-term outlook. We look for labor markets to accelerate in the near term, but should that hope fail, we would expect activity to slow as well," said Rob Martin at Barclays.
Elsewhere, Greek bond yields gained as Athens agreed to further measures to tackle its government deficit.
Fed and BoE comment on financial sector regulatory reform
Towards the close of trading on Wall Street, New York Fed chief William Dudley added an important caveat to his remarks earlier in the week that when the central bank began to shrink its balance sheet it might also pause in its rate hikes.
"Some people misconstrued what I said last week. I said a little pause. A pause is pretty short already; I think a little pause is even shorter than that," Dudley said.
Commenting on banking regulation, Dudley argued strongly in favour of a set of internationally harmonised rules for the financial sector, even as he tabled several suggestions for paring back those rules.
On a related note, speaking at a Reuters event at Canary Wharf, also on Friday, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney stressed that his contacts with US officials indicated they were not looking to roll-back financial sector regulation, but rather looking at ways to make it more "efficient".
Crude-oil futures are on the front foot on Monday afternoon following a shutdown at Libya's largest oilfield and heightened tensions in the Middle East after the US military's missile strike in Syria last week.
At about 15:37 GMT, Nymex-priced WTI crude was up 0.88% to $52.70 a barrel. Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent was 0.74% up to $55.65 a barrel.
The price of both grades of the black liquid firmed after Libya's Sharara oilfield was shut on Sunday.
This followed a group having blocked a pipeline linking the field to an oil terminal, a report said. The field had only just returned to output after a week-long stoppage, reported Reuters.
"It means that at least one potential source of additional supply has fallen away for the time being," Carsten Fritsch of Commerzbank told Reuters, referring to the Libya stoppage.
Crude is in the midst of a global supply glut, with markets focusing on Opec output pledges, rising US rig counts and inventories, and shale production.
More generally, the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have been heightened after the US launched a missile strike on an airbase in Syria linked to an alleged chemical attack in that country's long-running civil war.
At about 15:37 GMT, on Comex, gold was down 0.38% to $1252.5 an ounce. Silver fell 1.93% to $17.80 an ounce, and copper shed 1.49% to 260.75 cents a pound.
This followed gold's run higher last week on against a cloth of factors.
Mihir Kapadia, chief executive and founder of Sun Global Investments, was quoted by MarketWatch as stating that the yellow metal still possessed safe-haven appeal.
"If geopolitical tensions increase across the world, the safe-haven demand for gold could return and keep gold prices buoyant," he said.
On London Metals Exchange, three-month industrial metals were mostly lower. Zinc fell 1.32%, tin lost 0.42%, and copper eased 0.41%. Aluminum was up 0.46%.
Meanwhile, iron ore's prices have descended into bear territory, with Barclays pinning the blame on lower steel demand in China driving a shift from mills toward lower-quality ore and raising the prospect of a drop into the $50s, Bloomberg reported.
Toshibas chipmaking operations will be the subject of a $27bn bid from Taiwanese company Foxconn , according to reports on Monday.
Bloomberg first reported the news of the possible acquisition, citing people familiar with the matter, just weeks before a final decision will be made on the sale of the business.
Toshibas chip business is the second largest in the NAND chip area, only behind South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics.
Toshiba is currently collaborating with the Japanese government in an attempt to find a domestic buyer, but the reports said that overseas parties were more determined to complete the sale.
The sale of the chip operations is the latest attempt from the firm to streamline its business, following the write-down of its nuclear division Westinghouse and an accompanying loss of billions of dollars.
Another Japanese company, Fujifilm, has also expressed an interest in taking on Toshibas chip business.
The latest bid by Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, would present a potential headache for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with some in the government pushing for a Japanese company or a joint US-Japan effort to keep Toshiba within the country.
In March, Foxconn founder Terry Gou said that the Taiwanese company would definitely be submitting a bid to the auction, which is due to come to an end in the next few weeks.
Ride-sharing company Uber Technologies has responded to a lawsuit brought against it by Google , denying their allegations of theft relating to the firms self-driving technology.
Waymo, formerly Googles autonomous driving wing, filed the injunction against Uber last month after it claimed that former employee Andrew Levandovski copied the technology for the Uber-owned Otto.
Uber has denied the claims however, with an injunction likely to see all of the companys self-driving fleet removed from roads in several test cities throughout the US. It said that the accusations were "demonstrably false".
Ubers legal representatives said the motion to file an injunction was a "misfire" on Googles side, with "no evidence" that any of the 14,000 files in question ever touched Uber's servers.
The lawyers also suggested Googles objective with the legal proceedings was simply to stifle Ubers self-driving operations.
Google and Uber are two of the leading tech firms in the race to develop fully autonomous cars, with both companies already testing vehicles in several states across the US.
The US central bank should create some policy space for the future by allowing its balance sheet to gradually shrink to a normal size, a top official from the Federal Reserve said.
In remarks to Bloomberg TV overnight, from Melbourne, St.Louis Fed president James Bullard said the current size of the balance sheet, at $4.5trn, was bigger than anyone thought it should be.
"If you want to create some policy space for the future and at least have the option of being able to do QE in the future you should start getting the balance sheet down to a reasonable size today".
"It is not a matter of doing something that would create volatility in markets. I think it would be taken in stride," Bullard said.
For Bullard, a "reasonable" size for the balance sheet, which would take several years to reach, would be around $2trn, made up of $1.7bn in cash and a couple of hundred billion in reserves.
Asian equities closed on a mixed note at the start of the week, with South Korea's Kospi ending lower after the US diverted a carrier strike group from Australia to the waters around the peninsula.
Asian equities closed on a mixed note at the start of the week, with South Korea's Kospi ending lower after the US diverted a carrier strike group from Australia to the waters around the peninsula.
South Korea's benchmark equity gauge, the Kospi, lost 0.9% as the country's currency, the won, slipped 0.7% to 1,142.38 against the US dollar.
The region's other main benchmarks were mixed, with Japan's Topix adding 0.66% to 1,499.65 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ahead by 0.86% at 5,912.88 by the closing bell.
Yet the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.02% to 24,262.18 and the Shenzhen CSI 300 lost 0.34% to 3,5050.64.
Dollar/yen was 0.25% higher as of 1235 GMT to 111.32, as traders reacted to what appeared to be an amicable conclusion to three days of contacts between US president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, although it should be noted that many FX traders (in London at least) were likely away from their desks due to the Easter holiday.
As an aside, traders appeared to brush off the latest weekly US CFTC data showing a dip in the number of short positions in dollar/yen from 53,180 to 45,800.
In remarks made after their summit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said: "[we] got deeply acquainted, established a kind of trust and built an initial working relationship and friendship."
At the summit it was also decided that a Chinese envoy would be sent to South Korea to discuss the situation with both countries' neighbour to the north.
Monday's key data releases in Japan were mixed.
Japan's current account surplus improved from 66bn yen in January to 2.8trn yen for March $25 billion ($25bn) and 2.4trn yen for the year-ago period.
Economists had projected a surplus of 2.51trn yen.
On a negative note however, the current conditions sub-index in the Cabinet Office's Economy Watchers Survey fell for a third month running, from 48.6 in February to a six-month low of 47.4 for March.
A sub-index tracking the outlook was also weaker, retreating from a reading of 50.6 to 48.1.
"Todays survey jars with the positive message from consumer confidence, the service PMI and the Tankans non-manufacturing index which all picked up in the latest reading," said Marciel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics.
To take note of, while the EWS had a poor track-record when it comes to predicting movements in consumer spend, the sub-index linked to conditions in manufacturing - which fell from 48.8 to 47.7 - had done a better job in anticipating changes in industrial output, Thieliant said.
Climate change regulations in the UK are set to be cut back by the government in order to provide a boost for trade when the region leaves the European Union, leaked civil service documents showed on Sunday.
Tim Hitchens, the director general of economic and consular affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is set to say in a speech next month that the UK must adjust its environmental laws to help with potential trade losses due to Brexit. A copy of Hitchens speech was seen by The Sunday Times.
Hitchens will deliver the speech at the Prosperity UK event on 26 April.
"You have a crucial role to play in posts in implementing our new approach to prosperity against the huge changes stemming from last years Brexit vote," Hitchens will tell attendees of the event.
The civil servant will add that the priority for the UK in the near future must be the maintenance of strong trade links.
"Trade and growth are now priorities for all posts you will all need to prioritise developing capability in this area. Some economic security-related work like climate change and illegal wildlife trade will be scaled down."
International trade is one of the key aspects that will be discussed during the ongoing Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU. Theresa May has already conceded that Britain will no longer remain part of the EU single market when it departs from the bloc.
BHP Billiton directors have been urged by activist investor Elliott Management to cancel the mining giant's dual listing alongside a 22bn disposal of its US petroleum business.
On top of tweaks to its capital return policy, the hedge fund said these measures would together result in Plc shareholders enjoying a 51% increase in the attributable value of their shares.
After reviewing the elements of Elliott's proposal, the BHP board issued a statement saying: "we have concluded that the costs and associated risks of Elliott's proposal would significantly outweigh any potential benefits".
Shares in BHP, having spiked more than 4% to 1,350p on Monday morning, retreated after the company's negative response.
Elliott, which owns a stake of around 4.1% in the FTSE 100-listed group and will be known to UK investors for its activism in Meggitt and Alliance Trust, sent a letter to BHP's directors and set up a website outlining its three-point plan to "unlock value and improve capital returns to shareholders".
Ending BHP's dual-listed company structure by creating a single Australian-headquartered and Australian tax resident listed company is a prime demand, as following the May 2015 spin-off of its base metals and coking coal assets into South32, Elliott estimated that the London-listed Plc part of the business generates only around 8.9% of group operating profits while its shares account for 39.7% of BHP's total.
The "long-term misalignment" of profits versus shareholder base in the dual-listed company structure "has led to a massive and continuing build-up of franking credits", which it puts at a total of $9.7bn, or around 10% of BHP's market capitalization.
A unification of the two listings would not only put BHP's Limited and PLC shareholders "on the same footing", but also allow BHP to access the value represented by the US$9.7bn franking credit balance, "significantly enhance" the scope and value of BHP share buybacks, and "help management to avoid making badly timed acquisitions paid for in cash".
The letter demanded demerging and separately listing the US petroleum business, which is valued "well in excess of the current analyst consensus" at around $22bn, as it "provides no meaningful diversification benefits to BHP", entails a "lack of synergies" with the group's mining assets and "its intrinsic value is being obscured".
And, with BHP expected to generate $31bn of excess cashflow in the next five years, assuming the current 50% payout ratio of net income, Elliott was unstinting in its directness.
"Unfortunately, BHP has previously used excess cash to make value-destructive acquisitions when it acquired certain Fayetteville assets and Petrohawk. Management should avoid making badly timed acquisitions for cash and instead return its substantial upcoming excess cashflow to shareholders by way of highly value-accretive post-unification 14% discounted off-market share buybacks."
In its response, BHP said it was constantly reviewing the dual-listed company structure, but had "not yet identified sufficient benefits to outweigh the significant costs which would be incurred" from unification.
BHP also rubbished Elliott's proposal to demerge the oil business, saying: "There is no obvious discount in BHP Billiton's trading multiples relative to the weighted average of relevant mining and oil and gas peers.
"BHP Billiton has disclosed the information the market needs to fully value the petroleum business. BHP Billiton's approach is to optimise the long term value of the Petroleum business through operating excellence."
As for the accusation that the company was not returning enough of its excess cashflow to shareholders, BHP pointed out that since 2001 it has returned roughly $23bn to shareholders via buybacks and approximately $56bn in cash dividends, having reduced the number of assets in the portfolio by more than one third since 2013 and cutting unit costs by more than 40%.
"Under BHP Billiton's updated dividend policy, shareholders now receive a minimum 50% of underlying earnings as a dividend each period. We have introduced a rigorous capital allocation framework, which balances value creation, cash returns to shareholders and through the cycle balance sheet strength in a transparent and consistent manner. In doing so, we have laid the foundations for the group to substantially grow the base value of its operations.
"Elliott's proposal would put this at risk."
Tesco said on Monday that the deferred prosecution agreement over false accounting between February and September 2014 entered into by its subsidiary, Tesco Stores Limited, has been approved by a court.
The agreement has been approved by high court Judge Brian Leveson and as detailed on 28 March, Tesco will pay a 129m fine to the SFO in exchange for not being prosecuted. This will now conclude the SFO's investigation.
The agreement only related to the potential criminal liability of Tesco Stores Limited and no other person, the company said.
Tesco is due to report its full-year results on Wednesday.
At 1545 BST, the shares were up 2.5% to 194.46p.
UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson has been criticised by officials in Russia after he cancelled a planned visit to Moscow due to increasing tensions in the Syrian conflict.
Last week the US targeted a missile attack on a Syrian airbase after president Bashar al-Assads regime reportedly used chemical weapons during an attack on rebel groups.
Ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers on Monday, Johnson cancelled the scheduled visit to Moscow, with the Kremlin responding with a scathing indictment of the UK's role in the conflict.
The foreign secretary said on Sunday that he was pulling out of the trip due to "Russias continued defence of the Assad regime."
Russias foreign ministry said that Johnson showed a "fundamental misunderstanding or lack of knowledge of the events in Syria, Russias efforts to settle that crisis and the general objectives of diplomacy".
"The decision to call off Johnsons visit to Moscow confirms once again doubts in the presence of added value in speaking to the UK, which does not have its own position on the majority of present-day issues, nor does it have real influence on the course of international affairs," the statement read.
The Russian embassy in London were also highly critical of the UK response, writing on Twitter that Johnsons cancellation of the meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov was "deplorable.
Meanwhile, Russias allies Iran and groups loyal to Assad have said that any further aggression from the US will lead to a forceful response.
"From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well," the group told media outlet Ilam al Harbi.
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Subscriber content preview
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON The U.S. jobs report for March delivered a mixed message Friday as hiring fell to its weakest pace in nearly a year. Yet at the same time, the unemployment rate reached the lowest level in nearly a decade.
Employers added just 98,000 jobs, the Labor Department said. That was barely half the previous month's gain and a potential sign of weakening growth. Yet economists largely downplayed the drop, attributing much of it to a snowstorm that hit the Midwest and Northeast just as the government was compiling its hiring data.
. . .
Radioactive water could go to Idaho
BOISE, Idaho (AP) Federal officials are considering approving a plan to truck 200,000 gallons of low-level radioactive waste water from a closed eastern U.S. nuclear power plant to Idaho.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this week said an environmental assessment found no significant impact to the environment in storing the radioactive waste about 40 miles south of Boise.
The contaminated water is from Entergy Nuclear Operations' Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vermont, which ceased operating in 2014.
The waste water would be trucked to US Ecology Idaho's site near Grand View in southwest Idaho.
The NRC says the plan requires an exemption because US Ecology Idaho doesn't have a license from the federal agency to store radioactive waste.
It's not clear when the NRC will issue its decision.
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ANCHORAGE (AP) The federal agency that oversees pipeline safety has ordered inspections and tests for an underwater pipeline that leaked crude oil into Alaska's Cook Inlet.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on Thursday issued the corrections order to Hilcorp Alaska LLC.
. . .
12th Indo-Mongolian Joint Military Exercise Nomadic Elephant held in Vairengte
Published: April 10, 2017
The twelfth edition Indo-Mongolian Joint Military Exercise Nomadic Elephant 2017 has begun at Vairengte in Mizoram. Vairengte houses Indian Armys elite Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School.
The first joint Nomadic Elephant was held in 2004 and since then it is annually held. It seeks to promote military associations between India and Mongolia.
Key Facts
The two week exercise (from 5 to 18 April 2017), is aimed at training the troops in Counter Insurgency & Counter Terrorism Operations (CICT Ops) under the United Nations mandate.
In this edition of exercise, Indian Army is represented by a contingent comprising of three officers, four JCOs and 39 soldiers of the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles.
While, Mongolian Army is represented by nine officers and 36 soldiers of the elite 084 Special Forces Task Battalion.
In this edition, both countries will lay emphasis on conducting operations by joint subunit, comprising of troops from both armies, in adverse operational conditions to enhancing interoperability between them.
It encompasses important aspects like convoy protection, room intervention drills, ambush/counter-ambush drills while jointly conducting counter-terrorist operations under the UN mandate.
Month: Current Affairs - April, 2017
Topics: Defence India-Mongolian Indian Military Exercises Military Exercises Mizoram National Nomadic Elephant Vairengte
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Agency website shows coal, fishing
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is back to picturing the great outdoors on its internet home page after raising eyebrows with a prominent photo of a huge coal deposit in Wyoming.
Some interpreted the image of the coal at Peabody's North Antelope Rochelle Mine as a sign of the Trump administration's support for coal.
On Friday, the BLM changed its lead website photo to a fly fisherman on the North Platte River in Wyoming. The river flows 50 miles south of the coal in the previous photo.
BLM officials say there's no link between the coal photo and President Donald Trump's recent lifting of coal-mining regulations.
A previous photo showed a man and boy outside with camping gear. BLM officials say they plan to change the website images weekly.
And You Shall Teach Your Children.
For some time Ive been interested in, and somewhat passionate about, Holocaust education. That was not always the case. I am Jewish and I was always aware that my maternal grandfathers family vanished without a trace during World War II. They were from Riga, Latvia and apparently, the Holocaust swallowed them up. No one could help the family find them, not the Red Cross, not any of the other organizations that assisted families after the war. This is tragic, but if Im to be honest, it wasnt an issue for me. I was a child, teenager, and a young adult who had issues to deal with in the here and now. As I continued to mature and went out into the world, the Holocaust started to become more of a topic for me. The more I saw, read, and experienced, the more I realized that this was a period of history that we could not allow to fade into oblivion.
Ive been privileged to participate in Holocaust remembrance ceremonies at several locations but the one that touched me the most was in Cheyenne, Wyoming where I met two survivors - a brother and sister who attended my synagogue. They didnt like discussing their experiences and declined requests to speak at remembrance events. Their quiet dignity, love of life and devotion to their faith told their story for them. The numbers on their arms spoke volumes. Arriving at Davis-Monthan, I again became involved in the annual remembrance events. I was excited to meet our local group of Holocaust survivors. It has become clearer and clearer that these people are an irreplaceable, priceless resource. They are, quite literally, living history and I need to hear their stories. I need to speak with them, to understand what they want me to know what they want all of us to know.
It is from this perspective, that of a Jew who just within the past 10 years has begun to fully grasp the magnitude of the Shoah and to appreciate its significance in todays world, that I agreed to write this article. Then it hit me, what was I to write about? Should I discuss the historical perspective? Volumes have been written about the war, the invasions, liberation of the concentration and death camps. Should I write about the modern-day implications and history repeating itself? Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur many among us cannot find them on a map but we know their names. Real world atrocities occurring during our own lifetimes. What about the rise of anti-Semitism and the specter of fear that it carries with it? Thats certainly worth discussing. What could I possibly say that hasnt already been said? How could I put my own spin on such an important topic?
What occurred to me is that it is not about finding a new way to present the facts. Its not about finding a different spin or a new moral to the story. Its about continuing to tell the story. We cannot let the voices of the past be silenced by ignorance or indifference. You shall teach it to your children and your childrens children. Paraphrased from the Bible, these words encourage us to continue the discussion, continue the education.
What is it that we need to be teaching to our children? History tells us that more than six million Jews were killed over the course what has come to be known as the Holocaust. That this destruction began slowly, as laws were passed stripping Jews of their rights. That this progressed to incidents like Kristallnacht, 9 November 1938, the Night of Broken Glass. On this night over 7500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, 267 synagogues were burned and numerous individuals were killed. Over time, ghettos were formed, disease and starvation ensued. Jews and others were arrested and sent to concentration, labor, and death camps as Hitlers machine implemented his final solution. All of these things are too terrible to believe but are not too terrible to have happened. Its hard to wrap our minds around the magnitude of the destruction and devastation.
Discussing the acts and events as simple statistics almost seems to trivialize them. This is not just data this happened to real people. To mothers and fathers, to children and the elderly, to the healthy and the infirm. What was it like to be violently separated from your family? For parents to tell their children not to wave goodbye because that gesture looked too similar to the Nazi salute. To lose everything you ever worked for, to lose your very identity. The Holocaust was not a murder of six million Jews, it was six million murders.
There are lessons to be gleaned from the devastation and sorrow. When survivors are asked what it is that they want current generations to know, the answers are as unique as the survivors themselves. Some discuss the danger of hatred, some warn of ignorance and indifference. Others encourage us to hold on to hope, to seek the good in people and the beauty in the world despite what they have seen and experienced. These are not only history lessons, they are life lessons.
The problem is that we are losing the teachers. It is estimated that there are fewer than 100,000 Jewish survivors world-wide. The number of those survivors who can still speak eloquently about their experiences is far fewer. The youngest of the survivors are now in their 70s. Sadly, it will not be very long before their voices are silenced. It would be an even greater tragedy if the histories, the lessons were lost as well. So, it falls to the next generation. It falls to us.
Each year we hold a Holocaust Remembrance here on Davis-Monthan. We study the history, we listen to the stories, we remember the dead, we honor the living and we say Never Again. If it is to be never again, it is incumbent upon each of us to take advantage of opportunities like these. We need to debate, discuss, build our own understanding and teach those who will follow. Do not miss the opportunity to hear the stories for yourself, to look into each survivors eyes as they remember and share. If you can bring your children, do it. You will all come away with a deeper understanding of history, with a stronger appreciation of the human spirit and with something to talk about.
On 24 April 2017, the 355th Fighter Wing will be hosting a Holocaust Day of Remembrance event at the Dove Chapel beginning at 1300 hours. The commemoration ceremony will honor and remember the many women, men and children who lost their lives.
For more information on the Holocaust please visit the Equal Opportunity SharePoint site at https://dm.eim.acc.hedc.af.mil/355FW/EO/Lists/Announcements/AllItems.aspx
or log on to the United States Holocaust Museum, www.ushmm.org
Globalization and the End of the Labor Aristocracy
By Jayati Ghosh | March/April 2017
This article is from Dollars & Sense: Real World Economics, available at http://www.dollarsandsense.org
This article is from the
March/April 2017 issue.
Twenty-first century imperialism has changed its form. In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it was explicitly related to colonial control; in the second half of the 20th century it relied on a combination of geopolitical and economic control deriving also from the clear dominance of the United States as the global hegemon and leader of the capitalist world (dealing with the potential threat from the Communist world). It now relies more and more on an international legal and regulatory architecturefortified by various multilateral and bilateral agreementsto establish the power of capital over labor. This has involved a grand bargain, no less potent for being implicit, between different segments of capital. Capitalist firms in the developing world gained some market access (typically intermediated by multinational capital) and, in return, large capital in highly developed countries got much greater protection and monopoly power, through tighter enforcement of intellectual property rights and greater investment protections.
These measures dramatically increased the bargaining power of capital relative to labor, globally and in every country. In the high-income countries, this eliminated the labor aristocracy first theorised by the German Marxist theorist Karl Kautsky in the early 20th century. The concept of the labor aristocracy derived from the idea that the developed capitalist countries, or the core of global capitalism, could extract superprofits from impoverished workers in the less developed periphery. These surpluses could be used to reward workers in the core, relative to those in the periphery, and thereby achieve greater social and political stability in the core countries. This enabled northern capitalism to look like a win-win economic system for capital and labor (in the United States, labor relations between the late 1940s and the 1970s, for example, were widely termed a capital-labor accord). Today, the increased bargaining power of capital and the elimination of the labor aristocracy has delegitimated the capitalist system in the rich countries of the global North.
Increasing inequality, the decline in workers incomes, the decline or absence of social protections, the rise of material insecurity, and a growing alienation from government have come to characterise societies in both developed and developing worlds. These sources of grievance have found political expression in a series of unexpected electoral outcomes (including the Brexit vote in the UK and the election of Trump in the United States). The decline of the labor aristocracyreally, its near collapsehas massive implications, as it undermines the social contract that made global capitalism so successful in the previous era. It was the very foundation of political stability and social cohesion within advanced capitalist countries, which is now breaking down, and will continue to break down without a drastic restructuring of the social and economic order. The political response to this decline has been expressed primarily in the rise of right-wing, xenophobic, sectarian, and reactionary political tendencies.
21st Century Imperialism
The early 21st century has been a weird time for imperialism. On the one hand, the phase of hyper-imperialismwith the United States as the sole capitalist superpower, free to use almost the entire world as its happy hunting groundis over. Instead, the United States looks significantly weaker both economically and politically, and there is less willingness on the part of other countries (including former and current allies, as well as those that may eventually become rival powers) to accept its writ unconditionally. On the other hand, the imperial overreach that was so evident in the Gulf Wars and sundry other interventions, in the Middle East and around the world, continues despite the decreasing returns from such interventions. This continued through the Obama presidency, and it is still an open question whether the Trump presidency will lead to a dramatic reduction of this overreach (isolationism) or merely a change in its direction.
Poorer than Our Parents? A recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute, Poorer than Their Parents? Flat or falling incomes in advanced economies (July 2016) shows how the past decade has brought significantly worse economic outcomes for many people in the developed world. Falling Incomes. In 25 advanced economies, 65-70% of households (540-580 million people) were in segments of the income distribution whose real incomes were flat or had fallen between 2005 and 2014. By contrast, between 1993 and 2005, less than 2 percent, or fewer than ten million people, experienced this phenomenon. In Italy, a whopping 97% of the population had stagnant or declining market incomes between 2005 and 2014. The equivalent figures were 81% for the United States and 70% for the United Kingdom. The worst affected were young people with low educational attainment and women, single mothers in particular. Todays younger generation in the advanced countries is literally at risk of ending up poorer than their parents, and in any case already faces much more insecure working conditions. Shifting Income Shares The McKinsey report noted that from 1970 to 2014, with the exception of a spike during the 197374 oil crisis, the average wage share fell by 5 percentage points in the six countries studied in depth (United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden); in the most extreme case, the United Kingdom, by 13 percentage points. These declines occurred despite rising productivity, suggesting a disconnect between productivity and incomes. Productivity gains were either grabbed by employers or passed on in the form of lower prices to maintain competitiveness. Declining wage shares are widely seen as results of globalization and technological changes, but state policies and institutional relations in the labor market matter. According to the McKinsey report. Swedish labor policies such as contracts that protect both wage rates and hours worked resulted in ordinary workers receiving a larger share of income. Countries that have encouraged the growth of part-time and temporary contracts experienced bigger declines in wage shares. According to European Union data, more than 40% of EU workers between 15 and 25 years have insecure and low-paying contracts. The proportion is more than half for the 18 countries in the Eurozone, 58% in France, and 65% in Spain. The other side of the coin is the rising profit shares in many of these rich countries. In the United States, for example, after-tax profits of U.S. firms measured as a share of the national income even exceeded the 10.1 percent level last reached in 1929. Policy Matters Government tax and transfer policies can change the final disposable income of households. Across the 25 countries studied in the McKinsey report, only 20-25% of the population experienced flat or falling disposable incomes. In the United States, government taxes and transfers turned a decline in market incomes for 81 percent of all income segments ... into an increase in disposable income for nearly all households. Government policies to intervene in labor markets also make a difference. In Sweden, the government intervened to preserve jobs, market incomes fell or were flat for only 20 percent, while disposable income advanced for almost everyone. In most of the countries examined in the study, government policies were not sufficient to prevent stagnant or declining incomes for a significant proportion of the population. Effects on Attitudes The deteriorating material reality is reflected in popular perceptions. A 2015 survey of British, French, and U.S. citizens confirmed this, as approximately 40% felt that their economic positions had deteriorated. The people who felt worse-off, and those who did not expect the situation to improve for the next generation, expressed negative opinions about trade and immigration. More than half of this group agreed with the statement, The influx of foreign goods and services is leading to domestic job losses. They were twice as likely as other respondents to agree with the statement, Legal immigrants are ruining the culture and cohesiveness in our society. The survey also found that those who were not advancing and not hopeful about the future were, in France, more likely to support political parties such as the far-right Front National and, in Britain, to support Brexit. Note: The report is based on a study of income distribution data from 25 developed countries; a detailed dataset with more information on 350,000 people from France, Italy and the United States and the UK; and a survey of 6,000 people from France, the United Kingdom and the United States that also checked for perceptions about the evolution of their incomes. Source: McKinsey Global Institute, Poorer than Their Parents? Flat or falling incomes in advanced economies, July 2016 (mckinsey.com). McKinsey Global Institute, Poorer than Their Parents? Flat or falling incomes in advanced economies, July 2016 (mckinsey.com).
The latter point is important, because there is little domestic political appetite in the United States for such imperial adventures, due to the high costs in terms of both government spending and the loss of lives of U.S. soldiers. The slogans that recently resonated with the U.S. electorate, such as that of making America great again were in that sense somewhat self-contradictorylooking towards an imagined past in which the American Dream could be fulfilled relatively easily (at least for some), without recognising that this was predicated upon the countrys global hegemony and far-flung empire. The global context of imperialism is a complex one, in which the contours shift constantly. Recent political changes in various countries of the North have meant that global strategic alliances are also much more fluid than at any time over the past half century. The most talked-about current examples are the changing attitude of the Trump administration towards the United States traditional enemy, Russia, and the complicated international politics emerging in Europe, with the Brexit vote and the emergence of right-wing political forces in a number of other European countries. But it is also evident in other parts of the world, notably in China, where traditional friends and foes are no longer so easily demarcated. Yet there is another sense in which the fundamentals of the imperialist process have not changed, even as the forms in which they are expressed are altered.
Defining imperialism broadly, as Lenin didas the complex intermingling of economic and political interests, related to the efforts of large capital to control economic territoryits clear that imperialism has not really declined at all. Rather, it has changed in form over the past half century, especially when we embrace a more expansive notion of what constitutes economic territory. Economic territory includes the more obvious forms such as land and natural resources, as well as labor. These are all still hugely contested: The wars for oil in the Middle East, the continuing attempts at land grabs in Africa, and the struggle over the fruits of extraction of natural resources in parts of Latin America and Asia all testify to this.
But the struggle over economic territory also encompasses the search for and effort to control new marketsdefined by both physical location and type of economic process. Understanding territory in this way helps us understand how imperialism is still very much alive and kicking, even though some of the more classic features (such as direct colonial control and annexations) are less in evidence.
One of the key aspects of recent capitalist dynamism has been its ability to create new forms of economic territory, bring them within the realm of capitalist economic relations, and therefore also subject them to imperialist control. Two forms of economic territory that are increasingly subject to capitalist organization and imperialist penetration today are 1) basic amenities and social services (earlier seen as the sole preserve of public provision) and 2) the generation and distribution of knowledge. A major feature of our times is the privatization of areas that, until recently, were generally accepted as public responsibilities. Basic amenities like electricity, water, and transportation infrastructure, and social services like health, sanitation, and education all fall into this category. Of course, the fact that these were seen as public duties does not mean that they were always fulfilled. Indeed, expanding public provision and access to high-quality public infrastructure and social services has only come about historically as the result of prolonged mass struggles. And issues of inequality in access have always existed. Nevertheless, the fact that provision is no longer necessarily in the public domain, and that private provision is increasingly seen as the norm, has opened up huge new markets for potentially profit-making activity. This has been a crucial way of maintaining demand, given the saturation of markets in many mature economies, and the inadequate growth of markets in poorer societies.
Opening up such markets has occurred through a combination of inadequate public provision and changes in economic policy to encourage private investment. The expansion of the global bottled water industry, for example, is partly a result of the failure of adequate public delivery of potable water. Meanwhile, global institutionsincluding formal organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as more informal bodies such as the World Economic Forumhave actively encouraged private investment in formerly public sectors. This is a more complicated expression of the imperialistic drive for control over economic territory than the direct annexation of geographic territory, but that does not make it any less consequential.
Another new form of economic territory, increasingly subject to imperialist penetration, relates to knowledge generation and dissemination. The privatization of knowledge and its concentration in fewer and fewer handsespecially through the creation and enforcement of new intellectual property rightshave become significant barriers to technology transfer and social recognition of traditional knowledge. This is evident in the case of access to medicines, even essential and life-saving drugs. Patents reward multinational companies, allowing them to monopolize production, set high prices, or demand high royalties. Similarly, control over seed patents, overwhelmingly held by multinational agribusinesses, has enabled monopoly control over crucial technologies for food cultivation across the world, even in the poorest societies. The cases of medicine and food are comparatively well known and highly controversial, but much the same is true for industrial technologies, as well as knowledge for mitigating and adapting to adverse environmental changes (themselves resulting from the production systems created by global capitalism).
Its not just that national and international institutional structures that should provide checks and balances to the privatization of knowledge are more fragile and less effective than they used to be. Rather, its that they are actively working in the opposite direction. The numerous trade agreements that have been signed across the world in recent years have been much less about trade liberalizationalready so extensive that there is little scope for further opening up in most sectorsand much more about protecting investment and strengthening monopolies generated by intellectual property rights.
International Economic Agreements
The past two decades have witnessed an explosion in the treaties, agreements, and other mechanisms whereby global capital imposes it rules upon governments and their citizenries. Unlike the conditions imposed on developing countries by the IMF and the World Bank, these rules apply even to countries that are not debtor-supplicants to international financial institutions. They require all countries to restrict their policies, though these restrictions are especially damaging to the prospects of autonomous economic development in the periphery of the world capitalist economy.
The Multilateral Trading System
In terms of the multilateral trading system, the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (signed off in 1994) moved to a single-tier system of rights and obligations, under which developing countries have to fully implement all rules and commitments. This was a quid pro quo for access to developed-country markets in agriculture, textiles, and clothingsectors that had previously been highly protected. This has constrained the possibilities for autonomous development in the peripheral countries, reducing the policy choices open to them and denying them some of the most important instruments that had been used by countries of the current capitalist core in their own industrialization.
For example, the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS) does not allow practices like local content specifications, designed to increase linkages between foreign investors and local manufacturers. The Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) not only allows for the concentration and privatization of knowledge as noted above, but also restricts reverse engineering and other forms of imitative innovation that have historically been used for industrialization. It has forced the extension of patent rights in many countries, allowing the patenting of life forms. Under this new property regime, a large and powerful multinational company can, for example, sue a poor small farmer in a developing country for setting aside part of the harvest as seed for the coming year, on the grounds that this violates the companys patent rights. The Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) prohibits subsidies that depend upon the use of domestic over imported goods, or that are conditional on export performance. Ongoing negotiations in the World Trade Organisation on Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) are currently proceeding on the basis of much deeper tariff cuts in developing countries, which will further deprive them of a crucial policy instrument to support their infant industries.
The Agreement on Agriculture (1995) contained fine print that effectively allowed the developed countries to continue the massive subsidization and protection of their own agriculture sectors (and agri-business interests), but prevented developing countries from doing even a small fraction of this. Most developing countries are allowed only subsidies of 10% or less, while most developed countries only have to reduce certain agricultural subsidies, while maintaining and even increasing some others. Developing countries (like India) that attempt to provide some protection to farmers and to ensure food security are coming up against constraints imposed by the agreement. All subsidies, even in developing countries, are measured in relation to 1986-88 prices, not current prices, so even low subsidies run afoul of the 10% limit. Instead of recognising the ridiculous nature of this clause, the developed countries are resisting any change and have only agreed to provide a Peace Clauseapplying only to certain countries and only for a limited period, preventing any case being brought to the dispute settlement panel of the WTO until the matter is finally resolved.
Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreements
However, if the WTO has constricted the policy space for developing countries, the many regional trade agreements of the past two decades have been even worse. There are nearly 400 such agreements in force, and they have become more comprehensive over the past twenty years. Most of these agreements, especially North-South agreements, tend to be WTO-plus (augmenting provisions already covered by the multilateral trading regime) or WTO-extra (containing provisions that go beyond current WTO rules). They often require reductions of actually applied tariffs, rather than of bound maximum tariff rates: Countries are forced to reduce tariffs from whatever level they happen to be at the moment, even if this is already below the upper limit. They demand more deregulation of trade in services. They require more stringent enforcement of intellectual property rights and reduce exemptions. For example, they allow compulsory licensing of medicines for generic (lower-cost) production only in emergencies. They also prohibit parallel imports (purchases of needed medicines from countries with cheaper production because they have used compulsory licensing). These agreements extend intellectual property rights to areas like life forms, extend exclusive rights to test data, and make intellectual property rights provisions more detailed and prescriptive. They forbid technology-transfer and knowledge-transfer requirements, as well as conditions on the nationality of senior personnel, as conditions for access to a countrys markets. They also enter into a range of areas that the WTO still leaves open to individual countries policy choices, such as antitrust policy, rules on investment and capital movement, government procurement, environmental standards, and even labor mobility. Further, unlike the WTO, most regional trade agreements do not provide exceptions to countries in cases of serious balance-of-payments problems or other external financial difficulties.
In addition, there are more than 4,000 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in force in the world. These are all about protecting and promoting private investment of all types, and effectively privileging the rights of investors over the rights of citizens in the host country. There is typically a very broad, asset-based definition of investment that includes foreign direct investment (FDI), some types of investment in stocks, purchases of real estate, and even intellectual property rights. There is also a very strong and expansive view on what constitutes expropriation of assets for which investors can demand compensation. It is not only outright nationalization of assets that can be interpreted as expropriation, but also all sorts of government regulation (even for environmental or labor protection) as well as taxes. So for example, in Mexico, companies that have polluted municipal water suppliesand therefore been ordered to stop production until they can prevent such pollutionhave successfully claimed damages for the associated losses. Other companies have won cases under BITs when governments have imposed higher taxes on their profits.
Both bilateral and, increasingly, regional agreements are subject to dispute settlement mechanisms, both between states and between an investor and a state, that are highly arbitrary, opaque to public scrutiny, and generally pro-investor in their judgments. Since they are legally based on equal treatment of legal persons with no primacy for human rights, they have become known for their pro-investor bias. This is partly due to the incentive structure for arbitrators, since there is a lucrative revolving door for legal experts between serving as arbitrators and as legal advisors for corporations. And it is partly because the system is designed to provide additional guarantees to investors, rather than making them respect host countries laws and regulations.
Similarly, the rules governing international finance and debt work in ways that reinforce the unequal global power relations between large capital and people across the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the legal structures governing sovereign (national government) debt. The lack of any coherent system to deal with debt default and to enable the restructuring of sovereign debt has led to situations in which countries and their populations are bled dry over years and even decades. Austerity measures that reduce public spending on social essentials are forced upon unwilling societies. Developing countries have known this for some time, but some developed countries (such as crisis-ridden economies of the European periphery, like Greece and Spain) are now experiencing the same.
Countries that somehow manage to restructure debt or that unilaterally decide to renege on some patently unfair debt taken on in the past are punished. Under the systems governing international debt, entire national populations lack even the minimum conditions of debt workout that are routinely accorded to individual and corporate debtors within national legal systems. Here, too, legal proceedings tend to be biased towards investors and show little recognition of the minimum rights of the citizenry in affected countries. (Take, for example, the travails that the government of Argentina currently faces in U.S. courts, in lawsuits brought by financial vulture funds.) This is another way in which contemporary imperialism is expressed.
Structures of Global Production and Trade
The PPP Problem The newly emerging economies are often thought to be more significant than they are, in part, because many analyses compare incomes across different countries based not on nominal exchange rates, but rather on purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. PPP exchange rates seek to establish the relative purchasing power of each currency in terms of prices of a common basket of commodities. The results, however, can be quite dubious, as they are based on the price of a basket of representative consumption goods in the United States, which may not be so relevant to consumption elsewhereespecially not the poor in the developing world. The basket of goods is unchanging over time, even though consumption patterns tend to shift with technological change and evolving preferences. PPP exchange rates are also notoriously imperfect because of the infrequency and unsystematic nature of the price surveys that are used to derive them. In general, the countries where the PPP exchange rate is much higher than the nominal exchange rate are low-income countries with low average wages. It is precisely because a significant section of the workforce receives very low compensation that goods and services are available more cheaply than in countries where the majority of workers receives higher wages. Using PPP-modified GDP data may miss the point, by treating the poverty of the majority of wage earners in an economy as an economic advantage.
It is often argued that the rise of new powersespecially China, but also India, Brazil and othersmeans that the concept of imperialism is no longer valid. Yet the imperialist phase of capitalism has always been characterised by the emergence of new kids on the block, some of which have gone on to become neighborhood bullies. At the time when Lenin wrote his famous pamphlet Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, a century ago, the emergence of the United States as the dominant global power was far from evident. Lenins claim that, during the imperialist phase of capitalism, the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed is the weakest link in his argument, and one which was belied almost immediately. The United States, which was then only a minor player compared to the major European powers, emerged to dominate the world scene from the second half of the 20th century on. The rise of Japan in the second half of the 20th century by no means signified a weakening of imperialist power generally; it merely necessitated a more complicated assessment of such power.
The recent emergence of China is being interpreted as a sign that the global economic landscape is completely transformed. It is true that the growing weight of China in world trade and investment has had major effects: China has become the biggest source of manufactured-goods imports for most countries, changed the terms of trade and volume of exports for many primary-product (agricultural and mineral raw materials) producing countries, and brought more countries into manufacturing value chains. It is true, also, that Chinese capital has become a significant player in the ongoing struggle for control over economic territory across the world.
Yet there are dangers of exaggerating its current significance. Even now, China accounts for less than 9% of global output (constant 2005 U.S. dollars, nominal exchange rates); its per capita GDP is less than half (around 45%) of the global average, and still just fraction of the average for the economies of the imperialist core. In relative terms, China remains a poor country. Many of the hyperbolic mainstream analyses and predictions with respect to China are eerily similar to the predictions for Japan in the 1970s, as an emerging giant soon to take over the role of global economic leadership from the United States.
A similar point can be made even more forcefully for other nations that have been ecstatically described as emerging economies, supposedly proving that forces of imperialism are no hindrance to the rise of developing countries. Taken together, however, the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) account for less than 15% of world GDP, even though their share of global population is just under 50%. Announcing these countries as new global powers is very premature, especially when global institutional structures are still very much tilted in favor of the established powers.
All this does not mean that there have been no changes in global economic and political power: there have been and will continue to be significant and even transformative changes. However, these changes in the relative positions of different countries on the economic and geopolitical ladder do not mean that the basic imperialistic tendencies that drive the global system have disappearedindeed, they may even become more intense as the struggle for economic territory becomes more acute.
This is particularly evident in the global spread of multinational corporations and their new methods of functioning, particularly with the geographic disintegration of production. Technological changesadvances in shipping and container technology that dramatically reduced transport times and costs, as well as the information technology revolution that enabled the breakdown of production into specific tasks that could be geographically separatedhave been critical to this process. Together, they made possible the emergence of global value chains, which are typically dominated by large multinational corporations, but involve networks of both competing and cooperating firms. The giant corporations are not necessarily in direct control of all operations. Indeed, the ability to transfer direct control over productionas well as the associated risksto lower ends of the value chain is an important element in increasing their profitability. This adds a greater intensity to the exploitation that can be unleashed by such global firms, because they are less dependent upon workers and resources in any one location, can use competition between suppliers to push down their prices and conditions of production, and are less burdened by national regulations that might reduce their market power.
This transformation has therefore given rise to what has been called the Smiling Curve of exchange values and profits. Value added and profits are concentrated in the pre-production (such as product design) and post-production (marketing and branding) phases of a value chain. These now provide immense economic rents to the global corporations that dominate them, due to the intellectual property monopolies these corporations enjoy. The case of Apple phones is now well known: the actual producers in China (both companies and workers) earn only about one-tenth of the final price of the good; the rest is taken by Apple for product design, marketing, and distribution. The producers of coffee beans across the developing world earn a tiny percentage of the price of coffee, in contrast to the high profits of a multinational chain like Starbucks. Small farmers and laborers growing cocoa beans earn next to nothing, compared to the leading sellers of chocolate, all of which are Northern companies. The economic rents associated with the pre- and post-production phases have been growing in recent years. Meanwhile, the production phase, from which workers and small producers mainly derive their incomes, is exposed to cutthroat competition between different production sites across the world, thanks to trade and investment liberalization. Therefore, incomes generated in this stage of the value chain are kept low.
The overall result is twofold. First, this has resulted in an increase in the supply of the global labor force (workers and small producers who are directly engaged in production of goods and services). Second, the power of corporations to capture rentsfrom control of knowledge, from oligopolistic/monopolistic market structures, or from the power of finance capital over state policyhas greatly increased. Overall, this has meant a dramatic increase in the bargaining power of capital relative to labor, which in turn has resulted in declining wage shares (as a percentage of national income) in both developed and developing countries.
Implications for Workers
These processes imply worsening material conditions, for most workers, in both the periphery and the core. Imperialism has generally weakened the capacity for autonomous development in the global South, and worsened economic conditions for workers and small producers there, so that is not altogether surprising. The growth of employment and wages in China is as a break from that pattern and an example of some benefits of global integration, at least for a subset of working people in the developing world. The beneficiaries, however, remain a minority of the workers in the global South. In other countries generally seen as success stories of globalization, like India, the economic realities for most people are much bleaker.
The more obviousand potentchange that has resulted from this phase of global imperialism has been the decline of the labor aristocracy in the North. The opening of trade, and with it a global supply of labor, meant that imperialist-country capital was no longer as interested in maintaining a social contract with workers in the home country. Instead, it could use its greater bargaining power to push for ever-greater shares of national income everywhere it operated. This was further intensified by the greater power of mobile finance capital, which was also able to increase its share of income as well. In the advanced economies at the core of global capitalism, this process (which began in the United States in the 1990s) was greatly intensified during the global boom of the 2000s, when median workers wages stagnated and even declined in the global North, even as per capita incomes soared. The increase in incomes, therefore, was captured by stockholders, corporate executives, financial rentiers, etc.
The political fallout of this has now become glaringly evident. Increasing inequality, stagnant real incomes of working people, and the increasing material fragility of daily life have all contributed to a deep dissatisfaction among ordinary people in the rich countries. While even the poor among them are still far better off than the vast majority of people in the developing world, their own perceptions are quite different, and they increasingly see themselves as the victims of globalization. Decades of neoliberal economic policies have hollowed out communities in depressed areas and eliminated any attractive employment opportunities for youth. Ironically, in the United States this favored the political rise of Donald Trump, who is himself emblematic of the plutocracy.
Similar tendencies are also clearly evident in Europe. Rising anti-EU sentiment has been wrongly attributed only to policies allowing in more migrants. The hostile response to immigration is part of a broader dissatisfaction related to the design and operation of the EU. For years now, it has been clear that the EU has failed as an economic project. This stems from the very design of the economic integrationflawed, for example, in the enforcement of monetary integration without banking union or a fiscal federation that would have helped deal with imbalances between EU countriesas well as from the particular neoliberal economic policies that it has forced its members to pursue.
This has been especially evident in the adoption of austerity policies across the member countries, remarkably even among those that do not have large current-account or fiscal deficits. As a result, growth in the EU has been sclerotic at best since 2004, and even the so-called recovery after 2012 has been barely noticeable. Even this lacklustre performance has been highly differentiated, with Germany emerging as the clear winner from the formation of the Eurozone. Even large economies like France, Italy, and Spain experienced deteriorating per capita incomes relative to Germany from 2009 onwards. This, combined with fears of German domination, probably added to the resentment of the EU that is now being expressed in both right-wing and left-wing movements across Europe. The unions misguided emphasis on neoliberal policies and fiscal austerity packages has also contributed to the persistence of high rates of unemployment, which are higher than they were more than a decade ago. The new normal therefore shows little improvement from the period just after the Great Recessionthe capitalist world economy may no longer be teetering on the edge of a cliff, but that is because it has instead sunk into a mire.
It is sad but not entirely surprising that the globalization of the workforce has not created a greater sense of international solidarity, but rather undermined it. Quite obviously, progressive solutions cannot be found within the existing dominant economic paradigm. But reversions to past ideals of socialism may not be all that effective either. Rather, this new situation requires new and more relevant economic models of socialism to be developed, if they are to capture the popular imagination. Such models must transcend the traditional socialist paradigms emphasis on centralized government control over an undifferentiated mass of workers. They must incorporate more explicit emphasis on the rights and concerns of women, ethnic minorities, tribal communities, and other marginalised groups, as well as recognition of ecological constraints and the social necessity to respect nature. The fundamental premises of the socialist project, however, remain as valid as ever: The unequal, exploitative and oppressive nature of capitalism; the capacity of human beings to change society and thereby alter their own futures; and the necessity of collective organisation to do so.
is professor of economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Parts of this article appeared in The Creation of the New Imperialism: The Institutional Architecture, Monthly Review, July 2015.
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Anglo American to sell South African thermal coal operations for $166 mn
Diversified miner Anglo American plc today said that it has agreed to sell its thermal coal operations in South Africa to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seriti Resources Holdings Proprietary Ltd (Seriti), a company majority owned by historically disadvantaged South Africans (HDSAs), for $166 million.
The Eskom-tied domestic thermal coal operations consist of the New Vaal, New Denmark and Kriel collieries, as well as four closed collieries.
The transaction will result in Seriti becoming the second largest provider of thermal coal to Eskom, South Africa's sole power utility, which has paid for the mines running costs in exchange for coal supply at a pre-set price.
Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglo American, said,: "We are pleased to have agreed the sale of our Eskom-tied domestic thermal coal operations in South Africa. This transaction forms part of our ongoing commitment to reshape and upgrade our global asset portfolio, recognising appropriate value and further demonstrating Anglo American's longstanding support for the development and sustainability of South Africa's mining industry."
Mike Teke, CEO of Seriti, said, "The Transaction allows Seriti to achieve its strategic objective of preserving and operating strategic energy assets for the benefit of South Africa and its people. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals in South Africa, as well as Eskom's consent for the transfer to Seriti of the coal supply agreements which govern the operations' supply of coal to Eskom.
Anglo American had last year said that it would divest assets worth around $4 billion in order to cut net debt to under $10 billion by the end of the year and also focus on copper, platinum and diamonds.
The London-based miner had posted a $5.6-billion full-year loss in 2015 and credit ratings agencies Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's cut the company's rating to junk in February.
Last year, it exited Brazil by selling its niobium and phosphates assets to China Molybdenum for $1.5 billion in cash and also agreed to sell its 70-per cent stake in the Foxleigh metallurgical coal mine in Queensland, Australia to a consortium led by Taurus Fund Management.
A Russian computer programmer, Pyotr Levashov, has been arrested in the Spanish city of Barcelona, apparently in connection with hacking during the US presidential election.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Madrid confirmed Levashov's arrest on Sunday, but left it unclear why Levashov was arrested. The embassy spokesman declined to give details for his arrest, and Spanish police and the interior ministry were not immediately available for comment.
Russian television station RT reported that Levashov was arrested under a US international arrest warrant and was suspected of being involved in hacking attacks linked to alleged interference in last year's US election.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for the US Justice Department's criminal division, said, "The US case remains under seal, so we have no information to provide at this time."
The criminal division is separate from the national security division, which is responsible for investigating state-sponsored cyber crimes.
A US Department of Justice official said it was a criminal matter without an apparent national security connection.
Spanish authorities notified the Russian embassy of Levashov's arrest on Friday, the embassy spokesman said.
In January, Spanish police arrested another Russian computer programmer, whose name was given as "Lisov" and who was wanted by the United States for leading a financial fraud network.
The US government has formally accused Russia of hacking Democratic Party emails to help the campaign of Republican President Donald Trump. The US Congress is also examining links between Russia and Trump during the election campaign.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied that Russia tried to influence the election.
Transition year students from two Donegal schools are set to benefit greatly from a new training intitiative in the LYIT School of Tourism in Killybegs.
Forty transition year students in the Abbey Vocational School in Donegal Town and St. Columbas College in Stranorlar will take part in a new training programme, which is funded by Donegal County Council (DCC).
Following consultation with the tourism industry it showed that a significant number of senior cycle second level students are employed in tourism/hospitality enterprises on a seasonal/part-time basis and the majority of the students do not received industry specific training and in many cases have a low level of awareness of tourism product knowledge and service skills.
This training programme, will be delivered by LYITs School of Tourism in Killybegs to transition year students one day per week over a four week period.
The programme will address the issues which were raised by industry and stakeholders by focusing on training introduction to the tourism industry and the tourism product in County Donegal with specific focus on regional food, crafts and tourism activities along our section of the Wild Atlantic Way. It will also look at restaurant service with an introduction to food hygiene and food handling and customer care within the tourism sector.
Like other service sectors, hospitality careers are often stereotyped as low-wage and entry-level with little opportunity for advancement. Consequently, qualified workers, especially youth, are unaware of the range of hospitality careers available. With the hospitality industry's growth rate increasing, the importance of finding good employees, especially youth workers, is a high priority. The diverse range of activities offered by our tourism industry provides excellent job opportunities for people with varied skills and educational backgrounds. Jobs will be plentiful for first-time job seekers and seasonal workers.
The Chief Executive of DCC, Seamus Neely, said: "The launch of the Wild Atlantic Way marketing initiative by Failte Ireland in 2014 has seen increased visitor numbers to Donegal and is delivering significant benefits to our tourism sector. This project will compliment this initiative by focusing on training and up skilling our young seasonal workforce and giving them vital skills that will enable them to succeed in obtaining work in the sector."
The Cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council, Terence Slowey said: "This year alone, Donegal has increased its global brand, particularly with being named the Coolest Place on the Planet by National Geographic so training is more important now than ever because the Hospitality & Tourism industry today, according to Failte Ireland, is one of Irelands growing industries. The availability of a seasonal workforce is very welcome and vital to the trade; however, there is concern in relation to the low levels of training amongst this group as they are employed primarily in customer/tourist interfacing-service roles. This is why Donegal County Council is delighted to be in a position to fund this training and while this will initially be offered on a pilot basis to two schools we hope this can be expanded upon in future."
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Donegal TD Pearse Doherty has challenged the Taoiseach in the Dail to clarify when the government will publish the long awaited revised planning guidelines for wind turbine developments
Deputy Doherty raised the case of communities in the Finn Valley where residents campaigned successfully against proposals to build a large scale wind farm only to face proposals to construct a similar project just a few months later.
He said Programme for Government talks about the governments awareness of the distress and the divisions in communities where wind farms are being imposed on them against the will of the people.
And you pledge, and as a matter of urgency in fact, you state in the programme for Government to update the planning guidelines within three to six months.
He said there is more distress and more division in those communities, he said. than ever, and they are asking when will government ever get off their hands and publish the guidelines that it promised to publish ten months ago.
In my own community in Donegal, in the Finn Valley theyve already mobilised and defeated a wind farm application which would have imposed a major wind farm very close to residential premises.
Now were seeing that theres a second wave of applications coming in for the same type of proposal and they are looking for the government to protect them.
Nobody is against renewable energy. Nobody is against development. And no one is against infrastructure, but what people are against is when these type of developments are imposed in communities against their will and in very close proximity to individuals where there are ample other opportunities for them to be sited.
Taoiseach, can you give clarity to communities in the Finn Valley, and right across this state who are looking for the government to fulfill that commitment that it gave to communities in the programme for government ten months ago?
Parliament passes Constitution (SCs) order (Amendment) Bill, 2017
Published: April 10, 2017
Parliament has passed the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill 2017 after it was passed by Rajya Sabha. It was already passed by Lok Sabha in March 2017.
The Bill seeks to amends the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and the Constitution (Pondicherry) Scheduled Castes Order, 1964.
Key Provisions
Modify the list of SCs for Odisha: It makes castes Sualgiri, Swalgiri as synonyms to the Sabakhia caste in the list of SCs for the state.
It makes castes Sualgiri, Swalgiri as synonyms to the Sabakhia caste in the list of SCs for the state. Modification of name of Pondicherry: It modifies name of the Union Territory of Pondicherry to Puducherry by incorporating changes in the Constitution (Pondicherry) Scheduled Castes Order, 1964.
Background
Article 341 of the Constitution empowers the President to specify the Scheduled Castes in various states and UTs. Further, it permits Parliament to modify this list.
Month: Current Affairs - April, 2017
Topics: amendments Constitution Scheduled Castes Order National Odisha Parliament Schedule Castes
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A family member of one of the soldiers killed in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing in London is planning to sue a former suspect in the incident, who now lives in Donegal.
The daughter of one of the men killed has launched a High Court civil action against John Downey, who lives in Creeslough.
Mr Downey was arrested in 2013 at Gatwick Airport and charged with the murder of four soldiers. He walked free when his trial at The Old Bailey collapsed in 2014.
He denied the charges against him and the case was stopped after it emerged during the trial that British government officials had sent Mr Downey a letter in 2007 telling him he was no longer a wanted man.
Sarahjane Young, daughter of British soldier Jeffrey Young, has filed a civil claim at London's High Court against Mr Downey, it has been reported.
In a campaign backed by The Sun newspaper, they are calling on people to make donations for her to take the civil action after she was refused legal aid.
Her campaign is also being backed by Mark Tipper, whose older brother was also killed in the bombing.
The car bomb in South Carriage Drive, London, killed four soldiers - Roy Bright, 36, Dennis Daly, 23, Simon Tipper, 19, and Jeffrey Young, 19, as they rode through Hyde Park to the Changing of the Guard.
Seven horses were also killed in the attack.
A front-end crash Friday afternoon left three injured. At least one victim remains in critical condition as of Monday afternoon.
The accident occurred just south of the Chewalla Bridge on North Eufaula Avenue around 2 p.m. Friday.
Eufaula Police report that a 2002 Ford F-150 pickup, driven by 50-year-old Robert Andrew Wright of Eufaula, was traveling north on Eufaula Avenue when it crossed through the median cut through and struck a 2013 Chrysler 2000 that was traveling south. The driver of the Chrysler has been identified by police as Kimette P. Grice, 45, of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Her passenger was identified as Leroy L. Coates, 46, of Detroit Michigan.
Kimettes daughter, Ashleigh Blanton, told the Tribune her mother and Coates were traveling through Eufaula on her way to Panama City Beach, Florida when the accident occurred.
Grice and Coates were trapped inside the Chrysler and had to be extricated using the jaws of life by the Eufaula Fire Department. Wright was also trapped as the pickup rolled over on its side. He was taken by air ambulance to Montgomery. Grice was air lifted to a hospital in Dothan with serious injuries, and Coates was taken to Medical Center Barbour initially for treatment and later airlifted to another hospital.
Blanton said both of her moms legs were broken. Her right foot and left arm were broken. She had a cracked pelvis and a bleed on her brain. Initially on life support, she was removed from a ventilator on Monday morning, according to police. Grice remains in stable but critical condition.
As of Monday afternoon, Wright had been released from the hospital. Coates was in stable condition, as well.
Ashleigh Blanton started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her moms medical expenses and recovery due to her having no health insurance at the time of the accident.
She was due to start a new job Monday and now thats nowhere near possible, said Blanton on the GoFundMe page. She told the Tribune, I am a 25 year old mom with three kids. I need community support...Prayers are needed from around the world.
Eufaula Police Chief Steve Watkins said they are still investigating the accident and have asked for medical toxicology reports on both drivers but as of Monday afternoon the EPD had not received them.
Watkins said he has also requested the State to pull the computers from both vehicles so they can determine how fast each was traveling at the time of the accident.
Their investigation is ongoing.
Following an investigation by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), Owen McElroy Limited of Carrickrobin, Kilkerley, Dundalk, Co. Louth was before Dundalk District Court on 6 April 2017. The company, who operate a road transport business, pleaded guilty to a series of charges for failing to produce drivers hours records in respect of several vehicles operated by the company.
The Court convicted and fined the company a total of 10,000 in respect of the charges and also made an award of costs. The RSA investigation revealed serious and systematic non-compliance by this road transport operator in ensuring compliance with the European Communities (Road Transport)( Working Conditions and Road Safety) Regulations 2008.
Since February 2011, the RSA has successfully prosecuted thirty eight cases against both road transport operators and drivers for breaches of drivers hours, tachograph and road transport operator licensing laws in County Louth.
EU Regulations require operators to organise and monitor drivers work and the clear purpose of the regulations is to place a responsibility on an employer of drivers to prevent contraventions of the drivers hours rules and to promote road safety.
The EU tachograph and drivers hours rules are designed to protect against driver fatigue and to protect the travelling public. The existence of the tachograph and drivers hours regulations and the detailed requirements designed to promote road safety, are widely known by employers of Heavy Good Vehicles (HGV) drivers. Non-compliance with the drivers hours regulations results in driver fatigue which is a contributory factor to 1 in 5 driver deaths in Ireland. Operators in breach of drivers hours requirements are profiting from undercutting compliant operators, contributing to unfair competition in the road haulage industry and are a serious cause of concern from a road safety perspective.
The RSA is working hard to make our roads safer. A more targeted approach towards enforcement is being implemented and those operators who are serially and seriously non-compliant are being targeted by the Authority and An Garda Siochana. The Authority tries to minimise disruption to the most compliant operators. A stepped approach to enforcement is applied by the RSA and only the most serious cases are taken to Court.
As workforces become more and more geographically dispersed, organisations need to support distributed collaboration (i.e. the ability for people to work together as a team remotely) to survive, according to Jeff Rodman, co-founder of multinational video collaboration company Polycom.
Rodman told Dynamic Business that the impact of digital transformation, including the shift from away traditional offices to open, technology-enabled environments, has meant that in order to remain competitive, businesses of all sizes need to rethink their workspaces and culture. In particular, he said businesses need to adopt new ways of working that facilitate and accelerate collaboration: Its is a key driver of productivity in that it enables staff to leverage one anothers resources, spot one anothers errors, divide work more efficiently, and produce more total output in a shorter time.
Noting the increasing use of contractors by organisations, globally, as well as the growing demand for flexible working conditions amongst workers, Rodman said distributed collaboration is transforming from a nice to have option into a survival tool for businesses.
Companies that are slow to adopt and support a work-from-anywhere approach will not to put too fine a point on it fade, sooner or later, he said.
What companies need to keep in mind is that getting the most (and the best) output from their workers not the most hours clocked is the goal. Giving people the flexibility to work how and where they feel most effective brings creativity and natural communication back into focus. So, whether its from an armchair or from a standing desk, an agile and flexible workplace is about creating the right environment for individuals and teams to work together to deliver great results.
Rodman said that while innovation is a key to efficient collaboration in the digitally-transformed workplace, it does not necessarily need to originate from within all companies.
Rather than inventing solutions outside your core business, the best strategy is most often to adopt innovative solutions that already exist, he said. Guidelines to help businesses manage the distributed workplace are already available as are the relevant technologies, such as video collaboration. Find the best breed and make it your friend. If you have a special need, talk to vendors and find out if there is a version that will meet it. What companies find is that their attitudes, policies or culture (not the technology) are the areas most in need of innovation and that happens internally. In this regard, corporates can learn from the example of start-ups and SMEs, which are poving collaboration is extremely easy, even natural.
Asked for an example of an Australian organisation that is leading the way in terms of distributed collaboration, Rodman nominated MYOB (Mind Your Own Business).
They started from a home office, and have created a dynamic Workplace of the Future built on the premise of agile working and innovation, he said. Every day, over 200 engineers and developers across Australia and the wider ANZ region, meet to share code, create software, and do the numerous tasks needed to keep MYOB humming. What is so phenomenal about their use of technology is that it is not confined to any one meeting room or space instead, developers and employees are free to walk up to a mobile cart, wheel it to their preferred space and instantly collaborate. No meeting rooms to be booked, no calendar appointments necessary, and these creative minds are enabled to exchange ideas and plans as they require!
As well as highlighting the importance of distributed collaboration, Rodman also spoke about the value, to start-ups, of implementing a big vision in small bites as well as the process of converting blue sky ideas into value for users.
Big vision, small bites: I really believe theres a big advantage in starting small in fact, Polycom, which I co-founded in 1990, first took root in a San Francisco basement! Its valuable to have a big vision (almost essential if you want to grow big) but it has to be implemented in smaller bites you can fully understand and readily manage. This includes retaining the ability to work in small groups, including individuals, rather than falling back on the 1900s vision of a big building with everyone tethered inside. What weve demonstrated, as have many other organisations, is that big ideas can grow from small spaces merely by providing the flexibility and tools for people to connect, share, and come together as teams. Innovation comes in many shapes and forms. Sometimes the best ideas start from something really small.Start-ups arent normally lathered in cash at the outset, and keeping individual tasks and projects smaller is a very good way to maintain a tight grip on quality, productivity, and cash. its just so easy to lose sight of why small things matter and the difference they make in business and in life. When you are building a company, dont focus on how much money you can make and how quickly you can double that money. Focus on how to make your product twice as good as it is and meeting market needs twice as well. If you do that, success will come organically.
First UK rail freight service to China to depart
Published: April 10, 2017
The first rail freight service from United Kingdom to China departed from Essex. Earlier the first freight train in the opposite direction, from China to UK had arrived in London in January 2017.
The train service was launched as part of Chinas ambitious One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative that aims to revive the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West dating back more than 2,000 years.
Key Facts
The 30 containers train carrying British goods including pharmaceuticals will travel over 7,500 miles to reach Yiwu (China), a famed wholesale market town in the eastern province of Zhejiang in 17 days.
The train during the journey will pass through seven countries France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan before reaching final destination in China .
before reaching final destination in . The operators have mentioned that the rail transportation between UK and China is cheaper than by air and faster than by sea.
About Chinas One Belt and One Road (OBOR) Initiative
OBOR initiative is Chinas ambitious development strategy and framework that aims to boost its connectivity and trade across Asia, Africa and Europe.It was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. It has been launched as part of Chinas revived 21st century Silk Road diplomacy that seeks to push it to take a bigger role in global affairs as a major global power. It is basically investment and trade promotion scheme aiming to deepen economic connections between China and rest of the world. It comprises two components viz. the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
Month: Current Affairs - April, 2017
Topics: China-UK Freight Train International OBOR
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Address to mark the launch of the new 50 banknote
Welcome address by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, at an event marking the issuance of the new 50 banknote, Frankfurt am Main, 4 April 2017
It is my pleasure to be here this afternoon to launch the new 50 banknote. This is the culmination of a huge amount of research and dedication from my colleagues in the ECB and the Eurosystem, and I applaud them for producing another first-rate product. Although banknotes may not receive as much attention as other aspects of our monetary policy, they are a fundamental part of what we do. And in some ways their role is even more important in the euro area than in other parts of the world.
Though electronic payments are becoming more popular, cash is still our most important means of payment. A soon-to-be-published survey on cash use, carried out on behalf of the ECB, shows that over three-quarters of all payments at points-of-sale in the euro area are made in cash. In terms of transaction values, thats slightly more than half. So even in this digital age, cash remains essential in our economy.
And this is particularly the case for the 50 note, which is our most important denomination. There are more than 9 billion of them in circulation, accounting for 46% of all euro banknotes. Thats more than the total number of banknotes issued at the time of the euro cash introduction in 2002.
So its clear that, for the economy to function, people must be able to have trust in cash it has to be robust, easy to check and readily available. And perhaps most importantly, it has to be secure: we need to stay ahead of counterfeiters, who might undermine the publics trust in money. This is why we always put innovation at the heart of our banknote development and strive to use the latest and most efficient banknote technology.
The new 50 note, for example, incorporates all the improved security features of the new 20 note, making it even more resistant to counterfeiting than the first series. It is also more user-friendly for visually impaired people, thanks to bolder large letters and numbers on the front and tactile marks near the edges.
And in order to ensure that the public is familiar with the new note, the Eurosystem has conducted a wide-ranging communication campaign, aiming to reach its audiences via multiple channels. This has given our stakeholders the necessary information about the banknote and its security features.
But there is also another reason why banknotes are a fundamental part of what we do one which is more significant for the euro area than for others. In a multi-country union such as ours, it is inevitably harder to create a shared identity than in a single nation state with its own culture and history. The euro is something we all have in common it is a tangible symbol of European unity.
Holding a euro banknote and knowing that it can be used in 19 countries is a reminder of the deep integration Europe has attained. Indeed, when asked about the most important elements of European identity, the single currency is the one most frequently quoted by euro area citizens after democracy and freedom. And in spite of the difficulties in recent years, support for the single currency now stands at 70%, equalling the highs recorded in the pre-crisis period.
With the collaboration of the national central banks, credit institutions and banknote equipment manufacturers, hundreds of thousands of machines and devices have been updated during the last nine months, meaning that starting today the new 50 banknote is available.
Given the events over the past two months with the ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency, I dont need to tell you that our progressive values are under daily assault. With blue states like Michigan under total Republican domination, it goes without saying that we are all feeling the brunt of their anti-women, anti-worker, anti-public schools, anti-government attacks on the things we believe are bedrock values in America.
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Following WikiLeaks publication earlier this week of classified documents stolen from the CIA, major technology companies, including Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Cisco, have been scrambling to assess the risks posed to their customers by the revelations.
The so-called Vault 7 leak includes information about methods and tools the CIA crafted to hack into products produced by those companies.
Apples initial analysis reportedly showed that many of the issues identifed in iOS already were patched in the latest version of the software.
In addition methods of hacking iPhones, the WikiLeaks documents pointed to ways the CIA might exploit Windows PCs, Android phones and Samsung smart TVs.
Google reportedly expressed confidence that existing security protections in Chrome and Android shield their users from many of the vulnerabilities identified in the WikiLeaks dump.
Both Samsung and Microsoft reportedly said they were investigating the impact of the leaks.
Routers and Linux Targeted
Other targets of CIA hacking included Cisco and the Linux operating system, according to the Vault 7 documents.
There is little actionable information in the WikiLeaks documents, noted Dario Ciccarone, a security researcher at Cisco.
At the time of the initial release, WikiLeaks has not released any of the tools or exploits associated with the disclosure, he pointed out.
Since none of the tools and malware referenced in the initial Vault 7 disclosure have been made available by WikiLeaks, the scope of action that can be taken by Cisco is limited. An ongoing investigation and focused analysis of the areas of code that are alluded to in the disclosure is underway, Ciccarone said.
Until more information is available, there is little Cisco can do at this time from a vulnerability handling perspective, he added.
Linuxs popularity makes it a likely target for intelligence agencies, according to Nicko van Someren, chief technology officer for The Linux Foundation.
Linux is a very widely used operating system with a huge installed base all around the world, so it is not surprising that state agencies from many countries would target Linux, along with the many closed source platforms that they have sought to compromise, he told TechNewsWorld.
However, the rapid development cycle of the operating system a kernel update is released every few days enables Linux development teams to quickly address security problems, van Someren explained.
Rapid release cycles enable the open source community to fix vulnerabilities and release those fixes to users faster, he said.
Assange Offers Sneak Peek
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange took to Facebook Live Thursday, offering to give tech companies making products targeted by CIA hacking tools exclusive access to any tools in WikiLeaks possession, so the businesses could plug any security holes.
Assanges offer poses a dilemma for the companies. While they want to make their products more secure, hooking up with WikiLeaks would mean collaborating with an organization that may have broken U.S. laws by accepting stolen data. At the least, it has undermined the nations security by releasing classified information to the public.
Still, they should accept Assanges offer, argued Israel Barak, chief information security officer at Cybereason.
These companies have to make their software as secure as possible, he told TechNewsWorld. When you have an opportunity to do that, youve got to do it.
However, Assanges offer may be too little, too late.
My guess is that some of this code is already in the hands of bad actors, said Tony Busseri, CEO of Route1.
Thats a point of concern for consumers, government and enterprises, he told TechNewsWorld.
Consumer Impact
Consumers shouldnt be too concerned about the Vault 7 leaks affecting their privacy and security, observed Craig Young, a computer security researcher at Tripwire.
Consumers should, however, be cognizant that the conveniences afforded by connected technologies also inherently introduce privacy and security risks, he told TechNewsWorld.
As data is made available to smart devices like TVs, phones and voice-activated speakers, consumers are in fact extending a large degree of trust to the vendors making these products. There is trust not only that vendors are making these devices securely, but also that the vendors will continue to support them, Young pointed out.
Even with all of these things in mind, he added, there is always some risk so it is advisable not to share sensitive data with these smart devices.
Most consumers wouldnt be affected by the tools WikiLeaks claims to have in its possession if the CIA had exclusive control of them, but thats not the case now.
The CIA is not going to try to hack your TV for no reason, Route1s Busseri said.
The danger with WikiLeaks is if it starts exposing how these vulnerabilities and toolkits work, then criminal organizations will try to profit from them at the consumers expense, he explained.
These leaks are giving consumers a glimpse into how their devices can be used to spy on them, said Cybereasons Barak.
The leaks illustrate how vulnerable all digital devices are.
The technology to hack into these systems is advancing just as rapidly as the security to protect them, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.
Nothing will ever be 100 percent secure, he told TechNewsWorld, just as no doctor will ever say with 100 percent accuracy whats wrong with you.
Lexi Palmer is CEO of EquiSeq, a biotech firm that does genetic testing of horses.
EquiSeq CEO LexiPalmer
Palmer was brought on as CEO by the companys founder, genetic researcher Paul Szauter, in 2015.
EquiSeq, which tests horses for genetic diseases, is developing an equine genome database.
TechNewsWorld: How did you get involved with EquiSeq?
Lexi Palmer:
I met Paul Szauter at a community networking event hosted by 1 Million Cups. I was just finishing up my degree in interpersonal communications at the University of New Mexico, and he told me about the company hed started. I told him I knew everything about horses and said I could learn everything he did and market it.
Two weeks later we were discussing my title. He asked, Where do you see yourself? What title do you want? I said CEO, and he said, OK, is this something you want to do?
I knew I needed a challenge, and this was the challenge that presented itself. Since I came on in November 2015, weve launched our first four products and are about to publish our first patent. Paul was willing to give me an opportunity, and I took it and ran with it.
TNW: What is your background with horses?
Palmer:
Ive been riding horses since second grade, when I started taking lessons. The first horse I had was in sixth grade. He was abandoned in a backyard, and he was sold to us for a penny. I loved that horse, and I kept riding all through high school and have worked at horse camps and been involved with horses ever since.
A lot of the way I approach problems comes from horseback riding. When youre jumping, for example, it can be intimidating. Your trainer, though, will make you jump jumps that are higher than youre comfortable with, so that youll be ready for a show.
There are a couple of ways you can approach a jump when youre scared. You can shy away from it. You can fall over it. Or you can act like youre not scared at all and jump better than youve ever jumped before.
Thats my approach to everything. Its not that Im fearless. Its just that I know the worst that can happen is that I will fail. Thats my approach to everything. Go at it, and most of the time everything ends up working out.
TNW: What are some of the challenges youve faced as a young CEO of a biotech firm?
Palmer:
Some are because of age, and some because of gender. People think that millennials havent worked, havent paid their dues. Ive had a few instances where I was told that I need to pay my dues.
Ive also had men refuse to speak to me, saying theyll only talk to Paul. I get questioned a lot. The thing is, though, Im aware that Im young, and that theres a lot to learn but Im making this company successful, and thats all that matters.
TNW: What are some of your daily tasks as CEO of EquiSeq?
Palmer:
A lot of isnt so glamorous. A lot is strategy. Were in the middle of fundraising, so a lot of it is following leads and talking with people. I do pitches at pitch competitions.
I do volunteer work to talk about STEM topics, and I stay active in the community.
I work with the team, strategize, and do customer service, making sure that orders are filled and things are getting paid.
I oversee all operations and work as the voice for the company. I present EquiSeq in a way that makes sense to others, explaining genetic testing to people.
I am just enthralled with everything that we do. Understanding your DNA is understanding your core, everything that makes you you.
TNW: In what ways can young girls be encouraged to go into biotech fields?
Palmer:
Im passionate about inspiring younger girls to go into tech. The best way to do that is to have role models out in the community whose merit is in their success.
Thats really resonated when Ive talked with young girls. Im not that much older than they are, and they can envision themselves in my shoes.
We need to have more stories like mine. We need to let girls know that its OK to feel beautiful by being smart. Its not just about looking pretty.
TNW: Whats in the future? How is EquiSeq evolving?
Palmer:
Our main goal is to help people stop breeding horses with diseases. Our entire business model is that you deserve a life with your best friend, so well do whatever we can to make sure that happens.
There are a few different potential directions we might go. There could be an eHarmony for breeders, for instance.
Our goal is to keep discovering things about the horse genome and harvesting that data. While were doing genetic tests were collecting data, so were also a data company.
That data might be of great interest to pharmaceutical and pet insurance companies. It could be great for a website that helps people vet horses. There are a lot of different applications.
Its all a matter of what opportunities present themselves, and what aligns with our company.
: 15 6 , 2
By Ryan Schleeter
Still think the Keystone XL pipeline will create tens of thousands of permanent jobs? Think again.
Throughout his young presidency, Donald Trump has repeatedly justified his administrations love for the fossil fuel industry with the nuanced and insightful argument of JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
Unfortunately for him, tweeting something in all caps does not make it trueand it also wont suddenly make the fossil fuel industry economically viable again.
When it comes to fossil fuels versus renewables, theres no contest. Clean energy is our fastest path to a booming, prosperous economy for all Americans, not just the one percent. The next time youre confronted with the White Houses alternative facts on coal, oil and job creation, arm yourselves with this info instead.
1. The U.S. solar industry is on a record-breaking growth streak.
According to the non-partisan Solar Foundation, one in every 50 American jobs created in 2016 was in the solar industry.
In total, the industry employs more than 260,000 people in the U.S., up 25 percent from 2015when the number of U.S. solar jobs surpassed those in oil, gas and coal extraction for the first time.
One out of every 50 new American jobs last year was in the solar industry, report says https://t.co/4F91kq28VH pic.twitter.com/PFnvJ6c8HO Bloomberg (@business) February 7, 2017
Solar is projected to continue growing in spite of Trump administration policies that favor fossil fuels. Falling installation costs and soaring investmentespecially compared to coalmean solar jobs are projected to increase by 10 percent in 2017.
2. Wind is not far behind and is catching up fast.
For the last few years, wind has trended ahead of fossil fuels but behind solar power in job growthbut that could soon change.
Last year, the industry added 25,000 new jobs and currently employs 102,000 people. Between now and 2024, wind turbine technician is projected to be the single fastest-growing job in the country by a wide margin. Overall, a 2015 Department of Energy analysis found that the wind industry could support more than 600,000 jobs by 2050.
As with solar, Trumps anti-environment policies cant stop the growth of the wind industry. Even without state or federal subsidies, onshore wind farms are cheaper to build and operate than coal and natural gas plants in many parts of the country, which will continue to fuel job growth in construction and manufacturing.
ICYMI: Donald Trump said we "don't make" wind turbines in the United States that's just not true. https://t.co/hSoxbFjvnJ #gorenewables pic.twitter.com/i6g3DSqe3s Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) December 1, 2016
It looks like Trump will just have to get used to seeing more terrible, ugly, unsightly wind turbines.
3. Pipeline projects do not create anywhere near as many jobs as Trump says they do.
Trump has claimed that his decision to fast-track the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines will put Americans to work and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Hes wrong, of course.
While it is true that Keystone XL would create an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 temporary construction jobs, an alternative plan to scrap the pipeline and instead expand sustainable infrastructure in the region would create up to five times as many jobs. And in terms of full-time, permanent jobs, Keystone XL would create just 35 and Dakota Access 40.
35 jobs! Wow! What a great deal! APPLY APPLY APPLY! https://t.co/9S4VMjZNZQ grist (@grist) March 25, 2017
Beyond pipeline projects, the overall number of people in the working in oil and gas extraction fell by nearly 17,000 over the course of 2015. Worldwide, wind and solar already employ more people than oil, gas and coal combined.
4. Coal jobs are simply not coming backits time to focus on a just transition for coal country.
The miners are coming back, was Trumps promise to coal country at a rally in Kentucky last month. The only problem is that its one more promise he cant keep.
Because its not the Clean Power Planor any other environmental regulationthats causing the decline of the coal industry. Its basic science and economics. Wind and solar are already cheaper and growing more affordable each year. Coal mining companies are going bankrupt left and right, shafting workers but giving CEOs million-dollar bonuses in the process. What coal mining operations are left are mostly automated and have been bleeding jobs for decades.
Instead of false promises, its time to start focusing on the just transition that coal country deserves. That means job training in clean energy technologies and more democratic control over electricity grids for the communities of color, Indigenous people and blue collar workers hit hardest by our prolonged reliance on fossil fuels.
By Kimberly Ong
New York State blocked the Northern Access Project on April 7, a pipeline that would have carried fracked gas from Pennsylvania to Canada via New York. This is a huge victory not just for New Yorkers but for the entire planet.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), after a careful and exhaustive study, exercised its right under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act to deny certification to the proposed 24-inch diameter, 99-mile pipeline. Without 401 certification, the natural gas pipeline cannot go forward within the state.
Gov. Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos have shown exceptional leadership in denying the permit. This project was a serious threat to water quality, wildlife, trout streams and other habitats, as well as to air quality in the North Country and Western New York. The pipeline would have directly harmed 192 streams, 600 acres of forests and more than 17 acres of wetlands in the state and would have crossed one sole source aquiferthe Cattaraugus Creek Basin Aquifer Systemthe sole source of drinking water for 20,000 residents in Cattaraugus, Erie and Wyoming counties in New York.
DECs decision to deny 401 certification for the pipeline is not the first time that Gov. Cuomo has taken bold action to protect the environment. In 2015, New York State was the first state with natural gas resources to ban fracking in the U.S. and in 2016, the State denied a 401 certification to Constitution pipeline, another natural gas pipeline that could have significantly harmed state water quality. This bold state-level leadership is even more vital now in light of the Trump administrations overt courtship of the fossil fuel industry and its planned evisceration of U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys budget.
This decision may not have happened but for widespread opposition from the environmental community across the state. On March 27, hundreds of people from across New York State rallied in Albany to express their outrage over the proposed pipeline, demonstrating statewide opposition to this dangerous project. That same day, 143 organizations, businesses and faith communities representing thousands of New Yorkers signed on to a letter asking DEC to deny 401 certification to Northern Access.
The denial of the 401 certification demonstrates that, even when the federal government erodes basic safeguards on health and the environment, states still have the power to protect their citizens and their waterways from the encroachment of the fossil fuel industry. And when citizens band together, they can halt the construction of unnecessary natural gas pipelines and stand up for their communities.
We commend Gov.Cuomo and Commissioner Seggos decision to stop this pipeline from moving forward.
Kimberly Ong is a staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Federal fishery managers voted Monday to keep the U.S. West Coast Pacific sardine fishery closed for the upcoming commercial season. With an estimated 86,586 metric tons (mt) of sardine remaining and 150,000 mt necessary for fishing to occur, this will be the third year in a row there are not enough sardines to support a fishery.
This modern day Pacific sardine crash, which was exacerbated by excessive fishing when the population was falling, underscores the need for new approaches to fishery management, said Geoff Shester, California campaign director for Oceana. We hope managers learn from this and strengthen safeguards to protect sardines and the ocean wildlife dependent on sardines, while also supporting sustainable fishing communities.
The northern sardine subpopulation ranges along the Pacific coast from Baja California, Mexico to British Columbia, Canada. It is fished by Mexico, Canada and the U.S. without a common management agreement. In recent years, as the population was crashing (2007-2014), the fishery off California, Oregon and Washington landed on average 73,000 metric tons of sardines a year with an average dock value of $13.9 million per year. Most Pacific sardines are exported and sold as bait for foreign fisheries or feed for penned bluefin tuna or canned overseas for human consumption. Left in the water, Pacific sardines are an important food fish for many dependent predators from whales, sea lions and Chinook salmon, to brown pelicans, common murres and least terns.
Over the last four years weve witnessed starved California sea lion pups washing up on beaches and brown pelicans failing to produce chicks because moms are unable to find enough forage fish, said Ben Enticknap, Pacific campaign manager and senior scientist with Oceana. Meanwhile sardine fishing rates spiked right as the population was crashing. Clearly the current sardine management plan is not working as intended and steps must be taken to fix it.
Leaving more sardines in the water before fishing is allowed to occur will help ensure there is enough of this critical food fish for wildlife while allowing the sardine population to rebuild more quickly. When sardines are again at healthy levels, Oceana supports an ecologically sustainable fishery with a preference of providing sardines for direct human consumption, rather than secondary uses like bait or aquaculture feed. It is equally important that fishing rates are curtailed during a population decline to prevent exacerbating a fishery collapse in the future.
In 2013, the fishery removed 40 percent of the remaining sardines as the population was collapsing, exceeding the maximum sustainable yield fishing rate by more than two fold. Implementing a coordinated management approach with Mexico and Canadanations that also fish the same sardine populationwill help prevent coast-wide, international overfishing.
The decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council now goes to the National Marine Fisheries Service to issue regulations for the upcoming season spanning July 1 to June 30, 2018.
Shark fins have been discovered on two Chinese fishing vessels during a joint surveillance conducted by Greenpeace and Guinean fishery authorities. One of the vessels also had illegally altered fishing nets on board, while a third Chinese vessel was caught using illegal nets and fishing for species outside of its license. The two vessels with shark fins on board have been fined $264,787.50 each, while the third vessel has been fined $370,702.50. The catches from all of the vessels have been seized by Guinean authorities.
In addition to the shark fins, Greenpeace also found numerous carcasses of sharks including hammerheads, an endangered species, along with manta rays on board several vessels.
[facebook https://facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1509622109050721/ expand=1]
What were seeing here is an utter lack of respect for West African fishing laws, said Ahmed Diame, Greenpeace Africa oceans campaigner. It also shows that local laws need to be strengthened to meet international standards where endangered sharks are no longer a legal catch. That is why we are recommending that coastal states improve their monitoring capacity and advocating for local legislation to protect marine life and livelihoods of local fishing communities.
In total, Greenpeace and local officials inspected and boarded 12 vessels during their joint surveillance this past week. The vessels included nine Chinese, one Korean and two Guinean-flagged. On one of the Chinese vessels, a letter was found issued by Chinas distant water fishing association on March 10, reminding Chinese fishing vessels to fish legally and be cooperative with authorities inspections.
We thought the letter would have deterred Chinese fishing vessels from illegal activities during the period of the joint patrols, but apparently this was not the case, said Pavel Klinckhamers, campaign leader on board the Esperanza. Several fishing vessels belonging to Chinese companies continued their illegal fishing practices, despite the warning. This shows the complete disregard for local laws by these companies, while they should behave as responsible guests in these waters.
Currently, 41 vessels are licensed to operate in Guinean waters. Eighty-five percent of the vessels are Chinese owned.
Last month, Greenpeace and Guinea Bissau authorities arrested four fishing vessels after they discovered multiple fishing infringements. The vessels are being investigated by local authorities for illegal transshipment at sea, failure to display readable names on the vessels, non-payment of fines and the use of illegal fishing equipment.
Greenpeace is demanding that West African governments take responsibility and work together to manage both foreign and local fishing activities in their waters so resources can be distributed fairly and sustainably and to ensure a prosperous future for local communities and people living along the shores of West Africa.
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Plans to expand school choice from President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and Congress have largely focused on high-profile measures like vouchers and tax-credit scholarships. But theres another option for the Trump administration to promote, one thats supported in multiple sections of the Every Student Succeeds Act and that many states are already using.
Course choice, also known as course access, allows for parents and students to select various pre-approved courses beyond what their districts normally offer. The courses, many of which are taught online, can include everything from university classes and SAT preparation to welder training.
DeVos highlighted course choice in an interview earlier this year with Town Hall, a conservative news website. And one of her early hires at the U.S. Department of Education, Michael Brickman, wrote about the benefits of course choice when he worked at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank that supports educational choice.
States can choose to set aside 3 percent of their Title I money under the direct student services provision of ESSA for course choice, among other programs. States could also potentially use Title IV block grants authorized (but not yet funded) for states to provide well-rounded educational programs and school improvement programs under Title I to boost course choice.
Its something that I think DeVos could make a very big difference on. She could just talk about it, said Max Eden, a senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. There is no political risk to pushing it. And there is only credit for encouraging it.
A Complex Course of Action
But there are challenges related to course choice that several states and districts have faced. These include the quality of the courses themselves, decisions on building appropriate funding mechanisms, barriers to access because of a limited teacher workforce or limited internet access, and the difficulty of tracking student performance in the courses offered.
John Watson, the founder of Evergreen Education Group, a research and consulting firm, said course choice can be a tremendously powerful tool to help a variety of students access such courses as advanced calculus and world languages that they otherwise couldnt take.
But, he said, I think its far more complex than school choice. ... You hold the possibility of very rapidly upending funding and accountability mechanisms that are very much built around schools and districts, and not individual course providers. Schools are more than just a collection of courses kids are taking.
Defining course choice itself can be tricky. Reports from the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a research and advocacy group founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that supports course access, and Evergreen Education list 15 states that offer course choice in some form.
Although most programs are still relatively small, their size and scope vary. Arizonas online instruction program, for example, enrolled 46,900 individual students.
How the money flows (and how much there is) also varies. In DeVos home state of Michigan, for example, online providers set the cost of individual courses, although payment must be made regardless of whether a student completes the course.
Helping Postsecondary Outcomes
Idaho has been experimenting with course-access models for several years now. Its newest program, Fast Forward, provides a window into the challenges and opportunities in providing such course options.
Fast Forward began this school year, and uses a simple funding structure: Every 7th through 12th grader now has $4,125 to spend on approved high school and college-credit-bearing courses of his or her choice.
Students can select overload courses, which are high school classes that go beyond a students regular courseload, or dual-credit courses, which offer college and high school credits simultaneously. Students can also take college-credit-bearing exams, such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and professional-certification tests for such varied fields as welding and nursing.
The Fast Forward program is part of ongoing statewide efforts to really focus on how do we get more kids to graduate and go on to some postsecondary endeavor, said Matt McCarter, the director of student engagement, career, and technical readiness for the Idaho education department. Unlike in some other states, the Idaho course-choice funds can only be used for advancementnot for remediation or credit recovery.
The legislature appropriated $6 million for the program for fiscal year 2017. The state education department estimates that it will cost closer to $11 million for the year, however, given that about 25,000 students are participating. The states rainy-day fund will back up the excess cost.
At Westside High School in Dayton, Idaho, nearly all students are taking advantage of the Fast Forward funds, according to Principal Tyler Teleford. He said thats in part because a majority of teachers there are certified to teach dual-credit coursesa push that began even before Fast Forward.
Students across the state attending schools without certified dual-credit teachers have the option of taking online courses through the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, a state-run virtual school.
Overall, the Fast Forward program has been well-received, said Dave Harbison, the communications director for the Idaho Education Association. We dont have any evidence on the back end yet that its really been successful, but as it ramps up it seems to be going well.
But the Idaho program does come with risks. Students who fail a course using Fast Forward dollars cannot tap into their aid again until they pay for a class out of pocket. A failing grade also goes on a students permanent college record.
I dont want to push it and say its right for every kid, because its not, said Suzi Quintal, a counselor at Prairie Senior High School in Cottonwood, Idaho.
And sometimes students who take overload courses and get too far ahead can feel unmotivated by their junior or senior year, said Teleford: Ive seen grades plummet.
In addition, the program can put pressure on already-overworked school counselors, who must communicate with families about course options and help keep students on track.
Its clear that some districts are better-equipped to support students in the program than others. But according to the Idaho education department, initial evidence suggests that middle-income districts are taking part in the program more often than wealthier districts.
Its great. It means [its helping] the middle-class families who ... would otherwise be struggling to send kids to college, said Tina Polishchuk, who coordinates the program.
Louisiana also has a high-profile course-choice program, in which about 25,000 students are participating. The state has funded it at $7.5 million, divided proportionally among all public schools depending on their enrollments in grades 7-12. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, is advocating for another $10 million to be added during the upcoming legislative session.
Students can take classes from approved public and private universities, technical colleges, the Florida Virtual School and other online providers, and even business and industry groups, such as Associated Builders and Contractors.
In both Idaho and Louisiana, state education department officials say the prospect of being able to use federal dollars toward course choice wouldnt change their existing programs much. But it might allow for some additional services.
Ken Bradford, the assistant superintendent for the Louisiana education departments office of content, said the direct-student-services funds could help bring foreign-language classes to elementary schools and algebra to middle schools. And it might pay for tutoring across the grade levels. But our state course-choice program would probably be at a maintenance level, he said.
Where We Need to Go
Regardless of where the money comes from, Cynthia Posey, the legislative director for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said course providers must be closely vetted up front.
We dont have a problem with children getting quality instruction. But not all instruction is created equal, Posey said.
In New Mexico, the states online course-access program has allowed more Hispanic children in particular to take AP courses, said Chris Ruszkowski, the states deputy secretary of education for policy and programs. The state also is engaging its top teachers in creating course content.
But right now, although the state collects completion rates and grades for IDEAL, the states course-access program, parents and the general public in New Mexico dont know, for example, whether students using course-access money to take Advanced Placement classes are passing AP exams at a lower or higher rate than students in other AP course formats. Ruszkowski sees tackling that issue as a next step for IDEAL.
That is not data that New Mexico has traditionally collected and reported. But I do think that is where we need to go, Ruszkowski said.
In its draft ESSA plan, New Mexico does plan to use the direct-student-services set-aside for course access for dual-credit and credit-recovery courses, among other programs.
Monday
Bonne Terre Council
The Bonne Terre City Council will meet in regular session at 6 p.m. at city hall located on 118 N. Allen St. The meeting is open to the public.
Central Board of Education
The Central Board of Education meets at 5 p.m. for a short swearing-in ceremony for newly elected board members in the Central High School auditorium located at 116 Rebel Dr. in Park Hills. The board will adjourn to a closed executive session, then reconvene at approximately 5:45 p.m. for a regular session. The meeting is open to the public.
Desloge Board of Aldermen
The Desloge Board of Aldermen meets in regular session at 7 p.m. at city hall, located at 300 N. Lincoln Drive. The meeting is open to the public.
Tuesday
SFC Commission
The St. Francois County Commission meets in regular session at 10 a.m. on the third floor of the courthouse annex, located at 1 Liberty St. in Farmington. The meeting is open to the public.
Bismarck School Board
The Bismarck R-5 Board of Education meets in regular session at 6 p.m. in the elementary school library. The meeting is open to the public.
Leadington Board of Aldermen
The Leadington Board of Aldermen meets in regular session at 6 p.m. at city hall, located at 12 Weir St. The meeting is open to the public.
Park Hills City Council
The Park Hills City Council meets at 6 p.m. for a regular session in the municipal court chambers at city hall, located at 9 Bennett St. The meeting is open to the public.
Wednesday
SFC 911 Board
The St. Francois County 911 Board of Directors meets in regular session at 10 a.m. at Desloge City Hall, located at 300 N. Lincoln Drive. The meeting is open to the public.
Thursday
North County Board of Education
The North County Board of Education meets in regular session at 6 p.m. in the administration offices located at 300 Berry Rd. The meeting is open to the public.
MAC Board of Trustees
The Mineral Area College Board of Trustees meets in regular session at 2 p.m. in the boardroom on the school's Park Hills campus. The meeting is open to the public.
Farmington City Council
The Farmington City Council meets in regular session at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers, located at 110 W. Columbia St. The meeting is open to the public.
Bismarck Board of Aldermen
The Bismarck Board of Aldermen meets in regular session at 7 p.m. in the old train depot on East Main Street. The meeting is open to the public.
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Among all the other celebrities who speak out against current US President, Donald Trump, Scarlett Johansson has been one of them since last year. This time, a feud between her and the presidential daughter and assistant, Ivanka Trump, has escalated. It started when Ivanka had chosen to not be vocal about the US President's rules that he mandated since the day of his election.
Johansson is also one of the celebrities who regularly appears on the Emmy-award winning television comedy show, "Saturday Night Live", in which she impersonates the presidential daughter. The show is also noted to be one of those programs who mocks President Donald Trump since his election and victory last year. Actor Alec Baldwin is among those celebrities that does so.
According to News Australia, Ivanka Trump has gained worldwide criticism when she was appointed as the presidential adviser, but failed to recognize at least one of her father's globally-contradicted policies until now. On a previous interview, Ivanka has stated that in contrast to what the previous reports say, she has been having disagreements with her father, but not in a way that the public knows.
She added that she has chosen to privately deal with his father's issues regarding the policies and rules that the American people acknowledged to be controversial. Aside from that, Ivanka mentioned that if the people will call her complicit because of her choice to not voice out her issues with her father then she's willing to be called one.
In "Saturday Night Live", Johansson once again mocked Ivanka Trump's remarks by impersonating her on the show. Furthermore, on an interview during the Women's March, Johansson openly expressed her opinion about Ivanka's latest move, saying that the president's daughter is a coward for not doing her job as a public advocate. She further stated that she's disappointed that someone who is a big influence failed to spread empowerment to the country.
Twitter has sued Trump administration as the latter requested to reveal the person behind the social networking site user who is posting criticisms to the current government.
According to Wired, Twitter already filed a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol. The social networking site claims that it's unlawful for the government to force the company to reveal the real name of the person behind the anti-Trump Twitter account having username @ALT_USCIS.
Furthermore, Recode has learned that upon the filing of Twitter's complaint; a spokesman for DHS declined to give any statement as this case is still a pending lawsuit. It was also being highlighted that Spokespeople for the Justice Department and White House also declined to deliver their own views about the case.
Nevertheless, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden; who is an ally of Silicon Valley in Congress had criticized the Trump administration for its conduct. "The Department of Homeland Security appears to have abused its authority and wasted taxpayer resources, all to uncover an anonymous critic on Twitter," Wyden stated. He further said that the agency's inspector general should investigate to know who head for this witch hunt.
It can be recalled that ever since Trump has been elected as the new President of the US, there have been numerous "alt-agency" accounts in Twitter. For reference, these are unofficial eccentricities from federal agencies' that are certified online which have started shooting 140-character hails at the Trump administration.
Twitter already has a history of battling against freedom of expression on its platform and until now it never seizes. The social networking site even reminded its users last year that it's against the company's rules to utilize Twitter for investigation purposes as it claims that commitment to social justice is the center of its mission.
Republican Representative Devin Nunes temporarily stepped down Thursday as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when he was considered subject of investigation by the House Ethics Committee over claims that he disclosed classified intelligence.
Nunes however said the charges as "entirely false" and "politically motivated" made by several left-wing activist groups, which were identified to be Watchdog groups Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The beleaguered representative vowed to still continue his other responsibilities as chairman "in order to expedite the dismissal of these false claims".
In a BBC report, House Speaker Paul Ryan expressed support to Nunes' decision but said that the ethics inquiry "would be a distraction" to the investigating Intelligence Committee.
Jim Himes, a Democratic representative from Connecticut who is a member of the Committee, riled that the committee was effectively frozen when Nunes stepped down as chairman of the investigating committee, although some lawmakers are seeing that Nunes' stepping aside from the committee is astrategy to deflect the investigation into the Russia scandal.
Before stepping down temporarily, Nunes cancelled last week the hearings "for Trump White House", in the words of Himes.
The hearing could have squeezed out vital information from the invited resource persons- former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who briefly served as acting Attorney General before being fired by President Trump, former CIA head John Brennan, and former director of national intelligence James Clapper.
With Nunes' exit, several House representatives heaved a sigh wishing for greater bipartisan cooperation among them.
Before this freeze, the committee lastly heard from FBI Director James Comey, who said that the FBI has been investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia since last July.
Besides the House Intelligence Committee and the FBI, the Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating into Russia's alleged role in the US election with its first round of hearing last week.
Also, the CIA on Tuesday told lawmakers that it has classified briefings last summer where an information indicated that Russia was working to help elect Trump president, a finding that did not emerge publicly until after Trump's victory months later.
(news672/YouTube)
On the formal start of what is dubbed as the "Trial of the Century" Thursday, accused Samsung boss Jay Y. Lee just let the best of his 13 lawyers do the talking and do the denying to all the charges against him.
Lee is accused of a range of crimes including bribery, embezzlement and other offenses in a corruption scandal that has already led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.
Lee, who is being detained at Seoul Detention Centre, however was absent in court as it was just a preparatory hearing and South Korea's rules of court allows the defendant not to turn up for the process. It was a hearing to agree on evidences and set dates for witness testimony.
"It is unclear what kind of order Lee Jae-yong is supposed to have given," Song Wu-cheol, defending Lee, told the court, using his Korean name.
Lee's defense diminished all the claims of the prosecution, arguing that they did not investigate, interview according to the rules or they just stated opinions that are not facts.
Lawyers of the four other co-accused of Lee, all top Samsung executives, also denied the charges. They are out of detention.
The prosecution particularly accused Lee for making bribes via foundations controlled by the friend and confidante of President Park, Choi Soon-sil, the woman at the center of the scandal that rocked the nation.
The bribes, about $37.2-million donation, were allegedly dangled in exchange for government approval of the 2015 Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries merger that benefited Lee.
But on the day the trial started, CNN Money reported that Samsung conglomerate reported preliminary operating profit of 9.9 trillion won ($8.7 billion) for the first quarter of 2017, which was almost a 50 percent increase from a year ago when it had its fire-prone Note 7 smartphone debacle.
South Koreans are finding that Lee's trial is much bigger trial for chaebols, family-run enterprises, as the Samsung is the biggest family-run conglomerate in the country while Lee's court decision can potentially send big repercussions to chaebols indulging in crony capitalism with persons in power.
A few chaebol leaders in the past got indictments for corruption-related scandals but they were given light punishment or later pardoned.
If Lee is found guilty, he could stay in prison for twenty years.
(Wochit News/YouTube)
Korean electronics company, Samsung, is on track to report record earnings for 2017 despite its losses on the Note 7 and looming issues concerning its CEO.
Samsung has recently been the subject of several disastrous incidents that have somewhat stained their reputation as the leading electronics manufacturer in the world. However, despite the fact that the company is still reeling from the unfortunate incidents, Samsung is still on track to report some huge annual earnings for the quarter.
While most consumers are probably already aware of the PR nightmare Samsung had to endure with the exploding Galaxy Note 7, there is also currently a big scandal that is going on within the company in its home country, some may be aware of it, some may not.
Samsung's de-facto CEO Lee Jae-yong is currently set to go on trial due to his involvement in the long-running political corruption scandal in South Korea. The political scandal also involves the country's president, who was recently forced to step down from office and is also facing trial herself.
Despite the embarrassment in its home country and the exploding batteries on the Note 7, the company is still expected to report some huge gains for the quarter. According to BBC, the company has been forecasted to report a 48 percent rise in its profits for January 2017 to March 2017. The increase in its revenue is partly due to its strong shipments of memory chips for various manufacturers worldwide.
If proven to be true, the figures would be the highest profit margin the company has attained in the past four years. According to Apple Insider, the estimated $8.8 billion earnings do not even include the company's likely profits from its recently launched flagship smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus.
The same report claims that Samsung's second quarter earnings should be even better thanks to the revenue it will generate with its brand new flagship. The new flagship devices also come with the company's dive into the artificial intelligence (AI) market via their new virtual assistant called Bixby.
President Donald Trump calls on all civilized nations to join the United States in seeking an end to the carnage happening in Syria. The statement was issued shortly after the country fired a barrage of cruise missiles.
Trump said that peace and harmony will prevail as long as the United States continues to stand for justice. The country has bombed a Syrian air base with roughly 60 cruise missiles in retaliation for the chemical weapons attack against the civilians. The United States has blamed President Bashar Assad for the carnage. It is reported that a Syrian government aircraft was used to release chlorine mixed with a nerve agent, possibly sarin, which killed dozens of civilians.
According to American government officials, the Tomahawk missiles were fired from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea. It targets a government-controlled air base in Syria. President Trump then spoke to the reporters justifying its action a vital national security interest. He says that the United States must prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.
Recently, Trump's officials demanded that Russia should stop supporting the Syrian government. Moscow is reported to be propping up Assad, which means they are partially responsible for the Syria carnage. "I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a report by ABC News.
Tillerson is set to visit the Russian capital this week. However, Kremlin had said that President Vladimir Putin has no plans to meet the secretary. "We have not announced any meetings. A meeting with Tillerson is currently not on the president's schedule," Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman said in a report by The Washington Post. Tillerson's plans to visit Russia is a pressure for Russia to step away from Syria.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has declared three days of nationwide mourning following the two deadly bombings targeting Coptic Christian churches in Egypt during Palm Sunday. Terrorist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to state-run news agency Al-Ahram, the death toll from the Palm Sunday bombing in Egypt has risen to a total of 49 as of Monday, CNN reported. At least 27 people reportedly died in a church bombing located in the northern city of Tanta while 18 civilians and four police officers were killed outside a Coptic church in Alexandria from a suicide bombing attack.
A three-month state of emergency is going to be declared once legal and constitutional measures have been completed said President el-Sisi. A supreme council to counter terrorism and extremism is also going to be formed as a response to the Palm Sunday terrorist attack.
"We have to pay attention because of Egypt and Egypt's future. We know this is a big sacrifice but we are capable of facing it," the Egyptian President said. "The attack will not undermine the resolve and true will of the Egyptian people to counter the forces of evil, but will only harden their determination to move forward on their trajectory to realize security, stability and comprehensive development."
The explosions have injured at least 35 people in the Alexandria blast and 71 people in Tanta, the health ministry said, according to BBC.
No official word yet from the authorities regarding the identity or nationalities of the people behind the two attacks in Egypt on Sunday, April 9. But the militant group claimed on a statement that bombers are identified as Egyptian nationals.
Terrorist group ISIS, also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), warned people of more attacks on its statement issued after acknowledging the bombing. No follow up message has been reported after the statement.
It seems like Kate Middleton's sister really fear being outshone on her wedding day as she strictly implemented her 'no ring no bring' rule not only on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry but to another star, too.
Pippa Middleton has not only banned the American actress but also, it was reported that she has not allowed the reality TV star Vogue Williams on her big day too. Williams had confirmed dating Spencer Matthews, the groom's brother, a month ago but despite the revelation, the couple agreed to not attend Pippa and James Matthews' wedding next month.
According to The Sun, the Duchess of Cambridge's younger sister was concerned about the appearance of Brian McFadden's ex-wife on her wedding day. Apparently, it was already Pippa's habit to steal the limelight, just like what she did on her royal sister's wedding. Back in 2011, the snobby younger Middleton upstaged Prince William's wife on her own big day by showing off her bum.
Meanwhile, a wedding insider spilled the reason why Pippa is not allowing the model on her nuptial.
"Pippa's view is that Vogue's relationship with Spencer is still very new. It wouldn't be appropriate for her to be there after just a few months of dating," the source said. "But some people in the circle are pretty shocked because this is her future brother-in-law who's going to end up attending on his own. It's certainly raised eyebrows."
Pippa has already announced her strict policy about "no ring no bring" a few months ago and this was allegedly her way to stop Prince Harry from bringing his girlfriend, Markle. Whatever her reason is, it's clear that Kate's younger sib doesn't want anyone to take her spotlight, especially on her wedding day.
The West End production play, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" from the original new story by Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling and John Tiffany, has broken new records at the recent Olivier Awards.
The two-part stage play, which was written by the trio, has received nine record-breaking awards at the biggest UK theatrical event. It also managed to gather 11 nominations. The Olivier Awards was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England on Sunday, April 9.
BBC reported that Jamie Parker, who played as the grown-up version of Harry Potter in "Cursed Child," has won the Best Actor award at the event. Hermione Granger actress, Noma Dumezweni, also won an award for Best Supporting Actress.
Dumezweni thanked Rowling for letting her play the character on stage. "The privilege of being able to play Hermione is overwhelming and humbling," the actress said.
Tiffany, who helmed the stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," also received the Best Director award as listed on Broadway World. "The power of imagination is infinite," the director said on his acceptance speech. "We need it now more than ever."
Northern Irish actor Anthony Boyle, who played as Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius, also received an award for Best Supporting Actor during the event. Other awards that "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" won are: Neil Austin for Best Lighting Design; Gareth Fry for Best Sound Design; Katrina Lindsay for Best Costume Design and Christine Jones for Best Set Design. The two-parter play also received the Virgin Atlantic Best New Play award.
The story of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" takes place several years after the events of the movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" parts 1 and 2 - and the book of the same title. It shows Harry, Ron and Hermione in their mid-30s as their children heads off to become wizards at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Communism: The dead-end path By Joshua Philipp and John Nania
People naturally look for a path to follow. During times ancient and modern, human beings have looked for a way forward to become healthier, happier, and better in all ways. Communism is not a path that offers a way forward. A path can be judged by its fruits, and by the character of its leading figures. Communism has been tried for more than 100 years by hundreds of millions of people, and the results are always the same: Its fruits are death, destruction, and despair. Its leading figures were cynical and sly men who masked their hatred of humanity with high-sounding words. By any measure, they were as dark and sinister as could be. An Ideology of Destruction It was at the crossroads of history, with the rise of industrialization and the decline of monarchs, when mankind was offered a Faustian bargain: Abandon your traditions and morals, and enter a new age. The promise was heaven on earth, and the cost was to partake in a movement to destroy morals and religious beliefand to destroy anyone who stood against this new future. The ideas of communism, and the various schools of thought at its foundation, had already seeped deeply into the societies of Europe ahead of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Provocateurs presented it as a way out of the suffering of this worldwith dreamy tales of an end to poverty and hunger, and a future of earthly delights. Behind the offer were other intentions, however, and these are made clear by looking at the histories of Karl Marx and others credited with laying the foundations of communism. In his early poem Invocation of One in Despair, Marx wrote about his will to create a new system. He states: So a god has snatched from me my all /Nothing but revenge is left to me! To exact this revenge, Marx states in the poem that he will build [his] throne high overhead. Of this throne, he writes: Cold, tremendous shall its summit be./For its bulwarksuperstitious dread,/For its Marshallblackest agony./Who looks on it with a healthy eye,/Shall turn back, struck deathly pale and dumb;/Clutched by blind and chill Mortality/May his happiness prepare its tomb. Marx had many similar writings, many of which suggest his goal in using communism was never to help humanity, but instead to enact a sort of vengeance against heaven. In his 1839 play Oulanem, believed to be named for a backward pronunciation of Emmanuel, an alternative biblical name for God, Marx begins with, Ruined! Ruined! My time has clean run out! The clock has stopped, the pygmy house has crumbled. Soon I shall embrace eternity to my breast, and soon I shall howl gigantic curses at mankind. If there is a Something which devours, Ill leap within it, though I bring the world to ruinsthe world which bulks between me and the abyss, I will smash to pieces with my enduring curses. In the book The Making of Modern Economics, Mark Skousen writes that a pact with the devil is a central theme in Oulanem, and the play reveals a number of violent and eccentric characters. Skousen notes that Marxs fixation with self-destructive behavior was prevalent through most of his life. Just like his character Oulanem, Marx shows in his writings a desire to not only destroy himself, but to destroy humankind along with him. In his 1841 poem The Player (also translated as The Fiddler), Marx writes, Look now, my blood-dark sword shall stab/Unerringly within thy soul./God neither knows nor honors art./The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain/Till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed. He continues, See this swordthe Prince of Darkness sold it to me, and, Ever more boldly I play the dance of death. An analysis of the above poem from biographer Robert Payne, in his 1968 book Marx, states, Marx is here celebrating a satanic mystery, for the player is clearly Lucifer or Mephistopheles [a Faustian devil], and what he is playing with such frenzy is the music which accompanies the end of the world. He continues, Marx clearly enjoyed the horrors he depicted, and we shall find him enjoying in very much the same way the destruction of whole classes in the Communist Manifesto. He was a man with a peculiar faculty for relishing disaster. There can be very little doubt that those interminable stories were autobiographical, wrote Payne. [Marx] had the Devils view of the world, and the Devils malignity. Sometimes he seemed to know that he was accomplishing works of evil. However bizarre Marxs early writings were, his stated claims and goals were not far from the reality of what he created: a system that in a single century took an unprecedented number of lives. Estimates vary, but according to combined research from historians, including Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Jung Chang, and Jon Halliday, and numbers collected by The Black Book of Communism, published by Harvard University Press in 1999, the number is close to 150 million deaths. Campaigns of Misery What Marx and Friedrich Engels set forth in The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, was an ideology based on struggle that, according to its own words, abolishes all religion, and all morality. They regarded their beliefs as being absolutethe end of human progressand set forth a proposal that all other beliefs should be destroyed through violent revolution. They based their version of communism in the concept of dialectical materialism, the absolute idea that all development comes through struggle and that life is nothing more than matter. An effect of this belief has been a disregard for human life under all communist leaders. In 1906, Vladimir Lenin wrote in Proletary magazine that his interest was in armed struggle, aimed at assassinating individuals, chiefs, and subordinates in the army and police, as well as seizing money from governments and individuals. After taking power in 1917, Lenin followed through on these concepts. Tens of thousands of people were arrested for opposing the new regimemany of whom were tortured and executed en masse. Lenin and his followers decided to eliminate, by legal and physical means, any challenge or resistance, even if passive, to their absolute power, according to The Black Book of Communism. This strategy applied not only to groups with opposing political views, but also to such social groups as the nobility, the middle class, the intelligentsia, and the clergy, as well as professional groups such as military officers and the police, it states. Lenin also forbade private property, and peasants throughout Russia had their food seized by the state. Lenin set strict quotas on how much was to be confiscated, and when he saw the numbers go unmet, he ordered that even seeds should be seized. With peasants unable to plant new crops, and without a surplus of food for the winter, a man-made famine swept Russia between 1921 and 1922. According to the Hoover Institute, the famine killed between 5 million and 10 million people. Lenin was overjoyed. According to The Black Book of Communism, one of his friends later recalled that Lenin had the courage to come out and say openly that famine would have numerous positive results, since he claimed it would bring about the next stage more rapidly, and usher in socialism, the stage that necessarily followed capitalism. Famine would also destroy faith not only in the tsar, he added, but in God too. Soviet historian Richard Pipes wrote in his book The Unknown Lenin that Lenin brought about the famine intentionally. He stated, For humankind at large, Lenin had nothing but scorn. He said Lenin had almost no interest in the lives of individual people, and he treated the working class much as a metal worker treated iron ore. History repeated itself under Josef Stalin, following the death of Lenin on Jan. 21, 1924. Stalin began his 29-year rule of the Soviet Union by consolidating his power and having his rivals arrested or executed. In 1929, Stalin launched a program under the banner of collectivism, to not only take farmers belongings, but to also seize their land and destroy their ability to sell produce. He sent the Red Army to confiscate their belongings, including their farming equipment. A famine again swept the country. In Ukraine, between 7 million and 10 million people were killed, according to United Nations estimates published in November 2003. In Kazakhstan, an estimated 1.5 million people starved, according to the Wilson Center. Meanwhile, farmers who opposed Stalins collectivism program were labeled kulaks (Russian for fists), and tens of thousands were rounded up and executed. Stalin also used this opportunity to strike out at enemies of his revolution, which included priests and devout religious believers. As did Lenin, Stalin later declared the program a success. Through these movements and others that followed, Solzhenitsyn, a renowned Russian novelist and historian, estimated that Stalin killed 60 million to 66 million people. The bloody legacy of Stalin was only surpassed by that of Mao Zedong, head of the Chinese Communist Party. Under a similar program of collectivism, Mao started his Great Leap Forward in 1958, and through various means managed to also trigger a famine that, in four years, killed at least 45 million people, according to Maos Great Famine by Hong Kong-based historian Frank Dikotter. Cannibalism was also common during this famine. Materials uncovered by Chinese and Western scholars, and by The Washington Post in 1994, give glimpses into what took place: In Damiao commune, Chen Zhangying and her husband Zhao Xizhen killed and boiled their 8-year-old son Xiao Qing and ate him; and, In Wudian commune, Wang Lanying not only picked up dead people to eat, but also sold two jin [2.2 pounds] from their bodies as pork. Just like Stalin and Lenin, Mao excused these deaths, according to research from religious author and historian Harun Yahya. Mao and his supporters regarded the famine as punishment for villagers not being sufficiently obedient to the Chinese Communist Party. Just a year prior to the Great Leap Forward, in 1957, Mao held his Hundred Flowers campaign, when he invited intellectuals to present their criticisms of his regime, then used their criticisms as admissions of guilt. According to Red Holocaust by Steven Rosefielde, Mao labeled the estimated 550,000 intellectuals as rightists and then had them humiliated, fired, imprisoned, tortured, or killed. In the book Mao: The Unknown Story, authors and historians Chang and Halliday show Mao was responsible for at least 70 million deaths. Hidden Motives Under communist regimes, and their ideology of struggle, people were turned against each other. Children reported on their parents, students beat and tortured their teachers, young people were turned against the elderly, and neighbors were turned against neighbors. One of Marxs partners in the First International, Mikhail Bakunin, wrote, The Evil One is the satanic revolt against divine authority, revolt in which we see the fecund germ of all human emancipations, the revolution. Socialists recognize each other by the words In the name of the one to whom a great wrong has been done,' according to the book Marx and Satan by Richard Wurmbrand. In this revolution we will have to awaken the Devil in the people, to stir up the basest passions, Bakunin wrote. Our mission is to destroy, not to edify. This concept was seen clearly in the effects of communism, as it worked by first breaking peoples spirits through famine, then jarring them with public executions and harassmentall of which worked to turn people away from their morals and beliefs. According to The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 19181924 by Bruno Cabanes, this was seen immediately after Lenin took power. These peasant wars unleashed demons on both sides: the Communists against the hoarders and enemies of the people; the villagers against all symbols of collectivization, Cabanes wrote. During the famine under Stalin, there were cases of people cannibalizing human corpses, and of people kidnapping children to cannibalize. An infamous image from this time shows a Russian couple standing over the bodies of children they had partially eaten. Similar acts of cannibalism were recorded under Maos Great Leap Forward, and Mao took the acts of turning people against one another a step further with additional social movements. Under his Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, children beat their own parents, students stopped and questioned people on the street about the teachings of Maoand subsequently beat them for incorrect answersand teachers, landlords, and intellectuals were hunted and publicly shamed or worse by Maos militant group, the Red Guards. Mao branded himself as being superhuman, with posters and portraits of him hung throughout China. The Cultural Revolution destroyed or damaged vast quantities of the physical components of traditional culture, such as artwork, temples, museums, and written works. It also left a spiritual void, as the Chinese people lost connection with their own history and the legacy of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, with its rich traditions of Buddhism and Daoism. Michael Walsh, author of The Devils Pleasure Palace, noted in a phone interview that Marxs writings mirror the story of Lucifer in John Miltons Paradise Lost, in which, realizing he cant defeat God, he comes up with an alternative plan for vengeance by destroying the creations of God. Its that notion of transcendence that communism plays on, but never succeeded at. It wants death, and it creates death. Death is the end of every communist system, and it is the goal of Satan, Walsh said. What communism is, is a revenge of the losers. It plays on peoples aggrievement and their want for revenge, he said. Marx was the biggest loser ever. He was a bum who preyed on his friends. He was insane. Its a cult of insanity, of aggrievement and vengeance. Walsh said the values at the heart of religion are something shared in nearly all societies throughout historyand that communism played on this same innate root to manipulate humankind. Everybody wants to be the hero of their own narrative, he said. [Communism] uses less admirable traits in humanity, like jealousy, to engage you in revolutionevery young person wants to be a revolutionary against the established orderin order to get what you want, Walsh said. If it says from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, suddenly nobody has any abilities and everybody has lots of needs. Thats the flaw in the argument. Communism capitalized on humankinds desire for higher purpose, and did so by destroying religion and placing itself at the helm instead. According to The White Nights by Dr. Boris Sokoloff, in October 1919, Lenin visited the scientist Ivan Pavlov, known for his conditioned reflex experiments on animals, and Lenin borrowed these animal training methods to likewise train people under the Soviet education system. Sokoloff wrote that Lenins belief was that by conditioning his reflexes, man can be standardized, can be made to think and act according to the pattern required. Lenin said in place of individualism, I want the masses of Russia to follow a Communistic pattern of thinking and reacting. A Dead End Wherever the ideas of communism have been adopted, traditional religions have always been among their first targets for destruction. This held just as true under the Soviet Union, which suppressed the Russian Orthodox Church and Catholicism, as it does today under the Chinese Communist Party, which suppresses Western religions as well as Buddhism and Daoism. The Black Book of Communism gives unofficial estimates of the death tolls from communist regimes elsewhere, including 1 million in Vietnam, 2 million in Cambodia, 1.7 million in Africa, 1.5 million in Afghanistan, 1 million in Eastern Europe, and 150,000 in Latin America. It estimates international communist movements and parties not in power were responsible for close to 10,000 deaths. In Marx and Satan, Wurmbrand posed a question, one raised by many: After religion and culture are destroyed, what is left? The simple answer is that whats left is a people stripped of their ability of self-control, and with that, their ability of self-governance. It creates people who look to no higher power than that of their state leaders and who see no higher ideals than those of the state. The people then become dependent on the state. This abandonment of morals was also at the foundation of the brutality of the communist leaders and their devout followerswithout a belief in a soul, in the traditional ideas of good and evil, or the ideas of a heaven or a hell, their only ambition was the ambition of the Party, and the ideas of right and wrong were boiled down to supporting or opposing the revolution. Without a belief that good and evil have consequences, the leaders and supporters of communism have carried out atrocity after atrocity. Later in his life, Lenin was credited as saying, as Wurmbrand notes, The state does not function as we desired. How does it function? The car does not obey. A man is at the wheel and seems to lead it, but the car does not drive in the desired direction. It moves as another force wishes. Lenin later went mad, but he had a moment of clarity on his deathbed, according to Wurmbrand, when he told his wife, I committed a great error. My nightmare is to have the feeling that Im lost in an ocean of blood from the innumerable victims. It is too late to return. To save our country, Russia, we would have needed men like Francis of Assisi [a Catholic saint]. With 10 men like him, we would have saved Russia. The Grand Deception There was a grim joke among readers of the Soviet Unions state-controlled newspaper Pravda (Russian for truth) that reveals an underlying theme: The only thing thats true in todays newspaper is the date. Communism has proved to be a grand deception, a con job in human history. The theory is bad, and every implementation of the theory has been destructive to life and morality, starting with the Paris Commune, gathering speed with the Soviet Union, and continuing today in China. After more than 140 years of communism in practice, we can certainly judge communism by its fruits, rather than by what it claimed it would do. No rational human being would follow such a path. Humanity can breathe freely when Marxs evil specter of communism, sooner or later, is cast into the abyss. Joshua Philipp is an award-winning investigative journalist at Epoch Times where he covers national security relating to China. He is an expert on hybrid warfare, including Chinas roles and approaches in espionage, organized crime, and unconventional warfare. John Nania is a writer for Epoch Times. This essay originally appeared at Epoch Times. Home
Off to a bumbling start at Interior By Paul Driessen
Was it because there were too few senior Trump Administration officials in place to catch and stop it? Or because Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was new on the job, and had so much on his plate, that this decision just slipped right past him? Maybe it was because the new Administration faces so many battles with environmental activists already that it didnt want another one? Or perhaps Interior was intimidated by environmentalist lawsuits challenging President Trumps 60-day delay of newly-issued Obama Administration regulations? Whatever the reason, Trumps Interior Department opened a real can of worms when it let the Obama Administrations last-minute endangered species designation for the rusty patched bumblebee (RPB) take effect March 21 exactly 60 days after President Trump issued his regulatory Executive Order. The designation has serious adverse implications for Mr. Trumps ambitious plans for infrastructure improvements, economic growth, job creation, and reining in regulatory abuse and overreach. Already, officials in the Minneapolis area have delayed a road construction project purportedly near a patch of potential RPB habitat while they look for signs that the bees are actually nesting there. Another Minnesota group is trying to use hypothetical threats to RPBs to delay construction of a wastewater treatment plant that would prevent pollution from reaching sensitive state waterways! And this is just the beginning. It will happen again and again as anti-development agitators use this designation to theorize that construction projects and even farming operations could risk harming an endangered bee species or its possible habitats. In issuing the endangered designation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) advised that The rusty patched bumblebee is likely to be present in scattered locations that cover only 0.1% of the species historical range. Thus, government agencies need only be consulted or issue a permit for developers to take (disturb, harm or kill) the bees in these limited areas. However, 0.1% of the RPBs historic range is still an area of roughly 6,000 square miles: 3.8 million acres equivalent to all of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. And thats just the beginning. The real kicker is that no one knows where that 0.1% area might be, scattered in tiny bits and pieces all across the 13 Northeast and Midwest states where the rusty patched bumblebee has supposedly been observed (by amateur entomologists) since 2000. Thats 378 million acres: equal to the combined land area of Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana! Thats partly because the Obama FWS issued the endangered species designation without developing any protocols for actually identifying the ground-dwelling bees nesting sites. They could be anywhere in that 13-state area which means environmentalists could delay, block or bankrupt every new power line, bridge, highway, pipeline, housing development, plowing operation or other project in the affected states. The decision gives eco-obstructionists another powerful weapon against projects they oppose. Theyve already proven they are smart, determined, coordinated, well-funded opponents of President Trumps infrastructure, energy, job and economic improvement agendas. Why give them more power? Even worse, this insect designation opens the floodgates. Whether Secretary Zinke realizes it or not, waiting in the obstructionist wings, right behind the rusty patched bumblebee, are two more bumblebee species whose potential habitats spread across 40 states. The yellow-banded bumblebee has been found all the way from Montana east to New England, and down the Atlantic coast to Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. The western bumblebees range includes the entire block of eleven western states plus parts of Alaska: nearly a billion acres. Put together, were talking about nearly half of the United States! Thats a monstrous new complication for property owners, states and communities and for the Trump Administrations economic plans at the end of a long, painful decade of economic doldrums that require concerted efforts to get job and economic growth back on track. And theres even more to come. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says over one-fourth of 47 native North American bumblebee species face possible extinction. Other radical greens now claim hundreds of wild bee species are threatened with or headed for extinction. The Center for Biological Diversity asserts that 749 wild bee species are in decline, and half of them face serious risk of extinction. Real entomologists dispute this. A recent article notes that the CBD report was not peer-reviewed and presented no methodologies or data sources. It quotes Sam Droege, one of North Americas top wild bee experts, who calls the report extremely misleading and full of statistical, taxonomic and natural history problems. Assertions that some species are in decline are simply false and not based on any evidence, Droege explained. For other species, there simply is not enough data to make any accurate assessment. This is the Pandoras box that Secretary Zinkes Department of the Interior has unleashed, by failing to keep a lid on the FWS actions or review the Obama Administrations politically motivated, hurry-up designation. In fact, Zinkes department had ample reason to revise the rusty patched bumblebee designation on January 9, when Team Obama announced its plans. The DOI just bumbled it. When the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation originally petitioned the FWS for an RPB endangered species designation, it said the species decline was due to habitat loss and disease specifically an intestinal parasite that was accidentally imported to the USA from Europe in the 1990s, during experiments on managed bumblebee hives. But Obamas FWS arbitrarily contorted its justifications to blame pesticides (specifically advanced-technology neonicotinoid pesticides, a key target du jour of the Environmental Left) for the bees decline. There is virtually no evidence to support that. The exact cause for the loss of the rusty patched is unclear, says University of Virginia biology professor Tai Roulston, but its almost certainly related to disease: the Nosema bombi fungal gut parasite, which can shorten the lives of worker bees and disrupt mating success and survival of queens and males. Even more absurd and outrageous, the same Obama USFWS has given wind turbine companies permits to kill hundreds of bald and golden eagles and thousands of raptors, other birds and bats, many of them threatened or endangered every year for the next 30 years. So now the mere possibility that insect species could inhabit tiny areas across hundreds of millions of acres can be used to shut down projects, but the FWS will ignore wind turbines that are incidentally or accidentally killing eagles. Now that Secretary Zinke has let the rusty patched bumblebee endangered species designation take effect, what should he do? To paraphrase the physicians oath, First, do no more harm. The new Interior team needs to make doubly sure that no more of these dubious endangered species designations slip past them, especially when the less onerous and disruptive, but still protective, status of threatened species is available. Secretary Zinke should also take a long, hard look at the supposed justifications for the RPBs endangered designation, and modify or reverse it as warranted. Terminating or clean-desking a few Fish & Wildlife ideologues and IED makers would also be in order. Meanwhile, the House and Senate should evaluate this designation and its employment, economic and land use implications, pass a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, and send it to the White House. President Trump should sign it forthwith, and support one more vital action. In the hands of agitators, ideological bureaucrats and friendly judges, the Endangered Species Act has become a powerful weapon for controlling land use and obstructing projects. Reforming the act, to curb this kind of nonsense and abuse, would be a good next step once these immediate problems are fixed. Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death. Home
I.T., the Swamp and dangerous gadgets By H. Scott Shore
We call it Information Technology or I.T. Note that we tend to capitalize the t in Technology. Thus, do we reify and deify software, hardware, and the entire digital universe. It is precisely this nearly universal devotion to a set of distinct but integrated fields of study that is creating an intellectual and moral crisis in modern society. It might be easy to dismiss my outlook as the rantings of a curmudgeon against newfangled gadgets, complicated problems and as Mark Twain once said, all the modern inconveniences. The truth is that being a curmudgeon does not ipso facto make my concerns any less real. I have looked at IT and found it wanting. IT is not worthy of our devotion. We should view new technologies without sentiment and with cold-eyed utilitarian cost-benefit analysis. So sorry for throwing a wet blanket on all those computers, apps, platforms, mobile devices and algorithm makers! I did not write this to pointing out the shortcomings of IT. My greater purpose is to suggest that our digital universe has tremendous potential to improve the lot of humanity. I call the geniuses of this mysterious cult to deliver on the promise of these fields of research and development. Right now, IT is roughly in the stage of the first automobiles running on the first roadways. Its hard to determine if our old horse wont get us from Point A to Point B better than the dangerous, new-fangled, dangerous first cars! I should not have to be tech-savvy anymore that I need to be savvy about electrical engineering to use my light switch or an auto mechanic to drive my car. The high-tech, IT crowd should be humbler and must be held to the same high standards we ask of other areas of science and technology. You folks in IT may be very clever folks indeed. Nevertheless, youve really given us some pretty mediocre technology. Youve sold us the sizzle but some of us suspect the steak may not be so good. Its sad because our faith in IT has lowered our standards and have created unrealistic expectations. IT has left largely undiscovered the creative, positive potential in a properly scrutinized web of information networks that advance the time-space dimension and offer new improvements in Matter and Mind. Yet all our modern communication devices, reporting systems and networks have improved productivity in very limited human endeavors in areas that lend themselves to fast computation in technical fields with easily quantifiable outcomes from military weapons or systems to specific medical/surgical monitoring to sifting through mountains of data to ascertain trends or connections. Having said all the above, go to most any high school faculty, doctors or nurses lounges and youll hear a mixture of grumbling or howling dissent about the great reporting and communications systems to which they must comply! Teachers complain they dont have time to teach and caregivers complain that they dont have time to give care! They dont have Time. This was supposed to free up our time but instead in arenas as different as business, education or health care we have created a class of device-slaves. To use the metaphor of our times, IT has created a whole new and massive Swamp. The Swamp snags you in its vast array of different platforms; new, improved software; constantly starting a new learning curve; a demand for new reports and potentially useless or meaningless (or misleading) metrics against which inspired business leaders, teachers, caregivers, and innovators are measured. This adds insult to injury. As a consumer, we need to be honest and say that the User Experience and User Interface (UX and UI to use the lingo) are terrible. All of this assumes that normal tasks are not made impossible by inadequate bandwidth or poorly integrated enterprise systems. Would you rely on a system for a doctors visit, an important business transaction or a class in which the system works 75-80% of the time? As a teacher or businessman, Im unwilling to rely on such a flawed system. The blameless, unaccountable System creates an enormous amount of wasted downtime. When the system is working, businessmen and professionals spend endless hours inputting data which may or may not add one whit to the quality of their work or productivity. The cost and energy put into creating or complying with manifold new reports, notification requirements, insurance codes, or writing highly fictional business or lesson plans are enormous. They have drained some of our best talent of their creativity, motivation and their unique excellence in multiple ways. If IT were merely an underdeveloped technology we should be kinder in our evaluation. The problem is that our worship of IT or our Techno-utopia has created dangerous gadgets. It took little time for politicians, bureaucrats, moochers, grifters, predators, spies, busybodies and Big Brother to get in on the act! Presto! We have the Surveillance State and varied cyberhackers and cyberterrorists. Perhaps no technology has so imperiled our hard-earned liberties as enshrined in our Bill of Rights as American citizens. After decades of promise, Information Technology and its networks of connectivity have had a disappointing impact on labor productivity, improved quality performance and a deleterious impact on our privacy and freedoms. So far, I see a lot of sizzle but the steak is poorly cooked and grizzled. H. Scott Shore is a former Ambassador-at-large of OPIC under President George H. W. Bush and is currently an economist and educator. He was also a strategy consultant at Bain & Company and Booz & Company. Home
My pilgrimage: Chapter Eight: The Trump Cards By Michael Moriarty
The Trump, 60-missile-show-of-free-world-power! Before the rather captive audience of Red Chinas President Xi Jinping at Mara Lago, President Trumps profile as an isolationist head of state ended. Most dramatically. Not only did the Presidents missile strike on one of Syrias air force bases end his previous promise to stay out of the Middle East, it also destroyed the obvious myth that Donald Trump had made an unbreakable alliance with Vladimir Putin of Neo-Soviet Russia. That Trump/Putin Honeymoon is over. So is Trumps isolationism. With his assertion of Presidential power? Neil Gorsuch, a traditional conservative judge, was confirmed as a justice of the Supreme Court! Donald Trump is now a President operating on all the fronts he was inevitably obliged to act in. America, as it has for most of her existence, is again the indisputable leader of the free world. Why? We have a vibrantly active American patriot as President of the United States: Donald Trump. The increasingly shocking, anti-American Presidency of Barack Hussein Obama is more than a thing of the past. Rumors are afloat that the former President could be arrested for possible voter fraud in Georgia. Some think, however, that since Obama was never impeached by Congress he cant be arrested for anything he did as President, including treason. That is a tragic state of affairs which may well lead to a prolonged Second American Civil War, a nightmare insured by the apparently unlimited powers possessed by a President who cannot be prosecuted, after his Presidency, for undeniable treason. President Obama could, of course, have been impeached! Failures to impeach either Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton may have contributed to the reluctance of Congress to even discuss such a prosecution of Obama. Thank God for the arrival of Donald Trump! Americas increasing impotence has ended! The entire human race begins to look lost without a healthy American Presidency! The increasingly sick legacies of Americas previous four Presidents, from George H. W. Bush to William Clinton to George W. Bush to Barack Hussein Obama?! Suicidal insanity! What spawned that rabidly nervous breakdown?! The successful assassination of John F. Kennedy. No, I dont for one second believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone culprit! I am obviously not the only one that refuses to buy the lies of the Warren Report. From then on?! An Anti-American President such as Barack Hussein Obama became inevitable. From November 22, 1963 to Obamas last day in office?! With the exception of Ronald Reagan who also suffered an assassination attempt, all the other Presidents, from Johnson to Nixon to Ford to Carter to George H. W. Bush to Clinton to George W. Bush to Obama?! What a profoundly undistinguished and unsuccessful set of Presidencies they are. Given the deplorable condition of the American government following the Kennedy assassination, indeed, The Swamp, as President Trump has described it?! With the exception of the two Reagan terms, those 53 years saw corruption in Washington, D.C. at an increasingly shameless level! Nothing is more revealing about the unconscionable gall of Presidential treason than George H. W. Bushs still-floating dreams of a New World Order. God willing, Donald Trumps Presidency will put dreams of a New World Order to rest and the world as-it-has-usually been can return to some semblance of its traditional absurdity. Talk with you next week! Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home
Our America: Flawed and floundering but favored by Providence, Part 2 By Debra Rae
Think about it. For a mouse trap to perform, all component partsnamely, trap, spring, hammer, holding bar, platformmust be present and operate as designed. If but one is missing, or defective, the mechanism cannot perform its function. Put another way, the mechanism is the irreducibly complex work of a designer. Similarly, the American Miracle is a complex balancing act of converging happenstance orchestrated by the Hidden Hand of Providence. Historian-author Michael Medved argues that, on all counts, the rise of the American Republic qualifies as a miracle. Not all were scoundrels, but counted among our nations architects were megalomaniacs, agnostics, deists, revolutionaries, womanizers, drunks, and opportunists, many of whom overcame Achilles heels to fulfil noble missions. Had one of them discounted some crucial intersection of Americas journey, the Republic itself would have failed. Instead, a succession of impeccably timed acts of nature, coincidences, concessions, and answers to prayer disclose Master design. Diversions and Coincidences Looking back (the 1580s, to be precise), each of three, well-supplied attempts to settle Roanoke Island failed dismally; nevertheless, Calvinist Christians took their chances on yet another perilous Atlantic crossing. Coated in ice, the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Harbor, 250 miles north of its original Manhattan destination. Even before disembarking, the Pilgrims pledged their faith in self-government. Had these adventurers perished, or settled elsewhere, history surely would have taken a turn. Both the Revolutionary War and Civil War prompt what-if questions. For its vulnerability, New York was targeted by British aggressors. Insurgents faced lightning strikes, ensuing fires, and a cold, soaking rainstorm. To their wonderment, an imposing black cloud appeared, then began to swing round-and-round as would a horizontal wheel. Quite unexpectedly, the downpour discouraged General Howe from moving forward. Settling and dispersing at opportune moments, a very dense fog rendered the redcoats visible, thereby assisting General Washingtons successful retreat. Remarkably, not a one was killed or seriously injured. Keep in mind the American Revolution was a world-shaking conflict that created a wholly unprecedented, self-governing federal republic that to this day has not only endured, but also prospered, under the same basic blueprint. Stunningly, Americas second and third presidents, Adams and Jefferson, both died on Independence Day, fifty years (to the day) from this extraordinary nations founding. Had circumstances surrounding the revolution, or its outcome, been different, the Miracle of America would never have happened. Brooklyn poet Walt Whitman paired Lincolns 1860 election with spectacular, unprecedented, seemingly supernatural cosmic eventsnot least of which an exceedingly rare astronomical phenomenon known as a meteor procession, only four of which have been identified in earths entire history. Though Civil War threatened its extinction, the Union prevailed. Quite serendipitously, General McClellan became beneficiary of the greatest security leak in American military history. Though known for suffering a bad case of the slows, General McClellan moved with unaccustomed determination.The lost dispatch of intercepted orders effectively halted Lees march north and ranked Antietam among the most consequential military encounters ever. This is but one of many accounts testifying to a Hidden Hand at work on the battlefield. Americas Curious, but Destiny-Enabling Alliances Among Americas curious, unlikely, but destiny-enabling allies included a Native American, pirates, a former slave, a war-mongering despot, and a Defiant Peacemaker! Each played a pivotal role in the Manifest Destiny of our nation. Squanto Schooled in biblical beliefs while abroad, Squanto was likely the only Indian on the continent who had mastered European agricultural technique that, with his help, rescued the new colony from hunger and privation. Even before he confessed, as his own, the White Mans God, Squanto was an acknowledged gift of God to the colonies. Barataria Bay Pirates In 1811, John Quincy Adams wrote his father, former President John Adams, The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. The resonant term Manifest Destiny, thusly described, made its first appearance after Andrew Jackson won the White House. Bearing anti-pirate prejudice, General Jackson outflanked the British enemy by forging a curious alliance with Barataria Bay pirates!
Toussaint Louverture Black Napoleon Unbeknownst to many, the slave struggle in the Caribbean, led by self-educated Haitian revolutionary and former slave Toussaint Louverture, played a singularly decisive role in securing our nations future greatness. Having led historys sole successful slave rebellion, this so-called Black Napoleon blocked a French army from reoccupying the Mississippi Valley in an effort to seize the center of the North American continent. Napoleon Bonaparte The original Napoleon Bonaparte gained notoriety, not by giving away, but rather by conquering, territory for his motherland. Inexplicably, he set in motion the largest in history, single-stroke transfer of land that presented the U.S. with a vast track of land four times the size of France. Literally doubling our nations breadth, the Louisiana Purchase signaled Americas most beneficial coup since signing the Declaration of Independence. Nicholas Trist, Defiant Peacemaker When Mexicans rejected the Rio Grande as rightful line dividing their nation from ours, a West Point man and former aide of Thomas Jefferson, Nicholas Trist, was tasked with settling the border issue. In signing final documents that ended the Mexican War and awarded California to the U.S., Trist outright defied President Polk (1848). Scarcely a week before California formally passed to the U.S., gold was found! Quelling the Presidents ire, the Gold Rush sparked one of the worlds most spectacular examples of wealth creation, thereby forging Americas huge expansion the second half of the century. Astonishing Answers to Prayer Few appreciate how close founders came to failure in drafting and ratifying the Constitution. Enjoining colleagues at the Constitutional Convention to acknowledge the God who governs in the affairs of men, Benjamin Franklin issued an earnest call to prayer that signaled a demonstrable turning point in the contentious debate. Without foresight of a silent founder, Daniel Jenifer, the Constitution would not have been ratified. You see, Jenifer uncharacteristically absented himself from a crucial vote so that saving compromise might be reached. In 1815, Ursuline nuns engaged in an all-night prayer vigil whereupon their convent remained untouched by British combatants. Seemingly from nowhere, a stiff breeze arose and drove thick fog into rapidly dissolving patches, thereby exposing redcoats with glinting bayonets. After less than an hour of fighting, British forces abandoned the field. Secretary of War James Monroe marveled that history records no example of so glorious a victory obtained with so little bloodshed on the part of the victorious. The unforeseen outcome baffled observers on both sides. Incredibly, American bodies were not among the thousands lying dead. In his Farewell Address, President-elect Abraham Lincoln called upon that Divine Being who attended and assisted him; furthermore, he appealed to the God who acts in historyusing even the accidental instrument Lincoln characterized himself to be. As president, Lincoln kneeled before Almighty God and prayed earnestly for victory in Gettysburg. A sweet comfort ensued, and the rest is history. In his Inauguration Address, Lincoln spoke of malice toward none; charity for all in binding up the nations woundstimely words for his day and ours. Conclusion Though guided by admittedly flawed forefathers, America enjoys what some call luck. Others take comfort in the hand of Providence bolstering the Miracle of America. Still others spew hate America rhetoric in utter contempt of God and for countless patriots who shed blood for the miracle that changed the world. The Bible affirms that, when righteous leaders assume authority, their people naturally rejoice. Notwithstanding, despite egregious failings of men, God works for good to them that love Him and who are called according to His purpose. My hope is this: May the flawed, floundering, yet favored rise of our beloved Republic continually arouse American believers to embrace their noble heritage and, by Gods grace, to influence its lasting legacy. Debra Rae is a regular contributor to The Intellectual Conservative and this publication. 2017 Home
When will Russia run out of oil? By Viktor Katona
On a global level, 2015 and 2016 marked the lowest level of new conventional oil discoveries since 1952. In 2016, only 3.7 billion barrels of conventional oil were discovered, roughly 45 days of global crude consumption or 0.2 percent of global proved reserves. Globally, exploratory drilling fell by almost 20 percent in 2015 and fell even further in 2016. Russia's exploration activities, which were hit not only by plummeting oil prices but also by a targeted sanctions regime, suffered a double blow during this period. In 2015, only seven new hydrocarbon discoveries were made in Russia, three of them in the Baltic Sea. In 2016, oil and gas companies in Russia discovered 40 prospective fields, however, the 3P reserves of the largest among them, Rosneft's Nertsetinskoye, amounted to 17.4 million tons. This stands in stark contrast with pre-sanction period achievements, for instance, 2014's largest find, Pobeda, is believed to contain 130 million tons of oil and 0.5TCm of gas. It is only logical that against such depressive trends, that people start to question the sustainability of Russia's current oil-producing renaissance. When will Russia run out of oil? Were Sheikh Yaki Zamani's "Stone age" simile to materialize, would Russia still be among the top producers when oil started its descent towards obsolescence?
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Russia states that not accounting for new discoveries, current oil reserves in Russia stand at 29 billion tons and under current consumption rates would be depleted by 2044 (its 2P gas reserves' depletion would come about in more than 160 years). To this end, it would like to implement business-easing measures, e.g.: facilitate the issuance of licenses and to increase the size of the allotted subsoil block to a maximum of 500 km2 (which would mean a fivefold increase compared to existing regulations). The Ministry's stimulating measures, however, should not obfuscate the fact that Russia still has vast amounts of untapped reserves waiting to be discovered. But where?
Frontiers
The future of Russian crude lies in oil that is more expensive, more geologically complex and further away from traditional regions of production. Just as West Siberia replaced the Volga-Urals Region in the 1970s as the Soviet Union's main producing region, East-Siberia and offshore regions will overtake West-Siberia (which saw its share in the national output diminish from 71 percent in 2004-2005 to 57 percent currently). This change of "leaders" is long overdue as West-Siberia oil output was already expected to plummet in the 1990s, yet thanks to extended oil recovery methods and slower-than-expected development of other oil-rich regions it has managed to keep stable output numbers. Russia's oil sector has been consistently hoodwinked by analysts, who, beginning from the early 1980s predicted an imminent production slump. The production fall did happen, reaching a low-point between 1996 and 1999 when production foundered to 301-305 million tons per year. The cause was to be sought in Russia's overall economic depression, not in its dearth of resources.
Today, Russian companies are similarly constrained in tackling Russia's three new oil frontiers shale, Arctic and deep-water. It is no coincidence that U.S. and EU sanctions targeted the sales of technologies related to these sectors and not conventional whilst Russian companies are well-equipped to deal with conventional fields, they relied heavily on Western know-how. Yet it is very unlikely that even a tightening of sanctions could stall Russia's Arctic exploration activities for a longer period of time. Russia's continental shelf contains most of the Arctic's oil formations and approximately 60 percent of its undiscovered reserves. So far, the 3P reserves of Russia's Arctic stand at 585 million tons and 10.4 TCm, yet most of its Arctic Seas were only superficially appraised. The Kara Sea, whose fields are almost exclusively gaseous, has been in the spotlight since the 1983 of the Murmanskoye gas field (120 BCm), yet the northern parts of the adjacent Barents Sea, which Russia's Federal Agency on Subsoil Usage deems the most likely to yield top hydrocarbon discoveries in the next few years, are relative newcomers in prospective surveys.
Western oil & gas companies should be aware that the Russian government treats Arctic formations as resources of "federal significance" and it is unlikely to provide them a role other than that of a minority shareholder. There is more maneuvering room for oil formations in the riskier part of the Arctic the as of yet impossible-to-assess Laptev and Chukchi Seas, where no large-scale surveying has been done. Moreover, after the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf acknowledged the Okhotsk Sea as a Russian enclave, the least-researched Russian sea can now be prospected and appraised. Still, the Russian Arctic, along with frontier zones like the Timano-Pechora Basin and the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin, will play an important role in keeping Russia among world's top 3 oil producers in the next 40-50 years. Yet there is more, Russia's oil future is not only more Arctic, but also more shale-related.Russia has been sitting on vast shale/tight oil reserves, which according to present data are second only to the United States. Yet it might easily surpass all its rivals, as the development of gigantic tight-oil formations, such as Bazhenov Suite, the largest shale deposit in the world covering a territory of more than 1 million km2 and assumed to contain at least 20 billion tons of oil, is still in its infant phase. The potential of the Abalak Suite underlying the Bazhenov, the Domanik Suite, stretching asymmetrically across the Volga-Urals Region from Perm to Orenburg, as well as many others, is still difficult to assess, yet virtually all of them are located in traditional oil-producing regions with a fully-established oil infrastructure. Although the first Bazhenov oil gush dates back to 1969, several factors have hindered the development of Russian tight oi! l, yet the principal among them was the availability of other, less-costly variants of production. The preference for easier-to-access, less costly formations is aptly reflected in Russia's curbing of deep-hole exploration drilling.
As Russia's tight oil needs at least an oil price level of 55-60 USD per barrel, bringing the first fields on-stream is still some way off as conventionals' breakeven levels are in the 20-30 USD per barrel range. Despite a significant lag compared to the U.S. shale revolution, this might not be that unfavorable for Russia. It is expected that under the aegis of "import substitution", Russian service companies might be fully up to the task to exploit Russia's shale bounty by the 2020s, moreover, they are likely to work in an environment with significantly lower drilling costs, time and efficiency rates than their American counterparts in late 2000s (thus yielding more oil). By that time, perhaps, anti-Russian sanctions will be a yesteryear affair.
Lastly, one should not underestimate the tenacity of Russia's conventional oil reserves, which thanks to enhanced oil recovery techniques and supplementary exploration will remain a force to be reckoned with. As demonstrated by the discovery of the Velikoye field in the Astrakhan Oblast (reserves estimated at 330 million tons of oil), Russia's pre-salt layers, even in regions previously thought to be on the verge of depletion, might kickstart a new development vector in its energy matrix. As Russia's Natural Resource Ministry cannot account for events that are still yet to happen, its 2044 depletion assumption reflects merely its inherent conservatism, not the country's realistic capabilities. By all accounts, Russia will remain a major oil-producing nation throughout the entire XXIst century, with oil production moving to places that are further (north and east), deeper (both deepwater and pre-salt) and generally more costly. Viktor Katona is a writer for Oilprice.com where this originally appeared. Home
The Syrian attack By Robert Bidinotto
I am of mixed minds about this action, though on the whole, I support it. On the negative side: I agree with those who criticize the lack of congressional authorization for the use of military force. There are times when the president must respond immediately to a time-sensitive threat situation and can't wait around for Congress to debate. But this was not an emergency, let alone a direct, immediate threat to the United States. We have gotten entirely too used to unilateral, low-level military actions undertaken by the chief executive, which slowly metastasize into full-blown wars, and which have become our standard operating procedure. Within a year or two, a "surgical strike" somehow balloons into a futile exercise in "nation-building," with the expenditure of countless billions of dollars and thousands of American lives. And in this case, given the potentially grave stakes of involvement in the Syrian chaos, that possibility makes me nervous. If any ongoing war bears the warning label of "Quagmire," it's Syria. However, given the longstanding precedents set regarding such limited military strikes, it seems that the "congressional authorization" ship sailed long ago. All sorts of "police actions" have been conducted by presidents while Congress sat on its hands until it was too late. So in this case, we are left with prudential rather than legal considerations. And in that, on balance (and it is a difficult balancing act), I lean toward supporting this limited military strike -- but mainly for broader geopolitical reasons. First of all, horrible as Assad's ongoing genocidal actions have been, his brazen use of chemical weapons against civilians threatened to establish WMD as "the new normal" of modern warfare. Not that other horrible weapons, such as barrel bombs and cluster bombs, are much better; but the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons crosses a bright line because WMD raises exponentially the threat level to the entire world, including ourselves. The trigger and rationale for U.S. military intervention in far-flung conflicts cannot logically be some combatant's targeting of civilians per se; if that were the case, then we become morally obligated to intervene constantly, all around the world, every time some dictator or insurgent force butchers innocents. However, the "normalization" of WMD use constitutes a direct long-term threat to America itself, and that is a justifiable reason to intervene. If that is one geopolitical rationale for Mr. Trump's military strike, there is another. New presidents are always tested by aggressors to see if they have any spine; their response to such tests informs aggressors how much latitude they may have. Syria tested Mr. Obama with WMD and found out that his Red Line was inscribed in disappearing ink. On this and every other vital national security issue -- such as Iran's pathway to nuclear weapons -- the world discovered quickly that the Obama/Hillary/Ben Rhodes/John Kerry/Susan Rice/Valerie Jarrett policy in the face of aggressors consisted of a white flag. As a result, the world has become accustomed to viewing America as a paper tiger, a one-time superpower in terminal decline. Thugs across the globe concluded over the past decade that they had a carte blanche to do whatever they wanted to. And so they have, leaving the world a much more chaotic and dangerous place. President Trump's highly circumscribed action has forced them all to reconsider their assumptions -- and part of their recalculations, I think, are because Team Trump did not feel obligated or intimidated to beg prior permission of the International Community (mostly the thugs and terrorists who dominate the UN) before acting. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson laid that out in no uncertain terms prior to the attack, which served as an exclamation point at the end of their statements. The attack had little immediate military value, nor was it intended to. Instead, it was a calculated geopolitical message delivered not just to Assad, who is small change; it was a clear warning to Russia and Iran (Syria's sponsors), and to China and North Korea, that there is a new sheriff in town, and that aggression that was once tolerated would no longer be. Now, of course nobody knows how any of these nations will respond. Every military action bears serious risks. But so does passivity and inaction, which sends far more dangerous signals. I believe it is of overriding importance to American national security that these adversaries, as well as our allies and the rest of the world, understand that the days of U.S. Strategic Patience -- i.e., impotent passivity -- in the face of aggression are over. Inflicting WMD on civilian populations is the perfect issue about which to send such a message to the world. I think that today a lot of the world's beleaguered and long-suffering Good Guys are encouraged and rallying, while the Bad Guys are worried and wondering what the hell the Cowboy American President is going to do next. And that is not a bad outcome for the expenditure of $59 million in Tomahawk cruise missiles. That message sent, let's now avoid jumping into the quagmire with both feet. Robert Bidinotto is the bestselling author of the political thrillers "Hunter" and "Bad Deeds", both available on Amazon.com. Home
Time to get tough
By Daniel M. Ryan
Years ago, PETA-wannabe group Swiss Animal Protection released a very disturbing video purporting to show normal or tolerated business practice in the mainland Chinese fur industry. While watching it, the emotionless part of my brain said: If the U.S. were at war with China, this film would make for potent war propaganda.?
In the wolf world, theres a behaviour called redirected aggression.? If a wolf gets alarmed by a nearby train or chainsaw cutting wood, hell turn on another wolf. Since he cant attack whatever riled him, he instead goes after another wolf in the compound.
Clearly, PETA and its likesake depend upon displaced aggression when they release vids like that. Since we cant get to the miscreants who were responsible for this horror, we turn on each other. If youve ever seen a vid of an SJW-greenie haranguing a mild-mannered dog owner for walking his dog improperly, youve seen that displaced aggression in action.
As Fur Commission USA points out, theres good reason to believe that the above grisly video was staged: that the group in question deliberately paid a Chinese fellow to skin the animals alive. The Truth About Fur blog lists five reasons why the video is not representative of any sane practice in the fur industry. Significantly, three of them - "It would be dangerous for the operator", "It would take longer and be less efficient", "It would spoil the fur" are solid business reasons.
It is upsetting to contemplate the thought of a greenie group cynically filming a deliberate act of animal sacrifice to get $$$$ and support, but those incidents do illustrate that we have powerful emotions that can be manipulated by cynical sometimes sicko propagandists. One of those emotions is definitely aggression. As I wrote above, that grisly and disturbing video could have easily been presented as war propaganda in an alternate universe.
The First Casualty Of War
Have you noticed that a war branded as humanitarian splits the respective packs? in two? Over on the Dem side, the Hillary camp-followers have largely supported President Trumps air strike on the Shayrat Air Base last Thursday. On the other hand, Sandersitas like Rep. Tulsi Gabbard have been protesting that the strike was unconstitutional. So has The Atlantics Conor Friedersdorf.
The same split has erupted on our side. Ann Coulter, among others, criticized the Trump Administration for ditching America First and falling in with the globalists. Trump stalwart Michael Savage, drawing on his previous life as a microbiologist, pointed out that its...odd to see victims of sarin gas being treated by medics who arent even wearing gloves. If the victims were slaughtered by sarin gas, not wearing any protective material is a proven way to join the victims. Just like treating Ebola victims without so much as wearing a mask is a proven way to put yourself in a hospital bed alongside the victims.
To a depressing degree, war-talk in the public square is governed by unfenced emotion: muh feels.? In a better age, thered be a white-haired wise fellow whod put on a bug-eyed face and say: Ohh! You discovered what civil war means! Good for you!? Since our age would rather have these folks in retirement homes, we instead see the usual suspects race to fill the wisdom gap. So instead of that oldster, well be facing snarks from types that inform us, Oooh! Abraham Lincoln killed his own people!? They wont be the only ones snarking.
More seriously, depending on emotion lets in the people eager to flay America for its hypocrisy. Its not as if that tricks been used before. Unfenced emotion is not only impulsive, its also fickle. Ive already read an article entitled Nine civilians, including four children killed in U.S. Syria strike.? That article is a straight news story, but Im sure you can guess what itll be grist for.
Truth is the first casualty of war.? Yes, there is evidence that ISIS has chemical weapons. Theres also evidence that Assads government has chemical weapons. Based upon what we know of the region, knowledge gained in the school for folly, both are credible. Weve learned the hard way that chaining the regimes in that area result in either an Islamist government or an unholy mess. The truth thats been buried is that there are no good guys with clout in Syria. Case in point.
Toughening Up
Justin Raimondo has a list of several incidents which, it was later revealed, were Syrian-rebel whoppers. Why would this be unnerving? As the course of the Syrian civil war has demonstrated, letting Syria alone will mean that Assads government will win. Naturally, the rebel forces which do include ISIS have a huge incentive to tell whoppers that will get the United States on their side.
On the other hand, the Assad government has a huge and obvious incentive to minimize what theyre doing in the field. Both of these incentives imply that well never know the truth.
In Robert Heinleins Stranger In A Strange Land, Jubal Harshaw says to Ben Caxton: Theres always a choice! This one is a choice between bad? and worse?which is a difference much more poignant than that between good? and better.?'? The Syria mess is one of those choices: theres no way forward that doesnt include regret. Its nice to hand out the pat answer of the non-interventionists, but the United States already has a real presence in the region. That makes the Syrian mess the whole regions mess resemble the proverbial fellow who has a wild wolf by the ears. Just let the wolf go? is a neat answer but not a wise answer.
In the fury of emotion, its hard to remember that last Thursdays air strike was a small-scale operation. Its the kind of tactical maneuver which, if done on the ground, would be headed up by a lieutenant. President Trumps action, despite all the emotional talk youve read, is consistent with him testing the water: with him not yet deciding which course is bad and which is worse. As sundance doughtedly pointed out, King Abdullah III of Jordan is a clear beneficiary of the airstrike. As Muslim rulers go, its hard to think of a more faithful ally of the United States than King Abdullah. For one, hes long said that racial Islamism is an aberration? of Islam. For another, he and his country have put up an awful lot of Syrian refugees instead of pointing them to Europe.
Anyone else recall Obamas foreign policy being pegged as reaching out to Americas enemies while snubbing Americas allies?
As per above, President Trumps actions show that he has not yet decided which course is bad and which is worse. If he goes with non-interventionism, we have to toughen up by reminding ourselves that we cannot commandeer everything we see on the Internet by means of our governments. No matter how upsetting those sights are.
If President Trump does decide on intervention, we have to toughen up by taking to heart War is hell? - in the same way that the World-War mudfoots did. War always has its hellish side; that wont change. This is sufficient reason to think long and hard before going into one: not going into one suddenly or precipitously. But its also sufficient reason to stay the course once war is on: to be in it to win it. And, to gird oneself for the hellish sights and hellish unintended consequences which all wars bring.
Daniel M. Ryan, as Nxtblg, is shepherding the independently-run Open Audi Initiative Prediction Market Shadowing Project. He has stubbornly assumed all the responsibility and blame for the workings and outcome of the project.
Is anyone watching those who watch us? By Dr. Robert Owens
The ongoing tempest in a tea cup concerning Russian hacking and Trump collusion is merely Why? Oh, why did Hillary lose? etched out in Washington double speak through the media megaphone. To sum it all up Im reminded of a quote from the Wicked Witch of the West, What a worldwhat a world. (Not that Wicked Witch of the West, the one from the Wizard of Oz.) Here we are in an America where the government can listen to and record every word or keystroke without a warrant and the person who tells us about it is a traitor. This is an America obsessed with a manufactured scandal about Russian collusion to elect Trump by people who love to say, Hillary won the popular vote. They never seem to connect the dots. If the Russians hacked our election and Hillary won the popular vote whose side were they on? Back in the old days when the Hermit of Chappaqua was celebrated as the smartest woman in the world by the ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCPBS Cartel there was a joke that made the rounds: Bill and Hillary pulled into a gas station in rural Arkansas and good old Bubba comes out to pump the gas. As hes wiping the windshield he looks through the glass and then says, Hillary is that you? It turns out that Hillary and Bubba used to date. As they pulled away Americas most beloved sexual predator is laughing. Hillary asks, Bill whats so funny? The Prince of Interns says, Here you are married to the President of the United States instead of married to some gas station attendant. Where upon Hillary quips, Bill, if I wouldve married him hed be the President of the United States. A sequel to this apocryphal story could be: The two heads of New Yorks Sixth Crime Family are sitting at the inauguration of Donald Trump. Hillary says to Bill, If it hadnt been for you and all your baggage that would be me up there. Bill leans over and whispers, If you would have listened to me and campaigned instead of waiting to be crowned that might have been you up there. Hillary ran an abysmal campaign. I havent seen anything like it since Bob Dole ran on the logic of, Its my turn. Although some of us saw the coming collapse of the PC America Last crowd in the growing disgust of hard working Americans the central planners never did. They dismissed us as deplorable Bible clutching flag waving knuckle dragging tax paying bumpkins who lived in fly over country and could safely be ignored by our betters. They have come to rue the hubris of their assumption. They still dont get it, but they rue it, and to them ruing is a new experience. So their chosen successor to the Great Apologizer fell flat on her pants suit and they dont know what to do. It couldnt have been that people actually rejected their plan to convert America into a third world hellhole one vote among many in a UN controlled New World Order. No, that couldnt be it. There must have been a conspiracy. So today we wander endlessly day and night through the twenty-four hour wall-to-wall fake news cycle of the Russians did it while trumpeting that Hillary won the popular vote. Now we learn when President Trump tweeted that he and his transition team were under surveillance by the Obama administration he was pointing to where the hacking may have all originated. Even a celebrated left winger like Oliver Stone on CNN as reported by the Daily Beast says the DNC hack was an inside job. Another left leaning news source, Salon reports that our own intelligence agencies can hack sites and make it look like the Russians did it. If possible a shadowy tale gets darker. Susan Rice, President Obamas national-security adviser and confidant, called for American citizens who happened to be involved in the Trump campaign and transition team to be unmasked. Then we learn that Evelyn Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Obama, has acknowledged efforts by her colleagues to gather intelligence on Trump team ties to Russia before Donald Trump took office and to conceal the sources of that intelligence from the incoming administration. This isnt a smoking gun. Its two smoking guns. Both of these women need to testify under oath. Where is Trey Gowdy when you need him? And yet, the beat goes on. It reminds me that the last person elected saying that he was going to drain the swamp was Richard Nixon in 1972. Before that it was JFK. It is obvious the Progressives are plotting the Nixon treatment for Mr. Trump. Let us pray no one attempts the JFK solution to their problem. I might have just certified my induction into the Conspiracy Theorists Secret Handshake Society as far as any supporters of the establishment are concerned; however, I believe that the permanent government, now called the Deep State, has its own agenda and they are not above staging a silent coup to reign in any elected officials who get in the way. Facts can be ignored: Hillary won the popular vote The Clintons have deep and long ties to Russian Oligarchs The Clintons received millions from the Russians during the Uranium Deal All those suspicious donations that we were assured werent bribes dried up and the Clinton foundation is blowing away after Hillary lost the election Obama administration officials broke the spirit and possibly the letter of the law in their attempts to sabotage the incoming Trump Administration Not only does the media cartel put everything through their progressive spin cycle, if anything is reported that disrupts their playbook they go so far as to instruct their viewers to ignore the story. What is so sad about this is that so many we know and love, those who get their personal opinion from the Cartel will do what they are instructed to do. They will ignore the facts and believe the lie. Every conversation and keystroke recorded, cameras everywhere, investigations that have predetermined conclusions, and hearings that can only be seen as show trials and political theater that is America today. So if our government is watching everyone and editing the tapes heres my question: is anyone watching those who watch us? If you are dont tell anyone. It might be treason. Dr. Robert Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens Home
In an age of strong data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, data loss prevention (DLP) technology is becoming a critically important IT security tool.
Every organization has data, and some of that data is more sensitive than others. Sensitive data can include personally identifiable information (PII) that can impact user privacy. Sensitive data also includes payment and financial information that could lead to identity theft and fraud if the data is lost or stolen and winds up in the wrong hands. Other critical sources of data include intellectual property (IP) and trade secrets.
How DLP Works
DLP technology provides a mechanism to help protect against sensitive data lossand thus could also be something of a mitigating factor when dealing with compliance agencies in the wake of a data breach. As such, DLP has become a top IT spending priority in many organizations.
By classifying data and users and identifying or blocking anomalous behavior, DLP tools give enterprises the visibility and reporting needed to protect sensitive data and satisfy compliance reporting requirements.
Key DLP Trends
A number of trends are all driving an increase in DLP adoption and strategic importance and in some cases changing how DLP is delivered and deployed.
The Great Resignation
Businesses are currently struggling with the number of workers leaving for alternate employers. Often leaving with them is the sensitive data that fuels the business. Whether intellectual property or regulated data, employee flight creates a situation where data loss or theft is more prevalent and more costly.
Hybrid Work Model
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the common model was to have the vast majority of employees within the office and in a controlled technology environment. That model has flipped in favor of remote work and wont likely ever fully return to the way it was. More workers in more locations means more sensitive data in more locations and more potential points of data leakage.
Cybersecurity Talent Shortage
Hiring, training, and retaining the staff needed to effectively run an information security program can be a challenge for any size business given the cybersecurity talent shortage. Relying on a third party like a managed security service provider (MSSP) to be your eyes and ears delivers the simplicity and efficacy needed for an effective data protection program. Like other security defenses, DLP is also increasingly being offered as a service.
Cloud Security Platform Delivery
The cloud delivery model has proven itself to be efficient and often more secure than what companies can deliver on-premises relying on their own resources. Cloud-delivered DLP, or DLP as a Service, eliminates the complexity and overhead that can burden IT teams.
Platform Consolidation
Organizations rely on an ever-increasing stack of security vendors. This increase in vendors leads to excess complexity and often reduced information security. Consolidating internal and external data protection programs with a single solution delivers a simplified view that analysts can use to achieve their main goal, which is to protect sensitive data.
Data Explosion
IDC estimates that by 2025, 463 exabytes of data will be created every single day. Information security teams have a rapidly expanding challenge to find, understand, and protect all that data. Whether it be on the endpoint, in the cloud, or somewhere in between, data protection programs are a critical piece of the solution to stop data loss or theft.
Profiling
Customers and companies are moving away from the registration model. Maintaining spreadsheets with millions of rows to identify PII is too difficult to maintain and secure, especially as customers are moving to a profiling mode of operation.
Also read: Top GRC Tools & Software
DLP capabilities
There are a number of key capabilities that the top DLP products and services support.
Cloud: The DLP market, much like the broader IT market, has been shaped in recent years by the rise of the cloud. No longer is enterprise data confined to on-premises deployment. DLP solutions therefore must monitor sensitive data in the cloud.
The DLP market, much like the broader IT market, has been shaped in recent years by the rise of the cloud. No longer is enterprise data confined to on-premises deployment. DLP solutions therefore must monitor sensitive data in the cloud. Privacy compliance: With GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy regulations on the rise, DLP has become a useful tool for helping organizations protect customer privacy.
With GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy regulations on the rise, DLP has become a useful tool for helping organizations protect customer privacy. Data labeling: DLP tools have long enabled users to self-assess and identify what types of data should be protected.
DLP tools have long enabled users to self-assess and identify what types of data should be protected. Machine learning: Among the latest advances in DLP is machine learning capabilities that automatically identify potentially sensitive information, so it can be protected.
How to choose a DLP solution
When choosing a DLP technology or services, there are several key considerations organizations must take into account, including:
Scope: Where is the data that needs to be protected, and does the solution youre looking at have full visibility into those deployments?
Where is the data that needs to be protected, and does the solution youre looking at have full visibility into those deployments? Compliance: If the DLP service is being used to help enable regulatory compliance, be aware of integration with GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) tools.
If the DLP service is being used to help enable regulatory compliance, be aware of integration with GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) tools. Reporting: Its important for some organizations to have visibility and reporting into what data is protected and how it is being accessed, particularly for compliance purposes.
8 Top DLP Solutions
Jump ahead to:
After reviewing the market for DLP solutions, here are eSecurity Planets top picks for DLP.
Digital Guardian
The Digital Guardian Data Protection Platform by HelpSystems, powered by AWS, performs on traditional endpoints, across the corporate network, and on cloud applications, making it easier to see and block threats to sensitive information.
Cloud-delivered means simplified deployment, cross platform coverage for no gaps, and flexible controls to stop risky behavior. And available either as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) or managed service deployment, Digital Guardian gives deployment flexibility.
Key Differentiators
Digital Guardian supports both a use case-based approach (known data types or user groups) or a data risk discovery approach (identifying unknown use cases).
Users can gain visibility into their data by seeing where sensitive data is located, how it flows in the organization, and where it is put at risk, all without policies.
Users can benefit from rapid deployment, reduced overhead, and instant scalability.
DLP coverage is available for all endpoints, browsers, and apps.
Controls are able to align data protection programs with business needs. These controls include log, alert, prompt, block, and encryption.
The platform can be deployed as a fully managed security service program (MSSP) with a 24/7 global analyst team.
Users can discover, classify, and protect data throughout the extended enterprise via an endpoint agent that can be installed on Windows, Mac, or Linux machines or a network appliance, either physical or virtual.
All data-centric events collected are reported up to the Analytics & Reporting Cloud (ARC). This web-based console, powered by AWS, correlates and analyzes system, user, and data events from endpoint agents and network appliances to provide the visibility and context to identify and remediate insider and outsider threats.
Digital Guardian provides intellectual property and regulated data protection.
Fidelis
Fidelis Network gives a clear picture of bi-directional, encrypted traffic along with its context, all in one place. Deep Session Inspection technology extracts metadata and monitors 300+ different attributes.
In addition, Fidelis can retrospectively detect and investigate threats and stop sessions that violate policies with details about who is sending and receiving data and what type of data is being sent. As an integrated feature of a larger security stack, Fidelis DLP provides increased data visibility, protects intellectual property, and ensures compliance.
Key Differentiators
Fidelis offers visibility into all ports and protocols.
Users can analyze encrypted traffic and detect anomalies within that traffic.
Fidelis enables users to inspect objects, text, and attributes buried deep in layers of applications, archives, or compression.
Custom file decoders extract text and attributes from PDFs, MS Office files, etc.
Decrypt for deeper analysis to detect malware on the wire, encrypted attacker communications, data theft, and insider threat; inspect; and re-encrypt traffic without slowing down network traffic.
Understand whats moving across the network, how its moving, and who is seeing it.
Prevent data theft or unauthorized sharing.
Fidelis provides a flexible and customizable policy engine.
A prevention capability is available even in real-time sensors, including prevention by hash, using partial file matching.
The platform offers an extensive list of profiling in addition to data registration processes. By using profiling, Fidelis customers can sufficiently describe the data rather than painstakingly collecting the data.
PII profiling is covered by a multivariate data analysis technique that detects violating data without creating huge lists.
Email handling with bi-directional quarantine blocks threats coming in and sensitive data going out.
Check Point
Check Point Data Loss Prevention (DLP) combines technology and processes to move businesses from passive detection to active DLP.
Data classification integrates user, content and process information to make accurate decisions, while UserCheck empowers users to remediate incidents in real time. Check Points network-based DLP solution frees IT and security personnel from incident handling and educates users on proper data handling policiesprotecting sensitive corporate information from both intentional and unintentional loss.
Key Differentiators
Deploy predefined policy in monitor mode in a few minutes.
Track and control the movement of sensitive data in the organization.
Stay compliant with regulations and industry standards.
Educate users on proper data handling policy.
Check Point has two options for securing data: Content Awareness and a full-featured DLP.
Choose from 60+ or 700+ predefined data content types for PII, PCI, HIPAA, and more.
Customize predefined data types or create new ones as needed.
Customizable, multi-language user notifications are available.
Inspect and control SMTP, FTP, HTTPS webmail, and Exchange traffic.
Harmony Cloud Email Security secures Office 365 and Google Workspace applications.
DLP is integrated directly into Check Point security gateways and firewalls, and they also check SSL/TLS encrypted data to prevent data loss.
Clumio
Clumio Protect & Discover offers backup and recovery for AWS, VMC, and Microsoft 365. It simplifies and automates AWS data protection for Amazon S3, EC2, EBS, and RDS; SQL Server on EC2; DynamoDB; VMware Cloud on AWS; and Microsoft 365.
Key Differentiators
Ransomware protection is offered with air-gap backups that are immutable and end-to-end encrypted.
Meet compliance requirements with global policies and protection groups.
Restore data in minutes with granular, one-click recovery to reduce RTO (recovery time objectives).
Get real-time visibility and recommendations to reduce data risks and stay on top of AWS backup spend.
Validate defined RPO (recovery point objectives) across all accounts to ensure compliance on recovery points.
With all backup and recovery management and optimization in one easy-to-use place, IT teams can spend less time on AWS backup and focus more on strategic initiatives.
Backups in Clumio SecureVault are stored outside of AWS accounts by default so no additional actions are needed to protect backups from malicious attacks.
Clumio backups are immutable; they cannot be changed, and there is no delete button.
Centralized dashboards and reports plus calendar view, global search, and browse functionalities make it easy to see data and customize protection.
Lifecycle management rules allow users to automate and streamline backup plans.
Trellix
Trellix formed from the merger of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye remains tightly coupled with its former cloud business, Skyhigh Security, in the area of DLP. Trellix Data and User Security provides DLP features such as real-time visibility and security of data, protecting against data leakage through dynamic access adjustment, intelligent threat identification, and automated response.
Key Differentiators
The platform protects data everywhere.
Trellix provides continuous data security from any device with multi-vector DLP.
Data is deployed and updated with a zero-trust approach.
Applies AI (artificial intelligence)/ML (machine learning) insights at scale to identify anomalous user behavior (UEBA), while also automating and simplifying data access policy orchestration.
Trellix Data and User Security adapts across the enterprise.
Threat research is combined with intelligent automation to adapt to new risks, allowing you to flexibly address ever-growing data security needs.
Code42
Code42 plays in the DLP market yet believes DLP isnt the answer. Instead, it advocates a risk-based approach via its Incydr solution. It monitors all the places data lives to identify when files move outside the trusted environment.
Key Differentiators
Code42 prioritizes the highest risk employee activity using 60+ contextual Incydr Risk Indicators (IRIs).
Watchlists allow you to programmatically protect data when files are most at risk, such as during employee departure.
A range of controls are available to contain, resolve, and educate on events via Incydr Flows and SOAR.
The platform acts as a cross-platform endpoint agent for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Incydr Exfiltration Detectors are available for cloud (OneDrive, Google Drive, Box), email (Office365 and Gmail), and Salesforce.
Tailored views identify data exposure, training gaps, and corporate policy.non-compliance as well as measure program performance company-wide.
Prioritizes the risks that need immediate attention through contextual risk scoring based on file, vector, and user characteristics and behaviors.
Automates management workflows and get focused visibility into file activity for a subset of users who are more likely to put data at risk, such as departing employees.
Investigates event details and custom query a comprehensive, cloud-based index of activity metadata without putting strain on employee devices.
Documents and retains investigation evidence for malicious and high-impact incidents, and creates reports for key stakeholders.
Forcepoint
Forcepoint DLP offers tools to manage global policies across every major channel, whether it is an endpoint, network, cloud, web, or email. Predefined templates, policies, and streamlined incident management, among other features, enable organizations to address risk by bringing visibility and control where people work and data resides.
Key Differentiators
Meet and maintain compliance with more than 1,500 predefined templates, policies, and classifiers applicable to the regulatory demands of 83 countries.
Locate and remediate regulated data with network, cloud, and endpoint discovery.
Take advantage of central control and consistent policies across all channels.
Coach employees to make smart decisions, using messages that guide user actions, educate employees on policy, and validate user intent when interacting with critical data.
Securely collaborate using policy-based auto-encryption that protects data as it moves outside the organization.
Automate data labeling and classification by integrating with third-party data classification solutions (e.g., Microsoft Azure Information Protection, Boldon James).
Identify data at rest, in motion, and in use with Forcepoint DLP.
Proofpoint
Proofpoint Endpoint DLP takes a people-centric approach to protecting data. It provides integrated content awareness and behavioral and threat awareness, which gives granular visibility into user interactions with sensitive data. In addition, Proofpoint Endpoint DLP offers the ability to detect, prevent, and respond to data loss incidents in real time.
Key Differentiators
Simplifies response for data-loss incidents and out-of-policy violations.
Identifies risky user behavior and sensitive data interaction.
Detects and prevents insider-led security incidents and data loss from endpoints.
Proofpoint Endpoint DLP extends the capabilities of the Proofpoint Information and Cloud Security platform to the endpoint.
Visibility and context into user and data activity is available.
Proofpoint Endpoint DLP simplifies deployment with a pure SaaS back end and lightweight endpoint agent architecture.
The platform collects telemetry on user interactions with data.
Read next: Best Incident Response Tools and Software
The European Union is pushing for a political solution to the Syrian civil war following the chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun and subsequent air strikes by the United States. European leaders offered varying levels of support to Thursdays U.S. missile strikes on Syrian government forces with reactions from EU governments and ranging from tepid expressions of comprehension to outright embrace.
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement that the use of chemical weapons must be answered, and that the US air strikes were aimed to deter further [chemical] attacks. Federica Mogherini, the head of the European diplomacy, reiterated that the EU firmly believes that there can be no military solution to the conflict stressing that the EU is committed to the unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of the Syrian State. She said that only a credible political solution would ensure peace and stability in Syria and enable a decisive defeat of Daesh and other UN-designated terrorist groups in Syria.
The United States has informed the European Union that they launched a strike on Shayrat Airfield in Syria based on their assessment of what US President Donald Trump called horrible chemical weapons attack. In the meantime, the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that Iran and Russia bore heavy responsibility for the chemical attack, either by allowing the regime to use such weapons or incompetent oversight of their allys obligations. The world is waiting for Russia to reconsider its misplaced alliance with Bashar al-Assad, she stressed and added that the United States will no longer wait.
Russia was swift to react to the US attacks, saying that Washington had violated international law under a false pretext and warned of extremely serious consequences that could follow. Russian Prime Minister said that the strike was unjustified and completely ruined relations. The Kremlin also announced that it would bolster the regimes air defenses but did not confirm whether it would cut off the deconfliction hotline that both sides are using to avoid clashes between the US and Russian forces.
Hi all,
I have trying to find the information on internet, but I don't know if it's either too outdated (2014) and if it has changed.
We have filed the DS-2001 form, notice of readiness, to the US embassy in Paris for my husband's visa application and this has been done a month and a half ago. We are starting to get nervous, since he is still in France and I am living here in the US, and we don't know when we should be expecting the visa interview appointment Does it usually take so long? The NVC website state that our file has been "ready" since the 24th of October 2016 (I had to file late taxes for the affidavit of support and we were waiting for the tax transcripts before sending in form DS-2001).
I am starting to wonder if there is an issue with our mailing addresses because we should have had an appointment by now, no?
Thanks for the help on the timeline!
Leila
As a retired person, you would apply for a "visitor" visa through your local French consulate. You can check the website for the French consulate in Sydney to find out more about their requirements, but the key thing tends to be that you have adequate financial resources to maintain yourself while living in France. They tend to prefer "stable" sources of income - like a government pension - or investments sufficient to provide ongoing income at a reasonable level, rather than assuming that you'll have enough for a fixed period.
Figure that the minimum wage in France is currently close to 1500 a month and work around that figure, based on where and how you plan to settle in France.
Cheers,
Bev
The problem is that until you file your first tax form here in France, you have no "tax number" (actually, there are two different tax numbers) and the only way they can identify you is by your name and address. Officially, your identification here consists of name, date and place of birth and some other details - and I suppose that's why the Fisc assigns the tax numbers to anyone sending in a tax declaration that doesn't include their previously assigned tax number. (The forms you receive are preprinted with those numbers.)
And the matter of addresses is confusing because, as I understand it, you're supposed to file your declarations with the address at which you are living as of when you are filing (not necessarily the address you lived at during the year you're filing for). There's the section about reporting a move to indicate where you were living (but I get the feeling they don't get a lot of late-filed returns). In any event, it's not really worth their while to try to determine if there are two different persons with the same name or not using what looks (to them) to be a first tax declaration.
Seriously, the tax office people are generally pretty easy to deal with as long as you don't wait until the rush season. Go make an appointment now and explain what happened. They'll fix it for you.
Cheers,
Bev
A blog about life under, and resisting, a dictatorship
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NEW YORK Bottled water is starting to seem more like soda, and sometimes taste like it, too.
As bottled water surges in popularity, Coke, Pepsi and other companies are using celebrity endorsements, stylish packaging and fancy filtration processes such as reverse osmosis to sell people on expanding variations of what comes out of the tap. Theyre also adding flourishes including bubbles, flavors or sweeteners that can blur the lines between what is water and what is soda.
For this years Super Bowl, PepsiCo even ran an ad for its new Lifewtr, promoting the drink in a spotlight typically reserved for sodas. Also running their first Super Bowl ads were Fiji and Bai brands, which sell enhanced waters made with fruit juice and stevia sweetener.
Michael Simon, Bais chief marketing officer, says its drinks give people that healthy profile theyre looking for, but now they no longer have to sacrifice on taste with the neutrality of water.
Bottled water has been gaining ground for years, and it overtook soda as the No. 1 drink in the U.S. by sales volume last year, industry tracker Beverage Marketing Corp. said. Some of the fizzy, sweetened drinks are considered water by the companies and industry trackers, as the distinctions between them lose meaning. Companies arent as interested in the big economy packs of plain bottled water that have been fueling the growth, says Ali Dibaj, a Bernstein analyst who covers the industry, because those are less profitable than sodas and are a horrible business to be in.
So Coke and Pepsi are focusing on pricier options that compete with brands such as Evian and Perrier. And theyre introducing fizzy and fruity varieties to get a better foothold in an increasingly crowded marketplace where options such as LaCroix and others are gaining popularity. Showing just how blurry the lines are getting, PepsiCo launched a drink recently that it describes as sorta juice, sorta soda, sorta sparkling water. Such options can capture people looking to cut back on sodas or juices and may get people who might buy lower-priced waters to upgrade.
You can get up the ladder in terms of water and get out of the categories that dont drive a lot of value, Coca-Colas incoming CEO James Quincey said in September.
Quincey cites Smartwater, which has enjoyed sales growth in North America, as a way for Coke to profitably expand its water business. The brand is billed as vapor distilled and features actress Jennifer Aniston in its ads.
He also said that in the crowded Chinese market, Coke is upgrading people to a water brand it markets as socially responsible with a different blend of minerals, which costs twice as much.
Exactly what makes water seem like its worth the extra money varies, but image is key.
PepsiCo had toyed with names like Qua and Om before settling on Lifewtr. The company points to the artwork featured on its bottles, and the reverse osmosis filtration the water undergoes, with electrolytes added for taste. This is where consumers are heading, Todd Kaplan, vice president of marketing at PepsiCo, said about lower-calorie drinks such as Lifewtr.
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.
Both Lifewtr and Smartwater, which account for a small portion of the overall packaged water market, are made with municipal water and were selling for $2.79 for a 1-liter bottle at a 7-Eleven in New York City. The convenience store chains private label brand was selling for $1.50 for the same size bottle.
The challenge for Coke and Pepsi is people like Andrew Allen. The New York City resident said he is trying to drink more water but isnt loyal to a particular brand and buys whatever he can get a deal on.
I just wanted to stop drinking soda just give it up, Allen said.
Julie McKnight, who also lives in New York, said the distinctions made by some bottled waters are not worth the extra price. It doesnt seem any different, she said.
To help address peoples concerns about the environment as well as paying for a variation of what they could get from the faucet, companies such as Nestle have been light weighting the packaging to use less plastic and keep prices down.
Those among you who grew up in a taco-rich ecosystem like San Antonio might not understand my abiding affection for Taco Cabana, but it was my first retail engagement with anything that tasted like a handmade flour tortilla. Until the Cabana rolled into Austin, tacos were just a binary proposition for me: crispy or soft. But when the Taco Cabana bandwagon showed up with its flashy tortilla machine like Robert Preston in The Music Man ( ... and that rhymes with T, and that stands for Tortilla), it opened my eyes to a wider world of what could go in those tortillas.
So today, for Day 100 of 365 Days of Tacos, Im paying homage to the original location of Taco Cabana, which started right here on San Pedro Avenue in 1978.
As many as five high schools in the San Antonio Independent School District could include early college programs tied to specific career fields starting in fall 2018, with possible support from new grants proposed in the Legislature.
Senate Bill 22, which passed the chamber last week and has been sent to the House, would eliminate the current tech-prep program and replace it with the national P-TECH, or Pathways in Technology Early College High School, program. Modeled after a network of schools in New York, P-TECH involves partnerships between school districts, higher education institutions and employers to teach skills that prepare students for high-demand jobs.
SAISD Superintendent Pedro Martinez served on a committee of educators and employers that helped craft the bill.
Its very aligned to the vision we have for all of our high schools, where we want our children to get dual credit, Martinez said. We want our children to be aligned to (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. ... I think this is the future for where were going in our state.
The legislation, with a $5 million fiscal note, would provide startup grants to high schools looking to join the P-TECH program.
The program works similarly to SAISDS CAST Tech High School opening downtown in the fall. That school was started with $3.6 million from H-E-B, which plans to fund a network of similar schools throughout Bexar County. CAST Tech is focused on technology and business, in partnership with San Antonio College and companies including Tech Bloc, Geekdom, Rackspace and USAA. The curriculum will be project-based and students will participate in job shadowing, mentorships and internships. Students can graduate with associates degrees and industry certifications.
SAISDs Travis Early College High School, across the street from San Antonio College, could become a P-TECH school, Martinez said. All of its seniors graduated last year with associates degrees. Martinez said 86 percent finished their high school and associates degrees in four years and the other 14 percent finished both degrees over the summer.
There is a gap there, which is, we dont connect with the employers, Martinez told the Senate Committee on Education during a February hearing. Most of them do very well, but some of them take a lot of classes and theyre not really in a certain major. They may not be in an in-demand field.
Whether or not the bill passes, SAISD is in talks with the Alamo Colleges and Texas A&M University-San Antonio to set up engineering-focused P-TECH programs at three other high schools, Martinez said. Sam Houston High School could partner with Accenture, Highlands High School with Valero and Lanier High School with Zachry Group for construction engineering, Martinez told the Senate committee.
Grants from the state could cover the programs startup costs, including equipment and staff training, Martinez said.
The P-TECH model emphasizes paid internships and guaranteed job interviews after graduation, said state Sen. Larry Taylor, a Friendswood Republican who chairs the education committee. School districts would be able to apply to the state Commissioner of Education for P-TECH designations, he said. The bill would take effect in the 2018-2019 school year.
Mario Lozoya, director of government relations for Toyota in San Antonio, also testified in favor of the bill. Toyota has a shortage of candidates for jobs that require more than a high school education but less than a four-year degree, he said. In any given quarter, Toyota in San Antonio has 20 to 50 unfilled jobs out of a total of 350, he said.
We do not want to bring people from outside of Texas to fill these jobs, Lozoya said. We want people from our own backyard. ...To me, its an economic development issue.
P-TECH students will not be forced into jobs at the company where they interned, Lozoya said.
They can work with whatever company they want, so the idea here is to provide a pipeline for the entire community, he said.
Nor does the program preclude students from going on to a baccalaureate degree, Taylor said. It will especially help students who would never have gone to college in the first place, he said.
Some of these kids otherwise, if they dont see relevance and they need money in their family situation, they just go to work, Taylor said. Unfortunately, that holds them back for the rest of their lives.
amalik@express-news.net
Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN
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The tourism, hospitality and culinary arts program at St. Philips College has a reputation that precedes it graduates go on to work for top restaurants in a city with a respected food scene.
But the program has never had its own building. Its crammed into 18,000 square feet of the community colleges Campus Center, where busy students collide in kitchens too small for todays class sizes.
Aging equipment has not been updated since the facility was constructed in 1988, in part because the electrical system cant support new appliances. During demonstration lessons, Chef Will Thornton and his students cant work simultaneously because the grid isnt powerful enough to handle all the activity at once. And no one can forget the old ceiling tiles that used to fall on the pastry kitchen after rainstorms.
When high school kids come here for recruitment, frankly, theyre underwhelmed, Thornton said. Their high school labs had better equipment.
Under a $450 million Alamo Colleges bond proposal that voters across Bexar County will see on the May 6 ballot, St. Philips would get a new, $30 million, 74,000-square-foot Culinary Arts Center of Excellence. It would have cooking, pastry and bread stations, more classroom space and upgraded equipment.
The bond debt would not result in a property tax increase, officials said.
The culinary facilities at St. Philips are a focal point for those who support the bond, but also for their opponents, who say the community college district should find a way to fund the upgrades without the larger bond package.
St. Philips and San Antonio College, the oldest campuses in the Alamo Colleges district, would get the most out of the bond, more than $80 million each. Some old facilities would be renovated, including the Norris Technical Building at St. Philips, the natatorium and gym at Palo Alto College and the McAllister Fine Arts Center at San Antonio College. Palo Altos allocation would include a $30 million manufacturing building supporting an early college high school in a partnership with the Southwest Independent School District, H-E-B and other area employers.
The bond issue also would fund $23 million for each of two new campuses on the South and Northwest sides that would not be fully accredited colleges but would provide occupational training, remedial education and college counseling. An equal amount would go to renovate the Westside Education and Training Center.
Northwest Vista College and Northeast Lakeview College, newer colleges in the fastest-growing parts of Bexar County, would get new science and technology buildings.
Alamo Colleges trustees and administrators have pointed to the fast growth of Bexar County as a reason for the bond, predicting tens of thousands of new students by 2030, but some professors and community members take issue with that forecast. Almost 50,000 students take courses for academic credit from the community colleges, a number that jumped to about 60,000 two years ago when students in occupational programs were included.
Alamo Colleges last week provided fall semester enrollment figures from 2010 to 2015 that show a districtwide increase of more than 1,500 students in academic programs, offset by a decrease of more than 3,000 students in technical programs. Officials did not provide last falls enrollment figures.
Supporters also tout the Centers of Excellence that the bond would fund at each campus. Many would host programs that are in high demand locally, such as the law enforcement and first responders academy at San Antonio College and health care technology at Palo Alto. The bond would also be used to improve technology across the district, including classrooms and labs.
The package contains
$11 million to buy land adjacent to Palo Alto and for a future education and training center on U.S. 281 on the far North Side.
The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce board voted unanimously in February to support the bond.
As a community, we need to support the continued growth and expansion of our community colleges, especially given the role they play in training so many members of our future workforce, its president and CEO, Richard Perez, said in a prepared statement. The chamber is proud to support this important bond initiative for the colleges, and we encourage voters to vote yes on May 6.
No organized opposition has coalesced, but some community members have spoken against the bond at recent district board meetings. Many point to accreditation warnings at three of the five colleges, an issue that led one trustee, James Rindfuss, to vote against sending the bond proposal to voters.
The agency that accredits the community colleges issued the warnings in December to San Antonio College, St. Philips and Northwest Vista, saying they were not representing themselves as autonomous institutions and that trustees had overstepped their bounds in setting some curriculum and governance policies. In response, trustees have recently modified policies, including one that had required the districtwide teaching of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Before trustees voted for the bond in January, Ricardo A. Martinez, chairman of United Public Works of Texas, spoke about widespread community criticism of Chancellor Bruce Leslie and the accreditation warnings. Martinez hoisted a large photo of Leslie at last years Palo Alto commencement ceremony, slumped in his seat with legs outstretched, using his cellphone an inattention to the graduates that had caused a public outcry. He later apologized.
I will not support a bond issue, and neither will any of my friends support a bond issue, until he resigns, Martinez said. Theres a cloud over this whole board and the chancellor.
Alamo Colleges last passed a bond issue 12 years ago. For more information about the May 6 proposal, visit alamo.edu.
Early voting runs from April 24 through May 2.
amalik@express-news.net
Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND The party is over, and the fight is on. At stake is the future of Spring Break on this island paradise.
In one corner are hundreds of property owners and businesses who want a family-friendly holiday. In the other is the owner of the biggest beach bar in Texas and 1,500 supporters who say the party must go on.
Each group presented their case last week to the South Padre Island City Council, which agreed to study possible ordinances on mass gatherings and short-term rentals, and hold several public meetings before taking action in July.
Its not kill Spring Break, its lets make Spring Break a little different so that we can control the crowd that comes down here, said Shane Wilson, a first-grade teacher and a leading voice in the push for a tamer Spring Break on the island.
South Padre Island has long been a popular Spring Break destination, especially for Texas college students looking to blow off steam. But a series of accidental deaths of Spring Breakers in recent years and concert venues that now overflow with thousands of inebriated partygoers is more than some residents can bear.
The rumblings of a change to Spring Break began in late February. By the end of March, a petition to Save Our Island had taken shape, urging the city to rein in the unruly crowds. Now with around 500 signatures, the petition calls for an ordinance that would force event promoters, not the city, to shoulder the cost of hiring additional security and cleaning up.
Most significant of all is a requirement that if the city approves a concert featuring musicians that might attract people with criminal records, the city could require the venue owner to post a bond before a permit is issued by the city.
A lot of the entertainers that have come down here promote violence toward women, violence toward law enforcement and a complete disrespect of government in general, said Wilson, who is also president of the influential Property Owners Who Care organization. If youre going to bring in groups that promote that kind of violence, then you need to be held responsible for the aftermath and the byproduct.
A few days after the first petition went out, Clayton Brashear, owner of Claytons Beach Bar and Grill, began circulating his own, called Save Spring Break from regulation. His petition, with around 1,500 signatures, calls for better equipping police to enforce existing ordinances, and targets the rowdy house parties that spilled out into the streets of residential neighborhoods.
Claytons claims the title of largest beach bar in Texas, and in recent years crowds of between 3,000 and 5,000 have gravitated to his concerts, featuring acts like Lil Wayne and Migos. The crowds grew even larger this year during the three-day Ultimate Music Experience concert, which Claytons hosted in its parking lot. He hires additional security for concerts, and pays for beach cleanup at the end of every day.
I think its smoke and mirrors for what they really dont like, Brashear said about the property owners proposal. Theyre trying to come up with some rules to prohibit the businesses from inviting Spring Breakers that they dont like.
As San Antonio transplant and City Councilman Dennis Stahl sees it, the Save Our Island petitioners are trying to come up with solutions to make the month of partying more palatable for all, while Clayton and his supporters are unwilling to curtail Spring Break in any way.
Lost in the heated debate among 2,500 permanent island residents is an economy that is entirely dependent on tourism, said Chad Hart, owner of Interia Tours. His tour business brought in 7,000 students last month, most of them from the Midwest.
Hart said Spring Break generates around $35 million for island businesses, revenue that is sorely needed after the slow winter months. Yet every year the earnest discussion portending the end of Spring Break begins anew. If residents arent careful the city could end up like Panama City, which in May 2015 banned alcohol on its beaches during Spring Break, causing many college students to vacation in other destinations.
Lets say you just pass one regulation, then one more, pretty soon youve got 50 ordinances stacked up against Spring Break when the whole pitch was not to kill Spring Break, Hart said.
anelsen@express-news.net
Twitter: @amnelsen
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ROCKSPRINGS Ninety years after a monstrous tornado all but blasted this remote ranching town off the map killing more than 70, wounding 200 and obliterating all but a handful of buildings time has largely dulled the knifes edge of the tragedy.
Still, a sharp-eyed visitor to the city cemetery would likely note the remarkable frequency of April 12, 1927 on granite headstones in both the Anglo and Hispanic sections.
One stone in the paupers section reads simply Unknown 16, indicating the number of unidentified who were buried together there.
On the Sweeten Ranch, east of town, the rocky goat pastures still contain hundreds of pieces of twisted and rusted metal from the debris trail of the storm. Battered household items such as pitchers or chamber pots turn up as well.
Or one might encounter Modell McCoy, 97, whose most vivid memory of childhood came on a spring evening with a huge, dark cloud approaching.
I remember that my mother was pulling in her flowers. She loved her (potted) plants, and she was trying to protect them. My little brother and I were crying and begging her to come in, and she finally did, McCoy recalled.
McCoys mother ran the downtown Wooldridge Hotel, where the post office now sits. The family took shelter in the hotel.
We were all together when the storm hit. It blew the porch roof off my mothers place, and blocked all the windows of the room we were in. God was taking care of us. It was the only house left on the block, said McCoy, who never left Rocksprings for very long.
Ive been scared all my life. If a bad cloud came up, Id feel I needed to get to my mother, she added.
The killer storm wiped out the humble Mexican settlement north of town, including the entire Fuentes family. It also killed Methodist minister Hudson Spiers, his wife and child; Charlie Baker, owner of the local cafe; and Ripley Dollahite, publisher of the Edwards County Leader.
Afterward, the city about 120 miles west of San Antonio quickly rebuilt and for many decades thrived as a regional hub of the wool and mohair industry.
But its population fell almost by half in the 1990s with the end of federal price supports for those commodities. Rocksprings is much quieter today, with a population of only 1,100, a third higher than 1927. Throughout it all, the town has kept a tornado warning system.
Honoring the dead
Before memory of the great storm is lost to history, residents are holding a memorial Wednesday for those who survived and those who died.
First-person stories of heroism and of unimaginable suffering will be retold. Lost lives and broken families will again be mourned. Children of the iPhone age will ponder fading black-and-white scenes of local destruction worthy of any foreign war.
For most of the community, this will be the first time theyve learned any details. We kind of wanted to do this while we still have a couple of people alive who went through it, said Kari Cloudt, 65, one of the organizers of the Wednesday night event at the Rocksprings Auditorium.
We will honor the names of the known deceased. Then well have some readings from two students of peoples memories of the storm, and then well have a 12- to 13-minute video about Rocksprings, starting out when Edwards County was founded, she said.
The video, she said, will feature pictures of Rocksprings before the storm and others showing the devastation, with the last segment showing Rocksprings recovering and rebuilding.
Cloudt says that 90 years later, it remains unclear how many people died in the storm.
The list of the deceased is a work in progress. It seems that periodically we find out that someone on the list was raised by his grandfather in Camp Wood or something like that, she said. Her best idea of an accurate count is about 74 or 75.
Cloudt spent part of her childhood in Rocksprings. And before she began doing research on the storm, her sense of it was mostly fragmentary.
I can remember as a child going to school there, and one day they put this bell up between the junior high and elementary school buildings. It was the old bell that was on the school that was blown away by the tornado, she said.
Cloudt recalls the family storm cellar, one of many to appear soon after the great storm.
My father-in-law was 12 and his brother was 13 when the storm hit. They were in town that day. And as soon as they could, they dug a storm cellar at the ranch, she said.
The cellar was modernized a few years ago, but if a big tornado hit, Cloudt is not sure it would save her from sailing away like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
Lets put it this way: The door is so heavy that if Im out there trying to get in, Ill either get blown away or Ill get in the bathtub and hope the dogs will get in with me, she said.
Third worst in Texas
Despite other lethal twisters in Saragosa and Jarrell in recent decades, the Rocksprings tornado still ranks as the third worst in Texas history, according to the National Weather Service. It is eclipsed in lethality only by the Waco tornado of 1953, in which 114 people died and 597 were injured, and the Goliad tornado of 1902, which also took 114 lives but left fewer people injured.
A report filed a week after the storm by J.H. Jarboe of the Weather Bureau in San Antonio stated, No town was ever nearer completely wrecked than was Rocksprings.
His report noted that many people were badly injured by debris and heavy hail and that only 12 of the 247 buildings in Rocksprings were left standing.
Concrete and stone failed to withstand the terrific fury of the storm, and heavily constructed buildings were left gaping ruins, it added.
In 1927, Rocksprings was 60 miles of often bad road away from Uvalde, the nearest large town. When the evening storm hit, the town went dark and telephone contact with the outside world was lost.
Only through the heroism of Foster Owens, a telephone company lineman, and Gladys Lowrey, an operator, who ventured more than a mile out of town in the stormy darkness to find a working phone line, were other cities, including Kerrville, alerted to the tragedy.
After the winds subsided, County Commissioner Dick Perkins began organizing rescue parties to search in the dark for wounded. After daylight, large tables were brought from the damaged courthouse to serve as treatment tables for arriving doctors. The courthouse, the bank and the Balentine Hotel served as temporary morgues and infirmaries.
After help arrived, the wounded were driven 30 miles to Camp Wood, loaded onto railroad cars, and sent east to Uvalde and San Antonio.
Stories passed down
Amazingly, the late-breaking story made the next-day edition of the San Antonio Express, with the banner front-page headline reading 125 KILLED IN ROCKSPRINGS TORNADO.
The following day, as the wounded began arriving in San Antonio, the tragedy again dominated the papers front page, and included an aerial photo of the devastated town.
Amid groans of the conscious and disconnected ramblings of mangled victims whom pains or opiates had relieved of consciousness, 74 injured men, women and children were brought to San Antonio by two special relief trains, began the papers lead story, which included a detailed list of the wounded and their injuries.
Darlene Epperson, 74, whose father, Charles, was 8 when the storm hit, is among those involved with the memorial event.
His sister Opal was severely injured. She had a hole in her thigh and was sent out of town, Epperson said during a recent interview at the Rocksprings Hotel, where many had found safety from the tornado.
The only thing I heard about it growing up was there was a hired man on the place with a big beard. He hid out in the pantry and ended up with jelly and feathers all over his beard. It was quite a sight, she said.
Not surprisingly, she grew up with implicit fear of the great tornado.
When I was a kid, quite often we were jerked up in the middle of the night, and told, Were going to the storm shelter, she recalled.
Her cousin John Sweeten, 72, who owns the goat ranch littered with storm debris, also grew up with stories of the storm.
It was pretty much seared into our memories by our parents as we were growing up. I heard about it from both my mom and dad.
Looking back, he is impressed by the resilience of the townspeople who dealt with a series of hardships.
They went through this tornado in 1927, and two years later the Depression hit. And then there was World War II and a major drought. They went through some hard times. They knew what it was like to survive things, he remarked.
McCoy, 97, one of three known survivors, is happy to be participating in the program, even if it has made her life much busier.
These young ones are trying to keep the history going in the town, and if its something I know about, I think I should tell them, she said.
One thing has changed, though. After many decades of fearing dark clouds, she no longer reacts to them with dread.
Now that my three children are grown up, it doesnt bother me, she said.
The other night, a whistle went off and it woke me. They said there was a little tornado close by, but I just went back to bed and went to sleep. I thought, If I blow, I blow, she added.
jmaccormack@express-news.net
City elections are less than a month away, and ExpressNews.com sat down with each of San Antonio's mayoral candidates some known, some unfamiliar for exclusive video interviews in an effort to make you, the voter, knowledgeable about your options for Election Day on May 6. Get to know the contenders as we roll out the video interviews each weekday in reverse ballot order.
Today, we focus on Rhett Smith, a Libertarian who said he is running for mayor because he wants to better his local government.
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Way before resist and persist became popular hashtags to represent a renewed social justice movement, before marriage equality became law and before mainstream preservationists woke up to the significance of historic buildings in communities of color, there was Esperanza.
Spanish for hope, its also shorthand for the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, where #RESIST and #PERSIST long have been central missions. The compact but powerful entity this year marks its 30th anniversary as one of the citys leading activist organizations.
Its work has been at once political, cultural, educational, environmental and preservationist. With such a big, populist agenda, it sometimes has worked with a take-no-prisoners attitude. It couldnt wait to be asked to take a seat at the table, as an invitation probably wasnt forthcoming, so it didnt ask. It enlarged the table.
The Esperanza could have fulfilled many a groups goals merely with its long string of exhibits, plays, concerts, films and literary events. It celebrated iconic Latinas long before they were deemed as such, including United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and academic giants Gloria Anzaldua and Elizabeth Martinez.
It began in an office on South Flores with like-minded groups such as the Catholic Worker House, the Green Movement and the women who would become Fuerza Unida.
Since then, Esperanza has expanded its grass-roots partnerships and sustained its protest roots. Early on, it rallied against South African apartheid and U.S. intervention in Central America. It gave voice to the plight of refugees and the Palestinian cause. It started participating in the MLK March when it was still called the East Side Freedom March.
Esperanza has been at the forefront of the annual International Womens Day marches and held what it believes was the first lesbian and gay art exhibit in San Antonio.
It took pride in unearthing and celebrating forgotten chapters and people, staging a play about labor leader Emma Tenayuca, the central figure in the first major Mexican American civil rights action in history.
Esperanza rallied San Antonians to protest the Rodney King verdict, the Persian Gulf War and a veto of a strengthened Civil Rights Act. For the war, they rode from West and East Sides to Fort Sam Houston in a funeral forewarning of the areas that would sustain the most casualties.
Several years later, as some advocated that a Ku Klux Klan rally at City Hall just be ignored, Esperanza refused, organizing the San Antonio Coalition for Racial Unity and a daylong program of music, speeches and prayers to coincide with the Klan event.
Esperanza provided a venue for people of all backgrounds and all sexual orientations, former City Councilwoman Maria Antonietta Berriozabal recalled. This had never been done before in our city, she said.
No group has been as successful in pushing the envelope on difficult issues inclusiveness, water, growth, development, neighborhoods, gentrification as the community of activists that found a home there, Berriozabal said,
Its small staff has managed with volunteers seemingly all on speed dial. Berriozabal calls it a multifaceted organization of very wise women led by Graciela Sanchez.
Perhaps Esperanzas most salient success was its lawsuit against the City of San Antonio after City Council, under pressure by far-right homophobes, voted to cut its arts funding. During the trial, it still managed to pay off its building on San Pedro Avenue. In 2001, it won the lawsuit.
Berriozabal says one of Esperanzas most significant contributions to the San Antonio arts scene is its MujerArtes project, a group of women who would never call themselves artists yet have produced gorgeous ceramics. She treasures a work, a tiny house, that shows mariachis serenading a woman on Mothers Day, an old-fashioned washing machine on her back porch.
Berriozabal says it takes her back to her childhood.
Thats how I was struck by several pieces in its latest exhibit, Aqui Estamos y No Nos Vamos. Its a good way to define Esperanzas tenacity: Were here and were not going anywhere. One of its installations, Eye of a Needle, reflects the labor activism of Mexican American women in 20th century San Antonio.
A vintage dress form holds historic photos of women who shelled pecans and rolled cigars for pennies an hour in horrid conditions. They resisted and persisted, just like Esperanza has.
AUSTIN - House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Zerwas is quick with a smile, maintaining a calm, friendly demeanor in the midst of the controlled chaos that is the budget-writing process.
But dont push him with your incendiary rhetoric on half-thought-out budget amendments.
Rep. Briscoe Cain learned that lesson all too publicly during last weeks House budget debate, when he offered an amendment to end an advisory council on palliative care specialized medical care for people who are seriously ill, including those at the end of their lives.
This amendment seeks to get rid of what Ive nicknamed the advisory death panel, said Cain, R-Deer Park, suggesting that its a bureaucratic entity that doesnt include enough of a voice for patients.
His death panel wording set off Zerwas, who strode to the Houses back microphone, adjusted the cuff of one sleeve and delivered a tongue lashing. A group of supportive lawmakers gathered behind Zerwas.
The budget chief sharply asked Cain to explain what a death panel is, and to define palliative care. When Cain suggested that Zerwas, an anesthesiologist, could likely offer a better definition for the medical care, he got no quarter.
Im asking you because its your amendment. Tell me what you think it is, snapped Zerwas, pointing out that many House members have had seriously ill loved ones and know the value of such care.
If you want to go up there and characterize something in such an offensive way, I would hope that you would have a little better understanding of what you are talking about, Zerwas said, calling Cains verbiage the biggest mischaracterization hed heard during his decade in the House.
Cain ended up withdrawing his amendment. He didnt return a telephone call for comment.
I wasnt very patient with him, Zerwas, R-Richmond, acknowledged the next day.
But he added, You dont come to the front mic so unprepared like he was. He had no idea what he was doing. He had no idea what palliative care was. And he just picked up some phraseology from some groups that are adamantly opposed to anything that would look towards easing conditions at the end of life.
Theres a backstory, as many of Zerwas House colleagues know. He lost both of his parents and his first wife, Cindy, to cancer in 2012 and 2013.
That approximately 15-month period was an incredibly difficult time for me and my family with the loss of loved ones to cancer, said Zerwas.
But one of the really silver linings that come out of all that is something you discover, or are a part of, that makes you realize that even in those final days of life, there are things that can really just help make that journey and transition easier, he said. Palliative care is one of those things.
Zerwas wears a sweet reminder of his life with Cindy on a finger on his right hand a ring that their children gave him to mark the first wedding anniversary after she died. Its inscription: God be with us, together and apart.
On his left hand hand, he wears the wedding ring picked out by his second wife, Sylvia.
At the time, you never think things are going to come back together, he said of Cindys death after their 35-year marriage. And God willing, they do.
Zerwas decision to confront Cain showed the steel beneath the friendly exterior, with both qualities important to putting together a state budget lean times. Democrats and Republicans compliment his approach, calling him accessible and ready to listen in his first legislative session as Appropriations chairman.
There wasnt a better person to lead us through this process, said Rep. Justin Rodriguez, a San Antonio Democrat who serves on Appropriations. He identified very early on that we were going to get down to business. We werent going to mess around necessarily with things that we couldnt afford but would focus on priorities such as improving the states troubled system of caring for abused and neglected children.
Rep. Chris Turner of Arlington, who leads the House Democratic Caucus, called Zerwas thoughtful and fair.
Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, said Zerwas bent over backwards to make sure everybody was included in the process that was interested in being involved. The good thing about Dr. Zerwas is he has zero ego. His interest is just doing the right thing.
Despite a couple of flareups, the mood on the House floor during the 15-hour budget debate was largely calm and businesslike, as Zerwas and the House leadership team efficiently drove the spending plan to passage through a sea of proferred amendments. Democrats and Republicans working together to streamline the discussion as much as possible. Zerwas said he worked to be inclusive, and he credited the work Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio; House colleagues; and all the incredibly talented staffers who worked on the matter.
The next challenge is working out differences between the House plan and one approved earlier by the House. Zerwas and Senate Finance Committee Chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, expressed confidence in their ability to get the job done, pointing out that they in previous sessions have worked together to hammer out the health and human services portion of the budget.
Zerwas, while firm in defending the Houses approach, can be expected to keep the calm demeanor that he says goes along with his profession.
Thats kind of what they say in anesthesia, he said. Somebodys got to to be calm when everythings going crazy.
pfikac@express-news.net
Twitter: @pfikac
Most Bexar County voters might be surprised to know that the May election includes 38 candidates running for seats on five local school boards.
Odds are, few voters have heard of these school board candidates, and even more alarming is that even fewer registered voters are aware they are eligible to cast a ballot in those elections.
Jennifer Rodriguez, a Judson ISD school board candidate, said she has encountered only one voter while block-walking in her district who knew the name of the school board representative for that neighborhood. That voter just happened to personally know her opponent, incumbent Arnoldo Salinas, through work.
School board election are sleepers. They arent sexy or even newsy. Without flashy video, they will never make the top of the evening newscast. Sadly, they tend to generate high interest only in the aftermath of a scandal.
Serving on a school board is a selfless community service. The hours are long and the reading material endless, yet there are many rewards. Setting policy that will improve the quality of education in the classroom can yield priceless rewards.
The San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board makes recommendations in some of the school board races. Earlier this week we finished the latest round of meetings with candidates in the upcoming election.
It is always interesting to see who will accept the invitation. Some candidates obviously dont want to be contacted and leave their phone numbers off the candidate applications. Sometimes they list nonworking numbers. This time around, we had an incumbent fudge the last two numbers so that they were difficult to decipher.
It is always refreshing to meet school board candidates who are in it for the children, but it is amazing to see how many come armed with personal agendas.
In Bexar County, the more dysfunctional school districts tend to garner a disproportionate number of the headlines. More often than not, it is the antics of the adults rather than the students that draw the publics attention.
Such bad publicity hurts public education. It is a turnoff to the voters and potential candidates. No one wants to put their reputation in jeopardy by joining a dysfunctional board. And it is often the lack of choices on the ballot that keeps voters from the polls.
Breaking out of that cycle is difficult. We have seen some school districts do it, but the turnaround has not been quick or easy.
South San ISD, which is not on the ballot in May, has a troubled history going back decades. But it looks to be on the rebound. It has been fortunate to get a lending hand from City Councilman Rey Saldana and the Southside Chamber. Together, they helped recruit new faces for the board, and the work appears to be paying off. We are finally seeing some much-needed changes in governance.
Much of a districts success hinges on the policymakers; that should be sufficient reason to vote in school board elections.
But if further convincing is needed, I urge you to look at your tax bill. The biggest portion of that bill goes to support public schools.
On Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Albert Urestis website, you will find a list of the more than 50 entities for which he collects taxes. Most collect less than $1 per $100 valuation. The city of San Antonio tax rate is 55 cents, and Bexar Countys is 29 cents. The tax rate for the 11 school districts from which Uresti collects taxes range from $1.19 to $1.52 per $100 valuation. Those elected to serve on your school board decide how that money is allocated.
The Alamo Heights, Harlandale, Judson, Northside, San Antonio and Southside independent school districts are having school board elections in May. To find out if your school board representative is on the ballot, go the Bexar County Elections website.
You cant afford to sit this one out.
Last week, a raccoon and an opossum from Hardberger Park made their way up Blanco Road and scurried east a bit to get a look at some land.
Someday, the opossum said, sniffing the air as the sun set on the former Classen-Steubing Ranch, this is going to be a park.
The raccoon took a whiff of the land recently purchased by the city and cringed.
I smell 281, he said with an edge. I smell sprawl. And Ill tell you what else I smell I smell a direct line of development between here and Austin. Its going to be one of those metroplex city-state thingies that looks like all the other metroplex city-state thingies Back East. Or Up North. Or Out West.
Nah, the opossum said, this is the front porch of the Texas Hill Country, the home of the bluebonnet photo op, the shy but ever-present deer and the friendly human who likes the sound of springtime. Its the
THERES A TIRE CENTER RIGHT THERE! the raccoon interrupted, pointing with both of his little hands at the glow of Loop 1604 in the near distance. Dont try to paint one of those River Walk-starving artists-sofa-sized-wildflower-landscape fantasies when we can hear the air nozzles from here now that rush hour is over.
Humans need tires, the opossum said, scratching at the dirt for bugs. They need restaurants and stores and schools and places to park dozens of school buses. But they also need green spaces.
Green spaces is a term to justify spending, the raccoon said, picking up the remains of an old fast-food container. Thats why theyre really called green spaces.
The opossum smiled and found a large rock to sit on. He leaned back and smiled, his pink tail swaying in the cool springtime breeze of the South Texas night.
San Antonio has Brackenridge Park because, more than a century ago, someone who loved nature gifted that land to the public. If you want to see if that was a good move, we can check it out next Sunday.
The raccoon rolled his eyes.
And, the opossum said, resting his chin on his paw, our own Hardberger Park is the perfect example of what happens when a green space because it is more than a park lands right in the middle of apartments full of families chasing schools. Theres the dog park, tables for birthday parties right next to the playground, trails, the urban ecology center and gathering hall, a fitness program, the
A high-dollar land bridge that your precious deer are never, ever going to figure out, snarked the raccoon, interrupting.
Not the point, the opossum continued. Putting a premium on nature is important. Making our parks special, memorable jewels is worthwhile. Big, 100-acre-plus parks are for everyone generations of everyones, even to enjoy on special occasions, time-strapped weekends or just because the weather is cooperating.
The opossum climbed a tree and looked north at the bright lights from TPC Parkway.
You have to look to the future, he said. Big spaces filled with shade trees and teeming wildlife have the power to renew a soul. They are places where San Antonians can come to see what was here 100 years ago and what, with their help, can be here 100 years from now.
They are a place, the raccoon said, where you can sit and laugh at those goofy squirrels or, if you are a goofy squirrel, a place to get crazy and just go, go, go. They are places where one can take a walk or find a bench and think about something other than the small fortune youre dropping at the tire center.
The opossum, catching a whiff of the nearby Pollo Tropical, smiled.
mariaanglin@yahoo.com
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), acting in response to a directive from President Donald J. Trump, has authorized Oklahoma cattle producers impacted by the March 7 wildfires to graze Conservation Reserve Program lands.
Cattle in Oklahoma's wildfire-raveged areas are in desperate need of pasture. (Photo by Todd Johnson)
USDAs Farm Service Agency estimates almost 390,000 acres of pasture burned in Beaver, Ellis, Harper, Roger Mills, Woodward and Woods counties. Cattle death is estimated to exceed 3,000 head.
The authorized grazing of CRP lands provides much needed forage to surviving cattle in these counties while producers erect much-needed exterior fencing and wait for pastures to green up, said Eric DeVuyst, professor of farm management with Oklahoma State Universitys Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
In addition to forage consumed by wildfire, more than $22 million of fencing was destroyed as wildfires ravaged parts of northwestern Oklahoma, southwestern Kansas and the Texas panhandle.
Rains over the last two weeks are helping with green up, but fence repair and reconstruction is time consuming and can cost $8,000 to $10,000 per mile, DeVuyst said.
In an official statement, USDA Acting Deputy Secretary Michael L. Young said, Ranchers are facing devastating conditions and economic calamity because of these wildfires and they need some relief, or else they face the total loss of their herds in many cases. These measures will allow them to salvage what remains of their cattle and return to the important business of feeding Americans and the rest of the world.
The USDA action is required to direct the Farm Service Agency to permit the grazing on lands covered by the CRP, which exists to conserve and improve wildlife resources. In this case, the grazing will overlap with the primary nesting season of the lesser prairie chicken. CRP has procedures in place, already developed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to permit emergency grazing on protected lands during nesting season.
Lesser prairie chicken nesting season runs in Texas from March 1 to June 1, in Kansas from April 15 to July 15, and in Oklahoma from May 1 to July 1.
Source:okstate.edu
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Leanne Laurciella knew nothing about animal sanctuaries when she left New York City for New Jersey in 2011.
Goat sniffing mug
When she got her first two goats, Jax and Opie, she started an Instagram account- @goatsofanarchy. Since then she now has acquired herself 400,000 followers and set it up as a not for profit organisation to help goats with special needs live a long and happy life.
Leanne Lauricella left a career as an event planner in New York City and found that she was much happier rescuing farm animals: pigs, chickens, a mini horse, a mini donkey, but mostly goats with special needs.
She has 26 goats now at her sanctuary in Annandale, New Jersey, about 60 miles from Manhattan but The Goats of Anarchy Instagram page is followed by people from all over the world. Here are just a few of her fur babies.
Prospect
Poppy
Polly
Pocket
Miles
Angel
Chibs
Goats of Anarchy is out now
Fearne Cotton had "so much fun" taking over from Ken Bruce on BBC Radio Two on Monday (10.04.17).
Fearne Cotton
The blonde beauty is set to helm the popular radio show in replace of the 66-year-old broadcaster for this week over the Easter period, and she has revealed she enjoyed her time helming the show.
The 35-year-old television and radio personality posted a picture of her on set at work to her Instagram account, which she captioned: "I'm on @bbcradio2 again this week, covering for Ken. Much fun today! Thanks if you tuned in (sic)."
However, this is not the first time Fearne - who has four-year-old son Rex and 19-month-old daughter Honey with her husband Jesse Wood - has been asked to fill in for a presenter, as last month she took over from Lorraine Kelly to present the breakfast show 'Lorraine'.
And during her stint Fearne interviewed her close friend and colleague Holly Willoughby, as well as Rob Mallard.
And the British star was handpicked to take over because the show's editor, Sue Walton, believed Fearne is a "popular" figure in the industry.
Speaking at the time, Sue said: "I'm delighted that Fearne, such a popular and versatile broadcaster is presenting the show for a week.
"Fearne thrives on live, and her natural empathy, spontaneity, not forgetting her sense of fun will all shine through in what will be a special week of shows."
by Charlotte Hough for www.femalefirst.co.uk
Ilfenesh Hadera feels lucky to have been raised by her "f***ing tough" mother and grandmother.
Ilfenesh Hadera in The Red Bulletin
The 31-year-old actress was recently praised by her 'Baywatch' co-star Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson for being "tougher than new rope" and she has admitted her mental strength comes from the two most important women in her life.
She said: "I am lucky to have been raised by some incredibly strong women.
"My mother and grandmother are the most compassionate, wonderful, lovely women I know, but they are f***ing tough. My grandmother is 84, and she is active, self-sufficient, smart, adventurous and as tough as nails. My mom is the same. She is my best friend, and she is the f***ing coolest. She is from Vermont and has a total hippy vibe. She never judges, always listens, and gives great advice."
The brunette beauty portrays Stephanie Holden in the fitness-led blockbuster but was initially terrified of swimming through the sea as she suffered an embarrassing blunder in the pool a decade ago.
Speaking in the next issue of The Red Bulletin magazine, she explained: "I was in the YMCA swim team before starting high school. At my final meet,I was standing on the starting block, and I just fell into the water before the whistle blew. It was the most excruciatingly embarrassing moment. I wanted to stay at the bottom [of the pool]. It was horrible.
"I'm a pretty strong swimmer. For two months, we trained twice a week, two hours a session. Two hours in the pool is a long time. Swimming is insane exercise - a total body workout."
Although she now has an impressive acting career, Ilfenesh had to work hard to achieve her dreams.
She said: "You have to actively remind yourself of that. I'm really fortunate that I'm finally able to do what I love to do every day; there were many years of working in restaurants to pay the bills. So what was I? A hostess, not an actress. But that was a stupid way to look at it. As long as you're hustling to get where you're supposed to be, there's no shame in what you're doing to get there."
The full article is out in the next issue of The Red Bulletin Magazine or on www.redbulletin.com.
Victoria Beckham "always" takes the Estee Lauder Morning Aura Illuminating Creme with her wherever she goes.
Victoria Beckham
The 42-year-old fashion designer joined forces with the cosmetics giant last year to create a make-up collection, which she has since expanded with the recent launch of a second capsule, and the brunette beauty has revealed the moisturising and highlighting primer is her ultimate go-to item.
Speaking about the product she cannot live without to Vogue.co.uk, the entrepreneur said: "I always pack my Morning Aura Illuminating Creme from my Estee Lauder make-up collection."
And the former Spice Girls band member - who was known as Posh Spice in the girl group - believes a "classic" white shirt and a pair of sunglasses are her current wardrobe staples.
She explained: "I would also say you can't go wrong with a classic white shirt and of course a pair of sunglasses - probably my flat top visors, which I've been wearing a lot lately."
Victoria, who recently unveiled her debut line with the American retailer Target, is "most drawn" to soft tailored garments from the fashion range, although she struggled to select one favourite item in the line.
Speaking about her fashion collaboration, the style icon - who has Brooklyn, 18, Romeo, 14, Cruz, 12, and five-year-old daughter Harper with her husband David Beckham - said: "The Target collaboration was very much inspired by the playful spirit of my Victoria, Victoria Beckham collection.
"It's very difficult to pick a favourite! But I'm probably most drawn to the softly tailored pieces, like the simple tuxedo shirt and the matching Cala Lily shirt and trousers. They're just really easy to wear, but still feel luxurious and elegant. I honestly just had so much fun working on this collection."
Portuguese duo Best Youth are gearing up for the re-release of their debut album Highway Moon this May, hoping to gain the attention of all-new audiences and fans when they hit the spotlight with their infectious, unique material once more.
Best Youth are gearing up to re-release their debut album
We caught up with the pair Ed Rocha Goncalves and Catarina Salinas to find out all about their inspirations, aims, ambitions and more.
For those who may be new to your music, how best would you describe your sound?
E - If you were to look for us in a shelf at a music shop, we would probably fall under Indie electronic Pop. We both have a huge admiration for classic pop songs, but were also very drawn to moody, textural electronic stuff. I guess were always trying to get to a point in between, and somehow everything keeps getting covered in a sort of nostalgic feel. So yeah, wed describe ourselves as emotional-electronic-pop-textural-something.
What challenges have you faced in the music industry so far?
K - The main challenge has been to get our music across to other countries. Weve been pretty lucky here in Portugal, weve been an Independent band since the beginning and weve managed to work our way to a solid career, but were still relatively unknown outside of our home country.
How difficult would you say this career path is in terms of making a name for yourself?
K - Overall, I think identity is the main challenge for any artist. Be it a musician, actor, painter, the need for originality nowadays is the hardest and most exciting thing to do.
E - Its extremely hard, specially if youre doing things from a more independent standpoint. I think eventually theres a sort of Darwinistic nature to it all, if you manage to keep standing and keep creative and doing interesting stuff, eventually you stand out from the rest of the crowd. All you can is keep doing your thing and trusting it will work out. Then either people care about what youre doing or they dont.
How important is it for you to have creative control over the work you produce?
K - Its the most important thing. We love to make the music we do and every extension of it, be it live performance, video, art , everything. We wouldn't be able to give that away, its too dear to us.
E - I studied Design in highschool and have always been drawn to the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. To me, when youre trying to communicate an idea or a feeling everything is a part of the puzzle. I cant work on a song and not start thinking about the video, the art, how it will be performed, etc. What we cant do ourselves, we always try to do with collaborators who see things the same way as us, but we always have a say.
Where do you draw influence and inspiration from for your work?
K - Music, cinema, travels, conversations, anything goes really!
If you could collaborate with anybody going forward, who would you choose and why?
K - Roisin Murphy, I love the fact that shes very visual with her music and that's clear in the way she explores sounds and her vocals as well, they're quite warm and textural. Its a musical delight all together, I feel like I'm listening to a future past and I cant get enough of that kind of nostalgia!
E - Id love to work with Nigel Godrich, hes produced so many albums that I absolutely love, and all so different aesthetically.
Tell us a random, funny fact about you that not many people know.
K - Personality wise, Ed is very much like my brother and Im pretty much like his sister! Go figure!
Do you have definitive aims or goals for your career?
K - To reach as many people as we can and to continue to do this for the rest of our lives!
E - I wont rest until I have my own action-figure for sale at Toysrus, thats always the goal right?
Where do you hope to be this time next year?
E - On tour all over.
What should we expect from you in the coming weeks and months?
K - A new single and in due time, a new album!
E - Very little sleep its going to be an intense year.
---
Best Youth officially re-release Highway Moon on May 5, 2017 via Station 5.
by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry have honoured fallen soldiers at the centenary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Prince Charles
The 68-year-old royal and his two sons travelled to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial near Lille in northern France on Sunday (09.04.17) to commemorate the 100th anniversary since capture of Vimy Ridge during the First World War.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place over four days in 1917, and resulted in around 3,500 Canadian soldiers losing their lives, whilst another 10,000 were left wounded. The battle is regarded as Canada's most notable military victory and a symbol of the birth of the country's national pride.
Prince Charles told around 25,000 Canadians who had gathered at the ceremony that although the battle marked the "bloodiest day" in Canadian history, it also showcased the country "at it's best".
He said in his speech: "Today it is hard to believe possible the horrors that unfolded here on April 9, 1917. This was a battlefield of corpses. The terrifying roar of massed artillery filled the air.
"As one Canadian Brigade signalling officer wrote: 'Imagine the loudest clap of thunder you ever heard, multiplied by two, and prolonged indefinitely.' Boot-deep mud rendered each step a struggle, amidst a deadly, relentless hail of bullets.
"This was, and remains, the single bloodiest day in Canadian military history. They did not waver. This was Canada at its best."
Prince Charles - along with William, 34, and 32-year-old Harry - was joined at the ceremony by French president Francois Hollande and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The three royals made the visit to the site on behalf of Charles' mother - who is William and Harry's grandmother - Queen Elizabeth, who is also the Queen of Canada.
She last visited the site in 2007 for the 90th anniversary of the battle, where she praised the "courage and achievement" of the Canadian soldiers for their "stunning victory" over German forces.
Prince Harry is set to take Meghan Markle to Africa in October.
Prince Harry
The 32-year-old royal has been dating the 'Suits' actress since last year, and according to the Daily Mail newspaper they will travel together to southern Africa later this year to take part in Harry's charity projects in the country of Lesotho.
Prince Harry has taken part in charity work in the country for over a decade, after taking a gap year to the nation in 2004 and setting up the charity Sentebale in 2006, with the help of Lesotho royal Prince Seeiso.
According to their website, Sentebale aims to help "the most vulnerable children in Lesotho and Botswana get the support they need to lead healthy and productive lives."
The website continues: "Sentebale works with local grassroots organisations to help these children - the victims of extreme poverty and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Together, we're making a big difference to these children's lives. We can do even more with your help."
However, fans of the royal and his 35-year-old girlfriend won't be able to find updates on their trip on Meghan's lifestyle blog The Tig - which she set up in 2014 - as she decided on Friday (07.04.17) to shut it down.
She wrote in her final post: "After close to three beautiful years on this adventure with you, it's time to say goodbye to The Tig. What began as a passion project (my little engine that could) evolved into an amazing community of inspiration, support, fun and frivolity. You've made my days brighter and filled this experience with so much joy. Keep finding those Tig moments of discovery, keep laughing and taking risks, and keep being 'the change you wish to see in the world.' Above all, don't ever forget your worth - as I've told you time and time again: you, my sweet friend, you are enough. Thank you for everything (sic)."
Queen Elizabeth is set to display controversial ivory artefacts at new exhibition at her Sandringham estate.
Queen Elizabeth
The 90-year-old royal will exhibit historical objects such as an intricately carved ivory box, a clock cabinet, and a gong hanging between two elephant tusks for the public to view in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of India's independence.
Most of the items in the collection were gifted to the royal family by Indian nobility in the 19th and early 20th century, before the use and trade of ivory - which is traditionally made from the tusks of elephants - became controversial due to its contribution to the severely declining elephant population.
However, the exhibition is likely to cause upset amongst the royal family, as the monarch's grandson Prince William has long since been a campaigner for the ban of ivory trade and, according to the Daily Mail newspaper, reportedly called for all 1,200 ivory items in the royal collection to be destroyed.
The 34-year-old Prince previously spoke out about the vicious slaughter of elephants for their tusks after visiting a sanctuary for the animals in China in 2015.
He said at the time: "Ending demand for ivory is down to citizens across the world.
"No tradition or fashion is worth the extinction of an entire species, and no criminal gang should be allowed to destroy any part of nature.
"I am sure there are millions of people who share this conviction.
"It is appalling that elephants - and many others - may be extinct in the wild in our lifetimes, and that we seem to be hurtling towards that tragic outcome.
"The extinction of animals such as elephants, rhinos and pangolins would be an immeasurable loss to the whole of humanity."
The ivory collection will be available to view at the Sandringham House museum, when it opens to the public between April and October.
'Made in Chelsea' is to be filmed in Ibiza this summer.
Louise Thompson
The posh cast of the E4 show will hit the Balearic party island for what insiders have teased will be a "rough and ready" series as the likes of Louise Thompson and Jamie Laing drink their nights away on the beach.
A source told The Sun Online: "'Made In Chelsea' is going to get rough and ready this summer. Expect lots of drunk reality stars and big nights out.
"Producers have decided to take things down and notch and let the cast properly enjoy themselves."
It follows the episode they shot in a five-star luxurious resort in Mauritius, which cost the channel a "fortune".
In the current series, the show saw new cast mates Daisy Robins, Ella Willis and James Sandford, who initially set his sights on Louise, 27, until her boyfriend Ryan Libbey scared him away, join.
It's also the first time the show has been shot in the same location as rival 'The Only Way Is Essex'.
Last year, reality stars including Binky Felstead, Francis Boulle, Jamie and Jess Woodley - jetted out to the South of France for spin-off show 'Made in Chelsea: South of France', in 2015 they filmed in Los Angeles and in 2014 they went to New York.
Late last year they were forced to scrap filming in Costa Rica after the plane with members of the show's crew crashed.
Two senior producers and two technical directors had to be rescued by the local coastguard and rushed to the nearby hospital after the small jet transporting them to the Central American country ahead of the show's one-off special plummeted into the water just off Puntarenas.
A spokesperson for NBC Universal International Studios, which owns 'Made in Chelsea's production company, said at the time: "Four of our Production Team on 'Made in Chelsea', produced by Monkey Kingdom, were involved in a plane crash earlier today in a resort in Costa Rica. We can confirm that all four people and the pilot are safe and unhurt. No cast were on board."
The rest of the crew and some of the cast were also en route to the filming location on a separate plane but were forced to fly back to the UK after bosses decided to suspend the special.
Mark Gatiss has confirmed a 'League of Gentlemen' special is in the works.
Mark Gatiss
Speaking during the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival over the weekend, the 'Doctor Who' and 'Sherlock' writer revealed that the comedy series will be back on screens possibly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the creation of the dark characters.
He said: "We're going to do a special of some sort for the telly."
The 'League of Gentlemen' was created by Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson and the show originally aired on BBC Radio 4 before moving to television on BBC Two.
It is based around residents of the fictional Pennines town of Royston Vasey and ran for three series from 1999 to 2002 and went on to win a BAFTA.
A film adaptation was also made in 2005 called 'The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse'.
Back in October 2016, Gatiss revealed he and the rest of the gang had discussed doing something to mark the special date.
He said at the time: "We're hoping to do it again. We've talked seriously about doing something. We're not quite sure what it is yet but we'd love to do something. I think increasingly talking about prescience, we have become a local country for local people and I wonder if there is something Brexity in us that we can do."
Salma Ansari, wife of Vice President Hamid Ansari, while speaking at a function, opined that theres no rule in the Quran regarding triple talaq. She further stated that uttering the word talaq three times does not amount to a divorce, and that Muslim women must read the Quran carefully instead of relying on clerics.
She was attending a function at a madrassa operated by Al Noor Charitable Society when she shared her views on triple talaq. According to a report in The Times Of India, she said, There is nothing like triple talaq in the Quran and women in India are being misguided over the issue. Read the holy scriptures to clear your doubts. Ansari went on to urge Muslim women to read the translation of the Quran and not just the Arabic parts, in order to be able to understand it better. She said that relying on your own interpretation is better than that of the clerics, who support triple talaq.
For quite some time now, there has been a countrywide dispute regarding the practice of triple talaq and its validity. Co-founder of the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), Zakia Soman, agreed with Ansari saying that the Quran had nothing on triple talaq. Soman had said in an interview with Femina, Theologically, there is no ground for triple talaq, because in the Quran, there are numerous verses that call for a period of 90 days of arbitration, failing which there can be talaq. That is why we feel that it should be banned, she explains.
BMMA conducted a survey and spoke to 4710 women across 10 states. It was found that a whopping 92% of those surveyed, including men and women wanted the triple talaq abolished. Out of those surveyed, 525 women were unilaterally divorcedmany of them had been divorced in absentiavia post card, telephone or conveyed through a family member.
In October last year, the Centre had opposed the practices of triple talaq, polygamy and nikah halala (a law that demands a female divorcee to marry another man, consummate the marriage, and get a divorce from him, in order to remarry her divorced husband), in the Supreme Court on grounds of gender equality and secularism. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, however, has challenged all pleas saying that religious issues fell outside the realm of judiciary.
Nearly three months after the first train arrived from China into the UK, the first rail freight service on the 7,500 mile return route will commence from Essex today. The 30-container train carrying British goods will depart from DP World London Gateway rail terminal in Stanford-le-Hope and reach the city of Yiwu in Chinas Zhejiang province, in 18 days.
The train will pass through the Channel Tunnel and then cross seven other countriesFrance, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstanbefore reaching its destination on April 27.
The train route is faster than the traditional sea route and is cost-effective compared to air cargo.
Nearly three months after the first train arrived from China into the UK, the first rail freight service on the 7,500 mile return route will commence from Essex today. The 30-container train carrying British goods will depart from DP World London Gateway rail terminal in Stanford-le-Hope and reach the city of Yiwu in China's Zhejiang province, in 18 days.#
The train service has been started as a part of Chinas One Belt One Road programme, which aims to revive the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the Western world. (RKS)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk India
We all are well aware that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been going through personal crisis as on 18th March, 2017, she lost her father Krishanraj Rai and ever since, the actress has been busy in performing the rituals of her deceased dad.
Yesterday, the actress was spotted near Mangalore, visiting Sahasralingeshwara temple along with her daughter Aaradhya Bachchan, mom Vrinda Rai and brother Aditya Rai. You will be surprised to see, despite of being badly exhausted owing to scorching heat, how nicely Aishwarya treated her fans!
Check Out Her Picture Below..
How Humble Is She! See, how happily, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan let her young fans click a selfie with her. She isn't called a 'true star' for no reason! Aishwarya With Aaradhya The Ae Dil Hai Mushkil snapped along with her little daughter, Aaradhya Bachchan, who can be seen a cute ethnic wear. Didn't We Miss This Smile? Seen here is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, flashing her million dollar smile, during her visit to Sahasralingeshwara temple. Aishwarya Rai's Candid Clicks Aishwarya Rai Bachchan clicked inside a temple in Mangalore on Sunday. Aishwarya Rai With The Pandits The lady didn't only pose with her young fans, but also the pandits of Sahasralingeshwara temple. This humble side of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is worth praising! Aishwarya Rai With Aditya Rai Aishwarya Rai Bachchan clicked with her brother Aditya Rai, post performing the last rituals of their deceased dad, Krishnaraj Rai, at Uppinangady. Aishwarya Returns Back To Mumbai Last night, after performing all the last rituals, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan returned back to Mumbai. At The Mumbai Airport She was clicked at the Mumbai airport along with her daughter Aaradhya & mommy Vrinda Rai. Aishwarya Looked Exhausted While, the Ae Dil Hai Mushkil actress looked a little exhausted, Aaradhya was seen sporting a cute smile and didn't shy away from the paparazzi.
Deepika & Ranveer Party With Kareena, Alia & Sidharth At Karan's House [PHOTOS]
On the work front, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was last seen in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and already signed a new project opposite Abhishek Bachchan. Apparently, the film also casts Amitabh Bachchan in a key role.
The 'Mast Mast' girl Raveena Tandon is all set to make her Bollywood comeback with the upcoming film Maatr which revolves around a mother who seeks revenge against those who have wronged her daughter.
STEAMY HOT! Arjun Kapoor Shares A PASSIONATE KISS With His 'Half Grlfriend' Shraddha Kapoor [PICS]
In a recent interview with Deccan Chronicle when quizzed why she took up the film Raveena quipped, "The theme of Maatr is an issue very close to my heart because my blood boils every time I read in the papers about a woman being violated. I met the mother of the Delhi 2012 gangrape victim, she told me that it's only for a short time that people bother when someone is raped. Then it's just back to business."
Raveena who is proud mother of three daughters, when asked if she fears for their safety, replied, "I never taught them to be timid. In fact, I have asked them to fight back. Are we supposed to walk in this fear all the time? This has to change somewhere, so I also want to be part of the noise that makes that change."
UH OH! Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Would Have Bagged The National Award For Sarbjit If...
Speaking of her daughters, she became a mother to two of them before her marriage as she adopted them. With many B-Town celebrities going the route of adoption and surrogacy, the latest one being filmmmaker Karan Johar Raveena said, "I advise adoption over surrogacy. I believe that making someone a part of your life through adoption provides a deeper sense of gratification. I feel so proud when I see my girls and what they have made of their lives. Of course, you can go ahead and have biological kids, but to adopt a child is the greatest gift that you can give any child."
That's quite a noble thought, isn't it? What do you guys have to say about it?
Meanwhile, her film Maatr is slated to release on April 21, 2017. Are you looking forward to watch it on the big screens? Do let us know in the comments section below.
SERIOUSLY? Rakhi Sawant Says People Are FORCEFULLY Dragging Her In Bad Light To Ruin Her Career
HKTDC Communication and Public Affairs Department Joe Kainz Tel: +852 2584 4216 Email: joe.kainz@hktdc.org
HONG KONG, Apr 8, 2017 - (ACN Newswire) - Smart lighting is seeing strong growth with the residential segment of the market presenting tremendous business opportunities, according to speakers at the Asian Lighting Forum. The 6 April forum was a highlight of the HKTDC Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) which runs 6-9 April.At a session entitled "The Primary Knowhow of Smart Lighting", Wang Shen, Senior Analyst, Lighting & LEDs Group of IHS Markit, one of the world's largest market intelligence companies, said smart lighting markets across Asia, the United States and Europe are all witnessing exponential growth.Mr Wang highlighted the potential of smart residential lighting, saying it comprises 45 per cent of overall smart lighting revenue and the figure had been growing.- Personalised home smart lighting -Vincent Chow, Senior Marketing Manager, Philips Lighting Hong Kong Ltd, also believed there are huge business opportunities for smart lighting systems in home applications. For example, the camera of a smart lighting device can help parents or pet owners monitor their children or pets at home.Speaking of smart lighting as part of a "smart home", he referred to artificial intelligence depicted in the Hollywood film "Iron Man" as an example of smart lighting functioning as a "smart robot".He stressed that smart lighting is not just about linking lighting systems with the Internet, but also creating lighting for more personalised uses, improving the quality of life and building smart cities.For example, Mr Chow said, some parents may want to leave the bathroom light on during the night in case their children, who are not tall enough to reach the switches, need to use it. However, with smart lighting, the children may keep a smart phone by their side and simply press a key to turn the light on or off.Another example he cited was personalised smart lighting for elderly people with impaired hearing, who could set their doorbells and mobile phones to emit a flashing light when there is a visitor or caller, while different colours of light can be used to indicate different visitors or callers.Mr Chow added that the "smart home" is not only a concept, but something that is being developed and applied by enterprises such as Apple, Google and Amazon.Meanwhile, Mr Wang from IHS Markit also expected other smart lighting market segments, such as government, the manufacturing industry, offices and medical equipment, will show greater potential for growth in future.- People-centric smart lighting -Lawrence Chan, Director and Head of Marketing and Strategy, Asia Pacific Region, OSRAM Lighting Solutions Asia Pacific, also shared his insights at the session. He said lighting can help improve the quality of life.Mr Chan described how lights tuned to a specific spectrum, brightness and colour can regulate sleep cycles and enhance staff productivity and a sense of belonging to a company.- Regulations for network security -Magic Tong, Assistant Technical Manager - Lighting, DEKRA reminded industry professionals that while smart lighting relies on connection with the Internet, it is also highly susceptible to security vulnerabilities such as invasion by hackers who might steal personal information. However, he pointed out that network security regulations which might combat such problems have been introduced in Europe and the United States.- Asia the bright spot for LED market -Mr Wang from IHS Markit noted that the LED lighting market has grown steadily, with annual shipments rising 20 per cent between 2015 and 2023. He connected the rise to urban expansion which has led to an increasing number of buildings and street lights being put in place around the world.However, he remarked that the market has become more saturated in recent years, leading to declining revenue growth for LED lighting markets in the EU and the US. Asia, on the other hand, recorded exponential growth, making it a "region of very positive growth," he said.Control, energy efficiency and Internet functions are the future trends in the LED lighting market, said Mr Wang, adding that those who can combine those functions will become market pioneers.Photo Download: http://bit.ly/2noJSgaTo view press releases in Chinese, please visit http://mediaroom.hktdc.com/tc(Photo:) Wang Shen, Senior Analyst, Lighting & LEDs Group of IHS Markit, told the Asian Lighting Forum (6 April) that smart lighting markets across Asia, the United States and Europe are all witnessing exponential growth.About 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.
PERTH, AUSTRALIA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/10/17 -- Centamin PLC (LSE: CEY) (TSX: CEE)
For immediate release 10th April 2017
Centamin plc ("Centamin" or "the Company")
(LSE: CEY; TSX:CEE)
Q1 2017 Preliminary Production Results
Centamin is pleased to announce preliminary production results for the quarter ended 31 March 2017 from its Sukari Gold Mine ("Sukari") in Egypt.
Preliminary total gold production for the quarter was 109,187 ounces, a 20% decrease on the previous quarter and 13% lower than Q1 2016. The reduction in quarterly production is in line with Centamin's forecast and the Company maintains its 2017 guidance of 540,000 ounces at a cash operating cost of US$580 per ounce and all-in-sustaining cost (AISC) of US$790 per ounce.
Quarterly throughput at the process plant was 2,908kt, a 1% decrease on the previous quarter and in line with our 2017 annual forecast of 11.75 million tonnes (Mt) milled.
Open pit total material movement (ore plus waste) increased 8% on the previous quarter to 17,128kt. Open pit ore production increased by 14% to 2,478kt at an average mined grade of 0.47g/t. The average head grade to the plant from the open pit was 0.58g/t. This was below both the reserve grade and our forecast average grade for the full year 2017, as the open pit continued to develop a low-grade cutback in the east wall of the pit in line with the mine plan.
The run of mine ore stockpile balance decreased by 191kt to 386kt at the end of the period.
The underground operation delivered 252kt of ore at an average mined grade of 7.44g/t. On an annualised basis, the productivity rate was in line with our 2017 forecast of 1 million tonnes at 7.26g/t. Ore from stoping was 153kt at 6.9g/t and ore from development was 99kt at 8.3g/t.
Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the associated PDF document.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/9971B_1-2017-4-9.pdf
For more information, please contact:
Centamin plc Buchanan Josef El-Raghy, Chairman Bobby Morse Andrew Pardey, CEO Chris Judd Andy Davidson, Head of Investor Relations Patrick Hanrahan (andy.davidson@centamin.je) +44 (0) 1534 828708 + 44 (0) 20 7466 5000
This announcement contains ongoing regulated information and inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
LEI: 213800PDI9G7OUKLPV84
Company No: 109180
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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Following the Japanese Phase III Study, Alecensa Demonstrated Statistically Significant Improvement in PFS in a Global Phase III Head to Head Study with Crizotinib
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:4519) announced today that Alecensa as an initial (first-line) treatment showed that patients lived significantly longer without disease worsening (progression-free survival, PFS) compared to crizotinib in the ALEX Study, a global phase III study targeting ALK fusion gene positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), conducted by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. The safety profile of Alecensa was consistent with that observed in previous studies, with no new or unexpected adverse events.
"Following the Japanese phase III J-ALEX study, the ALEX study, the head to head trial with crizotinib, Alecensa demonstrated a significant prolongation of PFS compared to crizotinib. This finding greatly encourages the patients suffering from ALK fusion gene positive NSCLC," said Dr. Yasushi Ito, Senior Vice President, Head of Project Lifecycle Management Unit. "We believe that Alecensa will also contribute to improving the outcomes for overseas patients from first line therapy in the future."
The ALEX study was an open-label, randomized global phase III study that compares the efficacy and safety between both monotherapy of Alecensa and crizotinib. The ALEX study enrolled treatment-naive 303 patients with ALK fusion gene positive NSCLC. The subjects were allocated to either the Alecensa arm or the crizotinib arm in a one to one ratio. The primary endpoint of the ALEX study was PFS as assessed by the investigator. The secondary endpoints included Independent Review Committee-assessed PFS, overall survival, objective response rate, duration of response, safety, and other endpoints. The full data of the ALEX study will be presented at a future medical meeting and submitted to global health authorities, including the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Alecensa is a highly selective oral ALK inhibitor created by Chugai. It has been reported that approximately five percent of patients with NSCLC express a chromosomal rearrangement which leads to fusion of the ALK gene with another gene.1) ALK kinase signalling is constantly active in cells with such fusion genes, resulting in uncontrolled growth of tumour cells and transforming the cells into tumour cells. 2, 3) Alecensa exerts its anti-tumour effect by selectively inhibiting ALK kinase activity to inhibit tumour cell proliferation and induce cell death. 4) In addition, Alecensa is not recognized by the active efflux system in the blood brain barrier which actively pumps molecules out of the brain. Thus, Alecensa is able to remain active in the central nervous system and has proven activity against brain metastases.
Alecensa is currently approved in the United States, Kuwait, Israel, Hong Kong, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland, India, the EU, Australia and Taiwan for the treatment of adult patients with ALK-positive, metastatic (advanced) NSCLC who have progressed on or those intolerant to crizotinib. In Japan, "Alecensa capsule 150mg" is available to patients with "ALK fusion gene positive unresectable, recurrent/advanced NSCLC" and is marketed by Chugai.
1) Biomarker committee of The Japan Lung Cancer Society, Guidelines for ALK gene tests in lung cancer patients 2) Soda et al., Nature. 448: 561-566 (2007) 3) Takeuchi et al., Clin Cancer Res. 15: 3143-3149 (2009) 4) Sakamoto et al., Cancer Cell. 19: 679-690 (2011)
Note: The description of Japanese package insert - Dosage and administration for Japanese patients: "the usual adult dosage is 300mg alectinib administered orally twice daily." - In the current Japanese package insert, it is described that "2. efficacy and safety of ALECENSA in chemotherapy-naive patients have not been established."
About Chugai
Chugai Pharmaceutical is one of Japan's leading research-based pharmaceutical companies with strengths in biotechnology products. Chugai, based in Tokyo, specializes in prescription pharmaceuticals and is listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As an important member of the Roche Group, Chugai is actively involved in R&D activities in Japan and abroad. Specifically, Chugai is working to develop innovative products which may satisfy the unmet medical needs, mainly focusing on the oncology area.
In Japan, Chugai's research facilities in Gotemba and Kamakura are collaborating to develop new pharmaceuticals and laboratories in Ukima are conducting research for technology development for industrial production. Overseas, Chugai Pharmabody Research based in Singapore is engaged in research focusing on the generation of novel antibody drugs by utilizing Chugai's proprietary innovative antibody engineering technologies. Chugai Pharma USA and Chugai Pharma Europe are engaged in clinical development activities in the United States and Europe.
The consolidated revenue in 2016 of Chugai totalled 491.8 billion yen and the operating income was 80.6 billion yen (IFRS Core basis).
Additional information is available on the internet at https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005468/en/
Contacts:
For Media
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Media Relations Group, Corporate Communications Dept.,
Koki Harada
Tel: +81-3-3273-0881
E-mail: pr@chugai-pharm.co.jp
***
For US media
Chugai Pharma USA Inc.
Casey Astringer
Tel: +1-908-516-1350
E-mail: pr@chugai-pharm.com
***
For European media
Chugai Pharma France SAS
Nathalie Leroy
Tel: +33-1-56-37-05-21
E-mail: pr@chugai.eu
***
For Taiwanese media
Chugai Pharma Taiwan Ltd.
Susan Chou, Osamu Kagawa
Tel: +886-2-2715-2000
E-mail: pr@chugai.com.tw
***
For Investors
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Investor Relations Group, Corporate Communications Dept.,
Toshiya Sasai
Tel: +81-3-3273-0554
E-mail: ir@chugai-pharm.co.jp
DOHA, Qatar, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 4, 2017, two Doha, Qatar-based medical facilities, Hamad General Hospital, a publicly-run facility, and a newly-opened private hospital under the aegis of Sidra Medical and Research Center, successfully completed the first implantation of the Venus P-valve, a proprietary trans-catheter self-expanding pulmonary artery valve developed by Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) Inc. This is the first clinical implantation in Qatar following the product's gaining of approval from the European health and supervision bureau for CE clinical trials in 2016. The implantations signal a significant deepening of Venus Medtech's global footprint. On April 4 and 5, four complicated cases were completed successfully.
The first to be operated on using the valve was a 12 year-old female patient who had been diagnosed with severe pulmonary regurgitation after a radical operation for Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia, causing undue strain on the patient's right ventricle. The plan was to perform a trans-catheter implantation using the Venus P-valve to treat the regurgitation issue. The operation was performed jointly by Drs. Ziyad Hijazi and Qi-Ling Cao, two leading cardiac intervention specialists. After the operation, Dr. Hijazi said: "The design of the Venus P-valve gave us the stability in terms of release and the accuracy in terms of positioning. We can use this valve with more patients. I'm very pleased with the functioning of the valve used in the case."
The Venus Medtech Venus P-valve trans-catheter pulmonary artery valve, a self-expanding valve device and matching valve ring with a 16-32 mm internal diameter and a bilateral trumpet-shaped design enabling a surgical procedure free of a pre-placed stent, is by far the only choice for patients worldwide with right ventricular outflow tract regurgitation after a right ventricular outflow tract patch procedure.
Prof. Shakeel Qureshi from UK-based Evelina London Children's Hospital is the Principal Investigator (PI) for the CE Mark clinical trail for the Venus P-valve in Europe, the first phase of a series of clinical trials taking place in 8 locations and involving nearly 80 patients across Europe, including a few locations outside of the continent.
Hangzhou, China-based Venus Medtech focuses their R&D on internationally advanced interventional artificial heart valve systems with commercial applications.
More information: www.venusmedtech.com.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 04/10/17 -- 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 signed a binding letter of intent with Avalon Minerals Ltd. (ASX: AVI) whereby Avalon will have the right to earn a majority interest in the 4,949 hectare "Bramaderos" concession in southern Ecuador subject to satisfaction of certain conditions.
A location map of the Bramaderos concession 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/NR17-08Figures.pdf.
Highlights
-- Avalon secures right to earn a majority interest in the highly prospective Bramaderos gold and copper-gold opportunity in Ecuador -- Cornerstone to again work with Avalon team on a program aimed at repeating previous discovery success
About Bramaderos
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 (see Figures 1 & 2).
Bramaderos 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 are yet to be 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.
Historical results from drilling at Bramaderos include wide intervals such as 260m at 0.6g/t Au and 0.14% Cu. Trenching results at the West Zone breccia include results of up to 42m at 3.7g/t Au. (A.C.A. Howe NI 43-101 Report, 31 August 2006). These results, together with the distribution of alteration, indicate that we are in a fertile mineralized system with significant discovery potential.
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).
Brooke Macdonald, Cornerstone's CEO, said: "We are delighted to be working with Avalon, which has an outstanding management and technical team with whom we have worked previously on other projects. 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."
Malcolm Norris, Avalon's CEO, said: "Avalon is excited about working with Cornerstone and advancing the Bramaderos opportunity. The Avalon team has worked previously with Cornerstone on other projects in Ecuador which have led to significant discoveries and shareholder value growth, and we will work towards repeating that success at Bramaderos. The Avalon team is keen to apply its exploration approach developed at Tujuh Bukit in Indonesia and Cascabel in Ecuador to the Bramaderos opportunity."
Principal Terms
Avalon will have the right to earn an initial 51% interest (the "First Option") in the mineral rights to the Bramaderos concession (the "Property") by making a payment of $50,000 to PLAMIN upon execution of the letter of intent ("LOI") and incurring exploration and related expenditures on the Property at the following times and in the following amounts (all references to $ or dollars in this news release are to US$): (i) on or before the first anniversary of receipt of drilling permits, incurring committed expenditures on the Property in the amount of $1,500,000; and (ii) on or before the third (3rd) anniversary of the date of the LOI, incurring further optional expenditures on the Property in the amount of $1,900,000. Upon Avalon having made the above payment and having incurred the required expenditures, it shall have exercised the First Option and acquired a 51% interest in the Property. Because in Ecuador the Mining Law recognizes only one recorded owner of a mineral concession, the parties will then form an equity joint venture by creating a specific purpose company in Ecuador (the "SPC"), and enter into a more detailed shareholder agreement for the SPC patterned after a model agreement appended to the LOI. During the period of the First Option and until the Avalon has exercised its right to become operator Avalon will direct the technical program on the Property, and PLAMIN will be the operator and will be reimbursed for its services on the basis of the cost of exploration expenditures plus 10%. Upon Avalon having exercised the First Option, it shall be entitled to become operator.
In the event that Avalon has exercised the First Option, Avalon shall have a further option for 90 days (the "Second Option") to elect to acquire an additional 19% interest in the Property (for a cumulative total of 70%) by funding the expenditures for the completion of a feasibility study ("FS") to the standard required to comply with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM")'s Definition Standards for a feasibility study. The Second Option can be exercised upon delivery to PLAMIN of the FS and the payment of the greater of $250,000 or $1.00 (One Dollar) per ounce of AuEq (gold equivalent) classified as "Measured and Indicated Resources" (as that term is defined in the CIM Definition Standards incorporated by reference into Canada's National Instrument 43-101) in the FS (the "Second Option Exercise Date"). If the Second Option Exercise Date does not occur by the third (3rd) anniversary of exercise of the First Option ("FS Deadline", which may be extended upon mutual agreement in writing) the interests of the parties will remain at PLAMIN - 49% and Avalon - 51%.
Upon the Second Option Exercise Date, Avalon shall have the right to acquire an additional 10% interest in the Property (for a cumulative total of 80%) (the "Third Option") by: (i) providing 100% of the costs to achieve commercial production in which case, until such time as the Avalon has received an amount equal to PLAMIN's share of such cost from and after the Second Option Exercise Date plus interest at an annual rate equal to Prime (as reported in the Wall Street Journal) plus 2% from the date of advance to repayment, PLAMIN shall be entitled to receive 90% of the distributions that PLAMIN would otherwise have been entitled to and this shall be its sole entitlement; or (ii) arranging limited recourse project financing in an amount sufficient to achieve commercial production.
In order to be effective, the written notice must be received by PLAMIN within 120 days of the Second Option Exercise Date and must be accompanied by a payment to PLAMIN in an amount equal to twice the amount paid by PLAMIN in respect of the joint venture from such date.
Approximately 2/3 of the Bramaderos concession surface area is subject to an underlying 2% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR") in favour of the a third party (the "2% NSR"). A $50,000 annual advance royalty is payable on and after the first anniversary of the delivery of a Positive Feasibility Study (as defined in the underlying agreement). One-half of the 2% NSR may be purchased for $3 million, leaving the holder of the NSR with a 1% NSR.
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.
Further information is available on Cornerstone's website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter.
Due to anti-spam laws, many shareholders and others who were previously signed up to receive email updates and who are no longer receiving them may need to re-subscribe at http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/s/InformationRequest.asp
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,
Hugh Brooke Macdonald, President and CEO
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact:
Investor Relations
Mario Drolet
(514) 904-1333
Mario@mi3.ca
www.cornerstoneresources.com
LONDON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
The Trump administration is struggling to find a consistent policy direction and it is unclear what is going to happen next. Take last week's summit between President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China. Ahead of the meeting came bellicose language from the US side about being tough towards China on trade, but the summit itself failed to live up to the tone of President Trump's Tweets. This indicates that anti and pro-free trade forces within the White House continue to compete for influence. Meanwhile, China, like everyone else, has to try to second-guess the US as it confronts major domestic social, political and economic challenges.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160408/353056LOGO )
In response to the current uncertainty, leading petrochemicals market intelligence provider ICIS, in partnership with consultancy International eChem, has launched the first in a series of quarterly reports to assist petrochemical companies and their investors as they navigate the challenges and opportunities created by global instability.
Report co-author John Richardson, of ICIS, says: "Our aim with this quarterly report series is two-fold: to provide a clear understanding of the tectonic shifts now under way in the world's two largest economies, and to offer a detailed road map outlining the potential impact of these developments on business and investments."
The petrochemicals industry must brace itself for significant and far-reaching effects. If President Donald Trump remains in office for the next eight years, and President Xi Jinping's term is extended for a further five years at the October Communist Party Congress, the decisions made now will have long-lasting effects on the medium- and longer-term outlook. Now is the time to begin preparations ahead of the major disruption that clearly lies ahead for supply chains.
This initial report in the Uncertainty Study series is entitled War of Words and is co-authored with Paul Hodges of International eChem. The core of the report is a detailed analysis of the four critical value chains - ethylene, propylene, benzene and paraxylene (PX) - commonly seen as the building blocks of the entire petrochemicals and plastics industry.
Subscribers will benefit from an analysis of the inter-regional moves that dominate trade between the US and China, along with the key risks and implications for producers, consumers, traders and investors in the major regions. The likely impact of Trump's various new policies, as well as China's retreat from stimulus are examined in detail. Other key questions addressed include how the East-West relationship may change, as well as the subsequent impact on the global landscape.
"It seems most unlikely that the globalisation model of recent decades - whereby raw materials are routinely shipped half-way around the world, and then returned as finished product - will survive for much longer," says Paul Hodges.
Clearly, the business-as-usual scenario is the least likely outcome for the years ahead. This latest study from ICIS and International eChem gives petrochemical leadership teams the insight and analysis needed to better prepare for an inevitable change to the industry status quo.
Find out more about the study.
About ICIS
ICIS is an independent price reporting agency focusing on global energy, petrochemical and fertilizer markets. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering trusted pricing data, high-value news, analysis and independent consulting, enabling our customers to make better-informed trading and planning decisions. We have more than 30 years' experience in providing pricing information, news, analysis and consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.
With a global staff of more than 800, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Montpellier, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai, Tokyo and Perth. Some 350 of ICIS's staff are journalists engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles.
ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX Group plc .
About International eChem
We are trusted commercial advisers to the global chemical industry and its investment community. Our team has an in-depth understanding of the issues, and of the 'real world' in which clients operate, due to our experience in working with many of the world's major companies and financial institutions.
About Reed Business Information
Reed Business Information provides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries.
http://www.reedbusiness.com
About RELX Group
RELX Group is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. The total market capitalisation is approximately 31.2bn/ 36.5bn/ $38.8bn.
www.relx.com
For media inquiries, contact:
Arina Popa
Marketing Executive
ICIS
T: +44-207-911-1473
arina.popa@icis.com
ISTANBUL, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
The leader of the pharmaceutical industry in Turkey, Abdi Abrahim kicks off exports to Azerbaijan and Georgia from its Kazakhstan company, Abdi Ibrahim Global Pharm, which houses pharmaceutical production facilities. Hepatitis and diabetes products from the largest and most modern pharmaceutical plant in Kazakhstan will be exported to both countries under the assurance of Abdi Ibrahim.
(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/487266/AIGP_Logo.jpg )
(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/487092/Abdi_Ibrahim.jpg )
Abdi Ibrahim has maintained its operations incessantly for the last 105 years in order to heal lives and the future through pioneering and innovative initiatives. The company has taken another firm step towards its 2020 targets through its Kazakhstan investment which marks the most significant component in its overseas investment portfolio. Abdi Ibrahim laid the foundations of the Kazakhstan facility in 2013. Soon after the launch of its operations, the production facility was awarded the GMP Certificate, which constitutes a reference document for best practices in manufacturing. The plant represents the largest and most modern pharmaceutical facility in Kazakhstan. Put to life by Abdi Ibrahim upon an investment of 60 million USD, the facility kicked off its operations with a production capacity of 24 million boxes per year. Furthermore, it earned its first international licenses and won the national tender in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Hepatitis and diabetes products manufactured here will be exported to Georgia and Azerbaijan under the quality and assurance of Abdi Ibrahim. Abdi Ibrahim is already solo supplier of several products in these categories Kazakhstan for several years.
The production site, which is built on an indoor space covering 12.000 square meters, employs around 200 people. There are approximately 100 products manufactured in the facility, ranging from key products such as diabetes and antiviral products to cardiovascular products and products used in the treatment of central nervous system diseases.
Abdi Ibrahim International Markets Sales and Marketing Director, Cengiz Zaim shared the following information regarding the company's Kazakhstan investment: "Our plant in Kazakhstan is an indicator of our determination to become a strong brand in international markets; one of our five growth areas that we identified in line with our 2020 strategy. We will initiate our exports to Georgia and Azerbaijan where we have maintained our operations for the last 10 years. Hepatitis and diabetes products to be manufactured in our facility will be exported to these two countries under the assurance of Abdi Ibrahim. In coming years, we aim to export to the countries in Eurasia Customs Union and CIS countries so as to augment our current potential. On the path to 2020, when we target to be in top 100 companies of the world, we will speed up our export activities so as to sustain our growth in the local markets."
Contacts:
Abdi Ibrahim International Markets Sales and Marketing Director, Cengiz Zaim
+90-533-686-13-82
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 04/10/17 -- Nevada Zinc Corporation ("Nevada Zinc" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: NZN) is pleased to announce that it has filed and obtained a receipt for a preliminary short form prospectus (the "Preliminary Prospectus") with the securities regulators in each of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, pursuant to which the Company proposes to complete on a commercially reasonable efforts basis a public offering of units of the Company for gross proceeds of $2,000,000 (the "Offered Securities") upon terms to be determined in the context of the market (the "Offering") and subject to completion of satisfactory due diligence.
The Offered Securities will be units consisting of one common share in the Company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each whole Warrant shall be exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.50 per Warrant for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering.
Canaccord Genuity Corp. (the "Agent") is acting as sole lead manager and sole bookrunner in respect of the Offering. The Company has granted the agent an over-allotment option to sell up to an additional 15% of the Offered Securities pursuant to the Offering, exercisable in whole or in part at any time up to 60 days from the closing of the Offering, to cover over-allotments, if any. The Company has agreed to pay the Agent a commission equal to 8% of gross proceeds of the Offering payable in cash or Offered Securities, or any combination of cash or Offered Securities at the option of the Agent. The Company has also agreed to issue to the Agent non-transferrable options (the "Compensation Options") entitling the Agent to subscribe for that number of units as is equal to 8% of the number of Offered Securities sold pursuant to the Offering at the deemed issued price. Each Compensation Option shall be exercisable for units consisting of one common share in the Company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant ("Agent Warrant"). Each whole Agent Warrant shall be exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.50 per Agent Warrant for a period of 24 months from the closing date.
Nevada Zinc intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for continuing exploration and development of the Company's Lone Mountain zinc project in Nevada and the Company's gold exploration projects in Yukon, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
A copy of the Preliminary Prospectus is available at www.sedar.com.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Offered Securities, nor shall there be any sale of the Offered Securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Offered Securities being offered will not be, and have not been, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, a U.S. person.
About Nevada Zinc
Nevada Zinc is a discovery driven mineral exploration company with a proven management team focused on identifying unique mineral exploration opportunities that can provide significant value to its shareholders. The Company's existing zinc and gold projects are located in Nevada and Yukon, respectively.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute "forward looking statements", which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "intends", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan", and similar expressions. Specifically, forward looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements regarding: the closing of the Offering and the use of proceeds therefrom; the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, and estimates of market conditions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of Nevada Zinc to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in such forward-looking statements. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, but there can be no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. In formulating the forward-looking statements contained herein, management has assumed that business and economic conditions affecting Nevada Zinc will continue substantially in the ordinary course and will be favourable to Nevada Zinc. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward looking statements include: the need to satisfy regulatory and legal requirements with respect to the Offering; changes in equity markets, the Company's ability to raise additional capital if and when necessary; and other factors as described in detail in Nevada Zinc's Annual Information Form and Nevada Zinc's other public filings, all of which may be viewed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward looking statements and information, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, Nevada Zinc disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward looking statements or otherwise.
Neither TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Nevada Zinc Corporation
Bruce Durham
President and CEO
416-504-8821
bdurham@nevadazinc.com
www.nevadazinc.com
Hunton Williams LLP begins its new fiscal year with several changes in key leadership roles. The firm proudly recognizes these talented individuals for their accomplishments and outstanding client service focus.
This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410006147/en/
George C. Howell III has been named chair of the executive committee at Hunton Williams LLP. (Photo: Business Wire)
Executive Committee George C. Howell III will succeed F. William Brownell as chair of the firm's executive committee. Brownell will serve as vice-chair of the committee through this new fiscal year, working closely with Howell.
"Our executive committee chair should be someone who exemplifies our core values," said Managing Partner Wally Martinez. "As was the case with Bill, and with the partners who preceded him in that role, George has demonstrated this commitment over a long and distinguished career."
Howell has served as head of Hunton Williams' tax and employee benefits practice. He is the immediate past chair of the American Bar Association's Section of Taxation, the nation's largest professional association of tax lawyers with a membership of 16,000 lawyers.
In addition to this executive committee change, the firm is moving several talented lawyers into new leadership roles to drive the firm's continuing success and next phase of growth.
Adds Martinez: "I also thank the lawyers transitioning from these positions for their valuable contributions, their governance and dedication to Hunton Williams."
Tax and ERISA Practice Cecelia Philipps Horner will succeed George C. Howell III as head of the tax and ERISA practice. Howell said, "Ceily is a first-rate tax lawyer with a national reputation. She has demonstrated strategic thinking with respect to our tax and ERISA practice throughout her distinguished career."
Corporate Practice Thomas Y. Hiner and Randall S. Parks will succeed T. Justin Moore III as co-heads of the corporate practice, with Susan S. Failla continuing to serve as the practice's administrative partner. Moore said, "Tom and Randy bring a wealth of experience to their new positions. Their and Susan's commitment to building our practice and knowledge base is inspiring."
Labor and Employment Practice Emily Burkhardt Vicente and Kevin J. White will succeed Gregory B. Robertson as co-heads of the labor and employment practice. Robertson, who led the practice for many years, said, "Emily and Kevin will work tirelessly to move our practice forward."
Richmond Office T. Justin "Jay" Moore III will succeed John D. O'Neill Jr. as Richmond Office Managing Partner. O'Neill, who was the first to serve in this position, said, "In Jay, the firm gets someone who is rightly recognized for his business competencies, innovative perspectives, and active involvement and strong commitment to the Richmond community." O'Neill will continue to serve in his role as founding head of the firm's P3 practice group and has been named as co-head of the business practice group, where he will provide strategic advice and counsel in practice matters.
London Office Aaron P. Simpson will succeed Bridget Treacy as London Office Managing Partner. Treacy said, "Aaron has been a leader of our global privacy and cybersecurity practice for many years, first in New York and now in London. His perspective and experience developing the firm's renowned privacy and cybersecurity practice over the past decade will be instrumental to our continued growth in London."
About Hunton Williams LLP
Hunton Williams is a global law firm of more than 750 lawyers serving clients in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The firm handles transactional, litigation and regulatory matters for a diverse client base, with significant experience in retail and consumer products, energy, financial services, real estate, and privacy and cybersecurity. Visit www.hunton.com and follow us on Twitter LinkedIn and YouTube.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410006147/en/
Contacts:
Hunton Williams LLP
Eleanor Kerlow, +1 202-955-1883
Senior Public Relations Manager
ekerlow@hunton.com
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/10/17 -- Tudor Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: TUD)(FRANKFURT: TUC) (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") announces that it has received $1,100,000 from the exercise of 11,000,000 share purchase warrants at $0.10 per warrant (the "Warrants"). The funds will be used by the Company for exploration work on the Treaty Creek property and for general working capital.
The 11,000,000 common shares of the Company issued on the exercise of the Warrants were acquired by Tudor Holdings Ltd. (the "Acquisition"). Tudor Holdings Ltd. is controlled by Mr. Walter Storm, the President, CEO and a director of the Company. Tudor Holdings Ltd.'s head address is located at 900 - 1021 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6E 0C3.
Immediately prior to the Acquisition, in addition to the 11,000,000 Warrants, Tudor Holdings Ltd. directly and indirectly held 41,250,000 common shares, representing 62.9% of the Company's then issued and outstanding shares. Zoe Storm, the spouse of Walter Storm, who controls Tudor Holdings Ltd., beneficially owns 2,000,000 common shares of the Company. Zoe Storm is an associate of Walter Storm and, pursuant to the provisions of Multilateral Instrument 62-104, is deemed to be acting jointly or in concert with Tudor Holdings Ltd. In addition, Walter Storm also holds stock options to purchase an aggregate of 1,000,000 common shares of the Company with an exercise price of $0.10 per share that expire on April 19, 2026. Collectively, immediately prior to the Acquisition, the common shares, Warrants and stock options over which Walter Storm and Zoe Storm collectively had beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over, represented 75.55% of issued and outstanding common shares of the Company on a partially diluted basis assuming the exercise of the Warrants and stock options held by Walter Storm.
After giving effect to the Acquisition, Tudor Holdings Ltd. directly and indirectly holds 52,250,000 common shares, representing 68.2% of the Company's issued and outstanding shares. The other holdings of each of Walter Storm and Zoe Storm have remained unchanged post-Acquisition. Collectively, immediately after the Acquisition, the common shares and stock options over which Walter Storm and Zoe Storm collectively have beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over continues to represent 75.55% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company on a partially diluted basis assuming the exercise of the stock options held by Walter Storm, and taking into account the 11,000, 0000 common shares of the Company issued pursuant to the Acquisition.
Tudor Holdings Ltd. has advised the Company that it acquired the common shares under the Acquisition for investment purposes, and that Tudor Holdings Ltd. intends to evaluate the investment in the Company and to increase or decrease its shareholdings from time to time as Tudor Holdings Ltd. may determine appropriate.
A copy of the early warning report of Tudor Holdings Ltd. corresponding to this press release can be obtained from Aris Morfopoulos, CFO of the Company, at 604-721-2650 or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The early warning report updates Tudor Holding Ltd.'s prior early warning report that was filed on SEDAR on June 14, 2016.
About Tudor Gold
Tudor Gold is a significant explorer in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, an area which hosts multiple past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The Company has a 60% interest in both the Electrum and Treaty Creek properties, and a 100% interest in the Mackie, Eskay North, Orion, Fairweather, Delta and the High North properties, all of which are located in the Golden Triangle area.
Aris Morfopoulos, Chief Financial Officer
For further information, please visit the company's website at www.tudor-gold.com.
Cautionary Statements regarding Forward-Looking Information: Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially.
All statements including, without limitation, statements relating to the exploration of the Treaty Creek project and other future plans, objectives or expectations of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertain ties. 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include risks relating to the actual results of current exploration activities, fluctuating gold prices, possibility of equipment breakdowns and delays, exploration cost overruns, availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions, regulatory changes, timeliness of government or regulatory approvals and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.
Note: Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Tudor Gold Corp.
Aris Morfopoulos
Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary
604-721-2650
604-608-3878 (FAX)
aris@tudor-gold.com
www.tudor-gold.com
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - New Zealand will on Tuesday release March figures for credit card spending, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Overall card spending is expected to add 0.2 percent on month after sliding 1.0 percent in February. Retail card spending is tipped to rise 0.5 percent after falling 0.6 percent in the previous month. Australia will see March results for the indexes of business conditions and confidence from National Australia Bank; in February, the index scores were +9 and +7, respectively. Japan will provide preliminary March numbers for machine tool orders; in February, orders were up 9.1 percent on year. Malaysia will release February figures for industrial and manufacturing production; in January, they were up an annual 3.5 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. 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.
Thinking about planning a trip to Iceland? Youve come to the right place! In this post, Im going to go through everything youll want to consider for planning the perfect Iceland vacation.
This post covers a lot. We go through the different ways to visit and get around Iceland, as well as some of the regions you might want to consider visiting for different length amount of time in Iceland.
We also include packing advice, practical considerations like electricity, money and tipping, tips on when to visit and where to stay, how much to budget for your trip to Iceland, as well as the steps you need to follow to plan the perfect Iceland trip.
This is based on our experiences visiting Iceland in both summer and winter, both on a self-drive tour itinerary (which included car-hire, accommodation, and a suggested itinerary), as well as our own personal exploration in the country.
Well also be sharing a brief overview of our experiences doing a self-drive trip, to help you decide if this type of trip would be right for you, and how we picked that trip.
Steps For Planning a Trip to Iceland
Step 1. Decide When To Visit Iceland
The time of year you visit Iceland will make a big difference to what you see and how you experience the country, as well as how busy the attractions are. Weve visited at different times of year, and have experienced everything from freezing snow to warm sunny days. Heres what to expect at different times of year in Iceland.
Visiting Iceland in Winter
Running roughly from mid-October right through to the end of April, winter is the least busy time in Iceland.
The closer to December you visit, the darker the days will be in mid-December youll get less than six hours of daylight! In March however this is up to 12 hours of daylight or more.
That darkness is great for seeing the Northern Lights, so if thats a key consideration for your trip, winter is the time you should visit.
Winter means snowy landscapes and icy driving conditions (see our guide to driving in Iceland in winter), and some parts of the country, particularly the high ground, become inaccessible for all but the most extreme off-road vehicles.
Id definitely not be put off visiting Iceland in winter. Temperature rarely fall far below freezing, there are far fewer visitors, and the wintery landscapes are stunning to behold. Plus, that chance of seeing the northern lights is tempting!
If you do plan on visiting Iceland in winter, check out our detailed guide to winter activities in Iceland to give you lots of ideas for what you can get up to, plus our guide to what to pack for Iceland in winter, so youre prepared!
For the northern lights, see our guide to how to photograph the northern lights, which also has tips on where and when to see them.
Visiting Iceland in Fall & Spring
April, late September and early October are about as close to fall and spring as you are able to come in Iceland.
These are essentially the shoulder months, with longer days than in winter, less chance of snow and more roads and attractions likely to be fully open and accessible.
Whilst its not likely to be too hot, the winter chill wont be around, and you have a better chance of greener landscapes. It also wont be as busy as summer time, although the longer days will limit your chance at seeing the northern lights.
Visiting Iceland in Summer
Summer is the most popular time to visit Iceland, so prices are likely to be higher and attractions more crowded with visitors. Roads will be open around the country, making attractions more accessible, and a number of tours that werent possible in the other months will be operational.
The long days means that you arent going to see the aurora borealis. The country will be beautifully green and lush though, with colourful wildflowers lighting up the landscape if you visit when theyre in bloom. Also a great time to see wildlife.
Step 2. Decide How Long You Want to Visit Iceland For
Theres a lot to see and do in Iceland, and you could easily fill up two or three weeks here. There are also many attractions within easy reach of Reykjavik, so even if you just did a two or three day stopover, youd still be amazed by how much natural beauty you could fit in.
See our guide to some of the best day trips from Reykjavik for ideas.
Wed suggest that you should spend at least three to seven days in the country if you can to see as much as possible and check out our seven day Iceland itinerary for inspiration.
If you want to tackle the ring road that goes all the way around Iceland (advisable in the summer months), then you should think about at least seven days in Iceland, but preferably 10 14 days in order to get the most out of your experience.
See our complete Iceland ring road itinerary for more on that trip.
However long you choose to visit Iceland for though, we think theres a great experience waiting for you.
Step 3. Decide What kind of Trip to Take in Iceland
There are multiple options for how to travel in Iceland, which can be broadly categorised as follows:
A Self Drive Trip
Usually our preferred way of travelling, and definitely a good option in Iceland. A self-drive trip has you hiring a car and then travelling around Iceland under your own steam, staying in different locations and sight-seeing based on your interests.
You have the flexibility to reschedule sights and activities if the weather is poor, add (or remove!) sights from your itinerary if you wish, and generally have the most control over your trip.
The disadvantage of a trip like this is that it can work out to be a more expensive option than a group tour once youve factored in all the costs of the hire-car, accommodation, fuel and so-on.
If you decide to self-drive, check out our guide to driving in Iceland, as well as specific tips for driving in Iceland in winter.
You can see a list of self-drive tours on Tour Radar here and on Guide to Iceland here, both of which offer a variety of tours from different companies in Iceland.
A group guided tour
If you prefer to have someone else handle the driving while you enjoy the scenic views, then you might prefer to take a guided tour. These come in various types, from single-day excursions to multi-day trips, and you can book both private tours or group tours.
For example, there are a range of single day trips from Reyjkavik that cover a majority of the highlights of Iceland, such as the Golden Circle and Snaefellsnes Peninsula.
Guided tours have the advantage that you dont have to worry about anything other than being on time for the bus. They usually work out to be cheaper than doing it yourself, and you know that youre going to see all the highlights.
Many people, especially those with only a few days to spare, base themselves in Reykjavik and then take a series of single day excursions to places to visit highlights like the Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon, do a glacier hike, and to see the Northern Lights.
Although you do need to be prepared to spend some time in a bus, it is amazing how much you can see doing day trips from Reykjavik, and returning back to your hotel in the city each night!
The disadvantage is that you dont have the flexibility to stop as and when you want, and in a group tour in particular, obviously youll be with a number of other people. Of course, this can be a great way to meet people and have a social aspect to your trip.
Weve put together a guide to some of the best guided tours of Iceland to give you an idea of whats available for everything from 2 days two weeks, across a variety of price points.
You can also see a comprehensive list of guided tours in Iceland on TourRadar here and on Guide to Iceland here.
A private guided tour
A private tour can be a best of both worlds option, but these do tend to end up being the most expensive option for a trip, so unless there is a fairly large group of you, or money is no object, wed suggest that either a self-drive trip or a group tour are going to be better value.
Public Transport / Bus Passports
There are also sight-seeing bus companies which offer transport rather than entire tours. You buy what they call a bus passport, which are available for different durations and cover different parts of the country.
These can be a good way to sort out your transport independently of the rest of your trip, and are definitely a cost-effective option. See here for a list of options. Note though that as far as we can tell, most of these bus passports only operate in the summer months.
Finally, you could try to get around Iceland by public transport. There are public buses, but from a sight-seeing perspective, this is definitely not an optimal option as they generally dont stop at the sights you want to see.
Wed definitely advise picking one of the other options rather than public transport if you want to see Icelands natural attractions beyond the major towns.
Step 4. Choose an Itinerary for your Iceland Trip
Now youve decided when and for how long you want to visit Iceland, youre going to want to plan an itinerary. Of course, once youve started putting an itinerary together, you might decide you need even longer in this wonderful country and thats fine of course!
1 4 days in Iceland
Wed suggest for trips of one to three days you focus on the sights around and within a three to four hour drive of Reykjavik.
For example, a day trip around the Golden Circle, a morning at the blue lagoon, a day trip along the south coast of Iceland to see some of Icelands most famous waterfalls, and perhaps a day trip up to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.
These can all be easily done as either a day trip from Reykjavik or as part of a self drive tour.
We have a detailed itinerary for 3 days in Iceland which will give you some ideas of what is achievable in this time period.
4 7 days in Iceland
Four to seven days gives you lots of choice in Iceland.
Our suggestion would be to explore from the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in the west all the way along to Jokulsarlon in the east, taking in highlights including the Golden Circle, the Blue Lagoon, the mighty waterfalls of the south coast and the glacier region in the south-east.
These would be perfect as part of a self drive tour, or you could join multiple single-day tours together from the city.
We have a number of itineraries to give you ideas, including one for five days in Iceland, and one that goes through a seven day itinerary for Iceland.
7+ days in Iceland
With seven days to play with, and if youre not travelling in the middle of winter, then the Ring Road is likely going to be your natural choice.
Youll be able to see the major highlights of Iceland on this incredible journey around the country, with more photo opportunities than you can imagine. This is a popular option, and can be done either as a self-drive trip like these or these, or as part of a group tour like this.
Alternatively, you could thoroughly explore from the east of the country right along the south coast and see everything from the highlights to the less visited attractions, really taking your time and taking it all in.
Now you should have an idea of when youre going to visit Iceland, how long youre going to spend in Iceland, what sort of trip youre going to do in Iceland and where you want to go in Iceland!
We went through all these steps, and now Im going to share with you what that ended up looking like, and why we made the choices we did.
Our Winter Trip To Iceland
This section covers our planning and decision-making process for our winter trip to Iceland, followed by an overview of the trip we ended up doing, including a detailed trip itinerary.
After that, theres information on what to pack, where to stay, practical considerations for travelling in Iceland and information on much it costs to travel in Iceland.
Why we went to Iceland in Winter
We chose Iceland in mid-March as it seemed like a good trade-off between the amount of available daylight (around 11 12 hours each day) whilst still having the chance to see the northern lights. Ive wanted to see the northern lights for a long time, and been foiled on every attempt.
Spoiler alert, we didnt see the northern lights in Iceland on this trip either. We were unlucky to be in Iceland during a quiet period for solar activity, and many of the nights were cloudy.
We didnt let this spoil our trip of course, but its definitely something to think about when picking a time of year to visit the northern lights are not guaranteed!
How Long We Went For
For this trip to Iceland we visited for 12 nights, which gave us plenty of time to do everything we wanted to do. As we were visiting in the winter months, we focused our attention on the south and west parts of the country, as these were more accessible.
Much of the northern part of the country is harder to access in winter, and road closures due to snow and ice can be a problem.
The Trip we Chose to Do
The trip we chose was an eight day / seven night self-drive trip which focused on the west and south coasts of Iceland.
We chose the itinerary not just because it promised glaciers and auroras, but because looking at the map, it covered the majority of the highlights that we were interested in, including the golden circle and all the highlights of the south coast all the way to Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon.
It even covered a part of the country a little north of Reykjavik, although not quite as far as the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. As we had extra time after the trip though, we were able to explore the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in our own time we just extended the hire car a few more days.
Why we Chose a Self-Drive Tour
We chose a self-drive trip because it exactly matches our way of travel. We often take longer at stops because Im waiting for the right light for a shot, or Im waiting for the crowds of people to disperse. Sometimes we want to spend more time at a location because Jess wants to drop in at a museum. Often, Ill need to drive somewhere for a sunset or sunrise.
Basically, we like to have control and flexibility over our plans, and a self-drive trip exactly lines up with those needs.
A pre-booked self-drive tour took all the hassle out of the trip things like finding a place to stay, route planning and booking the hire car were already handled. They provided us with loads of information about where we were going and what we might like to see. And then, we were essentially left to do as we pleased.
Were not averse of course to other types of trip, and enjoy group tours as well. Overall though, a self-drive tour was definitely the best choice for us in Iceland.
Whats Included (and what isnt) on a Self Drive Tour in Iceland?
Self drive tours in Iceland vary in what they include, however here is what you should generally expect:
All of your accommodation with free breakfasts
Rental car with CDW (collision damage waiver), theft protection and unlimited mileage (usually also including a free additional driver)
Car pick/up and drop off at Keflavik International airport
Of course, the self-drive tours dont include everything. Usually, exclusions are:
Optional activities
Airfare to and from Iceland
Fuel for the car
Any other meals or snacks
Additional optional car insurance including ash damage, windscreen damage, or underbody damage. These will usually be available to purchase at car pickup, or when booking the tour.
These inclusions are pretty standard for self-drive tours in Iceland, although of course check the details for the tour youre interested in to be sure.
Types of Trips You Can Book in Iceland
If youre going through a tour operator in Iceland, there are two main types of tour you can book. These are self drive tours, and guided group trips. The latter of which can be single day trips or multi-day trips.
Self-drive tours span from 1 to 14+ nights, with availability for each tour depending on the time of year. The majority of these trips are available at a range of different price points, depending on the accommodation level you are interested in. These levels range from budget through to more luxury options.
Budget accommodation will usually be shared facilities in basic hotels, farmhouses and guest houses. Pricing will then increase through to more luxury options.
In addition to the accommodation options, you will also often have the option to choose what kind of car you want. These range from basic small cars through to top of the range four wheel drive vehicles. If youre travelling in winter, we definitely suggest you choose a four wheel drive.
As well self-drive tours, you can also book guided tours in Iceland. These are available from single day trips through to multi-day tours. These are available as both private and group tours, with group sizes varying from less than 12 to over 30. As a general rule, the larger the group, the more cost effective the tour will be.
Our Eight Day Iceland Itinerary
So, we did all the planning, we figured out when and where we wanted to travel, and we had our tour all lined up! Now Im going to run through the tour and let you know our experiences, what we liked, and anything we were unhappy with.
As previously mentioned, we chose an eight-day self-drive trip which we did with Iceland Travel. We opted for comfortable accommodation with a mid-range four-wheel drive station wagon style vehicle.
This started and ended in Reykjavik, and had us exploring the fjords, glaciers and waterfalls just north of the city, followed by the golden circle, and then along the south coast to the mighty waterfalls and stunning black sand beaches, heading as far east as the Glacier Lagoon.
Heres a quick overview of what we got up to each day.
Day 1 Reykjavik.
Our first day had us picking up our car from Hertz Iceland (see here for car hire providers in Iceland) Wed actually arrived in Reykjavik a day early, so rather than picking it up at Keflavik International Airport, we picked it up in the city centre.
Our suggested itinerary then had us visiting the Blue Lagoon, which is a great option on the way to or from the airport as its only a few kilometres from Keflavik International Airport. This would be a great way to unwind after a long flight.
As it was, because we had arrived the day prior and taken the bus transfer to the airport, we actually visited the Blue Lagoon on our second day.
We spent our first day exploring the city, which both of us enjoyed Reykjavik has a lot to offer, and we had no problem finding things to do. So much so in fact that we spent a further two days exploring the city after our trip was over.
Day 2 Fjords
We started our second day heading out of the city to the Blue Lagoon for an early morning swim.
Visiting the Blue Lagoon first thing in the morning is something wed definitely recommend as it was very quiet when we did so. And whilst neither of us are exactly spa people, we both really enjoyed the Blue Lagoon experience.
Theres just something very relaxing about being in a huge body of warm water underneath blue Icelandic skies, with steam all around and it was definitely one of the early highlights of our trip.
We then doubled back on ourselves and headed north. In retrospect, we definitely feel that following the suggested itinerary and doing the Blue Lagoon on the first or last day makes more sense so as to avoid this detour, however, this worked for us. If you want a closer hot spring to minimise the driving, consider the Sky Lagoon instead.
From Reykjavik our route took us up around Hvalfjordur, a beautiful 30km coastal drive, and then onto the coastal town of Borgarnes where we visited the church, a statue on the hill, and also the Settlement Centre. Found in two of Borgarness oldest buildings, this tells the story of Icelands earliest days and some of the heroes of the Icelandic Sagas.
We then headed inland stopping at Deildartunguhver (Icelandic names are fun!), which is Europes most powerful hot spring. 180 litres per second of water at boiling point pours out of the ground here!
After Deildartunguhver we continued on up to Hraunfossar, one of Icelands more unusual waterfalls. Hraunfossar is actually a sideways waterfall that runs for 900 metres along the Hvita river.
The water actually pours out from underneath the lava field here, and so it looks like its just coming out from under the ground which of course it is. It looks very cool, and was particularly pretty at sunset, which was when we visited.
Finally, we headed back to our hotel, the Icelandair Hotel Hamar, just outside Borganes, for a relaxing nights sleep.
Day 3 Falls
Our itinerary for our third day had us visiting a glacier in the afternoon, with the morning set aside for exploring the region. Jess had found out that Icelands highest easily accessible waterfall was less than an hours drive away, so I set out to find that whilst Jess relaxed in the hotel.
The hike up to Glymur Falls was a wonderful experience, with seabirds swirling, stunning views across the landscapes and plenty of photography opportunities. It was a natural entry for my post on my favourite photography spots in Iceland.
Returning to Jess and the hotel, we were sad to learn that our scheduled trip onto the glacier had been cancelled due to poor weather. It was rescheduled to the following morning, weather permitting, but we now had a free afternoon.
Thankfully, our Iceland Travel guidebook had plenty of options, and we explored the region, and took advantage of the hotels outdoor geothermal hot tubs even more fun as it was snowing when we used them!
Day 4 Glacier and Golden Circle
On our fourth day the weather was good enough for our Glacier tour! We were excited about this because neither of us had been on a glacier before. This was an optional excursion arranged with Into the Glacier.
The tour involves a 40 minute ride in a huge 18 wheeled converted ex-NATO missile launcher, followed by an hour or so exploring inside the worlds largest man made ice tunnel. Definitely a recommended option!
From our glacier expedition we headed east, taking advantage of our four wheel drive to take a couple of mountain roads and stop off at the beautiful orufoss waterfall, which we had all to ourselves.
Then, it was on Icelands famous Golden Circle a loop road thats popular as a day trip from Reykjavik, and includes the UNESCO listed ingvellir National Park, the stunning Gulfoss waterfall and the Geysir national park.
That was a busy day, but we managed to get everything in before sunset, and headed to our Icelandair hotel in Fluir.
Day 5 Waterfalls and Beaches
Our fifth day of exploration had us heading along Icelands incredible south coast, which is home to some truly spectacular scenery.
Ok, who am I kidding, Iceland is home to spectacular scenery pretty much everywhere. Highlights of this day were truly dramatic though, including two of Icelands most famous waterfalls, Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss.
The former you can actually go behind, which makes for some unique (if wet!) photography opportunities.
Further along we stopped at Dyrholaey Arch and the beautiful basalt lined beaches near the picturesque town of Vik. As you can imagine, our cameras were kept very busy.
Finally, we arrived at Klaustur, where we overnighted at the Icelandair hotel Klaustur.
Day 6 Icebergs and Glaciers!
Pushing further east, our sixth day had us crossing a huge lava field, as well as the site of a massive glacial flood, which washed away chunks of the ring road in a huge deluge.
As we travelled we saw a number of waterfalls as well as those beautiful Icelandic horses, that of course we had to stop (safely off the road!) to photograph.
Then we visited Svartifoss, a remarkable waterfall over black basalt columns which has given it the name the Black Falls. We also took in the Svinafellsjokull glacier, which was as close to end of a glacier that we came on the trip, with the chunks of blue hued ice almost in touching distance.
Finally, our day culminated with a visit to Jokulsarlon, the glacial lake on the edge of Vatnajokull National Park. The Breiamerkurjokull glacier meltwater flows into the lake, along with the ice that breaks off the glacier, creating a truly wonderful sight of an iceberg filler lake.
Even better, the icebergs float out to sea and are washed up on nearby Diamond Beach, making for countless photo opportunities, and the perfect place for us to watch sunset, before heading back for our second night at the Icelandair hotel Klaustur.
Day 7 Back to Reykjavik
Our last full day on our trip had us making the journey back along the south coast to Reykjavik. We didnt mind retracing our steps, in fact, we took full advantage of it, stopping off at some locations again to get a few more shots. This was particularly handy at one of the beaches we visited where the tide was lower, meaning we could get some shots we hadnt previously caught before.
We also stopped at a number of picturesque fishing villages on the way back, and finished off a wonderful self-drive itinerary with a gorgeous sunset over the remote and stunning church of Strandarkirkja on the south west tip of Iceland. Then it was back to Reykjavik for our last night on our tour!
Day 8 The end!
Our last day would normally have had us heading to the airport and returning our hire car, perhaps with a stop at the Blue Lagoon on the way.
However, we werent ready to stop and we had a few more days in the country. So we extended our hire car a few more days, and went off on further explorations under our own steam. More on those in a future post!
That pretty much summarises what we got up to on our self-drive tour of Iceland. Now let me go over some of the things we enjoyed about it!
What we Enjoyed About Our Iceland Trip
There were a number of things we really liked about the self-drive trip we booked in Iceland. First, it was super-easy. With all our accommodation taken care of, plus a detailed suggested itinerary, we had no problem filling our days.
The information we received on the way up to and as we started our trip was wonderfully comprehensive, helping us to ensure we were fully prepared. We were sent a 27 page PDF walkthrough of our itinerary and all the highlights we could expect to see on the route, as well as shorter detailed itinerary of our exact hotels and booked excursions.
We also loved the massive choice of self-drive tours available in Iceland, both in terms of types of trip available, and the itineraries they have on offer throughout the year. Whatever youre interested in, were pretty sure youll find a tour to suit.
What could have been improved?
Overall, our experience doing a self-drive trip in Iceland was fantastic, but of course, not everything is perfect in life. A few minor niggles.
First, on the tour we choose, whilst CDW was included with our car insurance, there were a number of optional insurances that werent included, which would have been nice for peace of mind. Of course, these were available to purchase when we picked the vehicle up. Its also worth noting that some tour companies present it as an option when booking, which would have been our preference.
Another area that might have been nice on the tour we chose would have been to give us the option for half board at some of the hotels. Meals in Iceland are a big cost for a trip, and a half board option might have helped offset that. Some self-drive tours do include this as an option, so when deciding definitely keep this in mind.
Lastly, it would have been nice to see the Northern Lights. Of course, this has nothing to do with our tour, we were really unlucky with our timing and the weather conditions, and despite our best efforts, we just didnt get to make it happen.
So it just goes to show that even on a longish trip like ours, at the right time of year, you might not have luck. Still, its an excuse to go back, and were happy about that!
What to Pack on a Trip to Iceland
Iceland is a country where the weather can change very quickly, whatever time of year you visit. Layers are going to be the answer, wed suggest thermal base layers, then warm mid-layers like fleeces, followed by waterproof and windproof outerlayers.
Youre also going to want good hiking boots or shoes, gloves and a hat. If youre visiting any of the thermal springs, save money by bringing your own towel, and of course dont forget your swimwear, and maybe a waterproof case for your phone so you can get the perfect selfie!
We also have a full guide to what to pack for a trip to Iceland, which includes a downloadable checklist. Worth checking out to help you make sure you dont miss anything!
Where to Stay in Iceland
Iceland has a wide range of accommodation options, from farm stays, vacation rentals and B&Bs through to higher end full service hotels. Check out Icelands listings on booking.com for a full range of options.
On our self-drive tour we stayed at 3 and 4 star properties throughout the country, which were comfortable and included a full breakfast.
When travelling by ourselves, we largely booked through vacation rental sites like Vrbo. We also use a number of other sites, like AirBnB. Check out our full guide to AirBnB alternatives right here.
How Much Does it Cost to Travel in Iceland?
Iceland is far from a budget destination, and prices vary depending on the time of year you visit, with the peak summer months tending to be much more expensive than the quieter winter months.
A mid-range hotel room will generally be in the region of $80 $150 a night, and this will often include breakfast.
Car hire costs will vary depending on the type of vehicle you hire. Expect to pay $50 $150 a day, and dont forget to factor in the cost of the various insurance options. Gas is quite expensive. See here for some car hire providers in Iceland.
Food is a real budget-killer in Iceland. Even burgers from gas stations will be in the range of $10 $15, whilst a sit down meal at a restaurant will have prices in the range of $30 $50 for a main course.
The good news is that many of the attractions themselves, and particularly the natural attractions like waterfalls and national parks, are free to visit, although some do have parking fees, notably the most popular waterfalls along the south coast. This is to help provide infrastructure, and we think is well worth paying to help Iceland cope with increased tourism numbers.
We think that Iceland is very much worth visiting, and that you should just prepare yourself to spend a bit more money than you might in other European countries. Its definitely money you will not regret spending! For more on cost-saving ideas for Iceland, heres a guide to visiting Iceland on a budget to help you make the most of your trip
Practicalities for your Trip in Iceland
1. Safety in Iceland
Iceland is one of the safest countries in the world to travel in, with extremely low crime rates and good medical care. The main dangers that travellers will face will usually be related to the quickly changing weather, and natural hazards like slippery rocks or steep cliffs. Car accidents are also something to be aware of, especially in the winter months when driving conditions can be hazardous.
2. Power
Iceland uses a 220v system with the same two pin plugs as most of Europe. If you are travelling from the UK or US, you will need some form of travel adapter like this see our Iceland packing list for suggestions. See more on travel adapters and how to choose one for your trip in our guide to the best travel adapters. We highly recommend you pick anything up before you come as Iceland is not cheap.
3. Internet Access / WiFi
WiFi is generally easy to find in Iceland, and all the hotels and guesthouses we stayed in had good, free WiFi access. In addition, on our road trip with Iceland Travel, we were provided with a pre-paid SIM card which came with data, meaning we could get online easily.
If you want to get online with your phone, a SIM card from a local provider will likely be the cheapest option, and these can be picked up at Keflavik airport when you arrive.
If you dont have an unlocked phone, take a look at my guide to getting online when you travel for more options.
4. Language
The primary language in Iceland is Icelandic, although as you will have noticed from many of the place names in our itinerary, its a bit of a daunting language to learn. Here is a list of common phrases in Icelandic, which you might find useful, at least for starting a conversation. We found however that English was very widely spoken, and we had no trouble communicating with the Icelandic people, who were friendly, helpful and welcoming.
5. Money in Iceland
The local currency is the Icelandic Kroner, or ISK. There are ATMs around the country from where you can withdraw cash, just be aware that they will all charge you a fee for doing so. In our experience, nearly everywhere we travelled accepted our international credit cards, however, it is always worth having cash on you just in case cards are not accepted.
6. Tipping in Iceland
Tipping is generally not expected in Iceland for service. At many restaurants, a tip is already included, so do check your bill before you add a tip.
If a tip is not included, its not common to leave a tip, although it is not rude to leave a tip if you wish, around ten percent would be a reasonable amount to tip in Iceland. Alternatively, many people choose to round up the bill to the nearest 1,000, which is also very acceptable.
Further Reading to Help you Plan your Trip to Iceland
Well be writing a lot more about Iceland across our two blogs in the coming months, so this list will be updated as we go. In the meantime, here are some great resources to get you started with planning your Iceland vacation.
And that finishes up my guide to planning the perfect trip to Iceland! I hope you enjoyed it. Is Iceland on your list? Let us know in the comments below!
So you know: We received a complimentary seven day tour of Iceland with Iceland Travel, which included our accommodation and hire car, plus an allowance for fuel. In addition, if you book any trip with Iceland Travel from the links above well earn a small commission. We covered our own flights and the remainder of our time exploring Iceland was on our own budget. As always, you can see our code of ethics for how we choose who to work with!
Five Jack, a South Korea and Indonesia-based company that operates an e-commerce game platform called itemku for gamers in Indonesia, raised US$1.2m in funding.
Backers included 500 Startups and Korean venture capital firms.
The company, which has raised US$1.7m in total funding to date, will use the capital to expand its presence in Southeast Asia while keep growing the business in Indonesia.
Led by Denis Kim, CEO, Five Jack operates an e-commerce game platform called itemku for gamers in Indonesia.
In March, the company launched a trial version of gokil, a service developed to identify the potential development of game community in Indonesia. The service is building on the existing customer base of hardcore gamers that itemku has secured.
FinSMEs
10/04/2017
New Delhi: Within weeks of tax tribunal ITAT upholding levy of retrospective tax, the Income Tax Department has slapped a fresh demand note of Rs 10,247 crore on British
explorer Cairn Energy Plc.
ITAT in its 9 March order held that Cairn Energy was liable to pay tax on the 2006 transfer of India assets to newly created Cairn India, prior to its listing. It, however, held that interest cannot be charged on it as the demand was raised using retrospective tax legislation.
The Income Tax Department had raised a tax demand of Rs 10,247 crore and another Rs 18,800 crore in interest for 10 years.
"Following the ruling of the ITAT, an amended tax demand, received on 31 March, 2017, noted that late payment interest would now be charged from February 2016, i.e. from 30 days following the date of the original 2016 final assessment order," Cairn said in a notice to shareholders.
Cairn said the decision of the ITAT is "potentially subject to appeal."
The company had on 24 January, 2014 received a draft assessment order for the alleged capital gains it made in 2006. The order restrained the company from selling the residual 9.8 percent stake it holds in Cairn India.
Cairn Energy had in 2011 sold Cairn India to Vedanta.
"Then, on 4 February, 2016... a final assessment order in respect of the Indian fiscal year ended 31 March 2007, (was) issued by the Indian Income Tax Department (IITD) in the amount of Rs 10,247 crore plus interest back dated to 2007 totalling Rs 18,800 crore," Cairn said.
The final assessment order did not include any penalties which may also be applied to the final assessment (potentially up to 300 percent of any tax finally agreed).
"The final assessment order was appealed to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi which ruled on 9 March, 2017 that tax in the amount of Rs 10,247 crore remained payable but that the company could not be required to pay interest," it said.
This is because the tax demand was raised on the basis of a retrospective amendment done to the income tax act in 2012 and Cairn could not have anticipated that payment of tax would be required.
Stating that it strongly contests the final assessment order, Cairn said enforcement of any tax liability deemed due by the tax department will be limited to India assets, which had a value of about US $750 million as of 31 December, 2016.
These assets comprised principally Cairn's residual shareholding in Cairn India.
Cairn said it had on 11 March, 2015 filed a Notice of Dispute under The UK-India Investment Treaty in order to protect its legal position and shareholder interests.
"The international arbitration proceedings formally commenced in January 2016 following the agreement between Cairn and the Government of India on the appointment of a panel of three international arbitrators under the terms of the Treaty," it said.
"However, supported by detailed legal advice on the strength of the legal protections available to it under international law, Cairn strongly contests the actions of the IITD in these matters.
"In addition to the resolution of the tax dispute, Cairn also seeks full recompense for the loss of value resulting from the restriction on its Cairn India shares," the notice added.
Reshma Patil
China has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Indiait was the 17th largest in 2016, up from the 28th rank in 2014 and 35th in 2011, according to Indias official ranking of FDI inflows.
In 2011, total Chinese investment in India was $102 million. Last year, a record $1 billion of Chinese FDI reportedly came to India, but official Indian and Chinese statistics differ on cumulative figures. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) last year estimated that total FDI from China between April 2000 and December 2016 was $1.6 billion. Indian industry analysts and media reports have estimated the figure to be over $2 billion.
FDI Inflows From China Period Rank FDI inflow (In Rs crore) FDI Inflow (In $ million) Inflows* (%) April 2000-December 2016 17 9,933.87 1,611.66 0.50 April 2000-December 2015 17 7996.09 1322.81 0.48 April 2000-December 2014 28 2508.64 453.82 0.19 April 2000-December 2013 30 1641.9 313.02 0.15 April 2000-December 2012 31 1224.89 240.87 0.13 April 2000-December 2011 35 493.44 102.56 0.06 April 2000-December 2010 36 254.37 53.05 0.04
Source: Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion; *As percentage of total FDI inflows
Actual Chinese investment in India is at least three times higher than the official Indian figure, Santosh Pai, partner at Gurgaon-based Link Legal India Law Services, which provides legal services to members of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told IndiaSpend.
Indian statistics capture direct investments from mainland China, but a majority of Chinese overseas direct investment, Pai noted, flows through tax havens such as Hong Kong. Last year, Chinese vice-minister for finance Shi Yaobin was quoted saying China has cumulatively invested $4.07 billion in India, and India has invested $650 million in China.
China will be one of Indias top 10 investors shortly, Pai said. He recalled his experience of building a clientele in Beijing in 2010. The Indian firm he worked for had no clients in China. He would drive up and down Beijings best-known road, Changan, noting down companies names on buildings along the way. Later, he would track down those companies online and approach them for business. In six years, his firms Chinese clientele grew from zero to 120 companies (the firm has since merged with the one he works with now).
Six years ago, investors from the worlds second-largest economy were hard to find in India. Today, Indias largest digital payments company Paytm is 40 percent-owned by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba and its affiliates, and Alibaba is reportedly raising its stake to 62 percent. Chinas fourth-largest mobile phone company Xiaomi assembles one phone every second at a new factory in India.
Sixty percent of Chinese FDI is concentrated in the automobile industry. Several companies regional offices are located in Ahmedabad, although Chinese companies are gradually moving away from an initial preference for Gujarat towards Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana. Seven smartphone companies from China have launched, or plan to launch, factories in India, according to a February 2017 Chinese media report, Rise and Coexist.
Source: Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
Nonetheless, Chinese investment flows into India remain relatively low, both in terms of total FDI flows into India and Chinese outward investment globally. Chinas share of total FDI in India is only 0.5 percent, despite its being the second largest economy in the world and Indias largest trading partner, according to DIPP.
Source: Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
This is higher than other BRICS countries investment in IndiaBrazil chalks up 0.01 percent and Russia 0.37 percent despite historically robust relations. Yet, Chinas 0.5 percent share pales in comparison with fellow Asian powerhouse Japan (7.7 percent). Meanwhile, the US, which China recently replaced as the worlds largest economy in purchasing power parity terms, has a 6.13 percent share in total FDI in India.
While Chinas FDI flow into India last year showed a relatively significant rise, the figure was negligible when viewed against Chinas outbound investment of over a trillion yuan or $170 billion across 164 nations last yearincluding $45.6 billion in the US alone.
Problem of politics
Chinese FDI in India has increased even as India and China have picked new points of political disagreement in the last two years. India objects to Chinas $46 billion investment in the China-Pakistan economic corridor that passes through parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Last year, Beijing obstructed Indias efforts to get membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and China has repeatedly blocked a proposal at the United Nations to blacklist Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, implicated in terror strikes in India including the 2016 Pathankot attack.
There is no drop in the activity of Chinese companies evaluating India because of political relations between the two countries, Sridhar Venkiteswaran, CEO of Avalon Consulting in Delhi, told IndiaSpend. Increasingly, the Indian political establishment too does not want to place any roadblocks on Chinese investment into India but Indian companies tend to push back when there is negative news about the Sino-Indian relationship.
The bilateral tension in their relations is reflected in public opinion. Last year, 31 percent of Indians and 26 percent of Chinese had a favourable view of each other, according to the Pew Research Centre. A senior Chinese official recently remarked to the media that Indias investment climate is improving and laws are more sorted but when something (negative) happens in India, our investors get worried.
Source: Ministry of Tourism
Chinese commentary on India today reflects this combination of geopolitical rivalry and enhanced commercial interest. Chinas government-backed newspaper Global Times published a record-setting 80 opinion pieces on India in 2016, and its coverage of India is on the rise. The articles are a mix of political warnings against antagonising China and business reports evaluating investment in India. Though New Delhi has refused to endorse Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative to build infrastructure to link Asia with Europe and Africa, sections of the Chinese media have projected an upcoming industrial park in Indias Gujarat as part of the same Chinese initiative.
Indias growth attraction
Faced with double-digit increases in labour costs, an ageing workforce and a record slowdown in economic growth, Chinese companies have been searching for alternative manufacturing destinations and new markets since the economic downturn of 2008.
India is a hot investment opportunity, Li Bojun, a counsellor at the Chinese embassy was quoted saying in the Peoples Daily in February 2017. Chinese companies are showing more confidence in the Indian economy as it grows faster than their own and narrows the gap in competitiveness between the two Asian giants. India ranked 39th compared with China at 28th in the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report on 138 nations in 2016-17, raising its rank by 16 positions from the 55th in 2015-16.
The fact that the Indian economy is now the fastest-growing has had a positive signalling effect in China, Pai said.
A 2015-16 joint report by Indian industry association Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Avalon Consulting estimated that labour costs for manufacturing personnel are 1.5 to 3 times higher in China than in India. The report noted that China is losing competitiveness to India in several light engineering-related industries, which is attracting Chinese investors to India.
The relative competitiveness of India compared to China is increasing, especially for Chinese companies to shift production from China to India in the automotive, chemical and electronics value added chain, Venkiteswaran said. For example, he said, imports from China have been 35 percent costlier since 2013, and the cost of labour in China is increasing by 18-19 percent since 2014, compared with 8-10 percent in India.
Chinese businesses have noticed. One of the most-shared articles in March on the Global Times website warned: China should pay more attention to Indias increasing manufacturing competitiveness.
Coverage of Indias economy and manufacturing competitiveness is increasing in China since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known better in China than his predecessors, partly due to his Weibo account, which was launched in 2015. Modis image as a decisive political leader and promoter of economic reforms is viewed positively by Chinese investors.
Modi was recently termed a man of action and a hardliner, qualities that the Chinese Communist Party is known to respect, in an article on the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in Global Times.
Business barriers
However, it is far from smooth sailing for Sino-Indian investment. Indias attempts to gain market access in China for its information technology, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries have hit a wall for over a decade. Indias deficit in trade with China bloated to $46.56 billion last year. Bilateral trade remains below the target of $100 billion that both sides were aiming to achieve in 2015. At $70.08 billion in 2016, bilateral trade was 2.2 percent lower than the $71.63 billion in 2015. The CII-Avalon study forecasts that the trade deficit will hit $60 billion by 2018-19.
For mainland Chinese companies, India is not an easy place to do business, for several reasons. First, they are relatively unfamiliar with the business environment, as against firms from the US, Europe, Japan and South Korea, which have decades of experience in India.
Second, India trailed at 130th while China was ranked 78th in the World Banks latest (2017) ease of doing business index. Proposed industrial parks funded by China, including a reported $10 billion investment in Haryana, are stuck due to land acquisition and other complexities. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co.s move to acquire 86 percent stake in Indian drug-maker Gland Pharma Ltd has been dogged by uncertainty and delays regarding government approvals, as The Economic Times reported.
Chinese companies indicate a lot of interest in investing in India but many are uncertain about sealing the deal due to the complex labyrinth of regulations and financial hoops, Nazia Vasi, CEO of Mumbai-based Inchin Closer, an India-China language and business consultancy, told IndiaSpend.
While larger, strong investors like Alibaba are making calculated strides in familiar territory, Vasi said, it will be a while until Chinese companies see their rate of return rise higher than their risk of being in India.
Third, there are differences in business cultures. These differences emerge sharpest during negotiations, Pai said, due to a lack of communication skills to understand each other. Both sides struggle to identify suitable partners and prefer to focus on intangible criteria such as trust and familiarity.
Indians who are more familiar with Western practices tend to adopt a straight-talking no-nonsense approach, Pai observed, whereas the Chinese prefer an indirect and subtle approach which comes across as ambiguous and non-serious. Most business negotiations either end up in a never-ending loop or fail. Those which reach a satisfactory conclusion falter a little after execution because consensus was reached by overlooking several potential dead-lock issues.
In 2014, Chinese president Xi Jinping committed to a $20 billion investment in India over five years. If fulfilled, this would increase Chinas economic footprint in India. But it would still be a small percentage of Xis more recent promise that China will invest $750 billion overseas in five years.
(Patil is the author of Strangers across the Border: Indian Encounters in Boomtown China.)
New Delhi: All cash payments of over Rs 2 lakh for paying loans and credit card bills during the 50-day period post demonetisation will have to be disclosed in the new one-page Income Tax return form.
The tax department a few days back notified new Income Tax Return (ITR) forms for filing of returns for the Assessment Year 2017-18 (financial year 2016-17).
Besides providing for declaring income, exemption claimed and tax paid, the forms have a new column providing for declaration for any deposit of over Rs 2 lakh in bank accounts made during November 9 and December 30, 2016 after the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes were demonetised.
This column is also to be used for declaring cash payments in excess of Rs 2 lakh for repayment of any loan or settlement of credit card bills during this 50-day period, a senior official told PTI.
"The column is an attempt to match the cash deposits made post demonetisation with the annual income," he said.
While all credit cards are linked to permanent account number (PAN) of the holder, almost all loans by scheduled banks are also provided on furnishing of PAN.
The tax department will collate the data it has of cash payments made in excess of Rs 2 lakh with the returns filed. "We want to see if the income profile matches with the cash payments made," he said.
The move comes amid concerns of unaccounted cash or black money being used to settle bills after credit cards were used to make heavy purchases. It could also be that black money could have been used to repay loans.
Post-demonetisation, the government had provided a 50-day window beginning November 9, 2016 to deposit the junked notes in bank accounts. For those with unaccounted cash, it gave them one last opportunity to come clean by depositing 50 percent of it as tax and parking another 25 percent in a zero- interest bearing deposit for four years.
The changes made in ITR are an attempt to catch tax evaders, the official said.
Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had last week told PTI that the new column of cash deposits made during November 9, 2016 and December 30, 2016 was a one-time feature in the ITR and would not be there in the ITR from next year onwards.
The ITR, he had said, would evolve or change every year depending on the need.
While coming out with new ITRs, the CBDT had also rationalised them and cut down the number of forms to seven from earlier nine.
While all taxpayers will have to now mandatorily link Aadhaar with their PAN cards, ITR1 (Sahaj) form has been shortened from 7 page to 1 page to enable filing of returns by people with income up to Rs 50 lakh by July 31.
ITR2 is to be filed by individuals and HUFs who do not have income from business or profession and ITR3 is filed by individuals and HUFs having income from a proprietary business or profession.
Also ITR 2 and ITR 3 also have a Schedule AL which require assessees to declare their assets and liabilities at the end of the fiscal.
ITR4 (Sugam) is filed by those individuals who have opted for income calculation under presumptive income from business and profession.
Flipkart's latest fund raising exercise, the 11th so far, is the biggest-ever since the company started the trend nearly a decade back in 2009.
The country's biggest online marketplace company today announced that it raised $1.4 billion from select investors such as Microsoft and China's Tencent. As a part of the deal, the company also received fund infusion from eBay for agreeing to buy the latter's India operations.
Since 2009, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal co-founded the e-commerce major, it has virtually raised capital every year with the exception of 2016 when the company faced a series of valuation markdowns and intense competition from the US-based online marketplace, Amazon.
Among the biggest fund-raising exercises, Flipkart had raised $1 billion in 2014 from slew of investors including Tiger Global, Naspers, Morgan Stanley and Accel Partners. In the same year, the company had also raised $700 million from a set of investors including Tiger Global and T Rowe Price.
Similarly in 2015, Flipkart got fund infusion of $700 million from Tiger Global and Qatar Investment Authority.
Below is the timeline of Flipkart's fund raising initiatives beginning from 2009.
Expansion through acquisitions
Over the years, Flipkart has also been involved in some high-profile acquisitions to boost specific categories. In order to give a leg-up to online fashion portals, the company first acquired Myntra in 2014 and followed it with the buyout of Jabong in 2016. Among other notable acquisitions, Flipkart bought PhonePe app last year and mobile payment company, Ngpay a year before.
Image courtesy Flipkart web portal
In analysing the future of big-sized startups, it is wise to recall Satyajit Ray's classic based on Munshi Premchand's story, "Shatranj Ke Khilari" (The Chess Players). While we may see high-profile startup founders like Sachin Bansal of Flipkart and Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal as the nawabs seemingly in charge of their kingdoms, they are but pawns in the hands of venture capitalists, who, like British imperialists during the Raj, may swallow up the nawabs. One man's chess player is another man's pawn.
The big question in the media last week was whether Snapdeal was being acquired by Flipkart, as the two face up to the might of Jeff Bezos-led Amazon. Amazon could well be the equivalent of the British empire in this game of thrones -- but it is always wise for business people to look at money before they look at power. In that sense, Snapdeal's co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl appears to be on a weak wicket and acknowledges that he is not a player but a pawn. He told the staff on Sunday in an email that he cared for them but hinted investors were calling the shots. The big boy venture fund backers of Snapdeal (officially Jasper Infotech) include Japan's Softbank and China's Alibaba.
Bahl and chief operating officer and co-founder Rohit Bansal can take cold comfort from the fact that Sachin and Binny Bansal are in not much of a better position at Flipkart, where hedge fund Tiger Global is calling the shots. Sachin Bansal admitted candidly last year that performance was behind his getting off the CEO's chair. Binny is now Group CEO but the hands-on, eyes-out CEO is Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Tiger Global's chosen blue-eyed boy. Kalyan said last week that Flipkart's acquisitions are largely capability-driven. That could be a hint that Snapdeal is not hot property for him because it does not seem to have any special skill or intellectual property to complement Flipkart. Snapdeal does not have at least one of the three S's -- Strength, Stamina or Secret sauce -- and may be best placed to look for suitors to sell out to. The deeper question is: who should it sell out to and why?
Indications are that the combined might of Softbank, Alibaba, Tiger Global and other venture funds may be the best to take on Amazon as reports suggest Snapdeal's initial strategy of being a pureplay marketplace did not go far. Since these funds are out to get rich, riding piggyback on a Flipkart IPO may make sense.
With limited market clout, restive employees and not-so-thrilled customers, Snapdeal is hardly in a position to call the shots.
However, the other option is for Alibaba, the common investor in Snapdeal and Paytm to step in and take on Tiger Global's moves in the pre-IPO chessboard. Paytm is an uncelebrated e-commerce player powered by an ubiquitous mobile wallet that was catapulted to highs by last year's demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. It also has an emerging synergy in a planned payments bank. That seems more workable in a pre-IPO scenario as Paytm's wallet-brand clout can take on Flipkart's early mover advantage.
The third option for Snapdeal is to play a longer term game focusing on, say, regional languages and emerging low-end customers and acquire the fulfillment and customer service clout it could do with. That would require a new infusion of cash, and seems unlikely. That may also remind us of Reliance Jio and the fact that Reliance Industries could do with some technology-driven e-commerce clout to match its other strengths. As they say: watch this space.
(The writer is a senior journalist. he tweets as @madversity)
New Delhi: Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have reached out to employees promising them higher salaries compared to last year as the company heads towards a possible sell out in the coming weeks.
In a letter to employees, the founders said while the company's investors are "driving the discussions around the way forward", their "top and only priority was the well-being of the entire team".
"We will do all that we can, and more, in working with our investors to ensure that there is no disruption in employment and that there are positive professional as well as financial outcomes for the team as the way forward becomes clear," they said.
The founders said the annual performance review process is nearly complete and employees will receive salary revision and promotion letters (where applicable) over the next two weeks. "Given the incredible progress we have made around our profitability journey as a company, the overall increments this year are higher than those offered last year," they said.
According to sources, Snapdeal has about 3,000 employees in its e-commerce operations. The company also has mobile wallet (FreeCharge) and logistics (Vulcan) operations.
Snapdeal's largest investor SoftBank is believed to be re-working its plan for sale of e-commerce platform Snapdeal and a final decision is likely to be made in the next few weeks. Softbank is engaged in dialogue with other investors with board representation -- Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners -- to reach a consensus in terms of valuation, according to sources.
Snapdeal's seven-member board includes representation from investors SoftBank, Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, as well as co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. The board of Jasper Infotech -- that operates Snapdeal -- also has Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Akhil Gupta as an independent director.
The country's third-largest online shopping platform could be sold to larger rival and market leader Flipkart and an announcement on the same is likely to be made in the next 4-8 weeks, sources said. Speculations also suggest that Alibaba-backed Paytm is also in fray as a potential buyer. Alibaba is also a shareholder in Snapdeal. So far, Snapdeal and SoftBank have continued to decline to comment on the matter. The deal, if completed, would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space and change the landscape of the sector that is witnessing intense competition among players.
Sources have said one of the hurdles is valuation, as Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners have not agreed with the valuation given by SoftBank. Snapdeal was valued at US $6.5 billion in its last funding round in February 2016. The valuation has also shrunk since then and the potential deal could be struck at a discounted rate. The cash-strapped firm, over the last few months, has had to trim its workforce significantly and shut down non-core businesses.
Earlier this year, Snapdeal laid off about 600 people. Indian e-commerce companies have seen funding dry up over the last few months as investors are focussing extensively on profitability and rationalisation of expenses. With intense competition from deep-pocketed global rivals like Amazon, companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal could face more heat in the coming days.
Remember Kim Sharma?
The actress was paired opposite Jugal Hansraj in the 2000 film Mohabbatein, and hasn't been seen in films since she married business tycoon Ali Punjani in 2010 and moved to Kenya.
Now DNA reports that the actress is back in Mumbai now that her marriage to the business tycoon is over. A source told the publication that Sharma's marriage is over because her husband left her for another woman.
The source said, "Ali left Kim as he got attracted to another woman. The irony is that when Ali met Kim, he was plump and not great-looking but now because he is in love, he has lost weight and looking great. But Kim is left with no money or financial security. Right now, she is looking to establish her business in Mumbai to provide for herself financially. She is now a brand strategist and goes by the name Kimi Sharma (her real name). Kimi didn't just leave their home in Kenya behind, but her job as the CEO of Punjani's chain of hotels as well."
India Today notes that Sharma has been linked to menswear designer Arjun Khanna since her return to Mumbai and has even been photographed with him on several occasions. This is the reason that Arjun's marriage is on the rocks.
Islamabad: Pakistan censor board has banned the screening of Bollywood action thriller Naam Shabana over objectionable content after initially allowing its release with some cuts.
Last week, the film was allowed to run but a theatre in Islamabad showed it without the mandatory cuts, leading to the ban."It prompted the censor board to ban the screening of the movie," an official said. He said that some of the scenes related to terrorism were not fit enough to be shown.
The officials at censor board were reluctant to allow its screening but the local distributor Ever Ready Pictures persuaded them to allow the release after editing.
Naam Shabana stars Taapsee Pannu and Manoj Bajpayee in lead roles and was initially released in Pakistan on 31 March.
Pakistan banned the screening of Indian films last year after cross border tension between the two countries. The ban was, however, lifted at the start of this year allowing the screening of Indian films after approval by the censor board.
New Delhi: The government is making all efforts to ensure that families of troops killed in the line of duty are provided a compensation of not less than Rs 1 crore, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.
Singh declared this after inaugurating a new government website, along with actor Akshay Kumar, that will allow common people to make monetary donations to families of paramilitary troops killed in action, with an upper limit of Rs 15 lakh to a single family.
"It has been our constant effort to ensure that a family of a martyr who is killed in action does not get a compensation amount less than a crore...I have said that I am even ready to spread my hands and seek funds from my countrymen in this regard," Singh said during the ceremony which also marked the annual Valour Day event of the CRPF.
He added some state governments also provide such funds to families of troops killed but still some "gap" remains and their effort is to fill up these.
The Minister added the country will remain indebted to its soldiers forever and that their welfare is his 'top priority' by saying, "hum aapka ehsaan kabhi nahi utaar payenge" as he lauded the men and women of paramilitary forces deployed for operations in some of the most difficult areas of the country.
As per present compensation norms, the family of a slain soldier of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB, NSG and Assam Rifles gets about Rs 50-60 lakh and the 'gap' the Minister talked about ranges between Rs 40-50 lakh before they get the Rs 1 crore compensation.
The website, www.bharatkeveer.gov.in, is a step in this direction and has been launched after Akshay Kumar met Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi about 2.5 months back with a proposal in this regard.
Kumar said his idea of getting a website made was to engage the entire 125 crore population of the country with the personnel in uniform so that anyone could contribute and feel proud by helping the families of such troops.
Calling himself the son of an army man' and not an actor in the event, Kumar said he hit upon the idea when he saw a documentary where it was described that terror elements motivate people to join them and undertake violence in lieu of promise of "good money" to their families.
Singh complimented Mr Kumar for winning the national award for Best Actor recently and called him 'action Kumar' for doing heroic deeds in not only his films but also in social life too.
Talking high about the sense of duty of the CAPF personnel, Singh said these troops always help and save the lives of even those who pelt stones on them in the Kashmir valley. "I am sure the situation in Kashmir will improve," he said.
The Minister added there has been a dip of about 45-50 per cent in violent incidents in the Left Wing Extremism-hit areas and about 70-75 per cent in the insurgency affected areas of the North East.
The new website inaugurated today provides details of CAPFs personnel killed in the last over an year with their name, age, incident where they made the supreme sacrifice, the name of dependent family members. Any amount of payment up to Rs 15 lakh can be made either through a debit/credit card or net banking facility by the donor.
The portal is powered by the country's largest lending bank SBI and will be maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The contributor will also be acknowledged about his or her donation by an auto-generated website certificate issued under the seal of the Home Ministry.
Kumar had recently donated Rs 9 lakh each to the families of 12 CRPF personnel who were killed in a Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh's Sukma on 11 March.
A few days later, badminton player and Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal had made a similar contribution and donated Rs 50,000 each to these families of the CRPF men.
The CAPFs are not only deployed for guarding Indian borders but they also render a variety of internal security tasks including tackling the Naxal menace in Left Wing Extremism-hit states.
By Huw Jones, Rachel Armstrong and Jesus Aguado
| LONDON/MADRID
LONDON/MADRID A gap in EU financial rules is allowing member countries to compete to host the trading operations of London-based investment banks after Brexit by offering looser regulatory standards. The European Central Bank is the euro zone's banking supervisor but, under EU law, does not have direct responsibility for the divisions of banks that conduct most of their market trading broker-dealers even though they are some of the most complex and riskiest parts of their businesses. This is largely because when the ECB became responsible for euro zone supervision in 2014 the bulk of broker-dealers were in London and therefore not under its purview.This means banks now looking to relocate these operations, to continue to trade continental securities after Britain leaves the EU, will have businesses approved and supervised by the national markets regulator of whichever country they move to. Countries hoping to lure banks to their financial centres after Brexit are offering differing regulatory standards, raising fears at the ECB that they could be subject to light touch supervision and undermining its aim of making financial regulation consistent across the bloc. Such inconsistencies mean broker-dealers trading the same markets in Europe could be subject to different regulatory requirements and raise the prospect that some would take on more risks than other regulators would deem appropriate. "Regardless of balance sheet size, it's currently the national regulators who will have the authority to approve and regulate the broker-dealers. That is raising concerns of inconsistencies emerging," said Vishal Vedi a partner at Deloitte who is advising banks on how they will need to reorganise as a result of Brexit. Across the euro zone, the likes of Frankfurt, Dublin, Luxembourg and Madrid are vying to lure banks, hoping to benefit from the tax revenues and jobs they would bring.Regulation is one way to differentiate themselves. One area in focus is the extent to which national regulators will allow broker-dealers to conduct "back-to-back" trading. This is where a bank would conduct trades - for example, buying European securities - out of its EU base but process and risk manage the transactions at its London office.This would minimise the and number of people a bank would have to move to Europe after Brexit as much of the trading and risk could continue to be overseen in London. But it would mean regulators in that country and the wider euro zone would not have supervisory control over the people and units that are conducting the trading and managing the risks, with minimal amounts of capital held locally at the EU unit.
SPAIN, GERMANY
Spain's markets regulator CNMV has said it wants to make Madrid "the most appealing option for investment firms considering a move from the UK to another EU country".According to people advising investment banks on where to move, CNMV has said it would consider allowing broker-dealers to back-to-back 100 percent of their trades. Other regulators have also said they would allow some back-to-back trading, although will require a portion of the trades to be managed locally, those people said. "We can look into it, but we will see how this plays out and what the regulatory framework will look like in two years' time," a CNMV spokesman said when asked whether it would allow 100 percent back-to-back trading.CNMV said in December that while it wanted to be the most welcoming place in Europe for UK financial firms, it would not accept "totally empty shells" or breaches to EU securities rules.Germany's regulator Bafin has meanwhile said it would consider the limited and temporary use of back-back arrangements, according to an official there, but has indicated that it would expect banks to eventually establish a substantial operation in the country.
The approach by some regulators to Brexit has created resentment among some countries. Last month Ireland complained to the European Commission that it was being undercut by rival cities competing to host financial firms looking for a European Union base outside London after Brexit. [nL5N1GQ2S8]The EU's European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has been studying ways to limit unfair competition among the bloc's national securities regulators. [nL5N1GE6VM]It declined to comment for this article. So far, banks are showing no signs of flocking to Madrid, citing other factors such as Spain's relatively low sovereign credit rating as a reason not to go there. Countries are also diverging in how banks' risk models for their broker dealers would be assessed, with some saying they would be approved immediately if they were to use the same model to the one they use in Britain. "Regulators differ in their approach to risk models particularly around the level of reliance that they will be prepared to place on models which have already been approved in the existing UK entity and the amount of pre-assessment they will do themselves," said Deloitte's Vedi.
BANKS WARY
Most banks - publicly at least - have yet to make a final decision on where they plan to set up their broker dealers after Brexit, and executives say they are sceptical about whether they will be allowed to use workarounds like back-to-back in the long term."We do suspect that following Brexit, there will be constant pressure by the EU not to 'outsource' services to the United Kingdom but to continue to move people and capabilities into EU subsidiaries," JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in his annual letter to shareholders on Tuesday. The ECB has warned banks that if they try to cut corners by asking for back-to-back deals, they will be disappointed. But currently it does not have the legal authority to oversee broker-dealers, though sources say it is quietly trying to put pressure on countries they think are offering lower standards. The ECB declined to comment on Spain or 'back-to-back' arrangements more broadly, but instead pointed to previous comments by its officials.Sabine Lautenschlaeger, an ECB executive board member, expressed her concerns on the issue in March when she said there could be changes to EU laws to bring broker-dealers under the ECB's supervision. "Needless to say that I would certainly not accept banks booking all exposures with the euro area entity while having their risk management and internal control systems outside the euro area," she said. Regulators like CNMV are currently free to cut deals as long as they don't breach EU securities rules, but the bloc's regulatory landscape could change within a year or two and cast a shadow over any deals on regulation agreed now.The EU's executive European Commission has proposed that non-EU banking firms with banking and broker-dealer operations with total assets of more than 30 billion euros in the EU, should set up an intermediate holding company inside the bloc.An intermediate holding company would come under direct ECB supervision in euro zone countries. (Additional reporting by John O'Donnell and Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt; Editing by Pravin Char)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi: An Air India pilot has been grounded for three months after he tested positive in the mandatory pre-flight alcohol test, minutes before operating a flight to Abu Dhabi from New Delhi.
The pilot was rostered to fly the Air India Express IX 115 Delhi to Abu Dhabi flight, which was scheduled for departure from Indira Gandhi International Airport at 8:50pm on Saturday. "The pilot who was on deputation with AI Express tested positive in the pre-flight breath analyser (BA) test. Since this was the first time he has failed his test he has been grounded for three months," an Air India source said.
Rule 24 of the Aircraft Rules prohibits crew members from partaking any alcoholic drink, 12 hours prior to the commencement of a flight, and it is mandatory for him or her to undergo an alcohol test both before and after operating a flight.
Any crew member who tests positive in the pre-flight medical check or refuses to take a breathlyser test is required to be taken off flying duty and his or her licence is suspended for three months.
In case of a repeat offence, the licence of the crew member is suspended for 3 years. However, despite strict provisions, DGCA sources say pilots failing the breathlyser test is a common occurrence.
"We suspend anywhere between 1-4 pilots every month for this offence," a DGCA official said. As per data shared by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in Parliament last month, this is the second-most common air safety breach committed by crew members, with violations related to breathalyser testing increasing from 49 cases in 2015 to 61 in 2016 a jump of 24 per cent.
In fact, Air India pilots were the top violators in 2016 with the national carrier registering 24 cases, followed by Indigo with 9 cases and SpiceJet with 7 cases. Recently, a senior official of Air India, Captain AK Kathpalia, was suspended for 3 months by the DGCA for allegedly skipping the breathalyser test before a flight. He was subsequently removed from the post of Executive Director, Operations.
However, he was later appointed to the post of Director (Operations) in Air India Ltd for a period of five years, in a decision taken by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet. This move has been opposed by one of the pilot unions for "his dubious track record".
Bhadrak : Rapid Action Force (RAF) and CRPF held a flag march even as curfew was relaxed for four hours on Sunday night in Bhadrak town where violence had broken out over alleged abusive remarks against Hindu deities on social media. As a precautionary step, the Home Department restricted access to social media in the town and nearby areas for 48 hours from tonight to prevent spread of rumours, a senior official said.
State Chief Secretary AP Padhi, who has directed the police's Crime Branch to look into rumours circulated through social media, said no rumour monger would be allowed to instigate people and escalate tension. The cyber police cell is seeking information from people to track miscreants spreading hate messages on social media and strict action would be taken against them, Special Director General of Police (Crime) BK Sharma said.
Padhi said the situation in Bhadrak was under control and no untoward incident has been reported from the town since Saturday.
The RAF and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel staged the flag march through sensitive areas after they arrived in Bhadrak, a senior official said. Three companies of RAF and two companies of CRPF have arrived to assist the police in maintaining law and order in the town, Bhadrak Superintendent of Police, Dilip Das said.
The curfew that was imposed on Friday was relaxed initially from 8 AM to 11 AM on Sunday and later extended till 12 noon to allow people to procure essential commodities, even as security forces kept a close vigil, he said.
"People queued up at shops to purchase essential items following improvement in overall situation in the town," the police said, adding the curfew would continue for some more time after the brief relaxation.
State Home Secretary Asit Tripathy, who is camping in the town along with senior officials including Director General of Police, K B Singh, said peace is returning to the area.
Steps have also been taken to arrange essential commodities like milk, eggs and vegetables for people, while a control room has been opened to provide necessary assistance, he said, adding the focus was on preventing any flare up.
The Crime Branch, which launched an investigation into rumours circulated through social media, has registered a case in connection with the matter, senior officials said. Additional forces, including armed police, were deployed as part of efforts to restore peace in the town, which witnessed violence on Thursday and Friday, the SP said, adding 36 platoons have been deployed in the area.
As many as 43 people have been arrested so far in connection with the violence, which left several shops gutted and vehicles damaged, the police said. Meanwhile, Inspector-In-Charge (IIC) of Bhadrak Town police station, Jadunath Jena, was replaced by Manoj Rout.
As a precautionary measure, the administration has decided to keep the educational institutions in Bhadrak closed on Monday, a senior official said.
Prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC remained in force in nearby Dhamnagar and Basudevpur as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of violence, a police officer said. He said the decision to relax the curfew for four hours was taken after reviewing the situation that showed signs of improvement with no untoward incident being reported from any part of the town since yesterday.
Violence had erupted in Bhadrak town on Thursday after a group staged a demonstration near the Town police station demanding immediate arrest of those involved in posting offensive remarks against Hindu deities on social media. Though the district administration clamped prohibitory orders, tension persisted and fresh violence erupted on Friday despite a peace meeting called by the administration to restore normalcy.
The escalation in tension prompted the administration to impose curfew on Friday, while security men had held a flag march in the town yesterday to dispel fears.
The Kerala government has received a lot of flak from different quarters, especially on the social media, over the handling of Jishnu Pranoy's suicide case. Twitterati came out in support of the family, slamming the Pinarayi Vijayan administration and the police on social media. According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, the investigation was also triggered by the protests on social mediastudents started uploading Jishnu's photosand activists began staging a protest in front of the college which turned violent.
When Vemula died, @SitaramYechury rushed to H'bad to 'console' d family. In Kerala, his party's govt is dragging d victim's mother on roads! Deepu (@PplOfIndia) April 6, 2017
Engineering student arrested in Kerala for criticising chief sinister Pinarayi Vijayan. Democracy gives way to Stalinism #JungleRajInKerala Ganesh Radhakrishnan (@gkmadathil) April 7, 2017
While some blamed the Kerala government's indifference, the others called it jungle raj.
The most irresponsible Policemen in the world may be #TheKeralaPolice Charging against mother who protest for her son #jishnupranoy Arjun A M (@ImAju555) April 5, 2017
According to The News Minute, a Facebook page "Justice for Jishnu" was also created, with several posts alleging that emotional harassment by the college authorities was a regular affair. The death of Jishnu also led to a ripple effect in the state, with students coming out with horrific stories of torture and harassment at the hands of managements of private colleges on the social media.
According to The News Minute, several popular figures on social media, including filmmaker Aashiq Abu, condemned the incident. On Twitter, writer NS Madhavan said that the college was an "avaricious teaching shop that gleefully employs perverts with previous history because they come cheap." A Change.org petition addressed to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has also been doing the rounds, which demands appropriate action against those responsible for Jishnu's death.
And to top it all, the government released an advertisement titled "Jishnu Case - The truth behind it" in Saturday's newspapers. The ad, detailing the sequence of events on the action taken in the alleged suicide of the student, was slammed by the Pranoy's family.
Indian Express reported how the social media campaign received considerable traction in the local media and even moderate success as the college management announced Thursday that three staff members including Shakthivel, Praveen and PRO Sanjith K Vishwanathan had been suspended as part of an internal investigation.
On 7 April, the Congress had slammed the CPI-M's defence of the police action against Jishnu Prannoy's mother during the protests. She had blamed the college's chairman Krishnadas and some others, all of whom are now out on bail, for her son's death.
The Kerala government came in for even more flak on social media, especially Twitter. In Kerala Jishnu Pranoy case is a clear case of manipulation by power persons. Krishna das is getting protection from pillers of democracy ajith kumar v r (@ajithkumarvr) April 5, 2017
Ahahahaha. My prediction came true. Pinarayi Vijayan said anti-social elements were infiltrating into Jishnu family movement Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) April 5, 2017
On 5 April, one person even shared an old post of Jishnu, where he praised Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. While another person drew comparison to Dalit students Rohith Vemula and Najeeb Jung, who went missing from JNU.
An old Facebook post from Jishnu Pranoy on Pinarayi,and today Jishnu's mother was arrested in front of Kerala police headquarters #Facepalm pic.twitter.com/QTYgb2TEGg Jikku Varghese Jacob (@Jikkuvarghese) April 5, 2017
Pranoy was found hanging in January on the campus of the Nehru College of Engineering and Research, in Thrissur. Initially, the death was dismissed as a case of suicide, but after his mother protested, police have taken up the case again as she has been firm on her belief that her son was "killed" by the college authorities.
With inputs from agencies
Keralas Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front government has heaved a sigh of relief with the family of engineering college student, Jishnu Pranoy who died in suspicious circumstances in his college hostel three months ago calling off its five-day fast for justice, but the sensational case will continue to haunt the government and the party for a long time to come.
Mahija Asokan, mother of the deceased Jishnu, a BTech student of Nehru College of Engineering and Research at Pampady in Thrissur district, her daughter Avishna and other family members ended their stir after extracting a written agreement from the state government that it will take positive action on their 10 demands. While Mahija and her brother Sreejith staged fasts at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, where they were admitted after they were allegedly roughed up by the police during their attempt to meet Director-General of Police Loknath Behera on Wednesday, Avishna, a Class X student, fasted at her home at Valayam in Kozhikode district.
The arrest of college vice-principal N Sakthivel, the third accused in the case, earlier in the day also made them soften their stand. However, the family agreed to end its stir only after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had earlier refused to meet the family, called Mahija on the phone and gave an assurance on the arrest of the remaining accused in the case.
The case hit the headlines in the wake of repeated lapses in the investigation by the police that had had initially maintained that the 18-year-old student had committed suicide after he was caught copying in the examination. However, the family alleged that Jishnu, who was a member of the student wing of the ruling CPM, was murdered by the college authorities for mobilising opinion against the excesses in the college. Although a committee appointed by the university also found the allegations to be incorrect, the police did not even register a case of abetment of suicide against college authorities. They acted only after the family produced evidence to support its allegations. And even though cases were registered against five college officials, the police dragged the arrests on.
This helped group chairman Krishna Das to secure bail and the other four accused to go into hiding. This also helped college authorities to destroy many vital bits of evidence in the case, which included Jishnus bloodstains in the college room. The family believed that Das had secured bail from the high court by twisting facts. The director-general of prosecutions, who appeared for the government, overlooked the misrepresentation of facts. Mahija and her family members had brought these to the notice of the chief minister and secured an assurance that the government will bring the guilty to the book.
The family members had arrived at police headquarters last Wednesday to remind the police chief about the assurance given to them by the chief minister. Trouble erupted when officials at the DGPs office refused to let in no more than six family members. When Mahija insisted on taking all the 14 family members, who came all the way from Kozhikode, and three social activists inside the police station, the cops removed Mahija and her family members by force and arrested the three social activists as well as another social activist and a swami present there.
Although the family stated that the three social activists Shajir Khan, Mini and Sreekumar, who belong to Social Unity Centre of India (SUCI) had joined them on their invitation, they were lodged in jail along with AN Shajahan (private secretary to VS Achuthanandan, when he was chief minister of the state in 2006) and Swami Himaval Bhadrananda under non-bailable offences.
The chief minister justified the action saying that the five had sneaked into the group of Jishnus family under a conspiracy to foment trouble. Southern Range Inspector General of Police Manoj Abraham, who was asked investigate the police action, reported that the five had hatched a conspiracy to stage a strike in the office of the Director-General of Police. He also denied Mahijas allegation that she and her brother were roughed up by the police.
The agreement brokered by Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary Kanam Rajendran, special prosecutor in the case CP Udhayabhanu and State Attorney KV Sohan negates most of the claims that the government made in connection with the case through an advertisement in all leading dailies in the state on Saturday. The advertisement had given a clean chit to the police. But the agreement provides for a fresh look into Mahijas allegations and action if the police had committed any excess. Similarly, the agreement bares the conspiracy theory that the advertisement espoused to justify the arrest of the social activists.
The arrest of the social activists had created resentment even within the ruling front with many finding it hard to justify the action. CPI leader P Prasad said that the stand taken by the CPM that the outsiders had no role in the struggle of the Jishnu family was not in tune with the Left policies. He said that the Left parties had always joined struggles against injustice and atrocities. Prasad said that the Left will lose its relevance if the CPM stand is accepted as a general rule. The Left parties have gained ground in states like Kerala and West Bengal through long struggles.
Joseph C Mathew, a Left fellow traveler who had served as IT advisor of Achuthanandan when he was chief minister of the state, said that he was happy that the government had agreed to drop the conspiracy charges against the three social activists. He hoped that the government may also drop the charges against Shajahan and free him from jail. Shajahans mother L Thankamma, who has launched an indefinite fast at her home in the state capital on Sunday, is determined to continue her stir until her son is released from jail.
Meanwhile, the Congress which heads the Opposition United Democratic Front, has described the agreement signed with Jishnus family as a big letdown for the government. Senior party leader Rajmohan Unnithan said that the insistence of a written agreement for ending the stir by the family was a loud declaration that they had no faith in this government. "This is perhaps the first time that a government had to sign an agreement for ending an agitation related to a criminal case. The Vijayan government should bow its head in shame," said Unnithan.
However, the Congress leader said that his party was happy that the government had shed its false pride and cooperated with the initiative to end the agitation. He hoped that the government would not force the family to return to the path of agitation again.
The gruesome violence that left eight dead in the Kashmir Valley on Sunday, during the Srinagar parliamentary election polling that witnessed the lowest voter turnout in the last 29 years has cast a grim shadow over the upcoming bypolls in the Anantnag constituency of South Kashmir.
But, more than that, if the Election Commission decides to call off the polls altogether, then it would be a colossal failure on part of both the state and central government to ensure peaceful polls. It also puts a blatant questions mark on the security forces of Jammu and Kashmir who, if you go by Sundays violence, failed to anticipate the magnitude of the rage on the streets.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother, Tassaduq Hussain, who is the ruling party (PDP) candidate from the Anantnag constituency, held a press conference in Srinagar on Monday, requesting the Elections Commission to postpone the polling as 'the atmosphere was not conducive for the polls.'
In doing so, Tassaduq indirectly questioned his sister Mehboobas security grid, that failed to contain the violence in the first phase of the byelections in the three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderball.
"You cannot force people to vote and you cannot force people not to vote, Tassaduq said, adding that democracy should not lead to killing of people.
Earlier, during his campaign trail, Tassaduq had told Firstpost that last year's unrest in the Valley, that witnessed the killing of close to hundred people, would definitely impact his candidacy.
If the Election Commission which is currently deliberating and consulting stakeholders on the issue in the Valley does decide to call off the polls, it would effectively be a huge victory for separatists in the Valley, who have been calling for a poll boycott.
Starting with the 1996 polls, no election has been called off due to violence in Kashmir even during the peak of militancy. Sunday's election will go in history as one of the bloodiest democratic exercises in history, with an abysmally low voter turnout of 7.14 percent.
In the 1989 Lok Sabha election, when insurgency had just erupted in the state, the Srinagar parliamentary constituency witnessed just 5.18 percent participation. Those were some of the worst days for electoral democracy in Kashmir, as the summer capital witnessed no contest at all. No one filed the nomination papers other than National Conferences Mohammad Shafi Bhat, who won uncontested.
On Sunday, violence in many parts of the polling areas was uncontrollable. This unimagined, unanticipated violence left eight people dead and injured more than 100. Most of the deaths occurred in the Budgam district of Central Kashmir, an area that had largely remained peaceful during previous polls. This is being seen as one of the reasons why the security forces were unable to assess the situation correctly as the violence erupted in places which traditionally saw long queues of peaceful voters on election day.
Former chief minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah said that he sees Tassaduq's statement as a direct "indictment of his sisters government."
EC is well within its powers to postpone or countermand Anantnag election but if so @MehboobaMufti must reign & Governor should take charge, Omar said in one his tweets.
.@MehboobaMufti Tassaduq's statement is an indictment of his sister @MehboobaMufti's government & its abject failure. How can the BJP not see this? Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) April 10, 2017
As focus started to shift from Srinagar to Anantnag on Monday, tension surged across South Kashmir. Two middle schools, designated as polling stations, were burnt down on Sunday night in the Shopian and Pulwama districts. The house of an ex-Sarpanch was damaged and firing was heard in the Shopian area last night. The constituency is scheduled to go polls on Wednesday.
Tassaduq and Congress state chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir will contest for the Anantnag seat, vacated by Mehbooba after she became the chief minister. The constituency witnessed minimal political activity on the ground due to the tense situation.
As India and Pakistan clash once again over the authenticity of spying claims and the subsequent death sentence awarded to former naval soldier Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court on Monday, Firstpost tracked three properties that Jadhav is believed to own in Mumbai under the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel.
One of the houses situated in the High Point Cooperative Society, Panvel, and was bought by Jadhav's mother in 1990, a neighbour told Firtspost.
Known by the name Mubarak Patel at least to his neighbours, Jadhav or Patel started coming there only in 2006. His neighbours say he used to come there once in a month and lived alone. They never saw him live with his family.
This revelation from Jadhav or Patel's neighbour has added a new twist to the claims made by Pakistan. Incidentally, Pakistan Army had claimed that he (Jadhav or Patel) was in possession of multiple fake IDs and was operating under the alias of Hussein Mubarak Patel, with an Indian passport of the said name.
He owned at least three properties in Mumbai suburbs, Firstpost has learned. He was learnt to be residing on Delisle Road for a while. He also had a house in Powai, but that was shut for the last one year, ever since Jadhav was jailed in Pakistan.
Though the Government of India never denied that Jadhav was an Indian resident, the claims of his being a spy were refuted. The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on Monday where it claimed that Jadhav was "kidnapped in 2016 from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly". The MEA also termed Jadhav's sentencing as a case of premeditated murder.
Jadhav was sentenced to death on Monday on charges of spying by a Pakistani military court.
A year ago, on 3 March 2016, Pakistan counter-terrorism officials arrested an Indian man who they alleged was a spy working for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). A year later, the alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's secret trial and subsequent death sentence by a Pakistani military court shook India which was hoping another way out of his imprisonment.
Jadhav, a 1991 commissioned naval officer, was arrested in March 2016 by Pakistan authorities on the charges that he was dealing with Balochistan freedom fighters. The allegation was that Jadhav, who retired in 2013, was an active Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent, a charge denied by India. RAW is the primary foreign intelligence agency of India.
The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI's public relations department issued a statement confirming the news.
Here's a timeline of events recorded since the former Indian naval officer's arrest in March 2016.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on 11 April, 2017. It is being republished in light of the fact that the International Court of Justice will be announcing its verdict on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at 3.30 pm IST on Thursday.
The International Court of Justice will pronounce its judgement on the death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav, handed out by a Pakistani military court on Thursday, just 10 days after India approached it. India had approached ICJ demanding immediate suspension of the death sentence given to the former Indian Navy officer after Pakistan accused him of being an Indian spy.
Jadhav was convicted of conducting "subversive activities" for the Indian government in Pakistan and has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on 10 April. Pakistani authorities had reportedly arrested Jadhav in what they termed as a counter intelligence operation in Mashkal, Balochistan on 3 March, 2016. He has remained in Pakistan's custody ever since.
The decision has come at a time when the relations between the two neighbours are running through a particularly rough patch, with the two nations alleging sabotage and infiltration bids on each other. Here is all that we know about Jadhav so far.
The curious case of Kulbhushan Jadhav has seen many twists and turns within a short span of one year since his arrest. While the Pakistani side has repeatedly alleged that Jadhav is a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) "spy" in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, India had categorically denied Islamabad's charges.
According to a Firstpost report, Jadhav owned three properties under the alias Mubarak Patel in Mumbai. According to the report, he was learnt to be residing on Delisle Road for a while as well. He also had a house in Powai, but that was shut for the last one year, ever since Jadhav was jailed in Pakistan.
Though India has conceded right from the start that Jadhav was indeed an Indian national and a retired naval officer. The Indian side claims that Jadhav ran a legitimate business from Iran, and might have inadvertently crossed over to Paksitan. And that the Pakistani authorities had harassed him and charged him with spying.
However, according to the press statement put out by InterServices Public Relations (ISPR) the media wing of Paksitani security forces Pakistan has claimed that Jadhav was involved in coordinating and organising "espionage activities" with an intent to destabilise and wage a war against Pakistan, as reported by a Pakistani news website The Nation.
Another curious aspect of the case has been an alleged confessional video by Jadhav, widely circulated in the Pakistani media, wherein he had "confessed to his sabotage activities" and detailed his "networks with Indian spy agency RAW". Islamabad, in the presser has also claimed that it was on the basis of this confessional video, and "irrefutable evidence" that he was convicted and sentenced to death. The video, which was quoted by several media organisation, including The New York Times, is no longer available on YouTube.
"He confessed before a magistrate and the court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage, sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi," the ISPR said.
According to a transcript of this alleged confession as reported in Dawn, Jadhav had claimed to be an "active navy officer" and conceded that his "purpose was to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration." The footage apparently also shows him saying that he had set up a small business in Chabahar in Iran which facilitated him to achieve undetected existence and visits to Karachi in 2003 and 2004.
These activities have been of criminal nature, leading to killing of or maiming of Pakistani citizens. I realised during this process that RAW is involved in some activities related to the Baloch liberation movement within Pakistan and the region around it," the so called confession further reads.
However, India has rejected the validity of the video and claimed that it was tutored or recorded under immense mental and physical pressure.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has been using this arrest as a vindication to its stand on alleged Indian interference in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
However, the story so far has been hazy and ridden with loopholes at best.
The Dawn report from the time of Jadhav's arrest quoted earlier states that Jadhav was "caught red-handed while infiltrating into Pakistan from the Saravan border area of Balochistan with Iran." Another report in the news website said that Jadhav was transporting "anti-state elements" from Pakistan to New Delhi for training by RAW.
Then, a report in Hindustan Times cast another shadow on the confessional video. The newspaper article argued that the video multiple quick edits and the audio appears to go out of sync from time to time, which indicates it was likely to have been shot under duress. Another report in India Today, states that the Indian intelligence services have reasons to doubt the Pakistani narrative due to several inconsistencies in the video. For instance, Jadhav's facial expressions, at many instances, do not match to what is being said. The audio too is poorly spliced. The article further said that Indian agencies believe that Jadhav may have been abducted by an extremist group named Jaishul Adi, rather than being caught during any military operation.
Then, another report in NDTV states that government sources say there is no proof that could back Pakistan army's claim that he was arrested from Balochistan.
Further doubts were raised as Pakistani adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that they did not have sufficient evidence against Jadhav and the facts as presented by security agencies was inconclusive.
However, Aziz later retracted his statement when it was widely picked up by Indian media. "It has never been said that there was any lack of evidence against Jadhav," Aziz said.
"His goal was to disrupt development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with Gwadar port as a special target," Pakistan Army chief Bajwa had said, adding, "This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism... There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan."
The Indian government has, although categorically denied these allegations, it has said it was not in a position to clarify the circumstances in which Jadhav reached Pakistan as despite repeated attempts Pakistan had denied India consular access.
"Circumstances of his presence in Pakistan remain unclear, particularly because we have not been provided consular access despite our repeated requests," IANS quoted a government source as saying.
India had also requested for Jadhav's extradition but in March this year, Aziz told the countrys Upper House that Islamabad wont extradite Jadhav.
Chandigarh: Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, has said that India should approach the International Court of Justice and ensure that the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani establishment is not carried out.
"Our government should take appropriate steps. They should appeal to the international court of justice and seek a stay," Kaur told PTI over the phone while reacting on the Pakistan army court's verdict.
India should take every necessary step to ensure that Jadhav's death sentence is not carried out, she said.
"Even if I assume for a minute that Jadhav was an agent, still does he deserve a death sentence. There are many Pakistani nationals lodged in our jails who are charged with serious crimes, does this mean they too should be given the same treatment. The 2000 Red Fort attack case convict was a Pakistani national, but was he hanged?" she asked.
About Jadhav, she said, "Just because he is an Indian, he has been given a death sentence. This shows the hatred and enmity which Pakistan harbours towards India".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak about this to his Pakistani counterpart, she said.
Having lost her brother four years back in Pakistan, Kaur said she could fully understand what Jadhav's family must be going through at this hour.
"I am with the family. They should immediately meet the prime minister. My full support is with Jadhav's family and I can accompany them if they go and meet the PM," she said.
Jadhav was "arrested" on 3 March last year by Pakistan security officials in Baluchistan after he entered from Iran. He has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.
India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
Pakistan's powerful army chief on Monday approved the execution of Jadhav after a military court found him guilty of "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities".
Kaur's brother Sarabjit had died following an attack on him by inmates of a Lahore prison in April 2013. He was convicted for terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death in 1991. However, the government had stayed his execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
New Delhi: India on Monday said that if Pakistan hanged retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, it will be considered "a case of premeditated murder".
This was stated in a demarche Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar handed over to Pakistan's High Commissioner Abdul Basit.
An official statement said the sentence against Jadhav, who Islamabad claims was an Indian intelligence agent, was "awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice".
If the sentence "is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder", it said.
The Pakistani military announced on Monday that Jadhav had been sentenced to death for waging war against Pakistan.
Here is the full text of demarche handed by S Jaishankar to Abdul Basit early on Monday.
We have seen the ISPR press release today regarding Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian citizen, who has been awarded a death sentence by a Pakistani military court martial. Shri Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly. The Government of India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law. Requests to that effect were formally made 13 times between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities. The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Shri Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Shri Jadhav was being brought to trial. Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Shri Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances. If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
With inputs from IANS
New Delhi: India should prepare for taking "stringent action" against Pakistan and warn it of negative consequences if Kulbhushan Jadhav is executed, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said on Tuesday. "We should prepare to take stringent action against Pakistan. Today, we should give warning that consequences would be bad for Pakistan if Jadhav is executed," Swamy told reporters outside the Parliament.
He said India should discard the "wrong perception" that an India-Pakistan friendship is necessary to have Hindu-Muslim unity in the country. Swamy comments came in reaction to the Pakistan army chief approving the execution of Jadhav for his "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" in that country. Pakistan security officials had "arrested" Jadhav on 3 March in 2016 in Balochistan after he reportedly entered from Iran.
Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
The military trial and death sentence awarded to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistan has brought to mind the case of Sarabjit Singh, who spent 22 years in a Pakistani prison before being convicted for a string of terror attacks in the 1990s. Sarabjit kept insisting that there was a threat to his life in the Kol Lakhpathrai Jail, but neither government took his plea seriously. Ultimately, on 26 April, 2013, Sarabjit was assaulted inside the Lahore prison by two inmates, and subsequently succumbed to the wounds he sustained to his head.
Who was Sarabjit?
There are contrary reports about the true identity of Sarabjit. While Islamabad insists he was a Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) operative, India maintains he was merely a villager from one of the numerous villages that lie along the border in Punjab. As this India Today report points out, his family insists he inadvertently crossed into Pakistan while inebriated, but was arrested and accused of acts of terrorism.
However, another report in Hindustan Times suggests that he may have actually been a spy. Quoting sources, the report said the operation executed by Sarabjit didn't even serve any purpose, but was executed by the agency nevertheless.
"Some of the operations executed by RAW during the period were totally mindless. Spies like Sarabjit and their family have paid huge costs for it. Sometimes, the agency officials executed operations out of personal bravado that they can get 'something' done in Pakistan," an official who dealt with Sarabjit's case was quoted by the website as saying.
He was first arrested in 1991 and spent 22 years in prison before his death an interval during which many central governments came and went in New Delhi. Each one of them promised to pursue his case and ensure his release, but the case remained stuck.
While he was initially given the death sentence under the provisions of Pakistan's Army Act, it was commuted to life in prison by President Asif Ali Zardari in 2012. Considering Sarabjit had already spent 22 years in jail by that point, New Delhi made fresh attempts to seek his release.
Kasab's and Afzal Guru's hanging
In November 2012, India executed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. As argued by a former diplomat KC Singh on Rediff, this also sealed Sarabjit's fate and ensured he wouldn't be pardoned by Pakistan.
"Kasab's hanging sealed the fate of Sarabjit, the only issue remaining what methodology would be employed by Pakistan's security set-up, sulking as they were over India having exposed their ignominy, for extracting revenge. For a Pakistani government to have risen above the pressure of Lashkar-e-Tayiba and their political mentors to pardon Sarabjit would have required a miracle," Singh wrote.
Two months later, when India hanged Afzal Guru, the convicted terrorist involved in the 2001 Parliament attack, the situation worsened for Sarabjit. His sister Dalbir Kaur told the media at the time that inmates have been aggressively threatening her brother since Afzal Guru's death. She feared that his life might be in danger, as the Pakistani prisoners were gunning for retribution.
Attack on Sarabjit
In April 2013, fellow inmates attacked Sarabjit with bricks and knives. His head was struck, while his throat and stomach were split open. After battling for six days, Sarabjit breathed his last breath on 2 May, 2013.
A little over a year later, Pakistan slapped stringent murder charges against the two men accused of killing Sarabjit. The case is still underway.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh is headed towards total prohibition with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announcing that all liquor shops would be closed across the state in a phased manner.
"Alcohol prohibition will be implemented in the entire state by closing all liquor shops in a phased manner," Chouhan announced on Sunday while addressing a programme at village Neemkhera (Heerapur) of Narsinghpur district.
This programme was organised during the ongoing river conservation awareness campaign 'Namami Devi Narmade - Narmada Seva Yatra.'
"In the first phase, the state government closed all the shops falling within a radius of five kilometers from the banks of river Narmada on either side. In the next phase, the liquor shops would not be allowed to open in residential localities, near educational institutes or religious places," he said.
Chouhan reiterated that a de-addiction drive would also be launched in the state.
During past one month, several protests against the liquor shops have been reported from across the state.
On 5 April, the protesters had burnt two vehicles and damaged four others in Bareli town of Raisen district when Excise Department was trying to shift the liquor shops from a highway to a local residential colony.
Earlier on 3 April, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Indore-1, Sudarshan Gupta had demanded total liquor prohibition in the state while extending support to the agitation against the opening of liquor shop.
Besides, protests were also reported from several parts of the state including Indore, Sagar, Burhanpur, Chhatarpur, Vidisha, Narsinghpur, Satna, Morena, Dewas and some other towns during past one month.
On Monday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested the president of the Junood-ul-Khalifa-Fil-Hind (JKH), a terror group that has pledged loyalty to the Islamic State and which is responsible for sending recruits from India to Syria, reports said.
Mumbai Mirror reported that the accused, Amjad Khan, 37, who was recently deported from Saudi Arabia, allegedly founded the JKH and was known online as Ayan Salafi Khan.
The NIA had been investigating the JKH in connection with the 2014 Bengaluru blast, which took place near a church, killing one person and injuring three others.
The blast was reportedly the first attack carried out by the Islamic State on Indian soil. Khan had been listed as an absconder in the case, Mumbai Mirror reported.
Muddabir Shaikh and Rizwan, two others who had been arrested by the NIA early last year, were allegedly carrying out terrorist activities in Mumbai on Khan's orders.
According to a report in The Economic Times, the JKH adopted corporate-style designations and structure, a first for any terror group operating in India. The terror group had designations such as Nayed Ameer (deputy), Amir-e-Maliyat (finance), Amir Askray (operations), Amir-e-Raabta (communications in-charge) and Amir-e-Shariyo Dawati (recruitment).
The terror group had planned to set up branches in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Allahabad, the Economic Times reported.
According to an Indian Express report, in 2016, the NIA arrested 16 youths from Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Lucknow and other places for trying to create the JKH. Most of these youth had sworn fealty to Islamic State chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi on the directions of a handler, Yusuf al Hindi alias Shafi Armar, an Indian suspected to be in Syria and the purported media chief of the Islamic State.
Deccan Chronicle reported that the JKH considered extorting Bollywood stars for money as a means to fund its terror activities. In 2016, two alleged top commanders of the JKH, Rizwan Nawazuddin alias Khalid and Muddabir Sheikh, revealed this to the NIA during interrogation. However, the plan was thwarted after the NIA, which had been surveilling the JKH's online activities, carried out mass arrests.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday strongly condemned the "brutal killing" of eight people in Kashmir in firing by Indian security forces as violence marred the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat by-poll, which it dubbed as a "sham".
The Pakistani Foreign Office issued a statement after eight people were killed in firing by Indian security forces as unprecedented election-day violence marred the by-poll for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat which saw the voter turnout plunge to an all-time low of 7.14 percent.
Rampaging mobs took to streets in scores of places across the Lok Sabha constituency straddling Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal districts, perpetrating wanton violence and arson, even setting ablaze a polling station and attempting to set on fire two others, amid a boycott called by the separatists.
"Mr Sartaj Aziz strongly condemned the brutal killing of 8 youths, including a 12th grade student" by Indian forces today when they opened fire on "peaceful demonstrators" protesting against the "sham Indian parliamentary elections", the Foreign Office said in a statement.
The Foreign Office said that the "abysmally low" voter turnout, which it claimed of being below six percent, was a "tangible indication" that the Hurriyat leadership and the people of Jammu and Kashmir have categorically rejected the "sham elections".
The Foreign Office said the elections cannot be an alternative to the right to self-determination promised to the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the numerous UN Security Council resolutions.
The statement alleged that India "continues to deny fundamental human rights" to the people of Kashmir.
The Foreign Office stated that despite "Indian state terrorism and repression", the steadfast resolve displayed by the Kashmiris sends a clear message to India that they remain undeterred in their goal for realisation of the right to self determination.
"We call upon the international community to urge India to put an immediate end to the ongoing bloodshed of innocent Kashmiris and behave as a responsible member of the international community by honouring its commitments to hold a transparent, free and fair plebiscite under the auspices of the UN in accordance with the UNSC resolutions to ascertain the wishes of the Kashmiri people," the statement said.
Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested by Pakistan on allegations of being an Indian spy, was sentenced to death on charges of espionage by a Pakistani military court on Monday.
The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI's public relations department issued a statement confirming the news.
Indian R&AW agent #Kalbushan awarded death sentence through FGCM by Pakistan Army for espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/ltRPbfO30V Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) April 10, 2017
Pakistan's decision on Monday is expected to further strain the ties between India and Pakistan. The two countries have been at loggerheads over several issues, including on Pakistan's support to terrorism, since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in Kashmir in September last year. Pakistan-based militants had killed 18 Indian soldiers in the attack.
Jadhav, a 1991 commissioned Naval officer, was arrested in March 2016 by Pakistan authorities on the charges that he was dealing with Balochistan freedom fighters. The allegation was that Jadhav, who retired in 2013, was an active Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent, a charge denied by India. RAW is the primary foreign intelligence agency of India.
Sources at Government of India had said that Jadhav was a small businessman. It is said that Jadhav often carried cargo to and from Iranian ports bordering Pakistan and has nothing to do with India's external intelligence agency.
Sources had said that there is no proof either that the retired navy officer, who owns a cargo business in Chabahar in Iran, was arrested in Balochistan as claimed by Pakistan.
Jadhav could have been arrested after he strayed into Pakistani waters and was being wrongly charged, sources had said.
Immediately after his detention, the Indian government had rushed to his rescue, with the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar promising all help possible for Jadhav. "We do agree, to the extent I know, that he is an Indian citizen and we have asked for consular access," Parrikar had said, adding that he was concerned about Jadhav since he is a veteran.
Pakistan, however, chose the opportunity to "expose" India's involvement in alleged terror activities in Pakistan.
In April 2016, Pakistan said it had briefed envoys of the Arab and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries about Jadhav's alleged "confession about Indian sponsored subversive activities and terrorist financing to destabilise Pakistan".
A month later, Pakistan's Senate unanimously adopted a resolution asking the government to prepare a dossier on "Indian interference" in the country and send it to other nations and international institutions. The dossier, according to Express Tribune, was expected give details on Indian interference in Pakistan's internal affairs "fomenting unrest, instability and terrorism".
When India tried to secure consular access to Jadhav again in June 2016, but Pakistan turned down the request.
"Jadhav will not be granted consular access," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said, alleging that Jadhav had entered the Pakistan territory for some special objectives, Geo TV had reported.
However, Pakistan had to face embarrassment in December 2016, when its National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz, claimed in the Pakistani Parliament that the government had insufficient proof against Jadhav.
Addressing a full Senate chamber, Aziz had said the dossier on Jadhav contained mere statements. "It did not have any conclusive evidence," he was quoted as saying by the Geo TV.
"What the dossier contained was not enough. Now it's up to the concerned authorities how long they take to give us more matter on the agent," Aziz had said.
In March 2017, Pakistan also rejected calls for Jadhav to be extradited to India, adding that more information on him has been sought from India.
Here's a timeline of events recorded since the former Indian naval officer's arrest in March 2016.
The issue of lynching of a Muslim man in Rajasthan's Alwar district by cow vigilantes, is likely to echo in the Parliament on Monday, with the Congress blaming an "organised gang" behind the unfortunate incident. The issue also found resonance in the Parliament on Thursday as Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised the matter in the Lok Sabha, while his party colleague Madhusudan Mistry raised it in the Rajya Sabha. However, the Opposition remains unsatisfied and is likely to rake up the issue again on Monday after the alleged dilly-dallying on the government's part regarding the issue.
Earlier, while the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi at first chose to remain in denial that any incident of beating or lynching by 'gau rakshaks' had occurred. He, however, later said that the incident did occur but it should not be viewed from a religious point of view as "criminals are just criminals."
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, however, sought to reassure an agitated Opposition that the Centre would ensure that the perpetrators in the case would be brought to justice. "The state government has taken cognisance of the matter. FIR has been registered and some arrests have been made in the case. Centre would try that justice would prevail," Singh said.
Kharge, who raised the issue, said: "It's not good to take law into (one's own) hands. It's a serious matter. This is the fifth incident in a row. Earlier, such cases were reported in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana also."
"This is not a stray incident... three such incidents have happened in Uttar Pradesh, two in Gujarat and two in Haryana," Kharge said.
The incident comes weeks after the BJP-led state governments have been coming down heavily on illegal slaughterhouses and have made strong statements against cow slaughter in their respective states. Similar sentiment was echoed by various other leaders of the saffron party who has firmly propagated a blanket ban on killing of cows, until recently when the party said that it will not impose a beef ban in northeastern states and Kerala, as the party said it understands the "reality is different" in these states, according to Scroll.
16 people were allegedly illegally transporting 36 animals in six pick-up vans. They were on their way to Haryana from Jaipur when the vigilantes stopped two of the vehicles in Behror on Jaipur-Delhi national highway and thrashed five persons on Saturday. They were admitted to a nearby hospital where 55-year old Pehlu Khan died on Monday night.
Following Khan's death, a case of murder registered against six persons namely Om Yadav, Hukamchand Yadav, Naveen Sharma, Sudhir Yadav, Rahul Saini and Jagmal while 200 other "unidentified" persons have also been listed as accused. Five people have been arrested so far in the case and it is learnt that the police has formed several teams to nab at least 10 more accused.
With inputs from agencies
Pune: Over two weeks after he was blacklisted and grounded by all airlines, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad took wings again on a Pune-New Delhi flight on Monday morning, authorities said.
Reduced to train and road travel and avoiding the media glare till now, the Osmanabad MP took the Pune-New Delhi AI-852, which has now made a provision for business class travel on this particular service.
Incidentally, on 23 March, it was the same flight AI-852 which did not offer business class, leading to a serious verbal and physical altercation with the airline staff.
It culminated in the assault of a senior official, two police complaints lodged against him, blacklisting him, slapping a complete flying ban besides a ruckus by Shiv Sena in Parliament and a face-off between the two ruling BJP-led NDA constituents.
Last week, after Gaikwad tendered a letter expressing "regret" over the incident to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, AI revoked the flying ban on Saturday, closely followed by Federation of Indian Airlines and other private airlines.
The government's moves came following threats that the Shiv Sena, a member of the ruling NDA, would boycott the critical meet to discuss the nominee for next President.
As her motorcade drove up Raisina Hill towards Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday, to begin a very substantive and extraordinarily welcoming state visit to India, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina may have, if only for a few brief seconds, thought of the vicissitudes of life.
Some four decades ago, she lived a short distance away from Rashtrapati Bhawan, taking refuge from the murderous gang that had killed her illustrious father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, and her family in Dhaka in 1975.
Now, she had returned on an important political trip as the leader of her country. And the person who had cared for her like an 'elder brother' during those dark days, now lived at the Rashtrapati Bhawan as the President of India Pranab Mukerjee.
Hasina is not reluctant to acknowledge Indias role in the liberation of Bangladesh and has always expressed gratitude to the Indian soldiers, who made the ultimate sacrifice in that struggle to end Pakistans genocide.
Significantly, during the state visit, she honoured the families of seven Indian soldiers who had laid down their lives in the 1971 war. Speaking on the occasion, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present, she said, "History of Bangladesh has been written by blood of the Indian martyrs, along with those of Bangladesh."
There are many in Bangladesh who do not wish to remember Indias contribution to their countrys liberation struggle. Her public gesture on Indian soil was a reprimand to these elements.
On his part, Modi went far beyond protocol to welcome Hasina. He was at the airport to receive her personally; he has done this only twice for other foreign guests former US president Barack Obama and UAE crown prince Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed.
More special was his gesture of standing beside her, as she signed the visitors book at Hyderabad House. Modi also spoke at length about Hasinas courage in the face of great adversity and her steely resolve to achieve her fathers vision.
Thus, the atmosphere and the symbolism of her visit and the personal chemistry of the leaders, an important diplomatic ingredient for Modi, could not have been better. But, will this visit take the relationship forward in the areas that are critical for each country?
The Joint Statement issued after the two prime ministers' discussions details the comprehensive and dynamic bilateral partnership. It stretches across trade to infrastructural development to security issues to people-people concerns. It now seeks to move into new areas, including space and civil nuclear energy cooperation.
While all this is impressive, the fact remains that success of such visits is judged by forward movement on a few matters that acquire public prominence and become sensitive for each government.
For India, the main objectives in Bangladesh are to secure connectivity to the North East; ensure that it does not become a launch pad for anti-India activities, including terrorism and insurgencies; and ensure that it does not fall in the Chinese embrace. Illegal migration continues to be a major worry for India.
Bangladesh wishes to secure the flow of river waters, especially of the Teesta, maintain an independent foreign policy and secure easy and continuing market access in India. Some sections in Bangladesh, however, are wary of a formal defence relationship with India.
While Hasina is conscious of Modis constraints on River Teesta, because of the opposition of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the absence of forward movement on the issue embarrasses her politically. Her opponents assert that she has been positive on Indias interests, while ignoring a core Bangladeshi concern. Begum Khaleda Zia, the main opposition leader, accused her of selling out to India during this visit.
The landmark border demarcation agreement, signed two years ago, was seen as a great success for both countries. Nevertheless, the opposition will focus on Teesta as the country edges towards elections in end 2018 or early 2019.
In Hasinas presence, Modi, while assuring Bangladeshis of Indias commitment and "continuing efforts" to resolve the Teesta water sharing issue, expressed his firm belief that only his and Hasina's government could achieve such a task.
However, the Joint Statement showed no forward movement. On her part, Mamata, who was present at the lunch hosted for Hasina, virtually ruled out consenting to earmark more Teesta water for Bangladesh, by asking that other rivers be surveyed for water sharing as well.
Unlike the past, Bangladesh under Hasina has cooperated with India on security issues. It has also proceeded to incrementally expand connectivity. It is combating fundamentalist Islamic forces that are reflexively pro-Pakistan.
Thus, from Indias perspective, a positive political future for Hasina is a positive for bilateral ties. In this context, the Teesta issue gains even more significance and can queer the pitch. Modis political and diplomatic skills will be put to test, especially when China is enlarging its presence in Indias neighbourhood.
New Delhi: Resorting to dramatic forms of protest, a group of Tamil Nadu farmers on Monday stripped near South Block to press for their demands of loan waiver and drought-relief package.
The farmers have been protesting at the Jantar Mantar in the national capital since 14 March.
Police said that they escorted the peasants from Jantar Mantar to Prime Minister's Office (PMO) where they submitted a memorandum of their demands.
After coming out, some of them tried to remove their clothes, a senior police officer said, adding that the situation was brought under control and the farmers were dropped at the protest site.
The farmers from the southern state have been demanding a drought relief package of Rs 40,000 crore, farm loan waiver and setting up of Cauvery Management Board by the Centre.
The drought-hit farmers have been protesting in the city adorning human skulls around their necks, trying to grab the attention of the authorities towards their condition.
Sydney: Coral bleached for two consecutive years at Australia's Great Barrier Reef has "zero prospect" of recovery, scientists warned on Monday, as they confirmed the site has again been hit by warming sea temperatures.
Researchers said last month they were detecting another round of mass bleaching this year after a severe event in 2016, and their fears were confirmed after aerial surveys of the entire 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long bio-diverse reef.
Last year, the northern areas of the World Heritage-listed area were hardest hit, with the middle-third now experiencing the worst effects.
"Bleached corals are not necessarily dead corals, but in the severe central region we anticipate high levels of coral loss," said James Kerry, a marine biologist at James Cook
University who led the aerial surveys.
"It takes at least a decade for a full recovery of even the fastest growing corals, so mass bleaching events 12 months apart offer zero prospect of recovery for reefs that were
damaged in 2016."
It is the fourth time coral bleaching where stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food has hit the reef after previous events in
1998 and 2002.
"The combined impact of this back-to-back bleaching stretches for 1,500 kilometres, leaving only the southern third unscathed," said Terry Hughes, head of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, also at James Cook University.
"The bleaching is caused by record-breaking temperatures driven by global warming. This year, 2017, we are seeing mass bleaching, even without the assistance of El Nino conditions," he added, referring to the natural climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean.
The Barrier Reef is already under pressure from farming run-off, development and the crown-of-thorns starfish.
It was also recently hammered by category four Cyclone Debbie, which barrelled through the region last month, mostly affecting southern parts around the Whitsunday islands which largely escaped the bleaching.
The extent of the destruction wrought by Debbie is not yet known, although scientists have said the damage could range from minor to severe.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority began a study last week to determine how extensive it might be and have already found extensive pulverised coral at popular snorkeling spots.
"The feedback that's coming back is the more sheltered areas have come out a bit better, but they all seem to have suffered some form of damage," Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators' Brendon Robinson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Whitsundays is one of the reef's tourist hotspots, attracting more than 40 percent of total visitors to the iconic marine ecosystem.
The Election Commission of India deferred the bypoll to Anantnag Parliamentary constituency to 25 May stating that situation is "not conducive to the holding of free and fair pole in the constituency on 12 April, as scheduled".
Kashmir valley has been in ferment and turbulence after eight young men, including teenaged protesters, were killed in election-day violence in Srinagar. The violence now threatens to spill over to Anantnag, the Lok Sabha seat where by-poll was scheduled on 12 April, PTI reported.
In a notification issued on the EC website, the commission said that the Jammu and Kashmir state administration has "expressed apprehension that there may be violent attempts by some miscreant elements to thwart the polling process in Anantnag constituency" in view of the violent incidents that took place in some parts of the Srinagar parriamentary constituency, where the poll was taken on the 9 April, resulting in some causalities and loss of life.
A PTI report had said that the highway from Srinagar to Anantnag was eerily quiet on Monday, while stone-pelting protesters fought pitched battles with security forces in the bylanes of towns and villages where loudspeakers blared pre-recorded speeches by militants, asking voters not to participate in the 12 April bypoll.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother and ruling PDP candidate Tasaduq Mufti had appealed to the Election Commission to postpone the polling till calm returns to the Valley.
Even though, the poll was deferred finally on Monday, deployment of security personnel, continued throughout the day. The state's Chief Electoral Officer Shantmanu had on Sunday termed election in Anantnag as a "bigger challenge" than Srinagar.
In Pulwama district, one of the worst-hit by militancy, villagers were being warned against voting, officials told PTI.
Foreign militants were allegedly seen roaming the streets freely, issuing threats and vanishing into the nearby forest, they said.
The security establishment, according to official sources, has suggested bringing the number of polling stations down to help provide effective security during the exercise.
Mosques in various places across the constituency, which straddles Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam and Shopian districts, are being used by the militants for raising anti-national slogans.
Pre-recorded speeches by militants were being played from these places, in a grim reminder of the days in the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani, the young Hizbul Mujahideen commander and posterboy of militancy in the valley. The entire valley had convulsed in seemingly uncontrollable violence in the wake of his death in an encounter for months on end.
Two government schools designated as polling stations for Wednesday's bypoll were set afire in the fresh spiral of violence in Anantnag.
A shutdown called by separatists has already thrown normal life out of gear. Kashmir University and Islamic University of Science and Technology have postponed all examinations scheduled for today.
Police rounded up 100 odd potential troublemakers in Anantnag constituency.
Rival PDP and Congress candidates stayed away from campaigning on Monday, which was the last day of stumping. While Tasaduq Mufti appealed to the Election Commission to defer the polling, Congress' GA Mir cancelled all his rallies and roadshows slated for Monday.
The state's police chief SP Vaid had held a meeting with senior security officials on Sunday night where he reviewed the arrangements for the poll. Senior state government officials
discussed the situation with EC representatives on Monday.
The commission, in its notification said that it expects the law and order situation in the constifuency to improve and become conducive to the holding of free and fair election by 25 May.
Kamlesh Kokare bought 5 buffaloes. He was transporting them from Panvel to Hadapsar, Pune. When he was crossing the Khadi machine area in Kondhawa (Pune) he was stopped by gau rakshaks. They claimed that he was transporting the buffaloes illegally and had not ensured the comfort of the animals, thus committing animal cruelty. They took him to the police station where a case was registered against him. His buffaloes were sent to an animal shelter.
On 7 April, Court of Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Pune, ordered that the custody of buffaloes should be given to Kokare. Following the order, Kokare along with a police constable, reached the animal shelter. Kokare was then denied custody of his animals. "We met a worker. He told us that the owner of the shelter was not available and hence the buffaloes cannot be handed over. After waiting for a while, the constable recorded the statement of the worker and left. I had a court order but I still didn't get my buffaloes, " said Kokare.
Shafat Abdul's experience was no different. His container, with 9 female buffaloes and a bull was stopped by 2 gau rakshaks near Jejuri. A case was filed against him at the Saswad police station. Abdul was carrying all the necessary permits and documents but his buffaloes were sent to the shelter. The matter is sub judice.
"This is not the first time this has happened. I travel to markets and buy and sell cows and buffaloes. In the past, I have faced a similar situation four or five times. In one case, the court passed an order giving me custody. But whenever I go to the animal shelter, they refuse to comply. I even filed a case of contempt of court against them. But nothing happened. The orders are challenged in higher courts. And I have to keep fighting legal battles. What have I done wrong?"
Milkman Gulab Parande has decided to stop fighting for his buffaloes. A case was filed against him on 7 September, 2016 by cow vigilantes who alleged he was transporting buffaloes without following the prescribed norms. On 7 January, 2017 the court ordered that Parande should be granted custody of the animals.
As per the law, he was supposed to pay the expenses for preservation and maintenance of the animals. When he visited Pune Panjarpol Trust, where his animals were sheltered, he was handed over a letter demanding Rs 4.5 lakh for the maintenance of the buffaloes: For 36 days.
"I bought the buffaloes for Rs 4 lakh. And now I am being asked to pay 4.5 lakh just for 36 days of care. They are demanding Rs 400 per day. Normally, I spend Rs 100 per day for their food and care. Where will I get so much money from? Buying new ones would be cheaper. I don't have money. I just have to let them go.What is the point of bringing them back by paying so much extra money?" he asks.
These are only a few examples: After the beef ban, 155 cases were filed in Maharashtra between 2016 and 2017. On 4 March, 2015, the Maharashtra government passed the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act 1995.
This act banned the slaughter of cows and bullocks in the state. Possessing meat was also made illegal. This move was challenged in court, which led to the relaxation of clause 5(c) and 5(d) and allowed the possession of meat. The court said that prohibiting the possession of meat of animals slaughtered outside the state infringed on the privacy rights of individuals.
"When buffaloes are being caught do you think we will be able to transport meat?" asks Sadiq Qureshi, a member of Bombay Beef Dealers Association, which filed a petition against the beef ban.
"Transporting buffaloes is not illegal but we are facing harassment in the name of gau raksha. We follow all norms. We do not even think of slaughtering a cow or bullock. Even in case of buffaloes, government has prescribed the rules considering their age and medical condition. We slaughter them after following the guidelines, and that too, only in licensed slaughter houses. We also conduct post-mortems. We get all necessary documents. And then we transport the meat. But despite following all the rules we are randomly stopped by gau rakshaks. They file cases alleging that this is cow meat. Police store a sample for legal procedure and then they dispose of the remaining meat because it is perishable.We are left with nothing after spending so much of money and following the law," he lamented.
"Government claims that every year 3,000 bullocks are slaughtered. It has been two years since the beef ban was implemented. Where are those 6,000 bullocks? Will government be able to show this? The beef ban has had a large impact. Almost 11 lakh people lost their jobs. We tried meeting all concerned authorities. But our requests went unheeded. Now, gau rakshaks claim they have identity cards and the legal authority to conduct raids We are harassed even if we are not at fault," he added.
However, gau rakshaks are convinced that what they are doing is correct. When asked about how they know if a particular animal being taken for slaughter, Milind Ekbote of Samasta Hindu Aghadi claimed, "It is our 'tapasya' of many years. Our activists visit various markets. They get a tip off when an animal is being taken for slaughter. That is when we conduct the raid and hand them over to police."
So what about Qureshi's claims that all legal procedures are being followed and that raids are conducted despite fulfilling all legal requirements? Ekbote rubbishes these claims, saying that the police are corrupt. According to him, even slaughtering buffaloes is illegal. "They slaughter very young buffaloes and bulls," he said.
And as far as the action on meat was concerned, Ekbote said, "We can clearly see the legs and breasts of the cow that was slaughtered. They claim its a buffalo but it is not. The meat transported is of a cow."
When asked about the fact that people are not getting their animals back despite the court order he said, "They do not want to take it back. They do not want to pay for the expenses. According to government norms they are supposed to pay Rs 300 per day. But they refuse and leave the cattle in shelter."
But what if one cannot afford to pay? "We are ready to help. We issue letters if the case is genuine. And they will get their cows buffaloes etc back," he said.
Omprakash Ranka, who runs the Pune Panjarpol Trust, claimed that they take care of all the animals by themselves. "We pay for all the necessary expenses.We do not charge anyone." This, ironically, is where Parande's buffaloes are being housed.
Not everyone bothers filing the cases. Some are tired of the legal process. "We are being prosecuted just because gau rakshaks feel we are doing something illegal. Will someone hear and address our concerns?" asked Qureshi.
Minister for Animal Husbandry Mahadeo Jankar was surprised to learn that even buffaloes were being confiscated. "We have banned cow slaughter. If anyone is misusing this law to harass people, our department will initiate action. We will not spare anyone. Gau rakshaks should take it as an ultimatum," he said. "We will also conduct an enquiry to find out why animals not being returned," he added.
But for now, people are suffering. And they are deeply skeptical of these words, which offer only cold comfort.
There is only one takeaway from the elaborate 29-page order of the Election Commission put out late on Sunday night: Tamil Nadu's politicians are way too cunning for the authorities. The commission may be armed to the teeth with laws but the netas and their foot soldiers are the real Chennai Super Kings, albeit a crooked version. So the EC has done the only thing it could do: Suspend the RK Nagar match to another day.
Just like the court reprimanded the IPL team's management and suspended it for two years, the political operators in Tamil Nadu have come in for severe criticism. But go through the order and you realise that it is an admission of the state machinery's inability to police those who are a law unto themselves. The EC makes an elaborate attempt to explain that it tried everything it could. As opposed to three flying squads and three static surveillance teams that are usually deployed in an Assembly constituency, the EC formed 61 teams with 277 members. In addition, from 6 April, another 70 mobile parties on two-wheelers were formed. Ten companies of the Central Armed Police Force were put in place for area domination.
Creating a new record, the EC sent six special observers to RK Nagar, the highest in India's electoral history. Over a dozen Income Tax officials, in addition to sales tax teams, were also deployed. The EC transferred 22 cops, 18 revenue officials and 11 municipal officers. The usual norm is only to move out the top cop for the period of the election process but in RK Nagar, the commission recognised that the entire apparatus was rotten and shunted it out.
Drawing lessons from earlier instances of electoral malpractises, the EC teams even electronically monitored mobile phone top-ups. It managed to crack some instances of sale malpractices. For instance, while TTV Dhinakaran's managers claimed they had purchased 1,000 hats the party's poll symbol for Rs 30,000, investigations showed that the actual purchase was worth Rs three lakh for 10,000 hats.
The I-T raids on Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabasker and his accomplices at 35 locations nailed it. While cash worth Rs five crore was seized, incriminating documents were taken from his accountant Srinivasan's office which revealed the plot to bribe 2.24 lakh voters in RK Nagar with Rs 89 crore. No wonder, the EC admitted that the election atmosphere was "seriously vitiated" and acknowledged that parties were innovative. Damning the political parties, it said that the "top leadership cannot feign ignorance about such illegal activities".
What this means is that when it comes to elections in Tamil Nadu, it is open season for corruption.
With the going rate per vote at Rs 4,000 from just one party and the possibility of netting more from the others, it is obvious that parties had announced a mid-summer sale in RK Nagar. The voters were only too happy to be on sale. The flush-with-cash netas also cocked a snook at the demonetisation exercise that was meant to weed out black money and corruption. Tamil Nadu has shown that where there is a corrupt will, there is a cash-rich way.
Not that the 2016 Assembly election was any different. Elections were countermanded in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies after instances of bribing came to light. But it was not as if in the remaining 232 seats, the election process was 100 percent free and fair. The fact is the EC simply does not have the manpower to monitor every street in every constituency. It is commonly known that an unscheduled power cut in the late evening hours means cash is being distributed in the locality. Or the party managers beat the alarm clock and engage in enriching voters before the crack of dawn. By the time the EC teams start their sarkaari duty at 9 am, there is more money in every home.
It is not that RK Nagar should have surprised the EC. The political stakes were high as the winner would automatically stake claim to Jayalalithaa's legacy. It was obvious the floodgates would be opened. Will the rescinding of the poll have any impact on the contestants? Unlikely. After all, the EC allowed the same candidates who were seen to have vitiated the atmosphere in Thanjavur and Aravakurichi to contest again when the polls were held in November 2016.
What should bother most of us are the contents of the documents seized by I-T sleuths from Vijaybasker's accountant. They point to systematic corruption in transfers and postings and bribes allegedly paid by hospital and medical college managements to the Health minister. Other documents now out in the public domain show how every senior minister, including chief minister Edappadi Palaniswamy was allegedly part of the plan to bribe voters in RK Nagar. Clearly the Tamil Nadu government is corruption termite-infested, with an open season declared to loot the state.
The EC decision to postpone the bypoll is an admission that even by putting its best foot forward, it cannot hold a free and fair poll in Tamil Nadu. With voters also open to being bribed, it also shows a mirror to all of us. And the reflection sucks.
As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, its governance and politics are in a diseased state. It needs to be urgently wheeled into the Critical Care Unit.
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Monday blamed the Election Commission for "EVM-tampering fraud" and said the poll panel's only aim was to bring the BJP to power at any cost.
Kejriwal, who is also Chief Minister of Delhi, said 18 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) had surfaced in Dholpur in Rajasthan which voted only for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) no matter which button was pressed by the voters.
The Dholpur by-election was held on Sunday.
"Eighteen EVMs in one constituency means at least 10 percent of the total number of machines were tampered with," Kejriwal said, adding that doubts also arose about the other 90 percent machines.
"The Election Commission is still not ready to probe the issue of EVM tampering despite all the evidence. This raises suspicion if the tampering is being done on its directions," Kejriwal said.
He also referred to an earlier allegedly tampered EVM in Bhind in Madhya Pradesh.
The AAP leader said the machines were not malfunctioning as claimed by the Election Commission but were actually tampered with.
"If there was some defect, then some machines would have voted for the Congress, some for the AAP and some for BJP. But why are all defective machines voting only for the BJP? It means this is not a malfunction but the software of these machines have been tampered with or has been completely changed," he said.
He asked why elections were being held at all and said the commission should simply declare BJP as winner in every election.
"The Election Commission is no more interested in conducting elections in a free and fair manner. It seems now that their only objective is to bring the BJP in power at any cost," he added.
Kejriwal held that all EVMs for the Delhi municipal polls to be held on 23 April were being brought from Rajasthan although a large number of EVMs were available in Delhi as well. "All EVMs in Rajasthan are manipulated. That is why they want elections using those machines," he further alleged.
Kejriwal had earlier demanded the use of paper ballot in Delhi's civic polls to ensure transparency even if the election needed to be postponed because of this.
The internet blockade which has been imposed in Kashmir by the government to curb incidents of stone-pelting has affected political parties and newspapers the most.
The opposition parties, including Congress, have been unable to send statements to the newspapers. Organising political gatherings by communicating with workers on WhatsApp and social networking sites has become impossible. Most newspapers couldnt hit the stands or update their sites because of the internet blockade. News gathering remains severely affected.
National Conference Provincial Spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said that this is the worst that could have happened. The internet gag has affected our work. We are not able to communicate with the workers and organise meetings," he said. Most National Conference leaders including former chief minister and partys working president, Omar Abdullah, remain active on social networking sites, but reaching out to the people has become difficult.
Congress has also not been able to keep people informed about its political activities. Late on Sunday, it sent out a text message saying it has cancelled political meetings in south Kashmir due to violence during the polling, in which at least eight civilians were killed. PDP spokesman Mehboob Beg said,"The placing of a ban on the internet is the last resort. The government sees it as a necessity to improve the conditions in Kashmir.
Police said that the internet blockade has become necessary to check the spread of rumours as well as ensure that youth dont mobilise to support stone-pelting. In addition to a ban on broadband services, authorities have suspended the internet services on mobiles as well. The ban is unlikely to be lifted before 12 April, when Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held for Anantang district.
According to top police officials, some youth were caught spreading rumors and even instigating violence particularly in south Kashmir, due to which the police had stop internet services.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pulwama, Rayees Ahmad said that they have detained over 140 youth who had been spreading rumors and even asking people to hit the roads to pelt stones. "We had started to keep a tab on the use of social networking sites and WhatsApp groups in Pulwama. We found that a number of WhatsApp groups were run by people who wanted to foment trouble. Many of these groups have been blocked. Some have disbanded fearing that they would be dealt with under law, he said.
He added that a number of youth who had been detained were later released after promising they wouldnt indulge in any anti-national activities.
Recently some of the people running WhatsApp groups had spread the news that Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis cavalcade was attacked by a stone-pelting mob. The government, however, denied that any such incident took place and warned of strict action against rumour mongers.
A rumour that bulbs distributed by the government at subsided rates contained recording devices spread, causing many people in south Kashmir to destroy the bulbs. The government was forced to clarify that the bulbs had not been bugged. News spread on WhatsApp groups that Minister of Revenue Abdul Rehman Veeri was attacked with stones in Bijbehara. Veeri clarified that these rumours were baseless. "Some miscreants dont want the government to deliver, he said.
However, Dar said that the internet gag would only make things worse. What is the logic that the internet blockade will check rumors? It will in fact, spread more canards. We are hearing all sorts of things in the absence of any credible means of communication. Mehbooba Mufti lacks political experience, which is why she is resorting to steps such as placing a ban on the internet," he said.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's justification of the killing of two Maoists by the police, within six months of assuming power, left many scratching their heads. Several instances of police action against those who have raised their voice against injustice since then have strengthened doubts that were shared even by a section of Vijayans own Communist Party of India (Marxist) party and some of its allies in the Left Democratic Front (LDF).
The latest in the series of such excesses is the arrest of four social activists, who went to the state police chiefs office to express solidarity with a protest staged there by the mother of engineering student Jishnu Pranoy who died under mysterious circumstances in his college hostel three months ago against the police failure to arrest those responsible for her sons premature death.
None of the four AN Shajahan, who served as private secretary to VS Achuthanandan when he was chief minister, and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) leaders Shajir Khan, Mini and Sreekumar who have been arrested under non-bailable sections, have any past criminal records. On the contrary, they were known for championing important public causes. While Shajahan tried to expose Vijayans corrupt deals and ideological deviations, the other three fought against the ills in the self-financing sector. In fact, Shajir was the first to bring the Jishnu issue to the public.
The SUCI leader had brought to light several incidents of exploitation and torture of students by the management of the Nehru College of Engineering, Thrissur, where the 18-year-old engineering student was found hanging in his hostel on 6 January this year. The police slapped conspiracy charges under section 120 B of IPC against the four. They are currently under judicial custody. Human rights activists and leaders of Opposition parties have viewed the action against them as evidence of state-sponsored terrorism led by Vijayan.
Congress MLA PC Vishnunath said that the arrest of Shajahan, who did not participate in the protest in front of the DGPs office, was a clear case of political vendetta. He told the Firstpost that Shajahan had turned critical of Vijayan, since he was a strong critic of his actions. "But what angered Vijayan more was the attempt he made to implead in the revision petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the high court against a lower court verdict discharging him from the SNC Lavalin corruption case. Vijayan considered Shajahan as a potential threat because he had access to the files related to the scam during his tenure in the secretariat," Vishnunath said.
The Kerala chief minister had realised the harm Shajahan could do to him at the time and had forced Achuthanandan to remove him from his personal staff in his capacity as state secretary of the party. He was later expelled from the party on the charge of leaking party decisions. Vijayan, who was discharged in the case without a hearing, has fielded a battery of senior lawyers, including Harish Salve, to bail him out of the case. If the high court refers the case back to the trial court, it will be a big setback to the chief minister.
Vendetta is also suspected to be a motive behind the arrest of the SUCI leaders. KS Hariharan, leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), believed that the arrest could be the result of the unholy relations between top CPM leaders and the self-financing college mafia. "Although the CPM was very vocal against the commercialisation of education while in the Opposition, it adopted a helpful stand towards self-financing college management after the party came to power. The change became evident when the chief minister rejected an Opposition initiative to reduce the fees of the management quota seats last year," the RMP leader said.
Education activist and Muslim Youth League leader PK Firoz said that the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) had tried to bring the government and the self-financing college managements to the negotiating table after some colleges had agreed to bring down the fees approved by the government. However, the government turned down the plea without citing any reason. The CPM was angry with Shajir because he had opposed the fee hikes allowed by the government, using solid facts and figures. He alleged that several top ruling front leaders were hand-in-glove with Nehru Group chairman Krishna Das, who is also the president of the the Kerala Self-Financing College Managements Association.
He said that the government had shielded the Nehru College management initially. This was the main reason the police could not make any headway in the investigation and arrest Das and others who were found allegedly responsible for the death of Jishnu. Civil rights activists say the arrest of the four activists smacks of the sort of intolerance that the Sangh Parivar is showing at the national level. There have been several cases of action taken against those who have expressed dissent. The arrest of many in the National Anthem row had triggered outrage across the state.
Six delegates of the International Film Festival of Kerala were arrested for not standing up when the National Anthem was played during the screening of a film, on the complaint on Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). Noted writer Kamal C Chavara was arrested for his comments on the National Anthem on a Facebook post. The police viewed a reference to the National Anthem he quoted from his book as an insult and slapped sedition charges against him.
His friend, who visited him at the hospital, where he was admitted during custody, was also not spared. He was detained by police and a case registered under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Many see this as a warning against dissent. Interestingly, party veteran Achuthanandan and politburo member MA Baby, who criticised police action against Jishnus mother Mahija Ashokan, toned down their criticism after the chief minister and the CPM state secretariat expressed displeasure against their reactions.
Similarly, Kanam Rajendran, state secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), the second largest constituent of the LDF, has gone silent after former CPM general secretary and politburo member Prakash Karat said he will take up the continued criticism of the government by the CPI with its national leadership. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala believes that Mahija, who comes from a Marxist family, may end the protest if the chief minister visits her at the hospital and explains the government position.
"If the chief minister has an iota of humanity left in him, he must give up his false pride. Vijayan should visit Mahija in hospital and agree to her demands to end the protest," he said in the open letter. He pointed out that Jishnu, who was a member of the partys student wing, had rejoiced when Vijayan became the chief minister. "Even now, his mother is even not ready to speak against the chief minister, as she feels her sons soul will not forgive it. The chief minister should not turn a blind eye to the angst of this parent," he said.
The case has become a topic for heated debate in the social media. While critics portray Vijayan as a villain, who will take the party the West Bengal way, supporters of the LDF are blaming the media for showing the government in a poor light and Opposition parties for trying to gain political capital from the case. The police has issued a warning to a popular Facebook community against trolling the chief minister. In its message to administrators of Outspoken, a Facebook group that satirises social and political issues, the high-tech cell of the state police said it had received complaints that many of the group's posts were offensive in nature.
The cell has asked the group to reveal the sources of such posts and remove them immediately or face action under Kerala Police Act and Information Technology Act. The police has already registered cases against around a half a dozen people, including a government employee for posting comments against Vijayan. A civil police officer at Alappuzha was suspended for criticising the chief minister in connection with the attack on media persons at a court in Kozhikode. Many who waved black flags against the chief minister have also been booked.
Political analyst NN Pearson said that the chief minister has not been showing tolerance because he considers himself above criticism. "This is not good in a democratic set up. The CPM will have to pay a heavy price if the chief minister is allowed to continue his authoritarian style," Pearson told Firstpost.
For almost two decades, India has showcased the high voter turnout in elections in the Kashmir Valley as a symbol of acceptance of its democratic values by the Kashmiris.
Even when elections were held in the penumbra of violence and separatism, India could argue that the enthusiasm of Kashmiris on polling day, when they came singing and sloganeering in large numbers, settled the annexation debate and gave India political and moral legitimacy over the Valley. But, the cushion that bolstered India's stance might now be slipping.
On Sunday, byelections for the Srinagar parliamentary seat threw up alarming signs of the mood in the Valley. Polling was blood-stained, as violence claimed eight lives. Hundreds of people Kashmiris as well as security personnel were injured in the clashes.
But, what would worry India even more is the abysmal turnout. Just around seven percent voters cast their vote in the constituency spread across three districts Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal. To put it in perspective, the figure was much lower than the turnout seen even at the peak of militancy. In 2014, nearly 26 percent voters had participated in the Lok Sabha polls.
Srinagar district has traditionally been averse to polling. Since it is the bastion of separatist leaders and hardliners, voters rarely come out in large numbers, either because of fear or as a show of solidarity. In many of the Assembly constituencies of the winter capital, the turnout is sometimes in single digits, and that too because of the presence of Kashmiri pundits.
But, the adjoining district of Budgam, home to the Sher-e-Kashmir airport, has traditionally recorded high numbers during elections, taking up the overall figure. This year, even in Budgam, voters either stayed home or shut down polling booths.
It is evident that in spite of the tranquility on the surface, the Valley is simmering. People may have returned to work after nearly three months of protests, in the aftermath of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani's death, but their resentment and anger is still burning inside.
A few months ago, when the Valley was burning due to protests and violence, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had argued that an overwhelming majority of people were with her and only a handful supported the separatists. But, the low turnout shows that the CM needs a more realistic assessment of the ground. Mehbooba's government has clearly lost much of its political clout and legitimacy since its alliance with the BJP, and the botched up handling of events that followed Wani's encounter.
The other worrying sign is that unlike in the past, Kashmiris seem to be losing faith in mainstream parties. In the past, voters would vent their anger against the establishment and the incumbent by investing their faith in either the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), National Conference party or even the Congress. But, that seems to have changed. If National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, his party's and the Congress' joint candidate for Srinagar, could not enthuse voters, there is an alarming political vacuum in the Valley.
For many years, Mehbooba's PDP enjoyed the tag of the party of soft-separatists. Its insistence on a dialogue with Pakistan, sympathy for anti-India sentiments and vocal opposition to the BJP in the previous Assembly polls had earned PDP the support of the majority in the Valley. But, the alliance with BJP has dramatically changed the popular perception.
Soon after the death of former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, when his daughter was vacillating over the issue of continuing the alliance, a senior Congress leader had told Firstpost that his party would be very happy to see Mehbooba continue with the government. It will finish the party for several years, he had argued. His prophesy now has a ring of truth.
In two days, elections are due in Anantnag, the parliamentary seat vacated by Mehbooba after taking over as chief minister. Locally known as Islamabad, the volatile district is considered a barometer of popular sentiment.
On Wednesday, if the election turns out an encore of the violence, protests and boycott in Srinagar, the Indian government would have to seriously consider the implications of the erosion of democratic space and the negation of the argument that since Kashmiris vote with India, they vote for India.
New Delhi: Opposition Congress on Monday forced two adjournments of Rajya Sabha proceedings in the pre-noon session over alleged misuse of ED and CBI against Chief Ministers belonging to non-BJP parties.
The Congress members sought suspension of business to discuss the alleged "unleashing" of Enforcement Directorate and CBI against Chief Ministers and former Chief Ministers belonging to opposition parties and the enforcement agencies turning a blind eye to alleged "nepotism", "corruption" and "money laundering" by their BJP counterparts. But when their notices under rule 267 was disallowed, Congress members trooped into the Well of the House raising slogans.
Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien first adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes. But when House reassembled and similar unruly scenes were witnessed again, he was forced to adjourn the proceedings for another five minutes. When the House met for the day, Anand Sharma (Cong) said bonafide decisions are taken by elected Chief Ministers and the state governments for allotment of land and there is no state which is exception to this rule.
Without naming anyone, he said the central government, in "blatant" abuse of authority, was using ED to target former Chief Ministers belonging to the opposition parties and FIRs are being registered against them. His reference was apparently to the attachment of properties belonging to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and ED summoning him in connection with an alleged money-laundering case.
"Government is protecting the wrong-doings of its own Chief Ministers" who face accusations of "money laundering, nepotism and corruption," Sharma said. In states like Madhya Pradesh, land allotted for a newspaper has been converted for commercial use, while in Haryana, land has been alloted to a commercial organisation Patanjali, he alleged, saying change of land use was being allowed in BJP-ruled states.
"CBI, ED is being used for political vendetta," he charged. "They cannot have two sets of rules and laws" for opposition ruled states and the BJP-ruled ones. He said BJP-ruled states face serious cases of "nepotism, corruption and money laundering".
As Kurien said the notice on the issue was not permitted, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad also alleged that the CBI and the ED were being unleashed against non-BJP chief ministers.
He said the "wrong-doings" of BJP Chief Ministers were being ignored while enforcement agencies were being "let loose against opposition Chief Ministers." Kurien said the wrong doings of Chief Minister have to be discussed in the respective state assemblies but not in Parliament.
Dissatisfied, Congress members trooped into the Well of the House and shouted slogans. "You cannot force me by coming to the Well and shouting," Kurien said. "Even if you come and shout here, I am not going to be cowed down by that. I am not going to allow (notice under rule 267)."
He asked members to go back to their seats saying there were 11 zero hour notices that he has received. As members were unrelenting, he adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes.
When the House met again, similar scenes were witnessed. Kurien said once he has said notice under rule 267 is not allowed, discussion will not be allowed. Sharma however said the land given to newspapers in BJP-ruled states was being converted into commercial complexes.
Amid slogan-shouting by Congress members in the Well, Kurien called Sambhaji Shahu Chhatrapati (Nominated) to make his Zero Hour submission. In the din, he raised the issue of pollution of Ganga river.
Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation said Rs 20,000 crore has been provided through a non-lapsable fund. As much as Rs 13,000 crore has been provided for new
projects like sewage treatment plants, industrial effluent treatment plants and crematorium. "We will complete the projects on time," she said amidst the din.
Kurien then went on to call other members who had given Zero Hour notices but the din continued.
"I have got 11 notices with me. I am seeing majority of members are sitting and a handful of members are holding the House to ransom," he said. As members like Tapan Sen (CPI-M) refused to make their Zero Hour submission in the din, Kurien said he was not to be blamed for it. "I am not responsible. If members are not behaving, Chair is not responsible," he said before adjourning the proceedings for the second time for 5 minutes.
New Delhi: The Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Monday sought stringent action against BJP leader Tarun Vijay for his purported racial remarks, even as the government assured there would be no discrimination based on caste or colour.
Seeking to soothe the frayed nerves, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar said the individual has already apologised and the country is secular. With noisy protests by Opposition members who also demanded lodging of an FIR against him on the issue, the House proceedings were adjourned thrice once during the Question Hour and twice during the Zero Hour.
Attacking the ruling party over the remarks, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wondered whether the people from South India were not Indian citizens. "I want to know whether we are Indians or not... Are we not citizens (of India)," Kharge said during Zero Hour.
Wanting to know what action would be taken against Vijay who is "not an ordinary person", the Congress leader said he was a former Rajya Sabha member and has also written many books on BJP philosophy.
His remarks are a "threat" to the unity of the country and "you want to divide this country", Kharge said, adding that if such things go on, then states would start asserting for independence.
This "shows your mentality", he said as he sought to compare them to the likes of Hitler and condemned the remarks. "FIR should be lodged against him (Tarun Vijay). He has talked about breaking the nation. It is anti-national," Kharge said.
Asserting that "Bharat is a secular country," Singh in response said there would be no discrimination based on caste, creed, colour and religion. "The individual has already said that his remarks are indefensible", Singh said quoting Vijay. Since the individual has already apologised, there is no need to raise any more questions about it, the Home Minister said, adding he would not mention the name.
As the protests continued even after Singh's statement, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said "this (House) is not a court." Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar sought to soothe the agitating members saying, "We are all one. The country is one".
After the House met again at 1245 hours, Kumar said the Home Minister has already given the reply and an apology has been tendered by Vijay.
BJP is of the view that "we all are Indians. There is no difference on the basis of colour. We all are one. Congress should not create differences. We are all together". "Khargeji please don't try to create differences... One India. Great India," he emphasised.
Earlier during Question Hour, Kumar urged the Opposition to allow Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to respond to the question posed to her in Question Hour, saying she was a minister "from the South".
Dissatisfied with the Minister's response, Opposition members, including from the Congress and the Left, trooped into the Well shouting slogans. During Question Hour also, the Opposition members raised slogans in the Well.
The Opposition members were heard shouting, 'Modi sarkar jawab do-jawab do (Modi government should respond)', 'Desh ka vibhajan nahin chalega (Won't allow division of country)' and 'We want FIR (against Vijay)'.
With the din continuing during the Zero Hour, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for over 20 minutes till 1245 hours. The House was again adjourned till 1350 hours as the protests continued.
There was also a brief adjournment of the House over the issue for 10 minutes till 1120 hours during the Question Hour.
The PDP has appealed to the Election Commission to postpone the Anantnag bypoll in lieu of violence in the state. "This is not the right time for the polls... have informed the party of my request," say Tasduq Mufti, state chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother.
April 12th by polls in Anantnag should be postponed: Tasaduq Mufti (contesting by polls), brother of Mehbooba Mufti pic.twitter.com/XccsAUbVtd ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
This comes after incidents of violence were witnessed on Sunday and Monday, including stone-throwing and setting polling booths on fire. According to an Indian Express report, a school located in Shopian district was set ablaze by unidentified persons on Monday. Separatists have called for a shutdown and there is a heavy deployment of police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to maintain law and order.
The bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency spread across three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal was marred by widespread violence on Sunday, with police claiming that nearly 200 incidents of violent protests took place in central Kashmir.
As the day began with small queues of voters outside polling booths, slogan shouting mobs attacked polling stations in Budgam, damaged EVMs and prevented voters from exercising their franchise. Security forces tried to disperse crowds with warning shots initially and opened fire at them when they didn't relent, a police officer said.
Seven persons were killed at three places in Budgam district and one in Ganderbal, where protestors clashed with security forces.
"The security forces opened fire to protect the polling staff," the officer said, alleging that mobs tried to storm many polling stations and destroy EVMs.
The seven percent voter turnout is the lowest in the state in 27 years. In the 2014 general election, the constituency had recorded 26 percent turnout.
The by-poll was the first after the 2016 unrest, triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani. Over 100 people were killed in five months of the unrest the worst in six years of the troubled Valley.
"It was an unfortunate day. Over 100 security personnel were injured. The turnout was 7.09 per cent," chief electoral officer Shantmanu told media persons.
He also said that re-polling will be held at 100 polling stations that witnessed early closure on Monday. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah said it was the worst poll-related violence he had seen in his 20-year of political career.
"Have contested six elections over 20 years and have never seen this level of violence in elections in Kashmir," Abdullah tweeted, hitting out at the state government over the violence and accused chief minister Mehbooba Mufti of failing to provide a conducive atmosphere for voting.
"Mehbooba Mufti is responsible for this situation. There is mismanagement," he said. Security was stepped up after separatists extended shutdown call till 12 April election day in south Kashmir. Authorities have also decided to suspend internet services and postponed the university examinations scheduled.
The stakes were high for opposition National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and ruling Peoples Democratic Party's Nazir Ahmed Khan, the main contestants. In all, nine candidates were in the fray. The seat fell vacant after then PDP leader Tariq Hameed Karra resigned to protest alleged atrocities on people during the 2016 agitation.
With inputs from IANS
A meeting of NDA's top leaders, including Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, will take place on Monday evening, as the ruling alliance puts up a show of strength ahead of elections to the post of President and Vice-President of India. The meeting will be presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This is only the second meeting of top NDA leaders since the alliance stormed to power in 2014 and could result in smoothing over any differences between the BJP and many of its small allies, some of whom have often complained about the lack of communication.
Leaders of 31 NDA allies, including the new friends the saffron party won over in Goa and northeastern states, will attend the meeting after BJP president Amit Shah reached out to them. Sources said Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, and his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Mehbooba Mufti will attend the meeting, as will other prominent party leaders.
A senior Shiv Sena functionary confirmed that Uddhav and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray were also going for the meeting. Uddhavji will leave for Delhi around 1 pm. He will be accompanied by Aaditya, he told Hindustan Times.
The report mentioned that with Sena being an NDA partner, Thackeray was invited for the meet to be chaired by the prime minister at Pravasi Bharatiya Bhavan in Delhi on Monday.
This will be the first time Uddhav will meet Modi and Shah in Delhi after attending the Union Cabinet's swearing-in ceremony in May 2014, sources in the Sena told The Indian Express. The report also mentioned that Modi is expected to seek the allies' views on the presidential election, to take place in July. BJP needs Sena's support to gets its candidate into Rashtrapati Bhavan, a Sena leader was quoted as saying.
A separate meeting between Modi and Thackeray is also likely to take place, according to Hindustan Times. This will be significant for both BJP and Shiv Sena, as the parties currently share a strained relationship in Maharashtra. BJP leaders are now hoping that the Modi-Uddhav meet will improve relations.
Shiv Sena had earlier announced that it would boycott the NDA meeting if the flying ban imposed by national carrier Air India on its party MP Ravindra Gaikwad was not lifted by 10 April. The ban was revoked on Friday after Gaikwad tendered a letter expressing regret over the incident to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
But relations between the two parties had begun to sour even earlier, brought upon by the strain of the municipal elections in February. Mumbai Mirror reported that Thackeray leveled several charges against Narendra Modi and his government during several public addresses during poll campaigns. Even in the Assembly recently, Sena sided with opposition parties over the issue of farm loan waivers.
BJP sources said the meeting will be a show of strength by the ruling alliance as well as an exercise in taking stock of the national political scene. Besides, considering the upcoming presidential election, names of the most aspirants candidates for the post of president and vice president will also be discussed in the conference. PTI reported that representatives of all NDA allies across the country will participate in the meeting during the evening, which will be followed by dinner.
With inputs from PTI
Thirumangalam, in an ironic defiance of its pleasant sounding name, turned out to be most inauspicious for Tamil Nadus already fouled poll politics. The by-election, buy-election rather, held there in January 2009 under the auspices, not of EC, but Alagiri, sparked a decisive plunge to the depths in voter bribery. RK Nagar on Monday, in 2017, is the latest, lethal but not the last milestone in Tamil Nadus twisted, treacherous highway to a delusionary destination: Democracy.
Just one constituency. And what a nightmare it is turning out to be to the authorities in State and nation itself. The Election Commission (EC) that routinely conducts many-phased polls in many States simultaneously, stands completely confounded by the pranks of the political lot here. In this multi-cornered pot-boiler the (EC) is the one that is totally cornered, pushed actually to the bottom to take all the simmering heat.
Not that malpractices are absent in rest of India, but they achieve some kind of consummation here. Students of politics or prospective practitioners of poll fraud can come down right away, if not already around in rounds, for an intricate first hand learning experience. A complex conundrum comes as a complete, compact case study, a neat package that the cash starved Tamil Nadu treasury should convert into a profitable business proposition. After all Tamil Nadu patented the model for this singularly sinister Start up that is now in full throttle. In any case, it seems written that the State finances should rely on some vice for sustenance, and this project could be a good compensation for the tottering Tasmac.
The catch me if you can game is at once both funny and fatal. But since I have shed my fatal attraction and developed a passion for feel-good journalism, I prefer to look at the lighter side. For instance, for a month now, every dawn at early light, RK Nagar residents, are not woken by the rooster I meant the rooster chime on the mobile alarm, but by those carrying the roster of voters, ahead of the milkman.
Cash distribution, the first installment for sure, was completed long before the authorities even stirred. By the time they woke up and gathered their wits much of the mischief was over. FY ending 31 March, 2017, the political parties had closed their books.
The past week of the new year that began on April Fools day, is just mopping up operations, with main concentration on confirming if targets have been touched and gaps any, to be plugged. And what novel ways of beating the system by miles, all within a few square kilometres of the constituency. In tune with my recent, refreshing resolve of gaining exposure and experience by reaching out, I reached for my intercom and summoned all the reporters for an on ground report. OMG. I was impressed. Parties can give MNCs, MLMs and even evangelists an inferiority complex. Meticulous planning, detailed listing, door-to-door initial survey, profiling and info gathering, diligent data mining, unbreakable and dynamic oral and visual code systems, devising of methods to suit voter mind and mood, accurate outreach couched in secrecy and caution and then ultimately, the actual delivery, in cash and kind. Small wonder, in Tamil Nadu most educational institutions are in the control of Karai Veshtis!
Being the States citizen boosts my self-respect, as we were told. My pride peaks at poll time. The one who invented April Fools' Day must have been a Tamil wizard of yore; its no coincidence that the biggest fooling festival, namely elections, invariably happen around this time of the year. Cauvery flows during campaigns and runs dry post polls. Prohibition is prohibited in party manifestos, but party government say cheers to it in public policy. Rs 575 crore vanish from numberless vans days before the poll; yet no trace till date, not just of the cash, but of the issue itself. The state is inundated with slush cash like a December flood, but the all knowing Centre, RBI, IT department, etc, feign ignorance and instead raid actors. Well, not exactly. There were some selective raids.
RK Nagar poll is rigged, unfair and foul for sure. Who needs proof? But so were all the ones from by-polls to Assembly to LS for long. Why so much fuss now? And who cares who wins! Enjoy the show, folks, particularly those fated, pardon, blessed to be tied to Tamil Nadu. For, outsiders will scoot once the curtains are down. For us, voters with a price tag, what happens in Tamil Nadu stays in Tamil Nadu. Now, can I have your token number, please.
EC Order on RK Nagar Bypolls by Firstpost on Scribd
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday lavished praises on Yogi Adityanath for taking quick decisions for the people's welfare and asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take lessons from his Uttar Pradesh counterpart.
An editorial in Sena's mouthpiece 'Saamna' said Adityanath proved all his critics wrong and was taking one decision after the other in all seriousness for the welfare of the people.
"He is striving in a commendable way to elevate his state from ruins and he is very serious in his work," it said.
The Sena especially patted Adityanath for deciding to write off loans of farmers, a demand which all parties in Maharashtra had raised.
"If a bit of this seriousness is imbibed by rulers of Maharashtra, they will surely be blessed. Yogi in his first cabinet meet announced a loan waiver for farmers but here the government has only said it would look into the Yogi model and appears to be waiting for debt-burdened farmers to commit suicide," the Sena said.
"Wearing the mask of seriousness without imbibing the qualities is of no use. Those who are in power here should borrow seriousness from Yogi Adityanath," it said.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat wants a ban on cow slaughter across the country. It does not surprise given that it has always been the pet demand of the Sangh Parivar. But coming from him at a juncture when cow vigilantism is on the rise, it is certain to make the debate over the issue more intense. Now, will the debate address the big question: Will such a ban be actually beneficial for the cause of the humble cow?
Lets be clear on a few things about the cow debate in the country. Its not about cruelty to animals. If that was the case, the advocates of cow protection would be sympathetic to buffaloes and other animals being killed for food and other human uses. It is not about vegetarianism. In that case the demand would be for a wholesale ban on meat. It is not for the well-being of the entire cattle population either. The male of the species which is of little practical utility to cattle-farmers in the age of modern ploughing methods faces shorter life spans than earlier and also the prospect of unnatural death soon after birth.
The emotion quotient in the entire cow controversy hangs from the peg of Muslims killing the animals for food. The attacks on the members of the community by gau rakshaks, on Pehlu Khan at Alwar a week ago and in several parts of the country earlier, make this clear. Take the Muslim angle out, bring in the Dalits and other Hindu groups, who find different uses for cattle, including food, and the debate assumes a separate perspective. Its curious that the debate, furious as it is, has not touched this perspective adequately.
But let that rest. Bring the question down to the animal at the centre of it.
It is possible a countrywide ban on slaughter will hurt the cause of the cow more than benefit it. How?
One, dairy farmers would shift to buffalo from cow. Since it is a more remunerative option. Since the option of selling off cows when their capacity to yield milk dips is closed and it would be a financial burden to retain them for several years without any return, they would prefer not to own them at all. They cannot let unproductive cows roam as it would invite the ire of cow protectors or provisions of the law.
Two, theres no ban on buffalo meat. This could become an easy substitute for beef. Earlier, the male progeny of cow were sold off by dairy farmers to slaughter houses or private persons because they were of little use in farming activities and otherwise. It fetched them decent money. As it would no more be an option, they would say goodbye to cows and prefer to rear buffaloes.
Three, according to an article in The Indian Express, the quality of buffalo milk is better than the native breed of cows; hence, is more in demand. It says buffalo milk fetches better prices because of its higher fat content. Why would then farmers stick to cow when it entails so many other problems?
Ultimately, with no one willing to rear cows, it would end up as a zoo animal. The gaushalas can only be an extended version of the zoo. Do we really want that? Or are we unaware of the unintended consequences of the cow slaughter ban? It could be an emotional matter for cow protectors but when it comes to financial implication, nobody will decide to take a risk with the humble cow.
If the RSS is serious about the issue, it should demand a hefty allocation from the government for protection of cows. An allowance to dairy farmers would also act as incentive to them. Also, there should an adoption scheme for cattle that are past productive age or male. Any suggestion on this front would be a positive move forward, not a blanket ban.
The Muslims are incidental to the cow protection debate, not central to it. Nobody should forget this.
Security force personnel shielded with helmets and batons ran after stone-pelting youth in Chara-i-Sharief, which had otherwise been witnessing the highest polling percentage in both the parliamentary and assembly elections previously. Hundreds of youth engaged in stone-pelting with the forces, who withdrew after the area witnessed a near total boycott.
Youth locked up polling staff in one of the polling stations in the area and rolled out barbed wire and burnt tyres to block the roads. Chips of stones lay strewn in the area. This marked a new trend in the parliamentary by-polls for Srinagar constituency which was held today. Stone pelting is no longer restricted to the city area of downtown and South Kashmir, but has spread across Kashmir.
Through the day, intense clashes were witnessed between youth and forces marking a low voter percentage of near 6.5 percent. Violence during the day came after campaigning remained low-pitch and the killings continued in the run up to the polls. After Hurriyat Conference had ended the spell of strikes over civilian killings which were witnessed in over seven months after the killing of HM militant commander, Burhan Muzafar Wani, on 7 July last year, the situation had returned to normal. Not only had business resumed, people had shown interest in registering as electors for the polls on two constituencies of Srinagar and Anantnag.
As per the government statistics, nearly 2 lakh new people had registered for voting for the two parliamentary seats of Anantnag and Srinagar. For both the parliamentary constituencies, the total number of registered electorate is near 27 lakh including the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) migrant voters, said an official. In Srinagar constituency a total of 12.6 lakh people registered as electorate while as the number was 13.4 lakh in Anantnag constituency. On the contrary in the 2014 parliament elections the number of electors was 12.05 lakh in Srinagar and 13.01 lakh in Anantang Lok Sabha constituency.
The voting percentage in Srinagar is the lowest ever recorded here after the onset of militancy in 1990s. During the 2014 election, the total turnout in the state in Lok Sabha polls was 49.5 percent, in 2009 the turnout was 39.86. In 2004, the turnout remained 22.7 percent. As per the statistics, in 1998 elections, the voter turnout was 30.16 percent in Srinagar constituency, while as it was 28.1 percent on Anantang seat. In 1999 elections 11.9 percent votes were cast in Srinagar parliamentary seat, while as the percentage was 14.3 in Anantang. The voter turnout in the election was significantly lower than what was registered in earlier polls. In 2014 parliament elections, Srinagar registered the turnout of 25.9 percent and Anantnag recorded 28.4 percent voting.
The low voting percentage and clashes were also reported from Beerwah, hometown of PDP candidate, Nazir Ahmad Khan, who is pitted against former chief minister and NC president, Farooq Abdullah, on the seat. On the Srinagar seat PDPs Tariq Hameed Karra had defeated former chief minister and NC president, Farooq Abdullah, in 2014, primarily due to the general anger among the people against the NC-Congress coalition government due to use of force in handling the 2010 protests. Both the Srinagar and Anantang parliamentary constituencies have however traditionally been registering a low voting percentage.
In what summed up the mood in the polls, a youth Afaq Ahmad, of Charar-i-Sharief, said he boycotted elections to express his anger against the atrocities which were committed on people. Over hundred people were killed while thousands injured in the clashes last year, but government learnt no lessons from the last years agitation, he said.
Unprecedented security arrangements were made for the elections which were held today. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Shant Manu, said that nearly 200 companies of the central paramilitary forces were deployed during the elections. We had deployed some 150 companies at the polling stations all of which were declared as sensitive, he said. Given the scale of violence, an official said, conducting the elections for the Anantang parliamentary seat which will be held on 12 April will be a challenge. On the seat Tasaduq Mufti, brother of Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, is pitted against Congress president, GA Mir.
Budgam: The road leading to the main town of Budgam district was deserted. Broken pieces of car windshields were everywhere and people were missing from the roads. Curious and frightened paramilitary soldiers dotted the main arc of this central Kashmir town, as protests and clashes broke out in almost all the village surrounding this township. Unmoved by the mounting number of causalities and clashes around, Ghulam Mohammad Dar, was working in his fields planting seeds of spinach and cauliflower.
Dar, who lives in the Shia-majority area of Budgam district that has traditionally voted in droves, even during the worst years of poll boycotts by militants and separatists groups, chose not to vote on Sunday. A shout by Shia clerics previously here would ensure long cues of voters outside polling booths, but this time around most of them were deserted with youngsters outside keeping a close watch on the voters.
"Earlier Aga Sahib (Shia clerics) would tell us to vote and we would leave early in the morning to vote, and there would be huge lines. It was a decree, but this time, despite repeated attempts by religious heads, we have decide not to vote. It will make no difference," Dar, 68, told Firstpost, in his fields in the Sheikhpora area of Budgam, when paramilitary soldiers were engaged in fierce clashes as the protesters tried to storm the polling both in the nearby village of Khag.
"In the past three decades, I have never seen people so angry at the government. Despite militancy, elections were still being held and people would still vote, even after 2008 and 2010. But neither the state government not the Centre has clearly understood the anger and pain on the ground," he added.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party had designated minister in the Jammu and Kashmir government Molvi Imran Raza Ansari, a Shia cleric, party in-charge for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, of which Budgam is a part, to woo the voters of this minority community. But the low voter turnout, even in places that have traditionally seen massive voting turnout in Budgam, disappointed the cleric.
"There is no denying the fact that voting percentage has been low. There are obvious reasons for this. We have had a turbulent last year, in which scores of young boys died on the streets. That has had a definite impact on the polling. This is not a win-win situation; no party can claim to have won," Ansari said.
"The voter turnout might have increased but the violence created an atmosphere of fear," he added.
A total of 1,559 polling stations where at least 6,236 members of polling staff were deployed for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, where the fate of two candidates National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah and ruling PDPs Nazir Khan, was to be decided by 12,61,397 voters. The separatist groups had issued a poll boycott call and militant activities have also witnessed increase during the past fortnight in the Kashmir Valley, particularly in Srinagar and South Kashmir, where polling in Anantnag parliamentary seat will be held on 12 April.
But the massive violence in Budgam hit polling hard after forces opened fire on protestors in Budgam district leaving six people dead. The news spread the length and breadth of the Valley, despite an internet curfew, and protesters took to the streets in many districts of the Valley. Sundays voting was the worst electoral exercise in decades, with most young voters resorting to violence. Doctors at hospitals noted that most of the bullet injuries were above the chest.
"This government has failed to provide peaceful atmosphere and assurance to the voters. The tragedy is instead of providing them assurance the government is freighting the voters," Farooq Abdullah said. Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah, the working president of the National Conference tweeted:
Have contested 6 elections over 20 years & have never seen this level of violence in elections in Kashmir Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) April 9, 2017
The separatist groups have called for a complete shutdown on Monday and Tuesday to protest the killing of civilians during clashes. "The only way for us to express our collective grief at their death and share the sorrow with the bereaved family is to observe shutdown and register our solidarity with the martyrs and the cause for which they were killed. The nation will observe a complete shut down on Monday and Tuesday." Hurriyat leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said in a statement.
The chief electoral officer, Jammu and Kashmir, Shantamanu said that a 6.5 percent voter turnout was witnessed in the Srinagar bypolls (the figure was later revised to 7.14 percent) and 200 incidents of violence were reported, with six people killed and 17 injured. Meanwhile, dozens of soldiers were also injured through the day.
By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam
| BEIRUT
BEIRUT A U.S. cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base may persuade President Bashar al-Assad to be more cautious with some of his tactics, but will not deter him and his allies from pressing a full-throttle military campaign to crush rebels.It was the first time Washington has directly targeted Assad's government in six years of civil war, and has pushed the administration of President Donald Trump into proclaiming that Washington still wants Assad removed from power.But the single volley of Tomahawk missiles was of such limited scope that it will reinforce the view held by Damascus and its allies that the United States is no more eager than before to take the sort of strong action needed to defeat him."Assad now knows there is a red line with regard to the use of chemical weapons. But I think he also probably just sees it as a slap on the wrist," said David Lesch, professor of Middle East history at Trinity University and an author on Syria."Assad has to recalibrate but not fundamentally change his military approach that they've been engaging in since the Russian intervention," Lesch said. "I really believe they are not feeling too bad today, if this is the extent of what the U.S. is going to do."Damascus denies carrying out the chemical attack that provoked the U.S. response. The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-held province of Idlib near the Turkish border killed at least 87 people, 31 of them children.Assad has responded with characteristic defiance, vowing to accelerate efforts to wipe out rebels he calls terrorists. A joint command centre representing his Russian, Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies said the U.S. attack would only cause them to redouble their support for the Syrian government.Air strikes have continued unabated since the U.S. attack on Friday. Eighteen people were reportedly killed in one strike alone in Idlib on Saturday. Though damaged, the Shayrat air base near Homs is partly operational and flights have taken off.The base was largely evacuated before the U.S. strikes, after Washington forewarned Moscow, which in turn alerted the Syrian government, according to a senior military source in the alliance fighting in support of Assad.Describing the U.S. attack as a "limited strike" that was quickly over, another senior ally of Assad in the region said toppling him did not seem to be a priority for Trump. "There is still no clear American policy on Syria," he said.Though the attack had shown Trump to be unpredictable, a third official in the pro-Assad alliance did not yet see a major shift in the U.S. approach.
"Is this a strategic shift by the Americans? Do they want to get into a big problem with the Russians? I don't think there is a strategic shift."SHIFT FOR TRUMP
Washington says it acted because Syrian aircraft bombed Khan Sheikhoun with sarin, a banned nerve agent that Damascus pledged to give up in 2013 after Trump's predecessor Barack Obama threatened to bomb as punishment for another alleged gas attack.Moscow and Damascus say the deaths were the result of a Syrian air strike on a depot where rebels were making chemical weapons that then leaked into the town - a claim rebels deny and Washington dismisses as beyond credibility.The attack marked a departure from the approach of Obama, who ran a large-scale air campaign in Syria against fighters from Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, but avoided direct entanglement in the parallel civil war to unseat Assad.The Obama administration provided limited support for anti-Assad rebels, but never directly struck government targets after Obama called off such strikes four years ago, at a time when Trump also said attacking Assad would be a mistake.Ahead of his election victory, Trump had attacked Obama's approach in ways that appeared to suggest he would back off of calls to remove Assad. He questioned the wisdom of backing rebels, suggested that Washington should work more closely with Russia to fight Islamic State, and noted that while he didn't like him, "Assad is killing ISIS".
The first two months of Trump's presidency passed with little said about Assad's government, while extra U.S. troops arrived to help Kurdish and Arab militias in northern Syria fight against Islamic State. A few days ahead of the chemical attack, two top U.S. officials made their clearest pronouncements yet on Syria, saying Washington was not now focused on making Assad leave power and the focus was on defeating Islamic State.Some analysts believe the March 30 comments by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley emboldened Assad ahead of the Khan Sheikhoun attack. "I think they were over confident. I think they felt that they could certainly get away with it - if in fact Assad did order this - because Idlib is controlled by al Qaeda affiliates, and the Russians are striking there, and the U.S. has also struck there," said Lesch."NO OPTION BUT VICTORY"
Since the attack, Trump has struck a tough tone, saying "something should happen" with Assad, but not yet saying what that should be. Haley has made an about face on her previous remarks, saying on Saturday that Assad's removal is a priority.
Tillerson seemed to take a more patient stance in regard to Assad, saying on Saturday that Washington's first priority is the defeat of Islamic State. He has also said there was no role for Assad in Syria's future.The Syrian opposition, which long accused the Obama administration of inaction, wants the U.S. attack to be the start of a more aggressive policy towards Assad. Syrian rebel groups said on Friday the U.S. "responsibility" did not end with the missile attack. "We are waiting for the American administration to reveal its complete vision for the Syrian file," said prominent opposition politician George Sabra.Assad, whose forces have been in a much stronger position since receiving military backing from Russia in 2015, continues to press his advantage in a war that has killed more than 400,000 people and driven half of Syrians from their homes.Military pressure and siege tactics have forced rebels out of numerous strongholds in recent months, including eastern Aleppo and areas near Damascus.The opposition says Assad is forcibly displacing his opponents to remote parts of Syria in deals that offer rebels safe passage out, calling it a policy of demographic change.One such agreement moved ahead on Saturday as planned. Syrian state TV said the Waer district of Homs city area would be declared "free of weapons" this month. The evacuation is taking place in phases, with Russian oversight on the ground.Several hundred more fighters left Waer on Saturday, which has been besieged for years, for northern Syria with their families. They are being taken by bus to rebel-held areas of northern Syria, accompanied by Russian forces.A Russian general interviewed by Syrian state TV said the U.S. attack would not derail implementation of the deal.Assad, in an interview before the U.S. attack, made clear that so-called local "reconciliation" agreements remain central to his strategy, along with military action. Citing recent rebel attacks in Damascus and Hama, he said there could be no "results" with opposition groups at U.N.-backed peace talks.There is no "option but victory", he said. (Writing by Tom Perry)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Arwa Gaballa and Ahmed Tolba
| TANTA,Egypt/CAIRO
TANTA,Egypt/CAIRO At least 43 people were killed in bomb attacks on two Egyptian Coptic churches on Palm Sunday that included the seat of the Coptic Pope, the latest assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants.Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also injured more than 100 people and occurred a week before Coptic Easter, with Pope Francis scheduled to visit Egypt later this month.The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city about 100 km (60 miles) north of Cairo, tore through the inside of St. George Church during its Palm Sunday service, killing at least 27 people and injuring at least 78, the Ministry of Health said.The second, carried out a few hours later by a suicide bomber in Alexandria, hit Saint Mark's Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 16 people, including three police officers, and injuring 41, the ministry added.Coptic Pope Tawadros, who had attended mass at Saint Mark's Cathedral, was still in the building at the time of the explosion but was not harmed, the Interior Ministry said."These acts will not harm the unity and cohesion of the people," Tawadros said later, according to state media.President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned the attacks and summoned the National Defence Council to an urgent session.Deflecting Western criticism that he has suppressed political opposition and human rights activists since he won election in 2014, Sisi has sought to present himself as an indispensable bulwark against terrorism in the Middle East, and he identifies militant Islam as an existential threat.
"The attack...will only harden the determination (of the Egyptian people) to move forward on their trajectory to realise security, stability and comprehensive development," Sisi said in a statement.Thousands gathered outside the Tanta church shortly after the blast, some weeping and wearing black.They described a scene of carnage. "There was blood all over the floor and body parts scattered," said a Christian woman who was inside the church at the time of the attack."There was a huge explosion in the hall. Fire and smoke filled the room and the injuries were extremely severe," another Christian woman, Vivian Fareeg, said.
"WE FEEL TARGETED"
Islamic State's branch in Egypt appears to be stepping up attacks and threats against Christians, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt's 90 million people and amount to the biggest Christian minority in the Middle East.In February, scores of Christian families and students fled Egypt's North Sinai province after a spate of targeted killings.Those attacks followed one of the deadliest on Egypt's Christian minority, when a suicide bomber hit its largest Coptic cathedral, killing at least 25 people. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for that attack.
Islamic State has waged a low-level war against soldiers and police in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula for years. It now seems to be changing tactics, targeting Christian civilians and broadening its reach into Egypt's mainland. That is a potential turning point in a country trying to prevent a provincial insurgency from spiralling into wider sectarian bloodshed.Though Copts have in the past faced attacks by Muslim neighbours, who have burnt their homes and churches in poor rural areas, the Christian community has felt increasingly insecure since Islamic State spread through Iraq and Syria in 2014 and ruthlessly going after religious minorities. "Of course we feel targeted, there was a bomb here about a week ago but it was dismantled. There's no security," said another Christian woman in Tanta. She was referring to an attack earlier this month near a police training centre that killed one policeman and injured 15..Wahby Lamie, who had one nephew killed and another nephew injured in the Tanta blast, expressed exasperation at the growing number of attacks."How much longer are we going to be this divided? Anyone who's different from them now is an infidel, whether they're Muslim or Christian. They see them as infidels," he said."How much longer are these people going to exist? And how much longer will security be this incompetent?" (Additional reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Mahmoud Mourad, Mohammed Abdellah, and Amina Ismail; Writing by Eric Knecht; editing by Larry King and Alexander Smith)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Russia should end its support for "toxic" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy.
"It's time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up," Johnson said, according to a foreign ministry spokeswoman.
"We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," he said, warning that Putin was "damaging Russia" by supporting Assad.
"He must understand that Assad is now toxic in every sense. He is poisoning the innocent people of Syria with weapons that were banned 100 years ago and he is poisoning the reputation of Russia," he said.
Johnson on Saturday cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow over its support for the Syrian regime.
The move came after a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Seikhun last week in which at least 87 people were killed.
The United States launched a missile strike on a Syrian airfield on Friday in its first military action against Assad in retaliation for the attack.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven main industrialised countries are meeting in the Italian town of Lucca later on Monday before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flies to Moscow on Tuesday.
"There's no doubt the US action is a game-changer in Syria. We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," Johnson said on Monday.
Russia's foreign ministry earlier condemned Johnson's decision not to come to Moscow, saying it showed that Britain had "no real influence on the course of international affairs".
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the suspected gas incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations.
Poison gas was extensively used in the Western Front in the 1914-18 World War I from 1915.
It was outlawed internationally by the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which entered into force in 1928.
Seoul: China has agreed to "strong" new measures to punish North Korea if it carries out a nuclear test, Seoul said on Monday after the US signalled it may act to shut down Pyongyang's weapons program.
South Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Hong-kyun made the comment after talks with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei, as the US sent a naval strike group to the region in a show of force.
"We agreed that there should be strong additional measures based on UN Security Council resolutions if the North pushes ahead with a nuclear test or an ICBM launch despite warnings from the international community," Kim Hong-kyun told reporters.
The North may stage a "strategic provocation" to mark key political dates this month, Kim said, adding that Wu's visit would serve as a "strong warning" against Pyongyang. Wu did not speak to the media after the talks.
China is the isolated country's sole major ally and economic lifeline, and Beijing in February suspended all coal imports from the North in punishment for Pyongyang's latest missile test.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks anniversaries including the 105th birthday of its founding leader on Saturday sometimes celebrated with a demonstration of military might.
President Donald Trump, fresh from a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea, has asked his advisors for a range of options to rein in its ambitions, a top US official said on Sunday.
The talks between Kim and Wu came shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Beijing to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.
"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit. He added however that Beijing had indicated a willingness to act on the issue.
"We need to allow them time to take actions," Tillerson said, adding that Washington had no intention of attempting to remove the regime of Kim Jong-un.
The meeting between Xi and Trump came on the heels of yet another missile test by the North, which fired a medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend, heading toward the Korean peninsula instead, in a move that will raise tensions in the region. Seoul and Washington are also conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a practice for war.
Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with US intelligence officials warning that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from its goal of striking the continental United States.
China, the US, South Korea and Japan all have dedicated envoys who meet regularly to discuss the North Korean issue: a legacy of the long-stalled six-party process that also involved Pyongyang and Moscow. The North quit the negotiations in 2009.
The isolated North is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology, but repeated rounds of sanctions have failed to arrest its nuclear ambitions.
Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against the reclusive state, a threat that appeared more palpable after Thursday's strike on a Syrian airfield following an apparent chemical attack.
US National Security Adviser HR McMaster on Sunday criticised North Korea as a rogue nation engaged in provocative behaviour and said denuclearisation of the peninsula "must happen".
"The president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat," he said on Fox News, apparently referring to Trump's advisers.
South Korea's Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said Monday that the repercussions of a potential military response were worrying.
"Pre-emptive strikes may be aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear problems, but for us, it is also related to defending the safety of the public," he told reporters.
While a US unilateral strike on North Korea from a shorter range might be more effective, it would likely endanger many civilians in the South and risk triggering a broader military conflict, experts warn.
"The US has always had all the options on the table from a preventive strike to preemptive strike to negotiations," said James Kim, an analyst at Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
"If it's a preventive strike or precision strike, there's a danger that this could expand into a broader regional conflict involving China or Japan.
"The upside is that the United States may be able to denuclearise the North by force... but it will come at a huge cost to the region and to the United States," he told AFP.
By Amedee Mwarabu Kiboko
| KINSHASA
KINSHASA Opposition calls for mass protests against Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila fell flat on Monday when only a handful of people showed up, undermining efforts to oust him after his refusal to quit on expiry of his mandate last year.The sparse turnout in the capital Kinshasa and other major cities pointed to the opposition's waning credibility and persistent difficulties convincing Congolese to risk frequently deadly crackdowns by security services.The normally hectic streets of Kinshasa, a city of more than 10 million people, were nearly deserted on Monday as the police patrolled heavily and fearful residents stayed home. "How was I supposed to march?" said Papy Kazadi, an opposition supporter on Kinshasa's deserted Boulevard Triomphal, where the march was supposed to begin. "There is no one here."The demonstration's prospects dimmed on Sunday when the main opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, flew to Ethiopia at the invitation of the African Union, just hours after holding a news conference to urge Congolese to take to the streets.
Deadly protests in September and December as well as worsening militia violence across the vast, flimsily governed country in recent months have raised fears of a backslide toward the civil wars of the turn of the century that killed millions. But Kabila has successfully co-opted many opponents by negotiating the formation of a power-sharing government meant to organize a presidential election to replace him by year-end.The country's second city Lubumbashi and its eastern hub of Goma also remained calm, residents said, though police said they arrested about 10 demonstrators in Lubumbashi.
The United Nations human rights office in Congo said it had confirmed at least 40 arrests of people trying to demonstrate across the country. "The precipitous departure of Felix Tshisekedi the day before the march was indeed discouraging," Desire Kapangu, a resident of Kinshasa's Kasavubu district, told Reuters.
The opposition has also been wracked by infighting since the February death of longtime standard bearer Etienne Tshisekedi.Last Friday, Kabila named Bruno Tshibala, a former member of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the largest opposition party, as the new prime minister.The UDPS and its allies rejected his nomination, saying Kabila violated a December deal with them by not naming a candidate of the alliance's choosing and accused him of manoeuvring to hold onto power.Kabila denies that charge. He says election delays are due to logistical and budgetary constraints. (Additional reporting by Benoit Nyemba; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks/Mark Heinrich)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: A senior White House foreign policy official has pushed a plan to partition Libya, and once drew a picture of how the country could be divided into three areas on a napkin during a meeting with a European diplomat, a media report said on Monday.
Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump under pressure over his past ties with Hungarian far-right groups, suggested the idea of partition in the weeks leading up to the US President's inauguration, an official with knowledge of the matter told The Guardian.
The European diplomat responded that this would be "the worst solution" for Libya.
Gorka is vying for the job of presidential special envoy to Libya.
The map he drew on the napkin cut Libya into three sections, apparently based on the old Ottoman provinces of Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the north-west and Fezzan in the south-west.
Gorka's rivals for the envoy job include Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman and lobbyist, and Phillip Escaravage, a former US intelligence official who worked on Libya for more than a decade, reports The Guardian.
Libya has been mired in a conflict between two competing governments since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 after a Nato-led intervention.
Chants of death to the dictator grow louder as Iran protests intensify The protests in Iran that were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini have now entered the 42nd day. The demonstrations are more powerful than ever and so is the crackdown by Iranian authorities. Thousands of mourners defied heightened security measures as they made their way to Aminis burial site in
London: The first rail freight service from the UK to China will depart on a 7,500-mile journey from Essex on Monday, the media reported.
Thirty containers will carry British goods including whiskey, soft drinks, vitamins and pharmaceuticals, the BBC reported.
A DB Cargo locomotive will leave the DP World (global trade services firm) London Gateway rail terminal in Stanford-le-Hope for the city of Yiwu in Zhejiang province.
After going through the Channel Tunnel the train will pass through seven France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan countries before arriving on 27 April.
The service is part of China's One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West dating back more than 2,000 years.
DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said it was a "significant trade occasion".
"DP World London Gateway, one of the UK's largest logistics hubs, is designed and developed to ensure products can be both imported and exported from the UK via ship or train in a faster, safer and more reliable way than ever before," the BBC quoted Bin Sulayem as saying on Sunday.
"We look forward to enabling and facilitating more trade between the UK, China and the whole world."
The first rail freight service in the opposite direction, from China to the UK, arrived three months ago.
G7 foreign ministers will meet on Monday to send out a "clear and coordinated message" to Russia on Syria as Washington upped the pressure following a suspected chemical attack in the war-torn country.
Top diplomats from the seven major advanced economies are in Italy for their annual two-day meeting which had initially been expected to focus on intimate talks with new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about hotspots like Libya, Iran and Ukraine.
But the agenda is now likely to be dominated by last week's suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town that killed at least 87 civilians, and the US cruise missiles fired at a Syrian air base in retaliation.
It marked the first time Washington has intervened directly against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting a civil war with the backing of Russia and Iran, and the G7 ministers will deliberate the West's next steps.
The gathering in the Italian city of Lucca, groups foreign ministers from the US and Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
The US diplomacy chief arrived in Tuscany late Sunday and briefly met Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday morning before attending a WWII memorial at the site of a Nazi massacre in Sant'Anna di Stazzema near Lucca.
Tillerson was then to hold a series of bilateral talks before the start of the G7 meeting.
Britain cancels Moscow talks
Washington's retaliation was slammed by Iran and North Korea and put it on a direct diplomatic collision course with Moscow, where Tillerson heads on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Italy has arranged a last-minute meeting on Tuesday between the G7 ministers and their counterparts from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.
Italian media said the aim was "to avert a dangerous military escalation".
Britain's Johnson cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow on Monday, saying his priority was now "to continue contact with the US and others" ahead of Tillerson's Russian trip.
He called on Russia to do "everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated".
Tillerson would "deliver that clear and coordinated message to the Russians", he said.
Abdul Kareem, 32, is certain that he wants to return. Sitting across the welfare official at his office in downtown Stuttgart, on a late February afternoon, he has his palms clenched and placed on the table. He keenly listens to the procedure translated to him by his interpreter and fellow asylum seeker Abdul Ali, 28 also from Kandahar. "You'll get half the money here and half after arriving in Afghanistan," Ali tells him in Pashto.
Kareem has many questions himself. "How will I get from Kabul to Kandahar?" "Whom do I get the rest of the money from?"
Kareem is from the conflict ridden Kandahar province of Afghanistan where the resurgence of Taliban has thrown life out of gear and even visiting diplomats are not safe from terrorist attacks. He is one of the early beneficiaries to avail the German government's recently announced StarthifePlus, program aimed to promote voluntary return of asylum seekers by providing them with financial assistance. Earlier that week, an Iraqi family decided to drop their asylum application to travel back.
Kareem is among the asylum seekers who is frustrated by the longer waiting process on their asylum applications, deciding to go back to their homelands. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), the organisation responsible for processing their applications is now dealing with 430,000 unprocessed applications, causing the asylum seekers to wait longer for their applications to be heard. Though it differs from country to country, the average waiting period has risen from 5.2 months in the previous years to 8.1 in 2016 according to a DW report. In Kareems case it is 18 months. He has little hopes that his asylum application will come up for hearing anytime soon. Kareem doesnt have it in him to hold back until then. "My mother passed away recently leaving my sister alone at home and she needs help. She's my responsibility," he says pursing his lips.
The recently announced programme StarthilfePlus, targets at refugees with little chance of being granted asylum and provides them with financial incentives to return voluntarily even as their asylum application is being heard. According to the program, asylum applicants who decide to return even before receiving the decision will receive a bonus payment of 1,200 euros per person (aged twelve or above). In the case of applicants who decide not to appeal the negative decision, the incentive is 800 euros per person (aged twelve or above). The money is split into two halves, with one half paid out in Germany and the rest in their countries, six months after their return.
StarthilfePlus comes close on the heels of measures the German government has recently adopted to facilitate speedy deportation of asylum seekers. Chancellor Angela Merkels cabinet recently approved a 16-point plan to speed up deportations.
Appealing to the asylum seekers, Thomas de Maiziere, Federal Minister of Internal affairs expressed hope that StarthilfePlus will increase the number of voluntary departures. I appeal to insight and reason: for all those who do not have prospects in Germany, the voluntary departure from a deportation represents the better way. If the possibility of a voluntary return is not used, only the instrument of deportation remains. For only with consistent application of the law can the functioning of our asylum system be ensured, he added in a press statement.
The German Government has indeed an interest in raising voluntary returns of people in their home countries, when they have no right to stay in Germany. In 2016 around 55,000 people did return voluntarily in their countries, on the basis of the existing programs, says Annegret Korff a spokesperson at the Federal Ministry of the Internal affairs in an email.
According to her, the new programme, funded with 40m Euro aims to increase this number and to convince people at an early stage of the procedures to return to their countries. Voluntary returns are always better and more sustainable option for returning people, she adds.
Gert Lienig, an official with the non-profit AGDW that works for the welfare of refugees express doubts about the efficacy of the program in the reintegration of refugees back in their homelands. Its just a financial aid to promote voluntary return but it doesnt aim at reintegration process. The program is mainly meant for people from countries like Afghanistan because many of their asylum applications often get rejected. None of them want to go back because the situation is not secure in the country, he says.
The focus of the Federal Office lies on the promotion of voluntary return and reintegration in the country of origin. The new StarthilfePlus program, with its graduated funding structure, supplements these measures, insists Edith Avram a press spokesperson with BAMF.
When refugees like Kareem decide to go back, they do so for family reasons.
Lienig thinks the financial assistance offered by the program is just not enough for reintegration in the long run. The asylum seekers are happy to get this money but its not an incentive to go back because its not enough money to start a life back home. It would be an incentive if it was, say, 5000 euros, he says.
We need to look at sustainable options to help them with their livelihood back home, so they are not motivated to take the perilous journey to Germany again, he adds. According to him, the distribution of funds is staggered into two instalments to discourage the asylum seekers from returning immediately. There is also the issue of uncertainty back in their homelands where many government agencies are ridden with corruption and people like Kareem are unsure they will receive their second instalment at all.
We have everything else in our country but there is no security, here, however, there is security and nothing else says Abdul Ali, 28, Kareems interpreter and fellow asylum seeker. Fearing repercussions from Taliban for working with the foreigners, Ali has kept a low key back home to avoid attention on his family members and hence reveals little details about his family back home.
The government should categorise the refugees as soon as they arrive from economic migrants to people who are fleeing from conflict, says the convent educated Ali in his perfect, American accented English that he picked up while working for a Nordic oil company back in Afghanistan. In the past 18 months he spent in a crammed refugee camp along with 250 others in the Stuttgart suburbs of Zuffenhausen, he couldnt look for a job or think about starting a business while his application is waiting to be heard. He is however still willing to wait as long as it takes until his application is due for hearing.
I'm thankful for the German government and the people here, says Kareem. But I wish there isn't so much uncertainty in the asylum application process, he adds. For now, he has a start, in the form of meagre financial assistance. It's only however, a fraction of what he spent to get into Germany. He sighs, uncertainly, when asked if he will reattempt the long and arduous route to Germany again. "I'm not sure now."
London: By sentencing Indian national Kulbushan Jadhav to death, Pakistan's military court system has once again showed how it "rides roughshod over international standards", Amnesty International said on Tuesday, questioning the secretive court's ability to dispense justice.
"The death sentence given to Kulbushan Jadhav shows yet again how Pakistan's military court system rides roughshod over international standards," Biraj Patnaik, South Asia Director, Amnesty International, said in response to Pakistan military court sentencing Jadhav to death for alleged spying. "Stripping defendants of their rights and operating in notorious secrecy, military courts do not dispense justice but travesty it. They are an inherently abusive system that are
They are an inherently abusive system that are best left to deal with issues of military discipline, not any other crimes," Patnaik said in a statement. Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of execution, he said. A Pakistan military court sentenced Jadhav to death after he was convicted of "espionage and sabotage activities". The award of the death sentence to the 46-year-old former Naval officer at a court-martial was confirmed by Pakistan's army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday.
The prominent rights group also noted that over 87 executions were recorded in Pakistan in 2016 and more than 360 death sentences were recorded in the country last year. It said that over 6,000 people are known to be under death sentence at the end of 2016 in Pakistan, which is among the world's top 5 executioners.
Confirmation of the death sentence given by a Pakistan Army Field General Court Martial to an Indian citizen, Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, has the potential for Islamabad and New Delhi to choose between 'C' and 'D': Conflict or detente.
What bridge the two sides choose to cross lies in the wisdom of their rulers. A bridge is important in this context it is neither in India nor in Pakistan; it is in Germany, between Berlin and its southern suburb Potsdam. It is called the Glienecke Bridge. It is more popularly known the world over as the 'Bridge of Spies' since the 2015 Hollywood production of the movie by the same name.
This time last year, this correspondent stood on the Glienecke Bridge as part of his travels, to journalistically study contested borders. The 'Bridge of Spies' is no longer on a contested border since the re-unification of Germany. In the movie, set in the depths of the Cold War in 1957, a pilot of an American US2 spy plane is shot down during a secret mission over the erstwhile USSR. After nerve-racking negotiations by a lawyer representing a Russian spy caught in the US, he is exchanged for the Soviet painter for that is what his cover is Rudolf Abel, across the Glienecke Bridge on a foggy night.
This is not to suggest that Kulbhushan Jadhav is a spy. But the Indian Navy has confirmed that he was one of their own and that he took premature retirement in 2003 to set up a business that took him to Iran's port town Chabahar.
Chabahar is in Iran's roughlands, in the province of Sistan & Baluchistan. Baluchistan itself is territory that spans across three countries: Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The capital of Iran's Baluchistan is Zahedan, also Iran's only Sunni-majority province, the country's poorest.
The Pakistan Army's case, as far as is known, is that Jadhav with the alias Hussain Mubarak Patel crossed over from Iran at Mashkel. On a tip-off, Pakistani counter-intelligence operatives picked him up on 3 March last year. Since then, Pakistani authorities have released a video in which the former Indian Navy officer is shown admitting that he was acting for India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). He had entered Pakistan's Baluchistan to establish contact with and to provoke its dissidents into violent action in the ports of Gwadar (where the China Pakistan Economic Corridor extends to), Pasni and Jeevani.
However, the Pakistani version of events is suspect. In December four months ago Pakistan's advisor on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, is reported to have told the media that "what the dossier (on Jadhav) contains was not enough. Now it is up to the concerned authorities (to determine) how long they take to give us more matter on the agent".
India has also claimed Jadhav as its citizen, just has it has always denied that he was a spy on a mission to Pakistan.
In 2012, the late Indian spymaster, Maloy Krishna Dhar, who worked for the Intelligence Bureau, wrote a fictitious account called 'Mission to Pakistan'. The book chronicles the life of Ravindra Kaushik who was recruited from Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar, trained, and was assigned to infiltrate the Pakistani military after a detour in Dubai.
He was outed by another Indian spy who was being tailed. He was killed.
In the year following Dhar's book, 2013, India and Pakistan probably did to each other what is barely beyond barbarism. Islamabad first announced that a suspected Indian spy, Sarabjit Singh, would be released after a Presidential Pardon. Islamabad subsequently corrected that to say that the pardon was being awarded to another Indian spy, Surjeet Singh. Surjeet and Sarabjit were both farmers from two Indian villages, Bhikhiwind and Fidda, 70 kms apart, near the Pakistan border in Punjab.
After crossing over from Wagah to India, Surjeet told the media that he was a spy and had crossed over to Pakistan many times. Indian authorities had abandoned him. He said he had met Sarabjit, confirming that the man who went missing in 1990 was still alive. Sarabjit's family mounted a campaign to get him freed.
But in May 2013, Sarabjit Singh was probably beaten to death in a Pakistani jail. His body was sent by Pakistan to India in a service aircraft. A day before the news of Sarabjit's killing broke, in Jammu's Kot Balwal jail, Rana Sanaullah Haq was reportedly beaten black and blue by a former Indian Army soldier and other inmates.
Haq was in jail on charges of spying for Pakistan and acting with Hizbul Mujahideen militants to sabotage Indian military lines in Jammu and Kashmir. He succumbed to his injuries six days later.
Contrast this with the Rudolf Abel-Francis Gary Powers exchange on the Bridge of Spies. Swapping spy for spy in a world in which countries accept that they indulge in espionage is so much a relevant lesson in the 21st century.
India and Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, India and China they have all exchanged fishermen and shepherds across disputed land and maritime boundaries. India has any number of alleged ISI agents in its jails. But it is also the environment that determines the action. For example, if soldiers are beheaded on the border, an army garrison is raided, or if ceasefire violations increase, it becomes more difficult for governments to negotiate.
But at least the big elections are over now.
That is why the Glienecke Bridge a route for D over C is relevant here. If USA and the USSR could do it when they were gunpoint to gunpoint in the first half of the 20th century, why can't others today? And Jadhav, no argument, is an Indian citizen.
In a dramatic move, a Pakistani military court sentenced Indian businessman Kulbhushan Jadhav to death on charges of espionage and sabotage.
The Pakistan military's public relations department confirmed the news on Twitter.
Indian R&AW agent #Kalbushan awarded death sentence through FGCM by Pakistan Army for espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/ltRPbfO30V Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) April 10, 2017
Pakistani media lauds decision
Dawn, while reporting on the issue, called the move "rare" and cited defence experts as saying that the move to hand over death penalty to Jadhav was "unprecedented" and one which will send a strong message to India and other foreign intelligence agencies.
"There are foreign elements involved in terrorist activities in Balochistan," he claimed. "I believe this is a good decision," Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
The publication also quoted a defence expert Ikram Sehgal as justifying the decision.
"He (Jadhav) confessed his crime, he had people killed... After due process, his punishment should be carried out. They (India) will deny that he was not a spy, but he accepted that he was a spy. He gave full details in his confession of his networks as well," Dawn quoted Sehgal as saying.
Another publication, The Nation, claimed that justice has been served with the sentencing of Jadhav.
This is apt punishment for any spy involved in anti-Pakistan activities, Salim Bokhari, the newspaper's editor-in-chief was quoted as saying.
On the other hand, the publication quoted defence expert Talat Masood as saying, (Narendra) Modi government will react strongly and Pakistan government should be ready to face it."
Here's a timeline of events recorded since the former Indian naval officer's arrest in March 2016.
By Cod Satrusayang
| BANGKOK
BANGKOK One of the main separatist groups fighting an insurgency in Southern Thailand on Monday renewed a conditional offer to enter peace talks with the government.Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) is thought by observers to be the main faction responsible for the decades-old insurgency in the Muslim-majority southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.The conflict has claimed more than 6,500 lives since it escalated in 2004. A wave of attacks hit the provinces on Friday hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed a new constitution as a step towards ending military rule. The army reported no casualties, however.The junta said in February it had reached a breakthrough with insurgent groups on the creation of a safe zone.
But experts said the government had been negotiating only with Mara Pattani, an umbrella group comprised of exiled insurgents said to have no real power on the ground. BRN, reiterating demands it had made in October 2015, said on Monday that any peace dialogue it was involved in would have to be overseen by observers from abroad and mediated by a third party accepted as neutral.
Srisompop Jitpiromsri, the director of Deep South Watch, a body that monitors the conflict, said it had identified BRN as "the party responsible for the majority of violence over the last ten years.""There might be issues preventing the group from entering peace talks. But in the long term if the government wants lasting peace in the region they must include BRN in any negotiations," he said.Bangkok-based analyst Anthony Davis, at security consulting firm IHS-Jane's, said the government had excluded BRN because the group had not identified itself as a party to the conflict before Oct. 2015.
"The position of the ...government has also been consistent that this is a domestic conflict and that Thailand has no need for any external assistance or mediation," he said. Voters in the most heavily Muslim parts of Thailand were among the few to reject the constitution in last year's referendum.The three southern provinces were part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate before being annexed by Thailand in 1909. (Additional reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; editing by John Stonestreet)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condemned the two separate bomb attacks carried out by the Islamic State on Coptic churches in Egypt which claimed lives of at least 45 people and injured over 100.
Deeply pained by the attacks in Egypt. We condemn these attacks. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 9, 2017
The first explosion, which left 27 dead and 78 injured, ripped through a Palm Sunday service at Mar Girgis (St. George's) Coptic church in Tanta, a city located 120 km from Cairo, EFE news reported.
The explosive device was planted under a seat in the church and was detonated in the main prayer hall.
A while later, a suicide bomb attack outside Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria killed 16 and injured 41 people, according to a Health Ministry statement.
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail condemned the attacks on private television channel On TV, adding that the government was determined to end terrorism in the country.
"This is an impious terrorist act, but we will eradicate terrorism from Egypt and we are determined to put an end to terrorist groups," EFE news quoted Ismail as saying.
Copts, who make up around 15 per cent of Egypt's population, were celebrating Palm Sunday, which marks the start of the Holy Week for Christians.
This attack comes 20 days before the visit of Pope Francis, who is set to travel to Egypt on 28 April.
With inputs from IANS
Islamabad: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has barred his party leaders from making any controversial statements about former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif amid his appointment as the head of a 41-nation Saudi-led military alliance of Muslim countries.
The former army chief's appointment had been criticised by some Pakistani politicians, retired army officers, journalists, intellectuals, who had questioned the decision of the retired general to join a foreign military alliance.
The prime minister found contradictory statements being made by senior leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. "Nawaz Sharif has prohibited PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retired) Raheel Sharif," Radio Pakistan quoted PM Sharif as saying. The prime minister said the entire nation hailed the former army chief for his "meritorious services".
Sharif's directions to leaders of his party came days after Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair called Gen Sharif "just another general" and said he should not be made "larger than life". "Raheel Sharif was made larger than life and that's the reason that when he is allotted a piece of land which he deserves it raises eyebrows," Zubair said. "He is a normal general like any other generals and it's his right to acquire the piece of land he was given. Let's be fair with him let's not make him larger than life. This will only create more problems for him," he said.
Zubair was referring to the news that Gen Sharif has been awarded agricultural land for his services. "His [Sharif's] job as chief of the Saudi-led alliance is also being seen as something extraordinary when it should be his prerogative as a normal person," the Sindh governor added.
Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said last month that General Sharif should not accept the controversial position. Gen Sharif, who retired as Pakistan's army chief last November, is likely to assume command of the 41-nation anti-terrorism alliance, being dubbed the 'Muslim NATO', this month.
Madrid: An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the US presidential election.
Pyotr Levashov was arrested on Friday in Barcelona on a US computer crimes warrant, according to a spokeswoman for Spain's National Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules.
Such arrests aren't unusual American authorities typically try to nab Russian cybercrime suspects abroad because of the difficulty involved in extraditing them from Russia but Levashov's arrest drew immediate attention after his wife told a Russia's RT broadcaster he was linked to America's 2016 election hacking.
RT quoted Maria Levashova as saying that armed police stormed into their apartment in Barcelona overnight, keeping her and her friend locked in a room for two hours while they quizzed Levashov. She said that when she spoke to her husband on the phone from the police station, he told her he was told that he had created a computer virus that was "linked to Trump's election win."
Levashova didn't elaborate, and the exact nature of the allegations wasn't immediately clear. Malicious software is routinely shared, reworked and repurposed, meaning that even a computer virus' creator may have little or nothing to do how the virus is eventually used.
The US Embassy in Spain declined to comment. Russian Embassy spokesman Vasily Nioradze confirmed the arrest but wouldn't say whether he was a programmer, as reported by RT. He wouldn't comment on the US extradition order.
"As it is routine in these cases, we offer consular support to our citizen," he said.
The Spanish spokeswoman said Levashov remains in custody.
There will be no grand reception to welcome Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the country's capital Dhaka when she returns this evening after concluding her four-day official visit to India. The scrapping of the event, preparations for which were in full swing, was done on her strict order, according to the ruling party, Awami League's office secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap.
Incidentally, late this evening, the opposition Bangladesh National Party(BNP), led by the other "begum of the country, Khaleda Zia, is going to sit in a meeting with her party's standing committee members to discuss "selling of the country to India" by Hasina, and work out the party's next course of action.
These two developments give us a fair idea of the way Hasinas visit to India, marked by a great bonhomie between her and her host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is seen in Bangladeshs political circles. The visit witnessed as many as 22 bilateral "agreements" and Memoranda of Understandings (MOUs), including "extending" a third line of credit (LoC) of $4.5 billion by India to Bangladesh and additional $500 million worth LoC to Dhaka for buying defence equipment.
One can understand why Bangladeshi elites are unhappy for Hasinas visit not clinching the vexed and much-delayed water-sharing agreement on the Teesta river. But, it is difficult to fathom the agitation by the BNP that the Bangladesh prime minister has signed the defence MoUs "to appease India". BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has threatened that "the country's people have no consent to the defence MoUs, and they won't allow those to be implemented". "We'll set up our security system in our own style," he said.
The BNPs assessment on the defence MOUs is highly misleading, to speak the least. First of all, it is precisely because to avoid any misunderstanding in the Bangladesh polity that Hasina was understood to have not agreed with India for a long-term defence commitments; what we have instead are three MOUs, not agreements. By its very nature, a MOU is an expression of intent; it is not mandatory that an agreement is in the matter of implementation. In other words, it is absolutely up to Dhaka to respect these three defence MOUs or not.
But what exactly are these three MOUs? One MoU is between Defence Services Staff College, Wellington (Nilgiris), Tamil Nadu and Defence Services Command and Staff College, Mirpur, Dhaka for enhancing Cooperation in the Field of Strategic and operational studies. The second MOU is between National Defence College, Dhaka and National Defence College, New Delhi, for enhancing cooperation in the field of national security, development and strategic studies. In other words, these two MOUs are essentially knowledge specific, nothing else.
The third one is business-oriented, in the sense that it is a defence cooperation framework, intended to bolster military supplies and technology transfer from India to Bangladesh, and that too with a LoC of US$500 million. It is as normal an agreement as India has with various countries from whom it imports or buys sophisticated defence equipments on its part. As it is, India is arguably the worlds largest buyer of arms from verities of sources Russia, the United States, Israel, France and Britain, to name a few. But, does that mean that India has sold its sovereignty to these countries?
In fact, one may ask in this regard Rizvi, or for that matter the BNP, to explain how in December 2002 begum Zia, then the prime minister of Bangladesh, had undertaken a visit to Beijing, during which she had a defence cooperation agreement with China, leading to a situation in which today the countrys armed forces are hugely equipped by Chinese hardware in every wing small arms to tanks, naval frigates and patrol crafts, aircraft and missiles? Has China, going by the BNPs assertion vis-a-vis India, usurped Bangladeshs sovereignty?
Incidentally, a whopping 80 percent of Bangladeshs military inventory is "Made in China". The Bangladesh army is equipped with Chinese tanks while its navy has Chinese frigates and missile boats. The Bangladesh air force flies Chinese fighter jets. Reportedly, China has already sold 65 large-calibre artillery systems, 114 missiles and 16 combat aircraft to Bangladesh, let alone small arms. In 2008, it helped Dhaka in building an anti-ship missile launching pad in Chittagong. Last November, Bangladesh acquired two diesel-electric submarines from China for $203 million. After they enter service this year, they will become the first and only submarines in the Bangladesh Navy.
However, what is notable is that many defence experts feel that China is literally cheating Bangladesh by providing out-of-date equipment but overcharging them. According to Russian military expert Vasily Kashin, the two submarines purchased by Bangladesh are modernised 035 project version subs. They were constructed in the 1970s and were considered not to be successful. After modernising, the 035G project subs were equipped with new torpedoes and sonar stations copied from the French sonars. But still, China used them, that too in between 1990-2000, only for combat training purposes. For operational purposes, China rather bought 12 submarines from Russia later.
In other words, Chinese arms to Bangladesh are of highly inferior qualities, which, in reality, emaciate its armed forces rather than empowering them. As Kashin says, lack of experience of the Bangladesh Navy and their possession of the obsolete 035G submarines make them an easy target for a more advanced Indian Navy in case such a situation arises.
Secondly, overdependence on a single country for defence equipment is no longer desirable for any country. For instance, there was a time when India over-depended on Russia for arms, but systematically it has now started diversifying the sources of its defence needs. Likewise, Bangladesh should lessen its overdependence on China for the defence equipment that it needs and can afford to buy. Approximately 80 percent dependency at this moment you see on China, so it should be brought down. That actually reduces our vulnerability, Abdur Rashid, executive director of the Institute of Conflict, Law and Development Studies in Dhaka, rightly argues, adding, If one is interrupted we can depend on the other.
Arms from India (at least the spare parts and small arms) as an alternate source should have been welcome in Bangladesh, when former prime minister Manmohan Singh made that offer in 2011. It has taken six more years to make that prospect a reality. In fact, given the superior geographical proximity of India compared to that of China, Indian arms will prove more timely, speedy and reliable in crisis-situations for Bangladesh.
Viewed thus, Hasina deserves kudos, not brickbats, from Bangladesh people for the three defence MOUs that she has signed with India. Of course, for the BNP, it does not make any sense; but then it is understandable given its anti-India and pro-fundamentalist and terrorist past.
India and Bangladesh have arrived at such a fork in history that choosing the wrong turn will have grave consequences, not just for India's long-term security and strategic interests but regional stability in south Asia. This predicament over a river should have been best avoided. Unfortunately, the shared goodwill of past and bonhomie of present have proved insufficient in tiding over respective domestic compulsions.
Sheikh Hasina may carry 22 pacts in the bag when she returns to Dhaka but the failure to sign that one deal may seal her fate in the upcoming elections. The Bangladesh prime minister has appeared bravely defiant of the pressure put on her by the Opposition, Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, but Hasina is well aware that patience back home is running thin and Teesta may be her political undoing.
This is a possibility India cannot afford. For all her faults and dithering, Hasina is alone in standing firm against Bangladesh's descent into narrow Islamism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is well aware of the repercussions Hasina's electoral defeat may pose for India.
It isn't just a question of more immigrants crossing into India. It is a given that Hasina's defeat and Zia's rise may put the secular fabric of Bangladesh's already strained polity into more danger. The portends are grave.
It is largely due to Sheikh Hasina that India doesn't have another Pakistan on its east. The Awami League leader has been resolute in backing India's stand against terrorism and has walked the extra mile in putting words into action. Her government's determined and hot pursuit of terrorists have resulted in many of them crossing the porous borders and infiltrating into India through West Bengal, Assam and Tripura.
Data prepared by Bangladesh's home ministry and shared with the Centre indicates that in 2016 alone, nearly 2,010 Harkat-ul-Jihadi Al-Islami and and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants entered India, a threefold rise compared to the year before. As The Times of India pointed out recently, nearly 720 of them entered through West Bengal. The state's demography and Kolkata's connectivity offered these terrorists a number of choices who could either use the state as a transit or opt for relocation.
Hasina has also been India's unfaltering friend in the diplomatic cornering of Pakistan and has taken a series of steps in cementing bilateral ties at some risk to her political career in a country where Islamism is rapidly altering the tehzeeb of Bangladeshi Muslims.
As Subir Bhaumik, a long-time commentator on Indo-Bangladesh affairs writes in The Times of India, "Hasina has been steadfast in her support for Modis isolate Pakistan drive, her government has cracked down hard on Northeastern rebels and Islamist militants, on fake currency rackets and Pakistani agents to address Indias security concerns. She has cleared transit for Indian goods to Northeast through Bangladesh territory and addressed most of Indias connectivity concerns seen as crucial to the success of Indias Look East policy. As Hasina prepares for her Delhi visit, Indian and Bangladesh officials are trying to finalise a deal to allow Indian use of Chittagong and Mongla ports for accessing Northeast."
Once again, it is largely due to the Bangladesh PM that terror infrastructure that proliferates in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir has not been replicated in a country which shares the largest boundary with India. Hasina has been instrumental in destroying some of the factories that Zia had set up to keep India 'busy' in the east.
Mahfuz Anam, editor of The Daily Star newspaper in Bangladesh, writes in The Statesman of Hasina's "determined and successful effort to dismantle all the camps of the insurgents from the Northeast that Zias government had allowed in a mistaken policy to keep pressure on India. Over time these insurgents had become a genuine worry as their destructive power rose with sanctuary on Bangladeshs side of the border. Thankfully, that is now history. Not to be forgotten or its importance underrated is how Sheikh Hasinas government has changed the narrative from 'India, the hegemonic oppressor' to 'India, the development partner' ever since she came to power in 2009."
Additionally, under a pro-radical BNP government which accuses Hasina of selling Dhaka to New Delhi anti-India sentiment could be rekindled. An Islamist Bangladesh is sure to go against India's long-term security and strategic interests and the nature of Indo-Bangladesh bilateral relationship may see an alarming dip. Consequently, Dhaka's tilt towards China could be hastened. At stake would be the regional stability of south Asia.
India has no chance of warding off China's growing influence in its backyard when it cannot compete with Beijing's economic resources and appears unwilling to sign the one treaty that Bangladesh, a delta state, badly needs. Whereas India's combined line of credit (following Hasina's visit) stands at roughly $9 over the last four years, China has already offered Dhaka an aid of $24 billion and another $13 billion through the private sector route. It has also upped Sino-Bangladesh relationship from "comprehensive partnership" to "strategic partnership" to India's great unease.
Beijing, which has been actively revising the geopolitical topography of south Asia, uses partnerships with India's neighbours like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as strategic leverage. It has recently been foaming at the mouth over Dalai Lama's Tawag visit and among many intimidation tactics, tried to threaten India by picking up this very topic via its state media.
In an editorial, Global Times asked, "With a GDP several times higher than that of India, military capabilities that can reach the Indian Ocean and having good relations with India's peripheral nations, coupled with the fact that India's turbulent northern state borders China, if China engages in a geopolitical game with India, will Beijing lose to New Delhi?" In terms of both security concerns and the larger game of geopolitics, therefore, India cannot afford to weaken Hasina's hands.
However, how far is it fair to put the entire burden of such a turn in history on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee? Mamata had single-handedly scuppered an almost done deal 2011 and remains steadfastly opposed to it even six years later. There can be no doubt that were it not for the Bengal CM whose writ cannot to overridden since water is a state subject India would have been only too happy to ink the pact which Manmohan Singh failed to do and Modi appears unable to chalk out.
As the tallest political leader in West Bengal, Mamata needs to look at the Teesta water sharing deal dispassionately and place it in the larger context of it being the biggest enabler of a stable geopolitical relationship between India and its most important friend in the east.
This is, however, not to say that the Bengal chief minister's concerns on sharing river Teesta's waters are misplaced. Mamata has some very compelling socio-economic and political reasons not to sign on the dotted lines of a such a treaty. Water sharing pacts are notoriously difficult to arrive at. And the ones that exist suffer from extraordinary economic and geopolitical tensions. India has recently threatened to use its treaties with Pakistan as a leverage against cross-border terror which led Pakistan to rush for international mediation. India and Bangladesh, for instance, share 54 rivers but only one pact.
Centre for Policy Research analyst Brahma Chellaney, author of the book Water: Asias New Battleground, points out in Hindustan Times, "No important water sharing treaty has been signed in the world in this century, indicating how increasing water stress is making sharing and cooperation more difficult."
Teesta's ecological fragility has been held against signing of the pact. It is also true that in the lean season, the river has hardly enough water for West Bengal for it to share with a lower riparian state. As a report in India Today points out, Teesta's annual flow trickles to just 6 billion cubic metres (BCM) in dry season from an average of 60 BCM. Sharing of this will gravely affect West Bengal farmers.
Mamata's argument is also bolstered by the fact that 83 percent of Teesta's catchment areas lie in India. Bengal CM has stonewalled Hasina's requests and offered to share rivers of other waters instead, though it isn't clear if the offer is backed by prior technical assessment. Crucially, both India's central leadership and Bangladesh PM have appeared cold to her suggestion.
Despite legitimate concerns, Mamata should consider the deal in seriousness, failing which Indo-Bangladesh relationship may be permanently altered. If the treaty fails, its long-term cost could be too costly for India to bear. Mamata holds all the cards. It is the right time for her to show the qualities of a statesman.
By Crispian Balmer and Steve Scherer
| LUCCA, Italy
LUCCA, Italy The United States will hold responsible anyone who commits crimes against humanity, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday, days after the U.S. military unexpectedly attacked Syria.Tillerson is in Italy for a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialised nations, with his counterparts from Europe and Japan eager for clarity from Washington on numerous diplomatic issues, especially Syria.Before the April 7 missile strikes on a Syrian airbase, U.S. President Donald Trump had indicated he would be less interventionist than his predecessors and willing to overlook human rights abuses if it was in U.S. interests.But Tillerson said the United States would not let such crimes go unchallenged. "We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," he told reporters while commemorating a 1944 German Nazi massacre in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.Trump ordered his military to strike Syria in retaliation for what the United States said was a chemical weapons attack by President Bashar al-Assad's forces which killed scores of civilians, including many children.European ministers are eager to hear whether Washington is now committed to overthrowing Assad, who is backed by Russia. They also want the United States to put pressure on Moscow to distance itself from Assad.
Tillerson, who travels to Russia after the two-day G7 gathering, said at the weekend that the defeat of Islamic State remained the U.S. priority, while the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that "regime change" in Syria was also a priority for Trump.The mixed messages have confused and frustrated European allies, who are eager for full U.S. support for a political solution based on a transfer of power in Damascus."The Americans say they agree, but there's nothing to show for it behind (the scenes). They are absent from this and are navigating aimlessly in the dark," said a senior European diplomat, who declined to be named. Italy, Germany, France and Britain have invited foreign ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar to sit down with the G7 group on Tuesday morning to discuss Syria. All oppose Assad's rule.
SENSITIVE ISSUES
The foreign ministers' discussions in Tuscany will prepare the way for a leaders' summit in Sicily at the end of May. Efforts to reach an agreement on statements ahead of time - a normal part of pre-meeting G7 diplomacy - have moved very slowly, partly because of a difficult transition at the U.S. state department, where many key positions remain unfilled.
Some issues, such as trade and climate change, are likely to be ducked this week. "The more complicated subjects will be left to the leaders," said an Italian diplomat, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press.However, the foreign ministers will talk about growing tensions with North Korea, as the United States moves a navy strike group near the Korean peninsula amid concerns over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.They will also discuss Libya. Italy is hoping for vocal support for a United Nations-backed government in Tripoli which has struggled to establish its authority even in the city, let alone in the rest of the violence-plagued north African country.The Trump administration has not yet defined a clear policy and Rome fears Washington may fall into step with Egypt and Russia, which support general Khalifa Haftar, a powerful figure in eastern Libya.The struggle against terrorism, relations with Iran and instability in Ukraine will also come up for discussion, with talks due to kick off at 4.30 p.m. (1430 GMT) on Monday. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Steve Scherer; editing by Andrew Roche)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Simon Johnson, Niklas Pollard and Johan Ahlander
| STOCKHOLM
STOCKHOLM An Uzbek man suspected of ramming a truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing four people, had expressed sympathy for Islamic State and was wanted for failing to comply with a deportation order, Swedish police said on Sunday.Thousands gathered in the spring sunshine near the site of Friday's attack to show support for those killed or injured when a hijacked beer delivery truck hurtled down a busy shopping street before crashing into a store and catching fire. The Uzbek man was arrested several hours later."The suspect had expressed sympathy for extremist organisations, among them IS," Jonas Hysing, chief of national police operations, told a news conference, using an acronym for the ultra-hardline militant group.Two of those killed were Swedes, one was a British citizen and the other from Belgium, Hysing said of the attack, which echoes the earlier use of vehicles as deadly weapons in Nice, Berlin and London. Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State, but there has been no such claim yet for the Stockholm assault.The Stockholm suspect, aged 39 and from the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, applied for permanent residence in Sweden in 2014. However, his bid was rejected and he was wanted for disregarding a deportation order, Hysing said.Police had been looking for him since Sweden's Migration Agency in December gave him four weeks to leave, but security services had not viewed him as a militant threat.Sweden's prosecution authority said a second person had been arrested on suspicion of having committed a terrorist offence through murder, but police said they were more convinced than ever that the Uzbek man was the driver of the truck. Another five people were being held for questioning after raids and police said they had conducted about 500 interviews.
Police across the Nordic region went on heightened alert after the attack and in neighbouring Norway police set off a controlled explosion of a "bomb-like device" in central Oslo on Sunday and took a suspect into custody. FLOWERS AND DEFIANCE
Although nine of the 15 people injured remained in hospital, two in intensive care, Stockholm began to return normal on Sunday with the removal of police barricades along the Drottninggatan street where the attack took place.Hundreds of flower bouquets covered steps leading down to the square next to where the truck ploughed into the Ahlens department store, with more piled up under boarded-up windows.Only yards from the scene, thousands of people gathered in the Sergels Torg square in a show of unity as heavily armed police stood guard and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
"I want to show I'm not afraid to go out," Eva Udd, a 55-year-old nurse who had joined the demonstration with a friend, said. "I usually never go to things like this, but this just felt so very important."Husam Kranda, a Libyan living in Sweden for the past five years and now working as translator, was among the multi-ethnic gathering which underlined Stockholm's cosmopolitan inhabitants. "We believe it's our duty to come here and show our support for the Swedish society," he said."I know it's a difficult time, there is a lot going on within Swedish society and internationally. But today is not about that, it's about showing support for our neighbours and our beloved ones."
He was joined by his wife from Uzbekistan, Irana Mamedova."I really feel ashamed [of] that man, because this country give him everything, this country give him peace," she said of the Uzbek suspect. "He is a monster."Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, addressing a Social Democratic party conference in the western city of Gothenburg, said Sweden would never be broken by acts of terror."We will hunt down these murderers with the full power of Sweden's democracy. There will be no compromises," he said.Sweden, a nation of 10 million inhabitants, has long taken pride in its tolerant liberal society and been among the world's most welcoming nations to immigrants. But some Swedes are having second thoughts after more than 160,000 people, many from Syria, applied for asylum in 2015.The Ahlens store cancelled a planned half-price sale of smoke-damaged goods and apologised after a storm of protest on social media that this would be disrespectful to the victims. (Additional reporting by Johan Sennero, Johannes Hellstrom, Helena Soderpalm, Olof Swahnberg and Daniel Dickson, and Temis Tormo and Philip O'Connor for Reuters TV in Stockholm, and Julia Fioretti in Brussels; writing by Simon Johnson, Alister Doyle and Niklas Pollard; editing by Mark Heinrich and Alexander Smith)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
E Ink and Sony today announced that they have agreed to establish a joint venture (JV) for planning, designing, developing, manufacturing, selling, distributing and licensing products that utilize electronic paper displays, as well as related applications and the integration platform for system partners.
Sony launched Digital Paper (DPT-S1) with E Inks electronic paper display technology back in 2014. The new JV will leverage both E Inks development and manufacturing technology for electronic paper displays and Sonys expertise in product development and marketing, said Sony.
E Inks subsidiaries and Sony Semiconductor Solutions jointly invest approximately 70% of JV shares and are the major shareholders leading the JVs business to success. The remaining shares are subscribed by venture capital companies investing in rising startups. The paid in capital is NT$ 420 million
The Board of directors of the JV includes directors assigned by E Ink and Sony. Terushi Shimizu, the Representative Director and the President of Sony Semiconductor Solutions, serve as the board member for the JV. Johnson Lee, the President of E Ink Holdings will be appointed as Chairman.
The JV is officially registered in Taiwan and has its Japan subsidiary registered in April. The company operation will be started soon after obtaining required regulatory approvals.
Johnson Lee, the President of E Ink Holdings, said:
E Ink is very excited to deepen this partnership with Sony through the JV and honored to have such an experienced board member to provide guidance to the JV. With the strong support and collaboration between E Ink and Sony, we believe the mutual efforts will lead the JV to a significant business growth.
Terushi Shimizu, Representative Director and the President of Sony Semiconductor Solutions, said:
Sony has worked on ePaper technology with E Ink for over a decade. Through this long-term partnership, we share the same vision with E Ink together to proliferate the use of ePaper.
Source
Back in February Google confirmed the list of Android Wear watches that will get the Android Wear 2.0 update. Recently Android Wear 2.0 update started rolling out for Fossil Q Founder, Casio Smart Outdoor Watch WSD-F10 and Tag Heuer Connected after a slight delay. It also started rolling out for couple of LG watches. Today LG has confirmed that the update will be available for LG G Watch R and Watch Urbane this week.
The update will be available LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition beginning May. This will bring Android Pay support for the watch, making it the only smartwatch among the three to have NFC technology.
The will come with pre-installed Android Wear 2.0 App store that will allow users to download apps directly from the on-watch Google Play Store. The update also brings improved user interface, enhanced messaging, and the Google Assistant built-in.
LG introduced Watch Style and Watch Sport smartwatches running Android Wear 2.0 earlier this year. Moto, ASUS and others are expected to roll out Android Wear 2.0 update for their smartwatches soon.
Google launched its Duo video calling app in August last year, after introducing it at the Google I/O 2016 back in May. Last month Google started rolling out with audio calling capabilities for the Duo app starting from Brazil that lets you make basic audio calls on Duo when you are on a poor network connection.
The company already said that users around the world will get the feature in the coming days. Today the feature has been rolled out for all the users worldwide. This was revealed by Googles technical head for Duo, Justin Uberti. This feature will be more useful when people are travelling in remote areas where connectivity is poor.
Last week the app got updated to version 9.1 that brought audio calls to Brazil along with bug fixes and improvements. If you have not updated, get the latest Android version from Google Play Store or iOS version from the App Store.
Source
DUBAI, April 10 (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco's board will meet in China in May for the first time in seven years, industry sources said, as the state-owned energy firm seeks to lure Chinese and Asian investors to its giant share offering.
The board of directors would gather in Shanghai on May 10 to discuss the firm's business plans, investments and preparations to sell up to 5 percent of Aramco in 2018, the sources said.
An annual report of the company's activities for the previous year is usually issued after the board meeting.
The board, which gathers twice a year, often meets abroad but only once before had a meeting in China, in 2010.
Aramco has appointed international banks with access to Chinese investors to advise on the initial public offering (IPO) .
The issue of Aramco's IPO and a potential role for Chinese investors was discussed last month during the visit by Saudi Arabia's King Salman to Beijing, sources said.
The IPO could generate up to $100 billion and give Aramco an overall valuation of $2 trillion, the biggest ever.
"Chinese participation in Aramco's IPO would be very logical and strategic," said Sadad al-Husseini an energy analyst and former Aramco executive.
Saudi officials have said Chinese companies were interested in investing in the Aramco IPO as Beijing seeks to secure crude supplies from the worlds biggest oil exporter.
"There is a serious push from Aramco for Chinese investors to become cornerstone investors in the IPO," an industry source said.
A second source said talks were at an early stage and any Chinese investment in Aramco would likely be in coordination with the Beijing government.
Aramco is likely to be listed on the Saudi stock exchange in Riyadh and on one or more international markets. The kingdom is considering exchanges in New York, London, Toronto and Asia.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China International Holdings, a unit of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , and China International Capital Corporation (CICC) are among Chinese banks pitching for a role in the IPO, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
Chinese participation in the IPO could strengthen Riyadh's hand in other Chinese investment decisions, the sources said.
Aramco has been in talks for years to invest in refineries in China so it can sell more of its crude to China. Those plans have yet to progress.
The board, which often tours Aramco's investments where they meet, also comes before the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries gathers in Vienna on May 25 to decide on output policy. An OPEC-led pact to cut supplies ends in June.
The nine-member board includes Saudi Energy Minister and Aramco Chairman Khalid al-Falih, Minister of State Ibrahim al-Assaf, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, Public Investment Fund Managing Director Yasir al-Rumayyan and royal court adviser Majid al-Moneef. It also includes former Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Mark Moody-Stuart and former Schlumberger head Andrew Gould. (Reporting by Reem Shamseddine in Khobar, Rania El Gamal in Dubai and Aizhu Chen in Beijing; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Edmund Blair)
Saudi Aramco's board will meet in China in May for the first time in seven years, industry sources said, as the state-owned energy firm seeks to lure Chinese and Asian investors to its giant share offering.
The board of directors would gather in Shanghai on May 10 to discuss the firm's business plans, investments and preparations to sell up to 5 percent of Aramco in 2018, the sources said.
An annual report of the company's activities for the previous year is usually issued after the board meeting.
The board, which gathers twice a year, often meets abroad but only once before had a meeting in China, in 2010.
Aramco has appointed international banks with access to Chinese investors to advise on the initial public offering (IPO) .
The issue of Aramco's IPO and a potential role for Chinese investors was discussed last month during the visit by Saudi Arabia's King Salman to Beijing, sources said.
The IPO could generate up to $100 billion and give Aramco an overall valuation of $2 trillion, the biggest ever.
"Chinese participation in Aramco's IPO would be very logical and strategic," said Sadad al-Husseini an energy analyst and former Aramco executive.
Saudi officials have said Chinese companies were interested in investing in the Aramco IPO as Beijing seeks to secure crude supplies from the worlds biggest oil exporter.
"There is a serious push from Aramco for Chinese investors to become cornerstone investors in the IPO," an industry source said.
A second source said talks were at an early stage and any Chinese investment in Aramco would likely be in coordination with the Beijing government.
Aramco is likely to be listed on the Saudi stock exchange in Riyadh and on one or more international markets. The kingdom is considering exchanges in New York, London, Toronto and Asia.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China International Holdings, a unit of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , and China International Capital Corporation (CICC) are among Chinese banks pitching for a role in the IPO, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
Chinese participation in the IPO could strengthen Riyadh's hand in other Chinese investment decisions, the sources said.
Aramco has been in talks for years to invest in refineries in China so it can sell more of its crude to China. Those plans have yet to progress.
The board, which often tours Aramco's investments where they meet, also comes before the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries gathers in Vienna on May 25 to decide on output policy. An OPEC-led pact to cut supplies ends in June.
The nine-member board includes Saudi Energy Minister and Aramco Chairman Khalid al-Falih, Minister of State Ibrahim al-Assaf, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, Public Investment Fund Managing Director Yasir al-Rumayyan and royal court adviser Majid al-Moneef. It also includes former Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Mark Moody-Stuart and former Schlumberger head Andrew Gould. (Reporting by Reem Shamseddine in Khobar, Rania El Gamal in Dubai and Aizhu Chen in Beijing; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Edmund Blair)
Tom Ridge, the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Monday that President Trumps military strike against Syria last week was smart, and sends a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he should proceed with caution.
I thought [the attack] was tempered and I thought it was appropriate. It was a signal not just to Syriabut to a lot of other countries, Ridge told FOX Business.
Ridge, who was named the first Director of the Office of Homeland Security by President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said Trump inherited a mess from the Obama administration.
[This] might have been avoided if you had armed some of those militants [in Syria] early on in the Obama Administration, but [Obama] chose not to do that, Ridge said.
Ridge said Obama sent the wrong message to Assad in 2013 when he did not send in U.S. military after the Syrian dictator crossed the red line.
I was troubled by that because he basically said to Assad, I dont care how many people you kill and I dont care the means of their destruction I dont care. But if you use chemical weapons suddenly [America] will care. I think that was a horrible message. And then when they used chemical weapons, we didnt do anything, Ridge said. Im not too sure Russia would have bothered coming in to help Syria because at least they would have known there would have been some consequences.
Ridge said Trumps actions, at least for the time being, send a strong message to Assad, Putin and other countries that the Leader of the Free World does what he says.
I think the tension level has heightened a little bit, but I also think that Putin realizes that he is dealing with a different administration now and he should proceed with caution, said Ridge.
Syria, Gorsuch and Toyota; heres whats On Our Radar today:
Syria and Russia
Fallout from Trumps decision to bomb a Syrian airbase continues to mount. Russia isnt too happy, saying the U.S. has officially ruined their relationship. Now everyone is concerned how supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, like Iran, could retaliate. Meanwhile, the U.S. is sending military ships near North Korea in preparation for increased chatter.
Varney and Co. at 9 a.m. EST has the latest.
Supreme Court
Trumps pick for Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, has officially been confirmed and gets sworn in to the high court today. With POTUS in attendance, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy will administer Gorsuchs swearing in.
Tune in at 11 a.m. EST to watch!
Toyota's Announcement
Investing in America! Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) announced Monday that it is planning to invest $1.3 billion in its Camry plant in Kentucky. The plan has been in the works, and coincides with the introduction of revamped products in the U.S. The announcement also comes on the heels of Trump's criticism of Toyota's plans to build a plant in Mexico.
Watch Toyota Motor Manufacturing President Wil James and Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin speak about the deal on Mornings with Maria, here.
Toyota announced it will invest $1.33 billion in its largest plant in the world located in Georgetown, Kentucky where Toyota manufactures the Camry. In an interview with FOX Business, Toyota Motor Manufacturing President Wil James and Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said the investment is part of a long-term strategy in Kentucky.
This investment is just a continuation to the commitment that Akio Toyoda made for $10 billion investment over the next five years, James told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo.
Besides the direct impact Toyotas presence has on the state, Bevin says the automaker has attracted other companies to the state as well.
This is huge, it really is. Toyota, were blessed by the fact Toyota employs more than 8,000 people here in Kentucky already, significant producer. Theyve attracted literally well over 100 other companies that have come here literally as peripheral players to them.
Amid debate over a potential border-adjustment tax and efforts to bring more manufacturing back to the US, Bevin says it's a mistake to think of the Camry as a Japanese car.
The most American-made car in the United States is the Toyota Camry made here in Kentucky. It is the most American-made car in the world.
Pressed by Bartiromo about the potential impact of a border-adjustment tax, James said it would add to the costs of the Kentucky-built Camry. Weve kind of estimated that the border adjustment tax could potentially add an additional $1,000 on the top of our Camry.
Because that cost would be passed onto consumers, James said, We see that as a negative from the point of view of increasing the cost of products to customers.
Bevin sees the investment as a testament to the quality of the workforce in Kentucky.
Its a compliment to those in Kentucky that already here, the employees that are here, the quality of the workforce, the fact that Kentucky is the hub of engineering and manufacturing in the country and that is only continuing to grow with significant investments like this from Toyota.
What happened
Shares ofLowe's Companies Inc.(NYSE: LOW) were stacking higher last month after the home-improvement retailer delivered an impressive fourth-quarter earnings report. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the stock finished up 10.5%.
Image source: Lowe's.
As the chart below shows, the stock's gains came almost entirely at the beginning of the month following the earnings report.
LOW data by YCharts.
So what
Lowe's turned in stellar results on all counts. Comparable sales at the home-improvement retailer accelerated to 5.1%, its fastest pace in several quarters, and overall revenue increased 19.2% to $15.8 billion, which topped estimates at $15.4 billion. The jump in sales was largely attributable to its acquisition of Canadian home-improvement retailer RONA last year, which added nearly 500 stores to Lowe's portfolio.
On the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share surged 45.8% to $0.86 from $0.59 a year ago. CEO Robert Niblock credited the company's "omni-channel platform, customer experience design capabilities, and project expertise."
Now what
Looking ahead, Niblock said 2017 presented a "favorable macroeconomic backdrop for home improvement," and the company's guidance confirmed that view, calling for an overall sales increase of 5% and comparable sales growth of 3.5%. Lowe's plans to open 35 new stores and calls for earnings per share of $4.64, up from $3.99 last year.
With an expanding economy and strong housing market, Lowe's stock looks primed to deliver in 2017 again, continuing its momentum from last quarter.
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President Donald Trump says his meetings with China's President Xi Jinping went well but as for any progress on trade "only time will tell."
Trump tweeted Saturday that "It was a great honor to have President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan of China as our guests in the United States. Tremendous...goodwill and friendship was formed, but only time will tell on trade."
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Friday that the two sides would report back in 100 days on ways to make U.S.-China trade more balanced.
Trump has repeatedly hammered China for exporting more to the U.S. than it buys. He's also criticized China for grabbing jobs that could otherwise go to Americans.
The president is spending the weekend at his Florida resort after the two-day meetings with Xi.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross wants the Chinese to step up efforts on trade following President Trump's meeting with the countrys president, Xi Jinping.
If we don't get some tangible results within the first 100 days, I think we'll have to examine whether it's worthwhile continuing them, Ross told Maria Bartiromo during an interview on Sunday Morning Futures.
Ross did indicate that the overall meetings were productive.
The Chinese came very well prepared and there were people at the right levels. So it was not just a for-show meeting. It was a serious meetingboth in terms of who attended and the content, said Ross.
The Trump administration made clear to President Xi two primary objectives that it hopes the two countries can accomplish together: Reducing the trade deficit quite noticeably between the two countries and to increase the total amount of trade.
It requires everybody playing by the rules and it requires everybody to have the same objectives. Well see in a very, very short while whether it is really the case that we are on the same wavelength, Ross said.
As for NAFTA, an issue that the administration has focused on since the early days of Trumps campaign, Ross said Congress is hindering needed change.
We need Congress permission to enter the formal 90-day letter into the records so that we can begin the formal negotiations, Ross said. We were trying to get that done before the Easter recess. We were not able to do it. We hope to get it done as soon as possible after. Bad trade deals shouldnt be allowed to sit. The longer they sit there, the more they are to our disadvantage. So its quite unfortunate that the way Congress has been working has been to slow-walk these activities.
Kassem Eid, a 2013 Syrian chemical weapon attack survivor, believes that Barack Obama's inaction in Syria helped ISIS recruit more soldiers and that the U.S. should continue to pursue Assad for the use of chemical weapons.
aPresident Obama broke his promise for the red line and his argument was that heas going to take Assadas chemical weapons, well he lied,a he told FOX Businessa Neil Cavuto. aObamaas inaction in Syria helped [in] fueling ISIS with the propaganda that says the west doesnat care about you, that America doesnat care about youa That made a lot of people, a lot of ignorant and angry people, unfortunately, join ISIS.a
Eid said that he supported President Trumpas immediate action to launch Tomahawk missiles against the Syrian airbase on Thursday without Congressas approval.
aPresident Trumpas action was very, very good because if he will go to Congress and he will wait, he will give Assad a chance to maneuver.a
Some people argue that if the U.S. helped the rebels take out the Syrian President, someone worse may take his place, but Eid said he doubts anyone can be aworsea than Assad.
aAssad killed 500,000 people, for the love of God. He displaced half of the country, he destroyed the country. He gassed women and childrena Heas worse than Hitler.a
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday denied reports that President Trump has gone back to the drawing board as it relates to tax reform.
I think what you are seeing is us going through this process of his economic team, everyone from Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Ross to Gary Cohn and others sitting down internally and beginning that process of meeting with groups that have been advocating for tax reform since 1986, Spicer told FOX Business Blake Burman.
The press secretary said tax cuts will be a major undertaking and the administration has begun to meet with members of Congress, inside and outside groups for input on formulating the best tax reform policy.
On Friday, President Trumps Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn said tax reform is the number one domestic priority for the administration and suggested the August deadline might be extended to later in the year.
The President is pushing extremely hard on tax cuts and everything we can do to generate economic growth in the United States. The President [completely] understands how stimulative deregulation and tax cuts will be for the U.S. economy. He understands that and he is pushing us all very hard to get that done as soon as we possibly can, Cohn said during an interview on FOX Business Varney & Co.
Spicer said it would be a great opportunity to have a tax reform bill ready before Congress leaves for August recess and hopes middle-income Americans will have a tax cut this time next year.
We are going to make sure we do this right and we do it with the input of all the individuals groups and members of Congress that have had a long time interest in doing this, he said.
After a week of political back-biting, an uneasy calm has descended over the White House as President Trump makes clear hes inclined, for now, to keep his senior management team in place even as he downgrades the status of one key adviser, and continues to hold in limbo the future of another, FOX Business has learned.
White House officials this weekend confirmed that senior adviser Steve Bannon, the populist firebrand and former head of Breitbart News, will remain in the administration, at least for now. But, they say, his power with the president was severely eroded late last week after clashing with Jared Kushner, the presidents 36-year-old son-in-law, who has now emerged as the most powerful adviser within the presidents inner circle. People close to Bannon say if his power recedes further he could resign from the administration.
Bannon is no longer on the National Security Council but even worse, the president has signaled that he is not the top White House adviser, a position he has enjoyed, albeit unofficially, through the transition and into the first two months of the administration.
These same officials say another adviser who had come under considerable pressure, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, will also remain in the administration for the time being. In recent weeks, Trump had begun to ask friends and associates if they felt he was being served well by Priebus, particularly after the administrations failed attempt to reform health care.
But White House officials tell FOX Business that the president recognizes the difficult task Priebus has in pushing through his ambitious agenda that includes not just a health care overhaul, but major changes in economic policy and tax reform, and has decided he should stay even if his power, like Bannons, has been watered down.
What is clear is that Kushner, regarded as a Liberal Democrat, and his close associate National Economic Council chief Gary Cohna former supporter of President Obamaare now heading the most powerful faction inside the already fractious White House and at least a subtle shift in policy has begun, these officials confirm to FOX Business. Trump has signaled Kushners expanded role by granting him numerous responsibilities inside the White House, a sign hes both growing tired of internal bickering and is losing faith in Bannon and Priebus.
As evidence, people close to the White House point to the softening of the presidents populist rhetoric on trade, where he no longer is calling for trade wars with China, even as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, or to completely rewrite trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Kushner and Cohn support trade deals and are said to be wary about isolating China.
They also point to the recent bombing of Syria, something Trump once attacked President Obama for considering back in 2013, as further proof the president is embracing foreign interventionism, rather than the so-called America First isolationism that Bannon would prefer and that Trump ran on during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Big question marks loom over Trumps plans to slash tax rates for individuals and businesses, and a big infrastructure spending plan. If Kushner and Cohn have their way, corporate taxes might be cut, but not those for individuals, keeping in line with their progressive ideology. They may also push Trump to scale back on tax cuts in order to spend more on infrastructure, a move that would garner support from Democrats in Congress.
It's too early to tell if Trump will do a complete shift in policy, said Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant who works mainly with Democratic candidates. But hes got to find ways to govern and obviously Bannon and Priebus have caused problems. You need someone who can bring unity. Kushner may be that in Trumps mind."
Of course all administrations have internal turf wars, and presidents often jettison advisers as they seek out the best people to translate their agenda into legislation. But Trump has had a particularly unproductive first two months in office from a legislative standpoint as his health care overhaul stalled, and administration officials have been signaling that his proposed tax cuts may be put off until the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the internal feud nearly overshadowed some rare victories for Trump, including the confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and the bi-partisan support he received for his bombing of Syria following the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons in its bloody civil war.
The White House would not comment publicly on the contretemps other than to say, Once again this is a completely false story driven by people who want to distract from the success taking place in this administration. The President's pick for the Supreme Court (a decision that has generational impact) was confirmed today, we hosted multiple foreign leaders this week and the President took bold and decisive military action against Syria last night. The only thing we are shaking up is the way Washington operates as we push the President's aggressive agenda forward.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday, during his daily briefing, confirmed reports of infighting among the administration but characterized them as overblown.
"Our battles and our policy differences need to be behind closed doors," Spicer said. "We need to focus and ultimately all come out committed to his [Trumps] agenda.
Its also unclear if the past weeks White House battle will result in the president ditching all of his Bannon-inspired campaign promises such as the construction of a wall along the Mexican border to stem the tide of illegal immigration, and not pursuing major tax cuts for individuals and businesses.
Indeed, one major wild card in trying to predict the direction of policy of the Trump White House is the president himself, a temperamentally volatile man whose ideology has vacillated over the years. Trump is said to favor a degree of internal bickering as long as advisers are loyal to him, and he has cobbled together maybe the most ideologically diverse White House in recent times.
Some of his advisers like Kushner and Cohn, the former No 2 at Wall Streets Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), could have easily worked in the Obama White House. Both are liberal corporatists who favor free trade and global intervention, but also more liberal economic policies such as expansive government, and are not anti-immigration.
Others like Bannon favor less government, lower taxes and an America First policy where the country refrains from global intervention, enacts trade barriers and cuts back on immigration.
During most of his long career as a businessman, Trump was at times in the Kushner-Cohn camp; he supported the presidency of Bill Clinton, the husband of his Democratic challenger in the 2016 election. But Trump started to embrace populist and isolationist right-wing politics relatively recently as he began to consider a run for the White House; he became a harsh critic of President Obama, at one point questioning whether he was born in the U.S. and thus not qualified to be president.
During the presidential campaign, Trump channeled the ideological theories espoused by Bannon and his political website Breitbart News, making Bannons recent demotion all the more startling.
Even as he loses power, Bannon has no immediate plans to leave the White House, people close to him say, but they concede his stroke with Trump is waning and he might leave if he is overpowered by the Kushner-Cohn team. These people close to Bannon also say he knows full well that Trump is apt to change his mind again, and Bannon could find himself back in the inner circle.
Steve is staying put because he knows the best way to get the policies he wants the president to pursue is to stay in the White House, said one White House staffer. Its either that or selling ads for Breitbart News, so at least for now he isnt going anywhere.
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Natasha Exelby has paid a high price for her weekend blooper, after the humorless management at ABC24 banned the newsreader from playing any future on-air role.
Exelby, who only recently returned from a foreign correspondent and anchor role with Turkish broadcaster, TRT World, was today told she has been axed from newsreading duties, after being caught off guard during a live news shift on Sunday.
In the clip, which has since gone viral, the former Wake Up! co-host is seen looking startled as she suddenly realizes the cameras have returned to her after a prerecorded package has finished.
Its a slip-up almost every newsreader in the world has committed but rarely costs the TV presenter their on-air job.
WWE Diva Paige confirms private photos and video were stolen, leaked online
SBS newsreader Janice Petersen tweeted a screen grab of herself caught putting lipstick on while live, writing in solidarity: it happens.
Sky News political reporter Samantha Maiden celebrated the human error, telling her Twitter followers: thats @NatashaExelby and shes awesome. Shes too much for @ABCmediawatch. Too fabulous.
Exelby told News Corp it would be inappropriate for me to comment.
Failing to respond to a request for confirmation Exelby was told today she would no longer be used in an on-air role, an ABC spokesman said in a statement: Natasha Exelby is a casual contributor, not a staff member. She has been booked for occasional on-air shifts when needed, and also does other occasional shifts for the ABC News channel.
Mel B and ex Stephen Belafonte had wild sex and fiery fights
Contributors work out their shifts with managers on a per needs basis. Details of individuals shifts are confidential to them and not something the ABC publicly comments on.
News Corp is pursuing ABC management for further comment, addressing directly her removal from newsreading duties, either as a freelancer or otherwise.
This article originally appeared on News.com.au.
Tomi Lahren has filed a lawsuit against Glenn Beck and his online platform, TheBlaze, alleging wrongful termination.
The conservative talk show host claims she was ousted from her program after she said she was in favor of abortion rights while appearing on ABC's "The View" on March 17.
"I can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say Im for limited government but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies," she said on the talk show.
In the 27-page lawsuit filed Friday in Dallas, Lahren's attorney said nothing in his client's employment contract prohibited Lahren's comments on "The View."
TheBlaze took her off camera but offered to pay her contract if she remained silent on social media, her lawsuit states. Since then, attorney Brian Lauten asserts Beck and others at TheBlaze "embarked on a public smear campaign" and interfered with her business relationships.
Lahren is also seeking control over her Facebook page and her four million followers on the social media site. The lawsuit alleges TheBlaze has "complete and autonomous control over Plaintiffs Facebook account" and leaving her without access to it has "irreparably harmed" Lahren.
The lawsuit wants a judge to rescind her employment contract and declare that she may speak her mind freely.
TheBlaze told Dallas News in a statement, "It is puzzling that an employee who remains under contract (and is still being paid) has sued us for being fired, especially when we continue to comply fully with the terms of our agreement with her."
Lahren shared a cryptic tweet Friday seemingly in response to the lawsuit.
Lay down and play dead really isn't my style. #FinalThoughts Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) April 7, 2017
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Coca-Cola has launched a new special-edition Cherry Coca-Cola with an unlikely famous face to grace the label.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett will appear on the soda bottles for a limited time, and only in China.
The cherry flavor, launched for the first time in China on March 10, is Buffetts favorite drink.
PEPSI PUSHING BACK AGAINST PHILADELPHIA SODA TAX WITH SMALLER BOTTLES
Chinese consumers love new flavors and crave excitement from brands like ours as we launch new products, Shelly Lin, Coca-Cola Chinas Marketing Director for Trademark Coca-Cola, said in a statement.
As we thought of the most creative ways to bring the great taste of Cherry Coke to China, we thought who better to celebrate the launch of this special drink than its best-known fan.
Of course, Buffet isn't just an avid Coke consumer-- his company is also a major investor. Berkshire Hathaway has been Coca-Colas largest single shareowner since the 1980s.
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The Chinese version of Cherry Coke is available in 330-ml cans and 500-ml bottles. Buffets face will appear on the special-edition cans for an undisclosed promotional period.
But Buffet fans in the U.S. may soon be able to sip on a soda with the billionaire's likeness, too. Coca-Cola says its going to bring the cans to America during Berkshire Hathaways annual shareholder meeting this May.
A common kidney stone treatment may actually help improve erectile dysfunction (ED) though the treatment is not yet approved in the United States.
That treatment, shockwave therapy, has been used since the 1980s to treat kidney stones, Dr. Kevin Campbell, a physician with The Urology Group in Cincinnati, told Fox News. For the procedure, a machine generates a pressure wave strong enough to break or fragment a kidney stone, he explained.
ARE PENILE IMPLANTS SAFE? WHAT EVERY MAN SHOULD KNOW
A modified, low-intensity version of shockwave therapy has also been shown, in some trials, to help with ED but doctors arent entirely sure how it works yet.
They have some ideas: Campbell explained that, during a normal erection, the penis fills with blood. However, illnesses like diabetes or other blood vessel diseases can often lead to a buildup of scar tissue that decreases blood supply to the area. However, shockwave therapy may help increase the flow of blood to the penis, possibly by promoting the growth of stem cells, which can proliferate into different types of cells such as blood vessels, Campbell said.
9 FOODS THAT CAN HELP BOOST YOUR SEX DRIVE
Its certainly promising, Campbell said of the treatment, but noted that before he would suggest it to patients, he would want answers to a number of questions including how shockwave therapy works and the best way to administer the shocks of pressure. (So far, theres no consensus on how many treatments should be administered, how high the intensity level of the shocks should be, and the exact placement required for the shocks.)
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One crucial, potential benefit of shockwave therapy? Unlike oral medications such as Viagra, Campbell explained, shockwave therapy could actually treat the cause of the problem not just its symptoms.
If eventually approved, the treatment could help the 30 million American men the National Institutes of Health estimates suffer from ED. Now, thats something to get excited about.
Its happening right before our eyes. President Trump is busy changing the direction of America, while Democrats worry about the color of the curtains in the White House.
Remarkably, politics today is like a reality television show. President Trump is Celebrity Apprentice. The career Washington politicians are the Biggest Losers.
Like the "Apprentice Trump is new to Washington and the ways of government. But hes a quick learner and one of the most brilliant businessmen in world history. At one point a quarter of a century ago, Trump was billions of dollars in debt to the biggest banks in the world. For all intents and purposes Trump was bankrupt and finished.
The arrogant bankers thought they had him right where they wanted him. But Trump defeated the banks -- and pulled a rabbit out of a hat. He came back from deaths door. Today he is worth an estimated $4 billion plus -- with almost no debt. Houdini couldnt have pulled off a better trick.
The Celebrity Apprentice knows how to win a tough reality competition. The D.C. liberal politicians are making the same mistake -- writing Trump off prematurely. The difference this time is
Bankers are a thousand times smarter than career Washington politicians.
The politicians in Washington are the Biggest Losers. They have no idea what theyre up against. They are so hysterical over President Trump that theyve convinced themselves that theyre winning. Only days ago a leading Democrat said Trump is already a lame duck president.
Ill bet the bankers thought that, too.
Meanwhile Trump is quietly going about destroying liberals and liberal policies. Its happening every single day and the liberal politicians and biased-liberal mainstream media are too blind, deaf, and mostly dumb to notice.
In only the last week, while liberals sat around gloating over the failure of the ObamaCare repealTrump changed the direction of America. Trump is busy erasing Obama like he never existed.
And wait, ObamaCares repeal is coming too. What happened to TrumpCare was a short-term blip. Trump is relentless. I should know. I wrote the national bestseller The Power of RELENTLESS. Trump is the poster boy for relentless. More on that in a minute.
First lets review what Trump has accomplished in only a week.
-- Trump approved the Keystone Pipeline that Obama fought against for eight long years, then killed outright. Like Freddie Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street Keystone is back from the dead.
-- Trump rolled back Obamas entire climate change agenda and killed the war on coal. Coal was dead, and now its not.
Like I said, Trump is erasing Obama like he was never there.
- Trump and AG Jeff Sessions announced the defunding of Sanctuary Cities. Finally, we have a president who believes in the rule of law. Finally, we have a president who believes in the U.S. Constitution. Finally, we have a president who takes action. Finally, we have a president who follows through on his campaign promises. Trump really will cut off funding to cities that protect illegal aliens and refuse to obey the laws of the land.
Its a new country, folks. Call it Trumpland.
- Trump forced an Israel-hater at the United Nations who authored a report calling Israel an apartheid state to resign. Obama would have given her an award. Trump said "YOU'RE FIRED."
- Trump signed legislation killing BLM (Bureau of Land Management -- where all the liberal big government control freaks live) rules for federal government control of over 40 million acres of federal lands. Trump has the back of ranchers, farmers, property owners. The power is back in the hands of the states, not Gestapo-like agents of the federal government.
- Trump put his son-in-law Jared Kushner in charge of a SWAT team of business executives with the job of streamlining government, overhauling the federal bureaucracy and killing regulations that hinder business.
- Trump signed two new Executive Orders on trade policy leveling the playing field for American workers. Trump just did something no other politician has ever done -- he did exactly what he promised on the campaign trail.
- Dont look now, but Trump is taking bids on the building of THE WALL. Liberals believed Trump's wall was just a slick campaign slogan. Its really happening. Over 500 companies have signed up to make bids to build the infamous wall -- and over a dozen are Hispanic-owned.
- And then Trump shocked the world by directing a missile attack on Syria's air bases after Syria used chemical weapons on their own people. Trump drew the line in the sand that Obama never did in eight years. Trump punished the bad guys and sent a powerful message to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. "There is a new sheriff in town. Don't mess with America!"
- Finally, my educated guess is Trump is also creating Executive Orders right now, behind the scenes, that slowly starve and strangle ObamaCare without any Congressional vote. Wanna bet?
But in the end, it won't matter. Because Im betting President Trump will convince Congress to pass the ObamaCare repealsoon. Trump didnt lose that battle. Liberals celebrated way too soon.
Businessmen like Trump never fail. They just learn from an initial failure, pick themselves back up and figure out how to win the battle.
Smart businessmen are relentless. They run circles around politicians.
Trumps political opposition in Congress is made up of a bunch of clueless career politicians. They have no balls. They've never risked a dime of their own money. They play only with OPM (other people's money). They have no idea how to play a game of "chicken" against Trump, a man who has risked billions of his own money. Trump will eat them for breakfast.
ObamaCare is as good as dead. Liberals just dont know it yet.
And Trump will be one step closer to erasing Obama's legacy like he never existed.
With President Trump in charge, politics is like the greatest show on earth. Its like a battle of "Celebrity Apprentice vs. the Biggest Losers.
In spite of a scorched-earth campaign by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Neil Gorsuch has been confirmed to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalias untimely death last year.
Gorsuchs nomination was one of the most significant actions of the Trump presidency so far, and his confirmation will now have profound implications for our nation over the next several decades.
Here are four reasons why American citizensespecially Evangelical conservativesshould consider Gorsuchs confirmation a great victory and why he might be better even than Scalia, whose place on the bench he would take.
1. He as a proven record defending religious liberty.
The First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution declares, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This amendment is deeply significant because it declares that every citizen is free to hold his or her own convictions about ultimate reality, align his or her life with those convictions, and do so openly and without fear.
Justice Gorsuch has a proven track record defending religious liberty, stronger in fact than Scalias, as Nathan Diament noted recently. Two of the weightiest examples are Hobby Lobby (2013) and Little Sisters of the Poor (2015), cases heard by Judge Gorsuch and the 10th Circuit of Appeals. In both cases the defendants successfully invoked the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (1993) as reason to overturn the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, arguing that the mandate would force them to be complicit in actions that their faith prohibits.
2. He will interpret the law rather than arbitrate morality.
In a 2009 speech entitled, Mullahs of the West: Judges as Moral Arbiters, the late Justice Scalia lamented that many Americans have placed their faith in Supreme Court justices to give our nation moral guidance. Yet, the Constitution of the United States specifically guards against giving the justices such mullah-like power; it gives the We the People the right to decide questions of moral profundity.
Sadly, certain federal judges have taken this right away from us by embracing a living document view of the Constitution. This progressive view contends that judges have the right to reinterpret the Constitution in light of the times. Its overall effect is that a SCOTUS majority can remove things from the Constitution that they do not like and insert things they do. The living document view enabled the Roe v. Wade (1973) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) decisions.
We are not saying that the Constitution might never need to be revised or updated again in light of the times. Instead, we are saying that our Founding Fathers made clear amendment to the Constitution must reflect the will of the people; an amendment requires an overwhelming Congressional majority and ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures.
Justice Gorsuchlike Justice Scalia before himrejects the living document view. He would refrain from the type of judicial activism that bypasses the will of the people.
3. He may be willing to reject unconstitutional precedents.
The most contentious debate, however, concerns the legal principle of stare decisis. A Latin phrase, stare decisis means that judges should respect legal precedents by letting them stand instead of overturning them. It is important to note, however, that stare decisis is not found in the Constitution or the Bill or Rights; it is not the law of the land, but a rule of thumb.
As Constitutional lawyer Robert McFarland points out , a number of Democratic congressmen have taken a sudden interest in this legal principle. But for what reason? There is no evidence that these Congressmen have an affection for the legal principle, in and of itself.
They wouldnt want to let Plessy v. Ferguson (which established segregation) stand, would they? Of course not. Were they concerned about it during Obergefell v. Hodges? No, not a peep. Yet, suddenly they are interested because a strict adherence to stare decisis might safeguard certain of the lefts favorite decisions, even if those decisions were unconstitutional or poorly reasoned.
Justice Gorsuch likely would not adhere strictly to stare decisis; there is reason to believe he would reject the precedent of previous SCOTUS decisions if and when he thinks the courts have gotten it wrong.
4. No Need for Mullahs on the Supreme Court
Americansespecially Evangelicalsstand to benefit from Judge Gorsuchs confirmation. He will defend religious liberty. He will confine himself to interpreting the law rather than setting himself up as a moral arbiter. And he may be willing to overturn bad legal precedents in which former jurists set themselves up as moral arbiters.
In so doing, he will send a message to the political community that we have no need for mullahs at 1 First Street in Washington.
Susan Rice is a liar and thats the truth. Whats amazing is that it has taken years for the major media to admit it, despite epic evidence. Even journalists have a breaking point -- in this case, false statements about deadly chemical weapons.
Rices lies have angered conservatives for years. Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer nicknamed the former national security adviser the liar in chief, according to The Blaze.
Rices willingness to misrepresent what happened during the Benghazi attack was so amazing, that she repeated it on five separate Sunday morning news talk shows. It was a lie that might make Pinocchio proud. But it took her lies about Syria to do just that.
The Washington Post gave Rice four Pinocchios (out of four) in the papers liars scoreboard for bogus claims about removing Syrias chemical weapons. The Post criticized her for comments she made during a Jan. 16, NPR interview. It looks bad for Rice that a paper so blatantly anti-Trump as the Post would criticize her for such willful deceit.
The papers Fact Checker called Rices statement problematic before spending 1,400 words proving she lied. She did not explain that Syrias declaration was believed to be incomplete and thus was not fully verified and that the Syrian government still attacked citizens with chemical weapons not covered by the 2013 agreement. That tipped her wordsmithing toward a Four, wrote Glenn Kessler.
The article cited several examples where Syria had continued to use chemical weapons. Kerrys exit memo to Obama, released 11 days before Rices remarks on NPR, acknowledged that Syria continued to use undeclared chemical weapons, emphasized Kessler.
The New York Times mentioned the same NPR quote in a April 9 story about Obamas failure to remove WMD from Syria. Here is Rices now famously false comment:
We were able to find a solution that didnt necessitate the use of force that actually removed the chemical weapons that were known from Syria, in a way that the use of force would never have accomplished. We were able to get the Syrian government to voluntarily and verifiably give up its chemical weapons stockpile.
The Times Peter Baker showed how nuanced Rice was trying to be to make that explanation. Publicly, Mr. Obamas advisers sometimes referred to known or declared stockpiles to qualify their claims, and sometimes did not. But from the start of the deal, there were discrepancies in Mr. Assads weapons declarations. Thats terrifying, given Rices involvement in the Iran nuclear deal which relies on similar reporting by a terror state.
Baker then detailed the times that Syria had used chemical weapons against its own citizens -- after the Obama administration said they were 100 percent gone.
Rices involvement in lies is nothing new. Shes been caught up in the Benghazi scandal from the beginning. She went on "Face the Nation," falsely claiming, We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.
Rice also drew fire for defending an Obama administration effort to spin the Iran deal. A Times profile of Ben Rhodes, whose brother David is CBS News president, detailed plans to deceive the public. Remember, this isnt a conservative outlet. Its The. New. York. Times.
Heres the Times quote:
The way in which most Americans have heard the story of the Iran deal presented that the Obama administration began seriously engaging with Iranian officials in 2013 in order to take advantage of a new political reality in Iran, which came about because of elections that brought moderates to power in that country was largely manufactured for the purpose for selling the deal. Even where the particulars of that story are true, the implications that readers and viewers are encouraged to take away from those particulars are often misleading or false.
Her response was classic Rice -- more denials. There was nothing hidden. There was no effort to or reality of misleading, said Rice, according to the Daily Caller. There is nothing that Ben or the president or I or anybody who was involved in explaining the Iran deal to the American public said that wasnt factually correct. The notion that there was any ball to hide or spin to put on it, I think, is really misguided.
Relentless, harsh and wholly unmeritedsuch were the attacks against Judge Neil Gorsuch. Yet Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held firm to his promise to hold a full-Senate vote on the judges nomination and today we have, once again, a full complement of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hopefully, Gorsuchs confirmation means that the court once again has the crucial fifth vote needed to sustain the Constitution as written and to protect fundamental rights like religious freedom, free speech, and the right to bear arms.
Once he is sworn in, Justice Gorsuch will arrive at the Court just in time to hear the April 19 oral arguments in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley. It is a case of stark, blatant religious discrimination by the government.
The state of Missouri provides grants to help nonprofit organizations resurface their playgrounds with rubber from recycled tires. The goal is to provide safer play areas for kids. But Missouri denied a grant to the licensed preschool and daycare center at Trinity Lutheran solely because it is a church. Missouri said the grant would violate separation of church and state. In reality, it violated prior Supreme Court precedent.
Given the hostility to religious freedom expressed in prior decisions like Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014) (the contraceptive mandate case) and Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014) (the town council opening prayer case) by the four liberal justices on the Court, Gorsuch is needed in the Trinity Lutheran case to prevent an injustice from occurring. Excluding churches from an otherwise neutral and secular government aid program clearly violates the First Amendment.
Gorsuch may also make a difference in the Courts decisions about which of the pending petitions it will accept for appeal. Each term, the Court accepts only a little over 70 of the roughly 7,000 petitions it receives. It will be helpful, therefore, to have another justice who understands the importance of constitutional issues and will vote to accept the most important cases for review.
Among the petitions currently pending is Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, an important case about an individuals right to not be forced by the government to act in violation of his or her religious beliefs.
Another petition is Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute. In this case, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an erroneous decision, misinterpreting federal law to prevent the state of Ohio from cleaning up its voter registration list. This is an especially important case for improving election integrityand one which Justice Gorsuch may be inclined to take up.
Another petition that could help assure election integrity is North Carolina v. North Carolina NAACP. Here, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals erroneously threw out North Carolinas voter ID law as well as numerous other election reforms.
Justice Gorsuch may also make a difference on petitions to comesuch as the emergency appeals of the numerous injunctions issued against President Donald Trumps executive order temporarily suspending travel from terrorist safe-havens.
As five dissenting judges from the Ninth Circuit pointed out, those decisions confound Supreme Court precedent and the constitutional and federal statutory provisions that authorize the presidents actions.
Neil Gorsuch should be the fifth vote needed to quash this judicial activism that interferes with the presidents authority as commander-in-chief to protect the nation.
In recent years, Justice Antonin Scalia provided the crucial fifth vote in numerous critical decisions. Were talking about decisions that uphold the Second Amendment [e.g., McDonald v. Chicago (2010) and District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)] and First Amendment rights of political speech, [e.g., Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) and McCutcheon v. FEC (2014)]. Without Justice Gorsuch there to hold the constitutional line, those decisions could be jeopardized in future decisions.
To anyone who watched Justice Gorsuch answer a long string of questions at his lengthy confirmation hearing, it was obvious that he knows a lot more about constitutional law than any of the senators quizzing him.
He came; he saw; he conquered.
The result is a new Supreme Court justice who gives us every reason to believe he will uphold the Constitution, enforce the Bill of Rights, and rein in an administrative state that has expanded its power and reached far beyond its constitutional and legal authority.
President Trump's personal helicopter spent the weekend parked in a prime spot on the front lawn of Mar-a-Lago, despite the fact that Trump is barred from using it while president.
The Palm Beach Daily News reported that the Sikorsky S-76, with "TRUMP" emblazoned on the tail and step, landed on the club's newly paved helipad Saturday afternoon. Palm Beach Fire-Rescue spokesman Sean Baker told the paper that the Secret Service requested a fire engine to be on standby.
"We were surprised," Baker said. "This was not something we knew was coming."
The helicopter remained on the helipad Sunday, but left after a few hours. The White House didn't respond to questions about the reason the helicopter was there. Baker said he did not know what the helicopter would be used for and said there were no reports of anyone arriving or being picked up by the helicopter Saturday.
The Secret Service says standard security protocol requires the president to fly on either Air Force One, a jumbo jet, or Marine One, a helicopter. The agency says Trump was never on the helicopter, though the president has not used Marine One for his visits to the resort.
Trump owns two Sikorsky S-76 helicopters, which also bear his family seal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trumps top officials moved Sunday to define the administrations foreign policy -- saying the Syria air strikes haven't reversed their stances on ISIS and other world issues but made clear the president will act in the best interest of Americans against unchecked threats and aggression.
Our priority in Syria, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CBSs Face the Nation. That really hasnt changed.
Still, Tillerson made clear that the 6-year-long effort to end the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad hinges on defeating the Islamic State terror group, which has strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
I think the president has been quite clear. First and foremost, we must defeat ISIS, Tillerson said in making his first Sunday talk show appearances since becoming the countrys top diplomat.
He spoke several days after Trump ordered missile strikes on a Syrian airbase from which Assad earlier last week apparently launched a chemical attack on civilians living in rebel territory, killing a reported 87 people.
Tillerson also said the United States wants to solve the Syrian crisis through international coalition, after the administration, in the days before the attack, suggested that removing Assad was not a priority.
His comments also come ahead of his trip next week to Assad-ally Russia, where hell meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and perhaps President Vladimir Putin.
The missile strikes and Tillersons remarks Sunday also appear to send a message to any nation operating outside of international norms.
Tillerson didn't specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough.
"If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken," he told ABC's "This Week."
There was little doubt the missile strikes would be seen in Pyongyang as a message. The North has long claimed that the U.S. is preparing some kind of assault against it and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature.
Tillerson was critical of Russia immediately after the U.S. airstrikes Thursday in Syria but made clear Sunday that Russians were not the target.
After last Tuesday's chemical attack in Syria, Trump said his attitude toward Assad "has changed very much." And Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
But as lawmakers called on Trump to consult with Congress on future military strikes and a longer-term strategy on Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley described regime change in Syria as a U.S. priority and inevitable. Meanwhile, Tillerson suggested that the airstrikes hadn't really changed priorities toward ousting Assad.
Pressed to clarify Sunday, National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster said the goals of fighting ISIS and ousting Assad were somewhat "simultaneous" and that the objective of the missile strikes were to send a "strong political message.
"We are prepared to do more," McMaster said on Fox News Sunday. "The president will make whatever decision he thinks is in the best interest of the American people."
McMaster also made clear that Trump wants a world-wide response to Assads action that would include Russia and Iran.
A top Senate Democrat and Republican differed Sunday on Trump having used executive powers to attack the Syrian government but agreed that Congress must be included in further actions.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Senates No. 2 Republican and a member of the chambers Intelligence committee, told Fox News Sunday that Trump needs to come to Congress before committing troops.
It is required, he said. It also makes good sense before we commit our military and our men and women in uniform to any sort of conflict. They deserve the support of Congress on a bipartisan basis.
Trump sent a letter Sunday to Congress that explained why he acted, the details of the attack, asserted his constitutional authority to act and affirmed his efforts to keep Congress informed.
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox on Sunday that no congressional authority exists for going against Assad, so there is no authority to use force.
The president has some inherent (constitutional) power, Cardin said. But as he consulted with us by notice on this attack, it's incumbent upon him to consult with Congress. And if there is going to be use of force in a continuing basis, he needs the authorization of Congress.
Reluctant to put significant troops on the ground in Syria, the U.S. for years has struggled to prevent Assad from strengthening his hold on power.
Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday called for as many as 6,000 more U.S. troops to fight the Islamic State.
The South Carolina Republican told NBCs "Meet the Press" that the additional troops would "attract more regional fighters to destroy" the militants. But he didnt say where the Americans should be sent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Impeachment hearings began Monday for Alabamas sexting septuagenarian Gov. Robert Bentley, following a chaotic few days where the luv gov defiantly refused to resign -- but also pleaded for forgiveness.
Bentley, a Republican in his second term, is confronting a slew of allegations related to improper communications he had with his senior political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
Dubbed the luv gov by the press, Bentley, who was married at the time, also is accused of demanding state workers help him cover up his relationship -- and abusing the power of his office to create a climate of fear and intimidation.
This committee today is a theater being watched by the people of Alabama and the nation, state House Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Jones said. I trust we will all approach this with a fair and open mind.
Mondays impeachment hearing is the first ever directed at a governor in the state.
On Friday, the states House Judiciary Committee released a 130-page report that alleges Bentley abused his power and went to great lengths to keep his affair under wraps.
Jack Sharman, special counsel to the states House Judiciary Committee and author of the report, said Bentley directed law enforcement to advance his personal interests and, in a process characterized by increasing obsession and paranoia, subjected career law enforcement officers to tasks intended to protect his reputation.
He also said Bentley and his office did not meaningfully cooperate with the investigation.
As proceedings got underway Monday, multiple media outlets in Alabama were reporting that the 74-year-old politician is now negotiating the terms of his exit with state lawmakers and a decision could come as early as this week.
A spokesperson for the governor, however, said in a statement that Bentley is not personally involved in any negotiations and declined further comment.
The governor has remained defiant through most of the year-long investigation into his actions.
At a news conference on Friday, he at first said he's faced major struggles and asked Alabamians to "please forgive me." He then said he wasn't going anywhere.
I do not plan to resign, the governor said. I have done nothing illegal. If the people want to know if I misused state resources, the answer is simply no. I have not.
Others beg to differ on the salacious scandal thats gripped Alabama residents and garnered national media attention.
On Wednesday, the Alabama Ethics Commission found probable cause that Bentley a dermatologist and Baptist Deacon violated state ethics and campaign finance laws.
The report was sent to the Montgomery County District Attorney for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Aside from being removed from office, Bentley could face two felony charges that carry up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $20,000 per violation.
Things only went downhill from there for the governor.
On Sunday, the Alabama Republican Party passed a resolution that called on Bentley to resign immediately.
The Alabama Republican Party holds their elected officials accountable and demands the utmost integrity of office holders, it said in a statement.
President Trumps missile strikes on the Assad regime have re-opened the divide among former Obama administration officials over their much-critiqued Syria policy.
While some Barack Obama allies criticized Trump and defended the former administration's diplomatic approach, others could hardly contain their relief that the U.S. had taken military action in response to chemical weapons use.
Donald Trump has done the right thing on Syria. Finally!! After years of useless handwringing in the face of hideous atrocities, tweeted Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former policy planner in Obamas State Department.
Slaughter lauded Trump for doing what some say Obama should have done years ago: punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons on civilians.
Obama vowed in 2012 that such actions would cross a red line. But he failed to enforce the promise a year later when hundreds of Syrians were killed by sarin gas and instead brokered a multi-nation deal in which Assad pledged to remove his chemical-weapons stockpile.
Kerry, however, was notably frustrated about such diplomatic efforts having no military backbone, even as he voiced public support for the deal and claimed -- erroneously, it turned out -- that it removed "100 percent of the chemical weapons."
I think youre looking at three people, four people in the administration who have all argued for use of force, and I lost the argument, Kerry told a group of Syrians last year at a United Nations meeting, according to an audiotape obtained by The New York Times.
In the wake of the Trump missile strikes, a source close to Kerry said he was absolutely supportive of the decision and gratified to see that it happened quickly, according to Politico.
Another former Obama official was quoted in the same article saying, "Our administration never would have gotten this done in 48 hours. ... Its a complete indictment of Obama."
Kerry has made no public statements since Navy warships on Thursday fired dozens of missiles into a Syrian airbase from which Assad apparently launched his chemical attack on civilians earlier in the week, killing 87.
Susan Rice, an Obama national security adviser, earlier this year lauded the administrations efforts to get Assad to verifiably surrender the stockpile without the threat of force -- telling NPR that the move was consistent with Obamas desire not to intervene in the civil war.
She also has not publicly commented on the missile strike.
However, Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser for Obama, has posted numerous tweets criticizing Trump, including one that suggested the presidents motive was to generate positive press.
Stop and consider the incentives being created for future military action with a President like Trump. https://t.co/UhKGC8LBXf Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) April 8, 2017
We still have no clear answers about what strategy the strike is advancing, what we are asking of allies, what the role of Congress is https://t.co/SL89H8xfMX Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) April 8, 2017
Strikes could not have ended the violence in Syria or removed all of the (chemical weapons) which was destroyed through diplomacy, Rhodes said in one post.
Also worth noting that strikes could not have ended the violence in Syria or removed all of the CW which was destroyed through diplomacy. https://t.co/JyzWtObDEZ Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) April 9, 2017
He also defended the administration's decisions, albeit cryptically, in response to The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens, who wrote: You had the chance to stop genocide, chaos, a refugee crisis, Russia's intervention, @brhodes. You did nothing. Try shame instead of snark.
I respect your passion, Rhodes responded. But giving any US Administration agency for all the forces at work in Syria only makes finding solutions harder.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, along with six other Group of Seven foreign ministers, aims to send Russia a clear and coordinated message in the wake of the U.S. response to a gas attack in Syria that left scores dead.
Tillerson, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and the other ministers aim to pressure Russia to end its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after a tumultuous week, which included the nerve gas attack and the U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian air base.
The U.S. received broad support from Europe after the airstrikes. Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who is hosting the meeting, said the missile strike contributed to a renewed harmony between the U.S. and its partners ahead of the first meeting of G7 foreign ministers since President Trump took office.
"We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart," Alfano told Sky TG24 Sunday. "I welcome this renewed harmony."
With ties between the U.S. and Europe seemingly getting better, there has been no indication President Vladimir Putin was going to move from his position on the Assad regime in Syria.
Russia and Iran said in a joint statement Sunday that the countries would respond to any aggression in wake of the airstrikes in Syria.
What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines, the countries said, The Sun reported. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.
H.R. McMaster, President Trumps national security adviser, said in an interview on Fox News Sunday that Russia should re-evaluate its support for Assad. He added that Russia will have to decide whether it wanted to continue backing a murderous regime as Trump weighed the next steps against Syria.
Tillerson is expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after the G7 meeting.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
With Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Chuck Schumer and a slew of liberal pundits supporting Donald Trumps airstrikes against Syria, the president finds himself in an unusual position.
Even CNNs Fareed Zakaria, who has twice called Trump a BSer on the air (using the actual word), said the military attack was the moment that Trump became president.
There is, as Ive said, a rally-round-the-president effect. One moment, the media were depicting Trump as a bumbling leader who couldnt even pass a health bill. In the next, he was a bold and decisive commander-in-chief responding to Bashir al-Assads horrifying chemical attack against his own people.
But there are some dissenting voices, which Ill get to in a moment.
Even some former Barack Obama aides, in backing Trumps decision, are now admitting that the former president should not have declared a red line against Syria and failed to enforce it in 2013, settling instead for a deal on chemical weapons that obviously didnt remove all of them from the country.
Ive been wondering why Trump wasnt hit harder on the charge of flip-flopping.
To be sure, many news outlets have noted that Trump has changed his position against intervening in the Middle East, a staple of his campaign rhetoric. As recently as October, he said Clinton might start World War III in Syria. And Trump tweeted at Obama four years ago. TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING! Trump tweeted then.
My conclusion: Journalists care far less about flip-flopping if you flip in their direction. And foreign policy commentators tend to reflect a Beltway bias toward U.S. military intervention.
For the moment, Trump is letting the results speak for themselves, even as Syria has used the damaged air strip to resume bombing the town where the chemical attack took place. Kellyanne Conway told me yesterday on Media Buzz that there are no immediate plans for a televised speech on the issue, but that Trump went out of his way to take a nonpartisan approach.
So what happens next?
From the right, National Review says: If it is a one-off, this strike is the very definition of a symbolic pinprick
We are skeptical of the wisdom of this approach. It may be that the strike is enough to deter Assad from future chemical attacks, but it also could have unwelcome unintended consequences. If Assad decides to defy us, we will be forced into further action against his regime without any idea of what would replace it.
The Weekly Standard questions the legality: Lost in the praise for the strike is the lingering constitutional question: On what grounds did the White House rest its decision to attack a nation with which we are not formally at war and which has not attacked us? Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's statement that if there are weapons of this nature available in Syria, the ability to secure those weapons and not have them fall into the hands of those who would bring those weapons to our shores to harm American citizens is lame if it's meant to satisfy the conditions for defensive preemption. Hitting the air base was no more likely to secure those weapons than taking out cell towers so Assad can't call his bankers in London and Geneva.
Laura Ingraham, the radio talk show host who spoke at Trumps convention, does not sound pleased, tweeting: Missiles flying. Rubio's happy. McCain ecstatic. Hillary's on board. A complete policy change in 48 hrs.
From the left, Slate objects to the praise on the grounds that, well, Trump is a dangerous guy:
If you are looking for extra reasons why these commentators may be looking to extend a warm hand to Trump, here's another one: There is something comforting about Trump acting in a manner that much elite opinion has been in favor of for years. Barack Obama was criticized for not launching an attack on Assad after the latter crossed Obama's red line, and many people have made casesranging from completely legitimate and thoughtful to entirely bonkersthat America should be more involved in the anti-Assad side of the Syrian conflict
But Trump is notand will never bea normal president. He is an uninformed and dangerously unstable one. If he wants to conduct military action without congressional approval, he should be challenged, not lauded."
Of course the media need to keep pressing these questions: What is Trumps larger strategy? What is he willing to commit in terms of military resources? What risks is he prepared to take? What if Americans are captured in this effort? What about the fallout with Russia? Can the United States really affect the Syrian civil war without boots on the ground?
As retired generals flood the airwaves to praise the airstrikes, the media must avoid getting swept away as they were in 2003, when most news organizations covered the runup to the Iraq war with minimal skepticism.
At the moment, Trump is basking in some rare praise. But the situation in Syria may look very different in the coming weeks and months.
An era of relative harmony between the United States and United Nations appears to be coming to an end, as President Trump's envoy takes on the international body's inclination toward inaction -- and U.N. leaders take swipes at the new administration in Washington.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley made clear last week that her tenure at the New York headquarters would mark a change in tone as she defended U.S. missile strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following a deadly chemical attack on citizens, including children.
Haley accused the U.N. of "consistently" failing to act on Syria, while also forcing the Security Council into open session when one nation, Bolivia, apparently tried to discuss the strikes in private.
HALEY FORCES BOLIVIA TO DEFEND ASSAD 'ATROCITIES' IN 'PUBLIC VIEW' AT UN SESSION
There are numerous signs that U.N. leaders are bristling at the shift and doing what they can to push back.
Secretary General Antonio Guterres decision to retain an economist who frequently lambasts Trump, and a U.N. decision to have Mexico help lead international migration talks, are the latest indications an already frosty relationship with the Trump administration is likely to get colder.
Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed to blog Inner City Press this week that Jeffrey Sachs, a world-renowned economist who has served as a senior U.N. adviser since 2002, will continue in that role.
While Sachs has been in the post for many years, he has been particularly vociferous in his criticism of Trump. Last week, he wrote a column called Donald Trumps Climate Fantasies in which he told readers to pity the president.
In less than 100 days, we have learned that Trump is a man living in a fantasy world. He issues decrees, barks orders, sends out midnight Tweets, but to no avail. The facts real ones, not his 'alternative' variety keep intervening, Sachs wrote.
Also in March, he wrote a column for The Boston Globe accusing Trump of mining that deep vein of fear and hate with his travel ban affecting certain Muslim-majority countries. He also has called Trump the quintessential short-run populist and a non-stop font of lies. Sachs did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News.
Sachs' reappointment is not the only possible anti-Trump move in recent days. According to a letter obtained by Fox News, U.N. General Assembly President Peter Thomson told the Mexican ambassador he has appointed him as a co-facilitator of upcoming intergovernmental negotiations of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.
Trumps relations with the Mexican government have been tense ever since he made his demand that Mexico pay for a wall on the southern border.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has continued to criticize what it sees as a bloated and biased body. Haley has been particularly sharp in her criticism of the bodys perceived anti-Israel tilt, working to secure the withdrawal of a report last month that called Israel an apartheid state, while Trumps budget blueprint has hinted at deep cuts to U.N. spending.
"We've carried the burden for a really long time, Haley said recently. And it doesn't mean we're not going to continue to pay our due. But at some point, other countries have to step in and start funding these missions, too.
Amid the cost-cutting push, Foreign Policy reported that Haley urged the U.N. to trim the peacekeeping mission to Congo. Haley wanted a cut of 1,500 troops, though only came away with a 370-troop cut. The push, however, signaled the Trump administration sees tightening costs as a real issue an effort likely to face strong resistance from U.N. officials.
Guterres himself has been taking swipes at Trump on his trips abroad. At an address to the League of Arab States in Jordan last month, Guterres slammed populist political leaders [who] for short-sighted and cynical reasons -- distort Islam to spread anti-Muslim hatred, playing into the hands of terrorist and extremist groups.
It breaks my heart to see developed countries closing their borders to refugees fleeing this region, and worse, sometimes invoking religion as a reason to keep them out, he said.
In February, the U.N.s High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein took an apparent shot at the Trump administrations threat to leave the Human Rights Council, and criticized political leaders who today wage campaigns against universal human rights, or threaten withdrawal from international or regional treaties and the institutions which uphold them.
After praising the anti-Trump marches that took place the day after Trumps inauguration, and adding he was proud members of my staff took part, the career Jordanian diplomat warned about political actors who would withdraw from parts of the mulitilateral system.
[O]ur rights, the rights of others, the very future of our planet cannot, must not be thrown aside by these reckless political profiteers, he said.
The warning apparently did not work, as the U.S. boycotted the first session of the council amid concerns about anti-Israel resolutions.
Google could be developing a new idea for a bladeless air conditioner that offers a better seal with your window and lets you see straight through it. A new patent filing details the idea of a fanless air conditioner that's quiet, nonobstructive, and doesn't even necessarily use refrigerant to help cool your home.
The patent filed this week breaks down a number of problems with traditional air conditioner designs. They're noisy, have poor seals that allow hot air to flow back into the home, block much of a window's view, and prevent the window from being opened any further. Google's solution to all of those is a fanless design that lets you see straight through the machine, while offering several cooling modes to minimize noise and power draw.
Google's idea looks to operate in a similar manner to Dyson's bladeless fan designs. By utilizing that concept along with a large section of insulated glass, Google's air conditioner could allow light in from outside, thereby reducing the obstruction to the outside created by traditional window-mounted air conditioning units.
Moreover, Google's design also looks to different methods of cooling the interior of a home. In making the air conditioner more low profile and fixed into the frame of the window, it would allow for the window to be opened to allow air in. The air conditioner itself could do this as well, if exterior temperatures were cool enough to not require compression-based cooling.
As a more midrange solution for cooling, Google has discussed evaporator loops which could, when combined with a smart thermostat, help cool a house or room without much power draw.
For a more powerful solution, the design also discusses the use of Peltier-based cooling, rather than phase change units, which help bring down the size of the air conditioning unit. Theoretically, this could be used as a heating element for a home as well.
This is of course just a patent filing, so there's no guarantee that Google will make such a product anytime soon. However, the firm has shown a real interest in developing more smart-home gadgets and products in the last couple of years, so building such a cooling unit and incorporating it with Google Home smart assistance wouldn't require too much of a stretch of the imagination.
Anyone who has ever worked as part of a team (which, in today's hyperconnected world, is virtually everyone) will know that things work better when people talk with one another. This way knowledge gets shared, collaborations become possible, and individual successes or mistakes are collectively learned from.
Why would you think that things would be any different in the world of robotics?
That's exactly what the folks at Locus Robotics have been proving with a major new software update for their factory robot LocusBots. LocusBots are autonomous warehouse robots, capable of moving autonomously through a space and then transporting items from where they're picked off shelves to the place they're packaged into boxes and shipped out. Previously this was done individually, with each robot working in isolation. Thanks to the new LRAN system -- short for Locus Robotics Advanced Navigation -- it's now a team effort.
"It's like a real-time indoor Waze for robots," Locus president Mike Johnson told Digital Trends. "With this technology, robots can literally see around the corner."
Johnson's not referring to new X-ray abilities for the company's factory bots (although that does give us a good idea for a future startup). Instead, he's talking about a way that LocusBots can share data with one another to help make them collectively smarter. This is where the Waze comparison comes in, referring to the smartphone app which enables drivers to alert one another of road conditions as they drive.
"The challenge we're responding to is that the facilities these robots are working at are huge," Johnson continued. "We call them unstructured environments because they have a lot of equipment, a lot of people, and they change quickly. There are products coming in and products going out all the time. Our goal is to make things simple for operators. We want them to bring in robots and immediately see an increase in performance. The big change we've made to achieve this is giving robots the ability to collaborate. Rather than robots that just follow paths, these robots talk among one another, sharing information about the environment they're in, and doing this in real time."
The new system debuted at this week's industry trade show ProMat in Chicago. At the show, six LocusBots were shown navigating the floor, avoiding bumping into each other or any humans that happen to get in their way. It's an impressive demonstration of real-time route planning and crowdsourced information -- and Johnson said it works as well with 50 or 100 robots as it does with six.
It's also a nifty example of how robots can become more efficient, even without having to be physically retooled.
"While we have improved the hardware over time, this is all about the software," he said. "The great thing about software today -- including the software that we use -- is that it can be pushed out, and within minutes all of our robots have it. It's like a Tesla, where suddenly they have this new navigation system that lets them operate better."
So will robot collaboration one day go beyond this so that, for instance, multiple robots could help one another perform impromptu tasks on the warehouse floor as and when needed?
"I think that will be there," Johnson concluded. "Right now, robotics is on the early part of the adoption curve. We're seeing a lot of interest, and a lot of fascinating work done with sensors. I do think that we'll see some more interplay as these robots collaborate in new and different ways."
Last night around 9:00 Eastern Time, 60 missiles were launched from American warships in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Fifty nine missiles hit their targets. The goal is to destroy an air base from which Syrian planes recently dropped sarin gas on civilians, killing 30 children. Thirty.
And 20 women, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. According to reporting based on a variety of agencies, this is the fifth time, at least, the fifth time, Syrian Dictator Assad has violated the Geneva Conventions and use poison gas to kill civilians. Back in 2012, President Barack Obama threatened Assad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.
O'REILLY: But Assad was not held accountable. Instead, the Obama administration did what it always did, talk, and announced a deal with the dictator. A fascinating footnote to that is that Susan Rice was on point alongside John Kerry.
SUSAN RICE, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: We were able to find a solution that actually removed the chemical weapons that were known from Syria in the way that use of force would never accomplish.
JOHN KERRY, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: With respect to Syria, we struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Obviously a false belief on Mr. Kerry's part. Now for years, Assad has been protected by the Russians who were warned of the attack was coming last night so they could get their personnel out of the airfield.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Russia should be embarrassed and ashamed. They are the one that are telling the world that there were no nerve agents, that there were no chemical weapons left. We know that for the better part of this year, Assad has been using chlorine bombs against the innocent civilians and population centers. And now yesterday a couple of days ago, the nerve agent sarin. And so, the Russians have been covering for Assad, and if it were not for the Russians, Assad would not still be in power.
O'REILLY: That's true. Putin continues to prop up Assad while thousands of people die and at least five million Syrians, five million are refugees. Most sane people support the missile attack last night. Saying is the key word here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON PAUL, FORMER TEXAS CONGRESSMAN: It doesn't make any sense for Assad and these conditions to all of a sudden use poison gases? I think it's zero chance that he would have done this, you know, deliberately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Former congressman apparently believing Assad was set up by someone. Now the morality of the attack is certainly acceptable when you have war crimes being openly committed. A noble nation will confront that. Unfortunately, noble nations are in short supply these days, and the USA is an exception to that. Also, America's National Security is in play because poison gas can be used by terrorists.
Assad has a very close relationship with Iran and Hezbollah. Once chemical weapons become acceptable, the world will becomes a very dangerous place. More dangerous that it is now. Talking Points has said for years that Assad's Air Force should have been destroyed a long time ago, and NATO should of established safe zones inside Syria to protect the innocent.
Under President Obama, none of that was remotely possible because of his strategy of retreat. But now, the new President Donald Trump ascending a message to the world, USA will not tolerate war crimes from nations like Syria. The downside is for every action is a reaction, so security has tightened here in the USA as we become an even bigger target for evildoers.
Summing up, America was justified in destroying the Syrian airport. World nation should be dealt with by the world. But if they are not the lone superpower has a responsibility. Even most of the Trump haters in Congress agree that if we can stop children from being gassed to death, we should do so. And that is "The Memo".
Unless you plan on holding up in a hotel room for an extended period of time, it's safe to say that complimentary bar of soap won't get used up. But where does that soap go after the hotel guests are gone?
At least some of it goes to Clean the World, an Orlando-based company that recycles the soap to make new soap.
The soap they use never reaches the landfill, helping the local environment and all of the new soap is distributed to areas of need. Hotels actually pay Clean the World to take their unused soap -- $.50 per room, per month, according to Thrillist.
They also partner with cosmetic companies like Unilever to receive their rejected soap bars. Once the old soap arrives in one of Clean the World's warehouses (which you can find in India, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Orlando, and Montreal), the soap is melted down and reformed into new bars. These new soaps are packaged and sent off to charities (think: Red Cross) and other NGOs around the world.
The work Clean the World is doing is impressive: In 2016, they made more than 7 million soaps and 400,000 hygiene kits. Of these bars of soap, 500,000 went to help those affected by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti and the Bahamas.
The company also works with half-used shampoo, body wash, and conditioner bottles. These items are closely inspected (bottles must be 3/4 full), emptier bottles are recycled, and then they are included in the aforementioned hygiene kits -- which also include toothbrushes, toothpaste, and hand sanitizer -- before being distributed to homeless shelters all over the globe.
Authorities say 42 people were arrested and 14 others were injured during an annual spring break street party in Southern California.
Santa Barbara County sheriff's officials say Sunday that the unsanctioned event known as Deltopia also resulted injuries to several law enforcement officers.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Hoover says between 6,000 and 8,000 people attended the event in Isla Vista on Saturday. It's been held annually since 2014.
Hoover says a sheriff's deputy was left with a broken hand and other injuries after struggling to arrest a 19-year-old man with an open container of alcohol.
Officials say a 22-year-old woman attending a Deltopia party was hospitalized after falling off a balcony.
Hoover says deputies broke up about a dozen parties where they found underage drinking and people throwing things from balconies.
Police in Missouri said Sunday that they had arrested a man suspected of abducting a 12-year-old girl he met online.
William Dela Cruz, 22, was arrested in Wentzville, Mo. after authorities issued the alert for Apple Briscoe, of Blue Springs.
Briscoe's aunt told Fox 4 Kansas City that her niece was found unharmed in a diner in St. Louis.
"They have one guy in custody and the other one ran," she told the station.
Investigators are still looking for William Dela Cruz's 24-year-old brother Jason and the silver 2015 Nissan Versa with Maryland license plate number 6CK5071 Briscoe was seen getting into Saturday night.
Police said they believed Briscoe was in danger when they issued the alert.
Click for more from Fox4KC.com.
Members of the Jewish community at Tufts University say they were deeply disturbed when a sudden boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) resolution was voted upon in the student senate just days before Passover.
Even though the vote never took place, the attempt at getting a vote by an anti-Israel group left Jewish student leaders at the Medford, Mass., school feeling blindsided.
Yesterday, without any forewarning, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) put forward this resolution, to be voted on by the [Tufts Community Union (TCU)] student senate this Sunday night, the campus Hillels executive director, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, said to the Algemeiner Journal.
The Hillel Jewish community is deeply disturbed by this vote, and by the way the resolution was brought so close to Pesach [Passover], at a time when many of our students are home with their families, readying themselves for the holiday, said Summit, who also serves as a research professor in the department of music and the Judaic studies program.
Since the resolution was presented, the schools Hillel chapter has been in close contact with a coalition of Israel-related student groups, including Tufts Students for Two States and the Tufts American Israel Alliance.
The phenomenal student leaders have been working very hard to oppose this from the moment we found out, Summit said. BDS is not a productive way to promote any sort of useful dialogue.
One student affiliated with Tufts Students for Two States told the Algemeiner that the pro-Israel community at Tufts quickly banded together and mobilized to postpone the vote.
We are trying to explain to [student] senators that days before Passover is not an appropriate time for such a vote, because we need to have a much longer conversation on this topic, Keren Hendel said to the news site. [T]he senate is not the best place for that discussion, as its job is to decide on issues central to student life on campus, and this is a larger international issue. We dont know if this vote will pass, or what would happen if it does.
And our goal is to make sure we dont find out.
But the vote was passed during a contentious four-hour meeting of the Tufts Community Union Senate according to Tufts Daily. The hearing drew nearly 100 students, some of whom expressed their dismay over the resolution during a question-and-answer period.
A vote was then held at the end of the marathon hearing session with 17 in favor, six opposed and eight abstentions.
A Florida university founded by Augustinian priests expelled from communist Cuba under Fidel Castro is under fire for shutting down a pro-capitalism club for its use of what school officials call foul language.
Administrators at St. Thomas University said in a letter to the field director of Turning Point USA, Driena Sixto, that the clubs use of foul language does not align with the schools Roman Catholic values and that they are prohibited from promoting their cause on campus.
In reviewing your organization, including its website, we found that your organizations use of foul language is offensive to the very principle of what we stand for in our Catholic core values as an institution, Carmen Brown, the St. Thomas administrator, wrote in a March 16 letter obtained by College Fix. Therefore, we regret to inform you that we are not approving your organizations presence on our campus.
Turning Point USA is a conservative nonprofit and student movement whose stated mission is to "identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government."
While administrators at St. Thomas did respond to Sixtos request for clarification, she said that she believes that school officials probably took offense to the clubs slogans and signs reading Big Government Sucks and Socialism Sucks.
Sixto, who is not a student at St. Thomas but works with Turning Point USA to start club chapters at Miami-area universities, sent a pointed message to students at the school who signed up for the organization.
In an ironic turn of events, the school that was founded in 1961 by Augustinians that were expelled from Cuba by the communist Castro dictatorship is now a school where conservative values and freedom of expression are undesired, thanks to complaints of left-wing, and self-declared communist/socialist faculty members, Sixto wrote.
The administrations move to shut down the group has even drawn the ire of the top brass at Turning Point USA, who called the incident troubling.
The school invokes a broad opposition to foul language to keep a free-market, conservative group off of campus, Matt Lamb, director of campus integrity for Turning Point USA, said. The higher-ups in the school administration frequently dodged requests to speak with us, and then failed to keep their facts straight.
St. Thomas is not the first college to target Turning Point USA as over the last two years nearly six universities across the country have refused club status to the organization although a number a number of these clubs have overcome these obstacles with the help of free-speech organizations.
In January, Creighton University finally gave the green light to a student seeking to form the club, but only after rejecting the request twice. An administrator at Californias Santa Clara University overruled in March student government leaders February decision to deny the club official recognition.
Turning Point USAs Lamb says he is hopeful that a similar resolution will happen at St. Thomas.
We look forward to the university reconsidering their decision, Lamb said.
A Utah doctor serving a term of up to life in prison for drugging and drowning his wife so he could carry on an affair with another woman was found dead in the Utah State Prison Sunday.
According to a press release from the Utah Department of Corrections, 60-year-old Martin Joseph MacNeill was found unresponsive in the outdoor yard of the Olympus Facility of the Utah State Prison Sunday morning.
While an investigation will determine the exact cause of death, the press release states there are no "obvious signs of foul play."
Officers found MacNeill near the greenhouse in the Olympus yard and began CPR, but responders were not able to revive him and he was ultimately declared dead at the facility.
The Unified Police Department is handling the investigation into MacNeill's death, and the Utah Department of Corrections' Law Enforcement Bureau will assist.
MacNeill has been incarcerated at the Utah State Prison since September of 2014, the press release states, after being convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree obstruction of justice, and second-degree forcible sex abuse.
Read more from FOX 13 Salt Lake City.
Fire crews kept a close eye from the sky on what was smoldering on the ground in Oviedo, not far from Kenny Hobbs' Live Oak home.
Being able to come home to a house thats pretty much not damaged is were very thankful," Hobbs said.
Thankful because this is the first time he and his family are getting back home after about 44 homes were evacuated Saturday night.
It hit so quick," Hobbs said. "The flames were so high, so fast. It was unimaginable.
He said a wall of fire was headed toward his house.
"It was as taller than the roof of the house," Hobbs said.
Those flames danced so close to his home, the back screens melted and areas of their backyard burned.
Fortunately, he and his neighbors' homes are basically OK. Hobbs calls it a miracle.
"Absolutely," he said. "God was absolutely watching after us."
He also thanked the quick actions of first responders.
"So grateful for em," he said.
Thats the reason why Bibbie Chapman gave away free large cups of coffee to firefighters Sunday morning.
"Gosh, theyve been out here all night. Its the polite thing to do," She said.
Oviedos fire chief, Lars White, told Fox 35 that theyve got about 20 fire trucks out monitoring the fire Sunday, working the more than 160-acre fire.
He said they saved 50-100 homes from catching fire Saturday night.
Theyre now on day two, saying its well contained, but theres a challenge today.
"The winds would be the challenge. The humidity level is still low and were still in a red flag warning," White said. "Its still extremely dry out. Were under drought conditions."
Sean Williams, who was evacuated Saturday night, said, Were a little concerned that were not necessarily out of trouble yet.
Floridas forest service put a burn ban on the Orlando District Sunday, saying the fire danger is too high.
Seminole County also instituted a burn ban across the County Sunday.
Chief White said crews will be out all evening, until the fire is 100 percent contained.
At the nearby girl's summer camp that was heavily damaged by the fire, clean up got started Sunday.
Sharon Gregory, with the Seminole County Fire Department, told FOX 35 people were being let in Sunday to get belongings they couldn't claim during Saturday night's evacuations.
Gregory said 8-11 cabins and temporary pop-up tents were destroyed, along with A pontune boat and some docks at camp Mah-Kah-Wee.
Chief White said no one was hurt during the fire.
A 20-year-old man has been charged in the killing of his mother, father and sister in their suburban Des Moines home.
Iowa court records say Chase Nicholson faces three counts of first-degree murder and is being held on $3 million bail in the Polk County Jail. The records don't list the name of an attorney who can comment for him.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office says Nicholson surrendered to police in Neosho, Missouri, Friday morning. A written statement from the Neosho Police Department says Nicholson told an officer that he had killed three people the night before.
Iowa records say Nicholson used a shotgun that was recovered at the family home in Bondurant. The three people killed were identified as 58-year-old Mark Nicholson; 56-year-old Charla Nicholson and 24-year-old Tawni Nicholson.
The husband of a missing Massachusetts woman was found dead on Friday in an apparent suicide, police said, deeping the mystery into her disappearance.
JOSEPH JAKUBOWSKI MANHUNT: SCHOOLS ON ALERT AS POLICE STEP UP SEARCH
The body of Charles Reidy, 42, turned up in the garage of his Clarksburg home, according to the Berkshire District Attorney's office. Police were at Reidy's home because a family member had asked them to conduct a well-being check.
Authorities said they believe Reidy killed himself based on "circumstances discovered at the scene," but did not elaborate.
TEXAS DEPUTY'S KILLER COMMITTED SUICIDE THE NEXT DAY, POLICE REVEAL
Reidy's wife, Joanne Ringer, was last seen leaving the couple's home on March 2.
Ringer, 39, was supposed to start a new job as a taxi driver in Easthampton the night she went missing, authorities said. She never showed up to work and her car was found abandoned in Easthampton on March 6.
Reidy told The Berkshire Eagle last month that he believed he was the last person to see her before she went missing. He said his wife got a phone call that morning and left their home to go visit someone, according to The Berkshire Eagle. Reidy became worried when he came back around 1 p.m. and Ringer wasn't there, he said.
Ringer could only use her cellphone when it was connected to WiFi because her phone provider had shut off her service due to an unpaid bill, Reidy told The Berkshire Eagle.
Ringer is about 5 feet 7 inches tall and 130 pounds with piercings on her face and tattoos covering parts of her body, including her right arm, the Berkshire DA's office said.
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Two adults were killed and two students wounded Monday in an apparent murder-suicide inside a San Bernardino elementary school that spread panic across a city still recovering emotionally from a terrorist attack at a community center just 15 months ago.
Authorities said one of those killed was a teacher and the other was the suspected shooter who opened fired in a classroom at North Park School. A school official said the attack was believed to stem from a "domestic dispute" and that the teacher knew the gunman.
The two wounded students were flown to a hospital where they were listed in critical condition, school district spokeswoman Maria Garcia told television station KNBC.
"The children we do not believe were targeted. The suspect had come to the classroom to visit," police Capt. Ron Maass told a news conference.
The 600 other students at the school were bused to safety at California State University's San Bernardino campus, several miles away. Television news footage showed students, escorted by police officers, walking off campus hand-in-hand.
As word of the shooting spread, panicked parents raced to the school. They were told to go to a nearby high school where they would be reunited with their children.
As the buses pulled away, some parents raced frantically alongside, waving and trying to recognize their children inside. Many said their children were too young to have cellphones. Others said the phones rang unanswered.
"I just wish I could talk to them to make sure they're OK because they don't know what this is all about," one parent said as she passed reporters.
Marina Ramos told KABC that she rushed to the school to try to pick up her grandson. She said she spoke to him, and he was safe.
"He was crying. He's scared," she said. "It was a typical morning and then chaos broke out."
A few minutes after buses began leaving the elementary school, they began arriving at the university, where students were seen bounding out of their doors.
San Bernardino, a city of 216,000 people about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, was the site of a December 2015 terror attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a meeting of San Bernardino County employees. Husband-and-wife shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were later killed in a gunbattle with authorities.
Monday's shooting was the latest tragedy for a city that has struggled in recent years with more than its share of them. Once a major rail hub and citrus producer, San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after struggling to pay its employees despite steep cuts to the budget.
An outlying suburb of Los Angeles, it was hit hard when the Great Recession sent housing prices tumbling. As the city struggled with economic problems that forced layoffs of police and other government workers, violent crimes, particularly homicide, began to rise.
In the past year, however, the city seemed to be making a recovery. Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, who won national praise for the way his department responded to the 2015 shootings, announced last year he was hiring additional officers.
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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Brian Melley and John Rogers contributed to this story.
The man who shot and killed a deputy constable outside Houston one week ago, sparking a manhunt, actually killed himself the next day with the same weapon, police revealed Monday.
CHICAGO JUDGE SHOT, KILLED OUTSIDE HIS HOME
The deputy, 57-year-old Clint Greenwood, was killed on April 3 as he arrived to work in Baytown, after the gunman stepped out from behind a trash bin and opened fire, police said. Greenwood had worked in Harris County for 30 years, Fox 26 reported.
Officers on Monday identified the shooter as 64-year-old William Kenny of Houston. Police would not talk about a possible motive, but sources told the Houston Chronicle he complained to the sheriff's department and may have harbored a grudge about how the department handled it.
WISCONSIN POLICE OFFICER TO ADOPT DOG FOUND TIED TO A TREE
Investigators identified Kenny late Sunday as the gunman and found his body early Monday at a residence in downtown Houston, Baytown police Lt. Steve Dorris said at a news conference.
Montgomery County sheriff's Lt. Tim Cannon said Thursday during a funeral service in Houston that Clint Greenwood was a consummate professional, meticulous with details and the first to lend colleagues a hand.
Late last week, police released a surveillance video showing a possible suspect near the scene and the man's car -- a black 2013-2017 Nissan Versa Note.
The video showed the otherwise empty sub-courthouse parking lot Sunday afternoon, the day before Greenwood was shot dead, said Lt. Steve Dorris, the Baytown police spokesman. The car passed in front of the surveillance camera and parked, before a man steps out and walks out of view. Moments later, the man returned to the car and drove away.
"The natural thought is that he was doing some pre-operational planning," Dorris said.
Click for more from Fox 26.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police say a toddler girl has been hospitalized after consuming methamphetamine in her Pennsylvania home, and her parents are facing child endangerment charges.
Police say the 22-month-old girl got into a bag of the drug and consumed some Sunday morning at her home in Wayne Township in Schuylkill (SKOOL'-kil) County.
She was flown to a hospital. Her condition hasn't been released.
Troopers say a 26-year-old man and his 24-year-old girlfriend are responsible for endangering the girl. Online court records Monday show charges haven't yet been filed.
Methamphetamine is highly addictive. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a methamphetamine overdose can lead to a stroke, heart attack or organ problems that can result in death.
The latest activity from Russian warships around Europe has exceeded levels seen during the Cold War, a top U.S. and NATO naval officer said Saturday.
Navy Admiral Michelle Howard, who leads NATOs Allied Joint Force Command in Italy and commands U.S. naval forces in Europe and Africa, told Reuters that Russias activities have increased, though the size of its navy is smaller than it was during the height of the Cold War.
RUSSIAN COMPOUND IN NICARAGUA REPORTEDLY INTRIGUES UNITED STATES OFFICIALS
"We're seeing activity that we didn't even see when it was the Soviet Union. It's precedential activity," Howard said.
Howard said that Moscows deployment of the Admiral Kuzentsov aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean Sea and increased movements in the north Atlantic, the Arctic and submarine moves in the Black Sea were cause for concern.
"Theyre a global navy, I understand that. But the activity in this theater has substantially moved up in the last couple of years," she said.
Howard also linked the naval activities to the increased Russian cyberattacks and fly-bys from Russian aircraft near U.S. warships.
Howards comments come on the heels the U.S. launching 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack last week that killed dozens of people.
Click for more from Reuters.
The commanders of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Ross and Porter received personal calls from the president Sunday, days after the two ships fired a barrage of 59 Tomahawk missiles into western Syria from their position in the Mediterranean.
According to a Navy announcement, President Donald Trump thanked Cmdrs. Russell Caldwell and Andria Slough, commanding officers of the Ross and Porter respectively, during two separate telephone calls.
Released White House imagery reveals the calls were made aboard Air Force One, during Trump's trip from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to the White House. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster sat beside him as he made the call.
A transcript of the call has not been released, but Trump's tone since the missile strike has been celebratory.
"Congratulations to our great military men and women for representing the United States and the world, so well in the Syria attack," he Tweeted from his personal account April 8, the day after the late-night assault.
According to the Navy release, Trump thanked Caldwell, Slough and their crews for their "professionalism and quick response to the tasking."
The strike on Syria's Shayrat airfield came in the wake of an April 4 chemical weapons attack by the Syrian regime on a rebel-held area in the country that left dozens dead, including women and children. Defense Department officials said all 59 missiles hit their target and called the strike a deterrent designed to prevent future chemical attacks.
"The success of this mission hinged upon our sailors' excellent training, technical knowledge and dedication to their work," Caldwell, the commander of the Ross, said in a statement. "It was a distinct honor to hear firsthand from our commander in chief that these operations had a direct impact in support of his national objectives."
Caldwell assumed command of the Ross in November 2015 and is set to turn over command of the ship on Tuesday during a port visit to Larnaca, Cyprus.
Slough, who took command of the Porter in late January, said Trump praised her crew's performance in the call.
"In general, the president was impressed with Porter's precision and lethality," she said in a statement. "It was obvious he was extremely pleased with our performance and is glad we're out here patrolling in U.S. 6th Fleet."
The Ross and Porter are both homeported in Rota, Spain, and are expected to maintain their presence in in the Mediterranean following the strikes, officials have said.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck.
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Jason Simcakoski, a 35-year-old Marine, husband and father, died at the Tomah VA Medical Center in Wisconsin in 2014 from a toxic combination of prescription drugs. His overdose sparked national outrage, with some veterans calling VA hospitals candy factories. His death eventually led to the passage of the Jason Simcakoski Memorial Opioid Safety Act, which created stronger procedures for the prescription guidelines used by VA providers.
Three years later, Simcakoskis tragic death hardly stands alone when it comes to veterans overdosing from opioids. In fact, veterans die from accidental drug overdoses at a 33 percent higher rate than the rest of the population, according to the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
With that in mind, McCain, a Navy veteran, is now pushing the Veteran Overmedication Prevention Act. The legislation, if passed, will require a study of the number of veterans who died by suicide or by accident over the last five years. It will then look to see if those veterans had drugs in their systems and, if so, how many prescriptions they were using at the time of their deaths.
The overmedication of veterans is still a real problem for the VA, says Carl Higbie, a former Navy Seal who served two tours in Iraq.
The pharmaceutical industry has a stranglehold on the VA, says Higbie, who is 60 percent disabled and experienced blind prescribing by the VA. As a result of his injuries and an addictive gene, Higbie has become a big proponent of genetic tests that can tell veterans which medications they are sensitive to.
For this test to become mainstream it would A.) save lives and B.) save the VA probably billions in dollars in overmedication costs, and yet theyre not doing it and its like leaving your brothers out to dry, Higbie says.
The overwhelming consensus of the pharmacogenomic community is that most of these tests currently lack evidence of clinical effectiveness. That means they have not shown to have better outcomes over the usual methods of drug prescription, with some exceptions. Many commercial tests target psychiatric disease therapy and pain management. One recent VA review documented that these tests do not yet have evidence for utility, especially in the veteran population, a VA spokesperson responded.
In late March, President Trump announced the creation of a commission to combat opioid abuse across the country.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medication, opioids are defined as a class of drugs that include the illicit drug heroin as well as the licit prescription pain relievers oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and others.
An aspiring rapper jumped into the ocean to avoid paying for his massive seafood dinner at a restaurant in Australia, court documents said.
Terry Peck, who goes by 2pec, was dining at Main Beach's Omeros Bros Restaurant in Queensland on Sunday when he racked up a $450 bill, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation News. Peck's meal allegedly included two lobsters, 17 oyster shooters, a baby octopus and several beers.
SOUTH DAKOTA MAN FINED FOR NOT HAVING PET SNAKE ON A LEASH IN PUBLIC
When he found out how much the bill was, he allegedly sprinted from the restaurant to the beach and then swam into the ocean. Two police officers jumped on a jet ski to get him back to shore, according to the report.
Peck, 33, was arrested and charged with theft and assault on a police officer. He appeared in court on Monday and claimed he left the restaurant before paying to help a friend who was about to give birth on the beach.
Peck also called the food "overpriced" and complained that the lobsters were "overcooked" in court, Australian Broadcasting Corporation News reported.
The seafood restaurant defended the restaurant's food.
"We cook our lobsters perfectly here we pride ourselves on cooking our lobsters perfectly," restaurant spokesman Mark Hunnybun said.
Peck is scheduled to appear back in court on May 4.
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Images of Syrian children killed in last week's chemical attack have revived debate in Europe about what can be done to end the bloodshed on its doorstep, potentially setting the tone for foreign policy debates in two of the continent's major upcoming elections.
Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, said Sunday that finding a solution to the war in Syria must become the international community's top priority.
"The bombardment by the United States in reaction to the poison gas attack threatens to spark a military confrontation between the U.S. and Russian super powers," Schulz warned in an op-ed for German daily Die Welt.
He called for Europe to take "an active role" in resolving the conflict. "Otherwise we will face further murder and misery in Syria in the coming years."
Schulz, who is hoping to unseat long-time German leader Angela Merkel in September's general election, dismissed the idea of armed intervention in Syria, however.
"We need a diplomatic solution to the conflict, not bombs or a further escalation," he said.
That view echoing Germany's post-World War II pacifism was reflected in a poll published Sunday by weekly Bild am Sonntag.
The representative survey of 500 people conducted April 7 by the Emnid polling firm found only 26 percent of Germans supported the U.S. missile strike against the Syrian government air base from where the chemical attack is believed to have been launched. Some 59 percent of respondents opposed the U.S. strike, while 15 percent were undecided. The margin of error was 3 percent.
Even before the chemical attack, questions over Germany's military role in the world were driving a wedge between Merkel's center-right Union bloc and the Social Democrats, who have governed the country together since 2013; While Social Democrats have rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's demand that Germany increase its military spending, Merkel has indicated that she is prepared to do so.
Meanwhile, the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which was surging in the polls last year, faces a credibility problem. Having slammed Merkel's government for taking in more than a million refugees 600,000 of them Syrians in recent years, the party has failed to propose a solution to the Syria conflict.
With Moscow seen as propping up the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Alternative for Germany's perceived proximity to Russian President Vladimir Putin is under fresh scrutiny. And though it celebrated Trump's victory in last year's U.S. election, the party's praise for him has dried up since the U.S. missile strike.
The nationalist dilemma is even more acute for Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, who unlike her German counterparts stands a realistic chance of gaining power in upcoming presidential election.
Le Pen, who has expressed approval of both Putin and Trump in the past, chose to distance herself from the U.S. president Friday, telling France-2 television that she was "surprised" by the American missile strikes.
The National Front leader, who advocates Trump-style anti-immigrant and protectionist policies, said she had been under the impression Trump would not make the U.S. "the world's policeman, and that's exactly what he did yesterday."
France's former Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, who is running as an independent centrist, has come out strongly against the idea of restoring a dialogue with Assad, a view that could cement his lead over Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential vote on April 23.
Macron called for a "coordinated action at the international level in retaliation against Bashar Assad's regime," though he insisted that such action should take place under a U.N. mandate.
Hawkish voices in Germany also appeared inclined to side with Trump on Syria. Despite persistent wariness over the U.S. president's foreign policy, there was grudging acknowledgement that he had acted swiftly where his predecessor, Barack Obama, had dithered four years earlier.
"In view of the course taken by the U.S. president so far it's difficult to find good things to say about Donald Trump. Still, by ordering the bombing of the (Syrian) military base from where the terrible gassing of innocent civilians was launched, he did the right thing," said former German defense minister Karl-Theodor Guttenberg, an ally of Merkel's.
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Corbet contributed from Paris.
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The arrest of an ex-governor of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas caps a five-year, seemingly desultory search for the ruling-party politician accused of organized crime and money laundering.
It may have been one of the least serious searches in history. Analysts say the government was loath to arrest one of its own, a man who both reflected badly on the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and who may have held sensitive information on other corrupt officials.
U.S. prosecutors have publicly alleged since 2012 that Tomas Yarrington accepted millions of dollars in drug cartel bribes and invested it in Texas real estate. But Mexico didn't offer a reward for his capture until last November.
The current Tamaulipas governor, Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, said that up until last year, Yarrington who left office in 2005, and faced charges since 2012 still had a government-provided bodyguard assigned to him. The farcical nature of a policeman assigned to guard him while he was on the lam ended only because Garcia Cabeza de Vaca won the 2016 elections and belongs to the opposition National Action Party, or PAN, the party said in a statement Monday.
Yarrington's long-cold trail finally led to Italy, where he was detained, according to an announcement Sunday.
In a statement, the PRI praised the arrest, but acknowledged it had taken the party four years to expel him after the allegations first surfaced.
Yarrington is the first of a triumvirate of PRI fugitive governors accused of corruption to be arrested.
The other two are Cesar Duarte and Javier Duarte no relation the ex-governors of Chihuahua and Veracruz states, respectively. Both supposedly have international detention notices, but despite being very well-known and recognizable figures, no trace of them has been seen since they left office last year.
But few well-known politicians have been on the lam as long as Yarrington, who allegedly took bribes from the Gulf and Zetas cartels to allow them to operate in his state. In the ensuing years, the gangs essentially took over Tamaulipas, killing thousands of people, instituting a reign of terror of widespread kidnapping and extortion. The state was left littered with mass graves and burned-out homes.
Raul Benitez, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said Yarrington appears to have assumed a false identity and gone to live in Florence, Italy to avoid capture. The key to catching him, Benitez said, came when authorities traced phone calls he made to his family in Mexico.
But Benitez also thinks politics came into play, and perhaps Yarrington's disastrous dealings with drug gangs.
"The government had protected a lot of PRI governors, and now has to go after some of the corrupt ones," Benitez said. "The mixture of corruption and drug trafficking is explosive, and it was very hard for the government to stand by."
The chief prosecutor of another PRI-governed state, Nayarit was arrested in the United States on drug charges last month.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that the other two fugitive governors will be caught soon. Both are accused of embezzlement and other crimes.
Edgardo Buscaglia, an international organized crime expert and consultant, noted that governors of Mexico's 31 states have traditionally enjoyed a sort of de-facto immunity because they are major sources of illegal financing for their party's campaigns.
They traditionally take money from state coffers, bribes from legitimate businesses and cash from drug gangs, and use it to ensure the election of a successor who won't investigate them. With few checks and balances in place, the governors face little accountability.
"The governors are the main architects of this mafia-style financing for electoral campaigns" said Buscaglia. "When they become public embarrassments, like Duarte and Yarrington, the prosecutors will act under international pressure, but they have a lot of information that could bring down half of the ruling class."
He suggested that their long periods on the lam allow the ex-governors to negotiate exactly how much prison time they will face and how much of their illegal fortunes will be seized.
"They are negotiating their apprehension, their fortunes. That is why, miraculously, the ex-governors can't be found."
A study by Mexicos top university has revealed that at least 800 species of wildlife will be adversely affected by President Trumps planned 2,000-mile border wall with Mexico.
Research published by ecologists from the Mexican National Autonomous University has shown that an impassable physical barrier placed into ecosystems inhabited by jaguars, black bears and bighorn sheep will so disrupt patterns of migration as to cause a natural catastrophe.
The U.S.-Mexico border is made up of mountains, jungle, coastline and many other diverse ecosystems, Professor Gerardo Ceballos, who led the investigation published last week, told Fox News. Wildlife has populated these regions for millions of years, and has always had freedom of movement to hunt, reproduce and migrate. To make these animals suffer as a result of mans political agenda is entirely immoral.
Of the 800 species that will be affected by President Trumps border wall, 140 are in danger of extinction, including the bald eagle, grey wolf, armadillo and jaguar, a big cat of which remain only 10 in the highlands of the Sonora Desert that straddle Arizona. Those animals whose range will be halved by the border walls construction will be impeded in their ability to reproduce with other members of their species, thereby creating a shallower gene pool and heightening the chance of inbreeding.
It would be a very great shame to see this shared interest fall by the wayside because of the current political agenda in Washington. Prof. Gerardo Ceballos
It goes against the very principles of evolution that has created these amazing natural environments, said Professor Ceballos, who has spent the last six months traveling the length of the border, from Tijuana to Texas.
If the wall is being built to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico into the U.S., then there are more effective and less harmful ways of achieving this goal, he said.
Aerial surveillance in areas known for their high density of illegal crossings can be simply achieved by placing thermal cameras on the top of high poles, and working to shorten Border Patrol response times, he told Fox News. You can also increase Border Patrol presence in areas where at the moment little exists, and all for a far lower price tag than a border wall, and with no damage to the local ecosystem.
The U.S. Border Patrol gave Donald Trump its first ever formal endorsement to a presidential candidate during 2016s election campaign, and while agents from California to the Gulf of Mexico wait for construction to start on the barrier, many local authorities feel the reported $1.5 billion cost that President Trump will ask for in his upcoming federal spending bill could be better spent elsewhere.
TRUMP BUDGET CALLS FOR BILLIONS FOR BORDER WALL WITH MEXICO
When we catch illegal immigrants, they go to detention centers where their pleas for asylum mean 90 percent remain in the U.S. anyway, one Border Patrol agent in southeast Texas, where 18,000 illegal immigrants (many of them children) were captured in a five-month period in 2015, told Fox News on condition of anonymity.
They are always finding new ways to cross, and a five-meter wall isnt going to pose much of a barrier to someone fleeing the gangsters in Guatemala.
Leonora Esquivel is the founder of AnimaNaturalis, Mexicos leading animal rights organization, which recently succeeded in banning the use of animals for performance in circuses throughout the country. She says her organization will fight the process of construction at the border wall should U.S. Congress approve it in the federal spending bill this month.
Animals have no concept of political boundaries created by humans, and to impose a physical barrier that impedes their movement is entirely wrong, she told Fox News.
The border region is a massive area of natural beauty and diversity, she said, to destroy its ecosystems with a wall when other alternatives are available is unfair to the innocent wildlife which has been there far longer than us.
While Mexico makes up just 1 percent of the Earths total land surface, it is home to 10 percent of all land species known to science, many of which are shared across North America. In the past, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has worked closely with Mexicos CONABIO (Commission for Biodiversity) over conservation projects of shared fauna. Most recently, the Wildlife Without Borders program has sought to promote bi-national reintroduction and recovery of California condors, prairie dogs and other species shared by the neighboring nations.
International cooperation with the U.S. has always been very strong in terms of wildlife conservation, as we both occupy a very beautiful region of diverse ecosystems right in the middle of our shared continent, said Professor Ceballos.
It would be a very great shame to see this shared interest fall by the wayside because of the current political agenda in Washington.
Italian authorities on Sunday captured a fugitive Mexican former governor charged with drug smuggling, bank fraud, racketeering and money laundering, are expected to extradite him to Mexico over the next few days.
Tomas Yarrington, ex-governor of Tamaulipas state, on Mexico's northeastern border with Texas, was accused in 2013 by a federal grand jury in Texas of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the Gulf Cartel and other traffickers.
JOURNALISTS IN MEXICO KILLED IN RECORD NUMBERS ALONG WITH FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Mexico's attorney general's office said on Sunday the arrest of Yarrington was made possible by an Interpol red notice, the closest to an international arrest warrant "for the crimes of organized crime and money laundering, among others."
Beginning in 1998, U.S. authorities have said, Yarrington began taking bribes from the Gulf Cartel and other traffickers, when he was mayor of Matamoros on the U.S. border.
DRUG CARTELS REUSING MEXICAN TUNNELS LEFT UNFILLED
Yarrington, who was governor of Tamaulipas between 1999 and 2005, is one of several former politicians in President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) accused of corruption. He was suspended from the PRI in 2012.
In a statement, the PRI said it backed the work of the attorney general's office and asked for all the necessary investigations to be carried out.
In March, a Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for former Chihuahua state governor Cesar Duarte, also a member of Pena Nieto's ruling party, on suspicion of embezzlement.
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The Indian army says four suspected rebels have been killed in disputed Kashmir as businesses and schools shut in the region in response to a separatists' call to protest the killing of eight civilians by government forces during a weekend by-election.
Army spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia says a gunbattle erupted Sunday night after the four militants crossed from Pakistani territory into the Indian-held portion of Kashmir in Keran sector. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
Meanwhile, a strike called by separatists paralyzed life in the Kashmir Valley on Monday.
Government forces opened fire on Sunday on crowds of people who attacked polling stations during a by-election for a vacant seat in India's Parliament, killing eight people.
Most people in Indian-controlled Kashmir favor independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Israel has imposed a closure on the Palestinian territories as a security measure for the weeklong Passover holiday.
The military said Palestinians will be barred from entering Israel from the West Bank or Gaza until the end of the weeklong holiday that starts Monday evening. It said exceptions will be made for humanitarian cases.
The closure does not apply to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Israel routinely imposes closures during Jewish holidays. Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007.
Several thousand police officers from across Britain lined the streets of London Monday for the funeral procession of a fellow officer killed in an extremist attack last month.
Constable Keith Palmer was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood on March 22 in the cobbled forecourt of the Palace of Westminster, Parliament's home.
Two minutes of silence were observed by police throughout the country and by many others to pay respects to the 48-year-old husband and father killed in the line of duty.
Police Chief Inspector Neil Sawyer said in his eulogy that the entire force is proud of Palmer.
"As police officers we go to work every day knowing that we may be called upon to put our own lives in danger," he said. "And many do. And on Wednesday 22nd March 2017 Police Constable Keith Palmer did just that to protect life and to protect Parliament and he did not waver he stood firm and made that ultimate sacrifice in doing his duty. A hero to us all."
Palmer's coffin lay overnight in a chapel at Parliament after special permission was granted by Queen Elizabeth II.
During the funeral procession, it was covered with a floral tribute that read: "Number 1 Daddy."
Some 50 members his family, including his wife, child and parents, attended the service at Southwark Cathedral.
Masood killed four other victims as he rammed pedestrians on Westminster Bridge with a rented SUV. He was shot dead by police after stabbing Palmer.
U.S. Senator John McCain has accused Russia of having cooperated with Syria in a chemical weapons attack that has killed more than 80 people, including more than a dozen children.
The Republican senator said Monday at a press conference in Belgrade that he believes "the Russians knew about chemical weapons because they were operating exactly from the same base."
He says "I hope that this behavior by Syria, in what clearly is cooperation with Russia and Syria together, will never happen again."
McCain says the U.S. should take out Syria's air force as part of stopping Syrian President Bashar Assad from repeating such attacks in the future.
He says "the United States should first tell Russia that this kind of a war crime is unacceptable in the world today."
In a show of solidarity after the Palm Sunday attacks in Egypt, Muslim men and women rushed to mosques in Tanta to donate blood for those injured in the blasts.
Hospitals in the area were running out of blood just hours after the attack in Tanta that left 27 dead and 78 others wounded after a bomb went off at St. George Church, according to Al Arabiya Net. The shortage led city officials to broadcast over loud speakers throughout the city and call on the public to head to mosques to donate blood to help the injured.
Mohammed Ahmad Hassan, a resident of Tanta, just north of Cairo, told the news agency that a large number of those responding to the call for blood donations were Muslim. He also said that hundreds of bags of donated blood were delivered to area blood banks, as well as to the hospital where the injured were being treated.
Picture emerges of Muslims in a mosque donating their blood to the victims of Tanta's Coptic church attack in Egypt pic.twitter.com/C7lDpPlqO2 Teymour (@Teymour_Ashkan) April 9, 2017
A three-month state of emergency was declared by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday after at least 44 people were killed and more than 100 more were injured in twin attacks in Tanta and Alexandria the two Palm Sunday suicide attacks at . ISIS claimed responsibility for both.
Sunday's first blast happened at St. George Church in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, where at least 27 people were killed and 78 others wounded, officials said.
A second explosion which Egypts Interior Ministry says was caused by a suicide bomber who tried to storm St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria -- left at least 17 dead, and 48 injured. The attack came just after Pope Tawadros II -- leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria -- finished services, but aides told local media that he was unharmed.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks via its Aamaq media agency, following the group's recent video vowing to step up attacks against Christians, who the group describes as "infidels" empowering the West against Muslims.
El-Sisi also accused unnamed countries of fueling instability in the country, adding "Egyptians have foiled plots and efforts by countries and fascist, terrorist organizations that tried to control Egypt."
He also ordered the immediate deployment of troops to assist police in protecting vital facilities across the country.
The blasts came at the start of Holy Week leading up to Easter, and just weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit Egypt.
Niger's Ministry of Defense says security forces killed at least 57 Boko Haram Islamic extremists who had attacked a village in the eastern Diffa region overnight.
The ministry said Monday that 15 soldiers and two civilians were wounded in fighting with the extremists in Gueskerou, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Diffa. It said Niger security forces also seized a significant amount of arms and ammunition left behind by the militants.
Spokesman Col. Toure Abdoul Aziz said the Ministry of Defense, in the name of the president, congratulated security forces for gains against Nigerian-based Boko Haram extremists, whose seven-year insurgency has killed at least 20,000 people.
Niger contributes to the multi-national force set up to fight Boko Haram in the region.
Officials on Monday identified the American special forces soldier who was killed over the weekend in a combat operation against Islamic State extremists in Afghanistan.
Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Maryland, was killed Saturday in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan after his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations, according to the Department of Defense.
RIP SSG Mark R. De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Maryland, died April 8 in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan in combat 7SFG. @TB_Times pic.twitter.com/3isEYUpk7Y Howard Altman (@haltman) April 10, 2017
De Alencar was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group located at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, according to the DoD.
US SPECIAL FORCES SOLDIER KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN OPERATION AGAINST ISIS
The ISIS terror group has a growing presence in eastern Afghanistan, where it has battled both Afghan forces and the much larger and more powerful Taliban.
Insurgents killed at least 13 Afghan security forces in separate attacks, officials said Sunday.
Munir Ahmad Farhad, spokesman for the governor of the northern Balkh province, said a roadside bomb killed nine security forces and wounded several others the night before in the Chimtal district, where they were waging an ongoing operation against the Taliban. He said five insurgents have been killed and dozens wounded.
Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Philippines appeals court on Monday affirmed a regional trial court's conviction of a U.S. Marine and his sentence of up to 10 years in jail for killing a transgender Filipino, whose heirs he was also ordered to compensate.
The Court of Appeals decision seen Monday did not accept Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton's claim of self-defense in killing Jennifer Laude inside a motel room in northwestern Olongapo city after they met in a disco bar in October 2014.
The killing sparked anger in the Philippines and reignited calls by left-wing groups and nationalists for an end to U.S. military presence in the country.
Pemberton had claimed Laude molested him in the motel room by pretending to be a woman and he had to defend his dignity, but that he had no intention to kill her. He said Laude slapped him when he confronted her for pretending to be a woman.
But the decision penned by Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison said physical evidence contradicts Pemberton's claim.
"As proven by the prosecution, Pemberton did not leave Laude merely unconscious, but ensured his death by submerging his head inside the toilet bowl," it said. "Clearly, Pemberton intended the natural consequence of his wrongful act."
The court also upheld, with slight modification, the order for Pemberton to pay Laude's heirs more than $90,000 for loss of Laude's income, civil indemnity, moral damages and actual damages.
Rep. Harry Roque, who served as the Laude family's private lawyer, welcomed the court's decision, saying that "the fact that a member of the U.S. Marines was found guilty for breach of our criminal laws for the very first time is an affirmation of Philippine sovereignty."
Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was one of thousands of American and Philippine military personnel who participated in joint exercises in the country in 2014. He and a group of other Marines were on leave after the exercises and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former U.S. Navy base. At least two witnesses testified that Laude was a sex worker.
Pemberton has been detained at a compound guarded by Philippine and American security personnel, at the main military camp in metropolitan Manila.
A new Russian compound in Nicaragua has reportedly intrigued U.S. officials who are skeptical of its intended use.
The outpost is located on the rim of a volcano and has a clear view of the U.S. Embassy in Managua, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Antennas and so-called globe-shaped devices reportedly surround the building.
I have no idea, one woman who works at a telecom agency in Nicaragua said. They are Russian, and they speak Russian, and they carry around Russian apparatuses.
Current and former U.S. officials have expressed concerns that the Russian building could be used to spy on Americans and gather intelligence, while others see it as a countermove to the U.S. presence in Eastern Europe.
Nicaragua has downplayed the concerns, telling the Post it is a tracking site of Russias GPS system.
The United States and countries of the region should be concerned, Juan Gonzalez, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told the paper. Nicaragua offers a beachhead for Russia to expand its intel capabilities and election meddling close to the United States.
U.S. officials told the newspaper that there is no immediate alarm concerning the compound, but there are moves being made just in case. A State Department staffer at its Russian desk was named a desk officer in charge of Nicaragua, while diplomats with Russian expertise have gone to Nicaragua as well.
Russias influence in Latin America has increased over the last two years. Russia has sold military weapons and artillery to Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and Ecuador, while strengthening economic relations with Mexico and Brazil, the Post noted.
Security experts believe that Russia has nearly 250 military personnel in Nicaragua. Russia has been allowed to use Nicaraguan ports for its warships and Moscow gave 50 tanks to the country.
Click for more from The Washington Post.
Security forces recovered an Indian-registered boat hijacked by Somali pirates nearly a week ago, but nine of the crew are still being held hostage, a Somali official said Monday.
Security forces from the semi-autonomous Galmudug region rescued two crew members in the boat Sunday night, but pirates escaped to land and have nine of the Indian crew, Abdullahi Ahmed Ali, the mayor of Hobyo, told The Associated Press.
Ali said security forces were pursuing the pirates who are believed to have taken the hostages into a forest.
Bile Hussein, a Somali pirate, confirmed that the boat was rescued, saying that the pirates received a tipoff of an imminent rescue attempt and abandoned the boat, taking the crew with them to the land.
In recent weeks there has been a resurgence of piracy off Somalia's coast after five years of inactivity. Somalia's piracy was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry. It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near Somalia, whose weak central government has been trying to stabilize the country after 25 years of conflict.
But frustrations have been rising among Somali fishermen, including former pirates, at what they say are foreign ships illegally fishing in local waters.
In March, Somali pirates hijacked the Comoros-flagged oil tanker Aris 13, marking the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel since 2012. They later released the vessel and its Sri Lankan crew without conditions, Somali officials said at the time.
Pirates in late March also seized a fishing trawler, which police warned could be used for further piracy.
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Spain is asking French authorities to share information on the weapons surrendered by Basque separatist group ETA over the weekend.
In the official request submitted to Paris, National Court judge Eloy Velasco is also asking for access to ETA's arsenal for anti-terrorism experts of Spain's Civil Guard, a court spokeswoman said Monday. She spoke anonymously in line with internal rules.
Police in southwestern France found dozens of handguns and rifles, ammunition and several tons of explosives located at eight sites identified by a group of activists.
The judge wants to use the information to clarify hundreds of unresolved crimes.
In 43 years of armed campaign for an independent Basque Country, ETA killed 829 people and injured thousands.
The governments of Spain and France have said that ETA also needs to disband.
The U.S. Air Force is busy in the skies over the Korean Peninsula, a range of aircraft including F-16s running around the clock missions and exercises. The increase in provocations from North Korea focusing minds more.
It keeps us on a heightened sense, says US Air Force Col. James Brotree, Theres always something going on so we always have to make sure we do the right things.
NORTH KOREA, SYRIA AND DECADES OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Many of these flights come from the Osan air base south of Seoul. And all those operations are run from an air operations center manned by U.S. and South Korean Air Force personel.
Osan is the base for updated U-2 spy planes that prowl the skies over the Korean peninsula. Most days two planes will go on missions lasting some 10 hours, as high as 14 miles up.
EXPERT: WATCH TO SEE IF KIM JONG UN GOES INTO HIDING AFTER SYRIA STRIKE
All weight has been stripped away to get the plane down to its basics so it can always be locked in via signals and image intelligence on the conventional and unconventional doings of the Pyongyang regime.
It can be a very tense time but thats kind of what we do here, U-2 squadron commander Lt. Col. Todd Larsen, We do our daily mission but were always maintain our readiness.
If trouble is spotted, other planes at the base, including F-16 jet fighters, could be called into action, as well as the A-10 Warthog or Tank-killer aircraft which has seen a lot of combat action in other hot spots.
It provides close air support for ground forces with missiles strapped to its wings and a very nasty nose cone machine gun.
We go to the same air space that wed be going to in a wartime situation just 30 miles to the north of us, Major Jordan Hrupeck told me about his combat exercises. Were going there in defense of South Korea.
None of the U.S. Air Force officers who spoke with us said they expected to be called upon to execute a preemptive strike, the so-called military option. But they did tell us, if provoked by the North, which is happening more these days, they are ready.
A Syrian refugee who survived a 2013 chemical weapons attack said Monday he wants President Trump to help Syrians return to a safe country without Bashar al-Assad in power.
"Thank you, Mr. President, for taking action," Kassen Eid said on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning.
Eid, who escaped to Europe after fighting the Assad regime, praised Trump's missile strikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation to last Tuesday's suspected chemical attack that killed more than 80 people.
SYRIA MISSILE ATTACK: SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW MAJOR DAMAGE TO AIRFIELDS
"When I saw President Trump and the United States taking action for the first time after six years of calling for help, we felt happy and grateful," Eid said.
The Syrian refugee compared and contrasted Trump's forceful action to what he called former President Barack Obama's inaction and failure to follow through with his "red line" promise after the 2013 chemical attack, which nearly killed Eid.
"If President Obama took action against the Assad regime, he would have stopped ISIS from being created. He would have given people in Syria hope," Eid told the hosts of "Fox & Friends."
RUSSIA, IRAN BACK SYRIA AGAINST U.S. ACTION
Eid said he wants Trump to help Syrians return to a safe country and to continue pushing Assad in a way that Obama failed to do.
"Help us come back home, please stop Assad from committing war crimes and please stop ISIS from committing war crimes," Eid said.
Trump authorized 60 U.S. Tomahawk missiles to strike the Shayrat air base, southeast of Homs. Satellite images hours after the strikes on Friday showed large-scale destruction to the airfields.
Eid echoed his sentiments toward Trump on CNN on Friday, saying he "cried out of joy" when he heard about the strikes.
"For the very first time we see Assad held accountable just for once, held accountable for his crimes against humanity," Eid told CNN's Brooke Baldwin.
When asked about Trump's executive order that banned Syrian refugees from entering the U.S., Eid was quick to point out that no one spoke out against Obama's broken promise in 2013.
"I didn't see you in 2013 when 1,400 people were gassed to death. I didn't see you raising your voice against President Obama's inaction in Syria that led us refugees, that made us refugees get kicked out of Syria," Eid said.
SYRIA'S ALLIES CLAIM UNITED STATES CROSSED THEIR OWN 'RED LINES' WITH MISSILE STRIKE
The refugee has been vocal about living through the Syrian Civil War. He recounted the morning of the chemical attack in 2013, when he woke up feeling like his "chest was set on fire and [his] eyes were burning."
He said doctors presumed he was dead when his heart stopped, but his friends noticed he was still moving. He was given more CPR and doused with water to wash the chemicals off his body until he woke up.
Eid credits the "brave Syrian army" for saving him, but said he holds the painful memory of Obama breaking his "red line" promise after the attack.
"President Obama destroyed the image of the United States in Syria and all over the world," Eid said.
Syria's powerful allies, including Russia and Iran, said in no uncertain terms that the U.S. missile attack last week crossed "red lines" of their own.
"What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well," read part of a statement Sunday from a so-called "shared operations room" believed to include Russia, Iran and militias backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
PRESSURE ON PUTIN: TILLERSON, G7 MINISTERS TO PRESS RUSSIA ON RECONSIDERING SUPPORT FOR ASSAD
In a phone call with Assad, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the strike on Friday a "blatant violation" of Syrian sovereignty, Syrian state media reported.
Assad accused the U.S. of trying to boost the morale of "terror groups" in Syria. The government refers to all those fighting against it as terrorists.
RICE CLAIM ON SYRIA CHEMICAL WEAPONS GETS 'FOUR PINOCCHIOS'
The joint statement appeared on the military media arm of Hezbollah. The Lebanese militant group has invested thousands of fighters in the defense of Assad's government.
The Kremlin said in a statement Rouhani also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone.
"Both sides noted the inadmissibility of aggressive U.S. actions against a sovereign state in violation of international law," the statement said. "Vladimir Putin and Hasan Rouhani spoke in favor of an objective, unbiased investigation of all the circumstances of the chemical weapons incident on April 4 in the Syrian province of Idlib."
Rouhani said the U.S. strike would not affect Iran's Syria policy, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not withdraw in the face of similar aggressions.
"What the Americans did is a strategic mistake and offense. They are repeating offense of their predecessors," Khamenei was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
A group of jets -- believed to be Russian -- launched eight raids Sunday on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, the site of the chemical attack that helped prompt the U.S. strike, rebels and witnesses told Reuters. There were no indications anyone was hurt.
Iran has provided crucial military and economic assistance to Assad throughout Syria's six-year civil war. It has organized several Shiite militias from around the Middle East to fight in support of Assad's government and has sent troops and officers from its own Revolutionary Guards.
The U.S. says the strike was in response to a nerve gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun last week, which has been widely blamed on government forces. The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons.
A Syrian Sukhoi jet took off from the Shayrat airbase targeted by the volley of US strikes, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV channel reported Sunday, saying repairs to the base began within hours of the attack.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday played down concerns of a rift with Russia over Ankara's support for the strike, saying Turkey was committed to the cease-fire mechanisms it has developed with Russia for Syria. Turkey provides military support to some of Syria's opposition forces.
But he said Turkey could not "remain silent" on the Syrian government's chemical weapons use, and insisted Moscow work with Ankara to establish a transitional government in Damascus.
"We want to continue our efforts with Russia in the Astana process in terms of measures to increase trust and establish a cease-fire," he told reporters in Antalya, according to the Anadolu state news agency.
In the days after the Khan Sheikhoun attack, Turkey provided the Syrian Civil Defense search and rescue outfit with 50 protective kits for responding to chemical attacks, and trained them in their use, Anadolu said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Appalling images of Syrian babies gasping for breath and others foaming at the mouth after the Damascus regime hit a rebel-held town with chemical weapons has stunned the world. But people were almost as stunned last week that Syria still had chemical weapons because the Kremlin in June 2014 had vouched publicly for their complete eradication.
On man who certainly wasnt stunned that Syria had such weapons and would use them was Syrian Brig. Gen. Zaher al-Sakat, once the Bashar regimes chemical weapons chief in charge of such operations.
In an interview this week with Fox News, Sakat remained steadfast that there is no way his former boss, Syrian President Bashar Assad, would ever "completely give up" his arsenal. Sakat said that in 2013 he was ordered -- from the top -- to use chemical weapons, phosgene and chlorine, on three separate occasions.
I just could not gas my people, he said, adding that he replaced canisters with water and a benign bleach. That ruse worked at first, but internal suspicions grew. "They arrested my son, a lieutenant, without reason to force me to submit. I feared for my life."
This, Sakat noted, led him to defect and flee Syria in April 2013. He claims to have survived two assassination attempts in Turkey since his defection. Now he resides in Europe where he continues to document war crimes from connections inside and outside the war-torn country. He said that the military has been developing deadly agents since the early 1980s and has the ability to deploy both mustard gases and neurotoxins like VX and sarin.
He stressed that these can be deployed as barrel bombs from aircraft, or launched in missiles or cannons from the ground.
It is not yet confirmed exactly what substances were used in last week's attacks, which killed at least 86 people and wounded hundreds more. Yet expert analysts with the World Health Organization said preliminary tests by the Turkish Health Ministry and statements by U.S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all point toward a deadly nerve agent such as sarin.
According to the general, processes were in place to move large volumes of toxic substances to inconspicuous locations amid civilian areas near the Syrian coast and were also moved to the hands of allied Lebanese militia Hezbollah. He also insisted that Iranian experts, closely allied with Syria, have long been assisting development of chemical weapons inside the country.
"In 2006, there was an explosion killing 20 Iranian experts in Aleppo and dozens of Syrians," Sakat said. "But there was a media blackout on the news."
The Khan Sheikhoun attacks also raise questions about how much Moscow knew about Syrias chemical stockpiles. After the 2013 Ghouta chemical attacks, in which U.N. investigators found "clear and convincing evidence" that sarin had been delivered by surface-to-surface rockets, then-President Obama sought congressional approval for military action against Syria. But this request was withdrawn after Syria agreed to destroy its chemical arsenal under Russian supervision and became a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention in October 2013.
Meanwhile, a source closely tied to Damascus operations who requested anonymity due to safety concerns told Fox News it is likely that Syrian forces loaded weapons systems with the deadly agent, effectively hiding those chemicals prior to signing the Chemical Weapons Agreement. Sakat, too, said of Syrias chemical weapons, "There are munitions ready."
Nerve agents like sarin have a relatively short shelf life, usually no longer than five years. That means that this year or next year are ideal times to deploy chemical weapons that were stored in 2013.
However, not all experts think the five-year limit is an absolute rule. John Gilbert, senior science fellow with the Center for Arms Control and Non Proliferation's Chemical and Biological Arms Control Working Group, said sarin "can be stored in loaded munitions for decades if it is properly purified and stabilized."
"It is certainly possible that the regime could have hidden sarin, as well as other chemicals, in a variety of locations prior to signing on to the Chemical Weapons Convention," he said. "It is also possible that Syria retained or reconstituted a sarin production capability that could have been used to produce the recently-used sarin."
Zakat said that last week's attack was spurred by "international silence" and was a "re-testing" of how works powers like America would respond. While he now "thanks hero Trump" for firing back at the government, he believes earlier statements made by U.S. government officials that leadership change was no longer the objective sent a message of impunity to the regime.
The government-connected source also indicated to Fox News that further large-scale potentially chemical attacks were also in the pipeline for the opposition-held Eastern Ghouta region in a quest to take back the area once and for all. But in the wake of the U.S. retaliation, there is now a sense of fear and uncertainty as to what to do next. Ghouta, located on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, was the site of the 2013 sarin attacks in which more than 1,000 people were alleged to have died. This incident led to the Geneva agreement that the Damascus regime signed.
Nonetheless, the Syrian government has staunchly and unwaveringly denied any involvement in deploying chemical weapons both then and now instead blaming rebel extremist factions.
SYRIA CHEMICAL ATTACK: DOCTORS, CIVILIANS RECALL CHILDREN SUFFOCATING, DYING ON STREETS, SARIN GAS SUSPECTED
RICE CLAIM ON SYRIA CHEMICAL WEAPONS GETS 'FOUR PINOCCHIOS'
In an interview with Croatian newspaper Vecernji List, published just two days after the Khan Sheikhoun attack and hours before U.S. retaliation, Assad insisted that the notion of a "moderate opposition was an illusion" and that the "same western countries who declared war against terrorism, are the same western countries that supported terrorism."
In his view, the U.S. supports the opposition whom he sees as terrorists logistically with weapons and training, while Europe has sent tens of thousands of its jihadists into his country to wage war. Assad was seemingly not asked about the chemical attacks in the interview, but doubled-down that his governments objective is to "fight terrorism regardless of labels and regardless of titles, carry out "reconciliation with anyone who wants to lay down their arms and return to normal life and ensure that the country is not carved up and federalized by foreign entities.
But for those who oppose the Syrian leader, his emphasis on total military success highlights just how far the regime will go.
"We have no choice but to win, otherwise Syria will be deleted from the map," Assad added. "We are confident, continued, determined... There is no option but victory."
A prominent academic in Uganda has been remanded to a maximum-security prison after being charged with insulting the president.
Stella Nyanzi, a research fellow at Uganda's Makerere University, was charged with cyber harassment and offensive communication Monday. She denied the charges and said President Yoweri Museveni is a "dishonorable" man who had "offended the people of Uganda."
Nyanzi is popular on Facebook for her relentless criticism of Museveni, who has ruled since 1986.
The charge sheet said Nyanzi had referred to Museveni as "a pair of buttocks" in one of her Facebook posts.
The case against Nyanzi is being widely followed in this East African country where few people dare to criticize the first family in bold terms.
An independent expert from the United Nations has arrived in Cuba to evaluate the human trafficking situation on the island for the first time in a decade.
Special Rapporteur Maria Grazia Giammarinaro is expected to visit a school and meet parliament leader Esteban Lazo during the four-day visit beginning Monday. She also has scheduled trips to the provinces of Matanzas and Artemisa.
Such U.N. visits are routine in other countries, but Cuba has generally rejected inspections by international organizations. The government has relaxed that stance somewhat in recent years, and state officials welcomed Giammarinaro upon her arrival and stressed that Cuba has a zero-tolerance policy on trafficking.
Giammarinaro expects to analyze what progress Cuba has made and challenges it still faces regarding trafficking, including sexual and labor exploitation.
During an onslaught of rain and chilly conditions, Greater Fredericksburg Habitat for Humanity and nearly 250 volunteers worked to build a house from the ground up in a day and finish interior and exterior construction in the following two days, a process they call a blitz build.
Volunteers assembled at 7:30 a.m. March 30, March 31 and April 1, and stayed each day until sundown at the construction site on Blizzard Court in Stafford County.
They simultaneously installed the subfloor, built walls and constructed the roof, which was lifted into place by a crane when complete on Thursday. They also installed windows and doors on the first day.
Tom Carlson, director of the local Habitat organization, said volunteers worked long hours through heavy rain on Friday. Despite the downpour, they built an outdoor porch and put up siding. They also worked on interior walls through the end of the blitz.
He said a similar short burst of construction was completed in 2007. But this house is bigger and had more volunteers. He called it, one of the biggest projects weve taken on.
The soon-to-be homeowner Amanda Hobbs is a veteran of the Army and a single mother. She contacted Habitat for Humanity when the mobile home she rented needed significant reconstruction. Instead, the organization got her into its program and promised a long-term family home.
Shes now a paraprofessional with Stafford County Schools and is taking classes so she can teach middle school math. She said building a home seemed impossible before Habitat for Humanitys help.
She worked on the front wall with volunteers Thursday.
I cant believe it, she said, looking around. All of these people are here for us and theyre all doing different things to get us moved in faster.
The build was facilitated by Ebenezer United Methodist Church in Stafford, which donated $160,000 and dozens of volunteers. Local defense contractor IOMAXIS donated $25,000 and had employees volunteer. Carlson said local Rotary members were also heavily involved.
Tina DeBoeser, director of missions and outreach for Ebenezer, said they were able to finance the build through the sale of properties that had been donated. At least 30 of her members were on the build site, and she said it was great to see their heart for service.
Bryanna Sapp of IOMAXIS had about 10 volunteers from the company on the construction site Thursday. It was the first time they partnered on a large scale with Habitat. She said it was heartwarming to see so many employees volunteer.
Stephanie Hoster was among the volunteers and worked on subfloors Thursday morning. This was the fourth build she volunteered. She said she appreciated it was for a veteran.
Amber Smith, the construction manager, said the build took fourth months of planning to get all of the materials and people in place for the burst of building. Normally, a house of that size would take months to get walled and under roof, she said.
The house will be finished late this summer. Next for the organization is installing heating and air conditioning systems, plumbing, electric and insulation. After that, finish work like drywall and paint begins.
Were a faith-based organization and every hand makes a difference, Carlson said. Gods hand was truly in this. For a family so deserving to have this support, it was hard work but everyone was safe and had fun.
This story has been updated to remove disputed personal information.
Last year was rough for Cardinal Apiaries, a nearly four-acre, family-owned farm in Stafford County.
First there was a freeze just as some major nectar producing plants and trees were starting to bloom.
Then it rained nearly every day in May, which is right in the middle of the prime nectar flow in Virginia, said Pete Burt, a federal tax law editor who runs the farm at 15 Skyline Drive as a side job.
His bees made 40 to 50 percent less wildflower honey than in 2015, and Cardinal Apiaries wont have any more to sell at the farm or on its website, cardinalapiaries.com, until summer. Honey is the farms most lucrative productit also sells eggs and produce, and it barely broke even last year. There was no surplus to buy greenhouses, equipment and other items.
If we had had the sort of nectar flow and honey production that were used to, we would have been able to make a pretty substantial investment, Burt said.
Other beekeepers around the state have told him that they had a hard time as well.
More than one complained about the rain messing up his bees, Burt said.
Not surprisingly, the amount of honey produced in Virginia by the hardworking winged insects buzzing from plant to plant fell in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Honey production from producers with five or more colonies last year totaled 190,000 pounds. That was down 17 percent from 2015.
Keith Tignor, the state apiarist, blamed the beekeepers reported loss of 32 percent of honey bee colonies over the winter and the late-spring freeze.
Freezing temperatures throughout much of the Commonwealth when major nectar-producing plants, such as locust and tulip polar trees, were just coming into bloom, knocked back many of the blossoms honey bees rely on for honey production, he said in a statement. Poor nectar sources continued into the summer when high temperatures prevented many flowers from producing nectar.
Rappahannock Beekeepers Association President Thurman Burnley, who owns Burnley Farm Apiary in Spotsylvania County, said that bees depend on the first nectar flow of the year to feed themselves and their queen so she can produce more offspring. Last year the rain washed much of that nectar away, and then there was a drought.
He had to leave his bees the honey they made with the next nectar flow so they wouldnt starve. Normally, he would have collected that honey from his approximately 120 hives and sold it at his farm at 5817 Smith Station Road and some shows.
It hurt a lot of people, he said.
Virginia isnt the only state thats seen a drop in honey production. Burnley said hes heard comments about it on social media posts up and down the East Coast.
Honey production last year was abysmal, especially due to the hurricanes, said Jerry Mattiaccio, who trucks bees from his Rock Hill Honey Bee Farms in Stafford to Florida each winter to pollinate farm fields and build up their honey stores.
Hurricanes blew all the blooms off the trees, he said. Everyone was scrambling to buy corn syrup to feed their bees. Its not been a great year.
Mattiaccio said that his bees normally produce about 22 barrels of honey a year, which he sells on his website. Last year they produced eight or nine. Each barrel contains 650 pounds of honey.
He said that he decided not to take his hives to California this year to pollinate crops because hed lost so many colonies in the hurricanes.
I didnt have the bees to go out, he said.
Burnley said that the weather this past winter has played havoc with bees this year as well. First the weather turned warm in February, which caused a number of plants to start blooming early.
It got the bees moving because they thought spring had happened, he said.
Then Mother Nature turned fickle and produced a cold snap and snow. Not only did some of the buds freeze, but many bees died and the rest cant build up their colonies like they should. Mites continue to be a problem as well, Burnley said.
Ive got people from Maryland and South Carolina calling me for bees, he said, adding he experienced a 40 percent loss. Im trying to get packages for them so they can start over. Its been tough.
The spring nectar flow normally starts around mid-April, but has been creeping up closer to the beginning of the month. Burt said that hes seeing that happen this year with the black locusts and tulip poplars at Cardinal Apiaries.
He said his bees are still building up the stores they need to survive and thrive, so they might not be able to make much surplus.
Hopefully by the end of the year, Ill look at my hives and have some really good news, he said. Beekeepers are eternally optimistic.
More than 200 elementary school students and staff surrounded the stage at the end of Berkeley Elementarys cafeteria in Spotsylvania.
They got to experience opera, hear a twist on a familiar tale and learn a few good lessons about the importance of the library and life in the opera.
Virginia Opera performed its rendition of The Three Little Pigs for students kindergarten through fifth grade, school staff and a Head Start class Thursday morning.
In this tale, the three little pigsDespina, Cherubino and Don Giovannibuild homes for themselves. While slightly foolish Cherubino and Don Giovanni rush into constructing theirs from sticks and straw, Despina consults the library. Little do they know the infamous Wolfgang Bigbad is right around the corner, and worse, hes hungry.
The cast and pianist blended traditional, classical themes with more modern shots of humor. The music that led the show were excerpts from some of Mozarts most well-known operas, yet Don Giovanni brought a laugh when he pretends to be a Little Mutant Ninja Pig.
After the show, the four-member cast and pianist shared with the audience their own favorite childhood books and answered questions from the students.
The performances are part of Virginia Operas In-School Touring Program, which brings live opera to school-age kids.
Virginia Opera is visiting 16 schools in the Fredericksburg region during its statewide tour, and is expected to perform for 7,400 kids in Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline, King George, Orange, Culpeper, and the City of Fredericksburg.
Rebecca Danello, secretary for ArtsLIVE, said this is the 21st year that the organization, formerly known at Fredericksburg Festival for the Performing Arts, brought Virginia Opera to area schools.
However, the 16 schools was the largest tour that ArtsLIVE had sponsored.
Danello said that in addition to bringing the opera scene to area students, teachers have material that relates the SOLs to the performance. Yet its educational value does not detract from the performances fun.
I think this years The Three Little Pigs may be my favorite; it is absolutely magical for the students! Danello said.
Grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Community Foundation and the Stewart Jones Educational Foundation helped fund ArtsLIVE to sponsor the event.
The play was a hit with the students, who laughed when Wolfgang Bigbad sported an apron with a pig on it and strode into the audience, hamming it up with different members of staff.
Jorge Sanchez and Tristen Newman, both in third grade, liked Wolfgang Bigbad in particular, and enjoyed the scenes where Bigbad knocked on the pigs doors to let him in.
It was great, Jorge said. I liked how they acted.
Tristen remembers when Virginia Opera came to Berkeley Elementary last year, and said he still has the sticker he got from the show, which was Little Red Riding Hood.
Berkeley encourages children to read through its own programs, one being Reading Buddies. Students from upper grades will read with those from lower grades. Tristen and Jorge said they have read with kindergarten students.
Amy Umberger, the schools reading specialist for grades kindergarten through second grade, said she enjoyed the students reactions during the show.
I loved when the wolf jumped out, Umberger said. You could tell the kids were getting into it.
She said the play was a good lesson for students who are familiar with the story of The Three Little Pigs, and that even well-known classics can be interpreted differently and teach different lessons.
It really drives home that things might look a little differently than they have pictured in their head, Umberger said.
Berkeleys principal, Robin Monroe, said the school provides events that bring the community and students families together. The school receives additional funding as a percentage of its students are financially disadvantaged, Monroe said.
Edward Cleary, who plays comical and perpetually frightened Don Giovanni, said he has traveled to Spotsylvania for past performances and has always been appreciative of the students questions and their good behavior.
Cleary, 27, said Virginia Opera had performed when he was in school and is happy to return the favor. He hopes the performances spark an interest for students to pursue opera.
Its great to give back in that way, Cleary said.
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.
Fredericksburgs work week will begin sunny with occasional bursts of pollen.
Dry and sunny weather is great for many folks but this time of year allergy sufferers may not agree. Rain scavenges pollen particles out of the lower atmosphere so besides bringing May flowers April showers are helpful for those who sneeze and deal with itchy eyes this time of year. This week Fredericksburg will only have one shot at those cleansing showers.
Meanwhile today Monday will feature sunny skies with above average April temperatures topping out in the low 80s! High pressure centered due east of Virginia over the Atlantic Ocean will pump the warmth into Fredericksburg via southwesterly breezes that could gust over 20 mph this afternoon. Tuesday will bring much the same outdoor conditions but with lighter winds as the high pressure moves away.
Clouds then build in Tuesday night ahead of a relatively weak cold front approaching from the west. This boundary will arrive in the area early Wednesday with showers likely by dawn. The weak front plus an early day arrival will likely suppress thunderstorm formation but the Burg could still hear a rumble of thunder Wednesday morning into the early afternoon. No severe weather is expected, however.
With that in mind the graphic provides the criteria used by the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue severe thunderstorm warnings. Note that severe thunderstorms can bring very damaging straight line winds that have nothing to do with tornadoes. One of last weeks storm damage surveys by the NWS Wakefield office estimated straight line winds in the Sandbridge VA area at 75-85 mph!
So the next time severe weather arrives in the Fredericksburg area (not this week) it would be prudent to heed any and all warnings issued by the NWS rather than focusing on just the possibility of tornadoes. After all their main mission is to keep us safe!
A half-dozen church leaders delivered a letter Monday to Gov. Terry McAuliffe's office urging him to halt the execution of an inmate convicted of hiring a man to kill his ex-girlfriend.
The pastors, rectors and bishops are members of the Virginia Council of Churches comprised of 37 governing bodies of 18 Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant denominations who strongly oppose the death penalty in any case citing religious reasons. But the case of Ivan Teleguz, who is awaiting execution on April 25, is unique, the council said.
We are asking for clemency for Ivan Teleguz in the notion that there is a miscarriage of justice here in executing someone who did not physically have any hand in the actual committing of the murder, but was convicted under a murder-for-hire, and there is sufficient cause to believe that that is not a true story, said the Rev. Jon Barton, general minister for the Virginia Council of Churches.
Teleguz's attorneys filed a clemency petition on Friday. Teleguz has maintained his innocence, and since his trial in 2006, two key prosecution witnesses have recanted.
Teleguz, 38, was sentenced to death for the 2001 capital murder of Stephanie Yvonne Sipe, the mother of their 23-month-old son. Sipe was stabbed to death in her Harrisonburg apartment. Trial evidence showed that Teleguz was angry that he had been ordered to pay child support.
He hired two men to kill Sipe for $2,000 and drove them from Pennsylvania, where Teleguz had moved. Sipe suffered defensive wounds and three other knife wounds one wound went from the left side of her neck to the right side. The body was discovered by a neighbor who also found her son, unharmed, in a bathtub full of water.
Teleguz's lawyers say two prosecution witnesses admitted "that they testified falsely in exchange for leniency in their own cases, and have no reason to think Teleguz was involved in the murder-for-hire."
The only remaining evidence against Teleguz is the testimony of Michael Hetrick, the actual killer who was spared the death penalty, according to Teleguzs attorneys.
A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected a stay request and a related matter last month.
One of the witnesses has been deported, and the other was told he would lose his release date set for next year if he went back on his testimony.
"One of the characteristics that is supposed to be part of the practice of the death penalty is an absolute surety before anything is implemented, Church of the Bretheren Pastor Ed Woodard said before the letter to the governor was delivered. We are deeply concerned that an innocent man may be put to death."
Two Democratic lawmakers, Del. Marcus Simon and Del. Patrick Hope have also sent a letter to McAuliffe asking to spare Teleguz's life.
A spokesman for McAuliffe said Teleguz's clemency petition is under review.
"We come standing in opposition to the death penalty, because in recent years we've seen through the science of DNA that many innocent people have been murdered, died and been executed through the death penalty and it is our feeling that as the Virginia Council of Churches that there is no acceptable death in this way," said council president John Myers. "If one person dies innocently, then we should just abolish the whole system."
A childs job is to play.
Not only does active play keep kids physically healthy, it also develops their imagination, cognitive abilities, emotional strength and social skills, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Soon, children in Caroline County will have a new location where they can play. Volunteers are erecting a public playground at the Caroline YMCA, located in Ladysmith Village. When its completed, it will be free and open to the public every day until dusk.
Its all about getting the kids active, Paul Gehring, executive director of the Caroline YMCA, said. Its a family thing. Playgrounds get downplayed but there are a lot of studies that show how important they are. Its how kids learn to play together, get physical activity and just get out and be kids.
The bright primary-colored plastic playground will feature a section for children ages 2 to 5 and another for children ages 5 to 12.
The large playground was donated to the Caroline YMCA by the Mary Washington Hospital Foundation. It had been installed at Snowden at Fredericksburg but has not been used since the mental health facility stopped treating children.
They approached us about donating it, Gehring said. It was extremely generous because for those larger structures, the cost is up there.
Gehring said the YMCA started a fundraising campaign for the new playground last year. The Y needed $10,000 to dismantle and move the large playground, $5,000 to purchase the small structure for the tots and money to buy mulch, benches, picnic tables and a fence for the perimeter.
Organizers are about $4,000 short of their $20,000 goal.
Caroline County companies have donated products to the playground project, Gehring said. Luck Stone is providing drainage stone that was mined in the county. The Sakrete plant in Milford donated $500 worth of cement for the structures footers and Hico Services, Inc., a Doswell-based contracting company, contributed $4,500 worth of site work.
And in what can be described as a super-sized version of an Ikea furniture assembly project, volunteers are using a manual that is several inches thick to erect the playgrounds over the next few weekends.
Gehring hopes there will be an official ribbon-cutting on April 29, which is the YMCAs national Healthy Kids Day. But the playground will be available to children as soon as it has been completed and inspected for safety by the state Department of Social Services.
This is really going to help our programs here a lot, Gehring said.
Kids attending the YMCAs preschool program will benefit from it, as will children staying in the nursery while their parents exercise.
And well open it up to the whole community, not just the Y, Gehring said. There are not a whole lot of other public playgrounds around.
Volunteers who want to help assemble the new playground, can contact Gehring at pgehring@family-ymca.org.
The chairman of the Fredericksburg Virginia Patriots tea party group has submitted what he calls a formal complaint against Spotsylvania County Supervisor Chris Yakabouski.
Michael Hirsch took issue with a quote from Yakabouski in a recent Free LanceStar article questioning the veracity of comments by Hirsch about school system expenses. Hirsch wrote in his complaint to County Administrator Mark Taylor that he was offended by this attack, and my standing in the community has been damaged.
Hirschs letter asks the Board of Supervisors to police itself under the countys Code of Ethics, which states that members should refrain from abusive conduct, personal charges or verbal attacks. He said he had contacted his attorney and will proceed according to state code on defamation.
Hirsch read the letter at a recent supervisors meeting.
Yakabouski addressed his quote at the same meeting, saying: My comment was not that there are falsities said consistently. Yakabouski said when he or others have made statements to rebut claims, that person ... does not respond, he moves onto something else. He cited a disputed remark at a recent public hearing on the county budget.
Yakabouski made the quote at issue after The Free LanceStar asked him to respond to a brief YouTube video of him posted by Hirsch. In the video, Yakabouski is shown saying at a meeting: We do not have people, and I will state for a fact, we do not have people that fly to Las Vegas for conferences.
Hirsch posted the video after finding out that Spotsylvania Public Schools sent a graphic arts teacher to a conference in Vegas last year. A School Board member confirmed that the system spent $1,099 for a graphic arts teacher to attend the Photoshop World Conference.
The countys code of ethics says board members found in violation could face reprimand, formal censure, loss of seniority or committee assignment, or budget restriction. But violations can not be a basis for challenging board or committee decisions.
If theres anything gun control advocates and Second Amendment supporters can agree on its that 10 years after the Virginia Tech shooting, most gun legislation introduced in the commonwealth goes nowhere.
After the 2007 mass shooting, Virginia politicians acted quickly to eliminate a disconnect between the states courts system and the criminal records exchange in regard to mental health informationfixing a loophole shooter Seung-Hui Cho slipped through to buy two pistols.
But calls for added gun measures from both sides of the aisle, including universal background checks and allowing students and teachers to carry concealed on public university campuses, were met with inaction.
Cries for gun reform are often loud and forceful in the wake of mass shootings, but after Cho shot and killed 32 people and himself on Techs campus, calls for mental health reformwhich some legislators said better addresses the heart of the problemovershadowed gun reform.
In the past decade Virginia has seen the repeal of a 20-year-old state law that kept Cho from purchasing multiple guns at one time and the addition of some new background check measures.
But with a Republican-controlled General Assembly and a Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, in the governors mansion, few, if any, gun measures survive.
Virginia is at a stalemate when it comes to gun laws, said Tech shooting survivor Colin Goddard.
Goddard, whom Cho shot four times, went on to work for the Brady campaign and Everytown for Gun Safety. Now, hes working on his masters in business administration at the University of Maryland.
When the 2007 shooting happened, the gun safety movement was losing at least one issue a year in Richmond. But public support for gun safety laws has grown and advocates are better positioned to block the gun lobby, he said.
Progress on gun safety measures will take time and several election cycles, Goddard said.
I feel like Virginia is kind of like a little microcosm of Congress with how stuck things are, he said.
In 2005, a Virginia court branded Cho as a danger to himself and ordered him to receive outpatient psychiatric treatment.
He did not.
Under federal law, that 2005 order meant Cho was not legally authorized to buy either guns or ammunition. But due to ambiguity that existed then in state law, the judges ruling did not prevent Cho from purchasing the Walther P22 .22-caliber pistol and the Glock 19 9 mm pistol and ammunition.
At the time, federal law prevented gun sales to anyone adjudicated as a mental defective, but Virginia law only flagged firearms purchasers who had been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.
Following an executive order from then-Gov. Tim Kaine, Virginias General Assembly worked quickly to change the states mental health laws so state agencies would collect information on people required to undergo inpatient or outpatient mental health treatment and keep them from obtaining weapons, said U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-9th, who served as House of Delegates majority leader at the time.
Its a mental health issue to begin with, Griffith said. It appears that no matter what kind of laws we might pass relating to guns, those people with the severe mental health issues are still going to go down that path, unfortunately.
Retired Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. Gerald Massengill said that when mass killings happen, the investigators need to objectively examine three things involved: the killer, the murder weapon and the culture that affects both of those. A self-proclaimed Second Amendment supporter, Massengill was tapped by Kaine to lead the investigation after the Tech shooting.
In the wake of the shooting, the Virginia Tech Review Panel published a 260-page report listing numerous recommendations for universities, first responders and lawmakers on how to reduce the likelihood of similar tragedies happening again.
The panel found background checks for all firearm sales, including those conducted at gun shows, were not unreasonable. Background checks are a common sense measure to know who is buying the gun and what their mental stability is, Massengill said.
Its disheartening that, we as a nation, have been able to fly people to locations in space that none of us ever dreamed of, but we cant come up with policies that can protect our Second Amendment, but yet, at least discourage the sale of guns to people that the law already says shouldnt have them, he said.
In 2016, McAuliffe signed into law a bipartisan package of gun bills including one that added voluntary background checks at gun shows.
In Virginia, background checks are not required in private salesincluding those conducted at gun shows, and under the new law, neither the buyer nor the seller is required to seek out a background check.
McAuliffe also signed legislation for Virginia to recognize concealed carry permits from most other states, a move praised by members of the National Rifle Association.
The NRA did not return calls for comment on this story.
For Kaine, voluntary background checks arent enough. Following the shooting, Virginia improved its campus security and mental health protocols. But the one area where Virginia did not improve was in gun safety, he said.
Im in this position where the Tech shooting has played such a large role in my life, a painful role in my life, so when you see these things happen its like will we ever learn something? he said. We ought to do comprehensive background checks. That would have made us safer.
The majority of Americans support comprehensive background checks for gun buyers, but Congress is out of step with the public and doesnt have the nerve to stand up to the gun lobby, Kaine said.
Background checks cant and wont stop straw purchases, said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Straw purchases occur when a person buys a gun for someone who is unqualified to own one.
You cant stop a determined criminal who wants to get a gun, he said. These things [background checks] sound good, but they dont work.
Andrew Goddard watched his sons blood flowing freely from the four gunshot wounds he suffered after a student at Virginia Tech opened fire on campus 10 years ago.
Soon, the white hospital bedsheet was soaked red.
I sat there thinking, What is this going to make me do? said Goddard, who lives in Henrico County. I want to offer something in exchange for asking for him to live.
Colin Goddard survived. Thirty-two other victims did not.
Im paying that now, Andrew Goddard said. If I just sat back and said, Oh, we were lucky. Weve still got our kid, and lets get on, I would feel like I wasnt being fair to someone in the future.
Andrew Goddard is now the legislative director for the Virginia Center for Public Safety and spends much of his time urging the General Assembly to enact gun restrictions.
He is one of many who were motivated to pursue change after the violence and sorrow of April 16, 2007.
Its human nature, when something awful happens, you want to try and stop it from happening again, Goddard said.
The people youre working for arent the ones who have been shot; theyre the ones who havent yet been shot.
Colin, his son, was a senior policy advocate for Everytown for Gun Safety before returning to school at the University of Maryland to seek an MBA.
The Rev. Alexander Evans, who at the time was the pastor of Blacksburg Presbyterian Church and was chaplain to the Blacksburg Police Department, found his calling helping law enforcement cope with trauma.
Cops needed more care than they were getting, he said he realized after the Tech shootings.
Andrew Goddard first visited the General Assembly not to lobby for limitations on guns but to see if lawmakers would enact any of the recommendations from a panel that then-Gov. Tim Kaine convened to investigate the shootings.
In 2008, I went to the General Assembly because of Virginia Tech, he said. In 2009, 10, 11 and years on, I went because of what I heard at the assembly.
Three major issues rose out of the recommendations: breakdowns in the mental health system, school policy and accessibility of guns.
The mental health issues seemed to stem from finances. He tried to help there; he was appointed to the board for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
But the overstressed, overworked, chronically underfunded system continued to be all those things, Goddard said.
Several families of the 32 who were killed at Virginia Tech latched onto issues with the schools policy. Joe Samaha, father of shooting victim Reema Samaha, led efforts to increase school safety as board president of the VTV Family Outreach Foundation.
Goddard and some of the families of the 17 who were wounded including Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was injured worked toward gun safety.
They lobby for mandatory background checks for all gun purchases, harsher penalties for straw purchases and mandatory reporting of stolen firearms, among other measures.
But with little success advancing gun restrictions, Goddard said he does not think the state has learned from the tragedy.
We didnt learn anything, he said. The lessons were out there to be learned, but you cant say that we did. Unless you do something with that demonstrate that we learned it we havent learned.
***
Alex Evans was the chaplain for Blacksburg police 10 years ago. He accompanied the police chief as he notified the 32 families that their loved ones, mostly students at Virginia Tech, had been killed.
The role with police put me in the middle of it and has led to continuing ministry since then, said Evans, who now preaches at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond.
They see the worst of it. They have images of the smoke in the room. The blood. The scene. These are tough guys, but this is immediately terrible. This whole building is just filled with wounded and deceased, and theyre kids.
Thats going to keep you up at night. Thats going to make you question whether you should be a cop.
So he started a nonprofit, the Virginia Law Enforcement Assistance Program, which holds three-day seminars for officers who have been through trauma.
The program has held 13 seminars so far and reached about 400 officers, including about 100 who worked April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg.
We spend three days with them trying to get them back to normalcy, back to work, back to wholeness, he said.
A whole lot of them were greatly helped by being able to come to a table with only police, many of whom were also touched by the shootings at Tech, and say, Yeah, Im glad Im not the only one struggling and How do you get through this?
Some officers suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and nightmares, much like members of the military who have returned from war.
Evans left Blacksburg for Richmond in December 2008. It wasnt an easy decision, he said, but he has continued his outreach with law enforcement and has expanded it statewide.
I cant believe its 10 years. Its still really fresh in many ways. Obviously, a lot has changed in 10 years. Im not there anymore, and yet my heart is there in a lot of ways, he said.
You dont want to forget. Were all shaped by this. You cant change it, but we hope to keep moving toward wholeness and goodness.
As bad as it was, we want to find good ways to respond.
MARK WARNERS moment is about to arrive, and America will be the better for it. Russia, maybe not so much.
For the benefit of any Russian readers we might have out there, lets review the Mark Warner were talking about. He was a popular governor in the early 2000s who went on to become a popular (for a time) U.S. senator.
His popularity was always rooted in his background as a forward-thinking businessman and his reputation for not being particularly partisan. He earned a reputation as a serious-minded problem-solver.
Service in the Senatea body not often associated these days with problem-solvinghas taken a toll on Warners standing. In 2014, he had a political near-death experience, barely eking out re-election. Warners approval ratings have rebounded and he consistently polls as the most popular politician in the statethough thats relative to the times.
When Warner went to Washington, many in Virginia thought hed wind up at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. However, the things about Mark Warner that appealed so much to Virginianshis braininess, his earnestness, his business sensenever really excited the national Democratic Party. Critics might look at Warners voting record and pronounce him a liberal (as they did in that 2014 campaign), but he remains a moderate, out of sync with these polarized times.
Warner is more naturally at home digging into issues that dont fit easily onto bumper stickers.
In fact, he has devoted himself to the wonkiest of topics: The emergence of the gig economy, where workers float from contract job to another. Some left-leaning Democrats see this as corporate America taking advantage of desperate workers; the more nuanced Warner sees the entrepreneurial opportunities, but worries about a generation of workers operating outside of employment benefits. He talks about the social contract and how America needs what he calls Capitalism 2.0. He joins with Republicans to figure out solutions and goes off to retreats with experts at the Aspen Institute. He is not Bernie Sanders railing against Wall Street and promising free stuff.
Warner might have disappeared from the national stage had it not been for one thing: Russia. In January, he became vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which means he is now the top Democrat on the panel that is investigating whatever Russia did, or didnt do, to influence the 2016 election.
There are actually two different Russia inquiries going onone by the House, one by the Senate. The House inquiry devolved into chaos, and controversy, from the outset. By contrast, the Senate committee has promised an investigation that will be bipartisanand boring, which is a good thing. Washington badly needs some adults in the room. The reputation of the Senate inquiry depends heavily on how the Republican chairmanRichard Burr of North Carolinaand his Democratic vice chairman comport themselves. The early reviews are surprisingly good.
Burr, a Trump supporter, has elevated the discourse by pointing out that this is more than just about last years American election. I think its safe by everybodys judgment that the Russians are actively involved in the French elections, Burr has said. Probably the German ones, too. That makes this inquiry about a lot more than Trump; its about the integrity of elections everywhere. Even if nothing else is proven, we now know that Russia fielded an army of internet trolls to flood social media with posts that look like theyre from ordinary Americans in the Midwest.
This inquiry offers the perfect role for Warner: problem-solving on an international scale. His penchant for bipartisanshipwhich has sometimes alienated him from his own partywill serve him well here. So, too will his own seriousness of purpose. He told The New York Times this role would be probably the most important thing Ive done in public life.
The Virginia Democrat is losing himself in a book about the Romanovs, eager to absorb the countrys theories of war, teasing staff members for insufficient knowledge of Tolstoy and Nabokov, the Times tells us. He has taken to deploying phrases like personal cyberhygiene in conversation and discusses Russian incursions into French politics with a fluency once reserved for Virginia budget skirmishes.
Democrats may come to have new respect for Warners preference for bipartisan solutions, and Americans on all sides may come to see why Virginians still regard Warner as their most popular officeholder.
adapted from The Roanoke Times
Nations health-care system must change
I agree with Dr. Patrick Neustatters assessment: Our current health-care system needs to be changed. Its costly and cumbersome. [Trump, do mull these sobering statistics, March 26].
I worked in a college health center for more than two decades. The center managed the care of close to 2,000 students. We could handle the routine demands of a fairly healthy populations for a set charge for the year. Medications and lab work was paid by the student or his insurance company. Also, insurance companies offered policies for this population.
Another advantage was we were easy access to where the students lived. For the students with chronic health issues, we could support their doctors treatments for them. We provided immunizations and womens clinics. There was a real advantage in that due to the fee to use the center, we didnt have to charge an insurance company.
Thank you for your thoughtful column. One can hope that the time has come to make significant improvements.
Helen Sanders
Fredericksburg
Park maintenance funding crucial
Regarding the March 26 editorial, [Telling the whole story at Shenandoah] Shenandoah National Parks progress toward telling a more complete story of its history is commendable.
Our national parks have the power to tell such stories and preserve history in a unique and compelling way. Unfortunately, parks in Virginia are facing millions of dollars in needed repairs, part of the total $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog facing the National Park Service.
I understand that Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park has more than $11 million in needed repairs. This is certainly not frivolous spending! .
Despite the untold value of the national park system to the American people and the vast amount of manpower contributed by volunteers (and our park is no exception), one of Americas greatest assets suffers from underfunding! We risk losing some important pieces of our nations history that are now available to visitors, students and families.
Congress must make funding our national parks a priority in order to help preserve these stories for future generations.
Zann Nelson
Reva
Spotsy board not listening to some voters
A majority on the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors proved this budget season that it does not care what their constituents have to say.
Board members could have advertised an 87-cent tax rate, fully funding the schools and allowing voters to give their opinions at the budget hearing, but instead they decided before the meeting to set the advertised tax rate at 85 cents.
This year had the worst attendance at the budget hearing I have ever seen. Of the 37 residents who spoke about the school budget, 31 were in favor of fully funding the schools. The six who spoke against were all tea-party Republicans, who once again got their way because the four supervisors who voted against the school divisions budget request support the tea party.
Then, at the April 4 work session, the same four supervisors voted to approve the 85-cent real-estate tax rate and the budget. This was supposed to be done at the regular board meeting on April 11.
They once again silenced their constituents by approving the budget and tax rate a week early and not allowing their constituents a last chance to speak on behalf of the budget.
If these gentleman do not have their constituents best interest at heart nor want to hear their opinions, maybe it is time we voted them out when they come up for re-election.
Dawn Napper
Spotsylvania
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The Sub Deb Club of Gaffney commemorates its 30th Annual Presentation Ball The Sub Deb Club of Gaffney, SC, will present nine seniors and fifteen underclassmen at its 30th annual Presentation Ball on Saturday, November 5, 2022, at the Cherokee County History...
Contestants vie for Miss Cherokeean titles Saturday More than 40 Gaffney High students will compete for titles in the 2023 Miss Cherokeean Pageant being held this Saturday, Oct. 22. The pageant will begin at 6 p.m. in...
FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA
Story Highlights 10 other military actions assessed since 1983 had majority support
Only action with lower approval was Libya in 2011, at 47%
82% of Republicans approve, compared with 33% of Democrats
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' support for the military strikes against Syria last week is historically low compared with reactions to previous U.S. military actions. Fifty percent of Americans approve of the missile airstrikes, while 41% disapprove. Ten percent have no opinion.
Approval of Syrian Airstrikes at Low End of Historical Measures of Military Actions 2017 question wording: "Next, we have a question about the missile airstrikes the United States has launched against Syria. Do you approve or disapprove of this U.S. military action against Syria?" Country/Region Polling dates % Approve % Disapprove Syria 2017 Apr 7-8 50 41 Iraq and Syria 2014 Sep 20-21 60 31 Libya 2011 Mar 21 47 37 Iraq 2003 Mar 20 76 20 Afghanistan 2001 Oct 7 90 5 Kosovo/The Balkans 1999 Apr 30-May 2 51 45 Afghanistan and Sudan 1998 Aug 20 66 19 Haiti 1994 Sep 23-25 54 45 Somalia 1993 Jun 18-21 65 23 Iraq 1993 Jan 13 83 9 Libya 1986 Apr 17-18 71 21 Grenada 1983 Oct 26-27 53 34 Gallup
Gallup has measured Americans' reactions to 11 other military interventions before the latest airstrikes in Syria, stretching from the invasion of Grenada in 1983 through the military action against Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria in 2014. The complete question wording used in each assessment appears at the end of this article.
A majority of Americans approved of all of the previous actions tested with one exception: 47% approved of the bombing of Libya in 2011 (37% disapproved). Americans were most supportive of the initial intervention in Afghanistan in October 2001, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., and were also initially very supportive of interventions in Iraq in 1993 and 2003.
The 50% approval of the recent missile strikes against Syria is roughly similar to three other actions tested over the years with approval around the 50% level -- Libya in 2011 (47%), Kosovo and the Balkans in 1999 (51%), and Grenada in 1983 (53%).
Over Eight in 10 Republicans Approve
Reactions to the missile strikes President Donald Trump ordered are much more positive among Republicans (82%) than among Democrats (33%) nationwide.
Republicans Much More Positive Than Democrats Do you approve or disapprove of this U.S. military action against Syria? Approve Disapprove % % National adults 50 41 Republicans 82 11 Independents 44 43 Democrats 33 61 Gallup, April 7-8, 2017
This type of divided partisan views to military action is not always the case. The last two military interventions Gallup tested -- Libya in 2011 and Iraq and Syria in 2014 -- were initiated by Democratic President Barack Obama and showed little partisan difference. Reactions to strikes against Libya were about the same as the current reactions to the Syrian strikes, and showed a modest six-point Republican-Democratic gap (57% and 51% approval, respectively). Independents were much less positive about Libya. Republicans and Democrats were equally positive about U.S. military intervention against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Implications
Americans' initial reaction to the missile airstrikes the U.S. launched against Syria last week is among the least positive of the 12 military actions Gallup has measured since 1983. Support does exceed opposition, which has been the case for each of the military actions tested, but the 50% approval is lower than all but one of the other interventions.
The strikes do not appear to have affected Americans' views of Trump -- at least in the short term. His job approval averaged 40% Tuesday through Thursday before the strikes, and has averaged 40% Friday through Sunday after the strikes.
Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.
Question Wordings for Data on Approval of Prior U.S. Military Actions Country/Region, Year Full question wording Syria, 2017 Next, we have a question about the missile airstrikes the United States has launched against Syria. Do you approve or disapprove of this U.S. military action against Syria? Iraq and Syria, 2014 Next, we have a question about the military action the United States is taking in Iraq and Syria against militants, commonly known as ISIS. Do you approve or disapprove of this U.S. military action? Libya, 2011 Next, we have a question about the current military action by the United States and other countries against Libya. Do you approve or disapprove of the current U.S. military actions against Libya? Iraq, 2003 As you may know, the United States began taking military action against Iraq yesterday. Do you approve or disapprove of the United States' decision to go to war with Iraq? Afghanistan, 2001 As you may know, the United States and Great Britain launched attacks on at least three cities in Afghanistan today in retaliation for the terrorist attacks that occurred in the U.S. on September 11th. Do you approve or disapprove of the U.S. taking military action in Afghanistan today? Kosovo/The Balkans, 1999 Next, we have a few questions about the current military action by the United States and its Western allies in the Yugoslavian regions of Kosovo, Serbia and other areas of the Balkans. Do you approve or disapprove of the current U.S. military involvement in Yugoslavia? Afghanistan and Sudan, 1998 As you may know, earlier today, the United States launched military attacks against terrorist facilities in the countries of Afghanistan and the Sudan. Do you approve or disapprove of those attacks? Haiti, 1994 Do you approve or disapprove of the presence of the U.S. troops in Haiti? Somalia, 1993 Last week, the United States participated in a military operation with the United Nations against one of the warlords in Somalia. Do you generally approve or disapprove of that decision? Iraq, 1993 Do you approve or disapprove of the decision today by the United States and its allies to bomb military sites in Iraq in response to Iraqi violations of the United Nations resolutions? Libya, 1986 Do you approve or disapprove of this week's U.S. military action against Libya? Grenada, 1983 Do you approve or disapprove of the participation of the U.S. military forces -- along with those of several Caribbean nations -- in the invasion of Grenada? Gallup
The US Air Force and Lockheed Martins advanced projects unit the Skunk Works, have completed a series of flight tests demonstrating the teaming of a manned and unmanned fighter jets, participating in mock combat operations. During the flight demonstration, an experimental F-16 aircraft acted as a surrogate Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) autonomously reacting to a dynamic threat environment during an air-to-ground strike mission. The demonstration success included three key objectives:
The ability to autonomously plan and execute air-to-ground strike missions based on mission priorities and available assets
The ability to dynamically react to a changing threat environment during an air-to-ground strike mission while automatically managing contingencies for capability failures, route deviations, and loss of communication
A fully compliant USAF Open Mission Systems (OMS) software integration environment allowing rapid integration of software components developed by multiple providers
For the recent phase designated Have Raider II Skunk Works teamed with the US Air Forces Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Pilot School and Calspan Corporation.
This demonstration is an important milestone in AFRLs maturation of technologies needed to integrate manned and unmanned aircraft in a strike package, said Capt. Andrew Petry, AFRL autonomous flight operations engineer. Weve not only shown how an Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle can perform its mission when things go as planned, but also how it will react and adapt to unforeseen obstacles along the way.
Acting as a surrogate UCAV, an experimental F-16 autonomously reacted to a dynamic threat environment, during a simulated strike mission
The two-week demonstration at the Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, is the second in a series of manned/unmanned teaming exercises to prove enabling technologies.
The Have Raider II demonstration team pushed the boundaries of autonomous technology and put a fully combat-capable F-16 in increasingly complex situations to test the systems ability to adapt to a rapidly changing operational environment, said Shawn Whitcomb, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Loyal Wingman program manager. This is a critical step to enabling future Loyal Wingman technology development and operational transition programs.
The Air Forces Loyal Wingman program foresee the techniques, tactics, and procedures of controlling semi-autonomous missions of UCAVs by pilots of manned fifth Generation fighters (F-22/F-35). Such platforms should be able to play in both air/air and air/ground scenarios, carrying weapons and flying the more risky parts of the mission, thus increasing the survivability and effectiveness of the manned platforms. QF-16s (unmanned targets) are considered the most cost-effective platforms for this mission, although being a Fourth Generation fighter with no stealth capability would compromise a mixed manned-unmanned strike package. Apart from the tried and tested F-16 the Air Force is also testing other target aircraft, some designed specifically for attack missions such as the UTAP-22 built by Kratos.
The first demonstration, Have Raider I, focused on advanced vehicle control. The experimental F-16 autonomously flew in formation with a lead aircraft and conducted a ground-attack mission, then automatically rejoined the lead aircraft after the mission was completed. These capabilities were linked with Lockheed Martin automatic collision avoidance systems to ensure safe, coordinated teaming between the F-16 and surrogate UCAV.
The OMS architecture used in Have Raider II made it possible to rapidly insert new software components into the system, said Michael Coy, AFRL computer engineer. OMS will allow the Air Force maximum flexibility in the development and fielding of cutting edge autonomous capabilities.
Effective manned/unmanned teaming reduces the high cognitive workload, allowing the warfighter to focus on creative and complex planning and management. Autonomous systems also have the ability to access hazardous mission environments, react more quickly, and provide persistent capabilities without fatigue. Each drone will have onboard autonomy sufficient to complete all basic flight operations untethered from a ground station and without full-time direction from the manned lead.
For future applications of the Loyal Wingman concept, the Air Force is considering employing several drones with each manned fighter jet. The flight will use dedicated processors that will be able to assess the operational scenario based on each platforms sensors and decide the course of action for the group of drones. A prototype of such system is under development at the University of Cincinnati. It employs artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic techniques known as Alpha has demonstrated in simulations capabilities superior to well-trained fighter pilots.
The Air Force plans to begin flying aircraft equipped to control a full Loyal Wingman drone formation in 2018. Testing is scheduled to continue for four years, through 2022. Eventually, the US Air Force plans to assign drone formations to all front line aircraft the F-35 Lightning II, F-22 Raptor and possibly its newest bomber B-21 Raider.
Good Samaritan
adds hospitalist
Tyler Fleming recently joined Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis as a hospitalist specializing in internal medicine.
Fleming earned his medical degree from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington, and completed internship and residency training at the University of Kentucky.
He was inspired to join the medical profession by his father, who is an orthopedic surgeon. He job-shadowed a primary care physician when he was in high school and served on a medical service trip to Honduras while earning his bachelors degree at the University of North Carolina.
Associate dean
starts at OSU
The College of Science at Oregon State University recently welcomed Staci Simonich as associate dean of Academic and Student Affairs.
Simonich is a professor with joint appointments in the College of Sciences Department of Chemistry and the College of Agricultural Sciences Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology. She will serve as part of the Colleges Executive Leadership Team to advance the mission of the college. As a champion of student success, she will help identify and implement strategies to improve the academic, recruitment, retention and co-curricular programs within the college.
She also will support the colleges commitment to diversity and inclusion by enhancing its partnerships with the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation; the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science; the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Leaders Program; the Colleges Student Advisory Committee; and OSUs cultural centers.
Simonich will be responsible for developing techniques for implementing the strategic plan of the college to improve undergraduate student success and equalization by closing gaps in degree completion for Pell-eligible, first-generation and underrepresented students in the college.
Fencing business
signs with U-Haul
U-Haul Company of Oregon recently announced that Larrys Custom Fencing & Woodworking, 38901 Highway 226 in Scio, has signed on as a U-Haul neighborhood dealer.
Larrys will offer U-Haul trucks, towing equipment, support rental items and in-store pick-up for boxes.
Hours of operation for U-Haul rentals are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. After-hours drop-off is available for customer convenience.
Reserve U-Haul products at this location by calling 503-394-2738 or visiting https://www.uhaul.com/Locations/Truck-Rentals-near-Scio-OR-97374/050069.
Brewing company
takes home medals
Mazama Brewing Co., an independent, family-owned brewery based in Corvallis, won three silver medals at the 2017 Best of Craft Beer Awards held Jan. 28 and 29 in Bend.
Mazama Brewing was awarded silver medals for Uno Mas! in the Vienna-Style Lager category, for Rasplendent in the American-Style Fruit category, and for Oktoberfest in the German-Style Marzen or Oktoberfest/Wiesn category.
The Best of Craft Beer Awards event takes place annually and celebrates the best in craft brewing. With more than 1,700 entries this year, 88 judges came together and awarded 245 medals to 145 breweries across 35 different states.
Rasplendent is a perennial favorite of Mazamas customers and took home a Gold Medal at the 2016 Best of Craft Beer Awards and a Silver Medal in the American-Style Fruit Beer Category at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. It is seasonally available on draft and in 22-ounce bottles. Uno Mas! is available on draft. Oktoberfest is available on draft in the early autumn months.
Mazama Brewings beer is available in Oregon, Washington and parts of Idaho and Japan.
Here are updates on stories that the Gazette-Times has been tracking:
Betty Griffiths Trail
The story: The Corvallis City Council on Sept. 19, 2016 voted to rename a trail in the Timberhill area to honor Betty Griffiths, the longtime parks and open space advocate and former councilor, who died in 2014 at the age of 74.
The latest: Griffiths husband, Bob, was on hand Wednesday when Parks and Recreation Department officials installed the sign for the trail, which was formerly called the Shooting Star Trail. The trail begins where Northwest Shooting Star Drive ends at the southeast corner of Chepenafa Springs Park and includes both boardwalk and gravel sections. The trail also features a bench installed in 2015 in Bettys honor after a campaign led by members of her former college sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha at Madison College (now James Madison University) in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
James Day
Council start time
The story: The Corvallis City Council meets on the first and third Mondays of the month, although the time has gone through periodic revisions. In 1983 the council adopted an ordinance that established noon and 7:30 p.m. meetings. In 1995 the evening meeting was changed to 7 p.m. In 2012 the noon meeting was dropped and the start time moved to 6 p.m. In 2013 the start time was moved to 6:30. At the March 9 work session Mayor Biff Traber led a short discussion on possibly adjusting the time to 6 p.m. Trabers reasons were two-fold. First, on evenings in which there is a scheduled 7:30 p.m. public hearing it can be difficult to work through the rest of the agenda in an hour, forcing some agenda items to start before the hearing and not be continued until after the hearing. Also, Traber expressed concerns about how late some meetings were ending. The council voted 5-3 on March 20 to approve the change, with opponents citing the challenge for councilors and community members to have time for dinner before meetings.
The latest: Because the ordinance did not receive unanimous support a second reading was required. Councilors voted 5-4 on April 3 to approve the new time, which takes effect with the April 17 meeting
James Day
Ambulance rates
The story: The city of Corvallis conducts a yearly review of the rates the Corvallis Fire Department charges customers for ambulance service.
The latest: The City Council unanimously approved new rates at its April 3 meeting. Key changes included: basic life support moves from $1,200 to $1,250; advanced life support increases from $1,200 to $1,350; evaluation and treatment goes from $465 to $491 and the transport mileage charge is boosted to $20 per mile from $18 per mile. In addition, the wait time charge of $125 per hour will be boosted to $132.50. The new fees place Corvallis in the middle among comparable jurisdictions such as Eugene-Springfield, Albany, Lebanon, Sweet Home, Salem, Keizer, Dallas, McMinnville, Newberg and Lane, Marion and Polk counties.
James Day
Four Western governors last week urged the Trump administration to essentially leave their states alone as far as legalized marijuana goes.
The four Kate Brown of Oregon, Jay Inslee of Washington, Bill Walker of Alaska and John Hickenlooper of Colorado all lead states that have legalized the use of recreational marijuana. In the letter, written to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, the governors urge the administration to "engage with us before embarking on any changes to regulatory and enforcement systems" regarding marijuana policy in the United States.
That's what the letter said. (A copy of the letter is attached to the online version of this editorial.) If you read between the lines, though, here's what the letter meant: The truce between the federal government and the states regarding legalized marijuana may be fragile, but it's working. It would be a mistake to mess with it now.
And that's true. Although, as the letter noted, "we understand you and others in the administration have some concerns regarding marijuana," Trump and his cabinet members would be foolish to crack down on states that have legalized recreational use.
But that doesn't mean they won't try. Earlier this year, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the administration had no plans to continue the hands-off approach of the Obama administration and that it viewed recreational marijuana use as a violation of federal law. Attorney General Sessions has been a longtime opponent of legalized marijuana.
Trump and the administration could take the first step toward a renewed federal war on marijuana without consulting Congress or, for that matter, any of the states that have legalized recreational pot. The document that currently defines the federal government's stance toward marijuana-friendly states is known as the Cole memo, written in 2013 by Deputy Attorney General James Cole. In essence, the Cole memo tells states that have legalized marijuana that the feds might be willing to look the other way, as long as states take action to prevent the distribution of marijuana to minors, to keep pot revenue from going to criminals and so forth.
The Obama administration more or less played by the guidelines in the Cole memo, but it could have withdrawn the memo at any time. And the same is true for the Trump administration. That's why the four governors wrote the letter.
The Trump administration might be tempted to blow off the letter as ramblings from those wacky Western states. But that would be misreading the political winds. Marijuana legalization isn't one of those issues that breaks down easily along partisan lines: Hunter, the governor of Alaska, for example, is nonpartisan, but was a Republican, and Alaska is as solid red as states get. Republican members of Congress from Western states consistently have been supporters of legalized marijuana; they believe in this notion, quaint as it may seem, of states' rights.
And while administration officials like Spicer may be misinformed about marijuana (he compared pot to the opioid epidemic during his February remarks), they surely can read polls, such as the recent one showing that 59 percent of Americans support full legalization of marijuana. That same poll suggested that 71 percent of Americans are opposed to the kind of enforcement action Spicer suggested the administration was considering.
Finally, if there's one thing that the administration does understand, it's money. Here's the trump card, so to speak, for states like Oregon that have legalized recreational marijuana: Since the start of 2016, Oregon state and local governments have collected more than $70 million in revenue from taxes on pot sales. No wonder those states get wary when the feds rattle their "war on drug" sabers. (mm)
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
UN Campus station : Disabled access planned for UN bus stop
Bonn Bonn council is speeding up the plans for the renovation of the bus stop at Walter-Flex-Strae to make it accessible for the disabled as part of the construction of the new UN Campus railway stop.
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The contract for the renovation work is valued at around 150,000 Euro and should be awarded as soon as possible, as was stated in the submission to the Bonn district administration office who will vote on it on 24 April.
The reason for the hurry is that the World Climate Conference COP 23 will be held at the World Conference Centre in Bonn in November and 20,000 participants are expected.
PHILOMATH Windsmith Music owners Mark and Katie Rasmussen wanted to ensure a seamless transition when Gracewinds Music closed in January, so the married couple opened up their new shop the same month.
The downtown Philomath business has a grand opening celebration, including live music, and special sales, thats scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Windsmith took over Gracewinds band and orchestra instrument repair service, and the shop also offers band and orchestra instruments for sale or rent, and mouthpieces, reeds, sheet music and more.
Our goal is to offer a full line of accessories for players, including some things that theyve never seen before, Katie Rasmussen said.
The Rasmussens hope to attract professional musicians from throughout Oregon and even out of state to their new shop for high-end instrument repairs.
A lot of stores cater strictly to school clientele, Mark Rasmussen said.
Katie Rasmussen said theres a shortage of expert technicians in the region who can work on instruments that are valued at up to $30,000 or more. Oregon State University musicians, for example, were sending many of their instruments out of the area.
Its reputation based, Katie Rasmussen said.
Its like if you find that magic mechanic for your car. Youll drive a long way for that, Mark Rasmussen said.
While well-versed in all instruments, Katie Rasmussen specializes in double reeds and flutes, while Mark Rasmussen is a brass expert. In May, the shop will bring aboard a saxophone guru.
The Rasmussens, who previously operated repair shops in San Diego and Colorado, contracted with Gracewinds as repair technicians for about a year before the Corvallis business closed.
Sales manager Trevor Wilson and accounts manager Debbie Russell also previously worked at Gracewinds, and have the background to help with a variety of issues, including any rental questions that come up.
The Rasmussens initially hoped that Gracewinds would stay open and that they could be a small, pro-only shop. The couple changed plans when the family that owned Gracewinds put out word they would close and focus only on online sales after 31 years in business.
Mark Rasmussen said he and his wife moved to Philomath because of family and friends in the area. They opened up their shop in the small town partly because it was cheaper to buy their own building there than in Corvallis.
Its a cool town, Mark Rasmussen said.
I expect the business district to grow. Its small, but shows potential, Katie Rasmussen added.
Windsmith Music, 1305 Main St. in Philomath, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
For more information, call 541-609-1672 or go to windsmithmusic.com.
An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
Article
Protecting the worlds oceans an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy
The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
A former Lebanon teacher has filed a complaint with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission about a Lebanon School Board member running for re-election this May.
Jennifer Walter, who taught at Seven Oak Middle School for 12 years before retiring in 2014, said she believes school board member Jerry Williams acted unethically by voting on hiring decisions concerning his daughter, Amanda Plummer, a principal in the district, in 2015 and 2016.
Walter told the Democrat-Herald she didn't know Williams and Plummer were related at the time of the votes. She said she filed her complaint March 29 because Williams is running for re-election and because the Lebanon district has been the target of complaints in recent months, both public and anonymous, from people who have questioned transparency and communication among district officials in relationships and hiring decisions.
"I think that the information that has come out in the last few months has made voters more concerned about wrongdoing," Walter said.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission confirmed it has received the complaint but the agenda has not yet been determined for its April 21 meeting.
Hiring decisions are made by school district superintendents. But board members are asked for formal approval of personnel changes on consent agendas, which often contain multiple hires.
Williams joined a unanimous vote to hire Plummer as assistant principal at Pioneer School on a June 2015 consent agenda that included 14 total hires. He also joined a unanimous vote to transfer her to Green Acres Elementary School as principal on a May 2016 consent agenda that included 22 hires and transfers.
On both occasions, Walter wrote in her complaint, Williams was, or should have been, aware of the Lebanon Community School District's policy on ethics and nepotism.
That policy, BBFB, states board members "may not appoint, employ, promote, discharge, fire, or demote or advocate for such an employment decision for a relative or member of the household, unless the Board member complies with the conflict of interest requirements" as described by law.
Williams acknowledged the votes but said in both cases, he said he checked beforehand to make sure the vote would be allowed. He said both times, he was told the vote would comply with the "class exception" in ethics laws, which says a public official does not violate nepotism rules if he or she is taking action on an item that affects a class of people, including the spouse or relative, all to the same degree.
Lebanon's nepotism policy also contains the class exception, along with an example of how it might be used. For instance, it states, if a board members spouse is a member of the collective bargaining unit, the board member may vote to approve the contract, as it will affect all members of that class to the same degree.
While the consent agendas that included Plummer were made up of multiple personnel decisions, including hires and transfers for other principals, it's not clear whether those decisions constitute a "class."
The Oregon School Boards Association, which puts together template policies for districts such as Lebanon to adopt, said the the state's ethics commission is the agency with the authority to identify a group or class and determine the minimum size required.
According to the Oregon Government Ethics Law's Guide for Public Officials, the number of persons affected to the same degree is used to determine whether this exception applies.
"As far as the application of the class exemption to a particular situation, I would have to defer to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission," said Spencer Lewis, OSBA Member Services attorney and policy specialist. "They have the authority to determine what constitutes a class."
Williams declined to say where he had received the information his vote was covered by the exception, but stressed he believed he was acting ethically.
"I voted because I was told I could do so," he said. "I did check it out before. I know the ethics rule is there. I didn't want to do anything I couldn't do."
Williams also refuted a separate portion of Walter's complaint, which alleged Williams and Plummer share a legal residence. He said he lives with his son and resided only briefly with Plummer during a property sale that did not take place during either of the votes.
He said he's working with an attorney on a formal response to the commission.
Nokia 9 to be priced at Rs. 44,999
Going by the information, the Nokia 9 might be priced at Rs. 44,999 in India. The source has also revealed that the handset might be priced at $699 in the U.S. market and 749 in the European markets.
A third quarter unveiling
Talking about the release date, the Nokia 9 was believed to be released in the second quarter of this year, which is the current quarter ending in June 2017. Now, the latest rumored information says that the smartphone will not see the light of the day until the third quarter. To be precise, the tipster has suggested a late July or early August announcement.
Also read: Nokia 9 concepts will make you dribble
Snapdragon 835 responsible for delay in release date
A third quarter unveiling, will definitely postpone the release. Eventually, the Nokia 9 release date might be happen in the end of the third quarter or later too. The main reason for the delay in the announcement and release of the Nokia 9 is perhaps due to the availability of the Snapdragon 835 SoC.
Nokia 9 will have premium specs
Going by the previous rumors, the Nokia 9 will arrive with high-end specs and features such as QHD 1440p OLED display, dual lens camera setup at its rear with Carl Zeiss optics, an iris scanner, a fingerprint sensor, and much more.
Also read: Complete specs of Nokia 9 are out
HMD's launches to cover all price points
Apart from the Nokia 9, HMD Global is in plans to unveil around six to seven Android smartphones under the Nokia brand this year. The Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 smartphones are already official and the last one is also released in some markets. The Nokia Android smartphones are said to touch all the price points from entry-level to high-end.
OnePlus 5 may come with 8GB of RAM and Dual Camera set up News oi -Shilpa OnePlus 5 offers double the amount of RAM found in other flagship smartphones.
OnePlus, known for their top-tier features and fairly inexpensive smartphones, is now rumored around its upcoming handset OnePlus 5. Since number 4 is considered as bad luck in China, they skipped it from their OnePlus series.
So, the successor of OnePlus 3T will be OnePlus 5 and not OnePlus 4. Like its predecessors, the company is going to release this phone with high-end specs. Latest rumor says that this upcoming phone will come with 8GB of RAM which is double the amount of Random Access Memory found in other flagship smartphones. Even the previous model OnePlus 3 was coupled with 6GB of RAM.
OnePlus 3T Midnight Black is now available via open sale on Amazon India
Other specs which were leaked before speaks about the processor and other basic features of this device. This phone is said to be powered by Snapdragon 835 chipset which is used in Samsung Galaxy S8.
With the reduced bezels in line, OnePlus 5 will have a display of 1440 x 2560 resolution. It breaks the previous history of OnePlus devices which had 1080 x 1920 (FHD) panel on them. Few leaks also say that we can expect a dual-camera setup in this device.
Chromium OnePlus 3T spotted online
Though this dual-camera feature has become the newest trend in almost all upcoming phones, OnePlus 5 has a different setup for them. It will be vertical instead of horizontal like other phones. The release of this phone is not yet confirmed by the company, but we are expecting it to happen in the second half of this year.
Since all the specifications are just a leak found online, it will be good if you take it with a grain of salt.
Source
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Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ pre-orders set new record in South Korea News oi -Samden Sherpa Galaxy S8 pre-orders outperform the Galaxy S7 by quite a margin in South Korea.
Well, the newly launched flagship for Samsung the Galaxy S8 has been creating a lot of buzz in the smartphone domain. The smartphone seems to have attracted a lot of attention from many consumers as well as Samsung fans. And why not, the new smartphones do offer top-of-the-line and unique features as well specs that one could wish for in a smartphone.
That being said, the demand for these smartphones seems to have reached a new height. According to a recent report from a Korean publication, Samsung Galaxy S8 pre-orders in Korea has surpassed Well, the newly launched flagship for Samsung the Galaxy S8 has been creating a lot of buzz in the smartphone domain. The smartphone seems to have attracted a lot of attention from many consumers as well as Samsung fans. And why not, the new smartphones do offer top-of-the-line and unique features as well specs that one could wish for in a smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy S8+ 6GB variant could come to other markets as well: Report
That being said, the demand for these smartphones seems to have reached a new height. According to a recent report from a Korean publication, Samsung Galaxy S8 pre-orders in Korea have reached a new record number. Since the pre-order period which was opened just a few days back, the number of units pre-ordered has reached 550,000 in just two days.
The new figure that Galaxy S8 devices have hit has surpassed the record-high number of 400,000 pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 7. More interestingly, this new count is 5.5 times more compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S7.
Refurbished Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to go on sale with 3200mAh battery
However, with this new report, it seems Samsung still has loyal fans. Moreover, the fans might have been waiting for a new flagship phone to upgrade following the Note 7 debacle. The South Korean tech giant's aggressive marketing campaign, as well as a clever sales strategy, may also have contributed to the high pre-orders. In fact, the company already has 3,000 pre-sales trial zones, the largest in Korea.
In any case, customers who have pre-ordered the device can start using the phones upon delivery after April 17. The official sales though will begin from April 21.
Source
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Xiaomi Mi Max 2 specifications show up on GFXBench News lekhaka -Gizbot Bureau Yet Another Xiaomi Phone Surfaced Online
As Xiaomi is gearing up to launch their next flagship -- Mi6 and Mi6 Plus, another outing from the Chinese handset maker leaks online showing us the heads up about the Mi Max's successor.
Purported Mi Max 2 has been spotted on the GFXBench website with a model named called as Xiaomi Oxygen'. As per listing, the alleged Xiaomi Mi Max 2 is expected to come with a 6.4-inch full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 on the front.
It is said to feature a 2.2GHz octa-core Qualcomm (Cortex A53 - ARMv8) processor, along with Adreno 506 taking care of graphics department.
If the information is trusted, this phablet will have a 4GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. As of now, there is no variant popped up as such. Also, this phablet will run on Android 7.1.1 Nougat on top of MIUI.
Moving to the camera, the device is expected to have a 12MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front snapper. In addition to that, the rear camera is capable of shooting videos at 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution.
Apart from this, it might carry other connectivity options such as WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, Accelerometer, Barometer, Digital compass, Light sensor, Gyroscope, Pedometer and Proximity sensor.
SEE ALSO: Xiaomi Mi 6 rumored specs confirmed by GFXBench
On the other hand, the company is planning to launch Mi6 smartphone this month after the confirmation from Lei Jun during the online streaming with Xiaomi fans. Saying that Xiaomi Mi6 is expected to come in two variants -- Mi6 and Mi6 Plus.
As per the leaked report, the Mi6 is expected to come with 5.1-inch Full HD (1080x1920) display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, paired with 4GB or 6GB RAM. Also, the report suggests that the phone might come in 64GB or 128GB of inbuilt storage.
It is tipped to sport a 12MP rear camera with 4K recording and 8MP front camera for selfies. Moreover, the Mi6 Plus might come with dual camera setup on the back.
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About a dozen health care activists braved wind-driven showers Friday afternoon to demonstrate for universal health care in the heart of the citys medical complex.
Wearing parkas and rain boots, the group occupied a stretch of sidewalk on Northwest Elks Drive in front of the main Corvallis Clinic building and across the street from the Samaritan Health Services cancer center.
The demonstrators, most of them members of Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates, chanted slogans such as Everybody in, nobody out and toted signs that read Medicare for all and Medicare: extend it, dont end it.
Some wore placards that read Health insurance is like a hospital gown: expensive, flimsy, and it doesnt cover your bottom, with artificial derrieres strapped on over their clothes to underscore the point.
Retired Corvallis physician Mike Huntington, one of the events organizers, said the rally was aimed at building support for Medicare for all, a plan to extend the federally subsidized health insurance plan for older Americans to the rest of the country as well. Backers of the idea have been trying to get a bill through Congress for more than a decade, but it has attracted additional support since the election of President Donald Trump, whose vow to repeal the Affordable Care Act has stoked fears of lost coverage.
There are a lot of people who have never been political who have come forward in the last three months, Huntington said.
Susie Palmrose is not a member of Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates but decided to join the demonstration after learning about it on social media.
I believe health care should be available for all equally, no matter what, she said. And I believe we should be putting our money into taking care of people and not warfare.
Dagmar Johnson said the group chose their location in part because they wanted to catch the attention of medical providers at Samaritan Health Services and The Corvallis Clinic.
We just feel theres so much awareness right now, its a good time to bring this to the forefront, she said.
One medical professional who took note was Corvallis Clinic CEO Brad Wakefield, who joined the demonstrators long enough to pass out candy and briefly wave a sign.
Some of the things they were protesting about insurance company denials, lack of insurance coverage we dont like those things either, he said. We want our patients to be able to get health care.
However, hes not yet convinced that single payer health care is entirely practical especially if it means providers would be stuck with low Medicare reimbursement rates for all their patients.
Some of the details we would have to negotiate, he said.
Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates is planning another demonstration at the same location from 2:30 to 5 p.m. today as part of a national day of action in support of Medicare for all.
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Businesses need certainty to plan for Brexit, said the Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond who visited Stonehouse company Sartorius today, as part of the Conservatives election campaign ahead of county council elections in May.
He toured the company's new premises on the edge of Stonehouse, and spoke with managing director Chris Biddell.
He was joined by Stroud's MP Neil Carmichael, and Mark Hawthorne, Conservative leader of Gloucestershire County Council at the event which also aimed to promote new opportunities for apprentices in Gloucestershire.
Sartorius, an international pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment manufacturer employs 111 people at its plant in Stonehouse which was opened a year ago by Princess Ann.
Mr Hammond took time out of the visit to discuss key issues such as Brexit.
"Of course Brexit is a big issue for manufacturers, especially companies that are part of European group like Sartorius," said Mr Hammond.
"They are looking for the greatest degree of certainty and at the earliest possible stage. We have already said that the first implementation of whatever deal we do will be phase so businesses will have time to adapt.
"We have been talking to businesses and the demand is always 'give us notice.' They say, we can cope with change if we have enough time to prepare for it."
Mr Hammond also spoke about school funding, following changes to the funding formula for education which could see Gloucestershire schools losing millions in funding.
"This issue is about how funding is distributed. I know this is a controversial issue and the Department for Education is looking at how to do this in a way that's fair.
He spoke about the importance of creating a skilled labour force.
"We are supporting investment in education and technical skills. We are creating a new T-level with a standard approach to technical education which is easy for employers and students to understand.
"We will continue to need skilled labour and Britain will continue to be open to the brightest and best, that's in the interest of our economy, but it's also right that we should focus on the up-skilling of our own people , making sure that everybody is able to fulfil their potential."
Mr Hammond also visited Gloucestershire in the week that benefit changes take effect, with families with more than two children seeing their tax credits change.
"We were elected on a manifesto commitment to make 12 billion welfare consolidation. We have made very significant spending reduction as we do have to get the country back to living within its means and being competitive, which is necessary for the sustainable future of the UK, and getting us on a sustainable footing," he said.
"People who are able to work are finding that the incentives are now there."
Ian Woolf of Sartorius said; "It's nice to have the recognition of this as a developing business in Stonehouse and Gloucestershire with a ministerial visit.
"We take our role in the community seriously and offer a full range of employment, unskilled, skilled up to engineers and PhD posts."
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Fly-tippers could be forced to sweep the streets of Gloucestershire under government plans to clear up Britain's neighbourhoods.
People found guilty of illegal waste dumping will be given community sentences and told to clean up litter from their local areas.
Drivers will reportedly also face automatic 60 fines if rubbish is thrown from their car.
Fines for dropping rubbish will also be increased to 150 for minor cases under a fly-tipping crackdown released over the weekend.
Gloucester City Council has welcomed the plans as it received more than 2,000 reports of fly-tipping in the last year.
Barton and Tredworth is among the most common areas of the city where fly-tipping occurs.
Councillor Said Hansdot, Gloucester city councillor for the area (L, Barton and Tredworth), said the new measures would be a powerful deterrent against fly-tippers.
He said: "I hope it gives them pride and they see what they've done and they can right those wrongs.
"It's catching them in the first place that's the biggest problem. We've not got enough officers or cameras.
"It's a wonderful idea. Anything that helps the city to keep it clean I'm all for."
Gloucester City Council had 2075 fly-tipping incidents reported to it in the 12 months leading up to April 2017.
That was 20.5 per cent - or 535 cases - less than the 2610 incidents it had between April 2015 and April 2016.
The council said it looks forward to the details coming from government so it can understand what this would mean for Gloucester.
Wayne Best, environmental protection service manager at Gloucester City Council, said: "Fly tipping impacts on the local community and every taxpayer in the city. Using mobile cameras and other surveillance has helped us see a 20 per cent drop in the amount of flytipping incidents from 2015/16 2016/17.
"In the last two years we've successfully managed to get 13 prosecutions with more to follow. There are also warrants for the arrest of three defendants who have not appeared to their initial hearing, which shows how seriously fly tipping is being taken these days."
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A man with the lowest IQ a judge has ever come across pleaded guilty today to cheating state benefits of more than 100,000 - but the judge accepted he had been 'exploited' by his late parents.
Duncan Bangs, 61, of Main Road, Shurdington, had undergone several IQ assessments, with the lowest of them being 44. This was the lowest "intelligence quotient" His Honour Judge Tabor QC said he had ever seen.
Bangs pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court to four charges of making a false representation to obtain a benefit, with the offences dated between March 2002 and February 2012.
The judge said Bangs had pleaded to offences that did not have the word "dishonesty" in the charges and that these were now much less serious offences than he had originally faced.
The court was told it was accepted that Bangs was "exploited by his late parents". Prosecuting the case, Simon Goodman said: "Manipulated by his family? Yes, it's all over the case papers."
As well as having an exceptionally low IQ the court was also told that Bangs could not read or write. The judge remarked that his parents "exploited his vulnerabilities and disabilities."
In an example the prosecution pointed to a grant of 8,154 that Bangs had been awarded for a new bathroom, but he did not get any benefit of that as it was fitted in his parents' house and not his.
"Ratepayers have been diddled"
However, it was accepted that Bangs did get some benefit from the offending. Sion Goodman, prosecuting, noted that "he was living rent free" and the judge said "he may not have had the money, but he did have some benefit of it. I have every sympathy with the ratepayers who have been diddled."
The court heard that some of the proceeds from the benefit fraud went on expensive motor cars with personalised number plates, but defending Bang, James Tucker said that "he was allowed to drive it occasionally but to all intents and purposes this was his mother's car."
Mr Goodman confirmed that along with 90,000 in bonds that remain frozen assets as a result of the investigation "the expensive motor cars, they are still frozen."
Sentencing Bangs to a 12 month conditional discharge and ordering him to pay compensation of 77,300 within 12 months, the judge said: "Your IQ is the lowest I've ever seen. It is staggeringly low, and in other reports it doesn't get any higher than 65.
"Inaccurate reporting would lead the public to be rightly concerned, but the facts are these. Benefits were obtained in your name to over 100,000. But the offence does not include the word dishonesty."
"The evidence suggests the benefits were obtained by your parents. The public would wonder how a grown man would find himself in this situation. The answer is that you have been blessed with an IQ that is very low.
"Exploited by greedy parents"
"You cannot read or write and have limited education. Filling in forms to claim benefits require an ability you do not possess.
"You were exploited by your frankly greedy parents."
"A very vulnerable man; your parents, who were wealthy, claimed a benefit that rose to 100,000. You would have benefited by living rent free."
"This was a very large sum of money, but you still have a considerable amount of money yourself."
The judge said before concluding "If one can speak ill of the dead, the persons who should be in the dock are your late parents."
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More than 593,000 asthma pumps have been recalled, due to a "leak" in the system.
UK pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline have voluntarily recalled some of their inhalers after multiple customers complained about a bulge in the outer wrapper.
This indicates a leak in the propellant that moves the medication out of the inhaler and into a patient's airway, which affects how much medication these inhalers push out per dose.
For asthma sufferers using the faulty apparatus, they might not be getting the right treatment they need.
The company says affected inhalers don't pose a danger to patients, Reuters reports, so there's no need to return them.
Still, if you've noticed that your inhaler isn't relieving your asthma or other respiratory symptoms, it might be good to check in with your doctor.
The affected inhalers are from lot numbers 6ZP0003, 6ZP9944 and 6ZP9848, and have been recalled from hospitals, pharmacies, retailers, and wholesalers.
This only applies to those living in the US.
The Oregon Secretary of State has told Albany resident Tom Cordier its office doesn't have the jurisdiction to determine whether explanatory statements in election materials are misleading.
Cordier had filed a complaint April 2 with the state office, alleging the explanatory statement given about a bond measure for Greater Albany Public Schools contained inaccurate information.
Cordier now has the option of taking the question to court but said he has not decided whether to do so.
The complaint centered on a passage submitted for the Benton County Voters pamphlet titled, "What would the Bond cost?"
The passage states a successful bond would cost property taxpayers an estimated $2.35 per thousand, which "represents an initial increase of 64 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value" above what residents are paying on the expiring school bond.
Cordier said he believes the 64-cent statement is "inaccurate, misleading and false" because tax rates change from year to year. Cordier said if the district were to have used an average of the tax rates for the past nine years, it would be asking votes for an increase of 77 cents to make the $2.35 total.
GAPS officials acknowledge the rate is an estimate. Business Director Russ Allen said this particular estimate was based on an average of three of the last four years of the tax rates for the expiring bond measure, which voters approved in 2006.
Cordier said he contends Benton County has a responsibility to provide accurate, truthful information to the public. But in a written response April 3, the state office told Cordier publication of false election information is governed by ORS 260.532, which states any candidates or political committee "aggrieved" by a violation "may file the action in the circuit court for any county in which the publication occurred."
"The Elections Division determines an investigation into this matter would be outside of the scope of its authority and has therefore closed the case and does not intend to pursue this matter further," wrote Aleea Sharp, investigations and legal specialist for the state.
Cordier still has a complaint pending with the state office over an allegation of electioneering with regard to the school district's bond measure.
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Upmarket supermarket Waitrose has fallen in to line with its competitors in Stroud by stationing security guards at the main entrance of the London Road store in a bid to combat shoplifters.
The guards appeared last week and their presence has raised some customers' eyebrows a county crime expert said that while he could not comment specifically on Waitrose's move, certain items are targeted by shoplifters because of their high value, relatively small size, and the ease with which they can be passed on.
Kim Mowday, Gloucestershire Police harm reduction officer, said shoplifting is a national problem.
We see things like coffee, bacon, steaks and cosmetics stolen the most because people will buy them, no questions asked," he said.
Alcohol is another big one but the higher value items are usually tagged and criminal gangs will do a 'trolley dash' to try and get away with it.
It's a question of supply and demand.
I can't speak for them but with the big national supermarkets, I expect it will be a case of having a corporate policy and bringing all stores in line.
It's a good message to send out to shoplifters, that they will be caught but people who are trained, and prosecuted.
Three times as many crimes are shoplifting, compared to any others it is a national problem. It is seen as victimless but in the long term, we the customer ends up paying for it."
At least one guard appears to be on duty at the main entrance to the Stroud store, as they are at most other large supermarkets in and around the town.
So-called 'shoulder surfers' had targeted shoppers in the store last year they would look over a customer's shoulder while they tapped in their debit or credit card PIN, then distract them in the car park, steal their card and withdraw thousands from their account.
Waitrose was tight-lipped on the matter.
You'll appreciate that we can't discuss our security," a spokesman said.
VANCOUVER, April 10, 2017 - Winston Resources Inc. ("Winston" or the "Company") (CSE: WRW; FSE:WNT) is pleased to announce GT Therapeutics, the targeted acquisition of Winston Resources Inc. , has successfully expanded its product line and launched two new vaporizers into the Cannabis market. The two respective vaporizers are the "Slim Vape" and the "Variable Vape."The Slim Vape is a three piece vape with a detachable mouthpiece that can hold CBD/THC oil in its transparent tank. The "Slim" is approximately 140mm x 8mm making it convenient, light and discrete. The battery is internally stored so users can recharge with ease. The "Slim" is known to be "Slim in Design but Big in function."The "Variable Vape" is a two piece vape with an atomizer and mouth piece attached. Built to carry CBD/THC oils in its transparent tank, the "Variable" allows users the unique advantage of adjusting the temperature. As certain cannabinoid oils have different optimal vaporizing temperatures the "Variable" allows users to optimize their experience and dosages. The "Variable" is approximately 160mm x 11mm, known to be "Built for Power and Durability."Quinn Field-Dyte of Winston comments "We believe that the future in the cannabis market is in branding, concentrates, and ancillary products. By releasing these two new products it strengthens our market share and position in these specific fields. Users look for cutting edge custom/functional designs, with the Slim and the Variable vaporizers we feel like this has been achieved .On Feb. 24, 2017, Winston signed a letter of intent with GT Therapeutics Corp., doing business as Green Tree Therapeutics, an arm's-length private British Columbia company, pursuant to which the company will complete a reverse takeover and acquire from Green Tree Therapeutics' shareholders 100 per cent of the shares of Green Tree Therapeutics, causing Green Tree Therapeutics to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Winston. On completion of the transaction, the business of Green Tree Therapeutics will become the business of Winston, and the company will abandon the Pigeon River property.The company continues to work through due diligence and negotiation of the definitive agreement. The transaction remains subject to certain closing conditions, including completion of due diligence, the negotiation and signing of a definitive agreement, and obtaining all necessary approvals, including approval of the respective boards, the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange, and if applicable, shareholders of the company. There can be no guarantees that the transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS"Quinn Field-Dyte"Quinn Field-Dyte, Chief Executive OfficerThe forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and, except as required by applicable law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. By its very nature, such forward-looking information requires the Company to make assumptions that may not materialize or that may not be accurate. This forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, levels of activity and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such information.THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Reno, April 10, 2017 - Dakota Territory Resource Corp (DTRC) ("Dakota Territory" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into agreements with Trucano Novelty, Inc. to acquire a combination of surface and mineral title to 284 acres located in the Homestake District of the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota.
City Creek Expansion
Approximately 61 acres of Dakota Territorys property acquisition are located immediately to the south and are contiguous to the Companys City Creek Property. The City Creek Property is an iron-formation hosted gold target and is located on the northeastern extension of Homestake formation at a distance approximately one mile from the discovery site of the Homestake Mine. Homestake Mining Companys widely spaced drill programs at the City Creek Property in the 1970s and 1980s produced intersections of gold mineralization in the classic quartz vein, chlorite-arsenopyrite mineralization style of the Homestake Mine.
Maitland Mine Area Acquisition
Dakota Territory has acquired approximately 82 acres located approximately one half mile south of the Companys Blind Gold Property at the western fringe of the historic Maitland Gold Mine. The property is underlain by mineralized Homestake iron-formation and is also known to carry Tertiary-aged gold-silver replacement mineralization extending from the Maitland Mine. Homestake Mining Company drilled numerous core and reverse circulation holes on the property beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the early 1990s.
Homestake Paleoplacer Extension
Located immediately to the north and adjoining the Company's Paleoplacer Property, the Company has added approximately 141 acres covering an additional 2,600 feet of the Homestake Paleoplacer trend.
It has been estimated than more than 10 million ounces of gold were eroded from the Homestake Lode producing rich placer deposits that were subsequently covered by younger sedimentary and igneous rocks. Approximately 1.5 million ounces of the gold eroded from the Homestake Lode have been realized by various means of historic production, including a string of underground paleoplacer mines stretching northward from the Homestake Lode to point that the channel disappears under cover at the Deadbroke Mine.
In the 1980s, Homestake Mining Company drilled at least 27 drill holes on property now controlled by Dakota Territory to explore for the northward extension of the paleochannel under cover. Homestakes programs discovered significant gold mineralization in the channel at a distance approximately 1,800 feet north of the Deadbroke Mine. Over the past two years, Dakota Territory has subsequently utilized historic drill data and research data pertaining to the unconformity to model the surface terrain that existed at the time of placer deposition to project the paleochannel with a much higher degree of confidence. With its most recent land acquisition, Dakota Territory now controls more than a mile of the channel projection north of the Deadbroke Mine.
The Companys property acquisition is consistent with its business development strategy of expanding its high quality mining interests within the Homestake District. In total, the Company now holds approximately 3,341 acres in the heart of the district. The Companys entire property position is based historic drill data and Dakota Territory Resource Corp. Managements 44 years combined mining and exploration experience in the Northern Black Hills with Homestake Mining Company.
Richard Bachman, Certified Professional Geologist, has reviewed the technical disclosure contained in this news release and is a Qualified Person of the Company.
About Dakota Territory Resource Corp
Dakota Territory Resource Corp. is a Nevada Corporation with offices located at Reno, Nevada. Dakota Territory is committed to creating shareholder value through the acquisition and responsible exploration and development of high caliber gold properties in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
In terms of total historic US gold production, the Black Hills ranks second only to the Carlin District of northeast Nevada, with the gold production of the Black Hills concentrated in a 100 square mile area known as the Homestake District. Dakota Territory maintains 100% ownership of three mineral properties including the Blind Gold, City Creek and Homestake Paleoplacer Properties, all of which are located in the heart of the Homestake District and cover a total of approximately 3,341 acres. The Blind Gold Property is located approximately 4 miles northwest and on structural trend with the historic Homestake Gold Mine. Through its 125 year production history, the Homestake Gold Mine produced approximately 40 million ounces of gold and is the largest iron-formation-hosted gold deposit in the world
In the 1980's and 1990's Homestake Mining Company undertook a $70 million exploration program managed by Richard Bachman, president and chief executive officer of Dakota Territory that was focused primarily on the search for a repeat of the Homestake Mine. This program successfully discovered significant new gold mineralization beyond the confines of the producing mine, demonstrating repeatability and the potential for additional gold deposits in the Homestake iron-formation host. This program also proved the continuous extension of the Homestake iron-formation to a distance of approximately 4 miles from the producing mine and under the Blind Gold Property.
Dakota Territory Resource Corp. is uniquely positioned to leverage Management's extensive exploration and mining experience in the Black Hills of South Dakota with Homestake Mining Company. For more information on Dakota Territory, please visit the Company's website at http://DakotaTRC.com/.
Investor Relations
Investor Relations Contact: For more information, please contact Dakota Territory Resource Corp. (775) 747-0667
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") limits disclosure for U.S. reporting purposes to mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. Our property currently does not contain any known proven or probable ore reserves under SEC reporting standards. Our reference above to the various formations and mineralization believed to exist in our property as compared to historical results and estimates from other property in the district is illustrative only for comparative purposes and is no indication that similar results will be obtained with respect to our property. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our latest reports filed with the SEC. You can review and obtain copies of these filings at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to: adverse economic conditions, competition, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, inadequate capital, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and other specific risks. To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Readers are advised to review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that can be accessed over the Internet at the SEC's website located at http://www.sec.gov.
No Medicaid Expansion
Adopted Medicaid Expansion
Considering Medicaid Expansion
Medicaid provides health insurance for millions of low-income, disabled and elderly Americans. While all 50 states participate in the federal program, eligibility requirements vary by state.Thirty-one states have expanded Medicaid coverage to insure additional patients under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). In states that have expanded coverage, Medicaid eligibility is available to individuals reporting incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which varies depending on the size of a household. For a family of three, the 2017 federal poverty level was $20,420.Of the states adopting Medicaid expansion, some have done so via Section 1115 waivers. They include Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Montana and New Hampshire.Following the failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to overhaul the ACA, lawmakers in several states expressed interest in expanding coverage. New attempts to expand Medicaid coverage remain viable in at least three states: Georgia, Maine and North Carolina.The Kansas state legislature voted to expand coverage in March, but Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed the bill. Republican-controlled legislatures in Missouri, Virginia and Wyoming similarly rejected Medicaid expansion proposals earlier this year.The following map tracks the status of Medicaid expansion in each state:
Ashley Hardin dreamed of being a professional photographer glamorous shoots, perhaps some exotic travel. So in 2006, she enrolled in the Brooks Institute of Photography and borrowed more than $150,000 to pay for what the school described as a pathway into an industry clamoring for its graduates.Brooks was advertised as the most prestigious photography school on the West Coast, Ms. Hardin said. I wanted to learn from the best of the best.Ms. Hardin did not realize that she had taken out high-risk private loans in pursuit of a low-paying career. But her lender, SLM Corporation, better known as Sallie Mae, knew all of that, government lawyers say and made the loans anyway.In recent months, the student loan giant Navient, which was spun off from Sallie Mae in 2014 and retained nearly all of the companys loan portfolio, has come under fire for aggressive and sloppy loan collection practices, which led to a set of government lawsuits filed in January. But those accusations have overshadowed broader claims, detailed in two state lawsuits filed by the attorneys general in Illinois and Washington, that Sallie Mae engaged in predatory lending, extending billions of dollars in private loans to students like Ms. Hardin that never should have been made in the first place.
as mayor of Baltimore and eight years as governor of Maryland, Martin OMalleys proudest achievement was developing a new way to manage state and local bureaucracy. Borrowing from CompStat, a system used by the New York Police Department, OMalley created for both his city and state an office of analysts that collected reams of performance data from departments and applied pressure for improvement through regular meetings and public progress reports. It was CitiStat in Baltimore, and StateStat when he took it to Annapolis in 2007.There were reports of dramatic results, from impressive reductions in chronic absenteeism among public workers to quicker turnarounds on filling pothole requests. The Stat programs played a role in driving down Baltimores murder rate, improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and clearing a backlog of unchecked state DNA samples collected from convicted criminals. The good news spread quickly. More than 20 large cities and a handful of counties now have Stat programs, as do several federal agencies. This data-driven approach to governing, at least among effective leaders, is becoming more the norm than the exception, OMalley says.But for all the accomplishments of OMalleys Stat initiatives, the model is in trouble. His successor in Annapolis, Gov. Larry Hogan, has discontinued the program. Baltimores CitiStat hasnt fared much better, languishing from inactivity for months, if not years, at a time. The celebrated innovation that inspired a movement of Stat-like programs from Jackson, Miss., to Washington state is struggling to stay alive on its home turf.In 2015, Hogan issued an executive order replacing StateStat with the Governors Office of Performance Improvement, or GOPI. On paper, the new office sounded a lot like the old one. It would provide accurate and timely data about the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of government services. The order called for the tracking of agencies progress against established strategic goals, along with regular meetings between the governors office and agency heads. But in practice, it looked more like a gut job than a rebranding effort. Hogan cut the offices budget in half, reduced the staff from nine positions to four, and moved the headquarters from Annapolis to a small town 20 minutes outside the state capital.The GOPI website says it publishes information on the progress that state agencies make in meeting their goals. But under the Track Our Progress tab, visitors cant track anything. The page provides a link to the states open data portal -- which still gets updates -- but without performance benchmarks, its nearly impossible to draw conclusions about agencies progress by the numbers alone. If GOPI staff meet regularly with agency heads, theres no trace of it on the website. The office does not produce public agendas beforehand or written summaries afterward. (Gov. Hogans office did not respond to questions for this story.) Its heartbreaking from a data perspective, says Beth Blauer, a former director of StateStat who now leads the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University. We built performance measures into basically everything we did and we talked about them very publicly because we wanted the public to hold us accountable. And it just disappeared.The hollowing out of StateStat isnt a total surprise given that Hogan, a Republican, is a longtime critic of OMalley, a Democrat. It can be explained at least in part as routine fallout in the transition of power between parties and political adversaries. But the Stat initiative has suffered setbacks in Baltimore as well. A few months before Hogan replaced StateStat,reported that in 2014 the CitiStat office hadnt published a single department report and had canceled a third of its meetings. The account echoed the papers coverage from 2012, when it found that CitiStat didnt publish any reports in the first two years of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakes administration. (Rawlings-Blake did not respond to interview requests.)When local media scrutinized the program two years ago, other problems came to light: As eventually happened with StateStat, CitiStats staff of nine analysts had been reduced to four. Its director was splitting his time between his full-time city government job and a part-time position with a private law firm. When reporters inquired about how many CitiStat meetings the mayor or her chief of staff had attended, her spokesman couldnt say. My great fear in all of this is that we are losing the accountability that our constituents and we depend on, Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke said at an oversight hearing on CitiStat in 2015.As the Stat model has struggled in its home state, it continues to spread elsewhere. The Johns Hopkins Center for Government Excellence is now involved in What Works Cities, a national consortium of municipalities that draws lessons from CitiStat and incorporates them into a broader strategy around transparency, data management and evidence-based decision-making. Performance measurement of one variety or another is an increasingly common way to run government agencies, which is why what happened in Baltimore and Annapolis may provide useful lessons for jurisdictions elsewhere. Many of the Stat programs are still being run by the elected officials who established them. They have yet to undergo the test of a political transition.In Baltimore, for all its problems, CitiStat still exists. Catherine Pugh, who won last Novembers mayoral election, is the third person to inherit the program since OMalley left office. As a candidate, Pugh pledged to keep CitiStat as a tool of measurement and accountability, but also as part of a broader strategy for analyzing and responding to crime trends. Whether CitiStat undergoes a revival, or drifts further into irrelevance, will speak volumes about the models long-term viability as a good-government tool from one administration to the next.Its something that OMalley himself thinks about. He recalls discussing the sustainability of Stat programs with Bill Bratton, the former New York City police commissioner who helped institute CompStat. Bratton said to me, You know, Martin, the hardest things to institutionalize are new systems that require constant work. And thats true on policing. Thats true on the environment. Thats true across any government -- city, state or federal, OMalley says. Just as easily, that rock will roll back down the hill if someones not pushing it up.the man tasked with breathing life back into CitiStat is Sameer Sidh. His most recent post was with the citys department of transportation, but he was a director of StateStat in the OMalley administration. Since assuming his post in late 2015, Sidh has created a Twitter account and new website for CitiStat. Hes conducting regular meetings and publishing progress reports online. I wanted to make sure it was clear that it was an active program, he says. It was a mix of getting us back to our fundamentals, holding agencies accountable and making sure we were following up on discussions that we had in meetings.Perhaps Sidhs most difficult assignment has been to cleanse CitiStat of the authoritarian and sometimes corrosive top-down management structure that rankled program managers and agency heads. The word that were pushing is collaboration, Sidh says. Ive tried to relax the atmosphere a little bit more. We want folks to be honest. Ultimately as city hall, we want to understand whats going on from the agency level. You can extract more information if folks are actually comfortable talking.Several of the CitiStat directors under Rawlings-Blake had made similar pledges to depart from the confrontational nature of the program in the OMalley years. Viewers of the HBO television series The Wire are familiar with the dramatized version of Baltimore police meetings in which senior officials would flash numbers on a screen and publicly grill subordinates about their failure to meet benchmarks. One previous director likened CitiStat in its early days to a Spanish inquisition. Today, the new CitiStat, Sidh says, is not an opportunity to browbeat middle managers, but an opportunity to get better as a city government.One former director, Matt Gallagher, says the old critique of CitiStat as hostile and demoralizing stems from rare incidents, usually after months of missed targets and poor performance, that led to confrontation. The stuff about an adversarial relationship was overblown, he says. You have to remember that we were holding five Citistat meetings a week, sometimes six. Thats 250-plus Stat meetings over the course of a year. If youre going to convene that often, if youre going to have robust conversations about performance, good and bad, theres going to be disagreements.Bob Behn, a Harvard professor who visited dozens of CitiStat meetings in researching his book,, says the Stat meetings he witnessed could make subordinates uncomfortable, but they were always civil. Nobody swore at anybody. Nobody personally belittled people, Behn says. What you did was ask them questions that they couldnt answer. And if you ask them questions that they cant answer, thats embarrassing. You dont have to swear at people or raise your tone. Everybody gets it.Regardless of how accurate the portrayal of CitiStat as a brutal inquisition might be, it reflects a common perception of how the program operated. And it sheds some light on why a successor would want to change it.In Baltimore, Sidh and Pugh plan to shift CitiStat from its focus on the performance of individual agencies to an emphasis on cross-cutting policy issues, such as homelessness or blight. In Stat meetings about the citys homeless population, for instance, staff from the police, fire and transportation departments would attend, even though ending homelessness is not currently part of the core mission for any of them. Baltimore has tested this approach in the past with issue-specific Stat groups that focused on cleanliness, child well-being, illegal gun trafficking and domestic violence. But those were the exceptions. Now they will be the main program.Gallagher thinks thats what needs to happen. You think about complex outcomes like the health of the Chesapeake Bay or producing a safe, happy, healthy child, he says, and its hard to hold one agency accountable for that outcome because so many different agencies contribute to it.seems to be in line with the way the overall field of government performance measurement is evolving. Programs inspired by the OMalley Stat programs have since developed their own twist on the original concept. One of those programs is in Cincinnati, where City Manager Harry Black launched CincyStat based on his three years as chief financial officer in Baltimore. Black decided to place his Stat program in a larger Office of Performance and Data Analytics. Once his staff identifies a troubling trend in a Stat session, they refer the issue to another part of the office called the Innovation Lab, which uses business and process improvement techniques to address the problem. Stat by itself is not enough, Black says. What are you going to do with what you discover?Other jurisdictions are experimenting in similar ways. In Washington state, for example, Gov. Jay Inslee sits in on monthly Stat-like Results Review meetings where his analysts discuss strategy and performance data with senior agency officials. But his Results Washington program also includes Lean process improvement training to equip state employees with the skills necessary to address problems that arise in review sessions.In Baltimore, meetings under the last administration had slipped to six-week intervals, raising concerns from the city council that the program couldnt be as responsive to emerging trends. Yet some Stat supporters say the programs shouldnt be judged on the frequency of meetings. That, too, evolves over time. David Gottesman, manager of a Stat program in Montgomery County, Md., says the regularity of meetings should correspond with the general performance of an agency and the urgency of resolving a particular issue. When his predecessor created Montgomery CountyStat about 10 years ago, the office held weekly or biweekly meetings with department heads and program managers. When CountyStat was in its infancy, it was appropriate, Gottesman says. The meetings could last three hours and required the attendance of senior officials within a department, an expensive investment of labor and resources. Over the years, the value in those meetings naturally diminishes because you attack the low-hanging fruit and you get things in a good state.The exception is when a crisis hits that requires immediate attention. When the Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control received negative press in 2015 for poor customer service, CountyStat initiated routine meetings and weekly progress reports around a few key outcomes. As the department has improved in the past year, the Stat sessions have become less frequent.One of the potential lessons from CitiStat and StateStat is that these programs inevitably run the risk of being sidelined during a political transition. On one hand, they usually require the ongoing engagement of the executive. Both in Baltimore and in Annapolis, OMalley not only gave the programs his blessing, but attended the sessions and sometimes ran them. His personal involvement made people identify Stat as an OMalley project. That association has posed problems. Nobody succeeds somebody else and wants to prove that her or his predecessor was brilliant, says Behn, the Harvard professor. Most people dont come in and want to continue their predecessors initiatives. The most you can hope for is that theyll keep the substance and change the name.Some of the Stat programs outside Maryland have tried to account for the risks of political transition. In Louisville, Ky., LouieStat has developed two layers. Agency heads hold regular sessions with their own internal analysts. Then the mayors office convenes more traditional Stat meetings that focus on cross-agency issues, such as pedestrian safety and citywide customer service. The goal is to transfer partial ownership of LouieStat to department heads, so that it isnt exclusively the mayors program.The way elected officials talk about Stat programs may also affect their longevity. In her role at What Works Cities, Blauer advises municipal officials that the public relations strategy around a Stat program should focus on improved outcomes that affect citizens lives, not the underlying machinery that made them happen. For example, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu used the Stat model to corral his administrations efforts around reducing blight and violent crime in the city. What the public associates with Landrieu isnt his performance management approach, but the results derived from it. It hasnt been Mayor Landrieu, NolaStat Mayor, she says. Its been Mayor Landrieu, the mayor thats getting hard work done in the city of New Orleans, and these are just the tools that hes relying on.If successors see Stat as a standard tool to achieve their policy objectives, they may be more likely to keep it. That is what Sidh hopes will happen in Baltimore. This has to be broadly respected as a good-government practice and not just the creation of one specific political figure, he says. Regionally and nationally, I think youre starting to see that tide turn and people understand that the value of the program goes beyond the one person who gave the program its name.
The gavel fell, and Alabama's government Monday went to a place it hasn't visited in 102 years.The House Judiciary Committee Monday morning opened impeachment proceedings against Gov. Robert Bentley over actions he allegedly took in pursuing and trying to cover up an affair with senior political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason."I trust we will all approach this with a fair and open mind," Rep. Mike Jones, R-Andalusia, the committee chairman, said Monday morning. "We must put aside partisan bias and preconceptions and approach this task with fairness."It is the first ever impeachment directed at a governor, and the first impeachment considered by the chamber since 1915.Bentley, who has maintained his innocence, has denied doing anything illegal and publicly stood his ground, insisting he will not resign. But the political and legal earth continues to shift beneath his feet.The Alabama Ethics Commission Wednesday found probable cause that Bentley violated ethics and campaign finance laws. The report proved a major blow to Bentley and what little political capital he had remaining in the Legislature. By early Friday afternoon, Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston and House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia -- both of whom previously steered clear of comments on impeachment or Bentley's legal woes -- called on Bentley to resign.Those calls came before the release of a damaging impeachment report Friday afternoon, which depicted Bentley as obsessing over tapes of conversations between himself and Mason. According to the report, Bentley used state law enforcement to try to obtain the tapes and question staffers he believed had knowledge of them. The report also depicted the governor becoming emotionally unstable over the relationships, wavering between tearful contrition and angry defiance, to the point of threatening staffers who knew or who he believed he knew about the existence of the tapes.Jack Sharman, the special counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, began his opening arguments against Bentley Monday morning, mainly outlining the history of impeachment and the Alabama Constitution's somewhat hazy description of it."Impeachment is the people's check against political excess," Sharman told the committee. "It is a remedy of the state as opposed to punishment for an individual as in a criminal case."Sharman's presentation was expected to take up most of the day Monday. Bentley's legal team is expected to make its case Tuesday. The governor has a limited ability to ask questions of witnesses and mount a defense, but Bentley's attorneys insist that he should be able to confront and cross-examine witnesses before the committee. Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin delayed the hearings on Friday after the governor's attorneys made that argument in court, but the Alabama Supreme Court reversed that ruling Saturday.Bentley says he has broken no laws and to this point has resisted calls to step. down. Alabama Political Reporter and al.com reported Sunday and Monday that negotiations for Bentley's resignation were beginning. Yasamie August, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Monday morning the governor was not "personally involved" in resignation negotiations.The Ethics Commission sent its findings to Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey last week. Bailey Monday referred the charges Ellen Brooks, acting as attorney general in an investigation of Bentley. In a letter referring the case to Brooks, Bailey wrote he wanted to avoid "duplication of effort or interference with your investigation."While impeachment of a sitting governor unprecedented, the governor's ordeal was only part of a larger leadership crisis that consumed state government for more than two-and-a-half years. House Speaker Mike Hubbard last June was convicted on 12 felony ethics charges and removed from office. Last September, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended for the remainder of his term after instructing probate judges in the state to not issue same-sex marriage licenses, in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing the practice.Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, a member of the House Judiciary Committee recused himself from the hearing. Jones, who announced the recusal, did not give a reason why. Ball signed the articles of impeachment filed against Bentley last May, and the governor's legal team tried to get everyone on the committee who signed them to recuse themselves, including Ball; Rep. Mike Holmes, R-Wetumpka and Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla. Holmes and Farley were present for the hearing Monday.
Many Threats
Funding Ideas
In just the last two months, hackers may have obtained the personal data of millions of job seekers in 10 states that outsource job-search services. In Pennsylvania, Democratic state senators were locked out of their computers for two weeks after a malware attack. And in Richmond, Indiana, the housing authority lost a months worth of data after fraudsters breached its network.Cybercriminals are unrelenting in their attacks on state and local government computer networks, which contain detailed personal and business information such as birth certificates, drivers licenses, Social Security numbers and even bank account or credit card numbers on millions of people and companies.Now, state and local officials are hoping Congress will give them some help in fending off the constant threat.In a rare bipartisan move, a group of U.S. senators and House members introduced a bill last month that would help state and local governments beef up their cybersecurity efforts. The proposed State Cyber Resiliency Act, which does not have a dollar figure attached, would create a dedicated grant program to distribute money to states so they could set up and implement a plan for how to protect themselves against cybersecurity threats and better identify, detect, respond to and recover from attacks. A chunk of funding also would go to local governments.The grants could help state and local officials become more proactive in dealing with cyber threats, said Brian Calkin, a vice president of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a federally funded group that tracks cybersecurity issues for state and local governments.I feel like were always playing catch-up, Calkin said. Id love for us to get at least even with the bad guys.States also could use the federal grant money to enhance their computer networks security by buying technology and other cybersecurity services and figuring out ways to recruit and retain staff.State officials say they need the federal help. In announcing the legislation, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who co-sponsored the measure, noted that 80 percent of states lack funding to develop sufficient cybersecurity.Connecticuts chief information officer, Mark Raymond, said, This is critically important for the states. Having something specifically dedicated to protecting citizen and business data would be incredible.Although state information technology officials have strengthened their cyber defenses in recent years, they acknowledge it may not be enough. According to a 2015 report by the Ponemon Institute, an information security research company, half of state and local governments surveyed said they had experienced between six and 25 data breaches in the last two years. Others had faced even more.If our systems are not protected and functioning, it makes it really hard to do this job, said Michael Watson, Virginias chief information security officer. Our citizens trust us with very confidential data health records, tax information. We need to make sure that its secure.State and local governments face a variety of threats from hackers and cybercriminals.Some fraudsters go phishing, using emails that government employees unwittingly click on to take them to fake websites designed to get personal information, such as passwords.Others use malware called ransomware to hijack government computer systems and hold them hostage until their victims pay a ransom or restore the system on their own. In some cases, that can take days or even weeks, and in the meantime, public services for residents, schoolchildren and even hospital patients may be disrupted.Some intruders combine hacking and activism and target government computer networks to draw attention to a political or social cause. Online activists have successfully frozen servers, defaced websites and hacked into data or email and released it online.Cybersecurity has become the top priority for state information technology officials, according to a 2016 report by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and consulting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.But the report, which surveyed top IT security officers from 48 states, found that funding to fend off cyber threats is inadequate. In most states, spending on cybersecurity was only a tiny fraction of a states overall IT budget, ranging from zero to 2 percent.In Connecticut, for example, only about 1 percent of the states IT budget goes to cybersecurity, according to Raymond, the states chief information officer.Yejin Cooke, NASCIOs government affairs director, said inadequate cybersecurity funding has become a huge issue for states, which face increasingly sophisticated threats.States already can access federal funding through a Homeland Security grant program, but officials say that pot of money rarely is distributed for cybersecurity. The program was created to support anti-terrorism and police training, and the money usually ends up being used for emergency preparedness and first responders.Cooke said states would be happy to get dedicated federal funding to fortify their cyber defenses. But while the proposed bill would authorize creating a grant program, its lack of a dollar figure or funding source may be an obstacle to getting it passed, she said.It can be a hurdle because people in Congress like to see how much its going to cost and where the money is coming from, she said.If the bill does progress, Cooke said, it will get amended with a dollar figure and source of funding before it becomes law. Thats what were hoping will happen.Should Congress provide the money, state officials say they have plenty of ideas about how they will spend it.In Virginia, which Watson said dealt with more than 71 million cyberattacks and at least 200 system breaches last year, the grant could pay to update security technology, and for recruitment and training programs for new security staff.Federal funding also could help support the state IT offices current efforts to compile and share information on patterns of threats it finds and how best to detect them, Watson said. The information is shared with businesses, as well as state and local government agencies.In Connecticut, Raymond said he would use grant money to buy multifactor authentication technology, a security system that requires more than one method of confirming identity to allow people to log in or complete a transaction. Users, for example, after typing in their ID and password to log in to a website, would be asked to enter a one-time password that would be sent to their smartphone or email.Having that type of technology would greatly reduce the ability of fraudsters to use stolen credentials to break into the states computer systems, he said.Raymond said he also could use money to extend cybersecurity protections to include municipalities and set up a central location from which to conduct investigations into attacks.While officials agree that sophisticated technology, analysis and information-sharing are critical for states trying to protect themselves and the public from cybercriminals, they admit they cant succeed without having top-quality staffers to do the work.Recruiting and retaining employees with cybersecurity experience is a constant headache for state IT officials, especially after years of tight budgets and competition from private industry, where salaries often are much higher.States could spend more resources on technology, and that would be fine, said Calkin of the multistate analysis center. But ultimately, the cybersecurity is only as good as the people responsible for using that technology.
Dallas officials blame computer hacking for setting off emergency sirens throughout the city early Saturday.Rocky Vaz, director of Dallas' Office of Emergency Management, said all 156 of the city's sirens were activated more than a dozen times.Officials don't know who was responsible for the hacking, but Vaz said "with a good deal of confidence that this was someone outside our system" and someone in the Dallas area.The city has figured out how the emergency system was compromised and it's working to prevent it from happening again, he said. It's a "very concerning" issue that Dallas has never faced before.Although Vaz said identifying who sounded the sirens will be like "finding a needle in a haystack," Mayor Mike Rawlings said authorities will "find and prosecute whomever is responsible.""This is yet another serious example of the need for us to upgrade and better safeguard our city's technology infrastructure," Rawlings said. "It's a costly proposition, which is why every dollar of taxpayer money must be spent with critical needs such as this in mind. Making the necessary improvements is imperative for the safety of our citizens."Authorities initially described the problem as a system malfunction when the sirens started blaring shortly before midnight Friday.City spokeswoman Sana Syed said about 12:30 a.m. that Dallas Fire-Rescue crews were working to fix the problem. But it took until about 1:20 a.m. to silence them for good because the emergency system had to be deactivated.The system remains shut down Saturday while crews safeguard it from another hack. The city said the system should be restored Sunday or Monday -- in time for the thunderstorms that are expected to begin rolling through the area early next week.One of the biggest challenges the security breach posed was to the city's 911 call system, which has been strained recently by technical difficulties and short staffing.Even as the city asked residents not to dial 911 to ask about the sirens, more than 4,400 calls were recived from 11:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. -- twice the average number made between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m, Syed said.The largest surge came from midnight to 12:15 as about 800 incoming calls caused wait times to jump to six minutes, far above the city's goal to answer 90 percent of the calls within 10 seconds."We understand that people were concerned," Syed said. "We had people asking if we were being attacked because of what's going on overseas."Dallas officials said they have begun working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to add an alert system that would send messages to all cellphones in the area when there is an emergency.The city said it has also asked the Federal Communications Commission to help find who is responsible for the security breach.In November, the City Council approved a $567,368 budget to maintain and repair all of the city's emergency sirens over the next six years.Michigan-based West Shore Services was the winning bidder for the city contract.The company's operations manager, Luke Miller, said Saturday that the city had not notified him the system had been hacked."I am trying to get information along with everyone else," he said. "I don't know know anything."Miller said he expects his company will help investigate what went wrong.City Council member Philip Kingston, a member of the Public Safety Committee, said Saturday morning that officials will move the compromised emergency system to the top of their agenda."And that's sad, because the list is so long," he said, referring to other problems, including the short-staffed 911 call center."If this is indeed hacking, it has just become top priority," Kingston said. "And you can put me down as terrified."Jennifer Staubach Gates, who also serves on the Public Safety Committee and is chairwoman of the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee, said City Auditor Craig Kinton recently told her it was time for the city to review its security vulnerabilities."If it's hacking, it's extremely concerning," she said. "If someone's messing with our emergency system we've got an issue. We need to get to the bottom of it -- what kind of vulnerabilities do we have?"
On Friday, in the afternoon, at St Brigids Church, Brisbane, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey paid their respects to family and friends of the Honourable Martin Moynihan AO QC prior to his funeral.
Following, at Government House, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey hosted an afternoon reception in support of the Australian Council of Education Leaders, Queensland, where His Excellency addressed guests.
In the evening, at the Royal International Convention Centre, Brisbane, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey attended the Centenary Gala Ball for the Churchie Old Boys Association.
Description
GIS - 10 April, 2017: Mauritius is being solicited to serve as host country for the 14th edition of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in 2018 and become the first African country to accommodate such event. Mauritius is being solicited to serve as host country for the 14edition of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in 2018 and become the first African country to accommodate such event.
In this context a delegation from the WIEF headed by its Chairman, Mr Tun Musa Hitam, and former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, this morning at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. The aim was to seek approval from the Mauritian authorities for the organisation of the Forum in Mauritius.
In a statement following the courtesy call, the Chairman of WIEF expressed satisfaction regarding his meeting with Prime Minister Jugnauth, which he said was very cordial and fruitful in light of the positive response regarding the WIEF to be held in Mauritius in 2018.
According to Mr Tun Musa Hitam, WIEF has been encouraged to use Mauritius as platform for the World Islamic Economic Forum which will be an ideal opportunity to bring together the business community worldwide to discuss and tap the various business possibilities in Mauritius, including the African continent.
Mr Tun Musa Hitam also spoke of the diverse areas of cooperation raised with Prime Minister in various economic spheres. WIEF is a purely business oriented organisation, irrespective of any religion implication, he said. He further announced that WIEF has extended an official invitation to the Prime Minister to participate in the 13th edition of the Forum scheduled in November 2017 in Malaysia.
About the WIEF Foundation
Launched in 2005, the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which organises the annual World Islamic Economic Forum. It is the largest international gathering of Heads of Government, economic experts, academia, international organisations and stakeholders to share experiences and knowledge about Islamic economy.
The WIEF Foundation seeks to stimulate growth and prosperity for the Muslim population, through trade, investment opportunities and business strategies. Its strategy is, Building Bridges Through Business. In this respect, it recognises the need to interact with non-Muslim partners and enlarge the scope of its dialogue and network beyond the Muslim world towards secular actors.
Its main selling point is its ethos of utilising business partnerships, whether at private-to-private level or public-private partnership level, to strengthen the economic clout of the Muslim population whilst contributing to international collaboration.
Description
GIS - 10 April, 2017: The First Ministerial Committee to look into the implementation of the Ten Year Master Plan for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) was held on 07 April 2017 under the Chairmanship of the Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, Mr Nandcoomar Bodha, in Port-Louis. The First Ministerial Committee to look into the implementation of the Ten Year Master Plan for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) was held on 07 April 2017 under the Chairmanship of the
The aim of the Master Plan is to address the main constraints of SMEs and put forward a comprehensive strategic plan that will infuse resilience and productivity to the sector.
In this context, a Ministerial Committee was set up to bring forth a framework for SMEs Development so as to drive their transformation process in relation to the set objectives of the Master Plan.
In a statement to the press, Minister Bodha stated that the Master Plan outlines various measures to create a thriving and conducive business landscape so that SMEs attain different phases of growth and assume a far more prominent role as a pillar in the economy.
Minister Bodha at the very outset underlined that it is important to identify and tackle the major challenges that the SMEs are facing such as lack of access to finance and a restricted market. Hence there is a need to create measures such as opening new market avenues locally and develop a comprehensive Africa SME Strategy so as to enable SMEs take advantage of growing opportunities in Africa and expanding financial access with the aim of boosting the sector on all fronts underscored the Minister.
On that note, he announced that public infrastructure projects of less than Rs 5 million will be given exclusively to SMEs, under the supervision of the Road Development Authority and the Traffic Management and Road Safety Unit.
For his part, Minister Bholah pointed out that the Master Plan adopts a long term perspective through the definition of specific objectives, proposal of key actions that will radically improve the SME business landscape in the next ten years.
While recalling that the SMEs sector can be a key propeller of economic growth, he added that the Master Plan will ensure that targets of raising SMEs contribution to GDP up to 52% by 2026 and increasing exports to about 18% become achievable. The measures listed out in the Master Plan will infuse new competitive strengths into SMEs and turn them into globally-competitive players, concluded Minister Bholah.
(TNS) -- Brad Booth walked out of his house on West 11th Avenue and wondered what the heck was happening.He saw several people standing around a colorful vehicle with an odd-looking contraption on top."I didn't know what it was," Booth, 62, said. "It's got the cameras on the top."He lives on the Northwest Side, just south of Kinnear Avenue and west of the Olentangy River.Booth soon learned that the Franklin County auditor is using a new way to unobtrusively photograph the county's 428,000 properties.Eldridge Settles of Blacklick is one of three people hired to drive slowly through the county in the modified sport-utility vehicle for Cyclomedia Technologies They have driven thousands of miles in the Ford Escape equipped with five cameras and lots of computer equipment. Every 16 feet, the cameras automatically take photos that will be joined with software to create a virtual tour of Franklin County homes and businesses. Auditor Clarence Mingo, whose office paid $735,000 for the 360-degree virtual reality version of the county, will place that information on his office's website."You could virtually walk the street" on the website, said Lance Gates, the auditor's director of appraisal.County auditors are required by law to maintain accurate information on every property. That is done, in part, because property values are used to determine how much property tax owners pay to governments. Every six years, Ohio auditors have to physically visit each property to help set its value. Franklin County's properties are valued at a total of $102 billion, on which $2 billion is collected annually in property taxes. The street-level photos also show new construction and changes in property.Settles and the two other drivers have to take photos of all of those properties. They've been at it since January and are expected to be done by the end of April. The photos, auditor spokesman Dave O'Neil said, should be on the auditor's website by the end of May. Lasers in the vehicles measure the height, depth and width of each house and property. The old process, O'Neil said, took a year. This process takes four months.The service is similar to what Google does with its Street View maps. But Cyclomedia offers additional features, including measuring structures to the centimeter for appraisal purposes. This also allows Mingo to fulfill his lawful responsibility to photograph each property every three years. Franklin County owns the photos.The auditor's website has included photos of individual houses and business for several years, but this is the first time it will have a 360-degree virtual tour capability."We do this to give taxpayers, residents an accurate look at their property," O'Neil said."Their property will be appraised more fairly, more accurately. And it's less intrusive. This is just a car driving down the road."The former system required the vehicle to stop in front of each property, resulting in residents occasionally calling to ask why the FBI was in their driveway. The Cyclomedia vehicle rarely stops, instead driving by at about 15 mph."We don't get those (FBI calls) now," O'Neil said.Privacy concerns, such as children walking on the sidewalk and appearing in the photos, aren't a concern. Special software used by Cyclomedia automatically blurs out faces and license plates.The auditor's office found that out in January, right after Christmas, after looking at the first photos returned from the program. Pictures of properties with Santa Claus figures outside them came back with the Santas' faces blurred."That's the level of sophistication this has," O'Neil said.
How Intervention Systems Work
Overcoming Challenges
Starting with the right data. Its kind of junk in, junk out, Weis said. If names have not been entered in the same format in the past, for example, it may cause problems for the new system. You can have the greatest analytical tools in the world, but if the underlying data is incorrect or incomplete, the conclusions may be wrong. And departments may use these conclusions to drive policy.
Getting buy-in. Officers may initially be suspicious of a system that is used to track disciplinary issues. And for the system to reassure the community, the public needs to understand how it works.
Making the right comparisons. The system will not produce valid results and will make officers feel it is unfair unless it compares officers to others doing similar work. Analytics are built into the system to make sure were comparing apples to apples, Harrison said.
Reaping the Benefits
Early intervention. Before LAPD had its early intervention system in place, supervisors were often unsurprised when they heard about officers getting in trouble but nothing had been done to keep issues from escalating, Scott said. Now what you see is a department that is very proactive. [The system] allows the command staff to move people or change their assignments you can do that before an officer gets into any type of risk-based problem.
Before LAPD had its early intervention system in place, supervisors were often unsurprised when they heard about officers getting in trouble but nothing had been done to keep issues from escalating, Scott said. Now what you see is a department that is very proactive. [The system] allows the command staff to move people or change their assignments you can do that before an officer gets into any type of risk-based problem. Staff retention. Its expensive to train an officer, Strandberg said. If you can intervene with training or communication or counseling so your first conversation with that officer isnt when theyre being terminated thats a metric theyre concerned with.
Its expensive to train an officer, Strandberg said. If you can intervene with training or communication or counseling so your first conversation with that officer isnt when theyre being terminated thats a metric theyre concerned with. Better decision-making. The system is making us a 21st-century police department, where we can know how our people are performing and our decisions are based on science and data, Harrison said.
Improvements in culture and management. Seattle Chief of Police Kathleen OToole said in a statement, This integrated platform has improved our ability to track use of force and officer performance across multiple measures. These analytics not only promote accountability, but also enhance police operations by supporting proper management of personnel helping SPD officers deliver high-quality policing to the communities they serve.
Public trust and communication. In addition to being able to tell the public that the department has an early warning system to help identify officers with problematic behavior, the New Orleans system now has more accurate data available. As a result, we have been able to release a number of data sets to the public, resulting in public engagement, said Lamar Gardere, New Orleans CIO. Its increased transparency and increased accountability.
The Future
With intense public scrutiny of relations between police officers and the communities they serve, departments are looking for new ways to head off problems before they escalate.Police departments already have a lot of data available that could be helpful: use of force incidents, citizen complaints, praise of officers from other officers or the community. But making sense of that data is not always easy. For example, if two officers use force during stops twice in one month, are they both performing the same and at equal risk of having a serious incident in the future? What if one officer made dozens of stops during that time and the other only made two using force both times? Does it make a difference if they were patrolling in different areas, or if one was on the night shift and the other working during the day?To sort through the data and draw the right conclusions from it, some departments are turning to performance management systems also called early intervention systems for data analysis.Early intervention systems dont start from good beginnings, said Brian Christenson, vice president of public sector solutions for Sierra-Cedar, which works with police departments to customize and implement its system, called Insight. Many times, departments create them as part of a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice after an investigation into problems. But they set the stage for improvements.The basic idea of an early intervention system is to take data from multiple sources often about a dozen, though the Seattle Police Department just started using a system that draws on 17 different data sets and analyze them so users can easily see unusual patterns.Every piece of data around an officers interactions or job comes together and forms the foundation for what an early intervention system does, said Garth Strandberg, vice president of justice and public safety solutions with Sierra-Cedar.The Seattle system, for example, looks at data that comes from sources ranging from human resources to internal affairs. It integrates with the computer-aided dispatch system and tracks arrests, training and other incidents. The Seattle Police Department worked with Accenture to develop this data analytics platform, which was finished in January. The system followed a consent decree with the federal government, which required that the city proactively address the use of force by police officers.Were looking at the whole picture of the officer, said Jody Weis, Accentures director of public safety for North America. Thats good for the officers, and I think its really good for the community.Once the system has the data, the key is to analyze it. How many times has an officer used force in the past six weeks? That number may be higher for a member of a SWAT team, for example, than for someone who patrols a relatively peaceful neighborhood. Tuning the system to account for these differences is key to making it work.It looks at the outliers, Strandberg said. Do we have an issue with an officer that requires training? The idea is to engage with the officer before it becomes a punitive action.For example, the system the Los Angeles Police Department uses analyzes each officers performance each night, sending an electronic action item to the supervisors inbox if an officers performance appears to vary from that of other officers doing similar work.The current version of the LAPDs system, which Sierra-Cedar put together and is called TEAMS II (for Training, Evaluation and Management System), went live in 2007. The system was originally mandated by a consent decree between the department and the U.S. Department of Justice in 2001.The LAPD system looks at five issues: use of force, complaints, collisions, pursuits, and claims and lawsuits. It looks at how often an officer is involved in these incidents compared with other officers, as well as how often these occur compared with how many stops and arrests they make.We have guidelines that supervisors go through for the analysis, said Cmdr. Regina Scott of the LAPD. Supervisors must determine whether there is a pattern of conduct that needs further action. Everyone is looking at the same things in creating their evaluation.The analysis can end in different ways, including no action, counseling, or initiating disciplinary action. The supervisor then discusses the issue and its disposition with the officer involved, and includes that conversation in the final analysis, which is then reviewed by several higher levels of command staff.Different departments may start out with different data sets and look at them in different ways.For example, Seattles system identifies each officers chain of command on any given day, Weis said, so if an officers results are different depending on the supervisor, that will become clear.The system charts the places and times of day when force is most likely to be used. It also tracks demographic information for officers and offenders, so racial patterns will become apparent. And since it also tracks training, it can identify if an officer is missing critical training.In the system Sierra-Cedar built for the New Orleans Police Department, which has had the companys Insight tool fully implemented for a few months as part of its response to a consent decree, a supervisor dashboard allows supervisors to look at everybody in their command in 30 seconds and get a summary of what they have done over the past 24 hours, Strandberg said. The supervisors are where change happens and where it affects the people on the street, and giving them the right tools is probably the most impactful thing the system does.Although early intervention systems can provide valuable insights, departments face many challenges in setting them up and using them effectively:In Seattle, the team worked really hard on cleaning up their data, Weis said.The LAPD, too, put in a significant effort to gather all the data to import it into the system, Strandberg said.And in New Orleans, the department realized that it would need to upgrade some of the databases, including the training and payroll systems, that would feed into the system. The information had to be accurate and clean, said New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison. The department also had to digitize some historical information to enter into the system.Once the data is cleaned up, its important to develop policies to ensure future data entry is done consistently.The New Orleans Police Department did not want its officers to view the system as punitive: It is not a disciplinary management tool, it is a human resource management tool, Harrison said. It is designed to alert supervisors when we see trends that need some type of supervisory intervention.The New Orleans system includes commendations and positive comments from the public, and it gives individual officers self-service access to information in their personnel files. This gives them something of value that they werent getting before, Christenson said.Communication was also key both with officers and with the community.We spent a lot of time working on messaging, Harrison said.In Los Angeles, there were concerns at the beginning that the system would generate extra work for supervisors, Scott said. But after the system had been in use for a couple of years, what you saw was that it was a tool that assisted supervisors. It kept them focused. And the officers feel that we are now more of a transparent organization, an organization that holds its people accountable.Because many external factors change at the same time that performance management systems are implemented, it can be difficult to quantify the results of using the systems.However, departments using the systems cite benefits in a number of areas:When officers are being considered for new assignments or promotions, everyone involved wants to be sure the decisions are fair. Without good data available, it was easy for those decisions to be based on memory, not on accurate data. Now, were actually comparing apples to apples and not making those decisions in a vacuum, Harrison said. This helps ease officers concerns about fairness and favoritism in making these assignments.In Los Angeles, Scott said, the system has changed the culture of our department. Were all on the same page; were all looking for risk issues.Scott said that in Los Angeles, too, the system has increased openness. Were more professional, more open, and because of that we have built the public trust within the community.Public trust is critical because of how life-changing an encounter with the police can be.Police officers have the authority to take away your liberty, and they can under certain circumstances have the authority to use deadly force, Weis said.Early intervention systems are expandable and modifiable, and departments continue to work on them. They can add new data sources, for example, or tweak the way the system identifies trends that need action.We constantly look at our assessments, Scott said. Are there different ways to measure performance? Should they tweak the way they calculate when an action item gets triggered? Were looking to make the system even better with the future iteration of TEAMS III.
(TNS) -- A bill aimed at moving a wind energy test site farther away from Monhegan Island would have the practical effect of ending Maines bid to build the countrys first commercial-size, floating wind turbines, according to a federal Department of Energy official.If it moved, it would kill the project, Walt Musial, offshore wind program manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, told the Portland Press Herald. This is a unique site. If they had to start over, it would set the project back five years and spoil the economics.Musial was commenting on a measure that would force the relocation of the Maine Aqua Ventus project. The University of Maine-led venture has spent years surveying wind and wave patterns, marine life and bird migration at a site in state waters, nearly 3 miles southwest of Monhegan.Based in part on the data collected, the project has received $10.7 million in energy department funds and is eligible for an additional $40 million. If the project can win permits and secure enough money, the Aqua Ventus team hopes to begin testing a pair of floating turbines in 2019.But a bill now awaiting a hearing in the Legislature would ban any offshore wind energy project within 10 nautical miles of the Monhegan Lobster Conservation Area. The wind project site is located at the southern edge of the lobster zone.A spokesman for a group of island residents behind the bill said the university is responsible for the crisis by changing the scope of the project. What started in 2009 as a scaled-down, temporary experiment has grown to a 20-year, full-scale project with blades that would reach 576 feet above the waterline and an undersea cable to the mainland, at Port Clyde. A project that size, said Travis Dow of Protect Monhegan , cant help but impact the view for tourists and artists, who drive the islands summer economy, and the experience for birders, who flock in spring and fall for annual migrations.Its unfortunate, but they set themselves up for this, Dow said. This project is very important for Maine, I agree. But they need to do it right, and it has outgrown its test site.This conflict is taking shape just as ocean wind power ambitions are ramping up along the East Coast.The nations first offshore wind farm went online last year off Rhode Island. Both New York and Massachusetts are seeking power from big wind ocean farms. These projects would be in shallow water, with turbine towers set in the sea floor using conventional technology used in Europe. Maine Aqua Ventus is pioneering the next generation of wind energy floating concrete platforms in deep water, far from land, where winds are steady and people cant see them.Musial said that while a few floating platform designs are being tested in other countries, Maine Aqua Ventus is the only one in the United States and is using a technology unique in the world.This has the potential to create a whole new industry in the United States, he said.The bill, LD 1262, was printed last week and has yet to be scheduled for a committee hearing. In the coming weeks, Maine lawmakers will have to decide whether the short-term concerns of 30 or so year-round Monhegan residents and their supporters outweigh the projects long-term economic and energy potential, at least for the foreseeable future.PROJECT CHANGESThe eight-year journey to this crossroads is long and convoluted. But these are some high points.The Monhegan test site was selected through a state-run process that included locations off uninhabited Boon Island and Damariscove Island. Monhegan was picked because of its 12 miles from the mainland, has steady winds, a limited number of fishermen and extreme electric rates.The 2009 law that designated the site allowed up to two turbines, a maximum capacity of 25 megawatts and one transmission cable. In early meetings with island officials, though, the university promoted a one-third scale turbine, with no cable, and a test period of months.But over time, the scope of the project changed. Engineers decided to test a one-eighth scale model of the concrete platform off Castine, in more-protected waters. Maine Aqua Ventus also won an energy department award for commercial-scale testing. That led to an upgraded design for two, 6-megawatt turbines on full-size platforms off Monhegan, with a cable to the mainland and the island.To sort through the proposal, residents formed the Monhegan Energy Task Force . Members watched the Maine Public Utilities Commission approve a 20-year power contract in 2014. Then the project lost a bid for more federal funds, and the sense of urgency evaporated. A year later, the project was back on track, when a competitor for the federal grant fell away.Protect Monhegan formed last fall, after it became clear that the full-scale project might become a reality. Dow said at the time that the group was quickly able to raise $40,000, some of it from visitors and summer residents. It hired a veteran public affairs consultant, Ted OMeara, and Jon Doyle, a former assistant attorney general.Theres debate on the island over how many of the 65 year-round residents support the group. Others are more interested in negotiating a community-benefits power deal. At 70 cents per kilowatt hour, island electric rates are among the highest in the country and five times above mainland averages.Either way, Doyles law firm drafted the bill and the group asked Sen. Dana Dow, R-Lincoln (no relation to Travis Dow) to sponsor it. Asked his position on the bill, Dana Dow expressed the view that moving the project likely would kill it, but said it was his job to submit proposed laws for residents of his district.I believe legislators need to listen to people on the island and make their decisions accordingly, he said. They need to decide what the majority group on Monhegan wants to do. And I dont know which that is, to tell the truth.The lobster conservation area earmarked in the bill is roughly 30 square miles and surrounds the island. It was created by state law 20 years ago to set aside an exclusive fishing ground for island residents.In 2009, the university asked Monhegan lobstermen to map the part of the zone where they did the least amount of fishing. They identified a sector on the southwest tip, along the 3-mile state boundary. Thats where Maine Aqua Ventus established its test site.According to the university, the site now is among the most extensively studied in the Gulf of Maine. But Travis Dow contends that past studies such as ones done for migrating bats and birds arent relevant now, because the blade height and rotor diameter have increased so much. He said the studies need to be redone, so they might as well move the project to Boon Island, 6 miles off York, or Damariscove, 5 miles off Boothbay Harbor.But Jake Ward, the universitys vice president for innovation and economic development, said the federal grant money is linked to the Monhegan site.Wed have to start from scratch someplace else, Ward said. Without a doubt, if we moved the site, wed lose the funding.That sense was confirmed in an email to the Press Herald from the Department of Energy. The department said that an ongoing federal environmental review process needed to approve the project is site specific, meaning that changing the projects location may require additional baseline surveys. Moving the project outside the 3-mile state boundary into federal waters, the department added, would trigger an entirely new siting process by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.The energy department plans to decide whether to award Maine Aqua Ventus up to $40 million in final funding early in 2018. To gather public input, federal officials came to Maine in late February and early March for meetings in Tenants Harbor and on Monhegan.In its email response to the Press Herald, the department didnt indicate how it would react if the project were forced to move. But Musial, who has worked with the university on the engineering details since 2009, said Maine Aqua Ventus is part of an advanced demonstration program and has received investment and government resources over the years that wouldnt be replicated at another location.
California Broadband Council members met in downtown Sacramento last week to discuss the states Internet needs and potential solutions. The meeting was led by California CIO Amy Tong, the council's chair.A portion of the meeting focused on 5G and the Internet of Things with presentations from Verizon and AT&T on network capabilities.As more things become connected, more Californians need to be connected, California Emerging Technology Fund CEO Sunne Wright McPeak said in a call withWith this in mind, AB980 from Assemblymember Jim Wood was introduced to allow Caltrans to lay broadband conduit in high-priority areas under a dig-once plan. Techwire recently wrote about the legislation. During the council meeting, McPeak discussed other legislation, such as the Internet for All Now Act, which was introduced by Assemblymembers Eduardo Garcia, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, Kevin McCarty and a dozen other legislators. The bill, AB 1665, would expand the reach of the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), a grant program funded through surcharges that was created a decade ago to help bring broadband to unserved and underserved communitites.They are stating very clearly that it is the goal of the state of California to close the digital divide, McPeak said.CASF, as currently constructed, uses an existing phone surcharge with the overarching goal of bringing broadband infrastructure to 98 percent of households, especially in rural communities. The goal is that 90 percent of all households using high-speed Internet from home have access on a device that is not a smartphone. But a lingering issue is that 14 percent of Californians who do have high-speed Internet only have a smartphone, which makes them underconnected, McPeak said.Its still difficult for a student to do their homework on a smartphone. Its difficult to get workforce skills if youre an adult, using a smartphone only, McPeak said.Without connectivity, people cannot access government services and town economies cannot compete. Low-performing schools, which are often located in low-income neighborhoods, don't have access to devices, which can lead to stunted digital literacy, she said.That all adds up to 12 million people in California who are not participating in the digital economy, McPeak said.
Niki Lauda has credited Ferrari's technical boss for the boost in performance enjoyed by the Italian team in 2017.
Earlier, the F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman said Ferrari's recent slump was because it was relying too heavily on haphazard Italian engineers.
Told that the fact Mattia Binotto is now in charge of the technical team contradicts his theory, Lauda smiled: "Not at all.
"You consider Binotto to be Italian? Actually he is Swiss, and it shows.
"Ferrari works now because there is a Swiss who organises the Italians, making them work but leaving them free to express their imagination and ideas," he told La Repubblica newspaper.
Lauda said Binotto's contribution may even be bigger than that of team boss Maurizio Arrivabene, because the reason Ferrari has stepped up in 2017 is technical.
"The key figure is Binotto, no doubt," said the great Austrian.
"At least it appears from the outside."
Interestingly, Binotto actually stepped up to his current role after Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne fell out with James Allison.
Allison subsequently moved to Mercedes, where he is now technical boss.
"I don't know what happened between Marchionne and James," Lauda said. "All I can say is that I am very happy to have him with us."
That is despite the fact that, with Allison departing and Binotto stepping up at Ferrari, it is the red team that has taken a big leap forward.
"The truth is that we were waiting for a strong Red Bull and instead we found a strong Ferrari," said Lauda. "At the moment Red Bull are going nowhere."
And he said the respective Mercedes and Ferrari cars are currently very closely matched.
"I have the impression that Ferrari is faster in the heat and we are faster in the cold," said Lauda.
(GMM)
Pascal Wehrlein is shaping up to make his return to the Sauber cockpit in Bahrain.
That is the view of one of his bosses, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff.
Currently, German Wehrlein is reportedly recovering his fitness after injuring his back in a race of champions crash in the winter.
In China, Wolff denied raging speculation the 22-year-old is actually caught up in a political dispute involving Sauber's engine supplier Ferrari.
It was also said in Shanghai that Antonio Giovinazzi - Ferrari's reserve driver who crashed both in qualifying and during the race in China - could race in Wehrlein's place for a third consecutive time in Bahrain this weekend.
"Pascal is training and doing weights, preparing himself as much as possible for Bahrain," Wolff, the head of Mercedes' development programme, told DPA news agency.
"I am only hearing good things about it -- that he is feeling better and stronger. At the moment, everything is pointing at him sitting in the car in Bahrain."
(GMM)
I am a retired newspaperman. I am 69 and live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 45 years, Lou Ann. We grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather.
More on who I am is here.
Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com
"Fool me once ... can't get fooled again."
Someone who knows a thing or two about fooling you once
The war strain is strong in both parties.
Yours truly
I think this attack that weve experienced is a form of war, a form of war on our fundamental democratic principles, [Rep. Bonnie Watson] Coleman [D-N.J.] said during a hearing this week at the House Homeland Security Committee. ...
I actually think that their engagement was an act of war, an act of hybrid warfare, and I think thats why the American people should be concerned about it, said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.). ...
This past election, our country was attacked. We were attacked by Russia, said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). ...
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the Senate Foreign Relations Committees ranking member, has similarly described the election meddling as an attack and likened it to the United States political Pearl Harbor.
Just two days after news broke of an alleged poison-gas attack in northern Syria, President Trump brushed aside advice from some U.S. intelligence analysts doubting the Syrian regimes guilt and launched a lethal retaliatory missile strike against a Syrian airfield.
Trump immediately won plaudits from Official Washington, especially from neoconservatives who have been trying to wrestle control of his foreign policy away from his nationalist and personal advisers since the days after his surprise victory on Nov. 8.
There is also an internal dispute over the intelligence. On Thursday night, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. intelligence community assessed with a high degree of confidence that the Syrian government had dropped a poison gas bomb on civilians in Idlib province.
But a number of intelligence sources have made contradictory assessments, saying the preponderance of evidence suggests that Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels were at fault, either by orchestrating an intentional release of a chemical agent as a provocation or by possessing containers of poison gas that ruptured during a conventional bombing raid.
One intelligence source told me that the most likely scenario was a staged event by the rebels intended to force Trump to reverse a policy, announced only days earlier, that the U.S. government would no longer seek regime change in Syria and would focus on attacking the common enemy, Islamic terror groups that represent the core of the rebel forces.
The source said the Trump national security team split between the Presidents close personal advisers, such as nationalist firebrand Steve Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner, on one side and old-line neocons who have regrouped under National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, an Army general who was a protege of neocon favorite Gen. David Petraeus.
[...]
In this telling, the earlier ouster of retired Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser and this weeks removal of Bannon from the National Security Council were key steps in the reassertion of neocon influence inside the Trump presidency. ...
Though Bannon and Kushner are often presented as rivals, the source said, they shared the belief that Trump should tell the truth about Syria, revealing the Obama administrations CIA analysis that a fatal sarin gas attack in 2013 was a false-flag operation intended to sucker President Obama into fully joining the Syrian war on the side of the rebels and the intelligence analysts similar beliefs about Tuesdays incident.
In both cases 2013 and 2017 there were strong reasons to doubt Assads responsibility. In 2013, he had just invited United Nations inspectors into Syria to investigate cases of alleged rebel use of chemical weapons and thus it made no sense that he would launch a sarin attack in the Damascus suburbs, guaranteeing that the U.N. inspectors would be diverted to that case.
Similarly, now, Assads military has gained a decisive advantage over the rebels and he had just scored a major diplomatic victory with the Trump administrations announcement that the U.S. was no longer seeking regime change in Syria. The savvy Assad would know that a chemical weapon attack now would likely result in U.S. retaliation and jeopardize the gains that his military has achieved with Russian and Iranian help.
Alarm within the U.S. intelligence community about Trumps hasty decision to attack Syria reverberated from the Middle East back to Washington, where former CIA officer Philip Giraldi reported hearing from his intelligence contacts in the field that they were shocked at how the new poison-gas story was being distorted by Trump and the mainstream U.S. news media.
Giraldi told Scott Hortons Webcast: Im hearing from sources on the ground in the Middle East, people who are intimately familiar with the intelligence that is available who are saying that the essential narrative that were all hearing about the Syrian government or the Russians using chemical weapons on innocent civilians is a sham.
Giraldi said his sources were more in line with an analysis postulating an accidental release of the poison gas after an Al Qaeda arms depot was hit by a Russian airstrike.
Donald Trumps decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie. In the coming days the American people will learn that the Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib. Here is what happened.
The Russians briefed the United States on the proposed target. This is a process that started more than two months ago. There is a dedicated phone line that is being used to coordinate and deconflict (i.e., prevent US and Russian air assets from shooting at each other) the upcoming operation.
The United States was fully briefed on the fact that there was a target in Idlib that the Russians believes was a weapons/explosives depot for Islamic rebels.
The Syrian Air Force hit the target with conventional weapons. All involved expected to see a massive secondary explosion. That did not happen. Instead, smoke, chemical smoke, began billowing from the site. It turns out that the Islamic rebels used that site to store chemicals, not sarin, that were deadly. The chemicals included organic phosphates and chlorine and they followed the wind and killed civilians.
There was a strong wind blowing that day and the cloud was driven to a nearby village and caused casualties.
We know it was not sarin. How? Very simple. The so-called first responders handled the victims without gloves. If this had been sarin they would have died. Sarin on the skin will kill you. How do I know? I went through Live Agent training at Fort McClellan in Alabama. There are members of the U.S. military who were aware this strike would occur and it was recorded. There is a film record. At least the Defense Intelligence Agency knows that this was not a chemical weapon attack. In fact, Syrian military chemical weapons were destroyed with the help of Russia.
This is Gulf of Tonkin 2.
A fake war scene in the dark 1997 comedy Wag the Dog, which showed a girl and her cat fleeing a bombardment in Albania.
It's dangerous for the major media, almost all of it, to continually tout as proven what is only surmised. The current push for war is not only not well grounded, it's bipartisan, which makes it even more dangerous. The last time the bipartisan elite wanted a not-well-grounded war, it did not go well.Touting as proved what is only surmised starts with the assertion that Russia "hacked" ( hijacked , stole) the last American election. That Russia both wanted to and tried to "interfere" in the recent election is easy to demonstrate. That Russia "hacked" or stole the U.S. election in an act of espionage that rises to an act of war, though, is an unproved assertion.Yet we're hearing that kind of loose talk more and more "Political Pearl Harbor"?Even Dick Cheney has gotten into the act : ""There's no question that there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes. In some quarters, that could be considered an act of war."Following the lead of our leaders, the major media has repeated the unproved assertion that Russia "hacked" or stole the election in an "act of war" sometimes with disclaimer, sometimes without. For weeks, the repetition has been endless. In the phrase of a long-gone commercial, " You're soaking in it ."This is a pattern and there's a price. The pattern happens on both the right and the left. Only the assertions are different. On the right: "Obama was born in Kenya." On the left: "If not for Russia, Clinton would have beaten Trump." On the right the assertions are often demonstrably false. On the left the assertions often turn a possibility and into a certainty.And the price both of these patterns are dangerous, since they both involve spreading a falsehood. The consumers of these falsehoods we the public, on both the left and the right never seem to consider the motives of their purveyors, nor the danger of believing as true what has not, and can not, be demonstrated with certainty. Which sets us up for a repeat. Contrary to Mr. Bush's famous saying, this almost guarantees weget fooled again.That may be playing out now, getting fooled again, with the Syrian "gas attack" story.What is known for sure about the Syrian "gas attack"? Actually very little.The best that I can find purporting to show that Assad and Syria launched a "gas attack" against Khan Sheikhoun is contained in this article from. (The same information has appeared elsewhere.) The Pentagon has released a map allegedly showing the flight path of a Syrian military plane over the area.Based on that, at least in part, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said,"We have athat the attacks were carried out by aircraft under the direction of the Bashar al-Assad regime, and we also havethat the attacks involved the use of sarin nerve gas" (emphasis mine).What that tells you is (1) there's nothat sarin was used, or they'd show you the proof. And (2) there's nothat the identified plane dropped gas bombs or canisters, or they'd show that to you as well. Instead, we hear the now-common, telltale phrase, "high level of confidence." Expressing a "high level of confidence" involves an educated guess on their part, and an exercise in trust on yours.Note: This doesn't prove that Assad is innocent. It provesOther sources are saying that there's a great deal of uncertainty about this incident, including whether it was a gas attack at all (see below) versus a conventional bombing of a rebel facility in which dangerous chemical weapons were stored. Some intelligence sources say they are hearing from their colleagues that the facts are entirely contrary to administration and the military assertions and that both the administration and our military know that.None of these assertions are proved, just as the assertions of Assad's guilt are proved, but none of this can be discounted. Unfortunately, the only assertions you're "soaking in" are those that lead to war.About the uncertainty of Assad's guilt, I want to present two sources out of several I could have brought forward. A search produces a fair number of them. The first one below is via Robert Parry A very good reporter, Parry did excellent investigative work at the Associated Press andexposing many aspects of the Iran-Contra scandal undiscovered by others. In recognition Parry "was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984 and the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence by Harvard's Nieman Foundation in 2015."In fact, according to Salon , Parry's "continuing quest to unearth the facts of the alleged October Surprise has made himamong those who worship at the altar of conventional wisdom." The "October Surprise" was the collapse of the negotiations between the Carter White House and the Iranian hostage holders just prior to the 1980 election, which brought Ronald Reagan narrowly to victory. Parry thought the October Surprise was the source of the events that led to later Iran-Contra scandal. (More at the link . That connection, as near as I can tell,proved, though widely ignored in elite bipartisan circles.)Parry opens (my emphasis throughout):I've run across these counter-assessments in several unconnected places (places that don't quote each other or depend on a common source). Again, the counter-assessments are either that Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels launched a "false flag" attack for reasons that will be detailed below, or that they stored poison gas at a facility that was bombed using conventional weapons by either the Russians or the Syrians (perhaps by the plane whose flight path the Pentagon has been showing, or perhaps not).More from Parry, this time about the danger this situation represents the reinstallation of neocons into foreign policy decision-making:There's an interesting section that examines Assad's reasons forlaunching either attack:Remember, Assad may be brutal frankly, most of these people, the ones we "like" and the ones we don't are brutal. But he didn't survive this long by being stupid.Finally, Parry quotes ex-intelligence officer Philip Giraldi on the Russian role in the incident and also on the reaction of the intelligence community to the way this situation is playing out:I'll send you to the article for the rest. There's actually quite a bit more, and Parry does a good job. But do note two things the assertion that Obama knew that the 2013 sarin attack was a false flag operation (i.e., that Assad didn't do that one either; here's the link again ), and the assertion that McMaster, a protege of David Patraeus, is the "tip of the spear" for neocon control of Trump's foreign policy.For Parry, this is Trump's "wag the dog" moment. For me, however, the key takeaway is different.I would think, when it comes to going to war, that part matters. Especially given our recent bipartisan war-making past.Yes, Parry is making assertions, not offering proof. I'm even willing to bet that Parry has "very high confidence" that he's correct. Does this mean Assad is innocent? No. Just as the military's assertions mean he's guilty, absent actual proof.The following was offered to me via an email list by someone I respect. I have not heard of Patrick Lang, but he's another of those, like Parry, with connections in the intelligence community. Clearly a former Trump supporter, he's now very angry with him. That may or may not have anything to do with these assertions.What's striking, though, is the degree to which Lang and Parry are saying pretty much the same thing that the facts were known in the intelligence community, that the White House (meaning the military and civilian team that decided on the missile strike) distorted those facts to the public for their own purposes, and that at least some faction within the intelligence community is not happy with the distortions.Lang (my emphasis below): You can believe any of these stories and sources if you like. But recognize that you're, and that it's belief. You're not being led to any of these beliefs by proof, because none has yet been brought forward.Belief without proof, when it comes to war, can have horrible consequences, as we have seen already in Iraq.On the other hand, one of these groups of assertions will eventually be proved right. If it's Trump who is wrong, this really is Gulf of Tonkin 2 bait, in other words, that Trump gladly took which Obama apparently would not.GP
Labels: al Qaeda, Gaius Publius, Middle East, Neocons, Russia, Syria, Trump, War
Despite major changes in the past few years, the rhythm of life in Cuba remains languid. Photos by AFP/Yamil Lage
'We live in slow motion - because we're an island, because it's the Caribbean and because of the whole legacy of socialism.'
In Cuba, it sometimes seems time stopped in the 1960s.
Despite a succession of sweeping changes in recent years -- rapprochement with the U.S. Fidel Castro's death -- the rhythm of life on the island remains as languid as ever.
In Old Havana, locals still watch life go by from the balconies of their dilapidated colonial buildings, as classic American cars putter down cobblestone streets and seemingly endless games of dominoes play out on sidewalk tables.
Tourists love the island's timelessness, which gives it the aura of a living postcard immune to change.
For Cubans, who have made standing in line an art form and bureaucracy a way of life, this vestige of communism is less charming.
"We live in slow motion -- because we're an island, because it's the Caribbean and because of the whole legacy of socialism," said the writer Wendy Guerra, a rising star of Cuban literature.
"Time isn't money here. Very few people produce anything for themselves. The country stopped producing a long time ago. People act like they're working, and the state acts like it pays them," the 46-year-old novelist and poet told AFP.
"There's no schedule. No one ever has to be somewhere urgently. There's no traffic, and public transportation problems have made us all officially unpunctual."
In Cuba, it sometimes seems time stopped in the 1960s.
In her novel "Everyone Leaves," Guerra's heroine ends up frozen on Havana's famous seaside boulevard, the Malecon, "stuck in the immobility of Cuba."
Cuban artist Alejandro Campins also addresses the island's lethargy in his work.
"Every Cuban's subconscious is a waiting room," he said.
Standing in line "is in our DNA," said port agent Daniel Rios, 36, whose job involves a lot of queuing.
Speeding up
Many artists have found inspiration in Cuban time.
"Coming to Cuba is like traveling back to the past. Time doesn't move here," said the artist Dagoberto Rodriguez.
He and a collaborator made waves in 2012 with a piece where a troupe danced backward up a Havana avenue, symbolizing Cubans' peculiar relationship with time.
But things have been evolving since President Raul Castro came to power in 2008.
Since he replaced his big brother Fidel, tourism has boomed, WiFi hotspots have flourished, and private restaurants and hotels have gone from banned to blossoming.
Besides the long-unthinkable rapprochement with Washington, Raul Castro has sought to modernize Cuba's Soviet-style economy by allowing small private businesses, the sale of cars and homes, and international travel.
"Coming to Cuba is like traveling back to the past. Time doesn't move here," says artist Dagoberto Rodriguez.
"Time has accelerated in Cuba as a result of the economic reforms," said Arturo Lopez-Levy, a professor at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
Not so fast
Still, the country is not exactly jumping to light speed.
"Time may be moving quickly by Cuban standards, but not by the standards of the rest of the world," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue research institute.
"For most Cubans, life remains unchanged even to this day."
Nearly six decades after the Cuban Revolution, a Castro is still in power, dissent is muzzled, the US embargo remains in place and the island's economy is 80 percent controlled by the state.
Foreign investment is limited, and requires navigating a labyrinthine bureaucracy.
"Foreign corporations have a hard time understanding why things take so much longer here. A contract that would take three or four months somewhere else takes a year or two," said cell phone maker Nokia's Cuba representative, Charles Ferrer.
President Raul Castro replaced brother Fidel in 2008 and has been bringing in changes but for most ordinary Cubans, life remains much the same.
Cuba is stuck in "a different dimension of time," said Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, who teaches in Colombia.
Raul Castro's economic reforms, he said, could have been "faster and broader."
The president has said he will implement his reforms "without hurry, but without pausing."
But with the 85-year-old leader preparing to hand over power in February 2018, he may now be the one who finds time running short.
During the month of April, the United States has assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council.
Speaking recently at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said one of the vital issues the United States intends to put on the Security Councils agenda this month is the role human rights abuses play in the breakdown of international peace and security. For too long, she said, peace and security were considered the Security Councils purview, while human rights were kept separate and left to others.
The fact is, she noted, peace and security cannot be achieved in isolation from human rights. In case after case, human rights abuses are not the byproduct of conflict; they are the cause of conflict, or they are the fuel that feeds the conflict.
Desperate people robbed of their humanity and subject to humiliation and abuse inevitably want revenge, Ambassador Haley said. And they are also vulnerable to manipulation or coercion by extremist groups.
In North Korea, she pointed out, human rights abuses literally provide some of the financing for aggression: political prisoners are forced to work themselves to death in coal mines to finance the regimes nuclear program.
In other cases, such as Syria, human rights abuses are used as weapons of war. The Assad regime, Ambassador Haley said, uses torture, including the deliberate systematic torture of children, to identify and silence opponentsPro-government forces in Syria have systematically targeted civilian infrastructure, including hospitals. Assads crimes have led to the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. What was once a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, she added, is now a six-sided conflict and a great-power proxy war.
The time has come for the Security Council to explicitly consider the connections between human rights and security, Ambassador Haley said. This debate is one thats worth having. It would greatly strengthen the work of the Security Council, and its the right thing to do.
Ambassador Haley observed, It will be very telling if any country tries to block this debate. Its past time that the Security Council acknowledge the importance of human rights abuses and demand that its member nations do the same.
By a unanimous vote on March 31, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution extending the mandate of MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for another year.
The Security Council also lowered cap on the number of UN troops deployed in the DRC from 19,815 to 16,215. In addition, the resolution allowed for the replacement of some troops with more highly trained, specialized units, and included specific performance indicators for troop-contributing countries, to be reported on by the Secretary-General.
The resource-rich DRC has suffered from rampant corruption and violent fighting between dozens of armed factions, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 5.4 million people since 1998. In addition, there have been 107 fatalities of peacekeepers in the DRC since 2010, including nine in 2016 alone. In March, two members of the DRC Group of Experts, one from the United States and one from Sweden, along with their Congolese interpreter, were found dead in Kasai Central Province, serving as a reminder of the continued threats facing UN personnel in the DRC.
U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Nikki Haley, applauded the Security Councils renewal of the MONUSCO mandate and for its action to make the mission stronger and more effective.
When we look at these peacekeeping missions, what we need to focus on isnot the number of people we have on the ground, its the quality of the work thats happening on the ground, she said. We can have thousands and thousands of troops, but if theyre not really working to keep the Congolese safe, none of that matters.
Ambassador Haley said she was pleased that the Security Council, along with the troop ceiling, made sure that where the troops are, [they] are actually going to be more effective. The key, she added is to make sure that the elections are safe, to make sure were keeping people safe.
The most important priority must be the protection of civilians, Ambassador Haley emphasized. Of great assistance in that, she said, is holding troops accountable for their actions. She welcomed the Security Councils request for a strategic review by September 30.
What we cant do is walk awayand say our job is done, Ambassador Haley said. What we need to do is keep looking and making sure that what we did is actually working and effective and meeting [our] goals.
As smiling children waved palm branches in my church, and countless others across our peaceful country Sunday, fellow Christians were again suffering in Egypt.
It's dangerous to be a Christian in the Middle East, as the deadly Palm Sunday bombings of Coptic churches in Egypt show.
ISIS claimed responsibility, signaling a stepped-up presence in that country.
In response, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced a three-month state of emergency, the BBC reports.
I hope al-Sisi wants to protect Christians in Egypt, but recent history indicates otherwise. More likely, he'll use the attacks as an excuse to crack down on political enemies and dissenters.
The Coptic church in Egypt is nearly as old as Christianity itself but has been greatly diminished over centuries of murder and repression. Today, its followers number about 8 million. Although the country is officially Muslim, freedom of religion is legally guaranteed to a point. It's unlawful to convert someone from Islam to Christianity.
Furthermore, attacks against Christians occur so frequently and from so many directions that it seems they must be tolerated by the government. So I urge al-Sisi's new friend, President Donald Trump, to pressure the Egyptian leader to protect the Christian minority in his country.
Addendum:
The photo with this post shows two Coptic Christians I met in Israel five years ago. A group of these Egyptian pilgrims seemed to be following a similar schedule since we saw them in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee and then again in Jerusalem a few days later. They're very devoted to their faith and courageous in their practice of it. It is indeed perilous to be Christian in the Middle East.
WINSTON-SALEM Wells Fargo & Co.s board of directors officially has placed the bulk of the blame for its customer fraud account scandal on the former head of its community banking division and retired top executive.
The board released Monday a 110-page report that represents its seven-month investigation into how the fraudulent sales practices occurred and persisted.
Wells Fargo had agreed Sept. 8 to pay a combined $185 million in fines to resolve regulatory complaints about 1.5 million potentially fraudulent customer checking and 623,000 credit-card accounts.
Those accounts were opened by branch employees and managers in customers names to meet sales targets. Wells Fargo said its internal investigation goes back to 2009.
John Stumpf, chairman and chief executive, retired in October as one ripple effect of the scandal. The board said Carrie Tolstedt, former head of community banking, was fired with cause.
The board and management have taken decisive action to address issues raised by investigation, promote accountability, strengthen oversight and rebuild trust, it said in a statement.
One repercussion was the board increasing the amount of executive compensation clawbacks from Stumpf and Tolstedt by an additional $75 million.
The board said the investigation identifies cultural, structural and leadership issues as root causes of improper sales practices.
Tolstedt and other community bank leaders were unwilling to change the sales model or recognize it as the root cause of the problem.
(They) resisted and impeded scrutiny or oversight from corporate risk management and the board and, when forced to report, minimized the scale and nature of problems.
The board said the banks decentralized corporate structure gave too much authority and autonomy to the community banks senior leadership without the necessary oversight and encouraged deference to the business units.
As for Stumpf, the board determined he was too focused on the banks decades of success with cross-sell and positive customer and employee survey results.
(He) was too slow to investigate or critically challenge the sales practices at the community bank and to appreciate the seriousness and the substantial reputational risk to Wells Fargo, the report said.
Altogether, Stumpf lost $69 million in compensation and Tolstedt $67 million, which previously include $41 million from Stumpf and $19 million from Tolstedt in forfeited unvested equity awards.
Part of what led to Stumpfs immediate retirement likely was his downplaying to Congress and to the board the enormity of the fraudulent account scandal.
Stumpf was grilled by the U.S. Senate Banking committee on Sept. 28, drawing criticism from the committee for failing to answer many questions.
It is not clear whether investors will respond overall favorably to the boards steps. At least two major shareholder services groups have called for the board to replace between six and 12 members as part of resolving the scandal.
EDEN As finances tighten around Rockingham County Schools, the district is working to strategically cut more than $3 million out of the 2017-2018 budget.
During the April 3 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Rodney Shotwell discussed the drop in funding and increase in expected costs for the next year.
State funding is at risk of decreasing due to drops in average daily membership within the school system among other reasons, he said.
In addition, Shotwell estimated that the health rate will cost about $5,900 for every full-time employee, and state-required retirement contributions may go north of 17 percent.
Those of you who used to be employees, for most of your career it was a six and six match, he said. You guys paid six and the employer and the state would pay six. One thing that hasnt changed is the employees still pay six out of their check to go toward retirement.
To help weather the costs, the district is requesting that the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners increase the districts current allotment by $1 million.
If this happens, Shotwell expects the district will need to cut about $3.2 million. If it does not, the district may have to cut about $4.2 million. If the districts allotment is reduced, deeper cuts would become necessary.
Our ultimate goal, in reality, is to make sure that funding from our local commissioners (is not reduced), and what were demonstrating is there is additional need for additional resources, Shotwell said. We do know that they are not in the position currently to be able to help the schools as much as they would like, but we still felt like we need to demonstrate a need.
The superintendent outlined to the school board and the public the $3,037,664 in cuts made for the 2016-2017 school year which included $382,560 by switching to a 168-day academic calendar, $455,000 by reducing office support staff positions and front office staff at all middle and high schools and more.
Integrated Planning for School and Community Study
Based on the budget projections, the school district requested an unbiased study and analysis to make sure resources and facilities are being used effectively to inform changes for 2017-2018 and future budgets.
The Operations Research and Education Laboratory is conducting the data-based study referred to as Integrated Planning for School and Community Study.
In this study, OREd is reviewing options for the district including redistricting, repurposing and reconstructing school facilities and other possibilities.
The piece that OREd can bring to this situation is we can show you some very preliminary, completely exploratory scenarios of how things could be different, said OREd Director Thomas Dudley. If you consider closing or repurposing schools, what would the district look like? Its a difficult process, its emotional, but this is what we do day in and day out. We try to bring the data to the table.
Dudley presented a table featuring data on the student capacity for each school in the district compared to how many students are there with projections for the next several academic years.
The study showed that a majority of schools in Rockingham County are underutilized with 17 schools at 80 percent or less capacity
For example, Dillard Elementary School has a capacity of 562 students, but only has 250 students enrolled currently. At 44 percent, this is the lowest percentage in the county.
Draper Elementary School, similarly, has a capacity of 491 students with about 45 percent of that capacity used by the 223 students enrolled.
With Draper the most underutilized elementary school in the North and Northwest region of the county, Dudley detailed two possible remedies, both of which involved closing or repurposing the school.
The proposals both help address underutilization of schools while also taking into account transportation distances for students, respecting neighborhoods, efficient busing and the age and condition of schools.
One proposal involves expanding the Douglass and Lincoln elementary school districts and shifting the Leaksville and Central elementary school districts to East. This would involve redistricting about 400 students, Dudley estimated.
The other proposal involves transferring the entire Draper Elementary body to Lincoln Elementary. Lincoln is at 59 percent of its 491 capacity with 289 students. This merger would push Lincoln over capacity by about one classroom.
While displacing fewer students than the first proposal, the second proposal would cause a longer commute for students in the Draper district.
The proposal for the Reidsville districts, which include Moss Street, South End, Monroeton and Williamsburg Elementary Schools, involved closing or repurposing South End, the oldest and smallest school in that area.
For the Western Rockingham County districts, including Stoneville, New Vision, Dillard and Huntsville elementary schools, the proposal envisions dividing the region between Stoneville and Huntsville.
This is a very preliminaryeven more preliminary than the other ones that Ive shown, because the actual line that you choose to divide these two schools would entirely depend really on how you were admitting kids to New Vision, Dudley said. We could look at this split and say, two schools, Stoneville, Huntsville, and then continue New Vision as a magnet school. Okay, well that entirely shifts everything. Do you admit more students from one side or the other?
Dudley added that the western Rockingham County districts may need more complex modeling.
He did not discuss changes involving Wentworth or Bethany elementary schools.
The school board did not vote on any of the proposals and did not respond directly to any of the proposals during the meeting
Approaches for Rockingham County Schools
Assistant Superintendent Sonja Parks presented three assignment scenarios.
The first is to redistrict Douglass, Leaksville-Spray, Central, and Lincoln elementary schools and repurpose Draper.
The second is to redistrict Stoneville and Huntsville elementary schools and repurpose Dillard.
The third is to redistrict Moss Street, Williamsburg and Monroeton elementary schools and repurpose South End.
Parks then explained that there are three possible approaches: choosing any or all of the three scenarios to implement in the 2018-2019 school years, choosing any or all of the three scenarios to implement in phases over three or more years or deciding not to implement any of the scenarios, which leaves the district to make cuts elsewhere.
The Next Step
The next step in the conversation is to inform the community and open up the discussion to local families.
As part of the RCS Pathway to Transparency initiative, the district designed a website where families can access detailed information regarding the conversation around cuts which can be accessed from the RCS website.
RCS plans to host four community focus group meetings to present information and the findings of the study.
The meetings will take place at 6 p.m. on April 25 at Morehead High School, May 2 at McMichael High School, May 9 at Rockingham County High School and May 16 at Reidsville Middle School.
For more information about the Integrated Planning for School and Community Study and related topics, visit www.rock.k12.nc.us/PTT.
GREENWICH When Jonathon Negron allegedly left the scene of an accident last year, he left behind some clues, including one of his front teeth.
Officers responding to a report of a hit-and-run collision on Riversville Road and John Street last May 25 found a black Audi smashed into a utility pole, according to police, but no sign of the driver.
An Australian man who ordered $466 worth of seafood and alcohol was arrested this weekend because he decided that instead of paying, hed rather run into the ocean. Police say Terry Peck enjoyed a feast for one at Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant on the Brisbane waterfront Sunday evening, consuming two lobster mornays, somewhere between 17 and 21 oyster shooters, a baby octopus, and at least half a dozen Coronas. After all that food, it seems he had no appetite left for paying, so he apparently bolted straight into the surf at Main beach when the bill came.
This is the moment a man was pulled from the surf on the Gold Coast after he allegedly fled a Main Beach restaurant... Posted by ABC Brisbane on Monday, April 10, 2017
Staff called the police, who rode into the water on Jet Skis to coax Peck a rapper who performs as 2pec when hes not drunkenly dining and dashing back onto dry land. At first, they suggested he wade back in voluntarily, but he allegedly refused, forcing them to (as the above video shows) drag him ashore with a fair amount of difficulty.
Peck spent today being charged with theft and two counts of seriously assaulting a police officer, which may help explain why he seems to be missing his clothes in the video. He complained to media at the courthouse that Omeros had overcooked its lobster, the oyster shooters had contained bits of shell, and that hed only fled without paying because, as it happens, he needed to help a friend who was giving birth on the beach. The restaurants manager didnt have any commentary about the well-timed beach birth, but he didnt take kindly to the establishments lobster being disrespected. We pride ourselves on cooking our lobsters perfectly, he told Australias ABC.
4 Charles Prime Rib. Photo: Benjamin Norman
Dude Cave is the not-altogether-flattering term an acquaintance of mine uses to describe a certain style of small, male-oriented dining establishment that has been blooming up around town lately, during the Age of Trump. These carefully curated, hothouse boutique restaurants tend to foster a kind of clubby, anonymous style. The entrances are discreetly marked, if you can find them at all. The dark rooms inside tend to be submarine size and are appointed with oil paintings and sportsmans sketches, like the drinking dens of ye olde private gentlemens clubs. Ironically, several chefs at notable Dude Caves are women (Victoria Blamey at Chumleys, Angie Mar at the newly revamped Beatrice Inn), but the menus tend to feature the sort of delicacies (brown-liquor drinks, chef burgers, tomahawk rib chops for two) that upwardly mobile dudes with plenty of cash tend to enjoy.
In terms of access (good luck getting a table before 11 p.m.) and clubbiness (an intimate supper club is the pithy website description), the most notorious Dude Cave of the moment is a ten-table operation called 4 Charles Prime Rib, which the Chicago restaurant group Hogsalt opened several months back in a narrow submariners space in the Village. The entrance to the dimly lit room is obscured by a thick velvet curtain. The walls inside are sheathed with lacquered beam board, as in the stateroom of an antique yacht, and covered with all sorts of tasteful, retro bric-a-brac (watercolors, oil paintings, tiny chandeliers). You can get four styles of Martini from the bow-tied (and, of course, bewhiskered) barkeep at the tiny stand-up bar, and five styles of Old Fashioned and as the name indicates, large, gently bleeding hunks of beef are the specialty of the house.
Hogsalt is run by a talented young restaurateur named Brendan Sodikoff, and he seems to have designed this stagy little establishment as a kind of calling card, a way to announce his presence as a player on the national dining scene, while dipping a toe into the fickle New York market at the same time. The lavishly scripted, one-page steakhouse menu is relatively tiny by the standards of his more boisterous (and generally dude-centric) Chicago restaurants, but it contains conspicuous elements of several of them. Like at the French-accented Chicago chophouse Bavettes, there are crab cakes, shrimp cocktails, and thick cuts of prime rib available, along with a slightly tweaked iteration of the famous double-patty burger from Hogsalts great bar restaurant Au Cheval, which is called the American Cheeseburger here and served, like at Au Cheval, with a large steak knife stuck into its top.
The fabled Au Cheval burger is good, but as I proclaimed after my first visit to Charles Street, this version is possibly better. The weight of the bun and two patties (hand feel in burger parlance) is ideal, and the different elements of that special burger alchemy (the umami char of the griddled beef; the crunchy tang of pickles and onions; the smooth, creamy mingling of mayo, Dijon, and melted cheese) get better with every bite, just like a great burger should. I was tempted to order this beauty a second time (a burger loon of my acquaintance has ordered it 11 times), but after a taste of the generic $25 crab cake, and a couple of fat slabs of very nice maple-sweetened bacon, we called for the French-dip-style shaved-beef sandwich, which is drenched in its cooking juices, topped with a wad of melted Swiss cheese, and squeezed into a fresh-baked hoagie bun from Parisi Bakery down on Mott Street.
Like the burger, this elegant little calorie bomb is almost worth the hassle of procuring a table at 4 Charles, but only a limited number are made each evening, which means youll probably have to make do with other familiar favorites from the Dude Cave canon. These include rashers of shrimp scampi served with great knuckles of garlic bread; a giant, two-pound Royale Weight Dover sole with brown butter; and a leaden pasta mash-up called Cacio Pepe Carbonara, which was so overwhelmed with smoky chunks of bacon that I put my fork down after two bites. The dreary Crispy Brick Chicken lacks both crisp and flavor, so if you have the cash on hand, the red-meat items are your best bet in particular, the Chicago Cut prime rib, and the well-aged rib-eye steak, which at $69.50 for 22 ounces is a relative bargain compared to the ridiculously pricey off-the-menu New York strip ($89 on the evening I ordered it).
The smaller the size, the more amplified the essence of a restaurant tends to be, so if you have an aversion to this kind of traditional red-meat, expense-account dining, and tables filled with animated gentlemen (and their escorts) braying at the top of their lungs about last nights Rangers game or the latest drama on the trading desk, this niche establishment is probably not for you. In the time-honored steakhouse (and Dude Cave) tradition, the whale-size cuts of beef are accompanied, like schools of pilot fish, by the usual jumble of side dishes, the best of which (garlic mashed potatoes, creamed spinach touched with tangy blue cheese) tend to be the simplest. There are 60 varieties of after-dinner whiskeys to choose from, and only three desserts, the best of which is a tall, decorative slab of lemon-meringue pie that is almost more pleasing to look at than it is to eat.
Rating: 2 stars
4 Charles Prime Rib
4 Charles St., nr. Greenwich Ave.; 212-561-5992; nycprimerib.com
Ideal Meal: Oysters or shrimp scampi, Chicago Cut prime rib and/or cheeseburger, lemon-meringue pie.
Note: For an extra fee, you can add a fried egg and bacon to your cheeseburger, but we wouldnt recommend it.
Open: Dinner daily.
Prices: Appetizers, $17 to $29.45, with Alaskan king crab, $75 per pound; entrees, $19 to $86.
Scratchpad: Three stars for the burger, the French dip, and the best of the prime rib. Minus a star for accessibility and (except for the $18.95 burger) the exorbitant prices.
*This article appears in the April 17, 2017, issue of New York Magazine.
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Rugged Samsung Galaxy Xcover 4 will be out in the UK on April 24 for 249
At the beginning of March Samsung made the Galaxy Xcover 4 official, and now the phone is getting closer to its release, at least in Europe. We already heard that it would cost 259 in Eurozone countries, and today we can tell you how much you'll have to pay for it over in the UK.
It's priced at 249, SIM-free of course. The Xcover 4 is expected to be in stock in the UK on April 24, and starting today you can pre-order one from online retailers such as Clove.
Only a black version seems to be on its way, with 16GB of built-in storage. The Galaxy Xcover 4 is the latest entrant in Samsung's line of rugged mid-rangers. Thus it comes with both IP68 and MIL-STD 810G certifications for withstanding the elements as well as some amount of abuse.
Hardware-wise it has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP f/1.9 main camera with LED flash, a 5 MP f/2.2 selfie snapper, and a 2,800 mAh battery. It's powered by a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, aided by 2GB of RAM. The internal storage is expandable, and the phone runs Android 7.0 Nougat.
A veritable Xiaomi storm seems to be brewing. It is expected to hit some time this month, with the Mi 6 leading the way, likely accompanied by the refreshed Mi Mix and Mi Max.
The Mi Max 2 is going to be the most affordable member of the upcoming trio as previous leaks indicated. Now a new insider source claims to offer confirmation of a few of the devices' specs. Apparently, the 6.44-inch metal beast will pack a Snapdragon 626 chipset, instead of the previously rumored Snapdragon 660 one. This entails lesser performance, but on the plus side, the Snapdragon 626 promises a slight edge over its Snapdragon 625 sibling, while retaining the same amazing battery efficiency. This should play out nicely in combination with the alleged 5,000 mAh battery pack inside the Mi Max 2.
The source also says the phablet will retain its 1080p resolution and boot Android 7.1.1. Also, a 12MP Sony IMX378 sensor is being cited - the same one inside the Mi 5s. A 5MP selfies is expected to come along as well.
Last, but not least, the new Mi Max 2 is said to cost between CNY 1499 and CNY 1699, or in the $215 to $245 ballpark. Mind you, this estimate reflects local pricing, so you should probably account for some shipping and import taxes as well.
Source (in Chinese) | Via
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Published on 2017/04/09
Take advantage of the end of the seafood season with The Korea Herald, My Korean Kitchen presents a new recipe with bellflower root, Korea's elderly get soup in Seoul, and Holly shares a delicious family recipe (from her aunt) on Beyond Kimchee.
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"[The Palate] The arrival of springtime jjukkumi"
The seafood season in Korea is coming to an end, so The Korea Herald recommends you head out and catch the end of it while you still can! If you're out and about in Seoul, try heading over to Seodaemun-gu to a hidden little gem called Samo Jjukkumi to try their short-arm octopus. Not only is this dish considered a Korean health food, but it is also "a great vehicle of flavor and cooking technique".
...READ ON THE KOREA HERALD
"DORAJI NAMUL (SAUTEED BELLFLOWER ROOT)"
My Korean Kitchen's latest recipe is a classic Korean side: Doraji Namul, a bellflower root that, in addition to going down well with bibimbap (" It gives a nice contrasting color and super crunchy texture"), is also used in various herbal medicines. Sue makes sure that you don't get lost along the way by including detailed instructions, beautiful pictures of the process (and results!), and the printable recipe card at the end is always a nice touch.
...READ ON MY KOREAN KITCHEN
"Anchovy Kimchi Stew (Myulchi Kimchi Jjigae)"
Holly notes that although she grew up believing that her mom was the greatest cook in the family, her aunt actually turned out to be best: "She was like the 80's Korean version of Martha Stewart". In this post on Holly's Beyond Kimchee, you'll discover steps for making Anchovy Kimchi Stew, a dish she learned to make from her aunt ("Sorry mom!"). Holly's gives you all the steps (with great pictures of the process) so you can make this "cherished family" dish of hers at home yourself. Enjoy...
...READ ON BEYOND KIMCHEE
"Soup for the Seoul"
CNA explores the fate of too many of South Korea's elderly in this short and powerful insert. In particular, it focuses on the Angel Soup Kitchen that "provides free meals to thousands of elderly poor around South Korea, who often say eating alone makes them feel depressed". This is the generation that helped to bootstrap South Korea to become the powerful cultural and technological giant it is today...
...WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Published on 2017/04/09 | Source
The cast of "The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop" paid their respects to the late actress Kim Young-ae.
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Her funeral is being held at the Severance Hospital in Sinchon, Seoul.
Many actors from the drama "The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop" such as Lee Dong-gun, Jo Yoon-hee, Ra Mi-ran, Oh Hyun-kyung, Hyun Woo and more paid their respects to the actress.
Ra Mi-ran said, "I can't express the sadness through words but I'll never be able to forget the passion she showed until the last day. She will be a good example for us all".
Meanwhile, Kim Young-ae passed away on the 9th. She had surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2012 but the illness recurred last year.
* * * * *
HSTA Slush Fund State Property Tax:
SB683 SD2 Proposes amendments to the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to advance the State's goal of providing a public education for the children of Hawaii by authorizing the legislature to establish, as provided by law, a surcharge on residential investment property and visitor accommodations. (SD2) UPDATE April 11 House vote 49-0 with two excused to approve. April 13: Senate disagrees with House amendments. Next Stop Conference Committee.--UPDATE April 21, 2017: HSTAs $500M Property Tax Slush Fund Killed
SB686 SD2 Establishes an education surcharge on residential investment properties and visitor accommodations for the purpose of funding public education. Effective July 1, 2050. (SD2)--UPDATE April 11 House vote 49-2 to approve McDermott and Tupola vote 'No'. April 13: Senate disagrees with House amendments. Next Stop Conference Committee.--UPDATE April 21, 2017: HSTAs $500M Property Tax Slush Fund Killed
* * * * *
Income Tax Hike:
(NOTE: Unlike these bills, HB670 HD1 and HB932 HD1listed above--reduce taxes on the poor without hiking income taxes on small business owners.)
HB209 HD1 Expands the low-income household renters income tax credit based on adjusted gross income and filing status. Establishes a state earned income tax credit. Restores the income tax rates for high income brackets that were repealed on 12/31/15. Removes the sunset date for the refundable food/excise tax credit. (HB209 HD1)--Passed 3rd Reading in Senate with Amendments April 7. House disagrees with Senate amendments April 11. Next stop conference committee. -- Conference Committee approves amended bill -- scheduled for House and Senate votes Tues May 2. HB209 HD1 SD1 CD1 will restore Hawaii's highest-in-the-nation Income Tax rates while providing far smaller benefits to low income taxpayers.
SB648 SD1 Establishes a state earned income tax credit. Changes income tax rates after 12/31/16. Repeals the sunset date for amendments made to the refundable food/excise tax credit by Act 223, SLH 2015. Appropriates funds to DOTAX for certain tax preparation assistance outreach programs. Effective 8/30/2050. Applies to taxable years beginning after 12/31/2049. Appropriation effective 7/1/2050. (SD1)-- No Motion Since March 9
HB690 HD1 Decreases income tax rates by approximately 25 percent for all but the top income earners. Reinstates higher income tax brackets and rates similar to those that were repealed on 12/31/2015. (HB690 HD1)-- No Motion Since March 9
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TAT on TVRs:
HB1471 HD3 Requires large transient accommodations brokers and permits all other transient accommodations brokers to register as tax collection agents to collect and remit general excise and transient accommodations taxes on behalf of operators and plan managers using their services. Ensures that the subject property is in compliance with applicable land use laws. Allocates $1,000,000 of TAT revenues to each county for FY 2017-2018 to comply and enforce county ordinances regulating transient vacation rentals. Creates a surcharge tax on transient accommodations brokers. Sunsets on 12/31/2022. (HB1471 HD3)--Unanimously approved by Senate vote April 11. House disagrees with Senate amendments. Next stop conference committee.--Update April 20, 2017: Competing Airbnb Bills Set Off Lobbying Battle -- No action in Conf Ctte, bill dies for session.
* * * * *
Eliminate Mortgage Interest Deduction:
HB486 HD2 Eliminates the mortgage interest deduction for second homes under the Hawaii Income Tax Law. Specifies that the revenue gain attributable to this measure be deposited into the Rental Housing Revolving Fund. Requires the Department of Budget and Finance, in consultation with the Department of Taxation, to submit reports on the administration of this measure to the Legislature prior to the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 Regular Sessions. (HB486 HD2)-- No Motion Since March 9
* * * * *
Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax:
SB403 SD2 Ensures certain benefits under the federal Affordable Care Act are preserved under Hawaii law, including: preserving the individual health insurance mandate for taxpayers; preserving the premium tax credit for individuals and families with low or moderate income; requiring all health insurance entities, including health benefits plans under chapter 87A, HRS, to include ten essential health care benefits, plus additional contraception and breastfeeding coverage benefits; extending dependent coverage for adult children until the children turn twenty-six years of age; prohibiting health insurance entities from imposing a preexisting condition exclusion; prohibiting health insurance entities from using an individual's gender to determine premiums or contributions; and prohibiting health insurance entitles from discriminating with respect to participation against a health care provider acting within the scope of that provider's license or certification. Effective 7/1/2050. Individual mandate requirement repeals 6/30/2021. (SD2)-- No Motion Since March 9
HB552 HD1 Ensures that benefits of the Affordable Care Act are preserved under State law in the case of repeal of the ACA by Congress. Preserves the individual mandate, minimum essential benefit requirements, extended dependent coverage, and prohibitions on preexisting condition exclusions and gender discrimination in premiums and costs. Establishes a trust fund and procedures to reimburse insurers for unrecouped costs of providing minimal essential insurance benefits. (HB552 HD1)--April 11 Senate votes 24-1 to approve Rivere votes 'No' April 13 House disagrees with senate amendments. Next stop conference committee.-- April 20, 2017: HB552: State Obamacare Bill to become Study? UPDATE: HB552 HD1 SD2 CD1 becomes a study for future tax hikes--"Establishes the Affordable Health Insurance Working Group to plan for and mitigate adverse effects of the potential repeal of the federal Affordable Care Act by Congress."
* * * * *
REIT Tax:
HB1012 HD2 Temporarily disallows the deduction for dividends paid by real estate investment trusts for a period of 15 years, but with an exception for dividends generated from trust-owned housing that is affordable to households with incomes at or below 140 per cent of the median family income. (HB1012 HD2)-- No Motion Since March 9
* * * * *
Cell Phone Tax:
SB887 SD2 HD1 Establishes a prepaid wireless E911 surcharge of 1.5 per cent of prepaid wireless service purchased at the point of sale. Allows sellers to deduct and retain 3 per cent of the surcharges collected to offset administrative expenses, but requires sellers to remit the balance of surcharges collected to the Enhanced 911 fund on a specified periodic basis. (SB887 HD1)--Passed CPC March 24
HB206 HD2 Establishes a prepaid wireless E911 surcharge at the point of sale. Allows sellers to deduct and retain for administrative purposes 1.5% of the surcharge that is collected. Requires deposit of surcharge balance in the enhanced 911 fund. Requires a report. Sunsets on June 30, 2022. (HB206 HD2)--April 11 Senate approves unanimously. April 13 House disagrees with Senate amendments. Next stop conference committee.--No action, dies.
* * * * *
Keeping Excess Funds Away from Taxpayers:
SB103 SD2 Implements the state constitutional amendment of Senate Bill No. 2554 of the Regular Session of 2016 that authorizes the disposition of excess general fund revenues to pre-pay general obligation bond debt service or pension or other post-employment benefit liabilities. Takes effect 6/30/2017. (SD2)--Enrolled to Governor April 7--Signed into law as Act 006 April 26, 2017.
* * * * *
Vehicle Taxes and Fees and Fuel Taxes:
HB1587 HD1 Replaces the state vehicle weight tax with a tax based on the assessed value of a vehicle. (HB1587 HD1) Passed CPC, referred to WAM March 23
* * * * *
Internet GE Tax:
SB620 SD2 General Excise Tax; Businesses Without Physical Presence in the State--Amends the definition of "business" in the State's general excise tax law. (SD2) --April 11 House votes 44-7 to approve. April 13 Senate disagrees with House amendments. Next stop conference committee.--Dies in Committee.
* * * * *
Marijuana Tax:
HB263 HD2 Amends provisions related to licensed medical marijuana dispensaries by imposing GET on a percentage of dispensaries gross proceeds or gross income and allocating a portion of GET revenues received from dispensaries to the Medical Marijuana Registry and Regulation Special Fund. (HB263 HD2) -- No Motion Since March 9
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Not Quite a Tax Hike:
SB704 SD2 Establishes an online vacation rental working group to develop effective data collection methods that can assist state and county governments in monitoring the impact that short-term vacation rentals have on tax collections, housing stock, and the State's brand as a vacation destination; address compliance and enforcement challenges; and create effective proposals to ensure certain housing remains in long-term rental or eligible rental use for a mandatory time period. Appropriates funds for the working group to perform its duties. Effective 7/1/2050. (SD2) --April 11 House votes to approve 44-7. April 13 Senate disagrees with House amendments. Next stop conference committee.--Dies in Committee.
SB657 SD2 Amends the prorated amount of vehicle license and registration fee and weight taxes that rental car companies may pass on to lessees. Requires the motor vehicle rental industry to report to the legislature prior to the regular session of 2019 and defines vehicle license recovery fee for purposes of the report. Effective 3/1/2050. (SD2) -- No Motion Since March 9
HB735 HD2 Allows lessors of rental motor vehicles to pass on to lessees a government assessed fee. Defines government assessed vehicle fee and vehicle license recovery fee. Requires a report by the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. Sunsets on June 30, 2018. (HB735 HD2) --April 11 Senate votes unanimously to approve. April 13 House disagrees with Senate amendments. Next stop conference committee. --Amended bill approved in Conf Cttee, set for House and Senate votes Tues May 2.
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Formerly Included a Tax Hike:
HB574 HD2 Provides that royalties from state land leases for basalt cinder and trap rock manufacturers shall be paid into the Basalt Materials Research Account within the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems Special Fund. Sunsets December 31, 2030. (HB574 HD2)-- No Motion Since March 9
Channel Seven newsreader Talitha Cummins has reached a confidential settlement with the network after claiming she was dismissed unfairly while on maternity leave.
Cummins had previously submitted an application for unfair dismissal, but did not appear before the Federal Circuit Court.
The 36-year-old claimed that soon after her son was born the network informed her that she would not be returning to the role she had held for three years.
Cummins had expected to return to her weekend newsreader role but was offered a weekday 5am time slot instead. However, she argued that time slot was not appropriate given the recent birth of her son.
Cummins wrote to Seven's director of news, Craig McPherson, to say she was entitled to a return-to-work guarantee and the new position did not suit her family. Moreover, it involved more hours at the same rate of pay.
On ending unpaid parental leave, an employee is entitled to return to the employee's pre-parental leave position, or if that position no longer exists--an available position for which the employee is qualified and suited nearest in status and pay to the pre-parental leave position, according to the Fair Work Act.
According to Fairfax Media, Cummins' solicitor also wrote to Seven's CEO Tim Worner, saying she was protected from unfair treatment due to family responsibilities under the Sex Discrimination Act.
A law firm engaged by Seven replied in a letter saying that Cummins was a casual employee, that she had not taken parental leave and that she was not entitled to a return-to-work guarantee.
The letter also said Cummins' employment ended on the day she believed she began maternity leave. The court document said the letter constituted a termination of employment.
"Notwithstanding the characterisation of [Cummins'] employment as casual, from about January 2014 she was engaged by [Channel Seven] on a permanent part-time basis," the court document said.
Cummins lodged a general protections application in the Fair Work Commission, alleging Channel Sevens decision constituted an adverse action.
She alleged the offer of the new 5am newsreader role was a form of adverse action because she had exercised her right to parental leave.
Cummins also alleged that she was not given reasonable notice of termination, citing how long she had worked at Seven, her senior position, and the challenges of finding a similar job with another company.
She was seeking compensation for her lost income, damages for hurt and humiliation, and payment of penalties for breaching the Fair Work Act.
Sam Lavery, her lawyer, said they had reached a confidential settlement with Seven and Cummins would not return to the network.
HC contacted Channel Seven for comment.
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that an Arizona-based brokerage firm, its CEO, and its former underwriters counsel have agreed to settle charges related to municipal bond offerings they were underwriting that turned out to be fraudulent.
The SECs order finds that Lawson Financial Corporation failed in its role as a gatekeeper to conduct reasonable due diligence when underwriting bond offerings to purchase and renovate nursing homes and senior living facilities. The offerings were managed by Atlanta-based businessman Christopher F. Brogdon, who was later charged by the SEC with fraud and faces a court order to repay $85 million to investors. Lawson Financial failed to ensure Brogdon and his related borrowers were in compliance with their continuing disclosure undertakings as required by Rule 15c2-12, which generally prohibits underwriters from purchasing or selling municipal securities unless the issuer or obligated person has committed to providing continuing disclosure information, such as annual financial materials and operating data.
Lawson Financials founder and CEO Robert Lawson and then-underwriters counsel John T. Lynch Jr. are charged with failing to conduct reasonable due diligence, and Lynch also failed to disclose that he was not actually authorized to practice law at the time as represented to investors in the bond offering documents.
Underwriters are critical gatekeepers relied upon by investors to ensure that accurate information is being provided in municipal bond offering documents. Lawson Financial failed to confirm that continuing disclosure obligations were being met by the Brogdon-controlled borrowers, allowing Brogdons nursing home investment scheme to continue, said Andrew M. Calamari, Director of the SECs New York Regional Office.
Without admitting or denying the SECs findings, Lawson and his firm agreed to pay combined disgorgement of nearly $200,000 as well as penalties of nearly $200,000 for the firm and $80,000 for Lawson, who will be barred from the securities industry for three years. Lawson Financial, which would have been eligible for more lenient remedies under the SECs Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation (MCDC) Initiative, paid a penalty that was approximately double what the firm would have paid under the initiative.
Lynch agreed to a bifurcated settlement without admitting or denying the SECs findings. He must pay nearly $45,000 and agreed to the entry of an order permanently suspending him from appearing and practicing before the SEC as an attorney. The order prohibits Lynch from representing clients in SEC matters, including investigations, litigation, or examinations, and from advising clients about SEC filing obligations or content. As part of the settlement, Lynch agreed to a public hearing before an administrative law judge, who will prepare an initial decision stating whether a securities industry bar against Lynch is appropriate and in the public interest, and if so the length of time for such a bar.
The election results are a cause for serious self-reflection especially for the [Social Democratic Party], tweeted Erkka Railo, a senior researcher at the Centre for Parliamentary Studies of the University of Turku.
The struggles of the Finns Party and the Social Democrats took centre stage as political analysts commented on the results of the municipal elections held in Finland on Sunday.
The Social Democrats emerged from the elections as the second largest party in municipal policy-making with a vote haul of 19.4 per cent, well ahead of the Centre Party (17.5%) but well behind the National Coalition (20.7%).
The municipal election results are one of the worst in the history of the Social Democratic Party, according to Kimmo Gronlund and Goran Djupsund, both professors of political science at Abo Akademi University.
Djupsund reminded that the party headed into the municipal elections from a very advantageous position due to the many missteps of the ruling coalition formed by the Centre Party, the Finns Party, and the National Coalition Party. It remains to be seen when they call into question the leadership of [chairperson Antti] Rinne, he tweeted.
The Finns Party, in turn, saw its vote share share decline from 12.3 per cent in 2012 to 8.8 per cent in 2017. The populist party has thus lost roughly 300,000 voters since the the parliamentary elections of 2015, according to Gronlund.
Djupsund also drew attention to the vote shares of the two candidates vying to succeed Timo Soini at the helm of the Finns Party, Sampo Terho, the chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group, and Jussi Halla-aho, a Member of the European Parliament.
Halla-aho received 5,651 and Terho 3,333 votes to clinch a seat on the Helsinki City Council.
This could be of great significance for the leadership election in June as well as for the fate of the Government. Taking the partys total loss into consideration, the leadership election is set to be exciting, Djupsund analysed after the results of advance voting came in on Sunday. Halla-aho's vote share included roughly 1,900 and Terho's 1,200 early votes.
Aleksi Teivainen HT
Photo: Vesa Moilanen Lehtikuva
Source: Uusi Suomi
A WOMAN from Henley who starred in a series of films about mental health during pregnancy and parenthood met the Duchess of Cambridge to talk about her experiences.
Emma Taylor, who suffered five miscarriages in less than four years, appeared in the Out of the Blue series, which explored antenatal and postnatal depression among women.
She spoke on camera about postnatal depression following the birth of her first child, Lilia, now aged seven.
The films were produced by childrens and mental health charities Best Beginnings and Heads Together, of which the Duchess is a patron along with the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
They were used for a mobile phone app called Baby Buddy.
As a result of the project, Mrs Taylor was one of seven women chosen to speak to the Duchess about perinatal mental health, which affects around one in 10 women during pregnancy or in the first year after having a baby.
She travelled to London to meet the Duchess, who has two children, George, three, and Charlotte, one, at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Mrs Taylor, 42, who lives in Western Avenue with her husband Andy, Lilia and her two-year-old son Gabriel, said the meeting took place around a coffee table.
It was quite intimate, she said. I introduced myself and told her my story. I told her about the postnatal depression with Lilia and how I had ante- and postnatal depression with Gabriel. I felt like my babies didnt need me and would be better off without me.
In a speech earlier, she had talked about the difficulty of being a mum, even for someone like her. She indicated that she had found it difficult too.
She had watched all the films and she seemed really nice and genuinely interested to be there. She had a good knowledge of the films and came across as sympathetic and understanding. She was very lovely.
The event was held the day after the Westminster terror attack just over two weeks ago but Mrs Taylor said she was more nervous about meeting the Duchess than travelling to London. She said: I did think it might be cancelled because of the attacks and it was brave of her to come. I worked in London for years and you cant let things like that stop you from getting on.
I was a bit apprehensive about meeting the Duchess because I thought there would be a lot of protocol about it.
Actually it was just sitting on the sofa and waiting for her. She didnt require any special treatment.
When is an ad not an ad? It's a question that's back in the news, courtesy of comments made by businesswoman Marissa Carter, who criticised bloggers last week for lacking any integrity and writing positive reviews of products simply because they're paid to do so.
The online community hit back with gusto, saying they would never write a good review in return for money - an observation most sensible people will take with a fistful of salt.
Now we have the Aer Lingus affair, a scandal I will henceforth refer to as "Departure-gate".
Dispute
Kathryn Thomas was paid to launch Aer Lingus' new loyalty card at an event in Dublin last week, a fact over which there is no dispute.
"Departure-gate" centres on a tweet she later posted: "AerClub is Aer Lingus' fab new loyalty programme. Why is it fab? Because it's free!"
In so doing, Kathryn would seem to have broken the guidelines laid down by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI), which has been seeking to clamp down on online professionals endorsing products, ostensibly because they like them, when they are in fact being paid to do so.
The ASAI's guidelines could not be clearer, stating that: "Where celebrities are sponsored by brands or paid directly to promote products, it must be clear that their posts are marketing communications."
However, before this des-cends into the traditional print versus online media argument, consider the following.
The same Sunday newspaper that broke the story, and implicitly criticised Kathryn for her lack of transparency, gave over several pages of gushing "edit- orial" about homes that have recently come on the market.
Nowhere, however, is the word "advertisement" found anywhere near these stories.
Similarly, travel journalists have a long history of writing fawning, uncritical articles about whatever destination they've been flown to, with every writer worth his salt knowing that if you criticise the resort, it's the last junket you'll ever go on.
We are, to quote the famous words of Michael Corleone, all part of the same hypocrisy.
Charming
If newspaper readers or Twitter followers can't work out for themselves that money has changed hands in order for someone to write rapturous prose about a banal beauty offering, customer incentive plan or "charming" cottage, then more fool them.
If celebrities can get the free use of a car, or trouser 5,000 for a day's work, why would they turn it down?
Everyone needs to earn a living, and we should have no pro blem with people who help to sell products as long as they are up-front about it.
The only issue we should have is with journalists and bloggers who pretend to gush over something for no other reason than they like it, and deny that they ever get something in return.
We're not that gullible.
Election Day 2022 live updates: Dr. Oz won't say if he will accept results
Polling places are open! President Biden says democracy is on the ballot. So is his record. Live midterm election updates as voters cast their ballots.
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DURHAM The first time I visited the campus of Duke University, I did so because Rand Paul asked me to.
It was during the 1988 presidential election. Like many conservative and libertarian students of the day, my friends and I at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were looking for a leader to follow in the footsteps of the president we all revered, Ronald Reagan. The GOP primary field was full of impressive candidates such as Vice President George Bush, U.S. Senator Bob Dole, U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, and former Delaware Gov. Pete Du Pont.
Most of us preferred Du Pont or Kemp. After it became obvious in March 1988 that Bush would get the nomination, some young Reaganites were dissatisfied enough to consider voting for the Libertarian nominee that year, former Republican Congressman Ron Paul. Thats what his son Rand, then a medical student at Duke, was counting on. Knowing of the student magazine we had founded at UNC, called The Carolina Critic, Rand contacted us to invite the staff to come see his father speak at the Duke law school.
I dont think many of us were persuaded to vote for Congressman Paul, whose foreign-policy views were not to our liking. But we welcomed learning more about him and the libertarian movement, just as we enjoyed sparring with liberals on our own campus and with each other on the issues that divided libertarian-leaning conservatives from social conservatives. We were confident enough in our own opinions to test them in robust debate. But we also kept open the possibility that we might be mistaken on a particular issue, and that the only way to find that out was to engage those with differing views.
Why did we approach politics that way? Because we loved Ronald Reagan, and thats the kind of leader he was to us. He was confident but not arrogant, serious in his convictions but full of light and humor in his interactions with Republicans and Democrats alike.
Im currently spending a week as a practitioner in residence at Duke, alongside former Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation executive director Leslie Winner. We are speaking to classes, meeting with faculty, sitting down for interviews, and co-leading a seminar for students on civil discourse.
Leslie and I differ in many ways, both ideological and professional. She is an attorney who served several terms in the North Carolina Senate. I have never held public office, and began my career as a journalist covering local governments in eastern North Carolina. But we have something important in common. We share a concern that the political debate has become coarsened and impoverished more a series of partisan shibboleths and personal attacks than a free, robust, and informative exchange of sincerely held but contrasting opinions.
After some initial conversations about this during the fall of 2014, Leslie and I decided to collaborate on a solution. Influencing the national conversation was beyond our capabilities, but modeling a better way to discuss political differences in our own state was not. Working with Dukes Sanford School of Public Policy and others, we founded the North Carolina Leadership Forum, which recruits leaders from across the state representing a variety of communities, professions, and points of view to discuss tough issues in a setting that encourages not just the expression of competing opinions but also active listening to those opinions.
From both sides of the partisan spectrum, our project has been attacked as a dangerous distraction from the critical task of winning. The Left views Republicans as not just mistaken but evil. Conservatives often view Democrats the same way. Whats more important than making sure those people lose power and our people keep it?
In my view, such objections miss the point. Learning about why others disagree with you is hardly an impediment to achieving political victories. Nor is learning how to disagree without being an obnoxious jackass. Ronald Reagan knew better, and I understand he may have achieved some success during his political career.
John Hood is chairman of the John Locke Foundation and appears on the talk show NC SPIN.
CONOVER The Catawba County Democratic Party emphasized the need to increase its visibility at the local level at the partys convention Saturday at Conover Station.
Marcus Williams, who has served as chairman of the party for last two years, was the only candidate for chairman and was re-elected.
The other races, for the three vice-chairs, treasurer and secretary, were also uncontested.
There was a bit more competition for spots as delegates to the partys state executive committee.
As chairman, Williams is guaranteed a spot on the committee from the county, but the county party needed to elect five other people, three women and two men, to the committee.
There were seven people up for those five positions. Lynn Dorfman, Audrey Helms, Delene Huggins, Doug Auer and Gabriel Sherwood were elected.
In addition, delegates to the Fifth and 10th District Conventions also were selected.
Forty-five delegates were present at the convention, along with other non-delegate attendees, Treasurer Nancy Miller said.
Party leaders discussed the need to challenge Republicans at all levels.
So one of the first things we have to do is get someone to go against every Republican on the ballot, Gabriel Sherwood, who was elected second vice-chair, said to the convention.
Sherwood said this would take time and effort given the strength of the Republican Party in Catawba County.
So we know it is not going to be an easy road the first couple of years, but the way you build market share is to run, and that is what we need," Sherwood said.
"We need folks to step up and be willing to put their name out there."
After the convention, Williams spoke about the broader reasons it is important for Democrats to put up candidates.
In many cases, the local Democratic Party in Catawba County will pre-concede races because of the advantage Republicans have in registration numbers, Williams said.
But what message does it send, at the local level, at the county level, lets say city government, county government and even at the state government, when you have individuals who are from the other party who run unopposed? Williams said.
So it at least causes those individuals to have to campaign, to state their case in terms of what they are running for and they want to represent, and not just assuming that because they are the representative of a particular party, its my job to have.
Both the Democratic and Republican Parties have been losing registered voters, and there will be opportunities to appeal to some of these unaffiliated voters, Williams said.
Williams believes the party has a strong team going forward. As in the past, organization of the precincts will continue to be a priority for the party, Williams said.
Currently, 31 of the 40 precincts are organized for the Democrats, Williams said.
More generally, Williams said it is necessary to reduce some of the polarization that has developed between people of different parties and political beliefs.
In Catawba County, there is a sense of civility between the Democrats and Republicans, Williams said.
Williams said in the past, he had respectful interactions with former Catawba County Republican Chairman Franklin Lawson, including a speaking event together at St. Stephens High School.
I think that one of the things that both parties need to do is bring people back to the point of civility and consensus, Williams said.
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Three men from the Pardhi hunting community were on Sunday arrested by Madhya Pradesh forest departments special task force (STF) for allegedly poaching nearly 20 tigers between October 2012 and May 2013 in the state, STF sources said.
Task force officials were investigating a tiger poaching case from Satpura Tiger Reserve when they found out that the three poachers were wanted by the CBI.
As the three were wanted by CBI in Maharashtra for poaching of nearly 20 tigers, we handed over them to CBI officials in Jabalpur today (Monday) on transit remand. The Mumbai unit of CBI was investigating poaching of tigers in Maharashtra. The three poachers have been identified as Rokin, Tiliya and Tyohari, said a senior STF official.
The poachers, who originally hail from MPs Katni, were caught in Satna district.
The operation to crack the poaching network was led by STF in-chrage Ritesh Sirothia and guided by RP Singh, additional principal chief conservator for forests (APCCF).
As the three poachers had killed tigers in Maharashtra, we informed the CBI there and handed over these poachers to them today in Jabalpur. They investigating tiger poaching cases there, Sirothia said.
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Launching the app and website BharatKeVeer with Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, lauded the Government of India for making his dream come true and providing a platform for everyone to help the next of the kin of slain soldiers financially.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh with Sudeep Lakhtakia, IPS , DG (OFF.) CRPF and actor Akshay Kumar launching the web portal and mobile application "Bharat Ke Veer" on the occasion of 'Shaurya Diwas' at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)
This website has been made exactly in two and a half months. About three months, this idea came in my mind, while watching a documentary film on terrorists, which showed how terror leaders financially support the families of the terrorist who carry out terror acts. Akshay said at the inauguration.
A Day I Found Hard To Hold Back My Tears...Support the families of our Bravehearts #BharatKeVeer Now LIVE --> https://t.co/wCPFZOYV7g pic.twitter.com/8wKGcaRYdD Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) April 9, 2017
Everybody wants to connect to people in uniform in their pain. It was a small dream and to fulfill this dream, our government really helped us. I want to thank everybody with my folded hands. My father was in Army and I am here as his son. Thank-you everyone, he added.
The portal is an IT based platform, with an objective to enable willing donors to contribute towards the family of a braveheart who sacrificed his/her life in line of duty. The amount so donated will be credited to the account of Next of Kin of those Central Armed Police Force/Central Para Military Force soldiers. Actor Akshay Kumar was the Guest of Honour during the function.
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Actor Manoj Bajpayee isnt bothered about the profession of the character he plays in any film never mind if he earlier played a different character with the same profession. The 47-year-old actor, who plays the role of Ranvir Singh, an intelligence officer, in the recent release Naam Shabana, isnt averse to repeating professions.
He says, I dont mind playing two inspectors back to back. Why? Because Im not playing a profession. Im playing a character. The persons are different. One may be an honest cop, and the other one could be a dirty, bribe-taker cop. They are completely different characters. Thats why I dont mind repeating professions.
The Gangs of Wasseypur actor is only interested in the characters personality, regardless of the profession or religion. The character is what I think is important, says Bajpayee. How does it matter if the character is a Muslim or a Catholic?
Bajpayee, a multiple-award-winning actor, believes that preparing for a role is the toughest job for an actor. He says, I need to know what goes on inside [the characters] mind and their body. For me, preparing for a role is tougher than acting in front of the camera. When Im sure that I have prepared for my role, I can chill after that.
The time for prep work depends on the depth and complexity of the character. Bajpayee says, For instance, for Ranveers role, I took 15 days to prepare. But for a role like Sardar Khan in Gangs [of Wasseypur] or for the role in Aligarh (2016), it took almost a month.
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Pakistan censor board has banned the screening of Bollywood action thriller Naam Shabana over objectionable content after initially allowing its release with some cuts. Last week, the film was allowed to run but a theatre in Islamabad showed it without the mandatory cuts, leading to the ban.
Taapsee Pannu on the sets of Naam Shabana.
It prompted the censor board to ban the screening of the movie, an official said.
He said that some of the scenes related to terrorism were not fit enough to be shown.
The officials at censor board were reluctant to allow its screening but the local distributor Ever Ready Pictures persuaded them to allow the release after editing.
Naam Shabana stars Taapsee Pannu and Manoj Bajpayee in lead roles and was initially released in Pakistan on March 31.
Pakistan banned the screening of Indian films last year after cross border tension between the two countries. The ban was, however, lifted at the start of this year allowing the screening of Indian films after approval by the censor board.
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Days after a picture of veteran actor Vinod Khanna went viral on the social media, spawning endless rumours about his condition, the 70-year-olds son Akshaye Khanna assured his fans on Monday that his father is better.
A picture of Vinod Khanna.
Spotboye quoted Akshaye as saying, Dad is doing better.
A medical bulletin from HN Reliance Foundation and Research Centre in Mumbai also assured on Sunday that the actor is better. Vinod was admitted to the hospital on March 31 due to severe dehydration.
Since the time the veteran actors picture showing him in a bad shape went viral, rumours about his demise started doing the rounds on the social media. The veteran actor looked quite pale in the photo and his condition shocked everyone. Since the time the picture has gone viral, wishes have been pouring in for his speedy recovery.
In a related development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Meghalaya observed a two-minute silence on Saturday to pay respect to the actor. However, the party later came up with a clarification stating that few of their members had seen the news of his demise on television and believed it without verifying.
They also issued an apology for the same and said the actor is responding well to the treatment.
Khanna is a former BJP Lok Sabha member from Punjabs Gurdaspur district.
The 70-year-old was last seen in 2015 Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dilwale.
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Mohsin Hamid, one of the best known English writers from South Asia, is part of a slow cultural renaissance that is the result of the growing middle class and independent media in Pakistan. Apart from his bestseller, the 2007 Man Booker Prize finalist, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Hamid has written novels such as Moth Smoke which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia; and the most recent, Exit West. Recently, we connected with the author via a phone call to Lahore. He spoke about his latest book, migration, effects of Donald Trumps travel ban and the evolution of English writing in Pakistan.
How did you start writing?
As a kid, I would read all the time. I loved fantasy novels such as The Lord of The Rings and science and fiction novels like Frank Herbets Dune series. I also liked Charlottes Web and Wind in the Willows. It helped me get into writing as a profession. I still read a lot. My seven-year-old daughter wants me to write a childrens book. Id like to write her one before she gets too old to read it.
A still from the film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), which was adapted from Hamids book of the same name. (HT Photo)
Your new book, Exit West, is set in an unnamed country. What made you chose such a backdrop for your novel?
I like the idea of the starting point of a novel to be open so that different readers imagine it (the story) occurring in their city or their own settings. So, the unnamed nature is attributed to that aspect. And, partly because when we talk about migration and migrants, the places they come from are so often treated as being vague. The places they end up going to are in sharp focus. The novel explores that bias through anonymity.
Your book talks about migration. What are your views of the current policies on migration around the world, especially that of Donald Trump?
Talking about the travel ban, I think it is a sad and a discriminatory measure. It is a betrayal of equality and human decency. But, if we should look at our situation back home; there are restrictions for travel between India and Pakistan. I dont like the idea of borders that prevent human travel and movement.
Youve lived across several cities. Where do you feel the most at home?
I feel at home in Lahore, where I live at the moment. New York is another city I have called home for several years. Then, there are London and California, where I have spent a large part of my childhood. So, these places are home for me partly. But, my family and kids are in Lahore, so that is where my base is.
Pakistani authors seem to be quite sought-after in the Indian publishing industry
Writers are one of the reasons we get to see across the border. Its not surprising that Indian writers, film-makers and musicians are popular in Pakistan and vice versa because there is a huge commonality between these two countries. We often hear about the political differences between India and Pakistan, but the cultural commonalities between India and Pakistan are vaster than the political differences.
Pakistani authors are known to write grittier novels. Do you think good fiction comes from a politically charged environment?
I dont think its useful to think of writing in terms of nations. We need to think of them as individuals and the work they produce. A lot of Indian and Pakistani writers are my friends. They have their own approach to writing.
The cover of Hamids latest book, Exit West. (HT Photo)
A lot of Pakistani authors used to visit India for various literary festivals earlier
I have been getting invitations (from India), but to be honest, I have been hesitating about coming down. Visiting Delhi, Mumbai and other places in India have always been amazing experiences. But, now, the problem is that the rhetoric has gone quite bad between both the countries. And, moreover, we keep hearing about cultural boycotts and bans on Pakistani writers and artistes. So, this makes one much more reluctant to come over. My only hope is that India and Pakistan go back to being on good terms, because I would like to come to India more often.
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Global trade has brought benefits from increased productivity to lower prices but governments have not adequately helped workers and communities hit hard by imports, the worlds top multilateral economic institutions said on Monday.
In a report that serves as their answer to the Trump administrations more protectionist trade stance, the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and World Bank said that an open trading system based on well-enforced rules was critical to world prosperity.
The institutions, which have promoted free trade for decades, cited research showing that manufacturing regions that were more exposed to imports from China since about 2000 saw significant and persistent losses in jobs and earnings, falling most heavily on low-skilled workers.
It described what U.S. President Donald Trump has called the forgotten Americans that he wants to serve with his America First trade policies.
Workers displaced from manufacturing tend to be older, less educated and longer-tenured in the lost job than workers displaced from other sectors, and in turn tend to take longer to return to work, the groups said in the report.
The report recommended more active government policies beyond traditional unemployment income benefits to retrain and redeploy workers idled by imports, including programs to encourage more worker mobility. These could include relocation allowances to help workers move to regions with better employment prospects and credit policies aimed at helping companies facing import competition to reorient their business models or invest in new technologies.
But the report argued in favor of maintaining an open trading system that is bound by enforceable rules, saying that trade liberalization has boosted productivity and improved living standards.
The reports cited research showing that a one percentage point increase in trade openness raised productivity by 1.23 percent in the long run, and a Canadian study showed that a U.S. free trade deal in the 1980s increased Canadian labor productivity in the most impacted export-oriented industries by 14 percent and the most import-competing industries by 15 percent.
Economists generally view higher productivity as important to supporting wage growth and higher living standards in advanced economies.
The study also cited research showing that open trade is estimated to have reduced by two-thirds the price of a basket of goods consumed by a typical advanced economy low-income household. (Reporting by David Lawder)
Companies from India and Bangladesh signed on Monday pacts worth over $9 billion aimed at deepening partnership in various sectors, including power, oil and gas.
Among the MoUs signed in the presence of visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a facility agreement between Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL) and Exim Bank of India for debt financing for construction of 1,320 mw Maitree Power Project in Rampal in Bangladesh ($1.6 bn).
The MoUs include an implementation and power purchase agreement between Reliance Power and the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources for the first phase (718 mw) of the 3,000 mw power project at Meghnaghat, entailing $1 billion (out of a total proposed investment of $3 billion).
The agreement between NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) and Bangladesh Power Development Board for supply of power from Nepal envisaged an investment of $3.15 billion.
The event also saw signing of pact between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and the Bangladesh Power Development Board entailing an investment of $2 billion and a power purchase agreement between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
Besides, the MoUs signed include those on LNG terminal use between Petronet LNG, India and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), among others.
The MoU-signing ceremony was organised by CII.
China has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India it was the 17th largest in 2016, up from the 28th rank in 2014 and 35th in 2011, according to Indias official ranking of FDI inflows.
In 2011, total Chinese investment in India was $102 million. Last year, a record $1 billion of Chinese FDI reportedly came to India, but official Indian and Chinese statistics differ on cumulative figures. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) last year estimated that total FDI from China between April 2000 and December 2016 was $1.6 billion. Indian industry analysts and media reports have estimated the figure to be over $2 billion.
Actual Chinese investment in India is at least three times higher than the official Indian figure, Santosh Pai, partner at Gurgaon-based Link Legal India Law Services, which provides legal services to members of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told IndiaSpend.
Indian statistics capture direct investments from mainland China, but a majority of Chinese overseas direct investment, Pai noted, flows through tax havens such as Hong Kong. Last year, Chinese vice-minister for finance Shi Yaobin was quoted saying China has cumulatively invested $4.07 billion in India, and India has invested $650 million in China.
China will be one of Indias top 10 investors shortly, Pai said. He recalled his experience of building a clientele in Beijing in 2010. The Indian firm he worked for had no clients in China. He would drive up and down Beijings best-known road, Changan, noting down companies names on buildings along the way. Later, he would track down those companies online and approach them for business. In six years, his firms Chinese clientele grew from zero to 120 companies (the firm has since merged with the one he works with now).
Six years ago, investors from the worlds second-largest economy were hard to find in India. Today, Indias largest digital payments company Paytm is 40%-owned by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba and its affiliates, and Alibaba is reportedly raising its stake to 62%. Chinas fourth-largest mobile phone company Xiaomi assembles one phone every second at a new factory in India.
Sixty percent of Chinese FDI is concentrated in the automobile industry. Several companies regional offices are located in Ahmedabad, although Chinese companies are gradually moving away from an initial preference for Gujarat towards Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana. Seven smartphone companies from China have launched, or plan to launch, factories in India, according to a February 2017 Chinese media report, Rise and Coexist.
Nonetheless, Chinese investment flows into India remain relatively low, both in terms of total FDI flows into India and Chinese outward investment globally. Chinas share of total FDI in India is only 0.5%, despite its being the second largest economy in the world and Indias largest trading partner, according to DIPP.
This is higher than other BRICS countries investment in India Brazil chalks up 0.01% and Russia 0.37% despite historically robust relations. Yet, Chinas 0.5% share pales in comparison with fellow Asian powerhouse Japan (7.7%). Meanwhile, the US, which China recently replaced as the worlds largest economy in purchasing power parity terms, has a 6.13% share in total FDI in India.
While Chinas FDI flow into India last year showed a relatively significant rise, the figure was negligible when viewed against Chinas outbound investment of over a trillion yuan or $170 billion across 164 nations last yearincluding $45.6 billion in the US alone.
Problem of politics
Chinese FDI in India has increased even as India and China have picked new points of political disagreement in the last two years. India objects to Chinas $46 billion investment in the China-Pakistan economic corridor that passes through parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Last year, Beijing obstructed Indias efforts to get membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and China has repeatedly blocked a proposal at the United Nations to blacklist Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, implicated in terror strikes in India, including the 2016 Pathankot attack.
There is no drop in the activity of Chinese companies evaluating India because of political relations between the two countries, Sridhar Venkiteswaran, CEO of Avalon Consulting in Delhi, told IndiaSpend. Increasingly, the Indian political establishment too does not want to place any roadblocks on Chinese investment into India but Indian companies tend to push back when there is negative news about the Sino-Indian relationship.
The bilateral tension in their relations is reflected in public opinion. Last year, 31% of Indians and 26% of Chinese had a favourable view of each other, according to the Pew Research Centre. A senior Chinese official recently remarked to the media that Indias investment climate is improving and laws are more sorted but when something (negative) happens in India, our investors get worried.
Chinese commentary on India reflects this combination of geopolitical rivalry and enhanced commercial interest. Chinas government-backed newspaper Global Times published a record-setting 80 opinion pieces on India in 2016, and its coverage of India is on the rise. The articles are a mix of political warnings against antagonising China and business reports evaluating investment in India. Though New Delhi has refused to endorse Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative to build infrastructure to link Asia with Europe and Africa, sections of the Chinese media have projected an upcoming industrial park in Indias Gujarat as part of the same Chinese initiative.
Indias growth attraction
Faced with double-digit increases in labour costs, an ageing workforce and a record slowdown in economic growth, Chinese companies have been searching for alternative manufacturing destinations and new markets since the economic downturn of 2008.
India is a hot investment opportunity, Li Bojun, a counsellor at the Chinese embassy was quoted saying in the Peoples Daily in February 2017. Chinese companies are showing more confidence in the Indian economy as it grows faster than their own and narrows the gap in competitiveness between the two Asian giants. India ranked 39th compared with China at 28th in the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report on 138 nations in 2016-17, raising its rank by 16 positions from the 55th in 2015-16.
The fact that the Indian economy is now the fastest-growing has had a positive signalling effect in China, Pai said.
A 2015-16 joint report by Indian industry association Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Avalon Consulting estimated that labour costs for manufacturing personnel are 1.5 to 3 times higher in China than in India. The report noted that China is losing competitiveness to India in several light engineering-related industries, which is attracting Chinese investors to India.
The relative competitiveness of India compared to China is increasing, especially for Chinese companies to shift production from China to India in the automotive, chemical and electronics value added chain, Venkiteswaran said. For example, he said, imports from China have been 35% costlier since 2013, and the cost of labour in China is increasing by 18-19% since 2014, compared with 8-10% in India.
Chinese businesses have noticed. One of the most-shared articles in March on the Global Times website warned: China should pay more attention to Indias increasing manufacturing competitiveness.
Coverage of Indias economy and manufacturing competitiveness is increasing in China since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known better in China than his predecessors, partly due to his Weibo account, which was launched in 2015. Modis image as a decisive political leader and promoter of economic reforms is viewed positively by Chinese investors.
Modi was recently termed a man of action and a hardliner, qualities that the Chinese Communist Party is known to respect, in an article on the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in Global Times.
Business barriers
However, it is far from smooth sailing for Sino-Indian investment. Indias attempts to gain market access in China for its information technology, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries have hit a wall for over a decade. Indias deficit in trade with China bloated to $46.56 billion last year. Bilateral trade remains below the target of $100 billion that both sides were aiming to achieve in 2015. At $70.08 billion in 2016, bilateral trade was 2.2% lower than the $71.63 billion in 2015. The CII-Avalon study forecasts that the trade deficit will hit $60 billion by 2018-19.
For mainland Chinese companies, India is not an easy place to do business, for several reasons. First, they are relatively unfamiliar with the business environment, as against firms from the US, Europe, Japan and South Korea, which have decades of experience in India.
Second, India trailed at 130th while China was ranked 78th in the World Banks latest (2017) ease of doing business index. Proposed industrial parks funded by China, including a reported $10 billion investment in Haryana, are stuck due to land acquisition and other complexities. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co.s move to acquire 86% stake in Indian drug-maker Gland Pharma Ltd has been dogged by uncertainty and delays regarding government approvals, as The Economic Times reported.
Chinese companies indicate a lot of interest in investing in India but many are uncertain about sealing the deal due to the complex labyrinth of regulations and financial hoops, Nazia Vasi, CEO of Mumbai-based Inchin Closer, an India-China language and business consultancy, told IndiaSpend.
While larger, strong investors like Alibaba are making calculated strides in familiar territory, Vasi said, it will be a while until Chinese companies see their rate of return rise higher than their risk of being in India.
Third, there are differences in business cultures. These differences emerge sharpest during negotiations, Pai said, due to a lack of communication skills to understand each other. Both sides struggle to identify suitable partners and prefer to focus on intangible criteria such as trust and familiarity.
Indians who are more familiar with Western practices tend to adopt a straight-talking no-nonsense approach, Pai observed, whereas the Chinese prefer an indirect and subtle approach which comes across as ambiguous and non-serious. Most business negotiations either end up in a never-ending loop or fail. Those which reach a satisfactory conclusion falter a little after execution because consensus was reached by overlooking several potential deadlock issues.
In 2014, Chinese president Xi Jinping committed to a $20 billion investment in India over five years. If fulfilled, this would increase Chinas economic footprint in India. But it would still be a small percentage of Xis more recent promise that China will invest $750 billion overseas in five years.
Reshma Patil is the author of Strangers across the Border: Indian Encounters in Boomtown China.
(Published in arrangement with IndiaSpend)
Indian energy firms including NTPC, Adani Power, Reliance Power and Petronet LNG, on Monday signed pacts for multi-billion dollar projects in Bangladesh as the two neighbours seek to strengthen economic ties and boost trade.
According to a government presentation, NTPC has signed a $3.15 billion pact to supply power to Bangladesh from Nepal, while Adani Power has signed a $2 billion agreement to supply power to Bangladesh.
Petronet LNG has signed a $1 billion agreement for LNG terminal in Bangladesh, and Reliance Power has tied up with Petrobangla to set up of $300 million LNG terminal.
Also, the Numaligarh Refinery will buy gas and oil from Bangladesh Petroleum Corp.
To facilitate the project finances, Indias Exim Bank will extend $1.6 billion for the power project in Bangladesh.
Thanking the Bangladesh government for allowing transit of petroleum products through its territory to Tripura to address the recent emergency situation in the state, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, We are revamping, refurbishing and expanding Eastern Refinery Ltd in Bangladesh.
He added that ONGC Videsh is in advanced level of exploration activities in Chittagong and the company is expected to produce results benefiting both nations.
To support regional energy connectivity, India will supply R-LNG to Bangladesh from an upcoming facility in Odisha to the Khulna power plant.
We are committed to partner with Bangladesh in meeting its petroleum demands, and participating in their goal of Power to All by 2022, Pradhan said.
On April 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new concessional line of credit of $4.5 billion for the implementation of projects in priority sectors for Bangladesh.
The new LoC takes Indias assistance to Bangladesh to more than $8 billion dollars over the past six years. Energy security is an important dimension of our development partnership, Modi said at a joint press conference with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
British regulators are investigating Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley and the bank itself over the handling of a whistleblowing incident, the bank said on Monday.
The investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority relates to an attempt by Staley last year to identify the author of a letter that was treated by Barclays Bank Plc as a whistleblowing incident, Barclays said in a statement.
Barclays said it has formally reprimanded Staley and has promised to cut his variable compensation, but will support his reappointment at the banks annual general meeting on May 10, the statement said.
The regulators are also looking at Barclays systems and controls and culture relating to whistleblowing, the bank added.
Barclays board first heard of Staleys attempt to identify the author of the letter in early 2017, after the issue was raised by an employee, Barclays said.
The board instructed law firm Simmons & Simmons LLP to carry out an investigation led by Gerry Grimstone, the banks deputy chairman, and also notified the regulators.
The investigation ... found, and the Board has concluded, that Mr Staley honestly, but mistakenly, believed that it was permissible to identify the author of the letter, the bank said.
The author of the letter was not identified.
I have apologised to the Barclays Board, and accepted its conclusion that my personal actions in this matter were errors on my part, Staley said.
The board will issue a formal written reprimand to Staley and cut his variable compensation,
The board will also look into the position of other employees involved in the incident, the bank said.
I am personally very disappointed and apologetic that this situation has occurred, particularly as we strive to operate to the highest possible ethical standards, Barclays chairman John McFarlane said in the statement.
How would you like to remember the battle of Champaran? As a special milestone in Indias war for Independence that gave a meaningful turn to this struggle that has its origins in human suffering? A passage of time that brought Mohandas on the warpath that took him from being an ordinary man to a Mahatma? Or, will you call it the heralding of a revolution that inspired people of repute in society to stand shoulder to shoulder with the exploited and the oppressed?
To answer these questions, let me take you back a hundred years. At the onset of the 20th century, the despicable practice of slavery was prevalent in Champaran, Bihar. Farmers were coerced into growing indigo and forced to pay sundry taxes to feudal land owners. These taxes filled the coffers of their masters but the farmers ended up going to bed hungry. What may come as shock to you is the fact that at that time, around 1910, the farmers were forced to pay 46 kinds of taxes.
The nature of history is such that whenever exploitation crosses all its limits, a few of those exploited begin to raise their voice. Raj Kumar Shukla was part of this endangered species. He had jumped into battle but it was beyond his capabilities to take it past the finishing line. Around the same time at the Lucknow session of the Congress he met Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He convinced Mohandas that he had to visit Champaran at least once to witness the farmers oppression first-hand. The barrister accepted his invitation.
On April 10, 1917, when Gandhi alighted at the Motihari railway station, he was unaware that his destiny was about to transform. Hundreds of people had converged on the station to meet him. After Natal in South Africa this was the second occasion when the oppressed were seeing a glimpse of their messiah in this diminutive man. The English collector of Champaran heard about this and predictably got a whiff of a popular uprising. He was arrested on the suspicion of disturbing public order. This just fanned the passions further. To ensure that the anger of his supporters doesnt cross all limits, the district administration gave him a bail proposal. But Gandhi refused to comply and carry out the documentation needed for the bail application. This made him an overnight hero and during his hearing thousands of people began gathering outside the court room.
A stunned district administration had no option but to release him. Those few hours of his detention paved the way for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to turn into the Mahatma. Gandhi fought this war not with outrage but with tact. He got a survey conducted of 8,000 indigo farmers in 2,841 villages of Champaran. These days television personalities begin holding forth on the mood of a country of 121 crore people by speaking to just 500-1,000 people. Just imagine the credibility of such a comprehensive survey conducted 100 years ago.
Still, it may be unfair to perceive the Champaran rebellion as a part of the struggle for Independence. The farmers of Champaran dreamt of freedom from exploitation in 1917. Has their dream been realised? The bitter truth is that the administrators of independent India havent treated them any better. Even today their farm earnings are not enough to fill their stomach. The indigo tyrants may have gone away, but their place has been taken by moneylenders who are free to suck the blood out of farmers.
How will we get freedom from them?
Let us return to Bihar. The initiative of land reforms has not yet borne fruit here. The directives of the judiciary in this regard havent proved useful either. Till a few months back, Bihar had a law under which even the Supreme Courts rulings could be sent for review to the revenue minister. Capitalising on this, the politicians in the state were sitting over the reforms. This was the condition when parties with a socialist philosophy had been in power in the state for more than 25 years.
Like Champaran, farmers in other parts of the country are also in a sorry state. Several thousand of farmers commit suicide in India every year. Villages are being deserted owing to lack of employment opportunities. And because of these migrants the infrastructure in the cities is crumbling. But there was some relief on this front recently. The UP government waived the loans of upto one lakh rupees for close to 87 lakh farmers. The Madras High Court has directed the government in Tamil Nadu to waive farm loans. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed a similar desire. A few other states may soon follow suit. It will be encouraging if, after this populist decision, politicians make some arrangements that ensure that the sons of soil need not get trapped into the quagmire of farm loans again.
This is required because earlier there was just one Champaran and today there are hundreds of Champarans in India. This is independent Indias tragic gift to independent India.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan
The New Delhi Municipal Council, which failed to kick off the ambitious pedestrian-only project in Connaught Place, is now starting a park-and-ride facility for visitors in this central Delhi commercial hot spot.
Two electric cars have already been procured by the civic agency and four more will be brought to start the trial run. The electric cars will be used to get people from Shivaji Stadium parking lot to the Inner Circle of Connaught Place. If the trial run is successful, the council will procure more such vehicles, an official said. This is being done on a trial basis to see how people find this experience. It is sort of a precursor to car-free Connaught Place, NDMC chairman Naresh Kumar told HT.
Placed in the heart of Delhi, Connaught Place is a traffic nightmare on most days. The situation worsens on weekends and public holidays. The idea is to decongest Connaught Place. We can try and regulate the vehicles and take care of the traffic nightmare, especially during weekends, an official said.
The council has already procured two Verito sedans, which are electricity-run vehicles. It has also procured six electric scooters for NDMC staff to keep an eye on illegally parked vehicles in the Inner Circle of Connaught Place.
The idea is to have monitoring at every 500-100 metres in the inner circle of CP. This will help us track illegally parked vehicles and remove them, an official said.
Experts, however, feel the initiative will be another failed step if not coupled with restriction on vehicular movement.
Pedestrian-only Connaught Place is a step towards decongesting the central business district. This kind of step (park and ride) may not be successful on its own. In Delhi, a city of one crore vehicles, the culture is to have multiple vehicles per family. It is not feasible as nobody will use such a facility. It is viable only when Connaught Place is car free, Dr S Velmurugan, senior principal scientist (traffic engineering and road safety division) at Central Road Research Institute (CSIR).
However, the bigger three-month project to make Connaught Place car-free, slated to kick off on February 1, has been postponed due to lack of unanimity over execution of the plan among the stakeholders, especially the traders, who have opposed the idea and even took to protest.
The plan, which was given a go-ahead by the Union urban development ministry after extensive talks with NDMC and traffic police officials in early January, aims to decongest the heritage shopping arcade in central Delhi. Nearly 2,000 parking spaces were supposed to be removed, including 1,500 from the Inner Circle and 400-500 from the Middle Circle, as this site with a daily footfall of nearly 5 lakh, was proposed to turn pedestrian friendly.
The authorities had proposed two ways to implement the project. According to the first plan, cars will be allowed to enter from Janpath, people will alight at Palika Bazar or Palika Parking and will exit through Baba Khadak Singh Marg. The second plan proposes that cars will be allowed in the middle circle but to drop visitors and shoppers, making it a no-parking zone.
As part of the car-free CP plan, the civic body has also been considering giving incentives to encourage people to use the underutilised automated parking lot at Baba Kharak Singh Marg.
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Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged manipulation of electronic voting machines (EVM) on Monday, saying the election commission has become Dhritarashtra with the motive to help son Duryodhana (read the BJP) emerge victorious in the elections.
The EC has become Dhritarashtra, who wants his son (Duryodhana) to win by hook or crook. The ECs motive is not to conduct the elections but to ensure the BJPs victory, Kejriwal told the media.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief said that a few machines, used during the bypoll in Rajasthans Dholpur on Sunday, may have been tampered with.
In these 18 EVMs, the vote was going to the BJP no matter where it was pressed. In Bhind, one such EVM was found during a mock drill. Yesterday, in Dholpur, 18 such EVMs were found. It means that their software was changed, the code and programming was changed. When did they change all this? Kejriwal said, wondering why the poll panel was not ready to investigate the matter.
Even for the Delhi municipal elections, the EVMs are coming from Rajasthan. Why are they coming from Rajasthan? Why the machines from Delhi are cancelled? All the machines from Rajasthan are manipulated and tempered, he added.
His fresh salvo comes on the day a combined opposition plans to launch a campaign against the alleged tampering of EVMs and press for the use of ballot paper in elections.
Thirteen political parties, including the Congress and the Left, will visit the commission around 5pm. On Wednesday, these parties will meet President Pranab Mukherjee to submit a memorandum on the issue.
The Delhi chief minister further said the people of India wont forgive the election commission and BJP for the game they are playing with the Constitution.
Kejriwal had earlier expressed doubts over the security features installed in the machines while demanding that the upcoming civic polls in the capital be conducted using paper ballots.
It doesnt look like all machines are tampered. Some are being used in a few areas. I wrote to the EC today. We have the experts to study the software, if you dont have them. Give the EVMs to us. We will make the software public, Kejriwal said.
Last week, the election commission, in a veiled attack on Kejriwal, said that baseless observations and allegations were made by a leader of a political party today in a press conference regarding the use of EVMs and clarified its position.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday called the Election Commission Dhritarashtra which will do anything to help BJP, which he termed Duryodhana, win the elections.
Continuing his attack over the alleged manipulation of electronic voting machines, Kejriwal said the Election Commissions only intention was to bring the BJP to power in poll-bound states and that is why it was not paying heed to his request to investigate faulty EVMs.
The AAP leaders statement comes a day after media reports that a few machines, used during the bypoll in Rajasthans Dholpur, may have been tampered with.
Accusing the Election Commission of overlooking complaints of alleged EVM manipulation, Kejriwal linked the Commission to Mahabharatas Dhritarashtra.
As Dhritarashtra helped his son Duryodhana grab power, the Election Commission is similarly helping the BJP by using all means possible (Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed), he said.
On Sunday, the Election Commission had said that EVMs are robust and tamper-proof and even the manufacturers cannot manipulate them at the time of production, countering allegations that the machines are unreliable.
Addressing a press conference at his official residence on Monday, Kejriwal alleged that both the Election Commission and the BJP are playing with democracy, which the people of country will not tolerate.
Stop conducting elections when EVMs can be manipulated. What is the meaning of elections then? Kejriwal asked.
Referring to Rajasthans Dholpur bypolls, the Aam Aadmi Party chief said, Why do defective EVMs vote in favour of the BJP all the time? Why faulty machines do not vote in favour of other political parties? It means the software of EVMs has been changed.
He claimed that in the April 23 MCD elections, faulty EVMs are being brought from Rajasthan to conduct the civic body polls.
There are three generations of EVMs. First were used before 2006 while the second generation EVMs were used between 2006 and 2013 and third generation EVMs are being used after 2013, the AAP national convener said.
When 15,000 EVMs of the second generation are available in Delhi, then why the first generation EVMs, which would have been used before 2006, will be used in the upcoming MCD polls, Kejriwal said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday tried to woo Purvanchali voters living in Delhi ahead of the MCD polls saying that they are not migrants to Delhi but are residents here.
Lakhs of people from Bihar have come to Delhi in search of jobs and they earn their livelihood through hard work. However, people still call them migrants! Bihar ke log prawasi nahi, niwasi hain. (They are not migrants, they are residents of Delhi), Kumar said, while addressing a rally for the MCD elections at Jaitpur in support of Janata Dal (United) candidates for the wards in Badarpur constituency.
Badarpur is dotted with unauthorised colonies and is home to a large population of Purvanchalis people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Asking for support of Purvanchalis for his party in the MCD elections, Kumar said the BJP, which has been ruling the MCD for 10 years, is responsible for the poor condition of the city.
They talk about smart cities but let us ask them to at least make Delhi smart. Condition of most of the roads is very bad. I saw lack of proper drainage, sewage, and heaps of garbage across colonies of the city. Most parts of the city are a mess, barring Lutyens zone, he said.
JD(U) has fielded 101 candidates, mostly in Purvanchali dominated areas, for 272 seats in the MCD elections and its ministers and MLAs from Bihar are camping in Delhi to assist party candidates.
Taking up the cause of unauthorised colonies, where a large chunk of Purvanchalis live in Delhi, Kumar said that the colonies should be regularised and provided with necessary civic amenities.
So many people come to Delhi for work. Where will they live? Should they live on platforms of railway stations! They are living in these so-called unauthorised colonies. Be it the Centre or the state government or the municipal corporations, all of them should do their bit so that people get the basic facilities, he said.
There are an estimated 40 lakh voters from the Purvanchal region in Delhi. There are a number of assembly constituencies where the Purvanchalis form more than 30% of the population. JD(U), for the MCD polls, is focusing on Narela, Burari, Kirari, Seelampur, Badarpur, Sangam Vihar and Matia Mahal to maximise impact of the Purvanchali vote bank.
Kumar on Sunday also batted for complete statehood to Delhi for better administration and improved law and order, Bihar-like liquor ban in the Capital and also expressed concern over reports that liquor shops closed on national highways after Supreme Court order were being shifted inside cities. He also talked about the achievements of the Bihar government and asked people to give the JD(U) candidates an opportunity to serve them.
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Six out of the top ten colleges in the recently released National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), are in Delhi. Of the other four, one is in Kolkata, two in Chennai and one in Tiruchirapalli. This skewed distribution of places of quality higher education in the country should be cause for alarm.
If centres for academic excellence exist only in Delhi and one or two other cities, this means that students in the rest of the country can only hope to get a second-rate education in universities and colleges. Investment in infrastructure and pedagogy is mostly centred around this handful of institutes. Even prestigious universities such as Osmania University, which celebrates its centenary this year, barely have any amenities to speak of. As recent news reports have shown, students in Osmania Universitys hostels dont even have mattresses on their iron cots, and have apparently been using banners and polythene covers as bedsheets. Science labs, outside of the elite colleges and IITs, have terrible infrastructure and barely any safety equipment. In smaller universities, even the bare essentials for labs are hard to come by. In such a scenario, the Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar has said that educational institutions performing well in the annual ranking will be awarded with more funding, enhanced autonomy and various other benefits.
This could create a vicious circle,in which those who have the infrastructure do well, and get more funding; and those who dont have any facilities continue to do badly, and yet receive no financial help. This approach will only strengthen those institutes that already have the best benefits (such as they are) available to them. What is required is not a government-funded ranking system, but more government investment in education and allied infrastructure; and more attention to smaller, state-funded universities. Bodies such as the UGC need to make sure that non-top-rung universities in the country too have the basic necessities to ensure that students can get a decent shot at higher education. As more and more private universities, some of them with questionable credentials come up, government universities and colleges have a responsibility to provide affordable, good quality educational opportunities to everyone, especially to those living outside prominent metros.
You many have been perplexed at the sight of several commercial vehicles parked on the service lane of Delhi-Gurgaon expressway near the Delhi-Gurgaon border at Sirhaul while heading to the city from New Delhi over the last week.
The reason has now come to light. It turns out that drivers of commercial vehicles had been queueing up at the toll collection booth each day, often for hours at a stretch, to pay road tax to the state transport department (STA).
They had been enduring chaos at the toll booths and facing dissent from passengers even as they lost out on precious seconds and revenue contemplating whether to opt between daily or monthly permit.
As per the revision in road tax announced by the state government, which came into effect from April 1, commercial drivers have to pay Rs 3,000 per month or Rs 100 per day to enter Haryana. Earlier, after paying Rs 950, the drivers ply for 3 months in Haryana.
Suresh Tiwari, a cab driver attached to OLA, said the hike along with the road tax charged by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has reduced his earnings by 30 per cent.
New Delhi has an excellent public transport system. Cabs are essentially needed for commuters in Gurgaon and they provide the majority of our daily earnings. The MCD had already been collecting Rs 100 every time a commercial vehicle entered New Delhi. Now, the decision by the Haryana government to hike road tax has made our pockets lighter. After two visits to Gurgaon, I have no choice but to limit my services within New Delhi and hope to get enough passengers to get by, Tiwari said.
Keeping in mind the fact that they do not have to cross the border on a daily basis, most drivers settle for Rs 100 per day. Some pay Rs 700 at one-go to ply their vehicles for a week, while a handful opt for the monthly pass.
For Mohammad Intezar Malik, an UBER driver from New Delhi, the daily wait at the toll has hurt his hopes of maximizing his profits and hence, he now opts for a permit for five days at once.
On every visit (to Gurgaon), it takes me more than half-an-hour to get my permit from STA. Although, uncertainty looms on whether I will daily get to ferry a passenger to Gurgaon, I opt for a five-day pass by paying Rs 500. Id rather have a permit and not enough passengers to Gurgaon than fail to draw a single passenger by not having one, Malik said.
In addition, the STAs server is yet to be updated and aligned with the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) or the excise departments database. The RTA used to collect taxes from passenger and goods vehicles earlier. Hence, each driver is filling his details prior to getting his permit.
The process was more streamlined earlier. The RTA had our details and we just needed to pay them the fees for three months at once. It took us about five minutes to get our permits. Besides waiting in the queue, now I have to fill my details on each visit. The process, now, is extremely tedious, Jagtar Singh Negi, a commercial cab driver, said.
The despair is not restricted to drivers alone. Passengers, too, have been waiting at the toll as the drivers scrambled for procuring their permit.
The driver takes more than 20 minutes, if not longer, to get his state permit. The wait adds to my travelling time. I was completely unaware of this development. The government should make the process (issuing permits) online and relieve drivers and passengers, Sunil Gupta, an employee of an automotive company in Manesar said.
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Unions of commercial vehicles protested against increased road tax by Haryana government on Monday and also disrupted the plying of their vehicles towards Gurgaon.
Union members of Delhi taxi tourists transport association and Sarvodaya drivers association held a protest march from Mata Sundari College to Haryana Bhawan in New Delhi against Haryana governments new road tax policy where they have increased road tax to Rs100 for four seater cars and Rs500 for seven seater cars per day effective from April 1.
Earlier, the drivers had to pay a one-time entry tax of Rs 950 for three months to the regional transport authority.
Taxi unions have warned that they may go on an indefinite strike unless the hike is reversed as passengers are refusing to pay the increased tax.
If the unions decide to strike, those travelling between New Delhi and Gurgaon by private cabs and taxis will be severely affected.
More than 80,000 cabs are likely to go on indefinite strike against the Haryana government for increasing passenger tax, which union members claim is 100% effective from April 1.
The union members shouted slogans against the Haryana government and also burnt the effigy of Manohar Lal Khattar, chief minister of Haryana.
Delhi taxi tourists transport association president Sanjay Samrat said that the Haryana government must roll back the increased tax as it is tough for cab drivers to collect the increased amount from passengers.
Passengers enter into arguments when we demand Rs100 or Rs500 as additional and hiked amount, said Gopal, a taxi owner.
Roughly 20,000 cabs ply between Delhi and Gurgaon and most of them are the permanent mode of transportation for executives of companies in Gurgaon.
Meanwhile, the union members said that the indefinite strike would depend on the governments response to their memorandum.
The cab drivers also held up black banners as a mark of their resentment against the government of Haryana.
Kamaljeet Singh, a leader of the Sarvodaya drivers association, said that cab drivers are agitated by the fee hike and the time consumed in paying the tax at the collection booth.
Drivers have to wait in queues for hours daily at the toll collection booth at New Delhi-Gurgaon border. This takes away a significant period of time that they could have used to increase their daily earnings as they are stuck in paying taxes instead of driving commuters, Kamaljeet said.
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Taxi services from New Delhi to Gurgaon were hit on Monday because of a protest by drivers of Ola, Uber and traditional cab operators against a revised and hiked road tax in Haryana.
They were unhappy with the Haryana governments decision to charge an inter-state border toll of Rs 100 for five-seater cars such as hatchbacks and Rs 500 for bigger seven-seater vehicles a day from April 1. Or, the taxi operators have the option of buying a monthly pass for Rs 3,000.
Before the tax structure was changed, the drivers paid a one-time entry tax of Rs 950 for three months to the regional transport authority.
The revision has hit the app-based ride-hailing services more, as these have grabbed business from traditional taxi operators with their cheaper fares. Drivers argued that the tax hike would reduce their earnings.
Commuters had a tough time as both Uber and Ola faced disruptions, with their apps showing no cars available when attempts were made to book a ride in New Delhi during the day.
An Ola driver refused, saying he is joining the protesters in central Delhi. Another said the queues at the border tax office are too long. After unsuccessful attempts, a driver agreed finally to take me to Gurgaon, said Dhruv Virmani, a resident of central Delhis Shanti Niketan.
Cabbies gathered at the Haryana Bhawan in New Delhi and shouted slogans. Many more were seen at the toll collection booth in Sirhaul, where long queues were recorded as officials were allegedly not equipped the handle the rush.
Precious time was lost our earnings got hit as we were stuck at the toll booth, instead of driving passengers, said Kamaljeet, a cabbie.
Taxi unions in the national capital cautioned that they may start an indefinite strike unless the tax hike is reversed since passengers wont pay the revised charge.
Passengers argue when we demand Rs 100 or Rs 500 to pay the tax, said Gopal, a taxi owner.
Ola and Uber officials refused comments.
Roughly 20,000 cabs ply between Delhi and Gurgaon and most of them carry executives of companies based out of the satellite city.
Taxi services between Gurgaon and New Delhi were paralysed this February too, as Ola and Uber drivers led a strike demanding better pay and life insurance.
It was the first big confrontation between trade unions representing taxi drivers in the Delhi region of 25 million people and the two ride-hailing players San Francisco-based Uber, and homegrown rival Ola.
Dont be surprised if you find there are no Ola, Uber cabs available for your trip to Gurgaon. Commuters to Gurgaon have been facing problems as cab drivers refuse to ply in the wake of the new motor tax introduced by the Haryana government. A drivers union, Sarvodaya Drivers Association, will also hold a protest against the new tax at the Haryana Bhawan in New Delhi later this afternoon.
After two unsuccessful attempts, an Ola driver agreed to ply towards Gurgaon. One driver said he is part of a protest and is joining the protesters at Central Delhi while another said the lines at the border for payment of taxes deter him from heading there, Dhruv Virmani, a resident of Shanti Niketan said.
As a part of its decision to streamline tax collection, the Haryana government had introduced the Rs 100 tax for taxis entering the state from April 1. This has replaced the earlier road tax of Rs 950 which was paid to the Regional Transport Authority every three months. The new tax has to be paid upon entry at the border leading to long queues and inconvenience.
Kamaljeet Singh, the president of Sarvodaya Drivers Association, said that besides being expensive, the tax collection system is causing delay and losses as the drivers have to stand in long queues at the border to make the payment at the tax collection booths.
Drivers have to stand in queues for nearly an hour before they can pay their taxes. When we had protested against app-based aggregators earlier this year, the Haryana government had intervened and gave us reassurance that drivers demands will be fulfilled and ease their lives. However, the new tax collection system has only added to the burden, Singh said.
Ola officials said they will comment on the matter after the conclusion of the protest. Uber officials did not want to comment on the matter yet.
In February, the union had stopped Ola and Uber cabs services demanding revision of rates, life insurance for drivers and non-preference for taxis owned by the cab aggregators.
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Three students of classes 1, 7 and 9 had to sit on the stairs outside the Shalom Hills International School in Sushant Lok 1 on Monday for more than five hours as the school management refused to take them in over their parents refusal to pay the increased school fee.
The students said they had also come to school on April 3, but were sent home because of non-payment of fees. Their parents claimed they had paid all the fees except the annual charges, the hike in which was not justified.
The new session started on March 28 and we came last Monday to join our classes. We were informed that our names are not in the register as we had been given transfer certificates (TCs), said Snigda Dembla, a class 7 student. However, parents of the children claimed they havent got any TCs.
After the April 3 incident, the parents had visited the office of the district education officer (DEO), Neelam Bhandari Nanda, seeking her help in the matter. Following this, the DEO issued an order on April 7 stating that the school should not take any action against students in the matter till the complaint against fee hike was settled.
On Monday, when they were again not allowed in the school, the parents of these students, along with others, stood outside the school trying to talk to the management.
We filed a case in the high court in September last year regarding unreasonable fee hike under the development charges category. We have been paying the tuition fee since then. We will also send a memorandum to the Prime Ministers Office today (Monday), said Ramphal Sheoran, parent of two of the students who werent allowed to attend classes. He is also the legal advisor of Haryana Abhibhavak Ekta Manch, a front contesting fee hikes in private schools.
The school management said they had talked to the parents several times and requested them to pay the fee, but since the parents had not done so for the last two years, they had to take strict action.
We have issued TCs to the students for non-payment of fees for the last two years. We cannot tolerate the negligence anymore, said Atul Bhatt, principal, Shalom Hills International School.
Earlier last week, parents from 40 private schools, including DPSG, Ryan International, Salwan Public School, Blue Bells Model School, GD Goenka, Shiv Nadar and some schools from Faridabad, took part in a car rally to protest against the fee hike by private schools.
They had also handed over a memorandum to divisional commissioner D Suresh at his residence seeking his intervention. On Sunday, a large number of parents from Gurgaon and Faridabad also protested at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against fee hike.
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Ashton Kutcher, who was honoured with Robert D Ray Pillar of Character Award, for demonstrating good character as a role model, paid tribute to his wife, children and twin brother in an emotional acceptance speech, reports E! Online.
The Two and a Half Men star believes that his children two and a half-year-old daughter Wyatt and four-month-old son Dimitri are the greatest lesson in character in his life.
The greatest, greatest lesson in character in my life are my kids. When my wife and I had these kids and we got to share that amazing, amazing, amazing honour, my first response was, I wanted to call my parents and say, Im sorry, because I never knew how much you loved me, the 39-year-old-actor shared.
The actor-activist also talked about his divorce from Demi Moore in 2013 and said that he had a great fortune of having a divorce as he got to know how much love and loss is in there.
He also paid tribute to his twin brother Michael Kutcher. I was born a twin and from the moment I came into this world I had to share it with someone. I shared every birthday, every Christmas, I shared my bedroom, I shared my clothes, I shared everything I had and I didnt know that there was another way because I always had my brother with me.
My brother was born with cerebral palsy and it taught me that loving people isnt a choice and that people arent actually all created equal. The Constitution lies to us. were not all created equal. Were all created incredibly inequal to one another, in our capabilities and what we can do and how we think and what we see. But we all have the equal capacity to love one another, and my brother taught me that, he said.
Ashton Kutcher gave this speech at the Ron Pearson Center in West Des Moines in his native Iowa.
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Weve seen Helen Mirren play Queen Elizabeth II on screen, but now the actor is ready to leave her fans spellbound with yet another exciting role in The Fate of the Furious.
The 71-year-old-actor, who will next be seen in the latest installment of the Fast and the Furious saga, said that working with Vin Diesel and driving cars sounds like a perfect job for her.
She said, Work with Vin, drive a car? That sounds like the perfect job for me. I put my little yearnings out there in the universe, and I was offered a role. I had no idea what to expect, but I would have just done anything. I was so pleased that they pried the script apart and found a little slot for me, Mirren said with a smile.
Talking about her character in the movie, she believed that her character is smart and strong.
My character is smart, strong and aware of her place in the world. To be my age in a huge action film movie with these guys, youve got to up your game if you want to go toe to toe with them; thats what I wanted to communicate, she added.
Helmed by F Gary Gray, The Fate of the Furious also stars Charlize Theron, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Michelle Rodriguez in pivotal roles.
The movie is set to release on April 12.
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Classic Hollywood villains - such as Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter - sport facial scarring, deep wrinkles and warts, contributing to prejudice against people suffering from skin diseases, a new study has found.
Researchers from University of Texas in the US analysed the dermatological features of top 10 classic movie villains and compared them with those of 10 classic movie heroes.
The top villains included Dr Hannibal Lecter - The Silence of the Lambs, Darth Vader - The Empire Strikes Back, The Queen - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Regan MacNeil - The Exorcist and The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.
The heroes included Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark, James Bond from Dr No and Rocky Balboa from Rocky.
They found that 60% of the villains had noticeable dermatological features, compared with none of the heroes.
The dermatologic conditions among villains were hair loss in three villains, dark circles under the eyes in three villains, deep wrinkles on the face in two villains, multiple facial scars in two villains, warts on the face in two villains and Rhinophyma - a bulbous nose in one villain. Besides subtle facial scars in two of the top 10 heroes, none of the heroes had significant dermatological features, Live Science reported.
Use of skin features to contrast good and evil characters may foster a tendency toward prejudice in our society directed at those with skin disease, researchers said.
The results show Hollywoods tendency to depict skin disease in an evil context, the implications of which extend beyond the theatre and contribute to misunderstanding of skin diseases among the general public, they said.
The study was published in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
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Amazon has inked a deal with Paramount to offer subscription streaming of new releases and popular films by the the US-based studios in India.
The company will also have online streaming rights to recent releases such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Star Trek Beyond, and 10 Cloverfield Lane, among others.
The subscribers of Prime Video will be able to access fan-favourite films and cult-classics from the Paramount library including franchises like Transformers, Indiana Jones, Mission: Impossible, Madagascar, Shrek and Kung Fu Panda.
Nitesh Kripalani, director and country head, Amazon Prime Video India, said, Our goal is to provide our customers with the best movies be it local or international. We are excited to work with Paramount to bring their future slate of films to our Prime Video customers along with some of the most popular movies in film history.
While Jonathan Greenberg, SVP regional sales Asia Pacific, Paramount TV licensing and distribution said, Our goal is to deliver our content to viewers how and when they want it and Amazon Prime Video offers an exceptional platform for fans to enjoy new and favourite films on demand.
Amazon Prime Video was recently launched in India.
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MOTIHARI:Around 15-20 persons were injured when the police opened fire to quell a mob, which resorted to brickbatting after two employees of a sugar factory tried to immolate themselves here on Monday.
The incident coincided with the commencement of centenary celebrations of the Champaran satyagrah of Mahatma Gandhi, causing some embarrassment to the state government. Gandhi had visited Champaran in 1917 to espouse the cause of indigo farmers.
Around 200-300 workers of a local sugar factory, since shut, were demanding release of unpaid wages since 2002. The immolation bid, announced earlier, was part of the ongoing agitation for the last four days. Naresh Srivastava, 54, with 70% burn, and Suraj Baitha, 50, with 50% burn, were rushed in a critical condition to the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), around 150 kms from here.
Suraj Baitha, who tried to immolate himself, undergoing treatment at a local private hospital in Motihari before being referred to the Patna Medical College Hospital on Monday. (Madnakar/HT photo)
Eyewitnesses said the district administration initially did not take the immolation threat seriously. However, when the matter worsened, the district administration sent in a magistrate with police reinforcement. Seeing the cops, two workers staging a sit-in, jumped into the fire, which was ignited using firewood and rubber tyres.
As the two persons burned, agitators resorted to brickbatting. Seeing the rampaging mob, the police initially resorted to baton charge and then lobbed teargas shells. When matters worsened, the cops opened fire, injuring nearly 15-20 persons in the melee, some reportedly receiving splinter injuries.
East Champaran superintendent of police Jitendra Rana said that no one was injured when police fired in the air to dispel the mob. He, however, admitted that some policemen and civilians were hurt in the brickbatting and subsequent police caning. He said police had to fire three rounds in the air and lobbed 17 teargas shells to control the mob.
Protestors help a person who was injured in police lathicharge in Motihari on Monday. (Madnakar/HT photo)
Sources said that one Harjit Baitha, an employee of the factory, received splinter injuries in his leg.
Aniket Pandey, general secretary of the sugar factory labour union who received head injuries, said the police were trying to frame him because he tried to save those who were trying to immolate themselves.
Manoj Sah, another protestor, alleged that the police used brute force and chased down peaceful protestors, including women, and beat them mercilessly. He said that many were injured in the police firing, but were not getting themselves treated in government health facilities for fear of being implicated in false cases by the police.
Additional collector Arshad Ali said that the police had on Sunday met the protestors and assured them of an audience with the district magistrate on Monday. As soon as the cops reached the venue, the protestors began pelting stones and a couple of them tried to immolate themselves, he added.
Governor Ramnath Kovind is scheduled to visit here on April 13 as part of Champaran satyagrah celebrations, followed by chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is expected to participate in the proposed satyagrah smriti yatra on April 18. The incident has cast a shadow on the celebrations.
Jammu and Kashmirs ruling party asked the Election Commission on Monday to postpone the April 12 Lok Sabha byelection in Anantnag after widespread violence during a similar poll in Srinagar that left eight people dead and scores injured. (HIGHLIGHTS)
Tasaduq Mufti, the brother of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in Anantnag, told reporters that the state government had also formally written to the poll panel that elections couldnt be held in the current climate.
Separatists have given a boycott call amid simmering anger among the local population after stone pelting and rioting repeatedly disrupted the polling process in Srinagar on Sunday that saw a paltry turnout of 7.14%, the lowest in almost three decades.
Read | Srinagar bypoll: Pellet horror returns to Kashmir
Experts say the violence and deaths indicate rising unrest in the strife-torn Valley that has remained on the boil following the killing of top militant Burhan Wani last year.
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The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday hit out at the Centre for its reaction over a motion in a Canadian legislative assembly on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying its stand on the issue has reopened the wounds of the Sikhs.
Akali MP from Anandpur Sahib and party general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra said he would raise the issue in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Also, a delegation of SAD MPs would also register their protest with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, he added.
The legislative assembly of Ontario had recently passed a motion describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as genocide in India. The BJP-led NDA government, of which SAD is also an ally, strongly rejected the move, terming it as misguided.
The Narendra Modi government has reopened the wounds of the Sikhs by this provocative stand, Chandumajra said in a statement here.
Rather than calling upon the Canadian government to withdraw this resolution, Parliament should pass a similar resolution to assuage the feelings of the Sikh community, he added.
Chandumajra said that more than 3,000 innocent Sikh men, women and children were killed in a designed attack on the community members in Delhi alone from November 1 to November 3, 1984, and the victims are still waiting for justice.
Both Houses of Parliament were repeatedly adjourned on Monday after noisy disruptions by Opposition members who demanded strong action against former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay for his apparently racist comments at south Indians.
Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge condemned Vijays remarks and demanded an FIR, saying the party will step up demonstrations both inside and outside the House. Are south Indians not citizens of India? he asked, amid loud protests by Congress members.
Home minister Rajnath Singh responded, saying there was no need for further action against the BJP leader as he had apologised for the comments. He also pointed out that Vijay was at the forefront of several initiatives highlighting the Tamil cause.
The row began on Friday when Vijay made the controversial comment during a television discussion on racism, in the backdrop of recent attacks on African students in Greater Noida.
If we were racist, why would we have all the entire southTamil, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhrawhy do we live with them? We have black people around us, the politician was heard as saying in the video.
Vijay quickly apologised for the remarks and said he meant to highlight Indias composite culture that worshipped the dark-skinned god, Krishna. Feel bad ,really feel sorry, my apologies to those who feel I said different than what I meant.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal hit out at the Election Commission on Monday, alleging that the tampering of electronic voting machines was helping the Centres ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in elections.
His fresh salvo came on the day a combined opposition plans to launch a campaign against the alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and press for the use of ballot paper in elections.
Thirteen political parties, including the Congress and the Left, will visit the commission around 5pm. This was decided at a meeting of the opposition parties in the Parliament House complex in the morning. On Wednesday, these parties will meet President Pranab Mukherjee to submit a memorandum on the issue.
At a press conference in Delhi on Monday, Kejriwal asked why the poll panel was planning to use tampered EVMs in the upcoming civic elections in Delhi.
The chorus against EVMs has gained momentum after the recently held assembly elections in five states, with Kejriwals AAP and Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party spearheading a campaign on the issue. The Election Commission, however, has said the machines cant be tampered with.
Apart from a Congress delegation, Kejriwal has met poll panel officials and told them that EVMs were being repeatedly fudged and that their software could be faulty. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav too weighed in on the controversy, demanding an inquiry into allegations of EVM fraud.
A fresh row erupted after a purported video of a voting machine trial ahead of the b-polls in Madhya Pradesh showed the paper trail attached to it generating a receipt for the BJP even as the state chief electoral officer Saleena Singh pressed the button for the Samajwadi Party candidate.
Visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday said his country will work more closely with India in order to secure stronger ties.
Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit, Turnbull told the media after his ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapti Bhawan.
Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on an extraordinary journey of growth and development, he said.
The achievements of India are the admiration of the world, Turnbull said, adding: We in Australia look forward to working even more closely than we have done in the past.
He arrived on Sunday evening on a four-day state visit to India.
We are bound together to ties of history of values of people. We look forward, Prime Minister (Modi) and I, to making that even stronger in this visit, Turnbull added.
Turnbull was received by Modi at Rastrapati Bhawan and was then accorded the ceremonial guard of honour in the forecourt of the presidential residence.
This is Turnbulls first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor, Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Modis visit to Australia in November that year.
Modi will hold a bilateral summit with Turnbull later in the day following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed.
All 853 police stations in the state are set to get a green cover, to create awareness against liquor. And, state director general of police (DGP) PK Thakur credits a Vaishali boy for mooting the idea of Ek ped sharadbandi ke liye (a tree for prohibition).
Ratan Ranjan from Belsar village in Vaishali district had come to me with the idea to plant saplings on police station premises. Ranjan has travelled across India on his bicycle in pursuit of his mission and while sharing his experience, he told me how bad the environmental condition had become, Thakur told HT.
Ranjan has made it to the Limca Book of Records for covering over 49,000 km on his bicycle - an ongoing journey he started in 2011. He now plans to cycle to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Russia.
Saplings of fruit-bearing trees would be planted at every police station of the state, Thakur said, adding that the programme would commence on April 20.
Thakur said there were certain hurdles in the successful implementation of the plan, as many police stations did not have their own land. I will discuss the matter with officials in a day or two. The programme will be launched after addressing all these issues, he said.
Ranjan said he had met the DGP and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav with the idea of planting saplings in all government offices. Both had appreciated my idea. We will not only plant saplings but also try to make people aware about the ill-effects of liquor and drugs, he said.
Bihar had launched the Hariyali Mission in 2012 and fixed a target to plant 24 crore trees to achieve 15% greenery by 2017.
PATNA Former BJP MLA from Katoria in Banka district in south-eastern Bihar, Sonelal Hembrom, is set to become the first politician to have his properties confiscated under the provisions of the Bihar special courts act, 2009 (act no.5 of 2010), for owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income (DA case).
A special vigilance court, on Monday, ordered the confiscation of movable and immovable assets worth Rs 7 crore (current market value) of Hembrom,who was a deputy excise commissioner in the Bihar government, before he joined politics and contested assembly poll.
A special feature of the act is that a competent authority, under certain circumstances, can order the confiscation of properties of a person accused in a disproportionate assets case even during the pendency of the trial and without waiting for its conclusion.
The move for confiscation of the properties has been made under section 13 of the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009 under which so far two housing properties of senior IAS officer SS Verma, and a treasury assistant , among others, have been confiscated and turned into schools for underprivileged children.
Hembrom becomes the first politician to have his assets confiscated.
Once the lone scheduled tribe MLA in the Bihar assembly, Hembrom had amassed these properties when he was a government servant and retired from excise department in 2002. The properties were accumulated during his service period - 1972 to 1997. Income tax officials had raided his his office and residential premises, in 1997.
Hembram's movable and immovable properties to be seized under court order include a house built in 4 katthas of land at Patnas Patel Nagar, four plots (total 27 kattha) of land in Charari (Jharkhand) and 20 katthas in Ranchi.
The vigilance authorities had seized Rs 42,550 in cash, unearthed investment of Rs 88,000 in UTI, Rs 35,000 in Kisan Vikas Patras, gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 6.10 lakh and a car, from him.
The designated vigilance court of ADJ Vipul Sinha passed the order on an application filed by the vigilance department in 2011, praying for confiscation of Hembram's properties amassed beyond his known sources of income.
Hembram had joined the BJP after retiring from service in 2002 and was elected on its ticket to the state Assembly in 2010. The vigilance department had lodged a case against him under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in 2000, three years after the Income Tax department raid.
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The rout of the Samajwadi Party in the state assembly elections has hardly shaken Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav who has returned to the political arena motivating the cadre for the next electoral battle.
At a time when some leaders are raising question over the leadership of her husband and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple not only defended the party election strategy but also lashed out at the BJP for misleading the voters.
Our development agenda was overwhelmed by the deceptive strategy of the BJP, she said at a meeting of the SP Mahila Sabha at the auditorium of the partys state unit office in Lucknow.
Victory and defeat in elections is a part of democratic process. We should not feel humiliated but gear up for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, she said.
SP has been playing a constructive role in the government as well as in the opposition. Struggle is the partys motto and we will return to power again. Women members have played an important role in strengthening the organisation. The members who are with us will be felicitated when the SP returns to power, Dimple said.
Before the assembly election, when Akhilesh was locked in family feud with his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, Dimple was busy handling domestic chores.
After the Election Commission announced the schedule for assembly poll in early January, the SP leadership started searching for a woman face to counter the BJP women brigade comprising Smriti Irani, Swati Singh, Uma Bharti, and Maneka Gandhi.
Anxious SP campaign managers pondered if Dimple would be articulate enough in public meetings. She had fumbled while speaking on the floor of the Lok Sabha a few months back and a video titled mistakes of Dimple Yadav had gone viral on the social media. However, the SP poll managers took a chance as no one in the party matched the personality of Dimple.
Her first public meeting in Bah (Agra) where she told the people that she was their bahu (daughter-in-law) and they should gift her victory propelled her to the centre stage of SPs campaign. She was soon among the star campaigner of the party.
The slogan Dimple Bhabhi vikas ki chaabi caught the imagination of the voters. She was also active on the social media and Dimple Yadav Fan Club kept the voters informed about the SP agenda and the progress of the campaign.
She addressed 55 public meetings in support of the party candidates across the state which turned out to be the main crowd-puller. She concluded her campaign by joining the road show of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi in Varanasi.
SP leader Rajendra Yadav said Dimple Yadav would play an important role in the partys campaign and strategy. She showed her mettle in the assembly election campaign. We will get her guidance in the organisation and she will continue to motivate the members of the frontal organisation, he said.
Hyderabad Police have booked controversial Bharatiya Janata Party legislator T Raja Singh for allegedly threatening to behead those who attempt to stop the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and also making inflammatory and humiliating comments against Muslims.
Following a complaint by Mohammad Amjadullah Khan, spokesperson of a local political outfit Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), police filed a case against the BJP MLA, who represents the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, late on Sunday night.
Singh was booked under Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).
We have filed the case against the MLA after taking a legal opinion, Dabeerpura inspector D Venkanna Naik said.
In his complaint, Khan alleged that Singh made provocative speeches during Sri Ram Shobha Yatra at Jumeraat Bazar area on April 5 targeting the Muslim community several times on the pretext of the construction of Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.
Khan alleged that Singh had openly taunted the Muslims saying, Tum hamare pair pakadloo, kahi na kahi hum tumhare Babar ki masjid banadenge (Come and touch our feet, we shall construct Baburs mosque at some place or the other).
He also pointed out at another comment made by Singh in the speech that they were ready to use lathis and bullets to achieve their goal of constructing the Ram temple.
It clearly shows he is openly challenging the law, Khan said.
The MBT leader said Singhs statements were in contempt of the Supreme Court at a time when the dispute over the issue was pending in the top court and another case relating to the conspiracy charge against 12 BJP leaders, including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, was being heard by it.
The BJP MLA, however, defended his statement.
My statement was aimed at those who said they would create a ruckus if the Ram temple would be constructed in Ayodhya. For the construction of the temple, we can sacrifice our lives and even kill others, this is my warning to those who want to create hindrance in the construction of the temple, he said in an interview to a news agency on Sunday.
This is not the first time Singh has made a controversial statement. In December 2015, supported the lynching of a Muslim man on suspicion that he had stored beef in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. He even warned that there would be a similar incident in Telangana if cows were killed for beef.
In July 2016, Singh justified the thrashing of Dalits by cow vigilante groups at Una in Gujarat. He also condemned the media and political leaders who criticised the assault on Dalits.
More recently, he warned the CPI(M) leaders of dire consequences, if Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan addressed a public meeting at Nizam College grounds which falls under his constituency. He vowed to stop Vijayans entry.
Singh alleged that the Kerala CM was a murderer of Hindus and responsible for attacks on the BJP and RSS activists in the southern state. Following his threat, the police were forced to shift the CPI(M) meeting venue to Saroornagar stadium on the citys outskirts.
Ugliest form of politics
The Congress hit out at the BJP amid the row, saying its mask has fallen off and that minorities were being intimidated by the Narendra Modi government.
The BJP, however, sought to douse the controversy, saying the Ram Temple can be built only with consensus. Party leader Shaina NC said Modi has made it clear that there is no space for people who choose to be the so-called moral custodians in a free and elected democratic society.
We are a disciplined cadre, and if we feel there is need to pull up somebody, I am sure the person concerned will have to bear the brunt, she said hinting that action could be taken against the MLA if required.
However, the Congress was unimpressed and its spokesperson Sanjay Jha said the BJP cannot wash off its hands by calling those making inflammatory statements fringe elements.
The truth is that there is no fringe anymore. These are mainstream elected BJP leaders either in Parliament or the assembly ... This is a political strategy. This is a manifestation of the ugliest form of politics, Jha said.
What is happening in Alwar? What happened in Dadri? You can see the kind of reactions happening all over the place where the BJP is currently in government, there is intimidation of the minorities he added.
I think this is the crudest form of majoritarian politics, and let me assure you, the PM will not say a word, not even condemn it, he added.
The Supreme Court, which is hearing the Ayodhya case, recently said that the issue should be resolved through talks.
(With PTI inputs)
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Kerala police have launched a search for the missing man, who is suspected to have murdered four of his family members, including his parents, in a posh colony in Thiruvananthapuram, officials said on Monday.
Half-burnt and badly mutilated bodies were discovered on Sunday morning from a house in Nanthankode, situated just 500 metres away from the official residence of the Kerala chief minister, after residents complained of billowing smoke.
Police found 3 charred bodies and another that was chopped and kept in a bag inside the multi-storeyed house. Those killed were retired cardiologist Dr Jean Padma, her husband Raj Thankam, their daughter Caroline and a relative Lalitha. Caroline had come home from China where she was studying medicine.
The couples son Cadell Jeanson Raja, who worked as an animator for an Australian firm, has been missing since the incident and police said he is the prime suspect in the case.
The police also recovered a half-burnt dummy that bore similarities to Cadell from the house. It is suspected he could have left the dummy inside the house to create an impression that all the 5 people in the house were murdered, officials said.
Police also suspect that the crime was committed at least 2 days ago and Cadell could have slipped out when he failed to burn bodies and the fire spread quite rapidly within the house.
Though the police and relatives are clueless about the possible motive, there were no signs of a break-in or any forcible entry in the house. The reclusive family was financially sound and even neighbours and relatives were unaware of any tension.
Thankams brother Jose reportedly told the police his sister was unavailable on the phone since Thursday and that Cadell had told him that his parents were in Kanyakumari.
When the maid employed by the aged couple came, Cadell reportedly told her that the family left for neighbouring Tamil Nadu and asked her to come after 3 days.
Only a scientific probe will reveal what actually happened. We have issued a lookout notice for the missing son and alerted major airports, inspector general of police Manoj Abraham said.
Local residents said the reclusive Cadell was a total stranger in the colony where he grew up.
No one has seen him closely to tell if he had any character flaw or weakness. It was a rude shock for the state capital on Palm Sunday, said a neighbour.
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A woman BJP leader was allegedly molested by CPI(M) cadre as she tried to prevent them from thrashing her husband at Pratapgarh constituencys Aralia in East Agartala on Sunday.
BJP leaders have threatened to gherao the East Agartala women police station, where they have lodged a complaint, if the accused were not arrested on Monday.
The victim had contested the last Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) election and bagged the second highest votes among BJP contenders.
The party claimed that AMCs former councillor and CPI(M) leader, Bipadbondhu Rishidas, accompanied by around 30 party cadre, came to the womans house around 8pm and thrashed her husband, threatening him to leave BJP.
Hearing the noise, the woman came out of the house and as she tried to protect her husband, the cadre molested her.
On getting the information, senior BJP leaders and Pratapgarh Mandal committee members came there and demanded the immediate arrest of the CPI(M) ex-councillor.
Police rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control, but is to arrest anyone.
We have asked the police to arrest the accused by today. If they dont do so, we will gherao the East Agartala women police station in the afternoon, BJP state general secretary, Pratima Bhowmik said.
She further claimed that during the incident, the CPI(M) cadre also molested another BJP woman leader. The very day, one BJP worker was assaulted by one CPI(M) worker as the former was not ready to quit BJP. He is currently admitted in GBP Hospital.
Two days back, the BJP Mahila Morcha had organised a dharna followed by a secretariat abhiyan, protesting the alarming rise of crime against women under the Left governments regime.
Meanwhile, the BJPs OBC Morcha held a daylong statewide demonstration in demand of adequate reservation for OBCs on Monday.
Curfew has been relaxation till 2 pm on Monday coastal Odishas Bhadrak town, where violence had broken out over alleged abusive remarks against Hindu deities on social media.
On Sunday, the curfew was initially relaxed from 8am to 12am but was later extended till 2 pm on Monday to allow people to acquire essential commodities.
According to reports, the Centre on Saturday rushed 2,000 paramilitary personnel to Odisha to assist the local administration. Twenty companies of the paramilitary personnel were dispatched to Odisha to help restore normalcy in the district.
Following a derogatory Facebook post against Lord Rama, Section 144 has been imposed in Bhadrak after protests broke out.
The VHP and Bajrang Dal activists demanded action against three Muslim youth for their alleged blasphemous comments on Facebook. The three had allegedly posted the said comments in response to a Bajrang Dal activist Ajit Kumar Padhiharis post hailing Jai Shri Ram on Facebook.
Fresh violence erupted in some areas on Friday evening after talks failed to resolve the row triggered by alleged abusive remarks on social media against a particular community.
Dalit students at Gwaliors Jiwaji University, protesting the alleged denial to hold a programme to mark BR Ambedkars birth anniversary, have called off their agitation after the head of department of law resigned from his post and the administration assured them it will look into their demands.
The students were staging a sit-in protest near the university campus for the last nine days after allegedly not being allowed to hold a programme ahead of Ambedkars birth anniversary on April 14. They were also protesting the alleged misbehaviour of two professors.
The agitation came to an end after several political parties, excluding the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, extended their support to the students and the university softened its stand towards the students.
Read: Jiwaji University, Gwalior row Tension had been building on campus since BJP victory in 2014
Vice chancellor Sangeeta Shukla called the students representative for a meeting on Sunday to talk about the issue. The formal declaration that the students were calling off their agitation came only on Monday after Ganesh Dubey resigned from his post.
The university told the students it will look into their demands to name the law department after Ambedkar, revoke the suspension of five students and withdraw police complaints against them. The students also assured they would withdraw their police complaints against Pandey and proctor RK Sharma.
Five Dalit students started an indefinite fast on April 1 to protest the casteist mindset of the administration and suppression of democracy on the campus by right-wing organisations such as Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
A girl student also lodged a complaint against the two professors for allegedly inflicting atrocities on them under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015, and also for sexual harassment.
The university too lodged a police complaint against the five students for misbehaving and manhandling the professors and indulging in violence on the campus.
It alleged the students agitation was influenced by former Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and Rohith Vemulas suicide at University of Hyderabad. The university also alleged the Dalit students act amounted to anti-national activities and that they were just looking for publicity.
The row between the two sides took a saffron angle after students alleged they were being victimised and ridiculed by the RSS students wing ABVP on the campus and the university supported them instead of taking any action.
University PRO BR Sisodia said Pandey resigned from his post on his own after the students called off their protest.
Pradeep Jodhpuriya, a students representatives, said they were happy that the university administration finally heard them and assured them that it will fulfill their demands in 15 days.
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A Jharkhand government employee and his businessman-friend were arrested on the charge of killing a wild deer in a forest near Hazaribag wildlife sanctuary and carrying the carcass in the boot of their car.
A police patrol discovered the dead deer in the car during a routine check on Sunday night near Tatijharia police station close to the sanctuary. Also, the police found a rifle and 40 bullets.
The carcass, sent for an autopsy, bore bloodied marks akin to bullet wounds.
Police lodged an FIR against Amit Kumar Singh, an employee with the civil court in Hazaribag, and businessman Radhe Shyam Singh. They were remanded in jail custody on Monday.
The sanctuary and its fringe forests have more than 400 deer, mainly the large Sambar and the spritely and spotted Chital species that are protected under wildlife laws.
About 150 of these animals are kept in enclosures, fenced off to prevent them from straying into human settlements where venison is a prized delicacy.
Besides, the 1955-established wild park is home to hyenas, sloth bears, black bears, Nilgai, several types of monkeys, snakes, and 180 species of birds.
Poaching is not uncommon but game hunting a banned activity is reported rarely in Hazaribag.
The place was crawling with Maoist insurgents till a decade ago, though their numbers have dwindled of late.
We were alert after three-four gunshots rang out from Banhe forest. We thought extremists were firing and checked all vehicles passing through the area, assistant sub-inspector Amod Kumar Jha said.
A couple of hours later, we caught two men on their way to Giridih with a deer carcass and a rifle in the car boot.
Singh apparently is a repeat offender, who allegedly used to go hunting every Sunday. But he was never caught before.
The killing happened outside the sanctuary. Animals move around, sometimes travelling long distances to forests in neighbouring districts, divisional forest officer Sushil Soren said.
Villagers have alleged that the Tatijharia police station in-charge Ashok Kumar had let off at least six people in a jeep, who were caught with rifle during a vehicle check. They suspect that the group was involved in wildlife hunting.
Kumar dismissed the allegation. We had caught a Jeep but released it after finding nothing offensive in the vehicle, he said.
Hazaribag superintendent of police Anup Birthare informed that a senior officer will probe the charges against the police station in-charge.
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The Delhi High Court on Monday denied bail to LIC agent Anand Chauhan in a money laundering case involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others.
I have dismissed this petition (bail application), Justice Vipin Sanghi said.
Chauhan is in judicial custody since his arrest in July last year.
During the hearing on his bail plea earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had claimed that there was ample evidence against him and there was serious apprehension that he could tamper with evidence if released on bail.
The accused had approached the high court challenging the trial courts August 20 last year order dismissing his bail plea, saying there was more than sufficient material to show his involvement in the alleged offence.
The ED had alleged that Virbhadra Singh had invested huge amount in purchasing LIC policies in his own name and his family members through Chauhan.
Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9, 2016 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act after the ED alleged that he was not cooperating with the probe.
Chauhan had sought bail on the ground that the case against him was documentary in nature and there was no need to keep him in custody. He had claimed of having joined and cooperated with the agency in the ongoing probe.
In a separate case, Virbhadra Singh and his wife were on March 31 charge sheeted by the CBI in a special court here in a disproportionate assets case after the High Court refused to quash FIR against them and lifted the stay on their arrest.
Jammu and Kashmir chief electoral officer Shantmanu called a meeting with political parties on Monday to know their opinion about the April 12 by-election to the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, after large-scale violence marred voting in the Srinagar bypoll this weekend.
Moreover, there also has been a demand to cancel the Srinagar bypoll that left eight people dead and scores wounded. Sundays voter turnout was 7.14%, the lowest in three decades.
The meeting was called after a request from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to postpone the Anantnag bypoll to avoid a repeat of the Srinagar violence.
Tasaduq Mufti, the brother of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and the PDP candidate for Anantnag, told reporters that the state government had formally written to the poll panel that elections couldnt be held in the current climate.
But the opposition National Conference and the Congress argued that it was too late now to defer the Anantnag bypoll.
NC leader Akbar Lone said the credibility of the Election Commission is at stake, and warned that another round of widespread violence will engulf the insurgency-hit state if the Srinagar by-election was cancelled.
Congress leaders Usman Majid and GN Monga accused the PDP of mounting pressure on the Election Commission to postpone the bypolls.
PDPs Waheed Parra responded that the party is seeking votes, not lives of people.
Time should be given for the situation to calm down and his party is ready to go for fresh elections in Srinagar, he said.
The violence followed a separatist call to boycott the by-elections, saying the situation is not right to hold a democratic exercise after last years unprecedented public unrest that left more than 80 people dead and hundreds wounded or maimed.
People took to the streets to enforce the boycott across the constituency straddling Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal districts. Polling staff abandoned almost 70% of booths in Budgam district. Army was called out to help security forces put out the protests as mobs threw stones and petrol bombs.
The Election Commission said on Monday that it has no obligation to consult the Union home ministry before holding elections, responding to an accusation of ignoring an advice to postpone bypolls in Jammu and Kashmir this April.
The war of words broke out after violence engulfed Sundays by-elections to the Srinagar parliamentary constituency.
Srinagar recorded 7.14% polling, the lowest in three decades, and eight people were killed and scores were wounded in clashes with security forces. Mobs threw stones and petrol bombs as they tried to impose a separatist call to boycott the bypolls in the state, where the situation has been volatile since last summers massive public unrest.
Home ministry sources said the poll panel ignored its advice to postpone by-elections in Srinagar and Anantnag, where voting was slated for April 12. The voting was deferred to May 25 after the violence in Srinagar.
Election Commission (EC) officials were quick to response, saying they were not bound to consult the home ministry to hold elections. The ministrys brief is limited to providing central forces, they said.
It was a constitutional obligation to hold the Srinagar by-poll, which was due before April 16. The state government was consulted as it is responsible for law and order and security issues, an EC source said.
The state government said the preparation for free, fair and peaceful elections are being made and a comprehensive deployment plan was also worked out by Jammu and Kashmir police. They also upgraded the security of political leaders and candidates.
But home ministry officials countered that the atmosphere in the Valley was not conducive for bypolls.
The ministry would have preferred the bypolls after the panchayat elections, which could have got the electoral process rolling in the state.
After the EC announced the bypolls in March, the ministry warned that Pakistan-sponsored elements may disrupt the process.
The poll panel officials countered that the commission assesses the prevailing situation for holding elections.
In the assessment of the EC, if prevailing conditions were conducive for holding of panchayat elections by the state government, then holding of parliamentary elections is also possible, one of the officials said.
However, the home ministry officials were not convinced with the commissions response.
They said the ministry was asked to provide 300 companies around 3,000 personnel of paramilitary forces for the bypolls, instead of the 10 to 12 companies which is the norm.
By seeking such a large number of security personnel, the poll panel confirmed the ministrys fears of disruption during the bypolls, they argued.
When asked if the poll panel had erred, a former CEC told HT finalising poll dates are a long-drawn process.
It is an elaborate process Situation on the ground has to be peaceful, there should be no threat to candidates or to voters, former chief election commissioner HS Brahma said.
In further trouble for Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, the ED on Monday summoned him for questioning in its money laundering probe against him and others.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) action comes close on the heels of the CBI filing a charge sheet against him and his wife and others for allegedly amassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Officials said the agency has issued fresh summons to Singh as it wants to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Read more | CBI files chargesheet against Himachal CM, eight others in DA case
They said he has been asked to depose before the investigating officer (IO) of the case on April 13 in New Delhi.The agency has summoned Singh earlier too but then he had excused himself stating his official commitments.
It has already questioned his wife Pratibha and son Vikramaditya in this case.
The ED had filed a case under criminal provisions of the anti-money laundering law against the CM, his family members and others after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the CBI in this regard in September, 2015.
The agency is probing allegations against Singh and his family members of having amassed wealth of Rs 6.1 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2009 and 2011 when he was the Union minister of steel. It has also attached assets worth about Rs 14 crore in this case under PMLA laws.
The CBI charge sheet, filed sometime back, claims that the politician had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate by 192 per cent of his total income during his tenure as a Union Minister.
The final report filed against nine people for alleged offences punishable under section 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.
Besides the 82-year-old Congress leader and his wife Pratibha Singh, the report also arraigned Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia as accused.
The report also named as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who is currently in judicial custody. Chauhan was arrested by the ED on July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the present case.
Over the years explorers and archaeologists have found rich concentration of rock art shelters at many places beyond the Bhimbetaka world heritage site in central India. Many such sites in Madhya Pradesh are now attracting attention of foreign and local experts.
Many claim that with all such finds over the decades, Madhya Pradesh has emerged as an area with one of the richest concentrations of rock art in the world. However, besides Bhimbetaka which is well protected and documented, other rich rock art shelters in the state do not enjoy similar protection and need immediate attention for their long time survival and proper scientific study.
The rockscape features images of elephants, sambar, bison, deer, stylised peacocks dance alongside rhino, hunting, battle and pastoral scenes and depictions of community life. (Kalpak Pathak/HT Photo)
Of over 150 rock art sites that have been discovered across India, nearly two-thirds are in central India. The highest concentration of rock art sites is situated in the Satpura, Vindhya and Kaimur Hills, with Bhimbetaka alone having 750 rock art shelters that were discovered by VS Wakankar, considered the father of Indian rock art. But the rich rock art heritage has only recently begun to receive wider attention.
Over the last two decades, many foreign and Indian experts have shown interest in studying rock art of central India, using modern research tools, like special software through which they can see and study different layers of rock paintings not easily discernible to the human eye.
Oldest rock art
One of the most fascinating rock art sites in India that has created a stir and hot debate in recent times is Daraki Chattan, a narrow cave in a hill in Mandsaur district, where petroglyph (rock carvings) in the shape of 530 cup-marks or cupicles (circular depressions in the rock-wall) have been found. It was discovered by Ramesh Kumar Pancholi in 1993.
The experts studying it claim it to be the oldest rock art in the world, about 2 to 5 lakh years old. An international research project called Early
Indian Petroglyphs (EIP), under Robert Bednarik, a globally renowned rock art expert from Australia and convener
of International Federation of Rock Art Organisations (IFRAO) and Giriraj Kumar, secretary general Rock Art Society of India (RASI), have been studying Daraki Chattan site since 2001.
At another site in Mandsaur Chaturbuj Nalla, rock paintings have been found in a continuous succession for nearly three to four kms, which, Giriraj Kumar claims, is longest rock art gallery of the world.
Daraki Chattan is worlds oldest non-iconic (non-figurative) rock art along with the cup mark found at Bhimbetaka. This shattered the concept of Europe centric origin of art and culture in Upper Palaeolithic period (20,000 to 40,000 years), Kumar said.
The Bhimbetka rock shelters, now a Unesco World Heritage Site in Bhojpur of Madhya Pradeshs Raisen district, is an archaeological site of the Paleolithic era, exhibiting the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. (Kalpak Pathak/HT Photo)
In the next two years, experts from Australia, Greece and India will together study and date this site with better technological tools, he added.
Kumar stressed the world-class site needs to be immediately sealed with a metal grid to check uncontrolled visitation and damage to it.
Spanish quest in Kathotiya
Closer to Bhopal, a rock art team from Spains Centre de Estudies Contesantas is studying 65 rock art shelters at Kathotiya in Raisen district along with noted archeologist Dr Narayan Vyas. The team has visited the site five times since 2009 and will visit it again later this year.
The Spanish team wants to date, study colours and undertake some excavation work at Kathotiya.
The exact dating will dispel the long-held notion especially by Western experts that Indian rock art was not that old compared to rock art of Europe or South Africa. Many rock art paintings in Madhya Pradesh, especially the ones in green are at least 20,000 to 25,000 years old, he said.
Dr Vyass collaboration with the Spanish team holds significance as he has not only worked with VS Wakankar, but also done his post-doctoral research work on comparative study of rock paintings of Raisen district, with special emphasis on Bhimbetaka. Dr Vyas accompanied HT to rock arts shelters in Kathotiya in Raisen and Jhiri in Sehore district.
With enhanced connectivity, tourists, enthusiasts and locals come to these sandstone rock art shelters for sightseeing, picnics, parties, livelihood and ritual pilgrimages. Here you can see ash and egg shells, signs of a recent bonfire party, Dr Vyas said while showing a rock art site at Jhiri in Sehore district.
It is not just men, who are studying tock art here. Dr Meenakshi Dubey-Pathak is a rare example of a woman rock art expert in the country, who has dedicated over three decades of her life to studying rock paintings, especially in Pachmari Hills, where she discovered 15 new rock art shelters during her research work. Pachmari has 64 rock art shelters.
Dr Dubey has been collaborating with renowned French rock art expert Dr Jean Clottes for over five years to promote, protect and document the rock art heritage of central India. They have recently co-authored a book on rock art of central India in relation to tribal life.
Many rock art sites are facing threat due to vandalism, graffiti and too much touching by the visitors. Many visitors pour water over the rock art to get clear photographs. We need to create awareness, teach school children about their prehistoric heritage and push government to take measures for protection of these sites, she said, adding, Many rock art cave shelters like Adamgarh or
The rockscape features images of elephants, sambar, bison, deer, stylised peacocks dance alongside rhino, hunting, battle and pastoral scenes and depictions of community life. (Kalpak Pathak/HT Photo)
Manuabhan Ke Tekri are frequented by young couples. I have seen messages like I love you written in rock cave shelters, she said.
Anupam Rajan, commissioner archaeology, archives and museums Madhya Pradesh insists that state government was committed to protecting the rock heritage sites in the state.
We are already protecting some sites in the state, but given the large number of rock art sites that have been discovered over the years, we have decided to seek suggestion of rock art experts who have either worked or are still working in different areas of the state and the country in this field on how these sites could be protected in a scientific manner. As many of them have studied such sites thoroughly, I will soon call them to Bhopal and ask them to give me a road-map on what initiatives need to be taken to protect and conserve the rock art heritage found in different areas of the state, he told HT.
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PATNA Former civil servant, diplomat and governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, on Monday, drew a parallel between the plight of the farmers of the country, at present, and of indigo farmers of north Bihar in 1917, when Mahatma Gandhi had launched the Champaran Satyagrah, on the call of a peasant, Raj Kumar Shukl.
It was the atmosphere of fear and coercion that had brought Gandhiji to Champaran. It was again a similar atmosphere in 1974-75 that resulted in a movement led by JP. Today, we again need to ask if such an atmosphere has surfaced once again, said Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
He was delivering the inaugural address at a national convention on Mahatma Gandhis life-philosophy, to mark the launch of the year-long centenary celebration of the 1917 Champaran Satyagrah, at Patnas Gyan Bhawan, an auditorium in the newly-built Samrat Ashok International Convention Centre (SAICC).
Questioning the ordinance route to land acquisition, he said it was imperative to hold dialogue on balancing land use for agriculture and industries, as both were required.
Three ordinance, one after another, were promulgated to take away (farmers) land without debate and discussion on social impact assessment or involvement of Gram Sabha. The ordinance route is for an emergency situation and the country is confronted with far more serious issues, he said.
Gandhi also questioned the centres move to make Aadhar mandatory for social welfare schemes like midday meal (MDM) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), saying even Nandan Nilekani, ex-chairman of the Unique identification authority of India, may not have visualized the way it has gone.
I am not criticizing it. It is a powerful move to usher in reforms. But ultimately it is just a number and we need to be cautious against the apprehensions raised about it. Despite the apex court order, it is required for labour payment under MNREGS and even for providing MDM to students, he said.
Gandhi said farmers were committing suicide because both they and agriculture were in pain. Land is being looted and farmers have to struggle even for seeds, he said.
Social activist Medha Patkar attacked the Centre for killing agriculture by distributing 3-4-lakh hectares of land for industrial corridors, at the cost of the poor.
She also praised Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for raising the issue of the Gangas plight and his call for a national movement for protection of all rivers and natural resources.
Gandhian philosopher Prerna Desai said that what was being presented as development was actually an offshoot of the economy of greed and fear.
Retired judge and freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari thanked Kumar for implementing one of Gandhis dreams through prohibition. Revolution has no arithmetic. Gandhi and JP did not accept any post, but they ushered in change nobody else could. Those in power never bring change, he added.
Others who spoke included Gandhi Sangharalay chairman Razi Ahmad, Gandhi Peace Foundation president Kumar Prashant, philosopher Sachidanand Sinha and Gandhian thinker Dr SN Subbararo.
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Former Uttar Pradesh minister Ram Karan Area was on Monday sentenced to a life term in a murder case besides being fined Rs 20,000.
As soon as the court in Basti, Uttar Pradesh, pronounced the life sentence on the former excise minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, he was taken into custody by the police.
Eight other accused were, however, set free by district and sessions judge Anil Kumar Pundeer, giving them the benefit of doubt. One of the accused had died during the trial.
The matter pertained to the killing in broad daylight of Shambhupal, a cousin of BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, in November 1994. At that time, Area was a legislator and he was accused of conspiring in the murder as he and the victim had had a tiff in the past. Arya was twice a minister in the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in the state and a four-time legislator.
Accusing the Congress of painting Aadhaar as a curse, the government today asserted that no poor person would be deprived of the subsidy benefits by making the Aadhaar mandatory and that privacy of individuals will be protected.
Minister of IT and Law Ravi Shankar Prasad stated this in the Rajya Sabha while replying to a discussion on Aadhaar against the backdrop of concerns expressed by the opposition over making the biometric-based identification system mandatory for availing of government subsidies.
I want to make it very clear on the behalf of the government that no poor shall be denied his subsidy rights at all. Be very clear about that. Whether it is, a mid day meal or any other benefit, we have said that you come on Aadhaar but no denial will be there, he assured the House.
The right of privacy of individual must be respected... The question to be considered is, are we invading privacy through the Aadhaar law, the answer is No, he said.
Observing that at present, over 113 crore residents in India have Aadhaar, Prasad said that Aadhaar is safe, let me say proudly that the data is secure.
He said that in the last six years, the government has cancelled and blacklisted 34,000 operators who tried to pollute the system or tried to make fake Aadhaar cards.
Since December 2016, we have taken action against 1,000 operators. We have a proper oversight system available which we do at all the authority at our command, he said.
Accusing the Congress of trying to paint Aadhaar as a curse, Prasad outlined several benefits associated with it.
You need to come on Aadhaar but the benefits will not be denied to you, you can come with alternative identity proof be it ration card, MNREGA Card, driving licnse or others. But please apply for Aadhaar, that is the whole essence, he said.
Fake bank accounts is a known phenomena. We cannot wish away that poor people have lost their savings. So these realities are known, Prasad said.
To back his assertion of Aadhaar data being secure, the Law minister reasoned that minimum data is collected by the authorities, and information related to an individuals religion, caste, language, medical history or ethnicity is not profiled.
Let me outline minimum data is being taken for preparation of Aadhaar card, the authorities are under strict instructions to maintain that secrecy and if they flout they can also suffer three years of imprisonment and prosecution, the Law Minister argued.
Pointing out that national security is important, he said that even in cases of national security, a high-level mechanism has been put in place whereby a designated officer of the Home Ministry shall for reasons to be recorded in writing certify disclosure of a persons Aadhaar data.
Further, he said that a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary will ascertain and confirm that a persons Aadhaar data needs to be disclosed in such cases.
This is the kind of safeguards we have given that the biometrics of an ordinary person even in case of national security cannot be opened unless certified by this level of higher authorities, Prasad said.
The Law minister categorically denied claims of the NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) being linked to Aadhaar.
Referring to the two interim orders passed by the Supreme Court on August 11, 2015 and October 15, 2015, permitting a set of subsidies to be given through Aadhaar, Prasad outlined that there was no Aadhaar legislation in place at the time.
Legally speaking, the law is well settled that Parliament can remove the lacuna which the court points out and if one of the arguments in the court is that there is no legal framework available, the Parliament has come up with the Aadhar Act, he said.
Referring to a recent CAG report which had found that 92 per cent of the savings in LPG subsidy was due to fall in global crude oil prices and not due to Aadhaar seeding, Prasad termed it a sketchy report.
I very seriously respect the institution of CAG but the CAG has got no mechanism to make a comment that this saving is only due to the lowering of the international crude oil prices. This is too judgemental, not factual, the minister said.
Chandigarh Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, has said that India should approach the International Court of Justice and ensure that the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by the Pakistani establishment is not carried out.
Our government should take appropriate steps. They should appeal in the International Court of Justice and seek a stay, Kaur said, reacting to the Pakistan army courts verdict.
India should take every necessary step to ensure that Jadhavs death sentence is not carried out, she said. Even if I assume for a minute that Jadhav was an agent, still does he deserve death sentence? There are many Pakistani nationals lodged in our jails who are charged with serious crimes, does this mean they too should be given the same treatment? The 2000 Red Fort attack case convict was a Pakistani national but was he hanged? she asked.
About Jadhav, she said, Just because he is an Indian, he has been given the death sentence. This shows the hatred and enmity, which Pakistan harbours towards India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak about this to his Pakistani counterpart, she said.
Having lost her brother four years back in Pakistan, Kaur said she could fully understand what Jadhavs family must be going through at this hour. I am with the family. They should immediately meet the PM. My full support is with Jadhavs family and I can accompany them if they go and meet the PM, she said.
Jadhav was arrested on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials in Baluchistan after he entered from Iran. He has been accused by Pakistan of planning subversive activities in the country. India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
Pakistans powerful army chief on Monday approved Jadhavs execution after a military court found him guilty of involvement in espionage and sabotage activities.
Kaurs brother, Sarabjit, had died following an attack on him by inmates of a Lahore prison in April 2013. He was convicted for terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death in 1991. However, the government had stayed his execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
EOM
: The Centre has agreed to amend the Conduct of Election Rules to make it mandatory for a candidate contesting elections to declare his/her sources of income along with those of his or her spouse and dependents at the time of filing nomination papers.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the Union law ministry said that after due deliberations a decision was taken to amend the rules to include a column in the nomination form where a candidate can fill in the details. But, the government has refused to accede to the demand to make furnishing of false information a ground for disqualification, saying it was for the legislature to take a call on this.
The government affidavit was filed in response to a public interest litigation initiated by a Lucknow-based NGO Lok Prahari seeking a judicial direction on the issue. A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar will hear the case on Tuesday.
The Election Commission has already supported the petitioner saying disclosure of sources of income is necessary for healthier democracy. Under the current law, a candidate is required to disclose details of assets and liabilities for self, spouse and three dependents in Form 26 while filing nomination paper but not the source of income.
Read more: Pursuit for poll reforms will continue: Chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi
The government informed the top court that it has also accepted the petitioners plea to seek a positive statement from the candidate that he or she does not suffer from the disqualification provisions under the Representation of Peoples Act.
Such information would enable the voters and the returning officer to know at the earliest whether a candidate is eligible to contest elections or not.
It is necessary to know about a candidates background at the beginning of the election process so that objections can be raised at the time of nomination itself, SN Shukla of Lok Prahari told HT.
The NGO has also sought a direction to the Centre to bring an amendment in the law to disqualify a lawmaker if he has a share or interest in a firm that enters into a business contract with the government or a public company. However, the government has chosen to remain silent on this plea, saying it was a policy issue.
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The Delhi High Court on Monday denied bail to LIC agent Anand Chauhan in a money laundering case involving Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and others.
I have dismissed this petition (bail application), Justice Vipin Sanghi said.
Chauhan is in judicial custody since his arrest in July last year.
During the hearing on his bail plea earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had claimed that there was ample evidence against him and there was serious apprehension that he could tamper with evidence if released on bail.
The accused had approached the high court challenging the trial courts August 20 last year order dismissing his bail plea, saying there was more than sufficient material to show his involvement in the alleged offence.
The ED had alleged that Virbhadra Singh had invested huge amount in purchasing LIC policies in his own name and his family members through Chauhan.
Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9, 2016 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act after the ED alleged that he was not cooperating with the probe.
Chauhan had sought bail on the ground that the case against him was documentary in nature and there was no need to keep him in custody. He had claimed of having joined and cooperated with the agency in the ongoing probe.
In a separate case, Virbhadra Singh and his wife were on March 31 charge sheeted by the CBI in a special court here in a disproportionate assets case after the High Court refused to quash FIR against them and lifted the stay on their arrest.
India decided on Monday not to release about a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who were to be repatriated on Wednesday, hours after Pakistani army chief approved the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for alleged espionage and sabotage activities.
The government feels that it is not the right time for the release of Pakistani prisoners, official sources said.
The prisoners were to be released as part of the practice by India and Pakistan to repatriate nationals lodged in each others jail after they complete their sentence.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) found him guilty of all the charges, said the militarys media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in Rawalpindi.
Angered by the development, India said it will regard as premeditated murder if Pakistan carries out the death sentence without observing basic norms of law and justice.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and issued a strongly-worded demarche.
Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that the death sentence handed out to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for spying should serve as a warning to those plotting against the country.
Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared, Asif said after the Pakistani military announced that an army court has sentenced Jadhav to death after finding him guilty of espionage and sabotage activities and the army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved his execution.
Jadhavs sentencing by a Pakistani military court was according to the law, Asif told Geo TV.
He said the death sentence handed out to Jadhav should serve as a warning to those plotting against Pakistan.
Asif said that Pakistan would use all constitutional force available against those acting against the sovereignty of the country.
Soldiers and civilians of Pakistan have given sacrifices for this country and their sacrifices demand us to give a befitting reply to terrorists and those who aid and facilitate them, he said.
The defence minister further said that Jadhavs confession was a public document and if India raises the issue of his death sentence, Islamabad will reply to New Delhi.
Jadhav came (to Pakistan) with the approval of the Indian government, he claimed and said there is no doubt that India was fueling terrorism in Pakistan.
Replying to a question on dealing the issue on diplomatic and political fronts, he said that Pakistan would present the issue on every international forum.
According to Asif, the world had acknowledged Pakistans struggle against terrorism and the country was dealing with this menace from both the eastern and western front.
Pakistan sentenced Jadhav to death for carrying out espionage and sabotage activities in Balochistan and Karachi, the militarys media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
According to ISPR, Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 from Mashkel area of Balochistan for his involvement in espionage and sabotage actives in Pakistans restive Balochistan province and Karachi city.
Reacting strongly, foreign secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him.
Asif rejected the Indian stance of terming death sentence as a premeditated murder and claimed Jadhav was involved in carrying out terrorist activities in Pakistan and all legal formalities were met during his trial.
He accused India of committing premeditated murder of the innocent people of Kashmir since last seven decades.
He said New Delhis stubbornness is the biggest hindrance in the way of the relationship between the two countries.
Asif made it clear that the law will take its course if anyone poses a threat to the security and integrity of Pakistan.
He claimed India has not fulfilled its legal and moral obligations in brining perpetrators of Samjhauta Express train blasts to justice.
Defending Jadhavs death sentence, Prime Ministers advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said it was done according to the law.
He made the remarks while responding to a question in Senate, the upper house of parliament.
Aziz said that it was too early to say when the sentence would be implemented.
Balochistan home minister Sarfaraz Bugti welcomed the decision. I believe this is a good decision.
Though the some senior official spoke on the issue, but so far the Foreign Office has not responded on the issue.
Pakistans military announced on Monday that former Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in 2016, has been sentenced to death for espionage and sabotage.
Her are 10 things we know about Jadhav and the murky charges against him:
1) Pakistan, which announced Kulbhushan Jadhavs arrest from the restive Balochistan province on March 25, 2016, accused him of being an officer of Indias Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). Jadhav was detained on March 21 and later shifted to Islamabad for questioning.
2) Pakistans foreign secretary summoned Indian high commissioner Gautam Bambawale and issued a demarche to protest Jadhavs involvement in subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi.
3) Pakistans army also released a video shortly after his arrest in which he confessed to having spent years sowing unrest in Pakistan. It was not clear if Jadhav was speaking under duress.
4) Indias external affairs ministry acknowledged Jadhav was an Indian national and a former navy personnel. But it refused the charges of his involvement in spying.
5) Balochistans home minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti then claimed that Jadhav was an officer of the rank of commander in the Indian Navy and was working for R&AW, Indias external intelligence agency, a charge strongly refuted by India.
6) In the following days, Pakistan claimed Jadhav was in contact with Baloch separatists and terrorists, fuelling sectarian violence in Balochistan. Subsequently, Islamabad said Jadhav was detained in Chaman, an area of Balochistan close to the border with Afghanistan.
7) A day after Pakistans charge, India sought consular access to Jadhav. Subsequently, New Delhi issued 13 note verbale to Pakistan seeking consular access, which were denied.
8) Pakistan later said Jadhav had an Iranian residency permit and that he purportedly had a passport in the name of Hussain Mubarak Patel. The place of birth given in this passport is Sangli, Maharashtra.
9) It was later revealed that Jadhav is the son of Sudhir Jadhav, a retired assistant commissioner of police in Mumbai. Jadhavs uncle, Subhash Jadhav, was in charge of the Bandra police station in 2002 when a hit-and-run case was registered against Bollywood actor Salman Khan. All of them denied that Jadhav was involved in spying.
10) On April 10, 2017, the Pakistans army said that Jadhav was convicted by a military tribunal and sentenced to death. The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM, the Pakistani militarys publicity wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
(With agency inputs)
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Two government schools designated as polling stations for the Wednesdays bypoll to Ananatnag Lok Sabha constituency were set afire by miscreants in Shopian and Pulwama districts of south Kashmir, police said on Monday.
A government school building was set on fire by miscreants in Paddarpora area of Shopian district late last night, a police official said.
He said the school building, which was designated as polling station, suffered partial damaged in the incident before the flames were doused.
Protesters torched another school building in Arihal area of Pulwama district last night, the official said, adding the fire was put out by police personnel with the help of local residents.
Anantnag constituency, spread over four districts of Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag, is scheduled to go to polls on Wednesday.
Eight people were killed on Sunday in firing by security forces as unprecedented election day violence marred the bypoll for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat which saw the voter turnout plunge to 7.14%.
The Kerala police on Monday arrested a man who is suspected to have murdered four of his family members including his parents and sister in a posh colony in Thiruvananthapuram.
Cadell Jeanson Raja (30), who was working as an animator for an Australian firm, was arrested from Thiruvananthapuram railway station while he was discreetly boarding a train to Chennai, a senior police officer said. The police have taken him to an undisclosed location for questioning.
Half-burnt and badly mutilated bodies were recovered on Sunday morning after some of the local residents complained of smoke billowing from the house situated just 500 m away from the official residence of the Kerala chief minister.
While three bodies were charred, another was chopped and kept in a bag at the multi-storeyed house. Those killed were retired cardiologist Dr Jean Padma, her husband Professor Raj Thankam, their daughter Caroline and a relative Lalitha. Caroline was on vacation from China where she was studying medicine.
The police also recovered a half-burnt dummy from the house. The dummy bore similarities to Cadell and it is suspected he could have left the dummy inside the house to create an impression that all five people in the house were murdered. Two weapons used for the alleged murders, a can of petrol and blood-stained clothes were seized from the house.
The police and relatives are clueless about the possible motive for the murder. There was no sign of break- in or forcible entry in the house.
The police later said the absconding son might have committed the murders. The reclusive family was financially sound and neighbours and relatives were unaware of any possible tension in the family.
Prof Thankams brother Jose reportedly told the police that his sister was unavailable on the phone since Thursday and added that Cadell had told him that his parents were in Kanyakumari. The police suspect that the crime was committed at least two days ago and Cadell could have slipped out when he failed to burn bodies and the fire spread quite rapidly within the house. When the maid employed by the aged couple came for routine work Cadell reportedly told her that the family left for Tamil Nadu and asked her to come after three days.
Local residents said the reclusive Cadell was a total stranger in the colony where he grew up. No one has been seen him closely to tell if he had any character flow or weakness. It was a rude shock for the state capital on Palm Sunday, said a neighbour.
Pakistan said on Monday a military court has sentenced to death Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for allegedly spying and stoking violence in Balochistan, drawing an angry response from New Delhi which said it will be a premeditated murder if carried out.
India summoned the Pakistani high commissioner Abdul Basit and handed over a demarche describing the court proceedings as farcical and also put on hold the release of several Pakistani prisoners, scheduled for Wednesday.
Pakistan had hanged an Indian, Sheikh Shamim, on charges of spying in 1999 and had sentenced others to death over the same charge. Though several suspected Pakistani spies have been arrested in India over the years, none had been sentenced to death.
Jadhav was arrested in March last year in Balochistan and accused of being a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) agent who was fuelling the Baloch separatist movement and attempting to sabotage the $46-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. India denies the charges.
A statement by the Pakistani militarys publicity wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said Jadhav was declared guilty of waging war against the country.
The spy was tried through field general court martial under the Pakistan army act and awarded the death sentence. Today chief of army staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM, the ISPR said.
He confessed before a magistrate and the court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi.
Relations between the neighbours are at their lowest in several years following a string of militant attacks on defence installations in India, which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based groups.
Shorty after the Pakistani army statement, Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar summoned Basit whose successor was incidentally named on Monday and handed over the demarche.
If this sentence (is) against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder, the demarche said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our high commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International also the opposed the death sentence.
Under Pakistans military courts, no information about charges or evidence against suspects is made public, Amnesty said in a statement.
Pakistan, however, defended the sentence.
You cant sponsor terrorism and then summon an ambassador to protest over the sentencing of terrorists. Nothing matters more than national security, Basit said in New Delhi.
In Islamabad, defence minister Khawaja Asif said the death sentence should serve as a warning to those engaged in terrorism in Pakistan.
Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared, Asif told Geo News.
He came with the approval of the Indian governmentThere is no doubt that India is fuelling terrorism in Pakistan.
Last December, Pakistans foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz told the upper house of Parliament that the dossier on Jadhav contained mere statements and didnt have any conclusive evidence. Hours later, Pakistan denied the statement.
Pakistan army had also released a confessional video of Jadhav who is purportedly heard saying that he was serving the Indian navy. In the video, Jadhav allegedly says he arrived in Iran in 2003 and started a small business in Chahbahar.
Islamabad also repeatedly refused Indias request for access to Jadhav, who allegedly held an Iranian residency permit and a passport in the name of Hussain Mubarak Patel. The place of birth given in this passport was apparently Sangli, Maharashtra.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused India of fomenting unrest in Balochistan, the countrys largest province, but it has never offered any evidence to back up its claims. India last year launched a new offensive by highlighting Pakistans alleged human rights abuses in Balochistan.
In 2013, Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who was sentenced to death for spying in Pakistan, was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. Singh was on death row for 16 years.
Months later, a Pakistani prisoner was killed by inmates in the Jammu jail.
Another Indian national Ravindra Kaushik, also convicted of spying, died in jail in 2001.
In between, Pakistan pardoned and released another convicted Indian spy Kashmir Singh who spent 35 years in prison after being sentenced to death.
However, previous cases have largely gone through civilian courts unlike Jadhav.
With agency inputs
India on Monday described as farcical the court proceedings leading to the death sentence on former Indian naval official Kulbhushan Jadhav and said if the verdict is implemented it will be considered premeditated murder.
If this sentence (is) against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder, the external affairs ministry as saying in a demarche to Pakistan.
The demarche was handed over to Pakistans high commissioner Abdul Basit by the Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our high commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial, it said, adding that senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence.
The claim... that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
The Pakistan military announced on Monday that Jadhav was found guilty at a court-martial which was closed to the public and sentenced to death.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking release of funds over Rs 10,000 crore due to the state under various centrally sponsored schemes.
In nearly half an hour meeting, Banerjee, who has long been seeking loan waiver for her state, discussed West Bengals debt situation but said that there was no talk on the Teesta river water sharing accord with Bangladesh.
We discussed about the debt situation of the state and release of funds due to the state under various projects and schemes, Banerjee said after her meeting with Modi.
Around Rs 10,459 crore is pending with the Centre, I apprised the Prime Minister about that and the problems arising out of that. I requested him to ensure that the funds are released. He said he will try to release the funds, she added.
Pakistan on Monday announced that it sentenced to death former Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who they accuses of spying. But just a few months back Pakistans foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz had acknowledged there was no conclusive evidence against Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in Balochistan in March on charges of being an agent of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)
Speaking in the Senate or upper house of Parliament in December 2016, Aziz had said the dossier on Jadhav contained mere statements. Geo News quoted Aziz as saying, It did not have any conclusive evidence.
Aziz, the advisor to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs, was further quoted as saying, What the dossier contained was not enough. Now it is up to the concerned authorities how long they take to give us more matter on the agent.
He did not say which organisation or department had submitted the dossier against Jadhav, whose arrest was announced by the military in April.
Aziz, who was briefing the Senate on relations with India, said further evidence regarding Jadhavs role in Pakistan needs to be gathered. He also said Pakistan had provided the UN a dossier regarding RAWs alleged activities in Pakistan.
Hours after Azizs remarks were reported by the media in India and Pakistan, the Foreign Office in Islamabad tried damage control and said the statement attributed to Aziz was absolutely incorrect. The Foreign Office spokesperson said Aziz had informed the Senate that investigations into Jadhavs network...are ongoing and the dossier shall be completed upon conclusion of the investigation.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) provided a list of 39 witnesses before the court in SAS Nagar on Monday in the Pathankot airbase attack case.
On top of the list is flight lieutenant Vinay Kumar, who had handed over the trunk of ammunition, including grenades and an AK-47 rifle, besides the terrorists bodies to the Punjab police. Once named as an accused, former superintendent of police (SP) Salwinder Singh will also be called as witness.
The NIA plans to call some FBI agents too as witness. The case will come up for hearing on May 2. The senior public prosecutor Surinder Singh appeared on behalf of NIA in the court.
The court has already declared Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother Mufti Rauf Asghar and two key lieutenants Shahid Latif and Kashif Jan proclaimed offenders (POs). The central agency had submitted a challan holding these four responsible for the January 2, 2016, incident, which left seven security personnel dead.
On Monday, the NIA also filed an application under section 299 of Code of Criminal Procedure(CrPC) to go ahead with the trial in the absence of the four accused; it was allowed by the court.
In a Supreme Court hearing on the issue on the usage of pellet guns to disperse protesters in Kashmir valley, the Centre on Monday assured the apex court that using the weapon is the absolute last resort and the idea is not to kill anybody.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the apex court that they are also exploring other options like rubber bullet instead of pellet guns to disperse the crowd.
The Supreme Court was hearing the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Associations plea against the use of pellet guns in the state.
The apex court asked J&K HC Bar Association to respond to various issues raised by the Centre and said the Bar has a very important role as it is neither with protesters nor with the security forces.
SC asked the Bar to think properly to respond to the issues within 2 weeks and posted the matter for hearing on April 28.
In the previous hearing, the apex court had asked the Centre to consider effective means other than use of pellet guns to quell stone-pelting mobs in Jammu and Kashmir as it concerns life and death.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association had earlier alleged that the pellet guns are being misused.
The case was filed in the wake of the several lives which were lost last years during the unrest the broke out in Kashmir valley.
The division bench of the Supreme Court had, in December last year, admitted the petition for hearing and directed the Central Government to submit the report of the team of experts constituted on the use of pellet guns before the court.
Earlier in July 2016, the Centre constituted a team to recommend suitable replacement for the pellet guns.
A seven-member expert committee set up for exploring other possible alternatives to pellet guns as non-lethal weapons submitted its report to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi in August.
Around 78 people lost their lives and over 100 people were injured in Jammu and Kashmir last year due to firing by pellet guns.
The election commission (EC) late on Sunday night cancelled the bypoll to Tamil Nadus RK Nagar assembly constituency that fell vacant after the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa on December 5. The panel cited bribing of voters and flouting of election laws by contesting parties for putting off the election. The new date would be announced in due course, the panel said.
Here are the reasons why the election, which may determine the ruling AIADMKs future, has been put off:
* This is the second time that the EC has cancelled assembly polls in the southern state on grounds of bribing voters. Last year, the commission countermanded election in Thanjavur and Aravakurichi, which were to vote on May 16, after huge sums of money were seized by poll officials. The polling was held on November 19.
* The RK Nagar by-election was cancelled after the income-tax department reports indicated that Rs 89 crore were distributed among the voters of the constituency, twice represented by Jayalalithaa.
* Documents seized by the income tax department during raids on state health minister Vijaya Bhaskars house on Friday showed the Sasikala faction of the AIADMK gave Rs 4,000 to every voter in the north Chennai locality.
* Another Rs 5 crore was seized from associates of Bhaskar.
* The EC had received complaints that large sums of money were being distributed to swing the outcome in an election, which has turned into a battle for Jayalalithaas legacy between VK Sasikala and O Panneerselvam. Sasikala, serving time in a corruption case, was a long-time aide of the late CM while Panneerselvam was a Jayalalithaa loyalist who rose in rebellion against Sasikala.
*The poll panel can use Article 324 of the Constitution to cancel an election on grounds of bribery.
*In a strongly worded statement, the EC said: the commission cannot help expressing its anguish over the sordid state of affairs as revealed in the reports of the election expenditure observers, election expenditure monitoring teams, as well as the reports of the income-tax authorities.
The innovative ways which the political parties and their leaders have devised to bypass the law-enforcing authorities entrusted with the task of keeping an eye on the unauthorised and illegal expenses incurred in the conduct of election campaigns of their party candidates need to be dealt with heavy hand.
* The poll panel, responsible for the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, for long has been calling for clean-up. Its proposal to make electoral bribery a cognisable offence is being looked at by the government since 2011.
* Recently, the law ministry drew up a proposal to make bribing voters a cognisable offence that will allow for arrests and a police probe.
*A draft of the proposal is being circulated among stakeholders for their opinion.
*Bribing voters is a non-cognisable offence, punishable by a by fine or up to a year in jail or both.
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At least 53 families in five tribal-dominated villages returned to Hindu fold in the last one month as part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs Christianity-free block campaign in Jharkhands Arki, RSS workers have said.
These families live in villages that are part of the Sindri panchayat, which the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP that is in power in the mineral-rich state, says has been hijacked by Christian missionaries over the last 10 years.
The alleged ghar wapsi, sources said, would continue throughout April.
You cannot call it conversion. We are only bringing our lost brothers and sisters back to their religion, said RSS Saiyojak Laxman Singh Munda, who is spearheading the campaign.
We want a Christianity-free block. The villagers will soon return to their roots.
The tribals were lured into Christianity by the missionaries, said Munda, who is also the BJPs deputy president of Khunti district in which Sindri panchayat falls.
Ghar wapsi, the Hindi word for homecoming, is the proselytising campaign launched by some Hindu outfits to convert non-Hindus and bringing them back into the fold of Hinduism.
The RSS and its various affiliates have been accused of terrorising and forcing people into changing their religion.
On April 7, at least seven Christian families including tribals and non-tribals underwent a Shuddhikaran, or a purification ceremony in Kochasindhri village.
Sandalwood paste was smeared on their foreheads, their feet washed and a Tilak performed by local Hindu priests.
You cannot call it conversion. We are only bringing our lost brothers and sisters back to their religion. We want a Christianity-free block. The villagers will soon return to their roots. -- Laxman Singh Munda, who is spearheading the RSS campaign
Tribals account for 26.2% of Jharkhands population of 33 million. Around 4.5% of these tribals are Christians while the remaining follow the Sarna code.
Over the years, several tribals in Jharkhand have embraced Christianity.
The state government in Jharkhand, too, has been expressing concern over proselytisation of tribals. Chief minister Raghubar Das has warned strictest possible action against forcing tribals into changing their faith.
RSS workers along with the members of the NGO Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra went house to house to convince the tribals and also held public meetings to expose how the missionaries were taking them away from their roots.
The RSS didnt force them but in fact enlightened them about the importance of sticking to their roots, said Dashrath Munda, head of one of the families that attended the April 7 ceremony.
Nobody was forced. Some of the families refused to get converted and were not included in the ceremony, he said.
The RSS was worried that if Sarna tribals convert to Christianity, they could pose a threat to Hinduism, Sarna Dharamguru (faith leader) Bandhan Tigga said.
He said Ghar Wapsi campaign had picked up under the BJP rule. When the CM himself talks of conversion at public platforms, it is evident that RSSs activities will gain momentum, Tigga said.
Though Sarna tribe worships Mother Nature and claims to belong to a non-Hindu, non-Muslim and non-Christian faith they are recognised as Hindus in the census and other socio-economic surveys.
The tribe has been petitioning the government to be recognised as a separate faith.
Tigga didnt condemn the campaign but said conversions shouldnt be forced.
The practice was wrong as tribals were not Hindus and worshipped nature, activist Father Sten Swamy said.
If at all this is happening, the tribals are being wronged since they are not Hindus. So, there is no question of ghar wapsi, he said.
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Communal tension gripped Araria district headquarters town of Forbesganj in north-eastern Bihar and Bhagalpur in south-eastern Bihar, ironically, on a day when a national seminar held here set the tone for centenary celebration of Apostle of peace Gandhis Champaran satyagrah in 1917.
Police cane-charged a stone pelting mob as protests broke out on Monday at Forbesganj, about 294 km north east of Patna, following a clash between two groups over an alleged incident of eve-teasing on Sunday.
The market in the troubled town remained closed on Monday in protest against the incident. Yet, a protesting mob assembled in the midst of the town and set rubber tyres on fire and allegedly damaged some passing vehicles.
This caused the administration to promulgate prohibitory orders under section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), to make the protestors, some of them demanding removal of Forbesganj deputy superintendent of police Ajeet Kumar Singh, to disperse.
Five persons have been taken into custody and police investigation is underway. As a precautionary measure, restriction on the assembly of four or more persons under section 144 of CrPc has been imposed, Purnia range deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Upendra Sinha said.
Sinha, who was camping at Forbesganj, along with other top police officers of Purnia range, appealed to people not to not pay heed to rumours being spread in connection with the clashes.
Now the situation is under-control and police are on alert, the DIG said, adding heavy deployment of forces had been made at Forbesganj.
Police said the clashes broke out after five persons allegedly teased a girl in the Forbesganj market on Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, some officials speculated the protests could be related to the arrest of a boy for an allegedly derogatory post on the social media site Facebook on April 7.
The Facebook post had led to violence and an irate mob had gheraoed Forbesganj police station, leading to the arrest of the boy, a police officer said.
We are holding a peace committee meeting to defuse the tension, said the officer.
In Bhagalpur, about 250 km south east of Patna, the authorities restricted access to internet services on Sunday to prevent escalation of tension brewing over recovery of objectionable items near a place of worship.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Kumar said the district administration had restricted access to internet services to prevent tension escalating from posts on social media sites.
Tension had been brewing in the town after some objectionable items were found in front of a temple at Jagadamba Chowk in Hussainabad Balti Karkahana area under Mujahid police station here, early Sunday morning, Kumar said.
The incident caused an irate mob to block a road by burning tyres, he said. Timely intervention by police saved the situation from worsening, the SSP said, adding that additional security forces from the neighbouring Munger district had been deputed in the town to maintain peace.
Kumar said the situation was under control.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) public relations officer Bibekanand Tiwary confirmed the ban and said Monday the public sector telecom firm was yet to receive any order from the district administration to restore internet services.
The tensions were reported on a day when a two day national seminar on Mahatma Gandhis life philosophy got underway in the State capital.
(With inputs from Aditya Nath Jha in Forbesganj and Avijit Biswas in Bhagalpur)
It is cruel to separate a one-day-old child from a mother, the Supreme Court has said as it ordered a man to immediately hand over the eight-month old to his estranged wife and warned of penal consequences if he failed to do so.
You took away a new born baby. How cruel can you be? You are not entitled to do so, a bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar on Friday told the advocate representing the husband who moved the top court against the Punjab and Haryana high courts order giving the childs custody to the mother.
The SC was astonished to learn that the man had entered into an agreement with his wife while she was pregnant. Signed before the officials of Majitha police station, the document gave the childs custody to the father in exchange of Rs 18 lakh.
The mans counsel told the bench that he had already paid Rs 10 lakh to his wife. But, this did not go down well with the court.
You take away the child under the guise of this compromise, the bench told him, brushing away his arguments that the woman had given up the custody on her own.
The bench refused to set aside the HC order and questioned the man for being obstinate. This order (of the HC) was passed a month back. It asked you to handover the custody forthwith. Why havent you done it? the bench asked.
First, it had summoned the husband for a personal appearance on Tuesday. Later, the court withdrew the order after the lawyer said he would advise his client to follow the HC order.
According to the petitioners counsel the couple resides in Batala. Due to differences they agreed to part ways at a time when the woman was pregnant.
Despite the agreement the woman reportedly moved the HC in January, 2017, five months after delivering the baby, seeking a direction to her husband to produce the child.
The Supreme Court also rejected the petitioners plea that the woman was working and might be unable to look after the child. So you mean to say that a working mother cannot look after a child. That doesnt justify you taking the baby away, it said.
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Dusk is falling on Gurgaons Sohna Road, an upscale neighbourhood crammed with gleaming steel-and-concrete buildings that power Indias software surge and offer hopes of a brighter future to millions.
Its about 5pm. Backpack-laden young men and women pour out of cabs and auto-rickshaws and take a lift to the sixth-floor call centre of Saburi TLC, past a company motto inscribed in bright orange, If you work only for money, you will never make it.
In 15 minutes, they diffuse into a maze of blue-and-white cubicles where they will spend the next eight hours with a computer, a desk phone and a pair of black headphones.
There are hundreds of similar call centres in the neighbourhood. But Saburi TLC is different, a shadowy outfit accused of being among the biggest players in a thriving tech-support fraud that cons unsuspecting foreigners into buying expensive security software for their perfectly normal computers.
The charges against Saburi TLC are just the tip of a growing rot in Indias $110-billion business process outsourcing (BPO) industry that is being potentially hollowed out by fraud businesses thriving in the absence of strong regulation and oversight.
Many of these dodgy businesses operate a stones throw away from major companies in places such as Gurgaon, Pune and Bengaluru but are notoriously difficult to pin down because the victims are foreigners who cant file police complaints in India, and the firms are often run out of flats or nondescript locations by a handful of people.
If the trend isnt checked, experts warn, India might soon join the ranks of Nigeria and Vietnam where employment shrunk rapidly as investor confidence eroded because of high cybercrime rates and angry customers.
Anyone doing bad things is not good for us because the impression gets generalised. In the mind of those affected by the scam its not a company or a person, it becomes a country, says Raman Roy, chairman of Indias main IT industry lobby NASSCOM.
Testimonies of many victims float on the internet, in tech blogs, chat rooms and even with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the United States consumer protection agency that has investigated several Indian BPOs for fraud.
Ask Timothy Gatewood of Texas, United States. I got a pop-up notice from Apple saying you have virus infecting computer, call this number. So I called the number, and it was some guy with an Indian accent, the 53-year-old Houston-based DJ told Hindustan Times.
He said he was a representative of Apple, and hes with this company, Tech Live Connect. I paid them 200 dollars, all they did was delete a couple (of) files, and maybe put a couple (of) apps from the App store, and said, there you go, bada-boom bada-bing, 200-something dollars!
Tech Live Connects call centre is run by Saburi TLC whose promoter and CEO Anuj Jain has heard of these complaints but denies that the blame lies with his company.
Some of our ex-employees impersonate us, which is why you see the complaints, Jain tells HT, sitting in a corner office with a wall full of certificates praising his achievements in the BPO industry. They steal data from us and start calling our clients.
Jain, 42, says Tech Live Connect (TLC), a Singapore-based company, is one of Saburi TLCs major clients, handling their customer calls out of its call centre in Gurgaon. He denies any other links between the two companies.
But an HT investigation and interviews with former and present employees of Saburi TLC reveal the two companies are intimately connected.
A SCARE-AND-SELL INDUSTRY
In the satellite city of Gurgaon, an hours drive from downtown New Delhi, Saburi TLCs 20,000-sqft is manned by mostly fresh-out-of-college graduates, eager for a job and who dont ask too many questions.
A tech support scam begins by planting a pop-up message in the target users web browser that alerts them to a so-called virus infection, employees and experts say. The pop-up alarms the user, sometimes by locking their devices, forcing them to call a phone number flashing in the message.
The call is picked up by someone like Vikas Tanwar*.
You ask for remote access and show them temp files, run fake software to show fabricated security threats, and convince them their computer is corrupt. Then we tell them that if you dont buy our security products, the computer will become unusable, says Tanwar, who knew the scare-and-sell script by heart by the end of his first week at Saburi TLC.
We know there are no viruses. User ko to nahi pata (the user has no idea), says Anshul, 26, who gave only one name and who joined the company five years ago. Like other employees past and present HT spoke to Anshul wants to hide his name. They will have me killed.
Tanwar, a 24-year-old commerce graduate, joined the company in November 2016. He says the brief was clear: To con every caller of anywhere between 10 and 500 dollars.
The moment you put on your headphones, your supervisor tells you you are scammers. Aapko customer ko fasana hai, kuch bhi kar ke (you have to trap the customer, no matter how), says Tanwar, who quit Saburi TLC in February.
Its on the back of millions of English-speaking, tech-savvy college graduates like Anshul and Tanwar that the Indian BPO industry has grown to be a behemoth. But a paucity of jobs, easy access to foreign clients and lax regulation have caused an explosion in cyber-related crimes exemplified last year when a Thane call centre was busted by Indian and US police for cheating 6,500 US nationals of almost $100 million.
MAZE OF DECEIT
Jains career maps the highs and lows of the Indian BPO industry, from a global powerhouse to a potential destination for the desperate and devious. From 2002 to 2011, Jain worked for a series of companies at the top of the BPO ladder, from Wipro to Quattro. Then, in November 2011, he launched Saburi TLC.
The first is registered in India under Jains name and the second, Tech Live Connect, in Singapore under the name of Brian Cotter, a former colleague of Jains at Quattro who left around the same time as him.
No one knows Saburi TLC as a brand. So we reach out to clients as Tech Live Connect, who see us as one company, says Jain.
But that argument flies in the face of evidence put together by HT.
Tech Live Connect is the owner of the domain, saburitlc.com the official website of Saburi TLC. Its also from an email ID registered with the domain techliveconnect.com that Jain used to communicate with HT. On LinkedIn and Facebook, Jain introduces himself as director and chairman of Tech Live Connect.
Jain and Tech Live Connect promoter Brian Cotter attribute the overlap to the nature of partnership between them. Cotter told HT that Saburi TLC handled its clients service and tech support calls.
BLOWING THE LID
To be sure, Saburi TLCs operations include some legitimate services. Jain is the co-owner of Imagine Tressor, a premium reseller of Apple products with 11 stores across north India. He also runs two premium Apple service centres in and around Delhi.
In an industry where customer interface rarely goes beyond long distance calls, small legitimate operations often act as smokescreens for many fraudulent cyber businesses.
To capture the scam, an HT journalist called Tech Live Connects registered number to complain that his perfectly healthy Windows laptop was running slow.
He was first instructed to hand over remote access to the computer and then told, in an escalating tone of alarm, about a range of security threats, from junk files to virus, malware, Trojan to that his computer has been hacked.
The journalist was told his computer would be unfixable if he didnt buy an $8 one-time fix followed by a years worth of security service from Tech Live Connect.
Had HT bought the security solution, Saburi TLC executives would have taken the customer through one of six or seven US-based payment gateways to deposit money in American bank accounts, says Tanwar, recapping steps he followed hundreds of times to extort money from unsuspecting clients.
They would then launder it back to India, he says. Tanwar thinks the call centre makes at least $5000 off the scam every day. Rajat Garg, a former Saburi TLC employee, says it makes $100,000 a day.
Tanwar made an average of 15 calls every day at Saburi TLC with a target of $500 on every call. If you sell services worth $1000 dollars, you get 1000 rupees, says Tanwar, who made Rs 20,000 in monthly salary but a far bigger amount in incentives.
HT also filed a request for information with the office of the US Freedom of Information Act, which revealed that the US FTC had received 699 consumer complaints against Tech Live Connect. The latest was filed on March 28 by a resident of Warner Robins, a city in the US state of Georgia, who narrated a harrowing tale of deceit and threats from Tech Live Connect. HT has copies of 50 such complaints.
Asked if Tech Live Connect was under investigation, FTC spokesman Frank Dorman told Hindustan Times: All information about investigations is nonpublic, including whether or not there is an investigation.
Better Business Bureau (BBB), a leading US consumer protection forum, set up a business profile of Tech Live Connect on its website after receiving multiple complaints against it.
We especially do this if the company appears to have a pattern of complaints as was the case with Tech Live Connect, BBB spokeswoman Katherine Hutt told HT. Some of these complaints with BBB were resolved, mostly with a refund. Former Saburi TLC employees told HT this was done to avoid trouble and manage online reputation.
LEGAL LOOPHOLES
A 2016 Stony Brook University study showed that 86% of all tech scams originated in India.
Unfortunately, the scale of such scams originating from India is huge, says Roy, also the founder of Quatrro, a big name in Indias BPO industry. A small group of people with an internet connection and VoIP numbers can launch a tech support scam.
And the art of scamming is not at all difficult to learn, says Garg, a former Saburi TLC employee. According to Garg, even a 10th pass can get a job at TLC.
Garg, 26, says he has worked for many such scam outfits. In 2012, he joined Saburi TLC but left in a year to join iYogi, a big name in Indian tech support, for a better salary. In 2015, he left iYogi after a lawsuit was filed against the company in the United States for running a tech support scam.
In 2016, he landed at Prime Technologies but lost his job the same year after founder Aman Mehndiratta an ex-Saburi TLC employee -- was convicted in a US court of routing fraud money to India using the bank account of an American co-conspirator.
But why is it so difficult to shut down such companies? A major reason is the ease with which these companies can be launched or re-launched, experts say.
While call center or tech center crimes are targeting individual victims outside India, we believe that these crimes pose a threat to the credibility of the tech sector and should be treated under a large scale umbrella of an economic offense as opposed to an individual fraud investigation, said Suhel Daud, an FBI agent who serves as assistant legal attache at the American embassy in New Delhi.
Apple and Microsoft know about the scale of the fraud. A Microsoft spokesperson told HT it has a dedicated online portal to report tech support scams, which receives an average of 10,000 consumer complaints a month. To a detailed questionnaire from HT, Apple just said, We take security very seriously.
Vakul Sharma, an advocate at the Supreme Court, says India has the legal framework, but the complainants need to be physically present in an Indian court or send a lawyer as a representative. Hardly any American victim of tech scams do that.
In 2012, the US FTC charged six tech support firms with fraud in a US district court-- five in India alone. In 2014, a US court ordered the six companies to pay more than $5.1 million dollars in damages. It was not clear if these companies paid up.
We have met with the CBI, and with local law enforcement officials, on many occasions and hope to coordinate our efforts to halt these frauds and the damage they do to consumers as well as the reputation of Indias call center industry, Dorman told HT in an email.
But the industry isnt likely to slow down anytime soon, say people who have been a part of it.
Its very easy to scare Americans, says Amit Singhal, who worked at Saburi TLC between 2012 and 2013.
Bade bhole hote hain (They are very gullible).
(Input from Harry Stevens in NEW DELHI and Yashwant Raj in WASHINGTON)
*Names of current and former Saburi TLC employees changed to protect identity
If you have worked at a call centre scam outfit or been scammed by one, share your story with us. Drop an email to snigdha.poonam@hindustantimes.com and samarth.bansal@hindustantimes.com.
Shiv Sena parliamentarian Ravindra Gaikwad booked a ticket on an Air India flight from Pune to New Delhi for Monday but instead travelled by the Rajdhani Express from Mumbai.
Gaikwads private secretary Krishna Nama told HT, He travelled from Mumbai to Delhi in train. He did it because he found in convenient. There is no other complexity in this issue.
The MP booked his ticket for AI 852, the same flight in which the incident had taken place. But around 8 pm on Sunday, he changed the booking and he now holds an open ticket. Open ticket means he can fly anytime the Pune-Delhi flight but needs to inform us four hour prior to departure to confirm the seat, said an Air India official.
On Friday, Air India lifted the flying ban imposed on the 56-year-old MP from Osmanabad after he had assaulted AI employee R Sukumar on March 23. Six other airlines had subsequently banned him.
Pakistan claimed it arrested an Indian spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav, on March 26, 2016 in its restive Balochistan province. New Delhi refuted the claim, saying the person is a former Indian Navy officer who took voluntary retirement to do business.
Pakistani media reported that the alleged Indian spy had residency permit of Iran and crossed over to Balochistan border. It was also reported that he had a passport (number is L9630722) under the name Hussain Mubarak Patel. His place of birth is mentioned as Sangli, Maharashtra.
Read more: Concerned about man held in Pakistan, spy video tutored: India
India sees the allegations as the neighbouring countrys ploy to counter Indias involvement in the construction of Chabahar port, which is a major concern for Pakistan. The strategically important port gives India a direct access to Afghanistan and other central Asian countries bypassing Pakistan.
New Delhi says Kulbhushan Jadhav was doing business in Chabahar. He has no involvement with any government activity.
Read more: Businessman? Cops son? Conflicting claims over spy arrested in Pak
On March 29 last year, Pakistan released a videotape in which the former Indian Navy officer admitted funding Baloch insurgents. New Delhi pointed out several loopholes in the tape and suspected that Jadhav must have been coerced to say so.
India demanded counselor accessa countrys rights to get in touch with its citizen arrested in foreign shores but Pakistan has denied any access so far.
Read more: Pak releases video of RAW officers confession, India rubbishes claim
Pakistan has a chequered history in dealing with people they have dubbed as Indian spies. Sarabjit Singh, a farmer who strayed into Pakistani territory had died in a Pakistani jail after he was attacked by other prisoners. Pakistani authorities had repeatedly denied pleas of New Delhi to release Singh.
In this case, intelligence officials say, It is still not clear whether he was lured into Balochistan or picked up after he strayed into Pakistani territory -- land or water.
To build up its case, Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif met visiting Iranian president and pointed out the arrest of the spy to underline Indias external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wings (RAWs) alleged interference in Balochistan.
Jadhavs colleagues say he graduated as a naval engineer in 1990 from the National Defence Academy. He completed 14 years in the navy and rose to the rank of a commander. According to his family, he set up business in Chabahar free trade zone. His business includes servicing boats and ferries.
India says its inquiries reveal that he apparently was being harassed while operating a legitimate business from Iran.
His presence now in Pakistan raises questions, including the possibility of his abduction from Iran. This would become clear only if we are given consular access to him and we urge the government of Pakistan to respond immediately to our request, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.
A version of this story was first published on March 30, 2016
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No Pakistani national has ever been sentenced to death in India for spying, officials said on Monday as relations between the neighbours hit a new low after a Pakistani military court awarded death penalty to former Indian navy official Kulbhushan Jadhav.
India retaliated by putting on hold release of around a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who were scheduled to be repatriated on Wednesday.
Several serving and retired officials HT spoke to said they dont recall any Pakistani being sentenced to death by India for spying.
I dont remember any incident of a Pakistani national who was caught in India and later given the death sentence, a home ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.
As far as repatriation of Pakistani prisoners is concerned, the time doesnt seem to be ripe for such a move. The process is on hold as of now.
The prisoners were to be released as part of a practice by India and Pakistan to repatriate nationals lodged in each others jail after they complete their sentences.
In a statement in the Rajya Sabha last year, the government said 46 Pakistani spies were arrested across India between the 2013-16.
Retired security also said they were unaware of any of them being given the death penalty.
I dont recall any such case. In fact, if a Pakistani national is caught spying, the intelligence option is to win him over and make him work as a double agent, said DC Pathak, who retired as chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB).
In a written reply to Parliament recently, junior home minister Kiren Rijiju said more than 250 Pakistani nationals were deported between 2014-2016.
In contrast, Pakistan had executed one Indian national Sheikh Shamim in 1999, almost ten years after he was arrested on charges of spying.
Almost a decade-and-half later in 2013, another Indian national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for spying in Pakistan, was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. He had been on death row for 16 years.
Months later, a Pakistani prisoner was killed by fellow-inmates in Jammu jail, allegedly in retaliation to the killing of Sarabjit, who later became the subject of a Bollywood film.
In between, two other cases had also drawn wide publicity in Pakistan and India.
In 2008, then President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Kashmir Singh, an Indian national convicted of spying and sentenced to death. He returned to Indian after spending 35 years in prison.
Another Indian Ravindra Kaushik, who was also convicted of spying and jailed, died in 2001 after contracting tuberculosis. Most of these cases were tried by civilian courts.
For many in India, an army court sentencing Jadhav to death would stand out in the murky annals of India-Pakistan espionage charges.
Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh said that though Pakistan is not known for having systems that deliver justice, resorting to a military court to sentence Jadhav to death was even clumsier.
Pakistan authorities didnt have enough evidence to present against Jadhav in a court of low and bringing a military court into play shows their sheer level of desperation, too.
TCA Raghavan, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, described the death sentence as a very peculiar situation.
How can an Indian national be court-martialed by an army court in Pakistan? Raghavan told HT. In the past, when people were accused of spying they were tried in the normal courts and were sentenced.
Uday Bhaskar, director of Society for Policy studies agreed.
Among many shortcomings in the case, the applicability of Pakistans field general court martial under the Pakistan army act to Jadhav is a grey area.
Both countries frequently arrest people on charges of spying and in the past have even expelled each others diplomats on charges of spying.
Pakistani authorities did not say when the sentence would be carried out.
Analysts said that diplomatic manoeuvring, lengthy legal proceedings and the possibility of appeal could mean the case would be contested for years.
Senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday dared Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take action against RJD chief Lalu Prasads family for misusing his name and the address of the chief ministers official residence in the alleged benami property scam.
Sushil Modi alleged that Prasads daughter Chanda Yadav had given chief ministers official residence address as her own as a director of Delight Marketing Pvt Ltd in 2014.
He had on April 7 demanded that Kumar sack Prasads two minister sons Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, the deputy chief minister and Tej Pratap Yadav, the state health minister for allegedly getting benami properties worth Rs 750 crore transferred in their names.
Both Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, ministers in Nitish government, are not only involved in land and mall scam worth Rs 750 crore but have also misused the address of the chief ministers official residence as that of Chanda Yadavs address while appointing her as the director of the company, the BJP leader said.
Nitish Kumar should tell the people what type of action he intends to take against those misusing the name of the CM and CMs residence, Modi said.
Chanda Yadav had shown her address as CM House, 1 Anne Marg, Sachivalaya Thana, GPO, Patna, Patna-800001, Sushil Modi claimed and asked Prasads minister sons whether the family indeed resided in that address when she became director of the company in 2014.
What was the relevance of misusing CMs residential address nine years after Rabri Devi quit CM office in 2005? the senior BJP leader said.
Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav while countersigning the documents submitted to the registrar as directors of Delight company had deliberately used the address of the chief ministers official residence to show off power and influence.
Sushil Modi had alleged that Prasad during his tenure as Railways minister had sold off two hotels in Puri and Ranchi controlled by the Railways to a hospitality chain owned by one Harsh Kochar in February 2005.
Kochar in turn got two acres registered in the name of Delight Marketing Company Private Limited in which Lalu Prasads wife Rabri Devi and his sons Tej Pratap Yadav, the state health minister and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav were made directors.
Initially in 2014 Prasads sons and daughters namely Tej Pratap, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Chanda Yadav, Ragini Yadav were made directors of Delight Marketing Pvt Ltd in which RJD MP and former union corporate affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta and his family had 70 per cent of stake.
Later, Delight was re-christened as LARA Projects LLP in November 2016 in the name of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi.
Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Prasad Yedav and Tej Pratap Yadav are functioning as directors of the company since February 14, 2017.
We are relaxed and happy with Indias stand from the beginning of the Syrian crisis, Riad Abbas, ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in India, said at a press conference here on Monday. Indias stand has been the same throughout the crisis. I will meet Indian officials in a day or two and brief them on what happened in Khan Sheikhoun.
Abbas said that Syria appreciated the support of allies Russia, Iran, and that Indias stand was balanced as other BRICS nations.
On April 4, a chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, a town in Idlib province, in north-west Syria, killed about 89 people and injured more than 300. Following the attack, on April 6, the United States carried out a missile attack on a Syrian air base suspected to house chemical weapons.
Washington has accused the Bashar al-Assad government of carrying out the attacks. The Syrian government, and its allies Russia and Iran, have demanded that an independent investigation into the matter.
Abbas said the bombing was an act of blatant aggression and chemical weapons was a pretext used by Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Doha, Ankara, London, Paris to internationalise the Syrian crisis which was until now a regional issue.
He said that it was a well known fact that chemical weapons were stored in many parts of Syria by armed terrorist groups, and that even if we had such weapons, why would we use it on innocent civilians.
The ambassador accused United States President Donald Trump of carrying out a premeditated strike on Syria based on the reports provided by terror groups. Abbas also said that Trump carried out the attacks to show Americans that he was a strong President, unlike Barack Obama; to compensate for Obamas lack of cooperation with Israel; and, to send a message to Russia and its allies that America was ready to take them on in Syria.
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On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Survey of India (SoI) established in 1767, the science minister, Harsh Vardhan launched the Nakshe portal that is Hindi for maps.
More than 3000 topographic maps will be available for free on the portal.
The aim according to the minister, is to provide these topographic maps in pdf format for all Indian public citizens. These maps include natural and manmade geographical features, topographic maps are 3-D because they capture the heights of features.
It will empowering people to get data they need at their fingertips, said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, he illustrated with an example of a gram panchayat which wanted to take up a local developmental project. They would require this kind of data and till now would have to submit applications and pay fees. Even government agencies had to pay for these maps.
The catch is that currently, only people with an Aadhar card can access the database of topographical maps and the names of the places are in English.
The officials cited the need to balance between developmental and security needs of the country when explaining why the maps would not be accessible to people who cannot prove their identity, which currently means having an Aadhar. However. even non-Indians can get Aadhar cards.
The Survey of India also announced the launch of a new model, called the Geoid model, to adjust GPS measurements of height to obtain above mean sea level (AMSL) data, which is the standard measure of height. For example Mt. Everest is 8,848 metres above average sea level. There are no absolute altitude values, they are always measured from a base, that is usually the mean sea level.
GPS measurements are easy to make using remote sensing satellites while altitude above average sea level is a more laborious task. The ability to convert GPS measurements to these standardised values for locations all over India is a major step forward.
It will be extremely useful for all engineering projects,Dr Swarna Subba Rao, Surveyor General of India. It is useful for all sorts of engineering tasks - like when building dams, roadways, railways.
The SOI is still refining the geoid model so that the converted values are more accurate. The portal will also be evolving so that in a few months the information will also be made available in Hindi and the number of maps will also increase.
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Triple talaq and polygamy practised by many Muslims are not sanctioned by Islam, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday.
Urging the top court to declare these practises unconstitutional, the Centre asserted that they affected the fundamental right of Muslim women to live in dignity and without any security unlike women of other religions in the country.
The arguments are part of Centres written submissions that would be taken up by a five-judge constitution bench during the ensuing summer vacation. The bench will determine the validity of the practises.
The statement comes a day after Salma Ansari, wife of Vice-President Hamid Ansari, said uttering talaq thrice did not amount to divorce and asked Muslim women to read the Quran thoroughly instead of relying on clerics.
Rebutting the contentions put forth by Islamic organisations, including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the Centre said the constitutional protection of freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 25 was not absolute to the community in this regard because the regressive practices violated ones right equality, life and liberty.
Practices such as polygamy cannot be described as being sanctioned by religion in as much as historically, polygamy prevailed across communities for several centuries including the ancient Greeks and Romans, Hindus, Jews and Zoroastrians. It had less to do with religion and more to do with social norms at the time, the Centre said in its written submissions, drafted by advocate Madhvi Divan.
In the Holy Quran as well, it appears that the prevalent or perhaps even rampant practice of polygamy in pre-Islamic society was sought to be regulated and restricted so as to treat women better.
Gender equality and the dignity of women were non-negotiable and cannot brook compromise. These rights were necessary not only to realise the aspirations of every woman but also for the larger well-being of the society and nation.
The practices which are under challenge, namely, triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy are practices which impact the social status and dignity of Muslim women and render them unequal and vulnerable qua men belonging to their own community; women belonging to other communities and also Muslim women outside India. There are unreasonable classifications which arise from practices such as those under challenge in the present petition, which deny to Muslim women the full enjoyment of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, the Centre stated. Such discrimination based on religion cannot be countenanced in a secular country.
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Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments have decided to amicably resolve the long-pending issue of assets distribution in a time bound manner. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath met his Uttarakhand counterpart Trivendra Singh Rawat in Lucknow on Monday in presence of senior officials from both the states to discuss the modalities.
Rawat, who returned to Dehradun later in the afternoon, said both the governments have stepped up efforts to get the process going and the Centre is also supportive of the move . The UP CM has assured all possible help and both the states look forward to a profitable deal, he said.
The twin states had been at loggerheads over distribution of assets in the past. The breakthrough came last month after UP irrigation officials signed documents to transfer 28 minor canals that get water from the upper Ganga canal in Haridwar.
Nonetheless, Uttarakhand is yet get control of Kumbh area in Haridwar. Add to that, 13,000 hectares, over 400 buildings, more than 20 canals and five major barrages are still controlled by UP administration.
Both states will also have to decide on sharing of power from Tehri Dam. The spilt in expense for Jamrani dam also feature on Uttarakhands list of priorities.
A source privy to todays development said a meeting between the chief secretaries of the two states is likely to take place in the next three months .
All principal secretaries and secretaries have been asked to submit report with comments to Uttarakhand government by May 10, he added.
A temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Mirzapur village of Uttar Pradeshs Aligarh district is not an impressive one and does not follow any unique style of architecture.
What sets it apart is the fact that it was constructed by a Muslim standing as an epitome of communal harmony in the state where the clamour for the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya at the disputed site where the Babri Masjid once stood is growing.
A Hindu mob demolished the 16th century Babri Masjid on December 2, 1992, demanding the construction of a temple for Lord Ram, who Hindus believe was born at the site in Ayodhya. The demolition of the mosque sparked some of the deadliest riots in India in which thousands were killed.
The temple in Muslim-dominated Mirzapur, around 12 kilometres from the district headquarters, also stands out because its main priest is also a Muslim.
Constructed in July 2013, it is perhaps the only temple in the state where right from its construction to its upkeep is entirely managed by Muslims.
Babu Khan, the husband of village pradhan Shama Parvin, constructed the temple near the CDF police post with the help of other community members. OP Rana, the then in charge of the police post, also played a vital role in building the temple.
Babu Khans role is not limited to its construction as he looks after the cleaning and upkeep of the temple and also spends almost 10 hours on the premises every day.
The temple was constructed to keep alive the Hindu-Muslim unity and communal harmony, Babu Khan insists.
In our village, both Hindus and Muslims live like brothers. Since we keep helping each other, we thought that constructing a temple for our Hindu brothers would bind us further. Villagers like Aas Mohammad, Abdul Salam and Sher Mohammad have contributed much in its construction, Babu, who despite being a devout Muslim offers water to the Shivling, adds.
My family, including my wife Shama Parvin, five sons and three daughters, daily help in cleaning the temple and maintaining it, he says.
Abrar Khan, the main priest of the temple, besides performing his duties at the temple also offers his namaaz daily.
Like the famous Hindi poet Raskhan had faith and belief in Lord Krishna, I have faith in Lord Shiva, Abrar says.
Hindus and Muslims are like the two eyes and they cannot be separated at all. The politicians exploit both the communities for achieving their vested interests, he rues.
Praising Abrar, Babu Khan says he worships Lord Shiva according to Hindu rituals and traditions and can recite not only the Shiv Purana but also the Ramayana.
We all have faith in Lord Shiva as much as we have faith and belief in Islam. Here, not a single incident of a communal riot has taken place as we all solve our problems amicably, Shama Parvin told Hindustan Times.
Every year a fair is organised on the occasion of Shivratri and Ramesh Singh, a villager, tells HT the arrangements for it are also done by Muslims of the village.
Rupa Devi said the entire village was proud of Babu Khan and his family for taking care of the temple while following the entire traditions and rituals.
Impressed by the initiative, the district administration honoured Babu Khan with the Ganga Jamuni Award this year.
As the Election Commission cancelled the RK Nagar bypoll over use of money power, Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking if his demonestisation drive has achieved the desired results.
We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?, the former finance and home minister said in a tweet.
We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money? P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 10, 2017
The Election Commission had on Sunday night cancelled the April 12 bypoll to the RK Nagar assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, saying the electoral process has been seriously vitiated by parties through use of money power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while announcing the demonestisation decision on November 8, had said that the move would curb blackmoney besides getting other positive results.
The bypoll to R K Nagar was necessitated due to the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Former Uttar Pradesh minister and senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has returned a pair of cows and a calf that were presented to him by a prominent Hindu seer in protest against the lynching of a Muslim man by alleged cow vigilantes in Rajasthans Alwar last week.
In a letter to Adhokshanand Maharaj of Goverdhan mutt, the former minister expressed his helplessness in keeping the gift under prevailing atmosphere, saying any vigilante could kill the animal to defame him.
If some unpleasant incident occurs then enemies of Muslims and humanity would get a reason for massacring innocent people, as they are always looking to make the journey of 2019 (election) easier, the SP leader wrote, in an apparent reference to the BJP.
It is a matter of life and death for many weak persons like me who after the Alwar incident have been asking themselves- how to live and where to go?
Khan was urban development minister in the Samajwadi Party (SP) government and was also in charge of arrangements for Kumbh in Allahabad. Pleased with the Kumbh arrangements, Adhokshanand had given the animals to Khan one-and-a-half years ago. The pair was kept in a buffalo shed in Rampur owned by the minister, and caretakers were directed to take special care of the cows.
If some unpleasant incident occurs then enemies of Muslims and humanity would get a reason for massacring innocent people, as they are always looking to make the journey of 2019 (election) easier, the SP leader wrote, in an apparent reference to the BJP.
Khan said he was returning the gift after seeking Swami jis permission though his gesture of harmony would always remain in my heart.
Muslims were living in an atmosphere of insecurity... Any cow vigilante might harm or even kill the beautiful and beneficial animal to defame me and the Muslim community, the minister wrote.
Last week, Pehlu Khan was killed and four others injured when a gang of alleged cow protection vigilantes attacked them while they were transporting a batch of cattle in Alwar. The incident triggered widespread condemnation and represented the latest episode in a growing string of violence related to the cow, considered holy by many Hindus.
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has ordered an inquiry look into public works executed under an urban scheme by the previous Samajwadi Party administration, the latest in a series of probes ordered by the new government.
The decision came on Sunday after the chief minister expressed his unhappiness with the quality of works carried out under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
We will not tolerate the loot of public money, sources quoted the CM as saying during a departmental presentation that stretched well past midnight.
The works that will be looked into include drinking water, pipeline and overhead water tank project in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modis Lok Sabha constituency. The Varanasi commissioner has 15 days to submit a report.
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who is also responsible for the public works department, said, This government has a zero tolerance policy on corruption.
They had come across several instances where payments were made but works were completed only on paper, not on ground.
The process of blacklisting suspect companies and contractors was on, Maurya said.
After he was sworn in as the chief minister on March 19, Adityanath, a hardline Hindu leader, has been sitting through presentations by various departments, detailing their plans to implement the BJPs poll promises.
A crackdown on crime and corruption the biggest promise the BJP made to the people of Uttar Pradesh, where it was voted to power with a brute majority last month.
A task force to look into corruption of the last 15 years, too, found a mention in the partys Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra, or the manifesto.
Various schemes, ranging from pure drinking water to solid waste management, were launched under the multi-crore JNNURM.
Launched in 2005 by the Manomhan Singh government, JNNURMs aim was to improve urban infrastructure across the country. The Modi government rechristened the initiative Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.
In a step towards making decision-making transparent, the UP government will invite e-tenders to give out contracts for its works.
More inquiries could be ordered in the coming days as departmental presentations are lined up till April 20, sources in the government said.
On Friday, the chief minister ordered a probe into the sale of sugar mills during the term of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, which ruled the state from 2007 to 2012.
An inquiry is already on the Gomti riverfront project, a work piloted by former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav
Union water resources minister Uma Bharti, who met Adityanath ahead of the presentations, supported his governments probe spree.
Looking into the mistakes of the past is important to move ahead, she said.
The Jal Nigam, under former urban development minister Azam Khan, was the nodal agency for all JNNURM projects.
Adityanath has now tasked his urban development minister Suresh Khanna to head the probe team.
Those who are honest have nothing to fear, those who arent have everything to fear, union minorities affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday. He reviewed the status of minority welfare schemes in the state.
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Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians captain, has landed himself in a soup over to his reaction to being adjudged LBW during the 2017 Indian Premier League match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday. (FULL IPL COVERAGE)
Rohit didnt seem pleased by the umpires decision, and made his feelings known while walking back to the pavilion during Mumbai Indians eventually successful chase. (IPL 2017 SCHEDULE)
Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians captain, was reprimanded by the match referee for showing excessive, obvious disappointment with an Umpires decision during his teams contest against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium, an IPL statement read. (IPL 2017 RESULTS)
Mr Sharma admitted to the Level 1 offence 2.1.5 of the IPL Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials.
For Level 1 breaches of the IPL Code of Conduct, the Match Referees decision is final and binding, it added.
Murshidabad police on Sunday busted an inter-state arms smuggling racket and seized 15 pistols and 41 cartridges from three people near Dhulian Dak Bungalow crossing in the Shamserganj area. This is one of the major hauls in recent months. The 9 mm and 7 mm pistols were being carried in a car from Munger, Bihar.
The arrested people are all residents of Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar areas of adjoining Malda district. Kaliachak and Baisnagnagar, located close to the Indo-Bangladesh border, have been identified as havens for gangs dealing in forged Indian currency notes (FICN), illegal arms and narcotics.
Murshidabad SP Mukesh said,We acted on a tip-off and intercepted an Ambassador car. One 9 mm and fourteen 7 mm pistols were found from the vehicle. The passengers, identified as Shariful Islam, Mosallim Sheikh and Saddam Hossain, are residents of different villages in Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar.
A senior officer of district police said: There are gangs that run their own arms manufacturing units in Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar. But the arrested people told is that the consignment was coming from Munger district in Bihar. They were supposed to hand over the guns to an a local agent.
The SP said, We have come to know that the arrested people were only working as couriers. But they have given us the names of those who sent the consignment. We have launched raids to nab the masterminds.
Smuggling of arms and ammunition has drastically gone up in recent months in Murshidabad. On April 6, a man was arrested at Suti with ten 7 mm pistols and 40 cartridges. On Mach 20, Shamserganj police arrested three men with five 9 mm pistols, 3 magazines and 20 cartridges.
A senior district police officer said election to the newly formed Domkal municipality is likely to take place on May 14. Domkal has always been one of the most violence-prone zones in Murshidabad. Its quite possible that criminals have been hired to create terror before the civic polls, he said.
The state government has asked the senior police officials to furnish the details of their movable assets latest by April 16.
The move comes close on the heels of chief minister Yogi Adityanath directing government officials to declare their income and assets (movable and immovable) within 15 days. The government later extended this deadline to April 15.
Soon after taking over as CM, Yogi had also asked his ministers to give a declaration of their movable and immovable properties.
The fresh order issued on Saturday also brought IPS officers within the ambit of governments initiative of zero tolerance to corruption.
Additional director general of police (personnel), UP, PC Meena has issued an order (dated April 8, 2017) to all additional DGPs, IGs and DIGs to ensure compliance, said a senior official at the home department.
The copies of the order have also been sent to all district police chiefs as well as PAC commandants. The IPS officers are required to furnish details of their movable assets as on March 31, 2017 under all circumstances on the specified format, he added.
Every officer will have to mention the name, cadre, batch and present pay while filling the details of movable properties in his/her name or in the name of relatives. The form also seeks details about the mode/source of acquisition as well as value of the property at the time of acquisition or its present value.
The officials are required to provide details of jewellery, insurance policies (the annual premium of which exceeds basic pay of two months), shares, securities and debentures, cars, motorcycles, or any other means of conveyance.
The IPS officers will also have to mention details of gadgets and appliances including refrigerator and television sets.
The All-India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968, require officers to disclose the details of their asset when they join the service and submit an annual property statementlisting properties and shares.
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Banaras Hindu University (BHU) vice chancellor Prof Girish Chandra Tripathi is accused by his critics of attempting to saffronise the campus. He minces no words in taking on such detractors. He says if saffronisation means overall personality development of the students, enhancing their knowledge and inculcating moral values in them, he is making serious efforts for all these. If saffronisation means anything else, he is no way involved in it, he tells Sudhir Kumar in an interview. Excerpts:
As BHU vice chancellor, you have completed about two and a half years. What have been the universitys achievements and failures in this period?
There are many achievements. We have set up Mahamana Malaviya Research Centre for Ganga, River Development and Water Resource Management and a centre for study of climate change.
This university is for nation-building. Its national character needs to be protected. We have set up the Bharat Adhyayan Kendra that focuses on documentation, enrichment and preservation of ancient informal knowledge of Indian culture, values, and philosophy. The growing size of the cities has posed a serious threat to existence of rivers. The Mahamana Centre for Ganga has started working to find sustainable ways of river conservation. We are working fast to make BHU a solar energy operated university. By 2018, this will be a reality.
Do you have any plan to globalise the Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vijyan?
The Indian culture is based on Sanskrit. There is a need to revise our Sanskrit courses to generate interest among the students about the language. We are making efforts to restructure the courses in Sanskrit to make it relevant in the present scenario.
There have been controversies over the closure of the cyber library. Any plan to restore the librarys 24x7 operation?
As far as I know, no library in the country operates 24x7. Everything and everyone needs rest. Students need to take a break from studies for sound sleep. Machines, such as air conditioner and fans, need to be switched off for a few hours in order that they function well.
Opening a library 24x7 is an irrational demand by a group of students. Had it been a rational demand, I would have given a thought to it. Theres no plan to restore 24x7 operation of the library.
A few groups of students and social activists allege that saffronisation of education is underway at BHU. Your take?
I cant recall even a single instance when I took any decision influenced by any ideology. If saffronisation means overall personality development of students, enhancing their knowledge, inculcating moral values, making them visionary, thoughtful and energetic, adopting 100 villages for their development, setting up Bharat Adhyayan Kendra, I am making serious efforts for all these. But if saffronisation means anything else, I am no way involved in that. The university is run on the basis of an Act passed by Parliament. I dont think there has been any instance of violation of any provision of the Act during my regime.
There are allegations that RSS activities have increased on the BHU campus in the last two years. Is this true?
I dont think so. This is a baseless allegation, full of prejudice. As they dont find any loophole, the people against me are running this propaganda.
What has the BHU achieved by signing over 50 memorandums of understanding with foreign universities in the last few years?
The French, US, Italian, Nepalese ambassadors and the British high commissioner visited the BHU because of the MoUs. These are going to enhance our exchange programmes. In addition, the BHU has potential to become a soft power to spread Indian culture and ideas across the globe.
You are a professor of economics. Any plan to improve BHUs economy?
We want to take the alumni and industrys support to increase the BHU resources. As part of initiative, we have contacted many prominent alumni. Our efforts yielded results. Sudha Murthy has given Rs 15 crore for Bharat Kala Bhavan.
Your dream?
I dont have a personal agenda. I am committed to carrying forward the agenda set by BHU founder Mahamana Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya.
Have restrictions, such as no non-vegetarian food or not allowing girls to leave their hostels after 8pm, been imposed?
There are some positive restrictions, keeping in view the most important and sensitive issue of girls security. We just tell the girls to not leave the hostel without informing the warden. In case of an emergency, after making the warden contact their local guardians on phone, they may leave. Non-vegetarian dishes are served at hostels as per rules. There is no ban.
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Uttar Pradeshs agriculture ministers surprise check at Krishi Bhavan left several latecomers scrambling, including some who tried to scale the walls of the agriculture directorate to mark their attendance.
Just after 10am on Monday Surya Pratap Shahi ordered all entry and exit gates locked to prevent tardy employees from entering the premises.
As a lesson in punctuality, the minister ordered deduction of half a days salary for personnel who couldnt manage to mark themselves present on time over 65 people. He also ordered deduction of a full days salary and awarding adverse entry in the service records for officers absent without a leave application.
They have been addicted to coming late to offices during the last 15 years, but now, they have to change their habits, the minister told Hindustan Times.
Shahi was at Krishi Bhavan for over five hours, reviewing various schemes being run by the agriculture department, and kept employees and officials on their toes.
Accompanied by his team of officers, including principal secretary Rajnish Gupta, the senior minister arrived into the directorate around 9:50am, 10 minutes before the stipulated office time. As soon as news of the ministers inspection spread, dozens of employees rushed to reach office.
The minister inspected various sections and offices on all the floors at Krishi Bhavan, checked attendance registers, interacted with the staff, talked to them of their working issues and gave directions for proper upkeep of files and cleanliness.
He also held a long meeting with officials, reviewing various schemes and issuing directives. He asked them to chalk out an action plan on how to double farmers income in the next five years.
I also asked them to soon arrange a state-level agriculture seminar wherein experts, peoples representatives and farmers put their heads together to suggest ways to improve the agriculture sector. I also directed the officials to prepare a scheme to make seeds like coarse grains available to farmers on subsidised rates for the water-scarce (semi-arid) districts in Bundelkhand, Shahi said.
Minister of state for minority affairs Mohsin Raza also paid a surprise visit to the office of the Shia Waqf Board.
He was reportedly annoyed when he found no employee at work even at 11:30am. This is shocking...the fans are running, the ACs are on, he said.
It seems that the officials of this department do not feel the pain of the common public, who come from far flung places with their grievances, Raza said.
We (the ministers) reach offices by 9:30am. But, even at 11:30am, the officials are yet to reach, he said.
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1. Thane call centre scam kingpin Shaggy gave Audi, BMW to friends before fleeing
Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy, the alleged mastermind of a Rs 1,900 crore call centre scam, desperately tried to offload high-end assets such as luxury cars and a posh bungalow hours after police raids on his businesses last year, sources have said.
2. Lonavla double murder: Cops interrogate 200 suspects, but fail to make breakthrough
A week after two engineering students were bludgeoned to death in Lonavla, investigators said they have not been able to make headway in the case, despite interrogating more than 200 suspects.
3. Repairs at Amar Mahal junction lead to traffic jam on Eastern Express Highway
If you are planning to travel along the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) today, dont. Motorists have complained of severe traffic snarls along the highway owing to ongoing repairs.
4. Narayan Rane sending feelers to Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray not keen to take him back
Congress leader Narayan Ranes speech in praise of Shiv Sena founder, the late Bal Thackeray, at a function on Sunday has led to speculation that the leader wants to return to the Shiv Sena and is currently sending feelers to the partys leaders.
5. Will Thackeray-Modi meeting improve BJP, Shiv Senas relationship?
Will Uddhav Thackeray and Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting improve the relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena? That is the question on everyones mind, especially as the Opposition parties have united against the BJP-led Maharashtra government.
Almost 8 lakh kg of sand has been illegally mined along a creek in Thane district, claim members of a local fishing community. The community pointed to alleged sand mining along a 12-km stretch from Ghodbunder Road to Kahler Creek Bridge.
According to the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB), the level of sand even after dredging or mining should not fall below 3m. A Navi Mumbai-based non-profit organisation, Shree Ekvira Aai Pratishthan (SEAP), however, filed a complaint with the state government on Sunday claiming the level has dropped by 8m. Sand mining is a major environmental concern that threatens the existence of more than 70% of the worlds beaches, according to the United Nations. It contributes to major land erosion, compromises water security and affects climate, experts said.
Illegal sand mining has destroyed the natural habitat across that stretch. I belong to the fishing community and am aware about the measures being taken to provide sand for construction purposes within the black market and it runs into crores of rupees, said Nandkumar Pawar, head, SEAP.
The violation has been going on for years in broad daylight, but owing to the lack of manpower in both the revenue department and the MMB, the cases are going undetected.
Officials from the Konkan divisional commissioners (KDC) office confirmed the number of sand mining violations have increased significantly in the past five years.
Between April 2016 and March 31, 2017, the KDC received Rs404 crore in the form of fines in criminal cases and royalty submitted for illegal sand mining, stone quarrying, river mining and beach sand mining.
The number clearly establishes that sand mining is a large-scale illegal industry in Maharashtra and the annual trend shows cases are only increasing, said Bhausaheb Dangade, Konkan deputy commissioner (revenue).
We are aware of the violations along Thane district and we will deploy a team of regional officers to survey the area, he said.
In 2014, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), western bench, had banned sand mining in coastal regions of many states, including Maharashtra, identifying it was harming the environment.
In 2016, the ban was lifted in Maharashtras coastal districts of Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Thane, after the state government promised the NGT it will ensure mining does not affect the environment.
However, various court orders, including the Bombay high court, Supreme Court and coastal regulation zone (CRZ) notifications make it clear sand mining using machines, under any circumstances, is completely prohibited across the country.
Read
Drop in catch forced 80K fisherfolk to pull out sand in Thane
Illegal sand mining continues in Raigad district
Illegal sand mining uprooted 25 trees at Nandgaon beach, says NGO
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On Monday, Congress leader Narayan Rane celebrated his 65th birthday. Rane, who was chief minister when the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government was in power in Maharashtra, is unhappy in the Congress. There are speculations that he may join the BJP or return to the Shiv Sena.
It is not just Rane; two other high-profile former Shiv Sena leaders, who defected to other parties, are also being talked about. First is Chhagan Bhujbal, who is now behind bars for a year in money laundering case. Second is Navi Mumbai strongman Ganesh Naik, who may quit the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Call it a coincidence, but all three former Sena rebels are in trouble or unhappy with their current situation. Significantly, all three of them came from modest backgrounds, started as grassroot workers, and climbed up the ladder. All three of them were ambitious and wanted to be chief minister.
While the two could not realise their dream, Rane went on to become chief minister in 1999. From his first post in Shiv Sena as shakha pramukh in Chembur becoming to chief minister, Ranes rise was phenomenal, especially considering the kind of background he came from. The Sena-BJP, however, lost power in 1999 and Rane became an opposition leader in the assembly. He even made an unsuccessful bid to pull down Congress-NCP government. Post-2004 assembly elections, when the saffron combine lost again, differences emerged between Rane and Uddhav Thackeray, who had by then started taking over the reins of the party. It led to Rane walking out of the Sena with a bunch of legislators, and joining the Congress. Ranes close aides say that he was promised chief ministership in the Congress, but had to remain content with a ministerial position. Even now, he is expecting the party leadership to give him charge of the party in Maharashtra in the run-up to the 2019 elections. He has already given indications that he will explore his options in the BJP or even consider returning to the Sena if the Congress leadership doesnt listen to him. He will prefer the Sena since the party is strong in coastal Konkan, which is his area of influence, but Uddhav Thackeray may not be keen to take him back. On the other hand, the BJP would be happy to get him on board to counter Sena in Konkan.
Chhagan Bhujbal came from a family of vegetable vendors. A fiery orator and a good organiser, he became Mayor of Mumbai and later Sena legislator from Byculla. As the Sena emerged as the main opposition party in the 1990 assembly elections, senior Thackeray chose Manohar Joshi for the post of Opposition leader in the assembly, which angered Bhujbal. He built bridges with then Congress chief minister Sharad Pawar, who scripted his defection with a bunch of Sena MLAs. Since then, Bhubjal remained a trusted aide of Pawar. He quit the Congress when Pawar formed the NCP. Pawar made him deputy chief minister as the Congress-NCP formed their first alliance government in 1999. He had to later resign following the Telgi scam, but he bounced back. He was made deputy chief minister again in 2009. With the emergence of Ajit Pawar, he was demoted as a minister. It was during his tenure as public works minister, Bhujbal got embroiled in a series of allegations which has now led to him being lodged behind the bars. As of now, things are not looking good for him.
For more than two decades, Ganesh Naik has been dominating the politics of Navi Mumbai. He was made a Shiv Sena group leader in the Assembly after Bhujbal defected to the Congress. A resourceful and influential leader, Naik was seen as a chief ministerial contender in the run up to 1995 elections. Naik aides allege that then chief minister Joshi ensured that Naiks wings were clipped. Even though he was made a minister, Naik was given less influential departments. Still, he called the shots in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. In 1998, he had differences with the Sena chief. He floated his separate outfit and contested the 1999 assembly polls but lost. He then joined the NCP and returned to state cabinet as a minster post 2004 elections. He remained a minister till 2014 and also retained his hold over Navi Mumbai civic body. However, things seem to be changing now. His close aides say he doesnt see any future with the NCP, and is exploring possibilities of joining the BJP or returning to the Sena.
What would have happened to their careers if they would have remained with the Sena? But then, politics is an unpredictable game.
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An irate mob of 20 people allegedly tried to set members of a police team on fire at Maharashtras Ambivli district on Friday.
The team, comprising an assistant police inspector, two sub-inspectors and seven constables, had gone to the village in search of a few people accused of chain snatching.
Senior police inspector GY Gore of the Khadakpada police said the locals poured kerosene on them and tried to burn them alive. The group then fled.
A case was lodged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, however, no arrests have been made yet, said the inspector.
The Bombay high court on Monday directed the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to shut down illegal pet shops at Crawford Market.
The court directed the government and the civic body to initiate steps to close down such shops and also to keep a strict eye to ensure that the shops do not reopen. It also said that if the court gets reports on non-compliance by BMC officials or senior police, it will initiate action against them.
A division bench led by the Chief Justice of Bombay high court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking punitive action against such pet shop owners on charges of cruelty to animals and illegal trade.
We want the assistant municipal commissioner of the concerned ward and the senior police inspector of the area to keep strict vigil and ensure that such illegal pet shops do not function. We also direct the undersecretary and secretary of Maharashtra state legal services authority to make surprise visits and submit a report along with photos, the court said.
The plea, filed by a social activist, seeks that such birds and animals be rescued and the traders be directed to shut shop immediately.
As per the plea, about 8,000 birds have been seized and rescued from Crawford Market over the past 20 years.
It claims that despite the Wildlife Protection Act that bans the trade and trapping of indigenous as well as endangered birds, a black market for such trade thrives openly in the Crawford Market area.
Such acts of animal cruelty and practice of illegal trade is in gross violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The animals are been kept in terrible conditions, cramped in small cages with inadequate food and water. Most of the animals are sick and suffers from contagious diseases which spread to the other animals due to the lack of medical treatment, the plea reads.
The high court is likely to take up the matter for further hearing in four weeks.
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Maharashtra cant order local bodies to shut meat shops, says Bombay high court
Bombay high court asks Maharashtra government to decide on dates for meat ban during festivals
Fear gripped a South Mumbai school after an unknown person allegedly entered the school premises in Dongri and molested a Class 1 student.
The police said the unidentified accused entered the premises on April 5 at around 2pm and picked up the six-year-old girl and took her to a toilet with his hand over her mouth.
An officer from Dongri police station said, The girl did not get a chance to raise an alarm because the accused instantly put his hand over her mouth after overpowering her. However, her three classmates, who were in the toilet at the same time, came to her rescue and screamed for help, after which the accused left the girl and ran away. Initially, the girls did not complain to anyone, but when they saw the same person in the school premises the next day, they informed their parents, the police said. The parents approached the Dongri police station on Friday after meeting with the faculty and principal.
An officer further added, The girls have said a person aged between 25 and 30 years would come to their school with a haversack on his back. Two girls say they remember the face of the accused, so we are investigating accordingly.
The police are also looking into how the schools security guard let an unknown person enter the premises.
They are also looking through the CCTV footage from inside the school premises.
Senior police inspector Nitin Bangale from Dongri police station said, We have registered a case.
The case has been registered under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code along with sections 8 and 12 under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012.
Need to increase CCTV cameras in schools, checks by beat marshals
After the Dongri police registered a case against an unidentified man who molested a Class 1 student on April 5, police said they plan to meet school authorities and security guards to prevent such offences from recurring.
We will hold a meeting on Monday to ascertain whether there is a need to increase the number of CCTV cameras inside the school. We will also discuss what precautions we need to take to avoid such incidents, said Nitin Bangale, senior inspector, Dongri police station.
However, experts said that unless CCTV cameras in the school are constantly monitored, they will be rendered useless.
Police also plan to increase the number of visits by beat marshals to various schools in the area.
Beat marshals visit schools regularly, but now we will increase the frequency of their visits, said an officer who did not wish to be identified.
We will mandate police visits to schools at the start and end of each day, he added.
Guards at schools should be issued clear security guidelines. Besides the school teachers and parents, no one should be allowed to enter the school premises. Male or peon females should be stationed inside school toilets at all times to ensure that the children are safe, said Dr Harish Shetty, senior psychiatrist at a city-based hospital.
We should treat children with the utmost care. In this case, the victim should have reported the incident to her parents on the day it occurred. However, keeping in mind that parents sometimes blame their children for such incidents, she did not speak up, said a police officer, who did not wish to be identified.
He said lessons on good and bad touch must be included in the curriculum.Students should be encouraged to file complaints whenever they are targeted, he added.
Read
Not only in school, children in Maharashtra unsafe at home too: UNICEF survey
Mumbai: Schools, drivers to be awarded for students safety in buses
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A 22-year-old man allegedly murdered his teenage girlfriend at Kalina, Santacruz (East) on Sunday after she refused his marriage proposal.
According to Vakola police, the victim, Sufiya Shaikh, 17, and the arrested accused Ambadas More, 22, lived in the same area. More, who works as a labourer, has been booked for murder, the police said.
The incident took place on Saturday around 8.15pm on a secluded road near the University of Mumbai.
The police said Shaikh had rejected Mores proposal recently. The two had then met on a secluded road near Mumbai University.
The police said around 8.15pm, the two were in the middle of an argument over Shaikhs mobile phone, when More, in a fit of rage, slashed her neck with a knife he had on him. He tried to run away but passersby caught him and handed him over to traffic police. Shaikh was declared dead at VN Desai Hospital, the police said.
Mumbai police spokesperson, DCP Ashok Dudhe said, Primary information is that they had been together for the past 10 months, but the girl refused to marry him.
Read
Woman stabbed to death, Mumbai cops suspect husbands role
Husband arrested for stabbing woman to death in auto-rickshaw in Mumbai
Driven by revenge, man stabs ex-wifes new husband to death in Mumbai
The Goregaon police detained a 36-year-old man and seized Rs3.40 lakh in fake Rs2,000 and Rs500 notes from him during a nakabandi on Saturday afternoon.
The traffic police and local police conducting the nakabandi stopped the man, who was heading to Jogeshwari in an autorickshaw, when they spotted the cash on the seat.
Investigations revealed that the man works in a light van used in film shoots. The fake notes were integral to the plot of a short film that was being shot in Kanjurmarg, said a police officer. After filming ended, the crew disposed of the notes in a dustbin. But, the accused picked them up. The police are questioning his motive for doing so.
We are interrogating the accused to find out why he picked up the notes and what he intended to do with them. The currency should have been destroyed after the shoot ended, said a police officer.
We seized 88 Rs2,000 notes and 332 Rs500 notes. We will also interrogate the people working on the set of the shoot, said a police officer investigating the case.
Read
Two arrested for trying to deposit 93,000 in fake notes at bank in Mumbai
Merchant held for depositing 11 fake 500 notes in Thane
A sessions court in Mumbai recently convicted a man and sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for possessing fake notes worth Rs6 lakh.
Murtuza Ali Shaikh, 36, was arrested on October 28, 2014, near Krishna Hotel on Nehru Road in Vile Parle (East), said police inspector PS Wavhal, head of Mumbai crime branch unit 8.
Shaikh was found carrying 600 Rs1,000 notes. The fake notes were as good as real ones. It is difficult for a layman to make out the differences between the two. We suspect that the notes were brought to the country via the Bangladesh border, said a police officer.
Shaikh was booked under section 489 B (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 15A, 16 and 17 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Judge VP Avhad sentenced him to concurrent sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment and seven years rigorous imprisonment under two sections. Shaikh must also pay a fine of Rs5,000.
Read
In Mumbai: Cops seize fake notes worth 3.40 lakh from 36-year-old man
Merchant held for depositing 11 fake 500 notes in Thane
We are all familiar with vending machines. From automatic ticket vending machines at railway stations, to coffee vending machines in offices, all of them reduce our dependence on others and save time. Now, a team of engineering students from Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering (CRCE) in Bandra have made a robotic vending machine that dispenses medicines in hospitals.
Medibot, as the device is called, is fed with medicines and it moves from one hospital bed to the next. The patients are provided with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags similar to the plastic tokens of Mumbai Metro that have the data about the quantity of medicines the patient has been prescribed. As soon as the patient scans his tag on the RFID reader on the robot, it dispenses the medicines.
Medibot was declared as the most innovative solution at an annual national level embedded systems and robotics competition held by Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) on Saturday. The competition, known as eYantra Ideas Competition is part of an IIT-B initiative to train engineering students in embedded systems the electronics at the heart of modern machines to help provide practical solutions for real world problems.
Under eYantra, several colleges in India are providing practical knowledge of embedded systems and robotics at dedicated laboratories. The students, including many from the city, are using this knowledge to come up with innovative projects.
For example, a group of students from Vivekanand Education Societys Institute of Technology have developed a kiosk that can provide assistance to travellers at airports in their mother tongue. The traveller just has to ask a question in a microphone like flights to Dubai or where is the washroom and the screen displays the necessary information. The kiosk uses 3D maps to make it more convenient for travellers to find their way around the airport.
The entire communication system at airports is in English. As a result, many people, who dont understand the language, often get lost . Our kiosk serves as a communication companion and makes people self-reliant, said Gresha Bhatia, a professor who guided the students.
Similarly, another team of students from Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology designed a robot that can find its way around the obstacles. The pre-programmed machine is capable of sensing an obstacle and finding the nearest path to the destination. Most of the industries use line follower robots, which move in a straight line and stop if theres an obstacle in the way. As a result they fail to deliver the goods on the designated spot. But our robots keeps looking for a path, even if it is surrounded by hurdles, said Kashif Arif Shaikh, one of the team members.
According to Kavi Arya, a professor at IIT-B and principal investigator of e-Yantra, these competitions help students gain practical knowledge about embedded systems while inspiring them to come up with original ideas for their engineering projects, instead of plagiarising existing projects or purchasing one from the market. Most engineering graduates are not knowledgeable. They are just trained to clear examination, he said.
At a time when the job market is shrinking for engineers, Arya suggests these projects can also morph into start-up ideas.
What is e-Yantra?
e-Yantra is an initiative by the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) that aims at creating the next generation of embedded systems engineered with an outlook to help provide solutions to some of the real world problems. The initiative started in 2012 and is sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
What does it have to offer?
e-Yantra Robotics Competition
e-Yantra Robotics Competition (eYRC) is an annual contest held for undergraduate students in science. Selected teams are given a robotic kit that has accessories and video tutorials to help them learn basic concepts in embedded systems and microcontroller programming. Abstracts of real world problems assigned as themes are then implemented by the teams using the robotic kits. In 2016, over 22,000 students across the country participated in the competition.
e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative
e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) is a college-level program, that focuses on encouraging colleges to setup robotics labs and guides them too. Three robotic kits are given to each participating college and a two-phased training is arranged for teachers. So far, eYantra labs have been set up in 233 engineering colleges around the country.
e-Yantra Ideas Competition
e-Yantra Ideas Competition (eYIC) solicits innovative projects from teams of eLSI colleges to ensure sustained use of the robotics labs. It aims at nurturing engineering projects embedded systems and robotics while providing a platform for teams to showcase their projects.
Studentspeak
I was always curious about electronic objects and wanted to utilise the technology for different purposes. Nowadays, automation has reached every industry and robots are being deployed everywhere.
Kashif Arif Shaikh, student
Teacherspeak
The students have become more confident and are coming with original ideas after participating in e-Yantra competitions. Many are looking to use their projects for their start-ups.
Saraswathi Krithivasan, project manager, e-Yantra
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A week after two engineering students were bludgeoned to death in Lonavla, investigators said they have not been able to make headway in the case, despite interrogating more than 200 suspects.
According to officials, investigators have interrogated suspects in other cases and criminals on record. However, they have been let off.
No breakthrough so far. The investigation is ongoing, Pune superintendent of police Suvez Haq told Hindustan Times through a text message.
Senior police officials said eight teams were formed to probe the double murder that rattled residents of the tranquil hill station last Monday. Police are in the process of tracing the victims mobiles phones, which were stolen from the site of the murder.
The bodies of Sarthak Wakchoure, 22, and Shruti Dumbre, 21, were found on April 3. Both were naked and had their hands tied behind their backs. They were bludgeoned to death with a blunt object. Police officials said injury marks were found on girls body. The preliminary post-mortem report did not indicate sexual assault.
Sarthak and Shruti were final-year students of Sinhgad Engineering College, Lonavla. Sarthak, a resident of Rahuri in Ahmednagar, was studying mechanical engineering. Shruti, who is from Otur in Pune, was pursuing a course in computer engineering.
According to Shrutis friend, Sarthak and she had planned the outing. Shruti, who lived in the campus hostel, had told her friends that she was going out and would return late. We waited till it was late before finally informing the college authorities when Shruti did not return, said a friend, who did not wish to be named.
Police said a bike belonging to one of the victims was lying at the spot where the bodies were found.
Officials said they were investigating several potential angles, but suspect that the motive behind the murder was robbery. On Saturday, the victims parents met senior police officials and demanded that the culprits be apprehended soon. Sarthaks parents alleged that the victims were killed by hardened criminals.
Sarthaks friend said the victim was an artist, who aspired to serve the country by joining the defense forces. Sarthak always wanted to join the Indian Army. Deep down, however, he was an artist who shot two documentaries, said his friend Shubham Pandit.
Shruti was the most educated person in her family and was to soon be employed at IT giant Accenture, in Pune.
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Maharashtra: Cops suspect more than one person involved in murder of 2 students at Lonavla
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Giving into the demand made by transport vehicle owners, the state government last week scrapped the daily penalty it levied for delay in renewing expired fitness certificates.
For the past three months, owners of commercial vehicles [with yellow number plates] were paying double penalties daily one levied by the state and another by the Centre for their failure to renew expired certificates within the stipulated time.
Starting September 26, 2016, the state had been collecting a fine of Rs100 from taxis and auto-rickshaw owners and Rs 200 from owners of other transport vehicles such as trucks, tempos, buses and tankers for failing to renew fitness certificates within 15 days after expiry. However, the Centre too has been levying a daily fine of Rs50 for the same since the beginning of 2017.
Commenting on the states decision to withdraw the daily penalty, a senior official from transport department said, First, we imposed the penalty. Then it was the Centre. As it didnt make sense to impose a double fine for same offence, the state revoked its penalty.
Another source in the transport department said that Pune-based activist Shrikant Karve had also brought the issue of double penalty to the notice of the Bombay high court by filing a civil application.
Initially, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA) had imposed a hefty fine for delay in renewing certificates. The decision as was taken to curb accidents. The MMRTA had levied a fine of Rs 500 on autos and taxis owners for failing to renew fitness certificates for their vehicles within 10 days of expiry, followed by a daily fine of Rs50 until renewal. Similarly, the fine for other vehicles was Rs1,000 for first 10 days and Rs100 per day thereafter. However, the amount was reduced.
Moreover, to achieve uniformity while imposing penalty for delay in renewing fitness certificates, the state amended section 86(5) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, last September.
Dayanand Natkar, leader of Maharashtra Truck Tempo Bus Tanker Vahatuk Mahasangh, welcomed the states decision, but claimed that the governments misinterpreted the law while imposing fines.
How can both the governments impose daily penalties when the registration of a vehicle gets cancelled if its owner fails to renew the fitness certificate within the stipulated time? he said.
Also read: Transport unions in Mumbai oppose Centres hike in licence fee
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A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court on Monday convicted a man of raping his partners 15-year-old daughter, who is battling AIDS.
The survivor had been living with the man since her mothers death. The convict also has AIDS, the court was told. The man not only abused the girl, but also forced her to implicate two young men in the case. He was sentenced to life in prison.
After the mothers death, the convict would make the survivor work in other peoples homes and take the money she earned. In her deposition, the survivor said she was originally from Nashik, where she lived with her parents and a brother. She said both her parents had AIDS and that she was diagnosed with the illness at birth. The girl said her father, who was being treated for AIDS at JJ Hospital, died in 2003, after which her mother was forced to leave the house.
She soon started living with the convict. The girl said the convict would beat her mother, stay with them for a while and with his own family at other times. The girl said her mothers health deteriorated as her partner would assault her often. She died in December 2012. The girl said she was raped on May 11, 2013, when the mans family had gone to Gujarat .
She said she was sexually assaulted on several occasion after that. When her condition began to get worse, the convict made her register a rape case against two young men from the neighbourhood.
She said he threatened her and was always with her during the probe.
It was only later, when the girl was taken to hospital and was approached by the police officers that she narrated the true story.
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Man arrested for allegedly raping minor daughter in Mumbai
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Congress leader Narayan Ranes speech in praise of Shiv Sena founder, the late Bal Thackeray, at a function on Sunday has led to speculation that the leader wants to return to the Shiv Sena and is currently sending feelers to the partys leaders.
Speaking at his 65th birthday celebration, Rane said he owes his political achievements to Thackeray.
No one displayed the trust in me that Bal did. No matter which party I work for, I will always hold him in high regard, said the senior Congress leader. Bal has made me the person I am today, he added.
Rane said Thackeray prompted him to contest the assembly polls when he was thinking of running for the post of Mumbai mayor. He added that this incident changed his life.
His statement is being seen as an indicator that he wants to rejoin the Shiv Sena. For the past few weeks, there have been speculations that Rane has reached out to leaders of both ruling parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena.
While the BJP has shown a willingness to take him on-board, it is the Sena which has not responded positively. Sources said Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who Rane had targeted when he quit the party in 2005, is not keen to take him back.
Ranes area of influence is the Konkan , where he faces threats from the Shiv Sena, which has become aggressive in the states coastal region. Rane lost the 2014 assembly polls, while his elder son Nilesh lost the lok sabha polls from Konkan. His younger son is a sitting MLA from the region.
Rane, once an ordinary party worker, rose through the ranks and was made chief minister of the Sena-BJP government in 1999 by Bal Thackeray. He became the Opposition leader after the saffron allies lost power in the same year. Rane later quit the Shiv Sena to join the Congress, taking a chunk of the partys MLAs with him. He later launched a vicious campaign against the Thackerays.
Rane remained a minister in successive Congress governments till 2014. Ironically, he had even targeted Congress leaders in 2008, when he was not given the chief ministers post after Vilasrao Deshmukh resigned in the wake of the 26/11 terror attack.
Earlier this year, Rane came under the scanner of the enforcement directorate, which is investigating how a prominent builder funded the construction of a luxury skyscraper in south central Mumbai. BJP MP Kirit Somaiya made several allegations against Rane and demanded a probe into his assets.
Meanwhile, senior BJP minister Nitin Gadkari also lauded the senior Congress leader. We have worked together as Opposition leaders. Despite not coming from a political background, Rane has made a name for himself in Mumbai. He is a self-made man in state politics, the Union transport minister said at Ranes birthday celebration.
Rane has proved that his leadership goes beyond a particular political party. The states politics would have gone a different route had he had not quit the Shiv Sena, Gadkari said.
For past few days, Rane has been publicly criticising the state Congress leadership, following the partys defeat in the municipal and district council polls in Maharashtra. His elder son and former MP Nilesh resigned from the party and is currently campaigning for Ashok Chavan to be ousted as state Congress chief.
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Friendship with Nitin Gadkari is holy: Narayan Rane
I wont join BJP or quit Congress: Narayan Rane
Shift in loyalties? Congress Narayan Rane to meet BJP leaders in Delhi
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A 50-year-old physician working at a civic-run hospital died in a railway accident at Panvel on Saturday.
The police said Manoj Kulkarni, a Pune resident, worked at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital, which is run by the Thane Municipal Corporation. He was travelling from Pune to Thane by a Nanded-Panvel train. As the train entered Panvel railway station, he alighted in a haste, lost his balance and fell in the gap between the train and the platform, said Arun Kamble, assistant sub-inspector, Panvel government railway police (GRP).
Kulkarni was travelling alone, he added.
The physician suffered severe injuries on his head. His hands and legs were severed in the accident. The Panvel GRP rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he died.
We recovered his Aadhaar card and the phone numbers of his family members from his pocket. We contacted his brother, who lives in Nashik, and informed him about the accident. He reached Panvel that night and identified the body, he said.
The police delivered Kulkarnis body to his family after a post-mortem was conducted at Panvel Rural Hospital. Police said the postmortem report is awaited.They have registered a case of accidental death.
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Mumbai: 13-year-old killed after being run over by speeding train
Crossing tracks led to 1,798 of 3,202 train fatalities in Mumbai in 2016
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If you are planning to travel along the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) today, dont. Motorists have complained of severe traffic snarls along the highway owing to ongoing repairs.
Traffic officials said the Amar Mahal junction will be shut for traffic for a few days as it has sustained damage over time and is undergoing routine repairs.
As of now, traffic along the north-bound stretch of the highway is reportedly moving at a slow pace.
As the Amar Mahal junction flyover has sustained damage, it would be dangerous to allow vehicles ply on it. Taking the risk factor into consideration, the route from Mumbai to Thane has been shut for traffic,reads a circular issued by the Mumbai traffic police.
Traffic officials recommend that motorists use the Wadala freeway towards Chheda Nagar, Kurla Dairy- Santacruz Chembur Link Road towards Chheda Nagar, Suman Nagar junction to Chembur junction via Mankhurd towards Chheda Nagar, Chembur junction via Govandi towards Chheda Nagar. Motorists can also use the Sion Dharavi route to LBS Marg in Ghatkopar and head on the Andheri Link Road for a snarl-free journey.
Currently, personnel from the Mumbai traffic police are at Amar Mahal junction, trying to keep the traffic moving along the north-bound stretch.
The traffic build-up can be attributed to this being the first working day of the week. We are making efforts to keep the vehicles moving, said a traffic official from Mumbai traffic police headquarters.
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The city reported its 46th heart transplant by giving a new lease of life to a foreign national on Monday.
A 27-year-old Ukrainian model received the heart of a 22-year-old banker from Gujarat whose family pledged six of his organs after he was declared brain-dead.
This was a first case of a foreign national getting a heart transplant in the city.
The recipient was suffering from postpartum dilated cardiomyopathy and had been on the waitlist for the past two days.
Postpartum dilated cardiomyopathy is an uncommon form of heart failure that happens during the last month of pregnancy or up to five months after giving birth.
The disorder has a high mortality rate.
The Surat man was declared brain-dead after a road accident.
Founder and president of NGO Donate Life Nilesh Mandlewala counselled his family who then agreed to donate his heart, liver, pancreas, corneas and kidneys.
The harvested heart began its journey from Unity Hospital, Surat, at 9.30am on Monday.
The heart was brought in a charter flight, which took off from Surat at 9.57am and landed in Mumbai at 10.30am. The ambulance reached Fortis Hospital, Mulund, at 11.32am covering a distance of 317km in one hour and 32 minutes.
The coordination between traffic personnel and the police of both cities helped in transporting the heart smoothly.
The donors family has saved and enriched lives of seven recipients through their young son, said Dr Anvay Mulay, head of cardiac transplant team, Fortis Hospital, who performed the transplant surgery.
Saying that the patient was stable, Mulay added, We will continue to monitor her in the ICU for the next 48 to 72 hours.
Talking about the surgery, Dr S Narayani, zonal director, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, said, We extend our appreciation to the donors family. It is because of them that our clinicians have managed to save this young woman.
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Looking to expand its base in Maharashtra, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) admitted trade union leader Shashank Rao into the party on Monday.
Kumar will be addressing a public meeting on April 22 in Mumbai, announcing the partys arrival in Maharashtra. In the meeting, Kumar is expected to present himself as someone who has the might to take on the BJP, after his high profile victory in the Bihar assembly polls. With both Congress and NCP currently demoralised, the JD(U) plans to present itself as an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) and the Shiv Sena.
Son of late union leader Sharad Rao, Shashank heads the unions of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST), hawkers, and taxis and autorickshaws.In recent times, Shashank had organised taxi and autorickshaw strikes, and was able to extract benefits for the drivers.
According to Shashank, who quit the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to join the JD(U), it was a sort of homecoming. I have been brought up with a socialist ideology, and veteran socialist leaders like George Fernandes have always been a part of our family, said Shashank. We will utilise all our union strength to build up the party in the state, he added.
Teachers union leader, Kapil Patil, who is currently heading the party in the state, said that Nitish Kumar will be the mascot of the party and JD(U) will spread itself across the state in the next two years. Currently, our focus is to build a strong organisation and present ourselves as an alternative to the BJP-Sena government. We have a Bihar model in front of us, where along with development, there is no discrimination, and progress is for all, said Patil.
However, political analysts doubt the impact of JD(U) in the states complex political tangle. Nitish Kumar may be admired in Maharashtra for his administrative skills, but he doesnt have the appeal to translate this into votes, said eminent political commentator Prakash Bal. In recent times, Maharashtra witnessed a four cornered fight, and JD (U) will only get lost in this chaos, he added.
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Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will attend the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the presidential elections in July this year.
A senior Sena functionary confirmed that Uddhav and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray were going for the meeting. Uddhavji will leave for Delhi around 1pm. He will be accompanied by Aaditya, he said.
With Sena being an NDA partner, Thackeray was invited for the meet to be chaired by the PM at Pravasi Bharatiya Bhavan in Delhi on Monday.
The Sena has declared its support for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat for president.
The party said the NDA should consider Bhagwats name for the post if the dream of a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) has to be fulfilled. This had led the RSS chief to clarify that he is not in the race.
A separate meeting between the PM and the Sena chief is also likely to take place, the sources claimed.
This will be significant to both the BJP and the Sena because the parties have a strained relationship in Maharashtra.
The allies have been at loggerheads since the 2014 Assembly elections. The relationship has been getting worse even though the parties run the state together. Both parties independently fought the recent BMC elections.
Thackeray had said not only the citys mayor, but even the states CM will be from his party. The allies in the state also refused to join hands in the BMC to form the body after polls.
The constant bickering also gave rise to rumours that the Sena will pull out of the state government ahead of the BMC election. The Sena further cornered its ally in the state legislature by teaming up with the Opposition in the ongoing budget session over the issue of a complete loan waiver to farmers.
BJP leaders are now hoping that the Modi-Uddhav meet will improve the relations.
Read
Modi-Uddhav meet likely; BJP, Shiv Sena reset relations?
Mohan Bhagwat as President will fulfil Hindu-rashtra dream: Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena wants NDA to consider RSS chief Bhagwat as President of India
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Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is promoting its Hindutva ideology by holding 5,000 rallies across India, including several across Maharashtra, and seeking support for the contentious Ram temple issue.
The right wing outfit, which spearheaded several agitations for construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya in the 80s and 90s, thinks this is the right time to give the issue an impetus. The outfit, which recently held three meetings in Thane, Mumbai and Ulhasnagar in the last two days, has claimed to have received an unexpectedly overwhelming response and said that it will keep up the tempo until it achieves its goal.
I think Yogi and Modi is a rare combination, which will never happen again. We have been demanding an amendment to the law to ensure that a temple is built on the disputed land. An amicable solution between Hindu organisations and representatives from the Muslim community seems impossible. Also, the Supreme Courts decision [out of court settlement] could be challenged by the losing side. Hence, we are seeking governments intervention, said Surendra Jain, joint general secretary, VHP.
He added, We must realise that the country is entering a saffron era, with overwhelming support from the youth. With our ideology finding support at the Centre, we expect the actual construction work for the temple will begin in the next one year.
According to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources, almost all organisations affiliated with the RSS and other right wing organisations have become active of late. By installing Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP and the RSS have sent out a message which has been perceived positively by those adhering by the Hindutva ideology. Youth from across India is supporting the cause, said a BJP leader.
However, political pundits said that neither the BJP nor the RSS is interested in building the temple and are just trying to gain political mileage by raking up the issue every now and then.
If the BJP government is serious about the temple, then what has stopped it from building it? Why are they resorting to the street fights over the issue? They are only milking it for their political benefit, said journalist and political analyst Dnyanesh Maharav.
Seconding his opinion, another analyst Prakash Bal said that Ram temple has always been the pet project of the right wing organisations. They have been stressing on its for the past 75 years. Sangh has been strategically making its moves and Ram temple is its perfect example. Though political parties have been into the discourse of secularism, they never realised that the Indian society has a religious bend of mind, he said.
Also read: VHP conducts first rally on Ram temple at Thane
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Will Uddhav Thackeray and Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting improve the relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena? That is the question on everyones mind, especially as the Opposition parties have united against the BJP-led Maharashtra government.
Thackeray will meet Modi at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting convened ahead of the presidential elections slated for July this year. As an NDA partner, Thackeray was invited for the meet to be chaired by the PM at Pravasi Bhartiya Bhavan in Delhi on Monday evening.
Sources said a separate meeting between the PM and the Shiv Sena chief is also likely to happen. Such a meeting would be significant for both parties, which currently have a strained relationship in Maharashtra.
BJP leaders now hope that the Modi-Thackeray meet will improve relations between the two parties.
The Sangharsh Yatra (struggle march) organised by Opposition parties demanding a loan waiver for distressed farmers is being seen as an indicator that the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are undertaking efforts to build a Bihar-type broad Opposition coalition to counter the BJP.
This has become a cause for concern for the BJP, which had not taken Opposition parties seriously earlier, owing to its back-to-back wins in the elections held over the past two years, said sources.
The other Opposition parties that are part of the agitation are Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (S) and Republican Party of India (Kawade faction).
The BJP and Shiv Sena have been at loggerheads since the 2014 Assembly elections. Though the parties run the state government together, their relationship has become increasingly strained. Both parties fought the recent Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections independently, launching attacks and counter-attacks at each other. Thackeray made frequent announcements that not only the citys mayor, but even the states chief minister would be from his party. The two parties refused to join hands in the BMC to form the body after the polls.
The constant bickering also gave rise to rumours that the Shiv Sena would pull out of the state government ahead of the BMC polls.
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Uddhav Thackeray to attend NDA meet called by PM Modi today
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Following a surprise inspection of MMG Hospital on Monday, the district magistrate recommended the suspension of two doctors who were found prescribing medicines that were not available at the hospital.
District magistrate Nidhi Kesarwani, while carrying out a detailed inspection of the hospital, found that some of the medicines prescribed by two doctors could be procured only outside the hospital.
We have written to the state department for suspending the two doctors. In another irregularity, certain medicines, including reagents in labs, were not available as the indents were found to be held. So, we have recommended that the salary of the chief medical officer be withheld and an explanation sought in the matter, she said.
While inspecting the community health centre in Dasna on Monday morning, the district administration officials found that the relatives of patients were allegedly forced to pay bribes for getting the free delivery done at the government facility.
Officials had received complaints from the relatives of patients that deliveries were not conducted until they greased the palms of the staff.
I had to pay Rs700 when my sister-in-law was in labour. When I had countered them saying that we should not be charged, the staff told us to go to another hospital. Finally, I paid up and also complained to the officials about the issue, Shabana Khatoon of Dabarsi said.
Sagiran, of ward 3 in Dasna, had to pay a total of Rs750 to the staff for delivering her grandchild.
The staff took Rs 600 for taking up delivery. Since my daughter-in-law was at a critical stage of labour, I didnt want to get into an altercation and paid them. After the child was born, they asked for more money to hand over the child to the mother. I had to pay Rs150 again. When the officials arrived, I complained to them about the bribe, she said.
Atul Kumar, the subdivisional magistrate, said he came to know about the issue during an inspection. I have sent a report to the district magistrate and the chief medical officer about the malpractice prevalent at the facility. There are no charges for deliveries but the relatives of the patients complained during an inspection that they had to pay money for deliveries. Officials concerned will take action in this issue; staff may be suspended as the minimum action, Kumar said.
The district forest department has registered a case against authorities of Delhi Public School Ghaziabad, Meerut Road, for allegedly cutting nearly 40 trees.
After some students of the school informed environment activists about the alleged felling of trees, the activists, along with officials from the forest department, conducted an inspection in the premises on Monday and found that trees were cut. They suspected the incident to have probably taken place last month.
We have registered a case against the school officials, including their horticulture in-charge, under the provisions of the Tree Protection Act, 1976. The trees that have been cut included varieties like weeping fig, peepal, banyan and pilkhan, among others, said Asif Shehzad, range forest officer, Ghaziabad.
Now, we will send them a notice and the offence can be compounded by paying up a penalty amount. If they dont appear, a charge sheet will be filed and the case will be sent to court. The school officials did not approach the forest department before cutting the trees. Last week, we also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on authorities of the same school after a langoor was found at their premises, he said.
School principal Jyoti Gupta said, No trees have fallen. The matter is about trimming of ficus trees. We have only trimmed for beautification. No trees have been cut.
Information about the trees being cut inside the school was provided by school students. They were upset about the grown up trees being felled. When we inspected the site, some trees were found cut by half. It seems that the alleged cutting of trees was done last month or sometime back, said Ruchin Mehra, an environment activist from Raj Nagar Extension.
After the Surajpur court summoned 20 farmers of Bhatta-Parsaul in connection with the 2011 violence, Jewar member of legislative assembly Dhirendra Singh said he will approach the chief minister on the behalf of farmers to seek his intervention in the issue.
A group of farmers had protested against the summons in front of the district magistrates office on Monday morning. If the farmers refuse to appear before the court, their properties will be seized according to the law.
I have assured the farmers that I am with them in this fight. This was not a violent incident but a revolution by the farmers, who were protesting for their rights. I will approach CM Yogi Adityanath for his intervention, Singh said.
Bhatta and Parsaul, two hamlets of Gautam Budh Nagar, were engulfed in sporadic violence in 2011 when the then Mayawati-led government had attempted to seize farmers lands for setting up special economic zones in the area. At least two policemen and two farmers were killed, and the then district magistrate had suffered bullet injuries in the violence that ensued.
The police had booked 32 farmers for violence against state officials and police personnel under IPC sections 147, 148, 149, 153, 302, 307, 336 and 332.
Singh, a Congress activist in 2011, had shot into the spotlight after he ferried Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on his motorcycle to the two villages. Singh switched to Bharatiya Janata Party and won the Jewar assembly seat by defeating three-time MLA Vedram Bhati of Bahujan Samaj Party in the recent elections.
With the BJP government in the Centre and state, the pressure on Singh has increased in the wake of courts order as he had catapulted himself into the national political arena in the backdrop of the Bhatta-Parsaul agitation.
The accused, farmers, had blamed Akhilesh Yadavs government of inaction on the issue. However, Singh is confident that his party wont betray the farmers.
BJP has always been a pro-farmer party and the protest took place as the farmers were suppressed by the government then. I am collecting the land-related documents of all the farmers concerned and will then head to Lucknow to plead their case with Yogi, Singh said.
In the wake of continued agitation by a group of parents against fee hike by schools, the city magistrate has issued a notice to all private schools in the district asking them to not take disciplinary action against students whose parents have not paid hiked fee.
Parents who have been protesting against fee hike by private schools have been assured that their children wont suffer due to their agitation. We are issuing a notice to all private schools, asking them to not take disciplinary action against students whose parents who have not paid the fees, till an order is issued by the state government, Ramanujan Singh, city magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.
Dozens of parents went on a silent march to the collectorate on Sunday demanding state intervention into the tussle between them and private schools.
For the last two weeks, various parents groups had been protesting against fee hike by private schools in the district. Many parents had refused to pay the hiked fee and alleged that the hike was unjustified.
The protest intensified after Delhi Public School, Gautam Budh Nagar, struck off names of 45 students from the school rolls.
However, in the light of recent development, 40 students have been readmitted to DPS after their parents agreed to pay the fee later.
Taking cognizance of the matter, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had held a meeting with the officials of the state education department and the possibility of introducing a regulatory body for private schools was discussed.
Following the city magistrates order, parents are now hopeful that the fee will be rolled back.
Singh had assured us that the district administration wont let the kids suffer due to the tussle between the parents and school bodies. We welcome this step as it will guarantee that children will no longer be targeted, Niti Srivastava, a parent, said.
Parents are hopeful that schools will not stoop to punishing children for protesting the fee hike.
We have always insisted on proper dialogue between schools and protesting parents. Children shouldnt have been targeted in the first place, Srivastava said.
DPS principal Indira Kohli said that the school has readmitted 40 students who names were earlier struck off the rolls. As many as 40 students have been recalled and their classes have resumed. We are in talks with the rest of the parents about sending their children back to us. No disciplinary action will be taken against the students, said Kohli
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Mehbooba Mufti, chief minister of the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, has made a huge political statement by calling for the cancellation of the election in Anantnag on April 12. It is a seat she vacated as Member of Parliament and her brother, Tasaduq Mufti, is the PDP candidate.
Mehboobas call comes on the heels of the violent bypoll in Srinagar where eight were killed and only 7% cast their vote. The meagre turnout, by no means, reflects a popular mandate and many would argue that the Srinagar election should be declared null and void, for the winner with a little over 3.5% of the vote is clearly not the peoples representative.
If Anantnag votes as it is slated to in less than 48 hours the percentage could even be lower because it falls in South Kashmir, the region which was rocked with unprecedented protests in July last year after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani. South Kashmir is was would be more appropriate the PDPs stronghold and a single-digit voter turnout would be a direct referendum on Mehboobas legitimacy as chief minister.
The large scale protests on Sunday can be interpreted as a rejection of the democratic process by the Kashmiris. To be more precise, it is a rejection of mainstream politics, including of the National Conference (NC), which once towered over the state through its founder, Sheikh Abdullah and subsequently through Farooq Abdullah, who was in the fray in the bypoll.
Disturbed by the violence, Farooq at one point, while blaming Mehbooba for not providing security and creating a conducive environment, said, many NC workers were unable to come out and vote.
The frightening away of party cadre which could well be repeated in Anantnag is a serious development. The village-level worker is the best political thermometer and officials in Srinagar who do not wish to be named reveal that the workers did not want to come out in defiance of the boycott call issued by the separatists. They did not want to be marked and so, preferred to lie under.
Former chief minister, Omar Abdullah, tweeted to say that hed contested six elections in 20 years but never seen this level of violence. Hes not completely off the mark.
In the 2014 assembly election, people came out in large numbers to vote. At 66%, the state recorded the highest turnout in 25 years. Sundays 7.14% (revised from 6.5%) was the lowest in 30 years. The level of violence in 2014 too stayed low and people especially in the Valley came out in larger numbers in response to Mehboobas call to keep the BJP from crossing Banihal, the tunnel that connects Jammu with Kashmir.
Does Mehboobas coming to power through the alliance with the party she wanted kept out, have anything to do with the current cycle of violence? The answer can only be yes. The alliance is seen as unholy and the protests which are showing no signs of abating since July 2016 are direct fallout of what the Kashmiris view as a deep betrayal.
Successive governments in New Delhi have interpreted large turnouts like the one in 2014 as a sign of normalcy; as Kashmiris embracing India. Will the government now analyse the 7.14% as a rejection of anything Indian?
Whatever their final analysis, Mehbooba by asking for a postponement to the Anantnag election has only admitted that the ground situation is beyond the control of her government.
She was certainly not in control when Srinagar polled.
The Srinagar election has put a huge question mark on the democratic process and the separatists who may not represent all protestors must certainly be feeling chuffed.
This is precisely the time for a serious rethink on Kashmir. It is the clearest wake-up call for the Narendra Modi-led government.
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Apparently theres a conspiracy afoot in the international media to defame the glorious land of India. Hacks in elite English media just want to talk about the rise of Hindu extremism and the increased number of murders being committed against people from the minority communities on the suspicion of beef eating and cow smuggling. Also, these foreigners seem to hate when we democratically elect Hindu hardliners to positions of authority, writing editorials about the perilous embrace of Hindu extremists like the New York Times did.
To rectify this mudslinging on the nation, the Prasar Bharati is considering establishing a Goebbelsian propaganda apparatus in the form of a digital channel to tell the India story to challenge the anti-India narrative in foreign media. This will presumably enable us to put out alternative narratives about the many great things that are happening in the country that are not about Hindu terrorists. It will not be, for instance, about racist attacks on black students living in Greater Noida or the fact that the voter turnout in a Kashmir by-election was only 6%.
An initial estimate puts the cost of this new digital channel at over Rs 75 crore, and it is pegged to be Indias answer to foreign news media channels such as the BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. Prasar Bharti chairman A Surya Prakash has been quoted as saying, We must begin to see the world through an Indian lens. We need a digital platform that will help us find our place among major news channels of the world, which have their own agenda, an agenda to malign us, obviously.
A different answer to international criticism of the cow problem plaguing India at the moment could have been to actually do something about the spate of violence that we have seen in recent times by gau rakshaks; and invest a fraction of the Rs 75 crore earmarked for propaganda in enforcing the law and putting the fear of the Constitution into these violent mobs masquerading as protectors of Hinduism.
But the Prasar Bharati obviously believes that nothing is going to be done to assuage the increasing insecurity among minorities by the governments in the states or the Centre. Because if there could be stories of strong government action against Hindutva hooligans, there would be no need for pushing alternative narratives.
This seeming need to be constantly patted on the head by the international media betrays an insecurity that cannot be resolved by putting out propaganda. For a country plagued by fundamental problems such as poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, a terrible education system, deep rooted caste problems, and an increasingly communalised public discourse to invest a substantial amount of money to seek international media approval for being a diverse and vibrant democracy is a problematic move.
As the largest public broadcasting agency in India, the Prasar Bharti would do better to focus on awareness campaigns within India for better sanitation, healthcare, and rural issues; than as an Indian government propaganda machine for the English-speaking western world.
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The mass revolt against the by-election process, in which at least eight persons were killed by security forces on Sunday, gave another distressing glimpse of how far removed from the ground reality intelligence agencies are not to speak of the political class in Kashmir. A tour through the most sensitive areas in south Kashmir last week revealed that it was common knowledge that the elections would trigger revolt and violence. Yet, politicians were building castles in the air. And former J&K chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who should have had a sense of the pulse, played with fire.
It is time our rulers realise that the stage is getting set in Kashmir for hostilities more intense than any since early November 1947 when tribesmen from Pakistan were pushed back from Srinagar. The worrying fact is that current tactics are more sophisticated than those tribesmens. The heavy casualties that resulted last month when the army was lured into a trap with false information gave a glimpse of a multi-pronged strategy. Worse could lie ahead, for group messaging services have urged young people to use apps to inform militants about security forces movements.
Warnings to local policemen since 2015, to resign or at least take desk jobs, are now being followed through; some policemens homes were recently trashed. This trend could at some point have a major impact on the morale of the police force. The contours of a psychological war are emerging.
Grassroots political activists too have been targeted. The recent discovery of the tortured body of a former panch, who had been an enthusiastic public activist, terrified many Kashmiri officers. They fear that the arena of politics has become a death trap. Although the majority in Kashmir still do not want the new militancy to escalate, such targeting of those whom terrorists label as `collaborators will coerce co-option.
The most challenging current pattern is the rallying of neighbourhoods to defend militants during their encounters with soldiers - and stone-pelting to prevent army cordons. The trend was bound to push the army to fire at those crowds. That first happened on 14 February 2016, a year after this pattern emerged. Firing has now become more common.
Geographically, the most significant new pattern is a shift to the outback. Kupwara district, for instance, has become a hotbed of unrest over the past year. Apart from the Lolab area, Kupwara during the 1990s was rarely more than a route through which militants infiltrated, or Kashmiri youth crossed the Line of Control for training.
South Kashmir is the new centre of militancy. Newa, for instance, in the north of Pulwama district, was over the past few years the base for such key militants as the Pakistani Abu Qasim - whose body two villages sought for burial, and whose funeral tens of thousands of truculent youth from three districts attended in November 2015.
The unrest that followed the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani was centred in such hamlets and villages, rather than cities. In fact, as spring brings the promise of a new season of earnings and education, many residents of Srinagar are resisting calls for shutdowns. Some even abuse the `leaders in whose names these are called. Traditional hotbeds of militancy such as Sopore and Shopian too are relatively quiet. But, ironically, these cities now seem marginal.
During the post-Burhan uprising, a complex set of nodes was established to decentralise command and control. Local leaders of Hurriyat outfits took control of many areas. In some, activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami did. The command abilities of all these having been tested, many of them will call the shots this year too - coordinated by whichever shadowy figures are in charge overall.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are not. They have become masks of leadership. A key part of the unfolding strategy was to force the publicly acknowledged faces of the freedom struggle to `unite. After prolonged and intense pressure from Pakistan, this was achieved a little before Burhan was killed. That closed the door for negotiations - as a delegation of MPs discovered last September.
Other kinds of unity were brought into place during the post-Burhan uprising. In many places, Ahle-Hadith, Jamaat-e-Islami, `Barelvi and other sects began to pray together. In the chief ministers native Bijbehara, for instance, these various sects jointly took over the towns Jamia mosque, ousting the Imam whose family had presided over that mosque for four generations with patronage from the state establishment. Some of these sects have mushroomed over the past decade. Their rivalries could have stymied the current mobilisation, but have effectively been put on hold.
Even more striking is the united functioning of militant groups, mainly the Jamaat-e-Islami-affiliated Hizb-ul Mujahideen and Hafiz Sayeeds Lashkar-e-Toiba. Not only do they operate jointly, both now seem to have local as well as foreign militants - generally in a 2:1 ratio.
Predictably, locking up thousands of youth last September has not helped. Scores of fresh youth in south Kashmir have taken up arms since Burhan was killed. Many of them, even `commanders, are teenagers. Many more would join their ranks if an adequate supply of arms became available.
The die is now cast. The government seems to have frittered away the opportunity to develop effective counter-strategies during the pause this winter. Like a robot, it is shuffling into the cul de sac of having to use heavy duty tactical options. This is a dangerous turn of events.
David Devadas is a senior journalist based in Kashmir. The views expressed are personal.
Student protests resumed at Panjab University demanding the roll back of tuition fee hike on Monday. Panjab University campus students council took out a march to hand over a memorandum to Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore but were not allowed to go outside the varsity.
PU students council campus president Nishant Kaushal and general secretary Ashiq Mohammad were taken into preventive custody by the police along with other student leaders.
PU students council campus president Nishant Kaushal and general secretary Ashiq Mohammad were taken into preventive custody by the police along with other student leaders. (HT Photo)
Meanwhile, Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP) student body protested outside V-C office and tried to break police cordon. In the struggle, organising secretary Kushal Koundal received minor injuries.
ABVP protesters charged at the police cordon multiple times but failed at breaking it. As a symbolic protest, they locked one of the gates to V-C office.
Another protest was carried out by members of Students for Society (SFS), Students Organization of India (SOI) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) at the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Sector 25. Students also burnt an effigy of vice-chancellor prof Arun Kumar Grover.
Read more | Video: Protesters gatecrash V-C office, student bodies call for bandh in Panjab University
Earlier, student bodies had called for bandh in PU on April 11.
The United States stepped up pressure on Russia to rein in the Syrian regime, warning that any further chemical attacks would be very damaging to their relationship and suggesting there can be no peace while President Bashar al-Assad remains in power.
US President Donald Trumps top advisers took to television talk shows on Sunday to set the stage for a diplomatic confrontation in Moscow when US secretary of state Rex Tillerson arrives on Tuesday for talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
It will be their first face-to-face encounter since US cruise missiles slammed into a Syrian air base early on Friday Damascus time in retaliation for a suspected sarin gas attack on April 4 that killed at least 87 civilians in the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun.
In Tehran, Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States had made a strategic mistake, and vowed that Iran will not leave the field... in the face of threats.
And a joint operations centre in Damascus that includes Iran, Russia and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants threatened reprisals.
We will react firmly to any aggression against Syria and to any infringement of red lines, whoever carries them out, it said in a statement carried on the website of Al-Watan, a newspaper close to the Syrian regime.
Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces and Syrian rebels thwarted a significant Islamic State group attack on their base near the Jordanian border Saturday.
The coalition said the attack on the At-Tanf Garrison, a remote outpost used by elite US and British forces, was a complex one involving a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, followed by a ground assault and suicide vests by up to 30 IS fighters.
Damage to relations
Tillerson said the chemical attack was preceded by two others in March.
The presence of Russian advisers at the airfield used to launch the attack raised questions about how they could not have known about Syrias chemical weapons.
Tillerson stopped short of accusing the Russians of complicity. But clearly they have been incompetent and perhaps they have just simply been outmaneuvered by the Syrians, he said on ABCs This Week.
Absolutely they are complicit, said Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Russian intelligence may not be as good as ours, but its good enough to know the Syrians had chemical weapons, were using chemical weapons.
If Syria carries out any further chemical attacks, that is going to be clearly very damaging to US-Russian relations, Tillerson warned.
I do not believe that the Russians want to have worsening relationships with the US, but its going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of dialogue to better understand what is the relationship that Russia wishes to have with the US.
He said he will call on Russia to fulfill the obligation it made to the international community when it agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons.
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where toxic substances were being put inside bombs.
The US retaliatory strike marked the first time the United States has intervened directly in the Syrian civil war against Assads Russian- and Iranian-backed regime, raising questions about Washingtons next steps.
Enough is enough
This was something that needed to tell Assad, Enough is enough. And this is something to let Russia know, You know what? Were not going to have you cover for this regime anymore, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said on NBCs Meet the Press.
Just days before the chemical attack, Haley and Tillerson both had indicated that removing Assad from power was no longer a US priority.
But Haley suggested there has been a shift in US thinking. In no way do we look at peace happening in that area with Iranian influence, she said.
In no way do we see peace in that area with Russia covering up for Assad. In no way do we see peace in that area with Assad as the head of the Syrian government.
Tillerson, on the other hand, stressed that the air strike had the limited aim of deterring further use of chemical weapons. Other than that, there is no change to our military posture, he said.
While he did not rule out the future use of military force, Tillerson said the US administration was mindful of the lessons of what went wrong in Libya when you choose that pathway of regime change.
First priority
Both Tillerson and HR McMaster, Trumps national security adviser, said defeating the Islamic State group remained the administrations first priority, with the strategy for stabilizing Syria a longer-term political effort that could involve Russia.
Its very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation from the Assad regime, McMaster said on Fox News Sunday.
We are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. (What) we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions, he said. This is a great opportunity for the Russian leadership to reevaluate what they are doing.
The economy might be slowing but cash-rich China is offering its citizens up to a healthy $73,000 for spotting foreign spies in Beijing, state media reported quoting a government circular.
Since spies in real life arent usually as conspicuous as certain fictional ones, the government is attempting to rope in Beijings residents in its attempt to ferret out the less high-profile ones.
The reward in store is pretty big: The official Beijing Daily newspaper said the Beijing City National Security Bureau the city police essentially is encouraging citizens to join counter-intelligence efforts, by offering rewards of 10,000 to 500,000 yuan ($1,500 to $73,000) for information on spies.
It is an effort to counter the less positive effects of opening up China to reform and outside influence and as it turns out, infiltration.
Foreign intelligence organs and other hostile forces have also seized the opportunity to sabotage our country through political infiltration, division and subversion, stealing secrets and collusion, the newspaper added, painting a rather grim picture of foreigners.
As the capital of China, Beijing is a prime location for foreign spies, and the city is in urgent need of creative ways to mobilise people to build an anti-spy, steel-like Great Wall, the government circular said.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post noted the announcement comes at a time when authorities have become increasingly suspicious of overseas organisations and personnel.
Foreign non-governmental organisations in China, for example, are now required to register with the police rather than the civil affairs authority, as they used to, it pointed out.
Last year, Beijing authorities put out cartoons in public places warning Chinese women to be wary of dating foreign men.
Its of course not new for the Chinese government to dangle cash rewards for information.
Earlier this year, authorities in the Hotan prefecture in the northwestern province of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region offered 100 million Yuan or $14.5 million for tips on terrorists.
The rewards go up to 5 million Yuan ($ 730,000) for verifiable operational inside information on plans for attacks in crowded areas or at government offices, the Hotan Daily reported.
Awards were included for reporting violent terrorists and religious extremists establishing ties, or inciting or swearing oaths of holy war, or clues on the organisation of illegal cross-border entry and exit.
A Buddhist association in China has vowed to sue media networks and netizens for tarnishing Buddhism after they reported and shared a video that incorrectly showed its members partying at a nuns wedding.
The Wutaishan Buddhist Association (WBA) of Shanxi Province accused the media of tarnishing Buddhism over the video titled Buddhist nuns participate in a Wutai Mountain nuns wedding.
The tape, which showed shaven-headed women in robes at a hotel, attracted more than a million viewers on Sina Weibo, which is akin to Twitter in China.
In a WeChat statement on Saturday, WBA claimed the guests were actually members of a pyramid scheme called Wuxingbi, whose members shave their heads.
It said the party had nothing to do with WBA members and the videos uploaders only used their name to garner clicks.
The association added that it has already instructed lawyers to demand the platforms take the video down, apologise and compensate them, state-run Global Times reported.
WBA lawyer Wei Haisheng said in Sunday the association had reported the case to the public security bureau.
According to a 2013 judicial interpretation that defines what constitutes fabricating facts to slander others online, and what could be regarded as serious violations, citizens can be charged with defamation if their rumours are viewed by more than 5,000 netizens or re-tweeted more than 500 times.
Others also expressed outrage over the video, with many calling it an insult to the sanctity of Buddhism and slamming the social platforms for being careless.
How can these social platform administrators allow such videos to go online without even scrutinising their reliability? a Weibo user wrote.
Wei said Buddhism is a peaceful and tolerant religion, and considers litigation a last resort.
However, more and more cases have blackened the name of Buddhism in recent years, he said, adding, Its time for us to take actions to defend the reputation of Buddhism.
In 2016, WBA had slammed rumours claiming that temples on Wutai Mountain were hiring monks with a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan.
China on Monday blanked out the Indian Navys role in rescuing a ship belonging to the island nation of Tuvalu in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, saying it was an operation carried out by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.
Sharing sketchy details about the operation, the ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) said the Chinese navy operating in the region received a call about a ship hijack, set off immediately, and rescued the ship and the personnel aboard after an operation that lasted for a few hours. But there was no mention about the role of the Indian navy in the entire operation.
Warships from India, China and Pakistan operated jointly in the Gulf of Aden to rescue a merchant vessel attacked by Somali pirates on Saturday night.
The blanking out of Indian navys role comes at a time when the two countries are locked in a war of words on the visit of Tibetan leader 14th Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh, a state that China says is part of south Tibet.
When specifically asked about the Indian Navys role in the operation, MFA spokesperson Hua Chunying said she didnt have more details to share.
I have already given whatever I have learnt to you. The Chinese convoy received a report from the UKMTO (United Kingdom Marine Trade Operation) and conducted the rescue operation. Without regard to details, I point you to the defence ministry, she said.
If Indian Navy helicopters provided cover, Hua didnt mention it, choosing instead only to say the operation was carried out under the cover of our helicopters.
The Chinese side is always positive towards international cooperation. This position is very clear, Hua said.
She added the rescue operation demonstrated the effectiveness of the Chinese naval forces.
Several Indian media outlets carried the report on the joint operations carried out by the India and Chinese navies.
But a report by the official news agency, Xinhua, early on Monday had no mention of the Indian navys role.
The convoy fleet sent by the PLA Navy Tuvaluan ship hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday local time, the Xinhua report said.
It added: The navy said in a statement that its 25th convoy fleet, which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somali at the time, received report of the hijack of the ship OS35 at around 5 pm Saturday. The fleets vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately.
The Xinhua report went on to add that after reconnaissance and having contacted with the ships crew, rescue operation started early Sunday morning.
A group of 16 members from the navys special force boarded OS35 and rescued the 19 crew members. All the 19 crew members were under the protection of the Chinese navy, and soldiers carried out a thorough search of the ship to clear possible security threat, it added.
Spokesperson Hua said the Chinese navy received a message at 5pm on April 8 from the UKMTO and responded with alacrity.
The Tuvalu-flagged bulk carrier (OS 35) was travelling from Kelang in Malaysia to the Yemeni port city of Aden when it was hijacked by the pirates, the latest in a string of attacks after several years of silence.
Hua repeated the government report at the regular briefing of the ministry, avoiding the mention of a joint operation.
US-led allied forces and Syrian rebels thwarted a significant Islamic State (IS) group attack on their base near the Jordanian border, according to the anti-IS coalition.
The coalition said Saturdays attack on the At-Tanf Garrison was a complex one involving a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, followed by a ground assault and suicide vests by up to 30 IS fighters.
Coalition and partnered forces defended against the ISIS attack with direct fire before destroying enemy assault vehicles and the remaining fighters with multiple Coalition airstrikes, the coalition said in a statement.
The vetted Syrian opposition forces, known as VSO, who participated in the battle are distinct from the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are assisting Syria in the north.
In southern Syria, VSO forces focus on conducting operations to clear ISIS from the Hamad Desert and have been instrumental in countering the ISIS threat in southern Syria and maintaining security along the Syria-Jordan border, the coalition statement said.
In June 2016, Russian warplanes bombed the remote outpost used by elite US and British forces. It is located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Jordanian border.
About three weeks later, Russian warplanes hit a rebel camp used by family members of CIA-backed fighters about 50 miles west of At-Tanf.
By sentencing Indian national Kulbushan Jadhav to death, Pakistans military court system has once again showed how it rides roughshod over international standards, Amnesty International said on Monday, questioning the secretive courts ability to dispense justice.
The death sentence given to Kulbushan Jadhav shows yet agIain how Pakistans military court system rides roughshod over international standards, Biraj Patnaik, South Asia director, Amnesty International, said in response to Pakistan military court sentencing Jadhav to death for alleged spying.
Stripping defendants of their rights and operating in notorious secrecy, military courts do not dispense justice but travesty it. They are an inherently abusive system that are best left to deal with issues of military discipline, not any other crimes, Patnaik said in a statement.
Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of execution, he said.
A Pakistan military court sentenced Jadhav to death after he was convicted of espionage and sabotage activities.
The award of the death sentence to the 46-year-old former Naval officer at a court-martial was confirmed by Pakistans army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday.
The prominent rights group also noted that over 87 executions were recorded in Pakistan in 2016 and more than ver 360 death sentences were recorded in the country last year.
It said that over 6,000 people are known to be under death sentence at the end of 2016 in Pakistan, which is among the worlds top 5 executioners.
Over the past two decades, North Korean-born Han Hun Il, the founding chief executive of a Malaysian conglomerate, funnelled money to the leadership in Pyongyang, a North Korean defector, speaking out for the first time, told Reuters.
Hans conglomerate Malaysia Korea Partners (MKP) worked in partnership with Jang Song Thaek, according to Lee Chol Ho, who worked as a trader for Han for nine years until he defected to Seoul in 2010.
Jang, the uncle of North Koreas ruler Kim Jong Un, was considered one of North Koreas most powerful men until he was executed for treason in 2013.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm Lees account of Hans relationship with North Koreas leadership, including his assertion that money was funnelled to North Koreas leadership body, the central committee of the ruling Workers Party.
Reuters also couldnt determine how the central committee, which controls North Koreas highly sanctioned nuclear and weapons programme, used the funds from Han or if the payments are continuing.
The new disclosures come at a time when United Nations sanctions monitors are intensifying scrutiny of both Han and MKP.
A February report by experts monitoring UN sanctions on North Korea says MKPs bank subsidiary in Pyongyang is a particular focus. A 2013 UN resolution bars foreign companies or foreign joint ventures with a North Korean company from having a financial subsidiary in North Korea.
The UN report says the bank, called International Consortium Bank, was established as a joint venture between MKP and Jangs Sungri Economic Group. The bank is licensed by North Koreas central bank and registered with the Pyongyang Municipal Peoples Committee, it said.
If the UN experts find sanctions have been violated, they could recommend the UN security council blacklist MKP, its executives or one or more of its subsidiaries, subjecting them to a global travel ban and asset freeze.
STRAINED TIES
Han, also known as Dr Edward Hahn, hung up the phone and blocked a Reuters reporter on his messaging app when contacted for comment.
MKP did not respond to requests for comment on Lees assertions. The company issued a statement dated March 23 saying MKP had no reason to hide the fact that Han is North Korean. It denied owning ICB or any other North Korean bank and said nobody from the United Nations has contacted the company.
The UN said it does not comment on its ongoing investigations.
Lees description of how MKP operated appears to shed fresh light on the close ties between Malaysia and North Korea, which have come under strain following the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the elder half-brother of North Koreas ruler, with the highly toxic VX nerve agent in February.
Reuters reported in February that North Koreas spy agency was running an arms export operation out of Malaysia.
Malaysias foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
PYONGYANG BANK
MKP, which Han formed in 1996 with his Malaysian partner, Yong Kok Yeap, operates in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, piling up contracts worth at least $350 million, an MKP corporate video and promotional brochures shows.
Yong declined requests to be interviewed.
MKPs main business is construction, but it is also involved in a number of other activities, including financial services and coal trading, according to U.N. reports, company sources, registration documents and MKP promotional material.
A general view of the Malaysia-Korea Partners Holdings headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Reuters Photo)
ICB is among several banks the UN is currently investigating for possible breaches of various UN security council resolutions. These include one from 2013 calling on members states to prohibit financial service companies where there are reasonable grounds to believe that such financial services could contribute to (North Koreas) nuclear or ballistic weapons programs.
In its March 23 statement, MKP said its website had been hacked to insert ICB under its list of service companies and place a doctored photograph of MKP personnel, including Yong, visiting ICBs office in Pyongyang.
A search of archive.org, a database of old websites, shows ICB has been listed on MKPs website since 2009, including under its earlier name, Sungri Hi-Fund International Bank. As of April 10, ICB was still listed on the website.
In its February report, the U.N. said it had inquired with Malaysia and MKP about ICB and had yet to receive a reply.
CONTROL TOWER
Lee said Han had used MKP as the control tower of a vast business empire, making him one of the isolated countrys richest men. He said Han began his career in Africa with North Koreas Reconnaissance Bureau, its premier spy agency.
When people from the Central Committee visited Malaysia, they only met with Han, Lee said. They didnt even bother to see the ambassador.
The Central Committee directs the development and financing of North Koreas nuclear and missile programmes, said Michael Madden, a North Korea expert at Johns Hopkins Universitys 38 North website.
Once a year, Lee said, high-ranking Pyongyang officials travelled to Kuala Lumpur to meet Han and instruct him to wire money to North Korea via banks in Malaysia.
It was all dollars and euros, said Lee.
Lee said Han was part of Jangs overseas network of businessmen.
Two current company sources said MKPs fortunes - with the exception of its African businesses - declined after 2013 and Han became an infrequent visitor to Malaysia. They said they didnt know whether the downturn was related to Jangs demise.
The legal industry may be heading for significant change brought about by technology and an Indo-Canadian entrepreneur could play a role in harnessing artificial intelligence to speed up that process.
Sitting in an office in Toronto, Mona Datt is seeking answers to some legal questions are some judges prone to ruling in a particular way? Do some line of arguments presented by lawyers work better than others? Do some jurisdictions favour plaintiffs more?
Datt is the founder of Loom Analytics, a Toronto-based AI startup that launched last year and has developed an app that promises Litigation intelligence at your fingertips to its target market (as of now) of lawyers and insurance companies. Looms premise is: By sorting and classifying case law for you, we're making the process of case law research smarter, faster, and more robust. Using a combination of legal analysis and machine learning, Loom provides hard numbers on case law: win/loss rates, judge ruling histories, litigation trends over time, and much more.
As an industry, its at a weird stage. The legal industry has AI and machine learning sitting at its doorstep. Its an industry thats ripe for disruption, Datt told HT in an interview.
Essentially, at this stage, Loom looks at removing the drudge work required in sorting through reams of case law and is attempting to automate the process.
Its so repetitive that after a while, you say, does this really need a human being to do it over and over again? Or can it just be done once, put in a database so that other people can actually leverage whats been done once? she said.
What does change is how we build our argument. To me, that really is the practise of law its not looking for precedent, its how you use that precedent to argue your case. So that could be automated.
Datt has a background in computer engineering and explored this field in 2015 when her husband Raj Datt, a lawyer, asked her if this tedious task could be eased.
Two years on, Loom already has several clients in Canada including a couple of major law firms. She has focused on the country as more of a training ground, as it provides access to open data on court judgements. The firm has seven lawyers on staff in its back office operations in New Delhi. As junior lawyers provide the analysis of Canadian legal data, that is reviewed by senior lawyers. Another lawyer is based in Toronto for an additional layer of comfort with the level of quality control. It is also conducting active research into machine-learning based analysis of legal decisions at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa.
Datt expects to look at other countries in the future, starting with the United States. And India could also figure on that docket, as she said, Any English-speaking country, any common law country would make sense.
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Enforcement officials in Malaysia have seized 18 rhinoceros horns imported from Mozambique, weighing 51.4 kg and worth 13.7 million ringgit ($3.1 million), a senior customs official said Monday.
Airport customs director Hamzah Sundang said officials acting on a tip-off discovered the horns in a wooden crate at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport cargo terminal last Friday.
The haul is the latest indication that Malaysia has become an Asian transit hub for the illicit ivory and rhino horn trade.
The crate, listed as containing art objects, was imported from Mozambique on board a Qatar Airways flight which transited in Doha before arriving in Malaysia, Hamzah said in a statement.
Hamzah said the destination was listed as being in the town of Nilai in Malaysias southern state of Negri Sembilan but it was a false address.
Rhino horn has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years and is also carved into highly prized libation cups.
Under Malaysian law, it is an offence to import rhino horns without a licence.
In April last year, Malaysia destroyed 9.5 tonnes of elephant ivory that it had seized over the years, in a move intended to deter smugglers who have long used the country as a trans-shipment point.
Malaysia has previously announced in parliament that 4,624 ivory tusks were confiscated between 2011 and 2014.
Ivory from African elephants is typically smuggled to Asia where it is carved into ornaments.
Hamzah also said 2.12 kg of ketamine worth 94.4 million ringgit was confiscated at the airports budget terminal from a foreigner who arrived last Wednesday from Chennai in India.
During an X-ray of the mans bag, we found white crystals which we believe was ketamine, he said.
Hamzah said the case was being investigated under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries a mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
A massive manhunt was underway in search of a highly-dangerous Wisconsin man who US authorities said robbed a gun shop and sent a lengthy manifesto to President Donald Trump.
Some 150 local, state and federal police officers and personnel were on Sunday searching for Joseph Jakubowski, 32, who last week allegedly stole some 16 high-end firearms from a gun store in Janesville, Wisconsin and set fire to a car nearby, according to Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden.
Spoden said the suspect had written a 161-page long anti-government manifesto, which he had mailed to the White House. Police obtained a copy.
Joseph Jakubowski has been highly agitated by national politics recently, Sheriff Robert Spoden said, adding that an associate said Jakubowski recently verbalized a plan to steal guns and use them in an unspecified attack.
Spoden described the manifesto as a long laundry list of injustices that he believes the government and society and the upper class have put forth onto the rest of the citizens.
He added that the suspect had acquired a bulletproof vest and a helmet and was considered armed and highly dangerous.
The threat prompted area schools to close on Friday. Patrols were also increased at local churches as a result of anti-religion sentiment depicted in Jakubowskis manifesto, the sheriffs department said in a statement Sunday.
The city of Janesville, located some 100 miles northwest of Chicago, is the hometown of US House speaker Paul Ryan.
President Donald Trump can only look at the personal helicopter parked on the front lawn of his Mar-a-Lago resort. As far as going for a ride in it, hes grounded.
The Secret Service says standard security protocol requires the president to fly on either Air Force One, a jumbo jet, or Marine One, a helicopter. The agency says Trump was never on the helicopter.
Its hard to miss: The Sikorsky S-76 carries Trumps name in bold red print on the tail and step, and his personal family seal. The billionaire-turned-president owns two,
The helicopter appeared Sunday on the newly paved helipad of Mar-a-Lago, then left a few hours later. The White House didnt respond to questions about the reason the helicopter was there.
The flood of angry anti-Muslim rhetoric on social media was the first sign of how fiercely the suburban middle-class homeowners in this central China city opposed a planned mosque in their neighborhood. It quickly escalated into something more sinister.
Soon a pigs head was buried in the ground at the future Nangang mosque, the culmination of a rally in which dozens of residents hoisted banners and circled the planned building site. Then the mosques imam received a text message carrying a death threat: In case someone in your family dies, I have a coffin for you and more than one, if necessary.
How did things get stirred up to this point? the imam, Tao Yingsheng, said in a recent interview. Who had even heard of the Nangang mosque before?
On the dusty plains of the Chinese heartland, a bitter fight over a mosque exemplifies how a surge in anti-Muslim sentiment online is spreading into communities across China, exacerbating simmering ethnic and religious tensions that have in the past erupted in bloodshed.
Its also posing a dilemma for the ruling Communist Party, which has allowed Islamophobia to fester online for years as part of its campaign to justify security crackdowns in its restive region of Xinjiang.
Its let the genie out of the bottle, said James Leibold, a professor at La Trobe University in Australia who has tracked the growth of anti-Muslim hate speech on Chinas internet.
Interviews with residents and an examination of social media show how a few disparate online complaints by local homeowners evolved into a concerted campaign to spread hate.
Key to it was an unexpected yet influential backer: a Chinese propaganda official, 2,500 kilometers away in Xinjiang, whose inflammatory social media posts helped draw people into the streets on New Years Day, resulting in a police crackdown.
Nangang mosque
A stone inscription outside its gate shows the original Nangang mosque was established in the 1780s by members of the Hui minority, the descendants of Silk Road traders who settled across China centuries ago. In its present form, the mosque has served the areas 4,500 Hui for decades, its domed silhouette partially hidden by overgrown shrubs in the countryside beyond Hefeis last paved boulevards.
Over the past 10 years urbanisation has come to Hefei, with sprawling development reconfiguring the landscape and its demographic flavor, and Hui leaders had been pushing for years to relocate their mosque to a more convenient urban location.
City planners in November finally selected a site adjacent to the newly built Hangkong New City condominiums, with its $200,000 two-bedroom units, faux-Mediterranean stylings and a Volvo dealership across the street. The projects homeowners overwhelmingly members of Chinas ethnic Han majority began complaining on Chinas popular microblog, Weibo.
Some complained the mosque would occupy space promised for a park. Others warned that safety in the area would be compromised.
Others were more blunt: Han residents were uncomfortable that a center for Hui community life would be less than 100 meters (300 feet) from their building, a homeowner who later identified himself in messages to the AP by his surname, Cheng, wrote in a petition posted in December.
And the less said about what happens on Eid al-Adha, the better, Cheng wrote, referring to the Islamic holiday in which animals are slaughtered for a sacrificial feast. Its absolutely shocking.
The story soon caught the attention of Cui Zijian, a boyish-looking propaganda official in Xinjiang who writes about the threat of religious extremism on his Weibo account with nearly 30,000 followers.
On December 16, Cui suggested homeowners lobby local officials to block the construction, adding: If that doesnt work, then how about pig head, pig blood.
Cui followed that a few hours later with another post repeating the four Chinese characters for pig blood and pig head over and over, attracting hundreds of reposts. While Cui was criticized by some on Weibo, a larger number including at least one other government propaganda official took his post as their cue to hurl abuse at the Hui.
Social Media in play
The mosque dispute was just the latest flashpoint for an increasingly active anti-Muslim social media movement in China.
A video of a Hui girl reciting the Quran in Arabic sparked outrage last May over so-called terrorist infiltration of Chinese schools, prompting officials to announce a strict ban on religion on campuses. Online activists derailed a Hui officials effort to regulate the halal food industry, arguing that religion was creeping into the officially atheistic Chinese state.
Han Chinese, who make up 95% of the population, have long grumbled about the dozens of Chinas officially recognised minority groups receiving advantages on the hyper-competitive college entrance exams or exemptions from family-size limits, but online abuse has increasingly targeted Muslims.
The rise in Islamophobia comes as Chinese have been buffeted by news of militant attacks in Europe, while at home, violence in Xinjiang and elsewhere has been blamed on Muslim separatists.
Beijing has responded to the bloody, years-long insurgency from Muslim Uighur minorities in Xinjiang with further restrictions on Islamic expression, a move rights groups warn could potentially radicalize moderate Muslims. Such policies have also drawn vows of retaliation from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Ethnic hostility can only deepen, scholars say, when the government stops discussion of the plight of Muslims or ethnic policies while allowing anti-Muslim rhetoric and hate speech to go unchecked. In 2014, Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti, who had founded a website to host debates about ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, was sentenced to life in prison on separatism charges.
Government censors go after descriptions of abuses against Muslims, but it doesnt take long whatsoever to find incredibly Islamophobic things that seem to be not censored at all, said William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, which has appealed for Tohtis release.
Political observers say the recent rise of a faction within the Communist Party advocating for a hard-line approach on religious affairs has coincided with the rise of government-linked commentators who openly warn about the danger of Islam.
Interest groups have actively promoted Islamophobia in interior regions in order to create a nationwide environment that justifies Xinjiangs anti-terrorism campaign, said Ma Haiyun, a history professor specialising in Chinas Muslims at Frostburg State University in Maryland. Theres an Islamophobic movement that aims at creating chaos and even conflicts at the local level.
After briefly moderating his remarks about the Nangang mosque, the propaganda official, Cui, renewed his criticism in February with an essay arguing that his professional and patriotic duty was to resist extremism. His online speech about Muslims was part of the job, he said.
For that, we are labeled Muslim-smearers, wrote Cui, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But it is those who instigate a fear of Islam, precisely the terrorists and the extremists, who are the ones smearing Muslims.
Reached in March, an official at the propaganda department where he worked refused to comment on Cuis involvement in the controversy. But Cui now appears to be even better positioned to influence discourse: The official said Cui was transferred in February to work in the cyberspace administration, the agency in charge of censoring online speech.
Protests
Tao, the 50-year old imam, recalled the day in December when he heard his mosque was suddenly the subject of thousands of posts and hundreds of comments on Weibo, a service he barely used. He soon found himself soothing local Hui who approached him, shaken by what they were seeing online.
They said people were planning to hang a pigs head outside our mosque. I said, Then well remove it. They said people will bury a pigs head in the ground. I said Why cant we just dig it up? Tao said.
Tao Yingsheng, the imam at the Nangang mosque. (AP Photo)
After protesters followed through with the threat at the New Years Day demonstration, police detained two protest leaders for two weeks and summoned others for questioning, according to residents. Since then Han indignation has gave way to quiet seething.
People have been scared into silence, said Cheng, the Han tea seller.
During a recent visit to Hangkong New City, homeowners repeated the governments mantra that ethnic unity was important, but complained that officials sacrificed their interests to appease a minority.
If 99% of our compound is Han, it doesnt seem appropriate that they put a mosque next door, said a middle-aged woman who said her surname was Han.
Ma Jianhua, a Nangang district planning official, told the AP that construction will proceed after his office appropriately handled homeowners petitions, but declined to elaborate.
The mosque dispute has left the citys Hui community on the defensive, with many eager to emphasize their desire to peacefully coexist with their Han neighbors as well as their confidence in the governments handling of the situation.
At a ranch past the undulating rapeseed field that separates the condos from rubble-strewn Huimin Lu Hui Peoples Road workers at what is one of the few Hui businesses that hasnt been demolished to make way for high-rises expressed surprise about the mosque dispute, given the areas history of ethnic mingling.
Weve been in these parts a long time, a worker surnamed Tao, who is not related to the imam, said as he loaded sacks of dried fatty beef. We mind our business and they mind theirs. We dont stir up trouble and they dont either.
But Tao, the imam, seemed to acknowledge a hardening of attitudes toward Muslims in recent years.
It may be that the situation has grown more sensitive in that place that we all know about, he said after a pause, referring to but not daring to mention Xinjiang.
Still he tries to not harbor resentment toward the Han protesters.
I dont blame the locals because I believe they were influenced, he said, sitting below framed pictures of him greeting government religious affairs officials. I want them to know Muslims are virtuous people. We are peaceful. We are reasonable. We are tolerant. And we are good Chinese.
Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has barred his party leaders from making any controversial statements about former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif amid his appointment as the head of a 41-nation Saudi-led military alliance of Muslim countries.
The former army chiefs appointment had been criticised by some Pakistani politicians, retired army officers, journalists, intellectuals, who had questioned the decision of the retired general to join a foreign military alliance.
The prime minister found contradictory statements being made by senior leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
Read: Pakistan Army ex-chief Raheel Sharif embroiled in land scandal
Nawaz Sharif has prohibited PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retired) Raheel Sharif, Radio Pakistan quoted PM Sharif as saying.
The prime minister said the entire nation hailed the former army chief for his meritorious services.
Sharifs directions to leaders of his party came days after Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair called Gen Sharif just another general and said he should not be made larger than life.
Raheel Sharif was made larger than life and thats the reason that when he is allotted a piece of land - which he deserves - it raises eyebrows, Zubair said.
He is a normal general like any other generals and its his right to acquire the piece of land he was given. Lets be fair with him - lets not make him larger than life. This will only create more problems for him, he said.
Zubair was referring to the news that Gen Sharif has been awarded agricultural land for his services.
Read: Iran not OK with Gen Raheel Sharif heading Islamic military alliance
His (Sharifs) job as chief of the Saudi-led alliance is also being seen as something extraordinary - when it should be his prerogative as a normal person, the Sindh governor added.
Minister for states and frontier regions (safron) Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said last month that General Sharif should not accept the controversial position.
Gen Sharif, who retired as Pakistans army chief last November, is likely to assume command of the 41-nation anti-terrorism alliance, being dubbed the Muslim NATO, this month.
The top investigator of the deadly 2010 crash of a Polish presidential in Russia on Monday said a fresh analysis showed the aircraft broke up in mid-air before hitting the ground.
The claim comes on the day that Poles mark the seventh anniversary of the crash in Smolensk, western Russia, that claimed president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, mostly senior Polish statesmen.
Polands governing rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party, led by Kaczynskis twin brother Jaroslaw, has long insisted it was no accident.
Polish defence minister Antoni Macierewicz, who says that the crash was the result of a Polish-Russian conspiracy, last month accused former Polish premier and current EU President Donald Tusk of diplomatic treason over an earlier probe into the crash.
After winning power in 2015, the PiS launched a new investigation into the incident, which Polish and Russian investigators earlier attributed to human error and bad weather.
The plane started to break up and lose parts in the air; they fell to the ground far from where the infamous birch tree was... The tree had no impact on the crash, Waclaw Berczynski, who heads a team of Polish investigators, told public broadcaster TVP Info Monday.
Berczynski said investigators based their new conclusion on an analysis of a conversation between the planes pilots and Russian air traffic controllers on the ground.
The previous investigation found the crash was in part triggered when the jets wing clipped a tree near the runway.
Polish prosecutors also said earlier this month that fragments of the plane were being sent to four labs abroad to check for traces of explosives.
Polish prosecutors said last week that based on a fresh analysis of the evidence, they would charge the controllers with having deliberately causing a catastrophe, a theory the Kremlin immediately denied.
Polish prosecutors had already pressed charges against the two Russian air controllers in 2015: one for being directly responsible for having endangered air traffic and the other for unintentionally causing an air traffic disaster.
Polish justice officials have also been exhuming the remains of the victims to establish the cause of death.
Warsaw has repeatedly asked Moscow to return the wreckage of the plane, but Russia says it will only do so once its own inquiry is over.
The crash occurred as the presidential delegation was heading to a ceremony in Russias Katyn forest for thousands of Polish army officers killed by Soviet secret police in 1940 - a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990.
An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Barcelona at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the US presidential election.
A spokesperson for Spains National Court said that the Pyotr Levashov was arrested in response to a US computer crimes warrant. She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules.
The US Embassy in Spain declined comment; the Russian Embassy did not immediately return messages.
Russian state broadcaster RT quoted Levashovs wife Maria as saying that her husband was arrested by armed police at their apartment in Barcelona.
She said her husband told her he had been accused of creating a computer virus linked to (President Donald) Trumps election win.
Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is leading a Congressional effort to ask the Trump administration to use its full powers to address the recent spate of hate crimes against the community.
Krishnamoorthi, recently met US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly in this regard, his office said on Monday.
After the meeting, the first-time Democratic lawmaker from Illinois, is reaching out to his colleagues in the US House of Representatives with a Congressional letter that calls upon Kelly to use the full powers of his office to address the recent spate of hate crimes against Indian-Americans and others.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Secretary Kelly during his visit to Capitol Hill. During our meeting, Secretary Kelly discussed his belief that his department needed to focus more on the activities of white supremacist organizations and similar hate groups, Krishnamoorthi said.
My colleagues and I were heartened by the Secretarys clear recognition of the need to protect all Americans, but we now need him to take further steps to follow through on his commitments, he said.
The letter Im circulating among my colleagues in Congress urges Secretary Kelly to use the full powers of his office to prevent additional racially-motivated attacks and to combat the roots of hatred and intolerance. I stand ready to work with Secretary Kelly on these issues and my colleagues in Congress do as well, Krishnamoorthi said.
While the chances of Kulbhushan Jadhav being hanged by Pakistan are slim, there is also very little possibility that he will be released, human rights activists here said on Monday.
What the Pakistan Army has done is raise the stakes to publicly embarrass both the (Nawaz) Sharif and the (Narendra) Modi governments," said one of them, who asked not to be named.
The announcement by the army to sentence Jadhav to death was widely hailed in Pakistan by various quarters. Many have called for his immediate hanging. This shows the decisive action of the army, commented TV anchor Dr Shahid Masood.
Human rights organisations have privately expressed their fears over the decision by the military, given that there has been no outside observers involved in the process.
It is a sham, said a leading rights activist who added that the civilian government was not taken into confidence over this decision.
So far, spies have not been hanged by the government but there is always a first time, commented one analyst.
Observers say that the military high command could use Jadhav to get concessions from the Modi government. Its another sign to show who really is in control in Pakistan, said the analyst.
By mid-1937, Imperial Japans aggressive expansionist actions against its Asian neighbors had provoked a major war with China. The path to this conflict between the two East Asian powers dated back to at least 1894-95 during the First Sino-Japanese War, when emerging military powerhouse Japan wrested control of the Korean Peninsula from the crumbling empire of China (then ruled by the Qing dynasty). In 1931, under the sway of army and navy militarists, Japan seized Manchuria from China (which had become a republic in 1912) and created the puppet state of Manchukuo. Additional aggression by Japan led to it gaining control of several more of Chinas northeast provinces. Finally, on July 7, 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident north of Beijing sparked the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Although Japanese military commanders preferred to continue concentrating their combat operations in northeast China, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese army and the most influential member of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) then ruling China, realized that fighting in the north gave Japan overwhelming military advantages. In August 1937, Chiang decided to shift the locus of the war to central China by targeting Shanghai, the countrys most important port city and its principal center of international economic commerce.
By luring the Japanese into fighting a costly battle in and around Shanghai and then withdrawing the Chinese army into central Chinas interior, Chiang sought to prevent a rapid Japanese conquest of China and thereby prolong the war. The time he would gain would allow him to gather more forces and resources with which to strengthen his army and hopefully convince the Western powers to support Chinas war effort.
Armchair General takes you back to October 26, 1937, in battle-ravaged Shanghai, where you will play the role of Chinese Nationalist Army Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan, commander of 524th Infantry Regiment, 88th Division. With the Battle of Shanghai now more than two months old and Japanese forces close to completing their conquest of the city, your mission is to lead Chinese troops in a final defense of a sector of Shanghais Zhabei district.
By holding out for as long as possible against powerful Japanese attacks, your men can achieve important tactical and political goals. Tactically, they can cover the main Chinese armys retreat from Shanghai as the force withdraws westward to re-establish defensive lines in Chinas vast interior. Politically, by conducting a stout defense in full view of foreign observers and international news service reporters, they can demonstrate to the leaders of potential Western power allies Chinas strong resolve to resist the Japanese invasion.
However, to accomplish these goals, your outnumbered troops must mount a strong defense against superior enemy forces for a period of at least several days to prevent a quick Japanese victory.
BATTLE OF SHANGHAI
Located in the Yangtze River delta region on the coast of east-central China, Shanghai is known as the Paris of the East, as it is the countrys most cosmopolitan city. In addition to over 3 million Chinese citizens, Shanghais population includes 70,000 foreign residents 20,000 of whom are Japanese occupying international concessions. These separate, clearly defined enclaves are controlled by the respective foreign nations and are exempt from Chinese law.
In addition to Japan, countries holding international concessions in Shanghai include Britain, France and the United States. Although the Western powers are officially neutral in the undeclared war between China and Japan, Chiang is hopeful that a battle against Japanese forces in Shanghai will gain these countries sympathy and strong support for China.
The fighting in Shanghai erupted over two months ago, on August 13, when Chiang ordered several Chinese Nationalist Army divisions into the city to begin attacking the large Japanese troop garrison and the reinforcements that Japan had sent earlier that month. From August 13-22, the Battle of Shanghai was confined inside the city as Chiangs soldiers attempted unsuccessfully to overrun and eliminate the Japanese forces. The enemy, however, was greatly aided by naval gunfire from numerous Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) warships positioned in nearby rivers and by Japanese warplanes that outnumbered Chinese aircraft 10-to-1.
While the urban combat still continues inside Shanghai, the battle has now expanded outside the city as both sides pour in more troops eventually totaling 700,000 Chinese and 300,000 Japanese. However, as of today, October 26, the Japanese have inflicted nearly 300,000 Chinese casualties while suffering fewer than 100,000 of their own. Japanese forces have consistently outmaneuvered and outfought Chinese troops in the surrounding area, often by using amphibious landings, and are on the verge of completing their capture of Shanghai.
To prevent the main Chinese army from being encircled and annihilated, Chiang has ordered it to begin withdrawing westward into Chinas central interior later tonight. To cover the withdrawal and to continue demonstrating Chinas resolve to the Western powers, he has ordered 88th Division to mount a final defense of a portion of Shanghais Zhabei district.
Although 88th Divisions commander originally intended your entire 524th Regiment to mount the defense, it is ultimately decided that only the regiments 1st Battalion will stay behind. Upon being informed of this decision, you volunteer to lead the battalions defense.
CHINESE FORCES
Chiangs Chinese Nationalist Army is one of three general categories of military forces in China, although it is by far the largest. The other two are Mao Zedongs Communist army, which seeks to overthrow the Nationalist government, and the various independent private armies of Chinese warlords who control numerous regions throughout the country. While Chiang has had some success in convincing a few of the warlords to support the Nationalists, many others still operate beyond any central government control. Until the war erupted in August, the Nationalist Armys main effort had been focused on attempts to eradicate Maos Communist forces. Thus, at this stage of the conflict, only Chiangs Chinese army is opposing Japans invasion.
Despite Chiangs best efforts over many years, his Nationalist Army still lacks adequate tanks, heavy weapons, motor transport and air support. It is an infantry army chiefly equipped with small arms that must travel primarily by foot. Other weaknesses include a lack of experienced leadership and deficiencies in training. However, since 1934 Chiang has engaged German military advisers led by General Alexander von Falkenhausen to train his Nationalist Army units and instruct their leaders. Although 88th Division is one of those German-trained units, it has suffered heavy casualties among its veteran soldiers in the fighting at Shanghai, leaving its depleted ranks manned largely by new recruits.
Major Yang Ruifu is the commander of 1st Battalion. However, since you are in overall command of the defense at Zhabei district, he answers to your orders. The 414- man battalion consists of a headquarters element (10 men), three rifle companies (125 men each), two heavy machine-gun platoons, and a five-man combat engineer squad. The riflemen are armed with bolt-action 7.92 mm German Mauser rifles and hand grenades, while each of the 27 rifle squads (each company has three platoons of three squads) has a 7.9 mm Czech Model 26 light machine gun (a design Britain later adopts as the Bren gun). Each heavy machine-gun platoon has two 7.92 mm Maxim water-cooled machine guns. The combat engineers carry small arms and explosive demolition satchel charges. Although you have no tank, artillery or air support, you have plenty of ammunition for all the battalions weapons.
JAPANESE FORCES
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) does not suffer from the deficiencies that plague the Chinese Nationalist Army. It is a well-led force of superbly trained, highly motivated soldiers who unhesitatingly and ruthlessly execute all of their superiors orders, even if it means certain death. The IJA has significant technological advantages over the Chinese as well, particularly in tanks, heavy artillery, motor transport and air support. Furthermore, the IJA in the Shanghai area can count on naval gunfire from dozens of IJN warships.
The Japanese unit that your battalion must face consists primarily of a 3d IJA Division infantry regiment numbering well over 1,000 soldiers and able to bring in reinforcements if necessary. The Japanese infantrymen are armed with hand grenades and bolt-action 6.5 mm Type 38 Arisaka rifles tipped with 20-inch bayonets. Supporting weapons organic to the infantry companies include numerous 6.5 mm Type 11 light machine guns and several 50 mm Type 89 grenade launchers. Heavier supporting weapons within the regiment include 7.7 mm Type 92 heavy machine guns and 70 mm Type 92 artillery howitzers.
Additionally, the Japanese attackers can call in fire from the IJNs 8-inch naval guns and the 75 mm to 150 mm guns in 3d IJA Divisions artillery regiment. Although vehicle movement is difficult in Shanghais narrow, rubble-strewn streets, the Japanese also can be reinforced by six Type 92 wheeled armored cars mounting 7.7 mm machine guns and a few Type 94 tankettes (small, lightly armored, fully tracked vehicles) mounting 6.5 mm machine guns.
SIHANG WAREHOUSE
The sector where you have been ordered to establish your defense consists mainly of one- to three-story industrial buildings and warehouses that are dominated by the six-story Sihang (Four Banks) warehouse. Built in 1931 by a consortium of four Chinese banks, the massive Sihang warehouse is solidly constructed with thick concrete walls and a flat roof from which there is an unobstructed view of the surrounding area for several blocks. Measuring 60 meters by 50 meters, the building features numerous windows on all four sides, although those on the ground floor are blocked by sandbags and some of the thousands of grain bags stored inside, leaving only small firing ports. Outside, a waist-high stone wall surrounds the warehouse.
Your battalions defense sector runs several hundred meters along the north bank of Suzhou Creek. Although this is mainly a built-up urban area, in the center of the sector, directly in front of the Sihang warehouse, a zone measuring 60 meters by 100 meters has been cleared of all buildings and filled with numerous anti-tank obstacles and sandbagged infantry fighting positions.
Suzhou Creek is also the boundary line of Britains international concession. Since the concession is officially neutral territory, Japanese attackers cannot approach your position from that direction. Moreover, since neither China nor Japan wants to antagonize the Western powers, both sides must exercise extreme caution to prevent small arms fire, artillery rounds or aerial bombs from landing inside any of the concessions. This fact works in your favor since the Japanese will be reluctant to capitalize on their great advantage in heavier weapons, lest they inadvertently hit one of these areas.
At 10 p.m. on October 26, you gather the battalions officers inside Sihang warehouse to brief them on three possible courses of action you have developed for your battalions defense. They already understand the mission and the odds they face, so you immediately lay out your plans.
COURSE OF ACTION ONE: CLOSE DEFENSE
The first course of action I am considering, you begin, takes advantage of the strong construction and dominant location of Sihang warehouse. Under this plan, the entire battalion will occupy the warehouse to create a formidable strongpoint from which to defend against Japanese attacks. To provide early warning of the approaching enemy, each company will station a platoon along one of the three major axes of advance: a 1st Company platoon on the left flank, a 2d Company platoon in the center, and a 3d Company platoon on the right flank. Meanwhile, the combat engineer squad will emplace explosive demolition satchel charges along the axes of advance that can be detonated remotely. One heavy machine-gun platoon will be posted on the roof of the warehouse and the other will be stationed in second-story windows to cover the cleared zone.
Your regimental executive officer, Major Shangguan Zhibiao, voices his objections. Colonel, he says, this plan concentrates all of our defenses in a single building, giving the Japanese one vulnerable target to engage and destroy with their massive firepower and superior heavy weapons and air support.
Major, you reply, I dont believe the enemy will risk such actions so close to the international concessions. Even a single misdirected artillery shell or aerial bomb landing inside one of them would be a political disaster for Japan.
COURSE OF ACTION TWO: DEFENSE IN DEPTH
The second plan I am considering, you continue, forces the enemy to fight through a series of defenses throughout the sector. With this option, each company will establish fighting positions in an assigned zone: 1st Company on the left flank, 2d Company in the center, and 3d Company on the right flank. Using the buildings and alleyways, as well as the sandbagged positions in the center, the companies will establish numerous strongpoints in their respective zones from which to disrupt enemy attacks and inflict as many casualties as possible. The heavy machine-gun platoons will set up in Sihang warehouse and fire in support of the infantry companies. The combat engineer squad will be in the warehouse under my command, prepared to support the infantry on my order.
Major Yang, however, dislikes this course of action. Colonel, he complains, I fear that by spreading the battalion across the entire sector, we unnecessarily fragment our defensive effort and make it impossible for the companies to provide mutual support. This plan gives the Japanese attackers the opportunity to overpower our numerous strongpoints one by one. Concentrating the entire battalion inside Sihang warehouse is a much better plan.
Major Shangguan disagrees. On the contrary, Major Yang, he retorts. By forcing the Japanese to attack throughout the entire sector, we fragment their forces. A defense in depth is the best way to draw out our defensive effort for the maximum amount of time.
COURSE OF ACTION THREE: SPOILING ATTACK
The final option, you conclude, is based on the battalion defending from Sihang warehouse as described in COA One, but first we will strike the Japanese under cover of darkness to delay and disrupt their attack plans. Supported by the combat engineer squad, 2d Company will conduct a spoiling attack with the mission of killing as many enemy soldiers as possible and sowing confusion within their ranks. Once this is accomplished, the company will quickly withdraw and join the rest of the battalion inside the warehouse.
Captain Deng Ying, 2d Companys commander, enthusiastically supports this plan. Colonel, he replies, my men are eager to strike a blow against the enemy! Beginning our defense with an attack will not only allow us to kill many of the invaders, it also will raise the morale of the entire battalion.
You realize there is no time for further discussion. You announce the meeting is over, adding, Thank you for your comments, as they have helped me reach my final decision. Listen closely as I go over the details of our defense plan.
What is your decision, Lieutenant Colonel Xie?
Andrew H. Hershey holds a doctorate in medieval history from the University of London. He contributes to the USMC Gazette and is a four-time winner of its Tactical Decision Game design contests. He also designs World War II tactical-level wargames for Heat of Battle and Le Franc Tireur.
Originally published in the November 2014 issue of Armchair General.
Rapid mobilization of anti-aircraft guns, missiles and jet-fighters provided Hanoi with a potent resistance to U.S. bombers in the early years of the war.
On Aug. 5, 1964, U.S. Navy aircraft struck four North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases and the fuel depot at Vinh, about 160 miles south of Hanoi. Two of the 64 aircraft were lost to anti-aircraft fire. Launched in retaliation for a torpedo boat attack on a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2, Operation Pierce Arrow had the ostensible political purpose of demonstrating Americas strength to the North Vietnamese to deter further aggression and additional support for the insurgency in South Vietnam. But Hanois leaders concluded the relatively small-scale response showed that American intervention would be constrained, not decisive. More important, it energized and unified Hanois political leadership behind new party leader Le Duan, who had taken power in January by marginalizing the Communist Party moderates led by Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen Giap at a party meeting in December. Le Duan immediately ordered resumption of armed struggle in South Vietnam and requested assistance from North Vietnams two major allies, China and the Soviet Union. He put the military on a wartime footing on July 6 and mobilized all components of society for the coming war. That mobilization and support from other Communist countries enabled North Vietnam to build what would become the worlds strongest integrated air defense at the time.
Beijing rushed aid to North Vietnam in early 1964. Chinas backing came at a time of Sino-Soviet competition for leadership of the global Communist movement, and Moscow felt compelled to provide higher-technology sensors, better weapons and a larger training package than the Chinese were offering. The Soviets also sent more than 8,000 military advisers and technicians, who wore Vietnamese uniforms to hide their nationality. At the same time hundreds of Vietnamese were placed in Soviet military training schools. Additionally, Moscow shipped radars, anti-aircraft artillery and coastal defense equipment to Hanoi. Not to be outdone by its rival, Beijing accelerated the training program for the 30 North Vietnamese pilots who were being trained on Soviet-donated Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s at Chinas Son Dong Airfield since early 1963. China also donated training aircraft to Hanoi and initiated a training program for about another 200 pilots. Those pilots, however, were not expected to be ready for combat operations before late 1964 or early spring 1965.
The Chinese and Soviet aid was vital for North Vietnams air defense forces. Although Hanoi had been improving its air defenses incrementally since 1957, the system was still grossly inadequate against a modern bombing campaign. To simplify air defense command and control, Hanoi combined the Air Defense Force, which managed ground-based anti-aircraft systems, and the North Vietnamese Air Force into one command on Oct. 23, 1963.
At that time, Hanois air defenses consisted of 22 search radars and a single Wurzburg fire-direction radar that Beijing had supplied in 1954 to control 16 batteries of World War IIera German 88mm anti-aircraft guns, supplied by the Soviets. The countrys 600 light anti-aircraft guns did not have radar fire control. Additionally, the air force had neither fighter interceptors nor qualified jet fighter pilots.
The North Vietnamese Air Force, established in March 1956, had been constructed from literally nothing. Not many Vietnamese had even seen an airplane before the pilot training program began that year (indeed less than 10 percent had even seen a car). Hanoi sent 110 flight candidates to the Soviet Union that month and a similar number each year through 1962.
The program initially suffered a high accident rate. Fewer than 1 in 5 trainees completed the basic instruction course in the Soviet Union, and only 30 achieved basic pilot qualification by late 1958 after two years of training. Hanoi also began to send small numbers of pilot candidates to China for training. Before 1962, however, most of the Chinese-trained pilots only qualified on transport or utility aircraft.
By December 1959 Hanoi had 90 qualified pilots, although only about 40 were capable of flying jets. Hanoi established its first domestic flight training school that month, using Yak-18 aircraft. A year later, Hanoi had more than 140 qualified pilots, and it picked 82 for advanced jet fighter training52 went to the Soviet Union and 30 to China.
North Vietnam also lacked runways and maintenance support for air operations. It had only a handful of airfields, and a 1959 study found that just two could handle jets. In response, party leader Ho Chi Minh ordered an airfield expansion program that would construct 44 airfields by 1965. It was a massive project that employed more than 30,000 people, required over 200,000 cubic meters of concrete and involved moving nearly 1 million tons of earth.
Like the pilot training program, the maintenance and logistics organization had to start from scratch. The country had only a dozen aircraft technicians, and their experience was limited to piston engines on World War IIera airframes. None qualified on jet engines. The first 200 aviation maintenance technicians were sent to Moscow for training in 1956 and became qualified on cargo and training aircraft by 1959. The best of those received additional training to work on jets.
Despite North Vietnams commitment to pilot training, Hanoi never graduated more than 40 jet pilots a year, and the pilots didnt receive their first fighters until February 1964. But those who completed the program were a highly motivated, deeply committed and hard-working group. One of the early fighter pilots, Nguyen Van Be, got the North Vietnamese Air Forces first aerial kill while flying a former Laotian North American T-28essentially an armed primary trainerwhen he downed a South Vietnamese Fairchild C-123 over Laos on Feb. 16, 1964.
The Soviet Union had delivered the first 36 MiG-17 fighters, along with four MiG-15UTI two-seat trainers, just 13 days earlier. Hanoi assigned them to its first fighter unit, the 921st Sao Dao Fighter Regiment, formed at Phuc Yen Air Base, also called Noi Bai Air Base, near Hanoi. The pilots immediately began familiarization training and the equivalent of Western aerial combat maneuvering exercises. A second fighter regiment, the 923rd, was forming in China and would arrive in September 1965, equipped with Soviet-built MiG-17s the pilots had trained on in China.
Air defense command and control remained a problem even after the North Vietnamese Air Force had been incorporated into the combined air defenseair force organization. North Vietnam had no centralized air defense system. It possessed some World War II air-search radarsAmerican-made for the anti-Communist Nationalist Party Chinese and then taken by the Communists after Chinas 1949 revolution. But they were unreliable, short-range and almost useless during the frequent heavy rains. The primary air defense detection sensor was a network of 40 visual lookout posts that reported their observations to a filter center in Hanoi. The information was then sent to each district headquarters that controlled anti-aircraft weapons. The transmission method was telephone or Morse code.
In November 1963 North Vietnam lacked the technological and industrial capacity to withstand a concentrated American bombing campaign. To alter that equation, Le Duan dispatched thousands of North Vietnamese to the Soviet Union to train on Soviet communications, electronics and weapons systems.
Meanwhile, the countrys academics were pressed to learn everything they could about Americas culture, media, political system and military. English speakers were conscripted to teach the language to the most promising students. The programs scale was immense, the instruction intense and demanding. By 1969 the very best were good enough to intrude into American communications and create convincing fake radio calls. Military intelligence pursued every possible source, both open and covert, to research Americas political processes and way of war, from military equipment to tactics and operations. Party officials and sympathizers were directed to make contact with Western media outlets and spokesmen.
Le Duan also built upon Ho Chi Minhs extensive effort to develop secure communications systems, ciphers and signals-monitoring equipment. He expanded research and production programs, pursued low-cost solutions to air defense problems and developed deception plans to complicate U.S. force deployment, targeting and battle damage assessment. To minimize the effects of American bombing, thousands of North Vietnamese were mobilized and trained, with Chinese assistance, to rapidly rebuild damaged roads, bridges and infrastructure.
Recognizing that political warfare would play a critical role in the coming conflict, Le Duan incorporated it into air defense planning. He developed a strategy to not only reduce a U.S. bombing campaigns effectiveness but also undermine confidence in that campaign. The ultimate goal was to diminish public support for itin the international community as well as in the United States.
Sino-Soviet aid accelerated after Operation Pierce Arrow. Anti-aircraft guns and ammunition constituted the bulk of the early Chinese and Soviet air defense assistance, a mixture of heavy (85-130mm), medium (57mm) and light (23mm) artillery with associated search and fire-control radars. The heavy artillery would harass the incoming flights, and the medium and light artillery would concentrate on the lead aircraft as the American planes approached their target. Hundreds of men and women, even high school students, entered air defense training in what the Vietnamese and their allies feared was a race against time.
But a massive U.S. attack after the Gulf of Tonkin incident wasnt on the horizon in early 1964. It was an election year, and President Lyndon B. Johnson was worried that a comprehensive bombing campaign would hurt his re-election chances. He was also concerned about the conflicts effect on his envisioned Great Society legislation establishing anti-poverty, civil rights and other domestic programs. Johnson left the planning for the bombing campaign to his key aides. His only guidance: Keep the costs down.
As Defense Secretary Robert McNamara interpreted the presidents instructions, the bombing missions should be conducted with the minimum forces required to persuade Hanoi to stop its aggression. McNamara placed little value on the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, feeling the military didnt have the imagination to envision anything other than a total war. It did not help that each of the individual service chiefs favored a different tactic. Among the civilian leaders, Secretary of State Dean Rusk shared McNamaras view and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy favored an incremental approach, limiting the strikes at first to show Hanoi that the United States was serious.
The deeply divided group presented Johnson with three choices: Option A, a large-scale campaign that would devastate North Vietnam; Option B, a short but intensive campaign of swiftly yet deliberately applied strikes on key targets to deliver a hard knock that would demonstrate the United States was serious; and Option C, a start-small, incremental approach. The president chose Option C on Dec. 1, 1964. The plan called for a series of strikes, starting against targets in Laos, then expanding into southern North Vietnam and finally going farther north if Hanoi did not cease its support to the Viet Cong.
After the Viet Congs Feb. 7, 1965, attack on Pleiku in South Vietnams central region, Johnson at first responded with a limited retaliatory attack and then on February 24 approved what would become Operation Rolling Thunder, a three-year bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Fearful of triggering a world war or Chinese intervention, McNamara insisted on limiting where and when U.S. forces could attack various targets in specified geographic areas, and the president insisted that the civilian leadership control the selection of targets. The U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii nominated the targets. Then the Joint Chiefs culled them and selected the list that went to the presidents Tuesday Cabinet, a group of Johnsons most trusted civilian advisers (McNamara, Rusk, Undersecretary of State George Ball, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy, State Department adviser Walt Rostow and press secretary Bill Moyers). The Joint Chiefs chairman and the CIA director also attended. The target reviews initially took place daily but were changed to weekly by the summer of 1965.
The operational planning went smoothly, although the intelligence support faced challenges. With concurrent demands to monitor Communist activities in Cuba and Eastern Europe, the intelligence community had few resources available to collect information about North Vietnam. Unlike Hanoi, Washington made only a small, primarily military-focused effort to learn about the enemy it was planning to engage. Publicly accessible and academic materials were all but ignored.
The primary sources for U.S. knowledge of North Vietnam before 1965 were long-haul signals-intelligence monitoring, aerial reconnaissance flights and ship-borne electronics signal collection. The signals-intelligence personnel who deployed to South Vietnam in 1964 were drawn from European posts and augmented with South Vietnamese English speakers, some of whom later proved to be Viet Cong agents.
Even with those problems and limited human sources in North Vietnam, all three major American intelligence agenciesthe CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Departments Intelligence Bureauissued assessments that bombing would not break Hanois political will. After some weather-caused delays, Rolling Thunder began on March 2, 1965, with a strike on Xom Bang Ammunition Depot just north of the Demilitarized Zone. Five American aircraft were shot down. The number of enemy anti-aircraft weapons and the effectiveness of their fire came as a shock. American aircrews were not aware of North Vietnams air defense buildup.
North Vietnam had spent the final months of 1964 stepping up its preparations for the American bombers. China delivered four Shenyang F-4s (MiG-15s built under license from the Soviets) and 36 F-5s (MiG-17s) to Phuc Yen Air Base in late August 1964. China and North Vietnam also established a joint air warning system in September 1964, enabling Hanoi to monitor and identify air traffic over the Gulf of Tonkin and Laos. Hanoi had asked Moscow for surface-to-air missile systems, operators and trainers, and in September 1964 the Soviets agreed to provide the SAMs and personnel. The Soviets again wore Vietnamese uniforms to give Moscow plausible deniability about their presence in North Vietnam. The new arrivals operated the Soviet-supplied systems and trained Vietnamese air defense crews, radar operators, technicians and officers.
By December 1964 North Vietnam had discarded all the World War IIera equipment and more than doubled its anti-aircraft batteries and radars. The number of radar and weapons sites was nearly double the amount of radars and weapons available to put in them. That enabled the air defense forces to move units, equipment and dummy weapons among the sites to complicate the targeting efforts of U.S. attackers. Gaps in the countrys radar coverage were shrinking rapidly as the number of radars increased and older radars gave way to modern ones.
Hanoi completed the integration of its domestic air defense networks in January 1965, establishing their headquarters at Hanois Bac Mai Airfield in a building near the air force headquarters. It originally contained two sections: the Air Situation Center, which received and processed air defense information, and the Air Weapons Control Staff, which resolved tracking ambiguities and coordinated the Air Defense Forces engagement of enemy aircraft. The senior controller determined which air defense center would engage which targets. The signals-intelligence system fed critical information to the center about enemy aircraft activity and intentions. Fighter pilots were on alert to scramble when approaching enemy aircraft were about 90 miles from Hanoi.
Outnumbered by a technologically superior opponent, the North Vietnamese Air Force intended to fight the equivalent of an aerial insurgency. Prolonged dogfights were to be avoided. Instead, pilots would intercept isolated U.S. aircraft when there was an opportunity for successful attack and escape. In the preferred tactic, an intercept flight of North Vietnamese planes attacked, while a similar-size covering flight protected the interceptors from American fighter escorts. The MiGs were prohibited from flying into designated anti-aircraft or SAM engagement zones, a rule that proved very hard to obey in the fast-moving tactical environment.
Hanois allies and intelligence services were structured to give the countrys air defenders the best possible battle space awareness. Covert intelligence agents were to infiltrate American air bases in South Vietnam, while observation and listening posts were positioned near U.S. air bases in Thailand and Laos to report flights crossing into Laos. Beijing and Moscow also agreed to provide intelligence about U.S. carrier aircraft operations in the South China Sea. North Vietnamese signals sites were directed to report key allied aircraft communications via land line to the Air Filtering Center and appropriate ground-control intercept stations. The goal was to ensure North Vietnams pilots had all the information they needed to execute their hit-and-run intercept tactics.
The Norths intelligence preparations were much better than the support planned for the first American aircrews to fly over North Vietnam. American signals intelligence coverage, particularly electronic intelligence, was limited to a handful of Air Force Douglas EB-66B Destroyer light bombers, the Marines Douglas EF-10 Skynight fighters and the Navys Douglas EA-1 Skyraider attack aircraft and EA-3 Skywarrior bomber. The only American radar coverage of North Vietnamese air space for most of Rolling Thunders first year came from Monkey Mountain just outside Da Nang, Navy ships and carrier-based Grumman E-1 Tracer airborne early warning planes.
Monkey Mountains radar and signals-intelligence coverage was limited to about 80 miles north of the DMZ. The Navys radars, designed for detecting targets over water, were not effective in tracking low-flying targets that were moving over jungle or had mountainous terrain in the background. The radar coverage reliably penetrated only about 35 miles inland. Lacking the sophisticated radars of today, U.S. Navy and Air Force planes operating over North Vietnam had only the eyes of their pilots and crew. They were on their own.
Meanwhile, Hanois leaders had mobilized their entire nation for a war effort that incorporated the conflicts political as well as military dimensions. North Vietnams air defense plans, operations and tactics were an integral component of that war effort. Recognizing that it could neither prevent nor defeat an American bombing campaign militarily, Hanoi assigned key objectives to its Air Defense Force in accordance with Le Duans strategic vision: thwart U.S. plans for using air power to force Hanoi to abandon its goal of conquering South Vietnam, and disrupt American bomb runs to decrease their accuracy while inflicting losses sufficient enough to undermine Americas political will.
As Johnsons January 1965 inauguration approached, North Vietnamese leaders felt they were a year away from being ready to withstand a major American bombing campaign. Much remained to be done. Pilots and ground-based controllers that guided the fighters to their targets were just beginning to practice their tactics. The support procedures for signals intelligence were only then being worked out. The anti-aircraft gun crews were honing their skills on the newly arriving weapons, and Soviet air defense personnel were starting to arrive in-country. The soon-to-be-famous SA-2 SAMs had been selected but were weeks away from delivery and months away from being operationally ready. Air defense equipment and weaponry was arriving daily but the training program was far from complete. North Vietnamese leaders were particularly worried about the potential American deployment of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers in the campaign because they had no weapons systems that could engage them, though their Soviet allies and media reports indicated that their concern was misplaced.
North Vietnamese leaders entered 1965 confident in their preparations and strategy. Ten years later their military would enter Saigon and take complete control of South Vietnam. The air war strategy was a major contributor to that success.
Carl O. Schuster is a retired Navy captain with 25 years of service. He finished his career as an intelligence officer. Schuster, who lives in Honolulu, is a teacher in Hawaii Pacific Universitys Diplomacy and Military Science program.
First published in Vietnam Magazines June 2016 issue.
A s gentrification swept across Brixton in the decade to 2016, rapid house price growth swiftly followed. Between 2013 and 2015, the average sold price for a property in the area increased by close to 200,000.
In neighbouring Streatham, while hardly languishing, house prices went up by a comparatively modest 127,000 over the same period, according to Land Registry figures.
However, in the last year a reversal of fortunes has seen prices in Streatham rise by 12.6 per cent, compared to 1.4 per cent in Brixton, reports estate agent KFH.
Family homes in Streatham still sell for roughly half the price of similar properties in nearby areas, according to Rightmove, which found the average price of a terrace house in Streatham was 596,000, compared to 1.2 million for similar properties in Clapham and Balham.
596,000: the average price of a terrace house in Streatham (Daniel Lynch)
Because house prices have gone up in such a short space of time in Brixton, people who bought flats for a low amount in 2012/13 may have doubled, or even more than doubled, their price, says Thomas Howe, Streatham sales manager for Foxtons. They can afford a house just up the hill from Brixton in Streatham for a very similar price to what theyre achieving on their flat.
The average price of renting and buying in Streatham
Type of home Buy Rent One-bedroom flat 338,449 1,187 pcm Two-bedroom flat 446,933 1,417 pcm Three-bedroom house 606,724 1,853 pcm Four-bedroom house 869,911 2,396 pcm
Source: Rightmove
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With its outstanding state schools and spacious housing stock a remnant of Streathams well-to-do past the area has seen an influx of young families cashing in on Brixton's house price growth.
Were a bit more affordable than Clapham or Brixton, but you get a much better property for your prices. A long time ago, Streatham was really expensive, so the housing stock is really grand and big, says Robert Cornthwaite, Streatham sales manager at KFH.
As a result, the high street, once voted the worst in Britain, is seeing its fortunes rise Streatham was number 17 on the recent Coffee Shop Index by Hamptons International, which linked the opening of coffee shops in an area with future house price growth. Along with the new London Square development and two new Marks and Spencer stores in the pipeline, locals agree that the futures bright for SW16.
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Streathams a bit of a micro-climate within this greater south-west London area. Its the last pocket where you can still get something more affordable, says Cornthwaite. People actually want to live here now and take advantage of the cheaper prices before they go up massively."
In response to recent price growth and the expectation that it will continue in 2017, estate agent Douglas & Gordon is rolling out a "virtual office", which has no physical high street presence, but two dedicated brokers working remotely. It says the total number of properties sold in Streatham rose by an average of 18.5 per cent between 2010 and 2015, almost double the rate in Brixton, which increased by 10.6 per cent in the same period.
When deciding on new areas in which to operate, one of the things you look for is volume of properties hitting the market, says Charlie Mitchell, property broker in Streatham at Douglas & Gordon. When you dig into the Streatham market, its very easy to make the argument the area is on the brink of doing what Brixton did five years ago rapid, sustained growth in terms of property market volume and value.
New Hotel Brand Launches with First Property in NYC's NoMad Neighborhood
Set in Historic 31st Street building That Once Housed LIFE Magazine
Project Led by Industry Veterans David Mitchell and Stephen Hanson
New York, NY -- The doors are officially open at the first-ever Life Hotel in Manhattan's burgeoning NoMad neighborhood. Located at 19 West 31st Street (between Broadway and Fifth Avenue) in the original building that once housed LIFE magazine, the hotel echoes the original dual-use of this iconic property where celebrated writers and artists like Norman Rockwell, Charles Gibson, and John Ames Mitchell worked, resided, and played. By offering a smartly priced and wholly service-centric experience, Life Hotel is introducing a new category of hotel for today's traveler, blurring the lines between work and play.
Behind the project are two powerhouses and longtime friends: real estate developer David Mitchell (SoHo Beach House, Las Vegas City Hall, The Whitman New York) and hospitality veteran Stephen Hanson, who founded and oversaw BR Guest Hospitality (Dos Caminos, Blue Water Grill, James Hotel, Postcard Inn) for over 25 years.
"The journey we've taken from first stepping foot into this building to opening day has been one of passion and discovery; it has been an archeological dig from day one," says Mitchell. "There is so much history behind these walls that we were keen to keep in tact while creating a hotel that goes far beyond the typical."
Hanson adds, "The Life brand is all about four-star service at a smart and accessible price. You'll feel that personal touch and value from the moment you walk into the lobby - the buzz and excitement of people working from our communal tables, enjoying a cocktail at the bar or a bite in the restaurant will be enough to convince you that you're not in an average hotel. And just wait until you experience a night in one of our guest rooms."
Commissioned by Carrere and Hastings (New York Public Library) in 1895, the building has been transformed by designer and BR Guest alumna Tara Oxley, who peeled away the layers of 122 years of mixed use to reveal architectural details in everything from wood moldings to original marble flooring. Inspired by the infrastructure and craftsmanship, Oxley created a warm, inviting environment that complements the original architecture juxtaposing traditional and contemporary design. The rooms themselves, of which there are 98, feature high ceilings, wood floors with exposed concrete, airy white walls and original molding. Mitchell and Hanson are avid art collectors and they have tapped a number of young NYC artists to create nearly 200 pieces of original art for the guest rooms and will feature Australian fine art photographer Steven Laxton throughout the corridors of the hotel. These works will be part of a larger initiative to offer a curated artistic experience that is constantly being reimagined to reflect new and upcoming talent.
Life Hotel features a lobby bar and lounge outfitted with a variety of comfortable seating for approximately 40 people, encouraging guests and locals alike to work, chat and imbibe at their leisure. The 18-seat stone bar will initially be open for hotel guests only serving wine, beer and light bites in the afternoons and evenings and acting as the continental breakfast nook for guests in the morning. Soon after launch, the lobby bar will be open to the public (with a full bar), and Hanson will open Life Restaurant on the ground floor with NYC chef and BR Guest alumnus Chef Michael Vignola (previously of Strip House, Aquavit, and The Modern) at the helm. Additionally, a forthcoming basement bar will highlight the space's rich history as it is rumored to have once been used as a speakeasy by LIFE staffers during prohibition.
With amenities and services like industry-grade wi-fi, Google Chrome Casting, all-natural + socially conscious LATHER bath products, access to a 24/7 fitness facility outfitted with Peloton stationary bikes, and a pet-friendly policy, a stay at Life Hotel is easy. Whether a guest needs a coffee to go or a last minute dry cleaner, Life Hotel's awesome, friendly staff is only a text message or call away and allows guests to live life elegantly with no rules.
Rates start at $249 per night. The hotel is located at 19 West 31st Street (between Broadway and Fifth Avenue) and is now open for reservations and stays. For more details please call 212.615.9900 or visit http://www.lifehotel.com. Reservations can be made here.
Erin Pepper
Life Hotel | VP, Brand and Experience
516.356.5587
Life Hotel
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While Chris Brown is on tour performing his many hits, Karrueche Tran was attending a party of her own. C-Breezys ex-girlfriend watched Migos backstage at Gulf Coast Spring Fest in Biloxi, Mississippi. And, according to TMZ, she left in a truck, alone with Quavo.
The gossip mag said after Migos left the stage, Karrueche linked up with the group and Quavo hugged the model. They then shared the backseat of a truck by themselves.
Though she is intent on moving on from Chris Brown, the former couple are still in the midst of a court battle. Tran wants to have a permanent restraining order put on Breezy, claiming he threatened to kill her and was abusive during their relationship.
A few weeks ago, Brown took to social media to send out a message to exes who thought they could do better without him.
If I love you bitch, aint nobody going to have you, he said in the video post. Imma make you miserable. Imma chase that nigga out, imma chase your ass around.
Quavo & Karrueche
Holy smoke! One of the co-writers of Father Ted has revealed that he could potentially see a musical adaption of the smash hit TV series, which would involve an hilarious dance sequence in the Vatican with spinning cardinals!
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WASHINGTON - Seated at the front of his House Science Committee hearing room last month, Rep. Lamar Smith leaned back as a panel of climate scientists bickered, accusing each other of everything from climate denial to bullying to miscalculating data collected by satellites.
But when it came to the fundamental issue - that human activity is driving the planet's climate in a dangerous direction - there was no disagreement. Undaunted, Smith, R-San Antonio, focused his questioning on long-standing and sometimes personal disagreements between the scientists until that fundamental area of agreement was lost on most anyone in the room without a PhD.
After the hearing, even one of Smith's own witnesses, Roger Pielke Jr., an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, expressed disbelief that politicians like Smith were still arguing over the science when the evidence to justify action on climate change is three decades old. "It's all a bizarro world," he said.
"They're fighting back with the tools they have, which is politics, and the scientists are fighting with what they have, knowledge," Pielke added "And it's a big mess in the mud."
With a pronounced climate change skeptic in the White House in President Donald Trump, Smith, the powerful Republican chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, has ramped up his campaign to pick at the foundations of climate science, battling against emissions policies that threaten fossil fuel industries and questioning the government's relationship with science itself.
For the better part of two years, Smith has staged regular hearings in which he has accused established scientists of manipulating data and bullying those with contrarian points of view. The campaign follows the 2015 climate accord in Paris, where nearly 200 world leaders agreed forecasts had become so dire that countries needed to work together immediately to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
Questioning forecasts
Smith's decision to take on that global consensus might generate cheers in the oil and gas fields, but in Washington the 69-year-old congressman is drawing heat - not only from Democrats and environmentalists but also universities and researchers. During the hearing last month, Michael Mann, a well-regarded climate scientist from Penn State University, compared the activities of the House Science Committee to that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, whose decision to promote the theories of the fringe agronomist Trofim Lysenko contributed to chronic food shortages in that country.
But Smith, a bespectacled Yale grad and former journalist at the Christian Science Monitor, avoids grandiose proclamations and sticks to carefully worded critiques that exploit real disagreements within the scientific community. A lawyer by training, Smith says he believes climate change is real and humans play some role but questions the dire forecasts of fast-rising oceans and widespread drought.
In an email, Smith said it's important that climate research continues and low-carbon technology gets developed but described his role as one of double-checking the scientific record to protect against poor decisions.
"Before any major policy action takes place, the merits of its environmental and economic impact should be scrutinized so that the greatest benefit can be bestowed on the American people," he said in the email. "Congress has a responsibility to increase the quality of life for the American people."
In February, for instance, Smith pounced when a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote a post on a scientific blog about a colleague rushing the results in a climate change paper to get it published ahead of the Paris conference. The rift was over procedure - the colleague had failed to handle and archive the data according to department protocols - not over the substance of the paper, as the scientist, John Bates, later told the Associated Press.
But it was enough for Smith to order a news release with the headline, "Former NOAA Scientist Confirms Colleagues Manipulated Climate Records."
As in any scientific field, climate change is rife with opposing points of view and contrarians who push back when they believe their colleagues overshoot the mark. And Smith is adept at finding those disagreements and exploiting them, scientists and other critics say, with the end result of muddying the debate and delaying action.
'It's a puzzle to me'
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, the ranking Democrat on the Science Committee who has come to represent the pro-climate science voice on the panel, says she fears Smith is putting the committee's reputation as an objective body at risk.
"It's a puzzle to me. I have a good working relationship with him, but I can't seem to draw him out on what he has an objection to," she said. "During the Obama years, I thought it was all political, but it has continued through the end of that administration."
Smith's attacks on climate science come as the consensus on the causes and effects of global warming has grown so wide that even large oil companies such as Exxon Mobil are urging action. Within the Republican Party, luminaries including former Secretary of State James Baker and former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson are pressing the White House to support a carbon tax to discourage fuels that produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas.
But Smith represents a still powerful strain within the Republican Party for which climate change policy is a non-starter, said Bob Inglis, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina who lost his primary after favoring policies aimed at slowing climate change. Inglis said he believes Smith has stepped up his campaign because he sees the debate and facts shifting against him.
"People put in that position usually start to dig in," he said.
Back in Smith's home district, which covers the bucolic Hill Country region between San Antonio and Austin, such a world view borders on anathema.
There is little in the way of oil and gas wells there, but it is a rural idyll where conservative principles stand tall and many have worked in the oil fields to the west in the Permian Basin and the south in the Eagle Ford, said Ruth Pharis, chair of the Republican Party in Comal County, which lies in Smith's district. Pharis said so much is still unknown about how climate change will play out that it doesn't make sense to stop using the plentiful oil and gas that lies beneath states like Texas.
"The people that settled here, they were mostly German, hard-working, grew their own food and didn't take a dime from anyone. It's changed with time, but there's still that strain of people living here," said Pharis, 83. "Lamar's a pretty conservative guy, and he pretty much listens to his constituents. I've never been disappointed."
The climate change fight parallels Smith's broader push to rein in a scientific community that he argues is too quick to jump to conclusions and fails to account for differences of opinion within its ranks.
"The days of trust-me science are over," he said at a recent conference on climate change hosted by the conservative Heartland Institute. Already, Smith has legislation in various stages of development that would, among other things, change federal conflict of interest statutes to give scientists employed by industrial and energy companies a greater presence on the scientific board that advises the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
More legislation
Another bill, called the HONEST Act, would require the EPA to rely only on scientific studies for which the underlying data is available to the public and can be reproduced. But the data on many health studies is kept confidential, to protect patients and the companies that share their emissions reports with scientists.
Universities and medical researchers at-large have come out in opposition, arguing it would limit EPA's access to science and slow needed regulation.
The genesis of the legislation, a staffer with the House Science Committee explained, was a pair of studies commissioned by Harvard University and the American Cancer Society that found people living in cities with dirtier air tended to die earlier - the basis for a number of EPA air pollution regulations.
The underlying health and air quality data behind the studies is not publicly available but must be requested by scientists who want to analyze it. And, the staffer explained, some scientists were not given access to that data, pointing to the work of James Enstrom, a medical researcher dismissed from UCLA in 2012 over what he claimed were his controversial theories on air pollution.
Reached at the Scientific Integrity Institute, an organization he founded in Los Angeles, Enstrom said the American Cancer Society refused to work with him because he accused their study of cherry picking findings to make it look like fine particulate matter was more dangerous to human health than it really is.
"My paper is a breakthrough," he said. "But it's been very hard. A number of these journals didn't even review it."
Echoing Enstrom, Pielke and other scientists called by Smith to testify at the climate change hearing complained of an elitism within their field that attempts to shout down disagreements that might undermine efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
And Smith was ready to cheer them on. At one point he said the 137-year-old journal Science, one of most respected scientific journals in the world, was not "objective."
Judith Curry, one of the climate scientists called by Smith to testify at the climate change hearing, complained the controversy that erupted when she questioned other scientists' work led her to resign her tenured position at Georgia Tech. Smith's first question asked her to explain "the biases" within the field, and Curry ran through a laundry list of technical jargon about thermodynamic feedback and ocean oscillations, leaving one to believe she agreed with her inquisitor's point of view.
Only Curry does not question that climate change is a significant threat to the planet. She simply argues that some scientists "are denying uncertainty in certain areas," said Kenneth Evans a post-doctoral fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
"That's her thing, and she basically wants to go figure things out," he said. "When it came out (at the hearing) it sounded awkward. But this is exactly what the House science committee wanted, internal bickering between scientists that bolstered their argument."
The team behind the much-praised, multi-honored Helen Greek Food and Wine are set to open their sister restaurant, the casual Greek taverna called Helen in the Heights. The new sibling, 1111 Studewood, takes the place of Arthur Ave Italian American, a concept the team closed last month after about eight months of operation. Their disappointment in the Italian concept's failure in the Heights was met with an equal measure of excitement when the Helen team decided to rebrand the space as an extension of the Greek restaurant they opened to such acclaim.
Helen in the Heights, after a quick design turnaround, is ready to start serving up taverna-style food and drink on April 11.
Here are five things you need to know about Helen in the Heights:
1.The team is solid: The same folks who made Helen in Rice Village a hit are on board with Helen in the Heights. Sommelier Evan Turner, responsible for creating Helen Greek Food and Wine, will be a recognizable presence. Executive chef William Wright will be aided by his chef de cuisine Mercedes Gomez. And look for director of operations, Tim Faiola, an original Helen partner.
2.There will be feta: Don't expect the same type of food as Helen Greek Food and Wine. Although the new menu will be executed by Wright whose cooking garnered national media attention, the food at Helen in the Heights will focus on classic Greek dishes such as patstitsio, gyros and souvlakis, moussaka, shrimp saganaki, green-n-cheese pie, and a Greek salad topped by a healthy wedge of feta.
FRESH MENU: Team behind Anvil and Oxheart step into the Heights
3. Shout about it: Opa!: Like its big sister that carried one of the country's biggest and most varied Greek wine lists in the country, the new restaurant also will feature a 100 percent Greek wine menu (with every bottle priced at $80 or less, and all available by the glass). The beverage program, created by Turner and bar manager Josh Bearden, also will include the largest selection of Greek spirits in Texas.
4.Helen Ready: The 29-year-old Wright is planning to take his Greek culinary passions in a new direction. "The concept we are looking to execute with Helen in the Heights is going to be very different form Helen Greek Food and Wine. I think a lot of guests are expecting a duplication of that project, but Helen in the Heights will be creative and unique on its own, offering dishes and other elements that can't be found at the original Helen," Wright said, adding that the new menu will include more meze (Greek version of tapas) plates.
5. Greek temple: Helen's (and Arthur Ave's) original designer Erin Hicks had to quickly refresh the space with shades of Aegean blue against whitewashed walls. Look for Minoan-inspired frescos and other Greek touches throughout the 3,000-square-foot restaurant that features an outdoor patio.
Helen in the Heights will be open for dinner only for the first two weeks when it assumes regular business hours: Tuesday through Thursday from 11 am. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. followed by supper from 4 to 9 p.m.
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Jim Gaffigan is getting away with murdering fast food joints. How does he do that?
Fifteen years ago, I wrote an absolutely rave review about a new burger place in town, but mistakenly said they had sesame seeds on their burger buns - when actually the buns had poppy seeds. I corrected it, apologized, gave my first born to the owner, but I still hear about it every time I go in there. I like the burgers, so I endure the abuse.
Meanwhile Jim Gaffigan has carved out a wildly successful career onstage, on TV, on CDs absolutely destroying fast food joints and roadside greasy spoons.
Here are a few of his thoughts about Waffle House.
"I went to Waffle House last night. I'll tell ya, I thought the IHOP was a dump until I went into a Waffle House. Wow, they're not even trying in there! Here's something you'll never hear in a Waffle House, 'Nice job cleaning up!' Now if you've never been to a Waffle House, just imagine a gas station bathroom that sells waffles. Now you've been to a Waffle House.
"It's the people in there. It's like a white trash convention, or for me, a family reunion! I've seen a gun five times in my life, three of those were in Waffle Houses. Their slogan should be: 'It's 2 a.m., still time to make one more bad decision.' Did you ever go in a Waffle House during the day? That's weird. This place looks familiar. I think I threw up in here. Oh, there it is!"
More Information A Celebration of Reading When: April 20 Where: Hobby Center Tickets: Tickets start at $100 and table sponsorships begin at $5,000. Information: bushhoustonliteracy.org. See More Collapse
A little harsher, wouldn't you say, than mixing up sesame seeds and poppy seeds on burger buns? But does Waffle House tear into Gaffigan and never let go?
No, Mr. Waffle House asks to have a photo taken with him!
"This was a few years ago and I did a benefit in Atlanta, the home of Waffle House," Gaffigan said. "I was just developing my Waffle House material and did it. I was told, 'the Waffle House guy is here!' He may have been a sponsor of the event and everything. Anyway, we met after the show and he was great about it. We took a photo. I love Waffle House. They know it's not exactly fine dining."
No word yet from Hot Pockets about scheduling a photo shoot with Gaffigan.
"They recently invented the breakfast Hot Pocket. Finally! I can't think of a better way to start the day. Good morning, you're about to call in sick. Now I can have a Hot Pocket for breakfast, a Hot Pocket for lunch, and be dead by dinner. There is the vegetarian Hot Pocket for those of us who don't want to eat meat, but would still like diarrhea."
Or Subway.
"Subway eat fresh! Then you bite into their sandwich and not so fresh. Not fresh at all. I go there, and not just because it's fun watching a clinically depressed person throw together your sandwich."
He does a nine-minute bit on McDonald's where he meets a friend inside the Golden Arches. Rather than admit he eats Big Macs, Gaffigan tells the friend he's there to meet a hooker.
Gaffigan is coming to Houston to read a passage from his bestselling book, "Food: A Love Story" at the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation's annual fundraiser, "A Celebration of Reading," April 20 at the Hobby Center. Other authors scheduled to appear and read from their books: Sue Grafton and Bill Browder. I'm not aware of their feelings about Jack in the Box or Burger King.
"When I was approached to do this, I was more than happy to say yes," Gaffigan said. "I remember Barbara Bush's involvement with literacy from when she was in the White House. So I've been aware of her efforts to promote literacy for 25 years now."
Gaffigan is sort of a surprising choice to promote literacy and celebrate reading. In the past, in his act, he's said:
"Ever read a book that changed your life? Me, neither."
"Ever read an article, and at the bottom, it says, 'Continued on Page 6'? I'm like, 'Not for me. I'm done.'
"Ever talk about a movie with someone that read the book? They're always so condescending. 'Ah, the book was much better than the movie.' Oh really? What I enjoyed about the movie: no reading."
He's kidding. His first book, "Dad is Fat," shot directly to No. 5 on the bestsellers list in 2013 and stayed there for 178 consecutive weeks, and his second book, "Food: A Love Story" was a smash the following year. But he says he wasn't a natural reader as a kid growing up in Indiana.
"I had really poor eyesight. Reading was something I struggled with. Now I am the parent of five, I guess you could call them children, but they're really a pack of animals. It's a cliche, but I think it's harder for boys to latch onto reading. As a parent, I'm always trying to trick my boys into reading," Gaffigan said.
He knows that getting children - and adults - to read books can be a tough sell. Smart phones and iPads and movies are so much easier.
"When I was in the seventh grade, I did an essay on the Jonestown Massacre. I had to go to the library. My daughter, who's 12, did a report on Harvey Milk. The first thing she did was go to Netflix. After she watched that documentary, she went online and all the information was there. It's so easy. We should be so much smarter now.
"That's why I wanted to write books - books that I would want to read. They're accessible, not filled with huge words and flowery language where you have to Google search every other word. Reading is very important to me now. It's helpful to me in coming up with material. I'm very proud of my books. My publisher told me they're re-releasing "Dad is Fat.' I don't know what that means, but they're shipping another 50,000 copies of it. The fact that people are continuing to read it is very exciting."
Here's an amazing coincidence, "Dad is Fat" and Gaffigan's fifth comedy CD, "Cinco," are both coming out just in time for Father's Day.
Houstonians living in the most diverse large metropolitan area in the country know that behind those numbers are plenty of segregated neighborhoods. It's a recurring theme in research about this region and many others across the country.
Now, a new study examining the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. finds that much of that segregation is thanks, in part, to white families seeking out white neighborhoods and, specifically, predominantly white schools. So even as residential segregation has been declining in recent decades, the new report from the University of Southern California found that those declines were smaller for children with families.
"This means that children are surrounded by greater racial homogeneity in their neighborhoods than adults," said Ann Owens, an assistant professor at the university and author of the study, in a statement.
Comparing data from the 2000 and 2010 Census in the 100 largest metros, Owens measured segregation in a number of ways, including looking at both adults' and children's exposure to other racial and ethnic groups as well as the evenness of each census matching the overall demographic profile of the region.
By looking at families with children, Owens hoped to better understand the link between schools and segregation. She noted that even with the rise of school choice policies which let parents enroll their kids in schools they aren't zoned to the majority of public school students still attend their neighborhood school anyway.
White families, in particular, seemed to drive the segregation, according to Owens' analysis. Those families often more economically advantaged and thus more able to locate in expensive areas also factor in racial composition of neighborhoods and schools in deciding where to live, according to prior research.
Andrea Zelinksi: House all but scuttles Patrick's school choice bill
Locally, here in Houston, Kinder Institute research has also reached similar conclusions. Among economically advantaged parents living in affluent neighborhoods in the Houston Independent District, "poor minority students have come to represent a sort of collective code for failing, low-quality schools as well as impoverished and dangerous neighborhoods," determined a 2015 study by the Kinder Institute's Houston Education Research Consortium.
Parents asked to discuss how they chose the best school option revealed an understanding of quality that was "most often shaped by larger cultural understandings of race and class, rather than by school academic quality indicators."
Not only does that trend drive segregation within a district think of the highly competitive magnet programs that enroll disproportionately high levels of white and Asian students in HISD but it also contributes to segregation between districts, which actually accounts for more segregation overall, according to Owens.
"White parents may be avoiding school districts where black and Latino children live because they use racial composition as a proxy for quality of a school and a neighborhood," Owens said in a release about the report.
Kinder Institute research bears out that idea locally, too. Twenty percent of white survey respondents in Harris County said they probably wouldn't move into a new house if the neighborhood was 60 percent black, even if it was their dream house close to work, crime rates were low and the schools were high-quality, according to data from the 2016 Kinder Houston Area Survey. And the bias tended to be more against black people than Hispanic people: Only 8 percent of white respondents said the same thing about a neighborhood that was 60 percent Hispanic.
And even though black, Hispanic and Asian parents might also factor school composition into their decisions about where to live, Owens notes in the report, their options are likely more limited than those of white families. Black and Latino families have lower incomes on average than white families, and they face housing market discrimination that influences where they live, regardless of the high value that they might place on school options, Owens said.
In the largest metropolitan areas, Owens found, the average black child lives in a neighborhood where the majority of the other kids are black. Hispanic children and white children also tended to live in a neighborhoods where most of the kids shared their same background. Across the board, children were in neighborhoods with more segregated populations when measuring exposure to their own age group than adults.
Unsurprisingly, as the Hispanic population grows largely due to new births, all groups of children were more exposed to Hispanic children between 2000 and 2010.
Building on a growing body of research tying neighborhoods to a wide range of disparities, the report notes, "Higher segregation among children than adults suggests that more minority children than minority adults are exposed to neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage."
Because school selection is one of the factors driving segregation, the report argues, policymakers need to understand how neighborhood segregation is connected to school segregation.
"The two contexts are intertwined," the report concludes, "and a policy that breaks the link between school attendance and neighborhood residence beyond intra-district school choice plans is necessary to break the cyclical relationship and reduce inequality among both contexts."
Leah Binkovitz (@leahbink), formerly of the Houston Chronicle, is now a staff writer for Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research. This story originally appeared on the Kinder Institute's blog, The Urban Edge.
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After two and a half years as chief executive officer of Bay Area Regional Medical Center, Tim Schmidt, has announced he will step down and focus on his health. Schmidt has battled cancer during his tenure as CEO.
"It's with mixed emotions that I step down as CEO," said Schmidt. "It has been a pleasure and privilege to lead Bay Area Regional. Bay Area Regional is a strong organization with dedicated board members, staff and physicians. I am proud of what we have accomplished over the last few years and know the hospital's success will continue long into the future."
Dozens of protesters lined Peach Avenue in Cleveland Saturday for the arrival of high-ranking Republicans at a fundraiser hosted by the San Jacinto County Republican Party. Driving past signs and banners criticizing their politics, Senator Ted Cruz, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady arrived to find hundreds of GOP supporters inside the Cleveland Senior Citizens Center where the gala went on as planned.
The protesters, who came from all around the greater Houston area and had disparate concerns, say the lack of response is exactly what they expected.
"I've been trying to get an appointment to see Senator Cruz since Dec. 20, 2016. I was told to make an appointment through his scheduler and he would hear our concerns. I never heard back from his office," said Liz McConnell, a paralegal from Houston. "He says he represents us all but he won't hear us. I understand he can't vote to please everyone but he needs to hear the stories from these people who have open heart surgery scheduled to replace a pacemaker battery in the fall and they don't know if they will have health care at that time or what it will look like."
McConnell says she isn't worried about her own health care plan, as it is provided through her employer, but she fears for people who might lose their health insurance if Obamacare is repealed and replaced by the current health care bill.
"I understand there are problems with the health care system as it stands but fix it, don't repeal and replace with something worse," she said. "The state of our health care system in this country is appalling. I understand Senator Cruz is going to vote how he votes but I think he owes the people to look them in the eye and hear their stories first."
Darnell Bennett of Lufkin, who worked for UTMB in Galveston for years, says she joined the protest out of concern that lifting EPA regulations could prove harmful for future generations.
Bennett and other protesters laughed when asked if they were paid to take part in the protest, which has been rumored by the Trump Administration and Republican lawmakers.
"We are not paid. I wouldn't do this for pay," she said. "I am doing this because I am concerned about my grandchildren."
Cruz says 2017 could be blockbuster year for GOP
Inside the center, the protesters did not go unnoticed by Cruz and Patrick as they referenced them in their comments to the crowd. Cruz joked that the easiest way for law enforcement to disperse the protesters was to tell them to get a job if they remained.
After drawing laughs from the crowd, Cruz turned to more serious topics such as two important pieces of legislation he wrote that were signed into law by President Donald Trump.
"In the last three weeks, I have been privileged to have two pieces of legislation that I authored signed into law by the President of the United States. The first was the NASA Authorization Bill," Cruz said. "Starting a year ago, I began working with Democrats and Republicans to bring them together for the authorization bill. We did that without knowing who the next president would be, and I promise you a year ago I did not know it would be Donald Trump. What I did know is that past presidential transitions, be they Democrat or Republican, have been bad for NASA."
The second bill signed into law allows states to require, as a condition of unemployment benefits, drug testing.
Cruz laid out four priorities he hopes will be accomplished in 2017, one of which has already been checked off the list with the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as justice to the Supreme Court.
"This election in many ways was a referendum on the Supreme Court," he said. "We voted for a strong Constitution, strong Bill of Rights and a strong conservative presence on the Supreme Court."
According to Cruz, his second priority is reforming Obamacare.
"We have to replace the train wreck that is Obamacare," he said. "I am convinced we can and will get it right."
His third and fourth priorities deal with reforming regulatory laws that stifle business and a tax system that overburdens the middle class.
"I say we should pass a simple flat tax and abolish the IRS. We should padlock the IRS building and take all of the 90,000 IRS agents and put them down on our southern border," Cruz said. "Some people say something that radical could never happen. Something radical? You mean like electing Donald Trump as president?"
If tax reform proves to be successful, 2017 could be a blockbuster year for Republicans, he added.
"On the other hand, if we screw it up, 2017 will be an epic failure," he said. "I say hold every one of us accountable. We have a majority in every branch of government and it's about time we act like it."
Lt. Governor discusses bathroom bill, Texas growth
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick did a little bragging about Texas during his speech before detailing legislation passed under his leadership of the Texas Senate.
"The Texas economy is the 10th largest in the world. If we were a nation, we would be larger than Russia when it comes to GDP. Think about that. Only nine other countries have a larger GPD than Texas," Patrick said. "Ours is $1.6 trillion. We are growing. In 2000, there were 18 million of us. Today, there are 27 million people in Texas. We have added 9 million people in 16 years.
"Projections are that by 2040, we are going to add 15 million people to the state. So from 2000 to 2040, we will grow from 18 million to 42 million people. Why are they coming? Because Texas is the America that all America used to be," he said. "One senate district in Texas is bigger than the population of five states. Larger than Alaska, Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota and South Dakota. We are a big place and what we do matters. The world needs a strong America but America needs a strong Texas."
Patrick said when this year's legislative session began, he laid out 30 priorities he hoped to accomplish.
"Of the 30, we've passed 29," he said.
The bills include Senate Bill 16, which lowers the fee for concealed carry permits, and Senate Bill 4 that addresses sanctuary cities.
"Why is it important that we don't have sanctuary cities? I am a numbers guy, remember? Since 2011 to January of this year in Texas, we have arrested over 212,000 criminal aliens. Of the 212,000, we've charged them with 566,000 crimes. Think about that," he said. "Of those, 1,043 are murders, 6,001 are sexual assaults, 67,200 drug offenses and 489 are kidnappings."
Patrick believes the country needs legal immigration reform and says the United States cannot continue to "educate and medicate the whole world."
"I believe President Trump can accomplish immigration reform so people can come here with dignity and not live in the shadows. But we must control who comes into this country, not the drug cartels, and right now they are in charge of who is coming in," he said.
Patrick also defended his Senate Bill 6, also referred to as the Texas Privacy Act, which has proven to be very divisive for lawmakers and Texans.
"People say, 'Well Dan, why do you have to pass this?' Here's the reason. Men don't belong in the ladies' restrooms and boys and girls shouldn't shower together in the 10th grade. We passed the bill a month ago and now it is up to the House," he said.
Though he admits the issue impacts "only a thimble full of cases," Patrick remains resolute that the law is needed.
"We had two superintendents in two school districts that said boys and girls could shower together and we aren't going to call boys boys and girls girls. That was in Fort Worth and Dripping Springs. They said if any school teacher told a parent that little Johnny was Mary during the day the teacher would be fired. That's not right. Chapter 26 in the education code says you as a parent have a right to know everything about your child at school," Patrick said.
"Again this is not about discriminating against the transgender population. In the adult world, what would happen today if a man walked into a restroom? Right now you can say, 'Get out of here.' You could call for help. But if law is that any man can walk into a bathroom if they feel like they identify as a woman, that means you ladies can't say anything. You can't say anything. We, in the Texas Senate, and I hope the House will join us, are going to protect our granddaughters, daughters, sisters, mothers and wives. We are not going to let that happen in Texas," he said.
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Atascocita High School dance teacher Carlee Kennedy was named the Humble ISD Teacher of the Year and awarded a 2017 Buick Encore at the Education Foundation's gala Friday night.
Out of 10 finalists at Humble Independent School District, Kennedy was crowned the winner and rushed to see her brand new red Buick, sponsored by Bert Brocker of Texan GMC.
"I'm so excited. I'm speechless, honestly. I'm so ready to represent Humble ISD, the school district that molded me into the educator that I am today. I'm so ready to represent them at the next level," Kennedy said.
Kennedy has always had a passion for fine arts and dance.
"I love being able to share my love for fine arts with others, and spreading that and teaching is just the best way to do it, especially in public education," Kennedy said.
Starting off as a speech therapist assistant and having a passion for dance made her realized there is no reason not to combine the two worlds.
"I have the best of both worlds. Why can't I work with special needs students as well as my dance students and mix it all together, and that's been my project this year," Kennedy said.
Her plan kicked off by starting an integrated dance team, Stars and Stripes, which is a special needs and general needs dance group.
"My hope and my plan is to spread this into every single school in the school district and have an integrated fine arts program throughout Humble ISD as well," Kennedy said.
Kennedy said seeing how happy her students are the moment they walk into her classroom is why she plans to spread this program across the district.
"As they walk through the door, because of their big smiles on their faces and how excited they are to dance, to learn, to socialize, they have become the best part of my day. I can't wait to continue this program," Kennedy said.
The Elementary Teacher of the Year and district runner up was Tara Rogers, of Atascocita Springs, who received two first-class tickets donated from United Airlines to her home in Islamorada, Florida.
Having only been teaching for four years, Rogers said she didn't realize she had left an impact on the district.
"I've only been teaching for four years and so to come in, I feel like I've left a good impression on everyone, and I'm kind of making my way," Rogers said.
Rogers started her career as a fourth-grade teacher because of her own fourth-grade teacher who constantly encouraged her.
"She was always there for me. She knew the situation that I was coming from, and that I was going to need some extra support and things put in place to be successful," Rogers said.
All district Teachers of the Year and 2017-2018 finalists were selected by a district selection committee based off of essays submitted and interviews conducted in March.
Each district finalist was presented with and iPad donated by parents and alumni Jonathan and Carrie Brinsden, and iPad covers were donated by LogoStuff.
District Teacher of the Year Finalists are:
Tara Rogers of Atascocita Springs Elementary
Sherry Grimes of Lakeshore Elementary
Erin Conry of Maplebrook Elementary
Lori Rose of Shadow Forest Elementary
Phil O'Neal of Summerwood Elementary
Priscilla Kovacik of Atascocita Middle
Ellen Chaney of Creekwood Middle
Shayla Green of Riverwood Middle
Carlee Kennedy of Atascocita High
David Kniess of Kingwood High
Cemeteries, like funerals, aren't really about death. They're about life.
Jimmie C. West Jr. is buried in his family's plot at a small cemetery in Aldine. After West died of a heart attack in 1997, at age 52, relatives found a disposable camera - remember those? - in his boat. They developed the film. One of the images showed West, an avid fisherman, holding a bass he had caught on Lake Conroe.
A day on the lake. A nice bass to bring home for supper. A photo for posterity. Life.
On Saturday, Cherry West held that framed photo of her late husband and his fish as she and 21 other men and women gathered for prayer at the cemetery in northeast Harris County. They stood in a circle, hands joined, and took turns asking for divine help and guidance. Beneath their feet lay the remains of great-grandparents, sisters, mothers and fathers and cousins.
"There's no way to make it right," said Tammie West Wall, Jimmie's daughter. "But give us closure."
Last November, workers with heavy equipment removed and damaged headstones while clearing the cemetery grounds. Since then, Wall has spent most of her weekends, lunch hours and random spare moments struggling to find out how this happened, to hold someone accountable, to get the headstones replaced, and to ensure the protection of the cemetery in the future.
Her head is buzzing with the names of all the people she's consulted - lawyers, prosecutors, aides to public officials, experts on historic cemeteries. Most recently, she spoke to officials at the Texas Department of Banking, which regulates perpetual care cemeteries. And she organized the Saturday prayer vigil.
Her own family's markers were spared that day - they still stand, carefully tended, near the front of the cemetery. But she feels an obligation to the other families, and to their ancestors buried in this secluded place.
While much about what happened remains unclear to the families, the picture that's gradually emerging suggests that a combination of poor communications and terrible judgment led to the desecration of some graves by workers hired to prepare the site for additional burials.
Valerie Turner, a Harris County assistant district attorney who has looked into the case and consulted with families, said she believes at least four or five headstones - "probably more" - were removed, and many were damaged. Family members found parts of broken markers scattered around the site.
Turner said she hasn't made a final decision about filing charges in the case, but for now the evidence seems to be lacking.
"I don't doubt that there was a bad act, and we all wish it hadn't happened," Turner said. "Obviously everyone is very emotional about it, and I don't blame them for that."
Ibrahim Badat, the Houston businessman who hired the workers to clear the site, has offered to replace missing or damaged markers, Turner said. Some of the families have begun soliciting bids, although the original markers may be hard to match. No one seems to have good burial records; crews with high-tech equipment have been out at the cemetery to try to pinpoint the location of all the remains.
When I went to Badat's office to talk to him, he referred me to his attorney, Charles Maynard. Maynard said he wasn't ready to talk on the record. The owner of the property, Sugar Land attorney Corwin Teltschik, has not returned my calls since I started writing about this matter last December.
All of this silence and secrecy isn't helping the families, who continue to express bewilderment at how such a thing could have happened. West told me, though, that this trauma has yielded one positive effect: She has connected, or reconnected, with descendants of others buried at the cemetery.
Now she has new people to worry about. She told me that Al Seeliger, 75, whose grandfather's headstone was among those removed, has a serious heart condition, and she's concerned about the effects of this stress on his health.
Many of those who attended Saturday's prayer vigil, now in their 60s or 70s, grew up in Aldine when it was a rural area. Now they live all over: Willis, Lake Livingston, Jersey Village, North Texas. Some recalled playing at the cemetery while their parents tended to relatives' graves decades ago.
West and other family members still believe someone responsible should face consequences - who thinks it's OK to remove a headstone from a grave? But if Badat follows through on his reported offer to replace the markers, and if steps can be taken to ensure that the cemetery is protected and maintained, the families might gain a measure of the closure that West prayed for.
The pain of this experience, though, is likely to linger.
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A prominent local law enforcement officer gunned down Monday in an apparent ambush told county officials last week he felt threatened by a man he'd once targeted in a corruption investigation.
Clint Greenwood - three months into a new job as a chief deputy constable - shared his concerns with officials in the Harris County Attorney's Office who were handling an administrative matter related to the case, according to a source who asked not to be identified because of the nature of the investigation.
"I believe (this person) poses a real threat to my (safety) and my family's safety," Greenwood said in an email sent Thursday to the county attorney's office.
Greenwood was shot to death before 7 a.m. Monday, moments after pulling into the parking lot of the courthouse annex in Baytown where he worked, officials said.
"It's a hit, no doubt," said one top federal official assisting with the investigation. "He basically got ambushed."
The killing sparked a massive manhunt that shut down portions of the neighborhood surrounding the courthouse, as deputies combed the area while helicopters circled overhead.
Authorities said they were investigating several leads but had not made any arrests.
Late Monday, Baytown police released a video of a vehicle possibly linked to the slaying and a description of a man who was seen in the area at the time of the shooting. Police described him as a white or Hispanic man, about 6 foot to 6-feet-3, with short hair and a medium to stocky build. He wore a dark jacket with some kind of patch on the sleeve.
Greenwood's concerns about the corruption case were passed along to law enforcement, the source said.
A reward of up to $65,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and charges in the case through Crime Stoppers, 713-222-TIPS.
LifeFlight carried Greenwood to Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. A police motorcade then escorted his body to the medical examiner's office.
He is survived by his wife, two children and two step-children.
Greenwood - a former private attorney, prosecutor and law enforcement officer who spent the last years of his career fighting corruption - had started work Jan. 1 as an assistant chief deputy constable.
"The Harris County Precinct 3 Constable's Office has suffered a great loss," Constable Sherman Eagleton said, at a news conference Monday. "I just want to send my condolences out to the family. And also the deputy's brothers and sisters in law enforcement that worked with Chief Greenwood."
Baytown police are leading the investigation with help from state, local and federal law enforcement officials.
Greenwood's slaying was one of five high-profile shooting attacks on officers in Harris County in the last two years.
In August 2015, Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth was shot and killed at a northwest Harris County gas station. Precinct 7 Deputy Constable Alden Clopton was shot in an ambush attack late at night while helping a colleague with a traffic stop, but survived. In February, two Houston police officers were shot and wounded while conducting anti-burglary operations on the city's southwest side.
Criminal justice fixture
On Monday, Greenwood arrived at his usual time and parked in his usual spot before gunfire rang out.
He was shot once, Baytown Police Lt. Steve Dorris said shortly after the shooting.
"Whether or not he was specifically targeted, or whether this was because of the uniform he was wearing or the place he pulled up to in the morning, we just don't know that right now," Dorris said.
Wanda Asbeck, who lives next to the courthouse annex, heard the gunfire just before 7 a.m. She looked outside and saw Greenwood lying on the pavement next to his SUV.
Asbeck works in the constable's office and recognized him right away.
"It just made me sick," she said. "He was such a good man. Why would anyone want to kill him?"
Greenwood grew up in north Harris County and quickly became a fixture in the Harris County criminal justice system.
He worked as a reserve deputy at the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office for nearly two decades, while simultaneously working as a private defense attorney, largely representing police officers.
In 2009, he joined the Harris County District Attorney's Office as chief of the Police Integrity Division under District Attorney Pat Lykos. It is the unit responsible for investigating police officers and presenting the cases to grand juries.
During his four years with the DA's office, he led the case against Houston police officers accused of beating 17-year-old Chad Holley, a case that sparked widespread protests.
In 2013, he joined the Harris County Sheriff's Office as a major, overseeing the department's Internal Affairs Division, General Investigations Division and Office of the Inspector General. He oversaw the internal probe into misconduct by an investigator in the Goforth case.
He had moved into a leadership position with the Precinct 3 constable's office, where he had put together field training and use-of-force manuals.
A graduate of Spring Woods High School, Rice University and what was then South Texas College of Law, he also had worked as a visiting justice of the peace and taught cadets at the Houston Police Department's training academy.
Over the years, he took 4,200 hours of education classes as well as 1,600 hours of additional training, obtaining a master peace officer certification in 2012, state records show.
"He was one of the best guys you'd ever want to work around," said Ron Hickman, a former Harris County sheriff and Precinct 4 constable.
Shock and outrage
The shooting Monday brought a swift outpouring of condemnation from local and state leaders.
"We will send a message that such vile acts will not be tolerated in the Lone Star State," Gov. Greg Abbott said. "I am confident that the perpetrator of this swift and despicable act will be apprehended and that murder will be met with swift justice."
Outside Memorial Hermann Hospital, Greenwood's colleagues and relatives greeted each other with hugs, handshakes and tears.
"He was an incredible human being, a cop's cop," Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen said, minutes after a motorcade escorted Greenwood's body from the hospital to the medical examiner's office.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg was among those grieving at the hospital.
"We knew him as a lawyer, law enforcement officer and colleague respected in every role," Ogg said later, in a statement. "Our prayers are with his family."
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and Sheriff Ed Gonzalez also offered support to the family.
"I am sickened and profoundly saddened by the brutal killing of Deputy Greenwood this morning," Emmett said.
"We ask the entire community to please stand by us," Gonzalez said. "We're going to do everything we can to track down whoever was responsible for this."
At the Harris County Criminal Courthouse in downtown Houston, lawyers and officers who had known Greenwood for years were in shock.
"He was a great friend, a great husband and a great father," said Jim Leitner, an administrator in the district attorney's office. "He was one of the best friends I ever had."
Brian Benken, Greenwood's former law partner - who also worked with him at the Harris County District Attorney's Office was shaken by the news.
Benken said he and Greenwood ran a law practice together for several years before they both went back into investigations. "We both just liked the investigative side better," said Benken, who works as a private investigator.
Even those who clashed with his anti-corruption efforts said Greenwood was affable outside of work.
"We used to butt heads," said Bob Goerlitz, a Harris County Sheriff's Office patrol deputy who headed the Harris County Deputies Organization for five years. "He was very stern on the business side."
'Clint was there to help'
Mourners held an impromptu vigil Monday evening, with plans for a "Back the Blue" convoy Tuesday.
Friends recalled Greenwood as a service-minded, hardworking person who went out of his way to help people.
Montgomery County Sheriff's Lt. Tim Cannon first met Greenwood in high school in the 1970s.
They raced motorcycles and went shooting together. Cannon bought his motorcycle from Greenwood in 1974.
"Whenever I had a problem with my motorcycle, he'd come over and help me," he said. "Clint was always the go-to guy. If something needed service, he knew how to work on it. And he knew how to get something fixed."
Greenwood's friends struggled Monday to come to terms with his death.
"Clint was absolutely a target, for whatever reason," Cannon said. "But he didn't need to be a target. Clint was there to help. And whoever this person was, Clint probably would have reached out to help him as well."
St. John Barned-Smith, Keri Blakinger, Lindsay Ellis, Margaret Kadifa, Andrew Kragie, James Pinkerton, Marialuisa Rincon, Brian Rogers and Mike Glenn contributed to this report.
Recent rhetoric from President Donald Trump and the focus of U.S. immigration policies suggest that Mexicans entering the United States without authorization are the principal challenge facing policymakers. That is no longer the case. The era of Mexico as the primary source of immigrants to the U.S. appears to be coming to a close.
An increasing number of individuals are now arriving at the U.S. southwest border because of crime, violence and insecurity in Central America. These are now far more decisive factors in decisions to emigrate than the traditional pull of economic opportunity in the United States.
Work I have done with colleagues on the factors that affect migration provides robust evidence for this shift.
Rather than trying to sneak across the U.S. border, many of these migrants are voluntarily surrendering to initiate asylum claims. This change in the profile of those arriving at the border suggests two things.
First, far more emphasis should be placed on improving the U.S. immigration court system than on efforts to strengthen an already well-fortified border. The average wait time for an immigration case to be heard in 2016 stood at 677 days, nearly double what it was in 2000.
Second, there is a need to move beyond a view of those arriving at the U.S. southwest border as a monolithic group driven by purely economic motives. An increasingly nuanced decision-making process is driving men, women and children from different countries to leave their homes.
Who's coming across the border?
In the summer of 2014, President Obama drew attention to the arrival and voluntary surrender of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and families seeking asylum. They came primarily from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, some of the most violent countries in the world. He called it an "urgent humanitarian situation." This made clear that at least some portion of these Central American migrant flows were not simply economic migrants.
Customs and Border Patrol data show the magnitude of the increase in Central American migrants over the past decade. In 2000, slightly less than 30,000 non-Mexicans (primarily Central Americans) were apprehended at the U.S. border. By 2014, this number had increased to 252,600.
In an effort to understand what is driving this surge, my colleagues and I have carried out research on what leads a person to consider emigrating. In a broad study of more than 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries, we found that the decision to emigrate is far more nuanced and complex than often portrayed in political rhetoric and mainstream media.
In countries that have longstanding migration flows to the United States, a person's personal economic situation, gender, age and connection to a network of other migrants all play key roles in whether or not he or she decides to emigrate. But we found that a person's experiences with crime and corruption, perceptions of insecurity and level of satisfaction with democracy were also significant.
We pursued this question in greater detail through analysis of survey data collected by Vanderbilt University's Latin American Public Opinion Project during the spring and summer of 2014 in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. These three countries have experienced extraordinarily high levels of crime and violence in recent years.
For Hondurans, a person who has been the victim of a crime multiple times is nearly twice as likely to have an intention to emigrate. Even more striking, respondents' awareness of the heightened risk of migrating to the United States and the greater current probability of being deported compared to previous years had no significant impact on their emigration plans.
My colleagues and I concluded that the Obama administration's, and now the Trump administration's, attempt to "send a message" to Central Americans through an emphasis on detention and deportation might work for those considering emigration for economic reasons. It does not, however, appear to have any impact on those individuals seeking to flee the warlike levels of violence in Honduras and El Salvador.
Mexican migration in decline
Meanwhile, a widely cited report from Pew Research Center shows that between 2009 and 2014, the net flow of both authorized and unauthorized Mexican immigrants to the United States fell to negative 140,000, in contrast to a positive flow of 2.27 million between 1995 and 2000. Data from U.S. Custom and Border Protection on border apprehensions also reveal an unprecedented drop in the number of Mexicans apprehended along the southwest border. In 2016, just more than 190,000 were apprehended, compared to 1.6 million in 2000.
These numbers reflect demographic and economic changes in Mexico.
The first change, simply put, is that Mexico's baby boom is over. The boom peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, and that generation has now aged well beyond the typical migrant age range of 18 to 35 years old. The country's total fertility rate has fallen from a peak of 6.8 children per woman in the 1960s to 2.2 by 2010. This is approaching the minimal population replacement level of 2.1, the rate required to maintain a stable population. When countries fall below that level, such as Germany at 1.4, immigration is needed to sustain the population level beyond the current generation.
Second, Mexico's economy experienced a fairly robust recovery from the recession in 2009. This was particularly true in several states that historically are among the leaders in terms of the number of individuals migrating to the U.S. The Mexican states of Guanajuato and Jalisco ranked third and fourth, respectively, in number of migrants going to the U.S. recorded growth rates of 6.4 percent and 4.7 percent in 2015. Such robust economic growth, particularly in the context of a national economic downturn, will only further serve to diminish migrant flows from these states.
What these demographic and economic trends suggest is that a steady decline in Mexican migration flows to the U.S. is likely to continue.
On Monday, April 10, all Greater Houston Papa John's Pizza locations are donating all proceeds to the family of late Assistant Chief Deputy Clint Greenwood. All Papa John's locations from Huntsville to Galveston, and Lake Jackson to Baytown are participating in the donations.
"People want to help out, but don't always know what to do. So we thought this might be a good way to give some grace and money to the family and help them out," said Keith Sullins, Papa John's Houston Pizza Venture President.
Sullins said that because of the high demand for pizza Monday, there may be a delay in delivery. He also said that Baytown Police Officers have been helping the Papa John's staff in getting the orders out the door.
"Cops are always there to help you out and this is just a way to repay them and help them out. We are very appreciative of these folks," Sullins told Chron.com.
MOVING MOMENTS: Slain lawman Greenwood praised as 'hero' during funeral
Deputy Greenwood, a 30-year veteran lawman, was killed Monday, April 3 while arriving to work at the Harris County courthouse annex in Baytown.
On Monday, Baytown police announced that the suspect who gunned down the veteran took his own life with the same gun just 24 hours after killing Greenwood. The video below shows the suspect, William Francis Kenny, 64, and his vehicle on the day of the shooting.
SUSPECT SUICIDE: Cop killer took his own life day after shooting of Clint Greenwood, police report says
Ron Hickman, former Harris County Sheriff and Precinct 4 Constable, told the Houston Chronicle Greenwood "was one of the best guys you'd ever want to work around."
Greenwood's shooting was one of at least five high-profile shooting attack on officers in Harris County in the last two years.
Click through the gallery above to learn about Greenwood's life in Houston and what investigators know about his killing.
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A massive manhunt for the killer who ambushed veteran lawman Clint Greenwood came to abrupt end Monday, when investigators discovered their prime suspect had been lying in cold storage at the Harris County morgue.
After an exhaustive search for a suspect in the brazen slaying that had so far yielded few leads, investigators finally got their break Sunday and identified William Francis Kenny, 64, as the man behind the April 3 attack.
Shortly before they were set to announce publicly they were searching for Kenny, they learned he had killed himself the day after the lawman's death.
Kenny shot himself in the head about 8 a.m. April 4 near Ben Taub General Hospital with a gun just like the one he used to kill the lawman, police said.
"The man was a coward - a coward in life and death," said Montgomery County Sheriff's Lt. Tim Cannon, Greenwood's close friend since middle school. "This just proves it."
The incident ended a saga that gripped Houston for the last week, but raised nearly as many questions as it answered.
Kenny's animus appears to have originated from a Valentine's Day incident in 2012 in which his estranged father-in-law called police to say Kenny had threatened him, according to court documents.
No charges were filed against anyone, but the incident nevertheless appeared to consume him.
He wrote letters to the judge in his divorce case and posted rambling grievances on a website, www.fryroad.com, against dozens of officials - including Greenwood - from the Harris County Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney's Office and the County Attorney's Office.
Greenwood was one among those included on what one investigator termed a "hate list" that accused them of failing to take action against deputies who responded to the 2012 call without questioning the father-in-law's allegations.
"HCA (Harris County Administration) conspired to cover-up co-worker crimes by framing an innocent citizen," Kenny wrote on the website.
He told the judge that "a police cover-up occurred and a criminal is going unpunished," in a letter sent just one day before his divorce was finalized. He does not appear to ever have met Greenwood, noting on the website that he had made numerous failed attempts to contact Greenwood, who later oversaw the sheriff's internal affairs division.
"I'm thankful no other officers were injured, or we had to confront the guy," said Steve Marino, chief deputy at the Precinct 5 Constable's Office, another close friend of Greenwood's. "And that the family doesn't have to endure a trial."
Greenwood is survived by his widow, Leatha Greenwood, and their four children. They have said little publicly, asking for privacy in the case.
A man who identified himself as Kenny's brother apologized to Greenwood's family.
"I just wanted to express our condolences to the family of Constable Greenwood," John Kenny told reporters Monday outside his northwest Harris County home, where William Kenny had lived briefly. "We're so very sorry, our thoughts and prayers go out to him. I don't know what to say. We're in shock, too."
Lt. Steve Dorris, with the Baytown Police Department, said the gun used by Kenny to shoot himself was "consistent" with the type of firearm used to kill Greenwood. Ballistics experts won't be able to make a positive match until they compare the rounds that killed both men, he said.
Investigators had settled on Kenny by using the surveillance video to hone in on the car he used for two days, including the day of the shooting. A sticker on the windshield identified the vehicle as a rental car, and police contacted a number of rental companies to get records of customers who rented a similar car, Dorris said.
One of the names belonged to a man who returned a black Nissan Versa to rental agency the day Greenwood was killed.
The Texas Department of Public Safety provided driver's license photos of the renters, and police matched one of the images to the convenience store video.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: What's known about Clint Greenwood's killing
Kenny had struggled after a divorce, business problems, and troubles with his children, according to a source who knew him well.
Still, many questions remain.
At a Katy home where his ex-wife has lived, no one answered the door although there were four cars in the driveway and a the sounds of hushed voices inside.
Kenny had switched addresses frequently since his 2012 divorce, public records show. Records show he owned a technology company, but that it ended with tax troubles in 2012. At the time of his divorce, he told the court he was working for an online grocery-delivery site, that does not appear to still be in business.
Friends of Greenwood expressed relief that police had found the man responsible, even as they continued to try to process the loss of their friend and the bizarre way he was murdered.
Cannon recalled a strange encounter with a rambling, ranting Kenny at a past National Night Out event in 2015.
"I don't think anything could have been said that would have put his obsession to rest," he said.
Kenny's death brings uneasy solace.
"The feeling overall is a feeling of relief, that this alleged person that committed this heinous crime is not capable of doing any more harm," Cannon said. "But it does go to show the dangers of someone who has a beef or some kind of retaliatory methodology in their brain. It could happen to any of us at any time."
Scroll through the gallery above to see what's known about Clint Greenwood's slaying and things to know about the veteran lawman
Black and Hispanic high school graduates in Texas who immediately enroll in a four-year university are less likely than their white peers to graduate in six years - achievement gaps that have more to do with racial segregation, socioeconomic status and high school rigor than how universities spend money or educate their students, new research published in the Journal of Higher Education shows.
To narrow the gap, states should invest in college readiness programs in high schools and financial aid grants, according to the researchers, who come from New York University, Florida State University and Southern Methodist University.
More than 60 percent of the gap in college completion between white students and Hispanic or black students can be explained by pre-college factors like a student's race, socioeconomic background and his or her high school's offerings, the researchers found.
"College is the greatest intervention of our time for social mobility, but it's not a silver bullet," said Stella Flores, an associate professor at NYU's Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy, in an interview. "If we're talking about increasing educational attainment in the state, you can't do it by just looking at colleges. This is a cross-sector investment."
In the paper, published last week, Flores and her co-authors examined the six-year outcomes of thousands of white, Hispanic and black students who graduated from Texas high schools in 2002 and then enrolled in a four-year college.
They tried to determine what factors affect the graduation rate gap between students of different races, testing for factors including students' socioeconomic statuses, their high school's county's unemployment rates and academic course offerings such as AP courses. Other factors included universities' enrollment, spending and percentage of tenured faculty.
Minding the gap
Attending a segregated high school was the No. 1 predictor of a college completion gap for black and Hispanic students, they found.
That factor "ends up being more of a proxy of concentrated poverty and lack of access to resources that white students in the state are more likely to have," Flores said.
Socioeconomic status and high school academic offerings also contributed to the gap, the study found.
If Hispanic students had the higher socioeconomic status of white students, the researchers predicted that the achievement gap between the two groups would narrow by 17.1 percent. The gap between black and white students would narrow by 30.5 percent if black students had the same academic preparation as white students, they found.
Financial aid applications are difficult to navigate, said Anne Sung, the vice president and chief strategy officer of Houston's Project Grad. A program she oversees called CafeCollege helps students apply for federal aid, state aid and scholarships to try to close this gap.
"Students are often juggling work and family responsibilities in addition to going to college," she said, adding that students with these responsibilities may not have the time to figure out what opportunities they can access on their own.
Strong ties to income
Students from lower-income backgrounds often cannot access summer programs that help students retain knowledge gained over the school year, said Sung, a recently elected Houston Independent School District trustee. That gap can lead to divergent educational outcomes, she said.
The researchers said that the findings are significant as states including Texas are considering linking state funding or the ability to raise tuition to a university's ability to meet certain performance measures.
Politicians say the proposals aim to increase university accountability as Texas universities' graduation rates lag behind the national average.
This may be unfair, according to the researchers, because student outcomes appear to be partially out of a university's control.
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Texas higher education leaders are braced for what they fear will be crippling financial cuts in coming years, including mandatory tuition freezes and deep state budget cuts.
Universities are facing a financial squeeze from every direction: hiring freezes imposed by Gov. Greg Abbott, a two-year tuition freeze bill passed last week by the Senate and budget bills from both chambers that would cut budgets even more. The high stakes of this legislative sessions are forcing students, alumni and higher education advocacy groups into the fray, even those that rarely address legislation.
"We're all going to live or die together," said Jason Smith, the University of Houston System's government affairs director.
University leaders said an initial Senate budget cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding would have forced schools to cancel classes and lay off faculty.
Since then, the Senate has added money into the budget proposals, though universities would still see between a 6 and 10 percent cut. Sen. Kel Seliger, an Amarillo Republican who leads the Senate's higher education committee, said on a recent panel that he hopes more money will be added in the budget reconciliation process.
"We're kind of crippling them as we go," said Sen. Robert Nichols, a Republican from Jacksonville, at a recent hearing on a bill that would limit tuition increases. "I just hope we can try and keep some of these universities whole."
Nichols voted to pass the Senate bill.
The Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, which formed in 2011 amid fears that education quality could decline without research investments, weighed in on the budget for the first time in its history last week, calling the Senate's decision not to draw from the state's massive rainy-day savings fund for higher education "shortsighted." The House version would spend about $2.5 billion in those savings.
"We call on all lawmakers to vote for the long term and recognize the critically important impact higher education has on our state's future," wrote the group of donors and alumni from the University of Texas, Texas A&M University and the University of Houston, among others.
Rising tensions
The latest House budget gives UH about $468 million over two years - roughly $13 million more than what the Senate distributes.
University of Houston Chancellor Renu Khator testified recently that UH has put revenue from tuition increases to programs like mental health counseling and career advising. "Tuition freezes and limits being proposed may actually hurt the students they are meant to help."
The House's budget gives Texas Southern University about $157 million, about $3.6 million more than the Senate's.
At TSU, alumni and students are pitching in with communications and advocacy to lawmakers, said Dominique Calhoun, the university's government relations director.
A final budget negotiated by both the Senate and House isn't expected until after the Legislature returns from its Easter break.
Tensions between universities and lawmakers have been apparent in Austin as early as January.
Lawmakers criticized UT System leaders for spending money on what they called an unnecessary new Austin headquarters and land in Houston.
Politicians have acknowledged that it's a tough session for higher education but criticized escalating college costs. In one bill passed recently, lawmakers tied tuition increases after the two-year freeze to meeting certain performance measures, like graduation rates.
Seliger, who wrote that bill, said in a panel last week that the cuts to universities are not retribution for financial mismanagement. Instead, he said, it stems from the state's economic realities. "Do we see wholesale waste? I don't think so."
Still, he said, large university systems like the Texas A&M and the University of Texas systems should reallocate money to smaller campuses from new projects. "To make that spending choice and say it's up to the Legislature to do everything else, I don't buy that at all," he said.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick cheered on Thursday after the Senate passed two of Seliger's bills that froze tuition and axed a requirement forcing universities to redirect part of tuition to financial aid.
Statewide, tuition and fees more than doubled from fall 2003, when lawmakers began allowing universities to set their own tuition, to fall 2015.
"We're focused on keeping college costs low, reducing them and freezing them moving forward for the families of Texas," Patrick said in a video.
'Very much concerned'
For Reilly McAfee, these words are welcome. McAfee, a University of Houston junior, locked into a four-year tuition plan at UH as a freshman to avoid the anxiety of potential rising costs. He said knowing that tuition won't increase over his academic career takes some of the stress away from getting a college degree.
McAfee, 20, receives financial aid and said he earns $13 an hour as an intake clerk at a Houston law firm. Still, with a single mother and two younger siblings, he stresses about the financial burden of tuition. "Deep down, I feel like it shouldn't have to be a sacrifice that's made," he said.
It's unclear how the House will proceed with Seliger's two bills. Rep. J.M. Lozano, a Kingsville Republican and that chamber's higher education committee's chair, said in a recent panel that tuition limits must be done with "surgical precision" and that he was not in favor of a blanket freeze.
"If budget cuts are significant, I think institutions are going to have to worry about whether they invest more money in operations and instruction or invest in financial aid for students," said higher education commissioner Raymund Paredes on a recent media call. "I know that institutions are very worried about funding a cross section of students in Texas. (But) they're very much concerned about their funding levels."
Across the nation
Universities are fighting these battles at state capitols nationwide. West Virginia is considering $41.5 million in cuts to higher education, and Montana's higher education institutions may see about $11 million in cuts, the Associated Press reported.
And this is by no means the first legislative session when universities have seen intense pressure from Texas politicians.
The 2011 session brought sharp cuts. Rick Perry, as governor, pushed for businesslike practices in the state's universities, suggesting that they focus less on research and more on graduating skilled workers.
Still, some education advocates consider this session's bills to be more severe. Alumni groups at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin have asked members to spread the word and contact their lawmakers to protest proposed budget cuts.
Bobby Stillwell, a Houston-based former University of Texas System regent, recalled debates over university finances, concealed carry and financial aid when he served on the board from 2009 to 2015. Those pressures were intense, but he called this year's proposals "draconian."
"I'm more worried this time than I've ever been before," he said.
Officials in the Trump administration on Sunday demanded Russia stop supporting the Syrian government or face a further deterioration in its relations with the United States.
Signaling the focus of talks Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will have in Moscow later this week, officials said Russia, in propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, bears at least partial responsibility for Wednesday's poison gas attack on villagers in Idlib province.
"I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility," Tillerson said on ABC's This Week.
Although officials acknowledged that they have seen no evidence directly linking Russia to the attacks, the top national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, said Russia should be pressed to answer what it knew ahead of the chemical attack since it has placed warplanes and air defense systems with associated troops in Syria since 2015.
"I think what we should do is ask Russia, how could it be, if you have advisers at that airfield, that you didn't know that the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons," McMaster said on Fox News.
The timing of the comments, with Tillerson heading soon to Moscow, signaled the administration's intent to pressure Russia to step away from Assad, who is supported by the Kremlin with military aid and diplomatic cover.
The fallout from the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons on civilians, plus the U.S. missile strike that came in retaliation for it, adds more strain to a rocky relationship that is at its lowest point in decades. A host of issues are responsible, topped by suspected Russian attempts to interfere in the U.S. presidential election and Moscow's support for separatists in Ukraine that have prompted U.S. and European sanctions. These topics have now been overshadowed by last week's missile strike.
The Russians had hoped that relations with the United States might improve under President Donald Trump, who expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign. Tillerson's nomination as secretary of state also raised prospects given the former ExxonMobil executive's experience negotiating a major deal with Rosneft, the state-controlled oil giant.
But 11 weeks into Trump's presidency, expectations have been substantially lowered.
"This is a big cold shower," said Samuel Charap, a Russia analyst with the Rand Corp. "Even if behind closed doors they might engage on other issues in a more pragmatic manner, the public posture is going to be one of emphasizing how they disagree about (Syria). Putin is not going to want to be seen as chummy with the U.S. secretary of state."
The state must do a better job of educating the state's voters. The 2018 elections will be crucial for the state's future, with positions ranging from U.S. senator and governor to county judge and constable on the ballot, and all registered voters need to understand the rules.
But as our study of registered voters who stayed home last fall found, confusion over the law may have kept some people from voting even though most could have complied. Latino voters were affected most significantly.
Now is the perfect time for attention to the issue as the Texas House Elections Committee on Monday takes up proposed voter ID legislation.
The University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs recently completed a report, "The Texas Voter ID Law and the 2016 Election," based on surveys of registered voters who sat out the 2016 elections in the state's two highest profile battleground jurisdictions: Harris County and Congressional District 23 (CD-23), which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso.
We found almost all registered voters who did not vote had a valid photo ID, and virtually no one was prevented from voting for lack of one of the seven state-approved forms of photo ID needed to vote in person.
However, these registered voters were poorly informed about the photo ID regulations, which are the foundation for revised ID legislation now being considered in the Legislature.
It's no surprise that the Texas Secretary of State's 2016 public education campaign left some voters uninformed about the voter ID law, given that only $2.5 million was allocated for the effort and the requirements changed just months before the election.
But legislators can correct that problem, even as they consider other changes to the law. We urge them to take that responsibility seriously in light of what we discovered.
Thirty-seven percent of registered voters in Harris County and 45 percent of those in CD-23 did not vote in November. But almost all of them could have. Altogether, 97 percent of registered non-voters in Harris County and 98 percent of those in CD-23 had an unexpired, state-approved photo ID. That rose to 99 percent in Harris County and remained at 98 percent in CD-23 when acceptable expired IDs were considered.
Lack of a state-approved photo ID kept almost no one - just one non-voter among the 819 surveyed - from voting in 2016.
Despite that, 1 in 7 non-voters signaled that lack of a state-approved photo ID was one of the reasons they did not vote. However, it was just one reason. Only 1.5 percent of non-voters in Harris County and fewer than 1 percent (0.5 percent) in CD-23 said lack of a state-approved photo ID kept them from voting.
Regardless, few actually understood the law.
Only 20 percent of non-voters could accurately identify the photo ID rules. Three out of five incorrectly believed all voters were required to provide a state-approved photo ID to vote in person, unaware that people could also vote by signing an affidavit and providing one of several supporting documents.
Latino non-voters were significantly less likely than Anglo and Harris County African American non-voters to accurately understand the rules. Latino non-voters in both locales were also significantly more likely to believe the photo ID rules were more restrictive than they actually were.
Three out of four non-voters incorrectly believed only a valid, unexpired Texas driver's license qualified as a state-approved form of photo ID, and only 1 in 7 knew a license that had expired within four years qualified.
Our state can do better. Texas needs engaged, informed voters. State policies should further - not thwart - that goal.
Cross is associate director and Granato is executive director of the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs. Jones is Political Science Fellow at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and a research associate at the Hobby School.
On Friday, with the confirmation of our newest Supreme Court member, Justice Neil Gorsuch, the American people were finally able to claim victory over liberal obstructionists in the United States Senate. With Gorsuch behind the bench, we have a Justice who respects personal freedom and liberty. He knows our Constitution is a document that defers power from the federal government to the states, and puts the rights of individuals ahead of the interests of bureaucrats in Washington.
Throughout his career, Judge Gorsuch has consistently stood on the side of religious freedom and the right to life of the unborn. One of his most notable decisions came in the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case, in which Gorsuch upheld that the federal government could not force businesses to offer coverage for abortion services.
Judge Gorsuch echoes the qualities of Justice Scalia, making him the perfect replacement to restore conservatism and balance back to the Supreme Court. Justice Scalias seat on the court does not belong to any president or any political party, but to the American people.
But if youve watched the news over the past week, you already know that liberals in the Senate have treated Justice Scalias vacant seat as an opportunity to put politics ahead of what the American people rightfully asked and voted for in November when they elected President Trump.
The Senates work on everything from Trumps Cabinet to filling Justice Scalias seat has been halted by the actions of liberal obstructionists. And you know who loses in that situation? The American people.
Unfortunately, obstructionism is a pattern of behavior from the left. Instead of investing in an agenda thats best for the American people, liberals in the Senate have given us the longest Cabinet nomination and confirmation process in the history of an administration. President Trump still does not have an Agriculture or Labor Secretary and its because the left is continuing to obstruct the process. Right now, President Trump only has 22 of his nominees confirmed. At the same time in the last administration, Obama had a whopping 54 nominees confirmed more than TWICE the amount President Trump has.
Political tactics from the far left were meant to prevent one of the most qualified judges of all time from being confirmed to the Supreme Court. For purely partisan purposes, they tried to stop the guy who in 2006 had zero opposition from the Senate and the support of senators like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Gorsuchs nomination should come as no surprise to the left, but they seem to forget that during the campaign, Trump shared a list of people he would nominate to the Supreme Court if he won. The American people took this into consideration, and voted for Trumps plan when they elected him in November.
The left threw up roadblocks at every turn throughout Gorsuchs confirmation process. Before this week, there had never been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee in American history. But the liberals tried this anyway, using a filibuster to prevent a vote. I applaud conservatives in the Senate for showing leadership and changing the rules to go around the liberals filibuster and bring Judge Gorsuchs confirmation up for a simple majority vote.
It is time for liberals to move on from obstructing the government and work to advance the agenda Americans voted for in November. With the election of President Trump, Americans proclaimed their desire for a smaller government and less intrusion. They want a healthcare system that actually works, not one with premiums that are higher than their mortgage. They want the IRS scaled back and their tax returns to fit on a single postcard. Most importantly, they want the government out of their business and out of their pocketbook. We must deliver on what the American people have asked.
Jason Smith represents Missouris 8th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Contact him at 573-335-0101 or visit https://jasonsmith.house.gov
A Houston High School graduate was among 42 students from the University of Missouri System presenting projects April 4 at Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol.
Caroline Dunn, a senior majoring in psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, presented her research, Examining polar growth in Agrobacterium may improve understanding of growth in human pathogens.
The annual event gives students an opportunity to share with state elected officials the wide variety of undergraduate research and innovations taking place across the university system.
As the states only public research university, our students are provided unique opportunities to work alongside our talented faculty to conduct cutting-edge and groundbreaking research on our four campuses every day, UM System President Mun Choi said. These experiences, which range from science to medicine to the humanities, help to prepare our students for graduate and professional studies at prominent universities as well as careers in leading industries.
The student researchers were selected in a competitive process to present their projects to Missouris elected officials. The group included 21 students from the University of Missouri-Columbia, 12 from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, seven from Missouri University of Science and Technology and two from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Student engagement in research projects with faculty members at each of our campuses is a staple of the undergraduate academic experience and enhances student outcomes, said Bob Schwartz, interim UM System vice president for academic affairs, research and economic development. The experience exposes students to the wonders and possibilities of research and innovation, and helps develop them as future scientists and entrepreneurs whose discoveries could result in new technologies and businesses, and improve the quality of life for Missourians.
Students highlighted the broad spectrum of research conducted at across the UM systems four campuses including research in the areas of education, health, agriculture, biotechnology, transportation and infrastructure, social services and economic development.
Dunn is the daughter of Tom and Dee Dee Dunn of Houston.
The following are excerpts from reports generated by the Texas County Sheriffs Department:
A deputy responded at about 11:10 p.m. April 9 to a report of four vehicles blocking Highway BB near Licking and several people fighting.
Upon arrival, the officer observed four vehicles, but nobody fighting. The officer determined there were parents at the location picking up kids who had been riding around with boys they werent supposed to be with. Everyone left without incident.
A deputy responded at about 10:45 p.m. April 8 to a report of a 16-year-old Amish boy who had been kicked in the head by a horse and was being violent at a Buffalo Road residence at Licking.
Before arrival, the officer received new information that the boy had allegedly fallen from a hay loft. Upon arrival, the officer entered the residence and could smell alcohol. The determination was made that the boy was drunk but not hurt.
A deputy was dispatched at about 7:50 a.m. April 4 after a woman reported that someone had dumped a dead calf next to Oak Hill Road at Mountain Grove and the smell was horrible.
The officer was unable to locate a freshly dumped carcass, but did observe some bones that appeared to be from a calf. A search of the area was conducted, but no other dead animals were found, and no foul odor was detected.
A 56-year-old Licking man came to the TCSD office on April 7 to report that a Carr lawn mower trailer valued at $750 had been stolen from his Highway Y property. There are no suspects.
A deputy responded at about 5 p.m. April 7 after a man called to report loud music coming from a neighbors house on Elk Creek Road at Elk Creek. The officer traveled the length of the road and an adjacent road, but didnt hear any loud music.
Deputies were dispatched at about 11:30 a.m. April 6 regarding a report of a suicidal man at an Arthur Creek Road residence near Houston.
A 55-year-old woman there told officers her 23-year-old son was upset over a woman who was leaving him, and had locked himself in the garage with a loaded handgun. After officers arrived, the man came out of the garage and spoke with one officer, while others located the gun (a 9mm pistol) inside the garage. The man was taken to the Texas County Jail while paperwork was completed for him to be held for a 96-hour mental evaluation.
Texas County Jail admissions
April 3
Tyler G. Sims 72-hour commitment
Robert D. Bartley MDOC hold
Randy L. Hale warrant
April 4
Cheyenne S. Mourning writ (to appear before judge)
Jill C. Shaw-Farmer forgery
Alexus N. Henson burglary
Amanda M. Layton MDOC hold
Jalen M. Rocker MDOC hold
Rex L. Franklin assault
Patrick A. Dodson possession of controlled substance
April 5
Jay A. Gann Macon County hold
Kolton C. Morgan 48-hour commitment
Johnathan W. Goforth indecent exposure to minor
Eric B. Branson non-support
April 6
Michael N. Lynge DWI (habitual)
Maratha E. Newton possession of controlled substance
Brenda L. Akins DWI
April 7
Cody J. Westmoreland bond or 2-day hold
Sean M. Rief writ
Andrew M. Pollvogt weapon at corrections facility
Jason W. Hill 48-hour commitment
Ryon G. Brown arson
Randy L. Hale 24-hour commitment
Michael J. Farris stealing
April 9
Cody J. Westmoreland Lebanon PD hold
Kevin L. Day possession of controlled substance
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Singapore ranks among the top countries in terms of the employment rate of older workers aged 55-64, Minister for Manpower Lim Swee Say said last week. He said the figure has steadily increased over the last 5 years, from 64% in 2012 to 67.3% in 2016.
The minister pointed out that about 70% of employers are willing to redesign job scopes to accommodate older workers, according to a 2016 survey by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP).
TAFEP and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has, on average, received less than 80 age discrimination complaints against employers per year, he said. This constituted about 10% of the total complaints received by TAFEP and MOM each year.
The government will raise the re-employment age to 67 from 65 starting July 1. The policy will apply to workers younger than 65 during the day it takes effect.
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said last February that the government will provide more support for firms hiring older workers. This comes amid the governments efforts to speed up the adoption of progressive HR practices across all firms.
Last November, the government launched the Human Capital Partnership (HCP) Programme a tripartite initiative of the Government, unions, and employees that brings together employers who have committed to grow their businesses and stay competitive by having progressive employment practices, and developing their human capital.
In a speech last February, Lim said HCP values mature workers. He cited the case of 69-year-old Gee Sey Tan of The American Club, where close to 40% of its workforce are mature workers.
[Gee] has been with the club as an Executive Chef for 20 years. When he turned 62 some 7 years ago, the American Club did not just re-employ him. It went the extra mile to redesign his job, to allow him to take on a less physically taxing role.
Today, Sey Tan does less cooking, but more mentoring. His age and experience are seen as assets, not liabilities. The American Club even sponsored him for further studies. True to the spirit of life-long learning, Sey Tan now has a Professional Diploma in Leadership and People Management, which adds value to his current role.
For six years or more, Manukau Auto Valet Limited deprived some 221 employees of their most basic employment entitlements failing to pay at least a minimum wage, or holiday pay to employees leaving the company, said Labour Inspectorate regional manager, Loua Ward.
The carwash company has already paid $96,451 in arrears to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for the affected employees but has since been ordered to pay a further $145,000 in penalties after the inspectorate took the case to the Employment Relations Authority.
Bunge, one of Brazils largest food and agribusiness companies, and manufacturer of popular mayonnaise brands Soya, Salada and Primor, announced that it will source only cage-free eggs in its supply chain by 2025. Bunges policy follows discussions with Humane Society International, and other organizations. HSI is working with food industry leaders in Brazil and around the globe on the adoption and implementation of animal welfare policies, including cage-free eggs.
Fernanda Vieira, corporate policy and program manager for HSI/Brazil, said: Consumers care about the way animals are treated in food production and we are glad to see Bunge taking these concerns seriously by committing to this shift to a 100 percent cage-free egg supply chain. Bunges cage-free egg policy will improve the lives of tens of thousands of animals and sends a clear message to the egg industry in Brazil that cage-free production systems are the way forward.
Become a Farm Animal Defender.
Egg-laying hens are typically confined for their whole lives in wire battery cages, so small that the hens cannot even fully stretch their wings. Science confirms what common sense tell us, that the lack of space and restriction of movement is detrimental to the physical health of the birds and causes frustration and suffering.
The use of conventional battery cages for laying hens is banned or being phased out under laws or regulations throughout the EU, in five U.S. states and in New Zealand and Bhutan. Officials in the majority of states in India, the worlds third largest egg producer, have declared that the use of battery cages violates the countrys animal welfare legislation, and the country is debating a national ban.
Bunge joins other leading food manufacturers and restaurant companies, including Unilever, Cargill, Nestle, the largest food company in the world, Burger King and Arcos Dorados, which operates McDonalds in Brazil and 19 other countries in the region, in committing to switching to 100 percent cage-free eggs. Alsea, the largest restaurant operator in Latin America and Spain, and Grupo Bimbo, the worlds largest bakery company, announced cage-free egg policies after several years of talks with HSI. Other leading corporations like BFFC, Grupo Trigo, AccorHotels, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Subway, IMC, Barilla, Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Giraffas, Divino Fogao, and Habibs have also pledged to go cage-free in Brazil.
Media contact:
Fernanda Vieira, fvieira@hsi.org, 11 9 8905 3848
ELKO The County may keep four positions vacant to save almost $347,000 for the next fiscal year to help combat the estimated $1.6 million deficit it is facing.
To reach an 8.3 percent ending fund balance, the County would have to cut $1.6 million from its budget, but for a 6 percent balance it will have to cut $825,303. Commissioners previously told staff to aim for a 6 percent ending fund balance and a contingency fund of $300,000.
On Thursday, staff presented a budget that had a 6.82 percent ending fund balance. The hiring freeze commissioners imposed in March will save the County $320,370 by the end of the fiscal year. One of those positions included Deputy District Attorney Rob Lowe, who retired this week. Staff has recommended his position be filled in July. District Attorney Tyler Ingram was glad the budget committee recommended filling Lowes position because the lawyers in his office are each handling 500 or more cases. Deputy DA Jeff Slade had the most at 845, Ingram said.
However, staff recommended to leave three positions vacant and not fill a fourth that will become vacant in July. These positions include a county clerk, library clerk, a building inspector, and one of the assistant county managers.
Marilyn Tipton and Jeanette Hammons retired from the County earlier this year and Assistant County Manager Randy Brown will retire at the end of June, said County Manager Rob Stokes. The building inspector position has been vacant for more than a year, he said.
County Comptroller Debbie Armuth went over the most recent numbers with the commissioners.
Consolidated tax is up about 1 percent from where the estimates were, but overall is about $328,000 less than the same time last year, she said. Consolidated tax, sales, including cigarettes and liquor, funds about 70 percent of the Countys operating funds.
Commissioner Delmo Andreozzi pointed out to the board that in December the consolidated tax was down $303,152 when compared to the same month of the previous year.
Were about halfway through the revenues that weve gotten for this year, and you can see how volatile one month can be, he said. Realize that those operating funds rely a lot on this C-tax and when theres a swing like that how significantly that can impact us.
Property valuations are up 1.21 percent in Elko County, but because some entities in the county are already capped, commissioners cant raise the rate, Armuth said.
The largest change in the budget wont help this year, she said.
The big change is the net proceeds, Armuth said.
The mining companies in Elko County have projected their numbers for the next 10 months and they are estimating a value of $209 million in 2017. The tax rate applied to net proceeds is between 2 and 5 percent, depending on the ratio of net proceeds to gross proceeds, according to the Nevada Department of Taxation. The state receives 55 percent of the net proceeds. The local governments receive 45 percent and the largest portion goes to the school district. The Countys portion would equate to about $1.3 million, Armuth said.
How net proceeds are paid changed last year. Mines used to pay net proceeds in advance, but that ended in 2016. The County wont receive money from net proceeds generated this year until May 2018.
LONDONA joint investigation by Humane Society International/UK and Sky News has discovered shoes containing real cat fur for sale on the British high-street by youth fashion chain Missguided.
The import and sale of fur from domestic cats and dogs has been banned across the EU since 2009, and Missguided is a vocal advocate of its fur-free policy. Despite this, laboratory tests confirmed that the pom-poms of fur decorating the shoe were cat fur [1]. The shoes, which have been on sale by the retailer both online and at its Westfield Stratford store, list only man-made materials on the label.
Concerned shopper Donna Allison alerted HSI/UK to the shoes after suspecting they contained real animal fur, despite receiving an assurance from the stores official Twitter account of their policy to only sell fake fur. In countries such as China where the Missguided shoes were made an estimated two million cats a year, including pet cats, are snatched from the streets and killed for their meat and fur.
HSI has contacted Missguided about the finding and has forwarded the information to Trading Standards and asked that the enforcement authority investigates the findings further in relation to the The Cat and Dog Fur (Control of Import, Export and Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008.
Donna Allison said: I find it horrifying that Missguided and other retailers are selling real fur in my case cat fur and that they didnt appear to take action when I raised my concerns about this serious issue. All retailers should be taking action to ensure complete traceability of their materials. Its unacceptable that they are helping fund an industry where animals have to endure unimaginable cruelty and for something so unnecessary. I urge everyone to be more vigilant and understand how to identify and ensure theyre buying faux fur.
Whilst trade in dog, cat and also seal fur is banned across the EU, and all fur farming has been illegal on moral grounds in the UK since 2003, imports of fur from a range of species such as fox, rabbit, mink, coyote, racoon dog and chinchilla can still be legally sold here. Its a double standard that makes no moral sense, and yet as a member of the EU single market, unilaterally banning the trade of fur into the UK would likely have been challenged in Brussels and by EU member nations that continue to farm animals for their fur.
However, Brexit offers the opportunity to change that, and HSI/UK is calling on the British government to make the United Kingdom a fur-free zone by extending the cat, dog and seal fur bans to all fur-bearing species. A 2016 YouGov opinion poll [2] asked whether people found it acceptable or unacceptable to buy and sell fur from nine different species and found that, averaged across all species, only one in ten people believe it is acceptable to buy and sell real fur.
Claire Bass, executive director of HSI/UK, said: It is extremely concerning to find cat fur on sale illegally in the UK, both because of the cruelty that cat and all fur products represent, but also because it will rightly dent the confidence of consumers seeking to buy only fake fur. Fake faux fur is a growing problem; when items have cheap price tags and labels saying 100% acrylic, consumers can understandably be caught out mistaking them for fake fur, when in fact they contain fur from a tormented animal. Independent stores, popular markets like Camden as well as online retailers are awash with cheap animal fur-trimmed garments that are either mislabelled as faux or not labelled at all. To properly protect both animals and consumers the government needs to take action to stop Britains insidious fur trade.
Get active urge Ministers to support a fur-free Britain
The Missguided fake faux fur shoes are the latest in a large number of similar items exposed by HSI/UK over the past couple of years, including several well-known high-street brands. Most recent items discovered by HSIs secret shoppers from December 2016 February 2017 include:
another shoe style at Missguided that tested positive for rabbit fur;
a pair of gloves at fur free retailer House of Fraser that tested positive for rabbit fur;
a range of shoes from Westfield Stratford store Primars all sold as fake fur but found in tests to contain fur from rabbit, mink and fox;
a bobble hat sold on Amazon UK as faux fur but testing positive for raccoon dog or fox fur (this listing included an on-screen no-fur assurance); and
another bobble hat sold on popular fashion boutique website Lily Lulu sold as faux fur online, labelled as 10% marmot on delivery but testing positive for raccoon dog fur when sent to the lab
In several cases where HSIs secret shopper questioned staff in-store, they incorrectly confirmed items were faux fur. HSI/UK believes that most consumers would be horrified to discover theyve inadvertently bought real fur.
HSIs Claire Bass said: We know that the vast majority of British people reject the inherent cruelty of the fur trade but at the moment they are not getting the right information as consumers to avoid it. Clear labelling of all fur is an obvious starting point that will likely reduce the UKs fur trade significantly, but we dont believe that goes far enough. Whether its fur from coyotes caught in the wild in agonising traps, raccoon dogs and foxes enduring miserable lives and painful deaths by electrocution on fur farms, or cats bludgeoned to death in China, we believe all fur is cruel and should be banned regardless of species. Morally, there is no logic to banning fur from some animals and not others, and Brexit means we could have the opportunity to reflect public opinion and make the UK the worlds first fur-free nation.
Around the world in countries such as China, France and Poland, animals on fur farms can be subjected to the same terrible conditions as those the UK banned back in 2000, with the UKs final fur farm closing in 2003. Beautiful wild animals are kept their entire lives in filthy, tiny cages, forced to endure physically and mentally damaging conditions before being killed and skinned for their fur. Wild animals such as coyotes fair no better, caught in agonising traps for hours or even days before theyre put out of their misery.
Get active urge Ministers to support a Fur-Free Britain at hsi.org/furfreebritain and for more information go to hsi.org/makeitfake Check out our guide to identifying real vs. fake fur [pdf]
View the full Sky News report.
ENDS
Notes to editor
1. Missguided shoe test results were produced on 21 December 2016 by Dr Phil Greaves, C.Text.FTI; Dip. RMS who has almost 45 years experience in fibre analysis, from Microtex Laboratory, a lab used by Trading Standards for fur analysis. Microscopy testing of any fur sample will always deliver a verdict that the sample is most consistent with xyz species meaning that the fibres had the morphological and characteristic features of that species. The fur from the pink Missguided shoes are most consistent with cat.
2. YouGov opinion poll commissioned by HSI UK. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2051 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 9th and 12th September 2016. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).The poll listed nine species, including domestic dog, mink, seal, fox and rabbit, and asked people whether or not they found it acceptable for fur from these animals to be bought and sold in the UK. Results reveal that less than 10% of people feel it is acceptable to be able to buy and sell products containing domestic dog fur (7%), seal fur (8%), and cat fur (9%), respectively, and indeed such imports are banned by law. But critically the poll also shows similar distaste for fur items from other species that can still be legally sold here only between 8 and 12% of people said that they found it acceptable to buy or sell fur from foxes (12%), mink (12%), chinchilla (9%), raccoon dogs (8%) and coyotes (8%) (the last of which are not farmed, but wild trapped). Rabbit fur had the highest approval rating, but is still only acceptable to one in five people despite being one of the most commonly found fur trim items on the high-street.
3. FAQs about fur labelling
Q: Is it legal to sell fur trim [clothing] not labelled as fur?
A: Yes, there is no requirement to use the specific word fur or to name the animal. However, Article 12 of the EU Textile Labelling Regulation requires that items defined as textile products must carry the confusing wording contains non-textile parts of animal origin. An article is only classified a textile product if it contains at least 80% textile fibres by weight. Note that fur is not a textile, which means perversely that the more fur an item contains, the less likely it is to require labelling. Regardless, in practice this confusing wording requirement is very rarely adhered to, and even where it is the wording doesnt clearly tell consumers it means real animal fur, especially as it applies equally to other animal products such as leather or feathers/down. In addition, the wording is only required to appear on the product itself, not at point of sale or when advertised online, and it doesnt apply at all to footwear or non-garment accessories such as handbags and keychains. If the item doesnt meet Article 12 criteria, it doesnt need to have any wording, confusing or otherwise.
Q: What about shoes?
A: It is legal to sell fur trim [shoes] not labelled as fur if the fur is a decorative element. Only if it makes up at least 80% of the upper, or the sock, or the sole, would it need to be labelled.
Q: Is it legal to wrongly label as synthetic an item that is real fur?
A: Under consumer protection legislation, its technically illegal to mislead. However, the regulation with respect to the sale of animal fur is very poorly enforced and companies claiming they made an honest mistake or used the description given to them by a supplier, is considered a legitimate defence.
Q: What would HSI like to see change?
A: Ultimately we would like to see the UK introduce a ban on the import of all fur. However, in the meantime HSI believes that all products containing real animal fur (including clothing, footwear, accessories such as key rings, handbags etc) should be clearly and consistently labelled in plain English. Such labelling is already in place in the US Fur Products Labeling Act and Switzerland Swiss Ordinance on the Declaration of Furs and Furskins, and to a lesser degree, in France. Such labelling should require the inclusion of product information detailing: the species from which the fur derives (both the common and scientific name); the country of origin of the fur (where the animal was bred or hunted and killed): how the animal was reared and killed (whether the animal was caught by trapping or reared in a cage with a wire floor, for example)
Media contacts: HSI (United Kingdom): Wendy Higgins: whiggins@hsi.org, +44 (0)7989 972 423
A day before the start of a B.C. election campaign, a new poll shows B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark's popularity is waning.
According to data from Insights West, Clark has dropped six points since February to 30 per cent with B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver surpassing her with a six-point jump to 35 per cent support.
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Meanwhile, NDP Opposition Leader John Horgan maintains his lead in approval ratings, even though he dipped two points during the same time period to 37 per cent.
Despite Weavers momentum, Clark is still viewed as the preferred choice when it comes to job creation and the economy, said Mario Canseco, vice-president of public affairs for Insights West.
Premier Clark is still regarded as a superior economic manager, while opposition leader Horgan is connecting on themes like housing, education and care, Canseco said in a release on Monday.
On the same day, Clark released the B.C. Liberals' platform focused on tax cuts, while Horgan says his party would eliminate tolls on two bridges linking the suburbs to Vancouver if the NDP wins the May 9 election.
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The governing Liberals are heading into the vote under the weight of a political donation scandal, which Insights West data suggests has left an impression with voters between the ages of 18 and 34.
Of those polled within that demographic, 57 per cent said they would be very upset if Clarks Liberal government held onto power.
At the same time, of respondents over the age of 55, nearly half (48 per cent) said theyd be very upset to see the NDP return to power. The last NDP government in B.C. was under Ujjal Dosanjh in 2001.
Insights West conducted its poll between April 5 to 8 among 801 adults, inclusive of 625 identified as decided voters. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points for the whole sample, and 3.9 percentage points among decided voters, 19 times out of 20.
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With a file from The Canadian Press
Also on HuffPost
Theres no doubt that Ashton Kutcher is a family man.
On Saturday, The Ranch star accepted the Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award from Iowas Drake University, which recognizes individuals who demonstrate good character as a role model. In his speech, Kutcher made a heartfelt tribute to his wife, Mila Kunis, and their kids, who he credits with making him a better man.
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According to the 39-year-old actor, Kunis kicks [his] ass on character every day.
I'm telling you, this morning, I woke up and she kicked my ass on character, he recalled. I thought I was awesome because I got up early and helped with the kids before she woke up and I let her sleep a little bit and then she's like, Well, now you're gonna act tired? I do it every day. But it was a character moment, right? Because she's right!
He then went on to call fatherhood the greatest lesson in character in my life.
When my wife and I had these kids and we got to share that amazing, amazing, amazing honour, my first response was, I wanted to call my parents and say, I'm sorry, because I never knew how much you loved me, he said.
A post shared by Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) on Nov 7, 2015 at 4:50pm PST
Kutcher and Kunis welcomed their first child, Wyatt Isabelle, in 2014. They then welcomed their son, Dmitri Portwood, in November last year.
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I think the one thing that you realize the minute you become a parent is that character is the one thing you can give them as a parent, he continued. You can actually, materially impact that... and then everything else becomes their choice.
The former That '70s Show star also referenced other important moments in his life that helped build his character, such as his divorce from Demi Moore in 2013.
I had the great fortune of getting a divorce because I felt the impact of it and I felt how much loss is in there and how much love is in there and that it's not neat or clean or messy, he said. And I understood, finally, my parents divorce in a whole different way.
Kutcher is from Iowa and has made a number of contributions to his home state, which is why it makes sense that he was honoured with Drake University's Character Award. Not only has the actor helped fund local schools through DonorsChoose.org, but he also co-founded The Native Fund, which provides disaster relief to affected Iowans.
Watch Kutchers full speech above.
Also on HuffPost
Celeb Dads With Lookalike Kids See Gallery
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
If you had mixed feelings about the ending to Netflixs Gilmore Girls revival, youre not alone. Turns out, stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel felt the exact same way.
At the end of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Rory (Bledel) surprised viewers when she told her mother Lorelai (Graham) that shes pregnant.
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Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham at the premiere of the 'Gilmore Girls' revival.
At an Emmys panel hosted by Deadline on Sunday, Graham revealed that she didnt think the final four words were a real end to the story. That's not an ending, that's a cliffhanger! she said. It took me a minute, but I eventually loved it... but it's not an ending.
Bledel agreed, saying the ending caught her off guard. It's certainly not the ending I expected, she explained. I told [creator Amy Sherman-Palladino] I wanted Rory to end on a high note after all her hard work. I wanted her to succeed... so it was a hard thing for me to digest.
Like Bledel, many viewers wanted to see smart, independent Rory finally come into her own, but instead they saw the story come full circle with Rory becoming pregnant unexpectedly, just like her mom.
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Finished #gilmoregirls & superbly upset by #finalfourwords - Is this really the end ? Is Rory destined to repeat history full circle? Rachel Jacques (@racheljacques5) February 1, 2017
After the Netflix revival aired in November, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino told Buzzfeed News that the cliffhanger ending wasnt meant to drive people crazy.
It felt right for Rory not to solve everything in this journey, she said. Your life should not have a bow on it at 32. Your life should be a wide-open field at 32 years old.
Cliffhanger endings tend to be a sign of more to come, but according to the Gilmore Girls stars, neither have been approached to do a second season. However, Graham did admit that she initially heard about Netflixs revival from the news before we had been formally approached.
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So dont lose faith, fans. It looks like theres still hope! At Deadlines Emmys panel, Graham said she would play Lorelai forever if she could, however, she doesnt want to reprise the role if its not worthwhile.
If it all existed in a vacuum, I would play that character until my dying day, the 50-year-old actress said. Now its become what could we do with this story that is satisfying, that is worth continuing. I dont know if there is a need to do more. I wouldnt want it to feel like we overstayed our welcome.
As for Bledel, she said it comes down to what story were telling.
Commenting on the prospect of a second season, she said, Im just interested in telling a story that is dynamic and that I sort of relate to and can hook into. And if that happens... I dont know. Its such an unknown, I dont think we anticipated that this would happen.
Just last month, Netflixs chief content officer Ted Sarandos told the U.K.s press association that they were in preliminary talks with the shows creators about a follow-up season. However, Sarandos stressed that they only hoped it would happen, not that it was guaranteed.
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On Twitter, fans have had mixed feelings about the prospects of a second season.
I'll never get over the last shot of Jess Mariano. My childhood needs more answers. Season 2 please @MiloVentimiglia#GilmoreGirlsRevivalpic.twitter.com/a85EXMH8QK Mallory Meyers (@mallorymeyers48) April 3, 2017
Please no season 2. Just leave it alone. PLEASE #GilmoreGirlsRevival Christina (@CBevan_) November 26, 2016
The ending to #GilmoreGirlsRevival just isn't fair.... WHERES MY SEASON 2 ?! RORY NEEDS HER OWN SPIN OFF gypsy (@sorilynthaiz) December 7, 2016
Loved the ending of @GilmoreGirls#GilmoreGirlsRevival it did GG justice. Its open ended coz they are still young! No need for season 2. Emma Livingstone (@EK_Livingstone) November 26, 2016
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"The Trudeau effect" has been a boon for Canadian tourism, trust in business and our country's image in general, and apparently Canadian brands are benefiting too.
A survey from Statista, an online statistics database, conducted between December and January found that products made in Canada saw the biggest boost in global perception of a long list of countries over the previous 12 months, a net 45 per cent.
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Survey respondents were asked how their view of a countrys brand had shifted, but they werent asked why.
But Nicolas Loose, Statistas head of market research, told The Huffington Post Canada he cant think of anything else that could be behind the shift other than Justin Trudeaus election in 2015.
What I have seen about Canada has mostly been the very charismatic prime minister," he said.
Survey participants were also asked their opinion of products made in certain countries.
Canada was in the top 10, below Germany, Switzerland, the European Union, United Kingdom and Sweden.
But while nations like Switzerland have luxury brands that boost their image, Loose, who lives in Germany, said he thinks Canada has a lack of well-known consumer brands.
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"Canada has an equally strong reputation in the whole world."
He couldnt come up with many besides Canada Goose and Bombardier, which he acknowledged probably isn't too familiar to global consumers.
Canadians were also the only ones to rank their homegrown products number one.
But Canada is still perceived well overall, he said.
"Most countries have a very specific regional influence," he said.
"Canada has an equally strong reputation in the whole world, which is not the case for most other countries we looked at."
More than 43,000 people from 52 countries were surveyed by Dalia Research on behalf of Statista for the study.
This is the first year of Statistas "Made-In-Country Index," so theres no way to compare this years numbers to previous results.
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But while there may be a lack of big names associated with Canada, respondents associated the products with sustainability and fair production, more so than any other country in the survey.
The 10 countries at the bottom of Statistas list saw the smallest increase in their brands value, nations like Russia, Iran, the U.S., Bangladesh and Mexico. All have seen some political tension or instability, said Loose.
"It seems like current political events seem to have a very strong influence on the country perception in the past 12 months, he said.
So while Loose cant point to a definitive reason why the U.S. ended up near the bottom, he said he cant think of anything else besides Donald Trump's arrival in the White House.
It shows up between Greece and Mexico on the list, a very poor showing for a superpower, he said.
So while Canadians may be loyal to the made-in-Canada label, maybe brands that wear it should advertise the fact abroad, too.
OTTAWA The RCMP says it is too early to know what effect the legalization of recreational marijuana may have on organized criminal involvement in the illicit pot market.
The Mounties add that they will work with the federal government "to the extent possible" to ensure policies are in place to prevent crime networks from taking advantage of the legal marijuana trade.
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The cautious assessment spelled out in RCMP notes obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act stands in contrast to the Trudeau government's mantra that legalization will take pot profits out of criminal hands.
The Trudeau government plans to introduce legislation Thursday to put legalization in motion.
The government wants to decriminalize marijuana consumption and incidental possession and create new sanctions to more severely punish those who provide pot to minors or drive under its influence.
The Liberals say the current system of prohibition does not stop young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of pot.
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"If I have sex, I could go to jail."
This is the reality of life for women living with HIV in Canada.
It's a story I heard a few weeks ago from an African woman who had recently immigrated to Vancouver and is now faced with the profoundly isolating experience of being a Black HIV-positive woman in Canadian society.
This may come as a surprise to anyone unfamiliar with HIV in Canada: Women (and men) who are living with HIV are at risk of facing a criminal charge of aggravated sexual assault for not disclosing their HIV status before engaging in consensual sex, unless they have a low HIV viral load and use a condom. Beyond serving jail time, those convicted must register as a sex offender, a title usually reserved for child molesters and rapists. "That follows you around forever," says a woman who was herself imprisoned for HIV non-disclosure.
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This woman, and many others, bravely spoke out about their experiences of being treated like a criminal for living with HIV at the annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research, held in Montreal from April 6 to 9.
The conference included a special session on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, which covered a broad array of issues ranging from data on the total number of charges laid, to women's personal testimonies of feeling 'under surveillance', to the latest research findings on how the law is understood and experienced by thousands of women living with HIV across Canada.
Saara Greene of McMaster University, Angela Kaida of Simon Fraser University, and Marvelous Muchenje of the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization co-hosted the event in partnership with HIV-positive women, which brought together dozens of community leaders, scientists, lawyers, and activists from around the country.
"Some women are suffering in silence and they don't know what the law says," said Muchenje.
"The law assumes that sex takes place between partners of equal power," added Greene. "And it wholly ignores what causes women not to disclose their status, including widespread stigma and violence that are both systematically targeted at women living with this disease."
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The women who have participated in their research, which involved telling stories through participatory arts-based Body Mapping, say "disclosure is not always safe or positive for women's health and safety." And for many, the fear of being abused, rejected, or worse jailed, is a significant barrier to even thinking about the idea of getting involved with someone.
Eighteen women have been charged for HIV non-disclosure in Canada, many of whom come from marginalized backgrounds and are survivors of sexual violence.
"Beyond the number of prosecutions, however, is the threat of prosecution," said Kaida. "And this threat compromises both women's interactions with healthcare providers and their sexual health."
It goes without saying that women living with HIV shouldn't have to live in fear of having sex.
Kaida analyzed survey data collected from over 1000 women living with HIV in Canada, and found that for most women (65 per cent), the law affects the amount and type of information they are willing to share with providers, particularly as it relates to their sexual lives.
Kaida also found that 51 per cent of women were not having sex and of these, 78 per cent were intentionally abstinent. Women's reasons for intentional abstinence were diverse though many (33 per cent) worried about HIV criminalization and disclosing their status to sexual partners.
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"Laws criminalizing HIV non-disclosure have been defended as a means of protecting the sexual well-being of women," Kaida said. "However, our findings show women are protecting themselves from the law by intentionally abstaining from sex."
It goes without saying that women living with HIV shouldn't have to live in fear of having sex. Sex is a normal part of life. It feels good. It has health benefits. And it's a human right, one that this law violates.
The law also ignores groundbreaking new science that shows a person with HIV who is on treatment with undetectable levels of the virus in their blood has zero chance of passing HIV to their sexual partners. Put simply, Undetectable=Untransmittable.
Wedged in between science, on the one hand, and society on the other, are decades of cultural discourses of risk, danger, and stigma.
Stigma is a dangerous construct. It deters people from accessing testing and treatment. It leads to anxiety, depression, isolation, and loneliness. And it creates a social and legal environment that fosters abuse, harassment, and discrimination against women living with the condition.
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In the face of a mountain of evidence of medical advances and human rights violations, many people are calling (shouting, really) for policy markers in Canada to update the laws and de-criminalize HIV. Doing so would also help to de-stigmatize sex for women living with HIV.
"The discrimination I face because of I live with HIV is ridiculous," says Peggy Frank, an openly positive woman and researcher. "It's a small virus that has little to do with who we are. I am a human being and I have the rights that every other human being has, and that includes sex."
Allison Carter is a feminist epidemiologist conducting sex-positive research with women living with HIV. She is working with women on building a new online resource, called Life and Love with HIV, dedicated to building conversation and community around sexuality and relationships for women and couples with HIV around the world. Sign up to be notified when the website launches.
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NirutiStock via Getty Images Panorama Views of Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River Wat Arun curve. Against a backdrop of high-rise buildings at dusk.
By Gavin Charles
Global development is an exercise in cooperation. If development is to be effective -- and sustainable -- it must be pursued through partnership with a variety of stakeholders at a variety of levels. Governments, civil society organizations (CSOs), or the private sector cannot achieve lasting positive change alone. Local, national, regional, and global institutions and communities must be engaged.
This scale of partnership, in turn, requires commitment. All partners in development cooperation must commit to good practice, and those commitments must be upheld and implemented for the long term.
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For civil society, those commitments are encapsulated in the Istanbul Principles. The Istanbul Principles represent civil society's recognition of the need to formally acknowledge its own responsibilities as equal, independent and essential partners in development cooperation. The framework was generated through an extensive process of dialogue, which included more than 70 national consultations globally, from 2009-10. The Principles committed CSOs to eight fundamental tenets of good practice, including approaches based on human rights, gender equality, and environmental responsibility; a long-term focus on sustainable change; and inclusive participatory methods that enhance mutual learning, accountability, and transparency.
Seven years later, 100 representatives of global civil society reconvened recently in Bangkok to revitalize, deepen and strengthen the conversation around implementing the Istanbul Principles at global, regional, and national levels. The meeting, hosted by the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness, intended to move beyond recognizing the importance of these principles as a conceptual framework, to the details of how CSOs can embed these principles within their practices and approaches across all areas, from advocating for policy change to delivering basic services. It was an important opportunity to candidly take stock of where civil society organizations have been successful in being accountable for, and effective in, their development practices.
This workshop also allowed different regions to self-critically examine progress in their own regions. North American representation in the workshop was diverse - with participants from Canada and the United States, representing national and provincial CSO coalitions, advocacy organizations, and grassroots networks, and including all three major linguistic groups on our continent.
From the experiences shared in Bangkok, as well as other analysis, it appears there is generally good overlap between North American CSO practices and the Istanbul Principles.
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As an example, North American CSOs working in development cooperation recognize, in accordance with the Istanbul Principles, that effective development requires inclusive partnerships that support country-led processes. Accordingly, North American CSOs have worked with governments - through advocacy and collaboration around initiatives such as the Canadian government's International Assistance Review and the USAID Forward reform package - to propose more transparent, accountable and equitable partnerships for development cooperation.
These proposals -- and in some cases real changes -- have included the following: enhanced information-sharing; ongoing dialogue around financing and funding mechanisms (such as introducing more flexible, predictable, and diverse funding mechanisms suitable for a diverse range of partners); collaboration on public engagement; and more inclusive and bottom-up program evaluation policies by both governments and CSOs that reflect the input and perspective of local communities and partners. These changes all reflect the spirit and letter of the Istanbul Principles.
While there are many examples of CSOs being effective in their development practices, there is often weaker awareness of global frameworks, including the Istanbul Principles. Among CSOs, including in North America, there is often a low level of knowledge and understanding of how ongoing (and often quite positive) national efforts and conversations align with these global frameworks, and with similar efforts and conversations in other countries. Based on the discussion in Bangkok, North American civil society is not alone in that regard.
And that's why conversations like the one in Bangkok are so important: they help identify and emphasize not just the common principles of civil society, but also their common (and individual) successes and challenges. By bringing global civil society together, good practices and lessons learned can be shared, improved, and applied more universally - generating a shared agenda and a stronger sense of solidarity. That process of collaboration and exchange in turn supports more effective participation by civil society in development cooperation. Indeed, mutual learning is recognized as essential within the eight Istanbul Principles: it's number seven.
Committed partnerships and mutual learning go hand in hand. The foundation of both is a recognition that effective development is only achievable when all stakeholders are empowered and encouraged to contribute their expertise as equal partners, and are in turn committed to continuously improving their practice to deliver better results. To paraphrase the conclusion of another participant in the workshop, sometimes our ability to change the world begins with the willingness to change ourselves.
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WASHINGTON Government, we have heard over and over since Donald J. Trump started campaigning for president, should be run like a business. This, the argument goes, will put the nation in proper running order and (what else?) Make America Great Again!
One can also surmise that one of the reasons in fact, a major reason the president is said to be brooding, threatening to politically demolish wayward Republicans and getting even by waving his power around angrily during these first 100 days is, he thinks he IS running the government like a business. But more and more Americans dont seem to think so.
What has happened? Is his distress caused just by his rather obvious bad manners, his arrogance, and his strange inability to get things done despite decades of business acumen, or are we missing something major? How is it possible for a man who has built extraordinary skyscrapers to be making the same juvenile mistakes over and over?
Perhaps were looking for answers in complexity when the problem is really rather simple.
My father was a highly successful small-business man (Geyers Dairy on the South Side of Chicago), and I have the deepest respect for business owners. But we must realize that these men and women most often hold the cards in their hands and the control over their projects.
They have the money, or know how to get it, and, if they are good and lucky, they make wise decisions. Often, they make all of the decisions.
But not so in politics, and especially in something as unremittingly complex, open-ended and filled with endless possibility as presidential politics. In this world, you have hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of constituencies, citizens and consumers watching your every move, and youd better know how to please them.
You may appear to be the boss, but being the boss in politics is knowing how to inspire others to support the actions you have already decided on but need their backing.
The only good editorial Ive seen on this phenomenon appeared in late March in the Financial Times. It quoted the late prominent political scientist James Q. Wilson, who pointed out that while business can focus on simple tasks usually making profit government agencies must satisfy multiple constraints. The constraints are often dismissed as red tape, but they are there because citizens demand them.
In fact, they are there because good citizens demand accountability. And one of the big problems with the Trump presidency is that he doesnt act as though he accepts that special responsibility, if only because he so-so-so hates to lose.
Rather, he acts like a multi-billionaire who is used to making all the decisions. In short, he acts just like himself. Moreover, a dangerous number of his closest advisers and cohorts are imbued with the same attitudes.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could, as chief of ExxonMobil, walk into meetings with world leaders like the Lone Ranger and almost no one would hear about it. But when he made his first trip overseas as the nations top diplomat and refused to take the usual group of journalists with him in a smart-aleck gesture of measured contempt for traditional ways and the press, the trip was a big failure. There was no coverage. Fine for a businessman; disastrous for a secretary of state.
These thoughts do not mean that no businessmen or women ever should become president of the United States. But it behooves us to study soberly (for a change?) the qualities we truly need in a leader who so profoundly affects the entire world.
President George H.W. Bush Father Bush, lets call him marks to me the end of the Eastern Establishment: the great families like the Roosevelts, the Harrimans and the Bushes who formed the dominant culture of national politics when we were at our best.
But those qualities need not disappear in the mists of our present confusion. Prudence was Father Bushs favorite word, and it characterized his wise four years in office. To prudence, Id add comity, fairness, proportionality, respect for oneself and for others, and just plain common sense.
Can we find these again? Of course we can, if we know where to look for them.
Until then SO SAD.
Men have been suffering in silence under the heavy weight of body expectations; drastically taking measures to fit their own body into the ideals they see on the cover of men's fitness magazines. Think this is outlandish? Men don't have body image issues, do they?
That's exactly the problem; men face stigmatization that prevents them from talking about poor body image, dysfunctional eating or worse, diseases like anorexia nervosa and bulimia bervosa, precisely because we assume poor body image is a woman's problem. It is hard to say with certainty, but some studies have shown that 25 per cent of individuals with anorexia and 36 per cent of individuals with bulimia are men. That's not insignificant. That does need our attention too.
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I'd like to remove that shame for a moment and talk about what I see in my practice as a naturopathic physician, and a practitioner whose primary focus is healthy weight loss and management.
Many of the men that I see do not fit the criteria for a diagnosis with anorexia nervosa: the individual refuses to maintain a healthy body weight, is afraid of gaining weight, and exhibits significant distortional thinking about this size and shape of his or her body. Bulimia nervosa exists where the individual binge eats and avoids weight gain through vomiting or other purging methods (including excessive exercise).
And yet these men reveal, as we go about trying to unpack the reasons they have maintained an unhealthy weight or feel that they have, many similarities in their attitudes towards their bodies that I see in women: a belief that the shape they are now means they are unworthy of love and happiness, a misguided belief that the muscular men they see on men's health magazines are the norm (to which they are failing to measure up), and a fear of gaining weight or remaining the same size that significantly impacts their quality of life.
Men may not be as subjected to body shaming in the media, we may normalize some less-than-perfect male ideals (the "dad" bod, for example), but they are not immune to cultural messages that they should look a certain way: chiseled, fit and lean. What we know of men and body image is largely misunderstood or unknown.
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Men simply don't want to talk about feeling crushed by advertising images, what they might assume are the expectations of potential and current sexual partners and investing their worth in the circumference of their biceps. And this silence also means that when a problem manifests -- whether disordered eating, substance abuse as a result of poor self-esteem or a more clinically recognizable eating disorder -- it is likely to go untreated.
If you are reading this and think that you might have a problem with body image, it is important to know that counselling does help. Speaking with a professional about your relationship with food and with your body will help you to accept and clarify your feelings, and find a way of severing unhealthy associations. If weight is a current problem, this is an essential step in creating a healthier lifestyle. I do also recommend that anyone with emotional sensitivity to their current weight throw out the scale. Do your weigh-ins under the compassionate care of a health professional who is supporting you in your efforts.
And finally, as with all my patients, I recommend the conversation shift from calories to quality of life. Focus not on your weight and the way things look right now, but on cultivating strength inside of you so you can appreciate the vitality of your body and all that it allows you to do. And of course, if your problem overwhelms you be kind enough to give yourself the help you need.
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In the autumn of 2015, folks at my church got very excited about the opportunity to sponsor refugee families from Syria. The photo of Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach as his family attempted to flee across the Mediterranean created a groundswell of concern.
The four or five usual members of the Refugee Support Committee at the parish were joined by over 80 others for an information evening -- and 20 more people who could not come that evening requested updates and offered to help. Plans were made, funds raised, paperwork submitted -- and at one point, an apartment was rented.
And then, we waited... and waited. Finally, a Syrian family arrived that our parish could sponsor -- in March 2017.
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As it turns out, this situation is not unusual at all. Through private sponsorship, over 14,000 Syrian refugees have been resettled to Canada since 2015, part of the 25,000 Syrians our country received in total during this period. Yet, despite public interest and a huge outpouring of goodwill to assist, a new study reports that there remain serious flaws in the system that deserve immediate attention and serious reform.
This week, Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) released A Half Welcome: Delays, Limits and Inequities in Canadian Private Sponsorship. CPJ obtained data from Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) across Canada, by means of surveys and direct interviews.
The views expressed emanate from persons who have direct, hands-on experience with refugee reception and settlement in communities. In order to sustain public interest in the program, and to ensure refugees have the best possible chance of success here, the federal government would do well to eliminate the policy hurdles that block effective private sponsorship.
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A community group willing to sponsor refugees cannot be kept waiting for years, or interest will wane.
Inspired by faith communities anxious to assist Indochinese "boat people" back in 1979, the private sponsorship of refugees began with agreements signed by Ottawa with the Mennonites, and then other Christian faith communities. Canada received the Nansen Medal in 1986 as a result of the population's response to the Indochinese refugees, and our country is still held up as an example other countries study as they consider private sponsorship options.
Today, community groups, faith communities, or even a group of five individuals can comprise a private sponsoring organization. They must show capacity to financially support the refugee or refugee family for a year, offering to accompany them in their orientation process in their new communities.
CPJ's study points to at least four major shortfalls in the design and operation of the private sponsorship system in Canada.
First, 97 per cent of SAHs are concerned with long wait times from when an application is filed with government and the eventual arrival of the sponsored refugees.
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Refugees face logistical challenges in supplying application information in arduous situations or conflict zones (such as the woman who was asked to provide expensive DNA testing for her children in an African refugee camp, in order to prove she was their mother.) But delays can also occur at processing centres overseas, often due to scarce resources at visa posts, or even at the Centralized Processing Office in Winnipeg. A community group willing to sponsor refugees cannot be kept waiting for years, or interest will wane and other uses will attract competing uses for the collected funds.
Second is the long wait times for non-Syrian applications.
Fully 94 per cent of SAH respondents reported concern with this issue. A Winnipeg-based SAH noted that they had been waiting for over six years to receive a refugee family from Africa! When priority was given by the Liberal government to the quick processing of Syrian applications, it proved that expedited processing was possible. But it also caused distress over the fact that urgent needs from other parts of the world were not being treated equitably.
Third is that requests for refugees eligible for sponsorship exceeds the government-imposed allocation limits.
There is no reason to assume that the system is perfect or perfectly fair.
Sponsors request better communication from government, as well as advance planning (perhaps over three years) so that communities know what allocations government may allow in the various sponsorship categories. Over 87 per cent of respondents cited concern these allocation limits.
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The fourth concern has to do with Canada's policy to offer refugees loans to cover transportation, medical exams, travel documents.
Refugees must start to repay these loans within 30 days of their arrival in Canada. However, when the Liberals promised to expedite Syrian arrivals, the travel loans were waived. Seventy-five per cent of SAHs noted that this policy is of concern, as it imposes an unfair burden on those coming, often with nothing, from other parts of the globe. Statistics Canada reports that 34 per cent of newcomers to Canada live in poverty -- so why add this burden on newly arrived refugees?
Canadians can be proud that our country facilitated the entry of so many Syrian refugees in 2015-2016. Yet, there is no reason to assume that the system is perfect or perfectly fair. An engaged society and culture can continue to improve our capacity to assist vulnerable asylum-seekers. Globally, human migration is now at unheralded levels. It will only grow due to economic inequality, climate change and environmental destruction and international conflict.
Given the massive human need we are invited to confront, this CPJ study recommends useful avenues for communities seeking to better collaborate in the government's responsibilities to receive and successfully settle asylum-seekers in Canada.
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Co-authored by Dr. Hussein Abdullatif
Recently, Dr. Shabir Ally, president of the Islamic Information and Dawah Centre in Toronto, obliged us with a very generous and kind review of our book "Islamic Law and Muslim Same-Sex Unions."
His review and our great respect for him indicate how difference of opinion on hotly contested issues can be reasonably entertained. We are extremely grateful that he took out the time to read the book, provide dispassionate thoughts and invite others to read as well. He mentions:
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"It is an excellent, academic work. It needs to be read by Muslim scholars and by academic scholars as well. It may prove to be a difficult reading for most average people. It is not a light reading, but definitely it is packed with a lot of information - historical, psychological and exegetical ..."
However, as with any work that goes against the classical grain, critical reception has to be expected. Dr. Ally raises several important concerns, which we hope to address as follows.
1. The traditional understanding is not the word of Allah
Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the word of Allah. However, they also understand that any understanding of Allah's word is a human endeavour. This is why Muslim scholars often end their writings with the phrase "Allah knows best."
Our book delves into how the classical scholars understood Allah's word on the issue of homosexuality. We claim that any ruling on the matter is derived from the analogy between Lut's people and Muslim gays and lesbians.
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For an analogy to hold there must be crucial common elements between two cases and crucial differences should not render it void.
Resting the analogy between Muslim gays and lesbians and Lut's people on a single sexual act is problematic on many grounds.
Those who argue that the verses on Lut's people prohibit same-sex unions sideline the context of inhospitality (15:71), ambushing travellers and evil deeds in public assemblies. They pluck the phrase atatoona rijjala shahwatan (approaching men with desire) out of its context, define it as anal intercourse between males, and consider it as the emblematic crime of Lut's people.
However, resting the analogy between Muslim gays and lesbians and Lut's people on a single sexual act is problematic on many grounds.
First, same-sex relationships rest on intimacy, affection and companionship beyond a single sexual act. Second, the context of inhospitality, ambushing travellers, and coercing Lut to relinquish his guests does not apply to Muslim gays and lesbians and makes the analogy void.
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Third, eliciting the prohibition of marital relationships based on similar illustrations of sexual violence such as that of the Levite and his concubine in Judges 19, or the Abu Ghraib prison in contemporary times is unreasonable.
Is surrounding Lut's house to demand access to his guests indicative of a pursuit of same-sex relationships? Is it reasonable to superimpose a ruling derived from the conduct of a lunatic fringe of humanity onto our Muslim gay and lesbian youth?
In essence, Muslims submit to Allah's wisdom, but it is also true that this submission is not mindless. It rests on a reasonable understanding of His word. Those who sustain the traditional understanding conflate that viewpoint with Allah's word, which is unwarranted.
2. The phrase "approaching men with desire" is not about same-sex unions
Verses 7:81, 26:165-166 and 27:55 indicate that Lut's people "approached men with desire." Muslims believe that the Qur'an should be understood on the basis of the Qur'an. Therefore, in our book, we delve into the etymological roots of the phrase to understand if it is referring to the conduct of gay men.
Dr. Ally argues that it would be an etymological fallacy to construe the phrase "approaching men with desire" as "approaching non-receptive entities." He feels that the Qur'anic condemnation is general and that the phrase in the context of 7th century Arabia simply refers to "approaching males" without force.
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However, a plain reading of the verses necessitates the question that how did a people, and not just the minority of constitutional homosexuals, approach other men. Understanding the Qur'an by the Qur'an provides us with an answer.
The Qur'an illustrates their approach as one of demanding access to Lut's guests. Men in general are not receptive to the advances of other men and females in general are partial to the overtures of men. The Qur'an operates with this notion of implied consent and therefore deems the approach of Lut's people as coercive.
In essence, the Qur'an itself illustrates how the approach of Lut's people was imbued with force. Therefore, making these texts about gay men and same-sex unions amounts to unwarranted speculation.
3) Procedural issues can be addressed after affirming same-sex unions
Once Muslim scholars affirm a principle, the procedural issues are easily addressed. For instance, while past jurists accepted the marriage of the khuntha mushkil (intersex person) in principle, they debated on procedural issues. Where some restricted the intersex person to one gender, others allowed them either based on their inner constitution.
Similarly, once the principle of Muslim same-sex unions is affirmed, procedural issues related to the marriage of bisexuals, polygamy, and distinguishing between constitutional gays and those who act out of superfluous desire can all be addressed.
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Since the marriage contract is part of muamalaat (social transactions), stipulations can restrict the marriage to one partner, as in the case of the Tunisian family reforms. The marriage of bisexuals can be addressed based on how past jurists dealt with the non-binary in the case of the marriage of intersex persons. Finally, those who pursue superfluous desires are already doing so and the question of a marriage contract is moot.
However, other Muslims may have a different opinion. This is to be expected as in the case of issues like women leading prayers and interfaith marriages. Therefore, instead of putting each other down, Muslims should nurture spaces that accommodate people of all theological persuasions.
Muslims often mention of the rich tradition of active debate and dissent in Islamic scholarship. Dr. Ally's review shows how such a tradition is still alive and for that we are extremely grateful.
The B.C. Liberals want voters to believe their promise of a future so bright they've got to wear shades, but all I can think about are the 331 children who have died in government care since Christy Clark was elected in 2013. There is certainly no bright future for them.
In the 2013 election we were promised "families first," but we soon discovered that it was only the families of the very wealthy, the ones who could afford $10,000-a-plate dinners, whose concerns would be heard by the premier.
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Families who could not afford daycare were not heard.
Families forced to choose between paying rent or buying food were ignored.
Families trying to survive on minimum wage did not factor into the premier's concerns.
For whom is the premier promising a bright future?
Certainly not the children with learning disabilities who struggled to learn in overcrowded classrooms, the casualties of 15 years of deliberate defunding of public education.
If we look at the way young people in this province have been treated, our future has a shaky foundation.
Certainly not adults wanting to complete their high-school education or those in postsecondary institutions who are increasingly using food banks to cope with high tuition fees.
Perhaps the bright future is only for students in private schools that have enjoyed a 66 per cent increase in government funding since 2005?
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The newspaper wraparound election ads promise us a "strong" B.C., but on what foundation is the future of our province being built?
Conventional wisdom has it that a society's future is predicated on the strengths, skills and knowledge of the youth, but if we look at the way young people in this province have been treated by the B.C. Liberals since 2001, our future has a shaky foundation.
Cracks in our future foundation are already evident with a new report revealing that we have the worst economy in the country for young people.
Unlike older generations who enjoyed steady employment, younger people will have to get used to a world of precarious employment: temporary, casual and seasonal work that make up the bulk of the jobs that the B.C. Liberals boast about.
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And while they're trying to make a living they'll have to find a way to manage the burden of all the contractual obligations made by the B.C. Liberals when BC Hydro and I.C.B.C have been completed plundered in the cause of a "balanced budget."
As if that's not enough, they will also have to pay for the clean-up costs of environmental disasters, like the $40,000,000 for Mount Polley spill, since one of the advantages of those corporate donations is the deregulation that allows mining companies to siphon profits from our natural resources without concern for environmental destruction.
If you can't afford the $10,000 a plate dinners, the B.C. Liberals have little to offer you.
The more I think about it: a future under the B.C. Liberals is only bright if you happen to be a corporation, one of the many whose donations made international news.
If you can't afford the $10,000 a plate dinners, the B.C. Liberals have little to offer you besides more of what we've been subjected to since 2001: increasing poverty, increasing housing costs, increasing deaths while waiting for ambulances, increasingly longer waits to see medical specialists, increasing deaths while waiting in hospital emergency rooms, increasing deaths of children in government care.
What the B.C. Liberals offer is so bleak that accepting their promises would be like paying for "protection" from the very mob who have already destroyed everything.
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A decimated social safety net, a huge debt burden and no viable plan to mitigate climate change portends a future that is anything but bright for B.C. under Christy Clark's leadership.
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LOVE_LIFE via Getty Images Aids Awareness Ribbon. Isolated on white.
HIV has lost its steam. With access to medicine and treatment slowly increasing for many (but not all), a world without HIV is in our sights. Hallelujah. Maybe. The virus may be losing its steam but its stigma is destroying lives. Especially in Ontario. Our dirty little secret is that Ontario is responsible for 54% of all Canadian HIV non-disclosure criminal cases. In a world where ARVS (anti-retrovirals) have made undetectable = untransmittable (U=U) a reality, stigma remains lethal. Two new pieces of art take on HIV stigma full frontal.
Sky Gilbert's It's All Tru (May 3-12 at Buddies in Bad Times) is a play that brings a gay male couple on the brink of marriage to the brink of pressing charges for HIV non-disclosure. looking at you, looking at me is a video installation of silent, filmed portraits of people who have been directly impacted by HIV/AIDS (opening May 3 in Buddies' Ante-chamber; free). The installation seeks to activate the space between observer and observed -- where HIV stigma may emerge. There are many good reasons to take on stigma through art, but one is the criminal law.
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In roughly the same period that access to medicine and treatment has increased, so has the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure means that people are charged and prosecuted for not disclosing their HIV positive status to a sexual partner before sex. Since 1989, about 200 people have been charged with non-disclosure. In the age of U=U, the criminal law seems frozen in time. Especially, in Ontario.
In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruled that people living with HIV have a legal duty to disclose their HIV-positive status to sexual partners before sex that poses a "significant risk" of HIV transmission. In 2012, the SCC established that culpability resides with a "realistic possibility". A 'realistic possibility' is defined as having a low viral load and/or using a condom. But that's almost exactly how low-risk sex is defined.
This leaves HIV-positive people on ARVS in a real quandary. We're not at risk of transmission, yet risk sexual assault charges and even life imprisonment if there isn't disclosure.
"The penis is a loaded gun," says playwright and director Gilbert. "One has to look at the demonization of the disease itself," argues Gilbert, "and of gay men and of black men." Gilbert's underscores an important point. "It doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of science, these kinds of convictions, but it seems to make a lot of sense when you look at people's prejudices and people's fears." If a penis is a loaded gun, a black penis is even more so.
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In the age of U=U, we could be on the verge of bucking stigma but not quite. Stigma remains a real threat and may decide who gets charged and who doesn't. Not surprisingly, given the recent history of anti-gay and anti-black law enforcement activities, it doesn't appear that the wide net cast by criminalization lands evenly. According to AIDSLAW.ca, 48% of all men charged with non-disclosure have been black since 'realistic possibility' became the threshold in 2012.
Stigma reduces access to treatment and medicine and undermines public health. It destroys lives and, arguably, results in more criminal charges. Gilbert and me think that theatre and art have a critical role to play in making change.
As writers and artists, we know that we have a responsibility to our communities. "There comes a time when I get angry," says Gilbert. "I began to hear about personal instances in Hamilton where people that I was acquainted with were being, or told me stories, and in some cases themselves were taken off to jail, or threatened with jail, or in jail for a while, or in solitary because of HIV criminalization so that touched me personally."
Gilbert advises that art isn't going to change the world, but it can act as a powerful critical tool. In Gilbert's It's All Tru, audiences are embedded in two opposing points-of-view. Do we press charges or do we not? This dramatic critical engagement allows the gradual change art makes possible.
In looking at you, looking at me audiences are invited to notice the stories emerging in their imaginations as they watch these filmed portraits. They'll gain awareness as preconceptions and prejudices fight to control the narrative in their own minds. Is that the person who's positive? Is he the one who lost his mom? Does it matter?
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A special one-time, pre-show event is planned for the May 5, 2017 performance of It's All Tru at 6:30 p.m. With a special appearance by Gilbert, Dr. Liviana Calzavara of the Positive + One research team at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School for Public Health will join vernon to facilitate a free public event in the Buddies Cabaret. At the event, guests will be invited to engage creatively and anonymously with the anonymous testimonies of sero-discordant couples (one person HIV+, the other HIV-). This creative work will then be donated to the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives for archival purposes.
HIV can be traumatic but stigma guarantees it. Life imitates Art, says Oscar Wilde. If that's the case, then -- in a culture of criminalization -- maybe a riveting new play and a video installation can be the art that contributes to the life.
C/O Jenica Chuahiock
In the lead up towards the fourth anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy and Fashion Revolution week ethical and sustainable fashion is once again a hot topic of conversation. So why aren't more people shopping responsibly? As an ethical fashion retailer at Gather&See it's a question I ask myself frequently and part of answer has to be that people don't know where to start. With that in mind we have put together five simple steps to help. It is time we stopped passing the buck and expecting the fashion industry to change without making changes ourselves - it is time we chose style and substance, not the former over the latter.
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1. Do Your Research - Who Made Your Clothes?
Start at the beginning and ask yourself what is the provenance of this piece of clothing? The Fashion Revolution campaign is built around what should be a simple question - "Who made your clothes?".The scary thing is that not only do we as consumers not know, but in many cases big retailers don't know themselves. Which makes it impossible for them to assure us that men, women, even children have not been exploited in order to make that item as cheaply as fast fashion demands.
Clothing supply chains are long and murky. Take some time to search out brands that are transparent and provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision. Choose Fair Trade items so you can be sure that the farmers, craftsmen and seamstresses who have made your clothes are getting a fair deal. What's more this is a feminist issue - more than 80% of garment industry workers are female - we need to stand in solidarity and insist that they are respected and treated fairly.
2. Material Girl - Choose Fabrics With Care
Take a look at the care label to find out what's in your clothes. Clue: anything starting in a 'poly' isn't going to be eco friendly. Choose organic or sustainably produced eco materials like Tencel and Modal to limit the effect and send a message to retailers to clean up their act.
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A study of organic cotton in one region of India, commissioned by PUMA found a 40% reduction in global warming potential, 72% lower primary energy demand, and lower water consumption. Not only that, the farmers and workers involved in production are not exposed to the harmful chemicals that regular cotton growing demands. The benefits of choosing safer, more eco friendly materials are clear for all to see.
3. Waste Not Want Not - Extend the Lifetime of Your Clothes
2.5 billion pounds of clothing ends up in landfill every year. That's an astonishing amount. Our wardrobes are bigger than ever before and we wear each item less. Fast fashion has led to consumers viewing fashion as a disposable commodity and it is high time that changed.
A few simple steps help extend the life of your clothes so you don't have to add to problem. Firstly, wash them correctly. Most of us wash our clothes too often and at too high a temperature. Check the label, turn the dial down, hand wash where you can. A little love can go a long way. When the inevitable does happen and a button comes off or a zipper goes - repair rather than throw away. You'll be surprised how simple a little sewing can be, who knows you might even enjoy it.
Lastly just because you aren't into something any more doesn't mean someone else won't be. Re-home your unwanted clothes. Shopping for second-clothing is fun, cheap and sustainable. There are now several websites which enable to sell on your cast offs as well as hundreds of local swap sales all over the place so there really is no excuse.
4. Buy Less, But Better - More Wears Per Spend
This is a great mantra to go by in many areas of life, but especially when it comes to our wardrobes. We have too many clothes - if you are honest with yourself, what percentage of what you own do you actually wear? So make an effort to cut down and make your money go further.
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Wears per buy is a good way to think of it. Are you really getting value for money? Build a capsule wardrobe full of pieces that can be mixed and matched and made from quality materials that will stand the test of time. A perfectly cut organic cotton shirt or a pure virgin wool coat that will be a pleasure to wear and that you will treasure is worth so much more than five cheap tops that you'll wear once and forget about.
Take time before making a decision to buy something - how often you will wear it, what does it go with in your wardrobe, do you really need it? It's just about balancing the want and the need. This isn't to take away any of the joy of shopping - quite the opposite - when you finally get your hands on something you've been lusting after for some time the reward will be even sweeter. A far cry from the short-lived sugar high you receive from a cheap impulse buy.
5. Get Personal: Support Small Scale Producers and Independent Makers
Get to know the story behind a brand, learn its history and appreciate its heritage. In supporting small scale brands who work with skilled craftsmen and artisans you are helping to keep traditional techniques alive.
Seek out limited collections and handmade pieces. To wear something that is one of a small run or even handmade is something truly special and something that we need to protect. Small fashion labels who run their own production facilities and who know their workers individually are able to maintain tighter control and ensure their principles and values are held strong throughout. Traceability is key.
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Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Last month's Foreign Affairs Committee report on the UK's relations with Russia reported that the relationship between our two countries were at its most strained since the end of the Cold War.
Recognising that Russia's actions in Ukraine and Syria presented the two most urgent challenges, we recommended that the UK should conduct a meaningful and regular political dialogue with the Russian Government in a spirit of 'frankness and honesty' while maintaining the UK's core values. In that spirit, we welcomed the announcement soon after, that Boris Johnson would personally go to Moscow.
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Postponing his visit in favour of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers before Secretary Tillerson's heads to Moscow on Wednesday visit, enables a united liberal world response. This is an obvious decision from the perspective of any policy maker interested in effective statecraft. The criticism of the cancellation of his visit has seen a combination of ill-informed and opportunistic commentary, some of it frankly childish and smacking of desperate attention seeking.
The Foreign Affairs Committee is first in line to call for the UK to take a more active and independent role in world affairs, and to have the resources to do so. But a large part of that role involves working with allies and leveraging the range of our assets in co-ordination. It would be absurd for an inflated sense of self-importance to imperil policy co-ordination with allies.
The UK has historically been a leader on sanctions and the Foreign Secretary is strongest in exploring the possibility of new sanctions against Russian and Syrian individuals.
It is appropriate for the US to be the first into Moscow in this heightened atmosphere. The American Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, should be reinforced by a united G7 position, served by his own understanding of how the Putin elite operates and comes with a recent demonstration of the extent of American hard power and a willingness to use it.
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The 2013 deal, whereby the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons verified the destruction of 95% of Syria's declared chemical weapons, was negotiated between Russia and the US and either the Russians haven't honoured their side of the deal or they have been betrayed by the Syrians.
The resurfacing of these weapons in 2017 presents the international community, and the US in particular, with a new challenge. This is principally about upholding international norms, whilst also responding to the Russian failure to meet its responsibilities under the 2013 agreement, sending a message to a resurgent Assad and a new administration enforcing its own red lines.
The commentary that President Trump had a change of heart after seeing images of Khan Sheikhoun raises the concern that policy is being developed on gut feelings without careful deliberation. However, proposals of targeted airstrikes in response to specific atrocities have long been discussed and debated. Officials in the Pentagon and State Department have been planning for this moment for six years. Furthermore, volatility has its own value and deters other parties from pushing limits further. This carefully calibrated action should have radically changed Russian and Syrian calculations of the costs and benefits of wanton disregard for human life.
Within Assad's coalition there is a struggle between maximalists who think that his counter-revolution should continue until they have reclaimed every inch of Syria, necessitating ever-increasingly brute force to bludgeon their way across the line, and those who support either an accommodation with certain opposition groups or limiting their ambitions to holding "useful Syria". Trump has shown that there are limits to how brutal the maximalists can afford to be.
Every US signal indicates that this action was and will be limited in its scope, which mitigates the risks of grave miscalculation by the Russians and Syrians. The Americans gave prior notice and Rex Tillerson has also been clear in his warning to observers that US policy has not fundamentally changed.
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However much the attack was a departure from the Syria playbook, the problems of larger western intervention and establishing no-fly zones or safe zones still stand. Undoubtedly wider debates around civilian protection will open.
In 2013 I voted against military intervention in Syria. The consequences and responsibilities that would have placed on us still persuades me that I made the right judgement. The debates of that summer were plagued by strategic confusion. The conflict itself was at an earlier and more volatile stage; there was a distinct possibility of the opposition militarily defeating the Assad Government. Regime change was very much still the order of the day in western capitals.
Unlike the shambolic process of the vote in 2013, further involvement by the UK should be preceded by the Government properly engaging Parliament and clearly setting out its agenda, objectives, and strategy. David Cameron's success in bringing Parliament with him in the 2015 vote on targeting ISIS should be the model.
A political settlement negotiated between the parties and supported by the international community is undoubtedly still the priority. We need to return to the November 2015 International Syria Support Group agreement as the basis for that negotiation to end this civil war and its accompanying horrors of displacement death and the ISIS insurgency.
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
As uncertainty prevails in the wake of Brexit, the UK is relying increasingly on its reputation as an important global economy to continue to have a foothold on the world stage and be considered relevant within the international community. In this respect, Theresa May's upcoming appearance in US Vogue could be a valuable diplomatic stepping stone - but how will she use it?
It will not be the first time that fashion, politics and 'Brand Britain' have joined forces, but as the UK embarks on crucial talks with its EU neighbours the pressure to avoid alienation has never been more pertinent. Margaret Thatcher, famed for her haircut, pearls and handbags, united femininity and power in a male dominated world during her time in office, and likewise made an appearance in Vogue. Similarly, Winston Churchill was notoriously conscious of the quintessentially British image he epitomized - cigar, hat and cane - in the midst of two bruising World Wars.
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So where does this leave Theresa May? Her rise to power is beset with challenges never before faced by the UK, but her appearance in Vogue marks an opportunity for May to cement her own brand image, not just by wearing British clothing but by crafting the tone she wants to present to the US and beyond.
Under political scrutiny from Westminster to Warsaw and Washington, the stage is set for May to use this Vogue feature as a showcase, to paint a picture of herself as a strong, capable leader in difficult times. Simultaneously, May can take this chance to project an approachable and friendly side, offering a human face to the politician charged with the grueling job of negotiating the EU divorce settlement. She may also use this feature to demonstrate that she and the UK want to uphold existing relationships and forge new alliances in the wake of Brexit.
We don't know the true reasons behind Theresa May's decision to appear in US Vogue, whether it's about enhancing her political profile across the pond, or simply to fulfill a long-standing ambition in line with her well-reported love of fashion.
Carlos Barria / Reuters
I suppose that I am guilty! I am guilty for speaking out a tad too hastily about those 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles that caused considerable damage to the She'eyrat airbase in the Homs Governorate of Syria - one of six airbases, incidentally, that are used by the Syrian regime for its redoubtable operations.
Mind you, I had seen it before: after all, the 2013 chemical attack in the besieged Eastern Ghouta (that has become synonymous with former President Obama's infamous red line) had cost the lives of some 1400 victims. So I suspect my hastiness was due in part to the deep sadness I felt when looking at the pictures of those victims who had succumbed to the sarin gas attack at Khan Sheikhoun. And not only the victims themselves, but also their families who were grieving the loss of relatives in this criminal and sadistic attack.
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But my initial Pavlovian reaction was understandably short-lived, and my splenetic rants to colleagues came to an end too, as I dwelt on four guiding realities.
I am not readily impressed by President Donald Trump's sober comments when he talked to reporters about his outrage at the killing of beautiful babies. I suppose somewhere in his inner psyche as a dad, he did experience a twinge, but much of his outrage in my opinion was tantamount to political grandstanding. He wanted to order this attack in order to look not only 'presidential' but also different from his predecessor. He also wanted to deflect attention from other investigations that were taking place in DC and tarnishing his popularity. Crucially though, he also needed to sell this attack to his electoral constituencies who were espoused to his slogan of America First. Referring merely to the evil deeds of Bashar Assad would not have washed down well with the Rust Belt states. He needed the emotional human wrench to make it a marketable proposition.
Let us not forget that President Trump could have paralysed the whole Syrian air-force if he had wanted to stop those attacks. He did not do any of that. Instead, he targeted She'eyrat alone, and only partially at that, and he informed the Russians who in turn alerted the Syrians. As such, the manpower and hardware were redeployed from this base prior to this attack. In fact, it is already operational again.
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I respect those pundits - let alone demonstrators such Stop the War Coalition in London - who have voiced strong opinions against this attack. They cite Palestine, Iraq and Libya to claim that this attack was yet another example of US rampant imperialism that has rendered our world unsafe. I do not disagree with them about the egregious errors committed by various US Administrations. But I would also invite them to distil their biases and examine the human (and material) cost of those past six years in Syria. And whether they like it or not - and they probably would not - the main culprit remains the Syrian president who has rained all manners of horror on a majority of his own people.
Let me add an axiomatic statement here. Following this attack, we will either witness a return to the political ploys of the past six years so the Syrian regime and various terrorist groups continue killing and maiming innocent men, women or children. Or else, the Trump Administration uses this attack as a way of exercising global leadership by devising a fresh strategy that would coerce all the players to come together - in Geneva, Astana or elsewhere - to stop the carnage and apply a solution.
I also suggest three critical afterthoughts.
In order to achieve an enduring peace in Syria, it is necessary to build a clear architecture for addressing the challenges of population returns. Any agreement over Syria will simply collapse without an effective repatriation of refugees and internally-displaced persons - alongside significant security or protection guarantees.
It is equally important to understand that any strategy aimed at staunching the haemorrhage in Syria must inescapably include Iraq too. We usually address one country or the other, but both Syria and Iraq constitute extensions of each other's conflicts and they should be viewed and tackled together.
Finally, International law makes a distinction between chemical and conventional weapons. However, I would argue that natural law, a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct, cannot ignore the terrifying fact that half a million have been killed and 11 million have become refugees or internally-displaced persons in Syria Have those statistics benumbed us? Is there not a ceiling anymore when politicians forget their war games and think of those men, women and children as human beings?
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A pregnant Carme Chacon inspects Spanish troops. Defense Ministry
More information Divided Socialists unite in tribute to Spains first female defense minister
Carme Chacon, a leading figure in the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and Spains first-ever female defense minister, was found dead on Sunday evening in her apartment in Madrid. She was 46.
Chacon, who suffered from a congenital heart condition, which is believed to have caused her death, held the Defense Ministrys top job from 2008 to 2011 under the former PSOE government of then-Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. She was seven months pregnant when she took on the role.
The emptiness we now feel provides a measure of the depth of the loss for Spanish democracy and for all Socialists
Former Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
The Socialist politician, who came from Spains northeastern Catalonia region, was one of the partys most popular figures at a time when the PSOE was struggling to deal with the economic crisis. She came extremely close to winning the party leadership after the departure of Zapatero, in the wake of the Socialists defeat in the November 2011 elections, but was narrowly beaten by her rival Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
On Monday, Zapatero said he was devastated by the death of a colleague and a friend, whom he had personally appointed to the posts of housing minister (2007-2008) and defense minister (2008-2011).
The emptiness we now feel provides a measure of the depth of the loss for Spanish democracy and for all Socialists, he said in a release.
News of Chacons death has shocked the PSOE, coming at a time when the party is deeply divided over the leaderships decision to allow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party (PP) to be reinstated by abstaining at a crucial congressional vote last October. The decision caused then-secretary general Pedro Sanchez to resign, and the PSOE is currently locked in an internal leadership struggle.
But the three politicians currently battling it out for the leadership position in the lead-up to party primaries this summer said they would suspend all campaign activities in the coming days.
Zapatero and Chacon in Congress in 2006. Bernardo Perez
A known condition
Madrids emergency services were alerted at 7.30pm on Sunday after Chacon failed to return calls from friends and relatives trying to get in touch with her since Saturday night. The door of the apartment, located on Viriato street, had to be forced open, and medics quickly certified Chacons death. Their first impression was that she had been dead for hours.
Everything indicates that Chacon, who was separated and the mother of an eight-year-old boy, died of a heart condition that she had gone public with some years ago.
I have a pulse rate of 35 beats a minute and my heart is reversed, I have a complete atrioventricular heart block, she told the La Vanguardia newspaper in late 2015. That makes me think that every day is a gift.
Ever since I was a little girl, I was warned that I would have to have a pacemaker and lead a very quiet life
Carme Chacon
Ever since I was a little girl, I was warned that I would have to have a pacemaker and lead a very quiet life, she added. In February of this year Chacon participated in an event to introduce an awareness campaign on congenital heart disease. I have a blocked ventricle in a reversed heart, but I lead a perfectly normal life, she said at the time.
Chacon gave her last interview on Friday, when she spoke on Colombias Radio Caracol. Asked about her role as her countrys first female defense minister, she said that it was a step that Spain had to take, and it was well received by Spanish society and by the armed forces.
Spains current defense minister, Maria Dolores de Cospedal of the Popular Party, has published an open letter praising her predecessor for her successful career and for championing the values and identity signs of modern social-democracy.
But above all, I would like to remember her as the first woman who held the portfolio putting her at the helm of the Spanish armed forces.
English version by George Mills and Susana Urra.
Muslim Girl via Getty Images
When I travel, passport checks and security don't phase me, armed police pay me no attention and no matter where I'm going, the worst I'll face is a bored employee longing to finish their shift. I do as I'm told. Shoes off, electronic devices in the box. I'm polite and don't cause any disruption. So why shouldn't it be like this? The point is it should be, but not just for you.
Last year I travelled with my friend in Europe. We went to France, Denmark and Belgium. Admired the art, loved the landmarks and relished the idea of a city as clean as Copenhagen.
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As we progressed through the queues, checks and controls, we followed the rules. Our attitude the same, the only difference being the place of birth on our passports. Stepping into the air with the automatic doors sliding closed behind us, he breathed a sigh of relief, 'Well that's never been so easy. Is that what it's like to travel when you're white?' and as he joked it hit me. Yes, yes it is.
I wait in the bus line while he goes to the bathroom. Our relief is short lived. A minute later I look over and see him stopped by four armed police. Steams of people walk past, avoiding the uncomfortable situation unfolding and the defining differences between him and them: a beard and a darker skin tone.
It's easy to forget the privilege that you have as you go through your daily life. You're not doing anything wrong, but neither is that women with the hijab, or that man with a beard. Being visibly muslim shouldn't define who you are or how you are treated.
Even the student community is not immune. Tom Harwood, a candidate for NUS president, stated 'NUS is in ISIS' in his campaign video. He flashed the word ISIS within the word crisis, like the opening of a poorly made conspiracy theory documentary. His blatant islamophobia toward the institutions first muslim President Malia Bouattia, shocked me to the core.
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This wasn't a joke, it went beyond an attack for the sole aim of political gain. Harwood equated Bouattia's presidency - in which she has stood against and tackled racism, antisemitism and discrimination - to a horrific and inhuman terrorist group that has slaughtered so many innocent lives. However what shocked me most was the response.
Where was the response? Where was the backlash?
Remarks like this are made every single day, they'll be in the comments of this very article. With every foul tweet, street slur and political assault, the silence becomes evermore deafening.
But as I gasp at the video in disbelief my muslim friends shrug as if to say it's one of many. If they spent all their time engaging with these attacks, they'd never get anything done. From folders of abusive emails on their work accounts to photoshopped videos of their face on a 9/11 plane. They've dealt with worse and without complaint.
It's important to note that this isn't a new, post-brexit fad. In 2015 a report from Tell MAMA highlighted that anti-muslim attacks had risen by 326% in the UK, with women being targeted the most. Since then the numbers have only escalated.
They're told that's just life. Sure they might get a little sympathy, but sympathetic inaction is useless. As the quote goes, 'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.'
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Following our impromptu heatwave (yes highs of 21 degrees are considered a UK rarity) and the realisation that our bikini bodies are definitely still pending, it would seem that summer is creeping around the corner.
That means it's time to start clearing the cobwebs from our summer dresses, digging out those black gladiator sandals and tinted (scratched) Ray Bans. Whilst the British weather in the summer might be as reliable as the Metropolitan line on a Monday morning, there is no denying that come May Bank holiday, we'll see a lot of British skin.
Forget biscuit fragranced, orange streaked fake tan nightmares and instead channel your inner bronzed goddess (with no white bits) and head to some of the safest topless beaches in the world. If you're not quite brave enough to embrace full frontal nudist beaches, but still want to avoid spending hours photo-shopping out awkward, sunburnt strap marks, then I've got you covered (kind of). Ranging from itsy bitsy bikinis in Brazil to sand dunes shielding you from prying eyes in South Africa, it's time to ditch the top and follow in our European cousins' chic footsteps.
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Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
One of the world's most famous beaches and home to pert behinds and barely-there bottoms, Copacabana is full of sun worshippers with non-existent tan lines. Time to stretch out with a Caipirinha in hand, Brazil's signature cachaca cocktail, and watch those tan lines vanish.
Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
Whilst you're taking in the sites on the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk, rest assured you'll see a whole host of liberated females soaking up the Sydney sun. Boasting a Guinness world record for hosting the largest swimsuit shoot and home to a whole heap of hippies, backpackers and beautiful people, Bondi is the ideal place to strip down.
Playa d'en Bossa, Ibiza, Spain
In between catching Martin Garrix at Ushuia, covering your body in glitter for Zoo project and getting in at 8am from Elrow at Amnesia, avoid those awkward 'thought you went on holiday?" questions by sleeping off your hangover on Playa d'en Bossa beach. Complete with laid-back bars and Bali beach beds, clothing is optional on the longest beach in Ibiza.
Little Beach, Maui, Hawaii
Whilst most of the picture postcard beaches in Hawaii have a no nudity policy, it's widely known that Little Beach is an exception. Head down on a Sunday and take part in the traditional fire dancing and drum circle. Probably best to stick your bikini back on for these though ...
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Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, United States of America
It's no surprise that Las Vegas sanctions a bit of nudity, and at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino you'll get to marvel at the...erm...pool in style. Equipped with poolside massage service, personal pool attendants and raunchy red sun loungers, ticking off topless tanning from the bucket list is probably the tamest thing you'll do in Sin City!
Clifton Beach, Cape Town, South Africa
Ideal for those who still have some reservations about revealing it all, as Clifton beach has natural sand dunes to prevent exposed skin from being subjected to prying eyes. It also has four coves, which protect bathers from the vicious winds, helping women everywhere avoid any kind of razor-sharp awkwardness.
Plage de Tahiti, St. Tropez, France
The beach that put topless sunbathing on the map when Bridgette Bardot whipped off her bikini top back in the 60's. Frequently visited by celebrities, don't be alarmed if you see a camera flash, it's likely to be because a B-lister has got their kit off.
Note to self - still haven't seen Tom Hardy take it all off here, only aging playboys with blonde bombshells as their chosen accessory. Sigh.
South Beach, Miami, United States of America
A lot of stateside beaches have a 'no topless bathing' policy and you can be fined for your vanity. Throwback to the 80's where my mum nearly got arrested in Fort Lauderdale for losing her top in an approaching storm. If only she'd read my words of wisdom and headed to South Beach instead...
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In your quest for a good dose of vitamin D and the right (contorted body, 40 useless photos and 11 angles later) bikini Instagram snap, be mindful of when it isn't acceptable to free the nipple. Countries such as Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia have a no-tolerance policy to topless bathers and carry some pretty serious penalties. Respect the beliefs and customs of the countries you're travelling to and research them before you go.
There are more men than women in tech. That's a fact. Less than a quarter (23%) of tech industry workers are women, and we recently found that women in top tech roles have remained under the 10% mark, on average, for the last 15 years of the Tech Track 100.
In an industry that's still trying to decide where the fault lies for this statistic - and the absence of a single, discernible solution, we asked female entrepreneurs from the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 to offer their advice on how to navigate bias in modern business.
1."I feel like I've been battling, all of my life, people's perceptions of who they think I am. And they link what I look like to my performance. My advice would be to others, to not pass judgment on people until they really know how much that person's achieved." Melissa Morris, CEO, Network Locum
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When less than half (42%) of women are confident their gender will have no bearing on their career progression, Melissa Morris is not alone in feeling her biology has an unwelcome habit of masking her true merit.
Social psychologist, Corinne Moss-Racusin, offered an even bleaker assessment when her research experiment demonstrated that female job applicants were considered less competent and less hireable than male applicants. They were even offered a significantly lower starting salary on average, despite identical qualifications.
To create a system based purely on aptitude rather than biology, we must recognise the significance of gender bias and put in place procedures that forcibly recognise merit.
2."As a woman, people can make assumptions about you, so you have to be alert to such assumptions and tackle them head on. If you're clear about what you want, then be open about it." Kate Markham, Managing Director of Hiscox Direct.
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In any industry, assumptions can be made about what's best for women. This may involve concluding that some jobs or projects are better suited to men. Or that if a woman has a baby she'll want to work fewer hours, she'll be reluctant to take on more responsibility or won't want to travel.
And while it's the collective responsibility of businesses to tackle these damaging assumptions, Kate advises women to be transparent about what they want "to stop people from making any career-limiting assumptions."
3."No one's going to ask you to do anything. You have to do it. And you have to keep doing it." Edwina Dunn, Co-founder of dunnhumby
Edwina's advice reminds us that a starting handicap exists for female entrepreneurs because of their gender, and of the unfair reality that if a woman waits for opportunity to present itself chances are it won't happen. Women must acknowledge their strengths when others ignore them, and push through regardless.
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4."You have to believe in yourself, probably slightly more than is altogether comfortable. Without that you won't break through." Edwina Dunn, Co-founder of dunnhumby
The importance of self-belief and self-confidence is often trotted out when advising women on how to achieve in business, but unfortunately it's still necessary to neutralise the tide of opinion that can hold women back.
We only need to cast our minds back to the recent outburst from Polish MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who soberly announced that women are 'weaker, smaller and less intelligent.' While Korwin-Mikke is the pantomime villain here, we must grudgingly acknowledge that this 'weaker, smaller, stupider' discourse still exists. So much so, that it's given a mouthpiece on the European political stage.
Perhaps worse is how the enduring nature of this discourse can prey on women's perceptions of their own self-worth, sometimes to the detriment of their career progression. Vastly increasing female representation at top levels is one way to counter these opinions. As is removing any influence that causes this toxic opinion to spread.
5."I do think there's some truth in the cliche of Sheryl Sandberg's line that 'women should lean in.' Some of the most talented people I've worked with have been women, and yet they've not necessarily been quite as confident in their own abilities as I think they would have been, if they'd been men." William Reeve, Co-CEO Hubbub
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William Reeve borrows from Sheryl Sandberg's philosophy to illustrate his experience of how differently men and women communicate ambition in the workplace.
It may be necessary for women to 'lean in'. But rather than limiting self-promotion as the only practical method to make it big in business, industries need to change the field of judgment into something that works on the objective recognition of skill.
What's clear from our entrepreneurs' advice is that women need to seriously toot their horn. Whether it's to obtain an equal chance at a promotion or project, to inspire other women into making a non-traditional career move, or simply to make sure their intellect is acknowledged.
The need for this kind of action is a stark reminder that the battle for equality in business is not yet won. However, by recognising these obstacles, female entrepreneurs are better equipped to overcome them, and to take full charge of their own careers.
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If there's one thing global justice activists have given up on, it's the vote. With citizens losing faith in party politics and Green parties far from power, over the past few decades activists and campaigners have increasingly turned to other tools like lobbying, protesting, occupying, petitioning and direct action.
But are they working?
We've certainly succeeded in raising public awareness about many important issues - the women's marches in January 2017 were among some of the largest in US history. But we'd be hard pushed to argue that we've made any substantive impact on the neoliberal juggernaut. Even the 2008 global financial crisis couldn't stop it, despite Occupy and countless petitions and protests.
So it's perhaps not surprising that some activists are beginning to question current approaches. As Micah White, one of the initiators of Occupy, ruefully reflects,
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"It may be comforting to believe that Occupy splintered into a thousand shards of light. However, an honest assessment reveals that Occupy Wall Street failed to live up to its revolutionary potential: we did not bring an end to the influence of money on democracy, overthrow the corporatocracy of the 1 percent or solve income inequality."
What White and others are realising, is that ineffectual as voting may seem, protesting, petitioning and occupying don't work either.
As we reflect on this, there's one unexpected lesson we can draw from Brexit and Trump: that voting can be extremely powerful! Just when we thought globalising elites controlled the world, voters in the USA and UK defied them, pulling the electoral rug out from under their feet. Agree or not with the results, we cannot deny that the votes themselves worked. Despite the outcomes being generally against the wishes of global elites, voters are being respected: Trump is in the White House and Article 50 has been triggered. The vote has worked. And that should give us pause for thought. In fact, elites have always feared greater democracy for one simple reason: it delivers!
So how come activists have for decades shunned the vote? Since the 1980s the inability of our votes to effect real change has been evident, and we weren't slow to realise it. But we failed to see why it was happening. We failed to see that, under globalisation, the global free movement of capital destroys democracy because if forces all governments to adopt a competitiveness agenda. Fail to stay competitive and attractive to capital and it'll simply go elsewhere. So that means adopting a very narrow range of centre-right, business-friendly policies; policies that defend or enhance national competitiveness but, by the same token, disadvantage the middle-classes, the poor and the environment. Little wonder that whoever was in power, regulations continued to unravel, corporation taxes down-levelled and the gap between rich and poor continued to widen. With all parties in power constrained to much the same policy straightjacket, it didn't matter much which party we voted for or whether we bothered to vote at all; a phenomenon I've elsewhere described as pseudo-democracy.
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Pseudo-democracy appears to justify shunning the ballot box, but we failed to see that it makes protesting, lobbying and petitioning equally ineffective too. Protest, lobby and occupy as much as you like, but no government will risk its national economic competitiveness! That, indeed, is why the neoliberal juggernaut only keeps rolling on.
But before we give up on voting, consider these two points: First, Trump and Brexit show that voting works. Second, you may not know that in the run-up to the last UK general election, a relatively small number of UK citizens decided to use their right to vote in a completely new way that turns pseudo-democracy on its head. The mainstream media failed to pick up on it, but this small pioneering group of citizens succeeded in getting over 600 candidates from all the main UK political parties to pledge to implement a range of global justice policies alongside other governments. Of those 600, 30 were elected to Parliament. While the Green Party still has only 1 MP, this new campaign already has the support of 30! In the most recent European, Irish and Australian elections comparable results were achieved by a similarly small number of citizens. A few voters thus caused a relatively large number of politicians to support their agenda. And the tool they used was the vote!
My new book The Simpol Solution explains how they did it. Voting isn't dead, then, it just needs fresh thinking. Instead of taking for granted that the only way to use it is to cast it for one party or another, the book explains that these forward-thinking citizens had other ideas. As Noam Chomsky said of it, "It's ambitious and provocative. Can it work? Certainly worth a serious try."
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On Sunday morning it was announced that an American navy strike group would move from Singapore to be stationed in the waters off the Korean peninsula in accordance with the Trump administration's increasingly bellicose language about preventing any further developments in the North Korean weapon program which threatened the mainland United States. The biggest problem with our understanding of North Korea from the outside is a tendency to take appearances on a face value with even the small amount of information which is available to us being ignored for stereotypes and outdated 'realpolitik'.
Journalists and diplomats aren't allowed to travel freely in North Korea and the barbarity yet absurdity of the regime to 21st century Western eyes tends to lead to the North Koreans as being perceived as deeply cynical Machiavellians who repress their people to keep themselves on top. There is too little emphasis placed on examining the regimes domestic propaganda in Korean aimed at North Korean audiences, instead relying on output aimed at an outside audience playing on our outdated caricatures of the North Koreans rather than the terrifying reality of what the regime actually is.
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North Korean domestic propaganda has an unhealthy emphasis on the racial purity and superiority of the Korean race. The most prominent monograph on the subject is The Cleanest Race by Professor B.R. Myers of Dongseo University Whilst this book divides opinion among the academic community, it cannot be denied that the material that Myers cites provides clear emphasis that the North Koreans view themselves as being more pure than all other people with racist invective that wouldn't be out of place from the 1930s and 1940s being aimed particularly at people of Japanese, Caucasian-American and African-American descent being common.
This material rarely reaches Non-North Korean ears at least enough to register the true nature of the regime. The regime's vile insults against President Obama on the basis of his race alone had very little impact possibly due to its language being so archaic to Western ears it evoked half-forgotten 1970s sitcoms leading to mockery rather than concern. Other language evokes more the propaganda of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, with the crew of the USS Pueblo (an American Naval research ship captured by the North Koreans in International waters in 1968 for 11 months) being described in North Korean propaganda aimed at a domestic audience as being permanently unclean both physically (emitting a foul smell, wallowing in their own filth) and mentally (displaying extreme sexual deviance and having no morals whatsoever).
This sort of dangerous and disgusting nonsense is ludicrous to non-North Korean audiences, but imagine this being the officially stated view of the world outside your country's borders and having this hammered into you at every available opportunity? What will that do to a people when war comes?
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Whether we agree with the extent of Myers theories about the nature of North Korea (controversially Myers states that he believes Marxism and Confucianism have very little influence over the internal North Korean ideology which other experts disagree with) it cannot be denied that North Korea is a state where the people are taught to see their opponents as racially inferior. The Trump administration must take the inherent bigotry of the North Koreans towards all outsiders into account when deciding what to do about this terrible regime.
Obviously they can't be allowed to develop the capability of striking well into the American mainland, but in taking any action against them, Trump must remember that any of the North Koreans war-making capabilities left intact past the first wave will be used against any target military or civilian in the wider North East Asian region. Any attack on North Korea will have to destroy as much as possible of their ability to hit South Korea, Japan or American bases in the Pacific in the first wave of attacks and even then there will be countless fatalities of North Korean actions there.
Just like people in the West, who have become insensitive to the routine deaths of civlians in conflicts around the world, white Slavic Russians share no solidarity with the country's persecuted indigenous groups and other minorities. Whilst the horrendous terrorist attack on the St Petersburg Metro galvanised Russian society, reports of the detainment of 100 gay men by Chechen authorities fell on death ears.
Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov
The news about the St Petersburg Metro attack that left 14 people dead reached me as I was trying desperately to concentrate on my university work. As most of my relatives still live in the country, I couldn't help feeling angry that yet again innocent people have lost their lives as a result of Putin's divisive policies.
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I was especially angered by the lack of solidarity shown by people in the West. When an attack happens in London, Paris or Berlin, Facebook rightfully responds within minutes, activating the "I was marked safe in.." feature and our feed is filled with BuzzFeed articles urging everyone to stay strong and unite in the face of terrorism. I am no longer surprised to see friends as far removed from Europe as Japan dutifully drape the appropriate flag over their profile picture.
The same privilege wasn't afforded to the victims of the St Petersburg attack.
Apart from a thin trickle of posts from Russian-speaking accounts and a few mentions on the BBC, the incident was largely ignored. This is not a single slip-up, but just one in a long list of painful reminders about the extremely limited extent of our solidarity. In a weird echo of Colonialism, wherever we are we still care more about what's happening in Western Europe and the US than anywhere else.
I accept that Putin's Russia is not the friendliest of the states, but there is no need to blame innocent people who lack any non-violent means of regime change, given the lack of transparent elections and constant efforts to bar anti-Putin candidates from standing.
At the same time, I am sad that the incident that affected white Slavic Russians in St Petersburg has galvanised public support and met with immediate recognition from the Kremlin, whilst the routine persecution of Russia'a indigenous people like me is treated with imperialist indifference by the public and is largely dismissed by the authorities. I cannot help remembering that when my Buryat friend was the victim of an attack by a group of Russian nationalists in Moscow, the police refused to investigate.
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Moscow nationalist march
More generally, I feel that my solidarity with the rest of Russian society is largely one-way. Two-days before the St Petersburg bombing, Novaya Gazeta published a report about the illegal detainment and torture of 100 gay men by Chechen authorities. Russian social media responded with silence. Whilst unimaginable in Moscow or St Petersburg, the lives of some Chechen people were simply not important enough for the rest of Russia to care. What makes it worse is the hypocrisy. Whilst the Russian state has benefited economically from colonialism, ethnic minorities are reminded daily that we must be grateful to the Russians for civilising us and should do as we are told.
Chechen authorities were equally unconcerned for these men's lives, because they were gay.
I have not lived in Russia for almost 10 years, but until recently I would frequently visit the country. However, increasingly I find that I am simply not welcome. Russia - like the rest of the world - is consumed by increasing levels of ethno-religious intolerance and hate.
Kutsuks via Getty Images
In the debate surrounding the notion of an independent Scotland, the economic argument has unsurprisingly taken precedence. It is pretty clear that it would take years for an independent Scotland to join the EU, and, in this time, it would encounter numerous financial difficulties and uncertainties. It is unlikely that Scotland would be granted a free trade agreement, unless, of course, England is able to retain it in its negotiations as it leaves the EU. Scotland would additionally have to adhere to certain requirements that would make it more appealing in its application process to the EU, such as considering taking on the Euro as a currency. As a whole, it is unclear where Scotland's economy would stand as it established itself as its own country. Independence, it cannot be denied, would not be a simple and clear-cut process. However, in order to fairly consider the question of Scottish independence it is necessary to also consider the debate from another perspective.
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Scotland is currently facing a frustrating situation where the Scottish majority did not vote to leave the EU but it has to leave regardless due to the UK's overall verdict. The outcome of Brexit has effectively demonstrated how Scotland's voice will never truly be heard. In addition to this, it is worth considering the amount of funding that is distributed to Scotland. Due to higher levels of public spending in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK many have argued that Scotland is given unfair favouritism. However, this argument does not take into consideration the staggering Scottish poverty level. As of 2015, 17% of Scots were living in poverty and 20% experienced poverty after housing costs. Patterns show that these figures are only continuing to rise. It is impossible, when looking at these statistics, to not acknowledge that there is a problem here. Scotland is currently reliant on Westminster's philanthropic nature. This is one thing that Westminster cannot really be counted on right now, under a Conservative government that is currently continuing its ambition of cutting down on even more benefits for the poorest in society. Right now the Tories are reducing child benefits, that will ensure that 'a quarter of a million children' will find themselves in poverty, while also scaling down on bereavement benefits that are leading to significant worries among terminally ill patients who are concerned for their families' futures. Indeed, the moment the Tories took power they quickly began to establish themselves as the Party of the benefits cuts, while pledging to reduce income tax for the wealthier individuals in society, proving their prioritisation of the rich over the poor.
Ultimately, it is clear that Scotland will never get the funding it needs from a Parliament that will always prioritise the interests of the rich. It is simply a fact that Scotland is in dire need of more funding that it will never get. Scotland's poverty figures are appalling when compared to the rest of the UK as a whole. Wales also has unsettling poverty figures but, unlike Scotland, it will never have the power to leave England. Scotland has a chance. Those supporting an independent Scotland recognise this, and they recognise the fact that Scotland currently has shocking economic problems simply due to Westminster's lack of concern for those at the bottom of the economic hierarchy and for Scottish interests as a whole.
Scotland does have something on its side. Its oil and gas industry, that according to estimates could make 1.5 trillion for the Scottish economy, could help to support Scotland in its early stages of independence. England is heavily reliant on Scottish oil and gas, which is evidently one of the reasons why Parliament is so reluctant for Scotland to leave, and why it began a scare-mongering campaign to encourage the Scottish to vote to remain in the UK.
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In addition to the economic factor, the cultural element should also be considered. Scotland is basically another country with a different set of values, including a very different stance on immigration. Unlike the increasing "the English come first" mentality, the Scottish have been known to adopt a much more welcoming and empathetic approach when it comes to refugees. It is unfair that Scotland should have to leave the EU partially due to the Tory desire to allow in as few people in need of a new home as possible, when so many Scottish campaigns have taken place in favour of supporting refugees.
Mexican restaurants are a dime a dozen in most American cities, and Las Vegas is no exception. In and around the famous Strip are a peppering of taco joints and burrito bars, most serving up the usual fare. But as with most things, the City of Sin has taken Mexican food one step further.
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has no less than 17 restaurants -- a number that doesn't seem so high once you consider its 2,995 rooms. Deciding where to eat can be a test for any visitor, but as a serious aficionado of Mexican food, I had my heart set on guacamole and tacos. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas had bigger ideas. What's the only thing better than Mexican food? Mexican and Chinese food.
China Poblano has been one of The Cosmopolitan's busiest restaurants since its opening in 2010. This is not really fusion food; here, the two cuisines live side by side, with head chef Jose Andres marrying flavours and ingredients from both countries in creative new dishes. Though it's billed as a more casual noodle-and-taco place, it offers a lot more than you might expect, and raises the bar for both Mexican and Chinese restaurants in the city.
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First impressions are good. The restaurant glows red under the warm light of Chinese lanterns, chefs expertly fill and fold dumplings in the open kitchen, and portraits of Frida Kahlo and Chairman Mao gaze back at you from the walls. After taking a seat and reading through the menu, it was clear choosing what to eat would take time. So under our server's recommendation the first order was for cocktails - specifically margaritas.
But this is Las Vegas, and China Poblano isn't your average Mexican; unsurprisingly, these weren't your average margaritas. First up was the Pomegranate Salt Air Margarita: fluffy, salty, light-as-a-feather foam replacing the salt in normal margaritas. The briny flavor was delicious with the sweet pomegranate -- a whole new realm of cocktail bliss. The Flaca Margarita quickly followed: orange infused tequila, fresh lime, soda, orange bitters.
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The cocktails were strong, so it was time to order. The main menu is broken up roughly into six sections: tacos; ceviches; soups and salads; noodles; special dishes from China; and special dishes from Mexico. My time eating my way around Mexico taught me that vegetarians will certainly eat well, but admittedly I had very high hopes for variety at China Poblano.
For carnivores, the menu is the culinary delight you'd expect. My meat-eating partner declared that the tuna ceviche with amaranth seeds, soy sauce and pecans was the best he'd ever had, and the seared escolar taco with marinated onion and arbol salsa was surpassed only by those eaten on the streets of Mexico City.
And fortunately, on the vegetarian front, the refried bean tacos with tomato habanero salsa and requeson were wonderful, with rich, earthy spices perfectly balancing the creamy requeson on a firm-but-chewy tortilla.
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The best thing about the menu is how many side dishes there are, so it's easy to get a good taste of each country. There are many sides to choose from, but if in doubt go for the Col de Bruselas -- nutty and crisp fried Brussels sprouts with arbol salsa and chiltates that crackle delectably in your mouth. The Happy Buddha Vegetable Spring Rolls, stuffed with cucumber, carrot, zucchini, mushroom and jicama (a Mexican root vegetable similar to the turnip), are also excellent, with just the right amount of crunchy resistance as you bite.
Another highlight was, somewhat unexpectedly, the Twenty-Vegetable Fried Rice. Arriving in a simple ceramic bowl and packed with micro carrots, snow peas, mushrooms, greens, thinly sliced cauliflower, and jicama, this dish has forever changed my perception of just how good vegetable fried rice can be.
The servers, dressed in black Mao-inspired jackets, know everything there is to know about the menu, recommending different dishes and making a gorgeous fresh guacamole at the table. When we dithered over dessert, they suggested the More Things plate, which includes a variety of mini bites like crispy buns filled with apple, soft dumplings filled with house-made red bean paste and rolled in sesame, and an array of candies including ginger, lotus root, wintermelon, and peanuts.
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Our visit fell over Chinese New Year, so were also advised to try the special Year of the Rooster-inspired dessert. Though at first I insisted I couldn't possibly eat another bite, I was glad when it was placed in front of me: a scoop of sharp grapefruit sorbet on a bed of wisp-thin sweet noodles, prettily designed to look like a rooster's nest. Turns out I could eat another bite after all.
Aligning two cuisines that are so different may seem like a strange idea, but China Poblano is a restaurant of perfect contradiction; where east meets west and the loud, colourful world of Mexico complements the serene sensitivities of Chinese culture. Las Vegas may be a city of excess, but nothing about China Poblano is excessive. Apart from, perhaps, the voracious appetite it provokes -- but I won't hold that against them.
Selene Nelson is a U.K.-based journalist who is travelling the world and reporting on her search for vegetarian food in each country she visits.
All images by Selene Nelson.
'Where are you from?'
I adjust my hijab. Tucking in a strand of white hair that's sticking out. Yes, I'm ageing...
'Cambridge.'
Then, just to make sure they get it...
'Born and raised.'
No matter how many times I am asked this question as I walk through the streets of my hometown, it always surprises me.
And my answer surprises them.
'Really? That's why you speak such good English. You have a Cambridge accent.'
It would be odd if I didn't.
My family has been part of the fabric of Cambridge for 60 years. My late father, Abdul Karim arrived in London and then moved to Cambridge in 1957. He came from a rural village in Fenchuganj, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He sought a better life for himself and his siblings.
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My father's home in Fenchuganj, Sylhet, Bangladesh, 1970s
(Photo Credit: Family archive)
In the years between World War I and World War II, the Indian restaurant community started to expand beyond London. As the number of Asians entering Britain increased so did the demand for more Indian restaurants and so business within the Indian cuisine market gathered momentum.
It was during the 1950s and 1960s when a large influx of Punjabis, Bengalis, Kenyans and Africans migrated to Britain that the Indian restaurant concept started to spread even further throughout the UK, which now boasted around 500 Indian cuisine eating establishments.
In 1963, he took out a 12-year lease on an office space at 43 Regent Street, Cambridge, which was converted to the New Bengal Restaurant. The property was owned by the estate agent, Watsons and Son, who had premises next door at no. 45. It was located at the heart of the city centre.
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The New Bengal Restaurant, Cambridge.
Photo Credit: Cambridgeshire Collection 1960s
In November 1975, the lease of the New Bengal was due to expire but Watsons did not wish to re-let the premises, wanting it to enable them to expand their own offices. They were already using the top floor of the restaurant. A public enquiry was held and Watsons won an appeal to use it as offices. My father did not want to lose the New Bengal. He was extremely disappointed by the decision.
By then he owned another restaurant, which was named as The Bengal Tandoor Mahal restaurant in Fitzroy Street, Cambridge. It was knocked down in the mid-1990s to pave the way for new shops.
The New Bengal Restaurant, Regent Street, Cambridge.
Photo Credit: Cambridgeshire Collection 1960s
So most Bengali men worked in this trade. Some helped other male members of their family to come to England and had work ready waiting for them in these restaurants.
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My mother arrived in 1963, during one of the coldest winters on record. She said it was cold, bone-chilling cold. She'll never forget how cold it was.
I am a British-Bengali-Muslim. So what does this mean?
It means that I was born in the Mill Road Maternity Hospital, originally a poor house built in 1838, which became a maternity hospital by 1948. I was born two days before East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh.
My twin sister and me (left)
(Photo Credit: Family archive)
I was raised with my twin sister and three older brothers. It means that, before Margaret Thatcher scrapped the plan for under 7s, I drank free milk at play time. The straw was the best!
My earliest memory of school was drawing pictures for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1975. My picture, a crown, was displayed in the school hall.
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And later, when we learnt about the Titanic, my teacher had a Daily Mirror newspaper dated the day after it sank. I was allowed to take it home and show my parents.
I watched Play School, Bagpuss, Trumpton, Fingerbobs and, in the 80s, graduated to Grange Hill and The A-Team (the best Saturday night show on ITV. Everyone watched it!) and Doctor Who. I listened to A-Ha, Wham! and Rick Astley and was teased for it at school. And yes, I even wore leg warmers.
But this is only part of what it means to be a British Muslim woman of Bengali heritage.
It also means that my sister and I spent many hours in the kitchen as girls, watching my mother as she bustled around cooking Bengali dishes. We were expected to put what we saw into action, learning from our mistakes. I remember a lamb curry I once made. My mother was not impressed.
'Wait until you're married, and you'll have to start doing this yourself.'
As Bengali women, we were expected to know how to prepare and cook many Bengali dishes by the time we were married. This was a source of pride in many families like ours. Being married meant taking on the husband's entire family. If a woman didn't know how to host and cook for others, her mother was at fault.
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My mother was right. I was married off at 18 and wasn't the best cook. Who is at that age?
My mother is a strong woman with strong opinions. She loved us deeply, but her parenting is very different from mine. We grew up in a strict home with many rules. We had a firm routine and bedtime was 9.30 pm. We missed out on many parties and weren't allowed to go into town with our friends.
In my own home, I laugh with my four children, (I have three boys and a girl). I talk with them. We share ideas, thoughts and dreams. We applaud each other's successes and support each other's decisions. They know I am not just here to cook for them, do their laundry and drive them around. I shout at them too. Who doesn't shout at their children?
Who I am today will shape their lives as well. I teach them to value people over possessions and to reach out to those in need.
I also want my children to remember that their privileges and luxuries came from the blood and sweat of their forebears. They need to know that their grandfather was orphaned at a young age and lived a difficult life before leaving Bangladesh. He worked hard to find a better life and he did, for himself, his children and his grandchildren.
Sometimes I think that things were easier for my mother as they were more clear cut. She knew her role in the world and tried to fill it perfectly. We all try to fill our lives perfectly. I understand that role, but want something different and am paving the way for my daughter to choose the life she wants to lead.
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As the bridge between these two generations, I have the opportunity to look both forward and back and weave the differing strands of my life into a rich tapestry of culture, belief, freedom and balance.
My children are the speakers of tomorrow, the next generation. I want them to have a voice. I want to prepare them to deal effectively with the difficulties of the world today and to stand up for themselves and their beliefs.
I tell my children, 'There are many who want to forget their heritage and don't wish to acknowledge it at all. 'Never forget your roots. Because it has made us what we are today. This is who I am today.'
'Be counted,' I tell them. 'You don't have to justify who you are. Just be it.'
It reminds me of the Take That song, 'Never Forget.'
'Never forget where you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real...'
So where am I from?
I am a British Muslim of Bengali heritage and I am from Cambridge.
Photo Credit: Style of Cambridge
Thomas Tolstrup via Getty Images
200 years ago the pioneering London-based surgeon James Parkinson described for the first time the condition we now know as Parkinson's.
Many things have changed since then; we've gone from the first flight to thousands of planes taking off across the globe daily. We've changed the face of communications - from Alexander Graham Bell prophesizing that one day there would be a telephone in every city to many having access to most of the world's information in a smart phone in their pockets. In the 1980s being diagnosed with HIV was a death sentence; now most HIV positive people with access to appropriate medication are expected to live a normal lifespan. We know so much more than we ever did, and we are building on this knowledge all the time.
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However, despite all these advances, after 200 years people with Parkinson's are still waiting for a treatment that can slow down or stop their condition progressing. While some new drugs and treatments have been developed, current medication merely masks symptoms, leaving people with severely limited options. The main drug people with Parkinson's rely on -levodopa - hasn't changed since the 1960s.
On top of this, public awareness of the realities of living with Parkinson's is worryingly low. Despite being an incurable, degenerative condition which can affect anyone, half (49%) of people are unsure, or wrongly say, that it is possible to prevent Parkinson's.
If you were diagnosed with Parkinson's today, there is currently nothing that can stop your condition from getting worse or everyday tasks becoming impossible as your symptoms slowly deteriorate. Yet we've found that three in five (62%) still believe that this isn't the case, and that current treatments can offer so much more.
People with Parkinson's describe the promise of better treatments, and ultimately a cure, as many different things - a hope, a dream, a wish - but also an aim and a goal, something tangible we can work towards together.
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But unless we take action now a generation of people with Parkinson's will face an uncertain future knowing that their condition will never improve. That's why Parkinson's UK is committed to doing whatever we can to unlock the promise of research developments that could pave the way to better treatments.
But we can't do this alone. Today we're launching an urgent appeal to raise desperately needed funds to help transform Parkinson's research.
Alongside the global Parkinson's community we've spent the past 50 years gathering evidence to better understand Parkinson's and how it affects people's brains. Armed with our hard-won knowledge, we believe the science is ready and, with enough funding, that together we will find a cure.
Parkinson's is a cruel condition that can leave people struggling to walk, talk and sleep. It takes away a piece of you every single day. Today, we're saying that we won't wait any longer to deliver better treatments and a cure, faster. That's why Parkinson's UK is spearheading, with the expertise of the research community and the support of people with Parkinson's, the revolution needed to take promising treatments out of the lab and into doctors' surgeries.
We're urgently asking people to donate, in our first ever public fundraising campaign, whatever they can to support our vital work. We won't tolerate Parkinson's treatments falling behind.
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Basque separatist group ETA on Saturday handed over 118 pistols, rifles and automatic weapons, 2,875 kilograms of explosives, and 25,700 detonating devices and ammunition that had been hidden in eight caches, the locations of which were passed on by an International Verification Committee to the French authorities.
French police at one of ETA's arms caches on Saturday. REGIS DUVIGNAU (REUTERS)
The terrorist organization, which in 2011 announced a definitive ceasefire after its four-decade-long armed fight for an independent Basque homeland, during which it killed more than 850 people and wounded thousands, is now totally unarmed according to the committee. The majority of the arms stores were hidden in small communities in the French Basque Country.
ETA went through the motions of disarmament in February 2014, when it handed over four unused guns and around two dozen kilograms of bomb-making material.
At an event in the town hall of Bayonne, in the French Basque Country, the coordinates of the eight arms caches were provided by ETA mediator Jean Noel Etcheverry to representatives of the committee in the presence of the mayor of Bayonne.
The French authorities will continue to work with Spain to verify the disarmament process
Ram Manikkalingham, the head of the committee, along with Mateo Zuppi, the archbishop of the Italian city of Bologna, as well as Harold Good, an eminent Irish Methodist who played a vital role in the Northern Ireland peace process, officially announced that ETAs disarmament was complete.
Some 172 observers accredited by ETA mediators oversaw the process, with teams of around 20 standing watch at the eight locations.
The Spanish government has refused to take part in the process, saying it will not negotiate with terrorists.
French Prime Minster Bernard Cazeneuve said his government would work with the Spanish authorities to to verify if the material collected can help to resolve ongoing investigations and allow for confirmation that the disarmament is total.
Also in attendance at the event were several leading figures from the pro-independence Basque left, among them Arnaldo Otegi, the head of separatist party Sortu. The Basque branch of Podemos sent two representatives, Pili Zabala and Andeka Larrea. The center-right Basque Nationalist Party sent its representative in the French Basque Country, Paco Arizmendi.
Following an announcement by Manikkalingham verifying ETAs definitive, unilateral disarmament, several hundred supporters of an independent Basque country who had traveled to Bayona staged a series of events, as well as calling for the release of ETA prisoners who are ill and for those serving jail time to be held in jails in the Basque Country.
English version by Nick Lyne.
What the hell is that? Scientists ask this question every day when trying to work out how different living things are related to each other. The answers aren't easy or trivial. Biological affiliations are used not just to build a catalogue of life but also to understand how life has evolved into its many forms.
Viruses are an excellent example. They pose a problem for biologists because they don't have cells and so don't fall into any of the main three groups or "domains" of life that all other organisms do - bacteria, archaea (a different form of microbe) and eukaryota (plants, animals and fungi, among others). Some scientists argue that viruses don't count as living organisms and are better seen as rogue genetic material that can't reproduce on their own and need to hijack host cells. Others believe viruses evolved from cellular organisms and so count as a fourth domain of life.
The latter theory was boosted by the discovery a decade ago of giant viruses that are more similar to cellular lifeforms. But a new study, published in the journal Science, on the genomes of these giant viruses calls this idea into question. So will scientists have to start their search for the origins of viruses all over again?
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Viruses are tiny, minimalistic beings that get away from the nuances of cellular life. They are usually composed of genetic material (DNA or its molecular cousin RNA), often surrounded by a protein coat called a capsid, sometimes with additional layers borrowed from a host cell. Viruses can only replicate within a host cell by hacking its metabolism, and each domain of life is infected by different versions of these cellular squatters.
This tremendous dependence on host cells push them to the limits of the definition of life, with some considering them alive and others dead. It is no wonder that most zombie stories involve a virus. Maybe it would be just easier to consider viruses undead. The big question is: where do they come from?
Competing theories try to explain how viruses evolved. One portrays viruses as descendants of an ancient lineage of cellular organisms that lived within other cells and simplified their structure over time. This would make them the only survivors of a long-lost fourth domain of life that left the cell organisation behind. If viruses evolved from living organisms, it would make sense to think of them as alive now.
Rogue agents
Another theory proposes that viruses started as rogue genetic agents, vagrants in the genome that escaped their cellular confinement. They could be related to jumping genes that can copy or cut themselves from a genome and then paste themselves into other parts of the DNA. In that case, viruses would be the result of molecular accidents that became evolutionary stable. This would mean they have never been complete living organisms, just as a computer virus is not a complete computer.
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Both these proposals have their flaws. The first fails to explain how simple viruses are. There are no other known organisms with that extreme degree of simplification. On the other hand, the second theory doesn't explain why viruses are so much more complex than other mobile genetic elements, none of which have anything comparable to a capsid coat.
Then, in 2004, scientists discovered a kind of giant virus (or "girus") that seemed to tip the balance in favour of viruses having cellular origins. They are called giant for good reason. Some are ten times larger in both size and genome length than our beloved flu virus, and have as many 2,500 genes compared to influenza's meagre 11.
This additional genetic material includes instructions for making proteins, something sorely lacking in other viruses but present in all other lifeforms. The molecular system is not complete and giruses still need to invade cells to make more giruses. But some researchers suggested that these genes could be leftovers of a cellular past, backing up the existence of a fourth domain of life.
On the other hand, the jumpy genetic nature of viruses makes them prone to take genes from other organisms. This has prompted others to argue that all these additional genes in giruses are products of evolutionary thievery.
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Giant problem
Now a new study has confirmed the "borrowed" nature of all these genes in viruses. The research uses the most advanced methods, named Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), to map out DNA extracted from a wastewater treatment plant in Klosterneuburg, Austria. In the last few years, NGS-based studies have uncovered myriadnew types of lifeform, and in this instance NGS has revealed a completely new lineage of giant viruses, the Klosneuviruses.
Among all giruses, Klosneuviruses have the largest set of genes involved in making proteins. By comparing the genomes of different giant viruses and carefully reconstructing their evolution, the researchers persuasively show that the protein-making machinery in these giruses is a relatively recent genetic addition - not the scraps of a larger ancestral genome.
The study argues that the host cells these viruses tried to hijack may have evolved a defence strategy based on hiding proteins from the invaders. Then the viruses adapted by incorporating some of these genes into their genome. The researchers conclude that the giant viruses analysed in this study have evolved multiple times from smaller viruses, rejecting the idea they evolved from cellular lifeforms.
However, the new evidence doesn't kill viruses completely. New gnarls in the tree of life are discovered every day, and a new finding could still provide a link between cellular and acellular life - or prove the opposite. Until then, we will keep thinking about the nature of life, the relationship between zombies and viruses, and wondering "what the hell is that?"
What to know before you vote today
The School Committee discussed a broad range of topics on Thursday night.
Clarksburg School Clips Summer Break to Extend Construction Season
CLARKSBURG, Mass. Summer vacation will be shorter for Clarksburg students this year.
School gets out on June 23 to make up seven snow days (to date) after a rough winter. And they'll be heading back into the classroom on Aug. 28, the Monday before Labor Day.
The early return is designed to accommodate a possible school building project next year, should a successful vote take place in the fall.
Typically, school begins after the Monday Labor Day holiday according to the teachers' contract, said Principal Tara Barnes.
"The teachers very graciously decided reconsider the start," she said at Thursday's School Committee meeting. "They know and are 100 percent completely behind doing whatever it takes to get this vote to pass because they know how it important it is to this community."
The hope is that next winter won't have as many snow days no snow days will mean school will get out June 7, 2018, said Superintendent Jonathan Lev.
The preferred plan being submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority is a renovation and addition. School officials will push for as much work as possible to done during the summer and try to avoid a delay that will have students coming in mid-year, as happened at Colegrove Park Elementary in North Adams.
"The sooner you get out of the school if construction is going to happen ... the better," Barnes said. "You want to make a window so construction has as much time as possible to complete."
Lev said he and members of the School Building Committee will be traveling to Boston on Wednesday morning to present to the MSBA's Facilities Assessment Subcommittee and will update the committee that night.
"Once the design is picked we'll really fine-tune it and get more detail on the prices," he said.
The expectation is to begin with informational meetings in May, including immediately preceding the annual town meeting.
"The plan right now is the vote for the project would probably be Sept. 22 ... between now and then you're going to here a lot of about it, what it's going to mean, what it's going to cost Clarksburg," Lev said.
In other business:
Barnes said testing will take place beginning the week after April school break.
The so-called MCAS 2.0 is hybrid of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, to which the state had considered switching. Clarksburg used the online PARCC test last year. It will again be held harmless in testing this year, meaning its Level 1 status will not be affected by lower scores. It will be used determine student growth for internal use, said Lev.
The School Committee delayed action on a delinquent lunch policy drafted by the cafeteria manager and based on policies at surrounding schools. They agreed a policy was needed but were concerned how children would be treated if their parents were behind on lunch payments.
The policy laid out a process of communication once a child became three lunches behind. Parents would be informed and children would receive a sandwich, fruit and milk rather than a hot lunch.
Committee members, however, balked at a phrase that would not allow pupils to purchase extra snacks or milk but instead have their money taken to pay down their debt.
"I don't like the idea of taking their $1 for crackers and not giving the food," said committee member John Solari.
Lev agreed, "they shouldn't be allowed to buy a snack but we shouldn't take the money."
Barnes said some parents have delinquencies of $60 or more and there have been regular attempts to apprise families that they owe money including phone calls and letters.
In answer to questions about these families ability to pay, Administrative Assistant Mary Giron explained that any family getting state aid is automatically enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program but that there are some families that may qualify but not apply.
"What we're talking about is habitual offenders. ... it tends to be the same families and it's hard to get that money back," Giron said. "You're looking at years of nonpayment."
There was also an extended conversation on how many children would be accepted into kindergarten and if the grade would be split, opening up school-choice slots. Eighteen children have been registered but several others are expected to attend.
Lev and Barnes said a decision would not be made until later this spring. The school has school-choice slots open only Grade 8. Some 46 of the school's 178 enrolled are school-choice students.
Education Task Force Seeks Community Input, Aspirations
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The Berkshire County Education Task Force is seeking input as it develops recommendations for county schools.
Five "community aspiration" meetings are scheduled this month for parents, educators and community members to share expectations, aspirations, and concerns for the future of preK-12 public education in Berkshire County.
The first session is this Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Church Street Center.
Despite having high-quality educators, say task force officials, the educational opportunities available to children and young people in Berkshire County are threatened by the region's shrinking population, declining student enrollment, increasing mandated costs, stagnating state aid to education, and increasing inability of local taxpayers to make up the difference for what is needed.
A crisis is already developing in some county municipalities and school districts. It will spread to many others in coming years unless timely and effective action is taken.
The Berkshire County Education Task Force is composed of 28 civic, educational, and business leaders from throughout the county who have been volunteering their personal time and meeting every third Saturday morning since July 2015. The members' core belief is that it is the right of every child and young person in Berkshire County to receive a high-quality education.
Recognizing that the educational rights of our children are now threatened, the BCETF was created to develop sound, sustainable recommendations to our county's city and town officials, school committees, and local residents on how to enhance educational opportunities throughout the county while putting schools on a sustainable economic footing.
Task force officials say this is a critical moment and that they seek to understand more fully the aspirations that families, educators, students, and community members have for PreK-12 education in Berkshire County.
The BCETF needs to hear from members of Berkshire County's many and diverse communities about what matters most to parents, students, and all interested citizens in our county's public education system. What are parents, students, and interested citizens looking toward the future believe our schools need to preserve and what they need to change? What are the programs, services, and opportunities our children most need now and into the future?
The meetings are scheduled for:
Tuesday, April 11, 6 p.m.; MCLA Church Street Center, North Adams
Monday, April 24, 7 p.m.; Berkshire South Regional Community Center, Great Barrington
Tuesday, April 25, 12:15 p.m. and 6 p.m.; Susan B. Anthony Lounge, Berkshire Community College
Tuesday, April 25, 6 p.m.; Wahconah Country Club, Dalton
Additional meetings are being held with educators and student focus groups throughout the county.
Spanish social services have taken the twins born to a 64-year-old woman in February into care, citing indications of vulnerability and concluding that the pair are in a deprived situation. Mauricia Ibanez, from the northern region of Burgos, has already seen her first child, which she had at the age of 58, taken from her by the regional government of Castilla y Leon in 2014.
Mauricia Ibanez with her twins in February. Bernardo Perez
On March 26, after spending more than a month in hospital following the birth of her twins, who were conceived following fertility treatment at a US clinic, Ibanez signed an agreement with social services that she would arrange for an assistant to provide 24-hour care.
All the reports we carried out concluded that she would need help with cleaning and looking after the children, said a statement by the regional government. But just 10 days after she returned home, on April 6, the authorities decided the twins were at risk.
I am worried they could take my children away. They are so defenseless, so small and delicate Mauricia Ibanez, speaking in February
Ibanez made headlines around the world after the birth of her twins on February 14, as well as sparking widespread debate in Spain, with opinion divided over the scientific achievement in allowing a woman in her sixties to be a mother, and those who argue allowing her to do so is irresponsible, particularly in light of her daughter having been taken into care on the grounds she was not being properly looked after.
Since she went home, a multi-disciplinary team has been following Ibanezs progress, and their reports all conclude that the twins need looking after in a different environment, said a spokesman from social services in Burgos, adding that reuniting Ibanez with her children, Gabriel and Maria de la Cruz, was not being ruled out at some point in the future. But the obligation in the short term is for them to be with foster parents, he added.
She is very distraught and traumatized, said Ibanezs lawyer, Juan Carlos Saiz, after police accompanied social workers on Thursday to her home to take the twins into care. He added: She told me that if the first time was painful, this time it has been much worse.
Ibanez, who lives in the tiny community of Palacios de la Sierra, some 70 kilometers from Burgos, had moved into an apartment in the city so as to be better able to look after her children.
Ibanez made headlines after the birth of her twins, sparking debate in Spain
Speaking exclusively to EL PAIS from hospital in February, following the birth of the two children, who were delivered through Cesarean section, Ibanez said: I decided to become a mother because the experience of having Blanca, my first child, was fantastic: I asked myself if I could really have another. Im not worried at all about my age. I am old, but it has been possible for me to get pregnant: science and medicine are the last opportunity we older people have.
A former civil servant, Ibanez decided to start a family a decade ago after she had been given early retirement over mental-health issues.
Her sister tried to get the courts to declare her fully incapable so that her passport could be withdrawn, preventing her from traveling abroad to undergo fertility treatment, but a judge refused after psychologists testified that her condition did not prevent her from looking after herself or a child.
Asked by EL PAIS in February whether she was concerned about whether she would be able to hold on to her children, she replied: Of course I am worried that they could take my children away. They are so defenseless, so small and delicate. I am a little bit afraid for them. I just ask God to prevent them falling into the hands of the social services.
English version by Nick Lyne.
Argentinean society has been stunned by the murder of a young activist from the Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) movement, which brought global visibility to the problem of femicide in the South American country. Micaela Garcia, 21, was found dead on Saturday after being missing for a week. The main suspect, a man named Sebastian Wagner, had been convicted in 2012 for two rapes, but was released on parole under a year ago a fact that President Mauricio Macri himself has criticized.
A march on Saturday to protest Micaelas death. Jose Granata (EFE)
More information Conmocion en Argentina por el asesinato de una activista
Garcia went missing on April 1 as she was leaving a nightclub in Gualeguay, a municipality in the province of Entre Rios, 230 kilometers north of Buenos Aires. Surveillance cameras show that the victim was followed by a car registered in Wagners name. The 30-year-old suspect fled the city the next day.
On Friday of last week, some of the suspects relatives told the police that he was hiding out at a house in Buenos Aires province, the daily La Nacion reported. He was arrested at the site.
Her decomposed body was located next to a tree outside Gualeguay
Some of the victims clothes had been found that same day. Her decomposed body was located next to a tree outside Gualeguay.
The case sparked outrage in several cities across the country. There were protest marches over the weekend in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Santa Fe and smaller municipalities. Organizers included Ni Una Menos, a group that the victim was an active member of.
Micaela wanted a fairer society, and we will not give up that fight, said Sandra Miguez, a journalist and spokeswoman for a group called Network of Journalists with a Gender Vision, in statements to the news agency Telam.
Micaela Garcia wearing an anti-femicide tee-shirt. Facebook
The victims mother has written on her Facebook account that she will keep fighting for her daughters ideals, and called for a tribute to be held this coming Tuesday.
On Sunday, President Macri suggested that Carlos Rossi, the judge who released the main suspect in the case, should be removed from his post. We cannot have this type of judge, he told a local radio station.
Justice Minister German Garavano has added that if Rossi does not resign, the Council of the Judiciary should remove him, according to the news agency Efe.
Argentinean media have reported that when the judge decided to grant Wagner parole, he ignored a report from the provincial penitentiary services warning that the intern was not respecting prison rules or participating in proposed activities.
There is a femicide every 30 hours in Argentina. Last year, 290 women were murdered across the country.
English version by Susana Urra.
Specialized computer crimes officers. JULIAN ROJAS
More information Detenido en Barcelona un programador ruso por orden de EE UU
A Russian programmer named Pyotr Levashov has been arrested in Barcelona. The Russian embassy in Spain confirmed the arrest but did not provide details, Reuters reported.
Russia Today reported the suspect might be involved with alleged interference in last years US elections
The television station Russia Today reported that the suspect was held under a US international arrest warrant and might be involved in hacking attacks in connection with alleged interference with last years US elections.
The Catalan daily La Vanguardia reports that Levashov was a known spammer who infects computers with malware and then rents out these terminals to clients wishing to send out more spam of their own. The newspaper noted that he ranks seventh on a list of the worlds worst spammers, where he is described as one of the longest operating criminal spam-lords on the internet.
According to La Vanguardia, Russian cybersecurity experts say that Levashov might also have been working for the Kremlin, attacking websites contrary to the presidents views.
In January, the Spanish police arrested another Russian computer programmer after the US issued an international arrest warrant.
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The incidence of cyber threats has soared to an unprecedented level, impeding the growth of public and private organizations. In fact, research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc. noted in a study that 65% of todays CEOs claimed that their risk management approach is falling behindin a reality where security breaches are pacing faster daily.
Bearing in mind that the countrys IT-Business Process Management sector is poised for growth with the rapid innovations in digital transformation, Big Data, and artificial intelligence, the Information Technology and Business Process Association (IBPAP) recently organized its 2nd IT-BPM Cyber Security Summit 2017 at the Marriott Grand Ballroom, Pasay City, to raise awareness, promote vigilance and build defenses against data breaches and cyber threats in the bustling contact center industry.
IBPAP invited industry-leading enabler of digital business solutions ePLDT, Inc. and PLDT Enterprise, the business arm of the countrys leading telco and digital services provider, to discuss how the proliferation of cyber threats affects the business resilience of players in the IT-BPM sector.
Nico Alcoseba, Vice President and Head of ePLDT/PLDTs Disruptive Business Group and Angel Redoble, ePLDT Groups Chief Information Security Officer, shared the companys initiatives in addressing the challenges that come with cyber security and the importance of mitigating threats to ensure business resiliency.
According to Alcoseba, the Experience Age brings with it a host of opportunities for organizations in the IT-BPM sector given that customers are hungry for simple, immediate, personalized and always-on product or service. However, these opportunities invite heightened risks that affect the seamless flow of enterprise operations.
To compete in the Experience Age, companies should understand, manage and mitigate the risks to meet achieve business resiliency, Alcoseba said. They have to identify their critical assets, assess its value to the business, understand the vulnerabilities and threats to these assets and prioritize mitigation based on impact. This is how organizations can ensure their business runs smoothly in a the hyperconnected world.
He continued, Business resiliency is a process, a mindset and a culture, not a single solution. The way we look at cyber security is that, its part of business resilience as it delivers value in the Experience Age. At ePLDT, it is our responsibility to ensure that we have the right business resiliency programs for customers as they grow their business.
The IT Cyber Security Summit brought together key industry players in the IT-BPM sector to open the discussion on cyber breach incidences and how private and government sectors can partner to prepare for it. During one of the talks, it was revealed that the cost of cybercrime to the global economy was estimated to be more than $500 billion a year. Locally, the Philippines saw high-profile cases that included the US$81 million theft from the central bank of Bangladesh as well as the breaches of consumer data and incidents of ransomware.
With that in mind, Redoble said that everyone within the organization from the lowest ranking employee up to the management team needs to work together to form a strategic preventive cybersecurity measure that will sustain company growth.
Cyberattacks are still growing, but it doesnt mean that its not preventable. Having the right skills and technology may be helpful in forming the whole cybersecurity posture, but continuous education on this matter will go a long way in mitigating it. Everyone whos involved in growing the business must have the same level of understanding in terms of data protection and breaches, Redoble said. The moment you take for granted these cyber security measures, your business will fail. Thats a fact.
ePLDT, Inc. sets the pace for IT innovation in the Philippines through a digital mindset and a forwardthinking culture, composed of agile, committed and enthusiastic professionals, empowered by seasoned leaders in the telecommunications and IT industry. Its service roster includes Cyber Security, Cloud, Analytics, Data Center and Managed IT Services which are critical to enabling customer success in the Experience Age.
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Marvel has found themselves in trouble once more after fans discovered anti-Semitic and anti-Christian messages in a recent comic book issue.
The artwork within X-Men Gold #1 features numerous references to the ongoing Indonesian protests against the Christian governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.
Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf (UPDATE: the artist has since responded to the controversy) inserted numerous references to the protests. Most prominent is a t-shirt worn by the mutant Colossus which features QS 5:51, a reference to Quran Surah 5:51.
That section translates, according to Qur'an.com: Oh you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you - then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.
The numbers 212 and 51 also make appearances, themselves references to the mass protests and another Quran verse forbidding Muslims from being led by other Muslims. Theres also an image of Kitty Pryde, a known Jewish character, whose head obscures a Jewellery shop sign so just the word Jew is prevalent.
Marvel has since released a statement on the matter, reading: The mentioned artwork in X-Men Gold #1 was inserted without knowledge behind its reported meanings.
These implied references do not reflect the views of the writer, editors or anyone else at Marvel and are in direct opposition of the inclusiveness of Marvel Comics and what the X-Men have stood for since their creation. This artwork will be removed from subsequent printings, digital versions, and trade paperbacks and disciplinary action is being taken.
The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who were both Jewish, while Marc Guggenheim - who wrote the issue - is also Jewish. Guggenheim pointed fans towards Marvels official statement on Twitter.
33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel
Meanwhile, the comic book makers found themselves in trouble recently following an executive's comments alluding to diversity being reason for the falling sales in comics.
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It is one of the nightmare scenarios of global warming.
As the temperature rises, vast areas of permafrost begin to thaw, allowing dead vegetation and the bodies of countless millions of animals to decompose.
The associated release of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide adds to global warming, causing more permafrost to melt in a vicious upward spiral.
Now a new scientific paper has found the frozen wastes of places like Siberia and Canada are much more susceptible to warming than previously thought.
The researchers estimated that about four million square kilometres of land an area larger than India will melt for every degree of global warming.
And that figure is about 20 per cent higher than the one currently used in climate model projections.
In total, about 15 million square kilometres on land is permafrost, which is defined as an area that remains below zero degrees Celsius for at least two years.
Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, the researchers said the loss of permafrost could provide very significant feedbacks on climate change.
And they added it would also radically change the biochemistry and hydrology of the land itself, potentially causing the ground to become unstable, putting buildings and roads at risk.
There is already significant evidence that the tundra is starting to break up with a massive crater known as the Gateway to the Underworld growing in Siberia at an alarming rate.
There has also been concern that smallpox eradicated in 1977 could return after the viruss DNA was found in the frozen corpses of historic victims.
However the researchers, from the UK, Sweden and Norway, said the effect of thawing permafrost could be significantly limited if the world managed to prevent global warming from going higher than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, set as an aspiration by the Paris Agreement on climate change alongside the target of 2C.
Last year, the world was about 1.1C above pre-industrial levels, partly boosted by the natural El Nino effect.
10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan
The papers lead-author, Dr Sarah Chadburn, of Leeds University, told The Independent that previously the level of permafrost thawing had been poorly understood.
Their study was the first to come up with an estimate based on actual observations on the ground, rather than purely using computer models.
We are much more confident that we have understood it, she said.
Asked to describe the significance of the 20 per cent increase in thawed permafrost, Dr Chadburn said: I think we have sort of known it [the issue of melting permafrost] is big for a long time.
Its 20 per cent more, it was already big. Ive already for the last few years had a few moments when Ive been thinking oh gosh.
We spend all our lives thinking about it, so it doesn't shock us any more, but pinning down the answers really more makes us feel hopeful that we will be able to better inform people.
However it remains uncertain just how much greenhouse gases will be emitted from the decomposing material.
Its another big step to say how much carbon would then be released into the atmosphere, Dr Chadburn said.
We have a rough idea of how much carbon is there, but how much will decompose is very uncertain, scientifically.
She added in an email that previous studies had found there was a small risk that there could be a very large carbon release from permafrost and a lot of extra warming, up to 0.6 degrees over several centuries.
However Professor Peter Wadhams, of Cambridge University, who was not involved in the researcher, said there was a far bigger threat posed by methane trapped in the frozen sea bed of the Arctic, which he said was already being released as the sea ice on the surface melts.
He was one of the authors of a paper in the journal Nature which estimated there could be what he described as a catastrophic methane pulse that could result in warming of 0.6C in just five years.
Describing the loss of permafrost on land as a slow process, Professor Wadhams argued the real danger was from the sea.
We are getting pure methane coming out, which gets a huge climate change boost and the threat offshore is immediate and very serious, he said.
You can see methane plumes coming up from the sea bed. When it comes out into the atmosphere at the top of that plume it could be set fire to.
But when you are sailing over that, you dont want to toss a match overboard to see what happens because there could be a major explosion.
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Former Conservative leader Michael Howard has said the UKs success at growing the economy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions shows climate sceptic doom-mongers were wrong to claim that dealing with global warming would damage the economy.
A report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) cited official figures showing the UKs emissions fell by 33 per cent between 1992 and 2014, while the gross domestic product (GDP) per head of population grew by a startling 130 per cent.
This means Britain has been the most successful of the G7 nations in achieving growth while reducing carbon footprint.
The former Tory party leader, now Lord Howard of Lympne, said the report should encourage political leaders to cut emissions based on scientists recommendations.
Before we signed the United Nations Climate Convention 25 years ago, Sir John Major and I were firmly of the view that reducing Britains greenhouse gas emissions would not harm our economy. This analysis shows that we were right and the doom-mongers wrong, he said.
The consequences of unconstrained climate change are now becoming ever clearer, and on a global basis, emissions are not falling quickly enough to avert the risks ahead.
The ECIU report was released to mark the launch of the Mission 2020 project, which is designed to make that year the historic turning point when global emissions static over the past three years finally begin to fall.
Bending the curve of emissions by 2020 is the only way to limit global warming and will pave the way to delivering a just transition to net zero emissions by 2050, the Mission 2020 projects website says.
Lord Howard, who was Environment Secretary in 1992, added that he wished Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary of the UNs Framework Convention on Climate Change who is running the 2020 project, and others involved well as they aim, essentially, to finish the job that we began in Rio de Janeiro 25 years ago.
Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said the argument that dealing with global warming was too expensive had been disproved by the UKs success.
Its really time to slay once and for all the old canard that cutting carbon emissions means economic harm, he said.
As this report shows, if you have consistent policymaking and cross-party consensus, its perfectly possible to get richer and cleaner at the same time.
Britain isnt the only country thats done it its true for most of the G7 but weve clearly been the best of the bunch.
There are signs that these successes are now transferring to the rest of the world. Globally, emissions have been flat for three years while world GDP has grown by eight per cent.
10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan
But science indicates this isnt enough to fulfil the objective of the UN Convention and prevent dangerous climate change for that, emissions need to start falling soon. This study should give confidence that with good policies, its achievable.
The switch from coal to gas as a fuel to generate electricity, energy efficiency schemes and a shift to a more service-based economy were some of the main factors behind the decline in UK emissions, the ECIU report found.
There have been claims that British emissions have simply been exported to other countries like China, which manufacture goods for the UK market.
But the report found, on a per-capita basis, imported emissions were now about the same as in 1997, the first year for which the government produces data. Since then, per-capita GDP has more than doubled.
Professor John Barrett of Leeds University, an expert on this issue, said: While the UKs imported emissions rose steadily during the 2000s, they are no longer doing so.
On a per-capita basis, the carbon footprint of goods and services imported into the UK has reduced since the financial crisis.
This is primarily due to two factors; firstly, suppressed demand for products due to the slow economic recovery, and secondly, domestic action on reducing emissions, particularly related to the significant reduction in coal for electricity generation.
However, the UKs imported emissions remain very high in comparison to other developed countries and there is further action that could be taken including low carbon technology transfer and the more sustainable use of imported materials and products.
This will help to ensure that the UKs imported emissions do not rise in the future with economic growth.
Sam Hall, senior researcher at Conservative think tank Bright Blue, said: Todays report is a further demonstration that climate change mitigation is compatible with strong economic growth.
Through cost-effective measures such as improving the energy efficiency of the buildings and reducing coal consumption, the UK has successfully cut carbon while increasing its prosperity.
Indeed, far from harming the UKs competitiveness, ambitious decarbonisation has in fact given us a new competitive advantage in new low-carbon industries, such as electric vehicles and offshore wind.
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Sprinting to Tesco to fight a stranger for the only remaining chocolate egg? Weve all been there. Although theres nothing better than rewarding yourself with a mass of chocolate after 40 days and nights of Lent, this year you should make a bold move and treat yourself to an Easter-inspired cocktail instead. From London to Bournemouth, DesignMyNight have looked far and wide to provide us with the bars with the UKs most impressive tipples.
Aster, London
Aster in London will give you two in one: chocolate and booze
Chocolate eggs might be out and Easter cocktails in, but Aster near Westminster have gone to egg-xtreme lengths to intertwine the two. Served in a hollow milk chocolate egg, the heady mix contains Diplomatico Reserva rum mixed with Mozart dark chocolate liqueur, aztec bitter chocolate, milk and sugar. This Instagram-worthy cocktail will set you back 18 and is only available from 3 to 17 April.
Dirty Martini, Cardiff
Triple whammy: The White Rabbit, Chocolate Martini, and Maltease cocktails ( Michael Franke)
Always looking for an excuse to concoct mad mixes, Dirty Martini have pulled it out of the bag this year with their Easter offering. Theyre serving not one, not two, but three themed cocktails. The White Rabbit, Chocolate Martini and Maltease have all been created in house by the venues expert mixologists. In our opinion, The Maltease rules the roost. It contains three-year-old Havana rum, Mozart white chocolate liqueur, Canadian maple syrup, Vita Pure coconut water, Nutella and Ovaltine. Far from Cardiff? Not to worry: the London sites will serve all three specials too.
The Lost Paradise Bar, Bournemouth
Bournemouth's Cadbury Creme Egg Martini
Instead of eating your Cadbury Creme Egg this year, why not drink it? Bartenders at The Lost Paradise Bar in Bournemouth have created three dribble-inducing cocktails for Easter, one of which being a Cadbury Creme Egg martini. Served with a chocolate-coated rim, this dreamy and limited edition drink is a must order. If youre feeling something a little more fizz-focussed, try their Cotton Candy Champagne.
Be At One, Manchester
Be At One's Bueno: Good name, good drink
Be At One added the Bueno to their extensive cocktail menu a while back, and its the stuff dreams are made of. Mozart white chocolate liqueur, salted caramel Kahlua, white Kinder Bueno chocolate and a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream are the ingredients used to create this unique masterpiece. Dont doubt it for a second this moment on the lips and a lifetime on the hips Easter cocktail is more than worth the calories.
London Cocktail Club, London
Embrace your inner child this Easter and order the Loopy Fiasco. Served at all London Cocktail Club venues, this colourful concoction is made by blending together Stoli vanilla vodka, Mozart white chocolate liqueur, milk, strawberry jam and rose water. Once you fight your way through the first layer of colourful Fruit Loops, youll lock lips with a smooth and nostalgia-stirring mix.
For more info on whats on in London, and across the UK; visit DesignMyNight.com and follow them on Twitter and Instagram, @DesignMyNight
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Google will spend big in order to bring a curved screen to its next flagship smartphone, according to a new report.
The company will be aware of the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the recent Samsung Galaxy S8 launch, and know that it needs to build something special in order to compete with what is currently the best-looking handset on the market by some distance.
Google will launch a follow-up to the highly impressive Pixel later this year, and is said to be plotting at least one major design change.
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. 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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
Its offered to invest at least 1 trillion won (706 million) in LG Display Co., in order to secure a stable supply of flexible OLED screens for the next version of the Pixel, reports South Koreas Electronic Times.
Whether or not curved displays actually serve much of a practical purpose is still a point of debate, but theyre certainly aesthetically pleasing.
Googles alleged offer, however, is yet to be accepted by LG Display.
The screen supplier could yet reject the proposal, and in doing so severely impact the Pixel-makers smartphone ambitions.
Recommended Why you should choose the Samsung Galaxy S8 over the iPhone 7
Curved screens are very much in vogue right now.
While Samsungs new Galaxy S8 is available in two different sizes, the company has gone all-out by opting not to even create a version with a flat screen.
Apple is also expected to embrace the trend, having reportedly already agreed a deal with Samsungs display division for the supply of 160 million curved displays for the iPhone 8, which is expected to launch this autumn.
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Researchers have discovered a security vulnerability that exposes Microsoft Office users to malware.
The bug, which is yet to be fixed, affects all versions of Microsofts productivity suite, including Office 2016 for Windows 10.
The vulnerability was first revealed by McAfee researchers, though security experts at FireEye say theyve been aware of it for several weeks and didnt want to publicly disclose any details before Microsoft had managed to address the issue.
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 attack involves a threat actor emailing a Microsoft Word document to a targeted user with an embedded OLE2link object, FireEye explains in a blog post.
When the user opens the document, winword.exe issues a HTTP request to a remote server to retrieve a malicious .hta file, which appears as a fake [Rich Text Format] file. The Microsoft [HTML Application] loads and executes the malicious script.
The bug relates to Microsoft Offices Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) feature, and McAfee says the earliest such attack it has managed to detect took place in late January.
Microsoft is expected to fix the issue this week with the release of its next Patch Tuesday security update.
It's also preparing the introduction of the Windows 10 Creators Update, though users have the option to download the update before its official release.
For the time being, McAfee has warned Microsoft Office users against opening files from "untrusted" sources.
It also says the attack cant bypass the Protected View in Office applications, so users should enable this while the bug can still be exploited.
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The Trump administration has failed to fill crucial public health positions across the government, leaving the nation ill-prepared to face one of its greatest potential threats: a pandemic outbreak of a deadly infectious disease, according to experts in health and national security.
No one knows where or when the next outbreak will occur, but health security experts say it is inevitable. Every president since Ronald Reagan has faced threats from infectious diseases, and the number of outbreaks is on the rise.
Over the past three years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has monitored more than 300 outbreaks in 160 countries, tracking 37 dangerous pathogens in 2016 alone. Infectious diseases cause about 15 percent of all deaths worldwide.
But after 11 weeks in office, the Trump administration has filled few of the senior positions critical to responding to an outbreak. There is no permanent director at the CDC or at the US Agency for International Development. At the Department of Health and Human Services, no one has been named to fill sub-Cabinet posts for health, global affairs, or preparedness and response. It's also unclear whether the National Security Council will assume the same leadership on the issue as it did under President Barack Obama, according to public health experts.
We need people in position to help steer the ship, said Steve Davis, the chief executive of PATH, a Seattle-based international health technology nonprofit working with countries to improve their ability to detect disease. We are actually very concerned.
In addition to leaving key posts vacant, the Trump administration has displayed little interest in the issue, health and security experts say. The White House has made few public statements about the importance of preparing for outbreaks, and it has yet to build the international relationships that are crucial for responding to global health crises. Trump also has proposed sharp cuts to government agencies working to stop deadly outbreaks at their source.
The slow progress on senior-level appointments - even those, such as the CDC director, that do not require Senate confirmation - is hobbling Cabinet secretaries at agencies across the government. Temporary beachhead teams the White House installed are hitting the end of their appointments. The remaining civil servants have little authority to make major decisionsor mobilise resources.
An HHS spokeswoman declined to comment on personnel decisions. An NSC official, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the administration recognises that global health security is a national security issue and that America's health depends on the world's ability to detect threats wherever they occur.
Trump's NSC does not have a point person for global health security as Obama's did, but global health security is part of the overall portfolio of Tom Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser, another NSC official said.
Global health experts warn that a pandemic threat could be as deadly as a nuclear attack - and is much more probable.
A global health crisis will go from being on no one's to-do list to being the only thing on their list, said Bill Steiger, who headed the HHS office of global health affairs during the George W. Bush administration. He spoke at a panel on pandemic preparedness in early January. He is now part of Trump's beachhead team at the State Department.
Next month, the G20 governments, which traditionally focus on finance and economics, will convene their health ministers for the first time, in part to test coordination and preparedness for a pandemic, according to German officials, who are hosting the summit in Berlin. It's not clear who will represent the United States.
In a speech to a security conference in Munich earlier this year, billionaire Bill Gates said a pandemic threat needs to be taken as seriously as other national security issues.
Imagine if I told you that somewhere in this world, there's a weapon that exists - or that could emerge - capable of killing tens of thousands, or millions of people, bringing economies to a standstill and throwing nations into chaos, said Gates, who has spent billions to improve health worldwide.
Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year.
The projected annual cost of a pandemic could reach as high as $570 billion.
Last month, Trump met with Gates at the White House. After the meeting, press secretary Sean Spicer said the two had a shared commitment to finding and stopping disease outbreaks around the world.
Americans are at greater risk than ever from new infectious diseases, drug-resistant infections and potential bio-terrorism organisms, despite advances in medicine and technology, experts say. Not only has the total number of outbreaks increased in the past three decades, but the scale, impact and methods of transmission also have expanded because of climate change, urbanisation and globalisation.
The outbreak of Ebola that erupted in West Africa eventually infected more than 28,000 people and killed more than 11,000. MERS has killed nearly 2,000 people in 27 countries. Health officials around the world are monitoring a strain of deadly bird flu, H7N9, that is causing China's largest outbreak on record, killing 40 percent of people with confirmed infections.
Of all emerging infectious disease threats, a global influenza outbreak is everyone's worst fear because it could be highly fatal and highly contagious. A particularly virulentinfluenza pandemic that started in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. Today's H7N9 strain poses the greatest risk of a pandemic if it evolves to spread easily from human to human, according to US officials.
Last month, several Democratic lawmakers wrote HHS Secretary Tom Price to raise concerns about the nation's ability to respond to infectious disease threats. They also asked about the vacancies and the impact of proposed budget cuts in the event of a flu pandemic. They received no response.
Our whole community is kind of ear to the ground trying to figure out any clues we can discern, said Rebecca Katz, co-director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University's Medical Center.
Global health security is clearly an issue that needs to be taken up by the heads of state, said one European official who declined to be identified because her government does not want to appear critical of the United States. Diseases travel fast and don't recognise borders. In today's connected world, a disease can be transported from a rural village to any major city within 36 hours.
It's not just from travel of people, but birds, too, she said. Referring to Trump's proposal to build a wall along the border with Mexico, she added: You can't build walls to stop birds.
Global health security was a top priority for the Obama administration, which launched a partnership in early 2014 to prevent deadly outbreaks from spreading. Experts say the collaboration, known as the Global Health Security Agenda, has raised the political profile of infectious disease threats and strengthened basic public health systems in the countries least equipped to fight epidemics.
In Cameroon, the government developed a new emergency operations center able to respond within 24 hours to an outbreak of a highly lethal bird flu last year, removing more than 67,000 birds that had the potential to spread the virus to humans. In 2015, it took the country eight weeks to respond to a cholera outbreak.
In Mali, personnel who received epidemiology training began vaccination campaigns the day after detecting a measles outbreak last year.
In addition, more than 30 countries have taken part in evaluations to assess their ability to detect and prevent outbreaks, and their report cards are made public to spur governments to take action. But the gains made so far are still fragile and require continued funding until they are strong, according to an internal CDC analysis.
The Obama administration committed $1 billion to the programme, which is due to end in fiscal 2019. Although it has strong support among global health officials and some Republican lawmakers, the Trump administration has yet to say whether it plans to continue funding the initiative.
President Obama also brought up global health regularly in meetings with foreign leaders. Trump has said little since taking office, except for a reference in his inaugural speech about his desire to rid the earth of disease.
During the Ebola outbreak, Trump tweeted that health workers should be blocked from returning to the United States, despite advice from the CDC and other experts that doing so would not protect US health and would harm efforts to stop the outbreak.
The administration's proposed budget is also problematic, health experts say.
If approved by Congress, Trump's request for the current fiscal year would slash the entire $72 million budget for global health security at USAID. And his request for fiscal 2018 calls for a nearly 18 percent cut at HHS, which includes the CDC.
The request does propose a new federal emergency response fund intended to allow HHS to respond to emerging public health outbreaks. However, administration officials have provided few details.
The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Many Republican lawmakers have criticised the requests, saying Congress is unlikely to approve such deep cuts to health agencies.
You can have the best people in the world, but if you're slashing the NIH budget by 20 percent, and presumably the same thing to CDC, then I don't care how good your people are, they're not going to be nearly as effective as they need to be, said Representative Tom Cole (Republican-Oklahoma), who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on labour, health and human services, education, and related agencies.
The health agencies are the front lines of defence for the American people for some pretty awful things, Cole said. If the idea of a government is to protect the United States and its people, then these people contribute as much as another wing on an F-35 [fighter jet], and actually do more to save tens of thousands of lives.
The Washington Post
Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights
Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders
PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces
There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan
Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia
Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair
Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan
I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General
I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox
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EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay
An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".
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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022
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The new 12-sided 1 coins have been in circulation for nearly two weeks, and some are already selling for a small fortune online.
Thats because more than 200,000 trial coins, were issued to businesses and retailers in preparation for the official release on 28 March and collectors are now desperate to get their hands on them.
"The aim was to provide these manufacturers with additional levels of confidence of the compatibility of their equipment ahead of the introduction of the new 1 coin, which is standard practice when a new coin is being introduced," the Royal Mint said.
The Royal Mint made it clear that these coins dont have legal tender status and have no redeemable value, but that doesnt seem to be dampening demand.
On eBay, bidding for the coins is starting at between 150 and 250 with some selling for up to 6,000.
Sellers attribute the inflated prices to errors such as the wrong release date.
Money expert Alex Cassidy, from price comparison website GoCompare's Coining It In section, which specialises in collectable coins, says some features could make a coin a special edition model.
"As with the current 2 coins, the 2017 1 coin is bi-metallic - in this case an outer 'gold' coloured nickel-brass band with an inner 'silver' coloured cupro-nickel disc," he told The Mirror.
Punters should pay attention to both the floral crown on the reverse side for any rotations, as well as the Queens head, which should sit directly above the new bevelled edge, he added.
It may also be sensible to hold off rushing to the bank to exchange the old round pound coins for new ones before they cease being legal tender on 15 October.
Many collectors are still desperate to complete a collection of all 24 designs of the old coin.
The 2016 banknote beauty pageant Show all 6 1 /6 The 2016 banknote beauty pageant The 2016 banknote beauty pageant currency of Scotland The 2016 banknote beauty pageant currency of Australia The 2016 banknote beauty pageant currency of New Zealand The 2016 banknote beauty pageant currency of Georgia The 2016 banknote beauty pageant currency of Belarus The 2016 banknote beauty pageant currency of Maldives
In its Scarcity Index, Change Checker, a coin collectors website, has identified two dozen of the rarest 1 coins to have ever been used in circulated the UK and some are worth as much as 50 each.
The rarest coin in the index is the Edinburgh, which is already achieving prices of between 10 and 15 on eBay and could soon be fetching between 25 and 50, according to the website.
The 2011 Cardiff City 1 coin second on the scarcity index is selling for 20 on eBay with Change Checker predicting its value will also climb.
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Motoring tycoon Sir Arnold Clark has died at the age of 89.
The billionaire, who founded his Arnold Clark car dealership in Glasgow in 1954, died on Monday surrounded by his family.
He was knighted in 2004 for services to the motor industry and last year became Britain's first billionaire car dealer, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
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A family statement said: "Sir Arnold Clark passed away peacefully this morning, April 10 2017, surrounded by his family.
"He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather and a great friend and employer to many.
"He was an inspiration and the family will continue to carry on his vision.
"He will be greatly missed.
"We wish to thank all those who have sent messages of condolence and appreciate your kind support."
Sir Arnold founded his company after leaving the RAF in 1954.
He is said to have used his demob money to buy a Morris Ten Four for 70, before restoring it and selling it on for a profit.
He soon opened the first Arnold Clark showroom in Glasgow's Park Road, going on to establish hire car schemes, repair centres, franchises and a car finance and insurance business over the next decades.
Sir Arnold opened his first site in England with a retail centre in Liverpool in 1994.
Adding to his knighthood, awarded by the Queen, and numerous business honours, Sir Arnold also collected an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow in 2005.
A statement from the Arnold Clark Group described the founder as a "truly inspirational business leader and influential public figure".
Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires Show all 10 1 /10 Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires 2014 Getty Images Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires 2014 Getty Images Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires 2014 Getty Images Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires Getty Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires 2007 Getty Images Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires 2012 Getty Images Forbes 2016 list of worlds billionaires
It added: "His unsurpassed work ethic and strong family values led him to build a market-leading automotive retailer that continues to go from strength to strength.
"Sir Arnold's entrepreneurial ideals continue to be at the heart of the business. His personal philosophies will continue to inspire everybody who works in the business, and will be the cornerstone of its future growth and continuing success.
"Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time."
PA
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A chemistry professor has proved the Bank of Englands new five pound note can be destroyed.
The new polymer banknotes, first issued in September last year featuring Sir Winston Churchill, were described as considerably more durable by the Bank of England.
A spilled drink should have little effect on the new notes, which can be wiped clean and will even survive a standard laundry cycle with minimal damage, according to the Bank.
However, Sir Martyn Poliakoff , professor of chemistry at Nottingham University and famous on Youtube for his Periodic Video series, has demonstrated that the new fiver is not indestructible.
In the video, Sir Martyn, admitted he felt immediately challenged when the new note was first issued. Together with his assistant Neil Barnes the professor demonstrated two ways to get the better of the new polymer notes.
First the professor had the idea to freeze it with liquid nitrogen.
The strands of the polymer would be rigid and you may be able to break it, hitting it with a hammer, the professor said in the video.
His assistant, Mr Barnes then repeatedly beat the note with a hammer eventually breaking the fiver into pieces.
"It took several attempts. You had to get the orientation just right and hit it just in the right way, and then it broke into two or three pieces," Sir Martyn said.
The professor said he was not entirely satisfied with the result, so he set about testing another note with fuming nitric acid.
After a few minutes in the liquid, the image of the Queen disappeared, followed by other details, ultimately leaving behind a transparent plastic polypropylene sheet.
Sir Martyn said he used his own money for the experiment explaining you cant spend university money on things like this.
British shoppers have less than month to spend the 160 million old fivers which are still in circulation before they lose legal tender status, the Bank of England warned last week.
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After 5 May, shops will no longer have to accept the old fivers, featuring prison reformer and philanthropist Elizabeth Fry, as payment or in change.
The Bank said more than 50 per cent of the old notes have already been returned to be destroyed, leaving around 160 million in circulation.
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Two thirds of Australias Great Barrier Reef has been severely affected by two consecutive years of mass bleaching, according to new aerial surveys.
Bleaching is caused by abnormal environmental conditions, such as heightened sea temperatures, which causes coral to drive out the algae known as zooxanthallae that gives them colour, leaving the coral bleached and looking white.
Last year mass bleaching left 35 per cent of the northern and central parts of the coral either dead or dying. It is possible for coral that has been bleached to recover if the algae can recolonize it, but it can take years and requires the water temperature to drop. This years bleaching marks the fourth time the Great Barrier Reef has experienced severe bleaching since 1998, and the second mass bleaching that has happened in the space of 12 months.
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Professor Terry Hughes and Dr James Kerry at the ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University carried out the aerial surveys that covered more than 8,000km. This year, only the southern third of the reef has been left untouched.
Mr Hughes claimed that while the reef is struggling with multiple impacts, such as the effects of Tropical Cyclone Debbie that recently hit the area or last years El Nino, the record-breaking temperatures driven by global warming is the most pressing problem.
Speaking to The Guardian, Mr Hughes said there is concern over the frequency of bleaching of the reef when it takes around 10 years for some of the coral to recover from these events.
The significance of bleaching this year is that its back to back, so theres been zero time for recovery, he said, adding that while it is too early to tell the extent of the damage that will be caused by this years bleaching, the effects will be seen up to 500km south of the areas damaged last year.
He told the BBC this is the shortest gap that has been seen between mass bleaching. The sooner we take action on global greenhouse gas emissions and transition away from fossil fuels to renewables, the better.
Randi Rotjan, a marine biologist at Boston University in Massachusetts called the news really scary, and likened the bleaching to the reef losing its insurance policy.
The scale of the devastation means its losing its potential to reseed the parts of the reef that were previously damaged, he told New Scientist.
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The Government could be forced into a climbdown over its cuts to legal aid for prisoners after the "groundbreaking" judgement that they were unlawful at the Court of Appeal.
Violence and self-harm in prisons have soared to record levels since they were imposed by former Justice Secretary Chris Grayling in December 2013 and and almost 300 prisoners have committed suicide.
Many have also been unable to challenge decisions that could keep them incarcerated for longer than necessary.
But following an appeal by the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prisoners Advice Service, three judges found denying inmates legal aid is inherently unfair because of the vulnerability of some prisoners and their inability to represent themselves.
The judgement paves the way for judicial review.
In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646175.bin Kris Allen. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646589.bin Marc Carolissen. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646174.bin Mohamed Manssor. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646177.bin Unknown. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646181.bin Joe. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646183.bin Michael Inns. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646590.bin Kris Allen. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646593.bin Michael Inns. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646586.bin Michael Inns. Inside Eye In pictures: The view from inside Wandsworth Prison 646594.bin Kris Allen. Inside Eye
"The evidence about prison staffing levels, the current state of prisons, and the workload of the Parole Board suggests that the system is under considerable pressure," said Lord Justice Beatson in his judgement, adding: "The system has at present not got the capacity sufficiently to fill the gap in the run of cases (where legal aid is being denied).
Before his ruling, the court heard that inmates who might be suitable candidates for open prison or re-categorisation are currently unable to access legal aid and may be forced to remain as Category A prisoners for years longer than necessary.
Prisoners were also left without representation for sentencing reviews by the Parole Board and for decisions about access to offender behaviour programmes and courses, disciplinary proceedings and placement in close supervision centres.
The court found the high threshold" for a finding of systemic unfairness has been satisfied in the case of pre-tariff reviews by the Parole Board, Category A reviews and decisions as to placement in a close supervision centre.
The judgement said the court considered the ability of the individual to represent himself without legal assistance, having regard to his age or mental capacity and that it considered vulnerable prisoners such as those with learning disabilities and mental illness, in reaching its decision.
Recommended Chris Grayling denies there is a prison crisis amid soaring suicides
The judgement was welcomed in a joint statement by the prisoners charities who lodged the appeal.
Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: This decision will make the public safer. It vindicates our concerns that cuts imposed by the former Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling, in 2013 presented a grave risk that prisoners would become stuck in a broken system.
This sends a clear message that important decisions about prisoners cannot be made efficiently or fairly in the face of these cuts. We look forward to hearing from the Lord Chancellor with her plans to give effect to the judgement.
Deborah Russo, Joint Managing Solicitor of the Prisoners Advice Service, said: This is an unprecedented and groundbreaking legal victory in which the vulnerability of the prison population is fully recognised as a key factor in its limited ability to access justice. Common law came to the rescue of a marginalised and often forgotten sector of our society.
When he introduced the cuts to legal aid, Mr Grayling said the restrictions represented a good deal for taxpayers as the coalition Government sought to reduce the legal aid bill by 350 million a year as part of sweeping public spending cuts. His successor, Michael Gove, reversed some of the proposed cuts to legal aid, but not for prisoners.
Mr Grayling said in 2013 he was appalled taxpayers money was being used for legal cases which he claimed should be dealt with by the prison systems internal complaints system.
In 2013, prisoners were bringing approximately 11,000 court cases each year but the cut meant only wealthy prisoners could continue to have legal representation where they didn't agree with the decision of authorities such as the Parole Board.
Deborah Russo, Joint Managing Solicitor of the Prisoners Advice Service, hailed the ruling as a landmark one.
This is an unprecedented and groundbreaking legal victory in which the vulnerability of the prison population is fully recognised as a key factor in its limited ability to access justice. Common law came to the rescue of a marginalised and often forgotten sector of our society.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, Chief Executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, which intervened in the case, said: Its a hallmark of a democratic legal system is that it is fair and robust for all users. Without access to legal aid, prisoners with learning difficulties and mental illness would not be able to participate effectively in important decisions about their future, placing them at a significant disadvantage. We welcome todays judgment that will ensure our legal system continues to provide legal help during these hearings.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: We note the Court of Appeals judgement on changes made to legal aid regulations - introduced in 2013 - and will consider whether to appeal.
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Nearly a quarter of UK Christians do not believe Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, a survey has claimed.
While 44 per cent of the population overall believes Christ returned from death according to the Bible story, the figure rises to just 72 per cent among Christiansdespite the event being a central part of the faith.
But the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, welcomed the poll's results and said they showed even non-churchgoers held "core Christian beliefs". Just over a third of people who identified as non-Christians said they thought the resurrection had taken place.
However, five per cent of people who regarded themselves as "active" Christians did not believe the Bible claim was true, according to the Com Res survey of 2,010 people.
The Right Rev Walker said: "This important and welcome survey proves that many British people, despite not being regular churchgoers, hold core Christian beliefs.
"Alongside them it finds surprisingly high levels of religious belief among those who follow no specific religion, often erroneously referred to as secularists or atheists.
"This demonstrates how important beliefs remain across our society and hence the importance both of religious literacy and of religion having a prominent place in public discourse."
UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images 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 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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
Alastair Lichten, campaign officer at the National Secular Society, said the results were "not very surprising" because many people identified as Christian for cultural reasons.
He said: "People have every right to identify how they want, but I think this should just send a message.
"When people identify in a certain religious way that doesn't tell you anything about them. It doesn't tell you their position on theological issues or on social issues."
Opinion on whether there is life after death was split across the country, with 46 per cent believing there was, 46 per cent saying the opposition, and 8 per cent unsure.
More than a tenth of "active" Christians said they did not believe there was an afterlife.
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A man from Coventry has become the first Briton to be charged by police over the swatting craze that sees computer gamers make fake calls to police to implicate other players in serious crimes.
Robert McDaid, 21, is alleged to have called a terrorism hotline in the US state of Maryland posing as a man called Tyran Dobbs.
Claiming to be armed with a gun and several bags of explosives, he said that he would kill three hostages unless $15,000 (12,000) was delivered in a red bag to his address.
Taking the threat seriously, armed police then raided Mr Dobbs home and shot the 20-year-old between the eyes and in the chest with rubber bullets, breaking bones in his face and bruising his lungs. Images taken after the incident show him with a heavily swollen, bruised and cut face.
After realising their error, investigators said they traced the call to Mr McDaid, who has now been charged in the US with three offences, including conspiracy to produce false information and hoax. He faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence if convicted.
The US Department of Justice said Mr McDaid was reportedly acting at the request of an American gamer called Zachary Lee, who contacted the Briton via an internet telephone service in February 2015 and asked for his help in swatting Mr Dobbs.
Mr McDaid is said to have responded: Ill do it when Im up.
The swatting trend named after the Specialist Weapons and Tactics (Swat) teams that often respond to the calls - has seen police respond to hundreds of false reports by raiding the homes of completely innocent people who have been reported by their online rivals.
Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Show all 12 1 /12 Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Protesters hold up signs and flags to show solidarity with House Democrats after they staged a sit in over gun-control laws on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on June 23. 2016. Andrew Caballero/AFP/Getty Images Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC A lone protester wears tape printed with the U.S. flag on her mouth while attending an open hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where intelligence chiefs, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, testified at the U.S. Capitol February 25, 2016 in Washington, DC. Clapper said that the group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS, has become a greater global threat than al-Qaida ever was. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) waves to supporters along with House Democrats after their sit-in over gun-control law on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Supporters of House Democrats taking part in a sit-in on the House Chamber shout encouragement from outside the U.S. Capitol on June 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) Democrats, have maintained control of the House chamber since this morning demanding a vote on gun control legislation. Pete Marovich/Getty Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Democrats walk out on the East Front on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC A poster for the gun-control law support is left on the ground on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (R) applauds as Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) (L) waves to supporters along with House Democrats after their sit-in over gun-control law on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Supporters of House Democrats taking part in a sit-in on the House Chamber shout encouragement from outside the U.S. Capitol on June 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) Democrats have maintained control of the House chamber since this morning demanding a vote on gun control legislation. Pete Marovich/Getty Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (R) and Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) (L) walk out with House Democrats on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Democrats walk out on the East Front on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Democrats walk out on the East Front on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Protesters hold up signs and flags to show solidarity with House Democrats after they staged a sit in over gun-control laws on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on June 23. 2016. Andrew Caballero/AFP/Getty Images
Mr Lee has been charged with the same offences as Mr McDaid.
Maryland US prosecutor Rod Rosenstein, who has been nominated by Donald Trump to be Deputy Attorney General at the US Department for Justice, said: We are working with officials in the UK to ensure that Robert McDaid is held accountable for his alleged actions because the alleged criminal activity represents a grave threat to public safety.
Mr Dobbs, meanwhile, has criticised police for their response and asked why they did not check the authenticity of the call before acting.
Officers reportedly ignored his father, Tom, and his cousin telling them there was no hostage situation and that the so-called hostage taker was actually asleep.
In an interview with US news channel ABC7, Mr Dodds said: How did yall not trace this call back? How did yall not figure out where it came from? I want justice. I want them to pay for my medical damages and I want whoever shot me in my face to have to do some time."
The Independent was unable to reach Mr McDade for comment.
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A young woman pictured smiling at the leader of the English Defence League at a rally in Birmingham has told of how she was coming to the aid of a woman wearing a headscarf.
The image of Saffiyah Khan appearing calm and defiant in the face on EDL leader Ian Crossland during a far-right demonstration has been shared thousands of times on social media. It was praised Labour MP Jess Phillips, while Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan described it as photo of the week.
The Muslim woman who was the initially targeted by the far-right protesters told The Independent that a "swarm" of EDL members had tried to put an Islamophobic sign on her head and shouted at her to "go back to where you came from".
Recommended Muslim woman describes moment she was surrounded by the EDL
Ms Khan, who is from Birmingham and has family ties to both Bosnia and Pakistan, said: I kept myself out of the way but sadly it did kick off between the EDL and a lady in a headscarf.
She was quite a small woman. When I realised that nothing was being done and she was being surrounded 360 that's when I came in as well.
She said she had no idea at the time who the man was, adding: All I saw was an angry man having a bit of a rant.
Asked if the presence of police at the protest had made a difference to her decision to go to the aid of the woman, Ms Khan replied: Not in the slightest. I would have done the same regardless.
In a post on her Twitter feed, Birmingham Yardley MP Ms Phillips said of the photograph: Who looks like they have power here, the real Brummy on the left or the EDL who migrated for the day to our city and failed to assimilate.
On Sunday, the Muslim woman who was initially targeted by the EDL supporters told The Independent that she was at the back of the protest when she heard statements made about Islam, portraying all followers of the religion as terrorists.
"Now me being a Muslim, I could not stay silent," she said. "I could not allow that narrative being thrown around in public in such a central location in the city of Birmingham. [It] is such a vibrant city with so many different races and we all live alongside each other really peacefully.
She said she began shouting No to Islamophobia, no to war when suddenly they rushed towards me.
It was like a swarm of them. They came at me so aggressively, she said They had fully surrounded me and they were trying to get past the two or three officers who were stood in front of me and the few counter protesters who were standing next to me
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. 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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
EDL activists said on Twitter that the scuffles broke out after counter-protesters shouting Nazi scum disrupted a silence being held at the rally for victims of terrorism.
In a Twitter message, Mr Crossland claimed counter-protesters had been disrespectful by interrupting the silence for victims of the Westminster terror attack.
On Facebook, the EDL leader said Ms Khan was "lucky she had any teeth left" following the incident.
West Midlands Police said an 18-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man detained during the protest were later de-arrested by officers.
Officers also took a 26-year-old man into custody to prevent a breach of the peace. He was later released without charge.
Press Association contributed to this report
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Boris Johnson has warned that senior Russian military officers linked to Bashar Assads attempt to cling to power in Syria could face new sanctions.
The Foreign Secretary also issued a fresh appeal to Vladimir Putin to abandon his backing for Assad following the chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town which left scores dead.
The deadly toxic gas attack, and the pictures of dying children that accompanied it, led US President Donald Trump to launch a missile attack on the Syrian airbase where the weapons are believed to have originated.
Recommended Boris Johnson says Trump could launch more strikes against Syria
Mr Johnson made his sanctions threat as he arrived in Italy on Monday in a bid to persuade G7 leaders of the case for tougher action against Russia.
He said: We will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions certainly on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures who have been involved in co-ordinating the Syrian military efforts and are thereby contaminated by the appalling behaviour of the Assad regime.
The US and EU currently have a range of sanctions against Russia related to Mr Putins annexation of Crimea three years ago.
While the sanctions are believed to have had an impact on the Russian economy, with Moscows diplomats lobbying to have them lifted, they have not forced Mr Putin to heel in Ukraine.
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
There was outrage across the world after dozens of civilians were killed in what is believed by the West to have been a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian village of Khan Sheikhoun by the Assad regime.
Russia and Iran have issued a joint call for an unbiased investigation into the incident, which provoked Mr Trump to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at the airfield in Syrias Homs province.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif agreed to call for the probe on Monday, while denouncing the US attack on the Syrian airbase as an act of aggression against a sovereign nation.
Russia and Iran have threatened the US over Syria
Russia has argued that the chemicals were released after the Syrian air force undertook an attack on the outskirts of the village in a bid to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs, though the claim has been dismissed by the US as simply not credible.
Since Mr Trump ordered the missile attack, the US and UK on one side, and Russia and Iran on the other, have made reciprocal threats of further military action.
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Boris Johnson should not be Foreign Secretary if he cannot be trusted to go to Moscow for talks over Syria, critics claimed after he pulled out of a meeting with his Russian counterpart.
Mr Johnson cancelled the trip following discussions with the United States but the move is a "gross miscalculation" looks daft and has landed him in deep political trouble, it has been claimed.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson will go ahead with a planned trip to Moscow to deliver a clear and co-ordinated message to the Kremlin over its support for Bashar Assad's Syrian regime.
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But the move makes the Foreign Secretary look like some sort of mini-me who cannot be trusted to hold his own talks with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, Alex Salmond said.
The SNP's foreign affairs spokesman told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: Boris Johnson just looks daft.
What is the argument for not going ahead with a visit? Rex Tillerson is going on Wednesday so it can't be that we have moved to a Cold War position of no talking whatsoever.
The idea the Foreign Secretary can't be trusted because he might pursue his own line or have an independent thought or crossover what the Americans are going to say just makes him look like some sort of mini-me to the United States of America.
That's not a position any Foreign Secretary would want to be in.
Boris Johnson looks in deep political trouble this morning, he added.
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
Liberal Democrat former leader Lord Campbell of Pittenweem said pulling out of the talks had been a gross miscalculation and was frankly inexplicable.
He told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: I doubt very much Mr Johnson had the authority to make that decision himself.
It must have been a decision made at the highest level in government, doubtless with the Prime Minister and frankly I find it inexplicable.
If your argument is that the solution to the issues in Syria is to be a political settlement then why avoid going to talk to one of the parties which will be an essential feature in any political settlement, namely Russia because of its close relationship with President Assad.
I simply cannot understand why the Government took this position and in my view, candidly, I regard it as a gross miscalculation.
The fact of the matter is if Mr Johnson couldn't be trusted to go to Moscow, then he should not be the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, he added.
Russia has consistently denied that Syrian forces used chemical weapons, insisting the incident at Khan Sheikhoun was caused by a hit on a rebel chemical weapons plant, a claim dismissed by the West.
Russia's embassy in London tweeted: It is deplorable that BorisJohnson found himself unfit to stand Western ground on Syria in bilateral talks with Sergey Lavrov.
A Government source accused Mr Johnson's critics, including Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, of playing politics.
It's a shame that some like Farron, Salmond and McDonnell put polls and politics above sorting out a civil war, it's very sad and shows how desperate they are, they said.
Press Association
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The former head of MI6 has said Donald Trump lacks the background, experience and instincts of an effective president, as he warned the US may be heading into a new war on the Korean peninsula.
Ex-spy chief Sir John Sawers said Mr Trump was not a person who fills me with confidence as he cited increasing tensions with North Korea as a bigger threat to world peace than the conflict in Syria.
But he also said recent events in the Middle Eastern country, which include a US missile strike, do show military and diplomatic grown-ups are beginning to steer the US administration, pushing Mr Trumps ideological staff to the periphery.
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His intervention comes ahead of a G7 meeting at which Boris Johnson will lead a diplomatic push for new sanctions to punish Russia for backing the Assad regime, blamed for a deadly chemical weapons attack, and as a US Navy carrier group heads to the Korean Peninsula to ward off missile tests by Kim-Jong Un.
Asked if he is afraid at how Mr Trump may handle the twin crises, Sir John said: Hes not someone who fills me with confidence.
He doesnt have the background and the experience and the instincts of being an effective US president, but it is in our interests that we have a US administration that upholds the international system, that supports its allies and supports international norms.
What we saw last week [in Syria] was some of the heavyweights, the serious minds in the US administration, H.R. McMaster, the national security advisor, Jim Mattis, the Defence Secretary, and now [Rex] Tillerson this week going to Moscow.
We see the sensible grown-ups within the administration taking charge and the rather ideological figures around Trump himself being marginalised, and thats to be welcomed.
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
It comes amid reports of clashes between Mr Trumps ideologue alt-right advisor Steve Bannon and others in his administration, most recently over the Syria missile strikes.
Sir John, also former UK permanent representative to the United Nations, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme he was no fan of Mr Trump and that the first three months of his presidency had been chaotic, but he said the response to the chemical weapons attack in Syria was effective, even if it was not part of a new grand strategy.
He warned however, that it is from North Korea that the potential greatest threat to world peace comes.
The US Navy recently cancelled planned port calls in Australia for the USS Carl Vinson and instead sent the aircraft carrier toward the Korean Peninsula amid concerns over new missile tests.
US military action against North Korea 'an option on the table'
The former spy-chief went on: If you are looking for a world crisis which could bring about the dangers of a clash between great powers then North Korea is a bigger concern than Syria.
The move by the Americans to strengthen their forces in the Korean Peninsula, the deployment of this carrier battle group, the demonstration to President Xi in Florida that the US was willing to use force against another state to uphold international order, uphold international norms, this is all part of a move, part of a calculation that North Korea has to be treated very seriously, a very high priority and ultimately it needs a joint US Chinese approach to deal with this unless we are to avoid a further conflict on that peninsula.
He added: I think what the Chinese are beginning to understand is that if this cant be solved peaceably through negotiations, through pressure, then there is serious risk that the US will have only one option left, which is the military option.
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They were tourists, mainly, standing in quiet rows behind the rows of flowers on Parliament Square. Theyd turned up at Westminster on a sunny Monday lunchtime to take photos of themselves beneath the clock tower and now they were surprised, pleased almost, some of them, to find the streets closed off, the barriers up and that they would bear witness to a little bit of history.
When the Carriage Gates opened at half past one and PC Keith Palmers coffin drove out, it was Portuguese and Chinese, Italian, Romanian, German, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian and plain old old London hands that broke into spontaneous applause, clapping the cortege onward past the Victoria Tower and over the Thames.
It was appropriate enough. Ruck-sacked Italians waggling selfie-sticks, Korean schoolgirls giggling into smartphones; from the Tesco Metro to Westminster Abbey and all the way back to Caffe Nero these are Westminsters permanent residents. Today they stood in silence beneath whirring helicopters. Three weeks ago on Wednesday, Marcelino Rodrigues from Porto might have been wandering past the Carriage Gates and asked PC Palmer the way to Trafalgar Square.
Recommended PC Palmer died an exemplar of the best of our police service
We just came here to go on the wheel, he told me. We didnt know this was happening. But we wanted to stay and see. These people who died, they were tourists, right? From America, France, wherever. They just come here for taking pictures. This could be us, you know.
The funeral cortege of PC Keith Palmer makes its way from The Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral (Getty) (Getty Images)
Among the political giants that stand in bronze formation around Parliament Square, it is the war leaders that get pride of place. Churchill and Lloyd George have the finest vantage point over the spot where PC Keith Palmer, as so many have since said, died to protect our way of life or gave his life in the defence of democracy.
But the sentiment spelled out in white carnations and red roses over the hearse were altogether less grandiose. They just said: Number 1 Daddy.
And as the crowds clapped it onward, dotted among the hoodies and the selfie-sticks and the half eaten packed lunches poking out of backpacks, were ordinary men and women. Men mostly, middle aged, in dark suits and ties, their eyes suddenly moist: coppers, clearly.
Police officers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral (Getty) (Getty Images)
There were thousands more of them lining the full two miles to Southwark Cathedral, where the coffin was carried in under the blue insignia of the Metropolitan Police, to receive a Full Force funeral. These are the customary trappings afforded to any officer killed in the line of his or her work.
One among the crowd was Gregory Skinner, a police chief from New Jersey, the Peapack & Gladstone Police Department to be precise. He said he was "here to honour the police officer that was killed here three weeks ago, to honour PC Keith Palmer."
Pall bearers carry the coffin of PC Keith Palmer, in to Southwark Cathedral (Getty) (Getty Images)
Another was Steven Lane, who said: London is a city that accommodates people from all ages, all backgrounds and when something of this nature occurs its right and proper, I believe to show support as a community for people who put their lives on the line everyday.
In the late afternoon, after the crowds had gone home and the streets reopened, the funeral moved on to a private, family internment. And quite right too.
PC Keith Palmer will be remembered as a brave officer killed in the line of duty. But he was a Number One Daddy first.
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Scotland would be most welcome to join the EU if it voted for independence, according to a group of 50 politicians.
The open letter, signed by 26 MEPs and members of national and regional parliaments in Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Belgium, declared that there was a tremendous amount of goodwill from across the continent towards Scotlands European aspirations.
The letter was mostly signed by Green MEPs, the same party that supported Scotlands first bid for independence in 2014. The group lamented UK Prime Minister Theresa Mays push for a hard Brexit and acknowledged that Scotland, as a whole, had voted to remain.
Recommended Shetland Islands could go independent if Scotland leaves UK
Therefore, if Scotland were to become an independent country and decided to seek to maintain European Union membership, we offer our full support to ensure the transition is as swift, smooth, and orderly as possible, the letter, addressed to Scottish parliament, read.
It added: Scotland would be most welcome as a full member of the European Union, with your five million European citizens continuing to benefit from the rights and protections we all currently enjoy.
The letter may be a boost for Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon whose predecessor Alex Salmond lost the Scottish National Partys first bid for independence in 2014 as many politicians threatened the country would lose EU membership as a result.
Nicola Sturgeon letter launches independence battle
Ms Sturgeon has proposed another referendum between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, when the terms of the UKs exit deal from the EU are unknown.
This month Spain said it would not veto a potentially independent Scotland from rejoining the EU, as was previously reported.
Ross Greer MSP, the Scottish Greens external affairs spokesperson, said in a statement that independence was the only way to secure a European future for Scotland.
The only thing standing in Scotlands way to forging links with Europe is the Westminster government, he said.
Our parliament has voted to give the people a choice over their own future and no Tory government at Westminster should stand in the way of that.
Nicola Sturgeon: No campaigners 'jeopardised' Scotland's place in the EU
The SNP has not pledged a vote for independence as a guarantee to return to Brussels, however. The letter would not guarantee that Scotland could re-enter the EU.
Ms Sturgeon recently told Channel 4 News that she wrote to Ms May, formally asking to start talks on a second referendum.
I dont take for granted what choice people in Scotland would make and I respect the views of those who would not choose independence, but the simple principle is this: in very changed circumstances that will have significant implications for the kind of country we will become, our future should be decided by us, not for us, Ms Sturgeon said.
Ms May responded that now is not the time for such a vote.
Ms Sturgeon added last week she had no intention of taking legal action to secure a second referendum - it was a matter that should be decided outside of court.
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The US could launch further strikes against Assad regime forces in Syria, Boris Johnson has said, hours after announcing that he would cancel a long-planned trip to Russia.
The Foreign Secretary was speaking ahead of G7 international talks scheduled for Monday and aimed at agreeing a common position on the Syrian civil war.
Issues on the table at the meeting will include the possibility of forcing Russian withdrawal from the conflict, which Vladimir Putin has been intervening in on the side of the Syrian government.
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That meeting comes ahead of a visit to Russia by US secretary of state Rex Tillerson. Mr Tillerson says he will deliver a clear and co-ordinated message to the Kremlin about its role in the civil war.
Mr Johnson was criticised for cancelling the meeting of his own to make way for Mr Tillerson. The Foreign Secretary was branded a poodle by both the Kremlin and other British politicians, for having his diary managed from across the pond.
US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Syrian government military targets last week in response to the deaths of more than 80 people during an alleged chemical attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.
Discussing the round of missile strikes, Mr Johnson told The Sun newspaper: Crucially - they could do so again. We cannot miss this moment.
It is time for [Russian president Vladimir] Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is still propping up.
The US and UK blame Russia for being complicit in last week's chemical attack and the ongoing brutal conduct of the Syrian government. Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon on Sunday claimed that Russia was responsible for "every civilian death" in the Syrian chemical weapons attack, because it was the Syrian governments principal backer.
Mr Johnson spent the weekend on the telephone to G7 foreign ministers ahead of their two-day meeting in Tuscany and also spoke to key regional players, including the Saudis.
During talks in Italy, he will say that President Assad has no future in Syria, Russia must stop supporting the regime and a plan to rebuild the country must be drawn up.
A UK government source dismissed the criticism of Mr Johnson: The important thing is that this is Britain helping to influence US policy on Syria and Russia, far from being a poodle.
Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against US president Assad (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
Three months ago Syria wasn't really an issue for them but our push and recent events have made a difference.
The source did not explain that influence the UK has so far had on US policy.
Some 87 people, including children, are believed to have been killed in the suspected sarin nerve agent strike on Khan Sheikhoun.
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
Mr Trump subsequently ordered a strike by 59 cruise missiles on the base in America's first direct attack against the Syrian government.
The base appears to be at least partly operational despite the strike, however, with reports of warplanes taking off from it in the days following the attack.
Additional reporting by agencies
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Russia and Iran have issued a joint call for an unbiased investigation into the chemical weapons incident which provoked Donald Trump to launch missiles at an airbase in Syria.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif agreed to make the call on Monday while denouncing the US attack on the Syrian airbase as an act of aggression against a sovereign nation.
It comes as the UK and US prepare to lobby allies at the G7 in Italy for a tough statement against the Assad regime in Syria and Russias backing for it.
Since Mr Trump ordered the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles at the airfield in Syrias Homs province, the US and UK on one side, and Russia and Iran on the other, have made reciprocal threats of further military action.
A spokesman from the Russian Foreign Ministry told the countrys state news agency Tass that the countrys chief diplomat spoke with his Iranian opposite number on the phone on Monday.
He said: Lavrov and Zarif called for carrying out a thorough and unbiased investigation into the incident in the Syrian province of Idlib that has led to numerous deaths among the civilian population.
(They) discussed the situation in Syria after the US launched a missile strike on the airbase in that country.
He added: Both sides emphasised that such aggressive actions against a sovereign independent country are a flagrant violation of international law, above all, the UN Charter, create threats for regional security and impair the fight against international terrorism.
Russia and Iran have threatened the US over Syria
The two ministers agreed to maintain close contacts with a view to further coordinating cooperation on the pressing bilateral and international issues.
There was outrage across the world after dozens of civilians were killed in what is believed by the West to have been a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian village of Khan Sheikhoun by the regime of Bashar Assad.
Russia has argued that the event took place after the Syrian air force undertook an attack on the outskirts of the village in a bid to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs, though the claim has been dismissed by the US as simply not credible.
The incident, and in particular pictures of children killed or injured by toxic gas, led President Trump to launch a missile attack on the airfield from which the chemical weapons are believed to have originated.
Syria: What led to the US airstrikes?
In the wake of the strike, both US and UK diplomats and politicians warned that Mr Trump is willing to take action again if the circumstances merit it.
Meanwhile, Russia and Iran have also warned the US that they will 'respond with force' if red lines are crossed in Syria again.
With US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson heading to Moscow later this week, he and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson went to Italy on Monday to gather support from G7 nations for a tougher statement of intent on Syria, with new sanctions on Russia a possibility.
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Lawyers are fighting to stop the planned execution of eight death row inmates within 11 days in the same state.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson sanctioned the executions, starting 17 April, as he said the state needed to use up its last batch of a sedative called midazolam before it expires and becomes unavailable.
If the lawyers do not win their case, Don Davis and Bruce Ward will be given the lethal injection next week. Three days after, Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee will die. On 24 April it will be the turn of Marcel Williams and Jack Jones. The last prisoner to be executed is Kenneth Williams on 27 April.
Recommended Nebraska votes to reintroduce the death penalty
The legal case will be presented to a federal judge in eastern Arkansas on Monday They will argue that a condensed spate of deaths could prompt mistakes and suffering of inmates and employees.
Such was the case of Clayton Lockett, who was in agony for 43 minutes during his execution after authorities in Oklahoma were stressed about killing two people in one night and made mistakes. The prison warden described it as a bloody mess. Oklahoma imposed a new rule that executions must be scheduled seven days apart.
The four white men and four black men scheduled to die in Arkansas are among the 35 inmates on death row in the state, and were convicted of murders between 1989 and 1999.
Brian Stull of the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a blog that the state is rushing to kill these eight men.
By racing to use a drug known to play a part in botched executions, the governor risks debasing the state of Arkansas, its citizens, and the very American traditions of justice by torturing prisoners to death, he said.
Midazolam is a sedative normally used in hospital for minor procedures, and Mr Stull argued that when it is combined with two other drugs normally used, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, it produces unspeakable pain before death.
Florida and Arizona scrapped using the drug.
In March, Mr Hutchinson said at a press conference: I would love to have those extended over a period of multiple months and years, but thats not the circumstances that I find myself in. And, again, the families of the victims that have endured this for so many years deserve a conclusion to it.
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Judge Kristine Baker, who was appointed to US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by President Barack Obama, will consider the case. Since joining in 2012, she has made key rulings on abortion and gay marriage, but this will be her first death penalty ruling.
The executions were set in February, and is the first time for such a high number and in such quick succession since the US resumed the death penalty in 1977, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Even in Arkansas, the last execution was 12 years ago. The drug for the planned lethal injections has also been administered in the botched executions of several death row inmates across the US, including Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Joseph Wood in Arizona, both in 2014, and Ronald Smith in Alabama.
UKIP leadership candidate 'would bring back capital punishment'
Yet according to a recent Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College survey, 61 per cent of people in Arkansas support the death penalty and 51 per cent said they supported the eight executions.
The last man to be executed in Arkansas, Kenneth Williams, was sentenced to death for murdering Cecil Boren during an attempted escape after starting a life sentence for the murder of student Dominique Hurd. He confessed to a third murder and killed a fourth person in a traffic accident during his escape.
He told Deborah Robinson, who is writing about the eight inmates, that he had truly learned [his] lesson to value other peoples lives.
He described how the prison officer had asked him for his clothing measurements.
Talk about the lamb being sized up before the slaughter," he said.
"I thought: Have they forgotten I am human, or do they just not care? Then I thought: Wasnt it my disregard for human life that got me in this situation to begin with?
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The parent company of Fox News will investigate claims of sexual harassment against its most popular anchor Bill OReilly, but critics say the network's law firm will not act independently.
21st Century Fox, headed by James Murdoch, made the announcement following multiple allegations against Mr O'Reilly, which the host has denied, and the departure of several big advertisers.
"21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters," the company said in a statement.
The same law firm was used to investigate former CEO and Chairman Roger Ailes, who also paid millions of dollars to settle multiple claims of sexual harassment and abuse, which he denied.
Mr Ailes left the company last year with a multi-million dollar pay-out.
Let's be clear: the Paul Weiss firm has an ethical obligation to zealously represent the interests of Fox News. They're not independent, said Lisa Bloom, the lawyer who represents the first woman to go public against Mr OReilly.
The New York Times reported the explosive allegations that six women had accused Mr OReilly of sexual harassment and that the network had paid out $13 million to settle the lawsuits, some of which 21st Century Fox was not aware and which date back to 2002.
Bill O'Reilly gets the SNL treatment after allegations of sexual harassment
Following the allegations, various companies pulled their adverts from the hosts show the most popular show on the network including BMW of North America, Allstate Corp, pharmaceutical company Sanofi SA, mens clothing company Untuckit and mutual fund manager T Rowe Price.
Psychology professor and former colleague Wendy Walsh went public with her allegations against the host this month but is not seeking financial compensation and has not filed a lawsuit.
Her lawyer, Ms Bloom, also represented four women who accused the President of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which Mr Trump has denied.
Mr O'Reilly vigorously defended the President and his former boss from similar claims he now faces.
Former Fox News pundit Wendy Walsh calls out Bill O'Reilly for sexual misconduct
At a joint press conference last week, Ms Walsh relayed to reporters how Mr OReilly initially supported her career, but when she refused his alleged invitation to come up to his hotel suite after dinner, she claimed that he changed his behaviour against her.
Bill OReilly, like the rest of us, just needs to use Tinder, Ms Walsh joked.
She said she believed her case against him was mild compared to his other accusers, but she wanted to stress that the workplace was not a mating market place and that she was thinking of her two daughters.
Mr OReilly released one statement about the claims, arguing he had been unfairly targeted due to his high-profile job, and has not spoken out since.
"The worst part of my job is being a target for those who would harm me and my employer, the Fox News Channel," the statement read. "Those of us in the arena are constantly at risk, as are our families and children. My primary efforts will continue to be to put forth an honest TV program and to protect those close to me."
Oh, boo hoo! Ms Bloom responded on CNN. Its so hard to be Bill OReilly and have woman after woman come forward some of them, by the way, reportedly with recordings of what he said to them, what he was doing in the shower, which I probably cant say on your show.
The network is already embroiled in a multiple allegations against Mr Ailes, who paid $20 million alone to settle claims from former anchor Gretchen Carlson.
Mr Ailes was subsequently hired to advise Mr Trump who was running for President at the time.
After Mr Ailes left, Democratic political consultant Julie Roginsky said that the sexist culture at the network had not changed. She accused Fox of refusing her a permanent job as a political commentator after she rebuffed Mr Ailes sexual advances.
Other popular female hosts have recently departed. Megyn Kelly went to NBC and Greta Van Susteren left for MSNBC.
Fox News said it had implemented sensitivity training to ensure these claims were not repeated.
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The White House has said it would definitely consider further military action in Syria, following last weeks missile launches against a Syrian airbase in response to a suspected chemical attack that left more than 80 civilians dead.
The Trump administration has also signalled it could play a role in forcing regime change in the country, with Press Secretary Sean Spicer telling reporters that the US government cant imagine a stable and peaceful Syria with Assad in charge.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is believed to have used the nerve gas Sarin in the attack last Tuesday.
When you watch babies and children being gassed, and suffer under barrel bombs, you are instantaneously moved to action, Mr Spicer told reporters.
This President has made it very clear that if those actions were to continue, further action would definitely be considered by the United States.
But Mr Spicer also reiterated that the US role in the country remained to defeat Isis, ahead of removing Assad from power.
On Thursday Mr Trump ordered air strikes against a military base where officials believed the Syrian government was storing chemical weapons used in the earlier attack.
Announcing the strike, Mr Trump deemed the chemical attacks barbaric, and called on the rest of the world to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.
Mr Spicer said the White House now had two key aims in Syria: first focusing on defeating Isis, then creating conditions for new political leadership in the war-torn country.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson echoed this position on Monday, and said that defeating Isis was the first priority of the Trump administration.
However, he did not voice support for seeking a US role in regime change in the country.
Once we can eliminate the battle against [Isis], conclude that, and it is going quite well, then we hope to turn our attention to ceasefire agreements between the regime and opposition forces, he told ABC.
But the United States' UN Ambassador Nikki Haley also indicated regime change for Syria was desirable. She told CNN that the administration cannot see a peaceful Syria with Assad in power.
Mr Spicer attempted to smooth over the discord on Monday, telling reporters the statements were are not mutually exclusive.
The US will not passively stand by
US Defence Secretary James Mattis also threw his support behind the decision to launch air strikes against Syria, saying the Syrian government would be ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons.
The President directed this action to deter future use of chemical weapons and to show the United States will not passively stand by while Assad murders innocent people with chemical weapons, which are prohibited by international law, he said.
General Mattis remarks came as a senior US official told the Associated Press that the US had concluded that Russia knew in advance of Syria's plans for the attack.
The strong rhetoric comes just days after Russia and Iran warned the US they would respond with force if their own red lines were crossed in Syria.
Some commentators suggested that Mr Trumps air strikes the first direct military action the US has taken in Syria signified a more globalist position for the President, who has previously advocated isolationist policies.
But Mr Spicer insisted that American security was the White Houses prime motivation.
Asked to define the Trump Doctrine on foreign policy, Mr Spicer repeated a familiar phrase: America first.
We have to have a defined national interest whenever we act, Mr Spicer said.
On Thursday, Mr Trump defined the national interest as being to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.
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Fox has reportedly been using Donald Trumps infamous pussy grabbing audio recordings to teach people about harassment in the workplace.
A 21st Century Fox employee said there was an audible gasp in the room after the media company broadcast the presidents widely condemned Access Hollywood conversation with Billy Bush which was leaked last Autumn.
According to the employee, towards the end of a one-hour seminar last Tuesday, a photo appeared on the big screen which included President Trump, Bush, and actor Arianne Zucker from the 2005 Access Hollywood tape.
In the widely-circled footage she is referring to, Mr Trump can be heard bragging about groping and making unwanted advances on women. Speaking to Access Hollywood host Bush, Mr Trump boasts about making a pass at a married woman before noticing the soap opera actress Arianne Zucker who he then lewdly objectifies.
I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her," Mr Trump said. "You know Im automatically attracted to beautiful I just start kissing them. Its like a magnet. Just kiss. I dont even wait. And when youre a star they let you do it. You can do anything [] Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything".
After the Access Hollywood footage was unearthed, Mr Trump initially attempted to dismiss the obscene and degrading comments as nothing more than "locker room" banter but later issued a scripted 90-second long apology for the remarks. Nevertheless, when probed about the comments during the second presidential debate, Mr Trump repeatedly described them as locker room talk.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, 21st Century Fox, a network which has been criticised for its overly favourable coverage of Mr Trump, has been using the leaked tapes in seminars for the past few months. The seminars are said to be led by a human resources executive with a focus on preventing harassment, discrimination and retaliation at work.
The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
"They went through the scenario of the tape, why it was harassment and why it's something you should report," the employee explained. "There was an audible gasp in the room, like, 'Can you believe this is happening?' Trump was defended on Fox News after that tape came out.... Someone joked about getting fired for harassment and wondering if the defence could be, 'We were only told a behaviour was bad once in a seminar,' but Fox News said it was 'just locker room talk' over and over again."
A number of popular Fox News personalities, including Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, defended Trump in the wake of the leaked tape. Whats more, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes was forced to resign last summer after fellow Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson, filed a lawsuit against Mr Ailes, alleging that he did not renew her contract after she refused sexual advances from him. Carlson and others alleged that Mr Ailes engaged in a pattern of workplace harassment.
A recent New York Times expose reported lead Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly and his employer had paid five women $13 million to settle allegations of sexual harassment or other inappropriate conduct by Fox News' highest rated host.
According to the unnamed employee, a human resources executive joked during the harassment seminar that the department handled all of Fox except Fox News, so the presentation could not include any information about Mr Ailes or Mr O'Reilly.
A Fox spokesperson declined to comment on whether Mr Trump was included in the harassment presentation.
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Housed in a former commissary building and tucked into the hollers of Harlan County the heart of Kentucky mining country is a museum dedicated to all aspects of extracting coal from the states mountains.
Mining equipment decorates its walls, while a two-ton block of coal at the front door greets visitors. Children can climb on the museums 1940s model electric locomotive that once carried Kentucky men into the mines. An exhibit dedicated to Loretta Lynn (who wrote and who is the Coal Miners Daughter) sits on the third floor. Guests can even wander through an actual underground coal mine.
Not much about the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum screams modern. Its website nay, websites boasts early 1990s Web design, and its advertisement on YouTube appears to have been shot on a handheld camcorder. It sits next to City Hall on Main Street, the only thoroughfare of Benham, Ky. Thats to be expected from a museum dedicated to an old form of energy, which is what makes its own power methods so interesting.
The museum is switching to solar power in hopes of saving money on energy costs, as reported by WYMT and EKB-TV. The installation of solar panels began this week.
We believe that this project will help save at least $8,000 to $10,000 off the energy costs on this building alone, so its a very worthy effort and its going to save the college money in the long run, Brandon Robinson, communications director of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, which owns the museum, told WYMT.
Robinson wasnt blind to the incongruity of a coal museum being powered by solar energy, asserting that theres a symbiosis between the two.
It is a little ironic, said Robinson, But you know, coal and solar and all the different energy sources work hand-in-hand. And, of course, coal is still king around here.
As Tre Sexton, owner of Bluegrass Solar, told EKB-TV, the runoff power collected by the panels will be fed back into Benhams power grid. The entire town of almost 500 that bills itself as The Little Town That International Harvester, Coal Miners and Their Families Built! will be partially run on solar power.
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I know the irony is pretty prevalent, Sexton told EKB-TV. But all the same, it is making a big difference, I think, for not only the museum, which will probably eliminate a lot of their overhead, but the city in general.
Were happy to be able to hopefully provide some power to the city of Benham that were not using here, Robinson told EKBTV. So its a great project; its a great effort.
Its difficult not to see a foreshadowing in the switch to solar power.
About 85 percent of Harlan County voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. The disparity between Hillary Clintons and Trumps campaign promises concerning energy almost assuredly played a factor in that vote.
While Clinton, speaking about renewable energy, infamously said, Were going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, Trump promised sweeping deregulation of the coal industry.
Trumps plan struck a chord with some miners.
Former Harlan County coal miner Mark Gray, 58, recalled to the New York Times the moment a meeting was called at work: They said we cant go on with these regulations, we cant go on with the way the governments doing.
Gray hoped Trumps plan might help.
Solar Technology in the UK Show all 7 1 /7 Solar Technology in the UK Solar Technology in the UK Roofs tiled with photovoltaic solar energy panels receive maximum sunlight exposure in Dyfi Eco Park, Machynlleth, Wales. These panels are made up of photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells convert sunlight into electrical energy Getty Solar Technology in the UK Jake Beautyman installs solar panels on a barn roof on Grange farm, near Balcombe. The installation is part of an initiative by local residents in Balcombe to encourage more people to use renewable energy rather than energy based on carbon such as fracking. The initaitive is called Repowerbalcombe and is supported by the charity 10:10 Getty Solar Technology in the UK The Solar array of community project Low carbon Gordano, a Solarsense renewable energy project. Delivering 1,750HWh per annum. Avon, Somerset Getty Solar Technology in the UK The solar panels array on the roof of Oldfield Park Infant School, installed with the support of Bath and West Community Energy a community project. Bath, Somerset Getty Solar Technology in the UK The solar array inverters that monitor and invert the energy made by Brixton Energy Solar who have installed several hundred square metres of solar panels on the roof of Elmore House in the Loughborough Estate in Brixton, London Getty Solar Technology in the UK The solar array inverters that monitor and invert the energy on the roof of Elmore House in the Loughborough Estate in Brixton, London Getty Solar Technology in the UK The 25kW solar panel array on the roof of Knowle West Media Centre. Supported by Bristol Energy, a community-owned energy cooperative, growing Greater Bristol's local green energy supply and making the benefits available to all Getty
After all, coal mining was once a major American industry. In 1923, nearly 1 million of Americas 110 million citizens worked as coal miners. Now, the industry employs approximately 77,000 people, fewer employees than the Arbys restaurant chain.
It wont ever be back the same, Gray said. But I hope some of the jobs come back and fix up little places like Harlan County.
Last week, Trump indeed signed an executive order to roll back several Obama-era environmental regulations that would have affected industries such as coal mining, The Washington Posts Christopher Ingraham reported.
I made them this promise, Trump said at the signing. We will put our miners back to work.
Experts, though, claim deregulation wont be enough to bring back coal jobs. The hard truth, they say, is that nothing will.
The museum will, of course, still offer anyone passing through the hollers of Kentucky a glimpse into an industry that helped define part of America. Only it will be looking to the sky, rather than in the earth, to light the way.
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Richard Spencer appears to have been glitter bombed by an anti-fascist protester outside the White House over the weekend.
The white supremacist, who rose to fame for being punched at an anti-Trump protest, was in Washington to lead a protest against President Donald Trumps decision to launch a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase on Friday.
While Spencer, an alt-right leader, has long been a vocal supporter of Mr Trump, he has distanced himself from the president in the wake of the Syria strikes, calling the attack a total betrayal.
The wider so-called alt-right movement, which is made up of loyal Trump supporters, has also distanced itself from the president in the aftermath of the strikes. Accompanied by Spencer, who is credited with coining the term alt-right, protesters chanted We want walls, not war! and held signs saying No more wars for Israel.
Tension between Spencers supporters and counter-protesters came to a head after the groups exchanged opposing chants. Anti-fascist activists shouted f*** white supremacy while the alt-right figurehead and his supporters chanted: Commies go home.
After alt-right protesters yelled, "Make America great again," the opposite side responded with: "Make America punch Richard again."
Footage shared on social media then shows the two groups scuffling and Spencer being approached by someone appearing to throw glitter at his face.
Glitter bombing is an act of protest in which activists chuck glitter on their targets. Glitter bombers are often spurred by, though not limited to, their target's opposition to same-sex marriage. Spencer is against same-sex marriage which he has described as "unnatural" and a "non-issue," arguing that "very few gay men will find the idea of monogamy to their liking".
After fleeing the protest, Spencer, who has added a Syrian flag to his Twitter profile, reportedly had his cab surrounded by anti-fascist activists. Explaining the ordeal in a video he posted after the protest, he said: The car that was my getaway car was there and we couldnt get into it because of the anti-fa (anti-fascists). So the police said 'go get in that cab' so we ran across the street.
In the video, Spencer then appeared to mock his cab driver for having an Indian accent and joked that he hoped the driver had been punched by protesters.
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
Many celebrated the news Spencer had been glitter bombed on Twitter. "I just love the idea of Richard Spencer fleeing through the DC streets, hunted, disillusioned, and covered in glitter," said one.
This is by no means the first time Spencer has been a target for anti-Trump protesters. A video of him being punched in the face while being interviewed by a journalist after Mr Trumps inauguration went viral.
Spencer was explaining the meaning of his Pepe the Frog badge, a cartoon character who has become a symbol for white nationalism, when he was punched by a man dressed in black. The clip immediately prompted a torrent of jokes, memes and even remixed videos online, with Spencer saying at the time: Im afraid this is going to become the meme to end all memes.
Alt-right leader Richard Spencer punched in the face during inauguration protest
Spencer is a leader and spokesperson for the so-called alt-right movement a political movement which has been accused of racism, antisemitism and misogyny and of sharing an ideology with far-right parties such as the French National Front.
Spencer, who is president of the far-right National Policy Institute, has previously said he rejects the label of white supremacist and instead calls himself an identitarian. He supports a white homeland for a dispossessed white race and calls for peaceful ethnic cleansing to put a stop to the deconstruction of European culture.
Spencer sparked outrage when he made a number of allusions to Nazi ideology during a speech at a conference in Washington in November.
Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory! he declared, prompting audience members to leap to their feet in applause, with several appearing to make drawn-out Hitler salutes.
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Politicians in Texas have been accused of making "symbolic gestures" as they debate which gun to adopt as the official symbol for the state where 3,200 people are shot dead every year.
A proposal nominating the cannon passed its first legislative hurdle in the state senate last week, while another suggests 1847 Colt Walker pistol should represent Lone Star State.
A third proposal calls for the Bowie knife to be designated Texas official state knife. The state already has an official tree (the pecan), fish (the Guadalupe bass) and cooking device (the cast-iron Dutch oven).
The cannon is a popular choice for the states official weapon because it was used in the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution, which eventually led to the state separating from Mexico.
During the 1835 Battle of Gonzales, Mexican soldiers tried to take a cannon from a group of Texans who resisted and taunted their foes with a flag featuring the phrase Come and take it.
Don Huffines, a Republican state senator who is leading the campaign to adopt the cannon told The Guardian: Obviously the cannon is the most significant symbol we have for the state of Texas, our sense of independence, our strength of being responsible as individuals and not reliant on the government, our sense of liberty, our sense of virtue.
A cannon is symbolic, its not about promoting violence, but our history speaks for itself, our heritage speaks for itself, and it is a heritage, a history, of using the cannon for our liberty and our independence. Its the spirit of Texas. We dont have people down here complaining about cannon control.
Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Show all 12 1 /12 Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Protesters hold up signs and flags to show solidarity with House Democrats after they staged a sit in over gun-control laws on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on June 23. 2016. Andrew Caballero/AFP/Getty Images Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC A lone protester wears tape printed with the U.S. flag on her mouth while attending an open hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where intelligence chiefs, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, testified at the U.S. Capitol February 25, 2016 in Washington, DC. Clapper said that the group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS, has become a greater global threat than al-Qaida ever was. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) waves to supporters along with House Democrats after their sit-in over gun-control law on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Supporters of House Democrats taking part in a sit-in on the House Chamber shout encouragement from outside the U.S. Capitol on June 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) Democrats, have maintained control of the House chamber since this morning demanding a vote on gun control legislation. Pete Marovich/Getty Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Democrats walk out on the East Front on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC A poster for the gun-control law support is left on the ground on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (R) applauds as Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) (L) waves to supporters along with House Democrats after their sit-in over gun-control law on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Supporters of House Democrats taking part in a sit-in on the House Chamber shout encouragement from outside the U.S. Capitol on June 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) Democrats have maintained control of the House chamber since this morning demanding a vote on gun control legislation. Pete Marovich/Getty Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (R) and Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) (L) walk out with House Democrats on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Democrats walk out on the East Front on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC U.S. House Democrats walk out on the East Front on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., after their sit-in over gun-control law, June 23, 2016. Yuri Gripas/Reuters Protests call for stricter gun-control laws in Washington DC Protesters hold up signs and flags to show solidarity with House Democrats after they staged a sit in over gun-control laws on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on June 23. 2016. Andrew Caballero/AFP/Getty Images
Politicians could end up approving a number of official weapons.
Theres room for all three, there really is, said Mr Huffines in reference to proposals in favour of the cannon, the Colt pistol and the Bowie knife.
As some US states consider tougher gun control regulations, Texas has moved in the other direction. Last year it introduced new rules allowing Texans to openly carry handguns providing they first secure a permit, while gun owners can now legally carry concealed weapons on university campuses.
Politicians are also considering a proposal to allow handguns to be carried without the need for a licence.
Critics accused Texas politicians of making symbolic gestures rather than acting to tackle gun violence in a state where 3,200 people are shot dead every year.
There is so much more we need to do in Texas to protect our families and law enforcement from gun violence, Alexandra Chasse, of the Texas branch of campaign group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, told The Guardian. I hope legislators will work with us with those goals in mind, rather than focusing on symbolic gestures.
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A husband opened fire on his wife on Monday in a San Bernardino elementary school classroom, killing her and a student in a murder-suicide that spread panic across a city still recovering emotionally from a terrorist attack at a community centre just 15 months ago.
The shooter also died, and a second student was critically wounded at North Park School.
"The children we do not believe were targeted," police Captain Ron Maass told reporters.
The gunman was identified as 53-year-old Cedric Anderson, of Riverside, who shot his wife, Elaine Smith, also 53. She was a teacher in the special-needs classroom for students in the first to the fourth grades.
Anderson said nothing as he began firing a large-calibre revolver, according to police. Both of the children who were hit were standing behind Smith. An 8-year-old later died. The other student was in hospital in a stable condition.
The gunman had a history of weapons, domestic violence and possible drug charges that predated the marriage, which lasted only a few months, authorities said.
The boy who died was identified as Jonathan Martinez. Authorities did not name the other boy who was wounded.
The 600 other students at the school were bused to safety at California State University's San Bernardino campus, several miles away. Television news footage showed students, escorted by police officers, walking off campus hand-in-hand.
As word of the shooting spread, panicked parents raced to the school, some in tears, some praying as they anxiously sought information about their children. They were told to go to a nearby high school where they would be reunited.
Four hours later, the children began to arrive at the high school, getting hugs from emotional parents. As the students got off the buses, many of them carrying glow sticks they had been given to pass the time with, police officers applauded and high-fived them.
When the buses first pulled away, some parents ran alongside, waving and trying to recognise their children inside. Many said their children were too young to have cellphones. Others said the phones rang unanswered.
Among those waiting anxiously at the high school for her 9-year-old granddaughter's return was Alberta Terrell, who said she cried with relief when she was told that a family friend saw the girl getting safely onto a bus.
"I was really elated. But I won't be truly happy until I see her and can give her a big hug," Terrell said as she sat in the bleachers near Cajon High School's baseball diamond.
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. 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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. 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"It's frustrating for us as parents but also understandable," Holly Penalber said of the long wait, which most parents seemed resigned to.
Penalber's 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter attend the school. She called Monday's shootings "every parent's worst nightmare."
San Bernardino, a city of 216,000 people about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, was the site of a December 2015 terror attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a meeting of San Bernardino County employees. Husband-and-wife shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were later killed in a gunbattle with authorities.
Monday's shooting was the latest tragedy for a city that has struggled in recent years with more than its share of them. Once a major rail hub and citrus producer, San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after struggling to pay its employees despite steep cuts to the budget.
An outlying suburb of Los Angeles, it was hit hard when the Great Recession sent housing prices tumbling. As the city struggled with economic problems that forced layoffs of police and other government workers, violent crimes, particularly homicide, began to rise.
In the past year, however, the city seemed to be making a recovery. Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, who won national praise for the way his department responded to the 2015 shootings, announced last year he was hiring additional officers.
Associated Press
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A fugitive and former Mexican governor wanted on charges of drug smuggling, bank fraud, racketeering and money laundering has been caught by police in Italy.
Tomas Yarrington, the 59-year-old former governor of Mexicos north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, had been wanted by authorities for nearly five years and has been detained by police in Florence, according to Mexicos attorney-generals office. He is expected to be extradited to Mexico within days.
US authorities have accused Mr Yarrington of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the Gulf Cartel and other traffickers since 1998, when he was the mayor of Matamoros on the US border.
He became governor of Tamaulipas between 1999 and 2005 and is further accused of accepting bribes from cartels for ignoring their drug smuggling activities across the border, the BBC reports, and for money laundering in Texas. He was indicted by the US in 2013.
Mexican authorities also want Mr Yarrington on charges of organised crime and money laundering, among others. Authorities had offered 15m Mexican Pesos (650,000) for information that would lead to the arrest of the former governor. His capture on Sunday was made possible due to an Interpol red notice, authorities said.
Mexico President Nieto's approval ratings fall to 23%
US authorities will also be seeking Mr Yarringtons extradition, the Wall Street Journal reported. Before becoming a fugitive, the former governor maintained he was innocent and a victim of politically motivated charges.
Mr Yarrington was suspended from President Enrique Pena Nietos Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2012 on grounds of corruption. He is one of several former politicians from the party to have been suspended.
The PRI responded to the former governors arrest in a statement, saying the party backed the work of the attorney-generals office and asked for all necessary investigations to be carried out.
In March, a Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for former Chihuahua state governor Cesar Duarte, also a member of Mr Nieto's ruling party, on suspicion of embezzlement. Javier Duarte, the former governor of Veracruz, who is also wanted on corruption charges, is also missing.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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No joint statement on combating climate change will be issued by the Group of Seven [G7] countries because the US is "re-analysing" its energy policy, a senior G7 official said.
Italys economic development minister Carlo Calenda, the host of the meeting, said there was no friction between the G7, but that there will be no joint agreement on a commitment to combating climate change because the US is still reviewing its stance, the Financial Times reports.
The UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan, and France were hoping to agree that they are all committed to the Paris Agreement on climate change and decarbonisation, but the Trump administration has not been clear on its position.
Former President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were seen as key advocates for the US signing and approving the historic December 2015 agreement which over 190 countries have signed.
President Trump has previously called climate change a hoax perpetrated by China and made repeated campaign promises to bring back coal industry to the rural US. He met recently with Chinese President Xi Jinping but the two did not discuss the topic. China recently surpassed the US and Europe in investments in renewable energy.
Mr Trumps proposed federal budget includes a cut of $100 million across all agencies to programmes dedicated to combating climate change and slashing the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by nearly one-third.
However Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former Exxon executive, said he does believe it is real during his confirmation hearing earlier this year.
Mr Tillerson has also left several key positions within the State Department vacant - primarily those that are responsible for climate change, drafting of language on accords for other issues, scheduling, and agenda items.
A senior Italian government official told Reuters that negotiations on joint positions have been going slowly because there are 'acting' head of something but they are not senior enough to make decisions on policy language.
These people are likely career civil servants rather than political appointees.
The G7 issued a joint statement from their 2015 meeting saying that climate change was a major global security threat, noting that its impact crosses borders, adds to violent conflicts, and has a negative impact on economies in the developing world.
G7 leaders, including Mr Trump, are set to meet in Sicily at the end of May. He is expected to announce a full budget proposal as well as his position on the Paris Agreement ahead of the meeting.
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One of Donald Trumps closest aides reportedly tried to partition Libya into three by drawing a map on a napkin.
Sebastian Gorka, a member of the President's national security advisory staff, is said to have presented the plan to a senior European diplomat at a meeting during the presidential transition period.
The plan was based on the old Ottoman Empire provinces, according to The Guardian: Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the north-west and Fezzan in the south-west.
The provinces remained in place until 1911, when Italy gained control of the country following the Italo-Turkish War.
His suggestion for the country, which has been engulfed by violence since the Nato-backed removal of former president Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, was reportedly dismissed as 'the worst possible solution'.
In an attempt to restore stability, the Obama Administration supported Libyan government of national accord, led by Fayez al-Sarraj, which is also backed by the United Nations (UN).
But the east of the country is controlled by Khalifa Haftar, an anti-Islamist military strongman who was previously a leader of the anti-Gaddafi rebels.
The power struggle between the two factions has led some to suggest that the country could be split up.
But experts have warned that this could lead to another civil war because the borders of the two new states would be highly contentious.
This is like a litmus test of how much you know about Libya. If you the only thing you know is that it was cut into three, then it shows you are clueless about the situation in Libya, Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations thinktank, told The Guardian.
The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
There have been concerns among European states that Mr Trump will shift US support towards Mr Haftars government after being attracted by his strong anti-Islamist rhetoric.
Libya is still dogged by the presence of Isis and other jihadist groups a key target of Mr Trump and his team.
Dr Gorka, like his ideological ally Steve Bannon, believes the quest to defeat radical Islam should be at the heart of US foreign policy. Both are former editors of the right wing Breitbart news website.
Mr Trump has stayed largely silent on Libya since taking office. During the presidential election he initially said he would have left its former leader Muammar al-Gaddafi in power, before later saying he would have authorised a surgical strike to remove him from power.
It is unclear whether Dr Gorka has suggested his partition plan to the US leader.
The intelligence analyst recently came in for criticism after he wore the medal of the Hungarian far-right organisation, Vitezi Rend, to several public events.
The group, which collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War, later said it was really proud that he had worn its insignia.
It lead some to accuse Dr Gorka anti-Semitism, although he insisted the medal was given to his Hungarian-born father and that he wore it as a tribute to him.
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Donald Trumps influential son-in-law and his chief of staff have vowed to put aside their bitter rivalry, following weeks of infighting that has highlighted sharp divisions in the White House, a senior administration official has said.
Jared Kushner, the husband of Ivanka Trump, and Steve Bannon, the ideologue behind Trump's populist rise, have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks over strategies for replacing Obamacare, handling fallout from failed attempts to ban immigration and intervention in the Syrian War.
But the pair have agreed it was time to bury the hachet and move forward in an attempt to stop distractions from the Presidents agenda, an official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters.
The aides met on Friday at the Presidents Mar-a-Largo Florida resort at the request of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who told them that if they have any policy differences, they should discuss them private, the official said.
He added that Mr Priebus' message to the two senior White House staff members was to stop with the palace intrigue and focus on the President's agenda.
The administration has been troubled by infighting taking place in public, with high-profile aides competing for dominance.
Mr Trump was reported to have grown frustrated by a stream of articles emerging from the West Wing about staff clashes and ordered Mr Bannon and Mr Kushner to end their feud.
But Rumours that the President was planning a staff shake-up in an attempt to quell the fighting were dismissed by the White House, with spokesperson Lindsay Walters issuing a statement Friday saying it was a completely false story driven by people who want to distract from the success taking place in this administration.
Ms Walters cited the Senate's confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Mr Trump's recent meetings with foreign leaders and the US missile strikes in Syria as evidence the administration was being effective.
The President's strikes against Syrian targets after a horrific chemical attack in the country drew praise in many parts of the world and the move was widely supported by Democrats and the mainstream liberal media.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
Mr Bannon, former chief of the right-wing news organisation Breitbart News, had been at odds with Mr Kushner and Gary Cohn, the head of the White House National Economic Council, four former advisers said.
They said Mr Kushner,was trying to tug the president into a more mainstream position, while Mr Bannon was trying to stir the nationalist fervour that carried Trump to his unexpected election victory in November.
One leak by an official claimed that Mr Bannon had called the President's son-in-law a "cuck".
[Mr Bannon] recently vented to us about Jared being a globalist and a cuck'', the official told The Daily Beast. "He actually said cuck, as in cuckservative'"
Mr Bannons role in the administration is seen to be in decline, a view supported by his removal from the National Security Council this week. Administration officials said he was forced out after he and clashed with national security adviser HR McMaster.
Some former Trump advisers have said Mr Priebus is at fault for not gaining control of the feuding and said Mr Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive, was a candidate to replace him.
Bill Daley, a former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama, who himself was forced out in a shakeup a year into the job, said it appeared there was a struggle for the soul and brain of the President" inside the Trump administration.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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An alleged Russian hacker has been arrested in Spain at the request of American authorities.
His arrest set cybersecurity circles abuzz after Russian broadcaster RT raised the possibility it was linked to the US presidential election.
Pyotr Levashov was arrested in Barcelona at the end of last week on a US computer crimes warrant, a spokeswoman for Spain's National Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules, told the Associated Press.
Levashov's arrest drew immediate attention after his wife told RT he was linked to America's 2016 election hacking.
Cheney: Russian hacking could be 'act of war'
RT quoted Maria Levashova as saying armed police stormed into their apartment in Barcelona overnight, keeping her and her friend locked in a room for two hours while they quizzed Levashov.
She said when she spoke to her husband on the phone from the police station, he told her he was told he had created a computer virus that was "linked to Trump's election win."
Ms Levashova didn't elaborate, and the exact nature of the allegations weren't immediately clear.
According to the cybersecurity site KrebsOnSecurity, Levashov was allegedly responsible for "running multiple criminal operations tha tpaid virus writers and spammers to install 'fake antivirus' software" under the alias "Severa."
The site adds: "There is ample evidence that Severa is the cybercriminal behind the Waledac spam botnet, a spam engine that for several years infected between 70,000 and 90,000 computers and was capable of sending approximately 1.5 billion spam messages a day."
US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Show all 12 1 /12 US Presidential election: key moments in pictures US Presidential election: key moments in pictures The 2005 Access Hollywood video which showed Mr Trump bragging to Billy Bush Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Hillary Clinton and her health concerns Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Hillary Clinton and her health concerns Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Mr Trump suggests gun-supporters could kill Hillary Clinton to prevent her from picking the supreme court justices Reuters US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Melania Trump plagiarises Michelle Obamas speech Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Mr Trump said that judge Gonzalo Curiel would not be able to rule fairly, as he was of Mexican heritage United States Federal Court/AP US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Donald Trump anxious over securing black vote Reuters US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Hillary Clinton and concerns about securing black vote Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Pope Francis Questions Donald Trump's Christianity Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Donald Trump and his relentless remarks against Mexican people Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Donald Trump and the sexual assault allegations Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures FBI director announced that there would be no charges for Hillary Clinton amid email scandal Getty
Malicious software is routinely shared, reworked and repurposed, meaning even a computer virus' creator may have little or nothing to do how the virus is eventually used.
Barack Obama's administration formally blamed Russia for attempting to influence the 2016 election by hacking the Democratic National Committee's emails to help Donald Trump's campaign.
The US Congress is also examining links between Russia and Mr Trump during the election campaign.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied Russia tried to influence the election.
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The flood of angry anti-Muslim rhetoric on social media was the first sign of how fiercely the suburban middle-class homeowners in this central China city opposed a planned mosque in their neighbourhood. It quickly escalated into something more sinister.
Soon a pig's head was buried in the ground at the future Nangang mosque, the culmination of a rally in which dozens of residents hoisted banners and circled the planned building site. Then the mosque's imam received a text message carrying a death threat: In case someone in your family dies, I have a coffin for you and more than one, if necessary.
How did things get stirred up to this point? the imam, Tao Yingsheng, said in a recent interview. Who had even heard of the Nangang mosque before?
On the dusty plains of the Chinese heartland, a bitter fight over a mosque exemplifies how a surge in anti-Muslim sentiment online is spreading into communities across China, exacerbating simmering ethnic and religious tensions that have in the past erupted in bloodshed. It's also posing a dilemma for the ruling Communist Party, which has allowed Islamophobia to fester online for years as part of its campaign to justify security crackdowns in its restive region of Xinjiang.
It's let the genie out of the bottle, said James Leibold, a professor at La Trobe University in Australia who has tracked the growth of anti-Muslim hate speech on China's internet.
Interviews with residents and an examination of social media show how a few disparate online complaints by local homeowners evolved into a concerted campaign to spread hate. Key to it was an unexpected yet influential backer: a Chinese propaganda official, 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) away in Xinjiang, whose inflammatory social media posts helped draw people into the streets on New Year's Day, resulting in a police crackdown.
A stone inscription outside its gate shows the original Nangang mosque was established in the 1780s by members of the Hui minority, the descendants of Silk Road traders who settled across China centuries ago. In its present form, the mosque has served the area's 4,500 Hui for decades, its domed silhouette partially hidden by overgrown shrubs in the countryside beyond Hefei's last paved boulevards.
Over the past 10 years urbanisation has come to Hefei, with sprawling development reconfiguring the landscape and its demographic flavour, and Hui leaders had been pushing for years to relocate their mosque to a more convenient urban location.
City planners in November finally selected a site adjacent to the newly built Hangkong New City condominiums, with its $200,000 two-bedroom units, faux-Mediterranean stylings and a Volvo dealership across the street. The project's homeowners overwhelmingly members of China's ethnic Han majority began complaining on China's popular microblog, Weibo.
Some complained the mosque would occupy space promised for a park. Others warned that safety in the area would be compromised.
Others were more blunt: Han residents were uncomfortable that a centre for Hui community life would be less than 100 metres (300 feet) from their building, a homeowner who later identified himself in messages to the AP by his surname, Cheng, wrote in a petition posted in December.
And the less said about what happens on Eid al-Adha, the better, Cheng wrote, referring to the Islamic holiday in which animals are slaughtered for a sacrificial feast. It's absolutely shocking.
The story soon caught the attention of Cui Zijian, a boyish-looking propaganda official in Xinjiang who writes about the threat of religious extremism on his Weibo account with nearly 30,000 followers.
On December 16, Cui suggested homeowners lobby local officials to block the construction, adding: If that doesn't work, then how about pig head, pig blood.
Cui followed that a few hours later with another post repeating the four Chinese characters for pig blood and pig head over and over, attracting hundreds of reposts. While Cui was criticised by some on Weibo, a larger number including at least one other government propaganda official took his post as their cue to hurl abuse at the Hui.
The mosque dispute was just the latest flashpoint for an increasingly active anti-Muslim social media movement in China.
A video of a Hui girl reciting the Quran in Arabic sparked outrage last May over so-called terrorist infiltration of Chinese schools, prompting officials to announce a strict ban on religion on campuses. Online activists derailed a Hui official's effort to regulate the halal food industry, arguing that religion was creeping into the officially atheistic Chinese state.
The Nangang mosque (Gerry Shih/AP)
Han Chinese, who make up 95 percent of the population, have long grumbled about the dozens of China's officially recognised minority groups receiving advantages on the hyper-competitive college entrance exams or exemptions from family-size limits, but online abuse has increasingly targeted Muslims.
The rise in Islamophobia comes as Chinese have been buffeted by news of militant attacks in Europe, while at home, violence in Xinjiang and elsewhere has been blamed on Muslim separatists. Beijing has responded to the bloody, years-long insurgency from Muslim Uighur minorities in Xinjiang with further restrictions on Islamic expression, a move rights groups warn could potentially radicalise moderate Muslims. Such policies have also drawn vows of retaliation from Isis and al-Qaeda.
Ethnic hostility can only deepen, scholars say, when the government stops discussion of the plight of Muslims or ethnic policies while allowing anti-Muslim rhetoric and hate speech to go unchecked. In 2014, Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti, who had founded a website to host debates about ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, was sentenced to life in prison on separatism charges.
Government censors go after descriptions of abuses against Muslims, but it doesn't take long whatsoever to find incredibly Islamophobic things that seem to be not censored at all, said William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, which has appealed for Tohti's release.
Political observers say the recent rise of a faction within the Communist Party advocating for a hard-line approach on religious affairs has coincided with the rise of government-linked commentators who openly warn about the danger of Islam.
Interest groups have actively promoted Islamophobia in interior regions in order to create a nationwide environment that justifies Xinjiang's anti-terrorism campaign, said Ma Haiyun, a history professor specialising in China's Muslims at Frostburg State University in Maryland. There's an Islamophobic movement that aims at creating chaos and even conflicts at the local level.
After briefly moderating his remarks about the Nangang mosque, the propaganda official, Cui, renewed his criticism in February with an essay arguing that his professional and patriotic duty was to resist extremism. His online speech about Muslims was part of the job, he said.
For that, we're labelled Muslim-smearers, wrote Cui, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But it is those who instigate a fear of Islam, precisely the terrorists and the extremists, who are the ones smearing Muslims.
Reached in March, an official at the propaganda department where he worked refused to comment on Cui's involvement in the controversy. But Cui now appears to be even better positioned to influence discourse: The official said Cui was transferred in February to work in the cyberspace administration, the agency in charge of censoring online speech.
Tao, the 50-year old imam, recalled the day in December when he heard his mosque was suddenly the subject of thousands of posts and hundreds of comments on Weibo, a service he barely used. He soon found himself soothing local Hui who approached him, shaken by what they were seeing online.
They said people were planning to hang a pig's head outside our mosque. I said, 'Then we'll remove it.' They said people will bury a pig's head in the ground. I said 'Why can't we just dig it up?' Tao said.
After protesters followed through with the threat at the New Year's Day demonstration, police detained two protest leaders for two weeks and summoned others for questioning, according to residents. Since then Han indignation has gave way to quiet seething.
People have been scared into silence, said Cheng, the Han tea seller.
During a recent visit to Hangkong New City, homeowners repeated the government's mantra that ethnic unity was important, but complained that officials sacrificed their interests to appease a minority.
If 99 percent of our compound is Han, it doesn't seem appropriate that they put a mosque next door, said a middle-aged woman who said her surname was Han.
Ma Jianhua, a Nangang district planning official, told the AP that construction will proceed after his office appropriately handled homeowners' petitions, but declined to elaborate.
The mosque dispute has left the city's Hui community on the defensive, with many eager to emphasise their desire to peacefully coexist with their Han neighbours as well as their confidence in the government's handling of the situation.
At a ranch past the undulating rapeseed field that separates the condos from rubble-strewn Huimin Lu Hui People's Road workers at what is one of the few Hui businesses that hasn't been demolished to make way for high-rises expressed surprise about the mosque dispute, given the area's history of ethnic mingling.
We've been in these parts a long time, a worker surnamed Tao, who is not related to the imam, said as he loaded sacks of dried fatty beef. We mind our business and they mind theirs. We don't stir up trouble and they don't either.
But Tao, the imam, seemed to acknowledge a hardening of attitudes toward Muslims in recent years.
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
It may be that the situation has grown more sensitive in that place that we all know about, he said after a pause, referring to but not daring to mention Xinjiang.
Still he tries to not harbour resentment toward the Han protesters.
I don't blame the locals because I believe they were influenced, he said, sitting below framed pictures of him greeting government religious affairs officials. I want them to know Muslims are virtuous people. We are peaceful. We are reasonable. We are tolerant. And we are good Chinese.
Associated Press
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For Zia Shah, being awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study at the University of Chicago was a dream come true. But having given up his job educating Pakistani schoolchildren about religious tolerance, and after just one term of studies in the US, that dream was snatched away.
Zia was enrolled at Chicago at the start of this academic year, and returned home to visit his proud parents during the winter holidays. On 4 January, he made his way to the airport in his home town of Karachi, only to find hed been prohibited from flying back to the United States to continue his course.
Airport staff said they had received a confidential email from the US which blocked him from returning to continue his religious studies degree which was being sponsored by the American government.
At that moment I was in disbelief, Shah tells The Independent. I thought all my efforts had gone to waste, and everything was falling apart. This couldnt be real.
Shah is not the type of person you expect to see on a watch list: a 25-year-old student with ambitions of teaching children about the peacefulness of divinity.
In 2014 he was given funding from the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) to set up Ravvish, a social enterprise that runs workshops for young students on different faiths and beliefs.
I found my own understanding of other religions and cultures became more tolerant when I actually spoke to other people, he says.
Our work is aimed at enabling human connections so negative stereotypes can be addressed and peace can prevail between Pakistan and and other countries like our neighbours India.
A Muslim himself, Shah was compelled to establish Ravvish to combat the faith-driven turmoil that continues to engulf his country.
From historic tensions with India, to the threats of the radical Taliban, and widespread attacks on Shia Muslims which saw his own uncle shot and killed in 2010 Shah saw that something needed to be done. And so he set out to tackle the problem at a grass-roots level.
Ravvish had a successful two years, conducting more than 1,000 workshops across Pakistan
We started going into schools, and rolling out our curriculum. Part of that was connecting students with people from India, China, Japan, US, Germany and others, he says.
I think this personal connection is important for people to understand that its okay for your personal beliefs to be different.
To defy an ongoing extremist mindset that Shah says is encouraged in certain faith schools, he seeks to combat through education the very people and the ideals that inspire terrorism.
In just over two years, his organisation has taught more than 1,000 children, holding workshops across the country.
Ravvish has also attracted international attention, with the World Bank overseeing the curriculum, and a student from University College London (UCL) visiting to monitor the progress of his efforts.
According to the UCL students research, children were found to be more empathic and willing to interact with people from other religions once they had completed one of these sessions.
We found that students were able to talk about their religion more openly without feeling that they would be attacked or harassed, Shah says.
It was an amazing feeling, to have an idea youve always wanted to do and suddenly people were helping you out and making some impact. Its the best thing Ive ever done.
In order to develop his organisation further now 30-people strong and building their own international partnerships in 2015 Shah applied for a scholarship with the US-funded Fulbright programme.
He was then accepted to study at the University of Chicago on an Islamic Studies course, which he says was a huge step, but also one off the beaten track for a Pakistani.
All the people I looked up to were now my tutors, he says. It was like a dream come true. And I did everything against the mainstream. You just dont see Pakistani students studying at a divinity school.
This unexpected travel block was a shock not just to local friends and family. Teachers and fellow students in Chicago said they felt it was unnecessary. Some have already set up a social media campaign, using the hashtag #JusticeForZia.
Zia is a gem, says Yousef Casewit, a lecturer who taught Zia in his first semester. I was looking forward to his participation in my classes this quarter.
He developed educational curricula to promote religious peace. The irony of being denied entry into the USA is flabbergasting.
Though Shah was horrified to be turned away from the airport check-in desk on his return, he was also stopped at US customs when travelling back to Pakistan at the very beginning of the same holiday.
Id only imagined this happened in the movies, he says. Weve all heard stories of people being detained for no reason.
He says he had a hunch that something didnt seem right, despite the officers being friendly and inquisitive in their approach, and claiming they were only doing cultural outreach.
After three months, Shah still has had no explanation as to why hes been forbidden from returning to complete his course in Chicago.
Numerous trips to the US embassy in Karachi have proved unsuccessful. Staff here gave him hope of a swift answer, but even after handing over his passport and reapplying for the same visa, there has been no breakthrough.
Despite the notoriety of an immigration ban sought by the Trump administration the proposals for which have included seven Muslim-majority countries this all occurred during Obamas time in office.
If there is one positive thing to come out of this situation, Shah wishes that US border and customs would do their research before choosing who to block.
Zia Shah (left) conducts a Ravvish workshop with a contributor
Everyone wants their country to be safe, and everyone has the right to ensure the safety of their citizens, he says.
But I feel like they need to be more informed about people theyre stopping. I just feel like they dont know me at all. If they had known me a little, they probably wouldnt have stopped me.
Shah says he is urging his Pakistani friends in the US not to think about returning home now until theyve finished their degree, out of fear they may face similar complications.
Despite the lack of cooperation from the US government, both the University of Chicago and the Fulbright programme have done what they can to keep options open. If his visa is suddenly approved, Shah still has the option of returning to his studies in September.
Representatives from the university have also written to US authorities in Pakistan in an attempt to get a definitive answer on his status.
I just feel nobody is looking into the case, he says. This is my career. My whole life is on the line, and its just a random document that nobody has taken notice of.
Shah says he now feels both aimless and powerless, as he waits in limbo. When he moved to the US, he left Ravvish in the hands of fellow volunteers in Lahore, across the other side of the country.
Without the funds to return to running the organisation, he is staying with family in Karachi indefinitely. In the meantime, hes helping out with another project that involves working in schools for children who cant afford education.
The most irritating thing for me is that Id put so much effort into setting out such an unprecedented career path.
Now Im questioning myself, you know? Maybe it was better for me to have taken a proper job, and be like every other person. It really hurt my self-esteem.
I keep waking up and I would just hope I was waking up in Chicago instead of Karachi, and someone would be like oh sorry, that was just a bad dream. But its not going away.
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Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has denied France was responsible for rounding up more than 13,000 Jews at a Paris cycle track to be sent to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.
Frances responsibility for the 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, the Nazi-directed mass arrest of Jews in Paris by French police, has been admitted by both former President Jacques Chirac and current leader Francois Hollande, after decades of the state denying it was at fault.
Ms Le Pen told French broadcaster LCI on Sunday: I don't think France is responsible for the Vel d'Hiv.
She added: I think that generally speaking if there are people responsible, it's those who were in power at the time. It's not France.
The leader of the Front National said children in France had been taught reasons to criticise [the country], and to only see, perhaps, the darkest aspects of our history". She continued: So, I want them to be proud of being French again.
The Vel' d'Hiv Round-up refers to the mass arrest of Jews in Paris by the French police on 16 and 17 July 1942. During the crackdown one of several aimed at eradicating the Jewish population in France people were temporarily confined in the velodrome before being deported to concentration camps, where the vast majority of them were murdered.
The French government refused to apologise for the role of French policemen, or any other state complicity, in the roundup for more than half a century. But in 1995, then-President Chirac announced that it was time to acknowledge the responsibility of the French state, saying: These black hours will stain our history forever.
On the 70th anniversary of the mass arrest in 2012, Mr Hollande gave a speech at a memorial where he recognised the crime was committed in France, by France.
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
Ms Le Pens centre-left opponent in Frances unpredictable presidential election, Emmanuel Macron, described Ms Le Pen's comments as a serious mistake.
Some had forgotten that Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, Mr Macron told French news channel BFMTV, adding: We must not be complacent or minimise what the Front National is today."
Ms Le Pens father, who founded the far-right Front National party in 1972 and is estranged from his daughter, has been convicted for making racist and anti-Semitic comments such as describing the Holocaust a detail of history.
The CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish organisations and the Jewish students union swiftly condemned Ms Le Pens comments.
These remarks are an insult to France, which honoured itself in 1995 by recognising its responsibility in the deportation of France's Jews and facing its history without a selective memory, the CRIF said.
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Russian naval activity in Europe now exceeds levels seen during the Cold War, a top US and Nato military officer has warned.
Navy Admiral Michelle Howard voiced concern the distributed nature of the deployments could end up "splitting and distracting" the transatlantic alliance.
"We're seeing activity that we didn't even see when it was the Soviet Union. It's precedential activity," the head of Nato's Allied Joint Force Command in Naples and commander of US naval forces in Europe and Africa told Reuters.
"They're a global navy, I understand that. But the activity in this theatre has substantially moved up in the last couple of years."
General Mattis: Russia has been 'mucking around inside other people's elections'
Last year, Russia deployed its only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, to the Syrian coast to carry out bombing missions on rebel groups and Isis as Russian President Vladimir Putin propped up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Then last week, it sent its Admiral Grigorovich warship to the Syrian port of Tartus, which houses a Russian naval base.
Ms Howard said Russia had also increased patrols in the north Atlantic and Arctic region, made significant out-of-area submarine deployments, and increased submarine movement in the Black Sea.
She said there was a danger members of the Nato alliance would focus on the area of interest closest to them, while losing sight of Russian activities in other areas.
Her comments mirror those of Russian Admiral Vladimir Korolev, who told state media Russia's submarine patrols have reached a level of operation not seen since the Cold War.
Ms Howard's comments came amid a sharp escalation in tensions between Russia and the United States after Washington launched 59 cruise missiles against an air base in Syria in retaliation for a deadly toxic gas attack that killed scores of people.
She said the Russian naval manoeuvres had been matched by increased persistent cyber attacks by Moscow, and a steady number of unprofessional "fly bys" by Russian aircraft of US and other allied vessels at sea.
In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 1 /19 In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis
Ties between Moscow and the West have been strained since Russia's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Nato has built up physical forces in Poland and the Baltic states to build up a deterrent and underscore the strength of the alliance, but US and European officials are also increasingly concerned about what they describe as Moscow's use of propaganda and cyber attacks to influence Western elections.
Russia denies Washington's claim Moscow sought to influence the US election, and views Nato's buildup of troops in Europe as a provocation.
Ms Howard said members of Nato had rallied to increase their capabilities and send a clear signal about the strength and resolve of the alliance.
She hailed a recent agreement by Germany and Norway to build new submarines together as a sign of increased cooperation and said she would welcome further efforts by European partners to pool resources.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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Israel has closed its Taba border crossing to Egypt following a warning by its anti-terrorism office and intelligence reports of an imminent militant attack there. The closure comes hours before the start of the Passover holiday, when Sinai is a popular destination for many Israelis.
Soon after the announcement, sirens wailed in parts of southern Israel alerting residents to a rocket attack. The military said a rocket fired from Sinai exploded in southern Israel, hitting a greenhouse but causing no injuries.
Yisrael Katz, Israel's transportation and intelligence minister, said in a statement Monday there was intel regarding a potential terror attack against tourists in the Sinai peninsula. The crossing remains open for those wanting to return from Egypt.
The border closure comes a day after militants in Egypt bombed two churches, killing dozens of Christian worshippers during Palm Sunday ceremonies. In the wake of those attacks, Israel's anti-terrorism office called on all Israeli tourists in Sinai to return home immediately and asked Israelis planning trips to the Sinai to cancel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Monday sending Israel's condolences to the families of those who were murdered in yesterday's terrorist attacks in Egypt and wishing a quick and full recovery to the wounded.
He said the world must unite and fight terrorism everywhere.
The Israeli government statement says that intelligence information shows increased activity by Islamic State militants in Sinai. It adds that with Isis losing ground in Iraq and Syria, there is renewed motivation to carry out terror attacks in different arenas at this time.
Southern Sinai, with its pristine beaches and Red Sea coral reefs, has traditionally been a popular Israeli tourist destination especially for secular Israelis during the Passover holiday that starts Monday evening.
But tourism there has declined since 2013, when the Egyptian military overthrew an elected Islamist president and an Islamic insurgency based in northern Sinai intensified.
Israel issues travel recommendations from time to time based on intelligence reports. Monday's travel warning was unusual in its urgency and it is rare for the Taba crossing to be shut down.
In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Show all 11 1 /11 In pictures: Isis' weapons factories In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A mortar round fin manufactured by Isis in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis rocket components discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, Iraq in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortars discovered near Karamlais, Iraq, in November 2016 CAR In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis rocket launch frame in Qaraqosh, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A memo from Isis' COSQC on quality control at a manufacturing facility in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Electrically-operated initiators manufactured by Isis in forces Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortar tubes at a manufacturing facility in Karamlais, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis mortar production facility discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis weapons manufacturing facilities near Mosul in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Stocks of French-manufactured Sorbitol, Latvian potassium nitrate and Lebanese sugar at an Isis weapons factory in Iraq Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A destroyed Isis weapons facility in Qaraqosh, Iraq, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research
Israel signed a peace treaty with neighbouring Egypt in 1979 and the two countries maintain close security cooperation.
Associated Press
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A top commander in the Israeli army has written to the United Nations to warn that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a water and electricity crisis.
Major General Yoav Mordechai, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian Territories, sent letters to several international bodies including the UNs special envoy for the Middle East peace process, to say that urgent action is needed to prevent the situation for civilians from deteriorating.
Around 96 per cent of Gazas water is not fit for drinking, with its only aquifer no longer fit for purpose thanks to overuse, and the area is also crippled by electricity blackouts. During the winter months, some areas were only receiving three hours of continuous power a day.
The warning is the second that Maj Gen Mordechai has issued in the last six months, calling for funding from international aid organisations and governments to alleviate the severe infrastructure issues.
Gaza marks 10 years of Israeli blockade
If the situation is not solved in the next few days, it is possible electricity generation will come to a halt and the residents of Gaza will face the serious implications and pay the price, Maj Gen Mordechai also wrote on his personal Facebook page.
While the area has always had to contend with unreliable power, in recent months the issue has reached crisis levels, with hospitals warning that the frequent cuts endanger patients lives, and the rest of Gazas two million inhabitants dealing with the cold and dark of winter conditions.
Some have resorted to burning coal and scrap wood indoors or using old, unreliable kerosene heaters.
Since the water supply to many households relies on electric pumps, many people are also having difficulty washing, showering, cooking and doing laundry.
Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Show all 12 1 /12 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The fire in my heart is beyond my ribs. You left me beloved - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Let me get enough of you, as Im still hungry for your smile my son - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict They besiege me in my homeland so I flew to heaven - Rodaina Al Agha, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict And I am still facing the pain all by myself - Lama Shakshak, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My brother, I watched you go while my heart was tearing - Helen Mo'amar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My new doll is lonely in the rubble - Ayah Sha'ath, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict When a soul hugs another soul they never split, even in death - Ismail Matar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Everyone is gone and I stayed alone to make the world witness the injustice done to me - Hamza Shaheen, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The hand that carries the arms carries roses too - Madeeha Al Majayda, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My eyes tell you about a dream that overcame the fence - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict A childhood caught in an unjust siege - Hadeel Quidh, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict All the details are torn after you - Hamza Shaheen, 17
Hamas, the militant organisation that governs the area, has contributed to the situation by disrupting the electricity supply to a new desalination plant operated by Unicef, Maj Gen Mordechai continued.
Instead of worrying about the welfare of residents, Hamas is harming them and making it difficult for the international organisation that worked hard to supply drinking water, he wrote.
Hamas must immediately provide needed electricity to operate the desalination plant for the good of residents, but instead the terrorist organisation has chosen to send electricity to its terror tunnels and the homes of its leaders.
Hamas buys diesel to run Gazas only power plant from Israel, but the group has accused the West Banks Palestinian Authority, which coordinates delivery, of driving up prices through unfair taxation.
While Israel has approved both a new high-voltage power line to the area to operate desalination plants, as well as a natural gas pipeline for electricity, both initiatives will take years to complete.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah, the main PA party based in the West Bank, in 2007, leading to a land and sea blockade by Israel which has made it difficult to import goods and services and aggravated power shortages.
Palestinians have difficulty sourcing cement mixture and other necessary building materials to shore up Gazas inadequate public infrastructure because of Israeli fears they could have a dual use in creating tunnels used by militants.
The July 2014 war, which the UN estimates destroyed 17,000 homes, exacerbated the situation.
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It is very unlikely that Russia will change its support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, despite calls to do so from foreign ministers from the G7 nations gathered in Italy in the aftermath of the use of poison gas in Syria and the US missile strikes.
Russia owes its return to great power status in the eyes of much of the world to its military intervention in Syria and will not want to change its previous stance. Mr Assads forces, which are backed by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Shia militias from Iraq, are close to winning the civil war and it is doubtful if President Putin, even if he wanted to, could remove the Syrian leader from power.
Boris Johnson said that the chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April had changed everything fundamentally. But on the contrary the balance of power on the ground in Syria is very much as it was before, and it is improbable that US policy will really switch from giving priority to eliminating Isis and al-Qaeda.
Recommended Britain to push for tough new sanctions on Putin
A problem in getting rid of Mr Assad as Syrian leader as advocated in the past by the US, Britain and France is that there is no reason to suppose that it would end the war in Syria or modify the savagery with which it is fought. Mr Assad leads one side in a civil conflict that believes that it would be slaughtered or forced to flee if the other side won. It would fight on, with or without his presence.
The other important aspect of the Syrian crisis that remains unchanged by the chemical attack is that, if Mr Assad and his forces were defeated, then the beneficiaries would be the Salafi-jihadi opposition. Isis and al-Qaeda-linked groups dominate the armed resistance to the Assad government even more firmly than they did a year ago.
The Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano was more cautious than Mr Johnson about getting rid of Mr Assad, saying that decision should be left up to the Syrians. I have to say, the Libya experiment did not go well, said Mr Alfano, referring to the aftermath of the killing of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 after he was defeated by a Nato-backed opposition military campaign and the country collapsed into anarchy. We are still paying the price."
A further difficulty facing any insistence by G7 states that there be a political transition in Syria is that Russia is not Mr Assads only foreign ally. Prior to Russian military intervention in Syria in 2015, Iran was Mr Assads most important foreign supporter, sending military advisers and leading an axis of Shia powers and movements who see victory in the Syrian war as crucial to their very existence. Before the fall in the price of oil in in 2014, the Iraqi government gave significant financial assistance to Damascus.
It is still unclear how far President Trumps policy in Syria has really changed from what it was before the 59 cruise missiles were fired last week at a Syrian airbase near the central city of Homs. Until then, Mr Trumps policy in Syria and Iraq was much the same as that pursued by President Obama and seemed to be reaching a successful conclusion.
Isis is on the retreat in both Syria and Iraq, having lost three-quarters of the city of Mosul, its de facto Iraqi capital, in addition to other Iraqi cities which it once held. In Syria, Isis has lost most of the northern end of the Euphrates valley and is under severe pressure in Raqqa from the Syrian Democratic Forces in which the main military punching power comes from the Syrian Kurdish paramilitary forces backed by the devastating firepower of the US-led air coalition.
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The UK is pushing G7 countries to collectively impose new sanctions on Russia if it does not cut ties with Bashar al-Assad amid the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he would respond with force if there were more US air strikes in Syria after President Donald Trump ordered the launch of 59 missiles against a strategic air base. The missiles came after Mr Assad sanctioned a chemical weapon attack, which killed more than 90 people, including women and children.
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wants very punitive sanctions for the chemical attack. A paper on sanctions has been prepared for a G7 meeting which begins in Italy on Monday.
He wrote on Twitter that he had cancelled a trip to Moscow, the priority being talks with my G7 counterparts about Syria and Russias support for Assad.
He also said President Trump had delivered a clear message from the West and Crucially, they could do so again, he told The Sun.
We cannot miss this moment," he added.
It is time for Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is still propping up."
Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, said he believed Russia was responsible for the chemical attack by proxy. If Russia refuses to cast off its relationship with Syria, G7 countries would impose more sanctions.
The Russian embassy in London said that if Moscow was given an ultimatum to take its forces out of Syria and cut ties with its leader this week it could result in real war.
But not everyone is as convinced as Mr Johnson that the US was attempting to send a clear, united message.
Boris Johnson looks 'daft' after pulling out of Moscow trip - Alex Salmond
Seth Abramson, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, said there was overwhelming evidence that Mr Trumps military strike was just an empty political gesture, adding that the US communicated the strike with Russia beforehand.
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
The result of giving both Russia and Syria advance notice of the air strike was that they moved their troops and bunkered their planes, he wrote on social media.
Mr Trump left one runway on the air base untouched, even though he said he targeted the air base as he believed it was responsible for the chemical attack. He has not announced that he will send more humanitarian aid or increase the number of Syrian refugees, who he tried and failed to ban indefinitely from entering the US after stepping into the White House.
Boris Johnson: Syrian chemical attack evidence points to Assad
Joining Mr Johnson in Lucca, Italy, will be US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and both are working to put private and public pressure on Russia to withdraw support for Mr Assad, as well as their counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and the EU.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who is hosting the meeting, said Europe broadly supported the US air strikes, which would set the meeting off to a more positive start.
We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart, Mr Alfano told Sky TG24. I welcome this renewed harmony.
Mr Tillerson, who said Washington will hold to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world, will then convey the message to Mr Putin on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives to attend a ceremony at the Sant'Anna di Stazzema memorial (Reuters)
He is seen by some as a stronger opponent of Russia than his boss, as he also told CBS that Russians have played now for some time the role of providing cover for Bashar al-Assad's behaviour.
The US is considering executing extra sanctions on Russia, but conflicting messages came out of Washington DC during the round of Sunday morning talk shows.
Lindsey Graham says Assad is sending 'F you' message to Donald Trump
While Mr Tillerson said the US stance on Syria had not changed, declaring the defeat of Isis as the first priority, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the same network that there would be no peace until Assad had left.
It is speculated that further sanctions on Russia would not have much punch while the nation still dominates gas pipelines in eastern European gas.
Mr Johnsons allies are confident in the UK Governments ability to reign in Russia, despite Prime Minister Theresa May not releasing a comment on whether she supports new sanctions, and ar confident in Mr Trump's strategy.
Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell told Sky News that Mr Trump was decisive, I think he was proportionate and absolutely right to do what he did. He added that all of us around the world can sleep more safely knowing that international law is being asserted.
Yet a prominent US Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, said Mr Assad had one message for Mr Trump as he flew planes out of the air base shortly after it had been targeted: "F you".
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China has issued a barely disguised attack on the Trump administrations decision to launch Friday's air strikes, appearing to criticise it for undermining Syrias territorial sovereignty.
The comments, which come just three days after President Xi Jinping was in the US for talks, suggest a hardening stance in Beijing to Americas unexpected intervention in the countrys civil war.
Chinas Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying was quoted by the Russian news agency Tass as saying Beijing opposed the missile strike.
Speaking on Monday, she said: China has always called against using military force in international relations and for preserving territorial sovereignty.
"It is up to the Syrian people to decide on Syrias future.
Those remarks go further than comments made by Ms Chunying on Friday, when she said Beijing hoped all sides will stay calm and exercise restraint to prevent the escalation of tension.
The diplomatic crisis was triggered by a suspected nerve gas attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which left more than 80 people dead.
In response, Donald Trump gave the order for the launch of 59 tomahawk cruise missiles aimed at a Syrian air base said to house the chemical agents used in the attack.
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
The air strike was launched as Donald Trump hosted Mr Xi at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
He used the talks to press Mr Xi to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear programme, and the meeting was largely judged to be a success, particularly by Chinese state media, who said the event was proof confrontation between the two powers was not inevitable.
Mr Trump tweeted after the Florida summit that the meeting had been tremendous... goodwill and friendship was formed.
However, the cordial tone of the meeting was not replicated in the response issued by Russia and Iran to the cruise missile strike.
Arabella Kushner, Donald Trump's granddaughter, serenades Chinese President Xi Jinping
The alliance supporting the Syrian President warned the US they would respond with force if their own red lines were crossed in Syria.
What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well, the groups joint command centre said.
Chinas reaction to the missile strike is being closely watched, both for the impact it could have on its relationship with North Korea, and how it might affect rapidly shifting geopolitics in the region.
In February, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have authorised punitive actions against the Syrian government.
It came after a joint investigative team from the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons watchdog group concluded that the Syrian government carried out chlorine gas attacks three times in 2014 and 2015.
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The US will hold to account any state or group who targets innocents, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said, in a thinly-veiled warning to Americas adversaries in Russia, North Korea and the Middle East.
The remarks from Washingtons most senior diplomat are a further sign of deepening tensions with Moscow and come after Americas envoy to the United Nations raised the prospect of further airstrikes in Syria.
Mr Tillerson, in Italy for his first gathering of G7 foreign ministers, said: "We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.
He is due to travel to Russia after the two-day event for highly charged talks with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The Kremlin responded on Monday by saying the US strikes on Syria showed a reluctance to cooperate on the part of the Trump administration.
"The American side has demonstrated its complete unwillingness to somehow interact on Syria and take into account the interests and the concerns of others," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Last week's nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, led Donald Trump to launch 59 tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.
Hours later, America's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said the US was prepared to do more to stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons.
Mr Tillerson a former oil company boss with no diplomatic experience said at the weekend that he was hoping for constructive talks in Russia.
He is not due to meet President Vladimir Putin but will hold talks with the Russian Foreign Minister.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has come under fire for cancelling his meeting with Mr Lavrov following discussions with the US.
He had been due to visit Russia on Monday, which would have been the first visit by a UK foreign secretary in more than five years.
Syria: What led to the US airstrikes?
But Mr Johnson attacked the Kremlin and said he would instead focus on building support with allies to secure a ceasefire in war-torn Syria.
"We deplore Russia's continued defence of the Assad regime even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians," he said.
"We call on Russia to do everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated."
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Floors swimming in nastiness at a Chengdu hospital, open-to-your-neighbours squat toilets at a Beijing restaurant, and cubicles without doors at a theme park in Kunming: just three of the bathroom nightmares experienced by The Independents travel desk in the last two years in China.
But such unexpected delights may be a thing of the past, since last week the Chinese government announced its much trumpeted toilet revolution is nearly 90 per cent complete, a year ahead of schedule.
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In January 2015, Chinas National Tourist Administration pledged to build 33,500 new public toilets around the country, focusing on tourist sites. An additional 25,000 were slated for renovation under a three-year plan.
Last week, the CNTA announced that almost 36,000 toilets have been installed and 15,000 renovated. Itll be a relief for President Xi Jinping, who had personally approved the scheme as well as for the 4.4b tourists who visit Chinas sights every year.
But the improved facilities have caused extra problems. Last month, Beijing authorities installed facial recognition software at the public toilets in the citys Temple of Heaven Park, in order to combat an increasing problem of people stealing toilet paper, which is rarely on offer at public facilities.
Now, anyone entering the toilets must undergo a facial scan and be allocated a 60cm strip of paper. The system then bars them from requesting more paper within a nine-minute period. Paper use has dropped from 20 rolls per day to just four since the software was installed, according to China Radio International. Most visitors seem to approve although one man, Wang Jianquang complained to the New York Times that the sheets are too short.
Most toilets at the countrys main tourist attractions have now been upgraded, according to Li Jinzao, head of the CNTA and lesser known sites are now on the agenda. Hopefully before too long, the revolution will reach Kunming.
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On Monday afternoon, as a policemans coffin follows the route of a home-grown murderers speeding car, it appears Theresa May faces that same eerily familiar choice that once faced Tony Blair. Except this choice is a hundred times more complex.
An internationally unpopular US President appears to be on the brink of escalating action in the Middle East. Both preemptively and retrospectively, the UK has given every indication of its intention to stand by its ally. In her speech in Philadelphia the day before meeting Donald Trump at the White House, Theresa May told the new President they would pick up that mantle of leadership once more. And in the hours after 59 US Tomahawk missiles landed on a Syrian government air base, the UK Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, said President Trump had made the right call by resorting to careful and narrowly focused military action.
And now, the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has cancelled his planned visit to Russia, allowing the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former Russia-based oil executive and genuine friend of Vladimir Putin, to go alone and deliver a message on behalf of the West.
But what happens next? The US ambassador to the UN has been clear that the US is prepared to do more if the international red line on the use of chemical weapons is crossed again. Meanwhile, a joint statement from Russia and Iran talk of their own red lines and their willingness to respond with force".
In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: US missile strike against Syria In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria The United States military launched at least 50 tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs, Syria, in response to the Syrian military's alleged use of chemical weapons in an airstrike in a rebel held area in Idlib province EPA In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Shayrat airfield in Syria Getty Images In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea Reuters In pictures: US missile strike against Syria President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after the US fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians AP In pictures: US missile strike against Syria Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Reuters
What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines, the two countries said. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.
It is, frankly, terrifying stuff.
When Tony Blair decided in 2001, that action must be taken in Afghanistan against the government that had given succour to the terrorists who had perpetrated a truly devastating multiple attack on US territory (which also carried the highest British death toll of any terrorist attack in our countrys history), he calculated that, on the morning of 11 September 2001, the world had changed; that in order to exercise his primary duty namely, ensuring the safety of the citizens of his country action was required.
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The 2003 decision, to stand shoulder to shoulder with Bush in Iraq, is far more complex and far more contested. But even on his own admission, he placed immense weight on the preservation of the alliance with the United States. That he would be with you whatever.
Of course, 9/11 was the most traumatic incident the West had faced in decades. Blair acted almost without precedent. But the question now facing Theresa May is more complex than anything Blair ever had to consider, and meanwhile she drowns in precedent.
Her would-be master is unpredictable, impulsive even. He won an election alternating between promises first to destroy Isis and secondly not to get involved in Syria. Then, it would appear, images of gassed Syrian children have persuaded him to launch action against Bashar al-Assad, an act of (albeit proportioned) aggression against a regime allied with Russia and Iran.
Syria: What led to the US airstrikes?
To appear to be at Trumps side whatever the cost is the sort of bet-the-house gamble that leaves punters peeping at the finish post through the gaps in their fingers.
Yet other spectres hover over it. At Trumps right side, quite literally, in those Mar-a-Lago "situation room" photographs from last week and almost unremarked upon was Wilbur Ross. He is the distressed-debt billionaire who will call the shots on any free trade deal a freshly Brexited UK might get with the US. Distressed-debt specialists all do the same thing. They are Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. They take everything there is to take from near-bankrupt companies whove got no choice but to accept what theyre given.
Years after the invasion of Afghanistan, certain types of commentators liked to make the point that al-Qaeda had been "given what they wanted". That they had agitated for a war that would itself be the recruiting sergeant to their cause. I find that analysis naive. Al-Qaedas leaders in Afghanistan were executed and the organisation wiped out. In the long years after, the comparative lack of a terrorist atrocity on anything like the scale of 9/11 appears, for some, to be proof of the pointlessness of the mission, rather than an indicator of its success.
Even so, and in this case even if the US response has been the right one, it is hard to avoid the inescapable suspicions over who is calling the shots. Why were the Wests "red lines" suddenly tested again? Why was the strength of an extraordinarily narcissistic president suddenly put to the test? And why, three days later, do Russia and Iran appear to be agitating for what they call a real war?
So as Theresa May seeks to pick up that mantle of leadership once more, her most intractable problem is this: she, and we, are on the side of the incomparable novice. All the cunning, and all the experience, appear to be against her.
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So its back to Egypts ghastly prisons, no arrest warrants, fearful interrogations, and a presidential state of emergency which brings the army back onto the streets. But its also a frightening prospect for President al-Sisi in the aftermath of the church attacks and the slaughter of 45 Coptic Christians for it means that Isis has "crossed the canal", something which his army has been trying to prevent for months.
Donald Trump may think that al-Sisi has done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation but in fact hes done a deplorable job, presiding over multiple disappearances of anyone the police dont like, allowing torture to resume in police stations (we should not forget the Italian student found tortured and murdered beside a highway outside Cairo), and pretending that the Muslim Brotherhood, whose government he overthrew in a coup detat, is Isis.
It is not. The unspoken fact is that much of the Sinai peninsula has been under Isis control for months as the puritan gunmen of this most horrifying phenomenon have attacked both Christians and soldiers and police in the land between the Suez Canal and Gaza. Al-Sisi felt able to claim how often do we hear this nonsense from world leaders? that he was "winning the war against terrorism". In fact, his pernicious laws are creating more terrorism by isolating thousands of young people from any hope of a return to democracy.
37 killed in Islamic State bomb attacks on Egyptian churches
Yet for months after he staged his coup and then became President, after the usual fantastical Egyptian election victory, those who supported his takeover insisted that he had kept Isis on the other side of the canal.
But the army and police failed to keep them there. Isis is now in Cairo, Alexandria and, presumably, all the other dirt-poor cities up and down the Nile. We are going to see further killings in the streets of the capital after the bombs in Alexandria and Tanta, which is why the army is being brought back onto the streets; it will be their job to fight in the streets if necessary, just as they have in Sinai towns over the past two years.
Al-Sisi, however, has other problems. By declaring that Egypt will now be under emergency laws for three months, he insists, but Ill bet you it will still be going strong in a years time hes effectively proving to the world that private investment cannot increase over the coming months. And this after March figures showed the Egyptian private sector economy has not improved. And all this, also, after currency "reforms" and austerity measures which brought fury to the poor of Egypts cities.
After all, who wants to invest in a country whose capital is invested by Isis?
Even Mubarak and Sadat informed their robotic parliaments and cabinets that they planned to introduce emergency laws. Al-Sisi didnt even bother; the first his government heard about it was when he responded to the Christian deaths in Alexandria and the Nile Delta. Thats what military dictators do even if al-Sisi still claims to be a "democrat".
Donald Trump shakes hands with Egypt President El-Sisi and pledges support to his regime
And the Trump administrations response to the human rights crimes of al-Sisis police? Unlike Obama, according to the usual anonymous White House official, our approach is to handle these types of sensitive issues in a private, more discreet way. But why should human rights crimes be a sensitive issue in the first place? We dont take such a sensitive approach to human rights issues elsewhere in the Middle East. Iraq comes to mind, and Syria.
Trump may believe al-Sisi is doing a fantastic job, but hes not. Hes driving his country into the ground in the same blunt paternalistic, brutal way as his predecessors. Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak.
Its not that Egypts history repeats itself. It just goes on, year after year, decade after decade, with its infantile reversion to emergency laws, violence and poverty. And the hangmans noose. Stand by, now, for "special courts".
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Only two groups in our society promote the Quran teaches terrorism myth: anti-Muslim pundits and Isis extremists. Both are wrong.
This simplistic conclusion ignores that many groups in many countries are experiencing terror right now. It ignores the international arms trade from powerful western nations that wholly disregards human rights and has caused the death of more than 60,000 children in Yemen. And it ignores the fact that as Somalians suffer a massive famine Western media virtually ignores them as it has ignored the Syrian crisis for the last several years.
Yet with attacks in Egypt, London and Syria, critics default to blaming the Quran, citing its allegedly violent verses. We cannot resolve the Syrian, Yemeni and Somalia atrocities until we adhere to justice. Blaming the Quran for terrorism is not only demonstrably false, it wastes precious resources that could be spent on stopping war and famine.
In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: Stockholm truck attack In pictures: Stockholm truck attack 3 people dead when a truck crashed into Ahlens department store in central Stockholm, Sweden Rex In pictures: Stockholm truck attack People were killed when a truck crashed into department store Ahlens on Drottninggatan, in central Stockholm Reuters In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Special Police forces work at the scene where a truck crashed into the Ahlens department store at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm Getty Images In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Woman is assisted at the scene after a truck crashed into an Ahlens department store in Stockholm Rex In pictures: Stockholm truck attack A policewoman in a gas mask operates at the scene where a truck crashed into the Ahlens department store at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm Getty Images In pictures: Stockholm truck attack People react at the scene where a truck crashed into the Ahlens department store at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm Rex In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Reports say three people have died after a truck crashed into an Ahlens department store in Stockholm Rex In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Armed police operates at the scene where a truck crashed into the Ahlens department store at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm Getty Images In pictures: Stockholm truck attack People react at the scene where a truck crashed into the Ahlens department store at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm Getty Images In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Emergency services close to the scene of an incident in Drottninggatan, a street in the centre of Stockholm, Sweden Lasse Gare/PA Wire In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Passers react at the scene where a truck crashed into the Ahlens department store at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm Getty Images In pictures: Stockholm truck attack People killed in incident when a truck was driven into a department store in central Stockholm Reuters In pictures: Stockholm truck attack Police officers work at the scene where a truck crashed into the Ahlens department store at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm Getty Images In pictures: Stockholm truck attack A general view shows a Ahlens department store after a truck reportedly crashed into it, at Drottninggatan in central Stockholm, Sweden EPA In pictures: Stockholm truck attack A view of a street after a truck reportedly crashed into a department store in central Stockholm, Sweden EPA
Three critical facts demonstrate that nothing in the Quran permits terrorism. And while Islamophobes and Isis will both go on ignoring these three facts, the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims worldwide continue to champion them.
Fact 1
The Quran requires that you read it in full. No cafeteria Quran here. As Quran 3:8 says, We believe in it, the whole is from our Lord. Isis and Islamophobes instead cherry pick. Quran 3:8 pre-emptively calls out people who cherry pick as perverse people, declaring, those in whose hearts is perversity seek discord and wrong interpretation of [the Quran].
But dont some verses of the Quran in fact say, kill them where ye find them?
Yes, hence we get to fact two.
Fact 2
Islam is a practical faith that permits self-defence in certain strict situations. When? Let the Quran explain.
First, the Prophet Muhammad and his companions patiently bore vehement persecution in Mecca for nearly 13 years. This included a three-year starvation boycott from which his wife Khadija later died. Muslims didnt fight back.
Next, Muhammad sent some companions to seek refuge in Abyssinia under a Christian King, and Muslims still didnt fight back. Third, when the Prophets companions even asked to fight back, Muhammad responded clearly, I have not been given permission to fight. And, finally, when the persecution became unbearable, Muhammad and the Muslims simply left Mecca still refusing to fight back.
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These refugees trekked 240 miles through the desert to escape terrorism, finally arriving in the predominantly Jewish city of Medina. If Islam taught terrorism and enforced Sharia, this was the time to demonstrate this. Instead, Prophet Muhammad formed the Constitution of Medina with the Jews, establishing a unified secular state.
Yet the extremists trying to kill Muslims in Mecca pursued the Muslims to kill them in Medina. And now finally the Quran addressed fighting for the first time, permitting Muslims to fight in self-defence. The permission given in Quran 22:40-41 to fight was only given to those against whom war is waged. And fighting wasnt just to defend Muslims from persecution but to defend Christians, Jews, and people of all faiths. All subsequent verses addressing fighting are pre-conditioned on these clearly outlined rules of self-defense. Otherwise, its cherry picking, something the Quran forbids as perverse.
Additionally, Quran 2:193-194 declares that Muslims may only fight active combatants. Meaning, even if during battle an enemy combatant asks for amnesty, you must grant it. In Islam, theres no such thing as collateral damage, mutilation, or torture. All this notwithstanding, fact three issues the death blow to Daesh and Islamophobe ideology.
Fact 3
You might now understand who the Quran refers to when it says kill them where you find them. The them are those terrorists who persecuted people for their faith, exiled them from their homes and then pursued to kill innocent people in their new homes.
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In other words, them is close to a modern day Isis. The Quran permits killing terrorists in self-defence because they have waged pre-emptive war against you, or against Christians, Jews, or people of any faith. Yet, even then, if terrorists desist, the Quran forbids aggression against them. This teaching is not mere theory, its Islamic history.
Prophet Muhammad did something remarkable when he returned to Mecca after 20 years. Having suffered brutal persecution and murder of even his own children, he offered blanket forgiveness, with the one condition that the Meccans accept universal freedom of conscience. He did not force Islam. He did not wage war. He did not imprison the city. He forgave.
As non-Muslim historian Stanley Lane-Poole attests: The day of Mohammad's greatest triumph over his enemies was also the day of his grandest victory over himself. He freely forgave the Koraysh all the years of sorrow and cruel scorn in which they had afflicted him and gave an amnesty to the whole population of Mecca.
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That is the love and compassion that Islam and the Quran teach. Any honest person can see that Isis represents Prophet Muhammad the way darkness represents light; the two are complete opposites.
Misconceptions about Islam creep in because people learn about the faith from headline news rather than from the Quran and the Prophet. Read the Quran, read a biography of Muhammad, seek out the True Islam education campaign.
The Jihad of education is the death blow to terrorism, and the lifeblood of universal human rights. And I invite you to that true Jihad.
Qasim Rashid is an attorney, author and national spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. Follow him at @MuslimIQ
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It has been quite shocking for me to see the use of nerve agent sarin in the chemical attack that killed more than 80 and injured hundreds of others in Syrias province of Idlib last week.
However, what is more disturbing, and what the British public have a right to know more about, is the role the UK Government played in the Assad regimes development of a chemical weapons programme.
The UK Government has itself admitted that in the 1980s the UK exported the chemicals necessary to make sarin to the Syrian regime. The UK also sold specialist equipment after the millennium that, it now appears, was diverted to the chemical weapons programme.
In July 2014 the then-Foreign Secretary, William Hague, confirmed to Parliament that the UK had indeed exported chemicals that were likely to have been diverted for use in the Syrian programme.
He said: We judge it likely that these chemical exports by UK companies were subsequently used by Syria in their programmes to produce nerve agents, including sarin.
In the past the UK has been far too lax over the sale of such chemicals, something that improved with the implementation of EU-wide and other international measures. The UK should be ensuring that these standards arent compromised when pursuing Brexit trade deals and that all the relevant controls are maintained or tightened still further.
By the UK Governments own admission, it has sold components to Syria that can be used in the production of chemical weapons. It must now conduct a full investigation to determine if they were used in these terrible attacks and publish a list of other regimes and governments they have been sold to.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
Nuclear fake news fears
Throughout the election campaign, a concern raised repeatedly was whether Donald Trump (the orange tweeter and fake news expert) could possibly be trusted with his finger on the nuclear button.
Now that Trump is in position, I can only suggest that so far nothing has lessened my concern. In fact, in view of the recent missile launch against Syria without congressional approval, nor any coherent policy in place, I can only suggest that the odds against mankind surviving his president have considerably shortened.
Of course, it could well be that he will leave it up to his daughter Ivanka to press the button, or possibly his son Barron? Though I suggest that the greater danger will be Mr Trump overhearing some fake news report on Fox News early one morning, prompting him to test the nuclear system.
Gunter Straub
London NW3
Trump should have done more
While I applauded Trump's decision to swiftly respond to the Assad's chemical attacks against his own people, I now doubt his seriousness, motivation and commitment.
It seems it was just a show to distract attention for a moment especially after his government is facing turmoil from within and from all directions. Why didnt he destroy the runways in order to cripple Assad's ability to move? Why didn't he continue the mission until the monster is subdued and his killing machines are destroyed?
It was a pathetic response, an insult to the injury and a mockery out of this human catastrophe. He acted as a man of truth for a moment showing strength and courage to act but he failed to live up to his courage and became a laughing stock even to the regime he tried to punish.
What is happening in Syria is a tragedy of our time. We as humanity bear the responsibility for the mayhem that is happening there. Our leaders, our UN, are all hypocrites who should feel ashamed of themselves.
Abubakar N Kasim
Toronto, Canada
Syria: What led to the US airstrikes?
Rex Tillersons false words
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry on reading Rex Tillerson say: We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world. Really, Mr Tillerson? Any and all? Do you mean that? Even the Prime Minister of Israel? Or that most moral army in the world, which shoots Palestinians on a whim? Or racist settler thugs in East Jerusalem? Crimes against innocents have been committed on a daily basis in Palestine for decades. How about starting to hold the guilty to account for them, Tillerson?
Elizabeth Morley
Aberystwyth
Syria suspicions
Why on earth would Syria's President Bashar al-Assad be so utterly reckless to bomb his own people using chemical weapons only days after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested that the US had no quarrel with Syrian dictator?
There is simply no tactical logic behind such an action. President Trump was far more interested in prosecuting the war against Isis than in removing Assad. The Syrian President was well aware of this and understood from 2013, which was the last time he was accused of using chemical weapons, that to do so would elicit exactly the kind of air strikes against his regime that Trump ordered last Thursday.
I certainly wouldn't want to be seen as an apologist for a dictator who gasses his own people but where does the evidence come from that Assad's forces actually did this?
There has been no independent verification that Assad did it because no Western journalists work in Isis or al-Qaeda controlled territories for obvious reasons. The West's press simply has to go along with quite simply whatever they tell us.
Given that the United Nations has categorically stated that both sides have used chemical weapons in this war why has no serious consideration been given to the idea that what Assads forces may have done is accidently bombed a chemical weapons stockpile belonging to the opposition?
Or is this just another cynical maneuver by the powers that be to bounce us in to supporting yet another war?
Mark Holt
Liverpool
School senior staff budgets
You report on 'crippling budget cuts to schools (More than half of schools forced to ask parents for financial help in past year, 9 April), but there is an important issue which is usually overlooked: the relentless expansion of school management teams. Not so long ago a small to medium-sized school would happily get by with one headteacher and a deputy. Now you'll find a head and four or five deputies. As a result, much of the regular staffing payroll has been taken away from front line of teaching and diverted into supporting bloated top-heavy management teams. Of course, much like the NHS, these are the very teams that allocate the school budget!
Arnie Donoff
London N11
Horse deaths on race tracks
While it's a relief that no horses died at Aintree over the weekend, the mere fact that this is a cause for celebration says everything that anyone should need to know about the Grand National and the horse-racing industry.
Hundreds of horses are killed on British racetracks every year and for nothing more than a bet. And then there are the unseen victims, the thousands of foals bred for racing who don't make the grade and are either dumped at rescue charities, shot at stables or sold for meat. Even horse-racing stars have been sent to slaughter or found in a state of neglect, such as 1984 Grand National winner Hallo Dandy, who was found without proper food and shelter and covered with sores from rain scald. Forget the finish line this deadly industry is all about the bottom line, where the horses are viewed as replaceable in the words of jockey Ruby Walsh.
Jennifer White
London N1
Climate tipping point
The news that the government is looking to scale down regulations surrounding climate change to help secure post Brexit trade proves that they still dont get it. The Government, despite all the scientific evidence, still doesnt understand that addressing climate change is not a lifestyle choice but a matter of survival. The world is creeping desperately ever closer to the tipping point when any chance of reversing climate change disappears. Addressing climate change is the major crisis facing the world today, not a bargaining chip in the latest phoney trade war.
Paul Donovan
London E11
EU expat rights
The best way to protect the rights of Britons who wish to remain EU citizens is for the other member states to allow them to apply for citizenship, with more generous criteria and a fast-track process, as put forward by the German Greens (Britons living in Germany should have citizenship fast-tracked, say Germanys Green Party, 1 August).
In contrast, the piecemeal, pay-as-you-go associate citizenship floated by the Liberals in the European Parliament will do lasting damage to the principle of non-discrimination by entrenching a second class of citizens (European Parliaments chief Brexit negotiator demands Theresa May back Britons who want to keep EU citizenship, 8 April).
To get the fast-track citizenship schemes set up, Europeans must lobby the EU 27 governments directly, aiming for an EU-wide directive to coordinate the schemes. This will be more effective than trying to influence the negotiations between the EU and the UK. In those talks, there are hundreds of other complex issues vying for attention, and any agreement would be contingent on bargaining and reciprocity. There is no time to waste in the two-year countdown.
The European Union is a union of citizens, not just of nation-states. This is the time to show solidarity towards fellow EU citizens.
Dr Kaihsu Tai
Helsinki, Finland
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Since his murder, I've not publicly commented on the passing of PC Keith Palmer for a lot of reasons one being my own history with the Metropolitan Police. But today I want to make it clear: PC Palmer died a hero. He died as an exemplar of everything I advocate in a positive police force: officers doing their job properly, with honesty, fairness and integrity. PC Palmer died carrying out his service bravely. He made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of us all.
As a former detective and officer of 11 years, working in the Manchester CID and London's Special Branch, I know more than most the dangers that are posed daily to officers. I was assaulted on duty several times; I was spat at, punched and kicked, while tackling those wielding knives.
Today the police will be out in full force, showing its might and strength to London and the wider world. It importantly will be a time for PC Palmer's family to say a public farewell after him dying in such horrid circumstances, before a private service.
It will also be a day for us to appreciate and give thanks to what policing should be all about fighting crime and protecting people, as my former Chief Constable of Manchester often said. It's not an easy job, and appreciation has to be given for this.
Body of Westminster attack victim Pc Keith Palmer lies in palace chapel
Ever since I can remember, I dreamed of becoming a policeman so that I too could help others. For me that dream wasn't meant to be, but that doesn't mean I'm insensitive and cannot appreciate the men and women who are doing their jobs to the best of their ability without fear or favour.
There are those who think we shouldn't have such a public funeral for only one of the victims of the Westminster attacks, when several others died and many were injured. But PC Palmer was different. He died doing his job. It is right that he should be given full honours for the sacrifice he made, and I support a public call for any of the other victims too to have such a befitting funeral like his today.
London's policing is often criticised and often rightly so. I have fought racial discrimination in the police through litigation, advocacy and public education. The police service is not perfect. It has its problems.
But that's why a day like today is even more worthy of our respect and acknowledgement. It is a symbolic moment that is important in terms of the preservation of our police service celebrating the best of it, while not forgetting the worst, and confirming the essential role that the best police officers play in creating and upholding our tolerant, liberal society. Even as the Met faces up to its myriad issues, here is a country standing together to remember a man who stood for the best of the values of police; a man who fought injustice, though so many inside and outside the police force still perpetrate it.
PC Palmer's funeral will, importantly, be attended by London's first non-white Mayor and its first female police commissioner. I hope this marks an important moment after which we will see real change, a better and greater police service we can all be proud of. A force, in short, befitting of the memory of PC Palmer.
Detectives digging in a Dublin park for the remains of a convicted rapist who vanished over six years ago have found a human torso.
An excavation of a site in Tolka Valley Park in Finglas began at the start of April as part of an investigation into the death and disappearance of James Nolan.
An arm, forensically identified as that of Nolan, was discovered on Dublin's Dollymount Beach in 2011.
Investigating gardai said they were since handed information indicating that "a particular part of Tolka Valley in Finglas is an area of interest".
They have described the ongoing dig as a significant operation.
Nolan, from Dublin, had previously served 14 years in jail for rape and false imprisonment.
A young boy who was killed in a Co Fermanagh farming accident has been described as having a "beautiful smile" that could melt hearts.
Named locally as Thomas Magee, it's understood the four-year-old became trapped under a piece of machinery which is thought to be a JCB-type digger.
The youngster was pronounced dead at the scene at his home outside Maguiresbridge on Thursday night.
It's thought he was with his father, David, at the time of the fatal incident.
Police were called to the scene around 8.30pm on Thursday.
Members of the local community attended a vigil at Maguiresbridge Methodist Church last night where they prayed for the Magee family, including his mother Jackie and sisters, Emily and Lucianna.
Thomas was a P1 pupil at Maguiresbridge Primary School.
Teachers and staff at the rural school have been left devastated and shocked by the death of Thomas, who just hours before had been looking forward to the Easter holidays.
In a statement, the principal Honor Irvine described him as a "special little boy".
"Thomas was a beautiful, much-loved child who added a great deal to the lives of all he touched here in the primary school.
"He loved life and lit up the classroom with his beautiful smile.
"Although we, as a school family, are deeply hurt by the loss of Thomas, our thoughts, prayers and sincerest condolences are with the whole family at this time."
The boy's scout group paid tribute to him.
The Colebrooke and Coonen Scout Group said: "We are absolutely dumbfounded and shocked to hear the tragic news of losing one of our members.
"We want to express our deepest sympathy to the family of our little squirrel, Thomas, who was taken from us tragically in a farm accident. He was the one with the smile to melt a heart and the glint in the eye to add the spark.
"He will be deeply missed by all his fellow squirrels and indeed all the scouting members and leaders."
Victor Warrington, an Ulster Unionist councillor and family friend said the news of his death has sent shockwaves across the local area, particularly the farming community.
"The news is devastating and tragic and everyone's thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time," he said.
"I have been talking to quite a number of people in the area and everyone is in total shock and disbelief. It's a close-knit farming community and we all know each other in some way. I know David quite well and I have been at the farm on a number of occasions."
One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the family moved to the farm around two years ago.
DUP leader Arlene Foster and Assembly member for the area expressed sympathy. "The family will be in my thoughts and prayers today and in the weeks to come, as they mourn the loss of a young life taken under such tragic circumstances," she said.
Ulster Unionist Tom Elliott also expressed his sadness.
The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP said: "This is a highly respected and hardworking family, who I am sure are devastated at this very difficult time. As a farmer and parent myself, I am only too aware of the dangers on a farm. No-one ever thinks these accidents will happen and all I can do at this time is to offer the family my sympathy and support in the aftermath of this tragedy."
Sinn Fein MLA Michelle Gildernew said the community of Maguiresbridge was "devastated".
In a statement, the Health and Safety Executive confirmed it is investigating the farm fatality.
Galway-based strokecare firm Neuravi has been bought by an offshoot of multinational giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J).
The Irish firm sells a product called Embotrap designed to restore blood flow to the brain in stroke patients. The parties did not disclose financial details but Independent.ie understands the price paid is in the hundreds of millions of euro.
Codman Neuro, the J&J company that is acquiring Neuravi, said the deal demonstrates its strong commitment to delivering innovative products for stroke therapy.
Neuravi, set up in 2009, has been backed by Dublin-based healthcare venture capital fund Fountain Healthcare Partners and Enterprise Ireland. The deal will result in a big payday for them as well as the companys founders.
The Ballybrit-based firm is run by chief executive Eamon Brady, who founded the company alongside chief technology officer David Vale, chaiman John O;Shaughnessy and radiologist Mahmood Razavi.
The Embotrap product is available commercially in the EU but not in the US. Codman Neuro said it is planning to put the device in front of the American regulators this year.
The device is for treating ischemic strokes, which occur as a result of a blood clot and account for 87pc of all strokes according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. It works by
Rapid restoration of flow is of utmost importance when treating stroke patients, said Shlomi Nachman of J&J.
"We are excited to combine Neuravis expertise in clot research with Codman Neuros global resources to accelerate innovation in acute ischemic stroke treatment.
Management at Neuravid declined to comment.
Insurance companies will be subject to the new guidelines issued by the Central Bank.
The Central Bank of Ireland has published a 'Guide to Consumer Protection Risk Assessment' which represents a landmark evolution and ramp-up in its approach to ensuring consumers of financial services are protected.
This will apply to all financial services firms in Ireland including banks, insurance companies, investment firms and payment institutions.
For some time, the Central Bank has said compliance with regulatory codes represents just a "minimum standard" and that the firms it regulates need to go well beyond this base and deliver meaningful outcomes for their consumers.
The Consumer Protection Risk Assessment outlined in the guide clearly demonstrates the Central Bank's strong intent to ensure unfair customer outcomes are prevented and that firms are not simply "ticking the compliance box".
Clearly, the Central Bank believes there is a strong need for financial services firms to hold themselves accountable to a higher bar than mere compliance with codes. It calls out the need for firms to undertake more meaningful and holistic self-reviews of the consumer outcomes being achieved.
This need is underlined by the recent examples of "significant and systemic issues" such as payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling, and the current examination of tracker mortgages, as referenced which are simply not being dealt with by traditional means.
The Central Bank notes that failures such as these have highlighted the crucial role a firm's culture plays in ensuring fair outcomes for consumers. Moreover, what is of particular interest is that it has clearly declared its intention to start reviewing whether a firm has a truly consumer-focused culture.
This means financial services firms can expect to be reviewed by the Central Bank, including interviewing boards and management teams, regarding how they are ensuring behaviours and everyday practices are "getting it right" for consumers.
The guide also calls out that such reviews will be "intrusive in nature" and will likely be a difficult process for any organisation that focuses on profit maximisation at the expense of fair consumer outcomes.
Examples in the guide of how this will be assessed also cut straight to the point and include such questions as:
n How does the tone from the top drive the right outcomes for consumers and encourage a culture where issues can be disclosed and acted upon?
n Have performance management and promotion of staff strategies reflected how they are (or are not) contributing towards fair customer outcomes?
n Who within management is clearly accountable for culture and behaviours related to consumer protection?
All the above is further underlined by a clear expectation regarding the robust way in which financial services firms are expected to be managed (the governance and control of consumer protection risk). It appears evident, that being unaware, or purely reactive, to such risks will not be sufficient.
The guide also calls out a clear expectation that the products and services a firm sells will be well managed in a consumer-centric manner. Again, these topics are covered under the scope of the new Consumer Protection Risk Assessments.
By moving to a more holistic approach which focuses on identifying the true risks that create unfair consumer outcomes, rather than simply achieving compliance, it is hoped business practices within financial services firms will improve. If this can be achieved, the well documented systemic issues of the past will be put behind us by creating cultures and governance systems that proactively address business practices which are likely to create unfair consumer detriment.
Feilim Harvey is a partner in financial services at PwC
New Ireland Assurance, the life assurance and pensions subsidiary of Bank of Ireland, has named Michael Murphy as its new managing director, ending a near year-long search for a new leader of the Bank of Ireland subsidiary.
Mr Murphy joins the company after a five-year stint as managing director and global leader of risk consulting and software business at WIllis Towers Watson, one of the world's largest insurance brokerage and consultancy firms.
Pat Healy, chairman of New Ireland, said Mr Murphy brings a "wealth of experience and knowledge to this important role, and has an exceptional track record of growing businesses and delivering strategic transformation."
New Ireland's previous boss, Sean Casey, left in April last year after six years at the helm, resulting in the elevation of Mick Sweeney to interim managinng director.
The company said Mr Murphy will assume his new role in July and Mr Sweeney will return to "a senior position in the Bank of Ireland Group at that time".
No European country has made a claim on the back taxes that Apple allegedly owes to Ireland, Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said.
Mr Noonan has argued that Ireland's entitlement to the money, in the face of potentially competing claims from other EU countries, remains uncertain.
The European Commission announced in August last year that Ireland must collect 13bn plus interest from Apple for taxes that were unpaid over a decade as a result of a tax treatment that amounted to illegal State aid to the company.
The Government and Apple have appealed against the decision.
The offer by Europe's Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager for other states to seek a share of the funds has been controversial, raising the question of how Ireland could be owed tax also owed elsewhere.
But Mr Noonan has revealed that no other country has expressed interest in the money.
"I can say that I have not been given any official indications from any country that they intend to seek further tax for their own country as a result of the commission's decision," Mr Noonan said in a response to a parliamentary question from Independent TD Tommy Broughan.
The minister suggested earlier this year that the comments from the commission were a move designed to isolate Ireland within Europe.
He told the Oireachtas finance committee in February that it suited the commission that other countries would come in and "start demanding extra tax", because that meant that Ireland was left with few friends when other people around the table thought there was a windfall due to them.
He also claimed at the time that Spain and Austria had raised the possibility of seeking some of the Apple tax.
However, Ms Vestager told the committee at the time that the vast bulk of the money would accrue to Ireland.
The money is due to be put into an escrow account, which would be established via a commercial contract with Apple. But the deadline for that was early January and the money has still not been deposited.
A spokesman for the minister said the Government was working with the commission and Apple on the final details of that matter.
"While the formal deadline set out in the decision has now passed, the commission has confirmed that it is satisfied with Ireland's progress on the issue to date. It is not unusual and not at all uncommon for member states to require more time for recovery," the spokesman said.
A number of EU countries are reportedly lending support to Ireland in its appeal over the Apple tax ruling.
'The Irish Times' reported last month that Luxembourg plans to make an 'intervention' in support of the Government in its case against the commission.
One of Ireland's largest advertising agencies has provisionally called off its advertising boycott of YouTube.
Core Media, which has clients that include Heineken, AIB and the National Lottery, says that it has decided to "recommence some very controlled campaign activity" on Google's video channel.
The company, which has 300 employees and purchased 225m of media advertising in Ireland last year, had suspended its ad campaigns on YouTube over fears that ads might appear alongside extremist YouTube video content.
However, the company is now placing campaigns again with YouTube on a limited basis.
"This applies to all of our clients as opposed to individual brands," said Justin Cullen, chief digital and data officer for Core Media. "We have had a number of campaigns activated over the last few days in these controlled areas of YouTube."
Mr Cullen said that the YouTube campaigns would be restricted to music-related Vevo channels and homepage placements without re-targeting possibilities.
He said that his firm has been seeking assurances from Google over the "brand safety" of companies that risk their ads appearing next to homophobic or hate-speech content.
"We have seen a commitment from Google to deliver a better experience for advertisers that reduces potential compromise," he said.
The move comes as market analysts estimate up to 750m in lost revenue to Google because of 250 global brands pulling their ads over the extremist content controversy.
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The boycott started in the UK in March when companies such as Marks & Spencer, McDonald's and Tesco withdrew ad campaigns from the video channel over revenue going to extremist video creators. Major US brands such as AT&T, Verizon and Johnson & Johnson followed suit in the boycott. However, the companies have continued to advertise with Google's broader search and adwords services.
The controversy resulted in multiple apologies from senior Google executives, including the company's chief business officer, Philip Schindler.
We know that this is unacceptable to the advertisers and agencies who put their trust in us," he said.
We'll be hiring significant numbers of people and developing new tools powered by our latest advancements in AI and machine learning to increase our capacity to review questionable content for advertising. We wont stop at taking down ads. The YouTube team is taking a hard look at our existing community guidelines to determine what content is allowed on the platformnot just what content can be monetised.
Mr Cullen said that Google would roll out "deeper brand safety policies and controls as well as the creation of opportunities to utilise third party platforms for inventory and campaign verification".
"I have to stress we are only activating very limited activity with the majority of campaigns still paused until we get further clarifications from Google/YouTube," he said.
Last week, Google announced that it would make changes to its ad policy in order to discourage abuse of its system. From now on, channels wont be able to make money until their videos have generated 10,000 views. Ads wont appear on creators videos until they manage to hit this target, with YouTube believing that the 10,000 figure is high enough to give it enough time to work out whether a channel is playing by its rules or not. At the same time, the company doesnt think the target is so daunting that it puts users off signing up to the YouTube Partner Program.
Meanwhile, Core Media is to roll out a system it calls "Core Media Verified" to its digital media partners.
"This will deliver higher standards across all online media activity to ensure more effective and brand safe delivery for campaigns," said Mr Cullen. "With social media platform environments and those that carry user generated content, there will always be a risk that advertising will appear alongside undesirable content. While likely in very small volumes, there is still a risk. This risk is something each brand must consider as they weigh trade-offs for leveraging the mass reach and tremendous targeting capabilities of social platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and the like."
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, which featured share scams similar to the ones doing the rounds in Ireland
Barely a week goes by without the Central Bank, which regulates financial services, issuing a warning about unregulated firms. We hear fewer warnings about so-called 'boiler-room' scams, in part because people are embarrassed that they fell prey to them.
Boiler room scams are part of a suite of share frauds that sees investors duped by sophisticated criminals (usually overseas) cold-calling them at home or work offering to buy or sell shares, with the promise of a huge return.
The shares the scammers offer are often worthless, overpriced and even non-existent.
But the fraudsters' tactics are extremely convincing, and hapless investors feel under pressure to fall for the oldest trick in the book - to make a quick decision or miss out on the deal.
For scammers, with their articulate financial knowledge, the rewards are more than worthwhile. The Financial Conduct Authority in the UK found that victims of share fraud lose an average of 20,000 (23,367) to these scams, with as much as 200m (233m) lost to such scams in the UK each year.
If you're feeling like a fool for being caught out, you're in great company.
Even seasoned investors are caught out by the sophisticated techniques deployed by boiler-room operators, who often ply their trade at financial seminars and through word-of-mouth schemes that saw many people lose their shirts during the property boom/bust debacle.
But you can take steps to protect yourself by checking to see if the firm is authorised by the Central Bank. Or just hang up: if you're cold-called about an investment opportunity, the chances are it's at best a high-risk investment or, at worst, a scam.
It can be confusing, as many fraudsters have credible-looking materials, including elegant websites with glowing testimonials. Familiarise yourself with the tell-tale signs, including repeat calls, downplaying risk and pressure over time limits.
The best piece of advice? If it sounds too good to be true, well, you know the rest.
Elderly people who own shares have been warned not to let investment fraudsters offering "too good to be true" deals trick them into parting with their cash.
There has been a spate of attempts by swindlers from overseas companies cold-calling investors and trying to scam money from them. The con artists tend to target people over the age of 55 and use psychological games to trap unwitting victims.
They will also use pressure tactics, like forcing share owners to act quick or make decisions on a "special deal".
The Irish Stock Exchange and the Central Bank have warned people with investments to be on their guard.
"Investors are reminded to be vigilant. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," a spokeswoman for the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) said.
Recently, quoted nutrition group Glanbia warned its shareholders to be vigilant against what the company describes as "boiler-room" fraudsters.
Shareholders, many of them farmers, are receiving unsolicited phone calls from foreign companies seeking to sell or buy Glanbia shares at inflated prices.
Boiler-room scams are where fraudsters cold-call investors offering them worthless, overpriced or even non-existent shares.
They promise high returns, but people who take up the offers usually end up losing their money.
Ciaran Phelan, chief executive of the Irish Brokers Association, said his members were aware of clients being targeted in these scams.
"We suspect that many of those that have been subject to it unfortunately don't tell anyone," he said.
He added that these days, returns from secure or guaranteed investments tend to be relatively small, typically less than 2pc to 3pc a year, so any offer that is better than this warrants close scrutiny.
Mr Phelan said that people should be wary of dealing with unsolicited phone calls.
"Only dealing with someone over the phone isn't wise," he said. "Similarly, dealing with someone over the internet also carries its own risks and is really only appropriate for those that can decipher the difference between a fraudulent and a genuine offer."
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The Central Bank regularly warns about, and names, firms that are not authorised to operate here that are attempting to do business in Ireland.
Last week, it said a firm calling itself GMO Funds Plc, GMO IM Ltd, GMO Investment Management Plc, GMO Investment Management (Ireland) Limited and/or GMO Investment Management Limited was offering investment services and/or offering investment advice.
The Central Bank said the firm had cloned the details of a firm it regulates called, GMO Funds plc and GMO Investment Management Company (Ireland).
"This unauthorised firm has been operating as an investment firm in the State in the absence of an appropriate authorisation," the Central Bank said.
Someone who invests their cash with an unauthorised firm will have no protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service or the investor compensation scheme, which can pay eligible investors 90pc of the money they have lost in an authorised firm, up to a maximum of 20,000.
Flattery is a common tactic used to swindle people in investment scams.
This could include a scammer praising their victim for being a "knowledgeable investor".
Fraudsters may also pressurise potential investors to make a quick decision on a limited-time investment offer. They may also tell unwitting targets that other people have backed the shares or want to put money into the investment.
Research in the UK found that more than half of over-55s surveyed believed acting quickly can be key to getting a good deal, suggesting that many people could be vulnerable to this tactic.
Mr Phelan said investors should get advice from an independent financial adviser who is appropriately qualified and regulated by the Central Bank to give that advice.
How to spot the tactics used by cruel con artists
Many people have been tricked, but would you know how to spot an investment scam?
Here are some common tactics used by boiler-room fraudsters, according to regulators:
* Offering the target lucrative returns above the market rate and downplaying the risks of the investment.
* Making use of flattery to make their potential fraud victims feel good, such as praising them for being such a knowledgeable investor.
* Saying that the deal is available only to the target, and asking them to keep it a secret.
* Saying that other clients have already invested in the shares or want in on the deal.
* Putting people under pressure to invest in a time-limited offer.
The last Country Special was one of the most watched Late Late Shows of the year and it looks like this season's offering could hit the same high note as Charley Pride joins the line-up.
The Grammy nominated star behind Kiss An Angel Good Mornin' has topped the US Billoard Country Charts a whopping 29 times.
The 79-year-old star is taking time out from his tour of the US and Canada to jet in for the special.
Also appearing is Charlie Landsborough (75), best known for his hit What Colour is the Wind which proved hugely popular in Ireland.
They'll join Irish stars Nathan Carter, Daniel O'Donnell, Derek Ryan, Lisa McHugh, Mick Flavin, Michael English, Cliona Hagan, John Hogan, Declan Nerney and Louise Morrissey for two hours of country chat and music.
This year the show is going pure country with two hours of music and chat with some of the biggest stars on the Irish scene.
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Last season's Late Late Country Special was broadcast in October 2015 and, outside of the Toy Show, it was the most watched Late Late of that season.
Legends of Midlands country music including TR Dallas, Foster and Allen and the inimitable Brendan Shine will also be in studio on Friday night while The Queens of Country Margo, Philomena Begley and Susan McCann will be reuniting for a very special performance.
Viewers can also look forward to appearances by RTE Irish Country Music Awards Entertainer of the Year Mike Denver and The Three Amigos - Jimmy Buckley, Robert Mizzell and Patrick Feeney - as well as Lee Matthews, Gerry Guthrie, Jimmy Devine, Johnny Brady and Marc Roberts.
Several stars will perform a special opening - the hit Country Roads.
The Late Late Show Country Special, Friday, April 14th, RTE One at 9.35pm
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Watch out for a familiar face on tonight's episode of garda drama Red Rock.
Hollywood star Patrick Bergin (65) will make his debut in the TV3 show as he takes on the role of Jim Tierney, the grandfather of detective Rory Walsh.
"I'm looking forward to bringing some danger and mystique to Red Rock," he said.
Although he filmed the scenes several months ago, this evening will be the first time he has appeared in the award-winning drama.
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The Dubliner (66) said he had been a fan of the show before being cast.
"I'd seen a couple of episodes. It's on the BBC now. I liked it and then I was approached shortly after," he said.
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"I wasn't sure at first, but I became more and more intrigued with it and the challenge with working in Dublin."
Originally from Drimnagh, he filmed the scenes in the old John Player factory on Donore Road in Dublin 8 and said the area was familiar from his childhood.
"I was intrigued. I used to pass by the Player factory on the bus every day," he said.
"With all of that I thought, 'This is too irresistible. It's destiny'."
Bergin, who had the part written specially for him, described his character as "someone with a past".
"Yet he has a lot of character in the sense that he's not sentimental, but he has a conscience," he said.
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"He's got a very strong central role in terms of the plot.
"He drives it in a certain, subtle way, so there were challenges as an actor to try and capture all that in a short space of time."
As Rory's only relative, his character is very proud to have a grandson as a garda, but he hides a chequered past that is less than lawful.
The actor, who has played opposite some of Hollywood's biggest stars over the years, has been in more than 80 films during his career.
He's best known for playing the abusive husband of Julia Roberts in Sleeping With The Enemy.
Bergin was one of the attendees at the Irish Film and TV Awards (Iftas), which took place at the Mansion House on Saturday night.
Anthony Boyle who plays Scorpius Malfoy in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire
A young actor from Belfast who wowed the West End with his spellbinding performance in the Harry Potter play has won a prestigious Olivier Award.
Anthony Boyle from Poleglass picked up the gong for best supporting actor at a star-studded ceremony last night for his role as Draco Malfoy's son Scorpius in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child.
The play made theatre history after winning a record-breaking nine Olivier Awards.
The Potter play picked up prizes including best actor for Jamie Parker, who plays the boy wizard; best supporting actress for Noma Dumezweni, who plays Hermione, and best new play, at the glamorous ceremony in London.
The show's John Tiffany was named best director, beating himself in the category for his show The Glass Menagerie.
Harry Potter also picked up prizes for best costume, lighting and sound designs.
The two-part spectacular - which is sold out until 2019 - sees JK Rowling's magical world brought to life years in the future after the boy wizard has had children of his own.
Boyle wasn't the only Belfast stage star being honoured. Rounding off the evening, Sir Kenneth Branagh was presented with the special award of the evening after a career spanning four decades on stage and screen.
Admiring his latest award earlier, Boyle - still known as Anto to his mates - said: "Oh man, I didn't think I was going to win."
Boyle, who was expelled from school and is dyslexic, also thanked his mum and dad, and other members of his family.
The 22-year-old has come a long way since his role as the ghost of Henry Joy McCracken for a Belfast City Hall ghost tour "with basically a black bag over my head".
He was recently named best supporting actor at the 17th annual WhatsOnStage Awards, which are voted for by theatre-goers.
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It came after he was named most promising newcomer at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards earlier this year.
Last night Parker, who scooped the top prize for his portrayal of the older Potter, told how his predecessor, movie actor Daniel Radcliffe, gave him his blessing before opening night.
"He sent flowers and a card encouraging me to enjoy the role," he said.
"It's all about enjoying the role, which is a funny thing to say when you are playing somebody who would arguably have post-traumatic stress syndrome."
Among the other award winners at Sunday evening's gala ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall was former Dr Who star Billie Piper, who was announced best actress for her part in Yerma.
Commuters have been warned of a number of separate crashes causing delays this morning.
In Kildare, a collision on the M7 between Junction 9 and 10 caused delays of up to 40 minutes are being reported by commuters.
The crash has now been cleared by gardai but traffic is still heavy in the area.
In Co Cork a crash has been reported in the right lane of the N25 eastbound between the Dunkettle Interchange and the Little Island junction.
Elsewhere in Louth there is a crash blocking the left lane on the Belfast-Dublin road southbound, between the Dundalk and Castlebellingham junctions.
Meanwhile, in the capital there are delays eastbound along the Grand Canal from Clogher Road to Harold's Cross.
Its also busy inbound on Gardiner St approaching Beresford Place, according to AA Roadwatch.
It is slow too on Phibsborough Road from Harts Corner to Doyles Corner.
In Firhouse a collision on Colmcille's Way inbound near the Ballycullen Road junction is causing delays in the area.
Traffic lights are also reportedly out of action on Military Road at the Killiney Hill Road junction.
A crash has also been reported on the N7 inbound on the Naas road just after the Red Cow interchange, drivers are asked to take care on approach and expect delays. It has been now been cleared.
CRIMINAL proceedings have commenced over the handling of collective redundancies at Clerys department store.
Businesswoman Deirdre Foley faces a single charge of impeding a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) inspector as well as three counts of breaking protection of employment laws.
Two other executives and as well as the previous owners, OCS Operations Ltd (now in liquidation), and Natrium Ltd which took over the iconic department store in 2015 have been served summons with connected charges.
The case had its first listing at Dublin District Court on Monday before Judge John Brennan, who following submissions from defence and prosecution lawyers, granted an adjournment until May 19 next. None of the defendants have yet entered a plea.
Breffni Gordon BL, for the prosecution, told Judge Brennan the prosecutions have been instituted by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the WRC.
OCS Operations petitioned the High Court for liquidation on June 12, 2015. This was followed by the collective redundancies in which 460 people lost jobs and 130 of them were directly employed by Clerys, he said.
Lawyers for the defence argued that in the interest of a fair trial that an order should be made for disclosure of evidence at this stage. Mr Gordon resisted the application and said the disclosure would be provided at a later stage.
The judge was told Ms Foley has an application before the Court of Appeal on April 28 in a bid to overturn a High Court ruling last year dismissing her challenge to the investigation. Mr Gordon said that during the investigation a laptop was seized at the offices of Ms Foley's firm, D2 Private Ltd but it was returned to her after a forensic image of it was taken.
OCS Operations Ltd has three charges. It operated Clerys Department Store and Warehouse, from 2012 until a liquidator was appointed in June 2015, when it ceased trading faces.
The alleged offences are under the Protection of Employment Act for failing initiate consultations with representatives of employees affected by the collective redundancies in OCS Operations Ltd, failing to supply employee representatives with all relevant information relating to the redundancies and not notifying the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in writing, on June 12, 2015 the day of the Clerys takeover.
There is one charge against Natrium Ltd, the company that took over OCS Operations Ltd in 2015 and which is co-owned by property developer Deirdre Foley and a UK based property investment and hedge fund business which has an 80 per cent stake. Natrium Ltd is accused of obstructing or impeding a WRC inspector on June 27 last year at 25-28 North Wall Quay, the companys address.
Deirdre Foley, of Hollybank Avenue Upper Ranelagh, Dublin 6, who has a 20 per cent share in Natrium Ltd, faces four charges. One count alleges that it was with her consent or connivance that Natrium Ltd impeded a WRC inspector on June 12, 2015.
Her other three charges are under Protection of Employment Act for failing initiate consultations with representatives of employees, failing to supply employee representatives with all relevant information relating to the redundancies and not notifying the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in writing, on June 12, 2015.
Also before the court is Mark Redmond, of Belfry Dale, Citywest Road, Saggart, Co. Dublin an employee of a D2 Private Ltd, a firm is owned by Deirdre Foley. He faces the same charges for allegedly failing to notify the Minister or consult with workers representative or provide them with relevant information about the redundancies.
Brendan Cooney, a director of OCS Operations Ltd, with an address at Weirview Drive, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin also has the same charges plus an additional one under the Workplace Relations Act for giving false or misleading information to an inspector.
A desperate mother-of-three has been sleeping outside the Dail in the hope of getting the life-saving Orkambi drug for her young daughter who has Cystic Fibrosis (CF).
Hazel Robinson from Drumlish, Co Longford, told Independent.ie that she'll do "everything in her power" to help her sick daughter Gypsy Ann (14).
"My daughter Gypsy has Cystic Fibrosis but recently she got accepted onto the Orkambi drug programme on compassionate grounds. Its great that shes getting to try it but its horrible in another sense because weve run out of all other options. Her consultants said that the only other thing after this is a lung transplant."
Ms Robinson said she has done everything she can think of to gain attention for Gypsy.
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"I went on Facebook crying my eyes out when Gypsy started coughing up blood. Im appealing to the public, to the TDs, to Simon Harris, anyone that can help get us access to Orkambi for our kids. While Im begging my daughters lungs are getting more and more damaged.
"Its horrible a 14-year-old has to go through this. Weve witnessed as a family how cruel Cystic Fibrosis can be."
The HSE and pharmaceutical company Vertex are due to meet again today to discuss a deal to fund the cost of Orkambi, priced at around 150,000 a year per patient and another CF drug, Kalydeco
"What is more important money or life? No matter how much you can debate it there are people suffering.
"I just want it to be over. Simon Harris said for the past month that hes waiting to finalise this and I just hope he keeps to his promise because we cant go on like this. What more can we do? Were begging for our kid's life. No more children should be suffering unnecessarily."
Ms Robinson said that since her daughter was born she has "mourned the life her daughter should have had."
"Since my daughter was born weve been mourning her life. We were given a time frame of how long she was going to live. After she was born I mourned a life she couldnt fulfil. She might never go to college, get married and have kids. She might not have a life.
"Then all of a sudden the drug came along that could change this and we were left in a state of despair. We were left campaigning outside the Dail, begging for my childs life."
The mother-of-three said she bought a one-way ticket from Longford to Dublin and is staying outside the Dail until someone speaks with her.
"I was taking part in the water protest and I thought if I can walk the streets for the protest against Irish Water, surely I can do something more proactive for the kids with CF.
"I understand that nobody was available over the weekend but I want people to talk to me."
Roughly 540 people in Ireland are eligible for the Orkambi drug, according to Ms Robinson.
"They need these drugs before the lung damage is done not after. Gypsy should have gotten this drug before the damage started. I dont want children to end up in the situation that she has been in all year."
Ms Robinson has urged the public to attend a protest march on Wednesday at 1pm outside Dail Eireann.
LIFE certainly doesn't mean "life" when it comes to prison sentences in Ireland.
In fact, a prisoner serving a life sentence can be reviewed for temporary or early release after serving just seven years of their sentence.
The final decision rests with the Minister for Justice.
According to official data the length of a life sentence served in custody can vary signigicantly.
"Life sentenced prisoners who are released into the community continue to serve their sentences and are subject to a number of stringent conditions," the department said in its reply.
In figures obtained by Deputy Tommy Broughan, who contested the last General Election as part of the Independents4Change party, the Department revealed that there are currently 352 prisoners serving a life sentence in Ireland.
Of these inmates 342 are male, while just ten are female.
Seven life sentence prisoners were granted temporary release last year after they'd served an average of 22 years.
This varied from the previous year when six life sentence inmates obtained temporary released after 17 years and six months on average.
Four life sentence prisoners were granted temporary release in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The Midlands Prison has the highest amount of life sentence inmates, 79, Wheatfield Place of Detention has 71 and there are 41 in the male unit of Mountjoy prison.
There are 39 men serving life sentences in Arbour Hill, 24 in Portlaoise and 16 in both Castlerea and Shelton Abbey.
Cork, Cloverhill and Loughan House also have male prisoners carrying out life sentences.
There are nine female prisoners serving life sentences in Mountjoy's female prison and just one woman serving life in Limerick.
The only survivor of the Clondalkin fire tragedy that claimed the lives of a pregnant mum and three children is making a slow recovery from the extensive burns she suffered in the blaze.
Biddy OBrien (30) is still under heavy sedation in St Jamess Hospital, with her distraught husband Jamie maintaining a bedside vigil.
More than a month after the fire, which broke out in the first floor of the Cluainin Cronan apartments, she is still reportedly unaware that her two children Jordan (4) and Holly (3) died, along with her cousin Annmarie (27), who was seven months pregnant with baby AJ, and Annmaries two-year-old daughter Paris.
From speaking to a family member, I have been told the doctors are slowly removing the bandages from her wounds and they seem pleased with the way Biddy is healing physically, but she still has a long road ahead, said Jim OBrien, spokesman for the Bray Travellers Community Development Group.
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They are also slowly waking her, but she is sedated. She might know some small things about the fire now.
Biddy was knocked unconscious by the smoke and suffered extensive burns. The family have to take things one day at a time.
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The staff and medical teams at St Jamess are doing a fantastic job and they deserve a lot of praise.
While the physical injuries are one thing, the mental and emotional pain are another.
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Jamie spends all his time with Biddy and has professional people, counsellors and bereavement specialists, both from within the Traveller Counselling Service and through the HSE, who are available to help if and when required.
Mr OBrien is a cousin of victim Annmarie.
It is thought a candle burning in a corner of the living room, close to the television, started the fire on March 8.
The vision for the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which is being designed by Irish firm Heneghan Peng. Photo: Archimation/Heneghan Peng
Irish architects are leading the way globally, from designing high-tech hospitals in London to museums in Cairo.
Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) president Carole Pollard has said we need to start valuing our architecture more, and said that Irish firms were employed in some of the most exciting projects globally.
Heneghan Peng is designing the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo - which will be one of the largest in the world when complete - while Scott Tallon Walker is involved in the new Proton Beam Therapy Centre at University College London Hospital, which will provide cutting-edge cancer treatment.
"This is state of the art," she said. "They are going down nine storeys in the centre of London to house this proton beam unit and it's Irish architects doing that.
"There are Irish architects master-planning cities in China, teaching everywhere. We have incredible talent.
"The Danes aren't genetically any better at designing than the Irish, but they value it and they promote it and they keep telling everybody they are the best designers in the world, and we need to start doing the same.
"I think awareness of design has grown. Design is very high on the agenda of the National Planning Framework. We were fortunate enough to have a national policy framework on architecture, but it expired last year and we need another."
But she said she did have concerns about the number of women in practice, saying there was a 50/50 ratio in the universities, falling to 78/22 in practice.
"There is a huge loss to the profession in terms of management, leading projects, dealing with clients," she said.
"By losing so many women graduates, we're narrowing that skill-set."
She said there were five "really good schools" of architecture at DIT, UCD, UCC, UL and Waterford IT, but the cost of studying architecture was high.
"I am very concerned that architecture will become the preserve of the middle classes, because it's becoming a very expensive degree to take," she said.
"It limits the pool and opportunities, and you can't deny opportunity to people."
A NUIG professor has called for more education to prevent terrorism at a conference in Brussels, on the eve of the first anniversary of the devastating terrorist attacks.
Professor Patrick Dolan from the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway was speaking at the event called 'How to Prevent Violent Extremism and Radicalisation through Education' at the European Parliament.
Pavel Telicka, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, a member of the European Parliament, and several other EP members provided keynote addresses in Brussels.
Speaking at the event, Professor Patrick Dolan stressed the vital importance of nurturing empathy in young people, to "build engagement and advance empowerment while deepening solidarity".
He also stressed that education is key.
Professor Dolan will also lead an international secondary schools pilot empathy education programme in autumn 2017, to "enhance empathy and compassion, and minimise racism and hate language".
The international pilot project will include schools in Ireland as one of the "champion country sites" for the initiative.
Building a more just, more peaceful, and more sustainable future for all must start at the benches of school, said UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova in her keynote address, which discussed the role of education in preventing violent extremism.
The Director-General called for new forms of education and added: We need a quality of education that reaches every girl and boy, education that promotes dialogue and understanding between cultures. Education today must be about learning to live in a world under pressure, it must be about new forms of cultural literacy. We must provide young people with a renewed sense of belonging, with new skills, and a new confidence in the future.
The UNESCO Director-Generals comments were echoed by Pavel Telicka, Vice-President of the European Parliament who said that young people are not born as terrorists.
Ilhan Kyuchyuk, who underlined the vital importance of education, skills and opportunities for employment said it was important, to empower young people while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Hans Bonte, Federal Representative for the constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde shared the experience of the city of Vilvoorde in preventing and countering radicalisation leading to violent extremism, with the city having seen a steep challenge of radicalised young people travelling to Syria. He underlined the need for bridge-building at the local level to deepen the sense of belonging and solidarity for young people of all backgrounds.
Mr Bonte said: Young people face enormous stress today. This is something we must face in discussing what education we need and the shape of educational systems, to support young people and keep them in learning. We have to work on all sides, with youth and schools because this is where we will win or lose.
With thanks to Campus.ie
Gardai searching for the remains of a convicted rapist in a North Dublin park have discovered a human torso.
The grim discovery made during the search for the remains of James Nolan were made at an embankment in Tolka Valley Park in Finglas shortly before 2pm on Monday.
The case of Nolans suspected murder first came to public prominence when his arm was washed up on Dollymount Strand in 2011.
Gardai have been searching at the Finglas location since the morning of April 1 last and are expected to continue looking for the rest of the murdered rapists remains in the coming days.
Today's discovery was made by officers who were working with specially trained dogs and machinery.
A post mortem examination is due to be carried out on Tuesday morning.
The Herald first revealed in December that gardai had planned to carry out a dig in the north Dublin park because of details left in a 21-page suicide letter written by Nolans killer and sent to family members.
The letter states that James Nolan was strangled to death by his killer in Glasnevin Cemetery.
His body was then brought to an address in north Dublin and cut into pieces at that address.
The killer then disposed of most of Nolans body parts in Co Monaghan and at Tolka Valley Park.
Gardai have been involved in a detailed search of the park for over a week. Specialist equipment and a cadaver dog are being used to support the search.
It is understood that Nolans severed arm which was found washed up at Dollymount Strand had been originally thrown into the Tolka River and then washed out to sea.
Detectives are working on the theory that he was strangled to death by the man known to him.
James Nolans inquest heard that Nolans arm was found by a man walking his dog on February 8, 2011.
The inquest into Nolans death which happened in February of last year heard from State Pathologist Marie Cassidy who said that Nolans arm was cleanly severed post-death using a very sharp knife and tattoos had been cut from the skin.
Nolans last known whereabouts were when he collected methadone from the Wellmount Clinic in Finglas on November 30, 2010.
Nolan had been missing since shortly after he was released from Portlaoise Prison having served a three year sentence there for burglary in Booterstown, south Dublin, in 2005.
In 1986 he was jailed for 14 years when he was convicted of rape and false imprisonment.
The 1986 rape attack is considered one of the most savage to have ever happened in Ireland and the victim was brutally attacked in front of her partner.
Sources say that the rape incident is being probed as a possible motive for Nolans gruesome murder even though his suspected killer was not present on the night.
The latest census figures show "a radical change" taking place in Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has conceded.
However, he also stressed that the number of people self-identifying as Catholic is "still high" at 78.3pc of the population.
Speaking to the Irish Independent in Knock on Saturday about the "striking" CSO figures, Dr Martin said the number that registered themselves as Catholic could be "slightly deceptive for us, in that many parents would have put down all their children as Catholic and that may not be the case".
In his homily at St Mary's Pro Cathedral for Palm Sunday, Dr Martin further admitted the Catholic Church in Ireland had been "over hypnotised by the high numbers who attended Mass in the past and paid too little attention to helping people really deepen their faith".
The census figures show a drop of almost 6pc in the number of Catholics from 84.2pc of the population in 2011, totalling 132,200 fewer Catholics.
There was also a strong increase in the number of people of 'no religion', which currently stands at 9.8pc of the population.
The Catholic Church in Ireland was so "fixed on the tiniest minutiae of doctrine" that it missed real depth of faith, the archbishop acknowledged, adding: "We were so quick to identify sin and the sinner that we lost sight of the sinfulness of our own hearts."
Admitting that the Church remained "a Church of saints and of sinners", Dr Martin said in every one there was an interaction between belief and secularisation.
Many who profess themselves as secularised and even those who profess that they belong to no religion, may well possess remnants of faith and these remnants can play an important role in their lives, he said.
Many of those who would not have hesitated for a moment to register themselves at the census as Catholics, may be unaware of how much a culture of secularisation penetrates their lives and thought patterns and choices.
"There are those who call themselves Christians yet live as if God did not exist," he said.
Flanked by Archbishop Michael Neary and Bishop Kevin Doran, Dr Martin told the assembled faithful the Church must be a place of mercy, where those who have failed can experience not harsh judgment but the strong embrace of the Lord lifting them up and helping them to begin again.
He told the Irish independent he agreed with a call by Jesuit Fr Gerry O'Hanlon for greater participation of the laity and women in the Church.
"We certainly need far more women involved, working in leadership positions in the Church," Dr Martin said.
Asked if he was worried about the trend in Catholic figures and a shift towards cultural Catholicism, the Archbishop said it was "up to the Church to see that it consolidates its mission and its task in the realities in which we live, whether this is as it was in the past, as a majority where we failed in many ways, or as a minority where we have to live and preach the teachings of Jesus".
A painting that was expected to sell for 500 was snapped up for an incredible 120,000 at an auction in Dublin.
James O Halloran, Managing Director at Adams Auctioneers, gushed that the bidding for the Jesus Wearing the Crown of Thorns painting was "very exciting."
The 19th century piece went under the hammer in Dublin on Sunday and its popularity blew experts away.
Mr O'Halloran said: "For most people, you know, it was quite gory.
"But the internet bidder - one of the internet bidders - pounced immediately and put in a bid of 2,000.
"So at that point then I knew that we were probably going to get some degree of fireworks.
"Certainly [I] didn't expect the bidding to continue to the extent that it did."
Speaking to RTE's News at One, he continued to say: "I brought the hammer down on 120,000.
"It was very exciting."
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He also explained that this type of sale is a sleeper and said you never can predict what might catch someone's eye.
He said: "We haven't had one for quite a long time ... in this business you don't know everything and you can't know everything.
"Sometimes things turn up that somebody else sees something in."
It's understood that the painting's new owner doesn't live in Ireland and has not actually seen the piece in person.
Mr O'Halloran added that he stumbled upon the precious painting when he went to view excess objects that were being thrown out by an institution.
He said he had a look "amongst about a hundred things that were in a corridor, I spotted this and two other items.
"And it just stood out because ... the frame is fantastic; a beautiful carved and painted frame.
"There was very strong Italian interest in it, so that's all I can say at this point.
"I don't know where its destination is, ultimately, but it certainly is leaving Ireland."
Two young paddleboards have been rescued by the RNLI after they got into difficulties due to offshore wind.
A member of the public alerted the RNLI after the girls got into trouble off the coast of Bangor, Co Down on Saturday evening.
A video of the rescue was shared in an an online post on the Bangor RNLI Facebook page.
"Although it was a beautiful afternoon, the girls hadnt factored in the offshore wind, and this led to them getting more tired as they tried to return to base at Ballyholme Yacht Club," the post read.
"The Bangor RNLI lifeboat, helmed by Peter Semple, made light work of picking up the two girls and their boards and returning them to the slipway at Ballyholme Yacht Club, where they were passed into the care of HM Coastguard."
Mr Semple said he and the team aboard the lifeboat Jessie Hillyard were delighted to rescue the young women.
"On arrival at the scene we were pleased to see that they were both wearing wetsuits and buoyancy aids, and had just misjudged the offshore wind."
A Dublin teenager killed in a car crash over the weekend has been described as a "genuinely good person with a heart of gold".
Dylan Cowley (19) died after the vehicle he was driving was involved in a collision with another car on the R162 Navan to Kingscourt Road on Saturday at 1.20pm.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
His cousin, Karl Kennedy, described him as a "genuinely good person with a heart of gold".
Mr Kennedy said the phone call he had received informing him of his cousin's death was "the worst phone call in my life".
"My heart is in pieces knowing I will never see him again," he said.
Mr Cowley grew up in Blanchardstown in West Dublin and had lived in Finglas before moving to Navan, Co Meath.
He had two sisters and was the eldest child.
He was alone in his vehicle at the time of the incident.
A woman and two children were in the second car and were taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
The road was closed over the weekend while a forensics team carried out an investigation.
Gardai are appealing for anyone with information to contact Navan garda station on 046 9036100.
"Youre messing with the Kinahans here!", screamed an angry woman to terrified passengers on a plane, which then had to be diverted because of her and her male companions actions.
The womans partner was physically removed from the plane and had to receive medical attention after appearing to go into apoplectic shock on the tarmac.
Eyewitness claimed the couple, who had Dublin accents, 'lost it' on the plane after downing a bottle of vodka.
"The man got really abusive, started banging the overhead compartment and flailing things around," a passenger on a British Airways plane from Marrakech to London Gatwick, said.
The man said he was "too terrified" to give his name in case there was any truth to the womans claims shes connected to the criminal gang the Kinahans.
"The woman started panicking when the man got out of control," he recalls.
"An off-duty English policeman was on the plane and he helped staff to try and control the situation.
"But it got so dangerous the pilot decided to divert the plane to Porto in Portugal. Police arrived on to the plane and it took several of them to physically thrown the guy off the plane. The woman was escorted off as well, but she was very angry.
"When the man got on to the tarmac he was put face down and was handcuffed. He then had to be stretchered off into an ambulance."
The eyewitness explain she is a seasoned traveller, but has never seen anything like the behaviour of the pair.
"There were a lot of young children on the plane and a lot of people were scared senseless as this guy was near the emergency exit and we were terrified he might try and open it," he recalls.
"Everyone was so relieved when they were thrown off and we were stuck in Porto before we could take off again."
The incident happened on Wednesday,March 15, but officials have only recently commented after video footage emerged.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told us. "We have not been contacted about this case but stand ready to provide consular assistance if required.
British Airways issued the following statement: "Our pilots took the decision to divert the aircraft and it was met by the police. We are sorry for the inconvenience to our customers."
Garda supervisors are to challenge Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan over her remarks that the creation of almost one million bogus breath tests was due to incompetence at best and deception at worst.
Ms O'Sullivan made the comments while addressing an Oireachtas justice committee meeting last month, when she said that dishonesty may also have been to blame for inputting false breath test figures into the Garda Pulse computer system.
Those remarks will be tackled directly by the president of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), Antoinette Cunningham, when she delivers her address to its annual conference, which gets under way in Killarney this evening.
Ms Cunningham told the Irish Independent last night that delegates were looking forward to the Commissioner speaking at the conference, as it had been one of the most difficult years for the force in recent times and they had only two opportunities to meet with Ms O'Sullivan in the past year.
"So having her at our conference is very important to us, and we will also be responding to her directly following her recent appearance at the Oireachtas committee on justice. Our association received quite a number of calls, emails and texts from our members following her comments," Ms Cunningham said.
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The two women are due to speak at the conference tomorrow afternoon.
Ms Cunningham has already said her association did not know how the figures had been exaggerated, but apologised to those who had been fundamentally wronged.
However, Tanaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has had to abandon her plans to address the conference.
This is because of Dail motions attacking the Commissioner and senior Garda management this week.
The Tanaiste was initially scheduled to speak in Killarney tonight. It was then switched to Wednesday morning, but her visit has now been cancelled.
Ms Fitzgerald has to be in the Dail to face a motion from Fianna Fail calling on the Government to mandate the Policing Authority to determine whether Ms O'Sullivan should go or stay as Commissioner while criticising Garda management and calling for more powers for the authority.
She will also have to respond to a Sinn Fein motion, which will be turned into a vote of no confidence in the Commissioner.
The Commissioner is expected to take the opportunity to tell delegates of the steps being taken by Garda management to carry out nationwide inquiries to establish the background to the latest scandals to hit the force.
All ranks of the force will have a role to play in determining how and why the bogus breath tests were recorded, as well as focusing on the 14,700 people wrongly prosecuted in court for road traffic offences.
None of the 27 motions on the conference agenda deal with the association's strike action last year or the litany of scandals that have engulfed An Garda Siochana.
There is now a real danger that the country could be plunged into an election that nobody wants and the country certainly does not want. An early election would send a clear message to the electorate that the two centre parties are not willing to compromise for the sake of the common good.
It would damage Ireland's hard-won reputation abroad as a stable country for investment with a stable political system. It would give a pyrrhic victory to a minority, although loud, who believe you govern by slogans.
We all know that water has been the toxic touchstone issue of the past three years. Every party, except for the Greens, has played politics with it. From the Sinn Fein flip-flop that water was not a "red line" issue if it entered government, to the Fianna Fail position in 2010 which signed us all up to water charges, which at the time they envisaged to be 500 per year per household. It's fair to say the level of consistency on water hasn't been great.
Fianna Fail and Fine Gael urgently need to come to a deal over water. The water committee wrangling over the meaning of words is a bit like bald men fighting over a comb. The posturing on the plinth must come to an end.
Nobody believes an early election will give a radically different result. Last year, Fianna Fail declined the offer of a grand coalition with Fine Gael. A collapse of the current confidence and supply arrangement would mean this type of deal would not be considered after the election. Given the fact that most of the hard left do not want to go into government, where would the government come from?
It would leave Sinn Fein in the driving seat. Hot on the heels of electoral success in Northern Ireland, it would present itself, having ditched Mr Adams, of course, as the only viable alternative. As it loses interest in Stormont and creates as much trouble politically as it can south of the Border, Sinn Fein sees an early election as a good thing. And, as we know, its strategy has always been the same - Sinn Fein and all its shadowy friends come first and Ireland's interest comes trotting well behind.
I believe Enda Kenny and Micheal Martin want the current deal to continue. Their experience helped make the deal possible and both men have shown each other the necessary level of respect for the deal to succeed. It also helped that neither of them have inflated egos.
Fine Gael must understand that the hybrid model of political co-habitation is difficult for Mr Martin and his party. In short, Fine Gael must stop taking Fianna Fail for granted.
Fianna Fail needs to understand it must make the arrangement work for one simple reason; it may need such an arrangement itself in the future. Also, many Fianna Fail supporters pay water charges through group water schemes in rural Ireland, with many more resenting the antics of the anti-water rates campaign.
The broad parameters of how to sort out the politically charged issue of water has been agreed by Dail committee.
The political temperature on water and the political point-scoring is now getting in the way of a final deal between both parties.
The provision of clean water, the disposal of waste water and how all the necessary investment and annual costs are financed are the all-important issues. Both parties need to agree on how the massive programme of investment which is required will be funded into the future. While that may not satisfy the "polluter pays" principal under the directive, it would at the very least set out an investment programme which is so desperately needed. That is presuming both can find the money to do it.
The most important political issue facing this country is Brexit. The challenges posed by Brexit will stretch our political leaders and our public service as never before. Political stability will be required for several years to come if Ireland is to successfully negotiate its way through the Brexit negotiations.
It is crucial that the two centre parties work together for the common good. In the years to come, big decisions will be made by the British government and the European Union which will directly impact Ireland and its people. Our interests will be best defended by a stable and united political front on these major issues.
Bad politics always have bad consequences. Look at the Brexit decision.
Fianna Fail and Fine Gael need to learn from the German experience. There, the two centre parties agree to respect each other and govern together in the national interest - and Germany is the winner.
Ireland has come through a deep recession. When the crisis was at its deepest, parties of the left were arguing that Ireland should have followed the example of Greece. We don't hear them saying that any more. Another poster country for parties of the left was Venezuela. That country is now in economic and political chaos.
There is no guarantee that the present favourable economic circumstances will continue. We face significant industrial relations problems in the semi-state and public sector. And last week, the tax and expenditure returns for the first quarter, and especially for March, were worrying, to say the least.
For now, the confidence and supply arrangement is the only game in town. Both parties need to make it work.
Brian Hayes is a Fine Gael MEP for Dublin
The Granuaile off the Blacsod Pier with the wreckage of Rescue 116 covered in a green cover. Pic Steve Humphreys
The Irish Lights vessel the Granuaile has departed Blacksod after almost a month of assisting in the search for downed Rescue 116.
The Air Accident Investigation Unit and the gardai in conjunction with Coast Guard have expressed their sincere appreciation to the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
The search operation conducted by the Marine Institute's Holland 1 ROV concluded this afternoon when the Granuaile departed Blacksod Bay.
Superintendent Tony Healy confirmed that the Garda Water Unit would conduct diving searches in the vicinity of Blackrock Light as soon as wind and tidal conditions are considered suitable.
He also confirmed that he had requested Coast Guard and Civil Defence volunteers to continue with targeted searches of coastal areas and monitoring of specific areas of interest.
Gerard O'Flynn from the Coast Guard thanked all the statutory and voluntary organisations for their unstinting support over the past four weeks, paying special thanks to Coast Guard, RNLI and Civil Defence volunteers and Defence Forces assets including naval divers, ships and Air Corps. He added that the operation highlighted the value of inter-agency cooperation in meeting challenges of this type.
The Coast Guard also wishes to remind all mariners to keep a good lookout for any material associated with Rescue 116 and to report any findings to Malin Head Coast Guard Coordination Centre.
An Garda Siochana, AAIU and IRCG reiterated their sympathy to the families of Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith and expressed the hope that with the extensive monitoring both at sea and on shore that the remains of Paul and Ciaran would be found.
William Byrne, founder of the Friends of the Leinster society, at the anchor of the RMS Leinster in Dun Laoghaire, near Dublin (Image: PA)
A global search is on to find descendants of the passengers and crew of Ireland's worst maritime disaster in time for the centenary.
More than 500 people died when the RMS Leinster was torpedoed in the Irish Sea near Dublin Bay on October 10 1918, a month and a day from the end of the First World War.
There were about 700 people on board, including an unknown number of stowaways.
William Byrne, founder of the Friends of the Leinster group, said: "It's Ireland's greatest maritime tragedy. For a start, it's the worst ever loss of life to occur in the Irish Sea.
"The story should not be omitted from history. It was for too long forgotten, perhaps for political reasons."
The Royal Mail Ship Leinster operated between Dun Laoghaire, or Kingstown as it was then known, and Holyhead in north Wales.
It went down near the Kish lighthouse after being targeted by the German submarine U-123. In turn, the U-boat sank several days later when it hit a mine in Scapa Flow off Scotland.
Possibly the most significant of those yet to be traced are the descendants of the ship's captain William Birch, who had homes in both Drumcondra, Dublin and in Holyhead.
"As far as we are aware he was lost at sea and his body was never recovered. We are not certain. But we would like to make contact with his family," Mr Byrne said.
As well as trying to trace the descendants of those on board the Leinster, the commemorative society have also been in contact with German embassy officials in a bid to invite relatives of the naval servicemen on the U-boat.
On board the Leinster there were also passengers from Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead, a group of Wrens, some clergy including one nun who died and Allied troops from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
One of those was US Admiral HJ Cone.
A group of postal workers from Dublin were also on board, with the lone survivor avoiding the first blast after leaving the post room to go for a cigarette.
Mr Byrne's great-grandfather John Donohoe was chief stoker on the Leinster. He saved 16-year-old cabin boy Thomas Connolly by giving him his life jacket.
"I believe that most of the casualties in Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead have been accounted for," Mr Byrne said.
"Families we have yet to make contact with include some of the American families."
Mr Byrne said: "My great-grandfather had nightmares for years afterwards."
Those who died have been remembered at special commemorations, including at the 90th anniversary when the names of many of those lost were read out by schoolchildren at an inter-church commemorative service.
Among those remembered was Gerald Palmer, a boy with a physical disability, who had spent most of his life in care.
He was lost on the Leinster while on his way from the unfortunately-named Cripples Home in Bray to Barnardo's Home in London but his death was only discovered in recent years.
A postal address has been set up to help the search for descendants of the passengers and crew of the Leinster, with relatives urged to write to Mailboat Leinster Committee, 3 Eblana Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Ireland.
A woman in her twenties is in a serious condition following a fire at an apartment complex in Waterford city.
The alarm was raised at approximately 11pm and both gardai and firefighters attended the scene on Wellington Street in the city centre.
The woman was brought to Waterford University Hospital where gardai confirmed she is in a "serious condition".
Four firefighters were also brought to hospital as a precaution and treated for smoke inhalation.
Three of the crew left hospital last night and one stayed until this morning.
The crews used breathing apparatus to enter the building and rescued the woman who was in a ground floor apartment. She was handed over the ambulance service while the fire brigade extinguished the fire by 1.30am.
"The conditions for the firefighters at the incident were difficult, it was an extremely hot fire," said Chief Fire Officer Niall Curtin, adding there was a "great urgency" to rescue any occupants.
He continud; "Waterford Fire Service received a call at 11.05pm on Sunday night for a fire in an apartment building on Wellington Street with possible persons reported. Two crews were mobilised to the building which was being evacuated on arrival."
The scene has been preserved by gardai.
Jack impressed This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby by swimming with sharks in London on their show last week.
A boy who is encouraging children to stand up to bullies, like he did, has impressed This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby - by swimming with real sharks.
"He was brave enough to stand up to bullies in school and wanted to show others that he was able to swim with real live sharks in the London Aquarium too," said Jack Teeling's mum, Grainne.
Expand Close Jack impressed This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby by swimming with sharks in London on their show last week. Jack is pictured with his mum Grainne. Picture Ciara Wilkinson. / Facebook
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Whatsapp Jack impressed This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby by swimming with sharks in London on their show last week. Jack is pictured with his mum Grainne. Picture Ciara Wilkinson.
She said that Jack (9) was bullied because of the effect that losing an eye to cancer had on his appearance.
"Earlier this year, he had to go without his prosthetic eye for nearly five weeks because of an infection in his eye socket," she said.
"Some of the other children knew he could not see in one eye but did not know he was missing an eye and, when they realised this, they said mean things to him and refused to play with him.
"I am very proud of him because he stood up to them and told his teacher.
"It was all dealt with really quickly."
Jack said: "Bullying is wrong. It's OK to tell an adult about it."
Expand Close Nine-year-old Jack Teeling is encouraging children to stand up to bullies as he has done. Picture Ciara Wilkinson. / Facebook
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Whatsapp Nine-year-old Jack Teeling is encouraging children to stand up to bullies as he has done. Picture Ciara Wilkinson.
Grainne added: "He knows he's the same as everybody else.
"He's got a 'special eye', but he's no different to any other child and he wants other children to know they can conquer their fears and stand up to bullies."
Grainne has watched as both Jack and his younger brother Cian (7) went through chemotherapy to battle the same cancer, retinoblastoma.
The family, from Mornington, Co Meath, have used Facebook to raise the issue of the bullying of children who have had the condition.
For siblings to develop the disease is rare, and it was due to Grainne listening to her instinct and insisting that doctors check her younger son that it was discovered he too had tumours.
Both lost an eye but are now doing well, and Jack has developed a love of acting and is registered with a modelling agency.
"I'm so proud of him and, when we saw that This Morning was doing two weeks on how to tackle bullying, Jack sent in a video saying how he had been bullied when he was sick, and to show the bullies that they should not do it he would like to swim with sharks," said Grainne.
To their de light, the producers of the ITV programme got in touch and arranged to fly the family to London, where they arranged for Jack to swim with sharks in the London Aquarium.
He was interviewed live from the aquarium by Schofield and Willoughby.
Ireland's housing market in 2017 is one of many conflicting signals. Depending on who you talk to, there are parallels with all sorts of past experiences. To some, we are still living in the crash, with masses of empty properties dotted around the country the elephant in the room.
To others, the dramatic increase in housing prices tells them that we are in a bubble. To them, the market is like Groundhog Day - and we are Bill Murray, doomed to repeat the same cycle we just exited.
I am not convinced by either narrative, however. True, there are some small pockets of the country where an excess of bubble-era building still swamps demand. But by far the more important trend over the last six years has been an acute and growing shortage of supply.
It's worth remembering that, in the bubble years of 2001-2008, Ireland's cities did not build to excess. The over-hang, once the bubble popped, was to do with the increase in unemployment and emigration. Once this levelled off in 2010, so too did rental, and later sale, markets.
But if we are not back in 2011, neither are we back in 2001. The market then was characterised by increasingly reckless borrowing and lending. Central Bank of Ireland figures indicate that the typical first-time buyer went from having a 33pc deposit in 2000 to less than a 10pc deposit in 2006. More than 25pc of first-time buyers that year had no deposit at all.
Back in 2014, when Dublin house prices were rising at a rate of 25pc per year, I did worry that we were entering another expectations-driven bubble, fuelled by loose credit. And, true, the Central Bank has recently relaxed its mortgage rules, while the Government has decided to 'help' first-time buyers.
But the key point is that the rules are there. It is not up to individual banks to decide how risky they should get when issuing mortgages: the Central Bank has given them a maximum level of risk.
So what we have is a market where demand easily outstrips supply, in both sale and rental segments, but where credit is limited, reducing dramatically the risk of a bubble.
Strong demand - and weak supply - mean that some of the guessing is taken out of the market. Despite quarterly and perhaps annual blips, it is likely that prices will continue to rise in the coming years, although far less dramatically than in recent years.
What does this mean for those thinking about buying or selling? For sellers, the key change is to move away from valuing your house based on what it was worth in the bubble or what your neighbour sold theirs for two or three years ago.
Sellers need to figure out the kind of buyer for their home: Who are they and what do they work as? Knowing whether your home is likely to appeal to a teacher or two law partners or someone downsizing is central. What is their household income? What sort of deposit might they have? This will determine their mortgage and thus the maximum they are willing to pay.
For example, suppose you think your home will be bought by an accountant and a teacher. Together, they earn 80,000 per year, before taxes. They are first-time buyers and, leaving aside money for solicitors' fees and stamp duty, they have saved up 30,000.
Under Central Bank rules, they would be allowed to borrow 280,000 - unless they can secure an exemption from the loan-to-income restriction, in which case they could borrow 300,000. Either way, the most this couple would be able to spend on a house is 330,000.
What about buyers? It is tempting for buyers to just employ the same logic in reverse: "Whatever the bank will lend us is our stash and let's go find something we like."
But the key question for buyers is to know how much an individual property is truly worth - and then tailor the search for a home based on that calculation. This is done by applying an investor's logic. As a homeowner, you are both an investor and a consumer. And a good investor will want to know what return they are going to get on their asset.
The rule of thumb is that bidders should not offer more than 20-25 times the annual rent for a property, without a very good reason why. A property that rents for 1,200 per month has an annual rental bill of almost 15,000. This translates into a value of between 300,000 and 375,000.
The smaller the multiple of the annual rent, the better a deal you are getting for yourself as an investor. Many investors currently are only paying 10 times the annual rent for one- and two-bedroom properties.
But going beyond 25 times the annual rent means that you are taking on risk. Remember, as the successful buyer of a property, you have just valued it more than anyone else on the planet. You should be able to explain why!
We should all be feminists. That, taken from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2013 Ted Talk, is the line that appeared on a series of Dior T-shirts last year, snapped up and proudly worn by heaps of celebrities, including Rihanna and Natalie Portman.
And, of course, we should all be feminists. Indeed, many of us are. The problem is - maybe has always been - what exactly does a feminist look like? Now, I know Benedict Cumberbatch and Barack Obama, among many others, have tried to answer this via the time-honoured medium of T-shirt slogans, but, good intentions aside, it's not that easy and may even be getting harder.
Actually, Irish feminists may be lucky. Let me explain. Ok, it's tough to live in a country where our reproductive rights are the property of other people - indeed, of old-fashioned, male-dominated institutions; where 93pc of childcare is done by women (the worst record out of 37 countries recently surveyed by the Overseas Development Institute, including Iraq and Algeria); where the gender pay gap is over 14pc; and our very Constitution patronises and squashes us. But what this kind of blatant sexism does provide is a series of clear and visible targets; a number of giant 'Xs' to aim at.
There need be nothing woolly about Irish feminism. 'Repeal The Eighth', for example, is a rallying cry being heard by thousands, a cry that cuts through any amount of vague and uncommitted discourse like a red-hot knife through butter, slicing efficiently through all the tedious 'Well, I don't call myself a feminist, but ' type stuff.
Which is not to say that the women's movement in Ireland is any kind of fairy-tale sisterhood, all happy-clappy and braiding each other's hair. There is plenty of dissent, many differing priorities, even a fair bit of antagonism over who is getting it 'right'.
But there are also clear and common goals. Common enemies and indignities. And that is always very galvanising, whether we're talking the anyone-but-England rule in sport or modern feminism. Where the women of other developed nations may be humming and hawing around where exactly to put their energies, Irish feminists have plenty of wonderfully obvious attack-points.
Magical thinking
And what's interesting is just how much more effective it is when there are real and glaring targets to hone in on, rather than relying on the magical thinking of celebrity-feminist inspiration.
For a while, it seemed as if celebrity endorsement might work for feminism in the same way it worked for cosmetic and fashion brands - that young women would take to active, committed feminism because Rihanna and Beyonce declared themselves in favour.
Except they didn't. Quite the opposite, in fact.
A study done late last year - a proper study involving 6,000 people and two years of research - found that celebrity involvement is actually making women's rights seem like a trivial matter, and causing people to care less about it. Only 20pc of people said they cared more about gender equality issues due to a celebrity's involvement, with many more (30pc) saying that Taylor Swift's involvement in any feminist issue made them care less about it.
Now, that may just be the specific effect of Taylor Swift but, on balance, I think not.
Beyonce rocking out in front of a giant lit-up sign spelling 'Feminist' is somehow not having the desired effect either. Even Emma Watson getting pious about how "feminism is about freedom", or Amy Schumer saying that anyone who is not a feminist is "an insane person", are not quite cutting it.
And frankly, this is as much because the celebrities have blown it, as it is because young women are starting to realise that there is a limit to how much Natalie Portman or Sheryl Sandberg, no matter how well-meaning, can ever really identify with their lives.
The problem - one of them, anyway - is the way in which celebrities have fallen into the trap of trying to out-feminist each other.
Yes, we should all be feminists, but right now some of us think we are 'more feminist' or 'better feminists' than others. Perhaps some always did - Camille Paglia versus Naomi Wolf, anyone? - but recently we have seen this kind of antagonistic approach increasing, guided into place by a few high-profile celebrity-feminist death-matches. And, irritatingly, this is happening exactly at the same time as a genuine groundswell of popular interest and enthusiasm seems to be finally dispelling the apathy and confusion of recent years around what precisely feminism is, who it's for and why we should be bothered with it.
Pitched battle
Feminism is hitting its stride again with the recent Women's Marches. On a macro level, these are against Trump; for girl power and greater equality; and against oppression. Locally, we have Repeal The Eighth to get our teeth into; an ongoing fight for basic gender equality; a pitched battle against pornography; and the relatively newer Waking the Feminists, something Emma Donoghue, Deirdre O'Kane, Gabriel Byrne and Saoirse Ronan have all come out in support of.
It's working. This kind of agitation is happening in a way that feels wonderfully broad-based, inclusive, tolerant and cheerful, and yet, on an individual level, the movement is as splintered as ever, with way too much media attention taken up by a series of feminist feuds among various celebrities and writers.
This is confusing for those of us who look to celebrities for guidance, and irritating for the many of us who don't, but would like them at least to behave with decorum and not let down the side by scrapping and nipping at each other's heels.
The Emma Watson-versus-Beyonce celebrity-feminist death-match has been going on for years now. It began with odious comparisons between Beyonce's album Beyonce and Watson's UN speech launching the HeForShe campaign, pitting them against each other. Even Vanity Fair got on board, saying that Watson's "widespread influence on young minds (still forming their opinions on gender roles and advocacy) is even stronger than other high-profile defenders of the F-word like Beyonce".
This, of course, was just what we all needed - an arena, a few sharpened sticks and the galvanising news that there can be only one victor.
Watson herself had previously added petrol to the flames by saying, a bit pompously, that she felt "conflicted" over Beyonce's music videos: "On the one hand she is putting herself in a category of a feminist, but then the camera, it felt very male, such a male voyeuristic experience of her ..." Although she ultimately concluded that Bey was "making her sexuality empowering because it was her choice", the damage, in an era of soundbites and 140-word manifestos, was done.
Then, last month, Watson posed for a series of photos for Vanity Fair, some of which are a bit boob-y, and the battle was back on. "Hypocrite" screamed a legion of Beyonce fans, who demanded Watson apologise to Beyonce.
Chrissie Hynde, who surely has all the credentials to be considered a 'good' feminist - creative, articulate, independent, successful on her own terms in a male-managed industry, still hot at 65 - apparently blew the whole lot, yes, all those hard-earned years of feminist capital, a year ago when she dared to say that she felt that she was responsible for a rape that happened when she was 21 because she was off her face and foolish. "You can't paint yourself into a corner and then say 'whose brush is this?'" she said. "You have to take responsibility. I mean, I was naive," and later "If you play with fire, you get burnt. It's not any secret, is it?"
She was promptly reviled, accused of 'victim-blaming' and sending 'a dangerous message'. In the People Versus Chrissie Hynde, Chrissie was very definitely the loser.
The Future Is Feminist And it's not just the celebrities. Writers and intellectuals too are getting sucked in. Germaine Greer seems to have angered an entire generation of feminists with her comments about transgender women not being 'real' women, to the point where, on International Women's Day last month, there were calls to boycott her appearance at an event in Brighton.
If even Germaine isn't safe - and she's like Boxer in Animal Farm for goodness' sake; the spirit of feminism - then what hope have any of us?
Sooner or later, unless we all adopt the blandest form of feminism around, one that is non-confrontational, non-judgmental, entirely open and accepting, then it looks like we are all going to fall foul of someone or something claiming to be 'more' feminist than we are.
And the problem with all this infighting - apart from the fact that it is undignified and distracting (how are we meant to fight the patriarchy if we are busy fighting each other?) - is that it plays to ancient and unhelpful stereotypes around women. That we can't get along; that we are all 'bitchy' and need men to keep us in order and give us a wider focus, otherwise we go down in a tangle of flailing arms and legs, scrapping over whose cherry pie recipe is better and who flirted with whose husband.
Plus, it turns all that wonderful energy inwards, not outwards. What a waste to be berating Lena Dunham for focussing too much of her comedy around sex and body image, when we could be using that breath to scream 'no way' at Donald Trump again.
Feminism never will be a single homogenous entity, its aims and objectives formally agreed by committee and never deviated from. It can't, and shouldn't be. Feminism is a messy, broad-based collective of individuals - all with their own lives, problems, hopes and dreams - loosely unified by concerns that cross all faultlines.
So many questions
There is never just one 'race question', or one 'women's question'. There are many - ever-changing, transmogrifying and adapting to complex circumstances.
Within the overarching reflection: 'How can the world be made more equal for women?', there are a thousand sub-sections: How can I get paid more? Be better educated? Spend more time with my kids? Stop my co-worker sending me dick pics? Protect my daughter from the kind of abuse that masquerades as cultural norms?
Sometimes, these will be subsumed into a wider urgency - how can we stop Donald Trump ruining everything we and our mothers fought for? - and other times, in the absence of a unifying wider urgency, we will all go off on our separate tangents again, finding common cause mainly with women who have similar life circumstances to ours.
There is no one kind of feminism, but, right now, you'd be forgiven for thinking there should be, because of the level of public attention paid to the infighting of a few.
The point about Emma Watson, Beyonce, Taylor Swift is that they are celebrities first, women and feminists second. Which means that their urgencies are far more likely to be based around the need for headlines and publicity than anything else, no matter how worthy. And sometimes, a good feud is a better way of generating these than a new hairstyle or romance, or political stance.
So yes, they mean it when they talk the feminist talk, but are also easily distractable when something new and shiny flashes across their path. And celebrities are not known for their consistency. Emma Watson may be a credible UN ambassador, but she is also the star of Beauty and the Beast, a heart-warming tale about Stockholm syndrome, where the heroine falls in love with the man who overpowered her and locked her in a castle.
Which is not to be snide, but simply to point out that there are imperatives to the celebrity life that have nothing to do with the rest of us, and that mean we must resist taking them too seriously, no matter how much they seem to want us to.
Feminism is poised to become the big collective movement of our age, gathering causes such as ecology, race and poverty into one irresistible, rolling mass. Somehow - among all the outrage and upset caused by Trump, by Brexit, by refugees, racism and a thousand different forms of discrimination and oppression - it is the women's movement that seems to be rising to the occasion: marching, mobilising, standing tall. And this feels exciting in a way that feminism hasn't since the 1970s. Here in Ireland, we have both a headstart and a few highly mobilising issues.
If the celebs want to get on board with this - great. But let's not look to them for guidance. The answers and inspiration lie here, close to home, not in Hollywood.
A who's who of celebrity feminism
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Queen of Feminism, and everyone's latest favourite fem-crush, above. Her word is law, her approval like magic pixie dust. Crosses boundaries effortlessly: author, intellectual, style icon, fashion collaborator and friend-to-the-famous.
Caitlin Moran
Feminist-Zero. Sometimes it seems as if Caitlin, right, single-handedly revived our seriously flagging feminist spirits. Funny, rude, whip-smart, she took a whole lot of nonsense out of the debate, instructing us to put our hands down our pants: "a) Do you have a vagina? and b) Do you want to be in charge of it? If you said 'yes' to both, then congratulations! You're a feminist". Decades of antagonistic debate sorted, right there.
Emma Watson
The Earnest Feminist. Watson takes her role as public feminist very, very seriously. Which makes her, perhaps, a little lacking in humour, but so very worthy. For those who like their feminism with a dose of piety.
Beyonce
The Fierce Feminist. Got-it-flaunt-it-own-it feminist. Reclaimed 'expressing your sexuality' and turned it into the kind of statement we all want to make. Good at conveying the very essence of feminism via a perfectly executed twerk.
Taylor Swift
The Reluctant Feminist. Maybe even the unconvincing feminist? No matter how much Swift claims the label, she has yet to do anything very meaningful with it. The people are not loving her, or feeling very convinced by her.
Madonna
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Events may have somewhat overtaken Madge, right, but for those of us who reached the age of feminist enlightenment - I'm putting this at 14 - any time in the early to mid 1980s, Madonna will always be up there with Germaine Greer. With The Female Eunuch in one hand, and Material Girl blasting behind us, we were unstoppable. Now, seeing Madonna blaze a trail for 'I'm-60-(nearly)-but-I'm-sexy' is both appalling and wonderful. Exactly as it should be.
Daniella Moyles
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The DJ and model, above, seems to live it effortlessly, using her newspaper column to champion women's marches and take good, hard swipes at trolls, Trump, Piers Morgan and anyone else trying to restrict freedom or shame women.
Jenny Dixon and boyfriend Tom Neville (TD) at Breast Cancer Ireland's Battle of the Stars lip-syncing and dancing fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoy
Model Thalia Heffernan at Breast Cancer Ireland's Battle of the Stars lip-syncing and dancing fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoy
Model Karena Graham at Breast Cancer Ireland's Battle of the Stars lip-syncing and dancing fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoy
Natanya Cafolla and Gerald Kean at the Annual Charity Gala Ball in the Heritage Hotel , Killenard. Picture: Michael Scully
Eoghan McDermott and girlfriend Aoife Melia at Breast Cancer Ireland's Battle of the Stars lip-syncing and dancing fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoy
Natanya Cafolla and Gerald Kean at Breast Cancer Ireland's Battle of the Stars lip-syncing and dancing fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoy
Celebrity lawyer Gerald Kean went public with his new girlfriend Natanya Cafolla at the weekend.
The glamorous mum-of-four, who he has been seeing for the past three months, was his date at a charity event in the InterContinental Hotel on Saturday night.
Saying that he was "very happy" with his new relationship, he was in flying form on the night as he took to the stage to channel his inner star and perform the Mark Ronson hit Uptown Funk in a lip-syncing challenge.
He has known Natanya (52) for more than 20 years, having been friends with her late husband Joe Cafolla, a Delgany-based property developer who died in August 2008 while on holiday in Florida.
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Gerald was among a host of familiar faces who attended the fun-filled InterContinental gathering as they helped raise funds for Breast Cancer Ireland at the "Battle of the Stars" event.
The Diary can reveal that the celebrity solicitor will have a final hurrah in his beloved Drayton Manor after putting his palatial Wicklow home on the market for 3.75m.
Gerald is hosting a glitzy fundraising bash in the ballroom of the sprawling house in two weeks' time to drum up funds for four charities.
The dad-of-one also said that he has "no regrets" about putting the house up for sale, and that it was simply time to move on to somewhere new.
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"No, I never look back, I always look to what's ahead," he said.
"I have some great memories in the house, I've had some wonderful times, but I just want to keep on moving forward.
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"I had a great time there, it's a magnificent property, but it's just too big for one person.
"I'm a very positive person and I don't believe in dwelling on things too much."
Expand Close Eoghan McDermott and girlfriend Aoife Melia at Breast Cancer Ireland's Battle of the Stars lip-syncing and dancing fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoy / Facebook
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Gerald said that he is close to sealing the deal on a new home that is far more conveniently located in south Dublin.
Among those performing at his event on April 22 will be Christy Dignam of Aslan and Ryan Sheridan as he welcomes a host of guests for one of the last times.
The house has 11 bedrooms, its own cinema and bar as well as a double-height ballroom.
Gerald said that some of the contents of the house are also up for sale.
"Some of them I'll be bringing with me, some of the artwork and things like that, but the rest wouldn't be suitable in a smaller place," he said.
The Operation Transformation participant is a shadow of his former self, thanks to appearing on the RTE weight-loss show.
He said he has managed to keep off most of the weight that he lost, thanks to planning ahead with his meals and sticking to a regular exercise regime.
The man appeared in court on Monday facing three charges.
A diner is accused of treating himself to a feast of lobster, oysters and booze at a restaurant before fleeing into the sea, leaving his $621 bill unpaid.
Police in Queensland, Australia, said a man had been charged after he ordered and consumed a substantial amount of seafood and alcohol from a restaurant on Seaworld Drive, before running away.
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According to ABC News, the man in question was 33-year-old Terry Peck an aspiring rapper who goes by the name 2pec and he ordered lobsters, oyster shooters, a baby octopus and several beers at Omeros Bros Restaurant in Queensland before scarpering.
He was chased by restaurant staff onto Main Beach, where he then jumped into the ocean.
Police attempted to coax him out to no avail and so were towed out on the back of a jet-ski and arrested him in the middle of the waters.
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According to ABC, having being granted bail at the hearing, Peck described lobsters as overcooked and claimed there was oyster shell left in his oyster shot.
Police said a man was charged with stealing and two counts of serious assault of a police officer, and appeared in the Southport Magistrates Court on Monday.
Hell be returning to court on May 4.
The ambulance and fire services also joined the cortege route to pay their respects.
Police officers lined the route of Pc Keith Palmers funeral cortege on Monday to pay their respects to the officer who died defending parliament from a terror attack.
Pc Palmer, 48, was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood who attempted to enter parliament after mowing down dozens of people with a car on Westminster Bridge. After mounting his attack on Palmer, Masood was shot and killed by an armed police officer.
The 2.6-mile route wound through Londons streets from the Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral. The Met said more than 5,000 officers from the force and across the country were expected to gather in central London for the service and to line the route, which has seen dozens of roads closed to traffic for hours.
On Sunday night, police officers were sharing their preparations for paying tribute to Pc Palmer on Twitter.
Representatives from police forces across the UK travelled to London to pay their respects.
Other emergency services also paid tribute to the police officer, whose name has been added to the roll of honour and remembrance at a ceremony at the National Police Memorial on The Mall, in central London, complete with a guard of honour.
Those who couldnt be there in person shared messages of condolence using the hashtag #StandForKeith.
The attack has been met with outrage and heightened tensions between Russia and the United States.
A deadly chemical attack in Syria has prompted rising tensions over the future of the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Here we cover everything you need to know about the attack, the reaction since and the developments we can expect in the weeks ahead.
What happened in Syria?
Syrian government forces have been accused of launching a devastating chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, in Idlib province, last Tuesday.
Some 89 people were killed in the attack and hundreds more suffered symptoms consistent with a toxic nerve agent, possibly sarin gas.
What is the significance of the attack?
The use of chemical weapons has been regarded as a line in the sand by the international community.
Sarin gas is a colourless, odourless liquid originally created by the Germans in 1938 as a pesticide, and then as a chemical weapon during the Second World War. The United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention, which came into effect in 1997, banned the production, stockpiling and use of sarin and various other chemical weapons.
Former US President Barack Obama threatened military action when the Syrian regime was accused of killing hundreds of people in a chemical attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus in 2013.
Over here MPs voted in the Commons against taking military action. After the attack, Assad said he would destroy Syrias stockpile of chemical weapons by 2014.
What has the international reaction been?
Amid widespread condemnation of the Syrian regime, US President Donald Trump authorised a retaliatory air strike on the air base suspected of launching the attack on Friday.
EU president Donald Tusk said the bloc would work with the US to combat brutality in Syria, while the strikes were welcomed by nations including Israel, Turkey and Canada.
However Russia and Iran Syrias key allies both defended the regime and have threatened to act if there is further aggression towards Syria.
What has been the reaction in the UK?
The UK Government said it fully supported Trumps actions but the air strike was not the start of a military campaign. Theresa May is being briefed regularly on the developing situation while on holiday in Wales.
Meanwhile the issue has exposed divisions in the Labour party, as leader Jeremy Corbyn condemned the air strikes while senior figures such as deputy leader Tom Watson and Hilary Benn voiced their support.
What happens now?
The issue is expected to dominate the G7 talks in Italy, where Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson met his US counterpart Rex Tillerson for talks ahead of the two-day summit.
World leaders will be keen to persuade Russia to distance itself from the Assad regime and to gain clarity on the US strategy in Syria. Further air strikes are not expected unless there is further use of chemical weapons.
The conflict will also shape relations between Russia and the US. Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, is due to head to Moscow for further talks.
US Navy personnel prepare to launch an F18 fighter jet on the deck of USS Carl Vinson during a routine exercise in the South China Sea last month. Photo: Erik de Castro/ Reuters
North Korea has vowed to bolster its defences to protect itself against air strikes like the ones US President Donald Trump ordered against an air base in Syria.
The North called the air strikes "absolutely unpardonable" and said they prove its nuclear weapons are justified to protect the country against Washington's "ever more reckless moves for a war".
The comments were made by a foreign ministry official and carried yesterday by North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The air strikes, announced shortly after Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up dinner at a two-day summit in Florida last week, were retaliation against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a chemical weapons attack against civilians caught up in his country's long civil war.
"Some forces are loud-mouthed that the recent US military attack on Syria is an action of warning us, but we are not frightened by it," the report said, adding that the North's "tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force as its pivot" would foil any aggression by the US.
"We will bolster up in every way our capability for self-defence to cope with the US's ever more reckless moves for a war and defend ourselves with our own force," it said.
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North Korea has long claimed that the United States is preparing to conduct similar precision strikes against its territory or even launch an all-out invasion.
It claims its nuclear weapons are a necessary deterrent to the US military threat. Washington denies it has any intention of invading the North.
Tensions have been higher than usual over the past few weeks, because annual war games between the US and South Korean militaries are under way. The exercises this year are the biggest ever and have included stealth fighter training and other manoeuvres that are particularly sensitive to North Korea.
The North test-launched a ballistic missile just ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting and has been rumoured to be preparing for a possible nuclear test.
The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with an armistice, not a formal peace treaty.
North Korea considers Syria an ally. But unlike Syria, experts warn that North Korea has a means of striking back if provoked.
Along with its nuclear and long-range missile capabilities, the North has its artillery and short-range missiles trained on South Korean capital Seoul.
The top nuclear envoys of China and South Korea on Monday agreed to take strong measures against North Korea if Pyongyang conducts a nuclear test or test-launches an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), South Korea said.
South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Kim Hong-kyun, spoke to reporters after a meeting with China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Wu Dawei, amid concerns that the North may be preparing a fresh nuclear test.
Convicted Charleston church gunman Dylann Roof has been given nine consecutive life sentences after he pleaded guilty to state murder charges.
The death sentence received at his federal trial still stands.
Judge JC Nicholson imposed the state sentences following a hearing in which church members and Roof's grandfather testified about the personal toll of the case.
The self-avowed white supremacist entered his guilty pleas while standing at the defence table with his lawyers.
Roof's plea deal with state prosecutors, who had also been pursuing the death penalty, came in exchange for a life prison sentence on the state charges.
Solicitor Scarlett Wilson called the plea deal "an insurance policy for the federal conviction". With a new administration in Washington, Ms Wilson said she was more confident that a federal death sentence will be carried out.
Ms Wilson also praised the Charleston community for rising above the tragedy and called Roof's plan to start a race war "an epic failure".
Before sentencing Roof, Judge Nicholson heard members of historically black Emanuel AME Church describe the toll the June 2015 shooting took on them and their community.
"The impact at Mother Emanuel has been far reaching," said Pastor Eric Manning, who currently leads Emanuel's congregation. "We visit the crime scene every day."
Blondelle Gadsden, sister of killed Myra Thompson, said: "Even though we're at a point where death has been the sentence for him, my heart still goes out to him in hopes that he would repent to save himself from himself.
"I can't think of anything worse that he could do at this point than to not accept Christ and try to make his days on this earth a little bit more peaceful."
But Eva Dilligard, whose sister Susie Jackson was killed by Roof, said: "I think somebody doing something like that, he should get death... I'm very sorry. I'm a child of God. But he hurt the entire family."
The judge also heard from Roof's grandfather, Columbia lawyer Joe Roof.
"I want everyone to understand that nothing is all bad, and Dylann is not all bad," Mr Roof said. He added that he and his wife pray for the Emanuel families every night, and are sensitive to their problems.
"We have been distressed and just sick over what has happened to these families," the grandfather said.
Dylann Roof had been unapologetic at his federal trial as he listened to days of testimony from survivors. They described in harrowing detail the hail of bullets that began when parishioners prayed during a Bible study session.
After Monday's hearing, Roof, 23, will return to a local jail, while technically in the custody of the US Marshals Service, until he is transferred to a Bureau of Prisons facility "in short order," an official said.
Roof will be taken to a federal prison in another state, where he will await his execution on charges of hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion.
Roof was convicted late last year of 33 federal charges. He was sentenced to death during a separate proceeding earlier this year. Relatives of each of the nine people killed attended court each day of his federal trial.
AP
A man sitting on the right is engulfed by the blast as a suicide bomber detonates explosives at the front gates of St Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria (Egyptian Interior Ministry/AP)
Coffins arrive for the funeral of those killed in the Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria (AP)
Egyptian Christians have buried their dead a day after Islamic State suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in co-ordinated attacks targeting Palm Sunday services in two cities.
Women wailed as caskets marked with the word "martyr" were brought into the Mar Amina church in the coastal city of Alexandria, the footage broadcast on several Egyptian channels.
Coptic priests, boy scouts, and mourners carrying flowers joined a procession into the church, the pace set by a beat of snare drums.
At least 17 people were killed at St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt.
Another suicide attack killed at least 28 people inside St George's Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, the Health Ministry said, updating an earlier toll.
IS claimed both bombings.
Reverend Danial Maher, of the Tanta church, lost his 23-year-old son, Beshoy, who was among six deacons killed in the attack.
He recalled watching his son wearing white vestments and singing at the service.
"He was like an angel," he said.
Pictures of Mr Maher, sitting helplessly in blood-stained vestments after the attack, were widely circulated online.
He buried his son late on Sunday.
The attacks led President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to call for a state of emergency, amid fears that IS militants, who have been battling security forces in the Sinai Peninsula for years, are shifting their focus to Egypt's Coptic minority, one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East.
In December, a massive church bombing killed 30 people in Cairo, and a series of killings in the Sinai have caused hundreds to flee to safer areas.
The state of emergency awaited approval by parliament, a foregone conclusion since the legislature is packed with Mr el-Sissi's supporters, and the cabinet declared that it had gone into effect at 1pm (1100 GMT).
It will likely allow for arrests without warrants, swifter prosecution of suspects, and special fast-track courts.
Authorities have been waging a sweeping crackdown on dissent for years, however, so it was unclear if anything would change on the ground.
The Palm Sunday attacks, the single deadliest day for Christians in decades, rattled the community and prompted messages of support from abroad, including from Pope Francis, who is to visit Egypt in the coming weeks, and President Donald Trump.
Israel meanwhile closed its Taba border crossing to Egypt after its anti-terrorism office warned of an "imminent" militant attack there, underlining fears of more violence.
The closure comes hours before the start of the Passover holiday.
Southern Sinai, which has seen little of the violence plaguing the northern part of the peninsula, is a popular tourist destination.
AP
Over 100 gay men have been sent to concentration camps for homosexuals in Chechnya and three people have been killed, a new report has claimed.
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and human rights activists allege that anyone authorities suspect are gay is rounded up and sent to these camps, where inmates are reportedly tortured.
A spokesman for Chechnyas leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied the allegations, claiming that gay people don't exist in the region.
Alvi Karimov told Interfax news agency: "You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic.
"If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldnt need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning."
One of Chechnya's human rights officials, Kheda Saratova, echoed those sentiments as he dismissed the report.
He told a Russian radio station: "I havent had a single request on this issue, but if I did, I wouldnt even consider it.
"In our Chechen society, any person who respects our traditions and culture will hunt down this kind of person without any help from authorities, and do everything to make sure that this kind of person does not exist in our society."
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Chechnya is formally a part of Russia but now acts as a semi-independent state.
An LGBT group condemned the reports and said they will help anyone affected.
Russian group LGBT Network said: "No national and/or religious traditions and norms can justify kidnapping or killing of a human being.
"Any references to traditions to justify kidnappings and killings are amoral and criminal.
"The Russian LGBT Network is ready to evacuate people."
Twin bombings devastated Egypt's Christian community yesterday, killing at least 44 people as Palm Sunday celebrations were crushed by blood-spattered violence.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts at Alexandria and Tanta, which also injured more than 100 people.
The latest in a string of assaults on Egypt's Christian minority came as Pope Francis prepares to visit in a show of support later this month.
In the Nile delta town of Tanta, about 60 miles north of Cairo, a bomb tore through the packed Mar Gerges church, killing at least 27 worshippers and injuring more than 70.
Hundreds gathered outside the church shortly after the blast, some weeping, while inside, pews were blown apart and a display of palm fronds was covered in blood.
Witnesses to the Mar Gerges blast told 'The Daily Telegraph' the suicide bomber had been close to the first row of pews when he detonated a device.
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Most of the dead, said bystanders, were church servants who had been performing ceremonial duties near the altar at the front of the church.
"I was at the altar when I heard the explosion. I fell to the ground," church steward Victor Foad told the Telegraph. "I kept looking at the human remains, but I didn't recognise who was who because their faces were so damaged, even though I know them."
The church entrance was equipped with a detector for weapons and explosives - leading many to wonder how the atrocity could have happened.
Hours later in Alexandria, 77 miles to the west, another suicide bomber blew himself up outside St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Egypt's oldest church and the historic seat of the church's pope. At least 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured.
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CCTV images broadcast on Egyptian channels showed a man in a blue pullover approach the main gate to St Mark's, but being turned away and directed toward a metal detector. The man then passes a female police officer chatting to another woman, and enters a metal detector before an explosion engulfs the area.
Pope Tawadros II had held Palm Sunday services at the cathedral, but aides said he had escaped unharmed. The timing of the attack raised the question of whether the bomber had sought to assassinate the pope, leader of one of the world's oldest Christian communities.
Isil claimed the attacks via its Aamaq news agency, after having recently warned that it would step up violence against Egypt's Christians.
Pope Tawadros led the St Mark's Mass, but had already left when the bombing occurred.
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"These acts will not harm the unity and cohesion of the people," he later said.
Josef Malak, a lawyer and Coptic activist, was at the church when the blast happened around 12.30pm local time. He and other worshippers were locked inside by police as a precautionary measure.
Witnesses said the Alexandria attack happened outside the main gate of the church compound, after the bomber was blocked by police from entering. "When the police officer tried to stop him by force, he exploded the explosive belt, killing the police officer and himself," said Kameel Sadiq Sawiras, secretary general of the church council.
The atrocities are the latest assault on a minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, and a challenge to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them in his campaign against extremism.
At around 10 per cent of the population, Egypt's Coptic Christians form the largest minority in the Muslim-majority country of 90 million.
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US president Donald Trump, who hosted Mr Sisi last week in his first official visit to the US, expressed support for a leader he has said he plans to work more closely with on fighting Islamist militants.
"So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. US strongly condemns. I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly," Mr Trump tweeted.
British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said: "The UK continues to stand with Egypt against terrorism. These attacks only strengthen our determination to work together with the Egyptian government and people against this shared threat."
Elsewhere, there was an outpouring of sympathy from leaders from across the Christian, Muslim and Jewish worlds.
Pope Francis expressed his ''deep condolences" to his "brother" Tawadros, as well as to the Coptic church and "all of the dear Egyptian nation".
Mr Sisi said a three-month state of emergency would be imposed after the two bombings.
An Isil affiliate claimed a December suicide bombing at a Cairo church that killed about 30 people, mostly women, as well as a string of killings in the northern Sinai that caused hundreds of Christians to flee to safer areas of the country.
The militants recently released a video vowing to step up attacks against Christians, whom they regard as "infidels".
Egypt has struggled to combat Islamic militancy since the 2013 military overthrow of elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter rests near destroyed airplane parts inside Tabqa military airport after taking control of it from Isil fighters, west of Raqqa city, Syria. Photo: Rodi Said/Reuters
Russia and Iran last night threatened military retaliation against the US, accusing President Donald Trump of crossing "red lines" by ordering a missile attack on a Syrian air base.
The two military allies of Syria said the US bombardment had violated international law and, in a statement, added: "From now on, we will respond with force."
The warning came after the Russian embassy in the UK suggested that British and American attempts to deliver an ultimatum to the Kremlin this week could result in a "real war".
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is understood to be working on a proposal from the G7 group of nations, which will demand that Vladimir Putin remove his troops from Syria and drop his backing for Bashar al-Assad.
Mr Johnson cancelled plans to visit Moscow this week to work on the proposal, which it is understood will include a tacit offer to Russia to rejoin the G7 if it complies.
Yesterday, Russia mocked Mr Johnson, saying his refusal to visit was "deplorable" and, in a series of jibes on Twitter, questioned whether he would make a fit wartime lieutenant to the American president.
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The threat from Russian and Iranian forces came as Washington intensified pressure on Mr Assad and his backers, with Mr Trump's administration saying there was now "no way" a peace settlement could be found with the Syrian dictator in power.
HR McMaster, White House national security adviser, said Russia and Iran were enabling Mr Assad's "campaign of mass murder against his own civilians" and America was "prepared to do more".
Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, said Washington would expect Russia to rethink its support for Mr Assad because "every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility".
However, a joint command centre made up of forces from Russia, Iran and militias supporting Mr Assad said they would redouble their backing, after 59 US cruise missiles hit Shayrat air base in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun.
A statement from the centre said: "What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on, we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is, and America knows our ability to respond well."
The centre also said the presence of US troops in northern Syria, where it has hundreds of special forces helping the Syrian Democratic Forces to oust Isil, was "illegal".
In a separate phone call between Moscow and Tehran, Mr Putin and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that US aggression against Syria violated international law.
The two leaders also called for an investigation into the nerve gas attack in Idlib province, which Syria has claimed was caused by a stockpile of rebel-held chemical weapons being hit by a stray bomb.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, also accused America of making a "strategic mistake" by attacking Syria, and said the country would not back down.
Alex Salmond, the SNP's foreign affairs spokesman, said Mr Johnson looked "daft" for pulling out of a meeting with the Russians in Moscow.
He told the BBC's 'Andrew Marr Show': "The idea the foreign secretary can't be trusted because he might pursue his own line or have an independent thought or crossover what the Americans are going to say just makes him look like some sort of mini-me to the United States of America."
Undated handout photo issued by the US Navy of USS Porter (DDG 78) firing a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea, as Britain backed the US missile strike on a Syrian air base as an "appropriate response" to Bashar Assad regime's "barbaric" chemical attack. Photo: Seaman Ford Williams/US Navy/PA Wire
Undated handout photo issued by the US Navy of USS Porter (DDG 78) firing a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea, as Britain backed the US missile strike on a Syrian air base as an "appropriate response" to Bashar Assad regime's "barbaric" chemical attack. Photo: Seaman Ford Williams/US Navy/PA Wire
Turkish calls for tough action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after U.S. missile strikes on one of his airbases may overestimate Washington's appetite for deeper involvement in Syria's war and threaten Ankara's fragile rapprochement with Russia.
Within hours of the U.S. cruise missile strikes, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan described the action as a "positive and concrete step against the war crimes of the Assad regime" and said the international community must do more.
The first direct U.S. assault on Syria's government in six years of war appeared to vindicate Erdogan's long-standing calls for Assad's overthrow. It comes at an opportune moment for the Turkish leader, as he campaigns ahead of a closely fought referendum on constitutional changes to increase his powers.
But it highlights the rudderless nature of Turkish policy in Syria, as Ankara tries to forge stronger relations with both Moscow, Assad's main backer, and Washington, a NATO ally hitherto reluctant to confront the Syrian leader head-on.
"I think Erdogan can spin this into a win, but it really isn't one. The U.S. strike is one-off and limited," said Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think-tank.
"Turkey can't enact regime change with Russia in Syria, and neither can the United States. The (U.S.) strikes are tactics without strategy, leaving Turkey sandwiched between its only powerful ally, the United States, ... and Russia."
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Turkish policy in Syria is in disarray. Assad remains in power despite Turkey's long-standing determination to see him ousted, Kurdish militia fighters it sees as a hostile force are making gains with U.S. support, and Turkey has been increasingly targeted by Islamic State jihadists from across the border.
Turkey has more recently appeared to accept a transitional role for Assad as it adjusts to the realities on the ground and tries to rebuild ties with Moscow, shattered after it shot down a Russian warplane in 2015, sparking a diplomatic row which cost it billions of dollars in lost trade and tourism.
Expand Close Undated handout photo issued by the US Navy of USS Porter (DDG 78) firing a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea, as Britain backed the US missile strike on a Syrian air base as an "appropriate response" to Bashar Assad regime's "barbaric" chemical attack. Photo: Seaman Ford Williams/US Navy/PA Wire / Facebook
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Whatsapp Undated handout photo issued by the US Navy of USS Porter (DDG 78) firing a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea, as Britain backed the US missile strike on a Syrian air base as an "appropriate response" to Bashar Assad regime's "barbaric" chemical attack. Photo: Seaman Ford Williams/US Navy/PA Wire
"There is a struggle for power between Russia and the United States over the future of Syria and Turkey is stumbling back and forth between the two," said Metin Gurcan, a former Turkish military officer and an analyst at the Istanbul Policy Center.
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"Sometimes we are extremely pro-Washington and sometimes pro-Moscow. That could lead to Turkey being perceived as an inconsistent, unpredictable and therefore unreliable actor."
The U.S. missile strikes targeted an airbase from which President Donald Trump said a deadly chemical weapons attack on Idlib province, near the Turkish border, had been launched.
At a rally in the southern province of Hatay, which borders Idlib, Erdogan urged the international community to go further.
Expand Close Undated handout photo issued by the US Navy of USS Porter (DDG 78) firing a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea, as Britain backed the US missile strike on a Syrian air base as an "appropriate response" to Bashar Assad regime's "barbaric" chemical attack. Photo: Seaman Ford Williams/US Navy/PA Wire / Facebook
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Whatsapp Undated handout photo issued by the US Navy of USS Porter (DDG 78) firing a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea, as Britain backed the US missile strike on a Syrian air base as an "appropriate response" to Bashar Assad regime's "barbaric" chemical attack. Photo: Seaman Ford Williams/US Navy/PA Wire
"Is it enough? I don't find it enough. It is time to take serious steps for the protection of innocent Syrian people," he said of the U.S. action.
His foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, was more explicit, saying Assad's administration should immediately be removed.
"If he doesn't want to go, if there is no transition government, and if he continues committing humanitarian crimes, the necessary steps to oust him should be taken," Cavusoglu told reporters.
That stance sets Turkey at direct odds with Russia less than four months after the two powers brokered a ceasefire in Syria and peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana. Moscow, which has military advisers on the ground supporting Assad's forces, denounced the U.S. action as illegal.
"Despite differing statements from Turkey and Russia on the U.S. strike, there's still a communication channel between us and efforts to solve the Syria problem will continue," said one senior Turkish official, vowing the Astana process would go on.
A second official said Turkey's disconnect with Russia had "become much more obvious" after the missile strikes, but also said it did not want its partnership with Moscow to be damaged.
Can Acun, a researcher at the SETA think-tank in Ankara, said Russia and Turkey had been moving apart over Syria for some time, pointing to Moscow's readiness to work with Kurdish militia fighters in Syria and its failure to prevent ceasefire violations by Assad's forces.
"The chemical attack in Idlib, and Russias silence and attempts to defend the Syrian regime, was the drop that filled the glass," he said. "This will strain Turkey's ties with Russia and Iran, but in the end, the determining factor will be how decisively the United States acts."
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Despite its quick endorsement of the U.S. action, Ankara has been deeply at odds with Washington in other areas of Syria policy. It has been incensed in particular by U.S. support for the Kurdish YPG militia, which it views as a terrorist group and an extension of Kurdish militants fighting on its own soil.
Just a month ago, Ankara was ruling out compromise with Washington over the involvement of YPG fighters in a planned assault on Raqqa, one of Islamic State's two de facto capitals along with Mosul in Iraq.
The YPG is a key part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance which is receiving U.S. military support.
Erdogan has said Turkey, which hosts warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition in its southern Incirlik airbase, would be ready to support further U.S. action in Syria. But it remains to be seen what that role would be.
"I don't expect there to be a role for Turkey, other than to continue to host coalition strike assets at Incirlik," said Stein from the Atlantic Council, pointing out that those assets were primarily used to support the SDF not fight Assad.
"Turkey is where it was on April 6, 2017. A major player in northern Syria, albeit with no good options to escalate."
Rex Tillerson visits Moscow for his first meetings as US secretary of state with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow and Wednesday.
The spike in Washington-Moscow tensions over Syria will dominate discussion, and both sides are looking for ways to try to de-escalate a situation which Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said last week had put them "one step away from war" and had "totally ruined" relations.
Signs of rising tensions include Moscow's suspension of an agreement with Washington to share communications about US and Russian aircraft conducting missions over Syria. Moreover, the Admiral Grigorovich frigate warship has been dispatched from Crimea to the Syrian port of Tartus.
The ratcheting up of tensions between Moscow and Washington, following US President Donald Trump's first major foray into a foreign conflict, has widened differences between him and Mr Putin over the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after they had seemed to be getting closer to an agreement to potentially bring an end to Syria's six-year civil war that has left half a million people dead and triggered floods of refugees. Mr Trump last week called for the Syrian president to be ousted.
Part of the reason why last week's events were unexpected was Mr Trump's previous "America First" rhetoric, which indicated he would not seek to deepen US involvement in Syria. Yet, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Friday that the Trump administration was ready to take further military steps in the country if needed.
There has been significant support for Washington's stance from the international community, with the exception of not just Russia, but other Mr Assad allies, such as Iran. For instance, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has cancelled a trip to Moscow in response to last week's poison gas atrocity, and has pledged to try to build with Mr Tillerson co-ordinated international support for a ceasefire on the ground in Syria and an intensified political process to find a solution to the civil war and defeating Isil.
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While last week's missile strikes have also received relatively broad bipartisan support in Washington, Democrats have pointed to the inconsistency between the previous rhetoric of Mr Trump compared with now, and also called for a more joined-up strategy on Syria.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has asked Mr Trump to reverse course on his proposed ban on refugees coming to the US from Syria, asserting "we cannot speak in one breath of protecting Syrian babies [from chemical attacks] and in the next close American doors to them".
Outside of the immediate Syrian context, the bigger strategic question for Mr Trump and Mr Putin (right) is where this leaves prospects for a warming of relations based, in part, upon what had appeared to be mutual self-regard. Mr Trump had given multiple indications he believed Russia was not a serious threat to the US, hinting in January he could drop economic sanctions if the country was "helpful".
He appeared to believe there were common interests over issues such as preventing Iran from securing nuclear weapons, combating terrorism, and potentially even helping contain China.
This repositioning of relations with Russia now looks to have been put on ice, if not shattered. It is not only the fact that relations have become frostier over Syria, but also that the Trump team is under pressure over investigations from Congress and the FBI over its ties with Moscow before assuming power.
Should Mr Trump reverse course on Russia, it would bring him closer into line with US Defence Secretary James Mattis and Mr Tillerson, who have been forceful in criticism of Moscow. Mr Tillerson - who, from his time as CEO of ExxonMobil, knows Mr Putin - said "either Russia has been complicit or simply incompetent" in Syria, referring to Moscow's apparent inability to prevent the Assad regime from using chemical weapons, despite a 2013 agreement to remove stockpiles from the country.
Already, uncertainty over Mr Trump's Nato policy is spurring Europeans to seek to reverse a decade of defence spending cuts.
Moreover, a new European Defence Action Plan was discussed at December's EU summit that, subject to final agreement, will see greater continental military co-operation, too.
Escalation of tensions in Syria is a blow to Mr Trump's stated desire to seek Russian rapprochement. Indeed, it could yet derail the initiative even before he and Mr Putin have had their first official face-to-face meeting.
Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics, and an adviser to ReputationInc
Donald Trump's national security adviser has left open the possibility of additional US military action against Syria, but indicated that America was not seeking to act unilaterally to oust Bashar Assad.
In his first televised interview, Herbert "HR" McMaster pointed to dual US goals of defeating the Islamic State terror group and removing the Syrian president.
But he suggested that President Trump was seeking a global political response for regime change from US allies as well as Russia, which he said needed to re-evaluate its support of Syria.
"It's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime," the US Army lieutenant general said.
"Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions.
"Russia should ask themselves, 'Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?'."
After last Tuesday's chemical attack in Syria, Mr Trump said his attitude towards Assad "has changed very much" and secretary of state Rex Tillerson said "steps are under way" to organise a coalition to remove him from power.
But as politicians called on Mr Trump to consult Congress on any future military strikes and a longer-term strategy on Syria, Trump administration officials sent mixed signals on the scope of US involvement.
While Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, described regime change in Syria as a US priority and inevitable, Mr Tillerson suggested that last week's American air strikes in retaliation for the chemical attack had not really changed US priorities towards ousting Assad.
Pressed to clarify, Mr McMaster said the goals of fighting IS and ousting Syria's president were somewhat "simultaneous" and that the objective of the missile strike was to send a "strong political message to Assad".
He did not rule out additional strikes if Assad continued to engage in atrocities against rebel forces with either chemical or conventional weapons.
"We are prepared to do more," he said.
"The president will make whatever decision he thinks is in the best interest of the American people."
Reluctant to put significant troops on the ground in Syria, the US has struggled for years to prevent Assad from strengthening his hold on power.
US-backed rebels groups have long pleaded for more American intervention and complained that Washington has fought only IS.
So Mr Trump's decision to launch the strikes - which Barack Obama declined to do after a 2013 chemical attack - has raised optimism among rebels that he will confront Assad more directly.
Several politicians said that decision should not entirely be up to Mr Trump.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the number two Republican in the Senate, praised Mr Trump's initial missile strike for sending a message to Assad, Russia, Iran and North Korea that "there's a new administration in charge".
But he said Mr Trump now needed to work with Congress to set a future course.
"Congress needs to work with the president to try and deal with this long-term strategy, lack of strategy, really, in Syria," he said.
"We haven't had one for six years during the Obama administration, and 400,000 civilians have died and millions of people have been displaced internally and externally in Europe and elsewhere."
Maryland senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed.
"What we saw was a reaction to the use of chemical weapons, something I think many of us supported," he said.
"But what we did not see is a coherent policy on how we're going to deal with the civil war and also deal with Isis."
Republican senator Lindsey Graham said he believed Mr Trump did not need to consult Congress.
"I think the president has authorisation to use force," he said.
"Assad signed the chemical weapons treaty ban. There's an agreement with him not to use chemical weapons."
Their comments came as Mr Tillerson was making the Trump administration's first official trip this week to Russia, a staunch Assad ally.
In interviews broadcast on Sunday, he said defeating IS remained the top focus.
Once that threat "has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilising the situation in Syria", he said.
"We're hopeful that we can prevent a continuation of the civil war and that we can bring the parties to the table to begin the process of political discussions" between the Assad government and various rebel groups.
The hope, he said, is that "we can navigate a political outcome in which the Syrian people, in fact, will determine Bashar al-Assad's fate and his legitimacy".
Ms Haley said "getting Assad out is not the only priority" and that countering Iran's influence in Syria was another.
Still, she said the US did not see a peaceful future Syria with Assad in power.
Undated handout photo issued by the US Navy of USS Porter (DDG 78) firing a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea, as Britain backed the US missile strike on a Syrian air base as an "appropriate response" to Bashar Assad regime's "barbaric" chemical attack.
The latest advance by the Kurdish-led SDF showed that operations were still ongoing after last week's US missile attack on a Syrian army air base (US Navy/AP)
US-backed Syrian fighters have pushed ahead in their offensive in northern Syria against members of the Islamic State group.
Under the cover of US-led coalition air strikes, they have been getting closer to a strategic town that is home to the country's largest dam.
The latest advance by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) showed that operations were still ongoing after last week's US missile attack on a Syrian army air base in the country's centre.
That attack followed a chemical attack on the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed 87 people.
The US blamed the Syrian government for the attack - a charge that Syria strongly denied, saying it hit a rebel arsenal that had chemical weapons.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting between the SDF and IS members on the eastern outskirts of the town of Tabqa left at least 11 extremists dead.
It said 36 IS fighters have been killed in the fighting since Sunday.
The SDF said on social media that its fighters marched about three kilometres from the eastern side of Tabqa, the location of Syria's largest dam.
Last week, SDF fighters captured the area of Safsafeh east of Tabqa, laying siege to the town.
On March 22, US aircraft ferried forces behind militant lines in the Tabqa area to spearhead a major assault near the extremists' de facto capital, Raqqa.
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While the gain of 98,000 jobs in a survey of businesses and government agencies was the weakest since May and below all analysts' forecasts, many accompanying details showed a solid labor market. The jobless rate, derived from a separate survey of households, fell to the lowest in almost a decade even as workforce participation was unchanged, while a measure of underemployment reached a fresh post-recession low, boding well for further wage increases.
"Aside from the payroll data, all the other underlying details are encouraging," said Tom Simons, an economist at Jefferies in New York. "People are re-entering the labor force and it looks like they're getting jobs right away. The participation rate being steady is encouraging there."
The March data from the Labor Department on Friday also were challenged by weather anomalies -- a storm in the Northeast during the survey week and more seasonable temperatures after two warmer months -- that had economists bracing for at least some slowdown in payrolls from a strong start to the year.
The reassuring figures elsewhere in the report keep the Federal Reserve on track to continue plans for two more interest-rate increases this year as the labor market continues to tighten.
"The Fed is going to look past the March weakness -- they're going to continue to paint a positive picture of the labor market," said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody's Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "The trend in job growth remains solid and the overall economy is still doing well."
Even so, there wasn't much to sing about in the March payroll figures. The employment increase included a paltry 6,000 gain in construction jobs and 11,000 in manufacturing after both sectors showed big gains in January and February. Among services jobs, retailers were hit hard last month. That industry showed the weakest two months for hiring since the end of 2009, battered at least in part by the broader trend of Americans flocking to online merchants rather than brick-and-mortar stores.
But for a labor market that's already challenged by a dwindling supply of unemployed workers, the report may be flashing more warning signs of overheating than of cooling. The jobless rate fell for what economists often deem "the right reasons" -- meaning that more people were employed and fewer were unemployed -- not as a result of Americans fleeing the labor force in discouragement, or retirement.
While President Donald Trump has condemned the headline unemployment rate as a "phony" measure on the campaign trail and "ridiculous" earlier this week, the gauges that his administration has favored also strengthened in March.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has cited the so-called U-5 rate, which includes discouraged workers as well as a group called marginally attached workers, who aren't working or actively looking for work but want a job. That rate declined in March to 5.4 percent, the lowest since May 2007. The number of discouraged workers, not looking for work because they believe none is available, fell to 460,000 for the second-lowest since August 2008.
The U-6 rate, which in addition to the U-5's components includes those working part-time for economic reasons -- meaning they would prefer a full-time job -- also was a bright spot. The measure fell to 8.9 percent, the lowest since December 2007.
"The president and I have spent a lot of time talking about the U-6 number," Gary Cohn, director of the White House's National Economic Council, said on Bloomberg Television after the report. "We're happy to see that number below 9 percent."
The figures didn't impress everyone. Barclays Plc economist Rob Martin called it "a weak report with no silver linings" and labeled the decline in the unemployment rate a "catch-up" with data from the payrolls survey. The data point to the further divergence between "soft" sentiment surveys that are strengthening and the "hard" figures that have been slow to catch up, he said.
"We look for labor markets to accelerate in the near term, but should that hope fail, we would expect activity to slow as well," Martin wrote in a note, saying that monthly payroll gains in the 200,000 range "are consistent with continued economic expansion."
The two-month revisions to payrolls subtracted 38,000 jobs, leaving the average so far in 2017 at 178,000. That's in line with the 187,000 monthly average for all of last year.
Whether the tight job market triggers the long-awaited wage gains in this almost-eight-year-old economic expansion remains a puzzle. Average hourly earnings increased 2.7 percent in March from a year earlier, just a touch above the average since the start of 2016. That, more than weaker-than-expected employment, might merit more attention in the months ahead.
While wage growth is modest, "there's no reason to panic" about the hiring figures, Sweet said. "All in all, it's right around what we need" to keep up with population growth and to keep the unemployment rate steady.
---
Bloomberg's Shobhana Chandra contributed.
HARRISBURG- Hickory Ridge High School is now an official recipient of a Schools Going Solar grant from Duke Energy.
Randy Welch, Duke Energy district manager for Cabarrus County, and Lisa Parrish, Duke Energy community relations manager, visited the school on Thursday, April 6 to make the announcement.
This means Hickory Ridge is one of seven schools that will receive funding from the company to install a solar power system at the school. The total grant is worth $300,000 for the installations at all seven schools.
Cabarrus County Schools Superintendent Chris Lowder, Board of Education Vice Chair Carolyn Carpenter and Board of Education member David Harrison attended the event.
The grant was written by engineering teacher Cary Gluf.
Schools applied for the grants last year. Working with Raleigh-based nonprofit NC GreenPower and modeled after its Solar Schools program, the initiative will pay the installation costs for rooftop or top-of-pole mounted systems on school property. The program also provides monitoring equipment, training and curriculum for students and teachers.
Pakistan sentences former Indian naval officer to death over spying claims
Pakistan's army on Monday sentenced a former Indian naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, to be executed on charges of espionage and sabotage, just over a year after he was detained. The news threatens to bring diplomatic relations between the rival countries to a new low.
India's Ministry of External affairs summoned Pakistan's head envoy to New Delhi, and said Jadhav's "so-called trial" was "clearly absurd," and that India would consider his execution an act of "premeditated murder."
Jadhav was arrested March 3, 2016, in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, near its border with Iran. Pakistan has long accused India of fomenting rebellion in the already unstable province. Jadhav was allegedly traveling using the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav was formerly in its navy, and that he had business interests in Iran. But Delhi vehemently denies that he had any connection to government or intelligence agencies. Islamabad says its own intelligence found enough to give him the maximum sentence.
"His goal was to disrupt development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, with Gwadar port as a special target," said the spokesperson for Pakistan's intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa. "This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism. There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan."
Shortly after Jadhav was arrested, Pakistan released a video in which he confesses to spying, though it is unclear whether he is speaking under duress.
"My purpose was to hold meeting with Baluch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration," says Jadhav in the video.
Since their partition in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought numerous wars and both become nuclear armed states. Their armies regularly engage in deadly cross-border firings, and each side regularly accuses the other of supporting separatist movements within its borders.
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pakistan
Washington Post News Service (DC)
4/10/2017 8:40:39 AM Central Daylight Time
The most important function of state government is education, as evidenced by the fact that North Carolina spends 57 cents of every tax dollar on primary and secondary education. Better-educated citizens earn more, are more productive and generally more fulfilled.
Too often we see evidence that we arent doing our very best and it is easy to become pessimistic, but if you want to change that attitude to optimism spend a day, as we did, at UNC Wilmingtons impressive Watson College for Education. The first moments in the modern facility convince you of the dedicated and innovative approaches being employed to teach students and train teachers. Dean Van Dempsey and his faculty demonstrated a passion for making public education in our state the best. We saw collaborative partnering of best practices with nearby public schools, learned about an elementary school classroom without desks that allowed creativity and saw online resources and lab techniques that break down barriers to learning.
In this era of laptops, smartphones and Internet access far too many classrooms across our state still deliver instruction the way it has been employed 100 years ago. When we asked why educators had been unable or unwilling to adapt to innovative learning techniques we were taken to school by one after another of these dedicated educators. Their responses shed new light on many issues.
In our efforts to ensure accountability we instituted testing programs that stifle, rather than promote innovation, modern technology and techniques. Regulations, piled on top of one another, restrict flexibility and creativity. The predominant culture neither embraces nor demonstrates a structure to share new approaches between schools within a given district, much less across other districts. Instead of being rewarded for innovation and creativity any failure is punished. Weve taught educators to color within the prescribed lines, avoid risks, teach to the tests and not challenge the status quo.
A day at the Watson College of Education is proof that we wont meet 21st century expectations with 20th century learning methods. We know how to educate our young people in more innovative and collaborative ways than we are employing. North Carolina cannot regulate and restrict our way to better education outcomes. And while more money is not always the answer, neither can we get better results by failing to properly fund new technologies and methodology. We must competitively pay professional teachers, principals, counselors and yes, arts and music instructors, especially those teaching science and math. Too many schools have inadequate facilities for todays requirements. It is imperative that we return to a system to incentivize college students to go into education and then do a better job of supporting them in early years.
Now is the time to loosen the shackles in education, replacing restraints with flexibility, building trust and changing the narrative to celebrate the good instead of looking for fault. Our administrators must become better managers, encouraging educators to succeed, while replacing those who cannot or will not meet greater expectations. Finally, we must erase boundaries, sharing with others new solutions, while challenging all to find even better methods
North Carolina has the talent. We have the knowledge and the resources to make dramatic improvements. It is essential for the future of our state that we implement them now.
Tom Campbell is former assistant North Carolina State Treasurer and is creator/host of NC SPIN, a weekly statewide television discussion of NC issues. Show airs in Charlotte on WCCB Sundays at 6:30 a.m.
India-Cyprus Double Tax Treaty Agreement in force from April 2017
Tax authorities in Cyprus recently confirmed that the ratification procedures supporting the countrys Double Tax Treaty Agreement (DTAA) with India were finalized.
This operationalizes the Treaty for the Avoidance of Double Taxation, which was signed on November 18 last year, following which the DTAA between Cyprus and India came into force on December 14.
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The treatys main provisions relate to withholding of tax at source on all amounts paid or credited on or after January 1, 2017, and on any amounts of any tax year starting on or after January 1, 2017.
These developments bring to an end the previous standstill during which Cyprus was labelled a notified jurisdiction by Indian tax authorities due to the absence of information sharing. The new DTAA replaces the previous 1994 treaty.
RELATED: Singapore and India to Include Limitation of Benefits in DTAA Amendment: Implications for Foreign Investors
GST taxpayers to be rated on compliance
Taxpayers registered under Indias goods and services tax (GST) regime will be rated based on how promptly they upload invoices, pay taxes, and file returns. These ratings will be made public on the GST Network (GSTN) website to encourage compliance among companies.
According to the new rules, invoices must be matched for claiming input tax credit. This means that a manufacturer procuring goods from a supplier will not be able to claim credit for the tax paid until the seller uploads the invoices and the claims of the manufacturer and supplier are matched.
An immediate implication incentivizing prompt compliance is when multiple vendors offer the same price to the manufacturer. In such cases, the company may opt for the firm that uploads its invoices and files returns on time, thereby holding a better compliance rating.
Indias GST regime is set to be implemented from July 1.
RELATED: Tax Compliance Services from Dezan Shira & Associates
Karnataka levies higher stamp duty on urban land transactions
Karnatakas state government has introduced a new tax system for urban land transactions involving large plots of land. The new rule came into effect April 1, and is expected to raise the cost of transactions in cities such as Bengaluru where land prices are already steep.
The updated system of levying stamp duty will only apply to land plots converted for non-agriculture use such as for housing, industrial, or commercial purposes. The changes are to stop any more loss to government revenue in the conversion of land in urban areas.
Consequently, five tax slabs have been created, fixing different rates. The value of plots measuring between 505.85 and 758.77 square meters will now be assessed at 70 percent of the prevailing market rate. The percentage will drop as the area increases: between 758.77 and 1011.7 sq. m (60 percent), 1011.7 and 2023.4 sq. m (40 percent), 2023.4 and 4046.8 sq. m (35 percent), and one acre and above (30 percent), which will soften transaction costs.
Registration authorities will assess the value based on the nature of the plot residential, industrial, or commercial and calculate the stamp duty.
Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide. An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017 An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in India. As such, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Indian market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to stay up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.
Actor-producer Aamir Khan has decided against releasing his Bollywood blockbuster "Dangal" after the censor board in Pakistan demanded that two scenes involving the Indian flag and anthem be cut.
Mobashir Hasan, Pakistan's Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) head, told IANS over social media: "Yes, the board unanimously decided to skip two scenes."
Asked why the Indian flag and anthem needed to be cut, Hasan said: "The decision is the collective wisdom of the board."
He added that it was now up to the local distributor to release it or not. He said the movie's distributor in Pakistan was Geo Films.
Subsequently, Aamir has decided not to release the movie in Pkistan, saying the demanded cuts were crucial to the spirit of the film, says his spokesperson.
"Dangal" is a movie inspired by the real-life story of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, who trains his daughters to become wrestling champions.
The movie was loved by Indian audiences -- proven by its whopping Rs 385 crore-plus collection in the country.
The news comes just over two months after Pakistani film exhibitors and cinema owners lifted a self-imposed ban on the screening of Indian films in the wake of heightened tensions with India over the September 2016 terror attack in Uri that left 19 Indian soldiers dead.
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Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal was in Delhi recently in a 5 star hotel where he reportedly assaulted a fan.
Twitter/ Arjun FC
The actor who is also a DJ was apparently being photographed by paparazzi in the night club when he lost his cool and snatched the camera and threw it at the crowd.
The 44-year-old has been accused of injuring a person who had come to the nightclub and was hit by the camera.
But dismissing all rumours now, Arjun Rampal took to Twitter to deny every bit of it. He posted
Woke up to be flooded by messages of assaulting a fan?Man!!Where do people make this news up from?Not assaulted anyone #untrue #fakenews arjun rampal (@rampalarjun) April 9, 2017
Well, we really hope all this is untrue.
Actor Bradley Cooper and his girlfriend Irina Shayk have welcomed their first baby.
Bradley Cooper/ FC
The 31-year-old Russian supermodel, who has been dating Cooper, 42, since spring 2015, gave birth two weeks ago, reported People magazine.
However, no other details were made available.
Shayk's pregnancy news came out in November after she showcased a baby bump while walking the runway at the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
The two were first romantically linked in May 2015 when they were spotted kissing in New York City. Talk show host Ellen Degenres took to Twitter to wish the couple.
Congrats Irina Shayk and Bradley Cooper on your baby! Bradley, you're going to be a wonderful dad. Just don't take the baby to Vegas. Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) April 9, 2017
There were some funny reactions too.
How do I not know Bradley Cooper impregnated Irina Shayk!? Babyyyyyy!!!!! Bea (@wellwhatevz) April 9, 2017
If Irina Shayk doesn't call her new baby Vanilla Milk then what is the actual point Ciara Knight (@Ciara_Knight) April 9, 2017
Congratulations to the new parents.
From Life of Pi to Phillauri, Suraj Sharma has come a long way. His Phillauri stint was an impressive one and as audience, we are looking to watching him more on the silver screen. If reports are to be believed, Suraj is now solely focusing on his Hollywood career and is eyeing some great opportunities in the West.
However, in his latest interview with DNA, Suraj had a lot to say about how things have changed in America after Donald Trump became the US President. He also revealed about facing racism.
Mr.Porter
The actor explained that apart from the change in working conditions of Indians working in America, racism too has grown. He was quoted in the report saying,
Twitter
Yes, racism for sure. Like someone would just say, Go back to your country, Sand Enwood. Thats become a very normal thing, especially when you go outside New York. You have to deal with it sometimes. Most people are really nice and try to overcompensate for everybody else.
The wake of the recent announcements on World Health Day by WHO that revealed shocking statistics related to depression in India, the Union Minister of Health J.P. Nadda, on Friday, assured more NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences)-like institutions to be set up across the country.
lokmarg.com
The Health Minister proposed that proper implementation of the Mental Health Policy of 2017 would be ensured:
He assured greater government focus on civil society organisations engaged in mental health care.
"Focus should be on pluralism, cross references and sharing of various practices covering geriatric, palliative and rehabilitative care. As part of its renewed strategy for mental healthcare services, the government is strengthening Public Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs).
#NationalMentalHealth Survey adapted a uniform, standard scientific methodology for data collection. A look at key findings.#WorldHealthDay pic.twitter.com/arbWKZc2P3 Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) April 9, 2017
"Extensive training is being provided to ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) and ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) at PHCs and CHCs so that they can become the transformers, translators and change-makers within the community."
"Decriminalisation of suicide is another significant facet of the Mental Health Bill, which will ensure proper management of severe stress as a precursor for suicide attempts."
At the moment, however, with 20 million Indians suffering from depression and with an estimated 258,000 suicides in India alone in 2012, with the age group of 15-29 years being the most affected, we need to face the harsh reality of our current circumstances.
Sanjeev P. Sahni, Principal Director, Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences throws more light on this harsh reality.
"India has a total of only 898 clinical psychologists, one for every 13 lakh people and a total of 3,800 psychiatrists, one for every 3,30,000, here is need for mental health services to be available in each district across the country and the essential drug list to be available free of cost in government hospitals," states Sahni.
In fact, the Indians Prime Ministers speech in his latest (march) Mann Ki Baat , where the Prime Minister spoke about the looking at an opportunity to focus his attention on mental issues as the theme this year, Depression: Lets Talk mental health issues, as depression is one the largest contributors to global morbidity, was also noticed and appreciated by WHO and Dr Bekedem, the WHO Representative to India.
According to WHO, globally nearly 800,000 people die every year, accounting for close to 1.5 per cent of all deaths, bringing it to the top 20 leading causes of death.
Henk Bekedam, the WHO Representative to India, said that depression being the single-largest cause of morbidity globally, it is a public health priority and health concern for us.
phpld.net
"While the government legislates, creates an enabling environment and makes professional services available, the onus is on each one of us to reach out, be it a friend, a colleague, a neighbour or family and make a difference, even save a life. It is equally important for patients to seek help when depressed," said Bekedam.
Time will tell just how many of these policies will be implemented and how effective they will be to curb the wave of depression sweeping through the country.
Meanwhile, however, current research indicates that one in every four mental health problems arises due to workplace depression, claims Chee Ng, a Professor at the University of Melbourne, and a bunch of experts in a recently conducted seminar.
With the kind of long work hours, tight deadlines, long commute times, people across the world, including Indians, fall prey to depression due to workplace related issues.
arbetsmiljoforum.se
If youre thinking of quitting without a clear agenda of why or what youre doing next, though, you may be subjecting yourself to even more stress or depression due to isolation, more time to mull over why you hated your job, and the added stress of figuring out how to manage your expenses.
HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HANDLE DEPRESSION MORE TACTFULLY AT YOUR WORKPLACE:
WHAT CAN YOU DO, PERSONALLY, AS AN EMPLOYEE?
First, recognise that you are depressed so you can act on it
Were often not even aware of the fact that we might be facing symptoms related to work-related depression. Look out for the following symptoms as they can indicate classic symptoms of depression:
Youre often tired, and deadlines often stress you out rather than motivate you.
You stay glued to your computer more than others and you rather not cooperate or interact with your colleagues.
You find it hard to concentrate and impossible to muster up a positive attitude.
Your productivity suffers because of your low morale.
You spend extra amounts of time on your job and bury yourself in work to mask your emotions.
Both you and your work suffer in tandem.
raiseyouredge.com
Set clear, definable, and realistic goals
Depression can make it very hard for you to focus. Its best to map out a clear weekly or daily schedule for you to follow, to avoid stressing yourself out further.
Set clear goals for yourself by creating lists and placing your priorities right at the top, to make sure you dont miss out on the most important tasks.
Put aside wasteful and distracting activities
If you often feel overburdened by the mountain of work that stares you in the face the next day, despite the amount you get done the day before. If this is the case, you to need to put aside wasteful activities that distract you.
Attending unimportant calls, emails, texts, engaging in unnecessary gossip, and unwarrantedly surfing the web can kill a good chunk of your time without you even knowing it.
yourstory.com
Get a life outside of your workplace
If setbacks at work, such as failure to deliver what your boss expects or the inability to keep up with the requirements your job demands or even the fact that you dont fit in the workplace youre in is weighing you down, you need to engage with friends and activities outside of it.
Getting appreciated and acknowledged by people outside of your workplace can come as a relief to tackle the crappiest days at work.
Leave, if your work is killing you
If you encounter a severe drop in your self-esteem after sticking to your job for 6 months to a year, its time you consider a switch in your job or your profession.
Working in this sort of a situation can cause emotional distress, physical stress, and the toxic build of pain due to the inability to move on and find a more lucrative environment.
ocfighter.cbtprogram.com
HERE ARE SOME STRATEGIES EMPLOYERS CAN IMPLEMENT TO COUNTER DEPRESSION-RELATED COUNTERPRODUCTIVITY:
Use ecotherapy to create a good working environment
Ecotherapy is a technique that used a wide range of treatment programmes to improve ones mental and physical well-being by using outdoor activities in nature.
Using aspects of ecotherapy, such as using live plants, different coloured light bulbs, offering healthy food, personalising workplace according to the employees' preferences, and creating access to nature; by allowing walks outdoors, for instance, can help boost everyones morale.
Take up depression as a serious subject with your employers
Caring for your employees and empowering them to understand and recognise depression can go a long way in personally connecting with your employees.
Personally connecting with them can boost their morale and as a result in an increase in productivity. Bring in a speaker or a consultant to teach or help your employees deal with depression better.
entrepreneur.com
Offer them avenues to voice their concerns
Using annual depression screening sessions or offering a one-on-one therapy session for those struggling with depression can help someone deal with depression to a great degree.
Sometimes you need to invest in your employees for them to invest back wholeheartedly into your business.
Speak to your employees, but avoid diagnosing them
Although you are not a psychologist, just asking questions, such as you seem a bit concerned off late, can I be of help in any way? can help and boost the productivity of the employee.
Developing that kind of a relationship with your employees can go a long way dealing with depression at the workplace.
med-employee.dk
At the end of the day, ignoring depression at your workplace will cause frustration amongst your employees, which will only end up negatively impacting your companys business.
After Bihar liquor ban, the Supreme Court's ban on the sale of liquor on highways, booze lovers are likely to have tough times in Madhya Pradesh. CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan has hinted towards a total prohibition, but in phases, of liquor in the state.
BCCL
"Alcohol prohibition will be implemented in the entire state by closing all liquor shops in a phased manner," Chouhan said while addressing a programme at village Neemkhera (Heerapur) of Narsinghpur district on Sunday.
This programme was organised during the ongoing river conservation awareness campaign 'Namami Devi Narmade - Narmada Seva Yatra.'
"In the first phase, the state government closed all the shops falling within a radius of five kilometers from the banks of river Narmada on either side. In the next phase, the liquor shops would not be allowed to open in residential localities, near educational institutes or religious places," he said.
Chouhan reiterated that a de-addiction drive would also be launched in the state soon.
During past one month, several protests against liquor shops have been reported from across the state.
BCCL/Representational Image
On April 5, the protesters had burnt two vehicles and damaged four others in Bareli town of Raisen district when Excise Department was trying to shift the liquor shops from a highway to a local residential colony.
Earlier on April 3, BJP MLA from Indore-1, Sudarshan Gupta had demanded total liquor prohibition in the state while extending support to the agitation against the opening of liquor shop.
Besides, protests were also reported from several parts of the state including Indore, Sagar, Burhanpur, Chhatarpur, Vidisha, Narsinghpur, Satna, Morena, Dewas and some other towns during last one month.
Former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested last year in Pakistan on charges of spying, has been sentenced to death.
The death sentence comes months after Nawaz Sharifs foreign advisor Sartaj Aziz said that there was not enough evidence against him.
Read more: Pakistan Just Sentenced Captured Former Indian Navy Officer Kulbhushan Jadhav To Death Without Proof
Youtube
The dossier on Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav contained mere statements. It did not have any conclusive evidence, Aziz had told a full Senate chamber of Pakistan Parliament in December.
However, the case, since the beginning, was marred by flaws.
Heres a quick lowdown on the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav:
#1
Kulbhushan Jadhav sought premature retirement from the Indian Navy few years ago.
Twitter
#2
Jadhav was reportedly arrested from Pakistans insurgency-hit province Balochistan after he entered from Iran in March 2016.
#3
Ever since his arrest, Jadhav has been denied consular access. India has issued at least six notes to Pakistan to get consular access to Jadhav, but all in vain.
#4
Instead of an open trial, Jadhav was tried in secret by military courts in Pakistan, set up to try terrorists.
Read more: Pakistan Should Release Kulbhushan Jadhav, Says India After Islamabad Failed To Prove That He Was A Spy
The Pakistan Army had even released a video in which Jadhav apparently confesses his involvement in terror activities in Balochistan. In the video, he says I am commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, a serving officer of the Indian Navy, from the cadre of engineering department in the Indian Navy. He goes on to say that his cover name was Hussein Mubarak Patel, which he had taken for doing some intelligence gathering for Indian agencies. He said that he will be due for retirement in 2022.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a firm denial of the confessional video and also termed it as doctored and fake.
However, India had acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy Officer, but has denied that he was in any way connected to the government.
Earlier this year, Aziz had ruled out any possibility of extraditing Jadhav back to India.
A 24-year-old final year MBBS student helped a woman give birth to a baby boy on-board the Ahmedabad-Puri Express with instructions from his seniors through WhatsApp.
TOI
Vipin Khadse, who is in his final stage of MBBS training (and is not a qualified doctor yet) at the Nagpur-based Government Medical College & Hospital, performed a complicated delivery when 24-year old Chitralekha went into labour on the train on Friday.
Khadse told TOI that the train was about 30km from Nagpur when Chitralekha's relatives pulled the chain to halt the train near Wardha junction. "The ticket collector and guard were looking for a doctor on the train. Initially, I kept quiet presuming there could be some experienced doctor. But, when they came for a second round of inquiry, I offered to help," he said.
Chitralekha and her husband had boarded the train at Ahmedabad, where they work as labourers. They were heading to Raipur in Chhattisgarh. When Khadse went to attend her, she was bleeding profusely and was in great pain. In a show of humanity, passengers vacated the compartment. The women passengers helped convert the compartment into a makeshift delivery room.
Vipin Bhagwanrao Khadse/Facebook
"The delivery was complicated because instead of the head, the baby's shoulder was hanging out of the vagina. I uploaded a photo in a WhatsApp group of doctors for help. A senior resident Shikha Malik guided me on the phone to conduct the delivery," Khadse said. "I had to use chilled water bottles to stop her bleeding. The amniotic fluid had completely dried. A midwife on the train helped me," Khadse, who aspires to be a surgeon said, adding that every doctor should know how to help a woman in labour.
As the train chugged into Nagpur station, a team led by a woman doctor from the railway hospital took charge of the situation. The new parents were allowed to continue their travel with medication.
After pellet guns received a lot of flak from all concerned, including the Supreme Court, the government has decided to get a substitute for the security forces. The government recently told the SC that it's developing a weapon to disperse crowds.
"Security forces are working on a secret weapon to disperse crowds," said attorney general Mukul Rohatgi to the Supreme Court today, while defending the use of pellet guns in the Kashmir valley.
AFP
"Skunk water, laser dazzlers and high intensity noise devices have not been successful in dispersing protesters," Rohatgi told the apex court. He also said the Centre is exploring other options like rubber bullets, instead of pellet guns.
"A rubber bullet not as lethal as pellet gun, but it'll be used only as a last resort," Rohatgi said, according to ANI.
AFP
The top court was hearing a petition filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association against pellet guns. Security forces used them in Kashmir during the unrest last year following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani.
At a hearing last month, the SC asked if other crowd-dispersal methods could be used.
"There is no question of the court saying what weapons to use but the situation has arisen and we are a welfare state after all. We are of the impression that there are other methods that can be adopted," the court had said.
AFP
In response, the Centre had placed before the court an October 2016 report by the ministry of home affairs on alternatives to pellet guns but asked the court to not accept the copies on record as they may fall into undesirable hands.
The court had also asked the government to state steps taken for minors who were injured due to pellet guns.
A wise man once said 'neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.'
But is taking sides enough? Even if you're supporting the wicked one?
In India, most people don't support the victim, especially when it's a girl. If you're raped, it's your fault that you decided to lurk and not sit at home, if you are molested, it's your fault again that you took public transport and the list goes on.
One such case of moral policing and blindly promoting patriarchy is here and the shallowness of authority will leave you dumbfounded.
On 7th April, Saleha Paatwala, the sister of the victim, in this case, wrote a very long Facebook post in order to share her experience with police in the vicinity and what has happened with her sister.
As you can see, a creep messaged inappropriate things to her younger sister and also fixed her face on a naked body and threatened to upload it on Facebook.
What would you do in a situation like this? Seek help from the authority? That's what the parents of this young girl did, but they were shamed, contrary to the popular belief. This is what they were told when they went to police-
"Why do you post pictures on social media? What he has done with you, he will do it with others as well. You should delete your social media accounts in order to be safe"
All for naught, their trip turned out to be a total disaster, but the family didn't lose just yet. The girl then took it to Facebook and twitter.
My minor sister's face was MORPHED on a naked body. Went to police and got nothing but moral lecture. #HelpMeWCD https://t.co/ZBnXYhQ3jF Saleha Paatwala (@Salehapw1) April 8, 2017
And somehow it reached Maneka Gandhi, who promised to take immediate action against this.
Dear @Salehapw1, quickly forward your contact number through DM. I will take immediate action. https://t.co/EoHgUuNG5L Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) April 10, 2017
What we should teach our girls is the ballsiness to fight every situation that comes their way. Why should a girl keep shut, if it's not her fault? Let's vow that we won't support the oppressor anymore.
Martyrs are not just those who carry a rifle and walk on two feet. The canines of the Indian paramilitary forces are soldiers too who die in the line of duty.
1. Cracker, a CRPF patrol dog, was martyred last week in Chhattisgarh. The Belgian Malinois died an Indian patriot, after he sniffed out a pressure bomb planted by Maoists in Chhattisgarh late last week. Thanks to Cracker, his beloved handler and other CRPF personnel escaped with minor injuries.
ANI
2. Cracker was hit by the splinters of the pressure bomb that was cleverly hidden beneath a 'kuchha' road when his CRPF battalion was returning to its camp after a combing operation.
ANI
3. Belgian Malinois dogs are used by paramilitary and security forces worldwide for infantry patrol roles.
4. They first gained fame for assisting elite US Navy SEALs sniff out errorist Osama bin Laden from his safe haven in Pakistan in 2011.
ANI
5. When he was killed, Cracker has served with the CRPF for over a year. He was inducted into a CRPF paramilitary battalion in December 2015.
ANI
6. On Saturday, CRPF paid glowing tributes to Cracker and buried him with full military honours.
ANI
7. The force lost Pluto, another Belgian Malinois, in January in the same district during an anti-Naxal patrol operation.
ANI
A ban on meat is likely to become the major objective of BJP ruled states as after UP, now the BJP functionary in Madhya Pradesh's, Hoshangabad, a small city on the banks of Narmada, about 70km from Bhopal now wants a ban on meat.
Reuters/Representational Image
Akhilesh Khandelwal, the Hoshangabad municipal chairman, wants to make this holy town the first in Madhya Pradesh to go pure vegetarian. "Kya Hoshangabad main mans, mutton or machli ka vikray pratibandhit hona chaheye (Should the sale of meat, mutton and fish be banned in Hoshangabad)," Khandelwal posted on his Facebook wall at 10am on Sunday. Within minutes, comments started pouring in. Last seen, there were over 400 likes and 300 comments, mostly in favour of the vegetarian option, but a few did express concern.
"I appreciate what the UP CM did. Meat should be banned in MP, at least in cities like Hoshangabad, which are located along the banks of Narmada," Khandelwal said on Sunday even as his post went viral. He says he will wait for a week to "see the reaction".
BCCL/Representational Image
Some expressed concern over his proposed plan, pointing out that it impacts livelihood of hundreds. "Ban on meat in this district will be in favour of this city. But this municipality will never be able to do it. BJP may lose votes from a particular community by doing so. Jai Hind," Bhahdur Singh Rajput commented on Khandelwal's post. Sagar Anant, however, pointed out that no law permits banning food items. Others appealed to Khandelwal to resolve civic issues before thinking of a meat ban.
Former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested last year in Pakistan on charges of spying, has been sentenced to death.
Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed death sentence awarded by the FGCM under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA).
Twitter
The Pakistan government had earlier refused to extradite Jadhav, who was reportedly arrested in Balochistan after entering the country from Iran.
Pakistans foreign affairs minister Sartaj Aziz had alleged that he was involved in subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan.
Twitter
According to an ISPR press release, Kulbhusan Sundir Yadav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016, through a Counter-Intelligence Operation from Mashkel area of Balochistan for his involvement in espionage and sabotage actives in Pakistan.
"The Field General Court martial (FGCM) found Yadhav guilty of all charges. He confessed before a Magistrate and the Court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destablise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi," said the press release.
Former Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested last year in Pakistan on charges of spying, has been sentenced to death. Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed death sentence awarded by the FGCM under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA). Read more
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Read other top stories of the day:
1) Commuting To Gurugram Just Became A Nightmare, Haryana Govt. Introduces New Tax On Cabs
PTI
The new motor tax introduced by the Haryana government may end up becoming a huge problem for those who travel to Gurugram for work. Commuters may find it hard to get cab services like Uber and Ola to get to Haryana soon. Read more
2) This Naga Cop Is The First To Receive Shaurya Chakra Award Since Nagaland Attained Statehood
Facebook/Atu Zumbu
For the first time since Nagaland officially gained recognition as a state, a state Police Officer has been awarded one of the nations's military honour. Read more
3) Woman From Bihar Who Moved To UK With No English Language Skills Named 'Asian Businesswomen Of The Year'
An India-born educationalist who moved to the UK with no English language skills after her marriage, has been named the Asian Businesswoman of the Year in an award ceremony in Birmingham. Read more
4) While India Prepares To File Income Tax Return, Saudi Arabia Says No Taxes For Its Citizens!
AFP
With the financial year having come to an end, majority of salaried Indians are getting their salaries slashed in the name of taxes. Saudi Arabia on the other hand is mulling not to collect any taxes from its citizens. Read more
5) EVM Tampering Row: Opposition Parties Stand United, Decide To Meet The Election Commission
AFP
The Opposition parties today unitedly decided to meet the Election Commission over the burning issue of alleged EVM tampering in the elections held recently in various states. Read more
A transaction of Rs 1,590 has bagged a Central Bank of India employee a lucky bounty of a whopping Rs 1 crore under the governments promotional scheme to popularise digital payments in the country.
President Pranab Mukherjee picked up the lucky winners from the draw of lots under the digital payments promotional schemes at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.
PTI
He then congratulated the six winners - three consumers and three merchants of Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana.
A Central Bank of India employee bagged the first prize of Rs 1 crore, the second prize of Rs 50 Lakh went to a Bank of Baroda customer. The winner of the third prize of Rs 25 Lakh was a Punjab National Bank customer.
All the three customers had done transactions using their RuPay debit cards. The names of three winners were not yet known as the draw only displayed their transaction numbers. These will be matched with card details to identify the winners.
Representational image
Three merchants also won prizes of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, respectively.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will felicitate the winners on April 14 at Nagpur on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.
The government launched the Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants on December 25, 2016, to promote digital transactions. These schemes are being implemented by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
Vice-President Hamid Ansari's wife Salma Ansari has said that uttering 'talaq' thrice does not amount to divorce and asked Muslim women to read the Quran thoroughly instead of relying on clerics.
In Aligarh to attend a function at a madrassa operated by Al Noor Charitable Society on Saturday, she said, "There is nothing like triple talaq in the Quran and women in India are being misguided over the issue. Read the holy scriptures to clear your doubts."
BCCL
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the function, she said, " Triple talaq is not an issue. There can be no 'talaq' just because someone utters talaq, talaq, talaq. There is no such rule in Quran. They have just made it up."
Salma Ansari's views on triple talaq come at a time when there is a nationwide debate on the practice and the validity of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy practices among Muslims challenged in the Supreme Court.
She also raised doubts on the interpretation of the Quran by the clerics. "You read the Quran in Arabic and don't read the translation. You accept whatever the maulana (clerics) or the mulla says. You must read the Quran, read Hadis. Just see what Rasool had said," she said. Women must have the courage to read the Quran by themselves and introspect, she said.
Zakia Soman, co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Morcha Andolan, said Ansari was correct as the Quran had nothing on triple talaq.
ALSO READ: Sadhvi Prachi's Advice To Triple Talaq Victims: 'Say I Love You To Hindu Men, They Will Marry You'
Reuters/Representational Image
She said women who fell victim to the practice had no option but to live with it, as maulanas and qazis support it.
Shadab Bano, assistant professor in Aligarh Muslim University's history department, said triple talaq was not sanctioned in the Quran and was hence "un-Islamic".
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board had told the SC that the pleas challenging such practices among Muslims were not maintainable as the issues fell outside the realm of judiciary.
The Centre had on October 7 last year opposed in the SC the practice of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims and favoured a relook on grounds like gender equality and secularism.
The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the matter as to whether Muslim women faced gender discrimination in the event of divorce or due to other marriages of their husband.
ALSO READ: Five-Judge Bench Will Decide If Triple-Talaq Is Valid Or Not, Hearing To Begin On 11 May
Thanks to a trained crew, a French woman was able to safely give birth at 42,000 feet on a Turkish Airlines flight, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The woman, Diaby Nafi, went into labour shortly after her fight took off from Guinea's capital Conakry, for Istanbul. Nafi is of Guinean origin. Lucky for her, the plane's cabin crew has received training for just such an eventuality.
Twitter
"The mother gave birth while standing, and we received help from several other passengers," said Bouthayna Inanir, one of the flight attendants who helped with the delivery.
As baby girl 'Kadiju' made her appearance, the overcome cabin crew chief wiped away tears of joy.
The Turkish Airlines flight's pilot then made an emergency landing in Burkina Faso so the mother and the newborn girl could receive medical attention before continuing on to Istanbul. They are both said to be in good health.
Welcome on board Princess! Applause goes to our cabin crew! pic.twitter.com/FFPI16Jqgt Turkish Airlines (@TurkishAirlines) 7 April 2017
Passengers and flight attendants took pictures with the baby and shared them on social media.
Just a few days before Kadiju's birth, another woman gave birth mid air, also to a baby girl, but under wildly different circumstances, CNN reported last week.
The woman, Maria Josefa Pingo Sanchez, 20, started to give birth as she was being airlifted by helicopter from a flooded village in north Peru. Her baby girl came into the world 20 minutes before the helicopter landed.
Twitter
Pingo named the baby 'Cielo', which means 'sky', in Spanish. Turns out, Pingo had been in labour for two days.
"It was time. She wanted to be born mid air," Pingo told Peruvian media.
Though it won't surprise majority of Indians, but China once again did what it does best. Yes, stealing the credit. Yesterday, a ship was saved from Somali pirates by the joint effort of India and Chinese navies, but China today claimed full credit for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, ignoring Indian Navy's role in the operation.
AFP
While a Chinese navy statement last night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese vessel whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates".
When questioned about the absence of any mention of the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
"According to what we have learnt from the military on April 8 at 5 PM the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters received reports from the UKMTO (United Kingdom Marine Trade Operation) about the hijack of Tuvalaun ship OS35," she said.
"The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now," she told reporters.
Reuters/Representational Image
Hua did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation.
Her comments came a day after the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement that it rescued the ship.
When asked about the Chinese navy's statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet.
He also posted a picture with the tweet which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS 35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/ZbZJpHHQOG SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) 10 April 2017
The surprise omission of the Indian Navy's role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
Reuters/Representational Image
However, Hua, without detailing what cooperation she referred to, said, "We always remain positive towards international cooperation in combating pirates. We are ready for more cooperation in this regard."
Asked about the Indian Navy's role, she said "I have already given what I have learnt to you. The Chinese convoy received a report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I point you to the Chinese defence ministry."
The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
At the end of the operation, the Chinese navy thanked the Indian Navy for its role in the operation. "In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.
AFP/Representational Image
The reported coordination among the navies came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, China's opposition to India's NSG membership and Beijing blocking India's effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.
In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navy's help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, from pirates. At that time, Chinese navy's flotilla was on an escort duty in the Gulf of Aden - 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault.
Two months after Pakistan's top foreign affairs official Sartaj Aziz said there was inadequate evidence against the alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, Islamabad ruled out his extradition and said an FIR had been registered against him.
Reuters
Jadhav was arrested in Balochistan on March 3, 2016, with authorities claiming that he was a RAW agent involved in "subversive activities" against Pakistan since 2013. But in December 2016, Aziz, while addressing the Senate, had said the dossier on Jadhav contained "mere statements" and did not have "any conclusive evidence".
Contradicting his previous statement, Aziz on Friday told lawmakers that the government was in the process of prosecuting Jadhav for carrying out "subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan".
BCCL
Official sources in New Delhi, responding to media reports from Pakistan, said, "The government has on several occasions completely rejected the baseless allegations against Kulbhushan Jadhav. The circumstances of his presence in Pakistan remain unclear, particularly because we have not been provided consular access despite our repeated requests.
We expect Pakistan to follow the well-established international practice in this regard and ensure his well-being while he is in its custody." Aziz told the Senate that a dossier had been prepared based on thorough groundwork and inputs from various state departments on the "Indian involvement in internal affairs of Pakistan."
dailymail.co.uk
The dossier, Aziz said, was shared with the UN secretary general. "It includes details about Kulbhushan Jadhav and his activities," he said, adding that the government was also examining the possibilities of sharing it with other countries and international organisations.
Earlier this year, China sent its first freight train from Bejing to London and it covered a record-breaking distance of the 8000-mile journey.
Twitter/ ChinaDaily
As part of its drive to develop trade and investment ties with Europe, the trial ride carried millions of socks. The route of the service traversed from Beijing, across Asia and Europe, before terminating in London.
However, it's time for the first return rail freight service ride, which will commence from Essex today.
China Railway Express makes small item freight delivery from Yiwu to #London https://t.co/frVRDn7FaQ pic.twitter.com/fn348bD8LW People's Daily,China (@PDChina) January 3, 2017
As many as 30 containers, fully loaded with goods like whisky, soft drinks, vitamins and pharmaceuticals will be sent. The train will cover nearly 8,000 miles to reach Yiwu, a famed wholesale market town in the eastern province of Zhejiang, 17 days later.
It will cross France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan - before arriving on April 27.
NEPALFOREIGNAFFAIRS
China's One Belt- One Road programme is aiming at reviving the old Silk Route.
Currently, the choice is two-fold. One, take an ocean-bound route, which although is cheap, but can be slow. Two, use an air carrier that is considerably faster, but much more expensive. The new route is surely set to unlock a new option for shippers.
According to recent reports, Nokia is partnering with Airtel and BSNL to bring 5G internet to India.
As reported by the Economic Times, the Finnish mobile giant has signed a memoranda of understanding with both India and BSNL. During the Mobile World Congress 2017 (MWC) Nokia had stated it would attempt to expand its collaborative partnerships to work on 5G technology and connected devices.
The MoUs inked involved introducing 5G services in India, as well as what infrastructure and development would be required to set it up, aside from identifying a target segment, Nokia spokespersons said. However, this would only be the jump off point for Nokia, as the 5G is expected to commercially roll out only between 2019 to 2020.
"After 4G, the future is 5G and IoT, which is useful in concepts such as smart cities, BSNL Chairman Anupam Shrivastava told PTI. The MoU will help BSNL to draw a framework for transition from the current network to a futuristic 5G network."
In addition to this, Nokia is also reportedly setting up a 5G experience zone in Bengaluru, to better assess what the requirements are for the technology. Nokia is also expected to work with BSNL by offering new products that plug into 5G technology as proof-of-concept demonstrations for the Indian market.
While theres not yet a deployment standard for 5G services, the International Telecommunications Union has defined a list of minimum requirements for the technology. It says any 5G offering would have a peak download rate of 20Gbps, with a minimum of 1Gbps for many workers on a single floor. this would average out at about 100Mbps data rate per person.
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is a woman on a mission to break as many space-related records as she can. If her cumulative stints aboard the ISS are anything to go by, Whitson will be breaking at least one more record before she goes home.
NASA
1. First Female ISS Commander
When Whitson launched to the ISS for her second mission in 2007, as part of Expedition 2007, she became the first ever female commander of the space station.
2. Most Spacewalks
During her eighth spacewalk on March 31 this year, Whitson set two new records. She broke the record for the most number of spacewalks by a female astronaut, beating Sunita Williams record of 6, as well as beating the Indian-descent astronauts record for most hours on spacewalks with a total of 53 hours and 22 minutes
"I love being up here," Whitson said. "Living and working aboard the space station is where I feel like I make the greatest contribution, so I am constantly trying to squeeze every drop out of my time here. Having three more months to squeeze is just what I would wish for."
3. Only Two-Time Woman Commander
Now that her fellow cosmonauts on board the ISS, Russias Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet from the ESA, are setting off for home, Whitson has been made commander of the space station once more. This also makes her the only female astronaut to hold the post twice.
4. Most Days In Space By A Female Astronaut
In addition, Peggy Whitson is set to rack up the most number of days spent in space by any American astronaut. On April 24, she will break the US record of 534 days, held by NASAs Jeff WIlliams, having long since shattered the same record for female astronauts. By the time she departs the ISS after her extended mission deadline in September, Whitson will have accumulated a whopping 665 days spent in space. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka is currently the most experienced flier, with a total of 878 days in orbit.
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Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds
U.S. to Hold Accountable Those Who Commit Crimes Against 'Innocents'
By Crispian Balmer and Steve Scherer
April 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - " Reuters " - LUCCA, Italy - The United States will hold responsible anyone who commits crimes against humanity, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday, days after the U.S. military unexpectedly attacked Syria.
Tillerson is in Italy for a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialised nations, with his counterparts from Europe and Japan eager for clarity from Washington on numerous diplomatic issues, especially Syria.
Before the April 7 missile strikes on a Syrian airbase, U.S. President Donald Trump had indicated he would be less interventionist than his predecessors and willing to overlook human rights abuses if it was in U.S. interests.
But Tillerson said the United States would not let such crimes go unchallenged. "We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," he told reporters while commemorating a 1944 German Nazi massacre in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
Trump ordered his military to strike Syria in retaliation for what the United States said was a chemical weapons attack by President Bashar al-Assad's forces which killed scores of civilians, including many children.
European ministers are eager to hear whether Washington is now committed to overthrowing Assad, who is backed by Russia. They also want the United States to put pressure on Moscow to distance itself from Assad.
Tillerson, who travels to Russia after the two-day G7 gathering, said at the weekend that the defeat of Islamic State remained the U.S. priority, while the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that "regime change" in Syria was also a priority for Trump.
The mixed messages have confused and frustrated European allies, who are eager for full U.S. support for a political solution based on a transfer of power in Damascus.
"The Americans say they agree, but there's nothing to show for it behind (the scenes). They are absent from this and are navigating aimlessly in the dark," said a senior European diplomat, who declined to be named.
Italy, Germany, France and Britain have invited foreign ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar to sit down with the G7 group on Tuesday morning to discuss Syria. All oppose Assad's rule.
SENSITIVE ISSUES
The foreign ministers' discussions in Tuscany will prepare the way for a leaders' summit in Sicily at the end of May.
Efforts to reach an agreement on statements ahead of time - a normal part of pre-meeting G7 diplomacy - have moved very slowly, partly because of a difficult transition at the U.S. state department, where many key positions remain unfilled.
Some issues, such as trade and climate change, are likely to be ducked this week. "The more complicated subjects will be left to the leaders," said an Italian diplomat, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
However, the foreign ministers will talk about growing tensions with North Korea, as the United States moves a navy strike group near the Korean peninsula amid concerns over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
They will also discuss Libya. Italy is hoping for vocal support for a United Nations-backed government in Tripoli which has struggled to establish its authority even in the city, let alone in the rest of the violence-plagued north African country.
The Trump administration has not yet defined a clear policy and Rome fears Washington may fall into step with Egypt and Russia, which support general Khalifa Haftar, a powerful figure in eastern Libya.
The struggle against terrorism, relations with Iran and instability in Ukraine will also come up for discussion, with talks due to kick off at 4.30 p.m. (1430 GMT) on Monday.
Another Jolly Little War
By Eric Margolis
April 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - It seems that every new US president has to prove his machismoor make his bones, as wiseguys say... by bombing the usual Arabs. By now, its almost a rite of passage. The American public loves it.
So we just saw the US launch 59 or 60 $1.5million apiece cruise missiles at a western Syrian airfield to express President Trumps outrage caused by seeing injured children allegedly caused by a Syrian government toxic gas attack.
But what, Mr. President, about all those Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan babies killed by US B-52 and B-1 heavy bombers? Or the destruction of the defiant Iraqi city of Fallujah where the US used forbidden white phosphorus that burns right to the bone?
Washington claimed its radar had conclusively identified Syrian warplanes dropping chemical weapons. This sounds to me to be unlikely. Where was the US radar? Hundreds of miles away aboard ships? Was the info from Israel or Turkey, both with axes to grind? Is US radar so sharp that it can tell the difference between a chemical and high explosive bomb at great distance? Sounds highly fishy to me.
The cruise missile strike was planned well in advance and the missiles programmed accordingly. This was likely done before the alleged chemical attack. What a hell of a rude act to launch the attack just before Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, sat down to dinner with Trump in Palm Beach. This was the most important China-US meeting since President Richard Nixon went to meet Chairman Mao in 1972. What a monumental loss of face for Xi and for China. He was made to look small and irrelevant. Was this planned in advance? Xi should have walked out, gotten onto his plane and returned to China.
Couldnt Trump have waited till Xis visit was over, a mere additional day? What was so urgent about bombing a Syrian air base? Do we not think that Russia, China and Iran, all Syrias ally, will take some negative action? Trump had actually blasted former President Barack Obama for even thinking about attacking Syriaand now here he goes and does the same thing.
While the new president was showing how tough and decisive he is by bombing the usual Arabs, the US is openly threatening war against North Korea. Washingtons most urgent objective in the Florida summit was to somehow convince, cajole or coerce China into lowering the boom on irksome North Korea and ending its nuclear programs.
The huge insult to Xi will hardly motivate China to invade North Korea and depose Kim Jong-un. In fact, North Korea is quite useful for China in spite of its eccentric ways and offers no threat to them. The DPRK helps protect Chinas sensitive northeast region and Manchuria from US/South Korean intervention. Collapse of the Kim regime would drive millions of starving refugees to China, South Korea and Japan.
Worse, a now threatened US attack on North Korea could cause it to fire nuclear-armed missiles at Japan, South Korea and US bases in Japanese Okinawa and Guam. Two nuclear warheads would be enough to turn Japan into a vast wasteland. There are some 88,000 US troops and large numbers of dependents in the region. South Koreas 20-million people capitol, Seoul, is partly in range of Kim Jong-uns 170mm heavy guns dug in on the Demilitarized Zone.
An accidental naval or air clash over the South China Sea between the US and China seems inevitable. The US is making a big fuss over atoll airbases that China has created there, but are these really so different from US Navy aircraft carriers cruising the China Sea?
The US has lost its old strategic superiority over China in the western Pacific. Chinas land, air, naval and rocket forces are near parity with those of the US and well advanced in plans to drive the US far from its coasts. Any clash would see US forces fighting half a world away against home-based Chinese forces. US military officials are struggling to invent new strategies while cautioning the White House to avoid a fight it could lose.
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As if potential wars against China and North Korea are not enough, the US is kicking sand into Russias face and beating the war drums over eastern Ukraine and Crimea, two regions utterly unknown to Americans. There seems collective amnesia that Russia has thousands of nuclear-armed missiles, many pointed at the US. Anti-Russian hysteria in the US has assumed epidemic proportions and makes the US look silly.
The US is also broadening its little wars in Yemen and Somalia in an effort to dominate the Red Sea. The hottest new US command is the new Africa Command.
This while being at bayonets drawn with China and Russia. Amazing strategic stupidity that would make old Bismarck turn in his grave. Add Americas forgotten, foolish war in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, and its provocations of Iran.
Trump likely views these issues through the eyes of a businessman, not realizing that Empire has its costs that do not fit on a balance sheet. Sure, the US pays more for NATO than other members. NATO is an organ of the US Empire, not a simple partnership. Ruling the globe costs lots of money. Even worse, much of it is being borrowed. Interestingly, America owes more money to Comrade Xi Jin-pings China than anyone else.
Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation Pakistan, Hurriyet, Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia. https://ericmargolis.com/
Is Trump Rescuing Al-Qaeda's 'Heartland' in Syria?
Western intervention would save Syria's beleaguered al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels.
By Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton
April 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - " Alternet " - After formally calling off the longstanding U.S. policy of regime change in Syria, the Trump administration is sending signals of shifting its Syria policy under massive political pressure following a grisly chemical attack in the rebel-held province of Idlib.
The chemical attack allegedly took place on April 4. Dozens of civilians were reportedly killed, although many details are still unknown.
"We have not yet any official or reliable confirmation" of what took place or who was responsible, said the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, at a press conference after the incident.
"We also do not have evidence at the moment," added Federica Mogherini, high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy.
The chemical attack occurred just as peace talks were beginning in Geneva, and with the Syrian army in a dominant position in the sixth year of a war fueled by outside powers.
The attacks threaten to reverse the political gains made by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, leading to unrelenting bipartisan pressure for Donald Trump to authorize a bombing campaign targeting the Syrian government and its military.
For the al-Qaeda-allied rebels who were ousted from their stronghold in eastern Aleppo in December 2016, and whose gains in a recent series of offensives have been rapidly reversed, Western military intervention is the only hope.
Given its dominant position, why would the Syrian government authorize a chemical attack that was likely to trigger renewed calls for regime change? The answer remains elusive.
War on the table
Despite a dearth of independently sourced evidence about the attack, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, warned that the U.S. was "compelled to take our own action" in Syria, although it was unclear what she meant by this.
For his part, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said there was "no doubt in our mind" that the Syrian government carried out a chemical attack in Idlib, but provided no evidence to support his claim. Tillerson warned Russia it should reconsider its alliance with President Assad, suggesting regime change was back on the table.
The Pentagon has reportedly begun drawing up a list of targets to attack. (Update: Several hours after this article was published, the U.S. attacked the Syrian government, launching 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat air base, in the city of Homs. ISIS seized on the opportunity and launched an offensive against the Syrian government immediately after the U.S. strike. The attack was likewise applauded by the Salafi jihadist militia Ahrar al-Sham , Saudi Arabia and Israel .)
The media has helped spread the war fever. New York Times columnist and Iraq war cheerleader Thomas Friedman reflexively proposed that Syria be partitioned, with U.S. troops if necessary. On CNN, correspondent Arwa Damon wept over the lack of U.S. resolve, suggesting that a bombing campaign against Damascus would somehow salve the wounds of Syria.
But there has been one issue major media outlets have refused to touch, and that is the nature of the rebels who would gain from any U.S. military offensive. Who holds power in Idlib, why are they there and what do they want? This is perhaps the most inconvenient set of questions for proponents of "humanitarian" military intervention in Syria.
The reality is that Idlib is substantially controlled by al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, which has gone through a series of rebranding schemes but remains the same jihadist group it always was: Jabhat al-Nusra. In the province it rules, al-Nusra has imposed what a leading scholar has described as a Taliban-like regime that has ethnically cleansed religious and ethnic minorities, banned music and established a brutal theocracy in which it publicly executes women accused of adultery.
Even analysts who have repeatedly called for U.S.-led regime change in Syria have described Idlib as the "heartland of al-Nusra."
The 'Talibanization of Idlib'
Joshua Landis, the director of the University of Oklahoma's Middle East Studies Center, is among the leading U.S. scholars of Syria, and lived in the country for several years. In a January 2016 article in Foreign Affairs, Landis provided a chilling survey of life in Idlib:
"To judge how incompetent the rebels have been in providing a viable or attractive alternative to Assad, one need merely consider the situation in the province of Idlib, where the rebels rule. Schools have been segregated, women forced to wear veils, and posters of Osama bin Laden hung on the walls. Government offices were looted, and a more effective government has yet to take shape. With the Talibanization of Idlib, the 100-plus Christian families of the city fled. The few Druze villages that remained have been forced to denounce their religion and embrace Islam; some of their shrines have been blown up. No religious minorities remain in rebel-held Syria, in Idlib, or elsewhere. Rebels argue that Assads bombing has ensured their failure and made radicalization unavoidable. But such excuses can go only so far to explain the terrible state of rebel Syria or its excesses. We have witnessed the identical evolution in too many other Arab countries to pin it solely on Assad, despite his culpability for the disaster that has engulfed his country."
More hawkish experts have acknowledged the same. On a panel in January at the Atlantic Council, a pro-regime change think tank that is funded by Western governments and their allies, Nancy Okail, executive director of the Tahrir Institute, acknowledged that Syria is today the "newest and most important safe haven for [al-Qaeda's] ideology."
"There is a new generation of Syrian children that is growing up with al-Qaeda's ideology in some parts of rebel-held Syria as the norm," added Jennifer Cafarella, a lead intelligence planner at the neoconservative think tank the Institute for the Study of War, which has received funding from the biggest names in the military industry, including Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and DynCorp.
Charles Lister, perhaps the foremost advocate of regime change and the arming of Islamist rebels in Syria, sounded a similar note. He explained , "People on the ground in different areas of Syria are increasingly willing not just to accept al-Qaeda operating within their midst, but are actually willing to overtly support the fact that they are in their midst."
He later warned, "al-Qaeda's relative success in Syria has seen its ideology and its narrative mainstreamed, not just in parts of Syria, but also in parts of the region."
Lister noted local populations have protested not just the Syrian government, but also the al-Qaeda extremists terrorizing them. People living under rebel rule in Idlib, Lister indicated , have been lamenting, "This place is hell; we don't want to live under this Islamist rule, under all this oppression." In Idlib, "they see what life would be like under this organization, and they don't like it."
In 2016, Amnesty International published a report documenting an array of "serious violations of international humanitarian law" committed by militant groups in Idlib and elsewhere, including summary killings, torture, abductions, and sectarian attacks. The report detailed how extremist Syrian rebels have imposed harsh Sharia law in the areas they control.
With music officially outlawed in Idlib, the U.S.-funded media outlet Radio Fresh has resorted to novel measures . Instead of music, station director Raed Fares has been reduced to broadcasting the sound of bleating goats and bird chirps. Ordered by Idlib's authorities to fire all his female employees, Fares instead relied on a computer program that auto-tuned their voices to make them sound male.
"They now sound more like robots, he said.
'The most loved cleric'
When Al Nusra and its ally, Ahrar Al Sham, took Idlibs Abu al-Dhuhur Air Base in 2015, a cleric appeared on the scene in camouflaged battle dress uniform. Standing among a group of blindfolded, exhausted captives, all Syrian army regulars, the cleric blessed their mass execution, cursing them as takfir for fighting on the governments side.
I dont like to call them Sunni. They were once Sunni but became apostatized once they enlisted in the Alawites regime, he said of the 56 captives. Moments later, they were lined up and riddled with bullets.
The cleric was Abdullah Muhaysini, a 33-year-old zealot from Saudi Arabia, who was a student of Sulayman Al-Alwan, the Wahhabi cleric who oversaw what his Muslim critics have called a " terrorist factory " in Saudi Arabias Al-Qassim Province. Al-Alwan was also the instructor of the 9/11 hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari.
Today, Muhaysini commands an almost mystical status among the Islamist armed groups rampaging across northern Syria. According to Bilal Abdul Kareem , an American-born rebel propagandist currently in Idlib, Muhaysini is "probably the most loved cleric in the Syrian territories today.
After moving to Syria in 2014, Muhaysini embedded himself among the rebels most powerful factions and worked to unite them under a single banner. At first, he helped cobble together the coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest. Drawing on his connections in the Gulf, he successfully oversaw the wage jihad with your money fundraising effort that raised some $5 million for the rebels push to take the northern Idlib governate from the Syrian army in 2015.
Through his Jihad Caller's Network, Muhaysini has mobilizing resources thanks to a collection of wealthy Gulf oligarchs. In an online interview, Muhaysini thanked a group of brothers in Islam from Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), some from our brother Abu Ahmed from Kuwait, some from our brother Abu Joud from Qatar.
A deeply unsettling video from Muhaysini's Jihad Caller's Network shows him recruiting child fighters inside the Atmeh Refugee Camp on the Syrian-Turkish border, a squalid redoubt for some 30,000 war victims, handing the adolescent volunteers rifles before trucking them off to Idlib and elsewhere. More recently, Muhaysini appeared before an assembly of fighters from Tahrir al-Sham, his latest jihadist coalition, to deliver a motivational battlefield sermon.
Tahrir al-Sham was responsible for a twin suicide bombing that killed dozens of civilians at the Palace of Justice in Damascus and during a birthday celebration at a restaurant on March 15. It has waged a furious campaign to retake lost territory around the city of Hama, wielding suicide attacks but ultimately failing to hold on against a Syrian army counter-attack.
If the U.S. and its Western allies carry out their threats to attack the Syrian government, the intervention is the last best hope for Muhaysini and the al-Qaeda-aligned forces in his thrall.
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Trump's Saudi connection
One of the least reported yet most significant developments of the Trump administration's foreign policy has been its warm embrace of the ultra-conservative, theocratic Saudi monarchy. Immediately after he entered office, Trump made a pact with Saudi Arabia to escalate aggression in Yemen .
After a friendly White House meeting with Trump and Steve Bannon, the architect of Trump's Muslim ban, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman hailed Trump as his Excellency, describing him as a true friend of Muslims who will serve the Muslim world in an unimaginable manner, opposite to the negative portrait of his Excellency that some have tried to promote.
Trump has also pledged to work with Saudi Arabia to create so-called safe zones in Syria. What exactly these would look like has been unclear. Hillary Clinton campaigned on the promise to create such zones, although in a 2013 speech to Goldman Sachs, she conceded that safe zones could " kill a lot of Syrians ."
At the heart of the Trump administration's foreign policy has been diehard opposition to Iran, Saudi Arabia's mortal enemy. The Syrian government is one of Iran's closest allies.
In Yemen, U.S. and Saudi intervention has driven the growth of al-Qaeda, even while the U.S. carries out airstrikes against the extremist group. As the International Crisis Group reported in February 2017, thanks to "state collapse" brought on by war, the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda (AQ) is stronger than it has ever been."
U.S. intervention would be the last hope for Syrian rebels, and a shot in the arm to al-Qaeda, which has grown to record size thanks to America's military meddling across the Middle East.
Max Blumenthal is a senior editor of the Grayzone Project at AlterNet, and the award-winning author of Goliath and Republican Gomorrah . His most recent book is The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza. Follow him on Twitter at @MaxBlumenthal . Ben Norton is a reporter for AlterNet's Grayzone Project. You can follow him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton .
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
See also
Asian Man Violently Removed From United Flight
Video
April 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - " Al Jazeera " - Videos posted to social media showing security guards violently removing an Asian man from a United Airlines flight in the United States have sparked outrage.
The incident took place on Sunday, before the departure of Flight 3411 from Chicago's O'Hare Airport to Louisville.
Several clips posted online by fellow passengers show the officers forcibly removing the man by pulling him out of his seat and dragging him by his arms down the aircraft's aisle.
Passengers said the man, who can be heard screaming, was injured as he was being dragged off, with blood coming out of his mouth.
Passengers said on social media that United had overbooked the flight and wanted four passengers to give up their seats to make way for airline employees.
When no one volunteered, four passengers were selected and asked to leave.
The man in the video, who was one of the four, said he was a doctor and needed to see patients the next day, according to passengers' online statements.
After being violently ejected, the man can be seen returning on the plane, though with blood on his face. In an another video, clearly distressed, he can be heard repeating "I have to get home".
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The incident caused an outcry on social media, with some calling for a United Airlines boycott, while many pointed out that it was an Asian man who was the victim of the violent removal. Some also expressed outrage that other passengers did not stop the officers from abusing him.
Home Donald Trump, Al Qaeda's Useful Idiot
Wag The Dog How Al Qaeda Played Donald Trump And The American Media
By Scott Ritter Responsibility for the chemical event in Khan Sheikhoun is still very much in question April 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - " HP " - Once upon a time, Donald J. Trump , the New York City businessman-turned-president, berated then-President Barack Obama back in September 2013 about the fallacy of an American military strike against Syria. At that time, the United States was considering the use of force against Syria in response to allegations (since largely disproven) that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons against civilians in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta. Trump, via tweet, declared to our very foolish leader, do not attack Syria if you do many very bad things will happen & from that fight the U.S. gets nothing! President Obama, despite having publicly declaring the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime a red line which, if crossed, would demand American military action, ultimately declined to order an attack, largely on the basis of warnings by James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, that the intelligence linking the chemical attack on Ghouta was less than definitive. President Barack Obama, in a 2016 interview with The Atlantic , observed, theres a playbook in Washington that presidents are supposed to follow. Its a playbook that comes out of the foreign-policy establishment. And the playbook prescribes responses to different events, and these responses tend to be militarized responses. While the Washington playbook, Obama noted, could be useful during times of crisis, it could also be a trap that can lead to bad decisions. His red line on chemical weapons usage, combined with heated rhetoric coming from his closest advisors, including Secretary of State John Kerry, hinting at a military response, was such a trap. Ultimately, President Obama opted to back off, observing that dropping bombs on someone to prove that youre willing to drop bombs on someone is just about the worst reason to use force. The media, Republicans and even members of his own party excoriated Obama for this decision. Yet, in November 2016, as president-elect, Donald Trump doubled down on Obamas eschewing of the Washington playbook. The situation on the ground in Syria had fundamentally changed since 2013; the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had taken over large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, establishing a capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa and declaring the creation of an Islamic Caliphate. American efforts to remove Syrian President Assad from power had begun to bar fruit, forcing Russia to intervene in September 2015 in order to prop up the beleaguered Syrian president. Trump, breaking from the mainstream positions held by most American policy makers, Republican and Democrat alike, declared that the United States should focus on fighting and defeating the Islamic State (ISIS) and not pursuing regime change in Syria. My attitude, Trump noted, was youre fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria... Now were backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who these people are. Moreover, Trump observed, given the robust Russian presence inside Syria, if the United States attacked Assad, we end up fighting Russia, fighting Syria. For more than two months, the new Trump administration seemed to breathe life into the notion that Donald Trump had, like his predecessor before him, thrown the Washington playbook out the window when it came to Syrian policy. After ordering a series of new military deployments into Syria and Iraq specifically designed to confront ISIS, the Trump administration began to give public voice to a major shift in policy vis-a-vis the Syrian President. For the first time since President Obama, in August 2011, articulated regime change in Damascus as a precondition for the cessation of the civil conflict that had been raging since April 2011, American government officials articulated that this was no longer the case. You pick and choose your battles, the American Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told reporters on March 30, 2017. And when were looking at this, its about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out. Haleys words were echoed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who observed that same day, while on an official visit to Turkey, I think the longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people. This new policy direction lasted barely five days. Sometime in the early afternoon of April 4, 2017, troubling images and video clips began to be transmitted out of the Syrian province of Idlib by anti-government activists, including members of the so-called White Helmets, a volunteer rescue team whose work was captured in an eponymously-named Academy Award-winning documentary film. These images showed victims in various stages of symptomatic distress, including death, from what the activists said was exposure to chemical weapons dropped by the Syrian air force on the town of Khan Sheikhoun that very morning. Images of these tragic deaths were immediately broadcast on American media outlets, with pundits decrying the horrific and heinous nature of the chemical attack, which was nearly unanimously attributed to the Syrian government, even though the only evidence provided was the imagery and testimony of the anti-Assad activists who, just days before, were decrying the shift in American policy regarding regime change in Syria. President Trump viewed these images, and was deeply troubled by what he saw, especially the depictions of dead and suffering children. The images were used as exhibits in a passionate speech by Haley during a speech at the Security Council on April 5, 2017, where she confronted Russia and threatened unilateral American military action if the Council failed to respond to the alleged Syrian chemical attack. Yesterday morning, we awoke to pictures, to children foaming at the mouth, suffering convulsions, being carried in the arms of desperate parents, Haley said, holding up two examples of the images provided by the anti-Assad activists. We saw rows of lifeless bodies, some still in diaperswe cannot close our eyes to those pictures. We cannot close our minds of the responsibility to act. If the Security Council refused to take action against the Syrian government, Haley said, then there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action. In 2013, President Barack Obama was confronted with images of dead and injured civilians, including numerous small children, from Syria that were every bit as heartbreaking as the ones displayed by Ambassador Haley. His Secretary of State, John Kerry, had made an impassioned speech that all but called for military force against Syria. President Obama asked for, and received, a wide-range of military options from his national security team targeting the regime of President Assad; only the intervention of James Clapper, and the doubts that existed about the veracity of the intelligence linking the Ghouta chemical attack to the Syrian government, held Obama back from giving the green light for the bombing to begin. Like President Obama before him, President Trump asked for his national security team to prepare options for military action. Unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump did not seek a pause in his decision making process to let his intelligence services investigate what had actually occurred in Khan Sheikhoun. Like Nikki Haley, Donald Trump was driven by his visceral reaction to the imagery being disseminated by anti-Assad activists. In the afternoon of April 6, as he prepared to depart the White House for a summit meeting with a delegation led by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trumps own cryptic words in response to a reporters question about any American response seem to hint that his mind was already made up. Youll see, he said, before walking away. Within hours, a pair of U.S. Navy destroyers launched 59 advanced Block IV Tomahawk cruise missiles (at a cost of some $1.41 million each), targeting aircraft, hardened shelters, fuel storage, munitions supply, air defense and communications facilities at the Al Shayrat air base, located in central Syria. Al Shayrat was home to two squadrons of Russian-made SU-22 fighter-bombers operated by the Syrian air force, one of which was tracked by American radar as taking off from Al Sharyat on the morning of April 4, 2017, and was overhead Khan Sheikhoun around the time the alleged chemical attack occurred. The purpose of the American strike was two-fold; first, to send a message to the Syrian government and its allies that, according to Secretary of State Tillerson, the president is willing to take decisive action when called for, and in particular when confronted with evidence of a chemical attack from which the United States could not turn away, turn a blind eye. The other purpose, according to a U.S. military spokesperson, to reduce the Syrian governments ability to deliver chemical weapons. Moreover, the policy honeymoon the Trump administration had only recently announced about regime change in Syria was over. Its very, very possible, and, I will tell you, its already happened, that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much, President Trump told reporters before the missile strikes had commenced . Secretary Tillerson went further: It would seem there would be no role for him [Assad] to govern the Syrian people. Such a reversal in policy fundamentals and direction in such a short period of time is stunning; Donald Trump didnt simply deviate slightly off course, but rather did a complete 180-degree turn. The previous policy of avoiding entanglement in the internal affairs of Syria in favor of defeating ISIS and improving relations with Russia had been replaced by a fervent embrace of regime change, direct military engagement with the Syrian armed forces, and a confrontational stance vis-a-vis the Russian military presence in Syria. Normally, such major policy change could only be explained by a new reality driven by verifiable facts. The alleged chemical weapons attack against Khan Sheikhoun was not a new reality; chemical attacks had been occurring inside Syria on a regular basis, despite the international effort to disarm Syrias chemical weapons capability undertaken in 2013 that played a central role in forestalling American military action at that time. International investigations of these attacks produced mixed results, with some being attributed to the Syrian government (something the Syrian government vehemently denies), and the majority being attributed to anti-regime fighters, in particular those affiliated with Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate. Moreover, there exists a mixed provenance when it comes to chemical weapons usage inside Syria that would seem to foreclose any knee-jerk reaction that placed the blame for what happened at Khan Sheikhoun solely on the Syrian government void of any official investigation. Yet this is precisely what occurred. Some sort of chemical event took place in Khan Sheikhoun; what is very much in question is who is responsible for the release of the chemicals that caused the deaths of so many civilians. No one disputes the fact that a Syrian air force SU-22 fighter-bomber conducted a bombing mission against a target in Khan Sheikhoun on the morning of April 4, 2017. The anti-regime activists in Khan Sheikhoun, however, have painted a narrative that has the Syrian air force dropping chemical bombs on a sleeping civilian population. A critical piece of information that has largely escaped the reporting in the mainstream media is that Khan Sheikhoun is ground zero for the Islamic jihadists who have been at the center of the anti-Assad movement in Syria since 2011. Up until February 2017, Khan Sheikhoun was occupied by a pro-ISIS group known as Liwa al-Aqsa that was engaged in an oftentimes-violent struggle with its competitor organization, Al Nusra Front (which later morphed into Tahrir al-Sham, but under any name functioning as Al Qaedas arm in Syria) for resources and political influence among the local population. The Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed that Liwa al-Aqsa was using facilities in and around Khan Sheikhoun to manufacture crude chemical shells and landmines intended for ISIS forces fighting in Iraq. According to the Russians the Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapons facility was mirrored on similar sites uncovered by Russian and Syrian forces following the reoccupation of rebel-controlled areas of Aleppo. In Aleppo, the Russians discovered crude weapons production laboratories that filled mortar shells and landmines with a mix of chlorine gas and white phosphorus; after a thorough forensic investigation was conducted by military specialists, the Russians turned over samples of these weapons, together with soil samples from areas struck by weapons produced in these laboratories, to investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for further evaluation. Al Nusra has a long history of manufacturing and employing crude chemical weapons; the 2013 chemical attack on Ghouta made use of low-grade Sarin nerve agent locally synthesized, while attacks in and around Aleppo in 2016 made use of a chlorine/white phosphorous blend. If the Russians are correct, and the building bombed in Khan Sheikhoun on the morning of April 4, 2017 was producing and/or storing chemical weapons, the probability that viable agent and other toxic contaminants were dispersed into the surrounding neighborhood, and further disseminated by the prevailing wind, is high. The counter-narrative offered by the Russians and Syrians, however, has been minimized, mocked and ignored by both the American media and the Trump administration. So, too, has the very illogic of the premise being put forward to answer the question of why President Assad would risk everything by using chemical weapons against a target of zero military value, at a time when the strategic balance of power had shifted strongly in his favor. Likewise, why would Russia, which had invested considerable political capital in the disarmament of Syrias chemical weapons capability after 2013, stand by idly while the Syrian air force carried out such an attack, especially when their was such a heavy Russian military presence at the base in question at the time of the attack? Such analysis seems beyond the scope and comprehension of the American fourth estate. Instead, media outlets like CNN embrace at face value anything they are told by official American sources, including a particularly preposterous insinuation that Russia actually colluded in the chemical weapons attack; the aforementioned presence of Russian officers at Al Shayrat air base has been cited as evidence that Russia had to have known about Syrias chemical warfare capability, and yet did nothing to prevent the attack. To sustain this illogic, the American public and decision-makers make use of a sophisticated propaganda campaign involving video images and narratives provided by forces opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, including organizations like the White Helmets, the Syrian-American Medical Society, the Aleppo Media Center, which have a history of providing slanted information designed to promote an anti-Assad message (Donald Trump has all but acknowledged that these images played a major role in his decision to reevaluate his opinion of Bashar al-Assad and order the cruise missile attack on Al Shayrat airbase.) Many of the fighters affiliated with Tahrir al-Sham are veterans of the battle for Aleppo, and as such are intimately familiar with the tools and trade of the extensive propaganda battle that was waged simultaneously with the actual fighting in an effort to sway western public opinion toward adopting a more aggressive stance in opposition to the Syrian government of Assad. These tools were brought to bear in promoting a counter-narrative about the Khan Sheikhoun chemical incident (ironically, many of the activists in question, including the White Helmets, were trained and equipped in social media manipulation tactics using money provided by the United States; that these techniques would end up being used to manipulate an American President into carrying out an act of war most likely never factored into the thinking of the State Department personnel who conceived and implemented the program). Even slick media training, however, cannot gloss over basic factual inconsistencies. Early on, the anti-Assad opposition media outlets were labeling the Khan Sheikhoun incident as a Sarin nerve agent attack; one doctor affiliated with Al Qaeda sent out images and commentary via social media that documented symptoms, such as dilated pupils, that he diagnosed as stemming from exposure to Sarin nerve agent. Sarin, however, is an odorless, colorless material, dispersed as either a liquid or vapor; eyewitnesses speak of a pungent odor and blue-yellow clouds, more indicative of chlorine gas. And while American media outlets, such as CNN, have spoken of munitions filled to the brim with Sarin nerve agent being used at Khan Sheikhoun, there is simply no evidence cited by any source that can sustain such an account. Heartbreaking images of victims being treated by White Helmet rescuers have been cited as proof of Sarin-like symptoms, the medical viability of these images is in question; there are no images taken of victims at the scene of the attack. Instead, the video provided by the White Helmets is of decontamination and treatment carried out at a White Helmet base after the victims, either dead or injured, were transported there. The lack of viable protective clothing worn by the White Helmet personnel while handling victims is another indication that the chemical in question was not military grade Sarin; if it were, the rescuers would themselves have become victims (some accounts speak of just this phenomena, but this occurred at the site of the attack, where the rescuers were overcome by a pungent smelling chemical again, Sarin is odorless.) More than 20 victims of the Khan Sheikhoun incident were transported to Turkish hospitals for care; three subsequently died. According to the Turkish Justice Minister, autopsies conducted on the bodies confirm that the cause of death was exposure to chemical agents. The World Health Organization has indicated that the symptoms of the Khan Sheikhoun victims are consistent with both Sarin and Chlorine exposure. American media outlets have latched onto the Turkish and WHO statements as proof of Syrian government involvement; however, any exposure to the chlorine/white phosphorous blend associated with Al Nusra chemical weapons would produce similar symptoms. Moreover, if Al Nusra was replicating the type of low-grade Sarin it employed at Ghouta in 2013 at Khan Sheikhoun, it is highly likely that some of the victims in question would exhibit Sarin-like symptoms. Blood samples taken from the victims could provide a more precise readout of the specific chemical exposure involved; such samples have allegedly been collected by Al Nusra-affiliated personnel, and turned over to international investigators (the notion that any serious investigatory body would allow Al Nusra to provide forensic evidence in support of an investigation where it is one of only two potential culprits is mindboggling, but that is precisely what has happened). But the Trump administration chose to act before these samples could be processed, perhaps afraid that their results would not sustain the underlying allegation of the employment of Sarin by the Syrian air force. Mainstream American media outlets have willingly and openly embraced a narrative provided by Al Qaeda affiliates whose record of using chemical weapons in Syria and distorting and manufacturing evidence to promote anti-Assad policies in the west, including regime change, is well documented. These outlets have made a deliberate decision to endorse the view of Al Qaeda over a narrative provided by Russian and Syrian government authorities without any effort to fact check either position. These actions, however, do not seem to shock the conscience of the American public; when it comes to Syria, the mainstream American media and its audience has long ago ceded the narrative to Al Qaeda and other Islamist anti-regime elements. The real culprits here are the Trump administration, and President Trump himself. The presidents record of placing more weight on what he sees on television than the intelligence briefings he may or may not be getting, and his lack of intellectual curiosity and unfamiliarity with the nuances and complexities of both foreign and national security policy, created the conditions where the imagery of the Khan Sheikhoun victims that had been disseminated by pro-Al Nusra (i.e., Al Qaeda) outlets could influence critical life-or-death decisions. No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter That President Trump could be susceptible to such obvious manipulation is not surprising, given his predilection for counter-punching on Twitter for any perceived slight; that his national security team allowed him to be manipulated thus, and did nothing to sway Trumps opinion or forestall action pending a thorough review of the facts, is scandalous. History will show that Donald Trump, his advisors and the American media were little more than willing dupes for Al Qaeda and its affiliates, whose manipulation of the Syrian narrative resulted in a major policy shift that furthers their objectives. The other winner in this sorry story is ISIS, which took advantage of the American strike against Al Shayrat to launch a major offensive against Syrian government forces around the city of Palmyra (Al Shayrat had served as the principal air base for operations in the Palmyra region). The breakdown in relations between Russia and the United States means that, for the foreseeable future at least, the kind of coordination that had been taking place in the fight against ISIS is a thing of the past, a fact that can only bode well for the fighters of ISIS. For a man who placed so much emphasis on defeating ISIS, President Trumps actions can only be viewed as a self-inflicted wound, a kind of circular firing squad that marks the actions of a Keystone Cop, and not the Commander in Chief of the most powerful nation in the world. But the person who might get the last laugh is President Assad himself. While the Pentagon has claimed that it significantly degraded the Al Shayrat air base, with 58 of 59 cruise missile hitting their targets, Russia has stated that only 23 cruise missiles impacted the facility, and these did only limited damage. The runway was undamaged; indeed, in the afternoon of April 7, 2017, a Syrian air force fighter-bomber took off from Al Shayrat , flew to Idlib Province, where it attacked Al Nusra positions near Khan Sheikhoun. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. MSM kneejerk cheerleading after Syria strike nothing new Chris Hedges Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments Please read our Comment Policy before posting - It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section. Click here to comment on our Facebook page
Russia-Baiting Pushed Trump To Attack Syria And Increases The Risk Of Nuclear Annihilation
The anti-Russia bandwagon has gained so much momentum that a national frenzy is boosting the odds of unfathomable catastrophe.
By Norman Solomon
Vast efforts to portray Donald Trump as Vladimir Putins flunky have given Trump huge incentives to prove otherwise. Last Thursday, he began the process in a big way by ordering a missile attack on Russias close ally Syria. In the aftermath of the attack, the cheerleading from U.S. mass media was close to unanimous, and the assault won lots of praise on Capitol Hill. Finally, the protracted and fervent depictions of Trump as a Kremlin tool were getting some tangible results.
At this point, the anti-Russia bandwagon has gained so much momentum that a national frenzy is boosting the odds of unfathomable catastrophe. The worlds two nuclear superpowers are in confrontation mode.
Its urgent to tell ourselves and each other: Wake up!
The dangers of a direct U.S.-Russian military conflict are spiking upward. After the missile attack, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was suspending a memorandum of understanding with the United States to prevent mid-air collisions over Syria. And Russias prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, issued a statement referring to our now completely ruined relations and declaring that the United States was on the verge of a military clash with Russia.
These ominous developments are a longtime dream come true for ultra-hawks like Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, whove gained leverage in an alliance with numerous congressional Democrats. The neocons and the liberal interventionists really have something going now, after propagating the meme that Trump is a Putin puppet.
At this perilous moment in human history, the quality of the Democratic Party leadership was embodied in a tweet last month from the Democratic National Committees new chair, Tom Perez, who sent out this message about a weekly address by President Trump: Translated from the original Russian and everything.
Such tactics arent just McCarthyite. They are baiting, goading and pressurizing Trump to prove that hes willing to clash with Russia after all.
Those tactics are a far cry from whats actually needed -- truly independent investigations -- in order to address the charges that Russia interfered with the U.S. election last year. We most definitely do not need the kind of baiting and goading that creates enormous pressure on Trump to show hes willing and able to go to the brink of war with Russia.
Make no mistake. With 90 percent of the worlds nuclear weapons at the ready in the United States and Russia, pushing to heighten tensions between the two countries is playing with thermonuclear fire.
Early this year, citing the escalation of those tensions, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday Clock even closer to midnight. In 2017, we find the danger to be even greater, the need for action more urgent, the Bulletin declared. It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way.
People at the grassroots must lead, pushing and pulling the official leaders to follow. To stop the current war train -- and to quite possibly rescue the fate of the earth -- we must get a grip. If we depend on the leadership in Congress, all that we hold dear will drift into still-greater jeopardy.
With Congress now in recess, most legislators are back home -- and they should hear from us. Pick up the phone, make an appointment to visit their district offices, or show up without an appointment.
Right now, in one minute, you can send an email to your senators and representative with your own message or with this one: As a constituent, I urge you to make a public statement that you support a complete cutoff of funds for U.S. military actions in Syria. This step is vital to prevent our country from adding to the deadly violence in Syria -- and to halt the momentum toward a military confrontation with Russia that could end with escalation into a horrific nuclear exchange.
Detente between the United States and Russia will be necessary for bringing peace to Syria. The same goes for reducing -- instead of increasing -- the chances that nuclear weapons will destroy us all.
What passes for leadership on these matters in Congress will not save us. On the contrary, right now the congressional leaders are serving as enablers for what Martin Luther King Jr. called the madness of militarism.
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Even the better statements from Capitol Hill about the April 6 missile attack have been grimly inadequate. So, Senator Chris Murphy warned of the potential quagmire of Syria, while Senator Bernie Sanders said: Im deeply concerned that these strikes could lead to the United States once again being dragged back into the quagmire of long-term military engagement in the Middle East.
Expressing concern about a quagmire is all well and good, but falls far short of acknowledging whats at stake.
On Sunday, the Washington Post published a sobering -- and frightening -- article by the person who was the national security adviser for Joe Biden during his last two years as vice president. If the Trump administration and the Kremlin are not able to come to a meeting of the minds on Syria, wrote Colin Kahl, it could set the two nuclear powers on a dangerous collision course.
Kahl, now an associate professor in security studies at Georgetown University, sketched out a plausible scenario: The Syrian dictator (perhaps prodded by Russia or Iran) may attempt to test Trump again, hoping to prove the president is a paper tiger. And Trump, having invested his personal credibility in standing firm, may find himself psychologically or politically compelled to respond, despite the very real risks that it could result in a direct military clash with Russia.
And, Kahl added, Given Russias vital interests in Syria, Moscow is not likely to respond positively to U.S. ultimatums and maximalist positions. If the administration does not find a way to give the Kremlin a face-saving way out, conflict is much more likely than accommodation.
Washingtons Deception Is Aimed at Russia
By Paul Craig Roberts
April 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - According to a report on RT, Secretary of State Tillerson has on CBS backed away from his previously reported aggressive rhetoric reported by the presstitutes against Russia and Syria. https://www.rt.com/usa/384142-tillerson-syria-regime-change-isis/
According to the RT report, Tillerson said that Washingtons plan is to defeat ISIS, not to bring regime change to Syria. It is up to the Syrian people, Tillerson reportedly said, to choose their own president. Tillerson said on CBS that Weve seen what violent regime change looks like in Libya and the kind of chaos that can be unleashed and indeed the kind of misery that it enacts on its own people, he said on CBS. I think we have to learn the lessons of the past, he emphasized on ABC, adding, Any time you go on and have a violent change at the top, it is very difficult to create the conditions for stability longer term.
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If the report is correct, it could either be good news or another Washington deception in advance of Tillersons visit to Moscow, the purpose of which will be to bring the Russian government into Washingtons orbit and an agreement to replace Assad with an American vassal.
Perhaps the Russian government will keep in mind Tillersons revealing statement that the message the US sent with its illegal, war crime, unprovoked attack on Syria is that the violation of international norms . . . will no longer be tolerated.
Of course, who is the violator of international norms. No one but Washington (and Israel). Washington is the greatest violator of international norms in modern history. Washington has invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, organized the destruction of Libya, Somalia, and conducted attacks on Pakistan and Yemen, and organized a coup against the democratically elected government in Ukraine.
Only Washington has a list of crimes this long. And we can add to it Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, and in the works, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.
If Russia falls into Washingtons trap of deception, Russia will be destroyed.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order .
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Syria: Trump May Just have Started World War III
By Peter Koenig
April 10, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - President Trump just ordered an US attack of at least 59 Tomahawk missiles from US warships in the Mediterranean Sea on Syrias al-Shayrat airbase near Homs.
Mr. Talal Barazi, governor of Homs province, reports several deaths but at this time does not offer further details. This Tomahawk assault was supposedly in response to Bachar al-Assads alleged nerve gas attack on 4 April, targeting the civilian population in Idlib Province that killed in excess of 60 people, among them many children.
It reeks all over of False Flag Gladio 2 level world. But nobody smells it, nobody wants to see it, nobody wants to hear it and especially, nobody wants to talk about it. The truth cannot be spoken. The attack has to be launched immediately, before any investigation could reveal the truth. Thats the way its always been. Kill the witnesses. Thats what Washington and its Zionist masters know best.
The Pentagon says Moscow was informed about the attack. There was no reaction from the Russian Government yet.
Earlier Mr. Putin stated that
it was unacceptable to bring accusations against anyone until a thorough and impartial international investigation was conducted.
Philip Giraldi , former CIA officer and Director of the Council for the National Interest, says that military and intelligence personnel, intimately familiar with the intelligence, say that the narrative that Assad or Russia did it is a sham.
This is a classical case of a false flag, instigated by the CIA and carried out by Saudi-Turkish planes to blame Assad. Western presstitute media propagated and hammered into westerners indoctrinated brains the same lie as in 2013, when the East Ghouta Chemical attacks were killing children to justify US Humanitarian Military intervention. Then as today, the Washington assault was to follow quickly before the lie could be discovered, but Mr. Putin intervened by warning Washington not to attack or else and insisting on an investigation. Russian naval facility in Tartus and airbase in Khmeimim, Syria, were ready to counter a US attack.
Later it was proven beyond any doubt that the attack did not come from Syrias army, nor was it ordered by Mr. Assad, that it was indeed, once more, a false flag carried out by the Syrian opposition, the so-called rebels, but in truth the western paid terrorists, with the purpose to blame Mr. Assad and to justify the regime change planned since 2009, since well before the CIA instigated start of the 2011 civil war.
( http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-ghouta-chemical-attacks-us-backed-false-flag-killing-children-to-justify-a-humanitarian-military-intervention/5351363 ).
It is depressing to see how the world the corrupted-to-the-bone western world swallows these lies and actually openly calls for war against Syria, for the removal of Mr. Assad, Syrias only legitimate and sovereign President, elected by the Syrians and still enjoying more than 80% support of the people. Renown socialists, so-called peace seekers eyes are blurred by the western corporate lie-machine. It is sad to see. They believe the western criminal media. It is too hard even for them to admit to themselves that they have been duped, perhaps all their lives, and that they must now seek out and see reality. They cant. But instead to look inside themselves to ask themselves, what interest would Mr. Assad have to kill his own people, the children of his nation, the future of Syria and God help Syria to have a future again these shabby progressives are too noble to admit to reality and instead they join the blinded and call for regime change. Thats exactly what Washington and the Zionist murderers behind that foul inner-beltway monument of assassins, called the White House, want.
We are living a higher level of Operation Gladio again where evil reigns, where the most horrendous of what was once called human beings are in power, killing mercilessly innocent people for their BIG PURPOSE, for world hegemony. This Judo-Christian civilization (sic-sic) has a history of more than 1000 years of Crusade killings, followed by colonial killing and raping and exploitation of countries and their people around the globe, from Asia to Africa to Latin America and there is no end. Our western culture is sold to Lucifer and his banking clan continuing killing for greed and power.
People wake up! If you dont, you may be next.
We all have this little spark left somewhere in our brains that tells you that something is not right that those who call the shots are liars, that the worlds justice is not with evil that justice is seeking peace not subjugation, power and material gains, but solidarity and harmony among us, brothers and sisters of the human kind.
But also, be aware that this monstrous beast knows no scruples. It has one goal Full Spectrum Dominance and will not let go, under no circumstances, until this goal is fully achieved or itself, the monster, the exceptional nation, is subjugated and disabled.
People stand up and become disabler of the empire!
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Syria is a mere square on this murderous chess board, as was Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, and many more to come. The purpose is not winning a war that would be too simple. The purpose is creating and leaving behind chaos, eternal chaos. In the case of Syria a balkanization of the country, what Clinton did to Yugoslavia. The old divide to conquer it still works after hundreds of years. People are still blinded to these oldest and most rudimentary of war strategies. They still fall for it; dont notice; swallow the lies.
In Syria, the stakes are high. In addition to the insane profits of the war and weapons industry there is the little talked about Qatar-Turkey-Syria pipeline that was to bring oil and gas from the Gulf to Europe to demolish the Russian gas market in Europe and to make trillions for US petro-giants; a pipeline Mr. Assad rejected in 2009. Instead he approved and promoted the Iran pipeline through Syria to Europe. Iranian hydrocarbons would complement, rather than compete with, gas and oil from Russia for Europe. Thats when Obama decided that Bachar al-Assad had to go. It also fitted the bigger picture a balkanized Middle East, with steady conflicts fueling the war industry but eventually leading to a Greater Israel, stretching from the Euphrates to the Nile, absorbing, parts of Saudi Arabi, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
Its barbarism. I see it coming masqueraded under lawless alliances and predetermined enslavements. It may not be about Hitlers furnaces, but about the methodical and quasi-scientific subjugation of Man. His absolute humiliation. His disgrace. Odysseas Elytis, Greek poet, in a press conference on the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize (1979).
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media (China), TeleSUR, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! Essays from the Resistance .
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
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Suspected Militants stormed Ikorodu, a community in Lagos as they killed one an army Captain, identified as Muhammed, four policemen, and a civilian on Sunday after suspected militants attacked Ishawo.
According to reports gathered, it was learnt that panic-stricken residents fled their homes in the wake of the killings.
Eye witness said that a combined team of the police and military had already been deployed in the area in a bid to apprehend the perpetrators of the crime.
It was gathered that the militants had first attacked a funeral in Makun-Omi, Ogun State, on Saturday, disrupting the burial of a monarch.
A police source said that the Captain and the policemen had responded to a distress call after the militants kidnapped some residents on Woodland Estate, close to the Ishawo creeks.
He explained that the operatives, after rescuing the victims, were leaving the area when they were ambushed by the militants.
He said, The incident happened on Sunday. The security agents were called and they were able to rescue the victims. As they were leaving the place, the militants surfaced from a hideout and shot them dead.
After that, the gunmen burnt their patrol vehicle. The policemen were from the anti-kidnapping unit of the Lagos State Police Command.
A resident, who did not want to be identified, explained that the militants had attacked the community in reprisal for the killing of one of their members in Opeoluwa community.
She explained that the militants killed and set ablaze a resident, said to be an informant of the police.
She said the police were called after the gunmen kidnapped some other residents.
The militants came in through the waterways. They headed straight for the home of the man, brought him out and shot him dead. They also burnt his corpse.
The policemen and the soldiers went to rescue the villagers. The militants engaged them in a gun battle. They overpowered and killed five of the operatives. The OP MESA later deployed a troop in the scene. The militants fled when they saw they could not overpower the troop, she added.
The resident explained that people had fled their homes, adding that apart from the informant, some other civilians were killed by the militants.
A lot of people were killed. I dont have the number. It was terrible. People are scared. While I was going to church this morning, I saw a lot of people running out with their loads, she said.
Another resident, who also insisted the killings were a reprisal, said the militants were plotting to resume their oil bunkering activities.
He said, Those people are heartless and wicked. They are eager to start the bunkering business again.
The Zone 2 Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident, adding that the militants launched two attacks.
She said, The militants had attacked Makun-Omi community in Ogun State. The community was observing a funeral for their late king, Oba Odugbefun Osoba. The area was thrown into panic when some hoodlums, suspected to be militants, invaded the community. The mobile police team deployed in the area put up a resistance with the support of hunters and a local vigilance team. One of the suspected militants, identified as Kehinde Toikumo, was arrested.
It was later that they regrouped and attacked the Lagos community through the waterways. The AIG, Adamu Ibrahim, has put a well coordinated intelligence team in the area and activated the anti-kidnapping section of the zone to work hand in hand with Lagos and Ogun states to forestall a recurrence and ensure the arrest of the suspects.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said a total of six people were killed.
He said, At about 1am on Sunday, the police received a distress call that a group of militants had entered Owutu-Isawo in Ikorodu through the thick swampy forest surrounding the area. They were reported to have kidnapped some residents.
In response, the police and the army immediately mobilised personnel to the area, where the kidnapped victims were rescued.
Sadly, five of the gallant, brave and patriotic officers lost their lives during the rescue operation. One of them was a Nigerian Army Captain, while the remaining four were policemen. One of the residents in the area also died.
Owoseni said the police would work with other security agencies to ensure the suspects were apprehended and made to face the law.
The Lagos State Government, in a statement on Sunday, commiserated with the families of the deceased officers.
The statement, issued by the states Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, said the incident was unfortunate, adding that it would strengthen the governments resolve to root crime out of the state.
The government stressed that the incident had further reinforced its resolve to go after criminals and their collaborators, who were using coastal areas and illegal waterfront settlements as havens or escape routes to perpetrate evil.
The governor, however, assures the police and the general public of his support and commitment to rid the state of every form of militancy, kidnapping, and illegal waterfront shanties that harbour criminals, Ayorinde said.
The Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Olaolu Daudu, confirmed the incident.
He said, Four policemen lost their lives, while the army officer, who led the operation, sustained gunshot injuries and died on the way to a hospital. Similarly, four of the nine rescued kidnapped victims, including an infant of about two years old, sustained injuries during the encounter. They were all taken to the hospital and are responding to treatment.
Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has accused the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, of planning to kill him but the Nigeria Police has denied the allegation through its spokesman.
According to the Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, in a statement on Sunday, described the allegation as malicious, saying it was capable of misleading the public and causing disaffection between the NPF and the people of Rivers State.
On the other hand, Wike said in an interview said the IG had instructed the Commissioner of Police in the state to kill him.
But Moshood said the governor was being guarded by no fewer than 221 policemen, which he said were more than what some police area commands in some states had.
He also said contrary to Wikes claim, only three CPs and not nine CPs had served in Rivers State since Idris assumed office.
The police spokesman said, There was no time either recently or in the past that the Inspector-General of Police gave an order or assignment to the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State or any police officer anywhere in the country to kill Mr. Nyesom Wike, the Governor of Rivers State or directs the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State to cage the governor as alleged.
It is incumbent on the Nigeria Police Force to educate the general public and draw the attention of the governor to the facts and figures available for press and members of the public to verify that there are 221 police personnel attached currently to Governor Nyesom Wike for his personal and official protection.
According to the police, the personnel attached to Wike included one aide-de-camp, one chief security officer, one unit commander (Special Protection Unit); one unit commander (Counter-terrorism Unit) and one escort commander.
Others are one camp commander; one administrative officer to administer the police personnel, 54 inspectors, 136 sergeants and 24 corporals.
The police spokesman explained that 28,000 policemen and personnel of other security agencies were deployed in Rivers State in December last year for the rerun election.
The men, he added, operated under the aegis of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security platform created by the Independent National Electoral Commission and the NPF to ensure the security and safety of the electorate, INEC officials, election materials and other critical stakeholders before, during and after the polls.
The police cautioned the governor against casting aspersions on the IG and the police, advising him to be conscious of national security when making public statements.
The General Secretary of the United Nations , Antonio Guterres has condemned Sundays bombings of two Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt.
In a statement by his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, hoped that the perpetrators of this horrific terrorist act will be swiftly identified and brought to justice.
In a separate statement, the Security Council called the bombings heinous and cowardly, and reaffirmed that terrorism was one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
The bombings were also strongly condemned by the High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC).
The UN body said that the attacks, who occurred during Palm Sunday when both churches were packed with worshippers aimed at ruining the unity and diversity that characterized the Egyptian society.
Launched in 2005 through the initiative of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the UN, the Alliance maintains a global network of partners.
The UNAOCs alliance includes States, international and regional organizations, civil society groups, foundations and the private sector, to improve cross-cultural relations between diverse nations and communities.
Guterres, the Security Council and the UNAOC expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks and to the Government of Egypt.
They also wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured, according to the statements.
The UN scribe and the bodies stressed the need to bring everyone responsible for the attacks to justice, and urged UN member-states to cooperate with Egypt and all other relevant authorities.
The attacks killed no fewer than 41 people and injured more than 100 others.
The case filed by the wife of Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo seeking the postponement of the wedding of their son has been dismissed by an Ikeja High Court on Monday.
The judge presiding over the case, Justice Lateefa Okunnu, dismissed the suit on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit because Olujonwo, 33, is an adult.
On March 27, I ordered counsel to direct me on whether the family court can hear a case where the child is an adult.
Counsel has addressed me and I have read the processes before me.
I have found to be very genuine, what the applicant said regarding performing her parental duties in paragraph 15 of her affidavit.
The court, regrettably, lacks the competence to adjudicate this suit, the jurisdiction of the family court covers children under the age of 18 years.
The respondents son is 33-years-old, this negates the ability of this court to entertain this suit.
The proper order to give is one dismissing this suit in its entirety, I hereby dismiss this suit, the judge said.
Former President Obasanjo and the father of the bride, Sir Kessington Adebutu, promoter of Premier Lotto known as Baba Ijebu are the respondents to the suit.
Mrs Taiwo Obasanjo was present in court while former President Obasanjo and Sir Adebutu were absent.
Mrs Obasanjo had in her suit filed on March 27, prayed that the wedding which is scheduled for May 11, be moved to any date after June 1 which is Olujonwos 34th birthday.
According to her, she had received various warnings and prophecies from men of God that her son should not be involved in any elaborate celebration before his birthday.
Earlier during proceedings, Mr Bode Olanipekun, counsel to Obasanjo and Adebutu, had asked to court to dismiss the suit due to lack of jurisdiction.
We urge your Lordship to dismiss this suit based on jurisdictional challenges.
Under Section 261 of the Childs Act, this court has no jurisdiction because the child is above 18-years.
The claimants have not disclosed a reasonable cause of action and no laws were cited in their address.
I urge your Lordship to dismiss this suit, Olanipekun said.
(NAN).
An Ikeja Magistrates Court has granted bail of N450,000 bail each to two teenage boys, identfied as Victor Ibeh and Tony Ezelioha for allegedly gang-raping a 19-year-old girl.
An Ikeja Magistrates Court that gave the ruling also asked the accused to provide two sureties each as part of their bail conditions.
Magistrate Alexander Komolafe who presided over the case said one of the sureties must be a religious leader in Lagos State, while the other surety should own a property within the courts jurisdiction.
He said the sureties must also show evidence of three years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.
Ezelioha, 19, and Ibeh, 18, both of whom reside in Ayobo near Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos State, are facing a three-count charge bordering on assault and rape.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Sgt. Joseph Ajebe, had told the court that the accused committed the offences on March 27, at about 3p.m. at No. 12A, Fadairo St., Ayobo.
He said the complainant (names withheld) and Ibeh had been friends on the Facebook for two years, so he decided to invite her to pay him a visit.
Ajebe alleged that when the complainant got to the accuseds house and realised what he and his accomplice wanted to do, she ran out; but the accused dragged her inside and raped her.
The accused raped persons her several times through the anus and later dumped her in the street when they were through, he said.
Ajebe said the accused were arrested by the police after the complainant had identified them.
The offences contravened sections 137, 259 and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Section 259 prescribes life imprisonment for offenders.
The case was adjourned until May 17 for mention.
(NAN)
I Guess Nigerians still havent realized the Big Brother Naija game is over!!!
Hours after Efe was declared the winner of the 2017 BBN yesterday, ex-housemate, ThinTallTony took to his social media page to congratulate him.
But some Nigerians who feel TTT does not like Efe and betrayed him as he nominated him a couple of times while they were in the BBN house, descended on him.
Read their comments below
Meanwhile, following a recent report that North Korean hacking operations were growing and getting bolder and increasingly targeting financial institutions in Nigeria and 17 other countries, the central bank has advised financial institutions under its regulation to always report incidents of cybercrime to the CBN.
The CBN Director, Banking and Payment Systems Department, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, who said this while responding to questions about the report from Russian cyber security firm, Kaspersky, in a phone interview with THISDAY on Sunday said sharing of information about cybercrime would help in developing better defence against such crimes.
According to him, no Nigerian bank has reported any case of hacking to the CBN.
Fatokun explained: From the reports we have read, no Nigerian bank has reported to have been hacked. One thing about hacking is that if a bank is hacked, it could disrupt its services to customers, depending on the type of hacking that was done. If it was denial of services, definitely the customers services would have been disrupted.
Sometimes, it is such disruptions that even alert the banks that something is wrong with their system. But we have not heard any and no bank has reported that its system was hacked.
Fatokun said the central bank has continued to sensitise banks and other stakeholders on the dangers of ransomware, a computer malware that hackers use to hold their victims data hostage.
He explained further: You know ransomware is electronic kidnapping. Just like physical kidnapping where the law enforcement agencies would always advise against paying ransom because if you pay it may never end, what we did was to tell the banks that instead of paying ransom which may not end, they should have good back up arrangements.
So that if your system is kidnapped or held hostage so that you cannot use it, you fall back on the backup server so that you continue with your operations. Of course, if somebody is holding you hostage and noticed that your operation is still continuing, it means he has not achieved his aim and will be forced to leave you.
According to a news report by the Cable News Network (CNN), two international security experts believe that the stolen money from cyber hacking were likely being spent advancing North Koreas development of nuclear weapons. Banks and security researchers have previously identified four similar cyber-heists attempted on financial institutions in Bangladesh, Ecuador, the Philippines and Vietnam.
But researchers at Kaspersky now say the same hacking operation known as Lazarus also attacked financial institutions in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay.
The hackers can be traced back to North Korea, according to Kaspersky researchers.
Source: Thisday
Three men who are involved in child trafficking have been sentenced to six years imprisonment by a High Court in Benin for trafficking two under-aged girls for prostitution.
The convicts, identified as Ngozi Owoh, 22; Ahmed Babatayo Femi, 33; and Odigie Iyobosa, 29, were, however, given an option of fine of N150,000 each for the count charges, after pleading guilty before Justice Alero Edodo-Eruaga.
The human traffickers had been charged with procuring under-aged girls for prostitution, organising foreign travels, which promote prostitution, and conspiracy to facilitate foreign travel, contrary to the provision of Trafficking in Persons (prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.
According to a statement by the spokesman for the Benin zonal office of NAPTIP, Nduka Nwanwenne, the convicts had recruited their victims, who were students of Covenant Christian Academy and New Era Girls College in Benin.
They were said to have promised the girls, aged 16 and 18 years old, better life and opportunity abroad.
The convicts were alleged to have before embarking on the journey took the victims to a shrine where oath of secrecy was administered on them, Nwanwenne added.
He said the traffickers were intercepted and apprehended by operatives of the Nigeria Immigration Service at the Seme border en route to Cote-de Ivoire.
He noted that while they were arrested by the NIS, the victims were rescued and handed over to NAPTIP for prosecution.
Nduka said, Consequently, the first accused person, who was a former victim of human trafficking and had been trafficked to Cote-de Ivoire, Libya and Morocco, was sentenced to two years imprisonment on each count or a fine of N150,000 on each of the five counts.
He added, The second and third accused persons were equally sentenced to two years imprisonment or a fine of N150,000 on each of the two counts.
Reacting to the development, the Benin Zonal Commander, Mr. Odita Ebenezer, said the agency would continue its efforts to curb human trafficking and ensure that offenders were prosecuted.
Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The men that were responsible for the abduction of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, have been sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital on Tuesday.
The seven men, who were all Fulani herdsmen were found guilty of kidnapping the elder statesman in his farm in Ilado Village, Akure North Local Government Area of the state in September, 2015.
The convicts are : Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed, Idris Lawal, Abdulkadir Umar and Babawo Kato.
They were initially arraigned on five counts of kidnapping, abduction, aiding and abetting, kidnapping, conspiracy and armed robbery.
The offences were said to be contrary to Section 2 of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Law, 5(1) (a) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Laws, Section 3(11)(b) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Abduction Law, Section 6(b) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act, Cap R11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and Section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap R11, Vol. 14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
It would be recalled that the former Minister for Finance spent three days in the den of the kidnappers while a sum of N5milllion was reportedly paid as ransom to the hoodlums.
It took the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari who ordered the former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase to rescue the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party.
In his judgment, the trial judge, Justice Williams Olamide held that the seven accused persons were guilty of the kidnapping charge brought against them by the Ondo State Government.
He said the recovered ransom, call logs, and identification of the suspects by Chief Falae himself, indicted the convicts of complicity in the crime and subsequently sentenced them to Olokuta prison, Akure for life, without an option of a fine.
He however discharged them of two of the counts, conspiracy and armed robbery.
Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The richest man in Africa and President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has expressed his belief in the economy of the Nigeria, just as President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with Dangote on his 60th birthday today (Monday).
Dangote told a group of businessmen in his office in Lagos that his passion for the workability of Nigerias economy had been the impetus that underline his investment decisions, reiterating that Nigeria is the worlds best kept secret.
Dangotes birthday will be commemorated with the planting of 60 trees at the site of his crude oil and petrochemical refinery in Lekki, Lagos on Tuesday, according to a statement on Sunday.
President of the United States, Donald Trump has called Egypts President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to express his condolences about twin church bombings by the Islamic State group that killed dozens, the White House said Monday.
Trump spoke to Sisi on Sunday to express his deepest condolences to Egypt and to the families who lost loved ones in the heinous terrorist attacks against Christian churches on Palm Sunday.
The attacks in the Nile Delta cities of Tanta and Alexandria prompted Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency.
The President also expressed his confidence in President Al Sisis commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians, the White House said.
Last week Trump hosted Sisi at the White House, signaling a break from the previous US administrations view of the former general.
Hundreds of demonstrators were killed and thousands jailed when Sisi seized power from a broadly Islamist government.
AFP
No fewer than eight persons have been reportedly killed in a three-day onslaughts that ensued between two rival cult groups in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at the weekend.
The attacks, according to THISDAY checks, started last Thursday and have claimed the lives of at least one person in Oyun ,Ikokoro, Osere, Olunlade, Niger, Kilanko, Olufadi, Egebejila and Ita -Ogunbo areas of Ilorin.
It was gathered that most of the killings, except two, were said to have been carried out in broad daylight.
But the state police command said it could only confirm the death of three persons even as it said some suspects have been arrested in connection with the attacks.
Residents of Ikokoro area of Ilorin where the killings started, recounted the gory picture of how suspected rival cult members stormed the area by 2: 45p.m., chased after their target and shot him dead in an apartment where he had sought refuge.
The victim, simply identified as Abbey, according to residents, was shot in the neck region, leaving him in his pool of blood.
Between 2:30p.m. and 3p.m. today (Thursday), some rival cult members armed with guns, came and struck. They ran after some people believed to be their rivals.
They made their ways into an apartment where Abbey was waiting, and shot him dead.
They left the scene afterward, as people started running helter-skelter because the cultists were seeing moving freely after the attack without anybody challenging them, a resident said.
The onslaughts spread to Osere late in the evening with the hacking down of another person simply identified as Itu followed by the killing of another target in Olunlade area of Ilorin.
The killing spree continued unchecked the following day (Friday) as two more casualties were recorded on Niger road and Kilanko areas all within Ilorin.
It was also gathered that the day three of the attacks (Saturday) claimed the lives of the seventh and eighth persons in the afternoon at Egbejila area along Ilorin International Airport road and later at night at Itaogunbo area, bringing the number of casualties so far to eight in three days.
However, another lifeless body was said to have been found in Oyun along Ilorin Jebba road.
In most of the killings, residents said the assailants closed in on their targets shooting them at close range and in some cases, inflicted machete cuts on them.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), an Assistant Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the cultists attacks yesterday in Ilorin, said the police had deployed special forces to flash points and area believed to be the strong hold of the of the rival groups to check the situation while they continue to trail other suspects.
Meanwhile, Okasanmi in a statement he issued on behalf of the state commissioner of police titled: Illegal possession/control of firearms, warned those in possession of unlicenced fire arms and ammunition to surrender them to the police.
The statement read: The Command wishes to remind the public that the law guarding the possession and control of fire arms and ammunition is still in force, the categories of fire arms to be possessed by individuals is for gamming and strictly with the licences issue by the Inspector General of Police (IG).
The commissioner of police with the consent of the governor of the state may by order prohibit the possession or control of firearms without the licence of an authority specified above.
Therefore the police may request the production of any licence or permit, confiscate and prosecute the owner of such firearms.
Members of the public are by this medium warned to submit such firearms at the nearest police station, as any person arrested with unlicenced firearms will be delt with in accordance with the law.
The command also directed all vigilantes operating in the state to report to the divisional police officer (DPO) of their communities for authentication and briefing on how to carry out their assignments.
Source: Thisday
The Nigeria Police Force has debunked Rivers Governor Nyesom Wikes claim, that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ordered the Rivers State Police to kill him.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, stated this in a press release issued on Sunday.
To clear doubts from the minds of the good people of Rivers State and other well-meaning Nigerians that must have read the story and set the record straight, the Force is under obligation to inform the public on the facts of the matter.
There was no time, either recently or in the past, that the Inspector-General of Police gave an order or assignment to the Commissioner of Police of Rivers State or any police officer anywhere in the country to kill His Excellency, Barrister Nyesom Wike, the Executive Governor of Rivers State.
His Excellency should put into cognisance national security and that of the people of Rivers State as against any personal, political or group interest, and resist the use of personal grudges, grouse and sentiment to attack the hard earned personality of the Inspector-General of Police to cast aspersion on the statutory roles of the Force in ensuring utmost protection of life and property of all Nigerians, the Police Force said.
The Force added that it was duty-bound, to tell the public that Wike and his office were shielded by 221 police personnel.
This detachment consists of an Aide-de-Camp, Chief Security Officer, Unit Commanders from the Special Protection and Counter-terrorism units, respectively, an escort commander, camp commander, administrative officer and 54 Inspectors of Police. The team also includes 136 sergeants and 24 corporals.
Obviously, the total number of 221 police personnel attached to the Governor of Rivers State is more than the strength of some Police Area Commands formation in some States of Nigeria.
This is done to ensure optimum safety and protection of the Executive Governor of Rivers State.
It is also factual to state that Mr. Wike has not, at any time, reported or brought to the notice of the Inspector-General of Police any security breach or lapses from these police personnel attached to him till date, the statement added.
Source: Dailypost
In efforts to rid Kaduna State of criminal elements, the Kaduna State Police Command, on Monday, paraded 18 suspects comprising six armed robbers, seven kidnappers, one fraudster and four others.
The suspects, according to the Police Commissioner in the State, Agyole Abeh, were arrested while committing the acts at various spots outside Kaduna, the State capital based on tip-off.
Parading the suspects before newsmen at Commands headquarters, the Police Commissioner said with the commitment of his men in recent times, crime rate in the state has reduced drastically, promising to continue in that light.
He hinged the success the police in the state have recorded on reliable intelligence information gathering with locals playing active role by making useful information available to police on crime.
As a result of commitment of the command to reduce the crime rate to a barest minima, we have arrested six suspected armed robbers, seven kidnappers one fraudster as major criminals apart from others like drug pushers and common criminals who we have handed over to agencies of government in charge.
We are working hard to make Kaduna a safer state where business can strive very well. And we are saying Kaduna must remain near crime free society.
We have mapped out crime preventive measures and that is why the crime in the city centre has reduced drastically and the command will improve on that with the support of the media and general public. Our problem is information. Once we have information, our response is within 20 minutes in fact, we have responded within nine minute to distress call within city centre, stated the police boss.
Some of the items recovered from the suspects include one locally made pistol, several vehicle number plates, two cutlasses, on sword and documents.
Source: TheSun
The Kano State Government on Monday donated 16 Toyota Hilux vehicles and 12 refurbished ones to the Nigerian Army as part of efforts to combat crime in the state.
Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje presented the vehicles to the Brigade Commander of 3rd Brigade, Nigerian Army, Kano, Brig.-Gen. Olufemi Akinjobi, at the Government House, Kano.
Ganduje said the gesture was in appreciation of the numerous sacrifice of the military toward restoring peace and stability in the state and the country.
I am here today to present 16 brand new Toyota Hilux vehicles and 12 refurbished ones to you to assist in cushioning the effect and challenges of transportation in the fight against crime in the state, he said.
The governor congratulated the military on their successes in Falgore forest and other strongholds of cattle rustlers, kidnappers and other criminals.
He said the state government had spent over N300m on the procurement and the refurbishing of the vehicles.
Brig.-Gen. Akinjobi thanked the state government for the donation and promised judicious use of the vehicles.
Any government that musters the courage to provide vehicles to security agencies, that government is serious in tackling security issues and we promise to make judicious use of these vehicles, he said.
(NAN)
The Nigerian Army has confirmed the death of one of its Soldiers and four policemen in Ikorodu, Lagos State.The officials were killed in an ambush by suspected criminal gangs in Ishawo Community in Ikorodu.
Acting Deputy Director, Public Relations, Lt.-Col. Olaolu Saudi of 81 Division made the confirmation.
The statement read, At about 3 a.m. on Sunday, April 9, a patrol team led by a Nigerian Army officer responded to a distress call.
The distress call was from the police requesting for reinforcement because some suspected criminals had invaded Yewa Community, Isawo in Ikorodu, Lagos State and abducted some persons.
The combined team in a swift response was able to successfully foil the kidnap attempt and rescued all the abducted victims.
Nine of the victims, including an infant of about two years old were rescued from the criminals.
However, on their way back, they were ambushed by a suspected criminal gang.
During the clearance of the ambush, unfortunately four policemen lost their lives while the army officer who led the operation sustained gunshot wounds and died on the way to the hospital.
Similarly, four of the rescued victims of the kidnap, including the infant, sustained injuries during the encounter.
They have all been evacuated to a hospital and are responding to treatment, the statement said.
It added that the Commander, 9 Brigade, Brig.-Gen. Elias Attu and Commissioner of Police, Lagos state, Mr Fatai Owoseni, had assessed the situation and gave impetus to the pursuit of the fleeing criminals.
Meanwhile, a combined team of the Police and military is in hot pursuit of the suspected kidnappers who fled the scene carrying the dead bodies of their colleagues and the wounded.
The combined team is on their trail as they have vowed that the death of the gallant officer and men of the Nigerian Police who fought bravely for the success of the operation will not be in vain.
We would like to use this medium to implore anyone with useful information to come forward.
We are also reassuring the general public, especially the residents of Isawo community in Ikorodu, of their continued safety, the statement said.
The News Agency of Nigeria had earlier reported that militants struck at Woodland Estate close to Ishawo Creeks and engaged security personnel in a gun duel.
It was unclear if there were any casualties on the part of the militants, although security forces were said to have reinforced and stormed the area for reconnaissance and possible counter-action.
It also reported on March 13 that the militants returned to the area, and the residents were living in fear.
The militants, whose trade are kidnapping and oil theft, were chased out of the area in Aug. 2016 by the states Task Force, after several bloody clashes in the community.
(NAN)
Several Persons were rendered homeless by the Lagos State Task Force as no fewer than 150 structures on waterfronts in Otondogbame, in the Lekki area of Lagos State have been reportedly demolished by operatives of the Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit.
According to reports, It was learnt that the operatives, in company with some marine policemen and hoodlums, stormed the community around 5am on Sunday, shooting indiscriminately, which accidentally hit a resident,identified as David Aya, aged 20, was killed by a stray bullet.
Several others, including one Monday Idowu, were also said to have sustained gunshot injuries as the team wet the structures with kerosene and set fire to them.
PUNCH Metro learnt that some of the displaced residents, who had yet to find alternative settlements, stayed on boats.
It was gathered that some hoodlums had attacked the community on Saturday, killing one Elijah Avonda, 45, a father of ten children.
A resident, Jonathan Zosu, told our correspondent that the demolition was carried out without any prior notice, adding that several residents were stranded.
He said, On Saturday, Elijah (Avonda) was shot dead by some hoodlums. Today (Sunday), another boy was killed. The task force men started the demolition without any notice. They came in 12am and hundreds of houses were destroyed. They are still on ground, using a bulldozer to pull some structures into the water.
Our children are scattered; many children were found in the river. We are totally confused. We dont have anywhere to go.
Another resident, Akinrolabu Samuel, said he was sleeping when a neigbour alerted him to the incident on the telephone.
He said, I was not around when the incident happened. I received a call around 5am that marine policemen, task force officials and some hoodlums came in and shot continuously. They came with a bulldozer. People started running into the lagoon. David (Aya) was shot dead and Monday (Idowu) was injured.
The task force men started burning the houses on waterfronts. About 150 structures were burnt down. People are stranded on the lagoon. There was an attack on the community yesterday (Saturday) too, and Elijah was killed in the process. He has two wives and 10 children.
When contacted for comments, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Task Force, Taofiq Adebayo, directed our correspondent to the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde.
The commissioner, however, refuted the claim that a resident was killed during the demolition, noting that the structures were illegal shanties.
He said, Otondogbame belongs to a private family. Since a fire incident happened in November 2016 and the case taken to court and referred to open-door mediation, nothing ought to be in Otondogbame. It is the duty of the state government that both parties respect the position of the court, which is to return to status quo.
Shanties, particularly those that have proven to be a safe haven to criminals and kidnappers, cannot be on our waterfronts. The structures are illegal shanties and they cant be allowed because of the larger security of the state. It has been established for months that riverine areas and illegal shanties around our waterfronts have been serving as safe access to illegalities and criminal activities. The government cannot allow that to continue to happen.
The reported killing took place on Saturday and the task force men were not there. The reported killing was a result of a continuous fight between the two ethnic groups in that area. The government has nothing to do with it and the police have not recorded any death today (Sunday).
Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Briefing newsmen after the exercise that took the enforcement team of the council to various parts of Enugu, PCNs Director Inspection and Monitoring, Mrs. Antonia O. Aruya, said five persons were arrested for dispensing drugs illegally.
Expressing the readiness of the council to rid the state of illegal drug dealers and products, she said investigations conducted by her team indicated that the state was saturated with many practitioners who operate illegally.
What we observed in Enugu State is that so many premises commenced operations without fulfilling minimum requirements for registration while others failed to renew their licence to operate such premises or shops, she stated.
For daring to use up a huge sum of money belonging to his employer to invest in ponzi schemes, a NYSC member has landed in hot soup.
A national youth corper is currently languishing at the Kiri-Kiri medium prison in Apapa, Lagos after a failed N3.5 million investment in Twinkas and MMM Ponzi schemes.
According to Politics Nigeria, the corper, a 2016 Batch B member of the National youth service corps, was arrested and arraigned for embezzlement after operators of the Ponzi schemes failed to return the money, which belonged to the company where he was doing his service.
The young man had hoped to make a quick profit at the end of his service only to end up disappointed. His employers wasted no time in inviting the police into the matter after he failed to return the money.
His plight was made public by a colleague, a lawyer, who missed the last community development service (CDS) and took advantage of the groups WhatsApp platform to explain his absence.
The lawyer, Augustine Ukpo, wrote: I was in court representing our Corper member colleague who was arrested and arraigned today before the Agbomalu Magistrate Court involved in N3.5 million embezzlement from his PPA (Place of Primary Assignment).
Giving an update the next day, corper Ukpo wrote on the same platform: I earlier posted you guys that one (of) our Corper colleague(s) was arrested and arraigned yesterday.
He is now in Kirikiri Medium Prison pending the perfection of his bail conditions. While interviewing the corper member, I noticed bruises all over his body evidence that he was beaten. He was kept in police custody for more than 24 hours. These got me furious as a lawyer.
Even though the corper agreed that he used the money for MMM and Twinkas, his fundamental right should not be compromised. In this vein, I shall be filing a fundamental right action against the employer of the Corper.
Corper Ukpo refused to disclose the name of his client but posted photos showing signs of torture allegedly inflicted on him in a police cell before he was transferred to prison custody.
Following the recent attack on a church in Egypt that took the lives of dozens of Egyptians, the President of the country, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has declared a three-month state of emergency in Egypt.
He announced the state of emergency for three months in a defiant speech at the presidential palace after a meeting of the national defence council.
The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the church bombings in the Nile Delta cities of Alexandria and Tanta in which at least 44 people were killed.
The emergency law expands police powers of arrest, surveillance and seizures and can limit freedom of movement.
Egypt had been ruled for decades under a state of emergency, which was cancelled a month before Islamist president Mohamed Morsi took power in 2012.
Rescinding it had been a main demand of Egyptian rights activists during the 2011 revolt that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Following Morsis overthrow by Sisi, then an army chief, in 2013, a state of emergency was declared for a month after deadly clashes between police and Islamist protesters killed hundreds and Islamist mobs attacked Christian properties.
Part of North Sinai where the Islamic State groups Egyptian affiliate is based has remained under a state of emergency.
Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Cotton Strength Continuing into Tuesday Barchart - 1 hour ago So far the cotton trade is working higher into the Tuesday session led by 20 point gain in Dec. Mondays cotton trade added 16 to 87 points to the rally. December ended the day 56 points higher, the... CTZ22 : 88.26 (+0.88%) CTH23 : 86.45 (+0.72%) CTK23 : 85.56 (+0.58%)
Hog Market Follows Strong Start to New Week Barchart - 1 hour ago December hogs rallied $4.60 of their $4.75 limit at the high of the day, and closed with a $4.07 gain. That took the contract back to October 27 levels. The other front months also closed higher, but the... HEZ22 : 85.975 (-1.23%) HEJ23 : 94.050 (-0.32%) KMZ22 : 96.200s (+2.48%)
Wheat Weakens Into Tuesdays Day Session Barchart - 1 hour ago So far for the Tuesday trading session, wheat prices are sitting near their overnight lows with 7 cent losses in Chicago and 3 cent losses for KC and MPLS. Afternoon action in Mondays wheat market left... ZWZ22 : 846-4 (unch) ZWH23 : 864-2 (unch) ZWPAES.CM : 7.7890 (+0.12%) KEZ22 : 963-2 (+0.63%) KEPAWS.CM : 9.2129 (+0.66%) MWZ22 : 964-0 (+0.39%)
December Cattle Started the Week Strong Barchart - 1 hour ago Live cattle futures started the week with $0.47 to $1.40 gains led by the Dec contract. Feeder cattle closed the day with 30 to 70 cent gains. Cash trade was quiet on Monday. Last weeks cash price was... LEZ22 : 153.100 (+0.03%) LEG23 : 154.900 (-0.08%) LEJ23 : 158.225 (-0.20%) GFX22 : 178.500 (+0.15%) GFF23 : 179.825 (-0.06%)
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Red Corn into Tuesdays Day Trade Barchart - 1 hour ago Corn is trading 2 cents red into the day portion of Tuesday. Overnight action saw a tight range from + 1 1/4 to -3 1/4 cents in the Dec contract. On Monday corn futures ended the session with 2 to 5 1/4... ZCZ22 : 674-2 (-0.22%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.7178 (-0.19%) ZCH23 : 680-2 (-0.18%) ZCK23 : 680-4 (-0.22%)
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Markets in holding pattern ahead of election, inflation data AP - 1 hour ago Wall Street is essentially flat before the opening bell with Americans heading to the polls to vote in the midterm elections that are being heavily influenced by inflation, with more data on that front... $SPX : 3,808.43 (+0.04%) $DOWI : 32,901.29 (+0.23%) $IUXX : 11,005.42 (+0.26%)
storEDGE, a provider of software and other technology for the self-storage industry, has released built-in business-intelligence (BI) tools for its management software. Using the tools, operators will be able to customize and analyze key performance indicators tailored to their unique business needs, according to a press release.
The storEDGE data warehouse collects information across a clients business portfolio, including software, website, operation and marketing data. Customers can then customize their user dashboards within the software. A preview of the custom dashboards will be on display in the storEDGE booth, No. 524, at the Inside Self-Storage World Expo, April 10-13, in Las Vegas.
This is groundbreaking in that nearly every owner we speak with is building spreadsheets from multiple sources. I am pleased weve been able to provide an integrated solution, said Dan Miller, president. Owners are increasingly frustrated by fragmented data in multiple locations, prohibiting intelligent business decisions. storEDGE is providing the industrys first solution to aggregate all the disparate data.
The new interface includes the ability to manipulate data, change time periods, show select facilities or groups, and filter results. storEDGE also plans to add more custom-made reports to the existing BI tools, the release stated.
Weve built a successful self-storage business, but there is an increasing need for more data to evaluate true [return on investment] on marketing sources, said Randall Mosca, director of business and marketing for Columbia Storage Group, which operates 12 facilities in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. As we buy properties and continue to grow, we needed to be able to compare apples to apples over time."
storEDGE is a part of Red Nova Labs Inc., a provider of marketing, mobile and Web technology to the self-storage industry. Its products include management software, website-creation services, online rental-center tools, business intelligence and other integrated services.
Phoenix-based U-Haul International Inc., which operates more than 1,300 self-storage locations across North America, has acquired The Storage Place in Texarkana, Ark. The 2.5-acre property at 5204 Links Drive comprises 40,275 square feet of storage space in 209 units as well as covered vehicle parking. Built in 2005, it also includes a studio apartment for the facility manager.
Located just east of the Arkansas/Texas state line, the property fronts Interstate 30. Its also near the entrance to The Links at Texarkana, an apartment community.
The seller was represented in the transaction by Larry Goldman, an investment property specialist for RE/MAX Commercial, whos also the Argus Self Storage Sales Network broker affiliate for Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, South Illinois.
Established in 1945, U-Haul has more than 44 million square feet of storage space at its owned facilities throughout North America.
Argus is a Denver-based network of real estate brokers who specialize in storage properties. Formed in 1994, the company has 36 broker affiliates covering nearly 40 markets.
A worldwide rise in terrorism attacks in 2016 including a 174% increase in Western countries is making for an increasingly volatile operating environment for international business, according to Aon Of the global terrorist attacks on commercial interests in 2016, oil and gas companies took a hit with 41% aimed at them a trend that has continued in 2017.And alongside terrorism, businesses around the globe are facing growing exposure to political violence risks.For the second year in a row, more country risk ratings were increased than decreased, Aons 2017 Risk Maps for Political Risk, Terrorism and Political Violence, found.The shifting dynamics around terrorism and political violence, reflected in the global events seen in 2016, are presenting an increasing challenge for companies, Scott Bolton, director of crisis management at Aon Risk Solutions, commented.Those with both domestic and international footprints have the potential to experience events that could impact their people, operations and assets, he explained.Bolton told Insurance Business that the risk maps findings reveal a greater need for brokers and clients to engage and fundamentally understand an entitys exposures.If we better understand the exposure and therefore the potential impacts, then as brokers were in a better position to engage with the underwriters, he said.While traditionally, conversations around terrorism and political violence have centred on property damage and business interruption, Bolton said the discussion needs to broaden out across other lines of insurance, which will need to respond to the types of terrorism taking place.Though the increase in terrorism events and political violence has not caused any significant changes to pricing trends compared to the last two years, Bolton said Aon is experiencing an increased volume of enquiries in some geographies, and typically in more niche lines.Brokers and underwriters need to continually evolve to keep pace with the way that terrorism is evolving, he said.
California broker Alliant went out last week and acquired a specialty MGA to complement its real estate stable and increase its presence in the market.SES Insurance Brokerage Services which Alliant has dubbed one of the nations most innovative financial institution and real estate investor program administrators was acquired on Wednesday.Greg Zimmer, president of Alliant, said the buy-out was targeted.We, at Alliant, about 25% of our overall revenue as a firm is in our MGA business which we call ASIS, he explained. SES fits perfectly into our ASIS business and ASIS strategy we are already large players in the real estate business, from a retail perspective, and what SES does for us is they add another dimension to our real estate business.The acquisition would help generate a larger presence in that [real estate] marketplace for Alliant, Zimmer said.Alliant as a whole is very, very industry focussed, he explained. We view ourselves as a specialty broker there are 10-12 industry verticals where we are very large players on a national scale real estate being one of them. So this fits into our overall strategy of being strong not only from a retail brokerage perspective, within that industry vertical, but also from a managing general agency perspective as well.They complement what we already have they really werent competitors. What SES brings to the table from our perspective is an added dimension to our overall capabilities. Now, in addition to being a retail broker, were also an MGA with underwriting authority and technology theyve developed specific technology [to create a better experience for retail brokers] that we can leverage on a broader scale.Zimmer said SES was not shopping for buyers. It was only after checking out the MGA with the possibility of a partnership that Alliant decided to up the ante and make an offer.They were not for sale, he said. We knew of them we were actually looking to do business with them. Once we really dug in and better understood their program, their capability, their technology, that was an opportunity to elevate those conversations to more of a partnering conversation and that ultimately led to the acquisition.While the price of the buy-out is confidential, Zimmer said the purchase involved cash and Alliant equity.Its important for us that they [SES ownership] still feel like business owners. Our company is roughly 45%-owned by the employees and management of the company, Zimmer said.Alliant is a specialty broker and thats why this fits in so well: this is a very, very specialized business.Despite a company spokesperson stating in 2015 that Alliant was actively engaged in a national acquisition campaign across all of our divisions, Zimmer stressed this was not the case.We are not heavy acquirers of businesses, he said. We really pride ourselves on organic growth. We really use acquisitions as a mechanism to either expand an existing industry vertical or get into a new one.Were not what I would call a serial acquirer where were simply buying a bunch of businesses and well figure out later what were going to do with them. Thats not at all how we operate as a firm. Acquisitions for us need to be more strategic in nature.
The insurance industry needs to stop seeing lawyers as the evil enemy and appreciate the business they dole out, says a leading insurance law professor.I think that insurance companies, brokers and agencies too many view law and lawyers as the enemy, when really what they are is a crucial part of the system that the insurance industry and business depends on, said Tom Baker, professor of insurance law at Penn Law School.I mean, what would happen to the automobile liability industry if lawyers stopped suing for automobile accidents? Thats in the be careful what you wish for category. Insurance is probably the single biggest beneficiary of our judicial system.Lawyers are unfairly maligned by those in the insurance world, Baker said.Ive spent my whole career interacting with the insurance industry and I feel they have a kind of irrational dislike of lawyers and the legal system, and its irrational because its not even in their interest to have that view.The thing that I find that insurance business people dont adequately appreciate is how important law is to them. Theyre so quick to see lawyers as a necessary evil but I would say its not a necessary evil, its just a necessary component of what they [insurers] do.Baker, who became interested in insurance while studying law at Harvard, said he fell into insurance law at the beginning of his career because it fascinated him. While working in Washington, D.C., at Covington & Burling, he continued to focus on insurance, before switching to teaching in 1992.While realizing that insurers can bear the brunt of lawsuits and obviously no-one likes to be sued Baker said that was just an inherent and necessary part of the insurance industry.The two industries are very closely aligned, he said, with many lawyers occupying insurance roles in government relations and risk management, and at the executive level. The two industries are inextricably linked, and there need not be such animosity, he said.Within the American Bar Association, Baker said, the two biggest sections, or practice areas, are litigation and the tort trial and insurance practice section. Within the litigation section, one of the biggest committees is the insurance coverage litigation committee.So, the fact that one of the biggest committees in the very biggest section relates to insurance, and the second largest section is all about insurance, [that] tells you how important insurance is to the legal profession [and vice versa], he said. And lawyers appreciate that - and my job in the law school world is make sure law students appreciate that and know enough about insurance so they can do their job when they get out.The largest category of [legal] cases that are in the courts, outside of criminal law when you think about good old fashioned civil litigation, whether its a tort lawsuit or contract action, those are overwhelmingly insurance-related. The insurance industry depends on courts to allow them to do their jobs, he said.
The centre is located at 18 Truong Dinh Street, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, licensed by the Ministry of Science and Technology. It will be run by the Culinary Advisory Council and 4 expert sections.
Photo for illustration (Source: hanoimoi.com.vn)
It will focus on building and organizing research programs on Vietnamese-style and special dishes, popularizing and introducing Vietnams tourism images; collect information about Vietnamese traditional dishes and drinks, and continue developing traditional cuisine festivals; and cooperate with other agencies to launch training courses for chefs; and connect domestic tourism agents to open cuisine & tourism products.
Currently, the centre is developing a website in both Vietnamese and English, aiming to provide culinary information for Vietnamese people and foreign visitors. The website is expected to be put into operation by August, 2017./.
Ryan Specialty Group has announced the completion of its acquisition of New York based wholesale brokerage LoVullo Associates.According to a company statement, the firm reached a deal to acquire substantially all of the assets of the latter in a definitive agreement, which was unveiled on March 30. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Through the deal, RSG will establish RT Specialty Buffalo. Dave Pietrowski, LoVullo president, will be appointed as president of RT Specialty in the area.This acquisition will strengthen our distribution in the Northeast and will provide additional product lines for RT Specialty. We are very pleased to have LoVullo join our team, Patrick G. Ryan, founder, chairman and chief executive of RSG, said in a previous statement.RT Specialty chairman and chief executive Timothy W. Turner added: Bringing LoVullo into RT increases our visibility and bolsters our presence in the Northeast. LoVullo will bring significant added scale in our binding authority and broking business.LoVullos footprint in the Northeast covers around 1,200 independent brokers, served by 100 employees. The firm provides excess and surplus lines through brokerage and managing general agent services through which it distributes commercial, professional and personal lines products.
The beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is up for a legislative review as it expires at the end of September.However, consumers feel that Congress must consider radical reforms to the program, believing it has so far proven ineffective in providing a viable risk management system to vulnerable communities.In trying to deal with its $24 billion debt, the program has been steadily raising rates, which jacked up prices from a few hundred dollars into the five figure region, according to publication The Daily Comet.Congress is also expected to enact reforms to the program, which critics say encourages people to live in harms way at taxpayers expense, the publication reported.The Comet cited the Louisiana experience, with the state adopting stop gap measures in 2014 to keep flood insurance within the reach of its residents. It has also been proactive in building levees to protect flood prone areas.SmarterSafer.org, a coalition of diverse sectors including environmental, real estate, insurance, and taxpayer advocates has asked Congress to respond to the current NFIP quandary by updating and improving mapping techniques and risk analysis.By properly identifying flood risk, the organization argued that property owners and communities will be better able to understand risk and deal with it through appropriate means.Furthermore, the organization pushed for more choices in flood insurance by lobbying for the consumers right to choose their own program as fits their requirements.
Joaquin Rams is either a father unjustly accused in the tragic, unexplained death of his 1-year-old son, or he is the most cold-blooded of murderers who snuffed the life from his boy to collect half a million dollars in life insurance.
The four-week capital murder trial has left little room for anything in between in the case against Rams, who is charged in the October 2012 death of Prince McLeod Rams.
Lawyers concluded their closing arguments Thursday, putting the case in the hands of Judge Randy Bellows. Rams waived his right to a jury in exchange for prosecutors agreement not to seek the death penalty. If convicted, Rams will automatically be sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Rams either suffocated or drowned Prince to collect on three separate life insurance policies he held on the child. Defense lawyers argue Prince died of natural causes after suffering a fever-induced seizure.
The case has taken a series of twists and turns in the four years since Rams was arrested. Chief among them: Virginias chief medical examiner, for the first time in his career, overruled the finding that Prince drowned, and instead changed the cause of death to undetermined.
In addition, prosecutors were barred from presenting evidence about the suspicious deaths of two other people close to Rams: ex-girlfriend Shawn Mason, who was fatally shot in 2003; and his mother, Alma Collins, who died in 2008. Collins death was ruled a suicide, but prosecutors have since said they believe Rams was responsible. He collected $162,000 in life insurance when she died, and unsuccessfully tried to collect on an insurance policy after Masons death, prosecutors say.
Prosecutor James Willett acknowledged Thursday that the case against Rams is a circumstantial one, but said it is powerful nonetheless. While he said it is debatable whether Prince died of suffocation or drowning, the evidence is clear that Prince did not die of natural causes.
The death occurred on Rams fourth unsupervised visit with his son. A Maryland judge granted visitation over the objections of Princes mother, Hera McLeod, who feared for her sons safety.
Medical experts for the prosecution testified that fever-induced, or febrile, seizures are relatively common in children Princes age and are not known to be fatal. They questioned how Prince could have been suffering a fever and then had his temperature measured at 91 degrees just a few hours later in the hospital.
Defense experts countered that febrile seizures could have been connected to a more serious, potentially fatal condition. They said it fell on prosecutors to provide clear evidence of how Prince died and they failed to do so.
Defense lawyer Tracey Lenox said there was a tide of certainty about Mr. Rams guilt by prosecutors and law enforcement that caused them to discount Rams account that he saw Prince having a seizure in his crib and that he tried to cool him down by splashing him with cold water from a bathtub. Two friends who allowed Rams to live in their home also testified in support of Rams version of events.
As for the insurance, Willett said there is no innocent explanation for Rams decision to take out three separate life insurance accounts on Prince. While they were barred from talking about Alma Collins death, they did point out that he had been living off the life insurance settlement, and that the money from that payout was running out around the time of Princes death.
Defense lawyers cited testimony from an insurance salesman who said he was the one who persuaded Rams to take out the policy as a way to save for college.
Bellows said he will issue his verdict April 13.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Virginia
State fire officials say two men have been charged with arson in connection with a fire that destroyed a large storage building in Etna, Maine.
Officials say several smaller storage buildings for sale at Hill View Mini Barns also were vandalized on Wednesday morning. They say damage to the business is estimated at $50,000.
Investigators with the state Fire Marshals Office on Thursday arrested 23-year-old David Underhill, of Etna, and 18-year-old Mark Littlefield, of Corinna, Maine, and charged them with arson. Underhill is a former employee at the business.
The two men were taken to Penobscot County Jail, where they are being held in lieu of $25,000 bail each. They are expected to appear in court Friday or Monday. It wasnt immediately known if they are represented by lawyers.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Maine
BIMA, the insurtech firm that offers microinsurance in emerging markets, announced the close of an investment of US$16.8 million by Axiata Digital, the digital services arm of Axiata Group Berhad, one of Asias largest telecommunications groups.
Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata) has a presence in 10 countries and more than 320 million customers across the Asian region and already works with BIMA in several markets, said BIMA, noting that Axiatas transition to shareholder will deepen the existing partnership.
Together, BIMA, Axiata Digital and Axiata have revolutionized access to insurance in Asia, using mobile technology to deliver services that are inaccessible via traditional channels, said BIMA in a statement.
For example, in less than a year, BIMA along with Axiatas subsidiary Smart, has become the largest provider of life insurance in Cambodia. At the end of 2016, approximately 3 million Axiata customers in three of its operating companies are covered by mobile insurance policies, explained the Stockholm-based BIMA.
Asia is a key region for BIMA; it is home to some of our most successful and profitable markets as well as the consumers who will drive the digital services revolution, said BIMA founder and CEO Gustaf Agartson.
Investing in BIMA is a strategic move that positions Axiata Digital and Axiata mobile operating companies to shape the future of digital services in Asia, commented Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO of Axiata Digital.
As a long-term partner, we recognize the strength of BIMAs technology and model and have seen its growth trajectory, he said. Together we have the potential to transform the way consumers across Asia access and use products in the digital age.
Axiata Digital joins existing shareholders, Kinnevik, Milicom (Tigo), LeapFrog Investments and Digicel. Axiata Digital replaces existing shareholders commitment for the second installment of a C-series fundraising completed in June 2015. BIMA has raised US$75 million since its launch in 2010.
BIMA and Axiata operate local partnerships with Dialog (Sri Lanka), Robi (Bangladesh) and Smart (Cambodia).
Source: BIMA
Topics InsurTech Tech
Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), the London-based subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, has appointed Alexandra Paton as head of Continental Europe for Global Financial Risks (GFR).
Paton will be based in both Paris and London. She will report directly to Peter Sprent, LSMs head of Global Financial Risks, and Olivier Muraire, LSMs director general France and Southern Europe. She replaces Alex Egnell, who recently transferred to Libertys GFR operation in North America.
Paton will manage the existing team in Paris, and grow the GFR business in Continental Europe. Prior to joining LSM, Alexandra worked at AIG, Atradius and, most recently, as a founder and chief market officer of the MGA, Equinox Global.
As our clients expand their businesses through international trade and foreign investment, they are looking for partners who can help them to prosper by mitigating the risks they face in these areas. We are very much looking forward to Alexandra building on our existing strengths in Europe to foster a greater understanding of how our GFR offering can help, commented Sprent.
Source: Liberty Specialty Markets
Topics Excess Surplus Europe
A former coal miner from northeast Ohio owes the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) more than $40,000 after BWC investigators found him creating phony employment records to secure BWC cash benefits, the workers compensation insurance provider announced.
Steven R. Kornbau, 50, of Mahoning County, pleaded guilty March 28 to a fifth-degree felony charge of workers compensation fraud in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. A judge ordered Kornbau to reimburse BWC $40,514 and sentenced him to six months in jail, which he then suspended for five years of community control.
As Mr. Kornbaus case shows, some people get creative in trying to cheat the workers compensation system said BWC Administrator/CEO Sarah Morrison. But thats no match for our investigators and claims personnel who are trained to detect suspicious claims and stop fraud when they see it. The funds we recover from this case will return to where they belong taking care of injured workers and creating safe workplaces across this state.
Kornbaus case centers around working wage-loss benefits he received from Dec. 1, 2014, until April 2, 2016. These benefits are designed to make up the difference in wages between the injured workers job at the time of injury and the job following recovery if it pays less.
Kornbau, a coal miner when he was injured in 2009, was supposed to be working, or at least actively looking for work, to receive the benefits. Instead, Kornbau created a fictitious company called Andersons Windows and Doors and submitted phony payroll records to BWC as evidence he was working. BWC staff noticed inconsistencies in the records in the summer of 2015 and contacted the agencys Special Investigations Department.
Investigators quickly determined the company was fake, and Kornbau confessed as much during questioning.
Source: Ohio BWC
Topics Workers' Compensation Fraud Ohio Mining
Tejas American General Agency (TAGA), a Texas based MGA and wholesale brokerage has launched a new herbicide/pesticide program in Texas, underwritten through QBE North America, an operating division of global insurer QBE Insurance Group Limited.
The herbicide/pesticide program allows applicators of herbicides and pesticides to include general liability and property coverage for spray rigs on one policy. This program will be run under the guidance of Anita Herzog, TAGA partner and manager of TAGAs Commercial Agriculture Division, who is already accepting applications from producers.
Herzog said the aim of the program is to serve a section of the market that has historically been difficult to place and give our agents a standard market option with growth opportunities.
TAGA was formed in 1997 as a managing general agency and surplus lines agent providing commercial and personal insurance products to independent agents and is currently licensed in 22 states, mostly in the Southwest and Southeast. TAGA is located in the Austin area, in Cedar Park, Texas.
QBE North America is part of QBE Insurance Group Limited, one of the largest insurers and reinsurers worldwide. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, QBE operates out of 37 countries around the globe, with a presence in every key insurance market. The North America division, headquartered in New York, conducts business through its property and casualty insurance subsidiaries.
Source: TAGA
Topics Texas
National insurance broker and consultant, NFP, has acquired The Thomas Insurance Agency of Benton Inc. in Benton, Ark.
Thomas Insurance Agency is a property/casualty insurance broker that provides commercial and personal insurance. Principals of the firm James Thomas and Paul Childress will continue in their current roles and become directors within NFPs P/C division.
NFP has more than 3,400 employees and global capabilities.
Source: NFP
Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Arkansas
Stephens Insurance, LLC, an affiliate of Stephens Inc., has opened a property & casualty brokerage office in Birmingham, Ala.
The new teammade up of Tice Young, Donna Sanford, James Kennedy and Marty Hallbrings nearly 60 years of combined experience in the energy, infrastructure, private equity, and chemical verticals to the insurance practice.
Martin M. Rhodes, president and chief executive of Stephens Insurance, said the move into the market is part of the overall expansion of Stephens Insurance, following its increased presence in Houston earlier this year, stated We are thrilled to build our local offering around such an accomplished and knowledgeable team, he continued.
Young joins Stephens Insurance after a 12-year tenure at McGriff, Seibels & Williams, where he worked in the energy, infrastructure, private equity and chemical markets. He will serve as a senior vice president leading the Risk Management and Insurance Solutions team on national and international complex risks.
Sanford joins Stephens as a senior vice president after spending 25 years at McGriff, Seibels & Williams and Wells Fargo Insurance Services. At both firms, she was responsible for the design and placement of national and international risk management accounts. Sanford will specialize in the energy, infrastructure, private equity and chemical markets for Stephens Insurance.
Kennedy also joins the firm from McGriff Seibels & Williams where he advised clients in the energy, infrastructure and chemical verticals. Kennedy will serve as a vice president, focusing on national and international accounts.
Hall will oversee energy, infrastructure, private equity and chemical clients as an account manager. Prior to her time with Stephens, Hall spent 17 years at McGriff, Seibels & Williams, where she was responsible for the servicing of large national and international accounts within the commercial accounts division.
The Stephens Insurance Birmingham office address is at 420 N. 20th St., Suite 2200, in Birmingham.
Stephens Insurance is headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., is a privately owned insurance brokerage with offices located throughout the mid-South.
Stephens Inc. is a full-service investment banking firm headquartered in Little Rock, Ark.
Topics Alabama Chemicals
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is seeking nearly $1 billion from Congress to help North Carolina counties still recovering from Hurricane Matthew more than six months after it caused massive inland flooding and killed 28 people.
The new funding request is in addition to approximately $1.4 billion in state and federal funds the state has already received, Cooper said in a news release Thursday.
Though the emergency nature of the disaster has passed the urgency of long-term recovery remains, Cooper wrote. The success of the recovery will affect the economic health and well-being of our entire state, so its vital to rebuild these communities.
Hurricane Matthew struck in October, dumping 8 to 12 inches of rain across much of eastern and central North Carolina. It caused an estimated $4.8 billion in damage while displacing thousands of families and damaging more than 98,000 homes and over 19,000 businesses, the governor said.
Half of North Carolinas counties, 50, suffered some damage from the storm, he said.
Even if the state receives Coopers full ask of more than $929 million, the money wont return North Carolina to its pre-Matthew status, the governor wrote in a letter to the states congressional delegation. But, he said, it will enable us to restore primary infrastructure and to protect our states residents, with a priority on housing for those most vulnerable in our communities who have no way to repair or replace homes or businesses even with the help of neighbors and the generosity of charities.
The state is especially concerned with finding affordable homes for victims of the October storm, especially the 270 households still living in transitional housing, such as a motel, said Mike Sprayberry, director of the state Division of Emergency Management.
Most are in Robeson County, where 126 households are living in motels as of Thursday, with others in Edgecombe, Cumberland and Wayne counties.
State officials would like to have everyone living in more permanent housing by the end of April, he said. Were not going to put people on the street, he said Thursday. We started with over 3,000 and were down to 270. But if theres one, thats important, and we need to focus on it.
Coopers request includes almost $167 million to help homeowners with repairs; almost $64 million to repair rental housing; and about $15 million to repair public housing in Princeville and Lumberton. It also includes $434 million for buyout, elevation and reconstruction of 3,962 properties that flooded during Matthew and are at risk for flooding in the future.
In December, legislators approved spending $201 million to address disaster recovery for Matthew and mountain wildfires. Coopers proposed budget includes $115 million more for storm and fire recovery.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Hurricane North Carolina
A jury in central Georgia has awarded $20.5 million in damages to a retired teacher in her civil lawsuit against a drug company.
The Telegraph of Macon reports Ann Pope sued Akorn Inc. in Houston County State Court, saying the company failed to note in prescription warning labeling that its drug methylene blue would react adversely with another drug, Effexor XR.
Pope said she went into a coma and suffers permanent cognitive damage because she was given methylene blue during a 2013 surgery while she was already taking the other drug.
Akorns attorneys argued there was no FDA directive to change its prescription warning labeling. They also said Effexors label did warn of potential interaction with methylene blue, but the hospital where Pope had surgery failed to catch it.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Lawsuits Georgia Drugs
Gov. Brian Sandoval is asking the Nevada Legislature to spend $3.5 million over the next two years to build up the states cybersecurity infrastructure and management.
His proposed Office of Cyber Defense Coordination would organize data systems across all state agencies, partner with education officials on workforce development and consult private businesses on best practices.
Existing cybersecurity protocols are designed to protect the sensitive information of Nevada residents and anyone who does business here.
An attorney for the governors office says financial and personal securities rely only in part on the machines and software that house that information.
Defense adviser Brigadier General Bill Burks says frequent collaboration and human oversight are also crucial to mitigate and respond to attacks.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Cyber
What Is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)?
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) traditionally is defined as a company whose goods are used as components in the products of another company, which then sells the finished item to users.
The second firm is referred to as a value-added reseller (VAR) because by augmenting or incorporating features or services, it adds value to the original item. The VAR works closely with the OEM, which often customizes designs based on the VAR company's needs and specifications.
Key Takeaways An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) provides components for the finished products of another company, known as a value-added reseller (VAR).
In the computer industry, OEM may refer to the company that buys products and then incorporates or rebrands them into a new product under its own name.
Traditionally, OEMs focus on business-to-business sales, while VARs sell to the public or other end users.
In manufacturing industries, OEMs stand in contrast to aftermarket products, which offer replacement parts that are generic and cheaper than OEM parts.
An OEM is also different from an original design manufacturer (ODM), a company that customizes its own products for resale by the client.
1:21 Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
Understanding an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
VARs and OEMs work together. OEMs make sub-assembly parts to sell to VARs. Although some OEMs do make complete items for a VAR to market, they usually don't play much of a direct role in determining the finished product.
A common example might be the relationship between an OEM of individual electronic components and a company such as Sony or Samsung that assembles those parts in making their HDTVs. Or a maker of buttons that sells customized fasteners to Ralph Lauren, with the branded monogram RL stamped on them.
Typically, no one integrated part from an OEM is recognized as playing an especially significant role in the finished product, which goes out under the VAR's corporate brand name.
Traditionally, OEMs focus on business-to-business sales, while VARs target the public or other end users. As of 2021, an increasing number of OEMs are selling their parts or services directly to consumers (which, in a way, makes them a VAR).
For example, people who build their own computers can buy graphics cards or processors directly from Nvidia, Intel, or retailers that stock those products. Similarly, if a person wants to do their own car repairs, they can often buy OEM parts directly from the manufacturer or a retailer who stocks those parts.
One of the most basic examples of an OEM is the relationship between an auto manufacturer and a maker of auto parts. Parts such as exhaust systems or brake cylinders are manufactured by a wide variety of OEMs. The OEM parts are then sold to an auto manufacturer, which then assembles them into a car. The completed car is then marketed to auto dealers to be sold to individual consumers.
There is a second, newer definition of OEM, typically used in the computer industry. In this case, OEM may refer to the company that buys products and then incorporates or rebrands them into a new product under its own name.
For example, Microsoft supplies its Windows software to Dell Technologies, which incorporates it into its personal computers and sells a complete PC system directly to the public. In the traditional sense of the term, Microsoft is the OEM, and Dell the VAR. However, the computer's product guide for consumers is most likely to refer to Dell as the OEM.
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) vs. Aftermarket
An OEM is the opposite of a third-party manufacturer that produces parts for sale in the aftermarket. An OEM refers to something made specifically for the original product, while the aftermarket refers to equipment made by another company that a consumer may use as a replacement.
For example, say a person needs to replace their car thermostat, created expressly for their Ford Taurus by ABC Thermostats. They may buy the OEM part, which is a duplicate of their original ABC thermostat that was used in the original manufacturing of the vehicle. Or they may buy an aftermarket part, an alternative made by another company. In other words, if the replacement also comes from ABC company, it is an OEM; otherwise, it is an aftermarket product.
Aftermarket equipment can be cheaper than an OEM product, but it may also come with a significant downgrade in quality or product lifetime.
Usually, consumers buy an aftermarket product because it's cheaper (the equivalent of a generic drug) or more convenient to obtain. Although aftermarket parts may be compatible with the original product, there may be a significant tradeoff in product quality or performance.
On the other hand, sometimes aftermarket producers do such a good job in manufacturing a specific part that it becomes well-known to consumers, who actively seek it out.
An example of this is the success of Hurst Performance of Warminster Township, Penn., a manufacturer of gear shifters for automobiles. Hurst shifters became so well-known for their superior performance that car buyers actually preferred them to the original part.
Eventually, Hurst shifters became so trusted that major manufacturers chose to install Hurst shifters in their own factory designs, effectively turning Hurst into an original equipment manufacturer.
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) vs. Original Design Manufacturer (ODM)
An OEM is also different from an original design manufacturing (ODM), a type of private labeling for manufactured parts. An ODM company can produce and manufacture a product according to their own needs, but they may alter the design to meet a client company's specifications. These products may then be sold by the client under their own brand.
An ODM arrangement does not have as much flexibility as an original equipment manufacturer, since the client is simply customizing an existing design. However, original design manufacturing has lower costs for research and development, leading to lower prices for the end consumer. Moreover, ODM products typically have a lower minimum order quantity, making them more attractive to smaller clients.
An original design manufacturer (ODM) tends to be less expensive than an OEM manufacturer. In addition, they may be willing to accept lower order quantities.
Special Considerations
In informal usage, the term OEM can sometimes be used as an adjective, as in "OEM parts" or even as a verb, as when a manufacturer says that it plans to "OEM" a new product. This somewhat contradictory evolution is usually attributed to the computer hardware industry.
Some VAR companies such as Dell, IBM, and Hewlett Packard started to accept branded parts from outside sources in their own products. So over time, OEM came to refer to companies that rebrand or openly use other manufacturers' products for resale.
Most of this had to do with which company was responsible for warranties, customer support, and other services, but it also reflected a subtle shift in the manufacturing dynamics. In one instance, Dell stopped using chips from anonymous makers and switched to Intel for the computer processors in its computers.
Since Intel is a brand name, it brought added value to Dells computers. Not only did Dell advertise this prominently (using the slogan "Intel Inside!"), but its marketing materials also suggested that Intel and Dell were equal partners in the processor and computer design.
This is a contrast with Dell just telling Intel how to build the processors, as it did with its old suppliers. All of this made Dell the OEM, both in the minds of companies supplying the assembled parts and in the public's mind (after all, people think of the finished hardware and software package they buy as "a Dell computer").
What Does Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Mean in Cars? In the auto repair industry, an original equipment manufacturer(OEM) refers to the original products used by a car manufacturer. These are different from aftermarket parts, which are made by a third-party manufacturer but may be compatible with the same vehicles. OEM parts are usually preferable to aftermarket parts since they are specifically designed to fit the needs of your vehicle and may have a higher quality. Although aftermarket parts tend to be cheaper, they may also wear out more often.
What Does Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Mean in Software? In computer and electronics sales, OEM refers to the software or hardware that comes pre-installed on a new computer or device. This is typically cheaper than licensing or buying those products as an individual consumer since retailers can bundle their software at wholesale prices.
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Cleantech and Climate Change Podcast Interview with Founder and CEO of Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN) Discussing Recent Acquisitions, Rollout and Manufacturing of EV Line of Products
Vancouver, Kelowna, Delta, BC - November 7, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com, a global news source and leading investor resource covering cleantech and renewable energy stocks issues a new edition of the Cleantech and Climate Change Podcast, featuring an interview with Mr. David Michery, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Electric Vehicle Company, Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN).
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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.
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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.
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Health and Wellness Stock News - Endexx (OTCBB: EDXC) Secures $3.8M Order for Non-Nicotine Vape Product HYLA from Italy
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The military Prosecutor General's Office of Southern region of Ukraine has proposed to the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine to impose sanctions on Ukrainian Chemical Products (earlier Crimea Titan, part of Dmytro Firtash's Group DF) in the form of temporary suspension of foreign economic operations, the ministry has reported on its website.
"It is proposed to apply a special sanction in the form of temporary halt of foreign economic operations on private joint-stock company Ukrainian Chemical Products for making steps harming the interests of Ukraine's national economic security. It is said that Ukrainian Chemical Products sends titanium ore to temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine Crimea," the ministry said.
The ministry said that according to Article 1 of the law on provision of rights and freedoms of citizens and the law regime on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, the Constitution of Ukraine and Ukrainian laws apply to the territory of Crimea.
"The ministry asked the Main Military Prosecutor General's Office and the Security Service of Ukraine to analyze the information presented by the Military Prosecutor General's Office of Southern region, give their explanations and specify the concrete clauses of Ukrainian law in the foreign economic operations sphere that could be a ground for applying this type of special sanctions," the ministry said.
As reported, under a decision of the ministry, since November 2015, foreign economic activities of Ukrainian Chemical Products are licensed in an individual mode.
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A reward of 2,000 is being offered for the return of 45 ewes that have gone missing in Kerry.
Farmer Micheal Joe O'Shea gathered his flock recently to bring them in for lambing season, only to discover, 45-50 sheep, missing from his herd.
Egyptian Christians have buried their dead a day after suicide bombers from the so-called 'Islamic State' group killed at least 45 people in co-ordinated attacks targeting Palm Sunday services in two cities.
Women wailed as caskets marked with the word "martyr" were brought into the Mar Amina church in the coastal city of Alexandria, the footage broadcast on several Egyptian channels.
Coptic priests, boy scouts, and mourners carrying flowers joined a procession into the church, the pace set by a beat of snare drums.
At least 17 people were killed at St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt.
Another suicide attack killed at least 28 people inside St George's Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, the Health Ministry said, updating an earlier toll.
'IS' claimed both bombings.
Reverend Danial Maher, of the Tanta church, lost his 23-year-old son, Beshoy, who was among six deacons killed in the attack.
He recalled watching his son wearing white vestments and singing at the service.
"He was like an angel," he said.
Pictures of Mr Maher, sitting helplessly in blood-stained vestments after the attack, were widely circulated online.
He buried his son late on Sunday.
The attacks led President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to call for a state of emergency, amid fears that IS militants, who have been battling security forces in the Sinai Peninsula for years, are shifting their focus to Egypt's Coptic minority, one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East.
In December, a massive church bombing killed 30 people in Cairo, and a series of killings in the Sinai have caused hundreds to flee to safer areas.
The state of emergency awaited approval by parliament, a foregone conclusion since the legislature is packed with Mr el-Sissi's supporters, and the cabinet declared that it had gone into effect at 1pm (11am Irish time).
It will likely allow for arrests without warrants, swifter prosecution of suspects, and special fast-track courts.
Authorities have been waging a sweeping crackdown on dissent for years, however, so it was unclear if anything would change on the ground.
The Palm Sunday attacks, the single deadliest day for Christians in decades, rattled the community and prompted messages of support from abroad, including from Pope Francis, who is to visit Egypt in the coming weeks, and President Donald Trump.
Israel meanwhile closed its Taba border crossing to Egypt after its anti-terrorism office warned of an "imminent" militant attack there, underlining fears of more violence.
The closure comes hours before the start of the Passover holiday.
Southern Sinai, which has seen little of the violence plaguing the northern part of the peninsula, is a popular tourist destination.
Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has declared a state of emergency for three months after two suicide bombings killed scores of Christians in two church attacks on Palm Sunday.
He accused countries he did not name of fuelling instability in Egypt, saying that "Egyptians have foiled plots and efforts by countries and fascist, terrorist organisations that tried to control Egypt".
The army chief-turned-president has not detailed the legal measures needed to declare the state of emergency but according to the Egyptian constitution, the parliament majority must vote in favour of the state of emergency.
Egypt declared a state of emergency in the months that followed the military ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi when his supporters staged mass demonstrations that descended into violence.
In that context, and accepting that we dont want to steal their boots while the body is still warm, it behooves Ireland to take every opportunity presented to it to take business from the UK.
Much of the discussion on gains to be made has concentrated on the financial services area. In addition, there should be some potential for agribusiness to take up activities which are now UK-based exporting to the EU.
Behind all this however we have a sector which has evidenced potential for significant post-Brexit export growth where the State, far from encouraging it, is in fact strangling it. This is the higher education sector.
Every non-Irish student who comes to study is an export. Exports of educational services from Ireland represent a potentially enormous market.
Some 400,000 students enter the UK annually to study, many in the area of English language but as many for longer-term degree and diploma studies. Some 32,500 are in areas such as English language or private colleges. Ireland has approximately 12,500 students from outside Europe.
This is a large body of exports. It is responsible for approximately 1.75bn in value added per annum.
Two strangulations exist. First, we have a dreadful reputation in the English language school area. Despite this, the Department of Education has yet to fully implement its own recommendations and to put in place a statutory framework around quality in the area.
It remains essentially self-regulating, and we know this is a system which ultimately fails. Until these schools are regulated we cannot grow them in confidence.
Taking the State-related bodies, an even more bizarre issue hobbles them. In the financial crisis a regulation known as the Employment Control Framework was put in place on all universities and institutes of technology.
This had a dual effect it controlled overall numbers of staff and also controlled the distribution of staff, academic and professional, as between grades.
The ECF, as it was known, was implemented from 2011 to 2014. Yet, as we come towards the middle of 2017, it is still being implemented.
It is being implemented due to the lack of the department again agreeing a new framework with the universities.
As a consequence, universities and institutes of technology cannot grow other than by non-Exchequer funds.
In the absence of a serious commitment by the Department perhaps it should be renamed the Department of Primary and Some Secondary Education for a stable financial system for higher education, the sector has moved decisively from State to non-State funding.
This is most evident in the university sector. Thus my own institution, TCD, in 2015-6, obtained 138m from the State, 38% of total income.
TCD is probably on track to have 25%-30% of its income from the State in the medium term, based on the trajectory of the last number of years. UCD in 2015 obtained just over 30% of its income from the State.
Over the last decade State funding has declined 25% while student numbers have gone up 25%.
But the State remains via the Higher Education Authority, which provides less then 15% of income the arbiter of not just staff numbers but staff deployment.
This strangles any opportunity post-Brexit to grow. More students need more resources. But if staff cannot be hired, then the system cannot grow. Exports are choked off. This makes no sense.
Brian Lucey is professor of finance at the School of Business, TCD.
Trumps executive order released at the end of March has put Ireland on the same chopping block as China, Mexico and Canada who sell a hell of a lot more goods into the US than they buy.
The stated intention of the order is to investigate unfair trade practices that contribute to the trade deficit, which President Trump maintains is the cause of US job losses.
On several occasions Mr Trump has railed at the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement covering US trade with Canada and Mexico, calling for it to be replaced. The worrying issue is that Irelands trade surplus with the US is more than twice that of Canadas.
Wilbur Ross, the US Commerce secretary, known to us here in Ireland since his emergence as the private sector investor to bail-out Bank of Ireland at the height of the financial crises, will lead the trade study. Ireland will feature in the review, as we have traditionally sold more goods to the US that we buy from them.
Last year, Irelands trade surplus with the US reached an all-time high of 19bn, double the level traded prior to the crash in 2007. And on the basis of the CSO recent trade release, the surplus may balloon out to over 29bn in the current year.
The Trump administration has made it clear that the study would focus on countries that have a chronic trade surplus with the US. The fact that Irelands trade surplus with the US makes up 40% of our total trade surplus across the globe is unlikely to go unnoticed by Wilbur Ross, who has committed to a measured and systematic analysis, to be completed in 90 days, which will examine the causes of the US trade deficit country by country, product by product.
Irelands businesses have managed for decades to sell more manufactured goods internationally than they import. Last year the surplus of exports over imports reached a new high of 46bn, with the largest surplus recorded with the US.
We can expect that Wilbur Rosss systematic analysis will feature products such as Botox produced by Allergan in Mayo, who employ 2,700 people, or heart stents made by Boston Scientific in Galway employing 4,500 people. These are just two of the hundreds of products produced here by US corporations and exported back to the US, which have created Irelands trade surplus.
An unfavourable analysis could be very costly, not just for Irelands exporters but for the Exchequer as a whole.
A measured analysis by Wilbur Ross should take into account internationally traded services, such as computer software, financial and insurance services, as well as research and development, license fees and associated royalties. Here, the book begins to balance, as Ireland imports more in services from the US than it exports. Last year we imported 19bn more services than we exported, balancing the trade books neatly.
However, the difficulty may come when the job value of services versus manufactured goods are quantified. As over half of US imports are associated with license fees, research and development services and royalties, it will be difficult to ratchet up the job numbers associated with these services.
Additionally, Ross will be aware that these are all known routines for cross border price control and taxation management, rather than job creating activities.
The truth is that there are multiple good reasons for trade deficits, which the IDA would do well to advise Wilbur Ross to include in his report to the Oval Office, including business cycles, new product cycles, geographical proximity competitiveness, resources imbalances and the all-important currency exchange variations.
A quick examination of the euro-dollar exchange rates over the last decade shows that exports from Ireland gained significantly from a 33% strengthening of the dollar.
John Whelan is a leading consultant on Irish international trade in goods and services.
Sberbank of Russia denied reports that the deal in which it sold its Ukrainian subsidiary bank was not monetary.
"Information that there is no monetary component in the deal to sell PJSC Sberbank (Ukraine) is not true. Under the signed agreements, the terms of the deal are not being disclosed," the lender told Interfax.
Novaya Gazeta reported earlier that, as payment for the Ukrainian bank, one of the buyers, Grigory Guselnikov is giving Sberbank 98% of the Russian Norvik Bank (Vyatka Bank brand in Kirov Region), a piece of land worth $13.6 million, and the Hilton Yekaterinburg and Hilton Mozhaisk hotels worth respectively $19.8 million and $25.5 million. There were also plans to hand over refinanced loans of the operators of the Hilton Kirov and Hilton Perm hotels totaling $23.4 million, the paper said.
"These are all fabrications that come out of nowhere," Guselnikov told Interfax, commenting on the report about the nonmonetary nature of the deal.
Sberbank declined to comment on whether Norvik Bank will be handed over to Sberbank as part of the sale of the Ukrainian subsidiary.
The plan, developed by Office of Public Works (OPW) Minister Sean Canney, went before Cabinet three weeks ago only to be savaged and rejected by other ministers but most notably Communications Minister Denis Naughten.
Mr Canney has been accused by some ministerial colleagues of displaying a degree of inexperience in not ensuring the 2m plan was robustly tyre-kicked before going before Cabinet.
It is understood that Mr Naughten was annoyed at the limitations of the scheme and directly demanded it be widened and improved by Mr Canney, who was briefing the Cabinet on it.
Several ministers have confirmed the clash at Cabinet, adding Mr Naughten did not hold back when he saw what was proposed.
Other ministers also raised concerns about the scope and direction of the plan, principally around who would be eligible for it.
It got hot and heavy alright and in fairness to Sean he has been fine with Denis ever since, given how hard he was on him, said one minister.
One of Mr Naughtens major gripes with the plan, sources have said, related to the treatment of turloughs which are mainly found in limestone areas west of the Shannon, including in Mr Naughtens home county of Roscommon.
As a result, Mr Canney was ordered by Taoiseach Enda Kenny to withdraw the memorandum and fix the outstanding problems with it.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, sources in Government have said that a lack of experience meant that Mr Canney went into cabinet not fully prepared.
Mr Canney is still eager to have the plan implemented before his time as minister for the OPW comes to an end and the position is handed over to fellow Independent Alliance member Kevin Boxer Moran.
Under the plan, it was proposed that hundreds of families living in flood-prone areas could be given up to 200,000 to relocate from their homes.
Mr Canney was proposing a new voluntary relocation scheme for homeowners.
The proposals would apply to flooded households that cannot access insurance, whose residential property is not sustainable and where there is no alternative solution.
The scheme is expected to cost an initial 2m, which was allocated in Budget 2017.
Attempts to contact Mr Canney this weekend were unsuccessful.
However, a spokeswoman for the Independent ministers in Government told the Irish Examiner that the differences have been straightened out and it is expected to return before the Cabinet this week she said.
The airline moved to allay concerns after its CEO, Bjorn Kjos, said the runway is too short to accommodate the take-off of a fully-laden New York-bound Boeing 737MAX aircraft.
Norwegian will use the aircraft on its Providence (Boston) route from July Cork Airports first direct transatlantic service.
But despite always insisting it planned to launch a Cork-New York route in 2018, Mr Kjos told the Irish Examiner on Friday calculations show Corks runway is just too short for a MAX aircraft to take off for New Yorks Stewart Airport a further 250km south of Providence.
The problem in Cork is the runway. If it was longer it is highly likely we could have done Stewart, he said.
Normally Boeing end up producing a better aircraft than the prototype but it remains to be seen if it is possible to fly to Stewart. If possible, we will do it. As it looks with the figures we have so far, its a little bit too far.
But a spokesman for the airline said last night: The door remains open to a potential Cork-New York route once we take delivery of the new Boeing 737MAX aircraft this summer and learn more about its operational capabilities.
"For now, our priority is to deliver the first ever transatlantic flights from Cork Airport, with the new Boston-Providence service, and we are delighted that the route is already proving to be one of our fastest selling.
Aviation sources suggest the airline could use the European-made Airbus 321LR it has 30 on order on the New York route. But Norwegian said they have to use US-made Boeing. Mr Trump wants American jobs and we are flying Boeing aircraft. Were setting up a lot of American jobs and also a lot of bases. So we are doing exactly what the president wants, Mr Kjos said.
Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan has confirmed she will attend, however, and is to give an address tomorrow afternoon just hours before the Dail debates a Fianna Fail motion calling on the Government to have the Policing Authority assess her role and capacity, and to place her office under the authoritys supervision.
On Wednesday, Ms OSullivan will be at the centre of another Dail debate when Sinn Fein table a motion calling for her to be removed from office.
The minister has blamed Dail commitments on her late pull-out from the conference which begins today in Killarney. Although her department will foot much of the bill for settling the pay claim that led to Garda strikes late last year, the relationship with the scandal-hit force remains strained.
Pay remains an issue and the conference will debate motions seeking further pay improvements through the restoration of subsistence and travel expenses to the levels paid before cutbacks in 2009 and the reinstatement of allowances for using private cars for work in the case of newly promoted inspectors.
They will also call for basic tools such as IT equipment for downloading and viewing CCTV footage at all Garda stations, secure lockers for storing evidence, and fully waterproof jackets for members on patrol.
Members are also demanding better training, fairer promotions procedures, and a more transparent process for investigating complaints against gardai, including the right to know who has made a complaint and what the allegations were when an investigation is discontinued.
They also want a new criminal offence to be created to outlaw the photographing or filming of gardai on duty without their consent where the publishing or uploading of such images on any form of media would identify the member or members involved.
A related motion calls for adequate protections and supports for members of the force and their families who are subjected to harassment on social media and other forms of intimidation as a result of performing their duties. The motion also seeks the development of a communications strategy for the removal of such posts.
A motion on mandatory breath testing calls for the drink driving laws to be changed to allow gardai breathalyse anyone driving in any public place at any time. Currently breath-testing may only take place at checkpoints or when a road traffic offence is witnessed or suspected.
Another road safety motion seeks legislation to make it obligatory for all cyclists to wear helmets and high visibility clothing. Another seeks to make it mandatory that members who attend at a traumatic incident are offered referral to a psychologist or counsellor.
The Siege of Jadotville, a straight-to-Netflix movie which is based on real events, tells of how Commander Pat Quinlan, played by Hollywood heartthrob Jamie Dornan, led his men into a battle against French and Belgian mercenaries in the Congo.
While the soldiers survived their siege, against all odds, and fought back without losing a single man, they were eventually forced to surrender. When they were released and returned to Ireland, they were shunned as the Jadotville Jacks.
Thanks to the feature-length movie about their efforts, however, the real story of what happened on their African mission is now being told. It even prompted Defence Minister Paul Kehoe to present the soldiers with military citations in September last year.
This does not go far enough, however, according to The Siege of Jadotville actor Jason OMara, who won an IFTA this weekend for his supporting role in the flick.
Jason OMara, who won an IFTA for his supporting role in The Siege of Jadotville, with his mother Veronica OMara.
Those men, they were all amazing. Some of them truly deserve medals for what they did, and they have yet to receive any. Theyve received a citation, which is great, but men like Sergeant Jack Prendergast, Commander Pat Quinlan, and many of the regular soldiers they deserve medals, he said.
Class act @jason_omara dedicates his award to the memory of Irish soldier Jack Prendergast who he played in The Siege of Jadotville #IFTA17 pic.twitter.com/V4MQW5e9NM Kelly O'Brien (@Kellingtondawg) April 8, 2017
I do feel like the film in some part helped the Government and the Defence Forces to realise how important it was to recognise the men. I just think theres more to go, more that can be done.
OMara, who is originally from Dublin but now lives in the US and is currently filming for Marvels Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. television series, dedicated his best supporting actor (film) award to the memory of Sgt Jack Prendergast, who he played in The Siege of Jadotville.
He passed away a few years ago but I have spoken to his family and to those who were in the Congo with him. He really was just a leader of men. His men would go anywhere for him.
I did my best to imbue him with a much energy and passion as I could. I hope that this somehow helps bring even more attention to the fact that these men are and were heroes.
It seems that films based on true stories were the main focus of this years IFTAs, which took place in Dublins Mansion House on Saturday night.
While The Siege of Jadotville took home three awards Actor in a Supporting Role (Film) for OMara, Director (Film) for Richie Smyth, and best visual effects accolades were also showered on The Young Offenders, The Journey, and Loving.
The Young Offenders, which is set and filmed in Cork and features a predominantly Corkonian cast and crew, is based upon the biggest ever drugs seizure in Irish history which saw 440m worth of cocaine wash up on West Cork shores in 2007.
Peter Foott backstage at #IFTA17 talking about how surprised he was to win best script in film for The Young Offenders @TYOMovie pic.twitter.com/KvEWOG5vQ4 Kelly O'Brien (@Kellingtondawg) April 8, 2017
Writer and director Peter Foott took home the award for having the best script in film this year.
Peter Foott: The writer and director took home the award for having the best script for The Young Offenders.
Im over the moon. I genuinely was not expecting it. I actually wasnt. I had no speech ready, no nothing, so I was terrified going up there to collect the award, said Foott, speaking backstage after Saturdays ceremony.
I might have to rotate the award between houses. Its an award for everybody, not just for me. Well be sharing it.
Genuinely, I was not expecting it, swear to God. We just wanted to make a movie that we would be proud of and that Cork could be proud of as well. So to be able to bring this home to Cork its an amazing feeling.
Limerick woman Ruth Negga was awarded the Actress in a Lead Role (Film) award for her role in Loving, a film based on a true story about an interracial couple living in the US in the 60s, while Dubliner Colm Meaney took home the Actor in a Lead Role (Film) award for his role playing the late Martin McGuinness in The Journey, a political drama set in Northern Ireland in the time leading up to the Good Friday Agreement.
Colm Meaney, who picked up the Best Actor in a Lead Role (Film) IFTA award for his role in The Journey.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was to go to veteran actor Michael Gambon, but had to be postponed after the Harry Potter star took ill and was unable to attend the ceremony.
[social=twitter]https://twitter.com/Kellingtondawg/status/850785737360502787[social]
Best film went to A Date for Mad Mary, best drama went to History production Vikings, Actor in a Lead Role (Drama) went to Cillian Murphy for his role in Peaky Blinders while Actress in a Lead Role (Drama) went to Amy Huberman for Striking Out.
Amy Huberman won the award for Actress in a Lead Role (Drama) for Striking Out at the IFTA Awards 2017 at The Mansion House, Dublin, Ireland.
On the red carpet before the ceremony, Huberman could be heard proclaiming how she absolutely, definitely wasnt going to win, but that it was an honour to be nominated.
Do you know what, and Im not just saying this, but Im not going to win. But to be nominated with those other actresses, I felt really proud of that. Im really glad to be here. Because the industry is so up and down. You never know if youre going to get a job, let alone be nominated for anything. I was just really chuffed to be nominated with those other actresses who I really admire, she said.
Speaking after the win, she said she was just shocked, really shocked.
I wasnt expecting that at all. Its very surreal.
Seana Kerslake at the IFTA Awards 2017.
The Irish Film and Television Awards, hosted by comedian Deirdre OKane, will be broadcast on RTE 1 on tomorrow at 10.15pm.
Charlie Murphy at the The IFTA Awards 2017 at the Mansion House, Dublin.
The winners
With one missile strike on a Syrian airfield, US president Donald Trump called two bluffs at once, but likely set back his proclaimed goal of defeating Islamic State.
The pre-dawn strike on Shayrat Airfield should deal a crushing blow to the narrative that the Kremlin somehow controls Trump or has compromising material about him.
This is not the kind of risk a man on a blackmailers hook would take.
Nor does Russias behaviour after the strike give credence to the idea now circulating that the strike was a mere PR exercise, fully signed off by the Kremlin, who evacuated Russian personnel (and warned Assad).
This conspiracy theory holds that the collusion would take the pressure off investigations into Trumps Russia connections and clear the way for a grand bargain down the road.
On the surface, Russia appeared to be willing to treat the attack as an isolated incident, especially since the US has made sure no Russians would be hurt. Thats easier today than forgiving Turkey for shooting down a Russian warplane in 2015.
"It's a warning: Don't do it again": Sky's David Bowden on the US airstrike on a Syrian airbase #Syria #Trump pic.twitter.com/ReYKrIzmhp Sky News (@SkyNews) April 7, 2017
The propaganda line on Fridays strike is that Russia didnt move in to protect Shayrat because Russian servicemen werent at risk there. The Assad regimes military capability hasnt been greatly affected, either.
And yet apart from the predictable anti-American rhetoric and denials that Assad had used chemical weapons, Fridays statement from the Russian foreign ministry contains one serious bit of new information. It says Russia has suspended the 2015 memorandum of understanding with the US on air safety in Syria.
The memorandum contained safety protocols for pilots, the use of certain frequencies for communication during close encounters and a line of communication on the ground.
This spells the end not just of this particular document, whose scope has been expanded since Trump came to power, but also of the growing co-operation that has developed between US and Russian forces in Syria in recent months. In other words, Moscow has issued a thinly veiled warning to the US: From now on, your aircraft are fair game.
US pilots have had nothing to fear from either Syrian and Russian anti-aircraft defences, which assumed that US missions, if any, would be against Islamic State forces, not the Syrian government.
The Assad regime probably wouldnt dare attack US planes even now, but Russia has S-300 and S-400 air defence systems deployed to protect its military installations in Syria. If Russia really means to cease communications with the US on air safety, the likelihood of a major incident greatly increases.
Putin says US airstrikes on Syria are "an act of aggression." His full statement: https://t.co/22w77ldc3u pic.twitter.com/K7VMqHz5H1 CNN International (@cnni) April 7, 2017
Whether Putin can afford an open conflict with the US is another matter. Though Russia hardly has the military might for a war with the US, and Putin lacks the fiendish mindset needed to launch nuclear missiles, the Kremlin may feel it has no face-saving alternative but to respond. Putin opponents are already gloating about the failure of Russian air defences to deflect the US strike on Shayrat.
The whole Putin adventure has been completely discredited, Andrei Piontkovsky, a hardcore Putin critic, told the Ukrainian website InfoResist.
Where are the famous S-300 and S-400, which the foreign ministry told us had been supplied to defend Syrian airfields from cruise missiles?
The ruble dropped in Friday trading, showing a market perception of Russian weakness following the missile strike.
In and of themselves, the air defence systems Russia has deployed are incapable of repelling a full-scale, sustained missile attack from US ships in the area. There are not enough of them to cover Syrias entire territory, and supplying them with ammunition is more difficult for Russia than delivering more Tomahawk missiles is for the US
But the goals of Putins intervention in Syria include showcasing Russian weapons for potential Middle Eastern clients and turning Russia into a credible, go-to partner in a crisis. If the air defence systems remain silent and Russia doesnt help Assad retaliate, those goals will be compromised.
Since annexing Crimea in 2014, Putin has been at pains to show he doesnt have a reverse gear. Now Trump is forcing his hand; retreating, just a year ahead of presidential elections in 2018, is hardly an acceptable choice for Putin.
He has already denounced the Shayrat attack as a breach of international law. Putin will now be compelled to double down on helping Assad recover territory from rebels. He needs military success to remove any suspicion that he might be getting cold feet.
The danger here is that Trump may not be able to stop at this. If the US doesnt get further involved in Syria to push for regime change, those who accused Trump of being a Putin puppet will regroup and go after him again.
US Defense Department footage of missiles launched in strike against Syria air base in response to #Idlib attack pic.twitter.com/AaVEdK7gXA TRT World (@trtworld) April 7, 2017
Russia and the US now are in greater danger of a direct military clash than at any time since the end of the Cold War. Their leaders are driven by domestic political considerations and macho instincts a dangerous combination. The only clear winner in this fraught situation is Islamic State.
In recent months, the Russian-aided Syrian regime and the US have been successfully chipping away at it from different sides. Now, the regime may need to concentrate on its immediate survival in the face of an increased US threat, and the US has to wonder how much of a Russian threat its continued operations in Syria might face.
The somewhat pro-Assad news aggregator Al-Masdar is already reporting, based on unnamed sources, that IS has launched an offensive in the area near Shayrat.
In a conflict as complicated as the Syrian one, hitting one of the parties, no matter how evil, necessarily encourages other bad actors.
Trump wont beat IS by attacking Assad he can only embarrass his domestic opposition and, to some extent, Putin. Neither is necessarily in the US interest.
Monday, April 10th, 2017 (10:44 am) - Score 1,412
Cityfibre has announced that two further large towns in Berkshire (England) Slough and Maidenhead will be the next on their list to benefit from the deployment of a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) broadband and Ethernet network for local businesses.
The company has already repurposed or reactivated similar fibre optic infrastructure in the nearby towns of Bracknell and Reading, with local business ISP BtL Communications supplying the connectivity. Both were originally acquired as part of the companys 90 million move to gobble most of KCOMs UK network assets in 2015 (here) and Slough was also part of the same deal.
Similarly BtL will also be providing the new service for Slough and Maidenhead, which is planning to light up 38km of fibre from Slough Trading Estate to the town centre, and a further 10km across Maidenhead. As usual local businesses are being urged to register their interest at http://www.cityfibre.com/connect .
Nick Gray, City Development Manager at CityFibre, said: Berkshire is known as an economic powerhouse, and Slough in particular a renowned hub for blue-chip businesses and start-ups has grown its reputation as one of the UKs most tech-savvy towns in the region. From the latest Tech Nation Report we know that the digital technology industry contributes billions to the UK economy, creates high value jobs and attracts investment from all over the world. This presents excellent opportunities for Thames Valley communities. It is vitally important, therefore, that this growing region has the best connectivity possible to enable it to remain competitive on a global stage. We are excited to welcome Slough and Maidenhead on board as our newest Gigabit Cities in the region and look forward to seeing local businesses flourishing thanks to this transformational infrastructure.
Rob Lamden, Managing Director, BtL said: We have been helping businesses in the region with their IT, telecoms and internet connectivity since 2001 and we are very pleased to be working with CityFibre to make a real difference to the regions digital landscape. Having grown up in Maidenhead and Slough from the age of nine, I am particularly motivated to bring the gigabit revolution to the towns I grew up in. We are now able to offer local businesses next-generation internet services at highly competitive prices that will turbocharge their capabilities and give them a huge head-start over the competition. And of course BtL will be alongside them to support their growth and to help them take full advantage.
Monday, April 10th, 2017 (11:29 am) - Score 1,461
The MP for Warrington North (Cheshire, England), Helen Jones, has claimed that many residents in the area should be paid a total of 246,000 in compensation by ISPs because of the slow broadband speeds that local homes are alleged to endure. She wants Ofcom to take action.
According to the Warrington Guardian, local residents are owned the money because of poor broadband speeds and this apparently stems from an Ofcom report, which allegedly revealed that a total of 246,000 in compensation to constituents could be due and thats partly because the rolling out of fibre optic broadband in areas including Burtonwood, Winwick, Culcheth and Croft has been slow.
Helen Jones, Warrington North MP, said: Discussions I have had with service providers over the years has resulted in some progress but the position is still far from satisfactory. Less than half of all UK broadband connections are superfast, calling into question the government target to provide super-fast speeds to 95 per cent of all UK premises by the end of this year. That is why Im supporting the call by the [cross-party] British Infrastructure Group of MPs to introduce a comprehensive automatic compensation scheme that allows customers to be refunded for receiving unreasonably slow broadband download speeds. Millions of properties across the country fail to meet the proposed minimum download speed of 10mb/s and could be eligible for receiving compensation from their providers.
As usual there are a few problems with this claim and the approach being suggested. Firstly, the figure of 246K does not appear to come from Ofcom. Instead it looks more likely to be derived from either the MP or newspapers own interpretation of data from the regulators consultation on a new Automatic Compensation System (here), except that consultation was based on compensating for a total loss of service and not slow speeds.
Elsewhere Helens second paragraph makes the mistake of conflating the results from broadband speed testing with the separate aspect of network availability. Put another way, around 55% of the UK still connects via a slow pure copper based ADSL broadband line and thats despite superfast broadband networks (e.g. FTTC / DOCSIS / FTTP etc.) being estimated to cover around 92% of the country.
The choice of connectivity solution that consumers make may thus have been overlooked or not given enough weight in the 246,000 figure above, although its difficult to know without further clarification of what that total truly represents and precisely where it comes from.
Mind you the idea of compensating for slow speeds isnt entirely without merit, although in todays market it would be very difficult to deliver. Identifying responsibility for slow broadband speeds, which can also be caused by things like weak WiFi, poor home wiring or even remote Internet services (plus a plethora of other factors that may be outside of an ISPs ability to control), is not a simple task.
On top of that the Government and local authorities would also need to take some responsibility for ensuring that everybody can actually access a truly superfast and reliable connection in the first place (particularly relevant for the final c.30% of UK premises where public investment is usually required to deliver an upgrade), which is yet to be achieved. Consumer prices would also need to rise in order to cover the costs of such a system.
Its worth pointing out that Ofcoms Code of Practice for Broadband Speeds, which is sadly voluntary and doesnt apply to all providers, allows you to exit your contract penalty free if your service speeds suffer a significant decline.
Alphabet's Google recently demonstrated that their tensor processing unit is a force to be reckoned with in computing. They benchmarked their TPUs and posted an astounding rate of 15 times to 30 times faster processing times. This is compared to an Intel Haswell central processing unit (CPU)/Nvidia K80 graphics processing unit (GPU) combination.
Google first announced that they were working on chips in-house back in May 2016 during their I/O developer conference. They revealed that these chips will be called tensor processing units and will be built to complement their TensorFlow machine-learning framework. Aside from those points, they did not offer any more information, TechCrunch noted.
Last week, the Alphabet subsidiary offered a more intimate and detailed look at their tensor processing units. Its processing speed is most worthy of note that was benchmarked against Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU. The litmus test showed that Google's TPUs are capable of processing machine learning workloads 15 times to 30 times faster. Furthermore, the company's in-house chips can also provide 30x to 80x higher performance/watt that could potentially go higher with faster memory in the future.
Those numbers imply that Intel and Nvidia have a potential rival at their doorsteps. The former has been monopolizing the chip industry for decades, but that may change soon. Cloud computing needs are changing and it looks like Google's tensor processing unit is better poised to address those needs.
Seeking Alpha pointed out that Google's TPU benchmark is not cutting edge because it was conducted in 2015. Since then, both Intel and Nvidia have come up with better-performing chips. Nevertheless, the tech giant wrote in their paper that the tensor processing unit could be further improved by them or by others.
Google first thought about tensor processing units back in 2006. However, there was no need at the time for such a technology. But in 2013, the Alphabet subsidiary embarked on a project with this objective: to create a processor that could outrun GPUs 10x. It took them three years to announce the project to the public, though, and even then they did not offer a lot of details.
The post-audit of PrivatBank (Dnipro) after its nationalization has revealed additional problems at the bank, which would require an additional capitalization of the bank by the state, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva has said.
"Last night [before the nationalization] they settled fraud transactions in the amount of over UAH 16 billion," she said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
She said that the post-audit established that not 97%, but 100% of the corporate portfolio was issued to affiliated persons.
"The necessity to additionally capitalize is more and the state would have to pay more money for the management of the bank by this team of oligarchs and managers," she said.
She recalled that initially it was assessed that PrivatBank faces a lack of UAH 146 billion of capital or near $6 billion, which is around 50% of the monetary base and 33% of individuals' deposits.
Gontareva said that former owners, in particular, Ihor Kolomoisky, gave personal guarantees to implement the capitalization program that has not been implemented.
Deputy NBU Head Kateryna Rozhkova said that the results of the audit will be published late April or early May.
"As for the additional capitalization, we are cooperating with the Finance Ministry and PrivatBank drafting the program," Rozhkova said.
As reported, the revised memorandum signed between the Ukrainian government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foresees the issue of government bonds worth up to UAH 98 billion, or 3.6% of GDP, in 2017 to handle additional capitalization of banks and the Individuals' Deposit Guarantee Fund in Ukraine. At the same time, the document posted on the IMF's website does not elaborate on the list of such banks and amounts of additional capitalization of the fund.
The Ukrainian government on December 18, 2016 decided to nationalize Ukraine's No. 1 bank, Dnipro-based PrivatBank. It became wholly owned by the state. After the government became its owner, the Finance Ministry additionally injected UAH 116.8 billion into it, including UAH 9.8 billion in 2017.
Early in February 2017, PrivatBank CEO Oleksandr Shlapak did not rule out there could be additional capitalization after the audit of its capital.
PrivatBank plans to inform the Finance Ministry and the National Bank of Ukraine early in April about how much funds it needs for further capitalization. According to Shlapak, the sum will incorporate both Cyprus-based and Crimean-based assets held by the bank.
The latest in the line of Microsoft's hybrid tablet, Surface Pro 5, is not expected to have any radical changes in its hardware. It will indeed receive updates, although those will be directed towards its software.
One of the rumors surrounding the Surface Pro 5 says that it will be shipped with Intel's Kaby Lake as its processor. It turned out to be true, as it was recently confirmed by Microsoft pundit Paul Thurrott. Furthermore, the savant's sources told him that the upcoming device will retain the power connector its predecessor had.
This could be in line with Microsoft's promise to Surface Pro 3 users that their accessories would still be usable on Surface Pro 3. However, The Verge pointed out this does not mean that the company will completely forego a USB-C connection. If they opted to do that, then it would be a surprising choice indeed. That is because most Windows-compatible PC producers are now switching to the new-fangled port for their latest portable computers.
Hardware aside, Forbes wrote about Microsoft's focus on their cloud services as well as the Windows 10 operating system. This way, Surface Pro 5 developers and engineers do not have to come up with innovative ways to pull in more customers. That is because the company's partners also sell more of the operating systems than they actually do. And like this, they can show what existing hardware is capable of with the help software innovations and cloud services in Windows 10.
Aside from those things, there are no other details forthcoming. But it might not be a long time until Microsoft release official specifications for the Surface Pro 5. Company watchers still expect them to have a special launch event for their hybrid device during their annual spring affair. At that time, the Redmond company could also announce other updates. Nevertheless, as Thurrott already said, people should not expect any dramatic change to the device because none will be forthcoming.
HTC announced the Sapphire Edition HTC U Ultra in Taiwan just last month. Now, the said special edition smartphone is expected to hit Europe in a few days. Unlike the regular HTC U Ultra, the sapphire edition boasts of a screen with level-9 Mohs hardness. This is practically why the said phone is a bit more expensive than the regular model.
It is worth noting that the regular edition HTC U Ultra only has 64 GB native storage and is only priced at 699 or $750 in USD. The sapphire model, on the other hand, has 128 GB worth of native storage and is priced at 849, or around $900 in USD. The sapphire material used in the special model is said to be the same durable material that is mostly used in expensive watches due to its intense resistance to scratches.
Nevertheless, apart from the storage amount and screen durability, the two variants are practically the same, Phone Arena reported. The HTC U Ultra has a 5.7-inch display with 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution. There is also a 2.05-inch secondary display with a 160 x 1040 pixel resolution, GSM Arena reported.
The HTC U Ultra runs Android Nougat from the box and is powered by Snapdragon 821. There is a 12 MP rear camera and a 16 MP front camera as well. Its fingerprint sensor is front-mounted and its battery size is 3000 mAh. Among other things, the HTC U Ultra is equipped with Quick Charge 3.0 capability and is available in four colors.
As for the availability details of the said phone, it was said that pre-orders of the HTC U Ultra Sapphire Edition are already going on in Germany and Switzerland. The phone will then be made available on April 18 in the mentioned countries. It is also believed that the Sapphire HTC U Ultra will also arrive in more European countries in the coming weeks.
The 2017 Lincoln Continental and Oscar Award winner Matthew McConaughey are both the epitome of coolness. At least that's what the commercial is trying to exude. Now, the 2017 Lincoln Continental is more than just cool, it is smart. A new app developed especially for the luxury sedan will make it smarter than the average car.
The Lincoln Way app will do a number of useful things. First, the iOS and Android app will allow the driver to look for a place to park his or her Continental. The app determines where there is a parking lot, locate the exact spot and tell the driver how much the parking fee would be. Once the ideal parking spot is found, the driver can reserve it and pay the fee in advance.
Also, the Lincoln Way deals with two more common problems of car owners - forgetting where they parked and how long they've been parked. The app helps keep owners' minds at ease with its ability to remind them of the connected car's location and to notify them how long the car has been parked giving them an idea how much they would need to pay for the parking fee.
Owners of the 2017 Lincoln Continental will also be able to chat live with an agent. The agent will readily answer questions regarding the sales and services for the car and even queries about the app itself.
Lastly, the new Lincoln Way app can lock and unlock the car. Unlike other cars with the same features, locking and unlocking the 2017 Lincoln Continental is easier and faster thanks to the lack of advertisements and other buttons to click or tap on.
As Venture Beat noted, connected cars are the trend nowadays. Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and other innovations are allowing people to "talk" with their cars. As a matter of fact, Amazon's popular AI, Alexa, has been integrated into a number of smart vehicles while Google and Mercedes-Benz partnered to have Google Assistant in the latter's vehicles.
Car and Driver sees the 2017 Lincoln Continental as a work in progress and it's easy to see why. The company has lost its luster since its days of being a favorite among American heads of state. The past few Lincoln offers have failed to make that much of an impact on the market. However, the new Lincoln Continental is out to change that. For a base price of $44,720, one can enjoy the much-improved luxury car which boasts of a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged GTDI V6 engine capable of u to 400 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque. While there is still room for improvement, its shift from luxury car to smart luxury car will surely point the 2017 Lincoln Continental in the right direction.
"One Piece" remains to be one of the most popular animes despite the reports that many readers already lost interest in reading the manga. The Japanese novel is already on its 862nd episode which is yet to be released after a week break.
A lot of fans are waiting to see how the Straw Hat and the Fire Tank Pirates will carry out their plan to assassinate Big Mom. The next chapter of "One Piece" though which should see Sanji and Pudding's wedding commencing was not released this weekend. The manga took a little break and "One Piece" chapter 862 is set to come out this Sunday.
In the new chapter of "One Piece," Luffy and the crew are expected to crash the wedding of Sanji and Pudding and start their plan on defeating Big Mom. An enthusiast predicts the pirates to enter the event through Bege's compartment in his body. Cesar Clown is said to lead the entry of the crew through a mirror.
However, fan theories point out on how the crew will fall down as Sanji is expected to fall in love with Pudding for real. The sweet words of Big Mom's daughter are believed to change Sanji's mind and forget about his involvement in the assassination plan. It is also speculated that the crew will face difficulties in their escape as one of their members is said to betray them.
The manga is attracting many readers, but in a shocking report, it is discovered that there is a fraction of "One Piece's" fandom that already stopped reading the story. According to a poll that rolled out from December 2016 to January 2017, over 15% of the respondents said they quit reading the manga where some of them said that the manga is already too long that they no longer find the story interesting.
"One Piece" was released in 1997 and 84 volumes were already released since then. The manga is already heading to its 862nd chapter while the anime is a bit behind with only 781 episodes already aired. Eiichiro Oda is said to end his creation soon which according to him only has a remaining 20% of the story left to be inked. It was however rumored that Oda is creating a spinoff of "One Piece" which is reportedly why he is already ending the original story.
Back in h, unveiled audio-calling in Duo but limited it to users in Brazil. At the time of the announcement it promised to bring the feature to the rest of the world in the coming days, but the global rollout took a little longer than expected. Nearly three weeks later, its finally arrived.
To make an audio call, simply switch the toggle at the top of the screen from video to audio. ke video calling, audio calls works over cellular -Fi, is meant to be used in those moments when video calling isnt an optionlike when youre about to hop on a crowded bus or have a poor network connection. As describes, Duo audio calls work well on all connection speeds wont eat up your data.
Duo hasnt exactly been a runaway hit for , but its an important app in its arsenal. Essentially Androids answer to Facetime on iOS, the app lets you easily set up a video call for anyone in your address book, provided they have the app installed first. And where Facetime is limited to Apple products, Duo is available across both platforms.
The feature is available for users in the ay Store iOS App Store. If youre not seeing it on your Android phone, you can download the -signed A from A Mirror.
Calling for change: ile the addition of audio calls in Duo is certainly useful, it doesnt do much to help s scattered messaging strategy. There are way too many apps services to keep track of, with numerous overlapping features functions. d love to see a unified system put in place that lets us chat call from a single app, while keeping our conversations synced accessible from any of our devices, but were afraid that dream might be remain elusive for years to come.
Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) Ihor Bilous has tendered his resignation, member of the parliamentary committee for tax and customs policy and Head of Vidrodzhennia (Revival) group of lawmakers MP Vitaliy Khomutynnik has said.
"It is clear that now we have a notice of resignation from current head of the State Property Fund," he said at a meeting of heads of factions, committees and groups of Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv on Monday.
"The State Property Fund has not sold property in three years even to cover its expenses. Those kopecks that were received in the past three years cannot be named the good work of the State Property Fund. The decision must be made this week," he said.
A source in the SPF told Interfax-Ukraine that the official comments on the issue could appear in the near term.
The head of the State Property Fund is appointed by Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada under a proposal of the prime minister.
The Individuals' Deposit Guarantee Fund on the basis of the decision of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) of April 7, 2017 on declaring Finbank (Odesa) insolvent on April 10 introduced temporary administration in the financial institution for one month, the fund said on its website.
Viktoria Stepanets has been appointed temporary administrator of the bank.
As reported, the NBU board by decision No. 217-RSh/BT declared Finbank insolvent.
The National Bank noted that following the results of examination of Finbank, held on April 1, 2016, the NBU board in October 2016 approved the necessary amount of capitalization for the financial institution. Finbank, in turn, submitted a program of capitalization to the regulator.
However, as of April 1, 2017 these measures had not been implemented.
A 500 reward has been offered in an attempt to catch thieves who stole tools worth hundreds of pounds from Chessell Woodyard.
The owner of the West Wight business, Pete Barnes, put up the cash for arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible after a car containing tools was broken into between Thursday evening and Friday morning last week.
Mr Barnes said: "This is the second similar theft that has taken place here. The tools belong to a tradesman and I feel responsible because it was on my premises.
"By taking the tools someone has made it impossible for the owner to carry on his trade. An attempt was also made to unlock my diesel tanks.
"There have been a number of thefts from sites around the Island and I have put up the reward in an attempt to call a halt to them."
The tools included an impact drill, socket sets, various drill batteries and accessories, hand tools, electrical testers and fittings, binoculars, a TomTom sat nav, two pairs of Ray Ban sunglasses and personal items.
Anyone with information can contact police on 101 or anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Militants have fired on the positions of the Ukrainian military in Donbas 44 times over the past day, the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) press centre said on its Facebook page on Monday morning.
Two Ukrainian soldiers sustained injuries, the ATO staff said on Facebook.
Most shooting incidents were observed in the Mariupol sector. According to the staff, 120mm mortars, anti-tank grenade launchers and infantry combat vehicle weapons were engaged in the vicinity of Novotroyitske. Ukrainian army positions in Vodiane, Lybidynske and Krasnohorivka were shelled by various types of grenade launchers and heavy machineguns, the staff said. Ukrainian army strongholds near Hnutove and Novohnativka came under attack of grenade launchers, and heavy machineguns were fired near Pavlopil and Novomykhailivka, it said. Infantry combat vehicles and small arms were engaged in attacks near Shyrokyne, infantry combat vehicle weapons were used near Novohryhorivka, and small arms were fired on army positions in Talakivka and Chermalyk, the staff said.
In the Donetsk sector, Ukrainian army positions were shelled by anti-tank grenade launchers and heavy machineguns in Avdiyivka and the Butovka mine area; anti-tank grenade launchers and small arms were used in Verkhniotoretske and Zaitseve, and snipers were active near Pisky, the staff said.
In the Luhansk sector, Ukrainian strongholds came under attack of 82mm mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machineguns in Novozvanivka, while various types of grenade launchers and heavy machineguns were fired on Troyitske, Krymske and Stanytsia Luhanska. Ukrainian army units stationed in Novotoshkivka also came under attack of heavy machineguns, the report said.
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The state House voted Thursday to approve a bipartisan bill that restricts the salary and compensation that top executives of a behavioral health managed care organization can be paid.
House Bill 403 passed 109-0 and goes to the Senate for consideration. A co-primary sponsor is Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth.
HB403 appears aimed primarily at the compensation level of Richard Topping, executive director of Cardinal Healthcare Innovations, the states largest behavioral health MCO that oversees mental health, substance abuse and developmental disability providers in 20 counties.
The bill reduces the autonomy that behavioral health MCO boards have in setting executive compensation.
The bill contains language that would require a board to submit any request for exceeding the maximum of the applicable salary range to the state health secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen in the Cooper administration and the director of the N.C. Office of State Human Resources.
It would prohibit a board from paying more than 30 percent of the average salary of the other MCOs executive directors.
During a heated Nov. 29 state oversight committee meeting on Medicaid reform, a bipartisan group of legislators and former state health Sec. Rick Brajer targeted Toppings $635,000 in salary and potential $1.2 million annual compensation.
By comparison, a study by N.C. Health News determined the average salary of the other MCO executive directors is about $200,000.
At the meeting, Topping defended the compensation as justified in part because Cardinal represents the consolidation of six entities.
We have gone from 2,000 mostly government employees to 800 non-government employees, so the cost to the state has been less over time, he said.
Lucy Drake, Cardinals board chairwoman, said in a statement released Thursday before the House vote that public focus has been centered around executive compensation, and not about the remarkable contributions Cardinal Innovations has made to our members, our communities and to move health care forward in North Carolina.
Drake defended Toppings compensation by saying it adheres to market-based compensation standards set in 1993 in order to attract and retain the best possible talent, bringing best practices to every facet of our company.
However, Drake said that Topping has requested that the board return the increase in his compensation to previous level set three years ago. The board has agreed to honor this request.
Cardinal spokeswoman Ashley Conger said Toppings salary would return to $400,000, as well as eligibility for up to a 25 percent bonus worth $100,000. There would be no annuity compensation.
Even at $400,000 in salary, the amount still exceeds the 30 percent limitation set by the bill.
Frictional relationship
Cardinal oversees behavioral health providers who serve more than 812,000 enrollees in 20 counties, including Alamance, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Rockingham and Stokes in the Triad. Cardinal took over CenterPoint Human Services of Winston-Salem on June 1 as part of a state effort to reduce the number of MCOs to three or four.
Cardinal announced plans Jan. 12 to acquire Eastpointe Human Services, which covers 12 counties in Eastern N.C. If approved by Cohen, Cardinal would have oversight over nearly one-third of the state.
There has been a frictional relationship over the years between Cardinal and legislators that crosses party lines Republicans concerned about the agencys discretionary spending patterns as a publicly funded agency, and Democrats concerned about cost cuts affecting services to its most vulnerable clients.
There have been some real questions raised, Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, was quoted by N.C. Health News as saying in a House health care committee meeting. Theres an audit coming out in the next few weeks that will reflect on this.
So, were getting appropriately ahead of what we believe will be the results of that particular audit are going to be.
Legislators also have expressed concerns of the likelihood that Cardinal plans to move its headquarters from Kannapolis to a more expensive setting in the NASCAR Hall of Fame building in Charlotte.
The bill was submitted as the states behavioral health MCOs are being consolidated to three or four statewide as part of a hybrid Medicaid reform initiative submitted for approval to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
According to HB403, if an MCO board declines to reduce the executive directors salary below the 30 percent limit, the health secretary could remove the board and establish a caretaker board. The health secretary could remove the executive director at the same time.
The bill also prohibits an MCO board from providing an executive director with any benefits or bonuses that are not also provided to all permanent employees of the MCO. There is an exception to allow for providing incentives as part of hiring an executive director.
The total compensation for an MCO executive director also would be reviewed annually by the health secretary and state human resources director, as would be any employment contracts approved by an MCO board.
The bill requires the health secretary, along with the MCO board, to evaluate the executive directors annual performance, including comments from county commissioners.
An MCO board would not be allowed to terminate an executive directors employment without 30 days written notice to the health secretary.
Not seeing eye-to-eye
Conger said HB403 signals a shift in the states stated position on Medicaid with the state being openly committed to Medicaid reform and the ultimate goal of recognizing the benefit of whole person care by integrating behavioral and physical health-care systems.
(It) changes the relationship between DHHS and the MCOs from a contractual relationship to a regulatory one.
Conger said that while the majority of the country is moving toward competitive managed care for Medicaid, HB403 effectively makes North Carolinas MCOs agencies of state government.
Further embedding the MCO system in state government makes it impossible to integrate care for our most vulnerable citizens.
As such, Cardinal Innovations is opposed to any bill that does not place the best interest of our members, their families and communities first.
Topping has said Cardinal should have more flexibility with funding and innovative services than the other MCOs. He stressed that Cardinal is performing in accord with what legislators have asked it to do.
Brajer responded by saying although Cardinal does live up to its name, it basically does what every other MCO does, doing some things better than others, but nothing unique.
Some MCOs do some services better than Cardinal.
Local behavioral advocates said in June they had their eyes open as to whether Cardinal and Topping would make good on their pledge of providing additional funding and being transparent with how it oversees providers.
Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, said she is receiving complaints from constituents regarding the reduction in services since the takeover by Cardinal.
Krawiec serves on the joint legislative committee for the state Medicaid program and a subcommittee on behavioral health.
This is very disturbing, particularly since the news that Cardinal is paying tremendous salary and bonus to its chief executive, Krawiec said. Our citizens receiving the services they need should be Cardinals priority.
Some 100 activists of the National Corps radical party have begun a protest rally near the central office of the Russian Sberbank subsidiary in Kyiv's Volodymyrska Street on Monday.
The activists came with flags and put two party tents on the pavement near the office of the bank. Some people are stating their position regarding the operation of Russian banks in Ukraine using a loudspeaker.
The windows of the office of the bank are closed with roller blinds. There are some 20 police officers in the area. The situation is currently calm.
Nazar Kravchenko, first deputy head of National Corps, told Interfax that the activists have no plans to wall up the entrance to the building as was done in March. "We want to somewhat change our form of protest. Our main task is to block operations of the office. We currently do not plan to repeat our actions. But our protest is indefinite," Kravchenko said.
RAY BRANCH, Bermuda Run
A real red line
The lack of inaction by President Obama in Syria and Iraq led to 300,000 deaths in Syria, 5 million refugees and the rise of ISIS and terrorism throughout the world. That is Obamas legacy in that region of the world.
President Trumps decisive action will let Syrian leadership know that gassing and murder of innocent people men, women and children is simply unacceptable. I believe that this reflects the feelings of all civilized society. I think that some of the other dictators in the world will tread softly in light of this U.S. action.
The world knew that Obama would not under any circumstances take any action. Surely, North Korea will take notice as will China. U.S. diplomacy will be enhanced as we speak from a position of strength. As an American, I stand firmly behind the action of our president.
******
PHIL RONALD TURNER, Winston-Salem
Trumps concern
President Trump says hes concerned about the Syrian children. Why should I believe him? He lies so often, why should any of us believe a single word he says?
If he cares so much, maybe hell stop trying to block the well-vetted Syrian refugees.
******
DIANA CALAWAY, Winston-Salem
Irony
Ever since a first-grade teacher assigned scouring a newspaper and circling words we recognized, I have been a reader of print journalism, getting most of my news and opinion there. Thus, I am distressed by the Journals announcement that because of competition from electronic media, you are pruning content from your pages.
And ironically, on April 6, the first day op-eds were relegated to your website, two of the cleverest articles in recent weeks appeared there. Garrison Keillors The beauty of adversity opens with a parody of Chaucers Prologue, and Catherine Rampell intelligently compares the Trump administration to the court of Shakespeares King Lear (Trumps court needs a fool).
Recognizing the market forces that are shrinking your pages, I realize that even after eight decades of being print-oriented, I must change with the times. I will now learn to like morning coffee, the Journal, and then Journalnow.com.
Thank you and SAM for keeping me informed about how to compensate for my loss.
******
ROMIE FLYNN, East Bend
Changes
Say it aint so. I want my newspaper back.
******
PETER WILBUR, Winston-Salem
Civil libertarians
Reaction to the repeal of HB2 has indeed been strong, as you reported on April 5 (Divisions remain over HB2 deal, even after NCAA decision). I do, however take exception to the characterization that some opposition came from the far left.
The NAACP and the Human Rights Campaign are groups that advocate for civil and human rights, hardly partisan causes. Framing the debate in this way neglects the fact that the discriminatory HB2 was an extreme piece of legislation to begin with. Calling for its complete repeal is in no way a commensurately extreme position.
Defenders of the compromise repeal have their arguments, but that does not make opponents of it on the left ideologues. It makes them civil libertarians, I label I will wear proudly, since those freedoms are at the core of what it means to be an American.
***
RYAN HOLMES, Clemmons
Historic
April 6 was historic: it was the first time President Trump has ever felt sorry for brown people.
The bombing of Syria and the subsequent reaction from Republicans and pundits reflects perfectly the hypocrisy of the Right. Its funny how when Trump uses tactics similar to those favored by the previous administration, he receives general praise from the Republican Party for his professionalism, but when President Obama did it, he was touted as weak and ineffectual.
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The International Court of Justice will deliver its order on provisional measures in the ongoing litigation between Russia and Ukraine on April 19, the court said in a statement.
The statement was published on the UN court's website on Monday.
As reported, Ukraine filed a lawsuit with the United Nations International Court of Justice on January 16, 2017, to bring the Russian Federation to justice for acts of terrorism and discrimination during its illegal aggression against Ukraine. The suit was filed under the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism of December 9, 1999, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of December 21, 1965.
The Ukrainian side counts on the adoption by the United Nations International Court in The Hague of a decision on the introduction of temporary measures to the Russian Federation before the end of April.
Kyiv requests the following temporary measures: Ukraine asks the court to oblige the Russian Federation to refrain from any actions that may narrow or widen the subject matter of the dispute; to exercise proper control over the Russian-Ukrainian border with a view to stopping the supply of arms; stop and prevent the supply of money or weapons to groups engaged in terrorist attacks; to take all possible measures to influence the groups that it supports in order to prevent the commission of terrorist attacks against civilians; refrain from carrying out any measures of racial or ethnic discrimination in Crimea; to resolve the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people; stop violent abductions of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people; to stop restrictions on education in the Ukrainian language.
[JURIST] The anti-corruption group Global Witness (GW) [advocacy website]
said [press release] Monday that recently leaked emails reveal that Shell [corporate website] knowingly briber Nigerian officials so the company could access a Nigerian offshore oilfield. GW alleges Shell and its Italian business parter Eni paid $1.1 billion to the Nigerian government, knowing that the money would go to former oil Minister Dan Etete for personal use instead of to the Nigerian people. Etete was previously convicted of money laundering. The emails also implicated Nigerian then-president Goodluck Jonathan [BBC profile] in receiving a part of the funds. GW referred to the bribery as one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of the oil sector. Shell has denied [Reuters report] any illegal conduct.
In January a UK court ruled [JURIST report] that Nigerian citizens could not sue Shell in the UK for an oil spill. In December 2015 a Dutch court ruled [JURIST report] that Nigerian citizens could sue in the Netherlands for the spill. In November the same year Amnesty International reported [JURIST report] that Shell had failed to clean the oil spill sites. In November 2014 Amnesty reported [JURIST report] that Shell had made false claims about the impact of a Nigerian oil spill.
The Ukrainian delegation, headed by the President of the Ukrainian CCI, will travel to Korea in the upcoming days to conduct business negotiations. Such companies as SigmaBleyzer Investment Group, AgroGeneration, Grant Thornton, Integrites, Saint Mykola Medical Center, Institute for Global Transformations, Kyiv Investment Agency, and others are among business mission participants. Experts foresee that the Business Forum, which will be held in Seoul on April 11, will substantially strengthen the positions of Ukrainian business in the Asian region. This is already the 4th Ukrainian-Korean Economic Forum organized by the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Ukraine, the Korean Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Korea. "The Master Plan of economic cooperation between Ukraine and Korea" will be presented at the Forum, as well as a line of Ukrainian investment projects. "The goal of the master plan is to create a platform which will facilitate the establishment of contacts between Ukrainian SMEs and Korean investment funds. Today, there is a lack of information for Korean investors about investment projects in Ukraine. The Ukrainian CCI, as the largest business association in Ukraine, is a platform which will inform business on how to effectively interact with this master plan. Korea should become an important market for national products and a source of investments and technologies, necessary for modernization of the economy of Ukraine. It is worth to focus on specific steps which our country could make for bringing relations with Korea to a new level of strategic partnership," said the President of the Ukrainian CCI Gennadiy Chyzhykov. The main task which stands before the Ukrainian delegation is to activate cooperation between Ukraine and Korea in the energy, agriculture, engineering, IT, medicine, infrastructure sectors. The Forum foresees B2B negotiations between business circles of both countries. Over 165 Korean companies (in particular, SK Holdings, Samsung Electronics, Posco Daewoo, LS networks, KIA Motors and others) will take part, as well as Korean government members. The Ukrainian delegation is supported by representatives of an international law firm and two deputy Ministers of Agricultural Policy and Infrastructure. Twenty-nine enterprises with Korean capital operate in Ukraine. The Republic of Korea remains the leading investor into Ukraine's economy among Asian countries with US$171.51 million. At the same time, it accounts for a mere of 0.4% of the total amount of direct foreign investments in the Ukrainian economy. Ukrainian CCI Press Office press@ucci.org.ua; (044) 584 2836
[JURIST] Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi [BBC profile] announced a national state of emergency following two terror attacks on Coptic Christian churches on Sunday. The attacks killed at least 44 people [NPR report] and injured 100 others after suicide bombers in two different cities tried to enter the churches while services were underway. The Islamic State [BBC backgrounder] claimed responsibility for both attacks. In a televised address, President el-Sisi announced [BBC report] his intention to declare a state of emergency for the next three months during which more soldiers will be deployed to protect public buildings, police will be ale to arrest civilians without laying charges, authorities will be able to search homes without warrants, large gatherings will be banned, and there will be tighter censorship. The new measures must be approved by the Egyptian parliament before being implemented.
The threat to Christians in the Middle East has heightened in past years as radical extremists have increasingly targeted attacks on this religious group. In February 2016, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned [JURIST report] the beheading of Coptic Christians in Libya by IS, characterizing the acts as vile crime[s] targeting people on the basis of their religion. The Egyptian Christians were abducted in two separate incidents, and a released video showed members of IS beheading the captives on a beach in Libya. Earlier that month, Egypts state-run National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) [official website] publicly condemned recent violent attacks against the nations Coptic Christians. Islamist extremists are believed to be behind attacks [CNN report] such as the burning of churches and property owned by Christians, along with the displacement of Christian citizens. Coptic Christians comprise roughly 10 percent of the countrys 85 million people and more than 275 people were killed and 2,000 injured in the course of the attacks. These citizens have become a scapegoat for the ousting of Egyptian ex-president Mohamed Morsi [BBC profile], and recent attacks are widely seen as retaliation from Morsi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood [BBC profile].
[JURIST] A Pakistani military court on Monday sentenced Kulbushan Jadhav [The Hindu backgrounder], an Indian naval officer who was detained in Pakistan for the past year, to death. The court handed down [Times of India report] the death sentence after finding Jadhav guilty of espionage and sabotage. The sentence was subsequently approved by Pakistans army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa [official profile]. The Indian government has responded by saying that the execution of Jadhav would amount to the premeditated murder of an Indian national by the Pakistani government. Jadhav was tried under the controversial Pakistan Army Act [text] and Official Secrets Act [text, PDF], which have been criticized for providing very little transparency into military courts.
Pakistans nine military courts were established in January of last year after Taliban militants attacked children in the Peshawar school massacre [BBC archive; JURIST report], killing 134 students and 19 adults. Military power was subsequently expanded, giving military courts jurisdiction to try civilians accused of terrorism despite the countrys civilian government. Critics argue that the new procedures defer too much power to the military. Allegations of torture and judicial abuse were widespread during the reign of previous Pakistani military courts. However, many Pakistanis support the military courts due to the crumbling civilian system. Pakistans use of the death penalty since December 2014 in both the civilian and military courts has faced widespread criticism. When the countrys six-year death penalty moratorium was lifted [JURIST report] that month, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [official profile] said the death penalty would only be applied to terrorism-related cases. However, in March of last year the Pakistan Ministry of Interior lifted the countrys moratorium on the death penalty, permitting hangings for all prisoners [JURIST report] who have exhausted all possible appeals. The UN estimates that several hundred of the 8,000 inmates on Pakistans death row are minors [JURIST report].
[JURIST] Numerous African and international nongovernmental organizations urged [HRW report] Zambia to reaffirm its membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Monday. The calls come in response to the African Unions (AU) [official website] decision to adopt an ICC withdrawal strategy [JURIST report] back in February. Zambia, as a member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) [official website], was a vocal party during the weeks of negotiations which lead to the Rome Statute [text, PDF] and was one of the first nations to sign and later ratify the document. If Zambia is to reaffirm its membership, it would join 14 other African nations who have reaffirmed their membership after the AUs announcement.
The African Union and the ICC have had a tumultuous relationship over the course of the past year. In July an advisory board to the African Union accused ICC of narrowly focusing [JURIST report] its investigations on African government leaders since its inception in 2002. The Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) recommended that AU members should quit the ICC should lawmakers follow through with a proposed amendment allowing the prosecution and arrest of African heads of state. Opponents of the recommendation have voiced concerns that quitting the ICC would increase the risk of human rights violations. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] also stated that giving African leaders immunity would defeat the purpose of the ICCs creation [press release]. Later in February, Gambia announced [JURIST report] that it would remain in the ICC. Also in February a South African court struck down a proposal to leave the ICC resulting in the South African governments decision to cancel [JURIST reports] its withdrawal in March. Following the AUs announcement, many countries, including Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Tunisia have affirmed their membership to the ICC.
[JURIST] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official website] said in a press release [text] on Monday that all transfers of asylum-seekers from other EU states to Hungary should be suspended under the Dublin Regulation [text]. The Dublin Regulation is how the EU determines which state should review an asylum-seekers application. High Commissioner Filippo Grandi [official profile] said
Given the worsening situation of asylum-seekers in Hungary, I urge States to suspend any Dublin transfer of asylum-seekers to this country until the Hungarian authorities bring their practices and policies in line with European and international law.
Some of these policies include detaining asylum-seekers, including children, in shipping containers at the Hungarian border.
The rights of migrant populations have emerged as significant humanitarian issues around the world, including the European Union, as millions seek asylum from conflict nations. In March UN rights experts disapproved [JURIST report] of the EU migrant return procedure. In February Human Rights Watch expressed concern [JURIST report] over a proposed Hungary migration amendment. Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said [JURIST report] in September that Austria will take Hungary to the International Court of Justice if Hungary does not begin accepting returning migrants that crossed into Austria from Hungary.
Ford has launched a claimed industry first pursuit rated hybrid police car as part of a US$4.5bn spend to make electric vehicles.
"Electrifying our next generation of vehicles is core to our unwavering commitment to sustainability," said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president, The Americas. "By being a leader in electrified vehicles, we remain committed to delivering cars, trucks and SUVs that are better not only for our customers, but for the environment and society as well."
The Fusion Hybrid-based police responder hybrid sedan making its debut in Los Angeles and New York is the industry's first pursuit-rated hybrid police car.
Ford claims to sell the most police vehicles in the US, with 63% market share. The company has been partnering with cities on custom law enforcement vehicles since the days of the Model T.
The responder hybrid sedan will help cities decrease emissions and offers the potential for significant fuel savings, both while driving and while idling. While driving, patented hybrid technology is projected to provide EPA-estimated combined gas mileage of 38mpg more than twice that of today's Police Interceptor with 3.7-litre V6 with EPA-estimated 18mpg combined. Final EPA-estimated ratings are not yet available.
While idling, the responder hybrid sedan's lithium-ion battery helps power the high electrical loads of a police vehicle, reducing engine run time and saving an estimated 0.27 gallons of fuel per hour. Customers could see nearly US$3,900 a year in potential fuel savings per vehicle relative to the police interceptor, if a police vehicle is driven 20,000 miles per year, runs two shifts per day, 365 days per year, idles 4.9 hours per eight-hour shift, and is fuelled at an average gas price of $2.50/gallon.
The new vehicle will be the first hybrid sedan with full pursuit capabilities. That means the car is certified by police agencies to be tough enough to handle police pursuits for longer periods at different speeds and over obstacles such as curbs and flooded intersections.
The responder hybrid sedan uses an efficient Atkinson-cycle two-litre engine with an electric motor fed by an advanced lithium-ion battery. The hybrid is calibrated for law enforcement's unique duty cycle and will run in battery-only mode up to 60 mph. The car automatically switches to maximum performance with the engine and battery working at peak acceleration levels when needed.
The responder hybrid sedan can be ordered this spring and will be delivered to police departments nationwide next summer.
Ford also is testing a fleet of 20 Transit Connect hybrid taxi and van prototypes in demanding traffic conditions in New York and several other major US cities.
It also is aggressively expanding its electric vehicle lineup in China. The company just announced that, by 2025, 70% of the vehicles it sells there will be electrified.
In addition, Ford is introducing the Mondeo [outside US version of the Fusion] Energi plug-in hybrid and a new fully electric small SUV with projected EPA-estimated range of at least 300 miles to customers in China.
In January, Ford announced a multimillion-pound project designed to help improve air quality in London. It is providing 20 Transit Custom plug-in hybrid vehicles to a range of fleets to explore how these commercial vans can contribute to cleaner air targets, while boosting operator productivity in urban conditions. The project is supported financially by the UK government funded Advanced Propulsion Centre.
Ford is working on a suite of services to make electric vehicles even easier to own.
"Innovative services can be as important to customers as the electric vehicles themselves," said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford group vice president, purchasing, and the company's electrification champion. "We are investing in solutions to help private customers as well as commercial fleet owners seamlessly incorporate these new vehicles and technologies into their lives."
Ford has a memorandum of understanding with several automakers in Europe to create an ultrafast charging network projected to be significantly faster than the most powerful charging system deployed today. An initial target of about 400 sites in Europe is planned. By 2020, consumers should have access to thousands of high-powered charging points.
Ford also is piloting wireless technology on company electric cars in the United States and Europe to make recharging as easy as pulling into a parking spot, so drivers never forget to recharge. Wireless recharging extends electric-only range for short-distance commuters, even during quick stops. FordPass also can help consumers find charging stations.
In addition, Ford plans:
Another new hybrid police vehicle for North America
New fully electric small SUV, coming by 2020, engineered to deliver an EPA-estimated range of at least 300 miles, to be sold in North America, Europe and Asia.
Hybrid-powered self-driving vehicle designed for commercial mobility services, starting in North America in 2021
Hybrid version of best-selling F-150 pickup, available by 2020, and sold in North America and the Middle East. F-150 Hybrid will offer powerful towing and payload capacity, and will operate as a mobile generator tough enough to power a job site
Hybrid version of iconic Mustang that will deliver V8 power and even more low-end torque. Mustang Hybrid debuts in 2020 in North America, to start
Transit Custom plug-in hybrid available in 2019 in Europe, engineered to help reduce operating costs in even the most congested streets
As growing urban populations are overwhelming transportation systems and compromising air quality, first-time car buyers including 50% of US millennials say they are interested in purchasing an electric car, according to a poll conducted by the Consumer Federation of America.
Ford claims to be at the forefront of driving electric vehicle technology and improving costs on batteries and motors for hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles. As the company focuses on vehicles that deliver improved performance, it expects sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles to dramatically increase during the next decade.
It predicts the auto industry will offer customers more hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles than petrol-powered vehicles within the next 15 years.
Syria Gas Attack Draws UN, Humanitarian Programs Pledges; US Congressman Says US Intervention May Make Situation Worse
Syria, the country that has been under a distressing attack since 2011 has caught the attention of forty-one donors, who recently pledged a combined $6 billion for critical humanitarian programs in 2017. This also includes another $3.7 billion for 2018 during a UN-supported conference in the Belgian capital, Brussels.
UN Calls For Increased Support For Syria And Other War-Stricken Countries
Syria, including other war-stricken countries, drew the attention of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, given the condition of the people suffering due to the conflict. According to reports, the UN Sec. General called for an increased support for these countries, especially Syria and the millions of people who are seeking refuge beyond the borders as well as for the communities hosting them.
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The need for the protection of the people in Syria has never been greater, according to UN Sec. Gen. Guterres. He also added, during the opening session of the Brussels Conference that the UN agencies and its partners are committed to reaching everyone in need through every possible way. Meantime, the pledges made are going to support the protection, resilience-building and humanitarian relief for people in need, including the war-torn country's neighbors that carry the burden from the spillover impact of the crisis, UN.Org reported.
Syria's President Assad Is Not Behind The Attack, According To US Congressman
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is not convinced that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is behind the Tuesday's chemical attack that killed dozens of people, including 11 children. According to Rep. Massie, US intervention may even make the situation worse.
On Tuesday, dozens were killed and over 200 people sustained injuries in a suspected chemical weapon attack in the northern part of Syria. Reports indicate that some US officials and activist groups have linked the tragedy to Pres. Assad and his regime, with US Pres. Donald Trump also citing the Syrian leader's administration, CNN reported. More about Fresh funding pledges for Syrian refugees expected at Brussels conference here:
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Mexico-based bakery giant Grupo Bimbo has appointed Diego Gaxiola as the companys new CFO after Guillermo Quiroz decided to retire.
Gaxiola will join Bimbo in June, moving from Mexican foodservice business Alsea.
Quiroz, who formally steps down on 1 August, has worked for Bimbo for 18 years.
Guillermos dedication, professionalism and commitment have been vital to Grupo Bimbos growth and consolidation strategy within the industry, Bimbo chairman and CEO Daniel Servitje said.
In February, Bimbo booked higher annual profits in 2016, helped by an improvement in sales and lower raw material costs. However, Bimbo reported pressure on underlying sales in North America, where its business benefited from the fall in the value of the Mexican peso.
The company has announced two acquisitions so far in 2017, snapping up Colombian frozen bakery products supplier Panattiere and Canada-based Stonemill Bakehouse.
Last week,Bimbo locked out a number of workers at two sites in Canada following the breakdown of two sets of talks with unions over terms and conditions.
Dallas, TX, USA, 04/10/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/
A Maryland man was recently indicted by a Texas grand jury for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon because of a tweet he sent over Twitter. The indictment alleges that the tweet was a deadly weapon. Most people think of a gun or a knife as a deadly weapon. So, how could a tweet be one, asks John Helms Dallas defense attorney?
In this case, the Maryland man tweeted a GIF file, which is one that displays a brief animation. The particular GIF file was one that displays flashing lights that are known to cause some people with epilepsy to have seizures. The person to whom he sent it is a prominent national columnist who has written about attempts by people to send him GIF files that could cause him to have a seizure. The columnist is also a critic of President Trump, and when the defendant sent the columnist the tweet, he allegedly indicated that he thought the columnist deserved a seizure for what he had written about Mr. Trump. Allegedly, the columnist did, in fact, have a seizure.
Does this mean that a tweet can be a deadly weapon? Section 1.07(a)(17) of the Texas Penal Code defines deadly weapon as:
(A) a firearm or anything manifestly designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury; or
(B) anything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.
The key here is the phrase, in the manner of its useis capable of causing death or serious bodily injury. Normally, we would not think of a tweet of a GIF file as something that is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury. If this particular type of file was sent, however, to cause someone who is known to be vulnerable to seizures to have one, then we are not talking about an ordinary tweet of an ordinary GIF file. If a seizure is or can result in serious bodily injury, then the tweet of the GIF may actually be a deadly weapon. It may be up to medical experts to persuade a judge or jury one way or the other on this issue.
Although this is a very unique case, it is not unusual that Texas law defines something we may not consider inherently dangerous to be a deadly weapon. For example, Texas prosecutors routinely charge that cars and fists are deadly weapons, because they are capable of causing death or serious bodily injury if they are used in that way. There are Texas cases that back up these theories.
Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is a serious crime. In addition to whether the weapon is really deadly, there can be issues like self-defense and whether the accused is the one who actually committed the assault. Sometimes, people are charged with being an accessory to the assault even if someone else actually did the assaulting. Someone who merely assists the actual attacker in some way can be just as guilty under what Texas calls the law of parties.
If you or a loved one is accused of a crime of violence like aggravated assault, it is important to get the best legal representation you can. A really good defense lawyer will look for any credible defense that might work. Even if there is not a good defense for whether the accused committed the crime, a good lawyer can often present a compelling case that the punishment should be less than what the prosecutor originally thinks.
If you, a family member or someone you know has been charged with assault or any other crime in the Dallas area, contact Dallas defense attorney John Helms at (214) 666-8010 or fill out the online contact form. You can discuss your case, how the law may apply and your best legal options to protect your rights and freedom.
source: http://johnhelms.attorney/dallas-defense-attorney-explains-tweet-deadly-weapon-texas/
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Meeting with Trump set positive tone for two nations, foreign minister says
Talks between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last week have set a constructive tone for relations between the world's two largest economies, according to Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Analysts said Sino-US relations are expected to make progress while maintaining stability as the two countries have a wide range of common interests.
During the talks, the first face-to-face communications between Xi and Trump, the two presidents reached consensuses after spending a total of more than seven hours in deep discussion in several sessions, Wang said.
The talks took place against the backdrop of mounting uncertainties, given tensions that have been rising in trade, maritime issues and the Korean Peninsula.
Both sides agreed that the meeting, which has drawn worldwide attention, "was positive and fruitful," Wang said, adding that the meeting has set a constructive tone for the development of China-US relations, and helped set the direction for collective endeavors.
The two presidents shared their state governance thoughts and domestic and foreign policy agendas, and the meeting increased mutual understanding and built good working relations, according to Wang.
Xi invited Trump to make a state visit to China this year, and the US president accepted. Wang said they also agreed to remain in close contact through meetings, phone calls and written communications.
The two leaders charted the course and established principles for their relationship. Xi said cooperation is the only right choice for China and the United States, while Trump said the US stands ready to work with China to eliminate factors and issues that stand in the way of their relations.
China and the US agreed to facilitate the healthy development of two-way trade and investment, to advance negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty and to promote pragmatic cooperation in infrastructure and other areas, Wang said.
Both sides plan to make good use of the joint staff dialogue set up to boost military communications, he said, adding that both countries intend to deepen cooperation in law enforcement and cybersecurity, and to boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
The two sides also initiated a comprehensive economic dialogue and a diplomatic and security dialogue, which make up two elements of the four-pronged dialogue structure they established. The other two are a law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue and a social and cultural issues dialogue.
The two leaders exchanged their opinions on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and other regional and global issues. Both sides agreed to expand cooperation at multiple levels in order to make contributions to world peace, stability and prosperity, according to Wang.
The meeting of the two leaders has achieved the expected goals of enhancing understanding, building mutual trust and highlighting consensuses, Wang said.
Su Ge, head of the China Institute of International Studies, a leading think tank in China, said that the meeting has not only facilitated the smooth transition of China-US ties, but also marks a good start for the progressive development of their relations in the new era.
For large nations like China and the US, disagreements are natural, and the key is how to handle them, he said, adding that the two countries should uphold the principle of nonconflict, nonconfrontation, mutual respect, and cooperation for win-win results.
Su Xiaohui, a researcher on international strategy at the China Institute of International Studies, said that the meeting has provided important opportunities for the two leaders to understand each other and gather points of consensus.
The talks are of great significance because they are helpful in stabilizing the two nations' relationship, avoiding misjudgments and decreasing uncertainties, she said.
BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The convoy fleet sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy rescued a Tuvaluan ship hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday local time.
The navy said in a statement that its 25th convoy fleet, which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somali at the time, received report of the hijack of the ship OS35 at around 5 p.m. Saturday. The fleet's vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately.
After some reconnaissance and having contacted with the ship's crew, rescue operation started early Sunday morning.
A group of 16 members from the navy's special force boarded OS35 and rescued the 19 crew members.
The statement said all the 19 crew members were under the protection of the Chinese navy, and soldiers carried out a thorough search of the ship to clear possible security threat.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
If a child asks you why it is important to wash your hands, do you have an instant answer? It's a no brainer that you'll say- handwashing is very important to avoid sickness. But to a little one, there's more to explain other than the diseases caused by not washing your hands properly. The curious minds need to be satisfied in order for them to understand the basics- the why, when, what, and how of hand washing.
Safeguard Philippines brought us to Singapore to know the answers to those questions. They let us visit their innovation center to discover the science behind germs. We became mommy microbiologist and the kids were the little detectives for a day to investigate if our hands are really clean. My little detective, Kenzo joined other kids in Safeguard Science Discovery Tour and learned so many things about cleanliness and Safeguard. Learn more about bacteria and how Safeguard provides superior skin germ protection for the whole family after the jump!
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
It was a busy day last March 21, 2017, for the Safeguard Philippine team at P & G Innovation Centre Singapore. Our agenda that day was to see in our naked eyes the germs inside our house and how Safeguard values the importance of handwashing and our family's health by having clean hands all the time.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Media, bloggers, kids, and PAMET Representatives with the Safeguard Philippines and Singapore Marketing Managers.
We were warmly welcomed by Safeguard Singapore team led by Alex Vogler and gave us a brief walkthrough Safeguard's history and why after all these 50 long years they still value our family's protection against germs.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
A warm welcome by Alex Vogler, P & G Beauty Digital Communications APAC
After the briefing, the eggzoited me saw our personalized lab gowns and goggles. I have a thing for personalized stuff that's why seeing these lab gowns made me more excited. I felt that I'm a real scientist that day. Learning about germs- busting the myths and revealing the truths will be more meaningful while wearing this so let's get started :)
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour
Personalized lab gowns for moi and my son Kenzo
The Simulation Room Weeks ago,brought us to Singapore to know the answers to those questions. They let us visit their innovation center to discover the science behind germs. We became mommy microbiologist and the kids were the little detectives for a day to investigate if our hands are really clean. My little detective, Kenzo joined other kids inand learned so many things about cleanliness and. Learn more about bacteria and howprovides superior skin germ protection for the whole family after the jump!We were warmly welcomed byteam led by Alex Vogler and gave us a brief walkthroughhistory and why after all these 50 long years they still value our family's protection against germs.After the briefing, the eggzoited me saw our personalized lab gowns and goggles. I have a thing for personalized stuff that's why seeing these lab gowns made me more excited. I felt that I'm a real scientist that day. Learning about germs- busting the myths and revealing the truths will be more meaningful while wearing this so let's get started :)
Let's find out WHAT lies in every corner of our house, shall we? The team was brought inside the simulation room where we had a little game. Ms. Luella Vertucio explained to us that germs are everywhere. We can't see them in our naked eyes but we are actually touching and holding them every day, yikes!
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Test number 1 was determining the number of germs on a mobile phone. Dr. Vertucio took a swab and tested it in the germ meter. Can you guess how many? There were 711 multiplied by thousands. I presume that you have an idea where the germs lurk in our house. Those spots are in the toilet, door handles, on the floor, in our bags, and in the kitchen.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Ms. Luella Vertucio swabbing one of our mobile phones.
Test number 2 was to look for germs under UV lights. In order to see the germs, the kid detectives were tasked to look in the room with lights turned off. The kid detectives were very eager to look for germs and look where they've found it- in the remote control which they hold almost every day.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
The kid detectives found germs in the remote control, toys, kitchen sink, and toilet bowl
Did you know that wherever you go, bacteria abounds? Many of these bacteria are able to cause diseases such as diarrhea, colds, cough, skin infections, and the like. Worse, these bacteria are increasingly harder, dirtier, and can multiply faster than expected, therefore putting you and your family members at risk.
The Microbiology Room
Inside the different rooms, mommy bloggers discovered and learned more about germs and bacteria. Before the trip, PAMET representatives visited our house and took swabs of Kenzo's mobile phone to test what kind of bacteria lurks in the gadget. The swabs were bought inside the room and studied by the microbiologist. Look what they've found- staphylococcus, Enterococcus Faecalis, and Kukoria to name a few. This disease causes Pneumonia, Meningitis, and UTI.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
These were the bacteria found in our houses.
Consider these troubling facts about bacteria: The number of bacteria that live in and on us outnumber our own human cells by ten to one.
Common cold, flu, and stomach viruses can live on our fingertips for hours and they survive on the surfaces of objects for days.
80% of all infections, from the common cold and flu to Ebola fever, are transmitted by people touching one another or touching objects that others have touched.
One study of classrooms found that water fountain buttons, pencil sharpeners, keyboards, and faucet handles were the most contaminated with viruses.
Phones have been found to have up to 4200 bacteria from fecal contamination. Safe drinking water should have less than 1 bacteria per 100ml.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Mr. Ronaldo Puno, President of PAMET, speaking about the kinds of germs found in the homes of bloggers. At the same time,
Angelica Caranza, Microbiology Section Head of the P&G Singapore Innovation Center talks about different types of germs and the diseases and infections they can cause
Here, Angelica Caranza revealed the names of the bacteria and the diseases they carry. The photo you see below with black and red marks on the petri dish is a hand of an individual after holding a raw chicken, yes those are salmonella! After washing the hands with Safeguard, you can see the second dish is almost clean.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Handling raw chicken? You have to see this!!!
11 Petri dishes hold samples of synthetic skin not treated with any soap or treated with beauty soaps from the Philippines. These Petri dishes show Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Escherichia coli growth. In the midst of the 11 Petri dishes is one that clearly stands out. This petri dish holds the synthetic skin treated with Safeguard that has inhibited germ growth.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
The reveal of the single, clean, white hand
The Safeguard Testing Room
This is the room where Safeguard soap is tested. During our tour, they showed us how Safeguard soap is made but in a shortcut or simplified process. They showed us the ingredients used in making the Safeguard white soap. Basically, soap noodles, tapioca starch, fragrance, and germ shield protect complex are the ingredients of the white variant soap.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Safeguard Laboratory
These ingredients will be mixed in machines that we cannot disclose. After mixing the soap ingredients, it will be formed like a clay bar and will be cut in rectangle shape. For the tour, they made the soaps special because they allow us to make our own Safeguard White soap :)
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Simplified Safeguard White Soap production
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Stamping my mini Safeguard White Soap
Can you spot my reaction?! I can't explain the feeling of making my own soap. Of course, everything went super easy that day. They also gave us a sample on the Safeguard White variant minis with our names printed on the box.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Safeguard White Soap minis
Now that you saw the simplified way of making Safeguard soap, let me share with you why Safeguard is the trusted brand for more than 50 years for your family's skin germ protection. A unique ingredient called GermShield+ Difference is present in all variants of Safeguard. GermShield+ refers to the active ingredient that makes Safeguard with GermShield+ uniquely effective at inhibiting the growth of disease-causing germs on your loved ones long after hand washing.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
These personalized boxes that I'll be keeping forever!
Do I look like a microbiologist wearing this lab gown? Yay! This tour is one for the books! No, I'm not done yet. Our little detectives had an experiment also where they tested how gentle Safeguard body wash for sensitive skin.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
The Experiment Room
In this simple experiment, Safeguard will be used versus another brand of body wash. A rose petal was the subject, it's the representation of our skin.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Safeguard Body Wash experiment
The steps include soaking of petals in two Petri dishes with Safeguard and unbranded body wash. Let them soak for a few seconds. We discovered that Safeguard Body Wash is suitable for sensitive skin. It does not dry out the petals, unlike the unbranded one.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Let's do this!!!
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Using a rose petal
We also tried the experiment using a soft water ball. The ball that was soaked in Safeguard Body Wash remained clear while the other became opaque in color. This means that Safeguard Body Wash leaves skin squeaky clean and protected after every use.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Using a plastic crystal ball
It is important to keep our hand clean to avoid spreading germs and getting sick. Protection from germ threats begins with proper handwashing and bathing using an effective antibacterial soap like Safeguard. Safeguard with Germshield+ provides superior germ protection against three types of germs and can provide long-lasting protection.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
As a pledge of spreading the importance of handwashing, we made a handprint and brought home these frames as a remembrance that we will cherish forever.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Our handprints
Safeguard with Germshield+ technology can fight a broad spectrum of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and fungi, preventing more types of sickness, malodour, and skin infection. Moreover, Germshield+ technology inhibits the regrowth of these bacteria and fungi up to 24 hours, thereby providing optimal protection.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
L-R: Ginger and Zeeka Arboleda, Shari and Selene Macainag, Jackie and Gabbie Go, Nikka and Michelle Garcia, Kath and Kenzo Rivera, Lace Llanora and Ash Coladilla, Rochelle and Elijah Rivera, Cat Arambulo- Antonio and Asher Antonio
For over 50 years in the Philippines, Safeguard has been recommended by the leading health experts for germ protection for the entire family. Staying true to its commitment to protecting the health of the family, Safeguard continues to invest in research and development and follow rigorous prototyping, testing, and manufacturing processes to provide the best soap that addresses every familys personal care and cleansing needs.
Safeguard Science Discovery Tour Singapore
Protect your family from germs and diseases by encouraging proper hygiene, frequent handwashing, and the use of Safeguard. As a mother, I only want what's best for my family. This may sound cliche, but moms know best especially in protecting her loved ones. We're a long-time used of Safeguard soap- my husband uses Safeguard since time immemorial, you'll find Safeguard White soap and Safeguard Hand Wash in our kitchen and in the bathroom. Trust only in Safeguard and I'm sure that your family will always be protected from germs.
I'll be sharing more photos and videos on my Facebook and Youtube Pages :)
On my next post, I'll be musing more about Safeguard and the variants available.
Have you tried any Safeguard soap variant? Try them now!!!
#Safeguard #SafeguardFamily #TrustOnlyInSafeguard #SafeguardScienceDiscoveryTour
Good Times!~
What drives Steve Bannon, Vladislav Surkov and Dominic Cummings?
Ive seen several headlines comparing Steve Bannon, Trumps Chief Strategist, to the Mad Monk Rasputin, given the coincidence of their seemingly hypnotic influence over the countrys most powerful man and their apparent commitment to arcane forms of Evil. Rasputin also has a counterpart in contemporary Russian politics, in the form of Vladislav Surkov, Putins grey cardinal, a figure who, according to the Atlantic, has directed Russian society like one great reality show, often using bizarre means of discrediting anyone who stands up to the Government. A meeting between Bannon and Surkov would put Malcolm Tucker and Jamie from The Thick of It in the shade.
Although Tony Blairs Press Secretary Alistair Campbell was the model for Tucker, his bullying and lying could hardly be called psychopathic, and he seems to have been driven by loyalty and career progression rather than destructive zeal even as his dishonesty and cynicism destroyed the Middle East. The same could not be said for someone who, although he is no longer on the scene, has also had a decisive influence on world events: Dominic Cummings, former adviser to the failed Geek Emperor Michael Gove and, as head of the pro-Brexit camp in the Referendum, originator of the slogan Take Back Control.
Cummings has been described by David Cameron as a career psychopath and by Rachel Johnson, sister of Boris, in similar terms. I urge you to read in full Pat Kanes assessment, in which he calls Cummings an intellectually committed chaos-merchant and reports on his mission to subject all aspects of human behaviour (health, education, all public services) to the capricious and/or sadistic whims of the market. This may not suit everyone, but Cummings believes most of us to be a waste of education, as cognitive ability is primarily related to genes. This throwback to early 20th Century ideologies is currently off-stage, back to writing deranged screeds on his personal website, but the ideas he promotes are clearly of influence on a Government which has no better idea than rip-it-up-and-start-again.
Bannon, Surkov and Cummings may have different visions of a perfect society, but they share a commitment to elite rule and an idea of how to aggressively pursue it.
Figures like Bannon, Surkov and Cummings may have different visions of a perfect society, but they share a commitment to elite rule and an idea of how to aggressively pursue it: by creating chaos, using what Rebecca Solnit (in one of the best assessments Ive yet encountered of why Trump won) describes as gaslighting to destabilise accepted values and undermine trust in established institutions. I found out about Surkov through Adam Curtis (a very skilled propagandist in this own right), who in his film Hypernormalisation (2016) says that Surkov has turned Russian politics into a bewildering, constantly changing piece of theater (creating) a constant state of destabilized perception, in order to manage and control.
Then theres the question of which ideology they adhere to. Bannon recently claimed to have once been a Leninist but has very clear fascist and possibly Nazi sympathies. Surkovs inspiration apparently comes from contemporary art, and both he and Bannon have been associated with the fascist Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who believes Russia should provoke an all-out world war. As for Cummings, despite his intellectual posturings, he may be stupid enough to be a fan of that ultimate Godhead of failed teenage bullies with megalomaniac pretensions, Ayn Medicare Rand. He is an extreme Neoliberal and a reminder that the origins of Neoliberal thought lay partly in nazi belief in the purity and goodness of elite power.
Another common comparison for Bannon has been Joseph Goebbels. The Nazi propaganda leader was notoriously interested in and inspired by mystical beliefs and occult rituals. The Trump phenomenon has partly been explained in terms of a hypnotic effect, not least by (stranger and stranger) Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams. The (mock?) science of Neurolinguistic Programming may partly explain why, according to several reports, people went into Trumps rallies curious and came out fuming. Conspiracy theorists find consolation in the belief that all world events, from Brexit to Trump to the war in Syria, are controlled by the CIA; its comforting to think that someones there behind the scenes watching and learning and will step in when things get out of hand.
One thing people like Surkov do is to learn from recent developments in marketing and apply them directly to politics. Whats happening politically in the UK, the US and elsewhere is by no means detached from whats going on in the economy. We are subject to massive and increasing manipulation in the form of disruptive technologies, such as Airbnb and Uber, many of whose creators believe that disrupting settled industries and tearing up patterns of social behaviour is an end which justifies all means.
That ultimate agent of chaos Donald Trump certainly has a way with a crowd, but hes also stupid and helpless when it comes to understanding world events. He seems to accept the simplest and most misleading of explanations of TV commentators. He appears to have no-one to trust and doesnt seem to have any idea what hes doing beyond acting out his most sadistic impulses. It may be that he thinks Steve Bannon is his only friend. Bannon certainly appears to know how to manipulate his charge. The plot of this contemporary dystopian parable is starting to resemble Frankenstein, but in this version the Doctor doesnt care about the consequences of what hes created, and instead is urging the monster out of the castle to attack the village and take over the world.
Rasputins contemporary counterparts may look and feel like protagonists making their own rules but in reality they are obeying deeper and darker forces which may well destroy them.
Rasputin, of course, ended up being shot dead and thrown into a river, partly undone by his own drunken boasting. As for his contemporary counterparts, they may look and feel like protagonists making their own rules but in reality they are obeying deeper and darker forces which may well destroy them. All of them appear to be deeply narcissistic and probably enjoy being talked and written about, even though its public knowledge that Bannon is a wife-beating drunk, Surkov a failed novelist and pictures of Cummings show him posing like a pitiful pastiche of the Bullingdon crew. Maybe he was the one who cleaned up after their parties. Ultimately the three ideological psychopaths Ive talked about here are not masters, but servants of (to quote Thomas Pynchon in V) a much more ominous logic.
For the full version of the article go to Richards blog. Republished with the authors permission.
On April 4-6, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Finland. The country has been dubbed a kingdom of thousands lakes. The host country dispatched two fighters to escort Xi's plane after it entered Finland's airspace.
During the visit, Chinese President Xi held talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto and met Prime Minister Juha Sipila and Speaker Maria Lohela.
In a joint declaration, China and Finland confirmed the establishment of a future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership, drawing a blueprint for and charting the course of the development of bilateral relations.
Xi's visit was the first state visit by a Chinese head of state to the Nordic country in 22 years. His trip marks a new milestone in the history of China-Finland ties. It is expected to enhance political mutual trust and the level of bilateral relations, strengthen strategic docking for bilateral economic development, and to deepen pragmatic cooperation in such areas as innovation, winter sports, the Belt and Road Initiative and giant panda research.
Xi's trip has consolidated the Sino-Finnish friendship. China, homeland to the giant panda and Finland, homeland to Santa Claus ushers in a historic handshake.
Moreover, Xi's Finland trip is expected to inject a new impetus to China's cooperation with the Nordic sub-region and promote the upgrade of China-EU overall relations.
The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com
(By Zhang Maorong, researcher with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations; cartoon drawing by Liao Tingting)
Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his visit to the US and his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Florida early Saturday morning (Beijing time). Although more detailed coverage of the very first meeting between the two world leaders has yet to surface at the time of this writing, major news organizations have published comments made by President Trump during Xi's visit. The US President was quoted as saying that "tremendous progress" has been made, and declaring this progress as "truly" and America's relationship with China as "outstanding."
It is reported that President Xi said at the meeting that "we have a thousand reasons to get the China-US relations right, and not one reason to spoil it." The Chinese leader went on to emphasize that cooperation is the only right choice for the two countries, and that China and the US have the capability of becoming great cooperative partners. President Xi invited President Trump for a state visit in China later this year. President Trump accepted and announced he was already looking forward to the visit.
President Xi also underlined the role of four newly established high-level mechanisms designed to help pave the way for a clearer flow of dialogue and cooperation between the two countries. The new mechanism in place will focus on areas of diplomacy and security, economy, law enforcement and cyber security, as well as social and people-to-people exchanges.
The Xi-Trump meeting in Florida has served as an indicator that the China-US relationship is still very much on course since the Trump administration took office in January. The US political system causes the two nations to adapt to leadership transitions periodically, once every four or eight years. Although the early days of the Trump administration transition was regarded with great uncertainty, it seems that both countries have understood the importance of how essential a smooth transition needs to be, and not just for the two countries involved here, but really for the entire world over.
The political and cultural differences between China and the US are patently obvious at a mere glance. Certainly the two countries have different styles when it comes to expressing the importance of the China-US relationship. Before the Florida summit meeting, the US tended to focus on political and economic differences while expressing concerns, while China emphasized steadiness and mutual interest. Despite the differences, the two powers expressed their respect for each other during the summit meeting. There is little doubt that the China-US relationship will remain stable on big issues despite whatever minor disputes may arise. A relationship model of this kind is unprecedented on the world stage.
The political ideologies between the two countries will, at one level or another, remain entangled. The bilateral relationship currently in place, fueled by both countries' dominance and cultural energy, is one that involves getting to know each other and then getting along with one other. A win-win scenario is indeed the only choice for both countries.
The Trump administration is not all that concerned with ideological issues, which makes it likely the two countries will develop a more pragmatic relationship. Both China and the US have increasingly believed in the pragmatic approach when it comes to solving issues that arise within their bilateral relationship. Both sides have emphasized the importance of communication in order to arrive at a solution. In cases when a solution cannot be reached, they will next try to minimize residual harm that the issue at hand could potentially bring to the overall China-US relationship. It is specifically this pragmatic approach that has now signified a new level of progress among powerful nations intent on maintaining relationships.
Although more detailed achievements regarding the Xi-Trump meeting will be made public, some specific achievements will not necessarily be remembered over the course of time. History will certainly value the approach of the world's top two economies in how they dealt with each other's issues. As all of this plays out on the world stage, time will only tell as to whether or not the two powers will be able to envision a long-term competitive and yet peaceful relationship. Human civilization can only benefit from the pragmatic efforts of both sides as it now embarks upon a new era.
The immediate effect of the two-day summit has experienced an influx of tremendous dynamism into the complicated China-US relationship. The world's anxieties over uncertainties can now find a level of solace through optimistic expectations. This transition is a masterpiece of erudite political wisdom. Mutual communication is increasing at a faster pace rather than the fomenting of some divulgences that can stymy the strongest of relationships. This is a fortunate time for all of humanity, something more beyond the China-US dynamic.
ARAPAHOE Kristi Wendland had her one-year anniversary of owning Arapahoe Floral March 10, but she was too busy to celebrate.
I wanted to have a big one-year bash, thank the community for supporting me, Wendland said.
From prom to holidays to weddings and funerals, business has been booming at the floral shop in Arapahoe.
Wendland had worked at the floral shop for several years before the previous owner, Glenda Schutz, decided to sell the store. Wendland had experience as a business owner from her years owning a beauty shop, but she didnt immediately consider buying Arapahoe Floral until members of the community encouraged her to do so.
I started thinking, Well, maybe I could do it, Wendland said.
Wendland brought the idea to her husband, Marlin, and they began the process of purchasing the business.
We just decided to take the gamble, and its worked. The first few months I was scared to death. Im still really scared, but its just going really well, Wendland said.
With a fresh coat of paint on the interior and the exterior of the building, Wendland has made small touches to make the business her own.
Ive just tried to change a lot of the inventory. Ive just kind of modernized it a little bit, put some new things in, Wendland said.
While she was growing up in Arapahoe, the local greenhouse was right behind Wendlands home. Her time spent there helped her develop a green thumb.
When I was young, I used to always go over there, and I loved the plants and the flowers that were in there. Ive just always loved flowers and plants, she said.
Lots of practice, reading books and watching videos on YouTube has helped Wendland develop her skills arranging bouquets.
You just kind of get your hands in it and play. Its just kind of fun, she said.
With one full-time and one part-time employee, Wendland and her crew stay busy serving Arapahoe as well as many of the small towns and schools surrounding the community. The support Wendland has received from the community and her customers is what makes her business so successful, she said.
Arapahoe has supported my family and I. Its just been amazing. The support has been overwhelming in this town, she said. People do shop local, and everybody knows that if you dont support local in your small town that small towns are going to start to dwindle.
Along with the floral options the store provides, Wendland also offers home decor, gift options and tux rentals. This year, the shop had 27 tux rentals and 40 sets of flowers for prom. The store is prepping for Mothers Day, Wendlands favorite time of year at Arapahoe Floral.
Theres such a wide variety. We sell indoor plants. We sell outdoor plants. We sell hanging plants, fresh flowers. Theres just a wide variety for Mothers Day. Youve got mothers, youve got grandmothers, things going to nursing homes. So you get to really use your imagination, she said.
Wendland put her imagination to work recently when a family requested her to create a floral arrangement to place around a saddle for their grandfathers funeral.
We designed the piece for that saddle. That was interesting, and it was fun, and at the end of the day, I looked at it and I just went, Wow, this is fun, she said.
Wendland may have a lot on her plate at Arapahoe Floral, but she is still hoping to throw that one-year bash to thank her customers for their support.
Im a real firm believer in you just have to say thank you to people, she said. I just believe that if you appreciate them, they are going to appreciate you.
KEARNEY Jury selection began this morning for the trial of a Kearney man accused of attacking a man and robbing him of his handgun last fall in Kearney.
Aaron J. Gable, 29, is charged in Buffalo County District Court with first-degree assault in the Oct. 10 incident. He was originally charged with felony robbery and second-degree assault. The charges were later amended to first-degree assault.
Court records say on Oct. 10, Kearney police were dispatched to check the welfare of a man in the 3100 block of Grand Avenue. The man had been assaulted, and a handgun was taken from him.
The man had gone to the hospital with a brain bleed and had fractures above his right ear and right sinus.
The alleged victim told police that about 2 a.m. Oct. 10 he was walking east in the 2100 block of East 32nd Street when he was confronted by a black man who accused him of trespassing and stealing property. The alleged victim tried to walk away from the incident and was struck by the man and knocked to the ground unconscious. When he came to, the alleged victim said, he had been loaded into a second mans car and given a ride home.
Records say Gable was later identified as the suspect.
At the time of the attack, the alleged victim was carrying a 9mm Glock handgun in a holster tied on his belt. When the second man dropped the alleged victim off at his home, the weapon was missing.
Gable has denied the allegations.
If convicted, and if he isnt placed on probation, Gable faces up to 20 years in prison.
KEARNEY A love for family history, and a desire to share that love, makes Elaine Batenhorst one of the Buffalo County Historical Societys biggest assets.
A member of the historical society for 15 years, Batenhorst, a self-taught genealogist, helps promote the society and teach people the importance of preserving their own family history.
Once you start in genealogy youre hooked forever, she said, recalling her fathers excitement when she started working on his family history.
For her love of genealogy and her work at the historical society, Batenhorst has received the Hubs Freedom Award in the Education category.
Batenhorst, 75, started her first genealogy project in college while she was working on her education degree. In 1969, when she was home with her first child, she started doing more research and later that year helped start the Fort Kearny Genealogy Society. She served as its president the first five years.
Later, Batenhorst would become the secretary of the state Genealogy Society.
Batenhorsts research took a back seat for nearly 30 years while she taught education at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. When she retired in 2010, Batenhorst returned to genealogy and teaching classes to the public.
Theres a passion there, she said.
Although she has been a volunteer at the historical society for only four years, Batenhorst has been a member for 15 years.
In her nomination letter, Buffalo County Historical Society Executive Director Jennifer Murrish said Batenhorst created a class on Buffalo County history for the Senior College and teaches the class and taught the class in the church at Trails and Rails Museum in Kearney. She represents the historical society at the Kearney Public Library monthly helping people with genealogy questions, and is constantly recruiting volunteers to help in the archives and the public with their research.
In the winter when shes spending time with family in Florida, she continues to work on historical society projects.
Elaine has a smile on her face and is always willing to listen and help the guests that request Buffalo County information, whether it is via phone, in person, email or with snail mail, Murrish said.
Last summer, she started the Lending Library at the museum, which lends books for free to people of all ages. Because many of the guests are from out of town or out of state, all the museum asks is that users continue to pass the book on.
Because we have so many people traveling through, they arent apt to bring it back. We just ask that they pass it along to somebody else, Batenhorst said. I just thought it was a neat idea.
For her efforts, in 2015, Batenhorst won the historical societys volunteer of the year award.
For that award, and the Freedom Award, Batenhorst is humbled.
Im just very honored. Everyone that works out here (Trails and Rails Museum) does it very diligently, she said.
@HubChic
Devin Nunes seemed to confuse his task as House Intelligence Committee chairman with his political allegiance to President Donald Trump. Nunes appeared to be keeping Trump and his aides closely informed about the committees work on a probe of Russian intelligence operations and alleged attempts to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, something the California congressman rationalized as appropriate in his role.
He was wrong. And his behavior apparently became even a little problematic for House Speaker Paul Ryan, who surely must have influenced Nunes decision to step aside from leading the probe. Nunes also was hurt by the stellar, serious focus of the ranking Democrat on the committee, Adam Shiff, also of California.
The serious problems on the House committee prompt even more interest in a corresponding probe by the Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, a staunch supporter of President Trump. Burr has of late emphasized his determination to have a thorough investigation free of political influence. His performance will determine whether his legacy will be compared to the late Sen. Sam Ervin, the Tar Heel who led the Watergate investigation with high integrity or to that of Nunes, who failed his biggest test.
News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Norway will seize new chances to expand a close cooperation with China, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in an interview with Chinese media in Oslo, the countrys capital city before she started a 4-day official visit to China, adding that she felt honored to have a meeting with Chinese leaders during her upcoming visit upon invitation.
China-Norway relationship deteriorated due to controversy around the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and events connected to the Prize.
After rounds of in-depth dialogues, Norway finally made a clear-cut statement on Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as other agendas involved the latters core interest and major concerns after completely getting Chinas stances and concerns.
The ultimate turnabout provided necessary conditions for both sides to rebuild political mutual trust and normalize their ties.
Chinese and Norwegian governments, last December, issued a statement on their decision to normalize bilateral relationship.
The normalization of bilateral relations after a six-year-long stagnation does not come easy, Solberg pointed out, vowing that both countries will write new chapter in their cooperation in all fields and embrace new chances in deepening all-round collaboration.
A closer bilateral collaboration in politics, economy and cultural exchanges, according to the Prime Minister, serves as the foundation for a sustained, stable and healthy development of their ties.
Norway and China are now restarting their talks on free trade agreement, Solberg disclosed when talking about economic relationship. The agreement will boost two-way trade and investment, create more job positions and as a result benefit the two countries and their peoples, she further explained.
She said that a large economic and trade team was included in her delegation as well, and the members plan to seek more cooperation potential through a close contact with business circles in Shanghai and Beijing.
Arctic affairs, oceans, innovation as well as maritime agendas are expected to be key fields where both countries will intensify cooperation, Solberg pointed out.
Praising bilateral cooperation on arctic affairs as promising, she said that her country is happy to see China's accession to the Arctic Council as an observer, and the polar route will be a shortcut linking Norway and China on the sea.
The Prime Minister also suggested a bolstered collaboration in utilization of marine resources and treatment on sea pollution. Both countries can also tap cooperation potential in innovation as their colleges and universities have launched some mutually needed cooperation projects in this regard, she added.
Solberg recalled her Chinese visit decade ago, during which she watched a drama adapted from the writings of Henrik Johan Ibsen, a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright.
The performance was given by Chinese and Norwegian actors, and the heroine was also from Bergen, Solbergs hometown.
Impressed by the show, she was touched by not only the organic combination of Chinese and Norwegian culture, but also the composers deep understanding of the two cultures.
People-to-people exchanges play a key part in bilateral relations, the Prime Minister said, suggesting an enhanced personnel exchange on winter sports. She continued that much more Chinese tourists are now traveling to Norway, especially in winter.
Norway, as the host of 1994 Winter Olympics as well as a traditional winter sport power, has accumulated a lot of experience in hosting winter games, and both countries, therefore, can beef up collaboration on preparation for winter games as well training of young players, Solberg suggested.
She also hailed the keynote speech given by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum held in Davos this January, saying that it is a timely speech amidst the rising tide of trade protectionism.
Chinas support to multilateralism is significant for many small-sized nations, she added.
Norway, China to write new chapter of pragmatic cooperation: PM
By Huang Yundi from Peoples Daily
Norway will seize new chances to expand a close cooperation with China, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in an interview with Chinese media in Oslo, the countrys capital city before she started a 4-day official visit to China, adding that she felt honored to have a meeting with Chinese leaders during her upcoming visit upon invitation.
China-Norway relationship deteriorated due to controversy around the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and events connected to the Prize.
After rounds of in-depth dialogues, Norway finally made a clear-cut statement on Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as other agendas involved the latters core interest and major concerns after completely getting Chinas stances and concerns.
The ultimate turnabout provided necessary conditions for both sides to rebuild political mutual trust and normalize their ties.
Chinese and Norwegian governments, last December, issued a statement on their decision to normalize bilateral relationship.
The normalization of bilateral relations after a six-year-long stagnation does not come easy, Solberg pointed out, vowing that both countries will write new chapter in their cooperation in all fields and embrace new chances in deepening all-round collaboration.
A closer bilateral collaboration in politics, economy and cultural exchanges, according to the Prime Minister, serves as the foundation for a sustained, stable and healthy development of their ties.
Norway and China are now restarting their talks on free trade agreement, Solberg disclosed when talking about economic relationship. The agreement will boost two-way trade and investment, create more job positions and as a result benefit the two countries and their peoples, she further explained.
She said that a large economic and trade team was included in her delegation as well, and the members plan to seek more cooperation potential through a close contact with business circles in Shanghai and Beijing.
Arctic affairs, oceans, innovation as well as maritime agendas are expected to be key fields where both countries will intensify cooperation, Solberg pointed out.
Praising bilateral cooperation on arctic affairs as promising, she said that her country is happy to see China's accession to the Arctic Council as an observer, and the polar route will be a shortcut linking Norway and China on the sea.
The Prime Minister also suggested a bolstered collaboration in utilization of marine resources and treatment on sea pollution. Both countries can also tap cooperation potential in innovation as their colleges and universities have launched some mutually needed cooperation projects in this regard, she added.
Solberg recalled her Chinese visit decade ago, during which she watched a drama adapted from the writings of Henrik Johan Ibsen, a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright.
The performance was given by Chinese and Norwegian actors, and the heroine was also from Bergen, Solbergs hometown.
Impressed by the show, she was touched by not only the organic combination of Chinese and Norwegian culture, but also the composers deep understanding of the two cultures.
People-to-people exchanges play a key part in bilateral relations, the Prime Minister said, suggesting an enhanced personnel exchange on winter sports. She continued that much more Chinese tourists are now traveling to Norway, especially in winter.
Norway, as the host of 1994 Winter Olympics as well as a traditional winter sport power, has accumulated a lot of experience in hosting winter games, and both countries, therefore, can beef up collaboration on preparation for winter games as well training of young players, Solberg suggested.
She also hailed the keynote speech given by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum held in Davos this January, saying that it is a timely speech amidst the rising tide of trade protectionism.
Chinas support to multilateralism is significant for many small-sized nations, she added.
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In this Friday, April 7, 2017, photo, a prototype of the Ford Fusion police hybrid car sits along 11th Avenue in New York. Ford Motor Co., which sells more police cars in the U.S. than any other automaker, says it will offer a police pursuit version of the hybrid Fusion midsize sedan, in response to requests from cities nationwide. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Kashmiri villagers carry the body of of Umer Farooq, a Kashmiri civilian who was killed Sunday during his funeral at Baroosa village 34 Kilometers (21 miles) northeast of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, April 10, 2017. Government forces opened fire on Sunday on crowds of people who attacked polling stations during a by-election for a vacant seat in India's Parliament, killing eight people. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
The Thai language edition of the book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was released Friday in Bangkok, capital of Thailand. The book, which collects the speeches, talks, interviews, notes and letters of the Chinese leader, was applauded by all circles of Thailand including the political heavyweights.
The release ceremony was attended by Jiang Jianguo, Director of the State Council Information Office, Wissanu Krea-ngam, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, president of the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand, and figures from other circles.
"The book presents Xis great insight, foresight, as well as philosophy on state governance in a detailed way," Pornpetch said in his speech at the ceremony.
It is great that the book is translated into the Thai language, he added, hoping that it will refresh Thailand-China friendship by deepening Thai residents understanding of China and giving a boost to their all-round cooperation.
Xi, good at quoting classics, is a great leader with rich knowledge and abundant wisdom of state governance, Wissanu said during the release ceremony.
The contents of the book, impressive rather than dull, absorb the time-honored traditional Chinese culture and reveal the wisdom of a statesman, he said, adding that leaders can cite it as useful reference for state governance.
The deputy prime minister said that he has learnt a lot from the book after Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha recommended it to him. Its contents can enlighten Thailands reform process as the country is making its own strategy and reform, he said.
Thakoon Boonpan, General Manager of Matichon Group, publisher of Thai edition of the book, said that the release ceremony represents a symbol of bilateral cooperation, and he feels proud to boost Thailand-China friendship through the book.
Pinij Jarusombat, chairman of the Thai-Chinese Cultural and Relationship Council, told Peoples Daily that Xi is a great leader and good doer who resolves many challenges for China.
A number of Chinese residents have raised their living standard and shackled off poverty thanks to his efforts, said Pinij, also former Thai Prime Minister, adding that it is a great achievement itself to lift 1 million people out of poverty every year.
Hailing the ideas and approaches written in the book as useful and effective, Pinij hoped more Thai citizens will read the book as early as possible.
President Chen Zhenzhi of Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce told the Peoples Daily that the book provides the world a way to understand China. In todays world, you have to well know China first if you want to know more about the world, he explained.
The experience of a country who managed to govern such a large population is definitely worth learning, Chen said, while highlighting at the same time that the book is a good reference for Thailand.
The economic and trade cooperation between China and Thailand enjoys a promising prospect, and the book is believed to play a far-reaching propelling role for future bilateral ties, he stressed.
Panlop, senior editor of Matichon Group, said that given the great importance of the well-known book, China's Foreign Language Press polished the contents in an elaborate manner after three well-selected translators from his house finished their work.
The Thai edition of the book is same with the Chinese one in all details including paper size, color and cover, explained Panlop, also publishing executor of the book.
Impressed by the hard working of translators and copy-editors, he said the book pools the efforts of many people.
Since many of Xis remarks on domestic affairs, diplomacy and anti-corruption campaigns contained profound connotation, the translators tried hard to present the readers with the hidden implications in the most appropriate words, the editor underlined.
During the release ceremony, Jiang presented Thai editions of the book to Wissanu and Pornpetch as gift. China's Foreign Language Press and Thailand's Matichon also inked a memorandum to translate and publish other China-themed books.
The release ceremony was hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, the Chinese Embassy and organized by Foreign Language Press and Matichon.
Chinese enterprises, with a growing globalization capability in recent years, have diverted more capital from developing countries to developed European and American market with higher access threshold. They also put more money into high technology, agriculture and real estate rather than previous energy, minerals and other natural resources.
Private businesses carry more weight in overseas investment
Private capitals now make up bigger share in Chinas overseas investment, reshaping the cake dominated by state-owned enterprises (SOE) previously.
According to a recent statement issued by the US electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, Chinese Internet giant Tencent has become its 5th largest shareholder after purchasing 5% of the companys passive stake at the price of about $1.78 billion.
The investment would probably help Tesla further expand its market share in China, said a Forbes commentary.
Most of the Chinese capitals in the US used to be invested by SOEs, and now private companies have become a major force, said Steve Orlins, president of National Committee on US-China Relations. He was one of the first US citizens who came to China after the two countries established diplomatic ties.
A report complied by China General Chamber of Commerce U.S.A. said that more than 80% of Chinese capitals in the US market as of 2016 were contributed by private enterprises.
Wanxiang Group, a Chinese automotive component manufacturer who accessed the US in 1994, has established 28 factories in the country, becoming the largest Chinese enterprise in central and western US.
According to local media, every 1 in 3 automobiles in the US is installed with components manufactured by Wanxiang America Corporation.
Wanxiang Group invested $12.5 million to build a 4,000-squaremeter solar panel factory in Rockford, Illinois in April 2010, receiving financing support from the state government.
In August of the same year, after winning a $4 million financial backing from local government, Wanxiang Group used the money to develop a 62-megawatt solar power plant at Chicago Rockford International Airport, which is the largest project of its kind in central and western US.
Chinese battery and new-energy vehicle manufacturer BYD established the first electric bus and power battery factory in northern Los Angeles Lancaster in May 2013.
President Stella Li of BYD Motors told Peoples Daily that the company has recruited local employees, made specific training plans and established research and development center for high-end buses.
Localization of production not only cultivated skillful workers, but also built competitive research teams, he added. Expanding its market from western to central US, BYD is now stretching its reach to the east US and Canada.
A total of 500 employees work at BYD Motors manufacturing facility in Lancaster, including 30 bus designers, 120 managers and 350 operators.
Tony Martinez, director of the welding workshop, said that he earned bread in the car maker since it offers a salary he had never had before. It is learnt that the income of local employees at BYD is 37% higher than the average income of workers in Los Angeles.
Investments to five sectors grow at faster pace
The US is unquestionably a sci-tech power. As China stepped up its efforts to restructure economy, its businesses are diverting the focus of investment from the lower end of industrial chain, such as energy and minerals, to the higher-end high-tech fields.
According to a report issued by Rhodium Group, 5 industries have witnessed the most rapid growth in Chinas investment in the US. The investment in real estate, information technology, health care and biotechnology, finance as well as commercial service have all experienced a compound growth rate of over 50% in 2013-2015 period.
Chinese communication giant ZTE established its US branch in 1998, in a bid to enhance cooperation with US technology partners and provide quality products to the US consumers.
By the end of 2016, ZTE had invested a total of $25.8 billion in the US. The company has not only offered diverse choices for US consumers, but also revived the countrys employment and economy through the purchase of US technologies and high-tech components.
Senior Vice President of ZTE Corporation Cheng Lixin told Peoples Daily that the company has become the largest mobile phone brand from China in the US market.
In the past decade, ZTE has spent $2.6 billion on purchasing products and technologies from the US sci-tech companies, said Cheng, also CEO of ZTE USA, adding that it has offered more than 130,000 high-tech jobs each year. More than 80% of its 300 employees in the US are local staffs.
ZTE is a good example to demonstrate the win-win results of international trade, said the governor of Kansas Sam Brownback, adding that he deeply understands the importance of international trade and investment for the healthy development of the states economy.
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I am a pediatric resident working, like many residents, in a clinic that sees many of the most vulnerable children in our area. We see many refugees and immigrants coming through our clinic, including many from the countries named in President Trumps immigration ban.
These refugee children often suffer from afflictions we rarely see amongst our usual patient population: severe vitamin and nutritional deficiencies, intestinal parasites, malaria. They are often thin and short from spending their formative years without sufficient nourishment, their blood full of lead from old pipes or pottery. They have nightmares like so many children, but instead of the imagined threat of the noisy humidifier down the hall, their terror is provoked by the memory of the very real explosion that crumbled part of their school building. They are nervous and afraid of medical personnel, with whom they have often only had limited contact.
But the children themselves are not so different from their American counterparts. Their anxious scowls erupt involuntarily into giggles when you press on their little bellies. They listen expectantly for the results of the inspection of their ears for dinosaurs. They suffer noisily the indignity of vaccinations, but wear their reward stickers with pride across their foreheads to demonstrate the bravery they have already long-since proven. Despite experiences that we as adults struggle to imagine, inside they are still very much children: innocent and wild and sweet and scared.
I am humbled by our responsibility as medical providers to these children, the innocent victims of political tides that began their ebb and flow long before my lifetime. A majority of these refugee children will grow up to be adults one day. And as they reflect on what they know about America and the American people, they will remember this time from their childhood. I hope that they will remember the sweet American nurse that always gave them extra cookies with the hopes that the right number of chocolate chips could make up for a lifetime of violence. I hope they remember the American social worker that helped their family access resources that would keep their bellies full and bodies warm. I hope they will recall the love and charity of our religious organizations that took very seriously their moral imperative to share with those who do not have enough.
I fear instead that their memories of America will be of a country that denied them resources and safety despite having enough of each to spare.
I claim no expertise on the subjects of immigration law and national security. But our humanity is facing an enormous threat if we allow fear to divide rather than unite us. I hope that our medical community will take very seriously our commitment not just to protect our own interests, but our obligation to all our fellow human beings.
Lacey Castellano is a pediatric resident.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
It's been over 30 years ever since the Laredo Police Department began it's SWAT Division. Now those who took part in the program are honored among friends and fellow members in blue.
The Police Department has seen 42 members take part in the division. Among those recognized were the first members of the SWAT Task Force.
We spoke former SWAT member Gilberto Navarro about an incident he will never forget: "The one that was a little bit more taxing was the attempted jail break at the Webb County Jail. There was a deputy that was killed, Curly Herrera, and there were other several deputies that were wounded. And we had to go in there and take control of the jail, initially."
Navarro credits the SWAT training he and his colleagues received to control the situation. He advises other aspiring officers wanting to join the division to prepare themselves physically and mentally before signing up.
China-Norway relations will enjoy a healthy, stable and sustained development, Chinese Ambassador to Norway Wang Min said in a commentary published in People's Daily on Friday, when Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway kicked off an official four-day visit to China upon invitation.
It is the first visit to China paid by a Norwegian Prime Minister in the recent decade, and also the first meeting between top leaders of the two countries after a turnaround of bilateral relations at the end of last year.
Reviewing the twists and development of the China-Norway relations in recent years with his personal experience, Wang praised Norway's efforts and achievements in improving the relations with China.
The following is the full text of the article:
Norway is among the first Western countries to recognize the People's Republic of China. It is also the first Western country to ink cultural agreement with China, the second European nation to admit China's market economy status, as well as the earliest European state to negotiate a free trade agreement with China.
Back to those days in history, China and Norway yielded fruitful outcomes from close cooperation in politics, economy, culture, education, technology, polar research and sports.
However, the wrong decision made by Norwegian administration on issues related to China's core interest and major concerns seven years ago resulted in a disastrous retrogress of bilateral relations, undermining political foundations of both sides.
With stalled bilateral cooperation in each field, the ship of friendly cooperation between the two countries encountered a storm.
Through extensive contact with Norwegian residents in all walks of life after I arrived in Norway as Chinese ambassador in March 2016, I have felt the friendship of the country toward China.
Many of my Norwegian friends told me that they feel sorry about the loss of bilateral relations caused by the Norwegian side, hoping the relations between the two countries could return to the right track.
A senior Norwegian citizen has impressed me very much. Though suffering from an incurable disease, he is still working hard to normalize China-Norway ties, in a hope to see a turnaround in the bilateral relations for the rest of his life.
In my lecture delivered in middle 2016, I have mentioned that Norway lagged behind almost all its European peers in terms of developing relations with China, and it has missed many chances of cooperation. I was deeply impressed by the anxious and expecting faces of the audiences.
Norway is a country with a number of far-sighted and excellent statesmen. Since the establishment of this Norwegian administration, Solberg has devoted much energy to improve relations with China.
Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Borge Brende, who has a close bond with China, has also made the normalization of China-Norway ties a priority of his work. After rounds of intense negotiations, both sides finally reached consensus on many key issues concerning improvement and development of bilateral relations.
Bilateral ties finally dispelled the clouds after both governments released a statement on the normalization of bilateral relations during Brendes Chinese visit last December.
Norway, in the announcement, pledged to fully respect China's development path and social system, respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, attach high importance to China's core interests and major concerns, and never support actions that undermine them.
Reiterating its commitment to the one-China policy, the Norwegian government vowed its utmost efforts to avoid any future damage to bilateral relations.
China and Norway have highly complementary economies and have great potential for cooperation.
Faced with the lingering recession in global economy and a rising tide of anti-globalization, Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos this January has been greatly lauded by the Norwegian people.
China and Norway share same or similar viewpoints on such agendas as free trade, climate change and sustainable development.
During Solberg's Chinese visit, leaders of the two states will have an in-depth exchange of opinions, set directions and principles of bilateral relations, determine key cooperation areas and witness the signing of a series of bilateral agreements. Her visit will mark the restart and full recovery of China-Norway cooperation.
I believe that the relations between China and Norway will enjoy a healthy, stable and long-term development to make the ship of bilateral friendship sail again, as long as both countries keep the pledge on normalization of bilateral relations and stick to the principles of mutual respect and equality.
Despite its proximity to Waterford City, CountryStyle Foods in Kilmacow has to contend with very slow broadband speeds.
That's the reality for the company's managing director Rory Williams, who's had an ongoing interest in the National Broadband Plan since early details were announced.
At a thinktank on rural broadband in Kilkenny last Thursday, Mr Williams said the real tragedy of poor quality broadband is its impact on young people and, potentially, the businesses of the future. Given its importance today, he likened not providing broadband to going into a school classroom and taking a pen from a child.
None of us know where the next Google or Facebook or Glass Eye is coming from, he said.
Mr Williams is a member of the Kilkenny Broadband Action Group (KBAG) set up to look at broadband.
We sat down at a meeting and said lets see whats out there, he says.
What have people done?
KBAG then visited sites in the UK where different solutions have been applied.
The first visit was to Cumbria where a 'top down' approach was being implemented. It was an insight into the various difficulties they faced, including trying physical terrain, and even historic problems
Mr Williams also spoke about Rakala in Finland a rural area which relies on tourism. They were increasingly finding that young people werent visiting anymore.
And so it became a community-led idea, and they reckoned if they could get fibre broadband it would bring more people into the area, Mr Williams told the meeting.
More people, more tourism, more spending.
Another visit was to Lancashire, where a community-owned network, B4RN, was founded by volunteers.
It turned out to be a fascinating rural community project where they considered a variety of options and then formed a co-op community, says the CountryStyle managing director.
It was a very powerful model, and it spread then. Because the next parish said if they can do, we can do it. It then became a social funding model, and the funds generated stay within the community.
B4RN did have the benefit of an existing coterie of people, and some other advantages, but Mr Williams said the model had worked very well for the community there.
It allows them to be co-owners of the internet, not consumers, he said.
A posh boutique in Florida has been linked to the same gold smuggling plot as the three former NTR Metals employees, Bloomberg reported.
U.S. and Ecuador prosecutors discovered that MVP Imports LLC was used as an intermediary in the plot, where hundreds of millions of dollars were laundered via sales of illegally mined gold from South America.
The connection was made in the federal complaints filed against the three former employees of NTR Metals.
Virtually all of the gold NTR purchased from Ecuador . . . was routed through an intermediary company, MVP Imports, stated the U.S. complaints.
Authorities discovered that there were two businesses listed under one address. The first was a stylish home-goods boutique known as Violetas, and the other was MVP Imports entity implicated in the gold smuggling plot.
Both were registered at 223A Miracle Mile in Miamis Coral Gables, an area known as an upper-class shopping location.
Jeffrey Himmel, who is a well-known local businessman, was listed as the owner of MVP Imports, while his wife was recorded as the co-founder of Violetas.
Prosecutors described MVP Imports role as an importer in the money-laundering pipeline that was masking NTRs involvement as the ultimate purchaser of the gold, U.S. customs records stated.
MVP Imports also show up in Ecuadors investigations. One local judge charged eight people with laundering money via MVP Imports. All eight are suspected of exporting more than $550 million of gold to Miami.
MVP Imports was one of the major buyers of this gold, Diana Salazar, prosecutor in the Ecuadors attorney generals office, told Bloomberg. This is a huge case that has caused tremendous political and economic upheaval in Ecuador, she said, adding that MVP Imports is not being investigated in this case.
U.S. prosecutors also did not charge MVP Imports or its owner with any kind of knowing involvement in the gold smuggling case.
But, they have laid charges against the three former NTR employees allegedly involved in the plot: Juan Pablo Granda NTRs operations manager, Samer Barrage head of Miami operations, and Renato Rodriguez executive sales director for Latin America.
The U.S. complaint, filed in Miami, incriminated all three for buying billions of dollars worth of gold from illegal mines in Peru that support forced labor, human trafficking, and cause environmental devastation, according to media reports.
Granda and Rodriguez entered a not guilty plea during court appearances last week, while Barrage, who tried to flee to South America and is now being held without bail, is yet to enter his plea.
According to the U.S. customs records, NTRs dealings with Perus illegal gold go back as far as five years ago. Between 2012 and 2015, the company allegedly imported $3.6 billion worth of illegal gold. For all of the billions of dollars worth shipped from Latin America to NTR in Miami, NTR sent billions of dollars in wire payments to Latin America from the United States, Bloomberg cited HSI agent Colberd Almeida as saying in an affidavit dated March 10.
Investigation updates revealed that Dallas-based NTR Metals, also known as Elemetal, is cooperating with the investigation after closing down NTR Metals Miami operations.
Meanwhile, Elemetal Refining LLC has been suspended from trading gold and silver futures on the CME Groups and the London Bullion Market Associations exchanges last week.
No charges have been laid against NTR Metals and it is still unknown whether the company is under investigation or not.
This is 59th release by the Institute since 1980. [Photo: Xinhua]
The Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute has released around 500 captive-bred Chinese sturgeon into a section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province, with a goal of trying to increase the wild population of the rare species.
The sturgeon, aged between three and six years old, average around 110 centimeters in length and weigh about 5.5 kilograms on average. [Photo: Xinhua]
The sturgeon, aged between three and six years old, average around 110 centimeters in length and weigh about 5.5 kilograms on average, heavier than previous group that were released into the wild.
This is 59th release by the Institute since 1980.
Believed to have lived at the same time as dinosaurs, the Chinese sturgeon has existed for more than 140 million years.
The sturgeon, aged between three and six years old, average around 110 centimeters in length and weigh about 5.5 kilograms on average. [Photo: Xinhua]
However, over-fishing and changes to the environment has pushed the fish toward extinction.
For this reason, China has been learning solutions to breed and preserve the endangered species, and has classified the fish as a species for top national protection since the 19th century.
China has classified the fish as a species for top national protection since the 19th century. [Photo: Xinhua]
SHANGHAI, April 10 (Reuters) - China's central bank said it would skip open market operations on Monday, citing "relatively high" liquidity level in the banking system despite some impact from local government bond issuance.
It is the 11th consecutive session in which the People's Bank of China (PBOC) has abstained from open market operations. "Although general liquidity level in the banking system is down a bit due to local government bond issuance, it is still at a relatively high level," PBOC said in a statement on its website.
Following is a summary of the volume of central bank's maturing bills, repos and reverse repos for the week (in billions of yuan):
Injection Drain Net _____________________________________________________________
Bills
Repos
Reverse repos*
Bills maturing
Repos maturing
Reverse repos maturing -130 _____________________________________________________________
TOTAL -130 -130
($1 = 6.8955 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by the Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
By Harry Pearl
SYDNEY, April 9 (Reuters) - Mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd said on Sunday it paid $4 billion in taxes and royalties globally in 2016, a 12 percent drop on 2015 that primarily reflected lower earnings.
The release of its annual tax transparency report comes as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) issued amended income tax assessments for the company on Wednesday, covering calendar years 2010 to 2013.
The tax authority ordered Rio Tinto to pay additional tax of A$379 million ($284 million) plus interest of A$68 million for those four years, due to the global miner's use of marketing hubs in tax-friendly Singapore.
Rio Tinto said its effective group tax rate was 22 percent for the year ended Dec. 31, with the majority of tax and royalties paid in Australia - a figure of about $2.9 billion.
In the report, Rio Tinto said it had reduced the number of entities registered in so-called tax havens to 12, but its was still "engaged in discussions" with the ATO over use of its Singapore hubs.
"While we are satisfied these transactions align with tax requirements, differences of interpretation between companies and tax authorities can occur," Rio Tinto said, adding it will challenge the additional amount ordered by the ATO.
The dispute comes as the ATO has increased scrutiny over how much tax multi-nationals operating in Australia pay.
A senate corporate tax inquiry previously said Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton Ltd were using Singapore marketing offices to shift profit from Australia to minimise tax. Chris Lynch, Rio Tinto's chief financial officer, said the company was committed to tax transparency, but tax law should never be retrospective. ($1 = 1.3348 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Harry Pearl; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
* Feb c/a surplus +2.81 trln yen vs forecast +2.62 trln yen
* Trade, currencies in focus as Japan-US economic talks loom
(Adds analyst comment, details)
By Minami Funakoshi
TOKYO, April 10 (Reuters) - Japan's current account surplus stood at 2.81 trillion yen ($25.26 billion) in February, finance ministry data showed on Monday, the biggest surplus since March 2016.
The result, the 32nd straight month of current account surpluses, compares with economists' median forecast for a surplus of 2.62 trillion yen in a Reuters poll. This February's current account surplus was the largest on record for February.
The surplus reflected the trade balance rising as exports picked up pace after a Lunar New Year slowdown. The trade balance stood at 1.08 trillion yen in February, rebounding from a deficit of 853.4 billion yen the previous month.
Trade surpluses and currency valuations are in focus as U.S. President Donald Trump pursues an "America First" campaign in which he has accused big exporters such China, Germany and Japan of deliberately weakening their currencies to gain a competitive advantage.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso will hold their first round of economic talks in Tokyo next week to discuss issues ranging from macroeconomic policy, infrastructure investment and trade. Nonetheless, in what appears to be a shift in emphasis, the Trump administration is touting a new term, "currency misalignment," because it is seen as more significant than "manipulation" as a cause of trade deficits. Income from overseas investment also helped boost the current account balance. The primary income account in February was 1.98 trillion yen, up from 1.27 trillion yen the previous month.
"It's difficult to explain this month's current account surplus with just the (effects from) Lunar New Year," said Hidenobu Tokuda, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.
"The income account is rising, too. There is upward pressure on current account balance."
(Reporting by Minami Funakoshi; Editing by Eric Meijer)
Centamin Plc. (TSX: CEE; LSE: CEY) reports that fist-quarter production fell at its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt, as expected, due to a lower grade. Preliminary output was 109,187 ounces, a 20% decrease on the previous quarter and 13% lower than in the first quarter of 2016. However, the company maintains its 2017 guidance of 540,000 ounces at all-in-sustaining costs of $790 per ounce. As previously outlined in the 2016 full-year results, production rates were forecast to decrease in the first quarter due to a planned reduction in average grade from the open pit, says Andrew Pardey, chief executive officer. During the second quarter, we expect to see ore grades increase towards the reserve average as the cutback in the east wall of the pit is further progressed.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Red Eagle Declares Commercial Production At San Ramon
Red Eagle Mining (TSX: R) reports that commercial production was declared at the San Ramon Gold Mine on March 31. The first gold had been poured back in November. The company says it expects to a positive cash flow from operations in the second quarter. Production guidance was put at 35,000 to 40,000 ounces of gold for 2017, then 60,000 to 70,000 ounces of gold for 2018. Meanwhile, exploration drilling is under way, testing the eastern extent of the San Ramon gold deposit and multiple targets approximately 3 kilometers west of the processing facility.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Goldcorp Completes Sale Of Los Filos Mine To Leagold
Goldcorp Inc. (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) has completed the previously announced sale of its Los Filos Mine in Mexico to Leagold Mining Corp. (TSXV: LMC-H), with Goldcorp receiving 34.6 million common shares of Leagold, representing 25.3% of Leagold's outstanding common shares, plus $250 million in cash and a $29 million short-term promissory. Goldcorp also retained certain tax receivables worth approximately $100 million. "The divestiture of Los Filos unlocks further value and allows us to focus on our core camps," says David Garofalo, Goldcorps president and chief executive officer, when making the announcement just ahead of the weekend. "We look forward to participating in the future success of Leagold through our significant ownership interest."
Gold prices are moving higher Monday after seeing some profit taking earlier in the session; but, one veteran gold market watcher warns that golds recent rally may not be here to stay. Event-driven rallies rarely last as there is no follow through, notes George Gero, managing director for RBC Wealth Management, in an email to clients Monday. He adds that the shortened trading week coupled with Federal Reserve speakers, including Fed Chair Janet Yellen, are helping the dollar and hurting gold. More headwinds for now with good economic figures helping the FED, all contributing to the temporary selling, he explains. On a technical basis, gold needs to close above $1,265-75 for funds to jump back into the market, Gero says. As of 12:11PM ET, June Comex gold futures last traded at $1,256.90 an ounce, down 0.03% on the day.
By Sarah Benali of Kitco News; sbenali@kitco.com
Citi: Gold-Silver Ratio Elevated At Current Levels
Citi Research describes the gold-silver ratio as elevated even though it has narrowed since the start of the year. This ratio currently is pushing 70, compared to roughly 72 as of the end of 2016. The ratio measures how many ounces of silver can be bought with an ounce of gold, with a higher number reflecting gold outperformance, and vice-versa. The gold-silver ratio looks elevated above ~69x versus the LT (long-term) mean of ~60x, Citi says. Still, at least in the short term, the bank cautions that silver could be due for a correction based on its Relative Strength Index reading.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
MKS: Gold Back Below 200-Day Moving Average
Fridays close back below the 200-day moving average was disappointing for gold, but the yellow metal should continue to draw support from geopolitical worries, says MKS (Switzerland) S.A. From a technical perspective, Friday's close below the 200 DMA puts a bearish slant on the metal and opens up the potential for a leg lower over the short term, testing support at $1,240, says Sam Laughlin, senior precious-metals trader at MKS. That being said, geopolitical tensions are likely to be supportive and may put the brakes on what would otherwise be a retracement from the mid-March uptrend. Around 8:51 a.m. EDT, spot gold was down $4.30 at $1,249.20 an ounce. The 200-day average stood around $1,259. Gold for a while was well above this Friday at a session high of $1,270.95.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
FXTM: Key Chart Points For Gold Lie At $1,240 And $1,260
The $1,240 and $1,260 areas are important technical-chart points for gold to generate momentum either way, says FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga. Gold moves were chaotic on Friday, first rising and then falling. While the metal remains supported in the medium to longer term amid the geopolitical tensions and political risks across the globe, the renewed rate-hike expectations could enforce downside pressures in the short term, Otunuga says. Golds trajectory on the daily charts remains tilted to the upside, with bulls in firm control above the $1,240 higher low. From a technical standpoint, a solid daily close above $1,260 is needed for any further upside. In an alternative scenario, a breakdown below $1,240 may open a path back towards the $1,225 support.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Commerzbank: Chinese Central Bank Not Adding To Gold Reserves
Recent data from the Peoples Bank of China show that the central bank did not add to its gold reserves again last month, which if it continues, would take one supportive factor away from the gold market, says Commerzbank. This was the fifth straight month that gold reserves remained unchanged at 59.24 million ounces, Commerzbank points out. Chinas FX (foreign-exchange) reserves did rise marginally, however, which indicates that the PBOC chose not to intervene directly in the foreign-exchange market, Commerzbank says. However, this also means that the PBOC should really have had the money to buy gold. If the PBOC were to purchase no further gold for a prolonged period alongside the Russian central bank it was the largest gold buyer among central banks last year one key element supporting the gold price could fall away.
By Krishna V Kurup
April 10 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stocks traded cautiously on Monday with rising geopolitical worries souring investor sentiment, but the Phillipines eked out gains led by financial and real estate stocks.
Broader Asian stocks slipped, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan falling for a third session.
"There is a bit of risk-off sentiment after last week's U.S. air strike in Syria and the news saying that the U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier group near the Korean peninsula," said Victor Felix, an equity analyst with AB Capital Securities.
After the United States launched missile strikes on a Syrian air base alleged to have launched a deadly poison gas attack on Syrian civilians, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that the strikes were a warning to other nations, including North Korea. A U.S. Navy strike group will be moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a U.S. official told Reuters on Saturday, as concerns grow about North Korea's advancing weapons programme. Phillipine shares closed 0.5 percent higher with foreign investors buying stocks worth a net 466.7 million pesos.
"We were really expecting the market to trade more inactively given the long holidays. Somehow, there continues to be some buying from investors given the recent spate of positive news reflecting the fundamentals of the market," said Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Finance.
GT Capital Holdings rose 4.4 percent, while SM Prime Holdings finished 1.3 percent higher.
Indonesian shares closed slightly down, with index of the region's 45 most liquid stocks closing 0.3 percent lower.
Financials were the biggest losers, with Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk Pt shedding 1.2 percent.
Thailand and Malaysia declined marginally, while Vietnam closed 0.3 percent higher.
For Asian Companies click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS : Change on day
Market Current Prev close Pct Move Singapore 3181.45 3177.27 0.13 Bangkok 1581.19 1583.53 -0.15 Manila 7617.91 7583.75 0.45 Jakarta 5644.299 5653.486 -0.16 Kuala Lumpur 1739.52 1741.72 -0.13 Ho Chi Minh 729.87 727.95 0.26
Change on year Market Current End 2016 Pct Move Singapore 3181.45 2880.76 10.44 Bangkok 1581.19 1542.94 2.48 Manila 7617.91 6840.64 11.4 Jakarta 5644.299 5296.711 6.56 Kuala Lumpur 1739.52 1641.73 5.96 Ho Chi Minh 729.87 664.87 9.8
(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan)
HANOI, April 10 (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 0404 GMT.
April 10 USD/VND mid-point 22,316 USD/VND interbank 22,670/22,680 USD/VND unofficial 22,700/22,720 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.42/36.64
Interbank offered rates Overnight 4.6-5.1
1 week 4.7-5.2
1 month 4.8-5.3
3 months 5.0-5.3
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)
The SMH reports:
One of Australias best-known satirists, John Clarke, has died at the age of 68.
An ABC spokesman has confirmed John Clarke passed away Sunday while hiking in the Grampians National Park in Victoria. He died from natural causes.
The New Zealand-born comedian and writer regularly appeared on Australian television from the late 1970s onwards, starring in everything from Kath and Kim to The Lano and Woodly Show.
Along with Bryan Dawe, he wrote and performed satirical interviews on Channel Nines A Current Affair and later the ABCs 7.30 program, mocking everyone from Paul Keating to George Bush.
Stuff reports:
Sir Douglas Myers, the long-time chief executive of Lion Breweries and Lion Nathan, has passed away. He was 78. Myers was one of New Zealands most prominent businessmen, having worked his way up through Lion Nathan to build a personal fortune estimated to be worth $900 million. In 2008, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and spent much of his later life fighting the disease. In 2013, he revealed that the cancer had returned fiercely. Doctors told him he had only a matter of months to live.
He exceeded the expectations, but sadly it was just delayed.
MP Paul Goldsmith, who co-authored a biography, The Myers, said Myers was passionately committed to improving the countrys economic performance for the good of all Kiwis. Myers devoted much of his time to supporting the reforms begun in 1984 by the Fourth Labour Government. Myers said: I realised that gaining personal satisfaction was dependent on living in a place where everyone could get satisfaction. In a large country, like Brazil, it is possible to tolerate extremes in living standards. Not so in New Zealand. Its too small; relationships are too intense. So I was convinced that everyone had to strive to be better, to be more productive, so the whole community moved forward. Its not good enough to live in a beautiful country. Thats why youve got to kick against the pricks, and get off your chuff and do something. The main beneficiary of the [New Zealand economic reforms of the 1980s], as I saw it, was the average Kiwi.
Myers was a staunch and consistent advocate for improving New Zealands economic performance.
Myers was also a philanthropist, setting up the Sir Douglas Myers Scholarship which awards Year 13 students $100,000 to study at Cambridge University. He also gave millions of dollars to Auckland Universitys Kenneth Myers Arts Centre, and supported the universitys Business School.
My thoughts are with his family and close friends.
UPDATE: A nice piece on him by Jane Phare in the Herald.
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HANGZHOU, April 9 (Xinhua ) -- Alibaba, a dominant player in China's e-commerce, has teamed up with several non-governmental environmental protection organizations to protect water resources in the country.
Alibaba Foundation and the organizations formed an alliance Saturday at a meeting on water resources protection and green development, which was held in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province.
Members of the alliance include Alibaba Foundation, Friends of Nature, Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, Green Hunan, and Beijing Green Foundation.
At the same time, Alibaba Foundation and Green Hunan, based in central China's Hunan Province, announced to set up a river-guarding center. They plan to have 2, 000 people serving as "folk river chiefs" in the Yangtze River valley in three years. These folk river chiefs will be engaged in reporting issues such as stinky waters, and participate in protection of water sources.
The public should be encouraged to take part in environmental protections, said Jin Jianhang with Alibaba Foundation. "We should promote the disclosure of environmental information and make it visual, so that the public at anytime can focus on the environmental issues."
Fang Min, director of Zhejiang provincial environmental protection department, said environmental protection requires participation of the whole society.
A new pattern led by the government, with coordination of different departments, engagement of all social sectors and public supervision, can be formed through efforts such as cross-sector cooperation and unified actions,and win-win results be achieved, according to Fang.
"We hope to work with more organizations to promote the rule of law in the field of environment," said Zhang Boju, secretary general of Beijing Friends of Nature Foundation.
In December 2016, China began to appoint "river chiefs" with responsibilities which include resource protection, pollution prevention and control, and ecological restoration. Their performance will be assessed and they will be held accountable for environmental damage in bodies of water under their supervision.
Environmental protection and restoration is a top priority of the development plan for the Yangtze River economic belt, which accommodates over 600 million people with about one fifth of China's land.
According to statistics of China Environmental Organization Map, there are currently more than 2,000 non-governmental environmental protection organizations across the country.
The state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Finland marks the excellent state of bilateral relations and further deepens the diverse cooperation between China and Finland, Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila hailed the significance of the successful trip in a written interview with the Peoples Daily on Thursday.
We are honored that President Xi visits Finland during the centenary year of Finlands independence, Sipila said, adding that both sides, during the visit, have an opportunity to exchange views on a number of significant bilateral and global issues.
Important agreements and memoranda of understanding are signed to further deepen bilateral cooperation as well, the prime minister pointed out.
I am sure our diverse cooperation will continue to broaden and deepen, he stressed.
The future-oriented new type cooperative partnership enhances political mutual trust and expands and deepens cooperation to the benefit of our two peoples, Sipila emphasized.
The partnership, according to him, covers topics of mutual interest and areas where both countries want to reinforce cooperation in issues where they can find common solutions to concerns.
He cited the areas such as innovation, entrepreneurship, clean energy, bio-economy and arctic research Xi mentioned in an article published ahead of his Finnish trip as examples, believing that these are excellent base for enhanced cooperation between both countries.
Describing high-level political visits as a very important way to exchange views and ideas both bilaterally and in the EU-China context, Sipila stressed the necessity for both nations to maintain contacts at the level of parliaments, officials, and other spheres of the society.
Moreover, I think there is still a lot of untapped potential in our trade and investment relations, he said.
In todays changing world, we do need a regular dialogue on many global issues, too, such as climate change and sustainable development, the prime minister added.
Sipila said that three points impressed him most after he had a chance to read the article entitled Our Enduring Friendship published on Finnish media Xi wrote before he started the trip.
He explained that they were the long history of bilateral relations that have been only strengthening throughout the decades, the importance of bilateral trade, investment and tourism relations, as well as the strong support from Xi to the European integration and the EU-China relations.
It has been touching to notice what great importance President Xi has attached to this visit in Finlands centenary year and to the Sino-Finnish relations at large, the prime minister underlined.
China has been our largest trading partner in Asia for years, and last year it was our 5th largest trading partner globally, he noted, adding that for Finnish companies China is a very important market and they are happy that this trend continues to increase.
Sipila suggested that to further develop bilateral collaboration, Finland could act as a test bed in multiple different areas, including self driving cars, 5G and Internet of Things. We could scale up the solutions jointly in China, he added.
The prime minister also vowed that Finland, during its chairmanship in the Arctic Council, will focus on environmental protection, better connectivity, utilizing meteorology for better monitoring, and improving the education.
All these offer also good platforms for cooperating more with China, he pledged, adding that Finland as an Arctic nation pays great attention to sustainable development of the arctic.
Finnish peoples dreams to see Chinese giant pandas in their own country have finally come true after China agreed to send a pair of pandas to Finland during Chinese President Xi Jinpings state visit on Wednesday.
The public in the European country of all ages are enthusiastic for Chinas cute giant pandas. Xis Finnish trip this time brought such passion to an unprecedented high. A poll before Xis visit showed that bringing giant pandas to Finland is what local residents expect most of the presidents trip.
Their dream has come true after a memorandum of understanding to jointly research on giant panda was inked between China's State Forestry Administration and its Finnish counterpart in Helsinki on Wednesday.
According to the memorandum, China will send two pandas to Finland for the research on giant pandas, which will be jointly carried out by China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) and the Ahtari Zoo in Finland. The cute animals will be loaned for 15 years.
Finland will pay a designated amount of fund to China, which will be used to build up the scientific research of giant pandas, protection of breeding base, conservation, management and other purposes, according to the agreement.
According to Li Qingwen, the deputy secretary-general of CWCA, experts of both countries started their investigations and discussions about which zoo should host the pandas since 2014.
Ahtari Zoo was chosen because it is the biggest nature reserve in Finland, and it shares similar climate with the panda bases in Sichuan of southwest China, Li explained.
The Ahtari Zoo has a total area of over 5,000 square meters and can provide an environment close to wildlife habitation for the pandas. In addition, the zoo is reliable in terms of disease treatment, rescue and epidemic disease research, because it has close ties with the Veterinary Hospital of University of Helsinki.
By the end of 2016, China has developed research projects on giant pandas with 18 zoos from 13 countries, including the US, Austria, Thailand, Spain, Australia, the UK and France. Currently, there are a total of 53 giant pandas and panda cubs living overseas, Li said.
Giant panda, China's unofficial national mascot, has been regarded as a bond to enhance connections and a token of peace and friendship.
In 1961, a giant panda Chi Chi caused a stir in London when it arrived in the city for exhibition. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) decided to use the panda to design its logo, considering that the passion for life can cross language barriers.
The adorable giant pandas could always ignite peoples enthusiasm wherever they go. At the end of 2011, China rent two giant pandas Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Sunshine to the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland. Later that year, Tian Tian was voted as the December Woman 2011.
The two pandas also aroused the interest to learn Chinese culture and characters among the Scottish, who even hosted events to welcome the traditional Chinese Spring Festival. After the arrivals of the two pandas, the Edinburgh Zoo started to make profits with the annual revenue rising from 5 million to 15 million and visitor number increasing by 51 percent.
After two years dialogues between China and France, giant pandas Huan Huan and Yuan Zai arrived in France in 2012. The hosting Beauval Zoo has become the top tourist destination in the province of Loir-et-Cher thanks to the two pandas. According to statistics, over 1 million tourists visited the zoo in the same year, up 60 percent from the previous year.
The giant pandas are not just attractions. The purpose of international cooperation on panda research is not only to breed the animals and display them in the partnership countries, but also to better protect them and other endangered species by scientific research and raising public awareness via publicity, Li said.
With such efforts, overseas giant pandas are having productive success. In June 2016, panda Hao Hao gave birth to a male cub at Paira Daiza zoo in Belgium.
Later that year, mother Yang Yang and father Long Hui gave birth to twins in Vienna Zoo. The panda couple has given birth to 5 cubs since they came to Vienna. Often pandas can only be bred by zoos using artificial insemination, which makes the twins - conceived naturally - a special and rare case in Europe.
Thanks to unremitting protection by China for the past over 10 years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced in September 2016 that the giant pandas were downgraded from Endangered to Vulnerable on the global list of species at risk of extinction.
The organization also estimated the total population of wild giant pandas, including the cubs, at 2,060.
By Kim Jae-kyoung
SINGAPORE The trade dispute between South Korea and China is expected to take a turn for the worse as Beijing is expanding its economic retaliation against Seoul over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system.
So far China has focused on boycotting Korean products and pressuring tourism agencies not to book tours to Korea, calling for Seoul to cancel the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.
However, Beijing is now allegedly trying to use its influence to interfere with Korean companies' private business deals in other countries.
According to industry sources based in Singapore, China has pressured a Malaysian firm to cancel a business agreement with a large Korean chemical company to start a joint venture in the Southeast Asian country.
"Before the THAAD issue surfaced, we reached an agreement to start a joint venture with a Malaysian company whose major shareholder is Chinese," the company executive in charge of ASEAN operations said, asking not to be named.
He also asked for his company not to be identified for fear of additional problems with its Chinese operations.
The executive based in Singapore said the ASEAN headquarters of the mid-sized Korean conglomerate agreed to set up a 51:49 joint venture with both production lines and sales in a bid to expand its business in the ASEAN region.
"However, with the THAAD dispute escalating, the Malaysian firm supported by Chinese money unilaterally called off the deal citing the THAAD issue," he said. "It is ridiculous that the Chinese government tried to interfere in a private business deal because of a political dispute. I'm deeply concerned that China's retaliation is reaching a serious level beyond the boycott of goods and travel restrictions."
China's alleged influence peddling came amid both the U.S. and South Korea urging China to stop its retaliatory actions.
A group of U.S. senators have called on President Donald Trump to demand China halt its retaliation. They also asked Trump to demand China to reconsider its opposition to the deployment of the missile defense system.
During a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, from March 28 to 30, Korea filed a formal complaint with a WTO panel against Beijing for its trade actions. This was the first time for Korea to officially take issue with China's retaliation.
Antonio Fatas, a professor of economics at INSEAD, said what is happening is the result of two things.
"First, the political confrontation is happening related to THAAD," said Fatas who teaches at the Singapore campus of the European business school.
"The second thing is the very strong industrial policy that China has always followed where it uses political force to try to help its own industries."
The professor, in particular, pointed out that it is important to understand the changing dynamics of economies in Asia.
He said China's growing clout in Asia and the U.S. ignoring the region, under the administration of President Donald Trump, is allowing Beijing to push further across the region to get its companies more business.
"So some of what you might see is not just against Korean businesses but is pro-Chinese businesses," he said. "The two are mixing."
In recent years, China has been one of the biggest investors in Malaysia and other ASEAN countries.
According to property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, Chinese firms, mainly developers, invested an estimated $1.85 billion in Malaysia between 2014 and 2016, emerging as a top property investor there.
Industry watchers say Korea's economic losses are likely to snowball unless the issue is resolved soon.
"I expect China will seek all possible options to force Korea to give up THAAD," a Korean businessman based in Singapore said, asking not to be named.
"The problem is that despite China's irrational measures, there is nothing we can do at a company level."
According to one of the latest reports by the Korea Development Bank, if China expands its economic retaliation, Korea will sustain losses worth up to $20 billion $11.7 billion by the duty free and tourism industries and $8.3 billion by all others.
By Nam Hyun-woo
Stocks of defense companies rallied on Monday, after the news that the Carl Vinson U.S. Navy Strike Group is moving toward the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea, which continues to pursue a nuclear program.
On the main KOSPI market, Hanwha Techwin, a defense goods unit of Hanwha, ended at 48,800 won, up 2.63 percent from the previous session. LIG Nex1, another defense product producer, also inched up by 0.36 percent to end at 83,100 won.
Other defense-related firms, including Huneed Technologies and Korea Aerospace Industries, also showed a noticeable uptrend throughout the session.
On the tech-heavy KOSDAQ market, electronic warfare system developer Victek surged 29.88 percent to end at 5,260 won. Speco, a military vessel parts manufacturer, also gained 25.84 percent to finish at 6,720 won. Other defense-related firms, such as Firstec and EM Korea, also shot up by more than 15 percent.
The heightened tensions pumped up the prices of defense companies, but weighed on the bourse as a whole.
The benchmark KOSPI ended at 2,133.32 points, down 18.42 points or 0.86 percent from a session earlier. The KOSDAQ also declined to 619.41 points, down 13.91 points.
Except for the electronics and electric industries, most industries, including bio, pharmaceutical, food, machinery and finance, headed down.
Large-cap companies like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor each gained 0.82 percent and 1.04 percent. SK hynix shed 1.61 percent and Korea Electric Power Corp. declined 1.11 percent.
"The U.S. missile strikes against Syria and the strike group's move to the Korean Peninsula are raising external uncertainties," a Hana Financial Investment analyst said. "If those geopolitical risks are not realized, the impact on the market will be limited. However, it remains to be seen how investors will react down the road."
The United States can start thinking about reopening talks with North Korea, but the communist nation must first stop nuclear and missile tests, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday.
The remark contrasts with Tillerson's previous assertion that two decades of diplomatic efforts to disarm the North have failed, and there is no point in pursuing the diplomatic path any longer, and the U.S. should consider all options, including the use of military force.
The sharp change in tone came after U.S. President Donald Trump held his first summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beijing has long called for the U.S. to resume negotiations with Pyongyang to defuse tensions.
"What we would hope is that with no further testing, obviously their program doesn't progress," Tillerson said on ABC TV's "This Week." "What we have asked for is for them to cease all this testing before we can begin to think about having further talks with them."
Tillerson also said the U.S. goal is the North's denuclearization, not regime change.
"We have been very clear that our objective is a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. We have no objective to change the regime in North Korea; that is not our objective. And so the whole reasons underlying the development of a nuclear program in North Korea are simply not credible," he said.
Tillerson expressed concern about the "significant progress" he said the North made in its missile development, such as the "sophistication around their rocket launch programs, their sophistication around the type of fueling that they use."
"They're working their way towards the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. And these are the kinds of progress that give us the greatest concerns. So we have been quite clear with the regime in Pyongyang that that's what we want them to cease," he said.
Tillerson also mentioned the possibility of dialogue with the North on Friday while briefing reporters on the outcome of the talks between Trump and Xi, saying the two countries are committed to working together to "see if this cannot be resolved in a peaceful way."
U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Sunday that President Donald Trump has ordered him to prepare "a full range of options" to the nuclear and missile threats North Korea poses to the U.S. and its allies.
McMaster also said on "Fox News Sunday" that it was a "prudent" decision to send the San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson strike group toward the Korean Peninsula, a move designed to warn Pyongyang against additional provocations.
"North Korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative behavior. This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear capable regime, and (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping) and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," McMaster said.
"And so, the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region," he said.
During their first summit talks Friday, Trump and Xi noted the urgency of the threat of the North's weapons program and agreed to increase cooperation to convince the North to abandon its illicit weapons programs, according to the White House.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also said that the two sides are committed to working together to resolve the standoff in a peaceful manner, but "in order for that to happen, North Korea's posture has to change before there's any basis for dialogue or discussions."
The top American diplomat also said that the U.S. is prepared to chart "our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," echoing Trump's repeated warning that the U.S. will take on the North on its own unless China helps rein in the North.
The Trump administration has shown increasing impatience with the North, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson openly mentioning the possibility of using military options during a trip to South Korea last month. After Tuesday's missile launch by the North, Tillerson issued an unusually blunt statement saying the U.S. "has spoken enough about North Korea." (Yonhap)
North Korea plans to hold its key parliamentary meeting this week amid attention over whether its leader Kim Jong-un will deliver a message targeting the United States, experts said Monday.
The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) will hold the fifth session of the country's 13th assembly Tuesday, the first parliamentary meeting since Kim was elected the head of a new state body last year.
The SPA, the country's legislative body, is the highest organ of state power under the North's constitution, but it actually rubber-stamps decisions by more powerful organizations, such as the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
Since Kim assumed power in late 2011, he has attended the SPA on five occasions out of seven parliamentary sessions held under his leadership.
Every April, the SPA holds a plenary session, attended by hundreds of deputies, to finalize the country's budget spending and overhaul cabinet organs. But the North's parliament held a smaller meeting led by its presidium in March last year ahead of the WPK's party congress held in May.
The North's last parliamentary meeting was held in June 2016, when the North's ruler was elected as the chairman of the newly created State Affairs Commission (SAC), which replaced the National Defense Commission.
South Korea's unification ministry said that there is a small possibility that North Korea would send an external message on the occasion of the SPA.
"At the parliamentary meetings, North Korea mainly discusses internal policies. There seems to be a relatively small chance that (the North's leader) would deliver a message targeting the external world," Lee Duk-haeng, ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing.
The parliamentary meeting comes amid growing speculation that North Korea may carry out its sixth nuclear test or launch a long-range rocket launch this month.
U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster told Fox News that President Donald Trump has ordered him to prepare "a full range of options" to nuclear and missile threats North Korea poses to Washington and its allies.
North Korea is expected to fill its spy chief vacancy left by the dismissal of Kim Won-hong earlier this year during the upcoming assembly, experts said.
Jo Yong-won, a senior official at the WPK, is highly likely to become the minister of state security at Tuesday's meeting, according to Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute.
In April, North Korea plans to mark two key anniversaries -- the 105th birthday of Kim Il-sung, which falls on April 15, and the 85th anniversary of the creation of the Korean People's Army on April 25. (Yonhap)
Chulina, the first female giant panda cub born in Madrid Zoo, on Wednesday went for her first walk outside the pagoda where she has spent her life until now.
The baby stepping outside home was also witnessed by Queen Sofia of Spain, Lyu Fan, Chinese Ambassador to Spain, as well as students and residents coming for the cute animals.
Some of the visitors and students even came from Spains southernmost city of Almeri, a place more than 500 kilometers away from Madrid.
It is learnt that 4 pandas now live in Spain, a figure more than that of any other European countries.
She is the fifth giant panda cub to be born at the Madrid Zoo thanks to its collaboration with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Growing from 180 grams to 15 kilograms, the 7-month-old panda has acquired the ability to walk and climb.
During the event, a group of Spanish children with panda paintings on their faces learnt to write the pandas name in Chinese.
China sent two pandas to Spain in 1978. Ever since, Queen Sofia has always come to visit the pandas in the zoo. She also took a photo with panda in her arms.
South Korea played down the possibility of a pre-emptive U.S. attack on North Korea on Monday, saying it wants to settle North Korea's nuclear issue peacefully, and the U.S. supports that position.
"There's no need to be worried much," Lee Duck-hang, spokesman at the Ministry of Unification, said on the prospect of any pre-emptive U.S. attack on Pyongyang during a press briefing.
"The U.S. has said it supports South Korea's policy on North Korea, and our government intends to solve all the problems peacefully," Lee said.
"It is important to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula by resolving the issues of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles wisely," the spokesman noted, adding that the government will consult closely with the U.S. and other neighbors to that end.
With the inauguration of the Donald Trump administration in the U.S. this year, the possibility of a pre-emptive attack on the North has been suggested as a way to rein in North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile programs.
China's top nuclear envoy arrived in Seoul on Monday to discuss the growing threats from North Korea's missile and nuclear capabilities.
Wu Dawei landed at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, for a four- or five-day trip. Upon arrival, he didn't respond to reporters asking for comments, only saying, "Thank you."
He is scheduled to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-kyun in the afternoon followed by a meeting over dinner. They last met in Beijing in December.
The Seoul meeting is also expected to provide a chance for the Seoul government to listen to China's take on the outcome of the recent summit talks between the United States and China, the decision by Seoul and Washington to deploy a Terminal High Attitude Area Defense system in South Korea and concerns over North Korea's possible additional provocations, among other things.
A woman and her daughter cry at a symbolic memorial at Sennaya subway station in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 4. A bomb blast tore through a subway train deep under Russia's second-largest city St. Petersburg April 3, killing several people and wounding many more in a chaotic scene that left victims sprawled on a smoky platform. / AP-Yonhap
Russian Ambassador to Korea Alexander Timonin
Russia's envoy speaks about attack
By Rachel Lee
The April 3 blast on the St. Petersburg metro system will never be justified as it was a crime against all of humanity and against all religions without exception, Russia's top envoy says.
"I would also like to remind that terrorism has no nationality," Russian Ambassador to Korea Alexander Timonin told The Korea Times. "It is also unacceptable to connect terrorism with someone's national background or religious beliefs."
On April 3, the blast ripped through an underground train in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, killing 14 and injuring 50 more. So far no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, and investigators have not announced a motive.
The suspected bomber was one of the 14 killed; authorities identified him as 22-year-old Akbarzhon Jalilov, a Kyrgyz-born Russian citizen.
This attack was known as the worst terrorist attack outside the North Caucasus since two suicide bombers killed 32 people in Volgograd in four years ago.
"Whatever were their motives, another thing is the point of utmost importance. Terrorism will never be justified," the diplomat said. "This is the common approach of the whole international community."
The diplomat said that it was too early to talk about any organizations at the present stage, which could stand behind humand crime in St. Petersburg.
According to the Russian Investigation Committee, the personality of the suicide bomber who committed the blast in the subway train is identified, but nevertheless the investigation process is underway, and Russia would be able to determine the organization responsible for the terrorist attack only upon completion of the investigation, he added.
"I am convinced that solidarity, which was expressed not only by our allies but also by virtually all the states and what is more significant, by common people, reflects understanding of the necessity to join efforts in fight against terrorism," the ambassador said.
"I would also like to use this opportunity and express my sincere appreciation to acting President of Korea Hwang Kyo-ahn and Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se for passing words of support and condolences to the Russian government and people."
Flowers are laid in front of Embassy of Russia on April 4. / Courtesy of Russian Embassy
To root out terrorism around the world, Moscow has made efforts to fight it and remain constant for many years, Timonin said.
"The President of the Russian Federation thoroughly introduced Russian views at the fight against terrorism at the General Assembly of the United Nations 70th Session in September 2015 and reiterated it recently during phone conversations with U.S. President and leaders of Turkey, Japan, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia and other countries who called after the tragedy to express their condolences," the envoy said.
Calling terrorism a "global threat undermining security of all the countries of the world," Timonin said that in these circumstances, it is hypocritical and irresponsible to make declarations about the threat of terrorism and at the same time turn a blind eye to the channels used to finance and support terrorists, including revenues from drug trafficking, the illegal oil trade and the arms trade.
"It is equally irresponsible to manipulate extremist groups and use them to achieve someone's political goals, hoping that later one will find a way to get rid of terrorists or somehow eliminate them. We consider that any attempts to flirt with terrorists, let alone arm them, are shortsighted and criminal acts," he said.
"Russia proposes to draw upon common values and common interests rather than ambitions. Relying on international law, we must join efforts to address the problems that all of us are facing, and create a genuinely broad international coalition against terrorism. Terrorism is an evil that must be fought by joint efforts."
After the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences and sympathy to the families of those killed and injured.
The president said he spoke with representatives of security agencies and the FSB director. Its law enforcement and security agencies have been working to establish the cause of the explosion and provide their assessments of the situation. City authorities, and if needed, federal authorities, will take the necessary measures to help the families of those affected by the blast, the leader said.
"The reasons behind it are not clear yet, and so it would be premature to speak about them. The investigation is ongoing," Putin said.
"Of course, we always consider all scenarios, including accidental or criminal action, and above all, those of a terrorist nature. The ongoing investigation will soon provide answers regarding the causes of this tragedy."
By Jun Ji-hye
High-ranking U.S. officials are ratcheting up pressure on North Korea by hinting at a possible pre-emptive strike against Pyongyang to remove its nuclear and missile threats.
Their hawkish remarks come as Pyongyang is reportedly gearing up for an additional nuclear test as well as the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Sunday that President Donald Trump has ordered him to prepare "a full range of options," which experts say would include military action as well as economic and diplomatic sanctions.
McMaster added it was a "prudent" decision to send a U.S. Navy strike group led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to waters close to the Korean Peninsula to rein in the increasing nuclear threats by the North.
The Carl Vinson Strike Group is moving toward the western Pacific region after stopping in Singapore as the U.S. Pacific Command changed its itinerary from sailing to Australia to the Western Pacific.
For his part, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said U.S. military strikes on an air base in Syria in response to its use of deadly chemical weapons against civilians were a warning to other nations, including North Korea, that "a response is likely" once any nation poses a threat.
The U.S. officials made the remarks during U.S. media interviews after summits between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Thursday and Friday, during which the two leaders shared the understanding of the seriousness of the North Korean nuclear issue.
"North Korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative behavior," McMaster told Fox News Sunday. "This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear capable regime, and (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping) and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
McMaster continued: "And so, the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region."
Secretary Tillerson told ABC's This Week, referring to the U.S. missile attack on Syria, that "the message that any nation can take is if you violate international norms, if you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken."
By Kim Bo-eun
The search is continuing for crewmembers of the Korean cargo vessel Stellar Daisy which is presumed to have sunk off the coast of Uruguay on March 31.
The freighter's operator Polaris Shipping said Sunday a U.S. patrol plane spotted a yellow or orange colored object that appeared to be a life raft. Vessels searched the area but the operator confirmed Monday the object was not a life raft.
"It has been confirmed as an oil spill," an official at Polaris Shipping told The Korea Times. "The search is continuing."
The authorities initially believed the object could have been a life raft from the Stellar Daisy. Three of the life rafts which were on the vessel have been recovered while two remain missing.
Among the 24-member crew, only two Filipino sailors were rescued from a life raft the day after the sinking. The remaining 14 Filipino and eight Korean crewmembers remain unaccounted for.
Currently, five merchant ships and one rescue recovery vessel are conducting the search.
A Brazilian Air Force C-130 and a P-3 maritime patrol aircraft have also been employed.
Naval ships from Argentina and Uruguay will also join the search.
The Stellar Daisy departed from Brazil, March 26, carrying 260,000 tons of iron ore for China, but is believed to have sunk after sending a distress signal, March 31.
A crewmember sent a message to the vessel's operator saying water was entering the boat and it was listing.
The vessel is presumed to have sunk due to possible defects or old age.
The 25-year-old Stellar Daisy was originally an oil tanker which was remodeled into a bulk carrier in China in 2009.
Family members of the missing crewmembers visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Friday, demanding search efforts be stepped up.
By Lee Kyung-min
Two supporters of former President Park Geun-hye were booked for assaulting journalists at a rally near Cheong Wa Dae, after the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of Park, police said Monday.
According to the Jongno Police Station in Seoul, a man surnamed Park, 47, was put behind bars for punching and kicking three journalists near the Constitutional Court, March 10.
Of the three, two, who worked for local broadcaster KBS, sustained injuries that required two-week and three-week hospital treatments, respectively. The remaining one, who worked for the Joongang Ilbo, sustained an injury to his retina after being hit by Park with his glasses on. Park also broke a KBS camera worth 1.1 million won ($963).
Police said Park, who lives in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, came to Seoul to participate in the rally to support former President Park.
Park told police that he was enraged at the media coverage that was heavily biased against the ex-president. He had no record of any similar prior offenses.
His arrest follows a similar incident a month earlier in which another Park supporter was detained for assaulting two journalists with a steel ladder.
Police said the man surnamed Lee, 55, hit two reporters with a steel ladder, in front of Anguk Station near the presidential office, venting his frustration over the court ruling.
He was one of many supporters who gathered near the station to participate in the rally to demand the court overturn the impeachment of Park.
Lee told police he was enraged by the ruling and expressed his overall distrust and discontent toward the media for what he called "biased coverage against Park."
He was also detained and questioned for sitting in a tent that was illegally erected in Gwanghwamun Square during a support rally.
Six others were also booked without physical detention for similar offenses.
An overall view of the destroyed interior. / Yonhap
By Lee Han-soo
The ill-fated ferry Sewol was finally moved to a dry dock from the semi-submersible recovery ship on Sunday, 1,089 days after the tragic sinking off the southwestern island of Jindo.
Soon after the transfer, the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries released pictures taken inside the half-destroyed hull. The pictures show severe corrosion and rusting here and there as well as the ugly metal structure of a cabin laid bare over nearly three years under salt water.
By Jung Min-ho
Prosecutors grilled former President Park Geun-hye for the fourth time in jail, Monday, over the corruption scandal that removed her from office last month.
According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, senior prosecutor Lee Won-seok and two assistant investigators questioned Park at Seoul Detention Center.
This was the first time for Lee to interrogate her at the facility in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province. The previous three sessions involved senior prosecutor Han Woong-jae. Park was jailed after the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for her on 13 charges on March 31.
While Lee has been in charge of investigating bribery suspicions between her and businessmen, Han focused on other allegations.
With the presidential election campaign set to begin April 17, prosecutors are stepping up their investigation to finish it before that date. If not, they must indict her on April 19 at the latest before the warrant expires.
So far, Park has not given them anything meaningful. Charges against her include bribery, abuse of authority and the passing of state secrets to an unauthorized person her close friend Choi Soon-sil. But she repeatedly claimed that she didn't do anything illegal or order her aides to do so to help Choi.
Park is not expected to change her stance. She recently fired seven of her nine lawyers after they reportedly advised her to admit to some of the charges to fight effectively in court.
Yoo Young-ha, one of the two remaining lawyers, accompanied her during the interrogation as he did for the last three times.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Court will hold a hearing Tuesday to decide whether to arrest former presidential secretary Woo Byung-woo the last missing piece of the puzzle in the scandal.
Woo will defend himself over charges, including abuse of authority, at 10:30 a.m. in front of Judge Kwon Soon-ho. The result is expected early Wednesday morning.
Woo, who worked at Cheong Wa Dae from May 2014 to October 2016, allegedly abused his power to manipulate government officials and penalize those who were uncooperative with the Park administration.
Moreover, he is suspected of impeding the investigation into the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol by pressuring prosecutors not to search and seize the computer server in a Coast Guard situation room. Prosecutors suspect he did so to protect Park, who was missing during the crucial first seven hours of the sinking.
A Seoul court will hold a hearing this week to decide whether to issue a warrant to arrest a former presidential secretary in connection with a corruption scandal that led to the removal of former President Park Geun-hye from office, officials said Monday.
The Seoul Central District Court will hold the hearing Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to decide whether to arrest Woo Byung-woo, who served as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs from 2015 to 2016, they said.
The former aide of the ousted president is accused of aiding and abetting her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil in meddling in state affairs.
Prosecutors also suspect that Woo tried to disrupt a special presidential inspector's investigation into the scandal and interfered with personnel issues of government officials.
Woo has denied any wrongdoing.
In February, an independent counsel team that looked into the scandal sought a warrant for Woo, but the same court rejected it, saying the allegations are still debatable. (Yonhap)
Former President Park Geun-hye's lawyer Yoo Young-ha arrives at her house in southern Seoul by car, March 20, the eve of the prosecution's questioning of the ousted president. Yoo has virtually failed to defend Park as she was arrested after the questioning, but Park sticks with him and fired other lawyers. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Kim Rahn
Former President Park Geun-hye has fired seven out of her nine lawyers as she is preparing for a legal battle over the massive corruption scandal which led to her ouster and arrest.
The lawyers reportedly had internal disputes because she only allowed Yoo Young-ha, who has virtually led the defense team, to contact her. Yoo reportedly failed to consult with the other lawyers in preparing for the trial.
The prosecution investigating the corruption allegations said Sunday that it received notice from Park's side that seven of the nine members on her defense team have been fired. Most of them have defended the former president since she was undergoing the Constitutional Court's impeachment hearings.
The remaining two are Yoo, 55, and Chae Myung-sung, 39. Yoo has defended Park since she faced the prosecution's investigation when the scandal was snowballing in November, and Chae joined the defense team in December ahead of the impeachment hearings.
Most of the lawyers were reportedly dissatisfied with Yoo, the only one who meets their client, saying he did not share information and Park's thoughts with them and ignored their opinions.
Sources in legal circles say Yoo insisted on his opinion throughout the scandal, from the investigation by the prosecution and the independent counsel to the impeachment hearings. "Most of the other lawyers agreed it was better for Park to undergo the independent counsel's questioning and to attend the Constitutional Court's last hearing. But Yoo opposed this, and Park followed his opinion," a source said.
Despite the criticism that Yoo's inept strategy has led to Park's failure, it seems Park keeps trusting him _ only him.
This is reminiscent of Park's personnel management style during her term: she preferred loyalty to other characteristics and abilities, so she appointed a small number of loyal aides to this position and then that position.
It was rumored earlier that due to the discord with Yoo, some of the lawyers were considering voluntarily resigning. But Park dismissed them suddenly and it seems she did not talk about the dismissal with them in advance.
"I learned of my dismissal through media reports," one of the lawyers told a local daily. "If she was to fire us so easily, I don't understand why she hired us in the first place."
This is also in line with how she managed state affairs: she did not communicate with aides, and often decided important affairs on her own, such as disbanding the Korea Coast Guard following the Sewol ferry sinking without prior notice to the coast guard's leaders.
As Park sticks with Yoo, she is likely to maintain the "I don't know anything" stance during future trials. Yoo may try to form a new team with new members, but it is unknown whether experienced, skillful lawyers will join.
Central SOEs vow to support Xiongan
13:36, April 10, 2017 Global Times
A construction site in the newly announced Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei Province on Thursday Photo: IC
About 30 central State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have showed their determination to support the development of the recently announced Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei Province. Experts said these firms could help facilitate the new economic zone by taking part in infrastructure construction and supporting industrial layout.
The Xiongan New Area, which was announced on April 1, is about 100 kilometers southeast of Beijing, and spans three counties - Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin - that sit at the center of the triangular area formed by Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, Hebei's capital.
As of the weekend, about 30 central SOEs, including China Railway Construction Corp, Shenhua Group, Sinopec Group, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp and China Unicom, have made moves to show their intention to support the central government's plan in Xiongan.
Sinopec Group Chairman Wang Yupu said at a meeting Wednesday that the company aims to help the new area develop in a green and low-carbon way by increasing exploration and development of geothermal energy in the future, according to information that Sinopec sent to the Global Times Sunday.
Sinopec began to explore geothermal energy in Xiongxian in 2009 and its heating capacity in the county reached 4.5 million square meters in 2016, the company said, noting that it has created a "Xiongxian model" and that the technology and experience can be applied to the new area, according to the oil giant.
China Eastern Airlines told the Global Times on Friday via e-mail that the airline will promote the building of an air transport hub and logistics park in the new economic zone, and will provide services for advanced manufacturing and high tech industries
The company said that it would like to be a pioneer among the central SOEs expected to support Xiongan.
Some central SOEs are expected to help the growth of Xiongan as they could move their headquarters to the area, taking part in infrastructure construction and offer industrial support, Wang Danqing, a partner with Beijing-based consultancy ACG, told the Global Time on Sunday.
Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, added that to help the new economic zone deploy industries, central SOEs should make full use of their primary business.
"Central SOEs in sectors like infrastructure and transportation will be the first ones to enter Xiongan," Dong said, noting that it is necessary for central SOEs in manufacturing, heavy and chemical industries to follow suit.
Those companies could also bring their research and development centers as well as markets to the new area to further explore high tech and green industries, according to Wang.
Firm support
Experts said that central SOEs are a reliable force that will play a leading role in the construction of the Xiongan New Area by bringing in resources like capital, talent and technology.
"As the construction planning of Xiongan will be put forward step by step, the timing for central SOEs to move in and how they will apply will be gradually revealed," Dong said.
Apart from central SOEs, other financial institutions, cross-border companies as well as listed firms will also join the trend, experts said, noting that the process will take several years or even longer.
However, there will be certain regulations because the Chinese government will not let companies come into Xiongan randomly, and listed companies will not be allowed to take advantage of the new economic zone to manipulate capital, Dong said.
Liu Shiyu, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at a meeting on Saturday that listed companies are expected to shoulder responsibilities for China's strategies. "Listed companies should follow and support China's development strategy instead of bringing trouble to the country," Liu was quoted as saying in a report by domestic news portal sohu.com.
As the Xiongan New Area is "a strategy crucial for the next millennium," the central and local governments will make joint efforts to roll out a strict development plan, Wang noted.
"Central SEOs are waiting for the call from the government to move into Xiongan. Infrastructure construction may start from the second half this year when some companies could get involved," Dong said.
What went wrong for Moon Jae-in, presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK)?
By Choi Ha-young
Moon Jae-in
The once odds-on favorite to become the country's next leader is now facing a serious challenge from Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party, a smaller liberal party, as conservative voters are rallying around Ahn.
In some opinion polls, Ahn has overtaken Moon.
A KBS poll, conducted one month before the May 9 presidential election, showed Ahn has support of 36.8 percent, 4.1 percentage points higher than Moon. Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) came third with 6.5 percent, while Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party had 2.8 percent and Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party gained 1.5 percent.
In a hypothetical two-way race, Ahn had a wide lead on Moon by 13.2 percentage points.
The two are in a neck-and-neck race in other polls released Sunday and Monday. In a Chosun Ilbo survey, Ahn was supported by 34.4 percent of respondents, 2.2 percentage points more than Moon. They were tied for the top spot in a Hankyoreh poll at 37.7 percent.
By Yi Whan-woo
Hong Joon-pyo, the presidential candidate of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP), faces criticism for abusing a loophole in the election law to prevent a by-election to choose his successor as governor of South Gyeongsang Province.
Hong announced his resignation from the governor's post just three minutes before the deadline, and notified the National Election Commission (NEC) of the decision just before midnight, late Sunday.
His move was aimed at preventing a by-election that would have taken place jointly with the presidential election on May 9 if he had notified the NEC earlier.
Hong has been against the by-election, citing that the quadrennial local elections will take place in June 2018 and using provincial funds to elect a short-term governor was a waste of money.
But several residents were infuriated by his decision, accusing him of "exploiting loopholes" of the election regulations against voters' wishes.
On Monday morning, they lodged a protest in front of the provincial government building where a retirement ceremony for Hong was underway.
He announced his resignation at 11:57 p.m. Sunday, three minutes before the 30-day deadline set by the commission for candidates to run in the presidential election.
He then delivered a letter notifying the NEC of his resignation in person to the commission's regional offices at 11:58 p.m. The notification was to be received by the commission by Sunday midnight to allow it time to take registration from potential candidates and to run a by-election accordingly. But it was not received in time.
People's Party Chairman Rep. Park Jie-won holds a party meeting at the National Assembly, Monday. The Democratic Party of Korea called People's Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo "Park's avatar," saying Park is behind Ahn's recent appeal to conservative voters. / Yonhap
By Kim Hyo-jin
Ahn Cheol-soo
Ahn Cheol-soo has emerged as the biggest challenger to Moon Jae-in in the presidential race, overtaking Moon in some opinion polls, largely because many conservative voters have opted to support Ahn, a center-left politician, instead of conservative candidates from scandal-hit parties.
Analysts, however, say it is still early to say whether the conservatives' support for Ahn will continue until election day. Most of all, conservatives have no loyalty for Ahn, they say.
"Conservatives have yet to settle on Ahn," said Bae Jong-chan, the chief director of pollster Research and Research. "As much as they had been inflexible in shifting their support, their current behavior can be very flexible."
Recent polls have shown the race tightening as Moon of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) faltered and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo of the People' Party surged.
A Korea research poll showed Sunday that support for Ahn jumped to 36.8 percent, up 28.4 percentage points from the previous month, beating Moon at 32.7 percent.
Ahn led Moon with 38 to 22.8 percent in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the conservative parties' home turf. Plus, Moon trailed him in the respondents group aged 50 and older, categorized as traditional conservatives. Ahn garnered 43.8 percent of the support from those aged 50-59, viewed as casting their votes in the upcoming poll, while Moon gained 25.2 percent.
By Chyung Eun-ju
Brazil has had its fair share of scandal and corruption allegations that generated widespread shock and the Operation Weak Flesh investigation adds to the pile. Although the global impact of this new probe has been negative, domestically it does not seem to have had such a big toll, as the media seems to say.
While fast-food companies in Korea such as Mom's Touch stopped selling chicken nuggets at its 1,000 stores and Burger King stopped selling its chicken crunch burger, top Chinese retailers in the country removed Brazilian beef and poultry back in Brazil, and churrascarias did not have much cutbacks.
Brazilian newspaper Folha had reporters go to five restaurants in Sao Paulo on a Saturday to verify the impact of Operation Weak Flesh on consumers and reported that they did not notice much difference. The restaurants had only a few empty tables and in Fogo de Chao, one of the biggest churrascaria franchises in the country, in the span of 15 minutes, eight families arrived for lunch.
An employee of the restaurant affirmed that they had the best performance in March last week and no customers were worried about the origins of the meat.
In another restaurant called Bovinu's, manager Marcelo Fernando Alves said, "On the 18th, a woman asked about the origin of the meat," and according to him the products that are served are imported. "National meat is not quite as good as the ones that come from abroad, so we prioritize international ones."
In Marginal Grill in Marginal Tiete, manager Gilmar Vieira said he did not see any changes and the customers did not seem worried about this topic.
"When this story started we thought it was weird. We thought it was to shift focus from the pension reform and outsourcing bill. We have eaten meat for so many years and never had a problem, nothing ever happened," said Flavia Castilho, 35, administrative coordinator.
A Brazilian law student, 23, said he was not concerned at all and that the operation was exaggerated abroad, saying "I am not going to stop my habit of eating meat over this news."
According to Inacio Sousa, the manager of Jardineira Grill in Itaim Bibi, there has been an increase in customers asking to see the grill to see the meat being prepared, which is a rare request, and he confirmed none of his suppliers were being investigated and they were more selective of their meats.
In Novilho de Prata and Pobrejuan customers made jokes about the topic and asked if the meat had cardboard and acid or if pigs' heads were used in sausages in a humorous manner.
Several countries have banned beef and poultry from Brazil due to sales of tainted meat, and investigators say they have evidence that 21 meat companies bribed government inspectors to approve sales and exports even when the meat and poultry was contaminated or spoiled. Currently, 33 federal inspectors are being investigated; Brazil's two biggest meat suppliers JBS SA and BRF SA have been named. Agriculture makes up almost a quarter of the economy so it has been a setback in the government's efforts to turn Brazil around.
There is no indication that the probe is connected to other corruption investigations but Operation Weak Flesh has been ongoing for at least two years in Curitiba, Parana state, the same place where the Car Wash investigation was and the police claim some of the bribes by the meat companies were intended for political parties.
Investigators say they have more information that has not been released while JBS and BRF have been marketing heavily on newspaper ads and prime time TV spots to recover their image. The government also tried to assure consumers by providing information on the investigation about the sanitary inspection system. The Brazilian government put much effort to have foreign countries lift bans and China, Chile, Egypt, and South Korea have already lifted import restrictions, so the supply disruption may pass soon.
The writer has lived in Brazil for 18 years and studied at Graded School. She currently studies at Seoul National University and works at Arirang TV. Her email address is: elainechyung@gmail.com.
Ssangyong Motor has decided to rehire 60 laid-off workers for the production of its new G4 Rexton SUV. The automaker, now controlled by Mahindra and Mahindra of India, brought back 456 workers overall from their unpaid leave in 2013.
Ssangyong's move serves as proof that labor market flexibility can work. But they also give all parties concerned _ workers, management and the rest of the nation _ a pause to think about what has happened.
Ssangyong recorded a modest operating profit in 2007 and went into the red for the following seven years. The automaker had been sold three times: first to Daewoo Motor (now Tata Motor of India) then to SAIC of China and finally to the current owner. It also suffered from one of the worst strikes, which was plagued by clashes between workers and police for 77 days.
Then, it was only two years ago that the Supreme Court confirmed the legality of workers fired by the company.
Despite its bottom line still being in red, in 2013, the company hired those on unpaid leave, about a quarter of those who were let go of. It rehired 40 more thanks to the success of its small SUV Tivoli in 2015 and is rehiring 60 this year. Last year, it finally turned itself around to record a profit amid a seven-year streak of no strikes.
This is a rare success by which a bankrupt firm comes around thanks to the cooperation of workers and management and embraces the laid-off workers, showing other unions can let up on its strong opposition and make the labor market more flexible.
A spokesman told The Korea Times, "Much of this rehiring program is owed to the decision by Anand Mahindra, chairman of the owner group, who met with union representatives in 2015 and guaranteed their staged re-employment." There was only one other memorable case of rehiring, which was by Daewoo Motor. "It would serve as an example for other automakers," the spokesman said.
This story, however, needs a couple of loose ends to be tied up so it can qualify as a lesson in the advantages of labor flexibility. First, there are still about 1,200 workers who have been waiting for years for their turn to return to the Ssangyong workforce. Second, a number of former Ssangyong workers and their family members killed themselves, a case that is still remembered as one of tragic stories of Korea Inc.
Moon, Ahn should have 1-on-1 debate
With less than one month to go before the presidential election, two strong candidates are waging a close battle.
Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea had been leading most opinion polls by a large margin. But with parties finalizing their nominations, support for Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor People's Party has soared, turning the race into a two-way battle. More recently, Ahn knocked Moon off the top spot in some polls even in a five-way race involving conservative and leftist runners as well as in a hypothetical two-way competition.
What is unfolding in this year's early election polls is a far cry from that in past when conservative parties swept the southeastern Gyeongsang provinces whereas liberal ones dominated the rival Jeolla provinces. The two frontrunners are neck and neck in Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area, plus Busan and the Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces.
This phenomenon is the natural result of waning support for conservative contenders following the imprisonment of former President Park Geun-hye. At a time when one of the two strong candidates is likely to be president, the most important thing is for the people to determine who is best suited to lead the nation.
We cannot overemphasize the importance of the upcoming election. Voters should make a difficult choice within the shortest amount of time ever. The crisis facing us at home and abroad is profound _ North Korea's missile and nuclear threats, conflict with China over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system, continuing economic woes and political unrest.
One has to wonder if Moon and Ahn are equipped with the leadership and qualifications needed to head off these challenges, as the people's doubts on them appear to linger.
Moon's biggest task is to cope with the rampant antagonism against him. At a recent poll conducted at the request of the Hankook Ilbo, more than three out of 10 respondents (32.1 percent) found Moon, who served as a key aide to the late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, disagreeable. By contrast, Ahn, the software mogul-turned-politician is failing to win voters' confidence in his ability to run state affairs. Many seem to feel uneasy about his party having only 40 parliamentary seats.
In the run up to Park's impeachment, Koreans have felt how dangerous it is to choose a leader solely based on image and prejudice. That's why we must filter out unqualified candidates thoroughly.
So television debates for this year's election need to be completely different. Candidates should engage in debate purely with their thoughts and knowledge without scripts. This is badly needed to grasp how well they understand policy.
It is also imperative for Moon and Ahn to have a one-on-one "limitless" debate so voters can judge in detail who is more capable.
By Andrew Salmon
Two weeks ago, I dined with a rather interesting visitor to Seoul. An ex-military officer, he assesses geopolitical risk for a global bank, and had been put in touch with your columnist by a mutual acquaintance. We compared notes on various peninsula-related matters.
He told me that several multinational banks and companies were quietly dusting off and reviewing plans to evacuate expatriates from South Korea in the event of a crisis. This raised my eyebrows. I live at ground zero central Seoul but had sensed no unusual tension.
These concerns, the gentleman explained, stem not from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a largely predictable quantity but from neophyte US President Donald Trump. Some fear that the mercurial POTUS is mulling military action against the North fears buttressed by his secretary of state's comments that "all options" are on the table.
Our dinner took place prior to Trump's warning that the U.S. would deal with North Korea independently of China, and before the U.S. Navy devastated a Syrian air base with a cruise missile barrage.
Since then, doom merchants have gone ballistic and media pundits are suffering from a near-terminal attack of the vapors.
"Trump wants war to divert attention from domestic failings!" quaver some. "The Syrian strike is a work-up for a North Korea operation!" simper others. "If Trump hits North Korea, Kim will invade South Korea, and/or retaliate with nukes!" gasp yet others. Even my mother (!) called from the UK to warn me.
Let's calm down, man up and take account.
The US targeted a Syrian air base. Although the base boasted a number of reinforced hangers with overhead cover, its aircraft were neither dug in nor protected by missile defense systems. Nor were its planes dispersed; they were concentrated. Essentially, this was a soft target for stand-off weapons.
The targets for a U.S. strike on North Korea are likely to be nuclear facilities, fissile materials and strategic missiles. Any tourist who has taken Pyongyang's subway cannot fail to notice that North Korea is very deeply dug in. Its conventional assets, from artillery to aircraft, enjoy far greater protection than concrete roofs: They lurk in hillside casements and hangers tunneled into mountainsides.
Kim's weaponized atomic materials are almost certainly afforded maximum protection. It seems unlikely that all are concentrated at one site. His missiles are widely dispersed and those on mobile launchers can hide from eye-in-the-sky reconnaissance under bridges and in tunnels. North Korea also boasts one of the most comprehensive air-defense nets on earth, and human intelligence on the nation's upper echelons is severely lacking.
Trump may be ignorant of this, but his officials notably his impressive defense secretary and national security advisor are not. These pros know what an extraordinarily tough nut North Korea is.
The current focus of U.S. political-military attention on Syria further militates against a strike on Kim's Kingdom. While U.S. forces are capable of fighting simultaneously in different theaters, it seems unlikely that Washington would unload on a tier-one threat like Pyongyang while also confronting Damascus, Moscow and Tehran.
Prior to a U.S. strike, there would be signals: Flurries of regional diplomatic activity and mass deployment of visible assets carriers, surface ships and aircraft.
Even in a worst case scenario i.e. if the U.S. did go kinetic would that spell Armageddon? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Kim's army is hardly fit to mount an invasion of the South. If Pyongyang went nuclear or, perhaps, even struck major civilian targets with conventional weapons chances are, Seoul and Washington would counter-invade. That spells "endgame" for Kim. So, Pyongyang's retaliation might be more moderate than the world fears.
Nevertheless, a military strike is colossally risky. It could also escalate to a Beijing-Washington clash. These factors make it unlikely.
The U.S. Treasury Department, rather than the U.S. military, is a handier weapon in this situation. However, if Trump is frightening Kim as well as the pundits that is no bad thing.
A final qualifier. Every Korean crisis since 1953 has been contained short of war. Experience suggests this will continue. But one day, another risk analyst notes, prior assumptions will prove wrong. Then, all hell may, indeed, break loose.
Sweet dreams, Seoulites.
Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.
By Yoon Sung-won
The National Tax Service (NTS) imposition of 300 billion won ($293 million) in back taxes on Oracle Korea for allegedly dodging corporate taxes has been upheld, according to industry sources, Monday.
The NTS slapped the punitive tax in January last year, after discovering that the company transferred some 2 trillion won of gains it earned in Korea between 2008 and 2014 to a tax haven abroad.
Oracle Korea protested the decision and filed a complaint with the Tax Tribunal in April last year. But the tribunal dismissed the request in November.
Oracle Korea filed a suit with the Seoul Administrative Court this February, calling for the cancellation of the measure.
"We have paid taxes in accordance with the law here. But the NTS disagreed with us," an Oracle Korea spokeswoman said.
"We filed the lawsuit because we cannot agree with what the NTS claims. What the NTS argues includes things that we don't see as true. So we decided to leave the case to the court's judgment."
The Oracle Korea spokeswoman declined to comment about the details.
Oracle Korea is working with Kim & Chang, Korea's top law firm, to handle the case. Expectations are that the company and the tax authority will wage a long legal war.
Through an audit of Oracle Korea, the NTS said it found that the company dodged about 17.4 billion won of tax in 2008, 25.2 billion won in 2009 and 20.4 billion won in 2010, according to the sources.
Oracle has allegedly avoided tax by sending most of its profits from Korea to its subsidiary in Ireland. The company had its affiliates in the Asia and the Pacific region, including Oracle Korea, establish contracts with its Irish unit in 2008 to transfer all the profits they have generated in the region to it.
Since 2008, Oracle Korea has not sent its profits to its headquarters in the United States, but to the Irish entity.
In this way, Oracle Korea saved 109.8 billion won of tax in 2012, 70.9 billion won in 2013 and 71.2 billion won in 2014, sources said.
The NTS, however, determined that the ultimate beneficiary of the profits was Oracle's headquarters, not the Irish subsidiary.
The tax authority cooperated with its Irish counterpart to find that the subsidiary there was not an Irish resident under that country's tax law.
MAN Truck & Bus Korea President Max Burger poses in front of the company's newly introduced city bus model, the MAN Lion's City CNG premium bus, during the Seoul International Motor Show held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, April 7. / Courtesy of MAN Truck & Bus Korea
By Jhoo Dong-chan
MAN Truck & Bus Korea sold 1,545 commercial vehicles last year, up 36 percent from a year earlier and up 450 percent from 2011. It was a record high since the company entered the Korean market in 2001.
Buoyed by its success, the vehicle maker also invested $10 million to build its Korean headquarters and service center in the Gyeonggi Province city of Yongin, which were completed last month.
Despite its stellar performances in recent years, MAN Truck & Bus Korea President Max Burger said it faces another obstacle in introducing new bus models here -- government regulations.
"The Korean government's regulations on bus size discourage foreign bus makers from introducing their new bus models in Korea," Burger said.
"Under the regulation, the width of the nation's city bus is limited to 250 centimeters in Korea, 5 centimeters narrower than European standards. MAN Truck & Bus had to establish another production line in Spain to satisfy the nation's regulation in the width of the city bus. It raises the production cost."
MAN Truck & Bus introduced its first city bus models during the Seoul International Motor Show at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, held between March 30 and April 9. Four models, including the MAN Lion's City CNG premium bus, were unveiled but they were not exactly the same model the German commercial vehicle maker sells in the European market.
Because of the regulation in width, MAN Truck & Bus established a new production line in Spain only for the body frame and chassis for its city bus models for the Korean market. Burger said the end price for the four models would have been much cheaper if the width regulation matched Europe's.
Despite its bus models' comparably higher price, MAN Truck & Bus Korea has already sold 100 buses so far in the Korean market.
A company official said their buses are expected to hit Korean streets this year.
"The initial price could be a bit more expensive than other bus models in the market. Considering its maintenance expenses and fuel efficiency costs, however, our models will offset the initial price in the long term."
It also introduced a tour bus last year, but this is the first time for the commercial vehicle maker to introduce a city bus model here.
This is the eighth in a series highlighting operations of foreign luxury brands in Korea. ED.
Burberry Korea Representative Director Kim Min-hee
By Park Jae-hyuk
Burberry, which has become a byword for trenchcoat, has made public its Korean unit's business records so far, unlike other luxury brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, which have avoided disclosing their sales volume and donations in Korea.
The transparent business practice of the British luxury brand, however, has been overshadowed by its stingy social contributions in Korea in consideration of the amount of money it earned here.
According to Burberry Korea's financial statement, Wednesday, the company donated 17 million won ($15,000) in 2015, 7.4 million won in 2014 and 4.2 million won in 2013. Last year's figures are not yet available.
The absolute sum of donations may seem better than those of other luxury brands such as Bulgari Korea and Swatch Group Korea, both of which do not even have donation categories on their financial statements.
But the ratios of donations to profits before taxes were a mere 0.06 percent in 2015, 0.02 percent in 2014 and 0.02 percent in 2013 a far cry from what the global head office posted on its official website.
NANNING, April 10 -- Border police in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said Monday they had seized 537 products made from Siamese crocodiles, a protected species.
The products, including 370 pieces of crocodile skin, 90 tails and 77 specimens, were detected on a logistics vehicle attempting to cross the China-Vietnam border in early March.
The police thoroughly examined the vehicle after noticing that its goods were unusually placed. The driver also failed to provide official document for transporting the products.
The skins were around 43 centimeters wide and at least 1.2 meters long apiece. The longest specimen was nearly two meters long.
Siamese crocodiles are a critically endangered species native to Southeast Asia. Their skin is used as a raw material for luxury leather products on the international market. In China, it is illegal to raise them without a license or to trade and traffic them.
Korean actor Lee Dong Wook, best known for his TV dramas such as "My Girl", "Scent of a Woman", "Hotel King" and the recent hit drama "Guardian: The Lonely and Great God" will be visiting Singapore on 15 April 2017.
This will be his first fan meet in Singapore. Apart from Singapore, Lee will be visiting Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan. Don't miss this lifetime opportunity to catch Lee Dong Wook in Singapore.
Details of Fan Meet:
Event: 2017 LEE DONG WOOK ASIA TOUR IN SINGAPORE
Date: 15 April 2017
Time: 7:30PM
Venue: Mastercard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands, Grand Theatre
Ticket Price: CAT 1 $238/ CAT 2 $178/ CAT 3 $138
Fan Benefits:
- ALL Ticket Holders will be entitled to a Hi-Touch session up close with Lee Dong Wook at the end of the event.
- 180 CAT 1 Ticket Holders will be picked via lucky draw for a Photo-Op Session (20 Pax per photo) with Lee Dong Wook at the end of the event. *Details of the lucky draw will be announced by the organiser at a later date
- 50 CAT 1 Ticket Holders will be picked via lucky draw to receive an Autograph Poster of Lee Dong Wook (Handed out by staff)
Sales Platforms:
Tickets will be available via www.marinabaysands.com/entertainment & www.sistic.com.sg
Jianbing, a popular Chinese street snack, has lately taken New York City by storm.
Brian Goldberg, founder of Mr Bing, and Reuben Shorser, co-founder of the Jianbing Company, both discovered jianbing while studying Mandarin in Beijing. After returning to New York, they both started their own jianbing businesses.
Jianbing is so new to New Yorkers that demand for it has exceeded our expectations, the director of operations at Mr Bing remarked. The company sells several hundred jianbing every day.
To ensure the authenticity of its jianbing, Mr Bing invited Chinese jianbing-makers to train the company's employees in New York. In China, street vendors sell the snack for less than a dollar apiece. In New York, it can go for as much as $15. American consumers have so far given positive feedback about the traditional snack, and have shared pictures of it across social media.
A traditional jianbing starts with batter ladled onto a round cast-iron griddle. After different sauces and ingredients are placed onto the thin crepe, it is folded up to be eaten like a sandwich.
A man from Hollister is accused of breaking into an apartment in Branson last Friday, finding the resident dead, and stealing his stuff. Branson police say the burglar, Leonard Pherigo, 35, didnt tell anyone about the death of his friend and then took his drivers license credit cards, and pickup, and drove to Downstream Casino in Oklahoma.
According to the probable cause statement used as the basis of the charges, a Branson police officer told Pherigo last Thursday that he was banned by apartment managers from being at Branson Park Apartments, 301 Scott Boulevard. Chief Stanley Dobbins says the ban resulted from Pherigo's drug use.
Despite that warning, a detective wrote, Pherigo returned on late Friday afternoon and went to the apartment door of his friend, Mark Pace. He told police that the door was partially open, so he went inside and found Pace's body on the floor. Rather than calling someone, however, he took Pace's driver's license, credit cards and 1992 Dodge pickup, which was in the parking lot.
After the theft, Pherigo drove to Downstream Casino, west of Joplin in Oklahoma. While he was there, he had a medical emergency that looked like a heart attack, Dobbins says, and paramedics took him to a hospital in Joplin. At the hospital, according to Dobbins, Pherigo tried to use his dead friend's ID. The hospital staff recognized that was a lie, and called police. The chief says doctors believe Dobbins' medical emergency likely resulted from the use of an illegal drug.
Joplin police called Branson police on Saturday morning. about Pherigo's use of a fake ID. Joplin police said Pherigo confessed he took the stolen ID from his dead friend. That led to the discovery of Pace's body in the apartment.
Branson police thought at first that they might have a homicide on their hands because of a pool of blood around Pace's body. They couldn't find any visible wounds, however, and closer examination by a coroner and police found the blood came from Pace's nose, according to the chief.
An autopsy in Springfield found Pace likely died from an overdose of the drug ecstasy. Examiners estimate he died sometime Friday morning. Toxicology tests that will give them more information will take several weeks.
Dobbins said Pace had three chihuahuas in his apartment when he died. One of them bit an officer during the examination of the death scene. The dogs have been turned over to an animal rescue organization.
Pherigo is charged with second-degree burglary, for which he could receive a prison sentence up to seven years, and abandonment of a corpse, for which he could receive a prison sentence up to four years. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest on Monday. Pherigo was still in jail in Joplin on Monday, awaiting transfer to the Taney County jail in Forsyth.
Online court records show Pherigo has served prison and jail time since 2000 for at least three convictions for possession of illegal drugs and burglary. He was charged in Taney County in late March with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia; the court summons that was mailed to his last known address in Hollister was returned as undeliverable.
(cnr.cn/Han Jing)
The number of single youths between the ages of 20 and 39 in China has reached 20 million, and the total single population of the country is 58 million.
According to statistics from an online dating website, first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have become dense settlements for single young people. Some argue that being single his now the norm for young adults, while others believe that those who live alone will inevitably become lonely.
(cnr.cn/Han Jing)
For the purposes of the survey, single young people are defined as single people living and working independently in metropolises with fixed accommodations. Due to high living costs, this population is often under huge pressure. Lacking a sense of belonging in the cities where they work, they often struggle with their migrant identity, relationship status and lack of property.
Though social media can be balm when it comes to spiritual care and support, it does not offer a real, permanent solution. Instead, many believe, this population requires true friendship and romance.
(cnr.cn/Han Jing)
According to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Dongguan and Changsha are the top 10 cities with the most single people in the country. Most Chinese cities are plagued by gender imbalance, which is one major cause of the growing trend of singleness.
Experts suggest that young people expand their social networks, seek out new friends and improve their communication skills to break out of their solitary situations.
(cnr.cn/Han Jing)
BEIJING, April 10 -- China's rapidly expanding financial industry is being placed under greater regulatory scrutiny as authorities step up efforts to curb widespread malfeasance in the sector.
In remarks published Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that the country's financial sector was vulnerable to risks such as bad assets, bond defaults, shadow banking and Internet financing, with frequent illegal and corrupt activities.
To put the market in order, the premier urged for efforts to crack down on bank violations on giving credit, insider trading in securities market and fraud of insurance companies, as well as to relentlessly punish internal supervisors and company managers who collude with major players in the market and steal and sell confidential information.
On the same day, China's top anti-graft authority announced that Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, was being investigated for suspected serious violation of the code of conduct of the Communist Party of China.
Li's message was the latest from high-level officials who have repeatedly highlighted the importance of containing financial risks as the country faces a build-up of debt and booming new financial products challenge regulations.
Since China's tone-setting economic conference last December pledged preventing financial risks as a priority, regulators from the banking, securities and insurance sectors have made solid efforts to clean up the market.
In the first quarter of 2017, China's banking regulator meted out 485 administrative penalties with fines totalling 190 million yuan (about 27.54 million U.S. dollars).
A total of 197 people were held accountable for banking irregularities in the period, of which 19 were disqualified for executive positions and 11 barred from banking business, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).
Yang Jiacai, assistant to the CBRC chairman, disclosed that the commission would create more guidelines to better regulate the market.
In the capital market, China's securities regulator has maintained zero tolerance on illegal market activities such as insider trading and stock manipulation, after the market rout in 2015 shattered investor confidence.
Last month, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) slapped a 3.47 billion yuan fine on a company chairman for stock market manipulation, a record high.
The fine received by Xian Yan, chairman of P2P Financial Information Service Co., approached the total of fines handed out by the CSRC for all of last year, showing the regulator's determination to rein in risky behavior.
Grabbing headlines, the "barbaric" behavior of some Chinese insurers that use leveraged money to buy shares in listed companies triggered sharp volatility in the market at the end of last year.
China's insurance regulator barred Yao Zhenhua, chairman of Foresea Life Insurance, from the insurance sector for 10 years for irregular market operations.
The slew of high-profile punishments in the financial system underscore government determination to balance stable growth and financial risk control, according to analysts.
To make risk control more effective, China needs to reform its financial regulation system to put cross-market and cross-sector financial services under more coordinated scrutiny, according to senior officials.
Wang Zhaoxing, vice chairman of CBRC, said at a forum earlier this year that the commission would strengthen coordination and information sharing with the insurance and securities regulators as well as the central bank to plug loopholes in regulation.
Despite latent risks, China is confident of preventing systemic financial troubles.
At a press conference after the conclusion of the annual legislative session last month, Premier Li struck a confident tone on the country's financial stability, ruling out the possibility of systemic risks as "the country has plenty of policy options at its disposal."
"China's budget deficit to GDP ratio stands below 3 percent, the capital adequacy ratio of commercial banks is 13 percent and their provision coverage ratio is at 176 percent, all above the international standards for financial security," Li said.
PRESS RELEASE
Russian Defense Ministry Suspends De-Confliction Hotline with Pentagon
April 8, 2017 (EIRNS)Russia has officially suspended the deconfliction hotline with the U.S. as of today, as Moscow's Defense Ministry said would be done.
The Ministry stated yesterday that
"About an hour ago, the U.S. military attache in Moscow was summoned to the Defense Ministry to get an official note, which said the Russian side was suspending as of 00:00 hours on April 8 the observance of its obligations under the memorandum of understanding on prevention of incidents and ensuring of flight safety in the course of operation in the Syrian Arab Republic."
This was stated by Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. He said that his Ministry had sent an appropriate notification to the Pentagon via military diplomatic channels earlier on Friday.
U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Michelle Baldanza ingenuously told TASS on Friday, that Washington still wants to maintain dialogue with Russia on ensuring flight safety in the skies over Syria.
"The Department of Defense maintains the desire for dialogue through the flight safety channel. It is to the benefit of all parties operating in the air over Syria to avoid accidents and miscalculation, and we hope the Russian Ministry of Defense comes to this conclusion as well,"
she said.
PRESS RELEASE
London Times Proclaims We British Are Running Trump Attack on Syria, Russia
April 9, 2017 (EIRNS)With the arrogance that only centuries-old British Empire mouthpieces could muster, the Sunday Times of London specified today how the United States will proceed in confronting Russia under British direction.
In its lead story, titled "Russia Accused of Complicity in Syria War Crime," the Times asserted:
"Britain and America will this week directly accuse Russia of complicity in war crimes in Syria and demand that Vladimir Putin pull the rug from Bashar al-Assads blood-soaked regime. "Rex Tillerson, President Donald Trumps Secretary of State, will fly to Moscow to confront Russia with evidence that it had knowledge of, and sought to cover up, the regimes deadly sarin strike last week that left 87 people dead. "Last night Britain and America were working up a joint plan to demand that Putin withdraw military support from the dictator in Damascus and begin a transition to a new regime."
The article is accompanied by an op-ed penned by Her Majestys Secretary of State for Defense, Sir Michael Fallon, ("Puppeteer Putin Must Abandon Assad and Join Us in Building Peace" . Fallon praised President Trump for passing
"his first test as commander-in-chief" by attacking Syria, and reviewed the British role in bringing this about: "The British and American governments have been in close contact at all levels before and after the strikes. The Prime Minister was informed in advance of the strike taking place. The U.S. Defense Secretary, James Mattis, called me to share their assessment of the regimes culpability. Together we reviewed the options they were considering. He called me again later to advise me of the presidents decision and give us advance warning of the strike in the early hours of Friday morning."
Fallon specified three conditions for a so-called "long-term solution" in Syria:
Bashar al-Assad must go.
Creation of a "representative government" instead centered around the Anglo-Saudi-run terrorist Syrian "opposition," which Fallon praised as the reasonable parties in recent talks, as opposed to "the regime and its backers;" and
Russia either goes along with this charade, or it will be treated as the enemy.
In other words, Her Majestys Government remains fully intent on provoking full-scale military confrontation between the United States and Russia, given that Russia has not, will not, and should not meet these demands, as Fallon is well aware.
PRESS RELEASE
Intelligence Professionals Continue To Raise Questions About Phony Briefing to Trump, Syria Policy
April 9, 2017 (EIRNS)If Western intelligence agencies are to regain any credibility in the aftermath of President Trumps Thursday night military strike on Syria for a crime it did not commit, they must violate "group-think" and speak out, former British diplomat and senior intelligence professional Alastair Crooke pled in an April 8 posting to Robert Parrys Consortiumnews online publication.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency "almost certainly" knows in detail that the jihadis, not the Syrian regime, were responsible for the chemical weapons attack, Crooke wrote. He specified what the intelligence services "ought to now say," notably using the same five-point evaluation posted the day before by a pseudonymous contributor, Publius Tacitus, to Col. Pat Langs (ret.) "Sic Semper Tyrannis" blog , but without citation. Clearly, this evaluation is circulating widely:
"The Russians briefed the United States on the proposed [Syrian Air Force] target in Idlib. There is a dedicated phone line that is being used to coordinate and de-conflict on any upcoming operation.... "The United States was fully briefed on the fact that there was a target in Idlib that the Russians believed was a weapons/explosives depot for Islamic rebels. "The Syrian Air Force hit the target with conventional weapons. All involved expected to see a massive secondary explosion. That did not happen. Instead, smoke, chemical smoke, began billowing from the site. It turns out that the Jihadist rebels used that site to store chemicals (not sarin) that were deadly. The chemicals included organic phosphates and chlorine and they followed the wind, and killed civilians. "There was a strong wind blowing that day and the cloud was driven to a nearby village and caused casualties. "We know it was not sarin. How? Very simple. The so-called first responders handled the victims without gloves. If this had been sarin they would have died. Sarin on the skin will kill you."
A different contributor to Pat Langs blog, this one writing yesterday under the pseudonym "Walrus," added a military consideration to this ongoing debate among military and civilian intelligence professionals over what must be done now to salvage the situation. "Walrus" expressed the concerns of many that President Trump is being pressured to go along with a major escalation in Syria, including no-fly zones, safe-zones, and American/allied boots on the ground in Idlib, which, if adopted, would be totally unacceptable to both Russia and Syria.
Walrus concluded that
"the only alternative I can think of is the one Colonel Lang has been pleading for for weeks: for Russia and Syria to get boots on the ground in Idlib right now and roll the Jihadis up. Next week is going to be too late. The race into Idlib has started. Is there a Russian air mobile brigade available? Whoever is first into Idlib is going to determine the course of history for some time to come."
a proposed approach which Lyndon LaRouche emphatically endorsed in discussions today.
PRESS RELEASE
Jacques Cheminade Met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Made a Powerful Intervention for Peace in the Middle East
Lebanese President Michel Aoun (left) and Jacques Cheminade.
April 9, 2017 (EIRNS)On April 7, just hours after Donald Trump had ordered an attack on the Syrian base of Al Shairat, French Presidential candidate Jacques Cheminade met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun at the Baabda presidential palace, to talk, quite the contrary, about "peace through development" for the whole region. Christine Bierre, in charge of this region for Cheminades movement, also attended the meeting.
Following a 30-minute discusson with President Aoun, Cheminade made the following remarks to the press gathered at the Presidential palace.
"I have come to Lebanon in the spirit of a Free Lebanon, over and above all political factions, as one should always consider such things in France, and to show the role Lebanon can play in the Middle East and in world affairs. For a long time now, in particular since February 1989, General Aoun has been very important in this respect because he has always shown great political courage in that respect and great independent mindedness, nurtured by his political courage. "Today, I have come here to say that France must do everything to support the cause of Lebanon, and in particular to make sure that Europe and France contribute much more aid to the political and economic refugees coming to Lebanon and to those in Lebanon who receive the refugees and who sometimes live less well than they do. France must do all in her power to deal with that question. We know that there are between 2 and 2.5 million refugees in Lebanon, for a population of 4.5 million inhabitants. We must absolutely do something to help Lebanon. "The way to help in a decisive manner is to allow the refugees to return to their countries, in particular to Syria, and to create conditions of peace in Syria, through economic development and reconstruction. We did this in France after World War II, with public credit and a commitment to the future. Today we need credit for the development of Syria so that the Syrians can go back to their country and live there. With time, and that time must be as short as possible, that is the only way to establish peace through mutual development in the Near and Middle East. "What happened today at dawn, the missiles fire from an American vessel at an important Syrian base is something that will no doubt worsen what is happening here. It was carried out before an international investigation into what really happened in Syria could occur, and it is a decision by President Trump, to go far beyond what Obama did in 2013, when Obama stopped before launching missiles. "In my opinion, there has been, in a totally premature manner, a violation of the sovereignty of one nation by another one. I think this is very serious, it does not help peace in the Near and Middle East in any way, and we must very quickly, without losing time in useless debates, say that this intervention in the internal affairs of a state must stop and create the conditions for peace through mutual development in the future. From that standpoint, Lebanon and the Lebanon of General Aoun must play an absolutely fundamental role that France must recognize."
In further media coverage during the day, Jacques Cheminade came back to the hypocrisy and cynicism of those in France and the Western camp who are calling for a coalition against Assad. "I am not for a coalition against Bashar Al Assad," he told the correspondent of the French national all-business BFM TV,
"but in favor of stabilizing the situation in Lebanon. Some preach and preach morality; the reality is that those doing the moralizing are the ones who organized the military intervention in Libya with the consequences we know, and who allow Yemen to be bombed by Saudi Arabia. They even give the Saudis more intelligence to be able to better bomb Yemen and after that, they give lessons on morality to the entire world. I find that to be of the utmost hypocrisy and cynicism."
Cheminade told Radio France Internationale (RFI), "Politics is not being nice to someones face and cynical behind his back. Politics is what General de Gaulle did, which is to try by all means to reach detente, entente and cooperation" among all nations.
Finally, Cheminade expressed his concern with the serious problems Lebanon is facing today due to the war against Syria. To a question by a Lebanese journalist following his presentation at Baabda, Cheminade answered that he talked with President Aoun
"about pressing France and Europe for more help to urgently improve the sewer system currently in a catastrophic state due to the occupation by too many people, of a country of only 4.5 million inhabitants. President Aoun said Europe had begun to help, but Cheminade said that aid must go much further, indicating that Frances world-class water companies should be brought in to contribute to solve those problems.
"Lebanon could become a powder keg," he warned, in his interview to BFM TV, and for that reason
"the refugees must be able to go back to Syria and the conditions created for them to do so, rather than creating dissensions and tensions through interventions like that of Trump."
An article in the April 8th issue of the main French-language Lebanese daily lOrient le Jour also reported that Cheminade was in Lebanon to "to support a Free Lebanon ... beyond its political divisions," pay homage to Aouns "political courage" and "independent mindedness" and call for more aid to Lebanon to solve its domestic difficulties due to the refugee crisis. On BFM TV, Cheminade warned that Lebanon could become a "powder keg," which means "creating the conditions for Syrians to go back home and not to create dissensions and tensions by intervening like Trump has done."
Lebanon is exemplary, he said,
"because there have been all these family quarrels, with killings and murders; its almost Shakespearean, with the Hariris, the Geageas, the Frangiehs, the Gemayels, etc. But Aoun came and succeeded in creating unity among those people who thought towards the future of the country. It is that attitude that we must have throughout the whole region."
Cheminade concluded his trip to Lebanon in discussion with a few Frenchmen, and potential voters, who attended a meeting that the candidate organized that evening.
The independent investigation report into the Wells Fargo fraudulent account scandal, released early Monday, already is being described as scathing, and properly so. On the whole, however, the report deserves a different description: Its a whitewash.
The scathing part applies largely to the reports treatment of former Wells Fargo executive Carrie Tolstedt and former Chairman and CEO John Stumpf. Tolstedt led the retail banking division where the problems occurred largely because she imposed crushing sales quotas that prompted employees to open thousands of bogus accounts for existing customers to meet their numbers. The 113-page report, prepared by the law firm Shearman & Sterling, relates how Stumpf nurtured and protected Tolstedt even as evidence mounted that her divisions behavior posed an enormous risk to the company.
The whitewash part applies to Shearman & Sterlings employer, the board of directors. According to the report, efforts by board members to bring Tolstedt and her division to heel were thwarted by managements failure to provide accurate information about the unfolding scandal.
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Throughout 2015 and 2016, the Board was regularly engaged on the issue; however, management reports did not accurately convey the scope of the problem. Wells Fargo scandal investigation
Sorry, that wont do. A careful reading of the report reveals a board that took months, even years, to get its arms around the scandal despite plenty of warnings about its nature magnitude. These include an investigation by The Times in December 2013 and a lawsuit filed by Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer in May 2015.
Despite these and other red flags, the board indulged Stumpf in his support of Tolstedt. Even after Timothy Sloan now the banks CEO became chief operating officer and Tolstedts immediate supervisor in November 2015, the board acceded to his request to take six months to assess her performance. But by then the board knew very well that Tolstedts management was leading the company toward disaster.
The result of its dithering was the nuclear explosion of a $185-million settlement with Feuer and federal regulators last September, followed by multiple congressional investigations, Stumpfs resignation and continuing doubts about Well Fargos integrity by banking customers.
As my colleague James Rufus Koren reports, Wells Fargo has responded to the investigation by moving to take back more than $47 million in pay from Tolstedt and $28 million from Stumpf. Thats in addition to $41 million in stock awards for Stumpf and $19 million for Tolstedt that have been canceled.
Yet while acknowledging that board members were too tolerant of management even when it became clear that they were being snowed, the Shearman report is silent about whether the directors, not just senior executives, should be forced out or their compensation clawed back.
Thats an important issue, because some of the directors have served since the 1990s. Theyve been collecting an average of $300,000 a year for their, er, service. Management has renominated for a new term all the current directors who were in place as the scandal took hold with the exception of Elaine Chao, who has become secretary of Transportation, and Susan Engel, who has stepped down.
The investigation report depicts the board as almost entirely supine as Stumpf and his management team obfuscated and tried to explain away emerging information about the bogus-account scandal some of which cropped up even before The Times article.
Throughout 2015 and 2016, the report states, the Board was regularly engaged on the issue; however, management reports did not accurately convey the scope of the problem.
In February 2013, the consulting firm McKinsey was hired to examine the banks risk management. McKinseys performance was an outstanding demonstration of the worthlessness of management consultants: The firm produced a 402-page report that the Shearman investigators say identified the need to manage...the risks associated with sales, but without further description of the actual problems.
According to the investigation, board member Enrique Hernandez Jr., chairman of its risk committee, took a proactive stance in trying to learn about the sales misdeeds and criticizing Tolstedt. He and his committee members didnt get much support from the rest of the board, the investigators imply, even after Hernandez concluded that Tolstedt had been intentionally misleading the board. In 2016, the report suggests, Stumpf fought a board effort to cut her compensation and won the battle.
The fundamental flaw of the Shearman & Sterling investigation is its failure to come to grips with the duties of the board of directors. This isnt unique to Wells Fargo; almost any corporate scandal can be traced to some degree to a board unwilling or unable to perform its function of riding herd on management.
One aspect to the problem at Wells Fargo is evident on the very first page of the reports text, which lists the four independent directors who were constituted as an oversight committee to supervise the investigation. Of the four Elizabeth Duke, Donald James, Hernandez and Stephen Sanger (now the Wells chairman) only Duke joined the board after the scandal (in 2015). Hernandez and Sanger became directors in 2003 and James in 2009, so the scandal occurred on their watch.
In business parlance, independent directors are those who arent members of management, but can directors who have been in place for 14 years or even eight really be judged independent? Its doubtful; after a certain period many directors begin to identify themselves with management and lose the urge to confront their CEOs.
But thats exactly their duty. The only acceptable conclusion the investigators could have come to is that the directors, like Stumpf and Tolstedt, had to go. For many, many years, they didnt earn their pay.
Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.
Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.
UPDATES:
12:57 p.m.: This post has been updated to clarify that Wells Fargo will claw back an additional $47 million in compensation from former executive Carrie Tolstedt and $28 million from former CEO John Stumpf.
A Los Angeles radio personality formally complained that she was sexually harassed by Fox News host Bill OReilly, putting further pressure on the embattled TV star and triggering an investigation by the networks parent company, 21st Century Fox.
Lisa Bloom, the lawyer representing KFI talk radio host Wendy Walsh, said Monday that she and her client spent two hours being interviewed over the phone by attorneys representing 21st Century Fox over Walshs claim about OReilly. Walsh notified the company last week that she was denied an opportunity to become a contributor to Fox News because she rebuffed OReillys sexual advances.
A representative for 21st Century Fox confirmed that the company is having the incident investigated by Paul, Weiss, the law firm that fielded harassment complaints at Fox News last year following the lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carlson.
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Carlson sued former Fox News chief Roger Ailes in July, alleging that he sabotaged her career after she rebuffed his sexual advances and complained about a hostile work environment. The suit led to the ouster of Ailes, who denied the allegations, and Carlson received a $20-million settlement. Fox News has subsequently faced a barrage of claims from women who alleged that they were mistreated by current and former Fox News employees.
Although Walsh has not filed a lawsuit, her claim was part of a recent New York Times report that said OReilly and Fox News paid a total of $13 million to settle claims of sexual harassment and other bad behavior toward women at the company. That news has decimated the advertising support for The OReilly Factor as dozens of sponsors have instructed Fox News to move their commercials out of the program.
OReilly acknowledged the settlements made between 2002 and 2014, but denied the merits of all the sexual harassment claims made against him. The payouts occurred, he said, to spare his children from negative publicity that would be caused by any prolonged legal battles. He said his fame makes him a target for lawsuits.
Bloom and Walsh called 21st Century Foxs corporate hotline last week to formally issue the complaint with the company. A video of them making the call Wednesday is posted on YouTube.
Bloom orchestrated the call in response to statements by OReilly and Fox News that said no complaints against the anchor were ever made to the companys human resources hotline.
21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters, a representative said in a statement.
Bloom said she is also working on a formal request to the New York State Division of Human Rights to initiate its own independent investigation of Walshs claim, but reiterated that her client is not looking to sue OReilly.
We do not intend to file a lawsuit, Bloom said. Dr. Walsh is not seeking any money.
Walsh, a TV news correspondent turned psychologist, occasionally appeared in a regular segment on The OReilly Factor in 2013. She claims OReilly reneged on a commitment to get her a position as a paid contributor at Fox News after she rejected his advances at a dinner meeting at Hotel Bel-Air in which they discussed her future at the cable channel.
At the beginning of the dinner, he made a point of telling me his best friend was Roger Ailes and they wanted to offer me a job as a contributor on his show, Walsh said in her call to 21st Century Fox. At the end of the dinner he said, Lets get out of here, and I thought he meant, lets go to the bar and continue talking about my career and to get more career advice. But he started walking in a different direction and when he turned around to find me he said, Lets go to my suite.
After Walsh declined, she said, they went to the bar, where OReilly allegedly became hostile, insulted her and told her to forget about any career advice I gave you, youre on your own.
Walsh said OReilly barely acknowledged her when she returned to appear on The OReilly Factor. Shortly thereafter her appearances ended.
Fox News has said that Walsh was dropped from The OReilly Factor because the programs ratings declined when she appeared. Cable news executives often use minute-by-minute Nielsen ratings to determine the appeal of segments and guests.
The accusations of Walsh and others against OReilly have wiped out most of the advertising on The OReilly Factor, which attracts more viewers nightly than any other program on cable news. Advocacy groups such as the National Organization for Women have called for the dismissal of the combative commentator, who is paid $18 million annually by Fox News.
Fox News has stood by OReilly, as it can financially withstand the impact of the advertiser defections by placing the commercials in other programs on the channel. No advertiser has announced plans to remove its entire ad budget from the Fox News Channel in response to the OReilly controversy.
But eventually, the fallout over the matter will have a cost.
On Friday, The OReilly Factor had only seven national commercials. Six of them were per inquiry ads, which means payment for them is usually based on how many people call a toll-free number to purchase the product or service being advertised.
To read the article in Spanish, click here
stephen.battaglio@latimes.com
Twitter: @SteveBattaglio
ALSO
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Scandal, sexism and the role of women at Fox News
UPDATES:
6:35 p.m. April 10:This article was updated with additional details on Foxs investigation into Wendy Walshs claim of sexual harassment.
This article was originally published on April 9 at 10:30 p.m.
BEIJING, April 10 -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday underscored the urgency of preventing the situation in Syria from deteriorating.
Spokesperson Hua Chunying made the comments in response to remarks by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon.
Fallon on Sunday accused Russia of being "responsible" by proxy for the deaths of civilians last week in a suspected chemical weapons attack.
The United States accused the Syrian Army of being behind the attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, an allegation denied by Damascus.
In response to the chemical attacks, the United States on Friday struck an Syrian air base in Homs with 59 Tomahawk missiles.
Hua said China opposes the use of chemical weapons by any country, organization or person for any purpose and under any circumstance.
China supports an independent and comprehensive investigation by UN agencies into the suspected use of chemical weapons, Hua said.
Relevant countries, as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, should play constructive roles in maintaining international peace and security, Hua said.
China always opposes the use of force in international relations and maintains that state sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected, Hua said.
She said a political solution is the only way to resolve the Syrian issue.
The future of Syria must be decided by its own people, Hua said, adding that the international community should respect the Syrian people's choice in this regard.
"China is willing to work with the international community to promote a political settlement for the Syrian issue at an early date," Hua said.
Toyota said Monday it is investing $1.3 billion to retool its sprawling factory in Georgetown, Ky., where the companys flagship Camry sedans are built.
No new factory jobs are being added, but Toyota says the upgrades amount to the biggest single investment ever at one of its existing plants in the United States. The retooling also will sustain the existing 8,200 jobs at Toyotas largest plant, where nearly one-fourth of all Toyota vehicles produced in North America are made, the automaker said.
This major overhaul will enable the plant to stay flexible and competitive, further cementing our presence in Kentucky, said Wil James, president of the plant, which also assembles the Avalon and the Lexus ES 350.
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The updates at the Kentucky plant are part of Toyotas plans to invest $10 billion in the United States over the next five years, Jim Lentz, chief executive of Toyota Motor North America, said in a news release.
President Trump, in a paragraph added to Toyotas news release at the White Houses request on Sunday night, praised the investment and said it is further evidence that manufacturers are now confident that the economic climate has greatly improved under my administration. The paragraph cited the National Assn. of Manufacturers first-quarter outlook survey. It found that 93.3% of manufacturers are somewhat or very positive about their companys outlook, a record high thats up from 77.8% in December.
But the Toyota investment has been in the works for years as it gears up for production of the revamped 2018 Camry, long the top-selling car in the U.S. Toyota has said the Camrys new underpinnings were designed four or five years ago, and that the factory upgrade is needed to build the new car, which goes on sale late in the summer. The Camry features a new exterior design, an upgraded interior and a new engine. The plant recently added more than 700 workers to support its launch.
The [production] line itself is being retooled to accommodate this change, Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said.
Toyota is betting that the changes will solidify Camrys position as the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. that isnt a pickup truck. That dominance is under threat from the popularity of SUVs.
The automaker said the plans also call for updating equipment to streamline the production process and for construction of a new paint shop.
The investment follows the automakers decision in 2013 to spend $530 million in the sprawling plant to begin building the luxury Lexus ES 350 in Kentucky.
Last year, the Kentucky plant produced more than 500,000 vehicles.
State and local officials planned to attend an event later Monday at the Georgetown plant to celebrate the automakers investment.
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said Toyotas investment is further proof of their commitment to producing American-made cars.
It all started with an overbooked passenger jet preparing to leave Chicago for Louisville, Ky.
It ended with a passenger, who said he was a doctor who needed to get home, being dragged off the plane and left bloodied and muttering repeatedly, Just kill me.
For the record: An earlier version of this article misstated the destination of the flight. It was heading to Louisville, Ky., not St. Louis.
The incident, captured on video by several passengers, created a giant public relations headache Monday for United Airlines, touching a nerve with a flying public frustrated with an industry that is reaping record earnings while squeezing more fliers into smaller seats.
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The Chicago-based carrier said it was following procedure Sunday night when employees realized that the airline had overbooked the 80-seat jet and could not get enough passengers to voluntarily give up their seats.
The airline randomly selected the unidentified man to boot from the flight. Videos show him with blood on his lip, screaming as airport police yank him out of his seat, then pull him down the aisle on his back while some other fliers call out in protest. Later, he returns briefly to the plane and appears disoriented, with blood smeared extensively over his chin.
@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
The overbooking incident comes in an era of record airline profits following a series of combinations that have put four carriers United, American, Delta and Southwest in control of about 80% of all domestic flights.
Airlines have collected billions of dollars charging for things passengers were accustomed to getting free, including checked luggage, entertainment and food.
At the same time, airlines have been reducing legroom and seat width for coach travelers and are flying each plane closer to full capacity than ever before.
Federal law allows airlines to overbook flights. But carriers try to avoid removing passengers against their will because it tends to spur sore feelings and, with viral video capability just a cellphone away, public backlash.
Airline and law enforcement representatives have refused to discuss details of the latest incident. But passengers who posted video of the tussle on social media said the man announced that he was a doctor who needed to return to work to see his patients. He also was heard saying he was being singled out because he was Chinese.
Passengers on the plane told various media outlets that the airline made an offer at the gate of $400 and a hotel stay to each person who would be willing to give up a seat voluntarily to take a flight the next day. The seats reportedly were needed for United employees to staff a flight from Louisville the next day.
Unable to get enough volunteers, airline employees boarded the plane, announcing that the offer had been increased to $800. Still, no one volunteered, and airport security officers removed the passenger.
A Chicago airport police officer who helped drag the man from the seat has been put on leave pending an investigation, the citys aviation department said.
The incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the department, the agency said in a statement.
A United Airlines spokesman said the man was delaying the flight by refusing to give up his seat. The flight was delayed by about two hours, according to online records.
We are focused on our customers, on getting them to their destination on time, United spokesman Charles Hobart said.
United Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said the airline is reviewing the conduct of his employees.
This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United, he said in a statement. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers.
But public relations experts say United could have handled the incident more tactfully, perhaps by choosing another passenger to remove or by offering greater compensation to free up a seat. United Airlines declined to disclose how much money it offered to passengers to voluntarily give up their seats.
This is what we call in crisis management creating your own crisis, said Eric Rose, a crisis management expert with Los Angeles-based Englander, Knabe & Allen. They created their own crisis and handled it miserably.
Although the incident may damage the airlines image, it probably wont do much harm to its bottom line. Investors appeared unshaken; shares of the airlines parent company, United Continental Holdings, closed Monday at $71.52, up 0.9%.
This is going to have no financial impact on United, said Henry Harteveldt, an industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group. I dont expect them to lose any meaningful revenue.
He noted that most travelers choose airlines based on price, convenient schedules, the carriers loyalty reward programs and whether their employers require them to fly on particular airlines.
This incident comes a few weeks after United Airlines refused to allow two teenage girls onto a flight for wearing stretchy, form-fitting pants because they violated the airlines dress code for employees and their family and friends.
That decision sparked swift outrage on social media, with critics calling the airline sexist and vowing to stop flying the carrier. It drew in celebrities, including comedian Sarah Silverman and actors Patricia Arquette and William Shatner, who chastised the airlines handling of the leggings incident.
Even so, a trade publication for the public relations industry, PRWeek, last month awarded Munoz its coveted Communicator of the Year award for his ability to connect and share with employees his vision for the airline, and get them to rally behind it.
The U.S. Department of Transportation allows airlines to overbook flights because a percentage of passengers routinely cancel at the last minute and airlines want to fill every available seat to squeeze as much revenue from each flight as possible.
In 2016, the nations 12 largest airlines removed 40,629 passengers involuntarily from flights, a rate of 0.62 passengers for every 10,000 fliers transported, according to the Department of Transportation. That rate is lower than the 0.73 passengers per 10,000 fliers in 2015.
United had a rate of 0.43 in 2016, according to the agency.
Federal rules also require airlines to follow a set of procedures for overbooked flights. Airlines must first request that volunteers give up their seats in exchange for tickets on an alternative flight plus compensation, to be determined by the airline.
If an airline cant get enough passengers to volunteer, the airlines can remove passengers involuntarily. Under Uniteds contract of carriage rules, the carrier may select passengers to remove from an overbooked flight based on a passengers fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presented him/herself for check-in with advanced seat assignment.
Federal rules say that airlines must also compensate the booted passengers for the disruption, based on how much later they arrive at their final destination than the scheduled arrival time of the overbooked flight. On domestic flights, the compensation ranges from 200% of the original fare to 400%, with a maximum of $1,350 per ticket.
hugo.martin@latimes.com
To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.
ALSO
United Airlines says customers are welcome to wear leggings unlike teens who used special passes
When you buy a plane ticket, heres what you have to agree to
United finds a new way to make itself look awful, and then its CEO shows how to make things worse
UPDATES:
5:20 p.m.: This article was updated with additional analysis.
2:35 p.m.: This article was updated to include more details about the incident, a statement that an aviation security officer was suspended pending an investigation, and analysis on any financial effect on United.
12:05 p.m.: This article was updated to include new details about the incident reported in a Louisville newspaper and the federal rules that guide airlines on booting passengers from an overbooked plane.
1:27 p.m.: This article was updated to include comments from an expert about the impact this controversy might have on United Airlines bottom line.
This article originally posted at 10:25 a.m.
In a long-anticipated report released Monday, Wells Fargo & Co. pinned the blame for its unauthorized-accounts scandal on weak corporate oversight, an overly trustful former CEO and the executive who led its community banking division.
The San Francisco bank also said it would take back more than $47 million in pay from the former community banking executive, Carrie Tolstedt, and $28 million from former Chief Executive John Stumpf.
Those new clawbacks are in addition to the banks move last year to cancel about $41 million in stock awards for Stumpf and $19 million for Tolstedt. In 2015, their last full year with the bank, Stumpf made $19.3 million and Tolstedt made $9.05 million
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The report was commissioned by the banks board last year and prepared by the Shearman & Sterling law firm. Its release, which comes two weeks before the banks annual shareholder meeting, marks the latest in a series of moves the bank had made over the past several months including management changes, a class-action settlement and an ad blitz to put the scandal behind it and win back customers trust.
The report goes out of its way to name names, putting much of the blame for the banks unethical practices on Stumpf, Tolstedt and on a corporate structure that it said gave too much autonomy to Tolstedt and the leaders of other bank divisions.
Stumpf and Tolstedt are gone, but the other, systemic problems detailed in the report will take longer to correct and signal Wells Fargo is in for a potentially lengthy internal rebuilding process, according to a Monday research note by analysts R. Scott Siefers and Brendan Nosal at investment bank Sandler ONeill.
While there are few new bombshells in the report, it really hammers home the extent of the cultural/reporting structure issues in the bank, as well as questions about how long it will take to turn around and reinvent the company, they wrote.
The report alleges that Tolstedt not only failed to see the potential harm caused by unauthorized account openings and other unethical sales practices but that she tried to keep information about those practices away from the board and others at the bank. That included the number of workers fired for unethical conduct.
Tolstedt effectively challenged and resisted scrutiny, the report said, describing Tolstedt and members of her inner circle as insular and defensive.
Tolstedt, on the advice of her lawyer, declined to be interviewed during Shearman & Sterlings investigation, according to the report. She announced her retirement in July and planned to step down in December, but left in September after the settlement was announced.
In an emailed statement Monday, Enu Mainigi, an attorney for Tolstedt, said, We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt. A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion.
Stumpf, meanwhile, was overly deferential to Tolstedt, the report found, and to the banks longstanding focus on cross-selling, which required employees to sell multiple services to individual customers. As a result, it said, he was too late and too slow to make changes.
The report noted that Stumpf defended Tolstedt and did not fire her even after a board member suggested doing so in 2015. Stumpf called Tolstedt the best banker in America, according to the report.
The report gave Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan, who replaced Stumpf in October, a pass on the scandal, saying that although he was one of the banks top executives during the height of the banks bad practices, he had little contact with sales practice matters.
On a conference call Monday, Sloan said he regrets not acting faster once the magnitude of the banks problems became clear.
In hindsight, I wish we would have taken more action and done things more quickly, he said, adding that he wishes he had called for swifter changes to the banks sales-goal system.
The bank eliminated sales goals, but not until October, several weeks after the banks settlement with regulators was announced and nearly a year after Sloan had been named chief operating officer. In that position, he supervised Tolstedt and the community banking division.
The report paints the banks board as being out of the loop on the scope of the sales problems. Asked Monday if he should resign, Wells Fargo Chairman Stephen Sanger, who has been on the banks board since 2003, defended the boards actions, saying it has acted properly since the scandal came to light.
As we got information, we acted appropriately, he said.
Echoing the Shearman & Sterling report, Sanger said the board was not made aware of the size of the problem millions of potentially unauthorized accounts, and 5,300 workers fired for bad practices until the bank reached a $185-million settlement with regulators last year.
The internal bank investigation was released just days after an influential shareholder advisory firm said that board members failed to properly oversee the bank and could have done more to prevent unsound retail banking sales practices.
Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises big investment firms on corporate governance issues, recommended Friday that shareholders vote against the election of 12 of the banks 15 board members, including Sanger, at the banks upcoming annual meeting.
The banks board called that recommendation extreme and unprecedented, and said shareholders should wait for the release of the Shearman & Sterling report.
Dennis Kelleher, chief executive of banking advocacy group Better Markets, said he supports Institutional Shareholder Services recommendation and called the report a whitewash aimed at protecting the board and Sloan.
He said the report demonstrates that the board was out of touch or willfully ignorant of activity that he said amounts to criminal fraud and identity theft. He also said it strains credulity that Sloan who was chief financial officer from 2011 until 2014 and the board were so out of the loop.
This report details egregious criminal conduct and widespread knowledge of it going all the way back to 2002, he said. And it talks about a board that was somewhere between passive and unconscious. The level of willful blindness required for this kind of criminal practice to continue year after year is simply not credible.
Board members, according to the report, feel they were misled by reports from Tolstedt and others that downplayed problems with the banks sales practices.
For instance, the board in the spring of 2015 requested information on the number of workers fired for sales violations but, according to the report, did not get accurate figures until May 2016.
In a research note Monday, Siefers and Nosal wrote that the report is interesting in that it indicates that the board was not aware of what was happening within the bank.
We are a little surprised by the extent to which the board of directors appears to have been in the dark about the scope of the issue, they wrote.
Siefers and Nosal also pointed out that the scandal is forcing Wells Fargo to change two of things that analysts have long thought made it a better bank: its focus on sales and its decentralized structure, which gave a great deal of autonomy to different units within the bank. But that, according to the report, also allowed the sales practice problems to fester.
The company is probably in the midst of a top-down reinvention that would wipe away much of what has differentiated [Wells Fargo] for decades, they wrote. Hard as it is to believe now, before the scandal erupted, [Wells Fargos] sales culture and decentralized structure were both considered attributes.
Wells Fargos practices were uncovered in a 2013 Los Angeles Times story that found overbearing sales pressure was leading bank employees to create bank accounts for customers without their knowledge or authorization.
Mondays report found that Wells Fargo took steps to address problematic sales practices in 2002 and noticed a big uptick in firings over sales-practices violations by 2004 nearly a decade before The Times story and a dozen years before the banks practices came to national attention.
The Los Angeles city attorney sued the bank in 2015, and Wells Fargo agreed on Sept. 8, 2016, to pay $185 million to regulators. The bank has said that as many as 2.1 million checking, savings and other accounts were created without customer authorization. The settlement created a firestorm and congressional inquiries during which Stumpf was pilloried.
Stumpf resigned in October and was replaced by Sloan, the banks president and chief operating officer, who has led the banks effort to put the scandal behind it.
The bank has eliminated sales goals for branch workers, fired a handful of regional banking executives and cut pay to its top brass. In addition to taking back or cancelling a total of $135 million in compensation that would have gone to Stumpf and Tolstedt, it has cancelled $32 million in bonuses that would have gone to Sloan and other current executives.
The bank is also making changes at the corporate level aimed at ensuring different business units at the bank have stricter oversight something Shearman & Sterling found was lacking in the past.
Still, those steps and Mondays report will not put an end to Wells Fargos troubles.
Last month, the bank agreed to pay $110 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed two years ago over the unauthorized accounts. However, attorneys representing plaintiffs in similar cases have said they expect to object to the deal and hope to get a better one.
Several federal and state agencies also have opened their own investigations into the banks practices, looking for evidence of criminal identity theft, violations of labor law and other possible failings.
In one recent development, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration this month found that the bank in 2010 improperly fired a manager after he reported potential fraud to Wells Fargos in-house ethics hotline. OSHA ordered the bank to rehire the manager and pay him $5.4 million in back pay, damages and legal fees.
That finding, which Wells Fargo has said it will challenge, seems to back up claims of other former workers who say they were fired for reporting unauthorized account openings and other ethics violations. In its report, Shearman & Sterling said it has not found a pattern of retaliation, though it noted that finding is based on a limited review.
The scandal has taken a toll on Wells Fargos consumer banking business. Over the last several months, the company has seen a marked slowdown in customers visiting branches and opening new accounts.
The bank reported that credit card applications were down 53% in February compared with the same month last year, while customers opened 40% fewer checking accounts.
But those flagging figures and the hundreds of millions of dollars the bank has agreed to pay in refunds and civil and regulatory settlements havent turned off investors or meaningfully damaged the banks bottom line.
The bank reaped a profit of $21.9 billion last year and its stock, which fell sharply in the wake of last years regulatory settlement, is back to trading near its all-time high.
Shares of Wells Fargo closed Monday down 30 cents, or about half a percent, to $54.54 Monday.
james.koren@latimes.com
Twitter: @jrkoren
UPDATES:
3:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional clawback figures and details from the report.
2:20 p.m.: This article was updated with a closing stock price, comments from Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan and additional comments from Sandler ONeill and Better Markets.
10:40 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from a research note by Sandler ONeill and the latest stock price.
9:40 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Carrie Tolstedts attorney.
9 a.m.: This article was updated with the latest stock price and details on the banks efforts to reform itself.
8:15 a.m.: This article was updated with the latest stock price, comments from banking advocacy group Better Markets, details on an OSHA case and information about Wells Fargos profits.
7:10 a.m. This article was updated with comments from Wells Fargo Chairman Stephen Sanger.
6:35 a.m. This article was updated with additional background on the banks unauthorized-accounts scandal and more details from the report.
6:05 a.m.: This article was updated with background on the banks unauthorized-accounts scandal and additional details from the report.
5:40 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details from the report.
The article was originally published at 5:20 a.m.
Theres nothing like the sight of a passenger being forcibly dragged from an overbooked flight to remind people that, when it comes to customer service, many companies are thoughtless, insensitive, inconsiderate, irresponsible and just plain stupid.
Youve probably seen the video (if not, check it out pronto). It shows a plainclothes cop wrestling a man from his seat on a United Airlines flight in Chicago and hauling his limp body down the aisle Sunday night.
Theres some screaming, some shouts and a general sense of astonishment and outrage among other passengers, some of whom, not surprisingly, whipped out their phones and recorded the whole sorry episode.
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Who thought this would be a good idea? wondered Michael McCall, a professor of hospitality business at Michigan State University. He was among a number of customer-service experts I spoke with Monday as the United video went viral.
Now youre looking at a lawsuit, he said. And thats nothing compared to the public-relations nightmare.
Weve all been on flights with unruly passengers. This wasnt such a case.
This was a guy reportedly a doctor minding his own business as United started bumping passengers from the flight because the airline sold more tickets than it had available seats, which is about as screwed-up a policy as youll find in the corporate world.
Theyre deliberately selling more of something than they know they have in inventory. What other business gets away with that?
Yes, its legal. Airlines reserve the right to oversell flights in the fine print of tickets. Yes, it happens all the time. And typically it goes off without a hitch.
United followed the usual drill. First it asked for volunteers to take a later flight. It offered as much as $800 per volunteer plus a hotel stay. No one accepted.
Then the airline selected four passengers for involuntary bumping. Three left without incident. The fourth remained in his seat.
After repeatedly asking the guy to leave, United staff summoned the city-run Chicago Aviation Department airport police which handled the situation with all the finesse of lions pouncing on a gazelle.
Oscar Munoz, the airlines chief executive, said in a statement that this was an upsetting event to all of us here at United.
I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers, he said. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.
Style note: Dragging a passenger from a plane isnt re-accommodating him. Its assault. Maybe not in a legal sense. But we all know what it means if it quacks like a duck.
United obviously was in a hard place. Even though it oversold the flight, it still had a responsibility to get passengers to their destination in a timely manner. It didnt have the luxury of spending hours negotiating.
The experts I spoke with said the airline made two key mistakes:
First, it didnt remedy the overbooking while passengers were still in the gate, before theyd boarded the aircraft.
Second, it allowed the situation to escalate out of the airlines control by calling in the cops, who had no stake in making United look friendly. Their sole task was to get the guy off the plane, using brute force if necessary.
This is wrong on so many dimensions of what we know about customer service, said Mary Gilly, a marketing professor at UC Irvine. You dont look for volunteers after passengers have already boarded the flight.
Worse, the flight reportedly was overbooked because United needed the seats for its own employees, who had to fly elsewhere for different shifts.
Theyre saying company employees were a priority over a paying customer, said Michigan States McCall. Why would anybody do that?
Paul Fombelle, an associate professor of marketing at Northeastern University, said that the right way to handle a situation like that is not to get in a situation like that.
Once the guy has sat down, the airline has to honor that, he said. To pull him off is heartbreaking.
The tricky part here is that the only realistic solution is to raise the compensation offered passengers until somebody accepts. Eight hundred bucks seems like a lot of money, but the fact that nobody took the offer clearly shows that the marketplace that is, passengers placed a higher value on their seats.
I can guess why United didnt start upping the ante. Consumers arent dumb. Once they see whats going on, theyll just keep mum and see how high the airline is prepared to go.
Tough patooties, the experts said (Im paraphrasing). This was a problem of Uniteds making and the airline had no reasonable choice but to offer more money for being bumped.
Im surprised they didnt immediately go to a thousand dollars per seat, McCall said. That would still be cheap compared to what they now face.
This episode isnt just a cautionary tale for the airline industry, which has never lacked for ways to make itself look bad. Its a reminder to all businesses that consumers may obsess about low prices, but there are lines that still cant be crossed in the pursuit of thriftiness.
Also, everyone now carries cameras. There wasnt a chance that photos and video of a passenger being dragged off a flight wouldnt be online within minutes.
For any company to operate as if this isnt the world we now inhabit is both reckless and foolish.
I think what weve seen is that United optimizes profit but not customer relationships, Fombelle said.
And thats precisely the sort of thing that can cause air travelers to re-accommodate their loyalties.
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David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.
For months, Tesla stock has been on a bull run.
Now its a stampede.
On Monday, investors sent the electric car makers market value into entirely new territory, briefly ripping past General Motors in market value, putting Tesla in first place among U.S. automakers.
The run raises the stakes for the company as it prepares to begin assembling its highly anticipated mass-market electric sedan, the Model 3, which is scheduled for release this summer or fall, or perhaps later. The propulsive rise in Teslas stock up more than 70% since December amps up the pressure on the company and its visionary chief executive, Elon Musk, to deliver near-flawless performance.
Tesla stock closed up $9.85, or 3.3%, at $312.39; GM shares also ticked up 22 cents to end the day at $33.97. Both companies valuation hovered around $51 billion.
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Teslas surpassing GM and Ford in market value, justified by financial fundamentals or not, signals a revolution in the global automobile industry as cars and trucks subsume ever more Silicon Valley-style technology and, essentially, evolve into the robots of the roadways.
Were in a new era of the automobile industry, said Efraim Levy, an analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence. That shift is not just to self-driving cars, but to electric power and away from gasoline, he said.
Teslas stock run-up also demonstrates Musks magnetic power, he said: People are definitely enamored with Elon Musk and Tesla.
Still, Levy and many other analysts see Teslas stock price as overvalued given cash-flow projections even under Musks rosiest scenarios for the Model 3.
Plenty of short-sellers investors who bet that a high-flying stock is due for a crash agree. About 20% of Teslas shares are held by investors betting against the company.
Some analysts are even saying forget the financial underpinnings, for now.
Rational arguments wont matter for Teslas stock price, at least for a while, Piper Jaffray analyst Alex Potter said in a note to investors, raising the firms target price to $368 a share.
Yes, the company is burning through cash and sets unrealistic production deadlines, he said, but because of its superior products, loyal shareholders, and inspiring mission, [Tesla] remains unscathed.
In other words, its a momentum stock right now, rising in part because its climbing and new investors dont want to miss out. Investors can make big bucks on momentum stocks, if they sell before the peak is reached, or, if the company defies the naysayers and becomes a wild success.
Momentum stocks fueled the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most crashed and burned. But a rare few think Amazon succeeded beyond expectations.
Tesla fans put Musk in the same stellar universe as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who fended off critics as he invested in future growth and lost money year after year. The company, which is completely upending the brick-and-mortar retail industry, is now considered one of the most successful in business history.
By almost any measure, General Motors dwarfs Tesla. Last year, Tesla sold 76,500 cars worth $7 billion in revenue. GM will finalize 2016 global figures when it announces earnings later this month, but in 2015 it sold 9.8 million vehicles globally, including nearly 4 million with joint venture partners in China.
But Tesla fans, and Musk himself, point out that stock prices are set by expectations of future growth.
Long investors in Tesla have harmonized themselves with Musks vision for the new-energy company, which last year bought solar roof installer SolarCity a one-stop shop for customers who put up a Tesla solar roof, channel the energy into a Tesla storage battery and use it to power up their Tesla car.
Theyre also excited by the prospect of Tesla sales in China. That nations government is far more serious about fighting global warming and pollution than todays White House and the electric car market in China is the biggest in the world in 2016, 351,000 plug-in vehicles were sold in China, both hybrids and pure electrics. In the U.S., 159,000 were sold.
Tesla sales are growing faster in China than in the U.S. Musk has talked about building cars there at some point, and expects that China one day will be Teslas No. 1 market.
Teslas investors include big institutions and corporations that keep funneling cash Teslas way. Last month, Tencent, the giant Internet company in China, bought 5% of company shares on the heels of a new Tesla stock offering.
Tesla has chalked up impressive market success with its high-priced luxury Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle. This summer, it plans to start turning out the Model 3, more of an everymans Tesla, with a starting price of $35,000. The company said at least 375,000 customers have put down refundable $1,000 deposits on the car. The day the Model 3 became available for pre-orders, customers lined up for hours at Tesla showrooms around the world.
Thats largely because Musk has built a strong brand image for Tesla.
Teslas vehicles are gorgeous and distinctive, said Rebecca Lindland, analyst at Kelley Blue Book. Each Tesla, she said, sends a message that the driver is dynamic, sexy and a risk taker. No other electric vehicle does that.
The cars appeal not just to fans of electric cars and people concerned about the environment, they also convey the message that the buyer is cutting edge like early Prius buyers, but richer and cooler. The cars Autopilot function widely considered the most sophisticated driver-assist technology on the market adds to the brands allure.
To justify anything close to its current market value, though, the Model 3 manufacturing and distribution process will need to be relatively hitchless. Tesla wants to be building 500,000 cars annually by the end of 2018, but it has yet to prove that it can churn out vehicles at such high volume. Both the Model S and X were beset by delays and production problems.
And consumers must gravitate in large numbers toward electric cars. Right now, electric cars make up less than 2% of the total U.S. auto market.
This all matters for Tesla a lot. But some automobile market analysts say one companys stock price wont affect the industrys future.
Tesla is viewed as a tech stock and the automakers are viewed as industrial manufacturing stocks, which isnt the full picture for either one, said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with AutoTrader.
Weve always seen these wild fluctuations with Tesla stock that we dont see in the automotive stocks. So Im not sure it means much in the long run.
russ.mitchell@latimes.com
Twitter: @russ1mitchell
tracey.lien@latimes.com
Twitter: @traceylien
UPDATES:
4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about the China market and Teslas production goals.
1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with closing stock prices and additional details.
11:05 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details and comments from analysts.
8:15 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from analysts.
This article was originally published at 7:45 a.m.
Caitlyn Jenner memoirs version of life with Kris Jenner creates a new rift in the family
(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images)
As Caitlyn Jenners just-published memoir The Secrets of My Life pulls back the curtain on her gender transition and her life among the Kardashians, not everybody is taking it well.
Especially not Kris Jenner.
Details about the Olympian-turned-reality-stars decision to transition in 2015 from Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner and confirmation that she had her final gender reassignment surgery are all in the book, but some dishy material about the Kardashian matriarch is reverberating with fans and upsetting the reigning first family of reality TV.
The memoir, co-written by Buzz Bissinger, who penned the Vanity Fair article that introduced Caitlyn Jenner to the masses, has some kind words for the momager, including admiration for Kris connections, her business acumen and her ability to perfectly apply lip liner without a mirror.
However, Caitlyn also said in the book that she told Kris about her gender issues before they got married and said Kris knew that for 4 years before they met, Caitlyn had been on hormones. Additionally, Caitlyn wrote that she told Kris about her gender problems before they would make love.
I told her there had been a woman inside me all my life, she wrote.
The couple announced their split in 2013 and finalized their divorce in 2014. During their decades-long union, Caitlyn cross-dressed in front of her ex but was asked by Kris to do it only while traveling, so that their children wouldnt get wind of it. It was something Caitlyn grew to resent, she said, and she would steal her wifes gowns and purses to wear while traveling. (Their differing takes on their marital woes have been a topic of discussion for years.)
In a recent episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kris fumed with anger about passages in The Secrets of My Life that claimed she knew Caitlyn was transgender before they wed.
None of it makes sense,Kris said to daughters Khloe and Kim Kardashian. I read it and basically the only nice thing she had to say was that I was great socially at a party one time. ... Everything she says is all made up. Why does everything have to be that Kris is such a bitch?
She added: Ive never been so angry and disappointed in somebody in my whole life.
In response, the Olympic gold medalist said on Good Morning America that the book is extraordinarily honest.
It is my perspective, and obviously when you do a book like that, there are different opinions. I have a lot of friends that know the truth and know what Ive been through and know the whole situation, Caitlyn said.
She told Andy Cohen that in the wake of publishing, Kris said she didnt want to talk to Caitlyn ever again. (Caitlyn also elaborated on her claims that she was a punching bag on the show and a revelation that Kris had been in charge of her finances.)
Honestly, I never had a low point [while doing the show], actually, until the other day when Kris said some of that stuff. It was the first time I was really upset, she said. I had some of the best conversations with my children on that show. ... It forces you to deal with issues. ... It forces you to sit down with your kids and deal with a lot of things.
Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenners second-born child with the late Robert Kardashian, shared her thoughts on the feud on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in an episode that aired Thursday.
My heart breaks for my mom, you know, because I feel like shes been through so much and [Caitlyn is] promoting this book and shes saying all these things, Kardashian said. I just dont think its necessary and I just feel like its unfair. Things arent truthful.
Kardashian said Caitlyn was dishonest with certain things about Kris in the book.
I feel like its taken [Caitlyn] a really long time to be honest with herself, so I dont expect her to be honest about my mom now. But its just so hurtful, she said. I wish her all the success in the world, but not at our expense.
Kardashian said she and husband Kanye West have been avid supporters of Caitlyn Jenners transition and wanted to remain respectful of her, but thought there was no need to bash the family. She said she was hurt by her stepfather, whos dad to her half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and hasnt spoken to Caitlyn in a few weeks.
Kendall and Kylie, thats their dad and I think my moms been so respectful for so long and always wanting Caitlyn around and always wanting to have a great relationship with Caitlyn, Kardashian said. But that doesnt appear to be the case for the rest of the Kardashian brood.
Ill always love her. That was my stepdad for so many years. She taught me about character and so much growing up and I just feel like I dont respect the character that shes showing now.
Kim Kardashians younger sister, Khloe Kardashian, is also taking it a little tough, Caitlyn said at a book signing, according to RadarOnline. Everyone on the Jenner side is fine. All this stuff tends to work itself out!
Someone call Ryan Murphy, because this needs to be turned into a Feud series, stat.
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FOR THE RECORD
April 27, 3:31 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said Bruce Jenner and Kris Jenner finalized their divorce in 2013. They divorced in 2014.
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Most women directors dont like to talk about gender. Theyd rather just get on with their work.
I never think of myself as just being a female director, says Frances Julia Ducournau, whose recent film Raw tells the story of a lifelong vegetarian who develops a taste for raw flesh after a hazing at her veterinary college. I see myself as being a director and thats it. It just so happens that Im a woman.
But sometimes, things happen that dont let them forget Hollywoods gender disparity.
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For some, the reminder might come after theyre mistaken for a production assistant for the umpteenth time. For others, its during the meeting with the studio head who says he just doesnt think shes ready to make the budget leap. But for Ry Russo-Young, it was while making small talk in a studio lobby that she first felt the whisper-soft tentacles of gender discrimination.
I get there, and Im talking to this person and hes a white guy with less experience than me, she recalls. Quite a bit less. Ive been in the industry for 13 years, hes been in it for five. And I find out hes meeting with the head of the company, the top person. Sounds like its a meeting between just the two of them.
Russo-Young herself was there to meet with four of the female executives who answered to the company head.
Its not that these women arent powerful, but they couldnt do anything without that guys say-so, she says. So I still have to meet that guy. And if I had just sat down with that guy, it probably would have been a better use of my time and my likelihood of getting hired wouldve been higher because wed had face time. But the guy gets an hourlong meeting with the top dog where theyre bonding, and I never get that meeting. And I dont understand why not. Do I think if I was a white guy I would get that meeting? Absolutely.
Last month, more than 80 narrative and documentary films were released in the U.S. Of the 82 films reviewed by The Times in March, 11 were directed or co-directed by women. Seven were narrative films directed by women who received solo credit for their work. Russo-Young and Ducournau are two of four directors we talked with recently about their films and careers.
The Zookeepers Wife, by New Zealand native Niki Caro, is based on the true story of Antonina Zabinski, a woman who helped save hundreds of Jews by hiding them in her zoo during the German invasion of Poland. Starring Jessica Chastain as Antonina, the film operated on a $20-million budget. Caro is also slated to direct a live-action Mulan for Disney.
British director Hope Dickson Leachs The Levelling explores how a woman (played by Ellie Kendrick) reconnects with her father and hometown in the wake of tragedy. It operated on a budget of $1.2 million.
Russo-Youngs Before I Fall is an adaptation of a young adult novel and stars Zoey Deutch as Sam, a teenager who is forced to relive her last day on Earth several times over the course of a week. The film, which was filmed in 24 days, operated on a $5-million budget.
Ducournaus 99-minute film Raw was made with a budget of $3.8 million.
All four talked of the importance of strong female protagonists and films that explore the female point of view.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a female director?
Niki Caro: I think the biggest challenge clearly is getting hired. I get the sense that its still considered to be something of a risk to hire a woman. As a woman and a director, I find that completely absurd.
Ry Russo-Young: Getting hired is a challenge. I think as the budgets get bigger, its more competitive and its intense. Theres a lot of factors that contribute to what makes someone hire who they hire, and theres a lot of subconscious bias.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Hope Dickson Leach: People dont necessarily have the confidence in you that maybe they have with men. I think men get the benefit of the doubt. I think women have to be three times as good and 10 times as confident.
Julia Ducournau: When you get on set, most of the time the biggest part of your crew is going to be male. It definitely is a challenge to be taken seriously as a director as a woman. [But] its not something that comes into [consideration] when Im working. But of course, like every other realm of work in the whole world, discrimination against women is something that happens everywhere. It did not happen to me on this movie [Raw], fortunately. But its true that as a woman you have to somehow come up as stronger.
Director Niki Caro (Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)
What slights do you experience on set or while trying to get films green-lighted?
Dickson Leach: There are certainly questions about decision-making abilities. I think also because Im a writer-director, one of the strongest things I come up against is the likability of the female characters that I write. To this day I still dont understand why thats such a big issue given that the question is never asked about male characters.
Caro: Directing was always something I felt I could do. I didnt feel that anyone was going to try to stop me from doing that. Because of course in New Zealand we have a female prime minister, I felt very secure and confident as a filmmaker and as a person in the world who happens to be female. So I dont tend to see everything as because Im female. I just dont do that. Which is not to say that that isnt part of it.
Russo-Young: Ive heard recently from people who are potentially hiring me that theyre afraid of me being able to make the budget leap to a bigger budget. Thats something you hear a lot of the time when youre talking about women. Its a very gendered comment because there are a thousand examples of men who make the budget leap from $1 million to $50 million and you just repeatedly never see women able to make those kinds of jumps. It all comes down to money. That budgetary jump is really a leap of faith. Like, We believe in you, you made a great last movie, now were going to give you the keys to the castle, or getting those franchises that are already established. So hearing Were worried about you making the jump is basically saying, We dont trust you. And I think we saw this with the election, where women arent seen as trustworthy as men. And that comes down to budgets and that comes down to these micro-aggressions.
What measures could be taken to make it easier for women to break into the industry?
Russo-Young: I dont believe that we should hire people who arent up for the job, but the point is, weve been doing the opposite. Weve been not hiring people who are right for the job.
She mentions the efforts of Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Feud) efforts with Half, a foundation started by his production company that aims to fill 50% of all director slots on his shows with women, people of color and members of the LGBT community.
I think that that was very effective. He basically enforced that people hire women and they went out and they made the effort and they found the women that were just as experienced and capable and did the job.
Now those women probably have more opportunities because someone that high profile helped them get hired. So I think it really does have to come from the people doing the hiring.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Dickson Leach: I do think quotas are useful and important. I think people should be fighting for gender equality and I think that will make a difference. And I think being proactive about that actually is one of the only things that can actually make a difference at this point.
She points out director Ava Duvernays dedication to hiring only female directors for the first season of her OWN drama Queen Sugar.
The numbers are bad for us in Hollywood. The numbers are bad for us in the industry. You get someone incredible like Ava Duvernay, whos taken the power that shes got and is actually living up to it and saying, OK, Im going to make a difference because I have the power now, and shes actually doing it. Its totally possible to do it. You just need the gatekeepers to open the doors.
Ducournau: Im not sure about the idea of quotas. I dont want anyone to tell me that Im there just because there are some quotas. I want to be making movies because people like what I do.
Caro: I think the most effective thing I can do is to make successful films to kick that door open so many, many female filmmakers can rush in through the open door. As a female director who is working, if I can make successful films that come in on time and on budget, then I hope that gives people more confidence that theres really nothing to be afraid of [in hiring a woman].
What is the significance, in your opinion, in a film directed from a female point of view?
Caro: Its a subtle point of difference in the storytelling. With this movie [The Zookeepers Wife], particularly so. I felt like being a woman telling this story was quite appropriate. I think in terms of female protagonists, were just starting out and exploring those things onscreen.
Dickson Leach: I think we all tell stories in different ways. I think our lived experiences are always going to contribute to the way that we tell stories and the priorities that we have in terms of what we put out.
Ducournau: I would never consider myself as a woman making movies. I just happen to make movies and Im a woman. So for me, its never in my mind like, Im going to direct my movie from a female point of view. I just make movies.
Russo-Young: To me, whats really important is the diversity of perspective. Thats the most important thing. So its actually not just about a female perspective, its about a queer perspective, its about a trans perspective. Its about a Mexican perspective, an Asian perspective. A heavy person, a mentally challenged person. Its just having more diversity of perspective because were all so different from each other and were all so different as people in the world. And everybody deserves to be seen.
As audience members, you crave to see yourself on screen because you need models of how to be in the world. Weve seen a lot of depictions of a certain kind of person and we need to open up the floodgates and see more perspectives and different kinds of people on screen.
I think women have to be three times as good and 10 times as confident. Hope Dickson Leach
How much more progress do we need to make before we reach parity with men?
Caro: Statistically? We need to make 46% more progress. A really shameful statistic. It horrifies me.
Dickson Leach: From a numbers point of view, I think its pretty shocking. Were still in the teens I think for most of the world. So theres a huge amount of progress that we need to make there. Were 50 percent of the population. Theres no reason why we shouldnt be equal in any of the professions we choose to be. Its 2017. The more people you bring into the industry, the better it does. Theres plenty of room for everybody.
Russo-Young: I think sometimes the numbers go up and then they go down again and it feels really disappointing and disheartening because it feels like one step forward, two steps back. But I am definitely encouraged by all the conversation. I think theres an awareness right now that theres a problem and thats the first step.
Caro: Obviously, the situation needs to improve. When it improves, we will only have better movies. We are right on the edge of something great which is to open up storytelling to the other half of humanity. And this isnt just female directors, its the roles that were offering audiences to consume.
sonaiya.kelley@latimes.com
Follow me on twitter @sonaiyak
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Swedish fashion company H&Ms upscale brand & Other Stories, which opened its first West Coast boutiques at South Coast Plaza and in Beverly Hills last fall, is continuing to build on its California narrative.
On Tuesday, the label will release a collaborative apparel and footwear collection with L.A.-based Toms Shoes its that brands first foray into ready-to-wear. (This collaboration follows & Other Stories previous partnerships with L.A. fashion labels Clare V. and Rodarte.)
Also of note, & Other Stories opened a third Southern California location this one is at the Americana at Brand in Glendale last week. And to keep the L.A. love flowing, & Other Stories had the official opening of its design atelier on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood last month it joins studios in Paris and Stockholm and the launch of the first L.A.-designed apparel line in stores and online at stories.com.
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The California girl adds a new personality. We would describe her as flirtatious, free-spirited, sexy and confident. Dakota Solt
The foundation of the brand is to create your own personal style, said & Other Stories managing director Samuel Fernstrom. So we started off with design ateliers in Paris and Stockholm. Parisian style was this romantic tomboy, who is very stylish but not perfect, while Stockholm design is more pragmatic and minimalistic, with muted colors and strong accents. So the customer could create almost any look.
But there was one piece missing, Fernstrom continued. L.A. is the opposite of Stockholm, where it is cold and dark. Here [the mood] is much lighter, and that is reflected in the collection. So its like we now have the three primary colors in place.
That sentiment encompasses pieces such as a velvet bomber jacket with matching skirt, a denim shirt dress, cut-off jean shorts, lingerie-inspired camisole tops, easy-washed sweatshirts, sweaters and trousers with racer stripes, ruffled blouses and minidresses in metallics or lace.
The California girl adds a new personality. We would describe her as flirtatious, free-spirited, sexy and confident, added Dakota Solt, a senior designer in the West Hollywood atelier who last worked for L.A. fashion brand Nasty Gal. We focus on versatile clothes that could take you from Venice Beach to a night at the Chateau Marmont.
& Other Stories produces six annual collections, and about 30 people work in the L.A. atelier. Caity Knox, who learned the ropes of womenswear design at L.A.-based James Perse, heads up the team with Solt. There are 50 employees in Paris and 120 in Stockholm, and those design studios also produce accessories.
The forthcoming Toms and & Other Stories line (also available at select Toms stores and toms.com) consists of 10 footwear and 16 apparel styles with an easy, beachy vibe that top out at $145 for an embroidered jacket. Coordinating pieces combine to create a capsule getaway wardrobe. The sunshine orange string bikini matches a vibrantly striped caftan dress, while colorful tassels, embroidery and fringe enliven airy ivory peasant tops, drawstring shorts, tunic dresses as well as moccasin booties and the canvas alpargata shoes that Toms is known for.
Toms is based in Venice Beach, so that sensibility is ingrained in our heritage, said Toms founder Blake Mycoskie about the laid-back inspiration behind the collaboration. With & Other Stories, were introducing the first opportunity for fans to wear Toms from head to toe, which is really exciting. It wasnt like we were looking for brands to create a ready-to-wear collection with. Rather, the partnership grew out of a shared vision and a similar design point of view. We both want to utilize the platforms we have to make a change in the world. So it was sort of a no-brainer for us to team up.
The collaboration also continues Toms one-for-one model. For every pair of shoes sold, other shoes will be donated to someone in need. Additionally, every Toms and & Other Stories apparel item sold will help support one month of English-language classes for a disadvantaged young woman in India through the nonprofit Magic Bus Womens Scholarship Fund program.
image@latimes.com
@latimesimage
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Michael Twitty, the African American Jewish writer and culinary historian, known for writing an open letter to Paula Deen for not recognizing the role of African and African American food culture in the creation of Southern food, is bringing his eye-opening rhetoric to Los Angeles. And hes just in time for Passover.
In the form of a lecture and culinary demo at the Skirball Cultural Center on April 13, Twitty will discuss his experience of being both African American and Jewish, as well as explore Passover through the lens of food. He will be exploring the connection between the African American and Jewish diasporas cultural connection to food, and Twitty is poised to give his audience a new way to think about the centuries-old religious holiday.
What can people expect from your talk at the Skirball?
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Its going to be a Passover talk. I do have a complex black and Jewish identity but I really want people to look at this talk as a different way of looking at Passover. Its also going to focus on the Passover menu and the different ways of executing that menu and eating. I want people to have the opportunity to see Passover from a different Jewish lens and understand that not all Jews are this color, that color, this way or that way. For them to see that we are a rich and complex people who define ourselves as one family. And that should give us pause to reflect on the last time we treated someone as anything but family.
You talk a lot about the parallels of the Jewish and African diasporas and the influence on both cultures food and the experience of food. In what ways do you see these two experiences as uniquely similar?
Theyre both oppressed cultures where the luxury of terroir isnt a reality. You know, you just dont have it [terroir] because youre in exile and youre oppressed and youre suppressed as youre forcibly made to migrate in search of a peace of mind. Its also simply survival through the mental fortitude of humor, the mental fortitude of memory and the mental fortitude of resistance. There are other similar, old-food traditions, but none that really go into the dialectic of humor and resistance and memory and pain, as well as black and Jewish diasporic food cultures. Not many people have that, where thats what they need their food to do and to be for them.
You use the term terroir a lot when speaking of these diasporic food cultures, in particular you often say that terroir is in their genes in these cases.
In this case its not so much the land youre stepping on but whats in your blood. Its whats in your blood and your memory. Its whats in your heritage and your family history especially when you come from a people who were denied land, given land, taken it back, you know this constant sort of push and pull of having just a little bit of power and then none at all.
In the time of my great-great or great-great-great-grandparents, your sense of food and how it relates to nature had to be portable, it traveled with you, and you had to renegotiate with the natural world. You were forced to get your ingredients from maybe a 30-mile radius from where you lived. And you couldnt really do much more with your culinary traditions than what was allotted to you. So thats what terroir in your blood means to me.
How do you see the preservation of African and Jewish traditional food cultures taking form in 2017?
Its always changing. Its a little bit of living out these cultural experiences and a little bit of creating something new. I think whats important is to not ask of these traditions or to force the new. The new will come on its own. Tradition will inevitably lend itself toward improvising something that suits the generation in front of us. Youre seeing that both in the world of Jewish food and in the world of African American food and African diaspora food. Its definitely an urge toward taking tradition, remixing it and using it as inspiration for forward movement as well as forward culinary movement.
What does a Michael Twitty Passover look like?
This year Im going to be with Tori Avey in L.A. but normally I do it on the eighth night, and thats because in the diaspora it may or may not count. I call my cooking Afro-ashke-phardi to be kind of tongue-in-cheek, and I like a mash-up of all these different parts. Also, that way I can have someone who is Ashkenazi eat kitniyot because Passover is technically over. I take blander Ashkenazi foods and jazz them up with African and Sephardic ingredients and spices or take African foods and soften them into plain-Jane Ashkenazi foods or Sephardic foods. Im constantly trying to remake dishes and flavors and trying unusual things out: a lot of lemon, ginger, mint, rosewater, rhubarb, juniper berries.
Youve said before that you wouldnt call how these cuisines hold on to part of their history but also push forward and blend with others, fusion. And that fusion is the wrong way to look at it. What would you call it?
Mixed marriage [laughs]. Its culinary intermarriage. Its a dialogue, really. The way these African American, African diasporic, and Jewish food cultures interact with others. Its a different kind of conversation. There are two or three or more food cultures slamming into each other. Theres no such thing as Afro-Antarctic ice cream but that might be what Id call a fusion. People are going to merge when theyre born and they have access to other communities apart from themselves, but I dont think that would mean a real fusion food.
Were a diverse culture of people in Los Angeles. Thats been especially true in the last decade or so as younger chefs have brought their unique food cultures into the mainstream from Filipino food to modern Mexican. Do you see similar movements with African American and African diasporic food cultures in America?
Theres been a new thrust toward that, with my work at least. Im hoping and waiting as the growing West African restaurant prevalence starts to affect and inform the way African Americans eat. To get more African Americans in line with West African and Afro-Caribbean food traditions that could be healthier or alternatives to the usual overdosing of celebration foods. Thats what people mean by soul food. When they say that bad, heavy soul food theyre talking specifically of just one variety of African American cuisine. But we should be talking about the whole picture.
Is there a moment in your research or experience of writing your forthcoming book, The Cooking Gene, that particularly sticks with you?
I was in Birmingham. Ala., and I met two sisters who had survived the Holocaust who had come to Alabama to build new lives, marry, have families. And these two sisters were admiring my hamantaschen that I make from teacake dough, which is an old Southern cookie. And they explained to me that they had spent these years of their lives fighting segregation when it wasnt a very popular thing to be doing. They had been spat on; head pinned, assaulted, trying to fight segregation. And these women said, Were so glad that we did that so that you can get to come home to Alabama. And these two women had lost all of their immediate family in the Holocaust. But the most important thing to them was that I got to come home to Alabama, the place of my grandparents. And I totally got it.
You famously called out Paula Deen for not acknowledging the fundamental role of African American and African food traditions in the creation of what we call Southern food. How do you feel calling her and chefs such as Sean Brock out has changed the overall conversation of Southern food?
Every time we get really, really embarrassed about race, then all of a sudden an advance will happen. Are certain white chefs willing to see certain territory and make space at the table? Thats the real question. You know? And until we really change the narrative, the old narrative, and cement change, it will all be for none.
food@latimes.com
@latimesfood
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Charter schools are proliferating where they arent needed while state funding continues to support even those charters that violate state law, according to a report released Monday by a research and advocacy group.
The new research by an Oakland group called In the Public Interest looks at where charter schools are increasing in number and where schools are needed based on enrollment. The two trend lines do not correspond, researchers found especially in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where the number of school-age children has declined even as the number of charters has rapidly grown.
For the record: This article originally identified a group that conducted earlier, related research with the American Civil Liberties Union as Public Counsel. The group was Public Advocates.
Charters are privately operated, taxpayer-funded public schools that are exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses.
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The report points out that traditional school districts cant build new schools when real or potential enrollment fails to justify expansion. But those rules dont apply to charter schools, which can open anywhere and qualify for state funding or subsidies to build or lease facilities. The report says public funds helped open and sustain at least 450 charters in areas with plenty of existing classroom space.
Paying for more schools than are needed wastes taxpayer dollars, the report says. Furthermore, an oversupply of schools serves to undermine the viability of any individual school.
The latter argument has been made repeatedly by L.A. Unified officials, who say that rapid and widespread charter growth is one of several factors threatening the solvency of the nations second-largest school system.
The reports lead researcher, Gordon Lafer, an associate professor at the University of Oregons Labor Education and Research Center, attributes the problem to a lack of clarity and vision in state policy.
Charter supporters insist the need for such schools isnt based on a shortage of classroom capacity but on a shortage of classrooms providing a high-quality education.
They also believe parents should have more choices, especially in low-income neighborhoods where student achievement and graduation rates at traditional public schools have long been poor. Many charter supporters believe that the marketplace should determine which schools remain open, provided that all campuses meet state-defined standards.
The group that issued the report, which focuses on the privatization of public services and assets, has published much research critical of charter policy and charters, most of which are non-union. About 5% of the groups funding comes from labor unions, spokesman Jeremy Mohler said.
The California Charter Schools Assn. said labor, including the California Teachers Assn., also has separate ties to the University of Oregons Labor Education and Research Center.
Todays report is likely just the latest tactic by CTA to not only stop charters from growing, but to shut down even the most effective charter schools, spokesman Jason Mandell said in a statement.
The new research also looks at the kinds of aid charters receive for facilities. It concludes that massive amounts of public dollars are helping charters acquire property that could end up being privately controlled should charters decide to sell their school sites or go out of business. Alliance College-Ready Public Schools has developed an especially large portfolio of school property through the use of state funding programs, the report says.
In the Public Interest also faulted California for continuing to provide funding to charters that violate state law. It cited a July report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Public Advocates, which concluded that at least 253 California charter schools, more than 20% of the state total, had enrollment policies that illegally excluded some students or discouraged them from applying, such as those with poor academic records, limited English-speaking skills or disabilities.
The ACLU told The Times last week that more than half the charters have maintained illegal enrollment policies since the report came out, although there is some dispute about its findings. Some of the charters denied they were operating illegally or insisted theyd already altered enrollment practices to conform with state law.
Regardless, In the Public Interest suggested that the state could compel schools violating the law to return public funds.
State officials said the more typical remedy would be to demand that a charter end an improper practice. Eventually, the state could shut down a school that failed to comply.
In general, withholding money isnt really the way the state responds, said Nick Schweizer, deputy superintendent for the California Department of Education.
One exception might be federal start-up grants for charters, Schweizer said. The U.S. government, he said, could insist on the repayment of a grant, but that has not happened so far.
Some charter schools are authorized at the state level, and a few were named in the ACLU-Public Advocates report. Schweizer said that the state has determined that none of those charters are engaging in illegal enrollment practices.
howard.blume@latimes.com
@howardblume
UPDATES:
9:35 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from the California Charter Schools Assn.
This article was originally published at 9 a.m.
PHNOM PENH, April 10 -- The Cambodian edition of Chinese President Xi Jinping's book on the governance of China marked another milestone in China-Cambodia relations, a senior Chinese official said on Monday.
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen will preside over the release ceremony of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" on Tuesday at his office, the Peace Palace, in Phnom Penh, according to Jiang Jianguo, chief of China's State Council Information Office.
"This will be the first time that the book is translated into the Cambodian language, and it can serve as an experience for Cambodia in governance and administering the country," he said at a luncheon with Cambodian media representatives led by Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith.
"The Cambodian version of the book is a new testament to the fruitful relations and cooperation between China and Cambodia," he said.
The book contains 79 speeches, talks, interviews, notes and letters of the Chinese leader between November 2012 to June 2014. It was already translated into 16 languages and has a distribution of over 6.2 million copies around the world.
"Through this book, Cambodian readers will better understand President Xi's thoughts on China's development, domestic and foreign policies and response to the concerns of the international community," Jiang said.
Civil rights hero John Lewis and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi lent some star power to a South L.A. rally Sunday aimed at drastically reducing child poverty in California and across the nation.
The event in support of a California Assembly bill that seeks to increase funding for childcare, after-school service, job placement programs and other antipoverty initiatives was part block party and part progressive pep rally, as lawmakers took potshots at President Trump and danced to pop songs as they took the stage.
For the record: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of a student from the Stem Academy in Hollywood. It is Ilene Garcia.
Lewis (D-Ga.) spoke of his days fighting for voting rights and equality in the segregation-era South, encouraging the nearly 200 people in attendance to raise their voices and urge legislators in Sacramento to push the bill to Gov. Jerry Browns desk.
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Here in California, you must get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble, and pass this bill, said Lewis, whose wife grew up in Los Angeles.
Assembly Bill 1520, authored and introduced earlier this year by Assemblywoman Autumn Burke (D-Inglewood), seeks to reduce the percentage of children living below the poverty line in California by half by fiscal year 2039.
One in five children in California lives below the federal poverty line, according to the bill, including 30% of African American and Latino children.
This bill is not based on politics. Its not based on assumptions. It is based on research, said Burke, adding that much of the legislation was drafted in response to studies undertaken by Stanford University.
Pelosi (D-San Francisco) invoked President Trumps decision to take military action in Syria last week after children were killed in a poison gas attack, nudging the administration not to cut funding to programs that provide necessary services to low-income families in the U.S.
If you care about the children in Syria, and we all do let that be a message to care for all of the children in the world, she said.
Ilene Garcia, a teenage student at the Stem Academy in Hollywood, drew loud cheers when she spoke of her experience growing up poor in Los Angeles. Born to a single mother who has worked as a janitor in the city for two decades, Garcia said her family has been forced to move at least five times in recent years while struggling to cover rent.
I come home from work and do the cooking and cleaning before I even get to my homework and studies, said Garcia, who plans to study biology when she attends UCLA next year.
Lewis also touched on his childhood in rural Alabama, where he said he grew up very, very poor, but his family was able to survive with the help of relatives, urging the California Legislature to offer the same kind of aid to struggling families in the state.
If it hadnt been for people helping out, I wouldnt be the person that I am today, he said. So we must never, ever, give up on any child. Ever.
james.queally@latimes.com
Twitter: @JamesQueallyLAT
A man armed with a shotgun was shot and killed by Ontario police Sunday night inside a grocery store as panicked shoppers and employees cleared the aisles, officials said.
The scene unfolded just after 10:40 p.m., when police received several 911 calls from customers reporting a man armed with a shotgun had walked into the Stater Bros. Market in the 1900 block of East 4th Street, said Ontario Police Det. Melissa Ramirez. An employee had also set off a silent alarm, she said.
Customers told police the man, who wore a hoodie-type sweater, appeared to be upset, Ramirez said.
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Officers were concerned the man could carry out a shooting, so they ordered employees and customers to clear the store, according to the detective.
After the store was evacuated, a group of officers entered the store and spotted the man, who was still armed with 12-gauge shotgun, she said.
Officers immediately opened fire, striking and killing the man, she said.
They found him pretty quickly, she said.
It is unclear how many shots were fired and how many officers fired at the man.
Few details were known about the man, Ramirez said. His identity has not been released.
Authorities on Monday were trying to determine if the man drove or walked to the market.
veronica.rocha@latimes.com
Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA
Seconds after his sister called him about a school shooting, David Zamudio started racing toward San Bernardinos North Park Elementary School.
Zamudio, whose 6-year-old daughter is in second grade at the school, quickly found himself among a throng of panicked parents outside the building trying to determine if their children were safe, and where they could pick them up on Monday morning.
I came because they said it was safer, more isolated. But I guess its not that way, said Zamudio, who recently moved to the area from Highland.
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Two people were killed and two students were injured after gunfire erupted inside a classroom about 10:30 a.m. Monday, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said on Twitter. Police do not believe there is an active shooter on scene, and have described the incident as a murder-suicide. Maria Garcia, a spokeswoman for the city school district, said the shooter was an adult male and that the attack stemmed from an incident of domestic violence against his wife or girlfriend.
The two injured students were likely shot because they were near the teacher who was fatally shot, said Capt. Ron Maass of the San Bernardino Police Department.
The entire incident was limited to a single classroom, he said.
The students were airlifted to a local hospital, according to a school spokeswoman who spoke to KTLA-TV Channel 5 live on air.
At North Park, students could be seen gathered on a field at a corner of the campus near Northpark Boulevard and H Street at about 11:40 a.m., accompanied by teachers and guarded by law enforcement officers carrying long guns. Police officers in bulletproof vests could be seen walking through the school yard and basketball courts, as helicopters flew overhead.
Initially, some parents at the scene said there was confusion Monday morning over where to collect their children as information circulated that they should be picked up at either Cajon High School or Cal State San Bernardino. But their frustration melted to relief as many of the students were released around 2:30 p.m.
Its bittersweet. Were happy that shes OK but know that others werent as lucky, said Ivory Skidmore, as she held the hand of her 5-year-old daughter outside of the high school. Its tough. Its our community thats hurt.
August Brinkley, 50, was at her mothers house across the street on Northpark Boulevard when, at 10:20 a.m., she heard police car after police car rushing by. She stepped outside and saw cruisers pulling up to the entrance to the school.
When I saw the SWAT team oh my God, she said.
Parents soon started rushing the building, trying to get inside to check on their children, she said. Police turned them away, saying it would be safer to wait outside, leaving each to wait on the sidewalk with frayed nerves.
There were a lot of tears, Brinkley said. It was panic city.
Tyler Sykes left home Monday morning to go to school when he saw a line of police cars drive past with their lights on. He thought nothing of it until he reached Northpark Boulevard, about a mile from his home.
We were just on the way to school and the street I usually take, it was blocked up, said Sykes, a Cajon High School senior. There was just cops everywhere, fire trucks, ambulance.
Around 10:50 a.m. Sykes and his friend saw a helicopter on the schools field as well as parents crying and unsure about how to get their children.
It was sad, too, seeing the parents. Because the parents...werent getting more information, said Sykes, 18.
One man tried to break through the police tape, but an officer stopped him. Sykes said the man then hugged the officer instead of trying to push his way through.
The cop just hugged him back, he said.
Sykes and his friends stayed at North Park for about an hour before they decided to try to get to class at Cajon, he said.
I was just thinking its crazy, to be honest, Sykes said. I feel like the citys just getting like worse and worse. That could have easily been Cajon High School that I go to.
Students from the elementary school are being evacuated to Cal State San Bernardinos physical education building, where they can access bathrooms and water, according to Joe Gutierrez, a university spokesman.
Parents need to first go to Cajon High School, where officials will verify their identity, before sending them to Cal State San Bernardino to pick up their children, Gutierrez said.
There was a brief shelter in place warning at the university that was lifted about 11:45 a.m. Monday, he said.
Outside Cajon High School, 42-year-old Teresa Lisa said she spent several anxious minutes waiting to hear that her two grandchildren, who both attend North Park, were safe. Her son also raced to Cal State San Bernardino and made his way inside the gym, where he found the children unharmed.
I panicked and I booked it here, she said. They live with me four days a week. Im glad they are OK.
North Park Elementary teaches more than 500 students between kindergarten and sixth grade, mostly from low-income Latino families.
At other area schools, the day continued as normally as it could after students began to hear reports of the shooting.
San Gorgonio High School math teacher Patrick Kahler said he received emails from school district officials about the incident, and some students found out on social media. Kahler said his students did not appear shocked by the reports of gunfire and violence.
Its not, Oh my gosh, he said. Its like students are now becoming jaded to it, which is really sad.
San Bernardino has a lot of problems, Brinkley said, but she always thought the school was safe. She remains weary of the violence that plagues the city, but said residents are resilient.
Weve survived all sorts of things in San Bernardino, she said. Well survive this as a community.
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers James Queally and Maya Lau contributed to this report.
paloma.esquivel@latimes.com
sonali.kohli@latimes.com
Hailey.Branson@latimes.com
Benjamin.Oreskes@latimes.com
Twitter: @palomaesquivel, @sonali_kohli, @haileybranson, @boreskes
UPDATES:
1:45 p.m.: This story was updated with comments from a high school student at the shooting scene.
1:05 p.m.: This story was updated with comments from additional parents at the shooting scene and at nearby Cajon High School.
12:40 p.m.: This story was updated with a comment from a teacher and from a parent.
This story was first published at 12:10 p.m.
Beleaguered Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday after pleading guilty to two campaign violation misdemeanors amid allegations that he misused public resources to pursue an affair with a former aide and intimidated officials in an attempt to cover it up.
I have decided it is time for me to step down as Alabamas governor, Bentley, a Republican who faced mounting criticism from his own party, said at the state Capitol shortly after he was booked into the Montgomery County Jail and released.
The 74-year-old Southern Baptist and father of four dubbed the Luv Gov by certain sections of the Alabama media was charged with failing to file a campaign finance report and failing to disclose information on a statement of economic interest. His resignation came as the Alabama House Judiciary Committee wrapped up its first day of impeachment hearings against him.
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Shortly afterward, Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, a former state treasurer, was sworn in as Alabamas 54th governor. Her administration, she vowed, will be open, transparent, and it will be honest.
As part of a plea deal, Bentley agreed to perform 100 hours of community service and repay his campaign fund $8,912. In turn, the state attorney generals office will not pursue felonies against him.
Bentley did not mention the plea deal in his public statement. But he did apologize.
Ive always believed the honor of serving as your governor was a calling that God placed on my life, Bentley said. Though I have committed myself to working to improve the lives of the people of our state, there have been times that I have let you and our people down, and Im sorry for that.
Earlier Monday, in the first impeachment case considered by Alabama lawmakers in more than a century, Bentley was likened to President Nixon and accused of using government resources for his own purposes and stonewalling investigators.
Until as recently as Friday, Bentley had vowed to stay in office. Once again, let me say: I do not plan to resign, Bentley said on the steps of the Capitol building Friday afternoon, just hours before a damning Judiciary Committee report became public.
The move toward impeachment hearings began more than a year ago, when more than 20 members of the Alabama House of Representatives introduced a bill proposing to impeach Bentley for willful neglect of duty and corruption in office.
Lawmakers who brought impeachment proceedings against Bentley greeted the news of his resignation with relief.
Its been a long time coming, Rep. Ed Henry, a Republican who initiated the move to impeach the governor, told Montgomerys WSFA 12 News. Im glad to see that he did the right thing. I wish he had done it sooner for his sake and for the states, instead of dragging us down this road.
Speculation about the governor has simmered since August 2015, when Bentleys wife of 50 years, Dianne, abruptly filed for divorce, stating in court records that their marriage has suffered an irretrievable breakdown.
Public allegations of an affair between Bentley and former senior political advisor Rebekah Caldwell Mason did not break out until March 2016, when Bentley fired the states top law enforcement official, Spencer Collier, saying that an internal investigation at the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency uncovered possible wrongdoing. Within hours, Collier spoke out against the governor, alleging that he had seen and investigated sexual text messages and audio recordings between Bentley and Mason.
When I stand behind you, and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts and just pull you real close, Bentley said in one audio recording. I love that too.
If were going to do what we did the other day, were going to have to start locking the door, he was also heard saying.
In another recorded conversation, Bentley expressed irritation that his official duties prevented him from spending time with Mason, complaining that his upcoming calendar included time devoted to his legal staff and a discussion of bills he needed to sign.
Although Bentley has acknowledged an improper relationship with Mason, he has insisted it was not physical.
Impeachment is the peoples check against political excess, Jack Sharman, special counsel for the Judiciary Committee, told lawmakers on the panel Monday before outlining evidence against Bentley.
According to the 131-page report released Friday, Bentley made little effort to hide his relationship with Mason. At one point, he mistakenly sent a text message saying, I love you Rebekah, to his then-wife.
After Dianne Bentley secretly recorded her husband speaking to Mason, the report says, Robert Bentley became engulfed in increasing obsession and paranoia and his loyalty shifted from the state of Alabama to himself.
Fearful that the recordings could become public, he directed law enforcement officers to perform tasks that had no law enforcement justification, the report says, including ordering them at one point to end his relationship with Mason on his behalf, and to investigate who had a copy of the recordings and identify potential crimes with which they could be charged.
To ensure the silence of his staff, Governor Bentley encouraged an atmosphere of intimidation, the report says.
Sharman also alleged that Bentley ordered Mason, who at the time was not a state employee, accompany him on official state planes and helicopters over the objections of security personnel.
Although Bentley has insisted he cooperated with the investigation, providing more than 12,000 documents, Sharman noted that Bentley produced no documents in response to 20 subpoena requests.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of these documents were non-responsive and self-serving, the report says. Governor Bentleys modest responsive production, coupled with his broad objections, only underscored his intention to obstruct and impede the investigation by every means possible.
During the inquiry, Sharman told lawmakers, the fact that Bentley and his office failed to meaningfully cooperate could constitute independent grounds for impeachment.
There are some significant questions regarding Gov. Bentleys candor towards the investigative efforts, Sharman said, noting that Bentley declined to provide a full series of notes, emails and text messages and tried to use litigation tactics to delay and frustrate the committees attempts to get the facts.
Last week, Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, both Republicans, urged Bentley to resign. On Sunday, the Alabama Republican Party Steering Committee stepped up the pressure, passing a resolution calling for him to immediately step down from office.
The overwhelming majority of elected officials are good, hard-working people who love their communities, state and nation, the resolution said. However, when situations arise that are in direct conflict with the betterment of our people, we will speak up regardless of political party.
On Monday, the Montgomery County district attorney, Daryl Bailey, turned over a separate Alabama Ethics Commission case against Bentley to the states acting attorney general. Last week, the commission found probable cause to ask Baileys office to consider prosecuting Bentley on three charges that he violated state campaign finance laws and one charge that he violated ethics law by using public resources to further his personal interests.
This committee today is a theater being watched by the people of Alabama and the nation, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Jones said Monday morning as he kicked off proceedings. I trust we will all approach this with a fair and open mind.
Bentleys attorneys have contended that the governor had not been given enough time to prepare a defense, an argument that prompted a Montgomery County circuit judge on Friday to temporarily block the Judiciary Committee from beginning impeachment hearings. On Saturday, the Alabama Supreme Court overturned that order in a 7-0 vote, paving the way for the special counsel for the Judiciary Committee to outline the findings of his report.
Jarvie is a special correspondent.
UPDATES:
4:30 p.m.: The article was updated with the swearing in of a new governor.
3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with news of the governors resignation.
This story was originally published at 2 p.m.
The story about former Obama administration official Susan Rice and purported Russia surveillance leaks that came to briefly dominate the national conversation last week had its genesis in, of all places, the suburbs of Orange County. The first tidbit emerged from the primordial media soup thanks to a lifestyle blogger and conservative social media personality named Mike Cernovich.
Nobody in media and journalism knows more about deep state than I do, Cernovich, who has almost 250,000 Twitter followers, gloated in a livestream broadcast last Sunday night, appearing at home in a hoodie and downing a glass of red wine.
Cernovichs big exclusive? He said Rice, Obamas former national security advisor, had requested unmasking the names of Trump associates who were caught up in U.S. surveillance of foreign officials. Cernovich and other conservatives who quickly took the ball and ran saw it as a partial validation of President Trumps incendiary claim on Twitter a month ago that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower before the election.
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Way to break the story mike! wrote a viewer, one of many quickly commenting in approval of Cernovichs broadcast. Huge story Mike! another added. One commenter typed out and sent a question, which popped up on the broadcast and then quickly disappeared: Whats unmasking and why is it wrong?
Thats a question any news consumer might ask of any story: What is this, and is it bad? Yet when it came to Rice, Americans were about to see conservative and mainstream news outlets come up with two very different answers to that question a symptom of the increasing extent to which Americans often seem to live in one nation but inhabit two widely divergent realities.
One version these days typically comes from Fox News and other outlets that echo the Trump White House line. A much different one can often be found on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, the New York Times and the rest of the mainstream media.
So it was with the Rice story, which for nearly two days the mainstream media largely ignored, and when it couldnt any longer, dismissed as irrelevant.
Its a huge problem, said Tom Hollinan, a professor of political communication at the USC Annenberg School. One of the things that a healthy democracy and a deliberating public need is the ability to participate in a common conversation. They should be able to share news and understand facts in a way that helps them make sense of the world around them and make good decisions.
The story seriously got rolling Monday morning, after Trump tweeted about Fox News amazing reporting on a crooked scheme by an unknown Obama official to spy on him by unmasking his associates. Cernovichs scoop was mostly overlooked, until Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake published a story identifying the Obama official as Rice. (He later said he was unaware of Cernovichs report.)
Lake, a respected reporter on national security issues based in Washington, delivered a relatively straight-ahead report: He said Rice had requested the names of Americans involved in certain monitored conversations, which were primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials. The names of Americans are typically redacted from U.S. intelligence reports on surveillance of foreigners, and unmasking them is permitted only under certain circumstances.
The question of who in the Trump transition team was talking to Russian officials was of major political significance: Both houses of Congress had launched investigations of Russian political activities in the U.S., and Trumps initial national security advisor, Mike Flynn, had been fired for dissembling about his contacts with Russias U.S. ambassador.
Lake, when he published his story, wasnt taking Cernovichs line. He noted that the new details about Rice do not vindicate Trumps claims about wiretapping, and he wrote that the evidence suggested Rices unmasking requests were likely within the law since revealing names in a classified surveillance report to the countrys national security advisor isnt necessarily the same as disclosing them to the public.
Yet the story surged through conservative media, whose pundits were concerned that the unmasking was done for political purposes, not national security.
BOMBSHELL REPORT, wrote conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who concluded that the only scandal here is the apparent targeting and leaking of names from the Trump team in order to smear them by high-ranking Obama officials. (Rice later said, I leaked nothing to nobody, and never have.)
Confirmed: Susan Rice "Unmasked" Trump Team https://t.co/XfnIRsJRfJ zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 3, 2017
Radio host Rush Limbaugh, breaking the news to his massive daily audience, attacked Rice as untrustworthy due to inaccurate comments about the 2012 attack at a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
But then Limbaugh also went after another familiar target, accusing the New York Times of sitting on the Rice story he noted Cernovichs claim that the mainstream media was engaging in a cover-up of the story in order to protect Obama.
The day after his report, on Monday, Cernovich was basking in his scoop, gloating and insulting other conservative outlets on social media, accusing them of plagiarizing him for not crediting him with getting the story first. (He also publicly wondered if the government was going to assassinate him.) By then, he was ready to reveal, sort of, how he had been handed the story.
I didnt get it from the intelligence community, Cernovich said in a video. Thats the big joke about this. Everybodys trying to figure out where I got it from. I got it from somebody who works in one of those media companies ... who said, Cernovich, theyre sitting on this story, theyre not going to run it. You can run it.
Cernovich added: It was maybe an intern, an IT guy all Im gonna say is if youre in the fake news, Im reading your emails.
Perhaps thats how Cernovich had correctly predicted, on the day he broke the story, that Bloomberg was working on a similar story about Rice.
I was unaware of your story. I did my own reporting and writing on this. https://t.co/Z1DvlcFRBP Eli Lake (@EliLake) April 3, 2017
Reports that I sat on the Susan Rice story are false. Eli Lake (@EliLake) April 4, 2017
But Cernovich also accused New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman of having the story and sitting on it for political reasons. (Cernovichs claim regarding Maggie Haberman is 100% false, said a Times spokeswoman.)
Nonetheless, many conservatives believed the Rice story was a smoking gun pointing to partisan bias in the mainstream media. They began scrutinizing the mainstream media for its coverage which, on Monday, mostly didnt exist.
Susan Rices husband works at ABC News so, of course, they dont cover the story at all, tweeted radio personality Mark Simone the next morning, earning almost 3,000 retweets. (Rices husband left ABC News in 2010, and ABC News published its first story on Rice later that day.)
Susan Rice's husband works at ABC News - so, of course, they don't cover the story at all: https://t.co/yAvo1SJRqP MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) April 4, 2017
The MSM is collectively embarrassing itself beyond belief in downplaying the Susan Rice story. You can't put this genie back in the bottle. John Cardillo (@johncardillo) April 4, 2017
will the MSM lede with Susan Rice tonight on broadcast news and tomorrow morning in print? Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) April 3, 2017
Early mainstream media stories that did report on Rice often described the unmasking as normal and justified, as the New York Times did when it published a story on Monday. CNNs chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto tweeted that the story was overblown.
Other members of the mainstream media, in turn, believed the Rice controversy was a very different story about partisan bias in the conservative media. A critical piece by Washington Post blogger Paul Waldman, posted shortly after Rice was identified as the official who had asked for the unmasking of some of the names in the surveillance reports, called it a fake scandal, ginned up by right-wing media and Trump. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker wrote a story calling the scandal bogus. CNN host Don Lemon was equally blunt.
There is no evidence whatsoever that the Trump team was spied on illegally, Lemon said Monday night. There is no evidence that backs up the presidents original claim. And on this program tonight, we will not insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise, nor will we aid and abet the people who are trying to misinform you, the American people, by creating a diversion. Not gonna do it.
Lemons statement left Fox News analyst Brit Hume aghast. This is just amazing, Hume tweeted. The story is clearly news and refusing to report it is not the behavior of a news organization. White House spokesman Sean Spicer jumped in Tuesday, adding that he was somewhat intrigued by the lack of interest by mainstream media.
The outcome, by midweek: Millions of viewers of CNN might assume there was no Susan Rice scandal. Millions of viewers of Fox were led to believe that Susan Rice might be proof of Obama administration spying on Trump transition operatives for political ends.
And any semblance of a bipartisan conversation about what the laws of surveillance ought to be, what should be the scope of public officials dealings with foreign governments, what is the appropriate exchange of information between the White House, Congress and the security agencies none of that was likely.
Because no one could agree on the facts.
Sean Spicer calls out "lack of interest" in Susan Rice report from the mainstream media pic.twitter.com/Ww3C3M4xgm FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 4, 2017
Conservative media writers were convinced they had caught Rice in a lie, pointing to an interview Rice had done with PBS in March saying I know nothing when she was asked about Trump associates being caught up in surveillance. (Politifact, evaluating the remarks in context, said its not 100% clear that Rice made an intentionally false statement, and Rice defended herself on Twitter.)
I said I did not know what reports Nunes was referring to when he spoke to the press. I still do not. But the full HPSCI needs to know. https://t.co/V1xyRNRyJK Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) April 4, 2017
Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., happy with the turn of events, tweeted: Congrats to @Cernovich for breaking the #SusanRice story. In a long gone time of unbiased journalism hed win the Pulitzer, but not today!
Congrats to @Cernovich for breaking the #SusanRice story. In a long gone time of unbiased journalism he'd win the Pulitzer, but not today! Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 4, 2017
After ignoring the initial story, mainstream outlets began to talk about it, but with a tone of skepticism.
The New York Times on Tuesday took a birds-eye political look at the controversy, not buying the scoop factor. Republicans see a partisan who mined intelligence reports to spy on Mr. Trumps team. Democrats see a scapegoat tarred for doing her job and used as a distraction from an F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Trumps associates, the paper noted.
The Washington Post wrote the same day about Rice denying that she compiled or leaked any names from Trumps transition team.
The Los Angeles Times didnt publish a full staff story until Wednesday three days after Cernovichs report from the newspapers own back yard an explainer on the controversy about unmasking.
It was published the day Trump invited two New York Times reporters into the Oval Office to talk about the issue.
I think the Susan Rice thing is a massive story, Trump said, according to a transcript published by the newspaper. I think its a massive, massive story. All over the world, I mean other than The New York Times.
Weve written about it twice, replied Haberman, one of the reporters.
Huh? Trump said.
Weve written about it twice, Haberman said.
Trump then said he thought Rice had committed a crime.
It was a stunning statement: a sitting president accusing a former public servant of being a criminal. As a result, Trump succeeded in getting another Rice story into the New York Times.
The headline? The paper told its readers that hed called Rice a criminal.
Except the paper also said the president hadnt given any evidence. And that was the truth.
matt.pearce@latimes.com
@mattdpearce
michael.finnegan@latimes.com
@finneganLAT
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A recall has been issued after two people in Florida found a dead bat in the packaged salad they were eating.
The Miami Herald reports that Fresh Express has recalled its Organic Marketside Spring Mix, which was shipped to Wal-Mart stores in the Southeast.
In addition to Florida, the salads went to Walmart stores in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the bat was tested for rabies but because it was in deteriorated condition, rabies could not be definitively ruled out.
The CDC said the risk of rabies transmission is low but recommended that the two people eating the salad start getting rabies treatment. The CDC says both report being in good health so far.
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The biggest U.S. news story of 2016 the tumultuous presidential campaign yielded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for the Washington Post reporter who not only raised doubts about Donald Trumps charitable giving but also revealed that the candidate had been recorded crudely bragging about grabbing women.
David A. Fahrenthold won the prize for national reporting, with the judges citing his stories about Trumps charitable foundation that called into question whether the real estate magnate was as generous as he claimed.
This years feature photography winner was E. Jason Wambsgans of the Chicago Tribune, for his portrayal of a 10-year-old boy who had been shot.
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Los Angeles Times photographer Katie Falkenberg, who documented the tragic effects of the Zika virus in Brazil, was named a finalist in the feature photography category.
The judges said her photos showed the vulnerability, fear and love of mothers coping with the crisis.
Fahrentholds submission also included his story about Trumps raunchy behind-the-scenes comments during a 2005 taping of Access Hollywood. The footage rocked the White House race and prompted a rare apology from the then-candidate.
In another election-related prize, Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer for commentary for columns that connected readers to the shared virtues of Americans during one of the nations most divisive political campaigns, judges said.
American journalisms most distinguished prize also recognized work that shed light on international financial intrigue and held local officials accountable.
The New York Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer for public service for uncovering how authorities used an obscure law, originally enacted to crack down on prostitution in Times Square in the 1970s, to oust hundreds of people, mostly poor minorities, from their homes.
Thanks to this investigation, New York now sees how an extremely muscular law, combined with aggressive policing, combined with a lack of counsel, combined with lax judges produced damaging miscarriages of justice, Daily News Editor in Chief Arthur Browne said. The Daily News reporter credited with most of the work was Sarah Ryley.
ProPublicas managing editor, Robin Fields, said the joint effort was the type of collaboration that ProPublica had in mind when our newsroom launched nine years ago. ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit organization that does investigative reporting.
The New York Times staff received the international reporting award for its work on Russian President Vladimir Putins efforts to project Moscows power abroad. The award in feature writing went to the Times C.J. Chivers for a story about a Marines descent into violence after returning home from war, told through an artful accumulation of fact and detail, the judges said.
Winners ranged from partnerships spanning hundreds of reporters to newspapers as small as the Storm Lake Times, a twice-weekly, 3,000-circulation family-owned paper in Iowa. The papers Art Cullen won the editorial writing award for challenging powerful corporate agricultural interests in the state.
The prize for explanatory reporting went to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald, which amassed a group of over 400 journalists to examine the leaked Panama Papers and expose the way that politicians, criminals and rich people stashed money in offshore accounts.
Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail won the investigative reporting prize for articles showing that drug wholesalers had shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in just six years, a period when 1,728 people fatally overdosed on the painkillers. Eyre obtained U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration records that leading drug wholesalers had fought in court to keep secret.
The staff of the East Bay Times in Oakland received the breaking news reporting award for coverage of a fire that killed 36 people at a warehouse party and for its follow-up reporting on how local officials hadnt taken action that might have prevented it.
Its tremendously humbling to be giving the award and have our journalists honored, said Neil Chase, executive editor of the East Bay Times and the Mercury News in San Jose. At the same time, he said, You have to pause and realize that 36 people died in the fire, and this story should have never happened.
The staff of the Salt Lake Tribune received the local reporting award for its work on what judges called the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment of sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University. The paper said the reporting led to reforms.
Hilton Als, a theater critic for the New Yorker, won in the criticism category, with judges praising how he strove to connect theater to the real world, shifting landscape of gender, sexuality and race.
The award in editorial cartooning went to Jim Morin of the Miami Herald.
Freelancer Daniel Berehulak received the breaking news photography award for his images, published in the New York Times, documenting Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes crackdown on drug dealers and users. Berehulak won the feature photography Pulitzer in 2015 for his work on the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
In troubled times for newspapers, the work that wins Pulitzer Prizes reminds us that we are not in a period of decline in journalism. Rather, we are in the midst of a revolution, with new partnerships, technology and media taking the field in new directions, prize administrator Mike Pride said.
The Pulitzers are awarded at Columbia University and handed out in 14 categories for reporting, photography, criticism and commentary by newspapers, magazines and websites.
Arts prizes are awarded in seven categories, including fiction, drama and music. Among the arts winners, Colson Whitehead took the fiction prize for The Underground Railroad, a novel that combined flights of imagination with the grimmest and most realistic detail of 19th century slavery.
Playwright Lynn Nottage won her second drama Pulitzer, for Sweat.
This is the 101st year of the contest, established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Public service award winners receive a gold medal; the other awards carry a prize of $15,000 each.
The Associated Press contributed the bulk of this report.
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Monday, April 10, and heres whats happening across California:
TOP STORIES
Taxpayers foot the bill
The cost to taxpayers to resolve legal claims against Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies accused of misconduct has soared over the last five years, according to records. The countys payouts have jumped from $5.6 million to nearly $51 million over that time, a review by The Times found. Los Angeles Times
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Less corruption?
The Los Angeles County district attorneys public corruption unit has prosecuted hundreds of cases and notched some big convictions, including seven officials who looted city coffers in Bell. In recent years, however, felony case filings have been on the decline, falling from a high of 39 in 2010 to 11 last year, records show. Los Angeles Times
Pension reform woes
The cost of Californias public pensions is breaking the bank. One reason the problem is so hard to fix, some say, is that the fate of reform measures hangs on ballot language written by the state attorney general. Thats usually a Democrat elected with strong union support. Los Angeles Times
L.A. STORIES
Free speech: Administrators expressed disappointment and threatened discipline after a demonstration that disrupted a planned public event last week featuring conservative commentator and author Heather MacDonald at Claremont McKenna College. Los Angeles Times
End of an era: L.A. Kings play-by-play announcer Bob Miller capped a 44-year career with the team. Los Angeles Times
Tragic death: A 15-year-old skateboarder being towed by a car was killed in Palos Verdes Estates. He was mourned as a great kid. Daily Breeze
Boom or bust? Orange Countys economy has seen a remarkable expansion in recent years, but how long can it last? Orange County Register
Rental racism? An ugly case of anti-Asian bias and Airbnb. Los Angeles Times
IMMIGRATION AND BORDER
Police versus ICE: A new bill introduced in Congress this month would prohibit immigration officers from wearing any clothing bearing the word police, which some officials complain is deceiving and only serves to escalate tensions in their communities as the Trump administration steps up immigration enforcement. Los Angeles Times
Silicon Valley North: Canadas tech scene thinks it sees an opportunity in Trumps immigration crackdown to compete with Silicon Valley. Business Insider
New bill: The state Assembly approved a bill that would prohibit law enforcement officers from detaining a crime victim or witness on immigration charges or violations. Los Angeles Times
Crossing over: Why dont more people here illegally become citizens? Because its hard to do. San Diego Union-Tribune
No sanctuary here: El Dorado County doesnt like the idea of California becoming a sanctuary state, and officials are gearing for a fight. San Francisco Chronicle
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Winning ugly: Gov. Jerry Brown won his battle over a transportation plan for California, but it was an ugly victory marked by side deals that have raised some eyebrows. Los Angeles Times
Plus: So what is the tiny rail network from the Central Valley to San Jose that was the big winner? Pork barrel politics at its worst, or good policy? Modesto Bee
At a glance: Breaking down the transportation bill. Los Angeles Times
For sale: How high housing prices threaten something very basic about living in California. Sacramento Bee
CRIME AND COURTS
LAPD gets charged up: Ford Motor Co. has unveiled the worlds first pursuit-rated hybrid police car and says the Los Angeles Police Department will be among the first agencies to have one. Los Angeles Times
How to get away: The high number of unsolved killings in Richmond has residents complaining about how easy it is to get away with murder. San Francisco Chronicle
Out of the shadows: Pulling human trafficking out of the dark. Modesto Bee
End of the line: The end of traffic amnesty for poor California. Reveal
CALIFORNIA CLIMATE
Battle lines: L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez writes that Californias environmental crusaders now face their biggest test: Donald Trump. Los Angeles Times
Our climate: So what causes Californias drought-to-deluge cycles? Scientists want to know. Phys.org
Jaws: A large shark became stranded on a beach in Santa Cruz, causing quite the scene. Mercury News
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
L.A. with clear eyes: A photographer sets out to capture the natural beauty of Southern California in all its complexity. Los Angeles Times
Infinity parking: Apple is about to move into its new headquarters in Cupertino, which has more parking spaces than actual offices. Business Insider
Plus: How parking sets L.A. apart from some other global cities. The Economist
Big change: The story of a transgender Navy veteran who is set to have sex reassignment surgery Monday. Its been a long journey. Orange County Register
CALIFORNIA ALMANAC
Los Angeles: Sunny in the 70s. San Diego: Sunny with some clouds in the low 70s. Bay Area: Chance of rain Tuesday and Wednesday; low 60s. Sacramento: Cloudy in the mid-60s; chance of rain later in the week. More weather is here.
AND FINALLY
This weeks birthdays for those who made their mark in California:
Labor leader Dolores Huerta (April 10, 1930), Rep. Susan Davis (April 13, 1944), Rep. Jim Costa (April 13, 1952), Rep. David Valadao (April 14, 1977) and Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (April 16, 1947).
If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)
Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.
When Congress and the Obama administration sought to reform the healthcare system in 2009, they focused on insuring more people, lowering the cost of care and raising the quality.
The Trump administration appears to be aiming at a different target: reducing the cost of insurance for healthy people. That may sound like a fine goal, but the administration is going about it the wrong way by returning us to the bad old days when sick people had to pay exorbitant premiums, if they could get coverage at all.
Thats the upshot of the proposal the administration put in front of recalcitrant House conservatives last week after they blocked the GOP leaderships proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, arguing that it didnt remove enough of the laws insurance regulations. Those regulations, members of the arch-conservative Freedom Caucus complained, force healthy people to pick up too much of the costs imposed by the ill and the injured.
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Theyre not inventing the complaint out of whole cloth. Obamacare (also known as the Affordable Care Act) sought to insure millions of uninsured Americans by providing the same protections in the non-group market that Congress extended to employer plans in 1996: Insurers couldnt deny any applicants, nor could they charge higher premiums for those with pre-existing conditions. The ACA also required all new insurance policies to cover 10 essential health benefits, such as hospitalization and maternity care, that were commonly covered in employer plans.
When insurers sell exemption-laden policies they shifted the risk of hefty medical bills onto their customers.
Those changes aimed to spread the risk and cost of insurance broadly across each state. But for a number of reasons, insurers in some regions racked up big losses, leading to large premium increases. Although the vast majority of the people shopping at state insurance exchanges received subsidies that dulled or eliminated the pain of the premium increases, millions of others who bought individual policies in and out of the exchanges did not. Those are the people hit hardest by the premium increase, especially in states that took a hands-off approach to insurers rates and policy offerings.
There are plenty of things Congress and the states could do to try help those consumers, including offering more tax breaks, creating reinsurance funds to mitigate insurers risks and working harder to persuade younger, healthier people to buy insurance. What the House GOP leadership proposed, however, was to let insurers sell plans that covered a smaller fraction of their customers medical bills in other words, shift more costs onto those who need care. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that would cause premiums to go up more than the current approach for the first few years, although the increases would eventually be lower by comparison.
After the Freedom Caucus balked, Vice President Mike Pence tried to bring its members back on board last week by proposing to let states waive the ACA provisions barring insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums based on pre-existing conditions, as well as the one requiring policies to cover the 10 essential health benefits. In any state that did waive those rules, insurers would likely offer lower-cost policies designed to attract the sort of people insurers like to cover: the ones who dont need care. Residents there would face the same obstacles they did in the days prior to the ACA, when insurers sold exemption-laden policies that shifted the risk of hefty medical bills onto their customers. Theyd also be free to deny coverage to people with expensive chronic conditions or risky lines of work.
Supporters of this approach argue that states could institute high-risk pools to cover anyone shunned by private insurers. Thats not a new idea, though many states (California included) had high-risk pools before the ACA, and the pools proved so costly that states ended up denying coverage to some applicants and for some conditions. In other words, the pools provided little help to the people who needed it most.
Pences talks with the Freedom Caucus didnt bear fruit, so Congress broke for spring recess with the matter still up in the air. While lawmakers are back in their districts, Americans with pre-existing conditions who couldnt get insurance before the ACA, or who couldnt get the kind of coverage they needed, need to tell their representatives not to sacrifice their coverage to solve the problem of high premiums.
jon.healey@latimes.com
Twitter: @jcahealey
Editors note: This article was originally published April 10, 2017. We are resurfacing it from the archives with a new headline in the wake of Justice Anthony Kennedys decision to retire from the Supreme Court.
Even before the Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch as a justice of the Supreme Court, and before it nuked the filibuster for nominees, the Trump administration and conservatives were already plotting to fill the next vacancy. Indeed, they have made overtures to swing Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to get him to feel comfortable with retirement. If Kennedy goes, or if a liberal justice gets sick or dies, Democrats have few levers to stop Republicans from confirming a nominee even more conservative than Gorsuch. The future, then, holds a Supreme Court where Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is the swing vote a scary eventuality for progressives.
Last year was the real moment for the left to act on the Supreme Court. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia had died, creating the first opportunity in decades to move the court to the left on issues including the environment and civil rights. There could have been a majority to overturn the controversial 2010 Citizens United decision, which has ushered in a new era of big money in politics.
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But within an hour of the public announcement of Scalias death, Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell pledged that no nominee from President Obama would get a hearing before the Senate. When Obama nominated a well-respected moderate judge, Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Republicans stood their ground and Democrats failed to take to the streets.
Whether it was because Garland was a middle-of-the road white male, or because liberals did not understand what was at stake, or for some other reason, the court issue did not motivate the left. But it did motivate the right. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, easily won reelection in Iowa despite his obstruction. According to exit polls, of the one in five voters who said Supreme Court appointments were their most important issue, 56% supported Donald Trump and 41% supported Hillary Clinton. Of the 28% of voters who said Supreme Court appointments were not important to their vote, 52% supported Clinton while 39% supported Trump.
Sad as it may be, liberals may have no choice but to put faith in Roberts as a political actor.
Now if Kennedy or Justice Stephen Breyer or Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves and Trump gets to appoint a replacement, the court will move dramatically to the right. There could well be five justices to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the case guaranteeing women the right to an abortion. The court could hold that all affirmative action plans in public education violate the Constitution. The court could make it much harder to assert claims that restrictive voting laws violate the equal protection clause or the Voting Rights Act. If progressives think the Supreme Court is conservative now, just wait.
With the filibuster gone, the options for the left should another vacancy occur before 2020 are slim. The left could encourage protests and try to pressure moderate senators not to confirm a hard-right nominee, but that seems unlikely.
Sad as it may be, liberals may have no choice but to put faith in Roberts as a political actor. With Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas, Gorsuch and another hard conservative to his right, Roberts could calculate that overturning Roe vs. Wade and turning the abortion question over to the states would actually be disastrous for the Republican Party. Suddenly every state election would become a battle over abortion, and many apathetic liberals could turn into motivated ones. Granted, Roberts would almost certainly not fight to save Roe but he might vote to kill it with 1,000 cuts rather than overturn it outright.
I dont mean for liberals to find comfort in this scenario. (Roberts likely wont have any compunction against destroying what is left of affirmative action, or removing the remaining limits on money in politics. Want to donate $100 million to your favorite presidential candidate? No problem.) On the contrary, the possibility that Roberts restraint is the best hope for preserving progressive constitutional rulings shows us that the left is in a truly poor position.
The only real solution is for Democrats to pray for the current justices good health and then to take back the presidency and the Senate. And once they do, perhaps theyll play hardball themselves by increasing the number of justices on the court and packing it with liberals.
Richard L. Hasen is a professor of law and political science at the UC Irvine School of Law, and author of Plutocrats United and The Voting Wars.
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
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An Asian male passenger on an overbooked United flight at Chicagos OHare International Airport was ripped out of his seat by uniformed officers and dragged down the aisle on his back like luggage, as several horrified passengers captured footage of his bloodied face on their phones. The incident sparked a huge outcry online.
According to witnesses, United offered $800 compensation and asked for four volunteers to take another flight the next day to make room for airline staff members after all passengers boarded. When the appeal failed, United staff selected four passengers by computer and the man who was later brutally treated refused to leave as he said he was a doctor and he needed to work at the hospital the next day".
The video taken by fellow passenger shows that the man was screaming and kicking his feet when he was ripped off his seat. He was seen bleeding from his mouth and unconscious after having his head slammed against an armrest. One passenger also told the Washington Post the man claimed as he was being dragged off the plane he was chosen because he was Chinese. 'He said, more or less, 'I'm being selected because Im Chinese",' the passenger told the Post.
More videos and photos were posted on social media, where horrified passengers expressed their anger.
Another clip posted on social media shows the victim somehow broke free from the airport cops and ran back onto the plane chanting 'I need to go home, I need to go home.'
The airline's CEO apologized for the incident on April 10 amid mounting outrage over the video. He said the airline was reaching out to the passenger to "further address and resolve this situation. The Chicago Department of Aviation released statement saying one security officer was put on leave on Monday.
To the editor: On Tuesday, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LBGTQ employees from workplace discrimination. In response, Bishop Garland R. Hunt is quoted in the article as saying this decision is an atrocity to the African American lives lost to pass the Civil Rights Act. (LGBTQ people now protected under Civil Rights Act, but some arent OK with that, April 5)
Hunt fails to recognize how many in the LBGTQ community have been killed, beaten or discriminated against in a number of situations, just as African Americans were before 1964. LBGTQ persons are simply trying to get the same recognition and protections that others enjoy. It is hypocritical of Hunt and the religious sector to deny LBGTQ their full and equal civil rights based on their sexual orientation.
As an attorney with nearly 40 years of experience, I believe that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gives LGBTQ persons the right not to be discriminated against and to be treated fairly and respectfully as any other member of society.
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Allen P. Wilkinson, Laguna Woods
..
To the editor: Bishop Gilbert Thompsons opposition to protecting LGBTQ people under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is wildly unjust and offensive.
The Oxford Dictionaries define the term civil rights as the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality. As such, Thompsons argument that gays and lesbians should [not] be lumped in with civil rights is clearly reflective of his religious beliefs and his disapproval of same-sex marriage, not of a supposed fear of misrepresentation.
His remark that sexual orientation is something that can be put to the side supports the largely incorrect perception that this particular identity category is not an intrinsic aspect of ones being.
Martin Luther King Jr. stated that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and as such, personal and religious views should not dictate what is considered discrimination and what is not.
Siana Amos, Los Angeles
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
University of California administration is paying excessive salaries and mishandling funds, state audit says
UCLA campus (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The administration of the University of California system pays top workers salaries and benefits significantly higher than that of similar state employees, and failed to disclose to the Board of Regents and the public that it had $175 million in budget reserve funds while it was seeking to raise tuition, a state audit found Tuesday.
The audit triggered a dispute with UC President Janet Napolitano, who said charges of hidden funds were false, while two members of the UC Board of Regents charged recommendations to give the Legislature budget authority over the Office of the President encroached on UCs constitutional powers.
Among the sticking points, the auditors believe the regents should contract with an independent third party that can assist the regents in monitoring a three-year corrective action plan.
The audit of the Office of the President also found that it failed to satisfactorily justify its spending on system-wide initiatives and inappropriately screened surveys submitted by auditors to campus officials.
Our report concludes that the Office of the President has amassed substantial reserve funds, used misleading budgeting practices, provided its employees with generous salaries and atypical benefits, and failed to satisfactorily justify its spending on systemwide initiatives, State Auditor Elaine Howle wrote to Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature.
Furthermore, when we sought independent perspective from campuses about the quality and cost of the services and programs the Office of the President provides to them, the Office of the President intentionally interfered with our audit process, Howle wrote.
The auditor said that because of recent tuition hikes, she recommends the Office of the President should refund available funds in the reserves by returning them to the campuses for the benefit of students.
Ralph Washington Jr. president of the U.C. Students Assn. said if any reserve money is found it should go to help students, possibly by killing the tuition increase or helping students who are starving or homeless, but he is concerned legislators may use the audit to say the U.C. doesnt need so much general fund money.
Students definitely dont want their tuition to go up, he said.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), who serves on the board of regents, said the audit requires more inquiry.
The audit of the UC Office of the President appears to have uncovered the same kind of budgetary misrepresentations and executive excess that weve seen before with the State Parks Department and the Public Utilities Commission, Rendon said in a statement. There are many questions that need to be answeredand answered honestly.
The audit was requested by legislators concerned about high tuition and complaints of a bloated administration overseeing the UC systems 10 campuses.
The reserve included $32 million in unspent funds it received from an annual charge levied on the campusesfunds that campuses could have spent on students, the audit said.
Auditors said salaries paid to those in the presidents office are much higher than the pay of comparable positions in other state government jobs.
President Napolitano agreed with the vast majority of recommendations for improving budget processes and spending, but denied that $175 million was hidden from the UC Board of Regents.
In a letter to Howle, the president said changes were already underway.
The recommendations to [the UC presidents office] are helpful, Napolitano wrote. We welcome this constructive input, which aligns with our proactive efforts to continually improve UCOPs operations, and UCOP intends to implement the recommendations.
However, Board of Regents Chair Monica Lozano and Regent Charlene Zettel asked Howle to remove recommendations that they feel encroach on the constitutional autonomy of the university system, including proposals to have the Legislature approve the Office of the Presidents budget.
As written, we believe these recommendations threaten the Universitys standing as a constitutionally autonomous entity, and the Board of Regents itself, the regents wrote.
Administrative salaries amounted to $2.5 million more than the maximum annual salary ranges for comparable state employees, auditors found.
For instance, an accounting managers maximum annual salary is $169,000 at UC compared to $156,000 for other state employees.
An information system manager can make $258,000 with UC, but $150,000 with other state agencies.
The audit said: 10 executives in the Office of the President whose compensation we analyzed were paid a total of $3.7 million in fiscal year 2014-15 over $700,000 more than the combined salaries of their highest paid state employee counterparts.
On benefits, the Office of the President provided a regular retirement plan but also offered its executives a retirement savings account into which the office contributes up to 5% of the executives salariesabout $2.5 million over the past five years, the audit found.
The Office of the President also spent more than $2 million for its staffs business meetings and entertainment expenses over the past five yearsa benefit that the State does not offer to its employees except in limited circumstances, the audit said..
The audit also said the Office of the President reimbursed questionable travel expenses, including a ticket for a theater performance and limousine services. One person spent $350 per night on hotel rooms, which is above the allowable standard for other state agencies.
The audit said the Office of the President has not managed its own budget which amounted to $747 million in fiscal year 201516 in a fiscally prudent or transparent way.
Napolitano said the audit was in error in claiming her office failed to publicly disclose tens of millions in surplus funds.
In fact, UCOPs budget and financial approaches reflect strategic, deliberate and transparent spending and investment in UC and state priorities, said a statement by the Office of the President.
Howle disagreed.
Significant reforms are necessary to strengthen the publics trust in the Office of the President, the audit concluded.
Read the audit here.
Half a century after the United States led a global expansion of international efforts to combat infectious disease and promote family planning, the Trump administration has embarked on a historic retrenchment that many fear threatens the health of millions and jeopardizes Americas standing in the world.
Since taking office, President Trump has proposed dramatic cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has historically spearheaded U.S. efforts to improve womens and childrens health.
For the record: A previous version of this article identified APROFAM as Guatemalas largest provider of family planning services. It is the largest private provider.
The White House is urging reductions this year to major international heath initiatives, including the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which provides life-saving medicines to millions of AIDS patients in developing nations.
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The Trump administration has imposed tough new restrictions on U.S. support for aid organizations that provide family planning and other health services.
And last week, the White House announced it is cutting all U.S. contributions to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, the lead international agency dedicated to promoting family planning and child and maternal health.
Cuts on the scale proposed by the president could be devastating, said former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a surgeon who has worked extensively on global health since retiring from Congress in 2007.
If the U.S. chooses to drastically cut its foreign assistance, including for HIV/AIDS, nutrition and family planning, we risk reversing our strides over the past 25 years to reduce extreme poverty and disease worldwide, he said. That potentially creates a domino effect, which could lead to nation destabilization, conflict and catastrophic loss of life.
The U.S. is currently the largest funder of global health programs, including family planning.
The Trump administration has defended the rollback as necessary to address domestic needs, such as repairing aging bridges and airports, and constructing a new wall along the border with Mexico. Conservatives also want to ensure the U.S. is not funding abortion services.
These steps to reduce foreign assistance free up funding for critical priorities here at home and put America first, the administration explained in its 2018 budget proposal released last month.
But across the world, there are growing fears the U.S. will no longer be a reliable ally in tackling major global health challenges, including combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and future pandemics such as Ebola.
Last month, more than 100 evangelical and Catholic leaders who work on international aid sent a letter to Trump, imploring him not to cut U.S. aid.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures compel us to care for the marginalized, the leaders wrote. If we can protect the lives of mothers and children, we can intervene not just to save lives but also to establish a foundation of health and wellness to uplift communities, societies and nations.
Several international aid groups, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid being seen as criticizing the new administration, said they had already been told by U.S. government officials to expect a major shift away from healthcare assistance globally.
The stakes in this retrenchment are high.
Although maternal and child mortality rates have been falling globally, in 2015 more than 300,000 women died from complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and nearly 6 million children died before the age of 5 because of disease and malnutrition, according to World Health Organization and United Nations estimates.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a mother is nearly 40 times more likely to die in childbirth than in the U.S.
At the same time, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS still claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year.
For decades, the U.S. played a crucial role in addressing major global health challenges, even though foreign aid has remained a small fraction of the overall federal budget.
The George W. Bush administrations campaign to address the AIDS epidemic in the developing world spearheaded by PEPFAR is widely credited with helping to turn the tide against the deadly disease.
President Bush changed the face of Africa, said Jennifer Kates, who oversees global health research for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Total U.S. spending on global health topped $10 billion in 2016, more than half of which is committed to HIV/AIDS, according to a Kaiser analysis.
Support for global family planning has waxed and waned over the years, as Republican presidents, including Bush, have been less supportive.
But the Obama administration made family planning a major priority, seeing access to contraception as key to improving the health of mothers and children, empowering women and supporting economic development.
The U.S. is still one of the largest contraceptive purchasers, and last year contributed more than $600 million to global family planning and reproductive health efforts, Kaisers analysis found.
In Guatemala, USAID money helped build the countrys largest non-governmental provider of family planning services, known as APROFAM, which now operates network of hospitals and clinics that last year provided 1.2 million family planning services in a country of 16 million people.
In the Philippines, USAID has worked with the government to ensure family planning services are available in more than 400 clinics and hospitals in a region of the country where an estimated 2 million women and girls have unwanted pregnancies every year.
And in Mozambique, the agency has supported a network of community health workers who go door-to-door in rural areas of the country to provide information on family planning.
The Trump administrations proposed budget, which the president released last month, would cut about 30% of the State Department and USAID budget in 2018.
And although the White House said it would continue support for PEPFAR and other global health funds, the administration has proposed a series of substantial cuts this year to PEPFAR as well as programs targeting polio, tuberculosis and malnutrition, according to budget documents sent to lawmakers last month and first reported by Politico.
Cuts to PEPFAR would be generated, among other ways, by requiring PEPFAR to begin slowing the rate of new patients on treatment, the White House proposed.
At the same time, the Trump administration has substantially expanded a restriction on U.S. aid to organizations that counsel women about abortion services.
U.S. law already bars U.S funding for abortion, but Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan have added a restriction that requires recipients of family planning assistance to attest that they will not even discuss abortion with patients.
When Trump reinstated this ban commonly called the global gag rule he said it would apply to all U.S. global health aid, not just family planning funding, which could affect many more aid groups.
The United Nations ability to provide family planning assistance also took a hit when the Trump administration announced last week that it would pull more than $32 million in funding for UNFPA.
The administration cited UNFPAs work with China, which has engaged in forced sterilizations and abortions, although there is no evidence that UNFPA supports or participates in these activities.
Since January, several European countries have indicated they will step up support for global family planning efforts in the wake of the U.S. retreat. But that is doing little to assuage concerns that Trumps family planning moves are harbingers of other cuts to come.
It is very troubling, especially when you think of the pivotal role the U.S. has played over the years in global health, said Lawrence Gostin, a global health expert at Georgetown University. The world is lost without U.S. leadership.
noam.levey@latimes.com
@noamlevey
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Im Sarah D. Wire, and I cover the California delegation in Congress. Welcome to the Monday edition of Essential Politics.
Noah Bierman and Michael A. Memoli took a look at the different ways Trump relied on the established scions of Washington, whom he pledged to get rid of, as he weighed a response to the apparent sarin gas attack in Syria, wrestled with a second swing at changes to the Affordable Care Act and made some staff changes in the West Wing.
Meanwhile, Evan Halper and W.J. Hennigan examined what could be next for U.S. involvement in Syria. On the Sunday morning news shows, the messages from the Trump administration were mixed.
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Members of Congress fell along some unexpected divides on U.S. intervention in Syria. Many of Californias House members were upset the president didnt consult Congress before ordering the strike.
Get the latest about the Trump administration on Essential Washington and follow @latimespolitics. Keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed for California political news.
BACK TO NINE JUSTICES
After being confirmed by the Senate Friday, Gorsuch is scheduled to be sworn in this morning.
David G. Savage looked at some of the immediate ways Gorsuchs presence on the bench might be felt, including on pending cases that pit religious liberty against gay rights, test limits on funding for church schools and challenge Californias restrictions on carrying a concealed gun in public.
LOOKING AHEAD TO L.A. CONGRESSIONAL RUNOFF
Its official: State Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) and former Los Angeles planning commissioner Robert Lee Ahn are headed to a June 6 runoff to choose L.A.s next member of Congress. Unofficial vote tallies show just over 13% of voters turned out last week.
Ahn, who would be the first Korean American in Congress in nearly two decades, surprised many by securing a spot in the top two runoff. His aggressive targeting of voters in Koreatown seems to have paid off, based on an early geographic analysis of the vote. But Ahn will have to expand his reach beyond the Korean American community if hes going to win in this majority Latino district.
Gomez has already grabbed two big endorsements in the runoff campaign. Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, an early Bernie Sanders backer who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus with Keith Ellison, backed Gomez and L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents 40% of district voters, also endorsed Gomez.
Heres another look at what Gomez and Ahn said on some of the top issues.
GAS TAX INCREASE
After a week of fierce debate between opposing interests, the state Legislature approved a plan Thursday to raise gas taxes and vehicle fees by $5.2 billion a year to pay for the repair of Californias pothole-ridden, decaying system of roads, highways and bridges.
The bill squeaked through with the bare minimum of votes required in both houses, and came with $1 billion in pet projects to sway recalcitrant members. Gov. Jerry Brown marked his 79th birthday Friday morning by celebrating its passage.
NEW RULES, SAME POLITICS IN SACRAMENTO
The passage of a sweeping transportation plan at the state Capitol was the first big deal cut under the new legislative rules imposed by voters last fall that require a 72 hours for public review of most bills before theyre approved. But even so, last-minute deal making was alive and well.
In his Political Road Map column, John Myers looks at how the wheeling and dealing of legislative negotiations the kind of stuff voters dont often like isnt about to go away anytime soon.
CAP AND TRADE LIVES
Californias cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gases, has faced a cascade of legal and political problems, but it won a big victory last week.
A state appeals court decided that the program did not function like an unconstitutional tax, rejecting the argument of some business groups. While the state faces other challenges in its battle against climate change, environmentalists hailed the ruling.
DISTRICT VS. AT-LARGE ELECTIONS
Nearly two dozen cities across the state have recently switched from citywide elections in which all voters choose everyone on the council, to district elections in which geographically divided groups of voters each elect their own representative. And more are preparing to switch.
But, as Phil Willon found, the new method isnt leading to much more ethnically representative councils.
TODAYS ESSENTIALS
The topics on this weeks California Politics Podcast include the big transportation deal in Sacramento and whether last weeks court ruling on the states climate change law could affect efforts to add to that law later this year.
Grade the President: How do you think Trump did during week 11 of his presidency? Tell us here.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is moving senior staff to Orange County in hopes of flipping Republican-held House seats in 2018.
California joined 15 states on a court brief supporting Planned Parenthoods lawsuit against an Ohio healthcare law.
The Assembly voted to expand protections for immigrant crime victims and witnesses.
Labor heavyweight Maria Elena Durazo will run for Kevin de Leons state Senate seat.
LOGISTICS
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The California Legislature has achieved something I never expected to see again in my lifetime. Its public job approval rating has soared above 50%.
Thats astronomical compared with the lawmakers wretched ratings of a few years ago.
Of course, the latest polling was conducted before the Legislature raised gas taxes and vehicle registration fees by $5.2 billion a year.
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Thats not a good-news type of thing, notes Mark DiCamillo, polling director of the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. Its the kind of thing that irritates voters.
But the tax hike to pay for repairing Californias sorry roads was long overdue and showed guts, at least by the Democrats and one deal-making Republican who voted for it Thursday night.
Unlike the gridlocked, Republican-controlled Congress, the Democrat-dominated state Legislature exhibited an ability to pass significant, controversial legislation that required a supermajority vote.
Its the most important bill well have before us this session, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) told colleagues during the floor debate.
DiCamillos UC poll, reported last week, found that 57% of Californias registered voters approve of the Legislatures job performance, with 43% disapproving.
Thats almost up there in the Gov. Jerry Brown stratosphere. His numbers were 61% approval, 39% disapproval the highest DiCamillo has recorded for Brown during his second gubernatorial reign.
For the Legislature, its the highest popularity rating found by DiCamillo since 1988. Its standing was down to 14% approval, 76% disapproval just seven years ago during the recession.
Another poll, by the Public Policy Institute of California, found numbers similar to UC Berkeleys last month. It reported 51% job approval for the Legislature.
The poll results mirror current political polarization. In the UC survey, 77% of Democrats approved of the Legislatures performance, as did 56% of independents. But 77% of Republicans disapproved.
The overall numbers reflect how far the GOP has fallen in this former swing state. Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly 45% to 26% in voter registration, with independents approaching 25%.
That largely explains why President Trump, in the UC poll, had the lowest initial job approval among Californians of any new president in many decades. It was 39% approval, 61% disapproval. In the PPIC survey, it was worse: 35%-62% among likely voters.
Congress rating was even more pathetic in the policy institutes poll: 27% approval, 68% disapproval.
All these ugly images of the Republican president and Congress as seen by blue-state Californians have enhanced their positive view of the Democratic Legislature. At least thats my theory.
Trumps contentious actions and egocentric behavior have crystallized government and politics in the minds of Californians and focused more attention on Washington and, to a lesser degree, Sacramento.
The contrast is accentuated whenever a California Democrat speaks out against the divisive president. And there are plenty resisting him, especially on illegal immigration.
The single most effective way to become a popular politician in California is to not be named Trump, says former Republican strategist-turned-independent professor Dan Schnur of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
No one is completely satisfied with their lot in life, so the natural tendency is to blame the politicians, he says. But when those politicians are criticizing Donald Trump, the voter feels a little bit better about them.
Updates from Sacramento
Mark Baldassare, president and pollster for the PPIC, points out that not even California Republicans are wild about Congress. Meanwhile, Democrats and independents are really sour on it. Theres a positive comparison for the Legislature, he says.
But UC Berkeleys DiCamillo calls all this speculative and says, I wouldnt go too far.
Both he and Baldassare point out that the economy is performing well and that Californians at least Democrats feel good about the states direction. That makes them happier about the Legislature and governor.
Also arguably most important the Legislature has quit shaming itself with summerlong bickering budget brawls.
In 2010, Californians approved a ballot initiative allowing the Legislature to pass a state budget on a simple majority vote, rather than two-thirds. And it required lawmakers to pass a spending plan by June 15 or lose their pay. That took care of the procrastination and paralysis.
And passage of the highway tax bill showed an ability to play old-fashioned, practical politics. Backroom deals have always been the backbone of effective legislating.
In this case, the deal was cut in the governors historic mansion with Brown, Rendon and Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) negotiating with Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres, a moderate Republican whose vote was needed for passage.
What Cannella wrangled out of those Democratic leaders was good for the northern San Joaquin Valley and, in fact, was a model for the entire state.
Cannella got $400 million to extend a Bay Area commuter train roughly 30 miles southward from just below Stockton to Merced. That will allow people to live in the senators relatively low-cost district and commute by rail to jobs in unaffordable San Jose and Silicon Valley.
During floor debates in both houses, there were the usual eye-roll-inducing trite recitations of political talking points, interjected with a few thoughtful observations. One of the latter came from Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced), whose district will benefit from the commuter train.
After accusing both sides of being intellectually dishonest, Gray concluded: Is this a perfect bill? No. But we have to make imperfect choices and compromise.
Thats how effective democracy works. And one reason this Legislature is outshining Congress.
george.skelton@latimes.com
Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter
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Records show ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manaforts firm received payout from Ukraine ledger under investgation
Last August, a handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then chairman of Donald Trumps presidential campaign.
Ukrainian investigators called it evidence of off-the-books payments from a pro-Russian political party and part of a larger pattern of corruption under the countrys former president. Manafort, who worked for the party as an international political consultant, has publicly questioned the ledgers authenticity.
Now, financial records newly obtained by the Associated Press confirm that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manaforts name were actually received by his consulting firm in the United States. They include payments in 2007 and 2009, providing the first evidence that Manaforts firm received at least some money listed in the so-called Black Ledger.
The two payments came years before Manafort became involved in Trumps campaign, but for the first time bolster the credibility of the ledger. They also put the ledger in a new light, as federal prosecutors in the U.S. have been investigating Manaforts work in Eastern Europe as part of a larger anti-corruption probe.
Separately, Manafort is also under scrutiny as part of congressional and FBI investigations into possible contacts between Trump associates and Russias government under President Vladimir Putin during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The payments detailed in the ledger and confirmed by the documents obtained by the AP are unrelated to the 2016 presidential campaign and came years before Manafort worked as Trumps unpaid campaign chairman.
In a statement to the AP, Manafort did not deny that his firm received the money but said any wire transactions received by my company are legitimate payments for political consulting work that was provided. I invoiced my clients and they paid via wire transfer, which I received through a U.S. bank.
Manafort noted that he agreed to be paid according to his clients preferred financial institutions and instructions.
Previously, Manafort and his spokesman, Jason Maloni, have maintained that the ledger was fabricated and said no public evidence existed that Manafort or others received payments recorded in it.
The AP, however, identified in the records two payments received by Manafort that aligned with the ledger: one for $750,000 that a Ukrainian lawmaker said last month was part of a money-laundering effort that should be investigated by U.S. authorities. The other was $455,249 and also matched a ledger entry.
The newly obtained records also expand the global scope of Manaforts financial activities related to his Ukrainian political consulting, because both payments came from companies once registered in the Central American country of Belize. Last month, the AP reported that the U.S. government has examined Manaforts financial transactions in the Mediterranean country of Cyprus as part of its probe.
Federal prosecutors have been looking into Manaforts work for years as part of an effort to recover Ukrainian assets stolen after the 2014 ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, who fled to Russia. No charges have been filed as part of the investigation.
Manafort, a longtime Republican political operative, led the presidential campaign from March until August last year when Trump asked him to resign. The resignation came after a tumultuous week in which the New York Times revealed that Manaforts name appeared in the Ukraine ledger although the newspaper said at the time that officials were unsure whether Manafort actually received the money and after the AP separately reported that he had orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation until 2014 on behalf of Ukraines pro-Russian Party of Regions.
Officials with the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is investigating corruption under Yanukovich, have said they believe the ledger is genuine. But they have previously noted that they have no way of knowing whether Manafort received the money listed next to his name. The bureau said it is not investigating Manafort because he is not a Ukrainian citizen.
Still, Manaforts work continues to draw attention in Ukrainian politics.
Last month, Ukrainian lawmaker Serhiy Leshchenko revealed an invoice bearing the letterhead of Manaforts namesake company, Davis Manafort, that Leshchenko said was crafted to conceal a payment to Manafort as a purchase of 501 computers.
The AP provided to Manafort the amounts of the payments, dates and number of the bank account where they were received. Manafort told the AP that he was unable to review his own banking records showing receipt of the payments because his bank destroyed the records after a standard seven-year retention period. He said Tuesday the computer sales contract is a fraud.
The signature is not mine, and I didnt sell computers, he said in a statement. What is clear, however, is individuals with political motivations are taking disparate pieces of information and distorting their significance through a campaign of smear and innuendo.
Leshchenko said last month the 2009 invoice was one of about 50 pages of documents, including private paperwork and copies of employee-issued debit cards, that were found in Manaforts former Kiev office by a new tenant.
The amount of the invoice $750,000 and the payment date of Oct. 14, 2009, matches one entry on the ledger indicating payments to Manafort from the Party of Regions. The invoice was addressed to Neocom Systems Ltd., a company formerly registered in Belize, and included the account and routing numbers and postal address for Manaforts account at a branch of Wachovia National Bank in Alexandria, Va.
The AP had previously been unable to independently verify the $750,000 payment went to a Manafort company, but the newly obtained financial records reflect Manaforts receipt of that payment. The records show that Davis Manafort received the amount from Neocom Systems the day after the date of the invoice.
Leshchenko contended to AP that Yanukovich, as Ukraines leader, paid Manafort money that came from his governments budget and was stolen from Ukrainian citizens. He said: Money received by Manafort has to be returned to the Ukrainian people.
Leshchenko said U.S. authorities should investigate what he described as corrupt deals between Manafort and Yanukovich. Its about a U.S. citizen and money was transferred to a U.S. bank account, he said.
A $455,249 payment in November 2007 also matches the amount in the ledger. It came from Graten Alliance Ltd., a company that had also been registered in Belize. It is now inactive.
The AP reported last month that federal prosecutors are looking into Manaforts financial transactions in Cyprus, an island nation once known as a favored locale for money laundering.
Among those transactions was a $1-million payment in October 2009 routed through the Bank of Cyprus. The money was deposited into an account controlled by a Manafort-linked company, then left the account on the same day, broken into two disbursements of $500,000, according to documents obtained by the AP.
The records of Manaforts Cypriot transactions were requested by the U.S. Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which works internationally with agencies to track money laundering and the movement of illicit funds around the globe.
Dozens of Ukrainian political figures mentioned in the Black Ledger are under investigation in Ukraine. The anti-corruption bureau, which has been looking into the Black Ledger, publicly confirmed the authenticity of the signature of one top official mentioned there. In December, the bureau accused Mykhaylo Okhendovsky of receiving more than $160,000 from Party of Regions officials in 2012, when he was Ukraines main election official.
The bureau said it would identify more suspects in the coming months.
Mariners Church in Irvine will host several Good Friday and Easter services and events Friday through Sunday.
In celebration of Good Friday, services will be held at noon and 3, 4:30, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Friday. Saturday services will be held at 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. Easter Sunday services will be at 8:15, 9:45 and 11:30 a.m.
In addition to the services, children will be able to search for 50,000 candy-filled Easter eggs during two free Egg Scrambles on Saturday at 2:45 and 6:45 p.m. The church will provide flashlights for the evening hunt.
Separate egg hunts will be held for children ages 1 to 4 and age 5 to fifth grade.
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Mesa Verde public-safety meeting Wednesday
Mesa Verde Community Inc. will present a public-safety meeting Wednesday evening featuring Costa Mesa Police Chief Rob Sharpnack.
Sharpnack will discuss ways to improve home and neighborhood safety.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District Trustee Vicki Snell also will be among the speakers.
The meeting will be held at United Methodist Church, 1701 Baker St., Costa Mesa. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., with the presentation starting at 7.
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Short-term rental policy to be discussed
Short-term rentals in Newport Beach will be the topic of a community meeting Wednesday evening.
In light of substantial growth of the short-term lodging market spurred partly by the popularity of online platforms such as Airbnb and Vacation Rentals By Owner, city officials are asking residents to weigh in on the citys current regulations.
The discussion will center on the growth of the industry and its effects on Newport residents.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the Civic Center Community Room, 100 Civic Center Drive.
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Charter school named after Newports Henry and Susan Samueli
A public charter school in Santa Ana will name its campus after Newport Beach residents Henry and Susan Samueli for their financial contributions to the school.
The capital campaign to build the first phase of the Samueli Academy is complete, with $25 million raised.
A total of 189 gifts were received, including from the Samueli Foundation based in Corona del Mar.
The campaign for the first phase included the purchase of the schools land, building the infrastructure, constructing a 30,000-square-foot academic building and opening a community center for school activities.
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Vanguard to use $50,000 grant for international collaboration
Vanguard University in Costa Mesa will use a $50,000 grant from the U.S. State Department to help women in higher education through a collaboration with Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, Iraq.
Vanguards Global Center for Women & Justice will lead the initiative. The goal is to build a working group within the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education to increase the number of women in higher education.
Were standing with the scholars of Iraq to ensure womens voices are a part of education leadership to improve opportunities for all students, Sandra Morgan, the global centers director, said in a statement.
Vanguard will offer training workshops in July to seven students from Al-Mustansiriya University.
If you want to visit the land of Hobbits, you likely wont find a better airfare deal than this one. Air New Zealand is offering round-trip airfare from Los Angeles to Auckland for $932 and you can add flights within the country for an extra $99 each.
You have to book by April 17 to take advantage of this deal.
Nonstop flights at the bargain price apply to travel from L.A. between May 1 and June 27, Aug. 5 and Oct. 10, and Oct 16 to Dec. 12. Remember, New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere, which means autumn runs from March to May, and summer begins in December.
The offer is subject to availability, of course. The deal also is good for departures from San Francisco and Houston (with different travel periods and prices).
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And about those Hobbits.
You can visit the lush green hills of Hobbiton, the movie set used in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. Its about a 2-hour drive south of Auckland on the North Island.
Info: Air New Zealand
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travel@latimes.com
@latimestravel
Question: We are planning a trip to San Diego. We planned to fly in and rent a car to visit some family, then drive back to San Diego to leave on a cruise. We will both be 81 years old. Are we going to run into age restrictions? Do we need proof from our insurance carrier?
H. Lilly
Naples, Fla.
Answer: The quick answer is that in the United States, you should not run into upper-age restrictions when renting a car. The same is not always true abroad.
And its rarely a bad idea to carry proof of insurance. In fact, its a good idea to chat with your insurance agent before your trip to how you are covered in a rental car. That way, youll feel less pressured at the counter when the agent begins pitching you insurance that you may not need.
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You also should call the credit card company of the plastic youll be using to rent and see whether it offers secondary or even primary insurance.
Once you have insurance squared away, consider some of the risks of driving, which can occur at any age.
Older drivers, however, tend to be at greater risk for injury or death, according to the Centers for Disease Control but not because they are bad drivers.
This trend has been attributed more to an increased susceptibility to injury and medical complications among older drivers rather than an increased risk of crash involvement, the CDC says on its website.
In fact, the agency notes, older drivers generally dont hit the road at night, when visibility may be problematic, or when weather is lousy, and they often avoid freeways or other high-speed roads, which creates a sort of safety shield.
Furthermore, only 6% of those 75 and older who were in a fatal crash were legally drunk. Compare that with the 28% of drivers 21-24 who had a blood alcohol content that constituted legal drunkenness.
Also, at any age, the CDC noted, Males have substantially higher death rates than females.
But, the CDC said, age-related impairments vision, cognition and physical issues can contribute to driving issues. Because each of us is different, those impairments do not stick to a timeline, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which means you cannot pinpoint an age at which driving is not a good choice for you.
The institute does note, however, that the effects of medications may put older drivers at greater risk, and the CDC urges those drivers (or anyone else, for that matter) to check with their physicians before taking that road trip.
The last bit of good news, at least in terms of safety, is that if youre renting a car, youre probably better protected because youll probably be in a newer model car.
Side airbags with head and torso protection have been estimated to reduce fatalities in nearside impacts by 45% for front-seat occupants ages 70 and older, which is significantly larger than the 30% reduction estimated for front seat occupants ages 13-49, its Q&A said.
Now, heres the bad news, not for Lilly but for older drivers headed abroad: You may run into age restrictions when you try to rent a car, but it varies from agency to agency and country to country. There is sometimes an upper-age limit.
Our three brands typically dont have any upper-age limits, except in some countries where our franchisees operate, said Laura Bryant, a representative for Enterprise Holdings, of which Enterprise, Alamo and National are a part.
For example, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia all have 75 as the upper age limit, while Portugal has 80, she said in an email.
As a result, it may be best to check online when booking outside of the U.S.
There may not be an upper-age limit abroad, but you may be asked for a doctors note or you may be charged extra. Again, the only way to know is to visit the website, paying special attention to the small print of rules and restrictions that most websites carry.
If you can find a phone number, call and have that conversation, making note of whom you spoke with and what was said.
If your heart is set on driving but youre visiting a place where there are age restrictions, you may not be at the end of the road.
Consider car-sharing operations, which are both rental car operations and parking lots. Theyre part of the peer-to-peer, or collaborative consumption, business models that brought you such experiences as Airbnb.
The car examples work this way: You have to go out of town, and you want to park your car at the airport. But you may want to make a little money on the side, so you allow your car to be rented and used by another traveler while youre away.
The name you may know is Turo, which has a location in Los Angeles and also operates in Canada and Britain, said Steve Webb, a representative. The only [age] restriction is whether you can legally operate a car in those countries, he said in email.
TravelCar is a newcomer to Los Angeles but already operates in 13 countries, said Ahmed Mhiri, its founder and chief executive. We dont have any maximum age restrictions, he said.
Not everyone is comfortable with the notion of driving a strangers car, which somehow seems more personal than renting from a company whose life wont end if a car is totaled.
Still, if such companies keep you in the drivers seat and youre comfortable being there, they give you another tool to counter discrimination that may be based on an arbitrary number.
Have a travel dilemma? Write to travel@latimes.com. We regret we cannot answer every inquiry.
travel@latimes.com
@latimestravel
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
Trend:
The Baku Shopping Festival has kicked off in Azerbaijans capital for the first time.
The festival, which will last until May 10, is being held in accordance with the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev On additional measures to develop tourism in Azerbaijan dated Sept.1, 2016.
The purpose of holding trade festivals is to increase the economic and tourist potential of Azerbaijan, stimulate the countrys trade turnover by encouraging entrepreneurship.
These festivals also provide for encouragement of the tax system, improvement of tax administration through the application of the VAT refund system for the goods not intended for production or commercial purposes and which were purchased by individuals during the trade festivals in Azerbaijan, the development of a system for servicing taxpayers.
During the festival, the Tax Free system will be applied for the first time regarding the citizens of Azerbaijan.
Facilities that have joined the VAT refund system will have special stickers entitled Baku Shopping Festival - Tax Free. VAT will be refunded only to those citizens of Azerbaijan who purchased the goods at the facilities with such a sticker.
VAT can be refunded in the branches of five banks - Kapital Bank, PASHA Bank, Yapi Kredi Bank Azerbaijan, Bank Silk Way and Azerbaijan Industry Bank.
In early 2016, northeast Brazil became the epicenter of the Zika epidemic, bringing enormous change to thousands of peoples lives. There was an unprecedented increase in cases of microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and often have associated brain damage.
There is a stigma associated with microcephaly in Brazil, and a prejudice against the disabled in general some mothers had even been abandoned by their partners after their children were diagnosed with the birth defect. It was important to us to approach each person we talked to with sensitivity, and to make sure they knew that we would tell their story with dignity and respect.
The resulting work became an in-depth series which brought attention to an under-reported side of the Zika epidemic: the impact on rural communities in Brazil that are among the countrys poorest and most neglected. That struck a chord with readers, many of whom wrote to The Times to ask how they could help the families and the hospital that served them.
SERIES | Living with Zika
(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
Juggling her tired son Gilberto, who was born with microcephaly, single mother Josemary Gomes, 34, cleans dishes at her kitchen sink, which does not have running water. Gilberto has to constantly be held or he will start crying again babies with microcephaly in general tend to be more easily agitated than other infants and cry incessantly. Josemarys days revolve around the 8-month-old boy, who is showing signs of developmental delays and has started having convulsions. She used to make a living as a cook and cleaner. My only work now is taking care of Gilberto, she says.
Josemary Gomes, age 34, reaches her hand out to one of her four sons, Jorge, age 4, as takes a rare moment to rest with Gilberto. Josemary was already raising four boys on her own when she met the man who would father Gilberto. She thought he would take care of them. But she says that when she got pregnant, he told her that he was already married. Josemary is among a growing number of women in Brazil who are raising children damaged by the Zika virus on their own. As many as a third of mothers are unmarried in this nation of 200 million, the hardest hit in an epidemic that has swept around the world. Studies suggest that the rate is highest in impoverished rural villages and crowded slums the places most affected by the mosquito-borne virus that has been linked to at least 1,638 cases of birth defects across the country.
Samuel Amorim, age 2 months, who was born with microcephaly, is bathed by a family member in the kitchen of the familys home in an impoverished neighborhood of Campina Grande, Brazil. Their neighborhood, which does not have running water for three days out of the week, is therefore infested with mosquitoes. Homes don't have screens on the doors or windows, and hardly anyone can afford bug spray. Last summer, when Alessandra de Sousa Amorim was pregnant with Samuel, she developed telltale symptoms of a Zika infection. When Samuel was born in December, scans showed damage to his brain.
Alexandre Santiago holds his son, Samuel Amorim, who was born with microcephaly, in their home in one of Campina Grandes poorest neighborhoods. Before Samuel was born, Alexandre and his wife, Alessandra de Sousa Amorim, both worked outside of the home. But now, Alessandra no longer has time to work cleaning houses. She says it is very difficult to be able to rely on only one income for their household, especially since there are so many new expenses like transportation, medical exams for Samuel, and other things they need for a child with microcephaly. But when were in need, Alessandra says, I have no courage to ask.
The day Josemary Gomes brought Gilberto home from hospital, she laid him on her bed and wept. When there were no tears left, "I raised my head and carried on alone, she said. Here, Josemary navigates her kitchen floor littered with the toys of two of her young sons, after returning from a full day of medical appointments for her youngest boy, Gilberto, who has microcephaly. Josemary was already raising four boys on her own when she met the man who would father Gilberto. She thought he would take care of them. But when she got pregnant, she said, he told her that he was already married. I am Gilbertos father now, she says, I am mother and father at the same time.
Vivian Amorim, age 4, shrieks with laughter with one of her three sisters, Valeria, age 16, in the kitchen of their familys home. Vivian and Valeria are one of four sisters, and recently got a fifth sibling, Samuel, who was born with microcephaly. I dont let the sadness take over us, their mother, Alessandra de Sousa Amorim, says. If we think like that only negative thinking, wed end up crazy! So I dont get stressed, or get angry about lifeabout the world and everybody, I will not settle for that! With four daughters, it was Alessandras dream to have a son. When she got pregnant with her fifth child last summer, and found out it was a boy during an ultrasound, she screamed with joy. It took her a moment to realize that the doctor was tearing up. The fetus had an unusually small head, a condition known as microcephaly that is one of the most visible defects caused by the Zika virus. When Samuel was born in December, scans showed damage to his brain. Despite the hardships that come with raising a baby with microcephaly, there is still a lot of joy in their home.
Maria Silva Floa, age 20, holds her baby, Maria Silva Alves, 2 months, who was born with microcephaly, as she waits for her daughters physiotherapy appointment at Pedro 1 Municipal Hospital in Campina Grande, Brazil. Maria, along with other mothers of children with microcephaly, bring their babies to physiotherapy appointments two times a week. The type of therapy is thought to help in the development of babies with microcephaly.
The wait is long for physiotherapy appointments for babies with microcephaly, so in the hallway outside of the therapy room, mothers gather and share coffee, cake and news about their babies. Weve become a family here, one mother said. The hospital has become a refuge for families, a place where parents can find comfort and camaraderie amid all the uncertainty.
There is much that scientists still dont know about Zika and microcephaly, such as how high is the risk? Is exposure more dangerous in certain trimesters? Are there other factors that increase the chances that Zika will cause birth defects? Because of this, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February dispatched researchers to Brazil to help unravel the mystery. Here, Dr. Megumi Itoh, left, an epidemic intelligence officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), measures the head of 5-month-old Adrielly Rutino, as she is held by her mother. The information they collect will be part of a case-control study, examining the association between women who may have had Zika when they were pregnant, and microcephaly in babies. This child did not have microcephaly, and was used as a control case in the study. For each mother who had a baby with microcephaly in the study, the researchers wanted to enroll, as a control, three others whose babies were born at around the same time and in the same place but who did not have microcephaly.
Dr. Megumi Itoh, left, an epidemic intelligence officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), takes a photo of the back of the head of 5-month-old Adrielly Rutino, who does not have microcepahly and was used as a control in the study, as she is held by her mother, Maria Girdielly, age 17. Because there is so much that scientists still dont know about Zika and microcephaly, the CDC dispatched researchers to Brazil to help unravel the mystery. They are collecting this data for a case-control study examining the association between women who may have had Zika when they were pregnant, and microcephaly in babies. For each mother who had a baby with microcephaly in the study, the researchers wanted to enroll, as a control, three others whose babies were born at around the same time and in the same place but who did not have microcephaly.
After receiving confirmation that her son has microcephaly, Francinelma Santos, age 29, holds Jhin Pirlo, 2 months, as she waits for a car to drive them home from the hospital. Because her son has a larger head than most babies with microcephaly, Francinelma was not sure if he had the neurological condition known as microcephaly. But during a neurologist consultation appointment with Dr. Alba Batista, it was confirmed. Is it really microcephaly?" Francinelma asked, "Yes," replied Dr. Batista. Dr. Batista said only time will tell if Jhin will have developmental problems in the future.
Kalissandra de Olivera, age 17, takes a nap next to her son in a hallway of Pedro 1 Municipal Hospital. Between medical exams, physiotherapy appointments, and support group meetings, parents of babies with microcephaly spend long hours for several days each week inside this hospital. Pedro 1 is one of Brazils first hospitals to open a microcephaly ward.
Claudenice Batista, who is eight months pregnant, waits for her appointment in the microcephaly wing of Pedro 1 Municipal Hospital, to go over the results of her ultrasound, showing whether or not her baby has microcephaly. Room 117 is where pregnant women come to learn the results of their ultrasound tests. Once, most just wanted to know: Is it a boy or a girl? These days, the first question they ask is: How big is the head?
Kalissandra de Olivera, age 17, rests on an exercise ball as her son, Nicolas Felipe Alves de Olivera, 3 months, receives physiotherapy at Pedro 1 Municipal Hospital. During her pregnancy, Kalissandra had a normal ultrasound, and didn't find out that her child had microcephaly until he was born. She had never even heard of the birth defect, and was told to come to Pedro 1 and they would explain. She started bringing Nicolas Felipe to physiotherapy when he was 17 days old. Her days are now packed with medical appointments and meetings.
In the six years that physiotherapist Jeime Leal worked at a pediatricians office, she never had a microcephaly case. When she started at Pedro I Municipal Hospital in December when a wing of the hospital was created for patients with microcephaly due to the spike of cases in the region there were seven cases at the hospital. She now sees twice that number in a single day. Here, Nicolas Felipe Alves De Olivera, 3 months, looks up at Jeime, during a physiotherapy session at Pedro 1 Municipal Hospital.
Evellyn Mendes Santos, age 9, kisses her baby sister, Heloyse, who was born with microcephaly, outside of their home in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. My biggest dream was to have two girls, their mother, Maria da Luz Mendes Santos, says.
Behind their home, Carla de Sousa, who is pregnant, left, and her mother, Maria de Sousa, listen as mosquito control agents give tips on how to prevent having mosquitoes around their home. An agent drew a sample of water being stored in a broken washing machine near their back door; it was full of writhing mosquito larvae. Agents pointed to other places where water had pooled, creating prime habitat for mosquitoes to lay its eggs: old cinderblocks, the dogs water dish, even a discarded bottle cap. Before heading to the next house, one of the mosquito control agents urged Carla to get an ultrasound, to check that her fetus is developing normally.
After fumigating a neighborhood in an attempt to eradicate the mosquito that causes the Zika virus, a health worker with Campina Grande's Municipal Health Department, prepares to remove his gas mask. With no vaccine or treatment for Zika, Brazils government has few options besides sending teams to every infested region to hunt down and kill the insects that carry the virus, Aedes aegypti.
Alexandre Santiago hands his youngest daughter, Vivian, age 4, one of the familys chickens, in the backyard of their home. Their family uses some of the chickens to be able to have eggs to eat. Alexandre is now the sole provider of the familys house, as his wife, Alessandra de Sousa Amorim, no longer has time to work as a house cleaner because of the amount of extra time and care a baby with microcephaly involves. She says it is very difficult to be able to rely on only one income for their household, especially since there are so many new expenses like transportation, medical exams for Samuel, and other things they need for a child with microcephaly. But when were in need, Alessandra says, I have no courage to ask.
Only time will tell what the future is for these children born with microcephaly. At this early stage, the babies can do most of the things as others the same age, and there are varying degrees of the condition. But many children with microcephaly develop severe cognitive and physical disabilities and need expensive therapies, monitoring by specialists, and lifelong care. Some mothers at Pedro 1 Municipal Hospital, where Alessandra de Sousa Amorim, pictured here, takes her baby, have been arriving with questions for the neurosurgeon: Will their children ever learn to walk? Will they ever speak? Dr. Alba Batista, wishes she had answers. Who knows? Only God, she says. Here, we are humans.
More than 50 celebrities, including Bing Crosby and Mickey Rooney, helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to help war refugees in Europe.
The Los Angeles Times reported: During the show, Western Union messengers -- working for nothing -- picked up 2,500 donations.... Los Angeles motorcycle police also made scores of trips to pick up checks.
A Howard Hughes check for $25, 000 was delivered by police car.
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The Times also reported that although the sound stage at KFWB held 6,000, an overflow crowd of 2,000 were seated at another stage. An additional 2,000 were turned away from the broadcast.
This post originally appeared Sep. 1, 2010.
See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here
Foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized nations meeting in Italy sought Monday to build a united front against Syrian President Bashar Assad, threatening to increase sanctions against the autocratic leader and his key ally Russia after a chemical attack that killed dozens last week.
As international condemnation over the incident continued to rage, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. stands firm in its commitment to protect innocent civilians from attacks by aggressors.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson struck a similarly hard-line tone, saying he hoped to persuade the G-7 diplomats to consider imposing new sanctions on Syria and Russia, targeting key military figures, in an effort to bring about a lasting political solution to the countrys civil war, now in its seventh year.
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Russia has a choice, Johnson said: Continue backing Assads toxic government, or work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution.
I think the Russians need a way out and a way forward, Johnson told the BBC. If you think about the position of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin now, hes toxifying the reputation of Russia by his continuing association with a government which has flagrantly poisoned its own people.
Tillerson spoke to reporters earlier in the day at a World War II memorial in a Tuscan village where Nazis massacred more than 500 townspeople. We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world, Tillerson said, alluding to the U.S. decision to launch punitive strikes against the Syrian air base that officials believe was used to launch last weeks chemical attack. This place will serve as an inspiration to us all.
The attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, in northern Syria, has renewed global focus on Assads brutal government and the seemingly intractable Syrian civil war. It has also led to stepped-up calls for Assads removal from power along with new attempts to broker peace.
The U.S. decision to launch a preliminary intervention in the Syrian conflict runs counter to the rhetoric that President Trump espoused on the campaign trail.
The president previously said he preferred to focus solely on defeating the militant group Islamic State, but he has defended the decision to fire off 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian base as being in Americas vital national security and foreign policy interests.
The airstrikes marked the first time the U.S. has acted directly against Assads forces.
Washington has received widespread international support for its unilateral action, but Syrias allies have expressed their deep condemnation. Russia reacted furiously, insisting that the Syrian air force had not attacked its own people with chemical weapons, but instead struck a large terrorist ammunition depot near the village.
Returning to pseudo-attempts to resolve the crisis by repeating mantras that Assad must step down cannot help sort things out, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
Russia previously would have been invited to summits such as Mondays meeting in Lucca, Italy, but was kicked out of the group of major industrialized nations, formerly called the G-8, for its illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Foreign ministers from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan were all present. Italy also invited counterparts from Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the final morning of discussions set for Tuesday in the hope of gaining broader support for any proposal to tackle or topple Assad.
On Tuesday, Tillerson is due to travel to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Tillerson said he hopes that after Mondays meeting, he can present a united front and deliver a clear and coordinated message to the Russians.
The British foreign secretary had been due to meet with Lavrov before Mondays G-7 meeting but canceled at the last minute, saying that the chemical attack had changed the situation fundamentally.
As the Trump administration continued to send mixed signals about its Syria policy, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer appeared to expand the triggers for a U.S. retaliatory strike, saying that if barrel bombs, and not just illegal nerve gas, were used, further action will definitely be considered.
If you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb in to innocent people, I think you can you will you will see a response from this president, Spicer told reporters at the regular White House news conference Monday. That would be a remarkable departure, because Assad drops barrel bombs on civilians on an almost-daily basis.
Later, Spicer seemed to attempt to walk back his comments, issuing a written statement that nothing has changed in U.S. policy.
While creating a shared vision for how to deal with the Syrian leader was clearly at the top of the agenda, discussing efforts to combat terrorism and global warming and monitoring potentially volatile situations in North Korea, Iran, Ukraine and Libya were also of concern to the group.
And not all the negotiations went smoothly.
Energy ministers announced Monday afternoon that they were unable to reach agreement on a climate change statement after the U.S. said it was still reviewing its stance on the issue. All countries, apart from the U.S., were prepared to sign a declaration restating their commitment to emissions reduction goals adopted at the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. But Trump has not shown the commitment to slowing climate change that his predecessor did. Last month, Trump signed an order scrapping key elements of a regulatory plan, ordered by then-President Obama, to cut planet-warming emissions from power plants.
The meetings in Lucca were greeted outside by anti-capitalist protesters, including anarchists and members of a group campaigning against the development of high-speed railways, who clashed with police.
Tuscany against the G-7 out with the murderers, and millions of euros for your military spending, as you cut money for peoples houses! banners read.
Boyle is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.
ALSO
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Syria crisis tests Trumps plan for a new world order
UPDATES:
5:45 p.m.: The story was updated with comments from White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
2:30 p.m.: This story was updated with additional details on the meeting.
12 p.m.: This story was updated throughout with Times reporting.
This story was originally published at 8:10 a.m.
Late one night in February, villagers in the Dast-e-Archi district of northern Afghanistan heard strange sounds from the nearby Panj river, which marks the border with Tajikistan.
One farmer said he saw the bright lights of planes landing close to the riverbank, just inside Afghan territory in an area controlled by Taliban militants.
Word of American airstrikes or raids against insurgents travels fast in Kunduz province, but the next morning no one had any information about such an operation. The villagers concluded that the planes belonged to another powerful country seeking to press its influence in Afghanistan.
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It would have had to be the Russians, said the farmer, who asked to be identified as Gul Agha. These areas are outside government control so the question is raised, why were the planes landing there?
Reports have swirled for months across northern Afghanistan that Russia is increasing its support for the Taliban, providing weapons and financing to the militant group that has battled U.S. and international forces since 2001.
If true, it would be a sharp reversal of Moscows troubled Cold War adventures in Afghanistan, where leaders of what became the Taliban helped drive out Soviet soldiers who invaded in 1979 to prop up a communist government in Kabul. Back then, it was the U.S. under President Reagan that backed the Afghan mujahedin, or freedom fighters, against the Soviets.
Russias return to Afghanistan, according to analysts and Western diplomats in Kabul, is intended to counter the spread of Islamic State-affiliated militants in Central Asia and further challenge the United States at a time when the Trump administration has failed to articulate a plan for ending the Afghan war.
Trump has not appointed an ambassador to Kabul and has barely spoken about the longest conflict in U.S. history, although commanders have said they want to add to the 8,400 American troops still stationed here.
The U.S. has become less active while Russia has increased its activities, said a Western diplomat in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol.
U.S. and Afghan officials have reacted with alarm since Alexander Mantytskiy, the Russian ambassador to Kabul, acknowledged in December that Moscow maintained contact with the Taliban. Earlier this month, Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, told Congress that it was fair to assume Russia was supporting the Taliban, although he did not disclose details.
Russia denies supplying the Taliban with weapons and insists its contacts are solely aimed at bringing the insurgents to the negotiating table. Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putins special envoy to Afghanistan, has called the allegations of material support to the insurgents absolute lies...aimed at justifying the failure of the U.S. military and politicians.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid also denied that the group received money or arms from Russia.
But an official with the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency, said Russian intelligence agents were providing the Taliban with strategic advice, money and arms, including old anti-aircraft rockets.
The Russian support has played a role in the Talibans advances in Kunduz, where they have twice briefly seized the provincial capital, Afghanistans fifth-largest city, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
It also represents another effort by Putin to exert power globally while weakening the U.S.
Russia has intervened in the Syrian war on behalf of President Bashar Assad, and U.S. intelligence officials believe Putin directed a secret campaign to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Trumps favor.
U.S. officials see Russia as a threat to an already struggling government in Kabul which is losing an increasing amount of territory and troops to Taliban advances and to Afghan civilians, who are being killed and injured in record numbers, mainly in Taliban attacks.
In December 2001, U.S. Army soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division patrol an airfield littered with Soviet MiG fighters abandoned at the end of the Soviet-Afghan conflict, within Bagram air base, about 25 miles north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)
We know that actions by Russia in Afghanistan are meant to undermine the work of the United States and NATO to support the Afghan government, said Capt. William Salvin, spokesman for the U.S.-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan.
The Afghan official said Russian intelligence agents have held meetings with Taliban representatives in Tajikistan and Moscow, and occasionally enter Afghan territory in border provinces like Kunduz. He added that Russians were serving as creative minds and strategists for the Taliban at a kind of academy in Iran.
Northern Afghanistan, particularly Kunduz, is of particular interest to Russia because Kabuls control in the area is limited and the province borders Tajikistan, a Russian ally that has helped mediate contacts with the Taliban.
In northern Afghanistan, Russian activity is well known to everybody, said Haroun Mir, a political analyst who regularly travels to the area.
Mir said Russia has increased contacts with the Taliban over the last year, coinciding with the spread of Islamic State militants. Afghan and Western officials believe that many of the militants fled an army crackdown in Pakistans tribal belt and are of Central Asian origin, raising fears in Moscow that they could strike Russian interests.
Waheed Muzhda, a former official in the Taliban government that ruled Kabul until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, said Russian outreach to the Taliban began a decade ago, when it twice invited insurgent representatives to Moscow to express concern over Uzbek militants fighting alongside them.
Tayyab Agha, head of the Talibans political wing, assured Moscow that the militants would not create problems for Russia in Central Asia, Muzhda said.
Russia now appears to be using those contacts to portray itself as a peacemaker.
Moscow has held two multinational meetings on Afghanistan since December and scheduled a third for mid-April, at which representatives from 12 countries, including China, Pakistan, Iran, India and Afghanistan, are expected to attend.
The United States which has failed repeatedly to goad the Taliban into talks declined to participate, saying it had not been consulted in advance.
Although the Russian initiative is seen as a long shot, analysts said it could emerge as a counterweight to U.S. influence in Afghanistan.
When we had increasing contacts with the Taliban, Russia was very suspicious, and now that they are, we dont like it, said Barnett Rubin, a former State Department official in Afghanistan during the Obama administration who is now associate director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.
For whatever motive, [Russia] is doing what should be done, which is trying to bring the Taliban into a regional political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.
Special correspondent Liuhto reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Shashank Bengali from Mumbai, India. Special correspondent Mansur Mirovalev contributed to this report from Moscow.
shashank.bengali@latimes.com
Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia
ALSO
As death toll in hospital attack soars to 50, Afghanistan investigates whether it was an inside job
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Mourners gathered Monday to remember Coptic Christians killed in two deadly Palm Sunday church bombings as militant attacks continued in the Sinai Peninsula.
Israel closed its Taba border crossing to those departing for Egypt after its anti-terrorism office warned of an imminent militant attack there.
The Israeli military said a rocket fired from Sinai later exploded in an open field, causing no injuries.
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Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said Israeli authorities picked up signs that a potential terror attack was planned against tourists in the Sinai, home to several popular resorts on the Red Seaand to a violent insurgency affiliated with the militant group Islamic State.
The Israeli border closure came hours before the start of the Passover holiday, when Sinai is a popular vacation destination for Israelis. It also comes before a scheduled visit by Pope Francis to Egypt to mend ties with Muslim leaders.
1 / 14 Men react during the funeral for those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria, Egypt. Egyptian Christians buried their dead on Monday, a day after Islamic State suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in coordinated attacks targeting Palm Sunday services in two cities. (Samer Abdallah / Associated Press) 2 / 14 People mourn for those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack during a funeral Monday in Alexandria, Egypt. (Samer Abdallah / Associated Press) 3 / 14 A man grieves at the funeral service for those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria, Egypt. (Samer Abdallah / Associated Press) 4 / 14 Christians gather for the funeral of those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria, Egypt. (Makarios Nassar / For the Times) 5 / 14 Mourners carry the coffins of the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Marks church in Alexandria the previous day during a funeral procession in Alexandria, Egypt. (Makarios Nassar / For the Times) 6 / 14 The scene outside the the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria, Egypt, after a bomb blast struck worshippers gathering to celebrate Palm Sunday. (Makarios Nassar / For the Times) 7 / 14 Christians gather for the funeral of those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria, Egypt. (Makarios Nassar / For the Times) 8 / 14 People mourn over the coffins of those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack at the Mar Amina Church in Alexandria, Egypt. (Samer Abdallah / Associated Press) 9 / 14 Mourners carry the coffins of the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Marks church in Alexandria the previous day during a funeral procession at the Monastery of Marmina, east of Alexandria, Egypt. (Mohamed El-Shahed / AFP/Getty Images) 10 / 14 A coffin arrives for the funeral of those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria, Egypt. (Samer Abdallah / Associated Press) 11 / 14 Mourners carry a large cross and the coffin of one of the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Marks church in Alexandria the previous day during a funeral procession in Alexandria, Egypt. (Mohamed El-Shahed / AFP/Getty Images) 12 / 14 Women mourn for the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Marks church in Alexandria the previous day during a funeral procession Monday in Alexandria, Egypt. (Mohamed El-Shahed / AFP/Getty Images) 13 / 14 Women mourn for the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Marks church in Alexandria, Egypt. (Mohamed El-Shahed / AFP/Getty Images) 14 / 14 Christians gather for the funeral of those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria, Egypt. (Samer Abdallah / Associated Press)
At least 45 Christian worshipers were killed and more than a hundred wounded during the Palm Sunday attacks at churches in Alexandria and Tanta, one of the worst terrorist strikes to rock Egypt in recent history.
Funeral services held overnight for the 28 victims in Tanta, about 50 miles north of Cairo, drew thousands. In Alexandria on Monday morning, thousands more mourners gathered to pray for the 17 killed there.
Rida Ghattas Kamel, 55, a math teacher, traveled several hours by bus north to Alexandria for the victims funeral Monday.
Kamel, 55, is a Coptic Christian, and had watched coverage of the bombings the day before with his 20-year-old daughter, who he said became so distraught she collapsed.
Why do such Muslim people kill us? she asked him. We live together. We eat together. We study together. Why do they hate us and kill us?
Kamel didnt have an answer. He said he wasnt sure what to think of President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who declared a three-month state of emergency Sunday in response to the attacks.
I hope it can help preventing the terrorism, he said as he rode a bus to the funeral.
But he said he did not feel more secure. He felt caught in the middle.
I do not think that the state of the emergency will protect Copts, he said. Strict Muslims are bombing our churches and killing us to put Sisi in an embarrassing situation: that he cant protect Copts.
Victims relatives gathered in front of the altar during the funeral service Monday at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the largest Christian Church in the Middle East. They cried, prayed and sang songs to celebrate Holy Week, known in Egypt as the Week of Pain.
George Gad said his sister survived the attack unscathed, but his family has lost their sense of security, and the state of emergency is not likely to restore it.
It will not help. Plus, it will affect the countrys economy in a negative way, said Gad, 58, a mechanical engineer, as he cried over the dead. I would love for my sons to leave the country.
Some of the young Christians leading the funeral procession also said they wanted to flee the country.
Mark Emad Naguip, 17, of Alexandria said he doesnt feel safe.
Society treats us as second-class people, he said.
Instead of making him feel more secure, he said the state of emergency threatened to take Egypt back to the Mubarak presidential period, an era of repression under longtime President Hosni Mubarak that ended with Arab Spring protests in 2011.
Immediately after Sundays attacks, Israels anti-terrorism office had advised Israeli tourists in Sinai to return home, and those planning trips to cancel.The government statement said intelligence information showed increased activity by Islamic State militants in Sinai as the group loses ground in Iraq and Syria.
Battlefield losses are giving militants motivation to carry out terror attacks in different arenas, the government statement said.
Tourism has declined in Sinai since 2013, when the Egyptian military overthrew elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and the Islamic insurgency intensified.
Nassar reported from Alexandria and Hennessy-Fiske reported from Irbil, Iraq
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
Twitter: @mollyhf
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced. 19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
Rare Parasitic Worm Infection Causing Meningitis Raises Concern In Maui, Hawaii
staff@latinoshealth.com By Marnelle Joyce Apr 09, 2017 08:56 PM EDT
A rat lungworm or Angiostrongylus cantonensis is reportedly causing increased cases of infection in Maui, Hawaii. This kind of parasite can invade the brain of infected individuals.
According to Hawaii News Now, two people, who are Maui residents and two visitors to the island, were infected with Angiostrongylus cantonensis. There are four more cases that are under investigation, the local news outlet added. There were only two similar parasitic worm infections reported from the island within the last 10 years before these cases of 2017 occurred.
As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Angiostrongylus cantonensis can infect the brain causing meningitis. The parasitic worm infection manifests headaches, neck stiffness, nausea, and vomiting.
Angiostrongylus cantonensis can also cause uncommon sensations in patients arms and legs. A rare case can cause neurological problems or even death though the majority of infected people completely recover without any treatment, the CDC added.
If you could imagine, its like having a slow-moving bullet go through your brain," Dr. Sarah Park, an epidemiologist at the Hawaii department of health, told the Associated Press. "Theres no rhyme or reason why its going to hang out in this part of the brain or that part of the brain," Dr. Park said.
Angiostrongylus cantonensis is initially found in rats, but larvae from the parasite can also contaminate snails and slugs. Therefore, people who eat affected raw or undercooked snails and slugs or its contaminated products can harbor the parasite and become infected.
At first, Angiostrongylus cantonensis is common only in Southeast Asia and tropical Pacific islands. However, its geographical distribution is extended to other places such as Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States among others.
There were more than 70 cases of Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection reported in Hawaii for the last decade. The most affected part is the Big Island as per Hawaii State Legislature.
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Meghan Markle, Prince Harry African Getaway: Couple's Lesotho Trip To Follow After 'Suits' Actress Completes Filming
staffwriter@latinoshealth.com By Melvin Magadia Apr 10, 2017 11:36 AM EDT
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are going on a romantic getaway to Africa together. The trip will follow after Meghan Markle has finished shooting "Suits." Prince Harry will be going solo to the wedding of Pipa Middleton and the African getaway is his way of making it up to his girlfriend.
Daily Mail reports that the two will go to Lesotho where Prince Harry will attend to his charity projects. His charitable work has been a major part of the Prince's life for the last 10 years. This gives the 35-year old actress an assurance that her royal boyfriend wants to do the things he loves with her.
Toggle reveals that Prince Harry set up Sentebale in 2006. Together with the Royal Prince of Lesotho, the 32-year old royal has been active with charity work in the African country since 2004. The aim of Sentebale is to "help the most vulnerable children in Lesotho and Botswana get the support they need to lead healthy and productive lives."
Markle's lifestyle blog, The Tig, has been continuously providing updates about the activities of the couple. However, there will be no updates this time around as Meghan Markle decided to shut down the blog site. "After close to three beautiful years on this adventure with you, it's time to say goodbye to The Tig." Markle said in her final post.
With Sentebale, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle explain that they have been making a difference in the lives of the children they are helping. His charity work caters to the victims of extreme poverty as well as of HIV/AIDS epidemic. In addition, Markle adds that their project works with local grassroots organizations.
Prince Harry has been dating the "Suits" actress since last year. Their African trip is scheduled in October, when Markle will take a break from her acting career to help Prince Harry with his charity work.
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Russia tells US they are one step away from war right after the issues over Syria, the Trump administration surprisingly replied that they are all set to carry out airstrikes again. The conflict broke out right after Trump authorized the firing of 59 cruise missiles at a military airfield.
The Prime Minister of Russia condemned the US for attacking the legitimate government of Syria. He further stated that the US had broken the international law without the approval of the UN. The Russian President Vladimir Putin has diverted warship to protect the Syrian coast, it is believed that the firing of missiles at a military airfield was executed to retaliate for Assad's use of chemical weapons.
According to the Mail Online, Trump clearly said he would do it again after unleashing a surprise attack on the Syrian regime. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the action was an indication of Trump's extreme dependency on the views of Washington establishment.
It appears that Russia and the US might be on the verge of war, this is because the use of the military force is a serious business, and the strikes could lead the US - Russia relationship down a nasty path. As for the US president it is essential to prevent and discourage the usage of chemical weapons, reported the Washington Post.
Previously the US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the UN they are prepared to do more, but they hope it will not be necessary. Putin also denounced the US missile strikes as an illegal act of aggression, responding to the situation he suspended the military hotline to avoid collisions between Russia and US fighter jets over the war torn country. Russia and US are considered as the top most superpowers in the world, if the conflict gets worse their relationship will plunge and might even turn into a war.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
Trend:
Under the instruction of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Ministry of Emergency Situations has sent humanitarian aid to the Republic of Djibouti.
An aircraft with food products on board took off from the Heydar Aliyev International Airport and headed to the Republic of Djibouti.
The humanitarian aid, sent by Azerbaijan Airlines, included sugar, tea, sunflower oil, corn oil, flour, macaroni, vermicelli and drinking water.
Last week I was whisked away by some friends on a last minute trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico--and, thankfully, totally prepared wardrobe-wise due to my diligent spring shopping! A new billowy floral Warm dress, above, came in handy for a late lunch at Palmilla, while a lavishly embroidered Fanm Mon top made a serious statement back at the villa, below. Read on for more deets!
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend:
An Azerbaijani delegation will be in Ankara on Apr. 13-17 to observe the Apr. 16 constitutional referendum, Akif Tavakkuloglu, head of Azerbaijani parliaments press service, told Trend Apr. 10.
The delegation will include Ahliman Amiraslanov, chairman of parliamentary committee for healthcare and head of the Azerbaijan-Turkey interparliamentary relations working group, and Aghalar Valiyev, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament and also a member of the working group.
Amendments to Turkeys Constitution got more than 330 votes in the Parliament, which is the minimum number of votes needed for holding a referendum.
According to the amendments, the number of seats in the Turkish Parliament will increase from 550 to 600.
It is also suggested that Turkish citizens can run for the MP seats from the age of 18. Currently, the lowest age limit is 25.
It is offered to hold parliamentary elections every 5 years. Currently, the parliamentary elections are held every 4 years.
A Turkish citizen no younger than 40 can become a president, according to the amendments.
The Turkish president will have the power to appoint ministers and replace them. The president-elect will not be obliged to be a non-party nominee any more.
Apr 10, 2017, 10:55am ET
New Nissan CEO wants more EVs, more Mitsubishi
Saikawa sees big potential for Mitsubishi.
Recently minted Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa outlined his priorities for the brand Monday, naming the expansion of electrification and leveraging the potential of the company's new subsidiary, Mitsubishi, as two of his key goals.
In an interview with Automotive news, Saikawa said that he plans to fully exploit the Nissan-Mitsubishi partnership, with the goal of leveraging the Mitsubishi brand the way Fuji Heavy Industries has leveraged Subaru.
But first, he wants to launch a second-generation electric vehicle assault, led by the new Leaf, which is expected to debut later this year. From there, Saikawa expects Nissan's march toward 300-mile EV range to be completed before 2020.
While that develops, Saikawa wants to focus on expanding Mitsubishi's role in delivering volume for the Alliance. He believes Mitsubishi could grow from one million units a year to 1.5-2 million, and he believes "regain[ing] ground in the U.S." is key to accomplishing that.
"I believe they have a very strong future in the U.S. market," he said. Nissan purchased a majority stake in Mitsubishi following the smaller automaker's 2016 emissions scandal.
Saikawa took the reins of Nissan on April 1. His ascension marks the first time Nissan has had a Japanese CEO in 15 years. His predecessor, Carlos Ghosn, remains CEO of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
Trend:
Armenia disgraced and exposed itself by conducting a referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the first quarter of 2017 and future tasks.
I have said once and I reiterate that the more illegal referendums they conduct, the more it will be to our benefit, because all our neighboring countries, Minsk Group co-chair countries, European Union and many countries have immediately condemned this referendum, they said that they do not recognize this referendum and they recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan, noted President Aliyev.
In fact, by conducting this so-called referendum, they once again encouraged all countries to repeat the truth. Of course, by denouncing this referendum, the entire international community reaffirmed its support for Azerbaijans territorial integrity and for resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with this principle, added the president.
The Heritage Killenard, renowned for providing five-star luxury and impeccable levels of service in county Laois, has scooped four prestigious accolades at the recent Irish Hotel Awards 2017.
David Hanniffy was initially named the Leinster regional wedding planner of the year and subsequently fought off stiff competition to be awarded the coveted title of the Wedding Planner of the Year 2017, sponsored by Classic Drinks.
The Heritage Killenard was also recognised for its outstanding achievements in the spa and restaurant categories, winning The Leinster Regional Spa Hotel of the Year Award, sponsored by spabreaks.com and The Leinster Regional Hotel Restaurant of the Year Award, sponsored by Rational.
The awards were announced at the inaugural Irish Hotel Awards, held at a gala dinner in The Sheraton Athlone Hotel on March 21.
Speaking at the event, David Hanniffy, wedding planner at The Heritage Killenard said: The entire staff at The Heritage Killenard are delighted to be recognised by our peers for our dedication to achieving excellence in customer experience.
The Irish Hotel Awards are committed to celebrating those in the Irish Hospitality Industry who provide the best of guest experiences. The Heritage Killenard aspires to continue its passion for excellence in the hospitality industry.
The award wins are a fitting tribute to the excellent facilities on offer at the hotel. The Heritage Killenard makes a stunning location in which to hold a stylish wedding. A private wood-panelled lounge, gracious foyer, opulent suites and a glittering chandeliered ballroom create a magical setting, and the hotel is certified for civil ceremonies and civil partnerships.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev.
President Ilham Aliyev hailed the development of bilateral relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation in political, economic, security, humanitarian and all other fields.
The head of state said that security cooperation lies at the heart of successful development of bilateral ties between the two countries.
President Ilham Aliyev pointed out a good level of cooperation in strengthening international security, underlining the importance of maintaining regular contacts and jointly addressing many issues in this regard.
The president said the current regional situation necessitates further strengthening of cooperation in the field of security.
President Aliyev expressed his confidence that the visit of Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev will contribute to achieving the goals such as mutual activity, security cooperation, risk minimization, development of the two countries, and prosperity of the two nations.
Nikolai Patrushev extended sincere greetings and best wishes of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to the head of state. He hailed the fact that the heads of state are satisfied with the development of relations between the two countries. Patrushev said ties between the presidents stimulate fruitful activity of all other bodies.
Saying that security issues play a key role in the development of relations, Patrushev said there can be no problems in cooperation in economic, cultural and all other areas, if security is ensured.
He described the situation on the international arena as quite tense, adding that he will discuss international and regional security issues with the Azerbaijani side during the visit.
They exchanged views over other issues of mutual interest.
President Ilham Aliyev thanked for Vladimir Putins greetings, and asked Nikolai Patrushev to extend his greetings and best wishes to the Russian president.
A Kildare South TD has supported a motion to extend maternity leave and benefits for mothers in Dail on April 5 last.
According to Deputy Fiona OLoughlin there are 4500 babies born prematurely in Ireland every year which equates to 1 in 16 Irish women delivering a pre-term baby. The motion brought forward by Catherine Martin Independent TD to extend the leave was supported in the Dail by Deputy OLoughlin.
In supporting this motion O Loughlin, a premature baby herself stated, In the past eight years in Ireland, 36,000 mothers have started their maternity leave while their baby was in the neonatal unit. The journey for parents with a premature baby is often a very difficult one. Easing the financial burden by extending maternity leave and benefit to reflect could make that journey slightly less arduous.
O Loughlin also commented that the Dail was united on this motion and thanked Deputy Martin for bringing it forward.
I support this bill to have paid maternity leave extended by the number of weeks prematurely a baby is born. Paternity leave should also be expanded to take into account the circumstances of premature babies. Fianna Fails Policy on Parental Leave proposed the extension of Paid Maternity Leave from 26-30 weeks as we believe this would have a complementary effect on areas such as parental choice, work-life balance and child well-being. Extending paid maternity leave would be promote and extend parental care in the first year of a childs life which is crucial for a childs development.
Sinn Fein spokesperson for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Kenny TD, speaking after the Government announced that Eir would expand broadband service to the easy to reach properties, said that the Department of Agriculture would want to take note, before asking farmers from his constituency to make Basic Payment Scheme applications online.
Deputy Kenny said, Any expansion of broadband services in Ireland has to be welcome, but allowing cherry-picking by providers, so that they can ignore areas which are not commercially profitable, means that large sections of the West are left without proper broadband coverage.
The announcement of the roll-out of broadband has been nearly a monthly occurrence for the past few years, but it is still not happening for many rural areas. This is another example of Government lack of understanding of the reality of peoples lives. One Department is allowing commercial interests to dictate who gets broadband while another Department is demanding online applications.
More and more functions are moving online. I hope the Department of Agriculture is taking note of the situation in this part of the world before asking farmers to apply online for their Basic Payment Scheme.
Rural areas of Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, and Donegal have the lowest level of broadband in the country and are quickly being left behind. The fear is that this is a long term issue as the Government has shown no political will, despite lots of lip service, to redress the imbalance between the urban and rural.
Scottish juries have the choice of three verdicts Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven. This multiple choice is much more real to life than the English binary or oppositional choice of guilty or not guilty.
In non-judicial or everyday terms the Scottish three-way choice when facing a decision is yes; no; I dont know. The Scottish choice seems to be closer to real life and so is worth using when considering and possibly taking action on matters of and relating to armed conflict which deals in death, mutilation, madness, theft and profit as well as, if not always, bravery and altruism.
Here are some questions and comments which appear to indicate that a Not Proven verdict is currently the most accurate fit before, it is hoped, an accurate analysis of responsibilities for the gas attacks is made.
How do we know what we are told and shown is reasonably genuine?
At best, we only get derivative information. Experience tells us that neither our government nor our main stream media is consistently accurate. The BBC reported the collapse of the Third Tower (Saloman Brothers) after the 9/11 attack before the building actually collapsed. The information presented by our government on weapons of mass destruction, prior to the Iraq war was also significantly inaccurate.
How could reporter Feras Karam announce the gas attack before it occurred?
Why did Mail online publish a report, U.S. Backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad regime? (2013). (Ed : This post was deleted 3 days later.)
Why did CNN reporter Elise Labott state, The U.S. and some European allies are using defence contractors to train Syrian rebels to secure chemical stockpiles in Syria? (09/12/12)
If the chemical warfare agent was Sarin, why are the photographed first responders not wearing protective clothing as unprotected contact with Sarin victims kills the helper. Indeed they appear not to be even wearing gloves and do appear to be wearing sandals.
Has the chemical warfare agent been scientifically analysed?
Why is a Sarin bomb referred to when it appears that, for reasons of chemical shelf life, the best distance delivery tool is a shell?
Who are the first reporters of this attack? What is their record of accuracy and reliability in any previous reports? Might they have any vested interests in this matter?
Where is there evidence of thorough, clear and objective verification of these prime sources by our main stream media and/or government? Why is the US being so quick to launch an attack when, whatever else it might do, it assists Al Qaida and/or its derivatives?
Have Western reactions been based on objective information? If so, is it possible for the general public to know about it?
Might we be believing and/or emotionalising ourselves into another Iraq war?
A Not Proven verdict appears to fit best what we currently know and do not know. Not Proven verdicts encourage the continuing search for truth. The truth about this wickedness is of the greatest possible importance for everyone, especially the relatives and friends of the so sad victims.
P.S. In which ways have Western interventions helped Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya?
* Steve Trevathan is chairperson of Lyme Regis and Marshwood Vale Liberal Democrats.
One thing I absolutely love about being a Liberal Democrat is the involvement we members have in formulating, developing and approving policy. This open and transparent process not only chimes with our values but also is a marvel to behold. At York last month, my first ever time at a conference, I voted in important policy proposals ranging from faith schools to nuclear weapons and partook in a consultative session on economic policy. Nonetheless I feel this whole process is in danger of failing us.
A fast changing political environment needs a fast policy making process
In times past there was a reliable 4/5-year cycle all culminating in a general election. In the intervening period the party could spend time ruminating and developing policy. Unfortunately we no longer live in normal times. The tectonic plates of politics are shifting not only in the UK but also around the world. If we really want to redefine British politics and replace the old left/right dichotomy with a choice between open and closed then we need to be much more nimble. The political environment no longer gives us the luxury of an extended period of reflection and policy consultation.
Example: Our Brexit stance needs an updated economic policy
An example should serve to make my point. My own view, as laid out in my only other article for LibDem Voice, was that a key underlying cause of Brexit was economic. On 23rd June 2016 the electorate simply assessed their own circumstances, reviewed the state of the nation, concluded it wasnt good enough and voted accordingly. With the political environment changing so rapidly we need to respond quickly and effectively, so what is happening on economic policy?
I am assuming that early in 2016 it was decided by the party to review our economic policy. By spring 2016 applications were being sought for the chair and wider membership, the group was formed in the summer and undertook its work during the autumn and early part of 2017. Consultative sessions were held at the spring conference and a draft document circulated. We will finally vote on the policy at Conference this September.
By the time its all finished it will be almost 2 years from start to finish. Not only that but the groups remit specifically excludes anything to do with macroeconomic policy and taxation. For an area that could gain us a significant electoral advantage this is clear madness.
My plea
None of this is a criticism of the great work that is being done. Neither am I proposing that we shortcut the involvement of party members. I have very little knowledge of how the party works but from the outside it seems very clear the fast changing political environment means we need a faster way of developing and approving policy.
* Ashley Cartman is a Lib Dem member in North Somerset
THOMOND Park has been refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanala to erect commercial billboards at the famous stadium.
Over 100 residents in the vicinity of the home of Munster Rugby submitted a petition to the national planning authority against the installation of two large LED commercial advertising billboards on the South Terrace Road.
An Bord Pleanala ruled that the proposed development would be visually obtrusive, and would represent an unnecessary development that would seriously injure the visual amenities of the area and of property in the vicinity.
It also found that the proposal would be in conflict with the provisions of the Development Plan, whereby advertising hoardings and billboards are not permitted in predominantly residential locations, especially on prominent gable walls.
The board, in this case, decided not to accept the Inspectors recommendation to grant permission.
Residents had argued that the commercial advertising would have a considerable adverse impact on the quality of life of the residents, and the value and desirability of property in the area.
They also claimed that after dark it would provide a lit and sheltered area which will attract anti-social behaviour.
John Cantwell, stadium director at Thomond Park, earlier told the Limerick Leader that this proposal would form part of its revenue raising activities, which in turn fund their community programmes.
He said that the signage wouldnt bring in a huge amount of revenue, but it would help to fund their community programme, for youth and senior citizens programmes.
Were not just about staging matches and generating revenue for Munster Rugby we want to ensure we have a positive impact for the local community, he said.
He said they are still aiming to secure music concerts for Thomond Park.
However, he said many of the big name acts are being directed to Dublin. Pink, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have all played in the 40m stadium but there have been no concerts there since 2013.
Well continue our best efforts, because its a fine venue for concerts. It wont be for the lack of trying.
Asked if Beyonce could yet make an appearance on the citys northside, he said, with a laugh: Wed have Beyonce in the morning.
HOPES for an end to the nationwide strike by Bus Eireann workers were dashed late on Monday night when talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) broke down.
After 16 days of negotiations at the WRC talks broke down without agreement. The unions have now referred a number of issues to the Labour Court and the company has agreed to attend. The company has sought an early hearing given what it says is "the urgency of the financial situation".
In a statement this Tuesday Bus Eireann management said, "While progress was made and agreement was reached to eliminate many work practise inefficiencies, an offer made by the company that would help to deliver financial viability was rejected by the Trade Unions representing the driver grade."
Negotiations had restarted on Monday morning at the WRC, with reports indicating an agreement was edging ever closer.
Workers across various areas of the company withdrew their labour on March 24 in an escalation of the row over a cost-cutting measures.
Local commuters have been left to pay the price as there have been no city or county services since. Normally, the state bus company runs seven regular bus services covering the city and its surrounds, as well as other irregular services covering rural areas of county Limerick.
On top of this, there are normally twice hourly services to Shannon Airport which at present remains inaccessible by public transport.
Private services have continued to operate as normal between Limerick, the university, Dublin, Galway and Cork, while Irish Rail services locally have been largely unaffected.
According to reports in national media, the main sticking points in the talks revolve around clarity as to what impact complex cost-cutting measures would have on Bus Eireann drivers.
Dermot O'Leary, general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union, said stakeholders not at the table still have a big role to play in the talks.
Cllr Frankie Daly, who chairs Limerick City and County Councils transport committee said on Monday he was only 50% hopeful buses will be back on city streets in the coming days.
Id hope it would be resolved over the next 24 hours at union level in Dublin. But Im not that hopeful. But if buses are back on the streets, it would be fantastic for elderly people going to hospital, and people going to and from work, people shopping. Were talking about a vital public service, particularly in the metropolitan area, he said.
Its of paramount importance this dispute is resolved.
ROAD users, business interests and State agencies are being encouraged to highlight the urgent need for the Limerick-Cork M20 motorway project by making submissions as part of the public consultation on the Mid-Term Capital Review which is underway.
The objective of the public consultation is to ascertain the views of the public and key stakeholders on what our national infrastructure priorities should be, when deciding on how remaining resources should be allocated, said the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe who launched the public consultation process.
The government has been lobbied by various interest groups from Limerick and Cork over the last 18 months to include the new motorway in the capital plan, which runs to 2021.
Plans to upgrade the existing N20 were shelved in October 2013 by the then Transport minister, Leo Varadakar, who said the cost likely to be around 1bn - was not feasible given the state of the countrys finances.
However, given the economic recovery in the meantime there have been indications that the plan may be progressed following the completion of the review.
Senator Kieran ODonnell said it was vital that road users and business interests in Limerick make submissions over the coming weeks.
Last November, I succeeded in getting Minister (Shane) Ross to allocate 1m in funding to TII (Transport infrastructure Ireland) to recommence the planning process on the M20 motorway project. We must now maintain the momentum for this motorway by ensuring it is funded under the national capital plan, he said.
I am now encouraging all strands of society, from civic to industry to the general public here in Limerick and the Mid-west to make submissions on the M20 Motorway as part of this public consultation process on the mid-term review of the national capital plan, he added.
Various state agencies and lobby groups such as the Construction Industry Federation are expected to make submissions.
The Limerick and Cork chambers are also set to make a joint submission before the deadline of April 30.
An additional 2.65bn has been earmarked for investment following the conclusion of the review later in the year.
The substantial progress made in securing sustained economic growth and the further strengthening of the public finances has enabled the Government to commit an additional 5.14 billion in Exchequer capital funding in support of the Capital Plan, said Minister Donohoe who added that 2.2bn has already by allocated.
Submissions should be posted or emailed to capitalreview2017@per.gov.ie.
PASHA Insurance - one of the largest insurance companies in the country has opened its new representative office in Aghsu city in order to please local customers.
Customer satisfaction is a priority for PASHA Insurance and opening of the new representative office in Aghsu will create easier and more comfortable way for customers to benefit from insurance services available.
The opening ceremony was held on the 4th of April. Respectively, department managers and section heads as well as representatives and heads of Executive Offices of the city participated at the opening ceremony. Newly opened representative office is located on Nizami street 5.
It should be highlighted that expansion into regions is one of the top priorities for companys overall strategy.
Both regional branches and offices in Baku provide complete insurance services to local population.
It should be mentioned that PASHA Insurance professional team is always ready to provide their operative services to local citizens in all emergency accidents.
PASHA Insurance has been operating in the insurance market since 2006. As a member of PASHA Holding group of companies, PASHA Insurance offers 36 types of compulsory and voluntary insurance services for both individual and corporate customers. During 10 years of its activity the insurance company has indemnified its customers insurance claims, total amount of compensation coming out to 115 890 100 AZN. PASHA Insurance is the leader and the biggest insurer of the Azerbaijani insurance market for the amount of share capital (50 million AZN), volume of insurance premiums and compensated insurance claims and other financial and non-financial indicators.
LIMERICK is to receive a jobs boost with the news that multi-national food giant Iceland Foods to open a branch here this summer.
Iceland has confirmed it will open a store at the Watch House Cross in Moyross, widely expected to be in a unit vacated when Eurospar closed in August 2015.
The news will come as a huge boost to the northside estate, which was left reeling following the closure of the store, which was blamed on escalating insurance costs.
Iceland has said it will create up to 35 new positions in Limerick. It is also opening another local store in Shannon Town as it ramps up its footprint in Ireland.
Seven other stores will also be opened across the country his year.
A total of 270 jobs will be created as part of this investment, with other locations including Tallaght, Galway, Cork, Letterkenny and Gorey.
Ron Metcalfe, managing director of Iceland Ireland said: We have been back in Ireland for four years now and have been committed to expansion from day one. This new investment sees 2017 as our biggest year yet with our nine new stores opening. As always, were looking forward to expanding and delivering the Power of Frozen to more Irish customers than ever before.
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A man who beat his wife then drowned her in the bath has been jailed for life.
Gytis Griskevicius killed his wife Marina Erte, 33, after becoming jealous at a new relationship she had begun with another man.
He then set fire to her flat in a bid to cover his tracks.
Police said he always denied the offence and showed absolutely no remorse for his actions.
During the two week trial the jury at Lincoln Crown Court was told that Griskevicius turned up at Marina's flat in Elizabeth Road, Boston, just hours after celebrating his birthday with his housemates.
He then savagely beat Marina, who worked at the FESA fruit packing company in Spalding, leaving her with serious head injuries and then dragged her bleeding body into the bathroom where he drowned her.
He did not give evidence to the jury but in police interviews he denied he was responsible for the killing. He admitted visiting her flat on the night she died but said she was "fine" when he left.
Griskevicus,32, of St Anns Lane, Boston, was convicted of the murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.
Speaking after the conviction, Detective Inspector Jim Hodgson, Senior Investigating Officer from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit for Major Crime, said: "Gytis always denied the offence and has shown no remorse for his actions. This made our investigation challenging and during the trial we relied upon largely circumstantial evidence. Today's verdict demonstrates the professionalism and dedication of all the officers involved.
"Marina had been subjected to a brutal and violent attack within her own home and in an attempt to destroy evidence and frustrate the investigation, the defendant attempted to set fire to the flat. While this caused damage to the flat the consequences of this could have been far worse because it could have put others in danger.
"I would like to thank the family and friends of Marina for aiding our investigation and I hope this verdict and sentence will help them feel that justice has been served. The local community in Boston were also of significant support and I hope this reassures them that Lincolnshire Police will make sure dangerous and violent individuals are caught and prosecuted."
On behalf of Marina's family, the detective read the following statement: "Marina was a much loved mother, daughter, sister and friend within a close network, both within the Boston area and back home in Latvia and her death has left a big void in all their lives. The circumstances surrounding her murder and the fact the defendant has never made any admissions will mean they will probably never come to terms with her death at such a young age.
"Marina had a full life ahead of her which was cruelly and tragically taken by a violent man who has now been sentenced to a lengthy period in prison, and while they are satisfied that justice has been served, it will never replace Marina and as such they can never forgive the defendant for his actions.
"They would like to thank both Marina's friends and the police for the support they have given during this very difficult period."
"At this time I would like to ask that Marina's family are given time and space to start trying to re-build their lives and ask the media to respect their wishes for privacy at what is still a very emotional time."
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Thieves used a white van to ram-raided a designer store in Lincolnshire.
Police say a white van was reversed into the door of the premises causing damage to the shop before thieves made off with a quantity of clothes.
Thieves targeted Brown's Department Store in Gainsborough at about 5.30am on Saturday, April 8.
The store sells designer brands such as Ted Baker, Gant, Tommy Hilfiger, Barbour, Superdry, Sandwich, East, Phase Eight and White Stuff.
It also sells a large range of designer handbags, shoes, jewellery, sunglasses, fragrances, lingerie and cosmetics including Clarins, Estee Lauder, Clinique and Benefit.
Wendy Stephenson, store manager at Brown's Department Store, said: "Gainsborough has waited so long for a high ended store. It's a shame that they feel they need to do this. Marshall's Yard is a great thing for Gainsborough.
"I'd like to thank security who were out within two minutes of it happening. And I'd like to thank everyone at Marshall's Yard. They were really good."
One trader who turned up to Marshall's Yard at about 7.30am said the raid had already happened when he was told by a member of staff.
"It was not open when it happened," he said.
"It was before everyone turned up. It happened in the night but apparently, the thieves were out within a minute and a half.
"They rammed it, went straight in and straight out again with what they'd got."
Anyone with information should call 101 quoting Incident 55 of April 8.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Apr. 10
By Demir Azizov Trend:
Uzbekistans national airline, the Uzbekistan Airways, will resume flights to Tajikistan, said the message on the companys website Apr. 10.
The flights were originally stopped in 1992 due to civil war in Tajikistan.
The first flight will be carried out on April 11, 2017, said the message.
The regular flights to Tajikistans Dushanbe will be carried out on the Airbus A320 aircraft twice a week.
Oct 8, 2020, 3 PM
This 1843 Double Geneva stamp has large margins, unlike most used examples, and is neatly struck with the red Geneva Rosette cancel. It will be offered during the April 25-28 Siegel International auction.
A 6-penny buff Queen Victoria issue from Great Britains 1873-80 series. Normally issued in gray, this color variety is rare and only known postally used. This example will be offered during the April 25-28 Siegel International auction.
A strip of five of Great Britains 1998 26-penny Princess Diana memorial set as an imperforate error will be offered at the upcoming Siegel auction. Only six error strips are recorded, according to the auction house, and this top-margin example is the uni
By Michael Baadke
Robert A. Siegel International, in association with Charles F. Shreve, will conduct a four-day auction of worldwide stamps, postal history, and collections April 25-28.
The sale will take place beginning at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Siegel Auction Galleries, on the fourth floor at 60 E. 56th St. (Park and Madison), in New York City.
Below is an in-depth preview from Charles F. Shreve, the Director of International Siegel Auctions.
Siegel reports that the sale includes an advanced worldwide estate collection cataloging millions of dollars, with extensive British Commonwealth and Great Britain, a large holding of sheets from Egypt, all periods of China, and sets and singles of Europe and colonies.
Most lots are offered without reserves.
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Among the many standout items in this sale is a used example of one of the worlds earliest stamp issues: the lithographed 1843 Double Geneva, a 10-centime (5c+5c) black on yellow green (Scott 2L1), the first issue of the Swiss cantonal administration.
The unusual configuration of two 5c stamps side-by-side is explained in the 2010 book The Philately of Switzerland, edited by Richard T. Hall: One half could be used for local postage, within the district of the local post office. The two halves combined could be used for postage anywhere in the canton.
Philatelic expert Sergio Sismondo examined this issue in his Unveiling Classic Stamps column in the April 17 Linns Stamp News monthly magazine, noting that philatelists estimate that some 90 percent of the stamps printed were split for local use.
The intact example offered in this auction is described by Siegel as one of the finest known.
The vast majority of Double Geneva stamps are cut in on at least one side and/or have faults. This example is the rare exception. Its large margins, beautiful color, proof-like impression and perfect cancel all combine to make this one of the most eye appealing copies in existence.
The stamp is neatly and fully struck with a clean red Geneva Rosette cancel and is accompanied by a 2009 von der Weid certificate. It is listed with the $42,500 value for the used stamp found in the 2017 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940.
The opening session of the sale on Tuesday morning begins with more than 125 lots of Great Britain, including classic issues, Queen Elizabeth II, offices abroad, and other back-of-the-book.
This group offers an example of the stamp known as the abnormal 6-penny buff from Great Britains 1873-80 series (Scott 63).
The 6d stamp as normally issued is printed in gray (Scott 62), but the buff variety was created from plate 13 proof sheets, according to the Scott Classic Specialized catalog.
This stamp was accidentally released for sale when a few imprimatur sheets in Buff were perforated and mixed with normal inventory, Siegel explains, adding that 20-30 examples are believed to exist, all of which are used, and most suffering faults.
Few can compare to the quality of the stamp offered here, Siegel notes.
The typographed stamp is struck with part of the Leeds 447 duplex cancel, and is lettered O-B in the lower corners. A 2015 B.P.A. Expertising Limited certificate identifies the stamp as genuine, and it is listed by Siegel with the $25,000 Scott catalog value.
The sale also offers a particularly striking modern error from Great Britain: the 26p Princess Diana memorial issue as an imperforate se-tenant, top-margin, cylinder-number strip of five.
The set of five perforated 26p stamps featuring different portraits of the Princess of Wales was issued Feb. 3, 1998, about five months after she died at age 36 in a devastating automobile crash in Paris.
The imperforate strip of five memorial stamps is identified in the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue as Great Britain Scott 1795b, and listed with a dash in place of a value, which indicates that information is either lacking or insufficient for purposes of establishing a usable catalogue value, according to the catalog introduction.
Siegel states that the error is one of the rarest of all from the British modern era, with only six strips recorded. The example in this auction is the unique position piece with Harrison and cylinder number imprints, unused with full original gum, according to the 1999 David Brandon expertising certificate.
The auction listing notes the British Stanley Gibbons catalog value of 25,000, which converts to roughly $31,200.
More than 200 collections and accumulations will be offered during the final two auction sessions, which take place Friday.
The auction catalog can be viewed online here, with a PDF version also available for downloading or viewing.
Online bidding options are available on the Siegel website.
Additional information is available from Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, 60 E. 56th St., Fourth Floor, New York, NY 10022.
Siegel to sell recovered Jenny Invert in May
Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries of New York City will auction the United States position 76 24 Jenny Invert airmail error stamp during a series of sales taking place May 9-11.
The rare single stamp, formerly part of the McCoy block of four stolen in 1955, was recovered in 2016 and returned to its rightful owner, the American Philatelic Research Library in Bellefonte, Pa. The library, which also owns a second stamp from the stolen block, recently selected Siegel to handle the sale of the Position 76 example. A report about the librarys plans to auction the stamp was published on page 1 of the April 10 Linns Stamp News.
The McCoy Inverted Jenny sale is scheduled with sales offering the Dr. Deane R. Briggs, M.D., collection of Florida in the Civil War; the Steven Walske collection of North American blockade run mail and French royal packet mail; and the Vaquero collection of U.S. essays and proofs.
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Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Apr. 10
By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a congratulatory letter to Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Turkmen government said in a message Apr. 10.
Over the past period, Russian-Turkmen relations have reached the level of strategic partnership, the letter said.
The two countries have established political dialogue at various levels, as well as fruitful cooperation in trade and economic, energy, scientific and technical, humanitarian and other fields, Putin said in his letter.
The constructive interaction of Moscow and Ashgabat is an important factor for ensuring stability and security in the region of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea, said the letter.
Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that Russia and Turkmenistan will join efforts to further expand the entire range of mutually beneficial partnership relations.
Vidya Balan on Begum Jaan: Shes almost like Gabbar, she fears no one Vidya Balan on her role in the upcoming Partition-era film 'Begum Jaan' /news/talking-point/vidya-balan-on-begum-jaan-she-s-almost-like-gabbar-she-fears-no-one-111646836565572.html 111646836565572 story
Shes played numerous characters who have quiet strength, but in Begum Jaan, Vidya Balan steps into the skin of a woman who she describes as unabashedly powerful". The actors last release, Kahaani 2, may not have achieved the same success as 2012s Kahaani, but Balan is not one to look back and regret.
While she does not set professional targets, Balan is delighted that, over the last few years, shes being offered a rich selection of scripts, from The Dirty Picture to the under-production comedy Tumhari Sulu. On a warm Mumbai afternoon, sitting in a vanity van outside a bare studio, Balan talks about why she chose to work on a remake (Begum Jaan is a Hindi version of the Bengali film Rajkahini), her affinity for Kolkata and more. Excerpts from an interview:
What attracted you to Begum Jaan?
The story and my character are the two most important criteria for me when I look at a film. Srijit (Mukherji, director) showed the Bengali version to me and I decided on the basis of that. He did not have the Hindi script ready at that time.
I have not played a character who is so in-your-face powerful and comfortable in her skin. Shes almost like Gabbar she fears no one. The raja is her patron, which is why she is so powerful. She doesnt care who stands with her and who doesnt. Even without the rajas patronage she knows she can stand up to anyone, and for me that is her strength.
What homework did you have to in order to play this character?
I needed to understand her backstory. That didnt exist in the script. I like to do that and, in this case, I needed that in order to understand what has hardened her to this extent and why she is so aggressive. However, there is a certain amount of femininity to her as well. I read Urvashi Butalias The Other Side of Silence, which is one of the few books that deals with women during Partition and what they went through. But no one has dealt with prostitutes and what the marginalised must gone through. Okay, they are doing business here and so what if they are asked to cross the border and take their business elsewhere? What difference does it make? But everyone is rooted somewhere.
You seem to have quite an affinity to Bengali stories.
I am drawn to everything Bengali. I love Kolkata: I speak the language, I have seen lots of their films, and I can sing songs and recite rhymes (in Bengali). My mother says it must be a past life connection. But the truth is that I like stories that are rooted. The original story was set in Bengal but Begum Jaan is set in Punjab. Its a fresh perspective.
Also Read: Srijit Mukherji: I have a lot of stories to tell and little time in hand
What did Srijit Mukherji bring out in you as an actor?
He made me realise that I am capable of a lot more than I give myself credit for, in terms of working under really difficult conditions. We were shooting in this barren landscape in Jharkhand and were fighting the weather every single day. One day there would be a storm and heavy rain and then it would stop and snakes and scorpions would come out. Or it was 45-46 degrees and crew members were fainting or feeling dehydrated. For some reason there were many foot injuries almost every day. Because we didnt know how long the sun would be out for, we were working at breakneck speed.
What amazed me about Srijit was the amount of planning and preparation that went into the shoot, which is why we could finish in 32 days. But what this film and Srijit taught me is that, if push comes to shove, I can brave scorpions, snakes and whatever else.
Were you disappointed by the response to Kahaani 2?
Of course, I would have liked it to have better box-office numbers, but I still feel happy with the way it did because it dealt with a difficult subject. What was nice was that many people said that we dealt with the subject with sensitivity. Therefore, I was not disappointed; I thought it was a step forward.
I give a film my all, I enjoy it, and maybe it doesnt work, but there is nothing I can do beyond that. I dont want that joy to be taken away and for the experience to change after the film releases. I talk about it, I cry, I mourn, I grieve and I get over it. When you give so much of yourself to something and it doesnt work, then it is bound to hurt. But you have to overcome it and continue to work. As long as I am happy working and performing I am fine.
Begum Jaan releases in theatres on 14 April.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Apr. 10
By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, in his message, has invited Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to visit Belarus at any convenient time, the Turkmen government said in a message Apr. 10.
We have reached important agreements, signed documents, the implementation of which will give a powerful momentum to the further expansion of the Belarusian-Turkmen dialogue, said Lukashenko in his message.
It was previously reported that President Berdimuhamedov during high-level talks with his Belarusian counterpart noted that Turkmenistan is ready to jointly develop various forms of partnership with Belarus to start the supply of its energy resources.
The high-level talks were held in late March, during President Lukashenkos visit to Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan is one of the key suppliers of natural gas and electricity in the region. During the negotiations, delivery of Belarusian automobile and tractor machinery to Turkmenistan has been named the long-term direction of the two countries cooperation.
Turkmenistan is interested in Belarus experience and technology in such spheres as chemical industry, agroindustrial complex, food industry and fruit and vegetable processing.
Our country is also ready to step up cooperation in such fields as electrical engineering, pharmaceutics and communications, said Berdimuhamedov during the meeting.
Turkmenistan has repeatedly stated readiness to diversify its supplies to Belarus, increase export of textile and light industry products. There are significant opportunities for cooperation in international transportation as well.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
By Emil Ilgar Trend:
Iranian Homa airliner and French-Italian ATR signed an agreement on purchasing ART72-600 passenger airplane, IRNA reported Apr.10.
Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan, deputy transport minister of Iran, said that the agreement is aimed at boosting the capacity of short-range travels and small passenger planes of the countrys airlines fleet.
Iran plans to equip and modernize its old airlines with purchasing various types of airplanes. Earlier, the Islamic Republic received 3 of 100 ordered passenger aircraft from Frances Airbus, based on an agreement signed last year.
The American aircraft manufacturing company is likely to deliver at least two Boeing 777 to Iran over the next month, Fakhrieh-Kashan told IRNA Apr.9.
Following Irans nuclear deal with the word powers, the countrys flag carrier, Iran Air, reached an agreement with Boeing to purchase 80 planes.
Tehran, Iran, April 10
By Mehdi Sepahvand, Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for political reforms in Syria through elections.
Speaking about Syrian crisis and the issue of terrorism, Rouhani said that efforts should be made aimed at putting an end to terrorism and in the meantime reforms should be carried out in the country.
He made the remarks at a press conference in Tehran on April 10.
He further criticized the recent US attack on a Syrian airbase and called for creating an international fact-finding committee to probe into the issue of the chemical attack.
Back on Friday, dozens of US missile hit Shayrat airfield in western Syrian province of Homs in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town.
What if the fact-finding committee finds out that the chemical attack was carried out by terrorists but not the the government?, he questioned.
In 1977, the Explorers Club in New York received an unusual gift. Unable to attend a whaling exhibition that the club was hosting, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick S. Schauffler sent their regrets in a note along with a sperm whale foreskin, stuffed and mounted on an oak base.
The penis stood out during a media tour of the club's headquarters in New York City related to the Explorers Club's 113th Annual Dinner in March. On the top floor, in a room called the Gallery, the cetacean phallus pointed skyward.
Frederick S. Schauffler was an Explorers Club member and U.S. naval captain, said Lacey Flint, the club's archivist and curator of research collections, who led the tour. Flint noted that according to the foreskin's record, it came from the collection of an individual named Edward Sanderson. Who Sanderson was and how Schauffler might have acquired the odd collectible, Flint did not know. [Photos: Inside the Explorers Club Headquarters]
According to a report by the Nantucket Historical Association, Sanderson was born in Ohio in 1874, but he lived his final years on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. Sometime in the 1920s, he bought a historic Nantucket home and began filling it with whaling artifacts, such as "harpoons, boarding knives, cutting spades and bomb lances, as part of a careful interior restoration of that house," Aimee Newell wrote in the NHA report.
In 1929, Sanderson's collection outgrew his building, so he donated the trove to the NHA, which runs the Nantucket Whaling Museum. Sanderson's gift formed "the core of the NHA's whaling exhibits," Newell wrote. Apparently, Sanderson's collection also included a taxidermied sperm whale penis.
It seems that a Schauffler-Sanderson connection formed at least 15 years prior to the donation. In 1915, Sanderson, a minister, was in Brooklyn, New York, where he cofounded the New York branch of Goodwill Industries with a Rev. Dr. Henry Park Schauffler, according to Goodwill's history page. This may have been how the two met. Or the men may have met even earlier, as both Sanderson (in the late 1890s, according to NHA) and Schauffler (according to a 1930 article in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (opens in new tab) published after Schauffler's death) attended Amherst College in Massachusetts and then Hartford Theological Seminary, and their studies may have overlapped.
Schauffler was survived by his wife, Grace Jarvis Schauffler, and five children, including a Frederick S., The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported. So it seems that Sanderson's Goodwill co-founder, Henry Park Schauffler, was the father of Frederick S. Schauffler, who would, years later, donate an object from Sanderson's collection to the Explorers Club.
But school and business were not the only Sanderson-Schauffler connections. In 1934, according to Newell's article, Sanderson married Grace Jarvis Schauffler, who was the widow of Sanderson's former business partner, Henry Park Schauffler. Sanderson became stepfather to Grace Jarvis Schauffler's children, including, of course, Frederick S., whose middle name, it turns out, was Sanderson (he went by "Sandy," according to articles published in a Nantucket newspaper, the Inquirer and Mirror, including this 1941 letter to the editor from Sandy himself.).
And it seems that it was under the name of "Sandy" that Schauffler became known as an accomplished skier. According to, among other sources, the "Legends" page of the Thunderbolt Ski Runners, a Massachusetts ski club, Sandy Schauffler was selected as a member of the U.S.'s Olympic ski team in 1940, but that year both summer and winter Olympics were canceled due to World War II, according to Wikipedia. By December, 1940, Schauffler had joined the Navy, according to an Inquirer and Mirror article. After the war, Sandy Schauffler was one of two men hired to survey Colorado for potential ski sites; he went on to cofound the Arapahoe Basin ski resort in that state, according to the resort's website. So although the Explorers Club does not have a record of why Schauffler was invited to join, Schauffler seems to have had his share of adventures.
Edward Sanderson died in 1955, according the Newell article. The whale penis from his collection continues to stand tall at the Explorers Club.
Original article on Live Science.
People who died at Pompeii during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. were killed and mummified by waves of fast-moving hot ash and volcanic gasses.
Let's face it the world is a treacherous place full of dangerous substances, organisms and situations that can kill you. Some are hazards of everyday life drowning in a bathtub, getting hit by a bus, falling onto train tracks, or having a severely allergic reaction to a bee sting.
Others are equally lethal but somewhat less likely tumbling into a volcano, standing on the sun's surface, or going for a moonwalk without your spacesuit.
A physicist and a writer spent two years pondering the most outlandish, gruesome and extreme ways to die and wrote a book about them, published April 4, "And Then You're Dead: What Really Happens If You Get Swallowed by a Whale, Are Shot from a Cannon, or Go Barreling over Niagara" (Penguin Books). Then on April 5, they fielded questions from the curious in an Ask Us Anything (AUA) session on Reddit. [9 Weird Ways Kids Can Get Hurt]
Writer Cody Cassidy and co-author Paul Doherty, a senior scientist with the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, kicked off the AUA with a brief and disarmingly gleeful description of some unlikely but thought-provoking death-causing scenarios that are covered in their book.
"We looked into questions like what would happen if you swam out of a deep-sea submarine, were swallowed by a whale (surprisingly possible), your elevator cable broke (don't jump. It won't help), if it's even possible to die from magnetism (it is, yay!), if sticking your hand in the CERN particle accelerator is lethal (probably) and many more," they wrote in an introduction to the AUA.
Redditors rose to the challenge, posting over 2,000 comments about potentially deadly scenarios. To the query about whether it might be possible for a sound to be loud enough to kill you, the authors responded that a shock wave produced by an explosion or a meteor impact "can produce a pressure wave which will blow out the alveoli in your lungs."
Another Redditor asked about the strangest fact the authors encountered during their research: They admitted that they were surprised to discover that it "seems impossible" to die from insomnia. They cited an example of a high-school student who stayed awake for 264 hours in 1964, and though he suffered from severe hallucinations and loss of motor control, he recovered completely after getting some sleep.
A fate worse than death
The book includes 45 horrible ways to die, a list that was winnowed from about 200 examples garnered from research and suggestions from friends and colleagues, Doherty told Live Science. [Top 10 Leading Causes of Death]
One method of death that didn't make it into the book was one that Doherty described ominously as "death by the devil's Super Soaker."
"We wondered, what would be the worst material on Earth to put in a Super Soaker? And we came up with chlorine trifluoride," Doherty said.
Chlorine trifluoride is extremely corrosive, produces toxic fumes, is violently explosive in water and is such a highly reactive oxidant an agent that causes other substances to lose electrons that it can set fire to sand, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's database of dangerous chemicals.
"When the fumes hit you, first of all they numb your nerves so you don't know you've been hit. Then, the chlorine will turn your bones to gelatin your fingers will turn from rods into little rounded stubs. It was so gruesome that our publisher said, 'Why don't you leave that one out?'" Doherty told Live Science.
Thrilled to death
But on Reddit, curiosity about gruesome deaths kept the conversation flowing, with questions like: "If I were floating near a neutron star, say, within 1 mile, how spectacular would my death be?" And, "What would happen to your body if you were tied to a weight and sent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench?"
Death by neutron star would most likely be from exposure to lethal radiation, the authors answered. And intense water pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench would collapse all the air pockets in a person's body, not only killing them, but also stranding the corpse at the bottom of the ocean, to be consumed by a type of deep-sea mouthless worm known as the bone-eating snot flower, the authors explained.
Why are people so fascinated by these potentially horrific ways to die? Probably because we recognize that death is waiting out there for all of us, and it's somewhat easier to confront and acknowledge that troubling fact by placing it in a context that is unlikely to ever happen, Doherty explained.
"Whistling past the graveyard is a classic human thing to do," he said. "The idea of facing death in ways that are slightly humorous or exotic helps people to think about their own death in a way that's satisfying."
Original article on Live Science.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Just as ancient Greeks fantasized about soaring flight, today's imaginations dream of melding minds and machines as a remedy to the pesky problem of human mortality. Can the mind connect directly with artificial intelligence, robots and other minds through brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies to transcend our human limitations?
Over the last 50 years, researchers at university labs and companies around the world have made impressive progress toward achieving such a vision. Recently, successful entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk (Neuralink) and Bryan Johnson (Kernel) have announced new startups that seek to enhance human capabilities through brain-computer interfacing.
How close are we really to successfully connecting our brains to our technologies? And what might the implications be when our minds are plugged in?
Origins: Rehabilitation and restoration
Eb Fetz, a researcher here at the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE), is one of the earliest pioneers to connect machines to minds. In 1969, before there were even personal computers, he showed that monkeys can amplify their brain signals to control a needle that moved on a dial.
Much of the recent work on BCIs aims to improve the quality of life of people who are paralyzed or have severe motor disabilities. You may have seen some recent accomplishments in the news: University of Pittsburgh researchers use signals recorded inside the brain to control a robotic arm. Stanford researchers can extract the movement intentions of paralyzed patients from their brain signals, allowing them to use a tablet wirelessly.
Similarly, some limited virtual sensations can be sent back to the brain, by delivering electrical current inside the brain or to the brain surface.
What about our main senses of sight and sound? Very early versions of bionic eyes for people with severe vision impairment have been deployed commercially, and improved versions are undergoing human trials right now. Cochlear implants, on the other hand, have become one of the most successful and most prevalent bionic implants over 300,000 users around the world use the implants to hear.
The most sophisticated BCIs are "bi-directional" BCIs (BBCIs), which can both record from and stimulate the nervous system. At our center, we're exploring BBCIs as a radical new rehabilitation tool for stroke and spinal cord injury. We've shown that a BBCI can be used to strengthen connections between two brain regions or between the brain and the spinal cord, and reroute information around an area of injury to reanimate a paralyzed limb.
With all these successes to date, you might think a brain-computer interface is poised to be the next must-have consumer gadget.
Still early days
But a careful look at some of the current BCI demonstrations reveals we still have a way to go: When BCIs produce movements, they are much slower, less precise and less complex than what able-bodied people do easily every day with their limbs. Bionic eyes offer very low-resolution vision; cochlear implants can electronically carry limited speech information, but distort the experience of music. And to make all these technologies work, electrodes have to be surgically implanted a prospect most people today wouldn't consider.
Not all BCIs, however, are invasive. Noninvasive BCIs that don't require surgery do exist; they are typically based on electrical (EEG) recordings from the scalp and have been used to demonstrate control of cursors, wheelchairs, robotic arms, drones, humanoid robots and even brain-to-brain communication.
But all these demos have been in the laboratory where the rooms are quiet, the test subjects aren't distracted, the technical setup is long and methodical, and experiments last only long enough to show that a concept is possible. It's proved very difficult to make these systems fast and robust enough to be of practical use in the real world.
Even with implanted electrodes, another problem with trying to read minds arises from how our brains are structured. We know that each neuron and their thousands of connected neighbors form an unimaginably large and ever-changing network. What might this mean for neuroengineers?
Imagine you're trying to understand a conversation between a big group of friends about a complicated subject, but you're allowed to listen to only a single person. You might be able to figure out the very rough topic of what the conversation is about, but definitely not all the details and nuances of the entire discussion. Because even our best implants only allow us to listen to a few small patches of the brain at a time, we can do some impressive things, but we're nowhere near understanding the full conversation.
There is also what we think of as a language barrier. Neurons communicate with each other through a complex interaction of electrical signals and chemical reactions. This native electro-chemical language can be interpreted with electrical circuits, but it's not easy. Similarly, when we speak back to the brain using electrical stimulation, it is with a heavy electrical "accent." This makes it difficult for neurons to understand what the stimulation is trying to convey in the midst of all the other ongoing neural activity.
Finally, there is the problem of damage. Brain tissue is soft and flexible, while most of our electrically conductive materials the wires that connect to brain tissue tend to be very rigid. This means that implanted electronics often cause scarring and immune reactions that mean the implants to lose effectiveness over time. Flexible biocompatible fibers and arrays may eventually help in this regard.
Co-adapting, cohabiting
Despite all these challenges, we're optimistic about our bionic future. BCIs don't have to be perfect. The brain is amazingly adaptive and capable of learning to use BCIs in a manner similar to how we learn new skills like driving a car or using a touchscreen interface. Similarly, the brain can learn to interpret new types of sensory information even when it's delivered noninvasively using, for example, magnetic pulses.
Ultimately, we believe a "co-adaptive" bidirectional BCI, where the electronics learns with the brain and talks back to the brain constantly during the process of learning, may prove to be a necessary step to build the neural bridge. Building such co-adaptive bidirectional BCIs is the goal of our center.
We are similarly excited about recent successes in targeted treatment of diseases like diabetes using "electroceuticals" experimental small implants that treat a disease without drugs by communicating commands directly to internal organs.
And researchers have discovered new ways of overcoming the electrical-to-biochemical language barrier. Injectible "neural lace," for example, may prove to be a promising way to gradually allow neurons to grow alongside implanted electrodes rather than rejecting them. Flexible nanowire-based probes, flexible neuron scaffolds and glassy carbon interfaces may also allow biological and technological computers to happily coexist in our bodies in the future.
From assistive to augmentative
Elon Musk's new startup Neuralink has the stated ultimate goal of enhancing humans with BCIs to give our brains a leg up in the ongoing arms race between human and artificial intelligence. He hopes that with the ability to connect to our technologies, the human brain could enhance its own capabilities possibly allowing us to avoid a potential dystopian future where AI has far surpassed natural human capabilities. Such a vision certainly may seem far-off or fanciful, but we shouldn't dismiss an idea on strangeness alone. After all, self-driving cars were relegated to the realm of science fiction even a decade and a half ago and now share our roads.
In a closer future, as brain-computer interfaces move beyond restoring function in disabled people to augmenting able-bodied individuals beyond their human capacity, we need to be acutely aware of a host of issues related to consent, privacy, identity, agency and inequality. At our center, a team of philosophers, clinicians and engineers is working actively to address these ethical, moral and social justice issues and offer neuroethical guidelines before the field progresses too far ahead.
Connecting our brains directly to technology may ultimately be a natural progression of how humans have augmented themselves with technology over the ages, from using wheels to overcome our bipedal limitations to making notations on clay tablets and paper to augment our memories. Much like the computers, smartphones and virtual reality headsets of today, augmentative BCIs, when they finally arrive on the consumer market, will be exhilarating, frustrating, risky and, at the same time, full of promise.
James Wu, Ph.D. Student in Bioengineering, Researcher at the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, University of Washington and Rajesh P. N. Rao, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering , University of Washington
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
People with symptoms of depression are currently lumped into just two categories: Either they have clinical depression, or they don't. But instead, a "staged" approach to diagnosing depression one that makes room for having different degrees of symptoms could improve the way people are diagnosed and treated, according to a new editorial.
This staged model would involve looking at depression along a continuum, from wellness, to temporary distress, to an actual depressive disorder, according to the editorial.
If this model was used, then a fairly large proportion of people who are currently diagnosed as having depression probably would not get the "disorder" diagnosis, said the author of the editorial, Dr. Vikram Patel, a psychiatrist and researcher at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. [7 Ways Depression Differs in Men and Women]
Mental health is a complex phenomenon that is rooted in people's diverse experiences, and the current system is too simplistic for this reality, Patel wrote in his editorial, published Monday (April 4) in the journal PLOS Medicine.
Other researchers have criticized the binary approach, saying it may lead doctors to treat certain typical human reactions to loss or adversity as a medical problem that requires treatment, according to the editorial. For example, when a person who has experienced the death of a loved one is diagnosed with depression, a doctor may choose to treat that person with antidepressants. However, treating a person who is having a normal human reaction with a nondrug option, such as an internet-based program, could be more appropriate and effective, according to the editorial.
In Patel's classification system, people with no distressing experiences would be considered "well." Those who had experienced upsetting feelings for less than two weeks would be considered "distressed." People who had severely distressing experiences, which last from two weeks to a month, and which affect a person's social functioning, would be diagnosed with a depressive disorder. People would be diagnosed with "recurrent or refractory depressive episodes" if they had severe, recurrent depressive episodes, or if their depression wasn't helped by existing treatments.
Each of the last three categories could then be addressed with a different type of treatment ranging from digital interventions to antidepressants and other medications, according to the editorial.[8 Tips for Dealing with a Depressed Spouse]
Dr. Tina J. Walch, a psychiatrist and medical director at South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, New York, who was not involved with the new editorial, said the paradigm shift that Patel is suggesting could pave the way "for a more generalized acceptance and understanding of behavioral health issues."
"More people may be able to relate" to the less severe forms of the illness, she said. And the more people who relate, the more they may be willing to discuss the symptoms and life impact of depression. This could lessen the stigma associated with depression "for everyone, across the entire spectrum," she said.
Originally published on Live Science.
It was not the salad mix they had in mind: Two people in Florida found a dead bat in their container of salad greens.
The people ate some of the salad from the package before finding the bat, according to a statement about the case from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Bats can carry the rabies virus, but the CDC noted that it is "extremely uncommon" to get rabies from eating an animal with the disease. Researchers tested the bat for rabies; however, the CDC couldn't definitively rule out rabies because of the bat's "deteriorated condition."
To be safe, the CDC recommended that the people get treated for rabies. Currently, both people are in good health and showing no signs of the disease, the CDC said. [9 Disgusting Things That the FDA Allows in Your Food]
Fresh Express, the company that made the salad, swiftly issued a recall of the specific salad product, the Organic Marketside Spring Mix. The mix was being sold at Walmart stores in the southeastern U.S. and has been pulled from the shelves, according to a statement released by Fresh Express on April 8.
But the question remains: How does a bat get into a packaged salad?
"It's possible that the mechanical harvesting could pick something like this up," said Ben Chapman, a food safety specialist and an associate professor at North Carolina State University. Instead of handpicking individual plants, large food companies use mechanical harvesters that are driven through the fields, scooping up the produce in their paths.
It's possible for a small animal to be picked up during mechanical harvesting, and then make it through the company's quality control steps, Chapman told Live Science.
After harvesting, the produce is washed, sorted and dried on large conveyer belts, Chapman said. "It doesn't surprise me that small animals make it through this process," Chapman said, but added that "these events seem really rare."
Fresh Express, the company that sold the packaged salads, said in a statement that they have "a range of stringent controls in place during growing and harvesting" that can help prevent animals from getting caught up in the process. They also said that the produce is thoroughly washed and filtered, and visual inspections are used to eliminate "unwanted debris."
Chapman noted that for companies who experience an event like this, it's a good step to revisit the quality-control process to determine what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future.
In addition, when something like this happens, it's smart to recall the entire batch of the contaminated food, because there's always the potential for cross-contamination, Chapman said. Animals and their feces may contain germs that can make people sick, he said. One type of bat, called the fruit bat, has been shown to carry Salmonella, he said.
This isn't the first time an unwanted animal has made its way into a food product, Chapman added. Frogs, birds and rats have also been found in salads, he said.
Originally published on Live Science.
Newer types of "poppers" which are inhalant drugs that people use recreationally may be toxic to people's eyes, according to a new report.
Poppers are often sold in sex shops or online, but cannot be legally sold as a product for human consumption; they are often labeled as household products such as "video head cleaners" or "room odorizers," according to a 2014 paper. The drugs are colorless liquids that, when inhaled, can cause temporary euphoria and sexual arousal.
The new report describes 12 cases of people in southern England who experienced vision problems shortly after using poppers. Several of the patients had been using poppers for 20 years or more, but they only experienced vision problems after switching to a new brand.
When the researchers analyzed the chemical composition of the poppers that the people had used, they found that one chemical, called isopropyl nitrite, was linked with eye damage. This chemical started to show up in poppers after 2006, when legislation in Britain banned the use of a similar chemical in the drugs, called isobutyl nitrite, the researchers said.
"On the basis of the products tested here, it seems that isopropyl nitrite is toxic to the fovea [a small pit in the middle of the retina], and can cause significant visual disturbance," the researchers wrote in the April 10 issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology. [27 Oddest Medical Cases]
When the chemical composition of poppers started to change in 2006, doctors also noticed an increase in reports of eye damage linked to the drugs. But it wasn't clear whether this increase was due to certain chemicals in poppers, more widespread use of the drugs or better detection of the type of eye damage seen in the cases, the researchers said.
In the new report, the 12 patients were seen at an eye clinic in Brighton, England, between 2013 and 2016. All of the patients were men, and they ranged in age from 31 to 59. The patients reported vision problems, such as blurriness or blind spots, that started within hours or days after they inhaled the drugs. High-resolution images of the back of patients' eyes showed damage to the fovea.
The patients used a total of seven different drugs, and when the researchers tested them, they found that six contained isopropyl nitrite. In the one case where the product didn't contain isopropyl nitrite, the researchers discovered that the popper drug was not linked with the eye problems that the patient was having.
Most of the patients fully recovered from their symptoms within a few months after they stopped using the products. However, some patients continued to experience vision symptoms even months after they stopped using them.
It's not clear why some patients didn't recover from their symptoms, but it could be related to how frequently they used the product, the brand they used or their individual susceptibility to this side effect, the researchers said.
More studies are needed over longer periods that follow users of poppers that contain isopropyl nitrite to better understand the long-term effects of these products, the researchers said. It's also not clear what fraction of popper users will experience vision problems as a side effect of the drug.
Original article on Live Science.
Rallies and protest events are a part of political life in the Bay Area. Heres a roundup of whats happening.
Thursday
Sign-making event: Sign-making event for the April 22 March for Science in San Francisco. The event is from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Public Library of Science, 1160 Battery St. in San Francisco. For information: http://bit.ly/2nYqXr4.
Education discussion: The Lamorinda Democratic Club hosts a conversation on how federal funding will affect public education. The event is at 7 p.m. at the Lafayette Library and Community Center, 3491 Mount Diablo Blvd. For information: www.ldclub.org.
Saturday
Tax march: Protesters will march to demand that President Trump release his tax returns. A San Francisco march will start at 1 p.m. at 11th and Market streets. For information: http://bit.ly/2m5xWOA. In San Jose, a march is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. For information: http://bit.ly/2nSMxO7.
Pro-Trump rally: The event is to promote free speech. Noon to 4 p.m. in Berkeley. Details are being confirmed. For information: www.facebook.com/events/185364111955870/?active_tab=discussion.
April 19
ACLU event: The League of Women Voters hosts a discussion with Jay Laefer of the American Civil Liberties Union on safeguarding the rights of our entire community. The event is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Woodside Road United Methodist Church, 2000 Woodside Road in Redwood City.
Conversation on Trump resistance: A new event series hosted by The Chronicle is called Chronicle Chats. This event, The Future of the Left: Can the Trump Resistance Grow Beyond Protest, will be led by columnist David Talbot and will feature a senior adviser to the Bernie Sanders campaign and other experts and leaders. The event is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. Tickets available: https://info.sfchronicle.com/chroniclechats.
April 22
Town hall: Hosted by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, at 10 a.m. at the gymnasium of Canada College, 4200 Farm Hill Blvd. in Woodside.
Science march: Marches mark Earth Day. In San Francisco, a march begins at 11 a.m. at Justin Herman Plaza, Embarcadero Center at Market and Steuart streets, and ends at Civic Center Plaza. For information: http://bit.ly/2nAcLkN. In San Jose, a march will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Details to be confirmed. For information: http://bit.ly/2oV8oSu. In Walnut Creek, a march from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. will start at Civic Park, 1375 Civic Drive. In Hayward, a march from 10 a.m. to noon begins at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, 4901 Breakwater Ave. For information: http://bit.ly/2n7oonY.
April 23
Sexual assault conversation: Loosid Projects, Planned Parenthood and Bay Area Women Against Rape host a discussion called Locker Room Talk: Confronting Sexual Violence in the Age of Trump. The event is from 6 to 8 p.m. at 507 55th St. in Oakland. Tickets are $10 at the door. For information, contact info@loosidity.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
By Emil Ilgar Trend:
Irans and Omans navies have started joint exercises in the Indian Ocean.
The aim of the exercises is to carry out rescue operations in the north of the Indian Ocean, Mehr quoted Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi as saying Apr. 10.
The first round of the exercises includes escorting ships and tankers, bunkering in sea, telecommunications, and rescue operations in emergency situations.
Iranian naval forces held a large-scale drill north of the Indian Ocean, codenamed Velayat 95, to enhance their defence capabilities in February 2016. The exercises were held in an area of 2 million square kilometers covering the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman, north of the Indian Ocean and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
Along with ships, submarines and naval helicopters were deployed to carry out missions during the last years exercises, but it seems the current manoeuvre is focused only on civilian issues.
Oman is the only Arab state in the Persian Gulf that has good relations with Iran.
TV manufacturer Vizio and struggling Chinese consumer technology and Internet company LeEco on Monday called off their $2 billion merger, citing regulatory headwinds.
LeEco, whose businesses in China include smartphones, electric cars and streaming video, missed its projected 2016 sales in the U.S. by a substantial margin and plans to slash more than a third of its American workforce, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
LeEco said the Bloomberg report was inaccurate.
The Vizio deal, announced at a splashy press conference in July, was supposed to close by the end of 2016 to give the ambitious LeEco a big foothold in the U.S. market with the second most popular TV brand in America.
Instead, the two companies released a three-sentence statement saying the deal will not proceed. The companies said they have agreed to a new partnership to incorporate LeEcos streaming-TV service into Vizios smart TV system and bring Vizio products to China.
Representatives for both companies declined to answer further questions about the announcements or what regulatory hurdles scuttled the deal. However, Caixin Global, a financial media outlet in China, reported last month the deal was put on hold because of tighter restrictions on overseas investment that the Chinese government instituted in December.
Vizio will continue operating under the same management team, maintaining its headquarters in Irvine, Vizio spokeswoman Katie Kotarak said in an email.
The mergers collapse might not have an immediate effect on Vizio, second only to Samsung in TV sales in the U.S., analyst Paul Gagnon said.
They had already planned on 2017 products and strategy as if there was no acquisition, said Gagnon, director of TV sets research for IHS Markit. However, he said, Vizios plans for 2018 and beyond may be different than planned.
The new agreement with LeEco could still pave the way for Vizio to expand to China, he said.
The mergers collapse is the latest setback for LeEco, which tried to burst on the U.S. market last year by promising to take on some of Silicon Valleys most successful companies like Apple, Tesla and Netflix.
For LeEco, this means growing the U.S. business as any other newcomer brand would have to do, organically and from the ground up, Gagnon said in an email. This is a challenging thing to do since it requires building distribution slowly, something that could have happened quickly with the Vizio partnerships to leverage.
LeEco opened its North American headquarters in San Jose last April, showcasing an array of electronic products, connected to services and content that branched out from its successful streaming service in China. And Le Vision Pictures, LeEcos filmmaking unit, helped finance the $150 million movie The Great Wall starring Matt Damon.
LeEco also paid $250 million to buy property from Yahoo in Santa Clara to build a global EcoCity headquarters that would house up to 12,000 employees.
Since then, however, LeEcos finances have come under scrutiny. Billionaire founder Jia Yueting warned employees in November that financial management and organization inefficiencies are starting to hold us back.
Jia is also is a major investor in electric car company Faraday Future, which has failed to pay some of its suppliers on time, the auto news site Jalopnik reported in December. To buy the Yahoo property, LeEco took out a loan on which Faraday acted as a guarantor.
To top it all off, The Great Wall, released in February, was panned by critics and proved to be a box-office flop.
Last month, the Reuters news service, citing unnamed sources, reported that LeEco was looking to sell its Santa Clara property. LeEco spokeswoman Teri Daley said the story was inaccurate.
LeEco has been working to identify additional investors as well as a development partner, but we have nothing to announce at this time, Daley said in an email to The Chronicle in March.
Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny
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Investors who have accused oil and gas entrepreneur Brian Alfaro of operating a Ponzi scheme are seeking more than $44 million in damages from him and his San Antonio-based companies.
But Frisco attorney Patrick Schurr, who represents Alfaro, said Monday said it wasnt Alfaros fault that their investment soured and that the 25 unhappy investors suing him represent only a small minority of Alfaros clients.
When they came into these ventures, oil was at an all-time high in 2008, and it plummeted, Schurr said during opening statements of a trial in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Antonio. They need a fall guy and his name is Brian Alfaro. He said the plaintiffs represent less than 10 percent of Alfaros clients.
The group lost all of the roughly $14.7 million they invested with Alfaro and his companies and are seeking triple that amount, or about $44 million, in damages, their attorney Lawrence Morales II said in court.
Alfaro is accused of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, deceptive practices and violations of state securities laws. About 20 people, comprised of investors and spouses many of them elderly, attended the first day of the trial. The bench trial is expected to last five to 10 days.
The lawsuit was originally filed in Bexar County district court but moved bankruptcy court after Alfaros Primera Energy filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in June 2015. Alfaros wife, Kristi Alfaro, and other companies including Alfaro Energy and Alfaro Oil and Gas also are defendants.
The investors accused Alfaro of operating a Ponzi scheme in which money invested in one well was used to pay back investors in other wells. They also allege that Alfaro used investor money to fund a luxurious lifestyle.
Now, where did that money go? Morales asked during opening statements. He then said Alfaro lives in a $2.9 million house in Shavano Park, and has owned a $1.2 million house in Anaqua Springs Ranch in Boerne, a downtown San Antonio condo and a $1 million beach house on Mustang Island in Nueces County. (The Boerne estate and condo have since been sold, property records show.)
Morales then rattled off Alfaros fancy automobile collection, which has included a $400,000 Lamborghini, $200,000 Bentley, $150,000 Ford Mustang, $100,000 Porsche and $100,000 Mercedes.
Any argument that those toys were purchased with other income is inconsistent with what Mr. Alfaro already testified, Morales said.
Morales accused Alfaro of making promises to investors that he didnt intend to keep, including that he would not receive transaction-based compensation and that the money from investors would go to drill and complete wells.
Over a nearly 2-year period beginning in 2013, Alfaro took 483 separate owner draws that often coincided with investors cutting him checks, Morales said. The amounts were either exactly or almost 10 percent of the face amount on the checks in many instances, Morales added. In other instances, the amounts were about 5 percent, reflecting splits with members of his sales team.
A typical investment of about $100,000 would purchase a 1 percent interest in a well. Alfaro sold interests in wells in Montague County in the Barnett Shale and in South Texas in the Eagle Ford Shale.
Schurr described Alfaro as a businessman who has sold oil and gas investments for more than 17 years.
He had a very good track record of making money for his investors and his companies, Schurr said. Some of his best customers have been with him since 2008. He described some bumps along the way, including a casing failure on one well that triggered litigation to recover losses.
Schurr disclosed in a 2015 court filing that Alfaro was the target of an FBI criminal investigation and that he expected his client to be indicted. In the same filing, the lawyer added the IRS may be conducting its own criminal investigation. Nothing has come of those investigations and its unclear where they stand. Schurr made no mention of them Monday.
Alfaro has had his share of troubles with regulators. In 2010, the Texas State Securities Board issued an emergency cease-and-desist order against Alfaro after he was accused of selling interests in inactive oil and gas wells.
Two years later, Alfaro was barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority from acting as a broker and associating with firms that sell securities to the public. The industrys regulatory agency accused Alfaro of running a boiler-room operation that raised $10 million from 100 investors.
Investor James Peters of Quemado, a border city in Maverick County, testified Monday that he received a cold call from Alfaro and eventually bought 1 percent interests in two wells for about $200,000 combined.
Asked what he wanted the judge to do for investors, Peters replied, I think investors should be made whole. We were misled from the very beginning.
Schurr noted during his opening statement that the bankruptcy trustee sold a few wells that were producing during the Chapter 11. But none of the investors lodged objections to the wells being sold, he added.
When the trustee told the investors as owners of the wells to pay the companies creditors, Schurr said the investors objected by saying they did not own joint venture interests but rather working interests in the wells. The investors ultimately agreed to line up behind creditors in the pecking order of who gets paid first in exchange for a release of liability from Primera, he added.
They got a get-out-of-jail-free card, Schurr said.
pdanner@express-news.net
Twitter: @AlamoPD
Tehran, Iran, April 10
By Mehdi Sepahvand, Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian incumbent President Hassan Rouhani has refused to openly say whether he plans to participate in the upcoming presidential elections to be held in Iran on May 19.
During a press conference in Tehran on April 10, responding to the question whether he will put his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, Rouhani said that "we need to wait for a couple of days".
As you know, the registration of candidates will start as of tomorrow and it will continue for five days. If we wait for five days, it will be clear who registers [as a candidate], Rouhani said.
"What I wish is the high turnout of people in the election. Whoever people elect will assume the office for the next four years," he added.
The pages of A Mexican Dream present an intimate record of one of Laredos most esteemed families.
Barbara Gonzalez Cigarroa recounts the formative experience of her familys past through a lyrical composition. With a contemplative prose, Cigarroa has direct conversations with individual family members and highlights their lives throughout the course of the book. The book encapsulates the lessons woven by her family and shared among generations.
These are tangible results of using border lessons from South Texas as our familys lodestar through generations of achievement, Cigarroa writes.
The memoir is comprised of four parts that are sectioned by musical terms: Partita, Rondo, Etudes and Coda. Within each of these sections Cigarroa shares the history of four generations that have influenced society through multiple professions. Partita is a Baroque name for a collection of pieces for solo instruments. In Cigarroas work, Partita reflects the variations of the same theme among the visions of her grandparents.
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Rondo, in music, refers to alternating contrasting themes. The second section pays tribute to the cross-border relationship shared by the United States and Mexico. Cigarroa alternates between the other side and el otro lado. In Rondo, she tells the story of Judge Manuel Raymond and Teresa Raymond Flores, her maternal grandmother, and their ability to physically and linguistically cross between the two sides.
The third section, Etudes, is a glimpse into the practices carried out by the Cigarroa family. In music, Etudes provides practice material to perfect a skill. The notion of Etudes is represented by the stories of various family members that worked to perfect a vision. Cigarroa pays tribute to the intellectual champions in her family that have contributed to society.
The book comes to a close with the final section Coda, which designates a piece of music to an end. In the postlude of the last section Cigarroa writes, Time will tell whether this spirit will continue to be replicated through generations of our border families to come.
The book is available for purchase from tamupress.com or amazon.com.
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A teenager who was allegedly involved in smuggling narcotics and immigrants including an incident that turned fatal has been sentenced to serve four years in prison in the 406th District Court.
Carlos Ruben Cruz Jr. entered guilty pleas in two separate cases after reaching a plea agreement with the District Attorneys Office.
Cruz, 18, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle persons and possession of marijuana, second-degree felonies punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a possible $10,000 fine.
The charges were the result of two separate cases.
The smuggling charge resulted from an incident in January 2016, where a van loaded with four illegal immigrants rolled over and fatally injured a passenger. Its unclear what Cruzs role was in the smuggling incident.
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Cruzs possession offense occurred when he was underage, leading to his being certified as an adult prosecution in his case continued.
His indictments came as part of a joint investigation, nicknamed River Ratz, that was initiated in late 2015 by the Laredo Police Department narcotics division.
The investigation targeted 70 individuals smuggling narcotics and immigrants along the Rio Grande.
Magistrate Judge Melissa Joy Garcia sentenced Cruz to four years in prison for each charge.
Garcia ordered the sentences run concurrently, meaning Cruz will serve a total of four years in prison.
She granted credit for time served at the request of Cruzs defense counsel, Joe Rubio.
Rubio said his client served about seven months in jail during the course of his litigation.
The rollover
Co-defendants Rogelio Eduardo Morales and Jesus Alejandro Calderon were indicted alongside Cruz for the smuggling case in state court.
Calderon, 18, also known as Jesse Bangz, was sentenced to serve ten years in prison in September after pleading guilty to two separate offenses of conspiracy to possess marijuana and conspiracy to smuggle persons/fatality.
He was identified as one of the principal leaders of the River Ratz.
In February, 406th District Court Judge Oscar J. Hale Jr. granted Morales, 18, deferred adjudication and sentenced him to serve 10 years of probation.
Under deferred adjudication, if Morales complies with all of the provisions of his probationary sentence, his criminal record will not show the felony conviction.
The District Attorneys Office identified Morales as the driver of the van that rolled over.
Assistant District Attorney Jack Frels said Morales was never part of the River Ratz operation, rather his association was limited to this one incident due to the availability of his mothers vehicle.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court alleges Morales did not pull over on Jan. 31, 2016 when agents turned on their units emergency equipment and continued driving at a slow speed.
A tire deflation device was deployed but Morales maneuvered around it. Suddenly, Morales lost control of the van and rolled over. Several occupants were ejected from the van.
One, identified as Jose Guadalupe Garcia Baeza, 35, of Dolores, Hidalgo, Mexico, died at the scene.
AUSTIN -- Democrats on the Texas Senate Nominations pressed Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Charles Smith this past week to define the term that has become infamous this budget cycle: federal flexibility.
Smith has been on the job almost two years, the last of a merry-go-round of leaders both at the top of individual agencies and at the mega-agency known as the Health and Human Services Commission.
March 23
At 3:56 p.m., Officer Liccketto was dispatched to the lobby of the Bellaire Police Department in reference to an identity theft in the 5400 block of Pine Street. The victim stated that an unknown suspect, using his identifying information, opened two Bank of America accounts and transferred from into the accounts using his social security number.
March 27
At 4:55 a.m., Officer Barber was dispatched to a welfare check on a "woman down" behind the wheel of motor vehicle in a moving lane of traffic in the 6700 block of the I-610 West Service Road. Officers arrived and observed the woman passed out behind the wheel of her car. The windows were up and the doors were locked. Officers attempted to wake the woman by calling to her and banging on her widows with flashlights. The woman finally woke, looked at officer and then drove off. Officers engaged in a short chase before the woman crashed into a curb. The woman was arrested and the District Attorney's office accepted charges of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), Enhanced and Felony Evading in a Motor Vehicle.
At 8:12 a.m., Officer Andrade was dispatched to the 4300 block of Dorothy Street in reference to an auto theft. Upon arrival, Officer Andrade met with the victim who stated his motorcycle was stolen from his driveway between 9:30 p.m. March 26 and 8 a.m. March 27.
At 1:32 p.m., Officer Lysack was dispatched to the 5400 block of Pine Street in reference to a burglary of a building. Sometime between 6 p.m. March 24 and 10 a.m. March 27, unknown suspects entered the structure under construction and stole approximately fifty feet of copper tubing from the air conditioning system.
At 2:32 p.m., Officer Vorhees was dispatched to the 5200 block of Maple Street in reference to a burglary of a building. About 3:42 a.m. March 26, unknown suspects entered the structure under construction and stole construction materials that were in the unfinished garage area.
At 5:28 p.m., Officer Liccketto was dispatched to the parking lot 5909 West Loop in reference to a burglary of a motor vehicle. The unknown suspect(s) made entry into the vehicle through the passenger side door by popping the door lock and took various items.
At 6:55 p.m., Officer Liccketto conducted a traffic stop at 4700 Tamarisk on a Blue Dodge Avenger. Officer Liccketto observed a different expiration date on the temporary tag displayed on the vehicle than the one shown in the license plate return. The Texas Temporary License Plate was later found to be altered/fictitious. The driver of the vehicle was placed in custody for displaying a fictitious license plate and taken to the Bellaire Police Department without incident.
At 4:21 p.m., Officer Lysack and Sgt. Hefferin were dispatched to a minor accident at 5200 I-610 East Service Road. While investigating the accident, Officer Lysack discovered the driver at fault in the accident had a suspended Texas drivers license and was unable to provide proof of financial responsibility. The suspect was placed into custody for driving while license invalid enhanced and transported to the Bellaire Jail for processing.
March 28
At 9:45 a.m., Officer Andrade was dispatched to the 5200 block of Pine Street in reference to an identity theft. Officer Andrade met with the victim who stated an unknown suspect(s) opened two cell phone accounts with Sprint using his personal identifying information.
March 29
At 1:11 a.m., Officer Barrientos was patrolling the 8000 block of I-610 South and observed a tan, 2009, Honda Accord, traveling southbound with an unreadable Texas plate. Barrientos made a traffic stop on the Accord. The driver was arrested for driving while license invalid (DWLI) after the driver could not provide proof of financial responsibility at the time of the offense.
At 3:47 p.m., Officer O'Sullivan was dispatched to the Bellaire Police Department Lobby in reference to a theft in the 4300 block of Cynthia Street. O'Sullivan's investigation concluded the incident was an identity theft, and a report was generated.
At 6:17 p.m., Sgt. Hefferin observed a vehicle traveling at a speed more than double the posted limited in the 7900 block of Chimney Rock. Hefferin observed the speed to be so great it was dangerous to the other motorists, and pedestrians walking alongside the roadway. Hefferin made contact with the driver who had no driver's license, proof financial responsibility or reason for operating his vehicle at that great of a speed. The driver was arrested for reckless driving and transported to the Bellaire Jail without incident
At 6:59 p.m., Officer Younger was dispatched to the 4500 block of Beech Street in regards to an identity theft report. Officer Younger arrived at 7:09 p.m. and made contact with the reportee who advised his identity was used to apply for a credit card and used for several purchases.
At 2:25 p.m., Officer D.Rocha was dispatched to 6330 West Loop South to meet with reportee / complainant in reference to a theft which had occurred to their company vehicles. Upon arrival, Rocha made contact with the complainant who stated sometime between 5:30 p.m. March 24 and 8:30 a.m. March 29, unknown suspect(s) stole two pickup truck tailgates from their company vehicles.
March 30
At 2:20 p.m., Officer H. Lopez was dispatched to the Bellaire Police Station lobby in reference to a burglary of a vehicle. The victim stated an unknown person entered his truck and stole his backpack.
March 31
At 2:26 a.m., Officer Clisham was on routine patrol in the area of 4500 Bissonnet when he used his in-car computer to check the status of the license plate on the vehicle in front of him. The license plate returned to a possibly stolen vehicle matching the description of the vehicle the licenses plates were mounted on. Officer Clisham initiated a traffic stop on the in the 6700 block of Newcastle Street. The driver was arrested for UUMV.
At 2:15 p.m., Officer Younger and Officer Schwausch were dispatched to the Bellaire Police Department Lobby in reference to a motor vehicle theft. Upon arrival, Officers Younger and Schwausch made contact with the victim who stated his vehicle was stolen in the 5200 block of Pine Street. The vehicle was later recovered at the 5600 block of Edgemoor by Officer Younger and Officer Schwausch.
April 1
At 2:23 a.m., Officer Marcotte observed a suspicious vehicle in the 5200 block of Holly Street and made a traffic stop. The occupants of the vehicle were found to have just broken into a vehicle down the street and had property belonging to the victim with them. All four occupants were arrested and charged with burglary of a motor vehicle (BMV).
At 2:58 a.m., Officer Younger and Officer Schwausch were dispatched to 4650 Bissonnet St. in reference to a burglary of a motor vehicle. Upon arrival, Officer Younger made contact with the victim who stated someone broke into her vehicle and took her purse.
At 1:03 p.m., Officer Andrade was dispatched to the 500 block of South Second Street in reference to a burglary of a motor vehicle. Officer Andrade met with the victim who advised between 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., unknown suspect(s) forced entry into her parked vehicle through the passenger side window and removed her purse without her consent.
April 2
At 11:34 p.m., Sgt. D. Hollie was patrolling the 6000 block IH 610 (N/B), when he observed a vehicle with the rear temporary tag folded over, making it unreadable. Hollie made a traffic stop on this vehicle for this reason. After further investigation, the driver was arrested for Driving While License Invalid (DWLI) enhanced due to previous conviction and Possession of Marijuana.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
By Farhad Daneshvar Trend:
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has posted a tweet in Arabic language to express sympathy with the victims of the recent terror attacks on two churches in Egypt.
Zarif has condemned the terror attack and has called for unity in fight against terrorism as well as extremism.
The comments came following attacks on two Coptic churches April 9 that left at least 44 dead.
So-called Islamic State terrorist group (IS aka ISIS/ISIL) has claimed responsibility for the blasts in Tanta and Alexandria on Palm Sunday.
This is the first time Zarif tweets in Arabic since he has launched his Twitter account June 2009.
Dr. Anna Steinberger and Sara Brook are "a match made in heaven," as they both like to say.
Steinberger, who lives in the Galleria neighborhood, loves desserts, so imagine her surprise when she found out that Brook owned Dessert Gallery Bakery & Cafe in the Montrose area. But their friendship runs much deeper than that. Steinberger and Brook are a "connection pair" set up by the Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH).
Connections was developed to provide new friendships between survivors and Museum volunteers, and both Steinberger and Brook say that it has been a pleasure to get to know one another.
The various connection pairs (there are about 15) attend Museum events together, help out the other when in need, and enjoy each other's company, but most importantly, the survivors pass their stories on to the next generation.
Steinberger was born in Radom, Poland, south of Warsaw, the capitol. She notes that she had a very happy childhood. Her father was a tailor, her mom was a homemaker and she had an older brother. Many of their relatives also lived in Radom.
"I was getting ready to start seventh grade, but instead of going to school, every few minutes there was an air raid. Bombs were falling and buildings were burning. It was Sept. 1, 1939, the beginning of World War II. So instead of going to school, my family was hiding in the cellar," Steinberger said.
On about the third day of the war her uncle came with two horses and a buggy, and they fled to Rovno, in eastern Poland, that was occupied by the Russians. And it was in Russia that they lived out the war.
"My brother was drafted to the Russian Army when Germany invaded Russia in 1941. Not until five years later we learned that he had survived. Life in Russia was very tough. I was hungry for six years. But, I will forever be grateful to the Russians for saving our lives," Steinberger said.
After the war, her family came back to Poland, but they did not want to stay, because they found out that none of their relatives had survived the Holocaust.
"In Russia, all you heard was Communist propaganda. We never knew what was going on with the German regime," Steinberger explained.
Her family ended up leaving Poland illegally by going through the Austrian border, and stayed in an American-occupied zone of Germany.
"Her story is so different. I had never heard a story of someone being in Russia and living out the war that way," Brook said.
"For many years, when people asked me if I was a Holocaust survivor, I would say no, I was never in a concentration camp. Then the definition widened to surviving through hiding, living in Russia, or having fake Christian papers," Steinberger said.
Brook, a fifth generation Houstonian, and a single mother of a daughter, is on the advisory board of the HMH.
"I had heard wonderful things about the museum. What I found in becoming involved is that I didn't realize how many people I grew up with were children of survivors," Brook said.
Brook notes that she first heard a survivor speak through one of her former Dessert Gallery employees.
"I had an employee who worked for me for 15 years. In the course of his studies, he became more inspired to learn about the Holocaust. He went on to become a docent for the Museum. He left the Dessert Gallery to pursue becoming a middle school teacher. He invited a survivor to come to his school, and so the first time I heard a survivor speak was by his invitation. It was so moving. It's ironic that this young man that worked for me, who had a totally different background from me, set this whole thing in motion," Brook said.
Brook continued, "When I see someone that has endured all that they had, and then started another life here, and they have this joyful lust for life, it is so inspiring."
Steinberger agreed, saying, "I came to America with a lot of optimism and hope. Most survivors are so grateful. We are probably the most patriotic people and for good reason."
Steinberger, and her boyfriend at the time in Russia, Emil, who became her husband, had started medical school in Russia, and continued their studies after the war in Germany. Steinberger became interested in medical research when she was young, after spending summers with her uncle, who was a doctor, and her aunt.
Steinberger came to the U.S. in 1949, (Emil, one year prior) after almost finishing medical school, but was unable to get the credits to finish.
"Nevermind that," Steinberger said. "My boyfriend and I were ready to get married and start a family. After living in New York for one year, we got married, and immediately left for Iowa City. My two daughters were born there. My husband finished medical school and I finished graduate school," Steinberger said.
After that, Steinberger and her husband moved around a lot for Emil's internship and residency period, and a two year stint in the U.S. Navy, while Steinberger worked for pharmaceutical companies and laboratories. Once the schooling was finished, they settled down in Philadelphia for 10 years before coming to Houston.
"We came to Houston when the University of Texas Medical School was being created. We were the first faculty members to come there. So I became a Texan! I love living in Houston because of the diversity," Steinberger said.
Steinberger often speaks to children in different schools about her experiences during the war.
"For them, when their favorite sweater gets a spot on it, it is a tragedy. So I tell them my story and get them to understand what is important and what isn't important," Steinberger said.
Steinberger has also been active at HMH for 20 years, since it opened and served on the board of trustees and board of advisors.
Steinberger said, "When the Connections program was started last year, I was told that I was being connected with someone named Sara. When I met Sara, she told me she owns the Dessert Gallery, I said, how do they know that I love desserts? But I love Sara even more than I love my desserts!"
Brook added, "When we were first paired up, the board certainly didn't know that much about me because I was new, but oddly enough we really connected. I love my Anna. It is a special opportunity because there is not so many survivors left."
Steinberger noted that the opening of HMH helped create an outlet for the survivors, and helped them share their stories, and the connections is helping further.
"The reason why survivors didn't speak about it for so many years is because how do you tell your husband or your children that you were weighing 85 pounds, you had no hair, covered in lice, and you were dirty? It is disgusting," Steinberger said.
"I consider it a win-win situation because the younger people can learn from the Holocaust survivors, and they can learn how to cope with adversity. Never be discouraged by obstacles and move on. The survivors have the benefit of being with a younger person and sharing their experiences, and maybe get a ride to the museum for an event," Steinberger said. "I wish I could have more than one connection!"
Holocaust Remembrance Day is April 23. For more information about the museum visit www.hmh.org.
Submitted
Coldspring FFA members traveled to Groveton on March 31 to compete in the Polk/San Jacinto County District Forestry Contest.
During this contest, students completed 13 different activities including identification of both hardwood and pine species, evaluating sites for best management practices based on environmental factors, analyzing plots for future production, product volume, and identifying plant species and their effects on timber-forage-wildlife relationships.
Pearland resident Laura Jaramillo says her friendship with Holocaust survivor Ruth Brown is opening new horizons.
Jaramillo describes her pairing with Brown, 92, through Holocaust Museum Houston's "Connections" program as a "learning journey," adding, "I hope my journey makes me a better person."
Started in the fall, the program aims to creating friendships between museum volunteers and survivors.
A bank executive who serves as trustee for the museum, Jaramillo keeps a busy schedule.
"I wish we had more time to spend together," said Brown, who lives in Missouri City, winning agreement from Jaramillo as they talked over coffee at Three Brothers Bakery in southwest Houston.
"From weekly calls and visits to driving survivors to major events, 'Connections' has been a certified hit," museum spokeswoman Robin Cavanaugh said. "The volunteers, coming from diverse backgrounds and religions, have shared (that) they have made lasting relationships (some have become surrogate grandparents), learned amazing first-hand accounts of their Holocaust survivor's experiences and received much more from the relationship than they feel they have given."
Connections has influenced Jaramillo, a Methodist, to study the Jewish faith, and she and her husband, Rick, recently traveled to Israel for what she said was a life-changing trip.
Learning about the exodus of German Jews like Brown to Spain and then, for some, an additional move to Latin America ignited Jaramillo's desire to learn more about Judaism.
"I want to know if I have Jewish heritage," she said, explaining that both her mother's maiden name and her father's name end in "ez," which are supposed to indicate a Jewish background.
She and Brown both love to read and recently exchanged "Killing Jesus: A History," by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. Brown likes biographies. Jaramillo has switched from novels to more historical books. Both are fans of Abraham Lincoln.
Both Jaramillo and Brown also see a broad lesson from the Holocaust.
"Compassion for people - all people; not just our small world," said Jaramillo, who refers to Houston schoolboys even today being taunted for being Jewish and to the recent chemical attack on Syrian citizens.
"There's too much hate in the world," said Brown, a former docent of the Holocaust museum. Take the money used to wage war and find a cure for cancer or fund causes to benefit mankind, she suggested.
For Brown, who is studying Christianity, Connections provides an opportunity for social outings. At 92, she doesn't drive anymore and has used a cane after breaking her hip about six years ago.
But she remains active. She loves the opera and she was one of a small group selected to light a candle at the April 23 citywide Yom HaShoah Commemoration or Holocaust Remembrance Day at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston.
Brown remembers the time of the Holocaust all too well even though she was only 8 when Hitler came to power in 1933. Her father, Fred owned a "beautiful jewelry store" in Dusseldorf, a city on the Rhine in west Germany.
But he sold that and everything the family of four owned to move to Barcelona, Spain, to escape from Hitler.
"We lost home and family. My parents never went back to Germany."
Her grandmother didn't want to go with them when they left for Spain and perished in a concentration camp.
"If we didn't leave Germany when we did, we all would have ended up in camps," Brown said.
Her mother, Erna, was a seamstress and her brother, Claude, was 18 months older. Her dad worked at a supermarket owned by friends in Spain.
The refuge in Spain for Brown and her family lasted only until 1936. The Spanish Civil War caused her parents to send her and her brother away from the bombings and ravages of war which Brown described as "really bad news."
Brown ended up staying with her mother's friends near Zurich, Switzerland, and her brother in a nearby orphanage. They saw each other three times during their two-year stay.
"I was 11 years old. My brother was 12. It was pretty rough there for a while.
"Hitler was throwing his weight around," Brown said. "1938 was pretty bad in Germany. We were hoping something would happen to Hitler so we could go back to Germany. We were hoping someone would assassinate him, but it didn't happen."
As refugees in Switzerland, her parents weren't allowed to work. They planned to move to America, which initially seemed so far away for the non-English speakers.
"We actually made it on the last boat leaving Europe for New York," Brown said.
The Great Depression was nearing its end in 1939, and her father, now near 50, was able to find work in a supermarket chain in Washington, D.C.
Brown had briefly enrolled in English class in Switzerland but her whole family learned English after coming to the states.
Brown served as a translator for the war department and witnessed when guilt verdicts were issued against 10 Germans for crimes against humanity during trials at Nuremberg. Her album includes a photo of the war crimes trial.
Her brother joined the military and lived through the D-Day landing on the Normandy Beach.
While working for the department, she met Andrew Brown in 1947, they married in 1948 and came back to the United States in 1949, first to Washington, D.C, and then to Texas.
While in Washington, D.C, she served as a hostess in a service club for troops. In 1939, she and about 100 others from the club accepted an invitation from socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who lived in a palatial home and owned the Hope Diamond. Brown's album includes a photo of her wearing the diamond.
Now a widow, Brown has four children, seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren who all call her "WuWu," a made-up name.
"I didn't want to be call grandma," she said. "It made me feel old."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10
By Khalid Kazimov Trend:
Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has talked to several counterparts on phone to discuss developments in Syria.
In separate talks over phone with the EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as well as counterparts from Oman, Syria and Algeria, Zarif called for forming a fact-finding committee to probe into a chemical attack on a Syrian town, IRNA news agency reported Apr. 10.
A suspected chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Syria last Wednesday left 89 people dead.
Later on Friday, dozens of US missiles hit Shayrat airfield in western Syrian province of Homs in response to the chemical attack on the rebel-held town.
Norwegian police raised the country's security threat level following the discovery of an explosive device in central Oslo late on Saturday, Reuters reported.
A 17-year-old Russian citizen, who had lived in Norway since 2010 and had applied for asylum, was a suspect in the case and was in custody, police said on Sunday, after they set off a controlled explosion of a "bomb-like device" on Saturday night.
The suspect has denied any guilt, his lawyer told tabloid Verdens Gang.
The risk of an attack taking place in Norway has been raised to "probable" from "possible", Benedicte Bjoernland, head of the police security service (PST), told a news conference, adding that the new threat level will be in place for two months.
It remained unclear if the 17-year-old had acted on his own, she said, or whether or not he had intentions of carrying out an attack.
"But it's likely that the attacks during the last year in France, Germany, Britain, Russia and Sweden are having a contagious effect also in Norway, impacting people with extreme Islamist sympathies," Bjoernland added.
The police bomb squad said the device found in Oslo was about 30 cm (1 ft) across and had appeared capable of causing only a limited amount of damage.
Police in the Nordic region have been on heightened alert after a truck ploughed into a crowd in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Friday, killing four and injuring 15 in what investigators said appeared to be a terror attack by an IS sympathizer.
In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik set off a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and destroyed Norway's government headquarters, before going on a shooting rampage, killing 69 people at nearby Utoeya island.
The European Commission (EC) says Monday it expects all political leaders and institutions in Macedonia to let the democratic process run its course, which also includes the election of a new parliament speaker and the formation of a government, MIA's correspondent reports from Brussels.
"We've been quite vocal of what we expect to happen in the country. At this stage, we are following the developments. We've said repeatedly and in several occasions that the results of the recent parliamentary elections must be respected and the current uncertainties must end," EC spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told a news conference in the Belgian capital.
A government must be established without delay based on the parliamentary majority that is there, she stressed.
"Both (Johannes) Hahn and (Frederica) Mogherini have called on the President (Gjorge Ivanov) to reconsider his position. We expect all political leaders and institutions to let the democratic process run its course, this includes also the election of the new parliament speaker, which we would like to see without any delay," Kocijancic concluded.
The family of a teenager says bones found near the Texas-Mexico border are those of the girl who has been missing since July 2016.
Enedina Sanchez told The Brownsville Herald that the remains found last week near Rio Hondo are those of 19-year-old Nahomi Rodriguez.
The family of a teenager who went missing last summer say human remains found in Rio Hondo belong to her, according to media reports.
Nahomi Rodriguez, 19, was last seen July 17 in Harlingen. She finished her shift at a McDonald's there and was seen entering a black truck or SUV driven by two unknown males in a parking lot in the 600 block of North US-77. She was wearing a black shirt, pants and a cap.
Emergency crews are on scene of North Park Elementary where a school shooting has taken place in San Bernardino, California, Sputnik reported.
"Triage and victim count taking place," the San Bernardino County Fire District said. There have been multiple gunshot wound victims, officials noted.
The school is currently on lockdown, as is nearby Cal-State Bernardino University.
The SB police chief said four people are currently being treated by first response medical crews. The shooter may have been neutralized, the law enforcement officer added.
The incident may have stemmed from a domestic violence dispute involving a teacher, a spokesperson told NBC Los Angeles. It is believed to be a murder-suicide but multiple people were shot.
The two injured students have been sent to the hospital for further treatment.
Students of North Park Elementary have been shuttled to a nearby high school for safety, the police chief said.
The gunman and teacher have been reported dead, while the two children were injured.
Jacala Mexican Restaurant is one of San Antonios oldest originally owned Mexican restaurants. Opened in 1949 by Rudy and Adelfa Quinones, it remains a landmark in the San Antonio area.
As a child, Adelfa and her family were forced to move to San Antonio from Tampico, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution. She later married Rudy, who hired most of her family to work with them.
Rudy and Adelfa started their original restaurant down the street from its current location with only four booths and two tables, which they built. Today, Jacala at 606 West Ave. has five dining rooms, as well as an outdoor courtyard open on the weekends. The restaurant offers a full bar and seats more than 250.
Jacalas classic Tex-Mex style, along with great margaritas, is a San Antonio landmark that has guests from around the country coming back to the place they once called home. Generations of families frequent the restaurant for celebrations of every kind, including anniversaries, weddings, births and even divorces!
Jacalas mouth-watering enchiladas have frequently been voted best enchiladas in the San Antonio Express-News Readers Choice Awards over the past 10 years.
One of the most popular items on the menu is the Jacalitos, named in honor of founder Rudy Quinones. Shredded chicken, with a special blend of cheeses, guacamole and sour cream make this creation a delight matched only by the Oro Margarita.
The Quinones sisters Yolanda Wright, Lucille Hooker and Cynthia Lambert carry on the legacy of their late parents, who put their hearts and souls into keeping the restaurant going. Some of Jacalas employees have been with the restaurant for more than 50 years, as they find it just as hard to retire as do the sisters. They all love seeing longtime customers come back to dine with them.
Jacalas famous bottled salsa is available for purchase at the restaurant and at most H-E-Bs around Texas. Customers from around the country order the salsa shipped to them, as it is currently available only in Texas.
The Quinones sisters look forward to living their lives out at the restaurant and, hopefully, passing it onto their children. They strive to make customers feel at home at Jacala, which means little hut (or pueblito) in Mexico.
Jacala Mexican Restaurant
Phone: (210) 732-5222
www.jacala.com
Editors Note: This content is made possible by Jacala Mexican Restaurant. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com.
Turkey has condemned Sunday's suicide attack in the Somali capital Mogadishu targeting the country's new armed forces commander, leaving at least 15 people dead, Anadolu reported.
"We have learned with deep sorrow that today (9 April) a suicide attack which targeted a convoy carrying high level military officials near the compound of the Ministry of Defense, claimed lives of many people including those of civilians and injured many others," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry added: "We strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack. We wish Gods mercy upon those who lost their lives in the attacks, convey our condolences to the families who lost their loved ones and wish speedy recovery to the wounded.
At least 15 people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed and more than five others wounded Sunday afternoon after a suicide car bomb blast targeted a military convoy with Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Jimale, also known as Gen. Arfiid.
Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack via its radio Andalus.
Police Captain Ismail Mohamed told Anadolu Agency that the blast targeted a military convoy with the new commander near the Defense Ministry building in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
1 Venezuela unrest: Thousands of protesters demanding new elections faced off with security forces who launched tear gas and stood shoulder-to-shoulder blocking roadways in the capital of Caracas on Monday. Now in their second week, the protests initially erupted April 1 after the Supreme Court stripped congress of its last vestiges of power, a decision it later reversed. Demonstrators and opposition leaders are angered at what they see as a government that no longer respects democratic institutions and is sliding toward authoritarianism. Authorities squashed an opposition campaign to hold a recall referendum on President Nicolas Maduro last year.
2 Britain attack: Several thousand police officers lined the streets of London on Monday for the funeral procession of a fellow officer killed in an extremist attack last month. Constable Keith Palmer was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood on March 22 in the forecourt of Parliament. Two minutes of silence were observed by police throughout the country and by many others to pay respects to the 48-year-old husband and father killed in the line of duty. Masood killed four other people as he rammed pedestrians on Westminster Bridge with a rented truck. He was shot dead by police after stabbing Palmer.
A standing ovation was accorded to Longford Association in Dublin Person of the Year 2017, Joe Flaherty, following his rousing acceptance speech at last Saturdays gala presentation function in the Red Cow Moran Hotel.
Lanesboro native Mr Flaherty spoke of his pride at being from County Longford and said he was upbeat over the countys future prosperity.
He said: I am delighted to accept the award from the Longford Association in Dublin but in doing so I know it is reflective of the great work and initiative of so many enthusiastic people right across this great county of ours.
We have to champion Longford and do things for ourselves. Everybody has a part to play and we need to talk the county up. Sometimes our greatest critics are ourselves. We need to curb that and emphasise the best that we have to offer.
Liam Caldwell of the Longford Association in Dublin described Joe Flaherty as a man of many, varied and wide-ranging activities and interests.
Lanesboro native, Joe Flaherty, now living in Longford town with his wife Niamh and their three young daughters - Kate (8), Jill (6) and Grace (3) - is Managing Director of Iconic Newspapers, who own the Longford Leader.
Mr Caldwell outlined, Joe is well known for his community involvement and was to the fore in the re-establishment of the Longford Summer Festival and also the first Longford Christmas markets. He is also active in Longford Chamber of Commerce, Tidy Towns and the GAA. The members of the Longford association never cease to be impressed by selfless giving and Joe is a wonderful example of this. With this in mind were delighted he is this years main award recipient.
Presentations were also made to the all-conquering Mullinalaghta St Columbas and Longford junior ladies teams in recognition of their remarkable sporting feats last year. Citations were read on the Special Recognition award winners by Tony Gilleran, Longford Association in Dublin.
Longford County Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Mick Cahill praised the work of the Association and congratulated the award recipients.
See next weeks Longford Leader for more coverage of the gala evening.
In 1977 an Amnesty International report, detailing ill-treatment of prisoners by Gardai made "disturbing reading". This was noted in a memo by one of Taoiseach Jack Lynch's senior officials.
Amnesty sought an "impartial investigation" into the report, which had considered 28 cases of allegations of maltreatment while in police custody, that were backed up by medical and other - physical - evidence.
Mr Lynch's private private secretary, F Murray, said it would be "undoubtedly be of considerable embarrassment to the government if the Amnesty report were published at this stage without an enquiry into the allegations into the complaints elaborated on".
Indeed. Very careful language, and that was forty years ago.
In those days Fine Gael and Fianna Fail were kings of everything political that moved in Ireland. No Mick Wallace, Clare Daly, Paul Murphy, or any meaningful coterie of independents, Sinn Fein weren't even on the radar, in those days, and anyone who said they could eventually be in the Dail, would be laughed out of court.
Gerry Adams was persona non grata, and Mary Lou was but a baby.
The report by Amnesty International was concerning a group of Special Branch Detectives, operating in the Dublin area who became known as the Heavy Gang. These police members were a law unto themselves, who'd been handed an unspoken mandate, to get confessions out of anyone they came to suspect for a serious crime. The did this by "verbal, physical or mental abuse, and operated with discretionary powers" until a ruling by the Supreme Court in 1979 put pressure on the Gardai to operate within legislation.
The outrages carried out by The Heavy Gang were totally out of bounds. Frightening stuff, carried out with the tacit approval of government.
And we wonder why the Gardai are presently subjected to scandal after scandal after scandal, and the Commissioner is hanging on by a thread. Why is that?
They were once given free rein, to operate as they saw fit; that's why.
The Commissioner has lost all sense of authority, yet she continues to stand firm.
In any jurisdiction where law and order are taken seriously, the head of the force would resign or step aside until the air was cleared. Except in Ireland.
In the Charleton tribunal just started, counsel for Maurice McCabe have expressed "deep concern" that the same legal team is to represent the Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan and former commissioner Martin Callanan before the tribunal.
Meanwhile it has been widely reported that Martin Callanan was seen entering the premises in Phoenix Park several times in the past week.
Almost all Gardai are being represented by another legal team.
It makes one immediately suspicious of the ability of the collective to get to the truth.
Perhaps that says more about this writer than the reality.
But perception is all.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are opposed to a vote of confidence in the Commissioner. This has nothing at all to do with what's best for the country.
Nor how much it will cost!
It's because Sinn Fein will improve their vote immeasurably - when that happens.
Are we to wait until more scandal comes tumbling from the chaos that is Garda Headquarters.
The fallout is just starting...
Ireland is becoming a laughing stock, internationally.
No true decency in politics anymore.
Police: Two Teens Arrested for Vandalizing Patchogue Elementary School With Racist Graffiti
Local News, Crime
By Long Island News & PR Published: April 10 2017
Suspects accused of racial graffiti including swastikas, the letters KKK, racial epithets and more, cops say.
SCPD have arrested two teens who vandalized playground equipment with bias graffiti at a Patchogue elementary school last month.
Patchogue, NY - April 10, 2017 - Suffolk County Police have arrested two teens on Friday, April 7, 2017 at approximately 7:30 p.m who vandalized playground equipment with bias graffiti at a Patchogue elementary school last month.
On March 29, school officials from Bay Avenue Elementary School, located at 114 Bay Ave., notified police that school playground equipment was vandalized with racial graffiti, including swastikas, the letters KKK, racial epithets and a phallic symbol.
Following an investigation, Hate Crimes Unit detectives arrested two 14-year-old juveniles and charged them with Making Graffiti, a class A misdemeanor. The teens, who were released to their parents, were issued field appearance tickets and will be arraigned at a later date.
Local News, Business & Finance, Politics
By Long Island News & PR Published: April 10 2017
Cuomo: "With this Budget, New York is once again showing what responsible government can achieve."
Albany, NY - April 10, 2017 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeffrey Klein, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie today announced an agreement on the FY 2018 State Budget. The agreement continues the states record of fiscal responsibility, holding spending growth to 2 percent while reducing taxes, making smart investments in education, enacting comprehensive criminal justice reforms, creating good-paying jobs, and rebuilding New Yorks infrastructure.
About the FY 2018 Budget
State Operating Funds spending is $98.1 billion in FY 2018 an increase of 2 percent. (State Operating Funds exclude Federal funds and capital).
All Funds spending is $153.1 billion for FY 2018.
Increases Education Aid by $1.1 billion, including a $700 million increase in Foundation Aid, bringing the new Education Aid total to $25.8 billion or an increase of 4.4 percent.
Increases Medicaid State share funding to $23.5 billion.
Extends tax rate on millionaires 45,000 taxpayers impacted, 50 percent non-residents, preserving as $3.4 billion in revenue next year.
Begins Middle Class Tax Cut saving taxpayers $250 on average next year, and 6 million New Yorkers $700 annually when fully effective.
Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo:
"With this Budget, New York is once again showing what responsible government can achieve. The result is a Budget that advances the core progressive principles that built New York: investing in the middle class, strengthening the economy and creating opportunity for all.
"This Budget enacts the Middle Class Recovery Act to continue the Empire States upward trajectory and creates a path forward for those striving to get ahead. By making college at our world-class public universities tuition-free, we have established a national model for access to higher education, and achieved another New York first.
"For too long, draconian punishments for youthful mistakes have ruined the lives of countless young New Yorkers. By coming together, we reversed this injustice and raised the age of criminal responsibility once and for all so that 16- and 17-year-olds are no longer automatically processed as adults.
"This Budget continues the progress we have achieved to improve the lives of New Yorkers, and build a stronger, better Empire State that truly lives up to its motto: Excelsior."
Statement from Senate Majority Leader John J. Flanagan:
"This agreement will allow us to put in place a complete and final budget for the people of New York. The product of hard work and compromise, our state spending plan meets the needs of middle-class taxpayers and their families and advances key initiatives to make our state more affordable. It rejects new fees and protects one of the biggest and boldest tax cuts in state history, makes the largest ever investment in clean water, helps families better afford the high costs of college and ensures all of our schools have the resources they need to give students a high-quality education. On top of that, the new state budget enacts workers compensation reforms to cut costs and help businesses create jobs, fully funds direct care professionals who treat our most vulnerable citizens and makes more than $200 million available to fight and win the battle against heroin and opioid addiction. I congratulate our partners in government, including the Governor, Speaker Heastie and Senator Klein, and thank my colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference for their tireless advocacy, their sound ideas and most of all their patience."
Statement from Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie:
"Throughout these budget negotiations the Assembly Majority has made it clear that our goal is, and always has been, to prioritize the health and well-being of New Yorks families and communities. Without critical support for public education, housing and water infrastructure and workable answers to the diverse challenges affecting communities across the state, we cannot succeed. The Assembly Majority is pleased to deliver a budget that keeps the promise to our students by securing significant aid for public schools as well as broadening access to higher education opportunity programs for middle and low income families. This conference is proud that our years-long goal to end the unjust treatment of young offenders in the justice system has finally been realized with this budget, which raises the age of adult criminal responsibility. We have heard the calls of our upstate and suburban communities and delivered greater choice in transportation alternatives with the approval of ridesharing that maintains our commitment to essential labor standards and public safety. This budget also continues our mission to ensure that workers are fairly compensated for their services and delivers funding to bring direct care and support workers closer to the living wage they deserve. The Assembly Majority is proud of this budget and what it means for the future of all New Yorks families. These are important and thoughtful investments that will continue to serve the best interests of New Yorkers for generations to come."
Statement from Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeffrey D. Klein:
"This is a budget that changes New York for the better. In it we create a historic $10 million immigrant legal aid fund to meet the urgent need of our immigrant communities. This major investment preserves the American Dream for those who, like our relatives, came here to seek it. We Raise the Age right, sending the majority of our 16- and 17-year-olds to Family Court, where they will get the services they need to get their lives back on track. We get our children off of Rikers Island within a year and we send a strong message that we believe in second chances. This budget contains a record increase in education spending, economic development initiatives and important water safety and quality projects. I thank Governor Cuomo, Senator Flanagan and Speaker Heastie for working hard to reach an agreement that benefits all residents in New York State."
Reducing Taxes to Record Lows for Middle-Class New Yorkers
The Budget continues to lower Personal Income Tax rates for middle-class New Yorkers. With the middle class tax cuts of 2012, rates were lowered from 6.85 percent to 6.45 percent for taxpayers in the $40,000-$150,000 income bracket, and to 6.65 percent in the $150,000-$300,000 income bracket. Under these new reforms, the rate will drop even further this year and will continue to drop all the way to 5.5 percent and 6 percent, respectively, when the cuts are fully phased in.
These new lower tax rates will save middle class New Yorkers nearly $6.6 billion in just the first four years, with annual savings reaching $4.2 billion by 2025. As the new rates phase in, they will be the states lowest middle class tax rates in more than 70 years. When the tax cuts begin, they will benefit 4.4 million filers, growing to 6 million filers when fully phased in.
Investing Record $25.8 Billion in Education
The FY 2018 Budget continues the progress made to strengthen educational outcomes and increase access to high-quality learning across New York State. It increases Education Aid by $1.1 billion, including a $700 million increase in Foundation Aid, bringing the new Education Aid total to $25.8 billion or an increase of 4.4 percent. Under Governor Cuomo, education aid has increased by $6.2 billion, or 32 percent, over six years.
Establishing the First-in-the-Nation Excelsior Scholarship Program to Provide Tuition-Free College for Families Making up to $125,000 & Investing in E-Books
The Budget enacts the Governors landmark Excelsior Scholarship program to make college affordable at SUNY and CUNY two- and four-year colleges for working- and middle-class families. The program provides free tuition to families making up to $125,000 per year, and nearly 940,000 New York families are eligible for the program.
The new initiative will be phased in over three years, beginning for New Yorkers making up to $100,000 annually in the fall of 2017, increasing to $110,000 in 2018, and reaching $125,000 in 2019. The Excelsior Scholarship is a last mile program, which extends the states existing generous aid programs, including the nearly $1 billion Tuition Assistance Program and any applicable federal grants, and fills in any remaining gaps to cover the full cost of tuition.
New Yorkers must be enrolled in college full-time, averaging 30 credits per year and completing their degree on-time. The program includes built in flexibility, allowing students to pause and restart the program, due to a hardship, or take fewer credits one semester than another. Students must also maintain a grade point average necessary for the successful completion of their coursework. Under the program, New Yorkers will be required to live and work in-state for the number of years they received the Excelsior Scholarship. The Budget also includes a generous Maintenance of Effort to assist in meeting the operational needs of SUNY and CUNY.
As the cost of textbooks can be prohibitively expensive, the Budget also invests $8 million to provide open educational resources, including electronic-books, to students at SUNY and CUNY. At the states direction, SUNY and CUNY will use this funding to target high-enrollment courses, including general education, to maximize student savings.
Under the FY 2018 Budget, a new Enhanced Tuition Award will also enable students attending private not-for-profit colleges to receive financial assistance to complete their college degree. The program provides a maximum award of $3,000, requires private colleges to provide a match and freeze student tuition for the duration of the award maximizing the financial benefit to the student. The Enacted Budget includes $19 million for the program.
Enhancing the Middle Class Child Care Tax Credit
The Budget enacts an enhanced middle class child care tax credit that will help more than 200,000 middle-class families make their child care more affordable. The new tax credit would supplement the current New York State Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and more than double the benefit for families earning between $60,000 and $150,000, bringing the total credit from $169 to $376 per household on average.
Protecting New Yorkers from the Soaring Cost of Prescription Drugs
Under the FY 2018 Budget, New York is the first state in the nation to cap the growth of prescription drug spending in its Medicaid program, which has grown 25 percent over the past three years. The agreement provides the Department of Health with a range of tools to lower the cost of prescription drugs, including the ability to drive down the cost of certain drugs whose price is high relative to its therapeutic benefits. This unprecedented agreement enables the Medicaid program to allocate more resources for other essential health services and ensures high-quality care across New York State.
Combating the Opioid Epidemic
In 2016, the Governor signed into law a comprehensive plan to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic in New York State. The FY 2018 Budget builds on this progress by investing over $200 million to support prevention, treatment and recovery programs targeted toward chemical dependency, residential service opportunities, and public awareness and education activities.
Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility
The FY 2018 State Budget raises the age of criminal responsibility to 18-years-old and ensures that young people who commit non-violent crimes receive the intervention and evidence-based treatment they need. New York was previously one of only two states in the nation that automatically processed all 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, no matter their offense.
The new measures will be phased in over time, raising the age of juvenile delinquency from age 16- to 17-years-old beginning on October 1, 2018, and subsequently raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18-years-old on October 1, 2019.
Further, young people will no longer be permitted to be housed in adult facilities or jails. Young people under the age of eighteen will no longer be placed or held at Rikers Island in New York City no later than October 1, 2018. They are to be placed in specialized juvenile detention facility certified by the New York City Administration for Childrens Services and the States Office of Children and Family Services, and in conjunction with the States Commission of Correction and the New York City Department of Corrections.
The state will also create a Raise the Age implementation task force, with committee members designated by the Governor. Additionally, individuals who have been crime free for ten years after serving a sentence will be able to apply for the sealing of previous criminal convictions.
Delivering $2.5 Billion in Funding to Combat Homelessness and Increase Access to Affordable Housing
The FY 2018 Budget continues funding for the states $20 billion comprehensive, five-year plan for affordable and supportive housing to ensure New Yorkers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness have safe and secure housing. The Budget includes $2.5 billion in funding to advance the creation of 100,000 new affordable and 6,000 supportive housing units.
Enacting "Affordable New York" Housing Program
Under the FY 2018 Budget, developers of new residential projects with 300 units or more in certain areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens will be eligible for a full property tax abatement for 35 years if the project creates a specific number of affordable rental units and meets newly established minimum construction wage requirements. The units must remain affordable for 40 years. For all other affordable developments in New York City, the period of affordability and abatement eligibility would be tied to the number of affordable units. This new program will create an estimated 2,500 new units of affordable housing per year.
Cutting Property Taxes and Costs of Local Government
The FY 2018 Budget continues the Governor's efforts to relieve the property tax burden and builds on the success of the 2 percent property tax cap. The typical New York homeowner pays 2.5 times more in local property taxes than in state income taxes. The Budget will empower citizens to control the cost of local government by requiring counties to assemble local governments to find efficiencies for real, recurring taxpayer savings. To ensure transparency and an active role for citizens in reducing their tax burden, public hearings and comment periods will be required as part of the development of the shared services plans.
Extending Hurrell-Harring Settlement Reforms for Indigent Defendants across New York
The provision of quality criminal defense by the government to individuals who cannot otherwise afford counsel is of paramount importance, as the United States Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright. In 2014, the State successfully negotiated an agreement in Hurrell-Harring et al. v. State of New York et al., a lawsuit filed against the state and five counties based upon an alleged failure to provide the necessary level of indigent defense services in those counties, to bring true reform to public defense systems that were failing.
To ensure fair and equal representation for all accused individuals, the FY 2018 Budget includes resources to develop the framework through which the state will fund one hundred percent of the costs necessary to extend the reforms provided for in the Hurrell-Harring settlement to all 62 counties in New York.
Providing Budget Flexibility to React to Potential Loss of Federal Aid
Given the looming threats from Washington, the FY 2018 Budget provides flexibility for the state to adjust spending during the fiscal year to account for a significant loss of federal aid. If federal support is reduced by $850 million or more, the New York State Director of the Budget will develop a plan to make uniform spending reductions. This plan would take effect automatically unless the legislature passes their own plan within 90 days.
Delivering Ride Sharing Across New York
The FY 2018 Budget authorizes Transportation Network Companies (TNC), such as Lyft and Uber, to operate across New York and creates uniform licensing standards. The Department of Motor Vehicles will have broad oversight of rideshare companies and will ensure compliance with all laws, rules, and regulations required as part of a TNCs operational license.
TNC companies will be required to maintain minimum insurance coverage levels of $1.25 million while a TNC driver is traveling to pick up a passenger and until the drop-off is completed. The state will also establish minimum standards to ensure passenger safety, including mandatory background checks, ongoing monitoring for traffic safety, anti-discrimination protections, and zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policies.
The Budget also establishes a statewide task force to study and deliver recommendations on accessibility needs to protect and provide transportation to vulnerable populations. Necessary workers' compensation coverage will also be provided to rideshare drivers through enhancements to the Black Car Fund. Finally, a statewide board will be established to review the impact of this newly authorized industry across the state.
Providing $2.5 Billion for Clean Drinking Water for All New Yorkers
To ensure that current and future New Yorkers have access to clean water, the Budget initiates the $2.5 billion Clean Water Infrastructure Act. This investment will protect public health, safeguard the environment, and preserve the states water resources. These funds will help local governments address water emergencies, pay for local infrastructure construction projects, underwrite land acquisition for source water protection, and investigate and mitigate emerging contaminants in drinking water. These projects will improve the quality and safety of municipal drinking water distribution, filtration systems, and wastewater treatment infrastructure.
Enacting Comprehensive Workers Compensation Reform
The Budget includes meaningful workers' compensation reforms that provide cost savings for businesses and better protections for injured workers. The new reforms ensure that the most significantly injured workers have the right to be considered for lifetime benefits. The reforms will also ensure swift access to hearings for injured workers not receiving benefits, create a clear formulary for prescription drugs, and provide relief for first responders exposed to a traumatic event at work. Concurrent with expanded worker protections, businesses will be achieving overall savings, bringing much needed relief to municipal and private employers. Changes include establishing more definitive limits on caps and updating medical guidelines to reflect advances in modern medicine.
Increasing Direct Care Professional Salaries
The Budget includes a landmark agreement that will provide New Yorks 120,000 direct care professionals with a 6.5 percent raise over the next two years. These increases will help state-funded non-profits that specialize in the care of vulnerable New Yorkers not only recruit and retain employees, but continue to provide the same level of excellent care that have made them the backbone of New Yorks developmentally disabled and behavioral health system.
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By Long Island News & PR Published: April 10 2017
2018 State Budget Advances Governors Middle Class Recovery Act Investing in Jobs & Infrastructure, Reducing Taxes, and Expanding Access to Education.
Albany, NY - April 10, 2017 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the passage of the 2018 State Budget, which builds on the states fiscal discipline over the last six years while strengthening the middle class, reducing taxes, and making smart investments in New York's future. For the seventh consecutive year, the Budget is balanced and holds spending growth to 2 percent.
With the 2018 Budget, New York leads the nation by making college tuition-free at SUNY and CUNY two- and four-year colleges for working and middle-class families making up to $125,000 per year. The Budget also corrects a decades-long injustice by raising the age of criminal responsibility, ensuring that 16- and 17-year-olds in New York are processed as juveniles in the states justice system.
To ensure that current and future New Yorkers have access to clean water, the Budget invests $2.5 billion in the landmark Clean Water Infrastructure Act. Additionally, the Budget includes new measures to relieve the property tax burden on New Yorkers through innovative county-wide shared services plans.
About the FY 2018 Budget
State Operating Funds spending $98.1 billion in FY 2018 an increase of 2 percent. (State Operating Funds exclude Federal funds and capital).
All Funds spending is $153.1 billion for FY 2018.
Increases Education Aid by $1.1 billion, including a $700 million increase in Foundation Aid, bringing the new Education Aid total to $25.8 billion or an increase of 4.4 percent.
Extends tax rate on millionaires, preserving as much as $4.5 billion in annual revenue 45,000 taxpayers impacted, 50 percent non-residents.
Begins Middle Class Tax Cut saving taxpayers $250 on average next year, and 6 million New Yorkers $700 annually when fully effective.
Invests $163 million to make college tuition free for middle-class families at SUNY and CUNY, and an additional $8 million to increase access to e-books statewide.
Supports New Yorks middle-class families by doubling New York State Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
Raises the Age of criminal responsibility so that 16- and 17-year-olds are no longer prosecuted as adults.
Supports and expands New York States historic $100 billion infrastructure program.
Delivers $2.5 billion in funding to advance the creation or preservation of 100,000 affordable and 6,000 supportive housing units.
Invests $2.5 billion in the Clean Water Infrastructure Act.
Invests $750 million for the Regional Economic Development Councils Round VII.
Includes $70 million for I New York to promote statewide tourism.
Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo:
With this Budget, New York is once again leading the nation and showing what responsible government can achieve. The result is a Budget that advances the core progressive principles that built New York: investing in the middle class, strengthening the economy and creating opportunity for all.
This Budget enacts the Middle Class Recovery Act to continue the Empire States upward trajectory and creates a path forward for those striving to get ahead. By making college at our world-class public universities tuition-free, we have established a national model for access to higher education, and achieved another New York first.
"For too long, draconian punishments for youthful mistakes have ruined the lives of countless young New Yorkers. By coming together, we reversed this injustice and raised the age of criminal responsibility once and for all so that 16- and 17-year-olds are no longer prosecuted as adults.
This Budget continues the progress we have achieved to improve the lives of New Yorkers, and build a stronger, better Empire State that truly lives up to its motto: Excelsior.
Enacting the Middle Class Recovery Act
Reducing Taxes to Record Lows for Middle-Class New Yorkers
The Budget continues to lower Personal Income Tax rates for middle-class New Yorkers. With the middle class tax cuts of 2012, rates were lowered from 6.85 percent to 6.45 percent for taxpayers in the $40,000-$150,000 income bracket, and to 6.65 percent in the $150,000-$300,000 income bracket. Under these new reforms, the rate will drop even further this year and will continue to drop all the way to 5.5 percent and 6 percent, respectively, when the cuts are fully phased in.
These new lower tax rates will save middle class New Yorkers nearly $6.6 billion in just the first four years, with annual savings reaching $4.2 billion by 2025. As the new rates phase in, they will be the states lowest middle class tax rates in more than 70 years. When the tax cuts begin, they will benefit 4.4 million filers, growing to 6 million filers when fully phased in.
Cutting Property Taxes and Costs of Local Government
The FY 2018 Budget continues the Governor's efforts to relieve the property tax burden and builds on the success of the 2 percent property tax cap. The typical New York homeowner pays 2.5 times more in local property taxes than in state income taxes. The Budget will empower citizens to control the cost of local government by requiring counties to assemble local governments to find efficiencies for real, recurring taxpayer savings. To ensure transparency and an active role for citizens in reducing their tax burden, public hearings and input will be required as part of the development of the shared services plans.
Doubling the Middle Class Child Care Tax Credit
The Budget enacts an enhanced middle class child care tax credit that will help more than 200,000 middle-class families make their child care more affordable. The new tax credit would supplement the current New York State Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and more than double the benefit for families earning between $60,000 and $150,000, bringing the total credit from $169 to $376 per household on average.
Establishing the First-in-the-Nation Excelsior Scholarship Program to Provide Tuition-Free College for Families Making up to $125,000 & Investing in E-Books
The Budget enacts the Governors landmark Excelsior Scholarship program to make college affordable at SUNY and CUNY two- and four-year colleges for working- and middle-class families. The program provides free tuition to families making up to $125,000 per year, and nearly 940,000 New York families are eligible for the program.
The new initiative will be phased in over three years, beginning for New Yorkers making up to $100,000 annually in the fall of 2017, increasing to $110,000 in 2018, and reaching $125,000 in 2019. The Excelsior Scholarship is a last mile program, which extends the states existing generous aid programs, including the nearly $1 billion Tuition Assistance Program and any applicable federal grants, and fills in any remaining gaps to cover the full cost of tuition.
New Yorkers must be enrolled in college full-time, averaging 30 credits per year and completing their degree on-time. The program includes built in flexibility, allowing students to pause and restart the program, due to a hardship, or take fewer credits one semester than another. Students must also maintain a grade point average necessary for the successful completion of their coursework. Under the program, New Yorkers will be required to live and work in-state for the number of years they received the Excelsior Scholarship. The Budget also includes a generous Maintenance of Effort to assist in meeting the operational needs of SUNY and CUNY.
As the cost of textbooks can be prohibitively expensive, the Budget also invests $8 million to provide open educational resources, including electronic-books, to students at SUNY and CUNY. At the states direction, SUNY and CUNY will use this funding to target high-enrollment courses, including general education, to maximize student savings.
Under the FY 2018 Budget, a new Enhanced Tuition Award will also enable students attending private not-for-profit colleges to receive financial assistance to complete their college degree. The program provides a maximum award of $3,000, requires private colleges to provide a match and freeze student tuition for the duration of the award maximizing the financial benefit to the student. The Enacted Budget includes $19 million for the program.
Investing Record $25.8 Billion in Education
The FY 2018 Budget continues the progress made to strengthen educational outcomes and increase access to high-quality learning across New York State. It increases Education Aid by $1.1 billion, including a $700 million increase in Foundation Aid, bringing the new Education Aid total to $25.8 billion or an increase of 4.4 percent. Under Governor Cuomo, education aid has increased by $6.2 billion, or 32 percent, over six years.
Prekindergarten: The Budget includes an over $800 million investment in prekindergarten to expand high-quality half-day and full-day prekindergarten for three- and four-year-old children in high-need school districts.
Community Schools: The Budget provides $150 millionan increase of $50 millionto support the continued transformation of high-need schools into community hubs. This funding supports services that are unique to each schools individual needs, including before-and-after school programs, summer learning activities, medical and dental care, and other social services.
Empire State After-School Program: The FY 2018 Budget increases the states after-school investment with $35 million in new funding for public after-school programs in the states 16 Empire State Poverty Reduction Initiative (ESPRI) as well as in communities in the state with high rates of child poverty. This new funding will create an additional 22,000 spots for students in after-school programs.
Empire State Excellence in Teaching Awards: To recognize and honor excellence and innovation in the classroom, the Budget provides $400,000 to fund a second round of Empire State Excellence in Teaching awards. This funding will be awarded on a regional basis to at least 60 teachers across the state. Awardees will receive $5,000 to use for professional development activities, including coursework to enhance expertise, attendance at a state or national education conference, or enrollment in a summer institute or certification program.
Protecting New Yorkers from the Soaring Cost of Prescription Drugs
Under the FY 2018 Budget, New York is the first state in the nation to cap the growth of prescription drug spending in its Medicaid program, which has grown 25 percent over the past three years. The Budget provides the Department of Health with a range of tools to lower the cost of prescription drugs, including the ability to drive down the cost of certain drugs whose price is high relative to its therapeutic benefitsy. The FY 2018 Budget also enables the Medicaid program to allocate more resources for other essential health services and ensure high-quality care across New York State.
Delivering on the New York Promise
Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility
The FY 2018 State Budget raises the age of criminal responsibility to 18-years-old and ensures that young people who commit non-violent crimes receive the intervention and evidence-based treatment they need. New York was previously one of only two states in the nation that automatically processed all 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, no matter their offense.
The new measures will be phased in over time, raising the age of juvenile delinquency from age 16- to 17-years-old beginning on October 1, 2018, and subsequently raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18-years-old on October 1, 2019.
Further, young people will no longer be permitted to be housed in adult facilities or jails. Young people under the age of eighteen will no longer be placed or held at Rikers Island in New York City no later than October 1, 2018. They are to be placed in specialized juvenile detention facility certified by the New York City Administration for Childrens Services and the States Office of Children and Family Services, and in conjunction with the States Commission of Correction and the New York City Department of Corrections.
The state will also create a Raise the Age implementation task force, with committee members designated by the Governor. Additionally, individuals who have been crime free for ten years after serving a sentence will be able to apply for the sealing of previous criminal convictions.
Recording Police Interrogations for Serious Offenses and Improving Witness Identification Procedures
In order to ensure the reliability of evidence and integrity in the criminal justice system, legislation included in the Budget requires law enforcement to video-record custodial interrogations in cases involving serious offenses.
Additionally, the legislation allows the use of photo identifications made by witnesses at trial when the identification procedures were conducted using proper safeguards, such as a blind or blinded administration. This legislation will allow juries the opportunity to consider the most reliable form of identification evidence those obtained closest in time to a crime.
By improving the integrity of identification procedures and enhancing public safety, the legislation protects against wrongful convictions and ensures criminals are held responsible.
Allocating $10 Million to Liberty Defense Project
The Budget invests $10 million to establish the nation's first legal defense fund to ensure all immigrants, regardless of residency status, have access to representation. The initiative is a public-private partnership between the New York Department of State, two dedicated philanthropic allies the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation and a statewide coalition of 182 advocacy organizations and legal entities. Private sector law firms, legal departments at universities, bar associations and advocacy organizations will be coordinated by the States Office for New Americans to provide pro bono legal and additional resources for immigrants threatened by recent changes in immigration policies.
Establishing Statewide Hate Crimes Task Force
The FY 2018 Budget commits $1 million to establish a statewide Hate Crimes Task Force assigning members of the State Police, in conjunction with the Division of Human Rights and the Division of Criminal Justice Services to mitigate recent incidents of bias-motivated threats, harassment, and violence in New York. The Task Force will engage county leaders, district attorneys, school district leaders, local police departments and other key stakeholders to identify and investigate hate motivated crimes and bias related trends, community vulnerabilities and discriminatory practices.
Extending Hurrell-Harring Settlement Reforms for Indigent Defendants across New York
The provision of quality criminal defense by the government to individuals who cannot otherwise afford counsel is of paramount importance, as the United States Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright. In 2014, the state successfully negotiated an agreement in Hurrell-Harring et al. v. State of New York et al., a lawsuit filed against the state and five counties based upon an alleged failure to provide the necessary level of indigent defense services in those counties, to bring true reform to public defense systems that were failing.
To ensure fair and equal representation for all accused individuals, the FY 2018 Budget includes resources to develop the framework through which the state will fund one hundred percent of the costs necessary to extend the reforms provided for in the Hurrell-Harring settlement to all 62 counties in New York.
Delivering $2.5 Billion in Funding to Combat Homelessness and Increase Access to Affordable Housing
The FY 2018 Budget continues funding for the states $20 billion comprehensive, five-year plan for affordable and supportive housing to ensure New Yorkers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness have safe and secure housing. The Budget includes $2.5 billion in funding to advance the creation or preservation of 100,000 affordable and 6,000 supportive housing units.
Enacting Affordable New York Housing Program
Under the FY 2018 Budget, developers of new residential projects with 300 units or more in certain areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens would be eligible for a full property tax abatement for 35 years if the project creates a specific number of affordable rental units and meets newly established minimum construction wage requirements. The units must remain affordable for 40 years. For all other affordable developments in New York City, the period of affordability and abatement eligibility would be tied to the number of affordable units. This new program will create an estimated 2,500 new units of affordable housing per year.
Encouraging Recent College Graduates to Become First-Time Homeowners
Under the FY 2018 Budget, developers of new residential projects with 300 units or more in certain areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens will would be eligible for a full property tax abatement for 35 years if the project creates a specific number of affordable rental units and meets newly established minimum construction wage requirements. The units must remain affordable for 40 years. For all other affordable developments in New York City, the period of affordability and abatement eligibility will would be tied to the number of affordable units. This new program will create an estimated 2,500 new units of affordable housing per year.
Protecting Runaway and Homeless Youth
Runaway and homeless youth face a lack of affordable, safe and stable housing. To provide Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs with increased flexibility so they can improve services, the Budget includes reforms that provide counties with the ability to double the allowable length of stay in short-term RHYA crisis programs to 120 days and extend long-term RHYA transitional and residential independent living programs from 18 to 24 months. The reforms also allow counties to increase the maximum permissible age for young people in long-term RHYA programs to 24-years-old.
Expanding Youth Employment Opportunities
Summer Youth Employment Program: The Budget increases funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program by $5 million, bringing total funding to $36 million. In 2016, approximately 18,750 youths were employed through the program.
Expanding Employment Opportunities for Youth and Apprentices: The Budget extends New York Youth Jobs Program with a $40 million annual allocation over the next five years as well as a $10 million annual allocation for the Empire State Apprenticeship Tax Credit Program, significantly expanding opportunity throughout the State. Since 2012, this highly successful program has connected 45,000 young adults at nearly 1,700 businesses with stable, well-paying jobs.
Additional FY 2018 State Budget Highlights
Providing Budget Flexibility to React to Potential Loss of Federal Aid
Given the looming threats from Washington, the FY 2018 Budget provides flexibility for the state to adjust spending during the fiscal year to account for a significant loss of federal aid. If federal support is reduced by $850 million or more, the New York State Director of the Budget will develop a plan to make uniform spending reductions. This plan would take effect automatically unless the legislature passes their own plan within 90 days.
Delivering Ride Sharing for Upstate New York
The FY 2018 Budget authorizes Transportation Network Companies, such as Uber and Lyft, to operate across New York and creates uniform licensing standards. The Department of Motor Vehicles will have broad oversight of rideshare companies and will ensure compliance with all laws, rules, and regulations required as part of a TNCs operational license.
TNC companies will be required to maintain minimum insurance coverage levels of $1.25 million while a TNC driver is traveling to pick up a passenger and until the drop-off is completed. The state will also establish minimum standards to ensure passenger safety, including mandatory background checks, ongoing monitoring for traffic safety, anti-discrimination protections, and zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policies.
The Budget also establishes a statewide task force to study and deliver recommendations on accessibility needs to protect and provide transportation to vulnerable populations. Necessary workers' compensation coverage will be provided to rideshare drivers through enhancements to the Black Car Fund. Finally, a statewide board will be established to review the impact of this newly authorized industry across the state.
Safeguarding New Yorks Environment for Future Generations
Clean Water Infrastructure Act: To ensure that current and future New Yorkers have access to clean water, the Budget initiates the $2.5 billion Clean Water Infrastructure Act. This investment will protect public health, safeguard the environment, and preserve the states water resources. These funds will help local governments address water emergencies, pay for local infrastructure construction projects, underwrite land acquisition for source water protection, and investigate and mitigate emerging contaminants in drinking water. These projects will improve the quality and safety of municipal drinking water distribution, filtration systems, and wastewater treatment infrastructure.
Environmental Protection Fund: The Budget continues EPF funding at $300 million, the highest level in the history of the state. Appropriations include $41 million for solid waste programs, $86 million for parks and recreation, $154 million for open space programs, and $19 million for the climate change mitigation and adaptation programs.
NY Parks 2020 Initiative: Advancing the NY Parks 2020 initiative, which is investing $900 million to upgrade and repair our State Parks, the Budget allocates $120 million in New York Works capital funding an increase of $30 million from FY 2017. This funding will aid the ongoing transformation of the states flagship parks and support critical infrastructure projects. The additional $30 million will target projects that will strategically leverage private funding to improve New York State Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation facilities and services.
Adventure NY Program: DEC will launch the Adventure NY program, which will improve access to State lands, rehabilitate campgrounds, and upgrade DEC recreational facilities. This new initiative will build on existing efforts and includes $70 million in New York Works capital funding, an increase of $30 million from FY 2017. This funding will also enable DEC to continue to address critical infrastructure needs, including dam safety and flood control projects.
Local Waterfront Revitalization Program: On our waterfronts, the Department of State Local Waterfront Revitalization Program helps communities re-imagine and revitalize their hidden assets to attract new development opportunities and invigorate new economic growth engines like tourism. The Budget includes amendments to State law that allow Local Waterfront Revitalization matching funds from the Environmental Protection Fund to be increased from 50 percent to 75 percent for all projects and 85 percent for projects in Environmental Justice communities, affording greater flexibility for applicants to meet the local share for complex neighborhood redevelopment planning projects.
Creating Nations Largest Multi-Use Trail Network: The Empire State Trail
The FY 2018 State Budget provides $200 million to complete the Hudson River Valley Greenway and Erie Canalway trails and creates the Empire State Trail, the largest state multi-use trail in the nation. The 750-mile trail will provide new opportunities for hiking and biking along scenic vistas and through charming, historic communities, driving tourism and economic activity across New York. The Empire State Trail will span the state, from the New York Harbor up through the Adirondack Mountains to the Canadian border and from the shores of Lake Erie along the historic Erie Canal to the heart of the Capital Region.
Combating the Opioid Epidemic
In 2016, the Governor signed into law a comprehensive plan to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic in New York State. The FY 2018 Budget builds on this progress by investing over $200 million to support prevention, treatment and recovery programs targeted toward chemical dependency, residential service opportunities, and public awareness and education activities.
Increasing Direct Care Professional Salaries
The Enacted Budget will provide New Yorks 120,000 direct care professionals with a 6.5 percent raise over the next two years. These increases will help state-funded non-profits that specialize in the care of vulnerable New Yorkers not only recruit and retain employees, but continue to provide the same level of excellent care that have made them the backbone of New Yorks developmentally disabled and behavioral health system.
Enacting Comprehensive Workers Compensation Reform
The Budget includes meaningful workers' compensation reforms that provide cost savings for businesses and better protections for injured workers. The new reforms ensure that the most significantly injured workers have the right to be considered for lifetime benefits. Reforms also ensure swift access to hearings for injured workers not receiving benefits, create a clear formulary for prescription drugs, and provide relief for first responders exposed to a traumatic event at work. Concurrent with expanded worker protections, businesses will be achieving overall savings, bringing much needed relief to municipal and private employers. Changes include establishing more definitive limits on caps and updating medical guidelines to reflect advances in modern medicine.
Providing Funding for Essential Health Care Providers
The Budget provides $500 million in additional capital support for essential health care providers, including a minimum of $75 million directed to community-based providers, to support capital projects and other initiatives that facilitate health care transformation. Included in this amount is $50 million that is directed to Montefiore Medical Center to expand the availability of affordable healthcare. This investment will bring the total amount of capital support provided to health care providers for transformation efforts to $3.3 billion over 4 years.
Creating New Independent Inspector General of New York for Transportation
The Budget includes measures to establish a new Office of Inspector General of New York for Transportation that would be responsible for investigating and prosecuting any criminal and unethical actions as it pertains to senior level officers and employees of transportation entities. A Transportation entity is defined as a public entity located within a city of a population of one million or more involved in the transportation of persons, goods or other items within or to and from the state where at least one individual involved at a senior level in operations, financing or management of such entity is appointed by the Governor. In addition to investigatory and prosecutorial powers, this new Inspector General may refer any findings to another investigatory or prosecutorial body, as well as prepare and release public reports related to its findings.
Reprivatizing the New York Racing Association
The Budget re-establishes a privately controlled board of directors for NYRA, a culmination of the Governors multi-year effort to ensure horse racing in New York is competently managed, accountable, and transparent. The new board will have 17 members: the CEO, eight executive committee members, and two individuals each appointed by the Governor, the Senate and the Assembly. Breeders and horsemen each will have a member. The proposal also increases oversight by enhancing the powers of the Franchise Oversight Board, which will help safeguard the accomplishments of transitional board.
Driving Economic Growth and Revitalizing New Yorks Infrastructure
The 2018 Budget continues to deliver on the Governors historic commitment to revitalize New York States infrastructure, and in partnership with public authorities, and local and federal governments, the state is investing $100 billion in transformative projects across New York.
Downtown Revitalization Initiative Round II: The FY 2018 State Budget includes $100 million for Round II of the successful Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The Initiative was created last year to support transformative housing, economic development, transportation, and community projects to attract and retain residents, visitors, and businesses to downtowns. The first round awarded $100 million last year to ten communities that are currently experiencing population loss or economic decline to develop revitalization plans for their downtown area, developed in collaboration with policy and planning experts.
Life Sciences Investment: The FY 2018 Budget invests $620 million to grow a new, world-class life science research cluster in New York and expand the states ability to commercialize research and grow the economy.
Regional Economic Development Councils: Since 2011 the REDCs have awarded nearly $4.6 billion in state funding to over 5,200 projects through a competitive process to spur job creation based on regional priorities. Projects receiving funding through the REDC initiative are expected to create and retain 210,000 jobs in New York. The Budget includes $750 million in core capital and tax-credit funding that will be combined with a wide range of existing agency programs for REDC Round VII.
I New York Welcome Centers: Modeled after the successful Long Island Welcome Center, the state will establish welcome centers one in each region of the state that feature an array of experiences including Taste NY, Path Through History, I New York and State Parks that highlight each region's tourism assets.
JFK Transformation: The FY 2018 State Budget invests $564 million to reconfigure the Grand Central/Van Wyck interchange and the Van Wyck itself, saving motorists a combined travel time of 7.4 million hours annually going to and from JFK. The transformation of this vital artery is an essential component of the Port Authoritys JFK Master Plan, which is reimaging JFK International Airport for the next century of growth and provides the impetus for private sector investment, driving the total investment potential as high as $10 billion.
Bruckner-Sheridan Interchange Reconstruction: The FY 2018 State Budget transforms the South Bronx by investing $700 million toward the $1.8 billion plan to realize the long-sought reconstruction of the Bruckner-Sheridan Interchange.
Moynihan Train Hall at the New Penn-Farley Complex: The FY 2018 State Budget commits $700 million to advance Governor Cuomo's sweeping plans to transform the historic James A. Farley Post Office into a world-class transportation hub. The Moynihan Train Hall will have more space than Grand Centrals main concourse, housing both Amtrak and LIRR ticketing and waiting areas, along with state-of-the-art security features and a modern, digital passenger experience. The train hall will also feature 112,000 square feet of retail space and over 500,000 square feet of office space and connect to the new MTA LIRR Concourse connecting Penn Station to Moynihan Train Hall. The Budget makes a multi-year commitment totaling $700 million to support this development.
Kosciuszko Bridge Replacement: The FY 2018 State Budget invests $270 million to construct the Kosciuszko Bridge Phase II, which is a new westbound (Brooklyn-bound) main span. The State is replacing the 77-year-old bridge with two new state-of-the-art bridges, one Queens-bound and one Brooklyn-bound.
$1.4 Billion for Vital Brooklyn: The Budget advances the $1.4 billion Vital Brooklyn initiative. Under the Governor's plan, the State is targeting and investing in eight integrated areas, establishing a national paradigm for addressing chronic disparities, like systemic violence and entrenched poverty in high-need communities. The comprehensive plan includes a focus on increasing access to open spaces and healthy food and create a stronger, more sustainable Central Brooklyn by prioritizing strategic investments in resiliency and affordable housing, as well as job creation, youth development, and community violence prevention.
Buffalo Billion Phase II: The Budget allocates $500 million for the Buffalo Billion Phase II, building on the success of the past six years of development with a focus on revitalization and smart growth efforts, improvements to workforce development and job training, growing advanced manufacturing, tourism and life sciences, and connecting communities to foster growth through rail expansion.
State Fair Modernization: The Budget also provides $70 million in capital funding to continue modernizing the State Fair, which saw record attendance levels in 2016. Phase Two includes $50 million to continue building the new New York State Fairgrounds and $20 million to construct a new on-ramp to I-690 West and other improvements to the State Fairgrounds' Orange parking lot.
Town of Woodbury Transit and Economic Development Hub: The Budget supports the acceleration of the $150 million reconstruction project to build the Town of Woodbury Transit and Economic Development Hub. The project, which will create nearly 600 jobs, will overhaul a highly congested corridor that feeds the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, a regional economic engine.
Eliminate the Cap on Industrial Hemp: The FY 2018 State Budget eliminates the cap on New Yorks burgeoning industrial hemp industry, authorizing farmers to research, grow and process hemp as an agricultural commodity. To accelerate the industrys growth, the state will host the first-ever Industrial Hemp Summit in the Southern Tier bringing manufacturers, farmers, researchers and other stakeholders together to identify challenges and opportunities to grow the industry and boost the agricultural economy throughout the state.
Photonics Venture Challenge in Rochester: New York State will establish a $10 million, multi-year Photonics Venture Challenge in Rochester. This business competition aims to support start-up companies that commercialize these rapidly developing technologies through a business accelerator program. It includes a top award of $1 million to the most promising start-up company. There are currently no accelerator programs in the world with a photonics focus and the Rochester region is uniquely positioned to build a nationally recognized program.
$120 million to Strengthen the LIRR: An investment of $80 million will be made to enhance 16 Long Island Rail Road stations. These improvements will optimize system connectivity and enhance the overall passenger experience. The Budget also includes $20 million to develop a direct LIRR connection to MacArthur Airport. Additionally, the Budget includes $20 million to build a stop on the LIRR Ronkonkoma Branch at the center of Long Islands innovation corridor at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Extreme Weather Hardening of the Nassau Expressway: The Budget includes an additional $130 million in new transportation funding to accelerate the reconstruction and elevation of a segment of the Nassau Expressway (Route 878) in Nassau County. The planned work will mitigate flooding and improve existing drainage, enhancing the safety and reliability of this busy stretch of road that carries 56,000 vehicles each day and serves as an Emergency Storm Evacuation Route for more than 400,000 people.
Upstate Airport Economic Development and Revitalization Competition: In FY 2017, the Governor established the $200 million Upstate Economic Development and Revitalization Competition. In Round II, Plattsburgh International Airport will receive $38.1 million to jumpstart the airports $43 million overhaul and Syracuse Hancock International Airport will receive $35.8 million towards their $48.8 million transformation. The bold plans and designs developed by these airports will enhance safety, improve operations and access, reduce environmental impact, and create a better passenger experience.
Amtrak Station in Schenectady Construction: The Budget includes $15 million for the construction of a new passenger rail station, and improving the parking, lighting and landscaping, as well as the walkways leading to the Bus Rapid Transit areas on State Street and the new parking area on Liberty Street.
Master Plan to Redevelop Frontier Town into the Gateway to the Adirondacks at Northway Exit 29 in North Hudson: The FY 2018 State Budget includes funding for the $32 million public private partnership to create a world-class tourism destination at the site of Frontier Town in the Adirondacks. The Master Plan for the Gateway to the Adirondacks includes:
A DEC campground and day use area along the Schroon River
Equestrian camping and trail riding area
Visitor Information Center to introduce visitors to the world class recreation destinations in the Adirondack Park
Event center with tourist accommodations
Interactive exhibits in historic structures highlighting the past, present, and future of the Adirondack forest products and local food industries
More:
School & Education, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause
By Long Island News & PR Published: April 10 2017
Gregory: On behalf of the residents of Suffolk County, it was my privilege to take part in celebrating the academic accomplishments of these young men and women who protect our country.
Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory served as the keynote speaker for the St. Josephs College Military Graduate Recognition Ceremony at St. Josephs Long Island Campus on March 30.
Amityville, NY - April 10, 2017 - Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory recently served as the keynote speaker for the St. Josephs College Military Graduate Recognition Ceremony at St. Josephs Long Island Campus.
On behalf of the residents of Suffolk County , it was my privilege to take part in celebrating the academic accomplishments of these young men and women who protect our country, said Presiding Officer Gregory. Among the many ideals my military service instilled in me was the significance of leadership and integrity. The world needs more leaders for whom integrity is of the utmost importance and who better to look to than our military graduates?
The event celebrated the graduation of 50 military-affiliated students from St. Josephs Long Island campus. Graduates representing each of the five armed service branches (Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy) were in attendance, including active members, veterans, reserves, spouses and dependents.
Local News, Crime
By Long Island News & PR Published: April 10 2017
Victim managed to fight off assailant and call 911; suspect described as a male white in his 30's.
Lindenhurst, NY - April 10, 2017 - The First Squad is investigating a Sex Offense that occurred on Sunday, April 9, 2017 at 2:00 am in North The First Squad is investigating a Sex Offense that occurred on Sunday, April 9, 2017 at 2:00 am in North Bellmore
According to detectives, a 25 year old female victim was walking west on Porter Street in the vicinity of Porter Place when she was struck in the head by an known object causing her to fall to the ground. A male white subject then carried the victim and placed her in the rear passenger door of a black sedan and began to sexually assault her. The victim struck the subject and was able to flee the scene and call 911.
The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment.
The subject is described as male white, 6 tall, in his 30s, very large build, goatee (no mustache) wearing blue jeans and a dark colored sweatshirt. Subject vehicle is described as a black 4 door sedan, newer model with tan interior extremely messy with garbage.
Shabaab, al Qaedas branch in East Africa, has claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that targeted the newly minted chief of defense forces near Somalias Ministry of Defense in Mogadishu. General Mohamed Ahmed Jimale, the bombings target, survived the blast, but at least 15 people were killed.
According to al Jazeera, Jimale was travelling with other Somali officials near the defense ministry headquarters when the Shabaab suicide bomber detonated his vehicle. Jimale survived, but several soldiers traveling with the general were killed. In addition, a nearby passenger bus was also hit in the explosion. Shabaabs statement acknowledges that the general escaped the assassination attempt.
Abdul Aziz Abu Musab, Shabaabs spokesman, said that Jimale barely survived the mujahideen [attack]. The assault comes a few days after Somalias new president declared a new war against the jihadist group.
Shabaab has increased the frequency of strikes in Mogadishu since the countrys elections earlier this year. In the wake of Somalias new president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, being sworn in, Shabaab threatened to escalate assaults in the capital.
Since February, there has been a spate of car bombs in Mogadishu. On Feb. 19, a suicide car bomb killed at least 30 people at a market in Mogadishus Wadajir district. On Feb. 27, another suicide car bomb targeted Somali soldiers at a checkpoint just outside the city. On March 13, another car bomb was detonated near the Wehliye Hotel, killing at least 13. On that same day, Shabaab attempted to ram a minibus full of explosives through a military checkpoint, but the bus was stopped before reaching its target.
On March 21, Shabaab killed at least 10 people in a suicide bombing near the presidential palace in Mogadishu. The jihadist group said on its Shahada News Agency Telegram channel that the suicide bombing targeted a gathering of officers, officials, and government militias at a checkpoint near the palace. [See Threat Matrix report, Shabaab suicide bombing strikes near presidential palace.]
Attacks in Mogadishu serve as a reminder that the jihadist group retains the ability to strike in high-security areas. Since 2014, Shabaab has attacked the parliament, the presidents compound, and a high security intelligence headquarters. In June 2013, a Shabaab team struck at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) compound in Mogadishu; several UNDP employees were killed and the jihadist group briefly took over the compound. And in 2010, Shabaab was even able to launch a suicide assault on an African Union medical clinic in the Mogadishu airport.
Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.
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Chinese fishermen (Photo : Getty Images News)
The Chinese police are investigating the butchering of a baby Chinese white dolphin near Nanshui in Zhuhai's Jinwan District, according to the Guangdong Ocean and Fishery Administration.
Netizens reported the butchering of the aquatic animal, which reportedly took place at around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Chinese social media revealed photos of a gray dolphin butchered into pieces and placed in boxes filled with ice.
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Law enforcement officers headed to the spot after being tipped off and recovered the remains of the aquatic animal, which will be checked and verified by technical authorities.
The local fishing bureau said that a fisherman whose surname is Zhong discovered a dead "big fish" floating near Gaolan Port. He then dragged it to the wharf and had three other men butcher the "fish."
Chinese fishermen have often been involved in illegal fishing. In fact, South Korea's Coast Guard has to regularly chase Chinese boats for fishing illegally, which sometimes result in violent confrontations.
In June, South Korea sent its naval ships to chase 10 Chinese fishing boats near the disputed sea boundary between South Korea and North Korea. The Chinese fishermen, who were illegally harvesting blue crabs, escaped into North Korean waters.
Nicknamed "giant panda of the sea" and "mermaid," the Chinese white dolphin mainly appears in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. In China, it is often found in the East China Sea and is given first-class state protection.
The Chinese white dolphin is a humpback dolphin species. These dolphins are black at birth but change to gray and then become pinkish with spots. They become white upon reaching adulthood.
Experts say that changes in its color are a way for the Chinese white dolphin's blood vessels to adapt to the different changes in temperatures.
Chinese white dolphins have thicker layers of blubber and are shorter than other dolphins. While most dolphins species have poor eyesight, the Chinese white dolphin sees very well.
The Iota Mu Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta will hold a Step It Up 5K on April 22 at 11 a.m. on the Lycoming College campus to benefit Autism Speaks. Runners and walkers from the college and the public are encouraged to participate in the 5K route through Brandon Park in downtown Williamsport.
The cost will be $10 per participant; registration can be done online at: www.lycoming.edu/stepitup2017. Registration at the event will begin at 11 a.m. near the starting line, 700 College Place, on the Lycoming College campus. Prizes will be awarded for the three runners who complete the race in the fastest time. Light refreshments will be provided.
Events like ours provide Autism Speaks with the funding needed to offer educational and support services that help individuals with autism thrive, said Bethany Hipple co-philanthropy chair of the Alpha Xi Delta Womens Fraternity. The event also helps remind all of us about the value of these individuals to our community.
The Step It Up 5K is one of many initiatives the sisters of the Alpha Xi Delta participate in to raise awareness and funds for its philanthropic partner, Autism Speaks. Since the partnership was formed in 2009, the national womens fraternal organization has raised awareness and more than $5 million for autism.
Autism Speaks is the worlds leading autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families. For more information, please visit www.autismspeaks.org.
Alpha Xi Delta inspires women to realize their potential by providing opportunities for sisterhood, leadership knowledge and service. The national womens fraternity has more than 150,000 initiated members and chapters on 116 college campuses.
Barbara Heim Download Image: Web
Barbara Heim 83, former executive vice president of people for BG Group, will share insights about the benefits and challenges of working for a major energy company during a presentation at Lycoming College at 7:30 p.m. on April 20. The presentation, which will be held in Room G-9 of the Heim Biology and Chemistry Building on Mulberry Street, is free and open to the public.
During her presentation, titled The inside story: one persons perspective on working for a major energy company, Heim will discuss the breadth of career opportunities available at global companies. Along with the more obvious positions of engineers, scientists and financial experts, energy companies hire professionals with a variety of skill sets including environmentalists, safety and performance managers, trainers, communicators, and human resource and marketing professionals. Heim also will discuss the benefits and challenges of working for a large corporation in the energy industry.
Heim spent seven years as a human resources executive for BG Group in the United Kingdom before her retirement last year. She had global responsibility for the companys human resources function serving more than 5,000 employees in 14 countries. BG group, acquired in 2016 by the Shell Oil Company, produced around 680,000 barrels of oil per day and had significant liquefied natural gas capabilities. Its operations spanned 25 countries and most continents.
Prior to BG Group, Heim spent the previous 25 years in human resources with notable organizations including Burger King, Ryder, Colgate Palmolive, Pennzoil and Frito-Lay. Her work with these various organizations provides her with a unique vantage point for comparing careers in the energy industry with other industries. She began her career after earning a bachelors in communications from Lycoming College in 1983.
Heim now works for Houston-based non-profit, Be An Angel, providing services to multiple disabled and profoundly deaf children.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. (Photo : Getty Images)
According to the White House, North Korea can now be considered a "strategic liability for China" after its capital, Pyongyang, conducted missile tests in the Japanese sea, NDTV.com reported.
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The U.S. government also warned that this could be a threat to the region's stability.
North Korea's "missile tests" were expected to become a prominent topic in the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in Florida.
"It is now quite clearly a strategic liability, and it is one that is having an impact on the region. It is one that has the potential to destabilize not only the peninsula but really the region as a whole," Matt Pottinger, Senior Director for Asia at the National Security Council at the White House, said during a press conference.
"In terms of an area of cooperation, of course, we would like to see China working closely with the United States to address the menace emanating from North Korea--their weapons programs, the provocations that we're seeing every week; missile launches, including one that we just had not too many hours ago," he further stated.
Pottinger also believes that "North Korea long ago ceased to be a strategic asset for China."
Susan Thornton, acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was also at the news conference.
According to her, the time for negotiating with North Korea is now over.
"Strategic patience has run out. This problem has really become very urgent, and it is, destabilizing to the entire region and actually further than the region now, reaches across the globe with the progress that North Korea is making in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile," Thornton shared.
The issue of taking action against North Korea has become an urgent matter for the U.S., she noted, adding that the American Ambassador to the United Nations "has convened a ministerial meeting in New York later this month to talk and galvanize a lot more support from our other partners and allies around the world."
The White House official told reporters that a "provocative" measure should now be done to "change the situation and get some results."
The U.S. hopes that China can be involved in this initiative.
"We'll certainly be talking to them about that in the next couple of days. We think they have a lot to contribute, and so we'll see where we get on that," she said.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pictured in Brussels on April 5, 2017
Russia slammed London on Sunday after British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow over its support for the Syrian regime, claiming Britain has "no real influence" internationally.
The cancellation "once again confirms doubts about the added value of dialogue with the British, who don't have their own position on the majority of current issues," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The British have "no real influence on the course of international affairs, remaining 'in the shadow' of their strategic partners," it added.
"We don't believe we need dialogue with London more than (London) needs it (with us)," it said.
The statement added there was a "fundamental misunderstanding or ignorance of what is happening in Syria and Russia's efforts to resolve the crisis."
Johnson announced Saturday he would not travel to Moscow next week, saying that "developments in Syria have changed the situation fundamentally".
"My priority is now to continue contact with the US and others in the run up to the G7 meeting on 10-11 April," he said.
"We deplore Russia's continued defence of the Assad regime even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians."
Johnson then called on Russia to do "everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated."
His decision came in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun on Tuesday that killed at least 86 people according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Bashar al-Assad over the incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.
Farmland pork products, a brand owned by Smithfield Foods Inc, on sale at a supermarket in China. (Photo : Getty Images News)
China's WH Group is preparing to build a second Smithfield-branded sausage plant in China in the next few years to satisfy the country's appetite for foreign pork products.
Smithfield is a U.S. brand of sausages, bacon and other packaged pork products that was brought to China by WH in 2013 for $4.7 billion.
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Using U.S. technology, unfreezing blocks of meat with industrial-strength microwaves unfreeze blocks of meat is achieved by WH in 20 minutes, which takes eight to 16 hours at other Chinese pork factories.
WH Group Zhengzhou plant is designed to be 18 degrees colder than other meat plants. Its ceilings are also one-third higher to help control condensation and limit the spread of bacteria.
The plant can manufacture over 90,000 kilograms of sausages, bacon and ham every day.
To help design its Zhengzhou plant, Smithfield sent its engineers, plant managers and food-safety officials from the U.S. to stay in China for months at a time, said Ken Sullivan, Smithfield's chief executive.
The facility utilizes only meat imported from Smithfield Foods Inc. in the U.S.
In January, WH Group's Smithfield unit purchased California-based pork processor Clougherty Packing LLC and two affiliates for $145 million. It was China's largest acquisition of a U.S. company at that period.
Wan Long, chairman of WH, noted that they have also adopted Smithfield's approach to food safety.
China accounts for almost half the world's pork consumption, and imports are surging as China's demand outstrips its supply of pork. In the past decade, U.S. pork exported to China has increased nearly 10-fold to 675,224 metric tons.
Chinese companies, after relying on partnerships with U.S. companies for transfer of technology, are now increasingly buying foreign technology outright as China attempts to transform from being export-dependent into one that is powered by research and innovation.
Companies from China spent a record $226 billion last year on assets abroad, including China National Chemical Corp.'s $43 billion agreement for Syngenta AG, a Swiss seed company.
Bank of China, which led a group of lenders in WH's $4 billion loan to purchase Smithfield, described the loan as its "social responsibility" to support Chinese companies that seek to expand overseas.
U.S. president Donald Trump, then the presidential frontrunner, criticized the deal by calling it "a rape of our country."
A painting of Jack Ma was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong. (Photo : Twitter)
The chief executive of Internet giant Alibaba, Jack Ma, was the inspiration for a portrait that sold for $414,000 at Sotheby's Hong Kong.
The artist behind the portrait, Jose-Maria Cano, made a series called Wall Street 100, and Jack Ma's portrait was one of the paintings. The portrait was made with encaustic or hot wax.
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The portrait was based on a picture originally printed in The Wall Street Journal. Cano's series focused on financial leaders who were featured in newspapers.
Cano's objective is to give a fresh perspective on the world's richest people.
Andy Warhol's iconic portrait of Mao Zedong was sold for $12.5 million. The amount is the highest paid painting in Asia for Western Art. The buyer was not disclosed.
Last year, Jack Ma himself sold a painting at Sotheby's which sold for $5.4 million. The amount was 17 times more than the estimated price.
Proceeds of the sale went to a charity to promote environmental preservation efforts.
Jack Ma's painting was done in collaboration with artist Zeng Fanzhi. The painting, entitled "Paradise," was sold to a Chinese businessman named Qian Fenglei.
Ma said, "That this is the first time I've painted, and to have been able to do it with Fanzhi-I am deeply honored; this is my first time to paint, and I feel very good. Together, we created an earth: to protect the earth, to protect the oceans, to protect the air, to protect water."
One of the richest men in China, Ma is a known environmentalist who has banned the sale of shark's fin on Alibaba.
He also bought 28,000 acres in New York's Adirondack Mountains for the sole purpose of conservation.
Zeng is one of China's famous artists who became more famous for his work "The Last Supper." His painting made a record sale of $23.3 million in 2013.
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(1) We will typically hold your name and contact details, including telephone number, location, and e-mail address. However, we may request other information where it is appropriate and relevant, for example:
Your bank details or debit/credit card details (if making a donation).
(2) any communication preferences you give;
(3) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views; and/or
(4) any other information shared with us as per clause 1.
Do we process sensitive personal information?
Applicable law recognises certain categories of personal information as sensitive and therefore requiring more protection, including political opinions and trade union membership. In limited cases, we may collect sensitive personal data about you. We would only collect sensitive personal data if there is a clear reason for doing so; and will only do so with your explicit consent.
How and why will we use your personal data?
Personal data, however provided to us, will be used for the purposes specified in this Policy or in relevant parts of the website.
We may use your personal information to:
(1) Enable you to subscribe to our hard copy publications;
(2) Send you information about our work, campaigns, organisations and any other information, products or services that we provide (this will not be done without your consent);
(3) Provide you with the services, products or information you have requested;
(4) If you request, put you in touch with other supporters in your area (who have also provided such consent);
(5) Handle the administration of any donation or other payment you make via credit/debit card, cheque, standing order or BACS transfer;
(6) Collect payments from you and send statements and/or receipts to you;
(7) Conduct research into the impact of our activity / campaigns;
(8) Deal with enquiries and complaints made by you relating to the website or us in general;
(9) Make petition submissions to third parties, where you have signed a petition and the third party is a target of the campaign to which the petition relates; and/or
(10) Audit and/or administer our accounts.
Supporter Analysis
Google Analytics
We may use some of your personal information to analyse our digital performance, for example to see how our website can be improved to help us achieve the purposes set out in section 9 below, to record how you are using our website or to assess the popularity of different articles / campaigns.
For more information on how we use your personal information in relation to Google Analytics, please view our cookie policy by clicking this link cookies policy
You can opt-out of the collection of information for such purposes here: http://www.aboutads.info/choices
Communications, updates, fundraising
Where you have provided appropriate consent, we will contact you by telephone and e-mail, with targeted communications to let you know about our events and/or activities that we consider may be of particular interest; about the work of In Defence of Marxism; and to ask for donations or other support.
Donations and other payments
All financial transactions carried out on our website are handled through either:
PayPal (Europe) S.a r.l. (PayPal), a third party payment services provider. We recommend that you read PayPals privacy policy (available at https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full?locale.x=en_GB ) prior to effecting any transactions with us through PayPal; or
GoCardless Ltd (GoCardless), a third party payment services provider. We recommend that you read GoCardlesss privacy policy (available at https://www.gocardless.com/legal/privacy) prior to effecting any transactions with us through GoCardless.
We will provide your personal data to PayPal / GoCardless only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments for transactions you enter into with us. We do not store your financial details.
Childrens data
We do not knowingly process data of any person under the age of 16. If we come to discover, or have reason to believe, that you are 15 and under and we are holding your personal information, we will delete that information within a reasonable period and withhold our services accordingly.
Security of and access to your personal data
We endeavour to ensure that there are appropriate and proportionate technical and organisational measures to prevent the loss, destruction, misuse, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or of access to your personal information.
Your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff and volunteers.
We may also use agencies and/or suppliers to process data on our behalf. We may also merge or partner with other organisations and in so doing transfer and/or acquire personal data.
Please note that some countries outside of the EEA have a lower standard of protection for personal data, including lower security requirements and fewer rights for individuals. We may transfer and/or store personal data collected from you to and/or at a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Such personal data may be processed by agencies and/or suppliers operating outside the EEA. If we transfer and/or store your personal data outside the EEA we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate measures to protect your personal data.
Otherwise than as set out in this Privacy Policy, we will only ever share your data with your informed consent.
Your rights
Where we rely on your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes or to be unsubscribed from our email list at any time. You also have the following rights:
(1) Right to be informed you have the right to be told how your personal information will be used. This Policy and any other policies and statements used on our website and in our communications are intended to provide you with a clear and transparent description of how your personal information may be used.
(2) Right of access you can write to us to ask for confirmation of what information we hold on you and to request a copy of that information. Provided we are satisfied that you are entitled to see the information requested and we have successfully confirmed your identity, we have 30 days to comply.
(3) Right of erasure as from 25 May 2018, you can ask us for your personal information to be deleted from our records.
(4) Right of rectification if you believe our records of your personal information are inaccurate, you have the right to ask for those records to be updated.
(5) Right to restrict processing you have the right to ask for processing of your personal data to be restricted if there is disagreement about its accuracy or legitimate usage.
(6) Right to data portability to the extent required by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) where we are processing your personal information (i) under your consent, (ii) because such processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contact or (iii) by automated means, you may ask us to provide it to you or another service provider in a machine-readable format.
To exercise these rights, please send a description of the personal information in question using the contact details in section 15 below. You can also unsubscribe from our email list by sending a blank email to news-unsubscribe@marxist.com
Where we consider that the information with which you have provided us does not enable us to identify the personal information in question, we reserve the right to ask for (i) personal identification and/or (ii) further information.
Lawful processing
We are required to have one or more lawful grounds to process your personal information. Only 4 of these are relevant to us:
Personal information is processed on the basis of a persons consent Personal information is processed on the basis of a contractual relationship Personal information is processed on the basis of legal obligations Personal information is processed on the basis of legitimate interests
(1) Consent
We will ask for your consent to use your information to send you electronic communications such as newsletters and and fundraising emails, and if you ever share sensitive personal information with us.
(2) Contractual relationships
Most of our interactions with supporters are voluntary and not contractual. However, sometimes it will be necessary to process personal information so that we can enter contractual relationships with people. For example, if you subscribe to one of our publications, or purchase merchandise online.
(3) Legal obligations
Sometimes we will be obliged to process your personal information due to legal obligations which are binding on us. We will only ever do so when strictly necessary.
(4) Legitimate interests
Applicable law allows personal information to be collected and used if it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate activities (as long as its use is fair, balanced and does not unduly impact individuals rights).
We will rely on this ground to process your personal data when it is not practical or appropriate to ask for consent.
Achieving our purposes
These include (but are not limited to) promoting socialist policies
Governance
Internal and external audit for financial or regulatory compliance purposes
Statutory reporting
Publicity and income generation
Conventional direct marketing and other forms of marketing, publicity or advertisement
Unsolicited messages, including campaigns, newsletters, and fundraising appeals
Analysis, targeting and segmentation to develop and promote or strategy and improve communication efficiency
Personalisation used to tailor and enhance your experience of our communications
Operational Management
Maintenance of suppression files
Processing for historical, scientific or statistical purpose
Purely administrative purposes
Responding to enquiries
Delivery of requested products or information
Communications designed to administer existing services including subscriptions, administration of petitions and financial transactions
Thank you communications and receipts
Maintaining a supporter database and suppression lists
Financial Management and control
Processing financial transactions and maintaining financial controls
Prevention of fraud, misuse of services, or money laundering
Enforcement of legal claims
Reporting criminal acts and compliance with law enforcement agencies
When we use your personal information, we will consider if it is fair and balanced to do so and if it is within your reasonable expectations. We will balance your rights and our legitimate interests to ensure that we use your personal information in ways that are not unduly intrusive or unfair in other ways.
Data retention
The length of time each category of data will be retained will vary depending on how long we need to process it for, the reason it was collected, and in line with any statutory requirements. After this point the data will either be deleted, or we may retain a secure anonymised record for research and analytical purposes.
In the event that you ask us to stop sending you direct marketing/fundraising/other electronic communications, we will keep your name on our internal suppression list to ensure that you are not contacted again.
Policy amendments
We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review and reserve the right to update from time-to-time by posting an updated version on our website, not least because of changes in applicable law. We recommend that you check this Privacy Policy occasionally to ensure you remain happy with it. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.
Third party websites
We link our website directly to other sites. This Privacy Policy does not cover external websites and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any external websites you visit via links on our website.
Updating information
You can check the personal data we hold about you, and ask us to update it where necessary, by emailing us at webmaster@marxist.com
Contact
We are not required by law to have a Data Protection Officer however we have a Data Protection Manager.
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
China's oil production capability has been insufficient in meeting the country's huge demand for the commodity. (Photo : Getty Images)
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the United States, China is currently the largest consumer of U.S. oil, a report from The Daily Caller News Foundation revealed.
The administration shared that China's purchase of larger amounts of oil is because of the huge increase in U.S. crude oil exports. In February, the export statistic jumped by 35 percent from the previous month.
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Since China experienced dramatic economic growth, it has also been acquiring a lot of oil. The article noted that the country's oil industry's production capabilities have long been insufficient to meet China's demand.
Nonetheless, according to Harry Kazianis, director of the Center for National Interest's defense studies, time is needed to see whether this trend of China being the largest consumer of U.S. oil could continue.
"While it might be impressive that China, at least for the moment, is the number one importer of U.S. oil, we need to wait and see if this trend continues. Geo-strategically, it makes sense for Beijing to buy up as much oil from as many different sources as possible, never being dependent on any one source," Kazianis remarked.
Back in 2013, China has already surpassed U.S. as the world's biggest net importer of petroleum.China surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest net importer of petroleum in 2013.
"The U.S. is a larger exporter of crude than many OPEC countries. That China is buying more means that the U.S. has become a larger player in the global crude export market, " John Auers, a vice president at an energy consulting company, shared.
Over the next few decades, analysts predict that China will be acquiring 70 percent of its oil from foreign sources.
Currently, 7 percent of China's oil imports come from Sudan, while around 33 percent are from sub-Saharan Africa.
"Considering the fact that China has very little oil of its own, they will likely buy from anyone, and that includes the U.S.-a competitor in the Asia-Pacific. Beijing buys oil from all over the planet, especially from African sources like Angola, which they have pumped billions of dollars into, to make sure they have strong access," Kazianis said.
However, Kazianis also remarked that "dependency would be something China would never allow."
"Over the long-term, I don't see China wanting to push imports of U.S. oil any further than they already are. Beijing would never want to be in a position that if it were to enter a crisis situation with Washington-think trade, the South China or Taiwan, that it would fear its dependence on oil could be used against them," he added.
But considering the trend, rising U.S. oil production could pave the way for heightened dependence. According to EIA forecast, oil production could reach nine million barrels a day this year.
Torey Krug
Boston Bruins defenseman Torey Krug (47) is congratulated after scoring a goal against the Nashville Predators during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
(Mark Zaleski)
With the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs only a few days away, the Boston Bruins' blue line has seen better days.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney announced Monday morning that the team will likely be without two of its starting defensemen for the start of the first-round series against the Ottawa Senators, as Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo are still sidelined with injuries.
Sweeney noted that Carlo is out for Game 1 of the series, while Krug is currently "unlikely" for Boston's postseason opener.
Sweeney said that Torey Krug is unlikely to play. Brandon Carlo is definitely out for Game 1. Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 10, 2017
Krug went down with a lower-body injury during Boston's 2-1 loss to the Senators on Thursday, as he appeared to collide awkwardly against the boards and exited early in the first period. Krug only logged 2:32 of ice time in the contest.
Krug has been a sparkplug for Boston on the blue line, leading all defensemen in scoring with 51 points (eight goals, 43 assists) over 81 games. The 25-year-old defenseman has been a key cog on Boston's power play, tallying 25 points on the man advantage this season.
Carlo was knocked out of Boston's regular-season finale against the Washington Capitals on Saturday, exiting in the first period after falling into the boards and taking a big hit from winger Alex Ovechkin.
Carlo, 20, has been a welcome addition to Boston's D corps, tallying 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) over 82 games while posting a plus-9 rating. Often paired alongside Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, Carlo has been a steady contributor all season long, averaging 20:49 of ice time on the year.
With the injuries to Krug and Carlo, Boston called up top prospect Charlie McAvoy, signing the playmaking defenseman to an entry-level contract Monday morning.
SPRINGFIELD -- As Springfield's Union Station nears the end of its $95-million rehabilitation, city officials and executives from Columbia Gas of Massachusetts on Monday celebrated the building's modern, fuel-efficient heating, ventilation and cooling system.
Columbia Gas rebated the city $18,050 for two energy efficient gas-fired boilers installed to save money and gas.
The new system, which costs just more than $300,000, will earn back the $18,000 in savings in just two years, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts President Stephen Bryant said during an announcement at the station.
Savings are expected to be more than $1 million over the life of the equipment.
The effort is part of a program similar to ones maintained by all investor-owned utilities in the state. The program collects money from ratepayers to create a pool of grant money offered to those willing to invest in energy-saving technology.
Bryant said a homeowner shopping for gas appliances can do the same thing the city did by going to www.masssave.com and looking at the rebates available for appliance and equipment purchases.
The Springfield Redevelopment Authority is also working with electricity utility Eversource on similar energy-saving efforts, said Springfield Chief Development Officer Kevin Kennedy.
"You have to understand that, for all the history, under the skin of this Union Station is a 21st-century building," he said.
Union Station will open to train and bus passengers, as well as office tenants and a few retail and food operations, in June. It's the first time in 40 years the entire station, built in 1926, will be occupied and put to use.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, thanked Columbia Gas for its efforts. He said natural gas is coming down in price and making America energy self-sufficient.
"Its putting coal on the sidelines," said Neal, a longtime backer of the Union Station.
Del Shirely, a plumber and pipefitter for Adams-based contractor Adams Plumbing and Heating, explained that he new system circulates water that is about 70 to 75 degrees year around, whether it is heating or cooling.
In winter, heat pumps make use of the warm water, returning it cooler to the boilers. In summer, the system uses a rooftop cooling tower to take heat off the water.
The boilers and pumps only run if needed.
Crews were still working Monday on pipes and pumps in the fifth-floor penthouse that handles the heating and cooling equipment as well as hot-water heaters that service the stations restrooms. that's a switch from old heating plants that were always in the basement and pumped the hot water up. Thios one lets the hot water fall.
Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor."
(AP file photo)
The parent company of Fox News will investigate charges of sexual harassment leveled against popular host Bill O'Reilly, the lawyer for one of his accusers revealed on Sunday.
Attorney Lisa Bloom, who is representing former "The O'Reilly Factor" contributor Wendy Walsh, said on CNN's "Reliable Sources" that she was told by 21st Century Fox's lawyers that they would launch an investigation based on Walsh's accusations.
"On Friday, we received a call from a couple of attorneys who represent Fox News and they said that they are, indeed, going to do an investigation based on Wendy's complaint," Bloom said. "I told them we really appreciate that and let's get going as soon as possible. And so I am told that they are taking it seriously and they are going to do the investigation that's legally required of them."
In July, the Murdoch family, owners of 21st Century, hired a New York law firm to probe whether longtime Fox News president Roger Ailes had sexually harassed former host Gretchen Carlson. As a result of the probe, Ailes was let go and Carlson received $20 million and a public apology from Fox News.
Nearly 50 advertisers have walked away from "The O'Reilly Factor" because of the controversy, according to Adweek, though his ratings have not suffered.
Fox News has not commented on a possible probe. The New York Times has reported O'Reilly and Fox News have paid out $13 million to settle cases against the conservative pundit.
O'Reilly told the newspaper he made the payments to "avoid negative publicity" for the sake of his children.
In the first quarter of 2017, "The O'Reilly Factor" logged the highest-rated quarter for any program in cable news history, with about 4 million nightly viewers, according to Forbes.
"The O'Reilly Factor" garnered an estimated $110.8 million in ad revenue in 2016, according to iSpot.tv analytics cited by Forbes. By comparison, MSNBC's biggest star, Rachel Maddow, brought in $20.7 million in advertising.
Gordon_Memorial_Chapel-Gordon_College_-Wikimedia Commons.JPG
(Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
All seven professors who made up the Faculty Senate at Gordon College resigned from their senator positions last Wednesday according to the school's student newspaper, The Tartan.
The professors' decisions came following a controversy following an alleged act of discrimination against a fellow professor by the school's administrators. The Boston Globe reports that Assistant Professor of Sociology Margaret DeWeese-Boyd accused the school's president and provost of denying her a promotion due to her criticism of the school's opposition to same-sex relationships. DeWeese-Boyd reportedly filed a formal complaint against the administrators to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
The small Christian school in Wenham has prompted criticism for its anti-gay policies in the past. The Chronicle reported in 2014 that the Gordon President D. Michael Lindsay joined religious leaders in signing a letter to the federal government that asked his school be exempt from a federal ban on anti-gay discrimination.
The school's website has a section dedicated to the topic: "An Explanation of Gordon College's Policy on Homosexuality." In the statement, the school asserts:
"In our life and conduct statement we affirm God's creation of marriage, first described in Genesis, as the intended lifelong one-flesh union of one man and one woman." The statement goes on to say all members of the Gordon community should refrain from sex "outside of the marriage covenant."
A spokesman told the Globe that Gordon strongly disagrees with DeWeese-Boyd's discrimination complaint. The faculty members did not reportedly announce DeWeese-Boyd's case specifically, but cited the president not listening to their input on faculty promotions.
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A UMass student was arrested Friday and charged with animal mistreatment after barking at the Amherst police dog Dash.
(Republican file Don Treeger)
AMHERST -- A 22-year-old Whitestone, New York man was arrested Friday morning after he allegedly swore at a police officer and barked at police dog Dash.
According police records, the incident began when Liam M. Tuohy, who is listed as a University of Massachusetts student, was walking by an officer conducting a motor vehicle stop.
Records state that Tuohy became hostile toward the officer, started swearing, and then began barking at Dash, who was in the officer's cruiser.
Dash became agitated, according to the report, and Tuohy allegedly continued barking.
Police charged him with mistreatment of a police dog and disorderly conduct. He pleaded not guilty in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown, according to the clerk's office.
The case was continued to May 4 for a motion hearing and May 26 for a pre-trial conference.
HAMDEN, Conn. Two men were shot as the result of a dispute near a pizzeria, the
Connecticut Post
reported.
Hamden police said one victim was found in the parking of Slyce Pizza on Arch Street at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday. The male victim had been shot and assaulted, and apparently struck by a car as well as it fled the scene.
A short time later a second victim was found on Pine Rock Avenue with a gunshot wound to the upper back. He was transported to a hospital with what police termed non-life threatening injuries.
After a short investigation, it was determined the second victim was shot as he, too, tried to flee the scene in his car.
The motive for the shooting has not been determined, police said.
Alibaba is the largest cloud provider in China. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is joining Microsoft's Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) community, a report from VentureBeat.com stated.
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The announcement was made during the Open Networking Summit Conference held on April 3 in Santa Clara, California.
First introduced in 2016, SONiC is a Linux-based open source software that allows public cloud providers to optimize their hardware. The initiative, originally known as Azure Cloud Switch, was Microsoft's contribution to the Open Compute Project helmed by Facebook, Inc.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president for Azure networking, shared that Alibaba is now "exploring how it could SONiC to support the development of its own infrastructure."
Alibaba is currently the largest cloud provider in China. The firm is also set to contribute to the development of the software through the partnership.
Microsoft taps SONiC as a way to set foot on public cloud environments. However, clients and companies can still experiment with the core open source software available on GitHub, an online-based version control repository and Internet hosting service provider.
Khalidi revealed that Web and mobile apps based on Microsoft's SONiC-based infrastructure have the capacity to recover more quickly during downtime.
The Azure official also noted that the firm built SONiC based on Linux because of its "community effect." This move is deemed significant for Microsoft, who has a legacy of commercializing Windows, because Linux is widely and particularly used on public servers.
In Azure, over 33 percent of their virtual machines are being run using Linux.
HP-backed OpenSwitch and startup Cumulus' Linux Distribution can also be used for building open source software that run on networking switches.
Meanwhile, other firms that provide public cloud infrastructure include Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services.
Nonetheless, Khalidi shared he is not sure if these providers have used SONiC.
HOLYOKE -- Computer coding is the name for how humans get computers to do what they want them to do, and more Holyoke public school students this year are keying into the ciphers.
"The seventh-grade students showed such engagement and ownership of their learning last year that we had to find a way to continue and expand this program," said Tonya Claiborne, Holyoke public schools STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) director.
Students are learning about not only coding computers but robotics, instilling confidence and exposing them to possible career fields, a press release said.
Such programs are being held at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, a research facility whose partners are universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, private businesses and the state, downtown on Bigelow Street.
The computing center has provided laptops, tablets, and robotics kits through a grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the press release said.
The program is part of Holyoke Codes, which is a group that includes the computing center, Girls Inc. of Holyoke, Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education, New England Regional Developers and Sweet and Fizzy. The latter is a company that begin in San Francisco in 2002 to help companies adapt technology for projects, its website said. Holyoke Codes works to provide hands-on experiences for children and families in coding, robotics and technology.
"I am so pleased we are able to collaborate with Holyoke Codes and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center to offer every seventh- and eighth-grade student in our district the opportunity to participate in these rich coding and robotics experiences," Claiborne said.
Students have explored computer coding and robotics by working on projects such as WeDo Robotics, Coding with Scratch, Mobile App Development, Minecraft for Education, Mars Exploration Mission, SumoBot Challenge, Build a DanceBot! and Code a DanceBot!, the press release said.
The $165 million computing center opened on Nov. 16, 2012 between Appleton and Cabot streets on a site previously occupied by an industrial fabric manufacturer. The partners are Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, Northeastern University, EMC Corp., of Hopkinton, an information storage, back-up and recovery firm, and Cisco Systems Inc., a California-based internet network equipment maker.
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(Courtesy NorthEast Fire Alerts Facebook page)
A five-alarm fire destroyed several buildings in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire overnight on Monday.
Posted by AJ St Hilaire on Sunday, April 9, 2017
Media reports say at least two buildings have collapsed in the area including the State Street Saloon, where the fire is believed to have started. The Portsmouth Fire Department initially reported a building fire on Pleasant Street around 12:30 a.m. Earlier this morning, the city's police department said heavy smoke was pouring out of the State Street Saloon.
Owner of a popular restaurant in Portsmouth New Hampshire destroyed by fire plans to rebuild. pic.twitter.com/xE8vvnTJGN Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) April 10, 2017
It is unclear what caused the fire, but reports say no one was injured. Police ask that the area be avoided this morning as crews continue to battle the smoke and flames.
Portsmouth, NH 5th Alarm Video: NEFA51 Posted by NorthEast Fire Alerts on Monday, April 10, 2017
This is a developing story.
James Lombardi.jpg
James Lombardi is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Fall River woman Krystal Boswell.
(Cranston, Rhode Island, police)
A Cranston, Rhode Island, man accused of killing and burying a missing Massachusetts woman was held without bail on Monday morning as the woman's mother cried out in the courtroom.
James Lombardi, 32, is accused of murdering Krystal Boswell, 29, of Fall River, who was reported missing on April 1. She reportedly went to see a man named "Jimmy" with a Rhode Island phone number, according to Cranston, Rhode Island, police.
On April 5, police received an anonymous phone call from someone who said a James Lombardi had murdered a missing Fall River woman and buried her behind a vacant house being renovated in Cranston.
Cranston police said detectives went to a vacant home being renovated at 9 Preston Ave. Police learned that someone named James Lombardi had been working at the residence and knew Boswell. There was also a report that Lombardi was at the rear of the property on April 2 digging a hole.
While searching the area on April 5, officers discovered Boswell's body buried several feet below the ground, Cranston police said in a statement.
Lombardi is charged with first-degree murder.
At his arraignment in Warwick District Court, Lombardi was ordered held without bail by Judge Mary McCaffrey, according to The Providence Journal.
Boswell's mother, Judy Boswell, shouted "That was my daughter, you [expletive]!" at a handcuffed James Lombardi as he was led away, the newspaper reported.
As Lombardi was escorted out of court, Krystal Boswell's mother shouted, "That was my daughter you piece of sh**!" @ABC6 Bianca Buono (@BiancaBuono) April 10, 2017
The Rhode Island State Medical Examiner's Office determined that Boswell's death was a homicide by blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.
"The loss of this young woman is tragic," Cranston Police Colonel Winquist said in the statement. "On behalf of the men and women of the Cranston Police Department, we offer our sincerest condolences to Ms. Boswell's entire family and her friends."
Police received search warrants for 9 Preston Ave. and Lombardi's residence at 45 Wakefield Ave. in Cranston.
Jury deliberations could begin as soon as today in the case of a Boston man accused of gunning down his own brother in 2000, reports the Associated Press.
Prosecutors on Friday finished making their case against Timi Wallace in Suffolk Superior Court, where closing arguments were expected to come Monday.
Wallace, 46, and one brother, Nickoyan Wallace, 42, both allegedly shot a third brother multiple times in a March 2000 disagreement over drugs on Levant Street.
The third brother, Tasfa Wallace, died of his injuries.
Months later, in September 2000, the surviving Wallace brothers robbed a Providence, R.I., gun store at gunpoint. Police captured Nickoyan Wallace in the aftermath but the older Wallace escaped and was not apprehended until 2004.
Suffolk prosecutors failed to bring a murder case against Nickoyan Wallace, who was imprisoned in Rhode Island, until 2009, when they notifyied federal officials they were going to try the Wallace brothers in state court.
The Supreme Judicial Court threw out the murder case against Nickoyan Wallace because it had not been filed within seven years of the crime. He is eligible for release in 2019.
The case against Timi Wallace -- also presently serving time on an armed robbery charge -- stuck because he was a fugitive for four years.
MANSFIELD - A man was killed in a car fire at an I-95 rest area on Sunday afternoon, and investigators are working to determine the cause.
At 3:45 p.m., 911 callers reported the fire at the northbound rest area prior to Route 495. The North Attleboro Fire Department responded along with state police troopers.
The victim was pulled out by bystanders and pronounced dead at the scene, according to Massachusetts State Police.
His name is not being released yet.
This is a developing story. Stay with The Republican/MassLive for more information as it becomes available.
NORTHAMPTON -- A 30-year-old Athol man is slated to be arraigned in Hampshire Superior Court Monday on a count of murder in connection with the death of a 10-year-old boy nearly four years ago.
A Franklin County Grand Jury indicted Christopher Vinsant Friday on a count of murder pertaining to the July 10, 2013 of Isaiah Buckner, also of Athol.
Buckner was in Vinsant's care, when he was rushed to the hospital with abdominal trauma, from which he later died. Mary Carey, a spokeswoman for the Northwestern District Attorney's office, said.
.It is unclear what the relationship between Vinsant and Buckner was, or how Buckner came to suffer the injuries that he did.
It was previously known that Buckner's death was the result of neglect and domestic abuse, and the Department of Children and Families spent time investigating his death but the case went "unsolved" for years.
No further information has been given out by authorities regarding the case.
The case was investigated by Athol Police and Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office.
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Pemberton requested a reversal of the guilty verdict, but the plea was struck down in the Court of Appeals in Manila Monday, the Associated Press reported.
(Associated Press)
A Philippines appeals court upheld a decision Monday to keep Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton in jail for the murder of Jennifer Laude, a transgender Filipino woman, and ordered him to pay her heirs more than $90,000 in compensation.
Pemberton, 21, of New Bedford, was charged with homicide in the death of Laude in 2015 and was ordered to spend 10 years in jail. He is currently being detained at Camp Aguinaldo.
He requested a reversal of the guilty verdict, but the plea was struck down in the Court of Appeals in Manila Monday, the Associated Press reported.
Pemberton met Laude at a bar while he was deployed in the Philippines in 2014 and took her back to his hotel room.
Laude was performing a sexual act on Pemberton when he discovered she was transgender. Pemberton pushed Laude, causing her to slap him in retaliation, according to the International Business Times.
The fight escalated, with Pemberton eventually choking Laude until she became unconscious. Pemberton argued in court that he dragged Laude to the toilet to revive her with water, but prosecutors said Pemberton drowned her to death.
On Monday, the Court of Appeals increased the civil indemnity and moral damages to be paid to Laude's family.
Pemberton now owes close to $100,000 to the family.
Terracotta Warriors Exhibit Will Open in Seattle for the First Time
Considered as one of Chinas greatest treasures, the terracotta warriors would not have been discovered if not for two farmers who found terracotta pottery in a site outside Xian. (Photo : Getty Images)
Widely regarded as one of the worlds biggest and grandest archaeological finds, the terracotta warriors of Emperor Qin have found their way to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, according to an article by SeattlePi.com.
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The exhibit, titled the Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor, will allow Seattle locals to catch a glimpse of the life-sized warriors with their horses, along with the technology used to create the statues.
Its not just a collection of artifacts and history, its a collection of questions, Mona Lee Locke, co-chair of the exhibit and former First Lady of Washington state, told the media during a preview of the exhibit last Thursday, April 6.
Considered as one of Chinas greatest treasures, the terracotta warriors would not have been discovered if not for two farmers who found terracotta pottery in a site outside Xian.
The farmers took the pottery to local scientists, who then estimated the artifacts to be over 2,000 years old. Intrigued, they went back to the site to excavate until the terracotta army and their retinues were discovered in a burial site.
The terracotta warriors were made to protect the burial tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.
Aside from seeing the life-sized warriors up close, visitors at the exhibit will also get the chance to take a look at the extraordinary technology used to create the artifacts. Guests are also invited to participate in interactive parts of the exhibit, where visitors will piece stacks together to create a warrior.
The science behind these terracotta warriors, thousands of years ago, is really breathtaking, Locke said.
The media preview of the exhibit coincides with President Xi Jinpings ongoing meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump. As for the public, the exhibit will officially open on Saturday, April 8, and will run through Sept. 4.
SPRINGFIELD -- A Hartford man who fired a gun during a confrontation with a Massachusetts state trooper last year will be deported to Sierra Leone after serving eight to 10 years in state prison.
A jury on Friday convicted Mohamed Fofanah, 36, of assault with a dangerous weapon and several gun and motor vehicle charges.
Hampden Superior Court Judge John S. Ferrara on Monday sentenced Fofanah to a total of eight to 10 years in prison. The judge said he had been made aware that after completing his sentence Fofanah, who is living in the United States illegally, will be deported to Sierra Leone.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Schmidt asked for a prison sentence of 11 to 12 years, while defense lawyer Andrew M. Klyman asked for a five-year sentence.
Trooper David Stucenski -- the victim in the case, who testified that Fofanah fired a shot at him in the early morning hours of April 30, 2016 in the city's South End -- was in the courtroom for the sentencing with his wife. Five state troopers in uniform also attended the sentencing.
The confrontation occurred after Stucenski responded to a 911 call reporting a motorist who crashed into several vehicles and then abandoned his own car on West Columbus Avenue.
Schmidt said he knew Klyman, the defense attorney, had submitted a sentencing report detailing difficulties in Fofanah's life.
But, citing Fofanah's past record, Schmidt said: "The time for sympathy has really passed for this defendant."
Fofanah squandered his chance for a fresh start in the United States, the prosecutor argued, noting that the defendant was smoking PCP and drinking alcohol on the night of the incident.
"Plenty of other people who have difficult lives don't resort to this type of behavior," Schmidt said, adding: "There's no question Trooper Stucenski feared for his life that night."
Klyman said Fofanah grew up in war-torn Sierra Leone, never knowing if he would be injured or killed. After arriving in the United States, Klyman said, Fofanah came to this country he was robbed at gunpoint several times.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours before retuning the guilty findings on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license (subsequent offense), carrying a loaded firearm, possessing a firearm with a defaced serial number, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of a property damage accident.
Jurors acquitted Fofanah of armed assault with intent to murder, and on two other counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. He was accused of pointing a gun at two civilians following him in a car after they witnessed an accident involving Fofanah's car.
Stucenski said Fofanah was 15 to 20 feet away when he fired the gun and missed.
Jurors also acquitted Fofanah on a charge of mistreating or interfering with a police dog. Stucenski testified that Fofanah punched Frankie with a close fist and choked the dog during the struggle. Fofanah was treated for bite wounds.
Ferrara sentenced Fofanah to five to seven years in state prison on one gun count. On the assault with a dangerous weapon charge, Ferrara gave Fofanah a three-year sentence, to begin after the first sentence is complete.
Fofanah was sentenced on the illegal gun charge as a subsequent offender, carrying a five-year mandatory minimum sentence. Schmidt cited a past Connecticut offense of criminal possession of a firearm.
State police said at the time of Fofanah's arrest that he was a "deportable felon," based on felony offenses committed in Connecticut. As a result of his arrest in Springfield, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was contacted and has filed a detainer against him.
At the time of his arrest, Fofanah was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, and had previously been identified by ICE for deportation.
New Hampshire State Police arrested a Massachusetts man Sunday after he was allegedly caught travelling 109 mph in a 65 mph speed zone on Interstate 95 in Hampton.
According to NH1.com, Ramone Savoury, 26, of Edgartown, was discovered speeding by a state police aircraft monitoring the highway during the Drive to Save Lives campaign.
The Drive to Save Lives initiative is meant to encourage police to take an aggressive, data-driven approach to reducing serious accidents and prevent distracted driving, specifically on I-95.
As soon as Savoury's speed was picked up by the aircraft, the pilot radioed to troopers on the ground. Savoury was stopped after crossing the path of the ground troopers, NH1 reports.
Savoury told police that he was speeding in order to get a client to a location. He was arrested and charged with reckless driving, NH1 reports.
He will return to court on June 15.
The WEF report stated that in 2016, China received approximately 57 million tourists. (Photo : Getty Images)
China is increasingly competitive in global tourism as the country moves up two spots in the global ranking released by the World Economic Forum on Thursday, April 6, according to an article by Xinhua News Agency.
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In the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, China ranked 15 among 136 countries in 14 dimensions. To rank the countries, the World Economic Forum took into consideration the sustainable economic and societal benefits countries are able to deliver through the tourism industry.
Unsurprisingly, Spain, Germany and France bagged the top spots.
The World Economic Forum also ranked the most improved countries in global tourism competitiveness, with 12 out of 15 being emerging Asian markets.
The rise of Asias giants show that the Asian Tourism Century is becoming a reality, Tiffany Misrahi, WEFs community lead of the aviation, travel and tourism industries, told Xinhua.
The WEF report stated that in 2016, China received approximately 57 million tourists. This accounts for over 20 percent of the total global arrivals in the Asian continent. When it comes to tourist departures, China came out as a large source market in Asia.
China still has a long way to go, however, as only 5 percent of the Chinese population are passport holders, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Chinas high ranking is not only evidence of its global competitiveness, but also its increasing international openness, readiness in communications technology, and improved information. China has also made more investments to improve its the countrys tourist service infrastructure.
Additionally, Chinas renewed focus on its travel and tourism industry has helped the nation advance two spots in the global rankings.
If China wants to see itself move higher, the WEF laid out a couple of suggestions, including the development of smaller cities to accommodate tourists, improving the countrys environmental sustainability, and making the local market more attractive for business.
In recent years, UMs budget has taken hits since enrollment has fallen, and some students and faculty have denounced departmental cuts and warned against them. But actual cuts arent the only problem.
Departments that have long been acclaimed are feeling the consequences of losses from attrition and a freeze that requires the UM presidents approval on any new hires.
KEILA SZPALLER [email protected]
Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/budget-trouble-at-the-university-of-montana-has-long-term/article_7d78c21d-c597-568f-88f4-157ee3c6815c.html
Two generations ago, they were often written off as a bunch of hippies making backpacks and climbing gear for niche markets. But in recent decades, companies such as Patagonia and REI have become consumer powerhouses and political players, increasingly eager to influence decisions over public lands.
A sign of that clout came this year, when the outdoor industry decided to pull its twice-yearly trade show from Salt Lake City, where it been based since 1996. The shows injected tens of millions of dollars into the Utah economy, but industry leaders decided to pull out after Gov. Gary Herbert and other Utah Republicans started lobbying President Donald Trump to roll back the Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.35-million-acre conservation area in southern Utah that Native Americans and environmentalists have championed for years.
STUART LEAVENWORTH McClatchy Washington Bureau
Full Story: http://missoulian.com/business/outdoors-companies-mobilize-hikers-in-multimillion-dollar-battle-over-public/article_6db2efd6-26fd-5701-aaaa-0573781b3310.html
Montana offers a variety of opportunities to help you make a difference in your community and further your career. We offer competitive benefits, work-life balance, and family friendly policies. As a service-oriented employer, we seek employees with a passion for customer service. Explore the links below to apply for a state job or learn more about our career opportunities and the benefits of working for the state.
All Careers: http://statecareers.mt.gov/
The Tea Drunk harvests tea from mountains in China. (Photo : Getty Images)
Despite originating in the eighth century, an ancient tea-drinking culture is making its way in the present day, in a sit-down cafe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a report from China Daily recounts.
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Visitors flock to the Tea Drunk at the Met which is located on a second-floor balcony that is overlooking the museums Great Hall. The cafe is also surrounded by antique Asian ceramics in long wall cases.
"Visitors can enjoy the opportunity to sit and relax for a while, adjacent to the tables are beautiful works of Chinese and East Asian ceramics. We think this adds to the visitors experience," says Mike Hearn, chairman of the Asian art department at the Met.
We felt that being in the Asian galleries, it's very appropriate for the Metropolitan Museum to offer authentic tea next to authentic works of art," he adds.
Authentic Chinese tea served every day
According to Hearn, the balcony is often the site of cocktails and exquisite food every Friday and Saturday evening. However, the cafe is trying out a new tactic of having Chinese-style tea served during the open hours, every day of the week.
Harvested from renowned tea-growing mountains in China, the cafe aims to continuously serve authentic Chinese tea to its growing number of customers.
"At Tea Drunk basically we specialize in traditional Chinese tea, so we don't have anything novel or flavored, it's all just tea that comes from the actual tea plant," says founder, Teng Shunan, who is an avid tea enthusiast.
Realizing that there was no single place in New York offering an authentic Chinese tea experience, Teng set out to change that and established the cafe in 2013.
"Tea is a perfect vehicle for someone to really get to know about Chinese culture because it's related to taste and taste is universal," she says. "You do not need to know a lot about Chinese culture in order to appreciate tea."
Trumps Meeting with Xi: What's the Impact on Google and Other US Tech Giants?
Xi-Trump Meeting in Florida (Photo : Getty Images)
U.S. tech giants, such as Google, are anticipating the outcome of the Florida meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump held in Mar-a-Lago on April 5 to 6, TheStreet.com reported.
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According to a senior Chinese official, if the Xi-Trump meeting does not succeed, Google may find it difficult to re-enter the Chinese market.
Although Google ceased its operation in China in 2010 after a disagreement with the Chinese government over censorship policies, it is now working to unblock the business in the country.
"China's relationship [with Google] is improving, and both sides' leaders have met on several different occasions," senior parliamentarian Liu Binjie said.
Liu, however, said that Google's return to China would still depend on the Chinese-U.S. relations, considering that Trump had said severe things about China several times, especially its trade policy.
Prior to the talks, Trump had tweeted that the meeting will be a "very difficult" one, as he had believed that the trade deficits and job losses that the U.S. incurred were due to its trade relations with China.
Predictions
Pete Cohn, an analyst for Height Securities said that the U.S. is open to China and it is willing to buy Chinese products. As China became an export-driven economy, many countries, including the U.S., have been interested in making a presence in the Chinese market.
Cohn said that the two countries may discuss the rebalancing of their trade relationship. This means China may have to open its markets more and lift the block on U.S. exports to allow U.S. goods in its market.
The analyst also predicted that Xi will most likely work out to open its market to U.S. goods.
"This is really an opportunity for the two leaders to exchange views on each other's respective priorities and to chart a way forward for the U.S.-China bilateral relationship . . . President Trump really views this meeting as a first step toward building a constructive and a results-oriented relationship that's going to deliver benefits to both countries," a White House official said in a press briefing on Wednesday, April 5.
It is also expected that the meeting will touch on the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), in reviewing foreign takeovers, which Trump may use as a bargaining tool.
According to Cohn, Trump may ask Xi to accommodate U.S. companies that wanted to expand in China if he wants Chinese companies to buy more U.S. companies and assets.
Currently, there are deals pending with CFIUS, which include the acquisition of Lattice Semiconductors (LSCC) by Canyon Bridge, the Stillwater Mining (SWC)-Sibanye Gold acquisition and Ant Financial's acquisition of MoneyGram (MGI), among others.
Repercussions
U.S. tech companies have closely monitored the meeting as they are concerned about whether Trump would make good on his threat to impose a 45 percent tariff on all Chinese goods, which would impact not only on China but also on their ability to gain share in the Chinese market.
"There's a lot at stake for tech companies," Daniel J. Ikenson, director of Cato's Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, said. "If bad blood comes between the two leaders, then the way a proxy war would be handled would be to go after the other country's most important companies by reducing access to important markets."
According to Ikenson, the U.S. tech companies that may be affected most by hostility with China are big companies such as Alphabet's Google, Cisco, Intel, Oracle, Tesla, Western Digital and Nvidia because they have the most to lose from damaged relations between the countries.
Conversely, if the China-U.S. relation warms up, Alibaba could do more in the U.S. markets, competing more with its rival Amazon, Ikenson said.
The U.S. chip sector is also worried about the trade tariff as more than three-quarters of its exports are sent to Asia. SEMI senior director of North American public policy Jamie Girard said that SEMI, which has 2,000 member companies in the semiconductor sector and other related industries, is "very concerned about the tone on trade seen during the election and from the new administration in the past few months."
In addition to this, tech companies are also anticipating the Trump administration to push for the protection of intellectual property rights as this would prevent their products from being pirated and sold at lower cost in China.
Another issue that tech companies expect to be discussed during the meeting is the new cybersecurity law that China has passed, which will take effect in June. This will require U.S. tech companies to provide the Chinese government with proprietary source code on their products to ensure that they cannot be breached or hacked.
A worker assembles a Hyundai vehicle. (Photo : Getty Images News)
South Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia recorded significant drops in China sales last month as economic retaliation over THAAD deployment intensified.
In its April 4 report, Hyundai Motors revealed that it only sold 56,026 automobiles in the Chinese market last month, a 44.3 percent drop from the previous month's sales.
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Meanwhile, Kia Motors reported sales of only 16,006 vehicles last month, a 68 percent decrease.
Together, the two companies sold 72,032 vehicles last month, which is a dip of 52.2 percent from the same period last year.
While China has not implemented an official campaign to boycott Hyundai and Kia, there had been predictions that the automobile sector would suffer due to the THAAD deployment.
Because of the THAAD deployment, Chinese citizens are angry at South Koreans for being "traitors."
The Chinese website Sohu Auto declared that "true patriotism means supporting Chinese products" and not necessarily boycotting South Korean cars. It also claimed that their local products are now more cost-effective than those from South Korea. It added that six of the top 10 sport utility vehicles sold in China last year were locally made.
Hyundai is about to complete the construction of a fifth factory in the city of Chongqing in China and is worried that the situation might prevent it from finishing the construction and cut production at its other factories.
The company suspended operations between March 24 and April 4 at its Changzhou plant, which produces 300,000 vehicles per year, for what it termed as an "ordinary production line review."
In its Beijing factory, Hyundai temporarily halted nighttime assembly late last month. Observers noted that Hyundai needed to adjust its production due to the drop in Chinese sales.
Hyundai has seven factories in China and has been planning to accelerate its market strategy once the new Chongqing factory starts operating in August.
Meanwhile, Kia, which has three factories in Yancheng, suspended operations for a week in all three.
The Hyundai Group had previously feared the anti-Korean sentiment but figured since its Beijing Hyundai Motors is a joint venture with China, the latter would not do anything that stood to hurt itself.
Dongfeng Yueda Kia is also a joint venture.
Foshan's Growth (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese cities may be able to maximize their growth if the government would manage rapid urbanization well, experts said in an article on todayonline.com.
The government must move quickly to cool China's property market to prevent a housing bubble and manage the development in the urban areas, according to Andrew Sheng, a professor at the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong and member of the UNEP Advisory Council on Sustainable Finance, and Xiao Geng, president of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance and a professor at the University of Hong Kong.
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This move does not only concern first-tier cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen, where prices of residential homes have been under control, but other cities as well.
According to the two experts, authorities must look for a long-term solution to solve problems such as the lack of residential property while the demand is high.
They also urged the government to determine the proper balance between control and the market conditions, to properly guide and manage urbanization across the country.
The experts said that the pressure of rapid urbanization affects the top 100 of the 600 Chinese cities, where 714.3 million people lived. About 52.8 percent of the total population of Chinese people live in cities and they produced about 75.7 percent of the country's GDP in 2016.
Six of these 100 cities have posted a GDP growth of more than 10 percent last year, compared with the county's average of 6.7 percent. Some 82 of them also posted a GDP growth between 6.7 percent and 10 percent, which grew by about 6.7 percent or less.
From only 16 cities four years ago, there are now 33 cities with per capita GDP higher than $12,475, which are considered high-income status by World Bank standards.
Foshan's growth as an example
The two experts cited Foshan's growth, which evolved from a rural county into one of the dynamic cities of the country. Its per capita income reached $17,202 in 2016, compared with Beijing's $16,624 and Shanghai's $16,251.
While other cities are worrying about excessive debt, Foshan's loan-to-GDP ratio in 2011 was only 85 percent, lower than the national average of 121 percent.
The city's GDP growth, one of the fastest in the country, may be attributed to the active participation of its private sector which thrives by self-financing and not using debt. The city's fixed investment, which accounts for about 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP, was financed by the private sector.
Foshan's development strategy was anchored on placing the city within the supply chain of the Pearl River Delta. It has also developed its skills and capacity to become the largest lighting and furniture market in the world.
It has more than 30 specialized sectors made up of several small- and medium enterprises and private firms.
In the early 1980s, Foshan was among the first municipal government to establish enterprises in township and villages, and also first to try privatization. To promote private enterprise, the city supported skills training and built important infrastructure.
According to the experts, Foshan is proof that each city has a unique capacity to support growth by encouraging competition, innovation and upgrading of industries while tackling other social challenges posed by urbanization.
Oregon State University researchers have devised a way of sneaking a cancer drug vinblastine into solid tumors that would otherwise not be very welcoming of it. The investigators used prodrug vinblastine-N-oxide, known in a low oxygen environments within the body, such as those within solid tumors, to turn into vinblastine. It was developed by Cascade Prodrug, a company based in Eugene, Oregon. The researchers loaded this prodrug into liposomes, vesicles made of lipids, and delivered it into animals with non-small cell lung cancer. Normally the body washes out the prodrug out of itself before it has time to act, but the liposomes are intended to prevent that. The result was that the prodrug was much better at penetrating tumors and being activated to kill nearby cells than when injected without liposome shells.
More details from Oregon State:
We made sure the nanostructure platform worked properly against lung cancer in vitro, then looked at the safety of the formulation in healthy mice and looked at the maximum tolerated dose the biggest dose you can use without producing side effects, [Adam Alani of the OSU College of Pharmacy] said. Then we determined how long the nano carriers could keep the drug in the blood compared to the drug without the nanostructures. When those data were very encouraging, Alanis team assessed the efficacy of the formulations in mice that had tumors grafted into them. Without any liposome, the drug showed some tumor suppression, but the mice that had received the drug alone had to be euthanized after 70 days because of tumors that were no longer being controlled. Mice that had received the drug with one of the liposomes were healthy and tumor-free for the nearly 100-day run of the experiment.
Study in Journal of Controlled Release: Characterization of pegylated and non-pegylated liposomal formulation for the delivery of hypoxia activated vinblastine-N-oxide for the treatment of solid tumors
Via: Oregon State
Image: Non-small cell lung cancer in a 54-year-old woman. Credit: Naturopathic Doctor News and Review
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New research suggests that a sedative commonly prescribed to Alzheimers patients may significantly increase their risk of developing pneumonia.
Share on Pinterest A new study suggests that prescribing sedatives to people with Alzheimers disease may increase their risk of pneumonia.
Dementia is a neurological condition that progressively impairs a persons cognitive abilities. More specifically, the term dementia is used to describe a group of symptoms that affect a persons memory, thinking, orientation, language, and decision-making.
Alzheimers disease is the most prevalent form of dementia, affecting more than 5.5 million people in the United States and accounting for 60 to 70 percent of all dementia cases worldwide. Other forms of dementia include vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and various forms of frontotemporal dementia.
Some studies have suggested that dementia is also a risk factor for pneumonia and pneumonia-related death. Additionally, most patients with dementia are prescribed sedatives such as benzodiazepines, and former research has indicated a link between use of the common sedative and pneumonia risk.
In this context, a team of researchers from the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) in Kuopio, Finland, set out to examine if there was indeed a link between benzodiazepine use and pneumonia in patients with Alzheimers disease.
The researchers examined data from 49,484 participants with Alzheimers disease from the national registries of the Medication use and Alzheimers disease, or MEDALZ, cohort. The registries included data on prescriptions, hospital discharges, and causes of death.
The studys first author is Dr. Heidi Taipale, of the UEFs Kuopio Research Centre of Geriatric Care, and the findings were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
New research indicates that measuring ammonium excretion in the urine may be help identify patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who face serious health risks. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
Keeping the body's pH level in balance is important for normal organ function. Doctors commonly assess whether a patient's body fluids contain too much acid, a condition called acidosis, by measuring bicarbonate levels in the blood. This can indicate whether the body is having trouble maintaining its acid-base balance, but it may reveal only part of the picture because the kidneys are important for eliminating acid in the urine.
Kalani Raphael, MD (University of Utah) and his colleagues looked to see if urine levels of ammonium may be a better indicator of acid accumulation in the body. Their analysis included 1044 individuals with CKD in the African American Study of Kidney Diseases and Hypertension.
The researchers found that low urine ammonium excretion predicted kidney failure or death in CKD patients irrespective of serum bicarbonate concentration. Compared with participants with the highest levels of daily ammonium excretion, those with the lowest levels had a 46% higher risk of dying or needing dialysis, and those with intermediate levels had a 14% higher risk. Low ammonium excretion predicted these outcomes even in patients who had normal serum bicarbonate. In addition, those with low ammonium excretion had a 2.6-fold higher risk of developing acidosis within one year.
"These results suggest that low urine ammonium excretion identifies individuals at high risk of CKD progression or death irrespective of the serum bicarbonate concentration," said Dr. Raphael. "Overall, acid levels in the urine provide important information about kidney health above and beyond acid measurements obtained from the blood." The findings also suggest that CKD patients with low urine ammonium excretion might benefit from alkali before overt acidosis develops. Additional research is needed to test this.
Article: Urine Ammonium Predicts Clinical Outcomes in Hypertensive Kidney Disease, Kalani L. Raphael, David J. Carroll, Jennifer Murray, Tom Greene and Srinivasan Beddhu, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, doi: 10.1681/ASN.2016101151, published 6 April 2017.
After undergoing surgery, elderly patients often experience cloudy thinking that can last for weeks or even months. At one time researchers thought this cognitive decline might be caused by anesthesia, but mounting evidence suggests that heightened inflammation in the brain following surgery is the more likely cause.
Now a new study in mice by UC San Francisco researchers suggests that brain inflammation and cognitive decline following surgery are triggered by the brain's own specialized immune cells, called microglia. Mice given an experimental oral drug that temporarily depletes microglia ahead of an operation were much less likely to fail memory tests several days after surgery, the UCSF team found, suggesting a possible new approach to preventing the condition in humans.
The study, published in JCI Insight, an online, open-access companion publication to the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was led by collaborators Suneil Koliwad, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, and Mervyn Maze, MD, professor of anesthesia and perioperative care at UCSF. Koliwad has been studying microglia for several years, and Maze developed the mouse model that was used to investigate cognitive effects of surgery.
"There is an impact on memory in the mouse model that mirrors what has been observed in studies of post-surgical cognitive impairment in humans, and we can mitigate it with treatment that we think is not harmful to the animal," said Koliwad, who holds the Gerold Grodsky, PhD/JAB Chair in Diabetes Research at the UCSF Diabetes Center. "When we depleted microglia before surgery, the mice remembered much better after surgery in comparison to mice that did not receive the drug. Furthermore, we found much lower levels of inflammatory molecules in the hippocampus, a brain region that plays a key role in memory."
Excess Inflammation May Trigger Cognitive Decline After Surgery
Surgeries in elderly patients are becoming more common, and cognitive impairment is increasingly acknowledged by anesthesiologists to be a common side effect of surgery in these patients. A few studies in recent years have found that upwards of 10 percent of surgery patients ages 60 and older show some degree of cognitive impairment three months following surgery, although the diagnostic criteria for the condition have not yet been standardized, and causes and risk factors are still being explored.
Post-operative cognitive dysfunction was previously believed to be caused by deep anesthesia during surgery. But increasing evidence instead links the condition to an inflammatory reaction in the brain, now understood to be a normal response to tissue trauma occurring anywhere in the body - even surgeries physically distant from the brain, such as hip replacement, may trigger this response. Studies have shown that when this inflammation is excessive or too persistent, as may be the case in the elderly, the normally protective response can negatively impact cognition.
"Previous studies on post-operative inflammation in the brain had focused on whether circulating immune cells invade the brain and contribute to cognitive decline," Koliwad said. "Based on our new research, we now know that the brain's own microglia initiate and orchestrate this response, including the infiltration of peripheral immune cells and the resultant memory loss."
Temporarily Eliminating Microglia During Surgery Prevents Cognitive Decline in Mice
In experiments led by UCSF postdoctoral fellows Xiaomei Feng, PhD, and Martin Valdearcos, PhD, the researchers examined how surgery impacted cognition in mice whose microglia were experimentally depleted. Normally, mice trained in a conditioned behavior task prior to surgery perform worse at remembering the task three days after the operation. Remarkably, when researchers gave 10 mice a drug treatment to deplete microglia levels to roughly five percent of normal for seven days before undergoing the surgery, the animals were completely protected against this form of cognitive decline.
"This work demonstrates the central importance of microglia as transducers of surgical trauma in the periphery," said Maze, who is also William K Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Anesthesia in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at UCSF. "They dictate the downstream inflammatory and neurological consequences in the brain."
The experimental drug used in the study, PLX5622, is made by Plexxikon Inc., a Berkeley, Calif.-based biotech company, and targets a molecule called colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R), which microglia require in order to survive and replenish or expand their numbers.
Importantly, microglial depletion was not associated with reduced surgical wound healing, or with altered levels of immune cells and molecules outside the brain, and microglia levels returned to normal within two days after the PLX5622 treatment was stopped. However, in this study the UCSF researchers did not investigate potential long-term effects of microglia depletion more than one week past surgery.
"Our plan is to conduct more preclinical research to explore the potential of this approach, in the hopes that it eventually proves to be clinically applicable not only in surgery, but also in other diseases that lead to cognitive decline," Koliwad said.
The research was funded by grants to Koliwad and Maze from the National Institutes of Health (R01 DK103175-02, R01 GM104194). Yosuke Uchida, PhD, and David Lutrin of UCSF were also co-authors on the paper.
Article: Microglia mediate postoperative hippocampal inflammation and cognitive decline in mice, Xiaomei Feng, Martin Valdearcos, Yosuke Uchida, David Lutrin, Mervyn Maze and Suneil K. Koliwad, JCI Insight, doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.91229, published 6 April 2017.
Men who attended a structured yoga class twice a week during prostate cancer radiation treatment reported less fatigue and better sexual and urinary function than those who didn't, according to a clinical trial led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It is the first randomized trial to look at the effect of twice-weekly yoga on the side-effects and quality of life issues caused by prostate cancer treatment. The results published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics.
All of the patients in the trial underwent between six and nine weeks of external beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer. The patients were randomized into two groups: one arm participated in a yoga class that met twice a week and the other arm served as a control group. Patients who already practiced yoga on their own were not eligible for the study, nor were patients with a history of prior radiation therapy or those with metastatic disease.
Only two instructors led classes for this study, with the lead instructor teaching 75 percent of the classes. Each session lasted 75 minutes, beginning with five minutes of breathing and centering techniques and ending with five minutes of Savasana, a common yoga position. Typical sessions incorporated sitting, standing, and reclining positions that were modified using props to adapt to each patient's needs and restrictions.
Patients were primarily evaluated on their level of fatigue. Each man filled out a nine-item questionnaire assessing fatigue severity and impact on daily life. The first questionnaire was given between two and three weeks before the start of radiotherapy, then twice a week while receiving radiotherapy, with a final survey filled out within a week of their last yoga class or last radiation treatment, depending on the assigned study arm.
"At their baseline, before patients started treatment, patients in both groups were on the lower end of the scale, meaning they reported lower amounts of fatigue," said the trial's principal investigator Neha Vapiwala, MD, an associate professor of Radiation Oncology. "But as treatment went on, we observed a difference in the two groups." Patients in the yoga group reported lower fatigue scores over time, as they attended more yoga sessions, relative to where they started. Patients who did not participate in yoga trended in the opposite direction, reporting greater fatigue as treatment progressed.
"Levels of patient-reported fatigue are expected to increase by around the fourth or fifth week of a typical treatment course, but that did not happen in the yoga group," Vapiwala said. "Both the severity of the fatigue as well as the patients' ability to go about their normal lives appeared to be positively impacted in the yoga group."
Researchers also evaluated both groups in terms of their sexual health. Sexual dysfunction - including but not limited to erectile dysfunction (ED) - is reported by up to 85 percent of radiation therapy patients during treatment, often due to the concurrent use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The study utilized the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire, in which scores range from 0-25. Scores greater than 21 are considered normal and scores below 12 indicate moderate to severe ED. Both groups started out with scores of around 11, and were balanced in terms of ADT exposure; but while the yoga group's score ended up largely unchanged from baseline, the non-yoga group saw a decline over the course of treatment.
"Yoga is known to strengthen pelvic floor muscles, which is one of several postulated theories that may explain why this group did not demonstrate declining scores, as seen in the control group," Vapiwala said. "That may also explain the yoga patients' improved urinary function scores, another finding of this trial." Vapiwala pointed out that the findings on improved or stable urinary function are consistent with other research on the effects of physical therapy on pelvic floor muscles.
The trial also found that while the emotional well-being of both groups increased as patients progressed through treatment, the evaluation scores in the yoga group rose more rapidly than in the control group. An evaluation of physical well-being showed a similar pattern.
This study was partially funded through an American Cancer Society Institutional Grant and a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award.
Article: Impact of Eischens Yoga During Radiation Therapy on Prostate Cancer Patient Symptoms and Quality of Life: A Randomized Phase II Trial, Avital Mazar Ben-Josef, DMD, E- RYT, Jerry Chen, BA, Paul Wileyto, Ph. D., Abigail Doucette, MPH, Justin Bekelman, MD, John Christodouleas, MD, Curtiland Deville, MD, Neha Vapiwala, MD, International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics, doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2017.03.043, published online 30 March 2017.
Twelve percent of childhood cancer survivors carry germline mutations that put them or their children at increased risk of developing cancer, according to a landmark study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. The findings from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital are expected to have an immediate and potentially life-saving impact on the growing population of childhood cancer survivors.
The study of more than 3,000 long-term St. Jude childhood cancer survivors is apparently the first time whole genome sequencing has been used in a large group of cancer survivors to study the impact of genetic factors on the lifetime cancer risk.
"These results suggest that many more childhood cancer survivors would likely benefit from genetic screening and counseling," said Leslie Robison, Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control. "For cancer survivors, this research marks the beginning of a new era in cancer surveillance and prevention." He and Jinghui Zhang, Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Computational Biology, are co-senior authors.
Researchers recommended expanding genetic screening and counseling to include childhood cancer survivors who have been diagnosed with second cancers and whose pediatric cancer treatment did not include radiation therapy. Referrals are also now recommended for survivors whose initial treatment included radiation therapy and who have developed secondary breast cancer, thyroid cancer or sarcomas at the radiation treatment sites. Currently genetic screening for germline, typically inherited, mutations is reserved for survivors with family histories of cancer.
Along with enhanced screening for survivors, the findings should aid in designing personalized therapeutic approaches based on the genetic profiles of children who are newly diagnosed with cancer.
"While there is extensive scientific literature on the late effects of cancer therapy, including the risk that survivors will develop subsequent malignancies, until now little was known about the genetic contribution," Zhang said. "Based on these findings, we estimate that more than 32,000 of the more than 400,000 childhood cancer survivors in the U.S. are at risk for second or even third cancers because they carry mutations in known cancer predisposition genes."
The research focused on pathogenic or likely pathogenic germline mutations in 156 genes that are associated with an elevated cancer risk. The list included 60 genes - cancer predisposition genes inherited in an autosomal dominant manner - that leave carriers at risk for cancer when even one of the two copies of the gene is altered. Twelve percent of the 3,007 study participants had cancer-related mutations in one of the 156 cancer-risk genes, and about 6 percent had such mutations in one of the 60 cancer-predisposition genes.
Previously, St. Jude researchers reported that 8.5 percent of newly diagnosed pediatric cancer patients carry mutations in one of the 60 cancer-predisposition genes. "We anticipated that we would find the mutations in a similar or slightly lower proportion of long-term childhood cancer survivors," Zhang said.
A total of 26 survivors had mutations in either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes that are associated with breast cancer, not pediatric cancer, making them among the most commonly mutated genes in this study. Breast cancer was also one of the most frequently diagnosed second cancers. There were 60 cases of breast cancer in 53 study participants. Other frequently mutated genes were RB1, NF1 and TP53.
The genetic contribution to cancer risk varied across the 448 survivors with one or more subsequent cancers. Among survivors whose pediatric cancer treatment did not include radiation and who developed second cancers, 19 percent carried mutations in one of the 156 cancer-risk genes. In contrast, genetics was not associated with the increase in non-melanoma skin cancers or meningioma experienced by survivors whose pediatric cancer treatment included radiation. However, survivors who carried high-risk mutations and had received radiation therapy for pediatric cancer were at an 11-fold increased risk for developing secondary breast cancer and sarcomas.
The researchers noted that mutations in cancer predisposition genes do not always lead to cancer. "While these mutations put survivors or their children at higher risk for cancer in the future, they do not mean cancer is inevitable," said Zhaoming Wang, Ph.D., of St. Jude Computational Biology. He presented the findings and is co-first author of the study with Carmen Wilson, Ph.D., a St. Jude Epidemiology and Cancer Control research associate. He added: "As we identify and understand more about germline mutations in cancer-predisposition genes, we expect to find that genetics plays an even more substantial role in the life-long cancer risk of some survivors."
This study involved St. Jude cancer survivors enrolled in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort study (St. Jude LIFE). They underwent whole genome and whole exome sequencing during 2015-16. St. Jude LIFE has enrolled more than 4,200 long-term survivors and aims to improve life for childhood cancer survivors now and in the future. Participants return to St. Jude periodically for several days of clinical and functional assessments.
The other authors are John Easton, Dale Hedges, Gang Wu, Michael Rusch, Michael Edmonson, Jennifer Lanctot, Eric Caron, Kyla Shelton, Kelsey Currie, Matthew Lear, Heather Mulder, Donald Yergeau, Celeste Rosencrance, Bhavin Vadodaria, Yadav Sapkota, Russell Brooke, Wonjong Moon, Evadnie Rampersaud, Xiaotu Ma, Shuoguo Wang, Ti-Cheng Chang, Stephen Rice, Andrew Thrasher, Aman Patel, Cynthia Pepper, Xin Zhou, Xiang Chen, Wenan Chen, Deo Kumar Srivastava, Chimene Kesserwan, Kim Nichols, James Downing, Melissa Hudson and Yutaka Yasui, all of St. Jude; Qi Liu, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; and Shawn Levy, Angela Jones and Braden Boone, all of HudsonAlpha, Huntsville, Alabama.
The study was funded in part by a grant (CA195547) from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health; and ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude.
Alibaba's Jack Ma is leading the company in its campaign against counterfeit products. (Photo : Getty Images)
The opening of Alibaba's first official headquarters in Melbourne early this year is expected to boost the efforts of Australian brands in promoting their products to Chinese consumers.
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An article in campaignasia.com said that Alibaba's entry into Australia, which started last year with TMall Global working with Woolworths and Chemist Warehouse, has already produced results.
At last year's Singles Day event, Chemist Warehouse was able to sell about $2 million worth of goods in the first 13 minutes of the event.
Currently, there are about 1,500 Australian brands that operate a store on TMall China and TMall Global. Australia is also one of the top 5 countries selling on Alibaba's platform.
With Alibaba's presence, Australia brands expect to have a more streamlined process in dealing with Chinese consumers and make it easier for them to sell and distribute their brands in China.
Through the use of Alibaba infrastructure, both the Australian market and the Chinese customers can benefit from the improved shopping experience as logistics and delivery problems will be addressed.
The e-commerce giant continues to build strategic partnerships to improve on its logistics infrastructure and the overall process.
Recently, Alibaba signed a deal with Australia Post which was aimed at providing better delivery of products to its consumers.
According to the report, smaller brands can benefit from the presence of the Alibaba headquarters in Australia, which can provide help in navigating the Chinese market as well as get support from them.
The local office can also help Australian TMall Partners and smaller brands through their staff, who can guide them every step of the way.
Despite the presence of an Alibaba headquarters, Australian brands may still have to invest and work on building awareness for their products or services, the report said.
Entering the Chinese market is tough competition as there are currently 14,000 international brands on TMall Global, including giants such as Costco and Macy's. In addition, Australian brands have to contend with competitors from other countries such as the U.S., the EU, Japan and South Korea.
But Australian brands, which Chinese consumers associate with nature and health, can leverage on the positive image to make it work to their advantage.
OTTAWA
April 10, 2017
Canada
Eastern Ontario
Canada
$15M
$30M
Canada's
Canada
Jane Philpott
Canada
Philip Sherman
Pam Goldsmith-Jones
Canada's
Dave Prowten
Canada
Derek Rapp
Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the pancreas does not produce insulin. When this happens, blood glucose levels rise and, over time, the high level of glucose can damage nerves, blood vessels and organs.
An estimated 300,000 Canadians are living with type 1 diabetes. The number of people living with type 1 diabetes is increasing by 5% annually and the greatest rise is in children under five years of age.
CIHR and JDRF have established a $30 million partnership to fund clinical research to improve the treatment of type 1 diabetes and accelerate the search for a cure.
Canada's
$530 million
/CNW/ - David McGuinty, MP for Ottawa South, on behalf of the Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Health, announced today that the Government ofis investing in a new partnership that will help improve health outcomes and quality of care for the more than 300,000 Canadians living with type 1 diabetes, and their families.The announcement was made at the Children's Hospital of(CHEO). Members of the All-Party Juvenile Diabetes Caucus Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, MP for West VancouverSunshine CoastSea to Sky Country, Sonia Sidhu, MP for Brampton South, and Filomena Tassi, MP for Hamilton WestAncasterDundas were on hand for the announcement.The Government of, through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), is partnering with JDRF to support clinical trials research for type 1 diabetes. Both CIHR and JDRF have committedto the Partnership to Defeat Diabetes, for a total investment ofJDRF and CIHR share a vision of improved care, outcomes and treatment for Canadians living with Type 1 diabetes. The investment announced today will advance the search for a cure and ensure that research results are applied for patient care for those living with diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. This world-class collaboration also provides an opportunity to maintainleadership in diabetes research and clinical trials.CIHR welcomes investments from important charities like JDRF. These partnerships play a key role in advancing world-class research that strengthens the health care system and improves the health of Canadians."The Government ofrecognizes the impact that type 1 diabetes has on Canadians and their families. This research will help improve the quality of life for Canadians living with type 1 diabetes and drive efforts to find a cure for this condition.""CIHR is proud to be working with JDRF to support research on type 1 diabetes. This new partnership will focus the efforts of the diabetes research community inand speed the development of new and better treatments for all Canadians with diabetes. ""We are honoured to partner with CIHR to continue funding the best and brightest scientists in the field. This partnership will enable JDRF Canada to make significant advancements in the fight against diabetes and to positively impact the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians currently living with type 1 diabetes. I am also grateful for the hard work of the All-Party Juvenile Diabetes Caucus, chaired by MP. Pam is a strong advocate for the partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and JDRF, and forleadership in tackling diabetes."is known for its state-of-the-art type 1 diabetes research, and has played a pivotal role in ground-breaking discoveries. We are pleased to be entering into this exciting partnership with CIHR to advance global science excellence.""As a parent of a daughter who lives with type 1 diabetes, I know how challenging life is for these children and their families. Canadians are very grateful to Minister Philpott and for the constant efforts of JDRF, which have resulted in this historic investment in diabetes research."www.cihr-irsc.gc.cawww.jdrf.caSOURCE Canadian Institutes of Health Research
screened more than 370,000 women for cervical cancer and more than 24,000 women for breast cancer,
vaccinated more than 119,000 girls with the HPV vaccine; and,
trained nearly 1,000 health workers.
more than 11.5 million people have received lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS,
nearly 2 million babies have been born HIV-free to infected mothers; and,
over 6 million orphans and children left vulnerable by the disease receive care and support.
President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush traveled to Gaborone, Botswana and Windhoek, Namibia to demonstrate their continued commitment to the people of Africa through the work of the George W. Bush Institute's (GWBI) global leadership programs. The trip highlighted the work of the Bush Institutes affiliate, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, a global partnership fighting womens cancers, and the Bush Institutes First Ladies Initiative, which engages and supports first ladies from around the world to effectively use their unique platforms to improve lives.Laura and I are thrilled to be here, said President Bush. We decided to stay out of politics when we left Washington, but we wanted to stay engaged in policy areas that matter to us, and it broke my heart that even though a womans life might be saved from HIV/AIDS she was needlessly dying of cervical cancer. I just couldnt imagine the despondency in some of these villages where a mom died of a disease that we could cure and fix with the right kind of policy.So we applaud the work on the ground in both of these countries, where these governments are dedicated to saving lives but need our help. Development of a healthcare system that can reach all corners of a country takes time. And now is not the time to abandon the efforts that have taken place up to this point.Cervical cancer is a leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. In six years, across five African countries, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon and its partners have:Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon builds upon the platform created by the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to build healthier, more stable countries. Women with HIV are five times more likely to develop cervical cancer, a disease that can be prevented by the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine. It is also inexpensive to screen for, and easily treatable if detected early. In fact, with proper resources, and broad access to vaccination and screening, it is possible to end cervical cancer deaths in the next 30 years.PEPFAR, started in 2003 by President Bush, leverages public-private partnerships to address the scourge of HIV/AIDS. The program has achieved remarkable results in the fight against disease. Because of PEPFAR:By increasing the focus on data, results, transparency, and reform, foreign governments take a more active ownership role over the development assistance they receive, with the ultimate goal of decreasing their dependence on aid.In Botswana, President and Mrs. Bush visited Tlokweng Main Clinic, where they met with women who have been screened and treated for cervical cancer. They also saw examples of innovative technology that increases the efficiency and efficacy of screening and treating cervical cancer, while lowering the cost.They then traveled to Therisanyo Primary School, where they heard the stories of girls who had been vaccinated against HPV, as well as their mothers, who had been treated for cervical cancer. The Government of Botswana has demonstrated leadership in providing HPV vaccination to girls between the ages of nine and thirteen, vaccinating 90 percent of the targeted population across the country in the first year of the programs rollout. The collaboration between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education was critical to that success.At Therisanyo School, Mrs. Bush announced the first ever international grants from the Laura Bush Foundation for Americas Library. Therisanyo School in Gaborone and Ella Du Plessis High School in Windhoek, Namibia each received $2,500 towards their school libraries. The Laura Bush Foundation for Americas Libraries provides funds to the neediest schools so that they can extend, update, and diversify the book and print collections in their libraries with the goal of encouraging students to develop a love of reading and learning. In the past 15 years, over 2,500 schools have received grants for their schools libraries, totaling more than 13 million dollars in funding.Im delighted to present our very first international grants to provide books to these schools, said Mrs. Bush. With these grants, your librarians will order new books and materials for your schools something everyone can enjoy. I hope that all the students here learn to love reading.In Namibia, President and Mrs. Bush began their visit at Ella Du Plessis High School, where they were accompanied by the First Lady of Namibia, Mrs. Monica Geingos. They were welcomed with a performance by the schools choir and participated in a discussion with students about overcoming barriers that prevent young people from reaching their full potential and the importance of staying in school.They then visited Windhoek Central Hospital with Mrs. Geingos, where they stopped by the maternity ward and spoke with mothers with HIV whose babies were born HIV-free. They also saw the new cervical cancer clinic, and learned about the countrys plans to begin screen-and-treat services in the coming months.At Windhoek Central, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon signed an agreement to collaborate on programming to prevent cervical cancer. Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon will work with countries to integrate cervical cancer programming into their HIV/AIDS grants from the Global Fund.Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Geingos also hosted a breakfast focused on the important work of investing in women and girls, and announced that the Bush Institutes First Ladies Initiative will work with Mrs. Geingos and her staff to share best practices and build capacity for key education efforts like her Be Free program. Mrs. Geingos was interviewed for the Bush Institutes recently released research report called, where she discussed how her own background has influenced the work shes taken on in public office.This was President Bushs seventh visit and Mrs. Bushs seventh visit to the African continent since their time in the White House. Their travel in 2011, 2012, and 2013 included visits to Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Botswana.
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Finnish President Sauli Niinisto (Photo : Getty Images)
Kai Mykkanen, Finland's trade minister, expressed concern over the dispute between the U.S. and China and feared that the conflict between the two countries might result in a trade war.
The minister spoke after meeting with President Xi Jinping in Finland. Xi stopped over in Finland before heading back to China.
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Mykkanen said, "This is one of the most crucial years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Maybe this nationalism goes further and we enter into something that might be very uncomfortable for our lifestyles. Or we find a synthesis between the U.S. and China."
Finland has been a strong supporter of globalization and took pride with Xi's visit. Finnish leaders fear that Trump's protectionist approach will do the world much harm.
"China continues to raise its profile as a defender of free trade," said Jyrki Kallio, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
He added, "Both Finland and China share the same concern about the negative effects on the global economy if Trump's action ignites a trade war between China and the United States."
During the meeting, Xi also stressed that matters that cause conflict between countries can be settled with through the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the G20.
This is in contrast to what Trump was saying that the WTO should not get involved in bilateral issues. The trade minister said that the two countries should find a middle ground.
The visit of Xi Jinping concluded well. The Chinese president also met with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto to get more backing from the EU.
After the meeting, Xi said that both countries pledged "to enhance cooperation in Arctic affairs and promote environmental protection and sustainable development of the Arctic."
Both leaders also discussed the ongoing nuclear crisis in the Korean peninsula and the recent ballistic missile that was shot to the sea.
The Cottage Inn Pizza logo. (Photo : Twitter)
U.S. gourmet restaurant Cottage Inn Pizza has announced plans for expansion into new locations in China in a bid to bite off a bigger slice of the Chinese market.
The Michigan-based pizza chain said it aims to compete with bigger rivals such as Pizza Hut and Papa John's in China through a more gourmet approach to its offerings.
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"Pizza Hut has perfected its craft. It's been in China for so long, it has established itself," Joseph Langenbacher, Cottage Inn Pizza director of product development, told China Daily.
"Where we come in is that in the U.S. we're more of a gourmet pizza chain that offers more of an upscale pizza product."
Cottage Inn, which currently has 56 locations across the United States, is looking to open 100 stores by the end of 2017 and 200 stores in the next 15 years. It opened its first Chinese outlet in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province late last year.
Investors from China expressed interest in starting a pizza chain in the mainland, Langenbacher, which led to scouting for locations in selected Chinese cities.
The decision to build the Qingdao outlet was due to the city's established pizza culture and customer base, with many Pizza Hut and Papa John outlets already located in the city, he added.
"We wanted to have the same principles in China, so we really wanted to focus on the quality of product, whether it's the pizza or the expanded menu," he said.
Langenbacher said Cottage Inn would offer the same sit-in restaurant experience as its counterparts noting, that Chinese customers preferred going to a restaurant rather than eating pizzas at home.
"We feel like we have to offer the restaurant experience," he said. "It's more suitable to have an actual dining experience for the area. They enjoy taking their time with their family and dining."
The menu will also include food that caters to Chinese customers, including rice dishes and pizzas with ingredients familiar to the local palate such as shrimp and durian.
However, U.S.-style flavors like buffalo sauce were removed from the menu because local consumers didn't fancy them, Langenbacher said.
Hong Kong is widely accepted as the most expensive city in the world to live. (Photo : Getty Images)
Incoming Hong Kong leader Carrie Lams promises to make property prices more affordable could end up unfulfilled as mainland Chinese developers continue to bid up property values, the Straits Times reported.
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According to research group Demographia, Hong Kong is the most expensive place to live in the world, with a common apartment costing about 18.1 times the gross annual median income.
Anything over a multiple of 5.1 is usually deemed as being severely unaffordable,' Denis Ma, head of research at JLL in Hong Kong, told the Straits News.
Since 2013, property prices have increased 364 percent, while the median monthly household has barely kept up, registering a 61 percent increase within the same period. This has pushed many Hong Kong residents away from home ownership.
As a response, mass protests have been organized throughout Hong Kong. One of the largest gatherings was the 2014 protest, when parts of Hong Kong were paralyzed for more than 70 days.
To tackle the problem, Carrie Lam has promised to increase the supply of housing and land as soon as she assumes the chief executive position on July 1. Experts believe, however, that Lam may be in for a surprise.
If the government wants the housing market to grow at a stable rate, this will be a very big challenge, Alice Mak, head of the Hong Kong legislatures housing panel, said in an interview.
To succeed, Lam must face developers from mainland China, who have been investing capital and driving up property prices.
Hong Kong developers are slowly being pushed out of the real estate industry as a significant number of plots of land sold by the Hong Kong government have been purchased by Chinese companies. Furthermore, Chinese firms have closed more attractive deals than local competitors.
According to KWG Property, a mainland developer, real estate developments are more profitable in Hong Kong than China due to lower lending rates and taxes.
Harbin, located hundreds of kilometers near the China-Russia border, is often called as the Ice City. (Photo : Getty Images)
Back in the 19th and 20th century, the northeastern city of Harbin welcomed large numbers of Polish immigrants, according to an article by Xinhua News Agency. To remember this oft-forgotten heritage, an exhibition was recently held at the Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province in Szczecin, Poland.
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The exhibit, titled Poles in Manchuria 1897-1949 featured hundreds of documents and photographs collected from people who relocated to Harbin, and eventually returned to their motherland.
The Archives of Modern Records organized the exhibit. It opened on March 23 in Szczecin and will run until April 28. The exhibit will then move to the cities of Gdansk and Warsaw.
Our parents instilled the love for Harbin in our hearts, Romuald Oziewicz, who works as the chairman of the Polish Harbiners Club in Szczecin, told Xinhua.
Oziewiczs family left Poland for Harbin in search of greener pastures. He was born in Harbin in the year 1950. As time went on, the whole family decided to move back to Poland.
According to Oziewicz, the Poles started immigrating to Harbin in the late 19th century, when the Russian Empire announced its plans to construct the Chinese Eastern Railway. Polish workers were attracted to the prospect and eventually made their way to China. Other Polish immigrants, meanwhile, fled to China from Siberia.
The Polish community in Harbin, also known as Ice City, mostly consisted of well-educated individuals, said Oziewicz.
Around 1949, the Poles started to move back to Poland. Of the 800 people who made the big decision, 500 chose to settle down in Szczecin, which is why the Harbiners Club is most active in the city, according to Oziewicz.
The Harbiners Club has about 30 to 40 active members, a mix of first and second generation Polish immigrants. To this day, they try to keep alive memories of Harbin left by their parents by organizing special events every year.
Now when parents are gone, we have to keep this memory, Oziewicz said.
More Chinese Gun Enthusiasts Travel to US to Shoot at Firing Ranges
Gun tourism has long been popular in the United States, where regulatory laws are lax compared to other countries. (Photo : Getty Images)
Gun tourism is enticing Chinese gun enthusiasts to American shores for a chance to shoot their favorite firearms, USA Today reported.
One of their favored destinations is DeSoto County in Florida, where there are a number of firing ranges. Chinese travel organizers are taking advantage of the increasing demand.
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Its a place Chinese can go to experience real gun culture, Dickson Wong, a 38-year-old travel tour operator, told USA Today. Its impossible to shoot [in China].
Based on Wongs estimates, there are approximately tens of thousands of wealthy Chinese gun enthusiasts who fly to the United states.
As a result, Wong is slated to open his very own luxury gun club in 2019, where he hopes to attract at least 5,000 Chinese tourists every year. Aside from shooting ranges, the gun club will boast well-appointed luxury accommodations as well as Chinese-speaking instructors.
Gun tourism has long been popular in the United States, where regulatory laws are lax compared to other countries. Aside from Florida, Hawaii and Las Vegas are also frequented by target shooters from other parts of the U.S. and from outside the country.
Meanwhile, China has a long way to go when it comes to freedom of firearms. In a country where gun firing is considered taboo, severe restrictions have been put in place to ensure that even the mere possession of a toy gun can send a person to jail for a considerable period of time.
Weapons control laws have been a part of Chinese legislation since the third century B.C. Tighter controls have been put in place in 1949 when the communists placed themselves in positions of power.
In 1996, a law was officially passed, banning citizens from owning guns. This law was amended prior to the Beijing Olympics to include restrictions on replica weapons.
While the government promotes gun regulatory laws as crucial to public safety, critics are convinced its one way to help curb uprisings.
The Chinese government took away peoples guns to prevent them rising up, Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist at Renmin University, told USA Today.
China-U.S. Expanded Bilateral Meeting at Florida (Photo : Getty Images)
In a move to prevent a trade war with the U.S.,which would be harmful to both countries, China opened its doors to give the U.S. better access to invest in the financial sector and lift the ban on U.S. beef exports, the Financial Times reported.
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At their first meeting in Florida last week, the two leaders have agreed to push negotiations for the China-U.S. trade and produce results within 100 days.
Currently, foreign investors are barred from holding a major stake in securities and insurance companies in China. Citic Securities and China Life Insurance, the country's largest companies, have dominated the sectors for almost 15 years.
However, during Obama's administration, Chinese and U.S. negotiators have discussed the possibility to allow majority foreign ownership in these sectors during the series of talks on bilateral investment treaty (BIT).
According to the report, the issues on market access in several Chinese industries will be resolved if Trump would pursue the treaty.
"China was prepared to [raise the investment ceilings] in the BIT but those negotiations were put on hold [after Trump's election victory]," one Chinese official involved in the talks, said. "Had Obama been in office for another six months we would have gotten there."
In addition to giving market access to its financial and securities sector, China is also ready to lift the ban on U.S. beef imports which had been imposed since 2003. The country will also increase its purchase of grains and other agricultural products to ease tensions on the $347 billion annual trade surplus with the U.S.
Although the signing of the investment treaty may still take some time to materialize, both China and the U.S. are optimistic that they can achieve results with smaller trade deals in the next three months.
Last Saturday, April 8, Trump tweeted to describe his meeting with Xi as "tremendous."
In his follow-up tweet, the U.S. president said: "Goodwill and friendship was formed. But only time will tell on trade."
COSCO Opens a New Regional Service for North Europe and the Mediterranean (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinas COSCO Shipping Lines has opened a new regional service of container shipping on Sunday. The service will link ports in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.
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COSCO Shipping (Europe) Tian Dong, in his speech during the opening ceremony in Istanbul, said that the new direct service is a milestone for the company because it is the first time for a Chinese enterprise to offer such service in the region.
Trade within the European region is promoted by the shipping lines with the recent service launch.
According to Tian, the intra-Europe trade has increased by 70 percent annually over the last two years. A total of 12 services in the Northern Europe and the Mediterranean region are offered by COSCO.
The new service, said COSCO, will facilitate the growth of the companys feeder service from a number of individual lines to a collaborative net. The shipping lines serviceability and quality in the region will be enhanced with such expansion.
The shipping company has also invested in the terminals of Piraeus in Greece, Kumport in Istanbul and Antwerp in Belgium.
Ports in Northern Europe and ports in the Adriatic Sea, the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean will be fully linked by COSCOs new service by calling at Piraeus Port.
The shipping lines are looking at 15 trunk and feeder vessels calling at the Greek port on a weekly basis. The lines also said that company will also be providing the most competitive services to its customers.
By calling at Salerno in Italy, the new service also provides a new route for shipping cargo from the Mediterranean to the United States.
Chinese Commercial Consul Huang Songfeng expressed his confidence in the new service. He said that the new service will promote the development new markets in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. It will also aid in making the most out of Istanbul and Turkeys exceptional geographical advantages.
Chinas COSCO Shipping Lines is looking forward to increased sales with its new regional service for Northern Europe and the Mediterranean region.
A Russian warship may be nearing two U.S. Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean, but so far interactions at sea have been strictly professional in the wake of the April 7 American airstrikes on a Syrian airfield.
Officials with U.S. European command told Military.com that they were aware that a Russian naval ship -- identified by Russian news agency TASS as the frigate Admiral Grigorovich -- had entered the Mediterranean, where the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Ross and Porter, which launched the missile strikes, are positioned. But they said so far, everything remains normal.
"We have not had any unsafe or unprofessional interactions with Russian units since the Tomahawk missile strikes were conducted on April 7, 2017," Lt. Cmdr. Zach Harrell told Military.com via email.
Russia, the Syrian regime's strongest ally, has taken a number of measures to express displeasure with the U.S. strike. The assault, in which 59 Tomahawk missiles destroyed 20 percent of Syria's operational aircraft, according to Pentagon accounts, and damaged Syrian fuel and ammunition sites, came in the wake of a Syrian chemical weapons attack on rebel-held territory that killed dozens of civilians, including women and children.
Less than 24 hours after the strikes, Russia announced it was ending a deconfliction agreement established with the U.S. in 2015 to allow both nations to safely fly military aircraft over Syria. In the wake of that move, U.S. officials confirmed they had put a temporary stop to Syria air missions due to safety concerns.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials have also condemned the U.S. missile strikes, saying they dealt a significant blow to the U.S.-Russian relationship.
Hours after the missile strikes, USNI News reported that the Grigorovich, a 4,000-ton warship bearing Kalibr cruise missile strikes that was commissioned just a year ago, was moving into the Mediterranean, citing ship spotters in the region.
Multiple Russian-owned news outlets reported that the ship is conducting routine operations. The ship, part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, had operated in the Mediterranean earlier this year, departing in early April to take part in bilateral naval exercises with Turkey. The Russian-owned outlet Sputnik reported that the Grigorovich will remain in the Mediterranean until summer.
Officials have said the Ross and Porter, which are both homeported in Rota, Spain, also intend to maintain their presence in the region. The Ross will be in port in Lanarca, Cyprus tomorrow in order to observe a change of command, according to an April 9 Navy news release. The port is only a few hundred miles off the Syrian coast.
Officials with the Navy said they could not speak to the location or intentions of any Russian ships.
"U.S. Navy warships routinely communicate with foreign warships in international waters and act in accordance with internationally recognized maritime laws, standards and norms," a defense official told Military.com.
But at least one senior Naval leader is sounding a note of caution about an overall increase in Russian naval activity, despite the nation's shrinking fleet.
"We're seeing activity that we didn't even see when it was the Soviet Union," Adm. Michelle Howard, head of Naval Forces Europe and Africa and NATO's Allied Joint Force Command, told Reuters in an April 8 interview. "It's precedential activity."
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck.
Lee Ching-yu, the wife of Lee Ming-cheh (Photo : Getty Images)
On Sunday, An Fengshan of Chinas Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said that personal letters from Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-che have been sent to his family members. Lee, a human rights and democracy advocate, remains detained in China.
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Ans statement was given amid Lee Ching-yus preparations to leave for Beijing on Monday. The activists wife will go together with two Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) officials.
However, Ans remarks were opposed by a human rights group in Taiwan. According to the group, no appointments to accept either the message about Lees present condition or his handwritten letters have been made.
According to TAOs earlier statement, Lee has been under inquiry since March 19. He is suspected of holding activities that threaten Chinas national security.
On April 7, Chinas Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), SEFs semi-official counterpart sanctioned to deal with civilian exchanges across the strait, gave Lees wife an update on his latest situation. The information, given out of humanitarian considerations, was forwarded through an unnamed relevant organization of Taiwan, An said.
An added that the organization also handed over Lees personal letters to his parents and his wife.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights Secretary General Chiu Yi-ling said that Lees parents and his wife had not gotten hold of Chinas presumed kindness to the activists family. The association has been campaigning for Lees early release.
Over the past two days, some people claiming to represent Beijing did call us but we cannot be sure of their official status; besides, the representative admitted that the letters were not the originals but copies, said Chiu.
They have not made an appointment to meet the so-called Beijing representative, nor have they read any personal letters from Lee, Chiu added, explaining the familys decision not to take the messages.
Earlier on Sunday, responsible officials of the SEF and the Mainland Affairs Council, TAOs counterpart in Taiwan, said that they were unsure if Lee Ching-yu will be allowed to enter China.
Since last May when Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party assumed the presidency in Taipei, official exchanges between Taiwan and China have stopped.
Lees family and human rights groups are hoping that Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-che will be released soon.
As part of the automaker's $4.5 billion investment in electric vehicles, Ford revealed the first pursuit-rated Police Responder Hybrid Sedan in New York and Los Angeles Monday, April 10.
The new fully electric police vehicle can be ordered this spring, and is expected to start popping up in departments by summer 2018. Being pursuit-rated means that police agencies have given a vehicle the sign of approval for being strong enough to handle police chases for long periods of time over an assortment of terrain and obstacles.
"Electrifying our next generation of vehicles is core to our unwavering commitment to sustainability," Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the Americas, said in a news release.
"By being a leader in electrified vehicles, we remain committed to delivering cars, trucks and SUVs that are better not only for our customers, but for the environment and society as well."
The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker believes that cities who use the new Police Responder Hybrid could save $3,877 each year at gas prices of $2.50 per gallon. It will use the Atkinson-cycle 2.0-liter engine, which will have an electric motor using an "advanced lithium-ion battery."
This hybrid will run on its battery-only made to speeds as high as 60 mph, once it surpasses that it will automatically switch to the engine and battery working together.
"Our mission to create safe and healthy communities in Los Angeles is achieved through sustainable approaches in community policing, and that includes embracing new technologies," Charlie Beck, Los Angeles police chief, said in the release. "Patrol vehicles are a police officer's office, and we expect them to not only be economically and environmentally efficient but also an effective tool for fighting crime in major metropolitan areas."
The Ford Police Responder Hybrid Sedan is part of the automaker's $4.5 billion mobility plan investment it announced in early January. The company made the investment announcement at the same time it said it would cancel plans for a new $1.6 billion Mexico assembly plant and will instead invest $700 million at home in Flat Rock.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said the automaker would use the investment to introduce 13 new electric vehicles in five years:
Toyota announced a $1.33 billion investment into its Kentucky assembly plant Monday, April 10 as part of the automaker's five-year plan to invest $10 billion in the United States.
In a news release, the automaker reports this investment makes it the industry's most lucrative one in Kentucky, and the second-largest across any industry in state history. These investments are earmarked to help Toyota start manufacturing vehicles with its "new global architecture."
"This $1.33 billion investment is part of Toyota's plan to invest $10 billion dollars in the U.S. over the next five years, on top of the nearly $22 billion Toyota has invested in the U.S. over the past 60 years," Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, said in the release.
"Toyota New Global Architecture is about exciting, ever-better vehicles for our customers as it will improve performance of all models, including increased fuel efficiency, more responsive handling, and a more stable, comfortable feel while driving."
As for the Toyota New Global Architecture, the automaker touts it as a new strategy to shorten development for improvements and new vehicles, according to the release. It is expected to open the door for the Kentucky plant, the company's largest, "to build ever-better cars, and respond quicker and more capably to customer demands down the road."
The Japanese automaker reports the Kentucky plant employs more than 8,200 people and that this investment will open the door for next generation vehicle and mobility production.
Toyota has touted its honor of having its Camry named the Cars.com "Most American Made" car. The Camry has been America's top-selling car for 15 consecutive years, and has served as the company's flagship vehicle since 1982.
When it was revealing the 2018 Toyota Camry at the Detroit auto show, the Japanese automaker threw several graphics on the screen behind the new, shiny cars. The stats included the number of Toyota employees in America, how much money the automaker has invested in the U.S. and how much it plans to invest stateside.
"Today's announcement is welcome news for Kentucky's economy and our workforce," U.S. Senator and majority leader Mitch McConnell said in the release. "For more than 30 years, Toyota has been committed to the Commonwealth, and today's investment is further proof that the company maintains its pledge to grow our economy and solidify Kentucky as a world-class automotive state.
"I want to congratulate the Toyota team, especially its thousands of hard-working Kentuckians."
UPDATE: Police identify driver killed in fiery crash with children in backseat
AUGUSTA TOWNSHIP, MI - One person is dead after a vehicle crash on the evening of Sunday, April 9 in Augusta Township.
Authorities were called at 5:53 p.m. Sunday to a single-vehicle crash with a tree on Willis Road east from Stony Creek Road, said Derrick Jackson of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office. The vehicle caught fire, he said.
The driver was confirmed dead at the scene and two children, who were also in the vehicle, were taken to the hospital at the University of Michigan, Jackson said. Their level of injury was not immediately known.
The initial cause of the crash is under investigation.
Firefighters could be seen spraying water on the smoking vehicle about 6:20 p.m.
Willis Road, between Stony Creek and Hitchingham roads, is expected to be closed for several hours, according to a Nixle Alert from the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.
Staff photographer Matt Weigand contributed to this report.
ANN ARBOR, MI - U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell says the recent fight against repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act was won because enough people throughout the country made their voices heard and Republicans in Congress couldn't get the votes for a bill that would hurt Americans.
She said none of the Michigan Republicans in Congress would vote against the bill, but she gives credit to Gov. Rick Snyder for speaking out and raising concerns about the impact it would have on the Healthy Michigan plan.
"I want to give credit where credit is due, and Gov. Snyder was a very important Republican governor who spoke out against a bill that would hurt Michiganians, Michiganders," said Dingell, D-Dearborn.
More than 650,000 Michigan residents are enrolled in the Healthy Michigan plan paid for by the ACA's Medicaid expansion.
"Healthy Michigan reduced uninsured in this state by 50 percent, and the bill that they were going to pass would hurt people in this state," Dingell said.
Dingell's remarks came at a town hall forum Sunday, April 9, at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, where the congresswoman and three state lawmakers discussed issues they're confronting in the Trump era, including on topics ranging from health care to the environment and racism.
Hundreds packed into the church for the event, which was hosted by A2 Citizen Pod and UU Indivisible.
Joining Dingell on stage were state Reps. Donna Lasinski, Yousef Rabhi and Adam Zemke, three Democrats from the Ann Arbor area.
"We are close friends and we have become even closer post-election because we are concerned about what is happening in this country, what is happening in this state, and what's happening in our communities," Dingell said. "And we have started working together on a number of issues."
Dingell said about half the children in Michigan get their health care because of Medicaid.
"And that figure needs to bother us, that 50 percent of the children in this state are living at a level that requires Medicaid," she said.
"And we need to do something about that. But we cannot let our children be hurt by what's going to happen in Washington."
Dingell said she's willing to work with the Republicans on a health care bill because she knows the ACA isn't perfect.
"It needs to be fixed," she said. "But I will never work with somebody on a bad bill that'll hurt people."
She added, "And I've said to President Trump, 'Look, you know, I'll work with you on reopening NAFTA, but you're going to find a buzzsaw like one you've never met when you start going after people's religion, freedom of speech ... and when you are going to try to hurt people that should never have to worry about what they need to do when they are sick, or whether they can afford their medicine.' That is who we are as Americans. We need to watch out for each other."
Dingell said she has 10 town hall meetings planned from Ypsilanti to Downriver while Congress is in recess for the next two weeks.
That includes a town hall with state Rep. Ronnie Peterson, D-Ypsilanti Township, and the Minister's Alliance of Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Vicinity at Ypsilanti High School, 2095 Packard St., from 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 12.
They will be joined by Marianne Udow-Phillips, executive director of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, to discuss what potential changes to the ACA could mean for Michigan families.
The town hall comes as the White House and Republican leadership in the U.S. House have signaled their intention to revive efforts to repeal the ACA. Wednesday's event is free and open to the public. RSVP here.
"We want to be accessible," Dingell told Sunday's crowd. "Not only do we want to talk to you and to have that dialogue that's so critical for democracy, you educate us. We need to know the facts and what's going on, and what we need to think about. We need those perspectives to be good elected officials."
Carrie Hatcher-Kay, a member of the church who helped organize Sunday's event, is a psychologist who works in trauma recovery.
"And I can't help but look through that lens when I see what's happening in the world today," she said, delivering opening remarks. "Trauma, simply defined, is anything that overwhelms our usual capacity to cope. Daily news reports, sometimes hourly news reports, are continuing to shock us."
Hatcher-Kay said staying actively engaged and working with others to address the problem are good ways to cope. She encouraged those in attendance to mobilize and engage in organized resistance and action.
During the audience question portion of Sunday's town hall, Hatcher-Kay's son, 12-year-old Elijah, asked a question.
As someone who might live to see the worst of global warming and lack of resources because of the carelessness of people today, he said, he wanted to know what lawmakers are doing to push to limit government pollution and waste and to embrace sustainable practices.
Dingell responded by saying she thought when she was elected to Congress she would be building on what has been accomplished so far, but she's now dealing with a president and an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who are trying to take back the progress that has been made. She noted Trump is trying to eliminate funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
"We have really serious problems on the environment," Dingell said. "And I must say to you that on the Great Lakes and on many of the issues, the Republicans in our delegation are as worried as we are. And I, quite frankly, think right now that one of the most important things this community can do is to communicate with the Republicans in this delegation about the importance of their taking leadership to make sure that does not happen, because it just simply cannot happen."
Multiple people asked the lawmakers about issues related to climate change, the environment and renewable energy.
Zemke said he thinks the state has taken some steps in the right direction but he wants to see greater mandates for renewable energy and a reduction in economic hurdles for installing home-based solar.
"We need to be breaking down those barriers," he said, adding the state should be working to make all forms of renewable energy more affordable.
"And I know that Donna is the vice chair on the Energy Committee, and Yousef, Donna and I have all been working together over the last month or so on packages of bills that deal with this in various different ways. From geothermal to solar, all forms of energy should be able to be affordably produced and the state should encourage that in all sorts of ways, either carbon dividend or other ways of reducing taxation on homes for folks who do this or other things."
Rabhi said he wants to make it easier for people to install solar panels on their homes, including by restoring property tax exemptions for solar panels.
"All of these issues are important," Lasinski said, adding they are not partisan issues and there will be multi-bill packages with Republican sponsors.
Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, talked about his experience campaigning door-to-door for other Democrats throughout the state.
He said he has met a diverse mix of Michigan residents, including some who live very different lives than many people in Washtenaw County, some in very rural areas, some in poverty. He encouraged people at Sunday's forum to get out of their comfort zones, go into other communities and have face-to-face conversations with those who live in different conditions.
"We need to make sure we're doing everything we can to support people who live in very different conditions than us," he said.
"And I think that will help us reunite as a state, because I'll be the first to say I think our state is very divided right now. That was reflected in the election results. But it shouldn't be, because the concerns that we hear from people around the state, they're all the same concerns that we talk about in Washtenaw County."
Zemke told the story of a time he got out of his comfort zone while campaigning on behalf of state Rep. Theresa Abed in a swing district just west of Lansing during the 2014 election cycle. He said he met a white man in his late 60s who lived in a small house surrounded by cornfields, with a rusted jeep in the driveway.
Zemke said he didn't think he was on friendly turf, but it turned out the man appreciated hearing that Abed supported Healthy Michigan.
He said the man told him how, several months earlier, he was struggling to do his job as a machinist and struggling to see straight. He said the man didn't have health insurance, but his boss made him go to the doctor anyway, and that's when he learned he had a tumor that was affecting his vision.
Without health insurance, the man wondered how he was going to afford to have the tumor removed, Zemke said, but then the man heard about the Healthy Michigan plan, qualified for it, and went through with the operation. Zemke said the man told him Healthy Michigan saved his life.
"He didn't mean it from the perspective that the tumor was going to kill him, but it was going to economically deprive him. He couldn't keep working," he said.
Zemke said while he originally thought the conversation was going to go poorly, the man "totally blew me away" in terms of how caring he was, and Zemke said there are many other people like that across Michigan.
"There are really great people around the state of Michigan, people that we may not agree with on every issue, but they care, and I think there are a heck of a lot more of them out there that would surprise us as to how much they care," he said.
"We need to bring the dialogue back between people who disagree on certain things but agree on so much to help people who are suffering."
Lasinski, D-Scio Township, also issued a call to action, telling residents how they can get involved, follow issues, and contact their representatives.
"It matters that we persist. Persistence matters," she said.
Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, echoed that sentiment, saying progress takes time.
"And it feels like with this last election we regressed. But you know what? I see this election as an opportunity," Rabhi said.
Taking racism as an issue, Rabhi said there has been some progress since the Jim Crow days, but not much in some parts of the country. He said the racism that still exists now has been exposed, though.
"And so doesn't that give us an opportunity to grow as a country?" he asked, drawing applause.
"So I do not get discouraged, because I look at rooms like this, because there are rooms like this around the country of people who are ready to move the needle of progress," Rabhi continued. "The needle of progress ... has never moved quickly. It has moved because people have organized, they have come together, they have risked their lives, they have put their livelihoods on the line, to sit in, to stand up, to march, to organize, to speak out. And it's because of citizens doing those things that we have made the progress that we have."
Dingell raised concerns about the prevalence of fear and hatred across the country, saying ethnic and religious groups are being targeted.
"It's wrong. We cannot tolerate it," she said. "I never believed that I would see in my lifetime what is happening in this country, and all of us of all faiths must stand up against fear and hatred, and stand up for freedom of religion."
One woman who asked a question Sunday received cheers and applause for suggesting a sit-in protest in Washington to try to rid the federal government of the Trump administration and have Trump impeached.
"In order to impeach somebody, you've got to be able to build a case, and you've got to have the facts, and we're not there," Dingell responded. "I'm not somebody who's afraid to stand up and do what's right, but the reality is he was sworn in as president and I treat people with respect, even though he doesn't deserve it."
She added, "I don't like the fact that he was elected and sworn in. And by the way. I've been hacked by the Russians. That used to be a joke. That's not a joke. I have been hacked by the Russians three different times."
Dingell said she supports an investigation of Russia and she wants to keep fighting for the truth so everything can be proven.
"But do it in the right way, the respectful way, get the facts and hold them accountable," she said.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the driver's town of residence.
AUGUSTA TOWNSHIP, MI - Police have identified the driver in a fatal crash on the evening of Sunday, April 9 in Augusta Township.
Shawn Macomber, 43, was killed in the single-vehicle crash that occurred about 5:50 p.m. Sunday while driving on Willis Road, east of Stony Creek Road, with his two children in the vehicle, said Derrick Jackson of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office. The location is about 7 miles southeast of Ann Arbor.
Police said Macomber had an address listed in Dearborn Heights, but was living in Augusta Township at the time of his death. The Saline Post has reported he was a Saline resident, however, the discrepancy has not been clarified.
Details of the crash are under investigation, but police say the vehicle was on fire with the driver still trapped inside when police got to the scene. Deputies attempted to extinguish the flames, but were unsuccessful. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
It was later discovered that two children, a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old, were rescued from the backseat by a passerby.
The children were taken - one in serious condition and the other in stable condition - to the University of Michigan hospital, officials said Sunday. On Monday, Jackson said the children were expected to make a full recovery.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
On Palm Sunday morning, a bomb exploded inside Mar Girgis Church in the Delta city of Tanta, killing at least 27 and injuring 78 others, according to health ministry figures.
A few hours later in Alexandria, 17 civilians and police officers were killed as another suicide bomber blew himself up outside St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, as the head of the church, Pope Tawadros II, lead the service inside.
"The pope is safe and was not harmed in the attack," a short statement by Egypt's interior ministry said later.
Responding in a short televised address on Sunday night, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said he will impose a state of emergency nationwide for a period of three months.
El-Sisi had called a National Defence Council meeting on Sunday afternoon.
Chaired by the president and made up of the prime minister, the speaker of parliament, the defence minister and the commanders of the Egyptian armed forces, this was the second such meeting in five months convened in response to a deadly attack against Egyptian Christians.
On 11 December last year, a suicide bomber detonated explosives in the St Peter and St Pauls Church in central Cairo during prayer services, leaving 29 dead and more than 40 wounded. The Islamist State militant group claimed responsibility for that attack.
By Sunday afternoon, Egypt's local Islamic State group affiliate,Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis group, had claimed both church attacks.
In an initial response, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered military special forces to assist police in securing vital state facilities all over the country.
Egyptian security forces have been put on alert in anticipation of further attacks.
In a video released by IS militants in February, the group threatened more attacks against the countrys Christian community.
The 20-minute video, titled "Fight All Idolaters,'' purportedly showed the last statements made by the suicide bomber who blew himself up in St. Peter and St. Pauls Church.
Furthermore, the group launched an armed campaign to attack Christian residents of North Sinai governorate, pushing tens of families to forcefully leave their homes and flee to other Egyptian governorates.
Militants have suffered consecutive security hits in recent months, including the killing of one of their main leaders, Abu Anas El-Ansari, in an Egyptian army raid in North Sinai earlier this month.
International condemnation, solidarity
The attacks on Palm Sunday prompted condemnation and solidarity internationally.
Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, who is scheduled to visit Egypt at the end of April, sent his deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic church and the entire dear Egyptian nation," adding that he was praying for the dead and wounded.
I believe the goal of the first attack in Mar Girgis Church in Tanta was to be a diversion from the main target of the attack which is St Mark's Church in Alexandria where Pope Tawadros II himself was leading the Palm Sunday service, said Ali Bakr, a researcher in terrorist organisations at Al-Ahram strategic centre.
The researcher also believes that IS militant group could be trying to compensate for its latest losses in North Sinai, as well as in Syria and Iraq and other places in Egypt.
These attacks can be a message to show how the group is expanding in Egypt with different targets from Cairo to Sinai and Alexandria to Tanta, he told Ahram Online.
Inside Tanta's church, the devastation was similar to the scenes inside St Peter and St Pauls Church in Cairo last year.
Angry and grieving citizens gathered in shock as ambulances rushed to the scene, an Ahram Online correspondent reported from the scene of the attack.
Several minor clashes took place from time to time between security forces and citizens angry over what they described as a lack of security outside the church.
"Where are these security measures and dogs to detect explosives charges? asked one woman who had survived the attack. She said that she was only alive because she and her son were late for the service.
The head of the Gharbiyah security directorate, Hossam Khalifa, was sacked following the Tanta attack.
Outside the church, an 80-year-old woman was grieving for her nephew who had been killed in the attack, and praying for another who had been injured, as dozens of Christians gathered around the church praying and waiting for the funeral service.
In Alexandria, an explosion outside St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the historical seat of the Coptic church, resulted in similar scenes,
Four Egyptian police officers were among the dead when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside the entrance gate to the cathedral.
The dead officers including policeman Ahmed Ibrahim, Brigadier General Nagwa El-Haggar, and Emad El-Rakiby, the head of the investigation department of Atarin district, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Fourteen other people were killed and 47 others were injured in the attack.
A statement by Egypt's interior ministry and a security surveillance video showed a man approaching to enter the cathedral in the Manshiya district of Alexandria, and being ushered by a man in civilian dress away from the open gate and towards a metal detector.
Minutes later smoke fills the screen.
The total number of casualties in the two attacks climbed to 44 dead and 126 injured, in the deadliest militant attack against civilians in decades.
Egypt's Copts are one of the most ancient Christian communities and the largest in the Middle East.
The make up around 10 -15 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, according to unofficial figures.
Egypt has been battling waves of militant attacks in North Sinai, centred mainly in Rafah, Sheikh Zuweid and Arish since the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Correction: death toll was revised from 46 to 44 following official confirmation
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Rep. Donna Lasinski, D-Scio Township, speaks at a town hall meeting on Sunday, April 9.
(Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News)
State representatives in Washtenaw County are holding town hall forums this week to discuss issues on the minds of residents.
Rep. Donna Lasinski, D-Scio Township, is hosting a "This is Your House" town hall from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, April 13, at Scio Township Hall, 827 N. Zeeb Road.
Lasinski is expected to be joined by Reps. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor; Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor; and Ronnie Peterson, D-Ypsilanti Township.
It's an opportunity for residents to voice their concerns and ask questions about issues facing their community and the state.
Lasinski, Rabhi and Zemke also participated in a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell on Sunday, April 9.
Dingell and Peterson have separately announced plans for a town hall with the Minister's Alliance of Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Vicinity from 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, at Ypsilanti High School, 2095 Packard St., in Ypsilanti Township. They will be joined by Marianne Udow-Phillips, executive director of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, to discuss what potential changes to the ACA could mean for Michigan families.
The town hall comes as the White House and Republican leadership in the U.S. House have signaled their intention to revive efforts to repeal the ACA.
Peterson said he was honored to welcome Dingell to the district last month for a community forum about potential ACA changes. Lasinski, Rabhi and Zemke also were in attendance, along with other health care experts.
Peterson said the meeting attracted more than 400 residents and shed light on a complex issue, and now he's welcoming Dingell back for a second forum.
BAY CITY - There's a new chocolatier in town who's bringing a bean-to-bar experience to Bay City's new indoor public market this summer.
Anne Boulley, owner of Artisanne Chocolatier, is one of the first tenants of City Market, an indoor public market opening this summer in the former J.C. Penney building, 401 Center Ave. She joins about 30 other clients -- including a grocer that's sourcing food from local farmers -- in the space, which is slated to open June 1.
Boulley got her start in the industry writing for Taste Magazine and Emeril Lagasse's website. For the past eight years, she operated a blog and catering business in coastal Brookings, Oregon. After a stint in Portland, Boulley moved back to her hometown of Bay City to raise her three-year-old daughter, Penny.
While she has traditionally trained as a French chef, baking, cooking and catering with sous vide technique, she made the transition to chocolate as she raised her child.
"I wanted something fun and creative that I could do at midnight if I have to," Boulley said.
In the same vein as her prior cooking expertise, Boulley creates her chocolates based on traditional flavors of single-origin cocoa beans. Boulley sources most of her beans from specialty website Chocosphere.com, but plans to transition to Traverse City's Fresh Coast Chocolate Co.
Boulley developed an affinity toward French cuisine at an early age, beginning in her French language classes at Bangor John Glenn High School. After high school, she served as an au pair in France, learning to embrace French cuisine techniques and becoming familiar with French confections and taste.
"I go for more traditional flavors," Boulley said of her chocolates. "Trying to get each thing just right."
Boulley says she looks forward to sharing a space with other like-minded vendors who contribute their own experiences and taste at City Market.
"Everybody's bringing back stuff that they've experienced in other places," Boulley said.
Ruthy Shemanski, manager of City Market, said customers are going to be "blown away by how awesome" Boulley's product is.
"She's not your typical chocolatier," Shemanski said. "She really cares about the quality of the chocolate, where she gets it from and she really does her research. She always makes sure it's the highest of quality."
Boulley has recently hosted chocolate making workshops at 3rd and Johnson Market, 1023 N. Johnson St. and Meats and Mooore, 1411 S. Wenonah St.
She adds a handful of tempered chocolate to "seed" an untempered mix of ground beans and cocoa butter, helping her cool the chocolate between 88 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit for pouring without having to dip below 80 degrees to temper the whole bowl of chocolate. To get to that narrow two-degree window, she uses a double-boiler technique, placing her mixing bowl in a bath of hot water.
While the chocolate cools to pouring temperature, she and workshop guests paint plastic molds with colored cocoa butter and polish them to produce shining, colorful chocolate confections.
The initial pour coats the molds, after which guests can add ganache - a mix of chocolate and cream. Some chocolates are left uncapped, allowing guests to cover the ganache with their choice of toppings, including pistachios, coconut and dried raspberries.
It takes about 400 beans to make one pound of chocolate, Boulley said. Each of the three varietals of cocoa beans -- Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario -- have distinct flavor characteristics. Flavors also vary by region. Boulley is currently making chocolates with blends as well as single-origin beans from Honduras and Ecuador.
"You've got to get to know the chocolate," Boulley said. "You have to work your way up to it."
Ultimately, Boulley hopes to operate a French cooking workshop out of her spot at City Market, training guests in the newly-economical sous vide method of vacuum cooking while also providing a paint-and-sip style chocolate-making classes.
"I grew up in Bay City, and always loved what it was," Boulley said. "I was surprised to hear Bay City was getting something like (City Market). I'm hoping the community can sustain it."
Boulley is hosting a workshop from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 12 at Meats and Mooore, 1411 S. Wenonah St., in partnership with 12-year-old Master Chef Jr. contestant Kamryn Chasnis, a Saginaw native. Tickets are $45 apiece and may be purchased online at www.artisannechocolatier.com.
BACA members.JPG
Members of Bikers Against Child Abuse, a nonprofit organization, as they appeared in the Bay County Court Facility on April 10, 2017.
(Cole Waterman | The Bay City Times)
Ibrahim J. Estephan
BAY CITY, MI -- With leather-clad bikers behind her for moral support, a teen told the man who repeatedly sexually assaulted her that she forgives him and is determined not to let the abuse bog her down.
The motorcyclists -- with such monikers as Spyder, Trigger, Hammer, Gypsy, and Irish sewn onto their apparel -- are representatives of Bikers Against Child Abuse (or BACA), a nonprofit organization with chapters in 11 countries. Some stood and others sat during the April 10 sentencing hearing for 55-year-old Ibrahim J. Estephan.
Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill sentenced Estephan to eight to 15 years in prison, with credit for 223 days already served.
Wearing a leather vest herself with BACA's fist logo on its back, the girl spoke in a firm tone when addressing Judge Gill.
"He took my childhood away and made me grow up way too soon," the girl said. "I forgive him for what he did, but forgiving is a hard battle. I have learned from this experience that what happened does not define me. I have defeated this so I can move on in my life, to thrive and help others who went through the same thing.
"I know no matter how badly I want to give up," she continued, "I have to keep trying. I know I will survive because I have a wonderful group of friends and family by my side all the way who support and care for me."
The girl's mother addressed the shackled Estephan directly. The mother and Estephan were dating and living together when the abuse occurred.
"You have taken something that will never be able to be given back," she said. "You took a child's innocence away and broke the trust of not only me, but also my children. We are strong and we will overcome anything that life throws at us, even this."
She added that when she began dating Estephan, she warned him not to touch her daughter. "You did it anyway," she told him Monday.
In addition to vowing to oppose his every parole hearing, the mother said she hopes he meets a friend in prison who would "do to you what you did to my daughter."
Estephan gave a barely audible statement of apology and added he hopes his victim can heal.
"What you did was a deliberate, calculated, deceitful, sinister, dishonest series of acts that showed a callous disregard for this young lady whom you supposedly loved," Judge Gill told him. "The acts you did is what an animal would do for a piece of meat, to give it no thought and just grab it. You treated this child as chattel, a piece of property that you used for own gratification without any regard for her well-being."
Gill said the damage Estephan caused cannot be undone, but only mitigated by the girl receiving appropriate help and counseling.
"I think that you are a very dangerous man to this community," Gill continued. "We cannot allow you to be a part of it any longer."
After the sentence was imposed, the girl and her mother left the courtroom. As they conferred with the prosecution in a side room, the bikers remained on guard outside it.
BACA was founded by John Paul "Chief" Lilly, a licensed clinical social worker, registered play therapist/supervisor, and part-time faculty member at Brigham Young University. Members are available to accompany abused children to court hearings, can visit them at home and provide therapy needs. The group maintains a therapy fund for children in need of assistance.
Case history
Estephan in February pleaded no contest to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The charge is a 15-year felony and involves penetration.
In exchange, the prosecution agreed to dismiss two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a life offense.
In an October preliminary examination, his then-15-year-old victim testified Estephan had sex with her multiple times in 2014 and 2015. She testified Estephan on multiple occasions took her with him to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Bay City.
On those trips, Estephan would sexually assault her in different vehicles parked in a cemetery near the Bangor Township Walmart, she testified. She added the assaults happened in other communities as well.
The girl said she did not tell anyone about the alleged misconduct until 2016, when she made disclosures to a friend at a summer camp. She said she didn't tell anyone sooner because she was afraid and "didn't want to hurt my family."
BACA members attended that October court hearing as well.
BACA can be reached at 1-866-712-2873. Its Wayne County chapter can be reached at 734-915-1186.
Kevin J. Rieman
BAY CITY, MI -- Additional criminal charges are holding up the sentencing of a Bay City attorney who was convicted earlier this year of embezzling thousands from a client.
It has been months since a jury convicted Kevin J. Rieman of three felonies related to the embezzlement. The delay stems from attorneys sorting through several of Rieman's other court matters, including a drunken driving offense that didn't come to light until after his conviction.
Rieman's trial began Jan. 23 and ended Jan. 31 with the jury finding him guilty of single counts of embezzlement by an agent or trust more than $20,000, uttering and publishing and forgery. All of the charges are felonies.
Midland County Circuit Judge Michael J. Beale, who presided over the trial, allowed Rieman to remain free on bond pending sentencing. Rieman remains charged with two more counts each of forgery, uttering and publishing and embezzlement between $1,000 and $20,000, as well as one count of false pretenses between $1,000 and $20,000. Those charges are divided between two additional cases, with each file related to another client.
In August, Rieman pleaded guilty to second-offense impaired driving, stemming from a July 2015 drunken driving arrest in Bay County. His sentencing on that charge is likewise pending, with the judge having taken the plea under advisement until the sentence is imposed.
Unbeknownst to Bay County prosecutors, Rieman in August had been arrested in Ogemaw County on another drunken driving offense and later pleaded to impaired driving. Bay County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey D. Stroud said he did not learn of this subsequent arrest until after Rieman's embezzlement-related convictions. As a result, Stroud filed a motion to have Beale revoke Rieman's bond and schedule him for sentencing.
Beale on Friday, March 31, denied Stroud's motion and instead placed Rieman on an alcohol-detecting tether and ordered he not leave his residence between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The judge also set a status conference for May 4.
Three things are to be determined at the conference. First, whether Rieman is representing himself in his remaining felony cases -- as he did in his first trial -- or if he's retaining counsel. Second, whether those felony matters will be resolved with plea or proceed to trial, with new dates being scheduled if the latter is the case. Third, the court will officially accept Rieman's plea on the Bay County impaired driving offense and set a sentencing date for that.
Court records indicate Rieman in late February retained attorney Anthony J. Jenkins of Midland to represent him.
Case history
Throughout Rieman's trial, Stroud argued Troy A. Dybas had hired Rieman several years ago to represent him in litigation stemming from a motorcycle crash. The case proceeded to trial, with a jury finding State Farm Mutual Insurance Co. owed Dybas money. Rieman was to receive 33 percent of the final sum.
However, Stroud argued Rieman signed Dybas' name on a 2011 check for $49,942 and kept the money. Rieman, who testified in his own defense, acknowledged he had signed Dybas' name and put the money in his personal account, but said he did so with Dybas' consent.
In the corner of a typed contract, Rieman had handwritten that he would be loaned the sum by Dybas for five years, and that the amount would accrue 5 percent interest. Dybas could have withdrawn the money from Rieman with a written notice of 30 days, Rieman testified.
Rieman was first arraigned on criminal charges in December 2014. In connection with those charges, court records indicate prosecutors believe Rieman on April 17, 2014, cashed a check for $8,000 that was due to a client, Erica Robinson. Rieman then kept the funds, prosecutors allege.
At the time, Rieman was part of Rieman & Reyes, a law firm at 817 Washington Ave. in downtown Bay City. He no longer is part of the firm, which is now known as Reyes & Bauer.
Rieman also was president of the Bay County Bar Association at the time, although he resigned the day of his arraignment.
In April 2015, Rieman was arraigned on the additional charges stemming from his alleged conduct with Dybas and fellow client Sue Damm.
Damm testified during a June 2015 preliminary examination that she hired Rieman to represent her son in litigation stemming from a motorcycle crash that left him disabled. Damm and her ex-husband signed a retainer agreement on their son's behalf, granting Rieman 33 percent of whatever sum their son received, she said.
The case resulted in a monetary settlement owed to the Damms in early 2009, she testified.
During that hearing, Assistant Prosecutor Stroud showed Damm copies of a check for $5,394.75 issued to her and bearing what appeared to be her signature. Damm, however, said the signature was fraudulent and she never received money from the settlement.
Damm added that in June 2009, Rieman demanded she pay him $1,100 in cash, without saying why. Damm borrowed the amount from a friend and gave it to Rieman, she testified.
Dybas also testified against Rieman during the preliminary exam.
"He told me he was having a very rough year, that his wife was divorcing him, that his business was not doing well, and at that time he'd call State Farm to see if they'd settle for less money," Dybas testified during the preliminary hearing.
An affidavit signed by police and contained in court records says the check was deposited into Rieman's personal bank account May 5, 2011.
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U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop hosted a series of town hall events on Monday in Brighton at the American Spirit Centre, hosting 30 people per session. (Dana Afana | MLive.com)
(Dana Afana | MLive.com)
Many members of Congress have been facing boisterous crowds of activists at town hall meetings in recent weeks, and it was U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop's turn Monday.
The Rochester Republican hosted three town halls in Brighton, fitting in 30 people per session to help the congressman understand his constituents' needs.
The meetings weren't as tense as U.S. Rep. Dave Trott's March town hall at the Suburban Collection Showplace, but attendees Monday mainly focused primarily on the same major issue as they did in event: health care.
"We have (House Speaker) Paul Ryan sneaking off in the middle of the night hiding the health care bill in the basement ... how is this a bipartisan open effort?" asked Renee Snyder of Green Oak Township.
When attendees asked Bishop if he felt health care was a moral right, he said it's "a priority."
"I believe that it's responsibility of government to create an environment whereby every American has the ability to access affordable health care," Bishop said.
Lelah Melton of Haslett said the Republican health care bill needs to be fixed.
"Fixing would be getting together with the Democrats ... looking at ways to put in reasonable controls to get those costs down, not taking away things that make us secure so we're not going bankrupt," Melton told Bishop.
The congressman said he has not had a Democrat approach him to negotiate a plan on health care.
"I haven't had a single one of my Democrat colleagues come to me and say 'let's fix Obamacare,'" Bishop said.
"Clearly, the biggest concern since we've been here today has been the Affordable Care Act, and the impact it's had on individuals and families," Bishop said. "Congress is currently immersed in that subject and we're trying to find solutions to that.
"Everything that I hear from constituents, I bring back [to Washington]. I will repeat everything that was heard today."
Things got heated within the crowd when Shreena Gandhi of Okemos said she was recently called "sand and the N-word" and was told to "get out of my country" by a man at a coffee shop.
She said the man's truck had a Bishop yard sign in the window, a Trump bumper sticker and another bumper sticker that read "Don't tread on me."
Another attendee next to her claimed she was "being ridiculous."
"I felt like I was being silenced. He just kept talking," Gandhi said of the attendee.
She asked Bishop how he will hold President Donald Trump "accountable on his white supremacy."
"He discriminates against women," she alleged. "He's bragged about sexual assaulting people. If I wasn't a woman of color, I don't know that he would speak to me the way he's been speaking to me this entire time."
Bishop in response said he stands for every American, regardless of race or religion.
"I don't endorse anything tied to discrimination whatsoever," Bishop said. "I'm a firm believer in the constitution. I think everybody in this country deserves equal protection under the law and I believe my president feels the same way."
Florence Hill of Lansing, Katherine See and Michael Kamrin of Williamstown Township stood outside, protesting what they called a "reluctance of Mike Bishop holding a real town hall."
From left: Katherine See, Michael Kamrin and Florence Hill stood in protest of Rep. Bishop's town hall, claiming he's reluctant of holding a real town hall.
Bishop held a series of virtual town halls, but See said they were difficult to access and were not open to questions.
One of Bishop's assistants went outside and invited the three to join the town hall, but they continued to protest.
"We think it's really important to the public to have a presence to those who are objecting to the larger issue," See said. "These are being held in places where large numbers of constituents are not located. He represents a very large area and this is in a pretty concentrated area."
Bishop is planning three more town halls in Ingham County on Thursday, April 20 from noon to 4 p.m.
Shooting on Baltimore 04
MLive.com file photo.
(Mark Felix | MLive.com)
CORUNNA, MI -- Investigators don't have any suspects in the search for who killed a man, stuffed him in the trunk of a vehicle parked near a softball field.
Freddie Porter, 42, of Caro, was discovered by local police around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 6, in the trunk of a 2011 Chevy Malibu parked at a softball field in Mitchell Park off Ferry Street near the Shiawassee River.
The case was later turned over to the Michigan State Police.
Detectives worked the case through the weekend and there have been no arrests or suspects, according to state police Spokesman Lt. David Kaiser.
Investigators are still trying to figure out why Porter was in Corunna and if there was anyone else in the vehicle, Kaiser said.
The field where Porter's body was found is located less than a mile from the Shiawassee County Sheriff's Office.
FLINT, MI -- A federal grand jury has spent more than a year investigating the Flint water crisis, according to a subpoena served on the city at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The subpoena, obtained by MLive-The Flint Journal, shows federal prosecutors made an extensive request for documents from the city of Flint as part of the grand jury proceedings.
The Dec. 18, 2015, subpoena requested documents related to the decision to change the city's water source while it was being run by a string of emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder.
Other information about the grand jury's probe remains sealed in U.S. District Court, but just last month, former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade said the investigation was still active at least 16 months after it began.
MLive Media Group, publisher of mlive.com and The Flint Journal, filed a Genesee Circuit Court complaint against the city March 31, asking a judge to order the release of the subpoena after the city initially refused to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the document.
The city released the subpoena to MLive after the lawsuit was filed but in advance of a Circuit Court hearing, which was scheduled for Monday, April 10.
The involvement of a grand jury in a federal investigation is not unusual and the sealing of records related to such a case is typical as well, said Tonya Krause-Phelan, a professor and auxiliary dean of Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.
That sealed arrangement "allows the U.S. attorney to cast a broad net" in seeking information without publicly making accusations of wrongdoing, Krause-Phelan said.
Information collected through such investigations typically doesn't become public until and unless the grand jury makes an indictment, she added.
The grand jury subpoena to Flint officials requested documents tied to the city's troubled water system and was so extensive that former city attorney Stacy Erwin Oakes cited it as a reason her office needed additional resources from the state in a Sept. 20, 2016, letter.
Included in the documents requested were:
All documents relating to the termination of the contract between the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the city of Flint.
All test data relating to city water since Jan. 1, 2010, including results and protocols.
All documents related to the treatment of the city's water and the decision to switch from water supplied by Detroit to the Flint River.
All documents related to water complaints from Flint citizens and all water test results received by the city from any source.
All correspondence between the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and city relating to the Flint water supply.
All documents related to elevated blood lead levels in Flint citizens.
The subpoena asked the city not to provide any information about the request to any third party but says federal law does not require that officials remain silent.
Any "disclosure to third parties could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with the enforcement of federal criminal law," the subpoena says.
McQuade, who left her position earlier this year after President Donald Trump demanded her and 45 other federal prosecutors' resignations, declined to comment in an email to The Journal, referring questions to Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The Journal could not immediately reach Balaya for comment on the status of the Flint water investigation.
Two former Flint emergency managers charged with water crisis crimes
McQuade said in a March 17 email that the water investigation was ongoing at the time of her departure and federal court records indicated Monday that the case remains sealed.
Federal prosecutors first confirmed to MLive in January 2016 that they were investigating the water crisis but have declined to comment further.
U.S. Attorneys, whose offices are organized under the Department of Justice, handle criminal prosecutions for the federal government, as well as non-criminal issues, such as civil rights violations.
State Attorney General Bill Schuette also has an open investigation of criminal wrongdoing related to the water crisis.
Todd Flood, a special prosecutor for Schuette, has so far filed criminal charges against 13 current and former city and state officials, accusing them of criminal wrongdoing for their role in the water crisis.
Krause-Phelan said the dual state-federal investigation is not unusual because state and federal crimes can stem from the same incidents.
Flint's water crisis unfolded after the city changed its water source for the first time in decades from pre-treated water from Lake Huron to untreated water from the Flint River.
The state Department of Environmental Quality never required the city to treat the river water to make it less corrosive, causing lead to leach from lead pipes, plumbing and solder.
State prosecutors have already filed criminal charges that include willful neglect of duty, misconduct in office and conspiracy and filed civil charges against companies the city contracted with for water advice.
HOLLAND, MI -- Cherry Republic is putting the final touches on its first West Michigan store.
A former women's boutique in downtown Holland has been transformed into Cherry Republic's distinctive interior, replete with wood furnishings and artwork playing up its Northern Michigan heritage.
There is also artwork of Holland's iconic tulips, Dutch windmill and Big Red lighthouse.
"We like to be whimsical," said Rick Burbee. "We have a slogan of life, liberty, beaches and pies. The beaches part is just having fun, kicking back and enjoying yourself."
It's his job to get Cherry Republic's new stores ready for opening. Burbee is a former Sears vice president of brand development, trend forecasting/customer environments who went to work last year for the growing retailer as its senior director of marketing.
There's been excitement since mid-December when Cherry Republic announced plans for a Holland store.
The store will have a soft opening on Friday, April 14, with a grand opening and ribbon cutting timed with the Tulip Time Festival in May. An exact day hasn't been announced yet.
The new location, at 29 W. Eighth St., will be the sixth store for the Glen Arbor retailer, which has locations in Traverse City, Charlevoix, Ann Arbor and Frankenmuth.
While Cherry Republic sells artwork, gift cards and T-shirts, the retailer is best known for its wide range of edible products that incorporate Michigan grown cherries in some form.
"If you can put a cherry in it, we are probably doing it," said Burbee. "Our most popular things tends to be salsa, jellies and chocolate covered cherry."
The fun of visiting a Cherry Republic is sampling the assortment of jams, salsas, dips and cookies while shopping.
Three major tasting tables have been built for the Holland store, along with a tasting bar where customers can try cherry-flavored wines and sodas.
"Pretty much anything we sell, the customer can try before they buy it," Burbee said.
Among the Michigan-made products will be wooden bowls and utensils by the Holland Bowl Company.
"We've been working with the Holland Bowl Company for 25 years," said Burbee, nothing the bowls carry the Cherry Republic stamp on the back.
Burbee describes Cherry Republic as the ultimate gift shop, regardless of whether shoppers are buying for themselves or others. All purchases can be boxed and shipped all over the world.
Cherry Republic settled on downtown Holland for its first West Michigan store because of the tourist town's proximity to Lake Michigan.
"This really good location popped up and was gift to us," Burbee said.
The 2,745-square-foot storefront previously housed Yeta's Fine Fashion's, a high-end retailer catering to plus-size fashions, that closed in the fall.
"We like to use historical buildings, which this one is," said Burbee, adding that the space's exposed brick was appealing. The retailer added the Cherry wood look, from the floors to the furnishings.
Store hours will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Evening hour may be extended during the summer months, the company said.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Former state Rep. Cindy Gamrat has filed a sweeping lawsuit against the state House of Representatives, political leaders and staffers and her estranged husband alleging illegal wiretapping, stalking, malicious prosecution and defamation.
Gamrat was disgraced by an extramarital affair with then-Rep. Todd Courser, who resigned an hour before she was forced out of the House.
She represented herself in a lawsuit filed in September against a handful of political figures who asked that it be dismissed for lack of prosecution.
She then hired a lawyer who recently filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court now naming as defendants the House of Representatives, then-Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter, former aides Keith Allard and Benjamin Graham, House Business Office director Tim Bowlin, Cotter's chief of staff and general counsel, Brock Swartzle, her estranged husband, Joe Gamrat, and others.
Allard and Graham have settled their lawsuit against the House after they lost their jobs. The House also agreed to indemnify them and cover legal costs in cases like this.
"This lawsuit has no merit," Grand Rapids attorney Sarah Riley Howard, who represents Allard and Graham, told MLive and the Grand Rapids Press.
"Although Cindy Gamrat's lawsuit claims to have taxpayers' interests at heart, she seems very willing to waste a lot of their money deflecting blame for her actions."
Courser, R-Lapeer, filed a separate lawsuit against many of the same defendants in Gamrat's complaint.
But he filed a motion to dismiss because of stress-related poor health while fighting criminal charges, his attorney said.
In January, an Ingham County judge ordered Courser to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine his competency to stand trial on a perjury charge.
Courser and Gamrat, R-Plainwell, both elected in 2014, shared staff - but not offices - to cut expenses. They were accused of misconduct for misusing state resources to cover up their affair.
Gamrat said in the lawsuit that her troubles began Jan. 15, 2015, the day after she was sworn into office.
She said Cotter directed her and others to sign a confidential "Caucus Pledge" that required her to pledge votes on important issues to the caucus, or Cotter, rather than the wishes of her constituents.
She said she refused to sign, which prompted Cotter, his chief of staff, Norm Saari, and Swartle, to meet with her staff and order them to direct information about her to them, according to the lawsuit.
She said that Allard, Graham and another aide, Joshua Cline, began to issue reports as directed by Cotter, the lawsuit said.
She said her three staffers began to communicate with Joe Gamrat.
Her estranged husband - they are in the process of divorce, records showed - had begun "secretly conducting surveillance of Gamrat in her car, her home, her bedroom, and her campaign headquarters by placing secret wiretapping and surveillance devices in these locations," Grand Rapids attorney Tyler Osburn wrote in a 38-page complaint.
She accused Joe Gamrat and two others of secretly bugging her state office, hotel rooms, car and and purse with wiretapping devices. They also monitored her phone calls and voicemails, emails and texts, she said in the lawsuit.
Joe Gamrat forwarded the information both directly and anonymously to her friends, colleagues and pastor, the lawsuit said. Before long, Gamrat and Courser believed they were under surveillance at many places, including the Radisson Hotel in Lansing.
Cline soon quit.
Gamrat said Graham and Allard secretly recorded her conversations.
"On a number of occasions, Allard commented to Gamrat and Courser and other staff that Gamrat's office was 'bugged,'" Osburn wrote.
A state police investigation showed that David Horr, named as a defendant in the lawsuit and a friend to Joe Gamrat, sent anonymous texts to Courser at his friend's behest in an effort to get Courser to resign.
The texts threatened to expose the affair, which led to Courser's infamous suggestion to staffers that they "inoculate the herd" by issuing an anonymous, outlandish allegation against him so that reports of an affair would not be believed.
Gamrat said she also came under fire in the House because she broke the "Caucus Pledge."
She also criticized a report by the House Business Office, which alleged she misused state funds, as inadequate with many factual errors.
"The HBO Report was based primarily upon the accusations alone of Allard and Graham," while evidence corroborating Gamrat's testimony was ignored, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges violation of due-process rights, breach of contract, malicious prosecution/abuse of process, violation of state eavesdropping and federal wiretapping laws, civil stalking, defamation, fraud and conspiracy.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Tendai Masiriri knows what it's like to have nothing and no one.
Born in the southern African country of Zimbabwe, Masiriri's parents both died when he was young, landing him in extreme poverty for most of his childhood.
Now the new executive director of Heartside Ministries -- a homeless shelter and social services complex in downtown Grand Rapids -- Masiriri is looking to pay forward what he calls the "gift of hospitality."
Masiriri said his upbringing, which included frequent contact with some of the world's poorest people, allows him to better connect to the population the ministry has served for the last three decades.
"Growing up, I saw a lot of poverty," Masiriri said. "When I thought of coming to join here, there was a lot of attraction there because of my upbringing and my background. I haven't just read about poverty or heard about it. I've experienced it."
The 47-year-old is no stranger to Grand Rapids. After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1999, he spent the last six years working for Bethany Christian Services as the organization's vice president of global operations.
Working for faith-based nonprofit organizations has always been a passion of Masiriri's. But the reality of having little financial help from government or grants creates pressure and necessitates he foster a healthy relationship with a heavily relied-on donor base.
Masiriri said West Michigan's Christian community makes it an ideal area for groups such as his to gather resources.
"We don't receive money from government here," he said. "All the funding that we get comes from private citizens. People here are very generous. No matter how affluent they are, they'll remember those who are underprivileged and struggling."
Promising accountability and transparency with dollars donated, Masiriri promises he will put funds to tangible use. To accomplish that, he will put to use his prior experience in statistical outcomes.
"I'm very outcome-orientated," he explained. "I want to show the people who support us and our stakeholders that this is working."
Since Masiriri took over in January, one item on his priority list has been bolstering the organization's booming art therapy program, where members of the community the ministry serves can pair psychological or physical therapy sessions with artistic expression.
"That's really one of our flagship programs here," he said. "There is an ever-growing momentum in the area of art therapy. What we want to do is bring together the social work program and combine that with an interdisciplinary program with art so we can have both."
For Heartside's new leader, the fact that his organization offers services as such a critical point in the lives those it serves highlights the need for him to maximize financial support for the nonprofit.
"This really makes a difference in people's lives," Masiriri said. "The people who have been denied services at other places ... we want to be able to say to them, come let's see how we can move the needle for you. We are open to everybody."
In a statement published on Sunday, Al-Bawabah newspaper expressed its surprise and outrage at the decision to confiscate its Monday issue, in which it pointed to security failure" in relation to the bombing of two Coptic Orthodox churches that left dozens dead and scores injured on Palm Sunday.
Al-Bawabahs editor Abdo El-Nasr told Al-Ahram Arabic website that the newspaper's management speaking with officials to try and secure the release of the banned issue, saying "it contains nothing threatening to national security".
We openly declared that what happened at the two churches, in our opinion, is a major security lapse and we must hold accountable those responsible, changing the current strategy in combating terrorism, the statement read.
It continued that the newspaper was surprised at the decision to confiscate the issue at the printing house without any explanation provided by officials.
The statement demanded the removal of Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar in the wake of the deadly bombings.
The newspaper is headed by its founder MP and journalist Abdel-Rehim Aly, a strong opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporter of Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's administration.
The two blasts at Tanta's Mar Girgis Church and Alexandria's St Mark's Cathedral, where Pope Tawadros II was leading a Palm Sunday service, killed over 40 people and injured more than 100 in the deadliest attack targeting Copts in years.
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Lightning, like that shown in this 2016 file photo, and hail are possible based on a severe thunderstorm warning issued for parts of West Michigan.
(Dennis Timmons | MLive file photo)
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of West Michigan.
Quarter-size hail and cloud-to-ground lightning are possible with this thunderstorm.
The warning, which in in effect until 8:15 a.m., covers Oceana, Southeastern Mason, Western Lake and Northwestern Newaygo counties.
Here's the latest radar animation:
According to the National Weather Service, radar indicated that a severe thunderstorm was located over Hart in Oceana County, moving northeast at 40 mph. A severe thunderstorm also was located over Lake Michigan, moving northeast at 50 mph. That storm is expected to come ashore near Stony Lake, according to the weather service.
To prepare for the thunderstorm, the weather service recommends that residents seek shelter inside a well-built structure and stay away from windows.
BYRON TOWNSHIP, MI -- The congressman from the Grand Rapids area will meet this week with constituents at three different town hall-style events.
U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, announced the upcoming meeting planned in Byron Center, the third such event being held this week by the congressman for Michigan's 3rd congressional district.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Date: Wednesday, April 12
Place: Van Singel Fine Arts Center
Address: 8500 Burlingame Ave. SW Byron Center, MI 49315
It will be the eighth such meeting held for constituents this year, and the third planned for this week. Amash is also holding town halls in Cedar Springs on Monday, April 10, and in Pennfield Township near Battle Creek on Tuesday, April 11.
The congressman has already held a handful of the in-person meetings with residents this year, including two in Grand Rapids, one in Battle Creek, one in Hastings and one in Ionia.
Amash often cites the importance of such regular meetings with constituents and points out that not all of his colleagues in Congress hold them.
Town halls have received increased attention this year as groups opposing Donald Trump's presidency use them as a forum to express their discontent with the new administration.
A Washington D.C.-based ethics group recently filed complaints against Amash and Trump aide Dan Scavino in connection with a Twitter dispute between the pair. The complaints allege violations of the Hatch Act and House Rules because of the content and context of the tweets.
Amash's office said House rules govern the use of congressional resources, but noted @justinamash is Rep. Amash's personal account and does not use any office or taxpayer resources. An Amash staffer said staff do not have access to Amash's personal account, and that the official office Twitter account is @amashoffice.
First elected to Congress in 2010, Amash won reelection to a fourth term in November 2016.
He represents Michigan's 3rd congressional district, which stretches from Albion in the south to Sand Lake in the north and includes all or portions of Barry, Calhoun, Ionia, Kent and Montcalm counties.
HOLLAND, MI - West Ottawa High School will host its first annual career and job fair for its 500 seniors on Tuesday, April 11.
"We hope that our seniors see this as a really good opportunity for summer employment, internships and potentially a career,'' said West Ottawa Principal Todd Tulgestke, who said they've made their students aware of companies with tuition incentive programs.
"Over the years, we've had a lot of conversations with our local employers about how better to connect with seniors.''
Tulgestke said they wanted to provide students access to employers and exposure to the interview process at the unique event. He said students have been provided copies of their transcripts to share and labs will be open to print resumes and/or make last minute changes.
He said school leaders want employers to see the value of using transcripts in interviews.
Students will also come prepared with their Work Readiness Score, a cumulative score much like a grade-point average that consists of three categories; attendance and punctuality, time management and productivity, and respect for school and others.
Students are scored by all teachers, each term on these soft skills and their score, combined with GPA, is a great indicator of employability.
Every student should have the chance to potentially find employment with companies looking for a combination of seasonal, internship, part-time and full-time employees.
Some of the companies attending the job fair include: Herman Miller, Haworth, Gentex, Holland Hospital, Metal Flow, and Tyson Foods. For a full list, visit the website.
The district's mission is "preparing all students to be college, career and life ready." The high school has 2,250 students.
While the juniors are taking the SAT and freshman and sophomores the PSAT, seniors will be connecting with employers from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office reports the following log of activities for Sunday, April 9, with deputies responding to 41 calls for service, conducted 10 traffic stops and made 1 arrest.
6:02 a.m.
Deputy Faouzi responded to Vining Street for an assist to the Summit Fire Department.
7:30 a.m.
Deputy Sparks responded to I-94 near M-99 for a Personal Welfare Check.
8:16 a.m.
Deputy Sparks responded to M-50 near McCrum Road for a Car vs. Deer Crash.
8:59 a.m.
Deputy Bryant responded to Moon Lake Road and assisted the Michigan State Police with a Trouble with Subject complaint.
9:51 a.m.
Deputy Faouzi responded to Carson Avenue for a Breaking and Entering report.
10:18 a.m.
Deputies Laughlin and Caroffino responded to Spring Arbor Road for a recovery of a stolen trailer. The original larceny report was taken by the Spring Arbor Police.
11:09 a.m.
Deputy Faouzi responded to Hollis Street for a Domestic Situation.
11:47 a.m.
Deputy Truchan responded to Commercial Street near Mill Street for a traffic complaint.
12:18 p.m.
Deputy Sparks responded to South Pleasant Street for an assist to the Hicksville, OH Police Department in locating a subject.
12:53 p.m.
Deputy Bryant responded to Coon Hill Road near Dunn Road for a Property Damage Crash.
1:09 p.m.
Deputies Faouzi and Sparks responded to Cherokee Cresent for a Domestic Situation.
1:54 p.m.
Deputy Truchan responded to South Main Street in the Village of Brooklyn and assisted the Columbia Township Police with a Domestic.
2:24 p.m.
Deputy Laughlin responded to Maple Dale Road near Kimmel Road for an unknown accident.
2:51 p.m.
Deputy Sparks responded to North Sandstone Road for a Personal Welfare Check.
3:14 p.m.
Deputy Truchan responded to Palmer Road for a Death Investigation. A person passed away due to natural causes.
3:32 p.m.
Deputies Faouzi and Laughlin responded to Hickory Court for a Domestic Situation.
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Bryant responded to Crest Avenue for a Personal Welfare Check.
4:48 p.m.
Deputy Sparks responded to I-94 near Mount Hope Road for a Car vs. Deer Crash.
5:09 p.m.
Deputy Sparks responded to Maute Road for a tree in the roadway.
5:33 p.m.
Deputies Laughlin and Sparks responded to Warner Road for a Domestic Situation.
6:40 p.m.
Deputy Sullivan took a property damage accident report at Ferguson and S. Jackson.
6:50 p.m.
Deputy Sullivan responded to Commons Blvd. for trouble with juveniles threating other children in the area.
7:10 p.m.
Deputy Jenski was dispatched to Horning Road for a Breaking and Entering report.
7:18 p.m.
Deputy Sullivan responded to the area of Birdsell Street for a suspicious subject. Deputy Sullivan made contact with the subject who was found to be operating while intoxicated.
7:35 p.m.
Deputy Vosters was dispatched to I-94 East near Sandstone Road for a property damage accident.
8:25 p.m.
Deputy Wickham took an animal cruelty report at Myers Road.
8:30 p.m.
Deputy Sullivan responded to Horton Road for a domestic situation.
10:35 p.m.
Deputies responded to Kibby Road for a personal welfare check. An intoxicated male subject who was also having ill effects from his medication wondered into the woods. He was later located unharmed at the falling waters trail head off of Weatherwax Road.
11 p.m.
Deputy Sullivan was dispatched to Horton Road near Maple Dale Road for a motorcycle personal injury accident. Two motorcycles, one with a passenger, were heading west when a deer crossed the road. Both drivers laid their motorcycles down after braking. The two drivers were transported to Henry Ford with minor injuries. A female passenger who, was 6 months pregnant, was transported with serious but non-life threating injuries.
11:30 p.m.
Deputy Sullivan took a suspicious situation report at Harding Road.
11:35 p.m.
Sergeant Barnett and Deputy Jenski responded to W. Michigan Avenue for a business alarm that was found to be false.
4:30 a.m.
Deputies Wickham and Jenski responded to Albion Road for a verbal domestic.
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Columbia Township police and firefighters responded to the scene of a single-vehicle crash in the 6500 block of Riverside Road in the early morning on Saturday, April 8, 2017.
(Courtesy Columbia Township Police Department)
COLUMBIA TWP, MI - Two men injured in a suspected alcohol-related crash early Saturday morning still are being treated for their injuries and one still is in critical condition.
The driver of the SUV that collided with several trees in the 6500 block of Riverside Road April 8, a 24-year-old Columbia Township man, is in serious condition at Henry Ford Allegiance Heath, Columbia Township Police Chief David Elwell said.
His passenger, a 27-year-old Clark Lake man, is in critical condition after being taken to the hospital and later airlifted to the University of Michigan Medical Center, Elwell said.
At approximately 2:34 a.m. April 8, Columbia Township police and firefighters arrived on scene to find a 2000 Ford Explorer had left the road and struck at least two trees before coming to rest, police said.
Though the investigation is ongoing, alcohol is believed to be a factor in the crash. Initial findings suggest the two were wearing their seatbelts at the time of the crash, Elwell said.
The Napoleon Township Police Department and Liberty Township Fire Department assisted at the scene, and a crash re-constructionist with the Michigan State Police is aiding in the investigation.
Derek Brown
HANOVER TWP., MI - A former student who's gone on to do great things musically is returning to Hanover-Horton for a fundraiser.
Chicago artist Derek Brown, who attended Hanover-Horton schools through sixth grade, is the guest artist at the 12th annual Jazz Bash. Brown is known worldwide for his "beatbox-style" technique on saxophone.
The 7 p.m. event Saturday, April 22, in the Hanover-Horton High School Gym, is hosted by the school district's music department and boosters and features desserts and a silent auction. This is the music program's primary fundraiser of the year.
Tickets are on sale for $15 for reserved seating and $10 for general seating. They can be purchased in the high school office or by calling 517-563-0101.
Last year's Jazz Bash raised more than $6,700 for the music programs.
GRASS LAKE, MI - Aside from ashes and the outer shell of the old church, the fire that devastated the Federated Church of Grass Lake more than a year ago didn't leave much else.
But from the ashes and charred remnants of the church's Fellowship Hall and Eastman Chapel, a vision of a newly rebuilt church sprang to life and is now open and ready for worship.
With only a few cosmetic repairs still needing to be completed, the church at 519 E. Michigan Ave. reopened for Sunday services in mid-March and opened its doors to the entire community for a special Palm Sunday event April 9.
"When we first started with the reconstruction, we collectively though 'how are we going to pull this off,'" said Larry Barnhill, one of the church's executive ministers overseeing the reconstruction.
The Palm Sunday services featured songs from the community choir, music from other local pastors and a tour of the rebuilt church that was destroyed in a catastrophic fire Jan. 6, 2016.
"It's exciting watching all this come together and a thrill to be back in our church again to worship," said Minister of Music Wendy Walz.
For the last 13 months, the Fellowship Hall and Eastman Chapel were rebuilt from the ground up and the old sanctuary was refurbished due to substantial smoke damage, Barnhill said.
A faulty furnace was identified as the cause of the fire.
The then church's pastor, Rev. Scott Runyon, and six others had been at the church that morning for a bible study when they noticed black smoke billowing from the registers. Runyon and another parishioner then found flames in the furnace and evacuated the church.
After the fire, nearby Grass Lake United Methodist Church opened its doors to the Federated Church of Grass Lake's parishioners, offering them space to worship while the church is being rebuilt.
"I salute how we managed to all stick together through all of this," Barnhill said reflecting on the past year. "From the fire and the reconstruction to losing our pastor, it would have been easy to scatter, but we didn't. We stayed together."
The church still is without a permanent pastor, as retired Rev. Chris Grapentine has been filling in while church's executive ministry continues its search to replace Runyon who left last summer.
To read all the stories about the fire and reconstruction, click here.
Samantha Madar
Health rankings show Jackson County has poor health behaviors, strong clinical care
By Taylor DesOrmeau
JACKSON, MI With data ranging from HIV prevalence to the uninsured rate, the 2017 County Health Rankings and Roadmap report has been released.
The report, put together by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, compares statistics by county on a variety of health measures. Of Michigans 83 counties, Jackson County is 55th in the health outcomes category and 52nd for health factors.
The rankings are one tool in our toolbox to support existing and new plans for better community health, Jackson County Health Officer Richard Thoune said in a press release. We know that there are many factors beyond medical care that influence health. As we advance our collective work, we need to bring more residents into our decision-making processes.
Jackson County has improved in multiple areas from 2016, the release states. The countys health improvement focus will center on topics like adult smoking, adult obesity, excessive drinking, high school graduation, income inequality and violent crime.
Current efforts in areas like education, health and financial stability have proven positive in recent years, according to the release.
For the full rankings and data from the report, visit countyhealthrankings.org. Here's a look at some of the statistics and where Jackson County ranks among Michigan's 83 counties.
For all rankings, first is the most desirable outcome and 83rd is the least desirable.
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Areas Jackson ranks at the top
Some of the areas where Jackson does well in compared to the rest of Michigan include the uninsured rate, mental health providers, median household income and unemployment.
Heres a look at those categories for Jackson County.
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Uninsured rate
People uninsured under 65: 11,840
Percent of population under 65 without health insurance: 9 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 18th
Michigan average: 10 percent
Trends: After a slow rise from 2006 to 2010, Jackson County has the lowest uninsured rate in more than a decade. The statewide and national averages are also lower in recent years.
Year of data used: 2014
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Mental health providers
Number of providers: 350
Ratio of population to mental health providers: 456:1
Rank among Michigan counties: 15th
Michigan average: 460:1
Year of data used: 2016
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Median household income
Median household income: $50,683
Rank among Michigan counties: 20th
Michigan average: $51,100
Year of data used: 2015
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People 16 and older in labor force: 73,043
People 16 and older unemployed but seeking work: 3,719
Unemployment rate: 5.1 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 25th
Michigan average: 5.4 percent
Trends: Nearly mirroring state trends, Jackson County unemployment spiked in 2009 to 14 percent and has dropped to its lowest totals in 15 years.
Year of data used: 2015
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Areas Jackson is average
Jackson County sits in the middle for most categories in the report.
These categories include diabetes prevalence, alcohol-impaired driving deaths, adult smoking, food environment index, physical inactivity, access to exercise opportunities, excessive drinking, primary care physicians, mammography screening, high school graduation rate, percent of people with some college education, children eligible for free or reduced lunch, residential segregation (black/white), firearm fatalities, poor or fair health levels and driving to work alone.
Heres a look at those categories for Jackson County.
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Diabetes prevalence
Percent of adults 20 and older with diagnosed diabetes: 11 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 41st
Michigan average: 11 percent
Year of data used: 2013
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Alcohol-impaired driving deaths
Driving deaths: 78
Alcohol-impaired driving deaths: 26
Percent alcohol-related: 33 percent
Michigan average: 29 percent
Trends: The percentage has dropped from 50 percent in 2012 to 20 percent in 2015. The state and national average has hovered around 30 percent.
Years of data used: 2011 to 2015
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Adult smoking
Percentage of adults who are current smokers: 19 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 51st
Michigan average: 21 percent
Year of data used: 2015
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Food environment index
Index of factors contributing to a healthy food environment (10 being the best): 6.9
Rank among Michigan counties: 64th
Michigan average: 7.2
Percent limited access to healthy foods: 10 percent (15,797 people)
Percent food insecurity: 15 percent (23,200 people)
Years of data used: 2010 and 2014
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Physical inactivity
Percent of adults 20 and older reporting no leisure-time physical activity: 23 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 34th
Michigan average: 23 percent
Trends: After jumping near 30 percent in the late 2000s, Jackson Countys average has returned to hover the state and national average.
Year of data used: 2013
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Emily Mesner
Access to exercise opportunities
Percent of people with adequate access to locations for physical activity: 68 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 54th
Michigan average: 84 percent
Year of data used: 2014
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Excessive drinking
Percentage of adults reporting binge or heavy drinking: 21 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 60th
Michigan average: 20 percent
Year of data used: 2015
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Primary care physicians
Number of primary care physicians: 84
Ratio of population to primary care physicians: 1,902:1
Rank among Michigan counties: 44th
Michigan average: 1,240:1
Year of data used: 2014
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Mammogram screenings
Percent of female Medicare enrollees 67 to 69 that receive mommogram screenings: 66 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 47th
Michigan average: 64 percent
Trends: After being slightly lower than the state and national average in 2010, Jackson has leapfrogged both in mammography screening.
Year of data used: 2014
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Samantha Madar
High school graduation
Percentage of ninth graders that graduate in four years: 80 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 47th (of 72 available counties)
Michigan average: 81 percent
Trends: Similar to state and national averages, Jackson Countys graduation rate is on a slow incline. Its grown steadily from 76 percent in 2010-11 to 80 percent in 2014-15 in the county.
Year of data used: 2014-15
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College education
Population between 25 and 44 year: 38,843
Those between 25 and 44 with some college education: 22,675
Percentage of 25 to 44 years olds with some college: 58 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 42nd
Michigan average: 67 percent
Year of data used: 2011 to 2015
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Children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
Percentage of children in public schools eligible for free or reduced-price lunch: 51 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 36th
Michigan average: 47 percent
Year of data used: 2014-15
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Black/white residential segregation
Segregation index of black and white county residents (zero being complete integration): 62
Rank among Michigan counties: 22nd (of 44 available counties)
Michigan average: 73
Years of data used: 2011 to 2015
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Firearm fatalities
Firearm fatalities: 71
Number of deaths by firearm per 100,000: 9
Rank among Michigan counties: 25th (of 69 available counties)
Michigan average: 12
Years of data used: 2011 to 2015
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Poor or fair health levels
Percentage of adults reporting poor or fair health (age adjusted): 14 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 40th
Michigan average: 17 percent
Year of data used: 2015
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Driving to work alone
Percentage of workforce that drives to work alone: 82 percent (84 percent for white individuals, 74 percent for African Americans, 72 percent for Hispanics)
Rank among Michigan counties: 55th
Michigan average: 83 percent
Years of data used: 2011 to 2015
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Areas where Jackson ranks at the bottom
There are also a handful of areas where Jackson ranks low on, compared to other counties in the state.
Those areas include low birth weight levels, insufficient sleep, HIV prevalence, adult obesity, STIs, teen birth rate, health care costs, income inequality, ratio of single-parent households, social association memberships, violent crime rate, percent of disconnected youth, homicide rate and air pollution.
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Low birth weight
Live births: 12,857
Number birth weights less than 2500 grams: 1,069
Percent with low birth weights: 8 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 70th (of 81 available counties)
Michigan average: 8 percent
Years of data used: 2008 to 2014
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Insufficient sleep
Percentage of adults reporting fewer than an average of seven hours of sleep: 36 percent
Rank among Michigan counites: 80th
Michigan average: 38 percent
Year of data used: 2014
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Mark Bugnaski
HIV prevalence
HIV cases: 631
Number of people diagnosed with HIV per 100,000: 468
Rank among Michigan counties: 63 (of 64 available counties)
Michigan average: 185
Year of data used: 2013
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Adult obesity
Percent of adults with a body mass index of 30 or more: 34 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 60th
Michigan average: 31 percent
Trends: Jacksons obesity rate has been higher than the state and national average since 2008. The percentage in the county has dropped slightly, however, from 37 percent in 2009 to 34 percent in 2013.
Year of data used: 2013
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Sexually transmitted infections
Newly diagnosed chlamydia cases: 771
Newly diagnosed chlamydia cases per 100,000: 481
Rank among Michigan counties: 72 (out of 81 available counties)
Michigan average: 447.2
Trends: Jackson Countys chlamydia rate has bounced around in recent years. After having a seven-year low rate in 2013, it jumped in 2014 to the highest its been since 2007.
Year of data used: 2014
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Teen birth rate
Female teens 15 to 19 years old: 37,980
Births from 15 to 19 year olds: 1,383
Teen birth rate: 3.6 percent
Rank among counties in Michigan: 64th
Michigan average: 2.8 percent
Years of data used: 2008 to 2014
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Health care costs
Amount of price-adjusted Medicare reimbursements per enrollee: $10,273
Rank among Michigan counties: 72nd lowest
Michigan average: $10,282
Year of data used: 2014
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Income inequality
80th percentile income: $87,682
20th percentile income: $19,534
Income ratio: 4.5
Rank among Michigan counties: 65th
Michigan average: 4.8
Year of data used: 2011 to 2015
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Ratio of single-parent households
Households with children: 35,346
Single-parent households: 12,797
Single-parent household percentage: 36 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 62nd
Michigan average: 34 percent
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Emily Mesner
Social association memberships
Number of associations: 147
Membership associations per 10,000: 9.2
Rank among Michigan counties: 76th
Michigan average: 10.1
Year of data used: 2014
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Violent crime rate
Violent crimes: 600
Violent crimes per 100,000: 382
Rank among Michigan counties: 72nd (of 81 available counties)
Michigan average: 444
Trends: The violent crime rate has been relatively consistent in the county since 2004 normally lower than state and national averages. Violent crime has decreased in Michigan and the U.S. in recent years, however, bringing the totals closer to Jackson Countys numbers.
Year of data used: 2012 to 2014
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Percent of disconnected youth
Percent of people 16 to 24 neither in school or working: 21 percent
Rank among Michigan counties: 57th (of 77 available counties)
Michigan average: 14 percent
Years of data used: 2008 to 2012
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Homicide rate
Deaths due to homicide per 100,000: 4
Rank among Michigan counties: 21 (of 26 available counties)
Michigan average: 6
Years of data used: 2009 to 2015
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Air pollution
Average daily density of fine particulate matter in micrograms, per cubic meter: 10.3
Rank among Michigan counties: 68th
Michigan average: 8.7
Year of data used: 2012
NILES, MI -- The day after visitation in Niles, funeral services will be held in South Bend, Ind. next week for the Niles teen killed by carbon monoxide fumes at a local motel pool.
Bryan A. Douglas-Watts, 13, of Niles, died Saturday, April 1.After carbon monoxide poisoning, counselors at school over spring break
Eight other children and one adult were treated at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Ind. after treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning.
All the children were part of a group enjoying a spring break getaway at a motel pool, authorities said.
Visitation for Bryan will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, at Brown Funeral Home in Niles.
Funeral services will be held at noon Thursday, April 13, at Faith Apostolic Ministries, 909 N Bendix Dr., South Bend, Ind.
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OTSEGO, MI -- Although the body of a man who fell into the Kalamazoo River last week has not yet been found, the search of the river itself will not resume until the water levels of the river recede, Allegan County Undersheriff Mike Larsen said Monday.
A helicopter searched over the area on Friday, when rescue teams searched from the banks throughout the day upstream from Otsego.
Michael Baird, 35, visiting from Colorado, enjoyed taking a walk along the river in Plainwell most nights, family told authorities.
Thursday night, April 6, Baird went into the river.
"How he fell into the river I do not know," said Sgt. Todd Wagner of Allegan County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team.
Baird was first reported in the water near downtown Plainwell at about 8:40 p.m. Thursday when someone from The Oaks adult foster care home on North Main Street made the initial 911 call after hearing calls for help.
Baird was last seen much farther downstream, face up on the surface of the cold water near the old Consumers Dam near 12th Street, but at that point he was unresponsive and unable to grab the life vest and rope thrown to him, Wagner said.
Searchers worked late into the night Thursday and all day Friday but failed to locate Baird.
With additional rainfall adding to an already high river, "conditions are too dangerous to dive," Larsen said.
Another helicopter search will take place in a few days, or an aerial drone will be used if weather permits, Larsen said.
Dive and marine personnel are checking the area daily from shore and water as conditions permit.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump on Sunday following the twin cathedral bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, with Trump calling to express his support for Egypt in the wake of the attacks, according to the Egyptian president's office.
According to the official statement, President Trump expressed his nation's condemnation of the terrorist attacks, which killed at least 40 Egyptians and injured over 100.
El-Sisi, meanwhile, expressed his appreciation for the American presidents condolences, stressing that recent events would not stop Egypt from fighting terrorism.
El-Sisi also asserted the importance of global efforts to battle terrorism, stressing the need to oppose those who back terrorist organizations with weapons and fighters.
Trump had earlier expressed his support for Egypt and El-Sisi through his official Twitter account.
I have great confidence that President El-Sisi will handle the situation properly, he said.
The Egyptian president also received a telephone call from King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who expressed his condolences and support to the Egyptian people.
On Palm Sunday, a suspected suicide attack in Tantas St. George Cathedral killed at least 27 people and injured over 71 others.
A few hours after the Tanta attack, 17 civilians and police officers were killed as a suicide bomber blew himself up outside St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, as the head of the church, Pope Tawadros II, led the service inside.
The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for both attacks. The General Prosecution is conducting investigations to determine the identities of the attackers.
Correction: death toll in Alexandria was revised to 17 instead of 18 following official confirmation
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Western Michigan University on March 30, 2017.
(Jake Green/MLive.com)
KALAMAZOO, MI -- A special board meeting is being held for the Western Michigan Board of Trustees to vote on the selection of a candidate to be the school's president.
The Western Michigan University Board of Trustees will meet for a special formal session at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 12, in the ballroom of Heritage Hall, to consider selection of the university's ninth president, a WMU news release states.
Trustees are expected to vote on the selection of a single candidate who has emerged from a search process underway since last fall, the university reports.
The Presidential Search Advisory Committee interviewed candidates in recent weeks and recommended three finalist candidates to the Board of Trustees.
Last week, trustees interviewed the finalists.
The successful candidate is expected to attend Wednesday's board meeting and be available to meet with members of the campus community and media.
The person selected will replace President John M. Dunn in the role of campus chief executive. Dunn announced in August 2016 that he would be retiring at the June 30 close of this academic year. He has served as WMU president for ten years.
The confidential search for a new president has been guided by the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, led by WMU Trustee William Johnston and comprised of 22 members representing every part of the campus community, WMU said.
LUDINGTON, MI -- Mark Alan Saporita-Fargo on Friday pleaded guilty to separate criminal charges for sex with an underage teen in 2015, and for a recent attempt to flee Michigan with his two-year-old daughter.
Saporita-Fargo prompted a statewide search on Jan. 24, 2017, when he attempted to leave the state with his daughter Hailey on the evening before his scheduled trial for the criminal sexual conduct charge. Saporita-Fargo had been on the edge of losing parental rights to his daughter.
Saporita-Fargo made the plea in a deal with the prosecutor that will allow a third charge of absconding while on bond to be dismissed.
Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola will recommend to the court sentences of 18-40 years in state prison for both charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment. The sentences would be served concurrently, or at the same time. Charged as a habitual fourth-time offender, Saporita-Fargo could have faced up to life imprisonment for the two charges.
"I am pleased with to be able to move this case forward," Spaniloa said in a written statement. "Of course we are relieved that Hailey Fargo is safe and sound.
"I would like to thank the Mason County Sheriffs Office, Detective Mike Kenney, Detective Shayne Eskew, Det. Sgt. Tom Posma, for their investigative efforts as well as Michigan State Police Trooper Art McNew from the Jackson Post who successfully tracked down the defendants and rescued Hailey," Spaniola continued.
Saporita-Fargo and his daughter Hailey Hunter-Rose Fargo didn't report back after an unsupervised father-daughter visit on Jan. 23, 2017. The two were found by police in Montgomery, Michigan, near the state border after residents recognized the two from media reports.
They were driven from Mason County to Hillsdale County - about 200 miles -- by Jeffery Alan Miller. Officials said at the time that Miller and Saporita-Fargo were acquaintances who had met in jail.
Miller was charged with conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment and pleaded guilty March 7.
Saporita-Fargo's sentencing has been set for May 30. Miller's sentencing is set for Tuesday, April 11.
FLINT, MI -- Leon El-Alamin was in prison when he was first introduced to Islam.
He was imprisoned from 2003 through 2010 for drug and gun charges.
"I met a gentleman while I was incarcerated who was Muslim," El-Alamin said. "He was of Arab descent from Detroit. He's a lifer. I really took to him in the sense where I would watch him. Certain times he would leave the compound; he was so peaceful. He was going to pray."
El-Alamin grew up on Flint's North Side in a Baptist church family. He was curious about the man's prayer and began to ask questions and do more research. Eventually, he was invited to Jummah - or Friday prayer for Muslims. Then he took the Shahada - the Muslim profession of faith, and began practicing and rebuilding his life through Islam.
Along his journey, he met Timothy Abdul-Matin, who was also incarcerated and converted to Islam.
"Ever since then, we've been on this vision and this mission, not only from a spiritual aspect that gives us a lot of our morals and discipline with what we do, but on a social aspect as well," El-Alamin said.
Speaking in a long, dimly-lit room tinged by the maroon curtains that match the carpet at the Sylvester Broome Center, Abdul-Matin and El-Alamin reflected on not just their lives, but the lives of all marginalized groups in the country. It's through the Broome Center that the two continue to work with youth of all faiths and ethnicities on advocacy issues and self-empowerment. It's also where they pray and where they store cans of water that they handed out to community members.
"We've been on both sides, from street life to incarceration to changing our lives through Islam," El-Alamin said. "It's not a magic trick. It's just, truthfully, believing in something we found works for us. We're willing to share those stories, that discipline that guides us."
Their stories and activism provided inspiration for a fairly large group of people in the city, both male and female, that were once incarcerated and are now Muslim.
"They had a big impact on me, I heard about them before I met them," said Elijah Thomas, who converted to Islam after prison.
Today there are prayer rugs sitting in the corner of Thomas's Flint Westside apartment, and books on the Prophet Muhammad sitting underneath the television.
"I walked through my journey, I've been to prison, it's been a rough journey, you know, but keeping that faith in Islam keeps me grounded," Thomas said.
'We are activists... and Islam is our way of life'
As activists in Flint, Abdul-Matin and El-Alamin have their hands full with issues to tackle in the city - the most conspicuous being the Flint water crisis. Working at the Sylvester Broom Center, they lead dermatology clinics and lead testing. They say they also were the first to do water drive-ins, with the help of the rest of the Muslim community in Flint and even across the U.S.
While many in the city of Flint were aware of the services offered at the Broome Center, few knew who was behind it.
"Things like that doesn't get highlighted enough to really let the broader audience know what Muslims are doing," Abdul-Matin said. "It's that stigma that's been attached to Islam. But truthfully, Muslims, Islam, we always contributed a lot to society, especially here in Flint. It just goes to show that we need a more holistic approach, no matter what faith you are."
In total, the Muslim community had donated over a million water bottles between the Broome Center and the Flint Islamic Center in Swartz Creek.
"We had Muslims from all over the United States come help us," Abdul-Matin said. Elijah Thomas was in jail when the water crisis first came to light. "I always used to sit back in prison and say 'I want to make something of myself,'" Elijah said. "I have to be a part of bringing the city out of what it is now."
Thomas said he began to notice his sons losing their hair and developing sores on their heads from the water. It motivated him to get involved and do more. It also reminded him of one of the most important principles of Islam: patience.
"Maybe this water situation can smarten people up, wise people up," Thomas said. "Something so delicate you took for granted, like water. How much water do you waste? But now, I would not waste a water bottle. So I feel like, just be patient and things will overturn and be for the better. Otherwise, why are we here, not to be tested?"
Blessings in disguise
The Muslim community has certainly felt tested in the aftermath of President Trump's proposed immigration rules, or what many refer to as the Muslim ban, in the winter. Muhammad Abdullah Waheed, Imam at the Flint Islamic Center, said that the ban was certainly a topic of conversation for their community, and that it did affect them.
"It has affected us, in our families, in our discussions," Waheed said. "We've spoke about it. People went to protests from our cities to the airport."
But as formerly incarcerated black men, Abdul-Matin, El-Alamin and Thomas know a thing or two about stigmas in society. So while they were unfazed by the ban, they were, however, open to giving advice to Muslim youth in the community who felt targeted by the ban.
"When we come from the viewpoint that we're coming from, we like to let people know that we understand. We get it. So when I speak to my immigrant brothers and sisters, I don't have a tear, or a fear, because me and those who like me been living this for over 400-something years," El-Alamin said. "I can offer some support and possible solutions and say look, we've been dealing with this."
All three men agree that while the ban and hate crimes reported across the state and nation since the election have instilled fear in members of the community, it also brought out much more support.
"I've never seen so many people show their support, you know, put their support out there for Muslims," Abdul-Matin said. "After 9/11 happened, people really had it out for Muslims. But when Trump came in, he did the ban and things like that, I did see people unite and say look, this is not right, you can't ban people just because of their religious beliefs."
"He woke a lot of people up who were sleeping," Abdul-Matin added.
Waheed also expressed gratitude for the amount of support shown by the community in the wake of the elevated hate rhetoric following the election, and the Muslim ban.
Waheed said the Jewish, Christian and LGBT communities have stepped up to show their support.
"We've had so much solidarity from the non-Muslims, so that has been so powerful, so impactful. We Muslims can't do it alone."
More work to be done
While the water crisis and the Muslim ban may have unified the community, many of its members agree that more work can be done.
"The Muslim community has its presence, but we want to have a stronger presence in humanitarian help," Waheed said. The strongest message they want to send is unity.
"The Muslim community and the non-Muslim community, we all have to be united, we're all one people, we're all suffering from the same problems; water, education," Waheed continued.
Abdul-Matin and El-Alamin see an opportunity for America in the next three years to continue to battle institutional racism, discrimination and other barriers facing the country, even the city.
"I want to build a better world and society, starting with Flint," El-Alamin said.
"That's why we fight, that's why we're still here."
MIDLAND, MI -- Police have identified the 58-year-old Midland man who died after his scooter collided with a vehicle Saturday evening.
William E. Habel was found unconscious and unresponsive around 5 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at the intersection of Waldo and Bay City roads, according to a Midland Police Department press release.
Habel was transported to Mid-Michigan Medical Center, where he later died, according to the release.
The driver of the other vehicle, 21-year-old Lisa Thompson, along with her 23-year-old passenger, were also transported to the hospital but had suffered only minor injuries, the department states.
Alcohol and drugs do not appear to be a factor in the crash. The fatal incident is being investigated by the Midland Police Department Traffic Crash Reconstruction Team.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the Midland Police Department at 989-839-4713.
Sunday's terrorist attack on St George's Cathedral in Tanta left 28 dead and more than 70 injured. As the dust began to settle, those close to events sought to grapple with the scale of the tragedy and what exactly went wrong
We found Kirollos and his wife Batoul standing by the door of the prayer hall where the bomb detonated. Batoul, 27, had blood all over the palm frond she was holding in celebration of Palm Sunday. She attends prayers at to this cathedral sometimes, but on the day of the attack she was elsewhere.
"My husband was passing by the church, saw the explosion and phoned to tell me about it," she told Ahram Online.
The bomb exploded inside the prayer hall of St George's Cathedral in the Delta city of Tanta on Palm Sunday morning, killing at least 28 and injuring 78 others, according to the health ministry.
"I arrived at 10 am," Batoul said. "It was crowded, and there was blood and remains everywhere: on benches, the walls and the ceiling of the church. All the paintings were splattered with blood and the seats down the left-hand side were broken, as well as the sculptures and the glass windows of the second-largest church in the city. A bomb was dismantled by security forces in the same church last week."
She said the security forces must bear responsiblity for allowing the attack to take place; while the street outside the cathedral was blocked by security personnel at both ends, Batoul claims that not everyone entering the street was being searched.
The head of the Gharbiyah security directorate, Hossam Khalifa, was sacked following the Tanta attack
"I came here to be in a place of a blessings where the martyrs died. We are holding palm fronds and we are attacked with bombs," she said.
However, she said she's not concerned for the ultimate fate of the victims: "They died while praying; they were peaceful, and they went to a better place. I wish to be like them."
We found Kirollos Abdel Sayed, an engineer, sitting down nearby, clearly in a shock.
He entered the cathedral right after the explosion and helped carry the bodies of the dead and injured for hours.
"I'm sure there are more than 30; we carried more than that. The men's section [of the hall] is completely destroyed. Most of those who died were men, but I carried kids too," he said.
Abdel Sayed said that people attend churches prepared to die.
"With explosions, our faith is strengthened. We will stay in our churches. I'm sad, because they ruined the joy of our prayers. They killed people who didn't anything wrong. I knew many of those who died," he said.
Several hours after the Tanta attack, 18 civilians and police personnel were killed in a second attack, this time in Alexandria. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, as the head of the church, Pope Tawadros II, led the service inside.
By Sunday afternoon, Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis, the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group, had claimed both church attacks.
A city in worry and grief
Through the two-hour microbus journey from Cairo to Tanta, both the driver and passengers discussed the attack and its aftermath. The cafes close to the microbus station in the city center searched people as they entered, not allowing anyone inside with a large bag. Taxi drivers didn't want to go to the area of the attack and barely agreed to drop us nearby.
It was raining and the weather was cloudy, reflecting the mood of the city.
With so many people feeling angry and sad, journalists were not particularly welcome at the scene of the attack. Both Muslims and Christians lost friends and relatives in the attack, and a large crowd had gathered around the cathedral, waiting for developments.
There was a heavy security presence inside the cathedral and nearby, but it seemed nobody was being searched. People were angry with the security personnel for not stopping the attack, accusing them of failing to secure a Christian place of worship on a religious holy day.
Three young girls wearing black and sitting in the crowd refused to talk to us. They suggested instead that we go to the hospitals to see the severely injured casualties.
"All of our friends died, and that's all," said one of the girls.
In front of the cathedral, a lady was shouting, calling on the people to join her in chanting "Long live Egypt!"
The woman, named Hoda Mickail, described herself as an ambassador for international peace. However, she was clearly angry at the tragedy that had befallen "our church and our neighborhood."
"I want to say one thing: it's a failure of security," she said. "What are the security people doing here? How did the bomb enter the church from the street?"
Not far away, another woman was angry at events. A local resident, Hanna heard the explosion from her home. She said was lucky to be alive, as she and her son were late for prayers at the cathedral that day.
"I don't understand either politics or religion; we do not know. But we do know that there are machines that can detect explosives, and there are police dogs," she said.
"Today is Palm Sunday, and at 10 or 11 am you should not be able to enter this church from the crowd. Whose fault is that? The security people's or our children's? They should have secured the place from 7 am, when people started arriving at the church."
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency nationwide on Sunday after the twin bombings that hit dathedrals in Tanta and Alexandria, killing 45 people in total. The combined attacks are the biggest on Egypt's Christian community in recent years.
However, they follow a similar attack on 11 December last year that left 29 dead and more than 40 wounded. On that occasion, a suicide bomber set off an explosion at St Peter and St Pauls Church in central Cairo, with the Islamist State militant group later claiming responsibility.
In a video released by Islamic State militants in February, the group threatened more attacks against the countrys Christian community.
The 20-minute video, titled Fight All Idolaters, purportedly showed the last statements made by the suicide bomber responsible for the attack in December.
The militant group also recently launched an armed campaign against Christian residents of North Sinai governorate, forcing dozens of families to leave their homes and flee to other governorates.
An old lady standing with her daughter told Ahram Online that two of her relatives were among the vitims on Sunday.
"I have Baula in the ICU. He has two kids and he's a deacon. He was injured in the head, and he's is in the University Hospital," said the lady.
"Also, my relative Dr Anwar, who was also a deacon, died, leaving a girl. They come early to the church. Deacons are the ones who died. A son of our Reverend Daniel was also killed."
"Please pray for them all. They are all our children," the old woman concludes, adding that she will be coming to the same church again next Sunday.
The bombings took place on Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, which builds up to Easter Sunday, on which Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.
Displays of solidarity
The Palm Sunday attacks have prompted expressions of both condemnation and solidarity from the international community. Displays of solidarity were also evident in the area around the attack, with locals seeking to offer moral support to those affected.
Om Karima, a street vendor selling vegetables close to the cathedral, heard the explosion from the market where she works.
She told Ahram Online, "Om George is one of my neighbours. Her son died in the explosion. I went to her house to express my condolences. She took care of my kids when my husband died. I'm so sad for her, and that is why I'm here."
Mahmoud, an 18-year-old high-school student, was passing by the cathedral with his classmate when the bomb went off. His classmate was knocked down by the power of the blast and has had surgery on his injured hand.
Mahmoud said, "This is a terrorist attack. They recruit young kids to carry out these terrorist actions because they're poor and they don't know anything."
Another teenager, Mohamed, said that his friend Anton was praying in the church and was injured in the blast.
"No Christians came to the private lesson we had today," said Mohamed, "and we still don't know what happened to many of our classmates who were praying in the church today."
Mahmoud added that such attacks are new to Tanta.
"Our families don't want us to go out of our houses because of these explosions. But if all the churches were attacked, we will pray together in the mosques, and if the mosques are also attacked, we will pray in the street."
A devastated church
It was difficult gaining access to the prayer hall, and none of the priests were willing to talk to us. Grief-stricken people were trying to enter the prayer hall to pray for the dead, but the police were keeping them out.
Finally gaining access to the hall, we saw the extent of the damage and clear evidence of carnage, with benches piled up and wreckage on the floor. Police investigators were hard at work collecting evidence in the case. Church workers were helping the police or clearing up the glass outside. Many others were just sitting among the ruins, crying and praying, wearing black.
The scene inside was similar to the December terrorist attack; the clocks had broken at the time of the explosion, stopping at 9:05 am.
One woman told Ahram Online that she was at the Tanta cathedral at the time of the attack but was in a different hall. She heard the sound of the blast but didn't realise how serious it was until smoke began to fill the hall she was in.
"People were suffocating. Some left the church, but other people refused to leave and prayed. We were in another room. I saw people covered in blood, and I was walking on glass everywhere."
Atef Nemr, one of the church volunteers responsible for ushering duties, was holding small fragments from the explosion that he had collected in the morning.
Nemr told Ahram Online, "Some of my colleagues were killed and some were injured. I was not in the hall. When I heard the explosion I entered the hall. I saw the remains of my colleagues everywhere. We have been searching for the remains of the bodies in the church since the morning".
"This is a dispicable attack," he said. "There should have been security searching everyone entering. But this did not happen, and people are gone. Every time we have a feast, we have victims. We need the police to be more careful and pay more attention."
As Nemr spoke, volunteers were already sweeping the steps of the main hall in preparation for the burial service later that day.
Final resting place
Not far from the church are the University and Menshawy hospitals, which received most of the casualties after the attack. Both were surrouned with friends and relatives waiting for news of the dead and injured.
We spoke with officials, but they were only able to provide use with figures for the dead and injured. Everyone was busy obtaining permissions for burials, including the manager of the Menshawy Hospital, the security personnel, priests, doctors, and the deputy head of health ministry in Gharbiya, Mohamed Sharshar.
The decision was made to bury all the dead in a small room in the cathedral compound. Workers were busy from the morning onwards, blocking the windows with rocks and cement ahead of the arrival of the bodies.
Sharshar told Ahram Online on Sunday night that perimssions for the burials had been obtained. Meanwhile, 14 of the injured were still in a critical condition and had been transferred to Cairo for surgery. He also said several people had been released from hospital with minor injuries.
"There has been full coordination with the health ministry since the morning," he said. "The minister came to check on the situation, and the ministry provided us with all necessary blood and equipment. Many ministers and the Gharbiya governor were also here for coordination."
In a coffee shop near to the cathedral, locals sat watching the big TV screen, following El-Sisi's speech and the news of the bombing, which had taken place just a few metres away. The coffee shop later became a press centre, where the journalists gathered to file their photos and stories.
By the end of the day, a crowd of people, both Muslim and Christian, gathered in front of the cathedral with their children, holding candles in honour of the victims. Then the prayers for the dead started, and the fallen were carried to their final resting place.
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Egypts cabinet approved on Monday a decision to impose a nationwide state of emergency for three months starting 10 April at 1 pm.
In a statement issued on Monday, the cabinet explained the reasons for the move.
"The state of emergency allows both the armed forces and the police to execute those procedures necessary to combat the threats of terrorism and its financing, maintain security around the country and protect public and private property, as well as preserving the lives of citizens," the statement read.
Mondays approval follows the announcement by Egypts President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi late on Sunday that a three-month state of emergency would be imposed in the wake of terrorist attacks on two cathedrals in Tanta and Alexandria during Palm Sunday services.
El-Sisi had issued an earlier decree ordering the armed forces to help the police in securing vital facilities all over the country.
On Sunday, during Palm Sunday masses, two deadly blasts hit St. George Cathedral in Tanta and St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing 44 and injuring dozens more.
The combined attacks represent one of the deadliest attacks on Coptic Christians in years.
The Islamic State group's Egypt affiliate claimed responsibility for the bombings.
According to Egypts 2014 constitution, Article 154 stipulates that the Egyptian president can declare a state of emergency, in a manner regulated by law, after consultation with cabinet.
However, any such proclamation must be submitted to parliament within the following seven days for their consideration. The declaration of a state of emergency must be approved by a majority of MPs.
A state of emergency can only be declared for a stated three-month period, after which it can only be extended with the approval of parliament.
Correction: death toll was revised to 44 instead of 46 following official confirmation.
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Hardoi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves at an election campaign rally at Hardoi district on Thursday. PTI Photo (PTI2_16_2017_000238B)
The Modi government, ahead of its third anniversary in power, has asked all ministers to submit their five major achievements that have benefitted people, including key reforms and comparative data reflecting the progress made since the BJP took office.
In a letter sent out this week, Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu has asked all ministers to submit the data and observations to him.
It will be compiled in a booklet that the government plans to publish before May 26, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge three years ago. A copy of the letter was obtained by PTI.
In his letter, Naidu asked the ministers to send him "a three-page note in bullet form only". It said the note should cover five aspects:
* Five major achievements of the ministry concerned which have benefitted the people or appreciated by the people.
* Key performance indicators of the ministry
* Comparative data/statistics of flagship schemes of the ministry which signifies what was the position in 2014 and now in 2017. For example, how many LPG connections were there in 2014 and what is the number now in 2017.
* Three reforms brought by the ministry- process, policy, functioning, programmes, etc; and
* Two top success stories in one paragraph each.
In an earlier letter dated March 21, Naidu urged the ministers and senior BJP leaders to communicate with the people on the positive changes that have been brought about by the Modi-led NDA government.
Asserting that the mood of the nation is clearly in "favour of the BJP and PM Modi", Naidu said, "We all take pride in being a member of Team Modi, whose relentless pursuit to turn around the fortunes of millions of people, hitherto neglected by successive governments, is bearing visible fruits."
"... We must prepare concrete action plan and be ready with facts, figures, data to propagate the government's achievements in a big way," he said.
According to the letter, the government has made a list of ministers who would prepare note on specific sectoral topics assigned to them.
Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar has been asked to prepare a note on the highlights of the prime minister's tour abroad, major outcomes from those tours and increased investment flows from foreign countries.
Similarly, MPs Swapan Dasgupta and Chandan Mitra have been assigned to compile a note on intellectual discourse and counter any possible negative narrative on topics like less than promised employment generation, so-called threats to freedom of expression among others.
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As uncertainty grows over the future of Indias cheapest car Nano the demand for the mini car hit a new low clocking just 174 units in March, the lowest since its debut.
Nano has been a troubled product for the countrys fifth largest car maker Tata Motors since the past several years. The company made numerous attempts to revive demand but the loss-making project, which stands to get terminated, failed to muster positive growth.
Last financial year was the worst for the mini car as it sold just 7,591 units, which was less than the monthly volume clocked by Tiago and Tigor, the two new launches by Tata Motors which make up 50 percent of its sales.
Only twice did the Nano post monthly sales of more than 1,000 units in 2016-17 while its average monthly volumes during the same year stood at just 632 units.
Consistently falling numbers, scrappage of Nano-specific projects and lack of any official future commitments from Tata Motors suggests that the model could be on its way out.
It is to be noted that its is not the first time that Tata Motors has seen such low numbers of a particular model. Models like the Venture, Sumo, Safari, Aria and Winger have consistently seen monthly sales average of 300 and less but the company still continues to produce some of them.
But with the company now looking to focus on next generation products that will fill some white spaces as well as create new segments, present generation models will be phased out or get replaced progressively.
The slump in demand for the Nano comes at a time when its manufacturing plant in Gujarat has made way for the Tiago and Tigor, both of which are selling nearly 9,000 units a month or more than Nanos yearly volumes.
Though commercially launched in 2009 the Nano will complete ten years next year since its first unveiling in 2008 at the Delhi Auto Expo. The Nano became instantly popular for its eye-catching price tag of Rs 100,000 designed to lure the middle-class buyer.
However, subsequent iterations that included subtle styling changes, creation of a boot, addition of an automatic transmission, power steering, addition of a CNG-fueled engine and repositioning of the brand led to more than doubling of its cost price.
The base price of the Genx Nano in Mumbai (ex-showroom) is Rs 2.48 lakh while the top-end automatic version costs Rs 3.5 lakh. The car competes directly with the more powerful Maruti Suzuki Alto, which remains as Indias largest selling model at around 18,000 units a month.
Tata Motors altered Nanos positioning after it was learnt that consumers appeared dissatisfied settling for a product which was labeled cheap. In India a car is known for its aspirational value and a status symbol rather than as a means of transport.
Tata Motors tried to change Nanos perception undertaking a multi-crore campaign that aimed to reposition the Nano as a smart city car.
New Delhi: Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari interacts with PTI journalists in New Delhi on Wednesday. PTI Photo by Atul Yadav (Eds pls see Story under DEL 15,16,17,18) (PTI5_20_2015_000091B)
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said it was BJP chief Amit Shah, who asked him to go to Goa and form the government there.
The BJP won 13 seats in the keenly-contested elections, eight less than its 2012 tally. The party, though finished second after the opposition Congress (17), cobbled up an alliance with various local outfits and Independents.
Eventually, the BJP successfully proved its majority in the 40-member House under Manohar Parrikar.
"Amit Shah is a real architect behind forming the BJP-led government in Goa. After knowing the results, which saw BJP winning 13 seats, I thought it was difficult to form the government," Gadkari said at a rally organised to felicitate the BJP chief.
But Amitji told me to go to Goa and form the government, the Union Shipping Minister added.
In a veiled attack on Congress leaders, he said "There are some Congress leaders who are yet to cope up with the shock that the BJP has formed a government in Goa."
Narrating the events which unfolded on the intervening night of March 11-12, Gadkari said that it was very difficult for the friends of Parrikar to let him give away the position of Defence Minister, which is more crucial as compared to the chief minister.
"Parrikar had created a niche for himself while serving as a Defence Minister. The decisions like surgical strike were historical. His friends like me did not want him to quit the union Cabinet," Gadkari said.
He said during his meeting with the other parties whose support was required to form Goa government, everyone unanimously demanded that Parrikar should head the government.
"When I asked Parrikar about his decision, he said he will abide by whatever directions the party will give," Gadkari said, adding that in the evening, we staked claim to form the government.
The minister also said that the BJP has not done anything unconstitutional or illegal by forming the government though it did not secure a majority.
"The party or coalition which has majority number with it can form the government and we had it (the numbers)," he added.
Companies from India and Bangladesh today signed pacts worth over USD 9 billion here aimed at deepening partnership in sectors like power and oil and gas.
Among the MoUs signed in the presence of visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a facility agreement between Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL) and Exim Bank of India for debt financing for construction of 1,320 mw Maitree Power Project in Rampal in Bangladesh (USD 1.6 bn).
The MoUs include an implementation and power purchase agreement between Reliance Power and the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources for the first phase (718 mw) of the 3,000 mw power project at Meghnaghat, entailing USD 1 billion (out of a total proposed investment of USD 3 billion).
The agreement between NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) and Bangladesh Power Development Board for supply of power from Nepal envisaged an investment of USD 3.15 billion.
The event also saw signing of pact between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and the Bangladesh Power Development Board entailing an investment of USD 2 billion and a power purchase agreement between Adani Power (Jharkhand) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
Besides, the MoUs signed include those on LNG terminal use between Petronet LNG, India and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), among others.
The MoU-signing ceremony was organised by CII.
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Budget passenger airline IndiGo celebrated the milestone of flying 900 flights a day on April 8. The companys president and whole-time director Aditya Ghosh took to Twitter to announce the news:
Lucky no 7 @IndiGo6E ... Yesterday 7th April we flew 900 flights a day for the first time! On our way to a 1000 ... keeping India moving!
Aditya Ghosh (@AdityaGhosh6E) April 8, 2017
This is the highest number of flights operated by an Indian airline on a single day. Ghosh, enthused by the news, is gunning for 1000 flights for the airline soon.
The private carrier with its fleet of 131 Airbus aircraft operates to 46 destination including seven international.
In comparison to IndiGos daily flights, its competitor GoAir operates around 140-150 flights a day, as per media reports.
IndiGo continues to dominate the market share in terms of passenger traffic. In February, it had 39.5 percent market share and carried 34.19 lakh passengers, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data.
The company recently also announced 35 new domestic flights as part of its summer schedule.
The aviation industry in recent years has witnessed a spurt of growth with a 16 percent rise in passenger traffic in February year-on-year. Indian carriers in total flew total of 86.55 lakh passengers in February as compared to 74.76 lakh fliers in same month last year.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, a Kolkata-bound IndiGo flight on Sunday suffered a bird hit soon after take-off, forcing the pilot to turn back.
According to the airport official, the nose of the aircraft suffered some damage.
business New unit in Aurangabad to be funded through debt & internal accruals: Cosmo Films In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Pankaj Poddar, CEO of Cosmo Films said that new specialty polyester plant to be set up at Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
The death toll from the Sunday terrorist attack on the Mar Girgis Cathedral in Tanta increased to 29 after two people injured in the bombing died on Monday, according to Mohamed Sharshar, the deputy head of the health ministry in Gharbiya governorate, state news agency MENA reported.
This raises the death toll from Sunday's twin terrorist attacks in Tanta and Alexandria to 46.
Nagy Ramsis Girgis died on Monday morning in the ICU of wounds sustained in the suicide bombing of the Tanta cathedral, which injured over 70 people. His body has been handed over to his family.
The 27 bodies of the victims who died in Tanta on Sunday were buried later that evening at the Mar Girgis Cathedral cemetery.
Health ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed said that most of the injured in Tanta have been released from hospital. Thirty people are still receiving treatment at Gharbiya hospitals, including 24 at Tanta University Hospital and six at the American Hospital.
Ten of the injured were referred on Sunday to Nasser Institution and two to El-Mounira hospital in Cairo.
Megahed added that most of those injured in the Alexandria cathedral bombing have also been released from hospital. Thirty-five are still receiving treatment at the governorates Alexandria University hospital, Mostafa Kamal Hospital and the Police Hospital.
Hours after the Tanta attack, a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside St. Marks Cathedral in Alexandria, killing at least 17 people and injuring 40 others.
The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
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While Finnish giant Nokia is prepped up to make a comeback in the mobile space, it is also planning to roll-out 5G connectivity in India along with Bharti Airtel and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
The Economic Times reports that Nokia has signed a memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with Indian telecom giants Airtel and BSNL.
Sanjay Malik, head of India market at Nokia told the paper that the idea behind these pacts is to introduce 5G in the country and see what are the steps required for the same. He said that this is more of a preparatory phase for getting into 5G.
Nokia is also setting up an experience centre within its R&D center in Bengaluru to understand stakeholder requirements for 5G in India and push towards the adoption of the new technology in the country.
5G is expected to launch in developed countries by 2020 and by 2022, in India. While the penetration of 4G in the Indian market has been tepid, there is much scepticism towards the adoption of 5G in India.
Despite the pessimistic outlook, mobile companies, telecom operators and the Centre are working towards ensuring that India comes on board the 5G bandwagon in line with the world.
From the sidelines of the World Mobile Congress, Samsung and Reliance Jio had earlier announced that they together plan to bring 5G network to India and Telecom Secretary JS Deepak had said,"We were late in 3G and 4G and we are very keen that India should not be deprived of 5G. It is not only a communication issue, it is a productivity issue for industry. It has wider applications in smart cities and grids and all kinds of things."
Disclosure: Reliance Industries, which owns Reliance Jio, also owns Network18 which publishes Moneycontrol.
A technician is pictured inside a desalter plant of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, September 30, 2016. Picture taken September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave - RTSS6X9
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Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has set a new record of drilling over 500 wells in 2016-17 at an expenditure of Rs 15,747 crore as the major state-owned explorer steps up efforts to boost domestic output.
ONGC drilled 501 wells in the financial year ended March 31, 2017 as compared to 386 wells in 2015-16. This is the first time in 23 years that ONGC has crossed the 500-well mark.
Oil and gas exploration is a risky business and only drilling of wells can guarantee a discovery and confirmation of reserves. The company exceeded the government mandated target of 490 wells. Of the 501 wells drilled, 334 wells were in onshore and the remaining 167 in offshore, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf said here.
"While many explorers worldwide decided to slow down due to the prevailing low price scenario, ONGC had taken the conscious decision to step up the exploration efforts. Despite this challenging environment, the ONGC drilling and well services has put in a commendable performance," he said.
Sarraf said several steps were taken during the last financial year to cut down rig deployment time, increase operational efficiencies and cost control. ONGC operates some 105 drilling and 74 work over rigs. It is among the few companies in the world to have drilled 127 deepwater wells in diverse and challenging areas.
The company's Director (T&S) Shashi Shanker said: "Setting a new benchmark of 501 wells in a year is a phenomenal achievement, especially considering the challenges the oil and gas industry has faced globally during the past two years. "There is a continuous emphasis in ONGC on induction of state-of- the-art technology, optimum utilisation of resources and minimisation of non-productive time of rigs to increase operational efficiency."
Offshore, which contributes to 80 per cent of ONGC's 24 million tonne a year crude oil production, exceeded all its drilling targets. Targets were also surpassed in drilling onland where majority of ONGC's owned rig fleet is deployed. He said as drilling activities account for ONGC's major expenditure, an increase in drilling efficiency would translate to additional savings.
In order to have a more focused approach towards onshore, offshore (shallow waters) and offshore (deep waters) operations a new concept 'Company within Company' was rolled out in Mumbai High Asset to bring about operational efficiency in offshore drilling operations.
Drilling of record number of wells has not just led to establishing newer resources but also augment production from the old and depleting fields. But for these drilling oil output would have dropped to 22 MT.
Parkway Pantai, part of Asia's largest healthcare provider IHH Healthcare, said its planning to expand into the Delhi-NCR region and focus on niche organ transplants as it takes on established rivals in private tertiary care segments such as Apollo and Fortis.
The company said it is open to all possible options including acquisitions to expand into Delhi-NCR region, where so far it has no presence.
"It really depends on what strategic fitment is there; as a general strategy we are always looking for best strategic fits," said Ramesh Krishnan, CEO and head of Middle East and South Asia of Parkway Pantai in an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol.
Krishnan said the company is yet to identify any specific target and set no timeline for its expansion in the Delhi-NCR region.
"The first few projects have been inorganic in nature; we consciously did that, because greenfield projects comes with uncertainty risk given approval timelines and we want to be quick in terms of time to market," Krishnan added.
Parkway Pantai begun operations in India two years ago by buying controlling stake in Hyderabad-based Continental Hospitals for Rs 300 crore followed by much larger buyout of Global Hospitals at Rs 1300 crore.
The acquisitions gave Parkway Pantai a head-start in the Indian healthcare business with an operational capacity of 2,100 beds across a network of 10 hospitals in the key cities of Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai making it to the list of top seven healthcare providers and a potential to add 1,000 beds in the existing network of hospitals.
Since acquisition Krishnan said his aim was to extract further business synergies, cost savings and operating leverage through centralized procurement, optimized backroom functions, common branding and marketing strategy, sharing of doctors and better utilization of facilities.
We have pumped in money towards up-gradation and additions of facilities in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore; the revenues at Continental doubled since acquisition and Global Hospital is growing over 20 percent, he said.
To differentiate itself from competition Parkway Pantai said in India it will focus and expand on organ transplant surgeries.
Parkway Pantai recently added India as its fourth home market, along with Singapore, Malaysia and Turkey.
"That goes out to say how serious we are about Indian market," Krishnan added.
Parkway Pantais aggressive push in the Indian market has irked Apollo Hospitals, Indias largest healthcare provider in which IHH Healthcare was the second largest investor in Apollo Hospitals, besides having a 50-50 joint venture with the later for multispecialty tertiary care hospital in Kolkata.
Analysts say the decade-old relationship turned bitter with Apollo promoters calling it a breach of trust.
IHH Healthcare backed by Khazanah, the Malaysian sovereign fund since then reduced its stake by more than half.
As on March 31, IHH Healthcare holding in Apollo Hospitals was at 4.78 percent compared to 10.85 percent on December 31, 2016 .
Krishnan denied the charge that Parkway Pantai is eating into Apollos share but said that the relationship has always been complimentary.
"Parkway Pantai havent faced any huge conflicts even in the cities where we competed - as we targeted different micro markets and our core is organ transplant surgeries," he added.
Krishnan says Parkway Pantai in India will largely be a big city player.
"We are not interested in just the number of beds, we want to be known as a destination hospital for high-end clinical work for quality care, patient satisfaction with a lot of emphasis on research and academics," Krishnan added.
Representative Image (REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal)
Even as temperatures are soaring, there has been a substantial increase of 39 percent in bookings for travel during the summer of 2017 among Indians, according to a recent report.
"There has been a huge increase in the number of people travelling this summer and about 39 percent more Indians are opting to travel this summer season," MakeMyTrip COO - Hotels and Holidays - Mohit Gupta told PTI quoting the 'Summer Travel Trends' report.
The findings of this report is based on the bookings seen on MakeMyTrip platform till February 28, 2017 for travel for the summer season (AprilJune 2017) and highlights the trends seen in the travel space compared to last year.
There also has been a remarkable year on year increase in bookings coming from smart phones, Gupta said.
Smartphone penetration and adoption led by the young travellers is driving the shift from offline to online in the travel industry, he added.
The transactions made from mobile app has increased by 49 per cent since last summer in 2016, the report said.
With 39 per cent more Indians travelling this summer, there has been a significant increase from April-June 2016, it added.
Further the report said, more young Indians are travelling this summer with 12 per cent of the travellers in 18-24 age group compared to 9 per cent last year with in the same age group.
As more young Indians are travelling, the mix of single travellers has also increased to 36 per cent against 32 per cent last year, it added.
Indians, Gupta said, are widely opting for travelling to the previously unexplored destinations and have been quite experimental with their travelling choices.
More travellers this summer are heading to long haul international destinations, which has registered 36 per cent growth in bookings, it said.
International travellers continue to prefer staying at 4 to 5 star hotels, it said.
However, there has also been a growth of 17 per cent in bookings seen in the mid-range hotels segment.
In domestic destination, more travellers are heading towards Delhi this summer with Mumbai-Delhi being the top domestic flight route followed by Bangalore-Delhi.
It said domestic travellers opting for budget hotels this year have increased by 24 per cent this summer.
Top domestic destinations for this summer are Goa followed by Manali (Hinachal Pradesh), Ooty (Tamil Nadu) and Gangtok (Sikkim), the report said.
Indians this summer have also shown interest in travelling to previously unexplored places like Digha (West Bengal) which has seen a growth of 3.6 times and North East destinations like Gangtok, Shillong, Kalimpong, Lachung (growing by 45 per cent), it said.
In international bookings Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was most preferred destination followed by Dubai, Thailand and Singapore.
It said, London and Paris are the top destinations for long haul trips along with Masai Mara Safari in Kenya.
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Even as public sector banks are weighed down by soaring bad loans, their management have been looking to pass on some of their burden to their employees. This was evident from the recent town hall meeting of UCO Bank which had asked its workforce to life their game.
At the meeting, held in Mumbai on April 8, General Manager and Circle Head played host and made a presentation to all staff members, employees. The Chairman RK Takkar addressed the employees. According to source who spoke to Moneycontrol, a number of performance issues were discussed.
The employees were told to a) mobilise more CASA (current and savings account) b) give better customer service c) to aggressively sell fee-based income which are third-party products like mutual funds and life and non-life insurance policies and d) give emphasis to retail loans, particularly housing loans and e) focus on priority sector lending.
The government will infuse more money only if we improve services and give emphasis on priority sector lending, the presentation is known to have said.
The staff was also told to be aggressive with recovery of dues, the source added.
Following the Mumbai chapter, UCO Bank chiefs will be conducting town hall meetings across every state.
Employees were warned that if they fail to perform, reimbursements for variable components like petrol, medical bills and driver's salary will be reduced.
According to sources, the banks have been advised by both the Finance Ministry and the RBI to improve their financials, look for avenues for capital infusion and create a self-sustaining model by selling assets.
As on March 31, the banks non-performing assets stand at Rs 22,000 crore.
The two leaders are holding delegation level talks. (File photo: Reuters)
China today denied any credit for the Indian Navy for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, claiming that its naval ship equipped with a helicopter saved the 19-member crew.
Declining to acknowledge any role for the Indian Navy which said its chopper provided the air cover for the Chinese soldiers to enter the Tuvalu-flagged ship OS35, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the air support was provided by Chinese helicopter attached to the ship.
The missile frigate Yulin circled the ship while its helicopter provided air cover, she said, making no mention of the Indian Navy's helicopter support to the Chinese troops.
The Chinese naval ship, part of the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters, rushed to the hijacked ship as soon as it received a message from UK Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) on April 8, she told reporters here.
"Rescue operation was launched on early Sunday morning. Sixteen Chinese soldiers successfully boarded the timber-carrying freighter, and freed its crew," she said.
"They also conducted a comprehensive search of the ship to make sure no pirate was on board. 19 crew members released from the strong room where they had taken shelter, while also searching the ship to ensure there were no further threats," she said.
"We believe the aforementioned operation demonstrated the effectiveness of China's naval forces in the field of fighting against pirates, as well as China's image as a responsible major country in safeguarding regional peace and stability," she said.
When questioned about the absence of any reference to the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
"I have already given to you what I have learnt. The Chinese convoy received report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I refer you to the Chinese defence ministry," she said.
"As I just said the Chinese side is always positive towards international cooperation against pirates. This position is very clear," she reiterated.
Her comments followed a Chinese navy statement last night that omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese soldiers.
When asked about the Chinese navy's statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD".
He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
The surprise omission of Indian Navy's role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
The Indian Navy also said that the Chinese navy thanked it for its role in the operation.
"In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.
China's disinclination to acknowledge Indian Navy's role came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, China's opposition to India's NSG membership and Beijing blocking India's effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.
In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navy's help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, from pirates. At that time, Chinese navy's flotilla was on an escort duty in the Gulf of Aden - 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault.
Launching an attack on the Election Commission over alleged EVM manipulation, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today claimed that the poll body was acting like "Dhritarashtra" to help son "Duryodhana" (BJP) win the polls.
He alleged that the Commission's only intention was to bring the BJP to power in poll-bound states and that is why it was not paying heed to his request to investigate defective EVMs.
Kejriwal's accusation comes a day after media reports stated that a few machines, used during the bypoll in Rajasthan's Dholpur, may have been "tampered with".
Accusing the Election Commission of "overlooking" complaints of alleged EVM manipulation, Kejriwal linked the Commission to Mahabharata's character Dhritarashtra.
"As Dhritarashtra used to help his son Duryodhana grab power, the Election Commission is similarly helping the BJP in getting power by using all means possible (through Saam Daam Dand Bhed)," he claimed.
Yesterday, the Election Commission had said that EVMs are robust and tamper-proof and even the manufacturers cannot manipulate them at the time of production, countering allegations that the machines are unreliable.
Addressing a press conference at his official residence, Kejriwal alleged that both the Election Commission and the BJP are "toying with democracy", which the people of country will not tolerate.
"Stop conducting elections when EVMs can be manipulated. What is the meaning of elections then?," Kejriwal asked.
He said the EC was not ready to get faulty EVMs investigated which "raises serious doubts".
Referring to Rajasthan's Dholpur bypolls, the Aam Aadmi Party chief also said "Why defective EVMs votes in favour of the BJP every time? Why faulty machines do not vote in favour of other political parties. It means the software of EVMs has been changed."
He claimed that in the April 23 MCD elections, "malfunctioning EVMs are being brought from Rajasthan to conduct the civic body polls".
"There are three generations of EVMs. First were used before 2006 while the second generation EVMs were used between 2006 and 2013 and third generation EVMs are being used after 2013.
"I have got to know that Delhi State Election Commission (SEC) wants to conduct MCD polls through first generation EVMs which raises doubts over the intention of SEC," Kejriwal said.
He also sought to know from the SEC that when 15,000 EVMs of the second generation were available in Delhi, then why the first generation EVMs, which would have been used before 2006, will be used in the upcoming MCD polls.
Earlier, Kejriwal had claimed that EVMs were being brought from Uttar Pradesh to conduct the polls, a charge the State Election Commission had rejected.
With the Opposition's questions on the reliability of the electronic voting machines getting louder, the Commission has come out with a list of 'frequently asked questions' to put across its views in public domain.
Unrest in Kashmir
The Centre Monday told the Supreme Court it was exploring a crowd control option that is akin to rubber bullets but not as lethal as pellet guns that are being used as a last resort to quell violence in the Kashmir Valley.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi made this submission after he said that the centre has examined other alternatives to pellet guns like skunk water, laser dazzler and chilli-filled pava shells which are found to be "not so successful" like the controversial pellet guns. The submission came after the apex court dubbed as "very important" the issues arising out of the use of pellet guns to deal with violent mobs in the Valley.
The court, which also said that it is a "sensitive issue", warned Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar, which has sought ban on use of pellet guns, from politicising the matter, saying it cannot take sides as "it is neither against the security forces nor with the protestors".
It also perused the report dealing with the strategies and methods to deal with violent mobs including UN-approved skunk water, a non-lethal foul smelling liquid developed by Israel for crowd cotnrol.
Rohatgi placed before the court an expert committee report and said options of using laser dazzler, a non-lethal intense radiation used to temporarily disable its target, high intensity noise devices, chilli-filed pava shells and rubber guns were deliberated upon and were "found not to be so successful" in comparison to pellet guns.
Rohatgi, who said he cannot show or read in open court the April 7 document, also referred to what he called a secret option by stating that "now we are looking at another option and I am not making it public. It is akin to rubber bullets but not lethal as pellet guns".
He told a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar that a "new standard operative procedure" will be used to deal with violent mobs as during the protests between July 8 and August 11, 2016, a total of 1,775 CRPF personnel have been injured out of which 79 were grievously injured.
The Attorney General said the use of traditional drills are perfect if the crowd is at a distance upto 300 metres but if they are advancing and is upon the security forces and are 10 metres away from its vehicles and the life is in danger then as a last resort pellet guns are used.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, asked the bar body to take its time and respond within two weeks the issues raised by the Centre through an affidavit by telling that people in the bar "are in effective position to bring out the true factual position and assist the court in giving directions which would be meaningful".
"This is an important issue and we feel you can play an important role. The question is whether you scuttle the position in which you are or play an important role. You are a privileged person. Today, you are in a position that you can help but you have to be balanced," the bench said before posting the matter for April 28.
During the hearing, the bench noted that the largest casualties during the clashes involved minors, students and youths ranging from age-group of 13 to 24 years.
Rohatgi, who described as "critical" and "delicate" the situation in the Valley where the protests are violent, sought dismissal of the petition and said "it is unfortunate that because of the proximity to the border the situation has been fuelled".
"Crowds seem to be going into the hands of someone who has ulterior motives," he said, adding it has to be understood that "we are not a rogue force" and "we are concious of the situation and consistently looking if any alternative can be used".
When senior advocate Zafar Shah and advocate Mian Abdul Quayoom, appearing for the bar body, made the submission and tried to portray that the arguments of the Attorney General were far from the reality, the bench asked them to utilise this chance for evolving a solution and not point fingers.
The two lawyers used to opportunity in the apex court to rake up the bye-elections held yesterday in the Valley which saw only 7 per cent polling and witnessed deadly violence claiming eight lives and leaving more than 100 security persons injured in the clashes.
One of the advocates raised the question "is the Central government at war with the people" while another counsel said it is turning out to be the "nation of blinded people".
The senior advocate took the liberty to state that "solution is perhaps not within the system and there is some problem within the system".
However, the bench said, "If the solution is from outside the system, we cannot interfere and perhaps you are saying that we cannot interfere."
The bench further said, "both lawyers and judges stand on the same side of rule of law".
"Do not politicise. You just keep away from politicising it. You will go wrong if you will politice it. You give us the means and measures for solution. Do not point out fingers," the bench said.
CJI Khehar took an opportunity to get an answer by narrating a story that "suppose as a child, I live in a wooden house and if a mob comes to hurl a petrol bomb, what will I do?"
The senior advocate appearing for the bar said, "one can go to any extent to protect his life".
At this point, the CJI said, "you are in a very important situation. You are neither in this side nor that side. You are practising law. You cannot take a side. You have to take a right position. We also have to say right or wrong. You are here to help the state.
"Bar in the country has played greatest role in the time of crisis. Bar cannot become a party to a movement," he said.
When advocate Quayoom repeated that it is a nation of blinded people and indiscrimentaly and arbitrarily the pellet guns are used, the bench retorted, "what are these children doing in the mob? These are children of delicate age. They are not above 21 years. 95 per cent of them are students and the upper age limit of hardly 24."
The bench said if the suggestion is for not using pellet guns, what would have been the casualty if other weapons were used.
"We appreciate that you are seeing the reality there. As per you, 20,000 to 30,000 shots were fired. If these pellet guns were not used and instead regular guns were used, then atleast 20,000 people could have died. Deaths are there. It is very unfortunate. It has to be stopped but how can they allow destruction of public properties," the bench said.
"You are a bar body. You feel for your people and your state. You feel that the other side (security forces) starts it and not the mob. You are educated, qualified and are experts but why you do not do anything by lodging complaints if you feel that the other side is wrong. Why cannot you take it to the court with evidence," the court said.
It added, "You are very important. Help in larger issue by taking into account the totality of the circusmtances. Try to help us in reaching to the solution".
The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL seeking declaration of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan as illegal and unconstitutional.
"This treaty is of 1960 and this treaty has held good for more than half a century," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while dismissing the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma in his personal capacity.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, however, made clear that the order dismissing the PIL "does not put any impairment on anybody".
The clarification came when Sharma said that the dismissal of the PIL should not put any restriction in the way of the government if it wants to review the Indo-Pak water pact.
During the brief hearing, it was argued that the Indus water pact was not a treaty at all as the same was not signed in the name of the President of India.
"It was a tripartite agreement between three leaders and void ab initio (illegal at the outset) and hence cannot be acted upon," the lawyer said.
The court said that it has perused the entire petition and does not wish to agree with it.
The Indus water agreement was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, the then Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories.
The apex court had last year refused to grant an urgent hearing on the PIL, saying there was no urgency in the matter while Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, to "keep politics aside".
Sharma, in his PIL, had referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.
However in the case of the 1960 Indus waters treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and "nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India", the plea had said.
"According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India...," it had said.
Sharma had said, "According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to national interest."
The treaty was "against the national interest and violated fundamental right of the citizen of India effecting their life and livelihood", it had said.
Shikha Sharma is the MD and CEO of Axis Bank. Sharma, who is serving her fourth term, has decided to shorten her tenure by more than two years. Sharmas decision came after the countrys apex bank the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) questioned the banks performance and its deteriorating asset quality. Under Sharmas tenure, Axis Bank the countrys third largest private lender reported its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rising from 0.96 per cent in March 2009 to 5.28 per cent in December 2017. Axis Bank has also been pulled up twice by the central bank for under-reporting bad loans for financial years 2016 and 2017.
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Its not everyday that you hear from a bank CEO on how to shape your life.
Shikha Sharma, CEO and MD of Axis Bank, countrys third largest private bank, told graduating students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad to wisely make three important choices including that of a life partner that will shape their lives.
Sharma was addressing the graduation class of 2017. In the convocation speech, Sharma vouched that the privileged education at IIM-A would be a formidable tool-kit. But as the students are poised to enter the real world tomorrow, success as a professional will depend on the choices one makes during the course of one's life, she said.
Quoting the fictional principal character from the famous childrens book Harry Potter by author JK Rowling, Sharma said, its our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities.
Talking about the first important choice, Sharma said that as students step into the real world, they must answer an unasked question: Do you want to choose the path well known or unchartered waters, unmapped territories?
As for Sharma, more often than not, she chose the road less travelled and it has indeed made all the difference.
Life Partner Choice
Sharma, who passed out from the same prestigious institution 37 years ago, got nostalgic remembering the taste of bun-omelets she had during her stint, as she addressed the students of her alma mater from the podium on the other side.
She pointed out that the cliched choice of a life partner with similar core values will be the single-most important choice to make. According to her, much of the joy derived from the journey of life does hark back to who you choose to share your journey with.
Sharma has married her IIM-A batch-mate Sanjaya Sharma, Former CEO of Tata Interactive Systems.
Addressing the third moral dilemma, Sharma said as one moves ahead in life, there will be a choice between taking a practical decision and doing the right thing.
Every time you take the harder, more principled path, you add one more brick to the foundation of your character. Every time you compromise on your beliefs, you give yourself the licence to do it again. Your choices define you and society, so choose wisely, she added.
Sharma highlighted this as she spoke of the trendy managerial VUCA concept -- volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
She said that we live in a world where the rate of change is constantly increasing; the effectiveness of our response strategy is increasingly uncertain; the number of variables at play is ever higher.
And how do you survive in such a VUCA world? With learning agility. Keep learningGrowth begins where your comfort zone ends, she said in her concluding remarks saying that the learning curve has always been her key driver.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves with Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka June 6, 2015. Modi arrived in Dhaka for a two-day state visit to Bangladesh. REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman
Bangladesh is looking to open more trade channels with India, widen foootprint of Border Haats and open up routes that were closed during the 1965 war, visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said today.
Hasina, on a four-day visit to India, called upon Indian industry houses to invest in Bangladesh, especially in infrastructure projects, power and energy, transport, manufacturing, food and agricultural processing sectors.
At a meeting organised by business chambers here, she said Bangladesh is planning to open more channels of trade, enhance Border Haats and open routes which were closed during the 1965 war, steps that will help take bilateral trade to the next level.
"To facilitate further investments, a One Stop Service Act is currently being finalised. I urge Indian investors to consider possible investments in Bangladesh in infrastructure projects, power and energy, food and agro processing, manufacturing and transport sectors," Hasina said.
Speaking in Bengali, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister took potshots at her opposition parties, saying there were charges that she was going to sell off the country to India.
Observing that economic conditions of South Asia should improve, she termed poverty as the common enemy of both India and Bangladesh, calling for a joint fight "to ensure a better life for our people".
The Prime Minister also pointed out that regional and sub-regional cooperation also opens up connectivity to expand the market.
February 02, 2018 | -839.91 | Reason: Stricter tax rules for stock investments and the easing of fiscal deficit
The government has forgone Rs 56,418 crore tax during the first nine months of the last fiscal pertaining to special economic zones, Parliament was informed today.
In the entire 2015-16, these zones had received duty exemptions worth Rs 52,216 crore, according to the data given by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
She said exports from these zones stood at Rs 3.58 lakh crore during the April-December period of 2016-17, ended March 31. In the entire financial year 2015-16, the exports had amounted to Rs 4,67,337 crore.
She said that as on date, 109 SEZs developers have sought cancellation of their projects in some states as the developers have found the projects economically unviable in the changed economic situation.
As many as 28 zones were cancelled in Maharashtra, followed by 14 in Telengana and 10 in Tamil Nadu.
SEZs enjoy certain tax benefits including 100 per cent income tax exemption on export income for the first five years and 50 per cent for the next five years.
Replying to a separate question, she said the government continues to engage the US and the UK administration for better access of its IT professionals in these countries.
"India has also taken up the matter on US visa fee hike in the dispute settlement body of the WTO," she said.
To a separate question on meat exports, the minister said during April-January last fiscal, meat exports stood at Rs 22,074 crore.
The exports had aggregated at Rs 27,610 crore in 2015-16.
As per the current foreign trade policy, she said all export oriented meat processing establishments are required to be registered with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
As many as 81 companies or firms are engaged in meat processing and its exports in the country.
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee delivers the fourth defence estates day lecture on the topic of " Electoral Reforms for Stronger Democracy at DRDO Bhawan in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI Photo by Kamal Kishore (PTI12_8_2016_000214B)
President Pranab Mukherjee praised the Modi government for taking bold steps and promoting the culture of digital payments yesterday at a ceremony when he picked the lucky winner for the digital promotion scheme at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
He stressed that country is on the cusp of a digital revolution with more than a billion Indians having a unique identity number with a biometric identifier which is unique in its own way. He highlighted the importance of the Aadhaar card initiative, saying it is a watershed event in development story of India.
Mukherjee stated that India has a long way to go before it becomes a cashless society as predominantly the country remains primarily a cash-based economy with about 95 percent of the personal consumption and 86 percent of all transactions being in cash.
India is still some distance away from being predominant cash-less society. The President also appreciated the initiatives of the government calling them a good start, which needs active participation from all segments of the society to become a success.
The President stated that even the most technologically advanced countries with far less population also do not have such a system in place.
Bringing on board those people who may not have mobile phones for digital payments was made possible with the Aadhaar enabled payment system.
Aadhaar enabled payment system has made digital payments possible for even those who do not have mobile phones. The government has allowed the development of new means of digital payments with a goal to make their use easy and seamless. Launch of BHIM has demystified the digital payments and brought it within the grasp of every citizen, he said.
The government launched the Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants on December 25, 2016 in order to promote digital transactions. These schemes are being implemented by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
(Image: Shutterstock)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to prepare an elaborate work plan to establish the largest business incubator in the country near Lucknow airport.
Stressing the need for job creation, he said efforts should be made through IT Parks and Start-Up Incubators to ensure that 70 lakh people get opportunities for employment and self-employment in the next five years.
The UP Chief Minister issued these orders while going through the presentations of the Information and Technology Department, which continued till late last night, a release said.
He has also issued orders to all the departments to ensure that e-tendering is implemented while awarding government contracts. "This will also ensure transparency," he said.
The Chief Minister also warned that the service providers at various Jan Seva Kendras in UP, who are not providing proper facilities and service to the public, would face stringent action from the government.
He directed the officials to speed up the starting of the incubator facility at Mathura's Hindustan College, and complete all the necessary formalities in the next 100 days, according to the release.
Adityanath also told the department officials to hold special awareness programme on e-transactions on April 14 to mark the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.
He has asked the departmental officials to prepare a detailed work plan to establish 'Electronics Sadan' in Lucknow.
Kulbhushan Jadhav
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday said the death sentence handed out to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for "spying" should serve as a warning to those "plotting" against the country.
"Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared," Asif said after the Pakistani military announced that an army court has sentenced Jadhav to death after finding him guilty of "espionage and sabotage activities" and the army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved his execution.
Asif claimed that Yadav's sentencing by a military court was according to the law.
He said the death sentence handed out to Jadhav should serve as a "warning to those plotting" against Pakistan".
Asif said that Pakistan would use all constitutional force available against those acting against the sovereignty of the country.
"Soldiers and civilians of Pakistan have given sacrifices for this country and their sacrifices demand us to give a befitting reply to terrorists and those who aid and facilitate them," he said.
The defence minister further said that Jadhav's "confession" was a public document and if India raises the issue of his death sentence, Islamabad will reply to New Delhi.
Jadhav came (to Pakistan) with the approval of the Indian government," he claimed and said there is no doubt that India was "fueling terrorism in Pakistan."
According to Asif, the entire world had acknowledged Pakistan's struggle against terrorism and the country was dealing with this "menace" from both the "eastern and western front".
Pakistan sentenced Jadhav to death for carrying out espionage and sabotage activities in Balochistan and Karachi, the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
According to ISPR, Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 from Mashkel area of Balochistan for his "involvement in espionage and sabotage actives" in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province and Karachi city.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
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In our endeavour to hunt for quality with limited downside, we again resorted to our proprietary framework to identify some potential high quality ideas from the mid cap space. So whats common to Dr Lal Path Lab, Grindwell Norton, Rallis India, Balmer Lawrie and Ceat?
All the five companies are mid cap (market capitalisation between Rs 1000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore) and have superior fundamentals (ROCE and ROE consistently above 15 percent for the past 3 years). Barring one, the remaining four have underperformed the markets rally in the past six months.
We like Dr Lal Path Lab, as the diagnostic business presents secular growth prospects, with low capital intensity. Over time, larger chains with established quality standards would gain market share from smaller players. At present, organized players account for close to 15 percent of the market. With its strong brand equity and regional expansion plans, Dr Lal Path Lab is in a vantage position to capitalise on this trend. Albeit the competitive headwinds, there are ample margin levers like concentrating tests in a few centres to free capacity, use of technology to improve productivity and negotiation on reagents as scale increases, in order to sustain the margin in the mid-twenties. The stocks recent underperformance due to demonetisation-led weakness could present an opportunity for long-term investors.
Grindwell Norton, a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain Group, is the number two player in India with an overall market share of nearly 25 percent (35 percent share in the organised space) in abrasives (bonded, coated and super abrasives) and ceramics (silicon carbide grain and refractories).
While the company has strong presence across the value chain, no major customer contributes more than 2 percent of its total sales. In the abrasives segment, Grindwell, together with Carborundum Universal, commands nearly 50 percent market share.
In the tough times of FY12-16, the abrasives business of the company managed to grow at a CAGR of 6 percent. With a strong balance sheet and near nil debt, any pick-up in manufacturing and industrial activity should be helpful as it would gain from pent-up demand and cyclical uptick in auto and industrials. The company leverages the expertise of its parent. New products from the parents portfolio stand at 30 percent of sales and there is room to garner market share in new categories.
Rallis India is a major agri-input player domestically with a presence in the agrochemicals space (nearly 7 percent market share) and seeds (through its subsidiary Metahelix, it commands a market share of 3 percent).
Notwithstanding the slightly subdued monsoon forecast, we are positive on the sector as the incremental steps taken by the Central and state governments to augment farm income and streamlining of farm benefits should augur well for these companies.
Rallis should outperform the domestic formulation industry due to increased product traction launched in the last couple of years, strong product pipeline and ramp-up in distribution network. The company has commenced shipment of pharma intermediaries that presents a bigger opportunity than agrochemicals in contract manufacturing. It is a debt-free company with robust return ratios. The revival in cotton crop on the back of increase in cotton prices post the shrinking of cotton acreage last year should help Rallis as well.
Balmer Lawrie is a mini-Ratna public sector company with significant presence in industrial packaging, logistics, travel & vacations, greases & lubricants, leather chemicals and refinery & oilfield services. It is the market leader in steel barrels, greases and oilfield services in India. The companys logistics division is the profit driver with over 3 CFSs (container freight stations) in Nhava Sheva, Chennai & Kolkata and it offers a wide range of logistics solutions for ocean, air & road freight.
Its oils & lubricants unit has a growing retail presence with its Balmerol brand. It is also one of the oldest IATA-accredited travel agencies in India. Balmer Lawrie is a cash flow positive entity with superior capital efficiency and stable dividend yield. The company is looking to ramp up its logistics division with significant capex. It is setting up 3 cold chain facilities in Hyderabad, Delhi NCR and Mumbai and a multimodal logistics park at Vishakapatanam port. With the governments focus on agriculture and rural economy and introduction of GST, these moves should help augment growth.
CEAT, the flagship of the RPG group, is the fourth-largest tyre manufacturer in India in terms of revenue (12 percent market share). The companys product portfolio spans the automotive spectrum; it offers tyres for two-wheelers (2W), three-wheelers, passenger cars, utility vehicles, trucks & buses and OTR (off-the-road) vehicles.
Until FY11, CEAT derived 60 percent of its revenues from the low-margin truck & bus (T&B) segment, while the higher-margin segments of 2W and PV (passenger vehicle) contributed just 14 percent, leading to multiple years of low margins and profitability and higher vulnerability to rubber price movements. In the past five years, CEAT has been focusing on more profitable categories like two-wheeler and utility vehicles.
The company is increasing reach, expanding capacity for higher-margin segments, extending its presence across OEMs and spending more on marketing & branding of 2W/PV. CEAT plans to double its capacity in its currently capacity-constrained PV segment and foray into the high-margin, export-focused off-highway tyres (OHT) business. The product mix should improve further, with revenue contribution of 2W/PV expected to increase from 38 percent to 49 percent over FY16-19E. This will partly insulate CEAT against rubber price volatility and help improve margins.
Markets globally are a tad uncomfortable with valuations, geopolitical uncertainty is growing due to Trumps recent action in Syria and upcoming quarterly earnings season is also adding to volatility.Long-term investors could capitalise on the gyrations to build a portfolio of high quality mid-caps.
Capital and commodities regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will discuss unified licence for brokers, options trading for commodities, and rules for listing of security receipts issued by asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), at its upcoming board meet on April 26, sources told Moneycontrol.
The SEBI board will also take up regulations for intermediaries, in line with suggestions of Bimal Jalan Committee. The panel had suggested a five-yearly review of the working of intermediaries. The current period for the review ends on June 31.
The regulator is also considering raising shareholding limit in depositories to 51 percent from the current 26 percent. The tenure of independent directors in exchanges could also be hiked to five years from three.
Options Trading
The regulatory board could also re-introduce options trading for commodity exchanges. The Finance Ministry is parallely studying if a change in Securities Contracts (regulation) Act (SCRA) required for allowing this.
SEBI is keen on delivery-based options in commodities, said a source familiar with the development.
Under a proposal, option positions will be converted into future position three days prior to the tender period, a source familiar with the proposal said. Currently, traders in commodity futures have a choice of taking or giving delivery of commodities they are trading in.
Trading activity surges five days prior to the expiry of the commodity options. During these days traders also decide on settlement mode for payments physical delivery or cash.
SEBI may provide a chance to settle in cash before the proposed three days. If the options holder converts the positions into futures, they will be obligated to take or give delivery, as per the futures contract specifications.
The SEBI board had proposed amendments to the SCRA since this is a hybrid product.
According to a Finance Ministry official, a preliminary study shows no requirement for amendment in SCRA. As per the Forward Contracts Regulation Act (FCRA), such hybrid products can be allowed in the market.
Now, it is up to regulator whether they want to introduce it in coming board meeting or not, the official said.
Further, when the board meet next, it plans to propose an amendment to the Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements (ICDR). This is likely to include security receipts issued by a securitisation company or a reconstruction company under the SARFAESI Act in ICDR infrastructure section with this amendment.
Consultation Paper
After the meeting, the regulator will issue a consultation paper on amendment to ICDR.
SEBI has set itself six to nine months time to form guidelines for listing and trading of security receipts on stock exchanges, a source said.
SEBI may also clear unified licence for intermediaries framework in this board meeting.
China's central bank said it would skip open market operations on Monday, citing "relatively high" liquidity level in the banking system despite some impact from local government bond issuance.
It is the 11th consecutive session in which the People's Bank of China (PBOC) has abstained from open market operations.
"Although general liquidity level in the banking system is down a bit due to local government bond issuance, it is still at a relatively high level," PBOC said in a statement on its website.
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What is the startup Idea?
The 1001 startup idea this week is about creating an AI enabled travel assistance application, which the tourists can use at their convenience without the hassle of going through a travel guide.
Market Size
Owing to its cost effectiveness and varied cultures and natural beauty, Asia has always been one of the favoured destinations among the tourists.
According to a report from UNWTO/GTERC Asian Tourism Trends 2016, 279 million tourists preferred APAC as their destination in 2015 making it second most visited region in the world with nearly one-fourth of tourists globally visiting it. By growing at 5% a year, APAC continues to consolidate its position as one of the fastest growing regions in the world and It is expected that Asia's share of global tourism will increase to 30% by 2030.
AI enables virtual assistance market is expected to reach $12.28 billion by 2024 according to a report by Grand View Research. Change in market demand for self-service and faster response time for resolving issues is considered to be the primary reason for the growth of this segment.
Competitor Analysis
AI enabled Chatbots have already made their way into our day to day lives, and most of the travel management & booking websites are using it for providing real time and seamless experience to their users. 30secondstofly founded in 2015 from US and Pana founded in 2015 from Colorado are some of the new players that have entered the segment.
Pain Point & Target Audience
The target audience for this startup would be travellers who travel on the go or draw up their itinerary without the support from any travel agent. These users struggle with the local information while making their travel plans and end up spending hours on google to get their plans right. Or they often fall prey to travel agents and local guides who tend to provide irrelevant and overpriced suggestions to make quick money.
Value Proposition
The application will help the target users to plan their itinerary on the go with an AI enabled interactive application. The application will not only have the functionality to parse the free written queries but will also have the ability to recognise voice commands.
This will help the users to seamlessly interact with the application as if he/she is getting support from a real life tour management company or a tour guide. This application will provide end to end assistance starting from planning the trip, booking travel tickets to the last mile interactive guided tours.
Business Model
The startup should first build an AI enabled system, which is linked with the travel logistics and planning websites and companies. It should have the ability to parse the free text query and should have the functionality of voice recognition for the better user experience. The application should also link to the local tourism authority websites and knowledge bank for providing guided tour for the destination.
The startup should make its application free to download so that it can acquire a substantially large customer base. The business will earn revenue from in-app purchases for AI guided tours. In addition to this, the startup can and should also charge referral fees from the travel agents and other service providers on the platform, for any successful purchases through the application.
Way to Market
The first step would be to make a seamless application, and then second would be to tie-up with flight booking companies and local travel authorities for last mile information for guided tours.
Once the startup has collaborated with flight booking companies and authorities/ institutional bodies/ tourism promotion boards handling popular travel destinations, it should focus on marketing the application and getting beta users on the platform to start testing its usability.
The Asian tourism market is largely unorganised, and it would be an excellent opportunity for the startup to start from countries, like Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia, and then further expand to other Asian countries.
Milestones
The startup should target to map top tourist destinations for an Asian country and collaborate with two to three flight booking companies in first six months of launch. And then it should focus on marketing and target to reach 20k users in next six months.
Investment needed for prototype
For testing and building the application, the startup should look to raise $100 k from AI or Travel related incubators or accelerators like Zeroth.ai or Travel Startups Incubator. The company should keep its initial expense within limits and spend most of the money on application development and initial user acquisition.
Team Capability
The startup should have a full stack developer and a Machine Learning expert on their founding team. Its always handy to have a growth hacker, to lead your marketing campaigns for driving partners and user acquisition.
Investors / Experts Take
The presence of intelligent virtual agents on the websites has helped several companies increase their conversion rates and highly contribute towards better customer service and conflict resolution. In 2016 alone, we have seen more than 450 investment deals in AI enabled startups with total funding amounting to be more than $1.8 billion. In case you are looking at scaling or launching this venture, you can apply for our virtual acceleration program Excelrate on the Yostartups website; it will help you in streamlining and structuring your startup idea. We have limited scholarships and discount packs for deserving startups, depending on the strength of your application, you may qualify for a discount.
Share price of Apollo Tyres advanced 2.2 percent intraday Monday as it has commenced the commercial production at manufacturing facility in Hungary.
The company has inaugurated its sixth global tyre manufacturing unit and the second one in Europe. This is company's first greenfield facility outside India.
The said facility is built over 72 hectares and the company is investing euro 475 million.
Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman of Apollo Tyres said, This facility will help us further increase our presence and market share in Europe. From being a replacement market focussed company in Europe, we would soon be starting supplies of our tyres to all the leading OEs in Europe."
At 09:52 hrs Apollo Tyres was quoting at Rs 216.85, up Rs 4.10, or 1.93 percent on the BSE.
Posted by Rakesh Patil
Coptic MPs called for minister Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar to be relieved of his position, saying Sunday's terrorist attacks reveal a grave security lapse on the part of the ministry
Terrorist attacks on two Egyptian churches Sunday have led Coptic MPs to voice sharp criticism of the performance of Interior Minister Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar. Meanwhile, a state of emergency is expected to be approved by parliament on Tuesday.
In a meeting of parliament's human rights committee Monday morning, Coptic MPs said they were surprised that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi had so far refrained from dismissing Abdel-Ghaffar from his position.
"It is clear that the terrorist attacks on Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria on Sunday were the result of a grave security lapse and poor performance on the part of the interior ministry," said Coptic MP Margaret Azer.
Azer said that a deadly terrorist attack on a Coptic cathedral in Cairo in December also showed that interior ministry was not taking necessary security measures.
The MP said the government has also failed to issue a new amended law on criminal procedures. All they did instead was issue statements of condemnation, said Azer.
The recent attacks also show that state authorities prefer burying their heads into the sand rather than developing an effective strategy to foil terrorist attacks and fight terrorist organisations, she said, adding that tough penalties on terrorist crimes will not be enough to stem the tide of militant attacks on Egyptian churches.
Those who blow themselves up do so because they believe that this serves Islam, said Azer.
Head of the human rights committee Alaa Abed agreed that the attacks on Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria were disastrous," but said he did not agree that interior minister should be dismissed.
The interior ministers decision to relieve the security chief of Gharbiya governorate of which Tanta is the capital - was a very good step even if it came a little bit late," Abed said.
It would not be logical if we decided that the interior minister be dismissed whenever a terrorist attack hits the nation, he added.
Abed, however, sharply attacked the government for taking too long to refer a new criminal procedures law to parliament.
After an attack on the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo last December, the government promised that it would send an amended criminal procedures law within ten days, said Abed.
Abed said that instead of blaming interior minister, MPs should direct their attacks against the Muslim Brotherhood.
This groups leaders, who are in jail, are the ones who issue orders to militants in North Sinai to attack Christian churches, he said.
Meanwhile, parliaments general committee -- headed by parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal and composed of the heads of 18 parliamentary committees -- postponed a meeting with the ministers of interior and justice to discuss the imposition of a state of emergency. The committee said a new date for the meeting will be set very soon.
Egypt's parliament is expected on Tuesday to approve a three-month state of emergency, declared Sunday night by the president and approved Monday by the cabinet.
The decision followed terrorist attacks on two Coptic churches Sunday morning in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria, leaving 45 dead and around one hundred injured.
Egyptian authorities are currently investigating the bombings.
Meanwhile, Sinai-based Beit Al-Maqdis organisation -- an affiliate of the Islamic State militant group -- has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
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Prakash Gaba of prakashgaba.com told CNBC-TV18, "Britannia Industries can climb to around Rs 3420, keep stop loss below Rs 3363."
"Tata Motors DVR can climb to around Rs 300, keep stop loss below Rs 287," he added.
CNBC-TV18 brings you a brand new week of Bull's Eye. It's the popular game show where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest.
Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well.
This week, Vijay Chopra, Ruchit Jain and Jay Thakkar battle it out for top honours.
Below their top stock picks and analysis:
Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking
Buy Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with a stoploss at Rs 2392 and target of Rs 2485
Buy Pidilite Industries with a stoploss at Rs 694 and target of Rs 742
Buy JK Tyre with a stoploss at Rs 131 and target of Rs 150
Buy Eveready Industries with a stoploss at Rs 270 and target of Rs 295
Vijay Chopra of enochventures.com
Buy MOIL with a stoploss at Rs 315 and target of Rs 335
Buy PTC India with a stoploss at Rs 91 and target of Rs 99
Buy BPL with a stoploss at Rs 80 and target of Rs 90
Buy Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) with a stoploss at Rs 78 and target of Rs 89
Jay Thakkar of Anand Rathi Securities
Buy Cadila Healthcare with a stoploss at Rs 446.90 and target of Rs 468.20
Buy GE T&D India with a stoploss at Rs 332.10 and target of Rs 351.20
Buy Engineers India with a stoploss at Rs 146.90 and target of Rs 155.20
Buy NBCC with a stoploss at Rs 173.40 and target of Rs 181.60
Gaurang Shah of Geojit Financial Services told CNBC-TV18, "I hope that the anti-dumping and MIP kind of move from the government would definitely help the Indian tyre manufacturing companies because there is tremendous amount of imbalance in terms of the dumping that happens from the Chinese tyres into our market and especially in the M&HCV segment and they are not as per the safety standards up to the mark. So, that is a big question mark. Having said that, on JK Tyre we would recommend a hold. We are quite positive on the sector overall."
"Replacement market is an evergreen market for tyre manufacturing companies and equally robust is the new order market because you will have definitely new launches coming through there by opening up opportunities for all the tyre manufacturing companies in India."
"The rubber prices are lower and crude oil prices if they head lower that is also an added positive for the tyre manufacturing companies. So, from a long term point of view hold on to it," he added
ICICIdirect's Derivative Report:
Nifty
Last hour selling ensured the Nifty ended below 9200. Within the Nifty, 37 stocks fell while 14 rose with India VIX rising 3.6 percent. Sectorally, the largest decline was seen in pharma, PSU banking, realty and metal space.
FIIs sold Rs 262 crore while DIIs bought Rs 415 crore in the cash segment. FIIs sold Rs 509 crore in index futures and bought Rs 910 crore in index options. In stock futures, they bought Rs 564 crore.
The highest Put base is at the 9000 strike with 54 lakh shares while the highest Call base is at the 9500 strike with 50 lakh shares. The 9300 and 9500 Call strikes saw additions of 9.4 and 4.6 lakh shares respectively while 9300 Put strike saw additions of 1.8 lakh shares and 9000 Put saw closure of 5 lakh shares.
Nifty Bank
Nifty Bank saw marginal profit taking (as declines were mainly seen in PSU banking stocks) and the index ended at the lowest level since March 29. Current Put build-up is at 21500 suggesting index may see extended profit booking if it is unable to move above 21500.
Nifty Future: The Nifty is likely to open flat to positive on the back of mixed global cues. Sell Nifty in the range of 9240-9250 for targets of 9195-9185, stop loss: 9270.
Nifty Bank Future: Nifty Bank saw marginal profit taking (as declines were mainly seen in PSU banking stocks) and the index ended at the lowest level since March 29. Current Put build-up is at 21500 suggesting index may see extended profit booking if it is unable to move above 21500. Sell Nifty Bank in the range of 21500-21550, targets: 21300-21200, stop loss: 21620.
: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Five CEOs of various IT firms on Monday held a meeting underwater to raise awareness about global warming and marine pollution.
The meeting took place at a famous beach resort in Kovalam, Kerala.
Armed with their scuba diving gear, the CEOs took plunge into the water 50 metres off the shore. The meeting lasted 20 minutes and ended with a pledge to protect the ocean and marine life. The CEOs underwent training for a week before Monday's dive.
The participants included Raja Gopaal Iyer (Udaya Samudra Group of Hotels), Hema Menon (UST Global), Dinesh P Thampi (TCS), Dr Shyam Kumar (Neologix) and Rony Thomas (Avon Mobility Solutions). They dived to reach a U-shaped table set on the bed of the ocean for the conference.
The conference comes on the heels of a recent global report which found seas around Mumbai, Kerala and Andaman and Nicobar Islands to be the most polluted in the world. The report found an alarming amount of plastic and debris in the waters which originated from the inland.
Raja Gopaal Iyer, CEO of Uday Samudra Group who spearheaded the event said, Sea pollution is rising at an alarming level. Our endeavour is to make the public aware of the dangers posed by littering especially the unscientific disposal of plastic.
Other than the pledge, discussions were also held on other topics such as adverse human impact on oceans, over fishing, pollution, habitat destruction, acidification and climate change. The meeting not only demanded attention from Indian community but also from international community regarding global warming and marine population.
A recent report of the World Economic Forum found that at least 12.7 metric tonne of plastic gets collected in the sea each year. Alarmingly, the report suggests at this rate the sea will contain more plastic than fish by 2050.
Fire
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency in Egypt following twin church bombings that killed dozens of people in two cities today.
Sisi announced the "state of emergency for three months" in a defiant speech at the presidential palace after a meeting of the national defence council.
The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the church bombings in the Nile Delta cities of Alexandria and Tanta in which at least 44 people were killed.
Egypt's cabinet approved on Monday a nationwide three-month state of emergency, which President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi declared hours after two deadly suicide bombings hit St. George Cathedral in Tanta and St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing 45 and injuring dozens more in the deadliest attack against civilians in Egypt's recent memory.
According to the Egyptian constitution, any state of emergency must be upheld by parliament by majority vote within seven days of its declaration by the president. The Egyptian House of Representatives is set to vote on the state of emergency on Tuesday.
This is the second state of emergency imposed nationwide in Egypt in the last four years.
In 2013, Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour declared a one-month state of emergency following a wave of violence in the wake of the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The state of emergency grants authorities expanded powers including trying civilians in special courts, restricting or regulating movement in public places, and more authority to regulate media outlets.
Special trials
Law 162, which regulates the powers of the state under emergency, allows for the trial of civilians before special courts, including the Emergency High State Security Court, upon orders by the president, who has the right to appoint army officers in the judicial panel of these courts.
According to Article 9 of the law, the president has the right to refer defendants in criminal cases to these special courts for any crime.
According to Article 12 of the law, the verdicts of these courts are not subject to appeal as they are in regular courts, with only the president maintaining the right to overturn verdicts, order a retrial or reduce sentences.
The sentences of these courts are put into effect after approval by the president.
Freedoms
The state of emergency law gives authorities the right to shut down or set operating hours for commercial shops.
Authorities are also granted the right to evacuate or cordon certain areas, as well as specify or restrict means of transportation.
Authorities are also empowered to withdraw licences for weapons, ammunition, flammable material and fireworks.
The law grants the state the right to assume guardianship of private companies and properties per an order by the president.
Article 4 of the law grants broader authority to the countrys Armed Forces, including jurisdictional authorities usually reserved for law enforcement bodies.
The law also gives the state the right to impose curfews, though no such plan has been announced by authorities for this most recent state of emergency.
Media
The state of emergency grants the president the right to oversee all means of communication, expression, and advertising prior to publication, as well as the power to confiscate and shut down print houses.
During a late night address to the nation on Sunday, El-Sisi urged all media outlets to be "credible, responsible and aware" when covering news and images related to terrorist incidents, and not to hurt the feelings of the victims by broadcasting images of their deceased relatives all day long.
The state of emergency in Egypt
States of emergency have historically been implemented in countries around the world to preserve the security and stability of nations during times of danger, such as during wars, natural disasters or other unusual circumstances.
An ongoing state of emergency has been in effect in designated areas in North Sinai since 2013, as the army battles a militant insurgency in the area. The state of emergency has been continually renewed at three-month intervals since 2013.
The state of emergency announced on Sunday will be implemented nationwide in accordance with Law No. 162 of 1958.
The 2014 constitution says that a state of emergency is to be imposed under the following conditions:
- The President must consult with the cabinet before imposing the state of emergency.
- Parliament must approve the state of emergency by majority vote.
- The state of emergency shall be declared for a specified period not exceeding three months.
- Parliament must approve by majority vote the renewal of the state of the emergency.
The countrys first state of emergency was implemented in 1914 by a British mandate in all territories of the Egyptian sultanate during the World War I.
After the 1952 revolution and the establishing of the republic in 1953, the state of emergency was imposed in1956 during the tripartite aggression against Egypt, and was lifted in 1964.
A state of emergency was again declared in 1967 during the Arab-Israeli war, and continued until 1980.
Following the assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981, the state of emergency was imposed again and extended every three years during the entire 30-year rule of his successor Hosni Mubarak.
Following the uprising that toppled Mubarak in February 2011 with the continued state of emergency being one of the protestors grievances the state of emergency was lifted by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in May 2012, ending the longest state of emergency in the country's history.
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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,
Some of Pennsylvania's largest counties are working to help voters fix mail-in ballots that have fatal flaws such as incorrect dates or lack of signatures on the envelopes used to send them in.
The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for firing a grad missile from Sinai into southern Israel on Monday in a statement on its news agency AMAQ.
An Israeli army statement said earlier in the day that the projectile landed in the Eshkol regional council.
"No injuries have been reported," the statement added.
Prior to the attack, Israel closed its Taba border crossing with Egypt on Monday over a warning by its anti-terrorism office of an "imminent" militant attack against tourists in Sinai.
On Sunday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a pair of church suicide bombings during Palm Sunday ceremonies in Tanta and Alexandria.
The two attacks killed 45 people.
Israel urged its citizens visiting Sinai to return home shortly after the attacks.
Israel has warned its citizens to avoid travelling to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in recent years over concerns of Islamist militant activity.
Making feminist friendships in South Korea helped Shannon be part of a connected world where everyone does their best.
Im afraid that I dont do enough.
It was midnight, though my internal clock was still set to New York, stuck somewhere around eleven in the morning. My throat was scratchy, rubbed raw from singing Cyndi Lauper at the top of my lungs in the faint disco lighting of a South Korean karaoke club.
The song was chosen by a young man wearing a sweatshirt with the word feminist emblazoned across the chest. Wed been hired by the same company, at the same time, for the same position, on opposite sides of the world. The first words we said to each other were girls just wanna have fun. When the song ended, we high-fived. Not a bad way to start a friendship.
Between shots of soju, wed started talking about what being a feminist meant to both of us. As an English speaker, there are far fewer language barriers ahead of me than one might expect. Id arrived after the fourteen-hour flight knowing three phrases: hello, goodbye, and I want you to buy me lunch and none of the alphabet, which would have been of limited use in most circumstances. But everywhere I went, I found that I could understand and be understood without difficulty. Its not just that everyone I interacted with spoke English. They spoke the kind of English I am accustomed to. An English full of Starbucks frappuccinos, American politics, and iconic gay pop lyrics. I hadnt known what to expect from my three months in South Korea, but I definitely hadnt thought it would be easy.
After trading the dim lights of the club for the bright fluorescence of the subway, my new friend confessed a fear that had been echoing in my own mind for years. When it came to my beliefs, I worried that I did not do enough. Speak up enough. Work hard enough. That my presence, my thoughts, my very existence were not and never would be enough. It was the kind of honesty I didnt pursue at home. Perhaps because I feared that I was right.
Swaying with the gentle car, hanging on to the railing with drink-addled fingers, I was more uprooted than Id ever been. I didnt know where I was, at which station to exit. I wasnt sure if the job would work out, or if I wanted it to.
I reached for his hand. He clasped mine. I squeezed it gently.
If you try your best, I think thats enough, I smiled.
For a few minutes, it was that easy.
He was a good friend in other ways, too. He brought me to a bar that actually had good beer.
The only acceptable use of Korean beer, in my opinion, is as a mixer for something like somik or cojinganmek (a combination of beer, soju, and soda). South Korea itself though is anything but isolated, and Cyndi Lauper is far from the only import. Which is how I found myself in a bierhaus-style bar near the Gangnam District (yes, that Gangnam) discussing South Korean sex education standards over pints of Guinness.
They have a section for girls on how not to get raped, he told me. It says to wear pants or a long skirt.
That was familiar territory. Back home, Emma Sulkowicz had just graduated from Columbia; shed carried her mattress to the ceremony to protest the fact that Columbia had failed to expel the man she accused of raping her.
I had to confess ignorance when it came to the politics of South Korea, and as our conversation flowed I found myself adrift. It was striking, though perhaps it shouldnt have been, to hear about the same issues I struggled with at home in an unfamiliar context.
I learned that while public attitudes in South Korea had changed significantly over the past ten years, there were still few legal protections for LGBT+ people. While our military no longer relies on the draft (military service is required of all eligible men in South Korea), the homophobia of our institutions echoed each other. Different laws, but the net result felt much the same: true equality felt just out of reach for both of us.
My friend was kind enough to accompany me to a museum exhibit featuring feminist artists from all over South Korea. I recognized none of them. I asked about their work, and what he thought of it. I was grateful for his presence, his explanations of the history and culture that I had no context for. In the age of the internet, I of course had access to all of this myself; with my smartphone in hand it was literally at my fingertips and had been for years.
He invited me to one of the few gay bars in Seoul; most of them are concentrated in Itaewon, and if I hadnt been with him I would have walked right past this one. The door was unassuming and barely marked. It led to a stairwell, a basement bar tastefully appointed, serving complicated cocktails in moody light.
It had the aura of the trendy speakeasies that have cropped up around New York City. Only instead of providing an air of mystery for hipsters recalling the dangerous edge of the prohibition era, the privacy of this bar was necessary for its clientele. While heterosexual couples were happy to exhibit their affection publicly and often, the fear of stigma was powerful, even when we were inside. It wasnt unwelcoming. If anything, the promise of privacy was extended to me as well.
We talked about what its like to date as a gay person in South Korea, the difficulties that we had in common. My friend described the various apps and websites that had become popular in recent years. We compared them to the web communities of my teenage years, where friends who feared their families would kick them out sought solace and community. Human beings seek connection, in spite of ourselves.
Its true in a lot of ways that the world has opened up to an unprecedented degree. There are still millions of people who have been left behind; from the Rust Belt in America to the rural communities in South Korea. Barriers of language and literacy have been erected, the boundaries of race and class are sometimes impossible to cross. These obstacles are genuine, but they are not impermeable. South Korean influence can be found in almost every corner of the United States, in the form of Samsung smartphones, Snowpiercer, boybands, and Kia hybrids. More and more, cultural isolation is becoming a choice, not a limitation.
Upon my return to the United States, I was surprised as I began to notice the places in my life where South Korea had carved a space. Struggling to decide on dinner one evening, I found I was craving jajangmyeon. When springtime rolled around, I realized I was running out of the sunscreen Id bought on a whim, and suddenly I didnt dare face the summer without it.
Once again, the world demonstrated to me that it is smaller than I think. The sunscreen is commercially available in the U.S.; the company has had a flagship store in New York for almost three years. The recipe for jajangmyeon isnt hard to find, and black bean paste- the key ingredient- can be bought on Amazon. It was easy to find once I took it upon myself to look. And though our conversation is often on a twelve-hour delay, conducted over keystrokes instead of drinks, my friend and I are still learning from one another.
During the recent protests and impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, he told me that he was excited and hopeful about the future. That there was a lot of work to be done, but he could envision the end of the corruption and oppression that had characterized the government. That he believed America could be next.
Id like to believe that too- that all of us around the world are on the brink of a new age of compassion and dignity for all human beings. Its not easy, but we do our best. And thats enough.
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Three policewomen from the victims of the attack were also buried in Alexandria and Beheira governorate
Egypts Coptic Church buried on Monday seven victims of a suicide attack on St. Marks Cathedral in Alexandria that killed 17 people and injured dozens, Ahram Arabic website reported.
Hundreds attended the funerals and the burial of the victims at Mar Mina Monastery in King Mariut on the outskirts of Alexandria.
The Mar Mina Monastery cemetery is also the burial site of the victims of the Two Saints Church bombing in Alexandria in 2011.
The Coptic Orthodox Church does not hold public funeral masses during Holy Week in the run-up to Easter, but funerals and burials are allowed without a mass.
Funerals were also held Monday afternoon in Alexandria for two policewomen killed in the suicide attack. Hundreds of Egyptians attended the funerals to pay respect for the womens sacrifices, according to Ahram Arabic website.
A funeral was held in Beheira for the third policewoman killed in the attack. The three policewomen were stationed at the gates of the cathedral and were among the first hit by the bombing.
On Sunday morning, a suicide bomber attacked Alexandrias St Marks Cathedral during Palm Sunday services, killing 17 people including 11 Christians and six Muslims and injuring dozens.
A couple of hours prior, a suspected suicide bomber attacked Tantas Mar Girgis Cathedral, killing not less than 28 people and injuring over 70 others.
According to Egypt's interior ministry, four police personnel were killed and 14 others were injured in the attack.
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Despite all the volatility we've seen in the market this past year from the drop in the markets following the Brexit vote to the post-election market rally in the United States markets in the UK, US, emerging Europe and Asia have rallied strongly over the past 12 months.
While not all stocks have recovered, many have rallied. Searching for yield in this type of environment can be fraught with risks, including everything from price risk to the risk that a firm cannot meet its commitment to its dividend.
When we screen for top dividend-paying stocks among the holdings of our Ultimate Stock-Pickers, we try to hone in on the highest-quality names that are currently held with conviction by our top managers. We accomplish this by screening for holdings that are widely held, by five or more of our top managers, are yielding more than the S&P 500, represent firms with wide or narrow economic moats sustainable competitive advantages and have uncertainty ratings of either low or medium.
The vast majority of our Ultimate Stock-Pickers have never been mistaken for dividend investors. That said, a handful of them are more focused on income producing stocks in their pursuit of investment gains. Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway has also spoken affirmatively of returning capital to shareholders and is not against investing in and holding higher yielding names. We reveal their selection below. Ultimate Stock-Pickers is a concept we've developed at Morningstar with one simple goal: to cross-check our stock research against the opinions of professional money managers. We're not as interested in what all investment managers think, just those we consider the best in the business. As such, we maintain a list of 26 managers that we believe are worth monitoring on a regular basis. Verizon (VZ) Verizon is the incumbent local phone company across about 20% of the U.S. population, and it owns a long-haul network that reaches cities around the world. Verizon Wireless serves about 113 million retail wireless connections, including smartphones and tablets, making it the largest carrier in the US. Sanofi (SNY) Healthcare stock Sanofi is the cheapest name on a price to fair value basis on the list as well as the second highest yielding stock. Morningstar Sector Director of Healthcare Damien Conover believes that Sanofi benefits from a wide and robust line-up of branded drugs and vaccines that create strong cash flows. Exxon Mobil (XOM) ExxonMobil is an integrated oil and gas company that explores for, produces, and refines oil around the world. In 2016, it produced 2.1 million barrels of liquids and 10.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Novartis (NVS) Novartis develops and manufactures health-care products in four main operating segments: branded drugs, generic pharmaceuticals, eye care products, and consumer products. The company sells its products globally with the U.S. representing close to a third of total sales. AbbVie (ABBV) AbbVie is a pharmaceutical company with a strong exposure to immunology and oncology. The company's top drug, Humira, represents over half of the firm's current profits. The company was spun off from Abbott in early 2013. Pfizer (PFE) Pfizer is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms, with annual sales over $50 billion. Prescription drugs and vaccines account for the majority of sales. Top sellers include vaccine Prevnar 13 against meningitis and Lyrica for epilepsy and some types of neuropathic pain. Pfizer sells these products globally with international sales representing over 50% of its total sales. Emerson Electric (EMR) Emerson Electric recently divided its business operations into two segments: Automation Solutions and Commercial & Residential Solutions. The company specialises in large scale automation systems for process-oriented heavy industries, including oil and gas, refining, chemicals, and power. General Electric (GE) General Electric is a diversified manufacturer that operates seven separate businesses in its industrial segment: power, oil and gas, renewable energy, lighting, aviation, healthcare, and transportation. The company also provides specialty industrial financing through its GE Capital division. Cisco Systems (CSCO) Cisco Systems is the world's leading supplier of data networking equipment and software. Its products include routers, switches, access equipment, and security and network management software that allow data communication among dispersed computer networks. Nestle (NSRGY) Founded in 1866, Nestle celebrates its 150th operating year in 2016. Today, the company is the largest food and beverage manufacturer in the world by sales, generating more than CHF 90 billion in annual revenue. Its diverse product portfolio includes brands such as Nestle, Nescafe, Perrier, Pure Life, and Purina. Nestle also owns just over 23% of French cosmetics firm L'Oreal.
The speaker of Egypt's parliament Ali Abdel-Aal referred on Monday the Egyptian-Saudi Tiran and Sanafir deal to parliaments legislative and constitutional committee for discussion, despite the agreement being annulled by a final court ruling earlier this year, Arabic Ahram website reported.
The government approved the controversial deal to hand over the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to the Gulf kingdom in December and has sent it to parliament for ratification.
However, Egypts High Administrative Court rejected the deal in a final ruling in January, affirming that the islands belonged to Egypt alone and that the government has not provided sufficient evidence proving otherwise.
The agreement, which was announced during a visit to Egypt by the Saudi king last April, prompted protests by Egyptians who accused the government of selling Egyptian land.
The government, however, insists the islands have always belonged to Saudi Arabia, and were only placed under Egypt's control because Riyadh had asked Cairo to protect them in the 1950s.
Khaled Ali, a prominent Egyptian rights lawyer who challenged the deal in court, said that Egypt's ownership of the islands dates back to a treaty signed with the Ottoman Empire in 1906, before the founding of Saudi Arabia.
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Related Syrian rebels fight off Islamic State suicide attack
US-led allied forces and Syrian rebels have thwarted a significant Islamic State group attack on their base near the Jordanian border, according to the anti-IS coalition.
The coalition said Saturday's attack on the At-Tanf Garrison was a complex one involving a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, followed by a ground assault and suicide vests by up to 30 IS fighters.
"Coalition and partnered forces defended against the ISIS attack with direct fire before destroying enemy assault vehicles and the remaining fighters with multiple Coalition airstrikes," the coalition said in a statement.
The "vetted" Syrian opposition forces, known as VSO, who participated in the battle are distinct from the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are assisting Syria in the north.
"In southern Syria, VSO forces focus on conducting operations to clear ISIS from the Hamad Desert and have been instrumental in countering the ISIS threat in southern Syria and maintaining security along the Syria-Jordan border," the coalition statement said.
In June 2016, Russian warplanes bombed the remote outpost used by elite US and British forces. It is located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Jordanian border.
About three weeks later, Russian warplanes hit a rebel camp used by family members of CIA-backed fighters about 50 miles west of At-Tanf.
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Nick Wade was at track practice late one afternoon last week when he found out. The 18-year-old checked his phone and learned that he had made it into the Ivy League.
One by one, he said. I found out I had gotten into my schools.
Wade is a quadruplet, though, with three brothers on his high school track team who had also applied to Ivy schools. So about that time on Thursday, they were learning their fates, too.
There was Aaron, who was in the locker room when he logged on. And Nigel, who was stretching out when his brothers told him to check. Zach was going to wait until practice was over, but his brothers werent having it.
It would have taken like 20 more minutes, Zach said, who said the siblings checked for him. But they couldnt wait that long.
That is how the Wade quadruplets, of Liberty Township, Ohio, learned that all four had been accepted at Harvard and Yale universities - offers that added to a pretty impressive pile of potential college destinations.
Were still in shock, honestly, Aaron said this week. I dont think it has sunk in yet.
I just felt blessed at that moment, Nigel said. It was an unreal feeling, I guess.
Honestly, to have one child from a family be accepted to a school like this is amazing, Zach said. But for all four to be accepted - I just dont, I dont know how it happened.
The Post reviewed screenshots of admission notifications and copies of letters the Wades received to confirm their authenticity.
Besides Harvard and Yale, the Wade brothers have loads of options for the next four years. Nick got into Duke, Georgetown and Stanford. Aaron is in at Stanford, too. Nigel made the cut with Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt, and Zach with Cornell.
That list does not cover all the schools that offered them admission. But you get the idea. These seniors at Lakota East High School are in high demand.
The outcome has shocked us, Aaron Wade said. We didnt go into this thinking, Oh, were going to apply to all these schools and get into all of them. It wasnt so much about the prestige or so much about the name as it was - it was important that we each find a school where we think that well thrive, and where we think that well contribute.
Harvard said it doesnt comment on the admission status of prospective students, and doesnt formally track how many students are admitted as twins, triplets, quads or other multiple-birth sets. Yale said in an email that as a policy, the university doesnt discuss admitted students.
More than 32,000 people applied for Yales Class of 2021, according to the universitys website. Of them, 2,272 were admitted. Harvard said 2,056 students were admitted this year out of an applicant pool that exceeded 39,000.
When we would joke about it, Aaron said, it was like, Yeah, Im going to be the one who gets rejected. You guys all have fun at Harvard.
This is not the first set of quadruplets that Yale has admitted. A few years ago, Kenny, Martina, Ray and Carol Crouch learned that they had earned early admission slots with the university. All four ended up picking Yale, according to the New York Times.
Darrin Wade, 51, father of this years quartet of academic stars, said that when his wife, Kim, was pregnant, the couple was initially told they were having twins. A few weeks later, they learned that was incorrect.
I remember they were doing an ultrasound and they said, Mr. Wade, you better sit down. I said, Whats going on? They said, Theres not two. Theres four, Wade said. It was really at that point in time that I tried to figure out how were going to pay for school.
Darrin Wade, who works for General Electric, and his wife, a school principal, have saved some money for their sons educations. But the father said its not enough to fully fund four sets of tuition for four years at full price at elite private universities. The mother and father are mindful of their own need for retirement funds, too.
We have to make sure that were helping them down the road by not being a financial burden on them when we get older, Wade said.
Like a number of other elite schools, Harvard and Yale pledge to meet the full demonstrated financial need of the students they admit.
This school year, Yale charges more than $64,000 for tuition, fees, room and board, (before taking into account financial aid). The comparable price at Harvard is about $63,000.
Financial aid is going to be a big player in our decision, Nick Wade said.
Here are a few notes on the boys from the father.
Aaron is the most artistic of the bunch, and the father described him as comfortable in his own skin. He was the first born of the fraternal quadruplets.
Aaron has classic first-child syndrome, he said. Hes a minute older than his brothers, two minutes older than everybody else, maybe. And hes a classic first child.
Nick is more socially conscious, the father said, and a big reader. Zach Wade has an engineers mind, said his father, while Nigel is the one that is more apt to read something on how to do something.
Each of the Wade quads has distinct academic interests, reflecting the differences in their personalities and goals. Nick plans to double major in international relations and economics, while Zach sees a future in engineering. Nigel is interested in neuroscience. Aaron wants to study computer science and cognitive science.
It is not yet clear if the four brothers will stay together for their college years or strike out on their own. They have a few weeks to decide.
We really dont know. We still have to make those decisions, Nick Wade said. Were just shocked. We still dont believe that we got in.
Shane Foster
Drone footage captured Sunday's West Odessa tire fire on the 2700 block of Buckskin Road. The video taken by Shane Foster shows massive smoke clouds from a half a mile away.
The fire broke out in a 2-acre pit but with the strong winds, the fire spread quickly through the area, according to KMID.
IS group militants launched two suicide attacks on U.S.-backed Syrian rebels near the border with Iraq, leaving at least 12 dead in the fighting and many wounded, rebel sources said on Sunday.
They said eight Islamic State fighters and four of their own men died.
An attack at midnight on a heavily defended base near the al Tanf border crossing involved at least one explosive-laden vehicle that rammed an entrance to the base. At least two U.S.-backed rebels were killed and scores wounded, a rebel source said.
The militants also staged a suicide attack on a convoy of rebel fighters from the Western-backed Osoud al Sharqiya rebel group, who had sent reinforcements from their outpost near the Rukban refugee camp further south west. Two of the fighters in the convoy were killed in the ambush.
Islamic State "staged a suicide attack and there were clashes inside Tanf. Two were killed and several injured. They also attacked our convoy but it's over and matters are under control," said a senior rebel source from Osoud al Sharqiya who requested anonymity.
Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency said two suicide attacks were conducted by its fighters near Tanf on "positions of Syrian groups supported by America." It gave no details.
U.S.-led coalition planes were involved in the operation to track down the militants who staged the hit-and-run attack and apparently fled, a rebel commander involved in the operation said.
The Pentagon estimated between 20 and 30 Islamic State fighters, some wearing suicide vests, were involved in the ground assault.
"Coalition and partnered forces defended against the ISIS attack with direct fire before destroying enemy assault vehicles and the remaining fighters with multiple coalition air strikes," the Pentagon said in a statement.
Both Tanf and Rukban are near the joint Syria-Iraq-Jordan border. Osoud al Sharqiya, one of the main groups in that area fighting Islamic State, is part of the Free Syrian Army of rebels financed and equipped by a Western coalition.
Jordan, a U.S. ally, backs the moderate rebel groups aligned with the so-called Southern Front supported by an Arab-Western coalition, who are trying to prevent opposition-held southern Syria from falling to Islamic State.
The rebels took the border crossing of Tanf last year from the militants and tried unsuccessfully to drive them out of the Syrian border town of Bukamal on the Euphrates, further northeast, a major supply conduit for Islamic State between its strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
In recent weeks, the militants in the Syrian desert near the Jordanian border have regrouped further north to reinforce their Raqqa stronghold, after major defeats in Syria and Iraq.
The attacks were meant to show the militants were still capable of waging hit-and-run operations against the Western- backed rebels who have recently seized a swathe of territory stretching from the town of Bir Qasab, some 50 km (30 miles) southeast of Damascus, all the way to the borders with Iraq and Jordan, a desert area known as the Badia.
"Their message is we are still present in the area and have not withdrawn and we still target the FSA," Said Seif, a rebel official with the Western-backed Shahid Ahmad Abdo group that operates in the area, told Reuters.
Western intelligence sources have worried for months that militants fleeing from their main urban strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq could find a safe haven in the region.
A Western intelligence source told Reuters that U.S. and British special forces are expanding the Tanf base to use it as a major launching pad for operations in coming months to oust militants from Bukamal, a major militant stronghold.
Diplomats say plans are under way to stage new coalition strikes on Islamic State fighters in the south, including an area to the west of the southern city of Deraa. Militants entrenched in the Yamouk River Valley near the Israeli border have recently made gains.
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G7 energy ministers failed to reach agreement on a joint statement on climate change on Monday after the United States expressed reservations, an Italian minister said.
The United States "reserved its position" on the text about commitments made by G7 countries under the 2015 Paris climate accord, said Carlo Calenda, the Italian minister for economic development, who chaired the meeting in Rome.
Lacking unanimity, Italy, which currently presides the Group of Seven, decided against proposing the joint statement, Calenda said.
The Paris Agreement, endorsed by members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is a bedrock of international action against man-made global warming.
It vows to cap warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to late 19th-century levels -- an effort that scientists say will require massive cuts in carbon emissions from coal and other fossil fuels.
It also pledges to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in aid for poor countries badly exposed to drought, flood, rising seas and other climate impacts.
In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order rolling back some of the previous Democratic administration's policies on carbon emissions and climate change.
Experts have said his plan, which eases emissions limits for coal-fired power plants and scraps more stringent vehicle pollution standards, almost guarantees that the United States will fail to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Trump has also said he does not intend to honour promises made by the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, to provide financial aid under the Paris accord.
However, Trump's team is also deeply divided on whether to withdraw from the pact, according to US media reports.
On March 30, the White House said a decision on whether to withdraw would be made ahead of the G7 summit in Italy in late May.
Under Obama, the United States, the second biggest carbon polluter, provided critical impetus for the Paris deal by concluding a precursor deal with China, the number one emitter.
The Group of Seven, gathering the biggest western democracies, comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
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The 19th edition of the festival will run from 19 to 25 April, featuring films 45 countries and eight from Egypt
The 19th Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts opens on 19 April in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, featuring 115 films this year from 45 countries.
Headed by Essam Zakaria, this edition is dedicated to the late critic Samir Farid and director Mohamed Kamel El-Kaliouby, both of whom left an influential mark on cinema and film criticism.
The festival will also honour its founder, director and author Hashim El-Nahas.
A number of El-Nahas' films will be screened during the festival, in addition to the release of his new book titled Naguib Mahfouz: the Conscience of His Time.
Through the festival I hope you will get a chance to take a closer look at some of my works, and give this honouring your blessing, El-Nahas said.
One of the most important changes to the festival this year is that from now on its director will not be the head of the National Cinema Center (NCC), as was the case with previous editions. The change aims to provide a continuity that was otherwise disrupted with changes in position at the NCC.
This will ensure a more stable festival in the long term, as the director will be allowed to stay in charge for more than one year, Khaled Abdelgelil, head of the NCC said.
A global festival
Held largely at the Ismailia Culture Palace, in addition to other venues, the festival will open with the Spanish documentary film J: Beyond Flamenco, the latest film by renowned director Carlos Saura.
Sauras prolific career spans over half a century, marked by a number of international awards, including the Silver Bear at Berlinale for La Caza (1996), special jury awards at Cannes for La Prima Angelica (1973) and Cria Cuervos (1975), in addition to BAFTA, Goya, and Golden Globe awards, as well as multiple Oscar nominations for films including Carmen (1983), Tango (1993), and Mama Cumple 100 Anos (1973).
During the selection, the jury members were looking first and foremost at the quality of films, but also sought variety in subject matter, treatment as well as the countries of production, Zakaria said at the press conference this morning.
Among the participating countries are Italy, France, Lebanon, USA, Belgium, Canada, Senegal, Argentina, Belarus, Djibouti, Palestine and Ukraine, among others.
The festival is considered to be four festivals in one, Zakaria added, pointing to the four main competition sections of the festival.
The Long Documentaries competition will feature 10 films from 11 countries, with one film from Egypt, Al-Madina Sawf Totaredak (The City Will Pursue You) by Ahmed Nabil. The Short Documentaries competition will include 18 films from 18 countries, including one Egyptian film, Noqtat Al-Baa (The Letter Bs Dot) by Hana Rakhawy.
The competition for short features will feature 17 films from 18 countries with Egyptian film Khalil by Islam Shamel. The animation competition will present 18 films from 16 countries, including one from Egypt, Tareeq Tawil (Long Road) by Adel Badrawy.
Members of the selection jury included Egyptian director Ahmed Abdalla alongside Indian director Arun Chadha, Italian director Manu Gerosa, South Korean director Yung A Han and Spanish director Margarita Maguregui.
Considering that every section contains only one film from Egypt, Zakaria explained to Ahram Online that the priority was to bring foreign films to audiences in Ismailia.
Of course it is important to have Egyptian films participating, but we didnt want them to be taking the place of other international films that we have the chance to screen here, he said.
In parallel
The festival will also have three special screening programmes, as well as a number of films in a panorama section that are out of competition.
One section highlights animation films from South Korea, bringing a selection of 10 films in the genre.
We noticed how animation films in South Korea are flourishing, and being recognised globally for their excellence. We found that we had a large number of good submissions in that genre, so we chose six to include in a special section, Zakaria said.
A similar observation during the selection phase led to the creation of a programme for films that focus on Dance, Music and Song, which presents six films from six different countries.
Special focus is also given to Egyptian films, in a section dedicated to films produced by the National Cinema Center. This section will screen the premieres of six films.
As for the non-competitive Panorama section, the festival presents five short documentaries from six countries, including Ana Wel Dr. Sobhy (Me and Dr. Sobhy) from Egypt.
This section also presents two feature-length documentaries, We Are Egyptian Armenians from Egypt, and Ragaa Bint El-Mallah from Morocco.
Additionally, the Panorama Shorts will present 12 films from eight countries, notably featuring four from Italy. Finally the Panorama Animation section will showcase 10 films from 11 countries.
Two workshops will be given: one on animation for ages nine and older, and one on scriptwriting that will also educate filmmakers on how to finance their films apply for funds and grants.
Alongside El-Nahas book, other publications to be released during the festival include Searching for Kaliouby by Hussein Abdellatif and Adventures of Global Cinema by Salah Hesham.
Gorvernor of Ismalilia Yassin Taher said that last year the festivals goal was to revive itself after a few tumultous years. Now that it is back on the agenda the goal this year is to make it a stronger international festival and ensure its progression.
Taher added that the return of the festival to Ismailia, alongside other cultural events, will hopefully serve to revive tourism in the city and in Egypt. He noted that the festival coincides with several other celebrations in the city, including Sinai Liberation Day (25 April) and a commemoration of renowned poet Abdelrahman El-Abnoudi, as well as the new Strawberry Festival.
Reaching out
An important aspect of this year's programme will be the launch of new cooperation with Morocco.
According to Abdelgelil, two partnership agreements between the High Cinema Institute in Cairo and the Audiovisual Centre in Rabat will be officially finalised and signed at the festival.
The countries share close ties already and positive cinematic cooperation, he said. The agreements are intended to boost that mutual support, for film shooting procedures, archiving, festival organisation, and other aspects of cooperation.
In response to a question from the audience on how the festival is working to garner a wider audience in Ismailia, considering that last year's local outreach could have been stronger, Zakaraia said that attracting a local audience is a problem with all festivals.
It's something that needs work all year round to garner an audience base. This is especially difficult since the films are not the in the popular genre, but often require some artistic awareness and appreciation from the viewers, the festival director said.
Nonetheless, the festival has taken several additional measures this year to reach out to locals.
One of the things we did this year was to establish the Society of Ismailia Film Lovers at the Ismalilia Culture Palace, which screens a selection of films all year round, he said, adding that this creates a community around the festival that stretches beyond its week-long screenings.
We started some of the workshops early this year which are taking place right now, also to extend the festival beyond its duration. At the closing we will screen the results of the workshops. This year will also bring back the cafe screenings that Ismailia Festival was known for, and we have expanded our screening venues, so as to reach a wider, more varied audience, Zakaria concluded.
For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
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A 10-year-old girl is being airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando after being bitten by a "unknown, toothy sea creature."
Child bitten off Melbourne Beach
Bite indicative of shark, but no evidence of shark in the water
Similar incident involving a woman
Beaches temporarily cleared
Brevard County Fire Rescue reports the child was bitten while in the water off Melbourne Beach.
She suffered a 6-inch bite on her left calf. A spokesperson said the bite is indicative of a shark, but there were no witnesses and are referring to it as a "unknown, toothy sea creature."
BCFR is working a pediatric laceration to the leg by unk toothy sea creature in the 9000 blk A1A. S.Melb Bch. BCFR R64/E65. No other details BCFRpio (@BCFRpio) April 10, 2017
The beach was cleared until officials could make sure there was no evidence of sharks in the water.
This was the second incident Monday afternoon.
A woman was swimming off Ocean Avenue and Melbourne Beach when she suffered a bite on her left hand. Again, no witnesses but the bite was indicative of a shark.
She refused transportation to a hospital and the beach was temporarily cleared.
Brevard County says Cocoa Beach was also cleared at the pier and at Shepard Park earlier in the day, but did not say that was related to a shark sighting.
After being closed for hours on Monday, State Road 50 is back open and the 295-acre fire is 90 percent contained.
It has been an active weekend for firefighters, from Brevard to Orange to Osceola to Seminole counties.
On State Road 50, East Colonial Drive in Christmas, a large brush fire is burning and the Florida Highway Patrol had to shutdown State Road 50 at Saint Nicholas Avenue. It was closed all the way east to Plantation Drive in east Orange County.
But now the road is up.
While there are no visibility issues for the area, FHP is warning drivers of smoky conditions.
Firefighters are continuing to monitor this 295-acre fire at the Orange-Brevard County line, which is now 90 percent contained.
Crews used both water and fire to battle the blaze as helicopters dumped water on hotspots, while firefighters set some of the dry brush on fire to get control of it.
Oviedo brush fire completely contained
A brush fire in the Oviedo area is now 100 percent contained, but not before causing a large amount of damage and forcing evacuations over the weekend.
The fire started Saturday afternoon near Live Oak Reserve Boulevard and eventually burned more than 165 acres.
Many of us have never experienced anything like this," said Sean Williams, who lives roughly 50 yards away from the fire.
His wife called 911 and took photos of the fire just after 3 p.m.
We called it in and within minutes the fire trucks were here," said Williams, who added he was less concerned for his home and more for the surrounding nature.
Its one of the things that appealed to us about living here," he said. "That it would be preserved and conserved and not built upon. We have, had the woods here. Unfortunately, they got devastated.
Williams' family was one of many in the Live Oaks subdivision of houses to be forced to evacuate. There was no major damage to any of the homes.
However, the fire badly damaged a nearby Girl Scout Camp, Mah-Kaw-Wee, nearby. There were no scouts on property, but 128 volunteers at a retreat got out safely within minutes.
According to the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Citrus, Maryann J. Barry, they lost about 150 acres of the 250 acre site, including four structures, two docks and a pontoon boat. The Girl Scouts purchased the site in 1970.
The communitys response of kindness and support to us has been very uplifting and we will rebuild Mah-Kaw-Wees west side," said Barry on the phone Monday.
A total of 11 structures and three campsites were destroyed in the fire overall.
Firefighters continue to put out hot spots, operating out of a mobile command center along Lake Mills Road.
Other brush fires
Firefighters in Palm Bay battled strong winds to put out a fire on Day and OConnell Avenue on Saturday.
And on Friday, a huge wildfire near South International Drive in Orange County forced 150 people to evacuate from a nearby hotel. The fire burned 475 acres.
Nearby, Osceola County Fire Rescue battled a blaze this weekend near the 417.
Nearly 30 large brush fires in Florida
A map of the large active wildfires in the Central Florida and Tampa areas as of 8 a.m. Monday, April 10. (Florida Forest Service)
If you smell smoke, you are not alone.
As of 8 a.m. Monday, April 10, there were 27 active wildfires in Florida that were larger than 100 acres in size.
And the concern for more brush fires will remain. While we did have a brief shower Monday morning, Central Florida is not expecting any beneficial rain this week.
Brush fires are burning in Orange and Brevard counties.
There's a brush fire near State Road 50 (Colonial Drive), east of Christmas.
Officials are also monitoring a large fire near State Road 417 and State Road 535.
As a result, the Florida Highway Patrol has issued a safety alert.
Troopers say they might have to close State Road 528, State Road 50 and State Road 417 for an extended period of time.
Drivers are urged to use caution if traveling through those areas because the closures could be sudden. Visibility may also be limited.
"Please have patience with us as if we choose to close these roads we are doing it for the safety of the motoring public," FHP said in the alert. "If you do see emergency lights ahead please reduce your speed and follow directions if instructed to change your direction of travel. We are doing this for your safety."
The renowned Egyptian architect speaks to Ahram Online about her design philosophy, projects of excellence and giving back to society
In 2014, Alexandra-born architect Dalia Sadany made headlines when she became the president of the International Association of Designers (IAD) after ranking 12th at the World Designer competition the same year.
Sadany sat down with Ahram Online to discuss a passion for architecture that paved the way to award-winning projects, her hands-on design philosophy and her intention to shed light on Egypt's talents in the field.
Ahram Online: How do you describe the onset of your passion for this career?
It was extremely circumstantial, not intended or planned. I just fell in love with it as I was studying it.
AO: Tell us about the balance between visual appeal and practicality?
It is actually the job of the architect, to be able to do that equation. The whole point of being successful in design and architecture is that you can balance the need to have a successfully functional space with something that appeals visually. First comes functionality and then my designs work to mirror it.
If the work is residential, we are talking about mirroring human beings. If it is corporate, we mirror the occupation of that space. If it has to do with retail, we mirror a certain product. In regard to the visual aspect that makes the work appealing, it has to do with taste.
AO: Do you try to maintain an Egyptian cultural element in your creations?
You cannot actually define an Egyptian cultural element because Egypt has so many styles combined. So if we are talking about an Egyptian Identity, then I would say it is my lifetime goal.
I definitely try to maintain that [identity] but with a certain twist; I dont imitate in regard to anything that we call "Egyptian" or ethnic, but rather give that Egyptian feature a sort of a futuristic aspect.
We do have history that we must be proud of but we cannot keep copying what we have historically; we have to add to it. Abroad they dont have as much history as we do, so they will always be hungry for designs that have a story, and we have lots of stories to tell.
AO: You are an advocate of the "The master builder" approach; could you explain that?
"The master builder" is responsible for all phases from concept design to handover, like back in the pharaonic age; there was the architect who would design and construct, and he was also a craftsman.
I am not belittling designers who don't do that; it's just a different approach. I'm a hands-on person, and I like to work on site, and this approach had been gaining traction worldwide.
Back in the 1800s there came a sort of revolutionary idea to segregate designers from contractors, and since then, people started to look down on contractors. But, all of a sudden the mischief of that approach surfaced, and we saw mega products having problems that went back to the missing link between these two entities. Thats why there was a third entity created to solve these problems: the project manager.
AO: As a multi-award winning designer, which projects from your portfolio are the closest to your heart?
The ones that were done in Egypt, like renovating Tahrir Square, the new educational hub that I did, even El-Hegaz Square, because they come from an emotional experience and are related to certain problems that I see around me.
AO: Tell us more about your ground-breaking recent project on the American University in Cairo Greek campus?
I was somebody who didnt believe in corporate design. I didnt think that companies were interested in investing in design, especially in Egypt.
This was proven wrong. I met with the CEO of the company in charge of [building] the intended training facility, and I was taken with the interest in design that was expressed. They told me to design what I feel, and this was music to my ears.
We talked about the idea of creating this educational hub, and investing for IT students, especially for public university graduates, which really touched me.
This hub was like an incubator; through it the graduates and I saw how their lives changed and how they found better opportunities, so I took that project deeply to heart.
When people from abroad complimented the work saying that they couldnt believe it was made by an Egyptian designer, it made me happy and it made me sad. It saddens me that there is not enough focus on the calibre of designs and creative minds in Egypt.
AO: As president of IAD, you pioneered an initiative to honour and encourage Egyptian designers. Tell us more about that.
As soon as I became president, I wanted to begin drawing international attention to pioneers and landmarks in the field of design. We discussed candidates from 12 fields of design.
I wanted to give back to these names in their country, so we talked the board of IAD into flying down from Milan to honour theses names. We honoured two companies in Egypt.
Everyone really appreciated that they were honoured in their own country. I have won awards all over the world, but it makes all the difference when it is done in ones' own country.
AO: You have written educational articles about architecture and spoken about inspiring homeowners to build their own houses. Are you still passionate about writing in that regard?
I am still very passionate, but I wish I had more time. Juggling so much becomes tedious and you have to focus, but I will return soon to writing about the field to teach people how to design and build in simple ways.
AO: What are you looking forward to contributing to the society?
A lot. Sometimes when we try to help we get setbacks, but you stand back again and you try. I want to make this country worth its reputation and history. It is a beautiful country and although I studied, lived and worked abroad, something irreplaceable makes me very attached to my homeland.
AO: Amid the economic crisis prevailing now, how is an interior designer affected?
Difficulty purchasing anything! We cannot provide bills of quantity, as prices fluctuate crazily, especially lacking an entity that would filter prices or help maintain a ceiling. This has done huge damage to designers and architects; many have stopped working.
AO: What obstacles must be removed to pave the road for more creation and art in that regard?
The main obstacle would be removed if the [project creators] in this country really believed in the minds of [Egyptian] designers. It saddens me that whenever there is a mega project, they would prefer to get a foreign designer.
Also we have to expand horizontally: no point in getting more designers to work if we dont have land and projects for them.
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ST. LOUIS, MO. As the Deltapine New Product Evaluator (NPE) Program kicks off its 10th season this spring with nearly 200 growers evaluating pre-commercial variety candidates for the Class of 18, the program is being credited with helping significantly increase yield and quality expectations across the Cotton Belt.
Since it began in 2008, the Deltapine NPE Program has resulted in the commercialization of new cotton varieties that have raised the bar for cotton performance in all regions from a production and pest management standpoint, said Keylon Gholston, Monsanto Cotton Product manager. In addition, the involvement of our NPE growers and their hard work has benefited the entire cotton industry.
The Class of 18 variety candidates being evaluated this season show yield potential on par with, or above, current Deltapine cotton variety standards. Feedback from the NPE growers about the candidates will help determine which ones are commercialized as the Class of 18 and how to best position and manage those new products. Included in this 10th seasons evaluations are 12 variety candidates all containing XtendFlex Technology. There are seven Bollgard 3 XtendFlex variety candidates, three Bollgard II XtendFlex variety candidates with resistance to root-knot nematodes, and five candidates that offer resistance to bacterial blight.
Bollgard 3 XtendFlex technology marks a major innovation milestone in cotton, giving growers access to best-in-class germplasm while providing enhanced, season-long protection against damage caused by key lepidopteran pests, and the ability for in-crop use of dicamba for weed control. Bollgard 3 XtendFlex technology is built on the proven and effective success of its predecessors and contains a third protein VIP3A that provides a third mode of action in addition to the Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab Bt proteins found in Genuity Bollgard II cotton varieties. The introduction provides three unique proteins and modes of action, helping provide better insect control while increasing the longevity of the technology.
History of NPE
In 2007, high-performing varieties were being replaced due to the introduction of newer technology. Monsanto, having just acquired the Deltapine seed brand, met with growers to discuss their concerns. The result of those conversations was a partnership with the brand to find solutions and identify new and even better varieties. The Deltapine New Product Evaluator Program was hatched.
Select growers from every region of the Cotton Belt were invited into the NPE Program to evaluate pre-commercial variety lines on their farms and in their growing systems. The first season of NPE 2008 resulted in the Deltapine Class of 09. Each new Deltapine class of varieties since has raised the bar of what growers expect in yield and fiber quality performance potential. The NPE Program has also played a significant role in the rapid adoption of varieties with the latest pest management technologies, such as Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton with tolerance to three herbicides: dicamba, glyphosate and glufosinate.
Planting his 10th NPE plot this season, Kent Wannamaker of St. Matthews, S.C., said Monsanto and NPE growers should be proud of their accomplishments.
The NPE Program has created teamwork between Monsanto and growers, allowing us to evaluate new Deltapine varieties on large-acre plots on our farms, he said. It has helped the cotton industry by delivering improved cotton varieties with better traits to grow cotton more efficiently and with increased yield potential that improves the bottom line. What it all boils down to is, we want to improve pounds per acre, and that is what the NPE Program has done.
The Deltapine NPE Program is instrumental to the Monsanto cotton teams ability to continually deliver better cotton varieties that meet or exceed grower expectations.
Its the final phase of cotton variety testing and what separates Deltapine cotton varieties from competitor commercial varieties, Gholston said. All cotton producers should have confidence in Deltapine cotton varieties because they are proven to perform by NPE growers.
For more on Deltapine cotton varieties and the NPE Program, visit www.deltapine.com. Photos, videos, agronomic tips and more can be found on Twitter (@Deltapine) and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Deltapine. XtendFlex Technology may not yet be approved in all states.
The Plainview High School Navy Junior ROTC joined more than 34,000 Adopt-a-Highway and Keep Texas Beautiful volunteers from around the state to clean up highways during the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) 2017 Trash-Off on April 8.
According to the TxDOT, the Don't Mess with Texas Trash-Off is the single largest one-day cleanup event in the state and encourages Texans to join forces and clear Texas roadsides of the millions of pieces of litter that accumulate on our roadways each year. Trash-Off day serves as Texas signature event for the Great American Cleanup, the nation's largest community improvement program. The event is part of TxDOTs litter prevention program, which includes Dont Mess with Texas, Adopt-a-Highway and a grassroots partnership with Keep Texas Beautiful.
NEW HAVEN (AP) Authorities say four people, including a firefighter, were taken to the hospital after a house fire in New Haven.
The fire was reported at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
Four adults and one child escaped from the home, but three of them were taken to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. The firefighter was taken to the hospital for a leg injury that acting Deputy Chief Ben Vargas says may be a broken ankle.
The house is a total loss and the fire was so intense that flames damaged two adjacent homes.
The blaze was under control by 9 p.m. but firefighters remains on the scene to douse hotspots.
The cause and origin of the fire remain under investigation.
Local and state officials braved smoke-filled buildings and performed mock rescues at the 2017 Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association Fire Ops 101 training exercises Monday.
The training, for firefighters from cities and towns across Connecticut, was held at the Hartford fire training facility. Southington fire board Chairman Mike Bunko, Southington Town Councilor Paul Champagne and state Rep. Liz Linehan, who represents a section of Southington, took part.
Rick Hart, Waterbury deputy fire chief and director of legislative and political affairs for the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut, said the program was created by the International Association of Firefighters. Training exercises included ventilating buildings, search and rescue missions and extricating motorists from car crashes.
Hart said the drills offer perspective to participants who arent firefighters.
Now they get why you need the equipment, why you need the funding, why we need the staffing, he said.
Southingtons acting Fire Chief Eric Heath and Battalion Chief Tom Donnelly also attended.
It gives them an opportunity to see what we do in actual circumstances ... the situations we deal with, and how we deal with them, Donnelly said.
Donnelly said the department invited 26 Southington officials to participate.
Bunko was red in the face and sweating after completing a search-and-rescue drill inside a building. He said heavy smoke made it difficult to see.
Pretty intense, Bunko said. Climbing the stairs was tough, too, with the gear.
In a separate exercise, Bunko used a rescue tool to pry open a car door and remove a dummy that represented an injured motorist. He also helped perform CPR and attempted to revive a dummy that simulated an unconsciousness patient.
Linehan held the nozzle of a hose when she entered a building filled with smoke,
The challenge is less the hose and more of making sure you are orienting yourself appropriately, she said. You cant see anything, so you have to rely on your other senses.
Ive always had so much respect for firefighters. I think it was really wonderful to walk a mile in their boots, Linehan added.
Linehan, who also represents Southington, said she believes the towns fire department is understaffed. Over the past few years, the towns Board of Fire Commissioners has requested more paid firefighters. The request has been turned down.
I understand budgetary constraints, she said. But we have to decide, as a community, what our priorities are.
When reached by phone Monday afternoon, Southington Town Council Chairman Michael Riccio said he had no comment.
Donnelly said the program has a successful track record.
Ive been around it and Ive been aware that its been a very successful program throughout the United States, he said. Our main goal is education and really letting people know exactly what we do, what we have to go through, what we face.
blipiner@record-journal.com 203-317-2444 Twitter: @BryanLipiner
HARTFORD Gov. Dannel P. Malloy urged lawmakers Monday not to rely on easy answers in balancing next years budget after Moodys Investors Services raised concerns in a report last week about Connecticuts short-term fiscal situation.
In particular, Malloy pointed to a very real danger of significant downgrades to Connecticuts bond rating should the state ignore Moodys guidance.
If we allow Connecticut to lose its investment-grade bond rating this year, it will make our efforts at fiscal recovery and economic development in the years ahead extraordinarily difficult, Malloy wrote in a letter to legislative leaders. Together, we must assure our residents, our businesses, and the markets that we can find responsible solutions to our challenges and will not succumb to the lure of easy answers.
The state is dealing with a projected $1.7-billion deficit next fiscal year, and Malloys proposed $18-billion budget would call for only $200 million in new revenues.
Moodys said in an April 5 report that Connecticut, which has an Aa3 negative bond rating, will not be able to avoid a lengthy period of constrained spending choices.
The report points out that Connecticuts debt service, pension contributions, and retiree healthcare costs accounted for 30 percent of the budget last fiscal year, the highest ratio in the nation.
Malloys budget office and the legislatures nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis both projected in November that fixed costs will account for roughly half the budget, assuming overall spending remains flat.
While Connecticut remains the wealthiest state in the nation, with per capita income at 143-percent the national average in 2015, Moodys said the states lack of job growth will constrain the ability to grow revenue and pay for fixed costs.
Nationwide employment has exceeded its pre-2008 recession peak, but Connecticut remains 1-percent shy of that level.
Connecticut was able to mask decades of stagnant job growth prior to the recession because income rose at an average of 5 percent, ahead of the national average of 4.1 percent. Income for state residents has risen by 2.2 percent 2010, below the national average, Moodys said.
Moodys report raises concerns that the slow-growth trend will continue, pointing to projections from Malloys own budget office that economic output will increase by only 1.6 percent annually through 2020, lower than the expected national average of 2.3 percent nationally.
The report gave a mixed review to some of Malloys efforts to solve the budget problems, notably his proposals to recalculate municipal aid grants and shift $400 million in teacher pension costs to local budgets. Moodys said these changes, along with a proposed $700 million in labor savings, would go a considerable way towards stabilizing the states credit profile.
The ratings agency also said some of Malloys proposed changes in municipal aid would have mixed effects on local government credit, depending on whether they are net gainers or losers of aid and their underlying credit strengths.
Only roughly 30 of the states 169 municipalities, including Meriden, would see an increase in state aid under Malloys budget, according to his budget office.
Moodys also said the impact of the proposed $700 million in labor savings remains uncertain until an agreement with the state employee unions is ratified.
Malloy said in his letter that the report will guide my actions in budget negotiations.
The legislatures budget- and tax-writing committees have until the end of the month to produce their proposals in hopes of finalizing a budget before the June 7 end of session.
msavino@record-journal.com 203-317-2266 Twitter: @reporter_savino
WALLINGFORD As demolition crews dismantled the Villa Capri banquet hall earlier this year, the plaza that would become home to Pancheros Mexican Grill was going up across the street.
Robert Mesite, whose family ran Villa Capri for decades, watched the daily progress on the demolition until his former office door got knocked down.
It was bittersweet, he said.
But Mesite and his family are not living in the past. Pancheros, the familys latest venture, further diversifies their portfolio.
We had the Sonics going, Robert Mesite said. We wanted something a little simpler with a national following. We decided to start the first (Pancheros) in Wallingford.
Mesites father, George Mesite, bought the Yankee Silversmith Inn restaurant in the late 1950s and started the Villa Capri soon after. Brothers Robert, Mark and Ralph and sister Gina Mesite Mueller worked together at both businesses while also pursuing their own ventures. Mark Mesite died unexpectedly in July.
The family had a Boston Chicken restaurant (now Boston Market) in West Hartford until the parent company bought it. Robert also ran The Vault nightclub in downtown Meriden for several years along with Encore Limousine.
After the Yankee Silversmith Inn was lost in a fire and patriarch George Mesite died, the family took its time to find another opportunity. Robert Mesite secured the rights to open the first Sonic chain restaurant in Connecticut in 2010 and the family once again got on board to run the operation. The Sonic outlet generated fervor as curious state residents lined up to see and taste for themselves what the rest of the country had experienced for years. The family later expanded the franchise to Manchester, Milford and Bristol.
After selling the Villa Capri property to Cumberland Farms in 2016 for a 16-pump service center and market, the family found its next opportunity in the plaza across the street. Mesite learned that the Pancheros in Shelton was enjoying success.
It has a Tex-Mex quality but a simpler operation, Mesite said.
The decor is Tex-Mex with industrial touches. Like Sonic, the restaurant is geared toward families.
The Wallingford demographics are very appealing to every franchise or brand, Robert Mesite said. There are 30,000 cars that drive by, a big lunch crowd, easy access to major parkways and disposable income.
Mesite is also looking to develop the 2.5-acre parcel near Sonic, now used as a staging area for the state Department of Transportations double-track project to make way for increased commuter rail service from New Haven to Hartford.
The DOT will be out soon, Mesite said. We have a standing offer with several companies, some banks, major retailers for a plaza.
The town has been fortunate in attracting commercial development from national chains that continue to drive traffic on Route 5.
We found that to be the case, said Joe Mirra, chairman of the towns Economic Development Commission. Its demographics make it a key location.
Mirra is impressed with the Mesite familys evolving business ventures.
I give the family a lot of credit to recognize changing times and make the bold moves to change with it, he said.
mgodin@record-journal.com 203-317-2255 Twitter: @Cconnbiz
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As towns emerged and people made their homes in the late 1800s, the formation of a church to nurture their faith wasn't far behind.
Three of Conroe's long-standing churches, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, First United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church of Conroe all started in the late 1800s as the city was emerging but before its incorporation in 1904.
And all three today celebrate a rich history as they continue to minister to the community.
First Baptist Church Conroe
The town of Conroe was only 14 years old when a few individuals gathered on Nov. 30, 1891 to organize the Conroe Baptist Church. Rev. George Cook was called as pastor.
George Mayfield Daniel was called as the first full-time pastor in 1893.
The same year, construction began on the first church.
According to the history narrative, the first church building was completed after two years of hard work. In 1895, the membership moved into a relatively small, wood-framed building at the intersection of South First Street and Ave. E.
As the church continued to grow, a new building committee was appointed in April 1920.
Construction of a new church began in May 1921.
The building was completed in December 1921 and Obie Etheridge, Sunday School secretary, reported a crowd of 1,100 people at the dedication.
Dr. Cliff Herrington has the distinction of being the longest serving pastor at FBC with a tenure from February 1964 through the end of 1982.
Herrington also lead the church through the construction of a new sanctuary.
On June 1, 1969, the Conroe Courier reported: "There's a shiny new steeple atop First Baptist Church now under construction by Martin B. Semands on North Main Street, and erection of the towering structure attracted considerable attention last Thursday morning. The steeple is 55 feet and 6 inches tall and has a 6 feet, 11-inch spire on top. It was lifted by a giant crane to its base atop the church framework some 50 feet up and the overall structure stands 10 feet off the ground ... the tallest in Conroe."
In the early 2000s, it was again time for a renovation of the property. An atrium that tied together the church property was dedicated in 2003.
In February 2016, the church welcomed Senior Pastor Dr. Jeff Berger and in September 2016, the church celebrated its 125 anniversary and unveiled a Montgomery County Historical Marker in front of the church. Visit www.fbcconroe.org for more about the church.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
A passage on the history of Sacred Heart Catholic Church is a part of the 1981 history book produced by the Montgomery County Genealogy Society.
Portions of this history are taken from that passage submitted for the project by Sister B. White.
In 1898, when Conroe was still a small sawmill town, Andrew Madeley invited Rev. P.J. Kline of Plantersville to visit Conroe and offer Mass in his home.
Father George Wilhelm succeeded Kline in Plantersville and made occasional visits to Conroe from 1908 to 1912.
During this time, the first Catholic church was built, a small frame church on South Main Street, close to the railroad tracks.
The land and site for the present church location was donated by the McDade family.
Bishop C.E. Burne dedicated the church and consecrated the alter on Nov. 9, 1935.
Oil developer George Strake made a substantial gift to the church as did Mrs. Blance Bender who donated the main alter in memory of her husband.
The first permanent pastor of Sacred Heart was appointed on March 19, 1943 when Fr. Thomas M Cemon was assigned to Conroe.
In January 1951, Rev. Timothy Cronin was appointed the second pastor and served there for 17 years.
It is reported the church grew both spiritually and physically during his tenure.
Father Cronin, aware of the need of Christian education, encouraged his longtime friend Mrs. Blanche Bender to build a school which was completed in 1959.
In September 1959, Sr. William Mary was the first principal. In September 2008, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese, lead a Mass of Thanksgiving in celebration of the school's 50th anniversary.
In more recent years, Monsignor David W. Kennedy and Father Hubert Kealy were popular pastors making a mark on the church.
Today Sacred Heart serves more than 6,500 families with 70 different ministries.
In 2013, the church launched a $4.5 million capital campaign which included improvements and renovations across the campus at Frazier and FM 2854 in Conroe. Some of the improvements include a new St. Vincent de Paul building, security fence around the school and renovating the auditorium.
Pastor Father Philip Wilhite has lead the church since May 15, 2010.
See www.shconroe.org for more information about the church and school.
First United Methodist Conroe
Below passage from "Montgomery County, Texas: Picture of a Dream Coming True" published by the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County.
As early as 1870, circuit rider Rev. South from Bryan preached once a month to area Methodists.
Then when Conroe Methodists needed a building, 33 men pledged $418.50 to build on a lot donated by town founder Isaac Conroe.
The women of the congregation made altar linens, baked communion bread and made wine from grapes grown at the Nutter home.
Then sawmill towns flourished, the Delta Land and Timber Company brought new workers to town and later the oil boom in Conroe brought even more to join the flock.
In 1916, the Conroe Methodists sold the old building for $500 and moved to a campus at Main and Phillips streets in downtown Conroe, where the new church, costing $11,208 was completed in 1917.
In July 1941, the cornerstone for a third sanctuary was placed at the same site and the campus grew to encompass most of the block.
In November 2000, after 59 years of worship at a landmark in the heart of downtown Conroe, 1,426 congregation members gathered for the first time in the church's new 76,000-sqaure-feet facility on Texas 105 West.
The current facility on Texas 105 features a 1,100-seat sanctuary, 16 administration offices, 14 adult and children's classrooms, a fellowship hall that doubles as a gymnasium and a smaller 228-seat chapel.
In October 2000, the Montgomery County Commissioner's Court approved the purchase of the downtown church property.
Today it's the site of a county annex building.
In January, former FUMC parishioner Jeff Olive returned to Conroe to lead the congregation as Senior Pastor.
Visit www.fumc-conroe.org for more about the First United Methodist Church of Conroe.
Editor's note: The Courier will feature older churches in Montgomery and Willis in future editions of The Courier's 125th sections.
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Sales tax will be waived on emergency preparedness supplies later this month to help Texans stock up ahead of the state's peak season for dangerous weather.
Certain items will sell tax free the weekend of April 22-24. The holiday was approved by the 2015 Texas Legislature and debuted in 2016. The comptroller's office estimates Texans will save $1.5 million in state and local taxes over the three-day period.
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Selena Gomez and two of her "13 Reason Why" cast members got matching semicolon tattoos Sunday, April 10, 2017, weeks after the activist who was known for creating the semicolon trend died.
The 24-year-old producer of Netflix's latest original series shared a string of clips boasting of the tattoos on her Instagram story Sunday. The posts lasts for 24 hours on the social media site.
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"13 Reason Why" actors Alisha Boe, who plays "Jessica," and Tommy Dorfman, who plays "Ryan," joined the Grand Prairie native in getting the semicolon tattoo, which has come to represent and symbolize mental health awareness and suicide prevention.
"Today- Tommy, Selena and I got tattoos of a semicolon. Project semicolon is a movement dedicated to presenting hope for those suffering from depression, thoughts of suicide, addiction, and self-injury," Boe wrote in her Instagram caption. "Rest In Peace Amy [Bleuel], who started this movement."
Amy Bleuel was the founder of Project Semicolon, and many supporters of the organization have inked themselves with the symbol. She died from suicide on March 24 at the age of 31.
"The semicolon was chosen because in literature a semicolon is used when an author chooses to not end a sentence," Bleuel told PEOPLE in July 2015. "You are the author and the sentence is your life. You are choosing to continue."
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Later in the day, the three actors were seen posing in front of "13 Reasons Why" billboards. "Wish the rest of the crew was with us today. Overwhelmed with the response and love @13reasonswhy is receiving," Gomez posted on Instagram. "Thank you to each beautiful person who has watched and talked about the message of our show."
If you or someone you know needs support right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text "START" to 741-741. For more information on Project Semicolon, visit projectsemicolon.com.
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A Night in Old San Antonio is San Antonios biggest annual block party and the nations largest fundraising event in support of historic preservation. Up to 20,000 people crowd into La Villita each evening for four days, enjoying food and drink that reflects the heritage of Texas.
But it wasnt always that way.
The big party in the little village had its beginnings in 1937 when the San Antonio Conservation Society held a one-day street fair called the Indian Festival at Mission San Jose, according to official NIOSA history. Money raised was used for historical preservation and to help make people aware of the citys cultural heritage.
The festival continued under different names for several years, becoming the River Festival in 1944. In 1946, the city invited the ladies (and they were mostly women) of the society to hold their one-night event during Fiesta.
RELATED: What's new for Fiesta 2017
The name A Night in Old San Antonio was first used in 1948, launching a never-ending argument over how the acronym should be pronounced: NEE-oh-sah or NIGH-oh-sah. By 1958, the event had expanded from one night to four.
NIOSA chairman Patti Zaiontz (who prefers NIGH-oh-sah) remembers how, in the 1950s, her parents would get all dressed up to attend NIOSA.
My father wore Western attire a cowboy hat, bolo tie and boots, she said from the NIOSA office just steps from La Villita and where it all happens. Mother wore a lace blouse, and a sequined skirt with scenes of burros and cactus. It was a big night out for them.
Today, NIOSA is one of Fiestas signature events. In addition to the thousands of attendees, another 13,000 volunteers keep the beer flowing, the beef sizzling and the bunuelos properly fried.
But things are always changing, too. Scroll through the gallery above to see what's new this year at NIOSA, as well as photos from NIOSA through the years.
rmarini@express-news.net
Twitter: @RichardMarini
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STAMFORDAs Don Sherer viewed a watercolor painting by Jewish artist and Holocaust survivor, Nelly Toll, he recalled the ordeal his maternal Polish relatives endured.
While his mother grew up in Stamford, his maternal grandmother was from Tolls Poland hometown of Lvov, which is now part of Ukraine.
They have resonance, because Ive been to many of the places: Auschwitz, Buchenwald and the ghettos, the 69-year-old North Stamford resident said. My family had many relatives that died on both sides.
Dozens of Jewish residents gathered last week at the Stamford Government Center to view the premiere of a three-day exhibit of artworks created by Holocaust survivors after their liberation from German concentration camps seven decades ago.
The Anguish of Liberation as Reflection of Art, featured reproduced images owned by the United Jewish Federation of Stamford and New Canaan that the organization purchased from the Holocaust-related art collection of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel.
To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 24, the United Jewish Federation will hold a lecture at 4:30 p.m. April 23 by Dr. Mark Goldman. The Jewish film historian and scholar who will discuss how cinema reflects Jewish memories and experiences of the Holocaust at Temple Beth El, 350 Roxbury Road.
A man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for driving about 450 miles from Plano to Laredo to have sex with an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl.
U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced Jon Matthew Woodland to 180 months followed by 20 years of supervised release.
During Earth Month, Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston invites area Christians to gather in song at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 30, for a Creation Hymn Sing.
The church will celebrate and give thanks for God's good creation in hymns and songs from various lands and traditions and hear anew the call to care for the creation. Attendees will sing well known and loved hymns as well as be introduced to some new musical friends.
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A Texas teen diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer was crowned hog-hunting king when he snagged a 317-pound hog on a hunt organized by Cleveland-based Wicked Water Warrior Project at the 3S Ranch in Tarkington on March 31.
Clayton Dalton, the 17-year-old son of Brad and Julie Lewis of Round Rock, Texas, is battling rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of cancer created by mutating cells that are supposed to develop into skeletal muscles. In Dalton's case, the cancer has attacked his spine, forcing him to wear a back brace at all times.
But that didn't stop Dalton from participating in the hunt that began in the evening hours of March 31 and extended into the early morning the following day.
Joel Dudley, who started the Wicked Water Warrior Project with his friend, country singer Jason Allen, said afterward, "Big congratulations to Clayton Dalton for coming to 3S Ranch and putting a Wicked Water smackdown on a grizzly of a pig. For two years now, hunters have tried to shoot this monster and been unsuccessful."
Dalton's diagnosis is recent. According to his mother, his cancer prognosis came about earlier this year after he complained about severe back pains. The first doctor misdiagnosed his condition as a fractured vertebrae.
"There was a period of 14 days after that where he just wasn't feeling well. He was lethargic. Something in my gut instinct said to take him to get a second opinion," said Julie. "By the grace of God on a Friday, I found a local spine specialist who could see him the following Monday morning. The doctor was adamant that something was going on with his soft tissue and ordered an MRI to be done later that day. The next morning I got a call that let me know he has cancer all up and down his spine. He had 20 tumors in his skeleton and one in his skull."
The good news is Dalton's cancer is treatable through 54 weeks of chemotherapy, though the chances of it reoccurring are high, his mother added. Some of the tumors have already disappeared or are shrinking just a few weeks into the treatments.
The goal now for his family and friends is to keep him encouraged and uplifted as he fights the disease.
Julie said she is overwhelmed by the kindness and support she has received from strangers, including many of those who helped organize Clayton's hog-hunting trip.
"My son is very deserving of these opportunities. He has a servant's heart and I can't thank everyone enough," she said.
Dalton's two-day adventure continued on April 1 in Anahuac where he met Buck Medley, star of Animal Planet's "Lonestar Legend" and the Outdoor Channel's "Relentless Pursuit," and Texas game wardens Dustin Dockery and Patricia Bonnoy, stars of "Lone Star Law."
For more information on the Wicked Water Warrior Project, go to Facebook and search for Wicked Water Outfitters, Dudley's company that organizes the outdoor adventures for deserving individuals, including American veterans.
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The Shepherd and Coldspring/San Jacinto County chambers of commerce came together for a combined ribbon cutting ceremony on April 5 for Blessed Assurance Home Health Care, Inc.
Blessed Assurance is a home health service that provides health care in the privacy of a patient's home. Their mission is not only to provide quality care but also to improve the quality of life for their patients and their respective families.
They also strive to educate their patients on disease process and functional disorder and work with the patient's physician to provide caring professional staff.
Field Nurse Robert Lewis welcomed those present to the ribbon cutting ceremony while providing their visitors with a catered meal.
"We're glad to be here," said Lewis.
Lewis explained how Blessed Assurance functions and benefits the local citizens by providing services, which include but are not limited to diabetic care, physical therapy and more.
"We keep people from going to the hospital repeatedly," he said.
Other services include providing skilled nurses for wound care, diabetic care and lab services as well as physical therapy, occupational and speech therapy or providing personal assistants, medical social workers or other home health aides.
Some of this aid includes helping patients with tasks they may not be able to complete on their own while also letting them go about their day as they see fit.
"The more they can do for themselves the better," said Lewis. "Some people can do a little bit of their housework but they can't vacuum their floors."
Lewis introduced Blessed Assurance CEO Sheri Tajudeen who commended the bond between both of the chambers and their associated cities of Shepherd and Coldspring.
"It's like you're family," she said.
Tajudeen explained that Blessed Assurance is answering a need in the Shepherd community.
"There are some of the elderly people that need our services," she said.
One does not need to be sick to use any of the services provided by Blessed Assurance, according to Tajudeen.
"It's just to maintain your health," she said.
Tajudeen concluded by mentioning that Blessed Assurance is making an impact in the community with their provided home health care.
Blessed Assurance is located at 11231 Hwy 150, Suite A Shepherd, Texas 77074. Their office hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.bahomehealthcare.com or call 936-585-4519. Call toll free at 1-855-445-8444.
KINGS BAY, Ga. - A 2012 Elkins High School graduate and Missouri City, Texas, native is serving aboard the homeport for U.S. Atlantic Fleet's ballistic missile nuclear submarines.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Daniel Prieto, a culinary specialist, is responsible for scheduling events and inspections for submarines at Kings Bay.
"I like that my job allows me to be part of success on the waterfront," said Prieto.
The mission at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is to provide support to the fleet, fighter and family, according to Navy officials. It is the state-of-the-art home to the Atlantic Fleet's Trident submarines and serves as an integral part of the nation's strategic deterrence program.
The Navy's ballistic missile submarines, often referred to as "boomers," serve as undetectable launch platforms for ballistic missiles. They are designed specifically for stealth, extended patrols and the precise delivery of missiles, and they are the only survivable leg of the nation's strategic nuclear forces, which also include land-based missiles and aircraft. The Ohio-class design allows the submarines to operate for 15 or more years between major overhauls.
Prieto and other sailors know they are part of a legacy supporting the Navy's most advanced submarines.
"We demand the highest standards from our sailors - both professionally and personally," said Rear Adm. Randy Crites, commander, Submarine Group 10 in Kings Bay. "Their chain of command, family and our great nation take immense pride in their devotion and service. These sailors are absolutely crucial to ensuring our ships and submarines are operating at their best - always mission ready, providing our nation with the greatest Navy the world has ever known. I'm so very proud these sailors are on our team."
"Serving here gives me a better understanding of the global politics and how it pertains to me," said Prieto.
Serving in the Navy, Prieto is learning about leadership and managing multiple responsibilities.
"Serving in the Navy improved my work ethic and instilled a desire to leave things better than when I found it," said Prieto.
FLOYDADA -- Capital credit retirement checks will be handed out to Lighthouse Electric Cooperative members at the 78th Annual Membership Meeting on Thursday evening, April 27, at the Floyd County Friends Unity Center in Muncy, between Floydada and Lockney on US Highway 70. The Lighthouse Board of Directors, at their March meeting in Memphis prior to the Hall County District Meeting, authorized the payment of $2, million in prior years capital credit retirements for 2017.
A health fair, meal, activities for youngsters supervised by Floydada High School Band members and adult leaders, door prizes, attendance prize goodie bags, visiting with friends and neighbors, and learning more about their cooperatives business along with the opportunity to pick up prior years capital credit checks -- serve as the draw for members who attend.
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Four men accused of robbing a jewelry store in Shenandoah in January were indicted last week.
The Jan. 12 robbery was followed by a police chase that led to a car crash on Interstate 45 North when the suspect vehicle struck another car. Two suspects were arrested at the scene, and two were arrested a short while later.
A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Dextrek Walker, 23, Donte Davis, 24, Wayland Smith, 39, and Junior Daye-Johnson, 25, each on a first-degree felony aggravated robbery charge. They all face up to life in prison, if convicted.
Walker is from the Cypress area, and the other three suspects are from Southeast Houston. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said in a release that three of the suspects are known gang members. The heist was reported around 1:30 p.m. at Zales Jewelry Store in the Portofino Shopping Center, located at 19705 Interstate 45, Shenandoah Police Assistant Chief Barry Gresham said then.
"They came in, smashed the display counters and took as much as they could grab," Gresham said. "I don't think they were inside more than a minute."
Emergency dispatchers received a call from a witness who said three men wearing masks entered the store and a fourth waited in the vehicle.
A Montgomery County Sheriff's deputy and a Shenandoah police officer were able to catch up to the suspect vehicle and attempted to stop it, according to the Sheriff's Office.
During the pursuit, the SUV struck another vehicle but kept going. The driver of the other vehicle suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
The suspect vehicle continued onto Interstate 45 via the grassy median of the frontage road, but it struck a tree.
The Sheriff's Office reported the next day that all of the jewelry stolen from Zales had been recovered. Some of the jewelry was in the suspects' pockets when they were arrested, according to the MCSO.
Montgomery County grand jury indictments for April 4:
Claybourne Penrice, fraudulent possession of identifying items
Michael Callaway, possession of controlled substance (x2) and possession of controlled substance LSD
Dakota Evans, possession of controlled substance and possession of controlled substance LSD
Brandon Wright, unauthorized use of motor vehicle
Skyler Rice, assault family strangulation
Bryan Underwood, possession with intent to deliver/manufacture controlled substance
Gary Allen, sexual assault
Michael Sotello, possession with intent to deliver/manufacture controlled substance and manufacture or possession with intent to deliver controlled substance
Bryan Johnson, assault causing bodily injury family enhanced
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A road-widening project on Rayford Road that's been in the works for more than three years and is expected to cost $46 million has caused a bit of a tempest in a teapot because of a worrisome letter from a property owners association to homeowners whose homes back up to the road.
To improve the flow of traffic, work is set to begin this month to widen Rayford from four to six lanes from Richard Road east to the Grand Parkway, a stretch of 3.7 miles. A six-lane bridge will be built to take cars and trucks over the Union Pacific railroad tracks, while new traffic lights and a raised median will be installed.
The original estimate for the project was $60 million: $40 million for construction, $16 million for right-of-way acquisition and $4 million for engineering. However, the construction costs dropped to $26 million, bring the overall cost down.
The roadwork comes as home construction in the area has boomed, spurring a dramatic increase in traffic and a corresponding jump in the number of car crashes. According to a road safety analysis performed before the project was initiated, there were 879 crashes on Rayford Road from 2007-13.
In order to accommodate the extra traffic, and reduce the number of accidents, in November 2015 a $280 million bond passed for road improvements across Montgomery County, with widening Rayford Road being identified as the top project for Precinct 3, an area that includes portions of the The Woodlands, Oak Ridge, Imperial Oaks, Benders Landing and the Spring Trails neighborhoods.
But not everybody has been happy with plans to expand the road, including the board of the Imperial Oaks Park Property Owners Association Inc., as well as some of the people who live in the neighborhood. In a March 23 letter from the association's board of directors that was sent to homeowners and provided to The Courier, the association advised homeowners with yards that back up to Rayford Road that "organized support" is needed to obtain a "better solution" than what was described as just a curb between a backyard wooden fence and the wider road. In the letter, the association urged residents to "meet and organize" such an effort.
One of those homeowners who received the letter, apparently spurred on by the board's missive, contacted The Courier claiming that edge of the road would be only 6 inches from the wooden backyard fence erected by the association. The homeowner, who did not want to be identified, complained that there would be nothing else to separate her back yard from the wider road, and vehicles could come crashing off the road into her yard, a claim disputed and corrected by Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack.
"It's just not true," Noack told The Courier. "First of all, we have designed these improvements with safety and mobility being the top 10 concerns."
According to Noack, the edge of the expanded road will be no closer than 11 feet from the back of the property line, or the back of a fence, and there will be a guardrail between the road and fence to prevent vehicles from plowing into yards. The guardrail, called specifically a metal beam guardrail, is a standard TxDOT guardrail designed to absorb the impact of a crash.
Imperial Oaks board member Morris Carter, tasked with monitoring the project on behalf of homeowners, acknowledged last week that members of the board were not aware of the plans for a guardrail, but rather were responding to information provided by "word of mouth" from some homeowners.
"From a board member's standpoint, it sounds like the county is taking some additional steps to make that situation better," Carter said.
Carter later told The Courier that the board would be issuing a new letter, but as of late Monday the updated letter was not available, and it was not clear whether the letter would be made available to The Courier.
Regardless of safety and engineering designs, board members remain concerned about the impact the roadwork could have on landscaping, lighting, the general appearance of the neighborhood and property values.
"We are trying to be cooperative and ensure that property values are being preserved and hopefully enhanced," Carter said.
Still, one area resident said she's still moving out after spending almost 17 years in her home. Joni Ervin said she's not moving because of the project, but that the work "expedited" the move.
Ervin says traffic is already so bothersome that the vibrations from passing cars loosens paneling that covers fluorescent lights in her home, causing the panels to fall from the ceiling. There are no plans for the county to build a soundwall along that stretch of road.
"Well, a guard rail is better than nothing," Ervin responded when told county officials said there would be a protective guardrail installed.
There also have been complaints about the project from some residents who claim they weren't included in the planning project and that county planners were going to go ahead with the project, regardless of the public feedback.
But in a study by the Texas Department of Transportation during the planning stages of the project Montgomery County officials say 381 comments from members of the public were received.
And Matt Beasley, chief of staff for Noack, says his office only recently heard from a couple of residents complaining about the work and even those complaints were sometime ago.
Regardless of the neighborhood concern, work on the project is scheduled to get started this month, with construction expected to be completed in early 2019.
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Court documents recently made available outline details of what led to a Conroe woman losing her life in March, including the text-message plea to her neighbor for help.
Christopher Stogsdill, 26, is facing a first-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting Shelby Trotnic, 22, in her home in the 12200 block of Sweet Bay Drive off FM 2854 on March 7. Stogsdill is transgender and identifies as a woman named Chrissy, court documents show.
Sierra Diaz, 20, was arrested with Stogsdill in Colorado on a state-jail felony child endangerment charge. Court documents filed in Diaz's case detail the brutality of the murder that allegedly happened as Trotnic was reportedly kicking Stogsdill and Diaz out of her home.
The three lived together in the single-wide mobile home, although Trotnic reportedly told her neighbor the day before she was murdered that she wanted to kick Stogsdill and Diaz out, court documents show. The neighbor told Montgomery County Sheriff's detectives he saw Trotnic a few hours later arriving home with Stogsdill and an acquaintance.
The acquaintance came outside that night and talked with the neighbor, and told detectives that's when he heard an argument coming from inside the home. The neighbor said he heard glass breaking and what sounded like a high-powered BB gun being shot.
Detectives said Stogsdill then exited the house and loaded up two young children and drove off. After Stogsdill left, the neighbor told the acquaintance to go check on Trotnic in her home.
The acquaintance knocked on Trotnic' s door, but nobody answered, detectives said. The neighbor said he figured Trotnic wanted to be left alone after the fight.
When he got back into his own house, he checked his phone and saw he missed two messages from Trotnic, one asking him to come over to her house immediately and the other saying "gun to my head," according to court documents.
The neighbor became curious the next morning when he noticed Trotnic was not out on her porch smoking her morning cigarette, and he also noticed Stogsdill left behind a beloved dog after she left. The neighbor went up to the door and knocked, but received the same response his acquaintance got the night before.
He then went around the house to where Trotnic's room was, stacked a few buckets on one another and peered inside. He could not see anything, so he broke a window to the room and climbed in.
That's when he found Trotnic laying on her back in a pool of blood, with stab wounds on her face and a blue plastic bag stuffed down her throat.
Extradition Not Waived
Stogsdill was arrested in Aurora, Colorado days after Trotnic was found dead and has yet to be booked in the Montgomery County Jail as of press time. Prosecutors say Stogsdill is fighting her extradition to Montgomery County.
Assistant District Attorney Vince Santini said Stogsdill declined to waive the extradition, which would have meant she could be brought to Montgomery County automatically. But because she is fighting the extradition, Santini is filing for a governor's warrant that would bring her back to Texas to face the charge, although that warrant must first be approved by both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper before it can be executed.
"Once there is an arrest warrant out, that means (Stogsdill's) been charged with the crime," Santini said. "(Stogsdill) had fled to Colorado with Sierra who also had an arrest warrant for endangering a child."
Prosecutors charged Diaz with state-jail felony child endangerment for the alleged deplorable conditions of the home the three lived in together all with Diaz's two children. Investigators claim the home was not suitable for living after having found no running water and garbage hoarded throughout the home.
Detectives found days' worth of human feces piled in the bathroom and throughout the house, according to court documents. They also allegedly found a knife stabbed into the ceiling in one of the rooms and drug paraphernalia in another.
In another room, detectives allegedly found a pellet gun, power tools, blades and methamphetamines. Investigators spoke with Diaz's grandmother the next day and learned from her that Diaz, Stogsdill and the two children were on their way to Colorado.
Diaz waived extradition and was booked in the Montgomery County Jail on March 9 with a $250,000 bond. She will be back in 221st state District Court Judge Lisa Michalk's court for an information hearing May 2.
As for Stogsdill, prosecutors filed the first-degree murder charge in Michalk's court Monday.
On his second try, Precinct 3 Constable Terry Timms has been recommended to receive $34,837 from the Justice Assistance Grant Program for the purchase of a 2017 Chevrolet Tahoe 4-wheel-drive SUV to use as a patrol vehicle.
The funds are scheduled to be released Oct. 1. The new patrol vehicle will replace his current 2010 pickup which shows 122,000 miles on the odometer.
The entire cost of the vehicle with emergency equipment installed is $45,042.06, Timms reported to Hale County Commissioners on Monday. I initially requested the full amount, but reduced the request to the cost of the vehicle after we learned there was a $93,000 shortfall on funding. Hopefully, well be able to use the proceeds from a trade-in or the sale of my current patrol unit to pay those costs.
County Judge Bill Coleman credited Abernathy City Manager Mike Cypert with helping Timms craft the grant request to receive favorable consideration. Mike has had a lot of success with grant writing in the past, and his expertise obviously paid off.
The grant applications were reviewed Thursday by the South Plains Association of Governments, with results announced Friday.
Ten grant requests were reviewed, with nine ranking high enough to receive at least partial funding.
Top-ranked was Lamb County with a request of $33,935. Timms was one point behind, in second place.
Next was the City of Floydada at $11,100; Yoakum County, $31,404.96; City of Crosbyton, $20,754.75; Floyd County, $23,400; City of Idalou, $32,517.87; City of Shallowater, $37,500; and City of Brownfield, $40,561.42 of a total request of $65,660.
A $53,393.75 grant request from the City of Olton was not ranked high enough for qualify for funding.
I was in the same position last year, Timms noted. This year we were much more successful.
In other action Monday, commissioners:
--Authorized Coleman to sign letters of engagement with the accounting firm of Davis Kinard & Co., PC, to perform the year end 2016 audits of Hale County and Plainview/Hale County Airport.
--Approved changes to the countys collateral securities policy.
--Reappointed Precinct 2 Commissioner Mario Martinez to the County Investment Committee. The county auditor and treasurer also serve on the panel.
--Approved the Supplemental Account Agreement with Happy State Bank, the countys funds depository, for the next two years.
--Approved current accounts payable of $374,685.86.
--Approved an interlocal agreement with the City of Hale Center to authorize Texas Communities Group LLC to market tax forfeited trust properties in that community.
--Tabled action on a request for the county to consider regulating towing charges. Coleman said he anticipates the City of Plainview to consider the same matter, and the county may follow its lead.
--Authorized the county auditors office to utilize the jury room attached to the third-floor courtroom for records storage.
--Authorized Goen Irrigation of Olton to place an underground pipeline across CR B about three miles south of CR 20. The work is being done for farmer Kevin Belt.
--Declined a request from Sheriff David Mull to adjust the salary of 64th District Court bailiff in the event the vacant post is filled by a licensed peace officer. Eight members of the Sheriffs Office staff have applied to fill the vacancy, including three certified peace offices. The others are licensed jailers. As it stands now, an outside deputy will face a pay cut if selected to the bailiffs position which only requires jail certification.
--Authorized the sheriff to send an employee to Tyler Technology computer training at a cost of $1,367, which will be paid from the countys computer fund.
--Approved a three-year renewal of the countys contract with NTS for telephone and internet service. The cost is about $35,930 annually, which represents a savings of more than $20,000.
CONROE Black Walnut Cafe will host a Fundraiser Night Monday in Conroe for a Willis man whose son was seriously burned in a fire that destroyed his family's home.
Between 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, 15 percent of sales made during this time will go toward the Sanchez family. BWC's six other locations throughout The Woodlands and Houston are also participating.
Elias "Moises" Sanchez, a partner at BWC in Conroe, managed to rescue his wife and two daughters before making one last desperate attempt, to save his 8-year-old son Abraham Sanchez from his burning manufactured home that ignited after midnight March 25 at 310 Paddock Street.
Moises Sanchez's wife and two daughters were unharmed, but he had to tear through walls to reach Abraham, who suffered third degree burns from his waist up and was air lifted to the Shriner's Burn Center in Galveston. He was placed in an induced coma during three surgeries, and will need to undergo several more. Sanchez was also treated for burns but they were not as severe, according to previous Courier reports, Willis ISD, and BWC.
"Moises is a hero and we're thankful he and his family were pulled to safety," stated BWC President Joe Brassard in a release. "As a member of our team, we hold ourselves accountable to help support him. We hope to see a strong showing during our Fundraiser Night so we can make an even stronger impact for this family in need."
Participating BWC locations include:
Conroe 2971 Hawthorne Drive, Conroe (*Fundraiser hours will be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Conroe location only)
Memorial Drive 5512 Memorial Drive, Houston
Rice Village 5510 Morningside Drive, Houston
Vintage Park 10623 Louetta Rd., Houston
Sugar Land 16535 Southwest Freeway, Sugar Land
Cinco Ranch, Katy 23233 Cinco Ranch Boulevard, Katy
The Woodlands 9000 New Trails Drive, The Woodlands
For more information about BWC, visit www.blackwalnutcafe.com.
WILLIS ISD Drive
Abraham's school district, Willis ISD, is also hosting a drive to collect items including clothes, toiletries and food. All donations can be sent to the Willis ISD Parent Support Center, 606 N. Campbell in Willis.
"Abraham is now awake," said Willis ISD Communications Director Jamie Fails who shared he had his fourth surgery and still has "a long way to go."
Willis ISD does not need any additional of the following items: clothing, shoes, towels, or kitchen items.
Main needs at this point are:
Financial cash in small bills to take to the family for spending locally in Galveston. Monetary donations will be needed long-term.
Appliances Every home appliance are needed in NEW or gently used and in fully working condition.
Manpower Willis ISD is seeking people who can move heavy items and who have trucks and trailers that can go pick up furniture from people who have offered to donate. Three people currently have donations that are waiting to be moved.
Contractors Willis ISD needs a crew to fix up the mobile home that was donated. It's going to need repairs, clean-up, paint, etc. WISD is waiting to find a place to put the home. As soon as a place is found, WISD will announce it, but is asking people to think of those who can help with this kind of work.
For more information email Fails at jfails@willisisd.org or call 936-856-1217. All monetary donations can be sent to the family's GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/sgvgq-needy-family.
Bunker Hill Village
On 04/03/17 an officer took a credit card abuse report from a resident on Heritage Lane. Information was obtained and provided for detectives for a follow-up investigation.
Piney Point Village
On 04/03/17 Officers initiated a traffic stop in the 11500 Block of Memorial Dr. on a vehicle that ran a red light. An investigation led to the arrest of the driver for Driving While Intoxicated.
On 04/07/17 Officers observed a car stopped on the 600 block of Blalock Road. An adult male was outside the vehicle and was arrested for Public Intoxication.
Hunters Creek Village
On 04/02/17 Officers observed door to door soliciting on April Way. Officers cited the solicitors and they left the area.
Ongoing investigations
Detectives issued two felony warrants for a forgery case this week. Through investigation, detectives determined that an ex-employee forged several checks and cashed them. Detectives obtained video of the suspects cashing the checks.
Detectives are working with the Texas Rangers to trace down attempts to access a resident's bank account. This case is alarming due to the large amount of personal information that was used.
Detectives issued several subpoenas this week for an online identity theft case. Detectives are tracing online activity backwards through online stores and internet service providers to determine the location of the suspects.
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NUEVO LAREDO A peaceful demonstration Saturday morning of about 500 Cuban migrants hoping to call attention to their plight in Mexico quickly escalated when a large group moved the protest to the international bridge.
Many have been in Mexico since January, when President Barack Obama ended their privileged migrant status, and have grown restless.
Mexican soldiers armed with rifles turned them back, but a dozen slipped past the soldiers in a second wave, only to be told by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that the bridge was closed to them.
What if I want to turn myself in and ask for asylum? one man asked.
The law has changed, you have to go back, a CBP officer responded before escorting the Cuban man to the Mexican side of the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge.
That reaction is contrary to CBPs repeated claims that Cubans still are permitted to pursue asylum and stay in the United States until the asylum request is processed if they express a fear of returning to their native country, just as those from Central American countries can do.
CBP is not turning anyone away, the agency said earlier this year. In a statement released Saturday, the agency said the same thing when asked why the agent sent the Cuban back to Mexico. The statement said the agency has not changed any policies affecting asylum procedures but did not address the discrepancy.
In the days leading up to the demonstration, many of the more than 1,000 Cubans stranded on the Mexican side of the border since Obama ended the wet foot, dry foot policy have grown increasingly frustrated that President Donald Trump has yet to make his policy regarding the islanders clear. Hence, Saturdays march, organized largely through social media.
On Saturday morning, Reinier Aguila Esquivel, a 34-year-old contractor from Camaguey, held a sign that read the Cuban people want to help make U.S.A. great again. He listened intently as a pastor told the Cubans that while their future in the United States was uncertain, they have to avoid trouble to be allowed to stay in Mexico while they wait for Trump to take action. A couple of hours later, Esquivel sat in the middle of the pedestrian bridge.
I want an answer, he shouted at U.S. immigration officials, who were urging him to go back to Mexico. We have a right.
Just a few months ago, Cubans were streaming across this bridge under a decades-old provision of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. Thawing relations between Washington and Havana in late 2014 set off a wave of migration. Nearly 100,000 men, women and children made U.S. landfall before the wet-foot, dry-foot policy ended, even as thousands of Cubans still were in transit. Hundreds have made it to Nuevo Laredo since and they continue to arrive.
In the beginning, they lingered near the pedestrian bridge to Laredo, hoping for a reversal of fortune. As days bled into weeks and then months, the hapless migrants fanned out across the city, taking refuge in churches, migrant shelters, hotels and apartments. Eventually, the flow of humanitarian assistance ran dry, and they were left to fend for themselves.
Starting a restaurant
These days, the Cuban diaspora work odd jobs, or have conjured them from sheer will. Some work in construction and maquiladoras, others work the graveyard shift as security guards or even make tortillas. Lourdes de la Torre, a 49-year-old accountant from Camaguey, went one step further and helped open a restaurant.
A year ago, I never would have imagined this, De la Torre said of Restaurant el Cubanito. It certainly wasnt my plan.
But after the church groups stopped bringing them food there was nothing to eat. De la Torre pooled her money with others lodging in the Hotel Don Antonio to buy food. The hotel manager, Jesse Hernandez, 35, offered them the kitchen.
De la Torre sleeps on the floor of a room shared with six others, and the evening meals were something to look forward to. But Hernandez, a Mexican national who recently was deported from the United States and stumbled into his management position at the hotel, saw an opportunity. He found a hole-in-the-wall location with just enough space for counters along the walls.
The restaurant employs five, offering Cuban-style shredded beef, fried bananas, black beans and rice. It has become a curiosity around town. On Saturday, Hernandez and De la Torre opened a second Cubanito down the street from the first. The money isnt much, De la Torre said, but its enough to survive.
Still, the restaurant is only a temporary diversion for De la Torre. She landed in Mexico in January, following in the footsteps of her daughter, who a year ago arrived pregnant in Laredo. Her grandson was born in Houston, and her daughter is on the fast track to becoming a legal resident under the old pro-Cuban policy. If the opportunity arises, De la Torre said she, too, will leave for Texas.
But if (Trump) says no to us, De la Torre said, then Ill decide what to do next.
Staying in Mexico
Protests aside, the only serious discussion regarding Cubans has focused on what Mexican authorities intend to do with them all. In February, Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Cabeza de Vaca suggested federal immigration authorities remove them from his state. Instead, it now appears that many will be allowed to stay.
Mexicos National Immigration Institute on Friday announced that 588 Cuban migrants in Nuevo Laredo will receive residency permits. The first group of 273 Cubans will soon get theirs, which also will allow them to work legally.
The news surely came as relief for some, but there are many who have been reluctant to apply for such a permit, fearing it could hurt their chances of being admitted into the United States. Father Giovanni Visoto, director of Nazareth migrant shelter, has tried to disabuse them of this notion. But they hold fast to the belief that Trump eventually will let them into the United States, despite all evidence to the contrary, the priest added.
Trump is trying to remove immigrants from the country, and keep others from getting in, Visoto said. But the Cubans continue with their dream.
Visoto rattled off attempts to wake them from this dream, such as the time federal officials proposed transferring them to Guadalajara to wait out the humanitarian visa application process. They declined, Visoto said.
His shelter houses 80 Cubans in a location set up as a temporary space for 140 migrants and deportees in transit. Anticipating a greater number of deportees coming in from the U.S., Visoto has declined to take on more of the Cubans.
When they arent playing domino or gossiping, the Cubans at the Nazareth shelter spend hours searching social media for the latest developments concerning their plight.
One recent day, rumors of a policy change on the horizon stirred dozens to set up camp in Juarez Plaza, a block from the international bridge. It mattered little that weeks before there had been an attempted mass kidnapping of Cubans in a nearby hotel. They were warned that this dangerous stretch of cartel-controlled border was not to be tested, Visoto said. They set up camp nonetheless, refusing to budge for three days.
In Cuba, they had lived under an oppressive regime, explained Esquivel. To reach the U.S.-Mexico border many had walked through jungles after being crowded in rickety boats. They sold possessions, leaving nothing for them to return to, and many were robbed on the journey across 10 international borders.
You think sleeping in a plaza scares me? Esquivel said. No.
Little pay, lot of stress
In the evening, as people return from work to a rundown hotel, the aroma of frying onions and chicken soon fills the air. The rooms are supposed to have air conditioners and televisions, but not all of them work. Those who have taken up residence here bought hot plates and appliances to cook their own food and drink their own coffee.
The long days of uncertainty weigh heavy, Esquivel said. He has fallen into depression. His appetite is gone. One day last week he ran his fingers through his thick hair. When he looked at the palm of his hand he was startled to find strands of hair.
Its the stress, he said.
For a time Esquivel worked at a construction job, but the $11 he earned per day hardly was worth the effort, he said.
Emilio Gonzalez, 59, has taken on a leadership role among his stranded countrymen. They all want to reach the United States, he said, but everyone should have a backup plan should that fail. The advice is not the answer Esquivel wants to hear.
When the wet-foot, dry-foot policy ended, he already was in Honduras. He had sold his house and everything he owned for $3,500 to make the trip.
Ive lost everything. Theres nothing to go back to, Esquivel said. I dont know what Ill have to do to get to the (U.S.) one way or another Im going in.
anelsen@express-news.net
Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, the former governor of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas whos wanted in Texas on drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering charges, was arrested Sunday in Italy, according to Mexicos attorney general.
Yarrington had been wanted by Interpol and was arrested on Mexican charges of organized crime and money laundering, according to Mexican authorities. Mexico is requesting his extradition.
State Sen. Don Huffines has committed to voting for a statewide ban on texting while driving, the Dallas Republican said Friday, giving the legislation the magic 19th vote it will need to come up for a vote in the full Senate.
Huffines made his announcement days after state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, also declared her support for the bill. Both had opposed similar legislation in 2015.
Their backing comes in the wake of the March 29 tragedy on U.S. 83 near Uvalde, where 13 members of the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels died in a head-on collision. Witnesses said the driver of the pickup that hit the church bus said he had been texting just before the accident.
That dramatic incident, given its timing, could influence lawmakers on the texting ban.
A vote on the ban is likely at least two weeks away. Under legislative tradition, House Bill 62, authored by state Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, will become the vehicle for the texting ban, and it must first clear the Senate Committee on State Affairs to get to the full Senate. Sen. Judith Zaffirinis Senate Bill 31 has already passed that committee on a 6-3 vote, but has lingered awaiting action on the House bill.
Craddicks bill passed the House March 16 on a 114-32 vote, but hasnt yet been officially sent to the State Affairs Committee, which is still clearing from its calendar bills introduced by senators.
Zaffirini, a Laredo Democrat, has been attempting since 2009 to pass a bill making it illegal to use a hand-held phone to text, email or otherwise use the internet while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. Craddick joined her in the effort in the 2011 session. Their legislation passed both chambers that year, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Rick Perry because, he wrote in a veto message, it constituted a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.
A texting ban passed the House in 2015, but Zaffirini could corral only 18 votes in the Senate and the bill died. Nineteen votes, under rules in the 31-member Senate, are needed to bring a bill up for debate and then vote on it.
Gov. Greg Abbotts office declined Friday to say what he might do about the pending legislation. But other media outlets have reported that Craddick and Zaffirini have said their bills have his support.
Seventeen of Zaffirinis previous texting ban supporters -- all 11 Democrats and six Republicans -- either returned to the Senate this session or were replaced by others who favor the legislation. The added support of Campbell and Huffines would push the bill to passage in the Senate, assuming no senators change their minds before the bill comes up for a Senate floor vote.
Since last session, I have listened carefully to constituents and the many families who have been impacted by distracted driving, Huffines said in a statement. They deserve an answer. Senate Bill 31 and House Bill 62 will save lives, and I will vote for the bills.
Campbell wasnt available for comment Friday, but her communications director Nathan McDaniel confirmed her support of the texting ban.
She entered this session with renewed interest to protect her safety, and her daughters safety, and that of her constituents, McDaniel said, adding that Campbell weeks ago had told Zaffirini of her change of heart.
Statewide texting-while-driving bans are already law in 46 states, and more than 100 Texas cities have similar bans. Many go further: Austin, for instance, prohibits drivers from talking on a hand-held phone while a car is in motion.
Zaffirini told the Statesman this week that she planned to make minor amendments to her bill in the Senate, at the request of other legislators, clarifying that the statewide law would supercede local laws on texting, emailing and Internet use (but not on phone conversations), and that use of a global positioning system on a cellphone while driving would still be legal.
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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
To the editor:
The following letter has been sent to District 4 state Rep. Brandon Creighton regarding Senate Bill 1964 and W.G. Jones State Forest.
Dear Mr. Creighton,
I've recently become aware of your leadership in campaigning for the Texas Senate approval of SB 1964.
As you well know this bill will allow transferral of portions of the W.G. Jones State Forest to private commercial interests.
If this bill passes you will be responsible for degrading the quality of life for several hundred thousand residents of south Montgomery County including 125,000 &/- residents of The Woodlands.
In recent years highways 1488 and 242 have been widened to handle increased traffic resulting from heavy commercial development along these roadways. They are already heavily clogged due to development exceeding road capacities even after millions spent in widening them. You obviously haven't travelled these roads during rush hours.
In addition as we eliminate wooded areas we are chasing wildlife into smaller areas for their survival. This is especially troublesome due to feral hogs spilling into residential and greenbelt areas and doing significant and expensive damage. This is a highly charged topic among residents and Greenbelt volunteers in the area of WG Jones State Forest.
I'm amazed that our friends at Texas A&M University (as smart as we think they are) did not learn a lesson from their hated rival university's ill fated attempt to penetrate the Houston area against the public's will and without doing their homework. Please don't make this mistake with SB 1964.
Closer to home, I'm even more amazed that you did not learn from the recent "kicking out of office" of the entire The Woodlands Council incumbents by overwhelming popular vote despite the incumbents having received very heavy funding from "special interests" groups.
There is a well known cliche about "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
This letter will be circulated among numerous groups in the area who are presently initiating petitions in opposition to your support of SB 1964.
Please back away from your support of SB 1964.
Bob Wise
The Woodlands
The hog that keeps on giving
To the editor:
The Courier quoted Scott Dechow, a superintendent with the Keystone Concrete company that won the bid for the grand champion hog by Willis FFA's Kessi Koy: "All of this meat goes to them [Catholic unwed mothers in Georgetown and a dozen nuns who take care of the unwed mothers' babies] so they have meat for the entire year" (The Courier, Thursday, April 6, 2017, 2A).
The picture of that hog on the same page shows one about knee-high. Can that one hog really feed all those people for a "whole year?" I prefer optimism to pessimism, and I know that Jesus fed 4,000 men plus women and children with "seven loaves of bread and a few small fish" (Matt. 15:34-39) and 5,000 men plus women and children with "five loaves and two fish" (Matt. 14:17-21), but Mr. Dechow's statement seems unbelievable to me.
Marlene Parker
Conroe
Committees are in full-swing, and activity on the House floor is picking up steam quickly. In the next two months, the Legislature is challenged with adopting a fiscally responsible budget for the next two years and addressing a host of other issues that our constituents have asked us to address. It is always a very busy and exciting time. I am honored to put in the hours necessary to make sure House District 16 is represented at your State Capitol.
Around the Capitol
On April 6, after a more than 15-hour debate, the House approved the most essential part of every legislative session, the state's budget for the next biennium. Constitutionally, the Legislature is only required to pass a budget in order to avoid a mandatory special session at taxpayer expense. Texas has done well passing conservative budgets and conserving taxpayer money where possible. I will make sure that trend continues.
The Senate was charged with crafting the initial budget during this legislative session. Following the House's approval of its version of the $218 billion budget, both chambers now will appoint a conference committee of members to address the differences in the details between the two versions.
When the House and Senate meet to work out the details of the state budget, the agreed-upon priorities for the state will be identified and properly funded. Especially with the drops in oil and gas revenues, our budget must prioritize our essential needs over wants. Any budget I support will be fiscally conservative, use sound accounting and prioritize the needs of all Texans.
The Metcalf Minute
I had the pleasure of presenting House Bill 1982 in front of the Committee on Special Purpose Districts on March 30. This legislation would allow the citizens of Montgomery County to vote on the board of directors for the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District. The citizens of Montgomery County are very active and vocal participants in our elections. It makes no sense to me that in such an involved and politically educated community that the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District board is appointed by various special interests and has no accountability to the citizens of Montgomery County. I look forward to pushing this piece of legislation to give every one of you a voice on your local groundwater district just like citizens across the state in a majority of other groundwater districts.
That very same day, I also addressed the Committee on State & Federal Power & Responsibility to present House Concurrent Resolution 44. This resolution urges the Texas delegation of the U.S. Congress to pass S.2896, otherwise known as the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016. This legislation by Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, is a great step in our nation fulfilling its responsibility to those who have served. It was filed in response to the Veterans Administration's wait time scandal in order to improve access to care for veterans and provide better oversight of our nation's VA facilities. I felt it was important for the Texas Legislature to let our delegation in Washington, D.C., know how important this issue is and that we fully support our veterans and want to see their health care be of the utmost priority.
I hope all of you have a blessed Easter. I am deeply honored to serve as your state representative. I look forward to continuing my work on behalf of House District 16. May God bless you, your family and the great State of Texas!
Will Metcalf, R-Conroe, represents District 16 in the Texas House of Representatives. Call his office at 936-539-0068.
You could call it GoFundMe government. The state of Texas, like the crowd-funding website GoFundMe.com, is considering asking taxpayers to finance the testing of backlogged rape kits.
Last week the House gave tentative approval to a bill that would allow drivers renewing their licenses to donate $1 or more to pay for the testing of rape kits awaiting analysis. No other state is believed to be doing anything like that.
The state lab has 3,800 untested kits. Big cities like Houston and Dallas have thousands more. It costs anywhere from $500 to $2,000 to process a single kit.
This is one of those ideas that's not bad, considering its intentions. But it's still unsettling.
The testing of rape kits should be done - and done promptly - by local and state government. Each kit could solve a horrible crime - or several since many offenders are serial rapists. Something that important shouldn't depend on the generosity of donors.
We get it; the Legislature has a budget shortfall. Not everything is getting funded. Lawmakers will have to say no more often than them might like.
But in times like this, priorities should be established. Government should fund its core mission first, and part of that is basic law enforcement.
It's worth noting that lawmakers will apparently keep the state's level of border security at $800 million, an amount that was doubled in the last session. That's even though this is primarily a federal responsibility, and the number of illegal border-crossers has plunged due to President Trump's tough stance on this issue. The House and Senate could have peeled away, say, $20 million from that appropriation and tested every old rape kit on every shelf.
But that's not happening, so Texans are back to Plan B - kicking in a few bucks at license renewal time. It may have to do for now, but this session should be the last one it's needed.
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MINISTER of State in the Presidents Office Responsible for National Scholarships, Christopher Mushohwe, has pledged to ensure that Zimbabwean students on scholarships outside the country do not starve.
Zimbabwe has hundreds of students on scholarships in more than 14 countries, but the majority have been reduced to paupers and forced into criminality and other social ills to sponsor their stay outside the country.
In an interview during the swearing-in ceremony of Cabinet ministers at State House yesterday, Mushohwe said he was busy mobilising funds to rescue students stranded outside the country.
He acknowledged the situation was bad and should be corrected urgently.
We are busy mobilising resources so that we pay the stipends that they should get because without those, they will have no food, accommodation and other requirements, Mushohwe said.
I am going to restructure the whole ministry and make sure that we will not let students go to foreign countries and suffer. Sure, we may not have enough money, but once government sends students to other countries it is incumbent upon us to make sure that we pay them the requisite stipends.
It is a task that I am prepared to take head-on. We dont want our students to be destitutes in different countries because that is a reflection on Zimbabwe, so we will do our best to make sure that all our students are catered for, he said.
Mushohwe, however, said he would undertake an assessment to make sure that the programmes that these students are studying outside the country are strategic to Zimbabwe.
He said students sent out on government scholarship must acquire knowledge that makes them not only academics, but applied practitioners as well.
We need our children who are going to be future leaders to be equipped enough so that they dont just come back here and just be a nuisance. We want to make sure that they will help us.
He said he had started selecting students to enrol at particular universities for specific programmes not offered in Zimbabwe. He said Zimbabwe still needs to acquire new technological innovations so that it boosts its capacity as an industrialised and developed nation.
Breaking News via Email
By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Trade
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping did not announce any major breakthroughs on trade at the end of their two-day summit on Friday. But the two leaders agreed to restructure existing bilateral forums into a new U.S.-China Comprehensive Dialogue overseen by the two presidents and focused on four distinct areas: security concerns, economics relations, law enforcement and cybersecurity and social and cultural issues [Politico].
Politics
Syraqistan
A pair of veteran leaders on the left, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden, called on Hawaiians to vote Rep. Tulsi Gabbard out of office after the Democrat questioned whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for last weeks chemical attack [CNN (DK)]. Orthodoxy enforcement wont be easy in this case: Gabbard won 81.2% of the vote in her last election.
New Cold War
2016 Post Mortem
Bernie Sanderss Misguided Attacks on the Liberal Elite' [The New Republic]. This is actually more interesting than the headline. When journalist Chris Arnade, for insance, argues that Trump and Sanders represent the revolt of the back row kids against front-row types like Hillary Clinton, hes analytically replacing divisions based on class with divisions based on paying attention in class. For Arnade, meritdoing well in schoolreplaces money as the fundamental organizer of social divisions. Arnade sympathizes with those who have lost out in neoliberalism, but he accepts neoliberalisms account of how losers and winners are structured. And yet, neoliberalism is a lie. Hmm.
Realignment and Legitimacy
Kansas Democrat Proudly Wears Support Of Bernie Sanders Group In Unexpectedly Close Race [HuffPo]. The Democratic Party, however, is staying away from the race [HuffPo]. For however, read of course. Fixed it for ya. How liberal activists took over the Democratic Party [McClatchy]. Even political decisions like the partys involvement in a U.S. House of Representatives special election in Georgia have been spearheaded by activists, who first started raising gobs of money for the de facto Democratic nominee, Jon Ossoff. It would be irresponsible not to speculate, so Ill speculate that the Democrat War Room being run by Clintonites at the DNC is acting as a cut-out for a lot of this. The whole story, shockingly for McClatchy, reads like a beat sweetener. UPDATE GA-06: Polls show Ossoff receiving about 40 percent of the vote; if no candidate reaches 50 percent in the April 18 election, the race will move to a runoff between the top two voter-getters [McClatchy]. UPDATE GA-06: Mr. Trumps takeover of the Republican Party has blurred the bright-line ideological distinctions that defined the right for the past eight years. Driven more by personal loyalty and a ravenous appetite to win than by any fixed political philosophy, the deal-cutting president has been received warmly by some mainstream conservatives. At the same time, even ideological hard-liners who share the presidents pugilism but not his pragmatism have stuck by him because Mr. Trump has made the right enemies and gleefully ridiculed them with public insults rarely heard from a president [New York Times]. These loyalties have upended the Tea Party-versus-establishment divide, which has dominated fratricidal primary seasons since 2010 but increasingly has the air of fins on the back of a car, a quaint relic from an earlier era. With Mr. Trump in charge, the political market for purity on the right has been devalued. New York is the first state to make 4-year college tuition free for middle-class students [MarketWatch]. Under the plan, in-state students whose families earn $125,000 or less [in other words, working class] can participate. Altogether, the program is expected to cost New York $163 million and is expected to benefit roughly 940,000 families. New York is the first state to offer free four-year tuition. This near-universal program providing concrete material benefits, especially to the working class, would never, ever have happened without the Sanders campaign. Of course, the program could still be sabotaged in the execution, but for now, lets savor a victory. However, what about the students who didnt win the birth lottery, werent covered by this program, when incurred massive debts that cannot pause for a hat tip to that loveable goof, Joe Biden 2020 that cant be discharged in bankruptcy? If theres any justice in the world, the flip side of free college is a Debt Jubilee, so when is that happening? (Pause to think through the policy details on this.) Dont let establishment opportunists ruin the resistance movement [Thomas Frank, Guardian]. Harbingers of this approach are already visible. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has written a nonspecific but distinctly anti-Trump manifesto. Budweiser is running commercials perceived to be critical of Trumpism, as is Coca-Cola. Starbucks has made its antipathy clear. A bunch of tech companies have declared their undying hostility to Trumps immigration policies. Before long, no doubt, Nike or Reebok will be encouraging you to make a stand against fascism with a specially branded line of resistance sneakers. This is from March. Frank called his shot on the Pepsi ad! Last fall, as presidential candidate Donald Trump promised America more oil and coal production, a small refinery town in Northern California stood up against its biggest employer and taxpayer. Valero, the Texas-based petroleum giant, had sought routine approval for a huge crude-by-rail project. The city council of Benicia, however, decisively rejected Valeros proposal [Capital and Main]. We had a small but extremely well-informed group of people who have been working on these issues for a long time, said Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, and I give all the credit to that group. Patterson is a longtime environmentalist who has been mayor since 2007 and was re-elected in November. Activist successes like this require mastery of technical detail, the regulatory process, legal issues, and relationship building, especially with legislators and the press. They also require coalition-building, and public speaking and media skills. I would have expected the anti-fracking effort, to pick a single example, to have cross-fertilized electoral politics (and in some way other than siloed efforts holding up signs in marches). This happened in Benicia , but it doesnt seem to have happened nationally, and Im not sure why. Or is this happening say, in Richmond, California, or Colorado, or upstate New York, and I missed it? Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index [Cook Political Report]. Fun stuff. More and more interesting maps these days..
Stats Watch
Labor Market Conditions Index, March 2017: With the unemployment rate down 2 tenths in March to 4.5 percent, the economy is at full employment but it isnt giving much of a lift to the labor market conditions index which is barely holding above zero at only 0.4 in March [Econoday].
State Coincident Indexes, January 2017: Over the past three months, the indexes increased in 46 states, decreased in three, and remained stable in one. In the past month, the indexes increased in 38 states, decreased in five, and remained stable in seven, for a one-month diffusion index of 66. For comparison purposes, the Philadelphia Fed has also developed a similar coincident index for the entire United States. The Philadelphia Feds U.S. index rose 0.7 percent over the past three months and 0.2 percent in January [Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia].
Construction: Update: Framing Lumber Prices Up Year-over-year [Calculated Risk]. The price increases in early 2013 were due to a surge in demand (more housing starts) and supply constraints (framing lumber suppliers were working to bring more capacity online). Prices didnt increase as much early in 2014 (more supply, smaller surge in demand). In 2015, even with the pickup in U.S. housing starts, prices were down year-over-year. Note: Multifamily starts do not use as much lumber as single family starts, and there was a surge in multi-family starts. This decline in 2015 was also probably related to weakness in China.
Shipping: E-commerce users typically need two to three times the amount of warehouse and distribution space that traditional users do [Logistics Management]. Thats mostly because e-commerce fulfillment requires more inventory, labor and automation.
Shipping: Wednesdays ProMat keynote panelists agreed it is time to embrace the shift to digital supply chains seen in MHIs latest annual industry report, titled Next-Generation Supply Chains: Digital, On-Demand and Always-On [Logistics Management]. According to the report, nine technologies including sensors, Cloud solutions, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous vehicles [,(?)] and drones are working together to create supply chains that are digital, on-demand and always-on. Ive helpfully underlined the technologies I could also file under The Bezzle. Was I too kind?
Shipping: The backhaul North Europe-Asia capacity crunch could last for months, according to new research from liner analysts Drewry [The Loadstar]. Drewry said eastbound shippers were struggling for space. with some waiting up to eight weeks to load. It added that even when shippers had been able to load their export containers, they were obliged to pay considerably more than the usual going rate.' Cartels work!
Shipping: [Swift Transportation Co. and Knight Transportation, two] of the largest trucking companies in the U.S are merging in a rare consolidation in the fragmented truckload services market [Wall Street Journal]. More concentration.
The Bezzle: 10 shocking passages from the Wells Fargo report on aggressive sales practices [MarketWatch]. All so ghastly I cant even pick out the highlights. Too bad Putin forced Obama not to indict any Wells Fargo executives; Clinton might have won if he had.
The Bezzle: Libor: Bank of England implicated in secret recording [BBC]. Roll the tape:
In the recording, a senior Barclays manager, Mark Dearlove, instructs Libor submitter Peter Johnson, to lower his Libor rates. He tells him: The bottom line is youre going to absolutely hate this but weve had some very serious pressure from the UK government and the Bank of England about pushing our Libors lower. Mr Johnson objects, saying that this would mean breaking the rules for setting Libor, which required him to put in rates based only on the cost of borrowing cash. Mr Johnson says: So Ill push them below a realistic level of where I think I can get money? His boss Mr Dearlove replies: The fact of the matter is weve got the Bank of England, all sorts of people involved in the whole thing I am as reluctant as you are these guys have just turned around and said just do it.
The Bezzle: The Gig Economys False Promise [Editorial Board, New York Times]. But so far, experience with these companies shows that without the legal protections and ethical norms that once were widely accepted, workers will find the economy of the future an even more inhospitable place. If only there were some institutional structure that could bring pressure to bear. Some sort of collective action.
Labor Power: The thousands of folks walking the show floor at ProMat 2017 in Chicago this week witnessed material handling automation on a scale unimaginable just two years ago. But the breathtaking high-tech improvements come with a hitch: a shortage of skilled workers to service the increasingly complex stuff [DC Velocity]. If only we had some mechanism, however imperfect, for matching the demand for these skilled workers to the supply of them!
Labor Power: . Wages for workers in warehouses including the distribution centers run by Amazon, FedEx Corp. and others that handle online orders are rising at their fastest pace in over a decade, the WSJ Logistics Reports Jennifer Smith writes. The pay hikes come as the warehouse boom runs headlong into a tightening labor market. Warehouse work can be grueling, and logistics companies are finding they can no longer attract a deep a pool of applicants with pay that is often just above minimum wage. In addition to offering higher hourly wages, operators are attracting labor through performance incentives and poaching nearby rivals [Wall Street Journal].
Labor Power: Though videos of the Tesla factory emphasize robotic automation, over 6,000 workers engage in intense manual labor to build the cars. [David Dayen, Capital and Main]. [A] factory that prioritizes production goals over health and safety. Now theyre fighting back against low pay, hazardous conditions and a culture of intimidation, seeking to unionize through the United Auto Workers. Tesla is the only U.S. automaker using nonunion workers at a stateside plant, and breaking through would give organized labor a foothold in the tech industry as well. Until then, the Tesla experience reveals that green jobs arent necessarily good jobs without worker power. They want to make sustainable cars, says [Tesla worker Richard Ortiz] . We need sustainable employment.'
Political Risk: After an unpredictable political cycle and an equally unpredictable M&A environment in 2016, dealmakers have refreshed their outlook for M&A activity under the Trump administrationand they like what they see. According to Brunswick Groups 10th Annual Global M&A Survey, about 44% of respondents expect M&A activity to increase in 2017, a significant surge since last year, when only 13% of respondents were optimistic about M&A levels growing in the wake of record-breaking levels in 2015. At the same time, practitioners expect more scrutiny of cross-border deals, particularly from China, and a lighter touch with regard to antitrust obstacles. And the impact on jobs will be front and center [The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation].
UPDATE Public Relations: Man pulled off of United plane in Chicago set for Louisville [WHAS]. And by pulled, we mean dragged down the aisle. The video:
@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
The Twitter reacts to the CEOs statement:
humans we are excreting sadness fluids from the United brood mothers apology glands, we will look with all 40 million of our eyes pic.twitter.com/qyaHfcSHjf Ed Zitron (@edzitron) April 10, 2017
Shaking my head. Third World stuff wherever you look.
Rapture Index: Closes down 1 on Anti-Semitism. There has been a decrease in anti-Semitic activity [Rapture Ready]. Record High: 189, October 10, 2016. Current: 182.
Todays Fear & Greed Index: 38 Fear (previous close: 40, Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 46 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Apr 10 at 11:28am.
Health Care
The physicians with whom Ive spoken agree that doctors who put in the extra time to create relationships with patients do it because they feel it is the right thing to do, despite the fact that the system doesnt reward their efforts. But a system that relies on physician good-heartedness alone is hardly sustainable, especially given that half of physicians already report professional burnout [Health Affairs]. The good news is that a quiet revolution is now afoot in medicine. Many doctors, just like their patients, long to have more healing encounters and foster strong patient-doctor relationships. To achieve that, we will have to rethink how we deliver medicine. The title: How To Win The Doctor Lottery. Im sure some readers have won this lottery, and equally sure some have lost. We need more winners.
Gaia
After severe coral bleaching in the northern third of the reef last year, an aerial survey [by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies] has found the middle third has been hit by intense bleaching in 2017, damaging 1,500 kilometers, or 900 miles, of coral and leaving only the southern third unscathed [MarketWatch]. This year, 2017, we are seeing mass bleaching, even without the assistance of El Nino conditions, [Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre].
Class Warfare
Late capitalism: the infographic [Bat Bean Beam]. Fun takedown of How to Build Wealth on the Minimum Wage.
News of the Wired
In Search of the Axe for the Frozen Sea Within Us [Power of Narrative]. Still worth a read.
Not just for Australian politics junkies:
.@theage People are already tweeting one of the best Clarke & Dawe sketches, "The Front Fell Off (1991) https://t.co/GTCCpwyBnr I agree. Stilgherrian (@stilgherrian) April 10, 2017
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Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And heres todays plant (via):
Cambridge, MA. Is that bark mulch?
Readers, Water Cooler is a standalone entity, not supported by the very successful Naked Capitalism fundraiser just past. Now, I understand you may feel tapped out, but when and if you are able, please use the dropdown to choose your contribution, and then click the hat! Your tip will be welcome today, and indeed any day. Water Cooler will not exist without your continued help.
By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends most of her time in Asia researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as writes occasional travel pieces for The National.
The fashion industry conceals more than a couple of dirty little secrets, particularly its fast fashion sector. Its labor practices are notorious, and its also one of the top polluting industries not only for its production processes, but especially when we consider the problem of disposal of products after an increasingly-truncated useful life.
Ive discussed these issues at further length in these two posts: The High Hidden Costs of Fast Fashion (in September 2016 ) and Fast Fashion: A Few Thoughts Sparked by Recent News (February 2017).
Sustainable Fashion Advances?
The Guardian published a piece today, From cotton fields to high street racks, fashion bids to be 100% sustainable, that addresses a modest initiative to produce textiles that flout prevailing fashion industry environmental trends:
It is not a brand synonymous with style, but WWF, the worlds biggest conservation organisation, is teaming up with a London-based online fashion community to produce what it claims will be the worlds first 100% sustainable clothing range. Big-name stores including Selfridges and Harrods are being lined up to sell the range in the UK, but WWF wants to make this a global project. It is determined to prove to the fashion industry that it is possible to design and produce clothes with zero impact on the environment. Its hugely challenging, says Alfredo Orobio, founder of the online community AwaytoMars that is working with WWF. Everything from the buttons, zippers, labels, tags and packaging to the fabric and production process itself all of it has to be sustainable.
This is certainly a worthwhile goal, but the obstacles to meeting it are formidable.
Costs: Initial Outlay
Among these challenges, perhaps the most serious is the costs consumers must pay both the initial cost to buy a garment, and the additional, largely hidden environmental costs to overcome prevailing non-sustainable practices.
Cheap fast fashion is a huge obstacle to a more sustainable industry, says Tom Cridland, who started his own green fashion brand three years ago with a 6,000 government startup loan. Theoretically, a 100% sustainable fashion collection is not impossible but we need more brands to promote buying less but buying better. Cridlands unique selling point is the 30-year guarantee he attaches to his T-shirts, jackets and trousers. The notion that we can buy an item of clothing and keep it for much longer is taking off, he says, with sales now over 1m a year.
Although many consumers may sympathize with Cridlans sustainability objective and may indeed, welcome better-made, durable goods into their wardrobes Most of them would not be willing to pony up to buy these and other sustainably produced goods, the price of which currently falls well outside their pocketbooks. Again, over to The Guardian:
One of the key barriers to consumer take-up is that the expense involved in turning every part of the life cycle of a garment green means the cost of sustainable clothing is out of the reach of most. Current prices at AwayToMars, for example, range from 50 for a T-shirt to 390 for a wool jacket. Cridlands signature 30-year jacket costs 190 while a T-shirt is 35. Of course Cridland and the sustainable fashion movement argue that you end up spending more in the long term with a fast-fashion route, but others say that is part of the attraction the ability to buy clothes and discard them when fashions or fancies change.
Longer-Term, Significant Environmental Costs
Another big problem is that the average consumer doesnt understand how polluting the fashion industry is, not only in terms of inputs with production of synthetic fibres in particular imposing significant carbon costs. As the Guardian notes:
Manufacturing polyester, for example, which is already present in 60% of clothing, produces almost three times more carbon dioxide than organic cotton, and it can take decades to degrade as well as polluting marine environments with plastic microfibres. And around 21 million tons of polyester was used in clothing last year, up 157% from 2000.
An equally significant concern is the cost of disposing of fast fashion after the consumer tires of wearing these ephemeral, shoddily produced goods. As I discussed in my September and January posts, currently, most fast fashion ends up in landfills, with the average item worn only 7 times. These garments are so poorly made that charities cant even give them away, and some emerging east African states have balked at accepting them secondhand. In fact, the deluge of discarded fast fashion has harmed the domestic textile production of these countries.
Cotton is Not Necessarily King
I do want to raise one significant quibble with The Guardian piece, which discusses the advantages of natural fibers such as cotton as compared to synthetic alternatives. While cotton, particularly organic cotton is certainly a better choice for the environment than is polyester its extensive cultivation has also been environmentally disastrous in areas such as Uzbekistans Aral Sea. Growing the varieties of cotton beloved by the global textile industry consumes massive amounts of water. Water issues, as regular readers are well aware, are destined to be a considerable source of conflict in future, particularly as the planet warms up. So a global shift in production of textiles from current synthetic norms to cotton would be far from a panacea.
Now through my research into artisanal textile production in India, I know of projects such as the Kala Cotton Initiative, launched by the NGO Khamir, which promotes sustainable production of a traditional form of cotton, with the goal of preserving agricultural and artisan livelihoods in the Kachchh district of India:
Kala cotton is indigenous to Kachchh and by default organic, as the farmers do not use any pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. It is a purely rain fed crop that has a high tolerance for both disease and pests, and requires minimal investment. It is both resilient and resurgent in the face of stressful land conditions.
Yet even though this initiative is a worthwhile endeavor, its tiny size would fall far short of supplying even a minuscule amount of the global demand for cotton even if consumers could be re-educated to buy cloth made from this short staple cotton that lacks the sheen and finesse found in the more popular long-staple varieties. I should also point out that cotton is only one of many fibers consumers have a taste for, and that other problems bedevil sustainable production of other natural fibers such as wool.
Opposing Trends
The takeaway from the Guardian article is that some small progress is being made to offset the impact of fast fashion. Unfortunately, what we have here appears to be at most the launch of a tiny flotilla of life boats into the path of oncoming fleets of dreadnoughts.
To understand where we stand, lets turn to a couple of articles I posted in Sundays Links. Bloomberg reports in Americas Retailers Are Closing Stores Faster Than Ever on challenging operating conditions for US retailers. Against that backdrop, the fast fashion section e.g. H & M, Zara unfortunately, continues to outperform and has even drawn producers such as Adidas into the fast fashion business.
I find two points to be even more worrying here than the outperformance of these fast fashion producers (and the associated aping of their successful retail strategies by producers such as Adidas and others).
First, as Quartz, reports in A new generation of even faster fashion is leaving H&M and Zara in the dust, demand for even faster fashion is accelerating in the markets that have pioneered the fast fashion trend. So, not only are those employing fast fashion strategies not on the ropes, the fastist fashion companies are reaping the biggest rewards. Allow me to quote at length from the Quartz article here:
Zara and H&M are the worlds two largest fashion retailers. Not by coincidence, theyre also the pioneers of fast fashion. Zara is able to take a coat from design to the sales floor in 25 days (paywall), and it can replenish items even more quickly. In the past couple of decades, the two companies have steadily trounced much of their competition, outdoing them on price and speed to claim an ever-larger share of shoppers spending. But both are being beat at their own game by even faster competitors. British fashion retailers ASOS and Boohoo are able to conceive, design, produce, and have clothing ready for shoppers on the sales floor quicker than Zara and H&M, according to a research note Goldman Sachs sent investors last month, and the two millennial-focused, social-media savvy brands are enjoying the rewards. On April 4, ASOS lifted its sales forecast for the year, expecting sales to grow between 30% and 35%. Boohoo also recently raised (pdf) its earnings forecast, predicting sales growth of around 50% for the year. Unbeknownst to many, its shares rose more in 2016 than those of any other Western European consumer-related company with a market capitalization of more than $500 million. Goldman Sachs charted the correlation between supply-chain lead times and like-for-like (LFL) sales growth, and the results show just how much speed matters. It allows brands to respond to the market quickly, which means they can adjust their inventory to match trends as they happen, and it keeps them from having to produce a large amount of stock in advance that then risks not selling and being discounted.
And equally or perhaps even more worrying, for those of concerned about sustainability, H & M has targeted emerging markets, such as India, for its flagship fast fashion strategy, as The Economic Times reports in this article from last week, India among top potential markets for H&M, plans to open stores in smaller towns:
India is among the top potential markets for Swedish fashion company Hennes & Mauritz, which plans to open stores in smaller towns as growth continues in the country. In terms of potential, it (India) is definitely in the top three markets, with more than a billion people living and the country growing, H&M Group CEO Karl-Johan Persson said. The Swedish retailer has 14 stores in Indian cities including Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai and is scheduled to open one in Hyderabad. The company, which plans to invest 100 million in India in the first five years, opened its store in Mohali, near Chandigarh. It hasnt set a time frame for entering smaller cities in India.
Bottom Line
In my September post, I quoted Dr. Jenny Balfour-Paul, the worlds leading expert on the practical and intellectual aspects of indigo, as saying, The planet cant afford fast fashion. That remains true, regardless of who is consuming the product.
The Financial Times has a generally good update on the state of the student debt bubble in the US. The article interesting not just for what it says but also for what goes unsaid. Ill recap its main points with additional commentary. Note that many of the underlying issues will be familiar to NC readers, but it is nevertheless useful to stay current.
Access to student debt keeps inflating the cost of education. This may seem obvious but it cant be said often enough. Per the article:
While the headline consumer price index is 2.7 per cent, between 2016 and 2017 published tuition and fee prices rose by 9 per cent at four-year state institutions, and 13 per cent at posher private colleges.
It wasnt all that long ago that the cost of a year at an Ivy League college was $50,000 per year. Author Rana Foroohar was warned by high school counselors that the price tag for her daughter to attend one of them or a liberal arts college would be around $72,000 a year.
Spending increases are not going into improving education. As weve pointed out before, adjuncts are being squeezed into penury while the adminisphere bloat continues, as MBAs have swarmed in like locusts. Another waste of money is over-investment in plant. Again from the story:
A large chunk of the hike was due to schools hiring more administrators (who brand build and recruit wealthy donors) and building expensive facilities designed to lure wealthier, full-fee-paying students. This not only leads to excess borrowing on the part of universities a number of them are caught up in dicey bond deals like the sort that sunk the city of Detroit but higher tuition for students.
And there is a secondary effect. As education cost rise, students are becoming more mercenary in their choices, and in not a good way. This is another manifestation of what John Kay calls obliquity: in a complex system, trying to map a direct path will fail because its impossible to map the terrain well enough to identify one. Thus naive direct paths like maximize shareholder value do less well at achieving that objective than richer, more complicated goals.
The higher ed version of this dynamic is I am going to school to get a well-paid job, with the following results, per an FT reader:
BazHurl
After a career in equities, having graduated the Dreamy Spires with significant not silly debt, I had the pleasure of interviewing lots of the best and brightest graduates from European and US universities. Finance was attracting far more than its deserved share of the intellectual pie in the 90s and Noughties in particular; so at times it was distressing to meet outrageously talented young men and women wanting to genuflect at the altar of the $, instead of building the Flux Capacitor. But the greater take-away was how mediocre and homogenous most of the grads were becoming. It seemed the longer they had studied and deferred entry into the Great Unwashed, the more difficult it was to get anything original or genuine from them. Piles and piles of CVs of the same guys and gals: straight As since emerging into the world, polyglots, founders of every financial and charitable university society you could dream up but could they honestly answer a simple question like Fidelity or Blackrock Who has robbed widows and orphans of more?. Hardly. In short, few of them qualified as the sort of person you would willingly invite to sit next to you for fifteen hours a day, doing battle with pesky clients and triumphing over greedy competitors. All these once-promising 22 to 24 year olds had somehow been hard-wired by the same robot and worse, all were entitled. Probably fair enough as they had excelled at everything that had been asked of them up until meeting my colleagues and I on the trading floors. Contrast this to the very different experience of meeting visiting sixth formers from a variety of secondary schools that used to tour the bank and with some gentle prodding, light up the Q&A sessions at tours end, fizzing with enthusiasm and desire. Now THESE kids I would hire ahead of the blue-chipped grads, most days. They were raw material that could be worked with and shaped into weapons. It was patently clear that University was no longer adding the expected value to these candidates and in fact was becoming quite the reverse.
And for many grads, an investment in higher education now has a negative return on equity. A 2014 Economist article points out that the widely cited studies of whether college is worth the cost or not omit key factors that skew their results in favor of paying for higher education.
Four year college graduation rates are falling, and education cost bloat is part of the problem. If you look at the annual reports of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, four year college completion rates as of the six year mark have been in general decline. The Economist article above mentions a 59% completion rate; oddly I cant find the underlying report on the National Student Clearinghouse website, but Google footprints suggest it was for the 2005 cohort. The six-year graduation rate was 55.9% for the 2007 cohort, 55% for the 2008 cohort, 53% for the 2009 cohort, with a slight rebound to 54.8% completion for the 2010 cohort.
Low graduation rates in and of themselves make college a potentially bad bet. All of the 50,000 foot analyses of if you go to college, you will make on average X more a year are based on completing college AND getting a full-time job.
The Financial Times article notes:
But there are even more worrisome links between high student debt loads and health issues like depression, and marital failures. The whole thing is compounded by the fact that a large chunk of those holding massive debt do not end up with degrees, having had to drop out from the stress of trying to study, work, and pay back massive loans at the same time. That means they will never even get the income boost that a college degree still provides creating a snowball cycle of downward mobility in the countrys most vulnerable populations.
College is also becoming a less effective vehicle of social mobility. The high average educational level of the US by world standards masks a sorry fact: older age groups have very high average educational attainment, while it has fallen sharply among the young. High college costs no doubt play a role, and more specifically, that college is becoming less effective as a vehicle for class mobility. From a speech last week by New York Fed president William Dudley:
Recent work by { Stanford economist Raj ] Chetty and his co-authors has investigated the importance of higher education in achieving upward mobility. They find that many highly qualified lower-income students do not attend selective colleges, while those low- and middle-income students who dodespite facing greater challengesfare almost as well as affluent students who attend the same colleges. Their research also indicates that some colleges are better engines of upward income mobility than others, and that colleges that offered the largest number of low-income students pathways to upward mobility have become less accessible to them during the 2000s. As a result, higher-educations contribution to increasing intergenerational mobility has diminished.
The Federal government is continuing to shovel money into student loans despite rising default rates and large scale collateral economic damage. The amount of student debt outstanding, at $1.4 trillion, is bigger than subprime debt on the eve of the crisis, $1.3 trillion.1
90% of student loans are government guaranteed. The Feds apparently prefer to rely on their power to squeeze borrowers relentlessly even when they clearly cant pay. The article points out that of 44 million with student debt, 8 million have defaulted. But that understates the true default rate, since students defer payments while in school. The New York Fed puts the default rate at year end 2016 at 11.2%, with this very big caveat: About half of these loans are currently in deferment, in grace periods or in forbearance and therefore temporarily not in the repayment cycle. This implies that among loans in the repayment cycle delinquency rates are roughly twice as high.
Ouch. See how high student loan default rates are compared to other types of credit even using the grossly understated default versus total balances approach:
It mystifies me why homebuilders and makers of consumer durables arent on the warpath against student debt. It has hit the point when even normally reserved Fed officials are sounding alarms; Dudley talked about the student debt overhang as an economic headwind. Anyone who has been paying attention has seen regular mentions in the business press that student debt is leading to lower household formation. Buying houses and having kids are engines of growth.
The Democrats are as much a part of the problem as Republicans. While the article assigns blame to Republicans for cutting support for public schools as a result of their successful campaign against government spending, let us not forget that higher ed cuts have also taken place in Democratic-controlled states like California. Tuition, room and board at UCLA is $34,000, and students can cut the tab to $26,000 if they live at home. While much cheaper than the elite college costs mentioned above, with 70% of US households having less than $1000 in savings, how many parents are set to spend a relative bargain price of $100,000 per child for college?
And the Democrats have been missing in action as far as anything other than tinkering at the margin with this problem. The failure of the former top bankruptcy law professor Elizabeth Warren to call for student debt to be dischargeable in bankruptcy is telling.
University towns are almost without exception deep blue enclaves. Academics skew Democratic in their political loyalties, and professors often operate as as extended think tank network supplementing formal Democratic party operatives. The Democrats are not about to cut the drip feed to what they regard as a key set of not just supporters but allies.
And this also explains another reason what the Democratic party apparatus was so eager to shut down Sanders and mischaracterize his overwhelming support among young people as Bernie Bros. The older Clinton cohort and the 10%ers that Thomas Frank calls out in his book Listen Liberal are either direct beneficiaries of a bloated, parasitic higher educational system or are affluent enough to pay for the social class and career advantages it can provide to their children. Universities are on the wrong side of class warfare and are doing what they can to divert attention from that sorry fact.
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1 This data is slightly at odd with the New York Feds Consumer Credit report using year-end 2016 data. The Department of Education is not at all transparent and the Data.gov page that professes to have the report I need as of Jan 30 says, No file downloads have been provided. The publisher may provide downloads in the future or they may be available from their other links.
Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including favourite documentary series and films Free Solo, The Rescue, Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
The Ballingarry 1848 Historical Society has welcomed the announcement by Minister Heather Humphreys that Ballingarry will host this years National Famine Commemoration on 30 September 2017.
Speaking on behalf of the Society, Dr Thomas Mc Grath stated - This is a good news story for Ballingarry and for County Tipperary. We applied for this national event and we are delighted to be awarded it. We are honoured to be chosen to host this State occasion at the Famine Warhouse 1848, the OPW national heritage site in Ballingarry.
I would like to thank Councillor Imelda Goldsboro of Ballingarry for getting all Tipperary County Councillors to support our letter of application to the Minister. Our thanks to Joe MacGrath, Chief Executive of Tipperary County Council and his team for strongly backing the proposal.
"Dr Martin Mansergh and Noel Coonan were very supportive. In Ballingarry our Society chairman Martin Maher, Marie Barry, Anthony Ivors, John Webster and the late Bill Martin all played a role, said Dr Mc Grath.
Ballingarry in 1848 is an important part of the story of the Famine years and it is great to see this being recognised. This years annual Famine 1848 Walk in Ballingarry on the last Saturday of July will now be more significant than ever and will be one of a number of community events in the lead-in to the National Commemoration in September. Ballingarry and County Tipperary will pull out all the stops for the occasion and all local organisations and schools will be keen to participate.
Last year this national commemoration, which is now in its tenth year, was held in Dublin. A formal State occasion of this magnitude with dignitaries, government ministers, national flag and military honours, solemn wreath laying, and diplomatic representatives from many countries, will be a great event in the modern history of Ballingarry and County Tipperary, he concluded.
Minister Humphreys said: This is the first time the National Famine Commemoration will be hosted in Co. Tipperary. Each year the commemoration represents an opportunity for the modern generation to remember the devastating impact which the Great Famine had on this country.
At the heart of the National Famine Commemoration is the involvement of the local community, which each year brings a unique perspective to the ceremony which culminates in the formal State event, with the National flag and military honours, and wreath laying ceremonies.
The Ballingarry Famine Warhouse is a fitting and historic venue for this year's commemoration and I look forward to working with the local community and our colleagues in Tipperary Co. Council in preparing for this solemn commemorative event. The Ballingarry 1848 Historical Society has held the annual Famine 1848 Walk for the last decade, which shows the commitment of the local community to remember An Gorta Mor and its victims.
Sadly, the plight of hunger still stalks the world today. Our commemoration of the sufferings of our own past can only strengthen and increase our sense of empathy and understand with those societies afflicted by this scourge in our own era.
(Natural News) Recent lawsuits against Monsanto arguably one of the worlds most evil corporations continue to highlight the companys wrongdoings and misdeeds. Many of their actions would have less-connected individuals locked up or worse, and yet, Monsanto continues to enjoy their position at the helm of the agrochemical and biotech industries.
Monsanto has even earned itself the nickname of Monsatan, a moniker perhaps more befitting of a company that has used its prowess to collude with the EPA to prevent the toxicity of a hazardous chemical from coming to light but wait, that was Monsanto.
Recently, a judge unsealed documents that showed EPA official Jess Rowland actually promised Monsanto executives that he would find a way to stop another federal agency, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, from conducting their own assessment of glyphosate.
If I can kill this I should get a medal, Rowland said to a Monsanto employee, who then relayed their conversation to coworkers through an email. And it appears Rowlands efforts worked, as the report on the herbicidal compound was never published.
Other emails have revealed that Monsantos William Heydens conspired to help ghostwrite a paper on glyphosates safety. Specifically, Heydens suggested that Monsanto could author the portions of the paper on exposure toxicity and genotoxicity. In the email, Heydens even recalled how the same method of ghostwriting was used to handle a similar study in the year 2000.
Then there is the letter from Marion Copley, a now-deceased former EPA scientist. Copleys letter outlines a number of different ways by which glyphosate can cause cancer and other harmful health effects, such as endocrine disruption and immune system suppression. In the letter, Copley also describes the corruption at the EPA, begging her fellow scientists to do the right thing and not make decisions based on how it affects your bonus.
For once in your life, listen to me and dont play your political conniving games with the science to favor the registrants, Copley pleads to none other than Jess Rowland.
The collusion between Monsanto and the EPA is truly only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Monsantos evil nature. Over the course of the companys many years of existence, Monsanto has unleashed many a toxin into the world. Nary a decade goes by where the corporation isnt stricken with controversy over some new hazardous chemical theyve created. Their very first chemical was saccharin, an artificial sweetener, but it was soon followed by the development of PCBs. After 50 years, PCBs were banned due to their toxicity and devastating environmental effects.
After developing their first hybrid seed, Monsanto decided to round-out their company by developing industrial chemicals such as detergents, along with synthetic rubbers and plastics. They also ventured into the agrochemical business with the development of dioxin, a toxic pesticide. Eventually, Monsanto would join forces with DOW Chemical to create Agent Orange we all know how that ended: Thousands of American soldiers and Vietnamese citizens were harmed by the use of this toxic concoction.
Internal memos revealed that Monsanto was well aware of how harmful Agent Orange would be to humans, even before it was sold to the US government.
Monsantos reign of terror doesnt end with their production of toxic chemicals though, now does it? The GMO giant has also been destroying the agricultural industry from the inside out. GMO crops have been attributed to the rising number of farmer suicides in countries like India. In 2008, it was estimated that some 125,000 Indian farmers had taken their own lives, after being tricked into buying GMO seeds they couldnt afford and never getting the harvests they were promised. When unable to pay back their debts to the industry, these farmers were left with no recourse, and many resorted to unimaginable means to put their anguish to rest. And the number of farmer suicides has only continued to rise: In 2015, it was estimated that 300,000 farmers had taken their own lives in just the last 20 years.
In addition to all of this, the farming practices associated with GM crops and the chemicals that go along with them are destroying our environment and arable land at an unprecedented pace. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are not just contaminating our soil but our air and water supplies as well as killing off wildlife in every arena.
To say Monsanto is evil is putting it mildly: This corporation, and others like them, are not just influencing our government, but destroying our planet and our food supply as we know it. (RELATED: Keep up with the latest Monsanto news at MonsantoMafia.com)
Sources:
ANH-USA.org
NaturalNews.com
NaturalNews.com
DailyMail.co.uk
AlJazeera.com
OrganicConsumers.org
(Natural News) If you love your bed and consider sleeping a hobby, then you could be earning some serious cash in the name of science. The French Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology (Medes) in Toulouse has announced a plan to pay 24 individuals 16,000 ($17,066) to stay in bed for two months straight as part of a study on microgravity. The study is led by the Centre National DEtudes Spatiales (CNES) and conducted in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
The French scientists are currently looking for 24 physically active, healthy, non-smoking men, aged between 20 and 45, to take part in the experiment. Furthermore, the men must have a body mass index (BMI) between 22 and 27. Half of them will also be given a cocktail of medicines including anti-inflammatory drugs and antioxidant-rich food supplements that should counter the effects of weightlessness on the body.
Dr. Arnaud Beck, the coordinating physician of the study, told the French newspaper 20 Minutes that the idea of the experiment is to simulate the weightlessness of the International Space Station (ISS). Since launching people into space is too expensive to explore the effects of microgravity on the body, scientists have to come up with other means to test the effects of prolonged periods of weightlessness on the body.
In total, the experiment will take three months. The first two weeks, the volunteers will be tested and examined before they are put to bed for 60 days with their head slightly tilted down six degrees below their feet. According to a CNES press release, this reclined position will simulate the effects of weightlessness by shifting blood towards the upper body, causing similar changes in blood volume, cardiac performance, and vascular resistance as one would experience in space. The 60-day period is then followed by a two-week rehabilitation program to study the effects this horizontal-living had on their bodies.
Harming people in the name of science
If we got you all excited and ready to send in your application, you might want to consider the drawbacks. It can damage your body in several ways, and might not be as easy and fun as it sounds. Think about it. Volunteers must remain in bed, with at least one shoulder touching the bed, and they cannot set foot on the ground. Theyll have to eat, wash, go to the toilet, and exercise without coming out of a lying-down position.
Bed rest studies are actually nothing new. Many people have been bound for extended times to a bed in space project experiments. Drew Iwanicki is one of them. In 2014, NASA paid him $18,000 to lie down in bed for 70 days to learn more about how bone and muscle might deteriorate in space. Vice ran a story on Drew Iwanicki during and after the three months in bed.
From the second Drew put his head on the pillow, he was fighting the minus six-degree angle and gravitational pull. He was often in pain (headaches, back, neck, and spine pain) and his digestion was not working properly. Apart from being bored and ready to throw in the towel, he struggled with anxiety episodes and was constantly on the brink of a mental breakdown.
Just before he entered the hospital, Drew had just finished his first Ironman race and was in top form. Not much of that immense strength remained just after the experiment. If the 70 days werent already a violent attack on Drews body, when he was finally allowed to stand up he almost immediately collapsed and had to go back to a horizontal position for another day. Would you put your body through all this stress in the name of science?
Stay informed about more space science at Space.news.
Sources:
IFLScience.com
TheGuardian.com
20Minutes.fr
Presse.CNES.frPDF
Vice.com
Vice.com
Donkeys are not the only species threatened by China's growing demand for medicinal ingredient.
According to an investigation recently carried out by The Donkey Sanctuary, the illegal donkey trade, which has led to the slaughter of millions of donkeys in Africa, is also threatening the survival of locals.
READ: Is Donkey Skin the New Ivory? African Donkeys are Being Slaughtered to Extinction
As mentioned by the investigative report, people in South Africa have been complaining about their donkeys being stolen. For years, donkeys have been the hottest commodity in Africa. These docile beasts are used for farming, transport, food and warfare.
Speaking with AFP, Ikgopeleng Tsietsoane, a 25-year-old donkey owner, said, "Jobs are scarce here, and donkeys are our source of income, if you own donkeys you can work for yourself."
"The theft is taking away our livelihood. If nothing is done, this village will soon have no donkeys left," he lamented, mentioning that in October last year, six of his donkeys were stolen and the thieves were never found.
Why are donkeys being stolen from the villagers?
Donkey's skin and hooves contain gelatin that is used to create a Chinese medicine to treat anemia and menopause-linked ailments. Chinese refer to it as "ejiao." Because China does not have enough donkeys to supply the demand of the medicine patronizers, they resort to exporting them from countries that are rich in donkeys.
High demand means higher prices
Demand for donkey is pushing up prices, which could have a shattering impact on the people who depend on them.
The Guardian reported that in Niger, the price of donkeys has risen from $34 to $147. Obviously, the locals do not have the cash to purchase the donkeys at this kind of price, leaving them without jobs and fearing for their lives.
China produces 5,000 tons of ejiao each year, requiring some 4 million hides. The number excludes the people who obtain donkey hides illegally.
Daily maverick notes that Burkina Faso, Niger and Ougadougou have already banned exporting donkeys. However, other countries in Africa have legalized donkey trade despite its implications.
Ethiopia, with the continent's largest donkey population of 7.4 million, has built two large-scale, Chinese-owned slaughterhouses. While last year, a $3 million donkey abattoir in Baringo county, northwest of Nairobi, has been approved by officials, Quartz reported.
A study conducted by researchers from the University of Iowa and the U.S. Geological Survey has found traces of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, for the first time, in US' drinking water.
According to the report, three kinds of the neonicotinoids-containing insecticide -- clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam -- were found despite purifying and treating the water.
United Press International notes that neonicotinoid contamination has previously been traced in rivers and streams. However, this is the first time it has been traced in drinking water.
Samples of water drawn from three of Iowa's major water source show it has maximal concentrations of 260, 43, and 190 ng/L for clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, respectively. The samples were garthered from May to June 2016, following the maize/soy plantation season.
"These are very low levels, these are nanograms per liter which means parts per trillion, a very low concentration," Gregory LeFevre, one of the authors from the University of Iowa, told BBC.
"But at the same time there are concerns about what those low levels might do from an exposure standpoint," he added.
Neonicotinoids persist in the environment, as such, it is likely to end up as runoff chemicals from agricultural fields that use them.
In the market, neonicotinoids is branded as one of the newest and safest insecticides to use. As such, they are the most used pesticide in America. According to Washington Post, imidacloprid is among the world's best-selling insecticides, boasting sales of over $1 billion a year.
However, it was found by other studies recently that it actually causes harm even on other organisms. Beyond Pesticides said exposure to imidacloprid at environmentally relevant levels decreases not just bug population, but mosquitos, bees and beetles as well. In turn, this hurts the population of bigger animals that feed on them, such as birds.
At present, the Environmental Protection Agency has not yet defined safe levels of neonicotinoids in drinking water because as mentioned, it is a newcomer in the market. They are currently working on numerous studies to set safety guidelines.
A man ended up paying more than a hundred dollars for letting his pet roam "freely" at a park.
According to reports, Jerry Kimball of North Dakota was reportedly approached by the officer after a woman complained that his snake, a Fire Bee Ball Python, was wandering at Falls Park in Sioux Falls.
"It was April Fool's Day, so I thought he was playing a joke," Kimball who was fined $190 ticket for "animals running at large" told Argus Leader.
"They're not fast creatures. They're not going to run away," he added.
Ball pythons, "known as royal python," are native to central and western Africa and thrive in warm, tropical areas. Female ball pythons, three to five feet long, are generally longer than the male ball pythons, which grow from two to three feet long. They are nonvenomous and is one of the most famous pet snakes for reptile enthusiasts.
For the side of the authorities, Animal Control Supervisor Julie DeJong told that the ordinance applies to all pets in public.
"If it's in public and it's not on a leash, it's at large. The ordinance doesn't really distinguish between animals," she said.
DeJong also added that not all people are comfortable with snakes and people who own a snake must consider this.
In response, Kimball said his purpose as a snake owner is to let people know that snakes are just like any other animals and that people should not be scared of them.
"That's my purpose in life: To let people know that snakes aren't killers. What better way to give back than to help people understand these misunderstood creatures," said Kimball who came to this realization after he was bit by a venomous cottonmouth snakebite when he was a child, Daily Mail notes.
Ball python breeding has been popular over the years. Some snakes with rare and distinctive pattern, which breeders attain through longtime breeding, are valued at more than $4,000. Recently, Justin Kobylka managed to breed a lavender albino piebald ball python with emoji prints on its skin.
Most living species attack -- for food, for survival -- but they usually do so out of instinct. There's one tree in the world that doesn't seem to play by the usual rules: Pisonia grandis. This genus of tree kills birds regularly with no clear reason whatsoever.
According to a report from the Washington Post, Pisonia trees -- also known as "birdcatcher trees" -- are found in Hawaii and New Zealand as well as in India. It's not quite as in-your-face deadly as other killer plants, but the growing pile of dead birds at its feet speaks volumes about its lethality.
The Pisonia produce sticky seeds that can trap insects. When birds land on the branches of the tree while hunting for insects, these seeds can land on them. Too much of the seedpods and the creatures are too weighed down to fly.
Not only are they stuck on the ground or the branches -- virtually sitting ducks for predators -- but even left untouched by other animals, they starve to death. Other predators like owls and various birds who come close to feed on the dead birds have also been known to get stuck and killed after getting pelted with the seedpods as well.
The strange thing about this is that there's no good reason for this regular massacre. Back in 1999, University of Victoria ecologist Alan Burger tried to find out the benefit the trees gain from killing the birds with their seeds, but came up quite empty.
"The results from my experiments showed quite convincingly that the Pisonia derived no obvious benefit from fatally entangling birds," Burger explained of his travels to Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Seeds didn't grow any faster or better with proximity to dead birds, and nutrients from the dead birds are minimal compared to the ones the trees get from all the living birds.
One potential reason for the Pisonia tree's behavior is that the birds are meant to act as carriers for the seeds to reach other islands. Dead birds making their way to bodies of water to get to other islands don't work as the seeds die within five days of being submerged in the water. However, Burger discovered that the seeds survive when they are dunked occasionally over four weeks.
"Having the birds alive seems to be the key to dispersal, but an unfortunate consequence of having extremely sticky seeds, and producing many seeds in a cluster, is that some birds get fatally entangled," Burger said, suggesting that the deaths of the birds are merely an unfortunate side effect rather than the point of Pisonia's actions.
Burger's research on the trees was published on Journal of Tropical Energy.
NASA is moving forward with its deep space exploration programs. Europa Clipper is on the move, but a new crewed mission is being planned; one that will send astronauts to planet Venus.
Not only will the mission pave the way to a more successful manned mission to Mars, it will also result in a better understanding of Venus. The manned mission to Venus serves as a training ground for the actual Journey to Mars.
Aside from that, the successful manned orbit in Venus will measure and test the capabilities of NASA's most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS, along with the Orion capsule, are both being developed to successfully send humans to Mars.
NASA is reportedly talking to the Space Research Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences in order to create a joint exploration to Venus. The exploration aims to explore the "Earth's evil twin", according to a report.
The mission will not only focus on Venus' orbit. According to a study by NASA's Langley Research Center, the crewed 440-day Venus mission could be more interesting with the deployment of an inflatable habitat. With the habitat, the crew will be able to spend at least 30 days in the planet's atmosphere.
"Launch opportunities for a direct to Venus mission versus a direct-to-Mars mission are more, with Venus mission windows occurring approximately every 1.5 years and Mars mission windows every two years," Jeff Matthews, director of Venture Strategy & Research at The Space Frontier Foundation, said in an interview.
Scientists also revealed that many other options are being considered to prepare for the Journey to Mars, including a Venus flyby. This only means that sending humans to Venus' orbit is an exceptional move to guarantee a successful mission to Mars.
Being a pitstop or training ground, Venus is also an interesting planet to explore. The understanding of the planet's environment is also vital to science.
Experts say that Venus is strategically located at the inner side of the Solar System's habitable zone. Its surface pressure is 92 times stronger compared to Earth.
The International Space Station's (ISS) former Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough returned to Earth today, April 10. This homecoming left the space station under the command of NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson.
Three crewmembers left the ISS after spending 173 days in space. Their capsule landed in Kazakhstan at 7:20 a.m. Kimbrough traveled back to Earth with Roscosmos astronauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko. The three astronauts were joined by tons of experiments on their trip back home.
One of their most popular experiments is the microgravity expanded stem cell investigation, which observed cell growth in microgravity. This is vital because it might eventually lead to treatment for space diseases and injuries, which are important for longer deep space flights such as the journey to Mars.
Commander Shane Kimbrough spent 189 days in space, while Borisenko clocked in 337 days and Ryzhikov with 173 days.
With Kimbrough back home, the leadership was transferred to female astronaut Peggy Whitson. Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA) support Whitson while waiting for two more crewmembers to arrive at the ISS.
NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch for the ISS this coming April 20. With Whitson manning the space station, she broke another world record being the first female astronaut to lead the ISS twice, according to a report.
"Moments ago @AstroPeggy broke yet another record when she became the first woman to command the space station twice!," a NASA official said in a Tweet.
The remarkable Peggy Whitson has other records under her belt. She is expected to break the record for the longest cumulative days spent in space -- a total of 534 days. A record currently held by a male counterpart, Jeff Williams. Whitson is expected to break the record on April 24.
NASA and Roscosmos agreed to extend Whitson's duty aboard the ISS. The female astronaut will remain in space until September.
Fresh Express recalled some of its prepackaged salad mix after a dead bat was found inside a container sold in a Florida Wal-mart, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two people said they found a dead bat in their purchased package, and that they had eaten some of the salad before discovering the animal, according to a CDC statement.
The center added that the bat was sent to its lab to be tested for rabies, but the animal's deteriorated condition did not allow for a conclusive test.
Wal-Mart removed the product from its store shelves.
The company on Saturday announced a recall of a limited quantity of its 5-ounce Organic Marketside Spring Mix packages. The salads were sold in a clear container with production code G089B19 and best-if-used-by date of April 14, 2017. The announcement said the recalled packages were only distributed to Wal-mart stores located in the Southeastern region of the United States.
As a precaution, the pair who ate the salad were recommended to undergo rabies treatment. However, the CDC said transmission of the disease by eating a rabid animal is "extremely uncommon."
"Both people report being in good health and neither has any signs of rabies," the CDC said in the statement.
Consumers who ate salad from recalled packages without animal matter are not at risk, the CDC added.
Still, Fresh Express advised anyone who has purchased the recalled product to throw it out and not eat it. Those who have questions or wish to receive a full refund for their purchase can call the Fresh Express Consumer Response Center 1-800-242-5472 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
The CDC said it is working with the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to support an investigation of the incident.
Authorities said five North Texas men were arrested for soliciting a minor during a sting operation.
The Texas Attorney General's Child Exploitation Unit conducted a joint operation with several law enforcement agencies last week that resulted in the arrests of Drew Patrick McDonald, James Gilbert Hayes, Scott Fitzgerald Marestein, Casey Tito Rodriguez and Patrick Shawn Powell.
During the operation, CEU investigators posed as children online. Authorities said the five men were arrested after soliciting agents they thought were teen girls.
The Johnson County Sheriff's Office and STOP Task Force, along with Cleburne, Burleson and Keene police assisted the CEU in the operation.
Online: Texas Attorney General on Cyber Safety
Tens of thousands of people are expected to march in Downtown Dallas on Sunday for immigration reform and racial equality.
But on the eve of the Dallas Mega March, a local leader says hes reminded of why its needed.
Dallas ISD board member Miguel Solis took to social media Saturday evening to share photographs of signs posted at a Dallas school lashing out at undocumented people.
Solis tells NBC 5 the hate-filled messages were found outside of Foster Elementary School.
Meanwhile, the final preparations were underway and included organizers and their children making signs to carry throughout the march.
For Leilani Monjaraz, its hard to find the words to help people understand.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, she wrote on a poster board.
She says her undocumented step-father was deported back to Mexico after a traffic stop.
I feel like after that is when my family started to fall apart, said Monjaraz.
The 14-year-old and her family will unite with tens of thousands with one thing in mind: family, unity and empowerment.
Organizers say its hard to tell if Sundays Mega March will match or exceed the sea of 100,000-plus people at the citys previous march in 2006.
Its hectic and very challenging for someone my age but there is a certain level of grace that I see with all of these people from all walks of life working together, said Reverend Peter Johnson.
Piece by piece, a stage was assembled outside of Dallas City Hall Plaza.
A rally will be held following the mile-long march that begins at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral of Guadalupe.
Several lawmakers are expected to speak, including Congressman Joaquin Castro of San Antonio.
Martin Luther King the Third will take the stage as well.
Security measures have already been taken in the area.
Organizers expect some counter-protesters.
In the civil rights movement we called them provocateurs but this will be a well-managed and well organized march so we expect them but we will pray for them, said Johnson.
Everybody has a right and peacefully again, the word is peacefully, said organizer Zulikha Hussain.
The march starts at 2 p.m at the Cathedral of Guadalupe at Ross Avenue and Pearl Street. People will march down Ross and southbound on North Griffin to Eastbound Young Street, ending at city hall plaza.
Politicians from throughout the State of Texas were in Dallas for the Mega March on Sunday April 9, 2017.
One of them was Rep. Beto ORourke, D-El Paso. ORourke has announced that he will run against Texas Senator Ted Cruz. ORourke talked about immigration and his home district of El Paso.
When people tell you we need to secure the border, I want you to tell them about El Paso, Texas the safest city in the United States, whose safety and security and that of Texas depends on treating every single one of us with dignity and respect, said Representative ORourke.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, also spoke at Dallas City Hall. He tells political reporter Julie Fine he will decide by the end of the month whether to make a run for Senate. He too talked about immigration.
In every generation, there have been politicians who have tried to divide Americans, and turn them against each other, who have tried to turn the people against immigrants, the newest comers. But in every generation, there have been God saving people like yourself, said Rep. Castro.
While they could face each other in the primary, the two were very friendly at the rally. They shook hands, and Fort Worth Representative Marc Veasey called them up after they spoke. He told the crowd to send more people like them to Washington, DC.
The monkey is off their back.
Corey Seager hit a two-run homer and the Los Angeles Dodgers finally vanquished a left-handed starter, beating the Rockies, 10-6, to avoid the sweep in Colorado.
Through a blistering wind, like a leviathan, the Dodgers dodged trash and other debris on the field to score seven runs with two outs in order to beat the Rockies at Coors Field for the first time this year.
It was the 98th time the Dodgers have defeated the Rockies at Coors Field, more than any other visiting team in Rockies franchise history.
Seager was 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored, Justin Turner had two RBI and second baseman Logan Forsythe was 3-for-5 with two runs scored.
Kenta Maeda (1-1) pitched five shaky innings and allowed four runs, including a two-run homer to Charlie Blackmon, before turning it over to the bullpen.
The Dodgers' relievers shut down the Rockies until the ninth, when Kenley Jansen gave up two runs before closing it out.
Tyler Anderson (1-1) took the loss for the Rockies, who had their three-game winning streak stopped. The lefty allowed five runs in five innings.
Up Next:
The Dodgers go from a mighty wind, to the windy city, where they will take on the World Series Champion, Chicago Cubs on Monday at 5:10PM PST. Alex Wood will pitch opposite Jon Lester.
The body of a stranded white shark that washed ashore in Santa Cruz Friday afternoon was pulled from the water on Saturday.
The 10-foot, adult male shark likely succumbed to a rare bacteria carnobacteroum infection before teams from the Marine Mammal Center and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife eventually plucked the carcass from the water after several failed attempts, according to marine biologist Giancarlo Thomae.
Beachgoers in Santa Cruz near the Capitola Wharf got quite a shock Friday when they spotted the struggling marine animal at Pleasure Point Beach around 4 p.m.
Awestruck bystanders said something seemed to be wrong with the shark. Some waded into the water in an attempt to push the predator back out to sea, but they weren't able to do so.
Researchers with the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation also made an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the shark. They said it appeared that the young adult male shark was likely sick, because it was unable to steer itself.
"We were able to get the shark uprighted and in the water, but it just turned around," said Sean Van Sommeran with the Foundation. "It was aimless."
Although high surf pushed the shark out to sea twice, storm-like conditions kept pushing it back to shore. Video from the scene showed a shark with seemingly bloodied fins being tossed around like a rag doll by the strong current.
Researchers say it's the first beached white shark seen in the Monterey Bay in three years, and the first adult male shark seen in decades.
"Ive been here 50 years, and that's the first time I've seen something like that," said Gary Buthman, who captured footage of the scene.
Volunteers from the Marine Mammal Center as well as wardens, rangers, firefighters and California Highway Patrol officers responded to the scene, according to the Pelagic Shark Foundation.
Once darkness set on Friday, the shark was no longer visible, and researchers had no idea where it was until it popped up in the water south of Santa Cruz near Capitola on Saturday.
The exact cause of death will not be clear until a formal necropsy is completed.
A memorial continued to grow outside a popular gym in Coral Gables Monday morning where two employees were shot and killed by a former worker over the weekend.
Late Monday, the first responders who rushed into that gym minutes after the shooting were honored by the University of Miami at the Cane's baseball game.
The Equinox Gym at the Shops at Merrick Park reopened two days later with modified hours following the Saturday afternoon shooting that claimed the lives of 35-year-old Janine Ackerman and 42-year-old Marios Hortis.
People who knew the gunman, 33-year-old Abeku Wilson, are shocked that he was capable of such a horrendous act.
"He was always a very calm person the times that I've met him here," Alex Odio told NBC 6, "He seemed like a mild-mannered, gentle person, likeable and friendly with everybody. So, it's something that obviously pushed him over the edge."
Miami-Dade Police said the gunman had been a trainer at the gym but was fired earlier in the day "due to work place violence."
Wilson returned with a handgun and shot Ackerman, the gym's general manager, multiple times, police said. He then shot Hortis, another gym employee, before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Ackerman and Hortis were airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, where they later died. Wilson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Following fatal @Equinox shooting #CoralGables gym will open today with modified hours. Attached is message emailed to members. More @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/0viqJK5xD0 Melissa Adan (@MelissaNBC6) April 10, 2017
Wilson had recently divorced his wife of three years in January.
On Sunday night, a vigil of more than 100 people mourned the lives lost in the sudden violence.
"I think it's just such a tragic, horrible, unnecessary situation that affected some really nice people," said gym member Julie Neitzel. "There were a lot of people hugging, all of us, whether we're members or people who work there, we hugged one another and I think we will hug our way through this and try to move forward."
On Thursday, the Baptist Health Gables Run Club plans to dedicate its run to the victims.
"I think a lot of people liked Abeku whether they trained with him or not, Janine was a very sweet, kind, young woman," Neitzel said.
Equinox executive chairman Harvey Spevak released a statement Sunday saying the tragedy "has impacted everyone in the Equinox family. Our team members, Janine Ackerman, Coral Gables General Manager, and Marios Hortis, our Coral Gables Fitness Manager, were beautiful souls lost way too soon. We send our love and condolences to their families and friends. We also wish to thank the entire Equinox community for its outpouring of support and kindness in the wake of this senseless tragedy."
The gunman who opened fire at a Equinox gym was a popular trainer at the fitness center who had just been fired, Miami-Dade Police Department said Sunday.
MDPD issued a statement identifying the shooter as 33-year-old Abeku Wilson of Miami, who was fired from the gym earlier in the day ``due to work place violence and was escorted off the premises.''
Wilson then returned to the fitness center later armed with a gun.
The shooting happened about 1 p.m. Saturday at the upscale mall the Shops at Merrick Park.
The shooting left 35-year-old general manager Janine Ackerman of Miami dead and 42-year-old fitness manager Marios Hortis of Miami Beach with critical wounds. Police said both victims were deliberately targeted and that the shooting was not random.
A Cook County judge was killed early Monday in what Chicago police called "another senseless" shooting on the city's South Side.
Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles, 66, was fatally shot just before 5 a.m. outside his home in the 9400 block of South Forest, police said.
Police said a 52-year-old woman walked out of her house and encountered the gunman. Words were exchanged, and the suspect shot her in the leg. Myles heard arguing and the gunshot and came to the aid of the woman, a friend the judge worked out with daily, according to police.
Myles "exchanged words with the offender," Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples said, and he was shot multiple times.
Police said the shooting could be the result of a potential robbery, though it does not appear any property was stolen. Police do not believe the woman knew the gunman. She is expected to survive.
"It's a direct attack on the criminal justice system that keeps our society safe," First Deputy Superintendent of Police Kevin Navarro said. "You have our word that we will not let Judge Myles' life be lost in vain, and we will hold his killer accountable."
Navarro - who called the judge's killing "another senseless act of violence" - said Supt. Eddie Johnson ordered the department to use every resource to track down the offender.
The FBI has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to Myles' killer.
I join all of the judges today in the Circuit Court of Cook County in expressing our sadness regarding the tragic passing of our colleague and friend, Associate Judge Raymond Myles," Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans said. "I offer my deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues in the Criminal Division.
Staples said the department is "actively pursuing multiple promising leads" and reviewing footage from nearby private video cameras.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Area South detectives.
What to Know Rex Tillerson says the missile strikes against a Syrian air base after a chemical weapon attack carries a message to other nations
A potent immune system protein could be used to cure Marburg virus, a cousin to Ebola that is much deadlier, according to researchers
Family, friends and fans paid their final respects to the rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry, celebrating his life and career
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Stockholm Suspect Was Failed Asylum-Seeker; 2nd Man Arrested, Officials Say
Swedes questioned their country's welcoming immigration policies with pride and pain after learning that an asylum-seeker from Uzbekistan was allegedly behind the truck rampage that killed four people, Stockholm's deadliest extremist attack in years. The Swedish capital was slowly, but resolutely, regaining its normal rhythm as details about the 39-year-old suspect in the attack emerged. Police said he had been ordered to leave Sweden in December because his request for a residence permit was rejected six months earlier. Instead, he allegedly went underground, eluding authorities' attempts to track down and deport him until a hijacked beer truck raced down a pedestrian street and rammed into an upscale department store. The suspect, who has been detained on suspicion of terrorist offenses, was known for having "been sympathetic to extremist organizations, police said. A second person was arrested on the same potential charge, and four others were being held by police. None of them have been identified.
G-7 Ministers Aiming to Press Russia to End Assad Support
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering for a meeting given urgency by the chemical attack in Syria and the U.S. military response, with participants aiming to pressure Russia to end its support for President Bashar Assad. Last week's nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred President Trump to strike for the first time at Assad's forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched. Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who is hosting the meeting, said Europe's broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a "renewed harmony" between the United States and its partners ahead of the first meeting of G-7 foreign ministers since Donald Trump took office in January. Officials are hoping that this can be leveraged to bring a new diplomatic push to end the 6-year-old civil war in Syria.
Gorsuch Taking Supreme Court Seat After Divisive Confirmation
With a divisive confirmation process behind him, Judge Neil Gorsuch is about to take his place as the newest Supreme Court justice. The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado is to be sworn in after a bruising fight that saw Republicans change the rules for approving Supreme Court picks over the fierce objection of Democrats. First up is a private ceremony in the high court's Justices' Conference Room, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering the oath prescribed by the Constitution. That will be followed by a public ceremony at the White House, where Justice Anthony Kennedy is to administer the oath. Gorsuch, who once clerked for Kennedy, will be the first member of the court to serve alongside his former boss. He replaces the late Justice Antonin Scalia, part of the court's conservative wing for nearly three decades before he died unexpectedly in 2016.
Missile Strikes Carry a Message for Others, Tillerson Says
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack carries a message for any nation operating outside of international norms. He didn't specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough. There was little doubt the missile strikes would be seen in Pyongyang as a message. The North has long claimed the U.S. is preparing some kind of assault against it and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature. U.S. Navy ships are a common presence in the Korean Peninsula region and serve in part as a show of force. The Pentagon said a Navy carrier strike group was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean to provide more of a physical presence in the region.
Tourist's Blood Leads to Potential Treatment for Deadly Ebola Cousin, Researchers Say
A woman came back from a trip to the Uganda jungle with Marburg virus, a cousin of Ebola that's even deadlier, NBC News reported. Now, her blood has a provided a potential cure for the infection. Researchers at Vanderbilt University and Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. isolated an especially potent immune system protein called a monoclonal antibody from the woman and have used it to cure monkeys infected not only with Marburg virus, but with a related virus called Ravn. They are working to find ways to mass-produce the antibody and test it in people. The hope is to have supplies ready in case of outbreaks of viruses like Marburg and Ebola, which killed more than 11,000 people and sickened 28,000 in a 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.
Fans Say Farewell to Rock 'N' Roll Legend Chuck Berry
Family, friends and fans paid their final respects to the rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry, celebrating the life and career of a man who inspired countless guitarists and bands. The celebration began with a public viewing at The Pageant, a music club in Berry's hometown of St. Louis where he often played. Hundreds of fans filed past Berry, whose beloved cherry-red Gibson guitar was bolted to the inside of his coffin's lid. After the public viewing, family and friends packed the club for a private funeral service and celebration of Berry, who inspired generations of musicians, from humble garage bands up to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss wasn't scheduled to speak but someone urged him to take the podium. Simmons said Berry had a tremendous influence on him as a musician, and he worked to break down racial barriers through his music.
'Fate of the Furious' Cast Say Johnson, Diesel Feud Overblown
"The Fast and the Furious" franchise has seen its share of drama outside of the films, but rumored infighting between the series' biggest stars, Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, is uncharted territory for the long-running series. The riff was put into the spotlight last year when Johnson, while shooting "The Fate of the Furious," took to Instagram to both express appreciation for his female co-stars and embarrass some of his male counterparts for unprofessional behavior, calling them "candy asses." It's alleged he was referring to Diesel. But at the film's world premiere in New York, many attributed the situation between the two stars as nothing more than "business as usual" on a film set. Johnson and Diesel were not seen together during promotional appearances, nor did they pose together on the red carpet. Johnson walked the carpet at the beginning of the premiere, while Diesel arrived later.
U.S. President Donald Trump is greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort Thursday for a two-day summit at which the U.S. leader hopes to pressure Beijing into doing more to rein in North Korea's nuclear weapons development.
In remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said the roughly $310 billion U.S. trade deficit with China is high on the agenda.
"We have been treated unfairly and have made terrible trade deals with China for many, many years. So that's one of the things were gonna be talking about." But he also appeared to link that issue with U.S. concerns over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
"The other thing, of course, is going to be North Korea and somehow they will mix. They really do mix. So we're going to be talking about trade, North Korea and many other things," he said.
He did not elaborate.
Earlier this week Trump warned, "If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will." His administration is considering sanctions against Chinese banks and companies that give Pyongyang access to international financing.
China supplies North Korea with almost all its fuel oil, imported foods, consumer goods, and the raw materials used to construct its weapons program.
But China has also grown weary of the militaristic aspirations of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who has yet to visit Beijing during his six-year rule. A series of UN sanctions against North Korea have not deterred it from a string of missile tests, the latest this week.
Trump and Xi, who oversee the world's two largest economies, are meeting for the first time and are set for a day of talks on Friday after having dinner Thursday with their wives at Trump's Mar-a-lago estate.
What to Know John Cramsey, Dean Smith and Kimberly Arendt were stopped at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel in June
Cramsey said he was on the way to help a 16-year-old girl whose friend overdosed on drugs, but forgot he had weapons in his truck, he said
Cramsey, the leader of the group, has called the presence of the guns in the car an 'oversight'
A Pennsylvania man arrested at the Holland Tunnel last year with a stunning cache of weapons while on a trip he said was to rescue a teen from a drug den in New York has rejected a plea deal that would have required him to spend five years in prison with a chance for earlier parole.
John Cramsey, whose daughter died of a heroin overdose several months before he and two others were busted while on an alleged mission June 21 to save the 16-year-old girl in Brooklyn, is headed to trial after his attorneys canned the five-year plea deal prosecutors offered Monday. Under the deal, Cramsey would have been eligible for parole after 42 months.
"That's an offer that could have been made on Day 1. It wasn't made," attorney James Lisa said outside court after the hearing. Lisa said the offer should have included parole eligibility after one year, which would have meant some of the time had already been served. Cramsey remains out on bail.
"That is a standard offer to individuals who are caught with guns and have no prior record," Lisa said. "Sounds like Mr. Cramsey is going to have a date with 12 of his peers. We're going to trial."
It wasn't clear when the trial would begin.
The development comes after failed attempts by Cramsey's lawyers to have him enter a pretrial intervention program to avoid jail time. One of the attorneys had also discussed appealing to New Jersey Gov. Christie, known for a strong stance on the drug abuse crisis, for a pardon.
Cramsey, along Pennsylvania residents Dean Smith and Kimberly Arendt were stopped at the entrance of the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City in June with a truck that had gun-rights decals on it. Police say the vehicle had a cracked windshield.
Police found a weapons cache inside the truck, which was emblazoned with a photo of the U.S. Constitution and second amendment. The guns seized included a military-style rifle and a shotgun as well as handguns. A camouflage helmet with what appeared to be night goggles was also recovered. The Port Authority and other law enforcement officials said at the time that the three were gun enthusiasts who had no link terrorism.
They were arrested and named in a 63-count indictment charging them with various weapons offenses, including unlawful possession of a shotgun and handgun, possession of high capacity magazines and transportation of an assault rifle. All have pleaded not guilty; their lawyers had sought to suppress evidence stemming from the weapons search, which they said was illegal.
Cramsey insisted the group was on a mission to Brooklyn to "rescue" a 16-year-old girl from a hotel room there after an issue involving drugs. He previously said he had forgotten he had the weapons in his truck when he set out to try to help the teenager.
Cramsey's 20-year-old daughter died from a heroin overdose about four months prior to the stop and he had since attended town hall meetings around the Allentown area to voice his concerns over the drug epidemic, The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported.
"This is a plague and we are losing our brightest and most brilliant minds," Cramsey told the newspaper shortly after his daughter was found dead of an overdose with another man inside an Allentown home.
Lisa said Monday that Cramsey has spent the months since his arrest continuing to try to help people with drug problems.
"What he's doing is what he does best -- he's going out and saving individuals who are addicted to heroin," Lisa said. "He's hell bent on doing what he can to make sure others don't suffer the same fate."
Hearings for Smith and Arendt that had been scheduled for Monday were postponed.
A man who went to investigate a fire in the basement of his New Jersey home became trapped and died, police said Sunday.
A dog who went back into the house on Riverlawn Drive in Wayne also died, police said. His wife and another dog escaped safely.
Authorities didn't release the identity of the man, who was in his 70s. His body was found in the rear of the basement, police said.
Photos showed the much of the white, two-story house blackened and destroyed by the fire. When police arrived, they found the house engulfed in flames, police said.
A motorhome, a Toyota Prius and a motorcycle that were all parked in the driveway were also damaged in the fire, police said.
New York will be the first state to make tuition at public colleges and universities free for middle-class students under a state budget approved by lawmakers Sunday.
The plan crafted by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo will apply to any New York student whose family has an annual income of $125,000 or less. To qualify the student would have to meet certain class load and grade point average restrictions, and room and board would not be covered.
"College is today what high school was 50 years ago," Cuomo said on a radio interview Sunday on AM 970 in New York City. "If you're a young person who wants success and a career, a college education is necessary."
The initiative is included in a $153 billion state budget proposal that passed the state Senate late Sunday after being endorsed by the Assembly a day earlier. The budget was due by April 1, but difficult negotiations delayed passage.
The tuition plan will be phased in over three years, with families making $100,000 or less annually eligible in the fall of 2017, with the threshold rising to $125,000 in 2019. Cuomo's office says some 940,000 families will qualify. The initiative also includes $19 million for a new tuition award program for students at private colleges.
The governor's office estimates that the program will cost the state $163 million.
The budget approved Sunday also includes provisions allowing the ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft to expand upstate and a juvenile justice reform known as 'raise the age' that would raise the age of adult criminal responsibility from 16 to 18.
Additionally, the spending plan increases funding for schools by $1.1 billion, holds the line on taxes, sets aside $200 million to fight heroin and opioid addiction and invests $2.5 billion for water quality and upgrades to the state's aging water and sewer systems.
"That's a really, really good thing for the people of the state of New York and we got it done," said Senate Leader John Flanagan, R-Long Island.
Raise the age emerged as a top priority for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and other Democrats and was one of the greatest sticking points for a budget. The agreement would raise the age slowly, to 17 in October 2018 and to 18 a year later, and would create new youth courts for felony offenses.
Under the deal, young offenders would no longer be incarcerated in adult prisons and jails but would go to juvenile facilities where they could receive additional rehabilitation and treatment. Non-violent offenders could apply to have their criminal records sealed after a 10-year waiting period.
Bronx Democratic Sen. Jamaal Bailey shot down opponents who have said the proposal gives teenagers a free pass and reiterated that it will instead allow youth who have made mistakes a chance at rehabilitation.
"Ever been to a high school cafeteria? You're going to tell me that those are adults? That their brain development is the same as ours? No," Bailey said.
Advocates say the measure will combat rampant recidivism in the youth criminal justice system because young people prosecuted as adults are 34 percent more likely to be re-arrested, often for crimes that are more serious than the initial offense.
"This legislation will improve the lives of our youth, our families and our communities. It is also the best way to maintain public safety in New York," said Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy policy director Dorothy Hill in a statement.
Similar reforms have been proposed in North Carolina, the only other state with such a young age of criminal responsibility.
After years of failed attempts, Uber and Lyft finally would be able to move into upstate cities such as Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Albany. The ride-hailing apps have been limited to the New York City area but are expected to begin service upstate 90 days after the budget is approved.
The expansion is a victory for many upstate leaders who said it was an embarrassment that the region was among the largest in the country without Uber and Lyft.
"I am elated," said Republican Sen. Chris Jacobs of Buffalo.
Tighter campaign finance laws, term limits for lawmakers and new rules restricting outside income were left out of the budget again this year. Following widespread complaints from last year's elections, Cuomo proposed changes, including early voting and automatic registration, but those weren't included in the final agreement either.
Authorities have released more details on the shooting of a Philadelphia man who died after encounters with police in Pennsylvania and in Delaware.
New Castle County, Delaware, police said Monday that officers went to an apartment March 29 to check on a person who reportedly had fled in a stolen car after being injured in an officer-involved shooting with Philadelphia police earlier that day.
Police say 28-year-old Leroy Brown jumped from a third-floor window and ran to the stolen car, accelerated in reverse and pinned a pursuing officer between the front passenger door and body of the vehicle. The car then struck a police cruiser, ejecting the officer.
Police say Brown drove forward, striking another car, then reversed again and drove toward the officer, who fired a handgun, striking Brown.
The American warships that launched missiles into Syria last week were sailing in waters that a top military official said haven't seen such high levels of Russian naval activity since the Cold War, NBC News reported.
Navy Admiral Michelle Howard said seas around Europe, like the Mediterranean Sea where the U.S. launched 59 Tomahawk missiles, are seeing a spike in Russian presence.
"We're now seeing activity that we didn't even see when it was the Soviet Union," Howard told Reuters.
The increased naval activity coincides with the deterioration of the relationship between Russia and the United States. Russia's navy is smaller than it was during the Soviet era, but they have increased patrols in the north Atlantic and Arctic regions.
The Trump administrations missile strikes on Syria last week in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack by President Bashar Al-Assad on his own people have left the world wondering how Syrias government will react and what this means for future U.S. engagement in the region.
On ABCs This Week Sunday morning, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the attack carries a message to any nation that may become a threat to others or violate international agreements.
San Diego State Universitys School of Public Affairs professor Ric Epps agrees partially with that statement.
My initial thought is that this is a statement on some level that needed to be made, he tells NBC 7. However, the process on how he [President Trump] made it is what Im concerned about. Typically during this time when the presidents ratings are low and his ratings were very low, when they commit a military action or something like this, ratings tend to go up significantly. And Trump needed a win.
Epps says hes concerned by the fact that Trump called for the missile strikes without checking with Congress or the UN Security Council. I understand on some level why he couldnt because Russia is there. On the other hand, having the ability to do this unilaterally, meaning on his own, is a problem. Congress has said so. Theyve said whoa, you dont do this without checking with us.
Epps doesnt believe Trump has a larger strategy when it comes to Syria.
What everyone is saying, he says, and this is all subjective, is that he saw the pictures of babies, and that was a response based on emotions. If those pictures were a catalyst, thats not always a bad thing, but on the other hand, do you really want someone making emotional decisions? Once you start that action, its very hard to undo, particularly if you have collateral damage.
In his first television interview Sunday, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster left open the possibility of further military action in Syria saying the U.S. seeks to oust Assad.
"I think were already in a war," Epps says. But it has traditionally been couched as a War on Terror. But lets be honest, weve left Syria in sort of a vast wasteland of nothingness for the last six years, which has allowed for ISIS and other groups to bear fruit. Part of it is because of Russia, because Russia has the base there and Russia has been the UN Security block for us being able to take action for a long time."
"The problem," he explains, "is if we circumvent Russia, not that we cant, when you look at the long term reality of whats taking place there, and with all the Islamic radicalism in the country, were setting ourselves up for a potential long term engagement. Whether it ends up being a major war or even a proxy war with Russia, pitting groups against each other, thats what Im concerned about. Those wars tend to be even more caustic than the short term real wars when you drop major troops in and do major battles. Political wars can be very messy.
What to Know Pamela Butler was 47 when she vanished from her home in Northwest D.C. in February 2009.
Her ex-boyfriend, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, was arrested Saturday and charged with her murder.
The acting D.C. police chief praised the cold case unit for making the arrest after eight long years.
The man accused of killing his girlfriend, who disappeared eight years ago, is under investigation for the previous disappearance of his ex-wife, sources said.
Jose Rodriguez-Cruz was taken into custody late Friday in Arlington, Virginia. The 51-year-old country club waiter faces a first-degree murder charge in Washington, D.C., in Pamela Butler's death.
His ex-wife, Marta Haydee Rodriguez, disappeared in 1989, but police located a woman by that name who had Rodriguez's identification in Florida in 2000 and closed the missing persons case, sources said. It appears that woman was an imposter and Rodriguez-Cruz's ex-wife is still missing.
She had accused Rodriguez-Cruz of assault and kidnapping inolving a knife and taping her mouth. In court documents, he was quoted as saying, "If I can't have her, no one will." But she disappeared before she got to testify in court.
Butler, an Environmental Protection Agency analyst, was last seen Feb. 12, 2009, outside her home on Fourth Street in northwest D.C. She was 47 when she disappeared.
Her family declared her legally dead in August, after she had been missing for more than seven years. Her brother Derrick Butler said her family wanted to settle her affairs and is accepting that she is gone.
The declaration allowed police to pursue murder charges against Rodriguez-Cruz.
Surveillance cameras at Butler's home captured video of Rodriguez-Cruz entering and exiting in the days following her disappearance.
On Saturday, family members said they always thought Rodriguez-Cruz was tied to Pamela Butler's disappearance.
Rodriguez-Cruz, who dated Butler for about five months, repeatedly denied involvement in her disappearance.
Derrick Butler said when he asked Rodriguez-Cruz if he killed his sister, he spoke about her in the past tense.
'No, I didnt. I loved your sister, Derrick Butler said. Listen to what I said, now. I loved your sister. Past tense.
Acting D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham praised the cold case unit for the arrest.
"It was a fresh set of eyes on this case," Newsham said. "It is our belief this is a domestic violence case, but we can't get into it at this time."
New information from new witnesses led to the charges.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the Butler family's persistence and dedication also helped in the case.
"They have been focused on keeping Pamela's story in everybody's attention," Bowser said.
Rodriguez-Cruz waived extradition from Virginia and is in the custody of the Metropolitan Police Department, Newsham said. He appeared in court Monday and is held without bond.
A drug suspect crashed into several D.C. police cruisers and parked cars Sunday evening and led officers on a 4-mile chase through D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland.
The suspect is still on the loose after he ran from his car and got away.
Three officers were injured. Information on the extent of their injuries was not released immediately.
It all started on Blaine Street NE just before 6 p.m. Sunday. A man who D.C. police described as a drug suspect rammed into an unmarked D.C. police cruiser and several parked cars on the 3900 block of Blaine Street NE, police said.
"What I heard was a loud boom, so when I looked outside the window, I saw an officer jumping the curb, but the car had rolled back in reverse and hit a detective car and took off back down the street," a witness told News4. She asked not to be identified.
Police chased the driver for about 4 miles, to the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Highway and Sheriff Road in Prince George's County. There, the driver hit another two unmarked D.C. police cruisers and several other cars, police said.
Then, he ran from the car. Prince George's County officers chased him, but he was able to escape.
A neighbor said the chase could have hurt people on foot as well as the officers.
"We have a lot of seniors, we have a lot of kids that live on this block, and they could have been hurt," she said.
No description of the suspect was released.
Stay with News4 for more details on this developing story.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is suggesting if President Donald Trump needs to carry out more military strikes on Syria, he will. "He will not stop here," Ambassador Nikki Haley told CNN on Sunday. "If he needs to do more, he will."
But Haley and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave mixed signals on the priority of removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. "There's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime," Haley said. "If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it's going to be hard to see a government that's peaceful and stable with Assad.
"Regime change is something that we think is going to happen," she said.
But Tillerson said defeating Islamic State is still the paramount U.S. goal in Syria. "It's important that we keep our priorities straight," Tillerson told CBS's "Face the Nation." "And we believe that the first priority is the defeat of ISIS," an acronym for the Islamic State group.
"Once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated," Tillerson said, "I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria."
The top U.S. diplomat added, "We're hopeful that we can prevent a continuation of the civil war and that we can bring the parties to the table to begin the process of political discussions" between the Assad government and various rebel groups trying to overthrow the Damascus regime.
A high-ranking Virginia police lieutenant once named officer of the year was arrested Saturday morning following a fight with her husband, police said.
Lt. Stephanie Morbeto and her husband, Mark Morbeto, are both charged with assault.
One of them called police for help about 4 a.m. Saturday, Prince William County Police said.
Lt. Morbeto was placed on administrative leave, Manassas police said.
She has been with the department since 2001 and was officer of the year in 2011. She was promoted to lieutenant in 2012 and was serving as acting director of Manassas City Police Investigative Services.
A woman whose skeletal remains were found in Dedham, Massachusetts, last week has been identified as a 22-year-old Boston woman who was reported missing last year.
Calling it "a sad step in the investigation," Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey revealed Monday that the woman's name was Susan Anyanwu-Corbin. A family member had reported her disappearance to Boston police back in February of 2016.
Her boyfriend, Bernard Junior told NBC Boston he is heartbroken and in disbelief.
"I was expecting cops would find her. Until now I cant believe this," Junior said.
Anyanwu-Corbin was born in Nigeria, but came to the U.S. four or five years ago. She worked in retail and had lived in several neighborhoods in Boston, including Dorchester, Roslindale and Hyde Park.
Norfolk County District Attorney's Office
Her bones were found by a resident in a wooded area of High Street near the Brookdale Cemetery on April 4. Police searched the area and discovered nearly a full skeleton.
The medical examiner was able to positively identify Anyanwu-Corbin based on dental records after someone came forward to report that they thought the remains might have been hers based on jewelry found near her bones.
Widny Philemond says it was the same bracelet his roommate wore.
"I recognize the bracelet and ring same picture I saw on Facebook," Philemond said.
Morrissey said investigators aren't sure of how long Anyanwu-Corbin had been dead or what the cause of death was. Foul play has not been ruled out, but police have said there were no obvious signs of violence.
"This is not the end of the investigation," Morrissey said. "It's just a more difficult beginning."
He said investigators are trying to find out when Anyanwu-Corbin was last seen. Anyone who might have had contact with her either in person or on social media from mid-February of 2016 on is asked to contact the district attorney's office at 781-830-4990 or Dedham police at 781-751-9300.
"We're taking this case very serious," Morrissey said. "Boston police, Dedham and state police investigators are all working together to find out what happened to Susan."
They've been carved, painted and printed and soon, thousands of wooden eggs made in Maine will be ready to roll.
The eggs, made by Wells Wood Turning & Finishing in Buckfield, are being shipped from Maine to Washington, D.C., for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
"It's always an honor to have a very prominent customer, particularly given the time this tradition has lasted," said Chris Chandler, the company's president.
Hundreds of families flock to the White House lawn every Easter to take part in the egg roll, which has been a tradition since the 1870s. Children are chosen by lottery to attend the gathering on the South Lawn, where there is music, events and eggs for children to chase and gather.
Ten years ago, the small business in Buckfield got the contract to make the wooden eggs for the White House.
Chandler said the White House staff sends them the design for the front, and the signature of the president and the first lady on the back. The Office of the First Lady typically chooses the colors for the eggs, and this year, they ordered pastel and gold eggs.
Chandler said it's a proud moment to have a manufacturer based in rural Maine take part in a national tradition.
"It's important that manufacturing remain viable and part of the rural economy of this state," he said. "One of the things that's important is to try and keep this tradition going."
A Massachusetts resident, who attends college in Vermont, is recalling the chaos of the deadly attack in Stockholm, Sweden, last week.
Julia Wood, of Arlington, is an Economics major at the University of Vermont. She is studying abroad this semester at Stockholm University.
Wood says she was waiting for a friend in a store a few doors away on Friday when the stolen beer truck was driven into the upscale Ahlens department store at about 3 p.m.
"There was the loudest crash came and I thought at first it was a display in the store that had fallen down but nothing had happened and people started panicking and talking in Swedish."
Four people were killed in the crash and 15 others were injured.
For the next hour, Wood and her friend huddled in the back of the store until they decided to walk the four miles back to their school.
"Even after walking home, we couldn't believe that had happened because a terrorist attack isn't the first thing you think of," Wood recalled.
Although it was a close call for Wood, she said she still feels Sweden is the safest to place to be in Europe.
"I think I feel the same before all this happened. I still felt even safer walking at home at night here than I do at home and I live in a pretty safe community in Arlington."
The U.S. Department of Labor says Google discriminates against female employees in pay at a level that's even worse than the tech industry as a whole.
The department has found "systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce," Labor Department Regional Director Janette Wipper testified in a court in San Francisco on Friday, according to a report by The Guardian. Janet Herold, the department's regional solicitor, told the Guardian that pay discrimination against women was extreme.
Wipper said that the DoL found pay disparities in a snapshot of salaries from 2015, according to the Guardian.
Wippers testimony was part of a hearing about a lawsuit that the Labor Department brought against Google to force the company to hand over salary information. The department is authorized to conduct audits of Google's employment practices because the company gets government contracts. It says Google hasn't been cooperating.
The agency has asked the Office of Administrative Law Judges, a special court for Labor Department programs, to cancel all of Googles government contracts and keep it from getting future contracts if it doesnt comply with the request for data.
Google vehemently disagrees with the department's assertion, the company said in an emailed statement.
Every year, we do a comprehensive and robust analysis of pay across genders and we have found no gender pay gap, the statement read. Other than making an unfounded statement which we heard for the first time in court, the DoL hasnt provided any data, or shared its methodology.
At the time it filed the lawsuit, the Labor Department characterized the request for information as routine, but Google says the agency has cast too wide a net. (In a statement earlier this year, the company said it provided hundreds of thousands of records to the DoL as part of the audit.)
That argument appears to hold some water for Steven Berlin, the administrative law judge overseeing the case.
Last month, Berlin denied the DoLs motion for summary judgment, which would have immediately concluded the case in its favor. He said the department's request for the data was "unreasonably burdensome, given its extremely limited relevance."
The reported testimony on Friday came three days after Google said in a tweet that it had closed the gender pay gap globally. The company also published a guide to doing the same at other companies.
In an IT world where security software patches seem to be a dime a dozen, the researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency want to take a different approach bake cybersecurity right into the circuitry.
The research outfit will this month detail a new program called System Security Integrated Through Hardware and Firmware (SSITH) that has as one of its major goals to develop new integrated circuit architectures that lack the current software-accessible points of criminal entry, yet retain the computational functions and high-performance the integrated circuits were designed to deliver. Another goal of the program is the development of design tools that would become widely available so that hardware-anchored security would eventually become a standard feature of integrated circuit in both Defense Department and commercial electronic systems, DARPA stated.
+More on Network World: DARPA semantic program seeks to glean truth from obfuscation+
Security for electronic systems has been left up to software until now, but the overall confidence in this approach is summed up in the sardonic description of this standard practice as patch and pray, said SSITH program manager Linton Salmon of the Agencys Microsystems Technology Office in a statement. This race against ever more clever cyber intruders is never going to end if we keep designing our systems around gullible hardware that can be fooled in countless ways by software.
Salmon said SSITH specifically seeks to address the seven classes of hardware vulnerabilities listed in the Common Weakness Enumeration, a crowd-sourced compendium of security issues that is familiar to the information technology security community. These classes are: permissions and privileges, buffer errors, resource management, information leakage, numeric errors, crypto errors, and code injection.
Researchers have documented some 2800 software breaches that have taken advantage of one or more of these hardware vulnerabilities, all seven of which are variously present to in the integrated microcircuitry of electronic systems around the world. Remove those hardware weaknesses, Salmon said, and you would effectively close more than 40% of the software doors intruders now have available to them.
+More on Network World: DARPA plan would reinvent not-so-clever machine learning systems+
The anticipated 39-month SSITH program focuses on two technical areas.:
1. The development and demonstration of hardware architectures that protect against one or more of the seven vulnerability classes as well as design tools the electronics community would need for including hardware-based security innovations in their design and manufacturing practices.
2. Developing methodologies and metrics for measuring (and representing for system designers) the security status of the newly designed electronic systems and any tradeoffs the hardware-won security might levy in the form of system performance, power needs and efficiency, circuit area, and other standard circuit features.
The SSITH program is just one of the recent programs DARPA has developed to combat cybercriminals and bolster systems security. For example, the agencys High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) looks to create technology for the construction of high-assurance cyber-physical systems, where high assurance is defined to mean functionally correct and satisfying appropriate safety and security properties.
DARPAs Extreme DDoS Defense (XD3) system looks to alter the way the military, public and private enterprises protect their networks from high-and low-speed distributed denial-of-service attacks. The agency has awarded seven XD3 multi-million contracts to Georgia Tech, George Mason University, Invincea Labs, Raytheon BBN, Vencore Labs and the University of Pennsylvania to radically alter DDOS defenses. One more contract is expected under the program.
And DARPA held its Cyber Grand Challenge last year -- a competition that pitted entrants against each other in the classic hacking game Capture the Flag, never before played by programs running on supercomputers.
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In Alexandria, Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church, had been attending mass inside the targeted church but was not hurt, state media reported.
In a separate incident, at least 17 people were killed and 41 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack outside St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for both blasts.
The first blast was in the northern city of Tanta, where a powerful explosion ripped through a Palm Sunday service at St. George's Church, killing 27 people and wounding 78 others, state TV reported. The explosive device was planted under a seat in the main prayer hall, it said.
Bomb attacks at two Coptic churches in Egypt killed at least 44 people and injured more than 100 as worshipers where marking Palm Sunday.
After the bombings, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi declared a three-month state of emergency. "A series of steps will be taken, most importantly, the announcement of a state of emergency for three months after legal and constitution steps are taken," Sissi said in a speech aired on state television.
The blasts appear to have been timed for maximum impact, as people gathered to mark Palm Sunday. It is one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, marking the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Egypt's Christian minority, which makes up roughly 10 percent of the population, has increasingly been targeted by Islamist extremists. On Sunday, Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, denounced the bombings and expressed "his deep condolences" to Tawadros II and "all of the dear Egyptian nation." Sources close to Pope Francis told Arab media he has not canceled plans to visit Egypt, later this month.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, "So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns." He said he has "great confidence" that President Sissi will handle situation properly.
A Coptic church spokesman said the head of the church, Pope Tawadros III, who was conducting Palm Sunday services inside the the Alexandria church, may have been the target of the attack.
Eyewitnesses in Tanta said an explosive device detonated near the church altar as worshipers recited prayers. Victims of the blast were taken to several nearby hospitals and residents of Tanta were urged to donate blood.
Dr. Amjed Abdel Raouf, Dean of the Tanta Medical College, says doctors are doing their best to care for victims of the blast. He says that more than 60 wounded people were taken to two government hospitals. He said some victims had suffered burns and others were being treated for shrapnel wounds.
Egypt's Mufti Shawki Alam condemned the Islamic State group for the blasts, insisting that its followers are "not authentic Muslims." He called the group a "criminal, terrorist group, by all measures" and insisted that Egypt is at a critical point in the life of our nation and that everyone must exert more effort to put an end to extremist ideology and errant interpretations of Islam.
Sunitha natti By
Express News Service
MUMBAI: The financial woes at Air Costa got even deeper on Monday with the carrier cancelling bookings for an indefinite period. The Vijayawada-based airline initially halted bookings till May after grounding flights on February, 28. After three years of operations as a regional carrier, it received a pan-India air operators permit on October 3, 2016, which will lapse this October.
As the carrier races against time to get investors on board who can write a Rs 200 crore cheque, industry sources doubt if the airline can ever get back to its feet, but join others like Religare and Paramount, which gradually shut shop.
Once the flights are grounded, dues keep getting mounted and with no operational income, servicing payments becomes a major concern, said an airline official. On its part, the company is hopeful that a revival is in order in the next 2-3 months.
We have been talking to potential investors and have arrived at the final stage of discussions for funds infusion. We will have an update in the next one month, Kavi Chaurasai, VP, Marketing & Brand Communication, Air Costa told Express. He, however, added that the revival of operations will take time as the airline hadnt been flying since the past 40 days. Prior to suspending its flight services, the carrier was operating 16 flights per day through a fleet of two-leased aircraft Embraer E190 that can carry 112 passengers.
The fiscal troubles first emerged in August 2016, when aircraft lessor GE Capital Aviation Services impounded one of the three-leased Embraer planes for failing to pay lease rentals. Air Costa had to suspend flights, but it managed to restore operations the next day with the parent company LEPL coming to its rescue. This bridge loan however didnt solve the problems as the carrier continued to bleed leading to frequent cancellations.
Weve cancelled several flights and have even given refunds to passengers. Weve been facing a financial crunch for the past 6-8 months, said an Air Costa official. Owing to non-payment of salaries, the carriers workforce has been reduced to half from about 600 employees in the past.
MUMBAI: The financial woes at Air Costa got even deeper on Monday with the carrier cancelling bookings for an indefinite period. The Vijayawada-based airline initially halted bookings till May after grounding flights on February, 28. After three years of operations as a regional carrier, it received a pan-India air operators permit on October 3, 2016, which will lapse this October. As the carrier races against time to get investors on board who can write a Rs 200 crore cheque, industry sources doubt if the airline can ever get back to its feet, but join others like Religare and Paramount, which gradually shut shop. Once the flights are grounded, dues keep getting mounted and with no operational income, servicing payments becomes a major concern, said an airline official. On its part, the company is hopeful that a revival is in order in the next 2-3 months. We have been talking to potential investors and have arrived at the final stage of discussions for funds infusion. We will have an update in the next one month, Kavi Chaurasai, VP, Marketing & Brand Communication, Air Costa told Express. He, however, added that the revival of operations will take time as the airline hadnt been flying since the past 40 days. Prior to suspending its flight services, the carrier was operating 16 flights per day through a fleet of two-leased aircraft Embraer E190 that can carry 112 passengers. The fiscal troubles first emerged in August 2016, when aircraft lessor GE Capital Aviation Services impounded one of the three-leased Embraer planes for failing to pay lease rentals. Air Costa had to suspend flights, but it managed to restore operations the next day with the parent company LEPL coming to its rescue. This bridge loan however didnt solve the problems as the carrier continued to bleed leading to frequent cancellations. Weve cancelled several flights and have even given refunds to passengers. Weve been facing a financial crunch for the past 6-8 months, said an Air Costa official. Owing to non-payment of salaries, the carriers workforce has been reduced to half from about 600 employees in the past.
Pramod Thomas By
Express News Service
KOCHI:In a curious case, though its financial health is alarming, share prices of private sector lender Dhanalaxmi Bank have risen by 43.26 per cent in just 10 days. The share price, which was Rs 26.70 on March 30, has increased to Rs 38.25. Meanwhile, on April 10, the price touched a one-year high of Rs 38.25. Earlier, there were reports that a possible acquisition of Dhanlaxmi Bank by Kotak Mahindra or Indusind Bank was in the works.
However, Mumbai-based NBFC, Niche Financial Services Private Limited has now entered the limelight. The bank proposes to allot 1.28 crore equity shares to the company on a preferential basis. However, the entity does not own a single share of the bank. Conventional estimates say that Niche Financial would invest Rs 47 crore in the bank going by present rates. (The share price was Rs 36.90 on closing on April 10). Post the preferential share issue, Niche Financial will hold 4.99 per cent of total shares in the bank.
Dhanlaxmi Bank was often referred to as a take over target in the banking sector for quite some time. Now, with the recent spurt in share price, it seems that talks have become serious. The time is also ripe as mergers and acquisitions have become the new normal in the banking sector, said Mohanan, a former Dhanlaxmi Bank senior manager and trade union leader.
Dhanlaxmi Bank reported a net loss of Rs 8.18 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2016 and hence C D Joson, Kerala state convener, United Forum of Bank Unions says no public sector bank will be interested in Dhanlaxmi.
KOCHI:In a curious case, though its financial health is alarming, share prices of private sector lender Dhanalaxmi Bank have risen by 43.26 per cent in just 10 days. The share price, which was Rs 26.70 on March 30, has increased to Rs 38.25. Meanwhile, on April 10, the price touched a one-year high of Rs 38.25. Earlier, there were reports that a possible acquisition of Dhanlaxmi Bank by Kotak Mahindra or Indusind Bank was in the works. However, Mumbai-based NBFC, Niche Financial Services Private Limited has now entered the limelight. The bank proposes to allot 1.28 crore equity shares to the company on a preferential basis. However, the entity does not own a single share of the bank. Conventional estimates say that Niche Financial would invest Rs 47 crore in the bank going by present rates. (The share price was Rs 36.90 on closing on April 10). Post the preferential share issue, Niche Financial will hold 4.99 per cent of total shares in the bank. Dhanlaxmi Bank was often referred to as a take over target in the banking sector for quite some time. Now, with the recent spurt in share price, it seems that talks have become serious. The time is also ripe as mergers and acquisitions have become the new normal in the banking sector, said Mohanan, a former Dhanlaxmi Bank senior manager and trade union leader. Dhanlaxmi Bank reported a net loss of Rs 8.18 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2016 and hence C D Joson, Kerala state convener, United Forum of Bank Unions says no public sector bank will be interested in Dhanlaxmi.
Nirupama Viswanathan By
Express News Service
As many as 4,124 flood-affected families who were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Boards settlement in Perumbakkam are a worried lot as they find it hard to fork out D 750 towards monthly maintenance charges; the dole offered by the State government ended in March
CHENNAI: Many months after the December 2015 floodwaters forced them out of their huts and triggered their relocation, the tears of many of the affected families are yet to dry.
As many as 4,124 flood-affected families were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Boards settlement in Perumbakkam with a year-long carrot of `2,500 each month. Called the monthly sustenance allowance offered by the State government, the dole ended in March. They now have to fork out `750 as monthly maintenance charges.
Although some of the relocated residents claimed the sustenance allowance was disbursed irregularly, for the recipients it at least helped ease the burden of maintenance charge of `750 they had to pay each month for the seven-storeyed tenements. No longer.
At the end of a year after relocation, residents said they were right where they started neither have they found reliable jobs nor did their houses feel like home.
According to a survey by Information and Resource Centre for Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), many of the residents in Perumbakkam make less than `300 a day.
My husband drives an auto but none of the money he makes reaches home. I used to work as a domestic help but was forced to employ myself after coming here, selling karuvaadu (dried, salted fish), said Kumari R, a resident of Perumbakkam.
I dont know how I can meet the maintenance charge and other expenditure from next month since they say they will no longer be giving us `2,500 a month, she added.
Kumari was brought to Perumbakkam from Saidapet and now makes about `350-400 a day, just enough to scrape by with her two kids.
Activists claim that there was no transparency on how the TNSCB arrived at the figure of `750 as maintenance charge or what activities were being undertaken with that money. Leaving aside affordability, there has to be transparency as to what they are paying towards, said Vanessa Peter, policy researcher at IRCDUC.
Ever since she got relocated, Devi S takes three different buses to work in Saidapet. Her electricity bill has gone up since her present house is much bigger than her earlier shack. She has also lost her earlier job, which was her source of income. But it is the maintenance charge that has hit her where it hurts the most, she said.
Who needs such a big house? We were happy there, paying nothing else except the electricity bill that would come to about 300, she said.
While at their wits end on how to meet the maintenance charges for the coming months, residents also said that whatever maintenance was being done was unsatisfactory, claiming that they had to sometimes pool in 10 from every house for generator fuel and that elevators, whichever was functioning, would be shut down at 10 pm every night.
Loganathan, a lift operator in one of the blocks, said, There are two operators who work in shifts. The shift ends at 10 pm after which it is closed for use.
In case of a medical emergency at night, residents of some blocks had no choice but to take the stairs.
Members of the residents association in AE block that was formed and registered in 2015, claimed that the Board had promised to hand over maintenance activities to them. That has not happened yet, hence the monthly maintenance charges.
All maintenance activities are given to contractors even a year after they promised that the association could take over matters with our own people, said Nallathambi A who heads the residents association in AE block.
Asked if the residents of Perumbakkam were in a position to get by without the sustenance amount, a senior slum board official told Express that it was essential for the residents to learn to stand on their own legs without depending on the government.
We are also conducting numerous training programmes to help them maximise their income, the official said.
Another official added that the board sanctions `10,000 per entrepreneur for these residents to take up small businesses following assessment by slum board officials and that maintenance activities had been handed over to many of the residents associations.
As many as 4,124 flood-affected families who were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Boards settlement in Perumbakkam are a worried lot as they find it hard to fork out D 750 towards monthly maintenance charges; the dole offered by the State government ended in March CHENNAI: Many months after the December 2015 floodwaters forced them out of their huts and triggered their relocation, the tears of many of the affected families are yet to dry. As many as 4,124 flood-affected families were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Boards settlement in Perumbakkam with a year-long carrot of `2,500 each month. Called the monthly sustenance allowance offered by the State government, the dole ended in March. They now have to fork out `750 as monthly maintenance charges. Although some of the relocated residents claimed the sustenance allowance was disbursed irregularly, for the recipients it at least helped ease the burden of maintenance charge of `750 they had to pay each month for the seven-storeyed tenements. No longer. At the end of a year after relocation, residents said they were right where they started neither have they found reliable jobs nor did their houses feel like home. According to a survey by Information and Resource Centre for Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), many of the residents in Perumbakkam make less than `300 a day. My husband drives an auto but none of the money he makes reaches home. I used to work as a domestic help but was forced to employ myself after coming here, selling karuvaadu (dried, salted fish), said Kumari R, a resident of Perumbakkam. I dont know how I can meet the maintenance charge and other expenditure from next month since they say they will no longer be giving us `2,500 a month, she added. Kumari was brought to Perumbakkam from Saidapet and now makes about `350-400 a day, just enough to scrape by with her two kids. Activists claim that there was no transparency on how the TNSCB arrived at the figure of `750 as maintenance charge or what activities were being undertaken with that money. Leaving aside affordability, there has to be transparency as to what they are paying towards, said Vanessa Peter, policy researcher at IRCDUC. Ever since she got relocated, Devi S takes three different buses to work in Saidapet. Her electricity bill has gone up since her present house is much bigger than her earlier shack. She has also lost her earlier job, which was her source of income. But it is the maintenance charge that has hit her where it hurts the most, she said. Who needs such a big house? We were happy there, paying nothing else except the electricity bill that would come to about 300, she said. While at their wits end on how to meet the maintenance charges for the coming months, residents also said that whatever maintenance was being done was unsatisfactory, claiming that they had to sometimes pool in 10 from every house for generator fuel and that elevators, whichever was functioning, would be shut down at 10 pm every night. Loganathan, a lift operator in one of the blocks, said, There are two operators who work in shifts. The shift ends at 10 pm after which it is closed for use. In case of a medical emergency at night, residents of some blocks had no choice but to take the stairs. Members of the residents association in AE block that was formed and registered in 2015, claimed that the Board had promised to hand over maintenance activities to them. That has not happened yet, hence the monthly maintenance charges. All maintenance activities are given to contractors even a year after they promised that the association could take over matters with our own people, said Nallathambi A who heads the residents association in AE block. Asked if the residents of Perumbakkam were in a position to get by without the sustenance amount, a senior slum board official told Express that it was essential for the residents to learn to stand on their own legs without depending on the government. We are also conducting numerous training programmes to help them maximise their income, the official said. Another official added that the board sanctions `10,000 per entrepreneur for these residents to take up small businesses following assessment by slum board officials and that maintenance activities had been handed over to many of the residents associations.
By Express News Service
PATNA: Buffeted by charges of a soil to mall scam levelled by opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday broke his silence and defended his two minister sons, dubbing BJPs allegations as baseless.
RJD chief Yadav admitted that the two-acre plot of land on the outskirts of Patna, on which Bihars biggest mall is currently under construction, is owned by a company in which his wife, former chief minister Rabri Devi, and their two sons deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav and health minister Tej Pratap Yadav are shareholders.
Yadav, however, rubbished senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modis charge that the company, Delight Marketing Company Private Limited, which is currently under Yadavs family under a new name, had acquired the prime land in a quid pro quo manner by using Yadavs influence as railway minister in 2008.
BJPs allegations against my family are entirely baseless. No rules were violated in conducting the transactions regarding the land in question They (BJP leaders) are speaking on this on the basis of the documents we had submitted, said Yadav.
He was accompanied by RJD Rajya Sabha member and his close aide Prem Gupta, whose wife was originally owner of the company that purchased the land from hotelier Harsh Kochar months after two railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri were handed over to Kochar.
Rabri Devi, her sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi, and her daughters Ragini and Chanda were later made directors of this company.
Lalu Prasad Yadav said the company, which was renamed in February 2017 as LARA Projects LLP, is entirely owned by his wife and their two minister sons after Gupta gifted them all the shares.
The RJD chief also said the land was given to a company owned by an RJD legislator to build a mall and that his (Yadavs) family has a 50 per cent share in it. If we have some land, cannot we make its commercial use? asked Yadav.
The RJD chief rubbished Modis original charge that soil from the site of the under-construction mall was sold illegally to Patnas Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, which is under the forest and environment ministry held by Tej Pratap Yadav.
Responding to Lalu Prasad Yadavs statements, Sushil Kumar Modi said: I am happy that he admitted that both this land and the upcoming mall are owned by his family. Anyone can guess how a poor mans son as Yadav acquired such massive assets. It is plain to see that it is benami property.
Sushil Kumar Modi alleged the company that purchased the land was a front floated as per Yadavs plans in order to eventually hand over the land to his family.
What work has this company executed in Bihar apart from purchasing this land twelve years ago? BJP will take this massive scam to a logical end. It is time chief minister Nitish Kumar broke his silence on the whole issue, Modi added.
PATNA: Buffeted by charges of a soil to mall scam levelled by opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday broke his silence and defended his two minister sons, dubbing BJPs allegations as baseless. RJD chief Yadav admitted that the two-acre plot of land on the outskirts of Patna, on which Bihars biggest mall is currently under construction, is owned by a company in which his wife, former chief minister Rabri Devi, and their two sons deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav and health minister Tej Pratap Yadav are shareholders. Yadav, however, rubbished senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modis charge that the company, Delight Marketing Company Private Limited, which is currently under Yadavs family under a new name, had acquired the prime land in a quid pro quo manner by using Yadavs influence as railway minister in 2008. BJPs allegations against my family are entirely baseless. No rules were violated in conducting the transactions regarding the land in question They (BJP leaders) are speaking on this on the basis of the documents we had submitted, said Yadav. He was accompanied by RJD Rajya Sabha member and his close aide Prem Gupta, whose wife was originally owner of the company that purchased the land from hotelier Harsh Kochar months after two railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri were handed over to Kochar. Rabri Devi, her sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi, and her daughters Ragini and Chanda were later made directors of this company. Lalu Prasad Yadav said the company, which was renamed in February 2017 as LARA Projects LLP, is entirely owned by his wife and their two minister sons after Gupta gifted them all the shares. The RJD chief also said the land was given to a company owned by an RJD legislator to build a mall and that his (Yadavs) family has a 50 per cent share in it. If we have some land, cannot we make its commercial use? asked Yadav. The RJD chief rubbished Modis original charge that soil from the site of the under-construction mall was sold illegally to Patnas Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, which is under the forest and environment ministry held by Tej Pratap Yadav. Responding to Lalu Prasad Yadavs statements, Sushil Kumar Modi said: I am happy that he admitted that both this land and the upcoming mall are owned by his family. Anyone can guess how a poor mans son as Yadav acquired such massive assets. It is plain to see that it is benami property. Sushil Kumar Modi alleged the company that purchased the land was a front floated as per Yadavs plans in order to eventually hand over the land to his family. What work has this company executed in Bihar apart from purchasing this land twelve years ago? BJP will take this massive scam to a logical end. It is time chief minister Nitish Kumar broke his silence on the whole issue, Modi added.
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that the Aadhar card initiative is a watershed event in the development of the country. He urged upon the people to support the campaign of the government for the less cash society.
Speaking at the 100th mega draw of lots for Lucky Grahak Yojna and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojna at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President stressed that efforts of the government will achieve their end only if people were to adopt them proactively. He added that India is on the cusp of a digital revolution.
More than one billion Indians have a unique identity number with a biometric identifier which is unique in its own way. Even countries which are technologically far more advanced than India with comparatively much smaller size population do not have such a system in place, said Mukherjee, while complimenting the government for promotion of digital transactions.
After the November 8 announcement of the decision on demonetization, the NITI Aayog had launched two schemes - Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and the Digidhan Vyapar Yojana for the merchants.
The President picked up six lucky winners on the final day of the 100 day scheme. In the consumer category, three mega prizes of Rs 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh went to the consumers using Rupay Debit Cards making digital payment of less than Rs 1000. Three mega prizes for merchants worth Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 12 lakh were also declared at the event, the NITI Aayog said in a media statement, which added that the winners will be felicitated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14 at Nagpur, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.
NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that the Aadhar card initiative is a watershed event in the development of the country. He urged upon the people to support the campaign of the government for the less cash society. Speaking at the 100th mega draw of lots for Lucky Grahak Yojna and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojna at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President stressed that efforts of the government will achieve their end only if people were to adopt them proactively. He added that India is on the cusp of a digital revolution. More than one billion Indians have a unique identity number with a biometric identifier which is unique in its own way. Even countries which are technologically far more advanced than India with comparatively much smaller size population do not have such a system in place, said Mukherjee, while complimenting the government for promotion of digital transactions. After the November 8 announcement of the decision on demonetization, the NITI Aayog had launched two schemes - Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and the Digidhan Vyapar Yojana for the merchants. The President picked up six lucky winners on the final day of the 100 day scheme. In the consumer category, three mega prizes of Rs 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh went to the consumers using Rupay Debit Cards making digital payment of less than Rs 1000. Three mega prizes for merchants worth Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 12 lakh were also declared at the event, the NITI Aayog said in a media statement, which added that the winners will be felicitated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14 at Nagpur, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.
Ejaz Kaiser By
Express News Service
SUKMA: IT took 11 years and 13 tenders issued repeatedly amid Maoist threat to accomplish the construction of a desperately needed bridge over river Shabri in the worst Naxal-affected district of
Sukma in Chhattisgarh.
As one drives on the 8.5 metre wide new bridge built at a height of 17 metres from the water level, the impression of being in an area dominated by Left-wing extremism disappears.
Entering the bridge from Dornapal in Chhattisgarh, one has to travel just half-a-kilometre to cross over to Podia in Odisha. The bridge built by the Chhattisgarh government is on the border of the two states. It will connect over 200 villages of Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
directly," Sukma collector Neeraj Kumar Bansod told New Indian Express.
Residents near the bridge said, Usually 500-600 people pass over the bridge everyday." Earlier, boats used to ferry the people across the river along with their bicycles or motorbikes.
It was in March 2006 that Chief Minister Raman Singh laid the foundation stone of the bridge and approved the budgetary allocation of `11.49 crore.
However, until 2013 there wasnt any headway except the repeated re-tendering for the project as the Maoists sway in the region emerged as a deterrent for contractors.
Despite the involvement of all parties -- the government, contractors and suppliers-- the construction process didn't begin, as the Maoists opposed such construction and issued threats. Contractors didn't actively participate in the tender process and those who did often backed out," a senior official of the State Public Works Department (PWD) said.
Over the years, public mood evolved in support of the bridge in more than two dozen villages on both sides of the river. And the three base camps of the security forces established in nearby areas resulted in enhanced movement of the troopers raising hopes, said the residents of Dornapal.
The administration has been quick to admit that greater movement of forces is a key factor, while acknowledging that the Maoists seem to have yielded to strong public pressure as the 500-metre long
bridge connecting roads from five states becomes a reality.
Construction of roads and bridges always remains a challenge due to the Maoist presence. The bridge will be a boon for people who had to cross the river often risking their lives during the monsoon," said Rajesh Nara, a local businessman at Podia village.
Fear persisted but the Naxalites neither threatened us nor halted our construction work that began in 2014. But during the major Maoist attacks in Sukma or adjoining districts, most of my workers fled the site for weeks," contractor Shrikumar Singh Bhadoriya told New Indian Express.
The bridge will substantially reduce the time and distance of journey. The bridge, inaugurated by the chief minister during the ongoing Lok Suraj Abhiyan (mass contact programme on good governance), cuts the distance between Odishas Kalimela to Chhattisgarhs Dornapal from 110 km to just 45 km.
With the bridge construction over, concerns regarding its security over threats from ultras are being addressed. We will install CCTV surveillance cameras. With more base camps of security forces coming up in the vicinity, it will further boost security. The greater movement of people, with their economic activities facilitated by the bridge, will dissuade the rebels from doing anything damaging," the collector said.
SUKMA: IT took 11 years and 13 tenders issued repeatedly amid Maoist threat to accomplish the construction of a desperately needed bridge over river Shabri in the worst Naxal-affected district of Sukma in Chhattisgarh. As one drives on the 8.5 metre wide new bridge built at a height of 17 metres from the water level, the impression of being in an area dominated by Left-wing extremism disappears. Entering the bridge from Dornapal in Chhattisgarh, one has to travel just half-a-kilometre to cross over to Podia in Odisha. The bridge built by the Chhattisgarh government is on the border of the two states. It will connect over 200 villages of Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh directly," Sukma collector Neeraj Kumar Bansod told New Indian Express. Residents near the bridge said, Usually 500-600 people pass over the bridge everyday." Earlier, boats used to ferry the people across the river along with their bicycles or motorbikes. It was in March 2006 that Chief Minister Raman Singh laid the foundation stone of the bridge and approved the budgetary allocation of `11.49 crore. However, until 2013 there wasnt any headway except the repeated re-tendering for the project as the Maoists sway in the region emerged as a deterrent for contractors. Despite the involvement of all parties -- the government, contractors and suppliers-- the construction process didn't begin, as the Maoists opposed such construction and issued threats. Contractors didn't actively participate in the tender process and those who did often backed out," a senior official of the State Public Works Department (PWD) said. Over the years, public mood evolved in support of the bridge in more than two dozen villages on both sides of the river. And the three base camps of the security forces established in nearby areas resulted in enhanced movement of the troopers raising hopes, said the residents of Dornapal. The administration has been quick to admit that greater movement of forces is a key factor, while acknowledging that the Maoists seem to have yielded to strong public pressure as the 500-metre long bridge connecting roads from five states becomes a reality. Construction of roads and bridges always remains a challenge due to the Maoist presence. The bridge will be a boon for people who had to cross the river often risking their lives during the monsoon," said Rajesh Nara, a local businessman at Podia village. Fear persisted but the Naxalites neither threatened us nor halted our construction work that began in 2014. But during the major Maoist attacks in Sukma or adjoining districts, most of my workers fled the site for weeks," contractor Shrikumar Singh Bhadoriya told New Indian Express. The bridge will substantially reduce the time and distance of journey. The bridge, inaugurated by the chief minister during the ongoing Lok Suraj Abhiyan (mass contact programme on good governance), cuts the distance between Odishas Kalimela to Chhattisgarhs Dornapal from 110 km to just 45 km. With the bridge construction over, concerns regarding its security over threats from ultras are being addressed. We will install CCTV surveillance cameras. With more base camps of security forces coming up in the vicinity, it will further boost security. The greater movement of people, with their economic activities facilitated by the bridge, will dissuade the rebels from doing anything damaging," the collector said.
The Buddhist monk spoke Saturday at a news conference during a visit to the northeast Indian town of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh state, which borders China. His weeklong visit has sparked anger in Beijing, which claims a chunk of the remote Himalayan state.
He said he will organize a conference to discuss the issue of the next Dalai Lama before the end of this year.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said it is up to the Tibetan people to decide whether the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue and that China cannot decide on his successor.
Question of Successor
The question of who will replace the 81-year-old spiritual leader has gained prominence with Beijing having asserted that its communist leaders have the right to approve the next Dalai Lama as a legacy inherited from China's emperors.
But the Dalai Lama said Chinese officials have no role in identifying his successor because they are atheists and do not believe in the concept of religion.
"That's frankly speaking quite nonsense," he said. "In order to (for the) Chinese government taking responsibility for reincarnation in general, particularly me, first Chinese communists should accept theory of rebirth."
The Tibetan religious leader said nobody knows where the next Dalai Lama will be born or come from. "I think at the time of my death, maybe some indication come, (but) as of this moment no indication," he added.
Tibetan Buddhists believe the soul of a senior lama or Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death.
Fate of the Institution
Saying that a final decision on the fate of the institution would be taken when he reaches his late 80s or 90, the Dalai Lama said he wanted to convene a meeting of senior monks this year to start a preliminary discussion on his succession. He said the continuation of the tradition depends on the people.
"If concerned people feel now this institution (is) no longer relevant, then this institution [will] cease," he said.
He did not rule out the possibility of the next Dalai Lama being a woman.
Importance of Tawang
The Dalai Lama's visit to the sensitive border town of Tawang, home to a famous Buddhist monastery, is not his first. But Chinese objections have been far more strident this time with Beijing accusing New Delhi of arranging a platform for the Tibetan leader to "hold anti-China and separatist activities" and lodging an official protest. It has warned that the visit would hurt ties with India.
The Dalai Lama and Indian officials call his weeklong Tawang stop purely religious. The Tibetan monk said he wished a Chinese official had accompanied him to know the reality.
Jayadeva Ranade at New Delhi's Center for China Analysis and Strategy believes the strong Chinese reaction stems from the fact that Tawang was the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama.
"The Chinese seem to be linking that with the next reincarnation and the location where the next reincarnation may be found. These are the reasons why they are getting more concerned," he said.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed Chinese uprising, resides in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala. China denounces him as a dangerous separatist. He gave a spiritual discourse to tens of thousands of devotees and is scheduled to give more in the coming days in Tawang.
By Online Desk
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) after coming to know about the sentencing of Jadhav, an Indian citizen, by a Field General Court Martial of Pakistan Army from a press release, immediately summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit. Basit was handed over a demarche, a diplomatic protest, by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar.
The Foreign Secretary conveyed it to Basit in unequivocal terms: If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
Also read: Kulbhushan Jadhav's sentencing done according to law, claims Pakistan Defence Minister
Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national who was arrested in Balochistan in March 2016, and had been detained there on charges of espionage, was awarded the death sentence today, almost a year later. This was announced on Pakistan military's public relations website Inter Services Public relations (ISPR).
The ISPR statement provided no details about when the verdict of the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) was handed down, or when Kulbhushan Jadhav's trial was held. Following is the press release as issued by ISPR-
Indian RAW Agent / Naval ofcer 41558Z Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 through a Counter Intelligence Operation from Mashkel, Balochistan, for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence. Today COAS, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has conrmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM.
RAW agent Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav was tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of ofcial Secret Act of 1923. FGCM found Kulbushan Sudhir Yadhav guilty of all the charges. He confessed before a Magistrate and the Court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage / sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi. The accused was provided with defending ofcer as per legal provisions.
TV channels broke the news that Kulbhushan, who was a former Indian navy officer, had confessed to espionage.
Mumbai:I was shocked.He has stayed with us,we know how he was.This is a conspiracy by Pak: Sudhir Pawar, neighbour of #KulbhushanJadhav pic.twitter.com/V2t3k2GIT9 ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
The Government of Indias 13 requests through its High Commission in Islamabad to gain consular access to Jadhav has repeatedly been rejected by Paksitan.
Watch video: Kulbhushan Jadhav awarded death sentence in Pakistan
Seven days ago Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz had issued a statement saying that the Pakistan government was not considering to extradite Indian "spy" Kulbhushan Jadhav, who had been arrested for allegedly being involved in "subversive activities". Jadhav was reportedly arrested in Balochistan after entering the country from Iran. (READ HERE)
The Pakistan Army had earlier released a "confessional video" of Jadhav, in which he said he was a serving Indian Navy officer.
In December 2016, Pakistan media had quoted Aziz saying that Islamabad does not have enough or conclusive evidence against Yadav, whom it has accused of being an Indian spy. However this was denied by Aziz.
Also read: Statement attributed to Sartaz Aziz on Kulbhushan Yadav 'absolutely incorrect': Pakistan
India had acknowledged that Jadhav was a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied that he was in any way connected to the government. Government has on several occasions completely rejected the baseless allegations against Kulbhushan Jadhav. Circumstances of his presence in Pakistan remain unclear, particularly because we have not been provided consular access despite our repeated requests, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs had said in March 2016, when Jadhav was detained by Pakistan. (READ HERE)
Advisor to Paksitans Prime Minsiter on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has ridiculed Indias request on Jadhav as lacking in English and that Islamabad was overcoming it. In his address to Pakistans senate on December 7 last year, the top diplomat of Pakistan rejected the material provided by India as insufficient.
India has in retaliation stopped released of over a dozen Pakistani prisoners that was due this week. (READ HERE)
Major Navdeep Singh, a practicing Advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the Armed Forces Tribunal called the trial of civilian (retired Naval officer) by a Pakistan military court as violation of Article 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Trial by a sham military court, especially of a civilian, is against Art 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Pakistan tries civilians through secret court martial, rather than courts. Spies caught in India are put through trial in regular civil courts. Some even acquitted, Singh said on the sentencing.
In 2013 an Indian national on death row for spying in Pakistan was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. Sarabjit Singh had been on death row for 16 years. In fact, Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, has said that India should approach the International Court of Justice and ensure that the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani establishment is not carried out. (READ HERE)
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has been battling years of separatist insurgency that the army has repeatedly characterised as "terrorism".
(With inputs from agencies)
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) after coming to know about the sentencing of Jadhav, an Indian citizen, by a Field General Court Martial of Pakistan Army from a press release, immediately summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit. Basit was handed over a demarche, a diplomatic protest, by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar. The Foreign Secretary conveyed it to Basit in unequivocal terms: If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder. Also read: Kulbhushan Jadhav's sentencing done according to law, claims Pakistan Defence Minister Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national who was arrested in Balochistan in March 2016, and had been detained there on charges of espionage, was awarded the death sentence today, almost a year later. This was announced on Pakistan military's public relations website Inter Services Public relations (ISPR). The ISPR statement provided no details about when the verdict of the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) was handed down, or when Kulbhushan Jadhav's trial was held. Following is the press release as issued by ISPR- Indian RAW Agent / Naval ofcer 41558Z Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 through a Counter Intelligence Operation from Mashkel, Balochistan, for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence. Today COAS, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has conrmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM. RAW agent Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav was tried by FGCM under section 59 of Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of ofcial Secret Act of 1923. FGCM found Kulbushan Sudhir Yadhav guilty of all the charges. He confessed before a Magistrate and the Court that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage / sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi. The accused was provided with defending ofcer as per legal provisions. TV channels broke the news that Kulbhushan, who was a former Indian navy officer, had confessed to espionage. Mumbai:I was shocked.He has stayed with us,we know how he was.This is a conspiracy by Pak: Sudhir Pawar, neighbour of #KulbhushanJadhav pic.twitter.com/V2t3k2GIT9 ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017 The Government of Indias 13 requests through its High Commission in Islamabad to gain consular access to Jadhav has repeatedly been rejected by Paksitan. Watch video: Kulbhushan Jadhav awarded death sentence in Pakistan Seven days ago Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz had issued a statement saying that the Pakistan government was not considering to extradite Indian "spy" Kulbhushan Jadhav, who had been arrested for allegedly being involved in "subversive activities". Jadhav was reportedly arrested in Balochistan after entering the country from Iran. (READ HERE) The Pakistan Army had earlier released a "confessional video" of Jadhav, in which he said he was a serving Indian Navy officer. In December 2016, Pakistan media had quoted Aziz saying that Islamabad does not have enough or conclusive evidence against Yadav, whom it has accused of being an Indian spy. However this was denied by Aziz. Also read: Statement attributed to Sartaz Aziz on Kulbhushan Yadav 'absolutely incorrect': Pakistan India had acknowledged that Jadhav was a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied that he was in any way connected to the government. Government has on several occasions completely rejected the baseless allegations against Kulbhushan Jadhav. Circumstances of his presence in Pakistan remain unclear, particularly because we have not been provided consular access despite our repeated requests, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs had said in March 2016, when Jadhav was detained by Pakistan. (READ HERE) Advisor to Paksitans Prime Minsiter on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has ridiculed Indias request on Jadhav as lacking in English and that Islamabad was overcoming it. In his address to Pakistans senate on December 7 last year, the top diplomat of Pakistan rejected the material provided by India as insufficient. India has in retaliation stopped released of over a dozen Pakistani prisoners that was due this week. (READ HERE) Major Navdeep Singh, a practicing Advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the Armed Forces Tribunal called the trial of civilian (retired Naval officer) by a Pakistan military court as violation of Article 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Trial by a sham military court, especially of a civilian, is against Art 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Pakistan tries civilians through secret court martial, rather than courts. Spies caught in India are put through trial in regular civil courts. Some even acquitted, Singh said on the sentencing. In 2013 an Indian national on death row for spying in Pakistan was killed in jail after being attacked by fellow inmates. Sarabjit Singh had been on death row for 16 years. In fact, Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, has said that India should approach the International Court of Justice and ensure that the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani establishment is not carried out. (READ HERE) Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has been battling years of separatist insurgency that the army has repeatedly characterised as "terrorism". (With inputs from agencies)
By PTI
AHMEDABAD: Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and 34 others were today booked by police at Tankara town in Morbi district for holding a public meeting in violation of the prohibitory orders.
According to police, the meeting was held yesterday.
"Hardik, the convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), which has been demanding reservation for the Patel community in government jobs and educational institutions, was booked along with 34 others after they went ahead to organise a public meeting yesterday despite prohibitory orders," an official of Tankara town police station said.
They violated the prohibitory orders issued by Morbi District Magistrate restraining gathering of four or more people at a place, he said.
"Hardik and 34 PAAS members were booked under section 135 (3) of the Gujarat Police Act," the official said.
Sub inspector of Tankara police station D B Goswami filed the case against them. Even the police department had not granted permission to PAAS for the event, which was aimed at galvanising support over the reservation issue.
On March 20, Ahmedabad police had filed an FIR against Hardik and 59 others for alleged rioting and arson at the house of a BJP corporator.
Hardik is currently out on bail granted to him by the Gujarat High Court against two cases of sedition lodged in Surat and Ahmedabad.
AHMEDABAD: Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and 34 others were today booked by police at Tankara town in Morbi district for holding a public meeting in violation of the prohibitory orders. According to police, the meeting was held yesterday. "Hardik, the convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), which has been demanding reservation for the Patel community in government jobs and educational institutions, was booked along with 34 others after they went ahead to organise a public meeting yesterday despite prohibitory orders," an official of Tankara town police station said. They violated the prohibitory orders issued by Morbi District Magistrate restraining gathering of four or more people at a place, he said. "Hardik and 34 PAAS members were booked under section 135 (3) of the Gujarat Police Act," the official said. Sub inspector of Tankara police station D B Goswami filed the case against them. Even the police department had not granted permission to PAAS for the event, which was aimed at galvanising support over the reservation issue. On March 20, Ahmedabad police had filed an FIR against Hardik and 59 others for alleged rioting and arson at the house of a BJP corporator. Hardik is currently out on bail granted to him by the Gujarat High Court against two cases of sedition lodged in Surat and Ahmedabad.
Pradip R Sagar By
Express News Service
NEW DELHI: A day after Indian navy appreciated a co-ordinated effort of both Indian and PLA Navy in rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the Chinese government took full credit of the rescue mission and edited out Indias role in a joint operation.
On Sunday, the ministry of defence here in the national capital issued a statement by saying that Indian and Chinese navies worked together in responding to a distress signal from the hijacked Tuvaluan ship.
Statement issued by the Indian navy claim that in a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese Navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian Naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. All 19 Filipino crew members were safe and the Captain of the merchant vessel profusely thanked the Indian Naval ships for their response and for providing air cover.
But, Chinese navy statement last night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese vessel whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates".
Immediately after Chinese foreign office statement, Indian navy spokesperson on Monday afternoon tweeted a picture of Indian helicopters hovering over the hijacked vessel. "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti-piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD". Navy tweeted.
A defence minister officer in New Delhi was surprised with the Beijing reaction. It sounds strange, especially when we have appreciated the joint operation. Joint operation is visible in pictures available related to rescue effort, an officer located in South Block told.
Chinese foreign Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reportedly said "The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now," But she did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation. In fact, went on to say that the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates."
In contrast, on Sunday, Indian navys statement said that An Indian Navy helicopter undertook aerial reconnaissance of the merchant vessel... to sanitise the upper decks of the merchant ship and ascertain the location of pirates, if still on board," a statement from the Defence Ministry said.
Emboldened by the helicopter cover and on receiving the all-clear signal that no pirates were visible on the upper decks, some crew members gradually emerged from the strong room. They searched the ship and confirmed that the pirates had fled overnight.
A boarding party from the nearby Chinese Navy ship then arrived on the merchant ship, while the Indian Naval helicopter provided air cover for the rescue operation. "It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," the statement added. The bulk carrier, OS 35, was travelling from Kelang in Malaysia to the port city of Aden in Yemen when it came under attack from Somali pirates on Saturday night.
According to the Indian Navy, its warships INS Mumbai, INS Tarkash, INS Trishul and INS Aditya responded to a distress call from a foreign merchant vessel MV OS 35 (Tuvalu registered vessel), which was attacked and boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden late night on 08 April. The Indian Navy ships were proceeding on deployment to the Mediterranean and rapidly closed the merchant vessel by the early hours of April 9.
NEW DELHI: A day after Indian navy appreciated a co-ordinated effort of both Indian and PLA Navy in rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the Chinese government took full credit of the rescue mission and edited out Indias role in a joint operation. On Sunday, the ministry of defence here in the national capital issued a statement by saying that Indian and Chinese navies worked together in responding to a distress signal from the hijacked Tuvaluan ship. Statement issued by the Indian navy claim that in a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese Navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian Naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. All 19 Filipino crew members were safe and the Captain of the merchant vessel profusely thanked the Indian Naval ships for their response and for providing air cover. But, Chinese navy statement last night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese vessel whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates". Immediately after Chinese foreign office statement, Indian navy spokesperson on Monday afternoon tweeted a picture of Indian helicopters hovering over the hijacked vessel. "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti-piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD". Navy tweeted. A defence minister officer in New Delhi was surprised with the Beijing reaction. It sounds strange, especially when we have appreciated the joint operation. Joint operation is visible in pictures available related to rescue effort, an officer located in South Block told. Chinese foreign Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reportedly said "The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now," But she did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation. In fact, went on to say that the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates." In contrast, on Sunday, Indian navys statement said that An Indian Navy helicopter undertook aerial reconnaissance of the merchant vessel... to sanitise the upper decks of the merchant ship and ascertain the location of pirates, if still on board," a statement from the Defence Ministry said. Emboldened by the helicopter cover and on receiving the all-clear signal that no pirates were visible on the upper decks, some crew members gradually emerged from the strong room. They searched the ship and confirmed that the pirates had fled overnight. A boarding party from the nearby Chinese Navy ship then arrived on the merchant ship, while the Indian Naval helicopter provided air cover for the rescue operation. "It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," the statement added. The bulk carrier, OS 35, was travelling from Kelang in Malaysia to the port city of Aden in Yemen when it came under attack from Somali pirates on Saturday night. According to the Indian Navy, its warships INS Mumbai, INS Tarkash, INS Trishul and INS Aditya responded to a distress call from a foreign merchant vessel MV OS 35 (Tuvalu registered vessel), which was attacked and boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden late night on 08 April. The Indian Navy ships were proceeding on deployment to the Mediterranean and rapidly closed the merchant vessel by the early hours of April 9.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Opposition in the Lok Sabha today sought stringent action against BJP leader Tarun Vijay for his purported racial remarks, even as the government assured there would be no discrimination based on caste or colour.
Seeking to soothe the frayed nerves, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar said the individual has already apologised and the country is secular.
With noisy protests by Opposition members who also demanded to lodge an FIR against him on the issue, the House proceedings were adjourned thrice -- once during the Question Hour and twice during the Zero Hour.
Attacking the ruling party over the remarks, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wondered whether the people from South India were not Indian citizens.
"I want to know whether we are Indians or not... Are we not citizens (of India)," Kharge said during Zero Hour.
Wanting to know what action would be taken against Vijay who is "not an ordinary person", the Congress leader said he was a former Rajya Sabha member and has also written many
books on BJP philosophy.
His remarks are a "threat" to the unity of the country and "you want to divide this country", Kharge said, adding that if such things go on, then states would start asserting for independence.
This "shows your mentality", he said as he sought to compare them to the likes of Hitler and condemned the remarks.
"FIR should be lodged against him (Tarun Vijay). He has talked about breaking the nation. It is anti-national," Kharge said.
Asserting that "Bharat is a secular country," Singh in response said there would be no discrimination based on caste, creed, colour and religion. "The individual has already said
that his remarks are indefensible", Singh said quoting Vijay.
Also Read: Congress forces two adjournments of Rajya Sabha
Since the individual has already apologised, there is no need to raise any more questions about it, the Home Minister said, adding he would not mention the name.
As the protests continued even after Singh's statement, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said "this (House) is not a court."
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar sought to soothe the agitating members saying, "We are all one. The country is one".
After the House met again at 1245 hours, Kumar said the Home Minister has already given the reply and an apology has been tendered by Vijay.
BJP is of the view that "we all are Indians. There is no difference on the basis of colour. We all are one. Congress should not create differences. We are all together".
"Khargeji please don't try to create differences... One India. Great India," he emphasised.
Earlier during Question Hour, Kumar urged the Opposition to allow Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to respond to the question posed to her in Question Hour, saying she was a
minister "from the South".
Dissatisfied with the Minister's response, Opposition members, including from the Congress and the Left, trooped into the Well shouting slogans.
During Question Hour also, the Opposition members raised slogans in the Well.
The Opposition members were heard shouting, 'Modi sarkar jawab do-jawab do (Modi government should respond)', 'Desh ka vibhajan nahin chalega (Won't allow division of country)' and 'We want FIR (against Vijay)'.
With the din continuing during the Zero Hour, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for over 20 minutes till 1245 hours.
The House was again adjourned till 1350 hours as the protests continued.
There was also a brief adjournment of the House over the issue for 10 minutes till 1120 hours during the Question Hour.
NEW DELHI: The Opposition in the Lok Sabha today sought stringent action against BJP leader Tarun Vijay for his purported racial remarks, even as the government assured there would be no discrimination based on caste or colour. Seeking to soothe the frayed nerves, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar said the individual has already apologised and the country is secular. With noisy protests by Opposition members who also demanded to lodge an FIR against him on the issue, the House proceedings were adjourned thrice -- once during the Question Hour and twice during the Zero Hour. Attacking the ruling party over the remarks, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wondered whether the people from South India were not Indian citizens. "I want to know whether we are Indians or not... Are we not citizens (of India)," Kharge said during Zero Hour. Wanting to know what action would be taken against Vijay who is "not an ordinary person", the Congress leader said he was a former Rajya Sabha member and has also written many books on BJP philosophy. His remarks are a "threat" to the unity of the country and "you want to divide this country", Kharge said, adding that if such things go on, then states would start asserting for independence. This "shows your mentality", he said as he sought to compare them to the likes of Hitler and condemned the remarks. "FIR should be lodged against him (Tarun Vijay). He has talked about breaking the nation. It is anti-national," Kharge said. Asserting that "Bharat is a secular country," Singh in response said there would be no discrimination based on caste, creed, colour and religion. "The individual has already said that his remarks are indefensible", Singh said quoting Vijay. Also Read: Congress forces two adjournments of Rajya Sabha Since the individual has already apologised, there is no need to raise any more questions about it, the Home Minister said, adding he would not mention the name. As the protests continued even after Singh's statement, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said "this (House) is not a court." Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar sought to soothe the agitating members saying, "We are all one. The country is one". After the House met again at 1245 hours, Kumar said the Home Minister has already given the reply and an apology has been tendered by Vijay. BJP is of the view that "we all are Indians. There is no difference on the basis of colour. We all are one. Congress should not create differences. We are all together". "Khargeji please don't try to create differences... One India. Great India," he emphasised. Earlier during Question Hour, Kumar urged the Opposition to allow Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to respond to the question posed to her in Question Hour, saying she was a minister "from the South". Dissatisfied with the Minister's response, Opposition members, including from the Congress and the Left, trooped into the Well shouting slogans. During Question Hour also, the Opposition members raised slogans in the Well. The Opposition members were heard shouting, 'Modi sarkar jawab do-jawab do (Modi government should respond)', 'Desh ka vibhajan nahin chalega (Won't allow division of country)' and 'We want FIR (against Vijay)'. With the din continuing during the Zero Hour, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for over 20 minutes till 1245 hours. The House was again adjourned till 1350 hours as the protests continued. There was also a brief adjournment of the House over the issue for 10 minutes till 1120 hours during the Question Hour.
Harpreet Bajwa By
Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: In a move that embarrassed the NDA government, its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday supported the recent resolution passed by the Ontario Provincial assembly in Canada, officially recognizing the 1984 sikh riots in India as genocide. SAD demanded that these riots, which took place 33 years ago, should be acknowledged as genocide by the government.
During the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, SAD MP Naresh Gujral asked the External Affairs Ministry to withdraw its statement rejecting the resolution. The Union Government had recently objected to the resolution passed by the Ontario assembly and termed it misguided.
We reject this misguided motion which is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said. He also said that the views of the Indian government had been conveyed to the government and political leadership in Canada.
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal, however, said on Monday that the widespread massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and some other parts of the country in November 1984 was most certainly genocide of the community.
We are grateful to the authorities and the people of Ontario for this touching gesture of compassion and solidarity. They have called this shameful chapter by its right name and they deserve our gratitude. Every Indian, except those guilty of this tragedy, considers it genocide he said.
Sukhbir said that Sikhs across the world were grateful to the members of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) who stood by their Sikh brothers. We now request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to heal the deep wounds of the Sikh community by personally intervening and ensuring that the guilty do not go scot-free any longer, he said.
There is no doubt about this in anyones mind that the Congress planned and executed the genocide of the Sikhs in 1984. Senior leaders of that party holding top positions in the government of India actively facilitated, directed and even participated in this gruesome episode. The entire world was shocked when the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi publicly justified it as a natural reaction to the falling of a big tree (Indira Gandhis assassination.) Another Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh later had to apologise for this to the nation, said Sukhbir.
The motion was brought forward in the Ontario Assembly by Liberal MPP Harinder Malhi (Brampton-Springdale), which received support from all three provincial parties. The motion stated, In the opinion of this House, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario should reaffirm our commitment to the values we cherish justice, human rights and fairness and condemn all forms of communal violence, hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance in India and anywhere else in the world, including the 1984 genocide perpetrated against the Sikhs throughout India. We call on all sides to embrace truth and reconciliation.
CHANDIGARH: In a move that embarrassed the NDA government, its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday supported the recent resolution passed by the Ontario Provincial assembly in Canada, officially recognizing the 1984 sikh riots in India as genocide. SAD demanded that these riots, which took place 33 years ago, should be acknowledged as genocide by the government. During the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, SAD MP Naresh Gujral asked the External Affairs Ministry to withdraw its statement rejecting the resolution. The Union Government had recently objected to the resolution passed by the Ontario assembly and termed it misguided. We reject this misguided motion which is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said. He also said that the views of the Indian government had been conveyed to the government and political leadership in Canada. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal, however, said on Monday that the widespread massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and some other parts of the country in November 1984 was most certainly genocide of the community. We are grateful to the authorities and the people of Ontario for this touching gesture of compassion and solidarity. They have called this shameful chapter by its right name and they deserve our gratitude. Every Indian, except those guilty of this tragedy, considers it genocide he said. Sukhbir said that Sikhs across the world were grateful to the members of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) who stood by their Sikh brothers. We now request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to heal the deep wounds of the Sikh community by personally intervening and ensuring that the guilty do not go scot-free any longer, he said. There is no doubt about this in anyones mind that the Congress planned and executed the genocide of the Sikhs in 1984. Senior leaders of that party holding top positions in the government of India actively facilitated, directed and even participated in this gruesome episode. The entire world was shocked when the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi publicly justified it as a natural reaction to the falling of a big tree (Indira Gandhis assassination.) Another Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh later had to apologise for this to the nation, said Sukhbir. The motion was brought forward in the Ontario Assembly by Liberal MPP Harinder Malhi (Brampton-Springdale), which received support from all three provincial parties. The motion stated, In the opinion of this House, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario should reaffirm our commitment to the values we cherish justice, human rights and fairness and condemn all forms of communal violence, hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance in India and anywhere else in the world, including the 1984 genocide perpetrated against the Sikhs throughout India. We call on all sides to embrace truth and reconciliation.
Fayaz Wani By
Express News Service
SRI NAGAR: Sporadic incidents of violence were reported across Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, a day before bypoll to Srinagar parliamentary seat will be held on Sunday amid boycott call by separatists and militant groups. While gunshots were heard when senior PDP leader and CADP minister Ch Zulfiqar Ali was addressing party workers at Town Hall in South Kashmirs Anantnag district on Saturday, a cavalcade of PDP minister Abdul Rehman Veeri came under stone pelting at Kanelwan and Marhama villages in the same district.
Unknown persons also tried to set ablaze a government school building, designated as a polling station, in Narbal area of central Kashmirs Budgam district, however, the building was saved by the timely action of security men deployed in the area. Besides, a low intensity blast took place inside a government school premised designated as a polling station in Khanyar of downtown Srinagar.
A police spokesman said the blast took place due to mishandling of a tear gas canister by the security men.
J&K Chief Electoral Officer Shantmanu told New Indian Express that adequate security measures have been taken for smooth conduct of polling. As many as 1,559 polling stations have been set up for bypolls of Srinagar Lok Sabha seat and all of them have been declared as sensitive. Shantmanu said 150 paramilitary companies would be deployed for safety of polling booths in three central Kashmir districts Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal going to polls.
IG CRPF Ravideep Sahi said that 50 paramilitary companies could not reach the Valley for poll duties due to closure of Srinagar-Jammu national highway.
Asked whether they are anticipating stone pelting during the polling, Sahi said, There was stone pelting in Chadoora and Beerwah areas in central Kashmirs Budam district today. It was tackled by the security personnel.
SRI NAGAR: Sporadic incidents of violence were reported across Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, a day before bypoll to Srinagar parliamentary seat will be held on Sunday amid boycott call by separatists and militant groups. While gunshots were heard when senior PDP leader and CADP minister Ch Zulfiqar Ali was addressing party workers at Town Hall in South Kashmirs Anantnag district on Saturday, a cavalcade of PDP minister Abdul Rehman Veeri came under stone pelting at Kanelwan and Marhama villages in the same district. Unknown persons also tried to set ablaze a government school building, designated as a polling station, in Narbal area of central Kashmirs Budgam district, however, the building was saved by the timely action of security men deployed in the area. Besides, a low intensity blast took place inside a government school premised designated as a polling station in Khanyar of downtown Srinagar. A police spokesman said the blast took place due to mishandling of a tear gas canister by the security men. J&K Chief Electoral Officer Shantmanu told New Indian Express that adequate security measures have been taken for smooth conduct of polling. As many as 1,559 polling stations have been set up for bypolls of Srinagar Lok Sabha seat and all of them have been declared as sensitive. Shantmanu said 150 paramilitary companies would be deployed for safety of polling booths in three central Kashmir districts Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal going to polls. IG CRPF Ravideep Sahi said that 50 paramilitary companies could not reach the Valley for poll duties due to closure of Srinagar-Jammu national highway. Asked whether they are anticipating stone pelting during the polling, Sahi said, There was stone pelting in Chadoora and Beerwah areas in central Kashmirs Budam district today. It was tackled by the security personnel.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL seeking the declaration of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan as illegal and unconstitutional.
"This treaty is of 1960 and this treaty has held good for more than half a century," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while dismissing the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma in his personal capacity.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, however, made clear that the order dismissing the PIL "does not put any impairment on anybody".
The clarification came when Sharma said that the dismissal of the PIL should not put any restriction in the way of the government if it wants to review the Indo-Pak water pact.
During the brief hearing, it was argued that the Indus water pact was not a treaty at all as the same was not signed in the name of the President of India.
"It was a tripartite agreement between three leaders and void ab initio (illegal at the outset) and hence cannot be acted upon," the lawyer said.
The court said that it has perused the entire petition and does not wish to agree with it.
The Indus water agreement was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, the then Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories.
The apex court had last year refused to grant an urgent hearing on the PIL, saying there was no urgency in the matter while Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, to "keep politics aside".
Sharma, in his PIL, had referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.
However in the case of the 1960 Indus waters treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and "nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India", the plea had said.
"According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India...," it had said.
Sharma had said, "According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to national interest."
The treaty was "against the national interest and violated the fundamental right of the citizen of India affecting their life and livelihood", it had said.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL seeking the declaration of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan as illegal and unconstitutional. "This treaty is of 1960 and this treaty has held good for more than half a century," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while dismissing the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma in his personal capacity. The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, however, made clear that the order dismissing the PIL "does not put any impairment on anybody". The clarification came when Sharma said that the dismissal of the PIL should not put any restriction in the way of the government if it wants to review the Indo-Pak water pact. During the brief hearing, it was argued that the Indus water pact was not a treaty at all as the same was not signed in the name of the President of India. "It was a tripartite agreement between three leaders and void ab initio (illegal at the outset) and hence cannot be acted upon," the lawyer said. The court said that it has perused the entire petition and does not wish to agree with it. The Indus water agreement was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, the then Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories. The apex court had last year refused to grant an urgent hearing on the PIL, saying there was no urgency in the matter while Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, to "keep politics aside". Sharma, in his PIL, had referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President. However in the case of the 1960 Indus waters treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and "nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India", the plea had said. "According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India...," it had said. Sharma had said, "According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to national interest." The treaty was "against the national interest and violated the fundamental right of the citizen of India affecting their life and livelihood", it had said.
Ramananda Sengupta By
Express News Service
Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested by Pakistan for alleged espionage, was awarded death penalty by a military court; New Delhi summons envoy, says will consider the move as premeditated murder, cancels release of 12 Pakistanis
A Pakistani military court on Monday sentenced an Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan. Jadhav, according to authorities, was kidnapped from Iran before he resurfaced in the custody of Pakistani military.
The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM, the militarys media wing said.
Soon after the announcement, Indias foreign secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and handed over a formal demarche, which rejected the sentence as farcical and warned that if this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder. New Delhi also cancelled release of a dozen Pakistani prisoners who were slated to be repatriated on Wednesday.
According to Pakistans Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, through a counter-intelligence operation in Balochistans Mashkel area for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. He was tried by the FGCM under the Official Secret Act of 1923, and had confessed before a magistrate and court that he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan, the ISPR said.
Jadhav never worked for R&AW, asserts Roy, who held several senior roles in Indias external intelligence agency before retiring. He was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly. Jadhav had retired, and started a business in Iran in Chabahar, close to the Pakistan border. From all indications, it appears he was kidnapped from there. No intelligence agency will send a retired 48-year-old man to become a Rambo or a James Bond in Pakistan. To pretend that he also had all sources, contacts to raise terror groups over there is ridiculous. Had it been so, Pakistan would have arrested them by now, and paraded them all on TV.
A Pakistani handout of an Indian passport reportedly found with Kulbhushan Jadhav when he was arrested
Rahul K Bhonsle, director of Security Risks Asia, a consultancy which provides security Information products on South Asia, concurs. It is obvious that Pakistan Army abducted this person from Iran, where he was working, and then put him through a field general court martial. But as per the Army Act of Pakistan, FGCM is only applicable to those who are subject to the Act. Which means you have to be either enrolled or commissioned in the Pakistan Army. Now they have taken the shelter of the military courts, recently extended for two years. With this death sentence, India has to take quick action. Apart from diplomatic and political pressure, the India must also take the legal recourse of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
What could be the motive behind the death sentence handed out on Monday by a military court to Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, accused of spying in Pakistan? And what are Indias options?
This whole thing doesnt make any sense, says Bhaskar Roy, a former intelligence official. It is a very poorly constructed story. Even (Pakistans foreign affairs adviser) Sartaj Aziz had said some ago that there was no conclusive proof against him, though he backtracked later. After this they seem to have moved very fast. This was not a civil court, it was a military court. I dont know whether he had any lawyers on his behalf, but that is immaterial, because the army court would give you an army lawyer. It appears now that they are cornered. All their diplomatic campaigns against India have failed, he says.
A scoop by the Dawn newspaper some months ago exposed their own internal dilemma and rift between the government and the military over their positions on India. What now? Will they hang him, will they hold him for some bargaining? Hanging this man is not going to get them very far, because it will make things worse. So perhaps it is an advertising poster to the world, saying look here, India is fomenting terrorism and separatism in Pakistan, and we caught this fellow. But that is not going to sell very well. It doesnt call for a war or something like that, but we need to exert intense diplomatic pressure, Roy adds.
Also, after World War II, spies have not really been executed. During the Cold War, between the former Soviet Union and the US, there were instances of spies being caught and then exchanged. But in this case, if it is for an exchange, who do they want? They already have the people they want. And then why sentence him to death so fast? They seem to have gone too far, too fast. What recourse does Jadhav have? Pakistans president? Their President doesnt really have much authority, his hands are tied. So essentially I see this as posturing. Jadhav never worked for R&AW. As for his reported confession, anybody can say anything under torture. Why do you think they kept denying him consular access? Because then the truth would have come out, Roy says.
A multi-track approach has to be applied in this case, avers Rahul K Bhonsle, director of Security Risks Asia, a consultancy organisation.
Apart from exerting diplomatic and political pressure, we must utilise the legal option. The Pakistan Supreme Court has to be approached, so that cognizance of this trial is taken and full legal perspective is obtained. We have of course given the demarche, and we have always got some political back channels open, which should be used. The point they are trying to prove is that the terrorists in Pakistan are supported heavily by India. Given the series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan last month, possibly they are looking for an alibi. Then the Chinese are questioning them about the lack of security along the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. So, Pakistan can justify the poor security aspect of CPEC by blaming India for it.
Major Navdeep Singh, a practicing advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the Armed Forces Tribunal described the trial as violation of Article 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Trial by a sham military court, especially of a civilian, is against Art 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Pakistan tries civilians through secret court martial, rather than courts. Spies caught in India are put through trial in regular civil courts. Some are even acquitted, he says.
(With inputs from Ritu Sharma in New Delhi)
Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested by Pakistan for alleged espionage, was awarded death penalty by a military court; New Delhi summons envoy, says will consider the move as premeditated murder, cancels release of 12 Pakistanis A Pakistani military court on Monday sentenced an Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for his alleged involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan. Jadhav, according to authorities, was kidnapped from Iran before he resurfaced in the custody of Pakistani military. The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM, the militarys media wing said. Soon after the announcement, Indias foreign secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and handed over a formal demarche, which rejected the sentence as farcical and warned that if this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder. New Delhi also cancelled release of a dozen Pakistani prisoners who were slated to be repatriated on Wednesday. According to Pakistans Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, through a counter-intelligence operation in Balochistans Mashkel area for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. He was tried by the FGCM under the Official Secret Act of 1923, and had confessed before a magistrate and court that he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan, the ISPR said. Jadhav never worked for R&AW, asserts Roy, who held several senior roles in Indias external intelligence agency before retiring. He was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly. Jadhav had retired, and started a business in Iran in Chabahar, close to the Pakistan border. From all indications, it appears he was kidnapped from there. No intelligence agency will send a retired 48-year-old man to become a Rambo or a James Bond in Pakistan. To pretend that he also had all sources, contacts to raise terror groups over there is ridiculous. Had it been so, Pakistan would have arrested them by now, and paraded them all on TV. A Pakistani handout of an Indian passport reportedly found with Kulbhushan Jadhav when he was arrestedRahul K Bhonsle, director of Security Risks Asia, a consultancy which provides security Information products on South Asia, concurs. It is obvious that Pakistan Army abducted this person from Iran, where he was working, and then put him through a field general court martial. But as per the Army Act of Pakistan, FGCM is only applicable to those who are subject to the Act. Which means you have to be either enrolled or commissioned in the Pakistan Army. Now they have taken the shelter of the military courts, recently extended for two years. With this death sentence, India has to take quick action. Apart from diplomatic and political pressure, the India must also take the legal recourse of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. What could be the motive behind the death sentence handed out on Monday by a military court to Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, accused of spying in Pakistan? And what are Indias options? This whole thing doesnt make any sense, says Bhaskar Roy, a former intelligence official. It is a very poorly constructed story. Even (Pakistans foreign affairs adviser) Sartaj Aziz had said some ago that there was no conclusive proof against him, though he backtracked later. After this they seem to have moved very fast. This was not a civil court, it was a military court. I dont know whether he had any lawyers on his behalf, but that is immaterial, because the army court would give you an army lawyer. It appears now that they are cornered. All their diplomatic campaigns against India have failed, he says. A scoop by the Dawn newspaper some months ago exposed their own internal dilemma and rift between the government and the military over their positions on India. What now? Will they hang him, will they hold him for some bargaining? Hanging this man is not going to get them very far, because it will make things worse. So perhaps it is an advertising poster to the world, saying look here, India is fomenting terrorism and separatism in Pakistan, and we caught this fellow. But that is not going to sell very well. It doesnt call for a war or something like that, but we need to exert intense diplomatic pressure, Roy adds. Also, after World War II, spies have not really been executed. During the Cold War, between the former Soviet Union and the US, there were instances of spies being caught and then exchanged. But in this case, if it is for an exchange, who do they want? They already have the people they want. And then why sentence him to death so fast? They seem to have gone too far, too fast. What recourse does Jadhav have? Pakistans president? Their President doesnt really have much authority, his hands are tied. So essentially I see this as posturing. Jadhav never worked for R&AW. As for his reported confession, anybody can say anything under torture. Why do you think they kept denying him consular access? Because then the truth would have come out, Roy says. A multi-track approach has to be applied in this case, avers Rahul K Bhonsle, director of Security Risks Asia, a consultancy organisation. Apart from exerting diplomatic and political pressure, we must utilise the legal option. The Pakistan Supreme Court has to be approached, so that cognizance of this trial is taken and full legal perspective is obtained. We have of course given the demarche, and we have always got some political back channels open, which should be used. The point they are trying to prove is that the terrorists in Pakistan are supported heavily by India. Given the series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan last month, possibly they are looking for an alibi. Then the Chinese are questioning them about the lack of security along the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. So, Pakistan can justify the poor security aspect of CPEC by blaming India for it. Major Navdeep Singh, a practicing advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the Armed Forces Tribunal described the trial as violation of Article 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Trial by a sham military court, especially of a civilian, is against Art 14 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. Pakistan tries civilians through secret court martial, rather than courts. Spies caught in India are put through trial in regular civil courts. Some are even acquitted, he says. (With inputs from Ritu Sharma in New Delhi)
By Express News Service
LUCKNOW: Sending out a word of caution to the Shia community against meddling with the issue of Triple Talaq, prominent Shia clerics advised the community to stay out of the matter as it was the practice followed by the majority Sunni sect.
It is an unislamic practice for Shias, said Maulana Kalbe Jawad, general secretary of Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Hind, in Lucknow on Monday.
The Shia cleric was speaking at the general body meeting of Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Hind, a national level body of Shia clerics attended by members from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Kargil, Lucknow and other parts of Uttar Pradesh.
It is an oppressive practice which strips the Sunni women of their marital rights. So the initiative to resolve the issue should come from Sunni clerics, the body said.
Those going vocal over the issue are doing so owing to their political motives and to create a Shia-Sunni rift, said Jawad. We dont have a right to force our opinion on the community when we have no stake in the issue, and for Shias the practice is any way illegitimate, he added.
On the state governments crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in the state, Jawad blamed the previous Samajwadi Party government for not renewing licences on time and letting the illegal butcheries run without proper documents.
In an oblique reference to the Akhilesh government, Jawad said that those who used to claim themselves to be the messiah of Muslims should be held responsible for the plight of meat traders and the overall chaos therein. He added that meat traders should be given time and opportunity by the present dispensation to update their documents.
While the Shia body favoured the settlement of the Babri issue through mutual dialogue as per the Supreme Courts suggestion, it opined that the thought of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) was unrealistic in the Indian context as even a majority Hindus had region-specific customs and traditions which could not be brought under the single purview of UCC.
Shia leaders opposed cow vigilante groups vehemently and deplored high-handedness and hooliganism in the name of cow protection.
LUCKNOW: Sending out a word of caution to the Shia community against meddling with the issue of Triple Talaq, prominent Shia clerics advised the community to stay out of the matter as it was the practice followed by the majority Sunni sect. It is an unislamic practice for Shias, said Maulana Kalbe Jawad, general secretary of Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Hind, in Lucknow on Monday. The Shia cleric was speaking at the general body meeting of Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Hind, a national level body of Shia clerics attended by members from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Kargil, Lucknow and other parts of Uttar Pradesh. It is an oppressive practice which strips the Sunni women of their marital rights. So the initiative to resolve the issue should come from Sunni clerics, the body said. Those going vocal over the issue are doing so owing to their political motives and to create a Shia-Sunni rift, said Jawad. We dont have a right to force our opinion on the community when we have no stake in the issue, and for Shias the practice is any way illegitimate, he added. On the state governments crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in the state, Jawad blamed the previous Samajwadi Party government for not renewing licences on time and letting the illegal butcheries run without proper documents. In an oblique reference to the Akhilesh government, Jawad said that those who used to claim themselves to be the messiah of Muslims should be held responsible for the plight of meat traders and the overall chaos therein. He added that meat traders should be given time and opportunity by the present dispensation to update their documents. While the Shia body favoured the settlement of the Babri issue through mutual dialogue as per the Supreme Courts suggestion, it opined that the thought of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) was unrealistic in the Indian context as even a majority Hindus had region-specific customs and traditions which could not be brought under the single purview of UCC. Shia leaders opposed cow vigilante groups vehemently and deplored high-handedness and hooliganism in the name of cow protection.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday called acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn to say he had explained to Chinese President Xi Jinping the U.S. position on the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery in South Korea, according to the Foreign Ministry here.
In their 20-minute conversation, Trump said he emphasized the importance of the Seoul-Washington alliance and spent a lot of time during the summit discussing the Korean Peninsula.
He added he explained that the THAAD deployment is purely defensive and aimed at containing North Korean missile attacks.
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: We cannot trust Pakistans ISPR or their military courts, says a senior bureaucrat who has dealt extensively with Pakistan. We dont need to go very far to prove this.
In March last year, a few days before Pakistan announced that Kulbhushan Jadhav was in its custody, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani was in Islamabad.
A day after his visit, the then DG of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), General Asim Bajwa, tweeted that Rouhani and Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif had a meeting in which it was discussed that India is interfering in Balochistan, that sometimes it is using Iranian soil, and the Iranian leadership should urge India not to do such things which could destabliise Pakistan. The very next day, Rouhani denied it, saying no such issue was discussed. So either Rouhani or the ISPR is lying. No marks for guessing who we can trust.
As for these military courts, when their tenure was being extended, all the opposition parties in Pakistan expressed serious reservations about the transparency of these trials. Earlier, the military court did not allow the accused to have a counsel. So the military was the judge, the prosecutor, the witness, everything. None of the requisites of justice were fulfilled. Even the human rights people raised the same issue The PPP said there should be a sessions judge along with the military to try the accused, but then this condition was withdrawn. So under this law, you can arrest anyone...
There is no independent way of ascertaining the truth, agrees Mohammad Shehzad, an analyst and journalist in Pakistan. But this works for India as well. I cant remember the name, but there was this Pakistani professor who went to India to attend a wedding, and was arrested in India for murder. He was never charged, but he spent many many years, decades, until he was acquitted so this is not just true for Pakistan. In both countries, anyone can be accused, and is guilty until proven innocent.
NEW DELHI: We cannot trust Pakistans ISPR or their military courts, says a senior bureaucrat who has dealt extensively with Pakistan. We dont need to go very far to prove this. In March last year, a few days before Pakistan announced that Kulbhushan Jadhav was in its custody, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani was in Islamabad. A day after his visit, the then DG of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), General Asim Bajwa, tweeted that Rouhani and Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif had a meeting in which it was discussed that India is interfering in Balochistan, that sometimes it is using Iranian soil, and the Iranian leadership should urge India not to do such things which could destabliise Pakistan. The very next day, Rouhani denied it, saying no such issue was discussed. So either Rouhani or the ISPR is lying. No marks for guessing who we can trust. As for these military courts, when their tenure was being extended, all the opposition parties in Pakistan expressed serious reservations about the transparency of these trials. Earlier, the military court did not allow the accused to have a counsel. So the military was the judge, the prosecutor, the witness, everything. None of the requisites of justice were fulfilled. Even the human rights people raised the same issue The PPP said there should be a sessions judge along with the military to try the accused, but then this condition was withdrawn. So under this law, you can arrest anyone... There is no independent way of ascertaining the truth, agrees Mohammad Shehzad, an analyst and journalist in Pakistan. But this works for India as well. I cant remember the name, but there was this Pakistani professor who went to India to attend a wedding, and was arrested in India for murder. He was never charged, but he spent many many years, decades, until he was acquitted so this is not just true for Pakistan. In both countries, anyone can be accused, and is guilty until proven innocent.
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: It was a day on which two political veterans one from Bangladesh and another from India went down the memory lane albeit for different reasons. One was Sheikh Hasina and the other BJP veteran L K Advani.
In Hasinas case, everytime she visits India, it is a sort of homecoming for her. On her current visit, the Bangladesh Prime Minister on Monday opened up about the events following the assassination of her family in 1975.
A visibly emotional Hasina told a gathering of people at an event organised by India Foundation that she and her sister were rendered homeless, countryless and became refugees, and that it was Indias former PM Indira Gandhi, who came to their rescue.
They (the assassins) attacked three houses and killed 18 people. We had nobody there. We were at that time homeless, countryless, we became refugees. But at that time Mrs Indira Gandhi immediately sent a message to us asking us come to India, Hasina said.
On August 15, 1975, her whole family including the then PM Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, her mother, three brothers, two newly-wedded sister-in-laws and an uncle were killed. Hasina and her sister were in Germany at that time.
I dont know without that shelter what would have been our condition. We express our gratitude to everyone in India, she added.
Speaking at the event, Advani rued that the Sindh province in Pakistan, where he was born, is not a part of independent India.
I do not know how many of you have this realisation, the realisation that I have that there was one part of India, when India was undivided, not independent and was under British rule, there was one such part where I was born... I and my comrades, those who lived in that part feel sad (about this) he said. He said since Hasina is visiting, he thought of sharing his anguish.
NEW DELHI: It was a day on which two political veterans one from Bangladesh and another from India went down the memory lane albeit for different reasons. One was Sheikh Hasina and the other BJP veteran L K Advani. In Hasinas case, everytime she visits India, it is a sort of homecoming for her. On her current visit, the Bangladesh Prime Minister on Monday opened up about the events following the assassination of her family in 1975. A visibly emotional Hasina told a gathering of people at an event organised by India Foundation that she and her sister were rendered homeless, countryless and became refugees, and that it was Indias former PM Indira Gandhi, who came to their rescue. They (the assassins) attacked three houses and killed 18 people. We had nobody there. We were at that time homeless, countryless, we became refugees. But at that time Mrs Indira Gandhi immediately sent a message to us asking us come to India, Hasina said. On August 15, 1975, her whole family including the then PM Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, her mother, three brothers, two newly-wedded sister-in-laws and an uncle were killed. Hasina and her sister were in Germany at that time. I dont know without that shelter what would have been our condition. We express our gratitude to everyone in India, she added. Speaking at the event, Advani rued that the Sindh province in Pakistan, where he was born, is not a part of independent India. I do not know how many of you have this realisation, the realisation that I have that there was one part of India, when India was undivided, not independent and was under British rule, there was one such part where I was born... I and my comrades, those who lived in that part feel sad (about this) he said. He said since Hasina is visiting, he thought of sharing his anguish.
Sreeram Sundar Chaulia By
US President Donald Trumps spur-of-the-moment decision to attack a Syrian government airbase on April 7 threatens to prolong an intractable armed conflict that has dragged on for six years. By targeting a key military installation of the Syrian state with 59 Tomahawk missiles, Trump has breathed life back into a failing insurgency against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and muddled the US core purpose of eliminating the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups.
One reason for Americas past failure to definitively trounce the IS and its ilk has been confusion of motives. Under the Barack Obama administration, there used to be two ill-matched goals of American
policy. On the one hand, Washington wanted to oust the Shia Assad from power for losing his moral legitimacy by alienating the Sunni majority of Syria through brutal repression. On the other, Obama swore to degrade and ultimately destroy the IS and related terror organisations that had chosen Syria as their main base for a holy war.
Until 2015, the US and its allies like Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait armed Sunni rebels and jihadists to force Assad to cede control over most of Syria. The result was a weakened Syrian government unable to prevent the IS and al-Qaeda affiliates from establishing de facto states in vast tracts of ungoverned territory. If not for Russia and Iran pumping in emergency weaponry and troops to prop up Assad, there were occasions when he was on the verge of losing every inch left in his rump state.
Having first carved out an enabling space for jihadists and anti-regime guerrillas, the US and its allies then started aerial bombing to keep the IS under check from September 2014. This self-contradictory American behaviour produced a stalemate, with neither Assad and his backers Russia and Iran, nor the rebels or terrorists succeeding in consolidating power over the whole country.
It was a bloody balance in which the Syrian state and its adversaries kept on fighting and killing relentlessly to expand their respective zones of influence. Sceptics who grew tired of the war
suspected that the hidden objective of the US and its allies in the Middle East was to keep Syria burning and maintain its division into multiple fiefdoms without any one side gaining the upper hand.
Trump entered this warped scenario in January 2017 with a fresh mind and promised to go after the IS and its kin as his sole focus. His aides pronounced that since Assad had entrenched himself with Russian and Iranian support, Washington was going to accept him as a political reality and halt the quixotic
Obama-era quest for his removal. Simultaneously, the US sent strong signals to Russia for joining hands against the scourge of IS.
By jettisoning regime change in Syria and working to accommodate Russian concerns, Trump positioned himself in his initial months in office as a hard-nosed practitioner of realpolitik who would train all his guns on the jihadi menace. But just as it seemed that a new configuration was emerging with the US, Russia, Iran and the Syrian state cooperating against IS and al-Qaeda, a controversial chemical attack occurred in the rebel-held Idlib Governorate of northern Syria.
Within 63 hours of that grave incident, whose timing exudes an air of unresolved mystery, Trump upended his outlook and suddenly declared in emotional tones that he will not tolerate babies being
gassed allegedly by Assads air force. The US president, who had previously shown zero commitment to human rights and costly military action abroad, plunged into the Syrian war by frontally attacking Assad and challenging Russia and Iran.
This unexpected volte-face by an instinctive Trump has emboldened the plethora of anti-Assad rebels and terrorists who had been on the back foot since Russia had intervened in the conflict in 2015. Their
pleas for greater US military assistance and involvement against Assad have finally been heard by the US administration, which avowed after the missile strikes that no peace is possible in Syria until Assad is overthrown.
US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has restated the moribund Obama formula that
defeating IS and dethroning Assad are both top priorities for the US from now on. Left unanswered is the old dilemma of what will fill the vacuum if Assad is forcibly ejected. The ambiguity suits al-Qaeda and the IS, whose holy warriors are lurking on the edges of government-held territory and waiting for a chance to invade the Shia heartland if Assad is toppled or on the ropes.
Symbolic American missile attacks on regime military assets and warnings to Russia to stay clear are music to the ears of jihadists. A tragic French phrase fits the current situation aptly: plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose (the more that things change, the more they remain the same).
Enraged by the US attack on the Syrian airbase, where Russia had stationed personnel
and weaponry, Moscow has suspended coordination mechanisms with Washington that had hitherto helped to deconflict the two sides. Russia is also enhancing deployment of hi-tech anti-missile systems to safeguard Syrian government military bases from future US attacks. These countermeasures will have the effect of slowing down the US-led coalitions assault on IS strongholds and give the terrorists room to regroup and defend themselves better.
The US proclamation that it is prepared to do more to deter Assads alleged chemical attacks introduces supreme uncertainty and reduces chances of a US-Russia rapprochement. And if these two
powers remain at loggerheads, the war in Syria will never cease. Trumps impulsive bid to don the mantle of a humanitarian interventionist to save Syrian babies could thus end up costing even more innocent Syrian lives.
The author is Professor and Dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs
Email: schaulia@jgu.edu.in
US President Donald Trumps spur-of-the-moment decision to attack a Syrian government airbase on April 7 threatens to prolong an intractable armed conflict that has dragged on for six years. By targeting a key military installation of the Syrian state with 59 Tomahawk missiles, Trump has breathed life back into a failing insurgency against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and muddled the US core purpose of eliminating the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups. One reason for Americas past failure to definitively trounce the IS and its ilk has been confusion of motives. Under the Barack Obama administration, there used to be two ill-matched goals of American policy. On the one hand, Washington wanted to oust the Shia Assad from power for losing his moral legitimacy by alienating the Sunni majority of Syria through brutal repression. On the other, Obama swore to degrade and ultimately destroy the IS and related terror organisations that had chosen Syria as their main base for a holy war. Until 2015, the US and its allies like Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait armed Sunni rebels and jihadists to force Assad to cede control over most of Syria. The result was a weakened Syrian government unable to prevent the IS and al-Qaeda affiliates from establishing de facto states in vast tracts of ungoverned territory. If not for Russia and Iran pumping in emergency weaponry and troops to prop up Assad, there were occasions when he was on the verge of losing every inch left in his rump state. Having first carved out an enabling space for jihadists and anti-regime guerrillas, the US and its allies then started aerial bombing to keep the IS under check from September 2014. This self-contradictory American behaviour produced a stalemate, with neither Assad and his backers Russia and Iran, nor the rebels or terrorists succeeding in consolidating power over the whole country. It was a bloody balance in which the Syrian state and its adversaries kept on fighting and killing relentlessly to expand their respective zones of influence. Sceptics who grew tired of the war suspected that the hidden objective of the US and its allies in the Middle East was to keep Syria burning and maintain its division into multiple fiefdoms without any one side gaining the upper hand. Trump entered this warped scenario in January 2017 with a fresh mind and promised to go after the IS and its kin as his sole focus. His aides pronounced that since Assad had entrenched himself with Russian and Iranian support, Washington was going to accept him as a political reality and halt the quixotic Obama-era quest for his removal. Simultaneously, the US sent strong signals to Russia for joining hands against the scourge of IS. By jettisoning regime change in Syria and working to accommodate Russian concerns, Trump positioned himself in his initial months in office as a hard-nosed practitioner of realpolitik who would train all his guns on the jihadi menace. But just as it seemed that a new configuration was emerging with the US, Russia, Iran and the Syrian state cooperating against IS and al-Qaeda, a controversial chemical attack occurred in the rebel-held Idlib Governorate of northern Syria. Within 63 hours of that grave incident, whose timing exudes an air of unresolved mystery, Trump upended his outlook and suddenly declared in emotional tones that he will not tolerate babies being gassed allegedly by Assads air force. The US president, who had previously shown zero commitment to human rights and costly military action abroad, plunged into the Syrian war by frontally attacking Assad and challenging Russia and Iran. This unexpected volte-face by an instinctive Trump has emboldened the plethora of anti-Assad rebels and terrorists who had been on the back foot since Russia had intervened in the conflict in 2015. Their pleas for greater US military assistance and involvement against Assad have finally been heard by the US administration, which avowed after the missile strikes that no peace is possible in Syria until Assad is overthrown. US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has restated the moribund Obama formula that defeating IS and dethroning Assad are both top priorities for the US from now on. Left unanswered is the old dilemma of what will fill the vacuum if Assad is forcibly ejected. The ambiguity suits al-Qaeda and the IS, whose holy warriors are lurking on the edges of government-held territory and waiting for a chance to invade the Shia heartland if Assad is toppled or on the ropes. Symbolic American missile attacks on regime military assets and warnings to Russia to stay clear are music to the ears of jihadists. A tragic French phrase fits the current situation aptly: plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose (the more that things change, the more they remain the same). Enraged by the US attack on the Syrian airbase, where Russia had stationed personnel and weaponry, Moscow has suspended coordination mechanisms with Washington that had hitherto helped to deconflict the two sides. Russia is also enhancing deployment of hi-tech anti-missile systems to safeguard Syrian government military bases from future US attacks. These countermeasures will have the effect of slowing down the US-led coalitions assault on IS strongholds and give the terrorists room to regroup and defend themselves better. The US proclamation that it is prepared to do more to deter Assads alleged chemical attacks introduces supreme uncertainty and reduces chances of a US-Russia rapprochement. And if these two powers remain at loggerheads, the war in Syria will never cease. Trumps impulsive bid to don the mantle of a humanitarian interventionist to save Syrian babies could thus end up costing even more innocent Syrian lives. The author is Professor and Dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs Email: schaulia@jgu.edu.in
A Surya Prakash By
The controversy raised by the Bahujan Samaj Party leaderMayawati and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) following the massive victory of
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently-held Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections has once again raised the question as to whether these machines are tamper-proof. These doubts and accusations are not new. They have been raised over the last decade by many political parties including the BJP, but some significant developments in recent years have weakened arguments against deployment of voting machines.
Among them are: Successful deployment of these machines in several national elections during this period without any serious challenge to their efficacy and credibility; the remarkable end to booth
capturing after these machines were introduced; judicial pronouncements that do not support a return to paper ballots, but encourage introduction of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to put an end to all controversies; and the Election Commissions determined efforts to introduce the paper trail in national elections at the earliest.
But, before we address the substantive issues vis-a-vis voting machines, we also need to ask why there was no ruckus about deployment of voting machines after the election to the Delhi Assembly in
February, 2015. In that election, Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party won a mind-boggling 67 of the 70 seats in the Assembly. The BJP bagged the remaining three. Kejriwals party secured 54.34 per cent of the vote, but 95.71 per cent of the seats, whereas the BJP secured 32.19 per cent of the vote but just 4 per cent of the seats. These results showed a complete disjunction between vote share and seat share and would surely have merited a protest, because one rarely sees such a one-sided election. But, strangely, there were no Doubting Thomases at that time! Therefore, those who feel nothing was amiss in Delhi in 2015
have a rather weak case vis-a-vis Uttar Pradesh 2017.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) thought of a more efficient method of voting via EVMs way back in the 1980s because of rampant booth-capturing, violence and destruction of ballot papers etc
during elections. The commission first thought of this revolutionary idea when S L Shakdhar was the Chief Election Commissioner and K Ganesan, the Secretary of the ECI.
They decided to take the risk of introducing the machines on an experimental basis, even though the election law did not provide for use of machines to record votes. Some polling booths in Parur
Assembly Constituency in Kerala were chosen for the experiment in 1982.This legal infirmity was corrected with the amendment of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 in March, 1989 to incorporate the voting machine". Following controversies and accusations that EVMs could be manipulated, the ECI agreed in principle in 2010 to introduce Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). This results in generation of a paper slip bearing the name and symbol of the candidate for whom the vote is cast apart from the recording of the vote in the control unit in the machine.
This system ensures greater transparency in that it enables the voter to see that his vote has gone to the candidate of his choice. It also provides an alternate system to count the votes polled, in case of a dispute. In other words, one need not rely wholly on the numbers dished out by the control unit in the
machine. A printer is attached to the balloting unit and kept in the voting compartment. It is visible to the voter for seven seconds through a transparent window. The Election Commission used VVPAT for the first time in a by-election in Nagaland in 2013.
The use of EVMs have been challenged before many High Courts and even before the Supreme Court in recent years. But, the judiciary is not convinced that the machines can be manipulated. On the other
hand, many High Courts have given EVMs the 'Thumbs Up'. The ECI has summed up some of the judiciary observations on its website. For example, the Karnataka High Court has said this invention was undoubtedly a great achievement... and a national pride. The Madras High Court ruled out any possibility of tampering of the machines. It said EVMs cannot be compared to personal computers. The programming of computers had no bearing with EVMs. The Delhi High Court asked the ECI to
consult all parties and develop a VVPAT system that would put an end to all doubt.
The Supreme Court has also directed ECI to introduce VVPAT in phases and asked the government to provide funds for the purpose. The commission is keen to introduce paper trail in all constituencies
during the next Lok Sabha election in 2019. It has asked the government to allocate Rs 3174 crore for the purpose. The commission told the Supreme Court recently that it could get the required number of VVPAT units manufactured in 30 months from the date of sanction of funds.
While the ECI has reaffirmed its complete faith in the infallibility of the EVMs, it has also initiated steps to introduce the paper trail as directed by the apex court. In the last round of elections to five state Assemblies in February-March 2017, the ECI deployed 52,000 VVPATs. In Goa, it deployed the paper
trail in all the 40 constituencies.
Given these firm judicial pronouncements and the move towards full deployment of VVPATwhich will ensure that the machine is crediblethe arguments against EVMs must end. The paper trail will bring in much needed transparency and also offer a fall back in case of disputes. Let us not go back to the era of paper ballots and booth capturing!
The author is Chairman, Prasar Bharati
Email: suryamedia@gmail.com
The controversy raised by the Bahujan Samaj Party leaderMayawati and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) following the massive victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently-held Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections has once again raised the question as to whether these machines are tamper-proof. These doubts and accusations are not new. They have been raised over the last decade by many political parties including the BJP, but some significant developments in recent years have weakened arguments against deployment of voting machines. Among them are: Successful deployment of these machines in several national elections during this period without any serious challenge to their efficacy and credibility; the remarkable end to booth capturing after these machines were introduced; judicial pronouncements that do not support a return to paper ballots, but encourage introduction of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to put an end to all controversies; and the Election Commissions determined efforts to introduce the paper trail in national elections at the earliest. But, before we address the substantive issues vis-a-vis voting machines, we also need to ask why there was no ruckus about deployment of voting machines after the election to the Delhi Assembly in February, 2015. In that election, Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party won a mind-boggling 67 of the 70 seats in the Assembly. The BJP bagged the remaining three. Kejriwals party secured 54.34 per cent of the vote, but 95.71 per cent of the seats, whereas the BJP secured 32.19 per cent of the vote but just 4 per cent of the seats. These results showed a complete disjunction between vote share and seat share and would surely have merited a protest, because one rarely sees such a one-sided election. But, strangely, there were no Doubting Thomases at that time! Therefore, those who feel nothing was amiss in Delhi in 2015 have a rather weak case vis-a-vis Uttar Pradesh 2017. The Election Commission of India (ECI) thought of a more efficient method of voting via EVMs way back in the 1980s because of rampant booth-capturing, violence and destruction of ballot papers etc during elections. The commission first thought of this revolutionary idea when S L Shakdhar was the Chief Election Commissioner and K Ganesan, the Secretary of the ECI. They decided to take the risk of introducing the machines on an experimental basis, even though the election law did not provide for use of machines to record votes. Some polling booths in Parur Assembly Constituency in Kerala were chosen for the experiment in 1982.This legal infirmity was corrected with the amendment of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 in March, 1989 to incorporate the voting machine". Following controversies and accusations that EVMs could be manipulated, the ECI agreed in principle in 2010 to introduce Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). This results in generation of a paper slip bearing the name and symbol of the candidate for whom the vote is cast apart from the recording of the vote in the control unit in the machine. This system ensures greater transparency in that it enables the voter to see that his vote has gone to the candidate of his choice. It also provides an alternate system to count the votes polled, in case of a dispute. In other words, one need not rely wholly on the numbers dished out by the control unit in the machine. A printer is attached to the balloting unit and kept in the voting compartment. It is visible to the voter for seven seconds through a transparent window. The Election Commission used VVPAT for the first time in a by-election in Nagaland in 2013. The use of EVMs have been challenged before many High Courts and even before the Supreme Court in recent years. But, the judiciary is not convinced that the machines can be manipulated. On the other hand, many High Courts have given EVMs the 'Thumbs Up'. The ECI has summed up some of the judiciary observations on its website. For example, the Karnataka High Court has said this invention was undoubtedly a great achievement... and a national pride. The Madras High Court ruled out any possibility of tampering of the machines. It said EVMs cannot be compared to personal computers. The programming of computers had no bearing with EVMs. The Delhi High Court asked the ECI to consult all parties and develop a VVPAT system that would put an end to all doubt. The Supreme Court has also directed ECI to introduce VVPAT in phases and asked the government to provide funds for the purpose. The commission is keen to introduce paper trail in all constituencies during the next Lok Sabha election in 2019. It has asked the government to allocate Rs 3174 crore for the purpose. The commission told the Supreme Court recently that it could get the required number of VVPAT units manufactured in 30 months from the date of sanction of funds. While the ECI has reaffirmed its complete faith in the infallibility of the EVMs, it has also initiated steps to introduce the paper trail as directed by the apex court. In the last round of elections to five state Assemblies in February-March 2017, the ECI deployed 52,000 VVPATs. In Goa, it deployed the paper trail in all the 40 constituencies. Given these firm judicial pronouncements and the move towards full deployment of VVPATwhich will ensure that the machine is crediblethe arguments against EVMs must end. The paper trail will bring in much needed transparency and also offer a fall back in case of disputes. Let us not go back to the era of paper ballots and booth capturing! The author is Chairman, Prasar Bharati Email: suryamedia@gmail.com
Dia Rekhi By
Express News Service
CHENNAI: Driving on Anna Salai became a scary affair on Sunday as the road caved in near the Gemini flyover, trapping an MTC bus with about 25 passengers and a car. Luckily, none suffered major injuries and all of them got out of the vehicles quickly.The Chennai Metro Rail had been carrying out tunnelling work for the underground track about 18 m beneath the Thousand Lights-DMS stretch. But the CMRL attributed the incident to the existing loose soil pocket.
There was a crack in the road, a mild tremor, and the bus started going in; the passengers rushed out. Then, a car close behind also went in, recounted A Saravanan, who watched the incident that happened around 2 pm near the Church Park bus stop. Saravanan and others stopped other vehicles approaching the spot.
The police blocked traffic movement on the arterial road and within a few hours, both vehicles were pulled out. The hole was filled with concrete and Metro Rail said the road would again be safe for use by Monday morning.
CHENNAI: Driving on Anna Salai became a scary affair on Sunday as the road caved in near the Gemini flyover, trapping an MTC bus with about 25 passengers and a car. Luckily, none suffered major injuries and all of them got out of the vehicles quickly.The Chennai Metro Rail had been carrying out tunnelling work for the underground track about 18 m beneath the Thousand Lights-DMS stretch. But the CMRL attributed the incident to the existing loose soil pocket. There was a crack in the road, a mild tremor, and the bus started going in; the passengers rushed out. Then, a car close behind also went in, recounted A Saravanan, who watched the incident that happened around 2 pm near the Church Park bus stop. Saravanan and others stopped other vehicles approaching the spot. The police blocked traffic movement on the arterial road and within a few hours, both vehicles were pulled out. The hole was filled with concrete and Metro Rail said the road would again be safe for use by Monday morning.
By AFP
LAGOS: Gunmen have shot dead four policemen, an army captain and a civilian in an attack on a community outside Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, police said today.
The gunmen invaded Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu early on Sunday and kidnapped residents after looting their homes and shops.
"Around 1:00am on Sunday, the police received a distress call that a group of militants and kidnappers had entered Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu through the thick swampy forest surrounding the area," Lagos police spokesman Olarinde Famous-Cole told AFP.
"They were reported to have kidnapped some residents. In response, the police and the army immediately mobilised personnel to the area where the kidnapped victims were rescued," he said.
"Sadly, however, five of the gallant and patriotic officers lost their lives during the rescue operation," he said.
Famous-Cole said police were combing the surrounding forests and creeks in search of the attackers.
Despite security generally improving in Lagos in recent years, hard economic conditions still force some people to turn to crime.
Last October, four students and two teachers were abducted from a school in Epe by gunmen in speed boats, prompting the government to demolish waterfront shanties in a bid to flush out the criminals.
In one such demolition, some 30,000 residents of Otodo- Gbame, near the upscale Lekki district, were made homeless, angering rights groups including Amnesty International.(
LAGOS: Gunmen have shot dead four policemen, an army captain and a civilian in an attack on a community outside Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, police said today. The gunmen invaded Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu early on Sunday and kidnapped residents after looting their homes and shops. "Around 1:00am on Sunday, the police received a distress call that a group of militants and kidnappers had entered Owutu-Ishawo in Ikorodu through the thick swampy forest surrounding the area," Lagos police spokesman Olarinde Famous-Cole told AFP. "They were reported to have kidnapped some residents. In response, the police and the army immediately mobilised personnel to the area where the kidnapped victims were rescued," he said. "Sadly, however, five of the gallant and patriotic officers lost their lives during the rescue operation," he said. Famous-Cole said police were combing the surrounding forests and creeks in search of the attackers. Despite security generally improving in Lagos in recent years, hard economic conditions still force some people to turn to crime. Last October, four students and two teachers were abducted from a school in Epe by gunmen in speed boats, prompting the government to demolish waterfront shanties in a bid to flush out the criminals. In one such demolition, some 30,000 residents of Otodo- Gbame, near the upscale Lekki district, were made homeless, angering rights groups including Amnesty International.(
By AFP
HONG KONG: A Hong Kong technician was jailed for four years and nine months today for rioting and arson during anti-China protests last year, in the harshest punishment yet over the unrest.
The case is the latest in a slew of legal action against demonstrators and comes soon after new pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam was selected as leader of the semi-autonomous city. Yeung Ka-lun, 32, was pictured in news footage torching a taxi during the February 2016 unrest, which tapped into fears that Beijing is tightening its grip on Hong Kong.
During clashes dubbed the "fishball revolution", police fired warning shots in the air, while demonstrators hurled bricks torn up from pavements, charged police lines with homemade shields and set rubbish on fire.
"The court must send a message that these acts cannot be tolerated," said a judge at the Hong Kong court, in justifying the sentencing. He said protesters shared a goal to disrupt social order and had threatened public safety.
While Yeung had no previous criminal records, he was "extremely reckless" in setting fire to the car in a crowded urban area, the judge added. Outside the court, the acting superintendent of the organised crime bureau said, "police believe that the sentence has sufficiently reflected the seriousness and gravity of the offences."
A small number of supporters sat in on the hearing and expressed outrage over the sentence. Last month three activists were jailed for three years on "riot" charges for their role in the same protests. Like Yeung, they were not well-known campaigners.
The riot's alleged ringleaders from "localist" campaign group Hong Kong Indigenous, which advocates more autonomy for the city, face trial next year.
Nine pro-democracy activists including students, professors and lawmakers were separately accused of causing a public nuisance or inciting others to do so during the 2014 mass Umbrella Movement rallies, in a case they have criticised as political persecution.
The government's department of justice brought those charges just days after Lam was selected by a committee skewed towards the mainland camp.
HONG KONG: A Hong Kong technician was jailed for four years and nine months today for rioting and arson during anti-China protests last year, in the harshest punishment yet over the unrest. The case is the latest in a slew of legal action against demonstrators and comes soon after new pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam was selected as leader of the semi-autonomous city. Yeung Ka-lun, 32, was pictured in news footage torching a taxi during the February 2016 unrest, which tapped into fears that Beijing is tightening its grip on Hong Kong. During clashes dubbed the "fishball revolution", police fired warning shots in the air, while demonstrators hurled bricks torn up from pavements, charged police lines with homemade shields and set rubbish on fire. "The court must send a message that these acts cannot be tolerated," said a judge at the Hong Kong court, in justifying the sentencing. He said protesters shared a goal to disrupt social order and had threatened public safety. While Yeung had no previous criminal records, he was "extremely reckless" in setting fire to the car in a crowded urban area, the judge added. Outside the court, the acting superintendent of the organised crime bureau said, "police believe that the sentence has sufficiently reflected the seriousness and gravity of the offences." A small number of supporters sat in on the hearing and expressed outrage over the sentence. Last month three activists were jailed for three years on "riot" charges for their role in the same protests. Like Yeung, they were not well-known campaigners. The riot's alleged ringleaders from "localist" campaign group Hong Kong Indigenous, which advocates more autonomy for the city, face trial next year. Nine pro-democracy activists including students, professors and lawmakers were separately accused of causing a public nuisance or inciting others to do so during the 2014 mass Umbrella Movement rallies, in a case they have criticised as political persecution. The government's department of justice brought those charges just days after Lam was selected by a committee skewed towards the mainland camp.
By Associated Press
WASHINGTON: Surrounded by family and his soon-to-be Supreme Court colleagues, Neil Gorsuch took the first of two oaths on Monday as he prepared to take his seat on the court and restore its conservative majority.
The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado is being sworn in after a bruising fight that saw Republicans change the rules for approving high court picks over the fierce objection of Democrats.
The first ceremony took place privately in the Justices' Conference Room, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering the oath required by the Constitution.
Gorsuch's wife, Marie Louise, held the family Bible and all eight of the current justices were present, said court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. Also in attendance was Maureen Scalia, widow of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, along with her eldest son Eugene.
Later, Gorsuch will appear at a public White House ceremony, where Justice Anthony Kennedy is to administer the oath set by federal law, the last part of the formal process of putting a new justice on the court. Gorsuch, who once clerked for Kennedy, will be the first member of the court to serve alongside his former boss.
Gorsuch will fill the nearly 14-month-old vacancy created after the death of Scalia, who anchored the court's conservative wing for nearly three decades before he died unexpectedly in February 2016. In nominating Gorsuch, President Donald Trump said he fulfilled a campaign pledge to pick someone in the mold of Scalia.
During 11 years on the federal appeals court in Denver, Gorsuch mirrored Scalia's originalist approach to the law, interpreting the Constitution according to the meaning understood by those who drafted it. Like Scalia, he is a gifted writer with a flair for turning legal jargon into plain language people can understand.
Gorsuch will be seated just in time to hear one of the biggest cases of the term: a religious rights dispute over a Missouri law that bars churches from receiving public funds for general aid programs.
His 66-day confirmation process was swift, but bitterly divisive. It saw Senate Republicans trigger the "nuclear option" to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster threshold for all future high court nominees. The change allowed the Senate to hold a final vote with a simple majority.
Most Democrats refused to support Gorsuch because they were still seething over the Republican blockade last year of President Barack Obama's pick for the same seat, Merrick Garland. Senate Republicans refused to even hold a hearing for Garland, saying a high court replacement should be up to the next president.
The White House swearing-in ceremony is a departure from recent history. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were both sworn in publicly at the Supreme Court. Former Justice John Paul Stevens has argued that holding the public ceremony at the court helps drive home the justice's independence from the White House.
Some interesting facts about Gorsuch and the court:
He is the youngest nominee since Clarence Thomas, who was 43 when confirmed in 1991.
The Colorado native went to high school in Washington while his mother served as EPA administrator in the Reagan administration.
He's the sixth member of the court who attended Harvard Law School; the other three got their law degrees from Yale.
Gorsuch credits a nun with teaching him how to write. He and his family attend an Episcopal church in Boulder, though he was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools as a child. He joins a court that has five Catholics and three Jews.
As an associate justice, Gorsuch will earn $251,800 a year more than 15 percent higher than his $217,600 salary as an appellate judge.
Gorsuch joins the ranks of justices who are millionaires. He reported financial assets in 2015 worth at least $3.2 million, according to his latest financial disclosure report.
WASHINGTON: Surrounded by family and his soon-to-be Supreme Court colleagues, Neil Gorsuch took the first of two oaths on Monday as he prepared to take his seat on the court and restore its conservative majority. The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado is being sworn in after a bruising fight that saw Republicans change the rules for approving high court picks over the fierce objection of Democrats. The first ceremony took place privately in the Justices' Conference Room, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering the oath required by the Constitution. Gorsuch's wife, Marie Louise, held the family Bible and all eight of the current justices were present, said court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. Also in attendance was Maureen Scalia, widow of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, along with her eldest son Eugene. Later, Gorsuch will appear at a public White House ceremony, where Justice Anthony Kennedy is to administer the oath set by federal law, the last part of the formal process of putting a new justice on the court. Gorsuch, who once clerked for Kennedy, will be the first member of the court to serve alongside his former boss. Gorsuch will fill the nearly 14-month-old vacancy created after the death of Scalia, who anchored the court's conservative wing for nearly three decades before he died unexpectedly in February 2016. In nominating Gorsuch, President Donald Trump said he fulfilled a campaign pledge to pick someone in the mold of Scalia. During 11 years on the federal appeals court in Denver, Gorsuch mirrored Scalia's originalist approach to the law, interpreting the Constitution according to the meaning understood by those who drafted it. Like Scalia, he is a gifted writer with a flair for turning legal jargon into plain language people can understand. Gorsuch will be seated just in time to hear one of the biggest cases of the term: a religious rights dispute over a Missouri law that bars churches from receiving public funds for general aid programs. His 66-day confirmation process was swift, but bitterly divisive. It saw Senate Republicans trigger the "nuclear option" to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster threshold for all future high court nominees. The change allowed the Senate to hold a final vote with a simple majority. Most Democrats refused to support Gorsuch because they were still seething over the Republican blockade last year of President Barack Obama's pick for the same seat, Merrick Garland. Senate Republicans refused to even hold a hearing for Garland, saying a high court replacement should be up to the next president. The White House swearing-in ceremony is a departure from recent history. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were both sworn in publicly at the Supreme Court. Former Justice John Paul Stevens has argued that holding the public ceremony at the court helps drive home the justice's independence from the White House. Some interesting facts about Gorsuch and the court: He is the youngest nominee since Clarence Thomas, who was 43 when confirmed in 1991. The Colorado native went to high school in Washington while his mother served as EPA administrator in the Reagan administration. He's the sixth member of the court who attended Harvard Law School; the other three got their law degrees from Yale. Gorsuch credits a nun with teaching him how to write. He and his family attend an Episcopal church in Boulder, though he was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools as a child. He joins a court that has five Catholics and three Jews. As an associate justice, Gorsuch will earn $251,800 a year more than 15 percent higher than his $217,600 salary as an appellate judge. Gorsuch joins the ranks of justices who are millionaires. He reported financial assets in 2015 worth at least $3.2 million, according to his latest financial disclosure report.
By Associated Press
BEIRUT: Russia and Iran renewed their support for the Syrian government in a flurry of calls today, saying last week's US missile strike violated Syrian sovereignty but failed to boost the morale of "terror groups" in Syria.
In a phone call with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the strike on Friday a "blatant violation" of Syrian sovereignty, Syrian state media reported. Assad accused the US of trying to boost the morale of "terror groups" in Syria.
The government refers to all those fighting against it as terrorists. A statement carried on the military media arm of Hezbollah condemned the American strike in much stronger language, saying it had "crossed red lines" and vowing to "reply with force" to any future aggression "in a variety of ways."
The Lebanese militant group has invested thousands of fighters in the defence of Assad's government. The statement was made in the name of a previously unheard of "shared operations room" between Russia, Iran and allied forces.
There was no comment from Russia or Iran about the statement. The Kremlin said in a statement Rouhani also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone. "Both sides noted the inadmissibility of aggressive US actions against a sovereign state in violation of international law," the statement said.
"Vladimir Putin and Hasan Rouhani spoke in favour of an objective, unbiased investigation of all the circumstances of the chemical weapons incident on April 4 in the Syrian province of Idlib." Rouhani said the US strike would not affect Iran's Syria policy, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not withdraw in the face of similar aggressions.
"What the Americans did is a strategic mistake and offence. They are repeating offence of their predecessors," Khamenei was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Iran has provided crucial military and economic assistance to Assad throughout Syria's six-year civil war. It has organised several Shiite militias from around the Middle East to fight in support of Assad's government and has sent troops and officers from its own Revolutionary Guards.
The US says the strike was in response to a nerve gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun last week, which has been widely blamed on government forces. The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson denied in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation that the strikes signalled an overhaul of American policy, saying its priority remained to defeat Islamic State militants in the Middle East. The strike was the first time American forces targeted a Syrian government installation in the course of the war.
US Treasury officials say they are preparing sanctions in response to the chemical weapons attack, though the Syrian government is already buried under U.S. and E.U. sanctions. Tillerson will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow later this week.
Moscow has been a steadfast ally of the Syrian government and has defended it against claims of chemical weapons use in front of the UN Security Council. A Syrian Sukhoi jet took off from the Shayrat airbase targeted by the volley of US strikes, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV channel reported today, saying repairs to the base began within hours of the attack.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu today played down concerns of a rift with Russia over Ankara's support for the strike, saying Turkey was committed to the cease-fire mechanisms it has developed with Russia for Syria. Turkey provides military support to some of Syria's opposition forces.
BEIRUT: Russia and Iran renewed their support for the Syrian government in a flurry of calls today, saying last week's US missile strike violated Syrian sovereignty but failed to boost the morale of "terror groups" in Syria. In a phone call with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the strike on Friday a "blatant violation" of Syrian sovereignty, Syrian state media reported. Assad accused the US of trying to boost the morale of "terror groups" in Syria. The government refers to all those fighting against it as terrorists. A statement carried on the military media arm of Hezbollah condemned the American strike in much stronger language, saying it had "crossed red lines" and vowing to "reply with force" to any future aggression "in a variety of ways." The Lebanese militant group has invested thousands of fighters in the defence of Assad's government. The statement was made in the name of a previously unheard of "shared operations room" between Russia, Iran and allied forces. There was no comment from Russia or Iran about the statement. The Kremlin said in a statement Rouhani also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone. "Both sides noted the inadmissibility of aggressive US actions against a sovereign state in violation of international law," the statement said. "Vladimir Putin and Hasan Rouhani spoke in favour of an objective, unbiased investigation of all the circumstances of the chemical weapons incident on April 4 in the Syrian province of Idlib." Rouhani said the US strike would not affect Iran's Syria policy, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not withdraw in the face of similar aggressions. "What the Americans did is a strategic mistake and offence. They are repeating offence of their predecessors," Khamenei was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Iran has provided crucial military and economic assistance to Assad throughout Syria's six-year civil war. It has organised several Shiite militias from around the Middle East to fight in support of Assad's government and has sent troops and officers from its own Revolutionary Guards. The US says the strike was in response to a nerve gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun last week, which has been widely blamed on government forces. The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson denied in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation that the strikes signalled an overhaul of American policy, saying its priority remained to defeat Islamic State militants in the Middle East. The strike was the first time American forces targeted a Syrian government installation in the course of the war. US Treasury officials say they are preparing sanctions in response to the chemical weapons attack, though the Syrian government is already buried under U.S. and E.U. sanctions. Tillerson will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow later this week. Moscow has been a steadfast ally of the Syrian government and has defended it against claims of chemical weapons use in front of the UN Security Council. A Syrian Sukhoi jet took off from the Shayrat airbase targeted by the volley of US strikes, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV channel reported today, saying repairs to the base began within hours of the attack. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu today played down concerns of a rift with Russia over Ankara's support for the strike, saying Turkey was committed to the cease-fire mechanisms it has developed with Russia for Syria. Turkey provides military support to some of Syria's opposition forces.
Salvage workers on Sunday succeeded in moving the ferry Sewol that sank in April 2014, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said Sunday.
That marks the final stage of the massive salvage operation almost three years after the ship sank off the southwest coast with more than 300 people, mostly teenagers, aboard.
The wreck was raised to the surface and towed into a semi-submersible vessel. Once it reached port, the wreck was propped onto 600 wheeled modular transporters and moved slowly across a ramp to dry land.
But strong waves at one stage almost caused the 17,000-ton ship to lose balance and fall off of the ramp before workers were able to stabilize it. The ministry said the ferry was finally moved onto dry land at 5:30 p.m., and workers struggled until late at night to transport a cradle that had been carrying the wreck ashore.
The families of nine passengers whose bodies remain missing watched the entire process from the port.
By Associated Press
MOGADISHU: A Somali official said security forces recovered an Indian-registered boat hijacked by Somali pirates nearly a week ago, but nine of the crew are still being held hostage.
Abdullahi Ahmed Ali, the mayor of Hobyo, told The Associated Press Monday that security forces rescued two crew members in the boat on Sunday night but pirates escaped to land and have nine of the Indian crew.
In recent weeks, there has been a resurgence of piracy off Somalia's coast after five years of inactivity.
Somalia's piracy was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry. It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near Somalia, whose weak central government has been trying to stabilize the country after 25 years of conflict.
MOGADISHU: A Somali official said security forces recovered an Indian-registered boat hijacked by Somali pirates nearly a week ago, but nine of the crew are still being held hostage. Abdullahi Ahmed Ali, the mayor of Hobyo, told The Associated Press Monday that security forces rescued two crew members in the boat on Sunday night but pirates escaped to land and have nine of the Indian crew. In recent weeks, there has been a resurgence of piracy off Somalia's coast after five years of inactivity. Somalia's piracy was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry. It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near Somalia, whose weak central government has been trying to stabilize the country after 25 years of conflict.
By AFP
JOHANNESBURG: South African President Jacob Zuma today described last week's protests demanding that he resign as racist, as he fought back against the criticism that has threatened to split the ruling ANC party.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through South African cities on Friday, angered by years of corruption scandals, record unemployment and slowing economic growth under Zuma's rule.
Zuma's recent sacking of respected Indian-origin finance minister Pravin Gordhan unleashed a fresh bout of public frustration -- as well as unprecedented complaints from senior ANC figures, including the deputy president.
The largely peaceful protests in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town appeared to attract a diverse mix of South Africans, but Zuma railed against those who participated.
"The marches that took place last week demonstrated that racism is real and exists in our country," he said.
"Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried... with some posters depicting black people as baboons."
The president said some South Africans regarded "black people as being lesser human beings", but he gave no further details about the alleged placards and posters or where they had been seen.
The protest in Johannesburg was organised by the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, which many ANC supporters accuse of harbouring white racists.
Further demonstrations are planned on Wednesday ahead of a parliamentary motion of no confidence in the president on April 18.
Zuma has easily survived previous such votes against him.
The president was speaking at an annual memorial service for anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani, who was shot dead by a white suprematist in 1993.
The African National Congress (ANC) led the decades-long struggle against apartheid, and carried Nelson Mandela to power in the 1994 elections that ended white-minority rule
JOHANNESBURG: South African President Jacob Zuma today described last week's protests demanding that he resign as racist, as he fought back against the criticism that has threatened to split the ruling ANC party. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through South African cities on Friday, angered by years of corruption scandals, record unemployment and slowing economic growth under Zuma's rule. Zuma's recent sacking of respected Indian-origin finance minister Pravin Gordhan unleashed a fresh bout of public frustration -- as well as unprecedented complaints from senior ANC figures, including the deputy president. The largely peaceful protests in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town appeared to attract a diverse mix of South Africans, but Zuma railed against those who participated. "The marches that took place last week demonstrated that racism is real and exists in our country," he said. "Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried... with some posters depicting black people as baboons." The president said some South Africans regarded "black people as being lesser human beings", but he gave no further details about the alleged placards and posters or where they had been seen. The protest in Johannesburg was organised by the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, which many ANC supporters accuse of harbouring white racists. Further demonstrations are planned on Wednesday ahead of a parliamentary motion of no confidence in the president on April 18. Zuma has easily survived previous such votes against him. The president was speaking at an annual memorial service for anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani, who was shot dead by a white suprematist in 1993. The African National Congress (ANC) led the decades-long struggle against apartheid, and carried Nelson Mandela to power in the 1994 elections that ended white-minority rule
By AFP
GENEVA: European countries must stop returning asylum seekers to Hungary because of deteriorating conditions there for new arrivals including children, and allegations of abuse, the United Nations said on Monday.
The situation for asylum seekers and other migrants has long been considered dire in Hungary, but it has worsened since Budapest last month introduced a new law on the systematic detention of all asylum seekers.
"I urge states to suspend any Dublin transfer of asylum-seekers to this country until the Hungarian authorities bring their practices and policies in line with European and international law," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
The so-called Dublin Regulation, which aims to stop people making asylum claims in multiple countries by requiring asylum seekers to be sent back to the first European country they arrived in, applies to EU nations as well as non-members Switzerland and Norway.
- 'Urgent measures' needed -
Hungary already rejects most requests from European countries for transfers under the Dublin system, arguing that most migrants who pass through the country first came through Greece.
According to the Hungarian branch of the Helsinki Committee rights group, Hungary received 26,998 requests last year, but took back only 513 asylum seekers under the Dublin agreement.
Grandi said he was "encouraged" by a European Commission decision to work with Hungarian authorities in a bid to bring Budapest's practices in line with EU law, but stressed in a statement that "urgent measures are needed to improve access to asylum in Hungary."
The UN refugee agency has repeatedly cautioned that Hungary's use of physical barriers and restrictive policies basically deny the access to asylum guaranteed under international law.
Since Hungary's new law came into force on March 28, all new asylum seekers, including children, have been "detained in shipping containers surrounded by high razor fences at the border for the entire length of their asylum procedures," the UNHCR said.
According to the government, 324 shipping container homes have been installed at two separate locations called "transit zones" built into a fence that Hungary erected along the 175-kilometre (110-mile) border in 2015.
UNHCR warned last month that the new practice would "have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered."
As of last Friday, 110 people, including four unaccompanied children and children with their families, were being held there, UNHCR said.
EU member Hungary previously systematically detained all asylum applicants but suspended the practise in 2013 under pressure from Brussels, the UN refugee agency and the European Court of Human Rights.
Grandi on Monday hailed efforts by Hungarian authorities to address allegations of police violence.
But he said: "We remain very concerned about highly disturbing reports of serious incidents of ill-treatment and violence against people crossing the border into Hungary, including by state agents.
These unacceptable practices must be brought to an end and I urge the Hungarian authorities to further investigate any allegation of abuse and violence," he added.
Other organisations also expressed concern.
"The government deliberately dismantles the asylum-rule system in Hungary, and by doing so puts refugees at risk," Gabor Gyulai of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee told AFP.
"This is not worthy of a European country and EU member."
GENEVA: European countries must stop returning asylum seekers to Hungary because of deteriorating conditions there for new arrivals including children, and allegations of abuse, the United Nations said on Monday. The situation for asylum seekers and other migrants has long been considered dire in Hungary, but it has worsened since Budapest last month introduced a new law on the systematic detention of all asylum seekers. "I urge states to suspend any Dublin transfer of asylum-seekers to this country until the Hungarian authorities bring their practices and policies in line with European and international law," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. The so-called Dublin Regulation, which aims to stop people making asylum claims in multiple countries by requiring asylum seekers to be sent back to the first European country they arrived in, applies to EU nations as well as non-members Switzerland and Norway. - 'Urgent measures' needed - Hungary already rejects most requests from European countries for transfers under the Dublin system, arguing that most migrants who pass through the country first came through Greece. According to the Hungarian branch of the Helsinki Committee rights group, Hungary received 26,998 requests last year, but took back only 513 asylum seekers under the Dublin agreement. Grandi said he was "encouraged" by a European Commission decision to work with Hungarian authorities in a bid to bring Budapest's practices in line with EU law, but stressed in a statement that "urgent measures are needed to improve access to asylum in Hungary." The UN refugee agency has repeatedly cautioned that Hungary's use of physical barriers and restrictive policies basically deny the access to asylum guaranteed under international law. Since Hungary's new law came into force on March 28, all new asylum seekers, including children, have been "detained in shipping containers surrounded by high razor fences at the border for the entire length of their asylum procedures," the UNHCR said. According to the government, 324 shipping container homes have been installed at two separate locations called "transit zones" built into a fence that Hungary erected along the 175-kilometre (110-mile) border in 2015. UNHCR warned last month that the new practice would "have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered." As of last Friday, 110 people, including four unaccompanied children and children with their families, were being held there, UNHCR said. EU member Hungary previously systematically detained all asylum applicants but suspended the practise in 2013 under pressure from Brussels, the UN refugee agency and the European Court of Human Rights. Grandi on Monday hailed efforts by Hungarian authorities to address allegations of police violence. But he said: "We remain very concerned about highly disturbing reports of serious incidents of ill-treatment and violence against people crossing the border into Hungary, including by state agents. These unacceptable practices must be brought to an end and I urge the Hungarian authorities to further investigate any allegation of abuse and violence," he added. Other organisations also expressed concern. "The government deliberately dismantles the asylum-rule system in Hungary, and by doing so puts refugees at risk," Gabor Gyulai of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee told AFP. "This is not worthy of a European country and EU member."
By Associated Press
WASHINGTON: The United States has concluded Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
The official said a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons.
The official said the presence of the surveillance drone over the hospital couldn't have been a coincidence, and that Russia must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment.
The official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on intelligence matters and demanded anonymity, didn't give precise timing for when the drone was above the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhtoun, where more than 80 people were killed. He also didn't provide all the details for the military and intelligence information that form the basis of what he said the Pentagon has now concluded.
The allegation is grave, even by the standards of the currently dismal U.S.-Russian relations.
Although Russia has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, and they've coordinated military attacks together, Washington has never previously accused Moscow of complicity in any attack that involved the gassing of innocent civilians, including children. The former Cold War foes even worked together in 2013 to remove and destroy more than 1,300 tons of Syrian chemical weapons and agents.
Until Monday, U.S. officials had said they weren't sure whether Russia or Syria operated the drone. The official said the U.S. is now convinced Russia controlled the drone. The official said it still isn't clear who was flying the jet that bombed the hospital, because the Syrians also fly Russian-made aircraft.
U.S. officials previously have said Russians routinely work with Syrians at the Shayrat air base where the attack is supposed to have originated. U.S. officials say the chemical weapons were stored there.
Those elements, the senior official said, add to the conclusion that Russia was complicit in the attack.
Last Thursday 59 Tomahawk missiles were fired on the government-controlled base in the United States' first direct military action against Assad's forces.
The U.S. has been focusing its military action in Syria on defeating the Islamic State group.
On Monday, Col. John J. Thomas, a U.S. military spokesman, said the U.S. has taken extra defensive precautions in Syria in case of possible retaliation against American forces for the cruise missile attack.
Thomas told reporters at the Pentagon that the increased emphasis on defensive measures to protect U.S. troops on the ground in Syria led to a slight and temporary decline in offensive U.S. airstrikes against IS in Syria.
There has been no Syrian retaliation so far for the cruise missile attack, which destroyed or rendered inoperable more than 20 Syria air force planes, he said.
Thomas said the U.S. intends to return to full offensive air operations against IS as soon as possible.
WASHINGTON: The United States has concluded Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week, a senior U.S. official said Monday. The official said a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons. The official said the presence of the surveillance drone over the hospital couldn't have been a coincidence, and that Russia must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment. The official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on intelligence matters and demanded anonymity, didn't give precise timing for when the drone was above the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhtoun, where more than 80 people were killed. He also didn't provide all the details for the military and intelligence information that form the basis of what he said the Pentagon has now concluded. The allegation is grave, even by the standards of the currently dismal U.S.-Russian relations. Although Russia has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, and they've coordinated military attacks together, Washington has never previously accused Moscow of complicity in any attack that involved the gassing of innocent civilians, including children. The former Cold War foes even worked together in 2013 to remove and destroy more than 1,300 tons of Syrian chemical weapons and agents. Until Monday, U.S. officials had said they weren't sure whether Russia or Syria operated the drone. The official said the U.S. is now convinced Russia controlled the drone. The official said it still isn't clear who was flying the jet that bombed the hospital, because the Syrians also fly Russian-made aircraft. U.S. officials previously have said Russians routinely work with Syrians at the Shayrat air base where the attack is supposed to have originated. U.S. officials say the chemical weapons were stored there. Those elements, the senior official said, add to the conclusion that Russia was complicit in the attack. Last Thursday 59 Tomahawk missiles were fired on the government-controlled base in the United States' first direct military action against Assad's forces. The U.S. has been focusing its military action in Syria on defeating the Islamic State group. On Monday, Col. John J. Thomas, a U.S. military spokesman, said the U.S. has taken extra defensive precautions in Syria in case of possible retaliation against American forces for the cruise missile attack. Thomas told reporters at the Pentagon that the increased emphasis on defensive measures to protect U.S. troops on the ground in Syria led to a slight and temporary decline in offensive U.S. airstrikes against IS in Syria. There has been no Syrian retaliation so far for the cruise missile attack, which destroyed or rendered inoperable more than 20 Syria air force planes, he said. Thomas said the U.S. intends to return to full offensive air operations against IS as soon as possible.
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Chicanery and forced closures of Lotte Mart stores continue apace in China in retaliation against Korea's decision to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery from the U.S. here.
As of last Thursday, the one-month temporary closure of 48 Lotte Mart stores in China ended, but six were slapped with monthlong extensions while the rest still await fresh inspections from health and safety authorities before they can reopen.
Only one Lotte Mart in Hebei Province was given the green light to open again but lacks the inventory. That means 87 out of 99 Lotte Marts in China remain closed.
Adityanath should focus on issues of governance rather than Vande Mataram: JD(U)
New Delhi , Apr. 9 : Training guns at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his remark on Vande Mataram, Janata Dal (United) on Sunday said the former should focus more on burning issues of governance rather than the National Song.
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"I think Yogi Adityanath would serve the people of Uttar Pradesh better if he looks to the burning issues of governance rather than who should sing Vande Mataram and how," JDU leader Pavan Varma told ANI.Varma further said it was a talent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and their affiliates to make an issue out of the national song.Echoing the similar sentiment, JD(U) leader Ali Anwar said the BJP had been trying to make people do things forcefully."This is a diverse country with people having different religious beliefs, faith and rituals but they try to force people to do everything. They want to get their work done forcibly," Anwar told ANI.Adityanath yesterday said that not singing the National Anthem and the National Song was a serious issue, adding that by doing so it only highlighted one's prejudice."We want to see development in this country, but our issue of conflict is over not singing the National Anthem and the National song. Not singing Vande Mataram shows a prejudiced mind. This is a matter of concern," Aditynath said at the book unveiling function of 'Governor's guide'.The Chief Minister's comments come after a controversy erupted over singing Vande Mataram in the Varanasi and Meerut Municipal corporations.
President Mukherjee makes passionate appeal to citizens to go cashless
New Delhi , Apr.9 : The Centre on Sunday received a boost from President Pranab Mukherjee who passionately called on the nation to extend support to the mission of cashless India.
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He stated that all efforts of the Government will achieve their end only if people were to adopt them pro-actively.The President was speaking on the occasion of the 100th mega draw of lots for Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.The President further notes that India is on the cusp of a digital revolution, adding that more than one billion Indians have a unique identity number with a biometric identifier which is unique in its own way."Even countries which are technologically far more advanced than India with comparatively much smaller size population do not have such a system in place," he said.President Mukherjee also complemented the Government on its bold initiatives for promoting the culture of digital payment in the country, and said that it was in line with such bold initiatives that the Parliament made a new beginning in Financial Management through passage of Annual Budget by March 31, 2017.
DMK pulls up Sasikala faction over IT raids, says it's shame for TN
Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Apr. 9 : With the Income Tax (IT) Department stating that the AIADMK faction led by V.K. Sasikala distributed around Rs. 100 crores to the voters ahead of the R.K. Nagar by-poll, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Sunday asserted that it is a matter for shame for Tamil Nadu.
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DMK MP R.S. Bharathi told ANI it is very shameful for one of the topmost states like Tamil Nadu, which has produced great leaders.Bharathi alleged that the Sasikala faction has distributed more than twice of the said amount in order to woo the voters ahead of the R.K. Nagar by-poll, adding only some amount has come to light."I believe all these things should not only be proved by the Income Tax department, but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should also probe the matter," he added.Earlier on Friday morning, the Income tax officials raided several premises belonging to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and his relatives in Chennai and other districts in the wake of complaints that he was involved in cash distribution to voters in the R.K. Nagar constituency ahead of the April 12 by-poll.The IT department also conducted searches on the premises of actor and All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader R. Sarathkumar, former AIADMK legislator Chitlapakkam Rajendran and vice-chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University S. Geethalakshmi.
Hyundai and affiliate Kia are recalling 171,348 cars starting May 22 due to the risk of engine failure. The models include Hyundai Grandeur and YF Sonata and Kia K7, K5 and Sportage manufactured before August 2013.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the Korea Transportation Safety Authority has been inspecting the models since October after two cars caught fire and one failed last year, and put the blame squarely on their Theta II engines. Hyundai submitted a voluntary recall plan to the ministry last Thursday.
The defect stems from metallic residue left in the engine valves in the process of drilling lubrication holes. The residue creates friction with pistons, leading to intense heat that causes engine parts to melt and get stuck.
The early symptom is a knocking sound, and eventually it destroys the engine and can lead to fires.
Anantnag by-polls: Internet services suspended in Kashmir valley till April 12
New Delhi , Apr. 9 : In the wake of the prevailing turbulent situation in the Kashmir valley, internet services have been suspended till the Anantnag by-polls are conducted, which is scheduled to be held April 12.
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Apart from this, all Kashmir University exams scheduled to be held up-to the Anatanag by-polls have been postponed. New dates for the same will be notified separately.Meanwhile, with another civilian succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the brutal Budgam clashes has gone up to seven.The civilians were killed during clashes with security forces in various areas of central Kashmir's Budgam district.The Srinagar Parliamentary constituency witnessed lowest voter turnout for the by-polls in the wake of the clashes.Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed deep anguish over the loss of lives during today's polling and said that peaceful means and non violence are the only way ahead for getting the state out of the present difficulties.Sporadic violent clashes occurred at around four dozen places in various areas in Srinagar and Budgam districts.Srinagar Parliamentary constituency comprises of 15 assembly segments in three central Kashmir districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal.Meanwhile, the Hurriyat has called for a shutdown in the Valley in the wake of the death of civilians.Srinagar reported a poor 6.5 percent voter turnout today during the by-polls for Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.Earlier in 2014 polls, voter turnout was 26 percent, slightly better than 25.55 percent recorded in 2009 elections.Nine candidates were in fray for the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency where more than 1,500 polling stations were set up for nearly 12.61 lakh voters. Internet services were shut down ahead of the polling.
Ahead of Anantnag by-polls, polling booth set ablaze in Pulwama
Srinagar , Apr. 9 : Ahead of the by-polls for Anantnag parliamentary seat scheduled for April 12th, violence has rocked the Valley, as a polling booth at the Government High School in Arihal Pulwama was set ablaze by unknown persons.
(Posted on 09 April 2017, 1667918383 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/more-news.php (Posted on 09 April 2017, 1667918383 173O212O198O32)
Meanwhile, security remains tight and the Valley has been turned into a fortress.Booths have been provided maximum security, with hundreds of troopers deployed at colleges and schools where voting will be held.Following the escalation of violence on Sunday, internet services have suspended in entire Kashmir Valley till Anantnag by-polls on April 12.Apart from this, all Kashmir University exams scheduled to be held up-to the Anatanag by-polls have been postponed. New dates for the same will be notified separately.Meanwhile, with another civilian succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the brutal Budgam clashes has gone up to seven.The civilians were killed during clashes with security forces in various areas of central Kashmir's Budgam district.The Srinagar Parliamentary constituency witnessed lowest voter turnout for the by-polls in the wake of the clashes.
Bradley Cooper-Irina Shayk welcome their bundle of joy!
Washington D.C.[USA], Apr. 10 : Congratulations are in order for new parents Bradley Cooper and Irina Shayk!
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The couple, who have been dating since 2015, welcomed their first baby two weeks ago, as reported by People Magazine.However, the Oscar-nominated actor and the Russian supermodel are yet to reveal the gender or name of their child.Shayk's pregnancy news broke last November after she was photographed on the Victoria Secret runway with ensembles that covered her midsection.
Trump considering to introduce sanctions against Russia, Iran for supporting Syria
Washington D.C. (USA), Apr. 10 : U.S. President Donald Trump is discussing with members of his administration the possibility of introducing sanctions against Russia and Iran for supporting the Syrian Government.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday. The Sputnik reported.Haley told CNN in an interview that Trump and his administration were shown classified information proving that Syrian President Bashar Assad had been involved in the alleged chemical attack against civilians in Syria's Idlib.The United States earlier on Thursday night launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the military airfield in Ash Sha'irat.Trump said that the attack was a response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Syria's Idlib province on Tuesday, which resulted in the death of over 80 people.The Syrian Foreign Minister denied the government's involvement in the Idlib incident, saying it had never nor would it ever use chemical weapons on either civilians or terrorists operating in the country.
Ishaq Dar to lead Pak delegations at IMF-World Bank meetings in U.S.
Islamabad [Pakistan], Apr 10 : Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will lead multiple Pakistan delegations to the IMF-World Bank spring meetings in Washington from April 21 to 23.
(Posted on 10 April 2017, 1667918388 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/world-news.php (Posted on 10 April 2017, 1667918388 173O212O198O32)
The annual event will be attended by finance ministers, central bank heads and top officials of finance and economy related departments, from across the globe.According to Radio Pakistan, during the visit, Dar besides attending different events in regard to IMF World Bank meetings will also have bilateral meetings with finance ministers of other countries as well as heads of important international organizations.He will also participate in the 50th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank (ADB), which will be held in Yokohama, Japan next month. The meeting will discuss developments in Asia and the Pacific as well as institutional matters.Finance Minister Dar is currently also serving as the Vice Chairman of ADB.
Anantnag by-polls: Govt. schools designated as polling booth set ablaze in Pulwama, Shopian
Srinagar , Apr. 10 : Government schools designated as polling booths ahead of the Anantnag by-polls are under attack in Jammu and Kashmir, as miscreants having been setting them on fire in a clear attempt to obstruct the upcoming polls.
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Earlier today, a Government Middle school, in Shopian's Padarpora was set ablaze by unidentified people and on Sunday, the Government High School in Pulwama was razed to the ground in a similar manner.Meanwhile, security remains tight and the Valley has been turned into a fortress. Booths have been provided maximum security, with hundreds of troopers deployed at colleges and schools where voting will be held.Following the escalation of violence on Sunday, internet services have suspended in entire Kashmir Valley till Anantnag by-polls on April 12.Apart from this, all Kashmir University exams scheduled to be held up-to the Anatanag by-polls have been postponed.New dates for the same will be notified separately. Meanwhile, with another civilian succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the brutal Budgam clashes has gone up to seven.The civilians were killed during clashes with security forces in various areas of central Kashmir's Budgam district.The Srinagar Parliamentary constituency witnessed lowest voter turnout for the by-polls in the wake of the clashes.
Australian PM praises Modi's 'extraordinary journey of growth and development'
New Delhi , Apr 10 : Visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull was all praises for his Indian counterpart, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the country at an admirable path of growth and development.
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"Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit. PM Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on an extraordinary journey of growth and development. The achievements of India are an admiration for the world and we look forward to working even more closely," he told the media here during his ceremonial reception at the President House."Half a million Australians are of the India background. Both countries are tied together with a shared destiny," Turnbull added.Turnbull arrived in New Delhi yesterday for a four-day visit today. This is his first visit to India.He is scheduled to hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Modi later in the day.On Tuesday, Turnbull will visit Mumbai where he will attend several events, including an interaction with key business leaders and an energy round-table.Cooperation in renewable energy, clean coal and bio-fuels will be high on agenda during his visit. A number of MoUs and agreements are also to be firmed up in the areas of security, environment, sports, science and technology and health.Turnbull and Prime Minister Modi have had substantive meetings on the sidelines of the G-20 in Antalya in 2015 and in Hangzhou in 2016.
Dhaka has comprehensively addressed India's security concerns: Hasina
New Delhi , Apr 10 : Calling for more concentrated efforts against security threats, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said Dhaka has comprehensively addressed New Delhi's security concerns, which has been a factor in trust building.
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"We have put in place a multi-layered and effective bilateral security architecture with many dedicated joint institutional mechanisms for targeted and coordinated actions," said Hasina at India Foundation Awareness Programme here.She said that security threats from state and non-state actors tend to undermine the efforts to integrate our economies and societies and that there should be more concentrated efforts to strengthen protection for our societies."We have amicably settled Land Boundary and Maritime Boundary," she added while reiterating her appreciation for leaders of all political parties and members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha of India for their unanimous support for the Land Boundary Agreement.She noted that the Bangladesh Parliament recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as 'Genocide Day' in remembrance of the Pakistani atrocities during the Liberation War in 1971 and called on the international community to recognise the sameHasina added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a commitment to remain with this effort of Dhaka.Stating that 'India is our partner in this path to progress' the Bangladesh Prime Minister said that the two neighbors have witnessed tremendous progress in almost all sectors of cooperation namely, connectivity, power, trade and commerce, health and cultural exchange."To address trade deficit we are also working on getting more investment from India particularly in the special economic zones of Bangladesh. Already we are seeing great interest from the biggest business houses in India," she added.On the Teesta issue, Hasina said that Prime Minister Modi has assured that his government will conclude the water sharing treaty at the soonest.
Bobble Keyboard, Nazar Battu tie-up to provide famous characters to users, in sticker, gif, story format
New Delhi , Apr 10 : Selfie-based customizable emoji mobile app Bobble on Monday announced that it has partnered with production house - Nazar Battu to make their famous characters a part of Bobble users daily conversation.
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Characters like Dalveer and Satbeer, Junaid and Bilal who have been hitherto available only through videos will now be available in sticker, gif and story format, exclusively on Bobble Keyboard.Bobble will be creating all content and Bobble and Nazar Battu together will promote these content on all social media platforms."Since its very inception, Bobble has been providing a platform to individuals, who want to use personal and expressive content to make their conversations more interactive. As a step forward, the company is now looking to partner with well-known YouTube channels in order to develop innovative ways to distribute their content," said founder and MD Bobble, Mohd. Wassem."The alliance with Nazar Batlu is a step in this direction. Now that Nazar Batlu is live on Youtube live feed, from April 1, 2017, we will be looking to partner with Garbage Bin and a few more. Bobble is a multi-feature app that can make conversations more emotive and personal," added Wassem.As a part of this tie-up with Nazar Batlu, every sticker, gifs and story are mapped to its video. When a user shares such content on WhatsApp, a Youtube link would be shared with the content. On clicking the link, the Youtube video will start to play. This partnership will provide Nazar Battu a rich access to users on WhatsApp."Nazar Battu Productions always intend to entertain our fans by the content we create and Bobble has made sure that our impression through their app is pretty entertaining too. It is a great way to connect with our viewers through a different platform and the tie-up provides us exactly what we need. It is a new experience for us to see our characters as Bobble is presenting them and we are very excited to see the response from the audience," said co-founder of Nazarbattu Productions, Ameen Khan.Bobble has partnered with various companies like Baidu, Apple Inc for its iMessage app, Foxconn, and Indus OS, etc. Furthermore, the customized emoji mobile app has previously worked with brands like Zomato, Tinder, and YourStory, which have promoted Bobble on their exclusive websites, apps, and social media pages.
Kiko Milano celebrates 20 years of beauty; opens 1000th store in Gurugram
New Delhi , Apr 10 : Italian cosmetic brand KIKO MILANO recently completed 20 years of beauty and announced another milestone with the opening of its 1000th store in Gurugram.
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KIKO has made a retail mark in a widespread geographical network over a span of 20 years. The brand is present in over 20 countries and also has an online presence in 36 nations offering over 1400 products, including make-up, skincare and beauty accessories, as well as over 1000 new products offered in limited edition collections every year.Epitomizing Italian modernity, KIKO is synonymous with art, fashion and design. The products offer a unique combination of quality and creativity that draw inspiration from the atmosphere and traditions of Milan.In September 2016, the brand made its first entry in India and launched its first store at DLF Mall of India in Noida, followed by DLF Promenade in Vasant Kunj and has now launched its third store in the country, which is also the 1000th store worldwide.Gracing the occasion with their presence were Bollywood divas Vaani Kapoor and Diana Penty. Vaani Kapoor joined Stefano Percassi and Timmy Sarna in the ribbon cutting ceremony to inaugurate the store, and along with Diana Penty interacted with the press about their beauty favorites."KIKO has witnessed an exponential growth during its first 20 years," said founder and CEO KIKO MILANO, Stefano Percassi."We must keep on going, and evolve with the changing needs of our customers. The opening of our 1000th store worldwide marks an exciting moment and an important milestone for KIKO MILANO. India is recognized as one of the fastest-growing markets in the world and I am glad to launch KIKO's 1000th store in India," added Percassi."DLF Brands is excited to launch the 1000th store of KIKO MILANO worldwide in India. Taking forward our commitment of offering the best of global brands in India, this is third store of KIKO to launch in the country and we are glad to be a part of this exciting moment of the KIKO 20 year journey," said MD and CEO DLF Brands Ltd., Timmy Sarna."We invite all our customers to KIKO MILANO as we celebrate 20 years of beauty as we launch our 1000th store in Ambience Mall," said Country Director Kiko Milano, Annanya Sabarwal.It has been an extraordinary journey for KIKO MILANO. In these 20 years, KIKO has garnered loyalists among the most discerning beauty aficionados worldwide with its endless array of shades and textures, satisfying every professional and personal make-up need.For its 20th anniversary, KIKO has chosen to partner with seven international brands linked with emerging designers who will celebrate the very essence of KIKO and its most important values, which are color, creativity, talent and an all-Italian style.The selected designers will design seven limited edition capsule collections, and it will launch throughout the year 2017.
Mamata discuses debt situation in WB with PM, demands release of funds
New Delhi , Apr. 10 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday discussed about the debt situation in her state with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought additional release of funds for various projects and schemes.
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Stating that there was no discussion on the Teesta River yet, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo said, "We discussed about the debt situation of the state and release of funds due to the state under various projects and schemes."Mamata told ANI that more than Rs. 10,459 crore is pending with the Centre, adding that's why she has requested Prime Minister Modi to ensure that the funds are released soon."Around Rs. 10,459 crore is pending with the Centre, I apprised Prime Minister Modi about that and the problems arising out of that. I requested him to ensure that the funds are released. He said he will try to release the funds," Mamata said.Earlier in the week, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that India's support would help resolve all issues, including Teesta, expeditiously.Meanwhile, no pact on the sharing of water of the river Teesta was signed between the two nations.The Teesta River runs through both Bengal and Bangladesh and if a treaty is signed then it would allow for equal share of water.
Want to spread idea of 'vasudhaiva kutumbakam': Gehlot on casteism remark
New Delhi , Apr. 10 : Asserting that his statement on casteism was misquoted, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot today said that he just wanted to spread the idea of 'vasudhaiva kutumbakam' (world is one family) and eradicate the problems like untouchability.
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"Today also we come across some incidents of untouchability and to stop this we need to work on it. We have to spread the idea of 'vasudhaiva kutumbakam' (world is one family) of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. When anything which is revered is made then the low caste people are used but afterwards these people are not allowed to use it. This kind of mentality exists even today," he told ANI.He further said that his statement was only targeted to eradicate the problems of untouchability existing in the country, adding that the media has misquoted him.Highlighting the social discrimination that the Dalits have been facing, Gehlot yesterday said that people from upper class get a well dug by Dalits but don't let them drink water from it."You get a well dug by us, but when it becomes yours (then) you stop us from drinking its water. When a pond has to be made, we are made to labour. At that time, we spit in it, sweat in it and even urinate on it. But when we get a chance to drink water from it, you say that the water will become impure," Gehlot said at a seminar on Dr B.R. Ambedkar in Nagda, Ujjain."You install idols in temples amid chanting of mantras then the doors are closed to us. Who will set things right? We make the idols that you worship, yet the doors of the temples are closed for us," he added.
CRB Tech Solutions signs MoU with ShauryaTechnosoft Pvt Ltd
New Delhi, Apr 10 : CRB Tech Solution Pvt. Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ShauryaTechnosoft Pvt. Ltd; to collaborate on training and recruitment for fresher talent.
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Under this MoU both the companies' intend to bridge the gap between right talent and appropriate opportunities by using CRB Tech's unique Hire and Train model.Shaurya Technosoft Pvt. Ltd. is an emerging software company engaged in wide range of software products that caters to Defense sector, Health Sector, Dairy Industry, Manufacturing industry, Inventory management, Mineral tracking and e-Permits, Election management, Agricultural sector and Animal Husbandry.Whereas, CRB Tech is a prominent resource management company engaged in providing Technical training, skills enhancement and human capital procurement across various domains including, Information Technology, Computer Aided Engineering and Clinical Research."ShauryaTechnosoft has been consistent in designing programs and campaigns that support technical development at various levels. We are very happy with the association with CRB Tech that would enable fresher talent to acquire niche skills and technical knowledge. We believe in delivering the best so that our client achieves their business goals more efficiently. Being operational in a very niche sector, a well-versed resource is an asset for any corporate like us. With this collaboration, we intend to bridge the gap between available resource and required talent," said director of ShauryaTechnosoft Pvt. Ltd., Abhaysinh Jagtap."We have developed a unique Hire & Train model that works in line with our vision of promoting technical training and skills enhancement across geographies. The basic idea behind this model is to identify the openings related to technical skills; develop the niche manpower for company that fits into their internal criteria. The model will assist corporate to do fresher on-boarding without involving initial cost and infrastructure. Further, it will not only save massively on HR time and cost involved in on-job training but also cater the capable productive resources billable from the day one," said Director of CRB Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Mandar Abhyankar.
Chinese Navy ignores Indian assistance in rescuing hijacked ship
Beijing [China], Apr. 10 : The Chinese navy has claimed full credit for rescuing a Tuvaluan ship hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday by ignoring the assistance provided by the Indian Navy to them.
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Xinhua news agency quoted the Chinese Navy as saying in a statement that a group of 16 members from the navy's special force boarded the hijacked ship OS35 and rescued the 19 crew members.According to Chinese Navy, its 25th convoy fleet, which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia received a report of the hijack of the ship OS35 at the time and immediately set out the fleet's vessel Yulin for the rescue operation.The navy also said that that all the 19 crew members were under their protection.Indian Navy had said on Sunday that it had assisted the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in sanitising a ship hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.According to sources in the Indian Navy, INS Tarkash and INS Mumbai assisted the Chinese PLA in rescuing the bulk carrier.The Indian Navy provided communication and air support to the PLA's naval division which entered the ship to sanitise it. The ship has been declared safe, sources in the Indian Navy said.The Tuvalu-flagged bulk carrier (OS 35) was travelling from Kelang in Malaysia to Aden when it was attacked.Immediately after receiving an SOS from the vessel, the Indian Navy diverted two of its warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, in the direction of the bulk carrier."A distress call was received from a foreign merchant vessel MV OS 35 (Tuvalu registered vessel), which was attacked and boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden late night on April 8. Indian Navy ships Mumbai, Tarkash, Trishul and Aditya proceeding on deployment to the Mediterranean and passing through the Gulf of Aden, responded to the call and rapidly closed the merchant vessel by the early hours of April 9," the Indian Navy said in a statement."The Indian warships established contact with the Captain of the merchant vessel, who along with the crew had locked themselves in a strong room on board, as per standard operating procedure," the statement added.
Afghanistan terms Pak's claim of India's destructive role in Kabul as 'baseless'
Kabul [Afghanistan], Apr. 10: Afghanistan has rejected Pakistan's allegations that India is playing a destructive role in Kabul. It called it as baseless.
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Khamma Press quoted Afghanistan's Defense Ministry spokesman, General Dawlat Waziri, as saying that India has no military presence in the country and it is only providing training and study opportunities to Afghan Army cadets.He said it is misunderstanding on the part of Islamabad that the India is fuelling anti-Pakistan feelings with its presence in Afghanistan.The remarks came after Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif had claimed that strained relations between Kabul and Islamabad were due to Indian influence on the Afghanistan side.Speaking to a private news channel, Asif said that Pakistan was serious about improving relations between the two countries.India has played a major role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime and has invested over USD 2 billion in various reconstruction and infrastructure projects.The construction of the Salma Dam, the new Afghan parliament building, the Zaranj-Delaram Highway, and some other projects are among the key investments India has been involved so far in the country.
J-K: Anantnag by-polls deferred till May 25
New Delhi , Apr. 10 : In wake of the prevailing tension in the Kashmir Valley, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday deferred the Anantnag by-polls till May 25.
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Earlier, it was scheduled to be held on April 12.Meanwhile, a school designated as polling station for Anantnag by-polls was set on fire in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. A Panchayat Ghar was also set ablaze in Pulwama district.Earlier today also, a Government Middle school, in Shopian's Padarpora was set ablaze by unidentified people and on Sunday, the Government High School in Pulwama was razed to the ground in a similar manner.Meanwhile, security remains tight and the valley has been turned into a fortress. Booths have been provided maximum security, with hundreds of troopers deployed at colleges and schools where voting will be held.Following the escalation of violence on Sunday, internet services have been suspended in entire Kashmir Valley till Anantnag by-polls on April 12.Apart from this, all Kashmir University exams scheduled to be held upto the Anantnag by-polls have been postponed.New dates for the same will be notified separately. Meanwhile, with another civilian succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the brutal Budgam clashes has gone up to seven.The Srinagar Parliamentary constituency witnessed lowest voter turnout for the by-polls in the wake of the clashes.
OBC bill passed in Lok Sabha is 'historic': Rajnath
New Delhi , Apr. 10 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday asserted that the bill passed to accord constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) was 'historic'.
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"The OBC bill passed by the Lok Sabha is a historical bill. For the first time, a government has given constitutional right to that commission. It is worth welcoming," Singh said.Rajnath also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this achievement.Resonating similar sentiment, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar congratulated Lok Sabha MLAs for the achievement."This is a historic day. I will congratulate all the MLAs of the Lok Sabha. I would especially like to thank Prime Minister Modi as his dream comes true today," said Kumar.Earlier today, the Lok Sabha passed a bill to accord constitutional status to the NCBC.The Amendment Bill, which requires two-third majority for passage, was approved by the House with 360 members voting in favour of it with the Opposition expressing apprehensions that it would impair the power of states.The constituted Commission will hear the grievances of socially and educationally backward classes, which have been discharged till now by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
Longtime tattoo artist opening new shop in the heart of Middletown
Jennifer Beirola has a long history in tattooing and will soon have a place to call her own locally.
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Tim Mitchell is a reporter at The News-Gazette. His email is tmitchel@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@mitchell6).
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On 5 April, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)'s NAT section invited supporters and opponents of the European Citizens' Initiative calling for a ban on glyphosate to debate in its premises. A million supporters from at least 7 member states are needed in order for the Commission to consider taking action about this substance along the demands of the ECI. After two months the initiative has already collected over 640,000 signatures.
The ECI includes three requests: firstly, a ban on glyphosate, secondly, a reform of the pesticide approval procedure, and thirdly, setting EU-wide mandatory reduction targets for pesticide use.
The discussion revealed opposing views on glyphosate and other pesticides among the speakers, who came from Greenpeace (Franziska Achterberg), the European Crop Protection Association (Graeme Taylor), ARC 2020 (Oliver Moore), Copa Cogeca (Oana Neagu) and the European Commission (Michael Flueh).
Referring to a WHO assessment that glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans" and to a study of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Greenpeace called on the EU and the Member States to no longer allow the use of glyphosate. As a first step we should recognize people's concern and then look together for a possible way to phase out pesticides as we need to protect our resources soil and water and biodiversity, was its proposal.
For the European Crop Protection Association the challenge is to feed 9 billion people by 2050, since 40% of global crop yields are lost to plant pests and diseases each year. Glyphosate is vital for agriculture and he called on the Commission to speed up the approval of glyphosate for the next 15 years.
There is simply no alternative to glyphosate, Copa Cogeca said. A ban would rather have a negative impact on soil and crops, as 20 30 more litres of fuel per hectare would be needed. Working time would also increase by 50 80 hours per hectare. Farmers, however, needed to be trained to use pesticides more carefully, but this concerned developing countries rather than Europe.
ARC 2020 highlighted that the main problem with glyphosate is the "non-selectivity" (it kills all plants indiscriminately) and that it is "antimicrobial" (kills bacteria, algae and fungi too). Long-term studies are missing and significant findings have been diluted by the many industry-funded private studies. His proposed solution is agroecology, which could be achieved in 7 to 10 years, and would use biological, physical and mechanical methods instead of pesticides. Farmers should be compensated for yield losses through CAP subsidies.
The European Commission emphasised that EU law is among the strictest in the world and that the Commission has involved the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in the decision-making process. Both classified glyphosate as unlikely to be genotoxic and that it did not pose a carcinogenic threat to humans.
For the EESC as a bridge with civil society, it is important to provide a forum where citizens can express their concerns. Therefore the EESC's specialised sections provide a discussion platform for ECI proponents when an ECI:
has been registered by the Commission
has been collecting signatures for at least two months
is connected to the policy areas the section deals with
is relevant to the section
This was the fourth public debate on an ECI organised by the EESC NAT section.
Imaging CoE scientists have solved a 40-year old mystery and shed light on an evolutionary arms race played out between cytomegalovirus (CMV) and the immune system.
Human CMV, also known as human herpesvirus 5, infects over 50 per cent of adults worldwide and is the leading cause of birth defects in the developed world.
New research undertaken at Monash's Biomedicine Discovery Institute, within the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, and published in the journal Cell, has unveiled why this particular virus has been so successful at lying dormant and undetected.
Co-first author, and Imaging CoE Associate Investigator, Dr Rich Berry, said that while some viruses are loud and brash, announcing themselves with vigor and manifesting as obvious and severe symptoms, CMV is different.
"CMV has evolved to hide from our immune system," Dr Berry said, "and only emerge at the opportune moment.
"This strategy has triggered an evolutionary arms race that can be likened to a life or death game of chess," he continued. However, in this scenario molecules replace chess pieces and instead of moving pieces to attack or defend, the virus and host evolve or build new pieces tailored to suit their strategy," Dr Berry said.
The new research, conducted in collaboration with scientists from Canada and Europe, shows how CMV has evolved to present decoys to Natural Killer (NK) cells and out-smart them into thinking infected cells are healthy.
Co-senior author and Imaging CoE Chief Investigator Professor Jamie Rossjohn said that NK cells act like our very own front line defense against viral infections.
"NK cells roam our body checking cells for signs of infection. This way they know when to kill, and when not to kill," said Professor Rossjohn.
Healthy cells display 'self' markers on their surface, which act like signposts to tell NK cells not to kill them. The loss of these 'self' markers during infection is one way the immune system can detect viruses.
"This is the process that CMV has hijacked" said Dr Berry. "CMV presents a decoy marker or signpost to trick the immune system into thinking a virally infected cell is actually healthy.
"But not all is not lost," he continued, "the immune system does not stand idly by, it evolves too and remodels - as is necessary for the continued survival of a species."
"Our research has also solved a 40-year old mystery concerning the function of one of the most famous proteins in the immune system," Dr Berry said.
"It turns out, this molecule, NK1.1, is a new weapon that has evolved to directly recognise the CMV decoy, thereby enabling the immune system to detect, and ultimately kill, the virus again."
While this initial research was focused on mice, the team is now shifting to human studies.
"NK1.1 is also expressed in humans," Dr. Berry said. "If it does the same job as we have seen it do in mice, this might provide a new avenue to develop future therapeutic agents in the fight against CMV, and other viruses."
Automobile manufacturers told the Supreme Court that it would be difficult for them to start the process of conversion of vehicles to BS-VI emission norm from 2019 to meet the April 1, 2020 deadline. The manufacturers told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that as per report of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), they have to start the conversion of their vehicles into BS-VI from 2019 so that it could be sold from April 1, 2020, but said that there were technological issues in it.
The BS-VI emission norm is scheduled to come into force from April 1, 2020.
"The BS-VI would come into effect from April 1, 2020... effectively we will have to start the process of conversion from 2019 which is difficult. There are issues of technology," the counsel, appearing for the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), told the bench.
The lawyer also argued that "if the Government of India wants to discourage people from buying diesel vehicles, they should equate the price of petrol and diesel. Why should the buyers be asked to pay tax for buying a diesel vehicle?"
When the counsel sought clarification on the BS-VI issue, the bench asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, about it. Kumar said he would file a reply on the EPCA's report within three weeks after which the bench fixed the matter for further hearing on May 1. Recently on March 29, the apex court had banned sale and registration of vehicles, which were not BS-IV compliant, in India from April 1 when the new BS-IV emission norms came into force while observing that health of people is "far, far more important than the commercial interests of the manufacturers".
During the hearing, the bench also dealt with the issue relating to the EPCA's proposal to ban use of fuels that are high in sulphur content -- furnace oil and pet coke -- by industries in the NCR. When the apex court asked the solicitor general about the affidavit filed by the Centre in which the government has said that it needs seven weeks' time to stop the use of furnace oil and pet coke, Kumar said, "I will argue on some points which we think requires consideration." The bench, which had earlier asked the Centre to consider banning the use of furnace oil and pet coke by industries in NCR, has fixed this matter also on May 1.
Besides these, the apex court also took up for hearing the issue raised by the EPCA which has proposed that an integrated public transport system should be in place in Delhi-NCR as it would help in reducing air pollution. When the bench asked the solicitor general about it, he said he would file a reply to the EPCA's report within three weeks. The court also heard other related issues including the complaint of Indraprastha Gas Ltd that Haryana was not allowing its operation in Gurugram. The apex court is hearing a PIL filed by environmentalist M C Mehta in 1985 in which he has highlighted the issue of ambient air quality and air pollution in Delhi-NCR
Land Rover has opened a new visitor attraction at its thriving Solihull manufacturing plant. The Range Rover Story is an interactive exhibit created to celebrate 50 years of the worlds most revered luxury SUV.
Range Rover has been manufactured at Solihull since 1970, but its history with the site goes back to 1967 when the first secret prototype was conceived, codenamed Velar. The new exhibit will take visitors on a time-travelling voyage from its inception in the mid-1960s, through to the introduction of the Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Evoque. The exhibition culminates in an unveil of the new Range Rover Velar, celebrating British design and engineering integrity.
Roger Crathorne (known as Mr Land Rover) dedicated 50 years service to Land Rover and has been heavily involved in the creation of the exhibition. He said: The exhibit tells the incredible story of the Range Rover, from the original Velar prototype through to todays new model. At the time I began my career in 1967 as a Technical Assistant on the Velar Team, the intention was never to build a luxury vehicle. Over the 50 years since, the Range Rover has come a long way. We wanted to develop a more comfortable on-road Land Rover that would combine the comfort of the Rover with the Land Rover 4x4 capability to support a growing leisure market.
Nigel Blenkinsop, Operations Director at Solihull, said: We are hugely proud to build the Range Rover Velar at Solihull, the birthplace of both the Land Rover and Range Rover. Here, we have invested over 2bn in recent years to enable us to triple production. Our business is now Britains number one car manufacturer.
The opening of the Range Rover exhibition coincides with the opening of Velar manufacturing tours at Solihull. Velar is the third new model in a year to be launched at the plant, following the Jaguar F-PACE and new Discovery. Velar is produced in one of the largest aluminium body shops in the world and is beautifully finished in a versatile trim hall; capable of producing three different SUVs all built to customers unique specifications.
The Solihull plant has contributed to the company doubling its sales and headcount in the past five years. This has supported the UKs revival in manufacturing, boosting the British economy where the automotive company provides 240,000 jobs in the supply chain. The Range Rover family contributes 10bn annually to the UK economy and is Britains largest luxury export.
New Delhi: A consortium of investors led by Indian private equity fund True North has agreed to acquire Religare Enterprises Ltd's health insurance business in the country, the groups said in a joint statement on Sunday.
The deal, which still needs regulatory approvals, values the Religare Health Insurance at 13 billion rupees ($202.3 million).
The move is part of Religare's strategy to consolidate and focus on its core business of financial services.
The transaction, Religare and True North said in a release, "marks the single largest investment in a standalone health insurance company in India".
J.P. Morgan acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Religare Enterprises on the transaction.
Mumbai: The founders of India's Snapdeal told employees in an email on Sunday that the e-commerce company will ensure there is no disruption to staff "as the way forward becomes clear," as speculation of a takeover swirls.
The email, seen by Reuters, tacitly acknowledged that a sale of the company could be in the offing, and it sought to calm the concerns of employees at India's No. 3 e-commerce player.
Snapdeal has for weeks been at the centre of much takeover speculation, with its largest backer Japan's Softbank, seen as keen to sell the company to its larger rival, Tiger Global-backed Flipkart.
Snapdeal has so far declined to comment on sale talks and said that it remains focused on achieving profitability. But recent layoffs at the company and heightened speculation around a takeover has spooked some employees, who have begun to look for new jobs.
In the e-mail, Snapdeal's founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal said their priority was to ensure the well-being of employees amid the "speculation" surrounding the company.
"We will do all that we can, and more, in working with our investors to ensure there is no disruption in employment and that there are positive professional as well as financial outcomes for the team as the way forward becomes clear," the duo said in the letter.
A spokesman for Snapdeal said the message was "intended to inform the team - in an authentic way - that the founders were acutely aware and actively engaged in ensuring the well-being of the team."
A Snapdeal source who had read the email said such assurances at this stage were not comforting, however, as "employees feel left in the lurch."
In the e-mail, the founders said salary increments for employees, to be announced over the next two weeks, will be more than last year's due to the "incredible progress" made by the company.
Sources say Snapdeal, which last year lost the No. 2 spot in the Indian e-commerce market to Amazon, had been eyeing a public listing in two years.
Employees with stock options who had been hoping for a large payout from a listing now fear their options may be worthless if the company is sold.
Another source familiar with the sale discussions said a deal with Flipkart is at the structuring stage and is likely to get announced within a month.
Snapdeal, Flipkart and Softbank declined to comment on the likelihood, or timing of any deal.
On Thursday evening, all eyes were on former President Pranab Mukherjee. When Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat welcomed him, Mukherjee introduced the much-awaited subject of his speech Nation, Nationalism and Patriotism.
The Congress leaders had gone on a panic mode days before Mukherjees speech. They complained that Mukherjee accepting the RSS invite has caused anguish to millions of Congress workers.
At a time when theres so much discussion on whether a Congress leader should attend an event organized by the RSS and whether ideological differences mean no exchange of ideas, News18.com is revisiting a story on minorities-- Muslims, Christians and Sikhs who work for the Sangh.
What brings the minorities to the RSS? Why do they join the organisation, which many consider to be the antithesis of secular politics in India? What are their backgrounds? Is there something more to Hindu Nationalism than Hindutva, as perceived by many? And do religious and sexual minorities have an equal space in Indias most powerful socio-cultural organisation with unmatched political influence?
To get answers to some of these questions, News18 spoke to several Muslims, Christians and Sikhs who work for the Sangh. The interviewees are from across the country and from all hues of the social spectrum from surgeons to farmers, academics to businessmen.
While some minority members, like Lucknows Shabana Azmi, who likes to keep her association with RSS to herself, others, like Faiz Khan, publicly sing bhajans in praise of cows.
All these interviewees are devout practitioners of their own faith but have no compunction in attending shakhas or singing Hindu prayers. Interestingly, all the interviewees are in favour of Ram Mandir, but many disagree with the idea of a Uniform Civil Code or abolition of triple talaaq.
While some joined the RSS because of their familys association with one of its 25-plus affiliated organisations, many were inspired by the speeches of senior Sangh leaders.
The profiles of these people reveal a lot about the organisations influence, which seems to be far greater than what is usually admitted by its detractors.
The incident was the fourth arson attack reported in the Valley where bypolls to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat were held on Sunday. The bypoll saw dismal turnout of 6.5% as sporadic violence, clashes and attacks on polling booths kept voters away.
Two schools that were to serve as election centres in the bypoll to Anantnag Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday were torced by anti-India protesters overnight, capping a violent weekend in the Valley that saw eight deaths and prompting the ruling PDP to seek postponement of the vote.PDP's Anantnag candidate Tassaduq Hussain Mufti has asked the Election Commission to postpone the bypoll. I want the Election Commission to postpone the elections. If my withdrawal helps, I will withdraw. The situation is not right for polls, he said.Eight protesters were killed when the security forces opened fire during the voting process. While two people each were killed Pakherpora in Chrar-e- Sharief and Beerwah areas of Budgam district, two more deaths were reported from Chadoora area of the same district and another in Magam town, which is known as the gateway to Gulmarg. Another person was killed in Barsoo in Ganderbal district.Mobs attacked the polling stations, damaging the EVMs and ransacking the polling stations, at nearly 100 places in Budgam.Separatists have called a two-day shutdown and protest against the civilian deaths.Late on Sunday, security forces also foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir and killed four terrorists. "A major infiltration bid from across the LoC was foiled by the Army troops in Keran sector yesterday (Sunday) evening," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told IANS."A search operation is going on in the area," he said.
While a Chinese navy statement on Sunday night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese ship whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates.
Hua did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation.
The surprise omission of Indian Navys role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
The Indian Navy on Sunday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
China on Monday claimed full credit for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, ignoring Indian Navys role in the operation.When questioned about the absence of any mention of the Indian Navys role in the operation, Hua said Chinas Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.According to what we have learnt from the military on April 8 at 5 PM the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters received reports from the UKMTO (United Kingdom Marine Trade Operation) about the hijack of Tuvalaun ship OS35, she said.The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now, she told reporters.Her comments came a day after the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement that it rescued the ship.When asked about the Chinese navys statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD.He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.However, Hua, without detailing what cooperation she referred to, said, We always remain positive towards international cooperation in combating pirates. We are ready for more cooperation in this regard.Asked about the Indian Navys role, she said I have already given what I have learnt to you. The Chinese convoy received a report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I point you to the Chinese defence ministry.At the end of the operation, the Chinese navy thanked the Indian Navy for its role in the operation. In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe, Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said on Sunday.The reported coordination among the navies came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lamas visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, Chinas opposition to Indias NSG membership and Beijing blocking Indias effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
Jaipur: Activists on Monday demonstrated against the lynching of Pehlu Khan for alleged illegal transportation of cows in Alwar.
The activists, representatives of various organisations including PUCL, held the demonstration at Gandhi Circle and demanded immediate arrest of all those involved in the case.
PUCL general secretary Kavita Srivastava demanded the resignation of Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria for his statement over the incident and a compensation of Rs 1 crore from the state government for the family of Khan.
Khan and four others were beaten badly by cow vigilantes in Alwar over a week ago.
Khan died later at hospital.
They were transporting cows when the incident occurred in Behro.
The police have arrested three persons in this connection.
Hero of Mollywood's first musical hit 'Thiramala' shares his Hollywood stint, directing Prem Nazir and more
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday denied bail to LIC agent Anand Chauhan in a money laundering case involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others.
"I have dismissed this petition (bail application)," Justice Vipin Sanghi said. Chauhan is in judicial custody since his arrest in July last year.
During the hearing on his bail plea earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had claimed that there was ample evidence against him and there was serious apprehension that he could tamper with evidence if released on bail.
The accused had approached the high court challenging the trial court's August 20 last year order dismissing his bail plea, saying there was "more than sufficient material" to show his involvement in the alleged offence.
The ED had alleged that Virbhadra Singh had "invested huge amount in purchasing LIC policies in his own name and his family members through Chauhan."
Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9, 2016 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act after the ED alleged that he was not cooperating with the probe.
Chauhan had sought bail on the ground that the case against him was documentary in nature and there was no need to keep him in custody. He had claimed of having joined and cooperated with the agency in the ongoing probe.
In a separate case, Virbhadra Singh and his wife were on March 31 charge sheeted by the CBI in a special court here in a disproportionate assets case after the High Court refused to quash FIR against them and lifted the stay on their arrest.
Indian R&AW agent #Kalbushan awarded death sentence through FGCM by Pakistan Army for espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/ltRPbfO30V
Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) April 10, 2017
Sources in New Delhi said Jadhav was abducted and later shown as arrested in Balochistan. The trial was not done in a proper way. Army courts in Pakistan are meant for terrorists and not Indian nationals. We will protest against this a source told CNN-News18.
Sources said Pakistan should have gone for open court hearing, instead of a secret Army trial. The haste indicates Islamabad is eager to destroy evidence. The decision comes months after Pakistan PMs advisor Sartaj Aziz said there was no evidence against Jadhav.
A military court in Pakistan has sentenced Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for alleged involvement in "spying" and "subversive activities"."The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence. Today(Monday) Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed his death sentence awarded by FGCM," ISPR was quoted as saying by Dawn News.Sources said the Indian government was not informed of the trial. It looks like an internal decision of the Pakistan army. No details are there in public domain.The Pakistan Army had months ago released a "confessional video" of Jadhav, in which he said he was a serving Indian Navy officer.India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied that he was in any way connected to the government.Jadhav was arrested reportedly from Balochistan after he entered from Iran in March 2016. He was accused by Pakistan of being a "R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) agent and planning "subversive activities" in the country.The Indian government, on the other hand, believed that he was picked up from Iran.Earlier this year, Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz had ruled out any possibility of extraditing Jadhav back to India.Aziz told the Senate that Pakistan never said there was any lack of evidence against him. "We have filed an FIR and prepared a case to prosecute Indian state actor for his subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan," he said.Aziz had said Islamabad had shared a dossier with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on New Delhi's involvement in internal affairs of Pakistan, and in subversive and terrorist activities in the country.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said social media should respect and protect privacy, rights of individuals.
Inaugurating a two-day workshop on "Social Media and Effective Governance" in Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayan said cyber crimes should be treated seriously.
Social media users should share news and opinions creatively with mutual respect to arrive at a common clear-cut vision in the society, he said.
"An individual's privacy and rights has to be respected and protected by the social media. Cyber crimes should be viewed seriously," he said in the event, organised by state Public Relations Department in association with Facebook.
The freedom, ensured by social media through net neutrality, should not be approached in an immature manner, he said.
"Unhealthy practices such as inciting religious hatred and exploiting women and children are seen in social media. It should be realised that they all are crimes," he said.
Vijayan said that it is more dangerous to spread "half-truths" than "false information".
Measures should be found out to check the misuse of social media to ensure its credibility and responsibility, he said.
Chief Minister also reminded that the social media has more responsibility in the present context as it has emerged as a socio-democratic space.
Nitin Saluja, Policy Programmes Manager (South and central Asia), Facebook was among those who attended the workshop.
A military court in Pakistan has sentenced Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for alleged involvement in spying and subversive activities.
In response, the external affairs ministry has issued a demarche to Pakistan stating: If basic norms of law and justice are not observed, government and people of India will regard it as premeditated murder.
India has also stopped the release of around a dozen Pakistani prisoners who were going to be released by authorities day after tomorrow.
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Islamabad: Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday said the death sentence handed out to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for "spying" should serve as a warning to those "plotting" against the country.
"Those plotting against Pakistan will not be spared," Asif said after the Pakistani military announced that an army court has sentenced Jadhav to death after finding him guilty of "espionage and sabotage activities" and the army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved his execution.
Asif claimed that Yadav's sentencing by a military court was according to the law.
He said the death sentence handed out to Jadhav should serve as a "warning to those plotting" against Pakistan".
Asif said that Pakistan would use all constitutional force available against those acting against the sovereignty of the country.
"Soldiers and civilians of Pakistan have given sacrifices for this country and their sacrifices demand us to give a befitting reply to terrorists and those who aid and facilitate them," he said.
The defence minister further said that Jadhav's "confession" was a public document and if India raises the issue of his death sentence, Islamabad will reply to New Delhi.
Jadhav came (to Pakistan) with the approval of the Indian government," he claimed and said there is no doubt that India was "fueling terrorism in Pakistan."
According to Asif, the entire world had acknowledged Pakistan's struggle against terrorism and the country was dealing with this "menace" from both the "eastern and western front".
Pakistan sentenced Jadhav to death for carrying out espionage and sabotage activities in Balochistan and Karachi, the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
According to ISPR, Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016 from Mashkel area of Balochistan for his "involvement in espionage and sabotage actives" in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province and Karachi city.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
New Delhi: India should prepare for taking "stringent action" against Pakistan and warn it of negative consequences if Kulbhushan Jadhav is executed, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said on Monday.
"We should prepare to take stringent action against Pakistan. Today, we should give warning that consequences would be bad for Pakistan if Jadhav is executed," Swamy told reporters outside the Parliament.
He said India should discard the "wrong perception" that an India-Pakistan friendship is necessary to have Hindu-Muslim unity in the country.
Swamy comments came in reaction to the Pakistan army chief approving execution of Jadhav for his "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" in that country.
Pakistan security officials had "arrested" Jadhav on March 3 last year in Balochistan after he reportedly entered from Iran.
Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
A military court in Pakistan has sentenced Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for alleged involvement in "spying" and "subversive activities". Jadhav was arrested reportedly from Balochistan after he entered from Iran in March 2016. He was accused by Pakistan of being a "R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) agent and planning "subversive activities" in the country. India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied that he was in any way connected to the government.At least five Indians before Kulbhushan Jadhav were arrested by Pakistan on charges of spying and died awaiting justice in Pakistani jails. Heres a look:from Punjabs Tarn Taran district died in 2013 after spending 22 years in different Pakistani prisons. His mercy petitions were rejected by then Pakistani president Perzev Musharraf. He was accused of bomb attacks in Pakistans Punjab in 1990 which claimed over 10 lives. India, however, maintains Singh, a farmer, strayed into Pakistan while drunk.from Punjabs Gurdaspur died last year in Pakistan after languishing in a Lahore jail for nearly 25 years on charges of spying. He was arrested when he crossed over through the Wagah border in 1992 and was sentenced to death in a bomb blasts case. He was acquitted, but his sentence could not be commuted and the reason was never clear.was allegedly tortured to death in a Pakistani jail four years ago. He, too, was accused of spying for India. His family, however, said he went missing from his fields in Jammu in 2008.s death in a Karachi jail in 2014 remains a mystery. The fisherman was arrested by Pakistani authorities along with several others.In February 2013, he reportedly managed to escape, but was re-arrested a little less than a year later.was arrested in 2011 for allegedly crossing the border illegally. He died in a Lahore jail reportedly due to heart failure.
The Lok Sabha is witnessing uproar over BJP leader Tarun Vijays racist remarks against south Indians.
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"It was a tripartite agreement between three leaders and void ab initio (illegal at the outset) and hence cannot be acted upon," the lawyer said.
The apex court had last year refused to grant an urgent hearing on the PIL, saying there was no urgency in the matter while Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, to "keep politics aside".
"According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India...," it had said.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking declaration of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan as illegal and unconstitutional."This treaty is of 1960 and this treaty has held good for more than half a century," a bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said while dismissing the PIL filed by lawyer ML Sharma in his personal capacity.The bench, also comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul, however, made clear that the order dismissing the PIL "does not put any impairment on anybody".The clarification came when Sharma said that the dismissal of the PIL should not put any restriction in the way of the government if it wants to review the Indo-Pak water pact.During the brief hearing, it was argued that the Indus water pact was not a treaty at all as the same was not signed in the name of the President of India.The court said that it has perused the entire petition and does not wish to agree with it.The Indus water agreement was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, the then Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories.Sharma, in his PIL, had referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.However in the case of the 1960 Indus waters treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and "nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India", the plea had said.Sharma had said, "According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to national interest."The treaty was "against the national interest and violated fundamental right of the citizen of India effecting their life and livelihood", it had said.
The death sentence to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav pronounced by a miltary court in Pakistan comes just months after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz said there was not enough evidence against him.The dossier on Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav contained mere statements. It did not have any conclusive evidence, Aziz had told a full Senate chamber of Pakistan Parliament in December.Ever since his arrest, Jadhav has been denied consular access. Since March 2016, India had issued at least six note verbales to Pakistan to get consular access to Jadhav, but in vain.Instead of an open trial, Jadhav was tried in secret by military courts in Pakistan which were set up to try terrorists.The haste indicates Islamabad is eager to destroy evidence.Jadhav, 46, was arrested by Pakistan police in Balochistan in March this year. He is accused by Pakistan of creating unrest in Balochistan and Karachi. The Pakistan Army even released a video in which Jadhav purportedly "confesses" to his "involvement" in terror activities in Balochistan at his country's behest.The video is so slick, it was called a 'well-produced' evidence.While Pakistan claims Jadhav is a commander-rank officer with the Indian Navy, India has rejected the allegation and maintained that he retired from the Navy in 2002 and was now a businessman.
New Delhi: Farmers from Tamil Nadu on Monday protested nude outside the South Block to demand a drought-relief fund.
This is the latest form of protest by farmers from the southern state, some of whom had earlier camped at Jantar Mantar to demand a farm-loan waiver.
The farmers are mainly from Tanjavur and Tiruchirapalli in the states parched Cauvery belt.
On March 14, around 170 half-naked farmers held demonstrations outside the PMs residence with skulls of farmers who allegedly committed suicide and begging bowls.
Last Friday, they had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India, demanding his intervention.
Representatives of the farmers had met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on March 21 and put forth their demands.
Early this year, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had sought a detailed report from Tamil Nadu after it took suo motu cognisance of media reports regarding the deaths of 106 farmers during a period of one month in Tamil Nadu.
On February 22, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami sanctioned a sum of Rs 2,247 crore as drought relief to more than 3.2 million farmers.
Under the triple talaq, a Muslim man can instantly divorce his wife by repeating 'talaq' thrice. As per 'nikah halala', a woman divorcee, has to marry someone else and consummate this marriage before getting a divorce to remarry her earlier husband.
The Centre said the pivotal issue that needed to be addressed was whether under a secular Constitution women -- merely because of their religious identity -- could be relegated to a status significantly more vulnerable than their counterparts who profess any other faith, namely Hindus, Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, etc.
Referring to reforms by several Islamic countries, including those have overwhelming Muslim population, the Centre said Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt and Iran have undertaken significant reforms and the practices of instant triple talaq or automatic polygamy at will is not permitted in most of these countries.
: Triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy violate Muslim women's right to equality and dignity and are not protected by the right to profess, practise and propagate religion under Article 25(1) of the Constitution, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday.Describing triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy as "patriarchal values and traditional notions about the role of women in society", the Centre said these were "an impediment to the goal of achieving social democracy" and contrary to the country's obligations under international treaties and covenants."The conferment of a social status based on patriarchal values or one that is at the mercy of menfolk is incompatible with the letter and spirit of Articles 14 and 15," the Centre said."The right of a woman to human dignity, social esteem and self-worth are vital facets of her Right to Life under Article 21," the Centre has said.The Centre's stand was enunciated in a written submission filed ahead of hearing of the matter by a Constitution Bench commencing May 11. The submissions drawn by advocate Madhvi Divan have been settled by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi."The fundamental question (is)... whether, in a secular democracy, religion can be a reason to deny equal status and dignity, available to women under the Constitution."| Triple Talaq: All You Need to Know About Controversial Muslim Divorce Pointing out that gender justice was a constitutional goal of overwhelming importance and magnitude, the Union government said the Fundamental Right to Equality takes within its fold, equality of status and the gender equality, gender equity and gender justice are values intrinsically entwined in guarantee of equality under Article 14.The practices of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy impact the social status and dignity of Muslim women and render them unequal and vulnerable qua men belonging to their own community; women belonging to other communities and also Muslim women outside India, it added.The government said the paradox is that Muslim women in India are more vulnerable in their social status because of the prevalence of such practices, even though they live in a secular country and that their position is weaker than women who live in theocratic societies or countries where Islam is the state religion."Patriarchal values and traditional notions about the role of women in society are an impediment to the goal of achieving social democracy and they are likely to hold back the community at large, resulting in lopsided development and pockets of social backwardness ..."Describing triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy as repugnant to the guarantee of secularism -- an essential feature of the Indian Constitution -- the Centre said that lopsided development and pockets of social backwardness is not in the larger interest of the integrity and development of the nation.
If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.
In December 2016, Sartaj Aziz had admitted that the dossier on Jadhav had mere statements and that there was insufficient evidence against him. Aziz went back on his words soon after as the controversy drew international medias attention.
It appears as if Pakistan wants to destroy the evidence. Why did Sartaj Aziz say there was no evidence against Jadhav? Why was Aziz made to withdraw his words? asked top sources in Indian government.
: India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit soon after the news of death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistan Army Court came in and said it will be regarded a premeditated murder because there was no fair trial in the case.Foreign Secretary of India S Jaishankar issued a demarche to Basit and said, The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.Jadhav was awarded death sentence after a shoddy trial by the Field General Court Martial under the Pakistan Army Act 1952. Pakistan has not answered as to why Jadhav, who was arrested on espionage charges, was denied a civilian court trial, and why did Pakistans Foreign Policy Chief Sartaj Aziz go back on his words that there was insufficient evidence against Jadhav.Ever since Jadhav was arrested by Pakistan in March 2016, India has repeatedly asked for consular access to Jadhav as per the provisions of the bilateral Consular Access Agreement, but the permission was never granted. On the contrary, the whole process was kept a secret against the international norms. Even at the peak of Cold War, the US and Russia conducted open trials of spies.The Government of India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to Jadhav, as provided for by international law. Requests to that effect were formally made 13 times between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities, India told Pakistan High Commissioner.The conviction is travesty of justice as Pakistan Army Courts have been aggressively announcing death sentences without detailed hearings since the last two years, just to appear tough against terrorism.Pakistan legalised military court trials of terror suspects for a period of two years in January 2015, soon after terrorists killed 144 people, mostly children, at an Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar. Pakistans National Assembly amended the constitution in March 2015, allowing military courts to try civilians simply on the basis of terror allegations.While the Pakistan Army has claimed that Jadhav was given a lawyer to defend himself, India questioned the very legality and authenticity of a secret army trial without any proof of terror charges. The hurried manner in which the death sentence has been announced within months of the trial, defying international laws, is also shocking.India has once again reiterated its position that Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran, and has asked Pakistan to explain how a kidnapped individual landed in their country.According to Section 105 of the Pakistan Army Act, when a person is awarded death sentence, there must be an absolute majority of votes. If there is a difference of opinion, the decision goes in favour of the accused. However, there was no such clarity in the case of Jadhav.Military courts in Pakistan were allowed to extend their jurisdiction for speedy trial of terror cases after the Peshawar school attack through amendments to the Pakistan Army Act 1952. These amendments were met with much debate, but military courts have already weaved themselves into the fabric of Pakistans criminal justice system.Since February 2015, a total of 274 individuals have been convicted in military courts. So far, the army has sentenced 161 individuals to death, 12 of whom have been executed and 113 have been given jail terms (mostly life sentences). There are roughly 11 military courts that have been set up across Pakistan; three in Khyber Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three in Punjab, two in Sindh and one in Balochistan.
Kolkata: Director Kaushik Ganguly, whose Partition-themed movie Bisorjon got the National Award for best Bengali film, says the project gives a message that humanity and love remain over and above all religions.
"Bisorjon talks about the love between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman living in India and Bangladesh respectively. It says humanity is over and above all religion. It says love doesn't follow religion," Kaushik told PTI here.
Asked about the significance behind the name of Bisorjon, the director says, "It is about the Bisorjon (immersion) of love. And we have shot the sequences of real life immersion of Durga idols on Vijaya Dashami day on river Ichhamati in Taki, where the river flows along the boundary of the two countries.
"On Vijaya Dashami the border ceases to exist during immersion time and idols from both India and Bangladesh are taken out in boats on Ichhamati for immersion. This is a unique spectacle and we have sought to capture the moment in the film," Kaushik says.
Talking about the film's relevance in the present situation in the country, Kaushik says, "I don't understand politics. I believe in airing my views through art.
"I wish the film is viewed in both countries, as we are connected by a common language, Bengali. There are many people in Kolkata who have their ancestral homes in then Purbobango (East Bengal). They still converse in the dialect of that place. Same is true for people living on the other side of the border. I wish the film is seen by everyone," he says.
Happy that Bisorjon will be released on Bengali New Year in India, Kaushik says, "I am keen that to have it commercially screened in Bangladesh very soon." Bangladeshi actress Joya Ahsan, who had been cast in Srijit Mukherjee's Rajkahini, plays the Hindu woman in the film, while Bengali actor and Kaushik's Bastushaap protagonist Abir Chatterjee essays the male lead.
"Abir has portrayed the character of a rural folk and his diction, body language were unbelievable. You will also see a different Joya Ahsan," Kaushik says.
Remember Kim Sharma, the girl actor Jugal Hansraj had a crush on in popular Bollywood film Mohabbatein? The actress, who made headlines for dating Yuvraj Singh is back in news. Sharma, who tied the knot to business entrepreneur Ali Punjani in 2010 and shifted to Kenya, returned to Mumbai recently, reportedly for facing troubles in her married life.If a report in DNA is anything to go by, Sharmas marriage is over. The reason? He cheated on her, dumped her for another woman."Ali left Kim as he got attracted to another woman. The irony is that when Ali met Kim, he was plump and not great-looking but now because he is in love, he has lost weight and looking great. But Kim is left with no money or financial security. Right now, she is looking to establish her business in Mumbai to provide for herself financially. She is now a brand strategist and goes by the name Kimi Sharma (her real name). Kimi didn't just leave their home in Kenya behind, but her job as the CEO of Punjani's chain of hotels as well," a source has been quoted as saying by DNA.Kim has been seen in a few more Bollywood movies including Tum Se Achcha Kaun Hai and Fida among others.
This is the same flight Gaikwad boarded last month when he lost his cool and hit an Air India staffer "25 times" because the MP insisted on travelling business class on an all-economy flight.
Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad booked a ticket on an Air India flight from Pune to New Delhi for Monday, two days after the ban on him was lifted by the state-owned carrier. But the parliamentarian is learnt to have opted to travel by train instead.Sources said Gaikwad boarded the Rajdhani Express for New Delhi on Sunday.Gaikwad was learnt to have booked a business class seat in AI 852, which took off from Pune at 7:40 am and lands at Indira Gandhi International airport at 9:50 am."The summer schedule kicked in on 26 March as per which we are flying the newly acquired A320 neo planes on this route. This aircraft has business class," PTI quoted an Air India source as saying.The MP had converted his ticket for Monday into an open ticket, which allows him to fly on any date on the same route.While lifting the ban on Friday, after pressure from the government, Air India had emphasised that it is "committed to ensuring its employees are not assaulted or misbehaved with".The national carrier also said that it would take strong action to preserve the dignity of its employees.(With PTI inputs)
"If religion prevents one from opting for family planning norms, we must go by the nationalist spirit and formulate a policy keeping under consideration the available resources of the country," Dr Krishna Gopal told a motely group of journalists. The resolution delved into the demographics of Assam.
"We have suggested that the two-children norm will be applicable also in employment generation schemes like giving tractors, proving homes and other government benefits. Those with more than two children will not be eligible for all government schemes. This norm will be applicable in panchayat, municipal bodies and autonomous councils elections too," the Assam minister said.
"It is a nationwide campaign which we plan to ratchet up to the next level in the coming months, said Manu Gaur, President of Taxpayers Association of Bharat (TAXAB). "But I must make it clear that we are not associated with any organisation or a party.
RSS joint general secretary Dr Krishna Gopal has spent well over a decade in the North East. The full-time pracharak from Mathura was thus chosen to explain to the media the resolution passed by the RSS National Executive on imbalance in the population growth'.All this happened almost a year-and-a-half ago in Ranchi where the RSS top brass met for three days just before Diwali of 2015.Since then, the BJP has registered an emphatic victory in Assam and a resounding victory at that.The population imbalance was also discussed in the RSS general body meet at Nagaur in 2016 and the one held last month at Coimbatore.Perhaps taking a cue from the RSS resolution passed in Ranchi, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswasarma announced on Sunday the draft population policy for the state stipulating any person with more than two children will not be eligible for any government job.He added that any person who gets a government job after meeting the norms will have to maintain it till end of service."We have suggested making all facilities like fees, transportation, books and hostel fees free for all girls. We are hoping that it will encourage girls to complete their education," he said.Interestingly, in the last one year, a non-descript NGO formed in 2016 has quietly started to build a campaign for a nationwide population policy. The Taxpayers Association of India has been pushing a hash tag #bharat4populationlaw on social media.Some videos posted by the organisation detail the taxpayers money spent on population control which have borne little or no result.The idea, it seems, is to link population control with taxpayers contribution to the state exchequer for government schemes and programmes.The Assam experiment, though would be closely watched both for its implementation and reactions; a pilot project of sorts.
Kolkata: West Bengal government has informed the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party to bear cost of all amenities of central ministers who in the name of official tours are indulged in politics against the government.
State governments directive came after Union MoS Home Kiren Rijiju - during a public meeting in Birbhum - alleged that Mamata Bannerjee is running a dictatorship in Bengal.
It was learnt that officials accompanying Rijiju, who was in Siuri in Birbhum district, were told that they have to pay if they want to use state facilities including guest houses.
They had requested the state government to be allowed to use the state circuit house in Birbhum district. In reply, the state government said, Anyone from the Centre can use state governments facilities but it will not be free.
Speaking to News18, a senior official at the state CMO said, We have noticed that a large number of central ministers are coming to Bengal in the name of announcing central scheme to the masses. But it was found that they are indulging in spreading BJPs ideology. In that case, it becomes a political tour and not an official one.
BJP state secretary Sayantan Basu said, As I said earlier, Trinamool Congress is indulging in vendetta politics. As per law, the state government is bound to provide all basic amenities to our central leaders.
Already 14 central leaders - out of scheduled 40 - have visited the state to spread central schemes to the masses. The remaining 26 will be here from April 11 to April 14, he added.
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha witnessed uproarious scenes and multiple adjournments on Monday as Opposition MPs demanded an apology over BJP leader Tarun Vijays racist remarks against south Indians.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan denied an adjournment motion notice moved by the Congress but allowed its leader Mallikarjun Kharge to speak. Kharge then demanded an apology from the ruling BJP and said Vijay should be booked for sedition over the comments.
He also accused the government of backing the ideology which was diving the country.
The Opposition members were heard shouting, 'Modi Sarkar jawab do-jawab do (Modi government should respond)', 'Desh ka vibhajan nahin chalega (Won't allow division of country)' and 'We want FIR (against Vijay)'.
Replying to the allegations, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Vijay had apologised for his remarks. India is a secular country. Discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, religion and colour cannot be tolerated, he said.
Kharge, however, kept up the demand for an apology following which Akali Dals Prem Singh Chandumajra stood up and said the Congress was yet to apologise for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Tarun Vijay had kicked up a storm by calling south Indians blacks while participating in an Al Jazeera show on the recent racist attacks on African students in India.
If we were racist, why would we have all the entire South (India) which is you know Tamil Nadu, you know Karnataka and Andhra why do we live with them? We have black people all around us, Vijay said in response to Mahesh Shantaram, a Bengaluru-based photographer who said he found Indians to be racists.
Later, in a series of tweets, Vijay said he had been misquoted.
The comments came at press conference here where Kejriwal alleged that tampered EVMs were being brought from Rajasthan to manipulate the upcoming municipal elections in Delhi.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday hit out at the Election Commission over alleged tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), dubbing the poll panel as Dhritarashtra from the epic Mahabharat.The Election Commission is behaving like Dhritrashtra who is trying to help his son Duryodhan win the elections and bring him to power by hook or by crook, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.However, Kejriwal struck a balanced view on EVMs, acknowledging that EVMs used in the past did not have problems. Delhi has machines which are post-2006 make and are fine. But machines are being brought from Rajasthan which are manipulated, he said.Striking a defiant note, Kejriwal said tampered EVMs will not deter the AAP from the electoral process. We will fight the elections till the last breath. More and more people will come out to vote in MCD elections, he said.The EC has countered allegations that EVMs are unreliable, saying the machines are robust and tamper-proof and even the manufacturers cannot manipulate them.The M1 (model one) of EVM was manufactured till 2006 and had all necessary technical features to make it "non-hackable contrary to claims made by some activists", it said.The M2 model of EVMs produced after 2006 and up to 2012 incorporated additional safety features. It can detect "malicious sequenced key presses"."Further, the ECI-EVMs are not computer controlled, are stand alone machines and not connected to the Internet or any other network. Hence, there is no chance of hacking by remote devices... also do not have any frequency receiver or decoder for data for wireless or any external hardware port for connection to any other non-EVM accessory or device. Hence no tampering is possible," the poll panel had said.
We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money? P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 10, 2017
As the Election Commission cancelled the R K Nagar bypoll over use of money power, Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking if his demonetisation drive has achieved the desired results."We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K Nagar white money?" the former Finance and Home Minister said in a tweet.The Election Commission had last night cancelled the April 12 bypoll to the R K Nagar Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, saying the electoral process has been "seriously vitiated" by parties through use of money power.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while announcing the demonetisation decision on November 8, had said that the move would curb black money besides getting other positive results. The bypoll to R K Nagar was necessitated due to the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani on Monday morning.
Banerjee had not been able to meet Advani since the death of his wife Kamla Advani last year. It was a courtesy call. They discussed health of ailing leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi Advani got emotional talking about his former colleagues, said a source close to Advani.
The two leaders also talked about old days, including 1998 when Banerjee was a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Banerjees meeting with Advani came hours before senior NDA leaders meeting at a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday ahead of the presidential election in July this year. Some NDA leaders hinted that the dinner diplomacy is the first step towards consensus building for the election of the president.
While Advani told reporters last week that he was not in the Presidential race, he has friends and well-wishers across the political spectrum.
In an interview to a Bangla TV channel in March, Banerjee had reportedly said that she would not mind if someone senior like Advani, Sushma Swaraj or Sumitra Mahajan became the President. She had also said that it was too early to discuss the name of the next President.
However, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek OBrien had later said that Mamatas comments were spiced up in translation.
On Sunday night, Banerjee attended dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee in honour of visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A host of dignitaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attended the dinner.
CNN-News18 checked with a section of the voters who confirmed that each of them was given Rs 4,000 and asked to vote for the 'Hat symbol'. It wasn't just the Sasikala faction as a few voters said that even the DMK was distributing cash.
The cash-for-votes method to win an election is not entirely new in Tamil Nadu. Just ahead of the Tamil Nadu state elections, polls at two constituencies -- Aravakurichi and Thanjavur -- were held back after huge amounts of cash were seized.Thus, political observers say postponement of RK Nagar bypolls will not help.Gnani, political analyst, said, Cancellation of polls on the charges of bribing the voter is not enough. Aravakurichi and Thanjavur pools were also cancelled earlier but were subsequently held with the same candidates. The ruling party candidates won the postponed election. Does that mean that this time the people elected them without accepting bribes?"Not all voters of RK Nagar were happy. A few of them were angry that they were not given money while their neighbours were. Every time there is an election in the state, people expect money from different candidates. That is what happened this time too.The Election Commission's decision has shocked many and parties in Tamil Nadu say it was politically motivated. Political analysts say EC's announcement tarnishes the image of a few parties that didnt distribute money.RK Radhakrishnan, Associate Editor, Frontline said: "Step is in the right direction. But the EC, instead of blaming it on all political parties and leaders, should have named those against whom FIRs have been registered. The act of the EC, using the phrase "unlawful activities of the candidates and political parties and their workers" seriously tarnishes the image of at east four parties that didn't distribute money to the people."Gnani feels that candidates who distributed money should be disqualified from contesting once again. The election commissions announcement of cancellation of pools is a sham. If the commission has enough evidence against any candidate regarding bribing the voter, the commission should disqualify that candidate from contesting again. With no such punishment for bribing, the candidates go scot free and only the exchequer incurs unnecessary expenditure," he said.The developments surrounding RK Nagar seem to bring back memories of the DMK's ingenuous methods of getting cash across to the electorate. Dubbed the Thirumangalam formula around 2009, the techniques of evading monitoring included slipping money into newspapers delivered to households. It even found mentions in the US cable bulletins that were released as part of the WikiLeaks.As RK Nagar bypolls stands cancelled, the questions over who inherits the AIADMK mantle will linger. For O Panneerselvam, desperate for a victory to prove he is the real heir, and TTV Dinakaran fighting for the same prize, the wait for the electoral sanction remains as distant as ever.
New Delhi: A day after the Election Commission allotted its 200 candidates a common symbol 'Whistle', the fledgling Swaraj India party on Sunday launched a unique campaign asking the people to blow a whistle whenever they see anything wrong happening around them.
The party kick-started the "Blow the Whistle" campaign with a roadshow from Nangloi to Rithala in west Delhi ahead of the April 23 local civic body polls.
Swaraj India's National President Yogendra Yadav said: "Swaraj India's 'Whistle' symbol is that of a watchdog, a whistle of a watchman. This is the whistle that is blown to prevent theft and corruption... The whistle of Swaraj India will wake up the public and remove the corrupt and dishonest people from public offices."
During the road show, Yadav appealed to the people of Delhi to blow the whistle whenever they see a politician making false promises, committing injustice, promoting corruption, lying or cheating people.
"With the 'Blow The Whistle' campaign of Swaraj India, the people of Delhi would express their intention to not tolerate drama, jumla or ghotala anymore," Yadav said.
Yadav said that when Delhi continued to languish in dirt, the political parties were busy playing the blame game. While the people of Delhi were dying due to diseases such as dengue and chikangunya, politicians were busy indulging in extravagance and corrupt politics.
"Through the 'Blow The Whistle' campaign, the people of Delhi will take up the responsibility of being Delhi's referee and watchdog. This city has unfortunately witnessed heights of corruption and limits of immorality in political parties," Yadav added.
The party's Chief National Spokesperson Anupam told IANS: "The Delhi government conspired to deny Swaraj India a common election symbol, the party found a new and unique way to ensure uniformity in its campaign. Now the people of Delhi will expose and dismiss the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party."
Swaraj India has full faith that the country's capital, where the anti-corruption movement received unprecedented support, the city that revolted against the unfortunate Nirbhaya case, will now once again lead the country towards a new-age politics, Anupam said.
Lucknow: Ever since coming to power on March 19, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has changed prisons of 44 mafia dons to ensure that the criminals are not able to operate from jails.
The criminals have been put under direct supervision of the Special Task Force and the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Uttar Pradesh Police via closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
Among the criminals who have been transferred are Bahujan Samaj Party MLA and mafia don Mukhtar Ansari, who has been transferred from Agra jail to Banda; criminal-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, who has been transferred from Naini Central Jail to Nayariya Jail; and gangster Munna Bajrangi, sent from Jaunpur jail to Pilibhit Jail.
Most district jails in UP do not have mobile jammers, leaving enough scope for powerful convicts to get phone access. On March 31, the state government released funds to install mobile jammers in 12 sensitive jails.
Keeping in view the nexus between some jail officials and the criminals, Adityanath, who has kept the home ministry profile with himself, has instructed STF and ATS to keep a close watch on the activities of mafia dons in jails.
State home ministry Principal Secretary Debashish Panda has also issued instructions to 18 district magistrates in this regard.
The instructions clearly state that activities of the jailed mafia dons should be closely watched and no unauthorised material should be allowed in jail premises. There is also a crackdown on powerful prisoners getting extra facilities in jails.
Three crew members aboard the International Space Station are packing up their gear for a homecoming today, ending their 173-day mission in space, NASA said.Expedition 50 crew members Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko will take a ride back to Earth inside the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft.The are scheduled to land Monday at 7:21 a.m. EDT (4.51 p.m. India time) in Kazakhstan."Commander Shane Kimbrough, who is returning to Earth early Monday, took it easy Friday aboard the International Space Station. He and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Thomas Pesquet mainly performed light duty tasks and continued their daily exercise to stay healthy in space," NASA scientists wrote in a blog post on Friday."Cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, who are returning home Monday with Kimbrough, continued packing the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft that will parachute the trio to a landing in Kazakhstan after a 173 days in space," the blog post said.Ryzhikov, who is on his first mission, will command the Soyuz during its undocking and reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Borisenko and Kimbrough are both wrapping up their second visit to space.Whitson will become station commander for the second time in her career Sunday less than 24 hours before her crewmates undock from the Poisk module.She stays behind with fellow Expedition 50-51 crew members Thomas Pesquet and Flight Engineer Oleg Novitskiy.
A secretive group that published a trove of hacking tools allegedly used by US spies has released a password that it says can unlock related files.In a Medium post, the "Shadow Brokers" group revealed a password to files associated with the leaked toolkit, purportedly from the US National Security Agency. Some security experts tweeted that the password works, but that couldn't be independently verified.An October leak by the group included information that experts said might identify computers used to obscure US electronic eavesdropping.The group's post also included a discursive rant against President Donald Trump, including criticism of the recent US airstrike on a Syrian air base, Trump's attacks on some congressional Republicans and his decision to remove adviser Stephen Bannon from the National Security Council.
After decades of resting on its laurels and being content with mediocrity, Paris is emerging from its fog of complacency thanks to a new generation of creatives who are carving out a "new Paris." That's according to American expat and travel writer Lindsey Tramuta, who shines the spotlight on Parisian artisans, chefs, designers and entrepreneurs at the forefront of a burgeoning creative movement in her book "The New Paris," to be released later this month by Abrams.
Once idealized as the cradle of high fashion, gastronomy and an overall savoir-faire, the French capital would gradually see its influence weaken on the international stage, eclipsed by more innovative, daring, and progressive cities.
Paris had become a "prisoner to its own deified history," Tramuta writes, resisting change and digging its heels in the old ways.
"As other world capitals garnered attention in the media for innovations in technology, business, and even the culinary arts, Paris's image as change-phobic and voluntarily disconnected from the global world was cemented even further," she writes.
But thanks to a perfect storm of factors ranging from the economic crisis and globalization to the power of social media and the arrival of influential foreigners, a fresh new energy has been sweeping through the capital in recent years, she says, shifting the city away from tired cliches.
The rise of Paris's creative class
Described as part cultural study, part travel guide, the book is divided into chapters dedicated to food and dining, shopping and crafts, coffee, desserts and new spaces, with profiles of locals who are leading the charge.
"There is a creativity that threads throughout every chapter, whether it's food, shopping and craftsmanship or spaces in the city that have emerged," Tramuta, who has lived in the city for 10 years, said in an interview. "Paris is having its moment with the creative class."
Some of the best examples of the new creative class can be found in the city's dining scene, which had traditionally used the Michelin guide as its one and only yardstick.
But chefs like Daniel Rose of La Bourse et la Vie, Kristin Frederick of Le Camion Qui Fume (both US expats) and Charles Compagnon, (Le Richer, 52 Faubourg Saint-Denis) have injected a breath of fresh air into Paris gastronomy, legitimizing affordable, accessible, bistro dining, she said.
"All of them wanted to provide an alternative to the Michelin-style dining. The whole middle area didn't exist yet. It was untouched. They wanted to do something informal, that wasn't beholden to the Michelin system."
- How to avoid traps and cliches -
For Tramuta, the best example of the "new Paris" can be found at the Cordonnerie, or Boot Cafe in North Marais, she said.
One of the most Instagrammed facades amongst visitors and locals alike, the cafe maintains its old facade and shop sign and is run by an American expat.
Visitors are served specialty coffee -- a relatively new trend in the city -- by a Japanese barista.
"For me, it stands for a number of changes that the city has undergone."
To experience the new Paris, Tramuta advises doing your homework, be it your first visit, or your fifth.
"Do your research. Find the leading voices coming out of Paris who can point you in the right direction. Don't show up and expect to find good food anywhere. Paris is not conducive to walk-ins. There are a lot of traps."
And while it may be easy to hold Paris up to the fantasyland propelled by filmmakers Woody Allen, Richard Linklater and leading lady Audrey Hepburn, Tramuta reminds travelers that Paris has no shortage of grit.
"Paris is a city like any other. It's a living, breathing capital and as a result, it can't be perfect. Expectations should be managed."
"The New Paris: The People, Places & Ideas Fueling a Movement" is out April 18 and retails for $29.95.
Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday his order to the military to reinforce areas in the South China Sea controlled by Manila was to maintain the geopolitical balance, and assured China no "offensive weapons" would be placed there.
Duterte said the Philippines wanted peace and friendship with China but his country needed to bolster what territory it had in the Spratly archipelago because "everybody's grabbing" islands and reefs in the disputed waterway.
The maverick former mayor set off alarm bells on Thursday, including in Beijing, when he said he had ordered troops to occupy uninhabited islets and shoals that the Philippines claims in the Spratly Islands.
Philippine officials later said plans were to upgrade existing facilities and not occupy new territories.
"I'd like to address myself to the Chinese government... I ordered the occupation of the 10 or nine islands that are just near our shores because there's a heightening of geopolitical issues and eventually maybe a violent low-intensity war over here," he told a news conference on Monday.
He said the Philippines would not engage in any military buildup, but indicated the United States would.
China claims most of the South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
Duterte has turned Philippine foreign policy upside down by making overtures towards China and fiercely rebuking traditional ally the United States. Duterte wants China to be a major investor in the Philippines.
Duterte puts the blame for current maritime tensions squarely on Washington, for not intervening to stop China building and arming artificial islands in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.
"If they fight each other, we will be hit. Everybody knows, the United States will be stockpiling their weapons there. And, they said they will not," he said, without elaborating.
"I do not want to get involved in a war between nations. I have extended my hand and friendship to the U.S. government."
He seldom criticises China for its actions in the South China Sea and stressed on Monday that any future Philippine activities in the Spratlys would not be hostile.
"For the information of China, we will not place there any offensive weapons, not even one gun," he said.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing there was "close and effective communication" between Beijing and Manila.
"We hope the Philippines can move forward with China and continue to appropriately handle disputes and create a good atmosphere," she said.
Palm Beach (US): President Donald Trump can only look at the personal helicopter parked on the front lawn of his Mar-a-Lago resort. As far as going for a ride in it, he's grounded.
The Secret Service says standard security protocol requires the president to fly on either Air Force One, a jumbo jet, or Marine One, a helicopter. The agency says Trump was never on the helicopter.
It's hard to miss: The Sikorsky S-76 carries Trump's name in bold red print on the tail and step, and his personal family seal. The billionaire turned president owns two.
The helicopter appeared Sunday on the newly paved helipad of Mar-a-Lago, then left a few hours later. The White House didn't respond to questions about the reason the helicopter was there.
"Nawaz Sharif has prohibited PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retired) Raheel Sharif," Radio Pakistan quoted PM Sharif as saying.
"Raheel Sharif was made larger than life and that's the reason that when he is allotted a piece of land which he deserves it raises eyebrows," Zubair said.
"His [Sharif's] job as chief of the Saudi-led alliance is also being seen as something extraordinary when it should be his prerogative as a normal person," the Sindh governor added.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has barred his party leaders from making any controversial statements about former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif amid his appointment as the head of a 41-nation Saudi-led military alliance of Muslim countries.The former army chief's appointment had been criticised by some Pakistani politicians, retired army officers, journalists, intellectuals, who had questioned the decision of the retired general to join a foreign military alliance.The prime minister found contradictory statements being made by senior leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.The prime minister said the entire nation hailed the former army chief for his "meritorious services".Sharif's directions to leaders of his party came days after Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair called Gen Sharif "just another general" and said he should not be made "larger than life"."He is a normal general like any other generals and it's his right to acquire the piece of land he was given. Let's be fair with him let's not make him larger than life. This will only create more problems for him," he said.Zubair was referring to the news that Gen Sharif has been awarded agricultural land for his services.Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said last month that General Sharif should not accept the controversial position.Gen Sharif, who retired as Pakistan's army chief last November, is likely to assume command of the 41-nation anti-terrorism alliance, being dubbed the 'Muslim NATO', this month.
All three Republican candidates for governor Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman; Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach; and Prince William County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart will attend a debate at Liberty University on Thursday.
The event will be held at 7 p.m. at Libertys Center for Music and the Worship Arts. It is free and open to the public.
Doors open at 6 p.m. Audience members must be seated by 6:45 p.m., according to an LU news release.
Both Republican and Democratic statewide primaries, open to all registered Virginia voters, will be held June 13.
Liberty University Executive Director of External Communications Len Stevens and ABC WSET-13 anchor Mark Spain will moderate the debate, according to the news release.
The debate will be broadcast live through WSET and Sinclair Broadcast Group throughout Virginia and in Washington, D.C., the news release said.
Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and former 5th Congressional District Rep. Tom Perriello are vying for the Democratic nomination.
BLACKSBURG A pair of Virginia Tech students won their fifth startup pitch competition, taking home another oversized check as they continue to develop a new type of bicycle helmet capable of fitting inside a water bottle.
With their most recent win at Virginia Techs Union Innovation Challenge on Thursday, Park & Diamond brought its winnings total above $50,000.
The startups helmet is designed to be stylish, even to the point of being indistinguishable from an average knit hat. But hidden under the fabric is a series of hard, protective plates.
The headwear is still flexible, so it can be folded up for easy storage.
Startup co-founders David Hall and Jordan Klein say they hope to encourage more helmet usage by inventing a product thats convenient enough for every rider to carry around, and stylish enough that theyll actually be willing to put it on.
The duo admits a flexible helmet can sound counterintuitive, but they say early experiments show their product protects riders heads just as well as traditional helmets if not better.
Theyve been working on the startup for about two years while also carrying full class loads. Its been a hectic time, but they say its paid off as they have been able to build a business plan, marketing strategy and a few working prototypes.
They hope to launch the product in 2018, with a $90 price tag.
It doesnt really feel like work because we enjoy it so much, Klein said. Im not going to say that I like driving home at four in the morning seven nights in a row but I dont hate it.
The engineering students first came together in 2015 after Halls sister was involved in a bicycle wreck at the intersection of Park Avenue and Diamond Street in Philadelphia.
She wasnt wearing a helmet at the time, and ended up spending four months in a coma.
Hall and Klein became determined to invent something that would improve bicycle safety. They considered everything from crash avoidance systems to some sort of airbag.
But they just kept coming back to the one piece of safety technology every rider already knows about, but too many choose not to use: the helmet.
Hall and Klein have been executing on the idea ever since, winning pitch competitions to fund the nascent business. They work out of a small office inside the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, a space they also won through a pitch competition.
Derick Maggard, who organized Thursdays competition through Virginia Techs Apex Systems Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said Park & Diamond was exactly the kind of startup his judges were hoping would win their $7,500 grand prize.
The entrepreneurs have been pushing the idea along for years, getting closer and closer to solving a major problem.
Any type of financial award to teams like this at the earliest stages is incredibly impactful, Maggard said. It makes the difference between prototyping and not prototyping, between being able to go to market and not being able to go to market. And it gives them the inspiration and belief that they can do this.
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Why do teen girls go missing?
Whenever there has been a report of a missing female teen there follows a stream of negative comments and chastisement ranging from pronouncements of the severe beatings that should be inflicted on the youngster, to open confessions that if it were their daughter she would be handcuffed or locked away in a room. What is also distressing is the number of people who make the immediate supposition that the motives for leaving home is to seek sexual gratification, and that they somehow believe their opinion gives them liberty to describe the missing teens in the most vile crude terms.
These comments are very problematic because of the underlying assumption that the home life of the missing person is ideal and comfortable, and that they are just being indolent precocious youngsters. However, to address the situation appropriately, the actions of the missing teens needs to be understood within a wider social, cultural and political context.
So, with that in mind, I am asking the armchair QSM social workers and psychologists to stop for a minute and consider the rollercoaster of complexities that encompasses female teenagedom.
I am not advocating that we make excuses for teen misbehaviour, because we all know that they can be petulant know-it-alls (I remember my own teenage years and those of my children), but even though those female teens may be making poor choices they do not deserve to be demonised.
Let us not forget that part and parcel of adolescents and puberty is hormonal changes, its resultant physical and mental effects, and that accompanying phase of development when they begin to question their identity, push boundaries, and strive to assert independence and privacy.
According to www.understandingchildhood.
net, young people struggle to find their way from the uncertainties and confusion of puberty to fully-fledged adulthood as they meander different and conflicting pressures and role models.
There is also the often understated fact that a significant number of female teens live in unhealthy home situations which they find unacceptable, and some feel that they have no choice but to make the difficult decision to escape. I am sure you will not be surprised to know that there are households which are hotbeds of emotional, physical, psychological or sexual abuse, and gender-based discrimination, so the female teen flees to seek solace from emotional trauma, grief, habitual mistreatment or bullying.
In addition, unrealistic parental expectations puts undue pressures on conflicting young minds, and then there are those who may be living with mental health or intellectual challenges and vulnerabilities.
Given the myriad of reasons why girls go missing, and the harrowing experience it causes parents, guardians, friends and family, it is time to rethink and rebalance the political, social and cultural systems of caring. The negative commentary by the armchair QSM social workers is unhelpful, especially if the action of running away or going missing is a cry for help. Instead, the narrative should focus on positive awareness raising messages so that troubled teens know where they can get support to assist them in coping with, and unlocking some of their teenage troubles and angst.
For the commentators who beliefve that missing female teens are leaving home to co-habit and indulge in sex with unscrupulous men, your input would serve a more useful purpose if its focus was on self-care and protection, forming healthy romantic relationships, and the location of safe places of refuge.
I recall sometime ago The Honourable Prime Minister saying You call on the Prime Minister to do something about crime, Im not in your bedroom. Mr Prime Minister my call to you to take an interest in what is happening in the bedrooms and households of some of our female teenagers who have the potential to run away, by injecting additional resources into the adolescent social care system so that evidence-based solutions can be implemented to reduce the numbers of missing teenage females from rising.
Man shot dead in Rock City
According to reports, Keino Barnum was driving his red-coloured Nissan Note car along Furness Withy Street, off Erica Street, when the driver of a white vehicle opened fire on Barnums car. The front seat passenger jumped out of the vehicle and ran away but Barnum was struck multiple times.
Nearby residents alerted police and Barnum was rushed to the Post-of-Spain General Hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
A party of officers from the Homicide Bureau went to the scene and cordoned off the area.
Police are hoping to utilise surveillance footage from the area to assist them in identifying the killer
Homeless Trini sponsored home in New York
Cummings, who has worked as a bouncer, door-to-door salesman, bike messenger and delivery man, became homeless when his application for legal citizenship was denied following a dispute with relatives, with whom he settled .
Despite the dangers of living on the streets in sometimes freezing conditions, Cummings has managed to stay afloat finding temporary work as a scrap collector for construction sites and has remained optimistic taking up residence in a dumpster at the corner of Spring and Wooster streets in Yonkers .
Over the years, Cummings bizarre living quarters has made him an urban legend to the people in the bustling downtown community of Yonkers, often startling unsuspecting persons seeking to discard waste .
Cummings, who moved to Toronto Canada as a teenager and later to the United States settling with relatives in New York, where he applied for legal citizenship status .
I had put my immigration status in my familys hands, Cummings told reporters of the New York Post. The authorities claimed that they sent documents to my former residence but I havent received any of it from my relatives. Cummings has since appealed to a state senator but to no avail .
For the Trinidadian emigre, hope came in the form of two professional models, Shane Duffy and Phil Sullivan, who after going undercover in February 2016 to film a documentary on New Yorks homeless, met Cummings, who shared his blankets and foodstuff with them. The duo were moved by Cummings kindness and offered to help improve his cramped living quarters. In an interview with the New York Post, good samaritans, Shane Duffy and Phil Sullivan explained why they wanted to sponsor Cummings .
We (Duffy and Sullivan) wanted to repay him for the generosity he showed us so not long after filming we caught up with him and offered to repay him. He (Dean) wanted us to build something for him to live in as his current quarters lacked many basic commodities like running water. Duffy who also works as a contractor, collaborated with a partner and spent a total of $1,500 upgrading Cummings makeshift home, reinforcing the dumpsters exterior with pressure-treated wood to withstand New Yorks harsh winter months. The box which is almost entirely self-sufficient relies on power via solar panels and also has USB ports for electronic devices .
Despite the much-needed aid, Sullivan insists that there is much more work to be done and has expressed his interest in continuing to work with Cummings, starting a GoFundMe account to provide their newfound friend with a permanent home of his own .
There is still no running water (in Cummings home), so I can see it being a sanitation issue with them. We would love to work with the city on something.
Palm Sunday blessings in troubled area
He was addressing a Palm Sunday prayer service with members of the Spiritual Baptist faith at the Jimroy Wyse Recreation Park, corner of Crown Trace and Enterprise Street, Enterprise early yesterday morning.
Cummings, dressed in a flowing green shirt and grey slacks, said doing nothing in the face of such senseless killings was not an option and had to do more with humanity than with politics or religion. We must be our brothers keeper, Cummings said, adding the prayer service was the beginning of the intervention in the Enterprise community.
He said the Foundation would be launched after the Easter holidays and would identify the vulnerable and the ambitious and assist them to achieve their goals while uplifting the community.
Cummings also participated in the service by the lighting of a solitary candle in the middle of the tent around which oil, wine and water were sprinkled at various intervals.
Also addressing the prayer service was Chaguanas Mayor Gopaul Boodhan who pledged the councils support for the Foundation saying the ultimate goal was to return peace to the community. By Gods will and the peoples faith, peace will come back to Enterprise and we will be able to get back that enterprising spirit back into Enterprise, Boodhan said.
Meanwhile, chairwoman of the Recreation Parks managing committee Ginelle Small-Cummings said she felt extremely positive about the prayer session and its potential effect on the community.
I feel really, really positive about what is happening in my community, today I welcome the Shouter Baptist community to the Park because knowing that the community goes through this crisis and only the negative part is happening but today its good to see this prayer service, she said.
I would like to see a reaching out to all the children, the youths because we have to start at the tender age, we also have the Enterprise Youth Club happening in Enterprise but which people not seeing but this is a positive part so we are working towards developing the youths, its just to get them now involved positively, she said.
The Prayer session, which was scheduled to begin at 6am, witnessed dozens of Spiritual Baptist members, all outfitted in their traditional colourful dresses, complete with ornate headpieces, assemble at the Park, some making the journey from as far as Diego Martin and Claxton Bay.
And in true Baptist style, accompanied by the pulsating rhythms of three drummers, the congregation began by singing the victory hymn- Marching to Zion before raising their voices as various Bishops and elders led in prayer.
There were noticeable police patrols as marked police vehicles were seen at regular intervals.
End this discrimination
Amid reports that members of this community are being targeted by criminal elements, a special report in yesterdays edition disclosed even more worrisome causes for concern.
There has long been suspicion that homophobic attitudes have hindered the arms of justice in cases involving LGBTQI persons.
But the account of one police officer, quoted in the report, is alarming confirmation that this is a substantial matter yet to be arrested.
The officer said a homophobic attitude has been alive and well for decades throughout the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
He said officers, especially male officers, do not want gay people around them and further reported several instances in which gay men were told to leave police stations even before they could make a report, possibly sending them to their deaths.
Even if a report is taken, the officer said, it would be accompanied by victim blaming or shaming so that the victim was made doubly reluctant to take action when falling prey to criminals.
Other times, he said, police simply ignore cases, refusing to investigate them because an LGBTQI person is involved.
But this scandalous problem does not appear to reside only within the Police Service.
Even when matters are brought to court, bizarre legal provisions allow persons who have committed hate crimes to cite the victims sexuality as a defence.
In a reference to the so-called provocation defence, the officer reported that magistrates or judges easily accept the gay panic defence. The defence is always the same, he said.
Said the officer: They come around me with that macomere thing and I trip. You pick up a man, he buying drinks and food for you whole night, and two oclock in the night he says, Hey, leh we go home by me. You gone home by the man and then you get gay panic in the man room? And the court accepts it very easily and the prosecution doesnt force it. Thus the issue of LGBTQI equality is not merely one of reforming existing homophobic statutes (there are many, ranging from the Equal Opportunity Act, the Immigration Act, and various sections of the statutes relating to sexual offences) but also the need to devise more robust policies resulting in greater levels of training and sensitization as well as modification of common-law defences.
But for now we salute the actions of NGO groups such as Womantra, Friends for Life, the Silver Lining Foundation, I Am One, the Womens Caucus of TT, and CAISO (Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation), as well as individual activists such as Jason Jones for taking steps to raise the profile of these issues.
A grouping of these organizations has also decided to help members of the LGBTQI community arm themselves with strategies needed to cater for the increased levels of risk they may face.
Colin Robinson, president of CAISO, notes, The police and society are not friendly to us, so the kind of support that other people might have, we dont have. There is a cost for us even to report a crime. Sometimes when we do, we lose because we lose the support of family when we are outed. There must be greater sensitization.
But also, the State has a moral duty to punish severely those who target any section of society. It cannot hide behind the discriminatory biases of constituents when it comes to protecting the human right to life
DPPs office to get new photocopiers
Chairman of the JSC, Fitzgerald Hinds at Fridays meeting to look at staffing issues that affected the DPPs office questioned why it was that only two of eight photocopiers were working and professional staff had to spend much time copying files.
The JSC, he said, wrote the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs on the issue. The Port-of-Spain office usually works with six photocopiers while the San Fernando office, two.
To correct the situation, PS Ingrid Seerattan said the ministry has been working assiduously to deal with the issue and has repaired two photocopiers and four are now in working condition.
We have sourced from one of the providers four new machines to supplement the others. As of Tuesday (tomorrow) the Office of the DPP should have four new machines, she said.
DPP Roger Gaspard said he was happy to hear that we would be having four additional, and perhaps, new machines. Seerattan said she could understand why Gaspard said perhaps. Following the missive from the JSC, she said, the ministry decided to reevaluate all of its machines.
We have recognised that a number of machines have aged, she said.
Meanwhile, JSC member Paul Richards said that if he was a member of the public listening to the hearing, he would be flabbergasted to hear the JSC spending time on basic office maintenance and procedures.
It is unfortunate that it takes this sort of forum to get elucidation to get the job done, he said.
Love each other
Archbishop Harris said: We all know of the murders in the country, we read of the spiraling gang warfare in our hot spots, we read of the rampant corruption and the many other ills of our society. We can either choose to continue in the direction which we are going, or we can choose to follow the King of Peace, who as we all know stood for justice, peace and love. Lets not forget our principles and let us be the change that we want. Earlier, the Mass began outside the church with the blessing of the palms, the recognised symbol of peace and victory, by Monsignor, Father Christian Pereira, after which there was a gospel reading (Matthew: 21.1- 11) of the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.
After Archbishop Harris led members of the clergy all dressed in red and white, symbolising the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world, and worshipers into the Cathedral, the Archbishop opened the Mass, followed by the readings of The Passion of Our Lord, the narrative of Jesus capture, sufferings and death, as recounted in Matthew 26:14- 27:66.
Then came the homily, where Archbishop Harris harped on the message of peace, love and justice, and the denouncing of greed and selfishness, as well as the lack of concern for the poor.
Jesus was not a warrior king, but a King of peace, said the Archbishop who added that the Palm Sunday Mass reminds us that we do have choices before us, then urged the congregation to make that choice that would best suit themselves in the eyes of the Lord, and in the best interest of our country.
After the Mass, worshippers joined counterparts outside their church on Charlotte Street, for the start of the procession, after which they met with others from the Anglican and Moravian churches, all of whom returned to the Roman Catholic Cathedral later in the afternoon
'I Never Thought
It Would Be Paul,'
Pelosi Says
The deputy national security adviser praised as an anti-terror hardliner when she joined the Trump administration is being reassigned to a new role about as far away from Washington as it is possible to get, officials say. A source tells Reuters that former Fox News security analyst KT McFarland has been asked to step down and will be offered the role of ambassador to Singapore. The insiders say that McFarland, who was former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's deputy, is leaving as part of Flynn replacement HR McMaster's reorganization of the National Security Council.
Steve Bannon was removed from the NSC principals committee last week amid reports of a feud with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Sources tell Bloomberg that McMaster decided McFarland was not a good fit at the NSC, and Homeland Security Chief Michael Kelly agreed with the move. Former Goldman Sachs exec Dina Powell, who served in the George W. Bush administration, is expected to stay on as another deputy national security adviser. (Read more national security adviser stories.)
A fugitive in Wisconsin has more than a dozen guns and a deep-seated hatred of religion and government, authorities warn. Federal authorities say Joseph Jakubowski, 32, may be planning an act of mass violence against a church or religious group, ABC News reports. Jakubowski is believed to have stolen at least 16 guns, including two or more assault rifles, in a break-in at the Armageddon Supplies gun shop in Janesville Tuesday night. His car was found on fire around 30 minutes after the theft. Authorities say that before he disappeared, Jakubowski sent a 161-page manifesto to President Trump that was full of "anti-religion sentiment" and a "laundry list" of grievances against the government and upper class.
Jakubowski has been "highly agitated by national politics" and "believes that the government, and law enforcement in particular, are acting as terrorists and are enslaving the people," says Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden, per the Janesville Gazette. Law enforcement patrols around churches were stepped up on Sunday. More than 150 federal, state, and local police officers are searching for Jakubowski in Wisconsin and out-of-state leads are also being followed up. Former classmate Crystal Duran tells the Gazette that Jakubowski was "always kind of strange" and was bullied throughout his school years in Janesville. She says he once got in trouble for teaching other kids how to make small bombs in soft drink bottles. (Read more Wisconsin stories.)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Moscow on Tuesday, and the visit is highly unlikely to be the love-in that some predicted in the Trump administration's earlier days. Tillerson talked tough on Russia in interviews Sunday, calling for the country to end its support of Syria's Bashar al-Assad or face the consequences, the New York Times reports. He called Moscow "incompetent" for failing to hold up its end of a deal to rid Syria of chemical weapons, and accused Russia of interfering in Europeanbut not Americanelections. He said, however, that there was no change to US "military posture" in Syria, and the fight against ISIS will still come first. In other developments:
Tillerson's remarks to the media made it clear that the Russian relationship with Syria will be a main focus of talks, the Washington Post reports. "I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility," he said on ABC's This Week.
Before he travels to Russia, Tillerson will be in Italy Monday for a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers, who are hoping he will provide some clarity on the new US approach to Syria. Reuters describes America's US allies as "confused and frustrated" by mixed messages, with Nikki Haley describing regime change as a priority and Tillerson saying the fight against ISIS comes first.
The Italy talks will likely be dominated by efforts by the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK to find ways to persuade Vladimir Putin to drop Assad, but that task may be "as enormous as ever," notes the BBC.
Russia doesn't seem ready to make deals: ABC reports that the "joint command of Syrian allies," which includes Iran as well as Russia, issued a statement Sunday saying the US had "crossed red lines" with its strike on a Syrian airbase, and warning that any similar attacks will be met a response. "America knows very well our ability and capabilities to respond well to them," and "we will respond without taking into consideration any reaction and consequences," the statement said.
Fox notes that the Syria strike has won President Trump plenty of praise from liberal pundits, who largely aren't calling him out for "flip-flopping," though there have been notes of dissent from both liberal and conservative outlets, which may grow depending on what happens in the weeks and months ahead.
(Read more Russia stories.)
Laura Begley Bloom wasn't the type to sacrifice herself on an overbooked flight. The travel editor "scoffed" at people who traded their seats for cash from the airline. "Not my thing," she writes at Forbes. But then a weekend trip to Florida went awryand Bloom made a cool $11,000. The saga unfolded on Friday morning as Bloom and her husband and daughter waited to board a Delta flight at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Bad weather had caused thousands of flight cancellations, but the storms had passed so Bloom didn't expect a problem. Wrong. With 60 standby passengers, Delta began offering deals, and Bloom's family got $4,050 for agreeing to fly Saturday night. The family arrived for that flight, only to learn Delta was begging for volunteers to bump, and the price kept rising. "Cha-ching!" Bloom writes, pocketing another $1,300 each, plus lunch ($15 each), and $50 taxi fare.
Although she "felt a bit guilty" for playing the system, Bloom says "many passengers actually thanked us for doing this." But as they waited for confirmed seats on Sunday, the family learned Florida flights were overbooked through Tuesday. Goodbye weekend trip. Hello windfall. An offer to give up their seats again was "met with smiles and another $1,000 per passenger," plus a refund of their original fares. It all added up to about $11,000, and Bloom is "already starting to think" how she can get bumped from future flights. Her post ends with 10 tips for others in a similar mindset. As for the Delta woes, CNN takes a look at what triggered the "five-day meltdown" that caused the airline to cancel 3,500 flights from Wednesday through Sunday. Factors include severe weather, the bad timing of spring break, and, ironically, a company mindset that resists canceling flights under most circumstances. (United, however, is suffering much worse PR.)
Arkansas is preparing to execute seven death row inmates in 11 days because it wants to carry out the sentences before its supply of an execution drug expires May 1. Judge Kristine Baker, who was appointed to US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by President Barack Obama, will consider the legality of the state's aggressive plan this week, the AP reports. Since joining the court in 2012, she has made key rulings on abortion and gay marriage, but she hasn't handled a death penalty case of this magnitude. Baker must rule whether the plan to execute seven prisoners from April 17 through April 27 would violate their rights to meaningful counsel and access to the courts.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, has been targeted by anti-death penalty activists, with protesters holding nightly vigils outside his mansion in Little Rock, the Los Angeles Times reports. "This many executions just creates a huge, huge risk for a botched execution, which will lead to suffering," says Furonda Brasfield of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "It's truly unheard of for a state to do this." The state is short of witnesses for the executions, and critics such as Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Paul Greenberg are calling for Hutchinson to attend the lethal injections. (Last week, a federal judge blocked an eighth execution.)
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for a three-month state of emergency late Sunday night after suicide bombers struck hours apart at two Coptic churches, killing 44 people and turning Palm Sunday services into scenes of horror and outrage at the government. According to Egypt's constitution, Parliament must vote in favor of such a declarationa virtual certainty since it's packed with supporters of the president, the AP reports. It cannot exceed six months without a referendum to extend it.
The army chief-turned-president also dispatched elite troops across the country to protect key installations and accused unidentified countries of fueling instability, saying that "Egyptians have foiled plots and efforts by countries and fascist, terrorist organizations." The attacks in the northern cities of Tanta and Alexandria highlighted the difficulties facing el-Sissi's government in protecting Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt's population. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also left 126 people wounded in the bloodiest day for the country's Christians in decades. President Trump tweeted that he is "so sad to hear" of the attacks, but has "great confidence" that el-Sissi "will handle the situation properly." (Read more Egypt stories.)
A Utah doctor serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and making it look like an accident died in a Utah State Prison facility over the weekend, and his lawyer believes it was probably suicide, the Deseret News reports. Martin MacNeill, age 60 or 61, was found unresponsive Sunday morning in an outside yard at the prison system's Olympus unit, which the Salt Lake Tribune notes is meant for prisoners who are suffering from mental illness. Correctional officers tried to revive MacNeill, but he was pronounced dead at the prison after emergency responders arrived. A Utah Department of Corrections spokeswoman says there was no sign of foul play, and his attorney, Randy Spencer, says his client had spoken before of life in prison being "no life" at all. "I feared that this day would come," Spencer tells the News.
After a crime-tainted life that one investigator compared to the movie Catch Me If You Can, complete with accusations of fraud and theft, the dad of eight was convicted of murder in 2013 of the 2007 death of wife, Michele MacNeill. Prosecutors argued he had drugged and drowned her in a bathtub so he could be with his mistress. Suicide was no stranger in MacNeill's family: The News notes a brother and sister of MacNeill reportedly took their own lives, a son overdosed on prescription drugs, and repeated suicide threats by MacNeill himself. MacNeill had also received a prison sentence for sexually abusing an adult daughter, just weeks after her mom was killed, with MacNeill telling her, "I thought you were your mother" after she'd fallen asleep on her parents' bed. (An Ohio inmate on death row killed himself last month.)
Dallas got a rather unpleasant wakeup call over the weekend: nearly 160 emergency sirens blaring throughout the city in tandem, in what Rocky Vaz, director of the city's Office of Emergency Management, says was the result of hacking from "someone outside our system" but in or near the city, per the Dallas Morning News. The 156 sirenswhich Reuters notes are used to warn about dangerous weather sweeping instarted screaming at 11:42pm Friday and weren't completely turned off until 1:17am Saturday, going off for 90 seconds at a time at least 15 times, city rep Sana Syed says, per Courthouse News Service. Vaz told reporters an infrastructure hacking like this is a "very rare event" and that workers had to eventually power down the whole system when other methods of shutting off the sirens weren't working, the New York Times reports.
The Washington Post notes that jokes started circulating even as the sirens were still singing their late-night song. Some compared it to the end of the world, while Rep. Rafael Anchia put up a poll wondering if it was a Mothra versus Godzilla situation or perhaps a zombie apocalypse. But not everyone chuckled: Syed told the Times that some feared it was a bomb or missile, especially in the wake of US strikes on Syria two nights earlier. Even though the city took to Twitter to plead with locals not to tie up 911, there were more than 4,400 calls made in a four-hour spanabout double what Dallas usually sees on a Friday night. Finding out what happened is now at the top of the Dallas City Council's long to-do list, with one city council member telling the Morning News, "You can put me down as terrified." (Firefighters sued a siren company for loss of hearing.)
Two adults are dead in what police are describing as a murder-suicide inside a classroom at a San Bernardino elementary school Monday morning. The Los Angeles Times reports that two students were also wounded; their conditions are not known. One of the adults involved was a teacher at the school, North Park Elementary; police describe the situation as domestic violence. (Read more school shooting stories.)
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday ordered the deployment of special military units to assist the police in protecting vital institutions nationwide, official MENA news agency reported.
Cairo : Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday ordered the deployment of special military units to assist the police in protecting vital institutions nationwide, official MENA news agency reported.
Al-Sisi's decision came hours after deadly blasts at two churches in northern Egypt left at least 43 dead and over 100 injured.
"This treacherous terrorism targets the nation with its citizens, both Copts and Muslims, and it will never break the determination of the Egyptians and their true will to confront the powers of evil," Xinhua quoted the Egyptian president as saying.
The president also announced a three-day mourning for the victims.
Later on Sunday, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the twin church bombings in the northern provinces of Gharbiya and Alexandria on its Amaq news website.
Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested in central Budapest on Sunday against new legislation that could force the Central European University (CEU), a school founded by financier George Soros, to move out of the country.
Budapest : Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested in central Budapest on Sunday against new legislation that could force the Central European University (CEU), a school founded by financier George Soros, to move out of the country.
The demonstrators called for President Janos Ader to veto tough legislation passed by parliament targeting Central European University, The Guardian reported.
A bill passed in parliament by the ruling right-wing Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban targeted CEU by setting out numerous conditions under which it must operate.
The bill has led to criticism from hundreds of leading academics worldwide as well as from the US government and the European Union.
The Hungarian president must now sign the bill by Monday to make it law. The protesters said they wanted to convince Ader to reject the bill and refer it for constitutional review.
"What do we want Ader to do? VETO. Free country, free university! " the crowd chanted.
The government has been tightening up on dissent in other ways as well, proposing tighter rules on non-governmental organisations, which will have to register with authorities if they have a yearly foreign income of 7.2 million forints ($25,000).
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Srinagar:
Separatists on Sunday called for a two-day shutdown in Kashmir against the death of protesters in clashes in Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency during polling.
"We know hartal would not affect government policy towards us but it is the only option to express our collective grief," separatist leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mohammad Yasin Malik said in a joint statement.
Also Read: Suspected militants attack police station in Kashmir's Kulgam
They asked the people to observe complete shut downon Monday and day after against the death of six civilians.
The separatists hit out at the PDP saying that th eruling party had become "morally bankrupt". Violence marred the Srinagar Lok Sabha bye-elections as six people were killed and several injured in firing by security forces on rampaging mobs in various parts of the constituency.
Patna:
RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday termed the allegations of transfer of benami properties levied by BJP to his family as baseless and absurd. He claimed that the transactions were carried as per the law.
"All the allegations leveled against my family (wife and two sons) are baseless and absurd. All the transactions have been done in accordance with the relevant provisions of the laws concerned," Prasad told reporters here.
Prasad, however, said the two acres of land on which a mall is being built in Patna belonged to the company owned by his family. To a query on the ownership of the land on which the mall is coming up, Prasad said, "The land belongs to the company in which three persons namely Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav are the shareholders."
ALSO READ: BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi demands Nitish Kumar to sack Lalu's son from his cabinet
"Half of the share in the mall being built will be of the builder, while the remaining half will be that of the company," Prasad said. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had on April 7 demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sack Lalu Prasad's two minister sons for allegedly getting benami properties worth Rs 750 crore transferred in their names.
Asserting that all the transactions with regard to transfer of shares have been done as per the laws, Prasad said the charges were a conspiracy to tarnish the image of his family. Modi had alleged that Prasad during his tenure as Railway Minister had sold off two hotels in Puri and Ranchi controlled by the Railways to a hospitality chain owned by one Harsh Kochar in February 2005.
"Kochar in turn got two acres of land registered in the name of Delight Marketing Company Private Limited, in which Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi and his two sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav were made directors," he had alleged.
Replying to the allegations, the RJD supremo claimed Kochar was allotted the lease of the two hotels through a competitive bidding and the highest bidder was given the lease of the two hotels.
Reacting to Prasad's comment, Modi claimed that his allegations have been proved "correct" as Prasad had himself "admitted" that he is the owner of the said land of two acres with an estimated cost Rs 500 crore.
"I am happy that Lalu Prasad has admitted all the charges leveled by me. He has not denied any of allegations such as Delight company, LARA or his sons' shares in the company rather he tried to convince the people that it has been done in a legal and fair manner," Modi said.
Modi again demanded that Chief Minister Kumar sack Tejaswhi and Tej Pratap from his cabinet for allegedly getting benami properties transferred in their names. Seeking investigation into the "mall scam", Modi said that Kumar has been demanding from the Centre to attack benami properties and now he should act against his ministers as the properties lie in Bihar.
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New Delhi:
Alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav has been given death sentence by Pakistan court, reports Pak Media. The media reports in Pakistani media have quoted Inter-Services Public Relations, aA media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces which broadcasts and coordinates military news.A
Kulbhushan Yadav is an Indian national arrested in Balochistan, Pakistan over charges of spying for the Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency.
The Indian government recognises Yadav as a former naval officer, however, denies his links with the government; and maintains that he took premature retirement and was possibly abducted from Iran.
Pakistan believes that he is an in-service commander-ranked officer in the Indian Navy.
Indian R&AW agent #Kalbushan awarded death sentence through FGCM by Pakistan Army for espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/ltRPbfO30V a Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) April 10, 2017
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New Delhi:
Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull who is on a 4-day visit to India has received ceremonial reception at the President House. While briefing media, Turnbull said, Prime Minister Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on extraordinary journey of growth and development.
Achievements of India are the admiration of the World. We look forward to working even more closely than we have done in past, Australian PM added.
Australian PM will hold restricted and delegation level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will also have engagements with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari.
Prime Minister Modi will host a banquet in honour of Turnbull and his delegation. The delegation includes Australia's Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham and 120 representatives from Australian universities, industry and training institutions who will work with their Indian counterparts to strengthen collaboration and create new opportunities.
Turnbull will also be meeting the Governor of Maharashtra, C Vidyasagar Rao in Mumbai where he will attend several events including interaction with key business leaders and an energy roundtable.
India-Australia relations today cover a very wide canvas stretching from defence and security cooperation to environment, water management, sports, energy and education. Hence, this visit will build on the work done since the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Australia and give direction to the numerous institutional mechanisms that have been set up to carry the relationship forward.
Australian Prime Minister's visit will see a number of MoUs and Agreements to be signed between the two counties, which include Security, Environment, Sports, Science & Technology, Health, etc.
A high-level business delegation is also expected from Australia as both sides see good economic and commercial engagement. Australia has invested about US$7 billion in India.
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New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate on Monday an exhibition to mark the 100 years of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Satyagrah.
The exhibition to be held in the national capital will be titled Swachhagraha ? Bapu Ko Karyanjali ? Ek Abhiyan, Ek Pradarshani.
He will also launch an Online Interactive Quiz at the event which is being organised by the National Archives of India. The quiz will continue for 30 months till October, 2019.
In a series of tweets today, PM Modi said the Champaran Satyagraha was a historic mass movement which had a phenomenal impact and urged the countrymen to become Swachhagrahis and create a Swachh Bharat.
Tomorrow I will join a very special program, Swachhagraha ? Bapu Ko Karyanjali to mark 100 years of the historic Champaran Satyagraha, he posted on Twitter.
There will be an exhibition showcasing Champaran Satyagraha and it will connect essential principles of Satyagraha with Swachhagraha, he said.
Read |30th 'Mann Ki Baat': PM Narendra Modi pays tribute to Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, appeals citizens to save Petrol
The exhibition will also showcase the ground covered by the Swachh Bharat Mission in creating a mass movement towards a clean India.
A century ago, Indians became Satyagrahis and fought colonialism. Today, let us become Swachhagrahis and create a Swachh Bharat.Champaran Satyagraha was a historic mass movement led by Bapu. Its impact was phenomenal, the Prime Minister said.
The exhibition will be available for public for a month from Tuesday after inauguration by Modi tomorrow at National Archives of India (NAI) here, NAI Director General Raghvendra Singh told a press conference here.
The exhibition is a tribute to Gandhi on hundred years of his first experiment of Satyagraha in India, in Champaran and is an attempt to sensitise future generations to fulfill his dream of Swachh Bharat, Singh said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma are expected to attend the event. The exhibition will also be showcased in other cities of the country after a month.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Movement) was launched on October 2, 2014 with an aim to achieve clean India and aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi had arrived in Champaran, a district in Bihar, in 1917 to take up the cause of the farmers who were forced to grow indigo, instead of food crops, by the British.
Champaran Satyagraha was the first non-violence action initiated by Gandhi, who during his stay in Bihar, also delved in detail with the social problems like scavenging, illiteracy, and issues related to women and health.
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Beijing:
China on Monday ignored Indian Navys role in rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden and claimed full credit for the operation.
While a Chinese navy statement last night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese vessel whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates.
When questioned about the absence of any mention of the Indian Navys role in the operation, Hua said Chinas Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
According to what we have learnt from the military on April 8 at 5 PM the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters received reports from the UKMTO (United Kingdom Marine Trade Operation) about the hijack of Tuvalaun ship OS35, she said.
The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now, she told reporters.
Hua did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation.
ALSO READ | Dalai Lama says China's bid to name my successor to undermine the Tibetans' cause is nonsense
Her comments came a day after the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement that it rescued the ship.
When asked about the Chinese navys statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti-piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD.
He also posted a picture with th tweet which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
The surprise omission of the Indian Navys role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
ALSO READ | India not politically fixing GDP numbers like China: CEA
However, Hua, without detailing what cooperation she referred to, said, We always remain positive towards international cooperation in combating pirates. We are ready for more cooperation in this regard.
Asked about the Indian Navys role, she said I have already given what I have learnt to you. The Chinese convoy received a report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I point you to the Chinese defence ministry.
The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
At the end of the operation, the Chinese navy thanked the Indian Navy for its role in the operation. In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe, Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.
The reported coordination among the navies came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lamas visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, Chinas opposition to Indias NSG membership and Beijing blocking Indias effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.
In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navys help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, from pirates. At that time, Chinese navys flotilla was on an escort duty in the Gulf of Aden- 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault.
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Chandigarh:
Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, urged the Centre, saying that India should approach the International Court of Justice and put all effort to stop death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani establishment.
"Our government should take appropriate steps. They should appeal in the international court of justice and seek stay," Kaur told over phone while reacting on the Pakistan army court's verdict.
India should take every necessary step to ensure thatJadhav's death sentence is not carried out, she said.
"Even if I assume for a minute that Jadhav was an agent, still does he deserve death sentence. There are manyPakistani nationals lodged in our jails who are charged with serious crimes, does this mean they too should be given the same treatment.
They did the same with my brother, it didn't come to me as a surprise: Dalbir Kaur (Sarabjit's sister) on Kulbhushan Jadhav. pic.twitter.com/BHhI4WIzd7 ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
The 2000 Red Fort attack case convict was aPakistani national, but was he hanged?" she asked.
About Jadhav, she said, "just because he is an Indian, he has been given death sentence. This shows the hatred and enmity which Pakistan harbours towards India".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak about this to his Pakistani counterpart, she said.
Having lost her brother four years back in Pakistan, Kaur's aid she could fully understand what Jadhav's family must be going through at this hour. "I am with the family. They should immediately meet thePrime Minister. My full support is with Jadhav's family and I can accompany them if they go and meet the PM," she said.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistan security officials in Baluchistan after he entered from Iran.He has been accused by Pakistan of planning "subversive activities" in the country.
Also Read: Pakistan seeks more info from India on alleged Indian spy Jadhav
India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government. Pakistan's powerful army chief today approved the execution of Jadhav after a military court found him guilty of"involvement in espionage and sabotage activities".
Kaur's brother Sarabjit had died following an attack on him by inmates of a Lahore prison in April 2013. He was convicted for terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death in 1991. However, the government had stayed his execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
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New Delhi:
A Kolkata-bound IndiGo flight from Raipur with 150 passengers on board had to force a return after it suffered a bird hit soon after takeoff.
IndiGo's 6E-252 took off from Raipur at 7:03 PM and suffered a bird hit 23 nautical miles from Raipur.
The nose of the aircraft suffered damage, a senior airport official said.
The plane has been grounded.
IndiGo's engineers were assessing the extent of the damage. The passengers were accommodated in a different flight to Kolkata.
Read more: Soon passengers will need Aadhaar or passport to board flights in India
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New Delhi:
Four Pakistani infiltrators on Monday killed by Army in Kupwaras Keran sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Army operation is underway.
More details are awaited on this.
Earlier on Saturday, Pakistani Army violated the ceasefire on Saturday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir by resorting to firing on forward post, drawing Indian Army to retaliate.
Army troops deployed on forward posts retaliated and the exchange was continuing till last reports came in.
It was fifth violation of the ceasefire this month.
Also read: Pakistan Army violates ceasefire along LoC in Jammu & Kashmir, India retaliates
Also read: 48 hours, 4 ceasefire violations: Pakistani troops shell mortar bombs along LoC in Poonch, Indian forces retaliate
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New Delhi:
Hours after a Pakistani military court sentenced alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to death, India's foreign secretary S Jaishankar on Monday summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit. A demarche was issued saying proceedings that led to sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav are farcical. He also said that there was no credible evidence against him and said if the sentence is carried out, then India will consider it as a 'premeditated murder'.
Reacting to a press release by Pakistan militarys media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Jadhav, India said he was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.
India, through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities, it said.The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
ALSO READ | Kulbhushan Jadhav, alleged Indian spy, sentenced to death by Pakistan military court
Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder, the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
Jadhav was arrested on March 3 last year by Pakistani security forces in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was a serving officer in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
ALSO READ | Alleged Indian 'spy' Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death: All you need to know about him
The Pakistan Army had released a confessional video of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the navy but denied he has any connection with the government.
(With inputs from agencies)
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New Delhi:
Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav has been sentenced to death by a military court in Pakistan for his alleged involvement in spying and subversive activities. The decision has brought widespread condemnation from various corners in India and the Indian govt. warned Islamabad that it is a case of 'premeditated murder'.
Foreign secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pak High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, complaining that there was no credible evidence against Jadhav and he was sentenced through a farcical trial. Whereas the Indian government acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Navy officer, they have denied his links with the govt.
ALSO READ: Kulbhushan Jadhav, alleged Indian spy, sentenced to death by Pakistan military court
Pakistan's Defence minister Khawaja Asif said that the death sentence served to Jadhav for spying should serve as a warning for those plotting against their country. Expressing wrath over Pakistans decision to execute an Indian national for spying, India on Monday decided not to release a dozen of Pakistani prisoners, who were to be repatriated on Wednesday after completion of their prison term.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy slammed Pak's decision to execute Jadhav and claimed that India should take strict action against Pakistan and warn it of negative consequences if the order was carried out. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray asked the central government to save Jadhav at all costs and even take 'extreme steps' if required.
READ: Alleged Indian 'spy' Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death: All you need to know about him
Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, urged the Centre, saying that India should approach the International Court of Justice and put all effort to stop death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani establishment.
"Our government should take appropriate steps. They should appeal in the international court of justice and seek stay," Kaur told over phone while reacting on the Pakistan army court's verdict.
They did the same with my brother, it didn't come to me as a surprise: Dalbir Kaur (Sarabjit's sister) on Kulbhushan Jadhav. pic.twitter.com/BHhI4WIzd7 ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
Congress leader Manish Tewari too criticised Pak's decision while asking Indian govt. to bring him back.
KULBHUSHAN Jadhav has been sentenced to death by Kangroo Proceedings in Pakistan that no one even knows ever took placeGOI must get him back Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) April 10, 2017
Former RAW chief AS Dulat slammed Pak while claiming that any kind of decision can be taken in Pakistan as the country had once hanged once of their own Prime Ministers in the past.
Anything is possible in Pak, after all they've hanged one of their Prime Ministers in past: AS Dulat, former RAW Chief on Kulbhushan Jadhav pic.twitter.com/vtZuALDeKs ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
Kulbhushan Jadhav had allegedly entered Balochistan from Iran, following which he was reportedly arrested. Pakistan has accused Jadhav of being a "R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) agent and planning "subversive activities" in the country. On the other hand, Indian government believed that he was picked up from Iran.
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New Delhi:
A meeting of top leaders from National Democratic Alliance is going to take place on Monday. A representative of 32 parties including Shiv Shena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be also present in the meet.
The meeting, the second since the NDA came to power in 2014, will be presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources said TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Mehbooba Mufti among others, besides BJP President Amit Shah, will attend the meeting.
In the meet, total 32 parties are participating including 2 parties from Jammu and Kashmir, Akali Dal, Goa, 2 from Maharashtra, 4 from Kerala, 3 NDA partners from Tamil Nadu, 3 from Bengal, 1 from Jharkhand, 1 from Bihar, 3 from UP, 2 from Northeast and 8 GDP.
BJP Chief Amit Shah has himself called Thackeray, Chandrababu Naidu, Parkash Singh Badal, Ram Vilas Paswan, Anupriya Patel, Upendra kushwaha, Ramdas Athavale and other NDA top guns and invited them to the meet going to held on Monday at 6 PM followed by a dinner arrangement.
The leaders will take stock of the political situation and decide on the future strategy of the alliance. Besides, a number of Union ministers will be present at the meeting, the sources said.
Besides that, considering the upcoming presidential election 2017 the names of the most aspirants candidates for the post of President and Vice President will also be discussed in the conference.
They said representatives of all the allies of the BJP across the country will participate in the meeting during the evening, followed by dinner.
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New Delhi:
Opposition leaders on Monday decided to raise the matter of 'faulty' electronic voting machines with Election Commission of India. A team of top leaders will meet EC officials at 5 PM to discuss the matter.
In the meet with EC, the Opposition leaders will put forward their demand before EC, of holding elections 50 per cent through VVPAT machines and 50 per cent by ballot papers, sources said.
The decision was taken during a strategy meeting of Opposition leaders in Ghulam Nabi Azad's chamber in Parliament on Monday morning.
The opposition leaders are demanding that VVPAT (paper trail of voting) be introduced in all future elections. The Congress has also been pushing for use of ballot papers instead of EVMs in upcoming elections in view of the alleged tampering.
The parties are demanding that the EC dispel the apprehensions they have and reassure the people of the country and voters on the serious issue.
The opposition parties observed that free and fair elections are the basic founding blocks on which the entire edifice of country has been maintained.
Any erosion of these basic principles which sustain this edifice needs to be addressed forthwith and in the right earnest, said a leader.
Among those present at todays strategy meeting held at Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azads chamber in Parliament included Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, besides JDU leader Ali Anwar Ansari, TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, BSP leader Satish Misra and SP leader Neeraj Shekhar.
NCP leader Majeed Memon, CPI leader D Raja and RJD leader J P Narain Yadav were also present during the meeting and all decided to strongly raise the issue with the EC.
(With Inputs from PTI)
Also read:
Election Commission finds EVMs and paper trail machines not tampered in Bhind demo
BSP, Congress target Centre over EVM tampering issue in Rajya Sabha
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Ahmedabad:
An official of a fishermens body on Sunday said that the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) has apprehended 42 Indian fishermen and seized seven boats off the Gujarat coast.
The fishermen along with seven boats were captured by the PMSA in two separate incidents from near International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) off Gujarat coast, National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) secretary Manish Lodhari told PTI.
While 18 fishermen sailing on three boats were captured late last night, 24 more fishermen were captured along with four boats today. In all, seven boats with 42 fishermen have been captured so far since last night, he said.
The seized boats belong to Okha and Mangrol, he added.
This is the first such incident in April, Lodhari said, adding that in March, 231 Indian fishermen were arrested by the Pakistani authorities and 40 boats were seized.
On March 26, the PMSA had apprehended over 100 Indian fishermen and seized 19 boats near IMBL.
Last month, the Indian Coast Guard had captured nine Pakistani fishermen along with a fishing boat found sailing in the Indian water.
Also read: 15 Indian fisherman detained in Iran set to return home; Sushma Swaraj expresses gratitude
Also read: Pakistan captures more than 100 Indian fishermen off Gujarat coast
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New Delhi:
The proceedings of the Lok Sabha were adjourned briefly on Monday over the purported racial remarks of BJP leader Tarun Vijay.
As soon as the House took up Question Hour, Congress members raised the issue and demanded an apology.
As they raised slogans, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes within ten minutes after the House had assembled for the day.
The debate continued after the session resumed. Here are the highlights of the LS debate on the issue:
#Rajnath Singh:
India is a secular country, discrimination on basis of caste,creed,colour cannot be allowed here: Home Minister Rajnath Singh in LS
#M Kharge:
What action are you going to take?Otherwise we will have to agitate not only inside but outside too: M Kharge in LS on Tarun Vijay's remark
Are people living in South India part of country or not? This shows your mentality,do you want to divide India?: Kharge in LS on Tarun Vijay
Also read:
Chidambaram takes dig at Tarun Vijay; says does he think only BJP, RSS members are Indians?
BJP's Tarun Vijay says 'Indians cannot be called racist as they live with black people from South India', apologises after controversy
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New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed PIL seeking to declare Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan as illegal and unconstitutional.
This treaty is of 1960 and this treaty has held good for more than half a century, a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while dismissing the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma in his personal capacity.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, however, made clear that the order dismissing the PIL does not put any impairment on anybody.
The clarification came when Sharma said that the dismissal of the PIL should not put any restriction in the way of the government if it wants to review the Indo-Pak water pact.
During the brief hearing, it was argued that the Indus water pact was not a treaty at all as the same was not signed in the name of the President of India.
It was a tripartite agreement between three leaders and void ab initio (illegal at the outset) and hence cannot be acted upon, the lawyer said.
The court said that it has perused the entire petition and does not wish to agree with it.
The Indus water agreement was executed on September 19, 1960 between India, Pakistan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank. Besides Nehru, the then Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan and W A B Iliff for the World Bank were its signatories.
The apex court had last year refused to grant an urgent hearing on the PIL, saying there was no urgency in the matter while Sharma, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity on the issue, to keep politics aside.
Sharma, in his PIL, had referred to Article 77 of the Constitution and said it mandates that all executive action of the government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.
However in the case of the 1960 Indus waters treaty, it has been signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and nowhere it is declared that the said agreement/treaty has been signed in the name of the President of India, the plea had said.
According to the ministry of external affairs documents, nowhere disclosed further that the said agreement has been signed by the Jawaharlal Nehru for the President of India..., it had said.
Sharma had said, According to the impugned agreement 80 per cent water goes to Pakistan which is a serious injury to the fundamental right of the citizens of India coupled with further financial and natural injuries to national interest.
The treaty was against the national interest and violated fundamental right of the citizen of India effecting their life and livelihood, it had said.
With inputs from PTI
Also read: Indus Waters Treaty: Know all about worlds most successful water deal
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New Delhi:
Twitter is buzzing with news alerts from India and rest of the world. Here are the latest updates from the micro-blogging site in one scroll:
#11:46 PM
Multiple people shot at in a elementary school in San Bernardino, California:AP - ANI
#11:07 PM
Dylann Roof pleads guilty to state murder charges in South Carolina church massacre, avoiding a second death sentence. - AP
#10:39 PM
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull met President Pranab Mukherjee earlier today. - ANI
#10:37 PM
Karnataka: Mandya Police with help of a NGO rescue from godown about 100 cattle kept illegally, allegedly meant for slaughter.FIR registered. - ANI
#10:20 PM
J&K:A Panchayat Ghar has also been set ablaze in Pulwama district. - ANI
#10:05 PM
J&K; Anantnag bypoll deferred, now to be held on May 25 - ANI
#9:51 PM
J&K: School designated as polling station for Anantnag bypoll set on fire in Shopian. - ANI
#9:46 PM
This FIR against Eknath Khadse and others is in connection with a land scam in Pune and is filed on orders of Bombay HC. - ANI
#9:43 PM
FIR registered against BJP leader Eknath Khadse ,his wife and 2 others by ACB. FIR in various sections of anti corruption act and IPC 109. - ANI
#9:41 PM
Matka gambling: 100 raids all over Goa by Police, more than 100 people arrested. - ANI
#9:34 PM
WTO, IMF, OECD vow to defend free trade against protectionism. - AFP
#9:29 PM
Dheere dheere daaru ki dukaane kam kar rahe hain, jald hi Madhya Pradesh ko poorn nashamukti ki taraf le jayenge: CM Shivraj Chauhan. - ANI
#9:25 PM
NDA members in the meeting passed a resolution: will work together to succeed in 2019 under the leadership of PM Modi. - ANI
#9:09 PM
Delhi: BJP Parliamentary Party meeting tomorrow at 9.30 am - ANI
#9:03 PM
33 members of the NDA met today under the chairmanship of PM Modi: Arun Jaitley. - ANI
#8:54 PM
Justice Anthony Kennedy swears in Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court; Trump says he will be 'truly great' justice. - AP
#8:41 PM
Under Pakistans military courts, no info about charges or evidence against suspects is made public:Amnesty Intnl Kulbhushan Jadhav - ANI
#8:41 PM
#ShivSena MP #RavindraGaikwad, whose flying ban was revoked on Friday, boards Mumbai-Rajdhani Express to reach Delhi. - PTI
#8:38 PM
Sunita Sharma & B Venugopal appointed as Managing Directors in Life Insurance Corporation #LIC of India. - PTI
#8:36 PM
#BSF arrests suspected Pakistani man along IB in Rajasthan's #Sriganganagar district, #PakistanRangers say not a citizen of their country. - PTI
#8:30 PM
#AAP govt sets March 2018 target for the launch of first phase of its ambitious free Wi-Fi project in #Delhi. - PTI
#8:29 PM
16 Opposition parties urge #ElectionCommission to revert to paper #ballot system, claiming the faith of the people in #EVMs has 'eroded'. - PTI
#8:23 PM
#India stops release of a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who were to be repatriated on Wednesday after completion of their prison term. - PTI
#8:18 PM
Australia ready to start export of uranium to India as soon as possible, says its PM #Malcolm Turnbull. - PTI
#8:15 PM
NDA meeting underway at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in Delhi. - ANI
#8:05 PM
Delhi: PM Narendra Modi arrives for NDA meeting in Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra - ANI
#8:03 PM
Delhi: BJP Chief Amit Shah and Union Minister Piyush Goyal arrive for NDA meeting in Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra - ANI
#7:59 PM
Strong surface wind likely to prevail at isolated places in hills with height 3000m and above during next 24 hrs: IMD Dehradun Uttarakand. - ANI
#7:46 PM
UP government's second cabinet meeting to be held tomorrow. - ANI
#7:27 PM
The @bcci defers its Special General Meeting (SGM) from April 12 to April 18. #BCCI #SGM. - PTI
#7:27 PM
Actress #Anushka Sharma gets #BMC notice for installing an electric junction box in her building in #Mumbai allegedly without permission. - PTI
#7:26 PM
Justice has become rare in India but not bothered about it since my conscious is clear: HP CM Virbhadra Singh on ED summoning him in DA case. - ANI
#7:09 PM
Voter ko vishwaas hona chahiye ki woh jisko vote de rahe hain, vote unhi ko jaaye: Kapil Sibal, Congress on EVM issue. - ANI
#7:00 PM
Aim of Satyagraha was independence and the aim of Swachhagraha is to create a clean India. A clean India helps the poor the most: PM - ANI
#6:50 PM
The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Third Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed in Lok Sabha. - ANI
#6:49 PM
The National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017 passed in Lok Sabha. - ANI
#6:43 PM
#NHRC issues notice to DM, SP of #Gautam BudhNagar over charges of police falsely implicating some locals for assault on African nationals. - PTI
#6:41 PM
NIA files supplementary chargesheet against three persons accused in Bardhaman (West Bengal) blast case. - ANI
#6:32 PM
We have gathered here to remember a landmark event of the 20th century, the Champaran Satyagraha: PM Modi. - ANI
#6:24 PM
Lost trust in EVMs,old system of paper ballot must be restored: GN Azad(Cong) after opposition parties' delegation met EC officials in Delhi. - ANI
#6:22 PM
Delhi: Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav arrives to meet West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee - ANI
#6:17 PM
G7 energy ministers fail to agree statement on climate change: Italy. - AFP
#6:18 PM
They did the same with my brother, it didn't come to me as a surprise: Dalbir Kaur (Sarabjit's sister) on Kulbhushan Jadhav. - ANI
#6:12 PM
Spicejet chief Ajay Singh settles case with Sebi in matter related to alleged disclosure lapse in share purchase; pays over Rs 2 lakh. - PTI
#6:04 PM
Delhi: PM Narendra Modi at an exhibition titled Swachagraha, that marks 100-years of Mahatma Gandhis satyagraha in Champaran - ANI
#5:29 PM
Anything is possible in Pak, after all they've hanged one of their Prime Ministers in past: AS Dulat, former RAW Chief on Kulbhushan Jadhav. - ANI
#5:26 PM
Mumbai:I was shocked.He has stayed with us,we know how he was.This is a conspiracy by Pak: Sudhir Pawar, neighbour of #KulbhushanJadhav. - ANI
#5:22 PM
India summons Pak HC; says if sentence carried out without observing basic norms of law & justice, it'll be case of 'premeditated murder'. - PTI
#5:11 PM
#India issues demarche to #Pakistan High Commissioner on #Kulbhushan Jadhav's death sentence. - PTI
#5:06 PM
Unitech case: A Delhi court grants interim bail for three months to Unitech promoters Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra. - ANI
#5:01 PM
Foreign Secy summoned Pak High Comm Abdul Basit & issued demarche saying proceedings that led to sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav are farcical. - ANI
#4:55 PM
Delhi: PM Narendra Modi and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull at Akshardham Temple. - ANI
#4:44 PM
PM Narendra Modi and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull at Akshardham Temple in Delhi. - ANI
#4:30 PM
PM Narendra Modi and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull at Delhi's Akshardham Temple. - ANI
#4:13 PM
IMMEDIATE PLAYOUT: PM Modi and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull at Mandi House metro station - ANI
#4:08 PM
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull takes a selfie with PM Narendra Modi in the Delhi metro train. - ANI
#4:07 PM
'Modi, Modi' chants as PM Narendra Modi and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull greet people at Mandi House metro station. - ANI
#4:00 PM
Delhi: PM Narendra Modi and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull at Mandi House metro station. - ANI
#3:55 PM
PM Narendra Modi and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull arrive at Mandi House metro station, for a ride in Delhi Metro - ANI
#3:26
#SC says Bar has to play a very important role as it is neither with protesters nor with security forces. - PTI
#3:24 PM
#SC asks J&K HC Bar Assn, opposing use of pellet guns to quell mob, to respond to various issues raised by the Centre. - ANI
#3:18 PM
#Flipkart raises USD 1.4 bn from Microsoft, eBay and Tencent. - PTI
#3:14 PM
Pellet guns case: Supreme Court asks petitioner JKHBCA to file an affidavit in two weeks.-ANI
#3:06 PM
Alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav given death sentence, reports Pak Media quoting ISPR- ANI
#2:40 PM
Virbhadra Singh DA case: Delhi's Patiala House Court adjourns matter of taking cognizance of charge-sheet till 20 April.- ANI
#2:40 PM
Illegal mining matter: Supreme court issues notice to the respondent and directs to file reply within 4 weeks.- ANI
#2:39 PM
Supreme court stays Nainital High Court's order regarding illegal mining in Uttarakhand. HC had stayed mining in the state for 4 months.- ANI
#2:35 PM
Israel is closing its Taba border crossing into Egypt after warning of an 'imminent' militant attack.- AP
#2:33 PM
Curfew imposed in Bhadrak till 7 am tomorrow- ANI
#2:23 PM
Chennai: FIR filed for campaigning with replica of TN CM Jayalalithaa's mortal remains & allegedly insulting national flag.- ANI
#2:22 PM
EC& Centre is responsible; unnecessary raids during poll. They don't want poll to be conducted: TTV Dinakaran on RK Nagar bypoll cancellation- ANI
#2:21 PM
Chennai: FIR filed against AIADMK OPS faction's M Pandiarajan and Azhagu Tamil Selvi.- ANI
#2:12 PM
We will continue to ensure that we provide outstanding opportunities for Indian students: Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull- ANI
#2:09 PM
India-Australia sign six MoUs, including ' MoU on Cooperation in Terrorism and organized crime- ANI
#2:05 PM
Gadkari discussing Motor Vehicle Amendment bill 2016 in Lok Sabha
#2:03 PM
India and Australia have made major strides in our bilateral relationship in recent years: PM Modi at joint statement with Australian PM- ANI
#2:02 PM
PM emphasises on peace & stability in the Indo-Pacific; says challenges like terrorism & cyber security require global strategy & solutions- ANI
#2:00 PM
We are aware that in this globalised world challenges like terrorism and cyber security extend beyond boundaries of our regions: PM Modi- ANI
#1:57 PM
We reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations; number of forward-looking decisions taken to further strengthen our partnership:PM Modi- ANI
#1:55 PM
Your visit gives us opportunity to shape new priorities in our strategic partnership: PM Modi to Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull- ANI
#1:55 PM
Under your leadership our relationship has touched new milestones: PM Modi at joint statement with Australian PM- ANI
#1:49 PM
A bus in Adajan area of Surat (Gujarat) catches fire; all passengers safe.- ANI
#1:41 PM
All Shiv Sena MPs to meet Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray ahead of the NDA dinner today- ANI
#1:38 PM
AG appearing for Centre said that pellet guns are not used unless violent protesters advance too close to security personnel.- ANI
#1:37 PM
AG told SC that forces are working on new non lethal methods to disperse crowd, but due to security reasons, I cannot not name it.- ANI
#1:37 PM
AG told Supreme court that Power Shell, tear gas, laser dazzler & acoustic methods have primarily remained not so effective.- ANI
#1:34 PM
Suicide bomber hits Mogadishu military camp: official- AFP
#1:25 PM
AG Rohtagi further told Supreme court that rubber bullet is not as lethal as a pellet gun is. Arguments to continue after lunch- ANI
#1:24 PM
AG also told the apex court that they are also exploring other options like, rubber bullet for dispersing the crowd instead of pellet guns- ANI
#1:23 PM
AG Mukul Rohatgi told the three judge bench of SC that using pellet guns is the last resort, the idea is not to kill anybody- ANI
#1:20 PM
Lucknow: Circle Officer,Alambagh Amita Singh, investigating Gayatri Prajapati case removed from post.Meenakshi Gupta appointed as the new CO- ANI
#1:20 PM
Sidhi (MP): Three passengers killed & 42 injured in a bus-truck collision. 15 severely injured passengers referred to Medical College, Rewa- ANI
#1:15 PM
India-Australia delegation level talks being held in Delhi- ANI
#1:14 PM
Our state is based on tourism, but openly selling drugs should be stopped as it harms our youth: Goa Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar- ANI
#12:51 PM
Delhi: Tamil Nadu farmers protest nude outside South Block, demanding drought relief fund- ANI
#12:50 PM
Belgium's Greg Van Avermaet celebrates after winning the 115th edition of the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic cycling race, on April 9- ANI
#12:35 PM
Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra singh summoned by ED in connection with the PMLA Case against him- ANI
#12:34 PM
Supreme Court tagged a plea with another similar plea in connection with the VVPAT/EVM issue. Court to hear it on 13th April- ANI
#12:29 PM
Delhi: Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull meets EAM Sushma Swaraj- ANI
#12:23 PM
Delhi: Special CBI court granted interim bail till May 4 to all 5 fresh accused in the Coal scam case involving Jindal coal block case.- ANI
#12:17 PM
India is a secular country, discrimination on basis of caste,creed,colour cannot be allowed here: Home Minister Rajnath Singh in LS- ANI
#12:16 PM
What action are you going to take?Otherwise we will have to agitate not only inside but outside too: M Kharge in LS on Tarun Vijay's remark.- ANI
#12:15 PM
Are people living in South India part of country or not? This shows your mentality,do you want to divide India?: Kharge in LS on Tarun Vijay.- ANI
#12:14 PM
ONGC Videsh is carrying out exploration activities of 2 offshore blocks near Chittagong in Bangladesh: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.- ANI
#11:57 AM
Bhadrak protests: Curfew relaxation in Bhadrak extended till 2 PM today - ANI
#11:57 AM
Pipeline to be built for supplying high speed diesel from Numaligarh, India to Parbatipur, Bangladesh: Union min Dharmendra Pradhan.- ANI
#11:55 AM
Appeal EC to postpone polls till situation improves.State govt also emphasized that present situation isn't conducive fr polls-Tasaduq Mufti- ANI
#11:52 AM
Barclays and its CEO investigated over whistleblower probe: London stock exchange- AFP
#11:48 AM
Trade b/w two countries has grown by more than 17% to about $6.5 billion: Petroleum & Natural gas min Dharmendra Pradhan on Indo-Bangla ties- ANI
#11:42 AM
EC should initiate CBI probe against TN CM & other ministers to end cash for votes: MK Stalin,DMK on RK Nagar bypoll cancellation.- ANI
#11:30 AM
Four Pak infiltrators killed by Army today in Keran (J&K) were heavily armed terrorists in Pak army snow dress.- ANI
#11:27 AM
Supreme Court dismisses petition calling for scrapping of the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan.- ANI
#11:21 AM
UP: A railway track found broken near Kannauj railway station, restoration work started; trains being allowed to pass at slower speeds.- ANI
#11:18 AM
Mumbai: Notice issued to Anushka Sharma by K West Ward of BMC , asked to remove electric junction box outside her flat in Versova.- ANI
#11:15 AM
At an event in Delhi Lal Krishna Advani says "The fact that Sindh is not part of India today makes me sad."- ANI
#11:08 AM
April 12th by polls in Anantnag should be postponed: Tasaduq Mufti (contesting by polls), brother of Mehbooba Mufti- ANI
#11:04 AM
PDP appeals Election Commission to postpone bypolls in Anantnag (J&K)- ANI
#11:01 AM
School bus overturns in Madhya Pradesh's Morena, 6 students injured- ANI
#10:58 AM
The fact that Sindh is not part of India today makes me sad: Lal Krishna Advani in Delhi- ANI
#10:57 AM
A part of India, where I was born before partition was separated after India's independence: L K Advani in Delhi- ANI
#10:45 AM
Delhi High Court dismisses bail plea of LIC agent Anand Chauhan in the DA case of Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh.- ANI
#10:38 AM
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi today.- ANI
#10:34 AM
Don't want to name any country, but there a few in Asia with whom we can have better relations. If we do, it will make me happy: LK Advani.- ANI
#10:29 AM
Opposition leaders to put forward their demand before EC, of holding elections 50% through VVPAT machines & 50% by ballot papers: Sources.- ANI
#10:22 AM
Opposition leaders to meet Election Commission at 5 PM over EVM issue.- ANI
#10:22 AM
Discussed about pending projects&state share of West Bengal. He said we will try to consider it: WB CM Mamata Banerjee after meeting PM Modi- ANI
#10:19 AM
We want this genocide to be recognized by the International community. PM Modi has made commitment to remain with us in our efforts: Hasina- ANI
#10:18 AM
Bangladesh Parl recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as Genocide day in remembrance of Pak atrocities: Bangladesh PM- ANI
#10:17 AM
People of India and its govt supported us wholeheartedly during the War of Liberation in 1971: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina- ANI
#10:15 AM
Once it happens, the face of Indo-Bangladesh relations would undergo another transformation: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in Delhi- ANI
#10:14 AM
On Teesta issue, PM Modi once again reiterated his Govt's strong resolve to conclude the water sharing treaty at the soonest: Bangladesh PM- ANI
#10:13 AM
Comprehensive, basin wide solution with in built solution to water sharing of all common rivers holds key to our common future:Sheikh Hasina.- ANI
#10:11 AM
We strongly believe our common water resources must act as a uniting force: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.- ANI
#10:09 AM
We have amicably settled Land boundary and Maritime boundary: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina at India Foundation Awareness programme in Delhi- ANI
#10:07 AM
Our journey towards peace and prosperity is put to peril by the rise of terrorism and violent extremism: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina.- ANI
#10:02 AM
Delhi: Opposition leaders' strategy meet in Ghulam Nabi Azad's chamber in Parliament.- ANI
#9:56 AM
Train services from Baramulla to Banihal suspended due to prevailing security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.- ANI
#9:51 AM
Jammu and Kashmir: Government Middle school, also a designated polling booth in Shopian's Padarpora, set ablaze by unidentified people.- ANI
#9:42 AM
Achievements of India are the admiration of the World. We look forward to working even more closely than we have done in past: Australian PM- ANI
#9:40 AM
Prime Minister Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on extraordinary journey of growth and development:Australian PM Malcom Turnbull.- ANI
#9:36 AM
Delhi: Australian PM Malcom Turnbull receives ceremonial reception at the President House.- ANI
#9:13 AM
Chhattisgarh: Three killed after fire broke out at Raipur's Rahmaniya Chowk. Fire tenders working on the spot to douse the flames.- ANI
#8:55 AM
Congress gives adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha over BJP leader Tarun Vijay's controversial remark on South Indians.- ANI
#8:51 AM
Four Pakistani infiltrators killed by Army in Kupwara's Keran (Jammu and Kashmir), operation underway.- ANI
#8:45 AM
Opposition leaders to meet at 9:30 AM in Ghulam Nabi Azad's chamber in Parliament today.- ANI
#8:23 AM
Karnataka: Traffic police personnel in Gulbarga provided with umbrellas,anti-glare sunglasses & waterbottles to protect from scorching heat.- ANI
#8:04 AM
Wrong decision, even EC does not want me to win. They can delay but cant deny: TTV Dinakaran(Sasikala faction) on RK Nagar bypoll cancelled.- ANI
#7:33 AM
Leh: Wreath laying ceremony of three soldiers killed after multiple avalanches hit Batalik sector in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir- ANI
#7:31 AM
This election was not being handled in fair manner that's why EC intervened.Constitutionally its proved that our democracy is alive:S Pushpa.- ANI
#7:20 AM
Bhadrak protests: Relaxation in curfew in Bhadrak till 12 noon today.- ANI
#7:12 AM
Appreciate EC's decision. Yet again proved India is the largest democracy: Sasikala Pushpa,Expelled AIADMK MP on RK Nagar bypoll cancelled.- ANI
#7:05 AM
The Supreme Court will today hear the petition calling for scrapping of the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan.- ANI
#7:02 AM
Australian PM Malcom Turnbull will also meet President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and EAM Sushma Swaraj today.- ANI
#7:01 AM
Australian PM Malcom Turnbull to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, will also hold delegation level talks in Delhi- ANI
#12:15 AM
EC cancels RK Nagar bypoll in Chennai and rescinds notification.- ANI
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New Delhi:
Veteran actor Vinod Khanna who was hospitalised in HN Reliance Hospital in Girgaum on March 31 due to severe dehydration, has responded positively to treatment and is stable now.Vinod Khanna A doing better: Meghalaya BJP observs two minutes silence ain memorya of actor.
Earlier a photo of the Bollywood star in a frail heallth condition had gone viral online and sparked rumours of him suffering from bladder cancer.
According to reports, Akshaye opened up about his fatheras recovery. aDad is doing better,a the Dil Chahta Hai actor told the online publication.
The 70-year-old actoras son Rahul Khanna said in a statement that Khannaas condition was quickly brought under control following hospitalisation.
#WATCH: Faux pas by Meghalaya BJP; they observed silence after rumours of Vinod Khanna's death surfaced. pic.twitter.com/VaZiemU4WU a ANI (@ANI_news) April 8, 2017
aHe is doing much better and the doctors are looking to discharge him soon. Our family is most grateful for the extraordinary care he has been receiving at the hospital and we are touched by all the good wishes pouring ina, he said.
Vinod Khanna was admitted to Sir HN Reliance Foundation hospital on Friday with severe dehydration. He is under the care of our doctors and has responded positively to the treatment and is now stable. His family thanks his well wishers for the good wishes and requests to respect their privacy.
Vinod Khanna who was last seen in Shah Rukh Khanas 2015 film Dilwale was not in the best of health and the viral pics of ill Vinod Khanna which made rounds on the social media confused everybody. The confusion reached to such an extent thatA Meghalayaas BJP branch observed two minutes silence ain memorya of the actor-politician without even verifying the news.
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New Delhi:
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday spoke at India Foundation Awareness programme in Delhi. Speaking at the event, Hasina said that people of India and the Indian government supported Bangladesh wholeheartedly during the war of liberation in 1971. She said that India and Bangladesh have amicably settled Land boundary and Maritime boundary.
Bangladesh PM informed that Bangladesh Parliament recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as Genocide day in remembrance of Pakistan atrocities. Hasina said that Bangladesh want this genocide to be recognised by the International community and PM Modi has made a commitment to remain with us in our efforts.
Speaking on Teesta issue, Hasina said that PM Modi once again reiterated his government's strong resolve to conclude the water sharing treaty at the soonest and once it happens, the face of Indo-Bangladesh relations would undergo another transformation.
Also read: Sheikh Hasina 'selling' Bangladesh to India to stay in power: Opposition leader Khaleda Zia
Bangladesh PM informed that they strongly believe our common water resources must act as a uniting force and comprehensive, basin wide solution with in-built solution to water sharing of all common rivers holds key to common future.
Sheikh Hasina told that India and Bangladesh have comprehensively addressed India's security concerns, this has been a factor in trust building and our journey towards peace and prosperity is put to peril by the rise of terrorism and violent extremism.
Also read: Bangladesh welcomes PM Modi's commitment to 'early solution' to Teesta
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Melbourne:
Scientists have alerted that the frequent severe bleaching events caused by record-breaking temperatures have damaged two-thirds of Australias iconic Great Barrier Reef. They also warned that the reefs that were affected by the bleaching have no prospect of recovery.
Severe coral bleaching across massive tracts of the Great Barrier Reef have been recorded by the scientists for the second time in just 12 months. Scientists used aerial surveys to check the impact of coral bleaching.
In 2016, the bleaching was most severe in the northern third of the Reef, while after one year, the middle third has witnessed the most intense coral bleaching.
This is the fourth time the Great Barrier Reef has bleached severely - in 1998, 2002, 2016, and now in 2017, said James Kerry from James Cook University in Australia, who undertook the aerial surveys.
It takes at least a decade for a full recovery of even the fastest growing corals, so mass bleaching events 12 months apart offers zero prospect of recovery for reefs that were damaged in 2016, Kerry said.
This year, the aerial surveys covered over 8,000 kilometers (km) and scored nearly 800 individual coral reefs closely matching the aerial surveys in 2016 that were carried out by the same two observers.
The combined impact of this back-to-back bleaching stretches for 1,500 km, leaving only the southern third unscathed, said Terry Hughes, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University.
The bleaching is caused by record-breaking temperatures driven by global warming. This year, 2017, we are seeing mass bleaching, even without the assistance of El Nino conditions, said Hughes, who undertook the aerial surveys.
Researchers said coupled with 2017s mass bleaching event, Tropical Cyclone Debbie struck a corridor of the Great Barrier Reef at the end of March.
The intense, slow-moving system was likely to have caused varying levels of damage along a path up to 100 kilometres in width.
Any cooling effects related to the cyclone are likely to be negligible in relation to the damage it caused, which unfortunately struck a section of the reef that had largely escaped the worst of the bleaching.
Clearly the reef is struggling with multiple impacts, said Hughes.
Without a doubt the most pressing of these is global warming. As temperatures continue to rise the corals will experience more and more of these events: One degree Celsius of warming so far has already caused four events in the past 19 years, Hughes added.
Ultimately, we need to cut carbon emissions, and the window to do so is rapidly closing, said Hughes.
Coral bleaching takes place due to the abnormal environmental conditions such as heightened sea temperatures. Under such conditions, corals expel tiny photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae.
ALSO READ | Breakthrough: Power of attraction may help save Australias iconic Great Barrier Reef from starfish
The loss of these colourful algae makes corals turn white, and bleach. Bleached corals can recover if the temperature drops and zooxanthellae are able to recolonise them, otherwise the coral may die.
ALSO READ | Undersea landslide found in Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef
(With inputs from PTI)
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New Delhi:
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson becomes the first woman to hold command of the International Space Station for the second time on Sunday as two Russian crew members and an American prepared to fly back to Earth.
On April 24, Whitson, 57, will also become the most experienced US astronaut in terms of time spent in space surpassing the current US record of 534 days held by NASA's Jeff Williams, 59. She already hold records for the most time spent in space by a woman and for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman.
"She will set another record at this moment", the departing US commander, Shane Kimbrough, said during a Sunday change of command ceremony aired on NASA TV. "She becomes the first two-time female commander of the International Space Station."
Moments ago @AstroPeggy broke yet another record when she became the first woman to command the space station twice! pic.twitter.com/g4Hp9ev7kS Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) April 9, 2017
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russian crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko were scheduled to wrap up a 173-day mission on Monday, with a parachute landing in Kazakhstan at 7:21 am EDT (1121 GMT). Their replacements, NASAs Jack Fischer and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, were due to arrive on April 20 at the station.
Read more: A lookalike of Venus discovered using NASAs Kepler space telescope
Whitson flew to the station in November with Russias Oleg Novitskiy and France's Thomas Pesquet. The men were scheduled to fly back to Earth without Whitson on June 2.
NASA recently agreed to extend Whitson's stay on the station by three months. Now, she will be there to welcome incoming crew members Jack Fischer and Fyodor Yurchikhin, and will return to Earth with them in September, having amassed a career US record of more than 665 days in orbit.
Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, with 878 days in orbit, is the worlds most experienced space flier.
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Cairo:
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declareda three-month state of emergency in Egypt following twinchurch bombings that killed dozens of people in two cities.
Sisi announced the "state of emergency for three months"in a defiant speech at the presidential palace after a meeting of the national defence council.
At least 45 people were killed and nearly 120 others injured in powerful blasts triggered by ISIS in two churches packed with worshippers celebrating Palm Sunday in Egypt's Tanta and Alexandria cities, the deadliest attacks on the minority Coptic Christians in recent years.
Also Read: Egypt: At least 45 killed, over 120 injured in a powerful bomb blast inside church
The first blast took place in the Coptic church of MarGirgis, also known as St George, in the Nile delta city of Tanta, about 120 kilometres from Cairo, killing 27 people and injuring 78, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Security sources said the primary investigations suggest that a person put an explosive device inside the church during the Christian prayers celebrating the Palm Sunday. However,others said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
The explosion targeted the front rows in the church hall. Among those killed is Samuel George, the head of Tanta Court.
Hours later, a suicide bomber struck the Saint Mark'sCoptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria's Manshyia district,police said.
Citing Health Minister Ahmed Emad, ON TV news channelsaid at least 18 people, including police personnel, werekilled while 41 others injured in Alexandria's suicide attack.
The latest figure puts the combined death toll from theTanta and Alexandria attacks at 45.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for thetwin attacks on churches on Palm Sunday, one of the holiestdays of the Christian calendar.
"Islamic State squads carried out the attacks on two churches in Tanta and Alexandria," said the group's propaganda news agency 'Amaq' on its social media accounts.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a televised statement,announced a "state of emergency for three months" after a meeting of the national defence council.
Sisi said that a higher council for fighting terrorism and extremism will also be established.
Following the blasts, Sisi also ordered military deployments to protect "vital and important infrastructure".
"President Sisi...has decided to order the military to deploy protection units to guard vital and important infrastructure in all the republic's provinces," a statement from the presidency said.
In a statement, the Interior ministry said a suicide bomber had planned to blow up himself using an explosive belt inside the church in Alexandria, but the security force sstopped him.
A police officer and a policewoman, as well a low-rankingpolice officer, were killed while preventing the suicide bomber from entering the cathedral, the ministry said.
It said Pope Tawadros II was inside the cathedral leadingPalm Sunday Mass, but he was not harmed in the attack.
However, Egypt's Coptic church said Pope Tawadros II,Pope of Alexandria, had left the church just before the blast.
Saint Mark's Cathedral is the historical seat of the Popeof Alexandria, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Meanwhile, security forces dismantled two explosive devices at Sidi Abdel Rahim Mosque in Tanta city. The mosque,which includes a Sufi shrine, is considered the second most important mosque in city, Al-Ahram Arabic reported.
Sisi condemned the attack and said such terrorist acts will not terrify Egyptians. He also phoned Pope Tawadros II tooffer his condolences. He ordered the opening of military hospitals to receive the injured. Egypt also announced three days of mourning.
Al-Azhar, the world's highest seat of Sunni Islam, strongly condemned the attacks, calling it an "outrageous crime" against all Egyptians.
"This terrorist attack is devoid of all the principles of humanity and civilisation," it said in a statement.
Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb stressed Al-Azhar's solidarity with the Egyptian Church in the wake of attacks.
The US Embassy in Egypt condemned "the heinous,reprehensible terrorist attack against peaceful worshippers."
"The US stands firmly with the Egyptian government andpeople to defeat terrorism," the Embassy said in a statement. The explosion comes weeks before the visit of Pope Francis to Egypt on April 28-29.
Palm Sunday falls on Sunday before the Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Coptic Christians make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 85 million.
Egypt's Christian minority has often been targeted by Islamist militants. In December, a suicide bombing claimed by an ISIS affiliate killed 29 people during Sunday mass in Cairo.
Egypt has seen a wave of attacks by militants since 2013 when the military toppled president Mohammed Morsi, an elected leader who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, and launched a crack down against Islamists.
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Washington:
Suggesting that there can be no peace in Syria while Assad remains in power, the United States stepped up pressure on Monday on Russia to rein in Syrian President Basharal-Assad, warning that any further chemical attacks would be "very damaging" to their relationship.
President Donald Trump's top advisers took to today television talk shows to set the stage for a diplomatic confrontation in Moscow this week when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
It will be their first face-to-face encounter since US cruise missiles slammed into a Syrian air base early Friday Damascus time in retaliation for a suspected sarin gas attack on April 4 that killed at least 87 civilians in Syria's northern Idlib province.
Tillerson said the chemical attack had been preceded by two others in March.
Read more: Iraqi forces foil double suicide car bomb attack by IS at Syria border
US officials said the presence of Russian advisers at the airfield used to launch the attack raised questions about how they could not have known.
Tillerson stopped short of accusing the Russians of complicity. "But clearly they've been incompetent and perhaps they've just simply been out maneuvered by the Syrians", he said on ABC's "This Week."
If Syria carries out any further chemical attacks, "that is going to be clearly very damaging to US-Russian relations", Tillerson warned.
"I do not believe that the Russians want to have worsening relationships with the US, but it's going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of dialogue to better understand what is the relationship that Russia wishes to have with the US."
He said he would call on Russia "to fulfill the obligation it made to the international community when it agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons, and why Russia has not been able to achieve that is unclear to me."
Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebelarms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.
Read more: US air strikes on Syria: 7 people including 4 children killed
The US retaliatory strike marked the first time the United States has intervened directly in the Syrian civil war against Assad's Russian- and Iranian-backed regime, raising questions about Washington's next steps.
"The entire administration was in agreement that this was something that had to be done", Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"This was something that needed to tell Assad, 'Enough is enough'. And this is something to let Russia know, 'You know what? We're not going to have you cover for this regime anymore."
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The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan today has released a statement in which it is mentioned that Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav has been awarded death sentence by the Pakistan Military.
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OTTAWA, April 9, 2017 /CNW/ - Today, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), along with all Canadians, would like to acknowledge the brave soldiers, and in particular, the physicians who contributed to the Battle of Vimy Ridge 100 years ago. Lasting for four days, the Battle of Vimy Ridge saw 3,598 soldiers lose their lives with another 7,004 soldiers wounded. The Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) which included regimental aid posts, field ambulances and casualty clearing stations played a significant role during the battle.
"Had it not been for the courageous healthcare workers who took part in this battle, the number of casualties would have certainly been higher," says Dr. Granger Avery, CMA president. "Today, on behalf of my 85,000 colleagues across the country, we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to those who took part in the Battle of Vimy Ridge."
The CAMC was a disciplined unit that was prepared for the daunting task that stood before them. The battle saw them handle over 10,000 soldiers who were killed or wounded over a four day period. However, some had to be treated on the battlefield itself and required the medical officers and their men to improvise by providing treatment in the open or in trenches while under fire. At one point, more than half of all Canadian physicians served overseas to help support the war effort. In total, there were 1,325 casualties among members of the CAMC over the course of the First World War.
To learn more about the CMA's role during wartime, as well as Canada's rich history in medicine, visit cma.ca/150.
For 150 years, only the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has united the broad expertise of the medical community for the benefit and well-being of all Canadians. The CMA currently represents over 85,000 physicians, comprises 12 provincial and territorial medical associations and is affiliated with over 60 national and international medical organizations.
SOURCE Canadian Medical Association
For further information: To schedule an interview or for further information, please contact: CMA Media Relations,[email protected], 613-806-1865
Related Links
http://www.cma.ca
Canadians gathered at the National War Memorial to honour those who fought in the First World War
OTTAWA, April 8, 2017 /CNW/ - Veterans Affairs Canada organized an evening of remembrance at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. The Government of Canada presented a beautiful candlelight tribute and overnight vigil, led by the Royal Canadian Army Cadets, as well as a spectacular illumination and musical performances. The illumination was projected on the National War Memorial and adjacent screens. Spectators were moved by the combination of light, technology and remembrance at the memorial. The variety of commemorative activities were designed to bring Canadians, especially youth, together, to honour Canada's victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and contribution to the First World War.
Rotating throughout the night, members of the Royal Canadian Army Cadets will stay at the memorial until 6:38 a.m. (sunrise) on April 9 to carry out the overnight vigil.
Quotes
"The atmosphere at the National War Memorial this evening was incredibly moving. The combination of the solemn candlelight tribute and the spectacular illumination was such an inspiring way to remember the men and women who served our country during the First World War. I hope all Canadians take the time to remember and mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge tomorrow. We must never forget their sacrifice and service."
Sherry Romanado, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence.
Quick Facts
Part of the broader Arras offensive, the Battle of Vimy Ridge began on the morning of April 9, 1917 . The four-day battle was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together as one formation. The Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge is considered to be a defining moment for Canada .
began on the morning of . The four-day battle was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together as one formation. The Canadian victory at is considered to be a defining moment for . Victory in the Battle of Vimy Ridge came at a great cost. Of the some 100,000 members of the Canadian Corps who served in the battle, approximately 3,600 lost their lives and over 7,000 more were wounded.
came at a great cost. Of the some 100,000 members of the Canadian Corps who served in the battle, approximately 3,600 lost their lives and over 7,000 more were wounded. More than 650,000 Canadians would serve in uniform by the end of the First World War. The conflict took a huge toll, with more than 66,000 Canadians losing their lives and 170,000 being wounded.
Canada's most impressive tribute overseas to those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the First World War is the majestic and inspiring Canadian National Vimy Memorial which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge , about ten kilometres north of Arras.
most impressive tribute overseas to those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the First World War is the majestic and inspiring Canadian National which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of , about ten kilometres north of Arras. On April 3, 2003 , the Government of Canada designated April 9 th of each year as a national day of remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge .
2017 is a special year of commemoration for Canada as we remember the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the 75th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid and the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele and as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
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SOURCE Veterans Affairs Canada
For further information: Media Relations, Veterans Affairs Canada, 613-992-7468, [email protected]
Related Links
www.veterans.gc.ca
To attend, all media must register with the Bank in advance.
Please contact Matthew Corluka by 4:30PM (ET) on Tuesday, 11 April at [email protected].
More than twenty thousand visitors attended the ceremony at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial
VIMY, France, April 9, 2017 /CNW/ - Today, at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, a ceremony was held to honour the sacrifices made 100 years ago during the First World War at Vimy Ridge. The ceremony was a moving artistic performance by well-known Canadian actors and musicians in the presence of dignitaries, Veterans, members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 10,000 Canadian youth, Indigenous Peoples, descendants of those who fought in the First World War and the public.
A number of dignitaries from Canada and Europe attended the ceremony. They included, on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry; His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada; the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada; Mr. Francois Hollande, President of the French Republic; the Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence; and the Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, along with Veterans, representatives of Canadian Veterans' organizations and Canadian youth.
By the end of the First World War, Canadaa country of fewer than eight million peoplehad more than 650,000 men and women serving in uniform. On April 9, 1917, during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought side by side for the first time and won an impressive victory. Many have suggested that this great triumph marked a "coming of age" for our still-young country.
Close to 3,600 Canadians were killed during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial serves as a lasting tribute to the memory and sacrifice of our service members who died in the war, including the 11,285 Canadians who lost their lives in France and have no known graves.
Commemorative events were also held across Canada, including at the Canadian National War Memorial in Ottawa.
Quotes
"The victory at Vimy Ridge earned a young Canada a place on the international stage. Today, we honour and remember the thousands of Canadians who gave their lives at Vimy Ridge. They represented every region of Canada and fought for the values we hold so dearfreedom, democracy and peace. Their sacrifices left an indelible mark on our history, and spurred the emergence of a Canadian national consciousness. We must never forget their service and sacrifice."
The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
"Today we pay respect to those who fought and fell at Vimy Ridge and remember the price they paid so that we would have a better tomorrow. It is truly an honour to be here to recognize the more than 650,000 brave Canadians who served in the First World War and commemorate our proud history.
We must remain committed to continue to tell their stories so those who fought here are never forgotten."
The Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence
"The battle of Vimy Ridge was a pivotal moment for our military and for our country. As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of this historic battle, we honour our brave soldiers' sacrifices, and are reminded that our women and men in uniform today carry on their legacy and dedication."
The Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence
Quick Facts
Victory in the Battle of Vimy Ridge came at a great cost. Of the 100,000 members of the Canadian Corps who served in the battle, approximately 3,600 lost their lives and over 7,000 more were wounded.
came at a great cost. Of the 100,000 members of the Canadian Corps who served in the battle, approximately 3,600 lost their lives and over 7,000 more were wounded. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial , which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge , about ten kilometres north of Arras, is Canada's most impressive tribute overseas to every Canadian who fought and gave their lives in the First World War.
, which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of , about ten kilometres north of Arras, is most impressive tribute overseas to every Canadian who fought and gave their lives in the First World War. More than 650,000 Canadians would serve in uniform by the end of the First World War. The conflict took a huge toll: more than 66,000 Canadians lost their lives and 170,000 were wounded.
On April 3, 2003 , the Government of Canada designated April 9 of each year as a national day of remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge .
, the Government of designated of each year as a national day of remembrance of the Battle of . The new Visitor Education Centre at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial opened April 8, 2017 , as part of events to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.
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SOURCE Veterans Affairs Canada
For further information: Media Relations, Veterans Affairs Canada, 613-992-7468, [email protected]
Related Links
www.veterans.gc.ca
Canadians gathered in Ottawa, capital cities and communities across the country to honour those who served during the First World War.
OTTAWA, April 9, 2017 /CNW/ - Earlier today, thousands of people gathered at the National War Memorial in Ottawa to honour and remember those who served Canada - 100 years ago - during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
At the commemorative event in Ottawa, which preceded the ceremony at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on behalf of the Government of Canada, joined Veterans, the Right Honourable Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Parliamentarians, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel, Indigenous peoples' representatives, the Vimy Delegation, youth and the general public to mark this important anniversary.
The order of ceremony at the National War Memorial included performances by Dr. Andrea McCrady, Dominion Carillonneur; the Canadian Armed Forces Central Band; the Ottawa Choral Society; Mr. Dave Hookimaw and Mr. Theland Kicknosway; Soloist Sierra Noble; as well as a smudging ceremony and guest appearances of Silver Cross Mothers, Gisele Michaud and Colleen Fitzpatrick.
On April 9, 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought side-by-side for the first time during the war. After four days of battle, Canada helped secure an impressive victory at Vimy, but it came at great cost. Close to 3,600 Canadians were killed during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. By the end of the First World War, Canada, a country of fewer than eight million people, would see more than 650,000 men and women having served in uniform.
A century later, we came together in Canada and in France to remember them. More than 20,000 visitors attended the commemorative ceremonies at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. Commemorative events were also organized in communities across Canada. From Victoria to Halifax, Yellowknife to St. John's, Canadians gathered to remember this important moment in Canada's military history.
Quotes
"What a privilege it is to be here to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Todayone hundred years laterwe remember those who fought at Vimy for our tomorrow. The courage and sacrifice displayed by Canadians was extraordinary. We must never forget what they did for our country and for our future."
The Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
"A century has passed, and Canada remains strong and free. Today, Canadians gatherin Canada and Franceto remember what they were fighting for during the Battle of Vimy Ridge our future. We will always remember them."
Sherry Romanado, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence.
Quick Facts
Victory in the Battle of Vimy Ridge came at a great cost. Of the some 100,000 members of the Canadian Corps who served in the battle, approximately 3,600 lost their lives and over 7,000 more were wounded.
came at a great cost. Of the some 100,000 members of the Canadian Corps who served in the battle, approximately 3,600 lost their lives and over 7,000 more were wounded. Canada's most impressive tribute overseas to those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the First World War is the majestic and inspiring Canadian National Vimy Memorial which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge , about ten kilometres north of Arras.
most impressive tribute overseas to those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the First World War is the majestic and inspiring Canadian National which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of , about ten kilometres north of Arras. The memorial does more than mark the site of the engagement that Canadians were to remember with more pride than any other operation of the First World War. It stands as a tribute to all who served their country in battle in that four-year struggle and particularly to those who gave their lives.
More than 650,000 Canadians would serve in uniform by the end of the First World War. The conflict took a huge toll, with more than 66,000 Canadians losing their lives and 170,000 being wounded.
On April 3, 2003 , The Government of Canada designated April 9 th of each year as a national day of remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge .
2017 is a special year of commemoration for Canada as we remember the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the 75th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid and the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele and as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
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SOURCE Veterans Affairs Canada
For further information: Media Relations: Veterans Affairs Canada, 613-992-7468, [email protected]
Related Links
www.veterans.gc.ca
CALGARY, April 7, 2017 /CNW/ - TransAlta Corporation ("TransAlta") (TSX: TA; NYSE: TAC) will hold its Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. MT (12:00 p.m. ET) in the Palomino Room (E-H) at the BMO Centre (Stampede Park) in Calgary, Alberta. The Annual Meeting will be broadcast via webcast and conference call. To access the broadcast, please visit http://www.transalta.com/powering-investors/events-and-presentations or use the dial-in information provided below.
Dial-in number Annual Meeting of Shareholders:
Toll-free North American participants call: 1-877-385-4099 (Code 7664898)
TransAlta will release its first quarter 2017 results after market close on Friday, May 5, 2017. A conference call and webcast to discuss the results will be held for investors, analysts, members of the media and other interested parties the following Monday, May 8, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. Mountain (11:00 a.m. ET). The media will be invited to ask questions following analysts.
Please contact the conference operator five minutes prior to the call, noting "TransAlta Corporation" as the company and "Jaeson Jaman" as moderator.
Dial-in numbers Q1 2017 Results:
Toll-free North American participants call: 1-888-231-8191
Outside of Canada & USA call: 1-647-427-7450
A link to the live webcast will be available on the Investor Centre section of TransAlta's website at http://www.transalta.com/investors/events-and-presentations. If you are unable to participate in the call, the instant replay is accessible at 1-855-859-2056 (Canada and USA toll free) with TransAlta pass code 5938029 followed by the # sign. A transcript of the broadcast will be posted on TransAlta's website once it becomes available.
About TransAlta
TransAlta is a power generation and wholesale marketing company focused on creating long-term shareholder value. TransAlta maintains a low-to-moderate risk profile by operating a highly contracted portfolio of assets in Canada, the United States and Australia. TransAlta's focus is to efficiently operate wind, hydro, solar, natural gas and coal facilities in order to provide customers with a reliable, low-cost source of power. For over 100 years, TransAlta has been a responsible operator and a proud contributor to the communities in which it works and lives. TransAlta has been recognized on CDP's Canadian Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), which includes Canada's top 20 leading companies reporting on climate change, and has been selected by Corporate Knights as one of Canada's Top 50 Best Corporate Citizens and is recognized globally for its leadership on sustainability and corporate responsibility standards by FTSE4Good.
For more information about TransAlta, visit our web site at transalta.com, or follow us on Twitter @TransAlta.
SOURCE TransAlta Corporation
For further information: Investor Inquiries: Jaeson Jaman, Manager, Investor Relations, Phone: 1-800-387-3598 in Canada and U.S., Email: [email protected]; Media Inquiries: Stacey Hatcher, Manager, Communications, Toll-free media number: 1-855-255-9184, Email: [email protected]
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http://www.transalta.com
CALGARY, April 7, 2017 /CNW/ - TransAlta Renewables Inc. ("TransAlta Renewables") (TSX: RNW) will release its first quarter 2017 results after market close on Wednesday, May 3, 2017.
TransAlta Renewables will hold its Annual Meeting of Shareholders the following morning, Thursday, May 4, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. MT (12:00 p.m. ET) at the Hotel Arts Galleria Room, Calgary, Alberta. The Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be broadcast via webcast. To access the broadcast, please visit http://www.transaltarenewables.com/investors/events-and-presentations.
About TransAlta Renewables Inc.
TransAlta Renewables is among the largest of any publicly traded renewable independent power producer ("IPP") in Canada. Our asset platform is diversified in terms of geography, generation and counterparties and consists of interests in 18 wind facilities, 13 hydroelectric facilities, eight natural gas generation facilities (including one currently under construction) and one natural gas pipeline, representing an ownership interest of 2,441 MW of net generating capacity, located in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, the State of Wyoming and the State of Western Australia. Our objectives are to (i) create stable, consistent returns for investors through the ownership of, and investment in, highly contracted renewable and natural gas power generation and other infrastructure assets that provide stable cash flow primarily through long-term contracts with strong counterparties; (ii) pursue and capitalize on strategic growth opportunities in the renewable and natural gas power generation and other infrastructure sectors; (iii) maintain diversity in terms of geography, generation and counterparties; and (iv) pay out 80 to 85 per cent of cash available for distribution to the shareholders of the Company on an annual basis.
SOURCE TransAlta Renewables Inc.
For further information: Investor Inquiries: Jaeson Jaman, Manager, Investor Relations, Phone: 1-800-387-3598 in Canada and U.S., Email: [email protected]; Media Inquiries: Stacey Hatcher, Manager, Communications, Phone: Toll-free media number: 1-855-255-9184, Email: [email protected]
VIMY, France, April 8, 2017 /CNW/ - On the eve of the centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, the Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, Mr. Jean-Marc Todeschini, Minister of State for Veterans and Remembrance, and Mr. Christopher Sweeney, Chair of the Vimy Foundation, joined dignitaries, youth, donors and guests to officially open the new Visitor Education Centre at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
The Centre's We Will Remember exhibit uses new media, artefacts and personal stories to help visitors better understand Canada and Newfoundland's service, sacrifice and experience of the First World War. Recognizing that the site and the monument are the greatest teachers of all, the building's design incorporates a wall of floor to ceiling windows allowing visitors to remain firmly grounded in a powerful landscape that still bears the scars of war.
In keeping with the Centre's educational mission, Canadian youth played a central role in the opening ceremony as hosts, performers and presenters, culminating in a moving recitation of the Commitment to Remember.
The Government of Canada committed $5 million for the new Visitor Education Centre and the Vimy Foundation also contributed $5 million thanks to generous donations from the private sector and individual Canadians.
Following the official opening, a sunset ceremony was held at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
Quick Facts
Construction began in December 2015 . Public Services and Procurement Canada awarded the architecture and design contracts to Robertson Martin Architects ( Ottawa ) and Bisson Castonguay ( Quebec ). The construction contract was awarded to Leon Grosse (France) . The building is approximately 600 m 2 and includes a main exhibit hall and an education room.
. Public Services and Procurement Canada awarded the architecture and design contracts to Robertson Martin Architects ( ) and Bisson Castonguay ( ). The construction contract was awarded to Leon . The building is approximately 600 m and includes a main exhibit hall and an education room. The Visitor Education Centre at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial opens to the public at 9:00 a.m. on April 10, 2017 .
opens to the public at on . Artefacts on display in the Centre include wooden hand tools used by the Vimy Memorial's sculptor, Walter Allward , as well as an original cross from the Battle of Vimy Ridge bearing the names of 57 members of the 15 th Battalion (48 th Highlanders of Canada ) who fell in battle, and a reproduction of the Vimy Memorial's Peace statue.
, as well as an original cross from the Battle of bearing the names of 57 members of the 15 Battalion (48 Highlanders of ) who fell in battle, and a reproduction of the Vimy Memorial's Peace statue. The innovative CANADIGM Souterrain Impressions exhibit featuring 100-year-old graffiti found in tunnels near Vimy Ridge will be on display in the Centre's education room until November 2017 .
exhibit featuring 100-year-old graffiti found in tunnels near will be on display in the Centre's education room until . The Canadian National Vimy Memorial commemorates all Canadians who fought in the First World War and remembers by name some 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France whose final resting places were unknown.
commemorates all Canadians who fought in the First World War and remembers by name some 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in whose final resting places were unknown. The opening of the new Visitor Education Centre is part of commemorative events marking the 100 th anniversary of the First World War and the Battle of Vimy Ridge , which began on April 9, 1917 .
anniversary of the First World War and the Battle of , which began on . Events commemorating the centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the opening of the new Visitor Education Centre are part of Canada's 150 th anniversary of Confederation celebrations in 2017a pivotal milestone for Canada to connect with our past, celebrate who we are, honour our exceptional achievements and build a legacy for tomorrow.
and the opening of the new Visitor Education Centre are part of 150 anniversary of Confederation celebrations in 2017a pivotal milestone for to connect with our past, celebrate who we are, honour our exceptional achievements and build a legacy for tomorrow. The Vimy Foundation was established to preserve and to promote Canada's entire First World War legacy, through its educational programs for Canadian students and its awareness building activities.
Quotes
"The Canadian National Vimy Memorial stands as a symbol of our solemn pledge to remembertoday, tomorrow and always. Opening the new Visitor Education Centre supports this enduring commitment by providing visitors with the history and context needed to truly understand the stories of those who bravely served during the First World War."
The Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence
"We are very thankful for, and proud of, the support of corporate Canada as well as of charitable foundations, philanthropists and individual Canadians whose generous contributions helped the Vimy Foundation reach its ambitious fundraising goal. We join the Government of Canada and all Canadians in celebrating the opening of the Visitor Education Centre and commemoration of the centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a defining moment in Canadian history."
Christopher Sweeney, Chair of the Vimy Foundation
2017 is a special year of commemoration for Canada as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation and we remember the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the 75th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid and the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele.
Associated Links
SOURCE Veterans Affairs Canada
For further information: Media Relations, Veterans Affairs Canada, 613-992-7468, [email protected]
Related Links
www.veterans.gc.ca
Insilico Medicine, a big data analytics company applying deep learning techniques to drug discovery, biomarker development, and aging research has closed an investment from the billionaire biotechnology investor Jim Mellon. Proceeds will be used to perform pre-clinical validation of multiple lead molecules developed using Insilico Medicines drug discovery pipelines and to advance research in deep learned biomarkers of aging and disease.
Jim Mellon has spent a substantial amount of time familiarizing himself with recent developments in biogerontology. He does not just come in with the funding, but brings in expert knowledge and a network of biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives, who work very quickly and focus on the commercialization potential.
Jim Mellon announced his vision for longevity at the Master Investor show in London attended by over five thousand investors and entrepreneurs.
Juvenescence: Investing in the Age of Longevity is a book by Jim Mellon and Al Chalabi. It is a laymans guide to longevity that will be released May 31, 2017. It investigates the new technologies and explains how to benefit from the life extending technologies both personally and professionally. It helps readers unravel the science, offers ideas on potential investment and reveals the views of the Key Opinion Leaders.
take a tour of many academic laboratories, biopharmaceutical companies, and Silicon Valley tech companies to research emerging trends and exciting discoveries. Juvenescence highlights promising technologies that are likely to generate substantial longevity dividends and create sustainable and profitable industries.
Through its focus on aging research and drug discovery, Insilico Medicine is bringing the knowledge gap between the consumer and pharmaceutical industries and collaborates with some of the largest pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and nutrition companies and academic institutions. In 2016, Insilico Medicine published several seminal proof-of-concept papers demonstrating the applications of deep learning to drug discovery, biomarker development, and aging research. A study published in Aging proposed a short list of molecules with likely geroprotective effects. In a recently published article at Nature Communications, Insilico Medicine describes a tool that it uses to study the minute changes in gene expression between young and old tissues and tissues afflicted by the disease. Another paper demonstrating the ability to predict the chronological age of the patient using a simple blood test, published in Aging, became the second most popular paper in the journals history.
Insilico Medicine was the first company to apply deep generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generating anti-cancer drugs with given parameters and published a seminal paper in Oncotarget. The paper published in Molecular Pharmaceutics, demonstrating the applications of deep neural networks for predicting the therapeutic class of the molecule using the transcriptional response data, received the American Chemical Society Editors Choice Award.
Aging journal In search for geroprotectors: in silico screening and in vitro validation of signalome-level mimetics of young healthy state
Abstract In search for geroprotectors: in silico screening and in vitro validation of signalome-level mimetics of young healthy state
Populations in developed nations throughout the world are rapidly aging, and the search for geroprotectors, or anti-aging interventions, has never been more important. Yet while hundreds of geroprotectors have extended lifespan in animal models, none have yet been approved for widespread use in humans. GeroScope is a computational tool that can aid prediction of novel geroprotectors from existing human gene expression data. GeroScope maps expression differences between samples from young and old subjects to aging-related signaling pathways, then profiles pathway activation strength (PAS) for each condition. Known substances are then screened and ranked for those most likely to target differential pathways and mimic the young signalome. Here we used GeroScope and shortlisted ten substances, all of which have lifespan-extending effects in animal models, and tested 6 of them for geroprotective effects in senescent human fibroblast cultures. PD-98059, a highly selective MEK1 inhibitor, showed both life-prolonging and rejuvenating effects. Natural compounds like N-acetyl-L-cysteine, Myricetin and Epigallocatechin gallate also improved several senescence-associated properties and were further investigated with pathway analysis. This work not only highlights several potential geroprotectors for further study, but also serves as a proof-of-concept for GeroScope, Oncofinder and other PAS-based methods in streamlining drug prediction, repurposing and personalized medicine.
The GeroScope algorithm preprocessed transcriptional data extracted from 57 bone-marrow derived human hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell samples. Pathway activation scores were calculated for old samples (donor over 60 years of age) compared to young (donor between 15 and 30 years of age). Then drug GeroScore ratings were calculated from a database of known geroprotectors and their targets
Nature Communications In silico Pathway Activation Network Decomposition Analysis (iPANDA) as a method for biomarker development
Abstract In silico Pathway Activation Network Decomposition Analysis (iPANDA) as a method for biomarker development
Signalling pathway activation analysis is a powerful approach for extracting biologically relevant features from large-scale transcriptomic and proteomic data. However, modern pathway-based methods often fail to provide stable pathway signatures of a specific phenotype or reliable disease biomarkers. In the present study, we introduce the in silico Pathway Activation Network Decomposition Analysis (iPANDA) as a scalable robust method for biomarker identification using gene expression data. The iPANDA method combines precalculated gene coexpression data with gene importance factors based on the degree of differential gene expression and pathway topology decomposition for obtaining pathway activation scores. Using Microarray Analysis Quality Control (MAQC) data sets and pretreatment data on Taxol-based neoadjuvant breast cancer therapy from multiple sources, we demonstrate that iPANDA provides significant noise reduction in transcriptomic data and identifies highly robust sets of biologically relevant pathway signatures. We successfully apply iPANDA for stratifying breast cancer patients according to their sensitivity to neoadjuvant therapy.
In March 2017, the company launched its first geroprotector with its exclusive partner, Life Extension: http://www.geroprotector.com.
Fight aging had an article about Jims view of the near future of longevity science.
We believe that over the coming decade the life science sector will be leading one of the most meaningful periods of scientific discovery and advancement. This period of development has been underpinned by two seminal moments the discovery of the structure of DNA and the sequencing of the human genome; the latter occurring nearly 50 years after the former. Subsequent breakthroughs stemming from the discovery of DNA will give new hope to those with certain diseases who relatively recently would have had none. These breakthroughs are coinciding with a period in which the worlds population is undergoing the most ubiquitous and rapid aging in its history. This, we believe, will lead to the life science sector gaining new prominence and that the biggest successes in the sector will ultimately dwarf the likes of Apple, Exxon and BHP that are the current colossi of the stock market.
By GMM 10 April 2017 - 14:53
Pascal Wehrlein is shaping up to make his return to the Sauber cockpit in Bahrain.
That is the view of one of his bosses, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff.
Currently, German Wehrlein is reportedly recovering his fitness after injuring his back in a race of champions crash in the winter.
In China, Wolff denied raging speculation the 22-year-old is actually caught up in a political dispute involving Saubers engine supplier Ferrari.
It was also said in Shanghai that Antonio Giovinazzi - Ferraris reserve driver who crashed both in qualifying and during the race in China - could race in Wehrleins place for a third consecutive time in Bahrain this weekend.
"Pascal is training and doing weights, preparing himself as much as possible for Bahrain," Wolff, the head of Mercedes development programme, told DPA news agency.
"I am only hearing good things about it that he is feeling better and stronger. At the moment, everything is pointing at him sitting in the car in Bahrain."
[April 10, 2017] Cellceutix CEO Discusses Brilacidin Following Interim Trial Results for Treating Oral Mucositis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
BEVERLY, Mass., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cellceutix Corporation (OTCQB:CTIX),
Accelerating Phase 2 trial for the Prevention of Severe Oral Mucositis (SOM)
Annual Global Market for SOM may be in the hundreds of millions of dollars a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies with dermatology, oncology, anti-inflammatory and antibiotic applications, is pleased to provide shareholders information on the development plan for Brilacidin. Brilacidin is the Companys flagship defensin-mimetic compound that has successfully completed a Phase 2b trial for Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections (ABSSSI) and is currently in two separate Phase 2 trials, for Oral Mucositis (OM) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) [Ulcerative Proctitis-Ulcerative Proctosigmoiditis (UP/UPS)]. Cellceutix has in recent weeks provided interim results from both studies showing safety and preliminary indications of clinical benefits that have exceeded the Companys expectations. Interested parties are encouraged to read the news on the data on OM at http://bit.ly/2n4X4GO and UP/UPS at http://bit.ly/2oupABw. Upon acquiring Brilacidin in 2014, Cellceutix followed the same course as the prior owners of the compound by focusing development on its antibiotic properties, ultimately successfully completing a Phase 2b study demonstrating similar efficacy and safety of Brilacidin (0.6mg/kg IV; single dose) to the blockbuster antibiotic daptomycin in treating ABSSSI. Lab research concurrent to antibiotic trials provided equally impressive data on the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of Brilacidin. These data underscored broadening the scope of research to build the franchise, developing formulations and initiating mid-stage trials aimed at the indications of preventing radiation-induced OM in Head and Neck cancer patients and inducing remission in UP/UPS. Cellceutix is encouraged by the interim data from the OM trial (a double blind, placebo controlled study), given the fact that there are no FDA-approved drugs for the prevention of OM in the study population. According to the preliminary interim results from the trial, only 2 of 9 patients (22.2%) on Brilacidin-OM therapy developed severe OM, defined as Grade 3 or Grade 4 on the World Health Organization (WHO) OM Grading Scale. Patients in the placebo-treated control arm developed severe OM at a much higher rate, with 7 of 10 patients (70%) progressing to that condition. There are now an additional 11 patients active in the trial and more are added weekly. In recent months, the number of study sites in the OM trial has been increased and enrollment is accelerating. Cellceutix has moved through this trial methodically, waiting to increase trial sites to conserve capital until research provided additional support to the potential of the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of the drug candidate. As we saw signs of patient benefits in our open label UP/UPS trial, we started increasing the number of sites in the OM trial to hasten progression. Now that supportive data have been collected, efforts to expedite enrollment even faster are being implemented. In 2015, Cellceutixs Brilacidin was granted FDA Fast-Track designation for the OM indication. Should the study conclude with similar results to those of the preliminary interim, we intend to seek FDA Beakthrough Therapy designation. Cellceutix expects the OM trial to be completed in 2017.
The Phase 2 UP/UPS (Proof-of-Concept, open label) trial continues to progress quickly and produce outstanding data. The results of the first two cohorts showed the majority of patients treated with Brilacidin at the end of six weeks had notable improvement based on the Modified Mayo Disease Activity Index (MMDAI) scoring and that half of patients met criteria for clinical remission. The third and final cohort of patients is currently in progress with expectations of presenting topline data in July at the 2017 Drug Discovery and Therapy World Congress in Boston. The presentation at this scientific conference will provide the wider scientific community with a portrait of Brilacidins potential for treating IBD as well as OM. Cellceutix believes there is a great need for an alternative medicine to existing treatments to achieve remission of distal ulcerative colitis via enema. We are guided by FDA registration trials for UCERIS which showed 2mg rectal foam (foam enema) achieved modest remission rates of distal ulcerative colitis at six weeks (42 days). Looking back, when we ran across the opportunity to acquire Brilacidin and learned about the diverse potential of the compound, we considered it a once in a lifetime opportunity, commented Leo Ehrlich Chief Executive Officer at Cellceutix. Were working on accomplishing something in OM that has never been accomplished before and tapping into the massive broad anti-inflammatory market opportunity at the same time. We believe with Brilacidin-OM that there is the potential to a quick path to market because of the lack of effective options for people suffering from Head and Neck cancer that must undergo chemoradiation and face the very real risk of severe OM. The condition is well documented to cause a spike in medical care costs, patient suffering, and contributes to a higher morbidity rate, so we strongly believe Brilacidin-OM treatment can gain support from FDA for rapid development and full support from insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors should the treatment eventually be commercialized. Reports are the annual global market for preventing severe OM may be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cellceutix will be hosting a shareholder conference call next week to further discuss accomplishments to date and pipeline development going forward. More details will follow early next week. Alerts: Sign-up for Cellceutix email alerts is available at: www.cellceutix.com/email-alerts About Cellceutix Headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, Cellceutix is a publicly-traded company under the symbol CTIX. Cellceutix is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies in multiple diseases. Cellceutix believes it has a world-class portfolio of first-in-class lead drug candidates and is now advancing them toward market approval, while actively seeking strategic partnerships. Cellceutixs psoriasis drug candidate Prurisol completed a Phase 2 trial and Cellceutix recently launched a Phase 2b study. Prurisol is a small molecule that acts through immune modulation and PRINS reduction. Cellceutixs anti-cancer drug Kevetrin successfully concluded a Phase 1 clinical trial at Harvard Cancer Centers Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Cellceutix has commenced a Phase 2 study. In the laboratory, Kevetrin has shown to induce activation of p53, often referred to as the Guardian Angel Gene due to its crucial role in controlling cell mutations. Cellceutix is in a Phase 2 clinical trial with its novel compound Brilacidin-OM for the prevention of oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer. Brilacidin-OM, a defensin mimetic compound, has shown in an animal model to reduce the occurrence of severe ulcerative oral mucositis by more than 94% compared to placebo. Cellceutixs lead antibiotic, Brilacidin, has completed a Phase 2b trial for Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infection, or ABSSSI. Top-line data have shown a single dose of Brilacidin to deliver comparable clinical outcomes to the FDA-approved seven-day dosing regimen of daptomycin. Brilacidin has the potential to be a single-dose therapy for certain multi-drug resistant bacteria (superbugs). In an ongoing Phase 2 open label Proof-of-Concept trial, favorable interim results have been observed in the first two cohorts of patients treated with Brilacidin for Ulcerative Proctitis/Ulcerative Proctosigmoiditis (UP/UPS), two types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Cellceutix has formed research collaborations with world-renowned research institutions in the United States and Europe, including MD Anderson Cancer Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the University of Bologna. More information is available on the Cellceutix web site at www.cellceutix.com. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including statements concerning projected timelines for the initiation and completion of clinical trials, our future drug development plans, other statements regarding future product developments, including with respect to specific indications, and any other statements which are other than statements of historical fact. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause Cellceutixs actual results and experience to differ materially from anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. Cellceutix has in some cases identified forward-looking statements by using words such as anticipates, believes, hopes, estimates, looks, expects, plans, intends, goal, potential, may, suggest, and similar expressions. Among other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements are Cellceutixs need for, and the availability of, substantial capital in the future to fund its operations and research and development; including the amount and timing of the sale of shares of common stock to Aspire Capital; the fact that Cellceutixs compounds may not successfully complete pre-clinical or clinical testing, or be granted regulatory approval to be sold and marketed in the United States or elsewhere. A more complete description of these risk factors is included in Cellceutixs filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Cellceutix undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to any such forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by applicable law or regulation. INVESTOR AND MEDIA CONTACT Cellceutix Corporation Leo Ehrlich [email protected]
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[April 10, 2017] Marley Natural Premium Cannabis Products Launch in Washington
Marley Natural, the official Bob Marley cannabis brand, is proud to launch its inaugural collection of premium cannabis flower and oil in Washington state. The products join Marley Natural's lifestyle accessories and body care lines already offered in the state. Starting April 10, 2017, the brand's premium cannabis products will be available alongside its smoking and other lifestyle accessories at cannabis retailers in the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia areas. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005444/en/ Marley Natural cannabis flower and oil are hand-selected from local farms run by experienced growers committed to sustainable growing practices. (Photo: Business Wire) Marley Natural's product lines include: Four categories of locally sourced cannabis flower and oil: Marley Green (hybrid), Marley Gold (sativa), Marley Red (high-CBD), and Marley Black (indica);
(hybrid), (sativa), (high-CBD), and (indica); Body care products infused with the moisturizing power of cold-pressed hemp seed oil and blended with other natural Jamaican botanicals; and
A collection of smoking accessories made from sustainably sourced American Black Walnut wood and heat-resistant, hand-blown glass. On Saturday, Marley Natural celebrated its Washington launch at a gathering for lifestyle and cannabis influencers featuring music from Bob Marley's granddaughters Zuri and Shacia Marley, as well as Jamaican reggae artist Yaadcore. All Marley Natural products are designed with deep respect for Bob Marley's legacy and belief in the positive potential of the herb to heal and inspire us. Marley Natural cannabis is currently available in dispensaries across California, Oregon, and Washington in accordance with local laws and regulations. Cannabis retail locations can be found at www.MarleyNatural.com/Find. Lifestyle accessories and body care products are available nationwide at specialty retailers as well as online at www.MarleyNaturalShop.com. "We are fortunate to be living during a promising time of positive change, espeially with regard to cannabis. We believe our father would be so happy to see more people understanding the unique properties of the plant," said Cedella Marley, Bob's daughter.
Rise Up: Marley Natural Gives Back to Washington In the spirit of giving back to both Jamaica and communities that have been harmed by cannabis prohibition, Marley Natural has created a social impact initiative called Rise Up. Rise Up funds a series of carefully curated projects that reflect Bob's vision for an inclusive and compassionate community where people take care of each other and the environment. More details about Rise Up are available at www.MarleyNatural.com/RiseUp.
In Washington, Marley Natural is joining forces with the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), the first non-profit organization created specifically to progress the cannabis industry by increasing diversity, and the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), a non-profit composed of police and other criminal justice professionals dedicated to implementing drug policy and criminal justice solutions that improve public safety, to host Rise Up programs in Seattle. In partnership with MCBA, Marley Natural will host a Rise Up event to help men and women convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses file to vacate felony judgments and be released from associated penalties. Applicants will be pre-screened for eligibility by the event's legal team (organized by Marley Natural) and work with volunteers on the day of the event to complete their application. Alongside that event, LEAP will host a Know Your Rights class to educate the community about local cannabis rights and the MCBA will host a responsible consumption workshop. About Marley Natural Marley Natural is the official Bob Marley cannabis brand, crafted with deep respect for Bob's legacy and belief in the positive potential of the herb to heal and inspire us. To learn more about Marley Natural, visit www.MarleyNatural.com or follow the conversation on social media using @MarleyNatural and #MarleyNatural. About Marley Natural Products Cannabis Flower and Oil Marley Natural cannabis flower and oil are hand-selected from local farms run by experienced growers committed to sustainable growing practices. All Marley Natural products are tested and clearly labeled for potency, purity, and safety prior to sale. Marley Natural cannabis flower and oil are available in four categories, each featuring different strains depending on harvest availability: Marley Green features hybrid strains recommended for people beginning their journey with Marley Natural. Marley Green strains have balanced levels of THC that combine the cerebral high of sativa with the physical relaxation of indica. Marley Green strains are appropriate for anytime use.
features hybrid strains recommended for people beginning their journey with Marley Natural. Marley Green strains have balanced levels of THC that combine the cerebral high of sativa with the physical relaxation of indica. Marley Green strains are appropriate for anytime use. Marley Gold features sativa strains that offer energetic, uplifting effects that may produce a more cerebral experience compared to other cannabis strains. Marley Gold strains are appropriate for daytime use.
features sativa strains that offer energetic, uplifting effects that may produce a more cerebral experience compared to other cannabis strains. Marley Gold strains are appropriate for daytime use. Marley Red features CBD-rich strains that combine CBD and THC in a beneficial ratio. CBD-rich cannabis is frequently reported to provide patients and consumers with anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-anxiety properties without the psychoactive effects of strains high in THC. Marley Red strains are appropriate for anytime use.
features CBD-rich strains that combine CBD and THC in a beneficial ratio. CBD-rich cannabis is frequently reported to provide patients and consumers with anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-anxiety properties without the psychoactive effects of strains high in THC. Marley Red strains are appropriate for anytime use. Marley Black features indica strains recommended for connoisseurs seeking a more physical, full-body experience. Marley Black strains are high in THC and appropriate for nighttime use. Naturally-Derived Cannabis Sativa Body Care Infused with Jamaican Botanicals The Marley Natural body care line offers naturally-derived formulas that blend the moisturizing power of hemp seed oil with Jamaican botanicals (including ginger, lemongrass, turmeric, and cerasse). All formulas contain cold-pressed hemp seed oil rich in essential fatty acids, Omega-3s, and Omega-6s. All formulas are paraben, sulfate, and cruelty free. Body care products are available for sale nationally via www.MarleyNaturalShop.com. The hemp seed body care products include an essential oil blend, body lotion, body wash, body salve, hand cream, bar soap, and a lip balm. Sustainably Sourced American Black Walnut Smoking Accessories Balancing intuitive design with Jamaican-inspired accents, Marley Natural's smoking accessories cater to discerning herb connoisseurs who celebrate the ritual of smoking. The collection features products made from sustainably sourced American Black Walnut wood and heat-resistant, hand-blown glass, all boxed in 100% recyclable packaging. Each product is designed to ensure durability, convenient maintenance, and a comfortable hand-feel. The accessories are designed to be used only with legal smoking herbs and are not intended to be used with tobacco products. The collection is available for sale nationwide at specialty retailers, as well as online at www.MarleyNaturalShop.com. The collection includes a taster, a spoon pipe, a steamroller, a bubbler, and a grinder, as well as prep trays and storage devices. Marley Natural cannabis products are available in dispensaries in Washington, Oregon, and California in accordance with state and local laws and regulations. Marley Natural cannabis products have intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Cannabis can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults twenty-one and older, or qualified patients. Keep out of the reach of children. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170410005444/en/
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[April 10, 2017] SpotX Partners With OmniVirt to Bring Scale to 360 VR Advertising
DENVER, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SpotX and OmniVirt today announce their partnership in powering 360 virtual reality (VR) advertising for brands. This partnership will bring OmniVirts 360 VR technology across all media owners on SpotXs platform, giving marketers the ability to distribute their 360 VR content at scale.
OmniVirt's 360 VR ad in action on a mobile device
Distribution has been one of the largest pain-points in the VR market today. Under the partnership, OmniVirts robust VR technology will now seamlessly integrate into the premium inventory available through SpotXs platform. It will enable brands to promote and drive viewers to their VR experiences at unparalleled scale. To see a demo of OmniVirts pre-roll 360 VR executions, click here. Marketers and agencies alike have been creating 360 VR advertisements due to the promise this medium has for marketers to make an impact on their audience, states Brad Phaisan, Founder and CEO of OmniVirt. OmniVirt 360 VR campaigns have show a tenfold increase in interaction and engagement compared to flat 2D advertisements.
In spite of marketers and agencies being extremely interested in VR, the biggest challenge for these marketers remains distribution and viewers, notes Phaisan. While publishers like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Discovery, and Time Inc, and brands like Toyota, ABC, Chick-Fil-A, and Universal Pictures have utilized OmniVirts proprietary technology to power 360 VR experiences for their campaigns, this is the first time that this technology will be available at such a large scale.
The ability to bring these 360 VR experiences to audiences across SpotXs platform is something both the buy and sell side are very excited about, states Jeremy Straight, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at SpotX. Our Demand Facilitation team will help buyers find the best media owners for 360 VR, and help them structure their buys to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of this innovative new format. The partnership reinforces SpotXs commitment to media owners to explore innovative technologies that empower them to realize the full potential of their video ad inventory. Starting today, any advertiser, brand, or agency that has 360 VR content can now leverage the integration between SpotX and OmniVirt to deliver their VR experiences at unparalleled scale. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3ebac904-7ca0-47ea-b933-8ec1de0c49cc About SpotX
SpotX is a video inventory management platform providing media owners with monetization tools for desktop, mobile and connected devices. The platform features modern ad serving and programmatic enablement technology, and other monetization tools, including outstream video ad units and solutions for connected TV. SpotX gives publishers the control, transparency and actionable insights needed to understand buyer behavior, manage access and pricing, and maximize revenue. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has offices in New York, San Francisco, London, Sydney, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Hamburg, Belfast, and Singapore. In July 2014, RTL Group, a leader across broadcast, content and digital, acquired a 65% stake in SpotX. For updates, follow SpotX on Twitter and LinkedIn. About OmniVirt
OmniVirt is 360 Video and Virtual Reality advertising platform founded by former Google and YouTube employees. The company has received funding from top venture capitalists including Andreessen Horowitz, Greycroft, BDMI, Horizon Media, First Round Capital and many others. OmniVirts technology distributes 360 VR advertisements through existing exchanges and networks. These experiences are customizable and interactive, with detailed performance reporting showcasing where audiences are engaging in the immersive experience. The company has powered multiple high profile campaigns for clients like Toyota, Infiniti, Samsung, Chevron, and Johnnie Walker with publishers like the The New York Times, AOL, Time Inc, Wall Street Journal, Vice Media and more. For more information: [email protected] [email protected]
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[April 10, 2017] Webber Wentzel Selects Intapp for Total Time Management
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa and LONDON, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intapp, a global leader in legal software, has announced that Webber Wentzel, a leading law firm in South Africa, has selected Intapp Time as the firms new time recording system. In a continued drive towards enhancing client service delivery and embracing a more digital office environment, Webber Wentzel has chosen Intapp Time to support the firms time management processes. Webber Wentzel has a total staff of approximately 800, including over 450 lawyers and offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
"We strive to deliver a distinctive and tailored service to our clients and are always looking for new ways to connect and engage more effectively. We believe that Intapp software will provide the integrated platform that we need to minimise the administrative burden on busy fee earners and allow them to focus on client service, whilst also providing our clients with an accurate, timely report of work in progress, said Sally Hutton, Managing Partner at Webber Wentzel. Helen Harding, CFO at Webber Wentzel, adds: The Intapp software will help integrate our multiple systems via a single interface to eliminate duplication and manual re-entry of data which will in turn increase efficiency, enhance quality assurance, and improve visibility across the firm. This software presents an opportunity for us to collaborate more effectively with colleagues and clients, and provide a more seamless client service. Intapp Time offers a native interface across desktop, tablets and smartphones, supporting the full range of time recording methods, including manual timers, time capture and mobile time entry. Intapp Time alsoenforces compliance with client billing guidelines at the time of entry, and provides real-time insight and reporting.
Phil Wedgwood, Vice President, Business Management for Intapp Time, said: Webber Wentzel is a highly entrepreneurial leading South African law firm with a deep understanding of its clients needs and numerous independent awards in both South Africa and the Continent. We are delighted that Webber Wentzel has selected Intapp Time for Total Time Management and we look forward to working together on a successful implementation project. About Webber Wentzel
Webber Wentzel is a leading South African law firm providing clients with innovative solutions to their most complex legal and tax issues.
With a staff complement of approximately 800 people, including over 450 lawyers, and offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Webber Wentzels market-leading position is reinforced by a number of accolades and achievements. The firms collaborative alliance with Linklaters provides clients with market leading support across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond through Linklaters English Law, New York Law, Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone capability. Webber Wentzel's offering is enhanced by its network of best friend law firms across sub-Saharan Africa, and its associate membership of the Africa Legal Network, an integrated network of 13 African law firms. For more information visit www.webberwentzel.com About Intapp
Intapp provides software that enables law firms and other professional services firms to thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace by improving operational efficiency, increasing profitability and driving client success. Intapp's three practice groups (Risk, Integration and Time) focus on understanding existing pressures and emerging trends, and translate this knowledge into products and best practices. Intapp products allow firms to align business operations with strategy and deliver on client expectations. They are recognised as the most advanced in their respective categories -- new business intake, conflicts management, confidentiality management, process automation, data integration and time recording. Serving more than 650 customers, including 91% of the Am Law 100, 90% of the Global 100 and three of the Accounting Top 20, Intapp has cultivated an unparalleled record of customer success and collaborative partner relationships. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, with business operations in New York, Atlanta, London, Manchester and Sydney, Intapp offers a unique combination of legal industry expertise, technical innovation, consumer-friendly design and customer-focused business philosophy. For more information, visit www.intapp.com. Contact: Eureka Endo Intapp [email protected] +44 795 828 7483
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[April 10, 2017] Arcserve Given 5-Star Rating in CRN's 2017 Partner Program Guide
MINNEAPOLIS, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcserve, LLC, whose breakthrough data protection and availability solutions deliver enterprise power with small team simplicity, today announced that it has received a 5-Star rating in the 2017 Partner Program Guide by CRN, a brand of The Channel Company. This annual guide is the definitive listing of partner programs from technology vendors that provide products and services through the IT channel. The 5-Star rating recognizes an elite subset of companies that offer solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.
Arcserve is a 100 percent channel-focused organization dedicated to delivering a full range of highly advanced, yet elegantly simple data protection solutions and world-class support. Its global partner program is markedly different in providing long-term growth opportunities illustrated by a 50 percent increase in sales-qualified leads, generated for partners, year-over-year. Together, Arcserves innovative Unified Data Protection (UDP) solution portfolio and partner benefits enable maximum profitability through: advanced demand generation and leading sales methodologies, unmatched incentives, a turnkey deal registration process, complementary training and accreditation, and product and marketing support through the entire customer lifecycle. On behalf of Arcserve, were honored to be recognized by CRN and the Channel Company for offering a superior partnering experience through our channel program, said Gerard Kubisiak, Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Arcserve. Our solutions have consistently redefined how businesses protect their most critical data, and were extremely excited about rolling out new echnologies and program offerings that will give channel partners unique opportunities for portfolio and customer expansion in the year to come.
To determine the 2017 5-Star ratings, The Channel Companys research team assessed each vendors partner program based on investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication. For solution providers, finding the right technology vendors to partner with is crucial to the health of their business, and the vast array of choices can be overwhelming, said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. Our annual Partner Program Guide and 5-Star ratings help them narrow the field, identifying the most rewarding partner programs and outlining their strengths and benefits.
The 2017 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April issue of CRN and online at www.crn.com/ppg. Tweet This:
@TheChannelCo names @Arcserve to @CRN 2017 Partner Program Guide #CRNPPG www.CRN.com/ppg About Arcserve
Arcserve is a leading provider of data protection and recovery software that provides organizations with the assurance that they can recover their data and applications when needed. Launched in 1990, Arcserve provides a comprehensive solution for cloud, virtual and physical environments, on premise or in the cloud, backed by unsurpassed support and expertise. Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP), available on Arcserves appliance or your hardware, drives a full range of highly efficient and integrated data protection capabilities through a simple, web-based user console. Arcserve has a customer base of 45,000 end users in more than 150 countries and partners with over 7,500 distributors, resellers and service providers around the world. Arcserve is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with offices around the world. Visit www.arcserve.com. Follow Arcserve: Blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn About The Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook Copyright 2017. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Media Contacts: Leslie Keil Arcserve 952.903.5434 [email protected] Melanie Turpin The Channel Company 508.416.1195 [email protected]
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[April 10, 2017] Craftsmen Industries 35th Anniversary Event Offers Rare Opportunity for Cool Technologies
TAMPA, Fla., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The event marking the 35th anniversary of Craftsmen Industries on April 27th will provide Cool Technologies (OTCQB:WARM) a unique opportunity to demonstrate its Mobile Generation (MG) system to over 400 of Craftsmens customers as well as Cool Techs own potential partners and customers.
Craftsmen designs, engineers and produces mobile marketing vehicles, experiential marketing platforms and industrial mobile solutions such as mobile kitchens, offices, command and control centers as well as military, first responder and disaster management services. All of them require mobile power generation and the Cool Tech Mobile Generation system provides a smaller package for less cost, less weight and less fuel consumption than the customers existing power systems. In field sales and marketing, you attend trade shows or have lunch and learns to show your products, said Tim Hassett, CEO CoolTech. Having that many customers invited to one place and being able to present a solution that provides a pragmatic, true cost-out for their vehicles is extraordinary. We couldnt ask for a better launch ito the market place.
The company is determined to capitalize on the opportunity to show how the MG system adds value to Craftsmens product line. Our engineering teams have been working around the clock up-fitting our 80 kVA system to a Ford F-350 diesel, added Mr. Hassett. This week, they will be running it through its paces.
About Cool Technologies, Inc. Cool Technologies is an intellectual property and product development company commercializing patented thermal dispersion technology across multiple platforms. The Company has additional patents-pending for various OEM applications of its proprietary heat removal technologies. Tested and validated by two third parties, ESSCO Pumps and Nidec Corporation, the Companys cooling system eliminates the need for costly modifications while increasing power output of pumps, fans, compressors, batteries, motors, generators and bearings. Safe Harbor Statement. This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on plans and expectations of management and are subject to uncertainties and risks that could affect the company's plans and expectations, as well as results of operations and financial condition. A listing of risk factors that may affect the company's business prospects and cause results to differ from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in company reports and documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For more information, read the blog at cooltechnologiesinc.com or contact [email protected].
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[April 10, 2017] Zimmerman Amps Social Power
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Zimmerman, Omnicom's Retail Powerhouse, announced today the addition of Geoff Desreumaux to lead its highly acclaimed Social Media/Acquisition practice. The hiring comes after searching the globe for the right balance of talent, experience, culture and innovative ambition. Desreumaux comes to Zimmerman from France, by way of London, and has an extensive understanding of social media and the overall digital industry. Besides his work as Head of Social at Lexis Agency and Senior Digital & Social Strategist at Cheil Worldwide, he is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WeRSM.com (We are Social Media), one of the fastest growing websites dedicated to social media marketing. His work includes brands like Samsung, Hyundai, Eurobank, Sony, Kia, Pedigree, Snickers, Mars, Staff Jeans, Mattel, Vodafone and many others. According to Jordan Zimmerman, Founder and Chairman, "Desreumaux's remit at the agency will be to focus on oe, sole objective: To innovate ideas that drive a direct connection between retail sales and social investment for our clients."
"I am a business person first and foremost and I share Zimmerman's vision that social media cannot be simply about impressions and engagement, but a more powerful weapon for acquisition customers, sales, loyalty and ROI," said Desreumaux. "Responsibility is a universal language and he shares our passion to create programs that are best in class for retail and transactional brands. There were no geographic limits on how far we would reach to add someone like Geoff to our talent roster," added Michael Goldberg, CEO of Zimmerman Advertising.
This hire comes in the middle of a great shift of momentum for Zimmerman, having recently signed on all Nissan brand work and having won back the Office Depot/Office Max account. About Zimmerman Advertising
Zimmerman Advertising, an Omnicom Group company, is the leading integrated, retail agency in the country. Zimmerman's clients represent some of the most prominent retail brands in the country, including Office Depot/Office Max, Nissan, Dunkin' Donuts, Tire Kingdom, Advance America, ADT, Five Below, Chuck E. Cheese's, AutoNation, La-Z-Boy and Michaels. Headquartered in South Florida, the agency has retail service offices throughout the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Nashville. For information on the agency, visit http://www.zadv.com. About Omnicom Group
Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zimmerman-amps-social-power-300437159.html SOURCE Zimmerman Advertising
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on Friday
Top Trump officials are now demanding Russia step away from Assad or risk more trouble with the U.S, with investigations underway to ascertain if Russia were involved in the chemical attacks on civilians.
I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility, Rex Tillerson, U.S Secretary of State, said on ABCs This Week.
Although U.S officials acknowledged that they have seen no evidence directly linking Russia to the attacks, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Russia should answer what it knew ahead of the chemical attack since it has arranged warplanes and air defense systems with associated troops in Syria since 2015.
I think what we should do is ask Russia, how could it be, if you have advisers at that airfield, that you didnt know that the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons? McMaster said on Fox News.
I think the issue of how Bashar al-Assads leadership is sustained, or how he departs, is something that well be working [on] with allies and others in the coalition, said Tillerson, who after weeks of keeping a low profile was making his debut on the Sunday morning talk shows. But I think with each of those actions, he really undermines his own legitimacy.
At least in the short run, it will further complicate efforts to improve the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship, which seemed to be Tillersons objective in going to Moscow, said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Lawal, Abdulkadir Umar and Babawo Kato.
Seven Fulani herdsmen who were involved in the kidnap of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Olu Falae, have been sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ondo State High Court.Justice Williams Olamide, on Monday found the Fulani herdsmen guilty of kidnapping Falae from his farm in Ilado Village, Akure North Local Government Area of the state in September, 2015.Those convicted include, Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed, IdrisAll convict were arraigned on five counts of kidnapping, abduction, aiding and abetting, kidnapping, conspiracy and armed robbery.Their offences, according to the Ondo State Government contravened Section 2 of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Law, 5(1) (a) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Laws, Section 3(11)(b) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Abduction Law, Section 6(b) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act, Cap R11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and Section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap R11, Vol. 14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.The judge held that the recovered ransom, call logs, and identification of the suspects by Falae himself indicted the convicts of complicity in the crime.Against this backdrop, Justice Olamide subsequently sentenced the convicts to Olokuta prison, Akure for life, without an option of fine.
Former First Lady, Patience Jonathan on Monday visited he Maitama branch of the Skye Bank in Abuja, Nigerias capital.Her visit was less than one week after her 6 million dollars was recently unfrozen by a court order.Patience Jonathan was at the bank until 4pm but declined to speak to reporters who approached her.Mrs Jonathan was said to have had a brief meeting with an Executive Director of Skye Bank.Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, last Thuraday, ordered that her domiciliary account of be unfrozen because she was not a party to the initial case that led to the freezing of the account.The account had hitherto been frozen by the same court following an affidavit in support of Ex-parte originating summons sworn to by an EFCC operative, Abdulahi Tukur, and filed before the court by EFCC prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo. http://dailypost.ng/2016/12/23/court-freezes-accounts-linked-patience-jonathan/However, the court reversed the initial freezing order sequel to an application argued by her (Patiences) legal team which is led by Adedayo Adedipe (SAN).Adedipe urged the court to unfreeze the account on the ground that Patience Jonathan was not a party in the suit leading to the order made by the court.Adedipe while citing judicial authorities contended that the order was an abuse of court process as the court has no jurisdiction to make an order against a party that is not a party in a suit filed before the court.The EFCC did not file any response to the application filed by Adedipe seeking to discharge the order.Based on the submission which the court admitted and upheld, Justice Olatoregun discharged the initial order freezing the account.
A Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has described astute businessman and philanthropist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, as an inspi...
A Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has described astute businessman and philanthropist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, as an inspiration to many people.In a congratulatory messag on his 60th Birthday, Tinubu commended the business mogul for his boldness and bravery in taking the business risks, which he said have now paid off.The All Progressives National Congress (APC) national leader said Dangote has broken all business barriers and had helped to industrialise Africa, with the operations of his Dangote Group in 17 African countries and beyond.Your life has been an inspiration to many. From a lowly background, you rose to the top by hard work and perseverance."You have shown that with resilience, we can always convert risks and challenges to opportunities."Today, you are that African man that has broken all barriers. With operations in over 17 African countries including Nigeria, the awesome Dangote Group you established is helping to industrialise Africa.You have made people and made lives a lot better through the employment opportunities you have created and your other humanitarian activities.I wish you many more years in life. I pray that Allah grants all you need to continue to impact the lives of many more people, he said.
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), says Aliko Dangote, may become the largest exporter of rice in the wor...
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), says Aliko Dangote, may become the largest exporter of rice in the world by 2021.Speaking at the Mo Ibrahim Forum in Morocco over the weekend, Adesina said Africa must focus on agriculture to drive growth and create jobs on the continent.I remember when I was minister of Agriculture in Nigeria. Aliko Dangote was there, and he was our biggest importer at the time, and he and I used to have all the time to dialogue, Adesina said.One day, I was in my office, about 10 Oclock, Aliko walks in, Ngozi was minister of finance. Aliko bangs on my door and said minister I came to see you, and I said what are we going to disagree on this time?He said no, I have actually looked at the policies, and the policies you put in place for import substitution are very right policies. So, I have changed my business model from being an importer to being a local producer.Adesina narrated the role Dangote played in his happiest day as a minister in Nigeria.I said what exactly are you going to do. He said I will put in $300 million into producing and processing rice in Nigeria. I said yippee! I went home, I told my wife, my best day as minister, he said.He comes back three months after that, he says I have changed my mind, I said what in the world happened? He said no, I have changed my mind from $300 million to a billion dollars.If they continue that policy, he would probably be the single largest producer of rice in the world, in about four years. The reason why I was so excited about that is that agriculture is cool, agriculture is a businessagriculture pays.Adesina was named Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2013, while Dangote won the same award in 2014.
An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital on Tuesday sentenced seven men who were involved in the kidnap of a former Se...
An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital on Tuesday sentenced seven men who were involved in the kidnap of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, to life imprisonment.The seven men, who were all Fulani herdsmen were found guilty of kidnapping the elder statesman in his farm in Ilado Village, Akure North Local Government Area of the state in September, 2015.The convicts are : Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed, Idris Lawal, Abdulkadir Umar and Babawo Kato.They were initially arraigned on five counts of kidnapping, abduction, aiding and abetting, kidnapping, conspiracy and armed robbery.The offences were said to be contrary to Section 2 of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Law, 5(1) (a) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Laws, Section 3(11)(b) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Abduction Law, Section 6(b) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act, Cap R11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and Section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap R11, Vol. 14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.It would be recalled that the former Minister for Finance spent three days in the den of the kidnappers while a sum of N5milllion was reportedly paid as ransom to the hoodlums.It took the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari who ordered the former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase to rescue the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party.In his judgment, the trial judge, Justice Williams Olamide held that the seven accused persons were guilty of the kidnapping charge brought against them by the Ondo State Government.He said the recovered ransom, call logs, and identification of the suspects by Chief Falae himself, indicted the convicts of complicity in the crime and subsequently sentenced them to Olokuta prison, Akure for life, without an option of a fine.He however discharged them of two of the counts, conspiracy and armed robbery.
An Ikeja High Court on Monday, dismissed the suit filed by Mrs Taiwo Obasanjo, wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, seeking the pos...
An Ikeja High Court on Monday, dismissed the suit filed by Mrs Taiwo Obasanjo, wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, seeking the postponement of the wedding of her son Olujonwo to Tope Adebutu.Justice Lateefa Okunnu, dismissed the suit on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit because Olujonwo, 33, is an adult.On March 27, I ordered counsel to direct me on whether the family court can hear a case where the child is an adult.Counsels have addressed me and I have read the processes before me.I have found to be very genuine, what the applicant said regarding performing her parental duties in paragraph 15 of her affidavit.The court, regrettably, lacks the competence to adjudicate this suit, the jurisdiction of the family court covers children under the age of 18 years.The respondent's son is 33-years-old, this negates the ability of this court to entertain this suit.The proper order to give is one dismissing this suit in its entirety, I hereby dismiss this suit, the judge said.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that former President Obasanjo and the father of the bride, Sir Kessington Adebutu, promoter of Premier Lotto known as Baba Ijebu are the respondents to the suit.Mrs Taiwo Obasanjo was present in court while former President Obasanjo and Sir Adebutu were absent.Mrs Obasanjo had in her suit filed on March 27, prayed that the wedding which is scheduled for May 11, be moved to any date after June 1 which is Olujonwos 34th birthday.According to her, she had received various warnings and prophecies from men of God that her son should not be involved in any elaborate celebration before his birthday.Earlier during proceedings, Mr Bode Olanipekun, counsel to Obasanjo and Adebutu, had asked to court to dismiss the suit due to lack of jurisdiction.We urge your Lordship to dismiss this suit based on jurisdictional challenges.Under Section 261 of the Childs Act, this court has no jurisdiction because the child is above 18-years.The claimants have not disclosed a reasonable cause of action and no laws were cited in their address.I urge your Lordship to dismiss this suit, Olanipekun said.
Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, a federal high court judge, has challenged the jurisdiction of an Ikeja high court to hear the ongoing corruption c...
Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, a federal high court judge, has challenged the jurisdiction of an Ikeja high court to hear the ongoing corruption charge brought against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).Robert Clarke, Ofili-Ajumogobias new lead defence counsel, challenged the courts jurisdiction on Monday in an application brought before Hakeem Oshodi, a justice.Clarke, a new addition to Ofili-Ajumogobias defence team, has joined Olawale Akoni, SAN, to defend the embattled judge.Odein Ajumogobia, the brother-in-law to the judge and a former minister of petroleum resources and foreign affairs, was also in court to lend support.Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN, the defence counsel to Godwin Obla, SAN, Ofili-Ajumogobias co-defendant, asked the court to hear the application alongside the suit in order to speed up the trial.My Lord, it is my humble submission that having regard to the Administration of Criminal Justice Law that this issue be taken with the substantive suit even though it is a joint trial, he said.This is the argument of the first defendant and not of the second defendant.Oshodi did not grant Adedipes request but adjourned the case until April 28 for ruling on Clarkes application.Ofili-Ajumogobia is standing trial alongside Obla, SAN, a former prosecutor of the EFCC.The duo is jointly charged with a two-count offence of perverting the course of justice.Obla is facing an additional two counts of offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Ofili-Ajumogobia, a public official, while serving as a judge.Ofili-Ajumogobia faces a 26-count charge bordering on unlawful enrichment, taking property by a public officer, corruption by a public officer, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.Both denied all the charges.Four prosecution witnesses three bankers and one Bureau-de-Change operator have so far testified in the trial for the prosecution.The witnesses gave accounts of how they allegedly helped the judge launder large sums of money in foreign and local currencies from her home and the judges chambers at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, into various bank accounts registered in her name.
A former Senator representing Benue North East, Senator Joseph Akaagerger, is of the opinion that the meeting convened by former President...
A former Senator representing Benue North East, Senator Joseph Akaagerger, is of the opinion that the meeting convened by former President, Goodluck Jonathan was aimed at compounding the leadership crisis of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as well lacked direction.Akaagerger noted that the lack of direction was why Ali Modu Sheriff was not recognised as the National Chairman of the Party.He stressed that the former Borno State Governor ought to be recognised as the National Chairman of the party in any gathering of the party members.The former Military Administrator of Katsina State, made the remark while reacting to Sheriffs decision to walk out of a meeting convened by a former President, Goodluck JonathanExplaining his decision to walk out on the former President, Sheriff had said he was shocked that he was refused the opportunity to preside over the meeting, since he was the head of the party.However, Akaagerger, a loyalist of Sheriff berated those condemning his action, while shying away from questioning why theformer Borno State Governor was not duly recognize as the partys National Chairman at the meeting.In a statement sent to DAILY POST by his media aide, Michael Jegede, Akaagerger said, Our focus rather ought to be directed to the failure to accord Senator Sheriff due recognition as National Chairman of the PDP rather than emphasizing the event of his leaving the meeting.The meeting was widely advertised as a PDP political meeting. It is out of order and indecorous to preclude the national chairman from addressing the meeting.Senator Sheriff had demonstrated transparent respect by travelling from Europe in response to former President Jonathans invitation to attend the political meeting only to be denied the right to address party members.In which circumstance the only irresistible conclusion is that it was no longer a political party meeting. Otherwise sheriff would have a right of address and audience.If it is no longer a political party meeting, what business does the national chairman have to do with a directionless assembly?
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is facing a major integrity test in its recruitment process as 24 cadets who were part...
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is facing a major integrity test in its recruitment process as 24 cadets who were part of the ongoing training at the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) have allegedly been dismissed in questionable circumstance and their positions taken over by others who were not part of the initial recruitment exercise.In a protest letter dated January 16, 2017 and addressed to the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, the affected cadets, through their lawyer, Olusoji Toki, said they were unfairly dismissed after they had passed all the necessary tests, including medical examination.A copy of the petition, which was exclusively obtained by New Telegraph, has also been sent to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC and receipt duly acknowledged by the antigraft agency.In the letters, the petitioners claimed that the EFCC sent text messages (SMS) with similar contents to them on June 12, 2016 inviting them for screening against the June 23, 2016 and they attended the screening which took place in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Lagos.Because they were successful in the screening, EFCC invited them for aptitude test on the 25th of June 2016 which they did successfully. Because of their success at the aptitude test, EFCC shortlisted them and invited them for medical screening exercise via SMS which they attended at the Nigeria Air Force Base Hospital, Mando, Kaduna on Thursday, 22nd November 2016.EFCC sent another message to them in which it congratulated them because they were successful in the medical screening exercise of the EFCC. And they were, therefore, invited to attend an interview at the EFCC Zonal Office, No 4, Wurno Road, Off Katuru Road, Badurawa, Kaduna State on Thursday, 27th October 2016 which they attended.EFCC sent another SM to them that they were successful at the recently conducted EFCC recruitment for the Diploma Cadre. EFCC further directed them to attend the Cadet Training at the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), Old Site, Kaduna, the petition stated.According to the letter, the commission equally supplied them with the details of the things they should take along with them for the training which they did when they reported for the said training on December 11, 2016.They claimed that after spending three weeks of rigorous training in the camp, the EFCC called 24 of them out that they have serious medical issues such as kidney disorder, lump in the breast, blood in urine and high blood pressure.The trainees were said to have protested the sudden change in their medical fitness report and were given the option of undergoing another round of medical examinations in designated government and military hospitals. Counsel to the affected trainees, Toki, said that though the fresh medical reports were favourable to his clients, the EFCC has refused to accept them and allow them resume their training programme.Toki observed that given the evidence contained in the new medical reports, it does appear that the EFCC unjustly fabricated the excuses in order to shove the 24 trainees aside and replace them with special candidates from other states of the federation. He warned that his clients would have no other option than to seek legal redress if the EFCC continued to ignore their request for reinstatement.
Senate President Bukola Saraki has said that the federal governments case against him before the Code of Conduct Tribunal is feeble and, ...
Senate President Bukola Saraki has said that the federal governments case against him before the Code of Conduct Tribunal is feeble and, as such, he is not seeking a political solution to stave off conviction.In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust Newspaper, published on Sunday, Mr. Saraki said though he and his loyalists were not happy about the trial, it would not be a subject of negotiation aimed at ending executive-senate rift.The federal government dragged Mr. Saraki before the CCB over false asset declaration and other corruption allegations in 2015, not long after he defied his party, the All Progressives Congress to contest and win Senate leadership, with strong support from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.When that case started, if you go by the drums at that time, that case now as far as I am concerned is almost gone, said Mr. Saraki in the interview.The Senate-Executive rift which was brought more to the fore when the legislature suspended confirmation of presidential nominees for the positions of Resident Electoral Commissioners over the formers refusal to sack acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, whose appointment the Senate twice refused to confirm.Some senators reportedly told the leadership of the All Progressives Congress who met with them that Mr. Sarakis case at the CCT had to be dropped for there to be a smooth working relationship between the executive and the legislature.But when Mr. Saraki was pressed for comment against the backdrop of the alleged demand, he said no; his trial would not form the basis of any negotiation to address the strained relationship between the two arms of government.No, no. I have never made it an issue and I do not intend to make it an issue, Mr. Saraki said in the interview.The last witness that came before CCB, one by one all the questions they asked him, was this man ever invited before CCB, he said no. Is there anything in this form that he did not declare, he said no. As I said from Day One, that case should never have gone to CCT. EFCC has no business taking a case to CCT. CCB is saying all these things; we dont know anything about them.This is the first time that CCB will take anyone to court without first asking him to come and write a statement. This is the first time that EFCC will prosecute a case at CCT. So many things in that trial are abnormal. People who have been following that case already know that it has collapsed. So, I have no fear about it and we will not put it on the table. Certainly, we were not pleased by it, to see the head of one arm of government sent to a trial that is more political than anything else.That was what those senators were talking about. But for the last two years, did it stop us from working? We are carrying on, doing our best in working for peoples welfare. So, while senators are not happy, I dont think we should misinterpret what they said. This trial cannot be the reason for any rift between the two arms of government.Having alleged his trial was politically motivated, Mr. Saraki was asked to mention who orchestrated the trial.He did not name anyone, but said was reported to have laughed and said he would investigate before providing argument to back his claim.This was an issue that happened 13 years ago even though they say that criminal issues have no limitation of time. Two, was the man ever invited to make a statement? If you put all these issues together, it raises suspicion that it is all political.But we have gone through the process, we are coming to the end of it and I am confident that Insha Allah I shall be vindicated. There was another case, of forging Senate rules and it collapsed, so I believe that in this one too the truth will come out, he said.Speaking further, Mr. Saraki confirmed his loyalty to Mr. Buhari.When President Buhari was away for two months and rumours were flying everywhere as to the real situation, President Buhari received many guests [in London] but who was the person who came out and said, President Buhari is fine and is coming back home? Tell me, who was it?Loyalty is not what people do in front of you. It is what they do behind your back. This propaganda is just to cause head-on collision and we know why they are doing it. When the time comes, we will tell you why they are doing it.
US officials have confirmed that President Donald Trump, is ready to approve the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria, to help with the f...
US officials have confirmed that President Donald Trump, is ready to approve the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria, to help with the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.According to AP News, Congress is expected to be formally notified within weeks, to set in a motion a deal with Nigeria, that the Obama administration did not sign off on.The West African nation is to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million.Officials were not authorised to discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak.Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.In Trumps first phone call with Buhari in February this year, he assured the Nigerian president of US readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism.President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigerias fight against Boko Haram, a White House statement said on February 15, providing a summary of the call between the two leaders.
A security guard at the UBA branch in Oba Akran, who returned a misplaced $10,000 in 2016 has been showered with over $30 million dollars ...
A security guard at the UBA branch in Oba Akran, who returned a misplaced $10,000 in 2016 has been showered with over $30 million dollars at the just concluded UBA CEO Award 2017.The hundreds of people gathered at the UBA CEO Award 2017 at the Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos gave a standing ovation to the outstanding security man who returned an amount that was more than his annual salary and is now getting rewarded.Governor of Bauchi state Mohammed Abubakar announced a personal donation of $5,000 to Ibrahim who returned a customer's $10,000 he found.Also, Adamawa governor, Bindow Jibrilla upped the ante when he said whatever Bauchi does will be outdone by Adamawa and went on to donate $10,000 cash to be given to the beneficiary this Monday.Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who declared that he will mention the exemplary deed of Ibrahim on the floor of the senate on Tuesday committed the senate to a donation of five million Naira to the security man.Both the chairman of the UBA, Tony Elumelu and the bank's GMD, Kennedy Uzoka, praised Ibrahim for what he did and said he is the true spirit of Nigeria and not the contrary narrative often told of Nigerians and criminality.
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
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.
Learn about the benefits you may receive for a work-related injury or illness, and how Hawaii calculates the amount of those benefits.
If you were injured or became ill because of your job in Hawaii, you may be eligible to receive benefits through the state workers' compensation system. The amount of workers' comp benefits that you receive will depend on a number of factors unique to your case, including the nature of your injuries, your ability to return to work, and how much you were earning at the time of your injury. This article explains how the most important workers' comp benefits are calculated in Hawaii.
Unless your employer (or its insurance company) pays benefits voluntarily after you report your injury or illness, you'll need to file a workers' comp claim to receive these benefits. In Hawaii, the law presumes that your injury or illness is work related when you file a claim, unless your employer provides substantial evidence to the contrary. (Haw. Rev. Stat. 386-82, 386-83, 386-85 (2020).)
Temporary Total Disability Benefits
If your doctor says that you need to be off work while recovering from your injury, you should receive temporary total disability (TTD) benefits to replace part of your lost income. In Hawaii, these benefits don't start until your fourth day of missed work. To ensure that you get TTD benefits on time, it's very important to get a note from your treating physician verifying that you can't work.
TTD benefits are calculated as two-thirds of your average weekly wage before your injury (usually determined based on your earnings during the previous 12 months). Like other states, however, Hawaii law sets maximum and minimum weekly rates for TTD benefits, based on a percentage of statewide average wages. For 2020, the maximum is $925, and the minimum is $231. (Like most workers' comp benefits, TTD benefits are not taxed.)
You'll continue receiving TTD benefits as long as you are unable to return to work, until you reach maximum medical improvement (MMI)meaning your medical condition has stabilized and isn't likely to improve any more. (Haw. Rev. Stat. 386-31(b), 386-51 (2020).)
Temporary Partial Disability Benefits
You're entitled to receive temporary partial disability benefits if you can return to work in some capacity after your injury, but you can't perform your normal job duties while you're recovering from your injuries. (For instance, your doctor may temporarily restrict you to sedentary or part-time work.) The benefits will continue until you're able to return to your normal, full-duty job or you've reached MMI.
In Hawaii, temporary partial disability benefits are calculated as two-thirds of the difference between your pre-injury average weekly wages and what you're currently earning, subject to the same maximum and minimum rates as for TTD benefits. For example, if your pre-injury wages were $900 a week but you're currently earning $600 at a light-duty job, you would receive two-thirds of $300, or $200 a week in benefits. (Haw. Rev. Stat. 386-32(b) (2020).)
Permanent Partial Disability Benefits
Once you've reached MMI, a doctor will evaluate you to determine if your injury or illness has left you with any permanent impairment and, if so, to what extent. In most cases with any lasting impairment, you'll receive permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits. Except for awards based on disfigurement, the total amount of a PPD award is calculated by multiplying the maximum TTD rate by a certain number of weeks, depending on the affected part(s) of your body and the extent of your impairment, expressed as a percentage.
In Hawaii, your eligibility for PPD benefits isn't dependent on your ability to work. You may receive these benefits regardless of your current earnings. (Haw. Rev. Stat. 386-32(a) (2020).)
Scheduled Loss Awards
A schedule in Hawaii law lists a number of weeks for the loss or lost use of certain body partsbasically the extremities, eyes, and ears. For example, complete loss of a hand is worth 244 weeks. If you've lost partial use of a hand, the number of weeks would a proportion of that total based on the percentage of your impairment. For instance, 25% lost use of a hand would be worth 61 weeks (25% of 244). The PPD award for that impairment would be 61 multiplied by the maximum weekly benefit ($925 in 2020), for a total of $56,425.
Awards for Impairment to the Whole Person
If you have a permanent impairment to a part of your body not listed in the schedulesuch as your back, neck, or heador a loss of any physical or mental function, the doctor will give you a PPD rating expressed as a percentage of impairment to the "whole person." That percentage will be multiplied by 312; the resulting number will then be multiplied by the maximum PPD rate to come up with the total award.
For instance, if you had a back injury that resulted in a 5% whole person impairment, your PPD award would be calculated by multiplying 15.6 (5% of 312) by the maximum weekly benefit ($925 in 2020), for a total of $14,430.
Disfigurement
If your injury (including the medical treatment for the injury) resulted in permanent scarring or another kind of disfigurement, you may also receive a separate disfigurement award. The amount will depend on what's considered fair under the circumstances, up to a maximum of $30,000.
Weekly Payments or Lump Sum for Permanent Partial Disability Awards
Even though the maximum TTD rate is used in calculating the total amount of PPD awards, your actual pre-injury wages will determine the weekly rate at which you'll receive the award. The weekly installments will be two-thirds of your average weekly wage. For example, if your pre-injury earnings were $900 a week, you would get PPD benefits at the rate of $600 a week until you received the full amount of your award. However, you may apply to receive your award in a lump sum. (Haw. Rev. Stat. 386-32, 386-54 (2020).)
Permanent Total Disability Benefits
If you're permanently and totally disabled, you may receive weekly benefits at the same rate as TTD benefits, subject to the same maximum and minimum. However, these benefits are adjusted annually, in proportion to changes in the maximum weekly benefit amount. Hawaii doesn't set a time limit or maximum amount for permanent total disability benefits.
Hawaii will presume that you're permanently and totally disabled if you have any of the following injuries:
complete loss of sight
loss of both hands, both feet, or one of each
permanent and complete paralysis of both legs, both arms, or one of each; or
a head injury that results in severe, incurable mental disability.
For other injuries, disability will be determined on a case-by-case basis. (Haw. Rev. Stat. 386-31, 386-35 (2020).)
Other Workers' Comp Benefits in Hawaii
The following benefits are also available through workers' comp in Hawaii:
Medical benefits. Your employer's insurer should pay all medical expenses needed to treat your work injury or illness. In Hawaii, you have the right to choose your own treating doctor for your workers' comp case, as long as the physician practices on the island where you were injured. You may also be reimbursed for reasonable transportation expenses needed to obtain medical treatment. (Ariz. Rev. Stat. 386-21 (2020).)
Your employer's insurer should pay all medical expenses needed to treat your work injury or illness. In Hawaii, you have the right to choose your own treating doctor for your workers' comp case, as long as the physician practices on the island where you were injured. You may also be reimbursed for reasonable transportation expenses needed to obtain medical treatment. (Ariz. Rev. Stat. 386-21 (2020).) Vocational rehabilitation. If you have a permanent disability that prevents you from returning to your usual job, you may be eligible to receive vocational rehabilitation services, including retraining. In Hawaii, your participation in a vocational rehabilitation program is voluntary. (Ariz. Rev. Stat. 386-25 (2020).)
If you have a permanent disability that prevents you from returning to your usual job, you may be eligible to receive vocational rehabilitation services, including retraining. In Hawaii, your participation in a vocational rehabilitation program is voluntary. (Ariz. Rev. Stat. 386-25 (2020).) Death benefits. When an employee dies as a result of a work injury or illness, workers' comp pays weekly benefits to the employee's surviving dependents. The amount any individual receives will depend on the relationship to the deceased employee and the number of dependents; it will also take into account the limits on weekly amounts for TTD benefits. The sum total of weekly benefits paid to all of the dependents can't be more than two-thirds of the deceased employee's average weekly wage. Hawaii workers' comp also pays for funeral expenses (up to ten times the maximum weekly TTD benefit) and burial expenses (up to five times the maximum weekly benefit). (Haw. Rev. Stat. 386-41 (2020).)
Getting Help Collecting Workers' Comp Benefits
Navigating the worker's compensation system can feel overwhelming, especially when you're dealing with the effects of your injuries and getting medical treatment. In order to receive the benefits you deserve, it's important to obtain quality medical care, follow your doctor's orders, and show that you're eager to return to work when you can do so. But if the insurance company is denying treatment or benefits, you should consider getting help from a qualified workers' comp attorney. (Learn more about when you need a lawyer for your workers' comp case.)
'Leipana' runs riot, Warriors rekindle some old form and a couple of players from losing sides force their way into the Round 6 Team of the Week.
1. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Warriors)
Twelve months after suffering his ACL injury Tuivasa-Sheck was at his sparkling best against the Eels, making nine tackle breaks and a line break and running for 207 metres. Nice to have RTS back doing his thing.
2. David Nofoaluma (Wests Tigers)
A powerful performance from the Wests Tigers winger who scored a try, set one up, had three tackle busts and ran for 164 metres.
3. Dane Gagai (Knights)
Few players from losing teams make the Team of the Week but Gagai was absolutely outstanding for the Knights against Canterbury. He scored the try that kept his team in the contest, made two line breaks, had eight tackle busts and ran for a total of 224 metres. Threatened with every touch.
4. Joey Leilua (Raiders)
Terrorised a Titans defence that was well below its best, providing the final pass for two of Jordan Rapana's three tries as well as scoring one himself.
5. Jordan Rapana (Raiders)
The NRL's leading try-scorer had a hat-trick inside 25 minutes but his overall performance was much more than that. Broke an astonishing 19 attempts at tackles from Titans on his way to 234 metres from 20 runs.
6. Cody Walker (Rabbitohs)
Another classy performance from South Sydney's No.6, completing the full card of tries (1), try assists (1), line-break assists (1), line breaks (1), tackle breaks (six) and offloads (1) along with 145 run metres.
7. Josh McCrone (Dragons)
Arguably McCrone's finest display in the top grade, credited with four try assists in the Dragons' big win over Manly. Had a line break of his own and three tackle busts in a perfect accompaniment to Gareth Widdop.
8. James Graham (Bulldogs)
Because when you rack up 213 metres and 42 tackles in 66 minutes (along with three offloads) you get to keep your place in the Team of the Week.
9. Andrew McCullough (Broncos)
The 200-gamer is having a major influence on the Broncos each and every week, scoring his side's opening try and providing the pass for Korbin Sims to score the match-sealing four pointer. Also active in the kicking department, kicking for 138 metres.
10. Paul Vaughan (Dragons)
The Dragons forwards destroyed their Manly counterparts in the opening exchanges, led by perennial TOTW inclusion Vaughan. The Dragons prop accumulated 216 metres to go with four tackle busts and two offloads.
11. Josh Papalii (Raiders)
Another power-packed performance from the Origin back-rower, busting six Titans tackles, running for 164 metres and also being rewarded with a try when he followed through on a Josh Hodgson grubber kick.
12. Wade Graham (Sharks)
Yes the 175 run metres and four tackle busts are good numbers but the real value in Graham's effort on Sunday was to harass Storm half Cooper Cronk for the entire 80 minutes he was out there. Take note Laurie Daley.
13. Jason Taumalolo (Cowboys)
Another addition from a losing team because even though the Cowboys were well below their best, Taumalolo was at his bullocking best, scoring a try, busting nine tackles and running for 259 metres. Enormous.
14. Simon Mannering (Warriors)
The greatest Warrior of them all turned back the clock, scoring the 59th try of his career to go with 182 run metres across 76 minutes.
15. Sam Burgess (Rabbitohs)
Another industrious performance from the South Sydney skipper, asserting his authority over the Panthers forwards with 51 forceful tackles, 129 run metres and a try.
16. Junior Paulo (Raiders)
Combined brute force with deft touch in a dominant display, running for 211m and showing lovely quick hands for the second of Rapana's three tries.
17. Jack de Belin (Dragons)
The NSW forward stocks are healthy when this guy doesn't look like he will get a look in. A try, 35 tackles and 155 run metres and everything done with purpose. Setting the tone for a firing Dragons forward pack.
NRL Fantasy winners & losers: Round 6
NRL Snapshot: Round 6
Monday Morning Halfback: Culture shock
Former Gary resident Brian Kovach began using drugs at age 11 and took the first of what would be many shots at recovery just two years later.
"I've been going to meetings since I was 13 years old, but I never really put in an effort," he said.
It was not until after being charged with a string of home break-ins a couple of years ago, finding himself facing 10 years in prison and ordered into Valparaiso's Respite House residential treatment facility, that Kovach finally found relief from the madness of his addiction.
"What it boils down to is if you're not ready, you're not ready," he said.
Kovach, 33, and a couple other of the 16 men living at the Respite House agreed to sit down recently to share what has worked for them so far in their chaotic paths toward recovery, and what they believe is still needed, in 12-step language, to help "the addicts who still suffer."
Heroin taking toll on Region
Their comments came in the wake of news from Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris that fatal heroin overdoses in the county hit a record high of 20 last year, which was nearly double each of the two years prior.
Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey has asked the Lake County Council for money to hire a drug overdose analyst to find the common threads among 114 fatal overdoses in that county last year, more than double the deaths registered five years ago.
She said her office already is investigating 41 suspected overdoses alone in the first 11 weeks of 2017.
Three people died from suspected heroin overdoses in LaPorte County in February, and 15 others suffered non-fatal overdoses an "upsetting" statistic for county sheriff officials.
Steven Fuller, 27, of Lowell and Valparaiso, said he was not surprised to hear about the recent surge in local drug overdoses.
This type of news is not a deterrent to addicts, he said. What addicts hear is that there is a "good" drug out there circulating that they want try, he said.
Prison and rehab
Brandon Hoffmann, 37, who wore a crucifix on a chain outside his shirt, said he is at the Respite House by choice and by the grace of God.
The former Merrillville resident said he had bought heroin in Chicago and was arrested after returning to Valparaiso. He was charged with dealing the drug, an accusation he denies, and wound up at the Westville Correctional Facility.
"Prison was the best thing that happened to me," he said.
Being locked up forced him to slow down and see that underneath his addiction was a series of poor decisions that affected many areas of his life.
"I was sick and tired of being sick and tired," he said.
Fuller said he has been in and out jail nine times in Porter, Lake and Newton counties, and failed in earlier attempts at recovery because he was doing it to please others in his life.
A heroin user, Fuller said he was forced to detox while at the Porter County Jail. Despite the horrendous experience, he said he was back to his old way of living for a few days upon his release, before checking himself in for 31 days of rehabilitation at the Regional Mental Health Center in East Chicago and then into the Respite House.
Value of the 12 steps
Each of the men said the 12-step program has become a key element of their recovery, but only after they began working at it in earnest.
"I always wanted the help," Kovach said. "I just didn't know if I could change the way I was living."
What changed was his willingness. "This time I admitted defeat," he said.
Hoffmann said his approach to recovery is faith based.
"My thing was to just give it all up to God," he said.
Up until that time, he said he was just not done with the addiction, despite the heavy toll it was taking on his life.
One of the obstacles to getting into recovery is the fear of coming off the drugs and becoming ill, Fuller said. Being locked up forced him to face that fear and allowed him to realize the radical life changes called for by the 12 steps and recovery.
"What's different now?" he asked. "I don't live on self-will anymore."
Respite House
The men said the structure and support of living at a residential treatment facility is another key element in their recovery.
"This is my foundation here," said Kovach, who serves as daytime director at Respite House.
This type of residential facility gives addicts a much-needed rest and opportunity to get back on their feet and start anew in recovery, he said.
Respite House offers structured residential living with requirements for holding jobs, doing chores and attending self-help meetings, group therapy and life-skill classes, said board President Mitch Peters.
Other comparable halfway house facilities in the area include the Moraine House for men and Alice's House and the Women's Recovery Center, both for women, in Valparaiso, Peters said.
There also is the Worthy Women Recovery Home in LaPorte, which opened in the fall, and the Dunes House in Michigan City.
Attempts to locate comparable residential facilities in Lake County were unsuccessful.
"It's a positive environment," Fuller said after living for nearly a year at Respite House. "It's a safe place."
Fuller moved out on his own since being interviewed for this story, but continues to talk with a few of his former roommates.
"It's going good," he said. "I've been staying connected."
What's still needed
More of these types of residential treatment facilities are needed, Kovach said.
"We're always full," he said. "We could open three more of these houses and fill them."
Kovach also echoed the ongoing cry for a detox center to open in Porter County.
"Just sitting at home and detoxing is nearly impossible," he said.
Hoffmann said he believes denial in the family and wider society continues to stand in the way of doing all that is needed to confront the local drug problem. This will not likely change, he said, until we move beyond the stigma attached to addiction and make confronting and addressing the problem a priority.
"It all comes down to what we care about the most," he said.
The group was hesitant to criticize any of the treatment or awareness efforts now in place.
"Recovery is such a tricky subject," Hoffmann said. "You don't know what's going to work for who."
"I went to prison," he said. "That worked for me. Steve goes to rehabilitation, that worked for him. Brian goes to jail."
One thing that cannot happen is for the problem to drop out of sight, Fuller said, which is the reason he and the others agreed to share their experiences with addiction and recovery.
"You need to keep the problem in the light," he said.
MUNSTER The Town Council said it needs to think more before it approves a contract to install bulletproof glass in the clerk-treasurers office.
The council deferred action on a contract with Linden Professionals to design and assist with the installation.
"Im not ready to make a decision (on the matter), said Councilman Andy Koultourides, echoing his colleagues. If glass is installed where do you stop with this? he asked.
Clerk-Treasurer David Shafer made the presentation, stating that over time, society has gotten less civil and that deputy clerks experience that lack of civility as they go about their daily tasks. His office has debated whether to install bulletproof glass for 15 years, and the time may have finally come.
Our deputy clerks do enjoy interacting with the public, but feel a heightened sense of anxiety due to a recent incident. A customer recently threatened to return to Town Hall and shoot a deputy clerk whod refused the customers demands.
We have zero tolerance for that kind of behavior, Shafer said. Police were called and a detective investigated. Though the situation was diffused, Shafers office has made the decision that now is the time to install bulletproof glass and armor plate below the offices counter area, he said.
The glass and armor plate will also deter robbery attempts. The clerk-treasurers office has almost no cash on hand, but in case anyone thinks otherwise, barriers will give it an extra layer of protection.
Theyre asking for peace of mind, Police Chief Steve Scheckel said. His officers do get called over to that office a couple of times a year and the sight of a uniform usually does calm things down. However, the cost of having permanent police presence in the clerk-treasurers office would be cost prohibitive, Shafer and other officials said.
They decided the barriers could be a better investment.
The contract with the Linden Group would be for $4,500 and would only include design and professional services, financed via the Cumulative Capital Development fund. The cost of the glass and any modifications would be additional, and could be borne by the sale of general obligation bonds.
Town Council President Joseph Simonetto said he understood the concern of office employees, as did other council members. But, he said, We need to take a little closer look at this before making a decision.
The council indicated it will take the matter up again at its April 17 meeting.
VALPARAISO Pastor Tomas Angon hopes weather cooperates on Good Friday for Via Crucis, The Way of the Cross.
Immanuel Lutheran Church and the Gloria Dei Hispanic Mission are coordinating the event. It is a live Way of the Cross endeavor throughout parts of Valparaiso, a 2-mile route.
"We try to do this every year, but the weather challenges us," Angon said. "But we are trying this year because Holy Week is in April. We are hoping for good weather." The last time it happened was in 2011.
In the past, Angon said, there have been about 150 to 200 people who join in along the walking path to participate and watch the Way of the Cross.
"The main purpose of this event is to celebrate Holy Week on Good Friday," Angon said. "This procession is a part of the story of Jesus Christ and it's a testimony of our faith."
The characters will be dressed up re-enacting the last few days of Jesus' life.
The event begins at 4 p.m. at Heritage Lutheran Church. Jesus will be beaten there. Then the group will proceed down Erie to Michigan and then south on Michigan to the corner of Michigan and Lincolnway where the actor portraying Jesus will fall with the cross. Then they will proceed south to the corner of Michigan and Brown streets, where Jesus will meet Mary. From Brown the group will walk east and stop at Brown and Locust where Simon will help Jesus. Then going east on Brown at Greenwich, Jesus will fall again. At the corner of Brown and University Park Avenue, the ladies of Jerusalem meet up with Jesus.
The Via Crucis will end at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University for the Crucifixion.
The group will arrive at the chapel around 5:15 p.m. It takes about 15 minutes to get the three on the crosses.
People can just go to one of the sites, or they can walk the entire route. There will be speaking, reading and singing parts and participation will be encouraged.
Immigrant workers from a Queens bakery staged a protest Saturday against President Trump outside his New York home.
"We are not criminals, we are good workers," one protester said. "We came here for one reason: to try and give a better life for our families, for our children, and it's not really fair what they're doing to us."
Dozens of advocates joined employees from Tom Cat Bakery for a rally outside Trump Tower.
Last month, federal officials gave 31 workers from the Long Island City bakery a warning.
The Department of Homeland Security said the workers would be fired in 10 business days if they could not prove they can legally work in the United States.
The workers got an extension to stay on the job until April 21.
But protestors said Trump's policies are tearing communities apart.
"Immigrants produce $100 billion a year in income, pay billions of dollars a year in taxes," City Comptroller Scott Stringer said at the rally. "Without immigrants from 150 countries in New York City, we would not have the economy we have today."
It is unclear whether the warnings were from a random Homeland Security audit, or the president's immigration agenda.
NYU President Andrew Hamilton and Board of Trustees Chairman William Berkley today announced the names of those to be honored at the Universitys 185th Commencement Exercises, which will be held Wednesday, May 17, 2017 in Yankee Stadium.
Pharrell Williams, the musician, songwriter, and producer, who has earned 11 Grammy Awards, and is a two-time Academy Award nominee, will address the graduates and guests on behalf of all the degree recipients. Williams, who was an artist in residence at Tisch School of the Arts last year, will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree, honoris causa, at the ceremony.
This years other recipients of honorary doctorates are:
Design work is under way on Auburns new public safety building that replaces the current Fire Station 1, and city staff are preparing for relocations and other projects to come before construction begins.
The Auburn City Council received an update on the new building during its committee of the whole meeting on last week. Work has been underway since October when the council approved a $1.2 million amendment to a contract with Seay, Seay & Litchfield PC to begin design work.
Architects are 35 percent complete with the design of the new building, which is expected to begin construction in December. It will house the citys council chambers, municipal court, public safety administration, the police division and a new fire station.
The building is the first phase of work to revitalize the entire complex, which will include demolishing the existing council chambers and police department to create parking and green space.
New public safety building
The new building will include new council chambers with about 110 seats, around 90 fewer than the current council chambers. The room will have two large screens to give audience members a better view of presentations. City staffers will have designated seating, and a conference room will be situated behind the councils seating for executive sessions or other meetings.
The municipal court will have a metal detector and cameras at the entrance for added security. The courtroom will have about 137 seats and will serve as an overflow for the council chambers, with video screens that could live-stream the meeting.
The new fire station will have two drive-through bays and two other bays for equipment, an area dedicated to public education and a fitness center. The second floor will serve as living quarters for staff, including study areas for student firefighters.
Part of the project will include adding a public meeting room in the rear of the existing public safety administration building, which will provide a larger space and more parking than the citys current public meeting room at City Hall.
Temporary relocations
Before work can begin, the city is relocating some offices currently in the Douglas J. Watson Municipal Complex including the narcotics section.
The city recently found the building, which sits behind and separate from the main building at the complex, is infested with termites. The city performed an emergency purchase to lease a temporary trailer for the detectives.
The temporary space will be set up at the Shug Jordan Public Safety Training Facility on Shug Jordan Parkway, where the detectives will remain until the new building is constructed.
Fire Station 1 will be relocated between June and August, but the city is still working to determine where the 13 firefighters, ladder truck and engine truck will be moved. Possible locations include on Auburn Universitys campus or at the Auburn Water Works Board property on West Samford Avenue.
New parking lot
The Carolyn Apartments on Glenn Avenue will be demolished before construction begins on the new building. The council approved the purchase of the apartments and the adjacent lot in September with the intent of incorporating it into the complex.
The space will be converted into parking lot with incorporated green spaces, according to Assistant City Manager Kevin Cowper. The lot is projected to open in November to create additional parking before construction begins on the new public safety building.
Preliminary designs show 90 to 95 spaces in the lot, but Cowper said that could change by the final stages of design. A bioretention pond will be built next to the lot, and permeable pavers will be incorporated into the lot to absorb storm water rather than running off. A decorative fence will screen the lot from Glenn Avenue.
We do plan to use this as a model for parking lot construction, Cowper said. We plan most for this to be used for folks to park to go to courts or go to development services, but we think its also possible that this will be used for people visiting downtown. Its a little bit distant now, but the vision for downtown is that we will expand downtown and were doing that by infrastructure.
The sidewalk from Ross to Burton Street will be widened and pedestrian lighting will be installed to insure walkability.
Timeline
The Auburn Planning Commission will review the new building at its May meeting, and design work will continue through the summer. Bidding is expected to open for the project in October, and a construction contract will likely come before the council in November.
Construction is expected to last until May 2019. The existing council chambers and municipal court building will be demolished in June 2019, and additional phases of the complexs renovation will begin. Completion is scheduled for January 2020.
When Jessica Kohn moved to Auburn 12 years ago, she immediately felt at home.
Now, after years of investing in the city through the business community and the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, Kohn is stepping into a new role as Auburns first downtown coordinator, tasked with the job of promoting the downtown she loves.
Kohn is responsible for coordinating, planning and marketing downtown events. She will also serve as the point person for Downtown Merchants Association members and will coordinate meetings and develop marketing materials for the association.
The Auburn City Council voted to allocate $30,000 to fund the new position at a meeting in January, citing a need for the position and its inclusion in the Downtown Master Plan adopted in September 2015.
These folks and these business people of downtown Auburn have done an excellent job of organizing activities in partnership with many of our city departments to provide great fun that many of us have had and unique experiences in downtown Auburn, said Councilman Ron Anders at a January council meeting. The time has come, in our opinion, to hire somebody to help facilitate a lot of their activities and efforts in downtown Auburn.
For Kohn, her new role is an opportunity to serve downtown merchants, city departments, Auburn University, the chamber and the Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau. But it is also an opportunity to invest in something she is passionate about.
Not many people get the opportunity to work in a field that they love, Kohn said. This is going to be a job that I can get up every day and be enthusiastic about what I do and who Im about to help. Everybody enjoys Auburn when Auburn is successful.
Kohn previously worked in property management and was involved in the chamber. She served as a chamber diplomat for four years, was part of the chairman circle and helped launch the Auburn Young Professionals group.
When looking into applications, Sarah Brown, owner of Wrapsody and DMA member, said Kohn stood out because of her dedication to Auburn.
Shes going to be a great cheerleader for downtown to get more people, sponsors and businesses to work with us and help put things on, Donna Young said, owner of Behind the Glass and DMA member.
Jon Hyink, co-owner of 17/16 and Quixotes and vice president of the DMA, added that Kohns presence will also help merchants better focus on and highlight their businesses.
One of Kohns first steps will be to meet with downtown business owners and managers one-on-one to find out how she can help and what their expectations are of her.
She hopes to be able to relieve stress for merchants who have worked to run their businesses and put on events as well as bring in more involvement from merchants who may have been hesitant to join before.
I want to make sure that everybody thats part of our urban core is part of our Downtown Merchants Association, Kohn said.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday rather than face impeachment and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations that arose during an investigation of his alleged affair with a top aide.
In a remarkable fall, the mild-mannered 74-year-old Republican and one-time Baptist deacon stepped down as the sex-tinged scandal gathered force over the past few days. Legislators turned up the pressure by opening impeachment hearings Monday. Last week, the Alabama Ethics Commission cited evidence that Bentley broke state ethics and campaign laws and referred the matter to prosecutors.
"There've been times that I let you and our people down, and I'm sorry for that," Bentley said in the old House chamber of Alabama's Capitol after he pleaded guilty.
The violations were discovered during the investigation of his affair but were not directly related to it.
In court, Bentley appeared sullen and looked down at the floor. One misdemeanor charge against Bentley stemmed from a $50,000 loan he made to his campaign in November that investigators said he failed to report until January. State law says major contributions should be reported within a few days. The other charge stemmed from his use of campaign funds to pay nearly $9,000 in legal bills for Mason last year.
The plea agreement specified that Bentley must surrender campaign funds totaling nearly $37,000 within a week and perform 100 hours of community service as a physician. The dermatologist also cannot seek public office again.
Bentley's successor is Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, who becomes Alabama's second female governor. The first was Lurleen Wallace, wife of segregationist and four-term Gov. George C. Wallace. She ran as a surrogate for her still-powerful husband in 1966 when he couldn't seek re-election because of term limits. She won, but died in office in 1968.
Bentley said in his statement that he no longer wanted to subject his family and staff "to the consequences that my past actions have brought upon them." His staff gave him a standing ovation as he entered and exited the old House chamber.
Bentley's resignation follows the ouster of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, who left office in 2016 after being convicted on ethics charges, and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was suspended from his post last year over an order opposing same-sex marriage.
Bentley, a staunch family-values conservative who won two terms partly because of his reputation for moral rectitude, was first engulfed in scandal last year after recordings surfaced of him making sexually charged comments to 45-year-old political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
An investigative report prepared for the House Judiciary Committee and released last week said Bentley encouraged an "atmosphere of intimidation" to keep the story under wraps and directed law enforcement officers to track down and seize the recordings. The report portrayed the governor as paranoid and obsessed with trying to keep the relationship secret.
The committee on Monday started what was expected to be days of hearings.
Bentley lawyer Ross Garber had argued that impeachment should be reserved for only the "most grave misconduct," noting that only two U.S. governors have been impeached since 1929, and both were indicted for serious felonies.
"It is not unusual for elected officials to have ethics and campaign finance issues. In fact, many governors face these things. It is very rare, though, for legislators to try to leverage those issues to impeach a governor. In fact, it is simply not done," Garber told The Associated Press in an email.
Garber also represented former Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut during impeachment proceedings.
The last U.S. governor to be impeached was Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2009. He was removed from office, and is now serving a prison sentence, for conspiring to sell an appointment to President Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat.
The investigative report contained text messages that the governor sent to Mason. They were intercepted by Bentley's then-wife, Dianne Bentley, who was able to read the messages because they also showed up on the governor's state-issued iPad, which he had given her.
"I sure miss you. I need you. I want you. You are the only one," one message read.
Dianne Bentley divorced her husband in 2015 after 50 years of marriage.
At one point, according to the investigative report, the governor sent the head of his security detail to fetch the recording from his son, Paul Bentley, who responded: "You ain't getting it." Dianne Bentley secretly recorded her husband by leaving her phone on while she went for a walk.
The former first lady's chief of staff also charged that Bentley threatened her job because he believed she had helped his wife make the recordings.
On Friday, the governor made a somber plea for forgiveness from the steps of the Alabama Capitol, acknowledging that he had let people down but promising that he had done nothing illegal or anything to merit his removal from office.
He has denied having a physical relationship with his former aide, though in some of the recordings he talked about the pleasure he got from fondling her breasts.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate have called on Bentley to resign, as has the Alabama Republican Party's steering committee.
Two of Bentley's predecessors in the past three decades have been convicted of crimes: Republican Guy Hunt in the 1990s, for misusing funds, and Democrat Don Siegelman, who was convicted of bribery in 2006.
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This story corrects an earlier version that said two of Bentley's predecessors went to prison. Former Gov. Guy Hunt was convicted, but did not go to prison. It also corrects that Bentley lawyer Ross Garber represented former Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut during impeachment proceedings, not Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2009.
KAWERGOSK CAMP, Iraq For the millions of Syrian refugees scattered across camps and illegal settlements, the chemical attack on a town in northern Syria and subsequent U.S. strike was a rare moment when the world turned its attention to Syria, before turning away again.
Some cheered the U.S. cruise missiles that hit an air base in central Syria the first U.S. strike against Syrian troops but others insist they are opposed to any U.S. intervention in their country. Few had any hopes that the apparent sudden shift in President Donald Trumps policy would end up helping their situation.
I saw him (Trump) on TV, he says he sympathizes with the kids but then he shuts them out. What kind of support is that? asked Hamrin Mohammed, 30, a Syrian refugee from the northern Syrian town of Derik, who fled the fighting in Syria and has been living in a camp in northern Iraq for years.
DRAMATIC CHANGE
The military strike marked a swift reversal on Syria for Trump, who had repeatedly said the U.S. should stay out of the years-long civil war. But several refugees regarded Trumps policy shift with a certain bitterness, noting that he said he was moved to act by photos of the beautiful babies killed in the gas attack after working for months to bar millions of refugee children and their families from entering the United States.
Trump has not spoken on whether his renewed involvement in Syria will also include a changed policy on Syrian refugees. But some refugee agencies in the United States are hoping that change is coming as well.
I suspect his thinking will evolve on this, said Linda Hartke, president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
TRUMPS CHOICE
The Syrian refugees of Kawergosk in northern Iraq have been around for so long that their camp has turned into a small town. Shops of all kinds line its main street and most of the tents have been converted into small cement block houses.
Many of the camps residents welcomed the American cruise-missile attack on Syria but said that they wished America would go further and intervene to end the countrys six-year civil war.
Trump has to do either this or that. Millions have been displaced, you cannot take this path and at the same time abandon them, said Hussein Bashir Ibrahim, 33, who was displaced from the town of Qamishli in northeastern Syria. He said he was in the camp for so long that he felt more dead than alive.
The strike is good but if hes serious about wanting to help the kids he should take them in. Otherwise that shows that he has another agenda, said 25-year-old Khalat Kamal Ismail, also from Qamishli.
Ismail said her sister had kidney problems that needed treatment abroad, but has been repeatedly rejected because apparently no one wanted to take in Syrian refugees anymore. He could take a fraction (of the refugees) and still reduce their suffering, she said.
THE CURRENT POLICY
Trump had taken something of a hands-off approach to Syria and Syrian refugees as both a private citizen and a presidential candidate, even urging President Barack Obama in 2013 to avoid getting involved in the civil war there. As a candidate he pledged to block Muslim foreigners from coming into the United States and suggested he would try to send home thousands of Syrian refugees who had been allowed into the U.S. under the Obama administration.
The first iteration of Trumps now blocked travel ban indefinitely barred all Syrian nationals from coming to the United States. The indefinite ban on Syrians was eliminated from a second version of the travel ban, which has since been put on hold by a federal court in Hawaii.
Trump has also suggested at times that safe zones in and around Syria should be established to protect vulnerable populations.
In an interview on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said that Syrian refugees ultimately dont want to live outside of their homeland.
And thats the focus of why the airstrike happened this time, which is to try and move that political solution, move any of these careless acts that are just meant to cause horror not on the people that they claim are ISIS, but on actually the innocent civilians that are in the area, she said.
WE DONT WANT TO GO TO AMERICA
Around 1.2 million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, most of them in squalid, illegal settlements that have sprouted across the country. They can hardly survive on the aid they receive, and dream not of America, but of walking across the border to Syria and returning to their homes.
Ibrahim, a refugee from the Syrian town of Qusair who now lives in the Ketermeya camp in Lebanon, said Trumps action in Syria has given him a glimmer of hope.
We hope to God, after this strike, that he would set up no-fly zones in Syria and strike at other (government) air bases. Maybe then we can return home, he said.
We want him to help us return to our country, we dont want to go to America.
Wafaa, 50, a refugee from Homs living in a tent in Lebanons Bekaa valley, was much more skeptical and said she was against the U.S. strike.
Hes banned us from entering America, now suddenly he likes us?
Joaquin Quesada has been named deputy director of the Anaheim Convention Center. He brings more than 35 years of convention center operations, sales and service experience to his new position. Quesada is an Anaheim native who started his career as a busboy at the convention center. The center is preparing to open 200,000 square feet of new, flexible event space in September. Quesada succeeds David Meek, who retired from the center in 2016.
Rick Rehm has been named chief financial officer at Village Nurseries Wholesale in Orange, replacing Wayne Johnson, who is retiring after 16 years of service with the company. Rehm most recently was at Bank of the West (BOTW) as vice president and senior relationship manager. As a specialist commercial lending officer, he concentrated on middle market nursery/greenhouse financing, analyzing pertinent financial and credit information to ensure compliance with credit quality standards and regulatory requirements.
Abby Walls has joined Bridge Bank as a vice president/relationship manager for the Corporate Banking Group in Bridge Banks Southern California office in Costa Mesa. Walls prior experience includes senior relationship manager roles with First Bank and California Bank & Trust.
Pacific Life has announced several officer promotions at the Newport Beach-based firm:
Charles Jernigan, promoted to assistant vice President, real estate investment Accounting and Reporting
David Chang, promoted to vice president, enterprise risk management
Patricia Thompson, promoted to assistant vice president, compliance, retirement solutions division
Mallik Ravipati, promoted to assistant vice president of application development, life insurance division
Steve Goldberg, promoted to assistant vice president, annuity product management, retirement solutions division
The Boy Scouts of America, Orange County Council has added two members to its board. Deborah Harrington, vice president and wealth adviser for First Bank, will be assistant treasurer on the executive committee. Pat Posey, vice president of nonperishable procurement and merchandising for Bristol Farms, will help expand fundraising efforts through the Stars & Stripes Luncheon to serve the outreach efforts into underserved communities.
New ventures
American Federal Credit Union has merged with Huntington Beach-based Nuvision Credit Union. AFCUs board of directors and its credit union members voted overwhelmingly to approve the merger. The combined credit union now has approximately $1.5 billion in assets and 85,000 members, with 13 full-service branch locations throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Nuvision and American Federal accounts will be integrated into a single system, allowing former AFCU members access to the full array of Nuvisions products and services.
Capistrano Mazda is getting a new look. Owner Miles Brandon is creating a new Mazda Retail Evolution showroom next to the existing dealership. The showroom will replace the Volkswagen showroom, which was built in 1963. The Capistrano Volkswagen dealership was just remodeled, which increased its capacity, freeing up space for Mazdas new showroom. Brandon has been operating the Volkswagen dealership for 20 years. He opened the Mazda dealership in 2015, relocating a 40-year-old Mazda dealership from Laguna Hills. The new Mazda showroom will be completed in the fall.
Milestones
Chapman University in Orange is expanding its science learning opportunities thanks to a donation from Experian. The $750,000 pledge will create the Experian Assistant Professorship in Machine Learning. The professorship will be held by Erik Linstead, director of the undergraduate computing programs in computer science, software engineering, and data analytics. He is also the principal investigator of Chapmans Machine Learning and Assistive Technology Lab (MLAT). Additionally, the university has added a data analytics undergraduate degree.
Iliana Mena is the new champion of the American Public Transportation Association 2017 APTA Call Center Challenge. Mena works at Alta Resources in Brea. The annual APTA Call Center Challenge spotlights customer service within public transportation call centers and recognizes individuals who excel in providing top customer service. Mena and four other finalists recently competed in front of a live audience and were judged on their ability to resolve customer service scenarios.
Grants
Irvine-based Morningside Recovery will be accepting applications for 15, 30-day treatment scholarships to commemorate its 15th anniversary. Through this scholarship, recipients will have the opportunity develop the tools they need to thrive during and after the recovery process. Applicants can access the submission form at www.morningsiderecovery.com/scholarship.
Good Works
United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County supporters gathered March 31 at the Foothill Ranch headquarters of loanDepot to receive a check for $25,000. loanDepot CEO Anthony Hsieh surprised the group by doubling the grant to $50,000. The cause is very personal to loanDepot executive Brian Ramos, a licensed lending officer. His oldest son Carter has developmental delays from a rare condition called Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 29. Brian and Alex Madonna, senior VP of sales, rallied colleagues to give back through loanDepots Together We Give charitable program. In support of Carter and Cerebral Palsy Awareness month in March, loanDepot employees launched a two-day giving campaign that far exceeded their initial $20,000 goal. The latest donation brings the companys total raised to $80,000.
Coming Up
A jobs fair will help connect military veterans and their spouses with employers at a free hiring event from 11-3:00 p.m. Thursday, April 27 at the Business Expo Center, 1960 S Anaheim Way in Anaheim.
The Center for Family Business at CSUFs Mihaylo College of Business and Economics held its third-annual induction ceremony on March 21, honoring local family-owned establishments with awards for their commitment to improving their communities and staying true to their founders mission over the generations.
Sponsored by the center and City National Bank, the event featured speaker Lynsi Snyder, president of Irvine-based In-N-Out Burger, who was interviewed by Mark Steines, co-host of Home & Family on the Hallmark Channel, on her experience as the third generation leading the iconic food brand.
The center and City National Bank presented a $5,000 check to Snyders Foundation, Slave 2 Nothing, which seeks to end human trafficking.
The Center for Family Business Hall of Fame honors are awarded through peer nomination. This years Excellence in Community award, presented to a business that prioritizes benefiting and developing the local community, was presented to Orange County-based hot dog fast food chain Wienerschnitzel.
Totten Tubes, an Azusa steel distributor offering custom tube specifications, was awarded the Strength in Succession award, bestowed upon a business that has continued to expand over the generations, despite challenges in the economy.
MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust, an Oceanside manufacturer of car exhaust products, received the Founders Vision award for maintaining the mission set forth by the founder over multiple generations.
Mike Trueblood, a former advertising executive who served as director of the Center for Family Business for 12 years, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award for his 40-year advertising and marketing career and campaign to create the Rick Muth Endowed Chair for Family Business. The endowed chair position involves teaching family business courses and supporting research on improving multigenerational success.
Source: Cal State Fullerton
Classic cars come together on Huntington Beach Pier and Main Street where the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet took place in Huntington Beach n Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A screaming red 1958 Ford Skyliner attracts attention on Main Street at the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Three-year-old Finley Edmonds reacts to the classic cars on Huntington Beach Pier while dad Ryan carries him. They were at the Beachcruiser Meet where dozens of cars were displayed on Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Random, a pug, beagle mix, cruises past the a 1950 Plymouth Woodie owned by George and Nancy Pumphrey, at the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A 1947 Ford Super Deluxe Station Wagon owned by Mike and Linda Ester is on display along the Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 9, 2017. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Classic cars line the Huntington Beach Pier and Main Street during the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet, a gathering of cars manufactured through 1972. The show featured Nomads, Woodies, VW Transporters, convertibles, and steel wagons in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 9, 2017. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A 1950 Plymouth Woodie owned by George and Nancy Pumphrey is parked on the Pier at the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet, a gathering of cars manufactured through 1972 features Nomads, Woodies, VW Transporters, convertibles, and steel wagons takes place in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Alex Lee Shakas is reflected in the side mirror of his 1923 T-bucket Ford during the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Micheal Donovan's 1942 Ford GPA, an amphibian vehicle that was used during WWII, is on display at the Annual Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Little and big come together at the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach, Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The morning clouds make a scenic backdrop for classic cars lining the Huntington Beach Pier during the Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach, Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Ernie Fisher says he drives his 1933 Ford custom Woodie everywhere he goes. It was part of the dozens of cars on display during the Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach, Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Colorful cars and kicks park it at the pier during the 17th Annual Beachcruiser Meet in Huntington Beach, Sunday, April 9. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The sight of woodies and rag-tops, steel wagons, and coupes, roadsters and VW vans. The throaty growl of big-block V8s. The mirror shine of wax and chrome. These are among the tell-tale signs that the car cruising season has arrived in Southern California.
Although there is no real off-season in sunny SoCal for car folk, when the calendar flips to April, the regions auto culture definitely shifts into a higher gear.
Over the weekend in Huntington Beach, woodies came out of the winter woodwork for the 17th annual Beachcruiser Meet, which unofficially kicks off the woodie season that will continue through September.
Woodie is the unofficial name given to Ford, Chevy and other car brands that carry the distinctive wooden paneling and varying amounts of body, fender and interior wood depending on the years and models.
This years Beachcruiser event was more lightly attended than previous years after the original weekend was canceled because of the threat of rain two weeks ago.
Last year, there were more than 500 cars registered, according to organizer Tom Long. This year, about 100 cars were at the event Sunday.
A couple dozen woodies and wagons lined the Huntington Beach Pier, with other classic cars spilling out onto the entrance plaza and Main Street.
Sitting with their cars were owners like Ernie Fisher and the appropriately named Dave Woody, both from Huntington Beach.
To Fisher, the hometown event is special.
This is my favorite event because, A, how many times to you get to park on the pier?, and, B, its close to home.
Fisher, 61, owns a custom-made woodie fashioned in 1999 off an original 1933 Ford.
He has been a fan of the cars since he built model woodies as a child.
The woodie is the citys car, Fisher said of Huntington Beach. Its Surf City USA and this is the car of surfing.
Woody, the owner of a 1948 Olsmobile woodie, bought the car in 1990 and has restored it several times over the years, including a total restoration three years ago.
Although he says the car is worth more than $100,000, he has much more than that invested in the vehicle.
A classic car guy, Woody owns a half-dozen classic cars, including a couple muscle cars and a 1954 Sunbeam Alpine, the same make of roadster Grace Kelly drove through the hills of Monaco in Alfred Hitchcocks To Catch a Thief.
Still, Woody says his woodie is his favorite in part, the name notwithstanding, it was my first real collector car.
The event began as a one-day affair and Long admits he never envisioned its popularity.
We never thought it would take off like this, Long said.
One of the most unusual cars at the event was a 1943 SEEP, a vehicle configured by Jeep to be an amphibious vehicle.
Owner Michael Donovan estimates there may be only 20 to 30 of the vehicles in the U.S. The 61-year-old says he spent about 13 years looking the car and another nine years restoring it.
After I got it restored, I said, Ill never do that again.
The Newport Beach resident says he likes taking the car to shows locally and has done spins on Irvine Lake when it was open.
As for entering it in the Huntington Beach event, Donovan joked his vehicle was really the ultimate Beachcruiser,
This weekends event was just another in what will be another summer chock full of car craziness. Through September, the spring and summer car seasons will be in full swing. Tour the streets and youll see a cornucopia of concours, a calliope of cruises and a regular carcophony of auto culture.
The Southern California Car Culture website lists 33 separate events for the weekend of April 8-9 alone. In the coming months, events such as the popular San Clemente Classic Car Show, Cruisin Brea, the Fountain Valley Classic Car and Truck Show and Low Rider Classic in Anaheim are on the docket.
Fisher thinks it all has to do with Huntington Beachs long stretches of beach vistas and access. And there is just something about the nostalgia that a shiny vintage car evokes that is appealing.
When cruising in his woodie, Fisher says, It brings a lot of smiles to a lot of people. When I go out, I tell the wife, Im just going out to spread some joy.
From Saturday Night Lives Alec Baldwin to professional impersonators like John Di Domenico or Anthony Atamanuik, people have been trying their hardest to emulate Donald Trump for comedic or promotional purposes. But no one does it quite like 64-year-old Li Liangwei, Chinas top Trump impersonator. And I dont mean that in a good way
The retired chief editor of a magazine in Hunan, Li Liangwei took up the job of Donald Trump impersonator after a friend told him that he acts just like the President of the United States. He has since been picked up by a big talent agency and is earning a pretty penny promoting products and events as the 45th US President.
Photo: video screenshot
[One time], somehow, I was kind of upset, so I put down my glass and stood abruptly, and with a sweep of my arm I announced I have the say here!' Li recently told TIME Magazine. One of my friends said Do that again, so I repeated the gesture and then he said You look just like a person.'
That person turned out to be Donald Trump, but Li, who spent most of his time at home, cultivating his two biggest passions, martial arts and revolutionary songs, had no idea who he was. But the more he learned about the American President, the more he liked him, so he decided to become his impersonator, copying his gestures and attitude.
Photo: video screenshot
Li was eventually approached by Zou Dangrong, a TV and film director, who runs a talent agency that specializes in impersonators. He already managed two Barrack Obama impersonators and another of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, so when he heard about a Donald Trump impersonator in China, he decided to add him to his roster.
But while Zous other impersonators actually look a lot like the people they are supposed to imitate, Li couldnt be more different that Donald Trump. Being Chinese doesnt really help, but he also speaks no English, has thick jet-black hair and his skin is powdered white, not orange. The only thing vaguely reminiscent of the US Persident are Lis hand gestures.
Its not easy for a Chinese man to assume the appearance of an American man, but I try to imitate the temperament and spiritual statement of Trump, Li told Global Times, in December 2016. Since then, he has been training under Zous guidance, but doesnt appear to have made much progress.
However, Li Liangweis poor impersonation of Donald Trump doesnt seem to stop people from spending big money to have him promote their products and attend various events. Zou said that prices for booking Li will be between 10,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan ($1,146-$2,169), depending on occasions and events.
Media Maneuvers: LinkedIn Hires First Head of Original Programming Fri., Sep. 23, 2022 LinkedIn signs up Courtney Coupe, who was most recently SVP of content strategy and operations at CNN Digital, as its first head of original programming... Apple Music has signed on as the sponsor for the Super Bowl halftime show, taking over from Pepsi, which backed the event for the past 10 years... Parade magazine, the Sunday newspaper supplement that was launched in 1941, will cease print publication after its November 6 issue.
Pro-Walmart forces convinced 48% of a 300+ studio audience to vote in favor of Long Live Walmart but 44% of the online audience voted against the proposition while 40% voted in favor of it. The initial vote of those in attendance, before the debate at the Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th st., was 30% in favor of Walmart.
John Tierney (L) & Richard Vedder photos: Samuel Lahoz Photography
The percentage of online voters who were against the proposition grew from 36% pre-vote to 44% after the debate while those in favor of the proposition grew from 24% to 40%. The undecideds shrank from 40% to 16%.
Defending Walmart were Richard Vedder, author of The Wal-Mart Revolution, and John Tierney, former New York Times columnist. Critics were Nelson Lichtenstein, author of The Retail Revolution: How Walmart Created a Brave New World of Business, and Amy Traub, researcher for Demos, liberal-oriented policy organization.
Traub explores consumer debt, job creation and the U.S. middle class for Demos, founded in 2001 and which had revenues of $7.42M in 2015.
The event was streamed online, and viewers were able to cast their votes on the proposition, Long Live Walmart. Hosting the event was Intelligence Squared U.S.
Walmart is an Edelman account. Moderator was John Donvan, co-author of In a Different Key: The Story of Autism. He is also a regular correspondent for Nightline.
Tierney: Walmart Deserves Nobel Prize
Tierney, a contributing editor to the quarterly publication City Journal and contributing science columnist for the New York Times, said Walmarts contributions are so great that it deserves a Nobel prize. Walmart revenues are $485 billion, and it employs 2.3 million.
Nelson Lichtenstein (L) & Amy Traub
Besides saving U.S. consumers money, it is a major player in the reduction of global poverty, serving as a pipeline for redistributing wealth from rich countries to poor countries, he said.
The motivation for attacks against the company, he claimed, have much of their roots in snobbery, a sense that the stores offerings are tacky. Also contributing to Walmarts negative public image, he added, is the opposition it faces from two major opponents: newspapers and labor unions.
Traub talked about the difficulties faced by its employees. Addressing issues of low pay and what she called the refusal of Walmart to bring many part-time employees up to full-time status, she said that the company has created a low-wage business model that is a major contributor to the problems now faced by the American economy at large.
She also referred to what she called the ever-increasing share of company profits that go to the Walton family, the companys main shareholders, and held that up as a commentary on the problem of economic inequality in the U.S. Traub highlighted chains such as Costco and Trader Joes as examples of how retail chains can provide better working conditions.
Walmart a Private Anti-Poverty Program
Vedder called Walmart a private anti-poverty program that actually benefits taxpayers. He said that its downward pressure on consumer prices is a boon to lower-income Americans, claiming that Walmart sells its goods at prices that are from eight percent to 39 percent less than its competitors.
Consumers voted with their feet when they abandoned smaller stores for the big-box chain. He also noted the difficulties that Walmart faces in the current economic climate, when internet commerce, specifically the overwhelming presence of Amazon, is cutting into the companys profits and necessitating major investments in bolstering its online profile.
He discounted the example of Costco as offering an alternative to Walmarts current policies, noting the different consumer audience at which each chain is targeted. Costco is the biggest seller of champagne in America, he quipped, and people who shop at Walmart dont drink champagne.
Lichtenstein focused on what he saw as the poor working conditions faced by Walmart employees. He accused the company of indulging in what he called churn, the rapid turnover of lower-level employees that, in his opinion, made it difficult for any worker to pursue a long-term career at the company. He also questioned the claim that Walmart benefits lower-income consumers, claiming that in urban areas the chain tends to avoid locating in poorer neighborhoods.
Audience Questioned Panel
After each of the panelists made their presentation, they faced a series of questions from Donvan, and then the floor was opened to the audience. Noting the huge amount of applicants (23,000) for 600 available Walmart job slots in Washington, D.C., one audience member asked if perhaps potential employees felt there was a greater sense of opportunity with the chain.
Another brought what she saw as the companys positive environmental record to light, while others addressed the stores allegedly detrimental effect on quality-of-life issues and the factor the chain plays in the shuttering of small stores.
So, in spite of living in one of the nations few Walmart-free zones, a New York audience proved itself to be surprisingly open to having its opinion of the chain, and its image changed.
Vedder, Tierney and others say new Walmart stores boost employment and income in communities, especially benefitting the poor; that Walmart employees are paid fairly, and that very few do not have health insurance. They decry attempts by communities to penalize Walmart by enacting restrictive zoning laws, requiring health insurance or setting high minimum wages.
10,000 New Jobs Promised
Walmart in January said it would create 10,000 new jobs in the U.S. this year.
Supporters say this is the latest example of Walmart benefitting America by providing jobs to low-skilled workers, selling affordable goods, and attracting new consumers and businesses to its neighborhoods.
Lichtenstein, Traub and other critics say Walmart hurts local communities by pushing out locally-owned businesses, provide low pay and restrictive work hours, and force U.S. companies to use cheap foreign labor.
While widely diverging opinions on Walmart were voiced by the panelists, a quick poll of them revealed that all had at one point shopped at the big-box retailer. A similar poll of the audience revealed that 46 percent of them had shopped at Walmart in the past year, while 54 percent said they had not.
Walmart has spread evangelical Protestantism into the workplace, made South China an American workshop, and pushed U.S. politics to the right, says Lichtenstein.
WPPs Group M Worldwide is handling Ukraines Ministry of Culture and Information Policys Advantage Ukraine campaign to promote confidence among businesses, investors and policymakers that the battered country will recover from the Russian invasion.
Al Golin, the original public relations counsel to McDonalds and founder of the Chicago-based firm Golin, died April 8 at age 87.
He died at his second home in Scottsdale, Arizona after a battle with prostate cancer.
Al Golin (L) & Harold Burson at O'Dwyer's "Greatest Generation in PR" event in 2005.
McDonalds CEO Ray Kroc in 1957 called on Golin for PR help, and the relationship lasted more than 60 years. The initial contract had been for $500 monthly. McDonalds in its early days did not have much of an ad budget.
Golin Chairman Fred Cook said Golin worked on McDonalds until the day he died.
Kroc trusted him completely, his friend Chuck Ebeling said in an obit posted by the Chicago Sun--Times. He was really a pioneer of modern communications. Al was instrumental in the creation of the brands community outreach and messaging.
Golin liked to say that building goodwill for the company could be like putting money in the bank. Every time the company did something to help its community, it would add up over time.
McDonalds CEO Praised Golin
McDonalds CEO Steve Easterbrook said the company benefited for decades from Golins wisdom and leadership.
McDonalds owes Al a tremendous debt of gratitude for all he accomplished in his partnership with us, said the Easterbrook statement.
McDonalds each year gives the Al Golin Trust Bank Award to the franchise owner who played the most important role in his or her community that year.
We had other clients, but McDonald's was everything, Ebeling told the Sun-Times. We considered it the ultimate in community relations opportunities; to deal with the relationships of millions of people on a daily basis and always try to find ways to improve the quality of those relationships.
Golin built the firm from a small office to a one with 1,200 employees and 50 offices worldwide.
He was the recipient of lifetime achievement awards from the Public Relations Society of America and the Publicity Club of Chicago, as well as numerous other honors. He was inducted into the PR Hall of Fame in 2015.
Born in 1929 in Chicago, Golin got his start in the early 1950s as a publicist for the film industry, working in the Chicago offices of MGM studios.
He is survived by June Golin, his wife of more than 55 years; their children Barry, Karen and Ellen; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
A memorial service will be held in Chicago at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, the Golin family asked that donations be made in his name to Ronald McDonald House Charities, the Off the Street Club, the Goodman Theatre or Roosevelt University.
Spoke at ODwyer Event
Golin Spoke at ODwyer Function in 2005 called The Greatest Generation in PR that celebrated the 35th anniversary of ODwyers Directory of PR Firms. It was managed by Fay Shapiro, then ODwyer associate publisher and now publisher, CommPRO.biz.
Also speaking were Dan Edelman of Edelman; Harold Burson of Burson-Marsteller; David Finn of Ruder Finn, and Margery Kraus of APCO.
Golin told PR pros to balance high-tech with high-touch and not to be obsessed with tech capabilities. He noted that one colleague was e-mailing and leaving voicemails to him although his office was only 30 feet away.
On recent PR controversies, Golin warned: Were now becoming more of the problem than the solution. But he said the industry has to be careful not to overreact.
We cant listen to the naysayers, and we have to take some chances and keep taking risks, he said. We need to focus on reading the public mind, and not manipulating it.
Agricultural News
Introducing Yukon's Nicole Stevens, Oklahoma FFA's SW District Star in Agriscience
During the month of April, the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and Oklahoma Farm Report will be spotlighting the twenty District Stars of Oklahoma FFA that are among the highest achievers in the organization. The stars come from the five districts in four categories- Star in Ag Placement, Star in Agriscience, Star in Agribusiness and Star in Production Agriculture. We are beginning our series of profiles of the District Stars with the five district winners in Ag Placement. The top individuals in this category have been employed within the agricultural community- and are judged on the success of their work program. The member's placement experience can include paid labor hours or directed laboratory unpaid labor hours.
We begin this week highlighting those competing in the Agriscience category, starting with Southwest District Star Nicole Stevens of the Yukon FFA Chapter. Stevens has complete more than ten agriscience projects since first joining the FFA her 8th grade year. She credits her sister and her father with getting her started and keeping her involved with her projects that range from fertilizer run-off to bio-gas production. Her favorite project though-
"Definitely the organic insulation," she exclaimed. "We tested three types of insulation soybean spray-foam based insulation, recycled cotton and man-made fiberglass insulation."
Stevens decided to find an effective and cost-efficient alternative to building insulation after what turned out to be a funny moment of inspiration. Stevens recalls that one day working in the shop of her ag-mechanics class, a piece of insulation from the building fell from the ceiling and onto her partner's head. This spurred Stevens to take note of the condition of the insulation throughout the building finding most of it in bad shape, and close to 60 percent of it actually missing.
"We found out that the soybean based spray-foam insulation was not only the most efficient, but it would save our school money in the years to come," Stevens reported.
While Stevens and her agriscience experiments have contributed to the success of her FFA chapter, she says the stream of success flows both ways.
"FFA means the world to me," she insisted. "It's gotten me where I am in life and it's helped me develop skills like public speaking and it's really helped me come out of my shell."
After graduating, Stevens plans to pursue a major in agribusiness with an option in pre-law at Oklahoma State University.
You can hear her entire conversation with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays, by clicking or tapping on the LISTEN BAR below.
A complete list of the District Stars can be seen on the Oklahoma FFA website by clicking or tapping here.
Our salute of the 2017 District Stars of the Oklahoma FFA is brought to you by American Farmers & Ranchers, proud to support Oklahoma's youth. Visit the AFR website by clicking or tapping here to learn more on how AFR supports the young people of Oklahoma, and how AFR can provide you with quality insurance for your home, auto, farm, and life.
Listen to her entire conversation with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays below
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US Beef Markets Find Steady Support from Strong Export Demand and Low Pressure from Imports
Mondays, Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry. This analysis is a part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Peel and Dr. Glenn Selk. Today, Dr. Peel discusses the recent strength of beef exports and the positive effects it is having on the US beef industry.
"U.S. beef exports continue the 2016 trend with additional improvement so far in 2017. February total beef exports were up 19.3 percent and combine with the January total for a year to date increase of 20.1 percent year over year for the first two months of the year. This extends the annual 12.6 percent year over year increase in 2016.
"Japan remains the top destination for U.S. beef exports, up 44.4 percent year over year for January and February. Beef exports to Japan represented 29.9 percent of beef exports so far this year. Japan accounted for 25.7 percent of total beef exports in 2016. South Korea is the second largest beef export market for the U.S., up 26.5 percent in the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2016. South Korea has had a rising share of U.S. beef exports in the last four years and represented 17.8 of total beef exports in 2016.
"Mexico is third largest beef export market, up 25.8 percent year over year for the year to date. Beef exports to Mexico have generally decreased in recent years but did show a year over year increase of 8.6 percent in 2016. Mexico's share of U.S. beef exports has dropped sharply in the last few years to a 2016 level of 15.4 percent of total beef exports. Canada is the number four beef export market and is up 17.0 percent so far this year compared to the first two months of 2016. Canada's share of beef exports has also declined some in the last five years with a 2016 share of 12.1 percent of total exports. Hong Kong has had a larger share of U.S. beef exports in the last four years but dropped from the previous year to 11.5 percent of total exports in 2016. Beef exports to Hong Kong so far in 2017 are down 23.6 percent year over year.
"The top five beef export markets (Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and Hong Kong) represented 83.7 percent of total beef exports in the first two months of 2017, similar to the 82.6 percent share in 2016. 2017 beef exports are up year over year to all of these markets except Hong Kong.
"Beef imports are down 17.4 percent year over year in the first two months of 2017. This follows a 10.5 percent year over year decrease in 2016. Australia, historically the largest source of U.S. beef imports, is down 45.5 percent so far this year following a 39.0 percent year over year decrease in 2016. In fact, Australia is currently the fourth largest beef import source so far in 2017. Australia is in roughly the same relative position as the U.S. beef industry was in 2014/2015, with drought-reduced animal inventories restricting production and herd rebuilding further restricting beef production at the current time.
"New Zealand is the largest beef import source so far in 2017 but is down 21.1 percent year over year, following a 7.3 percent year over year decrease in 2016. Mexico is the second largest beef import source thus far in 2017 and is up 37.2 percent year over year in the first two months of the year. Imports of Mexican beef have grown sharply in recent years, jumping 25.9 percent in 2016 and accounting for 16.4 percent of total beef imports. Canada is the third largest beef imports source, with year to date imports down 12.7 percent. After an annual year over year increase of 14.3 percent, Canada represented 23.8 percent of total beef imports in 2016. The top four import markets represented 85.9 percent of 2016 beef imports. Significantly smaller import shares include Brazil, which accounted for 5.1 percent of total imports along with 4.1 percent from Uruguay in 2016. Beef imports are largely driven by the demand for lean trimmings used in the ground beef market. On average, an estimated 72 percent of U.S. beef imports are lean trimmings."
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China Says They Will Open Market to US Beef- Again
China will offer the Trump administration better market access for financial sector investments and U.S. beef exports to help avert a trade war, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing officials familiar with the matter.
China is prepared to raise the investment ceiling in the Bilateral Investment treaty and is also willing to end the ban on U.S. beef imports, the newspaper also reported.
"China was prepared to (raise the investment ceilings) in the BIT but those negotiations were put on hold (after Trump's election victory)," the Financial Times also reported citing a Chinese official involved in the talks.
Allendale tweeted this morning that "China already had lifted their ban on US Beef back in September of last year. Again, there is no ban on US Beef." The Radio Oklahoma Ag Network reported last September on the announcement that Allendale refers to- and we talked with Phil Seng about the word from China at that time- click here for that Beef Buzz of last September.
According to Meatingplace, "The opportunity for U.S. beef exporters could be significant. Global AgriTrends calculates the greater China region (China, Hong Kong, Vietnam) as a $7 billion market, according to Stephens Inc. analyst Farha Aslam.
"In a note to investors, Aslam cautioned, however, that China has twice before agreed to grant market access to U.S. beef but regulatory hurdles have prevented any real trade to materialize."
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LINCOLN Its unlikely Nebraska will join other states seeking to throttle federal spending and establish term limits for members of Congress by amending the U.S. Constitution.
State Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete pledged Monday not to give up on a resolution calling for a constitutional convention of the states, but she currently lacks supermajority support to force an up-or-down vote on the measure.
State lawmakers debated Legislative Resolution 6 for three hours Monday before moving to other agenda items. Opponents raised the possibility of a runaway convention that could lead to radical changes to the Constitution.
Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk, speaker of the Legislature, said he will require supporters to show they have at least 33 of the 49 total votes before he will schedule the resolution for more debate.
Ebke said shes confident that a majority of senators back the measure, but she cant meet the higher bar of 33 votes to end an anticipated filibuster by opponents.
The resolution would add Nebraska to a list of states calling for a constitutional convention to discuss limiting the scope of the federal government, restricting federal spending and instituting congressional term limits.
Congress has the authority to propose constitutional amendments, but Article V of the Constitution also allows a convention of the states to be held if at least two-thirds of the 50 states call for one. That method has not been used to adopt any of the 27 constitutional amendments.
So far 10 of the 34 states needed to call a states convention have endorsed resolutions like the one proposed by Ebke.
For those of you who dont think the $20 trillion (federal) debt is cause for concern, it would make perfect sense to oppose, Ebke said.
Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, who is a banker, said the $19.8 trillion debt is expected to balloon by an additional $4 trillion over the next four years. That clip would equate to a staggering $1.8 billion per day, he added, saying he was troubled at the prospect of passing along that kind of burden to his newly born granddaughter and her generation.
Sen. Curt Friesen of Henderson said if interest rates climb to the double-digit levels seen in the 1980s, servicing the debt could consume the entire federal budget. A farmer by profession, Friesen said requiring Washington to balance the budget would necessarily affect crop subsidies.
We cannot continue to stick our hand out asking for federal dollars and at the same time turn around and complain about our $20 trillion debt, he said.
Several opponents of the measure said economists have argued that it would be a mistake to impose a balanced budget amendment on the federal government. In times of deep recession or war, the government needs to borrow.
Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln said the federal spending cuts called for by those who support a constitutional convention could have a devastating impact on those who receive social services in Nebraska.
Other opponents of the resolution predicted that during these partisan times, a convention of the states would trigger massive lobbying efforts by special interests, both left and right. They predicted that the subject matter of the debate would soon expand far beyond its intended purpose.
They also pointed out that as recently as the late 1990s and early 2000s, the federal government had erased annual deficits. Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue said voters need to demand that their elected officials get serious about addressing what she agrees is a serious problem.
The Constitution isnt broken, she said. Congress is broken.
Backers of the resolution pointed out that any constitutional amendment proposed by the participating states would need to be ratified by 38, or three-fourths, of the states. That high hurdle would force proposed amendments to have broad support, they said.
Ebke said Monday that shell continue working to persuade several additional lawmakers to support the resolution. But if she cannot, she noted that it would remain alive when the Legislature convenes next year.
Its a big issue, she said. We ought to have a debate on it.
Boundaries for a new midtown Omaha elementary school are starting to take shape, and some parents want in.
Omaha Public Schools board members got a glimpse last week of proposed boundaries for a new $17 million elementary school that will be built at 32nd and Burt Streets. Members of the Gifford Park neighborhood lobbied hard for the school, which could open in time for the 2019-20 school year.
No boundary changes would take place until then.
The schools proposed attendance boundaries would encompass parts of midtown Omaha, including the Gifford Park, Joslyn Castle and Cathedral neighborhoods. Attendance areas for other nearby elementary schools, including Dundee, Field Club and Kellom, also would be adjusted.
But the proposed map has some parents from the Bemis Park and Montclair neighborhoods asking: What about us?
Shane Strong, president of the Bemis Park Neighborhood Association, said residents there agree with much of the proposed map but would like to see the boundaries encompass the Bemis Park and Montclair areas too. For many families, the new Gifford Park school would be just across Cuming Street.
Our kids can be walking to this school, he told OPS board members.
Currently kids from those neighborhoods are assigned to Kellom, Walnut Hill and Franklin Elementary Schools. Walnut Hill is at about 119 percent capacity, while Franklin is only about 85 percent full, he said. Some students in the Walnut Hill area could be shifted to Franklin to balance out the enrollment at those two schools, Strong said.
Some Bemis Park families attend Walnut Hill and Franklin, but others opt out to St. Cecilia grade school, or to other OPS elementary schools, Strong said. More families might stay with OPS to attend a new elementary school thats only a short walk away, he said.
Gifford Park residents have called for a school that could incorporate urban agriculture into its curriculum and possibly offer a dual-language immersion program.
As proposed by OPS, the boundary area would include the neighborhoods between Cuming and Dodge Streets, from 40th Street on the west to U.S. Highway 75 on the east. The boundary also would dip down south into an area between Dodge and Farnam Streets bounded by 38th Street and Turner Park. It also includes the area between Cuming and Cass Streets between Saddle Creek Road and 40th Street.
When it comes to drawing boundary lines, theres never usually a right answer, in my experience, said Casey Hughes, an OPS researcher. Whatever line you draw, someones on one side of it and doesnt want to be.
The boundaries would create an attendance area consisting of 406 students, and could help relieve some crowding at Dundee and Field Club Elementary Schools. With an enrollment of 544 kids, Dundee is currently at 125 percent capacity. Field Club, with 652 students, is at 114 percent capacity.
But the new school also could drain kids away from Kellom Elementary, near 24th and Paul Streets. Once the new school is built, Kelloms attendance area would shrink by more than half, from 548 to 251 students.
Of course, not all OPS students attend their home schools. But OPS officials cautioned that Kellom which was once slated to be closed might need some careful monitoring. An elementary school with about 250 kids, using 60 percent of the available space, is small by OPS standards.
I think probably all of us are a little concerned about Kellom, because thats the school thats really going to be impacted, school board member Lou Ann Goding said. They have a very strong, vibrant school right now.
Goding noted that, once built, the new Gifford Park school would be in the same partner zone as Franklin and Kellom, part of the new student assignment plan being rolled out this fall. Students can apply to schools within a partner zone and still be eligible for a bus ride.
The school board is slated to vote on the new boundaries at its April 17 meeting.
Retired Teamsters see a disturbing personal connection to the movie Going in Style, a fictional comedy about three friends driven to desperation after losing their pensions.
The Teamsters pensions are threatened with steep cuts because their fund has been determined to be insolvent, so on Sunday they used the movie to make a point as they demonstrated outside a theater near North 72nd Street and Crown Point Avenue.
About a dozen demonstrators, mostly retirees, lined Crown Point Avenue from about 5 to 6 p.m. holding signs protesting possible pension cuts and linking their cause to the movie.
A series of two signs read GOING IN STYLE and IS NOT FICTION, with the word NOT underlined.
This isnt fiction for people, said Mary Packett, director of Protect Our Pensions of Iowa and Nebraska, a nonprofit group organized to help about 175 area Teamsters. This isnt funny to these guys because its their reality.
Packett and her father, Freddie Lowry, 77, demonstrated Sunday. He is a retired Teamster who drove semitrailer trucks for 29 years and paid into his pension. He took occasional rest breaks Sunday during the demonstration, while others continued to stand along the street with their signs.
Last year hundreds of thousands of retirees with the pension fund faced benefit cuts some by 50 percent or more. The proposal by the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund was intended to put the struggling fund back on a path to solvency. The plan was rejected by the U.S. Treasury Department, and retirees have been spared for now.
The governments rejection of the plan was only a temporary move, however, and the long-term future of the Teamsters benefits remains in doubt.
This is about as unfair as you get, said demonstrator Bob Bossung, taking money away from retired old people who budgeted based on pensions they thought they would receive throughout retirement. Bossung said he retired almost two years ago after driving trucks for 36 years, 22 of those for Roberts Dairy.
Teamsters have stepped up and fought and won in the past, Packett said, and they will continue to fight. About 20 members of the local Protect Our Pensions group will travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby lawmakers in June and push for an investigation and possibly an audit of the fund, she said.
Theyre good people, Packett said of the Teamsters demonstrating Sunday, and they deserve more than this.
Sarpy County Board members are reviving a longtime gripe: that Douglas County residents arent paying their fair share of taxes because of the way their countys property is assessed.
Its a grievance that comes amid an outcry in Douglas County over sharp valuation increases this year and efforts by Douglas County officials to reduce those hikes.
To Sarpy board members, however, the flap in Douglas County is just the latest example of how that countys valuations are less accurate than those in Sarpy. And they contend that those differences mean that Sarpy residents are treated unfairly, especially when taxing jurisdictions cross county lines.
They have a case. Based on the two counties assessment practices, its likely that the owner of a home that could sell for $150,000 is paying about $100 more in property taxes in Sarpy County than it would if its valuation were set by Douglas County.
State law requires a countys median property valuation to be between 92 and 100 percent of market value.
Sarpy County Assessor Dan Pittman has said that he aims for property to be assessed in the middle of that range, at 96 percent of market value. Douglas County Assessor Diane Battiato, meanwhile, reacted to the outrage about increases by saying she is aiming for the countys median this year to be near the bottom, at 93 percent of market value.
If the Sarpy County assessor values a $150,000 home at 96 percent of market value, it would have a valuation of $144,000. That works out to a tax bill of $3,207 if the house were in the Omaha school district.
But if that same home were valued at 93 percent of market value, as Douglas County has aimed for, it would have a valuation of $139,500. And its tax bill would be $3,107, a difference of $100.
Its not quite that simple, of course. The target applies to the whole county, and many properties are valued below the target and others above.
Sarpy County Board Chairman Don Kelly said that even if the percentages were set the same in the two counties, Sarpy County residents would still be taxed unfairly because property in Douglas County is not reassessed as often and thus tends to lag below market levels.
Last year, the state ordered valuation increases across a large swath of west Omaha and decreases in northeast Omaha after determining that their assessed values were too far outside the accepted range.
A 2016 World-Herald analysis found that 56 percent of houses sold in Sarpy County in recent years were valued in the state-required range of 92 to 100 percent of market value. The ones that werent were mainly a little higher or a little lower.
In Douglas County, less than 29 percent of houses hit the target. About 45 percent had valuations that were too low, even after state-ordered increases last year. And one in nine Douglas County house sales was assessed at less than 80 percent of its sale price.
Thats one reason Douglas County valuations increased so much this year.
Although I sympathize with the Douglas County taxpayer, my concern here is for the people that this board of equalization represents, who by any measure of merit are going to pay an unfair and unequal amount of taxes, Kelly said.
Sarpy County Board member Brian Zuger, who represents Bellevue, said he has heard from residents who are concerned that theyre paying more into the Omaha Public Schools than their neighbors across Harrison Street.
One of the largest costs in Sarpy County residents property tax bills is for school districts, and the Omaha, Millard and Gretna districts all extend into both counties.
Sarpy County Board members said theyd like to form a committee to push for change in the Nebraska Legislature. Board member Jim Warren said theyd likely invite school districts, cities and other interested entities to be a part of the committee, which would look for ways to adjust state law to minimize the differences between counties.
Its unlikely that anything will get done this year. Sarpy and Douglas Counties have already submitted their valuations to the state, and the Legislature is in the middle of its current session.
At issue for Sarpy board members is the 92 to 100 range and a state requirement that valuations have to be updated only every six years. Board members said everyone should be shooting for the same number and updating values with the same frequency.
The state either needs to step in and do some equalization, or somehow we try to figure out how to make a balance in Sarpy County because it isnt fair, Warren said. It isnt fair to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars across the county line.
State Property Tax Administrator Ruth Sorensen said the range is needed because the real estate market is not precise.
She also said Sarpys complaint is something the state has heard from other areas with school districts crossing county lines.
We dont want anyone paying their unfair share, Sorensen said.
Although not required by law, Pittman said his office updates values annually so increases and decreases happen in small increments, which makes it easier for homeowners to understand.
Douglas County does not adjust values annually but operates within the six-year window required under state law.
Battiato, the Douglas County assessor, said the two counties do things differently because they have different markets and Douglas County has significantly more parcels than Sarpy County.
The countys valuations are based on sales, and sales and market trends can differ depending on which side of Harrison Street youre on, Battiato said. The counties are not always going to mirror each other, she said.
Everyone has their opinions, and were just doing the best we can, she said.
This year in a series of meetings, Sarpy board members considered urging Pittman to match Douglas Countys valuation target, but the idea was quashed when school superintendents, city administrators, mayors and sanitary improvement district representatives said it would hurt their budgets.
Douglas County Board Chairwoman Mary Ann Borgeson said the two counties have a good working relationship, and Douglas County is more than willing to work with everybody and anybody that wants to look at this.
The Sarpy board sent a letter last month to Sorensen expressing its frustration after she had told Douglas County that it needed only to fall within the 92 to 100 percent range.
We respectfully request you truly equalize property values across the state and start by mandating similar assessment practices across county lines, the letter to Sorensen said.
Sorensen responded that its up to individual county assessors to set property valuations based on their analysis of the local real estate market.
Sorensen also encouraged Sarpy County officials to take their concerns to the states Tax Equalization and Review Commission, which reviews county valuations.
Sarpy County Board members said at a recent meeting that something needs to change.
My angst is not with Douglas County, Kelly said. My angst is with a system that allows this to happen. Its not right.
An ability to keep an overcrowded jail operating smoothly netted Capt. Robert Bellamy of the Washington County Sheriffs Office an award for excellence from a state corrections association.
Bellamy was cited for his strong and progressive leadership in managing the corrections division in Washington County by Pam Goldsby, the president of the Nebraska Corrections Administrators and Managers Association. The Excellence in Corrections award was bestowed Thursday during the associations annual conference in Kearney.
Capt. Bellamy is a dedicated public servant who is well deserving of the award being bestowed on him by his fellow corrections professionals, said Washington County Sheriff Mike Robinson. Hes a great leader, well-respected by his co-workers and peers.
Bellamy began his law enforcement career as a patrol officer for the Benkelman Police Department. He joined the Dundy County Sheriffs Office in 1984 and served as sheriff from 1990 to 2004.
In 2006 Bellamy joined the Washington County Sheriffs Office. Due to overcrowding in the jail, Bellamy supervises the transporting of prisoners to and from seven corrections facilities throughout the state.
He also serves as the point of contact with the Washington County Boards Jail Committee. The committee is charged with determining the best method of dealing with the countys lack of jail space.
The jail can hold 15 prisoners, leaving an average of 30 to be lodged elsewhere, Robinson said. Many of those prisoners are housed in Antelope, Platte and Butler Counties.
The Antelope County Jail in Neligh is 125 miles away from the Washington County Jail in Blair, Robinson said. The jails in Platte and Butler Counties are each about 70 miles away.
The logistics involved for transporting these prisoners is a very daunting task, Robinson said. That Capt. Bellamys team is able to accomplish this with very little problem is an incredible testament to their professionalism.
A woman was seriously injured Sunday night when the car she was driving crashed into Cunningham Lake, police said.
The woman, 30-year-old Trina Charon of Omaha, managed to swim ashore but suffered a broken arm and ribs, as well as exposure to the cold water, police said. She was taken by ambulance to Nebraska Medical Center.
Charon, who was alone in the 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis, had been traveling west on Nebraska Highway 36 (also known as Bennington Road) when the car left the roadway, according to Omaha police Sgt. Jason Menning, a traffic investigator.
The car struck several reflective lane closure posts and went down an abandoned road, the old Highway 6, Menning said.
The vehicle continued from there, veering off the abandoned road, striking a bridge guardrail and vaulting into the air before landing upside down in Cunningham Lake, the sergeant said.
Charon managed to get to shore on her own. A passing motorist found her on the highway, east of 96th Street, and called 911 about 10:35 p.m.
"She's lucky to be alive," Menning said, as police investigated the crash late Sunday.
Charges were pending for Charon. She admitted to police that she had smoked marijuana and methamphetamine before the crash, he said.
The car was to remain in the lake until daylight, when a dive team will help tow it out.
Taylor Royal, the young political newcomer who came in third place in last weeks primary election, is still hoping to make his mark in the Omaha mayors race with Mondays endorsement of Mayor Jean Stothert.
Royal, who had questioned Stotherts leadership skills in the past, acknowledged that he may have some differences with his fellow Republican, but he preferred Stothert in City Hall over Democrat Heath Mello.
Specifically, Royal took exception to Mellos decision to attend an April 20 rally with Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist who made an unsuccessful bid for president last year. Royal maintains that Sanders does not represent Nebraska values and that his appearance with Mello should be a concern to all conservatives.
Yes, we have had some differences on the issues in the primary (but) the choice in the general election could not be clearer, Royal, 27, said at a Monday press conference held at Stotherts campaign headquarters.
For her part, Stothert described Royals endorsement as significant. She also said Royal has a future in politics. I can tell you upfront that this young man is a rising star in the Republican Party, Stothert said. And I am asking this morning for every one of his supporters to come to our campaign.
Mello attempted to downplay Royals endorsement, saying it didnt change the fact that about 56 percent of voters in last weeks five-way primary picked someone other than Stothert. More than half of Omaha primary voters cast their ballots for new leadership, Mello said.
The question of whether Royals endorsement will have an impact in the general election is up for debate, said Paul Landow, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Royal did capture about 11 percent of the vote in a primary where Stothert and Mello were separated by about 2 percentage points, but he remains a relatively unknown candidate in Omaha. The question is whether his voters support Royal enough to follow his lead in the general election, Landow said.
Its not going to hurt her, but its unlikely to help her very much, Landow said of Royals endorsement.
Royal made a bit of a splash in the primary election when he suddenly launched a television advertising blitz with the help of $240,000 in donations from his father, Scott Royal of Bennington.
Royal ran as the only pro-Donald Trump candidate in the race, criticizing Stothert for writing in John McCain in last falls presidential election. Royal also criticized both Stothert and Mello for supporting a proposed streetcar project.
Since the primary and Royals third-place finish, Stothert and Mello have issued statements calling for the public to have a greater voice in the streetcar project.
Stothert has said Omahans should be allowed to vote on the project, while Mello has called for a pause on the project until after the mayoral election, when he will then seek more public input.
Its a frightening scene: A group of people is partying with illegal drugs when one of them overdoses and collapses.
Some friends scatter. Others stand around helplessly, not knowing what to do. They fear that if they call for medical assistance, theyll be liable for breaking the law themselves. Its a scene that can easily take a fatal, tragic turn.
Two years ago the Nebraska Legislature held thoughtful debate and decided that in a similar circumstance, when an underage person suffers an alcohol-related medical emergency, the state should provide legal immunity so someone else can make an emergency call, and the person can be treated, both without fear of prosecution. That change in alcohol-related cases, proposed by Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, is now part of state law.
Now, Nebraska lawmakers are considering a related proposal, Legislative Bill 487, providing limited immunity in the case of a drug overdose.
Under the bill, the victim and those summoning help could not be charged with possession of drugs or drug paraphernalia based on evidence from the call. Other charges, including drug-induced homicide, could be brought if warranted. Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, the Nebraska Medical Association and the Nebraska Bar Association support the proposal by Morfeld.
Deciding to limit criminal prosecution shouldnt be taken lightly, but in situations such as these, a sensible restraint in prosecution is justified.
LB 487 has received first-round approval. It deserves final passage.
After getting instructions on Whatsapp, MBBS student helps deliver baby on train
India
oi-Madhuri
Vipin Bhagwanrao Khadse, a 24-year-old final year MBBS student from the Nagpur-based Government Medical College on Friday performed a complicated delivery when a woman went into labour on the train.
According to reports, the woman and Khadse were travelling in Ahmedabad Puri Express train when suddenly the woman started feeling the pain. The train was about 30 km far from Nagpur when the relatives of the woman pulled the chain to halt the train. The ticket collector and guard who inquired about the situation were later looking for a doctor on board.
Khadse who initaly kept quiet thinking he is not the professional doctor but then he offered to help the woman. When he went and attended the woman, he saw that the woman was bleeding profusely and instead of head, the baby's shoulder emerged out first. He immediately posted the photo asking for help in whatsapp group of doctors after which a senior resident doctor guided him in performing the delivery.
Khadse who aspires to be a surgeon said that every doctor should know how to help a woman in labour. Soon after the train reached Nagpur station, a team of woman doctor from the railway hospital took charge of the situation.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 13:30 [IST]
J&K: Civilian shot at in Kokernag, second terror incident of the day in Anantnag district
Construction of airstrip near Jammu-Srinagar NH not in response to tension with China: Defence official
Ahead of Anantnag by-polls: Schools set on fire in Pulwama, Shopian
India
oi-Madhuri
Government schools which were to serve as election centres for Anantnag by-polls were set on fire on Monday by some unidentified people in a clear attempt to obstruct the upcoming polls. Even on Sunday, the government high school located in Pulwama was razed to the ground in a similar manner.
Meanwhile, the Kashmir University have postponed all examinations which was scheduled on Monday and Tuesday.
Also, the internet facility in the Kashmir valley has been suspended till April 12. Earlier, on Monday the separatists have called a two-day shutdown and protest against Sunday's civilian killings. Markets, public transports, education institutions and other businesses remained closed here and other places in the valley.
Eight protesters were killed when the security forces opened fire during the voting process in the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary by-poll on Sunday.
OneIndia News
Alert Indian Army kills 4 terrorists who tried to infiltrate into Kashmir
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Four terrorists who were trying to cross over into Kashmir were killed by security forces. The four terrorists suspected to be part of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba were trying to gain entry through Keran when they were intercepted by security forces and killed.
Intelligence had been shared with the Indian Army about the possibility of a large scale infiltration. The alert was issued after the violence that marred the Srinagar by-elections on Sunday. The IB said that terrorists would look to take advantage of the situation and cross over into India.
Normally after such heavy violence, security is usually lax. The IB alert stated that many infiltrations are likely to take place and hence the Indian Army should be on very high alert. Following the intercept, personnel of the Indian Army kept a tight vigil and tracked down the four terrorists while they were trying to enter. All the four were killed and a major infiltration bid was foiled.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 8:55 [IST]
This man is on a country wide padayatra: He wants a ban on EVMs
Alleged EVM tampering: Opposition parties to meet EC
India
oi-PTI
New Delhi, Apr 10: Opposition parties today decided to take up unitedly with the EC the issue of alleged EVM tampering in elections held in various states recently. Leaders of various opposition parties on Monday met in Parliament and decided to jointly meet the Election Commission, demanding that their concerns on the issue be addressed.
The opposition leaders are demanding that VVPAT (paper trail of voting) be introduced in all future elections. The Congress has also been pushing for use of ballot papers instead of EVMs in upcoming elections in view of the alleged tampering.
The parties are demanding that the EC dispel the apprehensions they have and reassure the people of the country and voters on the serious issue. The opposition parties observed that free and fair elections are the basic founding blocks on which the entire edifice of country has been maintained.
"Any erosion of these basic principles which sustain this edifice needs to be addressed forthwith and in the right earnest," said a leader.
Among those present at today's strategy meeting held at Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad's chamber in Parliament included Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, besides JDU leader Ali Anwar Ansari, TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, BSP leader Satish Misra and SP leader Neeraj Shekhar.
NCP leader Majeed Memon, CPI leader D Raja and RJD leader J P Narain Yadav were also present during the meeting and all decided to strongly raise the issue with the EC.
PTI
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 12:19 [IST]
Amnesty International condemns death sentence for Kulbhushan Jadhav
India
oi-Lisa
New Delhi, April 10: Amnesty International condemned Pakistan sentencing to death former Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav on Monday. Biraj Patnaik, South Asia director of Amnesty International said that death sentence for Jadhav is an example that Pakistan's courts show no regard for rights of the prisoners and that the system works in secrecy.
Patnaik added that Amnesty International opposes death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of execution.
Under Pakistans military courts, no info about charges or evidence against suspects is made public:Amnesty Intnl #KulbhushanJadhav ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
Pakistan's military court on Monday sentenced Jadhav to death for allegedly waging war against the country. He has been accused of being a spy for India's Research & Analysis Wing. It is alleged that he sabotaged Pakistan's efforts to ensure peace in Gilgit and Baltistan region.
OneIndia News
Accession Day: Valley lights up on this day when J&K became part of India
Anantnag bypolls deferred to May 25
India
oi-Lisa
Shopian, April 10: School designated as polling station for Anantnag bypoll was set on fire on Monday in Shopian. A Panchayat Ghar was also set ablaze in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Following which Anantnag bypoll was deferred by the Election Commission of India. The election will now be held on May 25. The EC deferred the bypoll citing inputs by the Jammu and Kashmir government that law-and-order situation is not conducive.
The by-election was to be held on April 12. The EC also pointed to the large scale violence which took place in Srinagar on Sunday during a similar bypoll.
In the Srinagar bypolls only 6.5 percent voters had turned out to vote which was the worst turnout in 30 years. The violence on the poll day claimed lives of eight civilians as the protesters and security forces clashed.
There were instances of hurling of petrol bombs at the polling stations. Protesters were trying to damage EVMs and thereby preventing voters from exercising their franchise in Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary seat bypoll.
Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah had asked who should be blamed for the mess Kashmir is in after record low voter turnout. The Congress has demanded resignation of CM Mehbooba Mufti for the complete failure on the law and order situation in the state.
It is noteworthy that June 1 has been set as the date by which election process should be completed in Anantnag. The Anantnag seat fell vacant in June last year after Mehbooba Mufti won the assembly polls and resigned from the Lok Sabha.
OneIndia News
Assam leads the way in controlling menace of illegal immigration from Bangladesh
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The BJP's vision document for Assam said that tackling the huge problem of illegal immigrants was one of the key issues that would be focused on. On Sunday, the Assam government came out with a draft which said that those marrying below the legally permissible age would not get government benefits. The rules also said that those couples with more than two children will also not be entitled for government jobs.
The main reason behind this new policy is to ensure that the population is under check. It also proposes to tackle the problem of population which is on the rise thanks to illegal immigrants. Several illegal immigrants coming in from Bangladesh obtain voter's ids and reap the benefit of government jobs.
There are several more measures that the government in Assam is taking to ensure that the problem comes to an end. For the Hindus in Assam the issue of illegal immigration is an emotive one. The state has a 34 percent population of Muslims. Out of this 10 per cent comprises Muslims who have migrated from Bangladesh and also have been given Indian citizenship.
There are many who have illegally immigrated from Bangladesh. Many have been given Indian citizenship and this has not gone down well at all with the Hindus in the state. The BJP had been promising all along that this issue is a top priority for them.
Apart from sealing the border with Bangladesh, it also proposes to send back some of the younger illegal immigrants. The BJP also proposes to bar those immigrants from Bangladesh who have been given voting rights.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 11:20 [IST]
Police response vehicles' pink avatar
In addition to the already existing 221 regular hoysalas, the city police's rapid response vehicle, 51 new hoysalas meant exclusively to address women and child safety was launched in Bengaluru on Monday.
Initiative to address women and child safety
The special response vehicle will function based on complaints registered through the Suraksha App or intimation to the police control room number. Women police personnel, at least three, will be mandatorily part of the response team to provide quick assistance to women and children in distress.
Police force gets 'Pinked'
The 51 vehicles will be stationed at different places frequented by women and children including places like parks where multiple instances of chain snatching have taken place. The vehicles will also patrol during the night to extend a moral support for women of Bengaluru.
Moral support for Bengaluru women
The hoysala can be contacted through Suraksha App which can be downloaded on smartphones. The app requires a citizen to provide their name and contact numbers of two persons who can be reached in case of any eventuality. The application is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
Suraksha app to the rescue
All that a citizen in distress has to do is press the app's button five times and an intimation along with location will be sent to the nearest response team. The Suraksha app will send out signals to the command centre which will dispatch police teams for help.
51 Pink hoysalas to help women in distress
The location of the person in distress can be found through a live vehicle tracking system. The staff at the command centre would also communicate the message to the nearest police station to extend help to the pink hoysala staff if needed, according to the city police.
Bengaluru police's women-friendly initiative
Due to staff crunch, women police will be part of the Pink Hoysala team only during the day. Given the recent allegations of mass molestations, harassment of women in the city, the pink Hoysala initiative comes as a confidence booster for the city's women and is contributing to the 'women-friendly' image for the city police.
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Bengaluru: Wedding called off due to food shortage, bride says matter of 'self respect'
India
oi-Preeti Panwar
Bengaluru, April 10: In a bizarre incident, a wedding in Bengaluru was cancelled following a tiff over shortage of food at the pre-wedding reception.
The incident took place at Soudamini Kalyana Mantapa in Konanakunte in South Bengaluru on Saturday.
The couple got engaged six weeks back and their wedding date was fixed on April 11. On April 10, the families of the couple were hosting a pre-wedding reception, when around thirty guests from groom's side were left without getting food, due to shortage.
Bride's family tried to convince groom's family that fresh food will be ready within few minutes, but they refused to budge.
Angered groom, who felt insulted, even threw away his garland and walked out, after which a war of words ensued between both the families. Then police had to intervene to resolve the matter.
Later, the groom's family said they are ready to ahead for the wedding, but by that time, bride had changed her mind.
Calling as an issue of self-respect, the bride said that she cannot marry a person, who can create a scene, just because the food got exhausted.
The incident grabbed media limelight in local news channels in Karnataka. Both the bride and the groom appeared in debate in news channels.
The groom even alleged that bride wanted him to stay away from his parents after their marriage and that was the main reason behind the cancelelation of the wedding. Later, he even asked media to convince him for the wedding.
The groom's family was from Yadalammanagara in Subrhamanyapura while the bride was a resident of Kanakpura.
OneIndia News
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Chidambaram knows better about black money, says Venkaiah Naidu
India
oi-Gulam Rabbani
New Delhi, April 10: Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Monday alleged that the black money surface during the UPA government tenure. The reaction came after the former Finance Minister P Chidambaram took to his Twitter handle and asked Modi if his demonetisation is for abolishing black money, then the money used for R K Nagar by polls was white money?
"We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?", Chidambaram posted.
We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money? P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 10, 2017
Naidu said that Chidambaram knows better that in Congress tenure, the black money surfaced.
He added that despite efforts to curb black money, if things like distributing money take place in Tamil Nadu, then they should answer the authorities.
Naidu said that the opposition claims on IT raids are baseless and added that the IT officials should be congratulated for the works they are doing.
On April 9, the Election Commission canceled the R K Nagar by polls after the cash-for-votes issue surfaced. The IT officials claimed that the money was distributed to the voters.
OneIndia News
Bharat Jodo Yatra will proceed to Srinagar, come what may, says Rahul Gandhi as march enters Maharashtra
Congress is 'heading in no direction' under Rahul: Rane
India
oi-IANS
By Ians English
New Delhi, April 10: Vishwajit Rane, who quit the Congress to join the BJP last week said "if Rahul Gandhi continues to be the leader of the Congress, then in the 2019 general elections the party would be reduced to 20 seats in the Lok Sabha".
"Congress has a non-serious leader called Rahul Gandhi. He is not serious about the people of the state who give you a mandate, not serious about government formation. He is not even accessible said Rane in Delhi.
Continuing his attack on Gandhi, Rane said: "Rahul should have been available on his phone when there were serious issues happening in Goa like election of the CLP leader, deciding unanimity and bringing everybody together, talking to the probable candidates."
IANS
Dalai Lama: Secular ethics is only way to bring lasting peace
India
pti-PTI
Tawang, April 10: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Monday wrapped up his four-day visit to Twang by giving a talk on Secular Ethics and Happiness. With Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu sitting by his side, the Dalai Lama told his audience at Kalawangpo Hall that secular ethics was the only way to bring lasting peace and happiness in the world.
"Peace in the post World War II world is built on fear, but genuine peace can only come through inner peace," he said and stressed that inner peace could come through training of the mind. The exiled Tibetan leader also emphasised that secular ethics must be achieved through education and not just prayers or faith.
Asked by a member of the audience what would be the state of secular ethics when the world was going through a clash of beliefs, the Dalai Lama said, "Nothing can destroy each other's beliefs. So the best way is to make peace and live together. A terrorist killing in the name of religion can never be true to his faith.
"However, efforts must be made to reach out to them as they are not born terrorists but circumstances had made them so," the Nobel laureate observed. He emphasised on education as the key to bring in human understanding and values.
The Dalai Lama lamented that the western nations were not helping understand the true values of education, due to which everyone is after material pursuit bringing untold human suffering. To a question on rituals becoming more important than wisdom or philosophy, his Holiness declared that rituals were not important and emphasised on the use of intelligence to transform emotions.
Earlier, the Dalai Lama released a book titled Ocean and Blue Mountains published by the department of Karmik and Adhyatmik Affairs in the presence of the chief minister and other dignitaries. The book title refers 'Ocean' as His Holiness and 'Blue Mountains' as the people of Arunachal Pradesh and is a collection of memoirs of the special bond shared between the two.
He also released a book titled - Crossing of the Frontiers describing his exile route from Tibet to India, published by Losel Nyinje Charitable Society and Monyul Social Welfare Association. Earlier in the day, the Dalai Lama gave his last sermon to the devotees at the Yid GaChosin monastery ground.
He distributed one lakh saplings to be planted in and around Tawang. On his way to the Kalawangpo Hall, His Holiness consecrated the statue of Lord Buddha at the heart of Tawang township.
PTI
Delhi: Tanzanian woman robbed; CCTV footage recovered
India
oi-PTI
New Delhi, April 10: A Tanzanian woman was allegedly robbed off her bag containing Rs 7 lakh and $6,000 and the passports of her family members in central Delhi's Karol Bagh area. The incident happened on April 7, the day a German national was robbed and attacked with surgical blades in north Delhi's Kotwali area.
The two accused in the German national attack case were arrested on Saturday and the robbed items were recovered. Tanzanian national Fatima is here, along with her family members, for treatment of a one-and-a-half-year old child.
They were supposed to return to Tanzania last week but since the treatment hadn't ended, they had to extend their stay. The incident took place around 10.53 PM on April 7 when Fatima was returning from the hospital to her hotel on Saraswati Marg in Karol Bagh, police said.
When she reached near China Town Hotel, two persons riding a motorcycle came from behind and snatched her purse containing 6,000 US dollars, Tanzanian shillings and around Rs 7 lakh in Indian currency, they added.
The bag also had her passport and the passports of three of her family members, said a senior police officer. The family is stuck here without their passports and money, he said.
Police have recovered CCTV footage from the area, but the registration number of the motorcycle isn't visible. The woman sustained minor injuries during the incident and was taken to Lady Hardinge Hospital from where she was discharged after first-aid, police said.
PTI
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 11:11 [IST]
'Democracy is alive', AIADMK MP Sasikala Pusha after EC cancels R K Nagar bypolls
India
oi-Anusha
Expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa appreciated the election commission's decision to countermand R K Nagar bypoll. The MP who had also filed complaints with the election commission on election malpractices within AIADMK as well as during campaigning in R K Nagar bypoll, claimed that the decision proved that democracy was alive in the country.
"This election was not being handled in a fair manner that is why the Election Commission of India intervened. Constitutionally, it has proved that our democracy is alive. I appreciate the EC's decision. This yet again proved that India is the largest democracy," Sasikala Pushpa said.
The election commission decided to call off the bypoll in R K Nagar constituency where the assembly seat fell vacant after Jayalalithaa's death. Amid allegations of crores of rupees being spent on bribing voters, the election commission countermanded the bypoll that was to take place on April 12.
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 8:13 [IST]
Doctor who treated Jayalalithaa, journalists on Vijaya Bhaskar's 'pay list'
India
oi-Anusha
Did Vijaya Bhaskar make payments to the doctor who treated Jayalalithaa? Documents said to have been seized from his possession suggest that Rs 5 lakh was given to Dr Balaji. The authorities are now probing details of two journalists who also are alleged to have been on the minister's payroll.
The documents said to have been unearthed during income tax raids on Tamil Nadu Minister Vijaya Bhaskar raised a stinker leading to countermanding of the R K Nagar bypoll. While some documents, according to the election commission, held details of money allotted to different leaders of the AIADMK faction to distribute to the voters, another sheet of paper holds details of alleged transactions between Vijaya Bhaskar and individual persons, accounts and institutions.
A balance sheet, this document details a date- wise transaction for the month of November 2016, the time when J Jayalalithaa was undergoing treatment in Apollo hospital. Out of the 21 transactions listed out on the document is a mention of Rs 5 lakh paid to Dr Balaji for 'expenses' on 'HM instructions'. The document details the opening balance for the month and the total debit and credit transactions.
Authorities probing the matter are also looking into the role of two regional journalists in Tamil Nadu who were on Vijaya Bhaskar's pay list. One of the journalists on the list is said to belong to a prominent regional media house and hails from Vijaya Bhaskar's native, Pudukottai.
Based on the document recovered from Vijaya Bhaskar's possession, the income tax department in likely to issue summons to all those on the list including the doctor and journalists. The detail of money paid to the doctor who treated Jayalalithaa has come against sparked off speculations on whether the fingerprint that the AIADMK claimed to be that of Jayalalithaa's, was obtained by force.
OneIndia News
EC doesn't want me to win, TTV Dinakaran on countermanding of R K Nagar bypoll
India
oi-Anusha
Hours after the Election commission of India countermanded that bypolls in R K Nagar, TTV Dinakaran claimed that the EC did not want him to win. Deeming the decision to cancel bypolls wrong, the Sasikala Natarajan camp's candidate said that they election commission cannot deny an election to the constituency.
"The election commission's decision is wrong. Even the EC doesn't want me to win. They can delay an election but they cannot deny the same," said AIADMK Amma's candidate TTV Dinakaran. It may be recalled that documents pertaining to details of money distribution to the tune of Rs 89 crore were recovered by Income tax officials during raids on Vijaya Bhaskar.
The Tamil Nadu health minister is a close aide of Sasikala Natarajan and TTV Dinakaran and was raided following complaints of money being distributed to voters in R K Nagar. TTV Dinakaran had all along rubbished allegations of his party bribing voters despite many being caught redhanded by observers as well as police.
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 8:40 [IST]
Former Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh to be cremated at Rampur on July 10 at 3 pm
Not bothered says Virabahdra Singh after being summoned by ED
India
ians-IANS
By Ians English
New Delhi, April 10: Justice has become rare in India said Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Virabhadra Singh who was earlier summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case. Singh said that he is not scared or bothered about the summons being issued.
He said that he has put out all the facts of the case. My conscience is clear, Singh also said while adding that Justice has become rare in India.
Earlier the ED summoned Singh for questioning in the money laundering case registered against him, his wife and others. The Congress leader has been asked to appear before the Investigating Officer on April 13 to get recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency had summoned him earlier too but he had then excused himself by referring to his official commitments. It has already questioned his wife Pratibha Singh and son Vikramaditya Singh.
In the first week of April, the Enforcement Directorate had attached Virbhadra Singh's Delhi farmhouse worth Rs 27.29 crore in the case.
The agency's move came after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet against Virbhadra Singh and others last month for allegedly amassing assets worth Rs 6.03 crore.
A court here on Monday fixed April 24 to consider the CBI charge sheet.
The ED had filed a criminal case under the PMLA against Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha, Life Insurance Corporation agent Anand Chauhan, his associate Chunni Lal, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Lawan Kumar Roach, Vakamullah Chandrashekhara and Ram Prakash Bhatia in 2015 following the CBI's FIR dated September 23, 2015.
The case was registered after a preliminary inquiry found that Virbhadra Singh, as Union Minister from 2009 to 2012, allegedly accumulated assets worth Rs 6.03 crore, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.
IANS
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Education, research cooperation key to India-Australia ties, says PM Narendra Modi
India
oi-IANS
By Ians English
New Delhi, April 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that cooperation in the fields of education and research is "one of the most important aspects" of India-Australia ties as the two countries signed six agreements, including on cooperation in fighting international terrorism and civil aviation security.
"Both India and Australia recognise the central value of education and innovation in the prosperity of our societies," Modi said while jointly addressing the media here with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull following their delegation-level bilateral talks.
"It is no surprise, therefore, that cooperation in the field of education and research is one of the most important aspects of our engagement," he said.
Modi said that the TERI-Deakin Nanobiotechnology Centre (TDNBC) that he jointly inaugurated with Turnbull following the talks was "a classic example of the kind of cutting-edge science and technology cooperation that is happening between our two countries".
TDNBC at TERI's Green Campus in Gurugram, Haryana, is a pioneer research centre in the field of nano-biotechnology research in India.
The centre offers joint Ph.D. programme by TDNBC, India, and Deakin University (DU), Australia, where selected students are provided fellowships, jointly supervised by both TDNBC and DU, and receive degree from Deakin University.
Modi said that the Australia-India Research Fund of nearly $100 million has focused on collaborative research projects in the areas such as nanotechnology, smart cities, infrastructure, agriculture and disease control.
"Our joint development of bananas fortified with Vitamin A has entered the phase of field trials. Our scientists are also collaborating on developing more nutritious and hardy varieties of pulses," he said.
Laying stress on students exchanges between the two countries, Modi said that while Australia was home to over 60,000 Indian students, an increasing number of Australian students was coming to study in India.
"Responding to the aspirations of India's youth, building world class institutions in India is one of the objectives of my government," he said, adding that he and Turnbull discussed ways by which Australian universities could connect and contribute to this goal.
On energy cooperation, the indian Prime Minister said that he was happy "that our dialogue and cooperation in other forms of energy including renewable energy is on the up-swing".
"I would also like to thank Prime Minister for Australia's decision to join the (India-initiated) International Solar Alliance (ISA)," he said.
"And, with the passing of legislation in the Australian Parliament with bipartisan support, Australia is now ready to export uranium to India."
Modi said that both India and Australia agreed on the need for a secure and rule based Indo-Pacific region.
"We are also aware that in this globalised world, challenges like terrorism and cyber security extend beyond the boundaries of our region," he said.
"Indeed, Prime Minister's (Turnbull's) understanding and insight into regional and global issues brings a new dimension to our cooperation on matters that concern us both."
Stating that maritime exercises and exchanges between the two countries have been productive, Modi said that "bilateral mechanisms on counter-terrorism and trans-national crimes are functioning well" and expressed pleasure at the signing of the MoU on cooperation in fighting international terrorism and organised crime.
He also called for working closely with with members of the East Asia Summit and the Indian Ocean rim countries to pursue common interests.
On his part, Turnbull appealed to universities and research institutes of both countries to focus on addressing critical problems.
He said Australia was helping India in its water management policy while sharing expertise in the area of renewable energy.
Congratulating Modi for leading the International Solar Alliance (ISA), Turnbull said that Australia would join the alliance soon.
Stating that trade in goods and services between the two sides stood at $20 billion, he said there was scope for increasing this.
"We are working working with India for a quality RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership)," he said.
RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian nations (Asean) and the six countries with which Asean has free trade agreements -- Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
The Australian Prime Minister arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit to India.
This is Turnbull's first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Prime Minister Modi's visit to Australia in November that year.
IANS
Mamata miffed for not being invited to be part of Bangaldesh PM's India visit
Indo-Bangladesh peace put in peril by rise in terrorism, extremism: PM Hasina
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia Staff Writer
New Delhi, April 10: On Monday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently on a visit to India, spoke on issues ranging from terrorism to water sharing at India Foundation Awareness programme, Delhi.
"We have comprehensively addressed India's security concerns. This has been a factor in trust building," Bangladesh PM Hasina was quoted as saying by ANI.
We have comprehensively addressed India's security concerns, this has been a factor in trust building: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina pic.twitter.com/OK4lQPSCCQ ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
"Our journey towards peace and prosperity is put in peril by the rise in terrorism and violent extremism," added PM Hasina.
Our journey towards peace and prosperity is put to peril by the rise of terrorism and violent extremism: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina pic.twitter.com/9bcz25s1p5 ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
The Bangladeshi PM said that both the countries had amicably settled land boundary and maritime boundary issues. "We strongly believe our common water resources must act as a uniting force. Comprehensive in-built solution to water sharing of all common rivers holds key to our common future," she said.
"On the river Teesta issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again reiterated his government's strong resolve to conclude the water sharing treaty at the earliest," PM Hasina added.
The Bangladesh government believes that once the water sharing issues are solved, the face of Indo-Bangladesh relations would undergo another transformation. "People of India and its government supported us wholeheartedly during the War of Liberation in 1971. Bangladesh Parliament recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as Genocide day in remembrance of Pakistan's atrocities against the Bangladeshi people," said PM Hasina.
"We want this genocide to be recognised by the International community. PM Modi has made commitment to remain with us in our efforts," she added.
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 11:08 [IST]
No surprises here: Mallikarjun Kharge is the new Cong chief
Is Shashi Tharoor joining BJP? Congress MP denies rumours
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia Staff Writer
Thiruvananthapuram, April 10: In Kerala, speculation is rife that Congress Member of Parliament from the state, Shashi Tharoor, is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party soon. Recently, Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that four Congress leaders from Kerala, including Tharoor, planned to join the BJP.
Writer and politician Tharoor is an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Lok Sabha constituency since 2009. The Congress leader, however, rubbished the rumours. In his Facebook post, Tharoor, wrote, "In view of the number of people asking, let me repeat that my convictions are a matter of record and they do not match those of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For 40+years I have spoken and written in defence of a pluralist India with equal rights for all its citizens and communities."
"On this, no compromise. Rumours of my joining BJP have been floated periodically with no basis whatsoever. I deny them categorically and without qualification," added the former United Nations diplomat.
The MP also tweeted to clear the air about the reports of him joining the saffron party.
1/3 In view of the number of people asking, let me repeat that my convictions are a matter of record &they do not match those of @BJP4India Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 9, 2017
2/3 For 40+years I have spoken&written in defence of a pluralist India w/equal rights for all its citizens&communities.On this,no compromise Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 9, 2017
3/3 Rumours of my joining @BJP4India have been floated periodically w/no basis whatsoever. I deny them categorically &without qualification. Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 9, 2017
Balakrishnan added that Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president MM Hassan had said that one of the Congress leaders joining the BJP was Tharoor. However, Hassan denied having made any such remarks when contacted by reporters.
"When media persons asked me whether the reports about four Congress leaders joining the BJP has come to his notice, I said there is no such thing," Hassan told PTI.
"When I asked him about such reports, he (Tharoor) told me that it was a propaganda by the BJP," Hassan added. Tharoor campaigned for the Congress-led United Democratic Front candidate for the April 12 bypoll in Malappuram.
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 6:42 [IST]
Jishnu Pranoy case: Family calls off indefinite fast
India
oi-PTI
Thiruvananthapuram, April 10: The family of engineering student Jishnu Pranoy, who had allegedly committed suicide, on Sunday night ended their indefinite fast after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assured them that all the accused in the incident will be brought to book.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called Mahija, mother of Jishnu, over phone and assured her that steps would be taken to book all the accused in the case. Jishnu's uncle Sreejith, while announcing the decision to the end the fast, said that government has accepted all their demands.
The decision of the family to end their five-day-old fast also comes on a day N K Sakthivel, Vice Principal of Nehru College of Engineering in Thrissur, an accused in the case, was arrested from Annoor, near Coimbatore.
Jishnu, a first year student of the college, was found hanging in the college hostel in January. A team comprising Special Prosecutor C P Udaybhanu had earlier in the day held discussions on behalf of Government with Mahija and Ashokan, parents of Jishnu, to end the fast.
Mahija and her brother were admitted to the Trivandrum Medical College Hospital on April 5, after they complained of uneasiness and body pain following the "high-handedness" by police against them while attempting to stage an agitation before the DGP's office here, demanding justice for her son.
Mahija's 15-year-old daughter Avishna, who was on a fast since the last four days at her residence at Nadapuram in Kozhikode district, also ended her stir following an agreement reached with the government, Sreejith said.
Sakthivel was arrested after the government formed a special investigation team and announced Rs one lakh reward to persons giving information on the absconding accused in the case. Nehru Group of Institutions chairman P K Krishnadas and Sajith, son of former state minister K P Viswanathan, have been already arrested.
Two more accused are to be nabbed. The issue had rocked the state since April 5 after police "forcefully" prevented Mahija and other relatives from staging a dharna before the DGP's office here. The police action had come in for criticism from various quarters with opposition Congress and BJP observing a hartal on April 6.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury had also spoken to the family on Sunday and asked them to call off the hunger strike. The Chief Minister on Sunday said the government and police were doing everything they can do to ensure that justice was delivered to the grieving family.
"Government will take all steps to get justice for the family", Vijayan said at Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district. Government had also accused the opposition Congress and BJP of trying to take political mileage out of the situation.
PTI
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 12:05 [IST]
Karnataka by-polls: With high voter turnout, have people voted for a change?
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The two constituencies in Karnataka where by-elections were held recorded a high voter turn out. While in Gundlupet the turnout was 86.28 per cent, in Nanjangud it was at 77.56 per cent. Results of the elections will be declared on April 13.
Experts say that the high voter turnout indicates that the people have voted for a change. While this is not a given that a high voter turnout is a vote for change, pollsters feel that in Gundlupet the fight was a tough one between the BJP and the Congress.
In Nanjangud the BJP seems to have the edge as it is banking on the popularity of Srinivas Prasad who is expected to see the party through. The BJP is trying to make inroads in Gundlupet which has traditionally been a Congress stronghold. The Congress is banking on the sympathy factor following the death of its MLA, Mahadevprasad. His wife Geeta was the candidate for the Congress.
In 2013, Gundlupet had recorded 84.85 per cent polling. Psephologists are of the view when the polling percentage goes up to 80 per cent or more, it is normally an indication that the people want a change or are venting their anger against the existing dispensation. The BJP which sounds confident of winning both the seats relied on statistics to proven its point. The party says wherever the polling has been above 80 per cent the party has won.
The Congress on the other hand points towards the high polling percentage in Nanjangud and says that this would benefit them. People have come out in large numbers to defeat Prasad, the Congress says.
OneIndia News
Learn how to beat heat, sun from these traffic cops in Gulbarga, Ktaka
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia Staff Writer
Bengaluru, April 10: Summers are the worst times for those who have to work outside, directly braving the scorching sun. From daily-wage earners to traffic personnel, many in the country have to work standing under the sun as temperatures in various parts of the country have crossed 40 degrees Celsius.
In Gulbarga, Karnataka, where recently the temperature has reached 42 degrees Celsius, traffic police personnel are not shying away from performing their duties. The police department has provided the cops with umbrellas, anti-glare sunglasses and water bottles to help them fight heat and sun.
"Karnataka: Traffic police personnel in Gulbarga provided with umbrellas, anti-glare sunglasses and water bottles to protect from scorching heat," reported ANI.
Karnataka: Traffic police personnel in Gulbarga provided with umbrellas,anti-glare sunglasses & waterbottles to protect from scorching heat. pic.twitter.com/ykQKThWUq9 ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
Like several parts of the country, Gulbarga is also experiencing severe heat wave conditions in the last few days. Recently, the city witnessed 42 degrees Celsius causing great discomfort to the residents.
The people of Gulbarga, located around 630-km away from Bengaluru, are also experiencing water crisis. In several localities, residents are not getting water for two-three days in a row. According to the met department, temperature will continue to rise in the city in the coming days.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 9:38 [IST]
Delhi metro just got more power
With prime ministers two nations travelling by it, the Delhi Metro essentially was the most powerful place on Monday. Prime Minister Modi led his Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull to the Delhi metro's blue line. Who needs luxury cars when Delhi Metro can do the trick.
Prime Ministers say 'cheese'
What's a first-time ride in a metro without the customary selfie? Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull clicked a selfie with Narendra Modi on Delhi metro even as bureaucrats who had accompanied both leaders stood by smiling. The prime minister duo knew how to make a picture perfect.
Off the metro, to Akshardham
The blue line of Delhi metro took the leaders to the renowned Akshardham Temple. Prime Minister Modi played guide all along. While both leaders were accompanied by the priest of the temple, the Indian Prime Minister was seen explaining about the temple to his Australian counterpart.
On the stairs of Akshardham
This is one rare sight indeed. Both Prime Ministers were clicked sitting on the steps outside the temple and indulging in a conversation. You do not see Prime Ministers sitting on the floor, barefoot, garlanded every day now, do you?
Akshardham's special VVIP visitors
The Prime Minister duo was welcomed with garland at Akshardham after which a buggy escorted them to the temple. Barefoot, the duo was seen offering prayers and posing for pictures. Malcolm Turnbull and Narendra Modi also conducted abhisheka for an idol inside the temple. The duo was taken on a boat ride around the temple.
MoP deadlock: SC goes ahead with appointment of judges
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
With non resolution in sight, the Supreme Court has started taking up pending recommendations and appointing judges to the higher judiciary. The names of several judges were stuck as the Supreme Court and the Union Government were unable to come to a conclusion on the Memorandum of Procedure.
The SC's Collegium had last week rejected several recommendations made by the government while appointing judges to the higher judiciary. The SC said that it cannot allow the government to have a veto power in the process. The SC is not in agreement with the National Security Clause that the government wanted inserted into the MoP.
The Collegium has over the past week held several meetings. It has already cleared the names of 43 judges to be appointed to the various high courts in the country. The Collegium also rejected a large number of recommendations that were proposed by the various high courts. This was meant to send out a strong message that due diligence must be followed before sending out recommendations to the SC. The highest number of rejections were from the Bombay High Court. In the case of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, all seven recommendations were cleared.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 8:50 [IST]
Mowgli girls grandfather identifies 'missing' granddaughter; wants to take her home
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia Staff Writer
Lucknow, April 10: Finally, it looks like the 'Mowgli girl' is heading back to her parents' house. The grandfather of the 9-year-old girl has identified his grandchild after seeing reports related to her on television and newspapers.
The girl, according to a report by The Telegraph is from Kamlapur village in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur, 285km south of the forests where she was found on January 20 this year. The grandfather said she went missing last year.
Hamid Ali Shah, the girl's grandfather, told The Telegraph on Sunday, "She had disappeared from home on March 28 last year. I've no idea where she was all these days and how she reached the forest in Bahraich."
Hamid and the girl's uncle Bhullar Shah came to Bahraich on Sunday to seek her custody. The authorities have asked them to go to Lucknow orphanage where the government had shifted her on Saturday.
The news of 'Mowgli girl', was reported extensively, even by foreign media last week, after doctors at Bahraich district hospital said the girl was 'brought up by monkeys', leading to her being dubbed 'Mowgli Girl'.
Earlier, a group of forest officials rescued the girl in the Motipur Range at the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary playing with a troop of monkeys. Reports said that she had injury marks on her body when she was rescued. The doctors, who treated her at the hospital, said that she showed a lot of behaviour akin to monkeys. The doctors added that she crawled on the floor and made screeching sounds like apes.
The doctors told reporters that she was raised by monkeys. However, later forest officials denied those reports. "She was falsely dubbed as a girl reared by monkeys. I heard doctors and senior government officials on television comparing her with animals. They tried to simplify the case to shrug off their responsibility to identify the child," Hamid said.
He said the girl was one of his son's six daughters. Her father, who also has a son, works in Delhi.
"We had registered a missing person case at the local Mungra Badshahpur police station the day (the girl) disappeared," Hamid said. "She would have returned home long before had people in responsible posts shown some honesty and sincerity."
The authorities at the Bahraich district hospital told the media that the documents shown by Hamid, such as her birth certificate and pictures, appeared authentic.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 13:07 [IST]
BJP wants Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, says Shah; asks other parties must make stand clear on the issue
No manifesto in last 48 hours before polling, EC tells political parties
'There is partnership between TRS and BJP', says Rahul Gandhi in Telangana
NDA meets under Modi to decide strategy for Presidential election
India
oi-Lisa
New Delhi, April 10: The Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance met on Monday ahead of dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to focus on strategy for the Presidential election in July and vice-presidential elections in August.
All 33 partners of NDA including Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray attended the meet held at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in Delhi. Sena was to initially boycott the meeting after its MP Ravindra Gaikwad was banned by airlines from flying after he assaulted an Air India employee. Sena attended the meet after ban on Gaikwad was lifted.
Union minister Arun Jaitley after the meeting briefed media that, "33 members of the NDA met today under the chairmanship of PM Modi."
33 members of the NDA met today under the chairmanship of PM Modi: Arun Jaitley pic.twitter.com/qXgnZEaBHM ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
Jaitley also informed that NDA members in the meeting passed a resolution that they will work together to succeed in 2019 under the leadership of PM Modi.
NDA members in the meeting passed a resolution: will work together to succeed in 2019 under the leadership of PM Modi pic.twitter.com/VQyauxtMOc ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 22:09 [IST]
Nitish Kumar will now campaign against dowry, child marriage
India
pti-PTI
Patna, April 10: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday announced that his government would launch a comprehensive campaign against child marriage and dowry like the one against liquor.
"We will run a comprehensive campaign against child marriage and dowry like the one against liquor," Kumar said in his welcome speech at the two-day Rashtriya Vimarsh (national discussion) to mark the beginning of centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha of Mahatama Gandhi.
"The way dowry demand is escalating really worries us ... We will run an intense drive against it," he said and also spoke about the malady of child marriage and stressed on the need to stamp it out. Kumar expressed commitment towards ideologies of Mahatama Gandhi and said campaign against social evils like liquor, dowry and child marriage were inspired by the Father of the Nation.
He dwelt in detail on steps taken by his government for women empowerment and boosting literacy among girls through schemes like free distribution of bicycle, uniform and books.
Gandhiji's grandson and former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Gandhians like Justice (Retd) Chandrasekhar Dharmadhikari, Justice (Retd) Rajendra Sachar, S N Subbarao, Sachidanand Sinha, Medha Patkar and Prerna Desai who were present on the occasion appreciated his resolve.
PTI
No respite: Now a polling booth at Pulwama, J&K set ablaze
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
There seems to be no respite in sight in Jammu and Kashmir. After Srinagar recorded its worst turnout of 6 per cent in the Lok Sabha by-elections on Sunday, violence broke out in Pulwama. A polling booth at the Government High School in Arihal, Pulwama was set blaze ahead of the by-poll for the Anantnag parliamentary seat.
Following the escalation of violence, internet services have been suspended in the Kashmir Valley till the by-polls are held on April 12. Kashmir University exams too have been postponed and a new date is yet to be announced.
Intelligence Bureau officials say that the violence was coordinated. It appears that the same was planned well in advance and a clarion call to disrupt the elections was given through social media channels. It is the same group of people who have been causing unrest in the Valley, the officer also added.
On Sunday 8 people were killed in clashes that broke out in Budgam district. Several people came out on the streets and clashed with security personnel in an attempt to disrupt the Srinagar by-elections. Srinagar witnesses its worst turnout in 30 years at 6 per cent.
OneIndia News
Perils of rumours: Meghalaya BJP mourns the death of Vinod Khanna
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia Staff Writer
Shillong, April 10: We are living in a strange time. Aren't we? When social media has taken control over our lives and all are leading a super busy life, there is definitely a shortage of time to verify facts.
Thus often rumours are believed to be true. Recently, the Bharatiya Janata Party unit of Meghalaya believed a hoax and even prayed for the 'demise' of veteran Bollywood actor and politician Vinod Khanna, who is very much alive.
In recent times, a viral picture of a very weak-looking Khanna, wearing the typical garment of a patient in a hospital, is doing the rounds of social media. After the picture went viral, there were rumours that the actor was dead.
However, soon his family members clarified that the 70-year-old actor-politician was undergoing treatment for severe dehydration. He is currently recuperating in the hospital, added family members.
Since Khanna is a BJP's Member of Parliament from the Gurdaspur constituency, thus the Meghalaya unit of the party thought that it was their 'duty' to pay tributes to their leader after believing rumours.
According to reports, Meghalaya branch of the BJP observed a two-minute silence for Khanna on Saturday who they thought had died. After the BJP leaders realised that they have committed a blunder by falling prey to a false report and not verifying facts, immediately issued a clarification to avoid further embarrassment.
They also issued an apology for the same and said the actor is responding well to the treatment.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 8:48 [IST]
Only 'Tai' can admonish me in BJP: PM Modi praises Sumitra Mahajan
PM Narendra Modi to release book authored by Sumitra Mahajan
India
ians-IANS
By Ians English
New Delhi, April 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday will release a book authored by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, officials said on Monday. Titled 'Matoshree', the book covers the life of Holkar Empire Queen Ahilyabai Holkar, according to a release.
The release of the book in Parliament Library Building would be followed by a play based on 'Matoshree'.
Directed by Rajan Deshmukh, the 105-minute play is a blend of all the elements of theatre, which not only makes the play a visual delight for the viewers but also inspires the artists and performers with its intrinsic message, the release said.
The play is divided in fifteen scenes depicting the struggles, predicaments and qualities of Ahilyabai Holkar who ruled the Holkar Empire spread over the Malwa region from 1767 to 1795.
IANS
R K Nagar by-poll to be held in June
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The R K Nagar by-poll in Chennai which was countermanded on Sunday is likely to be held next in June. A decision to countermand the elections was taken after the income tax raids that were conducted following allegations of corruption during the campaigning.
The Election Commission of India is currently assessing the situation and is likely to fix a date between June 4 and 6 for the elections to be held. The ECI after studying the report by the IT department found that large scale corruption had taken place during the campaigning. The elections were scheduled to be held on April 12.
The Election Commission of India said that the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors gets removed with the passage of time and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive to the holding of free and fair election.
Meanwhile the IT department will file a complaint against health minister of Tamil Nadu, Vijaybhaskar whose premises was raided last week. The IT department has accused him of manhandling a CISF personnel who tried to stop him from speaking to the media when the raids were on. The norm is that no person shall leave the premises while a raid is on.
OneIndia News
Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat shown black flags in Bihar
India
ians-IANS
By Ians English
Patna, April 10: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was shown black flags here on Monday by workers of Dharam Nirpekksh Sewak Sangh, police said.
Dozens of members of the newly formed DSS by RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav shouted slogans and protested against Bhagwat with black flags outside RSS's office at Rajendra Nagar here, a district police official said.
At least 10 DSS workers have been arrested, the official added.
According to BJP leaders, Bhagwat reached Patna by plane and he will leave for Deoghar on road to address a Hindu 'sammelan' (conference) there on Tuesday. "When Bhagwat visited RSS's office, some DSS workers tried to create trouble but failed."
Tej Pratap founded DSS to challenge RSS, spread a message of communal harmony and to strengthen secularism in Bihar and across the country.
However, Lalu told media that DSS has a right to stage protest."What is wrong with it. Bhagwat has been spreading hatred across the country."
Lalu said Bhagwat has began RSS's campaign for 2019 general elections by visiting different places. "Bihar is a different place. Bhagwat and his RSS will not succeed here. We had defeated RSS's game plan in 2015 Bihar assembly polls."
But senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Susshil Kumar Modi has warned DSS over protest against Bhaagwat. "If goons of RJD will do such thing, wee will not allow RJD ministers to visit any where in Bihar."
IANS
Drought-hit Tamil Nadu farmers stage nude protest against Modi govt
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia Staff Writer
New Delhi, April 10: On Monday, new agency, ANI, reported that farmers of Tamil Nadu had staged a nude protest demanding drought relief fund in the national capital.
"Delhi: Tamil Nadu farmers protest nude outside South Block, demanding drought relief fund," reported ANI. Almost 13 years ago, a group of elderly Manipuri women went nude to protest against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Imphal, the capital city of Manipur. The incident shocked the whole world.
Delhi: Tamil Nadu farmers protest nude outside South Block, demanding drought relief fund ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2017
Since March 14, a group of 80-odd farmers from Tamil Nadu are protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, demanding financial relief as they have lost their crops and savings in the ongoing drought in the state.
The peaceful agitation has brought a lot of attention as the farmers are protesting with skulls said to belong to farmers who had committed suicide in the state. However, the Centre is yet to address the grievances of Tamil Nadu farmers, rue the protesters.
Earlier, on Friday, as a part of their agitation, one of the protesting farmers wore a mask resembling Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The rest of the protesters were seen pleading in front of 'masked' PM Modi.
"We will continue to fight and protest, until our demands are met," said South Indian Rivers Inter-Linking Farmers Association president P Ayyakannu, who is leading the protest.
Recently, the Madras High Court directed the ruling AIADMK government to waive off loans of all farmers in cooperative banks. Earlier, the Tamil Nadu government waived off loans of farmers who owned five-acre of land.
OneIndia News
The real reason why Pakistan arrested Kulbhushan Jadhav
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Pakistan decided on Monday to go ahead and hang, Kulbhushan Jadhav, an alleged Indian spy. India said repeatedly when Jadhav was arrested by Pakistan in March 2016 that it was a case of mistaken identity. The arrest of Jadhav came at a crucial time when India wanted action on the Pathankot attackers.
After the attack at Pathankot, India had sought stringent action against the founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, Maulana Masood Azhar. India had even allowed a team from Pakistan to visit the air base to investigate into the case. However Pakistan refused to reciprocate and did not give the NIA a date and time to visit the country and questioned the accused in the case.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Pakistan a week before the attack. It was a well appreciated gesture by leaders from across the world. It appeared as though the talks between the two countries were being set on the right path. However the Pakistan's ISI and military then under General Raheel Sharrif were unhappy about the bonhomie. The first attempt to derail the talks was done in the form of the Pathankot attack.
India however decided that it would continue to talk and sought Pakistan's help to investigate the case. Although relations between the two countries were shaken, the two NSAs continued to talk.
It was decided that any bi-lateral would be held after Pakistan takes some action on the Pathankot attackers. India's NSA Ajit Doval continued to engage with his counterpart and he was assured of action. However the ISI then decided to derail the NSA level talks.
The arrest of Jadhav was the first provocation towards the same. He was picked up and a video of him confessing that he was a spy was released by Pakistan. The Pakistan army even went on to state that Jadhav was a spy planted by Doval himself. This did not go down too well with the NSA. The talks had been successfully derailed, much to the liking of the Pakistan army and ISI.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 18:28 [IST]
The sun is blazing, read how to keep that sunstroke away
India
oi-Anusha
Mercury levels are rising hitting new records in most parts of the country. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are seeing temperatures touch never before numbers and the situation is likely to continue or worsen. With deaths being reported due to heat waves, met departments at both, national and state levels are issuing warnings to citizens. In this summer, be careful about sunstroke that is a direct result of the heatwave. Here is all you need to know
How to identify a sunstroke?
Identifying symptoms on time can save a life. Look out for signs and help those in need. Symptoms include throbbing headache, increased pulse rate, dryness of the mouth, massive dehydration, partial or complete unconsciousness.
What you should do
When you experience any of the above symptoms move to a cool, shady place away from the sun. If you see anyone suffering from a sunstroke shift them to a place away from direct sun. First aid includes keeping the body wet by wiping it with a wet cloth. immediate consumption of salted buttermilk, coconut water, glucose or ORS water can bring some relief. Shift the person suffering from a sunstroke to the nearest hospital or health care centre.
How to save yourself from a sunstroke
Met departments of most states have advised citizens to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary to step outdoors. Citizens are advised to use cap, umbrella, scarves to cover their heads. Wearing light clothes, preferably cotton may help. Keeping oneself hydrated is of prime importance and carrying a bottle of water when stepping outdoors is advised. Heatwave affects people who are intoxicated faster and hence, it is advisable to keep away from intoxicating drinks.
While sunstroke can be dangerous and fatal, preventive measures can ensure protection from the same.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 17:55 [IST]
Time for a decisive strike on Pakistan: Former R&AW official
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
It is time for a decisive strike on Pakistan in the wake of the country deciding to hang Kulbhushan Jadhav says former officer with the Research and Analysis Wing, Amar Bhushan. He tells OneIndia that the options before India are very limited, but the better thing to do would be to send across a strong message through a decisive strike.
Pakistan normally does not care for world pressure. When they hanged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, there was a lot of international pressure, but that did not deter them. I think when the Ministry for External Affairs says that they would treat this case as premeditated murder, it is a very balanced approach.
India must take up the matter before the United Nations and also ask for independent observers. Pakistan is a rogue nation and only understands the language of guns. They have been trigger happy people who kill dozens of innocents in Balochistan, Bhushan says.
Bhushan says that India will either have to strike hard or get the international community to act. Relying on China is not an option though. China would only say that this is Pakistan's internal matter. I also feel that the matter should be raised with the Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. I am however not very hopeful that the Pakistan PM will be of any held considering how powerful the army in Pakistan is, Bhushan further adds.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 18:02 [IST]
TN minister Vijay Bhaskar reaches IT office for probe
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Tamil Nadu health minister, Vijay Bhaskar has reached the Income Tax office for questioning. His house was raided by IT sleuths last week. During the raids incriminating documents suggesting bribes being paid to voters were found. This led the elections to the R K Nagar constituency being countermanded by the Election Commission of India. Earlier actor-politician, Sarathkumar whose residence was also raided appeared before the IT department.
The IT department had also complained that the minister had pushed a CISF personnel when he was stopped from speaking to the media. During the raids conducted several incriminating documents had been seized. The names of several more ministers and MLAs were found as per the documents that are currently in the possession of the IT department.
Sources said that complaints are being filed against several ministers and MLAs following the raids. The IT department will conduct another raid. IT department officials recovered documents and other material which showed that at least Rs 85 crore had been pumped into the elections. While health minister Vijay Bhaskar's house had been raided, IT department officials say that this was just a tip of the ice-berg. More raids are in the offing, the official also informed.
OneIndia News
UP govt starts work on 6 AIIMS, 25 new medical colleges
India
oi-PTI
Lucknow, April 10: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath- led BJP government has started work on setting up six AIIMS and 25 new medical colleges in the state, one of the promises the BJP made in the run-up to the assembly polls.
"We promised to open six AIIMS and 25 new medical colleges in the state. We have started working in this direction. Once we shortlist areas for setting up these institutions, we will send a proposal to the Centre through the Chief Minister," Minister for Technical and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tondon Gopalji told a news agency.
He said AIIMS and medical colleges is the need of the hour keeping in mind the state's population and cater to their health needs. The institutions will be ready in the next five years.
Asked about poor quality of education being imparted to students in many engineering colleges across the state, he said: "Our priority is to improve the quality of education in all institutions. For this, we are focusing on filling up vacant teaching posts."
"I have directed to fill up 500 vacant posts of teacher before the start of new session," he added.
On students facing problems in finding job opportunities after pursuing courses in these institutions, Tondon said, "Once quality is ensured, the students will also be able to get good jobs in the market."
The government is also planning to hold 'rozgar mela' (job fair). These fairs will be started in the next three months to ensure that students of management and engineering get job, he said. There are more than 600 private and 13 government engineering colleges in the state.
The minister said besides free WiFi on college campuses, the government will set up e-libraries to keep students abreast of the latest developments.
Among other steps to be taken in the education sector, he said that infrastructure of polytechnic institutes will be bolstered and all their students will be provided hostel facilities.
PTI
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 11:36 [IST]
Chandra Grahan 2022: Check the start and end timing of lunar eclipse in major cities
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'Kejriwal ji, if my claims true, you'll resign and retire': Sukesh writes a new letter
Venkaiah Naidu launches 'Gandhi in Champaran' book in New Delhi
India
oi-Gulam Rabbani
New Delhi: After 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Champaran, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Monday released 'Gandhi in Champaran' and Mahatma series books at National Mahatma Gandhi Museum in New Delhi. The 'Gandhi in Champaran' book is written by DG Tendulkar, the noted author.
After launching the book, the minister said that "Happy to launch the heritage publications on the day that marks the 100th year of Champaran Satyagraha."
In a series of tweets, Venkaiah Naidu said, "Life of Mahatma is a valuable lesson of humanity, compassion & determination to achieve the desired goal through non-violence & inclusion."
Congratulations to @DPD_India, on the historic launch & hope they continue the good work publishing value literature #100YearsOfChamparan pic.twitter.com/GT4iCTlJsw M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) April 10, 2017
He also said, "Congratulations to @DPD_India, on the historic launch & hope they continue the good work publishing value literature."
Today in 1917, Mahatma Gandhi visited Champaran in Bihar state, where the farmers were forced to grow blue dye in three out ten parts of their lands. The man who alighted from the train in Muzaffarpur, began his first Satyagraha movement after he learned about the plights of the people caused by the Britishers.
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 12:01 [IST]
Honour to the actor
Singh presented a memento to the actor during the launch of web portal and mobile application Bharat ke Veer during the Shaurya Diwas celebration at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Sunday.
Picture credit: PTI
Mother of a veer
Singh with actor Kumar honours a mother of a martyr during the function.
Picture credit: PTI
Akshay salutes soldiers
The actor pays tribute to sacred soil of Sardar Post. "This website has been made exactly in two and a half months. About three months, this idea came in my mind, while watching a documentary film on terrorists, which showed how terror leaders financially support the families of terrorists." Kumar said at the inauguration.
Picture credit: PTI
A garland for the soldiers
Singh garlands the sacred soil of Sardar Post during the function. "Everybody wants to connect to people in uniform in their pain. It was a small dream and to fulfill this dream, our government really helped us. I want to thank everybody with my folded hands. My father was in the army and I am here as his son. Thank you, everyone," the actor added.
Picture credit: PTI
Book for the soldiers
Union Home Minister with Sudeep Lakhtakia, IPS , DG (OFF.) CRPF and actor Kumar released a book during the function.
Picture credit: PTI
West Bengal CM Mamata meets PM Modi, seeks release of funds
India
oi-Gulam Rabbani
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. After her meet, she said that they both discussed on pending projects and state share of Bengal. She added that the prime minister said he will try to consider it.
Mamata also said that she sought for the release of funds over Rs 10,000 crore under several centrally sponsored schemes. The chief minister also said that in her half-an-hour meet with Modi, she raised about the debt situation in the state.
She said that rs 10, 459 crore is pending from the Centre to the state and the problems arising due to lack of funds. Mamata who is on a four-day visit to the national capital on Sunday met Bangladesh Prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 12:14 [IST]
Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav, the man Pakistan framed
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
It was provocation at its best when Pakistan decided that it would hang an alleged Indian spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav. India has cried foul and even pointed out that at the time of his arrest, no consular access was granted. Not granting consular access itself is something suspicious, India had said.
Who is Jadhav and why has his case made headline today. He is an Indian citizen recognised by the government as a former naval officer. He was arrested by Pakistan on charges of espionage. Pakistan says that he was arrested near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Balochistan. India however says that he was abducted from Iran by Pakistan.
Pakistan accused him of being an undercover agent working for the Research and Analysis Wing. He was also accused of promoting sectarian violence in Balochistan.
An product of the NDA:
He joined the Indian National Defence Academy in the year 1987 and in 1991 he joined the Indian Navy. As per the video confession which India has said was doctored, Jadhav says he went undercover after the Parliament attack in 2001.
He says that he went undercover as Hussain Mubarak Patel to gather information for India.
As per the files in India, he took retirement from the Navy and became a businessman. He was in Iran for business, India also says. His family says that he was a victim of conspiracy.
Kulbhushan's father Sudhir Jadhav retired as an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Mumbai and his uncle Subhash Jadhav was in charge of Bandra police station in 2002.
OneIndia News
Why should my sons die in poverty, Lalu Yadav asks
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
I do not want my sons to die in poverty said former Bihar Chief Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav. He was referring to the businesses that his sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav were doing. Both have been accused by the BJP of corruption.
Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav are two of three owners of two acres land on the outskirts of Patna, worth about 60 crores. The third owner is their mother, Rabri Devi. The land is being developed into Bihar'a biggest mall by a legislator from Lalu's party, which is a member of Nitish Kumar's coalition.
Lalu said that half of the share in the mall being built will be of the builder, while the remaining half will be that of the company.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi alleged last week that the land was illegally transferred to Lalu's family as a favour. In 2008, while he was the country's Railways Minister, an entrepreneur named Harsh Kochhar was given a 15-year-lease to run two hotels for the railways in Puri and Ranchi. But before this, he sold the two-acre plot in Patna to a company owned by the wife of an MP from Lalu's party named Prem Gupta.
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 6:48 [IST]
"Will behead those opposing Ram temple," BJP MLA's hate rant
India
oi-Anusha
A BJP MLA from Hyderabad has landed himself in a controversy after issuing mindless threats to 'those opposed to the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya'. A video purportedly showing MLA T Raja Singh speaking during Ram Navami celebrations is said to have been shot on April 5 but is now going viral. The MLA is heard saying that "the heads of traitors opposing Ram temple will be chopped off." His remarks have now led to a case against the legislator for attempting to outrage religious feelings.
Based on a complaint by Amjed Ullah Khan, the spokesman for Majlis Bachao Tehreek, the Hyderabad Police on Sunday registered a case against the BJP MLA from Goshamahal constituency. The MLA has been booked by Dabeerpura police under IPC section 295A for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
The complaint against the MLA said that when the title dispute is pending in the Supreme Court, such statements by Raja Singh was a violation of the Supreme Court and demanded that action be taken against the MLA.
]"The day is not far..the dream of every Hindu of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Recently, a video came on WhatsApp from Uttar Pradesh and someone was heard saying if Ram Mandir is built in Ayodhya they will create 'tehelka' in the entire country. We welcome this. In fact, we were waiting for this day for the past several years so that when you traitors raise your heads, we will behead you," the MLA is seen saying in the video.
Singh remained unfazed about the complaint and said that he was willing to sacrifice his life for the cause of Ram Temple.
"We will not allow the people who believe in destroying this nation to stay in this country. It is our pledge to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya and we will abide by it. We can give our life for Ram temple and even take the life of traitors who oppose Ram temple in Ayodhya," he told the media.
OneIndia News
Chinese Navy statement:
A Chinese navy statement omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese ship whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates".
Omission of Indian Navy's role:
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation. Her comments came a day after the People's Liberation Army Navy said in a statement that it rescued the ship.
Chetak Helicopter anti piracy ops:
Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops.
Chinese earlier thank you message to Indian Navy
The Indian Navy said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment. At the end of the operation, the Chinese navy thanked the Indian Navy for its role in the operation.
Indian, Chinese navies rescue ship
Navies of India and China rescued a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden after it was hijacked by Somali pirates, in a well-coordinated operation which came in the midst of strain in ties between the two countries over a range of sticky issues.
Chinas bluster on Tawang and the Dalai Lama
The reported coordination among the navies came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, China's opposition to India's NSG membership and Beijing blocking India's effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
Alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death in Pakistan
International
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Kulbhushan Jadhav who was accused by Pakistan of being spy has been sentenced to death on charges of espionage. He was arrested in Balochistan in 2016 on charges of spying on Pakistan, a charge that India had vehemently denied.
India had on several occasions sought his extradition, but Pakistan refused to give in. The Pakistan media had been reporting that a dossier on him had been prepared following which he faced prosecution.
Pakistan had termed him as an agent of the Research and Analysis Wing. Pakistan had after his arrest released a video of him making a confession about him being an Indian spy. However India said that the video was a doctored one. The Indian agencies who conducted forensic examination of the video said that it was heavily doctored. It was said that at various points the facial expressions do not match what is being said in the voice over.
Jadhav was picked up on March 3 and his arrest was announced only on March 24 2016. This India had said only indicated that Pakistan resorted to third degree treatment to extort a confession out of him.
OneIndia News
Osama's head had to be pieced together for it to be identified: Ex-Navy SEAL
International
oi-PTI
The head of Osama Bin Laden was pieced together for it to be identified, an ex-Navy SEAL who was part of the operation claimed. He said that Osama's head was so badly destroyed by gunfire that they had to piece it together.
In 'The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Bin Laden', the former Navy SEAL Team 6 shooter lays out the details of what went down that night inside the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the New York Daily News reported.
In O'Neill's version, he was trailing five or six other SEALs climbing the stairs to the compound's second floor when Osama's son Khalid appeared on the half-landing with an AK-47.
The agents were able to lure Khalid from where he was hiding behind a banister by calling to him in Arabic, saying: 'Khalid, come here.' He shouted in response: 'What?' and emerged from his hiding spot, and was immediately shot in the face, the report said. Once upstairs, the men spread out to search the rooms.
In the compound with Osama were three of his four wives and 17 children. O'Neill kept his hand on the point man's shoulder. The two were alone on the stairway, convinced that whoever was on the third floor was strapping on a suicide vest for an explosive last stand.
O'Neill recounts that finally he decided to take action. He squeezed the point man's shoulder, the signal to charge and then burst past the curtain. The point man tackled two screaming women to the floor. Bin Laden stood near the bed, his hands on the shoulders of the woman in front of him.
She was later identified as Amal, the youngest of his four wives, the report said.
"In less than a second, I aimed above the woman's right shoulder and pulled the trigger twice," O'Neill writes. "Bin Laden's head split open, and he dropped. I put another bullet in his head. Insurance," he writes.
According to O'Neill, the other members of the team rushed into the room only after he placed a 2-year-old boy found covering in a corner alongside Osama's widow on the bed. A harrowing 90-minute flight returned the squadron to camp in Afghanistan.
O'Neill's book comes five years after "No Easy Day," fellow SEAL Mark Bissonnette's account of the operation. He agreed to surrender the USD 6.8 million in proceeds from the book for his use of classified information and violation of a non-disclosure deal.
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Story first published: Monday, April 10, 2017, 8:34 [IST]
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by Graham Pierrepoint
Fans of The Doctor and his time and space-travelling Tardis will likely already be on tenterhooks for the first episode of the tenth season of Doctor Who to arrive titled The Pilot, it will mark the end of an era for many fans on two distinct notes. Firstly, Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi will be departing this Christmas, while showrunner Steven Moffatt, who has been on-board as the shows lead since 2010, will also be passing the baton to Broadchurchs Chris Chibnall. The first episode of Moffatt and Capaldis final runs will debut on Saturday, April 15th on BBC One.
However, the fanbase has been lit up even further by news that a particularly recognizable villain from the shows past will be re-emerging in a future episode this season. This villain is none other than The Master but wait dont we already have his female incarnation, Missy, somewhere in the current canon? We do indeed but it seems that the previous Master, John Simm, will be back to give portraying The Doctors arch-nemesis one last shot.
Simm himself confirmed the news, along with Moffatt echoing the revelation, stating that the previous Master will be present alongside Michelle Gomezs Missy in the same season meaning that we may be in for some tricky time travel at some point during the run. Simms Master was last seen before Moffatt even became showrunner, bowing out in the same episode that Tenth Doctor David Tennant hung up his suit jacket meaning that, for many viewers, his return will be a real call back to earlier episodes in the NuWho run.
The Master has faced off against The Doctor in many different guises and forms since the early days of the show, and the twist that his most recent regeneration was female finally confirmed that Time Lords can regenerate from gender to gender and again giving weight to the theory that the next Doctor will be a woman. At present, it is still not clear who will take over from Capaldi at Christmas Capaldi himself was a last-minute favorite but comic actors Kris Marshall and Phoebe Waller-Bridge appear to be leading the pack, with Hollywood star Tilda Swinton having been fancied for the role early in the opening of the position. However, reports suggest that the BBC may be hunting for someone along the lines of David Tennant to recapture an audience from years past so whos to say literally!
#Moon-NK dogs Moon returns to state two dogs gifted by N. Korea's Kim Former President Moon Jae-in returned to the state a pair of dogs that he had been in custody of since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gave them as a gift in 2018, Moon's side and ...
#taxi Seoul to increase late-night taxi service amid shortage The Seoul city government said Tuesday it will expand the operation of late-night taxis to cope with the growing demand for taxi service during late hours. Currently, an average...
Mondaq 03 Nov 2022
A recent, preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European UnionOpens in new window (the "ECJ"), in response to a..
Air Compressor 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 6.18% and Forecast to 2019
Air Compressor Market
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Air Compressor Market 2017About Air CompressorAn air compressor takes in air at atmospheric pressure, compresses it inside a holding chamber, and converts it into high-pressure compressed air. Air compressors are used in several areas such as commercial businesses, jet engines, as well as in the manufacturing, chemical, and petroleum industries.Technavio's analysts forecast the global air compressors market to grow at a CAGR of 6.18% over the period 2015-2019.Request For Sample Report @Covered in this ReportThe global air compressors market can be classified into the following segments:By technology: PD air compressors and centrifugal air compressorsBy type: stationary air compressor and portable air compressorsTechnavio's report, Global Air Compressors Market 2015-2019, 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 in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key Regions Americas APAC EMEAKey Vendors Accudyne Industries Atlas Copco Ingersoll Rand Kobe SteelOther Prominent Vendors BOGE Doosan Dresser-Rand Ebara ELGI Fusheng Gardner Denver GE Hanbell Hitachi Hongwuhuan KAESER Kaishan Kirloskar Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shanghai Feihe Industrial Group Shanghai Screw Compressor Siemens Sulzer VMAC Wuxi Compressor YUJIN MachineryMarket Driver Need to Increase Energy Efficiency For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Challenge High Cost of Compressors For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Trend Growing Dominance of APAC For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey Questions Answered in this Report What will the market size be in 2018 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 vendorsComplete Report Details @Table of ContentsExecutive Summary02. List of Abbreviations03. Scope of the Report03.1 Market Overview03.2 Product Offerings04. Market Research Methodology04.1 Market Research Process04.2 Research Methodology05. Introduction06. Market Landscape06.1 Recent Developments and New Technologies in Market06.1.1 Heat Recovery from Compressed Air Systems06.1.2 VSD Compressors06.1.3 Oil-free Compressors06.1.4 System Controllers06.2 Quality Norms of Compressed Air and Gas06.3 Market Size and Forecast06.4 Five Forces Analysis07. Market Segmentation by Type07.1 Global Air Compressors Market by Type07.2 Global Stationary Air Compressors Market07.2.1 Market Size and Forecast07.3 Global Portable Air Compressors Market07.3.1 Market Size and Forecast08. Market Segmentation by Technology08.1 Air Compressors Market Segmentation by Technology08.2 Global PD Air Compressors Market08.2.1 Market Size and Forecast08.3 Global Centrifugal Air Compressors Market08.3.1 Market Size and Forecast09. Geographical Segmentation09.1 Air Compressors Market in APAC09.1.1 Market Size and Forecast09.2 Air Compressors Market in EMEA09.2.1 Market Size and Forecast09.3 Air Compressors Market in Americas09.3.1 Market Size and Forecast10. Key Leading Countries10.1 China10.2 US11. Buying Criteria12. Market Growth Drivers13. Drivers and their Impact14. Market Challenges15. Impact of Drivers and Challenges16. Market Trends17. Trends and their Impact18. Vendor Landscape18.1 Competitive Scenario18.1.1 Key News18.1.2 Mergers and Acquisitions18.2 Other Prominent Vendors19. Key Vendor Analysis19.1 Accudyne19.1.1 Key Facts19.1.2 Business Overview19.1.3 SWOT Analysis19.2 Atlas Copco19.2.1 Key Facts19.2.2 Business Overview19.2.3 Business Segmentation by Revenue 201319.2.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue 2012 and 201319.2.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue 201319.2.6 Business Strategy19.2.7 Recent Developments19.2.8 SWOT Analysis19.3 Ingersoll-Rand19.3.1 Key Facts19.3.2 Business Overview19.3.3 Business Segmentation by Revenue 201319.3.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue 2012 and 201319.3.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue 201319.3.6 Business Strategy19.3.7 Recent Developments19.3.8 SWOT Analysis19.4 Kobe Steel19.4.1 Key Facts19.4.2 Business Overview19.4.3 Business Segmentation by Revenue 201419.4.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue 2013 and 201419.4.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue 201419.4.6 Business Strategy19.4.7 Recent Developments19.4.8 SWOT Analysis20. Other Reports in this SeriesContinued.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.ADDRESS:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Flexible Packaging 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 5.62% and Forecast to 2019
Flexible Packaging Industry
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FLEXIBLE PACKAGINGThis report studies the Flexible Packaging on global market, focuses on the top players in US market and also the market status and outlook by type and application.Request For Sample ReportScope of the Report:Flexible packaging is a non-rigid method of packaging. Packaging products are made of flexible or easy-yielding materials that can easily change shape based on the nature of the product being packaged. Flexible packaging materials include plastic, aluminum, and paper. These materials undergo a detailed conversion process such as printing, lamination, coating, and extrusion to form different types of flexible packaging products such as plastic bags and pouches, lidding films, foil bags, and sachets.Technavio's analysts forecast the flexible packaging market in Europe to grow at a CAGR of 5.62% over the period 2014-2019.Covered in this ReportThe flexible packaging market in Europe can be segmented based on end-users and geography.Technavio's report, Flexible Packaging Market in Europe 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. It also covers the market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key Vendors Amcor Bemis Mondi Wipak GroupOther Prominent Vendors Bischof + Klein Britton Group Cellpack Clondalkin Group Constantia Flexibles Flextrus Huhtamaki Safta Schur Flexibles Sealed Air Corporation Sudpack VerpackungenKey Market Driver Increased Demand for Convenient Packaging For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey Market Challenge Rising Cost of Raw Materials For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey Market Trend Increased Demand for Sustainable Packaging For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey Questions Answered in this Report What will the market size be in 2019 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?Complete Report:Table of Contents01. Executive Summary02. List of Abbreviations03. Scope of the Report03.1 Market Overview03.2 Product Offerings04. Market Research Methodology04.1 Market Research Process04.2 Research Methodology05. Introduction06. Market Landscape06.1 Market Overview06.2 Market Size and Forecast06.2.1 Geographical Segmentation of Europe06.3 Western Europe06.3.1 Market Size and Forecast06.4 Eastern Europe06.4.1 Market Size and Forecast06.5 Five Forces Analysis07. Market Segmentation by End-users07.1 Flexible Packaging Market in Europe by End-users 2014 and 201907.2 Flexible Packaging Market in Europe by Food Manufactures07.2.1 Market Overview07.2.2 Market Size and Forecast07.3 Flexible Packaging Market in Europe by Non-food Manufactures07.3.1 Market Overview07.3.2 Market Size and Forecast07.4 Flexible Packaging Market in Europe by Pet Food Manufactures07.4.1 Market Size and Forecast08. Geographical Segmentation08.1 Flexible Packaging Market in Europe by Geographical Segmentation in 2014 and 201909. Buying Criteria10. Market Growth Drivers11. Drivers and their Impact12. Market Challenges13. Impact of Drivers and Challenges14. Market Trends15. Trends and their Impact16. Vendor Landscape16.1 Competitive Scenario16.1.1 Key Vendors16.1.2 Flexible Packaging Vendors in Germany16.1.3 Flexible Packaging Vendors in France16.1.4 Flexible Packaging Vendors in the UK16.1.5 Flexible Packaging Vendors in Poland, Russia, and Turkey16.2 Market Share Analysis 201316.3 Other Prominent Vendors17. Key Vendor Analysis17.1 Amcor17.1.1 Key Facts17.1.2 Business Overview17.1.3 Business Segmentation17.1.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue17.1.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue17.1.6 Business Strategy17.1.7 Key Information17.1.8 SWOT Analysis17.2 Bemis17.2.1 Key Facts17.2.2 Business Overview17.2.3 Business Segmentation17.2.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue17.2.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue17.2.6 Business Strategy17.2.7 Key Information17.3 Mondi17.3.1 Key Facts17.3.2 Business Overview17.3.3 Business Segmentation by Revenue 201317.3.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue 2012 and 201317.3.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue 201317.3.6 Business Strategy17.3.7 Recent Developments17.3.8 SWOT Analysis17.4 Wipak17.4.1 Key facts17.4.2 Business overview17.4.3 SWOT analysis18. Other Reports in this SeriesContinuedVisit to our official website on Linkedin@Continued.Buy This 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 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-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Agricultural Inoculants 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 8.78% and Forecast to 2019
Agricultural Inoculants Industry,Agricultural Inoculants Markets
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AGRICULTURAL INOCULANTSThis report studies the Agricultural Inoculants on global market, focuses on the top players in US market and also the market status and outlook by type and application.Request For Sample ReportScope of the Report:Agricultural inoculants are microbes which are formulated and applied to the seed or soil for promoting plant health and improving agricultural productivity. They could be bacteria, fungi, or other microbes, which aid in preventing disease, enhancing plant growth, and improving crop yield. They are available in solid, liquid, and freeze-dried forms. Inoculant standards have been changing and the frequency of their usage has also been rising.Technavio's analysts forecast the global agricultural inoculants market to grow at a CAGR of 8.78% during the period 2014-2019.Covered in this ReportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global agricultural inoculants market for the period 2015-2019. To calculate the market size, the report considers revenue generated from the application of seed inoculation, soil inoculation, and others.Technavio's report, Global Agricultural Inoculants Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers North America, Europe, Latin America, APAC, and MEA; it also covers the market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key Regions APAC Europe Latin America MEA North AmericaKey Vendors ABM BASF DuPont NovozymesOther Prominent Vendors Bayer CropScience BIO CAT BrettYoung Hancock Farm and Seed Monsanto Precision Laboratories TerraMax Verdesian Life Sciences XiteBio TechnologiesMarket Driver Increased Demand for Food For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Challenge Contradictory Inoculant Performance For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Trend Advances in Technology For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey Questions Answered in This Report What will the market size be in 2019 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?Complete Report:Table of Contents01. Executive Summary02. List of Abbreviations03. Scope of the Report03.1 Market Overview03.2 Product Offerings04. Market Research Methodology04.1 Market Research Process04.2 Research Methodology05. Introduction06. Market Landscape06.1 Market Overview06.2 Market Size and Forecast06.2.1 Geographical Segmentation of Europe06.3 Western Europe06.3.1 Market Size and Forecast06.4 Eastern Europe06.4.1 Market Size and Forecast06.5 Five Forces Analysis07. Market Segmentation by End-users07.1 Agricultural Inoculants Market in Europe by End-users 2014 and 201907.2 Agricultural Inoculants Market in Europe by Food Manufactures07.2.1 Market Overview07.2.2 Market Size and Forecast07.3 Agricultural Inoculants Market in Europe by Non-food Manufactures07.3.1 Market Overview07.3.2 Market Size and Forecast07.4 Agricultural Inoculants Market in Europe by Pet Food Manufactures07.4.1 Market Size and Forecast08. Geographical Segmentation08.1 Agricultural Inoculants Market in Europe by Geographical Segmentation in 2014 and 201909. Buying Criteria10. Market Growth Drivers11. Drivers and their Impact12. Market Challenges13. Impact of Drivers and Challenges14. Market Trends15. Trends and their Impact16. Vendor Landscape16.1 Competitive Scenario16.1.1 Key Vendors16.1.2 Agricultural Inoculants Vendors in Germany16.1.3 Agricultural Inoculants Vendors in France16.1.4 Agricultural Inoculants Vendors in the UK16.1.5 Agricultural Inoculants Vendors in Poland, Russia, and Turkey16.2 Market Share Analysis 201316.3 Other Prominent Vendors17. Key Vendor Analysis17.1 Amcor17.1.1 Key Facts17.1.2 Business Overview17.1.3 Business Segmentation17.1.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue17.1.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue17.1.6 Business Strategy17.1.7 Key Information17.1.8 SWOT Analysis17.2 Bemis17.2.1 Key Facts17.2.2 Business Overview17.2.3 Business Segmentation17.2.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue17.2.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue17.2.6 Business Strategy17.2.7 Key Information17.3 Mondi17.3.1 Key Facts17.3.2 Business Overview17.3.3 Business Segmentation by Revenue 201317.3.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue 2012 and 201317.3.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue 201317.3.6 Business Strategy17.3.7 Recent Developments17.3.8 SWOT Analysis17.4 Wipak17.4.1 Key facts17.4.2 Business overview17.4.3 SWOT analysis18. 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Clustering Software 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.23% and Forecast to 2019
Clustering Software Industry
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CLUSTERING SOFTWAREThis report studies the Clustering Software on global market, focuses on the top players in US market and also the market status and outlook by type and application.Request For Sample ReportScope of the Report:A cluster is a set of computers connected to form a single server resource for many web applications. Clustering is a method of transforming multiple computer servers into one group. The software is installed in each server that is connected to the network. The architecture of clustering software improves the performance and scalability of servers, and reduces operating costs. Clustering software also allows server developers, managers, or IT professionals to develop new technologies and integrate them with the legacy systems.Clustering is implemented at various levels of operating systems, which include hardware, OS, middleware, and systems management and its applications. The reliability of a cluster increases with the increase in the number of layers. The benefits of clustering software are: Optimal use of resources and their consolidation Improved scalability Centralized system management High processing capacity Geographical server presence Disaster recovery; clustering with built-in recovery features is used in most of the applications.A typical clustering setup includes: A disk shared between nodes A private heartbeat network between nodesTechnavio's analysts forecast the global clustering software market to grow at a CAGR of 4.23% over the period 2014-2019.Covered in this ReportThis report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global clustering software market for the period 2015-2019. It considers revenue generated from the following software segments: Parallel environment Workload balancing System managementIt considers revenue generated from the following OS used for clustering: UNIX Linux Windows Others: This includes mainframe, embedded, and iOSTechnavio's report, Global Clustering Software Market 2015-2019, 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 in the coming years. The report includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key Regions Americas APAC EMEAKey Vendors HP IBM Microsoft VMwareOther Prominent Vendors Fujitsu NEC Oracle Red Hat Silicon Graphics International SymantecMarket Driver Need to Reduce Downtime For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Challenge Slow Implementation Process and Long Revenue Turnaround Time For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Trend Emergence of Upgraded OS For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey Questions Answered in this Report What will the market size be in 2019 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?Complete Report:Table of Contents01. Executive Summary02. List of Abbreviations03. Scope of the Report03.1 Market Overview03.2 Product Offerings04. Market Research Methodology04.1 Market Research Process04.2 Research Methodology05. Introduction06. Market Landscape06.1 Market Overview06.2 Market Size and Forecast06.2.1 Geographical Segmentation of Europe06.3 Western Europe06.3.1 Market Size and Forecast06.4 Eastern Europe06.4.1 Market Size and Forecast06.5 Five Forces Analysis07. Market Segmentation by End-users07.1 Clustering Software Market in Europe by End-users 2014 and 201907.2 Clustering Software Market in Europe by Food Manufactures07.2.1 Market Overview07.2.2 Market Size and Forecast07.3 Clustering Software Market in Europe by Non-food Manufactures07.3.1 Market Overview07.3.2 Market Size and Forecast07.4 Clustering Software Market in Europe by Pet Food Manufactures07.4.1 Market Size and Forecast08. Geographical Segmentation08.1 Clustering Software Market in Europe by Geographical Segmentation in 2014 and 201909. Buying Criteria10. Market Growth Drivers11. Drivers and their Impact12. Market Challenges13. Impact of Drivers and Challenges14. Market Trends15. Trends and their Impact16. Vendor Landscape16.1 Competitive Scenario16.1.1 Key Vendors16.1.2 Clustering Software Vendors in Germany16.1.3 Clustering Software Vendors in France16.1.4 Clustering Software Vendors in the UK16.1.5 Clustering Software Vendors in Poland, Russia, and Turkey16.2 Market Share Analysis 201316.3 Other Prominent Vendors17. Key Vendor Analysis17.1 Amcor17.1.1 Key Facts17.1.2 Business Overview17.1.3 Business Segmentation17.1.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue17.1.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue17.1.6 Business Strategy17.1.7 Key Information17.1.8 SWOT Analysis17.2 Bemis17.2.1 Key Facts17.2.2 Business Overview17.2.3 Business Segmentation17.2.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue17.2.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue17.2.6 Business Strategy17.2.7 Key Information17.3 Mondi17.3.1 Key Facts17.3.2 Business Overview17.3.3 Business Segmentation by Revenue 201317.3.4 Business Segmentation by Revenue 2012 and 201317.3.5 Geographical Segmentation by Revenue 201317.3.6 Business Strategy17.3.7 Recent Developments17.3.8 SWOT Analysis17.4 Wipak17.4.1 Key facts17.4.2 Business overview17.4.3 SWOT analysis18. Other Reports in this SeriesContinuedVisit to our official website on Linkedin@Continued.Buy This 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 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-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Global Battery Storage Inverter Market 2016 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2021
Battery Storage Inverter Market
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Executive SummaryBattery Storage Inverter Market :-WiseGuyReports.com adds Animal Hospitals Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Request a Sample Report @Delivery of the Report will take 2-3 working days once order is placed.This report studies Battery Storage Inverter in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2017, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringDynapowerBosh (VoltWerks)SMAKACOParkerABBPrincetonEatonSUNGROW...By types, the market can be split intoSingle-Phase Electric PowerThree-Phase Electric PowerType 3By Application, the market can be split intoUtility ScaleCommercialResidentialBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaBrowse Full Report Details@Some Major Points from Table of Content:Table of ContentsGlobal Battery Storage Inverter Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Battery Storage Inverter1.1 Definition and Specifications of Battery Storage Inverter1.1.1 Definition of Battery Storage Inverter1.1.2 Specifications of Battery Storage Inverter1.2 Classification of Battery Storage Inverter1.2.1 Single-Phase Electric Power1.2.2 Three-Phase Electric Power1.2.3 Type 31.3 Applications of Battery Storage Inverter1.3.2 Utility Scale1.3.3 Commercial1.3.4 Residential1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Battery Storage Inverter2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Battery Storage Inverter2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Battery Storage Inverter2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Battery Storage Inverter3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Battery Storage Inverter3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Battery Storage Inverter Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Battery Storage Inverter Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Battery Storage Inverter Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Battery Storage Inverter Major Manufacturers in 20165 Battery Storage Inverter Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Battery Storage Inverter Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Battery Storage Inverter Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Battery Storage Inverter Market Share Analysis5.2 China Battery Storage Inverter Market Analysis5.2.1 China Battery Storage Inverter Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Battery Storage Inverter Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Battery Storage Inverter Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Battery Storage Inverter Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Battery Storage Inverter Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Battery Storage Inverter Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Battery Storage Inverter Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2016 Battery Storage Inverter Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Battery Storage Inverter Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Battery Storage Inverter Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2016 Battery Storage Inverter Market Share Analysis6 Global 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017 Battery Storage Inverter Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Battery Storage Inverter Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Battery Storage Inverter Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 General keyboard membrane of Battery Storage Inverter Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 Transparent keyboard membrane of Battery Storage Inverter Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.3 Simulation keyboard membrane of Battery Storage Inverter Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.4 Colorful keyboard membrane of Battery Storage Inverter Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.5 Other of Battery Storage Inverter Growth Driving Factor AnalysisPurchase a Copy of This Report @CONTINUEDMore about WiseGuyReports: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.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune 411028Maharashtra, India
Wealth in Singapore: Sizing the Market Opportunity 2017 | Market Research HUB
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Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently published a latest market study to its online portal, which is titled as Wealth in Singapore: Sizing the Market Opportunity 2017 This study offers professional analysis of the current state of Wealth Market.Request Free Sample Report@Wealth in Singapore: Sizing the Market Opportunity 2017" analyzes the Singaporean wealth and retail savings and investments markets, with a focus on the HNW segment. The report is based on our proprietary datasets.Singapore is Asias pre-eminent offshore investment center, with 80% of the wealth invested in funds sourced from non-residents in 2015. However, the onshore market is a major source of assets under management (AUM) in its own right, with 1.2 million affluent individuals in 2016 despite the city states small population. An onshore operation is clearly worth the effort for any wealth manager targeting mass affluent investors.Specifically the report -- Sizes the affluent market (both by number of individuals and the value of their liquid assets) using our proprietary datasets.- Analyzes which asset classes are favored by Singaporean investors and how their preferences impact the growth of the total savings and investments market.- Examines HNW clients attitudes towards non-traditional investments, such as property and commodities.- Identifies key drivers and booking centers for offshore investments.- Examines the tax landscape in Singapore and future implications for investors.Scope- HNW individuals totaled 29,660 in 2016 - little changed from 2015, a tiny proportion of the overall population, and well below the levels seen in other wealth hubs such as the US and Switzerland.- HNW liquid assets growth will slow to 7.0% a year between 2015 and 2020.- Bonds will be the fastest-growing asset class, but more due to greater availability than client demand.- While Singapore attracts significant offshore investment, HNW residents are also keen to invest abroad, with almost half of AUM invested offshore.Reasons to buy- Benchmark your share of the Singaporean wealth market against the current market size.- Forecast your future growth prospects using our projections for the market to 2020.- Identify your most promising client segment by analyzing penetration of affluent individuals in Singapore.- Evaluate your HNW proposition by understanding how the Singaporean tax system impacts HNW clients.- Review your offshore strategy by identifying HNW motivations for offshore investments and their preferred booking centers.Buy Full Report@About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of Market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Details:90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Follow Us on:LinkedIn:Facebook:Twitter:
Pallet Market in Europe 2016-2020 - Provides Key Company Analysis ( CHEP, PGS, Rehrig Pacific, Schoeller Allibert, SSI SCHAEFER )
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Albany, NY, April 10, 2017: The growing need for safe, efficient, and easier transportation solutions, especially in end-user industries like dairy, cement, retail, chemical, automobile, and food and beverage, has benefitted the pallet market significantly. Manufacturers focus on increasing the quality and durability of pallets. There are increased instances of pallet production from recovered pallets. Though this indicates that vendors are making efforts to increase pallet quality, it will result in a declined rate of YOY production of new pallets. Pallet manufacturers are vertically integrating to develop sawmill and logging capabilities to tackle the shortage of raw materials and rising lumber prices.The pallet market in Europe to grow at a CAGR of 5.57% during the period 2016-2020. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the pallet market in Europe for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers only the new pallets produced in the industry.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Eastern Europe- Western EuropeGet a Sample Research PDF with TOC:Technavio's report, pallet market in Europe 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- CHEP- PGS- Rehrig Pacific- Schoeller Allibert- SSI SCHAEFEROther prominent vendors- CABKA-IPS- Corrugated Pallets- Craemer Holding GmbH- Euro Pool System International- Faber Halbertsma- Falkenhahn- HTR Paletten-Service- INKA Paletten- IP- Marko KEA- ORBIS- Prioridades Ecolgicas- Rotom- SchrothEnquiry 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?Browse detailed report description at: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:
Global Disposable Medical Supplies Industry 2016 Growth Volume, Retail Pricing & Market Types
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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Disposable Medical Supplies Market Research Report 2016" to its huge collection of research reports.This research report gives a definitive review on the Disposable Medical Supplies as in light of a segmented pattern. Entry variables managed in the report incorporate the distinctive services or products offered by the market players alongside the free market activity scales for current market measurements, in addition to anticipated market insights. The Disposable Medical Supplies is thus examined first in an authentic sense by getting together all important information in the course of recent years, and after that moves on to the market's future which is a revelatory examination in view of momentum numbers and patterns. The elucidation of each outcome is left to the client who can take their business strategy to the next level in light of the given data.Get sample report @The geographical examination of the Disposable Medical Supplies is directed utilizing different key regions in view of mainland diversities and different variables. For each key locale, the report gives information in general request, its development and the elements that impact it, the relative nearness of key global players and regional ones, and the rate at which every area advances in the market as far as innovative work endeavors. The competitive scene of the Disposable Medical Supplies is broken down utilizing systems, for example, the SWOT investigation, giving the report's clients a top notch point of view of all available data and what it might be molded like sooner rather than later. The Disposable Medical Supplies is likewise portrayed on the premise of its industry chain structure, in however much detail as could reasonably be expected.Browse full table of contents and data tables of Report @Table of ContentsGlobal Disposable Medical Supplies Market Research Report 20161 Disposable Medical Supplies Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Disposable Medical Supplies1.2 Disposable Medical Supplies Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Disposable Medical Supplies by Type in 20151.2.2 Type I1.2.3 Type II1.2.4 Type III1.3 Disposable Medical Supplies Segment by Application1.3.1 Disposable Medical Supplies Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Application 11.3.3 Application 21.3.4 Application 31.4 Disposable Medical Supplies 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 Disposable Medical Supplies (2011-2021)2 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Disposable Medical Supplies Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Disposable Medical Supplies Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Disposable Medical Supplies Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Disposable Medical Supplies Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2011-2016)3.1 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Production and Market Share by Region (2011-2016)3.2 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2011-2016)3.3 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.4 North America Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.5 Europe Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.6 China Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.7 Japan Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.8 Southeast Asia Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.9 India Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)4 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.1 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Consumption by Regions (2011-2016)4.2 North America Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.3 Europe Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.4 China Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.5 Japan Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.6 Southeast Asia Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.7 India Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)5 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)5.2 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)5.3 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Price by Type (2011-2016)5.4 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Production Growth by Type (2011-2016)6 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Consumption and Market Share by Application (2011-2016)6.2 Global Disposable Medical Supplies Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2011-2016)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesAbout UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Phycocyanin Market 2017 - DIC, Wuli Lvqi, Norland, Japan Algae, Ozone Naturals, Parry Nutraceuticals, EcoFuel Laboratories, King Dnarmsa Spirulina
Phycocyanin Market
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This report studies Phycocyanin in Global market, especially in USA, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2011 to 2015, and forecast to 2021.Globally, the Phycocyanin industry market is concentrated as the manufacturing technology of Phycocyanin. As for consumption market, the global market sales were 112 MT Phycocyanin in 2015, which was much higher than that of 91MT in 2011. The global sales revenue was 34 M USD in 2015, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 1% from 2016 to 2022.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :Top Manufacturers Analysis Of This ReportDICJapan AlgaeParry NutraceuticalsOzone NaturalsEcoFuel LaboratoriesNan Pao International BiotechKing Dnarmsa SpirulinaZhejiang Binmei BiotechnologyWuli LvqiNorlandThe report studies the industry for Phycocyanin across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Phycocyanin market & dynamics of demand and supply of Phycocyanin into consideration. The 'Phycocyanin' research study covers each and every aspect of the Phycocyanin market globally, which starts from the definition of the Phycocyanin industry and develops towards Phycocyanin market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Phycocyanin market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Phycocyanin market. The geographical segmentation of the Phycocyanin industry has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the worldwide market for Phycocyanin is determined by evaluating the various industry participants, production capacity, Phycocyanin market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Phycocyanin market worldwide.Enquire Here :The global Phycocyanin market 2017 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Phycocyanin production volume, data regarding demand and Phycocyanin supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Phycocyanin across the globe.About UsApexResearch offer reports from top publishers and update to serve you with immediate on-line access to professional insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezBusiness Development Executive| sales@apexresearch.biz
Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Market: Impressive Performance of Greece Market despite Economic Volatility
Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Market
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Melanoma is primarily linked to prolonged exposure to UV radiation during childhood and this preventable skin condition has been on a rise in recent years. A significant spike in the incidence rate of melanoma has driven the need for effective and swift detection tools and techniques. Early detection of melanoma is crucial for improved prognosis and this can be achieved by skin surveillance and screening. This growing need, coupled with an increase in efforts to improve the awareness levels about this skin condition, has spurred the trend of early diagnosis. This has, in turn, driven the demand for mobile applications used for the detection of melanoma in Europe as well as Israel.Regionally, the market for mobile applications for melanoma detection is split into Europe and Israel. Europe accounts for the dominant share and the opportunity in this market is slated to be worth US$1.4 mn by 2022. While the mobile application market for melanoma detection in Europe is fueled by the surge in mHealth trends and rising incidence of melanoma, it is significantly driven by the performance of the market in Greece.Read Full Report:Despite the economic volatility in Greece, the market for mobile applications for melanoma detection will continue to witness growth owing to the development of eHealth infrastructure in the country and rising number of melanoma cases. Growing smartphone penetration is also a key factor driving the Greece market for mobile applications for melanoma detection. In addition to this, a high doctor-patient ratio has enabled the establishment of a strong network of doctors dedicated toward the detection of melanoma through mobile health services.The Rest of Europe comprises several key markets for mobile applications for melanoma detection: Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, the U.K., Norway, and Sweden. High internet and smartphone penetration and rising incidence rate and mortality rate of melanoma are the major growth boosters.Israel is anticipated to witness impressive growth during the forecast period, exhibiting a 61.2% CAGR from 2014 to 2022. The rising prevalence of melanoma has been the primary driving factor in this region, especially based on information provided by the Israel Cancer Association. The organization states that in 2012 alone, nearly 1,300 new cases of malignant melanoma were reported in the country. This has resulted in increasing awareness among the general population regarding self-screening and early detection of cancer.Download exclusive Sample of this report:Rapid expansion of 3G and 4G networks and several government initiatives have also supported the development of the mobile applications market for melanoma detection in Israel. Google Inc.s research titled Our Mobile Planet finds that the smartphone penetration rate in the country crossed 56.0% in 2013. These factors are slated to drive the regional market to reach a value of US$77,765.3 by 2022.Some of the leading mobile applications for melanoma detection in Europe and Israel are Dermatology Planet, UMSkinCheck, Mole Check, Skin Tagger, Track-A-Mole, SkinVision, Spot Mole, Skin Scanner, NAvus, SpotCheck, Mole Monitor, Mole Checker, Mole Checker/Stroika, FotoSKin, Melanoma Watch, Skin Mole Analysis, YourSkinDiary, OnlineDermClinic, Dr. Mole, Mollies Fund, MoleQuest, Skin Analytics, Spot Mole Plus, Skin Cancer, Skin Doctor, Skin Of Mine, iSkin, MoleTrac, Mole Doctor, Skin Prevention, and LovemySkin.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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.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:
Integration of Vernacular Medical Assistance in Defibrillators Proves Beneficial for Saudi Arabia Market
Saudi Arabia Defibrillators Market
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Technological advancements in the research and development of defibrillators have been the primary growth driver for the defibrillators market across Saudi Arabia. Integration of vernacular medical assistance that provides audio and video help to paramedics has completely revolutionized the Saudi Arabia defibrillators market. Earlier, with only English being the language used for medical assistance, only the skilled professionals could use defibrillators. However, the addition of local languages as made is possible for a lesser-skilled person to use AEDs or ALS in the case of sudden cardiac arrests (SCA) as well. This has resulted in an increased uptake of defibrillators in both public and private institutions.The opportunity in the Saudi Arabia defibrillators market is anticipated to be worth US$49.8 mn by 2020 as it rises from US$28.6 mn in 2013. Through the forecast period of 2014 and 2020, the overall market is likely to expand at a CAGR of 8.3%. The global market is also anticipated to thrive as the government and private sector are making efforts to improve public safety solutions. For the same purpose, in 2011, Gulf Air installed Philips AEDs in all of its airplanes to assure onboard passengers of their safety in case of a cardiac arrest mid-air. Furthermore, the adoption of defibrillators at religious places in Saudi Arabia has also boosted the overall market.Read Full Report:The Saudi Arabia defibrillators market includes two main products: automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and advanced life support (ALS) defibrillators. The AED segment is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 18.1% between 2014 and 2020. The growing efforts by key players operating in this market segment such as efforts to establish strong distribution networks will boost the sales of AEDs. Furthermore, to compensate for the dipping sales in developed markets, manufacturers are intensifying their investments and operations in this market.The ALS defibrillators segment, on the other hand, is anticipated to rise at a CAGR of 5.9%, but is expected to garner higher revenues. The electrodes version of ALS defibrillators is preferred over paddles as it allows a unified shock therapy in the case of a sudden cardiac arrest. The growing campaigns and awareness programs conducted by private as well as public institutes about SCA and the appropriate reaction to save a life has augmented the demand for both these products.Download exclusive Sample of this report:In the past few years, ALS defibrillators have been used by medical practitioners in ambulances and in hospitals to save lives in the event of sudden cardiac arrests. Thus, hospitals have been the significant users of defibrillators historically. The requirement of trained professionals to operate defibrillators in order to obtain exact results has also contained the scope of their usage to the healthcare sector, thereby fostering the adoption of defibrillators within hospitals to a large extent. Analysts predict that adoption of AEDs and ALS will go up in the coming years as several health institutions in Saudi Arabia are expected provide adequate training with respect to CPR delivery and attachment of paddles or electrodes to in victim in the case of emergencies.Some of the key players operating in the Saudi Arabia defibrillators market are iotronik SE & Co. KG, Defibtech, LLC, Cardiac Science Corporation, Nihon Kohden Corporation, GE Healthcare, HeartSine Technologies, Inc., Mindray Medical International Ltd., Philips Healthcare, and Schiller AG. Research states that product innovation and manufacturing top-of-the-line products will help these companies to beat the intensive competition and emerge as leaders in the long run. Incorporating features such as telemedicine or remote patient monitoring are also anticipated to drive the global market in the coming years.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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.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:
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Machine Market Research Report by Key Players Analysis 2024
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Machine Market
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Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), also referred as extracorporeal life support (ECLS), is an extracorporeal (occurring outside the body) method of providing both respiratory and cardiac support to the persons whose lungs and heart are unable to perform optimum gas exchange to sustain life. This system offers heart-lung bypass support outside the persons body. The ECMO system is finding more applications in adults with respiratory and cardiac failure, than children, as it has been mostly used earlier. The ECMO machine is similar to a heart-lung bypass machine used in open-heart surgery. The ECMO machine is exclusively a life-sustaining intervention, and usually used in the later treatment of a person having lung or heart failure. The machine functions by taking out blood from the persons body and artificially oxygenates the red blood cells and eliminates the carbon di oxide.The growth of ECMO machine market is attributed to rising respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases coupled with surging frequency of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The adoption of unhealthy lifestyle and the associated ill effects resulting in lifestyle disorders are likely to further amplify the COPD incidence rate. The most recognized risk factors, such as increasing smoking trend and tobacco consumption in both males and females are the high impact factors fueling the growth of market significantly. Additionally, the growing geriatric population and rising number of people suffering with diseases in populous countries are expected to drive the market growth. ECMO machines are used for patients suffering with respiratory complications, it is regularly used for pediatric, neonate, and adult patients due to the subtle nature of this target population, the demand for these machines and their adoption rate is set to escalate.Read Full Report:Increasing uptake of these machines because of the related benefits has initiated the technological advancements utilized in the ECMO machines. The growing number of ECMO centers, growing adoption of ECMO as a link to lung transplantation, along with technological refinements underway, offers lucrative growth opportunities to the market. However, technical failures associated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine along with the complications such as infections, bleeding, etc. may hamper the growth of market. Furthermore, lack of skilled professionals and high cost are other factors restraining growth of the market.The global extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine market can be segmented on the basis of modality in to arterio-venous (AV), veno-venous (VV), and veno-arterial (VA), depending on the different ways of ECMO circuit set up. They are engaged to enable the process of gas exchange and offer hemodynamic support to the patients suffering with cardiac or respiratory failure. The considerable market share of veno-venous (VV) segment can be attributed to the increasing lung transplants, rising incidence of respiratory failure coupled with technological advancements. The market can be further segmented on the basis of applications in to Cardiac, Respiratory, and Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR). These segments can be further categorized as adult, pediatric, and neonate application areas. The respiratory-based segment is the major shareholding segment attributed to rising prevalence of COPD, growing number of patients suffering from respiratory disorders such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The extensive upsurge in health awareness are expected to propel the market growth significantly. Geographically, the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine market can be segmented in to five regions, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. North America region is dominating the market due to availability of advanced and well developed facilities in hospitals, government funding, well-built reimbursement network, and encouraged adoption of ECMO machines. Asia Pacific region is projected to witness rapid growth in the market due to increase in number of patients suffering with cardiopulmonary conditions, like asthma, emphysema chronic bronchitis, and respiratory failure.Key players of the global extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine market are LivaNova PLC, Medtronic plc, EUROSETS S.r.l, ALung Technologies, Inc., OriGen Biomedical, Inc., NIPRO Corporation, MicroPort Scientific Corporation, Getinge Group, Terumo Corporation, XENIOS AG, and others.Download exclusive Sample of this report: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.The study is a source of reliable data on:- Market segments and sub-segments- Market trends and dynamics- Supply and demand- Market size- Current trends/opportunities/challenges- Competitive landscape- Technological breakthroughs- Value chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:- North America (U.S. and Canada)- Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)- Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)- Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)- Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)- Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.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:
Transdermal Scopolamine Market: Asia Pacific to Provide Most Promising Opportunities for Growth
Transdermal Scopolamine Market
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The global market for transdermal scopolamine is witnessing a remarkable rise, thanks to rising awareness among consumers regarding it being highly effective in treating motion sickness. The increasing number of travelers across the world is adding substantially to the growth of this market. Transdermal scopolamine also finds application during surgeries as it helps in avoiding hyper salivation and aids in recovery from post-operative and anesthesia-induced nausea and vomiting. As a result of the noticeable rise in the number of surgeries performed globally, the demand for transdermal scopolamine has also increased considerably across the world.Researchers expect this market to remain registering exceptional growth over the forthcoming years. However, the rising reports of side-effects, such as drowsiness, retarded motion, and diluted pupils while using transdermal scopolamine patches, may limit their uptake to some extent in the near future. Apart from this, the increasing cases of adverse withdrawal symptoms for transdermal scopolamine patches and the presence of stringent laws and regulations in manufacturing and marketing of transdermal scopolamine products may hinder the markets growth in the long run. The market, which stood at a value of US$330.0 mn in 2015, is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 6.70% from 2016 to 2024 and reach US$585.3 mn by the end of 2024.Read Full Report:Geographically, the worldwide transdermal scopolamine market is classified into Latin America, North America, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and Asia Pacific. With a well-established healthcare industry, high healthcare expenditure, and soaring usage of transdermal scopolamine in surgeries and post-operative recovery, North America has been leading the global market.Progressing at a CAGR of 6.40% between 2016 and 2024, the regional market is likely to retain its lead over the forthcoming years. Although transdermal scopolamine is off patent now it was introduced in 1981 it has very few generics available in the market, which is leading to a stagnancy in the North American market, pointing towards a moderate future growth. Europe, however, is expected to contribute significantly to the growth of the global market in the years to come. With a massive number of travelers and a state-of-art healthcare industry, Western Europe is projected to drive the Europe transdermal scopolamine market over the next few years.Download exclusive Sample of this report:With the increasing expenditure on healthcare, infrastructural developments in the healthcare industry, and the rising emphasis on community healthcare in emerging economies, such as China and India, Asia Pacific is expected to provide the most promising growth opportunities to players in the near future. The number of small- and medium- scale players, offering their transdermal scopolamine patches in this region, has increased substantially, making a competitive environment, which is likely to drive the Asia Pacific market for transdermal scopolamine further in the years to come. Amongst other, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa are anticipated to witness steady growth in their markets for transdermal scopolamine over the coming years, thanks to the rising number of travelers and the increasing focus of key industry players on these regions.Baxter International Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG, Perrigo Co. Plc, Caleb Pharmaceuticals Inc, and Myungmoon Pharma Co. Ltd. are the leading players operational in the global transdermal scopolamine 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. 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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.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:
Virus Clearance Market is driven by rise in demand in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Industries
Virus Clearance Market
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Virus elimination and inactivation continue to emerge as an important factor in overall bioprocess safety. As bioprocesses, products, and unit operations flourish, viral clearance will become more customized to industrial and individual situations. At the same time, the global viral clearance market will keep extending its purview. Viral clearance is also called viral safety. For example, in case of inactivation of reagents such as monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins, companies, CROs, and diagnostic testing labs need to evaluate the removal of specific viral strains or viral copy number in samples.Viral clearance can be performed by numerous methods depending on product type, technique for production, and whether it is a medical device or not. Examples of the techniques used in viral clearance are qRT-PCR, PCR, real time PCR, ELISA (EIA), western blot, and transmission EM. Viral clearance is vital for final confirmation about the acceptable level of safety which can be taken in for a final product. The success ratio of viral clearance depends on the selection of suitable methods that make sure the removal or demolition of any viruses without disturbing the target protein. A number of factors must be considered when making this choice: the regulatory requirements, characteristics of the target protein, the mechanism(s) of clearance method(s), and the impact of process parameters.Read Full Report:The major driver of the global viral clearance market is increasing demand in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. Rise in the number of new drug launches in various segments and associated drug approval processes are also boosting market growth. The global viral clearance market has been segmented based on technique, end-user, application, and region. Based on technique, the viral clearance market has been divided into viral detection method, viral removal method, and viral inactivation method. The viral detection method segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the global viral clearance market.In terms of application, the market has been segmented into blood & blood products, cellular & gene therapy products, stem cell products, tissue & tissue products, and vaccines and therapeutics. The vaccines and therapeutics segment is projected to hold the largest market share. Based on end-user, the viral clearance market has been segmented into pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, contract research organizations, academics and research institutes, and others. The others segment constitutes medical device companies, cell banks, small cell culture laboratories and consultants, microbiology laboratories, and toxicology laboratories.Geographically, the global viral clearance market has been divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (Latin America, Middle East, and Africa). In terms of region, North America accounted for the largest share of the viral clearance market, followed by Europe, and Asia. North America and Europe are likely to witness high demand for viral clearance assays as a result of technological advancement, rise in number of new drug launches, and patent expiry of popular branded drugs. Other factors driving the market in these regions are rapidly aging population, growing incidence of associated disease, and increased obesity rates.Request Brochure of this report:The market in Asia Pacific is expected to expand at the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The considerable growth of the market in the region is attributable to growing public and private initiatives to increase awareness related to health and safety of medicinal treatment and constant growth in health care expenditure. Presence of a large chronically ill population, increasing number of private sector hospitals, rising affluence, advancements in technology, and expansion to rural health care infrastructure are also likely to drive the market.Major companies operating in the viral clearance market are Avance Biosciences, Inc., BSL Bioservice, Charles River Laboratories International, Inc., Clean Cells, Inc., Lonza Group, Merck Millipore - Sigma-Aldrich, Texcell, Inc., and Wuxi Pharmatech (Cayman), Inc., among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. 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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.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:
Vegetarian Softgel Capsules Market 2017 - Catalent, Aenova, Captek, SIRIO, EuroCaps, Procaps Laboratorios, Best Formulations, Bahrain Pharma
Vegetarian Softgel Capsules Market
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The Vegetarian softgel capsules industry concentration is high; there are more than one hundreds manufacturers in the world, and high-end products mainly from U.S. and Western European. In the world wide, giant manufactures mainly distribute in American and Europe. In order to meet the strong increasing market demand.The Sales of Vegetarian softgel capsules increases from 11,100 M Capsules in 2012 to 15,492 M Capsules in 2016, at a CAGR of more than 8.7%. The sales revenue of Vegetarian softgel capsules increases from 341.73 Million USD in 2012 to 399.51 Million USD in 2016, at a CAGR of more than 3.98%. In 2016, the world Vegetarian softgel capsules production market is led by USA and Europe, while China accounts for 9.03% and Japan accounts for 7.72% in 2016.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :Top Manufacturers Analysis Of This ReportCatalentProcaps LaboratoriosEuroCapsBest FormulationsAenovaCaptekSIRIOBahrain PharmaRobinson PharmaThe report studies the industry for Vegetarian Softgel Capsules across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market & dynamics of demand and supply of Vegetarian Softgel Capsules into consideration. The 'Vegetarian Softgel Capsules' research study covers each and every aspect of the Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market globally, which starts from the definition of the Vegetarian Softgel Capsules industry and develops towards Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market. The geographical segmentation of the Vegetarian Softgel Capsules industry has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the worldwide market for Vegetarian Softgel Capsules is determined by evaluating the various industry participants, production capacity, Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market worldwide.Enquire Here :The global Vegetarian Softgel Capsules market 2017 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Vegetarian Softgel Capsules production volume, data regarding demand and Vegetarian Softgel Capsules supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Vegetarian Softgel Capsules across the globe.About UsApexResearch offer reports from top publishers and update to serve you with immediate on-line access to professional insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezBusiness Development Executive| sales@apexresearch.biz
Implications of Device Financing Plans and Lack of Handset Subsidies for Operator Profitability in Europe
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"The Report Implications of Device Financing Plans and Lack of Handset Subsidies for Operator Profitability in Europe provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Operator profitability in the mobile segment in Europe is under pressure, particularly in more mature markets where expensive handsets are often subsidized in order to drive growth in high ARPU postpaid segments. In retracting device subsidy offers, operators have the potential to ease this financial pressure and lower the cost per customer acquisition, as discussed in Section 1. Such strategic shifts can merit rewards but are never risk-free. Section 2 contains specific European case studies (Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Bulgaria) where other device financing models have been adopted, in addition to the four operators in the US, with particular focus on financial performance. Section 3 focuses on the key factors that operators must take into account when adopting such models (e.g., regulations or consumer purchasing power) before a summary of key findings and recommendations is provided.View Report @This report, 'Implications of Device Financing Plans and Lack of Handset Subsidies for Operator Profitability in Europe', part of the GlobalData series of Telecom Insider Reports for Europe, examines in detail the dynamics of the mobile devices market in terms of operator handset financing. Specifically, it includes analysis of strategic drivers and implications for operators that have moved away from the widely adopted handset subsidization model, instead looking to alternative methods such as equipment installment plans (EIPs) and leasing.T-Mobile pioneered the EIP in the US telecom market via its Jump! Plan in 2013, as part of its Un-carrier strategy to simplify and disrupt the consumer market. Since then, competitors AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have followed suit and now offer non-subsidized device financing plans. This report assesses the potential for similar levels of adoption in European markets.Scope- Subsidized handsets and lengthy contracts have been a common offering from many operators to support mobile subscriptions growth.- Pressures on operator profitability in the mobile market may prompt European operators to adopt alternate, non-subsidized device financing models, if they havent already.- If executed well, withdrawal of handset subsidies and adoption of new financing models can have a positive impact on operator profitability, while offering consumers greater transparency and flexibility.- Strategic shifts concerning handset financing can have a negative impact on telcos if conditions are not right, as various case studies show.- Constraints on SIM-locking, MNP and contract duration limits are factors for operators to consider when determining successful handset financing strategies.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Reasons to buy- This report examines the dynamics of the mobile devices market in Europe in terms of operator handset financing, providing stakeholders with an in depth view of the market and competitive landscape. Detailed analysis of diverse handset financing models (eg. subsidization, equipment instalment plans and leasing) and the implications for operators that have moved away from the widely adopted handset subsidization model, is invaluable when planning and aligning product offerings moving forwards. This report discusses the recent strategic move to non-subsidized financing plans in the USA and assesses the potential for similar levels of adoption in European markets.- Helps executives build proactive, profitable growth strategies by offering comprehensive and relevant analysis of handset financing strategies in the European region, regulatory framework, competitive environment and operator best practises.- The case studies, which give detailed analysis of the effects that alternative handset financing strategies have had on reported operator financial performance, focus on key European markets (Germany, Netherlands, UK, and Bulgaria) as well as the USA and can be beneficial to both local players and prospective market entrants.- By understanding the interests and positions of key operators in the smartphones market, telecom professionals/operators can develop strategies and increase their market participation.Table of ContentsIntroductionSection 1: Market LandscapeThe subsidized handset model - drivers for operator adoptionExamples of operator handset subsidy models in EuropeRationale for operators adopting alternative device financing modelsEurope mobile market overviewSection 2: Case StudiesO2 My Handy (Germany)KPN EIPs / LeasingO2 Refresh (United Kingdom)Telenor Lease (Bulgaria)Synopsis of handset financing dynamics in the United StatesVerizon Device PaymentsAT&T NextT-Mobile Jump! / Jump! On DemandSprint LeaseSection 3: Key Findings & RecommendationsKey considerations for operators when determining handset financing strategyOverview of handset financing model typesSummary of key findings and recommendationsAppendixAbout the authorsContact informationAbout 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.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
The Overall Telecom Service Revenue in Italy is expected to grow at a CAGR of 0.8% in Euro terms during 2016-2021
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"The Report Italy: Competition Set to Intensify Following Wind Tre Launch and Iliads Market Entry on Horizon provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"In 2016, Italy was the fourth-largest telecom market in Western Europe, according to GlobalData, generating an estimated telecom service revenue of $30.3bn (27.2bn). Revenue grew by just 0.1% year-on-year, in euro terms. GlobalData expects growth to improve over the forecast period (2016-2021) at a CAGR of 0.8% in euro terms, with revenue reaching $33.2bn (28.3bn). Mobile data will remain the top revenue-generating category, making up approximately 38.9% of total service revenue in 2021, up from 33.4% in 2016.During the next five years, operators should focus on fixed-mobile convergence and multiplay to strengthen market positions. Deployment of fiber under the national ultra-broadband plan and rollout of next-generation mobile networks should provide investor opportunity.Italy: Competition Set to Intensify Following Wind Tre Launch and Iliads Market Entry on Horizon', a new Country Intelligence Report by GlobalData, provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Italy today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2021. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband and mobile sectors, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.View Report @The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following -- Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Italy compared with other countries in the region.- Economic, demographic and political context in Italy.- The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more.- A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data.- Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice and data from 2016 to 2021.- The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months.- In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.- Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Italy's telecommunication market.Scope- The overall telecom service revenue in Italy is expected to grow at a CAGR of 0.8% in Euro terms during 2016-2021.- Mobile revenue will account for 61.7% of the total telecom revenue by the end of 2021.- Iliads entry will disrupt the market but GlobalData does not foresee it to have the same impact as Iliads entry to the French mobile market.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Reasons to buy- This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Italy's telecommunications market, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.- Accompanying GLobalDatas Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Italy's mobile communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.- With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.- The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Italy's telecommunication market.- The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Italy.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.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Industrial Robot Market - KUKA, OTC, Panasonic, ABB, FANUC, Yaskawa, Kawasaki, Comau,
Industrial Robot Market
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An industrial robot market is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on two or more axes. Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, pick and place for printed circuit boards, packaging and labeling, palletizing, product inspection, and testing; all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision. They can help in material handing and provide interfaces.View Full Report with TOC:This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Industrial Robot from 2011-2016, and provides extensive market forecasts (2016-2021) by region/country and subsectors. It covers the key technological and market trends in the Industrial Robot market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Industrial Robot, and the opportunities/challenges faced by industry participants. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies.Global Industrial Robot Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Industrial Robot market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies.Global Industrial Robot Market: key industry playersABB (Switzerland)FANUC (Japan)Yaskawa (Japan)KUKA (Germany)OTC (Japan)Panasonic (Japan)Kawasaki (Japan)Comau (Italy)Shenyang Siasun (China)GSK CNC (China)Get sample research report atThe report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World. In this sector, global competitive landscape and supply/demand pattern of Industrial Robot industry has been provided.About Market Research Store:Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Market Research Store is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and update our collection daily to provide our clients with the instant online access to our database. With access to this database, our clients will be able to benefit from expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends.3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United States
Overall Telecom Service Revenue In Vietnam Is Estimated To Generate $6.9bn In 2016 And Is Estimated To Grow At A CAGR Of 4.2% During 2016-2021
http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=948199
http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=948199
http://www.researchmoz.us/
http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG
Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Vietnam: Mobile Data Growth to be Fueled by 4G Network Rollout and Expansion by Operators" to its huge collection of research reports.In 2016, Vietnam will generate total telecom service revenue of $6.9bn (or 3.4% of its nominal GDP), a decrease of 0.7% over 2015. However, in local currency, it is expected to grow by 1.6% during the same period, owing to growth primarily in fixed broadband and mobile data revenue. Mobile data services will be the key revenue-contributing segment, accounting for 36.8% of total service revenue in 2016, due to increasing popularity of OTT services and rising smartphone adoption coupled with availability of attractive data plans. Operators will focus on 4G network expansion and fiber deployments to improve broadband infrastructure in the country.Key Findings- The overall telecom service revenue in Vietnam is estimated to generate $6.9bn in 2016 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.2% during 2016-2021.- The mobile segment will account for 78.5% of total telecom revenue in 2016.- The Vietnam telecom market will be dominated by Viettel Vietnam and Mobifone. Viettel Vietnam will remain the largest player in the telecom market through 2021, owing to investments in 4G service rollout and expansion coupled with fixed infrastructure improvement.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Synopsis"Vietnam: Mobile Data Growth to be Fueled by 4G Network Rollout and Expansion by Operators," a new Country Intelligence Report by GlobalData, provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Vietnam today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2021. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband and mobile sectors, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following:- Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Vietnam compared with other countries in the region.- Economic, demographic and political context in Vietnam.- The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more.- A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data.- Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice and data from 2016 to 2021.- The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months.- In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.- Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Vietnam's telecommunication market.Reasons To Buy- This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Vietnam's telecommunication market, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.- Accompanying GlobalDatas Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Vietnam's mobile communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.- With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.- The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Vietnam's telecommunication market.- The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Vietnam.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 @
Wealth In Singapore: Sizing The Market Opportunity 2017
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"Wealth in Singapore: Sizing the Market Opportunity 2017" analyzes the Singaporean wealth and retail savings and investments markets, with a focus on the HNW segment. The report is based on our proprietary datasets.Singapore is Asias pre-eminent offshore investment center, with 80% of the wealth invested in funds sourced from non-residents in 2015. However, the onshore market is a major source of assets under management (AUM) in its own right, with 1.2 million affluent individuals in 2016 despite the city states small population. An onshore operation is clearly worth the effort for any wealth manager targeting mass affluent investors.Specifically the report -- Sizes the affluent market (both by number of individuals and the value of their liquid assets) using our proprietary datasets.- Analyzes which asset classes are favored by Singaporean investors and how their preferences impact the growth of the total savings and investments market.- Examines HNW clients attitudes towards non-traditional investments, such as property and commodities.- Identifies key drivers and booking centers for offshore investments.- Examines the tax landscape in Singapore and future implications for investors.Download Sample Copy of This Report :Scope- HNW individuals totaled 29,660 in 2016 - little changed from 2015, a tiny proportion of the overall population, and well below the levels seen in other wealth hubs such as the US and Switzerland.- HNW liquid assets growth will slow to 7.0% a year between 2015 and 2020.- Bonds will be the fastest-growing asset class, but more due to greater availability than client demand.- While Singapore attracts significant offshore investment, HNW residents are also keen to invest abroad, with almost half of AUM invested offshore.Reasons to buy- Benchmark your share of the Singaporean wealth market against the current market size.- Forecast your future growth prospects using our projections for the market to 2020.- Identify your most promising client segment by analyzing penetration of affluent individuals in Singapore.- Evaluate your HNW proposition by understanding how the Singaporean tax system impacts HNW clients.- Review your offshore strategy by identifying HNW motivations for offshore investments and their preferred booking centers.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
Cigarettes In The Philippines, 2016
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"Cigarettes in the Philippines, 2016" is an analytical report by GlobalData that provides extensive and highly detailed current and future market trends in the the Philippine market. It covers market size and structure along with per capita and overall consumption. Additionally, it focuses on brand data, retail pricing, prospects and forecasts for sales and consumption to 2025.The cigarette market in the Philippines is large despite showing evidence of falling back recently. Although legitimate duty paid consumption was reported down in 2014, this figure is still up by 21.8% on 1990 volumes. However, there have been sharp fluctuations as advance purchases ahead of tax increases in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013 pushed legitimate domestic sales to highs followed by corresponding sharp falls as the trade and consumers used up stocks or turned to the black market. The result was a contraction of 15.6% in duty paid sales in 2013 and a tax-induced fall of 4.6% in 2014.Get Sample Copy Of this Report :Scope- Legitimate per capita consumption peaked in 2004, but had fallen by 2007 before recovering in 2010 before falling in 2011. Data for 2012 puts average consumption at 985 pieces, but this was followed by a fall in 2013 and another decline in 2014.- The prevalence of smuggled and counterfeit supplies increased in 2005 and 2006, although they have fallen a little since. They are currently rising in the face of tax hikes.- The smoking population in the Philippines is large, with an estimated 29.8% of the adult population in 2014.- Filtered products account for 97.5% of the cigarette market, the balance being mainly native, dark, non-filtered cigarettes.Reasons to buy- Get a detailed understanding of consumption to align your sales and marketing efforts with the latest trends in the market.- Identify the areas of growth and opportunities, which will aid effective marketing planning.- The differing growth rates in regional product sales drive fundamental shifts in the market.- This report provides detailed, authoritative data on these changes - prime intelligence for marketers.- Understand the market dynamics and essential data to benchmark your position and to identify where to compete in the future.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
Global Butyl Rubber Market 2017 focuses on Major Manufactureres ExxonMobil, Lanxess, JSR, Sibur, Panjin Heyun Group, Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Company
Butyl Rubber Market
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The Global Butyl Rubber Market 2017-2022 report by QY Research offers a comprehensive assessment of the Butyl Rubber market and consists of historical data, scope, significant approaches, and statistical data of the global market. Besides these, it also includes anticipated facts that are assessed with the aid of an appropriate set of postulations and techniques.Check Free Sample Research Report @The research report provides an in-depth systematic study of the Butyl Rubber market, covering key areas such as future prospects of the market, growth drivers, market restraints,Size, Share, Trends, Demand, Supply, Application, Segmentation, Opportunity, Market Development, production, capacity utilization, supply, Analysis and Forecast by 2022.The Butyl Rubber market report is a helpful source which assists manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, customers, and individuals and investors who have interest in this market.The impact of the economic condition prevailing in Globe is assessed in the context of the Butyl Rubber in Global 2017-2022 Industry. The report ends with definitive and authoritative conclusions about the Butyl Rubber in Global 2017-2022 Industry.Send us your Enquiry @The report provide Vendors, Traders and distributors analysis with contact details. For material and equipment suppliers also, contact details are given. New investment feasibility Studied and Industry growth is included in the report.MRS Research Group provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Prof Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free : +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@mrsresearchgroup.com
MyAssignmenthelp.com Offers College Essays Help Service At Reasonable Rates
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UK, April, 10, 2017: MyAssignmenthelp.com has been providing college essays help for a decade. We are recognized as one of the most authentic essay help service provider. We have a pool of highly-qualified writers from every field. All of our experts have several years of experience in academic writing.Our scholars who provide academic essays help() provide step-by-step assistance. This is how they assist students.They guide students to choose interesting essay topics. They even provide list of some suitable topicsThey make students understand complex topics assigned by professors or teachersThey assist students to collect authentic data and informationThey even help students structure essaysThey provide help with reference list as wellApart from that, they compose solutions for students. Therefore, students can buy plagiarism free essays() drafted by our writers.Students are required to undergo three easy steps for availing help from our essay experts. First, they need to fill up and submit the order form. They are requested to mention all their essay related specifications. They will get a quote after submitting the form. They are asked to make the payment for confirming their orders. We generally accept payment through PayPal. We accept payment through bank transfer or debit or credit card as well.We offer these below-mentioned facilities to our customers.1. High-quality solutionsWe provide high-quality solutions. We never compromise with the quality. Our essay writers compose the help materials from scratch. They do an extended research before drafting the solutions. All the reference materials undergo three stages of quality check.2. Plagiarism free contentWe maintain strict policies against plagiarism, as submitting plagiarized papers is a serious academic offense. Our writers are instructed to produce 100% original content. We use genuine plagiarism detecting tools for checking all the solutions.3. Highly-qualified writersWe consider the factors knowledge, experience and creativity before recruiting our writers. All of our writers hold either masters degree or doctorate degree. Many former professors of renowned universities are also associated with us. We also have formed a team of industry practitioners.4. On time deliveryWe never fail to deliver the solutions on the promised dates. Our writers are bound to complete drafting the help materials before the deadlines. Our operation team ensures whether all the orders are submitted on the promised dates.5. Affordable ratesWe offer our premium college essay writing services at the best price in the industry. Factors that permit us to do so are state of the art infrastructure, orders throughout the year and in-house writers.6. Unlimited revisionsIf students are not satisfied with any part of the solutions delivered by us, they can ask for revision. We offer unlimited revision facility, Our writers are always willing to accommodate the requirements of the students.For further assistance, students can get connected with our support team.We provide college essay writing help at affordable rates. We offer numerous facilities to our customers. Students can call us at +61-2-6100-3843.MyassignmenthelpLytchett House, 13 Freeland Park Wareham Road Lytchett Matravers,Poole Dorset,Uk, BH16 6FAPhone +441212854112Email id: contact@myassignmenthelp.com
Bhopal based Government Hospital Relied on Matrix Solution for Seamless Internal Communication
www.MatrixTelesol.com
Matrix is well-known for its range of feature rich and industry specific Telecom and Security solutions. The field proven solutions have gained reputation in the Government sector too. As a matter of life is involved, quick services are of prime importance for any hospital. Owing to the quality and cost-effective services that Government hospitals offer, these hospitals receive a huge footfall. Therefore, arranging timely assistance and seamless communication between doctors and nurses becomes necessary to address the ailments of masses.Matrix Telecom solutions are designed to cater to all the communication requirements of the healthcare institutions. Recently, in association with its esteemed partner - A R Solutions, Matrix streamlined communication at a Bhopal based Government Hospital. Matrix installed ETERNITY LE, which is a universal architecture IP-PBX with multiple trunk connectivity options.Hospital wanted to switch from Analog PBX to IP based communication system. Furthermore, the old system failed to suffice the hospitals need for proper communication because of frequent break down, resulting in high downtime. After thorough study of ETERNITY LE and supervising the product demonstration, hospital authorities trusted Matrix Telecom solutions.A brief glimpse of case is as follows:Challenges: Old Age Systems Resulting in Frequent Break Downs Switch to New Age Communication Technology Connecting 500+ Users over a Single Platform Huge Communication Delays Difficult Maintenance of Huge EPABX Access of Different Networks from a Compact SystemSolution: IP Enabled ETERNITY LE Future Ready System Scalable System supporting up to 1,344 Analog Users, 128 GSM Users and 32 VOIP Trunks VOIP Calling to Avoid Communication Delays over Legacy Protocols Web based Intuitive User Interface for Remote ManagementResults: Seamless Communication between 1,000+ Users Prompt Calling through Speed Dialing Centrally Managed Directory for Swift Access to Doctors and Assisting Staff Easy Maintenance through Remote ManagementWith a varied portfolio of technologically advanced solutions, Matrix can cater to the evolving communication needs of different industries. We want to move forward on the technological curve and improve communication at more hospitals, said Sagar Gosalia, Sr. VP Sales and Marketing.For further information:Email at - Customer.Care@MatrixComSec.comCall on - +91 9998755555Website -About MatrixEstablished in 1991, Matrix is a leader in Telecom and Security solutions for modern businesses and enterprises. An innovative, technology driven and customer focused organization; Matrix is committed to keep pace with the revolutions in the telecom and security industries. With more than 40% of its human resources dedicated to the development of new products, Matrix has launched cutting-edge products like Video Surveillance solutions, Access Control, Time-Attendance, IP-PBX, Universal Gateways, Terminals, Convergence solution, VoIP Gateways and GSM Gateways. These solutions are feature-rich, reliable and conform to the international standards. Having global foot-prints in Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa through an extensive network of more than 500 channel partners, Matrix ensures that the products serve the needs of its customers faster and longer. Matrix has gained trust and admiration of customers representing the entire spectrum of industries. Matrix has won many international awards for its innovative products.Matrix Comsec394 GIDC, Makarpura, Vadodara-390010
Global Sesame Seeds Market 2017- Market 2017- Demand, Insight, Analysis, Opportunities, Sigmentation and Forecast to 2022
Sesame Seeds
https://goo.gl/xKAOFr
http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-sesame-seeds-market-2016-industry-trends-sales.html
https://goo.gl/ETqSJd
A market study based on the "Sesame Seeds" across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Sesame Seeds Market 2017'. The Research report by QY Research Group is a market-oriented, technical, and commercial research analysis of the Sesame Seeds market. The analysis is completed using a wide range of secondary sources, databases and directories in order to identify and assemble market data. Primary sources included for the analysis include preferred suppliers, industry experts from core and associated industries, manufacturers, service providers, distributors, and organizations allied to the entire segments of the industry supply chain.Click Here to Request Sample Report @Analyses of the global Sesame Seeds market trends along with the projections of CAGRs (compound annual growth rates) are provided in the research report. To estimate the overall market size of Sesame Seeds, its application, and regionsin terms of value and volumethe bottom-up approach is followed. On the other hand, to corroborate the overall Sesame Seeds market sizeagain in terms of value and volumethe top-down approach is followed. Following the method of data triangulation and data validation via primaries, the precise values of the parent market and individual market in terms of size are calculated and established in the report.Browse Full Report @This market research report provides the client with comprehensive market analysis of the Sesame Seeds market over the forecast period. In addition, it also furnishes a general idea of the challenges, drivers, and restraints that have direct or indirect impact on the industry. It further highlights the market, the industry, and latest technology trends currently existing in the Sesame Seeds market. All this precise, accurate and comprehensive data will help the clients to make appropriate and practical decisions so as to gain maximum profit in the global market.The research report analyzes, tracks, and presents the global market size of the major players in every region around the world. Furthermore, the report provides data of the leading market players in the Sesame Seeds market.Inquiry About Sesame Seeds Market Report Here @Overall, the report is a one-stop destination and a valuation report to grab all the necessary information regarding the global Sesame Seeds market.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
Global Dewatering Equipment Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022
www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/dewatering-equipment-market
www.psmarketresearch.com/industry-report/chemicals-and-materials
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The global dewatering equipment market is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The growth in the global market is being driven by increasing awareness for sludge disposal, growing population, rapid urbanization and increased requirement for sludge treatment due to increased sludge production.To Browse Full Report Visit Here:Dewatering equipment are designed to disperse water from solids by means of force, including vacuum and centrifugal motion. Dewatering equipment are efficient in reducing solids handling or disposal expenses that are charged on a unit-weight basis. These equipment are widely used in different industries for sludge treatment; their main purpose is to treat pathogens, chemical constituents and other microorganisms. Besides, the dewatering equipment are extensively used in various industrial applications in refineries, mining, petroleum, pharmaceutical and food and beverage. In addition, the equipment is used in municipal applications, which include a wide range of residential and commercial applications.Growing public concerns and tightening regulations related to environmental preservation have led to the construction of several new sludge treatment plants, which have resulted in high demand for dewatering equipment, globally. Additionally, increasing industrialization in Asia-Pacific has led to increasing demand for dewatering equipment, offering growth opportunities for the dewatering equipment manufacturers in the global market; however, the growth of the global dewatering equipment market is adversely affected by the long dewatering period. Additionally, the high cost of dewatering equipment, along with the cost of operations and maintenance, hinders the growth of the global dewatering equipment market.Browse For Related Research Visit Here:The global dewatering equipment market has been categorized on the basis of method, type, technology and application. On the basis of method, the global market has been segmented into wellpoints. sump pumping, eductor wells, deepwells, and others. On the basis of type, the global market is segmented into sludge dewatering and others. On the basis of technology, the global market has been categorized into centrifuges, belt filter presses, vacuum filters, drying beds, sludge lagoons, and others. On the basis of application, the global market has been segmented into industrial and municipal. The industrial application segment has been further segmented into refineries, mining, petroleum, pharmaceutical, foods and beverages and others.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:
The Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem: 2016 - 2030 - Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts
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http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/category/96
Given the increasing prevalence of expensive household goods, cars and consumer electronics, insurance has become an unavoidable and often necessary cost in modern life. Mobile phones, and smartphones in particular are no exception to this trend.Most major wireless carriers, insurance specialists, device OEMs, retailers and even banks now offer insurance plans that cover theft, loss, malfunctions and damage of mobile phones. Many policies now also integrate enhanced technical support and additional protection features such as data backup facilities, allowing users to securely backup their phone data online.SNS Research estimates that the global mobile phone insurance market is expected to account for nearly $20 Billion in revenue by the end of 2016. The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 12% over the next four years, eventually accounting for over $30 Billion in revenue by the end of 2020.The "Mobile Phone Insurance Ecosystem: 2016 2030 Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts" report presents an in-depth assessment of the mobile phone insurance ecosystem including market drivers, challenges, opportunities, value chain, future roadmap, case studies, ecosystem player profiles and strategies. The report also presents market size forecasts from 2016 through to 2030. The forecasts are segmented for 5 regional and 25 country level markets.Download Sample Copy Of This Report :Key Findings:The report has the following key findings:SNS Research estimates that the global mobile phone insurance market is expected to account for nearly $20 Billion in revenue by the end of 2016.The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 12% over the next four years, eventually accounting for over $30 Billion in revenue by the end of 2020.In an effort to boost the uptake of mobile phone insurance, wireless carriers and insurance providers have extensively enhanced their insurance offerings with the addition of location tracking, data protection/recovery features and integrated technical support.The success of mobile phone insurance plans has driven several wireless carriers, such as NTT DoCoMo and Orange, to invest in the sales of other insurance products through mobile phones and their retail outlets.New insurance models are also beginning to emerge, such as London-based So-Sures social insurance for mobile phones, which allows customers to get up to 80% of their money back, if they and their friends dont claim.Device OEMs are beginning to invest in tailored plans to suit the specific requirements of certain regional markets. A good example is Xiaomis Mi Protect plan in India, which covers accidental and liquid damage, for as little as $7 per year.Topics Covered:The report covers the following topics:Mobile phone insurance ecosystemMarket drivers and barriersInsurance policy structure, distribution channels and key trendsCase studies of mobile phone insurance initiativesIndustry roadmap and value chainProfiles and strategies of over 40 leading ecosystem playersStrategic recommendations for ecosystem playersMarket analysis and forecasts from 2016 till 2030Browse More ICT Market Research Reports:Forecast Segmentation:Market forecasts are provided for the following regional and country level submarkets:Regional SegmentationAsia PacificEuropeLatin & Central AmericaMiddle East & AfricaNorth AmericaCountry Level SegmentationArgentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, UK & USAKey Questions Answered:The report provides answers to the following key questions:How big is the mobile phone insurance opportunity?What trends, challenges and barriers are influencing its growth?How is the ecosystem evolving by region?What will the market size be in 2020 and at what rate will it grow?Which countries will see the highest percentage of growth?Who are the key market players and what are their strategies?What risks are typically covered in mobile phone insurance offerings?How can insurance plans help wireless carriers in reducing churn?What strategies should wireless carriers, device OEMs and insurance providers adopt to remain competitive?Countries covered:ArgentinaAustraliaBrazilCanadaChinaColombiaFranceGermanyHong KongIndiaIsraelItalyJapanMexicoNetherlandsPolandRussiaSaudi ArabiaSingaporeSouth AfricaSouth KoreaSpainTaiwanUKUSAList of Companies Mentioned:The following companies and organizations have been reviewed, discussed or mentioned in the report:A WirelessAIG (American International Group)Allianz InsuranceAllianz SE GroupAmerica MovilAmTrust International UnderwritersAonAppalachian WirelessAppleAssurantAsurionAT&TAT&T MobilityAvivaAXABarclaysBest BuyBouygues TelecomBrightstar CorporationBT GroupCellebriteChubbCWS (Connected World Services Distributions)Diamond WirelessDixons CarphoneDT (Deutsche Telekom)EEeSecuritelFonesureFortegraGeek SquadGoCareGroupamaHollard GroupHSBCInhance TechnologyiQmetrixLiberty Mutual Insurance GroupLifestyle Services GroupLookoutMarkerstudyMicrosoftMobi PCSMobile Rhino (Stuckey & Company)MTNNIA (New India Assurance)Nippon Life InsuranceNokiaNQ MobileNTT DoCoMoOptusOrangePier Insurance Managed ServicesProtectCELLSafewareSalt MobileSamsung ElectronicsSFRSingtel GroupSoftBank CorporationSo-SureSpark New ZealandSPBSprint CorporationSquareTradeSun CorporationSupercover InsuranceSwisscomTelefonica GroupTelefonica InsuranceTelstraT-Mobile USATokio MarineVerizon CommunicationsVerizon WirelessV-Key SolutionsVodacomVodafone GroupMarketResearchReports.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
Heart Attack Diagnostics Market Research Report by Size, Share, Growth, Trends Analysis and Forecast 2024
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http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/heart-attack-diagnostics-market.html
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The heart attack diagnostics market is highly fragmented due to involvement of many recognized as well as emerging players in this market. Key players involved in the heart attack diagnostics market include Abbott Laboratories, Beckman Coulter, Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, GE Healthcare, Life Sign LLC, Hitachi Medical Systems, and Schiller AG.Inquire for a Sample Copy of Report -Heart attack diagnosis is associated with intensive care of patients battling with life threatening conditions, which requires sophisticated invasive monitoring devices and life support systems. Heart attack (myocardial infarction) occurs due to reduced or total cut off of oxygenated blood supply to the heart muscle. It is one of the major causes of death observed worldwide and needs to be diagnosed rapidly and accurately. According to Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, about 735,000 Americans suffer from heart attack every year. Occurrence of heart attacks is increasing in adults as well as in geriatric population across the globe due to unhealthy lifestyle habits, high cholesterol levels, high BMI, and growth in tobacco and alcohol consumption. The demand for heart attack diagnostic devices has increased owing to rise in need for continuous monitoring of individuals, accessibility for patient, changing lifestyle, higher investments in R&D, and technological advancement. Further, various international organizations and government across the globe are creating awareness about monitoring devices among the population.Several factors are responsible to propel the heart attack diagnostics market, but few factors are likely to continue to restrain the growth of the market in the near future such as the low Medicare reimbursements provided for the peripatetic cardiac outpatient telemetry electrocardiogram (ECG).The heart attack diagnostics market can be segmented on the basis of test, end-user, and geography. In terms of test, the market can be divided into electrocardiogram (ECG), blood test, chest X-ray, echocardiogram, coronary catheterization (angiogram), exercise stress test, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Among these, ECG has a wider application and contributes to tremendous growth of the market. End-user of this market includes hospitals, specialty clinics, and pathology among others.In terms of geography, the heart attack diagnostics market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. In terms of market revenue, North America is estimated to dominate the global heart attack diagnostics market owing to increased adoption of technologically advanced diagnostic equipment. The Asia Pacific market is projected to grow at a higher rate owing to high incidence of heart attacks and soaring death rates due to heart diseases.Read Report -Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Alcohol Market Share, Size, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017-2025
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IndexBox has just published a new report "World: Alcohols And Their Halogenated, Sulphonated, Nitrated Or Nitrosated Derivatives - Market Report. Analysis and Forecast to 2025" (This report has been designed to provide a detailed analysis of the global alcohol market. It covers the most recent data sets of quantitative medium-term projections, as well as developments in production, trade, consumption and prices. The report also includes a comparative analysis of the leading consuming countries, revealing opportunities opened for producers and exporters across the globe. The forecast outlines market prospects to 2025.Countries coverage: WorldwideProduct coverage: Acyclic alcohols and their halogenated, sulphonated, nitrated or nitrosated derivatives, Cyclic alcohols and their halogenated, sulphonated, nitrated or nitrosated derivatives.Data coverage: Alcohol market size and volume; Alcohol market trends and prospects; Global alcohol production and its dynamics; Per capita consumption; Breakdown of production by region and country; Medium term outlook; Alcohol trade (exports/imports); Prices for alcohol; Profiles of the main manufacturers.The report will help you: Get a bigger picture of the market; Rewire your business around market trends; Devise your marketing strategy; Operate with increased effectiveness.TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION1.1 REPORT DESCRIPTION1.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2.1 KEY FINDINGS2.2 MARKET TRENDS3. MARKET OVERVIEW3.1 MARKET VOLUME AND VALUE3.2 CONSUMPTION BY COUNTRY3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES BY COUNTRY3.4 MARKET FORECAST TO 20254. PRODUCTION4.1 PRODUCTION IN 2007-20154.2 PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY5. IMPORTS5.1 IMPORTS IN 2007-20155.2 IMPORTS BY COUNTRY5.3 IMPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY6. EXPORTS6.1 EXPORTS IN 2007-20156.2 EXPORTS BY COUNTRY6.3 EXPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY7. PROFILES OF MAJOR PRODUCERSDownload a free sample of the report now!IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. We conduct market research and publish reports.You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.We collect this data from hundreds of highly reliable sources, verify it and carry out market analysis, uncovering new business opportunities and empowering you with actionable insights.The structure of our reports is intuitive and clear. We do our best to allow you to make strategic decisions and take immediate action. If you want to go further and be a step ahead of the market, just tell us your goals and we will tailor a report to your needs.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, 44 Main Street, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML11 0QWWebsite:
Global Bone Graft Substitutes Market snapshot 2027
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- To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Bone Graft Substitutes Market- To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth- To Analyze the Global Bone Graft Substitutes Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.Get Sample Copy @- To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia, and Middle East & Africa.- To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective- To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by type, by end users and sub-segments.- To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market- To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Bone Graft Substitutes MarketMarket Synopsis of Bone Graft Substitutes Market:Market Scenario:Bone grafting substitute is a surgical technique that replaces missing bone so as to repair bone fractures that are extremely complex, represent a significant risk to the patient, or fail to heal properly. The market for Bone Graft Substitutes is expected to grow rapidly by the end of the forecasted period and is expected to grow with good CAGRBrowse report @Segments:Global Bone Graft Substitutes market has been segmented on the basis of applications which consist of Reconstructions of cavitary bone deficiency, augmentation of segmental bone loss, inter body spine fusion and others. On the basis of end users which includes hospitals clinics and healthcare research institutes. On the basis of types which include Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM), Synthetic bone graft extenders, Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMP) and others.Key Players for Bone Graft Substitutes Market:Some of the key players in this market are: Exactech, Inc (US), Sigma Graf (US), Keramat (Spain), Exabone (Switzerland), NovaBone (US), BonAlive Biomaterials Ltd (US), NuVasive Inc. (US), Ceramisys (UK), Graftys (France), Mimetis (Spain), others.The Middle East & AfricaThe report for Global Bone Graft Substitutes market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsContact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comAbout 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.Market Research FutureAmanora Town Centre, Office No. 528,, Amanora Chambers, Hadapsar, Pune, Maharashtra 411028
Country level analysis of Single Wall bed and Double Wall bed market-Forecast to 2027
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Market Synopsis of Wall Bed MarketMarket ScenarioStorage plays very important role in any house and as most of people around world owns only single house, it becomes difficult for them to manage all the items in one place. Home furniture takes lots of space, where a bed can utilize more than 40-50% of the area. The new option is coming in format of Wall Bed. Wall bed is a concept which is becoming more popular these days. According to study, wall bed increases the available area by more than 20% which can be utilized for some other purpose.Market SegmentationSegmentation by Single Wall bed: 2ft, 2.5ft, 3ft, 3.5ft Segmentation by Double Wall bed: 4ft, 5ft, more than 5ft. Segmentation by Application: Residential and Non-Residential (Guest Houses, Hospitals, Restaurants among others).Request a Sample Report @Study Objective of Wall Bed Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Wall Bed Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the Wall Bed 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 prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Single Wall bed, by Double Wall bed, by application sub-segments.Browse Report Details @Key playersThe key players in the market of Wall Bed are- Murphy (U.S.), The London Wallbed Company (UK), Clei UK (UK), Costco Wholesale Corporation (U.S.), The WallBed Company (Australia), SICO Inc. (U.S.), FlyingBeds International (U.S.), Wall Beds Manufacturing (U.S.) among others.Request Table of Contents for this Report @Regional AnalysisCurrently North America is dominating the market of Wall Bed due to the high disposable income of people. One of major factor which is driving the market is one change in the lifestyle of people where more space is needed in the house. To keep more stuff, people are adopting this new concept as wall bed. Europe stands as second biggest market due to the high migration ration of people from other countries. Asia-Pacific stands as third biggest market where Japan and China are leading. It is expected that Asia-Pacific market will grow during the forecasted period.The reports also covers brief analysis of Geographical Region includes:Americas North America US CanadaEurope Western Europe Germany France Italy Spain U.K Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeAsia Pacific Asia China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificThe 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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Casting and Splinting Market Outlook and 2024 Forecast Report
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Demand for casting and splinting has significantly risen in the last few years, bolstered by the increasing incidence of sports, orthopedic, and musculoskeletal injuries. The aged are more prone to injuries, hence growth witnessed in the geriatric population globally will fuel overall prospects for the market in response.Download The Full Brouchre of Report:With the evolution of technology, producers are looking to use advanced materials for manufacturing casts and splints. This subsequently is expected to boost sales of casts and splints worldwide. The market however is likely to get restrained by the unfavorable reimbursement policies, as per Transparency Market Research (TMR). Nevertheless, in the near future the presence of high unmet needs in emerging economies will present attractive opportunities for vendors in the market.TMR pegs the overall value of the global casting and splinting market at US$1.8 bn in 2015. The market is poised to reach US$3.1 bn by the end of 2024.Asia Pacific Exhibits Conditions Conducive to Growth in Casts and Splints SalesRegionally, Asia Pacific has been exhibiting the highest prospects in the global casting and splinting market, followed by North America. Demand for casts and splints is visibly high in countries such as India, Korea, and China. The high incidence of osteoporotic hip fractures and road accidents in these countries has resulted in their lead in the Asia Pacific market for casts and splints.Many producers who manufacture affordable casting equipment in large-scale are domiciled across these countries thus gratifying the increasing demand in local and international markets. Furthermore, casts and splints are widely used in Asia Pacific, due to which, their price in the region is comparatively low. This has resulted in the increased demand for casts and splints and consequently has earned increased revenue for the regions casting market. The regional market will also gain from the rapidly growing population in India and China.TMR finds the Asia Pacific market for casting and splinting stood at US$487.1 mn in 2014. Rising at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2015 to 2024, the market is expected to reach US$888.1 mn by the end of the forecast period.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:TMR projects North America to continue holding the second-largest share in the market during the forecast period. The increasing incidence of osteoporosis and musculoskeletal injuries in the region will aid expansion of the casting and splinting market in North America.Demand for Cast Supplies will Remain High Through the Forecast PeriodThe major products available in the market can be broadly classified into casting supplies and equipment and splinting supplies and equipment. Of these, the casting supplies and equipment segment held over 60% of the market in 2015. Castings are ubiquitous methods of treating bone fracture hence hold larger share in the market. The demand for casts is expected to surge at a steady pace due to the increasing number of traumatic and accident injuries. Demand from the segment will also rise due to the increasing osteoporotic geriatric population, particularly in countries with high population.The most common casting supplies and equipment available in the market include casting tapes, plaster casts, casting tools, and cast cutters. Of these, cast cutters held a share of 30% in the cast products market in 2015. Demand for cast supplies is expected to remain high through the forecast period.Companies such as 3M Healthcare, Stryker Corporation, BSN Medical GmBH exhibit the largest regional outreach with presence across diverse casting and splinting product categories. A few other prominent names operating in the market include AliMed, Bird & Cronin, Inc., Corflex, Inc., DJO, LLC, DeRoyal Industries, Inc., Orfit Industries n.v., Ossur hf., Patterson Medical Holdings, Inc., Spencer Italia S.r.l., Stryker Corporation, and Zimmer, 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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Biomedical Refrigerators and Freezers Market snapshot 2024
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The rising prevalence of a number of chronic and infectious diseases, increasing global demand for personalized drugs, and the promising pace of technological developments across healthcare infrastructures in emerging economies are cumulatively driving the increased adoption of biomedical refrigerators and freezers globally. The steady rise in the number of blood banks in developing and developed regions combined with government initiatives aimed at raising awareness about blood donation have also favored the sustainable growth of the market in the past few years.Download The Full Brouchre of Report:In the years to come, stringent emission regulation norms and rising awareness about the harms of greenhouse gases emitted from conventional refrigeration systems to the environment will compel product manufacturers to design greener products. Companies are surely coming to terms with the several changes aimed at fortifying this switchover, such as worldwide bans on refrigerants such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). As a result, more green refrigerators and freezers will enter the biomedical industry in the next few years.Transparency Market Research forecasts that the global biomedical refrigerators and freezers market will expand at a healthy CAGR of 4.2% over the period between 2016 and 2024. The market, which held an opportunity of US$2.91 bn in 2015, is expected to rise to US$4.28 bn by 2024.Plasma Freezers to Retain Dominant Stance in Global MarketOf the key varieties of refrigerators and freezers used in the biomedical industry, including plasma freezers, shock freezers, ultra-low temperature freezers, blood bank refrigerators, and laboratory/pharmacy refrigerators and freezers, the segment of plasma freezers presently dominates the market. The segment accounted for a share of nearly 29% in the market in 2015. The vast rise in demand for fresh frozen plasma and rising number of apheresis procedures across the globe will likely aid the segment continue dominating the market across the forecasting horizon as well.The rising global demand for blood transfusion and a vast rise in the number of technologically advanced blood banks across the globe has also resulted in the heightened demand for plasma freezers globally. In terms of rate of expansion, however, the segment of laboratory/pharmacy/medical freezers will outpace the segment of plasma freezers through 2024. The segment of laboratory/pharmacy/medical freezers will exhibit a 5.49% CAGR from 2016 to 2024.Asia Pacific to Present Most Promising Growth Opportunities; North America to Remain Key ContributorRising geriatric population, rising investments towards technological advancements in healthcare infrastructure, and the flourishing medical tourism industry will collectively lead to vast growth opportunities for the global biomedical refrigerators and freezers market in in Asia Pacific in the next few years. The market will expand at the fastest CAGR of 5.84% among other key regional markets through 2024. The region is expected to hold an 18% share in the global market by 2024.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:However, North America will continue to hold the largest share in the market and witness only a slight drop in its share in the global market by 2024. North America presently leads the market, accounting for a 52% share in markets overall valuation in 2015.The region holds a dominant position in the global market on account of the highly developed healthcare infrastructures, the presence of a large number of worlds leading biomedical companies, and the vast life sciences research activities undertaken every year. The introduction and high rate of adoption of technologically advanced products such as RFID-enabled equipment, multiple compressor equipment also favor the overall growth of the biomedical refrigerators and freezers market in North America.Vendors Need to Focus on Development of Economic ProductsThe market features intense competition, which has further soared owing to the introduction of technologically advanced and innovative products at a sustained pace in the market. High R&D investments have compelled international companies to increase costs of products, somewhat limiting their appeal to only to the developed regions. This factor has worked well in favor of regional players, especially the ones operating in developing cost-sensitive economies such as Latin America and Asia Pacific.Some of the leading vendors in the market are Haier Biomedical, Eppendorf AG, Aegis Scientific, Inc., Leibherr Group, Terumo Corporation, Philipp Kirsch GmbH, Panasonic Healthcare Co., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., and Helmer Scientific.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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Transcatheter Embolization & Occlusion Devices Market: Analysis of Market Structure & Foresight to 2024
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Transcatheter Embolization and Occlusion Devices Market: SnapshotThe transcatheter embolization and occlusion (TEO) devices market has witnessed strong growth in the past few years due to the rising focus on innovation, resulting in higher product approvals and product launches globally. The market is also characterized by significant research and development leading to several technological innovations.Download The Full Brouchre of Report:In terms of revenue, the global TEO devices market was valued at US$2.4 bn in 2015 and is projected to reach US$4.8 bn by 2024 at a CAGR of 7.9% therein. In terms of volume, the global market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 8.1% from 2016 to 2024.High Prevalence of Obesity Drives Use of TEO Devices in Treating Peripheral Vascular DiseasesEmbolization coils are the leading products in the market, as these are one of the oldest embolization products available in the market. However, the embolization particles and flow diverter devices segments are expected to record a high CAGR during the forecast period.Based on application, the peripheral vascular disease segment dominates the transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market. This segment is expected to continue its lead through 2024 due to a growing geriatric population, changing lifestyles leading to a high prevalence of obesity, and the rising demand for minimally-invasive procedures. However, the oncology segment is expected to record a high CAGR during the forecast period due to the rising prevalence of cancer across the globe.By end use, the hospitals segment captured a considerable market share and is likely to remain a key segment in the transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market, expanding at a high CAGR during the forecast period.Booming Medical Tourism Industry Contributing toward Growth of APAC TEO Devices MarketNorth America accounted for a major share in the global transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market in 2015 due to the presence of leading market players in the region. Most of these companies operating in the region have made a series of strategic acquisitions, which contributes to an increase in their market share. The growing prevalence of cancer in the region is one of the primary factors contributing to the growth of the transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market. According to the American Cancer Society, over 1,658,370 new cancer cases were diagnosed and 589,430 cancer deaths reported in the U.S. in 2015 alone. Well-established reimbursement policies by private or public organizations for TEO devices is also a major factor spurring the adoption of these devices North America.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:The transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market in Asia Pacific is expected to expand at a high CAGR during the forecast period. A large patient pool and rising awareness about transcatheter embolization procedures are the key factors driving the adoption of TEO devices in the region. The booming medical tourism industry, driven by rising government support and the incorporation of different schemes by the government to avail better treatment for patients, is also expected to propel the transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market. An increase in the number of localized manufacturers and the strengthening of the distribution network in Asia Pacific due to a rapidly growing economy offer significant benefits for market players as far as investments are concerned. A surge in the prevalence of neurovascular diseases and cancer in several countries across Asia Pacific is projected to fuel the market in the coming years.Major players operating in the transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market include Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific Corporation, BTG plc, Cook Medical, Inc., Edwards Lifesciences, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic plc, Merit Medical Systems, Inc., Penumbra, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Sirtex Medical Limited, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Stryker Corporation, and Terumo Corporation.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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Endometrial Ablation Market snapshot 2024
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Global Endometrial Ablation Market: SnapshotWith the rising prevalence of gynecology disorders, such as polycystic ovarian disease (PCOD), abnormal vaginal bleeding, the global adoption of endometrial ablation procedures has increased significantly, leading to an impressive rise in the worldwide endometrial ablation market. Apart from this, the upswing in the incidence rate of cervical and endometrial cancer in women is also driving the growth of this market substantially across the world.Download The Full Brouchre of Report:Over the forthcoming years, the growing awareness among consumers regarding the benefits of endometrial ablation procedures, such as cost efficiency, minimal invasiveness, and shorter hospital stay, is projected to fuel the demand for these procedures considerably, reflecting positively on this market. However, the stringent regulatory laws and regulations for clinical trials, product designing, and commercialization may create trouble for the market players in the near future.On the whole, the global market for endometrial ablation, which was worth US$0.8 bn in 2015, is expected to progress at a CAGR of 5.50% between 2016 and 2024 and reach US$1.3 bn by the end of 2024.Radiofrequency Endometrial Ablation Devices to Continue Witnessing High DemandCryoablation device, hydrothermal ablation device, electrical ablation device, microwave endometrial ablation device, thermal balloon ablation device, radiofrequency endometrial ablation device, hysteroscopy device, and several other devices, such as ultrasound transducers and laser ablation device are the main products available in the global market for endometrial ablation.Among these, radiofrequency endometrial ablation devices witnesses a higher demand than other devices and are expected to remain so, occupying nearly 58% of the overall market by the end of the forecast period. The ease of usage, cost benefits, and short surgical procedures have increased the popularity of microwave endometrial ablation devices, which is likely to reflect greatly on their adoption in the near future.Asia Pacific to Provide Highly Lucrative Opportunities to ParticipantsIn terms of geography, the global market for endometrial ablation is classified into Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. With a well-established healthcare infrastructure and easy access to healthcare facilities, the market for endometrial ablation in North America is expected to remain leading the overall market throughout the forecast period. By 2024, this regional market is expected to account for a share of nearly 44%.On the other hand, Asia Pacific is likely to provide more lucrative opportunities to market players over the forthcoming years. The significant rise in the prevalence of gynecological disorders due to low awareness and hygiene and high unmet medical needs are anticipated to drive the demand for endometrial ablation procedures in this region in the years to come. Japan, India, and China are expected to lead the Asia Pacific endometrial ablation market over the next few years.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:The global market for endometrial ablation is fragmented and highly competitive in nature. At the forefront of this market are Hologic Corp., Boston Scientific Corp., Cooper Surgical Inc., Ethicon Inc. (Johnson & Johnson), Medtronic Plc, Olympus Corp., Minerva Surgical Inc., Smith & Nephew Plc, Karl Storz GmbH & Co. KG, Richard Wolf GmbH, and AngioDynamics 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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Offshore Mooring Systems Market - West Africa Industry Analysis By 2024
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The West Africa offshore mooring market is highly competitive, thanks to the presence of a large pool of players, finds a new research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR). Innovation and technological advancements in mooring systems is the key strategy adopted by the leading companies looking to strengthen their position in this market. A shift in their focus towards mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships can also be observed over the next few years.Browse Market Research Report @Grup Servicii Petroliere S.A., Mampaey Offshore Industries B.V., FMC Technologies Inc., BW Offshore Ltd., and Trelleborg Marine Systems are some of the prominent vendors of offshore mooring systems in West Africa, states the research report.According to the market study, the overall opportunity in the West Africa offshore mooring system market was worth US$169.70 mn in 2015. Analysts expect it to rise at a CAGR of 4.90% during the period from 2015 to 2024 and reach a value of US$470.2 mn by the end of the period of the forecast. The demand for spread mooring systems is much higher than other products available in this market. The scenario is anticipated to remain same throughout the forecast period.West Africa Offshore Mooring Systems Market to be Led by AngolaThe report further present an exhaustive analysis of the West Africa market for offshore mooring systems on the basis of its geographical presence. As per the study, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, D.R. Congo, Angola, and Congo Brazzaville are the main geographical segments of the West Africa offshore mooring system market. Among these, Angola dominated the overall market in 2015 with a revenue contribution of US$45.1 mn. Researchers anticipate this domestic market to maintain its leadership over the period of forecast.The markets for offshore mooring systems in Ghana, Gabon, and Ivory Coast are also projected to witness significant growth over the forthcoming years, thanks to the surging emphasis on energy conservation, increasing investments in their respective oil and gas industry, and the continued rise in exploration and production activities, notes the study.Drag embedment, suction, and vertical load anchors are considered as the key type of anchors used in offshore mooring in this research report. With 30.7%, the drag embedment anchors segment led the West Africa offshore mooring systems market in 2015 and is expected to remain doing so over the next few years, states the report.Need for Efficient Management of Marine Fuel to Boost DemandThe increase in the demand for energy in West Africa despite fluctuating prices of oil has been the most prominent factor behind the growth of the offshore mooring systems market in this region, says an analyst in TMR. As marine fuel cost accounts for a heavy portion of the vessel operating cost, the need for an efficient management of marine fuel has increased considerably. With offshore mooring systems being highly effective in monitoring, controlling, and reporting of marine fuel consumption, their demand is likely to augment remarkably in the oil and gas industry of West Africa in the near future, reflecting positively on this market.The technological advancement in mooring products is also projected to boost this market over the forecast period. However, the high cost of investments needed for exploration and production activities may hamper the markets growth in the coming years, states the report.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @The study presented here is based on a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), titled Offshore Mooring Systems Market (Type - Catenary, Taut Leg, Semi-taut, Spread, Single Point, and Dynamic Positioning; Application - Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Vessels, Floating Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading (FDPSO) Vessels, Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Vessels, TLP, Semi-submersibles, and Spar Platforms; Anchorage - Drag Embedment Type Anchors, Suction Type Anchors, and Vertical Load Type Anchors) - West Africa Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024.The report segments the West Africa offshore mooring market as:By Type-Catenary-Taut Leg-Semi-taut-Spread-Single Point-Dynamic PositioningBy Application-Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Vessels-Floating Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading (FDPSO) Vessels-Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Vessels-TLP-Semi-submersibles-Spar platforms-OthersBy Anchorage-Drag Embedment Type Anchors-Suction Type Anchors-Vertical Load Type AnchorsBy Country-Mauritania-Senegal-Guinea-Ivory Coast-Ghana-Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Gabon-R. Congo-Angola-Congo BrazzavilleAbout 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.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Rubber bonded Abrasives Market - Global Industry Analysis 2024
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Bonded abrasives are natural abrasives which are fused to form a solid in the shape of a wheel. They are usually a combination of abrasive grains, bonding material, and fillers. Examples of Bonded abrasives are flat reinforced cutting-off wheel, depressed center reinforced cutting off wheel, depressed center reinforced grinding wheel, coolie hat for grinding, flat reinforced for grinding wheel, flat unreinforced grinding wheel, rubber bond mounted points, vitrified bond mounted points, resinoid grinding cups, and resinoid bond mounted points. The bonding material could be resin, rubber, shellac, epoxy, or magnesite. An important raw material used in the production of rubber-bonded abrasives is an abrasive grain such as aluminum oxide, zirconia, and silicon carbide. Rubber-bonded abrasives are available in two types: natural and synthetic. They can be used via two different technologies: grinding and polishing wheels.Browse Market Research Report @Aluminum oxide is a major abrasive used in the manufacture of grinding wheels, obtained by refining bauxite ores in an electric furnace. First, the bauxite is heated to remove moisture and then mix it with coke and iron borings to form the furnace charge. Next, the mixture is cooled and fused which results in a rock-like mass crushed into different sizes. Iron oxide, titanium oxide, and silica are the impurities which determine the color and toughness of the abrasives. Zirconia aluminum oxide or specialized alumina is a fused mixture of zirconium oxide and aluminum oxide used for high production snagging or foul hooking. For high stock removal snagging, sintered alumina is used, which is extremely tough. Silicon carbide is produced by fusing a mixture of white sand and petroleum coke in an electric furnace. The crystalline mass formed is crushed and graded. Silicon carbide is also a major abrasive employed in the manufacture of grinding wheels. Silicon carbide abrasives are harder than aluminum oxide abrasives and can be easily crumbled.Rubber-bonded abrasives can be segmented on the basis of application into the following categories: heavy industries, transportation components, electrical & electronic equipment, medical equipment, aerospace, household, and printing. These abrasives can also be employed for cutting and grinding tools such as plumbing tools and screwdrivers. They exhibit various advantages over other abrasives as they are softer and can be extensively used in grinding, off-hand tool grinding, fabrication, and floor polishing applications. Rubber-bonded abrasives do not destroy the quality of the metal. Due to the increasing demand from the metal, steel, and heavy industries, this market is expected to develop during the forecast period. Rising demand from various industries and the flexible properties of rubber-bonded abrasives are the propellants of this market. A major restraining factor is that rubber-bonded abrasives are heavier than other bonded abrasives which leads to machine constraints, causing environmental pollution.On the basis of region, Asia Pacific is leading the market due to the high demand for rubber-bonded abrasives in countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea. China is the dominant country, followed by India, Japan, and South Korea. North America and Europe are also displaying steady growth. The rest of the world is also anticipated to witness positive growth due to the products application in various industries.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @Key players operating in the rubber-bonded abrasive market are Tyrolit Group, PFERD INC, Saint Gobain, 3M Company, and Buffalo Abrasives Inc.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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Electrical Market Witness Significantly Rising Demand for LED Lighting
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The expanding population in Saudi Arabia has put pressure on the countrys existing infrastructure. This has compelled the government of Saudi Arabia to initiate several large-scale projects aimed at infrastructural development in the coming years.According to Transparency Market Research (TMR), the increasing construction activities witnessed in the country will significantly aid in the expansion of electrical market in Saudi Arabia.Surging Infrastructural Development Activities Boost Demand for Electrical Products in Saudi ArabiaBrowse Market Research Report:The surging demand for electrical products that are compatible with the infrastructure has led to the renewal of existing electrical and lighting systems.This, as per TMR, will boost the Saudi Arabia electrical market at a robust10.4% CAGR between 2015 and 2023. The market was valued at US$4.5 bn in 2014 and is expected to reach US$10.8 bn by the end of 2023.The Saudi Arabia electrical market is also expected to significantly gain from the rising energy demand in the Middle East. Development activities on card for the energy generation and transmission infrastructure will boost sales of electrical products, as it would require a higher number of cable management products such as trays, cable, floor ducts, cable conduits, raceways, and cable reels to efficiently manage cable networks.Volatility in Raw Material Prices to Emerge as Major BottleneckDespite Saudi Arabia exhibiting favorable opportunities for the electrical market, the volatility in the raw material prices will continue to be a major challenge inhibiting its growth. The unforeseen economic recession also creates major bottleneck for the market.Nevertheless, with companies increasingly engaging in mergers and acquisitions, the market sees lucrative prospects for growth in the near future. As per TMR, the rising opportunities in solar energy and grid modernization will also influence the markets trajectory positively.Demand for Energy Efficient Lighting Solutions to Fuel Sales of LED LightingBy application type, decorative lighting, commercial lighting, hospital lighting, flood lighting, tunnel lighting, street lighting, area lighting, pool lighting, solar lighting, and cinema and theatre lighting are the key segments of the Saudi Arabia electrical market. Of these, the tunnel lighting segment is expected to exhibit strong growth.Besides this, the market is also expected to witness significantly rising demand for LED lighting. This segment is likely to benefit from the rising demand for energy efficient lighting solutions.However, tunnel lighting is expected to emerge as the segment exhibiting the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. The construction of new tunnels and upgrades of the existing ones in Saudi Arabia will boost sales of tunnel lighting in the country.Demand for Tunnel Lighting Poised to Surge ExponentiallyBy products, the Saudi Arabia Electrical market comprises metallic cable management, wiring devices, low voltage systems, lighting control systems, and lighting protection systems. Of these, the lighting control systems is poised to surge at a CAGR of 14.3% during the forecast period.Fill the form to Gain Deeper Insights on this Market:The rising demand for efficient energy systems and the growing infrastructural development activities in the country is expected to give significant impetus to this product segment.However, with a market valuation US$1.5 bn, the low voltage systems segment emerged dominant in the market in 2014. TMR forecasts, this segment to continue its lead in the market through the forecast period.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:
Vehicle Intelligence Systems Market: Advanced technologies & growth opportunities in global Industry by 2024
Vehicle Intelligence Systems Market, Global Vehicle Intelligence Systems Market
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The global vehicle intelligence systems market has been registering positive growth with the growing awareness about road safety. The development of vehicle intelligence systems has boosted the concept of driverless mobility. Vehicle intelligence systems are expected to shape the future of autonomous driving by improving collision avoidance, parking assistance, and emergency braking.On the basis of vehicle category, the global vehicle intelligence systems market can be segmented into commercial vehicles and passenger cars. The vehicle intelligence systems are mostly installed in premium and luxury cars owing to their high price. However, the commercial vehicles segment holds promising opportunities for the growth of the market during the forecast period. In terms of road scene understanding, vehicle intelligence systems can be categorized into road sign detection systems, night vision systems, road/lane tracking systems, and pedestrian detection systems.On the basis of advanced driver assistance and driver monitoring, vehicle intelligence systems are classified into blind spot detection systems, traffic jam assist systems, adaptive cruise control, alertness sensing systems, and park assist systems.Obtain Report Details @Growing awareness about vehicle and driver safety has fuelled the demand for vehicle intelligence systems. The stringent safety regulations in the manufacturing of cars and the growing demand for luxury cars in the developing countries have supported the growth of the global vehicle intelligence systems market. The rising trend of autonomous/driverless cars is expected to augment the growth of the global vehicle intelligence systems market.The high cost of vehicle intelligence systems is one of the major restraints in the growth of the global vehicle intelligence systems market. A vehicle intelligence system implements a number of technologies and a range of software-driven electronic components. As a result, the cost of development of the vehicle intelligence system increases. This has limited the installation of vehicle intelligence systems in premium or luxury cars. Furthermore, the effective functioning of vehicle intelligence systems on a real-time basis, coupled with high capital investment, remains a key challenge for market players.Make an Enquiry @The global vehicle intelligence market can be segmented into four key regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The market in Europe is expected to witness significant due to the presence of some of the major automotive players. In countries such as the U.K., Germany, and France, the demand for vehicle intelligence systems is anticipated to surge during the forecast period owing to the presence of auto manufacturers including Daimler AG, Volkswagen Group, BMW AG, and Audi AG. With the growing demand for premium and luxury vehicles across Europe, the region is projected to support the growth of key market players. In Asia Pacific, countries such as India, Japan, South Korea, and China are the key markets for the automotive industry. The growing demand for luxury vehicles, coupled with the rise in the automotive manufacturing facilities in the region, will play a key role in the markets growth in the coming years.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.Each TMR 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 wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Cerebral Oximeters Market : Global Markets & Advanced Technologies
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The fundamental aim of the anesthetic process is maintenance of sufficient amount of oxygen to organs and tissues, especially the brain. Though the dangers to the brain of reduced oxygen delivery and prolonged hypoxia are well documented, the brain is still the least monitored organ in the course of anesthesia. Cerebral oximeters are used to obtain cerebral oxygenation values using continuous, noninvasive near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology or near-infrared spectroscopy technology.The cerebral oximeter setup includes an oximeter probe which is attached to a cable that is then connected to the cerebral oximeter monitor. Most cerebral oximeters are able to support 2 to 4 oximeter probes with their respective monitor cables. Probes are attached to the scalp of a patient using adhesive pads, where the frontal lobe is the chosen part of the scalp. Probes are composed of fiber optic light source along with light detectors. Light is released by the source in the infrared range either by light-emitting diodes (LED) or through stimulated emission of the radiation.Browse full report on Cerebral Oximeters Market -The emitted light which is in the infrared range is able to reach the underlying cerebral tissue by easily penetrating through the skull. The light which is emitted is either redirected, absorbed, reflected, or scattered. A change is observed in the light spectrum when infrared light comes in contact with hemoglobin. The change depends upon the hemoglobin molecules oxygenation status. The light detectors present in the oximeter probes detect the reflected light once it returns toward the surface.The growth of the global cerebral oximeters market is due to factors such as growth in the older population, increase in prevalence and incidence of neurological disorders, and gradual rise in the awareness levels about neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, the market growth is driven by increase in prevalence of traumatic brain injuries and sustained efforts by manufacturers to bring in technological advancements in the equipment. The demand for these devices can grow as there is a huge untreated population with neurological conditions as well as rise in demand for minimally invasive and non-invasive devices. Greater focus of the manufacturers on digitalized devices, their extended therapeutic applications, and increase in use of these devices in clinical trials are some of the opportunities that could drive the growth of the market. However, the market growth could be impeded due to high cost of the equipment. As the devices are complex, the costs associated with them are very high. Furthermore, factors such as shortage of highly trained professionals, concerns about the accuracy of the diagnostic devices, and unfavorable reimbursement policies may hinder the growth of the market during the forecast period.The global cerebral oximeters market is segmented based on product type, therapeutic application, end-user, and geography. The market in terms of product type is divided into portable oximeters and finger oximeters. Based on therapeutic application, the market is classified into traumatic brain injuries, stroke, and other therapeutic applications. In terms of end-user, the market is divided into hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, and others.Geographically, the global cerebral oximeters market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to have the prime share of the market. Factors such as rise in prevalence of various neurodegenerative disorders, government initiatives and support for technological advancements, well-established sales & distribution network of major neurodiagnostic companies, and ease of reimbursement for brain monitoring techniques. North America is followed by Europe in terms of market size. The market is expected to grow in Asia Pacific due to improvement in health care infrastructure, rise in disposable incomes, and increase in incidence of neurodegenerative disorders as well as health care reforms initiated by governments.The prominent players operating in the global cerebral oximeters market are GE Healthcare, Medtronic, Masimo, Natus Medical Incorporated, Omron Healthcare, Nonin Medical, Boston Scientific, Edwards Lifesciences, and Spacelabs Healthcare.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.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)Request for brochure of this report -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:
Neuropathic Pain Market : Technological breakthroughs, Value chain and stakeholder analysis by 2026
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Global Neuropathic Pain Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe report observes that diabetes is the usual indication of neuropathic pain, while cancer comes second. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 422 million people were suffering from diabetes in 2014 and this number will continue to expand in the near future, especially among the middle to low-income countries. This vast population is the primary driver in the global neuropathic pain market. Moreover, rising geriatric population, who commonly suffer from neuropathic pain, is another driver for this market. In addition to that, factors such as approval of novel treatment options, increasing demand for neuropathic pain, improving healthcare infrastructure in emerging economies, increased investment by pharmaceutical companies for research and development of improved drugs, and rising number of pain management centers will further fuel the market in positive direction. Conversely, side effects of opioids and steroids as well as cost of branded drugs are some of the factors that will hinder the growth rate of the market during the forecast period.On the basis of drug class, the segment of anticonvulsants are most popular whereas the demand for tricyclic antidepressant is expected to expand at the best CAGR. By indication, diabetic neuropathy segment serves maximum demand while chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy is projected for most prominent growth rate. In terms of distribution channel, retail pharmacies are most profitable and is expected to remain the leading segment during the forecast period.Global Neuropathic Pain Market: OverviewNeuropathic pain refers to a condition of chronic pain that is caused by a primary lesion such as trauma, infection, or other dysfunction in the nervous system. Prominent syndromes of neuropathic pain include root avulsions, postherpetic neuralgia, painful traumatic mononeuropathy, painful polyneuropathy, postsurgical pain syndromes, central pain syndromes, and complex regional pain syndrome. Some of the usual medications prescribed for neuropathic pain are anesthetics, anticonvulsants (also called neuroleptic medications), and antidepressants (also known as tricyclic antidepressants). Common antidepressants include amitriptyline and nortriptiline whereas valproic acid, carbamazepine, felbamate, phenytoin, and clonazepam a few of the most common anticonvulsants used for the treatment of neuropathic disorders. Tocainide or Mexiletine and Idocaine are some of the major anesthetics used to reduce neuropathic pain.This report on global neuropathic pain market is a thorough study of the market in its current scenario and based on all the major factors that may impact the growth rate in the near future, it estimates the state of the market until 2024. It also notes and explores some of the trends of the market as well as highlights a few opportunities available. Among the key features of the report is the section on company profiles, wherein several key players in the global market have been analyzed for their product portfolio, market share, global presence, and recent developments including mergers, acquisitions, and collaborations.Browse full report on Neuropathic Pain Market -The global market for neuropathic pain can be segmented on the basis of drug class, by indication, distribution channel, and region. By drug type, the market can be divided into tricyclic antidepressant, anticonvulsants, local anaesthesia, opioids, steroids, and others. On the basis of indication, the market can be categorized into diabetic neuropathy, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and others. By distribution channel, the market can be segmented into retail pharmacies, drug stores, and online pharmacies. Geographically, the report studies the opportunities available in the regions of Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World.Global Neuropathic Pain Market: Region-wise OutlookNorth America currently is the most lucrative regional market, owing to strong healthcare infrastructure and higher buying ability of the consumers. However, Asia Pacific is projected for the most significant growth rate, due to increasing prevalence of diabetes in countries such as China and India.Companies mentioned in the research reportSome of the key companies currently operating in global neuropathic pain market are Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., Depomed Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb and Company, Sanofi S.A., Biogen Idec Inc., Eli Lily and Company, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and Baxter Healthcare Corporation.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.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)Request for brochure of this report -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:
Excipients Market - Global Industry Analysis,Trends and Forecast 2023
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The top three participants in the Latin America excipients market, Ashland Inc., BASF SE, and FMC Corporation, hold a collective share of 26.2% in the market in 2014. Ashland Inc. will focus on restructuring its global programs and integrating centralized supply chains for retaining its competitive edge in the overall market, TMR expects. On the other hand, BASF SE and FMC Corporation are investing in result-driven research and development to introduce effective products to their existing product portfolio.Browse Market Research Report @In the coming years, in addition to catering to the pharmaceutical industry, the players in the Latin America excipients market will expand the applications of their excipients to improve revenues, expects TMR.Pharmaceutical Industry Backs Progress of Excipients MarketThe Latin America excipients market is mainly being driven by the booming pharmaceuticals industry that uses excipients as flavoring agents, binders, disintegrants agents for making tablets, capsules, and other forms of drugs. The research states that the pharmaceutical industry in Latin America will progress at a CAGR of 8.1% in terms of revenue between 2015 and 2023. The increasing population of geriatrics is acting as a fulcrum for the pharmaceutical industry in Latin America by giving it ample opportunities for develop solutions and tap the unmet medical needs.A TMR analyst says, Concurrent with this trend, the oral solid dosage drugs segment is also experiencing a remarkable boost. Its wide usage across a range of medical problems is also making it a popular medium of drug delivery amongst both patients and physicians. The study states that oral solid drugs require excessive excipients during the manufacturing process. Thus, the increasing the aforementioned factors will be collectively responsible for the rise of the excipients market in Latin America.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Expensive Raw Materials Throw Spanner it the WorksThe Latin America excipients market is currently grappling with the issue of expensive prices of raw materials used for manufacturing organic excipients. This is the biggest restraint hampering the growth of the organic excipients market in the region. Organic excipients are made from maize, corn, and starch. However, these raw materials are also being demanded by the energy sector for generation of cleaner energy solutions. Owing to the growing applications of these raw materials and their poor yield, the rise in prices is creating an impediment for the excipients market in Latin America.Besides overcoming these restraints, the Latin America excipients market has various opportunities that it needs to work towards. For instance, the resistance of potential consumers towards the introduction of new excipients must be won with accurate information. If these efforts are realized, the technological developments to make new excipients will help players win bigger revenues.TMR states the opportunity in the global excipients market will be worth US$626.9 mn by 2023. The market was valued at US$359.0 mn in 2014 and is anticipated to rise at a steady CAGR of 6.4% between 2015 and 2023. The fastest-growing product segment, sugar and other excipients, is anticipated to acquire a share of 19.33% on the basis of volume by 2023.Get Request For Discount On This Report @The analysis of the global excipients market is based on the findings of the report by Transparency Market Research. The research report, titled Excipients Market - Latin America Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2015 2023, explains every aspect of the market in absolute detail.The report segments the excipients market in Latin America as follows:Excipients Market - Product Segment AnalysisPolymersMCCHPMCEthyl celluloseMethyl celluloseCMCCroscarmelloseSodiumPovidone(binders)Crosspovidone(disintegrants)Pregelatinized starchSodium starch glycolatePolyethylene glycolAcrylic polymersOthersAbout 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.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
Surfactants Market: Latest Trends,Analysis & Insights 2024
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The Asia Pacific surfactants market is highly fragmented due to the presence of several players with small shares. An assessment of the competitive landscape by Transparency Market Research states that the entry for new players is relatively difficult. To remain ahead of the competition key players are expected to focus on product innovation. Development of bio-based surfactants also remains underway as several manufacturers are noticing the demand for safer raw materials for personal care products. Some of the leading players in the market are The Dow Chemical Company, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Akzo Nobel N.V., and Galaxy Surfactants Limited.Browse Market Research Report @According to the research report, the Asia Pacific surfactants market is expected to be worth US$6.3 bn by the end of 2024 as compared to US$4.1 bn in 2015. Between the forecast years of 2016 and 2024, the global surfactants market expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.0%.China Emerges as Leading Nation in Asia Pacific Surfactants MarketOn the basis of product, the global surfactants market is segmented into cationic, non ionic, anionic, and amphoteric. Of these, non ionic surfactants segment is expected to show remarkable progress in the coming years. By the end of 2024, the non ionic surfactants segment is expected to acquire a share of 34.2% in the overall market. The rising application of these surfactants in sectors such as oilfield chemicals, chemicals, textiles, and agrochemicals are expected is expected to drive the growth in the coming years.The Asia Pacific surfactants market is segmented into countries such as China, Thailand, Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, and Rest of APAC. Of these, China dominated the overall market in 2015. The country is expected to retain its stance in the coming years as it is slated to acquire a share of 39.4% in the Asia Pacific surfactants market by the end of 2024.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Rising Awareness about Beauty Products in Asia Pacific Boosts Regional MarketThe Asia Pacific surfactants market has been witnessing a rise since couple of years due to their increasing adoption in a wide range of personal care products. The diversity of personal care industry has offered the surfactants market several lucrative opportunities for growth. Increasing number of mouth wash, toothpaste, and hair care brands have been making significant usage of surfactants in their products. Furthermore, growing sales of bathing and shaving products are also expected to augment the demand for surfactants across Asia Pacific. Non-iconic, amphoteric, and cationic are the three types of surfactants that will be predominantly used in the near future.The increasing awareness about beauty, aesthetics, and hygiene are also expected to drive the growth of the Asia Pacific surfactants market in the near future. The changing lifestyles, increasing disposable incomes, and shifting perceptions toward improving the standard of living are also expected to have a positive impact on the trajectory of the Asia Pacific surfactants market during the forecast period.Side-effects of Chemically-obtained Surfactants to Restrain Market GrowthDespite the soaring demand for beauty products, the Asia Pacific surfactants market is being restrained by the growing concerns amongst consumers about the usage of synthetic raw materials and oleo-chemicals in cosmetics. Surfactants manufactured using synthetic sources can lead to side-effects such as irritation to the skin and eye, damage beyond repair, and neurotoxicity amongst others.Get Request For Discount On This Report @The introduction of organic products and worries about irreparable damage to the skin due to the use of surfactants are expected to hamper the growth of the Asia Pacific surfactants market.This review is based on Transparency Market Researchs report, titled Surfactants Market - Asia Pacific Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024.The report segments the Asia Pacific surfactants market into:Surfactants Market Product AnalysisCationicAnionicAmphotericNon ionicOthers (Silicone surfactants, etc.)Surfactants Market Application AnalysisPersonal CareOilfield ChemicalsPaints & CoatingsEmulsion PolymerizationAgrochemicalsConcrete AdditivesAbout 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.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
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Doug Stamm had run Meyer Memorial Trust since 2002. The foundation will begin a national search for his successor this summer.
(Leah Nash, via Meyer Memorial Trust)
Meyer Memorial Trust said Monday that chief executive Doug Stamm will step down next year, which would be his 16th running the charitable foundation. His successor will be just the third CEO in the trust's 35-year history.
Created by Fred G. Meyer, founder of the retail chain that bears his name, the trust has assets of $750 million and paid out $36 million last year in 448 awards. Since 1982 it has awarded 8,640 grants totaling $717 million.
Meyer Memorial Trust focuses on contributions to ease inequities and disparities in Oregon. The foundation said it will begin a national search this summer for a successor.
"This isn't about re-engineering Meyer," Stamm wrote in a blog post announcing his departure. "We're not looking for a change agent. We're looking for a proactive innovator to shepherd us further into equity, someone who leads from a position of strength and understands why stewardship trumps ownership every time."
Stamm, 63, will continue running the organization until the new CEO is in place, after which the trust said he will work independently on equity and inclusion issues.
-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699
TEDxPortland 2016 speakers
Timber Jim Serrill, in a file photo.
(File photo)
By Jim Serrill
Being "Timber Jim" for the Portland Timbers wasn't just a stage act; I was a career line clearance tree trimmer for nearly 40 years. Late in my "day job" utility career, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. My work truck partner developed the same type of cancer. His experience has been much worse and more painful than mine. Ten men in my industry were diagnosed with cancer as well.
It wasn't long after I was diagnosed that I learned that railroad workers, firefighters, truckers, miners and others like me who worked with diesel engines and diesel exhaust face an increased risk of several kinds of cancer. There was a sticker on my wood chipper that stated "this machine is known to cause cancer and reproductive harm in the State of California." I took this as a cautionary warning - not as a possible reality. I faced a fair amount of risk as an electrical worker. I made choices about how to work safely while climbing trees near high voltage power lines and working with chainsaws.
OSHA law requires all utilities, contractors and government agencies to recognize and mitigate workplace hazards. A simple axiom exists: "if it's not safe, don't do it."
I also made choices about what I ate, drank, how much sleep to get and how to take care of my health. But I had NO choice about exposure to diesel exhaust.
Now, Oregon has a choice to make.
A recent $72.9 million settlement with Volkswagen gives Oregon the responsibility to limit our toxic diesel exposure. We will decide where and how to apply these dollars to make the greatest impact. It's a chance that won't come around again, which is why we have to get it right.
The Oregon Legislature is considering SB1008, a package of solutions to address the health threat of old dirty diesel engines. The package will make sure we are not bringing more old engines into the state. Also that we understand how many dirty engines we have now and set a timeline to get those engines out of use.
I'd like to see all older diesel engines immediately taken out of service until replaced or retrofitted with filters that remove harmful particulates. The investment is worthwhile; for every dollar spent cleaning up old diesel engines, we will see as much as $17 in avoided health costs.
The need is urgent; 23 of Oregon's 36 counties exceed the state health benchmark for diesel pollution.
It isn't just workers' health at risk - simply living a lifetime in some Oregon neighborhoods will result in enough diesel exposure to result in premature death.
I can tell you that there are parts of surviving cancer that no one wants to talk about. When I needed radiation, my world got very small. I could not continue to work and had to retire early. After 30 years, I had to stop being "Timber Jim" - the role I created for the team. My strength and stamina have evaporated. There have been other serious consequences, but I'll spare you from the graphic details. But allow me to convey the details are of a physical, emotional and financial nature. I don't want anyone's life to get cut short, or to have to give up doing what they love.
I share my story in the hopes that it will inspire change. I urge our lawmakers to support SB1008. Let's get a handle on our dirty diesel problem, once and for all.
Jim Serrill (AKA Timber Jim) served as the original mascot (he prefers the title of Director of Love and Celebration) for the Portland Timbers; he retired in 2008. He lives with his family in Tualatin.
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In this file image provided on Friday, April 7, 2017 by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea.
(Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via AP)
By Margaret Sullivan
The cruise missiles struck, and many in the mainstream media fawned.
"I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night," declared Fareed Zakaria on CNN, after the firing of 59 missiles at a Syrian military airfield late Thursday night. (His words sounded familiar, since CNN's Van Jones made a nearly identical pronouncement after Trump's first address to Congress.)
"On Syria attack, Trump's heart came first," read a New York Times headline. "President Trump has done the right thing and I salute him for it," wrote the Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens - a frequent Trump critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist. He added: "Now destroy the Assad regime for good."
Brian Williams, on MSNBC, seemed mesmerized by the images of the strikes provided by the Pentagon. He used the word "beautiful" three times and alluded to a Leonard Cohen lyric - "I am guided by the beauty of our weapons" - without apparent irony.
Quite the pivot, for some. Assessing Trump's presidency a few weeks ago, Zakaria wrote that while the Romans recommended keeping people happy with bread and circuses, "so far, all we have gotten is the circus." And the Times has been so tough on Trump that the president rarely refers to the paper without "failing" or "fake" as a descriptor.
But after the strikes, praise flowed like wedding champagne - especially on cable news.
"Guest after guest is gushing. From MSNBC to CNN, Trump is receiving his best night of press so far," wrote Sam Sacks, a Washington podcaster and journalist. "And all he had to do was start a war."
Why do so many in the news media love a show of force?
"There is no faster way to bring public support than to pursue military action," said Ken Paulson, head of the Newseum Institute's First Amendment Center.
"It's a pattern not only in American history, but in world history. We rally around the commander-in-chief - and that's understandable."
Paulson noted that the news media also "seem to get bored with their own narrative" about Trump's failings, and they welcome a chance to switch it up.
But that's not good enough, he said: "The watchdog has to have clear vision and not just a sporadic bark."
Clara Jeffery, editor in chief of Mother Jones, offered a simple explanation: "It's dramatic. It's good for TV, reporters get caught up in the moment, or, worse, jingoism."
She added: "Military action is viewed as inherently nonpartisan, opposition or skepticism as partisan. News organizations that are fearful of looking partisan can fall into the trap of failing to provide context."
And so, empathy as the president's clear motivation is accepted, she said - "with no mention of the refugee ban keeping those kids out, no mention of Islamophobia that has informed his campaign and administration. How can you write about motive and not explore that hypocrisy?"
Mocking "the instant elevation of Trump into a serious and respected war leader," Glenn Greenwald in the Intercept recalled John Jay, one of the Federalist Papers authors, who wrote more than 200 years ago: "However disgraceful it may be to human nature . . . nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it."
In fact, Jay wrote, "absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it" - except, of course, to scratch that eternal itch for military glory, revenge or self-aggrandizement.
Groupthink, and a lack of proper skepticism, is something that we've seen many times before as the American news media watches an administration step to the brink of war.
Most notoriously, perhaps, that was true in the run-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003, the start of a long disaster there.
Stephen Walt, Harvard professor of international affairs, thinks the press and the public should have learned some things by now.
"Syria remains a tragedy because there are no good options," he wrote in Foreign Policy, and America's interventions in the Middle East very seldom end well.
Walt later told me that the news media now must look forward and ask deeper questions.
"What is Trump's overall strategy for Syria," given that "the balance of power on the ground is unchanged and we are no closer to a political settlement."
Missile strikes may seem thrilling, and retaliation righteous.
But journalists and commentators ought to remember the duller virtues, too, like skepticism, depth and context.
And keep their eyes fixed firmly there, not on the spectacular images in the sky.
The city of Gresham has agreed to pay $85,000 to a woman who was detained by police for video-recording them arresting a stranger on a public sidewalk just outside downtown Portland.
As part of the settlement, police in Gresham and Portland have enacted new policies and training about bystanders' rights to record their actions in public. The officers were working for TriMet's transit police unit at the time.
Carrie Medina, the woman who filed the lawsuit, was on her way home from her job at Oregon Health & Science University when she says she saw police tackle a young man and heard someone say, "Ouch, that must have hurt!" on Feb. 12, 2013.
Several minutes after she took out her phone and started to record, she was confronted by an officer who wanted to see her video, she said.
When she refused to let the officer see the video without a warrant, he grabbed the phone from her and twisted her arm, according to a summary of the case by Medina and her lawyers.
Medina sued in 2015 in U.S. District Court in Oregon, arguing that police violated her free speech rights and her rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
On Monday, she, her lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon announced the terms of the settlement. Medina won't keep any of the $85,000 for herself. The money was meant to pay for her legal fees, but her lawyers at Davis Wright Tremaine represented her for free. Medina is giving all the money to the ACLU for its future legal efforts in other cases.
One of Medina's lawyers, Alan Galloway, said the city of Gresham adopted a new policy last May and the city of Portland in October in direct response to settlement negotiations in this case.
Both policies make it clear that the public has a right to record police in public -- as long as the recording doesn't interfere with police carrying out their official duties.
"Shortly after the incident that occurred in 2013, the city adopted policies and procedures to deal with these types of situations," said Elizabeth Coffey, a spokeswoman for the city of Gresham. "Training was developed and implemented for officers. We will move forward from here, and are thankful the settlement is resolved."
During the encounter, Gresham Officer Taylor Letsis can be seen and heard on Medina's video telling her that he needed to watch her video to see if there was any evidence on it. After she said she would be happy to let him watch it if he had a subpoena, Letsis twisted Medina's arm and locked it in a hold as he dug his fingernails into her hand, Medina said.
Although she was injured, Medina said she wasn't interested in getting damages from her lawsuit. She wanted to spur change among police -- by educating them that people have a right to record their official activities in public.
"I was doing nothing wrong," Medina said at a news conference in the downtown Portland offices of the ACLU of Oregon. "People have a First Amendment right to film police doing their jobs in public places. I don't think a bystander should ever feel afraid of police."
Since the incident, Medina has co-founded a group called Film the Police Portland, which has posted many videos to YouTube and has trained hundreds of people about their rights, she said.
"Videos like these are an important part of police accountability," she said. "Almost everyone has a cellphone that can record videos these days -- and I believe officers should always act as if a camera is rolling."
Her lawsuit listed Portland police and TriMet as defendants, as well as Gresham, because Portland police also were present during the encounter and officers from both agencies were acting as law enforcement for TriMet's transit police unit.
Mat dos Santos, legal director of ACLU of Oregon, said the settlement should help toward the goal of ending a "widespread continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs or video in public places and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply."
Police have often cited an outdated "eavesdropping" law when they unconstitutionally stop bystanders from recording them, dos Santos said.
Dos Santos pointed to a bill passed by the Oregon Legislature in June 2015 after a series of people had rough encounters with police or were arrested as they used their smartphones or other devices to record police. House Bill 2704 clarifies Oregon law to specifically say that video-recording police from a public vantage point is legal, he noted.
-- Aimee Green
Underground utility work related to the construction of the new Multnomah County courthouse caused a water main to break and flood downtown Portland streets Sunday.
Sewer work done days earlier under the 16-inch cast-iron water main put pressure on the pipe, leading it to burst around 11:45 a.m. at Southwest First Avenue and Madison Street, said Jaymee Cuti, a Portland Water Bureau spokeswoman.
It's not clear how much water was released onto the streets, Cuti said. But within 15 minutes, several inches of standing water flowed along First Avenue between Madison and Taylor streets.
The Hawthorne Bridge was temporarily closed because of the nearby flooding. Water service was shut off to five commercial buildings, including World Trade Center 3 near First Avenue and Salmon Street, where water poured into the basement.
The broken pipe was first installed 59 years ago and was "otherwise stable" before the construction in the area, Cuti said. The average age of Portland pipes is 65 years, she said. The water main was repaired by 4 a.m. Monday.
Underground work for the county's new $300 million central courthouse began in February, including relocating sewer lines at the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge to start excavation. The courthouse is scheduled to open in 2020.
Before the water main broke, construction crews hadn't been working at the new courthouse site since Thursday, said Multnomah County spokesman Mike Pullen. Installing a storm sewer line near Southwest First Avenue and Naito Parkway is among the underground work that still needs to be done.
There were no warning signs that the construction work would cause any issues, Pullen said. Crews have had an inspector with the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services on site during the utility work and they raised no red flags, he said.
-- Everton Bailey Jr.
ebailey@oregonian.com
503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
For the second time ever, the Midland City Council and the Midland County Board of Commissioners will hold a joint meeting on Thursday, April 13. The two bodies will come together at 4 p.m. in the Board of Commissioners Room at the Midland County Services Building to hear a report by Matt Felan, president and CEO of the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance.
Weve put together a plan to attract industry to the area, Felan said by phone. I will be speaking on the what and why of the different industries that we have targeted.
To the editor:
On March 18, Midland Community Family Ministries hosted Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott for their Fight Night program on the challenges of more effectively managing conflict as an avenue to deeper intimacy in marriage. Nearly 900 people were in attendance, a testament to the value and importance of marriage in our community. While all the glory goes to God, we would like to thank the many churches and people involved in putting together an event of this magnitude.
Our financial sponsors included Christian Celebration Center, First United Methodist, Midland Free, Midland Nazarene, Messiah, New Life Vineyard, St. Johns Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran and one anonymous private donor. Without their financial investments, events like Fight Night would not be possible.
Many other churches supported the event with their advocacy, promotion and volunteers. In addition to our financial sponsors, these include Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic, Floyd Church of God, Hopevale (Saginaw), Memorial Presbyterian, First Baptist, Midland Free Methodist, Midland Reformed, Our Redeemer Evangelical Free, Saginaw First Assembly of God and Sunrise Baptist.
Very special thanks to Midland Free for graciously offering their facilities as an extraordinary venue for Fight Night and Christian Celebration Center for hosting Midland Community Family Ministries as a supported ministry.
There were far too many individual contributors involved in making Fight Night such a success to mention here. The collective experiences, creativity and hard work of all of our many volunteers are essential elements in the hosting of practical, biblical programs, such as Fight Night, in pursuit of our mission of making marriages and families alive and strong in our mid-Michigan community. (Watch for our next event in March of 2018!)
With our deepest gratitude,
Tim Adams and the MCFM Steering Team
BLOOMINGTON Biologist Edgar Lehr has been exploring Peru for 20 years, going to places few researchers have been and discovering species no one has identified before.
It never ends, said the associate professor of biology at Illinois Wesleyan University. There are always more new species that I can discover.
Lehr and his colleagues have been involved in discovering nearly 100 new species, mostly in Peru.
Finding a new species is so exciting, like when you're a child opening a present, he said. It never gets boring."
But more than excitement is involved. Discovering these species is important because, we can only protect what we know, he explained, and such discoveries can support conservation efforts.
His most recent focus has been on the Pui Pui Protected Forest, high in the Andes, which Lehr described as a hot spot of biodiversity.
It was there that he and his research partner, Rudolf von May, a University of Michigan postdoctoral fellow, discovered what is now officially known as Attenborough's Rubber Frog, although its formal scientific name is Pristmantis attenboroughi. The frog is less than an inch long and can be brown, black or green.
They decided to name the frog after David Attenborough, the BBC broadcaster and naturalist known for his nature programs, after learning Attenborough was celebrating his 90th birthday.
You often see a photo of him with a smile on his face and a frog in his hand, Lehr said of Attenborough.
Yet, while many species bear Attenborough's name, Lehr said, not a single amphibian had been named for him.
When they reached out to Attenborough for permission to name the frog for him, they very quickly received a letter back, saying he was thrilled, Lehr said.
Lehr's expeditions have received support from National Geographic and IWU. Reaching the research area can involve two days of walking in areas with few, if any, trails, crossing rivers and using horses to carry equipment. The elevation is roughly 13,000 feet in montane (a mountain ecosystem) and high-elevation grasslands.
When there are nearby trails, it's not necessarily good. Those trails are sometimes used by narcotics traffickers, Lehr said, and their group was told, when you see flashlights at night, be quiet and don't respond. A sound sleeper, Lehr said he never saw any suspected traffickers and no one bothered his group.
Finding frogs involves keeping your eyes and ears open, looking for potential habitats and listening for calls.
They found a spot with large layers of yellow moss, several feet high, and thought, there must be frogs here, Lehr recalled, but it took several hours of painstakingly going through the layers before finding anything.
We found the first one, and it was a new species, said Lehr, smiling as he recalled the discovery.
Another time, they were driving through an area and heard frogs calling, but had trouble tracking down the sound because it bounced around the forest, hiding its source, and because the frogs would go silent when they approached.
We looked for a half hour in the wrong area, Lehr said.
Sometimes, no matter how long you look, the frogs remain hidden.
Three years ago, they searched a forest area where they could hear frogs calling, but after four nights of searching and cutting down one small tree, they couldn't find a frog. They await the return of Lehr or another researcher to be discovered.
BLOOMINGTON Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs will be at Illinois Wesleyan University at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience), a partnership of 14 states to encourage people to save money on behalf of people with a disability or blindness.
Frerichs will speak at IWU's Center for Natural Sciences Room 101, 201 E. Beecher St., Bloomington.
Following passage of the ABLE law on the federal level, Illinois adopted Senate Bill 1383, with Frerichs' support, enabling the treasurer's office to create an ABLE program. The federal law creates a tax-advantaged savings program allowing individuals to save for disability-related expenses.
CORTEZ, Colo. Two generations ago, they were often written off as a bunch of hippies making backpacks and climbing gear for niche markets. But in recent decades, companies such as Patagonia and REI have become consumer powerhouses and political players, increasingly eager to influence decisions over public lands.
A sign of that clout came this year, when the outdoor industry decided to pull its twice-yearly trade show from Salt Lake City, where it been based since 1996. The shows injected tens of millions of dollars into the Utah economy, but industry leaders decided to pull out after Gov. Gary Herbert and other Utah Republicans started lobbying President Donald Trump to roll back the Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.35-million-acre conservation area in south Utah that Native Americans and environmentalists have championed for years.
Industry leaders said they had mixed feelings about leaving Salt Lake but felt compelled to make a move after Herbert refused to reconsider his position.
"Outdoor recreation is a huge economic driver in Utah and Colorado, and we felt it wasn't being respected," said Sam Mix, outdoor marketing manager for Osprey Packs, which is headquartered in southwest Colorado. "Public lands are where our customers go to recreate. Without these big wide-open spaces, we'd have no business and no reason to exist."
Made up of 1,200 companies, the Outdoor Industry Association is based in Boulder, Colo., with an outreach office in Washington, D.C. The group estimates that consumers spend about $120 billion on outdoor recreation products each year, ranging from apparel to tents, bicycles and camping gear.
Since 1989, dozens of leading outdoor companies have paid into a mechanism to support public lands and environmental causes. With membership dues based on a company's annual revenues, the industry's Conservation Alliance has doled out more than $15 million in grants.
Compared with oil companies and others with a commercial interest in public lands, the outdoor industry isn't much of a lobbying force. Recreational Equipment Inc. REI spent $210,000 on lobbying last year. Patagonia spent $90,000. By contrast, Exxon spent more than $11 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Yet because of its unique customer base, the industry has learned it can mobilize thousands of dedicated outdoors people through digital campaigns. Over the last three years, for instance, Patagonia alone says it has invested $1.7 million in grants and videos to promote Bears Ears, an expanse of red rock canyons, forests and Native American antiquities spread out south of Canyonlands National Park.
Patagonia, a private company with roughly $800 million in annual sales, has a long history of supporting conservation causes. In recent years, Bears Ears has been its signature issue. In 2015, it produced a lavish video "Defined by the Line" that introduced many outdoors enthusiasts to this region. If you click now on the company's main website, the first image that pops up is a photo of the area's red-rock mesas, superimposed with a message, "Defend Bears Ears."
Top Patagonia executives became interested in Bears Ears because of their rock-climbing employees, according to Hans Cole, whose company title is "director of environmental campaigns and advocacy." Patagonia employees, he said, brought back stories of challenging, picturesque climbing sites such as those at Indian Creek. It was only later that Patagonia learned about the cultural significance of the area, which is filled with ancient rock art and cliff dwellings considered sacred by local tribes.
In late December, President Barack Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate Bears Ears a national monument. In announcing the decision, the White House noted the inability of Utah's U.S. lawmakers to protect the area's artifacts and habitats through public lands legislation.
Even so, the Utah delegation lashed out at what they called Obama's "midnight monument." By February, the state legislature passed a resolution asking Trump to undo the new national monument. Herbert signed it, along with a resolution asking Trump also to rescind the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Outdoor industry officials had warned Utah leaders not to take such action. Days after Herbert signed the resolution, Outdoor Retailer announced it would move its trade shows out of Utah after its contract with Salt Lake City ended in 2018. "We've been listening to the concerns from the industry and agree that it's time to explore our options," said Marisa Nicholson, show director for the trade group.
Some Utah opponents of the Bears Ears monument say they couldn't care less about the trade show's exit. Leaders of livestock and mining businesses oppose the monument, fearing that such designations will limit how and where they can earn their livelihoods in the future.
"Let them go!" said Sandy Johnson, a rancher whose family has raised cattle on federal land near Bears Ears since the 1920s. "You start bending to those kind of people and you become a hostage."
For Salt Lake City, though, the industry's announcement was a bombshell. According to a University of Utah economic report, nearly 32,000 people visited Salt Lake County because of Outdoor Retailer's summer show last year, spending $32 million and generating $3.1 million in local taxes. Another 21,000 visitors and $20 million in economic impact was expected from January's winter show.
In addition, Outdoor Retailer had recently signed a nonbinding letter of intent to expand from two to five shows yearly.
Salt Lake City and Gov. Herbert urged the industry to stay in town. But top executives at REI, the North Face and Patagonia were disappointed in Herbert's overtures during a Feb. 16 telephone call. The outdoor industry says it continues to seek a home outside Utah for the shows in 2019, with possible bids coming from Denver, Portland, Ore., and other cities.
The industry is gearing up for whatever decision Trump might make on Bears Ears, said Corley Kenna, communications director for Patagonia. If Trump tries to rescind the monument, something the law makes no provision for, "We will use every tool available to speak out and fight it," she said.
Glatfelter and Dreamweaver Win Excellence Award at INDEX 2017
Dreamweaver and Glatfelter have developed Dreamweaver Gold 20, a lithium ion battery separator made from a combination of nanofibers and microfibers whose thermally stable materials are designed to prevent self-ignition.
March 10, 2017 - Glatfelter on March 7 announced its Composite Fibers business unit, in partnership with Dreamweaver International, Inc., won an award for the Dreamweaver Gold 20TM product as the best finished product made from, or incorporating nonwovens.
Dreamweaver and Glatfelter have developed Dreamweaver Gold 20, a lithium ion battery separator made from a combination of nanofibers and microfibers whose thermally stable materials are designed to prevent self-ignition.
The team is very proud and excited for the future of this product as we work through the qualification process, said Martin Rapp, Senior Vice President and Business Unit President, Composite Fibers.
The new cost-effective design delivers the normal electrical performance that is typically achieved with electrode materials in the battery, and provides enhanced product safety given its thermal stability.
A total of eight award categories were available. Award nominees along with other industry professionals gathered to learn of the award winners as presented at this week's INDEXTM 17 nonwovens exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland.
Glatfelter is proud of its partnership with Dreamweaver and is looking forward to continuing on the path of enhancing everyday life.
Glatfelter is a global supplier of specialty papers and fiber-based engineered materials, offering innovation, world-class service and over a century and a half of technical expertise. To learn more, please visit: www.glatfelter.com.
SOURCE: Glatfelter
Britney came back in a big way four years ago with her Las Vegas mainstay "Piece of Me." After a decent run, the show's contract with The Axis at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino will be expiring this December 31.
The show was renewed once in 2015, but that's it Britney's manager Larry Rudolph said to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"We are done with this show, and our next move is undecided...We could have it at the needle on the top of the Stratosphere, and do the bungee jump afterward," he said. "Anything is possible. We have made zero decisions. We expect a lot of interest from all parties. Britney basically sells out every show, and she loves Las Vegas, she loves performing in Vegas, and Vegas is a possibility going forward."
Looks like fans are in for more Britney very soon.
Header photo via Matteo Pradoni/BFA.com
*shocked face emoji* Kylie Jenner made a special appearance earlier today at a Sacramento high school's prom. Reports say she was accompanying a teen who got rejected by his intended date so King Kylie stepped in. *swoon*
Students at Rio Americano High School were shocked when Kylie showed up dressed in a prom dress and sporting a classic corsage with her best friend Jordyn Woods and accompanying junior Albert Ochoa. TBH they lost their damn minds as evidenced by the relentless screaming in the following videos.
Kylie Jenner really just came to rio prom. pic.twitter.com/sZQflHt62B
Sam Adams (@sam_adams_10) April 9, 2017
This is Kylie jenners date pic.twitter.com/DRNSrwgCc7
Ethan Dang (@ethandang_) April 9, 2017
.@KylieJenner For those who follow @KylieJenner on Snap & wonder where she was going in a prom dress... answer: Rio's prom in Sacramento. pic.twitter.com/Eb0oZaPIXN
Frances Wang (@ABC10Frances) April 9, 2017
All reactions, though, are secondary to the sister of Kylie's date.
TELL ME WHY MY BROTHER TOOK KYLIE JENNER TO PROM 2NIGHT !!!!!!!
$elena Ochoa (@ssoochoa) April 9, 2017
Header photo via Twitter
A woman from Greece is pregnant with twins after undergoing an experimental reverse menopause treatment. Reports claim that doctors previously dismissed her case as a lost cause in trying to get pregnant but then she found out about the experiment.
The woman, who was only identified as a 40-year-old lawyer named Natalia, underwent six rounds of hormone therapy in order to get pregnant. All of these procedures failed and she settled on going through adoption next.
Her doctors, however, advised her of an experimental technic that might just help her case. It's administered through a blood plasma injection in her womb and ovaries to revitalize her reproductive organs. Doctors had high hopes this new process reverses menopause, thus giving couples in middle age more chances of getting pregnant, as per The Sunday Times.
Natalia agreed to the procedure and found herself pregnant after just nine days following injections. Doctors told her she's the first woman to conceive after receiving reverse menopause treatments, as per Independent.
Natalia is one of 27 menopausal women who participated in the experiment in Athens last year under Dr. Konstantinos Pantos of the Genesis clinic. She is currently on her 10th pregnancy week. Some 12 women so far manifested ovulation following their treatments as well and the oldest woman is age 49.
"I had nothing to lose. Doctors had already told me I was a lost cause," Natalia said. "But then a miracle followed."
"That in itself is a huge medical milestone," Pantos said of Natalia's successful conception. Researchers, however, indicated the experiment is still in its first phase and the process still required utmost care and observation.
"Ovaries which have gone dormant are starting to work again," Pantos told Cosmopolitan when the experiment started last year. "We don't know if it's temporary or permanent, but it's reassuring."
Pantos' team is working on a scientific paper for the experiment. He, however, admits that the goal of reverse menopause isn't to have women in their '70s or '80s get pregnant. "We're not trying to surpass nature, just extend its boundaries," he said.
Couple Erik and Douglas Alexander admit it's hard to be gay parents living in a southern state. They are doing their best, however, to shatter the stigma on same-sex parenting and raise adopted daughter Allie Mae positively despite people judging their lives.
The Alexanders live in Louisiana, in a town a few miles off New Orleans. The few minutes' drive to their house from a liberal city like NOLA, however, draws a stark difference from where they live.
People in their hometown glare when they see Erik and Douglas around malls or the movies. They are the town's lone gay couple and people judge them for being different, as per New Now Next.
It does not matter to the townsfolks that the Alexanders are legally married since 2015, as per Babble. Among the challenge of being same-sex parents is in finding a daycare center for Allie Mae because most sites operate with the backing of the Catholic church.
"Catholic churches will not accept a gay family into their daycare," Erik said. "So, that was a bit frightening."
Erik, who grew up the southern state of Mississippi, experienced judgment and bullying as a child because of his sexual orientation. Thus, he went through difficult years in overcoming his insecurities. That insecurity, however, returned when he became a same-sex parent with Douglas.
The dad, however, said he has to face the challenges of being a gay parent headstrong for his daughter. "The last thing I would want to do is allow her to realize the pain that I am feeling because of society around us," he said.
Now, whenever he loses confidence or when he senses people's stares and judgments, he hangs on to Douglas' words. "Let it be a teaching experience for them. Don't read into their stares," his husband usually reminds him.
The Alexanders run an Instagram and blog on what it's like to be same-sex parents in the south. Check out NolaPapa for their life stories, parenting insights and homemaking tips.
A couple from Wisconsin always longed for a big family. Doctors, however, told Carrie Kosinski and Craig Kosinski they won't be able to have children naturally, so they decided to adopt.
A pregnant acquaintance approached the couple and asked them if they would want to adopt her baby. They later learned she was having twins, Adalynn and Kenna, who were born on Feb. 28, 2014, as per Inside Edition.
The next year, the woman would once again knock on their door and ask the Kosinskis if they would like to adopt her older set of twins because she could no longer take care of them. JJ and CeCe were born a year earlier than Adalynn and Kenna, on Feb. 28, 2013.
The Kosinki couple agreed to take in the other set of twins because they wanted all siblings to grow up together. The Kosinskis got help for the second adoption grant from One Foundation. The twins' adoptions remained in the stages of completion and awaiting finalization.
"We'd started the process of adopting the [now] 3-year-old twins when the birth mom contacted us about taking the [now] 4-year-old twins," Carrie told People. The couple said this made the adoption process more affordable than two separate adoptions.
Carrie became pregnant through IVF in 2015 and while in the middle of the adoption process. They later learned both eggs successfully fertilized and they were having a pair of twins.
"We were very shocked," Carrie said. "We were like 'oh my God we are going to have three sets of twins. What are we going to do with ourselves?'"
Carrie gave birth at 24 weeks due to developmental issues. She underwent a C-section on Feb. 28. "We only have to remember the same birthday, which is nice, but they are probably going to hate it when they older," the mom said.
The couple hopes the adoption of both twins will be official in June. They have also set up a Go Fund Me page to make it all happen.
Lawmakers in Utah signed a joint resolution seeking to abolish the Department of Education. The state's congressmen and senators urged President Donald Trump to stop federal funding for education and instead bring the decision-making and delegation on education issues back to the state level.
Lawmakers passed the joint resolution HJR 017 on March 17. Lawmakers underscored that the Constitution provides for the states to handle matters concerning education and not the federal government.
House representatives voted on HJR 017 60 to 14. Senate representatives voted on HJR 017 20 to 1, as per Breitbart.
In signing HJR 017, Utah lawmakers also urged Congress to pass and uphold the Enumerated Powers Act Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, Financial Obligations Reform Act, Intergenerational Financial Obligations Reform Act and Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act. Utah lawmakers also called on other states to do the same and document "federal overreach."
This was not the first move seeking to disband the Department of Education following Trump's ascension as president. In February, the president's GOP party members in the Kentucky House proposed a similar measure, as Parent Herald reported.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie sponsored the bill (HR 899) on abolishing the Department of Education. He cited he wants the agency gone on Dec. 31, 2018. He said he worked on his proposal as far as December 2016.
Rep. David Rouzer of North Carolina also passed a bill (HR 1510) last March seeking to abolish the Department of Education given the lack of progress and improvement in the current system. "We can get far more out of the tax dollars currently being spent on education by dismantling this billion dollar federal agency and returning those resources back to the states," the congressman said in his press release.
Do you think these measures will succeed? Are you in favor of giving the states back the function and responsibilities when it comes to education matters? Sound off in the comments below.
Its been reported that there are more cell phones than there are people in the Central American country of Panama. This is according to Mary Roush, who wrote to inform me that in spite of the cell phones nearly universal adoption there are still many, many working payphones to be found throughout her country. Mary adds:
My favorites are on the islands. There are payphones on Contadora and Saboga in the Pearl Islands and, most likely, in the San Blas Islandsand there is one on the main street in Volcan, at the base of Volcan Baru (our snow-capped dormant volcano).
Maybe Mary will be sending more photos from those and other locations throughout Panama. For now here are a couple of photos of a single phone booth on a rural road near the Continental Divide. This is outside of Santa Fe, Panama. The structure, bearing the brand name of CABLE & WIRELESS PANAMA, looks to be similar to the GTE-branded model from Wrangell, Alaska, seen a few days ago on the Payphone Project. This might be a bit of a stretch but it also resembles the model I spotted outside the Sahara Motel in Daytona Beach many years ago.
Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer best known as the maker of iPhones and iPads for Apple, is said to be preparing a $27 billion bid to acquire Toshibas computer chip assets.
Toshiba is most commonly recognized for making NAND flash and memory chips, with all of its factories in Japan. However, chip manufacturing in Japan has slipped as rivals in South Korea and China gain in strength.
The news of the potential offer was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Foxconn is the latest of a number of companies, including SK Hynix and equity investor Silver Lake, interested in acquiring Toshibas chip assets.
An acquisition by Foxconn would give Toshiba the scale it needs to advance in the manufacturing of memory and storage. Toshiba is lagging behind Samsung, especially in storage, and hasnt advanced its manufacturing processes as quickly.
Toshiba storage products can be purchased directly, but it also supplies and makes flash products for other hardware companies. The divestiture of its manufacturing assets could have an impact on SanDisk, which is a part of Toshiba.
In February, Toshiba said it was looking to sell its memory business. The need to sell the assets amplified after its Westinghouse Electric nuclear power unit filed for bankruptcy in late March. Overall, Toshiba is expecting a decline in revenue and profits this financial year.
Foxconn, on the other hand, is gathering up assets around the world, with factories in North America, Asia, Europe, and South America. Foxconn last year targeted another major Japanese company Sharp and it acquired a majority stake.
Japan still remains a technology powerhouse despite manufacturing assets dwindling. But last year, Japanese company SoftBank acquired ARM Holdings, which provides chip designs that go into many mobile devices.
The suspected CIA spying tools exposed by WikiLeaks have been linked to hacking attempts on at least 40 targets in 16 countries, according to security firm Symantec.
The tools share close similarities with the tactics from an espionage team called Longhorn, Symantec said in a Monday post. Longhorn has been active since at least 2011, using Trojan programs and previously unknown software vulnerabilities to hack targets.
Those targets include governments and organizations in the financial, telecom, IT and aerospace sectors, among others, Symantec said, without disclosing specific names.
Victim computers were located in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa and at one point, even the U.S., where the CIA is barred from conducting electronic surveillance.
On one occasion a computer in the United States was compromised but, following infection, an uninstaller was launched within hours, which may indicate this victim was infected unintentionally, Symantec said.
The CIA has declined to say whether the documents dumped by WikiLeaks are authentic. But security researchers suspect that the dumped files deal a damaging blow to the U.S. spy agency by exposing its secret hacking operations.
On Monday, Symantec said there was little doubt a link existed between Longhorn and the hacking techniques described in the dumped documents.
The security firm has found Longhorn using four different malware tools, two of which match details disclosed in the dumped files.
For instance, the suspected CIA files describe a piece of malware known as Fluxwire, and provide a changelog of dates for when new features were added. Those dates align with changes Symantec noticed in a Trojan program used by Longhorn that had been discovered in 2015.
Another CIA file described a malware payload specification that matched another Longhorn-deployed Trojan, which can open a backdoor in a Windows PC.
In 2014, this Trojan was used with a little-known vulnerability that can exploit a Microsoft Word document to hack a target, Symantec said.
Some evidence shows that Longhorn may date back as far as 2007, according to Symantec. But prior to the WikiLeaks dump, the security firm had only concluded that the group was well-resourced, devoted to intelligence gathering, and probably English-speaking.
WikiLeaks hasnt released much of the source code to the suspected CIA hacking tools. However, the files which are largely made up of user manuals and other documents will nevertheless help both security firms and foreign governments to detect the spy agencys techniques, experts say.
Hemet police are investigating a shooting that occurred late Saturday, April 8, near the Casa Del Sol RV Resort on West Acacia Avenue.
Few details, including whether anyone was injured or killed, were released Sunday morning. Lt. Eddie Pust said via email that he didnt have much information because the investigation was still active.
Pust said the incident appeared to have been over a civil problem and that all parties involved have been identified.
More information will likely be available Monday, Pust said.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
Reading, writing and reality: Todays students are growing up in a world where facts arent what they once were.
Its definitely an issue, especially during the election, said Michelle Kaganovsky, 16, an 11th-grader at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Los Angeles. A lot of (news) was made up and fake.
But Californias schools are helping students navigate the era of fake news and alternative facts, thanks in part to the Common Core State Standards. The standards, which have been adopted by 42 states and the District of Columbia, include an emphasis on closely reading and analyzing nonfiction texts, including speeches, essays and news articles.
Were asking kids to look at a variety of different documents, not just textbooks, and then they have to look at the source of the material and check their credibility, said Bill Kaiser, a world history teacher and newspaper adviser at San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano. By the time the end of the year rolls around, theyre pretty good at it.
Some schools are tackling media literacy head-on.
The term fake news comes up all the time with students and with teachers, said Jenny Thomas, a teacher-librarian at Alta Loma High School in Rancho Cucamonga. Its something that librarians in (the Chaffey Joint Union High School District) have talked about for years and years, although weve called it by different terms.
When teaching students how to evaluate the credibility of sources instead of just taking information at face value, Thomas deploys the CRAP Test.
Currency, Reliability, Authority and Purpose or Point of View, she said. We teach them how to use that acronym for anything they look at online.
And they use real-world examples: We find them fake articles or articles that wouldnt be appropriate for research, and have them go through this why it wouldnt be useful, Thomas said.
In the current media climate, many of todays students have learned to take everything they read with a grain of salt.
If its (a source) that Ive checked before, I usually believe it, or if its from teachers or parents, said Cuyler Huffman, 15, a freshman at Daniel Pearl. But I Google almost every website.
But parents and teachers arent necessarily any better at media literacy: In 2014, Rialto Unified made international headlines when teachers handed out information from a white supremacist website and labeled it as a credible source for an assignment on the Holocaust.
Parents rely on one or two sources and dont really check their facts a lot, said Angel Rivera, 16, a junior at Daniel Pearl.
It wasnt always this way.
When we grew up, there were more authoritative sources, and fewer of them. And now theres a plethora of them, and we dont really know, Kaiser said. I think people are somewhat baffled.
Todays students, all of whom were born years after the World Wide Webs birth, have the advantage of being born into this world, even as their elders might find the information onslaught overwhelming.
I think there are definitely more web-savvy, app-savvy, technology-savvy kids than adults, Thomas said. Our goal is, by the time they leave high school, theyre media-literate, information-literate.
Media literacy, like so much else, has gotten political in the past year.
I have students looking at Breitbart on their phone and thats their source for facts, and everything else is fake. And other kids are looking at NPR, Kaiser said. Theyre in two different worlds.
Ultimately, Thomas thinks the current generation of students is up to the challenge of sorting out fact from fiction in the age of alternative facts and fake news.
The truth is really important to them, but its also overwhelming, she said. But they do care and theyre engaged in figuring it out. They love to play detective and they dont like being manipulated: This isnt out there because its funny, its out there to get you to do something or buy something or believe something. When you put it to them that way, they respond quite well.
Maybe.
I think it comes down to whether or not you want to know the truth, Rivera said. If they want to be naive, theres nothing you can do about it.
Dr. Johnson Asiama says financial institutions should not see regulatory requirements as impediments.
According to him, these requirements and guidelines must be embraced to ensure that we all operate and promote a safe and sound banking sector.
Dr. Asiama, who was speaking at the recent Risk Summit Africa 2017 held in Accra, called on players in the financial sector to develop proactive risk management practices that would help them compete in the global economy.
He reiterated that strengthening financial service operations with risk management in the financial sector is a shared responsibility.
We, as regulators, will pursue our regulatory and supervisory functions by encouraging banks and other financial institutions to adopt and implement the Basel II and III, which seek to minimize systemic risk in the financial sector, he said.
Anti-Money Laundering Act
Dr. Asiama hinted that the Central Bank would soon publish its sanctions for non-compliance with provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2014 (Act 874)
The new anti-money laundering Act was passed in 2014 to remedy some deficiencies identified in the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2008 (Act 749).
The new Act extends the application of Act 749, and expands the scope of actions that can be taken under the Act and provides for related matters.
The Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2014 (Act 874) include the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in its definition of unlawful activities and the new predicate offence tax offence.
It expanded the Customer Due Diligence framework, which is the bedrock of sound anti-money laundering regime.
The Act also gives the mandate to supervisory authorities to apply administrative sanctions.
The Central Bank has promised to publish its sanctions for non-compliance.
Source: Daily Guide
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Executives of the Kenyan Community in Ghana has paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey to officially inform her about the upcoming Kenya Trade Expo in Ghana.
The call which was made last Thursday was also to invite the Minister to the event. The Kenyan Trade Expo is an annual event organized to promote the business and friendly relationship between Ghana and Kenya. It is intended to bring together the Kenyan and Ghanaian business communities.
In welcoming the delegation, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey indicated that this is the rst time a foreign community has organized itself to visit my office and I am very impressed due to the fact that Ghana and Kenya has been friends for a very long time, in business and other ways. She commended the community for taking the bold step in making their presence felt.
Mr. Charles Njeru, the Chairman of the Kenyan Community and the Financial Controller of the Labadi Beach Hotel, expressed appreciation to the Minister for welcoming the delegation. He gave a brief history of the Kenyan Community and the strides it has made over the years in Ghana.
Members of the delegation each introduced themselves much to the impression of the Honorable Minister. She indicated that it was clear the community was contributing positively to the Ghanaian economy.
Mrs. Leah Nduati, Founder of the Kenya Trade Expo in Ghana, briefed the Minister on the upcoming Kenya Trade Expo saying this is the second of its kind which will be held at the Prestigious Labadi Beach Hotel from the 1st to 4th November 2017. Preparations are ongoing and we believe this will further strengthen the Ghanaian and Kenyan business communities.
The Minister expressed appreciation to the delegation and commended Community for upholding the Kenyan image in Ghana. She also assured the community that her Ministry would assist in any way possible to make the communitys activities a success.
She echoed the community's concern that there was no Kenyan High Commission or Consular in Ghana and promised to liaise with the Kenyan Foreign Minister to ensure Kenya was formally represented in Ghana.
Mr. Ian Kabiru, the Director of Horizons Ofces and an investor, revealed his business has taken a positive turn since the beginning of the year. He added that this was a clear indication that the business community was hopeful and ready to take chances.
Other members in the delegation included Ms. Emma Wenani Director of Advisory & Consultancy at Global Media Alliance, Mr. Joe Moseti - Installation Manager at NMSI, Mr. Martin Nzanga the RTM Manager Coca Cola Bottling Ghana, Mr. Albert Ngumba - Country Manager Cellulant Ghana, Dr. Kathryn Limo the CEO of VSS and Mr. John Kamau a History Teacher at SOS Hermann-Gmeiner School.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Photographer: Diego Rhamon Reis da Silva
Summary Authors: Diego Rhamon Reis da Silva; Jim Foster
Shown above is a gigantic blue jet observed from Campina Grande, Paraiba Brazil, on March 13, 2017. Blue jets are a very high altitude lightning, occasionally detected emerging from above the top of strong thunderstorms; above where lightning within the storm is most active. These funnel-shaped jets move upwards at velocities of approximately 100 km/s (Mach 300) and may extend to altitudes of about 30 mi (50 km).
This jet was recorded by my detection network that I refer to as BRAMON -- Brazilian Network of Meteor Detection. To our knowledge, it was the first such blue jet lightning recording in Brazil. The cumulonimbus cloud that generated it was roughly 60 mi (100 km) from my location. BRAMON consists of a simple security camera (CCTV) with a nighttime high-sensitivity lens (F1.0). Whenever thunderstorms are within my visual range of view, I point the camera toward the storm cloud and hope for results such was captured during this attempt.
Photo Details: Through a USB video grabber, the camera sends a signal to a computer. A specific software (UFO Capture) monitors and saves videos, images and other information.
Merchant Bank Supports Govt. with 100 Million Dollars The Ibrahim Mahama Factor.
On April 4, 2017, we published a story on our portal with the above headline.
Officials of Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) have since contacted us denying Mr. Mahamas relationship with the bank; insisting he has never been a shareholder of the bank.
We hereby wish to retract the offending story and unreservedly apologize to the bank and all persons this story may have caused any harm.
As a mark of the sincerity of our apology, the publication has since been pulled down from our website.
Editor, Peacefmonline.com
Source: 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.
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Finance Minister, Kenneth Ofori- Atta, has charged GCNet to work in close collaboration with West Blue Consulting to improve governments revenue at the countrys ports.
He said GCNet must integrate its system with that of West Blue in order to deal with under valuation and misclassification at the ports.
Mr. Ofori- Atta, who made this known when GCNet paid dividend of GHc17 million to government last Friday, expressed worry about the gap between West Blue and GCNet with regards to the Customs Classification and Verification Report (CCVR).
He called for strong collaboration between the two institutions to close the gap to block revenue loopholes at the port.
The gap between West Blue and GCNet with regards to the Customs Classification and Verification Report (CCVR) sometimes become a worry and we hope that we resolve this, he said.
It is expected that GCNet would fully integrate its system with West Blue Consulting as part of the National Single Window process.
BUSINESS GUIDE has gathered that government is losing revenue at the ports as a result of GCNets delay in fully integrating its system with that of West Blue.
Some importers are taking advantage of the gap between the two institutions to pay less for their consignment.
Under the National Single Window being implemented by West Blue Consulting in collaboration Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), all systems in the supply chain must be integrated so that importers would not attempt to falsify documents, under-declare and pay less for a consignment imported.
Source: Daily Guide
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The Ghana Community Network Systems (GCNet) has presented a cheque for GHS17million to the Ministry of Finance as the final dividend payment for 2016 and an interim payment for 2017.
The payment is in respect of the final dividend payment for 2016 by virtue of the States 20 percent equity stake in GCNet held by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on behalf of the government. This brings to GHS 27 million the total dividend payment made to government through the stake held by GRA.
The Ghana Shippers Authority, GSA, and GCB Bank Limited, both entities with government interest also hold equity shares of 10 percent and five percent respectively.
Presenting the cheque to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, the Executive Chairman of GCNet, Dr. Nortey Omaboe said the company has pursued a fairly aggressive dividend policy to ensure that government receives what is due it.
From April 2016 to March 2017 the amount due government was GHS 27 million out of which GHS10 million has been paid already and so we have come here with another cheque for GHS 17million being the final dividend payment for 2016 and an interim dividend for 2017, he explained.
Omaboe said GCNet has been extremely consistent in the area of statutory declarations paying some GHS 35 million as corporate tax for last year in addition to the deployment of systems aimed at supporting governments revenue mobilization in several dimensions.
Mr. Ofori-Atta in receiving the cheque said With a budget deficit of some 8.9 percent and trying to bring it down to 6.5 percent, our revenue measures are going to be very critical to our capacity to bring the fiscal consolidation into practice.
He also commended the addition of some five hundred thousand registered new tax payers in the GCNet system which he believes will further spread the tax net.
The minister called for a look at the consignment valuation which can also help identify some of the loopholes.
He believes limiting human interventions as much as possible with deployment of technology will help solve the recurrent issues of integrity of personnel and systems.
Present at the ceremony were senior officials of the ministry as well as the General Manager of GCNet, Alwin Hoegerle, his deputy Emmanuel Darko and Communications and Corporate Strategy Manager, Aba Lokko.
Source: Goldstreet Business
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Anytime terrorist activities raid lives and properties in other parts of the world, the reactions from Ghanaians are always sympathetic.
In conjunction are the strong claims that Ghana is a peaceful and a God fearing country that cannot contain insurgents of that nature.
I realized those claims were weak when our neighboring country, Cote DIvoire, had its share of the brutal cake. Ghanaians were alarmed. The reaction changed from the perception that Ghana is a peaceful country to God, please save Ghana.
The fear was charged by Prophet T.B. Joshuas prophecy that Ghana, spiritually, was prone to rebel attacks in the following days.
But what is the assurance that we can only be prone to visiting rebels and not the tendency that we could equally breed one internally?
It is for a fact that rebels do not breed from only volatile settlements. The major catalysts necessary for their emergence are poverty, rising unemployment, a sense of inequality and social injustice. Hence, they vent their anger on the system through violence.
The aforementioned catalysts live with us here in Ghana. So how safe is Ghana?
The savagery behavior of the so called Delta Forces last week pinpoints clearly that Ghana is gradually cultivating species of terrorism. If an illegal group of that nature can rampage a court room and d cause mayhem with impunity, then we are all sitting on a time bomb.
The reason for their action is clear. These able-bodied men were recruited on the condition that if they were able to defend the opposition to power, they would gain an unquestionable entry into the various security services.
After working hard to see the party succeed, they are highly expectant and impatient to be fixed somewhere. In this case, we see poverty and unemployment a major catalyst for terrorism.
I see their behavior as natural. A hungry man is an angry man. The party on the other side is inclined to play the ostrich because they feel indebted to them.
This is where the police must take over neutrally and deal with them judiciously.
This is a serious case that must be treated as such. If the police and the ministry of interior allow this to quench on political grounds as they traditionally do, then heads must roll at the top. Ghana is bigger than political parties and their alliances.
I dont think the suggestion that these politically aligned groups should be disbanded is the solution to the problem. How can you disband a group that is not registered and d is formed in secrecy?
You rather need a strong, non-bias national security to counter their operations. Once the system makes them powerless, they will dissolve naturally.
Also, when the police take sides and render opposition parties defenseless, they resort to the services of these thugs.
I suggest that the IGP should not be a political appointment. The police should have their own caucus that would periodically elect their IGP. Same applies to the various security services. These amendments, if done, would do us a lot of good.
Source: Edward Acquah/ Ghana Inst. Of Journalism/ email: [email protected]
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Controversial Tamale North MP, Alhassan Suhuyini has bemoaned the lack of support for the erstwhile administration on the part of the media on their fight against galamsey.
Alhassan Suhuyini who also doubles as a media man formerly with Radio Gold says his colleagues in the media declined several request to support Former President Mahamas efforts at fighting galamsey.
He added that during the previous administration, the media busied itself with petty issues and were more interested in hyping the flaws of the Former President and his administration than contributing to the galamsey fight.
I know media men and I am comfortable to refer to them as colleagues who in the past said when their support was needed to champion national courses that it was not their business, and that a government was elected to carry out reforms that will change the lives of the people and the country for better and that is why it has PRs and Communication officers and Ministers to do the job of rallying people together for national courses and it wasnt their business to say anything positive about the government and these are senior journalist that some of us in the profession looked up to
...they were of the view that people were paid to do such activities and they were to hold the government accountable and put it on its toes. Today, i see them championning this course and I smile even as I admire the fight but I smile, I smile at that hypocrisy, I smile at their disception and disdain that they show other political parties when they are in power and forget about the nationhood that we should protect at every time.
Suhuyini explained, this behaviour was hypocritical and a big lesson to the party should it return to power someday.
He found it hard to belief that barely 3 months after the swearing in of President Akufo-Addo, the media seems to be active in mobilizing the citizens in the fight against this canker.
This attitude he believes, gives the impression that the media contributed to the success of President Akufo-Addo in the December 2016 polls and were willing to go any length to ensure his government succeeds.
And perhaps when we have another opportunity one day they will not be able to deceive us. Galamsey has always being with us, many people have put in a lot of effort to curb it. The former President and his government did their bid but what level of support did we give it? Is it because it wasnt our favourite party in power? Did we forget we were Ghanaian?
On Tuesday, a media coalition against illegal mining comprising Graphic Communications Group Limited, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), the Ghanaian Times, the Ghana Journalists Association, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Christian Council and PRIMPAG was launched to further strengthen the war against the menace.
This includes many other measures that other media organisations and Civil Society Organisations have initiated to put pressure on the government to take immediate and necessary action against the activities of illegal miners.
The call gained grounds after it was revealed that Ghana is at risk of importing water because of the effects of illegal miners.
Source: Ghanaweb.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The Ghana Police Service is to provide maximum security at the various courts across the country following last Thursdays attack on a Circuit Court in Kumasi that led to the escape of 13 accused persons.
A group of people belonging to the New Patriotic Partys vigilante group, Delta Force stormed the court, threatened the judge who had remanded 13 of their members being tried for assault and freed them from justice. Police in the Ashanti Region consequently issued warrant for their arrest forcing the 13 fugitives to turn themselves in for arrest.
The Police say they will be given additional charges for their escape. The criminal act which has received widely condemnation and renewed calls for political vigilante groups to be disbanded forced the countrys judges and magistrates to demand protection at their duty posts. At a news conference in Accra Friday, the judges and magistrates together with their staffcalled for all court premises to be declared flashpoints and given maximum security protection at all times.
They premised their call on the fact that criminal trials [at the courts] have the potential of emitting violence. We call on the government, particularly the Police hierarchy, as a matter of urgency, to take all necessary steps to allay the worries, fears and anxiety of all judges and magistrates in the region, the judges and the entire judicial staff said.
Revising security strategy Responding to the calls, the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Appeatu on Saturday said the Police was reworking its strategy with the view to among others address security encumbrances in the countrys courts and other public facilities.
The Police Administration will like to assure the judiciary, that it will provide maximum security to ensure their safety at all times, Mr Asante Appeatu assured. He condemned the violent act of the group, saying The incident is unfortunate, reprehensible, un-Ghanaian and the Police service wishes to condemn it in no uncertain terms.
Fortunately, all the 13accused persons have been re-arrested and are currently on remand in prison custody, Background Members of the Delta Force in March assaulted President Akufo-Addos newly-appointed Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, George Agyei who they said did not contribute to the victory of the party, hence cannot work with him. The action was condemned, pushing the Police in the Ashanti Region to act by arresting 13 of the group members believed to be mastermind of the criminal act.
The arrested were subsequently arraigned on assault charges at a Kumasi Circuit Court last Thursday but some other members of the group who were not happy with the courts decision to remand them threatened the judge, caused destruction to property and freed the 13 accused persons. Eight members of the group whose action led to the escape of the 13 were later arrested by the Police. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the 13 fugitives who later turned themselves in to the police and were re-arrested and remanded in prison custody.
Source: 3news
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Thursdays attack on a Kumasi Circuit Court by members of vigilante group Delta Force was a slap in the face of rule of law and democracy in Ghana, Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante, Chair of the National Peace Council, has said.
This action is taking us back, he told Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM.
In the short term, I will suggest the political parties disband these groups immediately due to the danger they pose to the general public. They can even be used by some people to foment trouble. When you go to Somalia, this is how some of the wars started. The warlords used groups like these.
In the long term, we will need to find ways of giving police security of tenure. We need to have a constitutional provision that will provide security of tenure for the police. By so doing, they will feel empowered to fight against some of these things without fear of being removed or being transferred.
Meanwhile, ex-Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey, has cautioned President Nana Akufo-Addo not to take Ghana backwards, saying: Ghanaians are watching.
Condemning the mayhem perpetrated by pro-government groups like Delta Force and Invincible Forces, Prof Martey said their action is a national shame.
Right after Nana Akufo-Addo was sworn into office in January, the Invincible Forces went on the rampage and seized some state institutions and also sacked perceived opposition elements.
The Delta Force in Kumasi also harassed the Presidents regional security appointee and also stormed a court to free 13 of their colleagues who were standing trial for the assault.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony at the Christ Apostolic College in Kumasi at the weekend, Prof Martey said: The methods of the pro-violent vigilante groups like the Invincible Forces, Delta Force, Bolga Bull Dogs, Western Crocodiles, and all the rest with their unorthodox modus operandi have doubtlessly been a severe dent on the democratic credentials of our country and the earlier the government puts a halt to this national shame and puts damage control strategies in place, the better for our young democracy.
He said even though the Akufo-Addo government is less than 100 days old, Ghanaians were nonetheless watching its every move.
Minimise your mistakes, violence is violence no matter who commits it, violence is violence no matter who perpetuates it, and must be condemned in no uncertain terms. Ghana must not be taken years or decades back, we must move rather forward into freedom and justice, progress and development in order to bring into fruition the vision of our political forebears, Rev Martey said.
Source: Classfmonline
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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President Nana Akufo-Addo must not take Ghana backwards, ex-Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey has cautioned, saying: Ghanaians are watching.
Condemning the mayhem perpetrated by pro-government groups like Delta Force and Invincible Forces, Prof Martey said their action is a national shame.
Right after Nana Akufo-Addo was sworn into office in January, the Invincible Forces went on the rampage and seized some state institutions and also sacked perceived opposition elements.
The Delta Force in Kumasi also harassed the Presidents Regional Security appointee and also stormed a court to free 13 of their colleagues who were standing trial for the assault.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony at the Christ Apostolic College in Kumasi at the weekend, Prof Martey said : The methods of the pro-violent vigilante groups like the Invisible forces, Delta Force, Bolga bull dogs, Western Crocodiles and all the rest with their unorthodox modus operandi have doubtlessly been a severe dent on the democratic credentials of our country and the earlier the government puts a halt to this national shame and puts damage control strategies in place, the better for our young democracy.
He said even though the Akufo-Addo government is less than 100 days old, Ghanaians were nonetheless watching his every move.
Minimise your mistakes, violence is violence no matter who commits it, violence is violence no matter who perpetuates it, and must be condemned in no uncertain terms. Ghana must not be taken years or decades back, we must move rather forward into freedom and justice, progress and development in order to bring into fruition the vision of our political forebearers, Rev Martey said.
Source: classfmonline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack has been admitted to hospital for mental health treatment days after he was arrested and charged with offences related to child pornography.
Fairfax reports that the 42-year-old reporter is in hospital for a mental health assessment, though no further info on what spurred this has been disclosed.
The Nine offices were raided last week in relation to the charges alleged against McCormack. Police also raided the reporters Alexandria apartment in Sydneys inner-south, before charging him at Redfern Police Station. He left the station to a media scrum.
His lawyer, Sam Macedone, would not disclose the reasoning behind his stay in hospital nor how long he would be there, but did confirm thats where he is right now. His wellbeing is looked after, Macedone said. I cant tell you exactly what happened or why he is there.
He is in hospital, he is currently still there and I dont know how long he will be there.
McCormack is currently required to attend a police station every Monday and Thursday as part of his bail conditions. Macedone is reportedly seeking a bail variation which would mean he wouldnt have to report to police during his hospital stay.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: A Current Affair.
Youd think people would learn, but here we are again: yet another all-dude lineup, and yet another absolutely disastrous response to someone mentioning it.
Canberras ANU Bar is getting demolished this year, and theyre celebrating 60 years of gigs by chucking one last big party. The show, set for June 17, features a massive 11 acts, including Regurgitator. Oh, and exactly zero non-dudes.
Obviously, someone on the Facebook event page noticed. And of course the booker, Greenroom Canberra, responded. And yeah.
Ooohhh boy, is this ever an example of what not to do.
Like sure, I get it if youre a booker, youre already stressed out, youre juggling a bunch of shit all at once, and most likely the gender breakdown of your lineup has never crossed your mind.
But if someone points out that youve gone and booked an entire shows worth of bros, surely the correct response is, Oh shit, youre right can you recommend me any awesome Canberra bands with non-dudes whod be keen to play?
I mean, the event is in June. Its not like youre pressed for time. What gives, my buds? My guys? Whats up with that, my bronies?
By all means, check out the entire (still-raging) shitshow on the event page, where the debate spans the full spectrum of The Music Scene in 2017: from why dont you just book your own gig, to we asked chicks but they couldnt do it, to its not about gender, its about the music, man, to I dont complain about there being no techno acts on the lineup which is exactly the same thing, to FEMINAZIS!!!
What a time to be alive.
Source: Music Feeds.
Image: Facebook / Matt Sandford.
You know those stories that get better and better with each detail? This is one of those stories, right here. HAPPY MONDAY FROM US.
An aspiring rapper has faced a Gold Coast court after allegedly chowing down $620 worth of seafood at a Main Beach restaurant before doing a runner into the ocean, where he was consequently arrested by police on friggin jet skis. JET SKIS.
Terry Peck, 33, enjoyed a smorgasbord of seafood, including two lobsters, a baby octopus, 21 vodka oyster shots (!!!!) and bulk Coronas at the popular Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant before trying to evade the bill.
He faced Southport Magistrates Court on two counts of obstructing police and one count of stealing this morning and, when told of the sheer amount he consumed, magistrate Joan White replied: Oh God, by himself.
After having his fill of the oceans grub, its alleged Peck bolted from the beach-front restaurant and dove straight into the water, swimming out about 50m.
He was fished out by two cops on a jetski after water police failed to pull him out, with Peck initially diving underwater to evade police (real duck-like).
Peck faces two counts of obstructing police and one count of stealing but was granted bail on the condition he stay well away from Omeros Bros.
Our question: didnt his parents ever tell him about the wait-20-mins-after-you-eat-to-swim rule?
Source: Herald Sun.
Photo: Terry Peck / Facebook.
You better believe Australia is still rallying behind Natasha Exelby, the ABC24 host who is now perhaps most well-known for a three second slice from the channels round-the-clock broadcasting. We love a good pen-starer, we do.
After Channel 10 producer Holly Byrnes started the #PutYourBloopersOut hashtag in response to Exelbys removal from ABCs on-air roles, a cavalcade of television and radio journos rushed to share their very public fuck-ups.
While a fair whack of our nations hard-nosed newsreaders used the hashtag to take the mick out of emselves last night, the free admissions of error have continued into the morning.
Friends, there are some doozies in there, and a thoroughly galvanising number of accidental c-bombs.
I was once live captioning a Tiger Woods press conference and said he was getting ready for sex rather than FedEx ?? #PutYourBloopersOut Julia Gardiner (@weirdturnedpro) April 10, 2017
I mispronounced Johanna Kontas name on air earlier this year. Was mortified but knew it was going to happen eventually #PutYourBloopersOut Geoff Koop (@GKoop93) April 10, 2017
I once accidentally admitted that Santa was a lie on air at 7:50am on breakfast radio #putyourbloopersout Sam Blacker (@blackersam) April 10, 2017
On live radio, I accidentally read the funerals and deaths section of the newspaper from last year. #PutYourBloopersOut Sam Murden (@notmmansam) April 10, 2017
I once referred to our then police commissioner Simon Overland as top cock #PutYourBloopersOut Emma Field (Bruer) (@embruer) April 10, 2017
I once asked Michael Flatley where he got the idea for Lord of the Rings #PutYourBloopersOut vanessa keys (@vanessaekeys) April 10, 2017
@NatashaExelby im glad my LITTLE thing wasnt on the ABC they would have had me castrated.#putyourbloopersout https://t.co/Noi7iZh20Y Mark Aiston (@MarkAiston) April 10, 2017
I repeatedly referred to acclaimed author Harper Lee as infamous while on air because I though it meant VERY famous ?? #PutYourBloopersOut Jessica (@JessKlaj) April 10, 2017
I briefed talent on a bush footy interview and informed them it wasnt THE Aaron James. Turns out it was. #PutYourBloopersOut Mitchell Scott (@WhippingBoySEN) April 10, 2017
I read the 7pm news over the top of BTs footy call on @3AW693, he noticed & started commenting back to me live on air #PutYourBloopersOut Allison Wallace (@allisonewallace) April 10, 2017
& the second half trying not to giggle because I could see my colleagues laughing hysterically behind the glass. (2/2) #putyourbloopersout Kat Nicholson (@KM_Nicholson) April 10, 2017
During my first radio read I sneezed almost straight away and said good afternoon at 7am. #BringBackNatashaExelby #PutYourBloopersOut ?? ?? Tom Marlow (@TomMarlow_) April 10, 2017
I said shit on air last week and nobody noticed. Not even my fellow commentators #PutYourBloopersOut Josh Barnes (@Josh__Barnes) April 10, 2017
I once back announced the band Thrill Kill Cult on live radio, using an N in cult instead of the L!
????????#putyourbloopersout Mr Mills (@RandomMills) April 10, 2017
I once pitched a book full of the best Australian authors short stories and vinaigrettes. Totally meant vignettes. #PutYourBloopersOut Floss The Fangirl (@FlossAus) April 10, 2017
So #PutYourBloopersOut hey? Well, I once accidentally turned the phrase bum hugging knickers into a weird and terrible racial slur. Nat Locke (@Natty_Nat_Nat) April 10, 2017
Exelby herself has also taken to the platform to express her thanks to her newfound fans, and managed to have a dig at herself in the process.
Thank U all for ur generous support. Not my finest hour. Myself and my mesmerising pen honourably salute you! Natasha Exelby (@NatashaExelby) April 10, 2017
As it stands, over 2,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for Exelby to be reinstated to an on-air role, and for ABC boss Michelle Guthrie to intervene in the ordeal.
If she doesnt, you can probably expect to see even more posts materialise under this v. cathartic hashtag.
Source: Twitter.
Photo: Media Watch / Twitter.
Somehow, last nights Q&A managed to bring a glimmer of levity to the discussion of voluntary euthanasia.
We know. Were just as surprised as you are.
Of course, that moment didnt come from the guest panels discussion of the endlessly complex issue, but from an audience member soundly calling bullshit on a panellists assertions.
Sat next to his wife Patricia, 90-year-old audience member Ron Fellows said we have decided that we will not go into any kind of aged care facility.
And if the time comes where we cant take care of ourselves, we will look for some form of euthanasia.
He explained that the couple had outlined their stance to their family, and Ron said theyd reluctantly agreed to the couples wishes. He then asked ethicist Margaret Somerville why she is so opposed to the move, if his own family was not.
Somervilles response was based on the logic that death doesnt only affect oneself or ones family, but that it has a broader social impact. She argued it affects your community.
And ultimately, if what were doing in society is changing the law to allow this type of, putting it bluntly, killing, then it is a seismic shift in our values as a society.
Host Tony Jones eventually saw it fit to ask Patricia what her take on the matter was after all, it would be a bit rough for Ron to make that call on his own.
The 81-year-old said that yes, she is in favour of voluntary euthanasia, and that killing is really the wrong way to be describing it. Somerville disagreed, saying its still killing yourself, at which point Patricia said thats up to me, and its got nothing to do with the community, darling. Its to do with our family.
Somerville stuck to her view, reiterating her belief that it does affect the community. Then, Patricia piped up:
Bullshit.
Its not like a lone expletive from an octogenarian will solve this issue, but damn, hearing someone speak with such clarity and candor about their wishes within the framework of voluntary euthanasia still has an impact.
Catch the discussion below, and skip to 7:08 if you want to catch the exact segment in question:
Why would you want to interfere with our wishes to access euthanasia? Margaret Somerville & @NikkiGemmell respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/qZyh7ZsOWI ABC Q&A (@QandA) April 10, 2017
Source Q&A / ABC.
Like metal father, like metal son.
Metallica remain one of the biggest and most enduring live acts on the planet, routinely playing gargantuan outdoor stages in parts of the world where metal is king (aka all of it). But when theyre not all busy being middle aged and crazy, theyve got kids to raise on blast beats, gallop strumming, and pinch harmonics. Just as the good, goat-skulled overlord of hell intended. Traditional family values.
Bassist Robert Trujillo has himself a 12-year-old mini-me by the name of Tye who, by all accounts, has inherited every ounce of his old mans musical talent and then some.
The young lads a fair wunderkind on the bass himself, and his band of peewee headbangers The Helmets has made a swathe of appearances at high-profile gigs, including the likes of Austin City Limits, would you believe.
Turns out the young mans career is about to get a huge boost. One youd have to be bloody BLIND (*rimshot.gif*) to miss.
Korn, who are still a band, are heading down to South America this month to perform in Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru, and Argentina. Their usual and long-term bass player Fieldy has had to pull out due to unforseen circumstances. But in his place? The 12-year-old legend Tye himself.
Course trusting a pre-teen with bass-playing duties on a major international tour might seem like a severe roll of the dice on paper. But the kid can seriously go. Cop this, and prepare to give up music forever.
What, you didnt realise metal could be the cutest shit in the world? Heres Rob and Tye playing on stage together. WEEP AT ITS ADORABLE-NESS.
Robert Trujillo. The raddest of all the Rad Dads.
Source: Consequence of Sound.
Photo: Robert Trujillo/Facebook.
Danish capital Copenhagen is known for being the happiest and coolest kid on the Nordic block. And hell, If its good enough for our own Princess Mary then its damn-well good enough for us. Whether youve got a Euro Trip coming up of are just getting a feel for which part of the big blue sphere you wanna hit up next, then check out Copenhagens top picks below.
PLACES TO STUFF YOUR FACE
Kdbyens Fiskebar
Flsketorvet 100
1711 Kbenhavn V
Open every night til midnight and Fri / Sat nights til 2am, this industrial-designed fish bar is passionate about catching local goodies from their own waters.
GRD
Jgersborggade 50, kld. tv. 2200 Kbenhavn N
Grab brekky or lunch here for some clean eating because we all need a healthy refuel during our travels. Its very Danish and I can recommend the quinoa porridge with freeze-dried berries before shitting on all your good work with booze later on. Its all about balance, right?
Warpigs
Flsketorvet 25-37, 1711 Kbenhavn V
Find authentic Texan BBQ and American-Danish brews at the pub brought to you by US brewery 3Floyds and Danish brewer Mikeller.
Torvehallerne
Frederiksborggade 21, 1360 Kbenhavn K
Now this is what you call a supermarket. Here youll find over 60 stalls selling everything from fine choccies to spices, fresh meat and fish, as well as quick bites to eat. If you like to have your lunch with a bit of atmosphere then this is the place for you (grab an open Danish sandwich theyre all the rage). If youre feeling poor, theres a bunch of samples flowing around too like the good market it is, and weve heard its quite the destination for babe-hunting.
WHATS WORTH SEEING FROM YOUR GUIDE BOOK
Nyhavn
This 17th-century canal is a hotspot for anyone visiting Copenhagen, thanks in no small part to the fact that its an A+ Insta opp. The cute coloured house situated all along it, including #20 where Hans Christian Anderson lived while writing his most iconic fairytales.
Freetown Christiana
Its a little suburb that declared itself autonomous from Denmark so it doesnt follow any of the rules. Its kinda like the Scandinavian Nimbin. Luke Menzies.
Round Tower (Rundetaarn)
Kbmagergade 52A, 1150 Kbenhavn K
The oldest functioning observatory in Europe will give yall beaut views of Copenhagen, once you make it to the top that is. Might sound like a breeze at only 35-metres tall but there are no stairs instead youll be venturing up a spiral ramp spanning 200 metres to reach the viewing platform. As they say with hikes generally much bigger than the Round Tower, its worth it.
WHERE TO GET SOME SHUT-EYE
Generator Hostel
Adelgade 5, 1304 Kbenhavn K
Im not usually a fan of the chains but this hostel had an awesome bar and lounge and was a great place to meet people! Also the booze and food there were good and cheap which is massive bonus as its super expensive in Copenhagen, Elly Robinson.
Copenhagen Downtown
Vandkunsten 5, 1467 Kbenhavn K
Ive been to a fair few filth hostels in my time but they appear to do it differently in Denmark the rooms here are v. retro rather than shoe-box squalor. It was great, they gave you dinner and breakfast and the lobby was a bar full of other travellers/backpackers, Luke Menzies.
Airbnb
It can be hard to feel at home when youre, you know, not. But your closest bet is living like a local with an Airbnb. You know the drill: check the hosts rating, reviews and location from the centre of town and then scan the pics for something chic as hell. May as well if youre in the worlds design capital.
SHOPS TO DROP $$$ IN
Strget
City Hall Square (Radhuspladsen) to Kongens Nytorv
Copenhagens shopping district is 1.1km long one of the longest pedestrian shopping strips in all of Europe and has all of your far-shun needs with local design and international flagships throughout. Walk the whole thing and youll get much more than just a spontaneous buy, with plenty of the citys most beautiful sights and attractions. Expect street entertainers too, like those found at Sydneys Pitt Street Mall.
OSV Secondhand
Peder Hvitfeldts Strde 4, 1173 Kbenhavn K
As you can see, this op-shop is nothing like the stock standard filth you come across at home. Itll be a bit pricier but its full of 10/10 GOLD.
Around Gammel Mnt
This entire area is worth walking around for the boutiques alone incl. Euro lifestyle/fashion store Storm (Store Regnegade 1).
Photo: Flickr.
FILE- In this March 21, 2011, file photo, from left, former President Bill Clinton, former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush stand for the National Anthem at the Kennedy Center. Clinton has been spending some time with former President George H. W. Bush and wife Barbara in Houston. In the tweet on Sunday, April 9, 2017, Clinton said they "caught up about kids, grandkids, old times and new times. And socks." (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - In this July 3, 2012 file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, the 12th Chinese naval flotilla, consisting of frigate "Yiyang", left, frigate "Changzhou" center, and comprehensive supply ship "Qiandaohu", prepare to set sail for the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters to protect commercial ships from pirate attacks at a port in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province. China's navy said Monday, April 10, 2017, its forces rescued a freighter from attack by pirates in the Gulf of Aden over the weekend. Missing from the report was any mention of the participation of the Indian navy, which says it dispatched four ships and a helicopter to provide cover for the action. (Hu Sheyou/Xinhua via AP)
FILE - In this April 8, 2009 file photo, Spain's Defense Minister Carme Chacon arrives for a Cabinet meeting at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid. Chacon, Spain's first female defense minister and a prominent socialist party leader, died on Sunday, April 9, 2017, from a heart condition she had had since birth, the party Socialist Party, or PSOE, said. She was 46. Chacon helped modernize Spain's armed forces when she took the helm of the Ministry of Defense in 2008, in the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)
Community discussion about wheelway repair efforts set for Nov. 15
The Top of Michigan Trails Council and Beards Brewery will host an event to discuss the Little Traverse Wheelway collapse, and what's next.
Oil rises toward $56 Monday on Libyan field shutdown, Syria
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld 04 10 2017
By Catherine Ngai
Oil rose toward $56 a barrel on Monday, supported by another shutdown at Libya's largest oilfield over the weekend and geopolitical tensions following last week's U.S. missile strike on Syria.
Libya's Sharara oilfield was shut on Sunday after a group blocked a pipeline linking it to an oil terminal, a Libyan oil source said. The field had only just returned to production, after a week-long stoppage ending in early April.
The outage adds fuel to a rally that started late last week after the United States fired missiles at a Syrian government air base. While analysts point out that Syria produces only small volumes of oil, the Middle East is home to more than a quarter of the world's oil output.
"There are a few geopolitical problems at the moment. On top of that, Libya isn't producing oil, so that's adding to the bullish side of the market," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 65 cents to $55.89 at 1530 GMT, not far from the one-month high of $56.08 reached on Friday. U.S. crude was up 73 cents at $52.97.
Oil prices have also been supported by a deal led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day for the first six months of 2017, to get rid of excess supply. Libya and fellow OPEC member Nigeria are exempt from cuts.
In a sign of OPEC confidence that the deal is working, Kuwait's oil minister said he expected producers' adherence in March to their supply cut pledges to "be higher than the previous couple of months."
The minister, Essam al-Marzouq, also said he saw "positive indications" in the decline of global oil stocks.
However, that price rally has also encouraged production in other countries such as the United States, filling some of the gap left by OPEC-led cuts.
U.S. crude inventories touched record highs both at the U.S. storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, and in the U.S. Gulf Coast in recent weeks, according to U.S. government data.
Traders say the stubbornly high stockpiles and production growth have limited the upside to any rally, though stock draws may finally appear in coming weeks as summer driving season kicks in.
"U.S. shale is going to continue to weigh on market. With refineries coming out of maintenance season, maybe we'll see some real strength around here soon," said Tariq Zahir, an analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors.
bpTT needs to reconsider building Angeline offshore oil platform locally -TT Government
We continue to ask of them as part of our policy that they use T&T facilities and fabrication yards and workers as their first preference. So it's not to say we in Government are sitting down. - acting Prime Minister Colm Imbert
PORT SPAIN
Petroleumworld 04 10 2017
Government will continue pressing bpTT to reconsider its decision not to fabricate the Angelin platform locally, acting Prime Minister Colm Imbert said yesterday.
We're not sitting down (on this), Imbert added, at yesterday's weekly post-Cabinet news conference.
He said Government will continue asking BP - as part of Government policy to use local facilities as their first preference. So we're not going to leave that just like that.
On Wednesday, bpTT issued a statement saying while it remained committed to local content, given the compressed project timelines and other competitiveness factors for the Angelin project, local fabrication is no longer a feasible option.
Imbert and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young addressed bpTT's decision not to have its planned Angelin platform fabricated locally.
Young had accompanied Prime Minister Keith Rowley to Texas last week for meetings with energy companies, including BP. PNM La Brea MP and former Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre says bpTT's decision would affect T&T and cost her area approximately 150 high skilled jobs.
On bpTT's decision, Imbert said: I want to make a point we'll continue to request of BP that it uses the facilities in T&T and we'd continue to ask them to reconsider whatever decision they may have made regarding fabricating components for offshore platforms in other countries.
We continue to ask of them as part of our policy that they use T&T facilities and fabrication yards and workers as their first preference. So it's not to say we in Government are sitting down.
I was told the substantive Prime Minister made this request of BP. I did as acting Energy Minister and I'm sure the Energy Minister also will.
Young said bpTT's decision wasn't an affront to Government as it wasn't a surprise.
He said the energy company indicated the decision was due to the timing of the sanctioning of the platform. BP spokesmen have insisted that it is crucial that the Angelin platform be completed in early 2019 to supplement gas when the supply from the Juniper platform begins to decline.
BP had always put on the table the difficulties concerning timing. At the Prime Minister's meeting, they said it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible and they undertook to do future projects with as much local content as possible. Young added.
They have new projects coming on stream, which they'll announce in their own time and we're asking that any work be done here, have local content. The PM had indicated in talks with all the oil companies, that we were there on behalf of T&T's people and to attract as much local content as possible.
Apart from BP's commitment for between US$5 and US$6 billion in investment in T&T over 2017-2023, and seeking jobs for locals, Young said Government also asked for any extra gas to go toward T&T's downstream sector.
BP has completed seismic research and this looks promising for T&T, he added.
There's much hope on the horizon, a lot of new gas coming on stream from 2019 onwards and extra gas will be made available to us, Young said.
Other projects including from Shell also begin over the next year and Government would want the facilities for their products to be local also.
On whether protests in the energy sector contributed to BP's decision, Imbert said this should be addressed to the OWTU.
Young added, T&T needs to understand it's in a global environment, competing for capital expenditure with other nations. As a country we need to act responsibly to make it in a competitive environment where we can attract investment and ensure jobs.
That's the mantra going forward. There's been a number of warnings and red flags and as a country we need to do what we can for T&T.
On the cost of doing business here, Imbert said T&T has to remain competitive, If not, these companies will try to minimise their costs by using alternatives.
Government on Wednesday successfully settled a $250 million claim against NGC from a downstream company, Young added.
This was done amicably, without cost to T&T. He said Government had to deal with the perfect storm in the energy sector on entering office, from curtailment issues to expired contracts involving billions in claims. He said a team in the US is addressing other claims.
He said if Government hadn't had meetings with BP on the Angelin project, the latter wouldn't have materialised since conversations began before Government entered office, but weren't expedited. Young said BP told the Prime Minister the company appreciated the rebuilding of relationships at the highest level, and they're here to stay.
The Prime Minister will speak more about his trip when he returns, Young added. He didn't say when the PM would return but PNM sources recently said he's expected back tomorrow (Saturday). (GA)
Beijing to reward informants on spying
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-10 12:56
BEIJING - Beijing citizens who provide useful information on spying are eligible for a cash reward of up to 500,000 yuan (72,460 U.S. dollars), according to a policy that went into effect Monday.
Informants can pass information to authorities through calling a hotline, sending letters or visiting the city's state security bureau.
After collating the information, the bureau can offer rewards ranging from 10,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan based on the reports' usefulness.
Personal information of informants will not be disclosed without their consent, and informants can also seek protection from security authorities if they or their close relatives are in danger due to informing.
However, informants will be punished if they deliberately slander others, or invent and spread false information.
Zheng Haiting and three of his students practice his Kuixu ceremonial archery at Daming Lake in Jinan, Shandong province. Zhu Feng / For China Daily
Modern version of ancient sport emphasizes cultivation of positive attributes
If you had been at Daming Lake, a major scenic spot in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province, on April 2, then you may have come across an unusual sight - several people dressed in Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) costumes firing bows and arrows by the lakeside.
The group were practicing Kuixu ceremonial archery, a modern interpretation of the ancient sport developed by 54-year-old Zheng Haiting.
"Our archery recalls traditional ceremonies, which is why we are dressed in traditional costume. It is imbued with traditional culture," he said.
"The aim of ceremonial archery is to help participants cultivate virtues such as mutual respect, the spirit of teamwork and the ability to keep quiet when you have a break during competition."
As one of the traditional Six Arts that have their roots in Confucian philosophy and formed the basis of education in ancient Chinese culture, archery has a long history in China. It went into a period of decline during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), but is now undergoing a revival.
At the end of the 30-meter-long archery range at Daming Lake is a Confucian couplet emblazoned on the target wall: "The archer who misses his mark does not blame the target. He stops, corrects himself and shoots again."
Barry County (MO) Sheriff's Deputy Carl Cosper was killed Friday morning in a crash with a school bus. He was ejected from his vehicle. (Photo: Barry County SD)
A Barry County (MO) sheriff's deputy died Friday after his patrol car crashed into a school bus on Missouri 37, a half-mile south of Washburn at County Road 1060.
Deputy Carl Cosper, 56, of Pineville, died Friday morning at the hospital in Cassville about an hour after the crash. The sheriff said the deputy was heading to a domestic disturbance call near Seligman.
A witness said the southbound deputy passed him on the highway at high speed before the crash, in which the patrol car ran into the passenger side of the bus. A Highway Patrol spokesman says, however, that troopers' preliminary investigation does not show the crash occurred at high speed.
The driver was the only person on the Washburn School bus, and he was not hurt. The Highway Patrol's online report says the eastbound bus, driven by William Reeves, 60, of Seligman, was trying to make a left turn and "failed to yield."
After the crash, investigators say, Cosper's car went off the east side of the highway, overturned, and ejected him. The Highway Patrol's report says Cosper was not wearing a seat belt, KY3 reports.
Baytown, TX, police say William Francis Kenny killed Deputy Chief Constable Clint Greenwood April 3. He was found dead of suicide the next day, police announced today. (Photo: Harris County SO)
The man who murdered Texas constable's deputy Clint Greenwood took his own life - with the same type of gun - just 24 hours after the killing, Baytown police announced Monday.
William Francis Kenny, 64, shot himself in the head about 8 a.m. last Tuesday near Houston's Ben Taub Hospital, Baytown Police Lt. Steve Dorris told reporters Monday.
Kenny had filed a complaint with the Harris County Sheriff's Office in 2012 over what he told the judge in his divorce case was a "police cover-up" of a dispute between him, his ex-wife and his ex-wife's father.
Greenwood, as head of the sheriff's internal affairs division, eventually made a decision not to pursue the case, sources said.
At the time of his death, Greenwood was assistant chief deputy of the Harris County Precinct 3 Constable's Office, where he was hired to help reorganize the department after serving four years overseeing Internal Affairs at the Harris County Sheriff's Office, the Houston Chronicle reports.
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Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters continued to be Donald Trumps worst nightmare on Saturday, storming MSNBCs AM Joy to call the Trump White House the Kremlin clan and slam Michael Flynns request for immunity as the Russia investigation continues to unfold in Congress.
Waters tore apart Flynn, saying she thinks he is deeply involved in this scandal.
Video:
In her blistering criticism of Flynn and his request to be granted immunity in return for his testimony to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Waters said:
Well, Im very pleased that [Flynn] is being turned down. Hes trying to get in there early before the investigation brings down the kind of information that is absolutely needed and so I think they did the right thing by not giving him immunity at this point. I think that Michael Flynn is involved in so many ways with this Trump organization. I think that not only did he lie to the vice president and to everybody else. I think that hes deeply involved in what I call the Kremlin clan. And so Im glad that he did not get immunity.
The Democratic congresswoman wasnt done. She also expressed outrage over GOP Congressman Devin Nunes and his complete incompetence running the House investigation of Trumps Russia ties.
Of Nunes, she said:
The Intelligence Committee in the House cant continue under his leadership. He has no credibility, he has lied, as a matter of fact, he has been bumbling and stumbling with all of this. And, its almost childish in the way that hes showing that hes but a puppet of the president. I think he needs to either step down or Paul Ryan needs to take him away from that committee or shut down the committee on this issue. They cannot go forward with him in the leadership.
After facing constant heat in recent days from Republicans, particularly from Fox News right-wing hack Bill OReily, Waters is showing that she has no plans of backing down or being intimidated by her opponents.
The American people want and, most importantly, deserve a thorough and independent investigation into this serious matter, and Waters understands that. While the Trump White House may want to brush this under the rug and call it a partisan witch-hunt, each week continues to bring new and explosive developments.
With members of Congress like Maxine Waters calling them out, Trump and the White House will not get away with lying about or diverting attention from their clear ties to Russia.
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Democratic Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) told CNNs Jake Tapper what Donald Trump really means when he talks about Assad and Syria. Heres a hint. Its the same thing that George W. Bush meant when talked about regime change in Iraq.
Video:
Transcript via CNNs State of the Union:
TAPPER: So, you heard the reaction from Moscow. Do you think the Trump administration might be making a mistake by saying there is no solution with Assad in power?
MARKEY: Well, when the Trump administration uses the words regime change, they are talking about a military effort to remove Assad.
And that would mean putting American young men and women on the ground in battlefield conditions in order to accomplish that goal. So, that would require, ultimately, a congressional approval, because that would be a step of incredible magnitude that would be breaking with the policy that we have had thus far.
TAPPER: But youre saying that, by Nikki Haley saying that they dont see any sort of political solution where Assad is in charge, that they are essentially saying they will push for regime change, and you think that that would mean more ground troops, U.S. ground troops, because there there are a few hundred in there right now?
MARKEY: Absolutely. Thats what regime change means.
It means doing in Syria what we did in Iraq in removing Saddam Hussein. I dont think theres any appetite in the United States for a massive additional military presence, with young men and women actually in combat situations being introduced.
As usual with the Trump administration, the policy on any issue depends on who is talking at any given moment. There are two very different and conflicting Trump administration views being expressed on Syria. One view has some Trump administration officials talking about regime change while Sec. of State Rex Tillerson is saying that the US has no plan to remove Assad from power.
Those in the administration who are talking about regime change are referring to a major military operation in Syria.
The media doesnt want to hear it, but there is no central policy in the Trump administration, and the policy that is floating around the administration is a repeat of the failures in Iraq.
Sen. Markey was right there is no appetite for regime change, and if the media keeps waving the flag for Trumps military misadventures, the American people will treat them like they are part of the problem.
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America has always touted itself as the bastion of democracy and particularly boasted the freedoms its citizens enjoy; freedoms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. But as any casual political observer is aware, those freedoms, along with Americas democracy, are in jeopardy of being swept away by Republicans who cannot tolerate dissent from the people they are supposed to serve.
Now, as the entire world is stunned at the alarming turn of events in Trumps authoritarian America, its preeminent organization, the United Nations, has taken the extraordinary step of warning Republicans that they are threatening one of the United States constitutional pillars: free speech.
The organization condemning the Republican assault on democratic values sent a letter to American authorities over 16 Republican state legislatures introducing unconstitutional bills banning peaceful protests and free speech. According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly, Maina Kiai and David Kaye, Special Rappateur on the protection of the right to freedom of expression, the Republican legislation represents an alarming trend and an attack on democracy. The pair particularly noted that this trend has greatly intensified since Trump got to move into the White House.
The two rappateurs noted in their letter to U.S. authorities that more than 16 states have introduced authoritarian legislation specifically aimed at restricting the right to assembly. They wrote:
Since January 2017, a number of undemocratic bills have been proposed in state legislatures with the purpose or effect of criminalizing peaceful protests. The bills, if enacted into law, would severely infringe upon the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly in ways that are incompatible with US obligations under international human rights law and with First Amendment protections. The trend also threatens to jeopardize one of the United States constitutional pillars: free speech.
The U.N. specifically noted the pending bills are currently in the legislative corridors of Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee and Washington. Messers Kiai and Kaye specifically cited that the bills purposes are quashing democracy and violating the 1st Amendment and were mainly proposed at the beginning of 2017 and exclusively by Republican legislators.
In a direct attack on the Republicans authoritarian actions, the U.N democratic advocates took particular umbrage with the tyrannical characterization of peaceful protests being labeled as unlawful or violent in some of the Republican bills. Kiai and Kaye wrote what is obvious to anyone remotely knowledgeable or concerned about democracy. They said:
There can be no such thing in law as a violent protest. There are violent protesters, who should be dealt with individually and appropriately by law enforcement. One persons decision to resort to violence does not strip other protesters of their right to freedom of peaceful assembly. This right is not a collective right; it is held by each of us individually. Peaceful assembly is a fundamental right, not a privilege, and the government has no business imposing a general requirement that people get permission before exercising that right.
What especially alarmed the United Nations was the threat of violence toward peaceful protesters written into most of the authoritarian Republican legislation. For example, in Indianas Senate Bill 285 there is a provision that allows law enforcement officials to use any means necessary to clear the roads of people unlawfully obstructing vehicular traffic. The U.N experts were appalled at the broad language in the GOP bills because they could lead to excessive use of force written into the bills by design.
Besides warning that imposing hefty fines and prison sentences in most of the bills, the UN experts were particularly concerned over the wording in Florida, North Dakota and Tennessee bills that would exempt drivers from liability if they hit and even killed a pedestrian participating in a protest.
It is likely that the United Nations is well aware that all of this authoritarian legislation dismantling the pillars of the Constitution are the direct result of Trumps election victory. They comprehend that Trump, with Republican collusion, supports and encourages authoritarian action to quell dissent no matter that it is quelling democracy.
Trump embraces authoritarian leaders as doing the right thing the right way such as Russias Vladimir Putin, the Philippine President Manuel Duterte, and most recently Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who Trump praises as having done a fantastic job. El-Sisi led a military coup to overthrow the legally-elected government and has summarily executed 812 protesters in a single day, and imprisoned over 40,000 people in a crackdown on political dissent.
This is not the first time the United Nations has harshly criticized America for human rights violations contrary to its commitments to democracy that it initiated in treaties and human rights agreements; agreements it once regularly used to condemn tyrannical dictators around the world. However, it is the first time the international organization specifically targeted Republican state legislatures for attacking their own citizens for simply exercising their constitutionally-protected freedoms and rights.
What is not surprising is the dearth of reporting in American media that the so-called shining city on a hill, the glaring example of how democracy and freedom works, was harshly criticized for criminalizing peaceable protests and freedom of expression. In fact, if not for the United Nations letter being covered and reported in Britains The Independent, Americans may have never learned that they live in a nation where one political party is bringing another level of shame because they wholly intend to criminalize the pillar of democracy enshrined in the nations founding document; a document the authoritarian Republican Party and its leader refuse to recognize is the law of the land and despise because it informs the pillar of democracy.
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Donald Trump immediately blamed President Obama for the Syrian chemical weapons attack the other day and some Republicans, like Sen. Tom Cotton, who cant find Tehran if you spot him a map and a flashlight, agreed.
John McCain, on the other hand, while calling the strike an excellent first step told John Dickerson on CBSs Face The Nation refused to absolve the Trump administration from blame for the attack.
Asked by Dickerson if the administrations original position that removal of Assad was not a priority encouraged this behavior, McCains answer was, I think it probably was partially to blame.
Speaking of Tillersons expressed opinion that the longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people, McCain reiterated his call for a strategy and a plan:
And Secretary Tillerson basically saying the same thing after kind of contradicting himself and then saying the same thing argues vigorously for a plan and a strategy.
McCain also rejected the idea that a one-off on a Syrian airfield was in any way meaningful. He also said we should have cratered the airfield.
This is an omission Donald Trump explained via Twitter yesterday:
The reason you don't generally hit runways is that they are easy and inexpensive to quickly fix (fill in and top)! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2017
McCains answer to this was, Yeah, and we can crater them again too.
Just a one-time deal is not going to be productive. And saying, We are only going after chemical weapons areas, ignores the enormity of the problem.
A very small percentage of the people who have been slaughtered in Syria have been slaughtered by chemical weapons. Its been done by barrel bombs and indiscriminate killing and all the other war crimes that have been committed.
The Arizona Republican pointed out, in contradiction to Secretary of State Rex Tillersons claim that ISIS must be our priority, that ISIS cannot be separated from Assads actions.
America, McCain said, can take care of both problems at the same time. We can walk and chew gum.
According to McCain, we need a strategy, which means, of course, that we that is Donald Trump doesnt have one.
Trump did not have a strategy before, and from conflicting statements made by Trump officials even after the attack, he doesnt have one now.
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President Trump is being sued by transparency advocates who are demanding that the visitor logs to both the White House, his private Florida club Mar-a-Lago, and Trump Tower, be made public so that the American people can know who their government is meeting with.
The complaint states:
This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. 22012202, for injunctive, declaratory, and other appropriate relief.Plaintiffs challenge the failure of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to disclose to them records of visits to the White House and to President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower residences that the Secret Service, a component of DHS, maintains.
This case seeks declaratory relief that DHS is in violation of the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(3)(a), by refusing to search for and provide plaintiffs with all responsive documents on an expedited basis, and injunctive relief ordering DHS to process and release to plaintiffs immediately the requested records.
It is not a shock that the least transparent presidential candidate in modern U.S. history has turned out to be the least transparent president in modern U.S history. The White House doesnt belong to Donald Trump. President Obama established a precedent that should stand for all future presidents. The American people deserve to know who is visiting their White House.
A president who felt like he had nothing to hide might be more open to releasing the logs, but when it comes to the Trump administration, a look at the visitor logs would be helpful in separating fact from fiction.
Who is visiting this White House? Who is helping to shape policy behind closed doors? As it relates to the Russia scandal, there is most likely some insight that can be gained from access to the White House and Trump properties visitor logs.
The idea that the American people should know who their government is meeting with isnt radical. Its democracy.
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This is a weird Russian story about a spam king being arrested, whose wife, Maria Levashova, said on RT he was told it was because of his involvement with a computer virus linked to Trumps election win.
Alleged Russian hacker Pyotor Levashov, thought to be also known as Peter Severa, was detained over the weekend in Spain.
Pyotr Levashov was arrested Friday in Barcelona on a U.S. computer crimes warrant, according to a spokeswoman for Spains National Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules, the AP reported early Monday morning.
On RT, Levashovs wife said armed police stormed into their apartment in Spain and eventually arrested her husband, who told her on a call from the police station that he told her he was told he had created a computer virus that was linked to Trumps election win.
Sheera Frenkel in Buzzfeed pointed out that normally the arrest of a spammer wouldnt make international headlines, but that he had reportedly been recruited by Russias national security service, In 2012, Russian investigative journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, reported that Russian hacker forums believed that Peter Severa (believed to be Levashovs online alias) had been recruited by the Russias national security service, the FSB. The researchers wrote that Peter Severa had been attempting to recruit hackers on online forums.
Theres a link here to a virus that spread fake news spam about Putins opponent in the 2012 Russian election, The alias of Peter Severa was also named by a 2012 court filing by Microsoft, which outlined how the extensive spam network had been used to spread a host of computer viruses. One of those, the Kelihos virus, was used to spread spam during the 2012 Russian elections that pushed fake news stories about the candidate running against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Those emails included unsubstantiated allegations that Putins opponent, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, had come out as gay.
The 2016 U.S. election was interfered with by Russians, and one of the ways was fake news, often based in Macedonia, that published rabidly anti-Hillary Clinton news.
Severa is a very successful spammer. One of the top ten in 2009, according to Newsweek, which noted at the time, 7. Pyotr Levashov a.k.a. Peter Severa (Russia) The creator of Trojans and author of spam programs became known to the public last year during a trial of Alan Ralskys spam gang from Detroit, the largest in the U.S. Nine others were arrested with Ralsky, but not Severa, who is believed to be living in Russia and still working with hackers.
Its unclear what role, if any, Severa played in the 2016 election. That connection is being made through the claims of his wife and his alleged history with election spamming for Putin.
We are repeatedly told that the Russians didnt hack our voting machines, even though they did hack our voting rolls. They hacked the election, we are told, with fake news and in other ways.
If Levashov made a virus linked to Donald Trumps win, that could mean possibly pushing fake news spam with pro-Trump and anti-Clinton stories. Intelligence experts keep saying the actual results werent hacked; rather the election was hacked in other ways.
Given all of the vulnerabilities, though, and the Russian expertise on hacking, malware, viruses, and undermining democracy, this might be a good time to revamp our voting machines so that they cant be easily hacked in 7 minutes.
The U.S. is going after Russian hackers with a vengeance, and it doesnt seem to be unrelated to Donald Trumps Russia problem. Add a dash of skepticism to the Russian hackers wifes claims, because they were made on RT and they could be a way of generating sympathy for him with anger against America. But he is known to be a hacker, and hes been accused of interfering in a previous election to help Putin with the use of fake news spam.
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At the swearing in ceremony of Neil Gorsuch, President Trump specifically thanked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for all he did to make the achievement possible. What McConnell did was steal a Supreme Court seat.
Video:
Trump said, Although he could not be here today, I especially want to express our gratitude to Senator Mitch McConnell for all that he did to make this achievement possible.
What McConnell did was to ignore the Constitution by refusing to fulfill the Senates role of advise and consent on President Obamas Supreme Court nominee in an effort to leave the Supreme Court seat open so that it could be filled by Trump, and then, McConnell changed the Senate rules so that the stolen seat could be filled by Trumps nominee with a simple majority vote.
It will be interesting to see if Republicans remain grateful to McConnell when a Democratic president and Senate use the same tactics to fill the Supreme Court with liberal justices.
The bar for achievement during the Trump presidency is set astonishingly low. A Republican president with a Republican-controlled Senate should be able to get his Supreme Court nominee confirmed without having to change the Senate rules, but it goes to show how desperate Republicans are for a win that they are praising the theft of a Supreme Court seat that will come back to haunt them in the future as a victory.
Hungary President signs off new higher ed law, seals fate of CEU
Hungarys President Janos Ader has signed legislation amending the Higher Education Act on Monday, just before his deadline. The new law is effectively targeting Central European University (CEU), founded in 1991 by George Soros, who is basically public enemy number one for Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his liberal approach, especially regarding Europes migration crisis and his funding of non-governmental organisations, which are the latest targets of the right-wing government. CEU said it will immediately seek all available legal remedies."
Plea until you're blue in the face, Ader will still sign it
Related article
CEU says new higher education law unconstitutional 05/04/2017 5:10pm
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CEU answers key questions related to legislative changes in Hungary 07/04/2017 4:24pm
CEU will use all legal means to contest law
Ader said the new law is not unconstitutional.CEU begs to differ.Ader also remarked that the law would not impact any student who is currently studying at CEU or any other university-they will be able to complete their program as normal.Again, CEU begs to differ.The Hungarian government, and Ader himself has received a countless number of pleads and petitions from dozens of universities, academics, academic associations, Nobel Laureates, the U.S. State Department and scholars in the European Union and the United States not to proceed with the planned legislation - or in Aders case - not to sign off the law.A crowd of 70,000 to 80,000 protesters took to the streets of Budapest on Sunday afternoon and evening in support of CEU and also against Orban and his clique.Ader remained unmoved by the petitions, CEUs arguments (the school or any other professional body in higher education had not been consulted on the planned legislation change), the demonstrations, and any politician or scholar that expressed their concerns about Orbans government trampling on academic freedom.In the time allowed to me I have investigated the constitutionality of the legislation and whether it is in line with international agreements," Ader explained, according to a report by local news portal index.hu. The president added he established that it does not violate the freedom of education set down in the Fundamental Law (constitution) of Hungary, or the sovereignty of institutions as regards research, taught material and methodology.At the same time, Ader urged the government to start negotiations" with the related institutions immediately," so as to ensure that not a speck of doubt remains about whether foreign universities operating in Hungary will have the conditions in place to allow them to continue with their high quality work."Decorated Hungarian novelist, playwright and essayistwrote a letter of support for CEU to Ader on 7 April."I am requesting you not to lend support with your signature to the anti-CEU legislation that has reached your desk. In essence, I am asking you to apply the principle of less is more" to the case at hand. For in my view, it is a rare opportunity in the life of a head of state that with the omission of a single stroke of a pen he should be able to do so much for the political community the unity of which he is called to embody," he said. You may download the full letter here Theexpressed its concern about the legislation targeting CEU in a letter to President Ader."We appeal to you to re-consider the changes being proposed concerning CEU and thus protect the most important values upheld by academic institutions worldwide - institutional autonomy and academic freedom." Click here for the letter.Former United Nations Secretary-Generalalso expressed his concern about the amendments to Hungary's higher education law in a letter to President and Rector Michael Ignatieff. Click here for his letter.
Central European University (CEU) strongly disagrees with the decision by President Janos Ader to sign the amendments to Hungarys national higher education legislation. Accordingly, CEU will immediately seek all available legal remedies
The legislation was introduced without consultation with CEU or with necessary Hungarian authorities and thus violates elementary standards of due process observed in any democratic country.
observed in any democratic country. The legislation is targeted at an American institution in a flagrantly discriminatory manner .
. The legislation seeks to make it impossible for CEU to offer American-accredited masters and doctoral degrees , as it has done with the full agreement of Hungarian authorities for many years.
, as it has done with the full agreement of Hungarian authorities for many years. The legislation imposes a punitive deadline which would make compliance impossible.
, CEUs .The university presented a few arguments to demonstrate why the new legislation is a political attack on CEU.On these and other grounds, the legislation constitutes a premeditated political attack on a free institution that has been a proud part of Hungarian life for a quarter of a century.
We will oppose this legislation to the full extent of the law."
As regards Ader calling for mutual good will" and negotiations without delay", CEU stressed that from the beginning of this sorry episode, CEU has been ready to discuss this matter with the government.All our efforts so far have been rebuffed and the good name of our university has been attacked. If the government genuinely wishes to solve this problem, they will need to show the good will that the President has called for."CEU President and Rector Michael Ignatieff CEU is willing to sit down with the Hungarian government to find a solution to enable CEU to stay in Budapest and operate as it has done for 25 years.
However, academic freedom is not negotiable. It is a principle that must form the basis of any future agreement."
University directors call on Hungary's Orban cabinet to withdraw 'lex CEU'
LSE, Harvard, UCL stand up against lex CEU
the act would require the CEU to establish a campus in the jurisdiction of New York State in an unfeasible timeframe;
prevent it from delivering programmes or awarding degrees accredited in both countries;
prohibit it from operating under its current name; and
force it to adopt rules that would endanger the freedom and autonomy of scientific research;
the new law also demands that the U.S. federal government act as the negotiator to the Hungarian government, though higher education is a state competence and the U.S. government has no jurisdiction.
Directors of London School of Economics, Hardvard University and University College London called on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbans government in a joint letter to reconsider and withdraw new legislation that would essentially mean the end of the operation of Central European University (CEU) in Hungary. Orbans cabinet is the first European government that seeks to close a successful university for political reasons, they said.The directors said in a letter published by The Financial Times that the amendment of Hungarys law on higher education sets conditions for non-EU higher education institutions which cannot be met:Although the government was defending the measure by saying that no institution is above the law in Hungary and so CEU must also comply with regulations, critics ponder that if CEU has not been compliant with local rules for years, why the government needed to create new legislation with the clear aim of making CEU non-compliant.The directors also argue that the act directly and deliberately threatens the existence of the most accomplished and internationally acclaimed university in the country."
We believe the closure of this distinguished private university would be an act of national self-harm by the government of Hungary, a tragedy for central and eastern Europe, and a blow to academic freedom and independence worldwide.
The government of Hungary is the first European government in the 21st century to seek to close a solvent and successful university for political reasons."
The signatories of the letter urge Orbans governement
We also urge European politicians to comprehend the magnitude of this development, to speak up to defend academic freedom and autonomy, and to consider whether in current circumstances the governing partys membership of the European Peoples Party remains tenable."
Mass rally against lex CEU, Orban cabinet
Tens of thousands rally in support of CEU and against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government at Parliament on 9 April 2017. Photo by MTI/Janos Marjai
Youre not going to believe who organised the rally. Yup, it was Soros.
Prof. Erik Berglof - Director, Institute of Global Affairs, LSEProf. Grzegorz Ekiert - Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard UniversityProf. Kevin Featherstone - Director, European Institute, LSEProf. Jan Kubik - Director, School of East European and Slavonic Studies, UCL Dr. Uta Staiger - Executive Director, European Institute, UCLA crowd estimated at 70,000 to 80,000 people rallied in Budapest on Sunday evening against new legislation aimed at ousting Central European University (CEU). This was the biggest protest in Hungary for a long time, with about twice as many people demonstrating on the streets than against the planned 'Internet tax in October 2014. This time, though, Hungarians protested not against a government measure that would take money out of their pockets, but for a foreign-linked university where about 80% of the cc. 1,400 students and 370 faculty members are from more than 130 countries. The rally may have been in vain, however, According to local daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet, President Janos Ader Janos Ader will countersign the law.Meanwhile, pro-government media did everything to belittle the largest anti-government demonstration the streets of Budapest have seen in a long time. TV2s Tenyek (Facts" hah!) programme said the crowd was much smaller than the organisers expected it to be. (Yeah, that is why the organisers relocated the demonstration just hours before its start, saying so many supporters would show up that the original location would not fit the crowd.)Ripost.hu reported that dozens of buses" were picking up sympathisers to transport them to the rally. In cities hosting Soros organisations
they have even been distributing air tickets to Budapest.
EPP, the own family of Orbans Fidesz party, wants Fidesz out
Freedom of thinking, research and speech are essential for our European identity. @EPPGroup will defend this at any cost. #CEU Manfred Weber (@ManfredWeber) April 5, 2017
Szilard Nemeth, Vice-President of the Fidesz party, went even further and added a new chapter to the governments conspiracy theories putting the blame on CEU-founder George Soros.He actually told local newswire MTI over the phone on Sunday that [non-governmental] organisations actively funded by Soros have been attacking the Hungarian government relentlessly for two years, with the aim to upset border protection and force the entry of illegal immigrants."They are openly encouraging to violate Hungarian laws, he added. Nemeth stressed that Hungary must protect itself and the first step of that is transparency, referring to legislation in the making that would prescribe for NGOs to register with local authorities if they have a yearly overseas income of HUF 7.2 million.Orban is a stout critic of Hungarian-born financier George Soros and liberal civil organisations he is funding, along with CEU. The PM often said NGOs are doing the bidding of Soros.Every Hungarian must know who are Soross people", and what funds and what interests are behind organisations funded from abroad, Nemeth said.Opponents of the law claim it is an attack on academic independence in general, while the Hungarian delegation of the European Peoples Party (EPP) group in European Parliament compared the actions of the CEU to George Orwells dystopian Animal Farm.Critics of the law have been gravely mislead (sic) by the propaganda and private agenda of the American billionaire Soros" and are fighting with a virtual reality," the Hungarians wrote in an email sent to their EPP colleagues Wednesday and obtained by politico.eu As in the world of George Orwells Animal Farm, there are the equals and there are some more equals (sic) than others."Some non-Hungarian EPPs responded by questioning why Fidesz was even in their party.The EPPs leader in Parliament, Manfred Weber, on Wednesday demanded the European Commission assess the law. EU needs an independent serious evaluation rather than party political debates," Weber tweeted. Freedom of thinking, research and speech are essential for our European identity. EPP group will defend this at any cost."Hungarys former Foreign Minister now European Commissioner in charge of education as well as sport, youth and culture has also criticised the law, saying CEU is one of the most important higher education institutions not only in Hungary, but also in the European higher education system," Hungarian news portal index.hu reported.Therefore, I think its important that after the correction of possible irregularities, it can continue to operate in Budapest undisturbed," he wrote. Carlos Moedas , the EUs research commissioner, issued a statement on Wednesday saying he was deeply concerned" by the law, which may set an unwelcome precedent for the autonomy of academic institutions in Hungary."And Parliaments left flank has repeatedly called on the EPP to expel Fidesz MEPs.The Fidesz party no longer has a place in the EPP," politico cited Viviane Reding, an MEP from Luxembourg and a former justice commissioner. She believes her Christian Social Peoples Party (CSV) is the only one to take a firm stand, and she deplores what she considers the silence and complacency" of other MEPs in the face of Orbans uninhibited populism."If the democratic drift in Hungary continues, the European Union may consider placing Budapest under theof the EU Treaty, which provides for sanctions against a member state, the spokesperson from the European Peoples Party (EPP) warned last week.EPP spokersperson and MEP Siegfried Muresan told Euractiv that sanctions against Budapest were still an option.
If the situation with Hungary continues, Article 7 might be put on the table," he warned.
Euractiv highlighted, though, that as Article 7 is seen as a nuclear bomb" - a deterrent that should never be used - the EU introduced the rule of law" mechanism, under which Poland currently finds itself.Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which has not been used until now, was designed to defend the EUs core values such as democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law. If the EU notices a serious and persistent breach" of these values it can activate Article 7 and suspend membership rights, such as voting in the EU Council or access to the single market.
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Sunny to partly cloudy. High near 75F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..
Tonight
Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 53F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Peking University, one of China's top educational institutions, has paid 8.8 million pounds ($12 million) to set up a business campus in the English university city of Oxford.
According to media reports, the Chinese university fought off intense competition, including an unnamed Oxford University college, to purchase Foxcombe Hall, which is located just outside the city.
Oxford is home to one of Britain's oldest and most internationally acclaimed universities.
Peking University HSBC Business School plans to welcome students to its Oxford campus next summer.
Oxford University said it knew nothing of the sale and did not have anything to do with the operation, or with bidding for the premises, but didnot rule out that its affiliated colleges may have bid for the property.
Foxcombe Hall was built in the 1890s and bought by the Open University in 1979.
The Chinese business school, which is based in Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province, told The Times newspaper it acquired the property from the Open University after offering "a very tempting price" that left "little room to say no".
Students studying at PHBS-Oxford will get the chance to study for one year at the Oxford campus and another year at the Shenzhen campus.
Programs that will be taught at the Oxford campus will focus on China's economy, its financial market, and corporate management.
Peking University is ranked 29th in the World University Rankings 2016-17 according to London-based publication Times Higher Education.
A few Chinese universities now have an overseas campus in the UK. Some schools and universities from outside China also now have a presence on the Chinese mainland.Oxford already hosts the Said School of Business.
Last year, the University of Washington and the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing jointly set up the Global Innovation Exchange in Seattle, Washington, which offers graduate technology degrees for students from the United States and China.
It was the first time that a Chinese research university had established a physical presence in the US. Classes are expected to begin after the summer.
In the UK, Zhejiang University and Imperial College London have collaborated on several research projects, and in 2013 Zhejiang University revealed its plans to set up operations in London.
boleung@mail.chinadailyuk.com
With fall in the air, cyclamen start peeking through the leaf litter, giving the woodland garden a splash of color when most plants have finished blooming. As those pink, white or magenta blooms unfurl and appear, it is a memorable sight to see. Read moreFall charmers and winter wonders
South Carolina shorelines could feel the effects of Subtropical Storm Nicole as early as Nov. 8 with high surf. Charleston Harbor is under a tropical storm watch, which means it could see coastal flooding and inundation within 48 hours. Read moreCharleston coastline under tropical storm warning as Subtropical Storm Nicole strengthens
They are often described as forgotten heroes, but the role of thousands of Chinese World War I volunteers will be remembered at an exhibition at Durham University's Oriental Museum.
Laborers from China such as those in this photo, were crucial to the war effort. WH HAWKINGS COLLECTION, COURTESY OF JOHN DE LUCY
Using historic photographs and objects, A Good Reputation Endures Forever: The Chinese Labour Corps on the Western Front, examines the vital role the men played.
The corps, which was made up of around 140,000 Chinese men, was recruited in 1916 by the British and French militaries to provide support to front-line soldiers.
About 96,000 Chinese men volunteered to work for the British.
The contribution of these unsung heroes was barely recognized at the end of the war, and in the following decades was almost completely forgotten.
Craig Barclay, curator of Durham Oriental Museum, hopes that is now changing.
"The Chinese Labour Corps has just not featured in the British narrative of World War I and it's really important we redress that," he said. "We endeavor to correct that significant historical omission and do our very best to ensure as many people as possible are made aware of the major contribution that China made to this conflict."
The Chinese Labour Corps supplied the army with weapons and ammunition, food and fodder, water and fuel. The unit's members also worked to build and maintain roads and railway lines, repaired tanks, dug trenches, and filled sandbags.
Many of the men were from poor backgrounds, but the corps also attracted students and intellectuals, who helped raise political awareness among their peers and who wrote letters home for their colleagues.
The exhibition on Durham's Elvet Hill features historic photographs and objects that explain the volunteers' journey, from the formation of the corps, through the journey to Europe, and onto the battlefields.
Two diaries that belonged to a British officer who served alongside members of the corps will also be on display, something the curator describes as "an enormous revelation".
"The British officer, called Jim Maultsaid, wrote that he had been wounded on the frontline and was no longer fit to serve in the trenches. Instead, he was assigned to serve with the Chinese Labour Corps.
"His genuine affection for the Chinese volunteers he worked with comes across in his diary and also his huge admiration and pride for his team," said Barclay. "It was a really powerful message about Anglo-Chinese collaboration."
The exhibition runs until Sept 24.
Things got a little complicated.
State auditor Rebecca Otto recently released the results of a study of county audits performed by private accounting firms in 2015. Of the 26 counties that used private auditors instead of the state auditor's office, the state found problems with eight of them.
"I am deeply concerned about the numerous issues identified within this review," Otto said in a statement. "Staff identified over 130 instances where the private CPA firms failed to follow the standards that we are all required to comply with."
Among the eight audits with issues were those for Mower and Fillmore counties.
Most of the counties can rework their existing audits to meet state requirements. Two counties, Hubbard and Roseau, will be required to have new audits performed for 2015.
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Audited financial statements are relied on by bond rating agencies, bondholders, and state and federal agencies that award funds, local governing bodies, and taxpayers.
What does this mean?
A couple years ago, the state auditor's office allowed several counties to use private auditing firms rather than the state due to funding and staff shortages. Permission was given in three-year increments. But the Minnesota Legislature recently passed a law allowing all counties to choose either private auditors or the state office for their audits. Forty-eight counties are considering using private CPA firms for their 2017 audits to be conducted in 2018.
Otto disagrees with the legislation and called for a review of audits done by private CPAs.
"It is imperative that counties and the taxpayers have all the facts to help them make prudent decisions about future audits," Otto said.
Here's how two Southeast Minnesota counties responded to the state auditor's assessment:
Fillmore County
Bobbi Vickerman, county coordinator, acknowledged that Fillmore County received the report by email, and contacted its auditing firm to review the items outlined. For now, Fillmore shouldn't have any repercussions to county taxpayers.
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"However, we will plan to give a report regarding the findings that are determined from our auditing firm, once all issues have been discussed with the state," Vickerman added.
"It is my understanding that Fillmore County, along with some smaller counties, were released from the state auditor's and were allowed to have private audits conducted," Vickerman said. "The State Auditor's office reviews our audit and gives us required changes and reviews and concerns they have with the reporting."
Mower County
County Coordinator Craig Oscarson said that the county doesn't agree or disagree with the state auditor's assessment. Officials contacted their auditing firm, and are in the process of responding to the report.
"In my review, the report does not say the county books are a problem, but that the private audit firm did not document some areas correctly," Oscarson said. "As noted in Ms. Otto's report, it is possible that the private audit firm needs to properly document what they tested and possibly resubmit a portion of the audit."
According to Oscarson, his understanding was that the private auditor still needs to audit according to all the rules and regulations that OSA is required to use. The OSA also has the right to review private audits in the detail necessary to make sure the work is being done correctly. "Ms. Otto selected a number of counties to do this review, and we were one of them."
Although the county is waiting for a response from its private auditor, it is possible that the firm may have information that the documentation was proper. Oscarson said that the firm may also need to perform additional audit work per the report:
"As I also stated, in my read of the report it does not indicate that the county books were out of order or deficient, but rather the OSA took exceptions to how the private audit firm documented their review and findings."
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A 29-year-old Jerome Lawler became Haverhill Township clerk because he was asked.
"Nobody else wanted it," he said of the start of his 50-year-and-counting township career.
Lawler, whose father had been the township's assessor, knew the lay of the land and people of the township that is directly northeast of Rochester, which was a benefit in a time before road signs.
Throughout his time in office, Lawler said he's never faced an election challenge, something he partly marks up to the fact that township residents are updated regularly on where their tax dollars are being spent.
"Where else in government can you find that?" he said.
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If recent township elections are any sign, most southeast Minnesota township residents have similar feelings of contentment. Few challenges were seen. In Olmsted County, only two contended races existed a challenge in Eyota Township and a two-person race to fill a vacated Oronoco Township seat.
Mark Thein, the Oronoco Township supervisor who left office after being elected as Olmsted County commissioner last year, said it wasn't surprising that people were willing to step in to vie for the seat. At the same time, he said it's not surprising that township board members are rarely challenged.
"I think it's hard for people to run against existing people," he said, noting he only faced one challenge in 18 years.
Other longtime township board members, like Lawler, reported similar experiences.
David Schwanke, Farmington Township's clerk for the last 43 years, said he only recalls two times supervisors were challenged in the township.
"I like to think it's because people think the board is doing a good job," he said.
Joe Mahoney, who became Haverhill Township clerk a few years after Lawler decided to downgrade to deputy clerk, said that could be the case. At the same time, he said not all township residents know what's involved.
"People don't realize what the township really does," he said, noting only about 30 to 50 of Haverhill's 1,600 residents attend the board's annual meetings, where elections are held and budgets are discussed.
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The roles of individual townships can vary, along with the types of levies they assess. In general, most townships have control over specific roadways controlling approximately 47 percent of the state's roads, according to the Minnesota Association of Townships and some maintain zoning powers, as well as assessments for fire districts and other needs.
Mahoney said it means the duties can be hectic for people with full-time careers, which is why he made sure Lawler was planning to stay in place when he became township clerk.
"When I need him, he's available to sit in," he said.
In the neighboring township, John Reiter went from helping fill in to being elected to replace his father, Louis Reiter, who had been Farmington Township supervisor for 54 years.
Like others serving their townships, he said it takes a level of commitment but also provides a connection to the surrounding community.
Lawler agreed, noting it all makes for interesting discussions and a way to stay connected in the rural community.
"I never thought about not doing it," he said.
ST. PAUL A local Republican and Democrat are teaming up to kill an internship tax credit for greater Minnesota businesses that they say has been an utter failure.
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, and Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, say it is time to scrap the Greater Minnesota Internship Program. They point to a recent Department of Revenue report that found the state spent a total of $174,000 in 2014 and 2015 on the program, which doled out less than $20,000 of tax credits over those two years. That's a far cry from the $2 million in tax credits per year budgeted for the program.
"It was a colossal failure," Pelowski said.
But supporters of the tax credit say it would be a mistake to eliminate the program entirely. Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities lobbyist Bradley Peterson said it makes more sense for lawmakers to make changes to the program to see if it can work better.
"The state has invested a bunch of money in setting up this program," Peterson said. "Let's actually give it a chance to work as intended after we get it fixed up."
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A 'fair shot' for students, employers
The Greater Minnesota Internship Tax Credit program was established in 2013. The program allows eligible employers outside of the Twin Cities metro area to claim a tax credit of up to $2,000 per student intern. In order for a business to be able to take advantage of the tax credit, they have to meet a long list of requirements. Those include paying interns at least minimum wage for an internship that lasts a minimum of 12 weeks. They also have to certify that the student intern would not have been hired without the tax credit. Eligible students must be attending a Minnesota college or university and have completed at least 50 percent of the credits necessary to complete their program.
Former state Rep. Kim Norton, DFL-Rochester, authored the bill that created the tax credit program.
"We were trying to assure that students and employers in rural Minnesota got a fair shot at some internship opportunities," Norton said.
She said since leaving the Legislature last year, she has not had a chance to keep tabs on how the program is working.
Report finds credit to be ineffective
The Minnesota Department of Revenue concluded in its February report on the program that "the credit is not currently effective in its attempt to stimulate businesses to hire interns and provide those interns with permanent positions."
In 2014, a total of seven businesses participated in the program but only one of them claimed a total of $4,000 tax credits, according to the report. In 2015, 15 businesses participated in the program. Of those, five businesses claimed tax credits for a total of less than $16,000.
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The state's revenue department spent $96,000 to develop a database for the program. The Office of Higher Education and revenue department estimate a total of $39,000 is spent per year to administer the tax credit.
Drazkowski said based on that report, it is clear this tax credit isn't working.
"This is something that needs to go bye bye," Drazkowski said. "(The report) just created an urgency to act on behalf of the common sense that the people of Minnesota expect us to exercise here."
He is sponsoring a bill to get rid of the program that is part of a larger tax bill passed by the Minnesota House. Pelowski is a co-author of Drazkowski's bill and also urging lawmakers to dump the program.
Senate supports making changes
The Minnesota Senate is taking a very different approach. Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, is sponsoring a bill aimed at making the program's requirements less onerous. Under the measure, businesses would no longer have to sign a written agreement that the intern would not have been hired without the tax credit. It also nixes a requirement that students must not be participating in the internship for academic credit. Those changes are based on recommendations made by the Department of Revenue on ways to fix the program.
Jasinski told members of the Senate Taxes Committee during a Feb. 21 hearing that the bill is seeks to "improve a promising workforce development program for Greater Minnesota that is hampered by overly strict qualification requirements."
None of the lawmakers on the committee had any questions. Jasinski's bill is included in a larger tax bill that cleared the Senate. It will be up to a House-Senate conference committee to decide whether the House's language to ax the internship program makes it into the final tax bill.
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Pelowski said he never saw the need for the program, and it's time to get rid of it.
He added, "This thing didn't work the first time. Why are we even attempting to do this doggone thing again? It just doesn't work."
The debate over the budget will be moving from the hallways of the Capitol to main streets in cities across Minnesota this week.
Lawmakers are officially on Easter/Passover Break until April 18. But Republican and DFL legislative leaders are expected to hit the road in the coming days to talk about the $45 billion budget proposals being considered in St. Paul. GOP House Speaker Kurt Daudt told reporters he plans to spend most of the break traveling around the state and talking to Minnesotans about the House Republican budget proposal, which includes $1.35 billion in tax cuts. Minnesota has a $1.6 billion budget surplus.
"We just really believe we need to make up for lost time. Minnesotans haven't gotten a chance to share in that prosperity," he said.
Democrats to talk environment, bonding
DFL lawmakers will also be out talking to voters. DFL Reps. David Bly, of Northfield, and Rick Hansen, of South St. Paul, will travel to Lanesboro to talk about the "far-reaching consequences" of House Republicans' environmental policies. They will offer their perspective from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. They are also slated to tour the Lanesboro Dam and make the case that House Republicans should put forward a public works bill.
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The GOP-led Senate has put forward a $1 billion bonding proposal for construction projects based on last year's plan. That measure includes $3.6 million to repair the Lanesboro Dam. Gov. Mark Dayton's $1.5 billion proposal does not have money for the dam.
It is worth noting that the DFL lawmakers are choosing to visit the district of powerful House Taxes Committee Chairman Greg Davids, R-Preston. Davids said he strongly supports the Lanesboro Dam project and wants a bonding bill this year, but he thinks lawmakers shouldn't pass one until the budget work is finished.
"I think we need a robust bonding bill, a strong bonding bill," Davids said.
He also likes the idea that for every $1 spent on construction projects in the bonding bill, lawmakers approve $1 worth of tax cuts.
Where things stand
Before heading out on break, the Republican-led House and Senate passed all of their budget bills. When they get back, they will have five weeks to work with each other and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton on a budget compromise. The question is will the House-Senate conference committees in charge of hammering out the final budget bills get rid of language that Dayton has said he opposes such as a delay in implementing his buffer law or a lack of funding for voluntary pre-K? Or will they send him bills with language they know the governor opposes and risk vetoes?
"If they chose to be confrontational with me, then we'll have a confrontation," Dayton told reporters last week.
Tax march in Rochester
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Protesters are expected to gather Saturday afternoon in Rochester to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.
The march is one of several marches nationwide planned for April 15 the traditional deadline for people to file taxes. (This year the deadline is April 18) There will be a Tax March in Washington, D.C., on that day and one at the Minnesota State Capitol.
The Rochester march will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Peace Plaza.
Today is Palm Sunday, celebrated by Christians around the world as the beginning of Holy Week. Islamic terrorists in Egypt observed the day by bombing two Christian churches, killing at least 44 people. Videos of the bombings have emerged. The Palm Sunday service at a church in Tanta, a northern town, was being televised. This is what appeared on Egyptian television:
Photos and videos of the bloody aftermath have been published.
Another Muslim bomber tried to get access to St. Marks Cathedral in Alexandria. He was stopped by security, and blew himself up at the entrance, killing a number of people, including three police officers:
The Islamic State has claimed credit for both attacks. President al-Sisi has declared a three-month of state of emergency. But violence against Christians has been common for a long time. It is not clear how many among Egypts Muslim majority feel any urgency about ending the persecution of Christians, or are even opposed to their murder.
In Sweden, the terrorist who used a stolen truck to murder four and injure many more in the name of Allah has been identified. He is Rakhmat Akilov. As was reported previously, he is an Uzbek national. He was denied asylum last June for reasons that I havent seen reported, likely because he was known to be a terrorist sympathizer. Akilov was ordered deported, but didnt leave Sweden. Reportedly, [t]he man had managed to avoid authorities, having given them the wrong address. Apparently that is all it takes in Sweden, and most likely here in the U.S. as well.
Meanwhile, this story from Lebanon got little attention:
Residents fled the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon on Sunday as clashes between security forces and radical Islamists intensified for the third day. Ambulances rushed the wounded to hospitals near the Ein el-Hilweh camp in the port city of Sidon, and Lebanons state-run National News Agency reported that four people were killed since the fighting began Friday. Fighters armed with assault rifles and truck-mounted rocket-propelled grenades traded fire inside.
Where do you suppose refugees get the money for trucks with mounted RPGs? Of course, this particular refugee camp has been around for a long time:
The U.N. says some 55,000 people live in Ein el-Hilweh. It was established in 1948, to host Palestinians displaced by Israeli forces during the establishment of Israel.
So if you were born in the year the camp was established, you are now 69 years old. Your grandchildren are refugees, too. The lot of the refugee in Lebanon is tough:
Palestinians in Lebanon are prohibited from working in professional jobs and have few legal protections in Lebanon. They are prohibited from owning property as well.
So Lebanon actually is an apartheid state. Funny, I havent seen any anti-Lebanon demonstrations on American college campuses. Why do you suppose that is?
One more thing:
Lebanese authorities have paused construction of a concrete barrier around the camp.
A wall! Here it is:
Its funny how some walls are controversial, and others arent.
I surmise two things: 1) The world has a serious problem. 2) Little is being done about it.
Przepraszamy!
Ogoszenie na stanowisku:
Junior Specialist in Disputes Team with Italian
wygaso z dniem 2017-05-08
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Etisalat Nigeria has denied the claim of patent infringement by V-Exchange Ltd. which was reported recently in the media.
The management of V-Exchange claimed that it sent a business proposal dated October 27, 2016 to Etisalat and subsequently met with Etisalats representatives on November 23, 2016, where it informed Etisalat of some of its products with a view to partnering with Etisalat and launching the products on Etisalats platform, but that Etisalat proceeded to unilaterally launch the products as KwikCash without V-Exchanges authorization. V-Exchange demanded for over N2 billion from Etisalat as compensation.
In reaction to the allegation, Head, Environment Compliance and Public Relations, Etisalat Nigeria, Oluseyi Osunsedo, dismissed the allegation by V-Exchange Ltd as baseless and unfounded, while affirming Etisalats commitment to strict adherence to existing laws, industry regulations and best practice.
Ms. Osunsedo said that KwikCash loan service, the product which according to V-Exchange was allegedly copied by Etisalat from its proposal, is owned and operated by a licensed financial institution, which was granted NCC approval to run the service on Etisalats network. The NCC approval is dated April 20, 2016, while the pilot launch of KwikCash service held on July 18, 2016.
She questioned how the product could have been copied from V-Exchange when KwikCash service was already in existence and operational long before October 27, 2016 when V-Exchange sent its proposal to Etisalat.
In view of the above, Etisalat Nigeria urges the general public to disregard the claim by V-Exchange Ltd. as the allegation is frivolous and lacking any merit.
In keeping with our vision of being an enabler, we re-affirm that Etisalat is a law abiding and responsible corporate organization and we remain committed to delighting our customers and stakeholders with innovative products and superior customer experience, Ms. Osunsedo declared.
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China on Monday called on all parties to show self-restraint and avoid worsening the situation, two days after a group of U.S. warships were ordered to change course and head to the waters off the Korean peninsula.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying told a press briefing when asked about Chinas position on the deployment of the U.S. warships
China is paying close attention to the development of the situation in the Korean peninsula.
Under the current situation, each party should show self-restraint and not do anything that would cause the situation to escalate, she said.
The warships include the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser.
On Saturday, the navy strike group cancelled a trip to Australia and headed from Singapore to the waters off Korea, as part of the U.S. response to North Koreas recent missile launches.
The order to change course was a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific, Dave Benham, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command, said according to the website Defense News.
North Korea continues to be a threat due to its reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing programme of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, Mr. Benham said.
North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the East China Sea recently ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Messrs. Trump and Xi discussed the North Korean nuclear issue in their talks at the Mar-a-Lago resort. (dpa/NAN)
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China on Monday endorsed sanctions against North Korea in the event of a new nuclear or rocket test, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Kyun said.
Seoul and Beijing were both of the opinion that strong, additional measures should be taken if North Korea pushes ahead with strategic provocations like a nuclear test or an intercontinental ballistic missile, launched in defiance of international warnings, he said.
Kim had consulted with the Chinese Ombudsman for the Korean Peninsula Wu Dawei earlier in Seoul.
The comments came two days after the U.S. responded to North Koreas recent missile launches by ordering a group of U.S. warships to change course and head toward waters off the Korean peninsula.
China had earlier called on all parties to show self-restraint and avoid worsening the situation.
China is paying close attention to the development of the situation in the Korean peninsula.
Under the current situation, each party should show self-restraint and not do anything that would cause the situation to escalate, Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said.
The warships including the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser which on Saturday cancelled a trip to Australia and headed from Singapore to the waters off Korea.
That happened as part of the U.S. response to North Koreas recent missile launches.
The order to change course was a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific.
North Korea continues to be a threat due to its reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing programme of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, Commander Dave Benham, spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command said.
North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the East China Sea last week ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Messrs. Trump and Xi discussed the North Korean nuclear issue in their talks at the Mar-a-Lago resort.
(dpa/NAN)
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A Federal High Court judge, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, has challenged the jurisdiction of an Ikeja High Court to hear the ongoing corruption charge brought against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Robert Clarke, Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobias new lead defence counsel, challenged the courts jurisdiction on Monday in an application brought before Justice Hakeem Oshodi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr. Clarke, a new addition to Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobias defence team, joined Olawale Akoni, to defend the embattled judge.
Odein Ajumogobia, the brother-in-law to the judge and a former Minister of Petroleum Resources and Foreign Affairs, was also in court to lend support.
Ifedayo Adedipe, the defence counsel to Godwin Obla, Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobias co-defendant, asked the court to hear the application alongside the suit in order to speed up the trial.
My Lord, it is my humble submission that having regard to the Administration of Criminal Justice Law that this issue be taken with the substantive suit even though it is a joint trial.
This is the argument of the first defendant and not of the second defendant, he said.
Justice Oshodi did not grant Mr. Adedipes request but adjourned the case until April 28 for ruling on Clarkes application.
Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia is standing trial alongside Mr. Obla, a senior advocate of Nigeria and a former prosecutor of the EFCC.
The two defendants are jointly charged with a two-count offence of perverting the course of justice.
Mr. Obla is facing additional two counts of offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia, a public official, while serving as a judge.
Mr. Ofili-Ajumogobia faces a 26-count charge bordering on unlawful enrichment, taking property by a public officer, corruption by a public officer, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.
Both denied all the charges.
Four prosecution witnesses three bankers and one bureau-de-change operator have so far testified in the trial for the prosecution.
The witnesses gave accounts of how they allegedly helped the judge launder large sums of money in foreign and local currencies from her home and the judges chambers at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, into various bank accounts registered in her name.
(NAN)
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The Lagos State House of Assembly confirmed the nomination of Hakeem Dickson as head of the states Safety Commission despite the nominee being a convicted fraudster and a fugitive, PREMIUM TIMES can report.
Mr. Dickson, a former Internal Auditor at the now defunct Nigeria Airways, was confirmed alongside three others Jokotola Ogundinmu as the Chairman, Lagos State Audit Service Commission; and Ayo Adebusoye and Mobolaji Aare as members of the Lagos State Public Procurement Board.
On October 4 last year, Governor Akinwinmi Ambode nominated Mr. Dickson as the Director General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, an agency empowered to set safety standards in the socio-economic activities in the state.
Mr. Dickson, an ally of the governor, was nominated despite fleeing from a 24-month jail term in the U.S. after being convicted for credit card fraud.
According to Judge Dickinson Debevoise of a U.S. District Court, Mr. Dickson had not served the sentence handed to him since June 1992.
For 20 years, Defendant (Mr. Dickson) successfully evaded all United States government efforts to locate and arrest him, the judge said in a judgment published by Sahara Reporters, last year.
CONVICTED FOR FRAUD
On June 14, 1991, Mr. Dickson, who is also a U.S. citizen, was arrested on a complaint of bank and credit card fraud.
Four months later, he pleaded guilty to Count One of a four-count indictment which charged that from August 29, 1990, to September 10, 1990, he knowingly and willfully executed and attempted to execute a scheme to defraud a federally insured institution in violation of U.S. laws.
On June 25, 1992, Mr. Dickson was sentenced to 24-month jail term, to be followed by a term of supervised release of three years.
He was also ordered to repay $14,400.
The judge fixed August 3, 1992 for his voluntary surrender, despite opposition from the U.S. government, the plaintiff in the suit.
The government had urged at sentencing that Defendant be remanded forthwith or at least surrender to the Bureau of Prisons no later than the following Monday, June 29, 1992, the judge said.
The court noted that while on bail Defendant returned on three occasions after being given permission to leave the country.
The Court also took account of Defendants wish to spend more time with his one-year-old son, who suffered severe medical problems. Thus the August 3, 1992, surrender date.
But on August 3, 1992, Mr. Dickson was nowhere to be found in the U.S., forcing the judge to revoke his bail and issue a warrant for his arrest.
Twenty years later, on January 27, 2012, Mr. Dickson, filed a motion seeking to adjust his sentence of 24 months incarceration in the U.S. by claiming that he had already served 17 months on the same sentence in a Lagos prison.
In his motion, Mr. Dickson claimed that a series of events after his sentencing, preceded by violent clashes between Muslims and Christians in Lagos, forced him to disobey the August 3 surrender date.
During these clashes, two of Defendants sisters were killed and the family home was burned to the ground, the judge quoted Mr. Dickson as claiming, in his judgment dated May 12, 2012.
Following his sentencing Defendant returned to Lagos to bury his sisters, assess the damage to his fathers house and to take his mother for treatment.
When Defendant arrived in Lagos, he was arrested at the airport and was told that since he was convicted in the United States he would also serve time in Nigeria. He was retained in custody until December 10, 1993, a total of 17 months.
NO RECORD IN NIGERIAN PRISONS
PREMIUM TIMES investigations, in October last year, showed that the Nigerian Prisons Services does not have any record of Mr. Dickson serving a jail time in a Nigerian prison between 1992 and 1993.
There is no name like that in our record, a top Prisons source told this newspaper at the time.
We checked both our Lagos and Abuja records.
Francis Enobore, Nigerian Prisons spokesperson, said an individual convicted overseas and being transferred to Nigeria would be accompanied by his biodata and other relevant documents.
If he escaped in the U.S. and he was arrested in Lagos for the same offence, whoever is arresting him will arrest him based on the information he got from the U.S. government, which will involve his name, the offence he committed, his address, everything they have about him, Mr. Enobore told PREMIUM TIMES last October.
If he was arrested in Lagos for a different offence, yes, it is absolutely possible for him to bear a different name.
If its the same offencebecause the person arresting him, on what basis is he going to arrest him? They are going to arrest him based on the evidence of the document they gave to them from the U.S., that so and so person is on the wanted list.
Following his claim of release from Kirikiri Prison in 1993, Mr. Dickson immersed himself in public office, contesting and winning an election as Chairman of Surulere Local Government between 1998 and 2004.
He later served as Special Adviser to then Minister of Works, Oluseye Ogunseye, for four years, before being appointed Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. Dickson also served as a committee chairman of All Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) for the drafting of laws, regulations and punishments for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission.
He served as the CEO of Citiwide Construction and Transport Nigeria Limited which specializes in the construction of roads and buildings, before his appointment into government.
Considering the nature of Defendants criminal activities in the United States, these are remarkable posts for Defendant to have held, Judge Debevoise had noted in 2012.
Defendant now owns a factory which manufacture concrete blocks, paving stones and kerbs, employing 20 people.
It is on the basis of these facts that Defendant seeks to credit the 17 months he served in Nigeria against the 24 months sentence imposed in the United States on June 25, 1992.
Although Defendants request has a certain common sense appeal, he has found no basis for it in the law.
The judge said Mr. Dickson made no request for leave before departing the U.S. in 1992, adding that the American government informed the court in September of that year that the convict had failed to surrender as ordered, and attempts to locate him were unsuccessful.
The Court entered an Order revoking Defendants bail and issuing a warrant for his arrest, said Mr. Debevoise.
For the next 20 years Defendant successfully evaded all government efforts to locate and arrest him.
The newly filed January 27, 2012 motion purports to fill the void. Defendant spent 17 months of the period in prison because of his United States conviction, and then went on to lead a successful political and business life.
NO PETITION AGAINST NOMINEE
In January, the Lagos House of Assembly confirmed Mr. Dicksons nomination, with Speaker Mudashiru Obasa charging him to address the safety problems posed by articulated vehicles, fire incidents, pits, and wells in the state.
Steve Ayorinde, the Lagos State commissioner for Information and Strategy, did not respond, for weeks, requests for comment on whether the Executive arm was aware of Mr. Dicksons criminal past.
But Tunde Braimoh, a lawmaker in the Lagos Assembly, said the House was not to blame for confirming Mr. Dicksons nomination.
The House does not appoint or nominate any individual, Mr. Braimoh (APC, Kosofe II), Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy, and Security told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday.
Ours is to reject or ratify a nominee.
Mr. Braimoh said the only problem the lawmakers had with Mr. Dickson was when he began parading himself as the Director General of the Lagos State Safety Commission before the confirmation of his nomination.
We asked him to stop parading himself as the DG of the agency.
On the issue of his confirmation, we did not receive any petition from any quarter, nothing was forwarded to us.
His confirmation was done in open plenary, if there was anything like a criminal record, it was not brought to our attention.
ACTIVISTS REACT
Olanrewaju Suraju, the head of the Civil Society Network Against Corruption, said a legal point of view of the matter is to the extent that if Mr. Dickson was convicted, he was meant to have served his jail term.
So, if the U.S. government is saying he never served his term then it is also important to know that in no time he will be extradited to the US like every other criminal or there will be an arrangement, like the one ongoing now, for some of these convicts to serve their sentences in other countries.
Mr. Suraju described the claims by the Lagos House of Assembly that no petition was brought against Mr. Dickson as preposterous.
That is because they have a duty to do their own check, he said.
What is the essence of putting a nominee through the screening of the Parliament if its not that the Parliament should also check with security agents and also do their own independent check of the background of any nominee?
Let us take, for the sake of the argument that there was no petition against Mr. Dickson, the Parliament has a moral duty now to conduct a special investigation on that past records of Dickson knowing fully well now that he has this baggage.
Debo Adeniran, Executive Director of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, said the Lagos State government must have nominated Mr. Dickson in error because it would portray the administration as insincere, with a proclivity for harbouring people of shady character.
I believe that the Ambode administration wouldnt want to even use an ex-convict in a sensitive position, not to talk of somebody who is a fugitive to head any of the agencies and parastatals in Lagos state, he said.
It doesnt matter whether he completed his jail term in Nigeria or elsewhere, as long as hes an ex-convict, whether hes pardoned or not doesnt also hold water.
That he was sentenced on any criminal issue means that hes not somebody to be entrusted with anything that has to do with safety and welfare of the people, because whoever committed an offence will always repeat that feat anywhere he finds himself.
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The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has asked four top officials of the agency to leave, multiple sources have told PREMIUM TIMES.
Those asked to step down are the Managing Director of the NNPC Retail, Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue; the General Manager (Operations) of NNPC Retail, Mamza Gwadabe; as well as Ibrahim Bello, another official of NNPC retail. The identity of the last person could not be confirmed as at press time.
The four were asked to depart last Thursday over the missing petrol scandal involving Capital Oil & Gas Nigeria Limited owned by businessman, Ifeanyi Ubah.
Following PREMIUM TIMES exclusive report on the scandal also involving MRS Petroleum, the NNPC announced that it had set up a committee to investigate the matter.
The committee reportedly found the officials culpable and recommended their dismissal from service.
But this newspaper learnt that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and the management of the NNPC later decided to convert their dismissal to retirement.
The case and the officials are now to be referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for a full-scale investigation of the matter.
Insiders claimed it was Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbue who triggered the initial investigation after her attention was called to the matter.
The products, over 100 million litres of petrol worth over N14 billion, belonging to the NNPC Retail, were stored at the private depots under a throughput arrangement as part of the corporations strategy to build strategic national fuel reserve.
The NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, Henry Ikem-Obi, said the fraud was discovered last January when the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, another subsidiary of NNPC, needed to access the NNPC Retails petrol stored at the Capital Oil depot, to bridge the supply gap.
Mr. Ikem-Obi said the management of Capital Oil offered no concrete explanation regarding why it sold all the NNPC stock of petrol at its depot without seeking permission or informing NNPC Retail.
A source close to the corporation said Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbues decision to alert the NNPC management and also report to the security and anti-graft agencies was after she realized her mistake to have allowed the fraud to happen.
PREMIUM TIMES, however, learnt that the embattled NNPC Retail boss has vowed not to leave, saying she did nothing wrong to warrant her resignation.
She also rejected the resignation of Mr. Gwadabe on Thursday saying she had trust in his ability, one of our sources said.
When contacted on Sunday, Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbue expressed surprised, saying she was not aware of any official notice either retiring her or asking her to resign over the matter.
I have also heard the rumour, she said on a telephone chat with this newspaper. But I have not been served any official letter. I know I have done nothing wrong to deserve any such action. I will continue to do my work until the person who appointed says something.
The spokesperson of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, also said he was unaware of the development.
EDITORS NOTE: This post has been edited to reflect additional information obtained by one of our editors.
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A Federal High Court judge, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, has challenged the jurisdiction of an Ikeja High Court to hear the ongoing corruption charge brought against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Robert Clarke, Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobias new lead defence counsel, challenged the courts jurisdiction on Monday in an application brought before Justice Hakeem Oshodi.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Mr. Clarke, a new addition to Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobias defence team, has joined Olawale Akoni to defend the embattled judge.
Odein Ajumogobia, the brother-in-law to the judge and a former Minister of Petroleum Resources and Foreign Affairs, was also in court to lend support.
Ifedayo Adedipe, the defence counsel to Godwin Obla, Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobias co-defendant, asked the court to hear the application alongside the suit in order to speed up the trial.
My Lord, it is my humble submission that having regard to the Administration of Criminal Justice Law that this issue be taken with the substantive suit even though it is a joint trial.
This is the argument of the first defendant and not of the second defendant, he said.
Justice Oshodi did not grant Mr. Adedipes request but adjourned the case until April 28 for ruling on Clarkes application.
Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia is standing trial alongside Mr. Obla, a former prosecutor of the EFCC.
The duo is jointly charged with a two-count offence of perverting the course of justice.
Mr. Obla is facing an additional two counts of offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia, a public official, while serving as a judge.
Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia faces a 26-count charge bordering on unlawful enrichment, taking property by a public officer, corruption by a public officer, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.
Both denied all the charges.
Four prosecution witnesses three bankers and one Bureau-de-Change operator have so far testified in the trial for the prosecution.
The witnesses gave accounts of how they allegedly helped the judge launder large sums of money in foreign and local currencies from her home and the judges chambers at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, into various bank accounts registered in her name.
(NAN)
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The Federal Government has described as false reports circulating on the social media to the effect that under a purported Ministry of Interior regulation, all phone calls and social media posts made by Nigerians are to be monitored and recorded.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, described the development as another example of disinformation that has permeated the media space, especially the social media.
The minister said the intention of those behind the false news is to give the impression that the Federal Government is working to stifle freedom of speech, which is not the case.
There is no regulation, old or new, from the Ministry of Interior or any federal government agency requiring the recording of all calls or the monitoring of Social Media platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter or Facebook. We are therefore using this medium to inform all Nigerians that what is being circulated in this regard is totally false and should be disregarded, a statement signed by Segun Adeyemi, special adviser to the minister, said.
We thank all Nigerians who have reached out to us in an effort to confirm the authenticity or otherwise of this information, which is now being widely circulated on the Social Media. This is the best way to ensure that the purveyors of false news do not dominate our media space, he said.
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An Ondo State High Court, Akure Division, on Monday sentenced seven Fulani herdsmen to life imprisonment for kidnapping former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae.
Mr. Falae later spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on the judgement, describing it as necessary to stamp out the menace of kidnapping.
Justice Williams Olamide found the accused guilty of the act committed in 2015 as charged by the Ondo State government.
Mr. Falae was taken captive by the herdsmen on September 21, 2015 during his 77th birthday.
He was released four days later after paying about N5 million as ransom.
The convicts are Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibrahim, Masahudu Muhammed, and Idris Lawal. Two others were convicted in absentia.
The judge stated that the recovered ransom, call logs and identification of the suspects by Mr. Falae indicted them of complicity in the crime.
He subsequently sentenced them to life imprisonment without an option of fine.
The Nigeria Police Force, Ondo State Command, had arraigned the convicts for kidnap in October 2015, disclosing that two others were at large.
At their arraignment, all five pleaded not guilty to the five-count charge.
The charge reads: That you, Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed, Idris Lawal and others now at large, on or about Monday, September 21, 2015 at Kajola/Eyinala Community in Akure Judicial Division did give information for the purpose of kidnapping and abducting Chief Samuel Oluyemi Falae.
Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed and Idris Lawal, and others now at large, on or about Monday, September 21, 2015 at Kajola/Eyinala Community in Akure Judicial Division did aid the kidnapping and abduction of Chief Samuel Oluyemi Falae.
Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed and Idris Lawal, and others now at large, on or about Monday, September 21, 2015 at Kajola/Eyinala Community in Akure Judicial Division did Kidnap Chief Oluyemi Falae, the Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and did not release him until N5,000,000 ransom was paid.
Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed and Idris Lawal, and others now at large, on or about Monday, September 21, 2015 at Kajola/Eyinala Community in Akure Judicial Division did conspire to commit a felony to wit armed robbery.
Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibarahim, Masahudu Muhammed and Idris Lawal, and others now at large, on or about Monday, September 21, 2015 at Kajola/Eyinala Community in Akure Judicial Division did rob Chief Olu Falae of N15, 000 and his handset while armed with guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons.
The offence, according to the Director of Public Prosecution, Adeyemi Kuti, contravenes various Nigerian laws.
Speaking on the judgment, Mrs. Kuti, who was the prosecution counsel, hailed the judgment, saying that justice had been given to the victim as far as the case was concerned.
But the defence counsel, Abdulrahman Yusuf, who is from the Legal Aid Council, said he would need to obtain the judgment, study it, and know whether to appeal the judgement or not.
In his reaction, Mr. Falae hailed the life sentence handed down to five of the kidnappers, saying the police should go after those at large.
I think the police should not close the case, because so many of them are still at large, Mr. Falae told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.
The police should go after them and ensure they are brought to justice.
He also said that the sentence was appropriate as he was opposed to capital punishment.
No one should take anybodys life, not even the state, Mr. Falae said. Such criminals should be put away in prison for life.
Recounting his ordeal at the hands of the kidnappers, Mr. Falae said: The boys put me through a terrible time.
They starved me and threatened me with their swords, they tore my clothes and made me walk long distances for four days.
I thank God I did not die during the period, it was a harrowing experience.
The politician, who is also the leader of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, said it was the business of the security agencies to stamp out kidnapping from the country.
He said Mondays judgment should encourage security agencies to go after other kidnappers across the country.
The country is becoming one of the most unsafe countries of the world, he said.
These kidnappers will stop a vehicle on the highway and abduct the passengers, and this is becoming rampant.
We have investors coming into the country, they wont come if we dont do something about this.
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The Nigeria Customs Service has promoted all HND holders on salary level GL 07 to level GL 08, an official said on Monday.
The Director General of the Customs, Hameed Ali, who announced the promotion said a supplementary budget will be made to cater for the salary arrears of the affected staff.
Mr. Ali also said 3,487 senior officers of the Customs have also been promoted.
Details later
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The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday published details of his states budget, including his official security votes and personal pay slip.
The unprecedented disclosure was in response to Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who recently dared Mr. El-Rufai to publish details of his states expenses, following earlier admonition by the governor that the National Assembly should relax the water-tight secrecy around its budget.
For several years, the parliament has rebuffed the yearnings of Nigerians that expenses of senators and representatives be disclosed for public knowledge and scrutiny.
But Mr. Dogara and Senate President Bukola Saraki have remained defiant, even as they continue to make promises to Nigerians that they will yield to widespread call for transparency.
Following Mr. El-Rufais comments, Mr. Dogara was quoted to have said at a retreat in Kaduna that the governor should focus on championing transparency in other tiers of government.
I will like to challenge him (El-Rufai) to champion this cause for transparency in the budgetary process from the National Assembly to other arms of government beginning with the judiciary, the Speaker said on Friday. What do they spend monthly as security votes, and if they can publish what happens to local government funds under their jurisdictions, that will help our discussion going forward.
On Monday, the governor responded by publishing relevant information about his expenses, with instructions about how Nigerians, and the world at large, could access them.
Mr. Dogaras spokesperson, Turaki Hassan, did not answer or respond to calls from PREMIUM TIMES seeking comments about Mondays development.
Read the full statement as issued by Mr. El-Rufais media office bellow:
Our attention has been drawn to a challenge by Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, calling on Kaduna State to make public its Security Votes and Local Government expenditure. This challenge was thrown as a response to Governor Nasir El-Rufais request to the National Assembly (NASS) to provide further details on the opaque N115 billion (One Hundred and Fifteen Billion Naira) 2016 NASS budget. Malam Nasir El-Rufai welcomes this challenge as a necessary step to improve and strengthen our democracy and would like to respond as follows:
The budgets of all state governments in Nigeria are detailed out and presented at least under the headings of: personnel cost overhead, and capital expenditure
This is unlike the budget of the National Assembly which is a single line item of over N100 billion that divulges zero information or details. NASS can at least break down its own single line budget into the hundreds of line items that are detailed in every state government budget in Nigeria. It is disingenuous to respond to every request for transparency by casting aspersions.
2. On our part, the Kaduna State government has consistently made public all its budget details. In 2016, in an unprecedented step, the State published not only its own budget, but also that of all the 23 Local Government Councils online on the www.openkaduna.com.ng website. The Local Government budgets provide details of the recurrent and capital spending of every single LG in a transparent manner. The proposed 2017 LG Budgets, currently before the State Assembly, are also already online on the same website, and on www.kdsg.gov.ng. Approved State Budgets 2016-2017 can be found on http://openkaduna.com.ng/Budget/approved-budget. We invite the Right Honourable Speaker to download and peruse at his pleasure.
3. As regards Kaduna State Security Votes, once again, if the Honourable Speaker had run an online search he would have discovered the details of our spending priorities on security as a State Government. As our Kaduna Comprehensive Security Architecture (KADCoSA) outlines, the State is directing security spending on four pillars; Justice, Technology, Community Engagement and Support to Security Agencies. The 2017 budget details specific amounts:
N1.5bn (one and half billion naira) for the Procurement & Installation of CCTV Cameras for Monitoring and Surveillance towards Reducing Criminal Activities within the Metropolis.
N193m (one hundred and ninety-three million naira) for Procurement of Geo-position Interceptor and location of GSM UMTS System to Check the Trends and Intercept/locate kidnappers GSM calls.
N265m (two hundred and sixty-five million naira) for the Procurement of Drones/Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to identify locations of armed bandits in our Forest Reserves across the state and the Establishment of a Forensic Laboratory to assist in determining substantial evidence in cases that otherwise proved difficult in the past.
In addition, N2.6bn (two billion and six hundred million naira) is allocated in 2017 to support the network of federal Security Agencies in Kaduna with communications, logistics and materiel.
4. Details of actual spending in 2015 for security and indeed every line item in the State budgets are also publicly available via the annual report of the Accountant-General accessible on www.kdsg.gov.ng.
5. The 2015 accounts of the Kaduna State Government have been audited, and the audit summary published in major newspapers and on the state website on 21st June 2016. The Accountant-Generals report for 2016 has been finalized and its audit is ongoing and will be published as usual. The audited state government accounts can also be found on http://openkaduna.com.ng/Budget/audited.
6. The Kaduna State government will continue to remain transparent and open in all its finances. That is what we have promised to all our people and that is what our party, the APC and our President stand for. Malam Nasir El-Rufai is today making publicly available his pay-slip as Governor of Kaduna State. In February 2017, the Kaduna State Government paid the Governor a net salary of N470,521.74, with the following details:
Income Deductions Basic Salary N185,308.75 Hardship Allowance N370,617.50 Gross Pay N555,926.25 PAYE N85,404.51 Total Deduction N85,401.51 Net Pay N470,521.74
7. The amount may appear puny but it reflects what the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission approved as the salary and allowances of every State Governor adjusted to reflect provision in-kind of accommodation and transportation.
8. Governor Nasir El-Rufai would like to reiterate his call for the NASS leadership to do the same and disclose the details of the National Assembly budget, and the salaries and allowances of its leadership.
9. The call to #OpenNASS is not a personal one. It is one which the leadership of the National Assembly owes to all Nigerians. It is therefore disingenuous for the Speaker to use State Government budgets as the excuse for the opacity of the NASS budget. In 2016, the NASS budget for its 469 members was larger than the capital budget of Kaduna State, with close to 10 million inhabitants. It is also larger than the entire budget of several Nigerian States. Indeed, over the past ten years from 2008, the NASS as an institution has cost the country over a trillion naira without any detail on how this amount was allocated and spent.
10. There is no state government in Nigeria with a budget nearly as opaque as that of NASS. In March 2016, this National Assembly, led by its Chairman, promised to provide a detailed breakdown of the National Assembly budget. Nigerians are waiting.
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After repeated denials in various countries, Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, on Monday finally admitted it had foreknowledge that the $1.3 billion itself and ENI paid to Nigerian government for the OPL 245 oil block licence would ultimately be used to settle convicted former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete.
Over time, it became clear to us that Etete was involved in Malabu and that the only way to resolve the impasse through a negotiated settlement was to engage with Etete and Malabu, whether we liked it or not, The New York Times quoted Andy Norman, a spokesperson for Shell, as saying in an email Monday.
The Dutch oil giant knew the Nigerian government would compensate Malabu to settle its claim on the block, Mr. Norman added.
The confession came a day after intercepted telephone conversation between Shells chief executive, Ben van Beurden, and his then chief financial officer, Simon Henry, revealed the oil firm knew Mr. Etete was the main beneficiary of the multi-billion dollar deal.
Shell and ENI had hitherto maintained ignorance that Mr. Etete would benefit from the deal prior to the settlement agreement that was reached with Goodluck Jonathans government in 2011. The agreement saw Shell and ENI assume ownership of the lucrative oil field after paying $1.1 billion to Malabu via a Nigerian government account. Another $200 million had earlier been paid by Shell.
Past denials
Shell had in the past told PREMIUM TIMES and others that it did not know its payment would end up with Mr. Etete or Malabu.
Shell was not aware that that money was to be paid to Malabu, Precious Okolobo, a communications officer with Shell, told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone in May 2012.
As we have previously stated, no payments were made by any Shell company to Malabu Oil and Gas in relation to the issuance by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) of the OPL 245 licence to Shell Nigerian Exploration & Production Ltd and Nigerian Agip Energy (NAE). Andrew Vickers, Shells Vice President NGO and Stakeholder Relations, said in a 2015 letter to Global Witness, an anti-corruption campainger.
Shell and Italys ENI had issued other similar denials since then. But the latest revelations, which were part of an ongoing probe of the deal by Italian authorities, have now put the oil majors on the defensive.
But Shell officials, nonetheless, maintained that they believe that the settlement was a fully legal transaction, the New York Times reported.
Global Witness said in a statement that the leaked phone conversations of Shell executives forced the company to finally give in.
This is a huge U-turn that reveals Shells duplicity, Simon Taylor, founder of Global Witness, said in an email to PREMIUM TIMES Monday night.
For six years it has asserted it only paid the Nigerian government, insisting it has never been anything but transparent about the deal for the oil block, and that its actions were morally OK.
Now its private emails have come to light, Shell has admitted it dealt with Etete a convicted money launderer to ensure it got its hands on this valuable oil block, at the expense of the Nigerian people.
This shows that Shell has not only knowingly deprived a country of life-saving funds, but has repeatedly misled its investors and the broader public over this corrupt deal.
Mr. Etete, who was petroleum minister under Sani Abacha. had awarded the oil block to Malabu, a company he partly owned alongside Mohammed, Mr. Abachas son, in contravention of Nigerian laws.
The OPL 245 oil block, believed to contain more than nine billion barrels of crude oil, is considered one of the richest oil blocks in Africa.
In 2007, Mr. Etete was convicted in Paris in a different case that bordered on money laundering.
Mondays revelations came a day after PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr. Jonathan might have received up to $200 million in bribes to approve the controversial deal.
The report was based on Italian court documents obtained by BuzzFeed and Italian business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore.
In the documents, Italian prosecutors quoted Ednan Agaev, a middleman who helped negotiate the transfer of the oil block to Shell and Eni, as saying that Dan Etete, the former Petroleum Minister at the heart of the oil scandal, said he intended to dole out as much as $400 million in bribes if the deal went through.
If Mr. Etete actually paid out such an amount in bribes to Nigerian officials, Agaev stated that he would think President Goodluck Jonathan got at least $200 million of this money, BuzzFeed quoted an excerpt of FBI submissions to Italian authorities as saying.
The revelations were made when the FBI interviewed Mr. Agaev, whom prosecutors also said met with Mr. Jonathan on more than one occasion in Nigeria during the OPL 245 negotiations.
Mr. Agaev, who was Mr. Etetes representative in the negotiation, said the convicted former petroleum minister told him of the $400 million bribe to Nigerian politicians when he approached him for his payment.
He also repeated the claim in a follow-up interview with Italian prosecutors, led by Fabio De Pasquale in Milan.
I said that if its true, that he paid, he had to pay 400 million, I assume that at least 200 went to Goodluck (Jonathan).
I heard from Chief (Etete), he claims that he had to pay 400 million, so, if this is true, if he paid 400 million, then most probably the President, as the biggest boss, took at least the half of it, BuzzFeed wrote, quoting documents prepared by Italian prosecutors.
Mr. Jonathans spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, could not be reached for comments about the latest revelations. But he denied the former presidents involvement in a January 10 statement about the Malabu oil deal.
We wish to make it clear that former President Jonathan was not accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting any monies as kickbacks or bribes from ENI by the Italian authorities or any other law enforcement body the world over, the statement said.
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The Panama Papers investigation, a series of global investigations spanning over a year by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist, ICIJ, German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and 100 other media organisations across the world, including PREMIUM TIMES has been awarded The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.
The 2.6 TB files, involving 214,488 entities were obtained from leaked data held by Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that specialises in creating offshore companies, some of which have been used by some con men and women to hide Ponzi schemes, and other financial fraud from authorities.
The Panama Papers investigation exposed offshore companies linked to more than 140 politicians, politically exposed persons and corporate bigwigs in more than 50 countries.
PREMIUM TIMES was the only Nigerian news organisation granted direct access to the files. Our reporting exposed the secret offshore asset of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his wife Toyin. It also revealed the offshore asset of Mr. Sarakis predecessor, David Mark.
Other explosive revelations from PREMIUM TIMES the Panama Papers investigations are how late governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, began looting his state and hiding the funds in offshore structures and how a former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, organised the stealing of the oil-rich states fund via offshore companies.
It also revealed a network of shell companies in offshore tax havens linked to Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote, and his brother, Sayyu Dantata as well as the offshore companies of Wale Tinubu, the chief executive of Nigerias biggest indigenous oil company, Oando Plc, among others.
The stories also exposed the secret offshore company of one of Africas most influential televangelists, Temitope Joshua, popularly called T.B Joshua.
This honour is a testament to the enterprise and teamwork of our staff and our partners here in the United States and around the world, Gerard Ryle, ICIJs director, said.
Were honoured that the Pulitzer Board recognised the groundbreaking revelations and worldwide impact that the Panama Papers collaboration produced, he added.
The Pulitzer Prize, regarded as the most prestigious award in American journalism, marks its 100th year this year. It honours exceptional journalism in categories ranging from breaking news, feature writing to reporting on public service.
Mr. Ryle praised the global collaborative effort of the investigation. He noted that after German journalists, Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier received the original leak, instead of hoarding it for themselves and their newspaper, they shared the trove of 11.5 million documents with the ICIJ, which then used its cross-border network of journalists and media organisations to investigate the documents.
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Nigeria is slowly getting out of economic recession, Mustapha Shehuri, the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, said Sunday.
Mr. Shehuri spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, while on an inspection tour of housing projects initiated by the federal government.
The minister appealed to Nigerians to exercise patience, and support President Muhammadu Buhari in his efforts to tackle the numerous challenges bedevilling the country.
We are slowly going out of recession. Nigerians should (be) rest assured that the economy is being well managed, he said.
Government is focused on revamping the economy. Corruption is being tackled head-on.
Nigerians need to be patient considering the circumstances Nigeria was in when this government assumed office, Mr. Shehuri added.
Commenting on the housing projects, the minister said the Buhari administration was committed to providing affordable housing facilities for Nigerian people.
This, he said, was in fulfilment of one of the governments campaign promises to the electorates in 2015. He said each zone in the country had specific housing design.
He also said that locally sourced materials were being used for the project, adding that the initiative would create employment opportunities for Nigerians and add to the growth of the economy.
The minister noted that with the support of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, the government would build more houses to provide shelter for people.
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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has blamed the recent string of losses suffered by the Nigerian government in the corruption cases instituted before the courts to lack of proper investigation and unseriousness.
Mr. Obasanjo said this on Sunday while playing host to members of the correspondents chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ogun Chapter, at his hilltop residence in Abeokuta.
I was reading today when the president (Muhammadu Buhari) said the EFCC should stop losing cases. They lose cases for a number of reasons, said Mr. Obasanjo.
One, they engage more of outside lawyers. I believe that they need staunch, `ogbologbo lawyers inside that will do the work.
If I am a lawyer and I want the opponent to win a case, what I will file will be `wishy washy.
And if I file a `wishy washy case, the opponent will see the loophole and he will get out of it. I believe that it is important.
Secondly, thorough investigation is very important. Now, investigation must be thorough, it must be proper and it must be really taken seriously.
Third, our judges must be committed in fighting corruption.
Mr. Obasanjos statements came days after the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Itse Sagay, expressed worries about the development.
Last week, at least three judges delivered rulings that went against the corruption cases being prosecuted by the federal government.
Justice Abdulazeez Anka of the Federal High Court in Lagos vacated a freeze order on the account of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, after initially ordering a temporary forfeiture of N75 million found in the lawyers Guaranty Trust Bank account.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had sought a freeze order on the account alleging it to be proceeds of crime.
Two days later, a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory discharged a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja of all 18-count charges of fraud brought against him, his wife, and a senior lawyer.
The judge, Adeniyi Ademola, and his wife, Olabowale, as well as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Joe Ago, were accused of fraudulent diversion of huge sums, ranging from local and foreign currencies, possession of firearms and involvement in illegal collection of gratification.
On Thursday, a Federal High Court in Lagos issued an order unfreezing the Skye Bank account of a former First Lady, Patience Jonathan. The EFCC had in November 2016 filed an application before the court seeking an order freezing the account. The Commission had contended that the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime. The account is said to harbour the sum of $5.8 million.
In the same week, a federal court discharged and acquitted a former Niger Delta minister, Godsday Orubebe, of all corruption allegations.
According to Mr. Obasanjo, those involved in the handling of the governments corruption cases as well as the judiciary must be committed to fighting corruption.
Because if the investigation is very sound and you have `ogbologbo lawyer to handle the case, if you have Salamigate, you know what the answer will be, the former president said.
So, it is a line: investigation, prosecution and the judiciary. If there is weakness along this line, chances are that corruption cases will continue to be lost.
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An Ikeja High Court on Monday dismissed the suit filed by Taiwo Obasanjo, wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, seeking the postponement of the wedding of her son, Olujonwo, to Tope Adebutu.
Justice Lateefa Okunnu dismissed the suit on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit because Olujonwo, 33, is an adult.
On March 27, I ordered counsel to direct me on whether the family court can hear a case where the child is an adult.
Counsel have addressed me and I have read the processes before me.
I have found to be very genuine, what the applicant said regarding performing her parental duties in paragraph 15 of her affidavit.
The court, regrettably, lacks the competence to adjudicate this suit, the jurisdiction of the family court covers children under the age of 18 years.
The respondents son is 33-years-old, this negates the ability of this court to entertain this suit.
The proper order to give is one dismissing this suit in its entirety, I hereby dismiss this suit, the judge said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that former President Obasanjo and the father of the bride, Kessington Adebutu, promoter of Premier Lotto known as Baba Ijebu, are the respondents to the suit.
Mrs. Obasanjo was present in court while former President Obasanjo and Mr. Adebutu were absent.
Mrs. Obasanjo had in her suit filed on March 27, prayed that the wedding, which is scheduled for May 11, be moved to any date after June 1 which is Olujonwos 34th birthday.
According to her, she had received various warnings and prophecies from men of God that her son should not be involved in any elaborate celebration before his birthday.
Earlier during proceedings, Bode Olanipekun, counsel to Messrs. Obasanjo and Adebutu, had asked to court to dismiss the suit due to lack of jurisdiction.
We urge your Lordship to dismiss this suit based on jurisdictional challenges.
Under Section 261 of the Childs Act, this court has no jurisdiction because the child is above 18-years.
The claimants have not disclosed a reasonable cause of action and no laws were cited in their address.
I urge your Lordship to dismiss this suit, Mr. Olanipekun said. (NAN).
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The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, on Friday said vaccinations, including against Cerebrospinal Meningitis, CSM, are provided free of charge by the government.
The director general of the agency, Faisal Shuaib, said this via a press statement from his office in reaction to news report that members of the public were being asked to make payment before being vaccinated.
The agencys attention has been drawn to news report of sharp practices of some health workers who are alleged to be demanding payments and other forms of financial incentives from innocent members of the general public before being vaccinated against Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM).
The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, therefore, wishes to put on record, emphatically, that vaccination against cerebrospinal meningitis, like other vaccination in the National Immunization schedule, is provided free of charge for all members of the public by the federal government, the director-general said in the statement.
Mr. Shuaib stressed that the Federal Government has spent billions of naira to procure, store, maintain and distribute such vaccines to all parts of the country, including affected areas as the need arises.
He therefore urged members of the public to report any health centre or health workers charging people to pay for the on-going meningitis vaccination in various parts of the country to the nearest law enforcement agencies.
He also advised members of the public to avoid overcrowded spaces, sleep in well-ventilated rooms, practice strict personal hygiene and avoid close and prolonged contacts with infected persons.
Earlier, Rilwanu Mohammed, the Executive Secretary of the FCT Primary Health Care Board, told NAN that the agency was not aware of individuals or organisations collecting money for CSM vaccination in the territory.
Mr. Mohammed, however, said the agency has exhausted its stock of CSM vaccines made available to it by donor agencies for the exercise.
He did not say if the agency would investigate the report to ascertain the vaccine and its source as well as the rationale behind the charge.
The officials however refused to categorically say if private hospitals were also barred from selling meningitis and other vaccines to patients, a practice common across Nigeria.
Following the outbreak of meningitis in some parts of the country, the federal government made available 500,000 doses of meningitis vaccines sent to most affected states. The government also announced it was expecting delivery of additional 823,000 doses to control the outbreak.
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The Ahmed Makarfi faction of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has condemned what it calls the untoward, unconstitutional and indiscriminate arrests of its members and supporters nationwide.
It said the arrests were often on phantom charges by the government of the All Progressive Congress, APC.
A statement by the factions spokesperson, Dayo Adeyeye, on Monday recalled that the state chairman of the PDP in Jigawa State, Salisu Mamuda, was arrested on the February 4, for criticising the Jigawa State Government against spending N400 million Naira) to entertain defectors from the PDP to APC.
Mr. Adeyeye also recalled also that a governorship aspirant on the platform of the party in Lagos State during the 2015 guber election, Babatunde Gbadamosi, was arrested by the State Security Service on February 17 on account of exposing the Forex racketeering by the APC led Government at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Also on March 3, 2017, Alhaji Abdulrahman Mohammed, a PDP Chieftain in Kogi State was arrested on trump-up charges and detained illegally for criticizing the wrong policies, misgovernance and nonperformance of Governor Yahaya Bello.
Just yesterday, April 9, 2017, Mr. Austin Usman Okai, a PDP Youth leader and frontline critic of the Yahaya Bellos APC led Government in Kogi State was arrested by men of the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, on phantom petitions by some cronies of the Governor, Mr. Adeyeye said.
He also said the party had information of indiscriminate arrest and detention of Nigerians in Kaduna, Edo, Nasarawa amongst others at both the Federal and state levels controlled by the governing APC.
He described the alleged actions of the ruling party as absurd, disheartening and a serious threat to our hard earned democracy.
Nigerians cannot and should not be arrested and detained indiscriminately for criticizing and holding government accountable, he said.
He also said constructive criticism is the primary responsibility of opposition in a democracy all over the world and Nigeria cannot be an exception.
We have also been alerted to the news of the Federal Government of Nigeria planning to tap mobile telephone lines and hacking of other devises of citizens as a way of harassing and intimidating them into silence.
These and other unholy practices of this administration will henceforth be resisted by all Nigerians. We will mobilize Nigerians at all levels to fight against the use of arms in a democratic system to ridicule and intimidate citizens of this Country.
We will no longer tolerate this high handedness of the APC and we therefore demand the unconditional and immediate release of Mr. Austin Usman Okai and all our members in several detention centers of security agencies across the Country, he said.
Mr. Adeyeye said the world should take note of the serious issues of human rights violation in Nigeria since the APC Administration took over power in May 29, 2015.
We call on all civil rights organization across the Country and in the Diaspora to rise to this occasion. Our democracy is in serious danger and the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) must be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order as a result of these undemocratic behaviours, he said.
The Kogi government responded with a statement Monday, urging the PDP to face their crisis and the mass defection that has hit their party through the ongoing membership drive of the All Progressives Congress.
It said the partys voice on the arrest of Austin Okai is mischievous, uninformed and misdirected.
Austin Okai is a citizen of Nigeria who has rights. But his rights stops where the rights of others start. Freedom of expression is not meant to jeorpadize and injure the integrity of others. If security agencies find his criticisms untoward and inciting, are we saying they do not have the power to arrest him for questioning? We dont know if Okai is actually a PDP member because we have pictures of him in APC apparels. PDPs accusation is a tyranny of freedom on its own, a statement by Fanwo Kingsley, the governors aide, said.
The statement said the Bello administration in Kogi State was fully in support of thorough investigation into Mr. Okais activities.
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The Kaduna State government has dragged the Vanguard newspaper correspondent in the state, Luka Binniyat, to court for alleged false reporting of the death of some students during the crisis in the southern part of the state.
Mr. Binniyat was slammed with a two-count charge before a Kaduna State High Court sitting in Kaduna, the state capital, court documents show.
He was accused of writing a false report in his newspaper and on the social media that about five students of College of Education, Gidan Waya, Kaduna State were ambushed and shot dead by Fulani herdsmen.
Part of the charges read: That you, Luka Binniyat, on the 22nd day of January, 2017 did make a circulatory publication on social media and online vanguard newspaper containing a false statement to wit: that five students of the College of Education, Gidan-Waya, Kaduna State were ambushed and shot dead by Fulani herdsmen while in a commercial vehicle enroute to school from Kafanchan, having reason to believe that such statement could cause a breakdown of law and order and as a result, harm the government and good people of Kaduna state. You thereby committed the offence of injurious falsehood punishable under section 393 of the Penal Code laws of Kaduna State 1991.
Mr. Binniyat, had earlier been charged before a Kaduna Chief Magistrate Court by the Nigerian Police but the case was later handed over to the Kaduna State Government for persecution.
In a related case, the president of Chocolate City music label, Audu Maikori, had also been charged to court for distributing a similar report, although he later retracted and said he was misled.
After carrying out a detailed investigation that involved the police, I found out that my driver, who claimed that his brother was also killed in Southern Kaduna, lied to me to extort money, Mr. Maikori said.
While the Kaduna State government has defended the trials saying they are necessary to prevent people from spreading false rumours and thus worsening the southern Kaduna crisis, its critics say such trials only distract from the security challenge facing the state.
Scores of people have been killed in Southern Kaduna in clashes manly between migrant herdsmen and local farming communities.
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The Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar, will on Tuesday hold a meeting with the 19 northern state governors and their commissioners of health in Kaduna to proffer solution to the outbreak of meningitis in Nigeria.
The Plateau State Commissioner of Health, Kuden Kamshak, disclosed this on Monday in Jos, Plateau State, at a press conference to mark the 2017 World Health Day.
The day is usually marked on April 7 every year, the birthday of the World Health Organisation .
Nigeria has been experiencing an epidemic outbreak of Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) that has spread across 19 states in the country with 3,959 suspected cases reported and 438 deaths recorded as at April 5.
The Northern states have been worse hit by the epidemic as Zamfara , Katsina and Sokoto states account for 93 percent of the cases reported.
Zamfara State is hardest hit with 1, 846 suspected cases and 216 deaths.
The Federal Government on Thursday kicked off a mass vaccination exercise in the eight most affected local government areas in the state.
The exercise which initially targeted 300,000 persons aged two to 29 years, witnessed a massive turnout of residents.
A tweet from the NCDC on Sunday indicated that an extra 120,000 doses of vaccine arrived in Zamfara, in addition to the initial 300,000.
The Plateau State Health Commissioner, Mr. Kamshak, said three cases of meningitis had been reported in the state.
Currently, there is only 500 million vaccines for meningitis, which is grossly inadequate. We need more than that number as a country, the Minister of Health has applied for the importation of the vaccines, he added.
The state coordinator of WHO, Wadzingi Bassi, at the press briefing however said there is a need for Nigeria to join the world in the battle against depression, as there are increasing cases of the condition worldwide, leading to a high number of mental health challenge.
WHO defines depression as an illness characterized by persistent sadness, loss of interest and ability to perform daily activities for a period of time, he stated.
According to the WHO representative, the leading causes of depression are economic hardship, unemployment, physical illness, alcohol abuse, substance abuse and loneliness, which most Nigerians are suffering from.
He said out of the 322 million people suffering depression globally, 30 million people are Africans.
About 322 million people around the world are affected by depression. It is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and a major contributor to the overall global burden of diseases.
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Justice O. H. Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, on Monday, April 10, 2017, refused an application filed by a Federal High Court Judge, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, seeking leave of the court to travel abroad for medical check.
Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia is standing trial alongside Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, on a 30-count charge bordering on alleged perversion of the course of justice, unlawful enrichment and forgery.
The defendants allegedly committed the offences on May 21, 2015 when they conspired to pervert the course of justice with N5 million.
At Mondays hearing, the prosecution counsel, Idris Muhammad, told the court that the first defendant, Mrs. Ofili-Ajumogobia, through her counsel, Robert Clarke, had sought the leave of court to travel out of the country for medical check in an application dated March 7, 2017.
The prosecution counsel further told the court that counsel to the first defendant had also filed an application dated April 4, 2017 challenging the jurisdiction of the court.
Justice Oshodi refused the first defendants application seeking leave of the court to travel abroad for medical check on the grounds that the application challenging the jurisdiction of the court must be determined before other issues could be considered.
Justice Oshodi also declined an application filed by Ifedayo Adedipe, seeking leave of the court to allow his client, Mr. Obla, to travel abroad for medical check.
The judge said: Whatever decisions made by the court in the matter must affect both parties, since it is a joint trial.
Consequently, counsel to the first defendant sought to temporarily withdraw the application challenging the jurisdiction of the court. However, Justice Oshodi maintained that the application had been brought before the court and would be heard before other pending applications.
The case was adjourned to April 28, 2017 for continuation of trial.
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has reacted to a report that its inaction led to sinking of two ships with their content- petroleum products which had been forfeited to the federal government following court orders.
This Day newspaper had reported, on Monday, how EFCC brushed aside several warnings by the Nigerian Navy on the need to evacuate products from the two vessels MT GOOD SUCCESS and MV THAMES before they sank on November 5, 2016 and February 27, 2017 at the NNS Pathfinder Naval Base in Port Harcourt respectively, denying the country of huge revenue.
The newspaper said an auctioneer, Pinnacle Trading and Investment Nigeria Limited, earlier appointed to dispose the products later had its appointment terminated by the EFCC, three days before the second vessel sank.
But in its reaction via a statement by its spokesperson Monday evening, EFCC explained that it terminated the contract with Pinnacle after discovering irregularities in the process leading to the contract award in the first place.
It said the company was not qualified, having failed to satisfy the required due diligence and strict procurement process.
EFCC said since the termination, the company and their supposed backers had resorted to media war, subtly discrediting the This Day report.
However, the commission did not offer categorical explanation with regards to the part of the report that its inaction led to the sinking of the two vessels, neither did it deny the loss.
Read the full EFCC statement below.
The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to a report captioned, EFCC Inaction Causes Sinking of Petroleum Vessels, which was published on This Day newspapers of April 10, 2017.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission wishes to state that, the engagement of Pinnacle Trading and Investment Nigeria Limited, as auctioneer for the disposal of the product, which was conveyed vide a letter dated January 16, 2017 was irregular as the process leading to the companys emergence didnt satisfy the required due diligence and strict procurement process.
The engagement of a consultant like in the case of Pinnacle, was not solicited for, as it did not have the approval of the Acting Chairman of the Commission. It was also not advertised in any newspaper of the Federal Tenders journal. This is a clear violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
The review of the process led to a startling revelation that Pinnacle Trading and Investment Nigeria Limited was not registered with the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, a key requirement for the selection of such auctioneer, and consequently lacked the experience and capacity to handle the job.
Fully conscious of the negative effect of a flawed selection process to the outcome of the process, the Commission called for a review of the selection process, a measure that consequently led to the termination of the contract.
Following the termination, Pinnacle and their supposed backers have been doing the media tour in the mistaken belief that the Commission would be forced to re-engage an already flawed process.
The Commission wishes to re-emphasis that its actions are transparent and always anchored on the Nigerian national interest as opposed to selfish interests.
In regard to the matter of MT GOOD SUCCESS and MV THAMES, the Commission will, as in all instances, be guided by the need to be transparent and accountable to all Nigerians and will not succumb to cheap blackmail in any guise whatsoever.
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An FCT High Court, Maitama, on Monday ordered First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and Sterling Bank to unfreeze the accounts of a man accused of fraud.
Ishaq Bashir was charged with alleged swindling of an investment company of $1 million.
Mr. Bashir, alongside his three companies, Leda Green-power Consortium, Leda Green-power Nigeria Ltd and Leda Consortium Ltd., were arraigned on a three-count charge bordering on cheating.
The judge, Justice Sunday Aladetoyinbo, gave the order after Mr. Bashirs counsel, Ben Anachebe, informed the court that his client did not have access to his account.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has completed its investigation that is why the matter is charged to court, he said.
Mr. Anachebe said the three banks refused to unfreeze his clients accounts and the EFCC refused to release his international passport since they had granted him an administrative bail.
He said his client needed money and his passport to seek for medical attention because he had been ill for some time.
Reacting, the prosecuting counsel, Rimamsonte Ezekiel, informed the court that he was hearing the claim for the first time Monday morning.
He said the EFCC was not in the habit of doing things without proper documentation.
He said the order directing the three banks to freeze Mr. Bashirs accounts was given by a competent court and it expired after 60 days that is between October 6 and December 6.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), recalls that the prosecution had alleged that the defendant on March 12, 2013, obtained one million dollars from one Althani Investments Company Ltd by false pretence.
The offence contravened Section 1(1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Fraud Related Offences Act, 2005.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the allegation and was granted bail in the sum of N2million with a surety in like sum.
The case was adjourned till May 17 for hearing.
(NAN)
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A former first lady, Patience Jonathan, was on Monday sighted at the Maitama branch of Skye Bank in Abuja.
Mrs. Jonathans visit to the bank may not be unconnected with a court decision last week to unfreeze her account at the bank.
The Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday directed that the freeze order on the account be cancelled. The account is believed to contain about $5.8 million (about N1.8 billion).
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had in November 2016 filed an application before the court, seeking an order freezing the account.
The commission had contended that the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime. The court granted the order but reversed it last Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the former first lady was at the Skye Bank branch on Monday until 4:05 p.m. when she departed. She declined to speak to reporters who sought to know why she was at the bank.
A source, however, told NAN that while at the bank, Mrs Jonathan briefly met an Executive Director of the bank.
One of her aides, who declined to disclose his name, told journalists that everything was okay.
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Long queues of anxious motorists outside filling stations resurfaced in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on Monday.
The queues were noticed outside the NNPC mega station, Forte Oil and Oando filling stations in the Central Business District as well as the Conoil and Total filling stations opposite the NNPC Towers.
The two Total filling stations and Oando outlets along Berger roundabout also witnessed long queues of motorists in search of petrol.
In most of the filling stations, except the NNPC mega station and the outlets opposite the NNPC headquarters, customers were not being served.
No explanation was forthcoming as to the reason for the latest scarcity.
But, NNPC spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, said consumers have nothing to be afraid of, as the corporation has sufficient stock of petrol in depots across the country.
There is no reason to worry, Mr. Ughamadu said in telephone interview. We have at least 30 days sufficiency. What that means, the corporation has a volume of products that can last for a minimum of 30 days. So, there is no cause to worry.
Last week, petrol tanker drivers called off an indefinite strike after just a day of strike.
The oil workers, who were demanding government redress of some of the lingering issues affecting the effective distribution of petroleum products in the country, had to call off the action after the NNPC management intervened in the problem.
The NNPC increased the transport cost allowance payable to marketers in the petroleum products pricing template.
The review by N1 per litre from N6.20k to N7.20 per litre was approved by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu.
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Two female suicide bombers on Monday morning detonated their explosives near the perimeter fence of the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, an official said.
The bombers, who had probably tried to invade the university premises through the back fence, were resisted by security officials.
The attack is the second on the university this year after the first, which occurred on January 16, by three female suicide bombers. In the first attack, two of the teenage attackers made their way into the university while one died outside the perimeter fence. A renowned professor was among those killed during the January attack.
The Monday attack also came barely 48 hours after two suicide bombers attacked Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Maiduguri in which five persons were reported injured.
Confirming the latest attack, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, said the attack happened at about 4 a.m.
The spokesperson of NEMA, Ibrahim Abdulkadir, had, in a brief statement issued to the press, said no person, aside the attackers were killed.
Today (10/ 04/2017) around 4am, a suicide bombing attack was foiled by security personnel around university of Maiduguri community, he said.
No casualty was recorded except the two female suicide bombers who died and their remains were deposited at Borno state specialist hospital by the NEMA team and SEMA emergency response teams.
The police have not issued any statement or responded to enquiries made by journalists as at the time of filing this report.
Twin suicide bombings by teenage girls have become a trend for a while around Maiduguri.
More than 50 girls have died trying to carry out several attacks prompted by suspected Boko Haram members.
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The Kaduna State Police Command has announced the arrest of 19 people suspected of engaging in kidnapping, armed robbery and other crimes in the state.
The Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh, made the announcement at a press briefing in Kaduna on Monday.
He explained that among the suspects were five kidnappers, six armed robbers, seven receivers of stolen property, and a fraudster.
We recovered 24 plate number of cars, five Toyota and two Honda cars, as well as one locally made pistol and three cutlasses from the suspects, he said.
The police commissioner said all the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.
Mr. Abeh also announced that the command had charged 21 suspected street gang members to court for various offences.
The commissioner assured that the command was committed to bringing down the level of crime in the state, to attract more development to our society.
He said that the police had mapped out new strategies to combat all forms of crime across the state, adding we will bring all forms of crime and criminality to the barest minimum.
Mr. Abeh appealed for more public cooperation and support to enable the police achieve its mandate.
(NAN)
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Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State said on Monday that the state government would establish a Trust Fund for Christian activities in the state.
Mr. Wike made the pledge when some leaders in Pentecostal churches in the state paid him a courtesy visit in Port Harcourt.
He also said that a Board of Trustee would be set up to monitor and manage the funds accruing from the trust fund, to ensure effective and prudent management.
The governor said it was pertinent for the state to have such fund to cater for the challenges of pastors and other men of God.
I will continue to do what I am doing for Christians and the Church. You should be hopeful in what God could do for the state, he said.
Mr. Wike, who also promised to support all Christian activities, urged them to continue to pray for the success of the government and survival of the state.
The governor said that with prayers, detractors would run away from the state.
He lauded the Church for its prayers for the survival of both the state and the government.
The governor said he would complete the Ecumenical Centre and deliver it to the Christian fold in May.
In his remark, the leader of the group, John Praise, said he and other members of the group came to identify with the governor on what he was doing for Rivers people.
He added that the group was with the governor to pray for the success of his administration.
Mr. Praise, who was represented by Goddy Okafor, one of the leaders, said the visit was also to ensure that churches in Rivers synergised with the state government.
Another prominent pentecostal leader, Zilly Agrrey, lauded the governor for the construction of the Ecumenical Centre and sponsorship of Christian pilgrimage to Israel.
He also commended him for maintaining cordial relationship with Christians, setting up of a Christian Welfare Board as well as sponsoring Christian carols in the state.
(NAN)
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Pobierz zdjecie Przeczytaj o zasadach pobierania zdjec Polish presidential plane crash 7th anniversary (1)
On Monday Polish President Andrzej Duda and PM Beata Szydlo will attend state observances commemorating the 7th anniversary of a Polish presidential plane crash near Smolensk, western Russia, in which President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other passengers perished.
The observances will start with a Mass for all the tragic air crash victims at the the Carmelite Church in Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street. A traditional roll call of honour in front of the Presidential Palace will be held at 8:41 a.m., exactly at the time of the disaster.
Planned are also film screenings and a prayer at noon in front of the Presidential Palace.
At 4:30 p.m., President Duda is planned to address a gathering in front of the Presidential Palace and lay flowers at a plaque commemorating President Lech Kaczynski. Present will be also PM Beata Szydlo and state officials.
An evening Mass for the Smolensk air crash victims will be said at St. John's Cathedral. It will be attended by President Duda and other state officials. Later in the evening, a March of Memory will pass through the streets of Warsaw. It will be followed by a speech by the head of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, in front of the Presidential Palace.
Anniversary ceremonies will also take place in the southern city of Krakow, with President Duda expected to pray at the grave of President Kaczynski and his wife, the First Lady Maria Kaczynska in the company of the presidential couple's daughter, Marta Kaczynska.
President Duda is also planned to lay a wreath at the monument honouring the air crash victims at Warsaws Powazki Cemetery and flowers at the tombs of Poland's last President in exile Ryszard Kaczorowski and Fathers Jozef Joniec, Zdzislaw Krol and Andrzej Kwasnik.
On Monday morning, Sejm (lower house) and Senate Speakers Marek Kuchcinski and Stanislaw Karczewski accompanied by members of the presidia of the two chambers of parliament will lay a wreath at a plaque commemorating parliamentarians killed in the air crash.
In the afternoon in the Sejm, the Sejm speaker and Polish Post CEO Przemyslaw Sypniewski will open an exhibition devoted to the "We remember April 10, 2010" special postage stamp issue.
A plaque commemorating President Lech Kaczynski as well as Law and Justice MPs Przemyslaw Gosiewski and Zbigniew Wasserman will be unveiled at the PM Office in the presence of Prime Minister Beata Szydlo.
Planned are also morning commemorations at Warsaws Powazki Cemetery organised by the Warsaw authorities.
Observances will also be held all over Poland. In Krakow, planned is the 7th White-and-Red March of Memory and a Mass at the Wawel Cathedral for all the victims of the tragic air crash.
The April 10, 2010 air crash near Smolensk, western Russia, killed all 96 people on board, including President Kaczynski, the First Lady and dozens of senior Polish government officials and military commanders. (PAP, own information)
President Andrzej Duda
In a condolence message to Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, Polish President Andrzej Duda expressed his sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the attack in Stockholm.
"In connection with the dramatic developments in Stockholm, let me convey to Your Royal Highness on behalf of the Polish people and my own words of compassion and solidarity with the injured. This terrifying and inhuman act which took place in the streets of Stockholm arouses our firm opposition", President Duda wrote.
"Let me assure you that both my countrymen and I share the pain and despair of the people in the Kingdom of Sweden, and that with our hearts and thoughts we are with the close ones of the victims", the president wrote.
Earlier President Andrzej Duda wrote on Twitter that "our thoughts and prayers are going to Stockholm. To the souls of the murdered, to the suffering of the injured, to the despair and fear of their Relatives. Let no one be alone".
At least three people were killed when a large truck drove into a crowd in a pedestrian street and later into a department store in Central Stockholm, also injuring several people. (PAP)
President Andrzej Duda Monday marked the 7th anniversary of the 2010 Smolensk air disaster which killed Poland's president, First Lady and dozens of state and military officials by laying flowers at a memorial to the crash victims at Warsaw's Powazki Cemetery.
The president also laid wreaths on the graves of the victims, stopping, contemplating and praying over each tomb in the company of the military assistance. He also talked to victims' families that came to the cemetery to mark the anniversary.
The memorial to the 96 victims of the Smolensk crash consists of a white granite block broken into two segments appearing to sink into the ground. Mounted on a darker base, the white obelisk stands over a collective grave housing the ashed remains of 12 of the victims.
Mounted on the walls of the obelisk is a list of the victim's names with a brief description of the disaster which killed them.
On April 10, 2010 a Polish government Tupolev crashed near a military airfield in Smolensk, western Russia, killing all 96 people on board, including then Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the First Lady, the last Polish President-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski and dozens of senior government officials and military commanders.
The delegation was underway to nearby Katyn in western Russia to attend events marking the 70th anniversary of the 1940 Katyn Forest Massacre in which ap. 22,000 Polish officers and members of the intelligentsia were murdered at the hands of the Soviets. (PAP)
Aaron Carter, the singer-rapper who began performing as a child and had hit albums starting in his teen years, was found dead at his home in Southern California. He was 34. Representatives for Carters family confirmed the singers death Saturday. They did not provide any immediate further comment. A sheriff's official says deputies responding to reports of a medical emergency found a person deceased at the home in Lancaster. Aaron Carter, the younger brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys, performed as an opening act for Britney Spears as well as his brothers boy band, and appeared on the familys reality series, House of Carters.
ATLANTIC CITY The bad blood between the state and city police unions spilled out Monday in front of a Superior Court judge.
Both sides painted the other as disingenuous during the first hearing over proposed pay cuts and layoffs for officers. An attorney for the unions called the states proposals punitive, while the state dismissed the unions arguments as merely a show.
After more than two and a half hours of debate, Judge Julio Mendez said he would issue a written ruling in a few days on whether the cuts can take place while the unions case against the state takeover of the city advances.
Union attorney Mark Belland said the state was punishing the unions with harsher cuts for not accepting a prior proposal involving early retirement incentives. Belland said union leaders sought more details on the buyouts when the state took them off the table.
The state pulled the rug out from underneath it, shut down, decided, Were going to teach you. Were going to punish you. Were taking ERI off the table, Belland said.
He cited a January letter outlining negotiations between the state and unions that showed the state had considered capping terminal-leave payments for retiring officers at $15,000. By March, the state wanted to eliminate the unused sick-time payments entirely.
Mendez seemed to take interest in the different memos, asking about them several times during the hearing.
But Ron Israel, who is representing state officials overseeing a takeover of the citys finances, said the states change on terminal leave reflected further analysis of the citys finances. He added the breakdown over the buyouts also forced the state to find savings elsewhere.
He said buyouts were taken off the table after union leaders sought to get senior officers promoted so their buyouts would be bigger. Union leaders also reneged on a promise to let union members vote on the states prior proposal, Israel said.
He said that changed talks of a deal that would have been better for rank-and-file union members.
Its of their own doing. They had a deal in their pocket, and they refused to take it to the rank and file for a vote, Israel said. The ERI was all that was there saving this money. Its not punitive. Its all that was left.
The state wants to lay off 19 police officers, slash salaries and benefits and make officers work more hours, among other changes.
The cuts would save the cash-strapped city about $20 million, including a $10 million savings in terminal leave, according to the state.
The state took over the city in November to fix its troubled finances. The takeover law gave the state authority to hire or fire workers and break union contracts, among other powers.
The unions argue the staff cuts could harm public safety and the state takeover law is unconstitutional because it impairs their contract rights.
The state says the unions lawsuits are just about money and protecting salaries of the highest-paid officers.
The citys firefighters have also sued the state to stop 100 layoffs to their department and cuts to their contract. Mendez allowed those pay and benefit cuts to proceed while that case advances but temporarily blocked the layoffs that were to take place this fall.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP Drug-addiction prevention advocates and experts will hold a town hall at 4 p.m. Monday at Stockton University to discuss opioid abuse in the Atlantic County area.
The countys first Knock Out Opioid Abuse Town Hall, organized by Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey and local groups, will begin with registration at 3:30 p.m. and go to 6 p.m. Monday at the universitys Alton Auditorium.
The Press will live stream the event.
Experts and community leaders will lead discussion on the prescription-drug and heroin epidemic.
Atlantic County saw 85 drug-related deaths in 2015, according to the Office of the State Medical Examiner. More than half of the cases involved heroin use.
About one in four deaths included the use of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin.
Overdoses from prescription opioids are a driving factor in the increase in opioid overdose deaths since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The amount of prescription opioids sold in the United States has nearly quadrupled.
Opioid pain relievers were prescribed nearly 63 times per 100 persons in New Jersey in 2012, the CDC reported.
All residents from Atlantic County and surrounding areas are invited to the free event. Experts will talk about ways to address the public health and safety crisis in local communities.
Register online for free at knockoutopioidabuse.drugfreenj.org/townhall series/atlantic-county or call 609-272-0100 for more information.
Most Jewish people celebrate Passover, starting at sundown tonight, at home. But a Margate and a Ventnor synagogue are hosting Community Seders for those who dont have family to share it with or who wanted to try something different.
Chabad at the Shore hosts a Community Seder at 7:15 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the Chai Center, 6605 Atlantic Ave., Ventnor.
Beth El Synagogue and Shirat Hayam, a combination of the conservative Beth Judad and reform Emeth Shalom, will celebrate the first night of Passover with a Community Seder with Cantor Ralph Goren with a service at 6:30 Monday at Shirat Hayam, 700 N. Swarthmore Ave. in Ventnor.
The eight-day holiday celebrates the Hebrews exodus from slavery in Egypt.
Observant Jews refrain from eating anything made with leavening. Bread, oats, wheat and other grains are forbidden. An unleavened bread, called matzo, is eaten instead. The unleavened bread is a symbol of Passover.
As the story goes, Jews fleeing from Egypt left so quickly they did not have time to wait for their bread to rise.
The holiday begins Monday with the Seder, a ritual feast. Days of cleaning, food preparation and shopping prepare the home or synagogue for the creation of kosher meals.
According to a Haggadah, a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder provided to The Press by Rabbi Gordon Geller of Shirat Hayam, a Seder plate includes roasted shankbone of lamb, a roasted egg and Chazeret fresh horseradish (or romaine lettuce).
Preparations for Chabad At The Shores Community Seder started two weeks ago, when all the leavened bread including pasta, cakes and noodles had to be segregated, said Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport of Chabad at the Shore, which is located in Margate.
The synagogue usually has a lunch on Saturdays, so the April 8 lunch was kosher. Members were asked not to bring any food, Rapoport said.
This is the second time Chabad At The Shore has hosted a Community Seder. About 150 people are expected to attend, Rapoport said.
The Community Seder will feature special handmade round matzo, Rapoport said. The wheat is watched from the time of harvesting until the final baking to ensure that no water, heat, or other natural processes cause it to begin fermentation.
Casels Marketplace in Margate, Acme and ShopRite all have large selections for preparing for Passover, but Rapoport said he drove to Lakewood, where there is a larger Jewish community, to buy some of the items that were needed.
The joint Beth El and Shirat Hayam Community Seder starts 7 p.m. after the brief 6:30 p.m. service, Geller said. His synagogue will follow the more traditional laws of Passover, he said.
There are 14 steps or scene to a Passover Seder, Geller said. They are:
1. Recite the Kiddush, a ceremony of prayer and blessing ushering a holy day.
2. Wash the hands.
3. Eat a green vegetable.
4. Break the middle matzo and hide half of it for the Afikoman, to be eaten as dessert after the Seder meal.
5. Retell the story of the Passover.
6. Conduct a ceremonial washing of the hands before the meal.
7. Perform a blessing over the matzah.
8. Eat the bitter herbs.
9. Eat a bitter herb and a piece of matzo together.
10. Eat the meal.
11. Eat dessert, and search for, find and eat the Afikoman
12. Grace after meals prayer.
13. Praise, Hallel and Psalms.
14. Acceptance and then the conclusion.
MAYS LANDING People affected by addiction often seek help from a religious or faith-based leader.
So the Join Together Atlantic County coalition co-hosted a Do No Harm drug-prevention training Thursday to offer resources, education tools and strategies to help religious leaders better support and help individuals and families who struggle with addiction.
We know youre among the first ones people go to for help, and we can help provide the tools you need to understand what addiction is, said Kathy McFadden, JTACs program director.
The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations state division and the Atlantic County Opiate Task Force held the event.
Heroin and opioid use in New Jersey counties is an epidemic, experts say.
Nicholas Kolen, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations state division, has experience tracking and shutting down drug trafficking operations in Mexico and South America. Its worse than he ever has seen, he said.
The problem is actually worse than you even realize, he said.
New Jerseys death rate from drug misuse is triple the U.S. rate, Kolen said. He said he believes the number of people addicted to heroin is underreported.
More than 80 percent of New Jersey adults affiliate themselves with a religious faith, according to the Pew Research Center. Substance misuse prevention and treatment advocates say leaders of congregations and community groups often serve on the front lines of the issue.
Filling tool chest
Christina Chillem, assistant of community support for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Camden, said she sees many pastors refer people to addiction programs and services at her organization.
She wanted more tools to help pastors continue that and better address issues from parents of children with addictions.
Leaders from the Hammonton Family Success Center, the SOAR Church in Woodbine, Praise Tabernacle Church in Egg Harbor Township, Northfield Baptist Church and others took down tips and ideas.
Bob Zlotnick, president and executive director of Atlantic Prevention Resources, pointed out scripture from the Old Testament that identified issues with alcoholism thousands of years ago.
He suggested leaders could use a tool called CAGE to open conversation with congregatants.
The CAGE tools instruct leaders to ask questions about control and cutting down on substance use, emotions and feelings of guilt, anger or annoyance over usage and the need for eye-opening discussion with congregants.
Rebecca Alfaro, deputy director of the Governors Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, suggested including church bulletins about addiction prevention education and recovery, possibly holding town meetings and other ideas.
Paying forward
Mariel Hufnagel is 10 years sober and clean from her addiction to opiates and other drugs. She joined the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence New Jersey organization as a field advocate three years ago.
She travels to events to talk about how people can help support friends, family and neighbors suffering in the current epidemic.
A lot of times, families dont know where to go for help and often go to the people they already trust, she said. Many of those people have a connection with faith.
VINELAND A city man has been charged in the death of a Millville man who was shot Sunday while walking along East Chestnut Avenue, police said.
Police responded at 1:25 p.m. to reports of shots fired in the 1000 block of East Chestnut Avenue, Lt. Pedro Casiano said in a news alert.
Christian Rodgers, 26, of Pine Street in Millville, was found dead in the backyard of a property on the block, the alert said.
Police arrested Jules Black, 30, of West Chestnut Avenue, after reviewing surveillance video showing a black, four-door Chevrolet Impala with rear tinted windows fleeing the scene.
Black was charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. He was taken to the Cumberland County jail, the alert said.
Neighbors on Monday said Myrtle to State streets were blocked for several hours Sunday afternoon.
Police tape was still hanging from a tree, and neighbors were trying to piece together what happened.
There was a bullet hole in a garage door at a house near the corner of State Street and East Chestnut Avenue. Police saw the hole and later found Rodgers on the ground, the alert said.
Teresa Williams, who lives across the street from the location where police responded, said she heard the shots fired.
I just heard the pops, she said. I thought, It couldnt have been.
Williams mother, who also was in the house, said she heard the gunshots and saw a man running down the busy street.
The family took caution, she said, knowing she has a 2-year-old son in the home.
I definitely wont let him crawl about outside, Williams said. Theres a lot of kids in this area, on this block. Im so glad they werent out running around.
Vineland police are continuing to seek information related to the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to call the detective bureau at 856-691-4111 ext. 4181 or anonymously report through Vineland Crime Stoppers at 856-691-0345 or texting to crime tips 847411 (VPDTIP).
Like the first blooms of daffodils and red-winged blackbirds, potholes are an annual sign of spring here in South Jersey.
Easily the most common complaints submitted to Public Eye are regarding potholes that seem as if theyll never be repaired.
The problem: Conditions get rough on municipal, county and state roads during the winter months. Fluctuations in temperature, weather conditions and daily traffic create wear and tear on roads.
Roads whose conditions have been reported to Public Eye include:
Spruce Avenue and Mill Road in Egg Harbor Township
Route 47 in Vineland
Essex Court in Ventnor
West Pine Street in Galloway Township
The facts: Last week, work was done on Spruce Avenue, including repaving a large portion between Pole Bridge Road to Mill Road. Patch repairs could be seen on other portions of the road.
Egg Harbor Township Public Works did not comment on any other projects, but Public Eye will continue to reach out to municipal offices to find out when other road projects will begin.
{span style=font-size: 12px;}Warmer temperatures and dry days will allow for more pothole repairs, and Public Works officials are checking weather forecasts before scheduling projects.{/span}
The next step: If potholes are still a problem, the first thing to do is determine whether the road is a local, county or state road. That will help you figure out which department to contact. Police sometimes monitor potholes for public safety reasons.
For potholes in parking lots or on private property, check with the property owner. The repaving is their responsibility, but your municipal code enforcement office can help address the problem to the property owner.
Starting in January, The Press of Atlantic City asked readers to report potholes they encounter on their daily commutes or right outside their front doors.
Readers can continue to report potholes to The Press, and well keep an eye out for any repairs and repaving. Email newstips@pressofac.com with a photo and location of a pothole you see.
Rigging claim returned
Regarding the March 28 story, Atlantic County Democrats back John Armato for Assembly:
In a recent article, the Atlantic County Republican Party boss Keith Davis accused the Democrats of running a rigged election for their Assembly candidates. This is not a big surprise coming from someone who, along with Assemblyman Chris Brown, ordered the local Republicans to support Donald Trump.
If Davis wants to see a rigged election, he should look at his own convention. Vladimir Putin in Russia could not have done a better job. The drones that were at the Republican convention were given a list of candidates picked by Davis and Brown. In their minds, their process was not rigged because there was no real election.
Ron Ruff
Linwood
Former Democratic county chairman
Liberal media no benefit
Lets remove our property fences. Lets keep our doors unlocked at night. Lets give up all our personal weapons.
Who does that benefit? The criminals.
Lets not have any borders. Reduce the military. We all hold hands, smoke weed, cry when things dont go our way, and expect the government to take care of us.
Who does that benefit? The countries who want us all dead, criminal illegal aliens, and progressive colleges and students.
The biased mainstream television and print media are doing all Americans a disservice by not reporting the facts. Follow any current event and you will only hear the liberal points of view. There are no reporters with guts anymore.
Who does that benefit? None of us.
Jimmy Pasquale
Hammonton
Need skilled workforce for aviation research
It is hard not to be optimistic of the final approval of the Stockton Aviation Research Park in Atlantic County after 10 years of planning. However, several things have me concerned about this type of project at this time.
The first is the lack of human capital that I believe is severely lacking in southern New Jersey for this type of economic driver. Justin Fox, in the February article, Why some cities get all the good jobs, makes this point. Foxs premise is that it is no accident some areas have continually attracted good jobs and good employers (i.e., New York, San Francisco, Boston). These areas have well-educated workforces and become clusters of innovation.
So for the aviation park to reach its potential, Atlantic County must concentrate on supplying this type of worker. The whole educational community must work together to begin producing a workforce that is concentrated in STEM education (computer science, engineering, aviation, etc). The other major concern is that aviation research may be too reliant on federal funding.
If the area concentrates on STEM education and increases the level of its skilled labor, companies will relocate to Atlantic County. One doesnt have to go to Silicon Valley to see an example; just drive down Route 322 and see what Rowan Universitys engineering and science degrees have done for the Glassboro area.
Matthew Freund
Ventnor
ALBANY, New York, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Thanks to the strong presence of well-established players, the global digital impression system market shows a highly competitive landscape, finds a new study by Transparency Market Research (TMR). The leading players in this market, namely, Sirona Dental Systems, Align Technology, 3Shape, 3M, and Carestream Health, are focusing aggressively on the acquisition of smaller players to eliminate competition, which is likely to further consolidate this market.
According to TMR's estimations, the global digital impression systems market stood at US$2.13 bn in 2015. Researchers expect the opportunity in this market to proliferate at a healthy CAGR of 18.30% during the period from 2017 and 2025 and attain a value of US$9.6 bn by the end of the forecast period. Mobile/portable systems have been the most valued product in this market over the past few years. The segment is likely to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period, thanks to the extensive progress in the dental and healthcare industry and the advent of various novel technologies, such as 3D impression technology and mobile based tablet intraoral scanners.
North America to Lead Global Market; Asia Pacific to Present Lucrative Opportunities
The research study also presents an exhaustive assessment of the regional markets for digital impression systems. According to the report, North America, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific, and South America are the main geographical segments in the worldwide market for digital impression systems. North America led the overall market in 2016, contributing US$555.4 mn in revenues. This regional market is expected to continue its dominance throughout the forecast period on the grounds of a large number of established market players.
Asia Pacific, on the other hand, is expected to present the most promising growth opportunities, thanks to the strengthening economic condition and the subsequent improvement in the living standard of consumers. The rising pool of large orthodontic clinics and practitioners in these economies, such as China, Japan, and India, is expected to propel this regional market considerably in the years to come, states the research report.
Get PDF Sample for this Research Report @ http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=22472
Rising Popularity of Digital Impression Systems to Fuel Demand
"The demand for digital impression systems is highly influenced by the increasing awareness among consumers pertaining to the benefits of the digital impression technology when compared with the conventional method of impression," says an analyst at TMR. The fact that these systems shorten the painful process of elastomeric impression has increased their popularity, thereby augmenting their demand substantially, which is reflecting positively on the market for digital impression across the world.
Over the forthcoming years, the advent of advanced powder-free intraoral scanners at a much reduced price is projected to stimulate this market remarkably. Besides, the growing uptake of these systems by dentists and other dental practitioners, boosted by their increasing focus on the accuracy of the treatment and patients' comfort, is also predicted to drive the market's growth in the near future. However, the soaring costs of these systems and the need for high technical expertise may restrict the market over the next few years, notes the study.
The study presented here is based on a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), titled "Digital Impression System Market (Type - Standalone (Plug and Play Intraoral Scanner) and Mobile/Portable System (Intraoral Scanner, Tablet/Screens, and Cart); Compatibility - Third Party Compatible and Integrated) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025."
Get more information from Research Report Press Release: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/digital-impression-system-market.htm
The global digital impression system is segmented as below:
By Type
Standalone (Plug & Play Intraoral Scanner)
Mobile / Portable System (Intraoral Scanner, Tablet / Screens and Cart)
By Compatibility
Third Party Compatible
Integrated
By Geography
North America
- The U.S.
- Canada
- Rest of North America
- The U.S. - - Rest of Europe
- Germany
- France
- The U.K
- Rest of Europe
- - - The U.K - Rest of Asia Pacific (APAC)
- India
- Japan
- China
- Australia
- Rest of APAC
(APAC) - - - - - Rest of APAC Middle East and Africa (MEA)
- UAE
- Saudi Arabia
- South Africa
- Rest of MEA
and (MEA) - UAE - - - Rest of MEA South America
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Rest of South America
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Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Transparencymarketresearch
SOURCE Transparency Market Research
- Members of the construction workers trade union also joined the flash mob
One hundred bright green balloons with the words "We're for Chrysotile!" added color to the cloudless sky accompanied by the sound of "industrial fireworks," or explosions in the quarry of the world's largest Bazhenovsky field of chrysotile asbestos.
(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/487331/Movement_for_Chrysotile.jpg )
This is how the recent 100-year anniversary of Uralasbest mine industrial complex trade union was celebrated. Residents of Asbest of the Sverdlovsk Region occasionally organize extraordinary public events to draw the attention of the public to issues in the chrysotile industry. On this particular March day, participants from the visiting session of the executive committee of the trade union of construction workers of Russia from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Krasnodar and Samara Regions joined in the flash mob.
Asbest residents (and the nucleus of the International Alliance of Chrysotile trade unions) have been defending the interests of the world chrysotile industry for over ten years in Geneva at sessions of the parties to the Rotterdam convention, where the lobbyists of substitute materials work to include this natural mineral in the list of prohibited dangerous chemical substances. Not without reason, these Ural activists find support not only from all four corners of Russia, but also in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, India, Cuba and other countries.
There have been countless projects in the span of the anti-asbestos war, including scientific and medical investigations, excursions to the enterprises with the release of "secrets" on the working process, large-scale rallies in different countries, professional contests, marches, and motor rallies.
"In 1997, the trade union organized a march from Asbest to Ekaterinburg: the group of workers from the industrial complex marched to the Ural capital to prove their readiness by all means to fight for their rights," recalls Valery Yustus, chairman of the Sverdlovsk regional organization of the construction workers of Russia trade union. "Last year we also organized a 50-kilometer motor rally so the workers of Uralasbest mine, their colleagues from the Orenburg Region, the Republic of Kazakhstan, and city-forming enterprises Sukhoy Log and Beloyarsky could celebrate the international day of chrysotile protection. I'm not saying it's impossible to go to Geneva either, because we are at a risk of losing everything if we do not prove to the whole world that workers still live long, happy and safe lives engaged in chrysotile production. "They want to take that all away from us," says Yustus. "But not on my watch they won't!"
To better express the idea of the desire to quietly work and raise their children without worrying about tomorrow to those who do not understand it, several public unions have been organized in Asbest, such as the Youth Union of the Chrysotile Industry, and the Women for Safe Labor and Social Stability movement. The association of veterans also united over 15 thousand people whose employment in the chrysotile industry is between 30-40 years.
Extra information: media@nochrysotileban.com
Useful links:
Website of the International Trade Union Movement for Chrysotile:
www.nochrysotileban.com
Twitter of the Chrysotile Association Non-Profit Organization:
https://twitter.com/Nochrysotileban
Yourword project website:
www.yourword.info
SOURCE International Trade Unions Movement "For Chrysotile"
VANCOUVER, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
TSX:SLW
NYSE:SLW
Silver Wheaton Corp. (TSX: SLW) (NYSE: SLW) will release 2017 first quarter results on Tuesday, May 9, 2017, after market close.
A conference call will be held Wednesday, May 10, 2017, starting at 11:00 am (Eastern Time) to discuss these results. To participate in the live call please use one of the following methods:
Dial toll free from Canada or the US: 1-888-231-8191 Dial from outside Canada or the US: 1-647-427-7450 Pass code: 3204939 Live audio webcast: http://www.silverwheaton.com
Participants should dial in five to ten minutes before the call.
The conference call will be recorded and available until May 17, 2017 at 11:59 pm ET. The webcast will be available for one year. You can listen to an archive of the call by one of the following methods:
Dial toll free from Canada or the US: 1-855-859-2056 Dial from outside Canada or the US: 1-416-849-0833 Pass code: 3204939 Archived audio webcast: http://www.silverwheaton.com
Patrick Drouin, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, Silver Wheaton Corp., Tel: +1-844-288-9878, Email: info@silverwheaton.com, Website: http://www.silverwheaton.com
SOURCE Silver Wheaton Corp.
PROVO, Utah, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Achieve Today is successfully addressing one of the biggest challenges the Direct Sales industry faces: retaining new distributors. Thought leaders like Brendon Burchard, Les Brown, Joe Vitale, Zig Ziglar, Denis Waitley, and others have partnered with Achieve Today because of their history of empowering people to experience profound change.
Achieve Today has created a unique LMS (Learning Management System) tailored to Direct Sales companies as well as top distributors and their down-lines. Unlike other platforms, it's not an empty shell. It comes loaded with content enabling distributors to overcome internal limitations that would otherwise cause them to quit. Achieve Today's training also enhances company culture by promoting abundance in all areas of life (business, relationships, health, and more). Case study results show 49% increased retention among new agents within the first 90 days.
Achieve Today's content is combined with unique content from each direct-selling organization to ensure that distributors have all training needs provided in one place. Companies that have an existing LMS they enjoy can easily integrate Achieve Today's training into their platform with a single sign-on.
The platform provides proof of compliance certification, and the option for testing that verifies course comprehension. It systematizes training to ensure potency, and saves leaders countless hours of travel and training time, while providing analytics that foster accountability.
Christian Arsenault, Director of Business Development for Achieve Today, states: "Our LMS is a valuable tool, however, tools prove most effective when you know how to use them correctly. We consult with our clients to leverage our solutions for maximum impact. We have been recognized by Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur Magazine as experts in company culture and engagement, and we are ranked #33 in America by Glassdoor as best place to work in the small to medium business category. Our experience uniquely qualifies us to go beyond providing tools, to changing lives and uplifting entire organizations."
For more information on the LMS, visit www.achievetoday.com/lms
About Achieve Today
Achieve Today is an international personal development training company headquartered in Provo, Utah. They have helped thousands of people from around the globe to identify and change limiting beliefs and achieve success in all areas of life. Company website: www.achievetoday.com
Media Contact: Josh Christopherson
Phone: 801.932.4239
Email: [email protected]
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SOURCE Achieve Today
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BOSTON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Actifio, the Enterprise Data-as-a-Service (EDaaS) company, today announced that CRN has awarded Actifio a 5-Star rating in its 2017 Partner Program Guide. This annual guide is the definitive listing of partner programs from technology vendors that provide products and services through the IT channel. The 5-Star Partner Program Guide rating recognizes an elite subset of companies that offer solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.
To determine the 2017 5-Star ratings, The Channel Company's research team assessed each vendor's partner program based on investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication.
Actifio offers a comprehensive partner program, starting with opportunity registration, access to marketing programs including content and joint-marketing investment, as well as access to the inside sales demand generation program. The comprehensive online communication program includes access to private portals for collaboration, a central portal with the latest updates including video-based program information, success stories, and selling tools.
"For solutions providers, finding the right technology vendors to partner with is crucial to the health of their business, and the vast array of choices can be overwhelming," said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. "Our annual Partner Program Guide and 5-Star ratings help them narrow the field, identifying the most rewarding partner programs and outlining their strengths and benefits."
"We're thrilled to see Actifio included on a top list of companies with five-star rated partner programs," said Michael McClurg, VP Global Partners at Actifio. "Actifio is continuously enhancing our partner program and innovating to drive adoption of our Enterprise-Data-as-a-Service offerings. Partners are seeing some incredible results with the close partnership of our Inside Sales team and our joint Account Based Demand Generation program. This five-star recognition adds to our recent recognition as an ESG Channel Acceleration Award recipient, providing further validation of our partner program offerings for Value Added Resellers and Managed Service Providers."
The 2017 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April issue of CRN and online at www.CRN.com/ppg.
About Actifio
Actifio is the world's leading Enterprise Data-as-a-Service (EDaaS) platform. It enables thousands of users around the world deliver their data just as they deliver their applications and infrastructure... as a service available instantly, anywhere. An enterprise-class software platform powered by patented Virtual Data Pipeline technology, Actifio frees data from traditional infrastructure to accelerate adoption of hybrid cloud, build higher quality applications faster, and improve business resiliency and availability. For more, visit Actifio.com or follow us on Twitter @Actifio.
About the Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com
Copyright 2017. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.
Media Contacts:
Meredith Kelly
Bite for Actifio
[email protected]
SOURCE Actifio
Related Links
http://www.actifio.com
SEATTLE, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) today reported March and year-to-date operational results on a consolidated basis, for its mainline operations operated by subsidiaries Alaska Airlines, Inc. (Alaska) and Virgin America Inc. (Virgin America), and for its regional flying operated by subsidiary Horizon Air Industries, Inc. (Horizon) and third-party regional carriers SkyWest Airlines and Peninsula Airlines (Regional). Winter storms in 2017 significantly impacted the year-to-date operational performance across the network. Detailed information is provided below.
Air Group's acquisition of Virgin America took place on Dec. 14, 2016. Operational results below include Virgin America results from pre-acquisition periods for comparison.
AIR GROUP
On a combined basis for all operations, Air Group reported a 5.5 percent increase in traffic on a 5.7 percent increase in capacity compared to March 2016. Load factor decreased 0.2 points to 85.4 percent.
The following table shows the operational results for March and year-to-date, compared to the prior-year periods(1):
March
Year-to-Date
2017
2016
Change
2017
2016
Change Revenue passengers (000) 3,741
3,551
5.4%
10,018
9,600
4.4% Revenue passenger miles RPM (000,000) "traffic" 4,369
4,142
5.5%
11,707
11,186
4.7% Available seat miles ASM (000,000) "capacity" 5,116
4,840
5.7%
14,394
13,719
4.9% Passenger load factor 85.4%
85.6%
(0.2) pts
81.3%
81.5%
(0.2) pts
(1) 2016 information has been adjusted to include Virgin America operating results for comparison.
ALASKA
Alaska reported a 6.8 percent increase in traffic on a 6.9 percent increase in capacity compared to March 2016. Load factor decreased 0.1 point to 86.7 percent. Alaska also reported 79.8 percent of its flights arrived on time in March 2017, compared to 86.4 percent reported in March 2016.
The following table shows Alaska's operational results for March and year-to-date compared to the prior-year periods:
March
Year-to-Date
2017
2016
Change
2017
2016
Change Revenue passengers (000) 2,242
2,090
7.3%
5,951
5,642
5.5% RPMs (000,000) 3,039
2,845
6.8%
8,091
7,716
4.9% ASMs (000,000) 3,504
3,278
6.9%
9,799
9,354
4.8% Passenger load factor 86.7%
86.8%
(0.1) pt
82.6%
82.5%
0.1 pt On-time arrivals as reported to U.S. DOT 79.8%
86.4%
(6.6) pts
78.4%
87.5%
(9.1) pts
VIRGIN AMERICA
Virgin America traffic increased 2.4 percent on a 2.9 percent increase in capacity compared to March 2016. Load factor decreased 0.5 points to 83.3 percent. Virgin America also reported 65.5 percent of its flights arrived on time in March 2017, compared to 73.8 percent in March 2016.
The following table shows Virgin America operational results for March and year-to-date, compared to the prior-year periods:
March
Year-to-Date
2017
2016
Change
2017
2016
Change Revenue passengers (000) 668
659
1.4%
1,833
1,766
3.8% RPMs (000,000) 1,000
977
2.4%
2,736
2,615
4.6% ASMs (000,000) 1,200
1,166
2.9%
3,461
3,265
6.0% Passenger load factor 83.3%
83.8%
(0.5) pts
79.1%
80.1%
(1.0) pt On-time arrivals as reported to U.S. DOT 65.5%
73.8%
(8.3) pts
64.7%
77.4%
(12.7) pts
REGIONAL
Regional traffic increased 3.1 percent on a 4.0 percent increase in capacity compared to March 2016. Load factor decreased 0.7 points to 80.1 percent. Regional also reported 84.2 percent of its flights arrived on time in March 2017, compared to 87.5 percent in March 2016.
The following table shows regional operational results for March and year-to-date, compared to the prior-year periods:
March
Year-to-Date
2017
2016
Change
2017
2016
Change Revenue passengers (000) 831
802
3.6%
2,234
2,192
1.9% RPMs (000,000) 330
320
3.1%
880
855
2.9% ASMs (000,000) 412
396
4.0%
1,134
1,100
3.1% Passenger load factor 80.1%
80.8%
(0.7) pts
77.6%
77.7%
(0.1) pt On-time arrivals as reported to U.S. DOT 84.2%
87.5%
(3.3) pts
72.6%
89.0%
(16.4) pts
Alaska Airlines, together with Virgin America and its regional partners, flies 40 million customers a year to 118 destinations with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica and Cuba. With Alaska and Alaska Global Partners , customers can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 900 destinations worldwide. Alaska Mileage Plan ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Airline Loyalty Rewards Programs" in the J.D. Power Airline Loyalty/Rewards Program Satisfaction Report for the last three consecutive years. Learn more about Alaska's award-winning service and unmatched reliability at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).
SOURCE Alaska Air Group Inc.
Related Links
https://www.alaskaair.com
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Amalfi Estates, a residential real estate brokerage firm in Los Angeles, is challenging real estate firms and agents nationwide to donate 10% of their commission to charity with the launch of the "10% Giving Pledge Challenge." Since 2015, Anthony Marguleas and Amalfi Estates have donated 10% of commissions to five charitable organizations: American Cancer Society, Make a Wish, SPCALA, Path Making It Home and Homeboy Industries. Clients choose the one charity their commissions will benefit. The five organizations represent the main causes Amalfi feels strongly about: health, kids, pets, homelessness and a local cause to help gang members transition to productive professionals. Over the years, Amalfi Estates and Marguleas have donated $430,000 to charity.
"What led up to this challenge was I discovered the average residential real estate brokerage donates less than of 1% of their commission to charity. I knew we could do better and hopefully set an example for others. Although we had always donated some portion of our commissions to charity, I pledged in 2015 to donate 10% of our commissions," said Amalfi Estates Founder, Anthony Marguleas. "If a small boutique firm like ours can donate $430,000 and still be successful, so can any other real estate firm in the country. I challenge them all to give it a try. Only good can come from it. Imagine with 1 million Realtors in the country, millions of dollars can be raised for those less fortunate."
With these guiding principles of giving back, Marguleas sees his firm as a charitable organization that also sells real estate.
In 2015, Marguleas donated $129,000 and in 2016 $147,000. Marguleas and his growing team of Sales Partners hope to reach annual donation goals of $200,000 for 2017, $300,000 in 2018 and eventually donate $500,000 annually to charity.
Last month, Marguleas and his sales partner, Cody Carras presented a check from Amalfi Estates for $11,233 to the American Cancer Society. As a cancer survivor himself Marguleas battled rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer at age 26 the American Cancer Society is a cause near and dear to Marguleas.
"The American Cancer Society is incredibly grateful to Anthony and his firm for their generous commitment to the fight against cancer. It's a tremendous accomplishment for a firm of Amalfi's size, and raises the bar in charitable giving for other real estate firms to follow," said Cynthia Vant Hul, chair of the American Cancer Society's Los Angeles Region Council.
Today, Amalfi Estates is launching the "10% Giving Pledge Challenge" as inspiration for other residential real estate brokerage firms across the country to give 10% of their commissions to charitable organizations. Marguleas is challenging real estate firms to increase giving to make this country an even better place and to prove success and philanthropy are not mutually exclusive.
About Amalfi Estates and Anthony Marguleas
A philanthropic firm that happens to sell real estate, Amalfi Estates is dedicated to giving back. While offering superior real estate service, Amalfi Estates goes above-and-beyond allowing clients to choose which charity 10% of the commission is donated. Located in Pacific Palisades, California, Amalfi Estates services the entire Los Angeles Market, with a focus on the Coastal communities. To learn more please visit www.AmalfiEstates.com.
Anthony Marguleas has successfully helped over 600 families buy and sell homes. He has personally sold close to $1 Billion in properties and was selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the top 60 agents in the country out of one million agents. He is currently the #1 agent in Pacific Palisades for the 3rd consecutive year.
Available Topic Expert: For information on the listed expert, click appropriate link.
Anthony Marguleas
http://www.profnetconnect.com/anthony-marguleas
SOURCE Amalfi Estates
Related Links
http://www.AmalfiEstates.com
LUBBOCK, Texas, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Abuelo's Mexican Restaurant, famous for its authentic, made-from-scratch, Mexican cuisine, is celebrating its first location in the Houston area. Abuelo's newest restaurant is now open at the Shoppes at Parkwest, located at 24600 Katy Freeway, in Katy, Texas.
The first 100 guests who are seated on opening day, April 10, will receive a special "Savor the Flavor of Mexico" calendar that includes monthly coupons for free entrees, salads and appetizers. The calendars, which include offers valued at more than $100, will be given away starting at 11 a.m.
Abuelo's has consistently been voted the #1 Mexican Restaurant in America by consumers since 2006, as published in the nation's most respected consumer rating magazine. The restaurant's fresh, made-from-scratch menu selections combine authentic standards with the rich, subtle flavors of coastal and interior Mexican cuisine.
"Abuelo's is excited about our newest restaurant in Katy," said Robert Lin, president of Food Concepts International, Abuelo's parent company. "After many years of guest requests and researching various sites in the Houston area, we are thrilled to expand Abuelo's into this market. We look forward to sharing our distinct flavors of Mexico with guests and being an active member of the local community."
Abuelo's has partnered with Child Advocates of Fort Bend to donate the proceeds from its pre-opening training events to the organization which provides a voice, heals the hurt and breaks the cycle of abuse and neglect for all children in Fort Bend County.
Abuelo's Katy will be open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. For the latest news, rewards and special offers, join Mi Abuelo's Rewards at www.abuelos.com/MiAbuelos. Also, be sure to follow Abuelo's on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/eatabuelos/ or like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AbuelosMexKaty/ to stay up to date on the latest news and promotions.
About Abuelo's
Since its first opening in 1989, Abuelo's has consistently been on the leading edge of Mexican cuisine, combining menu creativity, outstanding food and beverage quality, colorful plate presentations and superior service in a true Mexican courtyard atmosphere. Abuelo's has received national accolades as the top-ranked Mexican food restaurant and as one of America's top overall restaurant chains in four consecutive biennial surveys by a leading national consumer rating magazine. Owned and operated by Food Concepts International in Lubbock, Texas, the company currently has 39 full-service restaurants located in 13 states, and a fast casual Abuelo's Taqueria, located in Lubbock, Texas. For more information, visit www.abuelos.com or Abuelo's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Abuelos.
SOURCE Abuelos
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(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/487308/The_Great_Pitch_winners_Wolves_Summit.jpg )
(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/487309/Wolves_Summit_Logo.jpg )
Record number of startups
The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland hosted Wolves Summit for the 4th time. The conference is dedicated to startups, investors, corporations and experts. This international event gathered 1920 people from 51 countries that participated in 3472 1:1 meetings. Attendees included 370 startups that could join for free, 217 investors and 385 C-level executives.
"Changing the event's formula and inviting chosen 370 startups to participate free of charge resulted in even more precise matching of tech projects with corporations and funds. It's the next step in supporting business networking at Wolves Summit." said Piotr Piasek, co-founder of Wolves Summit, explains.
Networking and business
1:1 meetings are just one of many networking activities offered by Wolves Summit.
"Before each conference we set the bar high, so we place emphasis on the quality of meetings. The 1:1 formula works well and participants can meet more relevant and valuable people in a short time." Piotr Piasek says. 15-minute conversations can be planned in a calendar before the conference thanks to a unique matchmaking tool. Apart from meetings there were natural networking areas available, as well as the Wolves Summit app that made communicating with participants easier and two evening networking parties.
"All that to successfully connect business with technology. We believe contacts are crucial in business, so the most emphasis is put on helping attendees link them to the right people." Piasek adds.
The Great Pitch
42 companies fought for prizes in the Great Pitch, a competition for startups. Their task was to convince a circle of investors and managers to their project in just 3 minutes. The winner of the main prize - investment from TURN8, a Dubai-based fund - was an Austrian startup The Social Bet. PR Newswire sponsored a media package, which was given to Doctrina from Slovenia. All companies were evaluated by the jury in terms of business model, scalability or team's competences.
"Startups presented in front of managers and funds that match their industry, so they could establish contact with those actually important when it comes to business development." Piasek states.
International environment
Wolves Summit welcomed people from over 50 countries from around the world, including Israel, Germany, United States, Finland or Brazil. The internationality has been key from the very beginning. Piotr Piasek explains about 70% of the 370 startups come from outside of Poland. This means participants see potential in the country when it comes to investors or corporations they can establish long-term relations and get funding. The upcoming 6th edition will continue to strongly support networking activities. All information regarding the next event can be found on social media channels and website www.wolvessummit.com.
Media Contact:
Dominika Liecau
[email protected]
+48-(0)-796-677-699
SOURCE Wolves Summit
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) will release its first quarter 2017 earnings after the market closes on Thursday, April 27, 2017. A printer-friendly format will be available on the company's website shortly thereafter.
In conjunction with this release, J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO, will host a conference call on Friday, April 28, 2017 at 9:00 am ET/8:00 am CT, which will be broadcast live through Gallagher's website at www.ajg.com. A conference call replay will also be available on the company's website approximately one hour after the broadcast and can be accessed by going to Investor Relations and clicking on Archived Presentations.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, has operations in 33 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.
Contact:
Ray Iardella
VP - Investor Relations
(630) 285-3661 [email protected]
SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Related Links
http://www.ajg.com
ROCKVILLE, Md., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Ascend Hotel Collection from Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE:CHH), celebrated a special milestone with the city of Everett, Mass., welcoming the newly opened enVision Hotel Boston-Everett, a member of the Ascend Hotel Collection. Ascend led the lodging industry's "soft brand" concept and, in a similarly pioneering spirit, the enVision Hotel Boston-Everett is Everett's first hotel to open in more than seven decades.
Just one year ago, the enVision Hotel Boston-Everett kicked off its transformational renovation from former shoe and garment factory to a truly unique, design-forward boutique hotel, featuring all the modern essentials. Today, the property marks its highly anticipated opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony. This is the third property by the enVision Hotel Management Company to join the Ascend Hotel Collection. The other enVision Hotel locations are in Boston's Longwood neighborhood and St. Paul, Minn.
"The Ascend Hotel Collection is a portfolio of upscale, one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts. These properties have local charm and are deeply entrenched in their communities. By joining the Ascend Hotel Collection, they maintain all their uniqueness, and gain global hospitality expertise, reach and support from Choice Hotels," said Janis Cannon, senior vice president of upscale brands for Choice Hotels. "We are so pleased the enVision Hotel Management Company has achieved so much success with Ascend and are proud to see this third hotel open."
The charming 101-room vintage-inspired hotel is a stunning transformation. Design details hark back to the building and the neighborhood's past. The lobby displays a desk made of restored vintage steamer trunks, antique sewing machines and a giant scrabble board for guests to enjoy -- a signature element found at all the enVision properties. The hotel also features a meeting room and a cafe called Against the Grain Bistro which offers light breakfast, lunch and dinner fare, as well as an espresso bar, wine and beer.
"The support we've received from Choice Hotels and the Ascend Hotel Collection has been the driving factor behind our properties' success and has enabled us to expand the enVision experience for a third time," said Gautam Sharma, president of Global Vision Hotels. "Our hotels are designed to give upscale travelers a vintage taste of the local surroundings, while enjoying modern amenities. We are so eager to share this experience with even more travelers in Boston."
The enVision Hotel Boston-Everett is located just four miles from the rich and colorful history of Boston proper. It is close to Logan International Airport, making it an ideal location for travelers. For more information about this hotel or to make a reservation, go to www.choicehotels.com.
All Ascend Hotel Collection members participate in the award-winning Choice Privileges loyalty rewards program, rated no. 1 in USA Today's 10 Best Readers' Choice Awards list. Membership is free, offers fast rewards, instant perks, and exclusive member rates when booking directly at www.choicehotels.com. Members can redeem points towards free nights, airline miles and more while staying at any of Choice's 11 global brand hotels Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria hotels & suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, Rodeway, and the Ascend Hotel Collection.
Ascend Hotel Collection: let the destination reach you.
The Ascend Hotel Collection is a global portfolio of unique, boutique and historic independent hotels and resorts and is part of Choice Hotels International, one of the world's leading hotel companies. Recognized as the hotel industry's first "soft brand" concept, Ascend has more than 170 properties open and operating worldwide, including in France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Australia, Canada, and the Caribbean region. Membership with the Ascend Hotel Collection enables distinctive, independent properties to gain a global presence while maintaining their local charm. For more information, visit www.choicehotels.com/Ascend.
About Choice Hotels
Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the world's largest lodging companies. With more than 6,500 hotels franchised in more than 40 countries and territories, Choice Hotels International represents more than 500,000 rooms around the globe. As of December 31, 2016, 775 hotels were in our development pipeline. Our company's Ascend Hotel Collection, Cambria hotels & suites, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn, Quality, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn, and Vacation Rentals by Choice Hotels brands provide a spectrum of lodging choices to meet guests' needs. With more than 30 million members and counting, our Choice Privileges rewards program enhances every trip a guest takes, with benefits ranging from instant, every day rewards to exceptional experiences, starting right when they join. All hotels and vacation rentals are independently owned and operated. Visit us at www.choicehotels.com for more information.
2017 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.choicehotels.com
LONDON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Deniz Besim, a Turkish-Cypriot rooted story-teller and poet based in North London paid a local newspaper a visit to talk about her creative process along with her catchy and thought-provoking pieces both in poetry and short-stories.
The author, who lives in London and used to teach creative writing to adults shared her creative process with the Londra Gazete after a very successful three books compiling her poetry and short-stories. She enjoys reading fiction and sometimes enters short-story competitions. She self-published two poetry books in 2014.
Besim's style relies upon the very core of feelings and sensations that derive from experiences, but may also be triggered through very basic sources. Like a howling of the wind, a fluttering of anything that could happen in nature. Talking about inspiration, Besim remarked on the importance of her journey of reading other poets and writers that gave her a solid perspective to understand and digest the language, and open wider doors for inspiration perhaps.
Besim's style of writing has a powerful impact on the reader as it has the magical movements of dragging you into the story, making you empathise with the character(s) and put you through emotions you may not even be familiar with. Besim describes this experience as a triumph of her as she prides on making the readers empathise with the characters.
Now on her fourth book, Besim says her fourth book will be called the Sky That Falls Again, which is thought to be one of her books', The Sky that Falls' continuation.
Ways of getting in touch with the author and buying her books can be found at http://poetry-heaven.my-free.website/
Her books, The Sky that Falls, The Valley that Calls and Fate and Fortune: A Collection of Short Stories are available online and can be ordered through online retailers.
The author can be contacted by e-mail on [email protected] or telephone on +44-(0)-7817799337
SOURCE Author Deniz Besim
CHICAGO, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Driskill Foundation, a charity dedicated to supporting innovative learning opportunities for underserved Chicago youth, was proud to host inspirational NASA Space Shuttle astronaut Duane "Digger" Carey at a special event Thursday, March 23, 2017 at Prairie Productions in Chicago's west loop. The occasion marked the dedication of a new Flight Simulation Lab that Driskill is donating to Chicago's Air Force Academy High School (AFAHS).
The AFAHS drum and bugle corp, beaming color guards and a whole lot of school spirit welcomed the astronaut and a dizzying, state-of-the-art flight simulator installation. Imagine stepping into the cockpit of an actual fighter jet, then spinning 360 degrees over Monument Valley (or was it Sedona, Arizona?) "Blue Angels"-style. That's just a taste of what pilot wannabes experienced at the Driskill event.
The Driskill Foundation http://driskillfoundation.org is supporting an innovative project to bring a state-of-the-art Flight Simulation Lab to Air Force Academy High School (AFAHS). The Flight Simulation Lab allows AFAHS to elevate their Aerospace-based learning mission to entirely new levels. In the Lab, classroom instruction is combined with highly engaging, hands-on flight simulation learning experiences and exercises. Students develop a deeper understanding of math, physics, geography and communication through their experiences in the Flight Simulation Lab. This learning approach has already been proven to work: MMR scores nearly doubled at an Aerospace-based high school in Minnesota.
In the AFAHS lab, the sky's the limit for classroom creativity. Professional instruction is combined with highly engaging, hands-on, flight simulation learning experiences, providing a fresh and focused knowledge of aviation careers. Students also develop a deeper understanding of math, physics, geography and communications in the most exciting "classroom" they've witnessed.
The Driskill Foundation has a successful history of, "helping the world grow more WHYs," funding millions of dollars of medical research and scholarships. Now the Foundation is dedicated to innovative educational programming for underserved youth.
"Our mission is to ignite curiosity and create future innovators," says June Barnard, Driskill President and CEO. "We strive to help develop and support a system of educational and afterschool programs which encourages today's underserved youth to explore their curiosity, open new doors, and enter into exciting and uncharted waters."
FOR MORE INFORMATION - Driskill Media Contact: Katelyn Moon, [email protected]
SOURCE The Driskill Foundation
Related Links
http://www.driskillfoundation.org
BURLINGTON, Ontario, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AXYZ International, a global manufacturer leader in CNC router and knife cutting systems, will be exhibiting specially selected products and technologies at the ISA Sign Expo 2017 on April 20-22 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
AXYZ Pacer Series Heavy-duty precision driven CNC Router AXYZ Trident 6010
ISA's annual International Sign Expo provides a showcase of new products and technologies for sign and sign-related manufacturing companies. There will be a 193,000-square foot tradeshow floor, featuring 600 exhibitors. "Attendees can see demonstrations of new products, new materials and new manufacturing methods to enhance their companies' offerings and improve their competitiveness in the marketplace," said John Donaldson, New Business Development Manager for AXYZ International. Additionally, attendees can participate in any of the 60 expert-led, sign industry-specific education sessions, focusing on graphic design, sign code legislation, business management, sales and marketing, technology and more.
During the ISA Sign Expo, AXYZ will feature its Trident and Pacer series of CNC routers. Attendees who require a CNC machine with multiple methods for cutting a wide variety of materials will want to see the Trident router in action. "As printers and printing technologies continue to expand, print and cut applications continue to be at the forefront of a company's needs. The Trident offers routing, tangential knife cutting and oscillating knife cutting in one strong and precise machine package, along with the AVS Vision System for cutting around printed images," said Donaldson.
AXYZ's Pacer CNC router is designed for precision, reliability and high-quality machining, especially for manufacturers that require high-quality cut finishes, precise dimensional tolerances or very fine engraving. "The Pacer appeals to those companies requiring a CNC machine with superior cutting quality in routed materials, especially acrylics and aluminum. The Pacer's helical rack and pinion servo drives combined with the heavy-duty frame and gantry ensure that the user will achieve the industry's best cut quality," said Donaldson. The Pacer Series offers the perfect blend of high quality and affordability.
Visit the AXYZ International at Booth #1539 during the ISA Sign Expo. The Trident and Pacer machines will be demonstrated continuously throughout the expo. Trade show floor hours are Thursday and Friday, April 20 and April 21 from 9:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m. and Saturday, April 22 from 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. Free trade show floor passes are available by calling Nicole Silaphet at 800.361.3408, ext. 286. For more information, contact the AXYZ sales staff at 800.361.3408.
About AXYZ International:
AXYZ International is a leading global manufacturer of CNC router and knife cutting systems. From a two man beginning in 1990 to now, AXYZ has manufactured, sold, installed and supported over 10,500 CNC machines for use in a variety of applications. AXYZ conducts business in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland and India. For further information, call 800.361.3408 or visit www.axyz.com.
Greg Jenkins
AXYZ International
800.361.3408
[email protected]
SOURCE AXYZ International
Related Links
http://www.axyz.com
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- INTRODUCTION
B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), an important biomarker of the B-cells, has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of multiple myeloma and other hematological malignancies. The antigen is universally expressed on the surface of multiple myeloma cells.
Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04819007/BCMA-Targeted-Therapies-.html
The research focus shifted towards BCMA targeted therapies in 2004, when the role of BCMA was first indicated in the progression of multiple myeloma. It is the second most common type (13%) of all hematological malignancies. The disease proves to be fatal due to serious complications associated with it and the frequent events of re-occurrence of illness. The widespread presence of multiple myeloma and other related B-cell malignancies demands confident diagnosis and treatments. Hence, there is an immediate need for effective therapies for proper medical care.
Currently, researchers are actively involved in developing three major types of immunotherapies (classified by product class) targeting BCMA; these are chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T cells), bispecific antibodies and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Several biopharmaceutical companies have been active in this area since last few years while others have recently stepped in.
A number of strategic partnerships have also been inked between various stakeholders to advance R&D activities in this domain. Results of preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated the potential benefits of this class of therapies; the major highlight being their attractive safety profile. As more molecules undergo clinical validation and eventually get commercialized, we believe the overall interest will continue to rise. In fact, our promising outlook is backed by a strong belief that this novel class of therapies is likely to cater to the current unmet need where the existing treatment modalities are not efficient. The upside could be higher; however, it depends on a favorable market environment, reimbursement practices and regulatory regimes.
SCOPE OF THE REPORT
The "BCMA Targeted Therapies, 2017-2030" report features an extensive study on the current market landscape of B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) targeted therapies and offers a comprehensive discussion on the future potential of this market. With no commercial products, the market is still in its infancy. However, industry experts have pinned significant hopes on the novel technologies being developed by start-ups / small companies and the research being conducted at academic institutes.
The prime target indication of these novel molecules is B-cell malignancies, specifically multiple myeloma. BCMA-specific therapies are anticipated to emerge as viable treatment options for such indications. Post initial research on such therapies, many players have entered into collaborations with other stakeholders to fund the clinical and commercial development of their products. Some clinical stage products that have emerged out of such collaborations include bb2121 (bluebird bio / Celgene) and BCMA-CART (Novartis / Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania).
The pipeline currently comprises of 23 molecules that are under development for the treatment of a variety of B-cell malignancies. One of the key objectives of this report was to understand the evolution of the current market and to quantify the opportunities laid down by the innovative BCMA targeted programs of both small and big pharma companies.
Among other elements, the report provides information on the following:
- The current state of the market with respect to key players, phase of development of pipeline products (both clinical and preclinical / discovery) and the type of molecules.
- Comprehensive profiles highlighting clinical trial details such as dosage regimens, key preclinical / clinical findings, and future market opportunity for the clinical stage BCMA targeted therapies.
- Comparative analysis of the design of clinical trials being conducted for therapies in clinical stages of development.
- Various investments and grants received by companies focused in this area supporting their R&D activities.
- Partnerships that recently been inked amongst different stakeholders, covering product development / commercialization agreements, research collaborations, license agreements and acquisitions.
The study provides a detailed market forecast and opportunity analysis for the period between 2017 and 2030. The research, analysis and insights presented in this report are backed by deep understanding of key insights gathered from a variety of sources. To account for future uncertainties and add robustness to our model, we have provided three scenarios of our market forecast, namely the conservative, base and optimistic scenarios. All actual figures have been sourced and analyzed from publicly available information forums. All financial figures mentioned in this report are in USD, unless otherwise specified.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
For most of our projects, we conduct extensive secondary research as well as interviews with experts in the area (academia, industry, medical practice and other associations) to solicit their opinions on emerging trends in the market. This is primarily useful for us to draw out our own opinion on how the market may evolve across different regions and sub-segments. Wherever possible, the available data has been checked for accuracy from multiple sources of information.
The secondary sources of information include
- Annual reports
- Investor presentations
- SEC filings
- Industry databases
- News releases from company websites
- Government policy documents
- Industry analysts' views
While the focus has been on forecasting the market over the coming ten years, the report also provides our independent view on various non-commercial trends emerging in the industry. This opinion is solely based on our knowledge, research and understanding of the relevant market gathered from various sources of information.
CHAPTER OUTLINES
Chapter 2 provides an executive summary of the insights captured in our research. It offers a high level view on the current state of the BCMA targeted therapies market and its likely evolution.
Chapter 3 provides a general introduction to BCMA, highlighting its expression profile, role in progression of multiple myeloma and mechanism of action. In this section, we have talked about the current research landscape of the human BCMA and its emergence for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Further, we have briefly discussed the molecules (bispecific antibodies, ADCs and CAR-T cells) that are being exploited for the development of BCMA-specific drug candidates.
Chapter 4 provides a comprehensive overview of the current landscape of the BCMA targeted therapies market. It includes information on the drug candidates that are currently in different stages of development (both clinical and preclinical / discovery). It presents a detailed analysis of the pipeline on the basis of current phase of development, type of molecules and key players involved in this space. We have also provided details on additional parameters (such as associated domains and transfection methods) being utilized for the development of T-cell based BCMA-specific therapies. In addition, the chapter includes an overview on the developer landscape based on the size and the activity of the industry / non-industry players and a geographical representation mapping the presence of various organizations involved in the clinical development of candidates in this field.
Chapter 5 presents detailed profiles of the BCMA targeted therapies in clinical phases of development (phase I/II and phase I). Each profile covers information on drug specifications, mechanism of action, dosage regimen, technology overview, manufacturing details, key preclinical / clinical findings and collaborations. In addition, we have also provided a comparative analysis on the design of clinical trials being conducted for several molecules, highlighting the study goals of the trials, primary and secondary endpoints being evaluated and the interim trial results.
Chapter 6 presents details on the investments and grants received by companies working on the development of BCMA targeted therapies. The analysis highlights the growing interest of the venture capital community and other strategic investors in this market.
Chapter 7 features an elaborate discussion on the collaborations and partnerships that have been inked amongst players in this market. We have also discussed the various partnership models that have been implemented, highlighting the most common forms of deals / agreements prevalent in this domain.
Chapter 8 provides a comprehensive market forecast, highlighting the future potential of the market till 2030. It includes future sales projections of the molecules in clinical stages of development (phase I/II and phase I). The sales potential and growth opportunity is based on the target patient populations, existing / likely future competition, likely adoption rates, the type of molecule and likely price points.
Chapter 9 summarizes the overall report and provides a recap of the key takeaways from the study. It also presents our independent opinion on the future of BCMA targeted therapies market based on the research and analysis described in previous chapters.
Chapter 10 is an appendix, which provides tabulated data and numbers for all the figures provided in the report.
Chapter 11 is an appendix, which provides the list of companies and organizations mentioned in the report.
EXAMPLE HIGHLIGHTS
1. BCMA is an important antigen that is expressed during B-cell development in almost 60%-70% of the multiple myeloma cases. During the course of our research, we identified over 20 therapies targeting BCMA that are currently in different stages of development. Of these, 26% are already undergoing clinical validation.
2. CAR-T therapies (constituting 44% of the development pipeline) are the most common anti-BCMA therapies, followed by bispecific antibodies (26%) and ADCs (13%). Multiple myeloma remains the prime focus of drug developers in this space. However, efforts are also being made to develop these therapies for the treatment of other B-cell malignancies such as leukemia and lymphoma.
3. We have provided a comparative analysis of the design of clinical trials being conducted for therapies in clinical stages of development. This primarily includes comparisons on the basis of study goals, primary and secondary endpoints being evaluated and the interim trial results.
4. The current market landscape features contributions from big pharmaceutical companies and small to mid-sized players. Established pharmaceutical players engaged in this space include (in alphabetical order) Amgen, bluebird bio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GSK, Juno Therapeutics, Novartis and Pfizer. Small firms / start-ups and mid-sized firms that are actively investing in this market include (in alphabetical order) Affimed, Alexo Therapeutics, Cellectis, Five Prime Therapeutics, Heidelberg Pharma (a subsidiary of WILEX), Kite Pharma, Poseida Therapeutics (spun out of Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals), Sutro Biopharma and Triumvira Immunologics.
5. Prominent academic players that are involved in this space include (in alphabetical order) the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, California Institute for Biomedical Research, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Southwest Hospital (China) and The Scripps Research Institute.
6. We came across over 25 collaborations covering product development / commercialization agreements, product licensing agreements, technology licensing, acquisitions and research collaborations. Among these, development / commercialization agreements (52%) have been the most popular, followed by licensing agreements (26%).
7. Overall, we expect the field to witness considerable success in the long term. In fact, we expect six such therapies to be made commercially available in different geographies in the coming decade. Post the launch of the first wave of products, we predict the market to grow at an annualized rate of 98% till 2030.
Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04819007/BCMA-Targeted-Therapies-.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
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With over 30 years' experience in the global technology, telecoms, media and digital sectors Warwick Hill leads Microsoft's London Accelerator in its mission to take good startups and make them great. He is renowned for successfully building and selling global companies in the digital sector. Most notable is the sale of 3rd Space a Digital Innovations Agency that was bought in June 2013 by the Chinese State Broadcaster, one of the largest media companies in the World.
Prior to setting up 3rd Space, Warwick built a wholesale carrier services company specialising in India and Middle East voice termination. Incorporated in 2004, IIOS became Reliance's largest global customer and one of the largest Indian minutes' aggregators in the UK prior to being sold to Vyke plc in May 2009.
"We are very excited to welcome Warwick to our highly respected board of advisors," said Fineqia's Chairman Martin Graham. "His unprecedented experience in building successful companies and expanding them on a global scale will be important to us when building out Fineqia."
Fineqia's board of advisors and its members are not officers or directors of the company.
About Fineqia International Inc.
Fineqia's business model is to provide an online platform and associated services for the placement of debt and equity securities, initially in the UK. The platform will transparently highlight the risks and objectively outline opportunities involved. For more information, visit www.fineqia.com.
NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATORY SERVICE PROVIDER HAS REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than 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 regarding potential acquisitions and financings) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the inability of the Company to complete the Change of Business, failure to obtain sufficient financing, and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. 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.
SOURCE Fineqia International Inc.
Related Links
www.fineqia.com
WASHINGTON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Last year, when the Federal Reserve Board asked, more than half of all respondents admitted they were not confident or just slightly confident of making the right retirement investment decisions. Indeed, the Fed's report expressed alarm at how unprepared investors are at making the best possible choices at a time when most people's retirement plans are self-directed.
Rodger Alan Friedman Rodger Alan Friedman
Chartered retirement planning counselor Rodger Alan Friedman, CRPC, is worried too. He says, "Getting the retirement equation right is no more a do-it-yourself exercise than home root-canal kits The vast majority of Americans will not thrive in retirement. That is reserved for people who understand the risks they face in the later stages of their lives. They acknowledge that preparation is necessary and they do the intelligent thingthey seek help."
In his new book, Fire Your Retirement Planner You: Concise Advice on How to Join the $100,000 Retirement Club, Friedman builds a case for why amateurs are not up to the challenge of maximizing their retirement assets.
He can talk about:
3 simple steps to take now to get serious about saving for retirement.
10 questions that determine if you are a retirement-planning underachiever.
What Elvis would likely be shilling, if he were alive.
What not to include in your retirement plan.
Why so few manage to make it into the $100,000 a year retirement income club and how checking your ego and being coachable can help you get there.
a year retirement income club and how checking your ego and being coachable can help you get there. And much, much more.
Friedman's new book, Fire Your Retirement Planner You: Concise Advice on How to Join the $100,000 Retirement Club, can be purchased by visiting his website RodgeronRetirement.com or Amazon. It is priced at $13.95.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rodger Alan Friedman is a chartered retirement planning counselor and financial advisor with more than 30 years' experience in the industry. He is also author of Forging Bonds Of Steel: How to Build a Successful and Lasting Relationship with Your Financial Advisor.
AVAILABILITY: Washington, D.C. metro area, nationwide by arrangement and via telephone
CONTACT: Rodger Alan Friedman, (844) 3MY-PLAN; [email protected]
SOURCE Rodger Alan Friedman
Ms. Robic has more than 17 years of insurance experience in commercial underwriting and management, and during the course of her career has served in a number of positions of increasing responsibilities in Canada, most recently serving as EVP, Canadian Region Manager, Commercial Insurance. She will be based in Whitehouse Station and will report to Fran O'Brien, Senior Vice President, Chubb Group, Division President, North America Personal Risk Services.
"Ana is a highly strategic leader and has deep expertise in underwriting, product distribution, service, technology and staffing that will enable us to provide innovative products and services to our high-net-worth customers, as well as support our agent and broker partners. I look forward to working with Ana in her new role," said Ms. O'Brien.
Ms. Robic succeeds C. Scott Gunter, who, as previously announced, will serve as Senior Vice President, Chubb Group, Division President, North America Commercial Insurance.
Ms. Robic has an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University (Ontario, Canada) and has executive management certificates from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and Smith College.
About Chubb
Chubb is 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. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at www.chubb.com.
Chubb Insurance Company of Canada has offices in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver and provides its products and services through licensed insurance brokers across Canada. For additional information, visit: chubb.com/ca.
SOURCE Chubb
Related Links
http://www.chubb.com
LONDON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
HIGHLIGHTS:
Consumer online lender 4finance Group is using the FICO TONBELLER Siron Anti-Financial Crime Solutions in the FICO Analytic Cloud to ensure regulatory compliance with requirements of the 4 th EU Anti Money Laundering directive
is using the FICO TONBELLER Siron Anti-Financial Crime Solutions in the FICO Analytic Cloud to ensure regulatory compliance with requirements of the 4 EU Anti Money Laundering directive Founded in 2008, 4finance Group operates in 17 countries today and has made loans exceeding 4 billion
and has made loans exceeding FICO TONBELLER's Siron solutions address anti-money laundering, customer due diligence, CTF (counter terrorism financing) and other compliance requirements globally
Silicon Valley analytic software firm FICO today announced that consumer online lender 4finance Group is using the FICO TONBELLER Siron Anti-Financial Crime Solutions to ensure anti-money laundering regulatory compliance across its global network. Supported by the FICO Analytic Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the FICO solution has been deployed by 4finance Group in nine EU countries and in Georgia in six months, and is being rolled out across the rest of the lender's global network.
More information: http://www.tonbeller.com/en/solutions/
Headquartered in Latvia, 4finance Group uses the FICO modules SironAML (Anti-Money Laundering) to monitor customer activity, and Siron KYC (know your customer) to do customer due diligence, including PEP (politically exposed persons) sanctions, and known criminals screening.
4finance Group had sought a global AML/KYC service to help address the upcoming 4th EU Anti Money Laundering directive compliance requirements. The system had to execute compliance checks without impacting the fast credit decisions that are a hallmark of 4finance's Group's success.
"We operate in 17 countries that have different regulations, so we needed a flexible compliance platform," said Sanda Laicena, Head of Group Legal and Compliance. "We also need a cloud-based approach that integrates with our systems, many of which we built ourselves. After an exhaustive review of the AML and CTF compliance market, we found that FICO could meet all our needs for flexibility, reliability and performance. The FICO solution will safeguard 4finance Group while ensuring we can provide the best customer service."
Launched in 2008, 4finance Group is Europe's largest online and mobile consumer lender. It has become one of the fastest growing global consumer finance companies, disrupting and reshaping consumer finance, offering fast and convenient access to credit. To date, 4finance Group has made loans totalling 4+ billion. The FICO solution is designed to scale as 4finance's business grows, making it easy to add users, transactional volume and additional capabilities beyond the initial deployment.
"As a fintech leader, 4finance Group has different requirements to a large bank, and places a higher priority on speed and flexibility," said Torsten Mayer, vice president for compliance solutions at FICO. "Our success with 4finance Group proves that FICO TONBELLER can address the needs of the fintech segment as well as banks with various asset values."
FICO TONBELLER's Siron Anti-Financial Crime Solutions suite consists of flexible and highly integrated software modules for anti-money laundering, tax compliance, CTF, end-to-end KYC and other issues, to provide a risk-based approach out-of-the-box. The Siron solutions suite in the cloud integrates data, software and services in an innovative manner that enables users to add new countries or regions in a few days, as opposed to months. The Siron solution leverages the FICO Analytic Cloud and the AWS cloud infrastructure to offer a secure, reliable and high-performance solution and meet the rigorous standards for financial services offerings in the cloud.
The Siron suite is part of FICO's portfolio of solutions for fraud and financial crime, which also includes the FICO Falcon Fraud Platform, protecting more than 2.6 billion payment cards worldwide. FICO acquired TONBELLER in early 2015.
About 4finance Group
4finance is Europe's largest and fastest growing online and mobile consumer lending group, with operations in 17 countries globally. Putting innovative data-driven analysis into all aspects of the business, 4finance has grown rapidly, issuing over EUR 4.0 billion to date in single-payment loans, instalment loans and lines of credit.
4finance operates through a portfolio of market-leading brands with strong regional presence, including Vivus, SMSCredit and Zaplo. A responsible lender, offering simple, convenient and transparent products and service, 4finance is meeting growing customer demand from those under-served by conventional lending.
Established in 2008, 4finance has group offices in Riga (Latvia), London (UK) and Miami (USA), and currently operates in Argentina, Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Finland, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United States. The group also provides consumer and SME lending through TBI Bank, its EU licensed banking operations in Bulgaria and Romania. www.4finance.com
About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 170 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.
Learn more at www.fico.com.
Join the conversation at https://twitter.com/fico & http://www.fico.com/en/blogs/
FICO, TONBELLER, Falcon and Siron are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the US and other countries.
SOURCE FICO
Related Links
http://www.fico.com
CHICAGO, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Victory belongs to a devoted Chicagoland father as well as the Leving legal team whose privilege it was to fight for this dad during the fraught ordeal.
This adoring and involved father of an eleven-year old boy was fearful of losing his son forever. He was desperate to keep his son from being removed from the country. Despite the dad obtaining an order granting him visitation with his son nearly a decade ago, the child's mother recently threatened to flee the USA with her boyfriend and deviously abscond with the child effectively cutting off all meaningful contact between dad and his only son.
With the clock ticking, the mother's flight from the United States imminent, and the real possibility of perhaps never seeing his son again staring this dad in the face the Jeffery M. Leving Dad's Right's litigators James Nieland, Michael Ochoa, and Anthony D'Agostino undeterred answered this dad's desperate call for help.
Working fast and around the clock, D'Agostino sought an administrative passport alert from the U.S. State Department as to the issuance of any passport for their client's son, stymieing any plans of the mother to attempt to leave the country with the child under color of law. Meanwhile, at the state court level, attorney Nieland prepared an Emergency Petition for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction against the child's mother. The next day, attorneys Nieland and Ochoa, went to court, fiercely argued the case and the plight of their client, and won. The judge ruled in their client's favor, granted the restraining order, and not only barred the child's mother from fleeing the State of Illinois and the country, but also demanded that the mother immediately turn possession of the child over to his father.
The court triumph, one of many in Leving's perpetual mission fighting for justice, was almost as gratifying as the reaction of their client to the news that his son would be staying in the United States with him, safe and sound.
For more information on the Law and Fatherhood, follow Jeffery M. Leving on Twitter @fathersmatter and Facebook.
CONTACT: Jennifer Whiteside
312.296.3666
[email protected]
SOURCE Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd.
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DEVEXPERTS, developers of the financial markets' most successful professional retail and institutional trading platforms and providers of one of the largest cloud-based financial data infrastructures, is pleased to announce that they have become the newest member of the VR/AR Association, the global industry association for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality, connecting leading solution providers with brands and customers.
Both the VR/AR Association and Devexperts are dedicated to fostering growth in the virtual reality and augmented reality industries. As a member, Devexperts will participate in the association's initiatives to facilitate VR/AR market growth in a joint effort with other solution providers. In addition, Devexperts has put forward an initiative to found The VRARA FinTech Committee.
FINTECH COMMITTEE MISSION:
To accelerate widespread adoption of VR/AR technology by traditional financial companies (banks, brokers, exchanges), technological FinTech firms and startups around the world in order to improve the customer experience, deliver analytical power, innovative visualizations, gamification and new dimensions of interactivity to user interfaces, and introduce innovative ideas of Mixed Reality collaboration.
One of the main goals of The VRARA FinTech Committee is to analyze the current challenges of industry players and propose innovative and relevant solutions that will help boost the value of VR/AR in the FinTech vertical. The committee will also conduct research with end users for a better understanding of how visualization of large amount of information and the immersion in it influences the quality of financial and analytical decision-making.
"Devexperts has been an established leader in FinTech solutions and services for the Capital Markets industry, and once again challenging the market with this new technology for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality financial analytical applications. We are excited Devexperts have joined the VR/AR Association and are Co-Chairing our FinTech Industry Committee," says Kris Kolo, Global Executive Director of the VR/AR Association.
"We are excited to become a Co-Chairing FinTech committee member in the VR/AR Association and help to make financial data analytics and market data visualization intuitive and reliable in the Virtual and Augmented Reality space," says Dmitry Parilov, Managing Director, dxFeed Data Solutions and Products, Devexperts. "We believe that VR is going to break into our daily life soon and together with The VRARA we see our main role in promoting and supporting the philosophy, the members and developers to make it available to everybody."
About Devexperts:
www.devexperts.com
Headquartered in Munich, Germany, Devexperts, was founded in 2002 and specializes in the development of highly complex software solutions and services for the global Capital Markets industry. Our clients are retail and institutional brokerage houses, exchanges and buy-side firms. The high performance, scalability and integration capabilities of our products and services, along with 24x7x365 monitoring and support, result in some of the global financial industry's most recognized and reliable technology applications. Millions of people trade daily using Devexperts technology.
About the VR/AR Association:
www.thevrara.com
The VR/AR Association (The VRARA) is an international organization designed to foster collaboration between innovative companies and people in the virtual reality and augmented reality ecosystem that accelerates growth, fosters research and education, helps develop industry standards, connects member organizations and promotes the services of member companies.
Media Contact:
Dmitry Parilov
Managing Director, dxFeed Solutions and Products, Devexperts
USA: +1-201-3714130
Germany: +49-89-99952024
[email protected]
Related Links
Devexperts website
The VRARA website
This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com
SOURCE Devexperts
Related Links
http://www.devexperts.com
DENVER and TORONTO and MONTREAL, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct Travel, Inc., one of the top travel management companies in the US, today announced an agreement to merge with Vision Travel, Inc., the largest independent travel management company in Canada.
This move is the first step towards a shared strategy to build a global company. Direct Travel's executive team will remain in place, and will gain the additions of Brian Robertson (President, Vision Travel, Ontario West Region), and Joel Ostrov (President, Quebec East Region).
"We're excited about this opportunity to move business into Canada. It was a natural progression and Vision Travel is a phenomenal company that will add new dimension to our organization," says Ed Adams, CEO of Direct Travel.
"Coming together with Direct Travel makes sense for our business in North America," says Brian Robertson, President, Vision Travel (Ontario West). "Our companies share the same values and commitment to providing our customers with high quality services, and a more personalized approach to travel."
The combined companies will enhance services by extending their global reach, allowing them to fulfill the unique needs of their local markets through stronger relationships and more buying power across one organization. Together, Direct Travel and Vision will provide customers with more choice, while allowing them to continue to work with their established and trusted providers.
"We are excited about what this merger offers our customers," says Joel Ostrov, President, Vision Travel (Quebec East). "We are enhancing our travel management services overall and offering the most advanced technologies to our customers."
Adams adds, "This is a tremendous growth opportunity for both companies and will benefit our clients by broadening our position as leaders in travel well into the future."
With close to 2,000 employees across North America, Direct Travel and Vision Travel represent over $3 billion in sales, and the expanded organization will have offices in over 60 locations.
The agreement is scheduled to be finalized by April 30, 2017.
About Direct Travel
Direct Travel, Inc. is a leading provider of corporate travel management services, established with the goal to create a best-in-class TMC. The company has been providing travel management services for over 40 years; working with clients to develop highly customized travel programs. By leveraging both the expertise of its people and innovative solutions, Direct Travel enables clients to derive the greatest value from their travel program in terms of superior service, progressive technologies, and significant cost savings. Direct Travel has offices in over 45 locations across the US and the UK, and is currently ranked 15th on the Travel Weekly Power List. Direct Travel is also a prominent member of Virtuoso, the world's most prestigious luxury travel network. For more information about Direct Travel, please visit www.dt.com.
Additionally, Direct Travel offers full-service performance improvement solutions, including meeting and event management, group incentive travel and individual recognition solutions through its wholly owned subsidiary Creative Group, Inc. For more information, please visit www.creativegroupinc.com.
About Vision Travel
Vision Travel is a leader in travel management in Canada, employing 725 travel professionals. The company has been providing a full range of corporate, meetings & incentives, leisure and loyalty travel services from coast to coast to a wide spectrum of Canadian companies since 1953. In 2016, Vision Travel was ranked 24th in North America on the Travel Weekly Power List and is a leading member of Virtuoso, the world's most prestigious travel network.
Vision Travel is committed to a more personalized and responsive approach to the business of travel and this is achieved through customer service, exceptional value and trust. Our success is a testament to our valued team members. For more information about Vision Travel, please visit www.visiontravel.ca
Media Contact:
Amanda Wesley, Direct Travel Tel: 201-847-2306 (direct) Mobile: 225-439-8876 Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Direct Travel
Related Links
http://www.dt.com
RICHMOND, Va., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE: D) and Dominion Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: DM), will host their first-quarter earnings conference call at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday, May 4, 2017. Management will discuss first-quarter financial results and other matters of interest to the financial community.
Domestic callers should dial (877) 410-5657. International callers should dial (334) 323-9872. The passcode for the conference call is "Dominion." Participants should dial in 10 to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. Members of the media also are invited to listen.
A live webcast of the conference call, including accompanying slides, and other financial information will be available on the investor information pages at www.dom.com/investors and www.dommidstream.com/investors.
A replay of the conference call will be available beginning about 1 p.m. ET May 4 and lasting until 11 p.m. ET May 11. Domestic callers may access the recording by dialing (877) 919-4059. International callers should dial (334) 323-0140. The PIN for the replay is 72622263. Additionally, a replay of the webcast will be available on the investor information pages by the end of the day May 4.
About Dominion
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 26,400 megawatts of generation, 15,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,600 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves more than 6 million utility and retail energy customers. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com.
About Dominion Midstream
Dominion Midstream is a Delaware limited partnership formed by Dominion Resources, Inc., to grow a portfolio of natural gas terminaling, processing, storage, transportation and related assets. It is headquartered in Richmond, Va. For more information about Dominion Midstream, visit its website at www.dommidstream.com.
SOURCE Dominion Resources, Inc.; Dominion Midstream Partners, LP
HACKETTSTOWN, N.J., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Centenary University celebrated the inauguration of Dr. David P. Haney, the institution's 13th President this past Friday (April 7, 2017). This historic event is part of Centenary's 150th anniversary schedule of events. The reception includes music from Sleepy Man, which is a nationally recognized alternative bluegrass band that has been featured on The David Letterman Show and The Today Show. Two of the band members, Robbie and Tommy Mizzone, are Centenary University Business Administration: Finance students who will be graduating in 2020.
Dr. David P. Haney Is Inaugurated as 13th President of Centenary University
This celebration included inspiring speeches from different Centenary constituencies, including a keynote address from Dr. Rosalind Reichard, President of Emory & Henry College 2006-2013, Interim Provost at St. Joseph's University and Centenary University Trustee. Norman Worth, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and General Manager and President of WRNJ Radio, was the Master of Ceremonies. Student involvement included speeches from representatives of Enactus and student government. A musical interlude was featured from Centenary Stage Company's production of "Into the Woods."
"Dr. Haney has proven to be an effective leader since he began his tenure last July," says Wolfgang Gstattenbauer '84/13, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Centenary University. "The Centenary community is extremely fortunate to have such a talented and innovative administrator at the helm. It is especially significant that his inauguration takes place during this year, which is a major milestone for the institution."
Dr. Haney's speech focused on Centenary's role in the current higher education and regional landscape, highlighting initiatives that are growing out of the current strategic planning process.
Dr. Haney was appointed the 13th president of Centenary University in July 2016, after serving for four years as the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Emory & Henry College, a liberal arts college in Southwest Virginia. He has also held administrative and faculty positions at Appalachian State University, Black Hills State University, Auburn University, and Swarthmore College. He began his administrative career as Dean of Students at the Cambridge School of Weston, an independent secondary boarding and day school in Weston, Massachusetts.
During his first months at Centenary, Dr. Haney has reorganized the university's senior administration so as to support new initiatives in curriculum, international education, campus business practices, and collaboration with other institutions and the community. Using the principles of human-centered design, he is leading a campus-wide strategic planning process that emphasizes educational value, innovation, organizational health, fiscal responsibility, and community engagement. He has met with the staff and faculty of every department on campus, and he has visited local and state officials as well as presidents of other institutions of higher education in the region.
Dr. Haney holds an MA and PhD in English from the University at Buffalo and a BA in English from Macalester College.
For more information visit CentenaryUniversity.edu/Inauguration.
Founded in 1867 by the Newark Conference of the United Methodist Church, Centenary University's academic program integrates a solid liberal arts foundation with a strong career orientation. This mix is designed to provide an educational experience that prepares students to succeed in the increasingly global and interdependent world.
Centenary University's main campus is located in Hackettstown, N.J., with its equestrian facility in Washington Township (Morris County). The Centenary School of Professional Studies offers degree programs online, as well as in two locations: Parsippany and Edison, online, as well as corporate sites throughout New Jersey.
CONTACT: Annamaria Lalevee
908-852-1400, ext. 2238
[email protected]
SOURCE Centenary University
Related Links
http://CentenaryUniversity.edu/Inauguration
TROY, Mich., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- America's job market remains healthy. Thanks to a combination of post-recession economic forces unleashed during the Obama presidency and the Trump optimism regarding anticipated middle-class tax cuts and business de-regulation, February's jobs numbers are encouraging. The U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent.
But the above data is only part of the story. Despite these gains, under-employment remains a problem, and non-employment, while improved, still has a long way to go before economists breathe a sigh of relief. For instance, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics in 1953, only 4 percent of men ages 25 to 54 didn't have a job. Today that figure is about 15 percent, down from 20 percent at the height of the recession.
Recognizing that more work needs to be done in the effort to achieve full employment, Employment BOOST, a Michigan-based leading resume writing and editing company, recently announced it will be launching a free webinars series designed to help individuals who are returning to the workforce, recent college graduates looking for work, and older workers transitioning careers. The kickoff webinar will run April 26 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EDT and will focus on the basics of resume writing and the building blocks to creating a high-quality career document.
"Webinars like the one Employment BOOST is creating is a great way to reach the maximum number of people for the lowest cost," says James Phillip, Employment BOOST's founder and CEO. "Whether you're a recent college graduate, someone who is returning to the workforce after a several year or several decade absence, or are transitioning careers, everyone knows how fast the pace of the jobs market has become. Professional obsolescence is a legitimate concern whether you're 22 or 62. And our web series is designed to offer quick-hitting, easily adaptable advice to help workers and would-be workers re-ignite their careers."
Despite the increasingly digital world in which we live, where 140-character tweets garner more attention than full-fledged news articles, resumes remain a vital tool in helping individuals land a job. At a basic level, resumes are written documents designed as bulleted summaries of one's career and evolving responsibilities.
Great resumes, however, reveal a person's narrative the story that has brought them to a particular interview. Rather than being dull laundry lists, great resumes say something inspiring, while at the same time are careful to avoid cliches and an overuse of keyword stuffers like: experience, leadership, and management, among others. Thus, writing a resume requires more than selecting adequate words or replicating free templates. From keyword indexing to understanding talent acquisition systems and screeners, job searching in the new economy changes on a daily basis.
"The bottom line is that if you're frustrated by your resume's lack of performance, or you are just curious about resume best practices, this is the webinar for you," Phillip says. "Whether in-person or online, we take the guesswork and hassle out of the resume writing process so you can spend more time job searching. We're confident that our webinar series will be the career boost you're looking for and will grow to become a vital addition to our company's offerings."
To learn more about this webinar event and to register for free please visit the following link at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-basic-resume-writing-tickets-32530123475#tickets.
About Employment BOOST
Employment BOOST credits its unique success to its unparalleled access to more than a dozen company-owned recruiting firms, human resource consultants, outplacement services, and career management professionals. With access to top national executive search consultants, the company's professional resume writers receive the inside track to what hiring managers in both the public and private sector seek.
The company also uses an in-house resume database that contains hundreds of thousands of resumes in order to compare an applicant's resume against competitors, so that they feel assured their resume is in the top 1 percent.
Press Contact
Ryan Miller
[email protected]
248-918-4681
This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com
SOURCE Employment BOOST
HOUSTON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Esperance Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical stage company developing novel targeted membrane-disrupting peptides to treat cancer, today announced the appointment of Dr. Mark Pegram, MD, as a Scientific Advisor. Dr. Pegram is a renowned breast cancer clinician and scholar who is an expert in translational medicine. He is currently the Susy Yuan-Huey Hung Professor, MedicineOncology at Stanford Medical, Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute's Stanford Breast Oncology Program, and Co-Director of the Translational Oncology Research Program at Stanford. Dr. Pegram will provide guidance on the clinical development of Esperance's anticancer product candidates including the company's lead product EP-100.
EP-100 is the first in a novel class of targeted anticancer therapeutics. It is a membrane-disrupting peptide designed to seek and destroy cancer cells that overexpress luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) receptors on their surfaces. LHRH receptors are overexpressed in a wide range of cancers including ovarian, breast, prostate, pancreatic and endometrial cancer. In a Phase II clinical trial in ovarian cancer patients who had developed resistance to paclitaxel (Taxol). EP-100 re-sensitized the cancer to the anti-tumor effects of paclitaxel, which is a front-line agent for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Based on these promising results, Esperance entered into a strategic alliance with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, to accelerate clinical development of EP-100 in ovarian cancer and breast cancer.
"Dr. Pegram is a world-renowned leader in breast cancer research and development, and we are honored that he will serve as a Scientific Advisor to Esperance," noted Hector Alila, PhD, CEO of Esperance Pharmaceuticals. "Our strategic alliance with MD Anderson Cancer Center has enabled us to make substantial progress in the development of EP-100, and we expect that Dr. Pegram's involvement will help us further strengthen and accelerate the clinical program."
"An important focus of my research is translational medicineensuring that scientific advances in the laboratory reach patients in an expeditious and efficient way," noted Dr. Pegram. "I therefore welcome the opportunity to work with Esperance on the development of EP-100 for breast and ovarian cancer. The company's targeted membrane disrupting platform technology has demonstrated potential as a promising new approach to treating a number of the many cancers that overexpress LHRH receptors."
Dr. Alila added, "We recently launched a Series C financing to help fund clinical development of EP-100, and we view the active support of leading cancer researchers and institutions such as Dr. Pegram and MD Anderson as a valuable confirmation of the anticancer potential of EP-100."
Dr. Pegram's commitment to translational science includes having played a major role in developing the breast cancer drug Herceptin. His laboratory experiments demonstrated that combining Herceptin with chemotherapy killed cancer cells that overproduced the growth factor HER2. Dr. Pegram and others then conducted clinical trials showing that Herceptin improved survival rates in, and even cured, some breast cancer patients--one of the premier examples of bench-to-bedside translational research. Dr. Pegram's current research includes a continued focus on the HER2 gene and he also is pursuing strategies to target the hormone receptors implicated in the majority of breast cancers.
Prior to joining Stanford University, Dr. Pegram spent five years at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where he was a Sylvester Chair Professor of Medicine in the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute and Associate Director for Clinical Research at the University's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Earlier in his career, Dr. Pegram served on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Pegram earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of North Carolina. He has authored and co-authored numerous scientific publications.
About EP-100
EP-100, the lead candidate from Esperance's Cationic Lytic Peptide (CLYP) platform technology, is a precision targeted membranedisrupting peptide designed to seek and destroy cancer cells that overexpress luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) receptors on their surfaces. LHRH receptors are overexpressed in a wide range of cancers including breast, prostate, endometrial, pancreatic, ovarian, blood, skin and testicular cancers. In a Phase II clinical trial, EP-100 demonstrated positive results in ovarian cancer patients resistant to paclitaxel, and it has shown promising activity in preclinical studies in breast and pancreatic cancer. Esperance is developing EP-100 for ovarian and breast cancer as part of a strategic alliance with the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The company's patented technology was discovered by scientists at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC) and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, EP-100 was developed at PBRC as part of a sponsored research agreement funded by Esperance under the leadership of Dr. Hector Alila and Pennington's Dr. Carola Leuschner, who is now Vice President of Research and Development at Esperance.
About Esperance Pharmaceuticals
Esperance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical stage company developing a new class of targeted anticancer drugs using its Cationic Lytic Peptide (CLYP) platform technology. These drug candidates include targeted membrane-disrupting peptides and antibody drug conjugates that selectively seek and destroy cancer cells, including cells known to be resistant to chemotherapeutic drugs, without harming normal cells. Lead candidate EP-100 has successfully completed a Phase II trial in ovarian cancer patients resistant to paclitaxel and is in late preclinical development for breast cancer. Esperance has relocated to Houston, Texas and is conducting these programs as part of a strategic alliance with the MD Anderson Cancer Center. For more information, visit esperancepharma.com.
Contacts
Corporate Media Esperance Pharmaceuticals BLL Partners LLC Dr. Hector Alila Barbara Lindheim [email protected] [email protected]
212 584-2276
SOURCE Esperance Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Related Links
http://esperancepharma.com
Top 10 Major Airline in Asia Pacific and Best Airline-Taiwan
TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's largest travel site, TripAdvisor, has revealed airlines as a brand-new Travelers' Choice Awards category and honored EVA Air with two distinctions, "Top 10 Major Airline in Asia Pacific" and "Best Airline Taiwan." TripAdvisor honored the world's top carriers based on the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings gathered over a 12-month period for airlines worldwide. In addition to serving major cities throughout Asia, Taiwan-based EVA flies to Europe, Oceania and North America where gateways are Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver. Travelers can learn more about EVA and its services at www.evaair.com.
EVA is honored to be recognized by TripAdvisor in its inaugural Travelers Choice awards for airlines in two categories, Top 10 Major Airline in Asia Pacific and Best Airline-Taiwan.
"We are thrilled to be recognized by TripAdvisor in its inaugural Travelers' Choice awards for airlines," said EVA President Derek Chen. "As much as we are honored and humbled by this distinction, we are deeply appreciative of the satisfaction our passengers expressed in their ratings and reviews of our services."
TripAdvisor recognized 50 airlines from five regions, Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific. EVA earned its position among the honorees as the sole winner in Taiwan and a standout in the Asia Pacific region.
"We are proud to announce the inaugural Travelers' Choice awards for airlines to help travelers make the most well-informed air travel decisions based on the experiences of the global TripAdvisor community," said Bryan Saltzburg, senior vice president and general manager for TripAdvisor Flights. "These awards recognize the carriers offering the very best experiences and value to the traveling public."
EVA is one of only nine airlines worldwide to earn SKYTRAX's 5-Star rating for the highest global quality. SKYTRAX, Travel + Leisure and AirlineRatings.com have ranked it among the world's Top-10 Best International Airlines.
About EVA Air:
EVA Air, a Star Alliance member, was established in 1989 as Taiwan's first privately owned international airline. It is part of the respected Evergreen Group and a sister company to global container-shipping leader Evergreen Line. It flies a fleet of over 70 Boeing and Airbus aircraft to more than 60 international destinations and, with just one easy stop in Taipei, travelers can connect onward to most major cities throughout Asia, including 25 destinations in Mainland China. Travelers can learn more about EVA, schedule and book and buy tickets at www.evaair.com.
About TripAdvisor :
TripAdvisor offers advice from millions of travelers with 465 million reviews and opinions covering 7 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions, and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching 390 million average unique monthly visitors** in 49 markets worldwide. TripAdvisor, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages and operates websites under 23 other travel media brands.
SOURCE EVA Air
Related Links
http://www.evaair.com
WAYNE, Pa., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolve IP, The Cloud Services Company, today announced the release of the Global Evolved Office (GEO), its international Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) product suite. GEO provides the same feature rich calling experience as Evolve IP's cloud communications services for users in the United States including LNP (Local Number Portability), DID (Direct Inward Dialing), Toll Free and Emergency services, along with Evolve IP's award-winning business collaboration features. GEO is now available in over 20 countries throughout Europe and will be available in Australia, New Zealand and select countries in the Asia Pacific region in 2Q 2017. Evolve IP is expanding its international presence to target emerging enterprise market opportunities and to support the current growth of its customer base.
In addition to GEO, Evolve IP provides DID services to users in an additional 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. For businesses with locations that fall outside of the core footprint, Evolve IP delivers a unique international hybrid model allowing for nearly ubiquitous coverage for customers all around the globe. The approach leverages existing local dial tone with an Evolve IP gateway and SBC on-site, effectively creating a local POP. Meanwhile, all features, signaling and user management continue to be serviced from the Evolve IP cloud.
Additionally, to support the technology, increase intellectual property development and grow Evolve IP's international footprint, Evolve IP has entered into a definitive agreement to expand its existing software development and customer support teams into Tel Aviv, Israel.
"We have been actively expanding our international capabilities over the last two years and are very excited by the growth opportunities that GEO will provide," said Guy Fardone, President and Founding Partner of Evolve IP. "To date, we've supported these initiatives through innovative product development and the next phase is an extension to the geographies where our customers have led us. We're looking forward to providing additional coverage options and data centers both organically and through M&A activities."
One of the nation's fastest growing cloud companies, Evolve IP provides cloud services in virtually every industry including: healthcare, legal, insurance, banking, technology, travel, veterinary medicine and retail and to some of the world's most recognizable brands. The company's Evolve IP OneCloudTM solution allows organizations to migrate multiple cloud computing and cloud communications services onto a single, unified platform including: virtual servers, virtual desktops, disaster recovery, IP phone systems / unified communications, contact centers and more.
ABOUT EVOLVE IP
Evolve IP is The Cloud Services Company. Designed from the beginning to provide organizations with a unified option for cloud services, Evolve IP enables decision-makers to migrate all or select IT technologies to its award-winning cloud platform. Evolve IP's combination of security, stability, scalability, and lower total cost of ownership is fundamentally superior to outdated legacy systems and other cloud offerings. Today the company's services, including virtual servers, virtual desktops, disaster recovery, IP phone systems / unified communications, contact centers and more, are deployed by more than 1,300 commercial business accounts with a combined 130,000+ users, licensed seats and managed end points. Visit www.EvolveIP.net for more information.
PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12631728
SOURCE Evolve IP
Related Links
http://www.evolveip.net
CHICAGO, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), along with the College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College, has chosen the Ex Libris Alma library management service and the Ex Libris Primo discovery and delivery platform.
The UNLV University Libraries, UNLV Law Library, the College of Southern Nevada, and Nevada State College are the core academic libraries of Southern Nevada. In addition, the Desert Research Institute's library in Las Vegas will also join in migrating to the selected systems. All institutions are members of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). Ex Libris provides a fully operational cloud-based platform that increases efficiency; streamlines workflows; consolidates the management of physical, electronic, and digital collections; provides robust discovery of all types of library resources, including locally created digital assets; and offers top-quality reporting and analytics features. The Alma platform's resource management and capability to integrate with existing infrastructures and third-party systems, such as UNLV's automated storage and retrieval system (LASR), were major factors in UNLV's decision. More than 500 customers, many of whose collections and budgets are similar to UNLV in size, are using Alma today.
The Alma platform's unified approach to managing electronic resources eliminates the duplication of activities and reduces the need to enter information into multiple systems. Built-in workflow rules and task lists enable the library staff to focus more on exceptions that require human intervention and thus spend less time on routine tasks, which can be automated. Additionally, the integration of the Alma knowledge base and external sources of data (for example, vendor databases) expedites the process of making newly acquired resources discoverable by patrons.
Patricia Iannuzzi, Dean of the University Libraries at UNLV, noted, "Student learning is the core of our mission at the UNLV University Libraries and we selected Alma and Primo with this in mind. Alma and Primo offer a fully functional and fully unified solution that will enhance discovery of all library resourcesprint, electronic, and locally-created digital assets. Through greater discoverability and access we will facilitate student learning and student success."
"We are delighted that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, together with the College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College, has opted for Ex Libris Alma and Primo, and we look forward to welcoming these institutions to our community of academic libraries," commented Eric Hines, president of Ex Libris North America. "This southern Nevada partnership has a strong tradition of collaboration, and Ex Libris is excited to be able to address the schools' requirements and to help the libraries enhance their services for their patrons."
About the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), located in Paradise, Nevada, is a research-intensive university with a focus on science and technology, business management, and law. The university is also known for its music, education, and architecture programs, and its hospitality programs have received some of the highest rankings in the nation. A member of the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), UNLV University Libraries consists of the main Lied Library and the Architecture Studies Library, Health Sciences Library, Music Library, and Teacher Development and Resources Library. UNLV also includes the largest law library in the state, the Wiener-Rogers Law Library. Visit the UNLV website at https://www.unlv.edu/.
About the College of Southern Nevada
Located in Clark County, Nevada, the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) is the largest higher education institution in the state and a member of the Nevada System of Higher Education. In addition to its large offering of two-year degrees, CSN has four-year programs in dental hygiene, medical lab science, respiratory sciences, and fire and emergency services administration. Visit the College of Southern Nevada's website at https://www.csn.edu/.
About Nevada State College
Nevada State College, in Henderson, Nevada, is the state's only four-year public college and is part of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). Established in 2002, the college has an enrollment of over 3,500 students and a focus on high-demand majors and minors. Curriculum at NSC is developed based on the needs of Nevada communities, business and industry, and the demands of its students. Its top programs include nursing, business administration, biology, education, and psychology. Visit the Nevada State College website at http://www.nsc.edu/.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for higher education. Offering SaaS solutions for the management and discovery of the full spectrum of library and scholarly materials, as well as mobile campus solutions driving student engagement and success, Ex Libris serves thousands of customers in 90 countries. For more information about Ex Libris, see our website, and join us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
SOURCE Ex Libris
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BlockchainOS has engaged EYC3, EY's Asia-Pacific data and analytics capability, to support development of the BOScoin cryptocurrency.
EY's footprint across 150 countries, their global experience in blockchain and cryptocurrency coupled with their leading data and analytics capabilities are critical to the strategy behind the platform.
BOScoin : Self-Evolving Cryptocurrency Platform EY is very excited to support the BOScoin Platform and sees a very strong potential in blockchain technology for both consumers and businesses.
"EY is very excited to support the BOScoin Platform and sees a very strong potential in blockchain technology for both consumers and businesses," Gwang Rim Yi, Partner for EYC3 Seoul office.
EY will utilise their expertise in the governance realm, drawing from their wide range of experience it has from working with global enterprises and applying it to the BOScoin platform's self-evolving governance system.
"Having the support from such a renowned firm provides us with the global reach and will help provide direction to the design of the platform," CK Park, Chairman of BOScoin.
Most recently BlockchainOS presented the BOScoin platform concept at meetups in Berlin and London, answering questions from the wider community on various interest areas including technical, architecture and design; to applications, operations and governance.
BOScoin is a self-evolving cryptocurrency platform for Trust Contracts. Trust Contracts are self-executing programs on the blockchain similar to smart contracts. BOScoin Trust Contracts provide the foundations for a secure, self-evolving system where non-technical users can also create immutable and shareable contracts on the blockchain.
With US$3 million raised from pre-ICO funding, the official ICO scheduled to commence in a month's time invites the public to participate in the international cryptocurrency platform.
Website - https://boscoin.io
Email - [email protected]
Related Links
BOScoin Website
BOScoin Facebook
Related Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLUivCe_7Cc
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SOURCE BOS Platform Foundation
Related Links
https://boscoin.io
BROOMFIELD, Colo., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Webroot, the market leader in next-generation endpoint security, network security, and threat intelligence, hired Gary Hayslip as chief information security officer (CISO). Hayslip will guide the company's information security program and contribute to product strategy. His real-world expertise will help ensure Webroot meets and anticipates the needs of its millions of consumer customers and more than 160,000 business customers.
"Gary has been at the leading edge of cybersecurity innovation for decades, most recently with his Smart City initiative for San Diego," said John Post, chief financial officer of Webroot. "He literally co-wrote the book on best practices for CISOs, and will strengthen our internal InfoSec rigor, while serving as the voice of our most advanced customers for product development."
Hayslip will provide enterprise risk management for Webroot, helping the company cultivate its security program in a flexible and secure manner to meet Webroot's growing needs. He will be responsible for the development and implementation of all information security strategies at Webroot, including the creation and enforcement of the company's information security policies, standards, procedures and internal controls. In his role, Hayslip will regularly interface with customers, especially MSPs, to help them realize the potential of advanced cybersecurity to build their businesses.
"Webroot is a forward-leaning company in the security space," Hayslip said. "I'm excited to lead conversations around the 'Internet of Everything,' and focus on helping partners build profitable security practices."
Before joining Webroot, Hayslip was CISO and deputy director for the City of San Diego where he was the driving force behind the Smart City initiative. Additionally, Hayslip worked with local, regional, state and federal agencies on issues related to cybersecurity and the protection of local government critical infrastructure. He is co-chair for Cybertech and an active member of ISSA, ISACA, OWASP, and InfraGard. Hayslip's certifications include CISSP, CISA, and CRISC, and more than 25 years' experience in information security. He is a co-author of the CISO Desk Reference Guide.
About Webroot
Webroot delivers next-generation endpoint security and network security and threat intelligence services to protect businesses and individuals around the globe. Our smarter approach harnesses the power of cloud-based collective threat intelligence derived from millions of real-world devices to stop threats in real time and help secure the connected world. Our award-winning SecureAnywhere endpoint solutions, BrightCloud Threat Intelligence Services, and FlowScape solution protect millions of devices across businesses, home users, and the Internet of Things. Webroot is trusted and integrated by market-leading companies, including Cisco, F5 Networks, Aruba, Palo Alto Networks, A10 Networks, and more. Headquartered in Colorado, Webroot operates globally across North America, Europe, and Asia. Discover Smarter Cybersecurity solutions at www.webroot.com.
Social Media: Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook
2017 Webroot Inc. All rights reserved. Webroot, SecureAnywhere, Webroot SecureAnywhere, Webroot BrightCloud, BrightCloud, and Smarter Cybersecurity are trademarks or registered trademarks of Webroot Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
SOURCE Webroot
Related Links
https://www.webroot.com
LAS VEGAS, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- GB Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: GBLX) and Arizona-based Kush Cups signed an agreement Tuesday to produce cannabis-infused products in the state of Nevada.
GB Sciences utilizes advanced propagation technology, raw tissue, and grows in medical-grade clean rooms, so that the venture is ensured of consistent cannabis ingredients for its infused products.
"We've paired with a strong partner here. We are confident GB Sciences will distribute the Kush Cups successfully in Nevada," said Rick Chavez, founder of Kush Cups Nevada LLC.
GB Sciences will grow the cannabis in their state-of-the-art Cultivation Labs facility in Las Vegas and distribute cannabis-infused Keurig-compatible K-Cups, hot and cold brew coffees as well as infused teas.
"We're excited to join forces with Kush Cups. They have an excellent line of products and are the leaders in their space in Nevada," said GB Sciences CEO John Poss. "Our partnership is positioned for maximum impact in the Nevada market. It is the first major step in our strategy to be a trusted ingredient in leading brands of infused products and therapies."
About GB Sciences, Inc.
GB Sciences, Inc. (GBLX) is a diverse cannabis company, focused on standardized cultivation and production methods; as well as biopharmaceutical research and development. The Company's goal is creating safe, standardized, pharmaceutical-grade, cannabinoid therapies that target a variety of medical conditions. To learn more about GB Sciences, Inc., go to: www.GBSciences.com.
About Kush Cups
With over 15 years of marijuana edible manufacturing experience, the team at Kush Cups sources the highest quality strains in the manufacturing of the best medicinal coffee and teas in the industry, and is the only manufacturer producing products compatible for Keurig machines.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain statements relating to future results or events, which are forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects", "intends", "plans", "may", "could", "should", "anticipates", "likely", "believes" and words of similar import may identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts, but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. It is possible that the Company's actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements. Further, information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's business and financial and other results, are contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or correct any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or of which we hereafter become aware.
Note: Although the Company's research and development activities are not illegal, the production and sale of cannabis products violate federal laws as they presently exist.
Contact Information
Corporate:
GB Sciences, Inc., 3550 West Teco Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89118
866-721-0297, or
Liz Bianco Publicity Director, [email protected]
Investors: John Poss, [email protected]
SOURCE GB Sciences, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.GBSciences.com
The Smart Flow spout's opening is customized based on what's inside, so it helps provide the appropriate amount per squeeze. Also, because many of those hungry and excited little ones are feeding themselves, Gerber introduced soft sides and rounded edges that are gentle on their mouths and hands.
"At Gerber, we always start by listening to our customers parents and babies! Our Smart Flow spout is just one example of how we are constantly looking for innovative ways to help nurture happy and healthy babies," said Aileen Stocks, Chief Marketing Officer. "As a mother of two, I know how important and convenient pouches are for parents. Nothing is ever 100-percent mess free when it comes to little ones, but our new spout helps make mealtime a positive experience for everyone."
Over the last five years, pouches have been a steady growth driver for the infant food category, becoming a staple item for moms and their babies. Gerber's new Smart Flow pouch began to appear on shelves at the end of 2016 with most major retailers having it available in stores now.
"At Gerber, we seek to make food that is nutritious and delicious for your little one," said Sarah Smith-Simpson, Senior Scientist of Child Development and Consumer Insights for Nestle Nutrition Meals and Drinks. "Our focus with the Smart Flow spout was to develop a feature that combines the nutritious food in our pouches with better function. The new opening in our spout helps control the flow of food, giving those tiny toddler hands more control over the amount that comes out without letting too much ooze out on their clothes, tray or floor."
To kick off the launch, Gerber is releasing a new, integrated advertising campaign called "#PouchWin." The campaign features toddlers in a series of real life moments that all moms can relate to when that convenient pouch suddenly becomes an inconvenient mess, or what Gerber calls a #PouchFail. But, with the new Smart Flow spout, #PouchFails turn into #PouchWins, getting nutrition in toddlers, not on them.
For more information, including all the flavors and benefits of the new and exclusive Smart Flow pouches, visit gerber.com/smartflow.
About Gerber
Gerber was founded in 1928 in Fremont, Michigan. Gerber Products Company joined the Nestle family on September 1, 2007. Gerber Products Company is a leader in early childhood nutrition.
SOURCE Gerber
Related Links
http://www.gerber.com
LONDON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- About Dinner RTE Foods
There are many factors contributing to the growth of the global dinner RTE foods market. Need for convenience and on-the-go food products is one of the primary reasons for a rise in the demand for RTE foods globally, and hence the growth of the market. The growth in the organized retail increases the product availability to customers through different channels, helping vendors to increase their profit margin in the market. Packaging innovations are expected to help the demand for RTE products during the forecast period, as clean product labeling and neatly packaged products attract more customers. An increase in sales through online channels is expected to increase the demand during the forecast period
Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4796538/
Technavio's analysts forecast the global dinner RTE foods market to grow at a CAGR of 6.15% during the period 2017-2021.
Covered in this report
The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global dinner RTE foods market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.
The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:
- Americas
- APAC
- EMEA
Technavio's report, Global Dinner RTE Foods Market 2017-2021, 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
- General Mills
- ITC
- Kraft Heinz
- Nestle
- Unilever
Other prominent vendors
- Greencore Group
- Hormel Foods
- JBS
- Sigma Alimentos
- Smithfield Foods
- Findus
- Schwan's Shared Services
- Tyson Foods
Market driver
- Rise in number of working women and rising number of single households.
- For a full, detailed list, view our report
Market challenge
- Health concerns associated with RTE food products.
- For a full, detailed list, view our report
Market trend
- High demand for premium RTE food products.
- For a full, detailed list, view our report
Key questions answered in this report
- What will the market size be in 2021 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?
You can request one free hour of our analyst's time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.
Methodology
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For more information:
Sarah Smith
Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 208 816 85 48
Website: www.reportbuyer.com
SOURCE ReportBuyer
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PORTLAND, Ore., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Denver Consulting Group (www.denverconsultinggroup.com), the nation's leading cannabis industry consultants, announced that their client, Gram Central Station, was awarded a coveted dispensary license in Portland, Oregon.
Dispensary owners Frank and Erin Wallace also operate Sirius Flower Farms, a cultivator that is famous for their popular "Sirius Black" strain. The flower has been featured in High Times Magazine, as well as Northwest Leaf and Dope Magazine. The couple also owns Sirius Extracts, one of the state's most recognized and award-winning producers of fine extracts.
Denver Consulting Group, under the leadership of Justin Jones, company Co-Founder and Northwest Territory Director, has provided an array of services to all three companies, including licensing application support.
"We are very pleased with our relationship with Denver Consulting Group," said Frank Wallace, CEO of Gram Central Station, Sirius Extracts, and Sirius Flower Farms. "They have given us a tremendous amount of support, guidance, and direction that has positively impacted our businesses."
Justin Jones, a leading figure in the Washington and Oregon cannabis industry, said that he enjoys helping his clients succeed.
"When we help our clients navigate through regulatory hurdles, streamline operations, improve profits, or obtain necessary licenses, it has a great impact on their business and on their lives," he commented. "It gives me great personal satisfaction to help people reach their goals and become more successful."
Denver Consulting Group has a team of experts with unparalleled depth in all phases of the cannabis industry. Whether dispensary operations and cultivation, licensing and compliance, human resources or legal, Denver Consulting Group has the skills to guide, improve and enhance new and existing marijuana businesses.
For information on Denver Consulting Group, call:
Colorado: 720-890-7344
Pacific Northwest: 503-862-3030
Or visit: www.denverconsultinggroup.com.
About DCG
DCG is the nation's premier cannabis consulting company, and offers a range of services designed to help clients succeed in the legal marijuana industry, build powerful brands, optimize operations, improve profitability, and remain compliant.
Services include license application support, real estate acquisition, dispensary design, grow facility design and optimization, staff training, SOP Manuals, seed-to-sale system implementation, and regulatory audits.
DCG helps cannabis businesses get established, stay compliant, and thrive.
Connect:
Facebook: Facebook.com/dankconsulting
Twitter: @dankconsulting
Blog: http://denverconsultinggroup.com/category/cannabis-consulting-blog-marijuana-industry/
Media Inquiries:
Innovation Agency
310-571-5592
www.inov8.us
hello(@)inov8.us
SOURCE Denver Consulting Group
Related Links
http://www.denverconsultinggroup.com
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Trends, opportunities and forecast in this market to 2022 by application type (interior, exterior, power train system/engine components, chassis system, under the body systems, electrical and electronics and others), intermediate material (SMC and BMC, LFT, SFT, CFT,GMT, PMC, Others (PU resin), product (Chopped and Roving), by country ( US, Canada, Mexico, Germany ,UK, France, Italy, Spain ,China ,India ,Brazil) regional (North America, Europe APAC and ROW)
Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04804597/Growth-Opportunities-in-the-Global-Automotive-Glass-Fiber-Composites-Market.html
The future of global automotive glass fiber composites market looks good with opportunities in various applications such as exterior, interior, power train system/engine components, chassis system, electrical and electronics, under body system, and others. Glass fiber in the global automotive composites market is expected to reach an estimated $2.7 billion by 2022 and it is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2017 to 2022. The major growth drivers for this market are increasing automotive production and growing demand for lightweight and durable materials due to stringent government regulations to increase fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Emerging trends, which have a direct impact on the dynamics of the industry, include strategic alliances between OEMs, glass fiber, and resin suppliers in the automotive composites industry.
Automotive glass fiber composites market by Application Type (Value ($M) and Volume (M lbs) from 2011 to 2022):
- Interior
- Exterior
- Under the body systems
- Chassis System
- Power train system/Engine Components
- Electrical and Electronics
- Others
Automotive glass fiber composites market by Intermediates Type (Value ($M) and Volume (M lbs) from 2011 to 2022):
- Sheet Molding Compound (SMC)
- Bulk Molding Compound (BMC)
- Glass Mat Thermoplastic (GMT)
- Short Fiber Thermoplastic (SFT)
- Long Fiber Thermoplastic (LFT)
- Continuous Fiber Thermoplastic (CFT)
- Phenolic Molding Compound (PMC)
- Others
Automotive glass fiber composites market by Product Type (Value ($M) and Volume (M lbs) from 2011 to 2022):
- Chopped
- Roving
Automotive glass fiber composites market by Region Type (Value ($M) and Volume (M lbs) from 2011 to 2022):
- North American
- Europe
- Asia Pacific (APAC)
- Rest of the World (ROW)
Automotive glass fiber composites market by Country (Volume (M lbs) 2016):
- US
- Canada
- Mexico
- Germany
- UK
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- China
- India
- Brazil
Automotive glass fiber composites companies profiled in this market report include Owens Corning, Jushi Group Co, CPIC, Johns Manville, and Lanxess.
On the basis of its comprehensive research, Lucintel forecasts that the power train system/ engine component is expected to be the largest market and the under the body is expected to show the highest growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022.
Within glass fiber market for automotive, sheet molding compound (SMC) and bulk molding compound (BMC), glass mat thermoplastic (GMT), short fiber thermoplastic (SFT), long fiber thermoplastic (LFT), continuous fiber thermoplastic (CFT), phenolic molding compound (PMC) and others are the intermediate materials to manufacture automotive components. SFT is expected to remain the largest market by value and volume, mainly driven by applications such as small complex shaped components in power train system/engine components applications.
Europe is expected to remain the largest market due to higher penetration of composites in automotive than other region. Government regulations, such as CAFE Standards in the US and carbon emission targets in Europe, are putting pressure on OEMs to incorporate light-weight materials to curb the overall vehicle weight, and this is the key driver for glass fiber in the automotive industry.
Some of the features of "Growth Opportunities in the Global Automotive Glass Fiber Composites Market 2017- 2022: Trends, Forecast, and Opportunity Analysis" include:
- Market size estimates: Automotive glass fiber composites market size estimation in terms of value ($M) and volume (M Lbs.) shipment.
- Trend and forecast analysis: Market trend (2011-2016) and forecast (2017-2022) by region and segments.
- Segmentation analysis: Automotive glass fiber composites market size by various applications such as application, intermediates, product, and country in terms of value and volume shipment
- Regional analysis: Automotive glass fiber composites market breakdown by key regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World.
- Growth opportunities: Analysis on growth opportunities in different applications and regions.
- Strategic analysis: This includes M&A, new product development, competitive landscape, and expansion strategies of automotive glass fiber composites market suppliers.
- Analysis of competitive intensity of the industry based on Porter's Five Forces model.
This report answers following 11 key questions:
Q.1. What are some of the most promising, high-growth segments in the market by application type (interior, exterior, power train system/engine components, chassis system, under the body systems, electrical and electronics and others), intermediate material (SMC and BMC, LFT, SFT, CFT,GMT, PMC, Others (PU resin), product (Chopped and Roving), by country ( US, Canada, Mexico, Germany ,UK, France, Italy, Spain ,China ,India ,Brazil) regional (North America, Europe APAC and ROW)?
Q.2.Which segments will grow at a faster pace and why?
Q.3.Which region will grow at a faster pace and why?
Q.4.What are the key factors affecting market dynamics? What are the drivers, challenges and business risks in automotive glass fiber composites market?
Q.5.What are the business risks and competitive threats in this market?
Q.6.What are the emerging trends in this market and the reasons behind them?
Q.7.What are some of the changing demands of customers in automotive glass fiber composites 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 key players pursuing for business growth?
Q.10.What are some of the competing products in this market and how big of a threat do they pose for loss of market share by material or product substitution?
Q.11.What M & A activity has occurred in the last 5 years and what is its impact on the industry?
Methodology
This study is a culmination of four months of full-time effort performed by Lucintel's analyst team. The analysts used the following sources for the creation and completion of this valuable report:
- In-depth interviews of the major players in this market
- Detailed secondary research from competitors' financial statements and published data
- Extensive searches of published works, market, and database information pertaining to industry news, company press releases, and customer intentions
- A compilation of the experiences, judgments, and insights of Lucintel's professionals, who have analyzed and tracked this market over the years.
Extensive research and interviews are conducted in the supply chain of this market to estimate market share, market size, trends, drivers, challenges, and forecasts in the market. Some of the glass fiber manufacturers in global automotive composites market are Owens Corning, Jushi, PPG, CPIC and others. Major automotive part molders in this market are Faurecia, CF-Maier, Johnson Controls Inc, PEGUFORM and others.
Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04804597/Growth-Opportunities-in-the-Global-Automotive-Glass-Fiber-Composites-Market.html
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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.
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WALNUT CREEK, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Heffernan Insurance Brokers, one of the largest full-service, independent insurance brokerage firms in the United States, acquires National Truck Services Group (NTSG). The firm has purchased the assets of Phoenix-based NTSG effective April 1, 2017. The NTSG leadership personnel, Sales Manager AJ Planeta and Commercial Lines Manager Kathy Herter, will oversee Heffernan's newest office, located in Phoenix.
With over 30 years' of expertise, NTSG has a strong team of employees specializing in insuring trucking firms in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada, which will be a pronounced enhancement to Heffernan's transportation niche practice. This union brings NTSG the broad range of tools and markets in HIBs portfolio to enable them to grow their existing client base and help them succeed.
"We're confident that the team's breadth of experience in the trucking industry, coupled with the access to an array of solutions to fulfill their buyers' needs, will enable them to drive our growth in Arizona and beyond," said Mike Heffernan, President and CEO of Heffernan Insurance Brokers. "We're delighted to have them on board and look forward to an exciting future together."
"We are excited to be joining such a successful organization and quality group of people," said AJ Planeta, Sales Manager of the Phoenix branch. "We know the combination of our experience serving the trucking industry over three plus decades, combined with the market reach, and added risk solutions of Heffernan Insurance Brokers, will be a great benefit to all of our current and future clients."
About Heffernan Insurance Brokers
Heffernan Insurance Brokers, formed in 1988, is one of the largest independent insurance brokerage firms in the United States. Heffernan provides insurance and financial services products to a range of businesses and individuals. Headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., Heffernan has offices in San Francisco, Petaluma, Menlo Park, Los Angeles and Irvine, CA; Portland, OR; St. Louis, MO and Phoenix, AZ.
Employee-owned, Heffernan Insurance Brokers was named the Top Mid-Sized Broker in the United States to work for in 2009 by Business Insurance Magazine. The firm has been among the Top Greater Bay Area Philanthropists since 2003, donating more than 13 percent of profits to charity in 2015.
For more information, visit www.heffins.com.
License #0564249
SOURCE Heffernan Insurance Brokers
Related Links
http://www.heffins.com
"The enthusiasm of visitors and international counterparts at the exhibition has exceeded our expectation," said Lei Zhu, vice-president of HRG. "We are very excited to meet those who have plans to enter the Chinese market. We believe that a consolidated tie-up with the world's leading players in the robotics industry will be of far-reaching significance to China's robotics industry."
HRG showcased three products: a model of automatic lithium battery production line, Lithium Battery Smart Factory, vertical take-off and landing aircraft PHECDA, and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for agriculture uses MERAK.
Lithium Battery Smart Factory: By fully automating all aspects of production, including logistics, packaging and warehousing, the Lithium Battery Smart Factory increases production efficiency, evidenced by its ability to produce 150,000 lithium batteries per day with an 80% reduction in factory intermediate time and an 85% decrease in laborers.
PHECDA: the UAV breaks the limitations of flight mode of traditional rotor-wing UAVs and fixed-wing UAVs by using four-rotor mode vertical takeoff and landing and fixed-wing cruise mode flight. It features long duration of flight, fast flying speed, long cruising range, high flying height, simple operation, and high security, which is applicable to marine affairs, public safety, anti-terrorism, intelligent transportation, disaster assessment, forest fire prevention, pipeline inspection, environmental protection, geographical mapping, crop screening, geological exploration and other fields.
MERAK: the quad-rotor UAV for agricultural plant protection with completely independent intellectual property right, designed in the systematic and all-round way, achieves the science, intelligence, security and efficiency in agriculture.
In order to introduce the company's innovation and technology, HRG presented how its robots can be used to assemble Luban Lock, a traditional Chinese, three-dimensional wood puzzle, and invited visitors to solve the puzzle with their own hands.
After Automate 2017, HRG continues to seek partners in the United States. On May 14, the company's U.S. branch will host an event at College Park, the University of Maryland, bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and professional services in robot business from both China and the United States. The event will include speeches on various related topics, roadshow competition, start-up/career expo and dinner gala.
About HIT Robot Group
HIT Robot Group (HRG), founded in 2014, is one of China's high-tech giants in robotics with a joint investment from Heilongjiang provincial government. Harbin municipal government and the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). The company manufactures a range of robots and robotic equipment for various industries, and also provides solutions and services for technology companies. HRG has presence in 13 major Chinese cities, along with offices in Washington D.C., California, Frankfurt, Seoul and Tokyo.
SOURCE HIT Robot Group
DENVER, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ieso Digital Health (Ieso), creator of a leading digital mental health delivery platform, is providing members of Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid program) its service that allows individuals to receive psychological counseling from credentialed and Colorado licensed mental health therapists from anywhere, at virtually any time.
A United Kingdom-based firm, Ieso delivered over 10,000 therapy hours in 2016 to U.K. residents who get their care through the National Health Service. The Ieso delivery platform was validated in a 2009 random controlled trial published in the peer-reviewed medical journal - The Lancet .
Ieso delivers Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in a private and secure virtual therapy room, at a scheduled time, during a live, online appointment using written (typed) conversation. There is no video or audio component. The service is available to persons with common behavioral health disorders such as anxiety, stress and depression. Unlike other behavioral health methods, the Ieso platform measures the rate of improvement using before and after scores of clinically validated questionnaires, such as the PHQ-9 for depression and the GAD-7 for anxiety. To date, Ieso has delivered over 400 therapy hours to eligible Colorado patients and has experienced competitive improvement rates of over 60 percent.
"We are excited to bring this counseling option to Colorado," said Arnold Salazar, executive director of Colorado Health Partnerships (CHP). "We think it will be especially appreciated by rural members and members who prefer digital forms of communication."
This service does not require a copayment and is available to Health First Colorado members ages 18 and above who live within the 43 counties served by CHP. The covered area includes the Western Slope, the San Luis Valley, Colorado Springs and southeast Colorado.
Beacon Health Options is the behavioral health management partner for CHP and is offering the service through its affiliation with Ieso. Traditional psychological services offered as a benefit of Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid program) remain available.
"Beacon Health Options continually innovates and looks for new ways to improve access, quality and the affordability of the behavioral health services we provide to many Coloradans, said Myron Unruh, Beacon Health Options Vice President, Client Partnerships Colorado. "To date, we have found the response rates and the outcomes promising for this new service. We are committed to continuing to find new ways to help improve the lives of those we serve."
All online therapy offered through this program is provided by Colorado therapists who are licensed to practice within Colorado. All therapists have at least Masters-level training.
"Online therapy is especially helpful for people who want to try therapy but can't take the time off work, can't travel to an appointment, live in a rural area with a shortage of providers, or don't feel comfortable speaking to somebody face-to-face," said Dan Clark, CEO for Ieso Digital Health. "People can receive their therapy anywhere. All they need is an internet connection, computer, tablet or smartphone."
Due to the "disinhibition effect," online therapy can sometimes work better than traditional in-person therapy. This is especially true for people who struggle to open up about their thoughts and feelings when face-to-face with a therapist. Besides allowing the people to open up more fully, the disinhibition effect can speed-up the process of getting to the heart of the issue troubling the patient.
"Re-reading their text before sending it can be helpful to both the patient and therapist as they work to get their arms around the issues being discussed," said Clark. "The text record also allows our firm to provide supervision to our counselors, allowing them to improve their performance for their patients."
Persons seeking online therapy can make appointments at any time of day, including evenings and weekends. This makes it easy to fit therapy around their life. Signing up for therapy is easy and people seeking counseling will normally get access to care within seven days.
Coloradans in the 43 covered counties can sign up for therapy, or find out more about online therapy, by going to www.iesohealth.com.
About Ieso Digital Health
Ieso Digital Health provides one-to-one therapy in real-time. Patients meet with an accredited therapist in an online secure virtual therapy room, at a time and location that is convenient to them. The use of technology and written conversation improves patient choice and offers widespread access to effective, evidence-based, therapy. Ieso treats patients dealing with depression and anxiety disorders.
Since 2011, Ieso Digital Health has received investment from Imperial Innovations, Cambridge Angels, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of London, and Ananda Social Venture Fund.
www.iesohealth.com
2017 is a year of growth and expansion for Ieso Digital Health in the US market. The firm plans to launch in three additional states and expand within Colorado.
About Colorado Health Partnerships
Colorado Health Partnerships (CHP) is a public/private partnership providing quality mental health services to Medicaid eligible members in southern and Western Colorado. CHP was formed in 1995, when eight community mental health centers formed a partnership with ValueOptions, now Beacon Health Options. Together, the companies formed a limited liability corporation that contracts with Colorado's Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, www.coloradohealthpartnerships.com.
About Beacon Health Options
Beacon Health Options is a family of managed behavioral health companies that serves 50 million individuals across all 50 states and the United Kingdom. On behalf of employers, health plans and government agencies, we manage innovative programs and solutions that directly address the challenges our behavioral health care system faces today. Beacon is a national leader in the fields of mental and emotional well-being, addiction, recovery and resilience, employee assistance, and wellness. We help people make the difficult life changes needed to be healthier and more productive. Partnering with a network of providers nationwide, we help individuals live their lives to the fullest potential. For more information, visit www.beaconhealthoptions.com and connect with us on www.facebook.com/beaconhealthoptions, www.twitter.com/beaconhealthopt and www.linkedin.com/company/beacon-health-options.
Contact:
Erich Kirshner
Evolution Communications Agency
303.921.6733
[email protected]
SOURCE Ieso Digital Health
Related Links
http://www.iesohealth.com
IRVINE, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- For car shoppers ready to trade-in or sell their current vehicle, the process has never been easier with the availability of Kelley Blue BookSM Instant Cash Offer at https://www.kbb.com/instant-cash-offer/. Based on the vehicle's specific features and condition, and using their desktop or mobile device, car owners can receive an offer in the comfort of their own home or anywhere for that matter from Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com, the vehicle valuation and information source trusted and relied upon by both consumers and the automotive industry. Redeemable at participating dealerships across the country, consumers can use the offer toward the purchase of a new car, or simply walk away with a check. To showcase just how convenient it is to take advantage of a Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer, the company today launched a new national television ad campaign touting the program.
"Selling a car is something millions of consumers decide to do each year, and we know among the biggest pain points for those owners is understanding how to sell their car and how much to expect for it," said Mike Sadowski, vice president of operations and general manager for Kelley Blue Book. "Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer provides a convenient car-selling experience that also provides consumers with the confidence of an offer for their vehicle powered by the experts in vehicle valuation, Kelley Blue Book."
For drivers looking to take advantage of Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer, and unsure about their next vehicle purchase, the expert editors at Kelley Blue Book today named their 10 Favorite New Cars of 2017. The 2017 model year brought more than 50 brand-new and redesigned cars, trucks and SUVs, and the editorial staff has been behind the wheel of nearly every one of them. This year's Kelley Blue Book 10 Favorite New Cars of 2017 include:
To discuss this topic, or any other automotive-related information, with a Kelley Blue Book analyst on-camera via the company's on-site studio, please contact a member of the Public Relations team to schedule an interview.
For more information and news from Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com, visit www.kbb.com/media/, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kelleybluebook (or @kelleybluebook), like our page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kbb, and get updates on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/+kbb.
About Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com)
Founded in 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource, is the vehicle valuation and information source trusted and relied upon by both consumers and the automotive industry. Each week the company provides the most market-reflective values in the industry on its top-rated website KBB.com, including its famous Blue Book Trade-In Values and Fair Purchase Price, which reports what others are paying for new and used cars this week. The company also provides vehicle pricing and values through various products and services available to car dealers, auto manufacturers, finance and insurance companies, and governmental agencies. Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com ranked highest in its category for brand equity by the 2016 Harris Poll EquiTrend study and has been named Online Auto Shopping Brand of the Year for five consecutive years. Kelley Blue Book Co., Inc. is a Cox Automotive brand.
About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. is transforming the way the world buys, sells and owns cars with industry-leading digital marketing, software, financial, wholesale and e-commerce solutions for consumers, dealers, manufacturers and the overall automotive ecosystem worldwide. Committed to open choice and dedicated to strong partnerships, the Cox Automotive family includes Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, vAuto, Xtime and a host of other brands. The global company has 33,000 team members in more than 200 locations and is partner to more than 40,000 auto dealers, as well as most major automobile manufacturers, while engaging U.S. consumer car buyers with the most recognized media brands in the industry. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., an Atlanta-based company with revenues of $18 billion and approximately 60,000 employees. Cox Enterprises' other major operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications and Cox Media Group. For more information about Cox Automotive, visit www.coxautoinc.com.
SOURCE Kelley Blue Book
Related Links
http://www.kbb.com
SALT LAKE CITY, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ivanti, a leader in integrating and automating critical IT tasks, today announced that CRN , a brand of The Channel Company, has given Ivanti a 5-Star rating in its 2017 Partner Program Guide. This annual guide is the definitive listing of partner programs from technology vendors that provide products and services through the IT channel. The 5-Star Partner Program Guide rating recognizes an elite subset of companies that offer solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.
"At Ivanti, our partners are core to our success and as such we have developed a robust partner program to meet the unique and diverse needs of all partner types, from regional experts to managed service providers (MSPs) to national and global partners," said Reza Parsia, Senior Channel Director, Ivanti. "As we work to deliver the programs that not only enable our partners, but power their growth and success, we continue to add the resources, incentives and support that will enhance our partners' return on their Ivanti relationship. It's an honor to be recognized by CRN for these achievements as a 5-Star Partner."
To determine the 2017 5-Star ratings, The Channel Company's research team assessed each vendor's partner program based on investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication.
The Ivanti partner network spans the globe, offering solutions that help partners address security threats, manage devices and optimize user experience. Ivanti supports these partners with a broad range of solutions, services and resources to drive revenue growth, enhance profitability and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. The Ivanti Partner Program delivers distinct programs for Expert Solution Providers (ESPs), MSPs and National Sales Providers (NSP) offering dedicated programs and criteria to support these diverse partners and their customers.
"For solution providers, finding the right technology vendors to partner with is crucial to the health of their business, and the vast array of choices can be overwhelming," said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. "Our annual Partner Program Guide and 5-Star ratings help them narrow the field, identifying the most rewarding partner programs and outlining their strengths and benefits."
The 2017 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April issue of CRN and online at www.CRN.com/ppg. For more information on the Ivanti Partner Program visit https://www.ivanti.com/en-US/partners.
Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
Tweet This:
@TheChannelCo names @GoIvanti to @CRN 2017 Partner Program Guide #CRNPPG www.CRN.com/ppg
About The Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com
About Ivanti
Ivanti is IT evolved. By integrating and automating critical IT tasks, Ivanti helps IT organizations secure the digital workplace. For more than three decades, Ivanti has helped IT professionals address security threats, manage devices and optimize their user experience. From traditional PCs, to mobile devices, virtual machines and the data center, Ivanti helps discover and manage your IT assets wherever they are located, improving IT service delivery and reducing risk. Ivanti also ensures that supply chain and warehouse teams are effectively leveraging the most up-to-date technology to improve productivity throughout their operation. Ivanti is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has offices all over the world. For more information, visit www.ivanti.com.
Copyright 2017, Ivanti. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.
Press Contacts
Melanie Turpin
The Channel Company
(508) 416-1195
[email protected]
Leslie Bonsteel
Ivanti
+1 801-208-1773
[email protected]
Erin Jones
Avista Public Relations for Ivanti
+1 704-664-2170
[email protected]
SOURCE Ivanti
JAKARTA, Indonesia, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
KinerjaPay Corp.,(OTCQB: KPAY), a digital payment and ecommerce platform, ("KinerjaPay" or the "Company") announced that consumers can now use its platform to make payments to state-run Pegadaian, the largest provider of fiduciary services and credit across Indonesia. The relationship facilitates Pegadaian's collections capabilities and is expected to result in a meaningful reduction in their infrastructure needs.
Pegadaian has long history in Indonesia, beginning in the 18th century; today it is estimated to service more than 6 million customers through 30 million online accounts, representing more than IDR 33 trillion ($2.5 billion US). Its core business is fiduciary services, such as private wealth management and banking, however it also Indonesia's largest provider of a range of financial services, including: mortgages, capital leases; micro, small business and working capital loans, construction, household and low-income, loans, money remittance services (in cooperation with Western Union), as well as providing access to gold and other investment opportunities.
Edwin Ng, Chairman and CEO for KinerjaPay Corp. commented, "This is an important partnership for KinerjaPay. Pegadaian provides some type of financial service to more than 6 million customers across the country, each of whom is a prospect for us. With more than 30 million online accounts this is a significant opportunity for us, as it is our experience that consumers who try our platform for one account, typically begin to use KinerjaPay for other services. This conversion rate will help us move toward our goal of becoming Indonesia's leading online payment solution and ecommerce platform."
The Indonesian economy generates nearly $1 trillion annually, however only 42% of the 250+ million citizens have bank accounts and only 5% have credit cards. KinerjaPay's network of payment channels and mobile apps allow un-banked Indonesian consumers and business to shop and pay bills quickly, safely and conveniently.
About Pegadaian
Pegadaian has long history in Indonesia, beginning in the 18th century. Its core business is fiduciary services, such as private wealth management and banking, however it is also Indonesia's largest provider of a range of financial services, including: mortgages, capital leases, micro loans, small business and working capital loans, construction, household and low-income, loans, money remittance services (in cooperation with Western Union), as well as providing access to gold and other investment opportunities.
About KinerjaPay
KinerjaPay enables consumers to "Pay, Play and Buy" through its secure web portal and mobile applications. Based in Indonesia, the Company provides easy and convenient payment solution while shopping online at its marketplace platform. With its current omni-channel platform, users can perform various payment services such as credit card bill payment, utility, phone bill, healthcare insurance and direct transfer to anyone at their convenience. KinerjaPay is also planning to launch other eCommerce verticals such as travel market, delivery services, and online gaming in the near future. The Company's services are available through its mobile applications and on its website at http://www.kinerjapay.com.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, about KPAY's expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding, among other things, its product development efforts, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. In addition, from time to time, KPAY or its representatives have made or may make forward-looking statements, orally or in writing. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "may," "should" or "anticipate" or their negatives or other variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. These forward-looking statements may be included in, but are not limited to, various filings made by KPAY with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases or oral statements made by or with the approval of one of KPAY's authorized executive officers. Forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause KPAY's actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause KPAY 's actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the factors summarized in KPAY's filings with the SEC. In addition, KPAY operates in an industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond its control. KPAY does not undertake any obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please see the risk factors associated with an investment in our securities which are included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 11, 2016.
For more information, please visit our website http://www.kinerjapay.co. There you will find access to all of our past press releases and SEC filings regarding the activities discussed in this letter.
Media Contact:
KinerjaPay Corp.
Email: [email protected]
+62-8229-777-0098
SOURCE KinerjaPay Corp.
PITTSBURGH, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor, a Pittsburgh ice cream tradition since 1923, this week announced they will be hosting their first-ever Small Ice Cream Shop Competition on July 16th, National Ice Cream Day. Excited to be doing something completely original, Klavon's competition will feature female leaders in the ice cream industry, including well-known entrepreneurs Natasha Case from Coolhaus, Cris Freeman from Phin and Phebes, and Jennie Dundas from Blue Marble.
Equipped to judge the entries based on the mouth feel, look of the ice cream and textual appeal, uniqueness, taste, and the catchiness of the flavor name, the three judges will decide the competition winner, who will have their flavor featured at Coolhaus Scoop Shops, and all other shops who compete, for a season.
"Klavon's is a city treasure, and I'm happy to see them celebrating women in the ice cream business. I wish all competitions could be decided by ice cream," Mayor William Peduto said.
Small standalone shops across the country that have more than one location, but are not franchises, will be invited to compete. Large corporations or non-ice cream related businesses will not be admitted to the competition. The winner, in addition to the Coolhaus feature, will win a $10,000 cash prize, and national bragging rights.
The first of the featured judges, Natasha Case, a Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur, is nationally known for building up an ice cream empire from scratch. Today, her company, Coolhaus, a gourmet, all-natural, premium and inventive ice cream company built on the idea of farchitecture (food + architecture), offers frozen treats that are sustainably and locally sourced ingredients.
In 2007, Jennie Dundas ignited a movement when she opened Blue Marble Ice Cream, NYC's first-ever source-driven, eco-conscious ice cream company. Based in Brooklyn, Blue Marble remains the only certified organic ice cream company in NYC.
Lastly, Crista Freeman from Brooklyn's Phin and Phebes, committed to creating the market's most unique and creative flavors, using local dairy and non-GMO and organic flavorings. All their dairy comes from family-owned and run cooperatives within a 20- mile radius of where they make their ice cream.
Klavon's is calling all ice cream shops across the country to contact them to enter the competition.
For more information, visit: http://www.klavonsicecream.com/sweet-announcements/
Contact: Jacob Hanchar, ([email protected])
SOURCE Klavons Ice Cream Parlor
MIAMI, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- An extraordinary story that swept up all the prizes in its time, including the International EMMY as best soap opera of the year, it was even selected by the viewing audience as having the best love scene, the best kiss and the best romantic couple.
Rio de Janeiro, 1903. The city was immersed in its dream of being the Paris of the tropics. Between machismo, emancipation, the sexual liberation of women, the creation and rhythms of a new culture, two women from opposite worlds, Laura (Marjorie Estiano) and Isabel (Camila Pitanga), build a bridge made of trust, respect and friendship that will break down all barriers.
With its controversial subject, its excellent cast of leading actors, writers, costumes, scenery and staging, LADO A LADO ('Side by Side') influenced Brazilians' very lives, becoming a focus of national debate and the subject of all sorts of discussion and analysis.
Premiere: Monday, April 24
Time: Monday to Friday, 10:00 pm ET / 7:00 pm PT
Rebroadcast: 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 pm PT
CANAL SUR
20 years rebroadcasting the best of TV in Spanish. Without cuts or editing.
SUR LLC, creator of the channels Canal SUR (the first TV channel in Spanish in the United States), SUR Peru, TV Venezuela and Estudio5, is a television consortium with more than 20 years of tradition and a devoted audience among Hispanic immigrants in the U.S.
There is just one reason behind SUR's unstoppable growth: we keep our promise to rebroadcast from their countries of origin programs with high ratings that have made history, without cuts or editing.
Canal SUR is available through AT&T Uverse, Advanced Cable, Atlantic, Comcast-Xfinity, Cox, Frontier, Optimum, Suddenlink, Spectrum, and Verizon Fios, and it is the cable channel in Spanish with the highest distribution at the national level.
www.canalsur.com
SOURCE Canal SUR
Related Links
http://www.canalsur.com
Students from around the world will have the opportunity to come to London and boost their English skills for free, thanks to a partnership between The Language Gallery (TLG) and popular YouTube sensation "Korean Billy". Complimentary accommodation and classes are up for grabs, in a competition featuring the East London dialect known as Cockney rhyming slang.
(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/487271/The_Language_Gallery_Team_Korean_Billy.jpg )
The TLG team met Seong-Jae Kong - a.k.a. Korean Billy - in London, to film a video exploring people's awareness of the East End slang. Talking with the public in Leicester Square, Billy challenged passers-by to a rhyming game, testing their knowledge of Cockney slang.
Famous for imitating a wide range of accents from across Britain, Billy has gathered more than 50,000 followers on YouTube. The release of the TLG video on his official channel will kick off a worldwide competition, giving his subscribers the opportunity to study English in London for free. Two lucky winners will have access to a four-week course, with no tuition or accommodation costs, in the heart of London.
Lea Aylett, Academic Director at The Language Gallery, said: "Immersion into the culture of a country is the best way not only to learn but also to understand its language. This has always been our driving force in delivering a comprehensive language-learning experience to our students, and it's something we have in common with Billy.
"The cost of accommodation and classes is one of the main things people consider when studying abroad, and we aim to widen access to a complete and engaging education with this competition."
Find out more about TLG's Cockney rhyming slang competition here.
About The Language Gallery (TLG)
The Language Gallery (TLG) delivers high quality language courses at a number of locations worldwide. With schools in London, Berlin, Toronto, Manchester, Birmingham and Hannover, TLG prides itself on its internationalism and communicative approach to the learning process.
Students are immersed in their chosen language thanks to city-centre locations, a multi-national student base and in-class simulations. These lessons use personal experiences and everyday situations as examples to place students in immediately familiar territory.
SOURCE The Language Gallery (TLG)
Founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1983, English Bay is a leading manufacturer of cookies, muffins, brownies and other pastries. English Bay's products are widely distributed across the United States and Canada through retail and foodservice channels.
Cerelia, backed by IK Investment Partners since 2015, is a leading French producer of ready-to-bake dough and ready-to-heat pancakes in Europe. The addition of English Bay will accelerate Cerelia's development in North America and create an international group able to meet a broad set of customer needs with an enlarged range of products across retail, in-store bakery and foodservice distribution channels.
Lincoln acted as the exclusive buy-side advisor to Cerelia, working closely with Cerelia's management team, shareholders and advisors throughout the sale process to provide advisory expertise and manage the valuation, due diligence and negotiation phases of the transaction.
For more information on Lincoln's Global Food & Beverage Group Leadership Team, please visit http://www.lincolninternational.com/industries/food-beverage/.
About Lincoln International
Lincoln International specializes in merger and acquisition advisory services, debt advisory services, private capital raising and restructuring advice on mid-market transactions. Lincoln International also provides fairness opinions, valuations and joint ventures and partnering advisory services on a wide range of transaction sizes. With eighteen offices in the Americas, Asia and Europe, Lincoln International has strong local knowledge and contacts in key global economies. The firm provides clients with senior-level attention, in-depth industry expertise and integrated resources. By being focused and independent, Lincoln International serves its clients without conflicts of interest.
More information about Lincoln International can be obtained at www.lincolninternational.com
Media Contact: Heidi Becker
[email protected]
(312) 506-2739
SOURCE Lincoln International LLC
Related Links
http://www.lincolninternational.com
SEOUL, South Korea and SAN JOSE, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation ("MagnaChip") (NYSE: MX), a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, announced today that it will host its Annual U.S. Foundry Technology Symposium at Hilton Santa Clara, California, on June 7th, 2017.
The primary purpose of the Foundry Technology Symposium is to showcase MagnaChip's most up-to-date technology offerings and to provide an in-depth understanding of MagnaChip's manufacturing capabilities, its specialty technology processes, target applications and end-markets. Furthermore, during the symposium, MagnaChip plans to discuss current and future semiconductor foundry business trends, and also cover presentations in key markets through guest speeches.
While providing an in-depth overview of its specialty processes, MagnaChip will also highlight its technology portfolio and its future roadmap, including technologies such as mixed-signal, which supports applications in the Internet of Things (IoT) and RF switch sector and Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) for high-performance analog and power management applications. In addition, MagnaChip will also feature applications regarding Ultra-High Voltage (UHV), such as LED lighting and AC-DC chargers, and cover Non-Volatile Memory (NVM)-related technologies, such as Touch IC, Automotive MCUs and other customer specific applications. Furthermore, MagnaChip will present its technologies used in applications including smartphones, tablet PCs, automotive, industrial, LED lighting and the wearables segments. MagnaChip will also review its customer-friendly design environment and an on-line customer service tool known as "iFoundry."
"We are very pleased to host MagnaChip's Annual Foundry Technology Symposium in the US again this year," said YJ Kim, Chief Executive Officer of MagnaChip. "We plan to offer participants an opportunity to better understand the foundry and the application market dynamics, and to provide insights into MagnaChip's specialty process technologies." MagnaChip has approximately 466 proprietary process flows it can utilize and offer to its foundry customers.
More than 100 fabless companies, IDMs (Integrated Device Manufacturers) and other semiconductor companies are expected to attend the event. To sign up for MagnaChip's Annual Foundry Technology Symposium in Santa Clara and for more details regarding the symposium, please visit www.magnachip.com or ifoundry.magnachip.com.
About MagnaChip Semiconductor
MagnaChip is a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for high-volume consumer, communication, industrial and computing applications. The Company's Standard Products Group and Foundry Services Group provide a broad range of standard products and manufacturing services to customers worldwide. MagnaChip, with a 30-year operating history, owns a portfolio of more than 3,400 registered and pending patents, and has extensive engineering, design and manufacturing process expertise. For more information, please visit www.magnachip.com. Information on or accessible through, MagnaChip's website is not a part of, and is not incorporated into, this release.
CONTACT S :
In the United States: In Korea: Bruce Entin Chankeun Park Entin Consulting Director of Public Relations Tel. +1-408-625-1262 Tel. +82-2-6903-3195 [email protected] [email protected]
SOURCE MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation
Related Links
http://www.magnachip.com
SAN FRANCISCO, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Marcato Capital Management LP ("Marcato"), a San Francisco-based investment manager affiliated with funds that beneficially own 4.9% of the outstanding common shares of Rent-A-Center, Inc. (RCII) ("Rent-A-Center" or the "Company"), today sent a letter to the Rent-A-Center Board of Directors urging the Board to immediately commence a process to review all strategic alternatives, including a sale of the entire Company.
Shawn Badlani, Partner at Marcato, said: "Rent-A-Center has a valuable franchise in the enduring rent-to-own industry. However, the Board has presided over a total shareholder return of approximately negative 72% from the end of 2014 to March 31, 2017. Additionally, over a 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year period, Rent-A-Center's total shareholder return has trailed that of its closest peer, Aaron's, as well as every relevant equity index or benchmark. Furthermore, the improvement plan announced today is ambitious, complicated and fraught with risk.
"We believe this terrible financial performance is a direct result of multiple years of operational and strategic missteps by the Company. Given Rent-A-Center is facing an uncertain and risky turnaround amid a management change, the Board should still authorize its advisors to solicit offers for the Company that could deliver greater and more certain value for shareholders. If the Board continues to resist a process to review strategic alternatives now, Marcato plans to vote for Engaged Capital's director nominees at the upcoming annual meeting."
The full text of the letter is below.
April 10, 2017
Rent-A-Center, Inc.
5501 Headquarters Drive
Plano, TX 75024
Attn: Compliance Officer
CC: Board of Directors
Dear Members of the Board of Directors,
Funds managed by MCM Encore IM LLC ("Marcato") are currently the beneficial owners of 4.9% of the outstanding shares of Rent-A-Center, Inc. ("Rent-A-Center" or the "Company"). In light of the Company's announcement this morning, we are writing to remind you of your duty to represent the best interests of shareholders, and to outline what we believe is the value-maximizing path forward for Rent-A-Center.
We strongly urge the Board to immediately commence a process to review all strategic alternatives including a sale of the entire Company.
The Company's total shareholder returns have been terrible under the existing Board of Directors, with a total shareholder return of approximately negative 72% between the end of 2014 and March 31, 2017. In fact, over a 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year period, Rent-A-Center's total shareholder return has trailed that of its closest peer, Aaron's, as well as every relevant equity index or benchmark.
We believe it is clear that this share price performance is a direct result of multiple years of operational and strategic missteps at Rent-A-Center. This has led to the situation in which the Company currently finds itself: facing a multi-year turnaround that requires the successful execution of a wide array of initiatives and doing so with a management team in transition.
Despite the Company's announcement of Mark Speese as CEO, our discussions with Mr. Speese have made clear to us that he does not intend or desire to be the CEO for the long term and that the search for a permanent CEO and CFO could take 12 to 18 months. We encourage the Board to be conservative with its expectations for the pace and magnitude of operational improvement in light of the ongoing management transition. Based on the current share price, it seems clear to us that shareholders have lost confidence the Company can reverse course.
We agree that Rent-A-Center has a valuable franchise in the enduring rent-to-own industry, and we do believe that the Company can be fixed through better management and execution, which will create equity value for its owners over time. The key point to consider is simply whether existing shareholders can receive a greater risk-adjusted return by selling the Company to a buyer who is willing to pay for a high percentage of that available value today. We believe it is the Board's duty to explore the availability of this scenario now .
In this case, our view is that a sale very likely offers the highest possible risk-adjusted return for shareholders. Rent-A-Center is likely to be valued much more highly by private market participants than by public market investors. This is because a buyer is likely to pay shareholders based upon its confidence in its ability to execute, a confidence which is justifiably absent among public market investors.
The turnaround the Company is facing is also likely more easily achieved in a private context. The improvement plan announced today is ambitious, complicated and fraught with risk. These steps will likely necessitate accounting and cash restructuring charges and may temporarily disrupt business operations, creating volatility and a lack of earnings visibility that public markets often have a difficult time tolerating. A new owner can more easily underwrite the path of improvement and will be willing to pay shareholders today based upon its confidence in its ability to execute.
For all of these reasons, Rent-A-Center must begin a full strategic review now which includes engaging with potential buyers.
As mentioned, we believe Rent-A-Center has a valuable franchise, but is undervalued due to the Board's lack of credibility among public market investors, a lack of credibility which is deserved due to a history of mismanagement. Given the extended tenure of the incumbent Board members with the Company, we worry about complacency and whether the Company is being managed with appropriate urgency and focus. Even with the Company's stated turnaround plan, the Board should still authorize its advisors to solicit offers for the Company that could deliver greater and more certain value for shareholders.
Based on the Company's announcement this morning, our own dialogue with you to date, as well as public statements made by Engaged Capital, LLC ("Engaged"), it appears to us that the Board is not currently inclined to explore a sale. If the Board continues to resist a process to review strategic alternatives now, Marcato plans to vote for Engaged's director nominees at the upcoming annual meeting.
Sincerely,
Shawn Badlani
Partner
Marcato Capital Management LP
CC:
Mark E. Speese, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Michael J. Gade
Rishi Garg
Jeffrey M. Jackson
J.V. Lentell
Steven L. Pepper
Leonard H. Roberts
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
The views expressed in this press release represent the opinions of MCM Encore IM LLC, its affiliates and the funds it manages (collectively, "Marcato"). This press release and the letter to which it refers are provided merely for general information purposes. Nothing in those documents is, or should be construed as, investment advice or as a recommendation, invitation or inducement to engage in any investment activity, and should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. Any views expressed are given as of the date of this press release, and are subject to change without notice. Marcato reserves the right to change any of its opinions expressed herein at any time as it deems appropriate. Marcato disclaims any obligation to update the information or opinions contained in this press release.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this press release that are not clearly historical in nature or that necessarily depend on future events are forward-looking, and the words "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "potential," "opportunity," "estimate," "plan," and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements reflect Marcato's views with respect to, among other things, future events and financial performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and assumptions. There can be no assurance that any idea or assumption herein is, or will be proven, correct. If one or more of the risks or uncertainties materialize, or if Marcato's underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, the actual results may vary materially from outcomes indicated by these statements. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by Marcato that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated will ever be achieved.
SOURCE Marcato Capital Management LP
SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) today announced the Miami Herald, McClatchy's Washington Bureau and McClatchy's Video Lab was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for its work on the Panama Papers, a joint project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organizations.
Also honored, Miami Herald cartoonist Jim Morin for his portfolio of drawings primarily focused on American politics throughout a volatile and historic election year.
"This work reflects McClatchy at its best. At the Miami Herald, in our Washington Bureau and elsewhere among the 30 newsrooms that make McClatchy, we have dedicated ourselves to the kind of enterprise and ingenuity reflected in these projects, and we are grateful to the Pulitzer Board for honoring us with not one but two prizes." said Craig Forman, McClatchy president and CEO. "This brings to more than 50 the Pulitzers awarded to McClatchy in our 160 year history. We couldn't be more proud of the award-winners and their commitment to our public service and accountability mission."
The Panama Papers was an extraordinary, collaborative journalism project that investigated how money moves secretly around the globe. The McClatchy Washington Bureau along with the Miami Herald were the only U.S. newspapers to take part in the international consortium that sifted through the leaked database of 11 million records from Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, resulting in the massive series, "The Secret Shell Game," covering the Panama Papers leak.
The Miami Herald-McClatchy team told this difficult and complicated story in pieces that brought the news home not just in Miami, but elsewhere in the United States, and a video produced by McClatchy's Video Lab helped illustrate a complicated subject. This deep dive into the leaked documents revealed a financial system of tax havens preferred by tax dodgers, corrupt politicians and drug dealers whose money often wound up in Miami real estate.
The Pulitzer judges considered 20 of Morin's 2016 cartoons, taking on politics, natural and manmade disasters, and national celebrations. This is his second Pulitzer. This is also the second year in a row that a McClatchy cartoonist has won the coveted award, with the 2016 Pulitzer for Editorial Cartooning going to The Sacramento Bee's Jack Ohman.
"These projects illustrate McClatchy's 160 year commitment to quality public service journalism," said Kevin McClatchy, Board of Directors for McClatchy. "While the format and technologies may have changed greatly during that time, our belief in the value of that journalism has never wavered."
About McClatchy
McClatchy is a publisher of iconic brands such as the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News and Observer, and the (Fort Worth) Star-Telegram. McClatchy operates 30 media companies in 29 U.S. markets in 14 states, providing each of its communities with high-quality news and advertising services in a wide array of digital and print formats. McClatchy is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI.
SOURCE McClatchy
Related Links
http://www.mcclatchy.com
NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pioneers of deception-based cybersecurity illusive networks today announced it will showcase their Deceptions Everywhere technology at the upcoming SANS Institute events in Orlando and New Orleans.
Renowned security industry expert and SANS instructor Dr. Eric Cole commented, "Organizations often struggle with ways to not only slow down an adversary, but proactively detect them during a compromise. illusive networks has created a unique solution that allows deception to scale across the enterprise. illusive networks' solution will provide value to any organization looking to reduce the dwell time and control the overall damage from an incident."
SANS 2017 (Orlando) - April 11, 2017
Venue: Hyatt Regency Orlando, 8901 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819
Booth #12
SANS Threat Hunting and Incident Response (New Orleans) - April 18-19, 2017
Venue: New Orleans Downtown Marriott at the Convention Center, 859 Convention Center Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70130
Lunch and Learn 'Turning the Tables: Engaging an Adversary with Deception' presented by Chad Gasaway, Director of Sales Engineering, illusive networks
- Time: 12.25-13.30
- Date: Wednesday, April 19
- Location: River Bend 2, 2nd Floor
Recently indicated in the '2017 Cyberthreat Defense Report 2017', enterprises are turning to deception technology as the next evolution in defense against advanced cyber attacks, with 41% of those surveyed noted they planned to purchase this type of solution this year. Out of 16 network security technologies within the survey, network deception technology is the "one most sought after in the coming year", providing an innovative, pre-emptive approach to tackling advanced attacks.
Download a free copy of the report here.
About illusive networks
illusive networks is pioneering deception-based cybersecurity with its patented Deceptions Everywhere technology that neutralizes targeted attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) by creating a deceptive layer across the entire network. By providing an endless source of false information, illusive disrupts and detects attacks with real-time forensics and without disruption to business. For more information, please visit www.illusivenetworks.com or follow @illusivenw on Twitter and Facebook.
SOURCE illusive networks
Related Links
http://www.illusivenetworks.com
KENILWORTH, N.J., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The next generation of physicians was raised with information at their fingertips, yet studying medicine in the age of Google Search comes with its own set of unique challenges. To uncover how the habits, preferences and tendencies of medical and pre-medical students have been shaped by growing up in the digital era, the Merck Manuals surveyed 180 students at the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) Annual Convention in February.
The Merck Manuals surveyed 180 medical and pre-medical students in February 2017.
The survey found that 68 percent of students received their first cell phone by the time they were 14 years old. For many students, that's before they enter high school. And online tools have become ingrained into their study habits. Nearly one in three (30 percent) said they go online or use a mobile device to search for medical information more than 20 times per day.
"We live in a high-speed world," said David, student from Hillsborough Community College in Florida. "In the time it takes me to walk through a library door, I could have already downloaded exactly what I needed on my phone."
Students were also asked to rank their preferred sources of medical information. For their first choice, 47 percent picked Google and 32 percent chose a medical websiteoften those that appeared in the Google results. Only 7 percent turned first to their textbook.
Yet students admit the internet can be a minefield when it comes to finding reliable information. Eighty-three percent said confirming the credibility of an online source is one of the primary obstacles they face while searching for medical information online. Other hurdles students say they encounter include pay walls (39 percent), the recent surge in fake news (32 percent), and an overabundance of ads (24 percent).
Nearly all students surveyed (99 percent) affirmed that growing up in the digital age has impacted their medical education. When asked how:
58 percent said they can more efficiently look up answers to questions
19 percent said they can study anywhere, anytime
13 percent believe they can more quickly adopt new technologies.
However, nine percent of students indicated that technology is primarily a distraction, calling attention to an important dynamic for many students.
Yet many students are actually using social media as a gateway to more visually compelling medical content. Forty-five percent of students said they have found YouTube a valuable resource for more visually compelling medical content.
"New technologies have transformed how students learn and train for their careers as physicians," said Robert S. Porter, M.D., Merck Manuals Editor-in-Chief. "But as our survey found, these students must navigate a changing and challenging digital world to find reliable information in the best format to meet their needs. It's important for providers of medical information to deliver on those needs to truly impact medical education and student growth for the future."
About The Merck Manuals
First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, The Merck Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the world's most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers. As The Manual evolved, it continually expanded the reach and depth of its offerings to reflect the mission of providing the best medical information to a wide cross-section of users, including medical professionals and students, veterinarians and veterinary students, and consumers. In 2015, The Merck Manual kicked off Global Medical Knowledge 2020, a program to make the best current medical information accessible by up to three billion professionals and patients around the world by 2020. For access to thousands of medical topics with images, videos and a constantly expanding set of resources, visit MerckManuals.com and connect with us on social media:
For Consumers in the U.S. and its territories: Twitter and Facebook
For Professionals in the U.S. and its territories: Twitter and Facebook
Methodology
The survey of 180 medical and pre-medical students was conducted at the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) Annual Convention in February 2017. For details on survey methodology, please contact Jamie Kloss at [email protected]. Learn more at MerckManuals.com.
About Merck
For over a century, Merck has been a global health care leader working to help the world be well. Merck is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
SOURCE MerckManuals.com
Related Links
https://www.merckmanuals.com
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mesothelioma Victims Center is now urging any US Navy Veteran who has recently been diagnosed with mesothelioma in any US State to call them anytime at 800-714-0303 for information about the nation's most qualified mesothelioma attorneys who consistently get the best possible financial compensation results, especially if the navy Veteran's classification was a "machinist mate."
US Navy Veteran
"These types of Navy Veterans were in a category of workers that had the highest potential of coming in direct contact with asbestos if they served in the navy in the 1960's, 1970's, or 1980's. As we would like to discuss, these veterans should receive the very best possible mesothelioma financial compensation.
"The caveat to the largest possible financial compensation settlement is the diagnosed Navy Veteran will need the nation's most qualified mesothelioma attorneys assisting in the financial compensation claim if the best possible financial compensation results are their goal," says the Mesothelioma Victims Center. http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com
In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s a machinist mate would have been the epicenter for many repairs while his US Navy ship was deployed at sea. He also would have stayed on his ship if it were to be sent to a navy shipyard for a retrofit or overhaul. The navy shipyard exposure for a navy machinist mate could have been beyond comprehension because most repairs would have been done below deck and without ventilation.
Other types of US Navy Veterans who might have had similar exposure to asbestos on their ship could include steel workers, a utilities man, (BT) boiler technicians, carpenters mate, damage control, electrician mate, or a shipfitter. http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com
Incredibly vital tip from the Mesothelioma Victims Center for the family of a US Navy Veteran who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, especially for machinist mates who worked below deck:
"Those who do not hire one of the nation's most skilled and experienced mesothelioma attorneys with a proven track record of helping people like this will probably lose out on a good portion of what they should have received in terms of financial compensation.
"Before hiring any lawyer or law firm to assist a US Navy Veteran with a mesothelioma compensation claim, please call us anytime at 800-714-0303 to ensure you are dealing directly with the nation's most qualified mesothelioma attorneys who excel at getting their clients the best possible mesothelioma compensation results." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com
Each year about 3000 US citizens will be diagnosed with mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. High-risk work groups for exposure to asbestos include US Navy Veterans, power plant workers, shipyard workers, oil refinery workers, steel mill workers, miners, manufacturing workers, pulp or paper mill workers, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, machinists, construction workers, rail road workers, and firemen. Typically, the exposure to asbestos for these types of workers occurred in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, or 1980's.
The states indicated with the highest incidence of mesothelioma include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon.
However, based on the calls the Mesothelioma Victims Center receives a US Navy Veteran with mesothelioma could live in any state including New York, Florida, California, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, or Alaska.
The Mesothelioma Victims Center says, "As we would like to explain anytime at 800-714-0303 if a person who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or their family would like the best possible financial- compensation it is vital they have the nation's most skilled, and experienced mesothelioma lawyers." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com
For more information about mesothelioma please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mesothelioma.html
Media Contact:
Michael Thomas
[email protected]
800-714-0303
SOURCE Mesothelioma Victims Center
Related Links
http://mesotheliomavictimscenter.com
The Company has begun unitization of designated oil and gas leases and the staking of overlying mineral claims located contiguous to its Lisbon Valley mineral claims. The purpose of the unitization is to eliminate property boundaries, pool mineral interests and establish the Company's private partner as unit operator. MGX now controls more than 94,000 acres of combined oil and gas leases and mineral claims in the State of Utah. MGX's North American Lithium Brine claims now exceed 1.7M acres.
MGX and its Utah Based Partner have completed boundary surveying and issued mailers to parties within the unit. Additionally, the Company has submitted a permit to drill along with a surface use plan of operations to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Previous geological and seismic information is now under review and preparations have commenced to conduct a 3-D seismic shoot to understand both lithium and oil bearing structures.
Consolidation through unitization of the oil and gas leases represents the most efficient timelines and cost-effective means of developing the area's underlying resources.
Engineering of Oil, Gas, and Lithium Wells
MGX is currently in discussion with a US based engineering company for drilling and operation of multi- zone wells optimized for maximum flow of oil, gas, lithium and magnesium brine. MGX expects a project scoping study shortly.
Acquisition of Additional Minerals Claims
MGX as part of the acquisition of mineral claims overlying its recent oil and gas lease acquisition in the Paradox Basin 4,718 additional mineral claims were acquired. This expanded land position and adds 94,082 acres to the Company's Paradise Basin petrolithium project, increasing MGX's total cumulative minerals claims to approximately 118,000 acres (see Figure 1), which now includes the majority of oil, gas, and brine mineral rights within the area of interest.
Additionally, MGX reports it has amended the previously announced payment schedule to acquire underlying oil and gas leases (see press release dated March 23, 2017). The amended payment schedule is as follows:
Non-refundable deposit of $50,000 (paid)
(paid) $500,000 on or before September 1, 2017
on or before $500,000 on or before March 1, 2018
on or before $500,000 on or before September 1, 2018
on or before $450,000 on or before March 1, 2019
Overview MGX's Oil and Gas Leases
MGX's oil and gas leases overlie a large area west of the Lisbon Valley Oilfield approximately 40 miles south of Moab, Utah in the salt anticline belt on the southwest edge of the Paradox Basin in San Juan county. Historic lithium brine content has been reported as high as 730 parts per million lithium (Superior Oil 88-21P) at Lisbon Valley. The region is also home to the former Rio Algom uranium mill facility, an active copper mine operated by Lisbon Valley Mining Company, and a natural gas processing plant.
Qualified Person
The technical portions of this press release were prepared and reviewed by Andris Kikauka (P. Geo.), Vice President of Exploration for MGX Minerals. Mr. Kikauka is a non-independent Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument (N.I.) 43-101 Standards.
MGX is advancing its petrolithium projects into production without first establishing mineral resources supported by an independent technical report or completing a feasibility study. A production decision without the benefit of a technical report independently establishing mineral resources or reserves and any feasibility study demonstrating economic and technical viability creates increased uncertainty and heightens economic and technical risks of failure. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic or technical failure.
About MGX Minerals
MGX Minerals is a diversified Canadian mining company engaged in the development of large-scale industrial mineral portfolios in western Canada and the United States. The Company operates lithium, magnesium and silicon projects throughout British Columbia and Alberta as well as petrolithium exploration in Utah. Learn more at www.mgxminerals.com.
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements including the completion of the rights offering (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", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. 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. 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.
SOURCE MGX Minerals Inc.
Related Links
www.mgxminerals.com
WASHINGTON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Minnesota state legislators' push to impose unprecedented sales tax obligations on Internet marketplaces has little support from Minnesotans, according to a new poll jointly released by NetChoice and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). Only nine percent of Minnesotans think that the current online sales tax collection process needs to change. Yet, leaders of Minnesota's legislative tax committees continue to promote legislation (HF4 and SF 2225) that would now require out-of-state businesses to collect online sales tax from Minnesotans.
Language in the omnibus tax bills, HF4 and SF2225, would force all online marketplaces with offices in Minnesota to collect tax on all Minnesota sales. Online marketplaces are merely virtual storefronts that allow millions of small businesses to reach customers across the globe. HF4 would create a new tax burden -- one that is very unpopular with state residents -- on every marketplace in Minnesota. Sixty-two percent of Minnesotans (and more than 79 percent who have an opinion) are not inclined to support HF4, according to the NetChoice/ATR polling.
"By a 2-to-1 margin, Minnesotans consider this legislation a statewide tax increase," said Grover Norquist, ATR President. "It is rather simple. This bill puts shackles on any online marketplace looking to make Minnesota its home."
Supreme Court precedent requires businesses to collect and remit taxes only for places where they have a physical presence. This protects Minnesota businesses from being forced to comply with 12,000 tax jurisdictions or face audits from 46 states. Already, 24 of the top 25 e-retailers collect sales tax in Minnesota.
"This bill is like requiring the Mall of America to be responsible and liable for the sales tax on purchases made at stores in the mall. That sounds absurd since states have always imposed sales tax on the actual seller, not on malls or marketplaces," said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice. "Gopher State residents agree, as 4 out of 5 with an opinion on this legislation do not support it."
About the NetChoice/ATR Poll
From March 31-April 4, 2017, Morar Consulting conducted an interactive survey of 608 adult residents of Minnesota. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points. Polling results are available at NetChoice.org/MNPoll
About NetChoice
NetChoice is a trade association of e-Commerce businesses who share the goal of promoting convenience, choice, and commerce on the net.
About Americans for Tax Reform
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a nonprofit taxpayer advocacy group founded at the Request of President Reagan. ATR opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle.
SOURCE NetChoice; Americans for Tax Reform
TORONTO, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- NIIT Limited, a leading global skills and talent development company announced today that the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) has selected NIIT Learning Solutions (Canada) Limited (NIIT Canada) in partnership with Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, Canada as the Exclusive Designate to redesign, deliver, and maintain its flagship real estate education programs for professionals in the province of Ontario for a period of 5 years.
RECO is a not-for-profit corporation that is delegated the authority by the Ontario government to regulate the real estate profession in the province of Ontario, protecting the public interest through a fair, safe and informed marketplace. It oversees the day-to-day regulation of Ontario's more than 76,000 real estate registrants. Ontario is the most populated province in Canada and its capital, Toronto, hosts the largest real estate market in the country.
One of RECO's responsibilities is establishing education requirements to become a salesperson or broker in the province of Ontario, or to maintain registration (continuing education). Any person who wants to become a registered real estate salesperson or broker in Ontario must complete RECO's Registration Education Program and obtain their registration. The current programs have been in operation for many years and delivered by the current incumbent education provider. Historical data from the past five years detail that approximately 12,000 new Students begin the program each year with an annual individual course enrolment that exceeds 55,000.
The last 5 years have seen a significant growth in the number of students enrolling in these programs, as more and more individuals join the real state profession to cater to the rapid growth in the real estate market in Ontario. Student fees for 2016 exceeded CAD 30M, and cumulative fees over the last 5 years have been over CAD 100M.
RECO followed a two-phased extensive strategic review of its Registration Education Program and Continuing Education Program. Both phases involved significant stakeholder outreach and research. The second phase of the research conducted indicated that while the content of the current program was sound, there was scope to leverage advancements in technology and adult learning methodologies to rebuild the programs to emphasize experiential instruction through practical simulations at critical points in the learning process.
RECO therefore initiated the selection process of a Designate provider to design and deliver a new program that addresses the need for aspiring real estate professionals to be more practice-ready upon entry, and in turn enhance consumer protection. The new program would maximize experiential instruction opportunities for practical, real life skill application of the theory learned, accessible to students across Ontario.
Following a competitive and comprehensive selection process, RECO selected NIIT Canada in partnership with Humber College as the exclusive Designate to design, develop, administer and deliver a New Registration Education Program to be launched on July 1, 2019. NIIT Canada will deliver the New Program for a full five-year term under the Designate Agreement. The agreement is extendable for a period of three years.
In the new program structure, NIIT Canada will be a prime member in the Consortium, and will be accountable for the development and delivery of the entire program, while utilizing the strengths of Humber College's presence and expertise for accredited program and assessment delivery in Ontario. To ensure streamlined operations, NIIT Canada and Humber will operate in seamlessly linked technology platforms powered by a robust governance model and an integrated issue handling process.
NIIT Canada's solution incorporates experiential learning and award-winning pedagogical methodologies with a practical, hands-on approach to reduce the time to proficiency so that learners who complete the program are job-ready as they begin their careers. NIIT Canada will invest in creating a best-in-class real estate curriculum delivered on a state-of-the-art eLearning platform to provide learners with intense practice and a real world, immersive learning experience through the extensive use of cutting-edge, virtualized simulations and the convenience of multiple modalities. The changes to the structure and delivery of the program will help aspiring real estate professionals to practice skills in a real-world, interactive environment thereby improving their time to proficiency and enhancing consumer protection.
NIIT Canada's partnership with Humber College will ensure accredited and accessible training delivery in not just the Greater Toronto area but also the most remote parts of Ontario. NIIT Canada will also manage RECO's Knowledge Management Systems platform to provide real-time, on demand performance support for registered salespersons and brokers.
While developing this curriculum, NIIT Canada will also factor for the continuing growth in the Ontario real estate market and the increasing trend in course enrolments. According to National Statistics stated by the Canadian Real Estate Association, home sales over Canadian MLS Systems rose by 5.2% month-over-month in February 2017 to reach the highest level since April 2016. While February sales were up from the previous month in about 70% of all local markets, the national increase was overwhelmingly driven by an increase in activity across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and environs.
"We're pleased to announce that the New Program will be developed by this partnership of two innovative leaders in professional education," said RECO Registrar, Joseph Richer. "The New Program will bring together the best in local real estate knowledge and education delivery, and leading edge expertise in program development. It will help ensure that students are practice-ready when they begin their real estate careers."
"NIIT Canada is truly honored to have been selected as the provider of real estate professional training programs to RECO. We are looking forward to developing the highest quality of training programs for Ontario's real estate professionals. Canada is a very important market for us and we are committed to expanding our operations in Canada, specifically Ontario, through our Toronto office to better serve the needs of our Canadian customers," said Sapnesh Lalla, CEO Designate, NIIT Ltd.
"Humber has a strong industry reputation for credential testing and delivery of professional designation programs says," Alister Mathieson, vice-president Advancement and External Affairs. "Further, Humber is closely connected with our local and provincial communities, and the opportunity to deliver specialized education and skills to real estate salespersons and brokers will help contribute to Ontario's economy as newly trained professionals enter the workforce."
About RECO
The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) is committed to protecting the public interest and enhancing consumer confidence in the real estate profession. We work to fulfill this goal through the day-to-day regulation of Ontario's more than 76,000 real estate registrants.
The Ontario government sets the rules that real estate salespersons, brokers and brokerages must follow. Those rules are contained in the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (REBBA 2002) and its associated regulations. RECO enforces these on behalf of the government.
RECO was established in 1997 as a delegated administrative authority (DAA) to enhance professionalism in the real estate industry, increase consumer protection and provide an effective and responsive regulatory framework.
About Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning
Established in 1967, Humber is one of Canada's leading postsecondary institutions. Committed to student success through excellence in teaching and learning, Humber serves 29,200 full-time students, 23,000 part-time, and continuing education students. With an internationally recognized reputation for quality learning, Humber offers a wide-range of career-focused opportunities for students to personalize their educational path, including 180 full-time programs across more than 40 fields of study, 200 part-time and 400 online programs or courses. More than four out of five of Humber graduates are employed within six months of completing their studies. Visit humber.ca
About NIIT Learning Solutions (Canada) Limited
NIIT Learning Solutions (Canada) Limited is a subsidiary of NIIT Limited, a global leader in skills and talent development, established in 1981. NIIT Limited offers multi-disciplinary learning management and training delivery solutions to institutions, individuals, and corporations in over 40 countries. NIIT's comprehensive suite of Managed Training Services includes custom curriculum design and content development, learning administration and delivery, strategic sourcing, learning technology, and advisory services. NIIT's global customers include leading global energy and petrochemical companies headquartered in Europe; some of the largest multi-national banks, insurance, and financial services companies in North America; and market-leading global technology companies. The Learning and Performance Institute, UK has internationally accredited NIIT as a forward-thinking, reputable provider, committed to learner outcomes, performance development, and customer satisfaction.
For more information, visit www.niit.com or write to us at [email protected]. Follow us on twitter @NIITMTS.
SOURCE NIIT
Related Links
http://www.niit.com
PicoBrew's three new kombucha PicoPaks will soon be available from BrewMarketplace, PicoBrew's online marketplace for craft beer. The kombucha PicoPaks will come in three initial flavors: Classic Lemon, Ginger Malt and Lemon Malt. PicoBrew also announced a "stretch goal" for their Kickstarter campaign: a kombucha PicoPak for hitting the $1.4M pledge level. With PicoBrew pledges totaling more than $750,000 in the first week of the campaign, Kickstarter backers are likely to enjoy the earlier "stretch goal" bounty, a free IPA PicoPak and a kombucha PicoPak.
Kombucha, a fermented tea, is a popular beverage in the health and wellness community that is said to aid digestion and stimulate the immune system. Pico users may brew kombucha PicoPaks in their Picos like they brew craft beer: simply insert a PicoPak, load a keg and reservoir with water, and select "brew". Once PicoPak kombucha is brewed users may add a SCOBY (the bacteria and yeast starter culture) to their fermenting keg and let it ferment for approximately 7 days (SCOBY which are reusable, are not included in each Pak).
"Brewing great craft beer requires quality ingredients, precision temperature and overall process control. Other gourmet food preparation techniques, such as sous-vide cooking and brewing kombucha, benefit from this same kitchen appliance quality and precision, so we decided to make Pico the ultimate kitchen appliance," said Dr. Bill Mitchell, CEO, PicoBrew. "What other appliance in your kitchen can prepare amazing beverages and outstanding gourmet foods?"
PicoBrew also announced today that multiple award-winning Washington restaurant The Herbfarm is developing premium kombucha PicoPaks in conjunction with PicoBrew. The Herbfarm, ranked by Zagat as one of America's Top 10 Restaurants, already uses PicoBrew Zymatic and Pico equipment at their restaurant location in Woodinville, Washington. Now, using a Pico Model C, home gourmets can sous-vide meats, fish and eggs instead of purchasing separate and less precise sous-vide recirculating hardware that can cost more than $150.
"For years, a secret of the great restaurants of France was sous-vide cooking. Now that same cooking precision -- which we use in our restaurant kitchen -- is yours when you put a Pico on your counter," said Ron Zimmerman, Owner of The Herbfarm. "The Pico is more than just a great craft beer machine!"
In addition to sous-vide cooking and kombucha brewing, PicoBrew also announced plans for a simple adjunct offering that allows the production of greatly gluten-reduced beers, making its craft beer catalog more accessible to all.
"We really take health and wellness seriously," said Mitchell, "and we've been asked about 'gluten-free' beers for some time. Gluten-free beer recipes are often limited in terms of flavors and aromas, so the enzyme we're introducing to reduce gluten actually works with all of our PicoPaks."
The brewing enzyme Clarity Ferm helps to significantly reduce the gluten content in beers made with barley or wheat, making them more accessible to people with gluten sensitivities, while maintaining the full flavor and aroma of the beer.
To contribute to the Pico Model C Kickstarter campaign, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1708005089/pico-c-craft-brewing-for-all.
For hi-res images and video, visit https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lwp5b07t35hrnpa/AACbXm_K6uArfuXTG41tUjqVa?dl=0.
About PicoBrew
PicoBrew was founded in Seattle in 2010 by brothers Bill and Jim Mitchell, a former Microsoft executive and food scientist, along with engineer Avi Geiger. Combining their food science and technology expertise with their passion for homebrewing, they set out to improve the craft beer brewing process for small producers and homebrewers. PicoBrew introduced its flagship product, the award-winning Zymatic automatic beer-brewing appliance for beer brewing professionals and homebrewers, in 2013. The Pico, designed for consumer craft beer enthusiasts, followed in 2016. Both machines are designed to improve the precision, repeatability and overall quality of the brewing process to create consistently delicious craft beer. For more information, visit www.picobrew.com or follow PicoBrew on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Media Contact:
Karen Pineman
LKPR, Inc.
[email protected]
917-453-6887
SOURCE PicoBrew
Related Links
http://www.picobrew.com
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Q BioMed Inc. (OTCQB: QBIO) has closed on its final tranche of the $4,000,000 funding announced on November 30th, 2016. The company received $1,500,000 less fees on the final closing, bringing the total gross funds received to date to $4MM.
Capital from the transaction will be used to advance our business plan and pipeline as we commercialize our first asset, Strontium Chloride 89 injection (SR89). SR89 is indicated for bone pain palliation, providing long-lasting relief for patients suffering from debilitating bone pain due to metastatic cancer, typically caused by advanced-stage breast, prostate or lung cancer.
Last week, Q BioMed management attended the 2017 OMRF BioVenture Forum, an industry event organized and hosted by the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), where we advanced discussions on the development of a novel liver cancer drug candidate. Approximately, 700,000 people annually throughout the world are diagnosed with liver cancer and approximately 600,000 deaths annually are attributed to liver cancer. Chemotherapeutic options for liver cancer are limited and the prognosis of liver cancer patients remains very poor.
Management met with industry colleagues as well as the Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, at a reception hosted by the Governor. We look forward to working with all parties on this important drug, in what is a vibrant biotechnology corridor in Oklahoma City.
The capital also allows us advance discussions with potential additional assets as we continue to develop our drug pipeline.
Please visit our website http://www.qbiomed.com to sign up for regular updates and stay up-to-date with our progress.
About Q BioMed Inc.
Q BioMed Inc. "Q" is a biomedical acceleration and development company. We are focused on licensing and acquiring biomedical assets across the healthcare spectrum. Q is dedicated to providing these target assets the strategic resources, developmental support, and expansion capital the need to ensure they meet their developmental potential, enabling them to provide products to patients in need.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include, but are not limited to, any statements relating to our growth strategy and product development programs and any other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could negatively affect our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated are: risks related to our growth strategy; risks relating to the results of research and development activities; our ability to obtain, perform under and maintain financing and strategic agreements and relationships; uncertainties relating to preclinical and clinical testing; our dependence on third-party suppliers; our ability to attract, integrate, and retain key personnel; the early stage of products under development; our need for substantial additional funds; government regulation; patent and intellectual property matters; competition; as well as other risks described in our SEC filings. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law.
Contact:
Denis Corin
CEO
Q BioMed Inc.
+1-888-357-2435
SOURCE Q BioMed Inc.
LOS ANGELES, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A major data-breach lawsuit highlights an intriguing question for defense teamswhether plaintiffs are attempting to hold companies to unrealistic standards of data-privacy protection, writes LeClairRyan business litigator Chad Mandell in a March 27 column for Corporate Compliance Insights.
Chad Mandell
In the column ("An Impossible Standard? Data Breach Defense Raises An Important Question"), Mandell cites the high-profile data-breach case of Indianapolis-based healthcare giant Anthem, which in January 2015 learned that hackers had breached its IT system, reportedly making off with the personal data of as many as 80 million Americans.
Two years later, Mandell notes in the piece, several plaintiffs voluntarily asked a judge in the Northern District of California to dismiss the lawsuits they themselves had filed against Anthem.
"The judge had ordered select plaintiffs to comply with a discovery request by Anthem that required them to submit their computers to an independent forensic examiner," writes Mandell, a partner in the national law firm's Los Angeles office. "Anthem wanted to determine whether malware had caused data or credentials to be stolen from the plaintiffs' computers even before the breach of Anthem's systems. If that proved to be true, it would call into question whether the plaintiffs' alleged injuries had truly been caused by the Anthem hack."
It appears that certain plaintiffs dropped out of the suit in order to avoid disclosing this possibly confidential information via discovery, the attorney notes in the column.
Arguably, the process might well have shown that these plaintiffs' data or credentials had been compromised prior to the Anthem breach. After all, Mandell points out, some Internet users are their own worst enemies with respect to data privacy.
"They essentially take zero safety precautions to reduce the risk that their personal information is not needlessly exposed," he writes. "Instead of checking the privacy policies of the websites they visit and 'opting out' of potentially invasive requests, they reflexively give permission to any and all requests. People still use 'password' as their password or fail to take advantage of enhanced measures such as two-factor authentication."
No organization, no matter how large and no matter what security protocols are in place, is immune from its systems being compromised, Mandell says. "Thus, it is reasonable to ask whether alleged damages in a data-breach case truly can be traced to a given hack of a particular company or whether they stem from a prior breach or multiple prior breaches of the plaintiff's own computer," he notes in the column.
In the Anthem case, the court framed an order that drastically limited the amount of information that could be culled from forensic examination of the plaintiffs' computers. It also put in place multiple and extensive measures that called for tightly controlled access to the plaintiffs' confidential information, Mandell writes.
But even with this heightened protection, certain plaintiffs balked. "As a result, one has to wonder whether they had reasonable expectations regarding their personal privacy to begin with," Mandell concludes. "In suing Anthem, were they seeking to hold the company to an almost impossible standard? It's a question that could prove useful for other firms as they seek to defend themselves in data breach cases."
The full blog post is available at
http://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/an-impossible-standard/
About LeClairRyan
As a trusted advisor, LeClairRyan provides business counsel and client representation in corporate law and litigation. In this role, the firm applies its knowledge, insight and skill to help clients achieve their business objectives while managing and minimizing their legal risks, difficulties and expenses. With offices in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C., the firm has approximately 350 attorneys representing a wide variety of clients throughout the nation. For more information about LeClairRyan, visit www.leclairryan.com.
Press Contacts: At Parness & Associates Public Relations, Bill Parness, (732) 290-0121, [email protected] or Lisa Kreda, [email protected]
SOURCE LeClairRyan
Related Links
http://www.leclairryan.com
DUBLIN, Apr 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Precious Metals Market 2017-2021" report to their offering.
The global precious metals market to grow at a CAGR of 4.07% during the period 2017-2021.
The report, Global Precious Metals Market 2017-2021, 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.
One trend in market is increasing disposable income of the middle class population. Globally, three billion people are expected to enter the middle class population segment between 2015-2035. The growing middle class population is expected to play a significant role in boosting the growth of the market. APAC and the Americas are among the key markets for precious metals and offer significant opportunities for major players to expand their businesses. A rise in the disposable income of the middle class population has had a considerable positive impact on the growth of the market. Disposable income increased by almost 25% in APAC and by more than 20% in Latin America between 2009 and 2014. The key markets in these regions include Japan, China, India, and Brazil. Per capita annual disposable income increased by approximately 23% in Japan, 7% in China, and 9% in India between 2014 and 2015.
According to the report, one driver in market is extensive use of platinum in the glass and chemical industries. Platinum consumption in the industrial sector is growing with an increase in platinum purchase by the glass industry and the chemical industry in addition to the automotive industry. In the glass industry, platinum is used in the fabrication of vessels that assist in holding, channeling, and forming the molten glass. The high melting point, strength, and corrosion resistance of platinum allow it to withstand the abrasive action of molten glass. In the chemical industry, platinum is also used in the manufacture of nitric acid, where PGM catalysts are used for enhancing the efficiency of various reactions. In Asia and the Middle East, the construction of new chemical plants for the production of nitric acid and other chemicals is expected to increase platinum consumption.
Key vendors
Anglo American
Barrick Gold
Impala Platinum
Lonmin
Newmont Mining
Other Prominent Vendors
Johnson Matthey
Goldcorp
Norilsk Nickel
Northam Platinum
North American Palladium
Key Topics Covered:
PART 01: Executive summary
PART 02: Scope of the report
PART 03: Research Methodology
PART 04: Introduction
PART 05: Market landscape
PART 06: Market segmentation by product segment
PART 07: Geographical segmentation
PART 08: Decision framework
PART 09: Drivers and challenges
PART 10: Market trends
PART 11: Vendor landscape
PART 12: Appendix
For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nh5s6v/global_precious
Media Contact:
Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
[email protected]
For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470
For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630
For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
SOURCE Research and Markets
Related Links
http://www.researchandmarkets.com
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- International public speaker and entertainer Joe Libby was excited to be asked to speak at the Total Success Summit, a professional development seminar in Sydney, Australia. Held at the Star Casino Event Centre on March 2022, 2017, the event attracted business leaders from all over Australia and other parts of the world. It also attracted one of the world's biggest stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Joe Libby's presentation was introduced by Total Success Summit producer Glenn Twiddle. Public speaker Joe Libby shared the platform with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Total Success Summit in Sydney, Australia.
"It was a thrill to visit Sydney and to share my expertise on avoiding cons and scams with the other attendees," said Libby. "And of course, it was a very big thrill to share the stage with Schwarzenegger. His success in bodybuilding, movies, and business can inspire everyone."
Libby's presentation, which combined magic, misdirection, and clean humor to demonstrate how con artists cheat businesses out of money, was enthusiastically received by the audience and by
Total Success Summit producer Glenn Twiddle.
According to Libby, "All too often, seminars like this make big promises but don't follow through. That isn't the case with Total Success. Glenn and his team pulled out all the stops and got world-class experts in business, sports, and professional development. And they brought in Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of Hollywood's top stars. I was honored to be a part of it."
For more information on Joe Libby's speaking programs, visit http://JoeLibbySeminars.com or call 210-772-6686.
For Further Information contact:
Joe Libby
Phone: 210-772-6686
email: [email protected]
SOURCE Joe Libby
Related Links
http://JoeLibbySeminars.com
ARLINGTON, Va., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A global survey of life scientists reveals a high level of uncertainty regarding the outlook for research funding. According to a new report from BioInformatics LLC, university scientists in the US, Europe and Asia anticipate little growth in their budgets in FY2017. Scientists employed by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies project modest but steady growth in their budgets with the greatest increases expected in Asia.
Lab Budgets and Sources of Funding in 2017: The Market Outlook for the United States, Europe and Asia is the latest report from BioInformatics LLC. The report is based on a survey of more than 1,000 life scientists who answered a detailed questionnaire about their budget and spending plans for 2017. Suppliers of laboratory instrumentation and consumables rely upon the biennial report to project demand in ten broad product categories.
"Scientists in the US and Europe are the most pessimistic about their future," said Madelaine Denno, Ph.D., a senior analyst at BioInformatics LLC. "This is such an exciting time to be in life science research, but there's a real sense of frustration at many labs. Even though US budgets on average remain much higher than those in Asia, it's Asian scientists who are most optimistic about their future prospects for funding."
The report contains detailed information on current and projected funding, planned spending on instrumentation and consumables, and scientists' opinions on funding and the future of life science research. A complimentary Executive Summary is now available on the BioInformatics website.
ABOUT BIOINFORMATICS LLC
BioInformatics LLC and its SDi division together form the premier research and advisory firm serving senior executives at companies making the tools of science. By leveraging our expert network of more than 75,000 scientists, the company has supported more than 500 companies in creating insights that lead to better business decisions. Offerings include assessing the size and attractiveness of scientific markets, optimizing product configurations and pricing, validating corporate acquisitions, measuring customer loyalty, and evaluating brand strength and positioning.
www.gene2drug.com
For more information contact:
Madeline Kalicka
BioInformatics LLC
2111 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 250
Arlington, VA 22201
Phone: 310.641.4982
[email protected]
www.gene2drug.com
SOURCE BioInformatics LLC
Related Links
http://www.gene2drug.com
Larry Simkins and David Sokol to Join as Directors
HONG KONG, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Seaspan Corporation (NYSE: SSW) announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed Larry Simkins, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Washington Companies ("WashCo"), to its Board to replace Graham Porter, who has resigned as a Director of the company to focus on other personal and professional commitments. Following Seaspan's 2017 Annual General Meeting, it is anticipated that the Board will expand from eight to nine members and will add David Sokol, a Director of WashCo and experienced executive, as a Director.
WashCo, through its affiliates Deep Water Holdings, LLC and Copper Lion, Inc., is Seaspan's largest shareholder with ownership of approximately 50 percent of Seaspan's outstanding shares. WashCo today is filing an amendment to its Schedule 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission, to reflect, among other things, the appointment of Mr. Simkins and the anticipated appointment of Mr. Sokol, two of its nominees, to Seaspan's Board. The Washington Companies were founded by industrialist and entrepreneur Dennis R. Washington and are privately held companies active in the core industries of rail and marine transportation, mining, aviation, environmental remediation and restoration services, and heavy equipment sales and service.
Gerry Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Seaspan, commented, "We are pleased to welcome fresh perspectives and ideas from Larry, and later this month from David, as representatives from our largest shareholder and proven business leaders. We are encouraged by recent positive signs of a recovery in the global container shipping market, and believe that the newly constituted Board will enhance our ability to capture emerging opportunities, benefitting the company and all of our shareholders."
Kyle Washington, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Seaspan, added, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Graham for his many years of service and contributions to Seaspan a company we, together with Gerry, built into the world's leading containership leasing business. We wish Graham all the best in his future endeavors and know that Seaspan is well-positioned for the future, and in good hands with our incumbent and new Directors, both of whom I know and respect from our many years working together at the Washington Companies."
Larry Simkins said, "I am excited to have the opportunity to contribute to a great company in Seaspan, which I have followed closely as an investor for many years. Seaspan has created an unsurpassed containership leasing platform, and I too am encouraged by signs of a market recovery. I look forward to working closely with Gerry, who I have known for a long time and is a pioneer in the industry, as well as the full Board to build on the company's successes and create sustainable value for shareholders."
David Sokol added, "Seaspan is clearly an industry leader that provides critical services to world-class liner companies. I see an opportunity for Seaspan to solidify its industry position even further as the market improves, and I look forward to engaging with the other Directors and management to support that growth when I am appointed to the Board."
Seaspan and Gerry Wang have agreed in principle to amend his employment agreement to remove transaction fees and enter into discussions in regard to further amendments to his employment agreement and compensation package. In addition, Seaspan and Seaspan Financial Services Ltd., an entity owned and controlled by Graham Porter, have agreed in principle to terminate the Financial Services Agreement between the parties. Seaspan may, from time to time, engage Graham Porter or his affiliates to provide advisory services on specific transactions, as approved by its Board.
About Larry Simkins
Mr. Simkins currently serves as President, CEO and Director of the Washington Companies, providing leadership and direction to the companies by serving as a member of the Board of Directors for each individual company. The Washington Companies are an international group of privately-owned companies transacting business in the areas of rail transportation, marine transportation, mining, environmental construction, heavy equipment sales, and aviation products. Mr. Simkins previously served as a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
About David Sokol
Mr. Sokol has founded three companies in his career to date, taken three companies public and, as Chairman and CEO of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, he sold the company to Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. in 2000. Mr. Sokol continued with Berkshire Hathaway until he retired in March 2011 in order to manage his family business investments. Mr. Sokol currently sits on two corporate boards and is a member of the executive committee of the board of directors of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. Over Mr. Sokol's 38-year career, he has chaired five corporate boards and over a dozen charitable or community boards.
About The Washington Companies
The Washington Companies, founded by industrialist and entrepreneur Dennis R. Washington, are privately held companies active in the core industries of rail and marine transportation, mining, aviation, environmental remediation and restoration services, and heavy equipment sales and service. The companies are headquartered throughout Montana, the Pacific Northwest and western Canada and conduct business internationally.
About Seaspan
Seaspan provides many of the world's major shipping lines with creative outsourcing alternatives to vessel ownership by offering long-term leases on large, modern containerships combined with industry leading ship management services. Seaspan's managed fleet consists of 114 containerships representing a total capacity of over 915,000 TEU, including 11 newbuilding containerships on order scheduled for delivery to Seaspan and third parties by the end of 2018. Seaspan's current operating fleet of 88 vessels has an average age of approximately six years and average remaining lease period of approximately five years, on a TEU weighted basis.
Seaspan has the following securities listed on The New York Stock Exchange:
Symbol:
Description:
SSW
Class A common shares SSW PR D
Series D preferred shares SSW PR E
Series E preferred shares SSW PR G
Series G preferred shares SSW PR H
Series H preferred shares SSWN
6.375% senior unsecured notes due 2019
For Investor Relations Inquiries:
Mr. David Spivak
Chief Financial Officer
Seaspan Corporation
Tel. 604-638-2580
Mr. Michael Sieffert
Director, Corporate Finance
Seaspan Corporation
Tel. 778-328-6490
For Seaspan Media Inquiries:
Mr. Leon Berman
The IGB Group
Tel. 212-477-8438
For Washington Company Media Inquiries:
Ms. Anna Cordasco / Mr. Jared Levy / Ms. Nikki Ritchie
Sard Verbinnen & Co
Tel. 212-687-8080
SOURCE Seaspan Corporation
Related Links
http://www.seaspancorp.com/
STROUDSBURG, Pa., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Kathy Manderino continued the "Jobs that Pay" (JTP) tour with a keynote address at a Greater Pocono Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Stroudsburg today. After the luncheon concluded, she participated in a tour at Sutphen East Corporation in Lake Ariel.
"I often refer to the JTP tour as a 'listening tour,'" said Sec. Manderino. "Today's luncheon provided an invaluable opportunity to discuss Governor's Wolf's agenda with Monroe, Carbon, Northampton, Pike and Wayne county business leaders and to hear directly from them, local economic development professionals and stakeholders about what the future workforce development needs are in this region."
Following the chamber luncheon, Sec. Manderino traveled to Wayne County for a tour of Sutphen East. She was joined by representatives of the Wayne Valley Economic Development Corporation.
"Sutphen's state-of the-art facility showcased what the future of manufacturing looks like in Pennsylvania," said Sec. Manderino. "One of the goals of the JTP tour is to shine a spotlight on the high-skilled, good paying manufacturing jobs that exist in the commonwealth and encourage cooperation between local workforce development partners in order to create a pipeline of qualified employees to meet future manufacturing needs."
In 2016, Sutphen received a funding proposal from the Governor's Action Team to establish the new manufacturing facility in Sterling township and create 60 new jobs.
Sutphen East Corporation, a fire apparatus manufacturer, is a subsidiary of the Sutphen Corporation. Founded in 1890, Sutphen is in its 125th year of operation and is touted as the oldest continuously owned and operated fire apparatus manufacturer in the country. Sec. Manderino's tour highlighted the engineering department, the metal cutting and painting area, and the service department.
The 'Jobs that Pay' tour is an effort by state agencies to promote good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and career-paths available to job-seekers across the commonwealth, and to listen and learn from employers and employees about workforce development needs.
MEDIA CONTACT: Theresa Elliott, 717-787-7530
SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry
Related Links
http://www.state.pa.us
Sharp's growing channel program focuses on providing participants with the best marketing resources, qualified leads and technical training to ensure top-notch product expertise among alliances. Striving to help alliances expand their businesses, Sharp provides all the tools needed for channel success in the field.
"For solution providers, finding the right technology vendors is crucial to the health of their business, and the vast array of choices can be overwhelming," said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. "Our annual Partner Program Guide and 5-Star ratings help them narrow the field, identifying the most rewarding programs and outlining their strengths and benefits."
"Our team is honored to receive a 5-Star rating for our distinguished channel program," said Mike Marusic, Chief Operating Officer of Sharp Electronics Corporation and Executive Vice President of Marketing, SIICA. "This recognition is a reflection of our team's hard work to offer better solutions for our alliances and to provide our customers with the best possible technologies."
The 2017 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April issue of CRN and online at www.CRN.com/ppg.
Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
Tweet This:
@TheChannelCo names @Sharp_Business to @CRN 2017 Partner Program Guide #CRNPPG www.CRN.com/ppg
About Sharp Electronics Corporation
Sharp Electronics Corporation is the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Sharp Corporation. Sharp is a worldwide developer of one-of-a-kind home appliances, networked multifunctional office solutions, professional displays, robotics and energy systems.
About Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America
Through U.S. B2B sales channels, Sharp is the leading brand of Large Format Commercial & Hybrid Displays (60"+) and is the #1 selling brand of Large Format Integrated Touch Displays (60"+)*. Sharp's professional and commercial displays are specially engineered for business applications and are offered in a wide range of sizes and varying capabilities. From high-impact displays for digital signage, to state-of-the-art ultra-narrow bezel video walls, to the award-winning AQUOS BOARD interactive display systems, Sharp commercial and professional displays help you communicate, collaborate and disseminate information brilliantly. For more information, visit our website at siica.sharpusa.com.
*Results based on IHS Markit, Technology Group, Monthly Large Format Commercial Displays Report, January 2017. Results are not an endorsement of Sharp. Any reliance on these results is at the third party's own judgement and/or responsibility. Visit https://technology.ihs.com/ for more information.
For more information on Sharp's business products, contact Sharp Electronics Corporation, 100 Paragon Drive, Montvale, N.J., 07645. For online product information, visit our website at siica.sharpusa.com. Become a fan of SIICA on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and watch us on YouTube .
Peppercomm for Sharp
Sarah Sanzari
212.931.6175
[email protected]
About the Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com
Copyright 2017. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Channel Company Contact:
Melanie Turpin
The Channel Company
(508) 416-1195
[email protected]
SOURCE Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA)
Related Links
http://siica.sharpusa.com
COMMERCE, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart & Final, the neighborhood warehouse grocery store for households and businesses, announced today that Derek Jones will be the new president of its Cash & Carry Smart Foodservice division. With 60 wholesale stores in six western states, Cash & Carry caters to the foodservice industry as a one-stop shop for large and small business needs. Jones will report to Smart & Final President and CEO Dave Hirz.
Smart & Final has named Derek Jones as the new president of its Cash & Carry Smart Foodservice division.
"This is an exciting period of growth for Cash & Carry, and we look forward to Derek's support in delivering great results as we enter a brand new market for the second year in a row," said Hirz. "He has the experience and track record to drive our ongoing expansion efforts in key markets, and we're confident he's the right person for this large, important part of our business."
Jones comes to Smart & Final from SpartanNash Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a U.S. grocery distributor and retailer, where he was President and Executive Vice President, Wholesale and Distribution Operations. Prior to that, he served in a variety of roles including EVP of Food Distribution, EVP of Retail Operations and EVP of Wholesale Operations. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his 26 years in the retail industry, spanning several positions in operations, distribution and supply chain at Unisource Worldwide, Office Depot, Walgreens and Wal-Mart Stores.
A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Jones is Principal and Business Advisor for Future Development Group, LLC, an organization aiming to provide places of learning, support and resources to students. Previously, he served on the Board of Directors for the National Grocers Association and on the Board of Directors for Heart of West Michigan United Way.
Headquartered near Portland, Oregon, Cash & Carry Smart Foodservice is a subsidiary of Smart & Final Stores, Inc. and has operated throughout the Northwest for more than 60 years. The division currently has 60 wholesale stores located in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada and Utah catering to the foodservice industry.
About Smart & Final
Smart & Final Stores, Inc. (NYSE: SFS), is a value-oriented food and everyday staples retailer, headquartered in Commerce (near Los Angeles), California. The Company offers quality products in a variety of sizes, saving household, nonprofit and business customers time and money. As of January 1, 2017, the Company operated 305 grocery and foodservice stores under the "Smart & Final," "Smart & Final Extra!" and "Cash & Carry Smart Foodservice" banners in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Utah, with an additional 15 stores in Northwestern Mexico operated through a joint venture. In business for over 145 years, the Company remains committed to giving back to local communities through employee volunteer opportunities and Company donations to local nonprofits.
Media contact: [email protected]
SOURCE Smart & Final
SHEFFIELD, England, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sontiacreators of the revolutionary, audiophile-grade, Stable Phase Technology (SPT) for audio systemsand leading headphone manufacturer, ARKON, have created a new type of Bluetooth wireless headphone that uses the unique Sontia SPT linear-phase speaker correction algorithms. This development heralds a new era of premium audio headphone sound using techniques that have not been heard before in this type of device, creating a number of dramatic benefits to spatial separation, clarity, realism and bass response.
Sontia Logic Limited
Sontia SPT is a fundamentally different and scientific approach to sound production. It uses patented, high-precision, mathematical algorithms to correct the inherent limitations of the underlying physics of the headphone speaker and enclosuredelivering an output sound that is as near perfect as the product could possibly achieve. The listener of the new, Sontia-powered, ARKON headphones hears the audio source material as it was intendedwith a wide, detailed, soundstage, crystal clear natural sound, smooth deep bass and ultra-low distortion. Every detail can be heard and the listener becomes unaware that they are listening through headphones. By contrast, sound reproduction in the majority of affordable headphones tends to lack clarity, with poor separation of sounds from the various instruments and suffers weak or unnatural bass. Over time, this is fatiguing to the listener.
Commenting on these new Sontia-powered ARKON headphones, Mr. Zhao-Hui XU, CEO of ARKON said, "ARKON is delighted to be the first to bring such a revolutionary headphone to market incorporating Sontia SPT. ARKON has a long history of producing high-quality, yet affordable, headphones, incorporating the latest engineering and technology advances. ARKON's new Sontia-enabled headphones reach a new, unparalleled, level of premium audio performance, delivering the most natural, clear and impressive sound."
When Sontia first unveiled its radical, multi-patented SPT audio solution, listeners unanimously agreed that the results were stunning and like nothing they had ever heard before. One EETimes reviewer wrote, "[after enabling Sontia SPT] the sound changed entirely, making it more than simply '2.0' sound... it performed beautifully...bass portrayed huge resonance; the sound seemed like it was from a live performance."
Sontia Founder, CEO and audio expert, Chris Vernon, explains the challenges in more detail and how Sontia SPT works uniquely to make such a dramatic sound improvement. "No matter how good the headphone design, there will always be distortions and undesirable effects as a result of the fundamental physics that is inherent in generating sound by a speaker inside a headphone enclosure. The 'Holy Grail' of sound reproduction has long been to remove, or correct, these, and achieve what is called 'linear-phase' output. The ability to do this has been difficult to master and considered out the reach of practical, affordable consumer products. However, Sontia has created a real-world, affordable, audiophile-quality solution that makes this a practical reality in everyday products. Furthermore, Sontia SPT runs on the DSPs that are already inside the majority of existing Bluetooth headphones and without any modification to the headphone design. Our technology yields sound output that is very close to the source audio and seems like you a listening to a live performance. The listener no longer feels as if they are listening through headphones or speakers. Instruments and vocals are spatially separated, sounding natural and clear, with smooth, deep bass and ultra-low distortion. We're really excited to have worked with ARKON to create these amazing headphones."
ARKON's Sontia-powered wireless headphone design is available now to brand partners contact ARKON or Sontia for a demonstration and more information.
About Sontia
Sontia Logic Limited is a provider of innovative speaker correction and sound enhancement technology for incorporation into third party audio products. Sontia was established in 2004 and its technology was made commercially available for the first time in 2012 when it was incorporated into soundbars from LG Electronics. It has since been used in automotive and cinema applications as well as in ARKON's headphones. Sontia is headquartered in Sheffield, UK, with a sales and R&D facility in China, and with sales/technical support presence in Korea, USA and Japan.
About ARKON ELECTRONICS
Established in 1978, ARKON ELECTRONICS (Uni-Art Precise Products Ltd.) is a leading manufacturer and exporter of wired and wireless headphones, wireless speakers, wireless professional transmission systems and audio-video connection products in Hong Kong and China. With over 30 years development and manufacturing experience, ARKON has a well established, unique position in the market and has been awarded ISO9001 and ISO14001 certification. ARKON's famous brands include: PHILIPS, SONY, JVC, PIONEER, AKG, JBL, ACOUSTIC RESEARCH, RCA, MAXELL, HAMA and THOMSON.
More Information & Contacts:
For further information and media please contact:
Sontia Jun Tan, Tel: UK +44 20 32399871, Tel: China +86 755 22664824.
Email: [email protected], www.sontia.com
ARKON ELECTRONICS Simon Chan / Jacky Tse
Tel: +852 2790 8778 Email: [email protected] www.arkon.com.hk
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SOURCE Sontia Logic Limited
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NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CompStak, the leader in crowdsourced commercial real estate (CRE) information, announced today the launch of its innovative lease data and analytics platforms in Salt Lake City. The New York-based juggernaut marked the occasion by releasing an analysis of major deals in the market in 2016.
Beginning today, brokers, appraisers, and researchers across Salt Lake City are invited to join the more than 12,000 other CompStak Exchange members who access the platform for free. Already, CRE professionals from dozens of Salt Lake City-area firms have signed on as pioneer members. As members of CompStak, each will have access to exclusive, verified commercial lease comparables in Salt Lake City.
Also launched in Salt Lake City, CompStak Enterprise empowers users to instantly analyze the performance of leases in completely customizable geographies and property competitive sets -- all while putting the complete, verified details of each individual transaction at their fingertips. Available to lenders, investors, and landlords, Enterprise delivers unmatched visibility into transactions closed in the hottest property markets in the world.
CompStak's unique platform enables granular market and deal analysis not previously possible in Salt Lake City. For the first time, the industry can access local insights into real starting rents, landlord concessions, lease term trends, and more.
CompStak took a first look at some of the biggest office deals signed in Salt Lake City in 2016:
SOME OF THE LARGEST OFFICE LEASES SIGNED IN SALT LAKE CITY, 2016 Tenant Name Address City Execution Qtr Starting Rent Size SolarCity 12800 South Frontrunner Blvd Draper 3Q 2016 High $20s 155k - 160k sqft E*Trade Financial 200 West Civic Center Drive Sandy 3Q 2016 High $20s 80k - 85k sqft Jet.com 12930 South Frontrunner Blvd Draper 1Q 2016 Mid $20s 75k - 80k sqft Healthcare Quality Catalyst 3165 East Millrock Drive Salt Lake City 3Q 2016 Low $30s 60k - 65k sqft Sutter Physicians Services 392 East Winchester Street Murray 4Q 2016 Low $20s 50k - 55k sqft Horrocks Engineers 2162 West Grove Parkway Pleasant Grove 2Q 2016 Low $20s 40k - 45k sqft Workman Nydegger 60 East South Temple Salt Lake City 1Q 2016 High $20s 40k - 45k sqft TPUSA 5295 South Commerce Drive Murray 1Q 2016 Low $20s 30k -35k sqft Dorsey & Whitney 111 South Main Street Salt Lake City 1Q 2016 Mid $30s 30k -35k sqft Musician's Friend 180 West Election Road Draper 2Q 2016 Mid $20s 25k - 30k sqft
"As we got to know the the Salt Lake City market, we found that there was already a strong culture of trading data amongst the top commercial real estate services firms. We're thrilled to serve as a resource to the professionals in these firms, allowing them to share market data, and bring transparency to the market. Our data will help Salt Lake City commercial real estate professionals get deals done more quickly and fairly. We hope that providing access to Salt Lake City data to our institutional clients across the globe will help spur interest in a market that is already terrific," Michael Mandel, Co-Founder and CEO said.
In the latter half of 2016, CompStak began gathering details such as starting rent, concessions, and term information on deals signed in Salt Lake City over the past 10 years. CompStak focuses on data accuracy through a proprietary process combining machine learning algorithms and analyst review. The Salt Lake City database, already containing thousand of commercial lease transactions, is expected to double in size in 2017. Salt Lake City is one of 50 markets across the US and UK where CompStak is active.
To request access to CompStak, please visit www.compstak.com.
About CompStak:
CompStak creates transparency in commercial real estate (CRE) markets by gathering information that is hard to find, difficult to compile, or otherwise unavailable. Since 2012, CompStak has delivered this unmatched insight to a network of tens of thousands of members and clients, including Tishman Speyer, Wells Fargo, Equity Office, and many other top CRE firms. CompStak Exchange is an exclusive platform for CRE brokers, appraisers, and researchers to get verified commercial lease comps at no charge. Through CompStak Enterprise, lenders, landlords, and investors can access granular CRE transaction information and market analytics.
SOURCE CompStak
Related Links
http://www.compstak.com
QUAKERTOWN, Pa., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Synergis Technologies, LLC today announced the opening of a Synergis Office and Training Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The new location will meet the increased demand for training from the active community of design professionals in the Philadelphia region to help them achieve maximum productivity, competitive business advantage, and a greater return on their Autodesk software investment.
The location of the new training center will enable Autodesk customers in this region, as well as those leveraging public transportation, to more conveniently attend onsite, customized and classroom training, taught by Synergis' team of Autodesk certified experts.
"With increasing interest in implementing Building Information Modeling solutions from our Center City customers, Synergis needed to provide a more convenient training location to support these companies," said Kristen Tomasic, vice president, sales and marketing, of Synergis Technologies. "Synergis' Philadelphia office complements our eight other training locations and will provide the same high quality learning environment and educational content offered at our other facilities."
The location is 1515 Market Street, Suite 1200, Philadelphia, PA and the current training class schedule can be found at www.synergis.com/training/schedule.
About Synergis Engineering Design Solutions
Synergis Engineering Design Solutions, a division of Synergis Technologies, LLC, provides customers solutions to make them more productive, competitive, and profitable. Synergis is among the most elite of the Autodesk Value Added Resellers and holds privileged recognition as an Autodesk Platinum Partner, Autodesk's highest level of certification, for the expertise, training and services it provides for the manufacturing, AEC and education communities; Autodesk Consulting Specialized Partner; and Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC). Companies in these industries turn to Synergis for Autodesk software, and the highest quality training, professional services, and support available to help them stay ahead. For more information on Synergis Engineering Design Solutions, visit www.synergis.com/cad or call 800-836-5440.
2017 Synergis Technologies, LLC All rights reserved
Autodesk and the Autodesk logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries.
SOURCE Synergis Technologies, LLC
Related Links
http://www.synergis.com
NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 25, Talkspace will be hosting its annual conference at the SFJazz Center from 8:30am-5:00pm. This year's theme is Reshaping Behavioral Health in the Workplace. Talkspace's 2017 conference will bring together thought leaders in behavioral health, research, technology, and human resources to discuss workplace challenges in mental health and the innovative approaches that are yielding effective outcomes.
Tickets are now available on Eventbrite.
"With mental illnesses ranking first among illnesses that cause disability in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, it's shocking that 85% of U.S. employees will remain undiagnosed or undertreated," said Oren Frank, CEO of Talkspace.
Featured speakers from Amgen, Beacon Health Options, Click Therapeutics, Doctor on Demand, General Assembly, MHA-NYC, One Medical, Yale University, and more will explore solutions for reducing the $300B lost by U.S. businesses each year due to mental health conditions in the following discussions:
Digital Therapeutics: Can pharma and software reshape mental health care?
Leveraging Technology: Can data, software and devices enable better care?
Opening Access: How can we remove the barriers to behavioral care in the workplace?
Benchmarking Outcomes: How can we measure and manage the quality of Behavioral Care?
Laurie Dhue, a media powerhouse and one of the nation's top recovery advocates, will deliver the keynote address, Breaking stigma and the path to recovery. Dhue will be joined by Joe Schrank, program director of High Sobriety Treatment, for a fireside discussion on The Impact of Addiction: What you can't see, but you can feel. Additionally, John Duran, Council Member of the City of West Hollywood will be taking the stage to share his work advocating for HIV/AIDS issues and LGBT equality.
"Companies have the power to influence the course of the health and wellness of their employees," said Lynn Hamilton, CCO at Talkspace. "People suffering from mental health conditions often lack the support they need from employers to access care. It's a problem that ultimately affects everyone in the work environment - colleagues, managers and the overall health of the organization. We hope this conference can shed light on challenges that exist so together, we can forge a better path forward."
For more information, please visit: https://www.talkspace.com/reshaping-behavioral-health/index.html
About Talkspace
Talkspace connects people with licensed therapists through its web and mobile apps. As the leading online therapy company, Talkspace revolutionized mental health care access by bringing the dialogue between therapists and their clients into the digital age. Founded with a mission to eliminate the stigmas associated with mental illness and to make therapy more available to millions of people, Talkspace's flagship product, Unlimited Messaging Therapy, has already been used by more than 500,000 people.
SOURCE Talkspace
Related Links
http://www.talkspace.com
CLEARWATER, Fla., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc (NYSE: HRTG) ("Heritage" or the "Company"), a leading property and casualty insurance holding company headquartered in the state of Florida, announced today its subsidiary, Heritage Property & Casualty Company (Heritage P&C) has been awarded a 2017 Top Workplaces honor by The Tampa Bay Times. The Top Workplaces lists are based solely on the results of an employee feedback survey administered by WorkplaceDynamics, LLC, a leading research firm that specializes in organizational health and workplace improvement. Several aspects of workplace culture were measured, including Alignment, Execution, and Connection, just to name a few.
Doug Claffey, CEO of WorkplaceDynamics said, "To be a Top Workplace, organizations must meet our strict standards for organizational health. And who better to ask about work life than the people who live the culture every daythe employees. Time and time again, our research has proven that what's most important to them is a strong belief in where the organization is headed, how it's going to get there, and the feeling that everyone is in it together."
Heritage Insurance Chairman and CEO Bruce Lucas said, "We are so pleased that employees once again voted Heritage a Top Workplace. We strive to offer the best benefits in the industry and that has been an important factor with our employees. We also try to provide an environment where employees feel valued and acknowledged for their ideas and dedication. Management endeavors to continue to cultivate this environment for all employees and will remain focused on workplace satisfaction. I am truly honored that our employees hold our company in such high regard."
About Heritage
Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc. is a property and casualty insurance holding company headquartered in Clearwater, Florida. Its subsidiaries, Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company and Zephyr Insurance Company, write approximately $577 million and $58 million, respectively, of personal and commercial residential premium through a large network of experienced agents. The Company is currently writing property and casualty insurance policies in Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc. is led by a seasoned senior management team with an average of 30 years of insurance industry experience.
About WorkplaceDynamics, LLC
Headquartered in Exton, PA, WorkplaceDynamics specializes in employee feedback surveys and workplace improvement. This year alone, more than two million employees in over 6,000 organizations will participate in the Top Workplaces campaigna program it conducts in partnership with more than 40 prestigious media partners across the United States. Workplace Dynamics also provides consulting services to improve employee engagement and organizational health. WorkplaceDynamics is a founding B Corporation member, a coalition of organizations that are leading a global movement to redefine success in business by offering a positive vision of a better way to do business.
Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc.
Investor Contact:
Melanie Skijus, Investor Relations Director
727-362-7262
[email protected]
SOURCE Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.heritagepci.com
BOULDER, Colo., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CBDRx (www.cbdrx.com), the world's leading Cannabinoid hemp farm and Functional Remedies nutraceutical company, announce the creation of their new hemp genetic "Zephyr" line and first marker assisted hemp breeding program in the hemp industry.
The CBDRx and the Functional Remedies genetics program uses marker assisted breeding to research and identify components of the hemp plant that are part of the CBDRx optimal only standards for genetic replication and breeding. "We provide the best products and it starts with creating the best plants," said Tim Gordon, President at CBDRx and Functional Remedies. "Our dedication to plant passion and product perfection and our optimal only philosophy on hemp breeding sets an extremely high bar of perfection that I don't see elsewhere in the industry." Said Gordon.
CBDRx and Functional Remedies have teamed up with Hempgene, a Colorado based company providing plant research services to the cannabis industry. Hempgene provides superior genetic research services using modern genomics to provide trait development selection in hemp genetics. "This collaboration is industry leading," said Matt Gibbs, COO at Hempgene. Using technology to break down barriers of research is what is making CBDRx and Hempgene the leaders in genetic research.
About CBDRx and Functional Remedies.
Founded in 2014, CBDRx is a U.S. leader in farming high quality Phyto cannabinoid rich hemp in agriculture. The nutraceutical company is fully vertically integrated. The CBDRx team includes agronomists skilled in the science and technology of holistic plant food production and plant genetics who have bred hemp plants rich in cannabinoids and low in THC. The company uses its own superior seed genetics grown organically, without pesticides, using sustainable agricultural practices on the company's outdoor production farm in Pueblo, Colorado and a state of the art production facility along the Front Range. Functional Remedies and CBDRx provide the highest quality, full spectrum cannabinoid products from plant to product.
Contact : Tim Gordon, CBDRx LLC
970-238-0969; [email protected]
SOURCE CBDRx
Related Links
http://www.cbdrx.com
BOSTON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Warner Communications, a world-class boutique public relations and communications firm, today announced it has been selected as the agency of record by Unpakt, a full-service, online moving resource, and will serve as the driving media relations force behind the company's newest service, Unpakt University (Unpakt U).
Unpakt U is the first of its kind moving and short-term storage solution for students and young professionals available exclusively in Boston at this time. Backed by the company's uncompromising "Hassle-Free Unpakt Satisfaction Guarantee", Unpakt customers can easily plan, compare, book, and manage their move smoothly.
"We are pleased to be partnering with Unpakt and announcing the official launch of Unpakt University," said Erin Vadala, Senior Vice President of Warner Communications. "Everyone has a moving horror story, which is why Unpakt is dedicated to changing the way people move. Finally, there is a customer friendly, online solution for booking a move, and we are thrilled to be a part of it!"
"From packing up an apartment or dorm to finding a reliable, professional moving service - the end of the school year can be overwhelming for students. At Unpakt, we strive to ensure a seamless moving experience for all of our customers, and Unpakt U is a natural extension of our services," said Adam Doron, CEO of Unpakt. "With Unpakt U, we're offering two affordable fixed rate moving and summer storage packages for college students to choose from, starting at only $225.00. We look forward to our work with Warner Communications, from the official launch of Unpakt U in Boston and beyond, to even more exciting announcements in the months to come."
About Warner Communications
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Warner Communications provides strategic integrated communications counsel, including corporate and product communications, public relations, media relations, social media marketing and measurement, promotions, special events, product introductions, crisis management, and a commitment to delivering unmatched program creative and client service. For more information, please visit www.warnerpr.com, follow @WarnerPR or call 978-526-1960.
About Unpakt
Launched in 2012, Unpakt is a full service, online moving resource to conveniently compare prices, select a verified mover, and effortlessly book a move. With Unpakt, customers experience full pricing transparency and complete control over their move while Unpakt commits to taking care of the rest. Unpakt's "Hassle-Free Unpakt Satisfaction Guarantee" ensures no moving day surprises, no hidden fees, a price that doesn't change, and a team of licensed, reliable, and insured movers, now available in New York, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It's that easy. For more information or to book a move, please visit www.Unpakt.com, download the Unpakt iPhone or Android app, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
Media Contact:
Erin Vadala, Warner Communications
[email protected]
978-468-3076
SOURCE Warner Communications
Related Links
http://www.warnerpr.com
PALMDALE, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) Skunk Works, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and Calspan Corporation successfully demonstrated manned/unmanned teaming to improve combat efficiency and effectiveness for the warfighter.
"This demonstration is an important milestone in AFRL's maturation of technologies needed to integrate manned and unmanned aircraft in a strike package," said Capt. Andrew Petry, AFRL autonomous flight operations engineer. "We've not only shown how an Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle can perform its mission when things go as planned, but also how it will react and adapt to unforeseen obstacles along the way."
During the flight demonstration, an experimental F-16 aircraft acted as a surrogate Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) autonomously reacting to a dynamic threat environment during an air-to-ground strike mission. The demonstration success included three key objectives:
The ability to autonomously plan and execute air-to-ground strike missions based on mission priorities and available assets
The ability to dynamically react to a changing threat environment during an air-to-ground strike mission while automatically managing contingencies for capability failures, route deviations, and loss of communication
A fully compliant USAF Open Mission Systems (OMS) software integration environment allowing rapid integration of software components developed by multiple providers
The two-week demonstration at the Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, is the second in a series of manned/unmanned teaming exercises to prove enabling technologies.
"The Have Raider II demonstration team pushed the boundaries of autonomous technology and put a fully combat-capable F-16 in increasingly complex situations to test the system's ability to adapt to a rapidly changing operational environment," said Shawn Whitcomb, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Loyal Wingman program manager. "This is a critical step to enabling future Loyal Wingman technology development and operational transition programs."
The first demonstration, Have Raider I, focused on advanced vehicle control. The experimental F-16 autonomously flew in formation with a lead aircraft and conducted a ground-attack mission, then automatically rejoined the lead aircraft after the mission was completed. These capabilities were linked with Lockheed Martin automatic collision avoidance systems to ensure safe, coordinated teaming between the F-16 and surrogate UCAV.
Effective manned/unmanned teaming reduces the high cognitive workload, allowing the warfighter to focus on creative and complex planning and management. Autonomous systems also have the ability to access hazardous mission environments, react more quickly, and provide persistent capabilities without fatigue.
"The OMS architecture used in Have Raider II made it possible to rapidly insert new software components into the system," said Michael Coy, AFRL computer engineer. "OMS will allow the Air Force maximum flexibility in the development and fielding of cutting edge autonomous capabilities."
Skunk Works' expertise in OMS, battle management and manned/unmanned teaming enable integrated and collaborative operations between manned and unmanned aircraft to project power in the face of an increased anti-access and area denial environment.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 97,000 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 Aeronautics Company
Related Links
http://www.lockheedmartin.com
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Valpak, a leader in local print and digital coupons, announced today that Kevin Ernest has acquired Valpak of Austin, a territory that has been serving local businesses and residents since 1985. Ernest plans to mail his first Valpak Blue Envelope of savings in mid-May to approximately 290,000 households in Bastrop, Burnett, Falls, Hays, Lee, Milam, Travis and Williamson counties.
Prior to Valpak ownership, Ernest was the vice president of sales and marketing at Cameron Measurement Systems. His corporate career spans 25 years, having also served as the vice president of sales and marketing for Emerson. He currently owns a company called New Impressions Direct, LLC complementing his acquisition of Valpak of Austin. Ernest received both a bachelor's degree of science in aerospace engineering, and bachelor's degree of business administration in marketing from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an MBA from Pepperdine University. His new business venture was partially inspired by his brother, Joe, who owns the Valpak territory in San Antonio, Texas, which he acquired in 2005.
"After working in corporate marketing and sales for 25 years, I was ready to run my own business and knew I needed to do it in a city I truly love, which is why I chose Austin," said Ernest. "Valpak allowed me a turnkey business opportunity that perfectly aligned with my previous experience. I'm excited to work with local small and medium businesses here and help them achieve their goals by offering Valpak's complete marketing solutions in digital, online, and print."
A leader in cooperative direct mail, Valpak mails coupons to nearly 37 million demographically targeted households per month in 47 states and three Canadian provinces. In addition to its flagship Blue Envelope, Valpak offers its business customers an impressive portfolio of digital advertising products including valpak.com, Smartphone apps, Google partnerships, website development, mobile web optimization, and reputation management.
"Kevin's passion for his local community, along with his expansive corporate marketing career, make him an ideal Valpak franchise owner," said Shak Turner, director of franchise sales for Valpak. "Kevin's brother, Joe, has achieved great success in the San Antonio territory, and we have no doubt that Kevin will achieve the same in Austin."
With more than 25 million Americans using couponing apps each month, Valpak's digital offerings have been a big draw for new franchisees. Digital coupon use is on the rise, and ample gains are projected in 2017. In the past year, Valpak's print offerings have also expanded with on-envelope advertising and circulars.
Ideal candidates for Valpak franchise ownership should possess a desire to join a trusted, industry-leading brand, work within a proven franchise system, develop relationships with local businesses and have a comfort level with selling new, digital technologies. Franchisees should also have a minimum liquidity of $75,000, and a minimum net worth of $150,000.
For more information on Valpak franchise opportunities, please contact Shak Turner at [email protected] or 727-399-3091 or visit www.valpakfranchising.com.
About Valpak
Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, Valpak is one of the leading direct marketing companies in the U.S. and Canada. We provide print and digital advertising through a network of 150 local franchises. From mailbox to mobile phone, Valpak brings exciting local business offers and opportunities to millions of consumers. Each month, our well-known Blue Envelope of savings is mailed to nearly 37 million demographically targeted households in 47 states and in three Canadian provinces. Our digital suite of products, including valpak.com, reaches more than 110 million users.
CONTACT:
Dave Williams
Valpak
727-319-5443
[email protected]
Caitlin Willard
Fish Consulting
954-893-9150
[email protected]
SOURCE Valpak
Related Links
https://www.valpak.com
"I just moved to Hawaii, so I try to attend as many Wounded Warrior Project events as possible so I can get to know veterans in my area," said Jeff Friedman, who is active duty in the Army. "My girlfriend came with me to the dinner, and she's outgoing, which helped me to be more sociable."
These connection activities support the recovery needs of warriors by reintroducing them to the bonds experienced during military service. In a WWP survey of the injured warriors it serves, more than half of survey respondents (51.7 percent) talked with fellow veterans to address their mental health issues.
"I am always looking to do more to help my fellow service members," Jeff said. "Sometimes I try to get people to join, and they are apprehensive because they feel they're 'too broken' and don't want pity or they are 'too able-bodied' and don't want to take the space from those who really need it. It's my hope that I can help them see Wounded Warrior Project is a place where they are all welcome."
A WWP staff member interacted with attendees, advising them of additional services to assist in their recovery processes. Thanks to generous donors, WWP programs and services are offered free of charge to warriors, their caregivers, and families, and they help with mental health, physical health and wellness, career and benefits counseling, connecting warriors with one another and their communities, and long-term care for the most seriously wounded.
To learn more about how WWP's programs and services connect, serve, and empower wounded warriors, visit http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/.
About Wounded Warrior Project
Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) connects, serves, and empowers wounded warriors. Read more at http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/about-us.
SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project
Related Links
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this
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Mumbai, April 7 : A day after Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad expressed 'regrets', the Air India on Friday again cancelled his flight tickets, officials said here.
Airlines sources said that Gaikwad had booked tickets for travelling between Delhi and Mumbai on April 17 and a return trip on April 24, both of which have been cancelled.
The development came a day after he wrote a letter to Aviation Minister A. Gajapathi Raju expressing 'regrets' over the March 23 fracas on Pune-Delhi flight AI 852.
Later, Gaikwad was blacklisted and slapped with a flying ban not only by the Air India but all other private carriers, even as Shiv Sena cried foul and created disturbances in Parliament on Thursday.
Cancelling his tickets, the national carrier referred it as a "possible passenger match with Blacklist entry" and it would be treated as 'No Valid Ticket'.
Admitting that the ban on him in the past 14 days is "affecting the effective discharge of my duties and responsibilities" the minister urged for the restrictions on his flight to be revoked.
Since the ban, Gaikwad has been compelled to travel by train or road depending on his engagements, keeping away from the media glare.
Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), April 7 : Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived at the Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday evening, officials said.
The monks at the monastery, the biggest in India, and scores of devotees received him warmly and with piety.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu accompanied the Tibetan leader, who has lived in India in self-imposed exile since he fled from his homeland in 1959.
China has strongly opposed the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing considers a part of Tibet.
Washington, April 8 : After the US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian airbase killing several people, US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley has defended the action while sharply criticising Russia for allowing Syria's leader to stockpile chemical weapons.
In her remarks at a special UN session after the strike on the Shairat airbase, Haley on Friday warned the US was "prepared to do more" in response to Syria's use of chemical weapons that killed many civilians.
The meeting took place as the US and allies press for a resolution condemning the Assad regime for the bombing. Russia is likely to veto the resolution.
Haley delivered a sharp rebuke to Russia for its support to Syria, saying President Bashar al Assad regime was "playing Russians for fools... telling them that there were no chemical weapons".
"The US took a very measured step last night (Thursday night)," Haley said.
"We are prepared to do more. But we hope that will not be necessary. It is time for all civilised nations to stop the horrors that are taking place in Syria and demand a political solution."
"The joint investigative mechanism has found beyond any doubt that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons against its own people multiple times," Haley said.
She said that Moscow was "incompetent" in removing the chemical weapons and the Assad regime's crimes against innocent civilians.
She said Russia was "knowingly allowing chemical weapons to be used in Syria".
"Assad thought he could get away with it because he knew Russia had his back."
Thursday's strike was the first direct military action taken by the US against the Assad regime. It represents a dramatic escalation of the US military campaign in the region, and could be interpreted by Syria as an act of war.
Russia's envoy to the UN Vladimir Safronkov slammed the US action, calling it "a flagrant violation of international law and an act of aggression".
Haley said "there are times when states are compelled to take their own action" and that preventing the spread and use of chemical weapons was in the US' "vital national security interest".
"We were fully justified in doing so."
Safronkov warned that "the consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious".
Haley then yielded the floor to Syria's Deputy UN Ambassador Mounzer Mounzer who maintained that Syria "would never use such weapons in any of its operations against armed terrorist groups".
"Let me stress that it is well known that those weapons have been used and stockpiled in many parts of Syria by terrorist armed organisations in cooperation or rather with a wink and a nudge by some ruling regimes in the region and outside, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some European states," Mounzer said.
"They completely ignore all the facts and documented information on the use of chemical weapons by terrorists in many parts of the Syrian Arab Republic."
Bolivia's ambassador to the UN Sacha Sergio Llorenti Soliz criticised the US of acting as "prosecutor", "judge" and "jury" in Syria.
"The US not only unilaterally attacked, but while we were discussing here and demanding the need for an independent investigation an impartial investigation, complete investigation into the attacks, the US has become that investigator, has become the prosecutor, has become the judge, has become the jury," said Soliz.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said all parties must remember their "shared duty to uphold international standards of humanity".
Guterres appealed for "restraint to avoid any acts that could deepen the suffering of the Syrian people". He said there was "no other way to solve the conflict than through a political solution".
New Delhi, April 9 : Upping the ante against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into the alleged splurging of public funds on lunches at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence.
Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also accused the AAP of misleading people about ordering a probe into the matter.
"(Delhi Deputy Chief Minister) Manish Sisodia has not set any inquiry in the issue. Tell us who are conducting the inquiry. Tell us when and where was the inquiry set in the issue," Gupta told media persons here.
"I want Manish Sisodia to come out in public and inform when and what the Committee was formed to look into the issue. This is a clear case of fooling people and trying to use public money for personal use," said Gupta.
"We want the Delhi Lt Governor to set up a judicial inquiry into the issue," said Gupta who has alleged that the Delhi government spent several lakh rupees on two lunch parties at Kejriwal's residence on February 11 and 12 last year hosting nearly 80 people.
Ahead of the April 22 polls to the three municipal corporations in the national capital, the BJP has been gunning at the AAP over the issue and has also demanded Kejriwal's resignation.
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said that Kejriwal also needs to explain the appointment of his close family relative Nikunj Agarwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain's daughter in the government in violation of government norms.
Islamabad, April 10 : The upgrade of Pakistan's infrastructure will attract direct investment from abroad, including industries in China which seek lower-cost locations, the Asian Development Bank has said.
According to an ADB report on Sunday, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will significantly address Pakistan's infrastructure deficit.
The country's annual spending on infrastructure is only two-three per cent of GDP over the past four decades. The CPEC is planned to be completed by 2030, Dawn online reported.
Higher economic growth in fiscal year 2018-19 reflects accelerated infrastructure investment through CPEC, which is steadily lifting consumer and investor confidence and, thereby, further catalysing economic activity, the report said.
The large investment in infrastructure should boost construction related industries, spurring job creation and growth, and goods from China transiting from northern Pakistan to the seaport will bolster the transport sector, further stimulating private investment and activity, the Asian Development Outlook 2017 said.
CPEC investments are likely to require significant increases in imports of equipment and services to implement the projects. In the medium-to-long term, these inflows will likely to be followed by financial outflows as loans are repaid and profits repatriated to foreign investors.
Higher foreign exchange earnings and exports will be needed to avoid pressure on the external account, the report emphasised.
To reap the potential benefits of CPEC and shift the economy of Pakistan to a higher growth trajectory, the government must continue to address key constraints on growth, it said.
The Pakistani government has identified "early harvest" infrastructure projects to be completed over the next few years. Of these, $21 billion will be spent on energy projects. These will be financed by foreign direct investment from China, supported by borrowing from banks there.
According to Dawn online, independent electricity-generating firms will be offered guaranteed tariff for their sales to distribution companies that will ensure at least 17 per cent return on equity.
About $10 billion investment in transport infrastructure will be financed by a combination of concessional and commercial loans from the Chinese government.
Berlin, April 10 : Bayern Munich defender Mats Hummels will miss the UEFA Champions League encounter against Real Madrid, the German giants announced in a statement.
The 28-year-old defender had to interrupt Bayern's training session on Sunday after suffering an ankle injury, reports Xinhua news agency.
Hummels sustained a distortion of the right upper ankle and also an injury of the capsule apparatus, the club said in a statement on Sunday.
"Very sad about missing at least the next two games," Hummels said in a short statement.
Hummels will thus be not available for the upcoming quarter-final clash against Real Mardid on Wednesday and the Bundesliga match against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
Bayern Munich sit currently atop the Bundesliga standings with a ten-point advantage.
They still have the chance to lift three titles this season as they are in the race for the Bundesliga title, German Cup and UEFA Champions League trophy.
Bangalore, April 10 : E-commerce major Flipkart on Monday said it has raised a total of $1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft.
The latest funding round, at a post-transaction valuation of $11.6 billion, is the largest in Flipkart's 10-year history as well as in the Indian internet sector and comes as Flipkart gears up to drive the next phase of e-commerce growth in India, a company statement said.
This investment adds to an existing group of investors that include Tiger Global Management, Naspers Group, Accel Partners and DST Global.
"This is a landmark deal for Flipkart and for India as it endorses our tech prowess, our innovative mindset and the potential we have to disrupt traditional markets. It is a resounding acknowledgement that the homegrown tech ecosystem is indeed thriving and succeeding in solving genuine problems in people's daily lives across all of India," said Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, founders of Flipkart, in a statement.
"This deal reaffirms our resolve to hasten the transformation of commerce in India through technology," they added.
The investment by eBay is accompanied by a strategic commercial agreement with Flipkart. In exchange for an equity stake in Flipkart, eBay is making a cash investment in and selling its eBay.in business to Flipkart. eBay.in will continue to operate as an independent entity as a part of Flipkart, the statement said.
Flipkart and eBay have also signed an exclusive cross-border trade agreement. As a result of the partnership between Flipkart and eBay, customers of Flipkart will gain access to the wide array of global inventory on eBay, while eBay's customers will have access to more unique Indian inventory provided by Flipkart sellers.
"The combination of eBay's position as a leading global e-commerce company and Flipkart's market stature will allow us to accelerate and maximize the opportunity for both companies in India," said Devin Wenig, President and CEO of eBay Inc.
"eBay is committed to winning in India in partnership with Flipkart. Our exclusive global trade partnership will allow eBay and Flipkart to reach even more consumers around the world," he added.
Tencent has joined the investment deal as a strategic investor, bringing experience in linking social networking and e-commerce. As a leading provider of internet value-added services in China, it has been at the centre of innovation in social, payments and other areas.
"Flipkart is a leader in e-commerce in India, with strong operational expertise and a deep understanding of user behaviour. This strategic partnership enables Tencent to participate in the exciting opportunities in e-commerce and payments in India.
"We look forward to helping Flipkart to deliver compelling experiences to users throughout India, and to contribute to the development of the internet ecosystem there," said Tencent President Martin Lau.
Launched in 2007, the Flipkart Group includes well-known Indian brands such as Myntra, Jabong, PhonePe and Ekart, besides the parent company. The company offers over 80 million products across 80 plus categories.
New Delhi, April 10 : Indian and Bangladeshi firms on Monday signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth over $9 billion designed to deepen cooperation in various sectors, including power, oil and gas.
Among the major MoUs, Reliance Power executed project agreements with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for Phase I of the 750 MW liquefied natural gas (LNG) power project at Meghnaghat, near Dhaka, worth $1 billion, out of a total proposed investment of $3 billion.
A facility agreement was signed between Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL) and Exim Bank of India for debt financing of $1.6 billion for construction of the 1,320 MW Maitree Power Project in Rampal in Bangladesh.
The MoUs' signing event here, also attended by visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was organised by industry chambers Ficci, CII and Assocham.
Adani Power (Jharkhand) and the Bangladesh Power Development Board signed a deal entailing an investment of $2 billion. Adani Power also signed a power purchase agreement and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
State-run NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) and Bangladesh Power Development Board signed an agreement for supply of power from Nepal that envisages an investment of $3.15 billion.
Reliance Power has also signed an MoU with PetroBangla to set up a 500 million standard cubic feet per day LNG terminal at Kutubdia Island near Chittagong in Bangladesh.
The MoUs signed include those on LNG terminal use between India's Petronet LNG and Petrobangla.
Addressing the gathering earlier, Sheikh Hasina invited Indian businesses to invest in her country, assuring all facilities for business in order to defeat the "common enemy of poverty".
Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Indo-Bangla relations go beyond mere trade numbers and consists of "shared memories, experience and history". India is committed to strengthening Bangladesh's hydrocarbons sector and aid in the country's efforts to realise power for all its citizens by 2021, he added.
In this connection, Pradhan mentioned the proposed India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline for transporting high speed diesel (HSD) from the Numaligarh refinery near Siliguri in India to the Parbatipur depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
New Delhi, April 10 : The Enforcement Directorate has again summoned Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for questioning in a money laundering case registered against him, his wife and others, an official said on Monday.
The Congress leader has been asked to appear before the Investigating Officer on April 13 to get recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The agency had summoned him earlier too but he had then excused himself by referring to his official commitments. It has already questioned his wife Pratibha Singh and son Vikramaditya Singh.
In the first week of April, the Enforcement Directorate had attached Virbhadra Singh's Delhi farmhouse worth Rs 27.29 crore in the case.
The agency's move came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against Virbhadra Singh and others last month for allegedly amassing assets worth Rs 6.03 crore.
A court here on Monday fixed April 24 to consider the CBI charge sheet.
The ED had filed a criminal case under the PMLA against Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha, Life Insurance Corporation agent Anand Chauhan, his associate Chunni Lal, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Lawan Kumar Roach, Vakamullah Chandrashekhara and Ram Prakash Bhatia in 2015 following the CBI's FIR dated September 23, 2015.
The case was registered after a preliminary inquiry found that Virbhadra Singh, as Union Minister from 2009 to 2012, allegedly accumulated assets worth Rs 6.03 crore, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.
New Delhi, April 10 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here seeking the release of over Rs 10,000 crore due to the state under various centrally-sponsored schemes.
Banerjee, who has long been seeking a loan waiver for West Bengal, during her half an hour meeting with Modi discussed the state's debt situation.
"I have raised the debt issue with the Prime Minister several times earlier. Today again we discussed about the debt situation of the state and release of funds due to the state under various projects and schemes," Banerjee said after her meeting with Modi.
"Around Rs 10,459 crore is pending with the Centre... I apprised the Prime Minister about that and the problems arising out of that. I requested him to ensure that the funds are released. He said he will try to release the funds," she said.
Banerjee, who during her Saturday meeting with visiting Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had reiterated her opposition to the Teesta river water sharing accord, said the agreement was not part of the talks with Modi.
"There were no talks about Teesta with him," she said.
Affirming her continued opposition to the Teesta water sharing pact, Banerjee during her meeting with Hasina had offered Bangladesh electricity and the water of other rivers instead.
In September 2011, Banerjee had embarrassed then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by pulling out of his delegation to Bangladesh over the water sharing agreement, forcing India to drop it from the agenda.
Meanwhile, Hasina, while hoping for a resolution to the long-pending treaty, expressed concern over Banerjee's continued opposition to the agreement.
"I do not know what Didi (Mamata) would do. In my talks with her she gave a new twist, but Modiji has assured that we are here to look after it," Hasina said at an event here.
"We had asked for water but she is giving us electricity. At least we got something," she said in a lighter vein while referring to Banerjee's offer of sharing the water of rivers other than the Teesta.
Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, expressed concern over tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMs) and advocated the use of ballot papers for the upcoming polls.
"EVMs can be tampered with. Old is gold, so I think we should look towards using ballot papers," Banerjee said on a day when 13 opposition parties met the Election Commission over recent reports of EVM tampering and seeking use of ballot papers in the forthcoming polls.
Post the recent assembly elections to five states, several opposition party leaders including BSP chief Mayawati, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Ajay Maken have raised serious concerns over alleged EVM tampering and suggested the use of paper ballots instead of the machines.
New Delhi, April 10 : More than 1,500 children gathered at the Raj Ghat on Monday to urge global leaders to give a reprieve to children from the devastation of wars and conflicts.
Leading the congregation, Nobel Peace Laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi said: "Children are never responsible for any wars or conflicts, yet they are its worst sufferers.
"In these times of extreme unrest, it becomes our collective duty to protect the millions of children who being the most vulnerable, get caught in the crossfire of bombs, bullets and chemical attacks."
Satyarthi asked the UN Security Council to set up a high power group to tackle violence against children in areas of conflict, refugee crises, cross-border trafficking and slavery in a time-bound manner.
The gathering was held in the wake of the death of 27 children in a chemical attack in Syria. Hundreds of others were disabled for life.
According to the UNICEF, an estimated 230 million children live in areas affected by armed conflicts. More than 10,000 children have been killed since the outset of the conflict in Syria.
The event witnessed the presence of religious leaders, MPs, civil society members, lawyers and other opinion makers.
New Delhi, April : India and Australia on Monday committed themselves to deepen the bilateral defence and security partnership while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that cooperation in education and research is a key aspect of the ties between the two countries.
The two countries also signed six memoranda of understanding (MoUs) following delegation-level talks headed by Modi and visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull here.
"The Prime Ministers committed to deepening the bilateral defence and security partnership," a joint statement issued following the talks said.
"They welcomed the significant progress achieved through the bilateral Framework for Security Cooperation agreed in 2014," it stated.
According to the statement, as fellow Indian Ocean nations, the two Prime Ministers also underscored the joint commitment of Australia and India to enhance regional cooperation in promoting maritime safety and security and welcomed the important role of the bilateral White Shipping Agreement.
"Both countries remain strongly committed to the breadth of their defence ties, including through ongoing annual staff talks for army, navy and air forces," it stated.
It also said that "the two Prime Ministers reiterated their strong commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and stressed that there can be no justification for acts of terror on any grounds whatsoever".
"They asserted that the fight against terrorists, terror organisations and networks should also identify, hold accountable and take strong measures against all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism, provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups, and falsely extol their virtues," the statement.
In this regard, the two Prime Ministers also welcomed the signing of an MoU on fighting international terrorism and transnational organised crime.
The other five MoUs signed following Monday's talks are on cooperation in civil aviation security, environment, climate and wildlife, sports, health and medicine, and earth observation and satellite navigation.
Addressing the media jointly with Turnbull after the talks, Prime Minister Modi said that cooperation in the fields of education and research was "one of the most important aspects" of India-Australia ties.
"Both India and Australia recognise the central value of education and innovation in the prosperity of our societies," he said.
"It is no surprise, therefore, that cooperation in the field of education and research is one of the most important aspects of our engagement."
Laying stress on students exchanges between the two countries, Modi said that while Australia was home to over 60,000 Indian students, an increasing number of Australian students was coming to study in India.
On energy cooperation, the Indian Prime Minister said that he was happy "that our dialogue and cooperation in other forms of energy, including renewable energy, is on the up-swing".
"And, with the passing of legislation in the Australian Parliament with bipartisan support, Australia is now ready to export uranium to India."
He also called for working closely with members of the East Asia Summit and the Indian Ocean rim countries to pursue common interests.
On his part, Turnbull said Australia was helping India in its water management policy while sharing expertise in the area of renewable energy.
Stating that trade in goods and services between the two sides stood at $20 billion, he said there was scope for increasing this.
"We are working with India for a quality RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership)," he said.
RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian nations (Asean) and the six countries with which Asean has free trade agreements -- Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Modi and Turbull also jointly inaugurated through video-conferencing the TERI-Deakin Nanobiotechnology Centre in Gurugram, Haryana, set up by India's TERI and Australia's Deakin University.
Earlier on Monday, Turnbull was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Thereafter, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on him.
In the afternoon, Modi and Turnbull travelled by a Delhi Metro train to visit the Akshardham temple in east Delhi.
The Australian Prime Minister arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit to India.
This is Turnbull's first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Prime Minister Modi's visit to Australia in November that year.
Panaji, April 10 : The Congress on Monday said former MLA Vishwajit Rane, who quit the Congress to join the BJP last week, is criticising party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President Amit Shah.
All India Congress Committee Secretary Girish Chodankar told reporters at a press conference in Panaji that Rane had embarrassed the Congress, by first going missing during the assembly floor test in March and then quitting the party on the same day.
"He (Rane) is no longer with us. He is now with the BJP and singing the tunes of Modi and Shah. His comments cannot be taken seriously," Chodankar said.
Rane has called Gandhi a "non-serious" and an inaccessible leader, whose leadership would reduce the Congress to 20 seats in the 2019 general election.
"The Congress has a non-serious leader called Rahul Gandhi. He is not serious about the people of the state who give you a mandate, not serious about government formation. He is not even accessible. Seriousness of a leader is very important for a party to grow," Rane, son of former Goa Chief Minister and sitting legislator Pratapsinh Rane, said in an interview to IANS.
"If this is the nature in which you want to take the party forward, then I am confident in 2019 from 44 they will be reduced to 20," Rane said.
Rane was present at a party meeting organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to felicitate Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Shah in Panaji.
After criticising the Congress leadership for not doing enough to seize power in Goa, despite emerging as the single largest party in the February 4 polls, Rane had gone missing during the subsequent floor test on March 16 and resigned from the Congress on the same day.
Chodankar said the party would think of putting a ban on Rane's re-entry into the Congress for a period of six years because of the "embarrassment caused to the party".
Chandigarh, April 10 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday said he welcomed the Centre's move to facilitate a meeting between Punjab and Haryana on April 20 on the SYL canal issue.
The central government told the Supreme Court on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for the meeting to resolve the contentious issue of sharing of river waters.
The Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal case is listed before the Supreme Court for April 12 and the latest development will entail deferment of the hearing.
Punjab told the apex court that the new (Congress) government in the state will issue renewed instructions in the matter and hence an adjournment would be necessitated, a state government spokesman said here.
Punjab was represented by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, Advocate General Atul Nanda and senior advocate R.S. Suri, while the Union of India was led by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.
Amarinder Singh said in a statement here that he had been seeking the Centre's intervention to help find an amicable settlement to the SYL issue since Punjab would be deprived of much needed water if the canal was constructed.
On November 10, the Supreme Court had declared Punjab's action to terminate agreements for the sharing of river waters with neighbouring states as unconstitutional and ordered that the state should allow the canal construction and give SYL water to neighbouring Haryana.
"Punjab does not have surplus water to share with other states. There is a need for a fresh assessment of the quantum of river water actually available with Punjab before taking a final decision in the SYL matter," Amarinder said.
The Chief Minister said Punjab had been subjected to injustice in water allocation.
Srinagar, April 10 : A school building was set ablaze as mobs stoned security personnel on Monday in Anantnag town and adjoining areas, prompting Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother and PDP contestant Tassaduq Hussain Mufti to seek deferment of the Wednesday Lok Sabha by-election in the region.
The fresh violence amid a complete shutdown in response to a call from separatists comes a day after widespread clashes, disrupting voting for the Srinagar by-election, while security forces left eight civilians dead in central and north Kashmir.
A police officer told IANS here that clashes erupted in Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag and Shopian districts of south Kashmir - the region that is scheduled to vote on Wednesday for a Lok Sabha by-poll.
The officer said mobs threw stones at security forces at more than a dozen places as the forces used tear gas canisters and baton charged the crowds to disperse them.
Amid the protests, mosque loudspeakers played slogans hailing Islam and pro-freedom songs.
In Shopian, people took to the streets after security forces arrested suspected troublemakers on Sunday night.
Protesters earlier set ablaze a school building - the second in two days - in Shopian that was designated as a polling station for the Wednesday by-poll, the officer said.
Top district education officer Mohammad Sadiq told reporters that "three rooms of the government school were damaged.
On Sunday, a government school was torched by unknown persons in neighbouring Pulwama district.
The Monday protests came a day after eight civilians were killed by security forces during the Lok Sabha by-election in the Srinagar-Budgam constituency.
Life remained paralyzed in south Kashmir's Anantnag, Pulwana, Shopian and Kulgam districts on Monday.
Markets, public transport, educational institutions and other businesses were closed in Srinagar and other parts of the troubled valley.
Heavily armed police and paramilitary personnel patrolled the deserted streets across the valley.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asked the Election Commission to postpone the Anantnag election.
PDP candidate for the Anantnag parliamentary constituency Tassaduq Mufti said the situation in the valley was not right for election.
"I appeal to the election commission that the polls be postponed keeping in view the situation in the valley. Eight civilians lost their lives. You can't force people to vote and can't force them not to vote," Tassaduq told reporters.
Former Chief Minister and opposition National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said the PDP leader's comment was a sign of the state government's failure.
"Tassaduq's statement is an indictment of his sister Mehbooba Mufti's government and its abject failure. How can the BJP not see this," Abdullah tweeted.
He said the poll panel "is well within its powers to postpone or countermand Anantnag election but if so Mehbooba Mufti must resign and Governor should take charge".
New Delhi, April 10 : Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday launched a new web portal -- Nakshe Portal -- providing free download of Survey of India's topographic maps of the entire country in PDF format to Indian citizens.
The topographic maps on the scale of 1:50,000, contain natural and man-made geographical features including terrain or topography. The service was launched to mark the 250th anniversary of the Survey of India.
"Earlier, these maps were only available after a process of application... Now it's on the fingertip of people... it would be a great help for infrastructure development, science and education," said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.
The maps would be made available free through Aadhaar-enabled user authentication process in line with the Digital India programme of the government, the minister said.
"The Survey of India has proposed to re-measure the height of Mount Everest... India was the first country under Sir George Everest's leadership to have declared the height of Mount Everest in 1855....
"After Gorkha earthquake (Nepal earthquake) in 2015, to answer various doubts of scientific community, the Survey of India proposed re-measuring the height of Mount Everest as an Indo-Nepal Joint Scientific Exercise, along with the Survey Department of Nepal," the minister said.
New Delhi, April 10 : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday met the State Election Commissioner over the EVMs issue and said his Aam Aadmi Party will oppose the use of "faulty" EVMs from Rajasthan in the April 23 municipal elections here.
An AAP delegation led by Sisodia submitted a memorandum to the State Election Commission on the matter.
Citing media reports, Sisodia said around 18 EVMs were found malfunctioning in Dhaulpur (Rajasthan) assembly bypoll, wherein votes went in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party even when different buttons were pressed.
"If such faulty EVMs from Rajasthan are planned to be used in the Delhi municipal corporation elections, the AAP will not let it happen," Sisodia told reporters here.
"It is a very serious matter and is like murdering democracy," he said.
Sisodia, who was accompanied by AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Dilip Pandey, and Alka Lamba, also questioned the Election Commission on the compulsion for importing what he said were faulty EVMs from Rajasthan even though Delhi had adequate number of next generation EVMs.
The results of elections for North, East and South Delhi Municipal Corporations will be announced on April 26.
Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), April 10 : Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama on Monday delivered his last sermon to thronging devotees here and thanked the Arunachal Pradesh government, especially Chief Minister Pema Khandu, for the invitation and facilitating his visit, which has drawn much flak from China.
Addressing devotees in chaste Tibetan at the Yid GaChosin monastery, the Dalai Lama said his visit to the northeastern state has been a "memorable one" and that he would cherish it forever.
He also thanked the people, particularly from far off villages, who gathered in large numbers to welcome and listen to him at all the places that he visited.
Giving a talk on the last day of his four-day visit to Tawang, the Tibetan spiritual leader also said secular ethics is the only way to bring lasting peace and happiness in the world.
"Peace in post World War II is built on fear. But genuine peace can come only through inner peace," he said, at another event. The Dalai Lama gave a talk on 'Secular Ethics and Happiness' and stressed that inner peace can come through training of the mind.
Delivering an address to an audience assembled at Kalawangpo Hall, the Nobel Peace laureate reiterated that secular ethics must be achieved through education and not just through prayers or faith.
State Chief Minister Pema Khandu was also present at the event.
Replying to a query on what would be the state of secular ethics when presently the world is witnessing clash of beliefs, the Dalai Lama said: "Neither can destroy each other's beliefs. So the best way is to make peace and live together."
"A terrorist killing in the name of religion can never be true to his faith. However, efforts must be made to reach out to them as they are not born terrorist but circumstances made them so," he said.
Emphasising on education as the key to bring in human understanding and values, the Dalai Lama lamented that western nations are not helping in bringing true values of education, due to which everyone is after material pursuit leading to untold human sufferings.
Responding to a question on Buddhist belief on Karma, the Dalai Lama urged the audience to follow Buddhist teachings only after having convinced themselves through investigation and experiments. He said followers of Buddhist philosophy have the liberty to reject it if they find it unsatisfactory.
On Karma, the Dalai Lama said, "It's our action that brings comfort and discomfort.
Asked whether religious rituals have become more important than wisdom or philosophy, the spiritual leader declared that rituals are not important. However, he emphasised on use of intelligence to transform emotions and not through rituals.
Earlier, the Dalai Lam released a book titled - 'Ocean and Blue Mountains' published by department of Karmik and Adhyatmik Affairs (DoKAA) in presence of Chief Minister Pema Khandu and other dignitaries.
The book title refers to 'Ocean' as His Holiness and 'Blue Mountains' as the people of Arunachal Pradesh, and is a collection of memoirs of the special bond shared between the two. The Dalai Lama also released a book titled - 'Crossing of the Frontiers' describing his exile route from Tibet to India, published by Losel Nyinje Charitable Society and Monyul Social Welfare Association.
A book on Monyul was also released by him.
In the morning, the Dalai Lama gave his last sermon to devotees at the Yid GaChosin monastery ground on Rinzin Dhondup initiation followed by a long life offering ceremony.
He also blessed and distributed one lakh saplings to be planted in and around Tawang.
On his way to the Kalawangpo Hall, the Dalai Lama consecrated the statue of Lord Buddha at the heart of Tawang township.
On Sunday, the Dalai Lama consecrated the Tara Temple 'Dolma Lhagang', Guru Padhmasambhava Statue cum Temple (Lumpo), and laid the foundation stone of Gyalwa Jamba (Kuber) statue to be built at Buri near the Indo-Bhutan border. He gave the name Jamtseling for the Jamba (Kuber) statue besides donating Rs 50,000 from his side for its construction.
The Dalai Lama was supposed to perform the rituals after landing at Lumla on April 4, which couldn't materialise due to rescheduling of his programme.
China had fiercely objected to the visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh, which it considers as "disputed" and part of south Tibet.
New Delhi, April 10 : Accompanied by senior representatives from Thales, Alstom and other companies, French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies arrives on a three-day visit from Tuesday during which he will meet with Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu and Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju for talks on strengthening Indo-French cooperation.
Vidalies will also hold talks with M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, and Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping. He will also meet Mangu Singh, Director - Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, and take a ride on the Delhi metro, a statement from the French embassy here said.
On Wednesday, Vidalies will participate in an Indo-French Workshop on Semi-high-speed Trains with the Indian Railways at Rail Bhavan. He will meet Prabhu for a bilateral meeting, which will be followed by a joint statement on bilateral cooperation on railways, including semi-high-speed and high-speed trains, modernization of the railway network, renovation of stations and railway safety and security.
On Thursday, Raju and Vidalies will sign a cooperation agreement for the exchange of expertise and technical trainings between Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the French Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), in the presence of Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairperson - AAI.
Vidalies will be accompanied by high-level representatives from French companies specializing in areas relevant to the respective Indian ministries.
The companies that will be present include: Safran, ThalAs, Airbus Helicopters, Egis and Air France in the Aerospace field, SNCF, Geismar, Alstom, ThalAs, Railtech, Systra, Egis, Vossloh, Dassault-Systemes, Faiveley, Keolis, Tractebel in railways, CMA-CGM, Louis-Dreyfus-Armateurs, BollorA, Egis and Systra in the field of ports and infrastructure.
Vidalies will also be given a guided tour of Delhi airport with GMR. He will also visit the newly inaugurated Airbus flight simulator and pilot training centre in Delhi, an investment contributing to the Skill India programme, the statement said.
Mumbai/Chandigarh, April 10 : Less than a month after taking over as Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh on Monday began his three-day visit to Mumbai and met top industrialists and corporate honchos and offered sops to woo prospective investors.
Under his 'Invest Punjab' initiative, Amarinder Singh met Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar, Goldman Sachs India Chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee and Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej.
Amarinder Singh also met KPMG India Chairman and CEO Arun K. Kumar.
Leading a delegation comprising ministers and officers, the Chief Minister promised to streamline systems and processes in Punjab to make it more investor- and industry- friendly.
He reiterated his commitment to provide power to industry at Rs 5 per unit.
Chandrasekaran agreed to visit Punjab to explore the possibility of setting up a major project.
Kochhar agreed to consider the possibility of shifting the ICICI Bank's backend operations to SAS Nagar adjoining Chandigarh in the next stage of their expansion, a state government spokesman said.
The Chief Minister is expected to meet Reliance Industries Limited Chairman Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil Ambani on Tuesday, apart from other leading industrialists and corporates.
The Congress government led by Amarinder Singh assumed office on March 16.
The new government faces serious challenges like huge debt of the state, unemployment, flight of industry and low investments.
Vatican City, April 10 : Pope Francis has confirmed that his visit to Egypt will go ahead in late April despite the deadly bomb attacks against two Coptic churches there that killed at least 47 people and injured more than 100, a media report said on Monday.
"The Pope is undeterred by what sadly happened," Vatican Radio quoted Father Marco Tasco of Order of Friars Minor Conventuals as saying on Monday after an audience with Francis at the Vatican.
"With great determination and conviction he will travel to Egypt to confirm and assist dialogue and the Christian community," Tasco said.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican's inter-faith dialogue body on Monday left for Egypt "to prepare the ground" for the pontiff's two-day visit to the Muslim majority country on April 28-29, Tasco said.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on Monday declared a three-month state of emergency after the blasts at St George's Coptic church in the northern city of Tanta and St Mark's Coptic cathedral in Alexandria, also in the north.
Francis on Sunday condemned the attacks which were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
During his visit to Egypt, Francis is also slated to meet Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, who was in St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria for the Palm Sunday service when the bomb went off outside the church, killing 17 people.
Sunday's blasts were the latest in a string of attacks on Copts in recent years and the visit by Francis is aimed at showing solidarity with the country's beleaguered Christian minority as well as enhancing dialogue with Islam.
The prestigious Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo has timed a global peace conference in Cairo to coincide with the papal visit and hopes Francis and Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb will close the meeting, sources told Adnkronos International last month.
Tayeb announced the peace conference last May during his historic meeting with Francis at the Vatican when they agreed to resume dialogue sessions in Cairo between the Vatican and the al-Azhar that were broken off in 2011 after Pope Benedict XVI deplored an attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria.
New Delhi, April : Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday said his country would begin exporting uranium to India "as soon as possible" as he held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here during which both sides also agreed to deepen cooperation in defence and security as well as in education.
"We've worked closely with India to meet our respective requirements for the provision of fuel for India's civil nuclear programme, and we look forward to the first export of Australian uranium to India as soon as possible," Turnbull said in his media statement after holding bilateral talks with Modi.
Modi, in his statement, said with the passing of legislation in the Australian Parliament with bipartisan support, Australia is "now ready to export uranium to India".
The joint statement said India welcomed the passage of the Civil Nuclear Transfers to India Act by the Australian Parliament, which could ensure commercial exports of Australian uranium begins soon.
In September 2014, India and Australia signed a Civil Nuclear Agreement for Australian supply of uranium to India.
In December last year, Australian Parliament passed a law to allow the supply of uranium to India. The commercial deals for the supply of uranium are being further negotiated.
Turnbull also said his country was "pleased to be providing increasing quantities of high quality coal for steel making and increasingly for power generation with advanced super critical technology".
The two sides signed six MoUs, including on cooperation in fighting international terrorism and on civil aviation security.
Addressing the media jointly with Turnbull after the talks, Modi said that cooperation in the fields of education and research was "one of the most important aspects" of India-Australia ties.
"Both India and Australia recognise the central value of education and innovation in the prosperity of our societies," he said.
"It is no surprise, therefore, that cooperation in the field of education and research is one of the most important aspects of our engagement."
Laying stress on students exchanges between the two countries, Modi said that while Australia was home to over 60,000 Indian students, an increasing number of Australian students was coming to study in India.
He also called for working closely with members of the East Asia Summit and the Indian Ocean rim countries to pursue common interests.
On his part, Turnbull said Australia was helping India in its water management policy while sharing expertise in the area of renewable energy.
Stating that trade in goods and services between the two sides stood at $20 billion, he said there was scope for increasing this.
"We are working with India for a quality RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership)," he said.
RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian nations (Asean) and the six countries with which Asean has free trade agreements -- Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
On the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between India and Australia, Turnbull said they had "very good discussions", and that both felt that "progress has not been as fast as either of us would like it to be".
Both sides have asked their chief negotiators to schedule an early meeting to get the process moving.
"We will ask them to tabulate the areas of ambition where each side is seeking access so that we can see where and to what extent the parties, the negotiators are apart and they will report back to us as soon as possible so that we can keep the focus on delivering the CECA and identifying the areas where more work needs to be done," Turnbull said.
In the meantime, both sides are working to identify tangible, commercial opportunities to strengthen two-way trade and investment and this would be a particular focus of his visit to Mumbai this week, he added.
The joint statement issued said the two were committed to deepening the bilateral defence and security partnership.
According to the statement, the two Prime Ministers also underscored the joint commitment of Australia and India, as fellow Indian Ocean nations, to enhance regional cooperation in promoting maritime safety and security and welcomed the important role of the bilateral White Shipping Agreement.
"Both countries remain strongly committed to the breadth of their defence ties, including through ongoing annual staff talks for army, navy and air forces," it stated.
It also said that "the two Prime Ministers reiterated their strong commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and stressed that there can be no justification for acts of terror on any grounds whatsoever".
"They asserted that the fight against terrorists, terror organisations and networks should also identify, hold accountable and take strong measures against all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism, provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups, and falsely extol their virtues," the statement said.
In this regard, the two Prime Ministers also welcomed the signing of an MoU on fighting international terrorism and transnational organised crime.
Modi and Turbull also jointly inaugurated through video-conferencing the TERI-Deakin Nanobiotechnology Centre in Gurugram, set up by India's TERI and Australia's Deakin University.
Earlier on Monday, Turnbull was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Thereafter, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on him.
In the afternoon, Modi and Turnbull travelled by a Delhi Metro train to visit the Akshardham temple in east Delhi.
The Australian Prime Minister arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit to India - his first to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Modi's visit to Australia in November that year.
Geneva, April 10 : In a rare move, the United Nations on Monday urged the European Union to stop transferring asylum-seekers to Hungary, criticising the country's new policy of holding men, women and children in containers.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on the EU to temporarily halt the transfer of asylum seekers under a complex EU rule known as the Dublin Regulation. This requires a migrant to apply for asylum in the first country of the bloc that they enter, and to be returned there if necessary.
"The situation for asylum-seekers in Hungary, which was already of deep concern to UNHCR, has only got worse since the new law introducing mandatory detention for asylum-seekers came into effect," said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.
United Nations, April 10 : Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his call for India and Pakistan to hold a dialogue on solving the Kashmir issue, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.
Guterres "would underscore the need for the parties to find a peaceful solution through engagement and dialogue", Dujarric told reporters in reply to questions about the situation in Kashmir.
He denied a Pakistani reporter's suggestion that Guterres was brushing off the Kashmir issue. "I don't think the Secretary General is reluctant," he said. "It is obviously an issue that he is following. If we are able to say more, we will."
Dujarric also refused to comment on Monday's strike in Kashmir following civilian deaths in action by security forces. "I think I would refer you to what we have already said on the situation in Kashmir and I have nothing further to add to it," he said.
The strike was called by separatists a day after widespread clashes disrupted voting for the Srinagar by-election.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
Arcore (Italy), April 10 : Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has saved five spring lambs from the slaughterhouse this Easter and they are now frollicking at his villa in Arcore, near Milan, according to a video posted to Youtube.
The video shows the 80-year-old billionaire media mogul in the villa's grounds bottle-feeding and repeatedly kissing the long-eared lambs as several sheep graze the grass nearby and nuzzle up to Berlusconi.
Berlusconi's 31-year-old girlfriend Francesca Pasquale and centre-right lawmaker Michela Vittoria Brambilla also appear in the video captioned: "Follow his example - Easter celebrates life. Don't spend it killing other living creatures!"
Red-headed Brambilla, 49, posted the video to Youtube. An MP from Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, she is president of the Italian League for Defence of Animals and the Environment.
Moscow, April 11 : Russian Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft that was carrying three crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) successfully landed on Monday in Kazakhstan, Russian State Space Corporation said.
The spacecraft landed at 1121 GMT 147 kilometre southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan, Xinhua quoted the company as saying.
The capsule undocked from the ISS at 0758 GMT.
The crew members included Russian astronauts Andrei Borisenko and Sergei Ryzhikov, as well as their US colleague Robert Kimbrough.
The three members of the Expedition 50 mission stayed aboard the ISS since October 21, 2016.
They carried out a programme of scientific and applied research and experiments, supported the station's work capacity and upgraded it with equipment delivered by cargo ships, said the Russian company.
Jerusalem, April 11 : A rocket fired by militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula hit a community in southern Israel on Sunday, the army said on Monday.
The rocket hit a greenhouse in the community of Yevul in the Eshkol Regional Council, Xinhua quoted police spokeswoman Luba Samri as saying.
Samri added that one man was treated for anxiety, but no other injuries were reported.
A military spokesperson confirmed that "a projectile was launched from the Sinai Peninsula," adding that forces are searching the area for the remains of the projectile.
The attack came less than an hour after Israel closed the crossing to the Egyptian resort and urged Israelis to leave "immediately."
Pyongyang, April 11 : North Korea on Monday accused the US of trying to "maintain its colonial rule" in South Korea by helping the conservative forces remain in power.
Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, said the US is "displeased with the ever increasing possibility of the collapse of the conservative regime and regime change by the progressive pro-reform forces in South Korea."
"The reality is clear that the US remains unchanged in its wild ambition for maintaining its colonial rule over South Korea and gets ever more sly and vicious in its methods to quench the South Korean people's growing desire for independence," Xinhua quoted the newspaper as saying.
Whenever South Korea faced a serious political crisis, "the US maintained its colonial rule by replacing its lackeys with others and setting up a new puppet regime," the newspaper said.
"The colonial rule that divided the territory of Korea and the homogeneous Korean nation into two and inflicted unbearable pain upon the Koreans is bound to collapse under the united struggle of the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad," it said.
The situation on the Korean peninsula is getting tense as the US is sending an aircraft carrier combat group to the waters near the North Korea.
Washington says the deployment is in reaction to "provocations" by the North Korea.
Pyongyang has carried out a number of missile launches and nuclear tests, with the most recent being Wednesday's launch of a ballistic missile.
Dr. Kyle Keojampa of Del Rey Aesthetics Center With this specialized collection of FFS techniques, our center can help patients with their gender confirmation.
Del Rey Aesthetics Center, a leading Los Angeles-area healthcare provider offering a full range of facial plastic and reconstructive services, has introduced specialized facial feminization surgery (FFS) to its capabilities. Similar to traditional plastic and reconstructive surgeries, FFS techniques are applied to women usually transgender who wish to look more feminine; the procedures minimize typically male features of the face, jaw, and neck, while enhancing female facial markers. Only a handful of plastic surgeons in the United States have the extensive training needed to perform FFS procedures, and patients typically travel long distances within the country and internationally to receive treatment by trained experts.
The face is typically our first impression and our most visible feature, and for someone who wants to enhance their feminine facial features, our set of surgical procedures can be a critical part of the process of becoming and feeling more like a woman, said Kyle Keojampa, M.D., FACS, a board-certified facial plastic surgeon at Del Rey Aesthetics Center. With this specialized collection of FFS techniques, our center can help patients with their gender confirmation.
The FFS procedures are performed by the surgeons of Del Rey Aesthetics Center. Dr. Keojampa is board certified to perform plastic and reconstructive surgery of the face, head and neck and was trained by Dr. Jeffrey Spiegel, a Boston-based facial plastic surgeon and world-renowned expert in facial feminization surgery. Dr. Keojampa has performed more than 200 FFS cases and is an expert in advanced FFS surgeries such as forehead reduction cranioplasty including Type 3 reconstruction and jaw contouring utilizing shaving, sliding genioplasty, and Asian V-line techniques.
Most of the time were working with transgender women from around the country or around the world, noted Dr. Keojampa, but these procedures can help anyone who wants a more feminine look.
Based in physical anthropology principles, the field of facial feminization surgery includes surgeries to reduce or reshape the brow; alter the width and shape of the jaw and chin; revise the hairline position; adjust the shape of the eye, and many others. The number and extent of the procedures performed on a specific patient is tailored to that patients physical features and the patients goals and expectations for aesthetic appearance.
Del Rey Aesthetics Center consults with patients in-office or via Internet phone conference. Once our surgeon has made a visual and physical examination along with CT scans of the face and jaw, a course of treatment can be prescribed for the patients surgery. To learn more about FFS offered by Del Rey Aesthetics Center, go to delreymd.com/aesthetics/ffs.
About Del Rey Aesthetics Center
Del Rey Aesthetics Center is a leading aesthetics and cosmetic surgery practice based in Marina Del Rey, California. Along with Del Rey ENT Associates and Del Rey Sinus & Allergy Institute, Del Rey Aesthetics Center is part of Del Rey MD, an advanced otolaryngology medical practice. Specializing in head and neck surgery and facial plastic surgery, the physicians of Del Rey Aesthetics Center are board-certified surgeons and Fellows of the American College of Surgeons. The practice was founded by Farhad Sigari, M.D., FACS, a graduate of University of San Diego and Chicago Medical School, where he also completed surgical internship and residency. The practice also includes Kyle Keojampa, M.D., FACS, graduate of Pepperdine University, University of Texas School of Medicine, and former clinical surgical faculty at Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. The Centers areas of expertise include facial feminization surgery, microdermabrasion, facial masks and contouring and many other topical and surgical treatments. Known for its adoption of the most innovative and advanced techniques, Del Rey Aesthetics Center draws patients from California, across the United States and foreign countries. For more information, visit http://www.delreymd.com/aesthetics.
To help meet a need to prepare qualified teachers for unfilled teaching positions in Contra Costa County, the National University Sanford College of Education will expand its offerings to the John F. Kennedy campus in Pleasant Hill, following the approval this month from the WASC Senior College and University Commission. National University and JFK University are part of the National University System, a group of nonprofit universities and education-related affiliates dedicated to providing education programs aligned with workforce and regional needs. The partnership reflects the strategic plans of both universities, which strive to create academic pathways to address the needs of communities by preparing students to effectively contribute to positive change in the region.
The collaboration, which has been developed in coordination with the region's superintendents, creates new professional pathways for teachers by allowing National University to offer at the JFK University Pleasant Hill campus two master's degree programs: a Master of Science degree in special education and a Master of Education in teaching degree (multiple-subject credential). Both programs will be led by full-time faculty from the National University Sanford College of Education, which prepares more teachers for credentials than any other university in the state of California.
"The National University System is fulfilling its strategic mission in identifying innovative educational collaborations that put students first while meeting critical needs in the regions we serve," said Dr. Michael R. Cunningham, Chancellor of the National University System. "We are very pleased to offer, through this unique partnership, unparalleled access to National University's quality teaching programs at JFK University that support the great work of educators in Contra Costa County."
The teacher credentialing effort was developed over a year-long period in coordination with the region's superintendents and PreK-12 educators and has received significant support from former Contra Costa County superintendent Joseph Ovick, who chaired the advisory board. The new degree programs expand the educational options available through the JFK University campuses, which have a tradition supporting the needs of communities by preparing students to effectively contribute to positive change. JFK University is known for its established undergraduate and graduate psychology programs, community-focused counseling centers, and its law school.
In addition to opening up new opportunities for educators throughout the region to enroll in the National University programs, students at John F. Kennedy University will also benefit from the accessibility of the programs and through the agreement. National University students and faculty will enjoy shared resources and access to on-site services available at JFK University.
Currently, National University offers on-site courses in the San Francisco Bay region through its San Jose campus, though many of its more than 100 programs are also available online.
"JFK University is dedicated to supporting our region's workforce needs, and we are pleased to welcome our affiliated university partner National University to our campus. The effort will help meet a critical need in our region to prepare and support the ongoing professional development needs of PreK-12 teachers," said JFK University President Debra Bean.
The new education degree programs will help local school districts fill a diverse slate of positions that include secondary school (single-subject certification), elementary school (multiple-subject certification), and special education openings, said President Bean. In the future, JFK University will explore launching new credential programs for JFK students such as a Master's in School Psychology credential, she said.
"National University is pleased to extend its teacher education offerings through this special collaboration with JFK University," said Dr. David Andrews, President of National University. "Through our Sanford College of Education, we are dedicated to supporting the ongoing professional development and success of teachers in PreK-12 classrooms throughout the Contra Costa County region."
The Sanford College of Education is among the Top Ten largest schools of education in the country, and its programs have been recognized by The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), after meeting the organization's rigorous, evidence-based standards for teacher education programs nationwide.
To learn more about the current National University Sanford College of Education offerings available at the JFK University Pleasant Hill campus, please call: (408) 236-1100.
About National University
Founded in 1971, National University is the second-largest private, nonprofit institution of higher education in California. With more than 150,000 alumni, National University is the flagship institution of the National University System. National University is dedicated to making lifelong learning opportunities accessible, challenging, and relevant to a diverse population of students. Four schools and two colleges the Sanford College of Education; the College of Letters and Sciences; the School of Business and Management; the School of Engineering and Computing; the School of Health and Human Services; and the School of Professional Studies offer more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degrees and 23 teacher credentials. Programs are offered at locations throughout California and across the nation, and are also available online. National University is headquartered in La Jolla, California. To learn more, visit http://www.nu.edu.
About JFK University
For over 50 years, John F. Kennedy University, a nonprofit affiliate of the National University System, has offered undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs that prepare individuals for career success while also engaging the student in personal growth through a commitment to service. Today, the University's three Colleges provide innovative higher education opportunities to 1, 200 professionals who, despite a full range of life responsibilities, are determined to advance their education and improve their future. The Continuing Education division provides professional development education to more than 2,500 individuals per year. A pioneer of education that integrates theory and practice, John F. Kennedy University and its students touch the lives of more than 30,000 people in Bay Area communities every year through their support of outreach centers and public programs. For more information, visit http://www.jfku.edu.
We have like-minded clients successful and affluent families and are grateful we can now offer even more ways to help our clients thrive.
With a shared vision of holistic financial planning, client commitment and independence, Birmingham-based Warren Averett Asset Management and Kinsight have joined forces to create the largest fee-only financial planning and investment advisory firm in Alabama, with combined assets under management in excess of $2.2 Billion.
Charlie Haines, Kinsights founder, is a well-known leader in the financial planning industry across the country and a pioneer in the fee-only field, said Josh Reidinger, President of Warren Averett Asset Management. We have like-minded clients successful and affluent families and are grateful we can now offer even more ways to help our clients thrive.
Josh Reidinger and I actually met through a mutual friend at a local ministry, said Charlie Haines, founder and shareholder of Kinsight. We immediately connected, and when we looked at the overlap Warren Averett and Kinsight have in our investment philosophy and portfolio construction approach, a merger made perfect sense.
Kinsight will operate under the name Warren Averett Asset Management, and will maintain their location off Lakeshore Drive in Birmingham.
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Kinsight advises over 160 families with assets under management in excess of $400 Million and is an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). Kinsight offers family fulfillment planning, financial planning, portfolio planning and strategic care services. Kinsights essential purpose is to help families align their material resources with their life purpose. Learn more at http://www.kinsight.com.
Offering personal wealth management, family office, retirement plan and institutional consulting services, Warren Averett Asset Management advises on assets in excess of $1.8 Billion and is an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). Warren Averett Asset Management offers clients collaborative investment, tax, estate and financial planning services, through a team of 40-plus team members who hold many of the industrys most prestigious credentials. Learn more at http://www.WAasset.com.
Elie Gendloff
Elie Gendloff, PhD, has joined Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP as Of Counsel in the firm's Intellectual Property practice group. He is a patent attorney whose practice focuses on life sciences.
Gendloff has extensive experience preparing and prosecuting patent applications in a variety of areas including biotechnology, clinical diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, biologics, molecular biology, medical devices, immunochemistry, stem cells, tissue engineering, immunology, virology, oncology, neuroscience, genetics, infectious disease, agricultural biotechnology, green technology and consumer goods. He also has substantial experience evaluating inventions for patentability.
His background also includes work as a research scientist with experience in biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology of mycotoxin biosynthesis, regulation and degradation; molecular and quantitative genetic analysis; and immunochemical detection of haptens including monoclonal antibody technology.
Practicing out of the firms Irvine and Los Angeles offices, he is licensed in California, New York, Missouri and Wisconsin. He is also registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Gendloff received a B.S. in Plant Science from the University of California, Davis, a M.S. and Ph.D., Plant Pathology from Michigan State University, and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
About Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP is an Am Law 200 commercial law firm for handling complex matters in litigation, intellectual property, business transactions, gaming, government relations and other practice areas. Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie offices are located in Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Irvine, Phoenix, Reno, Silicon Valley and Tucson. For more information, visit lrrc.com.
Now New York Institute of Photography students will be just a click away from discounts on AdoramaPix services.
The New York Institute of Photography (NYIP) has partnered with AdoramaPix, the worlds leading provider of photo printing services and products. Under this new agreement, current and future students in any of New York Institute of Photographys online photography classes will receive 25% off any AdoramaPix order.
AdoramaPix has been serving the needs of the photographic community for over a decade. Well known for the superior quality of their prints and excellent customer service, they have become the lab of choice for professional photographers and savvy consumers all over the country.
Now New York Institute of Photography students will be just a click away from discounts on AdoramaPix services. From photo books to prints, cards to calendars, NYIP students will be able to get the superior quality that AdoramaPix customers have come to expect for a fraction of the cost.
NYIP has thousands of students all over the world who are constantly on the lookout for printing services that will help them showcase their work, says Chris Corradino, head of NYIPs photography mentor program. And now theyll have access to exclusive discounted pricing from the highest-quality service in operation today.
To take advantage of this offer, students must be enrolled with NYIP. There is a link inside the online course platform that will take them directly to AdoramaPix and give them the discount code they need to save. For more information, call 1-800-583-1736.
About NYIP
The New York Institute of Photography now offers nine great online photography courses. Founded in 1910, NYIP is the largest online photography school in the world, having successfully trained thousands of photographers over more than 100 years. Located in the heart of the art capital of the world, New York City, NYIP brings high quality photography education straight to its students doors. NYIP is owned and operated by Distance Education Co., LLC, which also operates the New York Institute of Art and Design, the premier online school for creative professionals.
About AdoramaPix
AdoramaPix creates high-quality prints, photography books and greeting cards for both professional photographers and hobbyists across the nation for over a decade. Customers can have their work printed on either metal, canvas or choose from six different paper options, making their work truly unique. Photographers can also document their work in photobooks or Hudson photo album to preserve their pieces for years to come.
Buyatab Online Inc., a leading international provider of online digital gift card solutions (eGift Cards), is pleased to announce that Matias Marquez, Buyatabs founder and COO, and Maddie Holeksa, Sr. Program Manager, will participate in a panel discussion at the new Flourish Conference, presented by K+H Connection, taking place on April 10-12 in Omaha, Nebraska.
In this session, Mr. Marquez will moderate a panel with industry leaders from ARM Marketing, GFTD and Buyatab, to discuss the promotional use of branded currency and how gift cards are being used as an incentive throughout various channels.
Who:
Matias Marquez, founder & COO, Buyatab Online Inc. (Moderator)
Mitch Brody, CEO, GFTD
Rob Grumbach, CEO & Co-founder, ARM Marketing
Maddie Holeksa, Sr. Program Manager, Buyatab Online Inc.
What:
Promotional Use of Branded Currency
Where:
The Double Tree by Hilton Hotel Omaha Downtown
Grand Ballroom East - 2nd Floor
Flourish aims to connect industry experts to create conversations around the growth of branded currency. This conference will feature specialist in the fields of retail, fraud, security, processing, point-of-sale, loyalty, rewards and eCommerce, aimed to educate attendees on how branded currency programs can benefit their own strategic initiatives and programs. To learn more visit https://www.flourishomaha.com/.
About Buyatab
Buyatab is a leading provider of advanced online gift card infrastructure solutions for medium- and large-sized businesses. Buyatab provides a seamless solution for gift cards to be purchased from a merchants online properties (website, mobile site, Facebook page, etc.) and delivered to recipients via email or text message, leveraging the rapid growth in mobile device and social media use, and with full compatibility to mobile wallets such as Apple Wallet. With clients in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, Buyatab provides eGift Card services to merchants in a wide variety of sectors, including retail, hospitality, restaurant, shopping, hotel and others.
http://www.buyatab.com
After years of service to their country we knew the team at MATBOCK had the correct balance of leadership and determination to make a transformative impact on the sectors they tackle..."
MATBOCK is a leader in innovative technologies with four issued utility patents and multiple pending. As a technology development company, they have over 23 products on the market and another 25 in various phases of development. Due to MATBOCKs rapid growth in products and technologies, the restructuring was necessary to maintain a strong brand image and engage more effectively with other industry leaders.
MATBOCK is currently a leading force in the Military, Law Enforcement and outdoor space while MATBOCK Origins will focus on paradigm shifting technology and the proper alignment with additional partners.
MATBOCK was founded in 2010 as a simple LLC to protect intellectual property while seeking to license a product designed at 20,000 ft. on the way to Alaska in the back of a cargo plane. Along this journey, the Co-Founders, Sean and Zach, began to uncover the world of business, having been trained only as engineers academically. As with everything else in life, they figured if other people could do it, then they could do it better. From learning product development to manufacturing, a distribution network, online sales, marketing and every other bit of what it took to run a business, they developed MATBOCK from the ground floor into the business you see today. We have never been too proud to admit that we dont know what we dont know and have taken the last 4 years to educate ourselves in every facet of business to make MATBOCK a success, says Sean Matson, CEO of MATBOCK. As of this time, we are proud to have paradigm shifting products and technology on the market that benefit our soldiers on and off the battlefield. Our number one goal here at MATBOCK is and has always been to make better gear for our warfighters by leveraging our own experiences with this gear. They are our brothers and sisters, and one day our sons and daughters. We strive for perfection in every product we make so that it brings as many of them home safely as possible.
MATBOCK Origins brings innovative products to the market by leveraging existing, robust networks and drawing on experiences from time spent as Special Operations Forces officers. MATBOCK Origins will continue operating extremely lean and partner with industry leaders to ensure the highest quality products.
Co-Founder and CEO, Sean Matson said MATBOCK signed operating agreements to gain ownership stake in two other companies, Aceso Plasma, LLC and Strike Force Beverage, LLC, to continue to drive innovation in additional markets, diversify our portfolio as well as bring these advances to the military
MATBOCK Origins successfully closed their Series A round ($500k capital raise). With help from Bob Louthan of VeteranCrowd (The marketplace for investing in veteran-led companies) as a consultant, the team navigated the difficult waters of raising capital. After years of service to their country we knew the team at MATBOCK had the correct balance of leadership and determination to make a transformative impact on the sectors they tackle. SERAPH looks forward to supporting these skilled leaders as the business matures. Stated Seraph Partners. Both the investor and management team are excited about the deal and are seeing exceptional growth already from the synergies created.
If you can dream it, they can make it. The Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company (BHTB Co.), a leader in the creation and design of high-quality plush merchandise for established companies worldwide, is bringing Surprizamals to countries around the world!
Surprizamals, the first plush line to enter the blind capsule space, are now available in Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Poland, South Africa and 40 other countries across the globe. Now Surprizamals fans around the world have the opportunity to join in on the Surprizamals fun to collect, trade and love their new surprize pop out play friends.
Surprizamals are a popular plush item due to their collector appeal, adorable characteristics and the chase phenomenon of finding ultra rare items and favorite characters in the line. Made of soft, high quality plush, Surprizamals stuffed animals are hidden in surprise packaging called Surprizaballs. The toy remains a mystery
until opened you never know which one you will get.
We have gone from two retailers in October 2016 to over 40 countries in less than six months, said David Socha, Chief Executive Officer, Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company. We are excited to expand and bring the element of surprise to Surprizamals fans around the world.
Currently available are Series Two and Series Three. Series Two loveable plush pals include Kit the Cat, Cristy the Crab, and rare Surprizamals like Izzy the Unicorn and other ultra rare secret Surprizamals.
Series Three includes adorable characters such as Drake the Dragon, Squiggle the Octopus and ultra rare Hannah the Horse.
Surprizamals are available for children ages 3+ and retails for $4.99.
For more information, please visit http://www.surprizamals.com.
About Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company:
BHTB Co. is a full spectrum manufacturer that specializes in custom, private label and licensed toys, gifts and plush for both in-line retail sales and strategic promotions. For over 20 years, BHTB Co. has partnered with established companies worldwide to design, create and manufacture safe, high quality merchandise designed to work across all channels of trade.
Media contact: ChizComm Ltd. | http://www.chizcomm.com on behalf of Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company Aaron Wade | 416.551.0822 x 343 | aaron(at)chizcomm(dot)com
St. Josephs Villa (SJV) of Richmond, VA received the prestigious Telehealth Innovation Award from the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC). The award recipients were announced on April 3, 2017 during the 2017 MATRC Telehealth Summit. The award is given to organizations that demonstrate an innovative application of telehealth and contribute to improved health outcomes and/or quality of life in the Mid-Atlantic region.
SJV partners with InSight to bring telepsychiatry to children receiving mental health services at their facility. One of SJVs many innovative and effective programs is their Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU), where children experiencing mental health crises can receive treatment in an environment that feels like home all with the goal of preventing costly, unnecessary hospitalization. Since opening in 2012, the CSU has served nearly 500 children and has successfully diverted nearly 90 percent of them from hospitalization. InSight has helped the CSU work toward this goal for nearly two years with the help of telepsychiatrist Dr. Ashika Kapoor.
As one of the first crisis stabilization units for children and adolescents in Virginia, and one of the first crisis stabilization units in the country to use telepsychiatry, St. Josephs Villa exemplifies how combining modern technology and a personal touch can offer a meaningful and potentially life-changing service to patients and families in their time of need. The Villa is able to help children and families through a difficult time in their lives and provide them with opportunities to succeed because they have a telepsychiatry provider.
St. Josephs Villa is committed to providing high quality behavioral health services to children and their families in innovative new settings. Our partnership with InSight has allowed us to expand our provider capacity, said Kathleen Burke Barrett, CEO of St. Josephs Villa. Were delighted that our efforts to provide care beyond the confines of an office were recognized by MATRC.
Telepsychiatry allows children in the CSU to see psychiatry providers through videoconferencing. It has been proven an effective and cost-conscious way to bring psychiatric care to children and many other populations. With the option to utilize remote providers, telepsychiatry and other telemedicine services represent unprecedented access to specialists who are typically difficult to staff in rural and underserved areas. When the CSU opened in partnership with the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA) Region IV, SJV found that it was challenging to locate a qualified local child psychiatrist. In terms of mental health providers, several of the counties SJVs CSU serves are Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Ultimately, SJV turned to telepsychiatry as the solution for bringing psychiatric care to their facility.
InSight prides itself on developing partnerships with innovative, like-minded organizations and works hard to find the right fit between our telepsychiatry providers and our partners, says Geoffrey Boyce, Executive Director of InSight. Congratulations to St. Josephs Villa on this accomplishment and we look forward to sustaining a productive partnership.
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About InSight Telepsychiatry
InSight is the leading national telepsychiatry service provider organization with a mission to increase access to quality behavioral health care through telehealth. InSights behavioral health providers bring care into any setting on an on-demand or scheduled basis. InSight has 18+ years of telepsychiatry experience and is an industry thought-leader. Forty percent of InSights telepsychiatry providers are child and adolescent psychiatrists. More information can be found at http://www.InSightTelepsychiatry.com.
About St. Josephs Villa
Established in 1834, St. Josephs Villa is the longest serving nonprofit for children in the country. The Villa impacts 3,000 children and families each year facing homelessness, autism and developmental disabilities, mental illness, and other challenges. Villa programs help them believe in themselves while providing them with the tools they need for long-term independence, stability, and success. For more information, visit http://www.NeverStopBelieving.org.
[1] Myers, K. M., Valentine, J. M., & Melzer, S. M. (2008). Child and Adolescent Telepsychiatry: Utilization and Satisfaction. Telemedicine and EHealth, 14(2), 131-137. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2007.0035
PF Logo.jpg Most people think that any hospital emergency room will collect evidence for a sexual assault kit, but thats not true. While SB1191 attempted to remedy this, its implementation has been rocky," said Torie Camp, a project consultant.
Texas Sexual Assault Kit Evaluation Project Proposes Multi-Step Solutions
Hospitals should consider improving protocols and training opportunities while exploring technological advances to ensure sexual assault survivors in Texas have universal access to high-quality, comprehensive medical forensic exams.
The first report of findings on the impact of SB1911 released today by the Police Foundation has found that implementing the law that intended to improve access to high-quality medical examinations proved to be much harder than anticipated.
The study, which was part of the Texas Sexual Assault Kit Evaluation Project, Effects of SB1191 on Accessibility of Sexual Assault Forensic Exams in Texas, recommends top nursing officials convene to identify solutions that could provide better access to competent forensic exams for sexual assault victims. Given the lack of academic research and evaluation of the impact of state legislative reform efforts, the Police Foundation partnered with the National Center for Victims of Crime and the Joyful Heart Foundation to establish the Texas Sexual Assault Kit Evaluation Project.
Potential solutions include:
Creating protocols for transferring victims to other facilities for a forensic exam
Creating a network of mobile SANEs (nurses certified as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners) who are on-call and can perform exams at a number of hospitals
Exploring telemedicine options whereby a nurse performing an exam at a remote hospital could be supervised in real time by an experienced nurse stationed elsewhere
Over the past two years, the Project has conducted research to study the effects of SB1191: how the law has impacted the accessibility of high-quality medical forensic examinations, challenges faced by emergency department staff, and approaches being used to implement the requirements of the law across Texas.
Susan Howley, Director of Public Policy at the National Center for Victims of Crime, said: SB 1191 represented a bold effort to improve the response to victims of sexual assault. But this research uncovered complexities at the local level that kept the law from having the desired effect.
After a sexual assault, victims typically undergo a medical forensic examination to collect evidence in a sexual assault kit. However, many victims are unable to access these examinations, as they are not performed at all Texas hospitals.
In 2013, Texas legislators passed a major reform law to ensure access to high-quality medical forensic examinations for all sexual assault survivors. SB 1191 included two major provisions: first, it required that all hospitals collect forensic evidence from a sexual assault survivor, if requested; and second, it required that all hospitals develop a plan to train staff on sexual assault forensic evidence collection.
Although the lawmakers who drafted SB1191 intended to expand access to high-quality forensic exams across all hospitals in the state, the implementation of the law has coincided with the more centralized provision of these exams in fewer hospitals. The findings released today suggest that medical and criminal justice professionals often hesitate to have non-designated staff provide forensic examinations, resulting in patients being transferred to the nearest hospital with a SANE program.
Project researchers Robert Davis (Chief Social Scientist, Police Foundation), Torie Camp (project consultant), Susan Howley (Director of Public Policy, National Center for Victims of Crime), Dr. William Wells (Professor, Sam Houston State University), and Ilse Knecht (Director of Policy and Advocacy, Joyful Heart Foundation) conducted semi-structured interviews with key emergency department staff at 18 hospitals across three diverse counties in Texas. This approach offers an in-depth assessment of how SB1191 has been implemented statewide.
Effects of SB1191 offer lessons learned and next steps not just for Texas, but also for other states across the country pursuing reform.
Most people think that any hospital emergency room will collect evidence for a sexual assault kit, but thats not true, Camp said. While SB1191 attempted to remedy this, its implementation has been rocky. Rape victims should call ahead to their local rape crisis center or law enforcement department to learn which hospital or local clinic will provide them with the specialized treatment they deserve.
The Police Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that has been at the cutting-edge of research into the most effective and efficient policing practices for more than 45 years, and provides the understanding of that research to departments and agencies across the nation.
For background and more information about the Texas Sexual Assault Kit Evaluation Project, please visit http://www.texassak.org.
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We are pleased to be able to support further growth of the company through these three excellent new hires for our Sales Team. Nick Smith
The Universal Group, LLC, (Universal), a leading supplier of leaf springs, suspension systems and wheel end components to the commercial trailer, utility trailer and trucking industries is pleased to announce three new hires in its Sales Department.
Jeff Gammage joins Universal as Director Of Business Development. Jeff brings over 20 years of experience in the OEM, parts distribution, program management and aftermarket sales experience. He will be responsible for defining and building an expanded market position for Universal.
Prior to coming to Universal, Jeff was West Coast Regional Sales Manager for Hutchens Industries. He previously held positions with Universal Trailer Cargo Group as a National Sales Manager overseeing Government sales & national accounts, as well as Imperial Supplies, a subsidiary of W.W. Grainger.
Its great to have the opportunity to join such a pro-active and well-established leader in its industry. Universals core values and dedication to its customers have created a solid foundation for them to continue to grow upon. The teamwork and commitment to the total satisfaction of the customer are second to none. I look forward to being part of such a dedicated team, said Jeff.
To contact Jeff, call cell: (602) 399-3460 or email at jgammage(at)theuniversalgroup(dot)com
Matt Krawczak joins Universal as the Regional Sales Manager for the Midwest territory. Matt brings nearly 25 years of dealer network sales experience in the trailer industry and will be responsible for the outside sales effort in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Matt is based in Three Rivers, Michigan.
Prior to joining Universal, Matt was the Regional Sales Manager at Universal Trailer Cargo Group and he has many years of sales experience with Haulmark Industries, Inc. and Pace American.
Said Matt, I am excited to be joining the Universal Group family, I look forward to strengthening the relationships with our existing customers, and continue to provide them with the high level of service they have become accustomed to.
To contact Matt, call cell: (574) 309-1617 or email at mkrawczak(at)theuniversalgroup(dot)com
Jeff Taylor joins Universal as Regional Sales Manager for the Texas territory. Jeff has worked in sales in the heavy-duty truck and trailer industry for the past ten years and will be responsible for the outside sales effort on all Universal product lines in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and Arkansas. Jeff will be based out of Universals Arlington, Texas office and warehouse location.
Prior to coming to Universal, Jeff was an Outside Sales Representative at Utility Trailer of Dallas and before that MHC Kenworth South Dallas.
I really enjoy outside sales and calling on the heavy-duty truck and trailer industry and I look forward to joining the Sales Team at The Universal Group, LLC and continuing to grow sales in the Texas territory, Jeff said.
To contact Jeff, call cell: (817) 524-8661 or email at jtaylor(at)theuniversalgroup(dot)com
Nick Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of The Universal Group, LLC said, The Universal Group, LLC has enjoyed very strong growth over the past two years and weve really added a lot of new product lines, we are pleased to be able to support further growth of the company through these three excellent new hires for our Sales Team.
A few members of the Best & Brightest Business Undergraduates of 2017 This is a first look at some of the leaders wholl be shaping the discussions and decisions around business in the coming decades, says John A. Byrne, founder and editor of Poets&Quants and the former executive editor of Businessweek magazine and former
Poets&Quants For Undergrads, the must-read website for undergraduate business education, has released its second annual Best & Brightest Business Majors feature, which honors 100 of the most accomplished seniors majoring in such fields as business administration, marketing, accounting, operations, and human resources.
This is a first look at some of the leaders wholl be shaping the discussions and decisions around business in the coming decades, says John A. Byrne, founder and editor of Poets&Quants and the former executive editor of Businessweek magazine and former editor-in-chief of Fast Company.They are already so informed, creative, and versatile. I cant wait to see what they do after they graduate.
If this years Best & Brightest class could be summarized in one word, it would be impact. They were the scholars, advocates, volunteers, and mentors who often acted as the catalysts and consciences of their classes. Among this years honorees, Washington Universitys Jessica Lanzberg opened a candy business to provide hands-on entrepreneurial experience for underclassmen. Arizona States Juan Pablo Forno Parra launched a Childrens Day that provides food, play activities, and support to unaccompanied minors to the United States. At the same time, the University of Michigans Eric Katz piloted an award-winning sustainable Enterprise in Kenya that markets commercial-grade feed to increase farm production and cut harmful waste.
Such efforts have drawn accolades for this class. Northeasterns Jeremy Goldstein was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholar in 2016, while Boston Colleges Angela Jin was named a finalist for Glamour magazines College Women of the Year Award. The University of Southern Californias Angela Zhou even pitched her non-profit initiative to the Clintons at a conference.
The 2017 Best & Brightest feature also includes in-depth profiles on each student in which honorees answer questions relating to their biggest lessons from business school, favorite executives and professors, dream jobs, and even the animal that best personifies them. We didnt want just list bullet points that you could find on Linkedin, explains Jeff Schmitt, who organized and directed the Best & Brightest project. We asked students to dig deep so readers could know why they pursued business, what they loved about it, and what they hoped to do with this knowledge. These students are role models. Our whole goal is to show potential business majors why it is such a valuable path and what it takes to be successful in school and beyond.
To compile this years Best & Brightest students, Poets&Quants reached out to 55 leading business schools, starting with programs listed in its exclusive 2016 Best Undergraduate Business Programs ranking. Overall, 49 programs responded, with faculty and administrators choosing two students per school based on academic excellence, extracurricular leadership, personal character, innate potential, striking personal narrative, and overall impact on the program. Due to the popularity of the 2016 feature, the number of student profiles was doubled to 100 in 2017.
The Best & Brightest Business Majors is the first of a three-part series recognizing the top business students. In May, Poets&Quants will unveil its 100 Best & Brightest MBAs. In June, Poets&Quants For Executives will honor the Best & Brightest Executive MBAs. In March, Poets&Quants also profiled the 40 Most Outstanding MBA Professors Under 40. Starting in August, Poets&Quants will continue its series featuring the top incoming full-time MBA students at more than 40 leading business schools.
Here's how you can read the complete Best & Brightest Business Majors for 2017.
Media Contact: Jeff Schmitt
Staff Writer
C-Change Media
(563) 495-2246
Adam Sharp, Early Investing Co-Founder and equity crowdfunding expert With as little as $100, anyone can invest in private early-stage companies, startups valued anywhere from $1 million to $50 million.
When Enron imploded in 2001, it was another kick in the gut for U.S. investors. People were steaming mad about corruption.
Politicians felt they had to respond. The primary reform passed into law was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
Among other things, it required public companies to recruit independent board members and audit committees.
In effect, SOX made it far more costly to be a public company. Especially for small caps and microcaps.
Adam Sharp, Early Investing Co-Founder and equity crowdfunding expert, wrote an article about the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley. In his view, the governments reaction to this crisis didnt help much. In fact, he said its actions caused significant harm to public markets.
Politicians told us it would prevent such crimes from happening again. But, from a small business perspective, the new rules made it more costly to be a public company. Reporting and audit requirements were more extreme under SOX. In essence, it became a heck of a lot more expensive to be a public company. Especially one with limited cash flow, Sharp wrote.
After SOX was implemented, a new trend began. Private companies avoided going public for as long as possible.
This meant that when companies offered stock to the public, it was much later in their growth curves. Since SOX, public market investors have missed out on most of the great U.S. growth stories.
Most of the gains were captured by private market investors. This trend only strengthened over time.
For most of the past 82 years, to be a private market investor meant you had to be wealthy. The whole situation worked out rather well for the 0.1%. But savvy investors knew they were missing out on the investments with the greatest potential.
So they pushed the government to open up private opportunities to all through the JOBS Act of 2012.
At the time, I didnt realize just how dramatic the effects of SOX would be on the markets. It was the beginning of a shift away from small publicly traded growth companies... and toward a market where almost all small company growth took place in private markets, Sharp wrote.
In May 2016, the last and most important reform of the JOBS Act of 2012 went into effect, enabling all investors to access private markets via equity crowdfunding.
According to Sharp, With as little as $100, anyone can invest in private early-stage companies valued anywhere from $1 million to $50 million. Its good not only for investors, but also for small businesses and startups. And thats where real meaningful economic growth occurs.
Shortly after these new laws went into effect in May 2016, Sharp and his business partner, Andy Gordon, started First Stage Investor, a research service that identifies the best private startups to invest in.
Sharp sums up First Stage Investor by saying, Weve also put together a ton of educational material for those who are interested in learning to navigate this market on their own. Our goal is not just to find the best investment opportunities, but also to help people avoid common mistakes.
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Adam Sharp is the Founder of Early Investing, a service focused on equity crowdfunding. He is an active investor in more than 20 startups, including Navdy, UpCounsel, Cabify, Faraday Bikes, Addy and Respondly. A former financial advisor, he also has extensive experience with internet marketing and financial writing. Adam has worked as a marketing consultant for sites including chess.com and catalogs.com. He has built three profitable web businesses.
Andrew Gordon is the Co-Founder of Early Investing and Chief Equity Analyst of the Startup Investor portfolio. Among the portfolio's two dozen holdings are Appvance, Geekatoo, Knightscope, Dealflicks and Trustify. Educated at the London School of Economics, Andrew has three decades of experience in the private and public sectors as an entrepreneur and advisor. The CIA, former Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer, and Fortune 500 companies such as Lockheed Martin and Dow Chemical have all trusted in and profited from his advice. Andrew founded and ran an international trade and finance company based in Asia. Upon returning to the U.S., he joined a Florida investment advisory service that quickly gained a reputation for recommending companies with outstanding value and fundamentals. Andrew has taught marketing and finance courses at local Maryland universities and has written a half-dozen books on global business, published by McGraw-Hill, Frost & Sullivan, and others.
Winona Health recently launched a telepsychiatry program in their outpatient department as part of a partnership with InSight Telepsychiatry.
Telepsychiatry is the application of telemedicine to the specialty field of psychiatry. The term typically describes the delivery of psychiatric assessment and care through secure videoconferencing.
Winona Healths outpatient telepsychiatry program increases access to psychiatric appointments for people in the Winona community seeking mental health treatment. There are more than 4,600[1] health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) in the U.S. today, and in Minnesota, only 30 percent[2] of mental health HPSAs are met.
Patients who have received treatment through the new telepsychiatry program have praised this delivery of care in post-appointment surveys, noting the ease of use of the technology and satisfaction with InSight provider, Dr. Maaz Siddiqui.
This new program is essential in providing the best quality care to our mental health patients, said John Rislove, Co-Director of Inpatient Medical Services at Winona Health. We have 100 percent approval ratings for the new telepsychiatry program so far, which attests to the quality and effectiveness of care Winona and InSights Dr. Maaz Siddiqui provides.
In the survey, 90 percent of patients surveyed reported that they were Comfortable or Very Comfortable with the telemental health technology they used and 100 percent planned to return to the service. Additionally, 98 percent of respondents reported that their treatment by Dr. Siddiqui and the onsite staff was either Very Good or Good.
Over 50 percent[3] of adults in Minnesota with a mental illness do not receive treatment or counseling. The telepsychiatry program at Winona has provided care for over 200 patient visits since December.
Were excited to supplement Winona Healths current system of mental health care in the treatment and support of individuals in the Winona community, said Geoffrey Boyce, executive director of InSight Telepsychiatry. Our goals are to maintain the high quality of care weve seen so far while continuing to increase access to psychiatry through our partnership.
About Winona Health
Winona Health is a community-owned, not-for-profit healthcare system nestled among the bluffs along the Mississippi River in picturesque Winona, Minn. The healthcare system provides comprehensive care for individuals through all stages of life. In addition to a primary care and multi-specialty clinic in Winona, Winona Health has a primary care clinic in Rushford, Minn. Winona Health also provides care for the community through its 99-bed hospital and senior services including assisted living, long-term care and hospice services. For more information about Winona Health, visit http://www.winonahealth.org.
About InSight Telepsychiatry
InSight is the leading national telepsychiatry service provider organization with a mission to increase access to quality behavioral health care through telehealth. InSights behavioral health providers bring care into any setting on an on-demand or scheduled basis. InSight has 18+ years of telepsychiatry experience and is an industry thought-leader. More information can be found at http://www.InSightTelepsychiatry.com.
(1) Kaiser Family Foundation. Mental Health Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). Retrieved from http://ow.ly/Voup30aFpmB
(2) Kaiser Family Foundation. Percent of Adults Reporting Poor Mental Health Status. Retrieved from http://ow.ly/sCEV30aFpr3
(3) SAMSHA. Behavioral Health Barometer. Retrieved from http://ow.ly/oVdR30aFpCe
Sharon Kleyne, host of the nationally syndicated radio program, The Sharon Kleyne Hour Power of Water, Global Climate Change and Your Health on VoiceAmerica sponsored by Natures Tears EyeMist celebrated her 11th year on the air by teaching listeners about the traditional Chinese holistic approach to dry eye disease. Did you know, Kleyne asked, that in traditional Chinese holistic care that parts of the eyes relate to different internal organs? For example, Kleyne shared that the heart relates to the corners of the eyes, the iris to the liver, the conjunctiva to the lungs, the pupil to the kidney and the upper and lower eyelids to the spleen.
Sharon Kleyne also revealed that Chinese tradition identifies 6 external pathogens that cause loss of vision. Referring to material from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, Kleyne shared the following details. Environmental pathogenic factors affecting the eyes:
HeatLeads to swelling, inflammation and the redness commonly found in many eye diseases such as conjunctivitis;
ColdWill yield pain and slow vision loss over time, as in chronic degenerative conditions such as macular degeneration and glaucoma;
WindResults in sudden and dramatic onset of vision loss;
DampnessCauses secretion of mucus and swelling;
DrynessResults in dry itchy eyes and redness;
Summer HeatInflammation and mucus discharge.
Sharon Kleyne said these influences are thought of as Yang conditions of the eye. Kleyne pointed to wind as the leading pathogenic factor affecting the eyes. Wind is, of course, characterized by rapid change and sudden onset. Fire, also a yang condition, is characterized by inflammation, ulceration and redness.
The other environmental pathogenscold and dampnessresult in Yin conditions. Traditional Chinese holistic care identifies the most common cause of poor vision is exposure to the damp and cold. The damp or cold eye has poor circulation; the cold blocks the flow of qi and the eye loses out on vital nourishment. Cold will also affect the vessels, muscles and skin around the eyes and this leads to further degeneration of visual acuity.
There are several herbal treatments in Chinese holistic care for dry eyes, Kleyne said and proceeded to share some of them. Huai Hua Mi (Pagoda Tree Flower) treats dizziness, blurred vision and red eyes as a result of liver heat; Qing Xiang Zi (Celosia Seeds) helps painful red, swollen eyes and cataracts; Ju Hua (chrysanthemum flower) clears the liver, improves red eyes, decreases excessive tearing, clears floaters and blurred vision; Chan Tui (Cicada Moulting) clears blurred vision and reduces redness and also relieves painful, swollen eyes; Qou Qi Zi (Chinese Wolfberry Fruit or Lycium) acts on the liver and kidney deficiencies of Qi and corrects blurred vision and vision loss; Mi Menghua (Buddha Flower Bud) improves sensitivity to light and soothes excessive tearing. There are other useful herbs for eye care in addition to these, said Kleyne. Kleyne also noted that acupuncture in Chinese holistic care has clearly been an effective way to manage most chronic and degenerative eye diseases. Kleyne urged listeners to become more familiar with these time-honored traditional Chinese methods for relieving the symptoms of many eye afflictions, including dry eye disease.
Sharon Kleyne also noted that Natures Tears EyeMist, developed by her and her research center at Bio-Logic Aqua Research Water Life Science, is currently the only product on the global market that supplements the dry eye with pure water and nothing else. Kleyne explained that Natures Tears EyeMist is applied with a personal hand-held humidifying device emitting a pure, pH balanced, 100% Trade Secret tissue culture grade water in a patented micron-size mist. It supplements the eyes tear film, which is naturally 99 percent water. With Natures Tears EyeMist, Kleyne said, tired and irritated eyes are supplemented with pure water, and thats what eyes challenged by dry eye symptoms need. Eye drops may provide some temporary chemical relief, Kleyne continued, but they can become addictive and even make the dry eye condition worse. Why? Because eye drops only trap water on the eyes tear lens; they do not supplement the tear lens or the moisture (the tears) around it. Natures Tears EyeMist does supplement both.
Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest is America's largest Scotch & Craft Beer Festival taking place indoors at Fremont Studios, April 14-15.
Hunting for Easter eggs filled with candy is childs play; hunting for new favorite Scotches, whiskeys, and craft beers is another story. On April 14 & 15, Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest is celebrating Easter weekend by throwing an Easter Egg Hunt for grown ups. Fremont Studios transforms into a backyard hunting ground as guests search for their new favorite tastes. Tickets are now on sale to Americas largest Scotch and Beer Tasting event at http://ScotchBeerFest.com.
The Grand Tasting Room is where the hunter will find the largest quantities of Easter eggs, with 50 microbrews, cocktails featuring Jameson Irish Whiskey and The Glenlivet Scotch Whisky, served 2 ways, and wine waiting to be discovered. Hunters must be strategic in their use of tasting tokens. Try an approach of variety; unveiling tastes of microbrews from the likes of newcomers Payette Brewing or RiverBend Brewing, alongside heavyweights like Deschutes Brewing, Fremont Brewing, and 2 Towns Ciderhouse.
In the Spirit Room, hunters will discover two golden eggs the Scotch Flight and the new Irish Whiskey Flight. Hunters may sample both the Scotch flight, featuring The Glenlivet Founders Reserve, The Glenlivet 18 Year, The Glenlivet Nadurra Oloroso, Aberlour 12 Year, Aberlour 16 Year, and the Aberlour ABunadh; and the Irish flight, featuring Jameson Caskmates, Jameson Black Barrel, Green Spot, Jameson Coopers Croze, Redbreast 12 Year and Powers Johns Lane. Or they may choose to sample one of the two.
Then hop on over to the Back Bar pouring your choice of full-size or sample size Guinness Draught, Guinness Blonde Lager, Guinness Nitro IPA and Harp Lager. Plus learn how to Pour Your Own Pint and receive a take-home Guinness pint glass, or experience the Guinness Infusion Project with fresh coffee beans infused directly into your Guinness tasting.
Once the hunters have fully exhausted the Easter egg hunt for grown ups, they can fill the remainder of the Easter basket in the Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest Bottle Shop, sponsored by Celebrity Cruises. Full bottles of the spirits sampled will be available for purchase TAX FREE!
Tickets to Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest are now on sale. Guests can choose from three admission types and have the option to purchase admission to a Scotch Seminar. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.scotchbeerfest.com.
On the heels of its largest ever year of sales growth, JAN-PRO, a pioneer in the commercial cleaning segment, honored its top performing unit and master franchisees who have made positive impacts in local markets across the country and around the world. The awards were presented during the brands annual conference held in Dallas, Texas from March 7-11, 2017.
JAN-PRO franchisees, vendors and corporate team members were not only excited to celebrate a record-breaking year of growth, but also to celebrate the brands first gathering since the successful acquisition by Incline Equity Partners which was completed at the end of 2016. Premium Franchise Brands, parent company to JAN-PRO and sister residential cleaning brand Maid Right, partnered with Incline to help support both brands growth. The momentum created through the new partnership served as a key focal point for the conference.
Each time we assemble our network of exceptional franchisees, our hard-working corporate team and our dedicated vendor partners we create an incredible energy, but this years annual conference gave us a chance to celebrate something even more special, said Eddie Curry, President & CEO of Premium Franchise Brands. With our new partners from Incline by our side, we were able to recognize one of the strongest collections of both master and unit franchisees in our brands more than 25-year history. Coming together in Dallas to celebrate their amazing achievements over the last year was truly special.
The brands 2017 award winners were chosen based on client satisfaction, outstanding performance and their significant contributions to JAN-PROs growth. Some highlights from the awards ceremony include:
JAN-PRO Master Owner of the Year award winners:
Tier 1: Brad Wallace JAN-PRO of Greater New York
Tier 2: Charles and Melissa Smith JAN-PRO of Southeast Louisiana
Tier 3: Bill Becken JAN-PRO of Tucson
JAN-PRO Unit Franchisees of the Year award winners:
Clyde Butler JAN-PRO of Memphis
Cleotilde Nelly JAN-PRO of the Capital District
Office of the Year award winners:
Tier 1 JAN-PRO of Washington DC
Tier 2 JAN-PRO of St. Louis
Tier 3 JAN-PRO of Southwest Florida
Finally, this years Franny Award, JAN-PROs highest annual honor, was presented to Brad and Kate Rush of JAN-PRO of Atlanta.
Recognizing these dedicated franchisees and celebrating the years achievements with our entire JAN-PRO family is something we look forward to every year, said Curry. JAN-PROs growth through both unit franchisees and master franchisees continues to be unprecedented in the industry.
JAN-PRO also continued its rich tradition of giving back to the communities it serves, joining together as a team at this years conference to support its host city of Dallas. Each conference attendee wrote notes of encouragement in childrens and pre-teen books for Childrens Medical Center Dallas, a part of the Childrens Health system. In total, 250 books were donated as a welcomed addition to the Krissi Holman Family Resource Library and Childrens Collection at Childrens Health. On the Thursday afternoon of JAN-PROs conference, Curry and his wife Debra, along with Kaelin Caldwell, Meetings and Events Coordinator for Premium Franchise Brands, and her fiance, Andrew Leonard, made a trip to Childrens Health to personally deliver the books, tour the facilities and meet with the library staff.
It was an honor to spend time with the incredible ladies who oversee the libraries and witness first-hand the work they do for their patients and their patients families, said Caldwell. Their mission is Make Life Better for Children, and they truly do just that. Their passion and dedication to what they do is incredibly inspirational.
Since first opening its doors for business in 1991, JAN-PRO has experienced exponential growth and now has more than 140 master franchisees totaling nearly 8,000 units across 16 countries, serving more than 41,000 total customers. JAN-PROs rapid growth was recognized again in 2017 with a prestigious No. 1 ranking on Entrepreneur Magazines Franchise 500 list. In 2016 alone, JAN-PRO sold three key international markets: Poland, the Dominican Republic and Panama, and the opportunity for growth remains wide open in markets all over the world. JAN-PRO is actively targeting specific areas for development including locations in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
Not only are we serving more loyal customers than ever before, but were also bringing in master and unit franchise owners at our fastest rate ever, said Curry. That, paired with our recent investment with Incline Equity Partners, has put us in a unique position to lead the industry toward another year of record breaking development growth. Theres never been a better time to be a part of JAN-PROs system, and we look forward to opening doors in many more key markets in 2017.
ABOUT JAN-PRO
JAN-PRO International was founded in 1991 in Providence, Rhode Island, to offer the highest-quality cleaning techniques and systems available to offices and commercial and healthcare facilities. JAN-PROs global network of thousands of unit and master franchisees serves more than 35,000 customers in 13 countries. The Alpharetta, Georgia-based company, a subsidiary of Premium Franchise Brands, was recognized with the No. 1 ranking for global commercial cleaners in Entrepreneur magazines 2015 and 2016 Franchise 500. For more information about franchising opportunities please visit: http://www.jan-pro.com/franchising/
JAMIS had an excellent project management approach to implementations and kept the project pace moving. Additionally, their consultants took the time to learn our business, which helped achieve the optimal configuration of the system, said Rick Hempstead
JAMIS Software Corporation, a leading provider of cloud ERP software used by government contractors and other project-focused organizations, announces IronMountain Solutions, Inc. has replaced their legacy, software with JAMIS Prime ERP to power their payroll and human resources needs.
Their recent completion of their JAMIS Prime ERP implementation has enabled them to streamline their systems with a single sign-on software solution; accessible to all their employees, from anywhere.
IronMountain Solutions, headquartered in Huntsville, AL is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). The company is based on the foundation of providing quality customer solutions from quality employee commitment.
When selecting a new system, IronMountain Solutions was looking to update their Deltek GCS solution that was nearing the end of its lifetime. More specifically, they needed an intelligent mobile solution that would allow consolidation of the multiple systems they had historically been using.
Choosing a system that offered enterprise resource management, human capital management, and payroll that could also connect their growing mobile staff was a top priority.
JAMIS integrated HR and payroll systems were simply better than the rest, said Holly Goodmon, Accountant, IronMountain Solutions.
JAMIS Prime ERP solution was brought to the attention of IronMountain Solutions by accounting firm Hall Albright Garrison & Barnes (HAGB). After many rounds of demos and discussions, JAMIS Primes ERP system was selected.
IronMountain Solutions leveraged HAGB to help with the implementation of JAMIS Prime to ensure all Government Contracting business best practices were being used.
HAGB has been our partner for many years guiding us through the Government Contracting compliance environment. Their input during the implementation was extremely valuable, stated Brian House, Chief Financial Officer, IronMountain Solutions.
JAMIS had an excellent project management approach to implementations and kept the project pace moving. Additionally, their consultants took the time to learn our business, which helped achieve the optimal configuration of the system, said Rick Hempstead, Director of Finance and Accounting, IronMountain Solutions.
Through a successful implementation, JAMISs cloud-based ERP system has stream lined IronMountain Solutions processes, allowing the company to stay focused on their customers and the success of their business.
Huntsville is an important strategic area of the country for JAMIS. The the Rocket City is the home to many Federal Contractors, says Steve Brander, VP of Sales and Business Development, JAMIS Software Corporation. JAMIS uses strategic partners like Hall Albright Garrison & Barnes (HAGB) to help us extend our reach, provide local support and government contracting advice, compliance assessments and best practices. HAGBs investment to become a certified JAMIS Partner and was instrumental in assisting in this successful implementation for IronMountain Solutions.
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About IronMountain Solutions, Inc.
IronMountain Solutions, Inc., a DOD/U.S. Government engineering support contract company, was founded in 2007. The company is based on the foundation of providing quality customer solutions from quality employee commitment. We are a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) with core competencies that include systems, software, and hardware engineering, cyber security, program management, and test and evaluation. Our company philosophy is to promote integrity, quality, dedication, and solutions for our customers. Our corporate headquarters is located in Huntsville, AL. To learn more about IronMountain Solutions http://www.ironmountainsolutions.com/
About Hall Albright Garrison & Barnes
Hall Albright Garrison & Barnes (HAGB) is a leading public accounting and consulting firm in North Alabama providing tax, attestation, small business accounting, and federal government contractor consulting services. HAGBs ownership group has a combined experience of over 130 years of serving clients in the greater Huntsville area. HAGBs core objectives are built upon building strong client relationships, offering personalized client service, and creating a culture where employees love to come to work. The firm serves closely held companies from start-up to middle market in a wide range of industries, high-net-worth individuals, as well as specializing in full service operations support for federal government defense contractors. For more information about HAGB, visit the firm's website at http://www.hagacpas.com.
About JAMIS Software Corporation
JAMIS Software Corporation is a leading provider of ERP software solutions designed specifically for government contractors and other project-focused organizations. JAMIS delivers comprehensive, intuitive, innovative and cost-effective solutions for the most respected names in government contracting. Companies large and small rely on JAMIS to provide detailed visibility into all of their projects, as well as provide the foundation for DCAA and other regulatory compliance. JAMIS helps companies connect with customers, partners and employees in entirely new ways to foster new levels of collaboration and drive profitability and growth.
To learn more about JAMIS Software Corporation, visit JAMIS.com
Penn Community Bank is proud to donate $5,500 to the Central Bucks Family YMCA to support the organizations 5K/1-mile fun run in May and Kids Triathlon in August.
Held annually each year in Doylestown, the Ys events attract hundreds of participants from Bucks County and the surrounding communities.
It is a pleasure to partner with the Central Bucks Family YMCA to support these great, family-friendly events, said Penn Community Bank President and CEO Jeane M. Coyle. We are proud to help support community events that encourage people to exercise and live a healthy lifestyle.
The Kids Triathlon is a great event that encourages young people to have fun trying a variety of sports, and we are glad to be a part of it, said Todd R. Hurley, Penn Community Bank Executive Vice President and Chief Relationship Officer.
The Central Bucks Family YMCA is thankful for partners like Penn Community Bank, said Y President and CEO Zane Moore. Their support is instrumental in ensuring that we can continue to offer events like these each year.
The 5K/1-mile fun run will be held on Saturday, May 20 on the campus of Delaware Valley University. All 5K runners will receive a tech t-shirt while fun-run participants will receive a t-shirt. The 5K is part of the 22nd Annual Bucks 5K Series, which features seven road races throughout Bucks County from March to June. To learn more, click here.
With swimming, biking and running segments, the Kids Triathlon features five age groupings, from wee bees to age 14. All entrants will receive a race bib, goody bag and t-shirt. The Kids Triathlon will take place on Aug. 6 at the YMCA in Doylestown. To learn more, click here.
PHOTO CAPTION: Penn Community Bank presented a check for $5,500 to the Central Bucks Family YMCA to support its 5K race and Kids Triathlon. From left, Todd R. Hurley, Penn Community Bank Executive Vice President and Chief Relationship Officer; Rachel Mauer, Central Bucks Family YMCA Director of Corporate and Foundation Giving; Jeane M. Coyle, Penn Community Bank President and CEO; and Zane Moore, Central Bucks Family YMCA President and CEO.
About Penn Community Bank: Penn Community Bank holds more than $1.8 billion in assets and employs more than 300 people at 23 bank branches and two administrative centers throughout Bucks County, Pennsylvania. As an independent, mutual financial institution, Penn Community Bank is not publicly traded and operates with its long-term mission in mind: to help businesses grow and prosper, to support individuals and families throughout their lifetimes, to strengthen the local economy, and to partner with local organizations to act as a catalyst for positive growth in every market it serves.
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Master's students engage in a class discussion at American University's School of Education. American University. The teaching profession is in need of teachers who are ready on day one. American University is offering top-notch online teacher preparation to help fill the teacher pipeline, said Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, dean of AUs School of Education.
The market for new teachers is on the rebound, and there is a critical need for education leaders and policy makersboth nationally and globally. To help meet this demand, American University (AU)s School of Education today announced the launch of three online graduate programs in education. These innovative online programs will provide future teachers and education leaders access to world-class educator preparation and outstanding faculty regardless of where they live.
Unless there are major changes in teacher supply and demand projections, annual teacher shortages could increase to as much as 112,000 teachers by 2018 and stay close to that level in subsequent years, according to a report by nonprofit education research group Learning Policy Institute. Existing teacher shortages in the United States are already having impacts on education, including affecting key subject areas like mathematics, science and special education, the report also notes.
In an effort to address this need, AUs School of Education has launched three programs online, with technical assistance from Noodle Partners. Classes start August 2017. The programs are:
Master of Arts in Teaching: http://soeonline.american.edu/masters-in-teaching/
Master of Arts in Special Education: http://soeonline.american.edu/masters-in-special-education/
Master of Education in Education Policy and Leadership: http://soeonline.american.edu/masters-in-education-policy-leadership/
The teaching profession is in need of teachers who are ready on day one. American University is offering top-notch online teacher preparation to help fill the teacher pipeline, said Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, dean of AUs School of Education. It is more important than ever to make graduate education programs accessible to students online so we can prepare the next wave of teachers, policymakers, and leaders.
We are thrilled to partner with American University to increase its suite of outstanding online programs, said John Katzman, founder and CEO of Noodle Partners. This new partnership will expand access, which is crucial to educating future educators.
The content and curricula of the three new online programs replicate the on-campus degree programs that have successfully launched the careers of hundreds of teachers, special education experts, and education policy leaders.
The Master of Arts in Teaching prepares novice K-12 teachers for the realities of teaching in all types of classrooms and provides them the knowledge and pedagogical skills needed to ensure classroom and student success.
The Master of Education in Education Policy and Leadership prepares education professionals for policy and leadership challenges in changing times. Students work with faculty and education leaders to develop knowledge and skills in leadership, policy, law, economics, and the research needed to effectively administer education programs and policies at all levels.
The Master of Arts in Special Education: Learning Disabilities provides teachers with specialized training for teaching students with disabilities. AUs School of Education maintains a unique partnership with The Lab School of Washington, a pioneering, arts-based scholastic day school for students with severe learning disabilities. MA Special Education students receive training and supervision from The Lab School teachers.
About American Universitys School of Education
AUs School of Education is committed to producing graduates with the skills and knowledge to create equitable and excellent learning environments for all students. AU faculty, including researchers and distinguished scholars, produce cutting-edge research, lead innovative partnerships and outreach, develop relevant and evidence-based coursework, and effect positive change in the most vulnerable communities, nationally and globally. Our graduates are ready for todays real-world education careers, with 100 percent of masters students from the on-campus programs employed six months after graduation. Graduates secure employment with school districts, charter schools, and organizations such as Teach for America, U. S. Department of Education, and The Smithsonian Institution. American University is a leader in global education, enrolling a diverse student body from throughout the United States and nearly 130 countries. Located in Washington, D.C., the university provides opportunities for academic excellence, public service, and internships in the nations capital and around the world.
About Noodle Partners
Founded by a team of education and technology veterans, Noodle Partners creates innovative online and hybrid programs while improving traditional classroom models. Noodle Partners has the capability to work with universities on every aspect of building a certificate or degree program that they choose marketing, student recruitment, enrollment, curriculum design, student engagement, support services, graduate placement, and alumni engagement and provides an exceptionally high level of fit and finish. For more information, please visit: http://www.noodle-partners.com or follow Noodle Partners on Twitter at @NoodlePartners and LinkedIn.
Today, Pearson announced a new partnership with Chegg (NYSE: CHGG) to provide students with affordable rental options for both print and e-book versions of popular Pearson higher education titles. Beginning this fall, approximately 50 editions of high volume Pearson titles will be available via a rental-only model, through Chegg, which will provide students with affordable access to their choice of a print or electronic version of the selected titles. Under this program, the titles are consigned to Chegg and all rental prices will be under $100, with electronic versions of these titles being the lowest cost option. Pearson anticipates expanding the titles included in this program over time.
In January, Pearson announced a two step plan to take on the issue of college affordability. That plan immediately reduced the prices of 2000 e-book titles by up to 50 percent. The second phase of the effort ensures that students can rent popular print titles through trusted retailers, like Chegg. This rental-only model allows Pearson to reduce prices by up to 60% and ensure that all students have access to affordable textbooks.
Faculty and students have been clear - they desire the ability to rent affordable print and digital products, said Tim Bozik, president, global product at Pearson. This program, along with Pearsons other affordability initiatives, provide faculty and students with quality Pearson materials at an affordable price point. We are excited to work with Chegg to bring our high quality Pearson materials to students in a way that works for them.
Paramount to Cheggs mission is to increase access to higher education by making it more affordable. We are excited to partner with Pearson, the worlds leading higher-ed publisher, to accelerate our ability to make high quality education resources accessible to every student, said Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Chegg. We applaud Pearsons recent moves to focus on the financial needs of students while also embracing the new and innovative pricing models and channels that meet the needs of todays students.
This program is part of Pearsons ongoing commitment to making college more accessible and more affordable for students. In addition to the eBook price reduction and the print rental program, Pearson has introduced Revel--digital courseware that blends authors narrative, interactive media, and assessment, enabling students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience--for less than the cost of a traditional textbook. Students can access Revel with their computer, tablet or mobile phone for as little as $65.
Pearson has also launched programs such as Digital Direct Access, which delivers digital course materials directly to students on the first day of class, eliminating trips to the campus bookstore or online. That program can save students up to 60% compared to the price of traditional print materials.
And, Pearson recently announced a partnership with IBM Watson to create virtual college tutors, making digital learning easier and more engaging.
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ABOUT PEARSON
Pearson is the world's learning company, with expertise in educational courseware and assessment, and a range of teaching and learning services powered by technology. Our mission is to help people make progress through access to better learning. We believe that learning opens up opportunities, creating fulfilling careers and better lives. For more information, visit http://www.pearson.com.
ABOUT CHEGG
Chegg puts students first. As the leading student-first connected learning platform, the company makes higher education more affordable, more accessible, and more successful for students. Chegg is a publicly-held company based in Santa Clara, California and trades on the NYSE under the symbol CHGG. For more information, visit http://www.chegg.com.
Now we have an affordable and easy to use option for clients needing enterprise class synchronization and sharing between desktop computers and mobile devices.
Email services provider Greatmail LLC is has added a Groupware Edition to the company's high availability email hosting service.
The Groupware Edition bridges the gap between standard email hosting and hosted Exchange enabling customers to synchronize and share mail, calendar and contacts data across major email clients and mobile devices.
Available to both new and existing customers, the Groupware Edition supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and CalDAV/CardDAV protocols. Starting at $2 per mailbox per month, the service is an affordable option for businesses requiring Microsoft Exchange-like features and functionality.
Greatmail's Groupware Edition includes autodiscovery in email clients and on mobile devices supporting Exchange ActiveSync. Groupware Edition webmail allows users to configure and set sharing preferences for calendars, contacts and folders. Administrators continue to manage user mailboxes via an intuitive web based admin panel.
"Now we have an affordable and easy to use option for clients needing enterprise class synchronization and sharing between desktop computers and mobile devices, says company spokesperson Ryan Hess. Hosted Exchange certainly sets the standard, but it comes with a price tag that deters many potential customers. Our Groupware Edition brings the price within reach for these users. And administrators absolutely love the ease configuring clients and phones with Exchange ActiveSync.
The monthly cost for Groupware Edition email hosting ranges from $2 to $2.50 per mailbox depending on storage. Activating a Groupware Edition email hosting plan requires a minimum purchase of 10 mailboxes.
Greatmail has been in business since 2003 and has been widely used by businesses ranging in size from small start-ups to large enterprises and service providers.
The company specializes in basic POP3/IMAP email hosting but also offers Hosted Exchange, Hybrid Exchange and SMTP Hosting for marketing and transactional sending.
Greatmail's email hosting is a fully managed service and includes domain email addresses, antivirus and spam protection, web based administration, support for desktop applications like Apple Mail, Thunderbird and Outlook, SSL/TLS encryption and compatibility with iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile platforms.
US based Greatmail is headquartered in Austin, TX with data center locations in North America and Europe.
North American Title Insurance Co. hires Valenz as regional underwriting counsel for Mass. and Penn. Saras broad title insurance experience as both underwriting counsel as well as claims counsel, allows her to assist NATIC agents with the underwriting of their transaction through closing.
North American Title Insurance Co. (NATIC) has named Sara Valenz vice president, regional underwriting counsel for Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. She will provide legal and underwriting support to NATIC agents throughout those states.
Saras broad title insurance experience as both underwriting counsel as well as claims counsel, allows her to assist NATIC agents with the underwriting of their transaction from inception through closing and beyond, said Valerie Jahn-Grandin, NATIC executive vice president and chief underwriting counsel. She thoroughly understands the problems our agents face in the field and helps them resolve issues seamlessly.
Prior to joining NATIC, Valenz was associate senior underwriter for Stewart Title Guaranty Co. (STGC). She began her tenure with STGC in 2006 as claims counsel, moving up to underwriting counsel and Northeast regional counsel before serving in her last position. Valenz previously was an associate for a private law firm and worked as a judicial law clerk. She received her Juris Doctorate from New York Law School and her undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts.
I have had the opportunity to experience different roles during my 10-year tenure in the title insurance industry, said Valenz. I enjoy the problem-solving involved with underwriting and helping to facilitate transactions. In addition, working as a claims counsel prior to being an underwriting counsel has been beneficial as it relates to the ability to assess risk when underwriting.
Valenz is admitted to the New Jersey State Bar and the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is a member of the Insurance Law and Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Sections of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Valenz also serves as secretary/treasurer of the New Jersey Land Title Association, and is a rating bureau delegate and a member of its Rate, Legislative and Amicus committees.
Valenz will be working remotely in support of NATIC agents in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and can be reached at telephone number (908) 745-8233. Agent email inquiries should be directed to Valenz at PAunderwriting(at)natic.com or MAunderwriting(at)natic.com.
About North American Title Insurance Co. (NATIC)
North American Title Insurance Co. (NATIC) is a seasoned title insurance underwriter, helping title agents achieve the goal of true business success for over 50 years. The company operates in 39 states and the District of Columbia. NATIC earned the reputation as the underwriter next door because its decision makers and associates are easy to reach and their processes are quick and straightforward, including a one-hour underwriting response guarantee that is unparalleled in the industry. The NATIC agency application process is fast and transparent for qualified agents.
NATIC is in Peer Group 1, which groups companies with total assets of greater than $100 million as determined by Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc., and is ranked 6th by The Performance of the Title Insurance Underwriters in terms of cash or cash equivalents. NATIC generated more than $230 million in agency premiums in 2016 and maintains a policyholder surplus of approximately $74 million as of Dec. 31, 2016.
NATIC earned a rating of: A' (A Prime) Unsurpassed from Demotech, Inc. and B++ (Good) from A.M Best. NATIC is headquartered in Miami, Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.natic.com
Whats best about these supplement tubs is the convenience you have to load them up and take them where they need to go on the range.
Providing a solution to the supplement feed industry, Rayeman Elements Inc. has created a system that is not only the first of its kind, but offers a solution to the waste affiliated with traditional lick tubs. The Rayeman Automated Tub Press System creates a 200 lb. tub, and can produce 5,000 lbs. every hour. Similar to the range cubes made from the Rayeman Bulk Densification Line, their tubs are made completely with 100% DDGs. Consumption rates are controlled solely through density of the tub, rather than limiters, binders, or fillers.
These supplement tubs are made using grain conditioning, heat, and 80,000 lbs. of psi for a specified hold time, as well as further patented technology, designed by Mike Thomas, Rayeman Elements VP and Director of Technology. Thomas has more than 25 years in the manufacturing business and specializes in extrusion and new technologies. Overseeing the development of products and systems developed at Rayeman Elements Inc., Thomas, Samantha Western, CEO, and the REI team have created a long list of over 40 patents, patents pending, and patents applied for with their unique and groundbreaking technology and machines--including the Automated Tub Press System. Western has been a successful entrepreneur for her entire adult life, and has big dreams for what Rayeman Elements Inc. is capable of. Creating this supplement feed tub is more than just an added option for the feed industry - Western, Thomas, and the REI team are dedicated to pioneering one-of-a-kind solutions that reduced waste and cost, and provide quality supplements with zero binders or fillers. An added advantage to the production of these density-controlled supplement feed tubs, is the ability to add vitamins and minerals the cattle may require. Additionally, the billet will not fall out if the tub is kicked over by the cattle, a benefit not offered in conventional lick tubs.
Whats best about these supplement tubs is the convenience you have to load them up and take them where they need to go on the range, Western says. Though she recommends getting a hand to help load and unload, as they are 200 lbs. each!
Learn more about the innovative design and technology of the Automated Tub Press System from Rayeman Elements by visiting their website: http://www.rayemanelements.com
About Rayeman Elements:
Rayeman Elements is a company driven to find economical solutions to the waste industry, as well as other byproducts that are handled amidst the trade and manufacturing industries. Based out of Colorado, they have established technology that was told to be impossible in the industry. Their equipment setup is one of a kind, increasing profit margins with every startup, and designed to be used at ethanol or manufacturing plants. And this is just the start. The team is excited to grow their solutions for industries across the world, with each of their systems developing and furthering the potential of whats to come. The impact of Rayeman Elements has worldwide potential, and will set the standard for the feed industry.
Autism Awareness Socks The Autism Awareness Socks celebrate the achievements and contributions of people on the autism spectrum.
April is Autism Awareness Month and Johns Crazy Socks is celebrating by introducing its new Autism Awareness Socks for charity.
The Autism Awareness Socks celebrate the achievements and contributions of people on the autism spectrum. The socks feature the multi-color puzzle that symbolizes autism. The puzzle image signifies the often-puzzling nature of autism spectrum disorder. It also symbolizes how each of us contributes to the overall mosaic of our society. Every piece has a role and every piece has a fit.
We donate two dollars from every pair sold to our two charity partners: The Autism Society of America (Nassau/Suffolk Chapter) and Autism Speaks. The donation to our charity partners is part of our overall Giving Back program which includes donating 5 percent of our earnings to the Special Olympics. You can see and buy the Autism Awareness Socks here.
More than Socks: Employing People with Autism
Johns Crazy Socks was founded by the father-son team of John and Mark Cronin. John is a 21-year-old man with Down syndrome so it is only natural that when considering employees, we welcome people of all abilities and focus on what they can do, not what they cannot. We are a small and growing business. Out of our 20 current employees, four (20 percent) have autism spectrum disorder. Each plays a critical role and collectively they have enhanced our business. Our co-founder, Mark X. Cronin, has written an article explaining why we hire people on the autism spectrum and why it helps our business.
Mark writes, Hiring someone on the autism spectrum or any individual employee is not an isolated act. It fits in with our overall mission, culture and operations. Doing so hinges on two factors: respecting a persons right to work a human right and matching that to our business needs. Our business succeeds because we hire people with autism.
About Johns Crazy Socks
Johns Crazy Socks was co-founded and inspired by John Cronin, a young man with Down Syndrome, and we have a mission to spread happiness through socks. We offer over 1,200 different socks that people can love: beautiful, colorful, fun and crazy socks that let people express their passions and personalities. We deliver the socks through fast and personal service and every package includes some candy and a thank you note from John. The company ships world-wide, but John still makes personal local deliveries. John says, I like to meet our customers and make them happy.
You can learn more about John and Johns Crazy Socks at our website and our Facebook page..
Marcy is an extremely well-respected member of the appellate community.
Holland & Hart partner Marcy Glenn has been selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers (AAAL). Membership in the AAAL is by invitation only, limited to 500 members in the United States, and offered to experienced appellate attorneys who have demonstrated the highest excellence in appellate service and integrity. One of three Colorado members, Glenn was inducted at the AAALs 2017 Spring Meeting held April 6-8.
The AAAL was founded in 1990 to recognize outstanding appellate lawyers and promote the improvement of appellate advocacy and the administration of appellate courts. Prospective members must be nominated by a current Fellow, vetted by the legal and judicial communities, and elected to the fellowship by the AAAL Board of Directors.
Marcy is an extremely well-respected member of the appellate community. She is highly regarded by judges and advocates alike for her exceptional legal analysis, writing skills and oral advocacy, said Maureen Reidy Witt, the firms Commercial Litigation Practice Group Leader. Induction into the AAAL is one of the highest honors conferred on an appellate lawyer. AAAL Fellows rank among the Whos Who of appellate practice in their jurisdiction and nationally. On behalf of the firm, I extend our heartfelt congratulations to Marcy.
Recognized as a leading appellate lawyer in Colorado and the Tenth Circuit, Glenns appellate practice covers a broad variety of substantive areas, including constitutional law, natural resources law, employment law, commercial litigation, environmental law, and intellectual property. Glenn has devoted decades of service to the courts and to the bar. She has chaired the Colorado Supreme Court's Standing Committee on the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct since its creation in 2003. She is a former chair and current member of the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee, and a former chair of the Committee on Attorney Conduct of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Glenn was recently appointed to serve a one-year term on the Colorado Governors Board of Ethics.
About Holland & Hart
Celebrating the 70th anniversary of its founding in 1947, Holland & Hart is a full service, national law firm that today has more than 500 lawyers in 16 offices across eight states and in Washington, D.C. delivering integrated legal solutions to regional, national, and international clients of all sizes. Holland & Harts attorneys have consistently been recognized by leading national and international peer and industry review organizations for innovation and dedication to the practice of law. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, we serve clients in a diverse range of industries from energy and resources, to food and beverage, to technology, communications and media, and more. For more information, visit http://www.hollandhart.com or on Twitter: @HollandHart.
"As the most experienced and tenured Abila Partner and netFORUM shop comprised of award-winning netFORUM architects, engineers, and consultants, we're proud to partner with Abila in supporting the association marketplace." Tim Ward, CEO of Gravitate
Gravitate Solutions is proud to be the platinum sponsors of the Abila User and Developer Conference (AUDC) in Nashville, TN from April 11-13. Gravitate Solutions has been serving the netFORUMTM community for ten years and is led by founder and CEO Tim Ward, formerly the chief architect of netFORUM. Gravitate Solutions looks forward to continuing to serve Abila and the broader association marketplace.
Our commitment to the Abila community and our netFORUM Enterprise clients run deep. As the most experienced and tenured Abila Partner and netFORUM shop comprised of award-winning netFORUM architects, engineers, and consultants, we're proud to partner with Abila in supporting the association marketplace. We look forward to continuing our work with them. says Tim Ward, CEO of Gravitate Solutions.
We are excited to have Gravitate Solutions support AUDC as platinum sponsors, said Tad Druart, Abilas vice president of marketing. Our partners are a vital part of our business. They help enhance and extend the capabilities of our award-winning product portfolio to ensure our customers are successful.
Stop by booth #126 to ask our excellent Gravitate staff about any netFORUM, data analytics, or event registration needs your association may have.
About Gravitate Solutions
Gravitate Solutions is the one-stop shop for your associations netFORUM needs, offering support for upgrades, integrations, training, and more. Gravitate also offers Nucleus, the first data aggregation and analysis platform built for associations.
Empower your staff to make data-driven decisions by providing visualizations, dashboards, and reports to answer key organizational questions. For more information, please visit http://www.gravitatesolutions.com.
About Abila
Abila is the leading provider of software and services to associations and nonprofit organizations that help them improve decision making, execute with greater precision, increase engagement, and generate more revenue. With Abila solutions, association and nonprofit professionals can use data and personal insight to improve financial and strategic decision making, enhance member and donor engagement and value, operate more efficiently and effectively, and increase revenue to better activate their mission. Abila combines decades of industry insight with technology know-how to serve more than 8,000 customers across North America. For more information, please visit http://www.abila.com.
For more information, please contact Lindsey Swanson, Marketing Manager at Gravitate Solutions for more information at lswanson(at)gravitatesolutions(dot)com or 571.357.6279.
Niamh Cronin Our launch is a very exciting time for the brand and The Spirit Sisters Academy. Everything we do has been carefully developed with women in business in mind. Im proud that what makes us stand out is the bridge between the spiritual and business worlds"
With a far-reaching vision to enable the empowerment of women in key leadership positions and female entrepreneurs or fempreneurs in particular, The Spirit Sisters Academy has been custom designed to awaken a desire within women to live and lead in alignment with their purpose so that they can then go on to successfully create more success and impact in a variety of businesses. The popularity of Niamh Cronins sold out live events, workshops, masterminds, and mentoring programs has been a catalyst for this new phase of impressive growth in the brand.
Our launch is a very exciting time for the brand and The Spirit Sisters Academy. Everything we do has been carefully developed with women in business in mind. Im proud that what makes us stand out is the bridge between the spiritual and esoteric worlds and business environments, expressed, Niamh Cronin, Founder, The Spirit Sisters Academy. I love to infuse my expertise in the important areas of transformation, business, sales, and marketing. This helps women to tap into a deep inner wisdom and the energetics all around them so they can truly become a bridge for leading other people to step into themselves at a deeper level. I want women to connect to their purpose and yield greater results in their lives and businesses in the process.
Niamh Cronin built a solid reputation in her career as a former Sales Manager for a FORTUNE 500 giant. She is a respected business expert and has been featured on T.V. news in Australia. She also Co-Founded The Gateway Event and The Gathering with her partner Jeffrey Slayter. Now, her loyal client base of leading female executives who earn in excess of 6 figure salaries and seek professional guidance and support are chiefly located across the 3 continents of Oceania, North America, and Europe.
About Niamh Cronin:
Niamh Cronin is the force behind the international Niamh Cronin personal brand and The Spirit Sisters Academy. Her systems and methods enable the perfect infusion of high-level business expertise honed at a FORTUNE 500 for successful female entrepreneurs. As a gateway for accomplished women to step into themselves and yield greater results, Niamh Cronin utilizes her advanced skills in business, sales, and marketing as powerful transformation mechanisms. We are proud to donate 5% from our programs to the Future Dreamers non-profit organization. Today, discover a perfect route to greater alignment and purpose in your life and career by visiting: http://www.niamhcronin.com/
Join our vibrant Social Media communities:
https://www.facebook.com/niamhcroninofficial
https://www.facebook.com/spiritsistersacademy/
https://www.instagram.com/niamhcroninofficial
https://twitter.com/niamhcroninoff
Media contact information:
Niamh Cronin, Founder, The Spirit Sisters Academy.
Email: info(at)niamhcronin(dot)com
Website: http://www.niamhcronin.com
Tel: +61 411093044
AIV Group, specializes in Hotel, Real Estate, Construction, Retail, Technology, and Professional Insurance. Our philosophy has always been to insure every clients business as if it was our own and were now seeing our extra effort being paid back many times over.
AIV Group, a division of World Insurance Associates, LLC and a broker of business insurance, announced that they have exceeded $1 Billion in Total Insurable Value. This means that the total value of the assets they insure for their clients across North America has exceeded $1 Billion, an all time high.
Regarding this achievement, Sonali Shah, Principal at AIV Group said, This is better than any industry award a company could win. Our philosophy has always been to insure every clients business as if it was our own and were now seeing our extra effort being paid back many times over. Not only with continued dedication from long time clients but with many new relationships as well.
AIV Group has noted that the large increase in their client roster was possible due to several recent achievements in their business development plan including:
Securing approval through brokers of insurance giants like Lloyds of London to create Property Insurance programs exclusive to AIV Group clients. This allowed AIV Group to manuscript policies with better coverages and more favorable terms for their customers.
A new, exclusive Liability Insurance Program to compliment the Property Program which even further improved their product and pricing.
When informed of the milestone, Harish Surati, Managing Partner of Surati Management Group, LLC stated, I was very happy to hear that AIV Group has surpassed $1 Billion in insurable values. Sonali and the AIV Group team are very dedicated to the needs of their clients and are very diligent and informative to make sure that their clients have proper coverage. Insurance is a very important part of our business and we are fortunate that we have Sonali and her team to navigate the complex issues.
About AIV Group: AIV Group was founded in 2010 by Sonali Shah and is a Commercial Insurance broker with offices in Avenel, NJ. After many years as a successful independent commercial insurance broker, AIV Group teamed up with World Insurance Associates in 2016. AIV Group insures over 125 clients in the hospitality, real estate, construction, retail, professional services and technology sectors and is known for building relationships with clients that often last a decade or more.
Adrian Goodliffe of Investis
Investis (http://www.investis.co.uk), a digital communications company, today announced the appointment of Adrian Goodliffe as chief commercial officer, a newly created position. Goodliffe will be responsible for the companys sales and marketing operations in the UK and Ireland, Benelux, DACH, and Southern Europe.
Goodliffe joined Investis in June 2016 as UK commercial director. He has more than 20 years of experience in technology sales and leadership roles. Prior to joining Investis he was executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for CAS, a global leader in CRM for Consumer Industries, and he spent three years with Accenture as a partner in their software business, where he focused on international clients across the EMEA and Latin American markets.
Investis is at a very exciting stage. We have an amazing team, an incredible customer base, and a creative and innovation-driven proposition that has a profound impact on the fortunes of our clients. We help them increase revenue, enhance employee engagement, and influence corporate audiences, said Goodliffe. Im excited to be part of this team and driving continued and accelerated growth in our core European business.
This new position reflects the importance of the European market to Investis, said Don Scales, global CEO of Investis. Adrians deep sales and leadership experience makes him the perfect person for the job. He will play a critical role in supporting our current clients and opening up new markets.
About Investis
Investis is an award-winning digital communications company that makes businesses more successful by sharing their brand stories with target audiences such as shareholders, investors, employees, customers and influencers. We work with more than 2,000 clients around the world. Businesses such as GE, the New York Stock Exchange and Rolls-Royce trust our team of more than 500 employees to deliver stronger relationships with audiences and improved ROI through a unique blend of technology, expertise and service. For more information about our data-driven approach, please visit http://www.investis.com.
Schaumburg Law Firm Anderson & Associates, P.C. Several attorneys from the Schaumburg law firm of Anderson & Associates, P.C. recently participated in the Northwest Suburban Bar Association Mock Trial, and Law Practice Committee event.
The Cook County law firm of Anderson & Associates, P.C. is pleased to announce that several attorneys recently took part in NWSBA legal events. Attorney Robert Boszko served as a judge for the 21st Annual NWSBA Mock Trial.
It was an honor to have our team participate in the mock trial event. Its an exciting experience for the students that teaches them about the legal system and the law, and we were grateful to have been a part of this educational opportunity, says Founding Attorney Jonathan Anderson.
The annual mock trial event was held at the Third Municipal District Courthouse in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Over 35 members of the NWSBA served as volunteer scoring judges for the day. Participating schools were eligible to qualify for State and National competitions. Over 400 students from 24 local high schools participated in this years tournament. The event offers students a chance to build crucial skills such team building, research, and public speaking.
Additionally, Anderson & Associates, P.C. Founding Attorney Jonathan Anderson presented during the recent NWSBA Law Practice Committee Meeting. He prepared a law practice management outline and spoke at the committee meeting regarding the advantages and disadvantages of hiring newly licensed attorneys versus experienced attorneys.
About Anderson & Associates, P.C.:
The established Cook County law firm of Anderson & Associates, P.C. has proudly served Illinois since 1983. The Northern Illinois family law firm has offices located in Schaumburg, Wheaton, Orland Park, and Downtown Chicago.
The attorneys at Anderson & Associates, P.C. handle legal matters pertaining to family law, divorce, bankruptcy, estate planning, and criminal law. For more information please call 847-995-9999 or visit http://www.andersonandassociatespc.com to speak with an experienced member of our legal team.
Our focus on company culture will continue to be a critical part of our growth and success. -Christian Vanek, CEO & Co-Founder
SurveyGizmo has been awarded a 2017 Top Workplaces, Workplace Achiever honor by The Denver Post. The Top Workplaces list is based on the results of a voluntary employee feedback survey administered by WorkplaceDynamics, LLC. Several aspects of workplace culture were measured, including Alignment, Execution, and Connection.
The Top Workplaces award is not a popularity contest. And oftentimes, people assume its all about fancy perks and benefits, says Doug Claffey, CEO of WorkplaceDynamics. But to be a Top Workplace, organizations must meet our strict standards for organizational health.
Our culture is very important to us, says Christian Vanek, CEO & Co-Founder of SurveyGizmo. Were grateful to be named a Workplace Achiever. Building a collaborative, fun, and supportive environment is vital to employee happiness. Our focus on company culture will continue to be a critical part of our growth and success.
Employees feel inspired by CEO Christian Vaneks leadership. He drives the company to new heights and encourages employees to push themselves. Ive been with SurveyGizmo for five years now, says Topper Shull, Support Team Lead. Having actual community in a company is the core of what makes SurveyGizmo such an invigorating place to work. Christians vision focuses on our companys success and growth, which in turn cultivates the very best in every team member.
The recent additions of COO Nicole Craine and Director of Marketing Regine Smith position the company for greater growth. SurveyGizmo is working to change the way people collect and gain insights from data, and its an exciting time to be a part of SurveyGizmo. 6 years ago I was hired as a customer support agent, and today I'm directing a 24/7 Support and Services team, says Taylor Morgan, Director of Support. We have a clear vision, and I am excited to tackle the challenges ahead with this truly amazing group of people.
The companys focus on appreciation is essential to the fabric of the culture. Ive watched the company grow from 14 to 95 employees, says Garrett Glissmann, Software Developer. They continue to recruit some of the kindest and most supportive people out there. I have always been encouraged to contribute my ideas, and I consistently feel that my voice is heard and appreciated.
SurveyGizmo is deeply honored by the Workplace Achiever recognition. The employees have spoken SurveyGizmo is really a great place to work.
The company is growing quickly and hiring. Visit SurveyGizmos Careers Page for more information.
About SurveyGizmo
Founded in 2006, SurveyGizmo is a powerful, insights solution that empowers business professionals to make informed decisions. It provides data insights in over 205 countries, with 50,000 new surveys created and 7.5 million responses collected every week, for customers like Fedex, Microsoft, Bloomberg Television, GE, and ESPN. SurveyGizmo is recognized as a leader in the survey industry for its innovation, service, and value.
About WorkplaceDynamics, LLC
Headquartered in Exton, PA, WorkplaceDynamics specializes in employee feedback surveys and workplace improvement. This year alone, more than two million employees in over 6,000 organizations will participate in the Top Workplaces campaign a program it conducts in partnership with more than 40 prestigious media partners across the United States. Workplace Dynamics also provides consulting services to improve employee engagement and organizational health. WorkplaceDynamics is a founding B Corporation member, a coalition of organizations that are leading a global movement to redefine success in business by offering a positive vision of a better way to do business.
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While diversity in hiring was a key theme of the first full day of programming Childrens Institute, held in Portland, Ore., from April 57, the need for young people to have diverse books was central to the conference's close.
I dont see no point [sic] in formality among family, Jason Reynolds, author of Long Way Down (Atheneum/Dlouhy, Oct.), said in a breakfast keynote that went on to appeal to his bookselling family not to neglect books that speak to children like he was in Washington, D.C.
A prolific writer today, Reynolds gave up on books from the time he was nine years old until he went to college and took a job with Karibu Books. The store, which has since closed, was located in his D.C. neighborhood and stocked African-American literatureand Harry Potter. Instead of reading books, Reynolds, who grew up in the 1980s, listened to rap, read liner notes in albums, and wrote poetry.
The work of rappers spoke more directly to him than books like To Kill a Mockingbird or Moby-Dick.Rappers are the white authors of our generation. They know me, my language, my codes, my family, my block, Reynolds said. Unlike his friends, who wanted to be one of the Michaels (Jackson, Jordan, or Tyson), his idol was Queen Latifah until his friend Christopher Myers suggested that he try putting his own tongue on the paper.
Twelve-year-old Marley Dias, who launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks drive and has amassed more than 9,000 books on books focused on black girls, which she has donated to students and to school libraries, spoke in conversation with Suzanna Hermans, co-owner of Oblong Books & Music in Rhinebeck, N.Y.
Dias used her talk as an opportunity to request that booksellers connect more with schools and make available black girl books, including ones from self-published authors. Diass own book, Marley Dias Gets It Done and So Can You! (Scholastic, Jan. 2018), encourages other kids to do what she has done and follow their passion, whether it be books, sports, or something else entirely.
In the final keynote of the conference, Rachel Ignotofsky, author of Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World (10 Speed), spoke out against institutionalized sexism and the lack of accessible material about women in science are particularly concerning. We have to make sure that no ones brain power is left to the side, she said.
The message of diversity delivered by Reynolds Ignotofsky, and Dias, part of a new generation of writers, was especially welcome to a new generation of booksellers attending the institute. More than half of the 240 booksellers from 160 bookstores were first-timersfrom Jody Brenerman, who with her brothers is in the midst of transitioning their familys toy store, G. Willikers in Portsmouth, N.H., into a bookstore, to Amy Hesselink, who manages La Playa Books in San Diego, Calif., which opened in October, and Noelle Santos, who is readying The Lit. Bar, which could open in the Bronx, N.Y., as early as this fall.
As is very clear here at the Childrens Institute, ABA CEO Oren Teicher said, a new generation of booksellers are contributing essential new ideas and perspectives. Looking out over the booksellers gathered at the post-CI 5 trivia party, a closing round of trivia, Teicher added, Its been a great three days. But when you see all these new stores, all these new people, these are the future. This new generation, these new stores, are bringing a sense of energy. It makes me very confident in our future.
No date or location has been set for next years Childrens Institute.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) The natural gas boom that has hammered coal mines and driven down utility bills is hitting nuclear power plants, sending multi-billion-dollar energy companies in search of a financial rescue in states where competitive electricity markets have compounded the effect.
Fresh off victories in Illinois and New York, the nuclear power industry is now pressing lawmakers in Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania for action. Lobbying efforts are bubbling up into proposals, even as court battles in Illinois and New York crank up over the billions of dollars that ratepayers will otherwise foot in the coming decade to keep nuclear plants open longer.
Perhaps nuclear power's biggest nemesis is the cheap natural gas flooding the market from the northeast's Marcellus Shale reservoir, the nation's most prolific gas field. Meanwhile, electricity consumption hit a wall after the recession, while states have emphasized renewable energies and efficiency.
"You put all of this together and it's a perfect storm," said John Keeley, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group.
Opposition to a so-called nuclear bailout is uniting rivals and the natural gas exploration industry. The potential for a hit to utility bills is drawing pushback from the AARP and manufacturers.
Subsidizing nuclear power could chill investment in lower-cost energy sources and erode competitive markets, critics say, and, with natural gas prices expected to stay low for some time, shutting down nuclear plants may have no impact on electricity bills.
For steel companies, paper companies, food processors and pharmaceutical makers whose electric bill might be their biggest expense, "a mil of an increase in a kilowatt hour turns into a lot of money," said David Kleppinger of the Industrial Energy Consumers of Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania, the nation's No. 2 nuclear power state after Illinois, it could mean propping up five nuclear plants to help feed the sprawling mid-Atlantic power grid that stretches from New Jersey to Illinois.
The owners of the 11 nuclear plants in Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania are no small potatoes: Exelon, PSEG, FirstEnergy and Dominion, among them.
The plant owners' strategy is similar to that in Illinois and New York: give nuclear power megawatts the kind of preferential treatment and premium payments that are given to renewable energies, such as wind and solar.
The industry's pitch is part economic, part environmental. A plant shutting down would devastate a local economy, they say. And, nuclear waste and water consumption issues aside, zero-carbon nuclear plants are better suited than natural gas or coal to fight climate change, they say.
The claim to environmental credentials has drawn jeers from nuclear power's traditional critics.
"When did highly carcinogenic toxic waste become green?" said Eric Epstein, a longtime nuclear power watchdog in Pennsylvania.
The most vulnerable nuclear plants are those with just one unit such as Exelon's Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, where a second unit was destroyed in a partial meltdown in 1979 or those in need of expensive upgrades, analysts say.
FirstEnergy says it could decide next year to sell or close its three nuclear plants Davis-Besse and Perry in Ohio and Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania unless states make them more competitive.
Exelon is warning that it could close Three Mile Island and PSEG says it won't operate nuclear plants it owns all or parts of all three in New Jersey and part of Peach Bottom station in Pennsylvania that are long-term money losers.
Should nuclear power disappear, it can be replaced.
"The question is, at what cost and whether or not you can find other resources that have the same emission characteristics," said Joe Dominguez, an Exelon executive vice president.
In the mid-Atlantic grid, it likely would be natural gas. Some 190 natural gas power projects comprising roughly 59,000 megawatts are being studied or built, according to PJM Interconnection, the grid operator. That dwarfs the grid's nuclear capacity.
The closure of nuclear plants would not necessarily drive up costs in the mid-Atlantic grid and Swami Venkataraman, a Moody's Investors Service analyst, said he did not foresee it having a noticeable impact on electric bills.
But propping up more expensive sources of energy, like nuclear, could discourage the entry of lower-cost power sources into the competitive market, said Stu Bresler, PJM Interconnection's senior vice president of operations and markets.
In Illinois, where consumer advocates feared a jump in utility bills, Exelon won billions of dollars in subsidies to prop up two unprofitable nuclear plants in a heavily negotiated package that included money for energy efficiency measures.
The Chicago-based nonprofit Citizens Utility Board estimated it would shave $15 a year from the average residential electric bill, executive director David Kolata said.
"Our advice for other states is you have to get into the details," Kolata said. "Energy issues are holistic, and you have to make sure that what you do is best for consumers."
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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/timelywriter. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/marc-levy.
At a court hearing this weekend, 40-year-old Roger Scoby of Schaumburg was charged with first-degree murder in last month's deaths of Ira and Tommie Moore at their Berwyn home. A judge ordered him held without bond. .
The Chicago Tribune reports that prosecutors say Ira Moore a double amputee whose wife had dementia met Scoby while Scoby was driving for a private transport company. They say Scoby would visit the couple's home and that on March 30 he allegedly shot the husband in the back of the head with the older man's gun and shot and stabbed the wife with a kitchen knife.
G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now!
Abellio NRW operates an hourly train service under a joint contract with Rhine - Ruhr Transport Authority (VRR) and the Dutch Province of Gelderland. VRR Line RE 19 services are branded Rhine - IJssel Express, after two rivers in the area.
The services are operated by Stadler Flirt 3 EMUs, which are equipped for operation on the Dutch 1.5kV dc and German 15kV ac electrification systems as well as the 25kV 50Hz ac system used on the Zevenaar - Emmerich section. Abellio Flirt 3 EMUs are equipped for cross-border operations into the Netherlands.
However, the launch of the service was not without incident and the first departure from Dusseldorf was cancelled as the train was not operational due to a recent software update. The inauguration train did run, carrying representatives of Abellio, NS, VRR, Gelderland province and other guests. The following day Abellio NRW managed to operate services according to the timetable.
VRR tickets are valid on the Dutch section of the route. Access and exit at Arnhem Central station is regulated by the Dutch OV - Chipkaart national public transport smart card system. To activate the barrier passengers must have a chip card or bar code on their ticket, which is read by a scanner to open the gates. If not, Abellio NRW staff can supply a key card to its passengers, which can be used up to eight times within a three-month period.
The new service is a considerable improvement for the Dutch - German border area. Apart from a short period in 2005 when Dutch regional bus and train operator Syntus (a Keolis subsidiary) tried a direct service between Arnhem and Emmerich during weekends, no cross-border regional service was available. The only way to cross the border was the two-hourly Amsterdam - Frankfurt ICE, which only calls at Arnhem and Oberhausen. The ICE service was introduced in 2000 and did not require a stop in Emmerich as the train is multi-voltage and switches between electrification systems on-the-move.
Canadian Pacific On April 9 commemorated the centennial of World War Is Battle of Vimy Ridge and the ultimate sacrifice made by more than 3,500 Canadians in a military victory that many consider a defining moment in the history of the country, the railroad said.
CP put the resources of its entire globe-spanning freight and travel system at the disposal of the British Empire and allies at the outset of the war, contributing not only tracks and trains, but its ships, yards, shops, hotels, telegraph lines andabove all elseits people, CP said. Some 11,340 CP employees enlisted, with a stunning 1,116 railroaders (about 10%) losing their lives and another 20% wounded before the end of the war.
During the war, two CP employees received the Victoria Cross, the highest award in the United Kingdom, for gallantry in the face of the enemy, and 385 others were decorated for valor and distinguished service. As part of its effort, CP also organized the first battalion of Canadian Overseas Railway Construction Corps (CORCC) to build and run railways through Europe during the war.
I salute the thousands of Canadians and CP railroaders who served then and the many men and women of CP who serve their country still, said CP President and CEO Keith Creel. Many Canadians paid a terrible price for this historic victory at Vimy, and I am humbled and honored to be part of a company that has contributed so much to protecting the people and values we all hold so dear.
To learn more about CPs contributions to Canadas war efforts, click HERE.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge
From Wikipedia: The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a military engagement fought primarily as part of the Battle of Arras, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the Canadian Corps, of four divisions, against three divisions of the German Sixth Army. The battle, which took place April 9-12, 1917, was part of the opening phase of the British-led Battle of Arras, a diversionary attack for the French Nivelle Offensive.
The objective of the Canadian Corps was to take control of the German-held high ground along an escarpment at the northernmost end of the Arras Offensive. This would ensure that the southern flank could advance without suffering German enfilade fire. Supported by a creeping barrage, the Canadian Corps captured most of the ridge during the first day of the attack. The village of Thelus fell during the second day of the attack, as did the crest of the ridge, once the Canadian Corps overcame a salient against considerable German resistance. The final objective, a fortified knoll located outside the village of Givenchy-en-Gohelle, fell to the Canadian Corps on April 12. The German forces then retreated to the OppyMericourt line.
Historians attribute the success of the Canadian Corps in capturing the ridge to a mixture of technical and tactical innovation, meticulous planning, powerful artillery support and extensive training, as well as the failure of the German Sixth Army to properly apply the new German defensive doctrine. The battle was the first occasion when all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in a battle together and it was made a symbol of Canadian national achievement and sacrifice. A 250-acre portion of the former battleground serves as a memorial park and site of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
Click HERE to access the full Wikipedia entry.
President Donald Trump faces the highest-stakes diplomatic challenge of his presidency on Thursday when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the escalating threat from nuclear North Korea. True to form, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defied both leaders Tuesday by launching yet another medium-range missile in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
That the missile fizzled into the sea long before it neared Japan offers little comfort. The adventurist Kim began the New Year by promising to test an ICBM in 2017 that would be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the U.S. He may already have as many as 40 nuclear weapons and has threatened to use them against the U.S., South Korea and Japan.
Here are five potential dead-ends for American diplomacy, and one risky opportunity worth pursuing.
Option one: Trump could increase pressure on China, North Korea's largest trading partner, to squeeze North Korea by enforcing sanctions against the North until Kim stops or slows his nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs. China has been unwilling to increase economic pressure that could cause the collapse of the North Korean regime, sparking chaos and a flood of refugees into China. Trump should say that he also does not want such outcomes, but that as a responsible U.S. leader he must contain the growing North Korean nuclear weapon threat; Xi might still demur.
Trump could try to force Xi's hand. Last year, Congress passed so-called secondary sanctions that would allow the U.S. to bar Chinese firms that do business with North Korea from the U.S. markets, including access to the U.S. banking system.
But Xi would likely threaten severe retaliation. Trump could be forced to back down or risk a calamitous confrontation that could shatter U.S.-China relations, precisely the outcome that would most benefit North Korea.
The administration should be reluctant to accept economic disaster to achieve sanctions that are unlikely to defuse the threat.
Option two: Trump could protest publicly, then privately dump the North Korean problem into Xi's lap and hope for the best. This would be unlikely to change China's behavior. Meanwhile, South Korea will elect a new president in early May to replace the impeached Park Geun-hye. The likely winner wants to improve relations with Pyongyang, including reopening the Kaesong industrial complex whose profits have helped fund the North Korean military.
The administration risks appearing weak and ineffective.
Option three: Trump could secretly encourage Xi to use military force to topple Kim and install a pro-Chinese regime in Pyongyang as long as China removes the North Korean nukes. This option has been advocated by some U.S. commentators. Xi might eventually agree, since China is upset by North Korea's recent bad behavior.
But many South Koreans would find Chinese military intervention in North Korea to be an invasion of their country; the South would ask the U.S. for help. If Trump had green-lighted a Chinese intervention, he would have to demur as long as the Chinese stayed inside North Korea's borders. But South Korea might still send its military forces into the North to fight a Chinese takeover, risking a major regional war that could engulf U.S. forces based in South Korea. And under attack, North Korea leaders could decide to fire their nuclear weapons in all directions.
More broadly, the U.S. role in such an affair could leak sooner or later and U.S. credibility as an alliance partner would be shredded. Its treaty allies in Asia and elsewhere might begin to make their own security arrangements, and Japan and others might develop their own nuclear weapons.
A so-called surgical strike to take out North Korean nuclear weapons is impossible.
Option four: Trump could order unilateral preventive strikes against North Korea's nuclear weapon and missile facilities, perhaps despite opposition from China and South Korea. In retaliation, North Korea would likely fire artillery against Seoul, killing thousands or even hundreds of thousands of South Koreans. A so-called surgical strike to take out North Korean nuclear weapons is impossible. Previous U.S. presidents have been sorely tempted, but concluded that hundreds of targets would likely have to be struck. Even in a best-case scenario, in which the U.S. could destroy 90 percent of the North Korean nuclear weapons, North Korea might use the remaining 10 percent against South Korea, Japan and perhaps the U.S.
Option five: Trump could counter North Korean provocations with information operations that would seek to delegitimize Kim in the eyes of the North Korean elite, trying to prompt the overthrow of the Kim family regime. But this could take many years, and the new South Korean president in May would probably oppose it. This could risk shattering the U.S.-South Korean alliance, a goal North Korea has cherished for years. It could prompt South Korea to develop its own nuclear arsenal.
Risky opportunity: The upcoming South Korean election does give Trump a fresh opportunity, albeit risky. He could encourage Seoul to propose favorable terms for Korean reunification, pensioning off North Korean leaders, improving the standard of living in the North, and negotiating a peaceful end to the 60-year-standoff on the peninsula. Most North Korean elites would not face poverty, prison or severe marginalization along the lines of the disastrous U.S. de-Baathification of Iraq, but rather be promised a generous, East-German-style reunification deal.
Of course, the Kim family regime would feel profoundly threatened, and could lash out. But for Trump, proposing a deal that gives the North Korean elite an alternative to its murderous and unstable leader could be the safest and most realistic way to sheath North Korean nuclear weapons and safeguard the American people.
Bruce W. Bennett is a senior defense analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.
This commentary originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report on April 6, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Earlier this year, one of the worlds leading authorities on famine declared that 70 million people across 45 countries would need food assistance this year. Already 20 million in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen face famine, an unprecedented situation that prompted the United Nations in March to declare the worst humanitarian crisis the world has faced since World War II.
This global calamity needs our immediate and full attention. Yet saving millions from starvation is not only a moral obligation, it is also a national security necessity. We know from past food-related crises that lack of adequate food tends to create cycles of instability. A decade ago, protests over food prices toppled governments in Haiti and Madagascar. Popular grievances over food policy and prices also were a major driver of the Arab Spring and helped catalyze the instability and migration we see today across the Middle East and North Africa.
As the United States debates the appropriate balance of military, diplomatic, and economic levers at its disposal, the link between global food security and global stability has never been more clear, nor more urgent the need for U.S. leadership to confront and mitigate the risk of food insecurity.
Yet the talk in Washington is about budget cuts for development assistance and diplomacy, in part to ensure we can build up our military capabilities. As a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, I understand the need for a robust Department of Defense. But I also see development and diplomacy as central to achieving our security interests, and this includes assistance that can help shore up the stability of countries that might be at risk of civil unrest. This is especially clear when Americas foreign assistance as a whole makes up less than 1 percent of the total U.S. budget.
Moreover, these investments have shown remarkable return over the years. Efforts by the United States and other donor governments to increase agricultural productivity have led to higher incomes and better health and well-being for local, smallholder farmers, and to stronger economies in low-income countries. Agricultural development has been found to be more than twice as effective as investments in other sectors at alleviating poverty -- the kind of poverty that can lead to desperation and then to unrest. In places such as Rwanda, investment in agriculture has led to one of the highest GDP growth rates in the world and, more importantly, to no re-emergence of conflict.
So what now? National security leaders need to continue to raise their voices in support of a U.S. policy that spends smartly on global agriculture and food security so that we can spend less on guns and ammunition. Many already are doing so. More than 120 retired generals and admirals have co-signed a letter to U.S. congressional leaders urging them to continue to support diplomacy and development assistance, making clear these programs are critical to preventing conflict and reducing the need to put our men and women in uniform in harms way. Former CIA staffer and current Texas Congressman Will Hurd was even more blunt: Food security is a global problem, with real and immediate effects on national security. More should speak up.
In fact, my organization has just released a report from a bipartisan and independent task force calling on the United States to make global food and nutrition security a pillar of U.S. diplomatic and national security engagement and to strengthen the integration and coordination of activities within the United States and around the world. This means more focus on how and when food insecurity triggers unrest and migration so that we are able to respond more quickly in high-risk areas, as well as investing in robust public research and development to help our farmers combat ever-increasing environmental threats to the global food supply.
But perhaps the best match for the new president would be to marshal the considerable appetite among leading American companies looking to both grow markets and solve some of the worlds greatest challenges, especially as it relates to food and nutrition security.
Weve seen what happens when leaders stop paying attention to food security and strong food systems. Weve also seen the long-term payoff from investment in development. The United States response to the terrible humanitarian crisis before us will stand as a historical testament to our values. To me, the case is clear. We can do both what is right and what is smart.
Turks head to the polls April 16 to decide in a referendum whether to change their political system into a presidential one or retain the parliamentary system with the president as nominal head of state and the prime minister as chief executive.
If successful, the referendum will change the rules of the domestic political game, allowing ErdoA?an to exercise unbridled power possibly for more than a decade. Failure could introduce unprecedented viciousness in the conduct of the countrys politics with ErdoA?an lashing out at his opponents, both Turks and Kurds.
Externally, either way the referendum will affect Turkeys relations with the EU and with the United States. Europeans, highly critical toward ErdoA?ans actions in the referendums run-up, will bear the brunt of any anger. ErdoA?an does not forget slights easily.
If successful, ErdoA?an is likely to become even more assertive in his demands on the US, especially in relation to the Syrian Kurdish issue and the question of a clerics extradition to stand trial in Turkey. This may create further complications for the US in its pursuit of war against the Islamic State.
While in theory the referendum is supposed to decide the countrys political restructuring, in fact it is a referendum on ErdoA?an s desire to become the sole repository of power in Turkey. Since assuming the presidency in 2014, he has subverted the existing system, becoming all but in name the executive president with the prime minister nothing more than his mouthpiece. Contrary to the present constitution, which mandates that the president be non-political and unaffiliated with any party, ErdoA?an acts as the head of the AKP in a highly partisan manner.
The proposed amendment, if passed, will allow ErdoA?an to continue in the role of the executive president until 2029 assuming he wins the next two elections, not improbable given his popularity. Observers suggest this is a major threat to the fledgling democracy for two reasons: First, unlike the American system, there are few checks on the presidents power as envisaged in the constitutional amendment. Second, since his third election victory in 2011, and especially since the failed coup of last July, ErdoA?ans autocratic personality traits have been very much on display.
Analysts often equate him with the republics founder Kemal Ataturk, who also displayed an authoritarian political style, with some dubbing ErdoA?ans approach as Islamist Kemalism for combining authoritarianism with a moderate form of Islamism. Its a major irony of Turkish history that the person most responsible for dismantling Turkeys Kemalist authoritarian state structure has become the vehicle for its impending restoration in another guise.
ErdoA?ans Justice and Development Party, AKP, garnered the required number of votes in the Turkish Parliament with the help of the ultra-nationalist MHP to bring the constitutional draft to a popular referendum. However, the amendment faces resistance from the main opposition party, CHP, and the predominantly Kurdish HDP. There are also signs of increasing dissatisfaction with ErdoA?ans dictatorial behavior.
The combination of these factors has made ErdoA?an and his government nervous to the point of hysteria, and Europe has become a convenient whipping boy for several reasons. The EU and major European countries, such as Germany, have been harshly critical of the unabashed display of ErdoA?ans autocratic tendencies. Also, ErdoA?ans high-handed actions have indefinitely postponed prospects of Turkish EU membership, thus reducing Europes significance in Turkish foreign-policy priorities. For historical reasons, ErdoA?an finds Europe a convenient target against which he can direct Turkish nationalism to boost his popularity.
Turkeys relations with the United States, demonstrating signs of considerable strain during the last two years of the Obama presidency, have shown some improvement since Donald Trumps election to the White House. Unlike Obama, Trump is not much concerned with the violation of human rights in Turkey.
Secretary of State Rex Tillersons visit to Turkey in March was one signal of improving relations although differences between Ankara and Washington persist. Tillerson did not meet any opposition leader, an attempt to avoid embroilment in domestic issues ahead of the referendum. His statements in Ankara focused primarily on the war against the ISIS, and he contended that there was no space between the United States and Turkey in their determination to fight the common enemy.
Turkeys differences with Washington, unlike those with the EU, have more to do with concrete policy differences over US support for Kurdish groups fighting ISIS in Syria. Also, Turkey demands extradition of Fethullah Gulen, considered by the Turkish government to have masterminded the abortive July coup from the United States, for trial in Turkey. Trumps discredited first national security adviser Michael Flynn is alleged to have discussed extradition by extra-legal means.
The extradition issue is, however, more symbolic than real. ErdoA?an needs former ally Gulen as the emblematic vicious instigator of the coup plot that left 265 Turkish civilians dead to bolster his own legitimacy and justify the crackdown on public servants, academics and journalists supposedly linked with the Gulen movement in the wake of the coup. Gulen, protected by American law, suits ErdoA?ans purpose better than an aged, ailing cleric standing trial for difficult-to-prove crimes in Turkey.
The Kurds in Syria are a more serious matter. The main Kurdish force in Syria the YPG, military wing of the leading Syrian Kurdish party, PYD is a major US ally in its war against the ISIS. However, Turkey considers the YPG an arm of the PKK, engaged in major insurgencies and terrorist acts in the country for the past 30 years or more. Turkey perceives the American-supported YPG presence on its borders a major security threat as it boosts Kurdish nationalist sentiments within Turkey. As the war against the ISIS proceeds, Turkish forces may clash with the YPG militia they have come close a few times recently to prevent the latter from extending control over territories held by ISIS near the Turkish border.
So far the United States has balanced relations by supplying arms to the YPG and supporting ground forces with air support while simultaneously assuring Turkey that it wont sacrifice Turkish interests for the sake of its alliance with the YPG or allow the latter to control territory west of the Euphrates near Turkeys borders. This intricate balancing act may unravel if ISIS begins to crumble and there is a race for the control of territory primarily populated by Kurds.
Regardless, Turkey is in for turbulent times. If the referendum passes, this is expected to magnify ErodA?ans authoritarian bent and signal to the already restive Kurds that current policies of repression will intensify. Many HDP Kurdish members of parliament are already in jail for opposing ErdoA?an. A re-intensified Kurdish insurgency and escalation of terrorist attacks could follow. If the referendum fails, ErdoA?an may attack his opponents, both Turks and Kurds, even more viciously, thus leading to increased authoritarianism and possibly domestic unrest in the Turkish heartland itself.
Either outcome could further deteriorate Turkeys relations with European countries. Win or lose, ErdoA?an is likely to lash out at his European critics. Prospects of Turkeys EU membership will recede even further.
Turkeys relations with the US continue to hinge, above all, on how Washington manages contrary demands of the PYD/YPG and Ankara in relation to the status of Syrian Kurds. Although in normal times Washington is likely to choose NATO member Turkey over the Syrian Kurds, these are not normal times. Exigencies of the war against ISIS may lead the United States, deliberately or inadvertently, to cross some of the red lines set by Turkey in relation to the Kurdish issue, thus causing extensive damage to relations with Ankara. An abrasive ErdoA?an reconfirmed in his power could only add to the risk of escalation.
In the final analysis, the Kurdish question trumps all other considerations both domestically and internationally as far as Turkey is concerned.
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Double Eagle Placer Double Eagle Placer Item Description Please Click On Pictures Above For Larger Pictures, Thanks!! Tons Of Exposed Bedrock Crevices Going Against The River All Through The Claim Seen Below!! Please Take Note All Maintenance Fees Till September 1st, 2017 Have Been Paid! We do accept visa, mastercard, american express & discover cards for all purchases. Other acceptable forms of payment are Money Orders, Cashier's Checks, Personal Checks, Cash, Wire Transfer and Direct Bank Depo...
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Tualatin, Oregon based CRKT (@crkt_knives) has been busy over the last few months. Not too long ago they announced the release of a two new knives, the Justin Voxnaes Pilar design and Austin McGlaun's Rakkasan. News of those two knives came soon after word of the Ken Onion designed Ruger Muzzle-Brake. Here's a rundown on all three.
Here's what we know about the new designs.
1. CRKT Pilar
A new everyday carry folding knife pairs minimal design with maximum utility. CRKT has released the Pilar everyday carry folding knife. Designed by Jesper Voxnaes (@voxknives) of Loegstrup, Denmark, this beautiful, minimal folder is low profile and understated when tucked away, and carefully designed to punch above its weight when in use.
Inspired by the fjords out his back window and the spirit of adventure, Voxnaes created the Pilar, and named it after Ernest Hemingways beloved sailboatthe 38-foot long vessel that he used for renegade surveillance of German U-boats during WWII in Caribbean waters. The world-famous author was also a WWI combat vet, big-game hunter, sailor, and fisherman, and certainly would have selected an everyday knife companion like the Pilar for his daily endeavors. This super compact 2.4 blade is stamped out of stainless steel and features a strong satin finish. Its built to go where you gowhich in Voxnaes mind is everywhere.
Hjarbaek Fjord, near Legstrup; photo by Steve Cooper
The compact, beautiful handle is created of the same stainless steel aesthetic effect. A first-finger notch is carved out at the head of the handle, both for upping the security of your grip, and making room for the large thumb slot. Swift blade deployment comes standard. Even if youre wearing thick gloves on high seas.
The modern Hemingway is the ultimate Renaissance man, and the Pilar is the knife that will stand up to the challenge.
Link to Product Information Page.
Product Specifications PILAR
SKU: 5311
Blade: Length: 2.402 (61.0 mm)
Edge: Plain Steel: 8Cr13MoV
Finish: Satin
Thickness: 0.145 (3.6 mm)
Closed: 3.530 (89.6 mm)
Weight: 4.2 oz. (119.0 g)
Handle: Stainless Steel
Style: Folding Knife w/Frame Lock
Ernest Hemingway's Pilar, off the coast of Cuba.
What CRKT says about Jesper Voxnaes.
When Jesper needs to test a design, he only has to step into his own backyard. The harsh elements and conditions of the fjords and forests in his native Denmark do the rest. When he was starting out, no one was making the kind of knives he wanted to design so he learned by trial and error. Apparently his efforts paid off given his IF Award in 2013 for one of the Top European Designs. Now he creates and uses knives like the Amicus as he sails, camps, and drives off-road. Which is more often than not.
2. CRKT Rakkasan
A new tactical fixed blade designed by war veteran, ready for the front lines. CRKT has released the Rakkasan tactical fixed blade. Designed by Austin McGlaun (@austinmcglaun) of Columbus, Georgia with the Forged By War program, its inspired by the duties of his brothers and sisters in arms who are still abroad. The name Rakkasan is reminiscent of the WWII paratroopers from the 187th infantry regiment (and remains their name). Its the Japanese translation of umbrella for falling, because they were completely unfamiliar with the American combat tactic. Though its name harkens back to another time, its prepped and ready for a 21st century battlefield with an SK5 carbon steel blade and a powder coated finish. The deep belly shape is multi-functional and serves just as well as a utility blade as it does a backup defense tool.
Troopers of the 101st Airborne Division, 187th Infantry Regiment, patrol Al Betra, Iraq, Nov. 2007 (DoD Photo)
The strong, G10 handle has been molded into an optimally ergonomic shape and features three holes for carrying versatility. The Kydex sheath comes equipped with paracord. McGlaun served in the 101st airborne division in Iraq, and as a street cop in Columbus. If theres anyone that knows that a knife has to work both as a weapon and a tool, its him. Hes applied his skills as both a combat vet and a knifemaker to create the Rakkasan. Thats not to mention, a new way to bring his fellow soldiers home. The combat arena is laden with unexpected variables. The Rakkasan serves to address them all. The designer's charity of choice with the Rakkasan is the Green Beret Foundation. 187th Infantry Regiment, Rakkasans. NE DESIT VIRTUS (Let Valor Not Fail)
Link to Product Information Page.
Product Specifications Rakkasan
SKU: 1520
Blade: Length: 4.894 (124.3 mm)
Edge: Plain Steel: SK5 Carbon
Finish: Powder Coating
Thickness: 0.147 (3.7 mm)
Overall: 10.438 (265.1 mm)
Weight: 9.2 oz. (260.8 g)
Handle: G10
Style: Fixed Blade Knife w/Sheath
Sheath: Material: Kydex
Weight: 1.9 oz. (53.8 g)
What CRKT says about Austin McGlaun.
There are those who fight with knives. There are others who design them. And thentheres Austin. Having served in the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, and as a street cop in Columbus, GA, he knows that a knife has to work as both a weapon and a tool. As part of the Forged By War program he applied his skills as both a combat vet and knife maker to develop the Clever Girl. Not to mention a new way to bring his fellow soldiers home. When asked about his design philosophy, hell tell you that if a knife is ugly but effective, its not ugly. Its perfect.
3. Ruger Muzzle-Brake
The Muzzle-Brake, designed by Ken Onion (@shopjunky), has elements from a traditional Bowie design but is developed with the construction techniques of today. With its stout full tang blade, it can be used as a chopper in camp or for fashioning a quick shelter in the forest if needed. Its clip point blade shape, featuring a blood groove, is perfect for making quick work of butchering an animal after a successful hunt. The handle is glass filled nylon construction that wraps around a thick blade tang. The sure-grip surface matches the Ruger American Rifle stock texture with Ruger eagles embossed into both sides of the grip.
The Muzzle-Brake is part of the exclusive Ruger knife line; the line includes designs for everyday carry, hunting, tactical uses and self-preparedness. The knives are crafted in varying sizes and finishes, with an assortment of blade edges. Developed by six master knife-smiths who combined their knowledge of the art with aesthetic details from Ruger firearms, the line offers unique knives with the important features that every good knife should have. These knives are purpose built to be durable and highly functional in the environments where Ruger customers will expect them to perform.
Manufactured by CRKT under license from Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. Product Specifications Muzzle-Brake (R2501K) MSRP: $99.99 Blade:
Length: 7.50 (190.50 mm) Edge: Plain Steel: 8Cr13MoV, 58-59 HRC Finish: Black Powder Coat Thickness: 0.187 (4.75mm)
Overall:
12.00 (304.80 mm)
Weight:
11.1 oz. (314.67 gm)
Handle:
Glass-Filled Nylon
Style:
Full Tang Fixed Blade Sheath:
Multi-Position Injection Molded Nylon
Weight: 3.8 oz. (105 g)
What is a muzzle brake? Read more about that here: http://www.recoilweb.com/5-things-to-solve-the-muzzle-device-mystery-112372.html.
More about CRKT in their own words.
Founded in 1994, CRKT is the industrys premier brand of knives, tools, and lifestyle accessories, with a reputation for innovative design.
You can find CRKT online right here.
Know your knife anatomy? Read more here.
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Austin Hattori, of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Phi Kappa Literary Society, proudly holds the Palestinian flag at a small protest at the same time as Israel Fest in Athens, Georgia on Friday, April 7, 2017. (Photo/Justin Fountain)
A more vigilant Opposition and a more aware civil society including the media could have certainly helped keep a check on an unhealthy trend, says A K Bhattacharya.
Much of the debate over the many amendments moved while passing the Union Budget for 2017-18 has been focused on how the government chose to modify several other laws by clubbing them with the Finance Bill.
The government decided to follow such a path for obvious political reasons. By making them part of the Finance Bill (which by all definitions is a Money Bill), it obviated the need for getting the Rajya Sabhas assent before they could be included in the statute book.
This was certainly an objectionable decision. The inclusion of provisions in the Finance Bill to amend as many as 10 different laws that could not be otherwise classified as Money Bills was a brazen way of curtailing the rights of the upper house of Parliament, whose members as a result did not have any effective say on the proposed changes.
The government has ostensibly done this because it does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha to secure an easy passage of those Bills. The political expediency behind the move makes it all the more improper.
The government will of course argue that many of the proposed changes were part of the finance ministers Budget speech and hence it was not wrong to include them in the Finance Bill. But that argument is weak and doesnt wash with anybody.
Three points, however, emerge from this development loud and clear.
One, it reflects the poor state of preparedness on the part of the Opposition political parties.
Two, it highlights the weakness of the countrys regulatory organisations.
And three, it indicates the governments quiet move, though a very small one, towards reducing its size, but with a difference. Let us examine these three issues a little more closely.
The governments intentions to bring about changes in many of these non-financial laws were known on February 1, when the Budget for 2017-18 was presented in Parliament.
What were the Opposition political parties doing all these weeks while Parliament was in session? Their silence perhaps emboldened the government to add a few more amendments to non-financial laws at the fag end of the Budget discussion.
A more vigilant Opposition and a more aware civil society including the media could have certainly helped keep a check on such an unhealthy trend.
Also, remember that many of the legislative changes brought about with the passage of the Finance Bill will result in the merger of as many as eight tribunals with the existing ones. Each of these tribunals is part of the regulatory framework for a particular sector.
Thus, eight regulators will now cease to have their separate tribunals and instead their work will now be handled by others.
While some of these tribunals will naturally become overburdened with rising pendency of cases as a consequence, it is significant that not one word of protest has been heard from the regulators whose tribunals have been merged with other tribunals.
Worse, there is a deafening silence from the regulators whose tribunals have now been entrusted with the additional responsibility of handling cases from those eight tribunals. Wouldnt regulation suffer at least to some extent due to the proposed merger?
What a more powerful and active regulator could do can be gauged from the manner in which the government backed off from amending the RBI Act through the Finance Bill a couple of years ago when the Reserve Bank of India made its opposition to the move known in no uncertain manner.
The difference between a strong regulator and a weak one is too obvious to be missed.
Finally, the subsuming of eight tribunals with the existing ones shows a reduction in the size of the government. The government would certainly cut down its cost on housing these tribunals and paying their staff.
But the bigger hit of this downsizing will be taken by the judiciary. Most of these tribunals were headed by retired members of the judiciary and after the merger of eight tribunals there will be as many fewer vacancies that the judiciary would now be required to fill with its retired or retiring members.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys assurance that judiciary will be consulted on all these appointments may be cold comfort, because effectively the judiciary has fallen prey to what would count as the Narendra Modi governments first attempt at reducing its size.
Bureaucracy and organisations headed by civil servants have largely escaped, while members of the judiciary seem to have taken the hit.
Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
In the biggest round of funding by an Indian Internet company till date, e-commerce company Flipkart on Monday raised USD 1.4 billion from blue-chip technology companies Microsoft, eBay and Tencent.
With this round of funding, Flipkarts valuation has reached USD 11.6 billion, and US IT major Microsoft joins the marketplace as a strategic investor.
Flipkart's existing investors include Tiger Global Management, Naspers Group, Accel Partners and DST Global.
"Flipkart Group has raised a total of USD 1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft -- three of the world's premier technology companies," Flipkart said in a statement.
"The latest funding round, at a post-transaction valuation of USD 11.6 billion, is the largest in Flipkart's 10-year history as well as in the Indian Internet sector and comes as Flipkart gears up to drive the next phase of e-commerce growth in India," the online marketplace said.
China-based Tencent owns social messaging app WeChat and has investments across various online companies like Practo, Ibibo etc.
Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said it's a landmark deal for the company and for India as it endorses the firm's tech prowess, innovative mindset and the potential to disrupt traditional markets.
The Flipkart group owns several well-known Indian brands such as Myntra, Jabong, PhonePe and Ekart.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls first State visit to India is an indication of the success of Indias Act East policy, says Dr Rahul Mishra.
Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull at a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, on April 10, 2017. Photograph: PIB.
Fresh from his visit to Papa New Guinea, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in India on what is his first State visit to the country.
There has been regular interaction between the Australian leadership and the Indian government. Four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in May 2014, then Australian prime minister Tony Abbott visited India, with Prime Minister Modi reciprocating in November that year. The Indian and Australian prime ministers also held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the 2015 and 2016 G-20 summits in Antalya (Turkey) and Guangzhou (China).
After completing his political engagements in New Delhi, Prime Minister Turnbull would head to Mumbai on April 11 to hold meetings with the governor of Maharashtra and key business leaders. Though trade and education are the driving forces behind Prime Minister Turnbulls visit, it seems the main agenda of the visit will be to bolster energy cooperation between the two countries, as he will be in attendance at the India-Australia Energy Roundtable.
Twenty-five years ago, when then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao launched Indias Look East policy, the focus countries were those in the Southeast Asian region. The success of the first phase of Look East led to phase II which brought in a strategic dimension the policy.
In 2014, when Prime Minister Modi came to power, he proposed to widen and deepen the scope of Look East by making it the Act East policy, and its refocus brought the countries of Oceania -- Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific -- and of Northeast Asia, like Japan and South Korea, into Indias policy priorities.
To and fro visits not just with Australia, but also with Japan and South Korea, demonstrate that Act East has definitely brought in more intense strategic calculations, wider trade and economic partnership requirements, and a greater role for India in the Indo-Pacific region.
Indias Act East policy has also enabled New Delhi to think bigger -- whether in terms of investments, intra-regional and regional connectivity, and trade, or politico-military and strategic engagements. Thankfully, New Delhi is also beginning to Act Bigger.
Keeping these aspects in view, Australia matters to India more than ever.
Prime Minister Turnbulls visit is an important opportunity for India to engage Australia for several reasons.
First, India was Australia's 10th largest trading partner and fifth largest export market in fiscal year 2016. The current visit will help both sides work towards improving the declining bilateral trade.
In 2015-16, two-way trade stood at US$ 12.16 billion, down from US$ 13.02 billion in 2014-15. In fact, there has been a sharp decrease in two-way trade since 2011-12 when bilateral trade stood at US$ 18.05 billion.
In 2015, Australian investment in India amounted to US$ 10.6 billion, whereas Indian investment in Australia totalled US$ 11.6 billion. Both sides are in the process of fast-tracking the negotiations for Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, which has the potential to increase trade volumes and allow India to have greater access to the Australian market.
Though the deal is not likely to be concluded during Prime Minister Turnbulls visit, it will certainly provide an impetus to the CECA negotiations.
Second, Australia is one of the key partners of India in the domain of civilian nuclear cooperation. An MoU on civil nuclear cooperation was signed during Prime Minister Abbotts visit to New Delhi in September 2014. With Australias 2016 Civil Nuclear Transfers to India Act in place, India is hopeful for an early conclusion of uranium sale.
Given that Australia will be a reliable source of coal, uranium, gas and renewable energy once the commercial negotiations are done, India is looking at Australia for its energy security.
Third, Australia is home to nearly 450,000 Indians, and India is the third largest source of immigrants for the country. Around 46,000 Indian students are currently studying in Australia. In fact, it is one of the most desirable foreign destinations for Indian students, and the second most important source of exports from Australia to India.
Prime Minister Turnbull, accompanied by Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham, has brought along a strong delegation from the education sector comprising vice chancellors of several important Australian universities. Education is one of the important sectors where both countries are looking forward to cooperate, and it will also strengthen people-to-people ties.
Fourth, Australia is supportive of Indias membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, where China has been a hindrance for India. Additionally, Australia has been vocal about Indias permanent membership in a reformed and expanded United Nations Security Council and Asia-Pacific Economic Partnership. India is also hoping for the finalisation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and Australias support and willingness is important for the early conclusion of the RCEP
Fifth, with Chinas increasingly assertive behaviour, and a rather ad-hoc policy approach of the US under President Donald Trump, expectations of India playing a greater role in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region have been augmented.
Mutually convergent strategic interests and economic goals make it natural for Australia and India to work in close coordination.
Australia has also been supportive of a larger participation from the Indian side on issues of regional and global importance. Canberra perceives India as a key security partner.
India already has a trilateral dialogue with Australia and Japan where they discuss security issues of regional importance. India and Australia are in the league of prime stakeholders in the Indian Ocean and, therefore, have an inherent interest in safeguarding the sea-lanes of communication.
Sixth, like India, Australia too is weighing its options vis-a-vis Chinas One Belt, One Road or the Belt and Road initiative. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, during his recent visit to Australia, failed to reach an agreement with Australia on OBOR, as Northern Australia was seen as a lucrative destination by the Chinese for collaborating on OBOR.
The key reason behind Canberras reluctance is perceived to be Australias proximity to the United States, which doesnt approve of OBOR.
Moreover, USAs key Asian allies Japan and Taiwan are also keeping away from OBOR.
Additionally, Indias cautious approach towards the OBOR project makes it even more convincing for Australia to turn down the Chinese request.
In summation, Prime Minister Turnbulls visit is an indication of the success of Indias Act East Policy, demonstrating that bilateral relations have come a long way.
Convergent interests and commercial gains have been the driving force for both countries to cooperate. Australia has expressed its interest in partnering with India in a range of issues of bilateral and multilateral nature.
However, to make that a reality, both Australia and India need to pursue regular dialogues and proactively engage with each other.
Dr Rahul Mishra is a New Delhi-based strategic affairs expert.
'The accusation that Pakistan risks losing sovereignty to China is emotive and has the potential to spread.'
'China will, however, remain intent on achieving its strategic ambitions of acquiring Gwadar port and securing a large chunk of Pakistan occupied Kashmir,' says former RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade.
Criticism, differences and doubts regarding the China Pakistan Economic Corridor have increased in Pakistan over the past year.
The singular central thread that runs through all of them is that Pakistan's sovereignty is increasingly at risk!
As Pakistan realises that the CPEC -- with investment now raised to an estimated $54 billion -- cannot be viewed as a silver bullet that will lift Pakistan out of its dire economic difficulties or solve issues afflicting its society, doubts are magnified by the fundamental divergence in how both countries view the CPEC.
While for Beijing it is part of a larger strategic objective which it views as an essential stepping stone towards global leadership, Islamabad sees it as a solution for its economic difficulties.
Endorsed by the Pakistan army, politicians of the ruling party and some Pakistani diplomats, the CPEC has been projected as an opportunity that would ensure a 2.5 per cent rise in growth, add over 26,000 MW of energy and provide at least 700,000 jobs for Pakistanis.
Recent assessments by Pakistani economists, journalists and politicians, however, offer a different picture.
There are complaints that inter-provincial resentment and differences have flared, with accusations that the country's eastern portion, where the majority of Pakistan's economic bases are located, is being favoured.
The CPEC is now disparagingly called the 'China Punjab Economic Corridor!
Because fuel for the CPEC's new power plants must be imported from China's Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region, the cost per unit of electricity generated will be double the present, adding to the consumers' difficulties.
There is serious concern about the interest repayment burden on Pakistan.
The bulk of funding has come as loan-based financing to individual companies and not unconditional grants by the Chinese government, yet there is significant risk for the government as many of the power projects are under sovereign guarantees.
Additionally, loans taken from Chinese entities by Pakistani companies in the first quarter of 2017 already totals $979 million compared to only $138 million for the same period last year.
Pakistan's liabilities, both private and public, are already a staggering 75 per cent of GDP, or Rs 22.5 trillion.
Last November, Pakistan was unable to repay Rs 136.5 billion in bank loans stemming from the energy sector and postponed payment for another two years.
While the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan has publicly regretted the absence of transparency in disbursements of funds received from China, the State Bank of Pakistan recently confirmed that Pakistan's tax collection is unable to pay for debt servicing.
The trade deficit is also rapidly growing with Pakistan's imports from China rising from 4 per cent last year to 9 per cent already this year.
Politicians in the provinces meanwhile complain that while tens of thousands of Chinese workers are employed on CPEC projects, no Pakistanis have yet got jobs.
Complaints about the cost of security of the CPEC are mounting and China has declined to defray the expenditure.
Because of China's growing concern about the security of the 10,000 Chinese workers and CPEC projects, Pakistan announced it will double the size of the division-strength special security division commanded by a major general by the end of March.
Pakistani politicians, who already cavil at the expenditure of $12 million per year on the SSD, have now become more strident in their criticism.
The Gwadar port's security, which is of special concern to China, imposes a heavy financial burden on Pakistan.
In January 2016, the Pakistan navy decided to deploy two additional marine battalions to provide round the clock security at Gwadar.
On September 21, 2016, in the wake of the deterioration in IndiaPakistan relations over Kashmir, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang publicly expressed reservations and told Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that he 'hoped' Pakistan can continue to provide protection to the CPEC and Chinese personnel in Pakistan. The warning was echoed by Chinas state-run media.
In November 2016, during the inaugural Kashgar-Gwadar cargo run and subsequent transfer of containers to waiting vessels at Gwadar port, Pakistan's navy deployed ships and aircraft to provide security cover to ensure safe and secure transit and assuage Chinese concerns.
The role of Pakistan's maritime forces has increased since Gwadar became operational with Pakistan's navy assigned special responsibility to protect the Gwadar seaport project and more than 500 Chinese working there.
It has strengthened maritime security capabilities to ward off attacks by terrorist groups or insurgents on seaports and vessels by intensifying security patrols, establishing the Pakistan marines' force protection battalion and setting up coastal watch stations.
With China refusing to provide any financial assistance towards the CPEC's security expenses, the Pakistan government on September 24, 2016, decided to meet expenses incurred on the SSD by adding 1 per cent to the cost of all central energy projects and recovering it from consumers through the national electric power regulatory authority.
The senate standing committee on planning development and reform has protested at billing citizens for providing security to thr Chinese in Pakistan.
Pakistani analysts have also now begun pointing to China's undue interest in Gwadar port. They point to the unmistakable similarities between Gwadar and Sri Lanka's Hambantota.
Saddled with unpayable Chinese loans, Sri Lanka now intends to allow a $1.4 billion debt for an 80 per cent equity swap that will allow China a 99-year lease on the Hambantota port and 1,500 acres of adjacent land.
In Gwadar, the development of which the Chinese agreed to fund only in 2007 after Pakistan agreed to grant it 'sovereign guarantees to the port facilities' after decades of hard negotiation, the Chinese have signed a 40-year lease on 2,300 acres of land to develop a 'special economic zone' and an international airport.
Gwadar additionally symbolises the sense of alienation felt by many in Balochistan.
The Balochis assert that local fishermen have been forced to leave Gwadar, that they will soon become a minority in their homeland, and that most of the benefits of the CPEC are going to outsiders.
The biggest threat to the CPEC and, potentially Sino-Pak relations is the unchecked rise of radicalisation of Islam in Pakistan.
The closure on January 11, 2017 of the borders of China's restive Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan is the first visible crack in the gloss of lacquer that the CPEC seeks to put on the China-Pakistan relationship.
Chinese provincial officials are also increasingly naming Pakistan as the source from where Uyghur 'terrorists' enter China.
China informed Islamabad last January that it plans to raise a 10,000-strong 'private army' for deployment in the CPEC to protect workers and construction sites.
The accusation that Pakistan risks losing sovereignty to China is emotive and has the potential to spread. It could get aggravated with the presence of Chinese security personnel in Pakistan.
Increasing criticism of the CPEC will hamper completion of numerous projects. China will, however, remain intent on achieving its strategic ambitions of acquiring Gwadar port and securing a large chunk of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and adjacent areas.
In case of increased problems, it will invest an amount just adequate to keep the Sino-Pakistan relationship in a state of decent repair.
Jayadeva Ranade, former Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, is presently President of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy.
IMAGE: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the inauguration of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor port in Gwadar, Pakistan, November 13, 2016. Photograph: Caren Firouz
One thing Beijing must understand is that India is not obsessed with being a threat to China but only wants a rightful place for itself in the world, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
There have been several articles in Chinese state-run Global Times, considered as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, this year suggesting that China is making a mistake of comparing the National Democratic Alliance 2 government with previous NDA1, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and United Progressive Alliance governments.
The articles also believe India to be: a nation fighting poverty and domestic problems which cannot rise above them in the international arena; a nation whose people blame China for trying to contain and frustrate India; a smaller nation which must always bow down in front of its neighbour who is a much bigger economic and geopolitical power; and a nation that can be contained by supporting Pakistan.
On April 6, the GT carried an article on the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which China vehemently opposed, titled Indias use of Dalai Lama card tactless.
Referring to Indias objection to China blocking its bid to blacklist Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, the article said, Recently, India has been strongly dissatisfied with China for not supporting its membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Its request to name Masood Azhar, head of Pakistani militant group, to a UN Security Council blacklist was disapproved by China.
However, it should be kept in mind that India is unhappy with China for reasons more important than these.
Former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarathy once wrote, It is now acknowledged that by 1983 China had supplied Pakistan with enough enriched uranium for around two weapons and the designs for a 25-kilotonne bomb. Deng commenced missile collaboration with Pakistan, with the supply of short range Hatf 2 missiles. This was followed up by assistance to manufacture Shaheen 1 (750 km range) and Shaheen 2 (range 1,500-2,000 km), at Fatehjang.
Moreover, insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir started in 1989 only after Pakistan had obtained nuclear capability with Chinese help. Pakistan belongs to the Ivy League of terrorism mainly because of Chinese support.
In spite of such provocations by China, India did not retaliate by selling the Akash surface-to-air missile system and BrahMos missiles to Vietnam.
The GT article further said, New Delhi probably overestimates its leverage in the bilateral ties with China. If New Delhi ruins Sino-India ties and the two countries turn into open rivals, can India afford the consequence?
The biggest leverage that India has is its ballooning trade deficit with China which stood at $53 billion (Rs 3.44 lakh crore) in 2015-16 and $47 billion (Rs 3.05 lakh crore) between April 2016 and February 2017.
If China decides to retaliate against India by restricting its exports to us, it will indirectly support 'Make in India'.
It is because India is a significant market for China that Modi's call for an expansion of steel capacity drew a sharp rejoinder from the Global Times which expressed concerns whether India could become a global steel-producing colossus.
In a challenging tone, the article further said, With a GDP (gross domestic product) several times higher than that of India, military capabilities that can reach the Indian Ocean and having good relations with Indias peripheral nations, coupled with the fact that Indias turbulent northern state borders China, if China engages in a geopolitical game with India, will Beijing lose to New Delhi?
China should remember that out of the 196 countries in the world, the only true ally it has is Pakistan.
Moreover, India is aware of China's military capabilities but it believes that the latter will not want to engage in an open battle, singly or with Pakistan, at least till relations with the Donald Trump administration settle down.
India is confident enough to not be deterred by the Chinese threat of playing Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh against it. The present Indian government has made special efforts to build good relations with each of these countries, even if it meant taking a tough stand to convey a message.
The Kashmir card too has lost its relevance as the world has seen through Pakistans game.
If, on the other hand, as a result of Chinese actions, India changes its Tibet policy, China would have only itself to blame.
In another article about the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal on April 4, the GT quoted a Chinese expert as saying that India is using Dalai Lamas visit to upset Beijing.
The Dalai Lamas visit to the controversial area, especially Tawang... will affect relations between China and India, it said.
By making such points, the Chinese expert appears to have forgotten the 2005 agreement signed between the two countries on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question, which stipulates that the two sides shall safeguard due interests of their settled population in the border areas.
On March 16, days after the Bharatiya Janata Partys massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, the GT wrote in an article titled BJPs win has impact on Sino Indian ties: In the international arena, (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi changed Indias previous attitude of trying never to offend anyone and started to take a clear stance in controversies among other nations to maximise its own interests.
The people of Uttar Pradesh must be surprised to know that their votes affected Indias ties with China.
Also, Indians should be glad to have a prime minister who wants to maximise national interests rather than be a perennial good boy.
The article further said, That said, we can still be optimistic in resolving our divergences, including border disputes, with New Delhi during Modis term as long as both sides are willing.
Indias former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal had written, In 1996, China agreed to clarifying the alignment of the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in those segments where they (the two sides) have different perceptions. In 2002 (when the writer was foreign secretary) China decided to repudiate this agreement unilaterally.
This time, let China make the first move by clarifying the alignment of the LAC.
On March 6, arguing against Indias opposition to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in an article titled New Delhis objection to CPEC in Kashmir not to its own benefit, the GT wrote, India should be flexible and pragmatic, and be more open to economic activities in the Kashmir region conducted by Chinese companies.
It appears that the Chinese are upset with Indias repeated and forceful claims on Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir through which the CPEC passes. There seems to be an apprehension that their investment could be at stake in the unlikely case of the status quo being disturbed.
As a counter-move, China could be upping the ante in Arunachal to bring Tawang on the negotiating table.
In another bid to highlight China-Pakistan relations, the GT quoted Prof Lin Minwang, an expert on South Asian studies, as saying, India always wants to portray Pakistan as a 'supporter of terrorism' in the international community, which makes it easier for the country to link counter-terrorism issue to Sino-Pakistani relationship and blame China's support to Pakistan for some issues.
Lin also said that India does not understand the significance of Sino-Pakistani friendship.
Perhaps the expert couldn't see that Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan. More than 65,000 lives have been lost because of Pak-fuelled terrorism in Kashmir, Punjab and other parts of India.
No special efforts by India are needed to show the world that Pakistan supports terrorism.
In January, after India successfully test-fired its long-range ballistic missile Agni-IV, the GT wrote, China should realise that Beijing wouldnt hold back India's development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Chinese dont feel Indias development has posed any big threat to it. And India wouldnt be considered as Chinas main rival in the long run.
In the article after the BJP's victory in UP polls too, the Chinese daily had said, Modi enhanced New Delhi's ties with China and Moscow and applied to be a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Yet he also upgraded defence collaboration with the US and Japan, articulated his support for the US rebalance to the Asia-Pacific strategy and Washington's stance on the South China Sea issue.
One thing China must understand is that the Indian government is not obsessed with being a threat to China but only wants a rightful place for India in the world.
India must not fall for Chinese praise of its manufacturing prowess and the capabilities of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
A Chinese retaliation can come in any form. It could play the Brahmaputra card by changing the rivers course, step up support to insurgents in the north-east or undertake simultaneous incursions on the LAC.
India, therefore, needs to be careful. And while it must make necessary political statements, it should refrain from provoking China into taking a decision driven by sheer arrogance.
IMAGE: Chinese President Xi Jinping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the former's visit to India for BRICS-2016 summit in Goa. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Sanjeev Nayyar is an independent columnist. He tweets @sanjeev1927.
The Rs 89 crore question before Tamil Nadu now is what shape a central intervention would take, and if there would be any role whatsoever for acting governor, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, in it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Image: AIADMK (Amma) party leader TTV Dinakaran appeals for vote for bypoll in the RK Nagar Constituency in Chennai on Sunday. Soon after, the Election Commission cancelled the election. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo.
With the Election Commission as expected cancelling the by-election in the RK Nagar assembly constituency in Chennai, due on April 12, will it become inevitable for the Centre to intervene in the state that is politically troubled following the death of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who was also the local MLA?
Expectations about EC decision had heightened following the social media circulation of a tabulated statement about the incredible amount of Rs 89 crores distributed to RK Nagar voters.
The Sunday night EC cancellation order, signed by all three Election Commissioners, confirms the authenticity of the statement, but clarified that it needed further investigations.
According to the EC announcement, the statement, containing the names of Chief Minister Edappady K Palanisami and other ministers and ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma) faction members of Parliament, was recovered by income-tax authorities from one Srinivasan, accountant of Tamil Nadu Health Minister Dr C Vijaya Bhaskar.
For the first time since last weeks IT raids in about 50 offices and residents linked to Vijaya Bhaskar and those associated with him, the EC statement confirmed that it was based on complaints about the minister acting as the fulcrum of money distribution at R K Nagar, on behalf of the Sasi factions candidate T T V Dhinakaran.
Vijaya Bhaskar, and also actor-politician Sarath Kumar and MGRMedicalUniversity vice chancellor, Dr S Geethalakshmi, whose houses were raided last week, have been summond to the IT department at Chennai.
Going by the nature and circumstances of the raids and its findings, there is little that the Election Commission can do by way of proving the tabulated statement.
Already, the IT authorities are seized of the probe, and depending on their recoveries, the Enforcement Directorate too may have to be involved.
Whether or not there was a case for a CBI inquiry into the money distribution case, which was purely of a criminal nature and needed further evidence collection and interrogation, too may have to be decided at the appropriate levels of constitutional authority.
On specifics, there is the added criminality of some ministers of the state, and its representative at Delhi, ex-minister Thalavai Sundaram, also holding a Cabinet rank, allegedly interfering with the work of the income tax raid on Vijaya Bhaskar and company.
The presence of CISF personnel also did not deter Vijaya Bhaskars aides from taking away records from the ministers residence and throwing it into the waiting crowds, to escape the raid team, has also not gone unnoticed.
It was an unprecedented situation, which if countenanced in the midst of more grievous offences as massive money payment to voters, could lead to the IT department as a whole losing its teeth, or whatever is there under the law.
The way senior officers of the Chennai police behaved at the time, and the way all of it happened in the very presence of CISF personnel accompanying the raid party, would mean that the next time round anywhere in the country, the latter might be forced to act -- with all the attendant political and constitutional complexities.
It could also mean that more ministers, apart from those already named in the tabulated statement, could have to be brought under criminal investigations by appropriate authorities, under appropriate directions from such other appropriate authorities.
For now, the EC announcement makes out a prima facie case on the tabulated statement. If it were to be found true, and if at least six state ministers, including CM Palanisami, are found to be involved, can any criminal investigation be taken forward, even if by the CBI, without any or all of them seeking to influence the witnesses?
In ordinary criminal cases, the prosecution would normally seek denial or cancellation of bail for the accused, after arresting them and producing them before a court.
In this case, no arrests of the kind are possible at least until a primary case had been made out, beyond the loose sheet of papers, purportedly recovered from someones possession.
What might hold good as of high evidentiary value for IT purposes may not be enough to prosecute, especially those holding responsible constitutional positions, in a criminal case(s), where an offence had to be proved beyond all reasonable doubts.
Under the Westminster form of jurisprudence in vogue in India in most criminal cases, the law and law courts tend to grant the benefit of the doubt to the accused, in case of conflict about the evidentiary value of men and/or material.
In a Russian roulette-like situation, it thus becomes necessary for the President of India, acting through the Centre, to create appropriate conditions for the CBI, for instance, to undertake a free and fair investigation into the matter, should the EC or the courts direct an independent probe uninfluenced by the state government (thus ruling out the Tamil Nadu police, to begin with).
What shape such central intervention would take, and if there would be any role whatsoever for acting governor, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, would all be known only during the upcoming days and weeks.
Such an intervention can go up to the imposition of Presidents rule, even if for a time, to facilitate free and fair investigations -- though no precedents exists for the same, just as there are no precedents for the current accusations, either.
Yet, it can also begin with a court-ordered CBI probe, in the absence of exceptional powers for the Centre to do so in the absence of a state governments directive to the effect.
Given the circumstances under which the EC has cancelled the RK Nagar by-poll, it would remain to be seen as to what the Commission would accept as conducive condition for holding the by-election now.
It needs to be noted that the EC has cancelled the by-poll and not countermanded the same, as was once expected to do. This is because the Representation of the People Act specifies booth-capturing as the only situation in which polling could be countermanded. It does not provide for money and gifts being a justification of the kind.
In the May 2016 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, the EC was forced to cancel the elections in Thanjavur and Aravakkurichchi constituencies, owing to the IT raids recovering huge quantities of moneys stored for distribution to voters.
RK Nagar, where Jayalalithaa was the AIADMK candidate then, topped the list in social media circles and in criticism by the political Opposition and civil society. But no action whatsoever was initiated at the time.
However, after the cancellation of polls in Thanjavur and Aravakkurichchi, the EC had recommended relevant amendments to the Act. However, the Centre, which seems to be too keen on cleansing the nations political system of all corrupt practices, is yet to take notice, leave alone act upon it.
Incidentally, in fresh elections conducted when Jaya was in hospital, the ruling AIADMK won both Thanjavur and Aravakkurichchi.
However, now after the tabulated statement began doing the rounds, Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin has come up with a new allegation.
According to the DMK leader, the name of Dr Balaji, the government doctor who had certified that Jaya as party general secretary had affixed her thumb impression to B-Form for allocation of the Two Leaves symbol, was fully conscious at the time, was found in one of the documents seized by the IT department in the Vijaya Bhaskar-related raids.
If found true, Stalins allegation would mean that the minister had paid Dr Balaji Rs 5 lakhs for services rendered or whatever.
N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and political analyst, is Director, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai chapter.
'We have to hit Pakistan in such a manner where it hurts them the most.'
Vappala Balachandran, a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, better known as the Research and Analysis Wing, says the Indian government should hit Pakistan back where it hurts the most in retaliation to the manner in which alleged R&AW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav has been sentenced to death in Pakistan.
Jadhav, left, was allegedly arrested in Pakistan's Balochistan province last year, and charged with being an Indian spy.
The Pakistan army later released a 'confessional video' in which Jadhav said he was a serving Indian Navy officer.
India issued 6 note verbales to the Pakistan foreign ministry, seeking consular access to Jadhav, but was denied a meeting with him.
A note verbale is an unsigned diplomatic communication which is less formal than a letter of protest, but is used to forcefully remind the receiving nation of its diplomatic obligations.
India said Jadhav had retired as a commander in the Indian Navy in 2002 and had nothing to do with the Indian government since.
Balachandran, bottom, left, spoke to Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
How do you react to Pakistan sentencing Kulbhushan Jadhav who the Indian government says is an Indian national, but denies that he is a R&AW agent?
How can they (Pakistan) do this in secrecy?
What type of government is this? What type of judicial system is this?
There is no clear idea who has given this death sentence to him (Kulbhushan Jadhav).
Is it the (Pakistan) military or (a criminal) court?
Newspaper reports from Pakistan suggest the death sentence was ordered by a field general court martial under the Pakistan army act and confirmed by Pakistan's chief of army staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa...
Obviously, this is a mistrial; he was not even given consular access.
This act of a secret trial is absolutely cowardly if there was a secret trial at all.
One television channel said the army chief had awarded the death sentence.
Who is the army chief to award a death sentence? Does he have that right?
As far as I know, there is no such system in which the army chief can give a death sentence to anybody.
Even if it is a military court, you have to have a proper court constituted. And that has to be publicly announced so that the accused can get a chance to speak in his defence.
This is worse than any third rate dictatorship anywhere.
Is this unprecedented?
There is no doubt about that.
How should India respond?
India should take retaliatory action because an Indian national has been tried in utmost secrecy and (the trial) has been disposed like this.
One had heard this happening in Stalin's or Hitler's regimes, but not in modern times.
We have to take some unprecedented steps.
I can't imagine what we (the Indian government) will do, but we should lodge a very strong protest -- withdraw the (Indian) ambassador (to Pakistan) or some such (unprecedented) action or expel some people (Pakistani diplomats) from here.
I can't imagine what is going to happen but... I think even the government (of India) is taken by surprise.
Do you think the expulsion of Pakistani diplomats will send a strong message to Pakistan?
We have to definitely do that; ask them to pack up and leave or pin them down on this; some sort of visible action must be taken.
What could be those visible actions? Could they compel the Pakistani government to withdraw this death sentence?
Nothing will force Pakistan (to withdraw the death sentence).
The question is: Is there (a system) of appeal? Nobody knows what is their system.
Even in the case of the 9/11 terrorists who were sentenced in the US, there was an opportunity of appeal. They could go in appeal.
But here (in the trial of Kulbhushan Jadhav) there is nothing.
Will the diplomatic relationship between the two countries head downhill from here?
It is definitely going to be affected.
I am sure the Government of India will take some retaliatory action after getting the complete facts in this case.
Has the government been caught off guard?
I can't say that; I don't know if they had any secret information about this (the trial of Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan) but there was nothing in the public domain.
What would be your advice to the Indian government?
We have to hit them back, but hit them in such a manner where it hurts them the most. And what that could be, only the people in office will be best suited to judge.
As a retired officer I will not be able to say anything, but we have to hit them back.
We have to take this to the international capitals. We have to tell the big powers like the US, Russia, China and take this up strongly at the UN level.
Can the government take this issue to the UN Security Council or to the UN?
I am not very sure (about that). The only thing we must tell them is 'This man was not arrested (in Pakistan)'. There was a report that he was kidnapped from Iran... we don't know unless Iran supports (us on this fact).
I am not sure whether the UN Charter will allow an individual case to be taken up at the UN.
But we can definitely take it up with the respective big powers at the highest level.
'It was a professional relationship with Jayalalithaa.'
'Being a businessman, I have to be in touch with the ruling party.'
IMAGE: 'I have mined 92 lakh tonnes of beach minerals in 10 years,' says Tamil Nadu businessman S Vaikundarajan. Image published only for representational purposes. Photograph: Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com
S Vaikundarajan, the influential businessman, was said to be close to the late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. He was imprisoned by the then Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government apparently for that reason though he denies that is so.
During the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam rule, he was charged with attempting to bribe the Tuticorin port trust chairman.
32 godowns he owned were sealed recently by the Tuticorin collector. Vaikundarajan says he can account for every tonne of minerals with him.
He was also a major shareholder in Jaya TV; he sold his stake to V K Sasikala after Jayalalithaa was admitted to hospital last year.
Vaikundarajan also owns shares in Midas Distilleries, which Sasikala owns.
"I have shares in 220 companies," he says.
Vaikundarajan, who has been mining beach sand for 25 years, is India's largest exporter of garnets. For 21 years running.
Though many journalists have written about sand mining in Tamil Nadu, he sued one journalist for alleged defamation.
Vaikundarajan, below, spoke to Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar about mining and controversy.
Many reporters have written about sand mining. Why did you sue one journalist for alleged defamation?
There is a gang of people working against me. A retired ADGP (additional director general of police) and a few retired IAS officers are working to trouble me.
I have video evidence of this journalist meeting the ADGP.
Someone told them I have this video. So now they are saying their life is in danger.
I have mined 92 lakh (9.2 million) tonnes of beach minerals in 10 years.
I have exported 67 lakh (6.7 million) tonnes; the rest are in my godowns. Everything is accounted for.
In 2008, the then DMK government stopped sand mining. Since then, I always stock minerals as I knew it could happen again.
Earlier, you never spoke to the media. Now you give interviews, What changed?
I never talked to the press because I was misquoted by some reporters.
I now speak to only those reporters whom I know and trust.
You are one of the biggest businessmen in the state, yet last year you were absconding from the police. Why?
That was a case involving the Tuticorin port trust chairman. His mother owned a 12 acre property near the Madurai airport.
I was planning a joint venture with a Japanese company. They told me the unit should be within one hour of an airport.
So, keeping the Madurai airport in mind, I wanted to buy that land.
When I came to know it was agricultural land, I knew it would be very difficult to change its status for commercial purposes.
I told them it would take years and I was not interested.
I bought the land with a written agreement which specified that they should change its status for me. I paid Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million) through cheque.
They were supposed to change the classification in three years. They could not.
I sued them, cancelled the agreement and demanded my money back.
The case went for arbitration.
At that time his (the TPT chairman's) house was raided in another case.
They found this agreement at his home. They immediately filed an FIR against me and said I was absconding.
Why were you were arrested during the DMK regime?
When the government wants to harass you, they will file an FIR on some ground.
People say you were close to Jayalalithaa and that's why...
It was a professional relationship.
Being a businessman, I have to be in touch with the ruling party.
I have been in touch with both parties to get a licence.
Nothing else was there.
Why did you sell your shares in Jaya TV to Sasikala when Jayalalithaa was in hospital?
I didn't only have Jaya TV shares. I also have Sun TV shares, Raj TV shares and shares of other TV channels like NDTV. I have shares in 220 companies.
I am also a shareholder in Midas Distilleries. I am not a director of any company.
For me, shareholding is an investment.
I bought Jaya TV when the AIADMK was ruling. I sold it when I got a profit.
What's wrong in that?
Why was sand mining banned in Tamil Nadu?
It was not banned, it was stopped.
The government said they wanted to investigate the business.
They are doing it since 2013. They have been inspecting for four years now.
We have gone to court challenging them.
What is the future of sand mining in India?
I have no idea. That depends on government policy.
What about the people who were working for you after sand mining was stopped?
I had to send them home. What else could I do?
I gave them salary for two years. We retained only those who had worked for more than three years.
After that we retained only those who were working for more than five years.
The ones I could employ in my other industries I have employed them.
It was not possible to employ all of them.
The IMD has said temperatures in most parts of the country from March to May would be above normal. Sanjeeb Mukherjee reports.
The sudden rise in temperature across much of the north, central and western parts of the country in the last week of March heralded the arrival of summer and rattled everyone.
If the meteorological forecast is correct, this is just the beginning: April and May are expected to be hot and dry, and could lead to a severe water crisis.
"Barring a minor relief in the next three to four days, temperatures across most parts of the country would be above normal in April and May. There is unlikely to be any pre-monsoon activity over the next two months," said Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist at Skymet, a private weather forecasting firm.
The India Meteorological Department, too, in its summer forecast in February, had said temperatures in most parts of the country from March to May would be above normal.
About 16 states would experience a heat wave.
In a recent workshop on dealing with heat waves, the Met said May would be worse than April, with temperatures rising above 42C in many places. Worse, the monsoon outlook for this year has inspired little confidence so far.
The IMD is expected to release the official monsoon forecast in mid-April. But, if forecasts of private agencies and some global models are considered, the rains this year could be less than average.
All this seems to signal a long, dry summer. This could have severe consequences for people, livestock and agriculture.
The levels in the 91-odd reservoirs across the country, which provide water for drinking and irrigation, have also started falling.
Between March 16 and 30, water levels in these reservoirs dropped by four percentage points, reaching 33 per cent of their full capacity.
The situation in reservoirs of the south is the worst, with water levels dropping fast.
Most experts believe as it gets hotter, water levels could shrink quicker than expected, triggering a crisis.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a recent directive to all ministries and states, urged them to focus on water conservation projects under various schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana in the next three months.
Under the MGNREGA, the Centre had planned to build about 9,00,000 farm ponds across the country in 2016-17. Most of these were supposed to be built in drought-prone states such as Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
"Drinking water is likely to be impacted first," Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South-Asia Network of Dams, Rivers and People, said.
The water crisis because of the heat wave and a prolonged summer is likely to be different in different parts of the country.
"Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are already suffering from drought. The summer might aggravate the condition. Elsewhere, too, rural areas seem more vulnerable to drinking water and other sorts of crisis," said Thakkar of South-Asia Network of Dams, Rivers and People.
He said the push towards building farm ponds and other conservation projects by the state and central governments was good.
However, a study of farm ponds in Maharashtra showed in many places people filled these with groundwater, without waiting for the rains to arrive. This defeated the entire exercise.
According to international water safety organisation Water Aid, India has the most number of rural people living without access to clean water -- 63.4 million. It ranked in the top 38 per cent of countries most vulnerable to climate change and least ready to adapt.
A report published by it also shows with 67 per cent of the population in rural areas and 7 per cent of the rural population living without access to clean water, the rural poor were highly vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather and climate change.
"If the summer is long and El Nino leads to a delay in monsoon, it could effect three major areas -- on agriculture in rain-fed areas; livestock in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka; and the human population, as water demand will rise fast while replenishment of reservoirs, tanks and wells could take longer than usual," said Bharat Sharma, professor emeritus, International Water Management Institute.
The IMD, the National Disaster Management Authority, the Red Cross Society and the Medical Council of India have got into a mission mode to tackle the ill-effects of summer.
So far, most agriculturists have said the sudden rise in temperature has not had much impact on farming, except for late-sown varieties of wheat, pulses or mustard.
The bulk of the crop has already been harvested. However, if the summer is prolonged and the monsoon is late, this could have an impact on sowing patterns and maturity of crops, leading to lower yields.
"In some parts of western Uttar Pradesh, the standing wheat crop might be impacted because of the sudden rise in temperatures. 70-80 per cent of the crop in these parts is sown late. Besides this, the heat wave does not seem to have any impact on other rabi crops," a senior scientist said.
He said wheat was sown late -- around December last year -- in western UP, as most farmers were waiting to clear the sugarcane crop from their fields.
"If the high temperature continues for long, it might delay sowing of new sugarcane crops. No farmer would like to take the risk of crops withering," he said.
Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
IMAGE: The ministry of defence spokesperson had tweeted this image of a Chetak Helicopter on top of the PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS 35 in coordinated anti piracy ops. Photograph: @SpokespersonMoD/Twitter
China on Monday denied any credit for the Indian Navy for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, claiming that its naval ship equipped with a helicopter saved the 19-member crew.
Declining to acknowledge any role for the Indian Navy which said its chopper provided the air cover for the Chinese soldiers to enter the Tuvalu-flagged ship OS35, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the air support was provided by a Chinese helicopter attached to the ship.
The missile frigate Yulin circled the ship while its helicopter provided air cover, she said, making no mention of the Indian Navys helicopter support to the Chinese troops.
The Chinese naval ship, part of the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters, rushed to the hijacked ship as soon as it received a message from UK Maritime Trade Organisation on April 8, she told reporters.
Rescue operation was launched on early Sunday morning. Sixteen Chinese soldiers successfully boarded the timber-carrying freighter, and freed its crew, she said.
They also conducted a comprehensive search of the ship to make sure no pirate was on board. Nineteen crew members released from the strong room where they had taken shelter, while also searching the ship to ensure there were no further threats, she said.
We believe the aforementioned operation demonstrated the effectiveness of Chinas naval forces in the field of fighting against pirates, as well as Chinas image as a responsible major country in safeguarding regional peace and stability, she said.
When questioned about the absence of any reference to the Indian Navys role in the operation, Hua said Chinas ministry of defence should be approached for details.
I have already given to you what I have learnt. The Chinese convoy received report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I refer you to the Chinese defence ministry, she said.
As I just said the Chinese side is always positive towards international cooperation against pirates. This position is very clear, she reiterated.
Her comments followed a Chinese navy statement on Sunday night that omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese soldiers.
When asked about the Chinese navys statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD.
He also posted a picture which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.
The surprise omission of Indian Navys role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.
The Indian Navy on Sunday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.
The Indian Navy also said that the Chinese navy thanked it for its role in the operation.
In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe, Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said on Sunday.
Chinas disinclination to acknowledge Indian Navys role came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lamas visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, Chinas opposition to Indias Nuclear Suppliers Group membership and Beijing blocking Indias effort to declare Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the United Nations.
China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.
In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navys help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, from pirates. At that time, Chinese navys flotilla was on an escort duty in the Gulf of Aden -- 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault.
Reacting strongly, India on Monday said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence, awarded to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a strongly-worded demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav were "farcical" as there were no "credible evidence" against him.
Reacting to a press release by Pakistan military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations on Jadhav, India said he was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.
India, through its high commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law and 13 such requests were formally made between 25 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, the demarche said.
"This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities," it said.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that Indian high commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.
Jadhav was "arrested" on March 3 last year by Pakistani security forces in the restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was "a serving officer" in the Indian Navy and deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing.
The Pakistan Army had released a "confessional video" of Jadhav after his arrest.
India has acknowledged that Jadhav served with the navy but denied he has any connection with the government.
Angry over Pakistans decision to execute an Indian national for spying, India on Monday stopped the release of a dozen Pakistani prisoners, who were to be repatriated on Wednesday after completion of their prison term.
The move came within hours of Pakistan Armys announcement that its chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for alleged espionage and sabotage activities.
The government feels that it is not the right time for the release of Pakistani prisoners, official sources said.
The retaliatory action came as India made it clear that it will be regarded as premeditated murder if Pakistan carries out the death sentence without observing basic norms of law and justice.
The sources said India had no clue about Jadhavs trial in a military court in Pakistan and felt that it was a stage-managed drama -- from capturing Jadav to alleged confession and finally the so-called trial.
India was never given consular access despite repeated requests to Pakistani authorities, the sources said.
The death sentence to Jadhav, 46, was confirmed by Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the Field General Court Martial found him guilty of all the charges, said the militarys media wing Inter-Services Public Relations in Rawalpindi.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan high commissioner to India Abdul Basit and issued a strongly-worded demarche.
Setting their sight on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, top National Democratic Alliance leaders on Monday pledged to work unitedly to win a second term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asserted his strong leadership was required for Indias progress.
Leaders of 33 NDA constituents also adopted a resolution endorsing Modis leadership and his governments policies, while resolving to strengthen the alliance by expanding its base, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters.
Replying to a question as to whether the presidential election also came up for discussion, Jaitley said, It was not on the agenda.
Replying to an identical question, Telugu Desam Party Chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said NDA partners will collectively take a call on that whenever the issue was deliberated upon.
All NDA constituents hailed the performance of the Modi government, especially the leadership of the prime minister, Jaitley told reporters.
The NDA allies also passed a resolution to work together to win a second term under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi in 2019, he said.
The minister said the ruling alliance has expanded its support base in the last three years during which its popularity and acceptability has also gone up.
Echoing similar sentiments, Naidu said, India will be the only country which will have double digit growth and this is only possible under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi.
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister said the NDA allies are committed to working in tandem to win the 2019 elections under Modis leadership.
The meeting began with the inaugural address by BJP President Amit Shah. His speech was followed by those of Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal, TDP supremo Naidu and Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, who has often targeted the Modi government and BJP, was also present and addressed the gathering.
Peoples Democratic Party leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti could not attend the meeting and a representative deputised for her.
The meeting, only the second such gathering of NDA constituents since it came to power at the Centre in 2014, was also attended by the new friends the coalition has won over in Goa and north-eastern states.
Both Jaitley and Naidu unanimously identified clean and corruption-free governance provided by the Modi dispensation as its biggest achievement.
On Monday, under the able leadership of Modi, Indias presence is being felt and acknowledged at the global level. Countrymen across the world feel proud about being Indian, Naidu said.
Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi being greeted by Shiv Sena President Udhav Thackeray as Home Minister Rajnath Singh looks on at a meeting of National Democratic Alliance at Pravasi Baratiya Kendra in New Delhi. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo
Kerala, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are facing a severe drought this year, affecting many lives.
Karnataka: Worst drought in decades
The Krishnaraja Sagara Dam, which stores water from the Cauvery river, is hitting its dead storage level, a 15-year low. Dead storage is when the remaining volume of water is below the level of the lowest outlet; it cannot be accessed under normal operating conditions. The authorities have said summer crops cannot be irrigated.
A new crisis is brewing, after 2016 the worst drought year for Karnataka in four decades. The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Cell says all major reservoirs in the state are near their dead storage. The government is now focused on providing drinking water, at the cost of standing crops.
Each year, the cumulative effect (of lack of rain) is carried forward. If this year, too, the state continues to have below-average rain, it will be worse than the last year, says Srinivasa Reddy, the monitoring cells director.
Almost 75 per cent of the minor irrigation tanks have dried up in the state. Groundwater levels are 80 per cent lower than what they used to be 10 years ago.
Currently, drinking water is being transported to 600 villages. In urban areas, 400 wards are depending on tankers for drinking. There is a huge scarcity of fodder as well, and this will impact the kharif, rabi and summer crops, added Reddy.
Last year, the crisis prompted Karnataka to deny Cauvery water to the lower riparian state, Tamil Nadu, prompting the neighbour to seek the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It also saw violence in Bengaluru and disruption in transport and bus services between the two states.
The state government has allotted Rs 30 crore for cloud seeding to generate artificial rainfall in regions. It says it has also made sure that all farmers have taken insurance for their crops.
In the past six months, rain in the state has been 40-70 per cent less than the norm. Agricultural production has come down by 50 per cent. The government has set up fodder banks. Of 176 taluks in the state, 160 have been declared drought-hit. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 17,000 crore to the state.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha member of Parliament, says the districts of north Karnataka have been especially hit. People are selling their cattle and property at throwaway prices and migrating. They're not returning, even at the risk of losing their farmland.
-- Apurva Venkat
Kerala: Never had it so bad
Kerala has not seen a worse drought in 100 years. It is affecting the lives of humans, cattle and also wild animals. The state got early signs of drought when the southwest monsoon -- from June 1 to September 30, 2016 -- recorded a rainfall deficiency of 33.7 per cent.
The following northeast monsoon -- from October 1 to December 1 -- fell short by 61.7 per cent. January and February were also deficient.
According to the authorities, annual rainfall in the state varies from 360 cm in the extreme north to about 180 cm in the southern parts. During the southwest monsoon, the Edavappathi, the state generally receives about 70 per cent of its annual rain. The northeast monsoon, the Thulavarsham, would balance any deficiency in the earlier one. This time, both were deficient, leaving the state with the worst drought in a century.
According to the Central Water Commission's report for the week ended March 23, storage as a percentage of live capacity at full reservoir level was low in four of the five major ones in the state; in the fifth, Idamalayar, it was less than the average in the past 10 years.
The government announced in October all the districts were drought-hit and it had been taking steps. However, officials say the situation could worsen.
V S Sunil Kumar, minister for agriculture, said: Around 30,000 hectares have been affected so far and we are afraid of more losses if the water scarcity continues.
Around 200,000 farmers have been affected so far and the government has increased the crop insurance. The loss in agriculture alone has been around Rs 250 crore, till now, said sources.
The state has asked the Centre for Rs 992 crore in assistance. A delegation from the Centre is expected to visit next month.
-- Gireesh Babu
Tamil Nadu: Unquenchable thirst
Tamil Nadu is facing one of the worst droughts in 144 years. Rainfall was a combined 62 per cent deficient in the two monsoons.
Water levels in reservoirs are 80 per cent below normal; in the capital city, Chennai, fed entirely by reservoirs, these are only 10-20 per cent full.
In the states 15 major reservoirs, with total storage capacity of 198.4 billion cubic ft, the water available as on December-end was only 25.7 bcf. It was 126.2 bcf on the same day in 2015.
The combined storage in the four drinking water reservoirs which cater to Chennai city, was a little below two bcf, less than a fifth of what it was at the same time in 2015. And, the main monsoon here, the northeast monsoon, will not come again till next October.
The entire state has been declared drought-affected. Input subsidy relief totalling Rs 2,247 crore has been sanctioned. And, the Centre asked to sanction Rs 39,565 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund.
The government is taking up works like erection of new deep borewells, rejuvenation of existing ones and open wells, replacement of pumpsets and even supply of water through lorries, at a cost of Rs 460 crore in rural areas and Rs 150 crore in urban areas.
The Farmers Association claims 254 cultivators have committed suicide since October, which the government says it cant confirm.
One of the first measures announced by Chief Minister E K Palaniswami was the Rs 2,247-crore package mentioned earlier, for drought-hit farmers. A senior with the agriculture department said they were also working on a demand to write off crop loans. A central drought inspection team has recommended a drought fund of Rs 2,096 crore.
The situation has also been exacerbated by the non-release of Cauvery water by Karnataka.
By the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, 182 bcf was to be released by Karnataka between June 1 and December end; saying it could spare none, it released only 67.2 bcf. As a result, storage in Mettur Dam, the main reservoir which serves the Cauvery Delta, was too low to save a single paddy crop in the Cauvery basin of Tamil Nadu.
-- T E Narasimhan
Andhra Pradesh & Telangana: One more gloomy story
Andhra Pradesh faces drought and drinking water scarcity problems. However, sibling Telangana does not; it had above-normal rain last year.
In Andhra, only about 80 per cent of the normal area was sown in the kharif and rabi seasons -- rain was deficient, groundwater had depleted and there was lack of water in the Krishna river canal system. However, sowing was near-normal in Telangana.
Latest reports suggest that several districts in Andhra Pradesh, including Anantapur, Prakasam and Krishna districts, were facing severe drinking water shortage in March itself. In Telangana, the authorities have noticed drinking water shortage in parts of the old Mahabubnagar district and Chandupatla area in Nalgonda district.
Even so, the Telangana government has prepared a contingency plan, with a budget of Rs 105 crore, for drinking water supply in problem areas during the summer. Given earlier experiences, it is better not to take a chance, says K Vijayapal Reddy, chief engineer of the rural water supply department.
As for Andhra, the districts of Anantapur, Prakasam and Krishna had a severe drinking water shortage in March itself. Both the northeast and southwest monsoons werent enough.
The state government declared 301 of the 664 mandals as drought affected at the time of kharif planting.
The Rayalaseema region is water-deficient and drought has been declared in all 60-odd mandals of Anantapur district, where the standing groundnut crop has had major loss. The state is providing Rs 664 crore worth of input subsidy to farmers whove lost their crop.
In the Krishna delta, canal water is stored or use in summer. As there were no releases under the Krishna canal system downstream of Nagarjuna Sagar, many of these tanks remained empty.
Groundwater in most of the areas in Krishna and other districts which are closer to the sea are saline. Hence, water has to now be transported from other areas to meet even the drinking water needs of villages in these areas.
In Telangana, however, with the good rain last year, many tanks and small lakes still have water and that suffices for drinking water needs in villages. As the crop area was normal in both kharif and rabi, the authorities are not anticipating fodder scarcity this summer.
-- Dasarath Reddy
IMAGE: Farmers from Tamil Nadu protest at Delhis Jantar Mantar demanding a drought-relief package from the central government.
A teacher and a student were shot dead in a murder-suicide at an elementary school in San Bernardino, California.
IMAGE: Students who were evacuated after a shooting at North Park Elementary School walk past well-wishers to be reunited with their waiting parents in San Bernardino, California. Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Another child caught in the crossfire was rushed to a hospital and said to be in critical condition.
"This does appear to have been a murder-suicide with both male adult and female adult victim succumbing to injuries, with the male succumbing to a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Lieutenant Mike Madden of the San Bernardino Police Department told a news conference on Monday.
"We had two students who were tragically injured and are listed as critical at this stage in area hospitals."
Police later confirmed that one of the students, eight-year-old Jonathan Martinez, had died.
IMAGE: A student embraced her mother after the shooting got over.
Police identified the gunman as local resident Cedric Anderson, 53, and said the teacher, Karen Elaine Smith, also 53, was his estranged wife.
Students at North Park Elementary School -- which has around 500 students between kindergarten and sixth grade -- were transported to a nearby campus.
"Police operations are continuing to secure the area. However, we do believe the threat is down," city Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said.
Some parents, who rushed to the scene of the shooting immediately after news of it broke on Monday morning, were able to go home with their families straight away.
One young student described being evacuated from her class after being reunited with her mother outside the school.
IMAGE: Police vehicles are pictured after the shooting.
All of the kids started running out. It was pretty scary, the child said through tears.
San Bernardino was the site of a mass shooting in December 2015 that left 14 people dead at a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center.
The shooters -- married couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik -- were killed hours later in a police shootout.
The shooting comes as San Bernardino has seen a major increase in violence.
There were 62 slayings in San Bernardino in 2016 -- a 41% increase from the year before.
It was an entirely vegetarian fare at the lunch hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull on Monday.
The lunch held at Hyderabad House was a 14-course meal with a starter, soup, kebabs, main course and three desserts.
The meal began with Paanipuri shots described as stuffed puffs with street food masala served with a shot of tangy asfetida flavoured water, moved on to a Broccoli Walnut Soup, two kinds of kababs -- Rajmah Galauti kabab and a spinach and beetroot seekh kabab.
Koftas, dals, Arbi Musallams, pulao comprised the main course.
The Australian delegation lunched to a violin, keyboard and tabla concert and ended the meal with a three-course dessert of kulfi falooda, crisp jalebis and fresh fruits.
Turnbull arrived in New Delhi on Sunday on a four-day visit, his first to the country after assuming office in 2015.
India and Australia inked six pacts including one aimed at boosting counter-terrorism cooperation after talks between Modi and Turnbull.
The two leaders held comprehensive discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.
On Tuesday, Turnbull will visit Mumbai where he will attend several events, including an interaction with key business leaders and an energy round-table.
Photograph: Amitabh Mattoo/Twitter
The Opposition on Monday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tarun Vijay in Parliament for his purported racial remarks and demanded FIR against him even as the government deprecated the comment and said the individual has apologised.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha that India is a secular country and there would be no discrimination based on caste, creed, colour and religion.
Singh was responding after the Congress slammed the reported remarks by Vijay, a former member of the Rajya Sabha, and forced two brief adjournments -- once during the Question Hour and twice during the Zero Hour.
The party had given notice for adjournment motion to discuss the issue but it was rejected by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
In the Rajya Sabha, the issue was subtly raised by Communist Party of India leader D Raja who called himself a dark-skinned black South Indian.
Intervening immediately, Minister for IT and Law Ravi Shankar Prasad said, Without naming the person, we fully deprecate that remark. He has already apologised.
In the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge attacked the BJP over the remarks and questioned what action would be taken against Vijay who is not an ordinary person as he was a former Rajya Sabha member and has also written many books on BJP philosophy.
I want to know whether we are Indians or not? Are we not citizens (of India), Kharge asked during Zero Hour.
His (Vijays) remarks are a threat to the unity of the country and you want to divide this country, Kharge said, adding that if such things go on, then states would start asserting for independence.
This shows your mentality, he said as he sought to compare them to the likes of Hitler and condemned the remarks. FIR should be lodged against him (Tarun Vijay). He has talked about breaking the nation. It is anti-national, Kharge said.
In his response, Rajnath Singh said, The individual has already said that his remarks are indefensible.
Reading out from a statement which he attributed to Vijay, the home minister said since the individual has already apologised, there is no need to raise any more questions about it.
As the protests continued even after Singhs statement, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said This (House) is not a court.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar sought to soothe the agitating members saying, We are all one. The country is one.
After the House met again at 12.45 pm, Kumar said the Home Minister has already given the reply and an apology has been tendered by Vijay.
BJP is of the view that we all are Indians. There is no difference on the basis of colour. We all are one. Congress should not create differences. We are all together.
Kharge ji please dont try to create differences... One India. Great India, he emphasised.
Earlier during Question Hour, Kumar urged the Opposition to allow Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to respond to the question posed to her in Question Hour, saying she was a minister from the South.
Dissatisfied with the ministers response, Opposition members, including from the Congress and the Left, trooped into the Well shouting slogans.
During Question Hour also, the Opposition members raised slogans in the Well.
The Opposition members were heard shouting, Modi Sarkar jawab do-jawab do (Modi government should respond), Desh ka vibhajan nahin chalega (Wont allow division of country) and We want FIR (against Vijay).
With the din continuing during the Zero Hour, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for over 20 minutes till 1245 hours.
The House was again adjourned till 1.50 pm as the protests continued.
There was also a brief adjournment of the House over the issue for 10 minutes till 1120 hours during the Question Hour.
Later in the day, the issue was raised in the Rajya Sabha in a subtle manner during a short discussion on Aadhaar by Raja who called himself a dark-skinned black South Indian.
Prasad responded: D Raja is very honourable member of the House. We (government) have full respect for him."
IMAGE: Tarun Vijay. Photograph: PTI Photo
Under a new extreme vetting policy being considered by the United States administration, British travellers may have to hand over personal information, including social media passwords and mobile phone contacts or be denied entry, according to The Guardian.
Other US allies including Germany and France, could also be forced to reveal personal data, as well as disclose financial information and face detailed ideological questioning, according to Trump administration officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
The US customs and border patrol told The Guardian: All international travellers arriving to the US are subject to US Customs and Border Protection inspection. This inspection may include electronic devices such as computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players and any other electronic or digital devices.
Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation's laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials entering the US, it added.
This comes as last month the US and the United Kingdom announced a temporary ban on certain non-stop US-bound flights from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and some other electronics in carry-on luggage.
The decision was prompted by reports that militant groups want to smuggle explosive devices inside electronic gadgets.
The ban in UK applies to inbound flights from six countries that are Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey while in the US, the ban applies to flights from eight countries Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Later, the Australian government also said that passengers flying from Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi will undergo random explosive detection tests and targeted screening of electronic devices.
Photograph: Laura Buckman/Reuters
Dissident condemns Chinese leadership of Interpol
Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 7 April 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Dissident condemns Chinese leadership of Interpol, 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58e79fdd4.html [accessed 8 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shares the concern of well-known Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who is currently visiting France to protest against the election of a former Chinese deputy minister of public security to head Interpol. China could use this position to monitor or even obstruct the movements of journalists, bloggers and other human rights defenders.
Meng Hongwei had been a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party for more than 40 years when he was elected in November 2016 as president of Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, which is based in the French city of Lyon. When Meng was China's deputy minister of public security, human rights organizations repeatedly accused his department of grave human rights violations including the use of torture, arbitrary detention and the suppression of human rights.
One of the chief reasons for concern about Meng's appointment is the system of "red notices" that Interpol circulates to all member countries to notify them that an arrest warrant has been issued by a judicial authority in a member country or by an international court. In 2015, Interpol issued around 100 of these notices about individuals wanted by the Chinese authorities without it being clear whether Interpol was able to verify their legitimacy and the absence of any political dimension to the case. Interpol is currently looking for a total of 160 persons who are wanted by the Chinese authorities for "fraud", an extremely vague accusation that China often uses as grounds for arresting government opponents and political refugees.
"Normally, if you live under a dictatorship, you can flee to another country. But I am afraid that, as a result of this appointment, all police forces will cooperate with the Chinese government." the dissident Wei said at a news conference in Lyon on 5 April that was organized for him by the newspaper Lyon Capitale.
Speaking to RSF, Wei Jingsheng pointed out that Beijing now has access to sensitive informations it didn't have before and that "The appointment of Meng Hongwei indicated that Interpol has strengthened its cooperation with the Chinese government. Through the propaganda and misleading of the Chinese Communist regime, Chinese people believe that all the police in the world systematically and actively collaborate with the Chinese government."
One of the chief reasons for concern about Meng's appointment is the system of "red notices" that Interpol circulates to all member countries to notify them that an arrest warrant has been issued by a judicial authority in a member country or by an international court. In 2015, Interpol issued around 100 of these notices about individuals wanted by the Chinese authorities without it being clear whether Interpol was able to verify their legitimacy and the absence of any political dimension to the case. Interpol is currently looking for a total of 160 persons who are wanted by the Chinese authorities for "fraud", an extremely vague accusation that China often uses as grounds for arresting government opponents and political refugees.
"Normally, if you live under a dictatorship, you can flee to another country. But I am afraid that, as a result of this appointment, all police forces will cooperate with the Chinese government." the dissident Wei said at a news conference in Lyon on 5 April that was organized for him by the newspaper Lyon Capitale.
Speaking to RSF, Wei Jingsheng pointed out that Beijing now has access to sensitive informations it didn't have before and that "The appointment of Meng Hongwei indicated that Interpol has strengthened its cooperation with the Chinese government. Through the propaganda and misleading of the Chinese Communist regime, Chinese people believe that all the police in the world systematically and actively collaborate with the Chinese government."
"Wei Jingsheng's outrage and concern about the danger of having a leading persecutor of human rights defenders at the head of Interpol are far from being exaggerated," said Benjamin Ismail, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "We point out that China is ranked 176th out of 180 countries in the 2016 World Press Freedom Index. The international community should at the very least insist on guarantees from Interpol that it will not be manipulated and that it will review its 'red notice' procedures so that they are not used against Chinese journalists and bloggers and anyone trying to cover the disastrous human rights situation in China."
RSF has had concerns in the past about Interpol's cooperation with judicial systems that take orders from the executive, and with governments that harass journalists and human rights defenders. In 2013, RSF condemned French journalist Daniel Laine's conviction in absentia by a court in Phnom Penh over a TV report he had made on sex tourism in Cambodia. Although Laine had not been able to defend himself at the trial, Interpol issued a red notice that led to his arrest while on a trip to Cuba. He avoided extradition only because there is no bilateral accord between Cuba and Cambodia.
At the Sri Lankan government's request, Interpol issued a red notice in 2010 for the arrest of Chandima Withanaarachch, the editor of a website covering corruption and human rights violations in Sri Lanka. It was clearly intended to discourage journalists from covering subjects that embarrassed the government.
RSF reported a similar case of Interpol being manipulated, in this case by the government of Maldives, in 2005, when the Sri Lankan police raided the Colombo headquarters of a Maldivian exile radio station and website, radio Minivan and Minivannews.com. The Sri Lankan police acted in response to a request from Interpol, which had received a baseless claim from the Maldivian authorities that the exile journalists were planning to overthrow the Maldivian government by force and had hidden weapons in their offices in Colombo.
Authorities must investigate violent attack by forest guards on Sengwer activist
Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 5 April 2017 Citation / Document Symbol AFR 32/6032/2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Authorities must investigate violent attack by forest guards on Sengwer activist, 5 April 2017, AFR 32/6032/2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58e7a5874.html [accessed 8 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 Kenyan authorities must immediately investigate Sunday's violent attack, carried out by Kenya Forest Service (KFS) guards, on Elias Kimaiyo, a Sengwer community leader, in Embobut forest in the North Rift Valley. Kimaiyo is currently in a hospital in Eldoret with a broken arm and kneecap.
Kimaiyo, speaking to Amnesty International from his hospital bed on Monday, said, "I was taking pictures of Kenya Forest Service Guards who were burning houses of the Sengwer in Embobut forest. I counted 29 burnt houses."
He added, "The guards started shooting at me. I ran, but tripped and fell, breaking my kneecap, and they caught up with me. They hit me with the butt of a rifle, and broke my arm. They took two cameras and an iPad from me." Human rights defenders, like everyone else, have the right to pursue their non-violent activities without harassment or intimidation, including the collecting of video and other documentary evidence.
The Sengwer are an Indigenous People, a large number of whom have been evicted from the Embobut forest as a result of a flawed consultation and compensation process in 2014. The decision to evict was based on an assessment that the forest constitutes a crucial source of water for the country and was critically degraded; the Sengwer maintain that they live in harmony with the forest ecosystem, and that other temporarily relocated communities and loggers were responsible for its degradation. The European Union, World Bank and Finnish government are funding, or are proposing to fund projects focused on environmental protection in the forest, usually through institutional support to the KFS.
Amnesty International has documented numerous human rights violations associated with the consultation and resettlement process. As the Sengwer are an Indigenous People, the Kenyan government was obliged to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before evicting them from the forest; however the decision to evict was unilaterally imposed by the government; the consultation only addressed the form compensation would take.
Many Sengwer did not receive cash compensation despite their families having lived in the forest for generations. Sengwer women suffered multiple discrimination in the process; although the parameters of the process required all qualifying adults to benefit, in many cases only one male in the family received compensation. In the cases where money was paid out, it was not sufficient to make up for the land and livelihoods lost; many of those interviewed by Amnesty International are living in poverty in surrounding villages, in some cases large families are hosted in one room of a relative's house.
Others have returned to the forest, and live in temporary huts. Amnesty International has collected evidence of regular arrests of Sengwer and burning of their constructions in the forest by KFS guards, in disregard of the injunction of Eldoret High Court of 26 March 2013, which requires government agencies not to interfere "with the petitioners' occupation, control and quiet enjoyment of the land".
Amnesty International urges the Kenyan authorities to:
Urgently investigate the attack on Kimaiyo leading to his hospitalisation, and ensure that any persons responsible are brought to justice in proceedings which meet international standards of fairness;
- Cease all house burnings in Embobut, and arrests of Sengwer for being in the forest, in compliance with the High Court injunction;
- Enter into genuine negotiations with the Sengwer with regard to the fulfilment of their right to land in the Embobut Forest, as guaranteed by the Constitution and international human rights standards;
Amnesty International urges the European Union, World Bank and government of Finland to:
- Ensure the free, prior and informed consent of the Sengwer is obtained with regard to
any programmes funded by them in Embobut Forest.
Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International
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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.
Iran: Fears grow for health of jailed journalist on hunger strike
Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 7 April 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Iran: Fears grow for health of jailed journalist on hunger strike, 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb3c484.html [accessed 8 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.
Fears are growing for a jailed journalist and political activist whose health has deteriorated sharply after 30 days on hunger strike, said Amnesty International.
Hengameh Shahidi, 41, who has a pre-existing heart condition, went on hunger strike on 9 March in protest at her arbitrary arrest that day. She is in a critical condition in Tehran's Evin prison where she is being held in solitary confinement. She has also stopped taking her medication and is refusing intravenous fluids.
"Hengameh Shahidi's arbitrary arrest and detention shows again the Iranian authorities' utter contempt for human rights. They must release her immediately and unconditionally as she appears to be held solely for exercising her rights to freedom of expression and association," said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
"One month into Hengameh Shahidi's detention, the authorities have still not provided her access to a specialist heart doctor. Instead of prolonging her suffering, the authorities must immediately give her the specialized medical treatment she needs."
The Office of the Prosecutor informed Hengameh Shahidi's family this week that doctors from the Legal Medicine Organization, a state forensic institute, will visit Evin prison to examine her within days. This follows repeated requests from her family for her to receive specialist medical care.
According to her mother, Hengameh Shahidi told her interrogator: "if something happens to me, you will have to answer for it The President, Ministry of Intelligence, the Office of the Prosecutor, and the judiciary [will be] responsible for my death."
The authorities have not informed Hengameh Shahidi of the charges against her and have refused to allow her to have any contact with her lawyer. She has been allowed only limited contact with her family.
Hengameh Shahidi was also previously arrested in 2009 and sentenced to six years' imprisonment on charges of "gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the system", in relation to her journalism and activism. She was released on medical grounds in May 2011.
Hengameh Shahidi is among several journalists who have been detained as part of a wave of arrests ahead of Iran's presidential elections in May. They include newspaper editor Ehsan Mazandarani who was arrested by Revolutionary Guards officials on 11 March, and editor-in-chief of Goftegoo (Conversation) magazine Morad Saghafi, who was arrested on 15 March. A number of administrators of channels on the mobile messaging app Telegram, which is a platform used by millions of people in Iran, have also been arrested.
Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International
Indonesia: Release Gay Men at Risk of Torture
Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 9 April 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Indonesia: Release Gay Men at Risk of Torture , 9 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb3e0d4.html [accessed 8 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.
Indonesian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release two men detained in Aceh province under a local ordinance that criminalizes homosexuality, Human Rights Watch said today.
On the night of March 28, 2017, unidentified vigilantes forcibly entered a home and brought two men found there to the police for allegedly having same-sex relations. The two men, in their twenties, have been detained at a Wilayatul Hisbah, a Sharia (Islamic law) police facility in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. The chief inspector indicated that the men had confessed to being gay and would be detained for sentencing. Under Aceh's Islamic Criminal Code (Qanun Jinayah), they face up to 100 lashes in public-a punishment that constitutes torture under international law.
"The arrest and detention of these two men underscores the abuse imbedded in Aceh's discriminatory, anti-LGBT ordinances," said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia division director at Human Right Watch. "These men had their privacy invaded in a frightening and humiliating manner and now face public torture for the 'crime' of their alleged sexual orientation."
Cell phone video footage of the raid, apparently shot by one of the vigilantes and circulating on social media, shows one of the two men visibly distressed as he calls for help on his cellphone. "Please brother, please stop," one of the men says in the video. "My parents want to talk to you, they can pick me up." Aceh's Sharia ordinances empower members of the public as well as the special Sharia police to publicly identify and detain anyone suspected of violating its rules.
Aceh's Sharia police have previously detained lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. In October 2015, Sharia police arrested two women, ages 18 and 19, on suspicion of being lesbians for embracing in public and detained them for three nights at a Sharia police facility in Banda Aceh. Sharia police repeatedly attempted to compel the two women to identify other suspected LGBT people in Aceh by showing them photographs of individuals taken from social media accounts.
Over the past decade, Aceh's parliament has gradually adopted Sharia-inspired ordinances that criminalize non-hijab-wearing women, drinking alcohol, gambling, and extramarital sexual relations, all of which can be enforced against non-Muslims. Aceh's LGBT population is also vulnerable to Aceh's 2014 Criminal Code that bars liwath (sodomy) and musahabah (lesbian sexual action). Aceh province imposed the Sharia punishment of multiple lashes of a cane against 339 people in 2016.
Under national legislation stemming from a 2001 "Special Status" agreement, Aceh is the only one of Indonesia's 34 provinces that can legally adopt bylaws derived from Sharia. Human Rights Watch opposes all laws or government policies that are discriminatory or otherwise violate basic rights. Under Indonesian law, the national home affairs minister can review and repeal local bylaws, including those adopted in Aceh. In June, Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo backtracked on his announced commitment to abolish abusive Sharia regulations in the country.
Local government officials in Aceh have actively stoked homophobia, Human Rights Watch said. In 2012 then-Banda Aceh Deputy Mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin advocated harsh punishments for homosexuality, telling the media: "If we ignore it, it will be like an icebergEven if one case of homosexuality [is] found, it's already a problem...[W]e are really concerned about the behavior and activities of the gay community, because their behavior is deviating from the Islamic Shariah." In 2013, after Illiza was elected mayor of Banda Aceh, she told reporters that "homosexuals are encroaching on our city." In February 2016, she announced she would create a "special team" to make the public more aware of the "threat of LGBT" and to "train" LGBT people to "return to a normal life."
In April 2016, four United Nations special rapporteurs wrote to the Indonesian government expressing concerns about the abusive enforcement of Sharia against LGBT people, and sought the government's response. The government has yet to respond.
Aceh's discriminatory Sharia ordinances violate fundamental human rights guaranteed under core international human rights treaties to which Indonesia is party. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Indonesia ratified in 2005, protects the rights to privacy and family (article 17), and freedom of religion (article 18) and expression (article 19). The covenant prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, and other status such as sexual orientation (article 2). It also prohibits punishments such as whipping that amount to torture or cruel and inhuman punishment (article 7).
Anti-LGBT incidents across Indonesia have significantly increased since January 2016 and included police raids on suspected gatherings of gay men, attacks on LGBT activists, and vitriolic anti-LGBT rhetoric from officials and politicians. In October, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo broke his long silence on escalating anti-LGBT rhetoric by defending the rights of the country's LGBT community. He declared that "the police must act" against actions by bigoted groups or individuals to harm LGBT people or deny them their rights, and that "there should be no discrimination against anyone." However, Jokowi has not backed up that statement with action.
"President Jokowi should urgently intervene is this case to demonstrate his stated commitment to ending discrimination against LGBT people," Kine said. "Jokowi then needs to act to eliminate Aceh's discriminatory ordinances so these outrageous arrests don't happen again."
Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Zambia: Support International Criminal Court
Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 10 April 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Zambia: Support International Criminal Court , 10 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb3e694.html [accessed 8 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.
Zambia should reaffirm its membership in the International Criminal Court to best advance justice for victims of atrocities, a group of African organizations and international nongovernmental organizations with a presence in Africa said today.
Zambia's government began public consultations on the country's ICC membership the week of March 27, 2017. This was in response to the African Union summit's adoption in January of an "ICC withdrawal strategy." An unprecedented 16 countries, including Zambia, entered reservations to this decision.
"Zambia has much to gain by staying with the ICC," said Boniface Cheembe, executive director of Zambia's Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes. "Zambia has been a role model on the continent in matters of peace, democracy, and human rights. Leaving the ICC would erode the country's leadership and threaten respect for the rights of victims of the most brutal crimes across Africa."
The organizations, which have long worked together to support justice for grave crimes in Africa, also released an updated video featuring African activists on the importance of the ICC in Africa.
As a member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Zambia has a proud history in the establishment of the ICC, the organizations said. SADC was active in the diplomatic conference in Rome in 1998 where the ICC's treaty was finalized after six weeks of negotiations. SADC members developed 10 principles for an effective, independent, and impartial court at a meeting in Pretoria in 1997.
The ICC is a groundbreaking achievement in the fight against impunity, the organizations said. It is the first and only global criminal court that can prosecute individuals responsible for atrocities. It is a court of last resort in that it has the authority to try genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed since 2002, but only when national courts are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute. Since the court's treaty opened for signature in 1998, 124 countries have become members.
Zambia signed the ICC's Rome treaty on July 17, 1998, the day it opened for signature, and ratified the treaty on November 13, 2000.
The ICC faces many challenges in meeting the expectations of victims of mass atrocities and member countries, the organizations said. Its inability to reach crimes committed in some powerful countries and their allies is a cause for deep concern, even as claims that the ICC is targeting Africa are not supported by the facts. The court's reach is limited to crimes committed on the territories of countries that have joined the court or offered the court authority on its territory, absent a referral by the United Nations Security Council.
"The ICC has room for improvement, but it offers hope to victims who have nowhere else to turn for justice," said Dewa Mavhinga, Southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The court serves African victims who have suffered atrocities."
The majority of ICC investigations in Africa have arisen in response to requests or grants of authority by governments in the countries where the crimes were committed - as in Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Uganda - or through referrals by the UN Security Council - as in Darfur, Sudan and Libya.
The ICC has faced backlash from some African leaders since it issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur in 2009 and 2010. In 2016, evidence of the backlash reached new heights when South Africa, Burundi, and Gambia announced they would withdraw from the court, the first countries to take such action.
Gambia has rescinded its withdrawal and South Africa is also re-examining withdrawal, making Burundi the only country to have maintained its withdrawal. Under the ICC Statute, withdrawal goes into effect one year after the state party submits a notification to the UN Secretary-General.
In the wake of the announced withdrawals, many African countries - including Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Tunisia - have affirmed their commitment to remain in the ICC and to work for any reform as ICC members.
"We would encourage Zambia to reaffirm its support for the court, particularly in the absence of any functioning regional criminal court that can hold perpetrators to account," said Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, executive director, Southern Africa Litigation Centre. "Zambia's moves to reconsider its ICC membership raise concern."
The groups expressing support for Zambia's continued ICC membership are:
Africa Legal Aid
Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability-Ghana
Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law-Sierra Leone
Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (Malawi)
Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (Nigeria)
Coalition for the International Criminal Court
Federation Internationale des Droits de l'Homme
Human Rights Watch
JEYAX Development and Training (South Africa)
Kenya Section of the International Commission of Jurists
Kenya Human Rights Commission
Nigerian Coalition for the ICC
Parliamentarians for Global Action
Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Zambia)
Southern Africa Litigation Centre (South Africa)
Transnational Threats and International Crime Division of the Institute for Security Studies
Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Security Council, UN Secretary-General and UN group condemn terror attacks in Egypt
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 9 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Security Council, UN Secretary-General and UN group condemn terror attacks in Egypt, 9 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb3f304.html [accessed 8 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.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council today condemned the bombings of two Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt, which killed at least 41 people and injured more than 100 others.
Speaking through his spokesperson, the Secretary-General said that he hoped the perpetrators of this horrific terrorist act will be swiftly identified and brought to justice.
In a separate press statement, the Council called the bombings heinous and cowardly, and reaffirmed that terrorism is one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
The bombings were also strongly condemned by the High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), which noted that the attacks took place during Palm Sunday celebrations when both churches were packed with worshippers aim at ruining the unity and diversity that characterize the Egyptian society.
Launched in 2005 through the initiative of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the UN, the Alliance maintains a global network of partners, including States, international and regional organizations, civil society groups, foundations, and the private sector to improve cross-cultural relations between diverse nations and communities.
Mr. Guterres, the Security Council and the UNAOC expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Egypt, and wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured, according to separate statements.
The 15-member Council also stressed the need to bring everyone responsible for the attacks to justice, and urged UN Member States to cooperate with the Government of Egypt and all other relevant authorities.
After attacks, UN senior official in South Sudan urges protection of aid workers and civilians
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, After attacks, UN senior official in South Sudan urges protection of aid workers and civilians, 8 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb412a4.html [accessed 8 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.
Following recent attacks on civilians and aid workers in South Sudan, the top United Nations humanitarian official in the country today called on the Government and the opposition to protect civilians and ensure the safety and security of humanitarians.
Noting reports this week of outrageous abuses by both state and opposition actors in Upper Nile against aid workers, as well as reports of horrific attacks against civilians in Eastern Equatoria, Eugene Owusu, called the attacks reprehensible and unacceptable.
I call on those in power to take swift action to end the targeting of innocent people in this conflict and to hold those responsible to account, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan said.
In his statement, Mr. Owusu noted two serious attacks against aid workers in Aburoc and Melut, both in the Upper Nile, since 31 March.
He condemned the attacks in the strongest terms, and demanded authorities to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Humanitarians are in this country to save lives. It is beyond reckoning that they continue to be killed, harassed and abused despite our repeated calls for action, Mr. Owusu stressed.
Also this week, in Pajok, Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria, at least 6,000 people have been forced to flee to Uganda and reportedly several dozen have been killed, following an attack by government forces on the town.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that thousands more are thought to be sheltering in the bushes in areas surrounding the town, which was estimated to be home to up to 50,000 people.
I am appalled by the reports, said Mr. Owusu. I implore the leadership in South Sudan to rapidly investigate these allegations and to end all attacks against civilians.
The attacks come as the humanitarian situation in South Sudan is deteriorating. More than 3.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including nearly 1.9 million people who are internally displaced and more than 1.7 million who have fled as refugees to neighbouring countries.
OCHA estimates that an average of 2,000 South Sudanese refugees are arriving into Uganda each day, some 62 per cent of them children.
UN envoy 'deeply concerned' by growing tensions in Gaza stemming from pay cuts
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 10 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN envoy 'deeply concerned' by growing tensions in Gaza stemming from pay cuts, 10 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb41864.html [accessed 8 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 United Nations envoy for the Middle East peace process today called for Palestinian unity amid concerns over local pay cuts.
I am deeply concerned by the growing tensions in Gaza, said Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
While the Palestinian Government needs to ensure its to ensure its fiscal sustainability under increasingly difficult economic conditions, it is important that reforms or decisions to reduce expenditures are fairly distributed and made with consideration to the harsh conditions under which people in Gaza live, Mr. Mladenov noted.
He urged the responsible parties to work together to find a solution and called on all factions to allow the Palestinian Government to assume its responsibility in Gaza.
Calling Gaza an integral part of the future Palestinian state, Mr. Mladenov said that no efforts should be spared to bring about real national reconciliation that ends the divide.
Leaders have a responsibility to avoid escalation and bridge the growing divide between Gaza and the West Bank that further fragments the Palestinian people, he added.
His comments come as tens of thousands of people reportedly took to the streets in Gaza today, following 30 per cent cuts to civil servants' salaries.
Syria: As US responds militarily to chemical attack, UN urges restraint to avoid escalation
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Syria: As US responds militarily to chemical attack, UN urges restraint to avoid escalation, 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb432e4.html [accessed 8 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.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today urged restraint to avoid any escalation of the situation in Syria, after the United States responded militarily to an alleged chemical weapons attack earlier this week.
I continue to follow the situation in Syria closely and with grave concern, said Mr. Guterres in a statement.
According to the US, the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into the Shayrat Airbase was a response to what it states was the Syrian Government's use of chemical weapons from the base. The alleged 4 April chemical weapons attack killed many civilians in the Khan Shaykhun area of Idlib.
Decrying the 'abhorrent' chemical weapons attack, the UN chief stressed the need for accountability for such crimes in line with existing international norms and Security Council resolutions.
In the wake of the reported US airstrikes, Mr. Guterres said: Mindful of the risk of escalation, I appeal for restraint to avoid any acts that could deepen the suffering of the Syrian people.
These events underscore my belief that there is no other way to solve the conflict than through a political solution, he said, calling on the parties to urgently renew their commitment to making progress in the Geneva [intra-Syrian talks].
Meanwhile, the Security Council convened an urgent session to hear an update on the situation in Syria.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said that the 30 December 2016 Syrian ceasefire brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey had faltered in the last two months amid a steady escalation of military activity.
He said that in mid-February, Government forces escalated their military operations in several areas of Damascus and Homs, recapturing Wadi Barada and al-Waar in Homs.
In February and March, armed opposition groups, sometimes coordinating with al-Nusra Front, launched offensives in Daraa, Damascus and Hama.
On 4 April, as Government forces were fighting to regain territory recently lost to opposition offensives in northern Hama, disturbing reports emerged of an alleged chemical attack, in nearby Khan Shaykhoun in southern Idlib, Mr. Feltman said, adding that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has announced that its fact-finding mission is starting to investigate the alleged attack.
A statement from the Syrian General Command of the Army and the Armed Forces called the US response a blatant act of aggression which had caused six deaths and huge material damage.
Mr. Feltman said that Iran and Russia condemned the US attack, with the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and New Zealand expressing some support for the US strikes.
The Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace and security, he said, urging the 15-member body to unite and exercise that responsibility to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun.
Security Council resolution 2254 (2015) and the 2012 Geneva Communique remain the foundation of, and contain the core principles for, United Nations mediation efforts and ultimately a solution in this regard, he said.
Children in east Ukraine need urgent care to overcome trauma of conflict UNICEF
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 10 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Children in east Ukraine need urgent care to overcome trauma of conflict UNICEF, 10 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb43994.html [accessed 8 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.
More than 200,000 children, or one in four, in the two regions most severely affected by the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine require urgent and sustained psychosocial support to address their traumatic experiences, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today.
"The world has forgotten about this invisible crisis in eastern Ukraine, but hundreds of thousands of children are paying a heavy price, one that could last a lifetime without adequate support," said UNICEF Ukraine Representative Giovanna Barberis in a news release, stressing the urgent need for funding to reach these traumatized children.
These children live in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, within 15 kilometres of each side of the 'contact-line' that divides government and non-government-controlled areas and where fighting is most intense.
They are in chronic fear and uncertainty due to sporadic shelling, unpredictable fighting and dangers from landmines and other unexploded ordinance.
Many risk their safety to get an education. Seven schools were damaged during the most recent escalation of violence in February and March, and more than 740 schools, or one in five, in eastern Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed since the conflict began in 2014.
Parents, teachers, school directors and psychologists continue to report striking behaviour changes in children as young as three years old. Symptoms include severe anxiety, bed-wetting, nightmares, aggressive behaviour and withdrawing from families and communities.
Dedicated social workers, psychologists and specially trained teachers are working around the clock. However, as the conflict drags on, additional investments are required to meet these children's needs.
UNICEF is appealing for $31.2 million to support these children and their families.
"Children should not have to live with the emotional scars from a conflict they had no part in creating. Additional support is needed now so that young people in Donetsk and Luhansk can grow into healthy adults and rebuild their communities," said Ms. Barberis, calling on all sides of the conflict to recommit to the ceasefire signed in Minsk and end this senseless violence.
'Horrible attack' in South Sudan town sends thousands fleeing across border UN refugee agency
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, 'Horrible attack' in South Sudan town sends thousands fleeing across border UN refugee agency, 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb47044.html [accessed 8 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.
Host communities and aid agencies in Uganda are struggling to feed and shelter new refugees who have been displaced following a spike in violence in parts of neighbouring South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria province, the United Nations refugee agency said today.
According to estimates, some 6,000 newly displaced have arrived in Lamwo district (northern Uganda) since Monday, after an attack on the town of Pajok, some 15 kilometres (about 9.5 miles) across the border, and there are fears that number could rise as fighting is reported in the bordering towns of Magwi and Oboo.
Describing the incident in Pajok as a horrible attack, Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told journalists at a regular media briefing in Geneva that refugees claimed that the town came under an indiscriminate attack by the South Sudan armed forces.
[They] reported witnessing their loved ones shot dead at a close range, with many arrested or slaughtered, including children. Families fled in different directions; the elderly and disabled who could not run were shot dead, he added.
Furthermore, there are reports that many people are still hiding in the bush trying to find their way to safety and that their homes and properties were looted and burned.
Main roads out of the town are also reportedly blocked by armed groups, noted the UNHCR spokesperson.
UNHCR staff in northern Uganda are working to help women, children, elderly, and the disabled who are in dire need of immediate humanitarian assistance and trying to provide them with food, shelter, water and medical care but are reporting severe shortage of resources.
This January, in light of the worsening crisis in the world's youngest nation, the funding appeal for the 'South Sudan Situation' that includes support for Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic as well as South Sudan was revised to nearly $782 million, up nearly $298 million (61 per cent) from the original appeal.
However, it is only 11 per cent funded.
Uganda currently hosts more than 832,000 refugees from South Sudan and its approach in dealing with refugees has been hailed as the most progressive, promoting self-reliance of refugees and their hosts, but the chronic under-funding is putting such relief activities at risk.
'Learn the lessons of Rwanda,' says UN chief, calling for a future of tolerance, human rights for all
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, 'Learn the lessons of Rwanda,' says UN chief, calling for a future of tolerance, human rights for all, 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb48384.html [accessed 8 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.
Learn the lessons of Rwanda,' says UN chief, calling for a future of tolerance, human rights for all
In 1996 in Rwanda, wooden crosses mark the graves in a cemetery in the village of Nyanza in a rural area of Kigali, the capital. During the 1994 genocide, over 10,000 people were burned to death in Nyanza as they tried to escape towards Burundi.
7 April 2017 Marking the twenty-third anniversary of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, during which Hutu and others who opposed the genocide were also killed, United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres today said the only way to honour the memory of the victims is to ensure such events never happen again.
The 1994 genocide in the East African country saw the systematic murder of more than 800,000 people. The vast majority were Tusi, but moderate Hutu, Twa and other groups also suffered during the 100 days of violence.
In his message to commemorate the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda, Mr. Guterres said: Preventing genocide and other monstrous crimes is a shared responsibility and a core duty of the United Nations. The world must always be alert to the warning signs of genocide, and act quickly and early against the threat.
History is filled with tragic chapters of hatred, inaction and indifference a cycle that has led to violence, incarceration and death camps, he added.
However, he warned that the poison of intolerance still existed around the world. Even today, minorities and other groups suffer attacks and exploitation based on who they are.
The Secretary-General noted that survivors of the genocide continue to face struggles, but praised their resilience and capacity for reconciliation.
He also called on society to learn the lessons of Rwanda and work together to build a future of dignity, tolerance and human rights for all.
A candle lighting ceremony and a minute of silence will be observed at UN Headquarters in New York today to mark the Day of Reflection. The annual memorial ceremony will be moderated Maher Nasser, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications and feature a poetry performance by Malaika Uwamahoro, Artist and Rwandan student at Fordham University, as well as remarks by Carl Wilkens, Co-Founder and Director of World Outside My Shoes, Linda Melvern, journalist and author, and Valentine Rugwabiza, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations.
AUDIO: A young Rwandan poet brings her message of hope "straight from the artist, to the leaders," at the annual UN event to mark the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda.
UN rights agency condemns PLO's executions in Gaza, urges moratorium on death penalty
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights agency condemns PLO's executions in Gaza, urges moratorium on death penalty, 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb48a74.html [accessed 8 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 United Nations human rights office today strongly condemned the execution of three men in Gaza for collaboration with the occupier and urged authorities to halt all further executions and comply with Palestine's obligations under international law.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters in Geneva that the executions took place despite our appeal and those by other international and Palestinian organizations for the sentences not to go ahead.
OHCHR stressed that the executions were carried out in breach of Palestine's obligations under international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whose conditions on the use of the death penalty were not abided.
The defendants had been convicted of treason under the PLO Revolutionary Penal Code on the basis of what is termed collaboration with the occupier.
The conviction of treason does not meet the threshold of most serious crimes, as stipulated by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Ms. Shamdasani said. These are typically understood as intentional killings.
In addition, the defendants were tried in military court, in contravention of international law.
We are also concerned that trials in Gaza resulting in the imposition of a death sentence do not appear to meet international fair trial standards, the spokesperson said.
She said that the accusations were insufficiently investigated, raising the possibility that the confession may have been coerced.
We urge the authorities in Gaza to halt further executions and comply with Palestine's obligations under international law, said Ms. Shamdasani.
We also call on the State of Palestine to immediately establish an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view to its abolition.
UN emergency food agency resumes full food rations in Kenyan refugee camps
Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 April 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN emergency food agency resumes full food rations in Kenyan refugee camps, 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb48e84.html [accessed 8 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 United Nations emergency food agency resumed rations this month to refugees in Kenya's Dadaab and Kakuma camps, but cautioned that there is not enough funding to also provide cash transfers through the summer.
Each month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) provides each refugee with a mix of food items cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, and nutrient-enriched flour and cash, sent through mobile telephones, allowing refugees to buy food products of their choice from local markets.
We are pleased to announce that can resume full rations for the refugees thanks to new donor contributions, said Annalisa Conte, WFP's Country Director for Kenya. However, we are urging our donors to continue making new resources available to enable us to carry on providing this much-needed food assistance for 420,000 people.
WFP has said that was able to restore the full food ration for all refugees from April to July. However, the funding currently available for cash transfers which make up 30 percent of the refugees' food assistance will last only until May.
This is already a boost from last year, when a lack of funds forced WFP to cut food rations in the camps by 50 per cent, potentially endangering refugees' nutrition and health.
Dadaab is the world's largest refugee camp, bordering near Somalia, while Kakuma takes in mostly Sudanese refugees, bordering near South Sudan and Uganda. Both camps are run by the Kenyan Government.
Remarks to the UN General Assembly plenary meeting, "Global awareness of the tragedies of irregular migrants in the Mediterranean basin, with specific emphasis on Syrian asylum seekers"
Publisher UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Author Volker Turk Publication Date 7 April 2017 Other Languages / Attachments Spanish Cite as UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Remarks to the UN General Assembly plenary meeting, "Global awareness of the tragedies of irregular migrants in the Mediterranean basin, with specific emphasis on Syrian asylum seekers", 7 April 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58eb4dad4.html [accessed 8 November 2022]
Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for giving UNHCR the opportunity to address the General Assembly today on an issue that is close to our heart. We are also grateful to the Government of Turkey for proposing this theme in 2015. Turkey has generously hosted refugees for decades, most recently giving refuge to over 2.9 million Syrians.
The Mediterranean Sea is symbolic on many fronts. It joins three continents and since antiquity has given birth to civilisations and world religions. Migrations across its waters facilitated intercultural, social, and economic exchanges which allowed such civilizations to flourish. In this sense, the Mediterranean Sea might be seen as one of the symbols of the common heritage of humanity.
At the same time, of late, the Mediterranean has also become a symbol of another kind of human movement that of forced displacement. It epitomizes both the hopes and losses that come with flight from one's community and the search for safety across borders and even seas.
More than one million refugees crossed the Mediterranean in 2015 alone, hoping to find a solution to their plight, but many lives were lost along the way. The majority originated from the Syrian Arab Republic where nearly one-half of the population is now displaced. Although the number of arrivals in Europe did decrease in the past year by nearly two-thirds overall, people - both migrants and refugees - continue to cross the Mediterranean and, tragically, continue to die in the process. Last year, more individuals died in the crossing than in 2015 at the height of the movements. This year, we have already seen some 905 deaths at sea, more than 92 per cent of which occurred along the Central Mediterranean route.[1]
It is essential that we counter the narrative of unmanageable crises and the rhetoric of isolationism and reframe our understanding of the situation in the Mediterranean. We can demonstrate that it is possible to address such movements of people with the right systems in place and a willingness to cooperate. In this respect, the Mediterranean Sea is also a symbol of the potential for collective action and responsibility-sharing in the face of the challenges wrought by forced displacement and irregular flows of migrants.
Most recently, last December, UNHCR presented proposals entitled Better protecting refugees in the EU and globally,[2] which are aimed at contributing to better management, partnership, and solidarity. They focus on external engagement to resolve conflicts, address the drivers of displacement, and stabilize refugee situations in host countries. They also suggest internal approaches to contingency planning, common registration, efficient asylum processing, and developing safe pathways for admission.
Such cooperation is necessary not only in Europe, but also around the Mediterranean and globally. Recognizing this, all 193 leaders of UN Member States solemnly adopted the New York Declaration last September, committing to share the responsibility for refugees more equitably from the outset of a displacement situation, and to find a common approach to ensuring safe, orderly, and regular migration.[3] This marked an important turn in our collective thinking, in our move from seeing large-scale movements as a crisis to recognizing that they are a reality of today's world and a phenomenon that we can and must address with thoughtfulness and equanimity.
Against this background and building on the New York Declaration, it may be timely to explore the prospects for developing a comprehensive regional approach for the situation of migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean. This is particularly needed for the Central Mediterranean where the number of arrivals this year is higher than they were at this time last year, and the movements are clearly of a mixed nature. Seventy-three per cent of new arrivals to Europe in 2017 have gone through the Central Mediterranean route. Already, over 31,000 migrants and refugees have arrived by sea in Europe in the first quarter of this year. Compared to this time last year, although the numbers are significantly lower in Greece, they are higher in Italy and Spain.[4]
The situation in the Central Mediterranean speaks to the importance of ensuring that refugees are able to get on with their lives wherever they are, or find alternative safe pathways, so that they do not have to risk their lives in trying to do so elsewhere.
It also shows why safe and regular pathways for refugees, such as resettlement, humanitarian admission and family reunification, as well as building dignified lives for themselves in countries beyond the immediate region are essential. To be fully effective, a regional approach would need to address these goals. It would require the participation of host countries, countries of transit, and countries of destination on all sides of the sea. It would bring to bear a number of key elements that are embodied in the New York Declaration.
There is a need to stabilize the situations in countries where refugees first seek protection or through which they are currently trying to transit. The stability and security situation in Libya, for example, needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Refugees and migrants have reported being kidnapped, detained, exploited, or even sold to criminal networks before being smuggled across the Central Mediterranean. Reception capacity also needs to be bolstered and alternatives to detention identified.
Refugees also need to be able to access functioning asylum systems everywhere. Without safety, access to basic rights, and regularization of their status, they will be compelled to move onward to other countries. Refugees further need to be able to send their children to school. And critically, refugees need to be able to support themselves and their families through work and livelihood opportunities.
Many host countries in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean particularly in the Middle East where most refugees are located require continued support.
Through timelier financial support and strengthened cooperation between humanitarian and development actors, as just demonstrated this week at the Brussels Conference on Syria, the international community can play a key role in making sure that the critical needs of refugees and the communities that host them can be met.
Finally, all States on both sides of the Mediterranean can play a part in effecting a regional mechanism for search and rescue, which would include sharing responsibility for deployment of ships, as well as committing to receive individuals who have been rescued. There are opportunities to forge arrangements that would more equitably distribute this shared international responsibility. For example, where countries of disembarkation have more limited reception capacities, we could conceive of creative arrangements for the temporary stay and possible resettlement of the refugees disembarked who are most at risk, as well as for the assisted voluntary return of migrants.
It is indeed critical that we give serious consideration to a more comprehensive and joined up regional approach to the situation in the Mediterranean, building on the various initiatives that have been under way.
In conclusion, the Mediterranean need not be only a symbol of the complex world of conflict, violence, and displacement in which we are living, but also a harbinger of hope for a different kind of engagement one that is rooted in a deep sense of responsibility to one another and founded in a spirit of compassion and fundamental humanitarian values.
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Chinese tourists visiting a park honoring the late nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the northern Taiwan city of Taoyuan, May 29, 2015.
China has recently been squeezing Taiwan economically by limiting Chinese group tour trips to the island.
What is less well known is that Taiwans government has been making up for much of the damage from the loss of Chinese visitors by easing the way for more tourists from Southeast Asia to visit Taiwan.
China wasnt pleased when Taiwans president Tsai Ing-wen took power in May of last year.
Beijing regards self-governing Taiwan as a part of its territory, and it sees Tsai as a proponent of independence for the island.
Although Tsai has been careful not to speak openly about independence, she hasnt supported the conciliatory China policy pursued by her Nationalist Party predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou.
Tsais ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has declined to endorse a consensus agreed to in 1992 by China and Taiwan when the island was ruled by the Kuomintang (the KMT), or Nationalist Party.
Its an accommodation that allows both sides to agree that theres only one China, with each side apparently free to interpret what that means.
DPP detractors contend there is little documentation to support the consensus.
At the same time, Tsai has taken a pragmatic approach by calling for a continuation of the status quo with China.
Beijing meanwhile has frozen contacts with Taipei and has been looking for other ways to pressure Taiwan, including an intensified effort to get nations with which Taiwan has diplomatic relations to break off their ties with Taipei.
The results on the diplomatic front have been mixed. But the drop in Chinese tourist groups visiting Taiwan has been offset by a rise in the number of individual tourists coming from Japan and South Korea, as well as several countries in Southeast Asia.
And these individual tourists tend to spend more money during their stay than the average Chinese group tour visitor.
Among the rise in visitors from Southeast Asia, Thailand stands out, with an increase of 57 percent in 2016 as compared with 2015.
According to the Thai Travel Agents Association, the recent introduction of the islands visa-free policy could nearly double Thai visitor arrivals to 360,000 this year compared with nearly 200,000 in 2016.
Thais attracted to Taiwan
Part of Taiwans attraction for people in Thailand comes down to a human element.
Several middle-class Thais living in Bangkok told RFA that they have found people in Taiwan to be nice and well educated. They also feel that Taiwanese social and personal ethics are very similar to those found in Thailand.
Thais value the inexpensive food found in Taipeis popular Shilin Night Market and the cleanliness of Taiwans restaurants, many of which are reasonably priced.
Religion may also play a role. A Thai Buddhist nun said that her temple, like a number of others in Thailand, has established relations with a temple in Taiwan.
Roughly one in three Taiwanese consider themselves to be Buddhists, whereas some 90 per cent of Thais are believed to be Buddhists.
It may also help Taiwan that Khemanit Samikorn, a famous Thai movie and TV actress and model, who is widely known in Thailand by the nickname Pancake, has promoted tourism in Taiwan.
She spoke on Feb. 20 at a convention center event in Bangkok titled Time for Taiwan.
But the biggest attraction for many Thais appears to be Taiwans decision last year to loosen visa regulations. Thais can now stay in Taiwan for 30 days without a visa.
China Airlines, Taiwans state-owned airline, has been offering inexpensive tour packages, including round-trip air fare from Bangkok to Taipei, two free nights at a hotel, and a free sightseeing bus tour.
And tourist arrivals are up not just for Thais but for a number of other nations.
According to the Taipei Times, recent Tourism Bureau statistics show that Japanese tourist arrivals rose by 16.5 percent, South Koreans by 34.25 percent, Malaysians by 9.95 percent, and Vietnamese by 34.33 percent between May of last year and February.
But Thais easily led the pack with arrivals rising by 57.26 percent.
Taiwans southbound outreach
The visa-free rule, introduced in August of last year, is part of a new southbound policy, an initiative of Taiwans ruling DPP aimed at boosting investment and trade ties with Southeast Asia as well as South Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Its main aim is to reduce Taiwans dependence on economic ties with China, including revenue from tourism.
But another aim is to enhance people-to-people ties, educational exchanges, and agricultural development. This would take advantage of Taiwans soft power strengths, which include an advanced educational system.
In the meantime, some Chinese tourists still travel to Taiwan, though in reduced numbers. The reduction in group tours is partially offset by individual Chinese visitors, who continue to arrive and who tend to spend more than the average group tour visitor.
Its important to note that the group tourists spending tended not to benefit many Taiwan businesses.
Chris Horton, an American journalist based in Taiwan for the past decade, explained this in an article written for the Quartz website published in early February this year.
According to Horton, even when China was sending over large numbers of tour groups, they were only benefiting a small number of Taiwanese businesses that were aimed primarily at this market.
On top of that, Horton says, many of these local businesses were only getting a fraction of the total money spent, with most of the spoils going to Chinese tour organizers.
In some cases, Chinese tourists, while not contributing much to the local economy, were crowding out domestic travelers, he says, a phenomenon that has led to a backlash elsewhere, including Thailand.
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) and president of the National Assembly Heng Samrin (L) pray to Buddhist monks during a Cambodian People's Party (CPP) ceremony marking the 38th anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in Phnom Penh, Jan. 7, 2017.
UPDATED at 2:02 P.M. EST on 2017-04-14
Cambodias ruling party will take legal action against a woman who threw a shoe at a party billboard featuring photos of Prime Minister Hun Sen and a high-ranking parliamentary official, a Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) spokesman said Monday.
Video clips posted on Facebook show 38-year-old Sam Sokha from Kampong Speu province throwing her shoe at the billboard which also featured a photo of Heng Samrin, president of the National Assembly.
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said the party will not address Sam Sokhas morality but will take legal action against her because of her intent to curse its leaders.
She threw the shoe twice at the billboard, so that indicates that she intended to do it, and we will not let her get away with this, he said.
We will not correct her mistake, but the court needs to take legal action against her so that no one else dares to do like she did, he said. As you know, the two leaders are members of the nations elites.
The CCP office in Kampong Speu province to file the complaint against Sam Sokha, Sok Eysan said.
Keo Sothea, court prosecutor for Kampong Speu province, issued a summons on April 8 for Sam Sokha to appear before provincial police commissioner Sam Samuon by June 8.
Sam Samuon told local media that the police are looking for Sam Sokha, and he has issued a public appeal that people stop her or immediately report to authorities if they see her.
RFAs Khmer Service was unable to reach either man for comment.
Sok Sam Oeun, chief attorney of the AMRIN Law and Consultants Group, told RFA that it is unreasonable to take legal action against Sam Sokha for throwing her shoe at the CPP billboard.
I really dont understand what kind of measure this is to take against her, he said, adding that she had not committed a serious crime.
Sok Sam Oeun suggested that authorities should merely advise her on proper conduct.
The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has said that Sam Sokha is not one of its activists.
Reported by Tha Thai for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sarada Taing. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
A border officer in Cambodia who made headlines last year for pretending to be hit by a car driven by an opposition activist is now being sought by police for shooting a colleague over the weekend, a spokesperson for the countrys Ministry of Interior said Monday.
Chhean Pisith, a deputy chief of the border checkpoint with Thailand in Poipet, in western Cambodias Banteay Meanchey province, shot the checkpoints administration bureau chief Sem Makara in the shoulder after a dispute, Ministry of Interior spokesperson Khieu Sopheak told reporters.
The suspect left the scene with gun, he said, adding that Sem Makara had not been seriously wounded.
We know that he is outside the country now and we will cooperate with our neighbors in order to bring him back.
Khieu Sopheak said that Interior Minister Sar Kheng had fired Chhean Pisith and that the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court issued a warrant Monday to question him about the shooting incident, which occurred on the morning of April 9.
According to a statement by Sem Makara, Chhean Pisith became involved in a verbal dispute between two fellow border officers on April 7, which carried on throughout the weekend and nearly led to a physical altercation.
When Sem Makara convened a morning meeting to resolve the dispute on April 9, Chhean Pisith drew his service weapon and cocked it, threatening him.
Sem Makara left the room and sought assistance from the chief of border police, and when he returned, Chhean Pisith shot him, grazing his left shoulder, but leaving him otherwise unharmed.
Other officers disarmed Chhean Pisith, who then fled and is believed to have crossed the border into Thailand.
A report by the Cambodia Daily cited Sem Makara as saying that he never had any issues with Chhean Pisith prior to the shooting incident.
The report also cited Sim Sam Ath, chief of the Poipet border checkpoint, confirming the incident but refusing to give details, saying he had already sent a report to the immigration department.
Fake accident
In December, Chhean Pisith created a public stir when a video began to circulate on social media showing him falling to the ground in front of a barely moving car driven by Din Puthy, president of the Cambodia Informal Economy Reinforced Association (CIERA), a labor association that advocates for local moto-taxi drivers, cart pullers and other informal workers.
Chhean Pisith was taken away to Thailand for treatment in an ambulance wearing a neck brace and Din Puthy, who is also the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) deputy head of operations in Poipet, was charged with aggravated intentional violence.
Witnesses told reporters at the time that Din Puthys vehicle never touched Chhean Pisith, calling his account of the incident into question, and protesters took to the streets in late December, demanding the labor activists release over what they said was a fake accident.
CCTV footage from a Thai hotel was later found to show Chhean Pisith walking around the facility and climbing stairs with ease, and Din Puthy was released on bond in January.
Reported by Maly Leng for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sarada Taing. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have charged an activist with subversion following his detention amid a crackdown on rights campaigners in the southern city of Shenzhen.
Li Jiangpeng, who was taken away by police in February, is being held under "residential surveillance" at an unknown location on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power," his wife told RFA.
"I don't know what this is about," Li's wife Yu Xiaoping said on Monday. "I will ask the lawyer, but I don't think that he broke any laws. He did nothing criminal."
"All I want is for them to release him as soon as possible."
An officer who answered the phone at the Shenzhen municipal police department on Monday declined to comment, saying he wasn't obliged to make statements.
Li's arrest came after police detained nine people earlier this year, including rights activists Deng Hongcheng, Xiao Bing, Wang Wei, Huo Yan, and Shen Li after they made plans to meet up in the city's Longgang district on Nov. 14 for dinner.
The following day, friends and relatives Ding Yan, Wang Jun, Huang Anyang, Li Nanhai, Wang Jianhua, and Deng Jianfeng also went missing after they inquired with police after their whereabouts.
While the authorities have since confirmed that they are holding Deng Hongcheng, Wang Jun, Xiao Bing and Li Nanhai on subversion charges, and have released Deng Jianfeng.
Xiao Bing's lawyer Lin Qilei told RFA that his client's family had received notification only in February.
"This happened in November, and yet it took all that time for the family to receive it," Lin said at the time.
Family powerless
Li Nanhai's father said the family felt powerless to help.
"There's very little we as his parents can do to help him," Li told RFA. "The government gets to decide how it will deal with him."
He said his son "finds it hard to let go of his fantasy" of human rights and the rule of law, suggesting that he is unlikely to admit his "crimes" and get more lenient treatment.
Wang Jun's wife Yan Junjun, who is six months pregnant with the couple's child, said she had traveled to lodge an official complaint about his detention in Beijing during the annual parliament last month, but was detained and escorted back to Shenzhen by police.
She is now being prevented from traveling to take care of her sick, elderly parents.
"My pregnancy is quite far advanced now, so I feel very tired, and can't go out much, but if my health allowed it, I would be out there fighting for our rights, and searching for my husband," Yan said.
"The lawyer told me they are still working hard to try to get him out on bail," she said.
'Aggressive' campaign
"Subversion of state power" carries a minimum jail term of 10 years in cases where the person is judged to have played a leading role, or where the consequences are deemed especially harmful.
However, jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo is currently serving a 13-year sentence for the lesser charge of "incitement to subvert state power," because the circumstances were deemed serious by the court.
The Chinese government has stepped up an "aggressive" campaign against civil society activists and online speech in the past year, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement last week.
Many peaceful critics of the government remained locked away, including Liu Xiaobo and Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti, the group said ahead of a recent summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Eight of the human rights lawyers and supporters among the 300 detained during a nationwide raid in July 2015 are still facing trial, while another six have been sentenced; the legal proceedings have fallen far short of international standards, HRW said.
Reported by Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Hai Nan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Chinese authorities have canceled a travel permit issued to the wife of a detained Taiwan rights worker detained last month during a trip to mainland China, his wife told RFA.
Lee Ching-yu, wife of Lee Ming-cheh, was informed of the cancellation as she tried to board a direct flight from the democratic island to Beijing, having previously said she would try to "rescue" her husband.
A former activist with Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Lee Ming-cheh, 42, is the first overseas NGO worker known to be detained in China since a draconian law gave police control over foreign non-government groups at the beginning of this year.
He was detained by the ruling Chinese Communist Party's state security police on suspicion of "endangering national security" on his arrival in the southern border city of Zhuhai on March 19.
Chinese law allows police to detain those suspected of "national security" crimes and hold them under residential surveillance at a secret location for up to six months, with no access to lawyers or family visits.
Lee told reporters she has been in indirect contact with authorities in Beijing via Li Junmin, a former Taiwanese spy who spent 27 years in prison across the Taiwan Strait in mainland China.
"This intermediary told me that I should cooperate with the authorities quietly and obediently, and then Lee Ming-cheh would be released very soon," she said. "They said if I got on that plane to complain in Beijing, then Guangdong provincial television would immediately air Lee Ming-cheh's confession."
"The intermediary also stressed to me that I should treat the [Chinese government] as if they were kidnappers; that they had no concept of the rule of law," she said.
"If you want me to help you, he told me, you have to cancel your trip to Beijing immediately," she said. "If you don't, there will be nothing I can do for you."
Lee Ching-yu went ahead with her plans to fly to Beijing, but her permit was canceled before she could board the flight.
"I couldn't respect this promise [that Lee would be released soon], because I believe that we must be allowed both freedom and dignity, and there is no dignity in allowing oneself to be humiliated," she said.
"I had no intention of allowing my husband to be treated like a dog for the rest of his life."
Rights groups have strongly criticized Beijing's use of televised "confessions" from detainees accused of wrongdoing, who have included Swedish NGO worker Peter Dahlin and some of the five Hong Kong booksellers detained for selling banned political books to customers in mainland China.
Taiwan responds
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said China has yet to formally notify Taiwan of any charges leveled against Lee Ming-cheh, or where he is being detained.
It issued a statement on Monday hitting out at the revocation of Lee Ching-yu's travel permit.
"The government wants to strongly protest this," it said, adding that the use of government authority to restrain personal freedoms must follow due legal process.
It said the right of family members to visit detainees is a basic human right, and that the Chinese government's treatment of Lee Ming-cheh would have a negative impact on cross-strait relations.
Eeling Chiu, who heads the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, also hit out at the move.
"[Lee Ching-yu] just wanted to see her husband in person, to know where he is and why he has been detained," Chiu told reporters on Monday.
"We would like to register our protest with the government in Beijing, which has failed to provide for a humanitarian family visit, a basic minimum requirement," she said.
And Lee Ming-cheh's boss at the Taipei Wenshan Community College, where he worked as a manager, said the behavior of Chinese officials runs directly against the government's claim to rule the country by law.
"They still haven't made any formal response [to the Taiwan government]. How is that the rule of law," college principal Cheng Shiowjiuan questioned.
"[And] these sorts of televised confessions could only happen under an illiberal regime."
Taiwan began its transition to democracy following the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of the island's president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.
Recent opinion polls indicate that there is broad political support for de facto self-rule in Taiwan, where the majority of voters identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese.
But while the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled the island, Beijing regards it as part of Chinese territory and has threatened to invade if Taiwan seeks formal independence.
Reported by Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Chung Kuang-cheng for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Chinese border guards have begun thoroughly searching North Korean cargo trucks crossing into China, an indication that Beijing is implementing financial sanctions against Pyongyang in the wake of last weeks U.S.-China Summit, according to sources.
Traders based in China told RFAs Korean Service that Beijing has instructed the countrys customs office and commercial banks to apply pressure on Pyongyang because of the summit, citing meticulous inspections aimed at snaring illicit cash hauls.
[Chinas] customs office has strengthened searches of freight vehicles coming from North Korea to China, said a trader based in the Chinese city of Dandong, along the border with the North, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Until recently, inspections were only conducted on cargo going from China to North Korea, but these days vehicles entering China [from the North] are also thoroughly searched. The meticulous inspection process has left North Koreans baffled.
According to the source, traders based in North Korea had been asking North Korean truck drivers to smuggle money across the border to pay their counterparts in China for goods, but Chinese officers are now searching the inside of the vehicles when they drive through customs.
The inspection is [carried out] to find the bulk of the money, which is hidden inside of the vehicle, he said.
If the inspector finds cash, it is seized unconditionally. Because of the new situation, Chinese businessmen often dont receive the payments due to them for goods they sent North Korean traders on credit.
As a result, he said, fewer Chinese traders are willing to conduct business with the North on credit.
The increased customs scrutiny is not only being applied to commercial entities, the source added.
A thorough search by China's customs for incoming cargo from North Korea is also equally applied to North Korean travelers traveling for private reasons, he said.
If the amount of simple items, such as alcohol or cigarettes, is higher than customs limits, then a huge amount of duty is issued or the items are seized.
Chinese traders affected
A second trader source from China told RFA that traders on both sides of the border are hoping the increased pressure is only temporary, because the atmosphere of customs has changed dramatically.
In March, Chinese banks blocked individual remittance transactions by refusing to open personal bank accounts for North Koreans, he said.
Furthermore, China is blocking the transport of cash by cargo vehicles. Therefore, traders in both countries are very concerned.
Facing criticism from Washington and in U.N. reports on sanctions compliance, China has applied pressure on North Korea in the past, recently stopping vital imports of coal from its impoverished neighbor as part of a bid to dissuade the North from pursuing the development of its nuclear weapons program under regime leader Kim Jong Un.
But both sources suggested the most recent clampdown was a direct response to persistent demands from the U.S. on sanctions aimed at North Korea.
Recent summit
Few details or formal agreements have been announced after what was billed as a get-acquainted meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump's Spanish-style Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida last week.
But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that Xi and Trump agreed to increase cooperation on curbing North Korea's nuclear program, which the Chinese leader said had reached a serious stage. No details were offered.
North Korea has said it is progressing toward its goal of building long-range nuclear ICBM missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland.
The North regularly carries out missile launches, most recently firing a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast on April 5. It conducted a fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9, 2016.
Reported by Joonho Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Soo Min Jo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets his Buddhist followers at the Yiga Choezin monastery in Tawang near the India-China border in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh state, April 8, 2017.
Tibets spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Saturday that China must first profess to believe in rebirth in the latest round of the debate over reincarnationthe Tibetans traditional method of identifying future religious leaders, which Beijing seeks to control.
China is keen to engineer a process that produces a pro-Beijing monk as the spiritual leader of Tibetans in the countrys far-western Tibet Autonomous Region, and insists that the officially atheist Chinese government is the only one with the authority to make that decision.
For the institution of the Dalai Lama to remain or not will be determined by the Tibetan public, the Dalai Lama told reporters at a press conference inside Yiga Choezin monastery in the Buddhist town of Tawang in northeastern Indias Arunachal Pradesh state on April 8.
My visit to Arunachal is purely religious and not political, he said.
The 81-year-old monk, who is the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, also addressed Chinas criticism of his visit to the towns 17th-century Tawang Gaden Lhatse monastery and said that the time had not yet come to talk about his successor.
Let China first say it believes in rebirth, he said, about the reincarnation issue.
After he finished his teaching about a meditation approach by the Indian writer Kamalashila, the Dalai Lama met with about 70 reporters to discuss his travels to different parts of the world.
He said he will organize a conference to discuss the issue of the next Dalai Lama because people in many parts of the world, including Arunachal Pradesh, Indias Ladakh region, and the country of Mongolia respect the Dalai Lama.
During the press conference, the Dalai Lama said that historically the Indians and Tibetans have had a long and enduring relationship as teachers and disciples.
You Indians are historically our gurus, he said. We are chelas [disciples]. We are not only chelas but quite reliable chelas.
The Dalai Lama then reminded the reporters that they had an important role to play in reporting objectively and informing the public.
He went on to say that the purpose of his visit to Tawang is to promote human values, compassion, religious harmony, and ethics, and to preserve the Tibetan religion, culture, and environment so they can flourish.
Preserving Buddhism
The Dalai Lama made the remarks a day after arriving in Tawangwhere the Sixth Dalai Lama was discovered in the 1600s. Thousands of followers from throughout the region and neighboring Bhutan had gathered at the monastery to greet him.
The preservation of Buddhist knowledge, including the Tibetan language, is a major concern not only of the 6 million Tibetans, but also of the entire Buddhist community, and in particular the 400 million Chinese Buddhists, he said.
China, which restricts the political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identities of ethnic minority Tibetans, has criticized the Dalai Lamas current visit to the Tawang Gaden Lhatse monastery.
The nine-day visit to Arunachal Pradeshwhich China claims as its territoryhas angered Beijing, prompting Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying to slam India for extending the spiritual leader an invitation to the region.
The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing China in 1959 during an uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, and New Delhi has warned Beijing to stay out of its internal affairs in response to criticism over the trip.
India and China have been embroiled in a row over the region for decades as part of a greater dispute over their shared 3,500-kilometer (2,175-mile) border which prompted the brief 1962 Sino-Indian War.
The two sides routinely accuse each other of intrusions across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a de facto border that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory in the area.
The Dalai Lama has traveled to Arunachal Pradesh on six earlier occasions since 1983.
Reported by Passang Tsering for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
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Afghanistan's government is fighting an uphill battle against the opium trade which finances Taliban militants. Poppy farmers say they must choose between making a living supplying the insurgents, or complying with the government's eradication program. (RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan)
Amnesty International says the total number of judicial executions worldwide dropped in 2016 from a historical high the previous year, largely due to decreases in Iran and Pakistan -- two of the worlds top executioners.
But the London-based nongovernmental organization said in a report issued on April 11 that the overall number of executions in 2016 was still higher than the average recorded for the previous decade.
Other top executioners during 2016 were China, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
Chiara Sangiorgio, an advisor to Amnesty's death penalty research team, told RFE/RL there also are increasingly worrying efforts by authorities in some countries to hide the scale of executions that are carried out.
Critically, the numbers presented by the group do not include thousands of executions it says are thought to have been carried out in China, where information about the use of the death penalty remains classified as a state secret.
In fact, Sangiorgio said, China continues to be the worlds top executioner, using the death penalty in 2016 more than all other countries in the world combined.
But Amnesty has refused to publish specific estimates about the use of the death penalty in China since 2009, saying Chinese authorities misrepresent the groups numbers.
The latest report estimates that executions in China in 2016 were thought to number in the thousands -- probably less than 10,000 and probably fewer than in 2015.
But it said it remains impossible to verify or quantify Chinas claims about the reduction of executions in the country.
Amnesty International therefore reiterates its challenge to the Chinese authorities to be transparent and make such information publicly available, the report says.
IRAN
Not including China, Iran alone accounted for 55 percent of the judicial executions in 2016 that were recorded by Amnesty International.
Those 567 confirmed executions in Iran compared to 977 the previous year, a decrease of 42 percent.
But Amnesty says the majority of executions in Iran were for crimes that did not meet the international standard of most serious crimes.
Many people were put to death for alleged drug-related offenses and vague offenses such as enmity against God,'" it says.
Amnesty also says many death penalty convictions in Iran are thought to have been issued by judicial officials on the basis of confessions obtained through the use of torture.
In some cases, the report says, men were executed after confessing to crimes that had occurred months after they had been arrested.
Videotaped confessions also were aired on state television before trials took place in a pattern described by Amnesty as a blatant violation of the defendants right to a fair trial.
At least two juvenile offenders and eight women were executed by Iranian authorities, it says.
Most executions in Iran during 2016 were by hanging. At least 33 executions in Iran during 2016 were carried out publicly.
PAKISTAN
Amnesty says the number of executions in Pakistan also fell dramatically, to 87 in 2016 compared to 326 in 2015.
But Sangiorgio says Pakistan is still one of the worlds top executioners.
She says there also are concerns about confessions thought to have been obtained by torturing defendants in death penalty cases.
And while the number of executions carried out in Pakistan declined in 2016, the total number of death penalty verdicts issued during the year rose significantly including at least 133 death sentences issued by secretive military courts and 277 by civilian courts. It said that 31 were issued by special antiterrorism courts.
Again, Sangiorgio said, Amnesty is concerned about the contravention of international law and standards in Pakistans death penalty trials for crimes such as blasphemy, insulting the prophet of Islam, and so-called crimes against the state none of which met the threshold of most serious crimes under international law.
AFGHANISTAN
Amnesty recorded six judicial executions in Afghanistan in 2016, all on convictions of terrorism-related offenses.
Sangiorgio says Amnesty International was concerned about forced confessions in Afghanistan and statements by authorities that they were using the death penalty in order to deter future terrorist attacks.
She says there is no evidence to support claims by authorities that the death penalty has any impact on the willingness of terrorists to carry out attacks.
FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS
Belarus was singled out in the report as the only country in Europe that carried out the death penalty during 2016, with a total of at least four executions in murder cases.
Amnesty noted that lawyers for the defendants claimed that vital evidence was omitted during their trials.
Although Kazakhstan has continued to observe a moratorium on executions since 2003, an Almaty court in November issued a death sentence against Ruslan Kulekbaev for his alleged involvement in a terrorist attack that killed 10 people last July.
Amnesty also noted that there are increasing calls in Russia from some politicians to reinstate the death penalty for terrorism-related crimes.
But a death penalty bill submitted to Russias State Duma in March did not become law.
THE UNITED STATES
The United States was the only country in the Americas region that carried out executions during 2016.
But Amnesty said it was encouraged by a continued decrease in the number of executions and death sentences there during 2016.
The 20 executions in the United States during the year was the lowest number there since 1991. The 32 death sentences issued during 2016 was the lowest in any year since 1973.
It said 2016 was the first time since 2006 that the United States was not among the top five global executioners.
The opposition election bloc comprising former President Levon Ter-Petrossian's Armenian National Congress (HAK) and the People's Party of Armenia (HZhK) headed by Stepan Demirchian announced on April 7 it will appeal to the Constitutional Court to annul the outcome of the April 2 parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported.
The bloc claimed that "large-scale and systematic violations of the electoral process," including widespread vote-buying and the intimidation of voters by government loyalists, precluded the free expression of the people's will.
According to the official preliminary election results, just four of the five political parties and four electoral blocs that participated will be represented in the new legislature, in which the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) retained its majority. The Congress-HZhK bloc was not one of them: it polled just 1.65 percent of the vote, far less than the 7 percent minimum required for electoral blocs to win representation.
The bloc's allegations of malpractice, and specifically vote-buying, are partially corroborated by the preliminary assessment of the election by observers deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Parliament, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Their joint statement assessed the vote as "tainted by credible information about vote-buying, and pressure on civil servants and employees of private companies."
Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan on April 3, Heidi Hautala, who headed the observers from the European Parliament, similarly expressed regret that the election "process was undermined by credible, recurring information of vote buying, intimidation of voters, notably civil servants in schools and hospitals and employees of private companies, as well as abuse of administrative positions."
Allegations of vote-buying surfaced soon after the election campaign formally got under way on March 5. Just days later, senior HShK member Levon Zurabian described how a group of voters showed up at Congress headquarters in Yerevan on the mistaken assumption that it was a government office, and asked to sign up for the financial aid they had been promised in return for voting for the HHK, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported.
Environment Minister Artsvik Minasian of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun, the HHK's junior coalition partner, similarly said "various candidates or individuals have promised money or services [to voters]."
Varuzhan Hoktanian, the head of Armenia's leading anticorruption watchdog, which is affiliated with Transparency International, was more specific, telling RFE/RL that reports his NGO had received "lead us to conclude that vote bribes are mainly paid by the ruling party."
He described vote-buying as "a really serious problem."
Other Armenian media, too, reported suspected widespread vote-buying and decried as lacking credibility pledges by senior officials -- such as police chief Vladimir Gasparian -- to combat such abuses.
The HHK was, however, not the only party that sought to win over voters by offering material incentives.
Bargavach Hayastan, which is headed by wealthy businessman Gagik Tsarukian, also promised such benefits, for which the party received a formal reprimand in early March from the Central Election Commission.
The newspaper Hraparak described how "desperately poor" people "besieged" Tsarukian at his meetings with voters to beg for financial assistance. (The party placed second, with 31 parliament mandates.)
The initial assessment of the election by the international observer mission said that "some government officials indicated that vote-buying had become an entrenched part of political culture, stating that accepting money or other benefits in exchange for votes was often justified by extreme poverty and lack of economic opportunities."
In the wake of the vote, HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov implicitly admitted that vote-buying had taken place, while insisting that it did not have "a substantial impact" on the outcome of the ballot. That latter assertion is open to question, however. The opposition bloc Yelk (Way Out), which placed third with nine parliament mandates, claimed in an April 4 statement that "tens of thousands of citizens were involved in the chain of vote-bribe distribution and acceptance."
The HHK polled enough votes to give it the 54 percent of parliament mandates that constitutes a stable majority (58 of 105) and thus obviates the need to form a new coalition. In 2012 and 2007, the HHK garnered 69 and 64, respectively, of the 131 parliament mandates.
Even if the HHK victory was not the direct result of malpractice, this election represented a shift in the prevalent pattern of procedural violations that had led international observer missions to characterize the parliamentary ballots in 1999 and 2003 as falling short of Armenia's OSCE commitments and of other standards for democratic elections.
In previous ballots, the most frequent and egregious violations registered by international observers took place during the actual vote (multiple, proxy, or absentee voting) or the vote count and tabulation. In 2012, for example, there were major glitches in the use of the ink used to mark voters' fingers in an attempt to preclude multiple voting, which faded shortly after application. And observers assessed the vote count as "bad" or "very bad" in almost 20 percent of the polling stations where they were present (24 of 125.) The corresponding figure in 2007 had been 17 percent.
Two factors may have contributed to the change in the incidence of various forms of fraud. The first is the disastrous economic situation (a World Bank report released late last year assessed the number of Armenians living below of the poverty line of $2.5 per day at almost one in four) and the eclipse of ideology as a factor motivating voters. A commentary posted on JAMnet opined that "there is an ongoing process in Armenia, where forces lacking ideology are winning over ideological ones.... People tend to vote not for words, but rather for a road to be built in a village, for doors or windows to be installed in a house, for a salary; they tend to vote depending on the affiliation of their employer to this or that party, depending on where they live."
In other words, given only minor differences in the programs of the various parties seeking election, economic necessity may have been deciding factor determining which party people voted for.
The second was the installation of technology, financed largely by the European Union and the United States, intended to make the voting procedure more transparent and thus minimize the opportunities for fraud. Those measures, codified in amendments to the election law drafted jointly last year by the HHK and the parliamentary opposition, include the use of electronic voter-authentication devices in all the country's 2,000 or so polling stations and the installation of web cameras in some 1,500 of them so that the voting and ballot count could be broadcast live.
Those measures may, however, have proven counterproductive if, as seems possible, they impelled the HHK to rely more heavily on alternative measures of influencing the election outcome that are more difficult to detect and prove. (The then prosecutor-general was quoted in the OSCE final report on the May 2007 parliamentary elections as making the point that vote-buying is not, per se, a criminal offense, and that any attempt to bring a court case on charges of bribery would be contingent on the recipient of the bribe incriminating himself by admitting receipt of it.)
This time, as the newspaper 168 Zham noted, "irregularities were mainly committed outside polling stations. Within the polling stations themselves there were no falsifications that affected the election results." In this sense, the paper concluded, the newly formed parliament will be "'technically' legitimate."
In February 2008, Ter-Petrossian similarly appealed to the Constitutional Court to annul the results of the presidential election in which (according to official returns that he claimed were falsified) he placed second to then Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. Protests by Ter-Petrossian's supporters against that ruling escalated into violent clashes with security forces in which 10 people died. Five years later, former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovanisian likewise appealed his defeat to Sarkisian in the 2013 presidential ballot, with similar lack of success.
The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL
Officials in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region say the speaker of the de facto parliament, Anatoly Bibilov, has won a presidential election condemned by Tbilisi and the West as illegitimate.
The head of the separatist government's election commission, Bella Pliyeva, said on April 10 that with about 90 percent of the ballots counted, Bibilov had around 58 percent of the vote -- enough to avoid a second-round runoff.
Incumbent leader Leonid Tibilov had 30 percent and regional KGB security service officer Alan Gagloyev had 11 percent, Pliyeva said.
Pliyeva added that some 78 percent of voters supported a proposal to change the region's name from the Republic of South Ossetia to the Republic of South Ossetia-Alania.
As with past ballots in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another Russia-backed breakaway region, the United States, the European Union, and Georgia called the April 9 votes illegitimate and said they would not recognize the results.
In a statement on April 9, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said the name-change referendum in the region aims at laying the ground for its illegal annexation by Russia.
Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries after fighting a brief war against Georgia in 2008, and maintains thousands of troops in both regions.
With reporting by civil.ge, Interfax, and TASS
Tens of thousands of people marched in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, on April 9 in support of the Central European University (CEU). The university was founded by U.S. billionaire George Soros, who was born in Hungary. The Hungarian parliament adopted a bill on April 4 requiring foreign universities to have a campus and similar courses in their country of origin, which could force the CEU to close. The protesters held aloft lists of people and institutions that have backed the CEU, and called on Hungarian President Janos Ader to reject the bill. (Reuters)
KYIV -- Ukrainian prosecutors and defense lawyers have both vowed to appeal the verdicts and prison sentences handed down to former members of the disbanded Tornado battalion.
On April 7, a court in Kyiv convicted 12 former battalion members guilty of committing crimes including beatings, torture, and sexual assault against residents in the eastern Luhansk region in early 2015.
Eight defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight to 11 years, and four were handed suspended five-year terms.
After a trial that lasted over a year, both sides are dissatisfied with the rulings. Prosecutors say the sentences were too mild, while the defense contends they were too harsh.
The investigation was launched after the battalion was disbanded following allegations that members were illegally incarcerating and torturing residents in the Luhansk region, where government forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists since 2014.
The United States is warning that it could take further military action in Syria if the government there uses chemical weapons or barrel bombs.
"The sight of people being gassed and blown away by barrel bombs ensures that if we see this kind of action again, we hold open the possibility of future action," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on April 10.
His comments follow last weeks missile strikes ordered by President Donald Trump against a Syrian airfield that Washington believes was used by President Bashar al-Assads forces to carry out a chemical weapons attack.
Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said on April 10 that the missile strikes destroyed or damaged some 20 percent of Syrias operational aircraft.
The warning also comes as foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations are meeting in Italy to try to hammer out a common approach to the civil war in Syria and to discuss ways to put pressure on Russia to break its ties with Assad.
Speaking ahead of the two-day gathering in the Italian city of Lucca, Tuscany, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on April 10 that possible sanctions against Syrian and Russian military officials would be discussed.
He said sanctions could target "figures who have been involved in coordinating the Syrian military efforts and are thereby contaminated by the appalling behavior of [Assads] regime."
The British foreign secretary said Russia has a choice: to continue backing the "toxic" Assad government "or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution."
It is "time for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up," he added.
The G7 consists of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, Italy, France, and Canada.
Along with the G7 members, the foreign ministers of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar are also scheduled to take part in a special session on April 11 to discuss Syria, Italian news agencies reported.
The alleged chemical air strike by Assad's forces on April 4 killed more than 80 people in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib Province, triggering international outrage.
Moscow and Damascus, which have given Assad crucial diplomatic and military support throughout Syrias six-year-long civil war, claim that the toxic gas was released when strikes by government forces hit a rebel weapons depot.
The assertion is rejected by the United States and others.
In response to the attack, two U.S. Navy ships fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at an air base in Syria on April 7, drawing condemnations by Russia and Iran.
It was the first time Washington has intervened directly against Assads forces.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said on April 10 that following the air strikes, the Syrian government has lost the ability to refuel or rearm aircraft at Shayrat airfield and at this point, use of the runway is of idle military interest."
"The Syrian government would be ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons," the defense secretary said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used a ceremony at a World War II memorial in Italy to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a wreath-laying ceremony to remember those killed in a Nazi massacre at Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Tillerson said, "We remember the events of August 12, 1944, that occurred in Sant'anna [di Stazzema] and we rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.
In TV interviews broadcast on April 9, Tillerson, who is due to travel to Moscow after the G7 meeting, stopped short of accusing the Russians of complicity in the alleged chemical attack, but said that "they've been incompetent and perhaps they've just simply been outmaneuvered by the Syrians."
Tillerson also made clear that there had been "no change to our military posture" in Syria.
Washington's "first priority" in Syria is to defeat the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, the secretary of state said.
Addressing a news conference in Tehran on April 10, Iranian President Hassan Rohani warned against further military action by the United States against Assad's government, saying that it could be very dangerous for the region.
Rohani also repeated his condemnation of the U.S. strikes and his call for an international investigation into the deadly incident.
Some chemical gas was disseminated in Khan Sheikhun, a number of people were killed and injured. Where did it come from? What was it? How did it happen? he said.
Also on April 10, Russia's Foreign Ministry said the Russian and Iranian foreign ministers condemned "aggressive" U.S. actions against Syria in a phone call.
Sergei Lavrov and Mohammad Javad Zarif said such actions against a sovereign, independent country are a flagrant violation of international law, above all, the UN Charter, create threats for regional security, and impair the fight against international terrorism," the ministry said in a statement.
Reacting to Johnsons comments, Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense and security committee in Russia's upper house of parliament, said the imposition of sanctions against Russian military figures will affect our actions [in Syria] in no way.
Leaders from seven southern European countries defended on April 10 the retaliatory U.S. air strikes, saying they "had the understandable intention to prevent and deter the spread and use of chemical weapons and was limited and focused on this objective."
The leaders of Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta issued the statement at the end of a summit in Spain.
Meanwhile in Belgrade, visiting U.S. Senator John McCain accused Russia of having cooperated with Syria in the alleged chemical weapons attack.
The Republican senator said on April 10 that he believes "the Russians knew about chemical weapons because they were operating exactly from the same base."
McCain said the United States should tell Russia that this kind of a war crime is unacceptable in the world today" and take out Syria's air force if Assad does not renounce the use of chemical weapons.
With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters, TASS, the BBC, and RFE/RLs Balkan Service
The Kremlin says there are no plans for U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to meet with President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow this week.
"We have not announced any meetings, and so far there is no meeting with Tillerson in the president's schedule," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on April 10.
Tillerson, the highest U.S. official to travel to Russia since President Donald Trump took office in January, is due to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on April 12.
His trip comes at a time when Russia and the United States are at odds over an April 7 U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base, which Trump ordered in response to what Washington says was a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians.
Peskov said the U.S. action had shown what he said was Washington's total unwillingness to cooperate on Syria, and that renewed calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down would not help to resolve the crisis.
Russia has given Assad crucial backing throughout a six-year-old war that has killed more than 300,000 people.
He said there is no alternative to peace talks that have been held intermittently in Geneva and in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS
A Norwegian court has ruled that authorities can continue to hold a Russian teenager suspected of potential involvement in a plot to carry out a bomb attack.
The ruling by an Oslo court on April 10 came two days after authorities detained the boy, a Russian citizen who arrived in Norway with his family in 2010, after a "bomb-like" device was found in the city center.
Authorities said the device, a container of lighter gas with nails taped to it, was capable of causing only limited damage.
Norway's terrorism alert level was nonetheless raised after the discovery of the device and the arrest of the suspect, whose family applied for political asylum in Norway.
A lawyer for the teenager described the incident was nothing more than a "boyish prank."
It came after an April 7 truck attack left four people dead and 15 injured in Stockholm, Sweden.
A 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan is the main suspect in that attack, which has put the region on alert.
Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa
South Ossetias election officials say Anatoly Bibilov, the speaker of the breakaway Georgian region's parliament, has taken the lead in a presidential election that was rejected by Tbilisi and condemned as illegitimate by the United States.
The election commission on April 10 said Bibilov had 48.7 percent with 35 percent of votes counted, Russian state-run TASS news agency reported. A candidate needs 50 percent to avoid a runoff on April 23. Turnout was reported at 81 percent.
TASS quoted Bibilov as claiming he had won 54.9 percent of the vote, avoiding the runoff.
The news agency said 78 percent of voters supported a referendum to change the regions name to "Republic of South Ossetia - State of Alania," a move also condemned by Georgia and the United States.
Russia recognized South Ossetia, along with another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, as independent countries after fighting a brief war against Georgia in 2008.
It has kept thousands of troops in the regions, deployments NATO says violate the EU-brokered deal that ended the fighting.
The United States and all but a handful of countries consider South Ossetia and Abkhazia to be parts of Georgia.
Mark C. Toner, acting spokesman for the U.S. State Department, on April 7 said the United States did not accept the "illegitimate elections in South Ossetia and previous ones held in Abkhazia on March 12 and March 26.
"The United States fully supports the territorial integrity of Georgia and its sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders, he added. Our position on Abkhazia and South Ossetia is clear and consistent. These regions are integral parts of Georgia."
The Georgian Foreign Ministry on April 9 said it condemns the so-called presidential election and referendum taking place on the grounds of the occupied Tskhinvali region.
It said the referendum question to change the name of the region was meant to prepare the ground of an illegal annexation by Russia.
With reporting by TASS and Interfax
A Polish government commission says a plane carrying Polands president may have disintegrated due to an explosion shortly before it crashed in western Russia in 2010, killing all people on board.
The preliminary finding from a government-appointed commission was released on April 10, the 7th anniversary of the crash near the Russian city of Smolensk that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.
The delegation, which included Kaczynskis wife, Polands top military leadership, and the governor of Polands central bank, was traveling to Russia to commemorate thousands Polish officers who were executed in the Katyn Forest by Soviet secret police in 1940.
An investigation by Poland's previous, centrist government ruled that the crash of the governments Soviet-made TU-154 airplane in heavy fog during an attempt to land was the result of pilot error.
But Kaczynskis twin brother, Jaroslaw, has said an onboard explosion could have caused the crash. The ruling party that he leads, Law and Justice, launched a fresh probe into the incident.
The commission now investigating the crash was created by Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, who last month accused Polands former President Donald Tusk, who is the current European Council president, of committing "diplomatic treason" in connection with the earlier probe.
The accusations have been dismissed as ridiculous by both Tusk and Russia.
"Much indicates that on April 10, 2010, an explosion took place on board the government Tupolev plane," said the commentary accompanying a video released by the commission on April 10.
"As a result of the conducted experiments, we can say that the most likely cause of the explosion was a thermobaric charge initiating a strong shockwave," it added.
Waclaw Berczynski, who leads a team of Polish investigators, told public broadcaster TVP Info on April 10 that the TU-154 "started to break up and lose parts in the air and that the tree that the plane clipped with its wing "had no impact on the crash."
The commission also repeated allegations made by Polish prosecutors last week that Russian air traffic controllers had deliberately directed the plane to the incorrect descent path. The prosecutors said they would press charges against the two air-traffic controllers, while Russia rejected those charges.
The claims by the commission are likely to heighten tensions between Warsaw and Moscow, which has rebuffed Polish requests to return the planes wreckage.
Russia says it will do so only after it has completed its own inquiry into the crash.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
Russian authorities have arrested a university teacher on charges of calling for terrorist activities with anonymous Internet posts related to recent antigovernment protests.
Russias main investigative agency said in an April 10 statement that the suspect, identified in the media as 25-year-old Dmitry Bogatov, posted content calling for mass disorder in central Moscow and publicly tried to stoke potentially deadly actions.
The Investigative Committee said Bogatov, who teaches math at a Moscow university, was formally placed under arrest earlier in the day.
The teacher told a court hearing he is innocent.
Russian authorities had previously said they had opened a criminal investigation into unidentified individuals who had called for an April 2 unsanctioned anticorruption demonstration in Moscow.
Dozens of people were detained during the protest, which came a week after more than 1,000 were detained during a rally organized by leading Kremlin critic and anticorruption activist Aleksei Navalny.
Navalnys spokeswoman said he had nothing to do with the April 2 protest.
Russia in recent years has stepped up its policing of online content it deems extremist in nature.
It has also prosecuted government critics over Internet posts that free speech advocates say are protected by the constitution.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, TASS, and RIA-Novosti
The son of prominent Soviet-era film actress Aleksandra Zavyalova has been convicted of killing her and sentenced to eight years in prison.
A court in St. Petersburg found Pyotr Zavyalov guilty of murdering his mother on April 10 and sentenced him the same day.
Zavyalova, 79, died of stab wounds in February 2016.
Zavyalova gained fame in the Soviet Union when she played a leading role in Shadows Disappear At Noon, a popular televised film series in the 1970s.
After playing that role, Zavyalova more or less disappeared from screens.
Her last role was in the movie White Clothes, which was shot at the Belarus Film Studio in 1992, a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
The U.S. Justice Department says it has launched an effort to dismantle a global network of tens of thousands of infected computers under the control of a cybercriminal.
A civil complaint filed in U.S. court seeks to stop Pyotr Levashov, a Russian citizen, from continuing the scheme, the department said in an April 10 statement.
Levashov, who allegedly operated the Kelihos botnet since approximately 2010, was detained in Barcelona on April 7 at the request of U.S. authorities, Spanish authorities said earlier.
State-backed Russian TV channel RT quoted Levashov's wife, Maria, as saying Spanish police told her the arrest was made in connection with "a virus which appears to have been created by my husband [and] is linked to [U.S. President Donald] Trump's victory."
Spanish police did not confirm a connection to the U.S. election.
But the AFP news agency quoted an unidentified "legal source" as saying Levashov is "suspected of having participated in hacking the election campaign in the United States."
In January, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered a hacking-and-propaganda campaign aimed at undermining faith in the U.S. election system and denigrating Trump's election opponent, Hillary Clinton.
In its statement, the U.S. Justice Department said Kelihos malware targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system and harvested user credentials by searching infected computers for usernames and passwords and by intercepting network traffic.
Levashov allegedly used the information gained to further his illegal spamming operation which he advertised on various online criminal forums.
The Kelihos botnet generated and distributed enormous volumes of unsolicited spam e-mails advertising counterfeit drugs, deceptively promoting stocks in order to fraudulently increase their price...work-at-home scams, and other frauds, the statement said.
Kelihos was also responsible for installing other malware onto victims computers, including ransomware and malware that intercepts users bank account passwords.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has arrived in Italy for a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations, with a special session scheduled to discuss the crisis in Syria.
Tillerson and other foreign ministers, who are meeting in regular session on April 10, will convene on April 11 at 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) to discuss Syria, Italian news agencies reported.
Along with the G7 members, the foreign ministers of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar are also scheduled to take part in the special session.
The G7 consists of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, Italy, France, and Canada. Russia was part of the G8, but it was ejected in 2014 after its illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.
News agencies quoted Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano as saying the session devoted to Syria was called in an effort to prevent a "dangerous military escalation" in the six-year-old conflict.
The meeting follows a U.S. missile strike against a Syrian air base on April 7 -- a response to Damascus' alleged chemical weapons attack on its own citizens.
Tillerson is likely to be grilled by his G7 counterparts to clearly set out U.S. policy in Syria.
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested during the 2016 campaign that his administration would be less interventionist than predecessors and would ease the emphasis on global human rights abuses.
While many U.S. allies voiced support for missile strike, they are wondering whether it signals a major policy change and whether Washington is prioritizing the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a requirement for peace in the war-torn country.
"The Americans say they agree, but there's nothing to show for it behind [the scenes]. They are absent from this and are navigating aimlessly in the dark," Reuters news agency quoted a senior European diplomat who declined to be named.
The Sunday Times newspaper in London reported on April 10 that Britain will push for new sanctions on Russia if it refuses to cut ties to Assad.
The Times reported that U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wants the G7 to issue a joint declaration that Russia should end its support for the Assad regime and remove its forces from Syria to allow the return of humanitarian aid convoys.
If Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses, new sanctions on Russia should be imposed, aimed at making life very difficult for government figures, the report said.
After the G7 gathering in the Italian town of Lucca, Tillerson is scheduled to move on to Moscow for discussions with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Russia, along with Iran, supports the government of Assad, while the United States and Turkey back antigovernment rebels.
With reporting by dpa, Reuters, The Times, and AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again raised the rhetoric against Europe, indicating he will reassess his countrys bid to join the European Union and saying Europe will pay for what they have done against the Turkish people.
In a speech on April 9 in Izmir, Erdogan said the EU bid will be back on the table after the April 16 Turkish constitutional referendum that if successful will sharply increase his ruling powers.
Erdogan referred to Europe as a sick man the slur European politicians used to describe the collapsing Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.
Erdogan, who cofounded the conservative Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP), became prime minister in 2003, serving until 2014, when he was elected president.
He has a stated goal of turning Turkey into a presidential republic from a parliamentary-based government. That is the issue on the upcoming referendum.
Erdogan claims the move is necessary to establish political stability in the country.
Critics, many in the West, say it will place too much power into one persons hands. They have also criticized Erdogan's crackdown on the opposition following the failed coup of July 2016.
Erdogans latest feud with Europe came after many EU countries barred Turkish politicians from holding prereferendum rallies in European cities.
Many EU countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria, have large Turkish expat populations that were eligible to vote in the referendum up to a April 9 deadline.
In his Izmir speech, Erdogan said Turks living in Europe were being "oppressed" and "humiliated."
"Europe will pay for what they have done. God willing, the question of the European Union will again be on the table after April 16," Erdogan said.
"They said a century ago that we were the 'sick man.' Now they are the 'sick man.' Europe is collapsing," he added.
The Turkish leader vowed to sign a law reinstating the death penalty in Turkey after the referendum, something that would automatically exclude his countrys entrance into the EU.
The death penalty was abolished in Turkey in 2004 as part of its effort to gain EU membership.
Analysts have said the outcome of the referendum is still too close to call.
With reporting by AFP and dpa
Ukrainian MPs have been caught voting illegally for their colleagues in parliament. It has been going for years and several Ukrainian political parties engage in the unlawful practice. A two-week investigation by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service revealed numerous cases of illegal voting by the country's lawmakers. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland is expected to leave her National Security Council post and is expected to be named ambassador to Singapore, an administration official said.
McFarland, who was named to her post by the previous national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was initially told that she could remain at the White House when Flynn was replaced by H.R. McMaster.
Her departure comes amid a broader shake-up at the security council under McMasters leadership.
The official said that McFarland has accepted the offer of the ambassadorship, though that person emphasized that the appointment is still in the process of being made official. McFarland would have to be confirmed by the Senate.
Flynn was ousted in February after it became clear that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian officials. McFarlands position on the council has been in question since then.
McFarland initially resisted, but later accepted the reassignment, which the administration official characterized as a promotion to a critically important diplomatic post with a key U.S. ally in the Pacific region.
McMaster later named Dina Powell as deputy national security adviser for strategy, a new position that McMaster elevated last week to the NSCs principals committee and deputies committee.
WTOP-FM reports (http://bit.ly/2oXGLLY) that three areas of a crumbling bridge over Neabsco Creek, just south of Potomac Mills Mall in Virginia, need extensive repairs that will require two southbound lanes of the four-lane bridge to be closed from 9 p.m. Saturday, April 29, through 6 a.m. Monday, May 1 and again from 10 p.m. Friday, May 5, through 6 a.m. Monday, May 8.
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MARTINSVILLE Friends and colleagues remember Worth H. Carter Jr. as a talented, intelligent banker and businessman who was well-regarded for his generosity and benevolence not only for his community, but also anyone who needed his advice or help.
Carter established 10 community banks across Virginia that merged in 2006 to become Martinsville-based Carter Bank & Trust, which now has more than $4.5 billion in assets and 123 branches in Virginia and North Carolina, its website shows. He was its chairman of the board and chief executive officer.
He died Friday morning following a brief illness. He was 79.
Bruce Whitehurst, president and chief executive officer of the Virginia Bankers Association, said Carter was respected and admired by banking professionals throughout the state.
He had a way of looking at things differently than other people and always turned projects into successes, Whitehurst said.
In an industry changing so much, he said, Carter approached banking in the traditional way customers being able to walk into their local bank branch and have all of their needs handled there. Whitehurst believes that is what has made Carter Bank & Trust and its predecessors successful over the years.
Martinsville lawyer James Haskins, a longtime friend and attorney of Carters, described him as the most brilliant man Ive ever encountered.
He only had to hear something once or read something once. It was in his mind, and he never forgot it, said Phyllis Karavatakis, president of Carter Bank & Trust. His IQ must have been off the charts.
Carter could eyeball a column of numbers and immediately total it in his head, before an employee could even touch an adding machine, Karavatakis recalled.
A native of Richmond, Carter earned a bachelors degree in political science and history from the University of Richmond before attending the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville.
He was employed by the Safeway supermarket chain before he went to work for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in 1960 as a bank examiner.
In 1964, Carter joined Piedmont Trust Bank in Martinsville, eventually becoming its vice president and comptroller. Nine years later, he resigned after deciding that he wanted to try something on his own.
Carter applied for and received charters to establish First National Bank of Rocky Mount, which opened in December 1974, and Patrick Henry National Bank, which opened in Martinsville in 1976. From that year through 1998, he established eight other banks: Peoples Bank of Danville, Blue Ridge Bank of Floyd, South Boston Bank in Halifax County, Central National Bank of Lynchburg, Mountain National Bank of Galax, Patriot Bank in Fredericksburg, Shenandoah National Bank in Staunton and First National Exchange Bank in Roanoke.
Improving and promoting education was a mission of Carters. He was on the Martinsville School Board for 21 years and served as chairman for 11 years. He also served on the boards of a number of colleges and universities.
Carter received an honorary doctorate in business from Liberty University in 2012. His bank provided Liberty short-term loans beginning in 1988 and its first long-term mortgage financing in 1997, according to university President Jerry Falwell Jr.
In an email, Falwell wrote, I can attest to the fact that Liberty University would not have survived the financial struggles it faced in the 1990s if Worth Carter had not believed in the school and the incredible potential that it had.
His willingness to loan to Liberty when the big banks all said no was key to Liberty stabilizing its finances and growing to become one of the most successful and prosperous universities in the nation.
Daniel Ray James was indicted Monday in the death of Pulaski County resident Roger Warren Roope.
A county grand jury indicted James, 52, of Dublin on charges of first-degree murder, possessing a gun after being convicted of a felony, and using a gun to commit a felony. He is scheduled for a two-day jury trial beginning July 11 in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
The trial date is nearly a year after Roope, 67, was discovered dead in the burned ruins of his home in the Lillydell section of the county. He had been shot in the face.
At a preliminary hearing last month, an investigator said that James had a single-barrel shotgun with a spent shell in the breech when officers searched his home. A medicine bottle with Roopes name on it, for a prescription that had recently been picked up and delivered to Roope by his nephew, was on the ground by James porch, the investigator testified.
An assistant chief medical examiner testified that Roope was killed by a shotgun blast. That state lab found that pellets recovered from the inside of Roopes skull were consistent with the shell found in the gun at James home. James attorney, Naomi Huntington of Radford, argued that the labs findings were a long way from a definite link between the gun at her clients home and Roopes death.
Much of the connection between Roope and James remained unexplained at the preliminary hearing.
James had been charged with arson for the fire that consumed Roopes home on the morning of July 20. But at the preliminary hearing, a judge dismissed the charge, saying prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to support it.
Also indicted Monday in a separate case was another Dublin man, Christopher James Draper, 38, on charges of malicious wounding, abduction, possessing a gun after being convicted of a felony, and use of a firearm to commit a felony.
Draper is accused of going into a womans home on June 20, 2016, shooting her boyfriend in the neck as the woman escaped out the window, and holding the boyfriend captive. As law enforcement officers surrounded the house, Draper let the boyfriend go, then eventually surrendered himself, according to a new release issued by the Pulaski County Sheriffs Office after the incident.
The History Museum of Western Virginia was in the news lately as it moved to what is hoped to be more visible quarters now shared with the O. Winston Link Museum.
The history museum houses the collection assembled by the historical society . It contains an impressive array of artifacts, but it should be noted that not all the societys good works are under roof.
A short walk up a gentle hill just off Melrose Avenue and 24th Street Northwest in Roanoke city reveals a site of just one example of the societys beneficiaries, a restored graveyard linked to the earliest days of Roanoke County.
That restoration project was brought to mind as a result of this weeks question.
Q: Im 72 and my brother and I discovered the cemetery there when we were around 12 back in 1956. The stones are so large and the base so big I doubt they have been destroyed. The people there were famous in their day, I remember that much. Might be of interest to your readers to read the names and the history sitting there in hiding.
Wayne Thompson
Roanoke
A: Based on geographic guidance from the correspondent, there ensued a brief but rugged uphill climb through tangled brush and trees. The rocky landscape was decorated by scattered refuse left behind by drinking people.
It was not a promising entrance into an old, forgotten graveyard. Atrocities at abandoned and decrepit cemeteries are well-documented.
It was a shock when the undergrowth opened up next to a stomped-down section of fence to reveal neatly trimmed grass. Within this hilltop lawn were the brick and stone ruins of an old burial site.
Dislodged pieces of brick wall and mortar and broken pieces of the monument were stacked neatly. A wooden sign of elegant modern design standing at the wall announced this site as the McClanahan Cemetery.
News of the well-kept grounds was well-received by Roanokes George Kegley, himself a cornerstone of the historical society.
We got it started being cleaned up a few years ago, he said. A young man worked on it for a Boy Scout project. Then the city gave us some help with trusties from the jail.
Its nice to know somebody is still taking care of it.
Those buried there are from one of the Roanoke Valleys most prominent founding families . Col. Elijah McClanahan, born April 20, 1770, and died Dec. 1, 1857, served as a justice when the county was formed from part of Botetourt County.
Soon after, he was appointed first high sheriff of the county. He was also among the trustees chosen at the founding of the town of Salem, among the founding elders of Salem Presbyterian Church, and one of the largest landholders in the county.
Buried beside him is wife Agatha Lewis McClanahan, who was born March 15, 1779, and died June 14, 1852, she too from a deep-rooted and distinguished family.
She was the granddaughter of famous patriot and Indian fighter Andrew Lewis, said John Long, education director at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford and an authority on local history.
Both McClanahan graves are set flush to the ground, sheltered by a tumble-down brick wall from the frequent west winds that blow across hilltops in that part of town.
As a child, McClanahan attended the funeral of Andrew Lewis, Long said. As an old man, McClanahan pointed out the unmarked grave of the old Revolutionary War hero to Roanoke Countys clerk of court.
That was the first step in the eventual transfer of Lewis remains to Salems East Hill Cemetery in the late 19th century, Long wrote in an email.
If McClanahan didnt pay attention and have a good memory, no one would know where to pay their respects, Long said.
Maybe if the local historical society had not paid attention and had a good memory, then nobody would have known where to pay respects to Col. McClanahan and his wife.
If youve been wondering about something, call Whats on Your Mind at 777-6476 or send an email to whatsonyourmind@roanoke.com. Dont forget to provide your full name (and its proper spelling) and hometown.
Easter is approaching. Devout Christians are reflecting on the treachery of Judas which led to the crucifixion of Jesus, their Savior. Today we have our own version of Judas in Southwest Virginia. Two versions in fact.
Imagine that every phone call you make is recorded by your telephone company. They know who you are calling, what time of day you call, what you discuss, what you may be purchasing, who you call for medical help, etc. etc. Not only that, but they collect this information and then sell it to ad agencies, private detectives, maybe even to our government or overseas scam artists.
Of course, this is illegal. Our telephone conversations are private unless there is very good reason to get a court order to tap ones line. You and I would be outraged if our representatives changed the law to allow the phone company to listen in on our conversations, collect the information and sell it to anyone with the money. But this same information is easily collected by our internet providers.
Now, thanks in part to Bob Goodlatte and Morgan Griffith, internet companies are allowed to collect our private information and sell it to anyone. This is part of our new czars plan to Make Amerika Great Again by promoting big business at the expense of individual citizens. Interestingly, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Goodlatte received over $73,000 in donations from the telecommunications industry in the most recent election cycle. Griffith, a little less astute, only received $36,000 from the same group of donors. They sold their souls for campaign funds and disregarded our desires and rights to privacy. We elected these two characters to represent our interests in Congress. They have shown their colors they are modern version of Judas right here in Southwest Virginia. They both stand to re-election in 2018. Lets find honest candidates to replace these two hucksters.
ERNEST BENTLEY
PILOT
Watching a cowboy or gunslinger galloping across the silver screen on a horse with its mane dancing in the wind makes for a good scene.
Put a few hundred actors on horseback and have them charge across an open field, and you likely have a scene for the ages. Finding that number of actors who wont end up being bounced along the ground with a foot caught in a stirrup, however, is another matter.
On a recent sunny afternoon at Preddy Creek Trail Park north of Charlottesville, Al Underwood was teaching equestrian skills to a new generation of actors. For a number of years, he has been helping producers and casting directors fill roles that call for horse-related skills.
You can learn how to ride a horse anywhere, but the specialty thing we bring is that well teach you how to be an actor on horseback, Underwood said as he slung a British Army saddle onto the back of one of his horses. We teach confidence and competence.
Not only will we teach you how to ride and look like you own the place, you will learn how to present yourself well for the camera. And well teach you how to be safe, and keep your horse safe.
Today, Im giving four students an advanced class on rough-terrain riding. Well be going up and down steep hills, crossing a stream and riding through wooded areas.
Before Underwood retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army, he had put in time in the saddle as a member of the legendary B Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Memorial), at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. This storied outfit was activated in 1855 and has distinguished itself in most of the nations wars.
The mounted element of the regiment honors the long tradition of cavalrymen, and it usually is seen these days in parades and historical events. One of Underwoods high points while a member of B Troop was riding in the Rose Bowl parade.
The retired soldier had another high point when he got to be one of the riders in the 2000 film The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson. This indirectly led him to the task of teaching actors how to ride.
During the filming of The Patriot, I noticed that except for the big-time actors, all the guys they had riding horses were from states out west like Montana and Colorado, said Underwood, who lives near Barboursville. They had to import them from way out there, and that stuck with me.
Then, four or five years ago we had a little re-enactment group, the First Virginia Regiment, Dragoon Section, out of Northern Virginia. There were four of us, and wed put on riding demonstrations.
Our names were handed out to various film companies that needed riders. This led to us getting a job at George Washingtons Mount Vernon, where they were making a film and needed some guys who could ride.
Other film jobs followed. An added plus for producers is that Underwoods horse, Ranger, will ride through fire and smoke, and isnt bothered by gunfire or the booming reports from cannons.
Oftentimes, when I went to do some riding in a film, the director would come over to me and say they almost never got guys who can really make the horses go and look the part, Underwood said. Another guy told me he was on the production staff for the movie The Lord of the Rings, and they wanted 250 guys who could ride well and do basic things.
They could only find about 100 riders, so they had to change things. We were working on another film when the casting director suggested to Sheri Bias, owner of Liquid Talent Agency in Richmond, that they would like to set up some riding classes through her agency.
Underwood was the obvious choice for the head instructor position. Thanks to the growth of the film industry in Virginia, he since has given hundreds of actors the skills they need to land parts that call for boots and saddles.
Leah Graifer traveled to Preddy Creek Trail Park from Northern Virginia. She previously had taken a basic riding and acting class from Underwood.
I enjoyed our ride so much last time, and I thought this was a great way to expand my acting resume, Graifer said. I trust Al, and I trust the horses.
I did some horseback riding when I was 9 at a summer camp, and a little trail riding with my dad when we would go on trips. So I definitely need training like this, and Al teaches it from an actors perspective.
I think its a great experience for any actor who is interested in horses and getting a part in a period movie. Im a history geek, so its so cool to learn how to ride in a military style and things like that.
Leah Roberts knows her way around horses and is a competent rider. She sought out Underwood to learn how to be a better actor when she has reins in her hands.
Ive come out of my love for horses, and for the training that Al provides, Roberts said. Taking these classes from him definitely helps me feel comfortable in what Im doing.
That will help me feel confident in roles, and give me the ability to convey accurately the mood of my character. Having these skill sets can be critical for actors.
Filmmakers can count on us to be able to do what they want. These classes are fantastic and definitely exhilarating.
Underwood termed what he does as, pretty much a niche market. He charges $210 for a basic class if the actor goes through the talent agency. For add-on classes, such as the rough-terrain lesson, he charges about $100 for a two- to three-hour session.
Bias believes that attending an Underwood class can be one of the best investments an actor can make in his or her career.
Any investment that talent [actors] make in themselves will serve as a benefit to them, Bias wrote in an email. Building their knowledge, skills and abilities is extremely important to remaining competitive.
We have partnered with Al on the equestrian skills for actors for quite a while. This was prompted by demands from our clients for talent to have such skills. I met Al while on a feature film, and the partnership has blossomed from there so that the talent are prepared to meet client demands associated with having these specialized skills.
Al is amazing. Everyone that I have spoken to says that same thing. He is extremely knowledgeable, and has been involved in many productions based on this expertise.
Staying in the saddle is obviously important, but thats a small part of the acting equation. Carrying a flag or lance while riding at a full gallop, or fighting with a sword while on horseback, are all skills Underwood teaches.
Perhaps most importantly, Underwood shows actors how to portray their emotions through the animal. This can be as subtle as patting the horses neck to show viewers that the rider is a caring person.
When theyre shooting something like a surrender scene, and the horse is all perky and trotting up to the camera, thats not the right emotion for the horse, Underwood said. The horse should be brought in slow, and the rider should have slouched shoulders.
But if youre coming up to announce victory, or to order the artillery forward, you should bring that horse up at a trot and make it excited like you are. So spin the horse in a circle, and when you dismount, get off intentionally.
And you have to keep in mind where the camera is. Oftentimes, they will have the camera on a trolley track, but in rough terrain theyll be farther away, so you have to exaggerate your movements.
Heyward Davis is looking into acting as a hobby. He had heard about the class through word of mouth, and his main goal for the day was staying upright in the saddle.
It was a blast, Davis said after spending nearly three hours in the saddle. Al is a phenomenal teacher, and I learned a lot about how to use my body to convey a message to the audience as Im riding.
It was worth every penny, and I will definitely do it again.
Each of the actors on horseback is now able to put equestrian training from Underwood on his or her resume. This can pay dividends, and maybe even keep their careers from riding into the sunset.
Business News Toyota Investing 1 3 Billion In Kentucky Plant | RobinsPost News & Noticias
RALEIGH, N.C.--Toyota announced on Monday that it plans to build a $1.3 billion electric vehicle battery plant ... doing business, Toyota Motor North America CEO Ted Ogawa said in a news ... Read More REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Sept 27 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) said Tuesday it will invest $700 million and add 500 jobs at its Kentucky plant to ... investment of $3.65 billion with an annual ... Read More GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) Toyota of Kentucky hosted a behind-the ... The TILT Lab is where employees use 3-D printers and augmented reality to streamline production. A program lets customers ... Read More BMW will invest $1 billion in its sprawling factory ... near a Nissan assembly plant, and it is building a plant in Kentucky. The BMW plant already builds lithium-ion battery modules for two ... Read More So she pleaded with lawmakers in a letter last October to put more tools in our economic toolbox to attract private investment. Two months later, they delivered, handing her a $1 billion ... Read More Over the next decade, Gotion Inc.'s $2.4 billion plant near Big Rapids and Our Next Energy Inc.'s $1 ... investment, and we've made commitments of $175 million in grants without seeing a business ... Read More GREER, S.C. (AP) BMW will invest $1 billion in its sprawling factory near Spartanburg ... Envision has a U.S. factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, near a Nissan assembly plant, and it is building a plant ... Read More BMW Investing $1.7B in S Carolina as Automaker Shifts to EVs By TOM KRISHER and JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press GREER, S.C. (AP) BMW will invest $1 billion in its sprawling factory near ... Read More Employees work in the battery assembly hall at the BMW Spartanburg plant in Greer, S.C. Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. BMW's sprawling factory near Spartanburg, will get a $1 billion investment ... Read More
Politics News Why Are California Legislators Getting Decent Approval Ratings They Re Getting Things Done | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Because these days we cant even agree on when elections are done. I mean, good grief. How many more conspiracies, analyses and righteously indignant reactions can our fragile democracy/constitutional ... Read More Theres plenty of drama in legislative races coming to a head between Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday. Even members of the same party are competing in some districts under California ... Read More US midterm election will be held on Nov. 8, but early voting is already underway and candidates are making their closing arguments. Follow CNN for the latest election news and updates. Read More In this midterm for Biden, everythings at stake, says Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. Read More The former president could declare another run for the White House as soon as Nov. 14, according to people familiar with the planning. Read More The 2022 midterm election is less than two weeks away, with control of Congress and key statehouses at stake. Our reporters are covering contests across the nation. Read More Reducing news to hard lines and side-taking leaves a lot of the story untold. Progress comes from challenging what we hear and considering different views. Read More Cheney plans to campaign for Representative Elissa Slotkin follow all the latest politics news. Closing summary 21:00 The pieces on the American political chess board continued moving ... Read More
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Politics News Tom Perez Sets His Sights On Massachusetts New York Passes A State Budget | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Potus News Boj Paints Rosy Picture Of Regional Japan Trump Uncertainty Niggles | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Secret Service communications and testimony from bombshell witness Cassidy Hutchinson painted a picture ... Trump was about the outcome. Quote Just FYI, POTUS is pissed Breaking news ... Read More Travelers to Japan, from and through Japan are getting some big news today: Anyone can now travel to Japan, without a visa. And that's effective today. It's been slow going or no going to ... Read More TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's banking system remains stable as a whole but rising overseas interest rates could worsen the creditworthiness of highly leveraged firms, the Bank of Japan said on Friday. Read More The House January 6 committee used observations from the agents tasked with protecting the president to paint a devastating portrait of Donald Trump's actions before and during the Capitol riot. In ... Read More Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda raises his hand during a parliamentary session in Tokyo on Oct. 17, 2022. (Kyodo) TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Monday ... Read More The legal woes of investor Tom Barrack, accused of secretly lobbying for the Emirati regime, add to the image of a Trump circle beset by influence-peddling and corruption Trump is the man ... Read More The Bank of Japan is considering revising its inflation outlook upward for the current fiscal year to next March, factoring in a bigger-than-expected impact from the yen's sharp drop and higher ... Read More Related Story Joe Biden Warns Of MAGA Republican Efforts To "Subvert The Electoral System" In Midterm Elections; Fox News Chyron Refers To President As "Election Denier" In his letter, Trump does ... Read More Japan kept up its warnings over speculative currency moves following the yens slump to a three-decade low, as it tried to dissuade traders from testing its intervention strategy. The currency ... Read More The yield on the 10-year note briefly rose 0.5 basis points to 0.255% Thursday as the Bank of Japan held the first unscheduled bond buying operation this month. Global yields have continued to ... Read More A newly obtained Secret Service message from that day shows how angry President Trump was about the outcome. Quote, "Just FYI, POTUS is pissed. Breaking news, Supreme Court denied his lawsuit. He is ... Read More
Science News Virginia Tech Researchers Fill Critical Gap In Fossil Record Of Chinese Phytosaurs | RobinsPost News & Noticias
The oldest gibbon fossil was discovered in southwest China. The earliest gibbon fossil has been found by a team of researchers, filling a long-missing evolutionary gap in the history of apes. The ... Read More T.M. Murali, a professor in the Department of Computer Science ... and containment of zoonotic viruses. Virginia Tech is a great place to do this research, said Murali. Read More Virginia Tech researchers from the Department of Biomedical ... These results are featured in the Oct. 18 issue of Science Signaling. Daniel J. Slade, associate professor in biochemistry and ... Read More Jaroshs attention to detail paid off when he realized hed broken the Virginia record and squashed the ... Remembering science lessons on stamens and stigmas, he brought the two together ... Read More And, this years incoming class new first-year students and transfer students is the most diverse in the universitys history, according to a university news ... Virginia Tech set a ... Read More According to VTx, Virginia Tech will feature several activities and events for the Virginia Tech community from Oct. 10 through Oct. 15 in celebration of homecoming. Homecoming Kickoff will begin ... Read More On Saturday, Oct. 15, Virginia Tech revealed its Sesquicentennial Time Capsule outside of Burruss Hall. The capsule itself is built out of locally sourced Hokie Stone which will hold the featured ... Read More Engineers have succeeded in manufacturing potentially high efficiency, stable, and scalable perovskite solar cells (PSCs). A research team, led by Professor Hyesung Park in the Department of ... Read More The new technology can be printed on 3D printers ... "We believe in open science, that research results should be made available to the public and that other researchers should be able to repeat ... Read More Your data science teams should consist of a collection of different experience levels. It isnt feasible to land a highly experienced data scientist to fill all your team positions. You need a ... Read More
Technology News University Of Wyoming Creates Wyocloud For Better Decisions Through Better Data | RobinsPost News & Noticias
A project titled Accelerated Telerehabilitation Infrastructure and Clinical Viability was funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury through the Wyoming Health a ... Read More The College of Law at University of Wyoming has an application deadline of April 30. The full-time program application fee at the College of Law at University of Wyoming is $50. Its tuition is ... Read More a Google form landed in the email inboxes of students belonging to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. The members were asked to vote on the admission of two ... Read More The University of Washingtons Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering unveiled a new hub called the Center for the Future of Cloud Infrastructure, or FOCI. The goal is to create ... Read More Then well look at an effective decision process. Many companies say they are data-driven ... company growth) through the platforms. Implementing a technology does not create value. Read More Jackson, Wyoming is often called the Last of the Old ... "but I want other people to have a better quality of life in ten years." ... Read More thanks to advances in technology and data science. There is an accelerated demand for data analytics in businesses of all types in order to make better decisions, drive growth and improve efficiency. Read More Businesses employ accountants, finance teams, legal counsel, and C-suite executives to comb through data ... technology they need to make sound business decisions is crucial to success. 2. Create ... Read More The best technology creates a user ... and benefits administration. Through cutting-edge products, premium services and exceptional experiences, ADP is designing better ways to work that enable ... Read More As the global data privacy regulatory landscape gets more convoluted and constrictive, engineering teams looking to use structured data to improve their products and AI models are being pushed to ... Read More
Travel News Travel Oregon Vortex May Be State S Weirdest Spot | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Travel Oregon partnered with the states nine federally recognized tribes to create the Travel Guide to Oregon Indian Country. The guide features descriptions and locations of tribal ... Read More Its an idea thats been around before but never been done here in Portland. Wheeler calls the crisis on Portland streets a vortex of misery ... candidates for Oregon governor were ... Read More The use of proprietary and third-party data showing the impact of the pandemic on the travel industry, and how it has been performing since Data-driven insights on the current state of all travel ... Read More strengthening one's self-confidence and motivation. Meanwhile, the Cathedral Rock Vortex near Red Rock State Park fosters feminine aspects like goodness, patience and compassion. The Boynton ... Read More With prices that high, it's a good idea to protect your wallet in the event of an unforeseen event or emergency. That's when travel insurance ... traveler information (state, country, citizenship ... Read More Editor's Note Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... the No. 1 designation has not gone to a spot in New York City or London. Read More The insurance company will then review it and determine if it's approved ... and may give you financial peace of mind, as well as allow for safe and healthy travel," the agency says. The State ... Read More Editor's Note Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... Although it may seem like the pandemic is so last year, there are still ... Read More Regardless of Vortex on the Wabashs fate, Gibbens envisions a time when high-school students will create and work on community projects. I foresee a time that schools will give students a ... Read More In my official test of the best air fryers, the Instant Vortex 6-Quart Air Fryer wowed me with its quick cooking, extra features and roomy capacity, and won the best value spot on my list. Read More
Travel News Bahrain Tourism Takes Part In Riyadh Travel Fair 2017 | RobinsPost News & Noticias
The event will be held at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in the capital, Riyadh, where a large number of officials, including the Minister of Tourism in Bahrain ... The World ... Read More the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) is participating in the World Travel Market In line with its efforts to promote the Kingdom of Bahrain and develop the tourism sector ... Read More Palm Jumeirah continues to delight travellers from all over the world with its one-of-a-kind tourism offering. Here Breaking Travel News takes a look at the new properties recently joining the ... Read More Bahrains Tourism Minister has highlighted engaging young entrepreneurs and start-ups in the industry of tourism and travel and supporting innovative ... reported Bahrain News Agency (BNA). She ... Read More Future Hospitality Summit (FHS) Saudi Arabia will take place in Riyadh in 2023 ... continued growth of the Kingdoms hospitality and tourism sectors. This will be the sixth industry conference ... Read More Showcase your company news with guaranteed exposure both in print and online Most Admired CEOs were built for times like these. Their leadership & actions are guiding the Join the DBJ and ... Read More A new tourism law is set to replace the existing three-decades-old legislation. The Cabinet has informed Parliament in writing that a committee comprising members from the Economic Development Board ... Read More Editor's Note Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations ... have been slow about reopening to tourism. These Covid-related restrictions ... Read More The GCC Ministerial Committee for Cybersecurity's first meeting in Riyadh was chaired by NCA's Majed bin Mohammad Al-Mazyed, and was attended by a number of the GCC senior officials. The meeting ... Read More This week in travel: some of the destinations in Asia with the most strict Covid policies are finally reopening, an annual ranking of the world's coolest neighborhoods provides inspiration for ... Read More Ranked by Attendees in 2021 or most recent seasonal event attendance Ranked by Meeting sq. ft. Ranked by Average cost 2 apps, 2 entrees, 2 desserts Tying making to market, the Milwaukee Institute ... Read More
Travel News U S Embassy Warns Citizens Vs Travel To Central Philippines | RobinsPost News & Noticias
The United States Embassy in Nigeria has warned its citizens against visiting its Lagos ... It is Nigerias most authoritative news media available on all platforms for the political, business ... Read More U.S. Says It's Raised Concerns With Saudis Over Detention of U.S. Citizen By Humeyra Pamuk and ... He was also handed a 16-year travel ban. Speaking at a press briefing, Department deputy ... Read More It read: "The U.S. Embassy urges US citizens to shelter in place and depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options when it is safe to do so." The recent attack was ... Read More The U.S. Embassy will offer reduced services until further notice." It advised American citizens to avoid all non-essential travel and movement, among others. "Avoid all non-essential travel or ... Read More Iran on Friday urged its citizens in Ukraine to leave the country and warned against travel to the war ... is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news. Read More Following reports by the US Embassy that there is an elevated risk of terror attacks in Nigeria, the United Kingdom has warned its citizens to stay alert. Recalled ... Read More The US Embassy in Kyiv is urging Americans to leave Ukraine immediately after Russia increased its missile strikes on cities in retaliation for the Crimea bridge blast. Russia launched attacks ... Read More Oct 21 (Reuters) - Iran advised its citizens on Friday not to travel to Ukraine and urged Iranians already there to leave, semi-official news agencies reported, a day after the United States ... Read More The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has urged citizens of the United States who are now on the territory of Ukraine to urgently leave the country. The Embassy announced this on its official website, Ukrainian ... Read More Iran on Friday urged its citizens in Ukraine to leave the country and warned against travel to the war-torn nation one day after the U.S. accused Tehran of aiding ... READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP On ... Read More The flag of Saudi Arabia flies above the Saudi Arabia embassy near the Watergate Complex in Washington, U.S., February 26 ... He was also handed a 16-year travel ban. Speaking at a press briefing ... Read More Iran advised its citizens on Friday not to travel to Ukraine and urged Iranians already there to leave, semi-official news agencies reported, a day after the United States accused Iran of helping ... Read More
Travel News Hawaii Ag An Appeal Of Travel Ban Ruling Likely | RobinsPost News & Noticias
critics of President Donald Trump's travel ban hold signs during a news conference with Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin in Honolulu. A federal judge in Hawaii on Thursday, July 6, left Trump ... Read More It's all likely headed to the black-robed men and women sitting in Washington. The Trump administration is appealing a Hawaii judges order that blocks the newest version of the travel ban. Read More The Trump administration on Friday filed an appeal in ... the president's travel ban. The revised ban was shut down by judges in Hawaii and Maryland earlier this week after they concluded it, like the ... Read More Editors' Blog / Analysis & Opinion News Live Blog Morning ... s newest version of the travel ban to partially take effect. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling will bar people from six ... Read More Women traveling from another state to get an abortion in Hawaii and medical professionals ... The abortion bans have prompted some women to travel elsewhere for the medical procedure, drawing ... Read More The longtime environmental group Hawaiis Thousand ... U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or let the lawsuit run its course and decide whether to appeal after a final ruling. In the meantime ... Read More An administrative judge has denied an appeal by Montanas governor and attorney general, along with grazing and cattle groups, seeking to halt a decision ... harm is likely, not merely possible ... Read More "We have read the written decision of the Disciplinary Panel and believe that there are legitimate grounds for an appeal," the statement added. "Mr. Campbell's position was that he was not ... Read More So, you may be inclined to deny or refuse travel insurance as a way to cut costs. But sometimes that decision can end up costing you even more in the long run. Before finalizing travel plans ... Read More That's when travel insurance can come in handy. Fortunately, sites like SquareMouth make the process easy. Get started now. While it's likely a good idea to buy travel insurance amid sky-high ... Read More A federal appeals judge put on hold a lower-court ruling that struck down many of New Yorks gun bans in public places as constitutional. US Circuit Court Judge Eunice Lee granted New York ... Read More (Bloomberg) -- A federal appeals judge put on hold a lower-court ruling that struck down many of New Yorks gun bans in public places as constitutional. US Circuit Court Judge Eunice Lee granted New ... Read More
Travel News Tourism Authority Of Thailand To Host Cultural Trips For The World Travel And Tourism Global Summit Delegates | RobinsPost News & Noticias
the governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand said in a press statement on Monday. International travelers could, for example, combine a visit to Thailand with visits to Laos, Myanmar ... Read More with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Emirates Airline early in the year to boost travel from the United Arab Emirates to Thailand under the Visit Thailand Year 2022: Amazing New Chapters ... Read More The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is holding the "Amazing Night Light of Loi Krathong" event to celebrate the festival of floating lanterns at Bangkok's Santi Chai Prakan Park on November 6 8. T ... Read More Visit Valencia has partnered with The World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage (WTACH) to host the worlds first tourism summit dedicated to the protection and preservation of culture and ... Read More The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is proud to announce the launch of Feel Thailand with Delta and Korean Air, a bold new initiative that showcases Thailand's increased accessibility for U.S. Read More The Southeast Asian nation expects a 30% increase in average spending per trip next year, according to Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Tourists spent an average ... Read More A new report indicates the travel industry in Asia-Pacific may be the only one in the world ... of the global economy will be 2.7% from 2022 to 2032. Yet, during the same period, tourism's ... Read More air travel, cruises, hotels, food and drinks, outdoor adventure, and more, they are able to take their real-world experience and provide readers with tried-and-tested trip ideas, in-depth intel ... Read More The World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit will take place in Saudi Arabia in ... Princess Haifa Al Saud. The summit will also host a selection of speakers and participants including Vice ... Read More Even though it just became more expensive to enjoy Disney World as of this week, Orlando's tourism association is giving away 12 free trips to the ... entry per person. Travel + Leisure is ... Read More Saudi Arabia will host from November 28 to December 1st in Riyadh the World Travel & Tourism Council ( WTTC ) Global Summit , one of the world's leading tourism events. In an interview with ANBA ... Read More Travel insurance usually costs between 4% to 8% of your total trip, per the U.S ... told CBS News. "Now if a family is going to Disney World or Europe, I would recommend it." ... Read More
Travel News Ottawa To Now Pay For Travel Companion For Indigenous Women Giving Birth Away From Reserve | RobinsPost News & Noticias
(Fernand Detillieux/CBC) An Indigenous-led safe space for sexually exploited women and girls is expecting to expand its reach in Winnipeg with funds from the federal government. Ottawa says ... Read More The federal government is planning to redirect funding from Indigenous child and family services agencies to communities as part of a $20 billion reform package now being negotiated by Ottawa ... Read More FOR most women, giving birth is anything but a pleasurable ... Jannine became a doula - a trained companion during birth - and has now combined her knowledge as a birth coach. Read More The Defense Department will pick up travel costs for service members ... The Supreme Court's ruling which took away constitutional protections for women to seek abortions, no matter the ... Read More long-table dinner on June 24 at Madahoki Farm as part of the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival. (Ottawa Tourism) ... Read More Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services enable you to buy your items right away and pay for them over time, often without interest. But it's not a great choice for everyone. Here's what you need to ... Read More The policies address concerns about access where abortion is now illegal. In the wake of ... female service members who could be forced to travel away from the states where they were based in ... Read More Things look more like 2019 now than at any ... Still, it wont pay to wait to make a decision on traveling abroad at Thanksgiving. Virtuoso, the consortium of travel agencies, expects ... Read More and top-notch travel protections, they can be worth much more than their high annual fees. The Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of the most rewarding premium cards on the market, and it's now ... Read More But it's time to look forward, for there's another crunch time looming less than two months away: the 2022 winter holiday travel ... car, reserve it early to lock into the rate and pay in advance ... Read More That's when travel insurance can come in handy. Fortunately, sites like SquareMouth make the process easy. Get started now. While it's likely a good idea to buy travel insurance amid sky-high ... Read More That's why it's important to compare travel insurance companies and plans before landing on one. Get free quotes now. (Note: If you're concerned about the cost of travel, then sort results by ... Read More
Travel News Vietnam And U S Travel Societies To Jointly Launch Tourism Products | RobinsPost News & Noticias
In 2023, Da Nang and the central region will focus on developing sea tourism products ... the U.S., Australia, and Western European nations as well as tourism management bodies from these countries. Read More The country earned roughly VND720 trillion (US$30.05 billion ... Vietnamese tourism has been surging while the number of international arrivals has also been rising. Domestic travel has continued to ... Read More Vietnam was voted Asias best spa destination at the awards this year. World Spa Awards, a sister event of the prestigious World Travel Awards, is a global initiative to celebrate and reward ... Read More This year's "Travel & Tourism Economic Impact" report an annual publication by the London-based World Travel & Tourism Council shows that, compared with pre-pandemic levels, tourism ... Read More The U.S. News & World Report travel rankings are based on an analysis of expert and user opinions. We believe this unbiased approach makes our rankings more useful than simply providing our ... Read More "The international tourism season is now busy in Phu Quoc," he said. Huy said that since the launch of direct routes from India's major cities ... Though Vietnam has reopened its borders fully to ... Read More The U.S. dollar has appreciated in value relative to major currencies such as the euro, pound, and yen, and enhanced buying power for American tourists has been changing travel patterns. Read More Todays edition of Skifts daily podcast looks at the need for more staff at U.S. hotels, short-term rentals' impact on housing, and Hurricane Ian's impact on one tourism market. Good morning ... Read More As international travel returned in full swing this past summer to say the least Emirates sees the trend only continuing, specifically for its U.S.-customer base. I keep on looking at ... Read More At least 13 U.S. air travel websites, including those for Hartsfield ... Airport didnt respond to requests for comment. An NBC News survey of the 49 websites posted on the Killnet Telegram ... Read More A popular summertime destination in Massachusetts is also one of the best fall getaways in America, according to Fodors Travel. The publication released a list of the 11 best U.S. destinations ... Read More Koll said that although travelers from Europe and the U.S. are important in aiding Japan's tourism recovery, "the bulk of the enthusiasm and the bulk of travel" still come from countries like ... Read More
Us News Alaska Airlines Flight 3391 Forced To Make Unplanned Landing In Calif | RobinsPost News & Noticias
An American Airlines flight departing from Miami was forced to make an emergency landing Wednesday evening ... A source familiar with the situation told CBS News the odor was coming from nail ... Read More American Airlines flight forced to return to Miami International Airport 00:29 MIAMI - An American Airlines flight departing from Miami was forced to make an emergency landing. The flight was ... Read More Airlines are rarely required to give you a hotel voucher when flights are delayed or canceled. Here's when you can get one. Unlike in Europe, there are no federal laws in the US requiring airlines ... Read More Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may ... and here's how we make money. Table of Contents How does the Alaska Airlines Flight Pass work? Read More Seattle-based Alaska Airlines is one of the US' biggest carriers ... said in December the alliance would offer over 100 nonstop flights from the West Coast to Europe by summer 2022. Read More to cover a round-trip flight on six of Alaska Airlines' most popular routes: The calculated costs shown above are based on booking searches conducted by U.S. News in July 2022. We analyzed 12 of ... Read More Will McQuillen, chairman of the Alaska Airlines Master Executive Council, said in a statement through the union. Our goal was to negotiate an agreement where our pilots could make Alaska ... Read More Some highlights: Apple, Pumpkin and Pork Shoulder Breakfast Hash (GF) While most US airlines do not offer fresh food items unless flights are longer than 900 miles, Alaska continues to offer ... Read More Virgin argued that Alaska Airlines, as the legal successor to Virgin America Inc, is obliged to make the annual payment even if it has stopped using the Virgin brand. But, Alaskas lawyers told ... Read More Alaska Airlines is one of the worlds largest airlines, and contrary to the impression given my its name, it flies all over the world, offering 1,200 daily flights in the United States, Mexico ... Read More This new contract reiterates what many of us have ... more than 20 airlines while earning and redeeming miles on flights to locations around the world. Learn more about Alaska at news.alaskaair.com. Read More so if youd like to join us, check out gayislandguide.net. So look for the Alaska Airlines float and if you cant make it down to the parade on Saturday, you can catch it live on KHON2 ... Read More
Us News Top Us Admiral Expresses Growing Concerns Over Russian Naval Activities | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Milley and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, discussed several security-related issues of concern and agreed to keep lines of communication open, the Pentagon said in a ... Read More WASHINGTON Threats from China and Russia are the two biggest security concerns facing the US, the White House said ... Chinas nuclear stockpile will grow to more than 1,000 warheads by ... Read More This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding ... asked during a press briefing on Tuesday. The news of the Russian bomber planes comes after NORAD last month ... Read More Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Monday that the Rubin Central Design Bureau is working with the Russian Ministry of Defense to develop over 10 ... "The report concerns the movements ... Read More This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based ... originated from within the Russian Federation. An official with knowledge of the attack told ABC news the systems which had been targeted ... Read More Speaking to Russian General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, the top US general discussed several security-related issues of concern and agreed to keep the lines of communication open, reported CNN. Read More Admiral Michael Gilday, chief of US naval operations, is the latest senior official in Washington to raise concerns ... over Taiwan would have an "enormous" impact on global trade. The Barron's ... Read More Russias claims over occupied Donetsk ... to stay within the US earlier this year, with more than 300 lawmakers rejecting the idea of leaving the union, as ABC News reported at the time. Read More signaling heightened alarm over Beijing's intentions towards the island. Admiral Michael Gilday, chief of US naval operations, is the latest senior official in Washington to raise concerns that ... Read More
World News Russian Compound In Nicaragua Reportedly Intrigues Us Officials | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front won local elections decried as unfair in all 153 of the country's municipalities, cementing its rule. Read More Nicaragua's regime has reportedly greenlighted the ... On March 31, Kerri Hannan, an official of the US State Department, had warned Russia would intend to export the Ukraine conflict to Latin ... Read More The top Moscow official statements come at a particularly appropriate moment for the government of Nicaragua ... presence of Russia. Admiral Craig Faller, head of the US forces South Command ... Read More On one hand, the authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua have severely limited or rejected U.S. deportations of their citizens, while Mexican officials have generally refused to accept ... Read More She called on France's government "not to abandon us". Nicaragua's government has refused to give information to French officials, according to a French official familiar with the matter. Read More Local news media showed images of trees ... Guillermo Gonzalez, director of Nicaragua's Disaster Response System, told official media that people at high risk had been evacuated from coastal ... Read More Five countries voted against the resolution Russia, and four other dictatorships: North Korea, Syria, Belarus and Nicaragua. It was a stronger showing than many Western officials had predicted ... Read More Local news media showed images of trees ... Guillermo Gonzalez, director of Nicaraguas Disaster Response System, told official media that people at high risk had been evacuated from coastal ... Read More Of the U.N.s 193-member body, 143 voted in favor of the resolution criticizing Russias illegal so-called referendums, with 35 abstaining, according to an upda te. Syria, North Korea, Belarus and ... Read More 12 (UPI) --The United Nations General Assembly overwhelming voted Wednesday to reject ... World News // 7 hours ago Past eight years were the hottest on record, says grim U.N. report on climate ... Read More The Sandinista National Liberation Front completed its political domination of Nicaragua on Monday as electoral officials said it had won control of all the country's 153 municipalities in elections ... Read More MEXICO CITY (AP) Hurricane Julia hit Nicaragua's central Caribbean coast and dumped torrential rains across Central America before reemerging over the Pacific as a tropical storm. It was ... Read More
World News China Nuclear Envoy In Talks On North Korea Threat | RobinsPost News & Noticias
North Korea has issued a veiled threat Tuesday to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to "pay the most horrible price in history. Read More People watch a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing a ballistic missile off its east coast, in Seoul, South Korea 3, 2022. REUTERS/ Heo Ran ... Read More Whether North Korea tests a nuclear bomb is ... realignment in the world with Russias war against Ukraine, and systemic rivalry between the US and China. And they might have calculated that ... Read More A long taboo subject is now the source of serious debate in and around Washington: Accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed country. Read More The North has also adopted a new law that authorizes preemptive nuclear attacks over a broad range of scenarios, including non-war situations, when it perceives a threat ... China side with North ... Read More North Korea is testing a record number of missiles and possibly prepping for a nuclear test, but observers warn the Biden administration is reluctant to impose significant costs. Read More The United States said on Friday its policy towards North Korea had not changed after a senior U.S. official responsible for nuclear policy raised some eyebrows by saying Washington would be willing ... Read More South Korea reconsiders nuclearisation to counter North threat There are also ... marking the first time nuclear weapons have been used since World War II and prompting rapid escalation that ... Read More
World News Wife Of Taiwan Activist Sees China Conspiracy Behind Husband S Arrest | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Xi is on the cusp of securing a third five-year term at the helm of the ... Taiwan. For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "We've seen a very different China emerge ... Read More In the eyes of Xi, China is closer than ever to achieving its dream of national rejuvenation and reclaiming its rightful place in the world ... over Taiwan, Covid-19, Beijings human ... Read More In August, as China captured the world's attention with its large-scale ... an instant messaging app popular in Taiwan. "Fake news on social media is a way for [China] to pave the way for their ... Read More TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) China's threats of military action against Taiwan are absolutely not an option and will only push our two sides further from each other," Taiwanese President Tsai ... Read More Chinese dictator Xi Jinping called for China to create a world-class military as ... a determination to beef up the country's military and take over Taiwan. "In the face of serious provocations ... Read More More info Taiwan must prepare ... completed in two weeks [SPOTLIGHT] But China is spending at least 15 times more. Beijing commands the world's largest navy and the PLA has more than two ... Read More The island is now threatening to destroy Chinese drones which may enter its airspace which it would see as ... Pelosis trip. In preparation for a potential attack from China, Taiwan has ... Read More TAIPEI, Taiwan Chinas threat to absorb Taiwan through possible military action if necessary has sent nerves soaring in this city while sparking debate half a world away in ... Read More China-Taiwan Conflict: Flags of China and Taiwan flutter next to each other during a rally in Taipei, Taiwan.(Reuters) Taiwans navy plans to update its aging fleet of warships, a move intended ... Read More Beijing wants to seize Taiwan "on ... was leading China in a more aggressive direction. Xi is on the cusp of securing a third five-year term at the helm of the world's most populous nation ... Read More Russias war on Ukraine has refocused attention on China and on ways Taiwan can resist a much larger and more powerful foe equipped with the worlds largest standing army and a huge arsenal of ... Read More
World News Roadside Bomb Kills 9 Afghan Forces Battling The Taliban | RobinsPost News & Noticias
According to an informed source, this explosion was caused by a roadside bomb and targeted the Taliban's vehicle. The Taliban authorities in Laghman province also confirmed the explosion and announced ... Read More The Taliban said Saturday their special forces had killed nine Islamic State operatives and captured two others in overnight raids in the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere in Afghanistan. Zabihullah ... Read More An Afghan military commander said the government forces managed to beat back the Taliban later in the day. "In the afternoon the level of intensity of the fighting (in Lashkargah) decreased as the ... Read More ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) The Taliban captured, bound and shot to death 27 men in Afghanistans Panjshir ... earlier claims that the men were killed in battle. One video of the killings ... Read More A woman in Afghanistan's Ghor province died by suicide before Taliban forces could kill her for running away ... UN Expresses Concern T20 World Cup: Updated Group 1 Points Table After New Zealand ... Read More Taliban Kill Six Islamic State Members in Raid in Afghan Capital - Spokesman KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban security forces killed six Islamic State members in an overnight operation in the Afghan ... Read More According to the Taliban, the killed militants were ... commanders in the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar, media reports said citing a Taliban-controlled news agency. Qari Aminullah Tayeb ... Read More Taliban security forces killed six Islamic State members in an overnight operation in the Afghan capital, Kabul, a spokesman for the ruling group's administration said on Saturday. The Islamic ... Read More The Taliban ... 27 men in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley last month during an offensive against resistance fighters in the area, according to a report published Tuesday, refuting the group's earlier ... Read More
World News G 7 Ministers Aim To Press Russia To Stop Backing Assad | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Top diplomats from the worlds major industrialized democracies have rallied support for Ukraine in its resistance to Russias invasion. They expressed "unwavering commitment for Ukraine's defense an ... Read More Leaders of some of the world's largest economies ... He said that he and the G-7 leaders will keep their "unwavering commitment to hold Russia accountable for its war and support Ukraine for ... Read More Top diplomats from the worlds major industrialized democracies are rallying support for Ukraine and coming together to voice suspicion of Chinas increasing assertiveness. Foreign ministers from the ... Read More We reaffirm that any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences, the statement continued. The leaders of the world ... G-7 leaders took ... Read More KYIV Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday asked the Group of Seven (G-7) nations ... leaders of the worlds most developed nations came just hours after Russia once again ... Read More and the two agreed on the need for an emergency meeting of the Group of Seven Advanced World Economies (G-7) over Russia's series of missile attacks against Ukraine in Monday, Reuters reported. Read More People remove wreckage on a street in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Oct. 10, 2022, after Russia's missile attacks earlier in the day. (Kyodo) TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Leaders from the Group of Seven ... Read More GCHQ has warned the race for the UK's next Prime Minister could he hacked by Russia amid fears the online ... MPs have until Monday at 2pm to win the backing of at least 100 MPS to go in the ... Read More Oct 20 (Reuters) - Canada's foreign minister vowed to support ... Tehran's morality police over her attire. World U.S. privately asks Ukraine to show Russia it's open to talks -Washington Post ... Read More Madagascar Minister Fired for Voting Against Russia's Ukraine Annexation ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's president has fired his foreign affairs minister for voting at the United Nations to ... Read More KYIV, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Ukraine's energy minister said on Friday he believed Russia could halt the transit of natural gas through his country but that he had seen no formal indications that this ... Read More
World News Marine Le Pen France Not Responsible For Deporting Jews During Holocaust | RobinsPost News & Noticias
PARISAfter securing her partys biggest-ever gains in elections to Frances National Assembly, Marine Le Pen is now reflecting on whether she can steer the country toward what she calls a ... Read More Frances far-right politician Marine Le Pen has demanded ... France during World War I. During World War II, the mosque provided refuge and protection for about 1,600 Jews fleeing the war. Read More The transfer of power for France, read the banner projected during Sunday ... After Jean-Marie Le Pens shoot-from-the-hip, Holocaust-denying leadership, Marine took over from her ... Read More The Grand Mufti's office expressed surprise at Le Pen's public reaction to headscarf, claiming she had not expressed concern when informed of the plans prior to the engagement. Newsweek magazine ... Read More Jordan Bardella, 27, won an internal party vote with 85% support, according to results announced at a party congress in Paris. Read More A memorial to Holocaust victims in Dunkirk, France ... s Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust with the inscription: "To those from Dunkirk and its surroundings who were arrested and deported ... Read More Emmanuel Macron was reelected as president of France on Sunday, but his far-right rival Marine Le Pen made a strong push across large swaths of the country. The National Rally candidate led in more ... Read More with France now. "Macron won, but now is the time to address the people who voted for Le Pen. Now is the time to think about this. Not in three years time when we enter the election campaign ... Read More Marine Le Pen saluted her populist National Rally party yesterday on its 50th anniversary and turned a deaf ear to complaints from her estranged father, its founder, that she had failed to invite ... Read More S ANCTIONS on Russia arent working, declared Marine Le Pen (pictured) on October 4th; moreover, they are sanctions on the French. If winter is difficult, said the leader of Frances ... Read More This summer, the government said it had uncovered what happened during the 2014 mass abduction ... By Mark Landler Reports by news media and a human rights group say Chinese police forces opened ... Read More
World News Israel Shuts Egypt Border After Terror Warning Passover Eve | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Israel on Thursday evening shuttered the Salem crossing in the northern West Bank following repeated shooting attacks in the area, the militarys liaison to the Palestinians announced. Read More Overnight, IDF observation troops spotted a vehicle and suspects attempting to smuggle drugs from Egypt into Israel. IDF soldiers were dispatched to the scene and thwarted the drug smuggling ... Read More Egypt has welcomed a maritime border deal reached by Lebanon and Israel, expressing its hope that the agreement would enable Lebanon to benefit from its resources. The US-brokered deal was signed ... Read More Lebanon and Israel said they have struck an "historic" deal over a maritime border dispute involving offshore gas fields after years of US-mediated talks, in a step that facilitates hydrocarbon ... Read More Israels prime minister said Tuesday that the country has reached a historic agreement with neighboring Lebanon over their shared maritime border after months of U.S.-brokered negotiations. Read More BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Lebanon and Israel have reached a historic agreement demarcating a disputed maritime border between them after years of U.S.-mediated negotiations, officials said on ... Read More Israel said Tuesday it has reached a US-brokered agreement with Lebanon to settle their long-disputed maritime border ... the powerful Iran-backed terrorist group that holds huge sway in Lebanon ... Read More Lebanon, Syria Discuss Sea Border After Beirut's Israel Deal BEIRUT (Reuters) -The Lebanese and Syrian presidents discussed delineating their countries' shared maritime border on Saturday before a ... Read More Israels prime minister said Tuesday that the country has reached a "historic agreement" with neighboring Lebanon over their shared maritime border after months of U.S.-brokered negotiations. Read More
World News Kim Jong Un Attendance Unconfirmed For North Korea Parliament | RobinsPost News & Noticias
Kim Jong Un-led isolated nation on Tuesday denied arm-dealing with Moscow after reports on the weekend said a train crossed from North Korea into Russia carrying weapons for Vladimir Putin's war in ... Read More One of the missiles landed south of the sea border between the two countries for the first time since the Korean Peninsula was divided in 1948. Read More North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un has recently made headlines ... Caitlin McFall is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news. Get all the stories you need-to-know ... Read More Kim Jong-un's forces have conducted seven tactical nuclear missile tests since September. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) North Korea's state ... on the world scene as well." ... Read More Kim Jong-un has ramped up North Koreas ballistic missile testing ... "for the operation of tactical nukes," state media Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Stressing that the test-fire ... Read More More info North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been seen in a bright white ... The state media Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said the test fire was aimed at "enhancing the combat efficiency ... Read More North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to strengthen ... stronger and clearer warning to North Korea's enemies, according to the KCNA state news agency. Over the last two weeks Mr Kim has ... Read More Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ... Korea as a nuclear power that can negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength. North Koreas official Korean Central News ... Read More North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent his "warmest congratulations ... The unusually prompt report from Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency came after the Chinese Communist ... Read More The report said North Korea's Oct. 4 firing of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) over Japan was a newly developed missile aimed at delivering stronger and clearer warning to its enemies. Read More North Korea on October 18 Credit: Reuters Kim Jong-un is expanding his vast collection of luxury mansions even as he urges citizens to make personal sacrifices to survive a severe economic crisis. Read More
Will the increasing importance of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc on the global economic stage enable Thailand to further cement its role as a vital diamond, gemstone and jewelry center and one that connects and provides services to the region while also serving as a bridge connecting it to the wider world? The ASEAN grouping includes Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand serves as a jewelry trading center, and being part of the ASEAN bloc allows it to re enforce its position vis-a-vis regional diamond and jewelry powers such as China and India.
Modeled loosely on the European Union, the ASEAN group already numbers more than 650 million people, almost double that of the United States, and beyond the approximate 520 million population of the European Union. In addition to a huge consumer market, the region also has the third-largest number of workers in the world, with only China and India having more. This common market allows for the free circulation of people and goods within member states, as well as agreements on issues as diverse as social and environmental protection and security.
At the heart of the ASEAN bloc, Thailand has huge advantages as the main gem and jewelry center, with decades of experience as a center for trading, manufacturing and gem labs. The Thai government is working to further expand the country's precious stones and jewelry industry, which is estimated to account for around 5 percent of the country's exports, with its involvement in the organization of the September Bangkok Gem and Jewelry Fair.
Thailand, with Bangkok and Chanthaburi, is set remain as the top gems and jewelry hub in the ASEAN bloc where gem-mining countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia are also located. As recently highlighted by CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri, Thailand, with its import /export gemstone procedures, large inventory of goods, numerous and well-established national and multi-national jewelry manufacturing companies, and being a reputed laboratory and research center, is already perceived as the natural exchange platform for the gems and jewelry industry in the area.
Traditionally, the region has been dominated by the Jaipur gems and jewelry community. However, it is clear that competition for pole position in a global economy where Asian countries will grow dramatically in importance, will include China, India and their huge and expanding domestic markets, accompanied by gem trading and manufacturing countries such as Thailand.
Thailand is one of the worlds largest suppliers of high-quality gem and jewelry. Its reputation as gem and jewelry manufacturer might not be comparable to China and India in global statistics. However, in terms of gem and jewelry manufacturing with outstanding designs and exquisite craftsmanship and reasonable labor costs, Thailand has always been internationally recognized as being at the forefront.
Thailand is widely known as a manufacturing center for high-quality polishing. It also has skilled labor in color stone quality enhancement, casting and molding, especially in pieces with delicate details, as well as gem setting.
The level of labor skills is one of the most important factors in jewelry manufacturing, especially in luxury products where craftsmanship is a high priority. Due to its resource depletion, Thailand imports stones and uses its gemstone quality enhancement knowledge and expertise gained over many decades. Meanwhile, the industry receives support from the government through tax incentives and trade facilitation measures for foreign gem dealers. As a result, gemstones from various sources around the world are brought into Thailand.
Apart from its strong infrastructure regarding diamond and colored gemstones and jewelry manufacturing, Thailand has also implemented various policies to promote gem and jewelry trading and investment. In the upstream sector, duty exemption is granted for the import of raw materials, including various kinds of precious metals, diamonds, pearls and synthetic gemstones, to relieve Thai entrepreneurs of some of the tax burden, resulting in a cost advantage and increased competitiveness. As for the downstream part of the industry, jewelry products are also given tax benefits through a special trading channel for the Bangkok Gems & Jewelry Fair, held biannually in February and September, where import duty for jewelry is exempted from its usual rate of 20 percent.
The Board of Investment (BOI) is another organization which plays an important role in its promotion of investment through tax benefits and trade and investment facilitation for foreign investors in Thailand, allowing them to utilize the countrys potential to upgrade their businesses and improve productivity in manufacturing and export to global markets.
Many leading gem and jewelry manufacturers and suppliers have long operated in their manufacturing centers in Thailand. For example, Georg Jensen, a manufacturer and distributor of high-quality silverware and silver jewelry with exquisite craftsmanship and unique designs, has a manufacturing center in Chiang Mai province in the North of Thailand, and Rosy Blue, one of the worlds leading diamond manufacturers, has a facility in Phitsanulok province serving as its diamond polishing center to cater the global market.
Perhaps best known for manufacturing in Thailand is jeweler Pandora. In November, Pandora opened a new manufacturing facility in Lamphun, close to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. The new factory is being ramped-up to be ready to start commercial production in the first months of this year. It will eventually employ up to 5,000 people, and according to Pandora, will offer some of the best working conditions and most modern production facilities in Asia. The company adds that the plant will set new standards for the jewelry industry in terms of scale, size, green profile and modernity.
The new factory is the third for Pandora, which does all its manufacturing in Thailand. The site in Lamphun is the first of our recent initiatives to go live, but we are continuously expanding our production capacity, with a planned total investment of $265 million between 2015 and 2019, said Pandora's Senior Vice President, Group Operations, Thomas Touborg in November.
In addition to the new facility in Lamphun, the capacity expansion program includes building an additional crafting facility in Gemopolis near Bangkok, as well as optimizing the existing crafting facilities in Gemopolis.
With these initiatives, we will be able to potentially double our total production capacity compared to 2015 to more than 200 million pieces a year by the end of 2019, and we aim to reduce lead-time from raw material to jewelry delivered by around 50 percent, Touborg commented.
Apart from tax benefits, investment facilitation, and infrastructure provided by the Thai government, foreign investment enterprises can also access other benefits according to bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements.
By Albert Robinson for Rough&Polished
Zimbabwes mines minister Walter Chidhakwa stands accused of decimating the countrys diamond industry when he decided early last year to streamline operations of mining companies in Marange and that of partly Russian-owned, DTZ-OZGEO, in Chimanimani.
Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), the company that he set up to takeover operations in Marange and Chimanimani, only produced 900 000 carats in 2016 from peak figures of 12 million carats annually.
The company has since fired two chief executive officers within the period it had been operational and currently has an acting chief executive officer, Morris Mpofu, who was the head of the exchange control unit at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
However, Chidhakwa was defiant, as he told Rough & Polisheds Mathew Nyaungwa in an exclusive interview when they met in Cape Town that he had no misgivings about the decision Harare made to have diamond operations in the country consolidated.
He said the consolidation is yet to be concluded as the government faced lawsuits from the ex-diamond miners.
Chidhakwa also said that ZDC had only accessed grounds previously owned by Marange Resource (a wholly state-owned company) and the Lebanese-owned Diamond Mining Company (DMC) as a result of the lawsuit, a move he said curtailed production.
He also revealed that the country will soon commence exploration work just outside Harare as well as on several kimberlites identified in Marange and the surrounding areas.
Below are the excerpts.
Last year you consolidated diamond mining operations in Marange and I would like to know your assessment of this consolidation, a year on?
When we started the process of consolidation we were keenly aware of the fact that the companies themselves would not take it lying down. So, we were ready for a court battle and you will know that soon after my announcement, we had a situation the companies all went to court and of course I knew that they were going to lose the court battle.
Subsequently, court decisions confirmed that their licences had in fact expired and that they could not continue mining until they regularised their mining titles, but of course in order to buy time some of them went to the constitutional court, particularly the Chinese (Anjin and Janin). We are in the Constitutional Court with them, but we have managed to hammer out an out of court agreement where we have said to them that they will leave and we will take over the area and they will take over all their equipment. So, at the moment, we are in the process of packing their equipment.
Zimbabwe and China have very long and established relations between them and we dont want to spoil those relationships because of one project or one area of interest so what we decided to amicably part ways. What that meant was that since March 22 last year, we have not been able to access the ground except the ground that we had access to as a result of the discussions that we had with the Lebanese (DMC). We signed an agreement with the Lebanese and we paid for their equipment and took over the ground and equipment.
We also started negotiations with the Russians (DTZ-OZGEO) and I must say that the relationship between Russia and Zimbabwe is a very long-standing relationship and I did say to them that I was very impressed by the fact that as we took national decisions the Russians did not oppose us. They said we will accept but please do take into account that you are the ones who invited us and so we are again finalising an agreement with the Russians were will take over their equipment and will pay them slowly over a period of time. So, the actual consolidation has not yet been finalised because of the legal fights and because of the protracted time it has taken in the case of those we were negotiating with. It has taken much longer than we anticipated reaching agreement on these matters, but I am very happy that we are now finalising the matters.
The Chinese are now moving away and we will now be taking over the ground, but what it means and what we have realised talking to our geologists is that while we still have some alluvial diamonds available in the eastern part of the country we cannot rely purely on alluvial diamonds, we now need to take a step forward and go into conglomerates and so the entire plan that we have worked on now recognises that transition from alluvial diamonds to conglomerates. We will continue to mine the residual alluvial diamonds but at the same time prepare ourselves and our geological teams will be starting work in the next days [interrupted].
That is still in Marange?
Yes, that is still in Marange, but we will also be doing some work around Harare, the Chihota area and we will be doing work in Chimanimani and Penhalonga [as well].
How prospective is the Chihota area?
Well, there are four kimberlites therewe are going to run ground penetrating radar and after that we hope it will give us indications of what we are looking at and after that we can do some drilling and that drilling will tell us where we are and we hope that this can be done in the next three to four months as we move forward.
I need some clarity, minister, on what you said about the Chinese. Did they officially drop their court case against you?
They have not yet officially dropped their case, its a company called OFECC and it owns two companies, Anjin and Jinan. We have finalised on the movement of Jinan and we are now starting discussions on how Anjin will also start moving, but at the end of the day I am pretty confident that as they move their equipment it will not be useful for them to continue with the Constitutional Court. All we need to do is to facilitate them through our customs and reserve bank processes to export their equipment.
So, was it only the Chinese that took you to the Constitutional Court?
No, Mbada took us to the court as well.
So, are you also having discussions with them for an out of court settlement?
Mbada went into a situation where the creditors put a lot of pressure on them and equipment was auctioned and we actually as ZCDC bought some of the equipment and some of it was bought by different other players so while they may still have an interest I think they have realised that the opportunity is no longer there.
Your critics had been saying that the streamlining of operations in Marange was misplaced as production had tumbled. What is your reaction to that?
When we started the process and before we started it there was unanimity in the Press [and] everywhere you meet people [they would say] tirikubirwa ma diamonds (our diamonds are being stolen), we are not getting our fair share of diamonds and so on and so forth. This was in the public domain, but we who are involved directly with the goings on in Marange, we who got closer to Marange, got to know what was happening and I have no misgivings about the decision we took. Yes, it took longer, I always say to people Jesus Christ destroyed the [temple] and rebuilt it in three days, we couldnt have done that. We destroyed the [temple] but I think we will rebuild it in the next 12 months or 24 months, but what we should come up with must ensure that proceeds become available to government and that government is able to deploy these into the various infrastructural development programmes.
So, you are currently mining on which claims?
We are mining on formerly Marange Resources and formerly DMC, which is owned by the Lebanese.
In terms of output, what are your projections this year?
Phew! Thats a difficult one! We have been having discussions since the beginning of January, the desire is to achieve 500 000 carats per month but I think it will start slowly. On the engineering side, we are trying to sort out the equipment, so that equipment availability rises from approximately 30-35 percent to about 80-85 percent. If we can increase equipment availability to that and then we upgrade the resource into a reserve to what we think we can upgrade it to then by the middle of the year, I think June or July we should get to about 300 000 to 400 000 carats and I think 500 000 carats per month will come during the end of the year.
Earlier we spoke about exploration. I understand you are also planning to conduct exploration on several kimberlites in Marange; can you shed more light on this?
There are seven kimberlites on the Mbada concession and so once we sort the legal issues we will start working on that. There are three or four kimberlites on the other side of the road and I spoke already about the Chihota kimberlites and so we will start work on that as well. We will have two teams that will be working, we hope to scale it up and have about three by adding another ground penetrating radar piece of equipment and we hope that enables us now to, in earnest, move from one kimberlite to another and see whether those kimberlites are diamondiferous or they are not.
With output sliding down, what has been the state of beneficiation in the country, I know you and your president were passionate about it?
Not very good! When production came down very significantly, we were now not able to supply our companies with the 10 percent they require, we were also not able to supply the company that we went into agreement with the necessary diamonds for the training of our students. Our students continue to train using diamonds from other countries, which is not desirable because we are training them to deal with Zimbabwean diamonds, but we hope that we can move forward.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
Shanta Gold posts high-grade results at Kenyan gold project East Africa-focused gold producer, developer and explorer Shanta Gold has reported high-grade results at its West Kenya project. Company chief executive Eric Zurrin said visible gold was identified across several of the intersections.
Petra suspends operations at Williamson after wall breach at tailings storage facility Petra Diamonds says the eastern wall of the tailings storage facility at its 75%-owned Williamson mine in Tanzania was breached, resulting in flooding away from the pit into certain areas outside of the mine lease area. Petra said mine production...
De Beers develops new diamond verification tool De Beers Ignite division has developed a new diamond verification instrument, which is set to be launched early next year. The new instrument, part of the automated melee screening range, will enable automated and rapid verification of up to 3,600 diamonds...
Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo achieved CHF 4,083,500 / USD 4,092,075 for the George Daniels Spring Case Tourbillon The unique Spring Case Tourbillon in yellow gold, by the founding father of independent watchmaking, appeared at auction for the first time. After a three-minute bidding war, the watch soared above its pre-sale estimate of CHF 1 million, eventually selling...
Gem Diamonds said it has recovered a 114 carat, D colour Type II diamond of exceptional quality from its Letseng mine in Lesotho.
The Letseng mine was well-known for the production of large, top colour, exceptional white diamonds, making it the highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world, the company said Friday.
The mine had produced four of the 20 largest gem-quality white diamonds ever recorded since 2006 when Gem Diamonds took over ownership of Letseng.
Firestone Diamonds, which owns Liqhobong Diamond Mine in Lesotho, also announced last Wednesday the recovery of a 110 carat gem-quality light yellow diamond.
It was its largest diamond to date.
Firestone said it believed the latest diamond recovery confirmed the significant larger stones potential that exists at Lighobong.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
Titan Company expects sales will increase by more than 10% this year, following Indian government measures that aim to create a more mature economy.
The formalization of the economy bodes well for all the divisions of the company, and with a whole lot of initiatives planned for the coming year, the company is optimistic of top-line growth in the high teens in the coming year, Titan said this week.
Last November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a demonetization policy that took 86% of currency out of circulation overnight and forced the economy to shift toward electronic banking and commerce. India is also introducing a new goods-and-services tax, which the jewelry industry has applauded.
The positive outlook comes after Titan reported an exceptional fiscal year, which ended March 31. Regulatory restrictions and effects of a nationwide jewelers strike hit sales in the first half, but the retailer overcame the challenges of demonetization to record a strong second half, it explained.
In the fourth fiscal quarter, jewelry sales reached a new milestone, driven by the launch of a studded-jewelry line and better-than-expected performance at Tanishq, the companys flagship jewelry brand.
Retail growth at Tanishq surpassed the 40% predicted at the beginning of the quarter, Titan said. The company plans to expand the high-end brand in the next fiscal year by amalgamating it with Titans Gold Plus network, which it will discontinue by renaming most of the 29 stores as Tanishq.
New York police have arrested 10 men accused of defrauding wholesalers out of diamonds valued at more than $9 million, the US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York announced.
The accused wrote bad checks, forged documents and devised long stories to cheat their victims in New York, Las Vegas and Mumbai, the statement said, citing allegations in a Manhattan federal court claim that were revealed Wednesday.
Police are still looking for two more men who have been charged in the scheme.
The twelve charged defendants allegedly participated in a global conspiracy to defraud diamond dealers out of more than $9 million, acting Manhattan US attorney Joon Kim said. Centered in Manhattans diamond district, Americas busiest hub in the diamond trade, the defendants allegedly took advantage of an industry-wide system of credit and trust to obtain largely untraceable diamonds, and then, using various allegedly illegal schemes, refused to pay.
To avoid detection, the group focused on obtaining small melee diamonds, which are virtually untraceable because they do not have numerical identifiers, according to the court complaint.
Diamonds have value worldwide so it comes as no surprise that an alleged organized ring would target diamond wholesalers in Manhattans diamond district in a worldwide scheme, said FBI speaker.
ALROSAs sales reached $ 566.6 in March 2017
10 april 2017 News
ALROSA, the world's largest diamond miner in terms of carat output, posted its rough sales in March this year. The news came in a statement released by the company on Monday.
Rough diamond sales by ALROSA Group in March 2017 amounted to $ 554.2 million. Polished diamond sales for the same period amounted to $ 12.4 million.
The miners total sales in March this year reached $ 566.6 million, up 1% over the same period in 2016.
In March, we continue to observe stable demand in almost all categories of rough diamonds, which is a confirmation of the optimism of market participants shown during the jewelry exhibition in Hong Kong," said Yury Okoyomov, Vice President of ALROSA.
Metra
Chicago's Metra and its railroad partners announced plans to begin $216 million worth of infrastructure investments in 2017.
The agency said construction is expected to begin this week.
Were extremely pleased that three very significant improvement projects are moving forward this year, said Metra Executive Director and Chief Executive Don Orseno, in a release. We plan to take full advantage of the construction season by making improvements where we can with our limited funding. Our goal is to be as efficient as possible with the resources we have and limit the impact of construction activity on our customers.
Improvements are planned for 29 of Metras 241 stations this year, including five stations along the BNSF Line to Aurora, Ill.
Along the Metra Electric Line, the McCormick Place Station will receive upgrades to the platform, waiting areas, signage and lighting. A $5.5-million project that started in 2016 to replace platforms, the elevator, stairs and other facilities at the Calumet Station will continue, and a $4.8-million project to replace the street-level depot, stairways and the north platform at the Hazel Crest Station will get underway.
Metra will also finish rehabilitation and repair work started in 2016 at the Kensington/115th Street, West Pullman and Millennium stations. Rehabilitation work will start this year at the 27th Street, 147th Street, Riverdale, Harvey and University Park stations. Projects may include repair or replacement of station elements such as platform deck boards, warming houses, staircases and lighting.
Metra and its railroad partners plan to replace approximately 57,000 railroad ties this year. BNSF will replace about 8,000 ties on one of its main tracks between Lisle and Aurora. In addition, BNSF will replace switches and switch heaters in Cicero and Naperville. New rail will be installed on curves located just east of Chicago Union Station. Metra will replace thousands of ties on the Milwaukee West Line and Metra Electric Line, along with track repairs in Metra-controlled rail yards throughout the system.
On the Union Pacific Northwest Line, UP will replace six crossovers at the Deval interlocking between the Des Plaines and Cumberland stations over a three-day period beginning April 27.
On the UP West Line, about eight miles of third track will be added along the only two remaining double-track segments. The third track will be constructed through two separate projects that together will cost more than $100 million beginning in 2017 and continuing through 2019. Union Pacific will also replace up to 8,000 ties across its three lines as part of its general maintenance program.
Improvements are planned for 21 bridges across the Metra system and include projects on the BNSF, Milwaukee West, Rock Island, UP North and UP Northwest lines.
Construction is planned to begin in the fall along the Milwaukee West Line on a $34-million project to replace a 130-year-old single-track bridge over the Fox River in Elgin with a double-track bridge. Canadian Pacific is contributing some of the funding.
Along the Rock Island Line, Metra will rehabilitate three existing bridges and remove and replace the 57th Street bridge with a new concrete access road bridge.
On the UP North Line, Metra will begin a 30-month phase of a project to replace 11 bridges on the North Side.
Metra and its railroad partners plan to make improvements to 29 road crossings system-wide in 2017, on BNSF and Metra routes.
Ahead of the federally-mandated implementation of Positive Train Control, Metra said it is upgrading signal and communications systems on each of the lines it controls for compatibility with PTC. Similar work is also being performed across the lines controlled and operated by its freight partners.
Estonia's foreign trade deficit decreased in February from a year ago, as exports grew faster than imports, figures from Statistics Estonia showed Monday.
The trade deficit fell to EUR 97 million in February from EUR 140 million in the corresponding month last year. In January, the shortfall was EUR 415 million.
Exports climbed 6.0 percent year-over-year in February and imports rose by 1.0 percent.
The growth in exports was mainly driven by the shipments of mineral products, mechanical appliances, raw materials and products of chemical industry, the agency reported.
Exports to EU countries went up 2.0 percent annually in February and those to Non-EU countries surged by 21.0 percent.
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.
The euro declined against its major opponents in the European session on Monday, as rising popularity of the far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon in opinion polls indicated a tightening race in the upcoming French presidential elections.
According to Kantar Sofres Poll released over the weekend, the front-runners far-right leader Marine Le Pen and independent contender Emmanuel Macron were running neck and neck with 24 percent of the votes in the first round of voting on April 23.
The survey showed a surge in support to Left Front candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon with 18 percent of votes, up from 6 percent in mid-March, stoking uncertainty over the outcome less than two weeks before polls.
The shift in the balance of support to Communist-backed Melenchon fueled concerns over Macron's campaign in the race as well as France's future in the currency bloc.
Survey data from Sentix showed that Eurozone investor confidence strengthened to the highest level in almost a decade in April.
The investor sentiment index climbed unexpectedly to 23.9 in April from 20.7 in March. The reading was forecast to fall to 20.2.
The currency showed mixed performance in the Asian session. While the euro declined against the franc and the greenback, it rose against the yen. Against the pound, it held steady.
The euro hovered near a 5-week low of 1.0570 against the greenback, compared to Friday's closing value of 1.0589. The next possible support for the euro-greenback pair is seen around the 1.04 region.
The euro that ended last week's trading at 0.8557 against the pound slipped to a 4-day low of 0.8524. The euro is seen finding support around the 0.84 level.
The euro pared gains to 117.59 against the yen, from a high of 118.06 hit at 1:45 am ET. If the euro extends fall, 116.00 is possibly seen as the next support level.
Survey results from the Cabinet Office showed that Japan's current economic assessment as well as expectations weakened unexpectedly in March.
The current conditions index fell to 47.4 in March from 48.6 in February. The score was forecast to fall to 49.8.
The single currency dropped to 1.4131 against the loonie, its lowest since March 3. Continuation of the euro's downtrend may see it challenging support around the 1.39 mark.
The euro retreated from an early high of 1.5277 against the kiwi and edged down to 1.5225. On the downside, 1.50 is likely seen as the next support level for the euro-kiwi pair.
On the flip side, the euro bounced off to 1.0690 against the Swiss franc, from a 6-day low of 1.0673 hit at the commencement of today's trading. The euro is likely to challenge resistance around the 1.08 mark.
Looking ahead, the U.S. labor market conditions index for March is set for release in the New York session.
At 4:10 am ET, Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaks at the University of Michigan, U.S.
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Business News
Unilever plc (UN,ULVR.L,UL) has decided to explore a sale of its spreads , the company said last Thursday.
The company also announced the restructuring of two major divisions, and said it will review its dual-headed legal structure, raise its dividend by 12 percent and launch a share buy-back of 5 billion pounds this year.
"After a long history in Unilever, we have decided that the future of the Spreads business now lies outside the Group. We will look to increase our strategic flexibility for further portfolio optimisation through a review of the dual-headed legal structure, with a view to simplifying it," the Anglo-Dutch consumer company said in a statement.
Unilever's decision to sell the spreads business is part of a slew of cost-cutting and restructuring measures and is said to have come under shareholder pressure in response to the company's rejection of a $143 billion takeover bid from U.S. food giant Kraft Heinz.
"The faster pace of change that we are seeing in our and competitive set requires us to continue to set the bar higher," Paul Polman, chief executive officer of Unilever said.
To boost shareholders' support, Unilever said in late February that it is conducting a comprehensive review of options available to accelerate delivery of value for the benefit of shareholders.
The spreads business, which includes brands such as "Flora margarine," "Stork butter," and "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter," had generated sales of 3 billion euros last year. However, the business does not include Hellmann's mayonnaise or Marmite.
In 2015, Unilever set up a separate Baking, Cooking and Spreads unit to allow greater focus on the issues facing the business. The company noted that the unit had responded well to this focus, reducing costs, increasing cash generation and holding market share.
"However, the underlying category remains challenged in developed markets and we have now taken the decision to launch a process to either sell or demerge Spreads," Unilever said.
The company expects total restructuring costs for the accelerated programs, including both the new initiatives and ongoing activities, to be around 3.5 billion euros for the 2017-2019 period.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
By SA Commercial Prop News
Hospitality Property Fund CEO Gerald Nelson said the fund achieved positive year-on-year growth in distributions, benefiting from the improving hospitality business environment, and after weathering extremely tough industry-wide operating conditions.
Hospitality Property Fund on Wednesday declared a second interim distribution resuts with A-linked unit distribution growth of 5% to 66.51 cents, and B-linked unit showed an increase of 16.2% to 9.19 cents for the six months ended December.
The JSE-listed premier hotel and leisure property fund said industry statistics had confirmed the recovery trend in the hospitality market that had commenced about 12 months ago, with growth in occupancies and room rates matching levels last seen prior to the global downturn in 2008.
The fund said it had made further progress with its strategy of improving the quality of its property portfolio. This includes pursuing opportunities to acquire strategic properties such as the recent announcement to acquire the Radisson Blu Gautrain Hotel in Sandton and the acquisition in 2011 of the Westin Cape Town, with a combined value exceeding R1 billion
Commenting on the performance and industry fundamentals, CEO Gerald Nelson, said: We are pleased that Hospitality achieved positive year-on-year growth in distributions, benefiting from the improving hospitality business environment, and after weathering extremely tough industry-wide operating conditions between 2009 and 2011.
The funds turnaround from previous distribution declines was due to the continued recovery of the hospitality sector, an improved portfolio, and the fund having overcome its "critical" debt-refinancing issues, CEO Gerald Nelson said.
We continue to deliver on our strategic milestones to enhance the overall quality of our property portfolio. Having created a solid base with critical mass, we are following a two-pronged approach by acquiring large hotel properties in major metropolitan areas with diverse source markets and strong brands while disposing of non-core properties. The high quality of our properties provides a solid platform to benefit from as trading improves in the recovering market, said Mr Nelson.
Mr Nelson, co-founder of the Fund who has held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since its listing in 2006, announced that he will be retiring as CEO from the Fund at the end of June 2013 and will remain on the board as a non-executive director. He will be succeeded by Mr Andrew Rogers, the deputy CEO of the Fund, assisted by Mr Ridwaan Asmal in his continuing role as Financial Director.
The Funds portfolio of interests in 26 hotel and resort properties in South Africa had a book value of R3.9 billion as at 31 December 2012, translating into a net asset value per linked unit of R10.16 excluding deferred taxation.
By SA Commercial Prop News
Sector heavyweights, Marc Wainer CEO of Redefine Properties and Norbert Sasse CEO of Growthpoint Properties fail to give the Fountainhead CEO Alex Phakathi space to breathe.
The battle for the R10.3 billion Fountainhead Property Trusts retail portfolio intensifies as bidding rivals, Growthpoint Properties and Redefine Properties show no intentions of giving up.
Analysts say it is now highly likely that Growthpoint CEO Norbert Sasse and Redefine CEO Marc Wainer will only see the matter settled in the courts where "nobody can say with a high level of conviction what the outcome will be".
A month ago Redefine Properties looked to end the escalating bidding war by withdrawing its offer for Fountainhead Property Trusts portfolio and subsequently acquiring a 46% stake in Fountainhead a move that makes it difficult for Growthpoint to win a unitholder vote to secure the assets.
Redefine said it had withdrawn due to the negative effects on its ability to run Fountainheads business due to delays and uncertainty.
Redefine bought Fountainheads management company for R660m last August before opening talks on the trusts assets.
Growthpoint made its first offer for Fountainheads assets in October and maintained a higher offer throughout the escalating bidding war which ended with Redefines withdrawal last month.
Fountainheads assets include premium properties such as Centurion Mall Brightwater Commons and Bryanston Shopping Centre.
Late last month Fountainhead boards independent committee terminated its engagement with Growthpoint on its bid.
However Growthpoint said on Wednesday that it had referred the matter to the JSE and requested that Redefine be precluded from voting on all resolutions given the "conflict of interest between Redefine the management company and Fountainhead unitholders".
The Redefine-owned management company was also a related party in terms of the JSEs listings requirements.
Growthpoint believes a positive ruling from the JSE will allow it to re-enter discussions with Fountainheads independent committee regarding its offer.
Growthpoint has also requested the Financial Services Board (FSB) to investigate Redefines initial acquisition of Fountainhead units and determine whether Redefine had contravened the Security Services Act.
Growthpoint executive director Estienne de Klerk said that given Growthpoints significantly higher bid "we think its incorrect that a party who is conflicted can block that and effectively deprive Fountainhead unitholders of the opportunity to make more money".
Growthpoint was still eager to acquire the assets and believed there was "enough substance to the situation for the JSE to rule that Redefine cant vote their shares" Mr de Klerk said.
Catalyst Fund Managers investment manager Paul Duncan said that the matter was now "likely only to be resolved in the courts" as each party would probably challenge the rulings of either the JSE or FSB.
"I dont think anybody can say with any high level of conviction what the outcome will be if it goes to the courts because theres no precedent" he said.
Growthpoint seemed confident of its case while Redefine had little choice other than to challenge a negative ruling as the company had R660m at stake in the form of the management company.
Mr Duncan said the matter would end up in court "unless theres a clever way of getting out of this" such as Redefine accepting Growthpoints offer for Fountainheads assets and offsetting the management company expense with capital gain on its Fountainhead investment.
However this was unlikely he said.
Growthpoint also said it was considering various legal alternatives.
It was "prepared to take whatever actions are necessary to get to a point where Fountainhead unitholders are able to consider the Growthpoint offer free of litigation or influence from Redefine".
By SA Commercial Prop News
Resort hotel and casino operating group Sun International (SIU) on Thursday said it expects diluted headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year ended June 2014 to be 5%-10% lower.
Resort hotel and casino operating group Sun International (SIU) on Thursday said it expects diluted headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year ended June 2014 to be 5%-10% lower.
Basic and headline earnings per share for the year were expected to be between 23% and 28% lower than the 764c in the year-earlier period.
Sun International said certain one-off charges relating to the section 189A staff restructure pre-opening costs and an impairment charge relating to the Maslow Hotel had affected earnings.
In February the company reported first-half year profit dropped 21 percent as gambling revenue stagnated and the cost of eliminating jobs rose.
The gaming giants diluted earnings dropped 21% to 323c per share. Adjusted HEPS were 18% lower at 348c.
Net income in the six months ended December fell to R302 million from R380 million a year earlier.
Sun said that trading for the period remained challenging particularly in South Africa where casino revenue had remained under pressure and at Monticello in Chile where the effects of the smoking ban persisted.
However the weaker rand boosted the tourism industry and the groups hospitality revenues.
Revenue for the period was 4% higher at R5.4bn with casino revenue in line with last year while the group experienced strong growth in hospitality revenue with room revenue up 26% and food beverage and other revenue up 10%.
Casino revenue in the groups South African properties was up 3% following a stronger second quarter where casino revenue was up 4.5% it said.
Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) at R1.5bn was 5% less than last year. Operating profit was down 17% at R880m.
The company is expected to release its full year results on August 25.
"A special ride with a special guest. PM @narendramodi and PM @TurnbullMalcolm travel to Akshardham temple in #delhimetro," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted. The two leaders boarded the train at Mandi House station to visit the temple in east Delhi. India and Australia signed six agreements on Monday following bilateral talks headed by Modi and Turnbull.Earlier, in the day the visiting dignitary was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Australian Prime Minister arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit to India. This is Turnbull's first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
Find out final information before heading to the polls Tuesday
As the 2022 midterm election day is finally upon us, here's where Saline County citizens can find out where to vote.
Many young teenagers on finishing school and having learned new skills to use at home or in a job, dont seem to want to work.
They just want to have a relaxing life.
But thats not how Michael James thinks when he considers his own family.
The nineteen-year old is a farmer from the village of Nofoalii.
Michael loves what he does as a farmer, helping his father who also works on their plantation
I quit school because I wanted to help my father and I know very well this is Gods decision for me to stay home and help my parents, he told Village Voice.
Mr. James family is not wealthy, but he tries really hard to earn money for his parents and his younger siblings.
Michael sees that this day brings lots of changes that affect our younger teenager and their lives.
There are lots and lots of unemployed teenagers in our country who dont like working; they depend on their parents for living.
Yes we all know we depend on our parents, but we have to work for our own futures instead of being too dependent.
His only advice for the young teenagers of Samoa is simple-
Use your opportunities wisely to do some work for your family and for your future as well.
The truth is simple enough. In countries near and far, there are real concerns about food. With climate change the cost of economic struggles, we cannot be sure that food will always be available in abundance.
You see, whereas mankinds negligence has diminished the natural resources on the soil and in the ocean, greed on the part of certain powerful countries and corporate bodies will ensure that when push comes to shove, the smallest countries are bound to be the first victims in this madness.
This is where Samoa - and other Pacific nations - are vulnerable.As a small nation isolated from the rest of the world we will be among the first countries to suffer.
We already know this because its happening in terms of the impact of climate change. Which is why its imperative that we must prioritise local solutions and prepare for the worst.
Sure there are global solutions too that are being talked up but the best solutions are the ones that come from here because we know ourselves, our environment, what works and what doesnt.
The worry is that if we fail to prepare, our people will be caught off guard.
Times are already tough. There is no denying the fact that when it comes to the cost of food and basic living items, a trip to the supermarket is a sad experience. A hundred tala certainly doesnt get you far. And thats for people who have a hundred tala. Many of our working population dont even make a hundred tala at the end of the working week especially when you take away all the taxes and loan repayments.
Its a tough life but challenges present us with an opportunity.
We should seriously encourage our people to plant food wherever they can. In a country where we are blessed with such fertile soil where everything we put in the ground grows, its probably our only response.
It is no secret that for so long, agriculture has been the backbone of this countrys economy. Were talking about talo, coconuts, koko Samoa and a few other crops.
Its a time when families in the villages in Upolu and Savaii were able to set up shops, buy buses from working the land.
Yes that was possible; the days of the taga koko and taga popo.
Those days, however, have become nothing but a distant memory. While the vicious cyclones of the early 1990s and the talo blight that followed contributed much to the decline of the agriculture industry, the governments negligence in developing the sector has not helped.
Over the years with little exports, this country has become so dependent on aid, remittances and hand- outs.
We have acres and acres of unworked and unused land where people could be planting for a living.
Its true that weve seen a revival in the agriculture sector, especially the taro industry, lately. All you have to do is visit the market or drive to the villages to know there is abundance in supplies.
But many farmers say this is not enough. They need incentives. They need subsidies on the prices of essential things such as fertilizer, seeds, seedlings, farming equipment, etc, which most cannot afford.
The problem is we now have so much taro most of it is rotting away. You can only eat so much taro.
But then its such a bad problem when we think about the need to stock up for the bad times.
Perhaps farmers as well as all of us should change our focus.Instead of looking at exports all the time, what about thinking ahead for our families and ourselves?
There is no guarantee that the cost of living will decrease again, any time soon.
Fortunately for us here in Samoa, theres still hope at least when it comes to food. Unlike many other developing and third world countries whose people are now going without, we have a lot of substitutes that we can turn to during times like this.
We can always count on talo, taamu, breadfruit, bananas, cassava, yams and other staples. Almost every Samoan family has some sort of vegetable patch, small plantation, or fruit tree that can provide some sort of sustenance when the going gets tough. Look at the Village Voice.
Once upon a time, most families had fagaga moa (free range chicken) and their own pa puaa (pig farm). These are the best meats because they are local and they are not processed meat.
When it comes to drinks, theres always the laumoli, or lemon tree leaves, or Samoan cocoa to resort to when we can no longer afford the cost of coffee, tea, milo and cocoa. How can we forget our niu?
Health officials have long lauded both the health and economic benefits of turning to our own food, especially the readily available vegetables and fruits.
We couldnt agree more. We think this is a message that should continue to be promoted.
What do you think?
Have a wonderful Tuesday Samoa, God bless!
Dear Editor:
Theres a Chinese proverb that goes too skeptical is better than too trusting.
A Samoan official tells us that we can learn from the Chinese but do the Chinese learn from Samoans?
When was the last time youre family had a funeral and a Chinese business owner gave you some money to offer his condolences to your faalavelave?
I wont say it hasnt happened to you but it hasnt happened to me.
Why? Its not part of Chinese culture - its part of Samoan culture. A big reason why Chinese businesses thrive is because of money management.
I know a Chinese businessman that never uses banks and hes frugal. My other friend Jing Jing saved money from when she was three years old till she was twenty-five. What did she do with the money?
She bought a house and went to medical school. Its a different culture. Of course not all Samoans are the same and not all Chinese people are the same.
Theres a life force that the Chinese refer to as Chi and Polynesians refer to it as mana.
Ive been going to acupuncture in the States for ten years and I learned a lot about Chinese medicine and the principles of yin and yang. Balancing our masculine and feminine energies.
We got hot and cold or acidity and alkaline. Imbalances with those energies cause sickness and so its up to you to balance it. Part of being Samoan is the obligation we have to our family, church and to Samoa as a nation.
If you take away that obligation or that faa lavelave from every Samoan we might be the richest little nation in the world.
Chinese people will do business the way they are accustom to and Samoans will do the same. How do we navigate as successful business owners and still be Samoans that contribute to our faa lavelaves?
Maybe we already are.
Michael Uhila
Six solo swimmers and three teams will head out to the rough waters that is the Apolima Strait.
Local Samoan swimmer, sixteen year old Stivi Soomalelagi will be the youngest solo swimmer to take on the challenge to date.
Stivi swims for Suzie Schusters Club and told the Samoa Observer he loves to swim for for fitness and fun.
He credits his dads adventurous spirit that he has inherited to help him take up the challenge.
My dad loves going on adventures and thats where I started learning how to swim and then I joined the swim club with Suzie Schuster. Then I started swimming competitively.
Although Stivi is young, he is in experienced hands. He will be captained by veteran Swimmer Mailata Iosia Leau who conquered the Apolima Strait in 1988.
Each of the swimmers have incredible journeys and reasons why they are competing today.
Like 56-year-old, Robin Rose, who is a cancer survivor.
And Tiffany McQueen, who fashioned a 6x10 pool in her garage in the middle Americas freezing winter to help her train for this event.
Also, the youngest team in the line up, Team Tonga have overcome a great amount of obstacles to be here today. The most paramount would be operating a swim club without a proper pool.
Team Manager, Vila Day told the Samoa Observer, We have them go to the pool five times a week. Its a hotel pool because we dont have a real pool in Tonga so we have to use what we got. We also go in to the open water.
She said competing in todays race will also provide a great opportunity to develop their swimmers, for whom, many have never been to Samoa before. She said, This is the first time that most have them to be here in Samoa.
Its a once in a lifetime type of thing. Its about building character and team bonding and building relationships. We found that when we came for the Samoa swim series.
As well as back home, swimming this kind of distance is unreal and something people wouldnt even fathom. Even when people heard about them coming to do this, they were like, they're doing what?
But at the same time, its done a lot to help put swimming in the forefront in Tonga and also to teach other kids not to be afraid of the ocean. We live on an island, but theres a lot of fear for kids.
In a pioneering study, European scientists have reprogrammed brain cells in mice to correct some of the movement disorders of Parkinsons disease.
The scientists also demonstrated the reprogramming in human brain cells grown in cultures.
In both mice and human cell cultures, the procedure converted brain cells called astrocytes into cells that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter necessary for movement. Dopamine-making neurons are destroyed in Parkinsons disease; so replacing them should alleviate symptoms.
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Like all biomedical research, this approach will require more development and testing before it can be considered for treating actual patients.
The study was published Monday in Nature Biotechnology. Pia Rivetti di Val Cervo was first author, and Ernest Arenas was senior author. Both are of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
The study can be found online at j.mp/astropark.
Researchers worked on mice that had had their dopamine-making neurons destroyed. They used a viral delivery system to transmit three genes to the astrocytes that reprogrammed some of them into dopamine-making cells.
The next steps to be taken toward achieving this goal include improving reprogramming efficiency, demonstrating the approach on human adult striatal astrocytes, developing systems to selectively target human striatal astrocytes in vivo, and ensuring safety and efficacy in humans, the study concluded.
The study is a more sophisticated version of gene therapy approaches that have previously been investigated for Parkinsons, and is worth pursuing, said Parkinsons disease researcher Andres Bratt-Leal. However, much more work needs to be done before it can be considered for patients, he said. Meanwhile, other therapeutic projects are much closer to clinical testing.
Bratt-Leal is involved in one of those projects, a San Diego-based initiative to reprogram skin cells from Parkinsons patients into embryonic-like cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, and then mature them into the dopamine producing neurons. These neurons will then be implanted into the brains of the patients, if work by the Summit for Stem Cell Foundation succeeds.
Implanting new neurons has shown tremendous promise in animal models and clinical trials using dopamine-producing neurons derived from embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells are going to start in the next 1 to 2 years, said Bratt-Leal, the foundations director of research. Gene therapy is promising, but there remain a lot of questions before it is ready for clinical trial.
In a dish, only a fraction of the cells are successfully made into cells which resemble dopamine-producing neurons, Bratt-Leal said. Id like to know what happens to all the other cells which dont complete that transformation. Are the cells made with gene therapy as good as the neurons we can make from stem cells?
With cell therapy clinical trials around the corner and improvements in gene therapy technology, patients with Parkinsons disease have reasons to stay active and optimistic about the future.
Science Playlist On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds
bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com
(619) 293-1020
President Donald Trumps proposed wall with Mexico will kick off in the San Diego border community of Otay Mesa, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed Monday.
The community is home to one of two border crossings in San Diego and will be the site where 20 chosen bidders will erect prototypes of the envisioned wall. Winners will be selected around June 1, the agency said.
While funding for the massive infrastructure project is still not set, up to 450 companies submitted designs last week. The agencys bid said roughly 20 companies will be selected to build the prototypes 30 feet long and up to 30 feet high.
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The models will be built on a roughly quarter-mile strip of federal land within 120 feet of the border, said a U.S. official with knowledge of the plans quoted by The Associated Press.
EXCLUSIVE: Preview Trump border wall proposals
Border Patrol spokesman Ralph DeSio did not say exactly where the construction will take place, saying only that it would occur in the Otay Mesa area. He added that plans were subject to change.
Of the possible border locations in the region, building the prototypes near the Otay Mesa crossing makes the most sense because it allows companies to test out designs in a heavily trafficked area that still has room and flexibility, according to Eric Frost, director of San Diego State Universitys graduate program in homeland security.
Frost, interviewed before the location was confirmed by the federal agency, said Otay Mesa would be a better place to start than the desert to the east or near a river often empty locales.
A lot of trucks already use it, he said of the Otay Mesa crossing. You want to look at how they actually interact with the fence.
Construction of the models, which will likely take place in June, may attract protesters, but law enforcement officials said they were committed to supporting First Amendment rights.
As part of our community policing philosophy, we work closely with any party or group that wishes to express their views in a law abiding manner, San Diego police spokesman Lt. Scott Wahl said in a statement.
Officials declined to say if officers or deputies would be on site while the construction takes place, but made clear the location will be monitored by law enforcement agencies and Customs and Border Protection.
Security was already an issue for companies bidding on the wall. In a Q&A on FedBizOpps, the federal contracts website, some bidders asked what would happen if employees came under attack during construction, if they could use firearms in states with stricter gun laws and if the government would provide legal assistance if they had to use deadly force.
Customs and Border Protection officials said it would respond if needed to an attack, but that companies were responsible for their own security. The agency also would not waive state gun laws or provide legal support for deadly force.
Beyond just prototypes, CNN said it reviewed documents revealing that wall construction could start in San Diego. The initial $999 million request would fund 14 miles of new wall along the citys border with Mexico, 28 miles of new levee wall barriers and six miles of new border wall in the Rio Grande Valley region. The request would also cover 14 miles of replacement fencing in San Diego, CNN said.
Frost said San Diego would be a good place to start the wall, as opposed to Texas where rivers and private property will likely complicate construction. Those locations are also a long way from resources needed for building.
Youre not spending all your transportation out to nowhere, he said.
Frost added the wall could be a benefit to both nations if, for example, it helps alleviate notoriously slow wait times for trucks crossing through Otay Mesa. He envisions an intelligent wall with sensors and wireless technology that can start tracking trucks before they reach a border guard, speeding up the process to move goods between the two nations.
Theres a positive in here, if you can design a wall that works way better, Frost said.
Funding for the wall has not been secured. Trump said during the election that Mexico would pay for the wall but has since sought out federal money. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday on ABCs This Week that in a recent meeting with Mexico Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray they did not discuss Mexico paying for the wall.
ALSO:
Trumps border wall just got real: The builders have submitted their plans
Artificial intelligence for border wall? No thanks, Feds say
Border wall: Final models to be displayed in San Diego
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phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar
For months, Tesla stock has been on a bull run.
Now its a stampede.
On Monday, investors sent the electric car makers market value into entirely new territory, briefly ripping past General Motors in market value, putting Tesla in first place among U.S. automakers.
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The run raises the stakes for the company as it prepares to begin assembling its highly anticipated mass-market electric sedan, the Model 3, which is scheduled for release this summer or fall, or perhaps later. The propulsive rise in Teslas stock up more than 70% since December amps up the pressure on the company and its visionary chief executive, Elon Musk, to deliver near-flawless performance.
Tesla stock closed up $9.85, or 3.3%, at $312.39; GM shares also ticked up 22 cents to end the day at $33.97. Both companies valuation hovered around $51 billion.
Teslas surpassing GM and Ford in market value, justified by financial fundamentals or not, signals a revolution in the global automobile industry as cars and trucks subsume ever more Silicon Valley-style technology and, essentially, evolve into the robots of the roadways.
Were in a new era of the automobile industry, said Efraim Levy, an analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence. That shift is not just to self-driving cars, but to electric power and away from gasoline, he said.
Teslas stock run-up also demonstrates Musks magnetic power, he said: People are definitely enamored with Elon Musk and Tesla.
Still, Levy and many other analysts see Teslas stock price as overvalued given cash-flow projections even under Musks rosiest scenarios for the Model 3.
Plenty of short-sellers investors who bet that a high-flying stock is due for a crash agree. About 20% of Teslas shares are held by investors betting against the company.
Some analysts are even saying forget the financial underpinnings, for now.
Rational arguments wont matter for Teslas stock price, at least for a while, Piper Jaffray analyst Alex Potter said in a note to investors, raising the firms target price to $368 a share.
Yes, the company is burning through cash and sets unrealistic production deadlines, he said, but because of its superior products, loyal shareholders, and inspiring mission, [Tesla] remains unscathed.
In other words, its a momentum stock right now, rising in part because its climbing and new investors dont want to miss out. Investors can make big bucks on momentum stocks, if they sell before the peak is reached, or, if the company defies the naysayers and becomes a wild success.
Momentum stocks fueled the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most crashed and burned. But a rare few think Amazon succeeded beyond expectations.
Tesla fans put Musk in the same stellar universe as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who fended off critics as he invested in future growth and lost money year after year. The company, which is completely upending the brick-and-mortar retail industry, is now considered one of the most successful in business history.
By almost any measure, General Motors dwarfs Tesla. Last year, Tesla sold 76,500 cars worth $7 billion in revenue. GM will finalize 2016 global figures when it announces earnings later this month, but in 2015 it sold 9.8 million vehicles globally, including nearly 4 million with joint venture partners in China.
But Tesla fans, and Musk himself, point out that stock prices are set by expectations of future growth.
Long investors in Tesla have harmonized themselves with Musks vision for the new-energy company, which last year bought solar roof installer SolarCity a one-stop shop for customers who put up a Tesla solar roof, channel the energy into a Tesla storage battery and use it to power up their Tesla car.
Theyre also excited by the prospect of Tesla sales in China. That nations government is far more serious about fighting global warming and pollution than todays White House and the electric car market in China is the biggest in the world in 2016, 351,000 plug-in vehicles were sold in China, both hybrids and pure electrics. In the U.S., 159,000 were sold.
Tesla sales are growing faster in China than in the U.S. Musk has talked about building cars there at some point, and expects that China one day will be Teslas No. 1 market.
Teslas investors include big institutions and corporations that keep funneling cash Teslas way. Last month, Tencent, the giant Internet company in China, bought 5% of company shares on the heels of a new Tesla stock offering.
Tesla has chalked up impressive market success with its high-priced luxury Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle. This summer, it plans to start turning out the Model 3, more of an everymans Tesla, with a starting price of $35,000. The company said at least 375,000 customers have put down refundable $1,000 deposits on the car. The day the Model 3 became available for pre-orders, customers lined up for hours at Tesla showrooms around the world.
Thats largely because Musk has built a strong brand image for Tesla.
Teslas vehicles are gorgeous and distinctive, said Rebecca Lindland, analyst at Kelley Blue Book. Each Tesla, she said, sends a message that the driver is dynamic, sexy and a risk taker. No other electric vehicle does that.
The cars appeal not just to fans of electric cars and people concerned about the environment, they also convey the message that the buyer is cutting edge like early Prius buyers, but richer and cooler. The cars Autopilot function widely considered the most sophisticated driver-assist technology on the market adds to the brands allure.
To justify anything close to its current market value, though, the Model 3 manufacturing and distribution process will need to be relatively hitchless. Tesla wants to be building 500,000 cars annually by the end of 2018, but it has yet to prove that it can churn out vehicles at such high volume. Both the Model S and X were beset by delays and production problems.
And consumers must gravitate in large numbers toward electric cars. Right now, electric cars make up less than 2% of the total U.S. auto market.
This all matters for Tesla a lot. But some automobile market analysts say one companys stock price wont affect the industrys future.
Tesla is viewed as a tech stock and the automakers are viewed as industrial manufacturing stocks, which isnt the full picture for either one, said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with AutoTrader.
Weve always seen these wild fluctuations with Tesla stock that we dont see in the automotive stocks. So Im not sure it means much in the long run.
russ.mitchell@latimes.com
Twitter: @russ1mitchell
tracey.lien@latimes.com
Twitter: @traceylien
UPDATES:
4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about the China market and Teslas production goals.
1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with closing stock prices and additional details.
11:05 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details and comments from analysts.
8:15 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from analysts.
This article was originally published at 7:45 a.m.
The process to revoke the charter of Beacon Classical Academy in National City has begun.
The National School District board last week authorized the superintendent to issue a notice of intent to end its relationship with Beacon. National has been overseeing Beacons finances and operations for nearly two years.
Superintendent Leighangela Brady read a list of issues with the school, including curriculum problems, low test scores, safety concerns and questionable audits. She said it was with a heavy heart that she asked the board to start revocation proceedings.
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Weve really tried to work with the school, Brady said. There are still things that have not been remedied to our satisfaction.
Another hearing was scheduled April 12, with a final vote on revocation to follow.
Beacon is a K-8 charter school that serves 188 students, most of whom are economically disadvantaged. Ninety percent of the children qualify for free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunch. Forty-four percent are English language learners.
It has been under fire since last year about violations the district found, including low academic performance by students and issues with the safety of their facilities. In November, National Citys fire department shut down the school for building and code violations.
Several parents of Beacon students spoke passionately to the board at the meeting on April 5, pleading with them and Brady to keep Beacon going.
These teachers want to help us help our kids, said Phoebe McPherson. The teachers take extra time out of their day to help the kids. I like Beacon and I would not want to send (my daughter) anywhere else.
What is going to happen to my daughter? asked parent Rosario Rodriguez. My daughter is 13 years old and an excellent student thanks to the teachers, parents and principal of this school. What will happen to her?
Beacon Classical Academy Executive Director Alma Van Nice told the board that she would keep working to fix every violation and work on a financial plan that would gain their approval.
After the meeting, Van Nice said that if the charter is revoked, she would appeal it to the San Diego County Board of Education and, if necessary, to the California State Board of Education.
State standardized test scores from the two years Beacon has been operating show few students are proficient in English or math. Recent state assessments showed that only 17 percent of Beacon students meet or exceed the standard in English language arts, and 6 percent meet or exceed the standard in math.
Beacons website says that the schools educational format teaches children the art of learning and trains their minds to think well. It offers an education of virtue and ethical tradition. It cultivates the love for the arts, and lays a foundation of language studies.
Charter schools are publicly funded and independently operated.
Two years ago, Beacon opened its campus on Euclid Avenue under the auspices of Julian Union School District. National School District said that arrangement violated California Education Code and filed a lawsuit against Julian.
The case was settled in 2015 with National taking oversight of Beacon.
Write Out Loud founded 10 years ago to inspire, challenge and entertain by reading short stories aloud for a live audience on Monday will hold its 2017 READ IMAGINE CREATE awards ceremony at the Old Town Theatre.
In a statement, the organization said: For this annual program, participating middle and high school students READ any work by Emily Dickinson. They re-IMAGINE the images and themes from literature and CREATE a project in an artistic medium that is important to them.
Nearly 400 submissions were entered in three categories with participants hailing from 14 San Diego middle and high schools. The top three entries in each category will receive cash prizes with special recognition for selected other entries.
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Finalists in the visual art categories will be on display all month at Mission Valley Library, El Cajon Library, Skyline Library and Linda Vista Library.
Veronica Murphy, Write Out Louds artistic director, said: With the continued cutbacks in arts funding throughout our schools, programs like READ IMAGINE CREATE play a much needed role. Encouraging students to read and then connect those literary concepts to an artistic outlet that engages them instills a lifelong love of both literature and artistic expression.
Its astonishing that out of hundreds of entries the concepts are so different, unique to each student. It is a joy to see such well thought out and personal artistic inspirations, and we look forward to sharing them with the community.
The awards ceremony begins at 7 p.m. at Old Town Theatre, which is at 4040 Twiggs St.
For more information about the ceremony or other Write Out Loud programs, go to writeoutloudsd.com
Twitter: @outdoorlivingsd
michael.rocha@sduniontribune.com
Fueled by booming U.S. real estate prices, the summer of 2005 was a heady time for condo sales on Baja Californias Pacific coastline. That was when San Diegan Dean Marriott set his sights on The Residences at Playa Blanca, a luxury development under construction 12 miles from the border.
I saw this project and fell in love with it right off the bat, said Marriott, a 49-year-old accounting manager for a Burbank-based construction company. He and his soon-to-be wife, Connie, selected two eighth floor units in the projects North Tower looking out over the Coronado Islands, and began counting the days when they could start driving down with their blended family of five daughters.
The developer, Coastal Design and Development Group (CDDG), promised a 2007 completion, but eight years later, the building sits empty and unfinished at Tijuanas southern boundary, just off the coastal toll road to Rosarito Beach. Purchasers like the Marriotts, who signed contracts and deposited $254,000 for two units half their sales prices are facing a tough reality after years of hoping and waiting: Their investment, drawn from Connie Marriotts retirement savings, may well be lost.
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Up until three or four months ago, everything was rolling along, investors were being found, and this project was going to be completed, Marriott said in an interview last week at his Kearny Mesa office. And then, all of a sudden, everybody went away.
Neither representatives for the projects development company, CDDG, nor the main creditor, Mexicos Monterrey-based bank Banorte, have returned Marriotts calls and emails. The blogs and company websites where buyers could receive updates about the project have been taken down. Banorte is said to have foreclosed on the property in recent weeks, but bank officers in Tijuana who have been overseeing The Residences declined interview requests last week.
Fearing the worst, Marriott and other buyers at the Residences are telling their story at a time when the coastal real estate market has been slowly picking up again after several difficult years of slow sales. Victor Loza, a real estate broker in the area and past president of the Real Estate Board of Baja California, said about 40 percent of the buyers are foreigners.
Were going back up, were selling, said Luis Bustamante, a longtime real estate broker in the area. The (housing) prices in the United States have been rising, and when that happens, people come and say, I have equity.
With its Pacific Ocean ocean vistas, proximity to the border, and affordable prices, the Baja California coastline long has been popular with Southern Californians. Many U.S. citizens have purchased successfully, securing title through a bank trust as required under Mexican law, and found fulfillment of their dreams of owning oceanfront property in Mexico. But cases like The Residences at Playa Blanca have cast a cloud on the idyllic picture often portrayed by the regions promoters in many cases U.S. companies and individuals who came offering assurances that the investment would be secure.
For many projects along the coastal corridor from Tijuana to Ensenada, the promises came to a halt in 2008, as U.S. credit markets dried up. Sales stopped 100 percent, and everyone ended up with bank debts that generated interest every day, Bustamante said.
While developers of The Residences continued to look for financing to complete their project, another high profile project, Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico, never even broke ground. Purchasers who lost their deposit there sued and received a settlement in 2013 from Trump, who it turned out was not a partner but had only franchised his name to the project.
Bustamante said that today The Residences is one of about 10 coastal condominium buildings in the tourist corridor where banks have foreclosed. In some cases the bank has taken only a portion of the units, while in others the entire building. Every case is different, he said, with some buildings completed and occupied, with the bank in the process of recognizing the occupants ownership.
Its better to deal with a bank than a bankrupt company, Bustamante said.
The Residences promised much: A development with 240 condos and a 114-room boutique hotel, with amenities that included four restaurants, a delicatessen, two pools, a private white-sand beach, a European spa and a nine-hole executive putting green, according to a promotional flyer.
The units offered double-pane windows, travertine tile floors, marble kitchen counters, and on clear days views all the way to Point Loma.
Built to American standards by an American developer, read a description given to prospective buyers. All deposits would be made to Stewart Title Company of California, a U.S. company that offered escrow services, it said, adding that your money is safe.
Like scores of developers on the Baja California coast, CDDG used the buyers deposits to finance construction. Here its too expensive to borrow, so we use the money to build, Jack Coskey, the owner of The Residences, told the San Diego Union Tribune in a 2005 interview.
The Marriotts were part of a group of 220 people with deposits totaling more than $30 million, said Ian Fusselman, a San Diego attorney whose firm, Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire, represented some 90 buyers in several lawsuits in San Diego Superior Court. All of them settled with Stewart Title for the return of one-third of their deposits.
The firm has won a lawsuit against The Residences, but has yet to collect. We are attempting to have liens placed against the project in Mexico, Fusselman said.
Coskey, the co-owner of The Residences, had built more than 1,000 swimming pools, but until The Residences had never embarked on a major condominium and hotel project, according to his 2013 testimony in San Diego Superior Court. Still, he is said to have worked for years to keep the development going, seeking financing to complete the project.
But in the end his efforts failed. Coskey died several weeks ago, just as the bank was taking over, associates said. Theres 100 different ways to make this a sad story, Fusselman said. Jack Coskey consistently said that he never intended to mislead anyone. I tend to believe that may be the case, but many buyers were told their money was safe.
Alejandro Moreno Medina, Baja Californias tourism secretary at the time, still speaks highly of the project. I saw the quality of the investment they were making, and the commitment they had with Baja California in building things the right way.
Chris Hill, CEO of Stewart Title Latin America which was not involved in The Residences said that what happened in The Residences you can multiply by 1,000 Costa Rica, St. Kitts. There was a huge boom, a lot of these developers were not major corporate developers ... when the cycle came crashing in 2008, they didnt have the financial structure in place.
With limited credit available, using deposits to begin construction is a common practice in Mexico. Hill and others warn against such projects. Buyers should not buy anything that is not complete, period, real estate broker Loza said. When you put a deposit on a building that is not completed, youre running a risk, youre getting a lower priced unit, but people should be aware that they may end up losing their investment.
But Jose Larroque, who heads the Tijuana office of the law firm Baker & McKenzie, said expecting deposits to be held through a projects completion in most cases is a non-reality in Mexico, because you dont have a system like in the U.S. where everything is completely funded. In Mexico, he said, banks would give you at most 50 percent on a project.
Testifying at his civil trial in November 2013 in San Diego Superior Court, Coskey said The Residences and a second project across the toll road, One Eleven, was launched with a $2.9 million line of credit from Investors Mortgage in Nevada. The plan was to pay for the project through $50 million in deposits, and a $65 million loan from Banorte, Coskey said.
Even as financing was delayed, buyers said they were repeatedly reassured by both the developers and the bank that The Residences would be built. Buyers said told they were in a trust with Banorte, and that offered a guarantee that they could not lose their investment.We are working to complete the project, a Banorte officer wrote in an email to Marriott in 2013.
But another buyer, Martin Valdez, said he was told last week by another Banorte officer that the bank has no obligation to the buyers, and suggested they go after the developer for the return of their deposits.
Jim Holliday, a 56-year-old database architect, said he invested $118,000 between the deposit and upgrades to his unit. Losing the funds is a retirement blow, he said. I was thinking that this was going to be my retirement.
Like others he is still hoping for resolution. The hope is for Banorte to come through, he said, behave ethically and honor our sales contracts, complete the project and deliver completed units to the investors.
Want to visit the Cabrillo National Monument? Or Joshua Tree National Park? How about Yosemite?
Heres your chance to get free entrance to those sites and dozens of other locations in the National Park Service system.
A hundreds years have passed since President Woodrow Wilson created the federal agency that runs these parks. In honor of the centennial, the National Park Service will waive entrance fees during two weekends this month for more than 100 of the properties it manages. The dates are April 15 and 16, and then April 22 and 23.
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In addition to the three locations already mentioned, other places in California that will be free during the two designated weekends in April include Death Valley, Pinnacles and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, as well as several national monuments.
The special offer doesnt extend to reservations for camping, concessions or tours.
For the rest of this year, regularly offered free-entrance dates will be Aug. 25, the National Park Services birthday; Sept. 30, which is National Public Lands Day; and Nov. 11 and 12, to commemorate Veterans Day.
By the way, the National Park Service oversees more than 400 sites that already are free year-round.
Twitter: @jemersmith
Phone: (619) 293-2234
Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
The super bloom that blanketed desert landscapes in southeastern California has largely gone to seed, although blooms will continue for a few weeks in higher elevations.
We asked readers to send us their favorite super bloom photos. From thousands of submissions, we have compiled our favorite wildflower pictures from around county.
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This years bloom resulted from ample rains that followed Californias historic five-year drought.
Desert basins south of Palm Springs received about 6.11 inches of rain this year, more than double the regions normal of 2.97 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park also received about a half inch of precipitation in late September, which helped give the states largest park and extra bump for the record bloom.
Pent up since the spring of 2012, flowers bursts into color this year, drawing hordes of visitors and even causing a few traffic jams.
Twitter: @jemersmith
Phone: (619) 293-2234
Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
Public health investigators have been unable to rule out the potential of rabies infection after testing a dead bat found in a packaged salad purchased from a Florida grocery store.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the weekend, the flying mammals condition was too deteriorated to allow for CDC to definitively rule out whether this bat had rabies.
Transmission of the disease, the public health agency notes, by eating a rabid animal, is extremely uncommon because the virus that causes infection does not survive very long outside of the infected animal.
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Though the risk was low, Floridas public health department still recommended that both people who ate the salad begin a course of rabies vaccination out an abundance of caution.
Both people report being in good health and neither has any signs of rabies, the CDC statement said.
On Saturday Fresh Express, the company that packaged the salad mix, issued a recall of a limited number of cases of its Organic Marketside Spring Mix. The salads were distributed only to Walmart stores in southeastern states. All remaining packages have been removed from store shelves, and the affected products bear the production code G089B19.
Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life
paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com
(619) 293-1850
Twitter: @paulsisson
Two immigration judges are heading to the immigration detention facility in Imperial County.
Edward Barcus and Paul Habich are part of a group of 14 new immigration judges announced Monday by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a branch of the Department of Justice that employs immigration judges. The judges were appointed by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to begin hearing cases in April.
The new additions bring the total number of immigration judges to 312, according to the office, which is authorized to have up to 374 judges.
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Barcus was previously a district court judge in Oklahoma, and Habich worked as an attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
There were no judges working in the Imperial detention facility, according to the agency, though it had announced in March that it was planning to temporarily reassign judges to the Imperial facility, among others. Judges at the immigration court in downtown San Diego heard cases from detainees at Imperial via video conference. In one of his January executive orders, President Donald Trump called for more immigration judges to work in detention facility courtrooms to speed up proceedings.
The immigration court system has had a growing backlog for years.
Nationwide, immigration courts had a backlog of 518,545 cases at the end of September 2016, according to a report posted this month by the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Just over 3,500 of those cases are for the Imperial court, and another 3,750 are for the San Diego court. The San Diego court has six judges assigned to it.
The other detention facility in the San Diego area, the Otay Mesa Detention Center, has two judges assigned.
Though it is a couple of hours away, some people detained at the San Ysidro port of entry, including asylum seekers, end up at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility, which holds on average about 700 people daily, according to information from the facility.
kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate
Pivoting off what the White House considers a successful U.S. missile strike in Syria, the Trump administration sent a not-so-subtle message Sunday to North Korea: Dont risk being next.
With growing signs that Pyongyang may be preparing a sixth nuclear test, a U.S. aircraft carrier strike force near Singapore was diverted north toward the Korean peninsula, President Trump spoke to leaders in Tokyo and Seoul, and senior administration officials made pointed note of the full range of options available to counter threats to the United States or its allies.
The sudden flurry of action centering on North Korea comes on the heels of Trumps summit in Florida on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders publicly played down their economic and political disputes and addressed their common interest in reining in North Koreas mercurial leader, Kim Jong Un.
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Pyongyang has repeatedly warned that it aims to test an intercontinental ballistic missile or conduct another underground nuclear test. Analysts say one could come as soon as April 15, the 105th birthday of North Koreas founding president and celebrated annually as the Day of the Sun.
The spotlights turn from Syria to North Korea carries benefits as well as risks for the Trump administration, now nearing its 100-day mark.
With a limited but decisive response to Syrian President Bashar Assads alleged use of banned sarin nerve gas on Syrian civilians, Trump won plaudits from previously skeptical U.S. allies in Europe, as well as from some of his harshest critics at home.
But even as Trump basked in generally favorable reviews of the first direct U.S. military strike aimed at Assad, the president and his lieutenants seemed far less eager to engage knotty longer-term policy questions about the grinding multi-sided Syrian war, now in its seventh year.
With North Korea, the underlying issues are just as complex, but the threat of a nuclear conflict or even a devastating conventional military attack on South Korea and Japan makes the stakes far higher.
Perhaps mindful of parallels that could be drawn over defiance of international norms, North Korea denounced the U.S. missile strike on Syria as intolerable, and reiterated its own right to self-defense.
The U.S. Navys Third Fleet, in turn, publicly announced that the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and a strike force that includes two missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser were being diverted north from scheduled port calls in Australia to maintain readiness and presence in the western Pacific.
The number one threat in the region continues to be North Korea due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham told reporters.
North Korea has a long history of defying United Nations resolutions and other attempts to prevent it from developing nuclear arms in conjunction with its growing ballistic-missile capabilities.
Kims government has conducted five underground nuclear tests, two of them in 2016, and is working to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles that ultimately could deliver a warhead to U.S. territory.
If we judge that they have perfected that type of delivery system, then that becomes a very serious stage of their further development, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday on ABCs This Week.
At closer range, Japan has been rattled by North Koreas repeated recent test-firings of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in its direction, the latest just two days before Trump sat down with Xi.
That test came a month after Pyongyang simultaneously launched four medium-range missiles into the ocean in what it said was proof it could hit U.S. military bases in Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seeking assurances of U.S. protection, was an early visitor to both the White House and Trumps Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.
On Sunday, the White House announced that Trump had spoken by phone with Abe about Syria and a range of regional issues, including the threat posed by North Korea. A similar phone call took place Friday with South Koreas acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, the White House said.
Adding to the barrage of cautionary language aimed at Pyongyang, Tillerson framed the Syria missile strike as a more general warning against international outliers, even those whose actions did not pose a direct security threat to the U.S.
If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken, he said.
The White House national security advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, cited a pattern of provocative behavior on North Koreas part.
This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear-capable regime, he said on Fox News Sunday.
McMaster said that Trump had asked aides to prepare a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region.
North Korea, for its part, denounced what it called Washingtons reckless moves toward war, according to a statement carried by its official Korean Central News Agency.
laura.king@latimes.com
@laurakingLAT
San Diego has agreed to pay $225,000 to a deputy city attorney for emotional harm she suffered during three years of alleged sexual harassment by a supervisor, including being touched against her will multiple times.
The alleged harassment also included the supervisor telling her to keep quiet about getting harassed previously by former Mayor Bob Filner, and defending Filner in 2013 when other instances of his alleged sexual abuse were reported by the media.
RELATED: Harassment lawsuit includes new Filner allegation
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Molly Hoot, who has worked for the city since 2008, remained on the job after filing her lawsuit last fall and will continue to work as a deputy city attorney, her lawyer said on Monday.
There was no loss-of-earnings claim, said her attorney, Josh Gruenberg. This was money to compensate her for the emotional harm that she suffered on the job.
Gruenberg said the city has helped Hoot find a job where the office environment is safe and acceptable.
Molly is proud of working for the city and it was important to her to keep her job, but she had to file a lawsuit to put an end to the behavior, Gruenberg said.
Daniel Bamberg, the assistant city attorney who allegedly harassed Hoot, was immediately placed on administrative leave when the suit was filed and retired shortly afterward.
Hoots suit claims Bamberg, who is 21 years older than her, repeatedly sent her inappropriate text messages, verbally requested sex and touched Hoot against her will multiple times.
The suit also says officials in the citys Equal Employment Opportunity office missed several chances to resolve the situation despite Hoot reaching out.
These two cases show they are not taking terribly seriously their duty to investigate claims, Gruenberg said. If the EEO office had investigated this claim, not only would the actions have been curtailed much earlier, but Mr. Bambergs career could also have been salvaged.
Gruenberg said the city inappropriately put the burden of deciding how to proceed on Hoot, instead of investigating and talking to witnesses.
She was made to feel are you sure this is something you really want to do, Gruenberg said. You cant discourage someone like that.
Gerry Braun, a spokesman for City Attorney Mara Elliott, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bamberg worked as a city prosecutor from 1974 to 1977 and returned to the city attorneys office in 2005.
The City Council approved the settlement last week in closed session.
david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
A Syrian refugee last seen off the coast of Mission Beach near a strong rip current Sunday evening was presumed drowned Monday, after crews that searched through the night didnt find the teen, a fire official said.
The 17-year-old boy immigrated with his family to the U.S. as refugees, according to an email Saint Thomas More Catholic Church sent to parishioners. The Catholic church, located in Oceanside, has been sponsoring the family.
The teen was identified in the church email only as Mohammad. He lives in El Cajon with his parents and four other siblings. He is the only son, the third of the five children, according to Sister Maureen Brown from St. Thomas More parish.
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Its a very close knit family, she said.
The family, from Aleppo, spent 18 months in a refugee camp in Turkey before coming to the United States earlier this year.
Early Monday, lifeguards, joined by members of the U.S. Coast Guard, took to boats and donned dive suits to look for the boys body in the waters off Windemere Court.
By night, the teen had not been located.
The boy was with a group of friends when he and another teen were presumably pulled into the current about 6 p.m. Sunday, fire officials believe. Lifeguards spotted one and pulled that teen to the beach.
Once on shore, the group told the lifeguards of their missing friend, who was last seen in knee- to waist-high water near the current. The teen likely submerged after being pulled out to sea, although no one saw that happen, officials said.
It was pulling really strong and it gets very deep very quick, San Diego lifeguard Capt. James Gartland said.
Lifeguards, with help from a police helicopter, searched the area until darkness fell. Members of the U.S. Coast Guard by cutter, response boat and helicopter continued to look through the night.
On Monday, divers searched the area surrounding the current and used a boat equipped with sonar to look for signs of the boys body on the ocean floor. The search was called off about 5 p.m.
Efforts resumed Tuesday with lifeguards and a handful of maritime agencies again taking to boats equipped with sonar to scour the bottom of the ocean.
There was a significant language barrier when rescue crews were first launching rescue efforts since the teens spoke Arabic. A translator was later able to help interview friends and keep family members updated.
Twitter: @LAWinkley
(619) 293-1546
lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com
UPDATES:
12:20 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 9:55 p.m.
11:50 a.m.: this article was updated with further details.
Staff writers Teri Figueroa and David Hernandez contributed to this story.
The youngest son of polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk is trying to revive a book that he and his father wrote nearly 40 years ago about the problems posed by population growth and changing human values.
Jonathan Salk said he will launch a Kickstarter campaign on April 12th thats meant to raise $30,000 to print and publicize a revised version of World Population and Human Values: A New Reality, which was released in 1981. He wrote the revisions.
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The fundraising campaign will begin on the 62nd anniversary of the day that Jonas Salks polio vaccine was approved for public use. He later founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, and wrote numerous books mostly on social topics. He died in 1995.
Jonathan Salk is a psychiatrist who divides his time between Los Angeles and a family home in La Jolla. He discussed the book project with the Union-Tribune. The interview was edited for continuity.
Q: When your book debuted in 1981, the world had 4.4 billion people and it faced many challenges, notably the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Today, world population stands at about 7.5 billion and the US is experiencing a lot of tension with Russia, and many other nations.
What does this say about our ability to deal with social and political problems, and with the challenges of population growth?
A: Population growth, after millennia of accelerating, is now slowing and will continue to, approaching a plateau at the end of the century.
As population growth slows, health, education and socioeconomic development advance. The more that we can do to help conditions in the more populous, poorer places (the better.) This is a real double-win --helping people in those regions while benefitting the world as a whole with reduced population pressures.
Our ability to deal with social and political problems is better than it seems. We have not had a major international war since 1945. Somehow, major conflicts have been resolved without a conflagration. There is coordination and collaboration among nations the Paris (climate) accords included 191 countries.
A major thesis of the book is that as population growth slows, we are transitioning from a time of competition, independence and win/lose strategies to a time of cooperation, interdependence and win/win strategies.
I really believe that the old ways will not be successful in the new reality of slowing growth. I think we are seeing the last gasp of a soon-to-be obsolete way of acting and thinking.
Q: Has your personal world view changed a great deal over the past 36 years?
A: My world view has not really changed. What I believed then -- that human beings are born with the capacity for a wide range of values, attitudes and behaviors and that these are shaped by the conditions in which they live -- I believe now.
I believed then that we were facing a crisis, and that we had the opportunity either to destroy the planet or to adapt to new ways of being and relating. If we did, it would lead to higher levels of health and human satisfaction than weve seen before.
Q: What are you trying to accomplish with your revision of the book?
A: Basically, I am trying to make people aware of the broader historical, social and evolutionary context we live in and to provide them, as my father often said, with a scientific basis for hope. I want people, especially the younger generation, to know that we have the ability to create new ways of relating, new social, political and economic systems that meet the needs of all human beings in the very different conditions of the future.
Q: You wrote the original book with your father. Im aware that the give-and-take wasnt always easy when it came to writing with him. Has writing a revision been a totally different experience?
A: Great question. It has been very interesting. The first time, there was a give-and-take and I learned a great deal about him and about myself. He had particular way of expressing himself that was erudite, lofty and, at times, difficult to understand.
Im a bit warmer and more open and direct in my writing. As a result, while retaining some of my fathers style, I think the revision has more of a Jonathan quality than the first.
As I was writing, I often had to make decisions as to how much I would retain his actual words and syntax and how much to replace them with my own. While there was pleasure where I felt like the ideas are expressed more simply and directly, there was also a sense of loss when I did so, along with a concern that in doing so, the book lost some of that Jonas quality that only he had.
Science Playlist On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds
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gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com
NASA is celebrating Earth Day by inviting people to adopt a piece of our blue and green planet and make it (virtually) their own.
The agency kicked off the parental program last week by offering up 64,000 spots on the Earth as they are seen from space. Each piece is approximately 55 miles wide and it comes with science data about its temperature, relative humidity and more information collected by the space agency, according to NASAs Adopt the Planet page.
Officials say its a view of the planet in a light youve never seen before.
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Its easy to do. Just go to go.nasa.gov/adopt, put in your name and voila!, a little piece of randomly assigned Earth is yours to brag about, (but not to own in any way, the agency stipulates.)
I tried it and was awarded a lovely piece of ocean off the coast of Malaysia.
Participants can also go to NASAs Worldview and get information and satellite imagery about their piece of the planet or any other location on Earth.
NASA said the adoptions will continue until all of the pieces are spoken for and then it will start over so everyone can participate.
Earth Day will be celebrated this year on April 22.
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Philip Morris fired cigarette researcher Victor DeNoble, but that wasnt enough.
His lab was closed, his lab rats killed, his studies buried. Company lawyers forced him to sign a lifetime nondisclosure statement. His work on nicotine addiction was so dangerous, Philip Morris wanted to erase every trace of DeNoble.
Hows that going, Phil?
DeNoble, 62, has become one of the nations most prominent anti-smoking campaigners. The San Diego resident travels constantly, speaks to 350,000 students a year delivers up to four talks a day and tangles with the tobacco industry in legislative chambers and courtrooms. Now the star of Addiction Incorporated, a new documentary that opens here Friday, he is hailed as a whistle-blower whose testimony made possible the $206 billion settlement U.S. tobacco companies approved in 1998.
He has the brains of a Bill Gates and, to hear some critics, the on-screen charisma of a Brad Pitt. DeNoble reveals himself to be a born raconteur, The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis wrote. His easygoing, self-deprecating narration is the films most valuable asset and the viewers best friend.
Not bad for someone who was supposed to be a nonperson. But DeNobles story is a curious one, full of odd turns and a bizarre quest. The key chapter begins in 1980, when he was hired by Philip Morris the parent corporation of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson & Hedges and many other brands to research safer cigarettes. In 1983, he succeeded.
And sealed his fate.
Proof negative
What: Victor DeNoble and director Charles Evans Jr. will answer questions about "Addiction Incorporated" When: After the 7 p.m. screening, Friday and Saturday Where: Ken Cinema, 4061 Adams Ave., San Diego Information: (619) 819-0236; landmarktheatres.com
Growing up on Long Island, N.Y., Victor struggled to read and comprehend his school lessons. No scholar, he assumed he would follow in his fathers footsteps as a plumber. Dad, though, insisted that Victor apply for college.
Why? the teenager asked.
To meet smart women, stupid.
At Adelphi University, Victor met women and made another, non-hormone-related, discovery. He wasnt dumb; he was dyslexic. To his eyes, printed words appeared backward. Victor relearned to read and his grades soared. Studying drug addiction, he earned a bachelors degree and then a doctorate.
Recruited by Philip Morris, the young Ph.D naively accepted assurances that the tobacco giant wanted good science and good works. In 1979, he noted, smoking had no stigma. You could smoke anywhere. They came to me and said, We are killing a whole bunch of people. Can you help us save some people?
Every year, DeNoble was informed, 138,000 smokers die from nicotine-induced heart attacks and brain strokes. What if Philip Morris could market a cigarette that caused no cardiovascular damage?
Experimenting with rats in the corporations labs, DeNoble found a nicotine substitute, 2 prime methyl-nicotine. It didnt damage the heart yet was equally addictive.
The news thrilled DeNobles bosses, until they realized that cigarettes with chemical additives would be scrutinized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Damn it, DeNoble was told, youve made us into a pharmaceutical company.
His research, though, was proof positive that nicotine addicted. With his supervisors permission, DeNoble and two co-authors submitted their findings to a professional publication. It was scheduled for the Journal of Psychopharmacologys September 1983 issue when DeNoble was forced to withdraw the paper. In the view of Philip Morris lawyers, the scientists proof positive was a legal proof negative, damning evidence that cigarettes were drugs.
Still, DeNoble won promotions and more funds for his lab. When he and a colleague, Paul Mele, were summoned to see their boss on April 5, 1984, he expected good news.
Instead, they were fired and muzzled. To receive a severance package, they were forced to agree to never discuss their work.
#1 whistle-blower
In 1994, a decade after DeNobles firing, he was contacted by federal investigators. FDA Chairman David Kessler, about to appear before a congressional committee investigating tobaccos health effects, needed experts to brief him. Could DeNoble help?
Citing the nondisclosure agreement, DeNoble declined.
That wasnt good enough. In one of the most dramatic scenes of Addiction Incorporated, Los Angeles congressman Henry Waxman presses the CEO of Philip Morris to release DeNoble from this agreement. After numerous evasions, the tobacco executive finally agrees.
Two weeks later, DeNoble testified that nicotine is addictive; that Philip Morris knew this; and that the corporation and, no doubt, its competitors sought ways to heighten this effect.
This is all common knowledge now. Then? Victor De Noble was the first whistle-blower, Waxman said in the documentary. I know a lot of people have talked about other whistle-blowers. But he was the first one.
As Addiction Incorporated notes, DeNoble became a key ally of the states attorneys general who sued the tobacco companies, eventually winning that landmark $209 billion settlement. Despite this payout, big tobacco is bigger than ever Philip Morris, for instance, has seen its stock price climb 51 percent in the last five years.
Will Addiction Incorporated further tarnish these corporations?
Philip Morris did not address questions about DeNoble and his research but a company spokesman did comment on the movie.
This film covers topics regarding smoking that have been in the public domain for some time, David Sutton, a Philip Morris USA spokesman, said via email Thursday. PM USA agrees with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking is addictive and causes serious diseases in smokers.
Addiction Incorporated concludes with President Obama signing a 2009 law expanding the FDAs oversight to include cigarettes. PM USA stood alone among the major cigarette manufacturers in support of FDA regulation over cigarettes, Sutton noted, and believes that this regulation can provide significant benefits to tobacco manufacturers and adult tobacco consumers.
Thats not enough, DeNoble argues. The movie shows him running on the trails near the Santa Luz home he shares with his wife, Kimi DeNoble, but those jogs are rare occasions. That was a rare occasion. More often, hes running to airports or classrooms, preparing to talk to students about science, nicotine and rats both four- and two-legged varieties.
How could he ever believe that a tobacco company would want a safer cancer stick?
He smiled. These days, his close cropped hair is graying and his face has acquired a few wrinkles. But theres still something fresh and idealistic about that smile.
I was young, he said, and I was wrong.
FILE - In this Friday, March 19, 2010 file photo, Navy corpsman Michael Lang, of Camden County, Ga., right, with an M-4 carbine, and Lance Cpl. Ard Bizahaloni of Pinon, Ariz., with an M-16 rifle, with the First Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment, Alpha company, take up positions as their patrol was fired upon, in Marjah, Afghanistan. The U.S. militarys workhorse rifle, used in battle for the last 40 years, is proving less effective in Afghanistan, where the Talibans more primitive but longer range weapons can threaten NATO forces at distances too great for American soldiers to return fire effectively. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic, File) ( / AP)
In this photo taken Friday, March 19, 2010, Lance Cpl. Ard Bizahaloni of Pinon, Ariz., front, and Lance Cpl. Jeremy Ford with the First Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment, Alpha company, scan the area with their M-16 rifles in Marjah, Afghanistan. The U.S. militarys workhorse rifle, used in battle for the last 40 years, is proving less effective in Afghanistan, where the Talibans more primitive but longer range weapons can threaten NATO forces at distances too great for American soldiers to return fire effectively. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic) ( / AP)
The U.S. militarys workhorse rifle - used in battle for the last 40 years - is proving less effective in Afghanistan against the Talibans more primitive but longer range weapons.
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As a result, the U.S. is reevaluating the performance of its standard M-4 rifle and considering a switch to weapons that fire a larger round largely discarded in the 1960s.
The M-4 is an updated version of the M-16, which was designed for close quarters combat in Vietnam. It worked well in Iraq, where much of the fighting was in cities such as Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah.
But a U.S. Army study found that the 5.56 mm bullets fired from M-4s dont retain enough velocity at distances greater than 1,000 feet (300 meters) to kill an adversary. In hilly regions of Afghanistan, NATO and insurgent forces are often 2,000 to 2,500 feet (600-800 meters) apart.
Afghans have a tradition of long-range ambushes against foreign forces. During the 1832-1842 British-Afghan war, the British found that their Brown Bess muskets could not reach insurgent sharpshooters firing higher-caliber Jezzail flintlocks.
Soviet soldiers in the 1980s found that their AK-47 rifles could not match the World War II-era bolt-action Lee-Enfield and Mauser rifles used by mujahedeen rebels.
These are important considerations in Afghanistan, where NATO forces are frequently attacked by insurgents using ... sharpshooters rifles, which are all chambered for a full-powered cartridge which dates back to the 1890s, said Paul Cornish, curator of firearms at the Imperial War Museum in London.
The heavier bullets enable Taliban militants to shoot at U.S. and NATO soldiers from positions well beyond the effective range of the coalitions rifles.
To counter these tactics, the U.S. military is designating nine soldiers in each infantry company to serve as sharpshooters, according to Maj. Thomas Ehrhart, who wrote the Army study. They are equipped with the new M-110 sniper rifle, which fires a larger 7.62 mm round and is accurate to at least 2,500 feet (800 meters).
At the heart of the debate is whether a soldier is better off with the more-rapid firepower of the 5.56mm bullets or with the longer range of the 7.62 mm bullets.
The reason we employ the M-4 is because its a close-in weapon, since we anticipate house-to-house fighting in many situations, said Lt. Col. Denis J. Riel, a NATO spokesman.
He added that each squad also has light machine guns and automatic grenade launchers for the long-range engagements common in Afghanistan.
In the early years of the Vietnam War, the Armys standard rifle was the M-14, which fired a 7.62 mm bullet. The gun had too much recoil to be controllable during automatic firing and was considered too unwieldily for close-quarter jungle warfare. The M-16 replaced it in the mid-1960s.
Lighter bullets also meant soldiers could carry more ammunition on lengthy jungle patrols.
The M-16 started a general trend toward smaller cartridges. Other weapons such as the French FAMAS and the British L85A1 adopted them, and the round became standardized as the 5.56mm NATO.
The Soviet Union, whose AK-47 already used a shorter 7.62 mm bullet that was less powerful but more controllable, created a smaller 5.45mm round for its replacement AK-74s.
The 5.56 mm caliber is more lethal since it can put more rounds on target, said Col. Douglas Tamilio, program manager for U.S. Army firearms at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. But at 500-600 meters (1,600-2,000 feet), the round doesnt have stopping power, since the weapon system was never designed for that.
The arsenal, which is the Armys center for small-arms development, is trying to find a solution.
A possible compromise would be an interim-caliber round combining the best characteristics of the 5.56mm and 7.62mm cartridges, Tamilio said.
The challenge is compounded by the fact that in flat areas of Afghanistan, most firefights take place at shorter ranges of up to 1,000 feet (300 meters), where the M-4 performs well.
U.S. soldiers in militant-infested Zhari district in southern Afghanistans Kandahar province said they havent experienced problems with the range of their M-4 rifles.
Lt. Scott Doyle, a platoon commander in Zhari, said his troops are usually facing Taliban AK-47s.
When the Taliban get past 300 meters (1,000 feet) with an AK-47, they are just spraying and praying, he said.
Martin Fackler, a ballistics expert, also defended the 5.56 mm round, blaming the M-4s inadequate performance on its short barrel, which makes it easier for soldiers to scramble out of modern armored vehicles.
Unfortunately weapon engineers shortened the M-16s barrel to irrational lengths, Fackler said. It was meant for a 20-inch barrel. What theyve done by cutting the barrel to 14.5 inches is that theyve lost a lot of velocity.
---
Associated Press correspondent Sebastian Abbot in Lako Khel, Afghanistan contributed to this report.
Kim Luu writes that for her extended family, achieving the American dream required pluck and resilience, but there was also help in the form of food stamps and government cheese.
Making shore: A picture taken in the late 1970s shows a group of Vietnamese refugees who arrived on a small boat, which sank a few meters from the shore in Malaysia. AFP/K.Gaugler
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I spoke my first words on a boat: milk, cockroach, and itchy. An unusual toddler vocabulary, perhaps, but not surprising considering that I spent the second year of my life on a freighter with thousands of other people, a floating petri dish of equal parts vomit, diarrhea, desperation, and hope. Every inch of that boat teemed with refugees: the cargo hold, hallways, and deck. Even the captains steering room had ceased to be a sanctuary.
I am an immigrant from Vietnam. I left the land of my birth in 1978 just shy of my first birthday and arrived in the U.S. a few weeks after I turned two. All of us on that boat, and hundreds of thousands of others, fled for the same reason: to escape the oppression of the communist regime. It took us more than one full year to arrive in the United States, most of that time spent on an over-packed freight ship smuggling 2,300 other refugees in a cargo hold full of festering flour and one functioning restroom.
Like many ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, my family members were merchants. My maternal grandma, who had fled to Vietnam from British-held Hong Kong as a teen to escape the Japanese invasion in the 1930s, had a fabric stall at Saigons Ben Thanh Market. My dad had a factory that manufactured shampoo and detergent. After the Vietnam War officially ended in April of 1975 with the fall of Southern Vietnam to the Northern Vietnamese communists, the new regime stripped our family of its livelihood, confiscating our family businesses and much of our savings. They also introduced a series of new currencies each time capping the sum families were permitted to exchange. Anyone found with more was punished, the money confiscated.
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Years later, my grandma would tell of counting her life savings, exchanging the maximum allowed, and burning the remainder. She described watching her tears fall into the flames as her money burned; just burning and crying, because what else was there to do?
Early in 1977, the year before we fled Vietnam, my mom was six months pregnant with me, and my father was in jail for unpatriotic acts after commissioning the building of a small junk boat hed hoped to use for our escape. My mom visited my dad in his cell so he could help name me. He must have had money on his mind, as my name translated means gold and jade.
My grandfather had just passed away, but my maternal grandma still had five kids at home to raise. She was 4 feet 9 inches on a tall day and a breadwinning matriarch before her time. She negotiated an escape route for us on that Panamanian freight ship, but it would come at a steep cost.
There were 19 of us in total in my nuclear and extended family. Passage on the ship was purchased with luong, 1.2-ounce 24-karat gold bars. All told, 154 luong more than $135,000 in todays dollars were required to smuggle my family out of Vietnam. Those bars were the culmination of a lifetime of work, coated with love and stamped with faith, molded into 24 karats of black market gold. Which is how we found ourselves part of the mass exodus that would come to be known as the Vietnamese Boat People.
After being denied entry at the ports of Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Brunei for temporary asylum, we floated aimlessly at sea, waiting. My mom watched over my 2-year-old brother and me while we all sat atop a 2-foot-by-2-foot table. Another family lived in a permanent crouch underneath. All around us, families staked their claims to plots of floor, sleeping upright, backs propping up backs. If someone needed to do their business or go in search of food, family members would stand vigil over the hard-won territory. Somehow, even as we were reduced to human freight, the framework of family held, in the form of Go, I got your back.
Eventually our freighter docked in the Philippines, but we were not allowed to disembark all of the existing camps were full.
After a full 10 months at sea, we were finally transferred to a makeshift refugee camp on a Philippine island. My mom set me on the ground to roam and was pleased to discover that I could run.
At the camp, my parents and extended family underwent an arduous vetting process that included background checks and physical screenings with blood tests. Then came the search for a sponsoring country. A refugee who could claim a relative in another country was given priority there. Barring that, where you wound up was a crapshoot by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees.
My grandmother described watching her tears fall into the flames as her money burned.
My parents, my brother, and I lingered in this system for several months until a church group in Minnesota agreed to sponsor us. In one fell swoop, we were whisked from the humidity of the tropics to the subzero temperatures of a Midwestern December. The commitment and logistics of sponsoring and providing for a refugee family are significant, so the church group shared the responsibilities for clothing, sheltering, and integrating us into American life. One group of volunteers met us at the airport with donated secondhand winter jackets. Other volunteers helped us find and furnish a small two-bedroom home in the suburbs, while still others worked on getting sponsorship for the rest of our family, until all 19 of us were reunited.
Our family also relied on public social programs as we adjusted and assimilated into American society. My parents enrolled my brother and me in a Head Start preschool while they studied English, passed the GED, and took job-training classes. For a year or so, we lived on welfare and food stamps, supplemented by baffling 10-pound blocks of bright orange government cheese.
Within two years, my mom spoke English well enough to take a job in a bank, the start of a 30-year career that became our modest family livelihood. When it came time for my brother and me to think about college, we benefited from the expectation in our family that we would go. We had as role models close relatives who had recently graduated. But we also relied on programs like need-based grants, low-interest loans, and work-study programs.
We hear so much talk about individual resilience, self-reliance, and the proverbial bootstraps being the ingredients of the American Dream, and Id like to think my family exhibited those traits in our extraordinary journey. But there is a lot more that goes into the American Dreams promise of providing people an opportunity to improve their lives and to contribute to this great nation. Nothing exists in a vacuum, after all, and certainly not opportunity. We all rely on the springboard provided by our extended families, our communities (like those Minnesota church volunteers who made our American story possible), and, yes, government-backed immigration policies and programs like those that let us enter, fed us, and then helped us obtain an education.
Now, more than three decades and a generation after we fled Vietnam, my younger child has just turned two the age I was when I arrived in the U.S. Her first words? Milk, mama, and dada.
Kim Luu has M.Eng. and B.S. Environmental Engineering degrees from MIT and UCLA. She works in the environmental sustainability field in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and two kids. She wrote this for What It Means to Be American, a partnership of the Smithsonian and Zocalo Public Square.
This article is featured in the March/April 2017 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
Deerfield Beach, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2017 -- According to the report, Saudi arabia region demand for cement was valued at USD 3.90 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach USD 5.27 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of slightly above 5.1% between 2014 and 2020. In terms of volume, the cement market in the Saudi Arabia stood at 61,000 kilo tons in 2014.The manufacturing companies of cement have a significant impact on the value chain through a higher degree of vertical integration. These companies manufacture raw materials as well as the final product. Some of the key players operating in the Saudi Arabia cement market include Saudi Cement Company, Riyadh Cement Company, Yamama Cement Company, and Najran Cement Company.
Zion Market Research has published a new report titled "Cement Market for Residential, Commercial, Infrastructure and Other Applications: Saudi Arabia Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2014 2020"
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Cement is a one of the key binding material used in construction industry. Cements acts as a binding agent for mortar, concrete, non-specialty grouts and stucco, etc. Cement is manufactured from raw materials such as limestone, sand and clay. These kinds of raw materials are widely available in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, cheap and widely available petroleum fuel has been resulted into cost effective manufacturing of cement in the region. Various physical and chemical properties of cement such as high durability, high dependability, cost-effectiveness and versatility are favorable for construction applications.
Key factors driving the demand for cement market in Saudi Arabia is increasing the construction activity in different segments such as commercial, residential, industrial and infrastructure. Rapidly growing population has been resulted into growing demand for residential & commercial buildings as well as infrastructure. Residential application market for cement in Saudi Arabia is expected to witness strong growth during the forecast period. Infrastructure is one of the largest segment, which accounted for around 50% share of the total market in 2014. Infrastructure refers to the construction that includes roads, bridges, canals and dams. The increasing number of airports and road construction projects are anticipated to boost the cement market in Saudi Arabia. Commercial application is the second largest application segment of the market in 2014, which include construction of walls, floors, exterior walkways and pavements of commercial buildings.
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The cement market was dominated by Central region of Saudi Arabia, which accounted for slightly above 32% share of the Saudi Arabia market in 2014. Saudi Arabia was followed by the Western, Eastern, Southern and northern regions respectively. Cement market in central region is also expected to witness rapid growth as compared to other regions. Over the past few years, there has been an increase in construction activities in the Saudi Arabia, especially in the eastern and central provinces. Various cities in the Kingdom have initiated infrastructure projects, thereby fuelling demand for cement. Strong economic growth in the Saudi Arabia is expected to fuel growth of the cement market in various cities of the Saudi Arabia.
This report segments the global market as follows:
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Saudi Arabia Cement Market: Application Segment Analysis
Residential
Commercial
Infrastructure
Others (including cement bricks and farm construction)
Saudi Arabia Cement Market: Regional Segment Analysis
Central
Eastern
Northern
Southern
Western
What Report Provides
Full in-depth analysis of the parent market
Important changes in market dynamics
Segmentation details of the market
Former, on-going, and projected market analysis in terms of volume and value
Assessment of niche industry developments
Market share analysis
Key strategies of major players
Emerging segments and regional markets
Testimonials to companies in order to fortify their foothold in the market.?
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Hyde Park, UT -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2017 -- 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
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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.
Hyde Park, UTAH General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Declares New Geneology Resource Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.g3-development.co/
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.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.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
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.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
Indianapolis, IN -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/10/2017 -- 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
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Indianapolis Indiana General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Announces New Geneology Asset Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.g3-development.co/
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.
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.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.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
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.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
Planetary researchers have long thought that the dwarf planet Ceres may have a temporary, thin atmosphere (an exosphere), but mysteries lingered about its origin and why its not always present. Now, scientists from NASAs Dawn mission suggest that the Cerean exosphere appears to be related to the behavior of the Sun, rather than Ceres proximity to the Sun.
When energetic particles from the Sun hit exposed ice and ice near Ceres surface, it transfers energy to the water molecules as they collide. According to the Dawn team, this frees the water molecules from the ground, allowing them to escape and create a thin atmosphere that may last for a week or so.
Our results also have implications for other airless, water-rich bodies of the Solar System, including the polar regions of the Moon and some asteroids. Atmospheric releases might be expected from their surfaces, too, when solar activity erupts, said Dawn mission principal investigator Dr. Chris Russell, from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Before Dawn arrived in orbit at Ceres in 2015, evidence for an atmosphere had been detected by some observatories at certain times, but not others, suggesting that it is a transient phenomenon.
In 1991, the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite detected hydroxyl emission from Ceres, but not in 1990.
Then, in 2007, ESOs Very Large Telescope searched for a hydroxide emission, but came up empty.
ESAs Herschel Space Observatory detected water in the possible exosphere of Ceres on three occasions, but did not on a fourth attempt.
As Dawn began its thorough study of Ceres in March 2015, scientists found ample evidence for water in the form of ice.
Dawns Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) has found that the uppermost surface is rich in hydrogen, which is consistent with broad expanses of water ice. This ice is nearer to the surface at higher latitudes, where temperatures are lower.
Other research has suggested that persistently shadowed craters are likely to harbor ice.
Because of this evidence for abundant ice, researchers think that the Cerean exosphere is created in a process similar to what occurs on comets, even though they are much smaller.
In that model, the closer Ceres gets to the Sun, the more water vapor is released because of ice sublimating near or at the surface.
But the new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests comet-like behavior may not explain the mix of detections and non-detections of a weak atmosphere.
Sublimation probably is present, but we dont think its significant enough to produce the amount of exosphere that were seeing, said lead author Michaela Villarreal, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The team showed that past detections of the transient atmosphere coincided with higher concentrations of energetic protons from the Sun.
Non-detections coincided with lower concentrations of these particles.
Whats more, the best detections of Ceres exosphere did not occur at its closest approach to the Sun.
This suggests that solar activity, rather than Ceres proximity to the Sun, is a more important factor in generating an exosphere.
_____
M.N. Villarreal et al. 2017. The Dependence of the Cerean Exosphere on Solar Energetic Particle Events. ApJL 838, L8; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa66cd
This article is based on a press-release from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
[SYDNEY] The increasing use of groundwater for irrigation poses a major threat to global food security and could lead to unaffordable prices of staple foods. From 2000 to 2010, the amount of non-renewable groundwater used for irrigation increased by a quarter, according to an article published in Nature on March 30. During the same period China had doubled its groundwater use.
The article finds that 11 per cent of groundwater extraction for irrigation is linked to agricultural trade.
In some regions, for example in Central California or North-West India, there is not enough precipitation or surface water available to grow crops like maize or rice and so farmers also use water from the underground to irrigate, the article says.
When a country imports US maize grown with this non-renewable water, it virtually imports non-renewable groundwater. Carole Dalin, Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College, London
The article focused on cases where underground reservoirs or aquifers, are overused. When a country imports US maize grown with this non-renewable water, it virtually imports non-renewable groundwater, Carole Dalin, lead author and senior research fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College, London, tells SciDev.Net.
Crops such as rice, wheat, cotton, maize, sugar crops and soybeans are most reliant on this unsustainable water use, according to the article. It lists countries in the Middle East and North Africa as well as China, India, Mexico, Pakistan and the US as most at risk.
Pakistan and India have been locally most affected due to groundwater depletion and exporting agricultural products grown with non-sustainable groundwater. Iran is both exporting and importing and The Philippines is importing from Pakistan, which is non-sustainable. China is importing a lot from India. Japan and Indonesia are importing, mainly from the US, says Yoshihide Wada, co-author of the report and deputy director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysiss Water Programme, Laxenburg, Austria.
Agriculture is the leading user of groundwater, accounting for more than 80 to 90 per cent of withdrawals in irrigation-intense countries like India, Pakistan and Iran, according to the report.
The researchers say efforts to improve water use efficiency and develop monitoring and regulation need to be prioritised. Governments must invest in better irrigation infrastructure such as sprinkler irrigation and introduce new cultivar or crop rotation to help producers minimise water use.
Wada suggests creating awareness by putting water labels, along the lines of food labels, showing how much water is used domestically and internationally in produce and whether these water amounts are from sustainable or non-sustainable sources.
Andrew Western, professor of hydrology and water resources at the University of Melbournes School of Engineering, suggests enforceable water entitlement systems and caps on extraction. In recent decades, water reform in Australia has led to water having a clear economic value made explicit by a water market. This has enabled shifts in water use to cope with short-term climate fluctuations and has also driven a trend of increasing water productivity, he says.
[ACCRA] Farmers and entrepreneurs in West Africa are benefiting from a project that offers improved sweet potato varieties and market access.
The US$4 million project that began in April 2014 and ended last month (March 2017) was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria.
Post-harvest experts and food scientists are working with us to develop [new orange fleshed sweet potato] varieties. Ernest Baafi, Crops Research Institute, CSIR, Ghana
The other partners include Institut de lEnvironnement et de Recherches Agricoles in Burkina Faso, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)Crops Research Institute in Ghana, and the National Root Crops Research Institute, Nigeria.
The project called Jumpstarting Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato in West Africa through Diversified Markets aimed to establish commercial sweet potato seed systems to provide clean planting materials throughout the year, and develop formal and informal markets for the varieties through participation of farmers in the value chain.
The development and commercialisation of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes would help tackle micro nutrients deficiency, according to the International Potato Center (CIP), the lead organisation of the project, during a field visit to project sites in Ghana on 7 February.
Erna Abidin, the project manager, says the project used approaches such as structured markets and school feeding programmes to develop markets for improved sweet potato varieties to help generate income. The project is helping combat vitamin A deficiency in the focus countries, he adds.
Julius Dorsese, a Ghanaian farmer, states that selling of the orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) vines on an acre of land fetches him 6,000 Ghana cedis (about US$1,400), while 64-kilogram bag of sweet potatoes earns him about US$14.
Ernest Baafi, a plant breeder at Crops Research Institute of CSIR in Ghana, tells SciDev.Net: "Post-harvest experts and food scientists are working with us to develop [new orange fleshed sweet potato] varieties."
Ted Carey, CIP regional sweet potato breeder and Ghana country manager, says that the CIP collaborates with research institutes to develop new varieties of OFSP with characteristics that are appealing to farmers."The emphasis is now developing low-sugar content types of OFSP combined with high quality to boost yields," he tells SciDev.Net.Emmanuel Darkey, chairman of Ghana Sweetpotato Innovation Platform, says post-harvest losses is a major challenge, but researchers are helping farmers to address the issue.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
A rare one-horned rhino has been killed in Nepal's national park. Authorities have said that it was poachers who killed the rare rhino.
The rare one-horned rhino was a male. The authorities have also said that it was found Saturday morning without its horn at Chitwan National Park, Nepal's biggest rhino conservation area. The security has been stricter following the death of the rare male rhino. "We performed a post-mortem and found that it had been hit by a bullet on its head," the park's spokesman Nurendra Aryal explained. They are now finding more clues that will lead them to the suspects.
"We hope that the investigation will help us devise new strategies to strengthen protection for these animals," Shant Raj Jnawali, a rhino expert at WWF, said. This killing is an indicator that the rare one-horned rhino animals are still very open for poachers, Chicago Tribune reported. Nepal has to pass stricter laws. There are many people who help in the anti-poaching campaign like the community, park wardens and army. Apparently, it wasn't enough as it is the first time after three years it happened.
The authorities were planning to start breeding the rare rhinos. However, after this tragic event, it might not happen anymore as there are only four female rare one-horned rhinos left, the Telegraph stated. Nepal has about 645 rhinos and about 600 live in Chitwan National Park. There were about thousands of the now rare one-horned rhino animals in Nepal. However, after the civil war in 1996 to 2006, it has decreased dramatically.
On the other hand, there was a similar case that happened in France. There was a white rhino that was killed inside a zoo. Even though there is a security, the poachers still got in and did their thing. People and the French government were enraged and have been solving the case. Rhinoceros have been getting killed left and right for their precious horns. Rare one-horned rhino and other types like the white rhino in France are more endangered as their horns are worth much more than the others.
Good thing there are animal reserves and national parks to protect the animals like the rare one-horned rhino. Government and the people just have to work together to solve the issue at hand.
Legalizing marijuana is already in progress as Uruguay was reported to allow pharmacies to sell cannabis. The said move made the South American country as the first to do so.
According to Independent, Uruguay allowing pharmacies to sell marijuana is the last step of legalizing the production, sale, and consumption of marijuana since it was allowed to be legalized back in 2013. Yet, it was a slow progress for the government to put the law into action.
Cannabis will be dispensed in pharmacies starting in the month of July, stated Juan Andres Roballo, the head of the National Drugs Council. There was no specific date in July given but the presidential aide identified the first two weeks of July as the possible start point of the sales.
Inquirer also reported that as of now only 16 pharmacies had agreed with the government to supply marijuana. But, Uruguays government is hopeful for the numbers to grow to at least 30 pharmacies. Furthermore, secretary general of the National Drugs Council, Diego Olivera also identified that a gram of pot would cost $1.30.
Moreover, it was also mentioned by Uruguays government that cannabis would only be sold in packets of 5 or 10 grams. The publication then added that Olivera stated that part of the proceeds would go to the government to fund drug prevention programs. Buyers having the right to choose to grow cannabis in their home or join cannabis clubs were also allowed by the law.
Yet, it was noted that a national registry of marijuana would be provided which is set to open to Uruguay residents starting on May 2. The law then ruled that Uruguays long-term residents and citizens should sign up to ensure that they follow the licensing procedures.
Nonetheless, it was made known by the government that buyers should not exceed the law to not exceed the monthly maximum purchase of 40 grams (1.4 ounces). Nonetheless, foreign tourists were reported to not be allowed to purchase from the country.
Apollo 11 astronauts have planted six flags on the Moon in 1969. After over 40 years, all these flags have bleached into bony-white, according to experts.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took an image of the American flags in 2012, and it showed at least five out of six flags still standing. On the other hand, the scientists thought that these have bleached out their colors. Then, they have become white now, according to Business Insider.
It is reported that the Moon does not have any atmosphere to attract light. Furthermore, the outside of the craters does not have shade. With this, the American flags are unprotected from the blazing sunlight and more to intense solar radiation.
The American flags planted on the Moon are made of nylon for $5.50 each in 1969. This is about $33 a piece in 2012. Dennis Lacarruba, the manufacturer of the flags, did not think that there would still be flags erecting on the Moon. He thought there would not be anything left and assume they were already ashes, as noted by Gizmodo.
Meanwhile, Paul Spudis, a lunar scientist, explained how these flags have turned into white. He said that the flags have been unprotected to the ferocity of the Moon's environment for 40 odd years. This involved exchanging 14 days of burning sunlight and 100 degrees' Celsius heat with 14 days of numbing-cold-150 degrees Celsius darkness. What is more damaging is the exposure to intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This made the Apollo cloth flags fade.
Spudis further said that even on Earth, the colors of a cloth flag eventually fade after many years and thus need replacement. This would likely be the same for the American flags on the Moon, which were bleached white by the UV radiation of unfiltered sunlight on the Moon. He added that they might be physically disintegrated, too.
After several months of speculation, the South Korean tech giant finally revealed its flagship smartphone at an event in New York last March 29. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have been the talk of the town since their release. The latest smartphones come with an impressive look, combined with awesome hardware, and its all new "Bixby" smart assistant.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are expected to hit the U.K. market on April 28. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus start at a price of 689 ($854), which increases to 779 ($965) for the Galaxy S8 Plus. According to Arab News, the phones are also available for pre-order in Saudi Arabia until April 20. Buyers who pre-ordered the device are expected to receive it before May 5.
The new infinity display of Samsung Galaxy S8 gives the users one of a kind full screen experience. Samsung achieved the Galaxy S8 elegant design by making its components smaller, without sacrificing its performance. The smart assistant "Bixby" can also analyze something a user chooses without typing a single word. "Bixby" evolves as it learns the user's routine.
Users can also secure their most important files using the iris scanning feature of Samsung Galaxy S8. Users would not mind getting their phone wet because it is water-resistant. The Galaxy S8 can also be paired with the Gear 360 that can live broadcast in 360.
However, the exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 disaster dragged the company's name down last year. For sure, Samsung is now prepping for an impressive Note 8 that might surpass the recent Galaxy S8. Fans hope that the Note 8 would not have the same issues like its previous model.
With the Galaxy Note 7 incident, Samsung should not make any further errors in the future. According to a PhoneDog report, there would not be any problem if the company will combine the Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy Note phones soon. It might also help Samsung to put their 100 percent focus and attention on one project and can even make a greater smartphone.
Peggy Whitson will soon be the most experienced astronaut in the United States, at least, as far as time spent outside the atmosphere is concerned. The next point in her impressive resume is assuming command of the International Space Station (ISS) for the second time.
The 57-year-old astronaut had been in charge of the $100 billion space station before. However, according to AOL News, this time, she will be assuming command as two other crew members fly back to Earth. Whitson's extended stay will eventually put her on record as the longest time spent in space than any other American astronaut. By April 24, she would be breaking the record currently held by NASA's own Jeff Williams, who spent a total of 534 days on the ISS.
Not that taking command is a lesser feat. Shane Kimbrough said during the command ceremony aired on NASA TV that Whitson will also be the first two-time female commander of the ISS. Kimbrough and two other crewmates, Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, will be wrapping up their own 173-day missions. They are expected to have a parachute landing in Kazahkstan at 7:21 a.m. EDT.
Zee News reported that during Kimbrough's stay on board the orbiting station, he and Expedition 50 crew members were able to contribute to experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical sciences and Earth sciences. On April 9, Kimbrough, along with Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, handed over the command of the space station to their female colleague, who now serves as commander of Expedition 51.
Peggy Whitson, however, is not the only female to ever take over the ISS. Space.com shared that while she is the first woman to take command of the orbiting lab twice, there had been another woman commander. Sunita Williams also previously took charge of the space station.
People participate in an opposition rally in Caracas, Venezuela, April 8, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Venezuela has so far resisted international efforts to resolve its deep dysfunction, and the US military's Southern Command says the country's turmoil could affect the whole region.
Regional groups and international actors have worked in recent months to bring the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition to the table and a resolution.
Those efforts have thus far achieved little, and Navy Adm. Kurt Tidd, chief of US Southern Command, raised the situation to the US Senate in his most recent posture report, delivered last week.
"Venezuela faces significant instability in the coming year due to widespread food, and medicine shortages; continued political uncertainty; and a worsening economic situation," Tidd said in written testimony submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The growing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela could eventually compel a regional response."
Efforts by outside parties to shepherd Venezuela toward a resolution have been complicated, especially because Maduro has in the past used the specter of international interference to blunt criticism at home and abroad.
nicolas maduro
The Organization of American States has, in recent weeks, attempted to get the Maduro government to allow elections and back off its crackdown on protests and civil society, with the body's chief, Luis Almagro, aiming to use access to international credit lines and expulsion from the regional body as his carrot and stick.
"Venezuela has to re-democratize itself in order to refinance itself," Almagro told The Wall Street Journal. "No one is putting money into Venezuela. With a dictatorship in power, every minute is like an earthquake for the country."
"The entire region is watching closely what happens in Venezuela," Tidd told the Senate during a question-and-answer session, adding:
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"As youre well aware, when I mention the word 'Venezuela,' tomorrow in the newspapers in Caracas will be stories that US SouthCom is engaged in operations against Venezuela."
"Nothing could be further from the truth, but the reality is the enormous economic instability that is taking place in Venezuela affects the entire region. The OAS is watching very closely and taking, I think, important action."
International attention appears to have affected the Maduro government's posture.
Demonstrators scuffle with security forces during an opposition rally in Caracas, Venezuela. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
A pair of decisions late last month by the Venezuelan supreme court, which is closely aligned with the government, attempted to strip the national legislature of many of its powers a wildly unpopular maneuver for most Venezuelans.
The move drew swift international condemnation, with more than a half-dozen of Venezuela's neighbors calling on Caracas to respect democracy. And Maduro's own attorney general criticized the move a rare show of dissent within party ranks.
Recent street protests mostly peaceful but at times marked by violence, including confrontations between security forces and demonstrators and the death of a 19-year-old shot last week in Caracas appear to have been stirred up after a long lull, in part by the regional response to government actions.
"They really have just activated in the last two weeks," David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, told the BBC of the protests. "And I think thats in large part because of the actions of the international community the discussions, the denunciations on the part of regional countries and multilateral institutions."
Where the crisis in Venezuela, home to the world's largest oil reserves, goes from here remains unclear.
Donald Trump Mike Pence Marco Rubio Leopoldo Lopez Lilian Tintori Venezuela White House Oval Office
The Trump administration appears to be taking a more hardline stance with Venezuela.
Maduro, likely encouraged by Trump's warm words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has tried to court the US president, but Trump has met with Venezuelan opposition leaders and appears to be showing little interest in dealing with the Maduro government. On Monday, the US State Department issued a statement calling on Maduro to "stop silencing opposition voices."
More US involvement may not be for the better, however, as Washington "is probably the least important and effective actor in the region for mediating in the Venezuela conflict," Smilde told Business Insider in the days after Trump's election.
The Maduro government appears to be working to undermine the opposition to secure an advantage in future elections that many have called for.
Venezuelan opposition leader and Governor of Miranda state Henrique Capriles holds a copy of the Venezuelan constitution as he speaks during an interview with Reuters in Caracas, Venezuela May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Earlier this month, opposition leader Henrique Capriles was barred from holding public office for 15 years, a move the US State Department said it "views with grave concern."
Capriles also warned his partners in the opposition coalition they could soon receive the same sanction.
Opposition parties are also being required to "revalidate" themselves through petitions with a minimum number of signatures.
Many of those parties worry the government could still dissolve them by disallowing large numbers of those signatures.
The opposition, for its part, has called for the removal of judges they accuse of orchestrating a judicial "coup," further stoking worry about the country's democratic stability.
While Maduro himself claims to be open to local elections and his government has shown some signs of assenting to international demands, either because of promises of aid or rebuke, it has been far from welcoming.
On Sunday, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told Latin American countries that have recently criticized Maduro to "get their noses out of Venezuela."
This article has been updated with statements from the US State Department.
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- By Alberto Abaterusso
Argentina's environmental ministry asked for Barrick Gold's (ABX) temporary cessation of all operations at the Veladero mine, Reuters.com reported April 7, because of the breakage of a pipe carrying the cyanide solution that is spread over the heap's surface to leach the precious metal on March 28.
Barrick Gold needs to prepare a new working plan for Veladero mine and file with the Argentinian authorities if it wants to continue its business in the San Juan Province, said the energy minister of the Argentinian government following a meeting between Argentinian officials and the world's biggest gold producer's executives April 6.
Waiting for the federal court's decision on the request, Barrick Gold has been restricted in the usage of the solution quantity that can be added to the Veladero mine's heap leach.
Should the court decide to halt Barrick Gold's operations at Veladero, it may impinge the Canadian miner's production: the Argentinian open pit mine is one of the mining company's five core assets and with its production, Barrick Gold expects to counterbalance decreases at Goldstrike and Pueblo Viejo.
Barrick Gold closed at $19.31 per share April 7, down 14 cents or 0.73%, with a volume of 12,943,215 shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange versus an average volume of 8.5 million shares traded over the last 10 trading days and an average volume of 15.22 million shares traded over the last three months.
Barrick Gold is uptrending and gained 17% year to date outperforming the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) with 5%.
The gold stock has a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 2.66 and a price-book (P/B) ratio of 2.81. The EV/EBITDA ratio is 6.69. The recommendation rating is 2.5, and the analysts' average target price is $21.05 per share.
During the last quarter of 2016, Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) opened a position in Barrick Gold, buying 495,851 shares.
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John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio) increased his position in Barrick Gold by 26.53%, while First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) and Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio) decreased their positions by 0.55% and 2.92%.
George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) and Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio) sold out.
Disclosure: I have no positions in Barrick Gold.
Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
FILE PHOTO: A man walks by a bank machine at the Wells Fargo & Co. bank in downtown Denver, Colorado, U.S. April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo
By Carmel Crimmins and Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) - An investigation by Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) board laid blame for the company's unauthorized accounts scandal on a high-pressure sales culture and a retail executive obsessed with stamping out negative views about her division.
The report, carried out by board Chairman Stephen Sanger and three other independent directors and released to media on Monday, said former retail division head Carrie Tolstedt ignored the systemic nature of abusive sales practices and accused her of impeding the board's efforts to address an issue that festered for years.
Lawyers for Tolstedt rejected the report's findings on Monday. She had declined to be interviewed for the investigation.
"We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt. A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion," Enu Mainigi, Williams & Connolly LLP, attorneys for Tolstedt, said in a statement.
Sanger, a board member since 2003, faces pressure to root out the problems amid calls by advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services for investors to oust him and other directors in place when the scandal broke. Glass Lewis meanwhile has recommended votes against six board members at the bank's April 25 annual meeting.
In an interview with Reuters, Sanger said the bank was not scapegoating anyone.
"Im not surprised that some of the people involved see it differently but we stand by the findings of this investigation, he said.
Sanger said the report showed the board had taken the appropriate action with the information it was given and had revamped compensation, leadership and its own structure to make sure such abuses did not reappear.
Im very disappointed in the ISS and Glass Lewis recommendations, they do not take into account sufficiently the actions that the board has taken since the issue broke," he said.
We will trust investors to make their own decisions about how they will vote.
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With the U.S. Department of Justice looking into the sales practices, experts said Wells Fargo's board was under pressure to ensure the buck stopped with someone else.
Theres a tremendous amount of pressure from regulators to throw someone under the bus, said Duke Law School professor James Cox, who specializes in corporate and securities law. If they dont, then Wells Fargo is going to be even more in the crosshairs.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on its probe.
Wells Fargo said Tolstedt had been fired for cause and it would cancel approximately $47 million worth of stock options held by her. The bank said it would also claw back approximately $28 million from former chief executive John Stumpf, who failed to heed warnings about the scale of the problem
BLINDED BY SUCCESS
Stumpf, who retired under pressure from the scandal in October, was criticized for failing to grasp the gravity of the sales abuses and their impact on the bank.
In the 110-page report, Stumpf was described as blinded by Wells Fargo's cross-selling success. He refused to believe the model was seriously impaired and was full of admiration for Tolstedt, with whom he had a long working relationship. According to one director, Stumpf praised Tolstedt as the "best banker in America."
The report said Tolstedt hid the scale of the misconduct from the board, which only discovered that 5,300 staff had been fired for opening more than 2 million unauthorized accounts when the bank reached a $185 million settlement with regulators in September.
A lawyer for Stumpf declined to comment on the report.
The bank has fired five senior retail bank executives, including Tolstedt, over the scandal and imposed forfeitures, clawbacks and compensation adjustments on senior leaders now totaling more than $180 million, including $69 million from Stumpf and $67 million from Tolstedt.
Since the scandal broke, the bank has seen a steady decline in the number of consumers opening checking and credit card accounts and has lost its status as America's most valuable bank by market value.
A NOTEWORTHY RISK
Sales practices were identified as a noteworthy risk to the board and its risk committee, of which Sanger was a member, in 2014 after a series of stories in the Los Angeles Times detailed some of the practices.
But Tolstedt was left to deal with the issue and was notoriously resistant to outside intervention and oversight the report said.
Multiple board members felt misled by a presentation by Tolstedt and others to the risk committee in May 2015. The board members said they left thinking that between 200 and 300 employees had been fired for sales practice abuses and the problem was largely concentrated in southern California.
The report criticized the board for not centralizing risk functions at the bank earlier, not requesting more detailed reports from management and not insisting Stumpf get rid of Tolstedt sooner.
Tim Sloan, who replaced Stumpf as CEO, was described in the report as having little contact with sales practices at the bank before becoming chief operating officer and Tolstedt's boss in November 2015. Six months later he told her to step aside.
Since the scandal broke, the bank has ended sales targets, changed pay incentives for branch staff, separated the role of chairman and CEO and hired new directors to its board.
NO BAD NEWS, NO CONFLICT
A big part of Wells Fargo's problem was its decentralized business model, which meant the retail bank was able to keep inquiries from head office at arm's length. There was no joined-up effort by either the bank's human resources or legal divisions to track and analyze the problem.
As far back as 2002, Wells Fargo's retail bank was taking steps to deal with sales practice violations and in 2004 an internal report recommended eliminating sales goals for employees.
That report was sent to, among others, the chief auditor, a senior in-house employment lawyer, retail bank HR personnel and the head of retail bank sales & service development. No action was taken.
Externally, Wells was lauded by investors for cross-selling customers multiple products and for its squeaky-clean reputation relative to peers following the financial crisis.
Internally, the sales pressure was oppressive, particularly in California and Arizona, where senior bankers sometimes called subordinates several times a day to chastise those who failed to meet sales objectives.
Tolstedt was perceived by high-level employees as having the support of Stumpf, with whom it was considered best to avoid raising problems with.
"Stumpf was ultimately responsible for enterprise risk management at Wells Fargo, but was not perceived within Wells Fargo as someone who wanted to hear bad news or deal with conflict," the report said.
Wells Fargo shares were down 0.44 percent at $54.6 in early afternoon trade.
(Additional reporting by David Henry and Elizabeth Dilts in New York and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Meredith Mazzilli)
DSME announced at the weekend that it had signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with HMM for five 300,000 dwt newbuildings with options for five more.
With newbuilds priced at an estimated $80m per vessel if all 10 newbuilds are confirmed. The shipbuilder said the firm contract would be signed in July.
It is the second large tanker order secured by DSME recently with Greek owner Angelicoussis returning to the yard with a $250m order from a trio of 318,000 dwt VLCCs for Maran Tankers Management.
Many shippers at home and abroad have significant trust in DSMEs technology and competitiveness, said DSME chief Jung Sung-leep. We will deliver quality vessels to those and get back on our feet in return for their trust.
The Korean shipbuilder has received orders for 13 vessels worth more than $1.4bn if the first five VLCCs from HMM are included.
Such new orders are expected to be a great help in overcoming the crisis facing DSME.
The new contracts, scheduled to commence in Q2 2018, are for two large class SESVs.
One contract is for a charter period of 26 months (including options), and the other for a charter period of 15 months (including options).
In addition, a short-term contract has been secured and commenced for a small class vessel in the Middle East.
Duncan Anderson, chief executive officer of GMS, said: We are delighted to have secured these two long-term contracts in Europe. Our ability to provide cost-effective and efficient support solutions tailored to our client's requirements has been advantageous in winning this work.
We are also very pleased to have been awarded a new contract supporting oil and gas-related operations for one of our clients in the Middle East.
These three new contracts are testament to the flexibility of our modern fleet and our successful record in delivering a wide range of services for our clients in the total lifecycle of offshore oil, gas and renewable energy projects.
MESQUITE, NV / ACCESSWIRE / April 10, 2017 / Cannabis Sativa. Inc. (OTCQB: CBDS) announced today that it entered into an agreement to acquire the intellectual property for the White Rabbit brand of cannabis sprays and cannabis mints, www.enjoywhiterabbit.com. The acquisition will include the exclusive and proprietary product formulations, product mixes, manufacturing methods and branding. The White Rabbit product line currently consists of fast acting low dose cannabis oral sprays and popular low dose cannabis mints. Both the spray and the mints are formulated as CBD only, THC only and CBD/THC blends. Dosage ranges include 2.5mg, 5mg and 10mg tablets and sprays with 1:1 and 20:1 variations of each. The Company's President David Tobias stated, "The White Rabbit line of products is very attractive to us given its low dose and metering, which are important qualities for medicinal use." The White Rabbit products are currently being sold throughout California. Upon closing, the Company will look to license the White Rabbit products for use in states where medical marijuana is legal.
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 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. Underlying assumptions include without limitation, the ongoing enactment of legislation favorable to the production of and the commercialization of cannabis products and the Company's success in capitalizing on that legislation. 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.
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Contact Information:
Investor Relations
Mesquite, NV 89027
702-345-4074
http://www.cannabissativainc.com
SOURCE: Cannabis Sativa Inc.
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A man was killed in an officer-involved shooting in Fremont on Sunday night, the third such incident involving Fremont police this year, officials said.
The shooting unfolded around 11:30 p.m. after East Bay Regional Parks District Police called Fremont Police for an emergency response to the parking lot of a 7-Eleven on Decoto Road and Fremont Boulevard, police said.
What East Bay Regional Parks police put out was that there was an officer who had contacted occupants of a vehicle and there was a firearm involved that was the preliminary information, said Sgt. Ricardo Cortes, a spokesman for the Fremont Police Department.
Multiple units responded to the scene and officers saw a man fleeing on foot, Cortes said.
Police found the man in an alley behind a Walgreens across the street from the 7-Eleven. Two officers opened fire, killing him, according to Cortes.
The officers were not injured and the circumstances of the shooting were being investigated by the Alameda County district attorneys office, police said.
It was not clear if the man who was shot was armed.
Other occupants of the car were detained, but Cortes could not say whether any were arrested.
The Alameda County coroners office said theyve tentatively identified the man killed by police, but his name was being withheld pending notification of his relatives.
Rory Christy, 38, said he had parked his car at the 7-Eleven and went to visit a friend who lives nearby. When he returned to the store, he said he saw an East Bay Regional Parks District officer standing with his gun drawn on the occupants of a parked car.
The driver got out and ran straight across the entire parking lot, said Christy, who lives in Fremont.
He said the parks police officer stayed at the car holding his gun on those inside, while Fremont police cars swarmed the area.
Christy said he continued into the 7-Eleven, and heard gunshots as he exited the store.
I came out the front door and I heard gunshots right across the street. It sounded like at least nine, said Christy.
Two other people have been killed in shootings involving Fremont police officers this year. Nana Adomako, 45, was shot to death in February by an officer responding to a battery call, and 16-year-old Elena Ebbie Mondragon was killed in March when Fremont detectives fired on a car she was riding in after it allegedly rammed their unmarked vehicle.
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Aparna Sharma, 45, a longtime resident of Fremont who works near the scene of Sunday nights incident, said she is surprised by the uptick in shootings involving Fremont police. We dont see that much of this stuff in Fremont, she said.
Theres shootings going on everywhere even good cities have this problem. Theres so many things going on, Sharma said.
She added that she thinks more money should be put into youth programs.
Ive worked in a liquor store for 20 years. I have seen nice kids turned into punks, Sharma said. Jail is not always an answer.
Others who work in the area were surprised to hear of the recent shootings involving police in their community.
My perception is that the violence around here is pretty low, said Ernesto Medina, 30. I feel like its very safe, compared to other places.
Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
While Rincon Hills steep glass towers have reshaped San Franciscos skyline for better or worse new and equally large residential compounds make their mark by hugging the terrain.
But keeping a low profile doesnt lessen the impact on their surroundings, as three horizontal but super-sized complexes make clear.
Each tops off at six stories and is packaged deftly by the architects to keep things interesting. Each includes enticing public space. But to varying degrees, each also shows the strain of inserting ample new growth into a constrained setting.
Leading the pack is Potrero 1010, with 453 apartments packed into a pair of structures, one of which looks like a lopsided metal egg floating alongside Interstate 280 near Mission Bay. Another, the 410-unit L Seven, fills a block with seven buildings at the Eighth Street off-ramp from I-80. One Henry Adams adds 239 apartments to Showplace Square and is the only member of the trio within a well-established district.
The stocky brick warehouses and wide-open feel of that area, long popular with homeware designers and showrooms, gave BAR Architects the design cues it needed to produce a complex that pairs strong but deferential architecture with a spacious mid-block plaza.
Two flat-topped buildings fill the block of Henry Adams between Division and Alameda streets, just south of the grassy roundabout thats a district landmark. Each sticks to simple right angles, both in form and surface details.
Theres nothing adventurous here, though the lush vegetated walls on either side of the grandly scaled residential lobby add a contemporary touch. The broad bays are cloaked in stucco and black metal to convey a visual heft that echoes the century-old neighbors.
This wasnt an option at Potrero 1010, designed by David Baker Architects. The triangular block between Hubbell, 16th and Seventh streets for decades was part of a ramshackle landscape between Showplace Square, Potrero Hill and I-280. California College of the Arts was the only neighbor that might draw outsiders.
Now the area is booming, and Potrero 1010 fills a prominent site that called for something more adventurous than filling in the blanks.
Baker embraced the challenge.
The serrated metal egg, perched atop a glassy ground floor, wants to be a local icon. The much larger main building, a long blunt wedge, is skinned in everything from wood slats to six hues of stucco and bisected by a landscaped public walkway.
The other newcomer, L Seven, replaces a bus parking lot and fills the toughest site of all.
On the east is Eighth Street, a one-way grind with narrow sidewalks. Harrison Street on the south fills with cars heading away from I-80 as fast as they can. Directly across Gordon Alley is the Stud, a legendary gay bar and a reminder that this ragged stretch of South of Market came of age as a place where subcultures could flourish.
Instead of defining the corner of Harrison and Eighth with a marquee building to set the overall tone, architect Kava Massih takes a different approach to each of the seemingly independent structures (all of them share the same foundation). One forms a smooth glass cube. Another has a vivid grid of red metal, with wire mesh screening the recessed windows within.
Despite Massihs design flair including unexpected curves of translucent channel glass on the buildings base and cornice the areas 65-foot height limit wins out. The procession of one sidewalk-hugging box after the next feels relentless.
The interior of the block is more fun, with a publicly accessible lane ringing buildings from which large balconies pop out at jagged angles. But on a site zoned to hold more than 400 apartments, it would have been better to allow a mix of heights so that things wouldnt feel so claustrophobic.
This was done at Potrero 1010: A narrow wing along Hubbell Street drops to just 20 feet, with glass walls pulled back from stark columns of board-formed concrete. The spaces hold design studios for California College of the Arts, an ideal counterpoint to the blue-collar firms across the way.
Other attempts to fit in are more elaborate.
Baker didnt want to make the horizontal wedge seem too monolithic, so he juggled the rhythm of the bays and draped them in colors patterned on a sample of the skyline view from Potrero Hill.
Conceptually this is camouflage, according to Bakers website. Its also a case of trying too hard.
One Henry Adams has well-meaning missteps as well, with wide, purple brick walls that frame the lobby. This couldnt have been cheap; still, the thin-skinned gesture is no match for the robust survivors to the east and south.
The difficulty with projects of this scale, and not just in San Francisco, is that the lower is better mantra is simplistic.
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This doesnt mean 40-story towers should pop up in all directions. But when a lid is slammed on large swaths of the landscape, yet theres a call by politicians and planners for more housing, even the most nimble architect can do only so much.
Ultimately, the key is to break down large projects so that they tie into their surroundings at a pedestrian scale.
Thats certainly the case with Potrero 1010s grassy and beguiling Daggett Park, which separates the egg from the wedge and was designed by CMG Landscape Architecture. Its a space like none other nearby, complete with a dog park and a sculptural cascade of terraced seating.
The complex also welcomes the larger city with extensive high-ceilinged storefronts along 16th Street, which now serves as a gateway to Mission Bay.
You have to think of projects like these as urban planning as much as architecture, said Baker, one of the most prolific and inventive housing architects in the city. That makes them interesting.
At One Henry Adams, the public realm, by landscape architect Jeffrey Miller, unfolds with a delightful quirk: The spacious plaza and the outer walkway hover several feet above a new sidewalk.
The idea isnt to keep out the riffraff this block of Henry Adams Street was scooped low at some point to make it easier for workers to load and unload cargo. Rather than being ignored, the anomaly is celebrated.
As for L Seven, which is in the final stages of construction, the interior passageways hark back to South of Markets original net of interconnected alleys. And Miller is redesigning Ringold Street with widened sidewalks coupled with art installations to celebrate another aspect of SoMas past: the blossoming of the gay leather culture in the 1960s and 70s.
Each of these enclaves blurs the boundaries that once existed between where people work and where they live. To the extent that they also enrich the landscape, whether with open space or unexpected twists, theyll leave a mark beyond what dense horizontal architecture can provide.
John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron
After a 2011 civil grand jury report excoriated Oaklands building services division, concluding that some inspectors were keeping property records in their desk drawers rather than a central database, the city purchased a multimillion-dollar software system to bring the department into the 21st century.
But next door, in the Fire Prevention Bureau, which is tasked with annually inspecting all commercial buildings and certain residential properties, the staff was stuck with an older database that its users describe as a clumsy, incomplete repository of city properties.
Its been cumbersome from the get-go, said acting Fire Chief Mark Hoffmann, adding that city officials have not paid for system upgrades over the years. Its not particularly user-friendly for people who enter data. You cant seamlessly go window to window.
The systems deficiencies may have contributed to lapses in inspections of dangerous buildings. Three years after its report castigating the building department, the Alameda County grand jury came back with another censure, this time of the Fire Department, finding that it was not inspecting more than a third of all buildings required to be reviewed annually under California law.
The warning from the civilian panel foreshadowed revelations about the Ghost Ship warehouse after a fire there killed 36 people in December. Despite a fire station being just a block away, the building wasnt in the Fire Departments database and no one had ever stepped foot on the premises for a formal inspection. Had inspectors done so, they would have found tangles of electrical wires, blocked exit pathways, a lack of smoke detectors and other safety hazards.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf wants to create an information technology tool that would combine various city systems into an algorithm that could predict which buildings may be at risk for fire hazards or catastrophes. Her plan, announced in an executive order shortly after the Ghost Ship fire, was made more urgent when another blaze ripped through a West Oakland halfway house two weeks ago, killing four people and displacing more than 80.
But theres no timeline for when that plan will be put into action. A report on the plan provided to the City Council in February doesnt specify when the project would be completed or how much it would cost.
Ideally youd have a big map and all the databases talking to each other, said Claudia Cappio, an assistant city administrator. Those databases in Oakland include the Planning and Building Departments software called Accela; the Fire Departments system; a Public Works app that allows residents to report hazards; dispatch calls for police and medical services; and the program used by the citys finance arm to collect business taxes.
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Until a solution is put into place, the Fire Department and its Fire Prevention Bureau are relying on the existing OneStep database system, purchased in 2009, that Cappio called incomplete and inconsistent and problematic for engine companies.
The city is exploring the idea of getting the Fire Department a module to use within the Planning and Building Departments Accela software, which cost Oakland $5 million, with an $800,000 annual license. Adding the fire capabilities to the system would cost upward of half a million dollars, said city spokeswoman Karen Boyd.
In the meantime, Cappio said, The Fire Department can go to the Planning and Building Department and gain access to their computers. ... The offices are right next door to each other.
Hoffmann said that doesnt happen, and as far as he knows, the fire marshal and inspectors use only OneStep.
Records reveal a disjointed picture of the Oakland Fire Departments database.
In the citys response to the 2014 grand jury investigation, Oakland officials said that because of the way properties were initially entered into the system by commercial business licenses there were often duplicate records of properties or no records at all.
For instance, multiple licenses could be tied to one business, like a hair salon with several stylists, or many small suites could be located within a larger building but the OneStep system would tell inspectors to go review them all, the city said. Other times, they were instructed to inspect a building that turned out to be a post office box. A converted warehouse like the Ghost Ship wouldnt have been in the system either, because there was no business license associated with it.
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Some of these places are out of business or theyre in business but they dont want to pay the license fee, Hoffmann said.
Firefighters have described occasions when theyve gone on a medical call, seen a hazardous situation in a property, but couldnt find the building in the database back at the station house.
At one point in 2014, the problems with OneStep became so extreme that a fire lieutenant was removed from regular duties and put in a full-time assignment that involved reconfiguring the program and washing the database of duplicate addresses, according to the citys response to the grand jury investigation.
A OneStep representative, who declined to give his name, said that all we do is just host the data they choose to collect and that Oaklands problems are probably caused by how properties were inputted by business license.
We work with dozens of fire departments, he said. They dont regret buying our software because it works for them.
Hoffmann said some of the issues with OneStep can be traced back to training. In September 2015, a firefighter who went on a call to the San Pablo Avenue halfway house wanted to refer the hazardous conditions there to the Fire Prevention Bureau. He did so by checking a referral box in the OneStep system, according to emails released by the city. In fact, Hoffmann said, referrals cannot be made within the database, and the box is supposed to indicate that a referral was made by phone or some other means not prompt a referral to be sent.
Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
When Angie Gontaruk suddenly had to go back to Argentina because she couldnt secure an H-1B visa, her boss found herself in a bind.
It was kind of devastating, said Courtney Spence, the CEO of creative film agency CSpence Group, a San Francisco firm whose clients include Hyundai. As an employer, you know who is the best fit for an organization and who can provide the talent, and it was really frustrating not being able to fill that out.
The H-1B visa, which allows foreign workers to live and work in the U.S. for up to six years, was created more than two decades ago to help companies like Spences hire people like Gontaruk foreigners with specialized skills that employers say they cannot find in an American citizen.
But as federal officials began sifting through a mountain of petitions last week, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a statement with a stark warning to employers to not discriminate against U.S. workers. This warning echoed a common criticism of the coveted visas that they are used by companies to squeeze out Americans in favor of cheaper foreign workers. The loudest critic may be President Trump, who promised during his campaign to end the H-1B as a cheap labor program.
An analysis by The Chronicle shows that for the most recent government fiscal year, a number of Bay Area companies offered to pay H-1B recipients amounts similar to or, in some cases, significantly more than the prevailing wage. That wage is calculated by the Department of Labor based on conditions such as skill level and location. The analysis relied on a sample of applications filed by six Bay Area companies that were among the top 10 H-1B visa sponsors in the region during the 12-month period that ended on Sept. 30.
Many employers, including Spence, say they are not using the visa for cheap labor but as a way to hire the best person for a certain position. It was worth the extra effort and $2,000 it cost to file Gontaruks H-1B application, Spence said, because she is trilingual and her Argentine background brought a unique perspective to the agency.
You cant group all of the (companies) in one basket and say that they are bad because they hire foreign workers, said Ann Cun, an immigration attorney at Accel Visa.
Labor and wage conditions vary across the country. But experts worry that characterizing all H-1B recipients as underpaid foreign workers is dangerous for a program that Silicon Valley has come to rely on to staff many engineering positions often at six-figure salaries.
In the period studied, a technical program manager at Google on an H-1B visa was on average offered about $33,000 more than the prevailing wage for the position in Santa Clara County. And H-1B software engineers at Facebook and Apple were offered about $20,000 more than the prevailing wage.
The salaries included in The Chronicles analysis do not include bonuses or equity, which often account for hefty pay packages at tech companies.
Chad Graham, a San Jose immigration attorney, said many of his clients do not file for an H-1B unless they really need the specific person.
Most Silicon Valley companies are using it in the spirit that it was meant for, which is to provide the labor that they need, Graham said. A lot of these companies are growing quickly, and they are just not able to find the staff they need to fill those positions quickly.
But, he noted, the system is not perfect: One of the complaints is that (certain) companies try to game the system, and are driving the salary to the lowest level every time.
According to the analysis, Indian consulting firms Wipro, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services paid Bay Area employees salaries close to the prevailing wage. The pay was also significantly lower than that offered by the large tech companies sampled. These consulting firms, which often account for the majority of H-1B applications, draw criticism for flooding the H-1B system with applications every year.
Each year, all applications from for-profit companies go through a lottery process. Only 85,000 visas are given out. The lottery system, some critics say, encourages companies to play the odds.
While the number of applications has nearly doubled since 2014, the number of visas granted hasnt changed. The uncertainty over the fate of the program under the Trump administration, along with a strong economy, drove a surge in applications this year, immigration attorneys said.
John Miano, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative think tank, said that while a tiny fraction of companies may pay H-1B employees higher wages, he believes firms take advantage of the program by classifying foreigners regardless of skill level into less senior positions so they can exploit their skills at lower wages.
The program is just an entire mess, he said. It is a simple thing. You shouldnt be able to replace an American with an H-1B worker under any circumstances.
But on a national scale, a recent report by jobs site Glassdoor, which solicits pay data from users, shows that in most cases, H-1B employees are paid more than the average U.S. worker.
Wipro and Tata did not respond to requests for comment, and Infosys declined to answer questions.
While the Trump administration has not proposed an overhaul of the H-1B program yet, federal officials shifted some ground rules this month.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees the program, said the agency will take a more targeted approach in choosing employers whose workers receive visas, particularly companies that have a higher ratio of H-1B employees than others.
CSpence Group, where Gontaruk is the sole H-1B visa holder, is unlikely to face such scrutiny. After losing out in the lottery and returning to Argentina in 2013, Gontaruk came back to the U.S. to study business at UC Berkeley five months later. CSpence sponsored her for an H-1B again in 2015 and Gontaruk learned she was one of the lucky 85,000 recipients.
Even as someone who ultimately benefited from the program, Gontaruk says it has some major shortcomings, like the lottery process. She points out that she was educated here and sought to contribute to the country, but still struggled to get a visa.
Im disheartened by blanket statements (that) dismiss the value of what immigrants have brought to this country, Gontaruk said.
Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani
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It seems like common sense: People will be less tempted to drink and drive if they have an easier, safer way to get home after a night out.
Uber has plenty of incentive to make this case and has reported on declines in drunken-driving incidents in several major cities after the company started providing ride-hailing services, beginning in San Francisco in 2010.
A recent independent study backs this up. It found that in four boroughs of New York City, excluding Staten Island, there has been a 25 to 35 percent reduction in alcohol-related car accidents since Uber came to town in 2011, compared with other places where the ride-hailing company doesnt operate.
Thats a significant reduction, amounting to about 40 fewer collisions per month. And its good news for Uber, which could use some positive attention after months of hurtling from one public relations crisis to the next.
We need more evidence, but the trend seems to be pointing toward ride-sharing reducing drunk driving incidents, said Jessica Lynn Peck, a doctoral candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center who wrote the study, a working paper that was published in January.
But not all studies have reached the same conclusion. One report, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology last year, looked at 100 densely populated counties across the United States and found no correlation between the rollout of Uber services and the number of traffic fatalities.
Noli Brazil, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Southern California who wrote that paper with David Kirk, an associate professor at Oxford University, said common-sense arguments that ride-hailing apps should prevent drunken driving make some sense on an individual level.
Story continues below.
But he warned against making broader assumptions, especially since those who would drive drunk are not necessarily rational decision-makers. Researchers on the subject, he added, had to deal with a dizzying array of variables, including state laws, time frames and communities access to public transportation. All of these can affect a studys conclusions, and there is plenty of opportunity to cherry-pick data.
In order to explain our results, we pointed out the fact that the proportion of individuals who use Uber is quite small relative to the number of drivers in a given county, Brazil said.
Most studies, like Pecks, have noted a correlation between Uber services and lower rates of alcohol-related accidents. A 2015 report from Temple University found that Uber was associated with a decrease in motor vehicle homicides in California. A report this year from researchers at West Carolina University also found that Uber service led to declines in fatal accident rates across the country.
But none of these reports has been as unequivocal as the one that Uber itself released in 2015. It stated that in several major cities, Uber ridership peaked at times when drunken-driving accidents tend to happen.
It also found that in Seattle, the introduction of services was associated with a 10 percent decrease in arrests for driving under the influence. And in places where Uber is available in California, it reported, the number of alcohol-related crashes decreased by 6.5 percent among young drivers.
Several independent studies have shown Ubers presence in cities can help reduce drunk driving, a company spokeswoman said. Were glad to provide an alternative to drunk driving that helps people make safer, more responsible choices.
Peck, whose research used collisions data from the New York Department of Motor Vehicles and the states Department of Transportation from 2007 to 2013, agreed that the growing body of research suggests that ride-hailing services lead to fewer alcohol-related car accidents. But she noted that analyzing data and teasing out causation from correlation is slow and tricky work.
I think anyone who does statistics for a living is going to be really careful about saying they are sure, she said. Because we are scientists, and we are never sure.
While scientists are known for being cautious, Uber is known for being brash. The young company has disrupted the taxi industry since its founding in 2009 and is reportedly valued at close to $70 billion.
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As a workplace, Uber came under fire in February amid reports that the company had an aggressive internal culture that allowed some infractions to go unpunished. And Uber has faced a series of scandals recently, with many revolving around CEO Travis Kalanick.
Uber customers and employees criticized Kalanick after he joined an advisory council for President-elect Donald Trump in December; he stepped down from that post in February. Weeks later, a former Uber engineer wrote an indictment of the companys treatment of women; Kalanick called for an urgent investigation. The week after that, a video emerged of Kalanick arguing with an Uber driver who complained about the company; the executive later apologized to employees in an email.
Uber has been in the news a lot in the last year, in ways that I think all of the authors on this subject find a little cringe-worthy, Peck said.
She added that the point of her work was not to evaluate the company itself but to provide public health data that would be useful to city and state legislators.
Brazil said that as Uber becomes more popular across the United States, a growing body of research could indeed show that the app leads to lower drunken-driving rates but its too early to say for sure.
The company made this claim that it made cities safer, he said. We felt like theres not enough people using Uber just yet to make that kind of claim.
Jacey Fortin is a New York Times writer.
An influential proxy advisory firm is urging shareholders to vote against 12 of Wells Fargos 15 directors over the banks sales scandal.
In a report last week, Institutional Shareholder Services said that the 12 members of the boards audit, risk and human resources committees had failed over a number of years to provide a timely and sufficient risk oversight process that should have mitigated the harmful impact of the unsound retail banking sales practices that occurred from 2011 to 2016.
ISS recommended yes votes for the three other board members new CEO Tim Sloan and newcomers Karen Peetz and Ronald Sargent at the banks annual shareholder meeting, scheduled for April 25 in Florida. Proxy advisory firms like ISS play an important role in shaping the voting of big institutional investors such as pension funds.
In September, regulators fined the San Francisco bank $185 million to settle allegations that its employees had opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge in efforts to meet sales goals. The scandal has tarnished the banks reputation, cost former CEO John Stumpf his job and spurred congressional hearings and new investigations.
The Wells Fargo board responded sharply to the ISS report, highlighting its efforts to change bank practices.
The extreme and unprecedented ISS voting recommendation on directors fails to recognize the active engagement of the board and the substantial actions it has already taken to strengthen oversight and increase accountability at all levels of Wells Fargo, including important improvements to corporate governance, the board said.
Directors began their own investigation and have taken a number of other actions, including firing four executives and eliminating bonuses for eight senior leaders. The directors have also taken back millions of dollars in stock awards from Stumpf and former community banking head Carrie Tolstedt.
But ISS called the boards actions largely reactive, and driven not by oversight but by customer complaints and actions taken by the banks regulators.
ISS also said that it was particularly disturbed by reports that employees who did see and report unethical behavior were, in some cases, fired for being whistle-blowers.
Another proxy advisory firm, Glass Lewis, has recommended that Wells Fargo shareholders vote against the re-election of four directors who sit on the corporate responsibility committee John Baker, Lloyd Dean, Enrique Hernandez and Cynthia Milligan because of what it said was their failure to uphold their duties amid the scandal. It also urged no votes on John Chen and Susan Swenson because it contends that they sit on too many boards.
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Its not unheard of for advisory firms to recommend votes against those directors whose companies run into trouble.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Rick Rothacker is a Charlotte (N.C.) Observer writer.
In 2014, a BitPay executive went on CNBC to talk about replacing Visa and MasterCard with bitcoin, a virtual currency.
But Visa was the piece of the payments puzzle that was irreplaceable.
Last spring, BitPay rolled out a Visa-branded card that lets consumers add bitcoin online and then spend it at stores or withdraw dollars from ATMs, just like a regular debit card.
Why are digital currency revolutionaries changing their tune and partnering with established payments players? It turns out that BitPay needed Visas help because most merchants still prefer Visa over a digital currency.
While were constantly working to make bitcoin every merchants favorite form of payment, sometimes our favorite stores and restaurants arent ready to accept it, Corey Glaze, a senior sales engineer for BitPay, wrote in a blog post.
Its far from alone: BitPlastic and Wirex offer MasterCard-branded bitcoin debit cards, while Shift, Xapo and CryptoPay also rely on Visa to give the digital currency real-world spending power.
Its a tacit admission that, despite bitcoins hype, Visa and its counterparts still rule the business of moving money. About 40 million outlets around the world accept Visa cards, according to RBR, a research and consulting firm. By contrast, research site Coindesk estimates that about 100,000 merchants accept bitcoin. Its not clear how many people deposit or withdraw cash at bitcoin ATMs, but on a recent Sunday, a Coinsource ATM at Mission Grocery observed by The Chronicle went unused for hours.
Bitcoin, though, is still having an enormous impact on Visa. Youd just have to dive into the guts of the business to see it. Executives at the San Francisco company see the currency not as a threat but as a wellspring of technical innovation.
Were constantly learning, constantly evaluating anything that impacts electronic payments, said Rajat Taneja, Visas executive vice president of technology.
Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle
Visa is now heavily investing in blockchain, the clever system that underpins bitcoin and similar digital currencies. Blockchain was supposed to cut out middlemen like Visa and MasterCard. But in fact, it may empower them to do business cheaper and faster.
In October, the company began testing a service called Visa B2B Connect that borrows principles from blockchain to allow businesses to more quickly process payments across borders. While consumers may look to choose between paper and plastic at the cashier, businesses are stuck with costly options like wire transfers, particularly for international transactions.
Bitcoin isnt a good option, because businesses still need to pay employees and suppliers in old-fashioned national currencies. But transferring money digitally, with something like the speed and security of bitcoins blockchain, has considerable appeal.
Companies dont want to use bitcoin as unit of value but rather as a way to understand the underlying ledger technology behind it, said Tom Brown, a partner with the banking and global payment systems practice of Paul Hastings law firm in San Francisco.
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Blockchain technology relies on something called a distributed ledger, which parcels out the work of tracking and verifying transactions to a network of synchronized computers. Anyone on the network can see that an exchange occurred; that view allows for trust and prevents hackers from stealthily altering transactions.
Its a shift in mind-set from the old days when Visa was a consortium of banks that moved money on a private exchange.
When we look at blockchain, we can see a lot of interesting possibilities, Taneja said.
In some ways, its a throwback to the earliest days of Visa, which founder Dee Hock saw as a chaordic organization a synthesis of chaos and order, with peer-to-peer aspects that might one day create a universal currency. While Hock left in 1984 and Visa changed in the ensuing decades from a cooperative of competing banks to a regular, for-profit corporation, its still got glints of his vision.
The fact that Visa might one day discard the money-moving networks it helped build in favor of an upstart technology born from the Internet could only please Hock.
Only fools worship their tools, he once wrote.
Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee
As Wells Fargos sham-account scandal mushrooms, the San Francisco bank is conducting whats expected to be a long campaign to repair its shattered reputation. On Monday, it took what financial industry analysts saw as the most significant step yet.
The banks board released the findings of a six-month investigation into the root causes of improper sales practices inside Wells Fargos retail banking sales division that laid blame squarely on former leaders who did little to address the widespread fraud.
As a result of the investigation, the board said it would claw back, or seek to recover, an additional $75 million from former CEO John Stumpf and another former top executive for their roles in allowing the problematic practices to spiral out of control. These included signing up customers for credit cards or bank accounts they never requested.
The report found that the problem started far earlier than the bank had initially acknowledged. Over the course of about 15 years, up to 2 million fraudulent Wells Fargo checking and credit card accounts were opened in an effort to meet aggressive sales goals, the investigation revealed. Many customers became aware of the accounts opened in their names only after they were charged fees for services they had never signed up for. The scandal has cost the bank hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and legal costs.
A distortion of the banks sales culture and performance management system pressured employees to sell unwanted or unneeded products to customers and, in some cases, to open unauthorized accounts, the report said. The bank fired 5,300 employees for sales practices violations between January 2011 and March 2016. Discontinuation of sales goals and commencement of this investigation followed shortly thereafter, according to the report.
Tim Sloan, installed as CEO following Stumpfs exit, said at a news conference Monday that the bank was working to rehire employees who were dismissed for failing to meet sales targets. So far, Sloan said, the bank has hired back over 1,000 workers.
The investigation also laid blame on Wells Fargos decentralized corporate structure, which gave too much autonomy to the retail banking divisions senior leadership, who were unwilling to change the sales model or even recognize it as the root cause of the problem.
An additional $28 million will be taken back from Stumpf, who was too slow to investigate or critically challenge the sales practices ... and to appreciate the seriousness and the substantial reputational risk to Wells Fargo, the board said. Stumpf surrendered $41 million in unvested stock last September, not long after federal and Los Angeles regulators fined the bank $185 million over the fake accounts. He stepped down from the helm of the bank the following month.
The investigation concluded that Stumpf was repeatedly made aware of specific sales practice issues dating back to 2002, including numerous customer and employee complaints about sales practices and sales pressure, which he or his assistants referred to appropriate subordinates without further follow-up.
Stumpf could not be reached for comment Monday.
Another $47 million will be clawed back from Carrie Tolstedt, the former head of community banking. The board accused her of resisting and impeding scrutiny or oversight of the bad practices and said that when forced to report, (she) minimized the scale and nature of the problems.
We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt, said Enu Mainigi, an attorney at the law firm Williams & Connolly who is representing Tolstedt. A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion.
The bank said that overall it is seeking to recoup a total of $180 million in executive compensation in the wake of the scandal.
Sloan said the report will become a powerful complement to our ongoing self-examination, and that the bank was committed to assisting customers whose credit might have been compromised by sham accounts. We will make it right with them.
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The bottom line is that they have to change significant systems in the bank, said Dick Bove, a banking industry analyst with Rafferty Capital Markets. Human resources systems broke down, control systems broke down, information was inadequate, the training of their people in sales was inappropriate the whole corporate culture was moving in the wrong direction.
But despite its badly bruised reputation, the bank has been doing everything it can to turn its image around, Bove said. I dont think you can fault them in any fashion concerning what theyre doing now to rectify the damage. But that doesnt mean the damage will be rectified in a short period, he said.
Edward Mills, a senior analyst and managing director of financial policy research at FBR Capital Markets & Co., said that Wells Fargo investors would be encouraged by the moves by the bank Monday. Holding former top executives personally responsible, Mills said, telegraphs to regulators that the bank is doing everything in its power to right its wrongs. That could forestall harsher action by Congress to force reforms.
Investors will look at this and say, The D.C. part of the story is now over and Ill look into whether or not the business side warrants an investment. There are real stock price implications, Mills said.
He added that he had never seen someone be personally fined at this level in the banking space. If anything, this is a shock to boardrooms across the country that says, It is not the company who pays from here on out. Its individual executives. And its changing the calculus on the risks theyd be willing to take.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Kathleen Pender contributed to this report.
Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
On one of the first hot Saturdays of the year, a crowd of families gathered around Dr. Nooshin Razani near Lake Chabot.
They were wilting a bit under the afternoon sun, some gazing longingly at the water, just visible through the trees. That lake, Razani told them, was healing them.
Within minutes of being in nature, their blood pressure lowered, she said; their stress melted away; their breathing slowed and deepened. Razani paused, taking a deep breath of her own.
Let the lake do its work, she said.
Fifty people had come on a field trip to the lake in Castro Valley. They were single moms and dads, babies in strollers and eye-rolling teenagers, grandmothers and grandfathers. They were families of refugees, and families with roots going back generations in the East Bay. For most, it was their first time at Lake Chabot.
Their visit was part of a growing national appreciation of nature as medicine, and a trend toward developing programs that make it easier for people to be outside.
Every month, Razani a pediatrician at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital Oakland escorts families she knows through her practice to a different East Bay regional park. They have only one goal: to be in nature. They may learn something, they may get some exercise and vitamin D, but their assignment is to just be.
From cradle to grave, there is compelling evidence that human beings need to be in natural settings, said Razani. We just need to let nature do its own work.
Mason Trinca/Special to The Chronicle
Razanis program, a collaboration with the East Bay Regional Park District called Stay Healthy in Nature Every day, or SHINE, is open to patients at Childrens Hospital Oakland. There are similar events in San Francisco, where anyone can attend free walks at Golden Gate Park and other sites on Saturdays, and at parks all over the Bay Area.
Six years ago, several agencies came together to form the Healthy Parks Healthy People initiative, which promotes free outdoor activities, many targeting communities that dont often access natural settings. On April 23, many regional parks will be holding park prescription day events to introduce people to the concept of nature as medicine.
Public health and outdoor enthusiasts have long understood that convening with nature is good for physical and mental well-being, but exactly how and why isnt always clear.
Rigorous clinical research is slim. But studies have found that time in nature can help with stress, depression, cognitive function, physical strength and coordination. Some research suggests that different kinds of nature from grassy neighborhood parks to Sierra forestland deliver different benefits.
Its not just that people tend to get more exercise outside or that the air quality is better, though those factors play a role. One study showed that running on a trail through a forest has more health benefits than running on a treadmill or even outside in a city. In another small study, children with attention deficit disorder were able to concentrate better after a walk through a park compared to a walk around their neighborhood.
Theres something particular to nature the wildness of it, the freedom and awe it provokes that seems to uniquely affect human health, Razani said. But no one knows what kind of nature is best, or how much, and that makes it difficult to prescribe. Natures effect cant be bottled or put into a pill.
I want to be able to talk about milligrams of nature, Razani said. Its a little silly to try to quantify it that way. But we need instructions on how to make use of these things that everyone should have.
Even if doctors prescribe nature to their patients, following through is not as simple as it sounds. Many people have no easy access to even a neighborhood park, much less a wide expanse of nature, say public health and park advocates.
If it takes a long Muni Metro ride to get from San Franciscos Bayview neighborhood to Golden Gate Park, people who rely on public transit may not have the time or motivation to get there. They could go to McLaren Park, which is more convenient, but maybe theyve heard about crime there and dont feel safe.
Or maybe theyre just not comfortable in the outdoors. They may think they have the wrong clothes or shoes, or that they wont know what to do or where to go. If most of the users of the big regional, state or national parks are middle-class people with North Face gear and $100 hiking poles, a recent immigrant who shows up in jeans and sandals with a plastic bottle of water in hand may feel out of place and unwelcome.
It can make it seem in some way like a country club more than open lands, said Dr. Curtis Chan, deputy health officer with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Open spaces are for everyone. And the communities that are poor they dont have a small neighborhood park, they dont have their own large backyard, they might have a chronic disease they actually need these spaces the most.
Lisa McHenry with San Francisco Recreation and Park said part of her goal when she leads walks at Golden Gate Park is just to get people comfortable. The park belongs to them, she points out.
It can be intimidating to go someplace that youve never been before, even parks, McHenry said. To get out and explore, that takes courage. Its great to have someone who can introduce them to the park and answer their questions and make them feel better.
Razani wants her families to relax and feel safe in nature, but also to seek out the moments of awe that make the blood rush spotting a deer among the trees, or a hill overcome with California poppies.
Aside from wanting to link her patients with nature, Razani hopes to use her park trips as a sort of lab.
Two years ago, she created a clinical trial in which some patients and their families were simply handed brochures for regional parks and encouraged to go outside, while others were invited on three field trips. She followed up with the patients and families to see whether there were differences in their physical and mental health, and plans to publish the results this year.
This months trip to Lake Chabot was an extension of that trial.
It was 2-year-old Ehjasis first time in real nature, said his mom, Rhyan Hodge. She grew up hiking and camping with her family, so it nags at Hodge that her son rarely goes outside. But their neighborhood in Concord isnt safe for him, she said, and shes too busy most other times to drive him to a park.
Id be happy just to have him run around, get some fresh air real oxygen, Hodge said.
Down by the lake, Janice Henry of Oakland stood on a dock, eye on her two daughters while they dangled fishing poles over the choppy water.
Henry isnt much of an outdoor enthusiast on two trips to Yosemite, she wasnt happy sleeping in a tent cabin and having to venture out of it every time she wanted to use the bathroom but she appreciates the value of nature, especially for her children.
And on this perfect spring day, she soaked up the excitement of the families around her. Aleczandrea, 9, in particular was having a good day: For reasons that she has never explained to her mom, the girl had always wanted to go fishing. Finally, she got her chance.
Standing on the dock, pole clutched in both hands, Aleczandrea said she wanted to catch a salmon or a cod or a catfish for dinner. Told there were only trout in the lake, she said that was fine, too. And what if she didnt catch anything at all?
Id be happy that I at least got my dream, Aleczandrea said, serious, eyes on the lake.
Shed catch their dinner next time, she said.
Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday
The best wildflower blooms in California are across the flats of the Carrizo Plain and the nearby foothills of the Temblor Range.
Even a man who is there all the time, Bob Wick of the Bureau of Land Management, wrote, I have never seen such a spectacular array of blooms. Ever.
Another good spot is in the foothills of the central Sierra, where fiddlenecks have brought vast fields to color. If you drive to Yosemite Valley to see the waterfall spectacle, take one of the remote country roads winding past ranches in the foothills.
In the Bay Area, there are pockets of good blooms in many areas. They include Grass Valley from the Bort Meadow Staging Area at Chabot Regional Park (blue-eyed grass, wild radish, poppies), Limantour (Douglas iris) at Point Reyes National Seashore, and many others.
You might have read reports of a pending super bloom at Death Valley. In the first week of March, I wrote it would be a mistake to expect blooms there; sure enough, it has been a dud.
We did not see even one flower, field scout Amelia Stovall reported after returning from Death Valley.
There also have been reports of spectacular blooms at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster (Los Angeles County). Reality is that it has been a good spring, very pretty, not great. The poppies on the east side of the park are beginning to fade, a ranger said Sunday, with decent blooms starting on the west side of the park.
The wildflower blooms of the Carrizo Plain, on the other hand, have been beyond comprehension.
The Carrizo Plain National Monument is located in southwestern San Joaquin Valley, roughly halfway between San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield. Its a vast, remote area where, at times, Ive had the entire place to myself. What first drew me there was ephemeral Soda Lake, which draws rafts of sandhill cranes in wet years, and the primitive campsites.
The valley floor, Wick wrote, is covered by endless yellows and purples. The Temblor Range, which runs through the monument along the San Andreas Fault, looks like something out of a storybook, Wick wrote, with continuous swaths of orange, yellow and purple.
Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicles outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom
Californias dug-in opposition to the Trump administration is headed toward one of its most defiant showdowns. Its a test of this states humane resolve to protect immigrants living in the country without legal permission and the White Houses shrill attack on a powerless community.
There are reasons for concern, but on balance a state bill, SB54, is on the right track in setting standards for a sanctuary state. Californias grassroots politics have generated a welter of local protections, while Trump has denounced the idea, giving Sacramento a role to clarify the rules as a wholesale White House crackdown takes shape.
The confusion and rhetoric underline the need for statewide guidelines that better serve law enforcement and immigrants. Its a supercharged atmosphere with San Francisco a poster-child example of this hostile war, one that both President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions bring up repeatedly.
Kathryn Steinle was killed allegedly by an immigrant with a felony record and history of repeated deportations yet who was released from jail in San Francisco without officials notifying federal authorities. He was later arrested for shooting Steinle on the waterfront. The purposeful miscommunication should never have happened, and the city has taken steps to make sure it wont again.
The proposed law, authored by state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat, would prevent a recurrence along with setting more general standards. It directs local law enforcement to refrain from cooperating with federal authorities in most cases but with a Steinle-linked proviso. If a judge issues a warrant, border agents would be told when a prisoner linked to a serious crime is being released, making the individual a candidate for deserved deportation.
The workings of the bill are one matter, and public perception is another. A UC Berkeley poll last week showed California residents are uneasy on the topic. Notifying the feds of the immigration status of each person who comes in contact with law enforcement was unpopular by a narrow margin. But refusing to tell border authorities when a suspect is due for release was opposed by a 53-to-47 percent edge. Cooperating with federal authorities has its place, even in immigrant-friendly California.
Thats the dilemma the state bill is designed to answer. It passed the state Senate largely along party lines with Democrats in the majority. It goes next to the Assembly and eventually to Gov. Jerry Brown, who hasnt taken a stand yet. Opponents include law-enforcement leaders worried that dangerous offenders might be released, a concern that the proposed law must take seriously.
Along with balancing Californias mixed views, the bill also faces the Trump teams ultra-hard-line positions in another divisive area. Construction bids for the border wall poured in last week. The White House continues to appeal its court losses on a policy barring immigration from a blacklist of foreign countries. Trump policymakers, including Sessions, insist that federal law rules the lives of roughly 11 million people living here without papers.
Theres a legal dimension thats starting up. Just as the Steinle case drew attention, so has San Franciscos response in the furor over a Trump-backed crackdown on sanctuary laws. City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit to stop cuts that Republicans have threatened if the immigrant protections arent dropped. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra joined the suit.
California, which has the largest share of immigrants living in the country illegally, can apply the brakes, but it needs to find a way that is fair and supportable by state residents. The pending bill contains the ingredients to do just this by protecting both law-abiding immigrants from fear of deportation and the general public from dangerous offenders.
From opposing health care and climate change policies backed by Trump, California is plotting its own course, one that answers local reality. Thats the measure of responsibility and human concern that a sanctuary state law should provide.
Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle
Peoples Park in Berkeley is a well-used space with a rich history of both positive and very negative events.
The parks distinct place in the Bay Areas imagination has previously stymied UC Berkeleys attempts to develop it for student housing and a recreation area. Now, facing one of the worst student housing shortages in campus history, UC Berkeley officials are eyeing the park again as a place to build badly needed dormitories.
The California governors mansion isnt one of the more than 300 homes and apartments available in Sacramento through Airbnb. Even so, the San Francisco company so far appears more committed than any other entity to boosting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsoms bid for the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
A new analysis of campaign data shows that Airbnb employees have given $225,850 to Newsoms effort. Meanwhile, potential opponents, who include former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Treasurer John Chiang, reported their largest contributions from any one source have barely topped $100,000.
The analysis was conducted by MapLight, a Berkeley nonpartisan research organization that tracks political spending and its influence. All figures are based on the latest data made available by the California secretary of state as of last Monday.
The short-term rental giants generosity to Newsoms campaign shouldnt come as a surprise. Although activists have argued that Airbnb offerings are restricting the availability of affordable Bay Area housing, Newsom has emerged as a major political booster of the gig economy, which also includes services Uber and Lyft, both based in San Francisco.
Newsom criticized the University of California in 2014 for a policy that restricted employees from using services such as Airbnb and Uber. He also campaigned against a 2015 San Francisco referendum that would have limited short-term rentals to 75 days per year. In an advertisement sponsored by Airbnb, Newsom said the measure goes too far. Its just too extreme. The measure failed, gaining only 45 percent of the vote.
The company declined to comment on its donations, which included maximum individual amounts of $56,400 contributed by Brian Chesky, the companys chief executive, and Laurence Tosi, Airbnb chief financial officer.
With 20 months remaining before the election, the three major Democratic contenders have collectively raised about $19.1 million in campaign funds in their bid to replace term-limited Gov. Jerry Brown.
With California the most populous state in the nation, the race probably will be more expensive than other states where governors seats are opening up, including Florida, Ohio and Colorado. Even so, spending on the California contest is likely to be lower than in 2010. More than $244 million was raised in the 2010 gubernatorial election, with GOP nominee Meg Whitmans bid accounting for more than $176 million. The Hewlett Packard Enterprise chief lost to Brown, who raised more than $40 million.
Newsom announced plans to run in early 2015, barely three months after Brown was re-elected to his fourth stint in the governors mansion and second consecutive term. The lieutenant governor reported receiving more than $11 million in contributions since then. Meanwhile, Chiang has raised more than $4.7 million, and Villaraigosa reported a little more than $2.9 million.
Other big supporters of Newsom include employees at the San Francisco private equity firm Tao Capital Partners, which has given $209,200 to the lieutenant governor, and the Wonderful Co., a Los Angeles holding firm, which has donated $112,900. Other major boosters include workers at San Francisco companies such as cloud-computing giant Salesforce ($86,400) and Twitter ($84,800).
Villaraigosas campaign reported receiving $112,800 from the Wonderful Co. Hes also received $61,400 from Mapleton Investments, owned by Los Angeles billionaire philanthropist Marc Nathanson. Villaraigosa has reported donations of $56,400 the individual maximum for the 2015-16 election cycle from 18 organizations including the Anschutz Corp., owned by conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz; the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation; Netflix; and Ryan Seacrest Enterprises.
Chiang has received $100,000 from Seville Classics of Torrance (Los Angeles County) and $94,600 from Yin McDonalds, a Vacaville operator of restaurant franchises owned by longtime Chiang booster C.C. Yin.
A January survey by Public Policy Polling found Newsom leading other current and potential candidates with 25 percent of the vote. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer trailed with 20 percent. Villaraigosa had 9 percent of the field, and Chiang 2 percent.
Five of the eight candidates listed in the poll havent established formal campaign committees, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat (13 percent); former Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, a Republican (12 percent); Democratic philanthropist and billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer (4 percent); Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat (3 percent); and Faulconer.
Delaine Eastin, former state superintendent of public instruction who announced her candidacy in November, wasnt listed in the poll. Eastin reported raising $59,000.
The poll of 882 California voters, taken Jan. 17-18, had a 3.3 percent margin of error.
Frank Bass is a reporter for MapLight, www.maplight.org.
A Sacramento teenager showed up to his high school prom with a very high-profile date: Kylie Jenner.
Jenner reportedly attended the dance at Rio Americano High School Saturday night as high school junior Albert Ochoa's date.
Social media erupted with photos and videos of Jenner, along with her best friend Jordyn Woods, wearing floor-length gowns and corsages, as they made their way through a crowd of eager high schoolers who had ditched their dates in an effort to snap a selfie with the reality star.
The 19-year-old celebrity isn't much older than the teens at Rio Americano High, but she certainly didn't blend in.
Earlier in the evening, Jenner shared a photo on Snapchat from her private jet, en route to Sacramento.
RELATED: Celebrities spotted around the Bay Area recently
Since the dance, there has been a lot of buzz on Twitter, as users wonder how Ochoa scored such an A-list date. We haven't heard any answers from him yet, but one thing is nearly certain: he'll be bragging about this one for years to come.
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Bitcoin. Robo-advisers. Mobile payments.
The future of your finances is taking shape today. What do you need to know now? Those topics and more are explored in the Chronicle's "Future of Money" special section.
But how did we get here? Let's dive into a brief history of money:
600 B.C.
King Alyattes of Lydia mints the worlds first official currency: coins made from electrum, a mixture of silver and gold that occurs naturally
1685
France pays soldiers in Canada with playing cards denominated and signed by the governor to use as cash
1832
President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill reauthorizing the Second Bank of the United States, an act some historians blame for causing one of the countrys most severe recessions five years later
1913
The Federal Reserve Act establishes the Federal Reserve System as the central bank of the United States
1971
The Nixon administration takes the U.S. dollar off the gold standard, which effectively allows the Federal Reserve to increase the supply of paper money
1996
Oncologist Douglas Jackson and attorney Barry Downey release e-gold, one of the worlds first attempts to create a digital currency
2002
Twelve European nations switch to the euro. About 7.8 billion notes and 40 billion coins are distributed to 218,000 banks and post offices, 2.8 million sales outlets and 302 million individuals.
2009
Computer scientist Satoshi Nakamoto releases bitcoin, capping the supply at 21 million. Some people doubt whether Nakamoto is a real person.
It took a tentative step forward, turned to the left, took another step and then came to rest under a tree at least, a drawing of one.
Cubetto does not actually walk, but the smiling wooden robot does wheel around under its own power, along a course charted by the human behind the machine.
With a $225 price tag, it is an expensive vehicle for play. Although a remote-controlled car may have been simpler, and cheaper, there was a purpose to the exercise: teaching children as young as 3 the basics of computer programming and developing technological and critical thinking skills.
As parents increasingly grow eager to give their children an edge in technology skills by getting them to think like a computer early, startups and entrepreneurs see potential in creating toys with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics popularly referred to as STEM.
It used to be that mass-market toys were the purview of the Mattels and Fisher-Prices of the world. But new financing avenues, like crowdfunding, have made it easier for entrepreneurs to get into the market.
Cubettos creator, Primo Toys, developed its first prototype for testing in 2013. The next year, the company took the prototype to the Emerge Education incubator, which helps entrepreneurs learn about the educational toys market. In 2015, Cubetto went to San Franciscos Highway1 incubator, which focuses on hardware development and production, and last year the company raised $1.6 million in a Kickstarter campaign.
Filippo Yacob, the founder of Primo Toys, was hoping to market to toy buyers and retailers when he attended the Toy Industry Associations New York Toy Fair in February. Yacob said he was inspired by classic building blocks to have children teach themselves coding fundamentals.
This block-based programming language looks and feels like a toy but is in fact a procedural programming language, he said.
He officially started his company on Nov. 20, 2013 the day his son was born.
When I found out that I was going to be a dad, I started thinking about the things I wanted my son to learn, he said. One of those things was coding, a skill set that Yacob says he believes is now as critical as reading or math.
It is 21st-century literacy, he said. The idea behind Cubetto was to create a tool that would make that literacy accessible to this age group, 3 to 6.
According to Adrienne Appell, the director for strategic communications at the Toy Industry Association, this segment which did not even exist 20 years ago has rapidly become a major part of the toy market.
A Cubetto kit includes the robot, a programming console and instruction tiles. It also comes with a play mat that represents the robots world and a book, which together allow players to follow a story line that the robot roams through. Multiple books and play mats are available, but young coders are free to design their own adventure rather than using a set story if they prefer.
Since the kits started shipping to consumers in November, reactions have been generally positive.
The Toy Insider, which reviews toys and makes purchasing recommendations to its readers, included Cubetto in its list of top STEM toys for children ages 3 to 5, although the publication has not formally reviewed it.
Its a really tangible example of coding, which is sort of an abstract concept, said Marissa DiBartolo, a senior editor at the Toy Insider. Kids may not even realize thats what theyre doing.
The popular wisdom on computers and screen time has been mixed. Some parents are certainly hesitant to put their children in front of screens too early.
In DiBartolos view, technology is an important part of the modern world, and finding ways to introduce technological principles at a young age helps children begin to develop necessary skills.
If you dont expose them to any type of technology, its not very beneficial to them, she said. Everything we look at today functions because of code. Its like learning a new language, and the younger you start learning a new language, the better.
DiBartolos publication also endorses other toys that are similar to Cubetto, including one from established brands like Fisher-Prices Codeapillar and Learning Resources Code and Go Robot Mouse. Both Codeapillar and the Code and Go Robot Mouse are electronic. Codeapillar is controlled by stringing together directional pieces that chart a course for the robot to travel. Code and Go is programmed with cards and also comes with obstacles so players can build a course for their robot mouse to navigate.
Robot Turtles, from Think Fun, is a traditional board game, but DiBartolo said it still taught if/then a fundamental command in coding as players use cards to direct pieces across the board toward a prize in the center.
Other startups are also targeting different segments of the STEM market. For example, Magical Microbes produces science experimentation kits, including one called MudWatt that teaches users about biochemical properties by having them create a mud-based battery.
STEM toys, and the skills they promote, are also finding a place in the classroom. Yacob said one of his goals was to see a Cubetto kit in every early-learning environment worldwide.
Teachers see the benefits of learning to code beyond just allowing students to create new computer programs.
Amy Flannery, the director of curriculum and instruction for the Wilson School District in Reading, Pa., said that coding helped turn children into what she calls problem finders, rather than just problem solvers.
Whats important about this for children is the logic. Its the learning to build mind-set of finding problems that need to be solved, she said. Thinking this way, Flannery said, students can figure out and try a path to solve a problem, and if doesnt work, they will still have learned something they can apply to their next attempt.
Zach Wichter is a New York Times writer.
San Francisco's largest cab company, Yellow Cab Co-Op, has been sold for the relatively bargain price of $810,000.
Big Dog City Corporation, which runs rival CityWide Taxi, purchased the ailing co-op Friday after a bidding war with Minneapolis hack company Cabtopia, the San Francisco Examiner reported.
For less than a million bucks, CityWide gets Yellow Cab's color scheme, its famous phone number (415) 333-3333, 160 of its cabs and the sublease to Yellow Cab's property.
The remainder of Yellow Cab's fleet will be sold to pay off part of its massive debts. The company first filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016.
While tech app-enabled ride-share companies Uber and Lyft have stolen much of Yellow Cab's business, they weren't the reason for the co-op's demise, according to the Examiner's taxi industry sources. Rather it was a series of multimillion dollar lawsuits from collisions that toppled it. According to bankruptcy filings, the company has $26 million in liabilities.
"The reason Yellow is going down I'd say is more because of their auto accidents, their liabilities," John Lazar, owner of Luxor Cab previously told the Examiner. "They got beat up in court."
In June 2015, a jury awarded $8 million to a Ida Fua, a Yellow Cab passenger who was left paralyzed when the taxi she was riding in smashed into a stopped car on Highway 101.
The bidding for Yellow Cab began at $525,000, with Big Dog and Cabtopia raising each bid by $10,000 to $45,000 increments, before Cabtopia bowed out.
The winning bid was significantly less than the cost of a median priced house in San Francisco $1.1 million.
For three hours on March 11, solar power met roughly half of all electricity demand across a big swath of California, according to a new estimate from the federal government.
Even for a state used to setting renewable power records, it was a milestone. And while temporary, it will doubtless happen again as the state advances toward its goal of getting half of all its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
The estimate came from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistics branch of the Department of Energy. The administration used data from the California Independent System Operator, which manages the electricity grid across 80 percent of the state and part of Nevada.
Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on March 11, almost 40 percent of the electricity flowing across the ISO grid came from large-scale solar power plants, a record. California has enough big solar facilities to generate up to 9.8 gigawatts of electricity, nearly the output of 10 nuclear reactors.
In addition, homes and businesses in the area served by the ISO grid now have enough rooftop solar panels of their own to generate up to 5.4 gigawatts of electricity. Factor in the electricity they produced for their owners on March 11, and solar met half of the overall electricity demand in the middle of the day, the administration estimates.
And thats not counting other types of clean energy.
Add in electricity generated by wind farms, geothermal plants, biomass plants and small hydroelectric dams, and together, renewable sources briefly accounted for 56.7 percent of all power on the grid on March 23, said ISO spokesman Steven Greenlee. Thats another record.
The surge in renewable power, while a key part of Californias fight against climate change, does create its own set of problems.
Already, California produces so much solar power on bright summer days that not all of it can be used. Instead, it is shunted off the grid, in a process known as curtailment.
Were seeing the potential for more curtailment this summer, Greenlee said. The thing is, were seeing this happen sooner than our initial analysis suggested.
When solar surges, the ISO also solicits bids from fossil-fuel power plant operators to scale back their own output or shut down for hours at a time. Its a tricky balance, however, because solar production drops sharply in late afternoon and must be replaced by fossil-fuel generation. And while some newer natural gas plants are designed for quick starts, most need a long time to shut down or start up.
Once you turn it off, it takes hours and hours to cool down, then to restart it takes hours, too, said Chris Namovicz, lead renewable analyst with the Energy Information Administration. Plants burning fossil fuels use that heat to generate steam, which then runs through a turbine to produce electricity.
You know how long it takes to boil a kettle on your stove, so imagine having to boil a big tank of water, Namovicz said.
The flood of midday solar power has even caused wholesale electricity prices in California to periodically drop below $0 per megawatt-hour.
In those situations, power plants that keep running must pay utilities to take electricity, rather than the other way around, Namovicz said. Many plant operators continue running anyway, because they can charge higher prices in the late afternoon and evening and make up for what they lost earlier in the day. But thats a business decision each operator must make.
If you shut down, it may be 9 p.m. before you can start up again, Namovicz said.
In the long term, many analysts say California will need affordable large-scale energy storage technologies to meet its 50 percent renewable energy target. While companies are racing to develop batteries that can sock away vast amounts of solar power during the day for use at night, very few grid-scale batteries have been deployed in California.
We do think storage holds great promise, but its not going to help us this year or the next, Greenlee said.
David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF
Hashtag this
#NuggsForCarter
It started when 16-year-old Carter Wilkerson tweeted last Wednesday: Yo @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets? Wendys replied: 18 million. Consider it done, replied Carter, who didnt exactly have a huge Twitter following at the time. He does now. By Monday he had topped 2.3 million retweets USA Today reports that the record is 3.2 million for Ellen DeGeneres from the Oscars and had support from the Twitter accounts of LinkedIn, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and tons of others. John Legere of T-Mobile promised Carter a year of nuggets if hed switch from AT&T; United Airlines, before its latest crisis, said that if Carter got to 18 million, it would give him a free flight to any Wendys in the world, as long as United serves that city.
Number of the day
$50.9 billion
That was the closing market capitalization Monday for Tesla , nudging it past General Motors and into the top spot among U.S. automakers. It could certainly change back Teslas margin was only about $64 million, according to Bloomberg but the Palo Alto electric-car maker is also within about $1 billion of Honda , which would let it crack the top five worldwide.
Comcast may offer Netflix rival
Comcast plans to introduce an online video service offering hit shows from its NBCUniversal TV networks in the next 12 to 18 months, an effort to compete with Netflix and CBS, according to people familiar with the matter. The service could include programs from NBC as well as such cable channels as Bravo, SyFy and USA.
From San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techchronicle
HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwired - Apr 10, 2017) - Willbanks & Associates hosted a lunch and learn on Wednesday, March 29th in Austin, TX to give their customers, including mechanical contractors and engineers, an opportunity to learn about recent Texas boiler law updates. Over 90 professionals attended the event which was held at the Embassy Suites Austin Central Hotel.
Rob Troutt, Chief Boiler Inspector of Texas, joined Willbanks & Associates' lunch & learn to discuss the 2016 Texas Boiler Law and Rules updates and how to complete the two new forms required for boiler installations in Texas; the Boiler Installation Report (BIR) and the Temporary Operating Permit (TOP).
Willbanks' Design Consultant Calvin Timmons was the emcee for the event. Calvin presented on the dangers of carbon monoxide and the effects on the human body. Additionally, Mr. Timmons shared a recent personal experience with carbon monoxide poisoning.
Chief Troutt's presentation discussed the new laws and rules and the responsibility that installers and engineers must take on as a result. He also walked attendees through the new boiler installation report, manufacturer's data report, and the temporary operating permits that accompany the new codes.
In reference to the Boiler Technical Gram 2017-01, Troutt stated, "Owners or operators of Power Boilers installed before June 15, 2015 will not be required to retrofit their boilers and associated chimneys/vents as long as the Type B vent piping is current in an acceptable condition. If that Type B vent is compromised it's got to be replaced."
Along with Chief Troutt and Mr. Timmons, other guests at this year's lunch and learn included Tim McNulty, owner of Texas Draft who addressed Boiler Draft issues along with Karen Berryman and Gloria Rodriguez, Program Specialists with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) who presented a slide show about permitting.
"Although it is often the installer who submits the required Boiler Installation Report to the TDLR, this does not negate the owner's or operator's responsibility to submit the Boiler Instillation Report and Manufactures Data Report within 30 Days after the date of installation. TDLR has no control over the contractual arrangements between the operators, owners and installers or manufactures," said Berryman.
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The lunch and learn event concluded with a question and answer session to further clarify the new rules and laws, and to make sure everyone left with a strong understanding of the changes. Willbanks & Associates plans to host additional lunch and learn events with Troutt and other industry leaders to further understanding of boiler related policies and procedures.
Finally, a raffle drawing was held where several soft coolers were given away to attendees. For more information on Willbanks & Associates and their products and services, please visit www.willbanksinc.com.
About Willbanks & Associates
Willbanks & Associates has provided advanced solutions and support for thousands of commercial heating systems and equipment since 1977. Willbanks & Associates offers a wide range of expertise including MEP applications and design collaboration, equipment sales, service and preventative maintenance, turnkey mechanical piping solutions, managed hot water systems, and equipment and parts inventory. They offer custom solutions to fit specific needs and work closely with trusted manufacturers to offer top quality boilers and related equipment.
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A man dragged off his overbooked United Airlines flight and bloodied by a security officer in a disturbing scene caught on video by other passengers was obligated to follow orders to leave his seat, travel and airline experts said on Monday.
But even though airlines can legally eject passengers who dont volunteer to leave, customers and industry observers said they were astonished that the Chicago-based airline took such an extreme measure on Sunday night.
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I imagine they could have emptied that seat with something other than force, said Larry Kamer of the Kamer Group, a Bay Area crisis management company. Maybe up the value of the voucher. Offer a free trip. If its that important, its going to cost you less in the long run than the egg on their collective faces from these videos.
The videos capture the passenger screaming as a security officer at Chicagos OHare International Airport grabs him from his window seat, banging and bloodying his head on an armrest. Passengers can be heard gasping in horror as the officer drags the limp man up the aisle for refusing to be bumped from the flight.
Oh my god! Look what you did to him! a blonde woman shouts.
This is horrible, another passenger says in the video that went viral Monday, raising questions about airline tactics and passengers rights.
United says it is reviewing the incident, and Oscar Munoz, the airlines chief executive, released a statement calling it upsetting and apologized for having to bump passengers.
Munoz did not apologize for the passengers treatment. He said employees approached the man several times and he refused each time.
A spokesman said it was an unarmed Chicago Department of Aviation security officer who removed the passenger. That department did not respond to a request for comment. The Associated Press reported Monday that the department has placed the officer on leave.
The identity of the man dragged from the flight has not been made public. But Tyler Bridges, 29, was aboard the packed United Airlines Express flight 3411 and expecting to fly home to Louisville with his wife after a trip to Japan to see the cherry blossoms. At 5:40 p.m., a flight attendant requested four volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for $400 each.
No one wanted to take the voucher because they told us the next flight would be at 2 p.m. the next day, Bridges, a civil engineer, told The Chronicle.
United doubled the offer to $800 and no one budged. United said it had to get four crew members to Louisville for a connecting flight but didnt offer more than $800 before announcing that passengers would be chosen to leave. A young couple was the first selected, said Bridges. The next was a man in a window seat about five rows behind Bridges.
He said he was a doctor and that he had patients to see and had to get home, Bridges said. He was getting upset, saying Why am I picked? He told the United worker he thought he was was being singled out because he was a Chinese man.
What the man may not have known was that passengers have no right to keep their seat, even if its paid for, when airline personnel order them to leave. United explains that in 46 pages of fine print that airlines call a contract of carriage.
At that point, the United manager threatened to call security, Bridges said and did. Soon, two officers arrived from the Chicago Department of Aviation and spoke calmly to the man, who remained steadfast. A third officer arrived and told the man he had to get off.
Hes the one you see in the video grabbing the man, who is flailing, yelling and doing everything he can to resist, said Bridges who by this time like several other passengers had taken out his phone and begun videoing the scene.
In another video, a woman says: Cant they just run a car for the pilots to Louisville?
It was just a surreal experience, recalled Bridges, who posted his video to Twitter within two minutes.
Equally surreal, perhaps, is that about 10 minutes after the man was dragged off the plane, blood streaming from his mouth, he returned. Another video shows him leaning against a wall, muttering: Theyll kill me, over and over.
By now, passengers had had enough. A group of high school students was ushered off the plane by their chaperone, and other passengers got off, as well.
Sometime after 8 p.m., 2 hours late, the plane took off.
United Airlines spokesman Jonathan Guerin said, Were reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him. We know that this is upsetting to all of our customers.
Chris McGinnis, a travel writer who writes the TravelSkills blog, called the matter a PR nightmare. Its shocking and appalling and abhorrent to anyone seeing the video.
At the same time, he said, Everyone will be all up in arms and say theyre going to boycott United but travelers have very short memories. So the next time United has a flight for $139, and everyone else is selling it for $189, theyll forget about the boycott.
The incident happened just two weeks after another public-relations nightmare for United, when it kept a family from boarding a plane in Denver because two teenage girls wore leggings. The airline said the family had to follow a dress code because it was flying for free on United employee passes. The issue blew up on social media as critics accused United of maintaining a sexist policy and noted that the airline had no problem with the fathers above-the-knee shorts. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, United Airlines bumped 3,765 passengers in 2016, or less than half a percent involuntarily. The department reported that 40,629 passengers on 12 airlines were bumped involuntarily last year.
Douglas Kidd, president of the National Association of Airline Passengers, a lobbying group, said that in the most recent debacle, United should have taken a step back when the man said he was a doctor.
He and Bridges agreed on one thing: United should have addressed the matter before passengers boarded the plane.
Id be hesitant to take United again. Overall, there was a sense of no loyalty to the customers, said Bridges. He and his wife couldnt help but compare the incident to the exceptional customer service they experienced in Japan.
We were just kind of disappointed in how awful it was, he said. We were shaken. This was shocking to see.
Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
* U.S. strike group Carl Vinson heading to Korean peninsula
* N.Korea nuclear, missile test feared as key anniversaries loom
* S.Korea, China agree on strong measures if N.Korea goes ahead - Seoul
* Prospect of US action vs N.Korea seen rising after Syria strike (Updates after China envoy meetings)
By Ju-min Park and Nobuhiro Kubo
SEOUL/TOKYO, April 10 (Reuters) - China and South Korea agreed on Monday to slap tougher sanctions on North Korea if it carries out nuclear or long-range missile tests, a senior official in Seoul said, as a U.S. Navy strike group headed to the region in a show of force.
North Korea marks several major anniversaries this month and often marks the occasions with major tests of military hardware.
The possibility of U.S. military action against North Korea in response to such tests gained traction following last week's strikes against Syria. Previously, Washington has leaned toward sanctions and pressure to deter North Korea, but comments from U.S. President Donald Trump's top aides at the weekend suggest that position may be hardening.
However, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Kim Hong-kyun said there was no mention of any military option in his talks with China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Wu Dawei. The two also did not discuss any possible strike against the North by the Trump administration, he said.
"Both sides agreed that despite the international communitys warnings, if North Korea makes strategic provocations such as a nuclear test or an ICBM launch, there should be strong additional measures in accordance with U.N. security council resolutions," Kim told reporters.
Kim added the two sides agreed "an even stronger U.N. resolution" will have to be adopted in the event of additional weapons test by North Korea.
Wu did not speak to reporters.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the U.S. military strike against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons was a warning to other countries including North Korea that "a response is likely" if they pose a danger.
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"(Chinese) President Xi (Jinping) clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken," Tillerson said on CBS's Face the Nation.
The U.S. Navy strike group Carl Vinson canceled a planned trip to Australia and was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a U.S. official told Reuters over the weekend. "We feel the increased presence is necessary," the official said.
Trump and China's Xi held a summit meeting in Florida last week, where Trump pressed his counterpart to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear programme.
China is North Korea's main diplomatic and economic ally.
OPPOSITION TO THAAD
Wu's trip was the first visit to South Korea by a senior Chinese official since the planned deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defence system led to a diplomatic row between Beijing and Seoul.
Kim said Wu repeated China's position on the THAAD deployment but did not give details. China has previously said the system would destabilise the regional security balance and that its radar's reach would be intruding into Chinese territory.
North Korea has sounded a note of defiance against the United States, calling the strikes against Syria on Friday "an unforgivable act of aggression" that showed Pyongyang's decision to develop nuclear weapons was "the right choice."
In Tokyo, the feasibility of U.S. military action was downplayed, while South Korea said the focus remained on deterrence and readiness.
"It probably is not realistic for the U.S. to attack North Korea," a Japanese defence ministry source said. "If America says it is going to attack, both Japan and South Korea will probably put a stop to it," said the source, who declined to be identified.
A senior Japanese military source added: "If the U.S. military was to attack, there could be a request to Japan for rear-guard logistics support but there has been no talk of such preparations."
South Korean and U.S. forces are also involved in annual joint military drills that run until the end of April. The North calls the drills preparations for war against it.
Several North Korean anniversaries in April could be an opportunity for Pyongyang to conduct nuclear or missile tests, South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said.
North Korea has invited a large number of foreign media representatives to Pyongyang this week, likely to cover the so-called "Day of the Sun" birth anniversary on April 15 of the state founder Kim Il Sung.
North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday that flew a short distance before spinning out of control and crashing into the sea, the latest of a number of missile tests defying U.N. sanctions.
The North is also seen to be ready to conduct its sixth nuclear test at any time, with movements detected by satellites at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
(Additional reporting by Minwoo Park; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
By Martin Petty SCARBOROUGH SHOAL, South China Sea (Reuters) - Far out in the South China Sea, where dark blue meets bright turquoise, a miles-long row of fishing boats anchor near Scarborough Shoal, backed by a small armada of coastguard projecting China's power in Asia's most disputed waters. China still calls the shots at the prime fishing spot and has boosted its fleet there, nine months after an international panel ruled its blockade of the lagoon was illegal. Beijing rejected that ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which invalidated China's claim of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea. But the presence of Philippine boats dotted between Chinese vessels shows a degree of compliance with the ruling. Overtures from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is negotiating billions of dollars worth of loans, investments and trade deals with China, may have helped. China stopped repelling Filipino boats in October and allowed them to fish on the edges of the rocky outcrop, 200 km (124 miles) from the Philippines. Now it appears to be easing restrictions further. Reuters journalists last week entered the Scarborough Shoal itself - the first access by foreign media since China seized it in 2012 - and witnessed dozens of small boats shuttling day and night into the lagoon to capitalise on its rich fish stocks. "It's good that we're now allowed inside, it helps me to support my family's needs," said Vicente Palawan, treading water inside the lagoon, a dive mask on his head and fishing spear in hand. "I don't want the Chinese here, because there's so many, it's affecting the way we fish... but I'm willing to share, I don't want to be thrown out. At least I can fish." The coral outcrop is synonymous with the struggle for regional power, and a strategic tinder box. Along with China and the Philippines, Scarborough is claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. Despite its concessions, China's presence here is growing, with a larger contingent of coastguard and fishing boats than was indicated in satellite imagery late last year. That fuels concerns by Manila that Beijing may have ambitions for the Scarborough Shoal similar to the artificial islands it built and fortified in the Spratly archipelago, inside the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE For now, there is a cordial coexistence between the Filipinos and Chinese who anchor side by side less than 100 metres (yards) from the 46-km (28-mile) triangle of rock that barely pokes above the water. Chinese in straw hats zig-zag from boat to boat, using hand signals to barter with Filipinos for cigarettes, liquor and fish. Small boats hum as they move in and out of the lagoon, through a buffering line of coral that has for centuries provided fishermen with bountiful catches and haven from storms. In crowded, rickety boats, Filipinos are outnumbered about ten-to-one and complain of competition from the beefed-up Chinese contingent. "We used to fish for a few days, now it's a few weeks, but at least we have something," said Ramil Rosal, a boat captain and fisherman for 20 years. "China is fishing more, and Filipinos have to share with them. But they don't bother us. Some are helpful." A half-dozen vessels from the China Marine Surveillance enforce their rules in an area the arbitration court in The Hague declared a traditional fishing site for all countries. It did not rule on sovereignty of the shoal. Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo said the improved access was "certainly in line with the arbitral ruling". STRICT SURVEILLANCE Fishermen told Reuters China's coastguard prohibited larger vessels from entering the lagoon, but allowed small two-man boats to fish there freely. "It applies to Chinese and Filipinos," Rosal said. Coastguard in high-powered dinghys were sometimes dispatched from large vessels to get a closer look as unfamiliar boats arrived in the area. Three coastguard ships were of the kind Manila last year said were capable of dredging. One was permanently inside the shoal, but it was unclear what it was doing. The coastguard collaborates with Chinese fishermen, shown when a Reuters team pulled up alongside a Chinese boat. A crewman dashed to fetch a hand-held radio and photographed the journalists. Moments later, a coastguard vessel changed course and moved at speed towards the area, but turned back after a brief chase. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about Scarborough Shoal. Its most recent comments are vague, stating only that the situation at the shoal was unchanged. Filipino fishermen said Vietnamese were also fishing at Scarborough, a sign that Hanoi could be testing the new arrangement. Reuters saw no Vietnamese boats, however, and two Vietnamese fishing organisations said they were unaware any had gone to the shoal. Vietnam's government did not respond. While the situation at Scarborough is improved, tensions remain high. Reports last month that China planned to build an environmental monitoring station at Scarborough sparked consternation in the Philippines. Duterte said he could not stop China, but had been assured of no construction "out of respect for our friendship". Just last week, Duterte ordered the upgrade of facilities on the nine reefs and islands the Philippines occupies in the South China Sea, alarming both China and Vietnam. For now, Filipinos are making the best of the detente. Some stay at the shoal for months. With blackened skin and torn clothes, men jostle for space on the overloaded bamboo outriggers of boats, transferring baskets of fish to a vessel making a run back to the Philippines. Captain Renato Etac, 37, chain smokes as he weighs the fish and meticulously logs details of each delivery. Though fish stocks are declining, Scarborough is a "fiesta" for Filipinos, he says. He even takes a positive view of China's coastguard. "If they're not here, Scarborough becomes open to all, including illegal fishing," he said. "It somehow acts as deterrent." (Additional reporting by Peter Blaza at Scarborough Shoal, Mai Nguyen in Hanoi, and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
Customs and Border Protection officials can currently search your smartphone at the border. But that might soon change.
Over the last year, the risk that border agents will search and detain U.S. citizens personal devices has increased dramatically. Arriving foreigners, meanwhile, now have to contend with the possibility that they will not only be asked to list their social media accounts but also provide the passwords for them before they can enter the United States.
A new bill in Congress could address US citizens fears of having their phones or other devices confiscated. But even if that bill passes, the Trump administration may still choose to gather foreigners social media passwords, a policy known as extreme vetting. In turn, Americans may become anxious that other countries will subject them to the very same treatment.
The usual rules dont apply to your devices
Theres always been a risk that your phone or laptop could be searched upon your return to the States and that you cant do anything about that. Customs and Border Protection agents can also temporarily confiscate your device to search its data.
Thats because, as an August 2009 Department of Homeland Security paper states, your Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures of your property dont apply until you officially enter America.
That 2009 DHS document says CBP should spend no more than five days on an initial inspection of a detained device, while more-in-depth investigations should last 30 days at most.
What can you do in this situation? Traveling without electronics is a non-starter for many people, especially business travelers. Wiping your device or uninstalling all social-media apps may only make you look suspicious.
The Electronic Frontier Foundations advice boils down to this: Be polite, realize you may have to surrender your device if you dont allow its search, and dont commit a crime by lying to CBP agents.
That leaves people with not a lot of great options, summed up Emma Llanso, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, at a panel hosted by the D.C. chapter of the Internet Society in March.
Story continues
Stepped-up searches
Beginning in 2016, device searches became considerably more frequent. An NBC News report cited DHS data showing their numbers went from below 5,000 in 2015 to almost 25,000 in 2016. In February 2017 alone, CBP agents searched some 5,000 devices.
A CBP spokesperson said previously released 2015 and 2016 numbers were distorted by a mix-up of fiscal-year and calendar-year statistics; the representative said we would have correct data by April 12 but had provided none by the time of this articles publication.
The rules for search and seizure are far more relaxed at the border.
These searches still represent a tiny fraction of the total number of international travel. CBPs electronic searches affect less than one hundredth of one percent of travelers, the spokesperson explained via email.
The spokesperson added that electronic media searches led to arrests for child pornography, evidence helpful in combating terrorist activity, violations of export controls, convictions for intellectual property rights violations, and visa fraud discoveries.
Recent anecdotes have been disturbing. For instance, CBP agents demanded that NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Sidd Bikkannavar provide the unlock code for his JPL-issued phone and said they would not allow him to leave Houston Intercontinental Airport until he did so.
Bikkannavar is a native-born American citizen and a member of CBPs Global Entry network a trusted-traveler program that requires a detailed background check and CBP digitizing your fingerprints.
Bipartisan opposition
A new bill, however, could cramp CBPs authority to search your stuff.
The Protecting Data at the Border Act, would prohibit customs officials and other border agents from searching the contents of the devices of U.S. citizens and permanent residents without a court warrant. It would also stop them from making a citizen or resident unlock a device and prevent them from detaining a citizen or resident for more than four hours.
The proposed law would, however, let a government agent search a device without a warrant if they reasonably determine an emergency involves an immediate threat of harm, a conspiracy threatening the national security interest of the United States or activities characteristic of organized crime.
The agent would only have to get a warrant after the fact.
The bills sponsorship shows an unusual degree of cooperation among legislators who may agree on few other issues this year. Sens. Ron Wyden (D.-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R.-Ky.) introduced it in the Senate. In the House, Reps. Don Beyer (D.-Va.), Blake Farenthold (R.-Tex.), Reps. Jared Polis (D.-Colo.) and Adam Smith (D.-Wash.) introduced its counterpart.
Things can get worse
That bill would not, however, limit CBP searches of arriving foreigners. But they may have something worse to worry about.
As numerous reports have indicated (most recently, an April 4 Wall Street Journal story), the Trump administration is considering requiring foreigners to share contacts lists and even social media account passwords for background checks.
That extreme vetting measure would be a giant step beyond the practice, begun in December, of asking many foreign visitors for their usernames on 13 social networks. A February report by DHSs Inspector General criticized the department for launching this program without clear metrics for its performance.
At the D.C. Internet Society panel, CDTs Llanso noted that Customs can share information it gathers in bulk with the National Security Agency. She called that an opportunity for the U.S. government to have extensive maps of the civilian population.
But requiring people to hand over not just their online identities but the keys to them has previously been a habit of totalitarian regimes overseas. Can the U.S. do that? At the border, probably so.
Its not just a search, its also a testimonial act, and youre being asked to do something that could be incriminating, Mason Kortz, a fellow at Harvard Law Schools Cyberlaw Clinic, told Yahoo Finances Daniel Howley. But its still probably justifiable in determining who gets to come into the country.
Maybe you dont worry about what foreigners face at U.S. borders nobodys making them come here. But remember this: Little but the politeness of other countries need stop them from returning the favor to arriving Americans.
More from Rob:
Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.
Who is the title character in AMCs action-packed drama The Son? There isnt just one, but in the beginning, there is Eli McCullough (Jacob Lofland), a teenager who witnesses most of his family being slain by marauding Indians in 1849. Later, there is a much older Eli McCullough (Pierce Brosnan), a hard-bitten, tyrannical patriarch of a wealthy family of cattle ranchers in South Texas in 1915.
How the young man, who grows to manhood with the Indians, becomes the powerful, ambitious and sometimes merciless First Son of Texas is the arc of the AMC drama based on the best-seller by Philipp Meyer, who co-created the series, premiering Saturday, April 8.
The Son is a family saga, essentially tracing the history of South Texas through the generations of the McCullough family, and begins only four years after Texas became a state.
Young Eli is taken as a slave by the Comanche, but earns the protective respect of the tribal war chief, Toshaway (Zahn McClarnon). Over time, he adapts to life among the Indians, so much so that he begins to question his own identity.
Toggling between young Elis and old Elis stories isnt just a way for Meyer and his co-creators, Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy, to tell the story of one man or even one family. Rather, its a way to tell the story of Texas and much of the young nation as well.
Elis younger son, Pete (Henry Garrett), has a more pragmatic and humanistic view of the changing social climate of Texas in the early 20th century than his father and elder brother, Phineas (David Wilson Barnes), who are determined to dominate the region. To so, they intend to keep Mexicans on their side of the Rio Grande and get investors to fund oil drilling on their land.
The different viewpoints within the McCullough family are mirrored by those within the family of Pedro Garcia (Carlos Bardem), including his three children, one of whom, Maria (Paola Nunez), was once romantically involved with the now married Pete.
Pedro Garcia believes that accommodation with the gringos is a way of survival, while younger members of the family are still fighting to push McCullough and his ilk out of what was once Mexico.
The plot is familiar, and somewhat predictable because of that. Many elements, especially in the old Eli segments, evoke a more nuanced Dallas or Dynasty, with more interesting characters. Where those ancient melodramas were mostly one-dimensional and about power, sex and wealth, The Son makes points about xenophobia, racism and general fear and distrust of the other, which have been primary ingredients in our national melting pot since colonial days.
Brosnan is commanding as old Eli, but it takes a while for him to fully inhabit the character. Part of that has to do with the series big question: What happened to Eli to so permanently embitter him between the time of his captivity and the present day in 1915? At the same time, Brosnans accent meanders all over the place, from his native Ireland to South Texas.
Young Eli is more interesting, because we have more unanswered questions about him, and because Lofland delivers such a solid performance. In fact, the series best acting is to be found among some of the younger cast members, especially Sydney Lucas as Elis granddaughter Jeannie. Garrett, Nunez, McClarnon and James Parks as a villainous instigator of strife within the McCullough family are also among the cast standouts.
The scripts structure is artificial, but it mostly succeeds in its purpose, which is to disguise the obviousness of the plot. The characters are nicely constructed, though, and the dialogue both rich and believable.
Westerns used to ride herd over television programming back in the day, but their fundamental moral structure doesnt work quite as well on a contemporary audience. Westworld succeeds because its science fiction. Deadwood worked because character depth and complexity obviated the traditional and tired Western plot structure. Hell on Wheels was a modest success for five seasons, but it really didnt break the mold. Longmire works because its really a contemporary crime drama.
The Son isnt going to revive the good ol days when Westerns dominated television, but its watchable and often well written and acted.
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
The Son: two-hour, two-episode premiere 9 p.m. Saturday, April 8, AMC
CAIRO Egypt imposed a three-month nationwide state of emergency Monday as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi sought to ease public anger and take a tougher stand against Islamic extremists after suicide bombings at two Coptic Christian churches killed 45 people.
A day after the Palm Sunday bloodshed, the Interior Ministry said it killed seven Islamic State militants in an exchange of gunfire during a security operation in the southern city of Assiut. The ministry alleged they were plotting attacks against Christians. It posted photos of corpses lying next to weapons and said Islamic State publications were found with them.
A state of emergency already in place in the Sinai Peninsula has failed to halt near daily attacks against police and security forces by the Islamic State group in the volatile area. Now the group is stepping up its attacks against Christians, who make up 10 percent of the population, by moving its activities from the Sinai to other parts of Egypt. Its increasingly sophisticated tactics are likely to fuel sectarian tensions and embarrass el-Sissi.
The Palm Sunday bombings struck churches in the port city of Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt, and the city of Tanta.
We are seeing simultaneous attacks, based on strong information, targeting big churches across the country. This is a very dangerous development, said Mina Thabet, a rights researcher focusing on minorities.
There were scenes of grief and anguish Monday as mourners wailed during funerals at the sprawling St. Mina monastery on the outskirts of Alexandria. Some collapsed near the caskets, which bore the word martyr.
Similar scenes took place a day earlier at a church in Tanta, where victims were laid to rest in a place of honor.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks and identified the two attackers with names suggesting they were Egyptians. The group, which carried out a bombing at a Cairo church in December that killed 30 people, threatened more such violence, saying the blood of Christians would flow like rivers.
Coptic Christians have put their faith in el-Sissi, who championed himself as the bulwark against Islamists. The former army chief met with President Trump a week ago at the White House, discussing the fight against extremism.
He declared three days of mourning and deployed special forces to help police secure churches and other key installations. He also ordered the formation of a new body called the Supreme Council to Combat Terrorism and Fanaticism.
Maggie Michael is an Associated Press writer.
JERUSALEM Israel closed its Taba border crossing to the Sinai Peninsula on Monday following warnings by its antiterrorism office of an imminent militant attack there and urged its citizens to leave Egypt hours before the start of the Passover holiday, when Sinai is a popular destination for many Israelis.
Soon after the announcement, sirens wailed in southern Israel alerting residents to a rocket attack. The military said a rocket fired from Sinai exploded in southern Israel but causing no injuries. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility.
(Adds share performance, background throughout)
SAO PAULO, April 10 (Reuters) - Lojas Riachuelo SA plans to launch an e-commerce division later this month, signaling efforts by the Brazilian apparel retailer to revive sales amid the country's worst recession on record.
In a statement on Monday, Riachuelo said it spent 28 million reais ($9 million) on the online commerce unit, which is expected to offer Riachuelo's 15,000 items available across its brick and mortar stores. Riachuelo is controlled by Guararapes Confeccoes SA.
According to analysts, online channels have allowed rival Lojas Renner SA to outperform peers in recent years.
Riachuelo's late arrival to e-commerce has allowed the company to design a business model more likely to succeed, online head Jonas Ferreira was quoted by the statement as saying, noting that e-commerce and the chain's 291 stores will work hand in hand.
Common shares of Guararapes rose 2.5 percent to 82 reais on Monday, extending this year's gains to 36 percent.
Online retailers have been outperforming traditional brick and mortar chains in Brazil, with sales rising 7.4 percent as order volumes were roughly flat, data from consultancy Ebit showed.
Sales volumes at traditional retailers fell 6.2 percent over the same period, according to national statistics agency IBGE.
($1 = 3.1359 reais) (Reporting by Paula Arend Laier; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Richard Chang and Sandra Maler)
BUDAPEST, Hungary Hungarys president on Monday signed amendments to the countrys higher education law that could force a Budapest university founded by billionaire American philanthropist George Soros to close or move.
Central European University has vowed to challenge the legislation and to remain in Budapest despite invitations to possibly relocate from cities in Lithuania and Poland.
President Janos Ader said in a statement that the bill setting new conditions for foreign universities in Hungary was in line with the Constitution and did not infringe upon academic freedoms. However, Ader acknowledged that the fast-track approval of the law and some of the new conditions provoked antipathy in many people.
About 70,000 people rallied Sunday in support of CEU, which enrolls over 1,400 students from 108 countries.
Ader called on the government to immediately begin talks with affected institutions to secure compliance with the new rules.
One new stipulation demands bilateral agreements with the home countries of universities from outside the European Union within six months, while another would require schools to establish campuses in their home countries by the end of the year. For CEU, Hungary is demanding bilateral agreements with the United States and the state of New York, where the school is accredited, but does not have a campus.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban considers the Hungarian-born Soros an ideological foe. Orban has accused the billionaire of trying to influence Hungarian politics through his support of non-governmental groups and of working against Hungarys interests by supporting refugees.
Pablo Gorondi is an Associated Press writer.
1 Afghanistan attacks: Militants killed at least 13 Afghan security forces in separate attacks, officials said Sunday, as the country struggles to contain a long-running Taliban insurgency and combat a growing threat from a local Islamic State affiliate. A spokesman for the governor of the northern Balkh province said a roadside bomb killed nine security forces and wounded several others late Saturday in the Chimtal district. Five insurgents were killed. In a separate incident, Islamic State militants attacked the Darzab district headquarters in the neighboring Jawzjan province Saturday night. Four Afghan reinforcements, including a unit commander, were killed.
2 Somalia bombing: Somalias new military chief survived a suicide car bomb attack Sunday that killed 13 people, police said. Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Jimale had just been sworn into office and was traveling in a convoy when the bomb exploded near the defense ministry compound in Mogadishu. Five soldiers and at least eight civilians traveling in a passing minibus were killed, police said. Somalias Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack.
STOCKHOLM Sweden observed a minute of silence Monday for the four people killed and 15 wounded in a truck attack last week, while the suspects name emerged and the U.N. Security Council condemned the rampage.
Swedish royalty, foreign diplomats and politicians were among the crowds gathered for a noon observance outside Stockholm City Hall, where Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said the whole of Sweden sympathized with the families and friends of the victims.
The suspect, named in court documents as 39-year-old Uzbekistan national Rakhmat Akilov, allegedly drove the truck into a crowd outside an upscale department store in central Stockholm on Friday. The four people killed included two Swedes, a British man and a Belgian woman.
The victims home countries suffered horrendous acts of terrorism, but we have also seen the strength and determination and power of our democratic societies, Lofven said. We will never surrender to terror. We will get through this together.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack and underlined the need to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Police arrested a man on Friday night after the attack that was carried out with a hijacked beer truck, but only identified him as a 39-year-old Uzbek whose Swedish residency application was rejected last year. He is being held on suspicion of terrorist offenses.
Swedish Police Chief Dan Eliasson told a news conference that we are sure that we have the driver of the truck, and Stockholm regional Police Cmdr. Jan Evensson said that suspicions against the Uzbek man had grown stronger during questioning.
Police said the truck attack suspect was known for having been sympathetic to extremist organizations. But Eliasson said there was nothing in the system that indicated that he would do anything like what happened on Friday.
Matti Huuhtanen and David Keyton are Associated Press writers.
LUCCA, Italy Seeking support from abroad, the U.S. struggled Monday to explain a hazy Syria strategy that has yet to clarify key questions: Whether President Bashar Assad must go, how displaced Syrians will be protected and when America might feel compelled to take further action.
Successive attempts by top Trump administration officials to articulate a plan have only furthered the appearance of a policy still evolving, even after the U.S. broke with precedent last week by attacking Assads forces. In the absence of answers, other countries seem to be moving ahead on their own terms.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, after a meeting in Italy with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, floated the possibility of new sanctions on both the Syrian and Russian militaries, an idea the U.S. has only briefly mentioned. In an unusual announcement for a foreign government, Johnson also said the U.S. could launch more cruise missiles into Syria like the ones President Trump ordered last week in reaction to Assads use of chemical weapons.
Crucially, they could do so again, Johnson said.
Tillerson himself raised fresh expectations for aggressive U.S. action and not only in Syria as he visited SantAnna di Stazzema, a Tuscan village where the Nazis massacred more than 500 civilians during World War II. As he laid a wreath, he alluded to the Syria chemical attack.
We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world, Tillerson said.
Though such comments hint at a more activist U.S. foreign policy focused on preventing humanitarian atrocities, Trump has consistently suggested he prefers the opposite approach. His young administration has generally downplayed human rights concerns while promoting an America First strategy de-emphasizing the concerns of foreign nations.
On Tuesday night, Tillerson will fly to Moscow, the first official visit by a Trump Cabinet official to Russia, Assads strongest ally. The U.S. has said its Syria strategy centers on persuading President Vladimir Putin to stop supporting Assad. On Monday, the U.S. upped the stakes significantly by accusing Russia of knowing in advance of the chemical attack and using a Russian-operated drone to help cover it up.
Josh Lederman is an Associated Press writer.
Arowana Education Group investment director Nico Marx will leave the board of ailing New Zealand private training organisation Intueri Education this month to take up a new job in Singapore.
ASX-listed Arowana is the biggest shareholder of Intueri with about 25 percent, and Marx has been on the NZX-listed company's board since May 2015. He plans to resign before April 28 after accepting a new role in Singapore, and Intueri said it's looking for an appropriate replacement.
"The board acknowledges Nicos contribution to the Intueri board and its committees," chairman Chris Kelly said. "The board is focussed on maintaining governance experience appropriate to Intueris current needs and will announce the new board appointment shortly."
Intueri is liquidating its Australian assets after failing to find a buyer and is still figuring out what to do with its New Zealand schools. It hired High St Capital Partners for advice on options for the New Zealand operations including the sale of assets.
The shares recently traded at 1.3 cents compared with a 2014 initial public offering price of $2.35. It currently has a standstill agreement from ANZ Bank New Zealand on about $70 million of debt after advising the bank in February that it was in breach of lending covenants as at Dec. 31.
(BusinessDesk)
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The sudden departure of Kiwibank's chairman and deputy chair just days after shareholders answered a call for additional equity funding doesn't reflect any dissatisfaction about the state-owned bank's governance, a spokesman says.
Chairman Rob Morrison and deputy chair Rhoda Phillippo have resigned, effective this coming Thursday, Kiwibank said today. Current director Susan Macken was named as Morrison's replacement and the board will appoint a deputy when it meets on Thursday.
Rob Morrison is chair of HRL Morrison & Co, the Wellington-based investment bank whose clients and co-investors include the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, one of the three Kiwibank shareholders that last week pumped an additional $247 million into the bank to ensure its capital stays within the Reserve Bank's regulatory requirements. Phillippo is a former chief operating officer at Morrison & Co and chair of Snapper Services, the Infratil unit that runs the Snapper card for public transport operators.
The extra equity capital was provided for Kiwibank by the NZ Super Fund, NZ Post and the Accident Compensation Corp after the lender abandoned plans for an A$175 million bond sale last month after being told those instruments didn't meet the Reserve Bank's capital adequacy framework and that earlier issues of a tier 2 convertible subordinated bond and additional tier 1 perpetual bond also didn't comply.
Asked if there was any dissatisfaction over the Kiwibank board, the bank's spokesman Bruce Thompson said: "No. The reasons were as stated, that there has been an orderly change to the ownership and establishment of a new board."
NZ Super and the ACC installed two directors onto the Kiwibank board in December - Kevin Malloy and Scott Pickering respectively. The two state-entities finalised their investments in Kiwi Group Holdings, the owner of Kiwibank, last October. NZ Super has paid $263 million to take a 25 percent stake and ACC paid $231 million for a 22 percent stake, a deal that valued the lender at about $1.05 billion.
Kiwibank's long-term issuer credit rating was cut to A from A+ last month after the bank's unconditional guarantee from majority owner New Zealand Post expired. S&P's outlook for Kiwibank is stable, reflecting its expectation the bank will retain its focus on relatively lower-risk residential lending while maintaining its risk-adjusted capital ratio above 10 percent.
The Reserve Bank is reviewing its definition of bank capital, the measurement of risks that the banks face and the minimum capital requirements and buffers to set up a regime that provides confidence in the banking sector.
NZ Post used the proceeds of its selldown of Kiwibank to repay $180 million of debt and make a $100 million dividend payment to the Crown.
Morrison joined Kiwibank's board in 2011 but Phillippo is a relative newbie, having become a director last year. Macken is a former director of Bank of New Zealand and her other current boardroom positions include deputy chair of Tamaki Redevelopment Co and director of the Treasury's advisory board.
(BusinessDesk)
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(Repeats with no change to text)
By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin
LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) - Hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, seen as pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani's main challenger in a May 19 election, is a close ally of Iran's supreme leader and despises the West.
The hardline faction in Tehran appears to have reached consensus on the candidacy of the 57-year-old cleric, hoping to avoid splitting the vote of those avid for what they see as a revival of the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Raisi is a mid-ranking figure in the hierarchy of Iran's Shi'ite Muslim clergy but has been a senior official for decades in the judiciary which enforces clerical control of the country.
The former prosecutor-general may struggle for recognition among voters, though analysts say Raisi, thanks to the support he enjoys from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could pose a real challenge to Rouhani's bid for a second term.
"His candidacy comes as a surprise and he definitely poses a challenge, a big one, to Rouhani," said Hossein Rassam, a former Iran adviser to Britain's Foreign Office.
"Chances are even greater now that we will be having a two-round election in Iran, with a very polarised second round."
Rouhani was elected four years ago in a landslide, avoiding a run-off by securing more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, on promises to reduce Iran's international isolation and bring more freedoms at home. No other candidate won more than 17 percent of the vote.
But this time around Rouhani could face a tougher challenge, if a single hardliner like Raisi unifies conservatives against him and forces a second round.
Rouhani's signature achievement, a deal with world powers to curb Iran's nuclear programme in return for lifting financial sanctions, has yet to bring the broadbased economic benefits that the government says are coming. Some supporters also say they are disheartened by the slow pace of domestic change.
Raisi has tapped into hardline criticism of Rouhani's record, saying the president bet too strongly on rapprochement with enemies and did too little at home to improve the economy.
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"Our problems are not something to be resolved by Americans and Westerners," Raisi said in September. "They have not resolved a single problem of any country. They have brought nothing but misery to other nations."
Raisi announced his intention to run on Sunday. In a statement published on Iranian news agencies he said the first step to resolving Iran's economic problems was a change of leadership, asking voters to support a "competent and knowledgeable" government under his command.
RELIGIOUS WEALTH
Khamenei appointed Raisi in 2016 as the custodian of Astan Qods Razavi, an organisation in charge of a multi-billion-dollar religious foundation that manages donations to the country's holiest shrine in the northern city of Mashhad.
The religious conglomerate, whose economic arm lists 36 subsidiary companies and institutes on its website, owns mines, textile factories, a pharmaceutical plant and even a major oil and gas firm.
Even before the revolution, "those who led this endowment were very close to the head of state, to the supreme power of the country," a former senior Iranian diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Raisi has lots of power."
Insiders said Khamenei, who outranks the elected president in Iran's system, had approved Raisi's candidacy. Raisi resigned last week from the election supervision board, a position which would not have allowed him to run in elections.
"Without Khamenei's approval, Raisi could not resign from his current position to run for the presidency," said a senior official, who asked not to be named. "He is a very strong rival for Rouhani."
IN DARK CORRIDORS
Raisi's bid for the presidency alarms some reformists because of his long service in Iran's hardline judiciary. He was deputy prosecutor of Tehran in 1988 at a time when thousands of political prisoners were executed.
A 28-year-old audio tape surfaced last summer of a meeting between Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a founder of the revolution who was then deputy supreme leader, and the judiciary officials in charge of the executions, including Raisi.
In the recording, Montazeri, who would later become Iran's most influential internal proponent of reform, said the executions included "pregnant women and 15-year-old girls" and were the "biggest crimes committed by the Islamic Republic".
The son of Montazeri was arrested and sentenced to jail for release of the tape. Raisi prosecuted his case.
Raisi was deputy head of judiciary for ten years, before being appointed in 2014 as Iran's prosecutor-general.
"Raisi knows his way in the dark corridors of Iranian politics very well. But he is more used to grilling politicians in the comfortable shade of the judiciary than standing in the blazing sun of public eye," said Rassam, the former Iran adviser to Britain.
Some Iranian politicians believe Raisi is being groomed to succeed Khamenei, the 77-year-old supreme leader who has been in power since 1989, and the presidency is just a first step.
"Raisi is in Khamenei's circle of trust. He has been one of Khamenei's students and his thoughts are very close to the Supreme Leader's," reformist former lawmaker Jamileh Kadivar told Reuters. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Tom Finn in Doha, Yeganeh Torbati in Washnigton DC; Editing by Peter Graff)
The ETF industry has been around for over 20 years at this point, but over the past 5 years the ETF industry has captivated the investment world. Ive had a front seat on the action, launching over 650 exchange traded products while I was an associate at the NYSE in the Global Indexing and Exchange Traded Product Group. We built indexes for ETFs, participated on weekly calls with the SEC trying to get approval for innovative ETFs that fell outside the standard rules, and guided new ETF issuers through the whole process. It was here that I learned one important fact of a new ETF: You, the financial advisor, will never see a bad backtest for an ETF. If the investment idea had a poor backtest, it didnt make it to market.
I transitioned to RevenueShares to be their Head of Capital Markets, which we grew from $450 million to $1.1 billion and was eventually sold to the mutual fund giant, Oppenheimer Funds. During my seven years in the industry Ive witnessed that some industry players were prepared, some were caught flat footed, and some are still trying to figure out what to do next.
In this piece, Wes asked me to share some insights on the ETF industry and where it might be heading based on some trends Ive witnessed. Ill start this essay with a recap of recent merger and acquisition activity in the ETF space, then discuss why advisors are back in the driving seat, mention briefly some trends in ETF product development, and end with some discussions of what we could expect going forward.
Photo Source
ETFs Create Disruption: Do You Buy Your Way Into the Business?
In 2014 and 2015 there was a wave of ETF company acquisitions by large asset management firms. The reason was simple: if an asset management company was not in the ETF game, they realized they really needed to get in it. ETFs were not a fad that was going away.
Asset management firms had two options:
Build the ETF division of their firm from within Acquire an ETF company and its existing team and/or ETF products.
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Some asset managers chose option 2: IndexIQ was acquired by New York Life. Janus bought VelocityShares. Oppenheimer Funds bought RevenueShares (full disclosure: my former employers). Hartford Funds acquired acquired Lattice Strategies. Columbia Threadneedle bought Emerging Global Advisors. Victory Capital acquired Compass EMP.
If youre a big asset management firm acquiring a small ETF firm, you want to lever your strengths (your brand, large distribution force, and large amount of capital). You need to acquire an ETF company that enables you to do that. The sweet spot for an acquisition is an ETF company that is small enough in assets under management (AUM) that it isnt an impossibly steep price, yet large enough in assets that your firm has a head start on distribution and marketing. Combine that sweet spot of assets with a decent length of time for their ETFs track record, and you have a company that is an ideal acquisition target.
If you examined the list of ETF Companies in the U.S. at the start of 2014, there was a decent number of acquirable firms in that AUM and track record sweet spot: ~$500 million $5 billion in AUM and three to eight years of track record.
At the start of 2017, the ETF landscape looks very different for potential ETF company acquirers.
Looking at the ETF league table from ETF.com, lets categorize all the ETF product lines/companies that have over $1 billion in AUM. Ill use some very official divisions to categorize why theyre either totally not acquirable or near impossible (A.U.M. numbers below as of April 5, 2017).
The You Cant Buy Us, but Maybe Well Buy You Division
BlackRock $1.082 Trillion Vanguard $681 Billion State Street $531 Billion Invesco PowerShares $120 billion Charles Schwab $69 Billion Guggenheim $35 Billion
The Privately Owned/Unicorn Division:
First Trust $46 Billion VanEck $36 Billion ProShares $27 Billion Direxion $12 Billion U.S. Commodity Funds (technically publicly traded, but a unicorn) $4.2 Billion
The Already Acquired By, or Started By, a Larger Wealth Management Firm Division
ALPS $14.5 Billion Deutsche Bank $13.8 Billion Northern Trust $13.4 Billion PIMCO $13 Billion UBS $7 Billion Barclays Capital $6.6 Billion Credit Suisse $3.6 Billion ETF Securities (has one of the largest European ETF businesses) $2.4 Billion IndexIQ (acquired by NY Life) $2.4 Billion OppenheimerFunds (acquired RevenueShares) $2 Billion Victory Capital Management (acquired Compass EMP $1.3 Billion
(This division is interesting because you *could try to convince some of these firms* that a spin off of their ETF business would enable it to achieve its full value. Were assuming thats too complicated and these firms want to hold on.)
The We Started Later, But Are Choosing To Go It Alone Division
Fidelity $6.2 Billion JPMorgan $5.3 Billion Goldman Sachs $3.3 Billion
The Im Kinda Seeing Someone Already Division
Global X (partially owned by JPMorgan) $4.7 Billion
The Exemptive Relief Division
Exchange Traded Concepts $2.6 Billion ETF Managers Group $1.2 Billion AdvisorShares $1.1 Billion Millington Securities $1 Billion
The Wisdomtree Division
Wisdomtree $42 Billion
(Can they be bought? Yes. Will they be bought? Theyre often thrown around as a target acquisition for one of the behemoth asset management firms, but likely too large and too expensive now.)
OK. That is every ETF company/product line that has over $1 billion in assets. None of them are really acquirable. Yes, theres always a price, but any firm that can buy the firms above, it probably doesnt make sense to, and any firm that would like to acquire the firms above, cant.
Under $1 billion in AUM, we have some very large asset management firms that are either going it alone in building their ETF business line, or they bought a small ETF shop mainly as an acqui-hire (saying this because there was either a short track record for the ETF shop acquired, small AUM, or both).
Since the rush of 2014/2015 acquisitions, the options to acquire firms have become much slimmer. If youre a firm that is looking to buy your way into the ETF space then, what are the best options from whats left?
Heres the list of firms under $1 Billion , but over $200 million in AUM (in millions):
Source: ETF.com
This is a good range to focus on as these firms are large enough to be of interest to a larger firm, or soon could be.
Within those, theres three independent ETF shops to keep an eye on:
Pacer Financial OShares (FQF Trust) Cambria
Beyond falling in that AUM range, each of them has a product suite that achieves the following:
Can handle a large capacity of assets due to how theyre structured Their products can be sold in major portfolio allocation segments They each have a product suite that has a theme to them that could be expanded upon by a larger firm for future product development.
Those are the key things to look for if youre considering acquiring your way into the ETF business.
Sure, they each have some flaws in an acquisition scenario (Pacers Trendpilot products are more complicated to sell to the average client, OShares has a short track record, and Cambria just raised additional capital). But if they were perfect, theyd already be acquired!
The Initial PlanETFs Will Deliver Cheap Beta
In part one, we looked at the state of the ETF industry from a business/acquisition perspective.
How did we get here though, and where are we headed next?
The ETF industry started in 1993 with the launch of SPY. This started the first wave for the industry: market capitalization weighting, or cheap beta. To most investors and asset managers, for the next eighteen years (until about 2013), market cap weighting equaled ETFs. ETFs were market cap weighed. They were one in the same. If an advisor wanted the chance at outperformance, they invested with mutual funds; if they wanted cheap beta, they bought an ETF.
The financial advisor was now becoming the active manager once again, helping clients decide among various active and passive offerings. Let me explain. For many of the more seasoned financial advisors in the business (i.e., those who have been around for at least 20 years), when these advisors started their careers, they woke up every morning diving through individual company information to find the best stocks they could purchase for their clients. And that was fun. That was the part of the business that got them excited. If they made the right call for their clients on a stock, it could make their career.
Throughout their careers though, it slowly became less of stock and bond picking, and more of assigning that active management role to the mutual fund industry. The advisor found a few mutual fund companies he (or she) trusted, he picked their funds across asset classes for diversification, put his clients money in them, and checked in on the funds occasionally to make sure they were performing to expectations.
The creation of market cap weighted ETFs began to change the financial advisors role back to their earlier days of the business. Once again, they had to make the call:
Should I buy the Van Eck Egypt ETF ($EGPT), or maybe invest in India using the iShares India ETF (INDA)?
Gold could protect my clients downside if we have another 2008, maybe I should buy some of State Streets SPDR Gold Shares ETF ($GLD)? Yeah, but GLD owns U.S. Gold and the U.S. confiscated peoples Gold in 1933, I better buy ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares ETF ($SGOL) just to be safe
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
ETFs empowered advisors (and individual investors) with decisions and took that power away from the mutual fund companies.
All of this happened on the back of a relatively small number of market-cap weighted ETFs. For example, in 2011, there were a record 304 exchange traded products listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Many people thought that everything that could be done with ETFs, had been done. Around that time, we crossed 1,000 ETFs listed in the U.S. The only thing left to do was launch the Zimbabwe market cap weighted ETF, or some other obscure location (or sector) that wasnt already taken by iShares or State Street.
But the ETF industry was only starting to revolutionize the asset management industry. The industry moved from delivering cheap beta, to delivering so-called smart beta. The active mutual fund managers were already in trouble when advisors had more decision points and an ability to allocate to cheap market-cap weighted ETFs, but the introduction of products that would directly compete with mutual fund managers active products was extremely disruptive.
The New PlanETFs Will Deliver Smart Beta
From a product development standpoint, there wasnt much left to be done in the market-cap weighted space. To twist a Yogi Berra quote, No one builds market cap weighted ETFs anymore, theyre too crowded. Plus, with expense ratios approaching zero, launching a market-cap weighted product only served as a loss leader or as a way to stay relevant in the minds of investors and advisors. In many respects, market-cap weighted ETFs serve as a utility for the asset management industry. Nothing fancy, but they deliver your electricity at low-cost.
Remarkably, these investment utilities were difficult to beat. The combination of rules based investing (removing behavioral biases), lower management fees, and the tax efficiency of the ETF wrapper, made it all but impossible for actively managed mutual funds to outperform market cap weighted ETFs over time.
The ETF industry was not satisfied with the status quo. As Jeff Bezos is quoted as saying, Your profit margin is my opportunity. ETF firms started seeing the juicy active mutual fund profit margin as an opportunity and decided it was time to compete and win. Why couldnt an ETF firm take the benefits of the ETF structure rules-based, tax-efficient, and transparent and turn that into a weapon against the active mutual fund managers? Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates (RAFI) figured hed give it a chance with the advent of smart beta.
PowerShares launched the PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio ($PRF) on 12/19/2005. No one knew it at the time, but this was the biggest launch of the ETF industry since the launch of SPY in 1993. In contrast to SPY, and most of the ETFs that came before it, this fund removed price from the passive weighting equation of its constituents. They instead chose to weight their ETF holdings by a variety of value factors, in an attempt to provide outperformance.
Six months later Wisdomtree, a former personal finance magazine company, launched their first ETFs in June 2006. WisdomTree also chose not to use price in the weighting of their ETFs. They chose to weight their funds using a dividend methodology.
One year after WisdomTrees launch, in May 2007, First Trust launched their first Alphadex ETFs. The First Trust Alphadex ETFs, like PowerShares RAFI indexes, chose to use multiple factors to weight their ETFs holdings, and therefore exclude price from the equation.
At the time, these firms were small players in the ETF industry. Fast forward to March 2017 though, and these firms represent numbers four, six, and seven in ETF assets under management.
Top7firms
The era of market cap weighting product development ran from 1993 until 2013, when we saw the final player rush in. Smart Beta started in 2005 and had the two other dominant firms established two years later. It wasnt until 2014 though that the term Smart Beta really began to take hold. By 2014, mostly everyone knew ETFs were real. Most knew you couldnt launch market-cap weighted products because that battle was fought (and there was no money left to be made there). But firms thought they could compete on products that provided differentiated weighting schemes.
JPMorgan launched their first ETF in 2014 (a multifactor ETF). About a year after that, Goldman Sachs entered the ETF world with a suite of multifactor ETFs of their own. And Fidelity launched their own suite of smart beta funds in 2016. Though still relatively new players overall, as these firms were sooner to catch the second trend within ETFs, theyve more rapidly gained assets in the space and now make up a reasonable percentage of the assets in this category.
Since the launch of PRF in 2005, iShares, State Street and many other firms entered the smart beta ETF weighting area as well. ETF product development started out as a race to fill the entire globe with straightforward strategies that would offer investors exposure to anything there was demand for (or not!). It moved on to attempting to offer exposure to those areas in a more intelligent (Smart!) way. That race is continuing, and there is still room for innovation there, but the price war has started here as well.
The Next PlanETF will Deliver ESG
With the first two ETF waves cheap beta and smart beta when the rush of product development came there was already a large amount of assets invested in those areas and those areas were continuing to grow rapidly. From a product development standpoint, there seems to be a third way emerging: ESG Investing.
Theres been a rush of asset managers launching ETFs in the ESG space, but assets are minimal (a few billion dollars). Legg Mason has filed for two new ESG ETFs. Nuveen launched a suite of ESG ETFs. Oppenheimer Funds launched two. iShares has the longest running ones ($KLD and $DSI). State Street successfully launched the SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF ($SHE).
The rush makes sense for a few reasons: If youre a larger asset manager, you know from the first two trends that it can pay to be early. With market cap weighted ETFs being nearly free and smart beta ETFs beginning to experience the same pricing pressure (thanks a lot, Goldman), there could be money to be made here as the ETF issuers are setting higher expense ratios on these products. If ESG ETFs prove to be the third trend, it could give firms that missed the first two waves a shot at taking major, core allocation, placement in investors portfolios. All good reasons from a business standpoint to take the shot if you have the capital to be patient on waiting to see if the trend takes off.
That business reasoning is why we have the supply of ETFs ready to catch this trend. Lets analyze the demand for ESG ETFs, and figure out why that isnt there yet (low asset under management in the products) and if it makes sense that the demand will catch up to the supply.
Whats the real idea behind ESG investing?
The idea is investors want to make a difference with their investments. They want to invest in companies that, at least, arent damaging the world or, at best, are making the world a better place in a number of different ways (ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance after all). In doing so, the hope is to coerce companies into making better decisions.
Can investing in certain companies based off certain metrics cause change to be made by individual companies? Yes.
Inclusion in an index likely can change a companys behavior if theres enough assets pushing them one way or another. If we had an ETF that had a trillion dollars of AUM in it, and it only invested in the 100 largest companies that powered themselves with solar roofs, wed see a lot more companies moving to power themselves with solar roofs.
From a financial advisor standpoint, I know theres demand from clients as well. I had one financial advisor recently tell me after she added the phrase Socially Responsible Investing Strategies to her website, she received two unsolicited calls from individual investors telling them they called her instead of her competitors when looking for a financial advisor because she had that phrase listed on her website. (If youre a financial advisor, Id recommend you put that phrase on your websiteyou might get lucky!)
OK. Were pretty sure we can change companies behavior based off of rules for investing in them (or not investing in them), and were pretty sure theres at least some clients out there asking for it. But theres still no real assets in the space yet on the ETF side. So why are ETF companies rushing to get into the space? The leading reason thrown around for that future demand (and AUM) to come: Millennials. The holders of the future assets.
millennialSRI
ETF firms are predicting that based off studies like the one above (full data here), Millennials will be providing a rush of assets into socially responsible funds as they become the wealthiest generation with the Baby Boomer generation aging. The phrasing of these types of questions is highly misleading though. Ask young people from any generation that question, and I bet youd see similar answers. Lets flip the question: Do you want to invest in a socially irresponsible manner? Youd likely get 99% saying no, from every generation.
Millennials want their money invested soundly. Companies are changing to make themselves more socially responsible, more environmentally friendly, and have better social governance as the pressure of society forces them to do so. In 2011, under 20% of companies within the S&P 500 reported a sustainability report. By 2015 81% of companies did. The corporate change ESG investing is meant to drive, is occurring already. ETFs are not a missing tool needed to force that change. They are the needed tool in forcing the other changes we are seeing across the financial world (lower cost and more transparency).
ESG investing makes sense from a business standpoint, but it wont be moving beyond a niche in the ETF world.
The Next Big Idea? Helping Investors and Advisors Pick ETFs
Financial advisors started off in the drivers seat, picking stocks, driving asset allocation, and really being engaged in the asset management piece of their client portfolios. Then mutual funds came around and advisors took a backseat as they simply allocated assets to a few mutual fund families and called it a day. But the demise of mutual funds and the rise of ETFs have shifted portfolio decisions back to financial advisors.
Advisors are now faced with the question of which ETFs to buy and how to set asset allocation. They need help and tools to accomplish their new mission. The next wave of ETF services will revolve around helping financial advisors make sense of it all (a good example is the visual active share tool just released by Alpha Architect). With almost 2000 ETFs, and 10,000 mutual funds out there, the ETF firms that excel in the future are going to be the ones that can provide advisors and investors with the knowledge and tools to confidently construct ETF portfolios and make good use of those 12,000 products. As with the other trends, some firms were early to this trend. Many of the leading ETF issuers provide tools on their websites for clients to build their own models, some are providing pre-built ETF models for free on their websites, and their sales forces are working with financial advisors in a truly consultative way to construct customized ETF models.
Financial advisors are drowning in emails and phone calls from ETF wholesalers looking to pitch them on their products. The last thing a financial advisor needs is one more sales person walking in to tell them they have the best product for them. Some of them are even right, they do have the best product. But how does the product fit into their portfolio? Financial advisors need holistic advice. Below are some example questions an ETF wholesaler should explore with future advisors:
What is the overlap of the ETF were discussing and the rest of my portfolio? Does it increase my diversification in an intelligent way, or is it more ownership in assets I already own?
What does it do for the cost of my portfolio? Cost isnt everything, but I better be getting something additional for that cost. ETF exposures are getting cheaper and cheaper!
What does this do for the valuation of my portfolio? What matters is the historical average valuation of a product. Products can become overcrowded. The SPDR Utilities Select Sector SPDR ($XLU) is always (we hope) going to trade at a lower valuation than the Purefunds ISE Cyber Security ETF ($HACK), but if XLU is trading at a 30 P/E, its probably not the right time to add to it
Whats the best way to achieve my desired exposure? As an example, if Im a value and growth investor, whats the best way to get my exposure to value and growth?
What are the tax concerns (if any) with this type of product?
What is the current liquidity profile of this product, and can that change? Or, can I get my money out as easily as I can get it in? Some products can move in and out of more liquid and less liquid assets as they rebalance. This can rapidly change the liquidity profile of the ETF. In a liquidity crisis, almost everything becomes illiquid. Wes has a good piece on this subject: (How ETFs trade in the Secondary Market)
If you can help an advisor address the questions above, your ETF firm stands a good chance to pick up assets. If you cannot, youve got a 1 in 12,000 shot ugly!
Constructing lower cost, transparent, tax efficient ETF portfolios is a trend that hasnt peaked, but now, more than ever, investor education is critical to success.
Follow me on Twitter @RyanPKirlin or on Medium for more ETF updates.
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How Asset Managers Are Adapting to Exchange-Traded-Funds originally appeared on http://blog.alphaarchitect.com/?p=27440
NEW DELHI: Telecom infrastructure operation and maintenance firm Ardom Telecom today announced the acquisition of Quanta Towergen for an undisclosed amount.
L&T Infra Investment Partners-backed Ardom Telecom Pvt Ltd announced "acquisition of 100 pct shareholding in Quanta Towergen Pvt Ltd (QTPL)- owned by Quanta Services Netherlands B. V, in turn owned by Quanta Services, Inc...In an all-cash deal.
"The acquisition is part of Ardom's strategy to strengthen its fixed energy cost business and is expected to provide Ardom a significant foothold into a fast-growing market," it said in a statement.
Ardom Telecom did not disclose the deal size.
QTPL provides operation and maintenance services on telecom tower sites.
Ardom MD and CEO Ajit Shankar said: "This acquisition is in line with our objective of providing sustainable and reliable clean energy to telecom sites under long term contracts to create value in the company.
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KOCHI: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) on Saturday said it will be investing 5,400 crores on its various infrastructure projects in Kerala which will contribute significantly to the state's economy and its people.
Elaborating on his company's roadmap for Kerala, IOCL Kerala head P.S. Mony said they are constructing a LPG import terminal with six lakh MT capacity per year in Puthuvypeen SEZ of Cochin Port Trust.
"The project also includes laying of a pipeline from the Jetty to Kochi refinery via IOCL's LPG Plant at Kochi. This pipeline would be hooked to Kochi-Salem Pipeline, which is also under construction. The entire project, which also includes a LPG terminal being constructed by BPCL at Palakkad is expected to cost around Rs 2,200 crore. The pipeline is being constructed jointly by IOCL and BPCL," Mony told reporters here.
Explaining its significance, Mony said this terminal is very important since the indigenous availability of LPG in the country is only half of the demand.
"The LPG customer base in the country is presently 15 crores, which is expected to double by 2020. LPG demand in the country is presently growing by 11 pct. The LPG consumption of Kerala also is expected to rise significantly by 2019.
"LPG imports are expected to rise significantly by 2020 from the current levels of 50 pct and IOCL is augmenting the LPG infrastructure across the country including setting up of 23 new bottling olants, the Mundra-Gorakhpur LPG Pipeline besides the Import Terminal at Kochi and the Kochi-Salem Pipeline. The LPG Import Terminal at Kochi has been targeted to be completed by February 2018," he added.
For Kerala, the state government is expected to earn an additional annual tax revenue of around 150 crore per annum.
Mony pointed out that the IOCL is also setting up the Ernakulam City Gas Project in collaboration with Adani Group.
"The first CNG retail outlet is expected to be commissioned shortly. LNG/LCNG stations are also underway for providing greener fuels with lesser environmental impact," he added.
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CHANDIGARH: India is looking for young entrepreneurs to build business houses and create more jobs, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today, asking business graduates to become fountainhead of commercially viable ideas.
"India needs several entrepreneurs who can become fountainheads of commercially viable ideas that will make a difference to the economy and the country," Sitharaman said while addressing the graduating students at the campus of Indian School of Business (ISB) in Mohali, near here.
"Develop your ideas. You should develop ideas ... and that is what I look up to graduates coming out of institutions like ISB," she said.
Sitharaman, who gave away certificates to the graduating students, said the young minds of this country must build business houses and create more jobs.
"I would like the young minds of this country to build business houses and create more jobs," she said.
She also touched upon the GST, saying with GST coming, India becoming one market and simplified taxation structure, it was also time for us to look into what exists in logistics.
She said logistics needs a lot of research.
"Logistics is something on which India has to develop its own model ... You have logistics developed according to Western economies and their model, the Chinese have developed their own but do we have an idea of how we are going to have efficient logistics in this country.
"I think that is one area where there is lot of research waiting to be done," she said.
Adi Godrej, Chairman of the ISB Executive Board, Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Mohali Campus Advisory Board, Professor Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, ISB, members of the ISB Board, also spoke on the occasion.
Sharing his experiences with the graduating students, Adi Godrej, who is also Chairman, Godrej Group, said, "as a management student, one of the key things that I had learnt is the power of team work and the importance of building teams and retaining people, an idea that I imbibed early in my career and it is now with me all through".
Referring to the role of family businesses in the economy, he said, "family managed businesses are the unsung heroes of the Indian economy. They make up more than two-thirds of the world s companies, employing half the world's workforce and contribute to well over half the world's GDP.
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NEW DELHI: Britain and India on Friday committed to support their collaboration in the power and renewable energy under the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Energy Sector, which was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to London in November 2015.
Last Tuesday, the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to anchor investment up to 120 million pound each in the joint fund which aims to raise around 500 million pound.
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Britain's Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark on Friday chaired the inaugural India-UK "Energy for Growth" Dialogue here.
They agreed areas include innovation in smart technology to improve performance and reduce losses in India's power sector, support for increased energy efficiency.
Two countries also agreed to a enhanced energy access, work to accelerate deployment of renewable energy and its integration with the grid; financing for clean energy; decentralised energy scale up and sustainability.
Meanwhile, both ministers appreciated the strides taken by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which established operations in Britain by investing around 7 million pound in seven energy saving projects after intense technical and financial due diligence.
Two ministers welcomed the work of the G20 Green Finance Study Group promoting green finance encouraged the issuance of green bonds, among other forms of green finance.
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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has nominated two Indian-Americans for key administrative posts to coordinate US law-enforcement strategy around copyright, patents and trademarks and oversee his plan to eliminate 75 pct of federal regulations.
Prominent Indian-Americans Vishal Amin and Neomi Rao will be Trump's new IP and regulatory czars respectively as he nominated them yesterday while making many administrative appointments.
Amin has been nominated to be the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator while Rao will be the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
If confirmed by the US Senate, Amin, who is currently a Senior Counsel on House Judiciary Committee, would succeed Daniel Marti.
He also served in the administration of President George W Bush at the White House, as Associate Director for Domestic Policy, and at the US Department of Commerce, as Special Assistant and Associate Director for Policy in the Office of the Secretary, a statement said.
Amin received his bachelor's degree in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University and his law degree from Washington University in St Louis.
"The prompt appointment and consideration of this position is critical, and we commend President Trump for his choice. Vishal Amin is a smart, thoughtful leader and we look forward to working with him," said Cary Sherman, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Rao has been nominated to be the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a statutory part of the Office of Management and Budget within the Executive Office of the President.
OIRA reviews regulations from federal agencies and has the power to reject rules that do not fall in line with the President's goals.
"Trump's selection of Rao suggests the administration is serious about regulatory reform, not merely reducing high-profile regulatory burdens," said 'The Washington Post'.
"The selection of a well-respected administrative law expert further suggests the administration recognises the need to be attentive to legal constraints on administrative action and that meaningful reforms require more than issuing a few executive orders. Rao is a superlative pick," the report said.
Rao, a professor at the George Mason University where he founded and directs the Center for the Study of the Administrative State, has focused his research and teaching on constitutional and administrative law.
Currently a public member of the Administrative Conference of the US, Rao has previously served in all three branches of the federal government.
She served as Associate Counsel to President George W Bush's counsel for nominations and constitutional law to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary and law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of US Supreme Court.
She practised public international law and arbitration at Clifford Chance LLP in London.
Rao received her JD with high honours from the University of Chicago and her BA from Yale University.
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Source: PTI
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio commuted on the Staten Island Ferry Monday morning, enjoying a yogurt-and-granola parfait from his favorite Brooklyn haunt and taking in views of the Harbor from the upper deck.
"I love the ferry," de Blasio told the Advance during a brief interview aboard the 9:15 a.m. John F. Kennedy boat leaving from Whitehall. "Long before I was mayor, I just liked taking the ferry."
De Blasio agreed with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg that the Staten Island Ferry was the best first date in the city.
"He's right about that," de Blasio said with a chuckle. "Something we can agree on!"
Monday marked the start of the weeklong "City Hall in Your Borough" initiative, an attempt to better connect Staten Islanders with their city government.
>> Early look at de Blasio's week on Staten Island, day by day <<
"By spending a concentrated week, you're going to obviously focus more intensely on the issues on Staten Island, that'd be true when we do Queens and Brooklyn and the Bronx as well," de Blasio said. "It kind of gets everyone out of the City Hall bubble, connects them to the grassroots."
Monday is the 60th time de Blasio has come to Staten Island, though he's only ridden the ferry a handful of times as mayor.
"I've always loved being on the water. I love the Staten Island Ferry," he said again. "Right here we are on the most well-traveled ferry in the United States of America."
NOISY GREETING AT BOROUGH HALL
Some Staten Islanders continue to harbor an almost notorious dislike of the mayor and his more progressive policies. His approval rating in the conservative-leaning borough is consistently low.
Even when de Blasio arrived at Borough Hall after getting off the ferry, he was greeted by a small protest. Gary Phaneuf of Eltingville -- who is frequently seen on Staten Island protesting a variety of issues -- shouted to the mayor that he should be locked up at Rikers Island instead of closing the jail.
"Staten Island hates de Blasio, de Blasio hates Staten Island!" Phaneuf, 61, yelled. "That's what's really going down!" Phaneuf told the Advance he may continue to protest during "Blaz-stock" on Staten Island.
Staten Island was the only borough de Blasio lost in the 2013 general election -- by only about 6,400 votes. The Island was also the only borough Republican President Donald Trump won last November.
De Blasio indicated that these politics aren't his main concern this week.
"Do the work, you know, respond to people's needs and let the political chips fall where they may, I really believe that," he said. "If you're doing stuff that affects people's lives, they'll judge for themselves."
A WEEK IN TRUMP COUNTRY
De Blasio routinely criticizes the president and Staten Islanders may be the most similar to Trump's voters beyond the five boroughs.
"I don't think it's the same reality because Staten Island is a particular place, I think it has its own particular needs, its own particular views that I wouldn't say are necessarily the same as someplace in the Midwest," de Blasio said. "I think a lot of things that affect Staten Islanders' views are much more local. Much more about New York City."
De Blasio said that reaching contracts with municipal unions is one way his administration has tried to help "working people" on Staten Island.
"Obviously a lot of Staten Islanders are public servants," he said, adding later, "That doesn't necessarily mean they're going to agree with me on everything, but I think at least at lot of people on Staten Island can see we're trying to address the economic inequalities, we're trying to address the needs of working people."
FERRY SERVICE AND BOAT NAMES
Many Staten Islanders are most concerned with their excruciating commutes into Manhattan. They're frustrated that de Blasio's so-called "citywide" ferry service doesn't include a stop on Staten Island.
The issue will come up during meetings at Borough Hall this week. De Blasio said the city is working with Borough President James Oddo on a push to bring alternative ferry service to Staten Island.
"I think he's got a great idea," he said. "We have to see if we can bring it to fruition."
De Blasio is also still considering what to name two Staten Island Ferry boats. The first of the three new vessels was named for the late Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis and the new boat class will also be designated for the heroic New Dorp native.
"We ended up in a really great place, honoring a really great family and honoring a great fallen solider," de Blasio said of that choice. "That's a good example -- we'll keep looking for what says something to the people of Staten Island and evokes the meaning of Staten Island.
Does the mayor ever envision a Staten Island Ferry named for Bill de Blasio?
"I'm not the kind of guy who looks to have things named after me," he said. "There are plenty of people who are obsessed with that reality, not my thing, not my thing."
The mayor spent most of his 25-minute ferry ride talking to aides and enjoying views of the Statue of Liberty and New Jersey from a seat outside on the upper deck. He posed for selfies with a few tourists who approached him.
De Blasio shrugged at a remark about his long commute to Staten Island on Monday.
"It's all good," he said with a smile.
MANHATTAN, N.Y. -- After nearly four years in prison, the alleged Bonanno mobster from Staten Island said he's ready to move on.
"I did what I did. I took responsibility for what I did," Anthony "Skinny" Santoro told the judge during his sentencing Monday in a Manhattan court. "I want to get on with my life, what's left of it."
Santoro, 52, of Great Kills, was sentenced to four to eight years in state prison after pleading guilty to attempted enterprise and admitting his activities were done as part of a criminal enterprise.
He has been incarcerated since July 2013, and that time will count towards his sentence.
As part of the plea deal, has also waived an appeal and will pay approximately $45,900 in forfeiture.
Santoro and his three co-defendants -- Vito Badamo, Nicholas Santora and Ernest Aiello -- were accused of enterprise corruption, including loansharking, gambling and drug dealing, after authorities reportedly busted an alleged Bonanno nine-man crew in July 2013.
The quartet was also charged with attempted grand larceny in the second degree, while Santoro, Badamo and Santora were facing an additional charge of first-degree criminal usury.
Badamo and Aiello also took plea deals, while Santora's case is still pending.
In his allocution statement, Santoro admitted to participating in a pattern of criminal activity that included loansharking, gambling and drug dealing from March 2010 to June 2013.
Santoro also said he possessed more than five firearms and acted as the "agent" or "sheetholder" in the illegal gambling operation by overseeing bettors, collecting money and monitoring online gambling accounts.
"He made threats to debtors and possessed seven firearms with hundreds of rounds of ammunition," said prosecutor David Stuart. "This defendant was involved in all the criminal activities."
Santoro also admitted to possessing boxes of Viagra and Cialis pills, and unlawfully selling each pill from $5 to $20.
The plea deals came weeks before the defendants were scheduled for a second trial.
FIRST TRIAL
After a nearly three-month trial last year, the case ended in a mistrial in May due to juror dissension.
Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer granted the defense's request for a mistrial after juror No. 9 told the court the rest of the jury was not considering his opinions, and felt they were only worried about getting a guilty verdict.
"I can't go on at this point," the juror told the court. "They're not listening to me. I can no longer sit there and listen to them anymore. I want to make sure what I render is just, not just because we don't want to be here anymore or we've been here for three months."
The shocking development came after Dwyer dismissed juror No. 1 from the jury based on the panel's concern that he wasn't able to hear any of the wiretap calls played during deliberations.
A few jurors sent a note to the judge alleging that juror No. 1 said he was unable to hear the calls and refused to use the transcript binders for fear they were tampered with. The binders, the judge instructed the jury, are not evidence.
"It's a little bit frustrating because we're trying our hardest," one of the jurors said.
"He was able to hear just fine," juror No. 9 said. "He just kept getting attacked and they didn't like his responses."
However, when asked if he was able to follow the evidence, juror No. 1 said, "Yes."
But two jurors who spoke to the Advance after the trial contend the two weren't always so harmonious.
"Throughout the process, juror No. 9 claimed he did not share the same opinions as juror No. 1 so we were surprised when he stated he could not continue deliberating after juror No. 1's dismissal," the two panelists said in a statement to the Advance last May.
Prosecutors said Santoro was a key player in the Bonanno family's gambling operation, allegedly setting the prices for drugs and deciding on opening and freezing gambling accounts.
The bulk of the state's case against him was the information intercepted from a series of wiretap calls, which implicate him using mob slang referring to illegal drug and gambling activities.
Santoro still has a pending federal case after pleading guilty to operating an illegal gambling business as part of a local Bonanno crime crew in Connecticut. In 2013, he was sentenced to eight months and arrested in the Manhattan case before he could serve that time.
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In the ongoing opioid crisis, families waiting to find out how their loved ones actually died are getting answers faster from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Less than a year after the Advance reported wait times of more than 100 days to find out if someone suffered an overdose, the Forensic Toxicology Lab has dropped that to 22 days, according to the Preliminary Mayor's Management Report.
Director of Forensic Toxicology Dr. Gail Cooper, who joined the office in February 2016, attributes that to a series of streamlining and modernization efforts.
"There was a lot of photocopying," Cooper said. "There was a really old school mentality of you photocopy everything and you keep copies of everything in a file."
Now the office is "trying to keep up with the kids," as Cooper put it. There's a central location for scanned data, and the photocopies are a thing of the past.
"I think we're saving trees," she said.
The lab, located at the corner of 1st Avenue and 30th Street in Manhattan, receives samples from every borough for toxicology testing.
Forensic scientist Michelle Dumit demonstrates a stage of the testing process at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner's forensic toxicology laboratory in Manhattan. (Courtesy: Office of the Medical Examiner)
Once those samples arrive, they go through a rigorous testing process to see whether drugs or alcohol are present. The tests involve a combination of complex machines and expert analysis.
If substances like drugs or alcohol are detected, part of the process becomes physically removing them from the samples, Cooper said.
"It's not waving a machine like they do on CSI," she said. "It's a very complicated process that really involves manipulating the chemistry of the drug."
The different types of machines are used in different parts of the process, Cooper said. She compared one of the machines to a pregnancy test that indicates if something is present, and another machine to a doctor who identifies exactly what it is.
Before the toxicologists can definitively say if something is present, the samples need to meet a very specific set of criteria. Each substance that is tested for has its own set of criteria, Cooper said.
Like other labs across the country, the lab participates in proficiency testing schemes, in which, the lab receives samples of unknown substances, and they are then marked on what they find, Cooper said.
"The idea is that if you start to see differences in your results compared to what's expected (then) you start to do trouble shooting, and figure out what can be happening," she said.
Dr. Jennifer Hammers, deputy chief medical examiner in King's County, which also covers Staten Island, said the complicated process is part of the reason getting results back can take so long.
"It's not just a completely automated process," Hammers said. "It does require some level of human interaction and knowledge."
However, Hammers said that a positive toxicology result doesn't automatically determine the cause of death, and that other testing may need to be done.
"Somebody may die just from drugs, but there can be medical issues that play a role in her death," she said.
Hammers said going forward, the Office of the Medical Examiner hopes to do all it can to help in the ongoing opioid crisis.
"The medical examiner recognizes that this is a crisis across the city, and particularly in Staten Island," she said. "With the support of the Mayor and additional resources, it's our goal to continue to give feedback to families."
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Louis Maffeo of New Dorp, a retired FDNY captain and substitute teacher, has died.
Maffeo, who was 86, died Monday at home.
Born and raised in New Dorp, he married the former Jean Whittet in 1960, and they raised their family in that community.
A 1948 graduate of New Dorp High School, Mr. Maffeo joined the Marine Corps, where he served in the Korean conflict from 1950 to 1952.
After his discharge he enrolled in Wagner College, where he continued his education, earning a bachelor of science degree degree in education in 1955. He went on to earn a a master's degree in education from Wagner in 1964.
Mr. Maffeo joined the Fire Department in 1957, beginning a 40-year career with he FDNY. He worked in firehouses in Manhattan and Brooklyn before transferring to Ladder Co. 83/Engine Co. 163 in Westerleigh, where he retired in 1997 with the rank of captain.
He also worked as a substitute teacher for 20 years at Egbert Intermediate School/I.S. 2, Midland Beach.
Mr. Maffeo enjoyed crossword puzzles, playing chess, and working around the house in his spare time. He looked forward to his Sunday dinners with his family.
He was a parishioner of Our Lady Queen of Peace R.C. Church, New Dorp.
His wife, Jean, a retired optician, died in 2015.
Mr. Maffeo is survived by four daughters, Donna Maffeo-Guardino, Susan Drury, Linda Manfredi, and Debra Morri; a brother, Ralph, and 12 grandchildren.
He is pre-deceased by his son, Firefighter Joseph Maffeo, who died on 9/11.
Viewing hours will be Tuesday from 2 to 9 p.m. at the Hanley Funeral Home, New Dorp.
The funeral will be Wednesday from Hanley Home, with an 11:30 a.m. mass in Our Lady Queen of Peace R.C. Church, also New Dorp. Burial will be in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- He'll spend at least five years in prison but it could wind up being 10.
New Brighton resident Hector Rodriguez, accused in a string of commercial break-ins across the borough last year, was sentenced Monday to consecutive terms of 30 months to five years behind bars.
Rodriguez was busted in September and charged with pulling off 14 heists dating back to January 2016.
Rodriguez, then 38, allegedly pilfered more than $20,000 in cash, debit cards, and jewelry in the break-ins.
An accomplice, Christopher Holley, of New Brighton, was also charged in connection with a number of those burglaries.
The defendants were arrested on Sept. 29 in possession of various burglar's tools including three crowbars, two face masks, and a heavy duty angle grinder, said authorities.
In February, Holley pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to third-degree burglary. He was sentenced Monday to five years' probation.
Rodriguez's consecutive sentences mean he'll spend a minimum of five years behind bars and up to a maximum of 10 years.
Last week, in an unleaded case, Rodriguez pleaded guilty in Queens state Supreme Court to two counts of third-degree burglary to satisfy charges accusing him of breaking into six different grocery stores and bodegas in that borough between October 2015 and September 2016.
Rodriguez made off with more than $40,000 in cash and stolen goods, said Queens prosecutors.
Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Queens to consecutive terms of 30 months to five years for those convictions.
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Officials in the Trump administration on Sunday demanded that Russia stop supporting the Syrian government or face a further deterioration in its relations with the United States.
Signaling the focus of talks that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to have in Moscow this week, officials said that Russia, in propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad, bears at least partial responsibility for Wednesday's chemical attack on villagers in Idlib province.
"I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility," Tillerson said on ABC's "This Week."
In advance of Tillerson's arrival, the Kremlin said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to meet with the secretary of state.
"We have not announced any meetings. A meeting with Tillerson is currently not on the president's schedule," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.
The U.S, ambassador to Russia, John Teft, had said last month that Tillerson would likely meet Putin "in the near future," according to the Associated Press.
Peskov told reporters "as far as I understand, [Tillerson] is coming and will have negotiations with our foreign minister." He said that if a meeting with Putin materializes, "we will inform you appropriately."
Although U.S. officials acknowledged that they have seen no evidence directly linking Russia to the attacks, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that Russia should be pressed to answer what it knew ahead of the chemical attack since it has positioned warplanes and air defense systems with associated troops in Syria since 2015.
"I think what we should do is ask Russia, how could it be, if you have advisers at that airfield, that you didn't know that the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons?" McMaster said on Fox News.
The timing of the comments, with Tillerson heading soon to Moscow, signaled the administration's intent to pressure Russia to step away from Assad, who is supported by the Kremlin with military aid and diplomatic cover.
In Italy for a G7 meeting, Tillerson took part in a wreath-laying ceremony Monday morning at a memorial to 560 villagers killed by the Nazis in 1944. It is on a hilltop in Sant'Anna di Stazzema near the city of Lucca.
Afterward, Tillerson spoke briefly, his words seeming to reflect events unfolding in present day Syria.
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," said Tillerson, who was not originally scheduled to attend but wanted to be present at the ceremony with the foreign ministers of Italy, Germany and the European Union. "This place will serve as an inspiration to us all."
The fallout from the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons against civilians, plus the U.S. missile strike that came in retaliation for it, adds strain to a rocky relationship that is at its lowest point in decades. A host of issues are responsible, topped by Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and Moscow's support for separatists in Ukraine, and have prompted U.S. and European sanctions. These topics have now been overshadowed by last week's missile strike.
The Russians had hoped that relations with the United States might improve under President Trump, who expressed admiration for Putin during the campaign. Tillerson's nomination and confirmation as secretary of state also raised prospects. given the former ExxonMobil executive's experience negotiating a major deal with Rosneft, the state-controlled oil giant.
But 11 weeks into Trump's presidency, expectations have been substantially lowered.
"This is a big cold shower," said Samuel Charap, a Russia analyst with the Rand Corp. "Even if behind closed doors they might engage on other issues in a more pragmatic manner, the public posture is going to be one of emphasizing how they disagree about [Syria]. Putin is not going to want to be seen as chummy with the U.S. secretary of state."
On Sunday, both Tillerson and Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, cast doubts on Assad's legitimacy as Syria's leader. Haley said that eventually the unrest in Syria cannot end if Assad remains in power.
"In no way do we see peace in that area with Russia covering up for Assad," Haley said. "And in no way do we see peace in that area with Assad at the head of the Syrian government."
Tillerson noted other instances when Syrian forces deployed chemical weapons, and other attacks on civilians involving barrel bombs and conventional weapons.
"I think the issue of how Bashar al-Assad's leadership is sustained, or how he departs, is something that we'll be working [on] with allies and others in the coalition," said Tillerson, who after weeks of keeping a low profile was making his debut on the Sunday morning talk shows. "But I think with each of those actions, he really undermines his own legitimacy."
Neither suggested that Assad's demise was imminent.
"Once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria," Tillerson said on CBS's "Face the Nation," using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State militant group.
The U.S. missile strike in Syria carries the implicit threat of a larger U.S. role in the conflict. Tillerson said Sunday that the strike functioned as a warning to any country acting outside of international norms, in an apparent reference to North Korea.
"At least in the short run, it will further complicate efforts to improve the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship, which seemed to be Tillerson's objective in going to Moscow," said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "In the longer term, the threat of further U.S. intervention is a card that the U.S. can play to get the Russians to tighten the screws on Assad - on both the chemical weapons and possibly on accepting a political deal with the opposition."
Tillerson departed around dawn Sunday for Italy to attend a meeting of the G-7 nations, a bloc of industrialized democracies. He is due to arrive late Tuesday in Russia for his first visit as secretary of state.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said the Russians still hold out hope for a breakthrough, but that depends on whether Putin and Trump hit it off, not on anything Tillerson and Lavrov say.
"Things will only happen as a result of direct personal, sustained contact between Putin and Trump," McFaul said. "That's the way things work with Putin."
But closer ties with Russia also carry political risks for Trump. Should the Trump administration ease sanctions imposed over Ukraine, for instance, critics would label it payback for Russia's pre-election hacks targeting Democrats.
Several analysts said that Assad has humiliated Putin by using chemical weapons despite Russia's guarantee that Syria's stockpiles would be whisked away. Moscow's interest in getting sanctions eased is greater than its loyalty to Assad. And that could provide maneuvering room for Tillerson.
That appears to be Tillerson's calculation, too.
"I do not believe that the Russians want to have worsening relationships with the U.S.," he said on ABC's "This Week." "But it's going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of dialogue to better understand what is the relationship that Russia wishes to have with the U.S."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio made the 123rd Precinct stationhouse in Tottenville one of the first stops of his week-long trip to Staten Island.
The mayor, joined by NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan, Borough President James Oddo, and Councilman Joe Borelli, formally announced on Monday the introduction of the South Shore precinct into one of the Neighborhood Policing Commands in New York City.
"Neighborhood policing is how we keep people safe," de Blasio said during a press conference in front of the stationhouse.
The 123rd Precinct will join the 120th and the 122nd Precincts to have "neighborhood coordination officers" as part of the program designed to bolster relations between cops and the communities they serve.
The program will officially start April 24.
"Compared to the same period last year, there has been a 6.2 percent drop in index crime [in NCO precincts citywide] in the first four months of 2017," de Blasio said. "The 123rd Precinct will benefit from the NCOs initiative as well."
Monahan said the NYPD is re-evaluating the program every three months, and it is possible they will provide the 121st Precinct with NCOs in the future as well.
"We need to re-allocate resources in introduce more personnel," Monahan said.
The Advance first reported on the development more than a week ago.
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PORT LOUIS, (Reuters) - The number of tourists visiting Mauritius rose 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017 from a year ago, mainly due to more visitors from Europe and Asia, the statistics bureau said on Monday. Tourism is a major source of foreign currency for the Indian Ocean island state, known for its luxury spas and beaches. Arrivals in the first three months of 2016 rose to 339,682 from 327,836 last year, Statistics Mauritius said. Visitors from Europe, who account for roughly two thirds of tourist numbers, rose 4.7 percent to 208,876. The number of tourists from Asia rose by 4.8 percent to 51,670. The statistics agency expects visitor numbers to rise 5.0 percent to 1,340,000 this year. (Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Louise Ireland)
STATEN ISLAND -- Former U.S. Attorney Preetinder Bharara -- you can call him Preet -- has a host of talents.
One is making news.
Consider his crusade against public corruption in the backrooms of the sate Legislature, to corruption in the fancy boardrooms of Wall Street.
Consider his meeting with Donald Trump not long after the election, where he was asked to stay on as the high-profile -- and enormously effective -- U.S. Attorney for the Southern District. Only to be fired a few months later when he refused President Trump's demand for his resignation.
Consider the speculation swirling, especially now, that he might run for New York City mayor -- or governor.
Now consider that he is the keynote speaker at the Staten Island Advance 54th annual Women of Achievement luncheon next week in the Hilton Garden Inn.
Bharara and his team prosecuted nearly 100 Wall Street executives. He battled banks and politicians, no matter if they were Democrat or Republican. He got a conviction against Democrat Shelly Silver, who was the Assembly speaker and second most powerful -- perhaps the most powerful -- guy in Albany. And then he convicted Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican.
He fought everything from terrorism to sex trafficking, to make New York a better place.
Today, he is distinguished scholar in residence at New York University School of Law.
Will he make news on Staten Island? Be at the luncheon to find out. It is April 20, at 11:45 a.m. in the Hilton's Nicotra's Ballroom. The deadline to get tickets is this Friday. Get your reservation in today! Here's a link to the reservation form. It will also appear on Page A 6 of the Advance Tuesday.
Bharara will do a Q & A during the luncheon, and you're invited to be part of the process. You can pose your questions in the comment section of this report.
Studies in U.S. history
April 10, 2017
UCLA historian Stephen Aron UCLA historian Stephen Aron
Skidmores 2017 Kuroda Lecture will be delivered by UCLA professor Stephen Aron, who holds the Burr Chair of UCLAs History Department. Arons free public talk on War and Peace in the American West is scheduled for Friday, April 14, at 8 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium. Then on Saturday, April 15, the Kuroda Symposium features students presenting their papers for Arons feedback, followed by a roundtable discussion with Aron and students who have engaged in hands-on public-history projects. Saturdays activities, also free and open to the public, begin at 9 a.m. in the Surrey Williamson-Inn.
Tad Kuroda serving as
faculty marshal Tad Kuroda serving asfaculty marshal
Aron is the author of How the West Was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky from Daniel Boone to Henry Clay and other books. His career has also included public history, as an advisor and director for the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
Skidmore established the Kuroda Lecture and Symposium to honor the late Tad Kuroda, a longtime American-history professor remembered for his teaching, scholarship, and service. His broad curiosity and expertise are reflected in the symposiums co-sponsorship by the history, American studies, and political science departments.
Activities
Kate Graney Kate Graney
Kate Graney, professor of political science, interviewed Author Lindy West at the Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs on April 6. Skidmore's Gender Studies Program sponsored a reception at the bookstore after her appearance. The event was covered by a Glens Falls Post-Star article titled "Lindy West spreads message of living unapologetically in Saratoga Springs."
Evan Mack Evan Mack
Evan Mack, teaching professor of music, was named a finalist in the Houston Grand Opera's 2017 Song of Houston composition initiative, which commissions new chamber operas and song projects.
Publications and Exhibitions
Paul Arciero Paul Arciero
Paul Arciero, professor of health and exercise sciences, was the subject of an American Heart Association News feature titled "The science of fitnessfrom a very fit scientist." He was also quoted in a March 27 Health article titled "How to Get Into the Best Shape of Your Life, According to Science." Arciero discussed Skidmore-based research on a fitness program called PRISE, for "Protein-pacing, Resistance exercise, Interval sprints, Stretching, and Endurance exercise."
John Brueggemann John Brueggemann
John Brueggemann, professor of sociology, co-authored Rebuilding the Foundations: Social Relationships in Ancient Scripture and Contemporary Culture (2017, Westminster John Knox Press.) His co-author was his father, Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary. According to the publisher, the book examines "our fractured American society and suggest ways for improvement. Using six themes ... care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctity."
In the News
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Research by Denise Smith, professor of health and exercise sciences, was covered in an April 1 Associated Press report carried by more than 30 news organizations, including a US News and World Report story titled "Firefighters Join Study to Help Reduce Line-Of-Duty Deaths." It was also covered in the scientific journal Circulation. Smith's research seeks to improve firefighters' physiological responses during emergency calls.
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United Airlines man dragged off plane
An officer who dragged a passenger off a United Airlines flight has been placed on leave, a Chicago Aviation Department representative told Business Insider on Monday.
A video showing three officers forcibly removing a man from a plane traveling from Chicago to Louisville went viral on Monday, sparking outrage on social media.
The man was removed after refusing to give up his seat on the flight, the Aviation Department said in a statement.
United says it first asked for volunteers to leave the plane in exchange for $1,000, but when no one volunteered, it told several passengers to leave.
When the man refused to give up his seat, the officers pulled him off the plane, resulting in injuries to his face. The man was treated at a local hospital.
"The incident on United Flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure, and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the department," a representative for the Aviation Department wrote in an email to Business Insider. "That officer has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation."
The representative did not clarify why only one of the three officers was placed on leave. They said an investigation was ongoing.
The officers who were involved work for the Aviation Department, which is not affiliated with the Chicago Police Department, a Police Department representative told Business Insider.
United Airlines provided this statement to Business Insider:
"Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities."
United CEO Oscar Munoz released a statement about the incident as well:
Story continues
"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation."
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Another White House official, Dina Powell, was recently named deputy national security adviser for strategy and has been present in the recent high-level meetings with delegations from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and China. Powell joined the White House to work with Trump daughter Ivanka on women's empowerment issues. She had previously served as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs under President George W. Bush before joining Goldman Sachs.
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April 10 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from select Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Bombardier Inc appears unable to shake off public anger over hefty pay packages to its senior executives. Protesters gathered outside Premier Phillippe Couillard's Montreal offices on Sunday to protest how the executives are compensated. https://tgam.ca/2pl2kmc
** Oxford Properties Group and technology startup accelerator OneEleven are aiming to turn Toronto into the next San Francisco with Union Park, a long-term redevelopment of Front Street meant to transform it into a downtown innovation cluster. https://tgam.ca/2pkI9oL
** The British Columbia election battle for seats in one of the province's fastest-growing cities is under way with both major parties Sunday promising cuts or elimination of tolls on a major Surrey bridge. https://tgam.ca/2pkTEwn
NATIONAL POST
** Most aboriginal communities in northern British Columbia impacted by the Northern Gateway pipeline supported the C$7.9 billion ($5.90 billion) project and are angry Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected it, say representatives of three First Nations. http://bit.ly/2pkTrJj
** Looking to boost revenues and create a pipeline of future international students, some British Columbia universities are turning to a novel idea - letting Chinese companies open private high schools on their campuses. http://bit.ly/2pkVP31 ($1 = 1.3396 Canadian dollars) (Compiled by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru)
Seems fitting: Trudeau International Airport
According to an investigative journalism report from the public affairs program JE, aired on the Quebec-based French-language station TVA, several employees at the airport were stripped of their security clearance due to radicalization and support for the Islamic State.
The investigation found that one employee with airport security clearance reportedly shared Islamic State propaganda videos, including graphic imagery of torture and murder, through social media accounts.
Another individual, according to the report, suggested that the November 2015 Paris massacre, carried out by Islamic State agents, needed to be replicated.
One of the radicalized employees reportedly had direct access to runways and aircrafts at Montreal's airport. This employee allegedly had a great deal of knowledge and documentation about military-calibre assault weapons.
And yet, according to the report, this individual still works at the airport, and has simply been moved to a new post -- away from runways and aircraft.
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context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25
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context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25
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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f02153f0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eff3c418)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f02153f0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eff3c418)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f03525a0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eff3c418)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eff3c418)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e63cd610)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f020dc50)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f020dc50)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
The girlfriend of the 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing a Queanbeyan service station attendant to death pulled a knife on her family after being told not to eat ice cream, a court has heard.
Police say the 14-year-old girl pulled out an 8-inch carving knife in the kitchen of her home the day after her boyfriend's alleged rampage, held it in a stabbing grip, and looked intent on attacking her uncle after he told her not to eat ice cream before her family went out.
The girlfriend of a teen charged with murdering a service station attendant in Queanbeyan has been accused of pulling a knife on her family. Credit:Louie Douvis
Her grandmother feared the girl would harm her family after the recent stabbing in Queanbeyan and called police, the court was told.
The girl's defence lawyer told Queanbeyan Children's Court on Monday the teen's "emotions were running high" on Saturday and "she wasn't in a very good state of mind" as she was "caught up with" the teenager charged over the alleged murder.
Government officials advised new racing minister Gordon Ramsay to ban greyhound racing in the ACT within 12 months of defunding the sport in Canberra.
A cache of ministerial briefings and emails released under freedom of information laws have revealed how the government's plans to withdraw $1 million a year to the Canberra greyhound racing industry evolved, after NSW moved to ban the sport in July last year.
Canberra's greyhound racing industry asked if it could instead be regulated by Victoria, after the NSW ban was proposed. Credit:Graham Tidy
The ACT's industry would have been collateral damage, as Greyhound Racing NSW licensed trainers and investigated animal welfare breaches as part of its agreement with the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club.
Briefing notes provided to then racing minister Mick Gentleman in August last year said it was likely the costs of establishing a regulatory framework in the ACT "would outweigh the benefits for the government".
Australia Post has struck a new deal with a big-eared animal, to help deliver chocolates over the busy easter period for rabbits and bilbies.
With chocolate lovers estimated to spend on average more than $72 each buying sweet treats online this Easter, according to Aussie Post research, posties will be busy next week and very popular.
To ensure they do not break the merchandise, the eggs will be carried in straw and with care, according to postie Daniel Flemming.
The big spend comes as more Australians are online shopping than ever before, with purchases rising 11.5 per cent in the past year.
Banks, financial services houses and credit companies will face public naming and shaming over bad behaviour in a suite of major reforms being considered by the Turnbull government.
However, the reforms put forward by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission enforcement review taskforce do not include naming the executives in charge of the division and the division in which the breach occurred, as recommended by the recent parliamentary inquiry into the banking sector.
The proposed public breach reporting regime will be delivered on an annual basis to consumers and will list the licence holder, ie the bank or financial services house, where the breach occurred.
The proposed breach register is part of a wider set of reforms included in a position and consultation paper that will be released by Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer on Tuesday.
BHP Billiton's stocks have surged after one of its largest shareholders called for an overhaul of the group's structure which it argues could release billions in dollars of value for shareholders.
BHP Billiton shares jumped in the last half hour of trade Monday after an international hedge fund unveiled a proposal to end the mining giant's dual-listed structure and spin off its US petroleum business.
Under the plan, BHP would move from a dual company structure, leaving the company domiciled in Australia but with a single scrip listed on both the Australian and London stockmarkets , demerge its US petroleum business into a separate entity listed on the New York Stock Exchange and then unlock its balance of franking credits by undertaking discounted off-market share buybacks.
While BHP Billiton has made no comment on the plan, shares on the ASX leapt in late trade as news of the proposal spread, jumping from $24.82 at around 15.30 to close up 4.6 per cent at $25.73.
Former rugby league prop, NIB spruiker and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here runner-up, Paul Harragon, no longer wants to be known just as The Chief. Seems Harragon wants to be known in property development and investment circles as The Boss.
The former Knights captain has emerged as the managing director (aka Boss) of an outfit with six property developments with an alleged value of $177 million.
Paul Harragon is seeking investor support to include a 240-bed rehabilitation facility on the Gold Coast. Credit:Marina Neil
The Boss's firm Boss Private Capital, which was registered as a company late last year, has a well-articulated strategy one would expect from a former rugby league front rower. "Boss Private Capital executes a strategic and disciplined approach for our wholesale, sophisticated and institutional investors and invest our own capital alongside our clients," notes the Boss's website to budding investors.
As for the Boss himself, the website notes: "He is highly motivated and excited by the prospect of creating specific property sector investment opportunities that are highly innovative and ahead of the trend line."
Sharemarket watchers were frozen in anticipation on Monday morning as they watched Australia's main index shrug off a weak lead from the US and move up towards that magic 6000 mark, a level not seen since the global financial crisis in 2008.
By lunch the market was sitting at just over 5900.
While there are plenty of experts that maintain the market has already moved up beyond the comfort zone where the earnings would support its value, markets move for a whole series of reasons that sometimes ignore the fundamentals of value.
While our sharemarket traditionally follows the lead set by offshore markets, investors appeared to take in their stride internationally volatility, including US air strikes in Syria and some weak economic data over the weekend.
Spectre photocall canada goose
Canada Goose was one of this year's most anticipated IPOs. The outerwear company has been around for decades, but has only recently been introduced to the global market.
In a report circulated to clients April 10, RBC equity research analyst Brian Tunick says, "despite its 60-year history, we see Canada Goose as in the early stages of its growth trajectory." Tunick is initiating coverage of Canada Goose with an "Outperform" rating and a 25 Canadian dollar (or US $19) price target.
On the same day, BMO retail analyst John D. Morris released a similar report, also giving the stock an "Outperform" rating and setting an even more bullish price target of 28 Canadian dollars.
Canada Goose was dual-listed on the NYSE and TSX on March 16, 2017 at 17 Canadian dollars per share. After reaching a post-IPO peak of 23.38 Canadian dollars, the coat maker's stock fell to 20.40 Canadian dollars before recovering to its April 7 closing price of 22.48 Canadian dollars.
RBC is well aware that clothing retail and wholesale is a tough space to be in right now but thinks that if any company can "weather the retail storm," it's Canada Goose.
While RBC has five reasons for their positive outlook for Canada Goose, BMO has four. However, both banks' arguments are highly similar so we have summarized them in five points below:
1) Growth toward 30-50 stores longer-term, up from just two today.
Canada Goose currently only has two stores, one in New York City and one in Toronto. The company wants to have 13-18 more locations in the next three years, eventually rising to 50. The average store count for clothing manufacturers in the same category is 77, so RBC thinks that 30-50 is reasonable, especially when you consider heavy consumer demand for the brand.
Screen Shot 2017 04 10 at 9.33.08 AM
2) Double-digit ecommerce increases with the rollout of additional country-specific sites.
Canada Goose currently has four country-based websites: Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Online sales are growing for the company, making up an estimated 20% of total sales in 2017, up from just 11% in 2016. RBC projects Canada Goose will have roughly 20 regional websites by 2021.
Story continues
While revenue per physical store may come down, RBC says that Canada Goose will make up for that in online volume, leading to 24% of total sales being online by 2021. The banks also say online sales are important because they will give Canada Goose insight into their customers' wants and needs. That data can be leveraged to maximize sales.
3) Wholesale growth of 6-8%.
Some investors are worried about the impact of struggling department stores on Canada Goose's wholesale operations. However, RBC says that while year-over-year wholesale growth may slow for Canada Goose, the company will be able to maintain healthy 6-8% wholesale gains because of the brand's luxury positioning and expansion potential.
Canada Goose currently offers fewer types of individual products than other comparable wholesalers, offering another potential growth area:
Screen Shot 2017 04 10 at 9.31.15 AM
4) Geographic expansion.
Currently, just 29% of Canada Goose sales occur outside of the US and Canada as opposed to an average of 49% for similar companies. Luxury brands are in high demand outside the US, so global expansion should be a major tailwind for the outerwear maker.
Naturally, the company's home country of Canada is its largest market. However, RBC would like to see Canada Goose penetrate further into the US, taking advantage of the much larger market and the strong US dollar's positive effect on the company's margins.
Screen Shot 2017 04 10 at 9.30.26 AM
5) Category extensions.
Right now most of Canada Goose's sales occur in the second and third quarter in anticipation of cold weather, and the company is exploring the possibility of product expansion. Consumer surveys suggest that lightweight jackets and gloves would be a good starting point.
BMO thinks that Canadian Goose has the potential to take over the luxury winter outerwear market. BMO explains:
"If you want good pasta you ask an Italian, if you want to stay dry in the rain you ask an Englishman, and if you want to stay warm in the cold, you ask a Canadian."
Click here for a real-time Canadian Goose chart.
(Chart below is from the NYSE in US Dollars)
Screen Shot 2017 04 10 at 9.58.03 AM
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Illustration: Dionne Gain At the end of the two-day summit, reporters pressed Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, on whether Xi had promised to make some infrastructure investments in the US, at least. The American side had been expecting such a "gift". "The best gift was [Xi's] presence," Ross replied. The Chinese agreed to a "100-day plan" to address the trade imbalance, the Americans said, but with no specified goals or outcomes. The Obama-era dialogue initiative between the two powers was terminated and a replaced with a similar one with a different name. That was about it. Not only were China's alleged past transgressions forgotten, a fresh provocation was overlooked. On Thursday, the day the two leaders sat down for their first meeting, a US think tank reported that a Chinese air force jet had been photographed on one of the islands of the South China Sea.
A satellite photographed a Chinese J-11 fighter on Woody Island in the Paracel Island group. "This isn't a first, but it's the first time in a year," said Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), part of Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. Only one jet was visible on the Chinese-built runway. "There are likely more in the hangars nearby", he said." It was photographed on March 29. Its significance? This is one of the islands that Xi promised, in a press conference with Barack Obama, would not be militarised. Now it has an airstrip, radars, and reinforced concrete hangars big enough for the biggest bombers in the Chinese air force. And the air force evidently is making use of it. The Trump administration's reaction? The revelation went unremarked. It received very little media coverage. Nor was the administration pressed by reporters to comment. Everyone was busy with the Syrian missile attack.
The two leaders did discuss the South China Sea in private. According to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump told Xi that the US was opposed to the militarisation of the islands. He urged China to observe norms of international conduct in the area. But neither US nor Chinese accounts of the meetings referred to any comment by Xi. In other words, China does as it pleases as the US reads out obsolete talking points. China built all the islands it wanted, installed all the facilities it wanted. It has completed its "iron triangle" of air force bases that straddle the world's biggest commercial artery and Australia's main export route. China is now deploying forces as it chooses, with no hindrance and no comment from the US. So much for Obama's much-ballyhooed "pivot to Asia", or "rebalancing". The contest over the South China Sea is over. China defied the US and it won. China was determined, swift and effective. Trump continues in the Obama mode in the South China Sea indecisive, distracted and ineffectual. US allies feeling anxious about America's reliability in the face of China's assertiveness have reason to worry. Trump brings a new level of fickleness to US policy in Asia.
Trump initially signalled a dramatic shift in US intentions when he took a phone call from Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen in January. No US president had had direct contact with a Taiwanese leader in 40 years. It was a moment that rocked the Asia-Pacific. He was girding to confront China by favouring Taiwan. But then he meekly retreated to the orthodoxy in a phone call with Xi in February. And now that the two men have stood toe-to-toe and looked each other in the eye? There was no public reference to Taiwan from either side. Taiwan, which seemed to be a bold new US priority in January, doesn't even get a mention in April. What about Trump's message to North Korea? Didn't the missile attack on Syria contan a warning for China's client state? So far the Trump administration is having the greatest difficulty sorting out the meaning of its message to Syria, with officials contradicting each other over the strategy to flow from the strike.
It is tragic that the revised NSW HSC English reading list does not include that classic and still contemporary text The Australian Ugliness by Robin Boyd. In the last century this dangerous book gave me permission to speak out in class about the concept of visual amenity, a comprehension still well beyond the capacity of most Australians. It allowed me to describe cities where power transmission lines and telephone infrastructure are all underground. Where controls are placed on advertising signage and shopkeepers understand that less is more; where one sign that can actually be seen is worth more than an uncontrolled riot of competitive eyesores. Places where a thousand no-standing signs on poles are replaced by a couple of kerbside red or yellow lines. Images of densely populated European cities that still convey a sense of spaciousness, preserve their architectural heritage and treasure their urban green woodlands. I often feel I can hear Robin Boyd turning in his grave upon reading the CT letters page content on Canberra's never-ending planning disaster.
We are desperate for texts that expand our children's consciousness to consider their built environment and natural world. Ronald Elliott, Sandringham, Vic Gains in power play T. J. Marks (Letters, 4 April) ignores gains from the deal between the Nick Xenophon Team and the Turnbull government. Most important is the solar thermal power station to be built at Port Augusta.
This flagship solar thermal plant is a no-brainer. It was promised before the last general election by Labor, Liberals and the Greens. If the recent deal gets it over the finish line, it will be a significant first for this important technology in Australia. Electricity generation accounts for two-fifths of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Solar thermal and wind provided the backbone of the blueprint for an improved national electricity grid, published by Beyond Zero Emissions, University of Melbourne in 2010. Solar thermal captures and stores solar energy as heat, converting it to electricity on demand. Like hydro and battery storage, it stabilises the grid like a coal-fired power station, but without the emissions. The major task for Australia is to get serious about reducing emissions. Tinkering with company tax rates is like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. David Teather, Reid
Imperfect but robust Tony Wright ("A rudderless nation lives on pipe dreams" Forum, April 1, p2), an experienced and usually astute political commentator, wrongly attributes flaws and inadequacies in our federal politicians to perceived flaws in the Australian political system. He says, "... plenty of Australians today have given up on the hope that the nation's political system can meet their basic expectations." It would be better to say that, increasingly, many of us seriously question the ability of the government, as well as Labor and other members of Parliament to live up to their responsibilities. That is, to develop, debate intelligently and implement policies to prepare the country for a more complex and difficult future. The political system, broadly defined, includes constitutional provisions, such as the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, as well as voting procedures, free (but responsible) speech and so on. This may be unruly and imperfect, but it is robust and long-lived.
Right now it is not being tested to anything like its capabilities. Looking at the political mayhem in the United States, we can be glad that the framers of our constitution leaned more to the Westminster model than to the congressional one. What we have must be put to better use. David Townsend, Curtin Just a little word I invite Alan Shroot to consider the effect of changing just one word in one part of his letter of Wednesday, April 5 ("Clamorous critics of Israel should try the undemocratic neighbours").
"... it is really just the right of the Jewish [insert 'Palestinian'] people to their own state in their homeland, a right held and exercised by many other peoples." Peter Dark, Queanbeyan, NSW Community intolerance towards public housing disheartening Weston Creek residents are opposing public housing proposals. Having lived in Canberra for some 73 years, I am becoming increasingly disappointed and disheartened at the intolerance being shown by many in the community. Front page headlines in the Canberra Times ("Mawson residents vent over public housing", April 6, p.1) almost made me weep.
I keep thinking what a beautiful city this was, both in community spirit and environmentally, when it fitted neatly into the valley bounded by Mt Ainslie, Black Mountain and Red Hill. Don't those who live in Mawson, Chapman and other "southern" suburbs realise what their homes were built on parkland and open space. This city was developed with "public housing" the private sector didn't want to know about it in its early days and many (now well-off) residents got their start in home ownership by being allocated a humble "guvvie" which they could then purchase. So what would these "venting residents" have potential public housing tenants do? Be homeless? Live in cars? Pitch tents in the park? Exactly what? Yes, there are inconsiderate and irresponsible people living in public housing, but there are many more who are considerate and responsible members of our Canberra community.
Give them a chance. There are obviously just as many home-owning people who don't want to participate in building a community. H. Merritt, Downer Let's fight crass sale I for one am prepared to challenge in a court of law, the crass commercial sale of the very important matching Anzac Park East and West buildings and the land they stand on ("Landmark sites to be sold", April 5, p1). They're located prominently inside the National Triangle on Constitution Avenue, symmetrically placed about and very close to Anzac Parade, itself on the Land Axis of Canberra (Mt. Bimberi to Mt. Ainslie, passing through Parliament House and the War Memorial), in the world-acclaimed Central National Area of the national capital of Australia.
Virtually nowhere in the world would such buildings and sites be allowed to be summarily sold off to property developers. Doubly worse, money is the only consideration and private residential is a permitted and clearly preferred use. The National Capital Authority (NCA) will try to control the design of any replacement buildings, but for sure, lucre will prevail, virtually guaranteeing an embarrassingly prosaic and likely shoddy outcome. At the very least, development on the twin sites must remain as exemplary public buildings and spaces, with a properly constituted and fully briefed design competition held for any redevelopment, attracting the greatest architects in the world. The NCA should be the design and construction authority, not the Department of Finance or its agent.
Jack Kershaw, Kambah Apparently the Burley Griffins drew the Parliamentary Triangle to be symbolic of our federation and democracy. How forward thinking. The sale of East and West Blocks matches perfectly with its 21st century manifestation. The princes on the hill, neighbours with influential financiers and developers and business on the next rung. The Old Parliament left to moulder with the original inhabitants and a base of the people and knowledge and arts next to the water. At least they don't drown with climate change (the lake will dry out before it floods) but they know the loss of wealth, of dignity, of influence.
And in perfect symmetry, the princes never rejoin the people. They just go down a rung to work for the wealthy Blockers. See, all righteous and inevitable like a medieval aristocracy. Eric Pozza, Red Hill Trolley gold mining Belconnen's Woolies and Coles have devised a fitness routine for their shoppers once they have finished their purchases.
They have placed locks on their trolleys which can only be accessed by the insertion of a gold coin into the appropriate orifice. Once the groceries have been loaded into the family car, the exercise regime begins. We all want to retrieve our gold coin. This exercise requires us to find a similar trolley which has been hooked up to similar trolleys. Now human nature being as it is, a measure of bastardry is in the mind of some shoppers. They will attach a small trolley to a larger one so that no further larger one can be attached for the purpose of retrieving your coin. There are many combinations and permutations re these acts of bastardry which causes a shopper to trek from bay to bay looking for a trolley with whom he can mate his own.
Sometimes the quest becomes impossible and we are required to walk all the way back to the store where we find rows of big and small trolleys which will accept our own. Our coin is retrieved! By this time we are thoroughly knackered but happy in the knowledge that the big end of town has our fitness as well as our wallet in mind. John Quinn, Spence Spain gets us on track So, a company in poor old Spain has taken it upon itself to get Australia's trains out of last century ("Two-hour train ride between Canberra and Sydney on the cards", April 6, p2).
Amazing how a country with over 20per cent unemployment and almost at war against the second most powerful English speaking country in the world can harbour companies that go around the world building fast train lines in populous and, some of them, wealthy nations, often offering to do the job for a song. Why don't we get them to build the fast train between Brisbane and Melbourne? Are they building the light rail in Canberra? If not, why not? John Rodriguez, Florey Bravo humane Brown
Bravo to Phil Brown for his eloquent reminder that we're talking about people here. ("Why do Canberrans care more about refugees than public-housing tenants?", April 6, p.7) If Brown ever runs for office, his dignity, honour, and respect have sure earned my vote. Judy Bamberger, O'Connor TO THE POINT ATTACK A POLL BOOST?
The Trump administration has seized on allegations the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad carried out a gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-controlled province of Idlib to push for a further escalation of military conflict in the Middle East. How obvious is this at a time when Trump needs a boost to his leadership? Rhys Stanley, Hall, NSW DETECTORS LACKING Why in this age of technology can't intelligence agencies detect a nerve gas attack? They can't be trying too hard, or are told not to. Where are Claire Danes and Matt Damon when you really need them moved on to the next piece of fiction? Gary Frances, Bexley, NSW
THE LADY SADDENS How disappointing that Aung San Suu Kyi should deny in a BBC interview the ethnic cleansing of Myanmar's Muslim minority. "I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening," Suu Kyi said. Felicity Chivas, Scullin BIGOTS BE DAMNED Jan Gulliver (Letters, April 6) says we should restrict freedom of expression because of the nastiness that infects social media. We now silence ourselves because we have no stomach to resist a handful of bigots? The cure is worse than the ill.
H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW AWASH IN GRAVY There would be a lot of Bob Days in one degree or another in Canberra who should, but won't, be kicked off the gravy train. The rules only apply to those who aren't in the club. D. J. Fraser, Currumbin, Qld A SORRY SITUATION
ActewAGL CEO Michael Costello's apology (Letters, April 6) was welcome. The Minister for Inhumane Services, Alan Tudge, should now apologise to the low-income earners his department has fraudulently demanded repayments from. Susan MacDougall, Scullin ACTION NOT BLUSTER Shouting at Bill Shorten doesn't cut it. What the nation is looking for is leadership. Malcolm, now is a good time to reflect and change direction before the next sitting of Parliament. Just saying. Jeff Bradley, Isaacs
The leaders of the world's two most powerful nations both came out winners from their weekend summit but for reasons that had little to do with the substance of US-China relations. For that, Australians can rest somewhat easier at least for now.
For Chinese President Xi Jinping, the summit long on ceremony and short on substantive outcomes provided just about everything he could have wanted. Spending nearly 24 hours in Palm Beach with an unpredictable host, he came out of the meetings unscathed. He enjoyed all the respect, equal treatment and chummy photo-ops the occasion could offer. He took no questions from the press and had no unscripted or awkward moments.
Xi would also be pleased with how the meetings were described by US President Donald Trump and his senior officials in vague but very upbeat and uncontentious terms. We learnt from the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, that the two leaders had "positive, productive meetings" and they agreed to "work in concert to expand areas of co-operation while managing differences based on mutual respect". That is soothing music to Xi's ears.
Perhaps most importantly for Xi, he apparently did not need to deliver any "housewarming gifts" to his host, nor did Trump apparently extract any. There were "frank and candid" exchanges on trade, on North Korea, maritime security in the East and South China Seas, and human rights. But in the end Xi gave no concessions on any of these issues. He is no doubt relieved that he did not have to say a word in public either to the media or in the form of a joint statement on any of the difficult questions which divide the US and China.
Just how long, hard and gruelling the fightback has been is evidenced by the detritus of war beside the road as our old, battered vehicle heads north, towards the insurgents' last main stronghold and second-largest city in Iraq, Mosul.
Three years ago, Daesh fighters of the so-called Islamic State flew down this highway on their way to besiege the capital, Baghdad. With pick-up trucks sprouting heavy machine guns, they enveloped and bypassed a succession of defensive positions. The Iraqi army melted away.
I understand, now, why the general recommended I fly to the battle front. I also know why the sergeant driving me is utterly non-plussed.
The 400-odd kilometres of dusty, pock-marked road from Baghdad to Mosul is dry, barren and littered with the detritus of battle. Although cleared of obvious insurgent activity, this desolate place remains an uncontrollable nowhere land. The barren, scarred landscape is marked by devastation all the way.
Displaced women carry possessions as they flee from their homes during fighting in west Mosul. Credit:Carl Court
Progress in the fight here is measured, quite literally, room-by-room. The current focus is the al-Nuri Mosque, because it was here, nearly three years ago, that insurgent leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed his caliphate. Peering through a hole in the masonry from an advanced Iraqi position, it's possible to see this building that was once the rebel movement's symbolic heart. Gaze for too long, though, and you risk a sniper's shot or worse: the sudden launch of a remote propelled grenade, spiralling its way through the air towards you.
The soldiers move forward carefully, trying not to disturb any fallen masonry that might be hiding a bomb, or accidentally move something that triggers a mine. This house has been taken but not cleared, and improvised explosive devices might be anywhere.
How harmless that sounds: "improvised", almost as if it's been flung together like a piece of art. Then you see the victims' maimed bodies. Yet they're the lucky ones. There's no guarantee that soldiers or (particularly) civilians will arrive at a field hospital within the "golden hour" that's vital for increasing any chance of survival, particularly if shrapnel has ripped through the soft organs of the lower body. A stomach wound is the soldiers' constant terror; the risk they'll be left watching their life slipping away, drip by drip.
Just before I squatted down to write this, a government helicopter was shot out of the sky. Rumours that the insurgents might be running low on ammunition sound like a sick joke here on the frontline. This explains the slow pace of advance, punctuated only by the sharp crack of a rifle or sudden blast of explosive.
Malcolm Turnbull is right. His government was returned to office in the election last July. It was a victory but a pyrrhic one.
The margin was slim a net loss of 14 seats for a one-seat majority in the lower house. The Senate outcome was hardly the boost the Prime Minister might have wanted after calling a double dissolution election.
Malcolm Turnbull cautioned his party against a drift to the right. Credit:Paul Jeffers
As a result, Mr Turnbull's hold on the Liberal leadership was weakened.
From a position of strength as long-time would-be challenger to Tony Abbott, and approval ratings of 69 per cent just after he won the September 2015 leadership contest, Mr Turnbull has struggled. If the Fairfax-Ipsos opinion polling is accurate, as Prime Minister he has lost the support of about 40 per cent of people, with his approval rating now at 40 per cent.
"We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two US Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean," Brian Williams of MSNBC extolled on Thursday night, as the bright arc of a missile launch flashed across the screen. "I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen, 'I am guided by the beauty of our weapons'."
Williams was not alone in viewing the Syria bombing as a moment worthy of solemn praise. CNN's Fareed Zakaria who, like Williams, has been sharply critical of Donald Trump said as the bombs fell, "I think Donald Trump became president of the United States" that night.
Illustration: Andrew Dyson
At the New York Times and the Associated Press, the missile strike did more than crater the Al Shayrat airfield. It carved out a new Trump doctrine, a foreign policy based on flexibility. Which is one way of describing the president's abrupt about-face on his America-first foreign-policy prescriptions. According to the White House, televised images of gassed children caused Trump to shed his Syria-skepticism, transforming him into a hero of neoconservatives and liberal interventionists.
But is this the start of a Trump doctrine? It's understandable that people would be searching for one. Doctrines rationalise and provide structure, something sorely needed in an administration thus far defined by its unpredictability and incoherence.
As the then prime minister, Mr Abbott had set an ambitious 12 month timetable on the talks in 2014 after his speedy success in inking trade deals with Japan, China, and South Korea.
On his first official visit to the economic powerhouse in waiting, Mr Turnbull has also warned businesses they must be realistic about what deals can be achieved with India.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says a potentially lucrative free trade agreement with India is now on the backburner, effectively declaring Tony Abbott's dream of an express negotiation phase had been unrealistic.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India on Monday. Credit:Andrew Meares
"It is a process that will take some time, you know, India has a long tradition of protection, particularly for agriculture, of course we are a huge agricultural exporter, so we want to have open markets for everything, but in particular for agriculture, so it will take time. But the important thing is to persevere and I think that you can see that the trade between our two countries is growing all the time, there are more opportunities arising," Mr Turnbull said.
"We will pursue continued growth in trade between Australia and India, there's no point setting a target for an agreement without having regard to the quality. You know you can sign an agreement anytime, it's a question of whether it's got the provisions that make it valuable and worthwhile from Australia's point of view," he said.
The downbeat statement - something of a reality check - accompanied renewed hopes of increased Australian involvement in India's energy market due to increased exports of coal from the Adani mine, as well as new exports of uranium, natural gas, and renewable energy technology.
On the first day of his state visit to India, the Australian Prime Minister talked up the "extraordinary achievements" of India and flagged increased Australian access to the country's burgeoning energy and education markets but admitted that sticking points in bilateral talks meant an actual deal was some time away.
The Turnbull government's powerful expenditure review committee has discussed axing one of Tony Abbott's first major policy achievements, the work-for-the-dole program.
But a group of backbench MPs have lobbied Treasurer Scott Morrison as part of a rearguard action to save it, with one describing work for the dole as "red meat for the base" and warning that axing it would infuriate the party's conservative supporters.
Fairfax Media has been told axing work for the dole was discussed when the budget razor gang met last week but a final decision has not been made.
The proposal to axe the policy, introduced by Mr Abbott in 1998 as a junior minister in the Howard government, was floated as the Turnbull government continues to hunt for savings.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has indicated a tax on empty housing stock could be in the May budget, along with plans to encourage elderly Australians to downsize their homes.
He also left the door open to allowing first home buyers to raid their superannuation to fund a deposit, and said further tightening on regulations for foreign investors had "his very close attention".
Speaking ahead of an agenda-setting address on housing affordability on Monday, Mr Morrison ruled out changes to negative gearing and labelled Labor's plans to cut negative gearing "cruel".
"Negative gearing has been around for a century. It's an established structural component of Australia's housing market; if they are going to pull the rug out, who is going to put a roof over people's head," he told ABC Radio.
See if you can pick it. The economy-wide plan calls for a halt to new coal-fired generators and a tripling of renewable energy generation within five years to deliver 175GW of green power in a bid to clear the air and curb sky-rocketing greenhouse emissions.
South Australia? Denmark? China even? No. It's India.
But isn't India hungry for as much Australian coal as it can get with one of its companies, Adani, developing the world's largest coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin?
Yes, but that is only part of the India picture.
Oliver Curtis, husband of Sydney publicist Roxy Jacenko, was put in 24 hours of cell detention last month after he and two others became involved in a non-physical argument at Cooma Correctional Centre.
The 31-year-old father-of-two was convicted of insider trading in a high-profile trial last year.
He was sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison, to be released on a good behaviour bond after one year.
But could this altercation have an impact on his June 24 release?
Well here's one out of the box. There is only one word to describe Bistro Officina, and that's character. Buckets of it. You can wrap it around you like a hand-knitted scarf; you can warm your mitts by its fire; you can taste it in the wood-fired bread and the smoky butter.
Somebody here is cooking without rules, finding elegance in rawness and serving "left-overs" as if they were luxuries. The taramasalata has character; all rich, lemony-bitey cod's roe, darkly dusted and pooled with oil, served with crisp wakame crackers like shards of tree bark. The floor staff have character a pro team cheerily determined that you have a good time.
Chef Nicola Coccia and his French wife, Alexandra Coccia. Credit:Edwina Pickles
The space in a wing of a wall-papered, creaking-floored country hotel has character, booming with the happy noise of boisterous diners. It's like a page torn from design guru Neale Whitaker's style files, with its natural, rustic, earthy tones; dark wooden share tables and deer antler chandeliers, fireside lounge and monochromatic Thomas Bucich artworks.
Views are of both car park and Bowral's finest asset established trees of every shade of green and the kitchen is wreathed in smoke, with its wood-fired oven, grills, rotisserie and smoker.
As Alison Boston begins the hunt for a school for her four-year-old daughter Sadie, she knows one thing: she won't choose one that forces girls to wear skirts or dresses.
"There's no workplace in Australia that requires women to wear skirts and dresses," said the mother of two from the Sydney suburb of Mosman.
"It's an archaic stereotype that has no place in our schools.
"There's been plenty of research that suggests girls are less inclined to do playground activity if they're made to wear skirts.
Taxpayers will have to foot a bill worth many millions of dollars for a computer network linking the homes of Canberra public servants left behind by the forced relocation of the pesticides authority to Armidale.
As a Parliamentary inquiry into the bitterly contested "decentralization" of the agency begins in Canberra on Tuesday, Labor says the move will cost taxpayers much more than the officially estimated $26 million.
The Nationals appear unwilling to try to lure business to the bush. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Nearly $300,000 has already been put aside just to develop a business case for the "digital strategy" underpinning the move of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to the New England electorate of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
The strategy is about setting up a secure computer network linking the Canberra houses of dozens of APVMA regulatory scientists who are flatly refusing to leave the capital and start their lives again in regional NSW.
He is serving a prison sentence over his secret business dealings at Circular Quay.
Now Eddie Obeid's family has been hauled into court to answer questions about the cash profits from two harbourside cafes at the centre of the trial.
The former NSW Labor minister's wife of 51 years, Judith Obeid, appeared in the witness box in the Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday to give evidence about how the money was spent.
Asked who was running the cafes, Mrs Obeid insisted she "really had no knowledge of my sons' business whatsoever".
Two nurses at Wyong Hospital were held hostage by a patient with a meat cleaver in a terrifying incident over the weekend that has once again highlighted issues with security in the state's hospitals.
Fifteen months after the state government promised to tackle sky-rocketing rates of drug-induced violence in emergency departments, 30 new security guards have been hired, well short of the 300-person shortfall identified by the Health Services Union.
Wyong Hospital will remain in the hands of the state government. Credit:Aaron Brown
On Friday, a female nurse was allegedly taken hostage by Craig Matthew Moore, 28, who came into Wyong Hospital's triage section at about 5.15pm demanding to see a psychiatrist.
He allegedly held a knife to her throat and warned security guards to get out, it's understood.
The NSW government will spend $60 million to relieve chronic congestion at Sydney's second-largest business precinct at Macquarie Park as the temporary shutdown of the Epping-to-Chatswood rail line looms late next year.
The first stage of the road project to begin this year involves upgrades to intersections in an attempt to improve bus running times ahead of the shut down of the rail line for seven months while it is converted to carry single-deck metro trains.
The first 700 metres of an extra three kilometres of bus lanes will be installed over the next year in and around the precinct, which is home to Macquarie University, a large shopping centre and a raft of large businesses such as Optus.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the work would assist in easing pressure during the closure of the 13km stretch of rail line, when buses would be used to move thousands of people each day between stations.
Before Dorothy Waite died at 96, she donated her body to Sydney University hoping it would help doctors find a cure for a disease, even the dementia that affected her final days.
Her remains are among a vast collection of human tissue and specimens from more than 20,000 people donated to science and medicine, gathered by government, health and other institutions over the past 200 years.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard shaking hands with Cooper Hodges, the grandson of Mrs Ingram, at the opening of Woronora's Wonderfully Made Memorial. Credit:Woronora Cemetery
They will now be remembered at Wonderfully Made Memorial at Woronora Cemetery, opened this week by health minister Brad Hazzard.
"We owe them our health," said Dr Marie Dziadek, chief medical officer of The Garvan Institute of those bodies were studied by scientists.
An aspiring rapper who allegedly chowed down on two lobster mornays, 21 oyster shooters and a baby octopus before running off into the surf without paying claims the restaurant should be apologising to him.
Terry Peck, 33, was accused of tucking into a $621 meal at a Gold Coast seafood restaurant on Sunday afternoon, washed down with Corona beers, before police boarded jet skis to chase him into the ocean.
Aspiring Gold Coast rapper Terry Peck - aka 2pec. Credit:Facebook
The man, known as 2pec to his 56 fans on music website ReverbNation, was granted bail after appearing in the Southport Magistrates Court on Monday morning and has since been relentlessly trolled online.
Outside court, Mr Peck gave a frank assessment of his seafood feast at Omeros Bros Seafood Restaurant in Surfers Paradise.
Divers from the army and police have been called in to search for clues into the presumed murder of Brisbane man Wayne Youngkin as police revealed they were considering whether the killer could be dead.
Family members, while not considered suspects, were also not being ruled out as police kept all options open in a major investigation into the 31-year cold case, only reopened when Mr Youngkin's skeleton was found in the septic tank of his former home last year.
Police circulated this image of Wayne Youngkin, who went missing in 1986 and whose remains were found in Brighton in November. Credit:Queensland Police Service
It has emerged there was more than a six-year gap between the 29-year-old's last public sighting, in 1986, and him being reported missing.
Following a post-mortem, Detective Inspector Tim Trezise said the skeleton was found with "significant trauma".
Jules Lund expanded his influencer business Tribe to the United Kingdom last week on the back of a $5.3 million funding injection from Exto Partners.
The former television and radio celebrity is the founder of the online marketplace which connects brands with influencers.
Anthony Svirskis, chief executive of Tribe and founder Jules Lund in London.
Tribe launched in Australia 16 months ago and has connected 2000 brands with 10,000 influencers paying out over $2 million to these influencers along the way.
Brands pay Tribe 20 per cent of the money paid to influencers and Tribe also brings in additional revenue through content licensing fees when brands buy the content created by influencers.
Potentially boosting fibre to the home speeds 100-fold, NBN's latest fibre trials also promise a backend overhaul to ease traffic jams across the entire network.
While the switch to the Multi-Technology Mix has fragmented the nationwide rollout, NBN is looking to the future with plans to upgrade several of the broadband technologies used to reach Australian homes and businesses. Those with fibre running all the way to the premises still look destined to enjoy some of the fastest speeds, with Next-Generation Passive Optical Network 2 (NG-PON2) fibre trials underway but no firm commitment as to if or when the technology will be introduced in Australia.
NBN's NG-PON2 fibre trials promise to benefit all NBN users, not just those relying on fibre to the premises. Credit:Glenn Hunt
NBN's current GPON fibre technology delivers up to 2.5Gbps download speeds over a single fibre strand, with 1Gbps uploads. As a wholesaler NBN already offers 1Gbps fibre to the premises download speeds but Retail Service Providers (RSPs) such as Telstra and Optus are yet to embrace them and only offer 100Mbps consumer plans.
The next generation XGS-PON fibre technology can hit speeds of 10/10 Gbps over the same fibre strand but NBN is already trialling NG-PON2 which quadruples the speeds of XGS-PON by sending multiple wavelengths of light down a single strand of fibre a technique known as Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexing (TWDM).
A dangerous arsonist who practised what he preached online has been jailed for 14 years in a case a judge said had exposed the vulnerability of the justice system.
Brendan Davies' case first came before the County Court more than three years ago, but his constant delaying tactics as a self-represented accused meant the trial did not start until last year. When it did, 70 days of pre-trial argument took place in front of a judge, before a jury was selected.
A jury then sat for 61 days - listening to Davies' rigorous cross-examination of witnesses - before it found the 38-year-old guilty of five counts of arson over the five fires he lit over a fortnight in early 2011.
Davies continued to be argumentative even on Monday as he asked to address judge Gerard Mullaly. After he was ordered to serve at least 12 years and three months in prison, he protested that most of the jurors had returned to court to watch when they were entitled to be there.
How do you approach a teenager who wants to drink alcohol? Let them have a glass at home European style or ban it completely?
Like many parents, Ritchie Hewett takes the view that banning something only increases its appeal.
Ritchie Hewett and daughter Eartha. Credit:Eddie Jim
He prefers to trust his daughter Eartha, who is turning 16 next month, to act responsibly.
"It's much better to be reasonable and have an open and rational discussion," Ritchie says. "It's just a part of life."
A popular student pub on Swanston Street could be one of the first business casualties of the Andrews government's $10.9 billion rail tunnel under the city centre.
Contractor John Holland is earning more than $320 million for works to kick-start the massive rail tunnel, which will run from Kensington under the CBD to South Yarra.
Malcolm Wulf, the publican at the Oxford Scholar Hotel, in front of his pub on Swanston Street. Credit:Eddie Jim
Less fortunate is the Oxford Scholar Hotel, opposite RMIT, at the corner of Swanston and A'Beckett streets.
Its publican, Malcolm Wulf, says he is losing between $3000 and $5000 in drink sales each week as a result of bulldozers, jackhammers and construction works that started in January.
Two men, one of whom has a suspected gunshot wound, are assisting police after reports of shots being fired south of Perth on Monday.
Mandurah Detectives are investigating the incident in Secret Harbour at around 2pm.
A man armed with a knife has threatened a female postal worker in Kingston at lunch time on Monday. Credit:Marina Neil/Fairfax Media
Police were called to a home on Noosa Drive after possible shots were fired at the house.
"On arrival police located damage to a window that appeared to have been caused by a projectile," a police spokeswoman said.
PERTH, April 10 AAP - A 28-year-old man has been charged over a fatal crash on the weekend in which a 28-year-old woman died.
A Peugeot convertible and a Ford 4WD collided on the Brand Highway near Dongara north of Perth at about 6.30am on Saturday.
A 28-year-old man from Swan View, who was the driver of the Peugeot, has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning death. Credit:Rohan Thomson
A 28-year-old woman from Mullewa, who was a passenger in the Peugeot, died.
The driver of the Peugeot and both occupants of the Ford were injured.
San Bernardino: A teacher and an eight-year-old boy were shot and killed Monday morning at an elementary school in San Bernardino after the teacher's husband opened fire inside a special needs classroom before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Cedric Anderson, 53, of Riverside, entered a classroom at North Park Elementary School and opened fire on his wife, Karen Elaine Smith, about 10.30am before taking his own life, according to San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.
Two students standing behind Smith were also shot, police said. The boy, identified as Jonathan Martinez, was airlifted to Loma Linda Medical Centre, where he was later pronounced dead. A nine-year-old student who was wounded remains hospitalised in stable condition, Burguan said.
The shooting occurred in a special education classroom for students with intellectual disabilities, said San Bernardino Unified School District spokeswoman Maria Garcia. There were 15 students from the first through fourth grades in the room, and two adult aides, Burguan said.
Jakarta: More than 60 people were sentenced to death in Indonesia last year but proposed changes to the country's penal code could save the lives of future prisoners if they can demonstrate good behaviour.
In a sign Indonesia is slowly edging away from capital punishment, the House of Representatives is poised to pass a revised criminal code, which, a lawmaker told Fairfax Media, would "give hope" to those facing execution.
Activists hold posters which read "Jokowi, stop the executions" during a candlelight vigil outside the presidential palace in Jakarta last year. Credit:AP
Indonesia's Law and Human Rights Minister, Yasonna Laoly, is optimistic the revised penal code will be passed mid-year. A clause would allow death sentences to be commuted to imprisonment if felons could show they had reformed.
However, it will provide little succour to the more than 215 people currently facing the firing squad including British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford as laws in Indonesia are not applied retrospectively.
Did the missile strike make the United States any safer? It's hard to argue that it did, unless you're going to claim that only showing the US is "strong" will deter its enemies. But given the fact that every US president in modern times has invaded someplace or bombed someplace or both, the idea that terrorists around the world are waiting for signs of American weakness before deciding to attack us is something only a child (or, let's be honest, a president) with no understanding of history could possibly believe. Does the administration know whether it wants Assad to go or not? Every time someone from the administration is asked whether regime change is the US policy, they say something slightly different. Before the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said that the US wasn't seeking Assad's ouster. Now they're saying something different. "Regime change is something that we think is going to happen," Haley said on Sunday, while Tillerson said there had been no change in US policy, and brought up Libya as a cautionary tale of how regime change can go wrong. When National Security Adviser HR McMaster was asked on Fox News Sunday to clarify things, he said that both Haley and Tillerson are right, and went on:
"And so, to do that, what's required is some kind of a political solution to that very complex problem. And what Ambassador Haley pointed out is it's very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime. "Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to affect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves, what are we doing here? Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population and using the most heinous weapons available? "So, I think that while people are really anxious to find inconsistencies in the statements, they are in fact very consistent in terms of what is the ultimate political objective in Syria." So: it is the policy of the Trump administration that Assad has to go, but we're not going to be the ones to make it happen. I should also note that FNS host Chris Wallace asked McMaster directly whether it was the administration's policy that as long as Assad kills civilians with conventional weapons we won't do anything about it, and McMaster essentially said yes without saying yes, by repeating what a "strong message" we had sent to Assad about chemical weapons.
Does the administration have any coherent policy on Syria at all? Actually, it seems it does. Here's the simplified version: 1. The first priority is defeating ISIS. 2. If Assad uses chemical weapons against civilians, we'll launch some missiles at a military base; if he uses conventional weapons against civilians, we probably won't do anything. 3. You might think that's a good policy or a bad policy, but it isn't hard to understand.
Does the administration have a coherent foreign policy in general? One of the reasons the strike in Syria was significant is that it seemed to be in contradiction to Trump's "America First" doctrine. We're told , whether it's true or not (I'm skeptical), that Trump undertook this strike because he was so moved by photos of the victims of the attack in Khan Sheikhoun. That means it was about taking a moral stance, not just figuring out what was in the narrow interests of the United States. Foreign policy "doctrines" are overrated - being able to reduce your policy to a bumper sticker-sized slogan doesn't mean that it's any wiser or more effective than one that can't be described so succinctly. But it does help to have some guiding principles that help everyone - your own government, Congress, both allies and adversaries overseas - understand what you're trying to achieve. And it doesn't appear that there's much of a structure underlying US policy, beyond whatever President Trump thinks of what he saw on cable news that day. So here's a prediction: within a matter of weeks or even days, Syria is going to fade from the American media and political agenda. On the ground there, civilians will keep dying, but in the US we'll go back to thinking of it as a terrible tragedy, but not something we can do much about (which isn't entirely wrong). And President Trump's missile strike will look less like a masterstroke of strength and resolve, and more like what it really was: a purely symbolic act with virtually no effect on the ground. Loading
Was agreement signed with AES in Dominican Republic for L&G Gas?
PHILIPSBURG: --- It appears as though the Minister of VROMI Christopher Emmanuel is sleeping on the job. There are numerous matters that need the Ministers attention at the Government owned company GEBE.
The Minister is supposed to appoint a member to the Supervisory Board, already he selected Claudius Buncamper for the position but it is understood that the Minister is being blocked by at least one member of the Council of Ministers to make the appointment. So far the seat vacated by now MP Romeo Pantophlet is not yet filled.
Besides that the current chairman of the Supervisory Board who is also the policy advisor at VROMI has been on sick leave for over a month now, yet the chairman Roy Marlin and other members of the Supervisory Board travelled with the management board to Jamaica to look at a Liquified Natural Gas (L&G) plant for engine 20. SMN News learned that the team from GEBE went to Jamaica Power Services (JPS) that is offering top of the line services. They traveled back to St. Maarten on Saturday.
However, it is still questionable why the Chairman of the Supervisory Board would travel on GEBE's expenses to micro-manage while being on sick leave? And what is the Minister doing about this kind of abuse of power at the government-owned company? Isn't this giving the Dutch government ammunition to push at all cost for the integrity chamber?
The question remains if the supervisory board of GEBE is micro-managing the government owned company and even if the members of the board went along with the management board, how is it possible for the chairman to go along while being on sick leave from his government job?
While researching this information SMN News learned that at least two members of the Supervisory Board namely the chairman Roy Marlin, Patrice Gumbs along with the Chief Executive Officer Kenrick Chittick travelled to the Dominican Republic at the end of January 2017 where they visited a company AES and allegedly a so-called agreement was signed with that company for the L &G plant. Noteworthy is that the leader of the UPP also met with the management of AES in the Dominican Republic to also work out an agreement with AES but that too fell apart when the UPP lost support in government.
Several persons are now questioning if certain Supervisory Board members at GEBE are traveling at the expense of GEBE to monitor what management is doing or are they micromanaging the company. Another question is the competency of the Management board which SMN News already wrote about in a previous article.
The Minister responded to questions by SMN News over a month ago about the health condition of the chairman and if he is medically fit to do the heavy work he is supposed to do at GEBE. Minister Emmanuel said back then that he would consider a medical evaluation of the chairman who was hospitalized not so long ago, but since then the Minister seemingly went to sleep on the matter.
ST. EUSTATIUS:--- The government of St. Eustatius (Clyde van Putten) surprised the Dutch Government on Monday morning when they sent a letter to the Kingdom Council of Ministers, Minister of Interior and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk, the second chamber and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte informing them of the decision the Island Council of St. Eustatius has taken based on Sint Eustatius right to a "full measure of self-government" as laid out in the UN Charter and relevant UN resolutions, certain planned and enacted legislation (e.g. the WoiBES, and the draft legislation to permanently embed St. Eustatius into the Dutch Constitution), as well as measures (e.g. the preliminary supervision and other types of unlawful interference by the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Internal Affairs of St Eustatius) imposed on the Government and people of St Eustatius by the Government of the Netherlands as of October lOth, 2010, clearly manifest an intrinsic inconsistency or conflict with the UN Charter and relevant UN resolutions.
The letter to the Kingdom Council further states that The Island Council of St. Eustatius, exercising its right to a full measure of self-government pursuant to Chapter Xi of the Charter of the United Nations in combination with UN Resolution 742 (VIII) of November 27, 1953:
1. Declares any provision in the WOLBES which is in conflict with St. Eustatius right to a full measure of self-government inoperative.
2. Abolishes the position of governor or Lt. Governor of St. Eustatius effective January 1, 2018
3. Declares that all documents emanating from the Government of St. Eustatius requiring the signature of the governor shall effective immediately be signed by a person designated by the Island Council of St. Eustatius.
4. The Island Council of St. Eustatius decides when a provision in the WOLBES is in conflict with the right to a full measure of self-government.
The decision taken by the Island Council of St. Eustatius came in the wake of ongoing discussions with the Netherlands with their continuous interference, also the fact that the Netherlands has failed to respond to letters sent to them by members of the Island Council. On January 4th, 2017, a letter with reference number 0001/17, was dispatched to you by the Executive Council of Sint Eustatius, including a copy of a related motion of the Island Council of Sint Eustatius of November 30th,2016. Said letter contained a formal petition to stop the process of permanently embedding Sint Eustatius in the Dutch constitution. As far as I have been informed, the Executive Council has not received any reply from you as yet. In a letter to the Executive Council dated February 27th, 2017, the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations did indicate that he expected to respond to the Executive Council's letter to you of January 4th, 2017, "within a few weeks". Since then, and without said answer having been received by the Executive Council, both you and the minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations presented the draft legislation for said embedding of Sint Eustatius in the Dutch constitution to the newly elected Dutch Parliament on March 23rd,2017. This appears to be a clear indication that the petition of January 4th, 2017 has been ignored.
The Dutch Parliament also requested you to inform them about the content of the Executive Council's letter, and your reply to it, no later than February 14th,2017. As far as I have been able to determine, this information has not been provided to the Dutch Parliament.
Meanwhile, as proposed by the Executive Council in a letter dated March 14th, 2017, a process of dialogue between the Executive Council and the Government of the Netherlands is being prepared under the guidance of a committee of four "wise men" appointed jointly by the Governments of Sint Eustatius and the Netherlands. The objective of said dialogue is to come to lasting solutions for the differences of opinion between both Governments, including the manner in which the Government of the Netherlands has dealt with Sent Eustatius' right to self
Determination and full internal self-government. Excerpts are taken from the letter sent by Van Putten to the Dutch Government.
Click here to view the full content of the letter sent to the Kingdom Council on Monday.
PHILIPSBURG:---: On April, 7th 2017, the St. Maarten Toastmasters hosted their territory International Speech and Table Topics contests. Toastmasters is an international non-profit organization that fosters communication and leadership skills through practice, evaluation and training.
Toastmasters Patricia Jardine, Shirma France, Mellissa Grinuva and Sherika Ramsey were victorious in the speech competitions first at club level, then Area level before qualifying to move up to territory level where they vied for the opportunity to represent St. Maarten at the District level.
In the International Speech contest category, Mrs. Patricia Jardine inspired the audience with a call to action to Never give up on your dreams and Mrs. Shirma France presented her winning speech entitled Culture Shock in which she shared her experiences and tips on how to deal with this phenomenon.
In the Table Topics category, Miss Sherika Ramsey and Mrs. Mellissa Grinuva were challenged to provide a 2-minute extemporaneous speech on the statement The dump is on fire. The two speakers presented similar viewpoints on the topic however it was Mrs. Mellissa Grinuva who took home the trophy with a commanding presence.
Mrs. Shirma France and Mrs. Mellissa Grinuva will be representing St. Maarten at District level where they will be competing against Toastmasters from other Caribbean islands during the District 81 Conference hosted in Barbados in May 2017.
In the International Speech Contest category, the winner of the District contest will move on to compete at the Toastmasters International Convention in Canada in August 2017.
Division E Director, Kathia Magdeleine, commends the four participants for having the courage to deliver before an audience. She also congratulates the two winners and encourages others to come out and support them at the conference. Registration can be done through the Caribbean Toastmasters website https://www.caribbeantoastmasters.com/register-for-district-81-conference.
Claim: Babies born in-flight are given free air travel by the airline for the rest of their lives. Rating: About this rating Mostly False
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According to longstanding rumor, a child born in-flight is awarded free air transport on that carrier for the rest of his days. This unwritten rule is whispered as the reason airlines restrict the travel plans of expectant women. After all, if you don't allow the ladies to fly when they're getting close to their time, you never need worry about providing lifetime passes to their kids, right?
For the record, there is no truth to this obligatory lifetime pass thing (although if you read down to the end of this article you'll see some such passes have occasionally been granted, each on a different foreign airline). So forget about suggesting a little trip to your spouse when the due date is imminent.
Trying to get to the bottom of this tale, in 1994 we wrote letters to ten airlines as well as Transport Canada. We heard back from five airlines: Canadian, KLM, Qantas, USAir and Delta.
This legend is not as widespread as other airline tales; personnel at some airlines were aware of it, while those working for other carriers had not previously encountered it. Our experiences on a 1994 Air Canada flight were typical in this regard: While chatting with the flight attendants in the galley (okay, so we were there after another drink, it still counts as research), we discovered two of them had previously heard about this legend, but the other two had not.
What became clear in our dealings with the various airlines was that each of them had different rules regarding the combination of travel and pregnant women. Air Canada's restrictions require a telephone consultation between the expectant mother's doctor and one of their doctors about the physical condition of the potential passenger. Air Canada has reserved the right to refuse passage to anyone it determines is a medical risk. USAir admitted to a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Delta said it too has no restrictions regarding expectant mothers. Up to a woman's 35th week of pregnancy, Qantas requires a "fitness to travel" certificate from her doctor. After the 35th week, a medical clearance is required from Qantas' Director of Medical Services. Canadian (now part of Air Canada) accepted expectant women without restriction up to the 32nd week of pregnancy. During the ninth month, pregnant women were still allowed to fly with Canadian if they could provide medical clearances from their doctors. "However, within seven days of the expected date of delivery, an expectant mother will only be carried as a 'Medevac', accompanied by a qualified attendant," that company said.
The origin of the "lifetime pass" legend probably came about as a fanciful explanation for why some airlines refuse passage to expectant women. It's typical urban legend stuff in that the "powers that be" have the right to restrict Jane Doe's travel plans; therefore, there has to be something else at work here besides concern over the health of the mother and child or any airline's reluctance to deal with a medical emergency at 35,000 feet. Makes more of a story if you can say they don't want to pay out on the "baby born inflight" sweepstakes than to admit it's only reasonable prudence in light of a possible medical situation.
Ah, the joy of urban legends. That normal and reasonable regulations can be explained away by some far-fetched story.
Although the "free air travel for life" regulation does not exist and airlines are under no obligation to reward in-flight deliveries from the stork, at least a few high-flying babies have hit the jackpot. On 6 September 1995, Dararasami Thongcharoen surprised everyone by being born two months ahead of schedule on Thai Airway's flight 641. Dararasami (named for the Boeing 747 her mother was flying on when she gave birth her name means 'Starlight' in English) is now considered a "daughter of Thai Airways." Airline president Thamnoon Wanglee announced that in addition to the special flying privileges, the girl would also receive an educational scholarship from the airline.
Mohd Aliff Mohd Fuad came into the world on an Asia Pacific Airlines flight on 23 May 1996. In recognition of his being the first baby born on that carrier (Asia Pacific began operations on 10 May 1996) and "first" events being viewed as especially lucky in that culture, the company has chosen to celebrate this fortuitous event by sponsoring the lad's education and providing him with free travel for life.
In October 2009, 31-year-old Liew Siaw Hsia went into labor and delivered a boy on an AirAsia flight between two Malaysian islands. The airline announced they would provide both mother and child with free travel on that carrier for life.
In September 2016, a woman flying from Tripoli, Libya to Niamey, Niger, gave birth on Buraq Air flight, and her baby boy was awarded a lifetime of free flights on the Tripoli-based airline, which offers flights within Libya and to destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East
Optymyze to Spotlight Sales Compensation Plan Modeling during 2017 PMSA Annual Conference
CHESTER, PA (Marketwired) 04/10/17
, a worldwide provider of enterprise cloud applications and services for improving sales and channel performance
Will deliver a poster presentation, Prospective Compensation Plan Modeling Leveraging Monte Carlo Simulation, during the .
The conference will take place Sunday, April 23 Wednesday, April 26, 2017. Poster presentations will be displayed on Monday, April 24 from 11:45 a.m. 1:30 p.m. and Tuesday, April 25 from 11:45 a.m. 1:45 p.m. and 5:00 5:30 p.m. EDT.
Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
1 Grand Cypress Blvd.
Orlando, Fla.
Pharmaceutical companies will often spend billions of dollars on sales compensation plans, using plan modeling techniques that lag behind other industries in sophistication and rigor. While the common back-testing approach may have been adequate in the past, there are now more effective ways to model these plans. Rather than rely solely on what happened last year, advanced modeling incorporates backward-looking data to generate assumptions that can be adjusted based on future expectations. This enables scenario-based modeling that can account for many possible factors.
During the 2017 PMSA Annual Conference, Dan Stewart, manager, Professional Services for will deliver a poster presentation about leveraging advanced methods, focusing on the Monte Carlo simulation, as part of compensation plan modeling. Stewart will demonstrate the benefits of the Monte Carlo simulation, which looks at iterations of simulated data to generate a robust set of findings. While commonly used for sales quota sales compensation plan modeling, Stewart will also discuss applications of other underlying techniques for commission plans, ranking plans and more. In addition, this poster presentation will include details about different distributions and other simulation approaches, providing actionable advice to help communicate expected outcomes and risks to stakeholders.
Conference attendees are encouraged to attend the poster sessions to learn more about compensation plan modeling and Optymyze. For event information, visit: .
Optymyze improves sales force performance with enterprise cloud applications, sales operations expertise, and an agile approach to client engagement. We do this by helping companies align sales goals and compensation; efficiently execute sales strategies; quickly drive increases in sales results; and gain visibility into sales performance. By enabling clients to rapidly and efficiently adapt to change, Optymyze turns sales operations into a strategic advantage. Our success has been recognized by Ventana Research for innovations in sales operations management and by Brandon Hall Group with a gold award for advances in sales enablement.
Follow Optymyze at: | | |
Identillect Sees Double Digit Subscriber Growth
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (Marketwired) 04/10/17 Identillect Technologies Corp. (the Company or Identillect) (TSX VENTURE: ID)(OTCQB: IDTLF), a trusted leading provider of SaaS email security today announced that it achieved double-digit subscriber growth over the past two quarters. The Companys growing momentum was driven by adoption of Identillects Delivery Trust email encryption solution by new customers to displace solutions from other vendors. Identillects subscriber base grew by 34 percent from the beginning of Q4 2016 (18.5%) to the end of Q1 2017 (15.5%). Identillect also continued to expand its global reseller network through new strategic technology alliances.
Identillects Delivery Trust is a trusted email security platform which provides businesses of all sizes with the most effective and economical way to protect client personal identifying information and comply with increased regulatory requirements.
Identillect has started 2017 strong. We are focusing our efforts to be the leader in security and data protection for our customers. said Todd Sexton, Identillect CEO. To achieve this goal and to continue to build momentum, we are actively enhancing our product portfolio, expanding our sales teams and reseller networks and continually seeking new opportunities to meet the growing demand for cost effective, compliant cyber security solutions for business.
Recent well-publicized data breaches have put businesses on alert. On average, the cost to business of a data breach has risen to $4 million per incident up 29% since 2013 according to the 2016 Poneman Cost of Data Breach Study. In addition to rising total cost, the average cost per stolen record personally identifiable, payment, or health information about an individual contained in a Companys database, for example the cost per lost record has grown to $158 from $154 last year. Healthcare, a highly-regulated industry that trades in some of the most intimate personal information which can include patient names, medical histories, credit card data, and Social Security Numbers has the highest cost per stolen record at $355.
Theres a simple lesson for businesses: Dont be caught off guard when the next data breach affecting your firm comes to light. When businesses delay the implementation of a solution such as Delivery Trust or implement an inferior solution they run significant risk of being out of regulatory compliance, eroding customer confidence, experiencing a loss of market share, as well as becoming a cyber security statistic.
About Identillect
Identillect (TSX VENTURE: ID)(OTCQB: IDTLF) is a leading provider of proprietary email encryption services. Identillects Delivery Trust email security technology platform empowers individuals and businesses of all sizes a cost effective way to create a more secure digital environment and protect against cyber security risks. Delivery Trust is the industries simplest plug and play security solution with a broad range of features including; state of the art encryption technology, restricting email forwarding and printing, receipt confirmation, limiting time available to view, and retracting sent emails. Delivery Trust is available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and Mac PCs and Laptops and the webs most popular email platforms. Since commercializing the product, Identillect has quickly grown its subscriber base and is becoming recognized in the security industry as a top e-mail security provider. To get more information, visit ; follow us on Twitter or on Facebook @identillecttechnologies.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.
Contacts:
Identillect Technologies Corp.
Todd Sexton
Chief Executive Officer
(949) 468-7878
Investor Relations:
Arlen Hansen
Kin Communications
1-866-684-6730
Imex Systems Signs Agreement With City of Toronto
TORONTO, ONTARIO (Marketwired) 04/10/17 Imex Systems Inc. (Imex or the Company) (TSX VENTURE: IMEX), a software solutions provider to Governments, Municipalities and Public Authorities, is pleased to announce the following new development to its business operations.
The company has recently signed a professional services contract with the City of Toronto. This is a 3-year contract that is effective from Apr 1, 2017 until April 2020. The City and its agencies, will be using Imex for various IT projects that require specific consulting and software development services around various technology projects.
The Company estimates that the value of the contract will be in the range of $6 million CDN over a 3- year period.
Imex has a long history working with Governments in both the Canadian Provincial and Municipal sectors on a variety of technology initiatives.
About Imex Systems
Imex Systems Inc. is a Canadian software products, solutions and services provider to Governments, Municipalities and Public Authorities in Canada and internationally. Imex primarily focuses on the E-Government and Smart Cities market that include payments. It helps public sector entities to provide Any Time, Any Where, Any Device and Any Channel convenience for citizens to access government services and help with digital transformation of government operations and streamline revenue. Imexs various product and service offerings include: iGov a Digital Government Platform for all levels of governments, which provides all the pre-built components for building an effective Digital Government and supporting payment processing through multiple channels; iCity a Smart City Solution; and miGov a Mobile Government Framework.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements, projections and estimates with respect to the adoption of the Companys various platforms by various jurisdictions and the future revenue of the Company. Any statements that involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves 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 such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: the need for approvals from the relevant government body; future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing; the competitive nature of the industry; unproven markets for the Companys product offering; the need for the Company to manage its planned growth and expansion; the effects of product development and need for continued technology change; protection of proprietary rights; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; network security risks; the ability of the Company to maintain properly working systems; use and storage of personal information and compliance with privacy laws; and those risks set out in the Companys public documents filed on .
Although the Company 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 information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by law.
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Imex Systems Inc.
Damodar Arapakota
CEO
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Kremlin officials on Monday publicly distanced themselves from a what appeared to be a threat by commanders on the ground in Syria to attack US interests if the Trump administration orders any more strikes against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The move came in reaction to a statement published by the Assad-friendly Al-Watan newspaper and attributed to the joint command center in Syria that is shared by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah militia and other forces supporting the regime in the ongoing civil war.
Related: Team Trump Still in Search of a Coherent Syria Policy
The aggression against Syria oversteps all red lines, the statement said. We will react firmly to any aggression against Syria and to any infringement of red lines, whoever carries them out.
The statement was plainly a reaction to the decision by President Trump last Thursday to fire 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase in retaliation for the Assad regimes apparent use of chemical weapons against the civilian population of the town of Idlib, an attack that killed dozens, including children. It also came not long after top Trump administration officials said plainly that more attacks against Syria were possible if the regime continues to target civilians.
The strike was a message to Bashar al-Assad that your multiple violations of your agreements at the UN, your agreements under the chemical weapons charter back in 2013 that those would not go without a response in the future, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an interview with ABC News broadcast Sunday morning.
Related: Trump Bombed Syrias Airfield. Now, Here Comes Putins Response
Our objective was to deter continued use of chemical weapons, said National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. Were prepared to do more. However, the Russian leadership, while it condemned the US attack, quickly repudiated the statement published in Al-Watan.
We are not aware about that; we cannot confirm that, and we do not know where Reuters got this and where these anonymous sources appeared from again, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to one of the news wires that reported on the statement.
Story continues
Until the promise of retaliation was published, Russian officials had been very careful in their condemnation of the US attack, claiming that it violated international law, among other things, but not threatening action against the United States.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that the missile attacks had placed the US on the verge of conflict with Russia in a highly critical Facebook post.
Related: Here's What Firing 59 Tomahawk Missiles at Syria's Airfield Cost
The Trump administration proved that it will fiercely fight the legitimate Syrian government, in a tough contradiction with international law and without UN approval, in violation of its own procedures stipulating that the Congress must first be notified of any military operation unrelated to aggression against the US. On the verge of a military clash with Russia.
Medvedev added, This military action is a clear indication of the US Presidents extreme dependency on the opinion of the Washington establishment, the one that the new president strongly criticized in his inauguration speech. Soon after his victory, I noted that everything would depend on how soon Trumps election promises would be broken by the existing power machine. It took only two and a half months.
As a backdrop to this, senior US officials including UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain over the weekend all suggested that US sanctions against Russia should be tightened as a consequence for ongoing Kremlin support for the Assad regime.
The further deterioration of the relationship between Washington and Moscow comes just days before Secretary of State Tillerson is scheduled to visit Russia for high-level talks with senior officials.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
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A shop at Clarks Village in Somerset could be under threat after a fashion chain went into administration.
As many as 700 jobs could be at risk with Jaeger across the UK after the company's directors decided administration was the only option.
Jaeger have appointed AlixPartners to oversee the process following failed attempts by the company's private equity owner, Better Capital, to sell the struggling business.
The fashion chain employs around 680 staff across 46 stores, 63 concessions, its London head office and a logistics centre in Kings Lynn - had been on the market for around 30 million.
However, no buyer materialised and last week Better Capital sold Jaeger's debt to a company understood to be controlled by the retail billionaire Philip Day, who heads up Edinburgh Woollen Mill.
A statement by AlixPartners explained that the request was made after Jaeger was "unable to attract suitable offers despite a lengthy and well-publicised sales process."
Insiders now expect most of Jaeger's stores to close down, although the brand is likely to survive as part of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill stable, which also includes Jane Norman, Peacocks and Austin Reed.
Joint administrator Peter Saville, of AlixPartners, said: "Regrettably despite an extensive sales process it has not been possible to identify a purchaser for the business.
"Our focus now is in identifying an appropriate route forward and work with all stakeholders to do this. We will ensure that we communicate further as this process unfolds."
Better Capital, which is headed up by private equity baron Jon Moulton, acquired Jaeger for 19.5 million in 2012, but the firm has struggled under difficult conditions for high-street fashion retailers.
Last year the firm said that total annual sales fell from 84.2 million to 78.4 million, while it booked a pre-tax loss of 5.4 million, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
Jaeger was founded in 1884 by businessman Lewis Tomalin.
Its Clarks Village branch is at unit 30 of the Somerset shopping centre site in Street. Its opening hours are typically 9am-6pm - except on Thursdays (9am-8pm) and Sundays (10am-5pm).
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A man who claimed to have a knife threatened staff in a Subway store and demanded they put money into a bag.
He handed over a threatening note but never took his hands out of his pockets and no knife was actually seen.
The man left the food chain empty handed when three members of the public entered.
Detectives have released CCTV images of a man they would like to speak to.
Dorset Police are investigating the attempted robbery which happened at around 8.30pm on Friday, March 31, in Southbourne Grove, Bournemouth.
Nobody was physically injured in the incident.
Detective Constable Michelle Lawrence, of Bournemouth CID, said: "Following investigations, I am now in a position to release CCTV images from the store showing the suspect involved.
"I would like to hear from anyone who recognises this man or who has any more information about the incident.
"I would also like to try and identify the three members of the public who entered the store during the incident as they may be able to assist with our inquiries."
Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police via email 101@dorset.pnn.police.uk or by calling 101, quoting reference number 55170047420.
Alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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A man who was found in Yeovil Hospital with a knife in his pocket claimed he had wrongly picked up his friend's jacket and didn't know it was there.
Stephen Joseph Brennan had been arrested by police for unrelated matters and when he was taken to hospital for treatment the knife fell out of his jacket onto the ground.
The 31-year-old defendant, of St Andrews Road, Yeovil, appeared in the dock before Somerset Magistrates where he pleaded not guilty that on February 12 at Yeovil Hospital he had an article with a blade, namely a lock knife.
Defending solicitor Sam Morton said that before his arrest Brennan had been laying some flooring with a friend, he was drunk and had picked up the wrong jacket not knowing that a knife was still in it.
Brennan elected to stand trial at Taunton Crown Court and the case was adjourned until May 8 when he must attend a pre trial hearing there.
In the meantime he was released on unconditional bail.
New Portage Manor may go at current site or near Clay Township Park
Since December 2021, when the planning for a new Portage Manor facility began, the county has paid at least $163,000 to two Fort Wayne firms.
Update for May 17, 2020: The U.S. Space Force's X-37B space plane launched on its sixth mission, OTV-6, on Saturday (May 16).
The U.S. Air Force's unmanned X-37B space plane has flown four clandestine missions to date, carrying secret payloads on long-duration flights in Earth orbit.
The robotic vehicle resembles NASA's famous space shuttle but is much smaller. The X-37B is about 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 9.5 feet (2.9 m) tall, with a wingspan just less than 15 feet (4.6 m). At launch, it weighs 11,000 lbs. (4,990 kilograms).
The X-37B's payload bay (the area in which the cargo is packed) measures 7 feet long by 4 feet wide (2.1 by 1.2 m) about the size of a pickup truck bed. Just what the X-37B carries in there is unclear, however. Air Force officials generally comment only on the overall goals of the program, stressing that each payload is classified. [Photos: The X-37B Space Plane]
"The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth," states an X-37B fact sheet produced by the Air Force.
Like the space shuttle, the solar-powered X-37B space plane launches vertically, with the aid of a rocket, and cruises back to Earth for a runway landing. The diminutive space plane is designed to operate at altitudes ranging from 110 to 500 miles (177 to 805 km).
A Brief History of the X-37B
The X-37 program started in 1999 with NASA, which initially planned to construct two vehicles: an Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV) and an Orbital Vehicle.
NASA transferred the project to the U.S. military in 2004 specifically, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). At that point, X-37 became a classified project.
DARPA finished the ALTV part of the program in 2006, conducting a series of captive-carry and free-flight tests. NASA's envisioned Orbital Vehicle was never built, but it served as the inspiration for the space plane that came to be called the X-37B.
The X-37B program is now run by the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office, with mission control for orbital flights based at the 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. The space planes are built by Boeing's Phantom Works division.
Orbital Experience
Two different X-37B vehicles have flown a total of five missions, which are known as OTV-1, OTV-2, OTV-3 and OTV-4 (short for Orbital Test Vehicle). Four flights have reached space with the help of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket. The fifth launched in September 2017 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
OTV-1 blasted off in April 2010 and stayed aloft for 224 days. OTV-2 stayed in space for more than twice as long, launching in March 2011 and returning to Earth 468 days later, in June 2012. OTV-3, which uses the same vehicle that flew the OTV-1 mission, began on Dec. 11, 2012, and ended 674 days later, in October 2014.
The OTV-4 mission marked the second flight for the X-37B that flew OTV-2. OTV-4 began on May 20, 2015, and broke OTV-3's duration record on March 25, 2017. After 718 days in space, the OTV-4 mission ended with a smooth runway landing on May 7, 2017. It was the first X-37B landing at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The three previous missions landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The OTV-5 mission launched on Sept. 7, 2017 on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The mission lasted 780 days (another record) carried the Air Force Research Laboratory Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader, an experiment designed to "test experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipe technologies in the long-duration space environment," according to an Air Force statement. It also carried several other experiments and small satellites, Air Force officials said. OTV-5 landed on Oct. 27, 2019 at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility, marking the second time an X-27B has done so.
"The X-37 is a technology testbed, and as such, pushing the envelope is the mission," Joan Johnson-Freese, professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., told Space.com, referring to OTV-3. "Endurance is one of several X-37 profile parameters that are being tested, along with others, such as in-flight capabilities and turnaround time for use."
All X-37B missions to date have launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. While the first three touched down at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, future missions beyond OTV-4 may continue to land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, right next door to Cape Canaveral, officials have said. Boeing is using an old NASA space shuttle hangar at KSC to service the X-37B space planes for the U.S. Air Force.
Space weapon?
The secrecy surrounding the X-37B and its payloads has spawned rumors that the vehicle could be a space weapon of some sort, perhaps tasked with capturing or damaging other nations' satellites.
But the space plane is likely too small and not maneuverable enough for such work, experts say. Instead, its chief mission is likely what Air Force officials have claimed all along: to test out new sensors and other next-generation satellite technologies, to see how they perform and hold up in the space environment.
"I absolutely think that's the primary mission," former Air Force orbital analyst Brian Weeden, who now works as a technical adviser for the nonprofit Secure World Foundation, told Space.com just before the launch of OTV-2.
Various other aspects of the X-37B's design would make it a less-than-ideal space weapon, he added including the craft's shuttle-style runway landings, which leave it vulnerable to attack by hostile forces.
"It can be tracked, so it's going to be hard for it to sneak up on anything," Weeden said. "And when it comes down itself, it's a very ungainly, slow-moving glider."
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.
NASA has funded 22 technology concepts that could spur giant leaps in space science and exploration down the road.
The potentially transformative space-tech ideas which received money from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program include creating a linear (as opposed to rotation-based) artificial-gravity system; bioengineering microbes to prepare Martian soil for farming; and harnessing temporary variations in objects' masses to power interstellar spacecraft, without the need for any propellant.
"The NIAC program engages researchers and innovators in the scientific and engineering communities, including agency civil servants," Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. "The program gives fellows the opportunity and funding to explore visionary aerospace concepts that we appraise and potentially fold into our early-stage technology portfolio." [Gallery: Visions of Interstellar Starship Travel]
Fifteen of the 22 concepts received NIAC Phase 1 grants, which provide about $125,000 for nine months' worth of initial definition and analysis work. Here are the 15 Phase 1 projects and their principal investigators:
A Synthetic Biology Architecture to Detoxify and Enrich Mars Soil for Agriculture: Adam Arkin, University of California, Berkeley. Arkin and his team aim to use bioengineered Earth microbes to help grow crops on the Red Planet.
Arkin and his team aim to use bioengineered Earth microbes to help grow crops on the Red Planet. A Breakthrough Propulsion Architecture for Interstellar Precursor Missions: John Brophy, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. This idea would use powerful lasers to illuminate solar panels on voyaging spacecraft, allowing these probes' ion-propulsion systems to be much lighter and more efficient (and enabling the vehicles to travel much faster).
This idea would use powerful lasers to illuminate solar panels on voyaging spacecraft, allowing these probes' ion-propulsion systems to be much lighter and more efficient (and enabling the vehicles to travel much faster). Evacuated Airship for Mars Missions: John-Paul Clarke, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. If this idea pans out, "vacuum airships" (which achieve lift not by relying on helium or hydrogen, but by maintaining an air-displacing interior vacuum) will someday be plying the Martian skies.
If this idea pans out, "vacuum airships" (which achieve lift not by relying on helium or hydrogen, but by maintaining an air-displacing interior vacuum) will someday be plying the Martian skies. Mach Effects for In-Space Propulsion: Interstellar Mission: Heidi Fearn, Space Studies Institute in Mojave, California. According to this idea, interstellar spacecraft could be powered solely by Mach effects, the transient variations in the rest masses of objects that are accelerating and undergoing internal energy changes.
According to this idea, interstellar spacecraft could be powered solely by Mach effects, the transient variations in the rest masses of objects that are accelerating and undergoing internal energy changes. Pluto Hop, Skip, and Jump: Benjamin Goldman, Global Aerospace Corp. in Irwindale, California. This proposed spacecraft could hop around the surface of Pluto, exploring multiple sites up close over the course of a multiyear mission.
This proposed spacecraft could hop around the surface of Pluto, exploring multiple sites up close over the course of a multiyear mission. Turbolift: Jason Gruber, Innovative Medical Solutions Group in Tampa, Florida. The Turbolift system would induce artificial gravity for voyaging astronauts by accelerating them in a linear fashion (back and forth), rather than by rotating them around a central point.
The Turbolift system would induce artificial gravity for voyaging astronauts by accelerating them in a linear fashion (back and forth), rather than by rotating them around a central point. Phobos L1 Operational Tether Experiment: Kevin Kempton, NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. A small probe would hover just above the surface of the Mars moon Phobos, studying it up close. This "hovercraft" would be attached by a tether to another spacecraft positioned at a gravitationally stable point just a few miles away.
A small probe would hover just above the surface of the Mars moon Phobos, studying it up close. This "hovercraft" would be attached by a tether to another spacecraft positioned at a gravitationally stable point just a few miles away. Gradient Field Imploding Liner Fusion Propulsion System: Michael LaPointe, NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This project envisions an innovative way to potentially make fusion power for ultrafast space travel feasible.
This project envisions an innovative way to potentially make fusion power for ultrafast space travel feasible. Massively Expanded NEA Accessibility via Microwave-Sintered Aerobrakes: John Lewis, Deep Space Industries Inc., in Moffett Field, California. This idea explores the possibility of manufacturing heat shields from asteroid material in space an advance that would allow the low-cost capture of space resources into Earth orbit.
This idea explores the possibility of manufacturing heat shields from asteroid material in space an advance that would allow the low-cost capture of space resources into Earth orbit. Dismantling Rubble-Pile Asteroids with Area-of-Effect Soft-bots: Jay McMahon, University of Colorado, Boulder. Soft, pancake-shaped robotic spacecraft could improve the ability of future missions to extract water and other resources from asteroids, according to this concept. [How Asteroid Mining Could Work (Infographic)]
Soft, pancake-shaped robotic spacecraft could improve the ability of future missions to extract water and other resources from asteroids, according to this concept. [How Asteroid Mining Could Work (Infographic)] Continuous Electrode Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion: Raymond Sedwick, University of Maryland, College Park. This concept presents another possible way to achieve fusion-powered spaceflight.
This concept presents another possible way to achieve fusion-powered spaceflight. Sutter: Breakthrough Telescope Innovation for Asteroid Survey Missions to Start a Gold Rush in Space: Joel Sercel, TransAstra in Lake View Terrace, California. This idea calls for launching three asteroid-hunting cubesats into orbit around the sun; the trio could find and track many space rocks for possible future resource extraction, Sercel wrote in his proposal.
This idea calls for launching three asteroid-hunting cubesats into orbit around the sun; the trio could find and track many space rocks for possible future resource extraction, Sercel wrote in his proposal. Direct Multipixel Imaging and Spectroscopy of an Exoplanet with a Solar Gravity Lens Mission: Slava Turyshev, JPL. This study will investigate using the sun as a "gravity lens" to magnify, and directly image, alien planets.
This study will investigate using the sun as a "gravity lens" to magnify, and directly image, alien planets. Solar Surfing: Robert Youngquist, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Youngquist and his team aim to develop a super-reflective material that could allow a future spacecraft to get within just 430,000 miles (690,000 kilometers) of the sun's surface far closer than any probe has ever gotten without burning up.
Youngquist and his team aim to develop a super-reflective material that could allow a future spacecraft to get within just 430,000 miles (690,000 kilometers) of the sun's surface far closer than any probe has ever gotten without burning up. A Direct Probe of Dark Energy Interactions with a Solar System Laboratory: Nan Yu, JPL. Researchers hope to launch spacecraft to hunt for direct evidence of mysterious dark energy, the force thought to be responsible for the universe's accelerating expansion.
The other seven concepts received NIAC Phase 2 grants, which are worth up to $500,000 for two years of additional development. (All Phase 2 fellows have previously been awarded a Phase 1 grant.) Here are the seven Phase 2 awardees:
Venus Interior Probe Using In-situ Power and Propulsion: Ratnakumar Bugga, JPL. This balloon-based robotic exploration system would cruise through Venus' atmosphere at both high and low altitudes.
This balloon-based robotic exploration system would cruise through Venus' atmosphere at both high and low altitudes. Remote Laser Evaporative Molecular Absorption Spectroscopy Sensor System: Gary Hughes, California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. This idea explores the possibility of using a high-powered laser to study the composition of asteroids, comets, moons and planets from orbit.
This idea explores the possibility of using a high-powered laser to study the composition of asteroids, comets, moons and planets from orbit. Brane Craft Phase II: Siegfried Janson, The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California. "Brane" is short for "membrane," a nod to the two-dimensional nature of this proposed solar-powered spacecraft, which could be used to help clean up orbital debris.
"Brane" is short for "membrane," a nod to the two-dimensional nature of this proposed solar-powered spacecraft, which could be used to help clean up orbital debris. Stellar Echo Imaging of Exoplanets: Chris Mann, Nanohmics Inc., Austin, Texas. This study will investigate how to image alien planets by studying the "echos" produced when they're hit by naturally fluctuating radiation from their parent stars.
This study will investigate how to image alien planets by studying the "echos" produced when they're hit by naturally fluctuating radiation from their parent stars. Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments: Jonathan Sauder, JPL. Sauder and his colleagues aim to design an ultrarobust rover that can withstand the extreme conditions on Venus, Mercury and other worlds for extended periods of time.
Sauder and his colleagues aim to design an ultrarobust rover that can withstand the extreme conditions on Venus, Mercury and other worlds for extended periods of time. Optical Mining of Asteroids, Moons, and Planets to Enable Sustainable Human Exploration and Space Industrialization: Joel Sercel, TransAstra Corp. This approach would wrap asteroids up in a bag and then blast them with concentrated sunlight to evaporate off (and collect) water and other resources.
This approach would wrap asteroids up in a bag and then blast them with concentrated sunlight to evaporate off (and collect) water and other resources. Fusion-Enabled Pluto Orbiter and Lander: Stephanie Thomas, Princeton Satellite Systems Inc., in Plainsboro, New Jersey. The "direct fusion drive" envisioned by Thomas and her colleagues would provide greatly increased propulsion and power capabilities, potentially enabling an orbiter-lander mission to Pluto and many other interplanetary efforts.
"Phase 2 studies can accomplish a great deal in their two years with NIAC. It is always wonderful to see how our Fellows plan to excel," NIAC program executive Jason Derleth said in the same statement. "The 2017 NIAC Phase 2 studies are exciting, and it is wonderful to be able to welcome these innovators back in to the program. Hopefully, they will all go on to do what NIAC does best change the possible."
You can read more about each of the 22 newly funded space-tech concepts on the NIAC site here.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
The U.S. Navys Carl Vinson carrier strike group, originally stationed near Singapore, was diverted toward the Korean Peninsula on Sunday, April 9, 2017, as Kim Jong Uns North Korean regime prepares to hold a huge military parade on April 15, 2017. The parade will mark the 105th birth anniversary of its founding president Kim II-Sung.
This move comes in the wake of rising tensions related to North Koreas nuclear policies. We note that U.S. President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping recently addressed the political and economic disputes related to North Korea at the Florida summit (read: What China ETF Investors Should Watch for in Trump-Xi Summit)
The issues with North Korea are quite complex, specifically because any action against them would bring in South Korea and Japan into the picture as well. Japan has been really concerned lately with North Koreas reckless and irresponsible missile tests in its direction and has been in close touch with Trump to seek assurance of U.S. protection.
North Koreas continuous disregard of the UN resolutions regarding testing of missiles has prompted South Korea to test its defense system. One of the options includes deploying tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, but this will require the approval of the government. The current situation has prompted South Korea to assess the earliest possible deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), a defense system to destroy incoming missiles at a high altitude, to the Korean Peninsula to respond to threats as and when they arise.
Whether such an action is possible or not depends greatly on the Presidential elections in South Korea in May this year. One of South Korea's Presidential candidates, Moon Jae-in, looks to adopt a far less hard-line approach on its northern neighbor, compared to the other front runner candidate Ahn Cheol-soo (read: Will North Korea Spell Trouble For These ETFs?).
Story continues
Though the future course of action is unclear, the recent step is surely in response to the reckless behavior of North Korea. However, South Koreas future stance and its working relations with the U.S. will depend greatly on who becomes the next president.
Lets discuss a few South Korea ETFs.
iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF EWY
This fund is the most popular in the space offering exposure to South Korean equities.
It has AUM of $3.23 billion and charges 64 basis points in fees per year. Information Technology, Financials, and Consumer Discretionary take the top three spots with 36.81%, 14.23%, and 13.28% allocation, respectively (as of April 6, 2017). Samsung Electronics LTD, Sk Hynix INC, and Naver Corp are the top three stocks with 23.0%, 3.96%, and 3.24% allocation, respectively (as of April 6, 2017). The fund returned 16.12% in the past one year and 13.40% in the year-to-date time frame (as of April 7, 2017).
AdvisorShares KIM Korea Equity ETF KOR
This fund seeks to offer exposure to South Korean growth equities in the mid-to-large cap segment.
It has AUM of $9.03 million and is relatively expensive as it charges 99 basis points in fees per year. Information Technology, Industrials, and Consumer Discretionary take the top three spots with 27%, 20%, and 13% allocation, respectively (as of February 28, 2017). Samsung Electronics Co LTD, Naver Corp, and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co LTD are the top three stocks with 17.47%, 3.82%, and 2.52% allocation, respectively (as of February 28, 2017). The fund returned 12.03% in the year-to-date time frame (as of April 7, 2017).
First Trust South Korea AlphaDEX Fund FKO
This fund seeks to employ quantitative based screening techniques to identify stocks poised to generate great alpha.
It has AUM of $4.87 million and is relatively expensive as it charges 80 basis points in fees per year. Industrials, Financials, and Consumer Discretionary take the top three spots with 19.98%, 18.49%, and 15.81% allocation, respectively (as of April 6, 2017). Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co LTD, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co LTD, and Hanwha Chemical Corp are the top three stocks with 3.67%, 3.59%, and 3.35% allocation, respectively (as of April 6, 2017). The fund returned 1.54% in the past one year and 11.9% in the year-to-date time frame (as of April 7, 2017).
To Conclude
The performance of these ETFs has been satisfactory and in a close range in the year-to-date time frame. However, there is high uncertainty surrounding the presidential elections. Unpredictable military moves by North Korea may further complicate the situation.
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The Greek Question
It's no wonder that the flames of the conflict are being fanned by the never-ending discussion over Greece. For months, international backers have been negotiating with the deeply indebted country over the same old scenario: Athens is lagging on its reforms but will soon need fresh billions from the European bailout funds.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble and his counterparts in other EU member states are insisting on further austerity measures. They would like to see Athens reduce the tax-exempt income amount and make further pension cuts to produce higher budget surpluses in the coming years.
But Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is not prepared to do so, with elections approaching in 2019, and has found surprising support in Berlin. At one point, Foreign Minister Gabriel supported the idea of Greece leaving the eurozone, but recently, in a discussion prior to a recent cabinet meeting and again by telephone during the following weekend, he urged Merkel to make concessions to Tsipras. "I don't think it is particularly intelligent for us to have forced Greece to cut pensions by 40 percent with three adjustments within just a few years," Gabriel says. Plus, he adds, the country is now producing budgetary surpluses.
Germany's SPD has identified Finance Minister Schauble as their preferred target. "Schauble wants to bring Greece to its knees," Schulz has grumbled. Even the International Monetary Fund, whose advice has long been important for the CDU, wants to give Athens more flexibility, Schulz says. "Now Schauble is fighting against the IMF," Schulz continues. "The finance minister only accepts expert advice from those who agree with him."
The dispute over Greece is merely a precursor to what Merkel can expect from the SPD when it comes to EU issues in the campaign. Foreign Minister Gabriel sees two reasons why it is time for his party to assert itself when it comes to Europe. For one, he believes it was a mistake for his predecessor at the Foreign Ministry, fellow SPD heavyweight Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to cede European policy to Merkel virtually without dissention. For another, the minister believes the mood is changing in the country, especially now that thousands of people are marching every weekend in pro-EU demonstrations across Germany and Europe. "There is significant support for Europe on the center-left," says Gabriel. "I think it is possible to win an election on appeals for a more socially minded Europe."
Schulz and Gabriel have agreed on a division of labor. Since his nomination, Schulz has been reserved when it comes to European policy in order to increase his profile on domestic issues. Gabriel, meanwhile, as a cabinet member, is leading the charge against the finance minister. "When Schauble says 'money alone is not enough,' I counter by saying: 'Austerity alone also isn't enough,'" Gabriel says.
Because UK's departure has torn a hole in the EU budget, Gabriel says, Germany must be prepared "to increase its share." He is also considering the idea of creating a budget for the eurozone that could "for example be financed by higher taxes on the financial markets."
Gabriel wants to stage his pro-EU campaign as an ideological conflict over social issues. "The conservatives are in favor of the most economic competition possible," he says. "We Social Democrats are in favor of an EU pursuing the harmonization of living conditions."
Erdonmez, 38, works as an engineer in her parents' business. She wears a headscarf and speaks fluent English, having completed her college degree in the U.S. because women who wore headscarves weren't allowed to attend Turkish universities under pre-Erdogan governments. In 2005, she returned to Turkey, and immediately felt that the country she was returning to was better than the country she had left. Erdonmez wanted to be part of the change and has been organizing AKP campaigns in Bursa since 2012.
She is used to listing the AKP's accomplishments and can easily recite the number of kindergartens, schools and hospitals the party has built in Bursa. But on this afternoon, Erdonmez finds herself faced with critical questions. One man wants to know why Erdogan made his son-in-law the energy minister, despite having promised not to bring any family members into the government. A woman in a headscarf complains that her family can barely pay the rent anymore because of the plunge of the Turkish currency, the lira. Erdonmez smiles stoically and promises that security and prosperity will return as soon as the presidential system is introduced.
But even members of her own team have doubts. One campaign volunteer answers a question about whether he will vote yes or no with: "I want only the best for my country."
Creating His Own Enemies
The AKP is having difficulty hiding the displeasure among its members. Supporters are now having to be bused in to campaign events in eastern Anatolia and even in the hub of power, in Ankara, criticism of Erdogan is growing among his allies.
Early on in his first term as prime minister in 2003, Erdogan assembled a broad coalition to support him, including members of the Islamist Milli Gorus movement, moderate Muslims and liberal opponents of the military. But on the long march to autocratic rule, he has sacrificed one ally after another.
Former President Abdullah Gul, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his deputy Bulent Arinc have all largely retired from politics. They refuse to endorse the presidential system. Former Economic Minister Ali Babacan, who was widely admired by foreign investors, has long been seen as a critic. Of the 50 founders of the AKP, fewer than half are still in the party.
Lawyer Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat is one of those founders to have left the party out of irritation with Erdogan. He turned his back on the AKP in 2014. "The AKP was more than a party. It was the promise of more democracy," he says. "But we were so enthralled with our success that we didn't see the authoritarian tendencies."
Firat believes that three events led to the radicalization and division of the AKP: the power struggle with the military, the Gezi Park protests in 2013 and the quarrel with the Islamist Gulen movement.
Erdogan and Gulen were once allies. Together, they clipped the military's wings but then quarreled in 2013 over the distribution of their newly gained power.
The coup attempt, which Erdogan blames on Gulen , has definitively split the party in two. Around 130,000 public servants have been suspended from their jobs while 45,000 more have been arrested as suspected conspirators. The purge mostly affected people from the conservative Islamist milieu that had previously been broadly supportive of the AKP.
Now, with just a few days to go before the referendum, nervousness is growing in the party. Previously, Erdogan had always managed to unite the party behind him before elections. But the discord within the AKP can no longer be denied.
What If He Loses?
"At one point, Erdogan convinced people to support him through his charisma and his vision of a democratic, strong Turkey. Today he rules through intimidation and fear," says Etyen Mahcupyan, who plans to vote no on April 16. The Armenian-Turkish journalist is an AKP supporter who used to be an advisor to Prime Minister Davutoglu. In 2011, he supported the party in its attempt to reform the constitution, that had been written by the military after 1980. For two years, a coalition of politicians, academics and representatives of civil society worked on a draft law that would strengthen minority rights and guarantee the independence of the judiciary. Ultimately, the project failed.
The proposal for the presidential system that the government is now asking its citizens to support, Mahcupyan argues, would actually transform the country into an authoritarian system. "Turkey would be similar to Iraq under Saddam Hussein, not to Europe anymore," he says.
But Erdogan has an additional problem: To win the referendum, he needs to attract additional voters -- and currently, they can primarily be found among the ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Yet luring such voters with their fascist chants goes too far even for conservative-nationalist Turks. Not long ago, Erdogan referred to the head of the MHP a "racist." Now he has apparently raised the possibility of him becoming vice-president.
There's one thing Erdogan isn't prepared for: defeat. Observers, however, believe that should his referendum fail, the president would call new elections in order to get the two-thirds parliamentary majority he needs to amend the constitution. Whether he would be successful remains unclear.
Perhaps Erdogan misjudged the situation, perhaps he's taken a step too far. He may have silenced critical AKP functionaries with his authoritarian behavior, but if he loses the referendum, they may return as public opponents to his rule.
One thing is certain: No matter the outcome of the referendum, Turkey will be a different country after April 16.
Sale (Morocco), 9 April 2017 (SPS) - The Sahrawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik group have refused the expertise requested by the Court of Appeal of Sale, conducted by a Moroccan commission.
This is contrary to the Istanbul protocol which stipulates that the medical expertise must be impartial, said the Defence League of Sahrawi detainees.
After that Sale court spoke to media about the refusal of the Sahrawi detainees of Gdeim Izik Group, the League said that "they rejected the medical expertise which, according to them will not be impartial," adding that the political detainees express attachment to the Istanbul protocol which insists on impartiality in the medical expertise procedure," Sahrawi media reported.
The Geneva-based UN Committee against Torture had "condemned last year the torture of detainee Naama Asfari to obtain confessions during his detention. (SPS)
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Algiers,10 April 2017 (SPS) High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini said Sunday in Algiers the EU position regarding Western Sahara issue has not changed and "strongly supports" the UN efforts to achieve a political just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution which guarantees self-determination to the Sahrawi people.
"Our position like or policy concerning Western Sahara remains a position of strong support to the efforts of the UN General Secretary in order to achieving a political just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution which guarantees self-determination to the Sahrawi people, under the UN Resolutions," Mogherini told a news conference jointly held with State Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ramtane Lamamra.
Asked whether Brussels would apply the European Court of Justice Ruling on 21 December 2016, which excluded Western Sahara territories from the Association Agreement and Free Trade Agreement between Morocco and the bloc, Mogherini said that "the EU was in the phase of the technical exploration of the Agreement and the essence of its position doesnt change concerning Western Sahara question.
The EU Foreign Policy Chief announced the EU willingness to work with the future envoy of the UN secretary general for Western Sahara.
Federica Mogherini started, Saturday, an official two-day visit to Algeria. (SPS)
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This critical advice will be delivered by industry leading marketing experts who will make up the panellists at The National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs (NFYFC) AGRI Forum 2017, which will be held during its Annual Convention in Torquay in April.
The event, called Making our Mark!, which is sponsored by Kuhn Farm Machinery (UK) and supported by Defra, will be held on Saturday 22 April 2017 in the Forum at the International Riviera Centre in Torquay from 11am.
The AGRI Forum is a major attraction during the weekend for YFC members and representatives from the agricultural and rural industries. This years discussion is set to be the biggest yet with four major marketing and industry names preparing to share their wisdom.
Speakers include Alexia Robinson, founder of British Food Fortnight; Simon Haley, co-founder of @AgrichatUK and general social media and agribusiness expert; Jane King, former editorial director of Farmers Weekly and current Chief Executive of AHDB; and Guy Smith, Vice President of the NFU.
Alexia Robinson said:
Like it or not we live in a social media-driven world where he who shouts the loudest gets a lot of publicity and there are no prizes for shrinking violets. This is not a natural trait in many farmers, most are more used to just quietly getting on with their daily work.
British farm produce is some of the very best in the world; there is so much to shout about and we all need to be smarter about telling the consumer why it is so high quality and why they should buy it.
The AGRI Forum is organised by NFYFCs Agricultural and Rural Issues (AGRI) Steering Group and a new topic is chosen annually.
AGRI Chairman Harriet Wilson, from Staffordshire Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, explained why marketing was chosen as this years topic: There are testing times ahead for the industry so it is imperative that, as young farmers, we are equipped with the necessary skills to market ourselves, our businesses and our products if we want to succeed. This years AGRI Forum will help our YFC members and guests learn more about the key marketing essentials and how to make use of all of the opportunities available.
The semen, all consigned by the Laird familys Cambwell flock, Lanarkshire, came from rams all with leading performance figures and chosen for a number of key traits. Robert Laird said the shipment resulted from an enquiry from former UK breeder Jim Sharatt, now farming in New Zealand.
Jim and a number of other New Zealand breeders realized that the opening of the import market from the UK gave them a great opportunity to source new genetics and potentially improve their flocks.
However, they were looking for top performance figures to maximise the gain they were looking to make. But, as in the UK they believe there has been too much emphasis on lean growth to the detriment of carcass quality and ewe longevity, explained Mr Laird.
As a result they selected semen from three rams all with positive fat EBVs which is essential for farms above sea level and to aid finishing at grass, he said. All three rams are also in the top 1% of the breed in this country for muscle depth.
The three rams are the 2012-born Cambwell Trademark, Cambwell Yankie Doodle and Grougfoot Wizard. Trademark has an index of 437 and a litter size EBV of 0.37, among the best in the country and ideal when prolificacy is required. He is sired by the 20,000gns Sportsmans Supreme and his dam is a full sister to the 4
Yankie Doodle, meanwhile, is by Granite Untouchable and out of a 2009-born ewe by Caereinion Number One. With his mother still breeding at eight years old and her sire having lasted nine years, he carries great longevity as well an index of 355 and also scores well for maternal ability.
The final ram, Grougfoot Wizard, was purchased as a lamb and is by Stainton Valour and out of a 10-year-old dam by the 21,000gns Craighead Masterpiece. He has an index of 422 and is highly ranked for scan weight and eight-week weight too, ensuring good growth in his progeny.
U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he walks from Marine One upon his return to the White House in Washington, U.S., April 9, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts - RTX34UUD (Reuters)
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with about 20 chief executives on Tuesday as he works to gain support for a $1 trillion infrastructure program, tax reform and other administration priorities, said White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
Trump will meet with the heads of General Motors Co , International Business Machines Corp and Wal-Mart Stores Inc , a government official briefed on the matter said.
Trump has pledged to unlock $1 trillion in private and public infrastructure investments to fix bridges, improve the electrical grid and broadband internet, modernize airports and potentially rebuild hospitals for veterans. Nearly three months after his inauguration, Trump will again seek the advice and funds of the private sector for his "national rebuilding" program.
Trump also wants to streamline the income tax system, cut federal regulations, reduce corporate income tax and add new taxes to prod companies to keep or move production to the United States. He has held numerous sessions with CEOs since taking office.
The chief executives are part of Trump's "Strategy and Policy Forum" that was created in December and last met with the president on Feb. 3.
The business leaders from a variety of sectors will also meet in small groups with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, Spicer said.
Participants in Ross' meeting include Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon and Indra Nooyi, chief executive officer of PepsiCo Inc . Pruitt's meeting will include GM CEO Mary Barra and Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Global Partners LLC and a Republican former SEC commissioner. Chao's meeting will include Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who heads the world's largest investment management firm, in a letter to shareholders Monday backed calls for private investment to rebuild U.S. infrastructure. The Trump administration plans to unveil as soon as May the $1 trillion infrastructure plan over 10 years.
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"Fixing crumbling roads and bridges is not enough. We need to be focused on reshaping our world, not just repairing it," Fink wrote.
Last week, Trump pitched infrastructure projects to about 50 New York area CEOs. National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn told executives that privatizing air traffic control, which the administration proposed in its budget outline in March, could be a big boost.
Other chief executives taking part Tuesday include consultant EY, Boston Consulting Group, the Cleveland Clinic and Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investment fund.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrew Hay and Lisa Shumaker)
Easter will be celebrated on April 16 this year, and there are plenty of opportunities to fill baskets with candy and chocolate made here in Connecticut.
According to a survey by the National Confectioners Association, candy and chocolate play a major role in consumers' Easter celebrations, with 75 percent saying they have shared chocolate or candy with family and friends on the holiday. The National Retail Federation said consumers are expected to spend $2.6 billion on candy this Easter.
Heres your General Assembly, paralyzed, unable to agree on anything but the least-controversial legislation at a time when the equal distribution of Republicans and Democrats might not exactly bode well for you stricken, seething taxpayers.
The only good news that can be offered here is that we might have survived the insult stage of this session, as the caravans of lawmakers make their way into the foothills, toward the mountain known to us as the $1.7-billion budget deficit, way up ahead, like a rumor in the mists.
Another slightly positive development is the invitation for reporters to visit the top House Democrats early on business days, although both sides could soon see this as a tedious exercise, while the budget figures more prominently in this session that is supposed to adjourn on June 7.
Speaking of tedium, the legislative session seems to be marked by near-daily 45-minute-long news conferences that grind down into redundancy after about eight minutes, with one invited speaker after another prattling on and regurgitating. I have reached a habit of rolling out of these daily affairs after 20 minutes, in favor of attending committee meetings where actual legislation is being debated, or better yet, talking with the people who actually know whats going on: the lobbyists. If you cant make your point in eight minutes, does your bill really stand a chance of passage?
So, I missed the moment the other day when a Democratic rep from Middletown named Matt Lesser, a smartypants lefty, nearly sunk a seemingly simple bill to promote gender-pay equality by prohibiting prospective employers from asking job candidates their salary histories. About a half hour into a news conference, Lesser called opponents of the bill bigots.
The aptly named lawmaker ended up pretending the comment wasnt meant for anyone in particular. Right.
House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, who actually pays women on her staff more than what the House Democrats give their female workers, took umbrage.
While critical of the late changes in the bill promoted by first-year Rep. Derek Slap of West Hartford, who shamelessly used his grade-school-age daughters as props at public hearings and news conferences Klarides, R-Derby, was more scathing toward Lesser.
When I have a member on the other side of the aisle saying if we dont vote for a bill were bigots, thats very problematic and that should be alarming to the people of the state of Connecticut, she said. Name-calling and bullying have no place in this building. If one of us, God forbid, uttered a word like that, theyd be hanging us by the flagpole in the front of this building, calling us every name in the book.
Klarides told reporters that it only makes sense that people doing similar jobs get the same wages.
I just dont see how this bill accomplishes that goal, in the present form, she said. If you are an employer, you have a range by which you can offer a high and a low; and if youre an employee wanting the job, you have a range of what you can take, high or low. Thats why its an important tool.
Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz ended up pulling the bill for at least the day. A couple last-minute suggestions for changes came out, he told reporters during the pre-session get together in his Capitol office. With the last-minute changes it just wasnt possible for us to do that today.
The speaker, a Berlin Democrat, warned of a recurring theme from Republicans. In theory, they say theyre supportive of an issue, but when language comes out they are always going to find one or two lines that they dont like and then say Even if you change those were not saying were going to support it. You cant always stake out the parts you just dont like and say I would have voted for it if not for X. No is not the answer in this building anymore.
Well, in recent years saying no has moved House Republicans from a 113-47 minority in 2010, to a 78-72 minority now. In the Senate, Democrats had a 24-15 majority in 2010 that has swung to an 18-18 tie. Connecticuts blue-state reputation is on the rocks and is just the 2018 election cycle away from changing color, the way things are going.
Since the General Assembly has blown through its statutory deadline several times over the last 10 years, the 2017 session, with that ugly deficit and the near-tie among the 186 lawmakers, they are a long way from reaching anything close to a $20-billion budget deal by early June.
I dont think the budget that we pass this year should be just the Democrats and Gov. Malloy, Aresimowicz said. The Republicans should come to the table.
Ken Dixon can be reached in the Capitol at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. See twitter.com/KenDixonCT. His Facebook address is kendixonct.hearst. Dixons Connecticut Blog-o-rama is at blog.ctnews.com/dixon/
Close to a billion people smoke cigarettes daily, meaning there are more smokers today than at any other time in history.
This startling figure is easily accounted for: As the global population rises, so too does the number of smokers. In the past 25 years, the percentage of people who smoke has dropped by 25 percent.
STAMFORD A former North Stamford man accused of abusing his children was sentenced to probation to avoid the teens from testifying, the prosecutor said.
Willis Wilcox Williams III, 59, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and was ordered by a judge not to have contact with his children for 10 years.
Stamford Assistant States Attorney Michelle Manning said the agreement was negotiated over the past nine months with Judge Richard Comerford and defense attorney Philip Russell.
The focus of the prosecution has been on the safety and interests of the children. In light of that, to avoid trial and to avoid any further hindrance of their lives, we substituted the charges and lowered them so they can move forward with their lives, Manning said. Its time to move on. Its time for them to have a chance to be kids and its time for them to have a chance to dictate their own life without having a court proceeding or Department of Children and Families proceeding or any legal institution stopping them.
Comerford gave Williams, who is a self-employed accountant now living in Florida, a one-year suspended sentence and three years probation.
Hopefully, this closes a painful chapter in the lives of everyone involved, Russell said.
Williams and his former wife, Karen Williams, divorced about four years ago following an 18-month court battle. The two had three children during their 17-year marriage.
Karen Williams died in April 2016 following an eight-year battle with colon cancer.
Authorities began an investigation in June 2016 when five Westhill High School mothers complained to police through Principal Camille Figluzzi about how the 15-year-old Williams twins were being treated by their father.
One of the children said her father had been aggressive and picked her up while he was drunk several times, a police report said.
About a month before Williams was arrested, State Police issued a silver alert after the twins, then age 15, ran away from their father. Stamford police said they were aware of the situation and believed the children ran away on their own and were not in danger.
jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com;
Among the many U.S.-China summits held in the last four decades, President Trump's meeting last week with Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago was probably the most unusual - if not the strangest - affair.
For one, Trump warned the Twittersphere of a "very difficult" meeting with Xi because of America's large trade deficit with China. Then he surprised his guest with news that he had just ordered a cruise missile strike on Syria. The ensuing media frenzy completely overshadowed the most important U.S.-China summit in years.
Xi, who is typically obsessed with following protocols and expects others to do the same, was likely caught off guard. But while there was little doubt that Xi and his delegation were not pleased by the unexpected turn of events that ended the summit on the wrong kind of bang, they might nevertheless appreciate their host's effusive spin of the get-together. As the summit closed on Friday, Trump told reporters that he had made "tremendous progress in our relationship with China" and called the U.S.-China relationship he has developed with Xi "outstanding." He also predicted that "lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away."
In reality, though, based on officially disclosed details of the summit, little substantive progress was made on the most serious and divisive issues between the two countries, such as currency manipulation and trade deficits. In fact, even Trump himself implicitly acknowledged this fact when he tweeted, after his guest was safely back in Beijing, that despite the goodwill and friendship between him and Xi, "only time will tell on trade."
This rather sober assessment on trade is actually not far off the mark. To be sure, China did make two relatively minor concessions at the summit: Beijing will resume imports of banned American beef and allow U.S. financial firms to set up majority-owned subsidiaries in China. But Trump and Xi did not reach any substantive trade deals. What they did agree to do is to start a 100-day process of seeking compromises on trade between the US and China. In other words, the Mar-a-Lago summit bought both sides valuable time, but little else, in averting a potential trade war.
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On North Korea, arguably the central national security issue on the summit's agenda, Trump and Xi did not reach any deal, even though they agreed that Pyongyang poses a serious threat to regional peace. According to White House press secretary Sean Spicer, the U.S. and China would increase cooperation to "convince North Korea ... to dismantle its illegal nuclear and missile programs." But we do not know what such "cooperation" would be. In all likelihood, Washington and Beijing have yet to determine what specific steps China should or can take in containing the North Korean threat.
For those obsessed with score-keeping, determining which leader, Xi or Trump, has improved his bargaining position as the result of the summit is a tricky exercise. In the media commentaries on the outcome of the summit, much attention has been directed to the implications of the U.S. missile strike against Syria. The conventional wisdom is that, with this unexpected shift in policy, Trump has put Xi on notice: if China fails to act on North Korea, the U.S. will take unilateral military action. Fearing the potentially devastating consequences, Beijing might now have greater incentives to cooperate with the U.S.
This could be true. But a brief moment of reflection would show that, on balance, Xi could not have been displeased by Trump's volte face on Syria. For one thing, striking Russia's client state has all but ensured that a U.S.-Russian rapprochement, a development greatly feared in Beijing, will not happen any time soon. For another, Trump's opening salvo of missiles is unlikely to be a one-off shot. Further escalations could drag his young administration deeper into the Middle East's quagmire, thus distracting his attention away from China.
As far as Trump's China policy is concerned, the future remains cloudy. The Mar-a-Lago summit has improved the atmospherics of U.S.-China relations and started a process that may reduce trade tensions and stabilize U.S.-China ties. But there is no evidence that the summit has produced concrete agreements that have removed the underlying sources of conflict between the two countries over geopolitical security and trade. Of course, we hope that the time bought by this summit will make it easier for Trump and Xi to keep the U.S.-China relationship on an even keel. Yet, as long as economic nationalists and establishment pragmatists in the White House wage pitched battles over the China policy and Beijing and Washington continue to see each other as potential adversaries, Trump's prediction that the "lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away" will turn out to be wildly optimistic.
Minxin Pei is a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and author of the book, China's Crony Capitalism (2016).
See original article on Fortune.com
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Tom Hayes, the former UBS trader serving 11 years for libor rigging, today backed calls for an urgent inquiry into allegations the Bank of England pressured bankers to lower the rate.
He told the Standard: It is my view that there should be an urgent public inquiry into the real Libor scandal: where central banks, politicians and the British Bankers Association colluded to get artificially low Libor rates.
Traders like me should not be in prison. We were only requesting Libor submissions that reflected market conditions, he said.
New evidence from BBC Ones Panorama calls into question claims made by former BoE deputy governor Paul Tucker and ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond to the Treasury Select Committee in 2012 that they were unaware of lowballing.
Chris Philp MP, a member of committee, said there should be an urgent public inquiry into the claims. It looks to me like they (Tucker and Diamond) misled the committee and parliament in 2012, he said.
Diamond has denied misleading parliament. Tucker has not responded to the allegations.
S hell was today embroiled in a bribery scandal amid allegations that the oil giant knew money paid to the Nigerian government for a $1.3 billion (1.1 billion) project would go to a convicted money-launderer and potentially pay political bribes.
The claims surround a deal made by Shell and a former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete, whose company Malabu bought the nine-billion-barrel OPL 245 field off the coast of the African country for a paltry $2 million while he was in his government post.
Etete denies wrongdoing.
Shell and Italian rival ENI then bought the field from the Nigerian government in 2011 for $1.3 billion.
More than $1 billion of the takings then passed onto a company controlled by Etete, who was later convicted of money-laundering in an unrelated case.
Now emails obtained by anti-corruption charities Global Witness and Finance Uncovered, seen by the BBC, apparently reveal Shells executives were negotiating directly with Etete for a year before the deal was finalised.
One email from a Shell employee in 2010 reveals that the FTSE 100 firm knew Etete would benefit from the deal, reading: Etete can smell the money.
That email was forwarded to Shells then-chief executive Peter Voser.
Shell said we do not believe there is a basis to prosecute Shell.
S outh Koreas stock market took a major drubbing on Monday, with shares down by the largest one-day drop in a month amid investor fears of war in the region.
The Pentagon deployed a Navy strike group including an aircraft carrier, missile destroyers and missile cruisers, near the Korean peninsula over the weekend, a move described by the White House as a prudent reaction to North Koreas provocative behaviour.
Kim Jong-uns nation last week fired a missile into the Sea of Japan and recently released a propaganda video showing a US aircraft carrier being blown up.
North Korea has also indicated the possibility of an intercontinental ballistic missile test, which some experts say could come on April 15, the 105th birthday of North Koreas founding president Kim Il-sung and an annual celebration known as The Day of the Sun.
The latest developments have hit markets in neighbouring South Korea hard.
Today its benchmark index, the Kospi, was down for a fifth consecutive day and its biggest daily decline in more than a month, off 0.9%.
The Korean currency was 0.7% weaker at 1142.52 won per dollar and eyeing its fifth day of declines in a row.
B oris Johnson, wisely, switched his travel plans this weekend from visiting his opposite number, Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, to go to a huddle with fellow G7 nation foreign ministers in Lucca, jewel of renaissance and medieval Tuscany.
Despite the odd catcall from the likes of Alex Salmond and Lord Campbell that it shows Boris is not capable of conducting his own negotiations with Russia his decision is entirely sensible. It reflects the worsening situation on the ground and internationally with the Syrian crisis.
The G7 foreign ministers meet for two days then agree a firm message for the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to take to Moscow. A pre-emptive diplomatic strike by Johnson could only complicate matters unnecessarily.
Following the US Tomahawk missile strike on the Shayrat base, though not necessarily because of it, the crisis in Syria and the region has moved to a new phase. Overnight, a joint statement from President Putin and President Rouhani of Iran has warned that any further American missile strikes will be met by force. The command of their protege, Bashar al-Assad, has claimed that what America waged in aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines.
The reverse is true. In launching a chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun this month as well as three or four strikes with chlorine over the past year the latest on Hama last month the Assad regime has crossed the line. That line is the UN Security Council Resolution 2118 of September 27, 2013, by which Assad pledged to hand over his stocks of chemical weapons and supplies, and desist from any use of such things again.
This came after the bombardment of the Ghouta district west of Damascus with rockets carrying chemical warheads that killed 281 on August 21, 2013. This led to President Obama declaring his red line on the use of chemical weapons had been crossed. But he declined to order military action following a rejection in joining any allied action by the British Parliament.
The fact is that Assads military hung on to, and continued to generate, stocks of sarin and chlorine, and VX agent possibly, and resumed using them last year. The Russians must have known this as their forces shared the bases from which the Syrians launched their chemical air strikes.
The present stand-off between Washington and Moscow arises directly from the Obama climbdown in the autumn of 2013, and his stance of minimum engagement through the closing years of his presidency. With such a glaring breach of the UNSCR 2118 agreement with last weeks chemical attack, the US was almost bound to react. At a stroke Assad and his clique lost the chance of being part of any long-term US plan for a negotiated settlement for Syria, and in the fight against Islamic State.
The use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, and in small quantities according to some reports by rebel groups, is part of a much larger and growing problem about the enforcement of UN bans on chemical, biological and other exotic instruments of war. The Geneva Protocol of 1993 bans the use of gas, chemical and biological weapons, and goes back to conventions prohibiting gas in the aftermath of the First World War. It is now part of international law, and governs internal wars as well as conflicts between states. Yet there has never been an effective means of enforcing the protocol and there has never been a full international inspection under its auspices.
Chemical weapons account for only a small proportion of the 400,000 and more deaths caused by six years of civil war in Syria. Yet a number of extremist groups including al Qaeda and IS are known to have taken an active interest in such warfare. There are more exotic weapons including for genetic warfare on the way and seemingly beyond any regulation.
Assads use of chemical weapons seems to be an act of desperation. The ground battle for Idlib province appears to have been going badly. Despite the destruction of Aleppo, the Assad-Russia-Iran coalition appears to be struggling to secure even its own mini-state along Syrias western strip. The Syrian army is exhausted, starved of recruits from the majority Sunni community, and its equipment worn out by six years of combat.
The Tomahawk strike has diminished Assads position at a stroke. His Russian and Iranian allies cannot now envisage him as a long-term prospect. Even the Trump regime seems to have shifted sharply in the past week. From mild support as part of the solution during the US election campaign, Tillerson stated this weekend that is for the Syrian people as a whole to decide the dictators fate in any possible election following negotiations. Trumps UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, has gone further, declaring regime change in Damascus is now becoming a priority.
Trump himself has been accused of switching his policy on Syria and Assad on a whim, or the equivalent of the back of a 140-character Tweet envelope. However, the new departure seems to be a coherent strategy generated by James Mattis, the US defence secretary, and H R McMaster, Trumps security adviser. Their prime concern is the new influence of Iran in Syria and in the eastern Mediterranean. The importance of the Iranian-led forces and their clients of the Hezbollah militia was shown in their key role in crushing resistance in Aleppo last December. Mattis and McMaster are worried about Irans new armoury and missiles, including the donation of 1,000 rockets and missiles to Hezbollah, and Irans linkage to North Korea.
The Lucca meeting will mark the re-engagement of US foreign policy with the security of the Middle East though intervention and nation-building from the Tony Blair and George W Bush playbook is ruled out. The priority now is to reduce the endemic chaos in areas like Iraq and Syria, probably never to be unitary nation states again, as well as tackling the metastasis of IS witness the bombing of the Copts in Egypt.
In this, Boris Johnson must work as a team player with the rest of the G7 for once it really is a western alliance rather than flying on a solo foreign policy mission to Moscow, however much Mr Salmond and Lord Campbell may wish it. In doing so, he must guard Britains special interests and obligations in the new chaos zone of the Middle East, particularly to countries such as Jordan and the Gulf States.
B oris Johnson arrives in the Italian city of Lucca today for two days of talks with his fellow G7 foreign ministers on the next steps in the Syrian conflict. This comes amid ominous-sounding Russian talk of retaliation and real war if the US follows up last weeks cruise missile strikes against the Assad regime with further military action. At the same time, the Foreign Secretary is having to fight off accusations, promoted by the Kremlin but articulated also by his political opponents here, that his decision to abandon a planned trip to Moscow makes him little more than a US poodle who has been forced to stand aside so that his American counterpart, Rex Tillerson, can speak on this countrys behalf later this week.
All this creates an unpromising backdrop and makes the coming days not just the toughest test yet that Mr Johnson has faced since taking office but also a critical period for the efforts of the US and its allies to find a way through the Syrian morass towards eventual peace. For the Foreign Secretary, the immediate priority is to win support from his G7 colleagues, particularly Germany, for a robust and united front against Russia, including tough new economic sanctions. That should be a realistic objective and, if achieved, would represent a significant success and some proof of Britains continuing diplomatic influence, although failure would be lamentable.
More importantly still, inevitably, is how US policy evolves over the coming days and, most critically, whether President Trumps show of force, backed by the new sanctions, can persuade Russia, as President Assads main sponsor, to use its influence to first bring the Syria dictator to heel and then work towards achieving some form of peace deal. None of this will be easy. Firm diplomacy, coupled with subtlety, will be needed to persuade President Putin to change tack if any breakthrough is to be achieved. The chaotic situation in Syria, now riven by several separate conflicts and the malign presence of Islamic State and other Islamists, also makes any solution immensely complex to achieve. Nor is it evident that the US yet has a clear strategy. There are some grounds for optimism nonetheless. President Trumps horror at seeing babies die and last weeks Tomahawk barrage has changed the dynamic, and underneath the bluster, the Russians appear to recognise that too. The onus now is on the US to capitalise, and events this week could ultimately prove decisive. Syrias people will certainly be hoping so.
A brave public servant
The funeral today at Southwark Cathedral of PC Keith Palmer is a sombre and poignant moment for this city and this country as it marks the life of a policeman who died at the hands of a terrorist while bravely defending the Houses of Parliament. The scenes on the streets, as thousands of PC Palmers fellow officers lined the route, and the rare honour of being laid in Parliaments Chapel of St Mary Undercroft ahead of todays service, were a further demonstration of the nations respect for the 48-year-old married father of one. This newspaper, too, offers its condolences to his family and friends and expresses its gratitude for his heroic work in protecting the home of this countrys democracy.
PC Palmers funeral, on the day that the new Met Commissioner Cressida Dick takes office, should also remind all Londoners of the immensely important and courageous job performed by its police officers. Fortunately, few pay with their lives but many confront danger daily, whether it be protecting us from terrorists, organised criminals or violent offenders carrying weapons. Remembering their selfless public service is fitting on the day that one of their finest is laid to rest.
Alison Loehnis does a lot of finger snapping when talking about Net-a-Porter customers. They want speed - snap. They want service - snap. They want experience - snap. Loehnis is the swishy, fast-talking New Yorker who took over the reins from Natalie Massenet as president of Net-a-Porter in October 2015 when the company merged with Yoox. Shes more low key than Massenet and possibly less overt fun at a dinner party but is certainly a cool, sharp, no-nonsense front to this 2 billion global company, which includes in its orbit Mr Porter, The Outnet and Porter magazine.
Right now shes describing the typical Net-a-Porter (NAP) customer in London: a demanding and exacting woman who wants her clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery, whatever it is shes scrolled through and ordered pre-commute, or post-boot camp, or over coffee, immediately snap. I find the fact that Londoners want their orders even quicker than New Yorkers surprising, she says. And price is not an issue.
My God, Im thinking. Who are these people? But actually, a sizeable percentage of us: nine per cent of Londoners shop on NAP, mostly for simplicity, ease and efficiency.
And Loehnis is the queen of efficiency. On arrival at the Westfield offices in Shepherds Bush Im rushed through the sweeping expanse of this fashion nerve-centre: cool, white, with floor-to-ceiling windows. Its an interrupted length of office space disappearing into a vanishing point somewhere near Holland Park. It takes five minutes to walk from one end to the other, the PR tells me.
Loehnis is a rigid timekeeper, famous for guillotining meetings that run over. Shes super-focused I can imagine interns crumbling under that laser gaze. Her eyes are an extraordinary amber-flecked colour, like a tigresss, emphasised with Kate Middleton-grade kohl.
The first thing she says is that shell be saying service a lot. About 25 times more than anything else. I wonder if this is an actual calculation. Shes fluent in fashion-corporate speak. For instance: directional (edgy taste what Londoners have), conviction buying (things bought a lot), e-com players (websites), transacting (shopping), platform-agnostic (using online, mobile as well as physical shops to shop).
Net-a-Porter was launched 17 years ago, and its brother operation Mr Porter six years ago. But while they have long dominated the landscape, competition is getting stronger. Farfetch of which Massenet is co-chairman is one formidable newcomer, and sites such as Matchesfashion.com are growing in scale and influence.
The sites best-selling brands include Off-White / ABACA Press France
Loehnis believes NAP is rising to the challenge. The emphasis, she says, is customer experience. Thats the buzzword. What e-commerce has done has really fuelled is customers expectation of what they will experience in terms of speed, access and service.
Indeed. Were here today because impatient, foot-stamping fashion-forward Londoners have given feedback that has prompted NAP to announce the launch of two new services later this year.
First: wait and return. Loehnis says same-day customers (those who want everything now - ie, 65 per cent of us) asked if their deliverymen, who arrive black-clad in a black van, could hang around while they tried things on. Because the customer might have ordered multiple sizes, explains Loehnis, or two dresses, or theyve got something else coming.
She adds: Customers tell us, I love it when - lets call him John - comes. He looks terrific. He delivers my things. I ask him about the product. The drivers (John) agreed. So thats the genesis of the you try, we wait.
The second initiative is a home service for those who use a NAP personal shopper. We do home visits anyway - if youve ordered something outside the delivery window, theyll bring it to your house.
But customers wanted more still. They wanted wardrobe consultations, clothes picked out just for them, a whole slew of outfits curated. They might say: I have a work event, a social event, four black-tie events, a school thing, can you help me pull everything together? So we came up with this service where personal shoppers actually go to their customers, explains Loehnis.
Ideas are exchanged in person or on WhatsApp or iMessage or WeChat. We put together a whole package. They are only charged for what they keep.
The snag is that these cosier services are by invitation only - for EIPs, as they call their extremely important customers. EIPs are the two per cent of customers who account for 40 per cent of NAP revenue.
These are the sort of customers who already ask for their entire summer holiday wardrobe, including knickers, to be sent directly to their hotel so that they can have a suitcase-free travel experience. And they are directing the future of shopping.
Loehnis has huge screens above her desk that show orders being placed in real time around the globe. Its a mesmerising flicker of activity day and night.
She can see that there has been a huge uptake in Londoners buying soft bras, for example (we establish she means those Seventies bras French women in particular wear to increase jiggle under a silk shirt). Theres a huge movement on that. Its coming from everywhere.
Another trend is dresses. Our London woman loves dresses, she says. Johanna Ortiz is selling really well, and Chloe.
Chloe AW17 at Paris Fashion Week 1 /37 Chloe AW17 at Paris Fashion Week Chloe at PFW Models walk the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW Solange Knowles and Isabelle Huppert watch from the front row AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW Dilone walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW Lineisy Montero walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway AFP/Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW A model walks the AW17 runway Getty Images Chloe at PFW Clare Waight Keller acknowledges her audience AFP/Getty Images
They love coming-up brands like Off-White and Vetements, she adds. There is also huge interest in hot streetwear-influenced brands.
Vetements SS17 at Couture Fashion Week in Paris 1 /33 Vetements SS17 at Couture Fashion Week in Paris Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway AP Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway EPA Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway EPA Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway EPA Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements A model walks the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images Vetements Models walk the SS17 couture runway AFP/Getty Images
Men, she says, buy Common Projects sneakers, Sunspel T-shirts and Turnbull & Asser boxers. Although when they measured zeitgeist buying in the Mr Porter team they discovered the number one item was socks. Followed by Ray-Bans and trainers.
I am always intrigued, Loehnis continues, when I come in early in the morning and I see a pair of diamond earrings selling at 8.30am in London. I love to get in the head of the customer and think, hmmm. Indeed, what is in the head of someone buying diamond earrings at 8.30am?
The biggest change in e-com, she says, is the rapid adoption of mobile - this idea that youre taking the store with you everywhere. Were seeing 40 per cent of sales through mobile but within our EIPs its 60 per cent, which suggests they are more tech-savvy.
Cultural trends are harder to discern, although she says New Yorkers are relatively dressy and shoppers in Hong Kong really dressy, whereas Los Angeles and Hamburg are low key. What we find all over is a runway devotee who wants now, now, now, trend, trend, trend.
Peak scrolling times include the loyal wine oclock crowd. Basically its kids-in-bed time, usually around nine-ish, where you see the time for me spike. And mornings - super-early or while commuting, or later morning, I deduce, post the school run.
More shopping is done on Sunday than ever before. Years ago Sunday was quiet. Now its a big, important shopping day.
She wont tell me if Prime Minister Theresa May is a customer, obviously, but will say: I love that she has this extra-curricular passion for clothes and a confidence around it.
Theresa May's finest footwear - in pictures 1 /40 Theresa May's finest footwear - in pictures November 4, 2014 Wearing leopard print kitten-heel courts as she leaves Downing Street after attending cabinet Peter Macdiarmid/Getty October 5, 2009 Wearing red and black snakeskin courts on the stage as they address delegates at the Conservative Party Conference Christopher Furlong/Getty October 5, 2004 Wearing powder blue and black floral patterned ballet pumps as she arrives at the Bournemouth International Conference Center Jim Watson/AFP/Getty December 9, 2010 Wearing knee-high red suede boot as she leaves a cabinet meeting in Downing Street Matthew Lloyd/Getty November 5, 2013 Wearing over-the-knee patent boots as she arrives on Horse Guards in central London during the visit of South Korean President Park Geun-Hye Sean Dempsey/AFP/Getty June 27, 2016 Wearing pointed leopard print courts to a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street Leon Neal/AFP/Getty May 3, 2011 Wearing patent powder blue court shoes as she arrives in Downing Street to attend a Cabinet meeting Oli Scarff/Getty October 9, 2012 Wearing pointed leopard print courts with a burgundy print insert to deliver her speech to delegates during the third day of the annual Conservative Party Conference Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty October 16, 2012 Wearing pointed leopard print courts as she arrives at Number 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Cabinet meeting Oli Scarff/Getty February 5, 2013 Wearing over-the-knee patent boots as she walks into Downing Street to attend a security meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden Peter Macdiarmid/Getty March 17, 2014 Wearing black lace up patent brogues with diamond studs as she launches HMC Protector Peter Macdiarmid/Getty June 5, 2013 Wearing pointed black patent sling backs as she attends the preview party for The Royal Academy Of Arts Summer Exhibition Tim P. Whitby/Getty June 23, 2013 Wearing Union Jack emblazoned trainers as she presents medals during the third day of the 2013 Samsung World Rowing Cup II at Eton Dorney September 30, 2013 Wearing black lace up patent brogues with diamond studs as she delivers her speech in the main hall on the second day of the Conservative Party Conference Oli Scarff/Getty June 10, 2014 Wearing snakeskin kitten-heel courts as she arrives for a cabinet meeting in Downing Street Carl Court/AFP/Getty June 11, 2014 Wearing patent red flats with pink bow detailing as she leaves the Royal United Services Institute Peter Macdiarmid/Getty September 30, 2014 Wearing navy suede courts with a chunky heel as she addresses the Conservative Party Conference Matt Cardy/Getty March 3, 2015 Wearing over-the-knee patent boots as she arrives for a Ceremonial Welcome for the President of Mexico Leon Neal/AFP/Getty May 21, 2015 Wearing gold studded black flats as she and David Cameron are accompanied by immigration enforcement officers into a home in Southall in London following an early morning raid on the property that yielded three arrests of illegal immigrants Richard Pohle - WPA Pool/Getty July 8, 2015 Wearing black pointed flats with a red and pink kiss print as she leaves 10 Downing Street Peter Macdiarmid/Getty October 6, 2015 Wearing black suede courts with a chunky heel on the third day of the annual Conservative party conference Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty October 7, 2015 Wearing red, yellow and turquoise printed courts as she arrives for the fourth and final day of the Conservative Party Conference Christopher Furlong/Getty March 22, 2016 Wearing black suede shoe boots with a leopard print insert as she leaves 10 Downing Street Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty July 12, 2016 Wearing leopard print pointed flats as she leaves after attending a Cabinet meeting at Downing Street Carl Court/Getty December 15, 2004 Wearing calf-length suede boots in plum as she arrives at the 'Woman's Own Children Of Courage Award' at Westminster Abbey MJ Kim/Getty September 30, 2007 Wearing yellow and black patterned wellies during the 124th annual Conservative Party Conference at the Winter Gardens Christopher Furlong/Getty November 8, 2007 Wearing black pointed courts with silver ankle strap as she arrives at the Woman Of The Future Awards Jo Hale/Getty April 26, 2009 Wearing open-toe leopard print flats to speak at the Conservative Party Spring Forum Matt Cardy/Getty June 15, 2010 Wearing a patent red wedge as she arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting in Downing Street Peter Macdiarmid/Getty July 6, 2010 Wearing rainbow striped pointed pumps as she arrives in Downing Street Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
When Loehnis shops for herself she is disciplined, only buying what I love. If I dont love it or the way I feel in it, I give it away.
She thinks she has a diverse wardrobe. But my husband says everything I have looks the same. He is Al Loehnis, a partner at Maitland PR. Hes good, she says of his style. I wouldnt say fashion-forward.
They have two children, Milo, 10, and Tilly, eight, and live in one of Londons prettiest streets in Ravenscourt Park, near Hammersmith. Weekends are spent in a rented house in Gloucestershire.
Loehnis grew up in New York and is proud of summers spent working on the shop floor of Ralph Lauren while at university. She learned, among other things, to be honest to customers, as much as how to sell. She arrived at NAP in 2007 by way of Disney and Thomas Pink.
How does she cope with pressure? Shes a committed list-maker, she says. Plans, such as what to pack for Paris Fashion Week, are thought through long in advance. I really admire people that can throw it all in and go, she says.
Actually, when she relaxes, Loehnis is super-warm. Although polished enough not to trip up, she does give me the occasional knowing smile, for instance when I suggest shopping in Paris is certainly an experience though possibly not of the buzzword kind.
She is self-deprecating about her denial over the blizzard in New York during fashion week, and how as a result she was unprepared. You dont want to be in sandals when its snowing, she states dryly.
Would she wear moon boots? Moon boots look good on other people, she says. Equally: hiking boots.
She shares a few fashion crimes from her twenties: The period when I thought clogs were great. Not fashion clogs. Clogs from a clog store. And confesses to a brief affair with the French label NAF NAF, which involved an oversized pale blue double-breasted brocade jacket - possibly worse, in fashion eyes, than a real affair - worn with a Lancome lipstick called Bebe Pink and silver eyeliner. Quelle horreur.
F or most of us, flying is still an inherently mysterious activity.
To shed some light on the world of commercial air travel, Business Insider turned to Patrick Smith, an author and airline pilot, for some answers.
Smith, who is the author of Cockpit Confidential, created a glossary of commonly misunderstood airline jargon that can be found on his website, Ask the Pilot.
According to Smith, some of the terminology is highly technological with others are quite humorous and even a bit absurd.
Here are a selection of these entries.
1. Doors to arrival and crosscheck
Used in a sample sentence: "Flight attendants, doors to arrival and crosscheck."
Definition: The announcement, usually made by the lead flight attendant as the plane is approaching the gate, is to verify that the emergency escape slides attached to each door have been disarmed otherwise the slide will deploy automatically as soon as the door is opened.
2. All-call
Used in a sample sentence: "Flight attendants, doors to arrival, crosscheck and all-call."
Definition: According to Smith, all-call is usually part of the door arming/disarming procedure. "This is a request that each flight attendant report via intercom from his or her station a sort of flight attendant conference call," he wrote.
3. Holding pattern
Definition: "A racetrack-shaped course flown during weather or traffic delays," Smith wrote. "Published holding patterns are depicted on aeronautical charts, but one can be improvised almost anywhere."
4. Last minute paperwork
Used in a sample sentence: "Were just finishing up some last minute paperwork and should be underway shortly"
Definition: For many of us, this announcement is a precursor to a delay. According to Smith, this "paperwork" is usually a revision of the flight plan, something to do with the plane's weight-and-balance record, or simply waiting for the maintenance staff to get the flight's logbook in order.
5. Ground stop
Used in a sample sentence: "Sorry folks, but theres a ground stop on all flights headed south from here."
Definition: "The point when departures to one or more destinations are curtailed by air traffic control; usually due to a traffic backlog," Smith wrote.
6. Air pocket
Definition: A colloquial term for a jolt of turbulence.
7. Equipment
Used in a sample sentence: "Due to an equipment change, departure for Heathrow is delayed three hours.
Definition: The airplane. "Is there not something strange about the refusal to call the focal object of the entire industry by its real name?" Smith wrote.
9 amazing destinations you can visit in a day from London 1 /12 9 amazing destinations you can visit in a day from London Zurich Shutterstock / canadastock Copenhagen Shutterstock / Scanrail1 Paris Shutterstock / S.Borisov Dublin Shutterstock / Leonid Andronov Bruges Shutterstock / Emi Cristea Oslo Shutterstock / Anna Jedynak Prague Shutterstock / Catarina Belova Porto Shutterstock / Zhukova Valentyna Amsterdam Spend a morning on a brunch boat Shutterstock / S-F
8. Final approach
Used in a sample sentence: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now on our final approach into Miami."
Definition: "For pilots, an airplane is on final approach when it has reached the last, straight-in segment of the landing pattern that is, aligned with the extended centerline of the runway, requiring no additional turns or maneuvering," Smith wrote. "Flight attendants speak of final approach on their own more general terms, in reference to the latter portion of the descent."
9. Deadhead
Definition: According to Smith, a pilot or flight attendant who is deadheading onboard a flight is one that is travelling to a destination to be repositioned as part of an on-duty assignment. "This is not the same as commuting to work or engaging in personal travel," he clarified.
10. Direct flight
Definition: Whether or not a flight is "direct" has nothing to do with how many stops it makes on the way to the destination. Instead, a direct flight is defined as a routing where the flight number does not change.
"This is a carryover from the days when flights between major cities routinely made intermediate stops, sometimes several of them," Smith wrote. A flight that doesn't make any stops is a non-stop flight.
11. The ramp
Used in a sample sentence: "Were sorry, your suitcase was crushed by a 747 out on the ramp."
Definition: The ramp is the area closest to the terminal where planes and vehicles are active such as the aircraft parking zones.
Again, this is a relic from the early days of aviation. "In the early days of aviation, many aircraft were amphibious seaplanes or floatplanes. If a plane wasnt flying, it was either in the water or it was 'on the ramp,'" Smith wrote.
W hile frose and gold pineapples may come and go, there are some Millennial trends that simply will never go out of fashion.
If you use Instagram, youll know two things - people love to take photos of avocado on toast, and people love to share photos of sausage dogs they meet on their travels.
Now one savvy company has dreamed up the ultimate hipster fantasy - by turning everyones favourite dog breed and breakfast staple into inflatable pool floats.
Yes, thats right, avocado and Dachshund pool floats.
Kool Pool, a company based in Portland in America, has launched a Kickstarter to bring a range of pool accessories into our lives that go much further than the ubiquitous flamingoes, swans and doughnuts that every Instagrammer had under their arm last summer.
The sausage dog float / Kool Pool
Just imagine, youll be the envy of everyone at the hotel pool as you float around on your inflatable avocado like the clean eating king or queen you really are.
Sheer bliss / Kool Pool
Rather impressively, the stone in the inflatable avo is also detachable, so you can use it as a beach ball when you get tired of simply lying in the sun.
Seriously, what more could you want.
Celebrities on inflatables - in pictures 1 /9 Celebrities on inflatables - in pictures Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson @dianekrugerperso Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin @kendaljenner Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift @taylorswift Kaley Cuoco @kaleycuoco EmmyRossum @emmyrossum Rebecca Judd @becjudd Giant Inflatable Swan 52, oliverbonas.com
The company also plans to launch an inflatable gold chain, hot dog on a stick and a tongue-in-cheek Free the Nipple design which supports womens rights at every water hole everywhere.
The 'Free the Nipple' float (Kool Pool)
According to the company, all of its floats are super thick and durable and will outlast multiple summers. So confident is Kool Pool of the quality of its floats, that its offering a lifetime guarantee on all orders.
The company has currently reached just over $3,000 of its $10,000 goal - so if you want to make the dream a reality, youll have to get pledging on Kickstarter.
The floats cost from $15 - $30 (12 - 24) each to buy. Handily, Kool Pool will also ship to the UK (at an extra cost) so you wont even have to take a trip to the States to pick one up.
So all you have to decide now is: sausage dog or avocado?
F or a disease that affects one in 500 people in UK, there's still an astounding lack of awareness surrounding Parkinson's.
To mark the beginning of Parkinson's Awareness Week (April 10-16), a new campaign reveals how little people know about the challenges those afflicted face while managing their illness. The progressive neurological condition is caused by the loss of cells in the brain, which reduces the amount of dopamine production.
The chemical affects functions like muscle control and balance, so the disease often triggers a tremor and slow, stiff movements. This can make everyday activities like eating and getting dressed difficult.
There is currently no cure for Parkinson's, but medication that works to restore dopamine levels is often used to manage symptoms. Other therapies include deep brain stimulation and physical therapy.
A common misconception of the disease is that it exclusively affects older people. While most people diagnosed over 50, young people can be diagnosed as well.
Advocate for the Parkinson's UK "We Won't Wait" campaign, designer and writer Emma Lawton, was diagnosed with the condition at just 29, after she went to see a physician with what she thought was a trapped nerve.
"I just want to live a normal life," she said. "I've got plans and aspirations for my future and I don't want to have to not do them. I have dreams like everyone else does, you know, like having a family and keeping my job."
The campaign fits in with how she sees her future with Parkinson's. "I won't wait," she said. "My life won't wait. I need a cure. I need a new treatment."
Watch the video above to hear Lawton's story.
parkinsons.org.uk
As of last week, President Donald Trump's foreign policy vision remained mired in fog. Now, recent developments show an administration that's ready to go on offense.
From attacking a Syrian government airfield on Thursday to moving an aircraft carrier group closer to North Korea on Sunday, the White House seems to be pursuing an aggressive approach to reign in rogue nations.
"Clearly, what the Syrian situation does is illustrate that the Trump administration is willing to use force," Adrian Mowat, managing director and chief Asian/EM equity strategist at J.P. Morgan, told CNBC on Monday.
The American airstrikes on the war-torn nation took many by surprise. Trump was known for his nonintervention stance on the matter and previously warned against U.S. involvement in 2013, the Republican tweeted " we should stay the hell out of Syria ."
Now marked down as one of the president's numerous policy flip-flops, strategists haven't ruled out the possibility of further U.S. action in Syria, noting Washington's continued presence in the region.
"Since the missile strike, the U.S. has continued to fly sorties over Syrian airspace. They have been flying F22s, the most advanced fighters you can put in that airspace, to make sure the Syrians don't respond by turning on their air defense systems or the Russians don't retaliate ," said Richard Fontaine, president of policy think-tank The Center for a New American Security.
The same heavy-handed attitude applies to Pyongyang, who has been ramping up its nuclear threats in recent months.
Following a failed ballistic missile launch on March 22 and the firing of four missiles towards the Sea of Japan on March 6, the pariah state test-launched yet another ballistic missile last Wednesday ahead of Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping .
The White House has called for a radical overhaul of U.S. policy towards Pyongyang , a strategy reflected in Sunday's decision to deploy the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group nearer to the Korean Peninsula. Strategists called the measure escalatory but the U.S. Pacific Command's intention was to maintain readiness and presence in the region, according to its statement.
Story continues
"After the strikes on Syria, this is seen largely as another demonstration effect," said Stephen Yates, CEO of DC International Advisory, referring to Sunday's news.
North Korea, who considers Syria an ally, has called Washington's actions in the Middle Eastern country "evermore reckless moves for a war," adding that incidents like these justified Pyongyang's need for nuclear weapons.
"The (Trump) administration is reviewing its options for how to deal with North Korea but all of them seem to be trending towards the more coercive side of the ledger," said Fontaine.
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W hen the Land Rover Defender ceased production, it was a milestone for an awful lot of people. For Jonathan Douglas, it was just weird. When production finished, our business went flat for two months as if every Defender owner in the country held their breath for a moment and wondered what might happen next, he says. But then the demand exploded.
As MD and chief engineer, Douglas is overseeing an explosion of interest in doing the kind of Land Rover work that JLRs own Special Vehicle Operations might contemplate. In fact JLRs SVO base is only about a mile away from JE Motorworks, in Coventry.
You might remember that the company was founded back in 1975 by John Eales, whose initials are still there. It worked on Rover V8s, and engines like the 4.2-litre V8 which went into the companys Dakar Range Rover. Then there was the P38A, a 4.7-litre supercharged Range Rover with tweaked suspension an early Range Rover Sport some might say.
Douglas had no intention of being anything other than an engineer, but he ended up owning the company. Does he enjoy being boss? I delegate as many of the organisational tasks as I can, to try to keep free for the engineering. This is a man with British engineering in his blood, operating in Englands automotive heartland.
By the 2000s the company was dabbling with the Discovery, tuning the ECUs on the diesel engines, but the Range Rover was more of a problem. The BMW engineering of the Range Rover gave JE less scope to improve things, but there was the Defender, and thats not something you could say about that stalwart.
The companys philosophy is to offer a balanced vehicle, a balanced service. So if the engine gets a radical upgrade so does the suspension and braking. Taken to its logical conclusion you end up with a Zulu charging towards you.
The Zulu is a Defender with a 4.7-litre supercharged V8 that can propel the beast to 62mph in under 5sec. With 475bhp on tap the 150,000 Zulu is perhaps just a touch extreme for some Defender owners, but there are less demanding options.
Jonathan Douglas, MD at JE Motorworks
He has watched the market going crazy with some bemusement, but figures there are so many Series II around that prices cant get too ridiculous. The issue is that hes dealing with a wide clientele that he splits into four categories. 1: Serious off-road, hardcore working vehicles. 2: Enthusiasts who do go off-road but want a more practical set of wheels. 3: Collectors who want their vehicle like the day it rolled off the line or better. 4: The super rich who wont wait and want to make the biggest statement possible.
This spread is demonstrated by JEs range of work. As Douglas reckons: Were doing about eight automatic gearbox conversions a month; converting about five Defenders a month with rebuilt V8s to go all over the world; and well make about five Zulus this year.
As he says, theyre looking for balance in every job. We do try to provide a car like one might buy in the showroom one thats been rethought from the bottom up.
Follow Evening Standard Motors on Twitter and Facebook.
N amed after the Greek goddess of the night, make-up and cosmetics brand NYX is known for its high-quality, professional-standard products and its accessible prices. Its a favourite among make-up artists and industry insiders thanks to the rich pigments and high payoff of its lipsticks and palettes. In fact, it began as a professional-only brand sold exclusively at trade shows before being made available to the make-up-loving masses.
Its also perfect for the ethically minded make-up fan as all NYX products are 100 per cent cruelty free.
Fans of the LA-born brand on this side of the pond will be used to stocking up on cult NYX products online. Happily, its set to get even easier to lay your hands on the brands hit formulas as its opened a first flagship retail store at Westfield Stratford City.
Set to be the biggest in Europe, the new NYX store is designed with unique digital features that will bring the passion of the online beauty world into a real-life retail environment.
As a digitally-savvy brand with a strong global following, the brands latest store has been created for truly modern make-up consumers. Recognising that the new breed of make-up artist is often self-taught, the NYX Professional Makeup store will celebrate everyday artistry. Expect innovative new digital technology features and an interactive approach that puts techniques and tools directly into the hands of shoppers.
Browse the gallery below to discover some of the brand's best loved cosmetics.
5 of NYX's most popular products - in pictures 1 /5 5 of NYX's most popular products - in pictures Micro brow pencil Ultra-thin for extra precision, NYX's eyebrow pencil coats even the finest hairs. 8 Lip Lingerie Weightless liquid lipstick with a plush matte finish. 7 Perfect Filter Shadow Palette Inspired by photo filtering effects, each of these eye-shadow palettes features a different striking colour combination. 16 Soft Matte Lip Cream A firm fan favourite, this lip cream boasts a velvety smooth matte finish. 6 Make-up setting spray This lightweight spray will keep your face looking fresh and your make-up in place all day. 7
Head to Westfield Stratford City to check out the brand new NYX boutique as well as over 250 other stores. For more information visit westfield.com/stratfordcity
" Dolphins! whooped Joy. The shout brought our young crew on deck instantly, eyes excitedly scanning the waters around our yacht. Over there, by the bow! First one, then another blue-grey mass surged through the sea a few feet from us, leaping then splashing back into the water.
Around us, the crystal waters of the Aegean Sea. Above, a skyscraper of curling white sails that drove our Beneteau Oceanis 50 to its next picturesque Greek harbour.
If it sounds an impossible dream, the good news is that skippering your own yacht is increasingly accessible. All the major holiday companies offer training courses for the International Certificate of Competence (ICC) or the RYA Day Skipper course, which enable the holder to charter boats all over the world. Sailing Holidays is unusual in that it allows dinghy sailors, windsurfers and canoeists to join its beginner flotillas, cruising around the Ionian islands. Along with my wife Joy, teenage daughter Laura and two of her friends, I signed up.
After several previous Ionian cruises we were looking for something more adventurous, and were attracted by the companys boast that it had opened up new cruising grounds around the Saronic islands, between Athens and the Peloponnese
Dolphin-watching in the Aegean Sea
Our voyage started in Nafplion, a fortified harbour town with Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman history, where a dozen gleaming yachts were moored at the quayside. The girls lost no time exploring Kassandra, our floating home. At 50ft, Kassandra was the superyacht of our holiday fleet: the biggest, fastest and most luxurious, with four ensuite double cabins, a kitchen with two fridges and a huge saloon.
The idea of a flotilla is that 11 families, each in their own boat, work together. Each day the fleet sails in the morning and meets up again at a new spot in the late afternoon. Unlike bareboat chartering, nobody is left to fend for themselves. The 12th yacht belongs to a lead crew who motor ahead to the next harbour and find mooring spots, guide everyone in, catch lines and sort out problems.
Before leaving Nafplion we were given a thorough briefing by our lead crew skipper Junior, engineer Tim and host Stacey who also demonstrated the sails and safety equipment.
The 11 families were a varied bunch: some were sailing fans, others lured by the chance to swim in clear waters away from the tourist track, others loved the social side of a holiday that inevitably means lots of dining and drinking with fellow cruisers. Our cruising ground would be around the Argolic Gulf, in the crook of the Peloponnese, then down the coast of rocky headlands, sandy bays and secret coves with fishing villages.
Dhokos sunset
Finally it was time to start the engine and slip our lines. With a smooth sea and a fair breeze, unfurling the mainsail was as easy as pulling out roller blinds. It is a magical moment when the engine falls silent and a yacht surges under the power of the wind alone, making no noise but the creak of rigging and the splash of the bow wave.
Our first destination was Vivari, a placid bay where we dropped anchors in shallow water. Junior, Tim and Stacey were waiting to help us anchor safely then usher us to a punch party on the beach, where we could get to know the other families. As in every flot, the children soon bonded into a happy tribe while the adults chatted about the days adventures. For dinner, we found a taverna by the beach. The next day we set off to Tiros, a pretty fishing harbour across the Gulf; even with the sails only partially unfurled to avoid frightening beginners, Kassandra clocked a whoop-inducing eight knots. This is where the flotilla came into its own mooring in Tiross tiny harbour with a cross-wind, swimmers and fishing boats would have been terrifying without Junior to guide us in and catch our lines.
The next few days revealed a succession of seductive coves and bays as we journeyed south along the Peloponnese coast. Daily passages varied we managed up to 20 miles a day, though it was always broken by dropping anchor in a secluded paradise to swim. Navigation was easy with a GPS in the cockpit.
We spent an idyllic night near Kiparissi moored at an isolated chapel surrounded by plunging green hillsides like a Scottish loch. A long sail accompanied by the dolphins brought us to Monemvasia, a rock-like mountain jutting from the sea with a medieval city of narrow, cobbled streets clinging to the side. We spent two days here exploring its Byzantine and Ottoman ruins, and traces of an ancient Spartan fortress city at the summit. We enjoyed slow-cooked lamb at Mouro, a restaurant overlooking the bay. Later we cooled down in the harbour, where loggerhead turtles did not seem to mind us snorkelling among them.
This was our furthest point south and, for week two, we headed north to go island-hopping in livelier locations. Hydra, with its celebrity-attracting boutiques, had a great buzz. Balitza Creek, on the island of Spetses, was packed with superyachts. One memorable night was spent at the old pirate port of Geraka, hidden in a fjord it seemed quiet on arrival but then hundreds of villagers descended for a festival of Greek music and dancing that lasted until 4.30am.
The harbour at Monemvasia
But it was the secluded, lesser-known harbours I loved the most. One night in particular best captured the fortnights experience. At Dokha Bay, Stacey served a picnic under the stars. Afterwards, we went for a midnight bathe in waters teeming with phosphorescence: tiny organisms that emit pinpricks of light when disturbed. It was like swimming in swirling glitter a memory to treasure for years to come.
Details
Flotillas with Sailing Holidays (020 8459 8787; sailingholidays.com) cost from 595 per person for a fortnight, including flights, transfers, equipment and fuel (based on a group of six). Meals not included. Joes two weeks on Kassandra for five in the August peak season would normally cost 9,835.
visitgreece.gr
A n eight-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a man after she became separated from her family while travelling on the Tube, police said.
The child was allegedly attacked on a Piccadilly line train between Knightsbridge and Kings Cross on Sunday afternoon.
Police said she became separated from her family shortly before 5.30pm.
The victim said a man touched her inappropriately several times before she was able to get back to her family.
The suspect is described as a white man, aged in his 50s, of slim build with grey thinning hair. He wore glasses, a navy jacket and blue jeans.
Police have been trawling through CCTV footage since the assault was reported to try to locate the man responsible.
Investigating officer Det Con Gareth Jones said: Were you travelling on the Piccadilly Line eastbound between 5.05pm and around 5.30pm yesterday and did you witness anything that looked out of place to you?
We are supporting the girl and her family through this investigation and are doing everything to locate the man who did this.
Do you recognise the description? Or might you have information that could help? Please let us know as soon as you can.
Anyone with information is asked to contact BTP on 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016, with the reference 384 of 9 April.
A man was seriously injured in hospital today after he was stabbed in north-west London.
The 34-year-old victim took himself to hospital after the attack in Spur Road, Stanmore, last night.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said a cordon was put in place at the scene after they were called by the hospital at 5.45pm.
The victims injuries were being treated as life-threatening but police later said he was no longer in a critical condition.
No-one has been arrested.
The incident followed another stabbing in the early hours of yesterday morning in Stoke Newington.
A 27-year-old woman was rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds after an attack near Rectory Road station.
Police last night said her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.
A property magnate and his wife are at loggerheads with their children over 17 million of jewels, antiques and artwork at the familys stately home.
The Davidson family has been torn apart by a legal feud over their 600 million estate and ownership of Lyegrove House, a Jacobean mansion next door to Prince Charless Highgrove home.
Manny Davidson, 85, a millionaire who set up Asda Property Holdings in the Sixties, and his wife Brigitta, 80, put much of their wealth in trust funds for children, Maxine, 57, and Gerald, 55, due to worries about inheritance tax.
They are now suing their children for the return of a large number of valuable chattels located in a country home owned by their children, Lyegrove House, their barrister Stephen Rubin QC told the High Court.
Dispute: Maxine Davidson is locked in a legal battle with her parents
The couple lived at Lyegrove until they moved to Monaco in 2011, but left a collection of artefacts including Elizabethan tankards and Old Master paintings. They want more than 300 items returned, including an exceptional 13 million silver collection.
Maxine, a freelance art consultant, and Gerald are counter-suing for a further 180 items, including 3 million worth of jewellery, which they claim are rightfully theirs. The family is set to argue over an estimated 17 million worth of items at the High Court this month. The feud has its origins in two trust funds settled by the parents in 1967, with their children named as the principal beneficiaries. Most of the familys 600 million fortune is in them, and Maxine and Geralds children are the next generation of likely beneficiaries.
The battle centres around Lyegrove House
The siblings bought Lyegrove House, a mansion set in 18 acres of Gloucestershire countryside, in 1993. Their parents say the cash came from income distributed to them from trusts settled by their parents.
Manny and Brigitta argue they ran Lyegrove, which was viewed as their country home, and they believed they could return whenever they liked after moving to Monaco in 2011. The children insist it was bought as a weekend retreat for the whole family. After relations crumbled, Manny and Brigitta say they were excluded from the house by their children in 2015, and spoke out publicly to warn others against giving wealth to children to avoid inheritance tax.
Maxine Davidson also accused them of removing artworks from a home in the south of France, inset
Giles Richardson QC, for the children, said the parents are accused of removing art and antiques from their home in the south of France after the breakdown in relations. Maxine and Gerald, who collects Aston Martins, are also demanding that their parents account for the use of [their childrens] funds in various bank accounts over the last 40 years.
Maxine, a mother of two, said she plans to attend the court case, due to start on April 25, but refused to comment further. Gerald was not available for comment at his Hampstead home.
F ears are mounting for the safety of a nine-year-old girl who went missing after being taken to hospital in need of urgent treatment.
Police have issued a plea for information after the child vanished from St Mary's hospital in Paddington shortly after arriving for medical care on Sunday evening.
Doctors believe the girl could be diabetic and have warned she could fall into a coma if not treated urgently.
Scotland Yard said the girl attended the hospital along with her parents and a younger brother - at around 5.40pm after she fell ill.
UPDATE: Police said the girl has now been found.
The man believed to be the child's father. / Met Police
But the family left two hours later before the girl, believed to have a high blood sugar count, could receive treatment.
Officers said that the girls parents had told medics their child's name was Mashael Aldosari.
A police statement said: "Detectives are unsure if this is the child's real name as the family provided a false address to staff.
Police have released pictures of the mother and missing girl. / Met Police
"Police know very little about the family as the adults did not provide their names to staff at the hospital. All four left the hospital at 7.44pm.
"At this early stage detectives believe that the family could be from Kuwait.
"They are believed to have told medical staff that they had travelled to the UK in order for their son to receive hospital treatment. Inquiries have established that this is may not be the case.
"It is not known when the family entered the country and inquires continue with other agencies.
"Given the circumstances, detectives are urgently seeking the young girl in order for her to receive medical treatment."
Mashael is described as being less than 5ft and has long, straight black hair. She was last seen wearing a grey top, leggings and light coloured shoes.
The man, believed to be her father, is described as having a heavy build and has short black hair receding at the front and a the woman, thought to be the childs mother, was wearing a black burka.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 or via Twitter @MetCC.
O ne of south Londons grandest mansions famed for lavish parties attended by President Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Elizabeth Taylor has been put up for sale for a cut price 12 million.
The Grade II* listed Old Battersea House, with sweeping 110ft-wide lawns that stretch almost to the river, is believed to have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren.
It was most recently owned by Sergei Pugachev a Russian oligarch once known as Putins banker who now lives in France after his assets were frozen by the High Court in 2014.
However, the 10-bedroom, seven-bathroom property, built in 1699, is best known as the London base of the billionaire Forbes family from 1971 to 2011.
The property is best known as the London base of the billionaire Forbes family from 1971 to 2011 / Saville's
Publisher Malcolm Forbes bought the house when it was near-derelict, restored it at huge cost and filled it with one of Londons finest collections of Victorian art.
The family hosted royalty and Hollywood stars at the house over the years Elizabeth Taylor spent her honeymoon with her seventh and final husband Larry Fortensky there in 1991. The price is the same as when the house last went on the market in 2011. The Land Registry lists the owner as the New Zealand-based Kea Trust Company.
Robin Chatwin, head of Savills south-west London office, said: Old Battersea House is an incredibly rare and historic London home which comes to the market with a competitive guide price.
The property is behind electric gates and features include a baroque hallway, panelled drawing rooms, oak doors and floorboards, a jacuzzi bath and a sauna.
P olice helicopters performed a 'bow' in formation in tribute to PC Keith Palmer as his coffin was carried to Southwark Cathedral.
Shortly before the service commenced at Southwark Cathedral, two NPAS helicopters conduced a fly past over the procession.
The helicopters created the missing man formation salute traditionally performed at funerals and memorials and one performed the bow salute over the cathedral.
Salute: The helicopters hovered over the cathedral / Metropolitan Police
The helicopters coordinated with police boats - joined by London Fire Brigade vessels, the Port of London Authority and lifeboats - taking part in a river procession.
As the funeral procession made its way over Lambeth Bridge, boats from the Marine Policing Unit led a ten-second horn salute.
Killed: PC Keith Palmer / Metropolitan Police
Two of the boats were ones named after police officers killed in the line of duty PC Nina MacKay who was stabbed in 1997 and PC Gabriel Franks who was shot during a riot in 1798.
Salute: The police boats joined into an arrow shape / Metropolitan Police
They created an arrow formation at Lambeth Bridge as the coffin passed overhead.
Procession: Thousands of officers lined the streets of London / Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
More than 5,000 police officers lined the route as the coffin of 48-year-old PC Palmer was taken from a chapel at the Palace of Westminster in the "full-force" funeral.
His body was taken to lay in rest there on Sunday after special permission from the Queen.
PC Keith Palmer Funeral - In pictures 1 /57 PC Keith Palmer Funeral - In pictures The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Alex Lentati The funeral of Pc Keith Palmer Sky News Pall bearers carry the coffin of PC Keith Palmer into the Southwark Cathedral in London Frank Augstein/AP A police officer reacts outside Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Hannah McKay/Reuters The funeral cortege of PC Keith Palmer makes its way from The Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral Chris Jackson/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft Yui Mok/PA The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Yui Mok/PA A couple hug as a Police officer lowers his head as the hearse carrying the coffin of PC Keith Palmer Daniel Leal-OlivasAFP/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Alex Lentati A man lays a single red rose in front of the police helmet of PC Keith Palmer Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft Sky News Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) on duty outside Parliament in London Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA The names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning are added to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance during a Police Roll of Honour Trust ceremony in London Rick Findler/PA Cressida Dick (right) the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police arrives on her first day in the job, at Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Floral tributes at Parliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Security in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Alex Lentati Security in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) prepare to line the route of the funeral procession for PC Keith Palmer to the police funeral service at Southwark Cathedral Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA Flowers at Carriage Gate Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Floral tributes at Parliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Flowers at Westminster today Jeremy Selwyn Police officers and well-wishers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Police at a ceremony by the Police Roll of Honour Trust to add the names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance in London Rick Findler/PA Security in Parliament Sq before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Flowers at Westminster today Jeremy Selwyn Security and flowers in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) keep watch over the route of the funeral procession for PC Keith Palmer to the police funeral service at Southwark Cathedra Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA Floral tributes at the Palace of Westminster ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Getty Images Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Dan Kitwood/Getty Images A police officer rubs his eye outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the funeral of Pc Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Hannah McKay/Reuters A young girl looks at floral tributes at Paliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images A couple watch as the coffin of PC Keith Palmer, who was killed in the recent Westminster attack, is transported from the Palace of Westminster Stefan Wermuth/Reuters The coffin of Pc Keith Baker is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London Jeremy Selwyn Police officers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The Met police officer died after being stabbed by Khalid Masood as he tried to stop the terrorist who had mown down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge from storming into Parliament.
Procession: The helicopters escorted the funeral procession / BBC News
PC Palmer was one of five innocent people killed in the attack before Masood was shot dead.
L ondoners today turned out to pay their respects to murdered PC Keith Palmer as thousands of officers lined the funeral route.
Parliament Square was filled with tourists and well-wishers who left notes and flowers to the makeshift shrine to the victims of the Westminster terror attack last month.
The funeral procession was due to leave the Palace of Westminster along a 1.2mile route ending at 2pm with a service at Southwark Cathedral.
Londoners today told the Standard why paying their respects to PC Palmer and the four other victims was so important.
Floral tributes outside Parliament / Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Paula Franks, 38, a care worker from Bermondsey, came to Parliament Square to pay her respects.
She said: "It's a lovely outpouring of love and respect. Its important PC Palmer is remembered and celebrated.
"Its also good for London to show its a tolerant city despite what has happened.
"It sends a strong message to the world that London is welcoming and it's really special to see the flowers on the Parliament Square."
Police arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of PC Palmer's funeral / Hannah McKay/Reuters
Vicky Jessop, who now lives in Sussex, said: "I feel sorrow for what happened. I hate to see our police attacked.
"The flowers are amazing."
She added: "Today shows London in such a good light. Everyone is calm, respectful and ordered."
A young girl looks at floral tributes laid for the Westminster terror attack victims / Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Louise Hood, 47, a trainee psychologist from Sydenham, said: "We have been touched by what's happened. My husband is from a military background and I think it upset him a lot.
"But one of the lovely things is how everyone gathers around to support the police.
Paying respects: Louise Hood / Ben Morgan
"It could have been much worse. It was appalling for those who lost their lives or were injured.
"The officer's actions were so brave and this is a fitting send off and should raise awareness for what they do."
PC Keith Palmer Funeral - In pictures 1 /57 PC Keith Palmer Funeral - In pictures The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Alex Lentati The funeral of Pc Keith Palmer Sky News Pall bearers carry the coffin of PC Keith Palmer into the Southwark Cathedral in London Frank Augstein/AP A police officer reacts outside Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Hannah McKay/Reuters The funeral cortege of PC Keith Palmer makes its way from The Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral Chris Jackson/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft Yui Mok/PA The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Yui Mok/PA A couple hug as a Police officer lowers his head as the hearse carrying the coffin of PC Keith Palmer Daniel Leal-OlivasAFP/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Alex Lentati A man lays a single red rose in front of the police helmet of PC Keith Palmer Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft Sky News Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) on duty outside Parliament in London Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA The names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning are added to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance during a Police Roll of Honour Trust ceremony in London Rick Findler/PA Cressida Dick (right) the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police arrives on her first day in the job, at Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Floral tributes at Parliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Security in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Alex Lentati Security in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) prepare to line the route of the funeral procession for PC Keith Palmer to the police funeral service at Southwark Cathedral Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA Flowers at Carriage Gate Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Floral tributes at Parliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Flowers at Westminster today Jeremy Selwyn Police officers and well-wishers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Police at a ceremony by the Police Roll of Honour Trust to add the names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance in London Rick Findler/PA Security in Parliament Sq before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Flowers at Westminster today Jeremy Selwyn Security and flowers in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) keep watch over the route of the funeral procession for PC Keith Palmer to the police funeral service at Southwark Cathedra Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA Floral tributes at the Palace of Westminster ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Getty Images Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Dan Kitwood/Getty Images A police officer rubs his eye outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the funeral of Pc Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Hannah McKay/Reuters A young girl looks at floral tributes at Paliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images A couple watch as the coffin of PC Keith Palmer, who was killed in the recent Westminster attack, is transported from the Palace of Westminster Stefan Wermuth/Reuters The coffin of Pc Keith Baker is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London Jeremy Selwyn Police officers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Mark Field, 42, IT consultant who lives in Archway, said: "I think it's the most amazing send off to a police officer who lost his life protecting others.
"Yes, sometimes the police are not the most popular people but it's a hard job. It was only fitting he gets the pageantry. I hope it helps his friends and family."
Well-wishers said the outpouring of support showed that London was 'united' despite the attack on March 22.
San Chandramohan, 50, City worker, Balham, said: "Unfortunately we're in a time where this is happening so let's get London together. This procession helps show that we are together, it shows unity."
Nick Earl, 63, a city worker, from Croydon, said: "Let's hope this brings unity, we are standing together."
Among the crowds: Julija Matuseviciute / Ben Morgan
City worker Julija Matuseviciute, 30, from Colliers Wood, said: "I think it shows a sense of community, I do agree with people saying it's showing you're not scared by what's happened. London is one of the busiest city's in the world and that shows so much respect to close the whole area down.
"At the end of the day he was one of the people there to protect. You need to show respect for his bravery."
L ondon's parks were left strewn with rubbish after thousands of people descended on the capital's green spaces this weekend.
Hordes of people flocked to parks across London as temperatures soared to 25C and the south-east basked in glorious sunshine.
Images posted on social media showed discarded beer cans, overflowing bins and crows circling left rubbish as councils across the capital began a mammoth clean-up effort.
London Fields and Battersea Park proved popular spots for revellers hoping to bask in the spring sunshine, with rubbish left scattered across both parks on Monday morning.
One councillor in Hackney branded the visitors to London Fields "thoughtless" and claimed they made cleaning up the park "very difficult".
Bins were left overflowing with beer cans and rubbish at Battersea Park (Ruth Dangerfield ) / Ruth Dangerfield
And Hackney local Alexandra posted on Twitter: If you went to a park this weekend + didn't take your litter home, you should be ashamed of yourself. London Fields was a state this morning.
Battersea Park visitor Ruth Dangerfield posted pictures of overflowing litter bins, claiming every bin was surrounded by rubbish.
Debora Robertson, after seeing pictures of London Fields posted on social media, said: I never understand what people say to themselves to make not taking their rubbish home with them ok. It's revolting.
Hackney MP Dianne Abbot was among the revellers to visit London Fields this weekend, posting glorious snaps of the lovely spring day as temperatures hit their highest point of the year so far.
Last year, Hackney Council was forced to up security efforts when hipsters left London Fields looking like a warzone during a heatwave.
Visitors were spotted lazing in paddling pools while drinking beer and dozens of discarded barbecues were left at the site.
Hundreds of revellers descended on London Fields over the weekend / Aleka-Gutzmore
Barbecues are allowed in a designated area of London Fields, which the community forum the London Fields User Group has claimed makes the park unsustainably popular.
The council has promised police 'enforcement days' throughout the summer again this year.
Cllr Feryal Demirci, cabinet member for parks at Hackney Council, said: Following the first hot weekend of the year the park was left filled with litter, after thoughtless people didnt bother to use any of the 54 bins available.
"This made the clean-up of the park really difficult, but London Fields was clear of litter by 8am on Sunday morning and 9am on Monday morning.
Everyone who uses the park has a responsibility to behave appropriately and dispose of their rubbish in the numerous bins provided or to take their litter home.
As in previous years, throughout the summer the council will be running a number of enforcement days with the police, where people can be fined for things like littering, selling nitrous oxide and urinating in public. We also have also put out even more bins than ever this year.
"People have no excuse for not using them.
A pril has brought unseasonal sunshine for most. So spare a thought for philosopher Alain de Botton, who seems to be experiencing the lions share of bad luck over his hopes for a European expansion.
On Friday, de Botton, below, tweeted some disappointing news for students of The School of Life, the initiative that describes itself as devoted to developing emotional intelligence. Plans to set up The School of Life in Zurich have collapsed at the final hurdle, he wrote. Experienced Swiss partner who wants the challenge, let me know.
The tweet has since been deleted but the website echoes the sentiment: The School of Life is always keen to hear from German- and French-speaking faculty who might be interested to teach future classes, it says. The project, which arranges seminars and online courses, already has an outpost in Taipei in Taiwan but lacks a presence on the continent.
The news must be galling for de Botton, who was born in Zurich, and could have come at a better time. Last week The Londoner reported that his dreams of a philosophers hotel in Hampstead had also failed to get off the ground: the property was sold on and will now be turned into luxury flats.
The Londoner has reached out to The School of Life to ask what caused the bump in the road but we are yet to hear back.
De Botton has, however, been vocal over the negative implications of leaving the EU. It looks as if after all the melodrama of Brexit, the UK will be 50 billion poorer and remain in a version of the EEA. Worth it? he wrote on the same day as announcing the collapse of the expansion. Is The School of Life the latest immigrant to suffer thanks to Brexit?
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(BBC News & Current Affairs via G) / BBC News & Current Affairs via G
Cressida Dick starts her new job as Met Police Commissioner today. Jeremy Paxman nominated the Met for this years Bad Grammar Award and emailed us his logic over the weekend. Bernard Hogan-Howe talked of London having to make do with less police I think he meant fewer police, Paxo tells us. They say a fish rots from the head... Londoners are entitled to expect more, and Cressida Dick will be held to higher standards. Good luck.
Lloyd Webber for Trump: The Musical?
Dave Benett/Getty Images
Yesterday Judy Murray blasted rumours of a musical about her son Andy. But could we be due a pair of other unlikely musicals? Yesterday Andrew Lloyd Webber told The Sunday Times he wishes hed based Stephen Ward, his musical about the Profumo Affair, around good-time girl Mandy Rice-Davies instead. It should have been about her, really, he said. He adds that he met Donald Trump during the US election Lloyd Webber lived in Trump Tower. He didnt look like a man who was passionate to become President, he adds. Surely Trump: The Musical would be bigly.
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Quote of the day: 'Part of your education ought to be teaching you about how you can grow a carrot.'
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry told children to Dig For Victory on yesterday's Andrew Marr show.
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No one acting up after the Olivier awards
Dave Benett/Getty Images
A hot day was followed by a cool crowd last night, as the citys thespians headed to the Rosewood hotel in Holborn after the Olivier Awards. Nominees Ruth Wilson and Sheridan Smith looked in good spirits despite losing out at the ceremony: Billie Piper in Yerma beat Wilson to Best Actress, and Smith lost in the Musical Actress category to Amber Riley in Dreamgirls. Other winners included Noma Dumezweni for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, while choreographer Matthew Bourne did the double: his Sadlers Wells show The Red Shoes won two awards. One for each shoe?
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The Londoner loves a roman-a-clef, and where better to find one than straight from The Horses Arse? The equine-titled satire from art critic Laura Gascoigne has the gallery scene agog. The Art Newspaper describes a cast of a mega-gallerist who employs goons for his glitzy private views; the politically savvy director of a state gallery seeking millions for an extension; and the heirs of a pound-shop billionaire looking to flog a collection of Cool British Art. Will they be forgiving portraits?
It can be prim up North
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Katharine Viner has instigated an era of money-saving changes at The Guardian: theres even talk of a move back up north to the papers spiritual home of Manchester.
But there are already grumblings from within. Peter Preston, the papers editor from 1975 to 1995, is railing against the Northern Powerhouse. Editing a national paper from the north while cut off from metropolitan sources and life was a terrible handicap, he wrote in The Observer yesterday. Look at just a few streets in Manhattan... Facebook, Google, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, BuzzFeed and countless more cluster in top-notch East Side/West Side order. They testify to the continuing attraction of big offices, and the desire to gather where its at.
He adds that the BBCs move to Salford doesnt make a countervailing case. A move would mean some bonuses, however: Manchesters MediaCityUK, like Viners home town of Ripon in Yorkshire, has a branch of Booths, a supermarket posher than The Guardian HQs Waitrose. Brioche for all.
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Tweet of the day: I think the most Ive ever spent on a jacket is 50
Owen Jones explains his wardrobe choices after GQ styled him in a 1,080 blazer some assumed hed brought his own clothes and accused him of being out of touch.
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Feminist Thandie is no mug, Boris
Is feminism a four-letter word? Line of Dutys Thandie Newton posted this picture with a mug on Twitter. Keen-eyed readers will be able to make out the Feminist as F*** slogan. The Newtons dont shy away from profanity: Thandie recently confessed that her daughter, Ripley Parker, called Boris Johnson a c*** to his face.
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Tough dad of the day: Gordon Ramsay tells todays Telegraph that he doesnt allow his children to sit with him when flying first class. A much needed break for him, or them?
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F amilies of soldiers killed in the IRA bombing in London's Hyde Park are reportedly taking legal action against a former suspect in the attack.
Relatives of two of the four members of the Royal Household Cavalry who died in the 1982 blast told The Sun they wanted "justice" for their loved ones.
Convicted IRA member John Downey was charged four years ago with the murders, which he denied, but the prosecution at the Old Bailey collapsed in 2014.
The case against the Co Donegal man was ended because government officials mistakenly sent him a letter in 2007, as part of a controversial On The Runs (OTRs) scheme, telling him he was no longer a wanted man.
Now Sarahjane Young, daughter of Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young, who was 19 when he was killed, has reportedly filed a civil claim at London's High Court against Mr Downey.
IRA Hyde Park bombing 1 /5 IRA Hyde Park bombing IRA-bombing.jpg Bomb attack: the scene of carnage in Hyde Park and, inset, how the Standard covered the story Rex/ Associated Newspapers bomb.jpg Scene of carnage: Dead horses after the blast that killed four members of the Royal Household Cavalry Sefton--the-19-year.jpg Survivor: Sefton the cavalry horse injured in the Hyde Park car bomb TED BLACKBROW eLib_5165259.jpg Bombing: people lay floral tributes at the scene Associated Newspapers
The car bomb left in South Carriage Drive killed Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, 36, Lieutenant Dennis Daly, 23, Trooper Simon Tipper, 19, and Lance Corporal Young and injured others as they rode through Hyde Park to the changing of the guard.
Seven horses were also killed as the soldiers travelled from their barracks to Buckingham Palace. Another horse, Sefton, survived terrible injuries.
Backing the claim Mark Tipper, an older brother of Trooper Simon Tipper, told The Sun: "If we can get this man before the courts in some way, it will show the British public at least still believes in justice.
"We've been let down again and again by the authorities over the past 35 years and, if I'm honest, at times we've almost given up hope.
"We just want to get justice for them, no matter how long that takes."
The newspaper is campaigning for people to donate money to fund the lawsuit.
H undreds of police were on patrol on streets surrounding Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral for PC Keith Palmer, who died in the line of duty during a terror attack in Westminster.
Temporary concrete barriers were erected at key junctions leading to Southwark Bridge and London Bridge ahead of the service for the hero police officer.
A 2km (1.2 mile) square area of London was completely closed to all road traffic. The area extends north of the river past Liverpool Street on Bishopsgate, with Southwark Bridge and London Bridge both closed off.
South of the river, closed roads extend west past the Tate Modern, and east to Tower Bridge Road and Great Dover Street.
Police officers on duty for the funeral close to the Shard
Blackfriars Bridge and Blackfriars Road are both open to traffic.
Police with sniffer dogs patrolled the route the cortege will pass through while dozens of officers passed along the roads on motorbikes and in vans.
Roads were blocked off as part of a 2km square area that was closed to traffic for the funeral
Other officers were seen searching bins and alleyways to make sure the route was safe.
With crowds of people expected to line the streets, metal barriers were also set up along the roadside.
There was heightened security around the cathedral itself with officers on guard at key entrance points.
PC Keith Palmer Funeral - In pictures 1 /57 PC Keith Palmer Funeral - In pictures The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Alex Lentati The funeral of Pc Keith Palmer Sky News Pall bearers carry the coffin of PC Keith Palmer into the Southwark Cathedral in London Frank Augstein/AP A police officer reacts outside Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Hannah McKay/Reuters The funeral cortege of PC Keith Palmer makes its way from The Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral Chris Jackson/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft Yui Mok/PA The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Yui Mok/PA A couple hug as a Police officer lowers his head as the hearse carrying the coffin of PC Keith Palmer Daniel Leal-OlivasAFP/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London before it makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Alex Lentati A man lays a single red rose in front of the police helmet of PC Keith Palmer Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images The coffin of Pc Keith Palmer is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft Sky News Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) on duty outside Parliament in London Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA The names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning are added to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance during a Police Roll of Honour Trust ceremony in London Rick Findler/PA Cressida Dick (right) the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police arrives on her first day in the job, at Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Floral tributes at Parliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Security in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Alex Lentati Security in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) prepare to line the route of the funeral procession for PC Keith Palmer to the police funeral service at Southwark Cathedral Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA Flowers at Carriage Gate Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Floral tributes at Parliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Flowers at Westminster today Jeremy Selwyn Police officers and well-wishers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Police at a ceremony by the Police Roll of Honour Trust to add the names of fallen officers Pc Keith Palmer and Pc Gareth Browning to the National Police Officers Roll of Honour & Remembrance in London Rick Findler/PA Security in Parliament Sq before the Funeral of PC Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Flowers at Westminster today Jeremy Selwyn Security and flowers in Parliament Square before the Funeral of PC Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Stefan Wermuth/Reuters London Metropolitan Police Officers (MPS) keep watch over the route of the funeral procession for PC Keith Palmer to the police funeral service at Southwark Cathedra Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA Floral tributes at the Palace of Westminster ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Getty Images Police officers arrive in Southwark for the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Dan Kitwood/Getty Images A police officer rubs his eye outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the funeral of Pc Keith Palmer Jeremy Selwyn Police officers arrive near Southwark Cathedral ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Hannah McKay/Reuters A young girl looks at floral tributes at Paliament Square ahead of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer Chris Jackson/Getty Images Police officers march towards Southwark Cathedral in London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images A couple watch as the coffin of PC Keith Palmer, who was killed in the recent Westminster attack, is transported from the Palace of Westminster Stefan Wermuth/Reuters The coffin of Pc Keith Baker is removed from Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in London Jeremy Selwyn Police officers line the route in Southwark as the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer makes its way to Southwark Cathedral Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The husband of Zoe Bowden, 42, a retail worker from Stevenage, works for the Met.
She said: "We want to show our support really. It could have been any of our other halves.
"When that happens it's very scary. You pick up the phone straight away to make sure they're ok."
The red zone ring of steel where traffic is forbidden today
She said: "I think this is amazing. I don't think they expecting this many police officers from different forces coming. It shows we all stand together. All the forces stand together.
"It doesn't change it but it shows massive support to the family."
She said: "I'm just proud to be British and proud to be here. I'd have come anyway if my partner wasn't in the Met.
"They do a fantastic job. It's not always recognised and it should be. While we all run away they run towards it."
Barry Laws, 67, from Rutland in the Midlands stopped to watch the barriers being set up with wife Judy, 63, and grand daughter Madeleine, 7
A convoy of police bikes on patrol / Jeremy Selwyn
Mr Laws said: "It's a lovely tribute to give him this funeral. It's what he deserves. He's been given an honour that's usually reserved for royals."
"Terrorists are trying to make us all frightened so they can control us. Now it's Stockholm, where next?
A police riot van and police car close to Southwark Cathedral
"This shows we can stand up against it. That's what we need to do. We love coming to London. It's never going to stop us."
Thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral later, including more than 5,000 police officers from up and down the country.
It is thought to be the largest ever gathering of police officers in Britain.
About 50 members of PC Palmers heartbroken family including his wife, five-year-old daughter, mother and father, brother and sisters will also attend the service.
Streets were deserted as the closures came into effect
PC Palmer's coffin was taken to rest in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in Westminster by Met Police escort on Sunday.
To lie in the chapel is a rare honour usually given to heads of state and was allowed thanks to special permission given by the Queen.
The first of an estimated 5,000 police officers arrive for the service
At around 1.30pm today, PC Palmer's body will be taken from Westminster to the cathedral for a full funeral.
Ken Marsh, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said the response to PC Palmer's death had been "incredible."
He said: "The public are as appalled by what happened as the police. At times they can be our biggest critics but when something like this happens they come together with us, because they dont like someone hurting one of their own.
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"I cant recall an occasion like this in regard to the number of officers who will be there, but we must not lose sight of the fact that it is a family funeral.
P rince George and his sister Princess Charlotte are to have starring roles at their aunt Pippa Middleton's wedding next month.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridges young children will accompany Miss Middleton down the aisle as page boy and bridesmaid.
Today Miss Middleton confirmed their key roles at her wedding on May 20, following months of speculation.
Pippa, who was Kate's bridesmaid at the royal wedding to Prince William in 2011, ties the knot with millionaire financier James Matthews at St Marks' Church in Englefield, Berkshire.
Prince George - In pictures 1 /10 Prince George - In pictures Having a ball Prince George makes little friends on tour Playtime Prince George mixes with the baby masses Family portrait The Cambridges are snapped in an informal setting Standing tall An adoring Kate helps Prince George get up on his own two feet Touchdown The Duchess of Cambridge is a hands-on mother William in 1983 Charles and Diana were surrounded by staff Going solo Prince William keeping himself occupied during the royal tour in 1983 William in 1983 Prince William was often in the arms of his nanny
Spencer Matthews, James's reality TV star brother, will be best man, but it's also been confirmed that there's no official role for 33-year-old Pippa's sister, Kate.
A source has confirmed that Kate will be taking a backseat during the nuptials.
Prince Harry is also officially on the guest list, although there is no official word on whether he will be accompanied by his girlfriend Meghan Markle.
The two will have been dating for almost a year by the time of the wedding.
C alls have been made to ban the sale of alcohol at airports to passengers on early morning flights after a spike in drunken incidents.
Bars and pubs in airport departure lounges should no longer be exempt from the Licensing Act, which controls when alcohol is sold, according to a House of Lords committee.
It urged the Government to implement the change by the end of the year.
The Select Committee on the Licensing Act 2003 said: "No one travelling on an international flight can fail to notice that, once they have gone through customs, control of the sale of alcohol seems to be relaxed, and the permitted hours even more so.
"The incidents occurring on flights are notorious, sometimes requiring flights to be diverted, and more often than not, such incidents are the consequence of alcohol consumed airside before the flight."
Budget airline Jet2.com told peers it dealt with 536 disruptive incidents in summer last year, with more than half "fuelled by alcohol".
The Civil Aviation Authority reported a 36 per cent increase in disruptive passenger incidents in the UK from 2014 to 2015.
Research by Alcohol Concern found that nearly one in five passengers start their holidays with a drink at the airport.
Sussex Police, which is responsible for policing Gatwick Airport, said no sanctions are possible against outlets selling alcohol to people under 18 because the Licensing Act does not apply.
The committee concluded there is "no justification" for this to be the case.
Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: "The industry works in partnership with the police and airport authorities to tackle any problems at airside venues.
"We would be happy to review these arrangements and extend them where necessary, but the current penalties for passengers who cause flight disruption are rightly severe."
In July last year, aviation minister Lord Ahmad pledged to examine the way alcohol is sold to passengers before they board planes.
He said: "In terms of specific regulations of timings of outlets (which sell alcohol) and how they operate, clearly I want to have a look at that."
Police figures obtained by the Press Association following freedom of information requests showed at least 442 people were arrested on suspicion of being drunk on a plane or at an airport from March 2014 to March last year.
U niversity Challenge favourite Eric Monkman has revealed he does not see himself as an object of desire after he became a sensation among fans.
The Canadian student first appeared on the quiz programme in September and has since become a cult personality thanks to his intense facial expressions and passionate answers to the questions.
The 29-year-old economics student, who captains Cambridge Universitys Wolfson College, will next appear on the programme on Monday night as the team competes in the grand final.
In an interview with the Telegraph ahead of Monday night's showdown, Mr Monkman said: Im just someone who really enjoys quizzing.
Mr Monkman appeared in a semi-final showdown against Bobby Seagull. / BBC
Ive been doing it for some time and its a really fun hobby for me.
Im always happy to hear there are people enjoying the show, and it was satisfying to know there were people out there who enjoyed the hobby I do, because for most of my life it felt fringe.
Speaking about the so-called Monkmania, the contestant said: I dont really understand it. Maybe its because I dont play as if Im on television.
I wore the same outfit for every recording because it was one fewer thing to think about.
Monkman triumphant on University Challenge
Mr Monkman, who has a long-term girlfriend who is a law professor in Beijing, said: I certainly dont think of myself as any object of desire. I assume people are being ironic, not serious. I think theyre just trying to be funny.
His fandom led to many people hailing the contestant as their favourite TV personality ever while another said they cannot remember what life was like before Monkman.
He will return to TV screens with his Cambridge team on Monday at 8pm on BBC Two.
A n Australian rapper fled into the sea to avoid paying a huge bill he racked up in a seafood restaurant, a court heard.
The rapper, known as 2pec, claimed he had rushed out of the eatery to help a friend give birth on the beach, local media reported.
Police on jetskis gave chase as Terry Peck ran into the water and failing to pay for a huge feast consisting of two lobsters, a baby octopus, 21 vodka oysters and a huge number of coronas, Queensland Crown Court was told.
The bill came to more than $600, the equivalent of 360, ABC news reported.
Peck, who was charged with theft and assault, later said the lobster had been overcooked.
The 33-year-old appeared in court on Monday following the incident at Omeros Bros on the east coast.
The rapped was granted bail by magistrate Joan White who said, according to ABC News, when she heard the size of the feast: Oh God!, By himself?
Mark Hunnybun, from the restaurant said: "We pride ourselves on cooking our lobsters perfectly."
Australian media have uncovered some of Mr Peck's self-produced music, including one track entitled Ozi Ozi Ozi Oy Oy Oy, the BBC reported.
S ecretary of State Rex Tillerson has ruled out any further US missile strikes against Syria unless, of course, Assad decides to use chemical weapons again.
Russia, in its odd triple alliance with Iran and Assad, has said it will meet force with force if the Americans attack again. Without a blink of irony, the joint HQ of the Russians and their Iranian allies said Fridays Tomahawk missile strike had crossed red lines.
The face-off has led to a renewed build-up of naval power in the Mediterranean and Gulf region. Russia has announced the dispatch of two missile-carrying destroyers.
The US has the George HW Bush aircraft carrier battle group in the eastern Mediterranean. From this the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross launched 59 Tomahawk land attack missiles at the Sharyat air base in Syria in the early hours of last Friday.
Interestingly, Russian air defences made no attempt to stop the Tomahawks, though the Russians were told they were on the way.
Maybe they didnt want to test their S-300 and S-400 air defence missile systems they say are world beaters. Theres more than a suspicion the Americans know how to jam their command and control systems.
The Trump administration is more than concerned about the threats it sees coming from Iran, which has provided the backbone of Assads recent ground operations. Of particular concern is the development of new generations of rockets and intermediate missiles.
Linked to this is the focus of Trumps two leading strategists, James Mattis at the Pentagon and HR McMaster at the National Security Council, on new military developments in North Korea.
Iran and the Pyongyang regime share missile technology. It is now feared Kim Jong-un is planning some spectacular show of force around April 14 or 15, the 105th birthday of North Koreas now dead founder.
T ough economic sanctions targeting Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin were being pressed at a crisis summit by Boris Johnson today.
Senior Syrian individuals and firms will be punished under the plan to further weaken Assads regime after it carried out horrific gas attacks.
Russian companies with links to the region would be singled out in an attempt to persuade Russian president Putin to use his influence to bring Assad to heel.
The Foreign Secretary flew to Italy this morning in a critical mission to sell the plan to the G7 group of powerful nations.
The carefully calibrated action is expected to stop well short of supporting further US military action against Syria and officials stressed it was designed to underpin a possible political settlement that should include Assad stepping down.
President Trump formally announces the military action in Syria in retaliation for the attack on civilians / AP
Even so, allies of Mr Johnson admitted it would be a battle to get any agreement over the two days of talks following international amazement at President Trumps decision to bombard a Syrian air force base in retaliation at the use of banned chemical weapons.
Former head of MI6 Sir John Sawers expressed concerns about Mr Trumps ability to manage the complex diplomatic problems of the Middle East, saying: He is not someone who fills me with confidence.
Theresa May broke off from a holiday in Wales last night to speak to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau about her hopes of restarting political talks on a post-Assad deal. They spoke of the importance of Russia using its influence to bring about a political settlement.
Drone footage from the US missile attack on a Syrian air base / Sky News
Former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan became the latest senior Tory to call for Britain to go further and back military action to try to end the long-running civil war.
Writing on ConservativeHome, she admitted many people felt the war in Syria is not our concern but said the 2013 vote by MPs against action was a fundamental error by the Commons which has haunted us.
She urged: Even amidst the brutality and inhumanity of war, there are international rules which, if breached, the rest of the world has to uphold.
Mr Johnson said America was prepared to unleash further missile strikes. But Assads allies, including Russia and Iran, issued a strong statement threatening retaliation and saying the US strike had crossed red lines.
From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well, the statement said.
The deployment of a U.S. navy strike group near the Korean peninsula may prelude Syria-style action, provoking Pyongyang and escalating regional tensions, foreign policy experts told CNBC.
A U.S. Navy strike group will be moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a U.S. official told Reuters on Saturday, as concerns grow about North Korea's advancing weapons program.
Such U.S. power projection is ostensibly aimed at decelerating North Korea's nuclear program either independently or by leaning on Beijing to contain its neighbors' nuclear ambitions, building on what appeared to be cordial talks between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week.
"I imagine that it is a more a show of strength to encourage North Korea to slow its missile program," said Robert Kelly, associate professor at Pusan National University's political science department. "But I doubt it will work. The North Koreans have spent enormous resources to get this far, and they have a long history of not responding to outside pressure."
Positioning the aircraft carrier-led strike group in close proximity to North Korea days before the politically charged birthday of founding leader Kim Il-sung may be "part of an exercise to put pressure on China to help rein in its unruly client," said Gabriel Stein, managing director for developed markets research at 4CAST-RGE.
Trump has said "either China would help the U.S. with North Korea or the U.S. would act alone," Stein said. "The topic will have been discussed at President Xi's visit to Mar-a-Lago."
Separate from the longer term objectives of deescalating North Korea's nuclear program, the strike group's deployment at such a sensitive time risks unintended consequences if the strategic gamble does not go to script.
"It would be unwise to rule out totally an early U.S. strike on North Korea, even discounting last week's on the Assad regime, but I think that is a low probability," said Alavan Business Advisory's Alastair Newton.
"This being said, the deployment of the carrier group does certainly raise tensions and it is at least equally the case that one could not rule out some sort of gesture (as opposed to boiler plate statement) of defiance from Pyongyang," Newton, a former British diplomat, said. "However, Kim Jong-Un is not, in my view, irrational to the extent that he will do something which the U.S. really cannot ignore militarily."
A man opened fire in a classroom at a primary school in south California, reportedly killing a female teacher and wounding two children before turning the gun on himself.
The incident, an apparent murder-suicide, happened at about 11am on Monday in a classroom at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles.
The wounded students, who were taken to hospital for treatment, were not believed to have been targeted by the gunman, police said.
Their conditions were not immediately known.
Police Captain Ron Maas said investigators were working to confirm the identities of the gunman and the dead woman to determine their relationship, if any, and whether the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute.
San Bernardino police offers stand guard at North Park Elementary School / Getty Images
Authorities provided few details about the circumstances of the North Park Elementary shooting, except to say that the gunman had gained entry to the school as a visitor and kept his weapon concealed until inside the classroom.
The school was evacuated and students were driven to the campus of California State University at San Bernardino to be briefed and interviewed by authorities.
From there, they were to be taken to a nearby high school to be reunited with their families, police said.
Students were evacuated from the school after the shooting / Sky News
Aerial television footage from the scene showed children holding hands and walking single-file across the campus from the school building to waiting buses.
One young student, reunited with her mother, told local media that the incident left her "super scared."
Anxious parents interviewed on camera said they had been given no information from the school other than where their children were being taken.
S tockholm terror suspect Rakhmat Akilov sent WhatsApp messages to an Islamic State supporter before and after the attack, it was claimed today.
The 39-year-old father-of-four, from Uzbekistan, was identified as the suspected driver of the hijacked beer truck which mowed down pedestrians in the Swedish capital on Friday.
British father Chris Bevington, 41, a director at music streaming service Spotify, was one of four people killed in the busy shopping district.
He was described by relatives as a talented, compassionate and caring person.
Akilov, who was arrested hours after the attack, reportedly admitted to police he had planned the assault
Four people died in the attack / Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Today Swedish and Russian media published details of encrypted messages sent to a fellow fanatic emerged, in which he states: I ran over ten people.
Screenshots of the conversation with an IS supporter from Tajikistan using the pseudonym Abu Fatyma were said to have been published on an online forum used by Islamists.
According to Expressen, Akilov writes he has matches, acetone, lighter, gas lighters and bolts, and then asks: One question, how do you make a bomb?
"Tomorrow I want to find a great car and run into a crowd.
'Talented and compassionate': Terror victim Chris Bevington / FCO
Fatyma responds: Do not lose time in vain.
Barely an hour after the terrorist attack, Fatyma asks him: Are you alive? Akilov replies: Ive been running over ten people in the centre of Stockholm, now I have to try and get out of here!
He adds: It went bad, I hit a few, but the car went wrong. Now Im at the airport, a dead end.
The Tajik IS-follower says: Allahu Akbar, my brother, I cry, I love you, how are you stand firm, you are going.
The truck was driven into a crowd of pedestrians in central Stockholm / Rex
The chat reportedly ends with Akilov sending a video from the site of the terrorist attack in Stockholm.
Akilov is understood to have fled to the airport by train.
He apparently injured himself by spilling chemicals on to his hands and legs during the attack, with a blood trial leading to Arlanda Airport where he was caught.
Investigators have also confirmed a suspect device was found inside the lorry, reportedly a bag of explosives.
Women cry at the scene of the attack / Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Akilov, an asylum seeker who had his application for Swedish residency rejected in June last year, reportedly told police he had achieved what he set out to do and that his deadly rampage was revenge for bombing ISIS.
He allegedly had links to the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, newspaper Expressen reported.
Swedish armed police at the scene in Stockholm / Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Police spokesman Jonas Hysing said: We know that he showed sympathies for extremist organisations, among them Islamic State.
Police had been looking for Akilov since Swedens Migration Agency gave him four weeks to leave the country in December.
Yesterday, Mr Bevingtons father John paid tribute to his murdered son.
Four people were killed when the truck drove into shoppers / Jessica Gow/TT News Agency via Reuters
He said: We are all devastated by the untimely and tragic death of our talented, compassionate and caring son Chris.
A wonderful husband, son, father, brother and close friend to many. The family requests absolute privacy at this incredibly difficult time to mourn his passing in peace.
Spotifys founder, Daniel Ek, added: There are no words for how missed he will be or for how sad we all are to have lost him like this.
Another victim was reportedly an 11-year-old girl walking home from school.
Fifteen other people were injured in the attack. Four of the wounded remain in a serious condition with two being treated in intensive care.
A second person has now been arrested on suspicion of a terrorist crime through murder, and police are holding four others.
Meanwhile a 17-year-old asylum seeker from Russia was arrested on Sunday in connection with an explosive device found near a busy underground station in Norways capital.
Police defused the device before it detonated, authorities said.
A US Marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in a case that sparked anger over the US militarys presence in the Philippines today lost an appeal.
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was sentenced to up to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of homicide over the 2014 death of Jennifer Laude in a motel room in Olongapo City, north-west of Manila.
Pemberton had told the court he acted in self-defence after he discovered the person giving him oral sex in a hotel was a transgender woman.
Today the Court of Appeals said they did not accept his claim of self-defence, confirming the lower courts conviction in 2015.
The Laude familys private lawyer Rep. Harry Roque said "the fact that a member of the U.S. Marines was found guilty for breach of our criminal laws for the very first time is an affirmation of Philippine sovereignty."
Pemberton must pay Laude's heirs more than 70,000.
K ylie Jenner surprised a pupil when she turned up at his high school prom.
Jenner, 19, reportedly gatecrashed Albert Ochoas prom at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, California after he was rejected by his date.
The reality TV star stunned pupils when she arrived with her entourage and best friend Jordyn Woods.
Videos show Jenner walking through excited crowds of pupils before sharing a slow dance with Ochoa.
Others show her giving the lucky teen a hug on the balcony in front of his screaming classmates.
One pupil tweeted: Imagine rejecting a prom date and the guy that asked you takes Kylie. Shout out to Albert Choa for that comeback.
Another posted: We went from talking about how he couldn't get any girl but now he has THE girl. #myhero @albertochoa05.
Emma Stone Prom
Jenner was also followed by a professional camera crew so the surprise is likely to feature on an upcoming episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
The surprise comes days after a Ryan Gosling look-alike invited Emma Stone to his prom by recreating the intro to La La Land.
Jacob Staudenmaier, 17, rewrote the lyrics to Another Day of Sun and roped in a handful of his school friends in a bid to persuade the Oscar-winning actress to be his date for the night.
The two-minute video sees Staudenmaier dressed in a black tuxedo as he jumps out of his car in Stones hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona to recreate the famous highway scene.
C all the Midwife is set to further its explorations of a changing Britain in its next series.
The BBC period drama, which was initially set in the 1950s and has now moved on to the 1960s, is casting a new West Indian character for Series 7.
The new nurse, named Lucille, will be the first recurring black character in the show.
My research is continually bringing up new things, series creator Heidi Thomas said at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival.
Call the Midwife, Series 6 - in pictures 1 /9 Call the Midwife, Series 6 - in pictures Call the Midwife The Nonnatus House crew are back for Series 6 BBC/Neal Street Productions Laura Main as Shelagh BBC/Neal Street Productions Linda Bassett as Nurse Phyllis Crane BBC/Neal Street Productions Charlotte Ritchie as Nurse Barbara Gilbert BBC/Neal Street Productions Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan BBC/Neal Street Productions Harriet Walter as Sister Ursula BBC/Neal Street Productions Emerald Fennell as Nurse Patsy Mount BBC/Neal Street Productions
[It] has made me very aware of the contributions made by West Indian and Caribbean nurses to the NHS in the early 1960s.
"[Lucille is] going to bring stories with her, and a different cultural point of view, and that's very exciting.
Call the Midwife - Christmas Special 2016- Trailer - BBC One
In recent years Call the Midwife has been praised for tackling significant topics including the Thalidomide scandal, womens liberation, and most recently FGM.
In a recent Radio Times poll, the show was named the UKs best period drama of the 21st century, ahead of the likes of Poldark and Downton Abbey.
The survey was voted for by readers of the publication.
Call the Midwife Series 7 is expected to arrive on the BBC in 2018.
I ts the moment that University Challenge fans everywhere and there are a lot of them have been waiting for.
The 2017 series is coming to a close with a heated Oxbridge battle.
The final is pitting Wolfson College, Cambridge against Balliol College, Oxford and only one will emerge the winner.
But while audiences might be rooting for one team over the other, its one particular contestant wholl be getting the most attention.
Monkman triumphant on University Challenge
Throughout the series, viewers have been sharing their admiration for Eric Monkman on Twitter the intense Wolfson student who has taken the role of team captain.
Monkman, who hails from Oakville, Canada is studying for an MA in Economics and has become well-loved for his animated reactions to questions, and jaw-locked facial expression.
The hype intensified to the point where the 29 year-old contestant spoke out about the supposed Monkmania.
I dont really understand it. Maybe its because I dont play as if Im on television, he said.
I certainly dont think of myself as any object of desire. I assume people are being ironic, not serious. I think theyre just trying to be funny.
Oscar Powell's facial expressions on University Challenge 1 /6 Oscar Powell's facial expressions on University Challenge Grin and bear it: Oscar Powell BBC Having a think: Oscar Powell BBC Tough one: Oscar Powell BBC Brain-teaser: Oscar Powell BBC Knew it! Oscar Powell BBC
While the Balliol College team might not have a celebrity on their side, they are a force to be reckoned with racking up a huge 215 points in the brutally difficult semi-finals against Edinburgh.
Asking the questions with his usual sharpness will be Jeremy Paxman.
Tune in to find out whether Oxford or Cambridge can nab the top spot although theres a strong chance youll mainly be watching for a certain pair of devastating eyebrows.
BBC Two, 8pm
T he HMS Ocean is far more than just a ship.
The Royal Navy vessel is home to a vast community, carrying 1000 passengers with shops, a bank, gyms, pubs and even its own police force on board.
One officer labels it a village that makes war.
Channel 4s new documentary series Warship takes viewers right into the heart of the 21,000 tonne boat.
Warship spans a seven-month deployment to the Middle East, from the moment the Ocean leaves the harbour in Plymouth.
The documentary follows the day-to-day running of the HMS Ocean, as well as offering insights into the history of the 20 year-old boat.
Theres also a look into the staff who contribute to the upkeep of the ship, from old hands to new recruits on their first voyage.
Royal Navy Photographer of the Year 2016 1 /13 Royal Navy Photographer of the Year 2016 Boots on the ground A beach assault shows Royal Marines and Royal Navy Personnel from 539 Assault Squadron, jumping off an offshore raiding craft in Norway. Lt Jamie Wellerh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Ready for combat Marine Chase aims his gun during a boarding exercise. Will Haigh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Training days Sergeant Michael 'Taff' Francis of the Alpha Company Fire Support Group is captured during a green skills training exercise. Will Haigh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Sunset sailing HMS Dauntless makes a routine visit to Gibraltar. Simmo Simpson/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Heave ho Marine Harry Hickman grapples with a rope. Will Haigh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA In the air Helicopter Force and Lima Company hover above barren wasteland during exercise Black Alligator. Lt Jamie Wellerh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Starry skies A stationary tank sits under the stars as part of exercise Black Alligator, an annual exercise held at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Centre where the Royal Marines train alongside their American and Dutch counterparts. Joel Rouse/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA In the ring Marine Matthew Farran of 40 Commando Royal Marines, composes himself before the third and final round of the Light Welterweight final. Will Haigh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Battle training The Juliet Company of 42 Commando conduct modern urban combat and close-quarters battle training in the Mojave Desert in the US. Lt Jamie Wellerh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA To the sea The Plymouth-based 42 Commando pictured at the Marine Air Ground Combat Training Centre in the US. Lt Jamie Wellerh/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA
Interestingly the future of the HMS Ocean is in question while its the flagship of the Royal Navy fleet, the boat is due to be decommissioned after two decades of service.
Its said to be up for sale with foreign governments showing interest in obtaining it and they wont get much better insight into its running than this three-part series.
Channel 4, 8pm
Walmart plans to phase out the job of store greeter, closing off an employement niche frequently filled by disabled workers. (AFP Photo/SCOTT OLSON) (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File)
Miami (AFP) - US health authorities on Monday studied the remains of a dead bat discovered inside a prepackaged salad mix sold in Florida for possible traces of the deadly rabies virus.
The Fresh Express company, a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands, announced a "precautionary recall of a limited number of cases" of their prepackaged Organic Marketside Spring Mix, which had been distributed to Walmart stores across the southwestern United States.
The company issued the recall on Saturday when it learned "that extraneous animal matter was allegedly found" in a salad container.
"Out of an abundance of caution, all salads manufactured in the same production run are being recalled," Fresh Express said, failing to describe the offending "animal matter."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) said it was working with the Florida health department and the US Food and Drug Administration "to support an investigation of a dead bat" found in the packaged salad sold at "a grocery store in Florida."
The bat carcass however was in poor condition.
"The deteriorated condition of the bat did not allow for CDC to definitively rule out whether this bat had rabies," which is endemic to the creatures across the United States, the CDC said.
CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner told AFP on Monday that the chances of rabies contagion from a dead animal are very low.
Hundreds of thousands of New York residents mulling the idea of going to college at a public university could soon enroll for free, as the state's lawmakers passed a budget over the weekend that included a program that would allow students from middle- and low-income families to attend college for free.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed Monday that lawmakers approved the Excelsior Scholarship program that would initially provide tuition-free college at the state's public colleges and universities to families making up to $100,000 a year.
The program received official approval Sunday evening when the New York Senate passed the 2018 Budget [PDF], a day after the state's Assembly backed the plan.
Under the program, which was proposed by Gov. Cuomo in 2017, an estimated 940,000 middle-class families and individuals would qualify to attend college tuition-free at all CUNY and SUNY two- and four-year colleges in the State.
The program was created to close the "last mile" of tuition costs for students by covering the price remaining after the state's Tuition Assistance Program and federal grant funding are deducted.
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The Excelsior Scholarship program will be phased in over three years, with New Yorkers making up to $100,000 annual eligible starting this fall. In 2018, the threshold increases to $110,000 annually, and $125,000 annually in 2019.
To be eligible for the program, students must be enrolled full-time and average 30 credits each year, including summer semesters, and maintain a passing grade point average.
Additionally, the program requires students to live and work in New York for the same number of years after graduating that they received the scholarship. For example, if a student participated in the program for four years, they must live and work in the state for four years. Students must still foot the bill for room and board.
Story continues
In all, the plan is estimated to cost about $163 million each year once fully implemented. According to the Governor's office, tuition at SUNY and CUNY four-year schools cost roughly $6,400 and $4,300 at community colleges.
In addition to approving the Excelsior Scholarship program, the legislature also agreed to provide $8 million for open educational resources, such as e-books.
While New York is the first state to begin offering free tuition at four-year public colleges and Universities, two states offer similar plans for two-year schools.
In 2014, Tennessee became the first state to offer a program that provides all Tennessee high school graduates the opportunity to receive two years of free tuition to community colleges or technical schools in the state.
The following year Oregon implemented a similar program. Dubbed the Oregon Promise, the plan provides tuition waivers to recent high school graduates who earned at least a 2.5 grade point average and are Oregon residents for at least 12 months, and apply to community college no more than six months after graduation.
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Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu will pay an official visit to Tallinn, Estonia, on Monday and Tuesday, at the invitation of his Estonian counterpart Sven Mikser.
According to a Foreign Ministry release, the visit agenda includes meetings with Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas, Parliament President Eiki Nestor, as well as consultations and a working lunch with Foreign Affairs Minister Sven Mikser.
The Romanian-Estonian discussions will cover a wide range of topics, related to the bilateral relations and European matters, as well as aspects of the international and security agenda, the Foreign Affairs Ministry points out.
Another special moment of the visit will be the official inauguration by Teodor Melescanu, together with his Estonian counterpart, of Romania's Embassy in Estonia.
Moreover, the schedule includes the Romanian chief diplomat's visit to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence of Tallin (CCDCOE).
agerpres.
The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) condemns the terrorist attacks on Palm Sunday that targeted the Coptic Churches of Egypt, resulting in 40 dead and other tens of people injured.
"The Foreign Affairs Ministry firmly condemns the bloody terrorist attacks on 9 April on the Coptic Churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria in Egypt, leaving over 40 dead and other tens injured. Romania supports the continuous efforts of the Egyptian authorities of combating the terrorist phenomenon, in all its forms," MAE says in a release sent to agerpres. on Sunday.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry voices solidarity with the Egyptian people during these sad times, sends all its compassion for the injured persons and addresses the most sincere condolences to the families of the victims in these attacks.
On the surface the outrage over United Airlines forcibly removing a man from a flight after he refused to "voluntarily" give up his seat for a United employee looks like just another case of airline overbooking gone awry.
Overbooking is necessary, the story goes, because sometimes passengers don't show up for their flights. The practice allows airlines to recoup their lost revenue while keeping flights affordable for everyone. Yes, some people will inevitably need to be bumped involuntarily, but profits are thin, we're told, and so this practice is necessary.
"The nice way to look at all this is, the more effectively airlines can fill their seats and generate revenue with the seats they have, the better it is for all of us," aviation consultant Samuel Engel told Marketplace in 2015. Southwest puts an even sunnier gloss on the practice, saying it "creates booking opportunities for Customers who really want or need to be on a flight that is showing full but likely to depart with available seats."
As it turns out, however, America's commercial airlines are currently enjoying near-record profits, according to the International Air Transit Association, an airline trade group.
According to the IATA, North American airlines have raked in over $20 billion in profits for each of the past two years. They expect that number to dip, slightly, to around $19.5 billion next year. "2017 is expected to be the eighth year in a row of aggregate airline profitability, illustrating the resilience to shocks that have been built into the industry structure," the IATA writes in its annual analysis.
Among the world's air carriers, North American companies stand out for their profitability. The $20.3 billion in profits American carriers earned last year is greater than the sum total of profits generated by airlines in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa combined. The profit margin in North America is around 8.5 percent, or about $19.85 per passenger.
One big driver of the profit boom is the airline industry's decade-long consolidation binge what were once 10 airline companies in 2000 had shrunk down to four carriers by 2010. The relative lack of competition has lead to near-monopoly conditions at some airports and given the remaining airlines little incentive to cut prices or provide more amenities indeed, the trend continues in the opposite direction: smaller seats, greater fees, charges for blankets, even fees to use the bathroom.
In the past, airlines were able to credibly deflect charges of poor customer service with appeals to profitability concerns and thin profit margins. But given the boom times at America's major airlines, those explanations look less like survival tactics and more like padding profit margins.
United made $2.3 billion dollars in profit last year.
Updated at 3 p.m.
NEW YORK The problems at Wells Fargo and its overly aggressive sales culture date back at least 15 years, and management had little interest in dealing with the issue until it spiraled out of control resulting in millions of accounts being opened fraudulently, according to an investigation by the company's board of directors.
The bank's board also clawed back another $75 million in pay from two former executives, CEO John Stumpf and community bank executive Carrie Tolstedt, saying both executives dragged their feet for years regarding problems at the second-largest U.S. bank. Both were ultimately unwilling to accept criticism that the bank's sales-focused business model was failing.
The 110-page report has been in the works since September, when Wells acknowledged that its employees opened up to 2 million checking and credit card accounts without customers' authorization. Trying to meet unnaturally high sales goals, Wells employees even created phony email addresses to sign customers up for online banking services.
"(Wells' management) created pressure on employees to sell unwanted or unneeded products to customers and, in some cases, to open unauthorized accounts," the board said in its report.
Many current and former employees have talked of intense and constant pressure from managers to sell and open accounts, and some said it pushed them into unethical behavior. The Monday's report backs up those employees' stories.
"It was common to blame employees who violated Wells Fargo's rules without analyzing what caused or motivated them to do so ... (or determine) whether there were responsible individuals, who while they might have no directed the specific misconduct, contributed to the environment (that caused it)," the board said.
The report also says that problems in the bank's sales culture date back to at least 2002, far earlier than what the bank had previously said. And that Stumpf knew about sales problems at a branch in Colorado since at least that year.
Wells Fargo's CEO, Tim Sloan, said in a conference call with reporters it was "frustrating" to hear that the bank may have had sales problems dating back so long ago.
The bank has already paid $185 million in fines to federal and local authorities and settled a $110 million class-action lawsuit. The scandal also resulted in the abrupt retirement last October of Stumpf, not long after he underwent blistering questioning from congressional panels. The bank remains under investigation in several states and by federal authorities.
The board's report recommended that Stumpf and Tolstedt have more of their compensation clawed back for their negligence and poor management. Tolstedt will lose $47.3 million in stock options, on top of $19 million the board had already clawed back. Stumpf will lose an additional $28 million in compensation, on top of the $41 million the board already clawed back. Along with the millions clawed back from other executives earlier this year, the roughly $180 million in clawbacks are among the largest in U.S. corporate history.
The board was unrelenting in their criticism of Stumpf and Tolstedt, saying that both, when presented with the growing problems in Wells' community banking division, were unwilling to hear criticism or consider changes in behavior. The board repeatedly faulted Tolstedt, calling her "insular and defensive" and unable to accept scrutiny from inside or outside her organization.
The board also found that Tolstedt actively worked to downplay any problems in her division. In a report made in October 2015, nearly three years after a Los Angeles Times investigation uncovered the scandal, Tolstedt "minimized and understated problems at the community bank."
When the scandal first broke, Wells said it had fired roughly 5,300 employees as a result of the sales practices. But when that figure was revealed it was the first time that the board of directors had heard the sales practices problems were of such a large size and scope. According to the report, as recently as May 2015, senior management told the board that only 230 employees had been fired for sales practices violations.
Tolstedt declined to be interviewed for the investigation, the board said, on advice from her lawyers.
Tolstedt did issue a statement to the media, however, disputing the board's conclusions.
"We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt. A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion," said Enu Mainigi with the law firm Williams & Connolly.
Stumpf also received his share of criticism. In its report, the board found that Stumpf was also unwilling to change Wells' business model when problems arose.
"His reaction invariably was that a few bad employees were causing issues ... he was too late and too slow to call for inspection or critical challenge to (Wells') basic business model," the board said.
Stumpf, however, did not seem to express regret for how he handled those initial weeks after the bank was fined, including where he initially levied most of the blame on low-level employees for the sales practices problems instead of management, said Stuart Baskin, lawyer with Shearman & Sterling, the firm that the board hired to investigate the sales scandal
The investigation found that Wells' corporate structure was also to blame. Under Stumpf, Wells operated in a decentralized fashion, with executives of each of the businesses running their divisions almost like separate companies.
While there is nothing wrong with operating a large company like Wells in a decentralized fashion, the board said, the structure backfired in this case by allowing Tolstedt and other executives to hide the problems in their organization from senior management and the board of directors.
Wells has instituted several corporate and business changes since the problems became known nationwide. Wells has changed its sales practices, and called tens of millions of customers to check on whether they truly opened the accounts in question.
The company also split the roles of chairman and CEO. Tim Sloan, Wells' former president and chief operating officer, took over as CEO. Stephen Sanger, who had been the lead director on Wells' board since 2012, became the company's independent chairman. Since taking that position, Sanger has clawed back tens of millions of dollars in stock awards and compensation due to Stumpf and Tolstedt. In January, the board took the unusual action of publicly firing four executives whom the board said had major roles in the bank's sales practices at the center of the scandal. It also cut bonuses to other major executives, including Sloan.
However, the board's concluded that Sloan had little direct involvement in the questionable sales practices.
Sanger said Monday that, with the release of the report, the board would take no more actions to fire management who may have been involved with the sales scandal. However, Sloan said that the bank was still reviewing records and some management has been fired in recent months.
Notably, Sloan said that the bank actually had hired back roughly 1,000 employees who may have been dismissed for not meeting those unrealistic sales quotas, or those who may have left on their own accord because they did not want to violate their ethics.
The report is unlikely to quell the criticism aimed at Wells Fargo. The bank is still under investigation by Congress, state and federal authorities. And last week an influential shareholder advisory firm said investors should vote out nearly the entire board of directors when the bank holds its annual shareholder meeting later this month.
Better Markets, a left-leaning group that wants stricter regulations on banks, called the report "grossly deficient" and said it was "too little, too late."
Read the Board of Directors' report on Wells Fargo here: www.dropbox.com
ST. LOUIS A man who St. Louis police shot Saturday after he allegedly pointed a gun at them was wanted on an arrest warrant for robbery in northern Illinois.
Tyrone Smith, 29, of Rockford, Ill., has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest after police say he fled in a car Saturday, ran from the vehicle and pointed a gun at them before they opened fire, striking him in the leg near Page Boulevard and Taylor Avenue.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison has set his bail at $30,000.
Smith was already a wanted man in Rockford, where a warrant for his arrest was issued when he failed to show up to court in an armed robbery case. Bail was set at $1 million. The Rockford Area CrimeStoppers posted a plea to the public to help locate Smith on Thursday after he failed to appear in court.
He was shot Saturday in St. Louis after officers saw his vehicle, a Volvo XC90, parked near a vacant lot in a desolate area about 7 p.m.
When they tried to investigate, the car sped away, according to court documents. The officers followed in their unmarked car with their emergency lights flashing and siren on.
A police helicopter followed the vehicle, and officers inside saw the vehicle speeding and violating stop signs . Police eventually deployed spike strips in its path, disabling it.
The driver then got out and police chased him through an alley and a vacant lot. Two officers opened fire after he turned and pointed a gun at them, according to court documents.
Police Chief Sam Dotson said at the scene that it wasnt clear yet how many shots were fired, but Smith was hit in the leg once or twice.
The officers, ages 28 and 31, have between six and nine years on the force. They were placed on administrative leave , standard procedure while the shooting is investigated.
Two other men in the car were taken into police custody.
In the Rockford robbery case, police said Smith robbed one man at gunpoint and tried to rob another on March 29, according to court documents. He was a felon in possession of a weapon at the time, according to court documents.
Smith was convicted of residential burglary in DeKalb County on July 31, 2014.
MOLINE ACRES Police on Monday released surveillance photos of a suspect in the March killing of a man outside a 7-Eleven store on Chambers Road.
Darrikus Tipler, 36, was gunned down March 27 on the parking lot of the convenience store at 2306 Chambers Road.
Tipler lived in the 10500 block of Byfield Drive, in a neighborhood off Bellefontaine Road a little more than a mile from the 7-Eleven.
St. Louis County police on Monday released photos of a suspect, who was last seen driving a silver four-door passenger vehicle.
Anyone with information is asked to call the St. Louis County Police Department at 636-529-8210 or CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477.
Know of someone with their hand in the public till? Officials abusing their power for personal gain?
If it's in Southern Illinois, pick up the phone.
Authorities are hoping callers will alert them to crimes by officials through the new Southern Illinois Public Corruption Task Force Tip Line: 618-589-7353. The FBI, IRS and Illinois State Police are standing by.
Concerned citizens are the governments biggest asset when it comes to exposing people who are abusing the publics trust and misusing taxpayer money to line their own pockets," U.S Attorney Donald S. Boyce said in a statement. "This initiative is designed to solicit the publics help in identifying and targeting public corruption.
Patricia C. McKissack circled the world in her dozens of childrens books, exploring everything from supernatural tales to African customs to 19th-century whaling. But she died only a few miles from home, four years after the death of her beloved husband and co-author.
Her heart stopped, her son said, but in a way, I think my mother died of a broken heart. Fredrick McKissack Jr. said his mother and father were best friends and partners. When Dad died, the life drained from her. She tried to keep her spirits up and was coming up with ideas for new books, but she wasnt the same.
Mrs. McKissack, 72, of Chesterfield, collapsed Friday (April 7, 2017) at a Westport Plaza restaurant where she was having a casual dinner with Fredrick McKissack Jr., the eldest of her three sons. She was taken to DePaul Hospital, where she was pronounced dead of cardio-respiratory arrest. A few years ago, lung problems had led to a diagnosis of myotonic dystrophy.
Among the most prolific childrens authors on African-American history, folklore and stories, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack published more than 100 books and won multiple honors, including a Newbery Honor and nine Coretta Scott King Author and Honor awards. In 2014, their work was recognized for its lasting contribution to literature with the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The pair shared a missionary zeal to write about African-American characters where there hadnt been any before, Fredrick McKissack Jr. said Monday.
They were at the vanguard of creating diversity in childrens literature, not just regarding race but also in terms of geographical settings and social consciousness, he said. The McKissacks books broadened the African-American experience, he said: Not all Southern characters were sharecroppers. They loved that black kids would get a part of history they hadnt learned. And they also received letters from white students equally interested in their nonfiction and fiction.
St. Louis, and the entire childrens book world, have lost a literary treasure, said Patty Carleton on Monday. Carleton retired this month as longtime director of youth services with the St. Louis Public Library.
Carleton, who is on the Virginia Hamilton award committee and knew Mrs. McKissack as a friend, said the writer experimented with poetry, science fiction, beginning readers, historical fiction with remarkable success. Her goal was to provide reading material for every child, no matter their age or interest.
Mrs. McKissack was probably best known for The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, which won a prestigious Newbery Honor and the King Author Award in 1993. That same year, she and her husband also won a King Honor for Sojourner Truth: Aint I a Woman?
Flossie and the Fox, Mrs. McKissacks first picture book (1986), has been translated into at least a dozen languages, her son said. At least one other picture book, Stitchin and Pullin: A Gees Bend Quilt, was translated for the stage and produced in St. Louis.
In February, she told the Post-Dispatch that her favorite song in the book was Hes Got the Whole World in His Hands: I still to this day love that song. I think its the words and the little bitsy baby in his hands. It helps me to see God not as the vengeful, smoking, angry God who could disintegrate the whole world in a minute. No, God is loving, gentle and even though huge and powerful, could just hold you in the palm of the hand, and youre safe. As a child I could just visualize this.
Mrs. McKissack was born in Smyrna, Tenn., on Aug. 9, 1944, the daughter of Robert and Erma Carwell. She spent much of her childhood in Kirkwood and was the only African-American student in her sixth-grade class at Robinson School. She fictionalized some of her story in 2007s A Friendship for Today, which took place in 1954 Kirkland.
Plots like a false accusation of thievery and a dinner at a segregated restaurant (the prize for a spelling contest) were based on Mrs. McKissacks life.
She had said the book paid tribute to a teacher and principal she knew at Robinson: I could not have survived if it had not been for the two of them.
Her family later moved to Nashville, Tenn., where she attended high school. She graduated high school at 16, having skipped a grade.
She met her future husband as a student at Tennessee A&I State University. In 1965, they moved to the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood and there raised their three sons, living for many years on Pershing Avenue.
Mrs. McKissack, who earned a masters degree at Webster University, taught English at Kirkwoods Nipher Junior High School, then became a childrens book editor at Concordia Publishing.
About 1980, though, she told her husband that she wished she could write books and she quit her job as a book editor. Fredrick McKissack, a civil engineer who once owned a general contracting company, would soon follow her.
Both loved reading and had books all over the house. In 1995, they moved to Chesterfield, where their library held two desks. Fredrick McKissack would usually do research, primarily for nonfiction, and Mrs. McKissack was in charge of writing.
After he died in 2013, she told the Post-Dispatch that although her name was the only one on most of the fiction titles, We never separated them, she said. We were a team.
Her son said that his father would insist on researching precise details, such as the weather on a particular day decades ago, and Mrs. McKissack said that information improved her writing.
For Black Hands, White Sails, a book about black whalers, the authors went to the East Coast and learned more about sailing than any two people who didnt have a sailboat, Fredrick McKissack Jr. said.
They did not go into writing for money, he said, but their success meant the McKissacks indulged their interest in traveling, going places such as Turkey, Greece, Africa and the Baltics.
Survivors include a brother, Robert Nolan Carwell of Las Vegas, and a sister, Sarah Stuart, of Nashville; three brothers-in-law, Moses Andrew McKissack of St. Louis, William McKissack of Nashville and David Stuart of Nashville; three sons, Fredrick Jr. of Fort Wayne, Ind.; John McKissack of Memphis, Tenn., and Robert McKissack of St. Louis; four grandsons; and a granddaughter.
Funeral arrangements are pending through Reliable Funeral Home, 3948 Washington Boulevard.
The Indian spy who has been sentenced to death, Kulbhushan Yadhav, is the most recent individual to be tried on espionage charges, but Pakistan and India have a long history of arresting and trying 'spies'.
Sarabjit Singh
Sarabjit Singh was arrested by Pakistani authorities in August 1990. At the time, India said that an inebriated 27-year-old Singh had strayed across the border while ploughing his field.
He was arrested on charges of carrying out four bombings in Faisalabad, Multan and Lahore which killed 14 Pakistani citizens. He was later sentenced to death.
Singh was fatally assaulted on April 26, 2013, by two fellow prisoners in Kot Lakhpat jail. Singh suffered severe injuries in the head and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Lahores Jinnah Hospital where a medical board comprising senior neurosurgeons treated him.
He died on May 2, 2013. The Indian government conducted a state funeral after his body was brought back to India by his family members.
Kashmir Singh
Kashmir Singh was a convicted Indian spy on death row and spent 35 years in prison in Pakistan. Throughout his incarceration, he insisted he was not a spy. He was arrested in 1973.
Singh was pardoned by then President Pervez Musharraf and returned to India where he was given a hero's welcome.
I was a spy and did my duty, admitted Singh after crossing the border, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, adding he was paid about 400 rupees a month for his work.
I went to serve the country, he told reporters in Chandigarh after his release.
Even Pakistan authorities failed to get this information from me, he added.
Ravindra Kaushik
Ravindra Kaushik was born in India's Rajasthan and was recruited by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) while working as a theatre artist.
After receiving two years of training, he was sent to Pakistan in 1975, where he enrolled in Karachi University under the alias of Nabi Ahmad Shakir.
After graduation, Kaushik joined the Pakistan Army as a commissioned officer and got promoted to the rank of Major.
During 1979-83, he passed on sensitive information to RAW. His run as a spy ended when another Indian spy was caught by Pakistani forces. The arrested spy blew Kaushik's cover.
Kaushik was incarcerated for 16 years and died in 2001 while imprisoned in Multan Jail after contracting pulmonary tuberculosis.
Sheikh Shamim
Sheikh Shamim was arrested by Pakistani authorities in 1989 and was charged with spying for RAW.
Authorities said he was caught "red-handed near the Pak-India border while spying. He was hanged by the authorities in 1999.
Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif, on Sunday, said that they will accept any decision in Panamagate case.
He let it be known at a media talk in Sialkot while professing that the judiciary within Pakistan is free.
While responding to a question about load-shedding, the defence minister expressed that the crisis of power shortage came a few days back owing to the deficiency of water, however he also revealed that the situation is now is in control now.
He also commented over the recent US attack on Syria while expressing that America is interfering in Iraq, Syria and Libya for the last 15 years.
Khawaja Asif professed that the right of change of governments should not stand with other countries.
Family of late iconic qawwal Amjad Sabri has decided to leave Pakistan for fear of their safety.
Brother of Amjad Sabri, Azmat Sabri said all his family wanted to shift to London for protection of their lives.
Although, we have spent all our lives in this city, but we now consider ourselves insecure. Our lives are at stake in Liaquatabad (following the murder of Amjad Sabri), he said.
Amjad Sabri was assassinated on June 22 in the month of Ramazan.
He was travelling from his home to a television studio when armed motorbike riders pulled up beside his car and opened fire on him.
Azmat Sabri said he would apply for visa through former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. He also appealed from the government to bear their expenses to go abroad.
He once again demanded from the government to bring the killers of his brother to justice. We are unable to bear loss anymore after demise of our beloved brother.
Sabris mother also sought help from the government to go abroad.
Another Sabri brother, Talha Sabri has expressed his desire of seeing the killers of Sabri hanged till death publicly and on the same spot they killed his brother.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blasted at crazy European leaders for alleged opposing Turkeys upcoming referendum on expanding his powers, saying Ankara will reconsider its bid for membership in the European Union (EU) after holding the plebiscite, casting new doubts about Turkeys decades-long membership drive.
You have seen what happened in Europe. Why did they go crazy? Why did they go berserk? They saw what this system will bring to Turkey. Turkey is leaping, growing. This makes them go crazy, Erdogan said at a pro-government rally in the western province of Izmir on Sunday, referring to Germany and the Netherlands that have prevented Turkish ministers from campaigning on their soils for a Yes vote in the April 16 referendum.
Europe will pay for what they have done. God willing, the question of the European Union will again be on the table after April 16, Erdogan further said. He also labelled Europe as a sick man, using the jibe that 19th century European politicians and leaders used to describe the aging Ottoman Empire.
They said a century ago that we were the sick man. Now they are the sick man. Europe is collapsing, the Turkish leader added, claiming the European economy has weakened year after year. Earlier, he had described Europe as a Nazism and rotting center.
The referendum is aimed at abolishing the office of the prime minister and giving more executive powers, including issuing decrees, declaring emergency rule, appointing ministers and state officials and dissolving the parliament, to the currently largely ceremonial position of president in Turkey. Critics say the vote would give the president dictatorial powers.
Erdogan also reiterated that after the next weeks plebiscite he would revive the capital punishment without hesitation if it was passed by parliament a move that would automatically terminate the EU membership bid.
Last month, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned that the measure was a red line in Ankaras stalled bid.
Turkey has been attempting to become part of the EU for decades. Formal EU accession negotiations, however, began in 2005. The process has been mired in problems, and only 16 chapters of the 35-chapter accession procedure have been opened for Ankara so far.
In November last year, the European Parliament suspended the accession talks with Ankara over concerns regarding human rights and the rule of law following the July 15 coup attempt against Erdogan, which Ankara claims was organized by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. In January, Turkey called on the EU to resume the negotiations.
The United States has threatened Russia and Iran with tougher sanctions over their support for Syria, saying nothing is off the table in this regard. Were calling [Russia and Iran] out, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in an interview broadcast on CNN on Sunday.
But I dont think anything is off the table at this point. I think what youre going to see is strong leadership. Youre going to continue to see the United States act when we need to act, she added.
The comments were made after US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would look into stepping up sanctions on Russia and Iran, which support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The two countries are already under various types of US sanctions.
Washington has alleged that the government of President Assad is responsible for the last weeks suspected chemical attack in Idlib province which killed more than 80 people.
Moscow and Damascus have denied that the Syrian government had anything to do with the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry said the US had no proof of chemical weapons at al-Shayrat airbase, where it fired 59 Tomahawk missiles, killing several people and reportedly destroying a number of Syrian aircraft.
Iran has condemned both the alleged chemical attack and the US missile strike on Syria, saying Washingtons illegal action will embolden terrorist groups in the Middle East region.
US has evidence that Assad was behind attack
In her interview with CNN, Haley insisted that the US administration has evidence that the Syrian government was behind the April 4 chemical attack
What weve seen is, you know, in our meetings this week, we were told of the evidence, she said. We saw the evidence. The President saw the evidence. All of that is naturally classified. And Im sure when they can declassify that, they will.
On Sunday, Haley once again threatened Syria with further military action, saying President Donald Trump could order more strikes if necessary. She issued a similar threat hours after the April 7 missile strike.
I was trying to give warning and notice to the members of the Security Council and the international community that (Trump) wont stop here, she said, adding. If he needs to do more, he will do more.
US strike intended to send message to Russia
In a separate interview NBC News on Sunday, Haley said the US missile attack in Syria was intended to send a message to the Russian government.
"The entire administration was in agreement that this was something that had to be done. This was something that needed to tell Assad, 'Enough is enough,'" she said.
"And this is something to let Russia know, 'You know what? We're not going to have you cover for this regime anymore. And we're not going to allow things like this to happen to innocent people.'"
She went on to say that the United States will not allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to "have Assad's back anymore."
Tillerson asks Russia to drop support for Assad
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is set to visit Moscow this week, on Sunday demanded that Moscow stop supporting the Assad government.
I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility, Tillerson told ABC News.
The United States and its allies have repeatedly used chemical weapons as a pretext to pressure the Syrian government, despite the fact that Damascus volunteered to destroy its chemical stockpile in 2014 following a poisonous attack outside the capital. The deal was brokered by the US and Russia in 2013.
Tillerson accused Moscow of failing to enforce the 2013 agreement meant to get Syria rid of its chemical arsenal.
"I'm disappointed because I think the real failure here has been Russia's failure to live up to its commitments under the chemical weapons agreements that were entered into in 2013," he said.
"Both by the Syrian government and by Russia as the guarantor to play the role in Syria of securing chemical weapons, destroying the chemical weapons and continuing to monitor that situation, he added.
Russia also responsible for April 4 chemical incident
The top US diplomat said the April 4 chemical incident happened because of Russias failure to achieve its commitment to the international community."
"I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad," he added, "because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility."
The allegations of chemical arms use are still made against Syria even as the dismantling of the country's entire stockpile of chemical weapons as well as relevant production facilities was supervised by the United Nations.
Foreign-backed militants have repeatedly used chemical weapons against Syrian troops, some of which have been verified by UN officials, but the attacks have often been ignored by Western governments.
In December 2015, a cousin of former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi said that chemical weapons used in Ghouta which were blamed on the Syrian government were in fact stolen from Libya and later smuggled into Syria via Turkey.
Lanka to set up regional maritime rescue coordinating centre View(s):
President Maithripala Sirisena who says Sri Lanka has embarked on a broad initiative to establish the country as a premier maritime nation wants to set up a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Colombo. In his capacity as the Minister of Defence, he has told the Cabinet that the purpose of such a centre is to provide robust search and rescue services for vessels operating in the region.He has said that such a centre would comply with the Convention for Civil Aviation 1944, the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and the Law of the Sea Convention.
At present, the President has pointed out, the Sri Lanka Navy has only a limited capability and relies mainly on Indian MRCCs to communicate with vessels in the region. Just this week, a container vessel operated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC Daniela) informed authorities that its container vessel was on fire in the seas some 120 nautical miles off Colombo. An Indian Coast Guard vessel (ICGS Shoor) and Sri Lanka Navy vessels embarked on a rescue operation. The operation saved the container vessel from being badly damaged and physical harm being caused to the crew.
The most important requirement at this stage, Mr. Sirisena has noted is to improve the infrastructure facilities that will enable MRCC Sri Lanka to respond immediately to vessels in distress within Colombo Search and Rescue Zone in order to offer assistance. According to President Sirisena, the primary stakeholder for this project will be the Sri Lanka Navy, whilst the Merchant Shipping Secretariat, Sri Lanka Air Force and the Department of Sri Lanka Coastguard will be secondary stakeholders.
The President has added, Lanka Logistics and Technologies Ltd. (LLTL), in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Air Force and the Department of Sri Lanka Coast Guard, carried out a comprehensive study on the requirements of Sri Lanka and an analysis of global industry standards. Detailed specifications of the MRCC and budgetary estimates based on this study have been granted approval by the Department of National Planning.
Rajapaksa pix again: Rajitha asks who passed away
It was reminiscent of the days when the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration was in office.
On display tied to concrete posts that conveyed power wires along the SriJayawardenapura-Kotte Road were large colour photographs on polythene showing former President Mahinda Rajapaksa with Venerable Agga Maha Panditha Davuldena Gnanissara Thera who passed away this week. The prelate was accorded a state funeral at Independence Square on Thursday.
A rather uncharitable comment came from official Government spokesperson and Minister Rajitha Senaratne. Speaking at Wednesdays weekly news briefing, where matters related to previous days cabinet meeting are spelt out, he declared, Looking at the photograph, we do not know who passed away. Senaratne was earlier one of Rajapaksas cabinet ministers.
Cabinet acts to release New Year sugar stuck in port
Large stocks of imported sugar, held back at the Colombo Port by the Customs, have become the subject of concern for ministers, with the national holidays ahead.
The issue was discussed at a weekly meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. It was pointed out that importers were facing hardships because they were unable to clear the cargo. It was pointed out that it could also cause hardships to consumers during the National New Year season.
The delay in clearing the sugar cargo is because of stringent checks by the Customs. In many instances, they had found that narcotics had been smuggled into the country with sugar.
The Cabinet of Ministers decided that Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake should direct the Customs to immediately formulate a suitable mechanism to release the sugar stocks. It was also decided that Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga should explore the possibility of providing relief to sugar importers on the payment of demurrage.
Meditation for police from 8.30 to 9 am on weekdays
Probably for the first time in the more than 150-year history of the Police, the gates at Police headquarters are shut from 8.30 a.m. to 9 a.m. from Monday to Friday, every week for a religious purpose.
It came on the orders of Police Chief Pujith Jayasundera. He wants all officers, policemen and women, to begin work after meditation.
Similar orders have also gone out to Police Divisions countrywide. A witty senior officer had this to say: There are 85,000 police officers of all ranks in the department. If one goes by the daily loss of half an hour a day, the man hours lost by the force would add up to 42,500 hours a day.
Of course, that is not to mention the public who would be kept waiting every morning until the meditation period is over. Thereafter, they would have to ensure that their own prayers are answered. Something to ponder while meditating.
From preaching to partying
Hours after the meditation came the sporting event. When that was over, the boss, the boys and the lassies were literally in a mess. Liquor flowed and there was baila dancing as the clock neared midnight. Some were surprised that the boss was not only a part time lay preacher but a high spirited dancer. Lassies vied with each other to gyrate with him as if their next promotion depended on their best performance.
All the hoop la was too much for a VVIP who lived barely a stones throw away. The loud noise of the cymbals clapping, trumpet blowing and the drums beating disturbed the neighbourhood too. The VVIPs protectors were asked to find out what was happening. In an angry mood, he later remarked to one of them is this the way such people should behave?
Four big tunnels to ease traffic congestion in Kandy
The Finance Ministrys External Resources Division will negotiate a loan of US$ 199.27 million with South Koreas Economic Development Cooperation Fund (ECDF) to build tunnels and thereby ease the traffic congestion in Kandy.
The project, 5.56 kilometres long with a four lane roadway, comprises four tunnels of a total length 4.36 kms and includes 1.2 kilometres long roadway, three bridges, three interchanges and one intersection. It will connect Tennekumbura with Sudhumpola.
The total cost of the project has been estimated at US$ 252.30 million. The Government will be required to provide funds for general administration cost, taxes, duties, compensation payments and other indirect costs.
Detectives quiz PB on several major deals
Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) detectives have questioned former Finance Ministry Secretary P.B. Jayasundera over a string of transactions during the previous administration.
One such case is the oil hedging deal which caused a loss of US$ 200 million to the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). Another case is for allegedly causing a large financial loss to the Government.
This was when the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation was reacquired on the directions of the Supreme Court. Other cases include: alleged irregularities in the loan agreement with China Exim Bank for the purchase of two MA 60 air craft for Mihin Lanka; alleged irregularities in the import of rice by Lak Sathosa in 2014 and 2015 in which Treasury approval was given to open Letters of Credit for the import of 257,559 Mt of rice.
Dr. Jayasundera has also been questioned on the alleged financial irregularities of the Gin-Nilwala project on whether he was aware of the allocation of funds in 2014 and the over-expenditure of funds in 2015. The CAMC Engineering Company of China has been paid Rs. 1000 million (2014) and Rs 3,012 million (2015) totalling Rs 4,012 million as advance.
Objections to Hilton deal: Committee to review payments
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) decided to resolve the outstanding issues at Hotel Developers Ltd., the owning company of Colombo Hilton.
For this purpose, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who chairs the CCEM meetings, asked Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake to make recommendations to the Cabinet of Ministers on compensation payments due to Cornel Perera and Nihal Sri Amerasekera.
It was Mr. Perera who had initiated the Hilton project when the late J.R. Jayewardene was the President. Mr. Amerasekera has staked his claims on the basis of his intervention on issues with the foreign investors saved large amounts of money whilst resolving disputes without litigation.
Whilst a cabinet memorandum in respect of Mr. Perera was being awaited, Minister Karunanayake recommended a payment of Rs. 300 million to Mr. Amerasekera.
The matter came before the Cabinet of Ministers last Tuesday. Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe raised strong objections followed by a few others. The matter has now been put on hold.
President Sirisena has requested Premier Wickremesinghe to appoint a committee to go into the claims of both Mr. Amerasekera and Mr. Perera. He was asked to report back thereafter.
Commonwealth SG discusses health initiatives for the region with CMA President View(s):
The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland, held wide-ranging discussions with the newly-elected President of the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA), Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake on how the Commonwealth Secretariat could support the proposed Commonwealth Institute for Digital Health in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The institute is to be launched at the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting on May 21 in Geneva by Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne and Science, Technology and Research Minister Susil Premajayantha. This would be followed by a high-level launch of the institute in London, Britain, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in April 2018, by President Maithripala Sirisena.
During the meeting with Prof. Dissanayake at the Commonwealth Secretariat at Marlborough House in London, on March 24, Baroness Scotland also discussed how the institute could serve as a training, research and innovation hub for the Commonwealth, bringing about transformative change across health systems in the Commonwealth.
The CMA proposed the setting up of the institute as a health care innovation initiative with the backing of Sri Lankas two Ministries of Health and Science, Technology and Research and Baroness Scotland praised the Government of Sri Lanka for supporting the initiative.
While thanking Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Medical Association and the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka for hosting CMAs highly successful 24th Triennial Conference in October 2016 in Sri Lanka, she pledged her support to take forward the Colombo Declaration.
The declaration was adopted at the conference by the Commonwealth Health Professionals Alliance consisting of Commonwealth Associations representing doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists and other healthcare professionals.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and former Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations, Dr. Josephine Ojiambo; the Head of the Health and Education Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat Dr. Joanna Nurse; the Acting Chairperson of the Commonwealth Institute for Infrastructure Development, Anoop Singh; and Immediate Past President of the World Medical Association, Prof. Sir Michael Marmot also participated in the
discussions.
Salvation Army global head to visit Sri Lanka View(s):
The global head of The Salvation Army, General Andre Cox, will be visiting Sri Lanka from April 18 to 23. General Cox will be accompanied by Commissioner Silvia Cox who leads The Salvation Armys worldwide work with women.
The Salvation Armys work in Sri Lanka includes residential, community, project and crisis services, helping secure a better future for many Sri Lankans. Worldwide, it now operates in 128 countries, meeting human needs and working to alleviate human suffering without discrimination.
While in Sri Lanka they will meet with Government representatives, heads of churches and ecumenical organisations, British High Commissioner James Dauris, members of The Salvation Army Sri Lankas newly established National Advisory Board, and other dignitaries.
Discussions will be held about The Salvation Armys mission in Sri Lanka and how it can expand its work in partnership with other organisations and individuals. The couple will also visit Salvation Army Residential Services across Greater Colombo.
General Cox and Commissioner Cox will be guest speakers at various events during their stay. On Saturday, April 22 at 9 a.m. a public meeting will be held in the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour to welcome them and to celebrate Sri Lankan life and culture, expressed through dance, music, song and faith. Salvation Army members and members of the public from across the island will gather at this meeting. General Cox will also enrol more than 50 new members of The Salvation Army and speak on what it will take to bring transformation and hope to those who need it most. Special womens and youth events will follow at 1.30 p.m.
General Cox and Commissioner Cox have given service and leadership as Salvation Army officers across many different nations of the worldSwitzerland, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Estonia and the United Kingdom in Europe; and Zimbabwe, South Africa and other Southern Africa countries.
The Salvation Army in Sri Lanka has invested heavily in the welfare of Sri Lanka since it began here in 1883, says Territorial Commander Commissioner Alistair Venter, the organisations national leader.
Its not often that the global leader of our movement visits and we believe it will be an inspiration, not only to us, but to the whole country.
UPDATED 10.27AM: A severe weather watch has been issued for the Bay of Plenty, with heavy rain expected to move into the region on Wednesday.
A low is expected to move southeast over the Tasman Sea on Tuesday and Wednesday. Its associated front should bring periods of heavy rain to the west of the South Island on Tuesday, spreading to Taranaki and Bay of Plenty on Wednesday.
"This watch is for the possibility of heavy rain reaching warning levels over Westland, Buller and northwest Nelson during Tuesday and over Taranaki and Bay of Plenty on Wednesday," says a statement from the MetService.
"The heavy rain over Bay of Plenty is likely to continue into Thursday."
Further to this system, the remains of tropical cyclone Cook may pass close to or east of the North Island late in the week and MetService meteorologists will continue to moniter the development of this cyclone.
"People in these areas should stay in touch with the latest forecasts in case any of these areas are updated to a full warning or further areas need to be added to the watch."
Tropical Cyclone Cook, category 2, near Vanuatu on Sunday morning. Image: MetService.
Sunny and dry weather prevailed in many regions that were recently affected by flooding in the weekend.
An area of high pressure to the east of New Zealand maintains generally settled weather to start the new week, but significant rainfall is signalled for some regions later in the week, including the Bay of Plenty.
Under clear skies and with light winds some chilly starts have been notable this weekend.
There have even been some frosts in inland places. The temperature on the Desert Road dropped to -0.6C on Sunday morning, while Manapouri awoke to a misty -0.3C, says MetService meteorologist Peter Little. Meanwhile, the tropics have remained active and Tropical Cyclone Cook was named near Vanuatu around midnight Saturday.
The now category 2 cyclone is expected to track southwards over New Caledonia during Monday, then move slowly southeastwards.
At this stage the computer models we survey are showing a range of possible tracks, so its unclear whether the cyclone will come to New Zealand, says Peter.
However, regardless of whether the cyclone heads our way or not, it is likely that a moist northeasterly flow between the tropics, another low over the Tasman Sea and a large high east of New Zealand will bring significant heavy rain to parts of the country later this week.
This includes some regions still mopping up after last weeks flooding.
TROPICAL CYCLONE COOK
A depression near Vanuatu was named Tropical Cyclone Cook in the early hours of this morning (NZST).
At 9am yesterday, it was a category 2 cyclone with maximum winds of 90km/h close to the centre. As it tracks slowly southwards today it is expected to intensify into a category 3 cyclone, with winds rising to 120 km/h near the centre.
The Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Fiji is currently responsible for issuing warnings on the system, and expect TC Cook to cross New Caledonia during Monday, then track slowly southeastwards.
Beyond this time there remains considerable uncertainty as to the track of the cyclone, but rest assured that MetService Meteorologists are monitoring TC Cook closely and will keep you up to date with any potential impacts on New Zealand.
Landlords and property management companies are on notice to ensure their properties meet the regulations set out in the Residential Tenancies Act.
This warning comes following a recent audit by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employments Tenancy Compliance and Investigations team.
Smoke alarms are now required in all rental properties, and all new tenancy agreements must include an insulation statement which details the location, type and condition of insulation in the property, says Tenancy Compliance and Investigations team manager Steve Watson.
The team was formed in July 2016 to monitor and enforce compliance with the RTA. We have the power to prosecute landlords who seriously or persistently breach basic housing standards.
In November 2016, the team audited five property management companies, asking them to provide evidence that smoke alarms were installed in each of their properties, and that all new tenancy agreements contained the compulsory insulation statement.
The audit found varying levels of compliance and required action from some of the companies to ensure they met their obligations.
Im happy to report that all five property management companies are now fully compliant following the audit.
Property management companies are acting on behalf of landlords, and as such, have a responsibility to ensure the properties they manage meet all legal requirements.
This action should serve as a reminder that the Tenancy Compliance and Investigation team take breaches of residential tenancy law seriously, and are working to crack down on poor landlord behaviour across New Zealand.
New ZealandAustralian comedian, writer, and satirist John Clarke has died, aged 68.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for whom John worked, has confirmed he died on Sunday of natural causes, while hiking in the Grampians National Park in Victoria.
John first became known during the mid to late 1970s for portraying a laconic farmer called Fred Dagg on stage, film and television. Gumboot and singlet-clad, Dagg had seven sons all named Trev.
John also recorded a series of records and cassettes and published several books as Dagg. Thirty years after its release, the first Fred Dagg album, Fred Daggs Greatest Hits (1976), remains one of New Zealands biggest selling records.
John was the voice of Wal Footrot in the feature-length animated film, Footrot Flats: The Dogs Tale (1986), based on the comic strips by Murray Ball, who also passed away last month.
John was born in Palmerston North and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s. He was a regular actor and writer on Australian television.
Ngati Awa Group Holdings Ltd the commercial arm of Te Runanga o Ngati Awa is buying iconic Whakatane tour operator White Island Tours Ltd, which has been operating out of Whakatane for more than 25 years.
White Island Tours holds an exclusive licence for marine based tourism on New Zealands only active marine volcano, Whakaari/White Island.
The high quality tour has earned a Gold Enviro Award from Qualmark.
White Island Tours has been operating out of Whakatane for more than 25 years showcasing New Zealands only active marine volcano, Whakaari/White Island. The exclusive license to land a boat on White Island, transfers as part of the sale.
The island itself remains the property of Whakaari Trustee Ltd.
The purchase includes all White Island Tours operations, equipment and marine vessels including Motouroa Cat, PeeJay IV, Predator and Phoenix, along with a number of inflatable zodiacs and all running equipment;
It also includes the freehold land and buildings, villa, bungalow and micro village and motel operations known as White Island Rendezvous Motel. White Island Rendezvous is a modern 38 room complex located on the Strand in Whakatane.
Additionally the purchase includes PeeJays Cafe, and all intellectual property, websites, media, branding and naming rights and business operations that make up the White Island Tours group.
The sale also includes White Island Rendezvous, a 38 room motel complex with a villa, bungalow and micro-village, as well as PeeJays Cafe.
Ngati Awa Group Holdings Ltd Chief Executive Geoff Hamilton says the purchase is a strategic acquisition, and is part of a wider plan to develop Ngati Awa assets in the Ngati Awa rohe.
The investment is a commercial decision and will benefit Ngati Awa financially, but comes with wider benefits. We are thinking long term, and see White Island Tours as a key part of the community here in Whakatane, says Geoff.
As the local iwi Ngati Awa will be able to incorporate this unique business into a wider Ngati Awa tourism experience, in line with increasing tourist demand for authentic cultural experiences.
As well, a much-admired business will stay locally owned, and with an organisation that has a long-term commitment to supporting economic growth in our region.
Peter and Jenny Tait have developed this visitor experience from an idea, into the fantastic operation that it is today. From their first tour, with just six people on board, to over 17,000 visitors in the past year, White Island Tours success is testament to the hard work of Peter, Jenny and their team.
White Island Tours is an outstanding international tourism experience. This is an investment that all Ngati Awa can be proud of.
The sale will have no impact on the staffing and the employment conditions of the current staff of White Island Tours. It is a well-run operation with excellent staff and we hope the staff will work with us to incorporate the business into the wider Ngati Awa portfolio.
The purchase price is confidential.
Ngati Awa settled a Treaty of Waitangi claim with the Crown in 2005, including assets and cash of approximately $42 million. It currently has interests in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, equities and property totaling $114 million.
Whakatane Mayor Tony Bonne says it is a very exciting venture and decision for the Whakatane District.
As Mayor I will be working with Ngati Awa Group Holdings to enhance the growth in tourism for the betterment of our whole community. This will create jobs.
A huge thank you to Peter and Jenny Tait for their foresight in establishing this iconic business and I wish them well.
Strange creatures, part mystical, part steampunk and totally entertaining captivated audiences at the Waihi Drama Societys theatre in the play The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from March 31 April 9.
It was director Fi Gudsell who cleverly decided to bring the quirky twist to the much loved C.S. Lewis story of four children who stumble into the troubled world of Narnia through a large wardrobe.
Though no steamships or railways exist in the original Narnia he writes of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, we are sure CS Lewis would approve of the fun steampunk twist in his classic tale, the plays programme reads.
It may be in the title, but the wardrobe never makes an appearance on stage. Instead, in keeping with the steampunk theme, the set resembles a Victorian factory dominated by a huge steaming brick boiler/oven which, with a little help from wood nymphs (Cathie Bullock and Toni Morrison) and the imagination of the audience, plays a number of roles, including as an altar for a terrible execution.
The White Witch (or as she prefers Queen) Peta Baskerville is convincingly evil and loud, while Captain of her Secret Police Fenris Ulf, (Amber Sadgrove), is frighteningly sinister in her steampunk monocle.
In contrast Aslan (Paul Schuler), of golden complexion with a claw hand, radiates calmness, compassion and wisdom. Mr and Mrs Beaver (Brad Old and Lucy James) Unicorn (Tracey Hilt), Centaur (Josh Meehan) and Tumnus (Zeta Schuler) are part of the Resistance against the evil witch and play well their roles as frightened creatures, albeit with faith in Aslans return and that The Prophecy will be fulfilled.
Fenris Ulf (Amber Sadgrove) and Aslan (Paul Schuler) greet the audience after a performance.
The humans, Lucy (Evelyn Arevalo) Edmund (Ethan Clarke) and Peter (Vaun Arevalo), dressed in period costume, not steampunk style, are polished performers, quickly drawing the audience into the strange world they have discovered on the other side of the wardrobe.
Saturday nights performance was a credit to every one of the 30-strong cast and all those backstage. As always, the Waihi Drama Societys talented team has created a captivating production to entrance and entertain.
The steampunk theme was cleverly woven into the stunning costumes of Narnias diverse creatures, thanks to the skill of the societys team, and Steampunk Thames Inc lending some of the costumes for the production.
The play, based on an adaptation of the C.S. Lewis story by American playwright Joseph Robinette, had its last performance at Waihi yesterday.
Steampunk, inspired by the 19th century era of industrial steam powered machinery and advances in technology, has a science fiction and science fantasy theme too and is increasing in popularity, with Thames in the North Island and Oamaru in the South Island holding annual steampunk festivals.
They come hurtling round the corner in the big red fire truck and suddenly theres hope.
Its an amazing sense of satisfaction, enormously rewarding, says Evan Riggir. Hes the officer-in-charge of the volunteers at the Greerton Fire Station.
Generally, that first reaction to our arrival is one of relief people at a low ebb, people at a difficult and dangerous time and then suddenly helps at hand its a very powerful thing.
The Greerton Volunteer Fire Brigade gets 220 callouts a year and 54 already this year. We are right on track, says Evan.
Evans been riding the fire truck for 15 years as a volunteer. Now hes the OIC and pitching for new recruits. Its a continual process because peoples circumstances change the volunteers move away for work, or work cycles change and their ability to turn out is restricted. And maybe there are family constraints.
All three local stations are recruiting. Establishment is 22 operational volunteer firefighters. We need another six or seven, says Evan.
Theres a lot of interest but the job also requires a lot of giving time, effort and commitment.
Its rain, hail or shine, in the middle of the night or weekends when their friends are all out doing stuff. Its a huge commitment to the community, but a very satisfying one.
They try to run a duty watch so volunteers can have a weekend free to do things have a beer and not worry if and when the alarm goes up. But we need to have sufficient numbers to be able to do that.
Evan joined the volunteer fire brigade when he left the Navy. I missed the camaraderie of the services and found it again in the brigade. The environment is pretty good, were a closeknit team.
The Greerton fire station has one front running operational paid crew appliance manned 24/7. And its backed up by a secondary crew, the volunteers on a pager system. Secondary but still a front running operational crew, which can and will respond to any callout.
If the paid crew is busy at another incident, we will get called to attend. Could be a fire, could be a crash; could be a medical assist.
People are surprised when we turn up to an emergency and they learn we are volunteers. But we all wear the same uniform, we all have the same level of expertise and professionalism, says Evan. And we provide the same level of service. But we dont get paid.
And 16 minutes ago they could have been bathing the kids, doing the dishes, watching TV, at work. Sixteen minutes because thats the optimal time for a volunteer turnout from home, work or wherever to the station and then to the incident. And if the volunteers cant muster a crew, the job goes to the next available crew in Tauranga.
So Evan and the other volunteer brigades at Mount Maunganui and Tauranga are also looking for new talent. Requirements are permanent New Zealand citizenship, 16 years of age with parental permission, 18 without, a drivers licence to get you to the station in an emergency, a good level of physical fitness and a clean Police sheet.
But you cant walk in one day and go out on a fire appliance the next. It takes between nine and 18 months depending on what time people can commit and the availability of courses, to become qualified.
From the brigades perspective that is a major investment of time and resource before there is any return. So we have an ongoing small number of recruits so they continually come on stream.
But even when the volunteers head off to university or jobs in other towns, they arent lost. They dont leave the fire service, they just leave us; they join other units, says Evan.
There a lots of satisfied customer stories like the severe 2013 flooding in Mount Maunganui. A woman had one-and-a-half metres of water running through her house.
We were able to drain that out, stabilise the property and assist with the start of the insurance process. Very rewarding for Evan and she was very, very grateful. Are you interested in becoming a volunteer fireman?
Go to: www.fire.org.nz/Jobs/Volunteer-firefighters/Pages/AnIntroductiontoVolunteering.html
Or see: www.fire.org.nz and follow the quicklink Become a Volunteer.
Now they have come up with a stunning wireless speaker called the BeoSound Shape that is so easy on the eye it could well be mistaken for wall art.
Unveiled for the first time at the recent Salone de Mobile design fair in Milan, Italy, the BeoSound Shape speaker system features a distinctive wall-mounted modular design based around a series of individual hexagonal tiles that clip together in varying patterns, fabrics and colours.
The system requires a minimum of six tiles, but can be scaled up as needed to form bigger honeycomb-like patterns. These panels are covered in wool fabric made by Danish textile brand Kvadrat and are available in a choice of colours including brown, green, pink and dark blue all of which can be mixed and matched.
Meanwhile behind each removable grille can be found an amplifier, smart hub, speaker or acoustic dampers. The dampener tiles are in place to absorb sound rather than reflecting them, helping the system counteract poor acoustic performance.
The BeoSound Shape is priced at around $4,200 USD and includes a total of eight tiles, including four speakers, two dampeners, an amp, and the BeoSound Core connectivity hub that lets you stream music directly from your phone or tablet.
Founded in Denmark in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, Bang & Olufsen has grown to become one of the worlds most renowned designers of high-end audio products, television sets and telephones.
Theres no other time of year when visitors and foreign residents have their eyes opened as much to the pomp and ceremony of religious tradition in Spain than Semana Santa (Holy Week). Across the country finishing touches are being made to this years events.
From Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday traffic through major towns and cities will be cut off to allow the solemn processions to pass through, sometimes up to seven times a day. The pungent aroma of incense and hot wax, the mournful melody of the trumpets and the spectacle of the swaying tronos, icons of tearful virgins and hooded brotherhoods are all part of the unique experience that is Semana Santa.
All small towns and villages have scaled-down versions of the bigger processions. However these still manage to demonstrate the strong religious convictions that are present throughout Spain but not always on view.
What is on view, besides the processions, is the increased security presence over Easter. As Spain is currently on level four alert for a terrorist attack, many towns and cities have had to bring in more officers to work alongside the Local and National Police and civil protection teams to ensure that everything goes smoothly over the Easter period. Marbella alone will have 250 officers on duty to cope with the influx of visitors to the town and is coordinating with taxis and bus companies to ensure minimum disruption. The police are also operating a campaign to monitor cars and their drivers during the processions.
Hotel owners are expecting a good Semana Santa with around 90 per cent room occupancy, up on last year, providing the weather forecast stays sunny. The weather is a big concern not only the hotels, but also for other tourist businesses such as the restaurants and bars. The beach bars along the coast are in preparation for a bumper Easter as is Estepona council which has rushed to top up the sand on the beaches that were eroded in the recent storms.
This year there are 1,000 more flights due to come and go from Malaga airport during the holiday week than last year. A total of 718,542 passengers are expected to use the airport this week.
Around 35,000 cruise passengers will also stop off in Malaga during Easter week on 15 ships.
SCRIBA, N.Y. -- A woman riding in a sport utility vehicle that rolled over and crashed into a utility pole Sunday was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse after firefighters freed her from the vehicle, Oswego Fire Lt. Paul Conzone said.
Someone called the Oswego County 911 Center at 4:45 p.m. to report the one-vehicle crash at state Route 104 and Creamery Road in Scriba.
Scriba, New Haven and Oswego city firefighters spent more than 15 minutes working to cut the roof off the damaged SUV to get to a woman in the back seat.
Oswego County sheriff's deputies responded to the crash, but have not yet released any information.
The woman driving the SUV and one of her passengers, a man, were evaluated at the scene, but not transported to the hospital, Conzone said.
Menter Ambulance transported the woman in the back seat to Upstate University Hospital, he said. The extent of her injuries was not immediately known.
Oswego-based U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers helped with traffic control at state Route 104 and Creamery Road, officials said. National Grid also responded to the scene because the pole had been struck, 911 reported.
Check back for updates.
Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated three people were taken to hospitals after the crash Sunday in Scriba. Oswego firefighters confirmed the driver and one passenger were evaluated at the scene and released; the back seat passenger was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse.
CORTLANDVILLE, N.Y. -- Authorities have released the names of the driver and pedestrian involved in a fatal crash along Interstate 81 in Cortland County on Sunday.
Aaron Rosario, 22, of Syracuse, was killed as he stood outside a disabled vehicle and was hit by a car, the Cortland County Sheriff's Office announced today.
Rosario was in a 2008 Kia Optima headed north on Interstate 81 at about 2:36 a.m. Sunday.
The driver of the Optima lost control of the vehicle, striking both the left and right guardrails before coming to a stop in the middle of the road near the Exit 12 off-ramp, deputies said.
After Rosario and three others got out of the Optima, the vehicle was struck by a 2015 Ford Mustang, driven by Andrew Roy, 29, of Willow Spring, North Carolina, officials said.
Rosario, standing outside the vehicle, was hit and killed when the Mustang collided with the Optima, deputies said.
Interstate 81 North closed for about nine hours between Exits 11 and 12 while authorities worked the scene.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation. No one else was seriously injured.
Stephanie Miner
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner speaks to reporters at City Hall on Monday, April 10, 2017.
(Chris Baker | cbaker@syracuse.com)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Stephanie Miner's final budget as mayor of Syracuse forecasts an $18.5 million deficit, the second largest in her eight-year tenure.
Miner submitted her 2017-18 budget proposal to the Common Council Monday afternoon. Councilors will hold budget hearings throughout the week. The $700 million proposal includes $293 million for city operations and $407 million for the city school district.
The budget also includes a hike in water rates of $1.95 per unit, which is projected to increase city revenue by $1.3 million.
The projected deficit grew by 53 percent from last year, an increase Miner attributed to pension and healthcare costs passed on from the state. Those costs have grown year over year as the state has restricted its municipal aid.
"The state has frozen aid to municipalities for the eighth year, and at the same time continue to pass down unfunded mandates at record levels," she said.
Retirement costs for city employees, including cops and firefighters, increased by $1.2 million from last year. Medical insurance grew by $2.5 million. The cost of covering job-related injuries or illnesses for cops nearly doubled, from $550,000 to $950,000.
At the same time, the city projects $72 million from New York next year.
The $18 million plunge into city reserves would leave that fund at about $27 million, which is about where it was when Miner took office in 2009. The city received an influx of cash from the state in Miner's first term, which -- among other things -- brought the fund to $61 million in 2013.
The city likely won't use all of the projected deficit. Last year, the city only took from reserves about 88 percent of what Miner budgeted.
There is no change in the property tax rate for the city. The tax levy will increase $481,000 to $34.4 million due to an increase in overall property assessment. Miner credited new development for that growth.
Still, she said, about half of the city's properties are not on the tax roll. A modest increase in property tax rates, then, wouldn't generate much revenue.
"The single largest property owner in the City of Syracuse is the State of New York," she said. "Between SUNY ESF, Upstate hospitals, the state office building, Hutchings...All of them require police services, fire services, snow plowing...yet they do not pay anything for those services."
Miner's administration renewed an agreement with Syracuse University last year under which the school -- a tax-exempt institution -- will pay the city $7 million over five years.
The budget reflects no funding increase for the school district, due to the state's delay in passing its budget, Miner said. When those numbers are finalized, the district will need to make cuts, she said. The district budgeted for a $20 million increase in state aid. The actual total, set today, is $12 million, leaving the district with a shortfall.
The schools also face cuts from the federal government. President Donald Trump's proposed budget calls for cuts to programs that provide at least $18 million to the district, Miner said.
Miner's budget provides $1 million to fund the city's Say Yes to Education program, which provides college tuition to city high school graduates.
The budget projects $83 million in sales tax revenue -- money the city makes per a favorable agreement with Onondaga County. That agreement is up for renegotiation in 2020.
Also included in the budget is $260,000 for ShotSpotter. The new technology will allow police to pinpoint the location of gunshots. Miner said the city has not yet determined where it will install the devices.
Miner also pointed to changes at the federal level that will impact the city budget. Community development block grants -- pots of federal money funneled into cities -- have been delayed this year and could be on the chopping block under the Trump administration. The loss of that money could put local community centers in jeopardy, she said, including the Southwest Community Center, the Northeast Community Center and the Westcott Community Center.
Pets Hummingbirds
A male ruby-throated hummingbird. The smallest bird in the world weighs a tenth of an ounce, has a brain the size of a BB, wobbly legs and enemies like the praying mantis and bull frog. Even so, millions of humans will spend countless hours this spring and summer watching, feeding and worrying about the hummingbirds mating and nesting in their backyards.
(AP Photo/Wild Birds Unlimited)
They're back.
There have been several sightings within the past week of ruby-throated hummingbirds in Upstate New York, according a hummingbirds.net, a website that tracks their annual spring migration. See the map.
Have a hummingbird feeder? Today might be a good day to put it up.
Banding studies suggest that individual birds follow a set route year after year, "often arriving at the same feeder on the same day," according to hummingbirds.net.
Most ruby-throated hummingbirds winter between southern Mexico and northern Panama, the website said. Hummers lead solitary lives and neither live, nor migrate in flocks, and probably winter in the same location each year.
A female ruby-throated hummingbird in Oak Clement's backyard in Liverpool, N.Y.
The males have an iridescent red throat and grayish green vest on their breast. The females have a green back, black mask with white behind their eyes and white underparts, according to allaboutbirds.com.
The website, which is affiliated with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recommends the following to attract these birds to your yard:
"You can attract ruby-throated hummingbirds to your backyard by setting up hummingbird feeders or by planting tubular flowers. For your feeders, make sugar water mixtures with about one-quarter cup of sugar per cup of water. Food coloring is unnecessary; table sugar is the best choice. Change the water before it grows cloudy or discolored and remember that during hot weather, sugar water ferments rapidly to produce toxic alcohol. Be careful about where you put your hummingbird feeders, as some cats have learned to lie in wait to catch visiting hummingbirds."
Have a good picture of a hummingbird at your feeder this spring? We'd like to see it. Send photos to outdoors writer David Figura at dfigura@nyup.com.
Xi Jinping,Rex Tillerson
In this April 6, 2017, photo, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, walks with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla.
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
WASHINGTON -- Criticized for his low-profile diplomacy, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is emerging from the shadows with a leading public role in shaping and explaining the Trump administration's missile strikes in Syria. And, he's set for an even higher-profile mission, heading to Moscow under the twin clouds of Russia's U.S. election meddling and its possible support for a Syrian chemical weapons attack.
Since taking office in February, the former Exxon Mobil CEO has admittedly shunned the spotlight and the press. Yet, Tillerson was surprisingly visible during last week's announcement of the response to the gruesome chemical attack, fielding questions from reporters on and off camera, and then captured in an official White House photo seated next to President Donald Trump as they heard the result of the 59 cruise missiles that struck a Syrian military base.
Tillerson was a prominent fixture during the most important foreign policy period in Trump's young presidency: a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that coincided with the strikes against Syria. He was by Trump's side during his meetings with Xi and spoke publicly multiple times to address both issues.
It was Tillerson who delivered the Trump administration's first blistering condemnation of Russia in the hours after the strikes. Standing in a cramped conference room alongside national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Tillerson said Moscow had "failed" to live up to its obligations under a 2013 agreement to strip Syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles. "Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has simply been incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement," he said.
On Sunday, he made his first network television interview appearances. In one interview, Tillerson said he sees no reason for retaliation from Russia for the U.S. missile strikes. Russia maintains a close political and military alliance with President Bashar Assad's government and has been accused of supporting its attacks against Syrians opposed to Assad's rule -- something Moscow adamantly denies.
Tillerson said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Russians were not targeted by the strikes. He also said the top U.S. priority in the region hadn't changed and remained the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Then he headed to Europe to gather with the foreign ministers of the other major industrialized nations before venturing on eastward to become the first Trump Cabinet member to visit Moscow -- and possibly meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The criticism from the foreign policy establishment's left and right that has dogged his tenure is dying down.
Tillerson had faced questions about whether he understood that his new position meant he was now the face of the United States to the world, that he had to answer no longer to a small group of top shareholders but to more than 320 million Americans.
The secretary of state must be "the spokesman for American foreign policy," said Eliot Cohen, a senior State Department official during George W. Bush's presidency. "This is the administration's first crisis but it won't be their last by a long shot, so he's going to have to get used to this."
Joining Trump at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Tillerson was supposed to focus on the informal summit with Xi. Instead, he was thrust to the forefront after photos of the bodies piled in heaps in Idlib, Syria, dramatically altered the agenda.
Only a week earlier, Tillerson had alarmed U.S. allies by indicating the U.S. was no longer interested in pushing for Assad's removal from power.
In the hours leading up to Trump's decision to order the strikes, Tillerson was among the most forward-leaning of Trump's top aides in suggesting the U.S. would deliver an "appropriate response." He challenged Russia publicly in a way Trump appeared scrupulously to avoid and said of Assad early Thursday: "It would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people."
After the cruise missiles crashed down in Syria, Tillerson was calm and commanding in a question-and-answer session with journalists.
Cohen, a conservative critic of Trump's foreign policy who has chided Tillerson for his reticence, said he saw Tillerson growing into the job. "I suspect you'll see more of him as he grows more comfortable in dealing with the press and in his relationship with the president and the administration's national security team," Cohen said.
The challenge will be greater in Russia's capital this week. Tillerson is arriving at a fragile point in U.S.-Russia relations, where he will have to confront the Kremlin's anger over the missile strikes in Syria along with suspicion at home that Moscow may have been complicit in the Syrian government's chemical weapons attack. Senior U.S. military officials have said they are looking into whether Russia provided drone surveillance and helped Syrian forces try to cover up what they'd done.
Beyond Syria are disputes over Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
At the same time, Tillerson carries to Moscow the weight of FBI and congressional investigations into Russia's interference in last year's presidential election. The Trump campaign's possible ties to the presumed Russian meddlers are also under scrutiny.
"This is going to be Tillerson's biggest test to date," said Julianne Smith, a National Security Council and Defense Department official under President Barack Obama. "He's been getting poor reviews across the national security establishment, tons of questions about whether he has the intellect, the stamina, the courage to really take this position and fly with it and really soar."
The events of the past several days seem to have stanched such questions, and his increasingly public persona seems to reflect a greater confidence.
When he goes to Russia, keeping a low profile would likely be impossible, even if it were his goal.
buffalopolice.jpg
Buffalo police say Jenna Antone urinated in a patrol car after she was arrested Saturday, April 9, 2017.
(Buffalo Police/Facebook)
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A 29-year-old Upstate New York woman faces seven charges after threatening another woman, giving police a false name and then urinating on the seat when she was placed in the back of a patrol car, Buffalo police reported.
Jenna Antone, of Humphrey Road in the Riverside section of Buffalo, confronted a 38-year-old woman at Ontario and Skillen streets around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, police said The victim said Antone implied that she had a gun concealed in her sleeve.
When police arrived at an address on Newfield Street shortly after 7 p.m. to question her, they said Antone lied about her identity to avoid being arrested on an outstanding warrant.
When Antone was placed in the back of patrol car 489, she threatened to urinate on the seat if she was not released, officers said. According to the police report, "after being informed of her charges, defendant did follow thru and did urinate in patrol vehicle."
Antone faces two misdemeanor charges of second-degree menacing for stalking and by implying she had a weapon, two counts of second-degree obstructing governmental administration, and single charges of second-degree criminal impersonation and second-degree harassment, a violation.
She was also charged with disorderly conduct by creating a "hazardous or physically offensive condition."
-- Anne Neville, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
SU faculty senate
Chancellor Kent Syverud takes questions during a 2015 Faculty Senate meeting in Maxwell Auditorium.
(Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University professor Dana Cloud was outraged by the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.
So she did what many activists do: Cloud, a University of Texas professor at the time, wrote opinion pieces for local websites. She appeared on a conservative talk radio show. She gave talks condemning the war.
And then, she found herself the target of various "blacklists." Her name popped up on websites chronicling mostly liberal professors, their phone numbers and their alleged violations of academic freedom and political balance.
Often the sites were compiled by conservative groups that disagreed with her point of view.
In 2006, she landed in a book of 101 professors called the "most dangerous" in America by prominent conservative David Horowitz.
The hate mail flooded in. Cloud received phone calls, letters and hundreds of emails attacking her as an "elitist intellectual," a "feminist-lesbian" and a "Leftist national traitor."
Cloud came to see the blacklists as a phenomenon that springs up across the country in waves.
According to Cloud, new blacklisting websites come out every couple years, often after particularly heated and controversial political events occur and inspire public outcry. She's become a staple of these lists.
A recent web search found just a handful of sites that are currently up and running and list professors based on their political positions. The most prominent, Professor Watchlist, is run by the conservative non-profit Turning Point USA. Other lists focus on a particular topic or professors at a specific school.
Cloud, a communications and rhetorical studies professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, isn't alone among SU professors who have landed on blacklists.
It's become enough of an issue that Syracuse's University Senate, made up of mostly faculty, along with students and staff, unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month decrying the lists and expressing support for anyone who has found their name on one.
Chancellor Kent Syverud joined in speaking out against the lists. He said protecting the academic freedom of professors who get blacklisted is a tradition at SU dating back to McCarthyism.
He referenced blacklists created in the 1950s based on association with the Communist party and in the 1970s based on association with the anti-Vietnam War movement. In each of those eras, SU chancellors stepped up to support their faculty, Syverud said.
Cloud most recently appeared on Professor Watchlist.
Syracuse University Professor Dana Cloud's photograph appears on website that "calls out" professors who express radical political views.
She said the backlash from that list was relatively tame compared with others she has been named to over the years.
Cloud said she has tenure at Syracuse University, so she feels secure in her employment and ability to express her views.
She said she is concerned about and can relate to younger and more vulnerable professors who get named to one of these lists without the types of protections she has now.
"This is more important to people who are perhaps more vulnerable: Un-tenured faculty, women, women of color, scholars of color in general and especially now, Muslims and immigrants," Cloud said.
Several professor lists target people who hold certain views on a particular issue. There are many that name pro-Palestinian professors and academics who support the BDS movement, which stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a lightning rod on college campuses.
Cloud has ended up on some of those lists after voicing her support of the BDS movement.
Cloud said that her opinions on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan garnered 290 hate mail messages between 2002 and 2008.
She studied the messages as part of her own research, even detailing them in an academic journal.
She said her experience at SU has been much different than at University of Texas in the early 2000s when she felt mostly alone in handling harassment and death threats from people who came across her name and contact information on various lists.
She said she has gotten more messages of support than hate mail since being added to Professor Watchlist since it launched last year.
Professor Watchlist adds professors to its list after receiving "tips" through an online portal.
Matt Lamb, director of campus integrity for Turning Point USA, the group that runs the website, said his organization does not condone harassment of the professors it names to the list.
The website links to faculty profiles and websites and includes each professor's photo and a short description of their positions, but does not provide contact information directly.
Professor Watchlist does not add professors based on hearsay or even one student's opinion, Lamb said.
The website only aggregates reports that have been verified by a news source or other reliable source of information, he said.
Lamb said the purpose of the website is to compile reports of professors who "do or say something which we think would be likely to squelch debate in the classroom."
Cloud has written about how she invites debate in the classroom. She said she has had many conservative students who do well in her classes and who would be offended at the thought that she has somehow indoctrinated them.
Professors on the list overwhelmingly tend to be liberal, but some are not and Lamb said the site will consider professors from any political affiliation.
His group is particularly concerned, though, about whether colleges and professors create an environment that is welcoming to conservative and free market-supporting students.
According to Lamb, Professor Watchlist was designed as a way for these students to know what they might face on certain campuses and in certain courses.
"We don't want students to avoid these professors necessarily, but to be extra prepared for going into these professor's classrooms."
Reporter Julie McMahon covers Syracuse University and Syracuse city schools. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992
Secretariat BHPian
Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Bangalore Posts: 263 Thanked: 2,230 Times
The historical sites
Khajuraho
Almost every travelogue to the region has covered Khajuraho, rightfully, for it is truly a wonder. But let's get one thing out of the way. Khajuraho has got very little to do with the Kamasutra. Only a very small number of sculptures are ribald and they fit in a larger context of the cycle of man. So those interested in voyeurism have to go elsewhere although the guides and the books try their best to market that erroneously as the USP.
The Khajuraho temples were built around 1000 AD by the Chandela kings who ruled Bundelkhand . About 85 temples were built it is believed ; only some 25 have survived. Those that have survived will leave any viewer breathless. The stone sculptures that adorn these temples are easily amongst the finest ever done in India, anytime in history, and possibly amongst the great works in the world.
When the dynasty fell the temples were forgotten. Forests reclaimed the area and this was remote, thick jungle and not easy to reach. Successive invasions had their effect on the temples. Mahmud of Ghazni came this way but was repulsed (the magnificent Kandariya Mahadev temple was apparently built as a thanksgiving). Sikander Lodi was a prominent destroyer. But their remoteness and having been forgotten saved a few . Ibn Batuta came this way in the mid 1300s and found them abandoned with only a few yogis living there. They lay forgotten until the 1830s, when the British rediscovered them. Since then they have been excavated and preserved as a World Heritage Site.
(The beautiful temples)
(The intricacy of the carving is breathtaking)
(The beautiful temples)(The intricacy of the carving is breathtaking)
There are hundreds of much better pictures of Khajuraho on BHP. So why don't you savour a couple of odd ones.
(He must be a BHPian judging by the number of cameras ; nice pose by the guy in the white T shirt !)
(Yes lots of foreigners here, but this is too much)
(He must be a BHPian judging by the number of cameras ; nice pose by the guy in the white T shirt !)(Yes lots of foreigners here, but this is too much)
I don't think the modern man of today is capable of such great works of art. What can we build today that we can confidently say will last a thousand years ? Have we lost the capacity to create such masterpieces ? Those that speak to us over the centuries ? How were they financed ? Will today's governments ever spend on something like this ? Our generation will probably see them as wasteful extravagance. But maybe, spending on immediate gratification and doling out money for today's luxuries is the actual extravagance. What do we leave for future generations to remember us by ?
There is a sense of awe when you stand in front of great historical monuments. How did they create such exquisite sculpture ? What was the motivation ? How did the art pass from hand to hand through generations ? And how did they go into disuse ? What would the priest who did the last aarti have felt ? How must it have been when the temples were destroyed ? - those which had taken decades and unimaginable expertise and labour to build.
Sanchi
A further 1000 years back in time, to the reign of King Ashoka, about 2300 years ago. If you remember your history, he converted to Buddhism after the Kalinga war when he saw the misery and havoc that war created. He took to peace and for the rest of his life spread Buddhism in India and overseas, chiefly in what is now Sri Lanka.
His wife Devi, was from Vidisha, a great seat of learning and an important town in those times. So near Vidisha, set on a hill in the village of Sanchi, he created a monastery . The monastery existed for a 1000 years before it fell into disuse and ruin. Again the time scales take your breath away - he created something that was functional for a 1000 years and still exists. Wow !
The Sanchi stupa is probably familiar to most Indians. It was partially destroyed and rebuilt often in both ancient and medieval times, but today it is in great condition. The monastery surrounding it is in complete ruin, but the columns holding the Ashoka pillar and the four lions, which are a feature of every Ashoka site, are still intact.
(Stupa No 1 at Sanchi)
(Intricately carved gates)
(The monastery is in ruins)
(The four lions at Sanchi; its now in the museum) (Stupa No 1 at Sanchi)(Intricately carved gates)(The monastery is in ruins)(The four lions at Sanchi; its now in the museum)
Ashoka created many such sites. From the excavations, it is conjured that at Panguraria, in Sehore, not too far from here, there was an even bigger stupa than Sanchi. But that has been lost to history. Sanchi probably survived because Vidisha rapidly fell in importance and the site itself became covered in forests and therefore remained hidden.
Sanchi fell into disuse and ruin around 1200 AD. It was then forgotten and lost to the forest until in the early 1800s it was rediscovered, by the British. But its real excavation happened around 1915. The then Director of the Archaeological Survey of India, Sir John Marshall is credited with the excavation and restoration of Sanchi. He stayed here for some 7 years supervising the work. In a lovely touch, the Archaeological Survey of India has created a small museum in the house that he lived in , as a tribute to him. Lovely touch that you would not normally associate with such bodies.
Bhimbetka
Humans have always been fascinated by their origins and early history. Homo Sapiens emerged in Africa about 200,000 years ago. But there is very little evidence of human activity until about 50,000 years ago when the first art, stone tools and other artifacts have been excavated. From then on, archaeological findings have been made on every continent. In India, one of the earliest evidence of human settlements are to be found in the rock shelters of Bhimbetka.
Bhimbetka is very near Bhopal on the road to Hoshangabad. There are large rock formations in this general area and in many of the rock overhangs (some 250 of them) , we can see sketchings and art . Carbon dating has established that the oldest of them are between 10,000 and 30,000 years old. These are the first evidence of stone age in India. This is now a World Heritage Site
The drawings depict some of the common themes of that time. The people were hunter gatherers (agriculture had not yet been invented then). They must have lived in the caves for safety and their habitat was heavily forested with an army of animals for company. The art shows hunting, shows the animals of that time, dancing and some other aspects of their daily life. The colours used are from vegetable dyes and it completely flummoxes me that they are still very clear after at least 10,000 years despite being open to nature. They have been drawn on rock overhangs, sometimes very high up indicating that they must have had some platforms made to do that.
(Such vivid colours after 10,000 years)
(Going to fight, maybe; or to hunt)
(The world's first dance party ? there's even a guy with a drum)
(Such vivid colours after 10,000 years)(Going to fight, maybe; or to hunt)(The world's first dance party ? there's even a guy with a drum)
The rock shelters of Bhimbetka were discovered only in 1957 by the famous archeologist , Padma Shree Dr Wakankar from Ujjain. He is also credited with the discovery of the river basin of the mythical Saraswathi. I was delighted that, for once, it was not the British who rediscovered our heritage.
The joy of expression seems to be a fundamental human trait. Why else would ancient humans have thought it fit to draw or sketch what we now see at Bhimbetka. What would they think if they knew that descendants would gaze at their work 10,000 years later. And how on earth did those dyes survive so vividly for that long . Fascinating to dream of how life would have been at that time.
This is the longest you can go back in history in India. Come here if you can ; its only an hour's drive from Bhopal.
Ajanta & Ellora
OK, this isn't in Madhya Pradesh, but then this is a journey to the centre of India and if you sort of look at the India map with a squint, this isn't far off from the centre !
Once in a while, just once in a while, everyone is allowed to do something very touristy. The Ajanta & Ellora caves have probably been visited by every BHPian. It has been a very popular tourist destination for decades. I hadn't ever been there, and as this was on my route, I took a couple of days to join the hordes of Indians who have been to Ajanta (or Ajintta as it should be rightfully called in Marathi) and Ellora.
Ajanta is as awesome as it is made out to be. For those unfamiliar with Ajanta, it is a set of some 30 caves carved in a rock cliff and which served as Buddhist monasteries and temples for a long period. The earliest caves are from the 2nd century BC and range until the 6th century AD. There must have been exquisite paintings in the caves. Much of it has been lost, but what remains is enough indication of how grand it must have been. There are also sculpted works and lots of images of the Buddha. I can imagine the monks at their morning prayers, hymns being chanted, workmen probably working on the next cave, maybe a new monk arriving to take his vows, probably an older and wiser monk training the newly initiated.
(The Ajanta Caves)
(A grand cave)
(Lovely sculpting)
(Alas, lots of it is lost ; what might have been)
(An unfinished cave) (The Ajanta Caves)(A grand cave)(Lovely sculpting)(Alas, lots of it is lost ; what might have been)(An unfinished cave)
Ellora was done a bit later in time, between the 6th and 11th centuries and covers three religions, Buddhism first, Hindu next and Jainism third. Who cannot, but marvel at the incredible Kailash temple, arguably the largest monolithic structure in the world and which was carved from a single rock, top down.
(The largest at Ellora; probably served as an auditorium)
(Looks like a hostel; that's probably what it was)
(Beautiful sculptures at the Kailash temple)
(a lovely Jain temple)
(The largest at Ellora; probably served as an auditorium)(Looks like a hostel; that's probably what it was)(Beautiful sculptures at the Kailash temple)(a lovely Jain temple)
As in every historical site I have visited on this trip, I am having so many questions. How did the sculptors and painters work in a pitch dark cave - there's no evidence of fire blackening anything. So, how did they do it ? (Yeah, the guides spin some theories, but do we really know ?). How did they even approach this place ? These are caves on a sheer rock face. Today there are roads and paths, but then ? What about food ? Buddhist monks traditionally are frugal, but they still had to eat. How did they grow anything on rocks ? It's a torturous route to the plains; is that how the food came ? Who protected them from the inevitable wars and the armies ?
The caves were mentioned in historical records till medieval times and then seem to have been forgotten. Nature reclaimed them and once again in the 19th century they were rediscovered by, who else, the British. They seem to have escaped the destruction of the Muslim rulers ; probably because they were forgotten and remote.
I wish there was a way to peep back in time. Not time travel, but simply have a magic mirror through which you could see what happened in those times. I cannot imagine anything that would be more fascinating.
The tomb of Aurangzeb
14 rupees and 12 annas. That's what it cost to build the tomb of Aurangzeb. After the lavishness of Humayun's tomb at Delhi, Shah Jahan's at the Taj and Akbar's at Sikandra, came the piety of Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb, the sixth and really the last of the great Mughal emperors, died in the Deccan and as per his wishes he was buried in Khuldabad, near Ellora in a simple grave with no grand tomb constructed. The grave was paid for from the earnings he personally made tailoring caps and not from the royal treasury.
(The tomb of Aurangzeb)
(The tomb of Aurangzeb)
Aurangzeb is an extremely controversial figure. He was pious and simple, but was also responsible for innumerable wars, the destruction of many Hindu temples and much cruelty. Whatever you may think of him, it cannot be disputed that he is a huge historical figure. He could have built a lavish tomb and today a few million people would visit every year, as they do at the Taj. He would have been famous around the world to this day. But he didn't. That counts for something. There is so much history to experience on this trip. Even after I skipped Orchha and Mandu , for after all, you can't go everywhere. Let's first go back 1000 years in timeAlmost every travelogue to the region has covered Khajuraho, rightfully, for it is truly a wonder. But let's get one thing out of the way. Khajuraho has got very little to do with the Kamasutra. Only a very small number of sculptures are ribald and they fit in a larger context of the cycle of man. So those interested in voyeurism have to go elsewhere although the guides and the books try their best to market that erroneously as the USP.The Khajuraho temples were built around 1000 AD by the Chandela kings who ruled Bundelkhand . About 85 temples were built it is believed ; only some 25 have survived. Those that have survived will leave any viewer breathless. The stone sculptures that adorn these temples are easily amongst the finest ever done in India, anytime in history, and possibly amongst the great works in the world.When the dynasty fell the temples were forgotten. Forests reclaimed the area and this was remote, thick jungle and not easy to reach. Successive invasions had their effect on the temples. Mahmud of Ghazni came this way but was repulsed (the magnificent Kandariya Mahadev temple was apparently built as a thanksgiving). Sikander Lodi was a prominent destroyer. But their remoteness and having been forgotten saved a few . Ibn Batuta came this way in the mid 1300s and found them abandoned with only a few yogis living there. They lay forgotten until the 1830s, when the British rediscovered them. Since then they have been excavated and preserved as a World Heritage Site.There are hundreds of much better pictures of Khajuraho on BHP. So why don't you savour a couple of odd ones.I don't think the modern man of today is capable of such great works of art. What can we build today that we can confidently say will last a thousand years ? Have we lost the capacity to create such masterpieces ? Those that speak to us over the centuries ? How were they financed ? Will today's governments ever spend on something like this ? Our generation will probably see them as wasteful extravagance. But maybe, spending on immediate gratification and doling out money for today's luxuries is the actual extravagance. What do we leave for future generations to remember us by ?There is a sense of awe when you stand in front of great historical monuments. How did they create such exquisite sculpture ? What was the motivation ? How did the art pass from hand to hand through generations ? And how did they go into disuse ? What would the priest who did the last aarti have felt ? How must it have been when the temples were destroyed ? - those which had taken decades and unimaginable expertise and labour to build.A further 1000 years back in time, to the reign of King Ashoka, about 2300 years ago. If you remember your history, he converted to Buddhism after the Kalinga war when he saw the misery and havoc that war created. He took to peace and for the rest of his life spread Buddhism in India and overseas, chiefly in what is now Sri Lanka.His wife Devi, was from Vidisha, a great seat of learning and an important town in those times. So near Vidisha, set on a hill in the village of Sanchi, he created a monastery . The monastery existed for a 1000 years before it fell into disuse and ruin. Again the time scales take your breath away - he created something that was functional for a 1000 years and still exists. Wow !The Sanchi stupa is probably familiar to most Indians. It was partially destroyed and rebuilt often in both ancient and medieval times, but today it is in great condition. The monastery surrounding it is in complete ruin, but the columns holding the Ashoka pillar and the four lions, which are a feature of every Ashoka site, are still intact.Ashoka created many such sites. From the excavations, it is conjured that at Panguraria, in Sehore, not too far from here, there was an even bigger stupa than Sanchi. But that has been lost to history. Sanchi probably survived because Vidisha rapidly fell in importance and the site itself became covered in forests and therefore remained hidden.Sanchi fell into disuse and ruin around 1200 AD. It was then forgotten and lost to the forest until in the early 1800s it was rediscovered, by the British. But its real excavation happened around 1915. The then Director of the Archaeological Survey of India, Sir John Marshall is credited with the excavation and restoration of Sanchi. He stayed here for some 7 years supervising the work. In a lovely touch, the Archaeological Survey of India has created a small museum in the house that he lived in , as a tribute to him. Lovely touch that you would not normally associate with such bodies.Humans have always been fascinated by their origins and early history. Homo Sapiens emerged in Africa about 200,000 years ago. But there is very little evidence of human activity until about 50,000 years ago when the first art, stone tools and other artifacts have been excavated. From then on, archaeological findings have been made on every continent. In India, one of the earliest evidence of human settlements are to be found in the rock shelters of Bhimbetka.Bhimbetka is very near Bhopal on the road to Hoshangabad. There are large rock formations in this general area and in many of the rock overhangs (some 250 of them) , we can see sketchings and art . Carbon dating has established that the oldest of them are between 10,000 and 30,000 years old. These are the first evidence of stone age in India. This is now a World Heritage SiteThe drawings depict some of the common themes of that time. The people were hunter gatherers (agriculture had not yet been invented then). They must have lived in the caves for safety and their habitat was heavily forested with an army of animals for company. The art shows hunting, shows the animals of that time, dancing and some other aspects of their daily life. The colours used are from vegetable dyes and it completely flummoxes me that they are still very clear after at least 10,000 years despite being open to nature. They have been drawn on rock overhangs, sometimes very high up indicating that they must have had some platforms made to do that.The rock shelters of Bhimbetka were discovered only in 1957 by the famous archeologist , Padma Shree Dr Wakankar from Ujjain. He is also credited with the discovery of the river basin of the mythical Saraswathi. I was delighted that, for once, it was not the British who rediscovered our heritage.The joy of expression seems to be a fundamental human trait. Why else would ancient humans have thought it fit to draw or sketch what we now see at Bhimbetka. What would they think if they knew that descendants would gaze at their work 10,000 years later. And how on earth did those dyes survive so vividly for that long . Fascinating to dream of how life would have been at that time.This is the longest you can go back in history in India. Come here if you can ; its only an hour's drive from Bhopal.OK, this isn't in Madhya Pradesh, but then this is a journey to the centre of India and if you sort of look at the India map with a squint, this isn't far off from the centre !Once in a while, just once in a while, everyone is allowed to do something very touristy. The Ajanta & Ellora caves have probably been visited by every BHPian. It has been a very popular tourist destination for decades. I hadn't ever been there, and as this was on my route, I took a couple of days to join the hordes of Indians who have been to Ajanta (or Ajintta as it should be rightfully called in Marathi) and Ellora.Ajanta is as awesome as it is made out to be. For those unfamiliar with Ajanta, it is a set of some 30 caves carved in a rock cliff and which served as Buddhist monasteries and temples for a long period. The earliest caves are from the 2nd century BC and range until the 6th century AD. There must have been exquisite paintings in the caves. Much of it has been lost, but what remains is enough indication of how grand it must have been. There are also sculpted works and lots of images of the Buddha. I can imagine the monks at their morning prayers, hymns being chanted, workmen probably working on the next cave, maybe a new monk arriving to take his vows, probably an older and wiser monk training the newly initiated.Ellora was done a bit later in time, between the 6th and 11th centuries and covers three religions, Buddhism first, Hindu next and Jainism third. Who cannot, but marvel at the incredible Kailash temple, arguably the largest monolithic structure in the world and which was carved from a single rock, top down.As in every historical site I have visited on this trip, I am having so many questions. How did the sculptors and painters work in a pitch dark cave - there's no evidence of fire blackening anything. So, how did they do it ? (Yeah, the guides spin some theories, but do we really know ?). How did they even approach this place ? These are caves on a sheer rock face. Today there are roads and paths, but then ? What about food ? Buddhist monks traditionally are frugal, but they still had to eat. How did they grow anything on rocks ? It's a torturous route to the plains; is that how the food came ? Who protected them from the inevitable wars and the armies ?The caves were mentioned in historical records till medieval times and then seem to have been forgotten. Nature reclaimed them and once again in the 19th century they were rediscovered by, who else, the British. They seem to have escaped the destruction of the Muslim rulers ; probably because they were forgotten and remote.I wish there was a way to peep back in time. Not time travel, but simply have a magic mirror through which you could see what happened in those times. I cannot imagine anything that would be more fascinating.14 rupees and 12 annas. That's what it cost to build the tomb of Aurangzeb. After the lavishness of Humayun's tomb at Delhi, Shah Jahan's at the Taj and Akbar's at Sikandra, came the piety of Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb, the sixth and really the last of the great Mughal emperors, died in the Deccan and as per his wishes he was buried in Khuldabad, near Ellora in a simple grave with no grand tomb constructed. The grave was paid for from the earnings he personally made tailoring caps and not from the royal treasury.Aurangzeb is an extremely controversial figure. He was pious and simple, but was also responsible for innumerable wars, the destruction of many Hindu temples and much cruelty. Whatever you may think of him, it cannot be disputed that he is a huge historical figure. He could have built a lavish tomb and today a few million people would visit every year, as they do at the Taj. He would have been famous around the world to this day. But he didn't. That counts for something. Last edited by Secretariat : 9th April 2017 at 22:11 .
It looks as if flexible OLED displays are set to become the standard for flagship smartphones. The screen technology is used in the recently released Galaxy S8 handsets and will appear in the upcoming iPhone 8 (and probably the Note 8). Now, reports say the OLED panels will be a feature of the next Pixel phones, too.
A report in the Electronic Times states that Google has offered to invest 1 trillion won ($880 million) in LG Display to boost the output of flexible OLED screens for use in Pixel 2 handsets.
The popular Pixel and Pixel XL use AMOLED screens manufactured by Samsung. But it seems the successors will be following in the Galaxy S8s' footsteps by using bendable OLEDs. LG Display is said to be considering Google's offer, which could increase as talks go on.
As noted by ZDNet, LG Display currently manufactures small, flexible OLED panels for the Apple Watch and LG Electronics' watches but doesn't have the capacity to produce them for smartphones. It is building two additional lines; one of which will likely start producing later this year, with the other line set to begin manufacturing in 2018.
Last week, it was reported that Apple had ordered 70 million bendable OLED screen from Samsung for use in the iPhone 8, with the Korean company prepared to manufacture as many as 95 million during 2017, in case demand exceeds expectations.
There aren't too many details about the now confirmed Pixel 2, other than some slightly obvious rumors that it will pack the latest Snapdragon SoC and come with an improved camera. It's also likely to be water-resistant and cost "at least" $50 more than its predecessors.
From simple beginnings, YouTube has transformed from a creative outlet where many get to share their videos to the rest of the world to a steady source of income for some of the more popular creators. However, as with most advances, YouTube's growth has not been immune to abusers, which YouTube now aim to significantly reduce through the Expanded YouTube Partner Program.
Expanded YouTube Partner Program
Recent years have seen the influx of impersonators and re-uploaders who simply upload the same video content to profit from another creator's content. Because of this, YouTube saw it fit to expand their current Partner Program and add a new guideline that would hold off advertisements for videos until they reach 10,000 views.
YouTube believes that by keeping the threshold at 10,000, aspiring creators still have a good chance of entering their Partner Program while protecting current creators from impersonators. Once aspiring creators hit the 10,000 views mark, YouTube will review their content and adherence to YouTube policies and serve ads when the conditions are met.
YouTube is currently adding a review process for new creators, which they will likely announce in the weeks to come, and they stress that revenue earned from videos with less than 10,000 views before the enactment of the new rule will not be impacted.
The YouTube Partner Program was created in 2007 and allowed many creators to monetize their content via advertisements. Through this, many creators have become celebrities in their own right and have since made a career out of their YouTube channels. Through the Expanded YouTube Partner Program, both creators and advertisers are protected from abusers.
Protecting Creators And Advertisers
YouTube's announcement focuses mainly on the impact that impersonators and abusers have on content creators. However, the new guidelines regarding the Partner Program can also protect advertisers from being associated with impersonating channels or offensive content.
Just recently, YouTube's parent company, Google, announced new advertising safeguards that aim to clear the site from advertisements that promote hateful or derogatory messages. Around the same time as the announcement, companies such as AT&T and Verizon pulled their ads from YouTube, concerned that their brand may be associated with certain videos that are extremist or hateful in nature.
With YouTube's new guidelines, perhaps the worries of being associated with hateful content, both on the part of creators and advertisers, will be eased, knowing that YouTube is working on even more ways to protect their clients.
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Despite the Trump administration's view that climate change is not convincing and its budget cuts on science agencies, a lawmaker has asserted that most Americans believe that climate change is real.
Addressing the Congress, Democrat party's Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said 70 percent of people hold that global warming is real and already happening.
In the "Time to Wake Up" lecture series, the senator quoted references from Yale's 2016 climate opinion maps based on the data from a national survey of more than 18,000 people from 2008 to 2016. The map offers state-wise breakup of people who think climate change is caused by humans.
Contradictions On Human Role In Climate Change
The Yale study asserts that 70 percent of Americans believe in climate change. However, the same study notes that only 53 percent of Americans believe climate change is caused by human activity.
In other words, it is a view that climate change is hard to overturn and a borderline stand far better than outright denial of climate change.
The survey sees 49 percent holding the view that "most scientists think global warming is happening." This contrasts the stand of 97 percent of climate scientists who believe climate change is happening and humans have a major role in it.
Trump Administration And Climate Change Policies
The public perception clearly contrasts the mixed signals sent by Trump administration on the matter of climate change.
"They can cut the funding, but climate change is real and we're going to have to deal with it," said Chris McEntee, of the American Geophysical Union.
Trump himself had described climate change as a hoax, though later made a partial retraction saying that he has an open-mind toward the efforts to control it.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has acknowledged that climate change is real. However, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has doubts whether carbon dioxide is really causing the global warming.
Trump's Budget Cut On Science And EPA
President Trump's budget cut on science was a blow to many climate change mitigation programs. The slashing of funds for the Clean Power Plan and dilution of the focus of EPA on air pollution was embarrassing.
The drastic cut on climate fund by 31 percent pushed down allocation for EPA by $2.6 billion. The rationale of slashed finding was evident in the words of White House budget director Mick Mulvaney.
"You can expect reductions in the EPA that don't line up with the president's view on things like global warming and alternative energies," Mulvaney said.
Scientists Protesting Climate Change Denial
Scientists are distressed at what they call as attempts to force America into losing a shared sense of facts on climate change. They are also leading campaigns to assert the primacy of science in making it a vital part of the nation's vision for the future.
"This is the first time as scientists that they are defending science itself against what they see as the new government's rejection of decision-making based on scientific reason and scientific consultation and scientific findings," said Kelly Moore, professor of sociology at Loyola University Chicago.
However, scientists are also being criticized for politicizing the issue. H.Sterling Burnett, a research fellow on energy and environment at the Heartland Institute said scientists are only trying to salvage pots of government money.
"They're destroying and hurting the credibility of their own field of science the more they enter into the realm of politics, speaking with a voice that is meant to persuade you to give them more resources," Burnett said.
Taking Advantage Of Confusion On Climate Change
Overall, the statistics show confusion prevailing among people on climate change. That seems to be becoming an incentive for the presidential administration to knock down policies that had been the safeguards for the environment.
The executive order to disband the Clean Power Act is a case in point. The act was seeking to close coal-based power plants and replacing them with renewable energy.
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Fresh Express issued a product recall, Apr. 8, for some of the prepackaged salad mix after a bat was found in a bag sold at a Walmart store. A news release from the company is recalling the five-ounce Organic Spring Mix.
The mix has the production code G089B19 and is best-if-used-by-date of Apr. 14. The label is located on the front of the package, and the UPC code is 6 8113132897 5, found on the container's bottom.
Fresh Express Recalls Prepackaged Salad
The recalled salads were distributed at Walmart only. The stores selling the packages in this batch are located in the Southeastern region of the United States, from North Carolina to Virginia.
Upon receiving notifications, both Fresh Express and Walmart acted immediately to review all relevant records on the matter, launching an intensive investigation to better understand how the dexterous matter made it to the shelves.
The Fresh Express news release referred to the recall as "extraneous animal matter."
"The recall was necessitated when Fresh Express was notified that extraneous animal matter was allegedly found in a single container of the salad. Out of an abundance of caution, all salads manufactured in the same production run are being recalled," noted the release.
However, the CDC underlined that the animal was referring to a bat.
"Two people in Florida reported eating some of the salad before the bat was found. The bat was sent to the CDC rabies lab for laboratory testing because bats in the United States sometimes have been found to have this disease," noted the CDC report page.
According to the same report, the CDC didn't have enough data to rule out the possibility of rabies, as the bat was in a highly deteriorated condition.
Florida health officials have launched an investigation into the matter after the product recall, with the support from the CDC and FDA representatives.
Additionally, transmission of rabies by eating an animal who suffered from this condition is very uncommon, as the virus usually doesn't survive long outside the infected animal.
Considering this, the risks of getting infected is very low for anyone who may have consumed the salad from that batch. State health officials, however, are currently evaluating the people who filed the complaint.
The deadly rabies virus is endemic to bats across the United States. The virus is rarely contracted by humans but the investigation is still necessary however low the chances are.
The CDC also added that they haven't heard about any other case of bat material found in packaged salads.
Rabies, A Preventable Disease
Rabies is a preventable viral disease. Most often, it is transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. Most of the cases reported to the CDC each year involve wild animals such as foxes, bats, or raccoons.
Once the virus gets into the central nervous system, it causes disease in the brain and, ultimately, the death of its host. Early symptoms are similar to the ones caused by various other diseases, such as headache, fever, and general discomfort.
Some more specific symptoms can include anxiety, confusion, or insomnia, as well as partial paralysis or hallucinations.
There is a vaccine that can be used to stop the spreading of this disease, available both pre-exposure and post-exposure.
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Google is reportedly in talks with LG to supply its flexible OLED displays, presumably for the company's next smartphone, the sequel to the Pixel, of which a number of rumors have already been assigned to.
Google Wants Flexible OLED Displays From LG
The reported offer is 1 trillion KRW, which is almost $900 million when converted. It is meant to help LG boost production of flexible OLED screens for the smartphones, according to a report by Electronic Times posted on April 9, citing unnamed sources.
The report adds that Google offered the investment to secure a stable production of the displays for its next smartphones, believed to be the sequel to its self-branded pair of flagships, the Pixel and Pixel XL, released in October last year. The deal will not only enable a steady supply of OLED displays for Google, but will also enable LG to reduce capital expenditure. This is especially crucial for Google, since its release of the Pixel flagships last year, which came with OLED displays by Samsung, was mired with problems related to securing the screens.
The Pixel and Pixel XL's screen features a slight 2.5 D curvature on the edges of the protective Gorilla Glass. The flexible panel mentioned here will likely be more in line with the ones found on the recently unveiled Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.
While already a steep figure, the report says that it may still balloon as talks progress. LG is said to be reviewing Google's offer at present. To offer some perspective, Google's current offer is enough for LG to establish an additional line to meet the production demands of Google.
Google has yet to offer specific specs for the flexible OLED displays, however.
LG Display supplies OLED screens for the Apple's smartwatches and its own range of smartwatches. It does not have the current capacity to supply OLED displays for smartphones.
LG is building two additional production lines: E5 is poised to produce in the second half of 2017; E6 will start producing sometime in 2018.
But Google is not the only one set to release an upcoming phone with a flexible OLED display: Apple is allegedly also taking a plunge on the OLED trend, having reportedly ordered 70 million OLED display units from Samsung already, which presumably is for the hotly anticipated iPhone 8. Similarly, both the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have curved OLED displays, and the forthcoming Note 8 will likely sport the same display technology as well.
Rumors For The Next Pixel Phone
Rumors for the next Pixel phone remain scant at present, although several rumors do point to "Walleye" and "Muskie" being the codenames, and that HTC will once again manufacture the handsets, as with the original Pixel. It might also possibly come with 6 GB of RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, and Android 8.0.
Thoughts about the forthcoming Pixel phone? What features do you expect for the Pixel sequel? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
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Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Hawaii are campaigning for a legislation change concerning equal access to in vitro fertilization procedures.
The new bill would make male same-sex couples eligible for funded fertility treatments that require a surrogate mother.
Under state law, financial help for this procedure is only given to married heterosexual couples, while LGBT families must dig deep into their pockets if they wish to conceive a child through a surrogacy program.
If the new legislation passes, Hawaii could become the first state to fund surrogacy fertility treatments for all its citizens irrespective of their sexual orientation, compelling insurance companies to cover IVF procedures for more couples.
This initiative would greatly benefit male same-sex, who can only conceive through surrogacy.
"It's great to see that Hawaii is taking the lead," said Barbara Collura, leader of Resolve, a national organization advocating for access to fertility treatments.
Surrogate Mothers To Be Covered By Insurance
IVF is an expensive medical intervention which in Hawaii just like in seven other states is only covered by insurance if a woman uses sperm from her spouse to fertilize the implanted egg.
This means that only married heterosexual couples can apply for funding for this procedure. Because of the way the legislation is formulated, it excludes not only the LGBT community, but single mothers as well.
The currently pending bill removes the prerequisite that the egg and sperm come from a married couple, and is formulated to include surrogacy among the covered IVF procedures. The latter is a premiere in any state legislation, according to Collura.
Not many couples looking to build a family can afford to consider surrogacy IVF. One male couple, Sean Smith and husband Kale Taylor, paid over $20,000 in Hawaii for this procedure that allowed them to conceive their son.
Collura states that since same-sex marriage is now legal, all efforts must be made to address the inequities these couples face regarding access to fertility treatments.
Support For The LGBT Community
The new bill has received a lot of backing until now, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and the Democratic Party of Hawaii strongly endorsing it. The initiative passed the state Senate and is up for a vote in the House this week.
The only opposition it encountered so far was from Kaiser Permanente Hawaii due to concerns about raised costs. Citing complex legal issues and medical risks associated with donor eggs and surrogates, the company has asked lawmakers to remove them from the bill, pointing out these problems could lead to additional medical procedures that would also require coverage.
Most state mandates offer insurance reimbursement only for a certain number of IVF trials or to couples who have struggled with infertility for several years.
Last year, Maryland changed IVF legislation to no longer require the use of a husband's sperm. Although the initiative helped lesbian couples get access to fertility treatments, male same-sex couples couldn't benefit from the amendment, since it didn't cover surrogates.
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Russia is ready and willing to discuss the extension of the lifespan of the International Space Station to 2028, according to Russian space agency director general Igor Komarov, speaking on April 4 at the 33rd Space Symposium, Colorado Springs.
Back in 2015, Russia said it would only support the mission its collaboration with the United States, Japan, Europe, and Canada until 2024.
Keeping Low Earth Orbit A Priority
"I think we need to prolong our collaboration in low Earth orbit," said Komarov, who confirmed a proposal within Roscosmos to build a new space laboratory if the ISS actually becomes retired by 2024.
At present, the United States and Russia share management and support of the station, while the other collaborators contribute and have committed to do so until 2024. Komarov confirmed, however, that they are ready to talk about extending the ISS mission through 2028.
Space experts largely agree on the importance of the ISS and research in low Earth orbit, especially in light of how the space environment affects the human body for prolonged periods of time. This is a major consideration if one is looking at a long journey to planet Mars.
For Komarov, long-term human presence on Mars will entail a practical program that comprises bringing humans in low Earth orbit and then on the lunar surface. Far more exotic or distant destinations in the solar system are also part of the vision, he added.
To be consistently present in low Earth orbit means training astronauts for farther locations, where they can develop the necessary survival skills such as growing fresh food and exercising to fight microgravity effects.
The orbiting outpost has been staffed permanently with a crew made up of cosmonauts and astronauts since November 2000. The $100 billion space lab is positioned 250 miles above Earth and continues to orbit the planet.
Backup Plan?
If the ISSs extension does not push through, Russia is eyeing to continue its research in low Earth orbit on its own. Its not turning away from cooperation with other countries but is instead being on the safe side, Komarov stressed.
Roscosmos has been exploring an added module for the ISS, known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module. Planned for launch in 2018, the module will give rise to plans of adding more Russian cosmonauts on board, from the current two to three. Interestingly, the agency recently slashed its crew member count from three to two.
Further, the country is working on a science module as well as a docking module, and together the three rooms are poised to form an independent Russian station. This plan, said Komarov, will help them avoid the loss of a space lab once the ISS meets end of life.
These plans, after all, could all boil down to Russias ambition to also send humans to Mars. For Russia, however, its not just about planting its flag in Martian dust and returning to the home planet, but also putting in place a program to support long-term human exploration of the Red Planet.
Just recently, Roscosmos declared that it has no plans to send space tourists to its segment of the ISS prior to 2020. Roscosmos deputy director general for international cooperation Sergey Savelyev told Sputnik that this is due to the lack of the relevant capabilities to do so.
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Nokia 9 To Be Priced At Rs 44,999 In India | TechTree.com
A few months back when HMD Global unveiled Nokia-branded smartphones, it didnt include its much rumoured flagship device, the Nokia 9. However, recent rumours suggested that the device may be launched in India by third quarter of this year, without actually giving out information on its pricing.
Now, a new report, according to TheMobileIndian.com, suggests that the upcoming Nokia flagship device may come with a price tag of Rs 44,999, which is interestingly lesser than what we have heard of in European and US markets. To recall, in Europe there are reports that suggest the phone to be priced at EUR 749 and $699 in the US market.
[Image via TheMobileIndian.com | For representative purpose only]
While this new leak is currently being reported by TheMobileIndian.com, the publication also mentions that there is no way to authenticate this, and thus we may have to take this with a pinch of salt. However, if at all this turns out true, India will be getting the Nokia 9 flagship device for a cheaper price than in the European and US markets. But lets be practical would it be possible?
Speaking about the device, we already have been hearing a lot about its specifications which may include a 5.5 inch QHD OLED Display, Snapdragon 835 processor, 6 GB of RAM, 64 or 128 GB ROM, Android 7.1.2 Nougat OS, and 3,800 mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick-Charge 4 support. The camera department includes a 22 MP dual Carl-Zeiss rear camera and 12 MP front facing camera for selfies.
TAGS: Nokia
The Venezuelan leader urged the countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) to reactivate their mechanisms of coordinated action. | Read More
Professional video editing suite Media 100, which includes compositing, transitions and 3D text generation plug-in Boris Red, is being made available as a free download. The software maker, MacVideo Promo, has decided to give the editing software, along with Boris Red, away for free from version 2.1.8, through www.media100.com.
It is also including Eye Scream Factorys 100 Essential Transitions package as part of the free download too.
Media 100 is built around a straightforward interface and supports 4K, 2K, HD and SD, at frame rates from 23.98 to 60 frames per second. Acquisition interfaces for AVCHD, AVC-Intra, FireWire, Panasonic P2, and Sony XDCAM are provided as well as support for AJA and Blackmagic Design video I/O interfaces.
The software runs under MacOS Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite and Mavericks and support is available via Creative COWs Media 100 Forum.
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Although seven companies have submitted proposals to handle medical marijuana operations for the LSU Agricultural Center, some bidders question whether the program can prosper under the limitations of the current state law. Others are less pessimistic.
It could take years but it would be possible to push through changes needed to treat more patients and make the business viable, said Jacob Irving, who has supported the use of medical marijuana since he learned chemical compounds in the plants could help relieve the jerky movements and muscle stiffness caused by his cerebral palsy.
The LSU law student is such a staunch advocate that he testified before the Legislature about the medication's importance and he is now behind a company bidding for LSU's medical marijuana business despite his concerns about its viability.
"Under our current regulations, there really isn't any way that this is profitable. Its not the big cash cow that everyone thinks it is, and a lot of it has to do with different regulatory requirements," said Irving, who helped form Southern Roots Therapeutics.
LSU is requiring bidders to bear the entire cost for a secure greenhouse and processing facility needed to produce the medication none of which will be smokable.
The AgCenter estimates the program will cost $11.3 million and will need anywhere from four to nine years before revenue outstrips expenses.
One bidding firm, though also concerned about the limitations, said it looks upon the relationship with the LSU AgCenter as a research opportunity and a long-term venture, citing the firm's financial backing and own medical experience as a recipe for success.
A second firm said it has patented a number of compounds and developed techniques for growing medical marijuana and that it will put its experience to work at LSU.
Another said the AgCenter overestimated costs and underestimated the number of potential patients; he said he can turn a profit within three years.
Irving said the 100 investors backing Baton Rouge-based Southern Roots, which has secured institutional financing to fill in any funding gaps, are interested in helping people. The program is important because it's going to help people, and that by itself justifies the cost, Irving said.
Among Irving's and others' concerns are the limited number of ailments that state law says can be treated: cancer, HIV and AIDS, cachexia or wasting syndrome, seizure disorders, epilepsy, spasticity, Crohn's disease, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis.
There also are restrictions that limit doctors to 100 medical marijuana patients, require patient visits every 90 days and make patients first try a federally approved form of medical marijuana.
In addition, health insurers don't cover the cost of medical marijuana treatment that isn't approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The AgCenter estimates the average monthly cost for medical marijuana at about $400.
Similar limitations in New York's law and medical costs have helped make medical marijuana there "a bust," according to the Buffalo News. Like Louisiana, New York initially limited treatment to 10 diseases. Even so, Columbia Care, which opened the first dispensary in New York City and is bidding for the LSU business, said 200,000 to 400,000 New Yorkers could qualify for treatment.
In 2016, 14,000 people enrolled in New York's medical marijuana program, but only 7,000 were regular users, according to the Buffalo News. The high cost of the medication, which isn't covered by insurance, was a major factor. The five companies that New York chose to produce medical marijuana are struggling financially.
Only LSU and Southern University are licensed to produce medical marijuana in Louisiana. Tom Adams, managing director of BDS Analytics, which specializes in cannabis business information, said that approach may make Louisiana unique. All other states allow private companies to grow marijuana for commercial distribution through medical dispensaries.
Southern looking for vendors to operate medical marijuana program; here are next steps The Southern University Agricultural Center could have a medical marijuana program in produc
In addition to Southern Roots and Columbia Care Louisiana LLC, of New Roads, CB Medical LLC, of Alexandria; Citiva LA LLC, of Mandeville; Fourrier House LLC, of New Iberia; GB Sciences Louisiana LLC, of New Orleans; and Terah Holdings LLC, of Shreveport, have submitted offers to run LSU's medical marijuana business.
Liz Kenigsberg, a spokeswoman for Columbia Care, said the company could not comment. Terah Holdings manager Daryl R. Fultz declined to comment. Fourrier House is not incorporated in Louisiana, according to Secretary of State's Office records, and could not be reached.
LSU released the names of the bidders but wont make any other details public until the school makes its choice sometime in June, according to Sally McKechnie, LSU assistant vice president of procurement and property management.
Dr. Kenneth Perego, head of CB Medical, said he and the other health care professionals in the organization see the LSU program as a research opportunity rather than a business one. The company's members have years of experience in medical research, including clinical trials, as well as production management.
Despite that expertise, Perego said it's entirely possible that CB Medical will never recover its investment, and members are fine with that.
"If you're getting into this because you're thinking about some of these other states where you see all of these big dollars, that's not happening," Perego said.
CB Medical sees the program as a long-term venture. Louisiana will be one of the first states, if not the first, to do good, basic science research on medical marijuana.
"That's phenomenal," he said.
Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, like heroin or LSD, and U.S. research has been restricted.
Perego said CB Medical began evaluating medical marijuana two years ago and has been working with American Cannabis Co., a publicly traded consulting firm whose services include patented growth techniques.
The cost to develop a medication is enormous, Perego said. But by working with LSU and other partners, CB Medical believes it eventually will be able to identify medical benefits and put together a cost-effective product. Any rewards lie well down the road, he added.
The other companies that responded to The Advocate's inquiries are considerably more optimistic about medical marijuana's financial prospects.
John Barry, the head of Citiva Louisiana, is a retired New York City policeman who runs a Mandeville construction company. He said he believes the AgCenter overestimated construction costs and underestimated the initial patient count at 1,441 people.
"We're looking at maybe a two-, 2-year turnaround before investors start seeing a return on their investment," Barry said.
Barry said the shorter timeline is mainly due to the resources and physician education available because of his alliance with Citiva, a global cannabis research and drug development firm based in New York.
Citiva Louisiana's investors, who include Barry, doctors, pharmacists and one venture capitalist, are putting up all the money for the venture. But Barry will rely on "the mother company" for education and research advice. Citiva was founded in 2015 by a group of New York health care professionals. Citiva has a research and development hub in Jamaica, which allows people to participate in cannabis clinical trials.
"A lot of people can grow cannabis well," Barry said. "But if they don't train the doctors and the pharmacists, how do they even recommend this product?"
John Poss, CEO of GB Sciences, said his firm's proposal sets aside $300,000 a year for continuing medical education.
Once patients and doctors can learn about the medically beneficial chemical compounds in cannabis, patient numbers will rise, along with revenue, he said.
"The real reason that were excited about this is to participate with LSU in research," Poss said.
GB Sciences has patented a number of compounds and developed techniques for growing medical marijuana. The company expects to benefit from the AgCenter's expertise in bringing scientific discoveries to market. GB Sciences also hopes to begin phase I clinical trials on some of its compounds within a year, testing them for patient safety, dosages and side effects. University Medical Center New Orleans is perfect for that, Poss said.
He brushed aside questions about financial losses the company has suffered.
The company has a $10 million commitment from its investment bankers and will harvest its first crop in Nevada and record its first revenue in May, Poss said. By the end of the year, GB will be on pace for $5 million in annual revenue. By the end of 2018, planned expansions in Texas and California should take the company close to $20 million in revenue.
"We think the most important thing is rapid startup, making cannabis available to patients as soon as possible," Poss said. "The plan is to start delivering cannabis to patients first quarter of 2018."
The company would first build a modular facility, adding units of growing capacity as needed, Poss said. Eventually, GB would replace the first facility with a larger, permanent and more technologically sophisticated structure.
The company wants to partner with a university because GB Sciences is research-oriented.
"Were trying to be one of those companies that helps cannabis make the transition from pot to medicine. We want to make medicine. We dont want to grow weed," Poss said.
Former Louisiana Veterans Affairs Secretary David LaCerte's defamation lawsuit against the state's legislative auditor and inspector general, who accused him of mismanaging state funds and puffing up his military service credentials, should be thrown out, state attorneys maintain.
The attorneys for the state, Inspector General Stephen Street and Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera made the request of 19th Judicial District Judge William Morvant in court papers filed last week.
LaCerte, who resigned his post in fall 2015 amid a probe into his office, sued Purpera and Street in late January, claiming the pair defamed him in a scathing joint report released in early 2016.
The report accused LaCerte of not only mismanaging an agency charged with caring for Louisiana's veterans but also embellishing his own military service resume. The report alleged the department misspent thousands of dollars and failed to report crimes against veterans.
VA chief misspent thousands, audit says Since 2013, employees at the state department charged with caring for and honoring the state
In a court-filed answer to LaCerte's suit, Purpera's and Street's attorneys deny his claims and say the legislative auditor and inspector general did not falsely accuse him of criminal conduct.
"The contents of the report were discovered during, and supported by, the investigation," lawyers Preston Castille Jr., Vicki Crochet, Katia Bowman and Ne'Shira Millender, who have been designated by Attorney General Jeff Landry as special assistant attorneys general, contend in an April 3 court filing.
The report's content were not false, defamatory, slanderous or libelous, the lawyers add.
As for LaCerte's military service credentials, Purpera's and Street's attorneys say LaCerte "had the opportunity, in his response to the proposed investigative report and before the release of the official report, to provide the purported verification of military service but declined to do so."
LaCerte's attorney, Jill Craft, said Monday the suit is about "righting a wrong" and added that her client "looks forward to vindicating his name and reputation."
"Although the answer generally denying most of the allegations is not unexpected," she said, "it is noteworthy that when pressed about the false military service claims, the defendants instead defer to the report denying that allegation 'as written.' A denial 'as written' is generally not the same thing as a flat out denial."
After LaCerte's suit was filed, Street said he stands behind every word of the report, "with no reservations at all."
LaCerte's biography on the Veterans Affairs and the Governor's Office websites said he served in the Marine Corps infantry and "led over 100 combat patrols and missions in Afghanistan and Pakistan and also served as a member of interrogations teams for high-value Al Qaeda targets."
State investigators obtained a certificate of release from active duty called a Department of Defense Form 214, which showed LaCerte served 99 days in the foreign service while at the rank of corporal.
The time frame, Purpera has said, casts doubt on whether he could have led 100 combat patrols.
LaCerte would have received a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal if he had conducted the activities listed on his resume and biography, the report claimed, but his lawsuit says the award wasn't created until a year after his overseas service ended.
The Louisiana Legislature kicked off its regular legislative session on Monday like it frequently does: Jovial lawmakers welcomed each other back to the State Capitol. They heard an optimistic speech from Gov. John Bel Edwards urging unity. They had mostly cleared the building by 4 p.m.
The clock is ticking on the Legislature to reach an agreement on the state spending plan for the budget that begins July 1. That includes calls from some, chiefly Edwards, who say that the state has significant structural flaws in its revenue that require immediate action on taxes. Others, led by a particularly vocal contingency of House Republicans, say that the state, which finds itself in a recession, instead has a duty to cut spending.
Much of Edwards' speech was spent making yet another pitch for the governor's economic package, which calls for changing the state's tax brackets and implementing a new commercial activities tax on some businesses.
His session-opening address before the House and Senate also served as a rebuke of what he characterized as partisan politics that has mired Washington, D.C. in gridlock that he said could similarly paralyze the state.
"I refuse to allow governing the state of Louisiana to look anything like whats going on in Washington. Its not working for them, and it will not work for us," Edwards said from the House floor. "There is too much at stake for us to let partisanship get in the way and none of us should tolerate it."
Edwards also used his second annual State of the State speech to call on the Legislature to prioritize an overhaul of the state's criminal justice system, tackling the highest-in-the-nation incarceration rate; adopt the state's first-ever mandated minimum wage; grow the state's investment in transportation spending, which ranks last in the country; and prioritize coastal planning, among other initiatives.
With that weighty list of firsts and worsts before them, lawmakers must wrap up the session by 6 p.m. June 8.
Edwards has called three special sessions since taking office, urging lawmakers to address the state's budget, which has faced 15 mid-year deficits in the past nine years. Last year, the Legislature agreed to a temporary increase in the state sales tax, which was meant as a temporary infusion of money that will end in 2018.
But lawmakers didn't appear to be sweating the first day back in session.
"If those ideas arent acceptable, well come up with our own," Sen. Brett Allain, R-Franklin, said of the governor's speech.
Sen. Sharon Hewitt, a Republican from Slidell who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, said that the state spending plan, which is formally filed as House Bill 1 each year, will include several ideas from the GOP's perspective of the budget.
"We have our own ideas," she said. "Well see a reduction in the budget."
House Republicans, in particular, have said they prefer the state make more cuts, rather than looking for ways to bring in more revenue.
"Criticism is only as valuable as the input and action that follows it, but we have seen very little constructive input and no constructive action. Thats just not helpful," Edwards said in his speech. "We cannot continue down the path we are currently on. Its unsustainable for our state. And we cant keep moving the goal post because its politically advantageous."
He further accused lawmakers of "only telling half the story" by not addressing the impact of cuts and relying on "political sound bites."
"We cannot deliver critical state services on political sounds bites," he said. "I believe that the people of Louisiana who put us here in the first place, expect more of us than business as usual. They expect us to be as strong, hardworking, innovative and courageous as they are even in the face of great challenges"
Rep. Lance Harris, the Alexandria Republican who chairs the House GOP caucus, said he wasn't surprised by much from the governor's budget but he disagrees with him on key points.
"Every time we disagree, you can't just come out and say 'It's Washington-style politics,'" Harris said to the governor's characterization of the potential for partisanship to drive discord. "No one is going to agree with the governor 100 percent of the time. No one is going to agree with me 100 percent of the time, or anyone else."
Harris said he hasn't reviewed every aspect of the governor's proposed plan and couldn't speak to it as a whole. He said he thinks that there could be room for the state to curb the amount of money its doesn't bring in because of tax credits and rebates, which he views as government spending in some cases.
Republicans, he said, are crafting their own plan through the legislative process, particularly hearings on taxes and spending.
"The best way thing to do is debate everyone's philosophy and where there is compromise, you compromise," Harris said. "I think that's the goal that everyone has."
Harris said he would prefer to focus on keeping spending level in the budget that begins July 1 and waiting to get a clearer picture on where the state's revenues stand. "There's been no major cuts. There's been no major catastrophes. Why can't the state of Louisiana spend the money next year that we did in the year we are in now?"
Advocate writer Tyler Bridges contributed to this report.
When Louisiana's lawmakers wrapped up a divisive stretch of financial debates last year, they had cobbled together short-term budget fixes with pledges of tax and spending reform to come this year, to finally stabilize the state's never-ending budget seesaw.
As the session opens Monday, it appears a distinct possibility the year of talk could lead to little action.
There's wide disagreement on what constitutes reform, deep philosophical divisions between Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Republican House leadership and questions about whether the political will exists to make the difficult decisions to overhaul a state's tax structure.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers sound pessimistic that substantive change to end Louisiana's nearly decade-long cycle of budget woes will be accomplished in the 60-day session.
"I tend to be dripping with optimism, but right now I could see us maybe having a lot of activity, but not making any progress on what we need to do," said Rep. Rob Shadoin, R-Ruston, who often bucks the House leadership and works with the governor.
Republican Rep. Jack McFarland, from Jonesboro, echoed the sentiment: "I think we're just going to trim around the edges. I don't know if we'll really get to the meat of the problem."
New Orleans Sen. J.P. Morrell, a Democrat who chairs the Senate tax committee, said: "The collective will is not yet there to do something substantive and far-reaching."
There shouldn't be a lack of urgency. Louisiana's governors and lawmakers have had to close 15 midyear budget gaps in nine years. Meanwhile, the sales tax hikes the Legislature used last year to raise more money were only temporary, with a mid-2018 expiration date that will help to create a $1.3 billion budget hole.
The legislative session that starts Monday is the last regular session in which lawmakers can change tax laws. If they don't tackle taxes before June 8, they either have to return for a special session or find a way to cut $1.3 billion in spending from a $9.5 billion state general fund.
Few lawmakers say they think Louisiana can rebalance its budget through cuts alone, and no specific ideas have been offered about where such steep slashing would be made. But while a lot of ideas have been floated on taxes, none seems to have gathered strong support.
"There's not an appetite for the big stuff," McFarland said.
In the House, where most tax bills must start, the tax committee has been stacked by House Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, with a strong contingent of anti-tax members. That makes it difficult for proposals to reach the full House for debate. On the House floor, tax legislation also has tough hurdles in the conservative chamber.
"We have real challenges on our side getting a consensus as far as the spending priorities, and we're going to have that same problem in the session," Rep. Franklin Foil, a Baton Rouge Republican who has voted for some tax measures, said at a recent pre-session event.
Lawmakers created a task force of tax experts, economists and others that recommended a tax-rewrite blueprint, saying the approach would offer stability and fairness.
Edwards included many of the ideas in his tax package but added a curveball, proposing a new tax on gross receipts for businesses that wasn't included in the report. That idea faces pushback from business groups and lawmakers who worry the tax could discourage economic growth in a state struggling with a recession and one of the nation's highest unemployment rates.
Ideas like allowing the temporary 1 percent increase in Louisiana's sales tax to expire in exchange for expanding what's subject to sales tax face complaints because of items that could be newly taxed, including cable television, Netflix and other digital streaming services.
Individual lawmakers are pushing proposals. Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Baton Rouge, filed a long list of tax change measures. Morrell wants to lessen tax breaks.
Already chatter has started about renewing the temporary sales tax increase. Democrats oppose the idea, saying the tax disproportionately hits low-income residents. Shadoin also isn't onboard.
"We told the people that this was going to be temporary. I think we're going back on our word if we extend that," he said. "It is for some the path of least resistance, but not me."
Melinda Deslatte has covered Louisiana politics for The Associated Press since 2000.
Nearly eight months after historic floods swept across south Louisiana, the state has been granted access to the federal funds it needs to establish programs meant to help homeowners rebuild.
Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration received final approval late Monday afternoon that it can begin drawing down more than $1.6 billion in flood recovery dollars approved by Congress last fall.
The timing comes just as the state launched an online survey that is serving as the initial intake for the planned homeowners' assistance program application process.
The state is this week setting up environmental reviews that the federal government requires to access the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development dollars.
The process for drawing down the flood recovery funds is long and sometimes overly burdensome, Edwards said in a statement. While it is often frustrating that we cant get assistance to homeowners quicker, we are able to immediately move forward with our recovery plans."
Edwards had sought a waiver from the federal government that would have removed the environmental review requirement, but one was not granted.
More than 4,000 people filled out the initial online survey to get into the assistance application process. The process is not first-come, first-served; and homeowners will have several weeks to complete it.
Nearly $1.2 billion in the assistance approved by Congress will go toward helping homeowners rebuild from the floods. Edwards, a Democrat, is seeking $2.2 billion in additional federal flood aid, nearly half of which would go toward homeowner assistance programs.
The state is in the final stages of hiring a contractor to oversee the home rebuilding programs, after scrapping an initial round amid concerns over the costs and licensing.
Edwards' spokesman Richard Carbo said the state already has a firm in place that conducts environmental reviews, which will be managed by the Office of Community Development. Carbo said the data collected Monday from the survey provided enough information to fast-track the review process.
The release of the funds had become a point of contention between Edwards and members of the congressional delegation in recent weeks as funds had not yet filtered down to homeowners.
The programs the state will launch include an option for homeowners to select a contractor who will be paid by the state for work performed; a state-run rebuilding program; and a smaller reimbursement program for people who have already rebuilt their flood-damaged homes.
Edwards has said additional funds, if approved by Congress, will go toward expanding those programs.
The first two tranches of federal aid are coming to the state through semiflexible block grants that Congress approved through stopgap funding measures that kept the federal government from shutting down.
The next such spending measure, formally called a continuing resolution, would need to be approved by April 28 to prevent a government shutdown.
Edwards, who has made repeated trips to Washington, D.C., including an appearance before a Congressional hearing next week, told The Advocate editorial board in a meeting Monday that he feels confident about the state's chances of securing additional aid, following meetings with the Trump administration.
"They agree with our numbers in terms of the unmet need," he said. "The fact that it hasn't happened yet doesn't cause me any concerns."
Officials in the Trump administration on Sunday demanded that Russia stop supporting the Syrian government or face a further deterioration in its relations with the United States.
Signaling the focus of talks that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to have in Moscow this week, officials said that Russia, in propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad, bears at least partial responsibility for Wednesday's chemical attack on villagers in Idlib province.
"I hope Russia is thinking carefully about its continued alliance with Bashar al-Assad, because every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility," Tillerson said on ABC's "This Week."
In advance of Tillerson's arrival, the Kremlin said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to meet with the secretary of state.
"We have not announced any meetings. A meeting with Tillerson is currently not on the president's schedule," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.
The U.S, ambassador to Russia, John Teft, had said last month that Tillerson would likely meet Putin "in the near future," according to the Associated Press.
Peskov told reporters "as far as I understand, [Tillerson] is coming and will have negotiations with our foreign minister." He said that if a meeting with Putin materializes, "we will inform you appropriately."
Although U.S. officials acknowledged that they have seen no evidence directly linking Russia to the attacks, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that Russia should be pressed to answer what it knew ahead of the chemical attack since it has positioned warplanes and air defense systems with associated troops in Syria since 2015.
"I think what we should do is ask Russia, how could it be, if you have advisers at that airfield, that you didn't know that the Syrian air force was preparing and executing a mass murder attack with chemical weapons?" McMaster said on Fox News.
The timing of the comments, with Tillerson heading soon to Moscow, signaled the administration's intent to pressure Russia to step away from Assad, who is supported by the Kremlin with military aid and diplomatic cover.
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In Italy for a G7 meeting, Tillerson took part in a wreath-laying ceremony Monday morning at a memorial to 560 villagers killed by the Nazis in 1944. It is on a hilltop in Sant'Anna di Stazzema near the city of Lucca.
Afterward, Tillerson spoke briefly, his words seeming to reflect events unfolding in present day Syria.
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," said Tillerson, who was not originally scheduled to attend but wanted to be present at the ceremony with the foreign ministers of Italy, Germany and the European Union. "This place will serve as an inspiration to us all."
The fallout from the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons against civilians, plus the U.S. missile strike that came in retaliation for it, adds strain to a rocky relationship that is at its lowest point in decades. A host of issues are responsible, topped by Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and Moscow's support for separatists in Ukraine, and have prompted U.S. and European sanctions. These topics have now been overshadowed by last week's missile strike.
The Russians had hoped that relations with the United States might improve under President Trump, who expressed admiration for Putin during the campaign. Tillerson's nomination and confirmation as secretary of state also raised prospects. given the former ExxonMobil executive's experience negotiating a major deal with Rosneft, the state-controlled oil giant.
But 11 weeks into Trump's presidency, expectations have been substantially lowered.
"This is a big cold shower," said Samuel Charap, a Russia analyst with the Rand Corp. "Even if behind closed doors they might engage on other issues in a more pragmatic manner, the public posture is going to be one of emphasizing how they disagree about [Syria]. Putin is not going to want to be seen as chummy with the U.S. secretary of state."
On Sunday, both Tillerson and Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, cast doubts on Assad's legitimacy as Syria's leader. Haley said that eventually the unrest in Syria cannot end if Assad remains in power.
"In no way do we see peace in that area with Russia covering up for Assad," Haley said. "And in no way do we see peace in that area with Assad at the head of the Syrian government."
Tillerson noted other instances when Syrian forces deployed chemical weapons, and other attacks on civilians involving barrel bombs and conventional weapons.
"I think the issue of how Bashar al-Assad's leadership is sustained, or how he departs, is something that we'll be working [on] with allies and others in the coalition," said Tillerson, who after weeks of keeping a low profile was making his debut on the Sunday morning talk shows. "But I think with each of those actions, he really undermines his own legitimacy."
Neither suggested that Assad's demise was imminent.
"Once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria," Tillerson said on CBS's "Face the Nation," using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State militant group.
The U.S. missile strike in Syria carries the implicit threat of a larger U.S. role in the conflict. Tillerson said Sunday that the strike functioned as a warning to any country acting outside of international norms, in an apparent reference to North Korea.
"At least in the short run, it will further complicate efforts to improve the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship, which seemed to be Tillerson's objective in going to Moscow," said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "In the longer term, the threat of further U.S. intervention is a card that the U.S. can play to get the Russians to tighten the screws on Assad - on both the chemical weapons and possibly on accepting a political deal with the opposition."
Tillerson departed around dawn Sunday for Italy to attend a meeting of the G-7 nations, a bloc of industrialized democracies. He is due to arrive late Tuesday in Russia for his first visit as secretary of state.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said the Russians still hold out hope for a breakthrough, but that depends on whether Putin and Trump hit it off, not on anything Tillerson and Lavrov say.
"Things will only happen as a result of direct personal, sustained contact between Putin and Trump," McFaul said. "That's the way things work with Putin."
But closer ties with Russia also carry political risks for Trump. Should the Trump administration ease sanctions imposed over Ukraine, for instance, critics would label it payback for Russia's pre-election hacks targeting Democrats.
Several analysts said that Assad has humiliated Putin by using chemical weapons despite Russia's guarantee that Syria's stockpiles would be whisked away. Moscow's interest in getting sanctions eased is greater than its loyalty to Assad. And that could provide maneuvering room for Tillerson.
That appears to be Tillerson's calculation, too.
"I do not believe that the Russians want to have worsening relationships with the U.S.," he said on ABC's "This Week." "But it's going to take a lot of discussion and a lot of dialogue to better understand what is the relationship that Russia wishes to have with the U.S."
Port Adelaide have suspended the membership of one of their fans who was evicted from Adelaide Oval on Saturday night for racially abusing Adelaide's Eddie Betts during the game between the South Australian clubs.
The move comes as the AFL admits it can do more to stop racism and saddened Indigenous players say they're fed up with vilification in the sport.
Just eight months after a Port fan threw a banana at him during a game in a racist act, Betts was again targeted by racial abuse. A Power fan has admitted to calling him an ape.
Port say their Indigenous ruckman Paddy Ryder was also racially vilified during the game by an Adelaide supporter, who ran away before security were alerted.
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2. Stocks to watch: Also keep an eye on BHP, which saw good buying in late trade yesterday, with its London listing gaining 2.2%, but its American Depository Receipt (ADR) is suggestive that the stock could fall 1% this morning. One to watch, but ironically its oil exposure is likely to support the price today, with spot iron ore falling 1%, and iron ore and steel futures down very modestly.
1. ASX: There is new focus on Korea, where the Korean won and Kospi have found sellers easy to come by of late on concern that North Korea could be a future US target. The Nikkei 225 looks set for a touch of selling on open, with USD/JPY pulling back below 111. Our ASX 200 call sits at 5915, so the bulls are just getting the edge here, but one should keep an eye on SPI futures (-2 points) which really needs to convincingly break the 5900 ceiling. So the ASX 200 could be led by the futures market today, so that's where I would be taking my inspiration.
3. Wall Street: US equities have shrugged off reports that China have deployed 150,000 troops on the border with North Korea, although as a far as I can see this is coming from a Twitter source (@DEFCONWSALERTS). There is chatter that this was spurned out of an article from a Korean news article, either way, this in itself shows how technology is shaping first mover advantage, or what some will feel is actually a disadvantage.
4. Energy: If we look at moves in S&P sub-sectors by way of a guide for Asia, the lead really comes from energy, which won't surprise when US crude has put on a further 1.4%. Real estate has performed fairly well, while financials and materials stocks have closed on a flat note. Volumes through the S&P 500 have been poor and some 22% below the 30-day average.
On the theme of crude strength, most have put this down to Libya temporarily shutting an export terminal, although there is already real momentum in the rate of change in price. A 12.6% rally in the barrel since 27 March suggests a certain caution around chasing the market here, as we are approaching a potential point of exhaustion and a pullback of sorts becoming a higher probability. Shorting oil seems a high risk strategy here though.
5. Europe: One other interesting issue to point out has been the moves behind the scenes in various European financial markets. If we look at the CAC index, a 0.5% sell-off is hardly concerning, neither is the moves in EUR/USD which is eyeing a move back into $1.0600, although to be fair has come off 300 pips from late March, driven by the European Central Bank.
What we can see though is French two-year bonds trading on a yield premium of 51 basis points to that of German bunds, with a punchy nine basis point increase of the session, taking it to the biggest differential since May 2012. This spread stood at one basis point in November. We can also see EUR/USD one-month implied volatility at 12.43%, the highest since June 2016 and traders will be watching for a break of June 2015 highs of 14.25%, where we start getting into levels not seen since the Greek debt drama Grexit.
The farce that has become Barnaby Joyce's forced move of a government agency out of Canberra to his own electorate entered new territory on Monday, with revelations that the eye-watering initial estimated cost of the move could be just the start of the pain for taxpayers.
On the eve of a parliamentary enquiry into the troubled move of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to the deputy Prime Minister's New England seat, Fairfax Media has revealed those staff allowed to stay in Canberra will likely have to have their homes connected to a secure computer network, also estimated to cost millions. That cost comes on top of the estimated $26m relocation cost of the move to Armidale.
Under the rules pushed through as part of the federal government's attempts to decentralise agencies out of Canberra, Commonwealth entities with agricultural policy or regulatory responsibilities are to be located within 10km of a main regional university campus, but no closer than 150km to a state or territory capital, including Canberra.
Those rules mean Canberra-based staff cannot share a local office, instead requiring each scientist to have their homes wired into the secure system, allowing them to work remotely. Nevermind that staff in Armidale were recently found to be relying on the free wi-fi at a local McDonald's restaurant to get their work done. One can only assume that each time a Canberra-based staff member leaves or joins the agency, they will have to be disconnected or connected to this secure network, again at additional cost.
All of this has sent Trump's isolationist supporters into a frenzy and his neocon fans into raptures. Conspiracy theorists and far-right provocateurs lined up to denounce the emergence of Trump's new "deep state", police-the-world agenda. Republican interventionists praised the president's robust defence of human rights, suggesting that this is the start of a major shift in the US approach to Syria. Both are wrong.
It did make a splash at home, of course. Keen to show up Barack Obama for shilly-shallying, Trump bypassed Congress, unleashed the missiles and denounced Syria's flouting of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the UN peace process. What a contrast to his campaign rhetoric, when he floated the idea of working with Russia and Syrian president Bashir al-Assad to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), criticised Obama's attempt to bomb Syria and poured contempt on UN multilateralism.
Before we reassess his entire Middle East strategy, however, it's worth asking what has really changed as a result of the president's compassion and how far he's willing to go. The answers, so far, are "not very much" and "not very far". The new Trump Doctrine, if there is such a thing, might like to make symbolic gestures about human rights, but it's not prepared to invest enough on the ground to turn the tide in Syria.
The lesson from last week's US bombing in Syria is this: if you want to make US foreign policy these days, have a camera ready. Horrifying videos of children choking and dying after a sarin gas attack spurred Donald Trump to avenge what he called Syria's "beautiful babies". Who can blame him? It wouldn't be the first time pictures have made policy and Mr Trump's heartstrings are just as human as anyone else's. It is certainly heartening to see at least some norms of war defended.
The interventionists are trying to seize the moment. They are itching to roll out an exciting new plan for the Middle East. John Bolton, who served as George W Bush's UN ambassador and cheerleader for the Iraq war, wants to carve up the region's post-colonial map into new units.
His big idea: if Iraq and Syria's sects can't live peacefully together, they ought to live apart. ISIL's emergence showed Iraq is already falling apart; it might as well be chopped up into "Shia-stan" in the south and "Sunni-stan" in the north. This new Sunni state could then absorb most of Syria's poor, Sunni, eastern regions, leaving Syria itself with its mixed areas of Shia/Alawites, Christians and others. The Kurds, meanwhile, a Sunni sect but a distinct ethnic group, are already well on their way to constructing their own country.
The idea is thoroughly appealing on paper. Russia, it's argued, would like to wind up its expensive and bloody fight in Syria, having achieved the aims of gaining a naval base and expanding its influence over world events. The Russians themselves were never very attached to Assad until he made it clear he would not, under any circumstances, agree to step aside. If the US just cranks up the pressure, making Moscow's Syrian ventures more difficult and expensive, the neocons argue Vladimir Putin will want to talk.
But if Iraq teaches us anything, it's to beware of easy answers. Plan "Sunni-stan" is fraught with risk and smacks of the oversimplified neocon world view that helped foment the current mess. If it's to work - assuming American ground troops are out of the question - it would require the US to support reasonable Sunni allies in the territory that formed much of ISIL's "caliphate". Those allies would then have to be vetted, trained and unified enough to become a credible military and political force, capable of cooperating with Western air power and intelligence to form a stable state. This would entail enormous cost and might still be impossible.
The US could, of course, step up its bombing without trying to change the whole map, in the hope it will bring Moscow to the table. But despite the cost of the war, Russian public support for it is high, and there is no sign Putin will play along. Russia has thrown in its lot in with Assad not because he's Moscow's ideal ruler for Syria, but because he controls its government and he simply won't step down. Boris Johnson can cancel visits and scurry around the G7 to deliver a "hard-hitting" statement about Russia's activities, but Moscow is still likely to calculate, correctly, that the US doesn't have the appetite for a really concerted campaign.
Sydney shock jock Ray Hadley has spectacularly banned long-time guest Scott Morrison from his radio program after the Treasurer stood Hadley up for an interview with the ABC.
Hadley unloaded on Mr Morrison on Monday, accusing him of lying, being "boring" and treating him "like an idiot".
Hadley said Mr Morrison had been appearing on his top-rating 2GB program on Mondays for the past four years, from the time he was opposition immigration spokesman.
Hadley and Mr Morrison used to have such a jocular relationship that it became widely referred to as a "bromance". But the relationship soured after Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott for the prime ministership.
Eman Sharobeem ran up at least $100,000 in personal spending from taxpayer funds earmarked for the Sydney health service she ran for immigrant women in 2015 - the same financial year she was hailed as a finalist in the Australian of the Year awards by then premier Mike Baird.
And the true amount may be much larger as auditors cannot confirm how a "significant" amount booked in financial records was spent.
Accounts for the Immigrant Women's Health Service (IWHS) from 2015 obtained by Fairfax Media reveal significant accounting irregularities, with the auditor qualifying his opinion as he did not receive "all information and explanation of a significant amount of payments made during the year and expenditure reimbursed to the CEO".
Ms Sharobeem, a celebrated former Australian of the Year finalist and women's rights advocate who ran the IWHS for 11 years until 2015, had her assets frozen in the Supreme Court this year amid a fraud investigation by ICAC and the NSW Crime Commission into her unexplained wealth. She is unable to dispose of four Sydney properties or her car and must appear in court with her two sons Richard and Charlie next month to answer questions about her finances.
A three-year-old boy has died after he was hit by a car in the driveway of a home in Victoria's far north-west.
Paramedics were called to Cramp Road in Robinvale, on the banks of the Murray River near Mildura, at 4.20pm on Monday.
Images of the scene show police examining a Toyota ute in the driveway.
The toddler was taken to Robinvale Hospital in a critical condition, but died on Tuesday morning.
Stockholm: The Uzbek man arrested in the terrorism rampage in central Stockholm last week was an asylum seeker whose application was rejected and who in December was given four weeks to leave the country, Swedish police said on Sunday.
The suspect, 39, had shown "sympathy for extremist organisations," police said. He applied for permanent residency in 2014, and the Swedish Migration Agency denied his application in June 2016, officials said.
Police tried to find him in February of this year to execute the exit order, but he had gone underground, becoming a wanted man, Jonas Hysing, the national strategic commander, said at a news conference on Sunday at the Stockholm police headquarters.
"We know that he has shown sympathy for extremist organisations like IS," Mr Hysing said, referring to the Islamic State terrorist group.
Toyota announces record $1.33 billion investment in Kentucky plant
The future of automobile production is now.
GEORGETOWN, KY - April 10, 2017: A $1.33 billion investment- the highest of any automaker in Kentucky and the second-largest in state history- will make Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK) the first plant in North America to begin producing vehicles using Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA). The number one selling car in America for the past 15 years, the Camry, from the 2018 model year, will become the first Toyota vehicle made in the U.S. to fully incorporate the new vehicle development and production technology.
"This $1.33 billion investment is part of Toyota's plan to invest $10 billion dollars in the U.S. over the next five years, on top of the nearly $22 billion Toyota has invested in the U.S. over the past 60 years," said Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota Motor North America. "Toyota New Global Architecture is about exciting, ever-better vehicles for our customers as it will improve performance of all models, including increased fuel efficiency, more responsive handling, and a more stable, comfortable feel while driving."
TNGA represents a completely new strategy to the way the company designs, engineers, and manufactures its vehicles. In addition, it will shorten the development cycle for vehicle improvements and new vehicles. TNGA retains all of Toyota's traditional values of exceptional build quality and safety while injecting a fun driving experience with more responsive handling, regardless of the model. It also allows for a more flexible production environment, which will allow Toyota Kentucky to build ever-better cars, and respond quicker and more capably to customer demands down the road.
In addition to TNGA improvements, TMMK will undergo other makeovers that will, together, modernize and streamline the production process. That includes updating equipment and construction of an all-new paint shop.
"This is the largest investment in our plant's history and it speaks directly to the quality of our people and our products, as well as the partnerships we've forged in the local community and across the state," said Wil James, president, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK). "This major overhaul will enable the plant to stay flexible and competitive, further cementing our presence in Kentucky."
Toyota Kentucky is the automaker's largest plant in the world, employing 8,200 team members. This represents an all-time high after recently adding over 700 people to support the upcoming launch of the 2018 Camry. Last year, TMMK produced nearly a quarter of the total number of Toyota vehicles produced in North America over 500,000. In total, the plant has produced more than one-third 11 million of all Toyota vehicles manufactured in North America since 1986.
Today's announcement adds to the $530 million investment the plant committed to in 2013, in part to support Lexus production. This brings Toyota Kentucky's investment in the last four years to approximately $1.86 billion.
"Toyota's decision to invest $1.3 billion in their Kentucky plant is further evidence that manufacturers are now confident that the economic climate has greatly improved under my administration and echoes the recent National Association of Manufacturers' 2017 Outlook Survey showing that 93% of manufacturers are now optimistic, which is an increase of 37% from just a few months ago." - President Donald J. Trump
"Toyota is a global icon. This $1.33 billion investment is further proof of their commitment to producing American-made cars that are among the finest quality found anywhere in the world," said Governor Matt Bevin. "It also serves as a testament to the hard work and dedication of the plant's current employees, and reaffirms Toyota's confidence in the advantages of manufacturing in Kentucky. We are grateful that this significant investment further validates the fact that Kentucky is the engineering and manufacturing hub of excellence in America."
"Today's announcement is welcome news for Kentucky's economy and our workforce," Senator Mitch McConnell said. "For more than 30 years, Toyota has been committed to the Commonwealth, and today's investment is further proof that the company maintains its pledge to grow our economy and solidify Kentucky as a world-class automotive state. I want to congratulate the Toyota team, especially its thousands of hard-working Kentuckians."
A recent study by the Center for Automotive Research shows Toyota Kentucky supports nearly 30,000 jobs across the state (direct, indirect, and spin-off). TMMK employees live in 80 Kentucky counties, and currently Toyota has more than 100 suppliers located across the Commonwealth.
"Toyota is a great asset to Kentucky and the decision to continue its commitment to Kentucky jobs by investing in the Georgetown plant is wonderful news for the Commonwealth and a reflection of its confidence in Kentucky as a prime location for business growth and innovation," said Senator Rand Paul. "I congratulate Toyota on this new initiative, and look forward to continuing my efforts in Congress to promote business-friendly policies to ensure Kentucky continues to reap the benefits of economic growth and expansion as a result of these types of investments."
"This major investment further solidifies Toyota's long-term commitment to its Kentucky plant," said Secretary Terry Gill of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. "Its ripple effects will add to Toyota's three decades of transformative impact on our communities and for our residents across the Commonwealth. Additionally, this strengthens Kentucky's status as a top state for auto manufacturing."
A community effort
With the next chapter for the plant a bright one, Toyota is giving back to Scott County to help drive economic development efforts for the community. Three properties at Lanes Run Business Park, totaling nearly 22-acres, as well as $1 million for future land purchases, are being donated to further advance the vision for the area. Additionally, Toyota is committing $2 million over the next 10 years to Scott County United to go toward economic development initiatives that will benefit the community and region.
About Scott County United
Scott County United, a non-profit, was formed in 1985 to implement economic and industrial development in Georgetown-Scott County, Kentucky. Today it also acts as an issues forum for members of the board and the local community.
Toyota, Mercedes-Benz Win Overall Brand Honors in 2nd Annual ALG Pre-Owned Value Awards
SANTA MONICA, CA - April 10, 2017: ALG announced the winners of its 2nd annual Pre-Owned Value Awards (POVA), ranking Toyota and Mercedes-Benz as the top Mainstream Brand and Premium Brand, respectively.
2017 Pre-Owned Value Awards are awarded to vehicles with the smallest forecasted depreciation from two to five years of age during the period from 2017 2020. The awards will be presented to automakers this week at the New York International Auto Show.
With supply of pre-owned vehicles on the rise, it is critical for automakers to communicate the value of a brands Pre-Owned product offering. The ALG Pre-Owned Value Awards is the most efficient platform to provide peace of mind to used vehicle shoppers and complement an automakers CPO program, said Jim Nguyen, TrueCar EVP and President of ALG.
This award is designed to identify used vehicles that will hold the highest percentage of their value over the next three years. Whether you are a millennial buying your first car after college graduation or looking to stretch your dollar into a luxury brand, obtaining top value for a pre-owned vehicle is a critical component of the shopping experience, continued Nguyen.
An early adopter of a comprehensive Certified Pre-Owned program, Mercedes-Benz has leveraged decades of experience in the CPO space to become the leader in pre-owned value among luxury brands. Mercedes-Benz boasts awards in four individual segments, including the high volume Premium Midsize and Premium Compact Utility segments with the C-Class and M-Class, respectively.
Toyota continued its winning streak as the overall winner for Mainstream brands with six vehicle segment awards, including the Tacoma, 4Runner, and Land Cruiser receiving awards in the Midsize Pickup, Off-Road Utility and Premium Fullsize Utility segments, respectively.
Award winners are determined through careful analysis of used vehicle performance, brand outlook and product competitiveness. Eligibility for a brand award requires a manufacturer to have vehicle entries in at least four different segments. To account for differences across trim levels, model averages are weighted based on percentage share relative to the entire model line.
Below is the full list of 2017 POVA winners:
POVA Overall Brand Mainstream Toyota Premium Mercedes-Benz POVA Segment Model Alt-Fuel Toyota Prius C Compact Toyota Corolla Compact Utility Hyundai Tucson Fullsize Dodge Charger Fullsize Commercial Mercedes Sprinter Fullsize Pickup Ford F-150 Fullsize Utility GMC Yukon Midsize Chrysler 200 Midsize Commercial Ford Transit Connect Midsize Pickup Toyota Tacoma Midsize Utility 2nd Row Seating Hyundai Santa Fe Sport Midsize Utility 3rd Row Seating Kia Sorento Minivan Nissan Quest Off-Road Utility Toyota 4Runner Premium Compact BMW 2 Series Premium Compact Utility Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class Premium Executive Kia K900 Premium Fullsize BMW 5 Series Premium Fullsize Utility Toyota Land Cruiser Premium Midsize Mercedes-Benz C-Class Premium Midsize Utility 2nd Row Seating Mercedes-Benz M-Class Premium Midsize Utility 3rd Row Seating Lexus GX Premium Performance Nissan GT-R Sportscar Dodge Challenger Subcompact Toyota Yaris Subcompact Utility MINI Cooper Countryman
About ALG
Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California, ALG provides automotive residual value projections in both the United States and Canada.
if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A man who drank excessively at a curling bonspiel before attempting to drive home in a car with only three wheels was sentenced in a Steinbach courtroom on Thursday.
Gordon Henry Benson, 54, pleaded guilty to operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit.
At 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 5, a Selkirk RCMP traffic patrol officer pulled over a car, driven by Benson, on the Trans-Canada Highway two miles east of Provincial Road 206, after witnessing sparks emanating from the back end of the weaving Pontiac. After the car ground to a halt, officers discovered it was missing its right rear tire and rim.
The lost wheel was later found on the overpass from the northbound Perimeter Highway to the eastbound Trans-Canada Highway. A police report stated the accused had missed the exit ramp and attempted to make a sharp turn, colliding with a concrete barricade and sustaining what Crown attorney Amy Wood called significant damage along the entire right side of the vehicle. Benson went on to drive 11 kilometres on his disc brake rotor, she said.
Wood noted that Benson, a Winnipeg autobody shop manager who lives in Dufresne, was confused after being pulled over, reportedly telling officers, I know I have a flat tire. Officers found his blood alcohol level to be nearly twice the legal limit.
On top of the mandatory one-year driving prohibition, Wood requested a significant fine, observing Bensons only prior convictiona refusal to prove a breath sample in May 1998was of the same nature as the February incident.
Judge Ken Champagne credited Benson for pleading guilty at the first opportunity but also observed that onlookers in the courtroom were visibly flabbergasted upon hearing the details of the case.
It was total stupidity on my part, Benson admitted.
This was a curling night, was it? asked Champagne. It sounds like a lot more bonspieling than curling going on.
Yeah, since then Ive quit curling because its just not good for me, Benson replied.
Champagne issued Benson $2,600 in fines and surcharges, along with a one-year driving prohibition.
Youre a body shop guycan you fix that vehicle you were driving? wondered Champagne.
I can fix anything, sighed Benson.
The only eyewitness to give testimony at Anthony Sanborn Jr.s murder trial was legally blind. Prosecutors had no physical evidence linking Sanborn to the crime. After nine days in court, a jury convicted Sanborn of the killing.
Sanborn was 16 in May 1989, when divers pulled Jessica Briggss body from the ocean. The girl, also 16, had been one of the street kids who roamed Portland, Maines parks and malls that spring, a group of students and runaways who stayed out late riding bikes and sleeping on their friends couches. She and Sanborn had dated briefly, and hung out with the same friends. When police began eyeing Sanborn in the slaying, their investigation turned toward these Portland teenagers and their murky accounts of the days surrounding the murder.
But investigators manipulated the childrens often-conflicting narratives, dooming Sanborn to 70 years in prison for a crime that, his attorney claims in a new motion for bail filed last week, he did not commit.
Sanborns attorney points to three witnesses crucial to his 1992 conviction. The first was a young, visually impaired girl who claimed to have witnessed the killing. By the time of the trial, she was legally blind. She later told a private investigator that her vision had been impaired at the time of the killing, and that she believed Sanborns case needed to return to court.
The second witness was a man whom Sanborns attorney alleges was threatened with charges in an unrelated case if he did not implicate Sanborn. He had previously given on-the-record testimony in Sanborns favor.
The third witness was one of Sanborns friends who gave testimony linking Sanborn to the crime, but who later recanted his testimony, telling a private investigator that he had lied in trial and during the investigation under the threat that police would arrest him instead.
Years after Sanborns conviction, another man associated with the circle of Portland youth confessed to Briggs murder during an interview with the FBI. The man was never charged. Sanborn remains in prison. Now, Sanborns wife and legal team say, its time for him to leave.
Sanborns case began in the early hours of May 24, 1989, with a gruesome discovery. Employees at an industrial dock on the Portland waterfront found a pair of womens shoes, a pack of cigarettes, and a lone earring next a pool of blood. A trail of blood led police to the ocean, where police divers later dredged Briggss body from under the dock. She had been disemboweled, cut open in a Jack the Ripper-like slaying. Investigators found semen on her underwear.
But DNA testing was limited at the time, physical evidence was otherwise scant, and the murder weapon would never be discovered.
Amy Fairfield, Sanborns current attorney, said she still does not know what made investigators narrow their focus on Sanborn. Thats the $64,000 question, she told The Daily Beast in a telephone conversation.
There were over a hundred interviews conducted by the Portland Police Department, and the sum and substance was that there was no shortage of suspects who may have actually killed Jessica Briggs, Fairfield wrote in the motion for bail. It is completely unclear if, when and how many of these individuals PPD actually ruled out as being Briggs murderer.
Sanborn had been a known entity to police after he previously failed to show up at an unrelated murder trial where he was scheduled to testify as a witness. And while Sanborn had an alibi his father testified in court that Sanborn had gone to his room around 8:30 the night of the murder and emerged around 9:30 the next morning the father conceded that he had not checked on Sanborn overnight, and that, despite Sanborn lacking a key to the apartment, it would have been possible for him to leave the door unlocked and slip back inside the following morning.
Investigators began looking for evidence against Sanborn, Fairfield alleges.
Acting as a united front, [two detectives and a prosecutor] waged a campaign of intimidation and deal-making in order to manufacture the testimonial evidence they needed to put Sanborn on trial, Fairfield wrote in the suit, alleging that the investigators built their case, brick by brick, based on what they wanted to be true, rather than on the evidence they actually had before them.
Neither detective nor the prosecutor could be reached for comment. The Maine Attorney Generals Office is currently reviewing the motion for bail, and plans to deny it, a spokesperson told the Portland Press-Herald.
Shortly after the murder, police began speaking with a 13-year-old named Hope Cady, who frequented the same circles as Sanborn and Briggs. She was initially reluctant to speak with investigators, and at one point walked out of the station, an investigator testified at Sanborns trial. But police continued questioning her over the following years. In logs obtained by Sanborns defense team, Cadys Department of Health and Human Services caseworker Margaret Bragdon noted her concern with these interviews.
They questioned her for about 2 hours yesterday-she got angry because they were rude, Bragdon wrote in a March 1990 log, noting that one investigator allegedly called Cady a fucking bitch, and that police had pressured her for Sanborns full name. Cady told police that she had seen Sanborn and Briggs arguing the night of the murder.
Her story would change multiple times over the years of interviews. At one point, according to an investigators May 1992 report, Cady told police that a group of teens including Sanborn had stabbed Briggs to death She was the only person to claim to have seen the killing.
But Cadys ability to have seen an argument was central to the case. Cady had a degenerative visual condition that rendered her legally blind by the time of trial. She had been diagnosed with a visual impairment before the murder, leading Bragdon to worry about the teenagers ability to testify as the only eyewitness in the case.
Dct. Daniels is going to make Hope testify, Bragdon wrote in a log shortly before the trial. Something definitely wrong with her optic nerves in both eyes. Need to pinpoint what she can see and how she sees Daniels talked to her for over 3 hours. When Hope came out she appeared pale and shaken and said she wouldnt talk to him anymore and she wouldnt testify either.
The social worker appeared interested in finding legal representation for Cady, whom she seemed to believe was concerned about being implicated in the case. Spoke to Richardwe can get a lawyer if: 1) Hope is charged, 2) Hope needs to talk to one ahead of time if she thinks she might be charged.
At trial, a prosecutor questioned Cadys ability to have seen the murder.
Hold on just a minute. Hope, you have developed a vision problem; is that right? the prosecutor asked, according to trial transcripts.
Yes, I have, Cady answered.
Is that far away or close up?
Pretty much everything, Cady said.
Everything? the prosecutor asked. Back in 1989 did you have a problem?
No, Cady said.
In subsequent years, Cady has dismissed her testimony about her vision. Fairfields filing includes a transcript of a 2016 interview between Cady and a private investigator, during which Cady says she was visually impaired since childhood. Why did she testify that her vision had been unimpaired at the time of the murder, the investigator asks.
That makes me wonder. My mind is going fifty different directions, Cady said, trying to recall what prompted her answer in court. Im wondering, why is there a gap? Like someone punching a hole in your memory. It sounds like they need to take this back to court and figure it out. My head is starting to spin.
She told the investigator that she had been prescribed glasses at the time of the murder, but that she seldom wore them.
I just remember having them and losing them, having them and losing them. But in that picture I didnt have them, she told the investigator, pointing to a picture of her testifying at Sanborns trial. Didnt anyone notice? Something doesnt feel right.
Investigators had documentation of Cadys visual impairments, Fairfield alleges. But rather than turning this information over to Sanborns defense team before his trial, as should have been required during the discovery process, prosecutors suppressed the evidence of Cadys visual impairments and presented her as a reliable witness, Fairfield claims.
She highlights two other key witnesses whose testimony she believes to have been coerced.
The first was Gerry Rossi, an adult who at one point lived with Sanborn as a roommate. In court, Rossi testified that Sanborn confessed to Briggss murder. The testimony came as a direct contradiction to his repeated claims during a police interview in March 1990. Whether he killed the girl or not, he didnt tell me, Rossi told investigators at the time, according to a transcript including in Fairfields filing.
At trial, Sanborns attorney claimed that police had offered Rossi immunity for an alleged crime if he testified against Sanborn. It goes directly to his bias, Judge, the fact that he knows he can get a free ride as long as he testifies the way the state wants him to, Sanborns then-lawyer argued.
Fairfield subscribes to the same argument. Upon information and belief, Rossi was offered immunity for his testimony against Tony, she alleged in her filing.
The final witness Fairfield highlights in her case was another one of Sanborns friends, who claimed to have spoken with Sanborn the night of the murder. The boy, Glenn Brown, told police that Sanborn and Briggs had briefly rekindled their relationship the night before the killing, but that they had fought and Briggs had left.
The prosecution used this testimony to suggest Sanborns motive. Now Tony [Sanborn]s mad at Jessica [Briggs], a prosecutor said in trial, explaining the murders alleged timeline. She had left him and had taken off from him that morning, and he was out looking for her.
Brown also told police that Sanborn had purchased a new knife that day, although by his own admission, Sanborn had a lot of knives. Many Portland street kids did. When divers pulled Briggss body from the water, they found her own knife, a blade she had named Butchie. It hadnt saved her.
Browns initial report to police had chronological contradictions, and at one point he appeared to confuse the events of two different days. Then, in June 2016, Brown recanted his testimony altogether.
I lied when I testified in Sanborns trial, he told a private investigator on Sanborns legal team, telling the investigator that the police report attributed to him was 99 percent false, and that he had been pressured to lie to the PPD or else they were going to arrest me.
During the trial, Brown testified in accordance with a written version of the report he had allegedly made to police. But Brown was functionally illiterate at the time, and had never read the written version of the report that police claimed he made. In court, he struggled to read the police statement, a fact the prosecutor noted.
Before I testified in court, I was told by [the prosecutor] that if I didnt testify to the written statement, I would be charged with a crime, Brown told Fairfields private investigator, according to an affidavit.
Contrary to his testimony, Brown had not seen Sanborn the night of Briggss murder, he told the private investigator.
Fairfield alleges that other teenagers interviews with police might also have been manipulated. Her filing includes a stack of scanned transcripts of police interviews with Sanborns friends. On top of the transcripts are two sticky notes.
Statements not sent as discovery per request of Det. Young 4/26/90, reads one. To be changed to narrative reports, reads the other.
The sticky notes, in the prosecutors handwriting, show investigators in the act of suppressing evidence, Fairfield alleges. The statements, which a detective requested to be withheld from the discovery process, were long, first-person transcriptions of the teenagers statements to police. Instead they were rewritten into shorter, third-person narrative reports summarizing the interviews.
The prosecutor basically fed everybody their answers, Fairfield told The Daily Beast. One long interview was condensed into two sentences... Ive never seen anything like that. Or maybe I have, but I dont know about it.
Furthermore, one former Portland youth later confessed to Briggss murder. In 2005, a federal inmate who had associated with the same Portland teens as Sanborn and Briggs told FBI investigators that he was responsible for Briggss death. The man claimed to have murdered Briggs with a rug-cutting tool and tossed her in the ocean, according to an FBI report including in Fairfields filing. The man later recanted the confession, telling investigators that he had only wanted to increase his sentence in order to move to another part of the prison.
Fairfield claims there are still other suspects police could have investigated instead of Sanborn. There was a woman who kept calling in saying she works next to a woman whose relative is the actual murderer, she told The Daily Beast. The detectives should have been following up on that. Instead the detective called the coworker, left three messages and called it a day because she didnt call him back.
Since his arrest, Sanborn has been a model inmate, his wife and Fairfield say.
I think Tony has managed to make a bad situation good for him and the world around him. He lives in one in the darkest environments, his wife Michelle told The Daily Beast. But if you were to ask staff at the prison, theyd say the prison is a better place because of Tony.
One such staffer is Garrett Vail, an English teacher at the prison. This prison is a much better place because of Tony, who ironically, shouldnt even be there, Vail wrote in a character statement included in Fairfields filing.
Even while awaiting trial, Sanborn worked writing the local jails newsletter and teaching computer classes in their education department. After his transfer to federal prison Sanborn worked teaching adult literacy classes to other inmates, and today teaches math and family courses.
Just today he had a group of men graduate from his long-distance dad program, where he teaches people how to maintain their relationships inside prison, Michelle said on Friday. Sanborns program is the only one of its kind run without a paid staffer, she said. She remembers one case when Sanborn helped reunite a father with his family by encouraging the young man to send money for his children to buy crayons for school.
That is what Tony loves to do, Michelle said. Since the beginning, hes been trying to help people. Hes a wonderful man.
By Allison Graves
Republicans changed Senate rules to break a Democratic filibuster and confirm Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, and blamed Democrats for necessitating the change along the way.
Democrats, naturally, saw it differently.
In a post-mortem on the Senate showdown, Fox News Sundays Chris Wallace asked Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) whether the Democrats made a strategic mistake deciding to filibuster Gorsuchs nomination. Cardin said both parties are to blame, noting that Republicans engaged in the same type of action during President Obamas first term, when Republicans held up Obamas judicial nominees.
Weve seen more filibusters on judicial nominees by the Republicans under President Obama than we saw in the whole history of the United States Senate, Cardin said April 9. Both sides have blame here.
We heard a similar claim on ABCs This Week. Former DNC pollster Cornell Belcher said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked more of President Obamas nominees than have been blocked in history.
Is that so?
Defining, counting filibusters
Cardin used the term filibuster, but measuring filibusters is troublesome, experts say, because it has an overly broad meaning. Senators tend to consider any type of obstruction to scheduling a nomination or measure as a filibuster, said Steven Smith, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis.
The whole use of the term filibuster is problematic, given its evolution over the years, added University of Kansas political scientist Burdett Loomis. It ends up being a regular event, used all the more frequently in more partisan Congresses.
As a result, experts say a way to approximatebut not entirely countfilibusters is to count the number of times the Senate attempts to break a filibuster by forcing an up-or-down vote through a process called cloture.
In recent years, a cloture motion required the approval of 60 senators. But in 2013, Democrats changed the rules so that a simple majority could invoke cloture for presidential appointments and lower court nominees. The 60-vote threshold stood for legislation and the Supreme Court.
To confirm Gorsuch, Republicans eliminated the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees. It remains in place for legislation.
What the research shows
Cardins claim stems from a 2013 report by the Congressional Research Service, the independent research arm of Congress. The document, along with a subsequent memorandum on the report, lists every instance in which a presidential nominee was blocked and cloture was filed through Nov. 20, 2013, when Democrats changed Senate rules.
According to the Congressional Research Service, senators sought cloture action on judicial nominations a total of 86 times between 1967 and the end of 2013. (Pre-1967, the Congressional Research Service lists no cloture attemptsso history as Cardin put it, is relatively short.)
Of those, 50 were made before Obama took office in 2009, and 36 were made between 2009 and when the Senate changed its rules in 2013. After President Bush nominated Miguel A. Estrada to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001, seven cloture attempts to break a logjam by Senate Democrats failed before he withdrew his name from consideration in 2003.
So through that prism, Cardin is off.
Cardin is closer if one looks at individual judicial nominees who were subject to a cloture filing (because nominees like Estrada were subject to a cloture filing multiple times). Pre-Obama, 36 judicial nominees were subject to a cloture filing, we found. From 2009 to 2013, it was the same: 36 judicial nominees.
To put that in perspective, and to see Cardins point, look at it this way: Less than one nominee per year was subject to a cloture filing in the 40 years before Obama took office. From 2009 to 2013, the number of nominees subject to a cloture filing jumped to more than seven per year.
In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was much closer to being correct when he said, In the history of the United States, 168 presidential nominees have been filibustered: 82 blocked under President Obama, 86 blocked under all the other presidents. His figure included non-judicial nominees.
As part of that fact-check, we noted that By our calculation, there were actually 68 individual nominees blocked prior to Obama taking office and 79 (so far) during Obamas term, for a total of 147.
Senate Democrats made that same point in a tweet April 6.
Our ruling
Cardin said, Weve seen more filibusters on judicial nominees by the Republicans under President Obama than we saw in the whole history of the United States Senate.
Cardin used an imprecise term, filibuster, to describe a precise Senate parliamentary procedure, cloture. As far as cloture data kept by the Congressional Research Service, Cardin would been on safer ground if he avoided focusing on judicial nominees. By our count, cloture was filed on 36 judicial nominations during the first five years of Obamas presidency, the same total as the previous 40 years combined.
On balance, we rate this claim Half True.
Read the full fact-checks at PunditFact.com.
DENVERPaul Krashoc waited 30 years to come face to face with his daughters killer, but not like this.
Staring back at him the dining room table were two computer-generated images of the man the U.S. Army suggests murdered Specialist Darlene Krashoc on March 17, 1987, outside Fort Carson, Colorado. One image showed what he might have looked like back then, in his twenties, and the other shows what he might look like today, in his fifties.
This new spectrum of info, it hit us quickly. This opens up new doors for us, Krashoc told The Daily Beast. He acknowledges, though, that after 30 years, he and his wife Betty Lou have been down this road before.
Our daughter has been dead longer than she lived, Betty Lou said. She said she keeps a picture of Darlene in her Bible along with the printout of those two faces.
The Army released the images last month after sending DNA data from 27 pieces of evidence to a private lab called Parabon to undergo a type of analysis called phenotyping. Phenotyping uses unidentified DNA to predict appearance and ancestry. In its press release, the Army heralded this new development as state of the art science. Its a statement that has some DNA scientists and law enforcement experts fuming.
Phenotyping is not state of art. Its not the state of anything, says retired Denver homicide detective Jon Priest. He is concerned that phenotyping gives false hope to victims families who are desperate for answers.
The new images have given Paul Krashoc new energy. He has always suspected that a fellow soldier killed Darlene, and now the phenotype has him convinced.
This picture. If you look at the haircut, it indicates military, he said.
Krashocs comment is exactly what worries scientists who have been in the field of forensic DNA for years. They say the haircut on the rendering is only a suggestion to help round out the picture, not science.
Its giving the family unrealistic expectations, says Dr. Richard Spritz, director of Human Medical Genetics and Genomics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Do I think its likely having this technology will get them to a perpetrator? No. Because the reliability of this technology has never been subject to critical tests. The likely reliability is low.
Priest echoed the concern.
This is one of those things that is not proven, supportable, nor accepted, Priest said, adding hes not against trying new technology. The science may get there someday, but it aint there now.
Ellen Greytak of Parabon Labs said she understands that people are skeptical, but adds that they might change their minds if they see a presentation and realize how strong our results are.
Parabon, which unveiled the technology just over two years ago, has never had a dissatisfied client, Greytak says. Parabons phenotyping process isnt meant to produce an exact replica of a persons face, but rather an image that strongly resembles the person the unidentified DNA belongs to.
It helps narrow down suspects gives law enforcement the ability to eliminate them, Greytak explained.
On its website, Parabon gives law enforcement a special offer of a free online demonstration. Also offered are testimonies from various investigation-related entities who swear by the technology, including Jose Morales, a detective with the Costa Mesa, California police department.
We had a cold case for 20 years. We gave up hope. These kinds of cases, they weigh on us, Morales tells The Daily Beast. His investigation into the random rape and murder of a photography student was solved when the Parabon rendering, plus fingerprints left at the crime scene, linked the killing to a man who was arrested in Mexico and is awaiting extradition.
Still, Spritz takes issue with how Parabon describes its product as a Snapshot Forensic DNA Phenotyping System, which accurately predicts genetic ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape
Spritz agrees that DNA can determine eye, hair, and skin color, but he stops short at face shape.
We do not have the knowledge to predict a face based on DNA, Spritz said.
Greytak says it costs $3,600 for Parabon to analyze the DNA data and come up with its snapshot. But Greytak admits that out of the 100 cases theyve been involved with, only one has been resolved in the courts.
Its not probable cause, and thats the real problem with it, says Priest. If I find somebody it looks like, I cant arrest the guy!
The Colorado Springs police, who have been investigating Krashocs murder in tandem with the Army since the beginning, also notes that the pictures are not evidence.
We need to be careful, said Lt. Howard Black. We would never bring someone in just based on a picture. But he said the renderings have brought people with information out of the woodwork. They do help. If an individual looks at them, the images can help bring back conversations from 30 years ago.
The Army is also offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can help find a murderer who has eluded them through three decades that saw the cold case opened, closed, and re-opened again in 2004 and in 2011 as DNA technology advanced.
Though years of fruitless leads have put a chill on the military whodunnit, the brutality of the murder of the beautiful young soldier stunned the town an hour and a half south of Denver.
Veteran Colorado Springs Gazette editor Tom Roeder says he has never seen anything like it in 20 years of covering the Army at Fort Carson.
Weve had murders as a result of domestic abuse, but never anything like this. Roeder adds, We see from other cold cases at Fort Carson that the C.I.D. [U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command] usually closes the door and walks away. When the trail goes cold they shove it in the file thats been their tendency. Still, someone knows something about this case.
Krashoc had been out at an off-base nightclub called Shuffles on the eve of St. Patricks Day, 1987, drinking with friends who worked with her in the 73rd Wheeled Maintenance. Her parents say a friend later told them she got mad when she couldnt get a cigarette from one of them, and put up such a scene about it, they left her there.
Just before dawn police found Krashocs body dumped in an alley behind a Korean restaurant. They think the 20-year-old Army specialists body was brought there from somewhere else, because of the time it must have taken to torture her. The autopsy report even suggested she may have been thrown out of a moving car. The woman friends had nicknamed Krash had been sexually assaulted, beaten, bitten, and, strangled with a coat hanger.
That clue led her parents to believe the killer was a soldier named Jeffrey Newsome, who was stationed at Fort Carson and accused by two women of strangling them with a coat hanger before he was convicted of murder in Alabama.
Newsome has been eliminated as a suspect, according to police though they wont divulge the reason. Lt. Black did say that there has never been a match with the DNA found on Krashocs body through CODIS, a database that compares samples found from crime scenes to the DNA of convicted felons and sometimes, to arrestees. Since Newsome is in prison for life, that means his DNA did not come up as a hit.
Because the Krashocs anticipated that they may have to exhume Darlenes body for more forensic evidence, they buried her in a civilian cemetery instead of in a military one where its much harder to get an exhumation done.
The 30-year stress of never finding Darlenes killer has been too much for their relationship with people who loved her the most. They say that they no longer speak to their other daughter, Darlenes sister, Rhonda, and the same goes for Darlenes best friend who was stationed at Fort Carson and even roomed with her.
Long years of searching with no answers gnaws at everyone involved, and so does a statement Darlene made the last time Betty Lou spoke with her on the phone.
Theres something going on at Fort Carson, Darlene told her mom. But the young woman would not reveal anything more.
I asked her, What the hells going on out there? and she just said, I cant tell you right now. The weird thing is, just a week before that phone call, Darlene was talking about re-enlisting.
Betty Lou said she was afraid her daughter was thinking about going AWOL, but instead, says her husband, A week later, the guy was at the door in uniform to tell us she was dead.
The Krashocs do not believe that the Army did all that they could have when memories were fresh. They recall that early on during the investigation, they walked into the Office of Command at Fort Carson, and they were turned away.
They didnt want publicity, says Paul, a veteran Army deep sea diver. We were shaken up, but thats when we decided to become a pain in everyones rear end.
Through the years, the Krashocs have done their share of amateur sleuthing. Betty Lou has cardboard boxes in their home office filled with newspaper clippings of similar murders which happened all over the world.
I look them up, call the police in charge, and let them know about Darlene.
The snapshot DNA sketches and Darlenes picture will stay in Betty Lous Bible. Theyve read the comments on social media about how the new computer images are a long shot. And they know their hopes could be sunk again. Still
We could be getting fed a lot of bull, says Paul. Obviously we dont know how this will turn out. But what else can we do?
Some Democrat and Republican lawmakers are criticizing President Donald Trump for carrying out airstrikes in Syria without getting Congress approval first.
The United States launched nearly 60 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield April 6, reacting to Syrian President Bashar al-Assads recent chemical attack that killed more than 80 civilians.
"The Constitution says war must be declared by Congress," said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in a statement April 7. "I voted for military action against Syria in 2013 when Donald Trump was advocating that America turn its back on Assads atrocities. Congress will work with the president, but his failure to seek congressional approval is unlawful."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., issued a similar statement that read, "While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked. The president needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate."
Whether it was constitutional for Trump to carry out these airstrikes in Syria without congressional approval is not an easy question to answer especially because the Trump administration has not yet made public its own legal justification. We asked the Trump administration, and well update this post if we hear back.
The Constitution says Congress has the power to declare war, but throughout the past 70 years or so, presidents have adopted a flexible view of their own constitutional role as commander-in-chief in order to engage in military action without congressional approval.
What we found is that in some cases people saying Trump needed congressional approval have gone too far, as U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan did in claiming that there is "no legal basis" for Trump's action. (PolitiFact Wisconsin rated that claim False.)
Yet the courts have not settled some constitutional questions about what is war and who gets to decide when the United States attacks. This story explains the complicated issue.
War powers evolution
For most of American history, the consensus view among politicians and legal scholars was that the Founding Fathers meant for Congress to have the "sole authority" in deciding to initiate any hostilities or war with another country. Although this remains the most common view among academics, actual practice has diverged significantly, said Andrew Kent, a law professor at Fordham University and an expert in the Constitution and national security.
"Hence, there is a kind of customary law of war initiation in modern times that has supplanted a long-held view, and the view of the Founders, about what the Constitution means," Kent said.
The last time Congress actually declared war was World War II. In 1973, to retain control over their constitutional authority, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution. The resolution required that, in the absence of a war declaration, the president must report to Congress within 48 hours of introducing armed forces into hostilities and must remove forces within 60 days unless Congress permits otherwise.
As of this writing, Trump is still within the 48-hour window to notify Congress and seek their approval.
But some legal scholars think the War Powers Resolution unconstitutionally restricts the presidents authority, and it hasnt always stopped presidents from taking military action without congressional approval. For example, President Bill Clinton sent thousands of U.S. troops into Kosovo in the 1990s to participate in a NATO peacekeeping mission. Clinton never received congressional approval, yet he did not remove the troops after the 60-day mark.
Controversially, President Barack Obama took a broad interpretation of Congress decade-old authorizations for 9/11-related military action in order to justify airstrikes and other measures against the Islamic State, including in Syria, without obtaining further congressional approval.
Trump cant easily use that same justification because the United States attacked Assads regime, not Islamic State fighters, wrote Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith in an April 7 Lawfare article. But he might be able to find precedent in the Obama administrations legal justification for the 2011 U.S. intervention in Libya.
The White House Office of Legal Counsel determined then that it would be consistent with the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution for Obama to take military action in Libya because it served the "national interest." Also, the operation was intended to have a limited scope and short duration, as opposed to a full-on war.
Goldsmith noted, however, that it will be difficult for the Trump administration to come up with a sufficient reason why attacking Syria serves the national interest beyond maintaining regional stability and protecting international norms against chemical weapon use. Interestingly, Trump said the airstrikes were in the national interest when he announced them April 6 in Florida: "It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons."
So over the past few decades, presidents have routinely asserted their authority to take military action without prior congressional approval. Congress has largely acquiesced, and the Supreme Court hasnt weighed in in any significant way.
So reasonable minds can disagree over whether this trend is constitutional.
Although Trump felt justified to take this action in Syria without congressional approval, he had a different take as a civilian about four years ago, when Obama was mulling taking military action in Syria after a chemical weapons attack. Trump said then that Obama shouldnt attack Syria, but if he does he needs congressional approval first.
"The President must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria-big mistake if he does not!" Trump tweeted Aug. 30, 2013.
The implosion of Alabama Gov. Robert Bentleys political career has, even by the standards of Southern state government, moved at a snails pace. But nearly 13 months after a bitter ex-state employee announced to the world that the Republican had been having a long-term affair with an aide, Bentleys slow-burning scandal has culminated with his resignation from office.
Hours after the Alabama House Judiciary Committee began hearings to consider Bentleys impeachment from office on Monday, the two-term governor was fingerprinted at the Montgomery County jail after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, part of a deal struck with state law enforcement to avoid impeachment and multiple felony charges in exchange for his resignation.
After being booked on one count of failure to file campaign disclosures and one count of failure to disclose economic interest, Bentley made his way to the Old House Chamber of the Alabama state capitol and announced that he had ceded power to Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey.
Ive not always made the right choices, Ive not always said the right thing. Though I have sometimes failed, Ive always tried to live up to the high expectations that people place on the person who holds this esteemed office, Bentley said. There have been times that Ive let you and our people down, and Im sorry for that."
I can no longer allow my family and my dear friends, my dedicated staff and cabinet, to be subjected to the consequences that my past actions have brought upon them, Bentley continued. The time has come for me to look at new ways to serve the good people of our great state. I have decided it is time for me to step down as Alabamas governor.
Bentley's resignation comes three days after the committees special counsel released a 3,000-page report on Bentleys relationship with his married chief adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, and more than four years after the first stirrings of an illicit affair that ended the governor's marriage and his political career.
The 130-page summary of the committees investigationwhich was comprehensive enough to have merited its own web domainreads more like a rejected Nancy Meyers script treatment than the result of a government investigation: texted professions of undying love, indiscreet assignations in the governors office, and accusations that the governor directed a bodyguard to break up with his mistress for him.
The last item, a result of what the committee characterized as increasing obsession and paranoia, has prompted allegations that Bentley used state resources to conductand, apparently, to break offhis affair. It was this charge, more than any moral opprobrium, that led to calls for the governor's impeachment.
The leadership of Alabama Republican Party said it couldn't support Bentley on Monday afternoon. "When situations arise that are in direct conflict with the betterment of our people, we will speak up regardless of political party," it said in a statement.
Bentley, in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary, denied that a physical affair took place for more than a year, but he has apologized for making inappropriate remarks to Mason.
The end of Bentley's two-decade political career may be the least of his worries, however. On April 5, a state ethics commission found probable cause to believe that Bentley had violated both the Alabama Ethics Act and the Fair Campaign Practices Act. Although the details of the specific allegations are sketchy, they are Class B felonies. Were Bentley to be charged by the Montgomery County district attorney and convicted, he faced 20 years in jail and a fine of up to $20,000 for each violation. The reported deal between Bentley and the Montgomery County district attorney, however, reduces those potential charges to the two misdemeanor charges.
The plea deal also stipulated Bentley's resignation from officesparing the governor potential jail time in exchange for sparing the people of Alabama the specter of drawn-out impeachment proceedings against the state's chief executive.
***
What Bentley may be most guilty of, though, is being really bad at having an affair.
Starting in 2013, according to Bentleys now ex-wife, Dianne, Mason began staying overnight in the pool house of the governors mansion, an arrangement that raised eyebrows in Montgomery.
At first, Dianne Bentley excused the frequent sleepovers, according to the report. Masons home with her husband, the head of the governors Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, was in Tuscaloosa, nearly a two-hour drive from the state capital. But the first lady of Alabama, a devout Christian who would write prayer requests for her husband on sticky notes that she kept in her personal devotional, was eventually informed by Heather Hannah, her chief of staff, that the governor and Mason would jump when interrupted by other members of his staff and that he had begun to return home from work with makeup on his shirts.
The governors wife and Hannah were among the more than 20 witnesses interviewed by the special counsel appointed by the Alabama House Judiciary Committee to investigate Bantley's relationship with mason. The report is based on their testimony, as well as a review of more than 10,000 pages of documents, text message transcripts, and audio recordings.
Other members of the governors staff began to notice Bentleys increasingly close relationship with his chief adviser. According to the House committees report, Bentley would call Mason baby in meetings, and Ray Lewis, the leader of Bentleys security detail, told the House committee that he had once observed Mason leaving the governors office with tousled hair, her outfit disheveled.
The governors apparent indiscretion in conducting the affair was matched only by his paranoia about the affair being publicly revealed. Hannah, Dianne Bentleys chief of staff, testified to the House committee that the governor personally confronted her on multiple occasions about leaking information about the affair.
The confrontations featured open threats from the governor, Hannah told the House committees special counsel.
You will never work in the state of Alabama again if you tell anyone about this, Hannah recalled Bentley telling her in the kitchen of the governors mansion, a finger pointed in her face.
On another occasion, Hannah testified that Bentley warned her to watch herself because she did not know what she was getting into, and that his position as governor meant that the people of Alabama would bow to his throne.
Meanwhile, the once-close Bentley marriage was collapsing. During a ritzy National Governors Association dinner in Washington, D.C., the governor texted Masonseated across the tablein full view of his wife, who was sitting next to him.
The text, Dianne Bentley later testified, read: I cant take my eyes off of you.
Other members of the governors family became aware of the affair, according to the report, after perusing a state-issued iPad that Bentley had given to his wife. The 74-year-old governor was apparently ignorant of the fact that the tablet was logged into the same iCloud messaging account that he used to text sweet nothings to Mason.
Bentleys four adult sons were apparently so worried that they came to suspect that the affair was the result of dementia, according to the report. The Bentley children went so far as to attempt to have the governor evaluated by medical specialists, although no such evaluation ever took place.
Meanwhile, the governors wife began taking screenshots of the governors texts with Mason that appeared on her iPadconversations that eventually became crucial and cringeworthy evidence in the impeachment case against Bentley.
Perhaps the most egregious moment in the Bentley-Mason affair came when the governor, as cheating husbands have done since text messaging was invented, accidentally texted I love you Rebekah to his wife.
To Bentleys credit, he followed up 17 hours later by texting I love you Dianne with an emoji of a rose.
On Aug. 28, 2015, the governors wife filed for divorce.
***
Cheating on ones spouse isnt against the law, even in Alabama. So many family values Republicans have turned out to be guilty of sexual impropriety that Bentleys worst mistake might just have been unoriginality.
But it was the governors alleged use of state employees to facilitate and cover up his affairand the eventual firing of the states top law enforcement officialthat turned a tale of political peccadilloes into threats of impeachment and possible jail time.
According to the House committees report, Bentley directed Lewis, his security chief, to confront office staff whom he believed to be gossiping about the affair, as well as to convince one of his adult sons to turn over surreptitious recordings his wife had made of him and Mason.
The governor allegedly even used Lewis as a go-between to finally end his relationship with Mason, according to the committees report. After Lewis confronted the governor about the affair, the report alleges, Bentley asked Lewis to go upstairs to meet with Mason and end the relationship.
After the hour-long breakup meeting in a conference room at the state capitol in which Lewis conveyed the governors wishes, Bentley entered the room and placed a hand on Masons shoulder. Its all right, baby, Lewis later testified that Bentley said. Its going to be all right.
But although the affair was over, the report alleges, the cover-up continued.
Bentley apparently became suspicious that Spencer Collier, the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, was in possession of some of the recordings containing evidence that he had been engaged in an affair with Mason. After attempting to sideline Collier by placing him on medical leave, Collier alleges, the governor fired him on March 22, 2016, alleging misuse of state funds by the agency Collier oversaw. (Collier has since been cleared of any wrongdoing.)
That same day, Collier told AL.com that he had seen text messages and heard audio recordings showing that Bentley had been conducting an affair, igniting the public scandal that has finally lead to the demise of the once-popular governors political career.
Its a horrible, ugly episode and I am ashamed to have been around it, Collier said at the time. But I told him I would never lie for him.
Mason, who has not spoken publicly about the report but denies the affair, resigned from the governors office three days later, announcing that her only plans were to focus my full attention on my precious children and my husband who I love dearly. They are the most important people in my life.
Mason has not been charged with a crime.
ISTANBULNot long after U.S. cruise missiles tore into the Syrian air base that apparently served as the launch point for a chemical-weapons attack, the Syrian armys chief of staff arrived to inspect the damage and commend the pilots.
They were the same pilots who flew their warplanes to the town of Khan Sheikhoun, where more than 100 civilians died.
Embracing the base pilots, presumably including those responsible for the chemical attack, Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayyoub praised the high morale and fighting spirit of the officers and soldiers at the Sharyat base. They in turn pledged to continue rooting out terrorism wherever it exists in the homeland, the official SANA news agency reported in a video.
In actual fact, Syrian forces probably carried out the gas attack out of desperation, according to U.S. military officials and Syrian rebel officials. And morale among regime forces may have hit a new low.
Since the attack, the Syrian air force has moved warplanes from several bases to the Russian-controlled Hmeimim base near Latakia, and Russia has taking over most air operations in central and northern Syria, according to rebel plane-spotters who monitor regime and Russian air movements.
These sorties included at least seven assaults against civilian targets on Friday alone, and as many again on Saturday. In a Russian air attack Saturday on Urom al-Joz, a small town in Idlib province, 20 civilians were killed. Khan Sheikhoun was targeted as well both days.
Regime forces have been plagued by desertions at every level since 2012, but ever since Russias air intervention began in September 2015, the government has managed to recapture rebel-held territory. It achieved its biggest victory in December, when forces led by Assads Iranian and Hezbollah allies expelled rebel troops and much of the population from east Aleppo.
But morale plummeted again a few weeks ago when U.S.-backed rebel forces, supported by Islamists the U.S. view as terrorists, scored rapid advances in Hama province. U.S. officials and rebel spokesmen say the dramatic advances are probably what prompted the Syrian militarys turn to chemical weapons.
The Syrian regime has been under intense pressure, a senior U.S. military official told reporters in Washington on Friday. He said rebels in an advance last month threatened to capture the Hama airfield, a key base for helicopters and a suspected barrel bomb manufacturing facility.
Barrel bombs, consisting of shrapnel and metal scraps packed into a barrel with explosives, are dropped routinely from helicopters over residential areas in rebel-controlled zones throughout Syria.
Losing the Hama base was a significant risk to the regime and U.S. analysts judged that the use of chemical weapons was linked to a battlefield desperation decision to stop the opposition from seizing those key regime elements. The official could not be named under the rules of the briefing.
A Syrian rebel spokesman spoke of enormous government losses on the ground since the offensive began March 21. Hours after the battle began, the U.S.-supported force captured more than 20 towns and villages, as well as 50 military outposts in the Hama countryside, said Lt. Mahmoud Mahmoud, spokesman for the Izza Army, a moderate rebel group, in a WhatsApp conversation. Regime forces withdrew without showing any resistance, he said, and rebels advanced to within a few miles of the military airport, which is about 50 miles northwest of Shayrat.
The surprise attack threw regime forces off-balance, and at one point regime warplanes were bombing regime positions, Mahmoud said. He claimed the regime lost more than 700 fighters. He said rebels have documented the capture or destruction of 40 regime tanks and armored personnel carriers, the destruction of 13 tanks and a great many artillery pieces.
Mahmoud said Syrian conscripts fighting for the Assad regime appeared exhausted, and commanders judged that government-sponsored Syrian militias do not have the will to fight. The only force that moderate rebels have to reckon with is the Lebanese Hezbollah and other militias Iran has shipped into Syria from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries.
The U.S. had cut support to the rebel fighters late last year when the latest cease-fire went into effect, but Mahmoud said rebels began receiving TOW anti-tank missiles and other small weapons after they regrouped and established a new joint operations center in Hama province.
Within days of the setback in Hama, Syrian regime forces began using chemical weapons.
On March 25, a date also confirmed by the senior Pentagon official, a regime helicopter dropped a barrel bomb full of chlorine gas on a medical center in the town of Lataminah, north of Hama, killing two people, injuring 30 and putting the medical facility out of service. The next day a second barrel bomb containing chlorine was dropped on an Izza Army position in the same town, and at least 20 fighters reported difficulty breathing.
On March 30, additional barrel bombs containing chlorine were dropped on Lataminah and a nearby village, causing vomiting, dizziness, and breathing difficulties. Then on April 3, a barrel bomb was dropped on the town of Habit, south of Khan Sheikhoun, causing at least 20 people to experience difficulty breathing.
The munitions had the intended impact. With these weapons in use, we thought it a big mistake to hold the ground, especially because so many of our fighters were affected by the gasses, Mahmoud said. We were forced to withdraw to rear locations. He said the regimes gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun was clearly revenge against civilians for the rebel advances.
The regime was simply trying to press the rebels to stop their military advance in north Hama, he said. They think the rebels morale will be destroyed by the attack on Khan Sheikhoun and other places. But we have simply become more determined and we will continue our battles, he said.
President Donald Trump is like an erect penis: Hes single-minded, obsessed with invasion, and dying to shoot. (Hes also wrinkly, rigid, and a dickI could go on.) He seems to function as the symbolic phallus of his fans, as if hes the embodiment of testosterone. Trump makes them feel masculine and energized and powerful, like a political Viagra.
Many seem to envision Trumps penile qualities as a good thingas if by swinging his dick around in his first months in office, hes shattered conventions and magically improved a staid, corrupt, overintellectualized Washington. Never has he seemed more macho to his people than when he punched Bashar al-Assad in the face with a slew of Tomahawk missiles. In reality, it may have been more of a strong kick in the shinsthat airstrip they bombed was reportedly operational the next daybut hey, bombing the Middle East will always warm certain American hearts. Trumps approval rating among Republicans is over 80 percent and the assault on Syria wont hurt.
So much of Trumps appeal is wrapped up in his sense of machismo, but he borrows almost exclusively from the worst of American masculinity, clinging to an old school version of manliness thats about toughness, bluster, an imperative to superiority, a disdain for humility, and a need to dominate othersespecially women.
Trumps concept masculinity seems to guide his politics, which is so much about attempting to dominate Barack Obama, Muslims, the media, and other enemies real or perceived. He bangs his chest and drops bombs when Assad offends his sensibilities. He was so moved by images of Syrian children being gassed that he dropped bombs to avenge people who he wouldnt allow to move here. Indeed, the most overtly macho moment of Trumps presidency, bombing Syria, flowed out of his most emotional momenthis response to the gassing of Syrian children, which seems to have made Trump genuinely sad. Its almost like hes punishing Assad for making him feel womanly emotions like empathy and sadness, but really hes just showing the world that hes the man. He hated what Assad did and he wanted to show him how tough America can be to scare him.
Assad got out of line and Trump flexed his muscles and projected power. Was it effective in Syria? Probably not. The country has been mired in a bloody, complex civil war for years. ISIS is centered there. Theyre used to explosions. But the attack will be effective on Fox News and on right-wing talk radio where Trump will be portrayed as a no-nonsense tough guy whos not afraid to let our military flex its muscles.
The modern male learns manliness from a different playbook than his fatherhes taught to be more open with his feelings, to be more aware of his failings, to show respect for other sorts of people, especially women. Modern men may fail to live up to that idealwe may fail oftenbut were trying. The old school ideal of manlinessthat Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Trump sort of man? He was not trying. He saw himself as a kingall others get out of the way. He was so surrounded by entitlement that it was to him as water is to fish. Trump brings that horrible impulse with him to his job as well as many other deplorable aspects of old school masculinity.
Let me count three of the most maddening ways:
1. An overactive sense of superiority.
Trump is nothing without the fight to dominate otherswomen, Muslims, Mexicans, Blacks, trans peopleits not merely that he wants one group to win, he wants to crush the other group. Somehow it still escapes him that hes responsible for and to every American. No, we have a president whose manhood is built on the need to oppress in order to prove that hes a man. This is among the worst impulses in men and Trump is consumed by it.
2. A refusal to apologize.
Old school Man never apologizes. He never backs down. Even when not backing down actually hurts him. Hes never wrongeven if he is. Its part of his privilege, his entitlement, his kingliness that he never has to acknowledge a mistake. Trumps refusal to apologize is polarizinghis folks seem to forgive him for anything but many of us are put off by his refusal to apologize. Its not ideologicalits expecting him to fulfill the basic social contract. When youre wrong, you apologize. Its part of civilized society.
Trump has been proven wrong about Obama surveilling him, it never happened, theres zero evidence, you will not believe what theyre findingnothing. But even though hes wrongfully defamed his predecessor, he refuses to apologize or even back down. Its unsettling. The person who cannot apologize does not respect those hes wronged, does not observe the basic social contract, and doesnt have enough self-awareness to admit when hes made a mistake. How often does a grudge linger on for years because the offender just wont apologize? Sometimes the inability to apologize is worse than the offenseapologizing is that important to people. We say to err is human and to forgive is divine but before the forgiving should be come an apology. So your refusal to apologize blocks me from closure and divinity.
3. He wont communicate.
All those times I saw a woman in a romcom complaining about a man who wouldnt effectively communicate with her I laughed, not knowing that one day I would know her pain. I am stuck in a relationship with a man who wont tell me whats going on. I need to know what his plan for Syria is. I need to know where our relationship is going. What is our health care plan long term? He wont say and its maddening. He says he wont tell us his Syria plan but we all know that he keeps his plan secret because doesnt have a plan. But when youre talking about soldiers lives and military might and potentially shifting the balance of power in the worlds most complex regionwhen youre talking about that we the people deserve a broad overview of what the leaders intentions are in this campaign.
He doesnt have to tell us details of a military operation though I highly doubt he knows any details of any military operations so theres no chance hell divulge anything he shouldnt. But we should know the broad strokes of why we need to do this now and how much force hes willing to expend and what his goal or endgame is. Being an effective leader means explaining your plans and actions. Leadership should let people know the direction theyre going in.
We have a divisive president who rules strictly for his people. He refuses to include or even mollify the other side. Its his job to try to bring the country together and to remember that he is the President of both sides of the argument. But instead of creating olive branches, he makes lists of enemiesObama, Meryl Streep, Colin Kaepernick, CNNand stands up for those on his list of friendsBill OReilly, Sean Hannity, Milo Yiannopoulos. He makes sure everyone knows whos been nice and not niceregardless of the fact that he is, eternally, a dick.
By Sarah Jane Tribble, Kaiser Health News
WASHINGTONWearing a blue T-shirt and worn jeans, Marc Yale stood near the welcome pole at the annual Rare Disease Legislative Advocates conference handing out money.
Envelopes in his left hand held $750 checks to help patients with a rare disease cover the cost of a whirlwind trip to the nations capital. The money was donated by the pharmaceutical industry.
Obviously, we wanted to send as many patients to advocate on Capitol Hill as possible, said Yale, the director of the International Pemphigus & Pemphigoid Foundation.
Yale collected $7,500 in donations from a specialty pharmacy and a drugmaker that manufactures treatments for the rare diseases that afflict his members. The money was intended to help offset patients travel expenses.
The pemphigus/pemphigoid group, representing people with a rare autoimmune disease that often affects the skin and mucus membranes, was just one of many small patient advocacy organizations represented at the late February conference, where sick patients and family members learn how to lobby and test their new skills. Rare diseases in the U.S. are defined as those affecting fewer than 200,000 people.
The pharmaceutical industry is teaming up with advocacy groups that are training and even paying for patients who need their medicines to promote their causes in Washington.
National polls identify high drug prices as Americans No. 1 health care complaint, and President Trump has declared that pharmaceutical companies are getting away with murder.
But these behind-the-scenes partnerships between the pharmaceutical industry and advocacy groups may work against reducing the price of high-price drugs. Critics say vulnerable patients are being manipulated and the goals promoted are skewed by the pharma benefactors who want faster government approval for new products and to get insurers or government programs to pay for them, whatever the price tag.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist who has studied the issue, said he questions whether patient advocacy groups truly are white knights defending the good fight. He said research suggests that the conflicts of interest that occur when drug companies train and finance patient groups are pretty rampant. Emanuel co-authored a March study that found 83 percent of the 104 largest patient advocacy groups take money from the drug, medical device, and biotech industries. Smaller organizations are even more likely to be disproportionately dependent on industry funding for their operating budgets, he said.
Among repeat attendees at this years conference were 17-year-olds Shira Strongin and Emily Muller, who both suffer from a debilitating connective tissue disease known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes.
Strongin said the patient voice has helped pass laws, such as the 21st Century Cures Act that patients lobbied Congress for the previous year.
Hearing personal stories makes things just hit home more, she added.
But some conference first-timers were skeptical about the motivations: What Im seeing just doesnt feel right, said Aaron Motschenbacher, who participated because his three young children suffer from deadly and progressive multiple sulfatase deficiency, a rare hereditary metabolic disorder.
Before paying his own way to take an early flight home, he complained that patients and their families had no involvement drafting, creating, or discussing the messaging delivered to Congress, adding: Its like marketing, Im pushing an agenda by and through a sob story.
Sharing Their Stories
The patient-lobbying conference, organized by the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases, underlines how the financial interests of manufacturers and the medical needs of patients are intertwined.
More than 300 patients and advocates attended, and nearly all took part in a subsequent Lobby Day to visit congressional staff and lawmakers. They permitted a reporter from Kaiser Health News to observe and also join in a reception showcasing art by some of the patients.
Many patients were visibly sick or terminally ill. When deployed to pay visits to politicians, they add a human face to lobbying efforts around proposed legislation that affects pharma. Legislation like the Cures Act might increase spending on drug development or grease the pathway of drugs to market and with fewer regulations.
Before going to Capitol Hill, the patients and their families underwent a day of training, learning how to tell their stories. If at a loss for what to talk about, they were provided talking points on what EveryLife staffers called potential asks.
The groups president, Dr. Emil Kakkis, is a drug industry executive. He said the foundation doesnt tell patients what to do on the Hill. They are given options.
During one session called Tricks of the Trade: Preparing for a Successful Meeting, Soapbox Consulting chief executive Christopher Kush walked the audience through logistics for the next day.
The attendees were given a mobile app, which shows each advocates prearranged meeting list. Checking a map, Kush looked at the audience and said: If you see a little dot where you live, you may have a new member of Congressor a green check on your state, that means you have a new senator.
He asked the audience to raise their hands if they saw dots and checks.
Oh, here you come, Kush said. Its going to be like an army walking up the hallways [of Congress]. I just got chills.
The foundation also enlists patient advocates to woo members of Congress to join its rare disease caucus and to support legislation to expedite drug development.
For attendees, the meetings do have benefits.
Advocate Janice Ragazzo said EveryLife training and Hill visits taught her how to create a disease registry, grow her disease organizations outreach, and how to talk with regulators. Her goal is to develop federal billing codes that could help track the prevalence of her daughters genetic disease.
They also learn from each other: Lisa Douthit, the leader of a different rare disease group, shook her head admiringly as Yale explained his fundraising strategy as he passed out the $750 checks.
Its great PR for the pharmaceutical company, she said.
More than that, perhaps, such events allow parents and patients with a rare disease to connect with each othermany are delighted to realize theyre not alone in their suffering.
Ive watched kids sometimes who felt so timid and afraid and shy to share their stories learn to embrace it as part of their life, Muller said. And I think thats been the most incredible part for me.
A Coordinated Strategy
One focus of this years conference was the OPEN Act, which provides a financial reward for drugmakers who do clinical trials to repurpose an existing drug to treat a rare disease. A white paper explained the bill to participants and gave tips for what to say on the Hill.
In what appeared to be a coordinated strategy, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) reintroduced the OPEN (officially the Orphan Product Extensions Now, Accelerating Cures and Treatments) Act on the House floor the week of the conference. Bilirakis has worked with EveryLife on the bill for several years and it had been included in the House version of the Cures Act, though it was dropped from the final law. More than 220 patient organizations have signed on to support it and it has steadily gained co-sponsors, said EveryLifes Julia Jenkins. Jenkins said the bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate soon.
If approved, it would give drugmakers six months of extra market exclusivity to repurpose a drug in addition to the patents or other exclusivity periods it may already have.
EveryLife wrote in a March Health Affairs blog post that the law would double the number of treatments available and generate lower-cost medicines for the rare disease community.
But in a recent journal paper, Harvards Dr. Aaron Kesselheim argued that the law offers unnecessary incentives for manufacturers that already have blockbuster drugs.
Mixed Motivations
The EveryLife Foundations Rare Giving program covered about 100 travel stipends for conference attendees. While that is largely paid for by the foundations board members, including Kakkis, Jenkins said the group is actively trying to get industry to fund the program.
Top donors to EveryLife include pharmaceutical companies AbbVie, Alexion, BioMarin, Raptor Pharmaceutical, and the Kakkis family, according to the foundations most recent annual report. EveryLife reported income of nearly $1.8 million in 2015.
Kakkis, a successful medical researcher, founded Novato, Calif.-based Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical in 2010 to develop more ultra-rare disease drugs. Last year, he earned a base salary of $567,200 with a potential performance-based cash bonus that could equal up to 60 percent of his salary, according to corporate financial filings.
Kakkis is forthright about wearing multiple hatsposting his affiliations openly on his biography page on the Ultragenyx website. With a charming and compelling personality, he is also well-known for his ability to get things done.
Late last year, Kakkiss foundationwith his army of advocateslobbied for the Cures Act. One of the patients, Max Schill, was the little boy who stood with congressional leaders as they signed the bill to send to President Obama. Key backers included EveryLifes legislative caucus for rare diseases, which counts more than 100 House members and five senators among its ranks. Since 2011, Kakkis has individually contributed $48,100 to political committees, including $6,000 to Bilirakis.
Kakkis explained in a June 2010 Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing that he started EveryLife after working through the Food and Drug Administrations process to win approval for Aldurazyme, an enzyme replacement therapy he developed to treat one form (MPS I) of a group of disorders known as mucopolysaccharidoses.
Eventually the drug was approved, he said, but with a three-year delay. And, during that time, a number of MPS I patients passed away, Kakkis said.
In Kakkiss view, drug companies and patients have a shared interest in getting drugs developed and approved.
I do think the companys interest [and patients interests] are not misaligned, he said.
Thats the Way Washington Works
Emanuel said he believes that patient advocacy groups should openly state their potential conflicts while participating in regulatory meetings. In addition, Emanuel said, drug and device manufacturers should annually report how much they pay patient advocacy groups just as they do with physicians and teaching hospitals.
In response to rising conflict-of-interest concerns, the National Health Council, a coalition of patient advocacy groups and other organizations, updated its guidelines in March and now requires member advocacy groups to divulge all contributions from pharmaceutical, biotechnology or device companies that exceed a certain threshold.
Dr. Christopher Austin of the National Institutes of Health invited several patient advocacy groupsincluding EveryLifeto speak at NIH during the agencys annual rare disease day.
I have no idea what their funding is, we just look at the work they do, said Austin, director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
Speaker Max Bronstein, EveryLifes chief advocacy and science policy officer, thanked the audience for advocating on behalf of the 21st Century Cures Act and talked about the OPEN Act, saying it is the legislation weve been working on for a few years.
Austin said he was aware that Kakkis was both the head of EveryLife and Ultragenyx.
You know, Washington is full of those people, Austin said. As Ive learned being here, thats the way Washington works, for better or worse. Its a little stinky, frankly, but there you are.
Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
James Gray is a filmmaker out of timein the absolutely best senseand thats reconfirmed by The Lost City of Z, his adaptation of David Granns nonfiction book about early 20th century British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), who repeatedly ventured into the Amazon in search of an ancient South American civilization. As with Grays prior films, its a saga defined by empathetic melodrama and lush, haunting, hypnotic widescreen visuals. Yet despite its adherence to the classical style that has gained him so much acclaim both here and abroad, the 48-year-old directors latest (whose touchstones include Apocalypse Now and Aguirre the Wrath of God) also stands as something of a departure, at least insofar as its his first tale to not be set in his native New Yorka shift, he claims, that was less than wholly conscious.
Thinking back on it now, there must have been a major aspect to it, at least unconsciously, where I didnt want to fall into a rut, and keep making the same movie over and over again, Gray says via phone during his media tour in support of The Lost City of Z, which debuted to raves at last years New York Film Festival. You kind of want to keep doing that. You want to express the same thematic concerns. But you dont make the same movie exactly. So I was worried about falling into a rut, and I wanted to try to grow as much as I could. I felt, after The Immigrantwhich I had a very happy experience makingthat it was certainly time. But even after Two Lovers, when I first got this book, I had begun to feel the itch.
To be fair, this is hardly the first time Gray has sought to recreate a distinctive, era-specific environment for the big-screenbe it the sheltered life of Joaquin Phoenixs single Brooklynite in 2009s Two Lovers, or the 1920s New York traversed by Marion Cotillards exploited young woman in 2014s The Immigrant, hes long been fascinated with highly specific milieus fraught with class tensions. And moreover, hes been drawn to characters who, mired in such environments, find themselves feeling disrespected, and alone, and apart in the world.
Class is an enormous factor with most Gray protagonists. Thats certainly true with regards to The Lost City of Zs Fawcett, whos desperate to raise himself up into high society through a career as an explorer and, in doing so, to shake off the dishonor bequeathed to him by his father. His mission to find the Lost City of Zwhich he believes to be the birthplace of a bygone culture far more advanced than his British compatriots believed South American savages were capable of producingis thus rooted in a desire to make something of himself in the face of constant doubt and disparagement.
Gray confesses that such emotions are what spoke deeply to him about the material. Part of his [Fawcetts] desire for exploration was noble, but part of it was about a certain form of escape from the shackles of class. And I found that very personal, if not autobiographical. Im from a working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York. A semi-attached row house on a treeless blockits like Archie Bunkers house. I dont have all that many happy memories of my childhood, to be candid. So I do remember Manhattan being this elusive, fabulous world that I had no access to, and in some ways, that experience shapes you completely. So Fawcett being shut out of the ball at the beginning of the movie is, I suppose, the same thing as my film being not accepted by somebody or another. Not being part of a club.
Just as Grays films are about men and women trying to carve out a niche for themselves in an often-hostile world, so too do his own films occupy a small sliver of a modern movie landscape awash in big-budget spectacles aimed at an adolescent (or, at least, adolescent-minded) audience. With adult dramas such as his increasingly squeezed out of the marketplace, Gray perseveres in the hope that, via his work, he can create a unique brand for himself a la his good friend Wes Anderson (I hope thats the case for me as well). While he believes todays dominant cinematic form, the superhero movie, isnt inherently badsaying that Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight proved that you can do something beautiful and interesting with the genrehe laments the increasingly sclerotic nature of todays studio system, which seems intent on only making comic-book movies, few of which are as personal as Nolans efforts.
What youre talking about is a system where they have limited and trained the audience over a couple of decades, to have a certain set of desires and priorities. That to me is a sadness, because thats not the only thing the art form can be, he says. Its funny, people say that to me all the time, Why did you make this sort of movie? And I think to myself, What is your problem? If you want to see blockbusters, every movie is a blockbuster! You can see that constantly. Im trying to do something different.
Consequently, its not easy for Gray to get movies like The Lost City of Z made in the first place. Of course its a struggle, he states. But I think its a worthy struggle. In a sense what youre trying to do is fight for the medium. If you spend your entire time obsessed with this idea of a certain kind of cinema, then I think its worth fighting for. Maybe Im wrong? Maybe its so not in vogue and nobody cares or wants it, and then youre trying to force-feed something that the system cant accommodate. But on the other hand, whats the alternativethat you give up, or sell out?
Also troubling to Gray is the mounting marginalization of the theatrical experiencewhich as he points out, is happening this very instant. The Lost City of Z is being distributed by Amazon, and he acknowledges that they likely care most about putting the film on their Amazon Prime service. Nonetheless, he was grateful that the company committed to getting it where it belongedon the big screen.
However, Is the theatrical experience in peril? Absolutely, he warns. Netflix is much more of an assault on the theatrical experience, and lets be candidthats dangerous. I understand that people have 60-inch televisions and all that bullshit, but thats not the same as going to the movies. I dont care how big your TV isI watch a pre-1960 movie every single night, and thats great, and my TV is good, but its not going to the movies. Its not a womb-like experience, its not the identification with the silver screen, and the projector projecting that image from behind your head. Theres no communal experience. So I dont know why people think this is the perfect substitute.
Given that The Lost City of Z is set in a culture dedicated to repudiating the equality (and basic humanity) of people from distant lands, its hard not to feel that the films arrival is unexpectedly timely. Gray, for one, finds that both accurate and depressing. All across the Western world, its a state of some catastrophe. The film was made in 2015, and I wasnt thinking about Donald Trump, thats for sure. But when you focus on something that has happened very clearly in history, often times youre in good shape because it will repeat itself completely, he remarks.
I mean, the human race is not evolved past a point where we are completely aware of our shortcomings. This idea of validating each persons existence, respecting and acknowledging the humanity of each personthe extension of our sympathies is a very important and emotional idea, and Im sorry to say its completely timely right now. Its a sadness, theres no doubt about it.
The underlying cause of this swirling global distress, according to the director, is that, for the past few decades, theres been no ideological counterweight to the idea of a market-economics system, resulting in a lack of social and financial balance. That scenario is also true of the movie industry itself, where there are four or five directors at the top who make Batman and they make a bajillion dollars, and then theres other people making movies on their iPhone. And the middle, that we love, is going away.
To combat this state of affairs, Gray believes that critics play a vital role. Movie critics are incredibly important. Movie criticism, and the quality of movie criticism, is very important to the health of the medium. Now, sometimes I dont like when somebody says I stinkits painful. But what is important is that high-quality movie criticism validates the art form in the culture. It reasserts its important in the culture.
Imbued with a haunting sense of loneliness, curiosity, ambition, and longing for escape, The Lost City of Z also reasserts the continuing relevance (and necessity) of intelligent, adult mainstream dramatic filmmaking, especially in a marketplace that caters, first and foremost, to 9-year-old boys. Its an adventure of grand scope, and a highly personal expression of equally significant ideaseven if, as Gray admits, he didnt realize until recently just how closely the film mirrored his own life.
A friend of mine saw the movie just last night, and he said, you know, the movie is about being a movie director. I said, What do you mean? And he said, Well, its about you. You go off and you have this obsession, and most of the time, they failwhich is true, most of the time, movies are failures, which is a strange sentence. And then you have a wife with two boys and a girl at home, and theyre obviously subject to your obsession. And I thought, Oh my God, thats completely accurate!
LONDON Intimidation, breaking and entering, double-crossing, and a suspected poisoningthe extraordinary inside story of Moscows battle to block an investigation into the murder of a Russian dissident can be told for the first time. And its an object lesson about cooperation with Russias Vladimir Putin.
The Scotland Yard detectives who followed a trail of alpha radiation from Londons ritzy Mayfair to the heart of Moscow have broken their silence in a documentary that will be broadcast in Britain next week.
In the weeks after Alexander Litvinenko was given a deadly dose of polonium-210 from a teapot in a Central London hotel, Russian authorities assured the British government that they would cooperate with the investigation and allow police officers to interview the two prime suspects in Moscow.
As soon as the detectives landed in Russia in December 2006, it became clear that the authorities were not there to help. There had been no public announcement of the mission to secure evidence in Moscow but a phalanx of photographers and videocameras greeted their arrival at the airport.
The message to the officers was clear: We are watching you.
It was supposed to be a top-secret trip, but their cover was immediately blown, the documentarys BAFTA-winning producer Richard Kerbaj told The Daily Beast.
MI6 had warned the detectives about using cellphones, bugging, and honey traps before they left. It was very much intimidationyou have your overt covert and your covert covert intelligence. It was just so obvious, said Kerbaj.
They were playing by the British rulebook and the Russians were there to undermine the investigation from the very beginning.
The first man suspected of involvement in the assassination of Litvinenko was former KGB agent Dmitri Kovtun. After a series of delaying tactics, Scotland Yard detectives were finally given his whereaboutsthey jumped straight into their vehicle and asked their Russian driver to race to the hospital where they were told Kovtun was suffering from polonium poisoning.
Instead of driving directly to the hospital, the driver took repeated wrong turns as though he was deliberately slowing their journey. After a few U-turns, they arrived at the hospital to find a man completely disguised beneath medical equipment and bandages.
The only thing that you could see was the eyes. It could have been anyone sat in the bed. We will never know who it was, former Detective Inspector Brian Tarpey told the Channel 4 documentary Hunting the KGB Killers.
After just a few minutes of questionswhich the Russian authorities said they would record on behalf of the Scotland Yard inspectorsthey were told their time was up.
As they waited for their next major interview, events continued to infuriate the officers. They were frequently followed; their questions went unanswered; and small pieces of paper placed in drawers and bags as traps to show signs of tampering were disturbed while they were out of their hotel.
The former head of Scotland Yards Counter Terrorism Command, Peter Clarke, said: To put it simply, they were messed about. The Russians kept saying Were cooperating, but it was unlike any cooperation that Ive ever seen.
During one meeting at the prosecutor generals office, Tarpey was offered a drink. I had a cup of tea and we left. I started to feel a little uncomfortable, and not wanting to put too fine a point on it I had the shits. I have no doubt in my mind that we were probably poisoned with something like gastroenteritis. I think that there was a deliberate ploy to weaken us physically, he said.
On Monday, the second suspect, Andrei Lugovoy, was asked about the poison claim by British investigators. They were here in 2006, we met, he told RBC daily. As for their tea poison allegations, I can only say that either they have gone mad or theyve read too much of Conan Doyle.
During that meeting with Lugovoy, the detectives had a bit of trouble as the authorities said the suspect didnt speak English and everything had to be done through translators. Still, theyd be able to go back over the tapes when they got home.
I thought that, well this has been recorded so we will get what it is thats been said and we can compare that to the notes that have been taken. At the end of the interview, Lugovoy kind of smirked and said, Good luck with your investigation in English, Tarpey said.
At the end of the trip the British detectives collected the packets of evidence, which the Russian authorities had insisted they keep, and boarded the plane back to London. When officers went through the filesthe Lugovoy tape was gone.
What was probably the most important output from that whole deployment, it never made it on the plane, said former Detective Chief Superintendent Clive Timmons, who ran the operation. Was it an accident? Nah. It didnt tell me that Tarps or anyone else had been unprofessional. It told me wed been done.
It was looking as though events in Moscow would prove Timmons cynical old Scotland Yard colleagues right. Some of the more experienced detectives recalled the assassination of Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident in London, whose 1978 murder with a poison-tipped umbrella was never solved.
Some of the senior rank were saying, Yeah you are never going to solve it. You are never going to get near solving it, Timmons said with a determined look on his face. That only doubled his resolve.
* * *
The first breakthrough came while Litvinenko, who was known as Sasha to his friends, was still alive. Post mortem is one of the most valuable tools in informing murder enquiries and Sasha was obviously livingso I wanted to do the equivalent of a living post mortem, Timmons said.
The doctors had ruled out thallium, a heavy metal suspected by Litvinenko, and they had ruled out all nuclear materials because polonium gave off different kind of radiation and had not been detected. They told detectives that they might never know what had effectively liquefied the insides of an otherwise healthy man.
Timmons overruled the medical team and sent a urine sample to Britains Atomic Weapons Establishment. They said they had found a tiny trace of polonium. I was thinking we have all grown up watching James Bond, we all know plutonium we all know uranium, so I say Polonium? Dont you mean plutonium? And so, this fellavery tolerantlysays, No, Clive, I mean, polonium-210. Whats polonium-210? Its the most toxic substance known to man.
The method of murder had been ascertained, but not the weapon itself. Again, it took Timmonss instincts to ignore the expert advice he was being given. He ordered a laborious full test of all of the crockery at the Millennium Hotel where Litvinenko had met Lugovoy and Kovtun, even though he was told all traces would have been washed away after weeks of going though their dishwashers.
The results came back and, boom, there was the smoking teapot.
Vladimir Putin, who was accused of ordering the hit, says Kovtun and Lugovoy, who deny the charges, will not be extradited for trial in Britain.
They will never be jailed for the crime which they were formally accused of perpetrating during the Litvinenko inquiry in London last year, but the detectives and Litvinenkos wife, Marina, are satisfied that the murder has been solved.
Marina now knows her husbands story has been told and if it is disputed, well, then the people it applies to, they can happily bowl up here and have their day in court to explain their story, Timmons said.
Hunting the KGB Killers will be broadcast on Britains Channel 4 on Monday, April 17.
On March 29, ICE arrested five people when they showed up for scheduled appointments before the U.S. Citizenship and Iimmigration Services. These appointments are normally the first step (and its required) in legalizing ones status. If it sounds crazy that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would arrest people who are trying to get right with the law, thats because it is.
The takeaway here is twofold:
1. This is not new. It did happen before under George W. Bush, and yes, even under Barack Obama. But while it varied from office to office, it was the exception, not the rule. Now, however, it may no longer be the exception.
2. This means one has to be extremely careful in taking that first step. ICE is going to make an already difficult process even more difficult.
The people arrested all had final orders of removal. In order to have a shot at vacating (canceling) those orders, they have to have an immigrant petition approved, which is what they were trying to do. Theyre not out of the woods yet: They still have to get their cases reopened and apply for the green card.
I wrote before about how there are serious problems with rigorous enforcement of the immigration law. This is a prime example: ICE could allow these people to attempt legalization of status before detaining them. The law allows them to. But because they are called on to enforce the law rigorously, they go after the low-hanging fruit. That includes people who serve themselves up by showing up for a required appointment. The fact that these folks had no criminal record (extensive family and business ties to the United States, including infant children) is of no import.
So while the practice itself is not new, the fact that this might be the new normal is new. And its obnoxious. It takes the wind out of the argument that people should do things legally. How can an agency establish a requirement but then detain you if you follow it? The only other option is to slink back into the shadows. Its a classic Catch-22.
I believe the practice may be unlawful: an agency arguably should not be able to establish such blatantly conflicting rules. Moreover, U.S. citizens in these situations are denied consortium of their family members for simply doing the right thing.
Immigration lawyers now have to advise clients assuming detention at any stage. We already have heard verified reports of ICE picking up people at their report dates. ICE sometimes sends out call-in letters where the sole purpose is to have the person show up to get detained. Its hard to say whats next; we cannot even say this practice is limited to those with orders of removal.
Therefore, it is even more important now for the prior removal orderand entire immigration historyto be analyzed and attacked before a person shows up to any appointment with USCIS, ICE, or Customs and Border Protection. Detention does not necessarily have to mean deportation. A detention plan needs to be in place: Who will care for your children? What happens to your job? Who else in the family is at risk? Federal court litigation to order release must be considered and perhaps prepared in advance. It may be best to move to a different state where, if the person is detained, the laws and procedures provide better protection against deportation. Some people might have viable secondary forms of relief such as asylum.
As usual, every case is different. But whats not different is the tone of this administration: Well get you wherever we can.
ICE must answer for this nonsensical practice. It cannot be dismissed by saying Well, they had orders of removal. That just shows ignorance of the law. Law that allows these people to legalize their status, even if the removal orders were lawful. If every law was this rigorously enforced, every speeding ticket would result in loss of license; every mistake on your tax return would mean jail time. And punishment would come before trial.
Due process is under attack by this administration. It has called for rigorous enforcement, vitiated any concept of prioritization of deportation, attempted to ban refugees and Muslims, expand detention of immigrant families. And this is a concern for us all.
Hassan Ahmad is an immigration lawyer practicing in Northern Virginia. He tweets at @HMAesq.
Retired General Mike Flynn has had a tough couple weeks, and the White House seems more than happy to kick him while hes down.
President Donald Trumps former national security adviser worked with White House lawyers last month to correct a financial disclosure statement that omitted any mention of payments from Russian government-linked entities, only to see the White House release that information to the press.
The White House would have been entirely within its rights keeping the information to itselfand it did so for other officials who amended financial disclosure statements.
Instead they released them, causing an additional headache for Flynn and casting more suspicion on the former Trump adviser.
An official cited restrictions on communication with Flynn, but a source close to Flynn says the White House directly advised his attorney on the amended disclosure.
Days after the White House chose to reveal Flynns initial omissions, when top Trump strategist Steve Bannon was removed from the National Security Counsel, anonymous White House officials spun his presence there as an effort to keep Flynn in check. With Flynn gone, Bannons presence was no longer needed, the officials said.
Flynns week of bad press, and the apparent hostility from his former White House colleagues, came on the tail end of reports that he was seeking immunityunsuccessfully thus farfrom congressional investigators in exchange for testimony on Russian meddling in last years presidential election.
General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit, Flynns attorney Robert Kelner said at the time.
That statement immediately preceded a series of unfortunate events for Flynn, who is at the center of ongoing controversy over reports that U.S. intelligence officials intercepted communications from Trump campaign officials last year.
First, the White House publicly revealed Flynns initial failure to disclose payments for a speech at the tenth anniversary gala of Russian government sponsored propaganda network RT, or Russia Today.
That was information that the White House could have kept private. Its released led to allegations of impropriety from some congressional Democratsincluding Rep. Eric Swalwell, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, one of the panels from which Flynn sought immunity.
Of the 180 officials for whom the White House released financial disclosure statements last week, Flynn appeared to be the only one who had original and amended versions of that statement sent out to the media.
Discrepancies between the two disclosures raised red flags due to payments from RT and two other Russian entities, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky and airline Volga Dnepr. None of the three had been disclosed in Flynns initial filing.
But amendments to financial disclosure statements are routine. Numerous other Trump administration officials amended their initial disclosure forms without having their initial formsand their accompanying errors or omissionsreleased to the press.
Virtually all filers in every administration amend their disclosures from time to time because of the complexity of the forms and the precision of the information required, a White House source familiar with the disclosure process acknowledged.
The source said that Flynns case was unique due to the unusual circumstances surrounding his resignation from the White House in February.
Flynn had stepped down after failing to disclose discussions with Moscows ambassador to the U.S. during last years presidential campaign regarding American sanctions against Russia.
The White House official also alluded to restrictions on communications between Flynn and the White House counsels office. They released both forms to ensure complete transparency under those circumstances, the official said.
But a source close to Flynn says there were no such restrictions. In fact, the counsels office was in direct contact with Flynns attorney in an effort to sort out any errors or omissions in Flynns initial ethics filing.
When they contacted Gen. Flynns representatives last week and asked for an updated version, there were back and forth discussions about how speaking fees should be disclosed and Gen. Flynn followed the White Houses guidance, the source said.
White House counsel Stefan Passantino referred questions to the press office, which did not respond to repeated requests for additional information that might resolve that discrepancy.
Even after Flynn incorporated input directly from top White House attorneys, the counsels office released both versions of the form, leading to additional scrutiny of Flynns controversial ties to Russia-linked entities.
Critics portrayed Flynns initial failure to disclose payments from RT, Kaspersky, and Volga Dnepr as suspicious at best and nefarious at worst. Swalwell and Sen. Tom Udall both cited the amended disclosure in an official capacity this week.
As congressional Democrats hammered Flynn for that reporting oversight, White House officials were taking anonymous shots at Flynn in the press.
When Bannon was removed from the NSC on Wednesday, one official told The Daily Beast that the shadow Flynn had cast over the White House panel was no longer an issue, and Bannons presence was therefore no longer needed.
Bannon was only on [NSC] to babysit Flynn. Trump was losing faith in him, the official said.
In a White House where top aides have no clearly defined lanes of authority, and all are vying for Big Daddys attention, the rivalries are escalating to the point where even the President has had enough, ordering son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and embattled advisor Steve Bannon, to work it out. The dictum comes after Bannon and his America First nationalist agenda took a few hits thanks to the ascendancy of Kushner and his allies who Bannon dubs, the Democrats.
There isnt anything that Kushner cant do in his father-in-laws eyes. In theory its a good thing that President Trump has created a new Office of American Innovation to overhaul the creaky federal bureaucracy and make it more efficient. There are surely lots of outdated programs, and reform is overdue, but can Trump be serious when he puts his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in charge of this new effort?
Its easy to find mocking assessments of Kushner, the anointed one, and his growing list of projects, from peace in the Middle East to overseeing the opioid crisis, with everything foreign and domestic in between. Its hard to imagine Kushner, with all hes got on his plate, getting super-excited about government reform.
I reached into my memory bank to see how similar efforts fared. Jimmy Carter came to Washington touting zero-based budgeting, which had worked for him in Georgia, but proved unwieldy to apply at the federal level, when there are vastly more programs to scrub. Carters former media advisor, Jerry Rafshoon, told me this week that the principle behind it was right, and he urged me to call Stu Eizenstat, who was Carters domestic policy advisor, to get a fuller picture.
First, Rafhsoon wanted to share that Kushners latest promotion reminded him of when Louis B. Mayer, founder of MGM, appointed his son-in-law, a second or third-rate producer, to head the iconic MGM Studio. The headline in Variety the next day said, Son in law also rises.
With the humor out of the way, I called Eizenstat, a serious and lawyerly policy person, who responded unhesitatingly about Kushners Office of American Innovation: I applaud it. If its not simply used as an excuse to chop off programs at the head, but to make them more effective, its a timely thing to doand hes the right person to do it. Hes close enough to the president so agency heads realize its a presidential initiative, otherwise they get caught up in the bureaucracy.
Eizenstat then proceeded to give me chapter and verse on Carter-era reforms, which included creating the Department of Energy and the Department of Education (which Republicans would like to eliminate) and a hit list of 19 costly water projects backed by members of Congress that Carter saw as wasteful and unnecessary.
It was done inartfully, politically, Eizenstat concedes, but it marked the beginning of the end of these massive Corps of Engineers projects that damaged wetlands, marshes and natural habitat.
Carter never recovered from the negative blowback that hit list generated in his first 100 days. It made all those Western congressmen mad at us, says Rafshoon. One said to me, You guys dont understand, water to us is like you people (Southerners) on race. That was insult added to injury for the Georgians.
Every President since Carter has had some sort of government management reform initiative. Al Gores REGO (Reinventing Government) is the most well known, the most widely mocked, and in a small-bore way, the most effective.
REGO legislation sent to Congress amidst great fanfare in September 1993 didnt go anywhere. It was parceled out to various committees and sub-committees never to surface again. But recommendations for hundreds of different proposals made it into law, and 640,000 pages of internal agency rules were tossed out, like the ashtray safety test, which Gore demonstrated by going on the David Letterman show and smashing a government-issue ashtray with a hammer.
Among REGO accomplishments: Medicare can be found under M in the phone book as opposed to under Health and Human Services. Obsolete field offices like the Tea-Tasters Board, the Bureau of Mines, and wool and mohair subsidies were eliminated.
Federal workers with good ideas got Hammer Awards, a framed hammer that recalled Defense Department procurement scandals in the 1980s when a toilet seat cost the government $640, and a basic tool you could pick up at the hardware store cost $400.
None of what REGO accomplished was very sexy, or got much attention, but to get even as far as Gore got took an enormous amount of his attention as vice-president, plus the attention of a staff led by Elaine Kamarck, a renowned scholar in public administration and government reform efforts, whose full time job was to delve into the workings of government with an eye to improving performance.
The idea behind the currently conceived Innovation Office is to bring 21st-century private-sector thinking and technology and Big Data to the staid and stodgy world of the federal government. President Obama began that effort under duress when the healthcare.gov website he had touted for people to sign up for health care insurance collapsed of its own weight in October 2013.
Obama put out an S.O.S. to the Silicon Valley tech sector, and several tech stars answered the call. Out of that rescue mission came Obamas U.S. Digital Service (USDS), led by Google engineer Mikey Dickerson. By the time Dickerson stepped down as a political appointee at the end of the Obama administration, USDS had 200 staffers. Tasked to improve government IT, most worked out of the White House complex with teams in key agencies like Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.
What comes across is how difficult it is to make productive reforms, how much focus it takes, how much time it takes, and how little positive reinforcement those who do this work receive. One person doing it part-time who also has to placate religious factions in Iraq and navigate the warring factions in the White House is unlikely to get very far. Maybe thats the point.
Last week, President Trump, who cast himself on the campaign trail as a non-interventionist, pulled a complete 180, launching 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Shayrat air base outside of Homs, Syria. The president claimed to have been moved to action after viewing the horrifying images of the victimsmany women and childrenof a chemical-weapons attack in the province of Idlib. The civilian-targeting attack is said to have been ordered by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the planes carrying what is believed to be the deadly (and banned) nerve agent sarin took off from Shayrat.
On Sunday night, in addition to sending a message to Bill OReilly and President Trump about sexual harassment, comedian John Oliver criticized the borderline orgasmic reactions to the Thursday night airstrikes by the cable news mediaparticularly that of disgraced NBC anchor Brian Williams, who has a history of fabricating stories.
We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two U.S. Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean. I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: Im guided by the beauty of our weapons. And they are beautiful pictures of fearsome armaments, Williams announced.What are you talking about?! exclaimed Oliver. It is a little ironic to see Brian Williams on MSNBC talking about the beauty of our weapons because that is not a phrase anyone would use if they had, for instance, ever been in a helicopter that was hit by ground fire.
Oliver was taking a shot at Williams for lying about his experience while covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Williams was ultimately suspended for six months and demoted from anchor of NBC Nightly News to MSNBC. But Williams wasnt the only one who praised Trumps airstrikes against Assad. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham both came out in favor of the strikes, while Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of Trumps most outspoken critics, called it the right thing to do.
But there are some serious questions that need to be answered regarding these airstrikes, which were in retaliation against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assads apparent use of chemical weapons to target his own peoplewhich is undeniably horrific, but as many have noted, when Assad did the same thing four years ago, Trumps reaction was significantly different, noted Oliver.
Indeed, in the wake of the Assad regimes 2013 chemical-weapons attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, which claimed an estimated 1,300 lives, Donald Trump tweeted dozens of times about how the U.S. should stay out of Syria, and how then-President Obama must seek congressional approval in order to pursue military action against Assad (something that Trump failed to do).Now, administrative officials have said it was the gruesome images of the chemical-weapons attack that changed Trumps mind, which on one level is absolutely understandablethe images were truly horrifying, just as, again, they were four years ago, said Oliver. But while it is natural to want to take some kind of action in response, it has to come in the context of a larger strategy or its close to worthless, because though the strikes seemed to make certain people feel better, what did they actually achieve?Less than 24 hours after the Tomahawk strikes, planes were reportedly seen taking off from Shayrat air base, which sustained minimal damage from the offensivein part due to the fact that President Trump is said to have tipped off both Russia (and, therefore, Assad) prior to initiating the strike. All of this, of course, leaves many unanswered questions.
Look, maybe a symbolic airstrike was strategically the best move for Trump, but I dont think hes thinking strategically, because there is no indication that hes taken the time to answer some fairly basic questions, like: If this was a warning shot, what are we warning against? Do we only want to stop Assad using chemical weapons, or are we going to push for regime change? If he does it again, are we prepared to go to war to stop him? If so, are we prepared for how significantly this may deteriorate our relationship with Russia? And how will that affect our fight against ISIS? asked Oliver.This is complicated, he continued. And Im not saying there are right answers here, Im saying there needs to be a tangible strategy acknowledging how difficult taking on Assad actually is, because right now, we have a president who feeds off praise and he just got a lot of it for bombing someone. And that should make everyone very, very worried.
They had already colonized Vancouver. And now, in the latest mutation of the fiercely made-up and dressed cabal who began their conquering of the media universe in Orange County 11 years agolater growing to encompass an NHL-league-wide of citiesthe Real Housewives have a new Canadian colony: Toronto.
Is this covered in the NAFTA agreement? someone joked to me at a recent soiree in town; after all, the real housewife label confers a fresh notoriety to a crop of women unknown, more often than not, to most.
In many ways, the recent debut of The Real Housewives of Toronto, was treated like any American export arriving in Canadas largest metropolisnot unlike when Momofuku opened here some years ago, or when Saks finally set up shop last year.
Trafficking in the lives and travails of a certain caste of womendroll Ann, low-drinking Kara, hippy-dippy Jana, try-hard Joan, congenial Gregoriane, and histrionic Roxythe show plays with the tropes now all-too familiar to battle-worn followers of the other shows in New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Beverly Hills, et al.: endless shopping and rose-drinking, long-games of she said-she said, and too many Faustian bargains to count.
Lets not also disregard the franchises meta-narrative that was Big Little Lies before Big Little Lies was Big Little Lies (in my view) and one which Camille Pagliawho claims to watch nothing but Housewives, and TCM (Turner Classic Movies), on TV these daysonce sized up as an art form ablaze with the frank display of emotion and the sharp-elbows jockeying for power and visibility.
Girl-trips, as fans know, are a cant-miss feature of these shows: A Housewives-ologist like me can instantly call up that time the New York women jetted off to Marrakesh, the Atlanta rabble-rousers went to South Africa, or when the Bev Hills group did Paris or Hong Kong or Dubai. It didnt take that many episodes into the first season of Toronto for the gals to decamp for Muskoka.
Not really too far from Toronto (though many of the women did still take a plane), the multi-lakes idyll is often dubbed the Hamptons of Canada, and is, according to Christies International Real Estate, the worlds second-fastest growing recreational real estate market after Cote dAzur, France. Bloomberg called it a kind of rustic retreat that comes with 800-thread-count sheets.
There, the main brushstrokes of the womens dynamics began to take shape, and, moreover, what to me is the real drama (behind the drama). Here we saw how the women are choosing to present themselves on camera, and how theyre not, and what inevitably bubbles up to the surface anywayand who is receiving which edit from the producers, and how.
The original media guru Marshall McLuhan, who coined the term the medium is the messageand was from Torontowould, no doubt, have had a field-day with the Housewives! But I digress.
In Muskoka, I almost half-expected Lisa Rinna, the resident pot-stirrer on the Beverly Hills franchise, to show up for a cross-over, considering that she, too, plops down there every summer, her husband Harry Hamlin having had a family cottage in Canada for three generations. (More recent Muskoka transplants include Cindy Crawford, and her brood.) But, alas, no Rinna.
Instead, we get a shot of the women going tubing on a ginormous banana-shaped floatie, and also probably my favorite part of the series thus far: a scene in which Kara and Joan meet up at the local library, during which Kara enthuses about how her in-lawsone of the establishment families in these partswere the benefactors of the library, and Joan promptly interjects to give a classic Housewives one-up: I think I mentioned to you, we bought an island last year.
Speaking of strange-but-true cross-overs, heres some trivia: Kara was a roommate eons ago, in Los Angeles, with Kyle Richards, another Beverly Hills staple (and Paris Hiltons aunt). The latter, I understand, gave her some tips pre-shoot, like laying off the booze when with the other ladies.
In the context of the Housewives vortex, there are some interesting ways the new Canadian version distinguishes itself: Out of the six women on the show, for instance, Roxy enjoyed an Indian upbringing, and Gregoriane was born in Thailand (reflective of a city where half the population is foreign-born). Some other Canadiana fairy-dust comes, too, via Gregoriane, who is French-Canadian, and from whom we get a non-stop volley of whats known in the country as Franglais.
Meanwhile, Roxy is an atypically plus-sized Housewife (a term she personally eschews). Not shy about her curves, she even recently posted a you-go-Mrs. picture of herself in a bikini on Instagram, and has boldly taken up the message of beauty over pounds.
In terms of local color, there have been no walk-ons, alas, of local darlings like Drake, or The Weeknd, or, indeed, Prince Harrys girlfriend Meghan Markle, who has a home in the city. At least not yet. One can hope, though right?
Part of the intriguing social topography that is a feature on any Housewives show is where they eat, or sit down to eat at least. Theres been some expected sniping that the ladies deign to go to lunch at Sassafraz (a place that was a hot spot in 1999), and the fact theres another party held at a downtown nightclub called The Ace (a place terribly off-brand and firmly for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd).
Is this part of the inevitable backlash from the more polite corners of Toronto? You betcha. In these circles theres largely been a Who Are They? refrain about the ladies on the show, considering that many of the more well-known socialites in town turned down appearing on the show.
Of course, this is probably the wrong question, for in the ecosystem of Housewives, who, really, had heard of LuAann, NeNe, Ramona, Tamra, Dorit, or Pheadra before they became micro-famous on their respective shows. Its the shows, in other words, that confer a bizarro halo on these womennot the other way around.
Are the Toronto women a little too aware of the cameras on them? A little all-too-Canadian-polite to really go for the jugular? The production value a little weak-kneed in parts? Oh, I think so. Like the short-lived Vancouver version of Housewives that ran several years ago, the Toronto showwhich is not technically part of the Andy Cohen/Bravo universe, and is part of a development deal with NBC Universalcan sometimes look, at least to the trained eye, like nothing less than an Instagram of a painting.
What is now beyond satire, it seems, is the status of the main feud currently aboil on the Toronto show: that of between Roxy and Kara. I dont talk to Kara, confirms Roxy about life now, post-shoot. As any fan knows, such is the reality of being a Housewife.
Refugee advocates worry President Donald Trumps new appointee to run the agency charged with helping newly arrived refugees has little relevant experience, and fear this could mean the White House is prioritizing conservative ideology over experience when filling key posts.
The new head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is E. Scott Lloyd, a conservative lawyer from the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic charitable group.
He doesnt appear to have much experience with resettlement, which is somewhat concerning given that this is a program thats been in operation since 1980 and has been very effective in receiving, resettling, and integrating refugees across the country, said Melanie Nezer, the vice president for policy and advocacy at HIAS, a Jewish organization that contracts with HHS to resettle refugees in the U.S. We hope hes as committed to it as those of us who work on refugee resettlement are.
Reached for comment about Lloyds hiring, spokespersons for HHS and the White House told The Daily Beast they do not comment on personnel issues.
On March 24, according to a source at HHS, employees in the agencys Office of Refugee Resettlement got an email announcing Lloyd would head the office. Before heading to the office, Lloyd worked in the Knights public policy office, where he traveled to Iraq several times to help develop a major report on the danger ISIS posed to Iraqi Christians. The State Department later recognized ISISs attacks on Christians as genocide. Lloyd has also written numerous articles criticizing abortion and arguing that access to contraceptives make the procedure more common.
Lloyds work through Knights of Columbus with Christians fleeing ISIS appears to be whats most relevant to his new position. In a speech at CPAC titled Were All Infidels Now on March 3, 2016, Lloyd indicated his experience with refugees hadnt been a central part of his legal career, noting the ISIS report had been his focus over the past few weeks.
As the head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Lloyds job will face scrutiny from all corners. Trump spent the presidential campaign demonizing refugees, and one of his first major moves as president was signing an executive order to cut in half the number of refugees allowed to come to the United States. A federal judge later blocked that effort, which was part of Trumps travel ban, but the administration has defended it as well within Trumps rights as president. And Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Ted Poe recently introduced legislation that would give governors the power to keep refugees from coming to their states, according to the Washington Examiner.
Nobody who spoke with The Daily Beast questioned the importance of Lloyds work with Middle Eastern Christians fleeing ISIS. But they said it wouldnt necessarily have prepared for his responsibilities at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which works with not-for-profit organizationsmany of them faith-basedto help refugees start new lives in the United States. The State Department, not HHS, is responsible for deciding if minority groups face genocide and whether they can come to the U.S. as refugees.
He may be a wonderful guy, said Jason Dzubow, an immigration attorney who works with clients seeking asylum and fleeing violence, but he seems to be someone whos short on experience in the refugee realm.
It does seem that maybe ideology or perceived loyalty to a particular set of values is being valued more highly than experience running an agency, or organizational skills, or experience with refugees, he added.
Lloyd also worked at HHS during the Bush administration, according to the immigration news site This Week in Immigration, which broke the news of his hiring. During his time there, he worked on developing the conscience rule, which shielded doctors from having to provide medical services they believed were morally wrong. Lloyds writings on abortion and contraception reflect traditional Roman Catholic teachings. Dzubow highlighted a number of those writings in a post for The Asylumist, which covers asylum, detention, and immigrants rights issues.
Refugee advocates told The Daily Beast they hope Lloyd will vocally defend the refugee program when Trumps allies say its a secret conduit for terroristsbut they dont yet know if he will.
Nezer said her group signed on to a letter with other refugee resettlement agencies asking for a meeting with Lloyd, and are waiting to hear back from him.
To do this job, I think you have to really believe that the US has a very important role to play in offering safety and welcome to people who are persecuted and need our help, she said. If you believe that and operate with that kind of perspective, I think you could do a good job. He does not have a record on this so well have to see, and were really looking forward to talking to him.
Dzubow noted that the previous head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Eskinder Negash, spent his career working to help refugees acclimate to life in the United Statesincluding at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrantsand came to the U.S. as a refugee from Eritrea.
He said he hopes Lloyd will use his new post to defend refugees.
Youre kind of the face of the refugee resettlement movement in the U.S., and if thats the case, to some extent youve got to be advocating for the people youre serving, he said. Were at a time when refugees are being vilified in some quarters and at least treated with suspicion. Is he going to be a person who can speak out when those negative statements are false? Is he a person who will be able to speak out and stand up for refugees?
For such a small and young nation, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can claim the distinction of being the subject of a disproportionate number of misconceptions about what the country is and what it isnt.
One common misreading paints the Emirates as a haven of free-fall hyper-capitalistic excess, a luxuriant petrodollar-funded wonderland built on a heady mix of steel and glass; rivers of concrete and the rush of speeding Lamborghinis.
Much of the debate around the Emirates focuses on human rights abuses. While those issues need to be addressed, highlighted and debated, there is also more to the country that doesnt get a lot of airtime. The UAE, goes another narrative, is really a plastic society with little depth and even scarcer history and culture.
Thats one misconception that will not be altered by the Culture Summit, an international gathering of arts-industry professionals and government officials from around the world, who will descend on the UAEs capital, Abu Dhabi, this week.
The stated aim of this conference is to bring together leaders involved with artistic and cultural enterprise so that they can meet and effect cross-cultural communication in the context of a hyper-interconnected world; to address the role that culture can play in addressing some of the great challenges of our time.
That goal is severely undermined by the fact that the organizers of this conference, the Foreign Policy Group as sponsored by the UAE government-funded Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, chose to marginalize the leaders of the UAEs own artistic community.
But the conferences website shows there isnt much Emirati representation on the whole.
While I applaud the inclusion of the hugely promising Zeinab Al Hashemi and the talented Jalal Luqman, those who are conspicuously absent from the conference lineup include some of the most formidable figures in the Gulf.
Those not on the lineup include the founder of the nations oldest performing arts presenting organization, Hoda Kanoo of the Abu Dhabi Festival, and the director of the UAEs largest performing arts venue, Jasper Hope of the Dubai Opera. (According to the Summits organizers, Kanoo had to pull out of the event after initially RSVPing yes, but sent her deputy in her place. In an email, her husband Mohammed Kanoo said that Mrs Kanoo was invited at a very late stage to attend, but never to participate. In all, five out of the 18 performances at the Summit featured local Emirati and regional artists, the organizers told The Daily Beast.)
For the record, I received a somewhat generic invitation for an active, speaking role in the program in November. But somehow, my numerous attempts to follow up with the organizers of the summit came to nothing for over six months. Finally, on April 6, I was asked in email from the events steering committee to focus on next years summit, instead. Among the local cultural organizations that are missing include major players like the Emirates Fine Arts Society, UAE Writers Union, Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, Dubai Design Days, The Sharjah Biennale, and a good number of others. (A representative for the Summits organizers said that many of these groups were all invited and are either in attendance, sent a representative, or declined due to prior engagements.) Most troubling is the absence of the actual Emirati artists who are leading the scene of creative discourse in the Summits host nation.
Among the local cultural organizations that are missing include major players like the Emirates Fine Arts Society, UAE Writers Union, Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, Dubai Design Days, The Sharjah Biennale, and a good number of others. Most troubling is the absence of the actual Emirati artists who are leading the scene of creative discourse in the Summits host nation.
Internationally renowned figures like Ebtisam Abdulaziz and Mohammed Kazem are projecting their voices across the globe but remain absent from the local conversation of the conference. (Emails reviewed by The Daily Beast show the two were invited.)
Not a single one of these seven artists, described by The Wall Street Journal as exciting and internationally recognized are being featured.
The brightest emerging figures of a new generation are also nowhere to be found, like writer Mishaal Al Gergawi, spoken word poet Afra Atiq, independent film producer Butheina Hamid Kazim, and fashion designer and conceptual artist, Ahmed Alanzi. (Gergawi and Alanzi were both invited, according to the documents reviewed by The Daily Beast; however, Alanzi said he received the invitation only at the last minute and was attending as an observer. He attended the summit on Tuesday.)
Alongside their absence are the hipster-infused insurgent movements of artists that squat around settlements like the industrial-warehouse-spaces-turned-galleries lining Al Serkal Avenue, or the narrative-defying Cinema Akil: both could be a vital link to the bold cultural movements that are defining an enchantingly weird, excited and confident love affair with self-expression and experimentation that may be the most underreported trend of youthful artistic expression in the Middle East today. This conference misses that scene entirely.
Even the very young figures who are most in need of affirmation, like the talented pianist Sarah Al Kaabi for example, are seeing themselves barred from the table and might even think the exclusion normal.
That part is most painful for me as an Emirati artist.
When I was a child my musical time in the UAE had to be supplemented. Id wait tirelessly to return to New York so that I could go see La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera or West Side Story on Broadway.
People would refer to the Emirates as a cultural wasteland. I found the moniker discouraging but I more or less agreed with it. Over time, I learned to see things differently.
Instead of looking eagerly for a name or a face that looked like mine in the heavily Western anthologies of musicology and music history, I started to realize that, while it may be harder to build an entirely new road rather than travel on the shoulders of giants down an established path already charted for us, it meant that I got to build my own road. How awesome is that?
There is nothing wrong with the fact that the FP Group has selected Tan Dun, the brilliant Chinese composer, as composer-in-residence; it adds to the richness to have him in the UAE, and a younger version of me wouldve been starved to meet a cultural icon like that.
But not only do the younger versions of me not have access to this invitation-only (even for observers) summit; in 50 years a young Emirati composer looking eagerly for a name or face that looked like his in the history books will see an image in the very first composer-in-residence at Abu Dhabis Global Culture Summit that will imply to him/her that Faisal Al Saari, myself, or countless other talented figures were not options for that particular position. (As of April 5four days before the start of the eventSaari was not listed on its website at all; he was subsequently added as a presenting artist.)
But just because we are not included does not mean we are not here.
Out of the cultural wasteland of my childhood, Ive seen major cultural institutions emerge with whom I work and take great joy in sharing my work with in our communities.
For all the criticisms of the UAE (and many of them are valid), I consider the fact that a young Emirati pianist like Sara Al-Kaabi and a composer with the melodic gift of Faisal Al Saari no longer has to wait to go to New York to see West Side Story because there are now institutions like Dubai Opera.
They dont have to smuggle scores, like contraband, from London; now they can head over to the library at NYU Abu Dhabi and check out Mahlers 5th Symphony, or Blochs Kol Nidrei on the spot.
Ive worked hard for over a decade towards bringing this vision closer to reality. Id take heart by reminding myself of this bigger picture whenever I was discouraged; it reminded me that I was part of something bigger than myself. That kept me going.
You can imagine my joy when, on my way to attend the premiere of my latest opera in Amsterdam, reviewed as one of the most ambitious, high-profile statements by an Emirati artist, I read the following words from a younger colleague who made her way from Dubai to Amsterdam in order to attend the premiere: Fairouz, through this opera is quite literally blazing the trails that a new generation of Emirati artists will certainly appreciate
With their exclusions the message that the presenters of this Culture Summit are telegraphing to our aspiring generation of creative artists is destructive. These artists are already fighting an uphill battle in a rough part of the world, and they are fighting it in a world that has all sorts of preconceived notions about who they are as Arabs and as Muslims.
In a world where the reconciliation of voices from the Islamic world with the West is increasingly vital to conflict prevention, overlooking the aspirations of the people in the region is not conducive to realizing a positive image of the diverse world in which we live.
Partnerships abound in the Emirates. From the Louvre to the Guggenheim and NYU Abu Dhabi, the land that the UAE was built on has relished partnerships since the days of the Silk Road and before.
But those major partnerships are unique in their own ways. And the people at the FP group should know. I wrote the following in Foreign Policy Magazine, itself less than a year ago:
The internationalism of the UAE (where people of more than 202 nationalities live) provides a veritable laboratory for exploring cultural interchange and learning. In such a diverse society, the task of intercultural connectivity is not just a fascinating question or a way to build understanding; it is also a catalyst for engendering community.
At such cultural centers including the Abu Dhabi Festival, the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, and the neighboring Dubai Opera, artists representing more than 60 nationalities cumulatively have brought their voices to the UAE, while the Guggenheim has seen curators in both Abu Dhabi and New York City work together to develop a collection for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi that includes a significant representation (some 70 percent of the collection) of non-Euro/American artists and works.
These gaping omissions represent a profound lack of representation. I speak for myself alone but I consider it a duty to raise my voice as an Emirati artist and say to the hired presenters and their financiers in the Cultural Authority: We might not be at the table but we are here.
If we fail to say this, then the misrepresentations of various stripes will continue; they will plague another generation and we will have no-one to blame but ourselves.
The UAE is expending considerable wealth on generating a global cultural conversation. Theres nothing wrong with that and, with a more open approach (one that embraces public attendance), they may well succeed.
But without following the cues of the leading artists at work in the country and keeping all ears and minds open to the currents of their creative visions, the Emirates is not guaranteeing its own valuable place at the table.
If you were to catch the next flight to Abu Dhabi you could get to witness a profound dialogue of cultures. The UAE is home to over 202 nationalities. You would enjoy the sharing of art and satisfy any curiosities about a region and a local Arab and Muslim culture that is too often the subject of dangerous distortion and demonization as it seeps from the mouths of Western politicians and pundits.
You could get a glimpse of what Emirati art really looks like. In an age in which were being pushed together by the acceleration of globalization, you could experience art that lives in daily contact with people from every corner of our planet.
While the United States was engaged in a debate on whether climate change was a Chinese hoax, the UAE was and is continuing its experiment with developing a low-carbon sustainable urban development called Masdar.
While funding to scientific programs are being brought to the cutting board in the States, the UAE Mars program is on schedule for its 2020 launch.
If you went to the UAE, you could experience the work of artists that are expressing this kind of aspiration. And if youre more interested in the problems of UAE society and the broader Middle East, you could see how artists navigate them in a culture simultaneously divergent and concurrent with the culture of the United States.
And lets face it, Emirati art (like any other artistic scene) really just has to be good in order to interest people interested in culture. It doesnt need to ask for a political precondition to exist. And there has been lots of good art that has been coming out of the UAE since the 1970s.
You could see all thatin time but dont book that flight just yet. And yet, whatever the organizers intentions, the inaugural UAE Culture Summit seems to my eye to be one that shuns Emirati artists, whose prowess and accomplishments should have been at the summits heart. The awful irony is that by not fully celebrating those artists, the case for the UAE as a global leader in the arts becomes a much harder one to make.
Mohammed Fairouz is a composer whose operas and symphonies have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and internationally at venues such as the Dutch National Opera, Dubai Opera, and Londons Barbican.
UPDATE 4/12/17: This story has been updated throughout to include comment from the summit organizers, to explain when and how certain artistsincluding the authorwere invited to the event.
Maybe she should have handed the guy a Pepsi.
A Muslim woman who was pictured this weekend calmly facing down an anti-Muslim demonstrator with an expression of amused contempt has become a social-media phenomenon.
The woman was confronting a protestor from the so-called English Defense League, on the streets of Birmingham, Englands second largest city. The EDL is a far-right group that describes itself on its website as a street movement from the English working class that is the forefront of the counter-jihad, refers to Islam as a barbaric evil cult, and frequently organizes demonstrations to protest immigration and multiculturalism.
Tweeting the photograph, Birmingham Member of Parliament Jess Phillips wrote: Who looks like they have power here, the real Brummy on the left or the EDL who migrated for the day to our city and failed to assimilate? Her tweet had been reposted 10,000 times by Monday morning.
The woman pictured has been identified as Saffiyah Khan, a Birmingham resident. She told the BBC that when the picture was taken, she had stepped forward to defend a woman wearing a hijab who had been surrounded by a group of men.
She said she had initially been happy to stay out of the way, but stepped forward when another woman shouted Islamophobe at members of the EDL who had gathered in Centenary Square.
A group of 25 quite big-looking EDL lads surrounded her, she said.
I stepped forward and identified myself as someone who supported her and contradicted them.
Khan, who was born in the U.K. and is half-Pakistani, half-Bosnian, said she wasnt intimidated in the slightest.
She added: He put his finger in my face. It was very aggressive. A police officer was there and the man took his finger out of my face. I wouldnt have responded violently.
I dont like seeing people getting ganged up on in my town, Khan said.
The EDL demonstration attracted around 100 people, and was condemned by political leaders of Birmingham city council. The citys population is about 22 percent Muslim, in comparison to a national average of around 4 percent.
Birminghams central mosque hit back at the protest in truly British style by organizing a tea party.
Addressing the estimated 300 people who attended, local Member of Parliament Liam Byrne said, Getting together as friends, getting together as neighbors, breaking a bit of Victoria sponge and having a cup of tea. That is a potent, powerful message that we will send to those who seek to divide us.
The picture has drawn comparison with Hans Runessons 1985 shot, A Woman Hitting a Neo-Nazi With Her Handbag taken in Vaxjo, Sweden. The photograph was taken during a demonstration of the Nordic Reich Party supporters. It was named Picture of the Century by the magazine Vi and the Photographic Historical Society of Sweden.
The woman in the photograph was of Polish origin and her mother had been in a concentration camp during World War II.
1
Report: Russia Knew of Syria Chemical Attack in Advance
OF COURSE THEY DID
The Texas A&M Foundation celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Maroon Coats student ambassador program Sunday, inducting 20 new members.
Texas A&M Foundation President Tyson Voelkel said in a statement that the "brilliant group of young leaders" it has produced have and will continue to "provide an integral layer of the donor experience at Texas A&M."
Foundation officials said over the past decade, the more than 180 members of the Maroon Coats have performed upwards of 7,300 service hours, written thousands of thank you letters to donors and conducted over 200 campus tours.
A full list of the new Maroon Coats can be found below.
Ryan Bindel '18, a biomedical sciences major from Mansfield
Joshua Brookins '18, an accounting major from Coral Springs, Florida
Madison Codney '18, a political Science major from New Braunfels
Ty Crawford '18, a geography major from Argyle
Eunice Fafiyebi '17, a public health major from Katy
Tori Forbess '19, an industrial distribution major from Lubbock
Connor Joseph '19, an agribusiness major from College Station
Jeremiah Lopez '18, a university studies - ag leadership major from Gonzales
Hudson Lorfing '19, a mechanical engineering major from Houston
Cassidy Lovett '18, a marketing major from College Station
Elton McIntosh '19, a mechanical engineering major from Dallas
Elizabeth Nevins '18, a biomedical sciences major from Plano
Ellie Notzon '19, a general studies - pre-med major from San Antonio
Trevor Pownell '18, a business honors and finance major from Dallas
Azra Razvi '19, a business honors and management major from College Station
Kelly Roach '18, a finance major from Middleton, Wisconsin
Sarah Spohn '18, an English major from College Station
Carissa van Beek '18, an accounting major from Cape Town, South Africa
Armando Vendrell-Velez '19, an international studies major from Aibonito, Puerto Rico
Sara Wojcak '18, a management major from Mustang, Oklahoma
A 33-year-old man was arrested on one felony and five misdemeanor charges early Sunday after College Station police said he punched an officer outside a Northgate bar.
The officer was treated for minor injuries while San Antonio resident Navy Lemagoto Afe was taken to the Brazos County Jail.
Court documents detail how the incident escalated quickly after officers were dispatched at about 2:20 a.m. to a disturbance in the Citgo gas station parking lot.
Bars in the popular nightclub hub had recently closed, and there were a "large number of people" out on the final night of Texas A&M's Family Weekend.
As officers approached the suspect believed to be involved in the disturbance, they noticed he was intoxicated to the degree that he was a danger to himself or others in the area, according to the police report.
Police tried to direct Afe to a safe ride home, but the man refused, authorities said, adding that when they tried to take him into custody for public intoxication, he resisted arrest.
Court documents state that Afe pulled away after police used a Taser on him, then started to run and -- once stopped -- punched an officer in the face.
Afe was charged with assault on a public servant, which is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He also was charged with resisting arrest, evading arrest and possession of a fake driver's license, all of which are Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year behind bars. He also was charged with public intoxication and failure to identify to police, both of which are Class C misdemeanors.
Afe posted almost $16,000 bail and was released later in the day.
Hope Texas representatives won't bow to extremists
As a parent of a diabetic child, I deeply am alarmed to hear that Congress may consider allowing states to opt out of protections for those with preexisting conditions as they try to revise the Affordable Care Act.
We do not want to return to the days of no insurance for those with chronic conditions. Such a move would be bad for individuals and bad for public health.
I hope my Texas representatives and senators won't be held hostage by the extremists of the Freedom Caucus.
ERIN HILL
Bryan
Taipei, April 10 (CNA) Ten activists were found not guilty Monday of offenses related to the storming of the Executive Yuan during the 2014 Sunflower Movement while 11 others were given sentences of five months or less that will likely not have to be served.
What issue do Iowa voters most often say is critical? You might be surprised
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Just because Barack Obama made it so, community organizing is not a prerequisite to becoming a U.S. senator or running for president.
It seems Chris Murphy is reversing that natural order, going into the community organizing business.
Connecticuts junior Democratic senator, who is being mentioned as a sleeper for president in 2020, is rallying Donald Trumps foes under the banner of a new movement called Fight Back Connecticut. Its an arm of Murphys 2018 re-election campaign, which is flush with more than $2 million in contributions from liberals across the nation since the start of the year.
Clearly, Im raising more money than I could have ever dreamed of, Murphy told Hearst Connecticut Media.
Murphy said he plans to use an unspecified amount of that haul to train grassroots groups how to get their message out and how to lobby Congress to block Trumps agenda. He identified the Hillary Clinton-inspired organization Pantsuit Nation and Trump Indivisible Movement as some of the groups that could fall under the umbrella of Fight Back Connecticut.
People in Connecticut are freaked out about the impact of Trumps policies in Connecticut, Murphy said. Well build it as big as it needs to be.
A request for comment was left Monday for Trumps administration.
Himes on classified intel: nothing to see here
Classified intelligence isnt all that its cracked up to be, if you go by Democrat Jim Himes.
The southwestern Connecticut congressman last Thursday viewed the same secret documents that got House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., benched. They detail how Trump and his associates were inadvertently swept up by U.S. intelligence gathering during last years presidential election.
Himes couldnt address what was specifically in the intelligence reports, but said it wasnt a smoking gun. He stood by his criticism that it was inappropriate for Nunes to share the information with the White House.
Given the chairmans behavior and activities, I expected to have some oh my God moment deep in a secure location, but there was nothing like that, nothing that would even cause me to say that this should be investigated, Himes said.
Himes said the classified materials dont support Trumps wild Tweet that he was wiretapped by Obama.
The White House put out an all-points bulletin for people to find anything which would back that claim up, Himes said. They failed. This all wound up costing a chairman his reputation and getting us into a conversation about unmasking, which is possibly an interesting conversation, but has absolutely nothing to do with surveillance.
Herbst taunts Kennedy
Nothing quite gets Republicans worked into a lather like the Kennedy name.
Count Tim Herbst, who is raising money for a presumptive 2018 run for governor, as one of them.
The Trumbull first selectman is practically goading Ted Kennedy Jr., a state senator from Branford and son of the late liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy, to enter the race.
I dont believe that because his last name is Kennedy thats going to give him enough mojo to get over the goal line, Herbst said. I want him to be the candidate, quite frankly. Hes (Gov.) Dan Malloy on steroids, completely out of touch.
Herbst mocked a bill proposed by Kennedy, co-chairman of the General Assemblys Environment Committee, to make cow power a renewable energy source in Connecticut.
We are in perpetual fiscal crisis, and hes focused on cow manure, Herbst said.
Kennedy declined to comment through a spokesman.
nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
NORWALK If campaign war chests decide elections, potential challengers will have a tough time unseating Democratic Mayor Harry W. Rilling this November.
Friends of Rilling, the campaign committee formed on his behalf last fall, has raised $96,745 for his bid for a third term leading Connecticuts sixth-largest city, according to the committees recent finance disclosure report filed with the Norwalk Town Clerk's office.
Rilling, mayor since November 2013, said his campaign is pleased with the results, which he attributed to the citys course under his administration.
People are seeing the good things that are happening in Norwalk and theyre stepping up to support my campaign, Rilling said. Were looking forward to delivering the message on the things weve done and the things we want to see moving forward. To run an effective campaign, unfortunately, you need campaign money.
Rillings fundraising has outpaced that of his Republican challengers in 2013 and 2015 and also his own efforts in both those years.
His campaign committee had raised $30,348 by April 2013 and $46,849 by April 2015, according to the campaign finance reports kept at the Town Clerks Office.
More Information Campaign finance 2013 Mayoral Race Republican Richard A. Moccia (incumbent), $115,885 Democrat Harry W. Rilling, $164,415 2015 Mayoral Race Democrat Harry W. Rilling (incumbent), $131,129 Republican Kelly L. Straniti, $38,519 Source: Norwalk Town Clerk's Office 2017 Mayoral Race Democrat Harry W. Rilling, $96,745 as of March 31. Source: Norwalk Town Clerk's Office See More Collapse
Rilling, Norwalks former police chief and a former city zoning commissioner, announced his bid for a third term to upward of 150 people at The Norwalk Inn & Conference Center in late January. No challengers have yet stepped up for the Nov. 7 election.
Andrew T. Conroy, Norwalk Republican Town Committee chairman and a former District E councilman, said Republicans would find a candidate to run against Rilling we will definitely have one and appeared undaunted by the Democratic mayors campaign coffers. He said Republicans wouldnt rely upon traditional campaigning methods.
It wont necessarily be the traditional way of campaigning, Conroy said. If you do a lot of mailing and you do a lot of television, the combination of those two is very expensive and youd need $150,000. Weve been talking about other methods for six months. Its going to be new media and new media methodology.
March 31 marked the close of the latest three-month finance reporting period for candidates. The report filed by Friends of Rilling details dollars raised and spent for the period as well as overall.
Those who gave
Since its formation last fall, Friends of Rilling has raised $96,745 and spent $7,361.25, leaving $89,383.75 on hand as of March 31, according to the recent report.
The committee started the latest filing period with $37,277 in its coffers and added to that $45,065 in contributions from individuals, $7,250 from political action committees and $3,800 from advertising sold in fundraiser programs, according to the report.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, Friends of Rilling received 122 contributions from individuals. The contributions ranged in size from $20 to $1,000 and included money from persons involved in Norwalks redevelopment efforts.
Waypointe developers Paxton B. Kinol and Stanley Selgison each contributed $1,000 to Rillings reelection bid. Thomas L. Rich, president and CEO of FD Rich Co., a major SoNo property owner and developer, kicked in $500. William J. Hennessey Jr., an attorney representing General Growth Properties in the development of The SoNo Collection shopping mall, gave $500 to the campaign, according to the report.
Organized labor is also backing Rillings re-election bid. Friends of Rilling received $1,000 from United Local Association Plumbers & Steamfitters of Meriden, $1,500 from Sheetmetal Workers Local 38 PAC of Brewster, N.Y., $250 from the Roofers Political Education Legislative Fund of CT, $1,000 from The New England Regional Council of Carpenters, $1,500 from the International Union of Operating Engineers of Hamden, $1,000 from the Iron PAC 424 of North Haven, $500 from the Connecticut Laborers Political League of Hartford, and $500 from the Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local 1 PAC of Wallingford, according to the report.
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Why does Trader Joe's boxed macaroni and cheese taste like Annie's? Probably because the well-known name brand makes the product for the national supermarket chainat least according to rumors.
Trader Joe's doesn't have a factory where it makes its own products, and instead sources them from well-known brands and sells them under the Trader Joe's sub-brands at a discount.
The privately held grocery chain based in Monrovia, Calif., closely guards this information and is notoriously secretive about its relationships because it wants its customers to develop loyalty to its own brand. The big brands don't want consumers to have this information because Trader Joe's sells their products at discounted prices. If you were Frito-Lay, you wouldn't want people to know they can buy the same bag of Stacy's pita chips for a couple dollars less at Trader Joe's.
Trader Joe's can keep its prices down because it doesn't spend big marketing dollars on advertising beyond its own Fearless Flyer, nor does it have a complex coupon program. And buying directly from the manufacturers keeps costs low.
Consumers are often making guesses about Trader Joe's brand relationships based on packaging, ingredient lists and taste. Is Gordon Biersch making Trader Joe's beer? Is Strauss Family Creamery providing the European Style Organic Plain Whole Milk Yogurt? Is Trader Joe's buying its canned tomatoes from Muir Glenn?
We reached out to Trader Joe's to answer these questions and they never got back to us. We also spoke with a few of the big brands and all told us they couldn't discuss this matter with the media.
Double Rainbow supposedly makes some of the Trader Joe's ice cream and so we called the company to ask if this was the case and a woman who refused to provide her name said, "I'm not at liberty to disclose that information. You have to run a taste test. That's what I would suggest."
And so that's what we did. We decided to investigate 11 of those rumored relationships and closely examined ingredient labels and conducted our own taste tests. We also looked at pricing at the big brand purchased at Whole Foods and the similar (or exactly the same) product at TJ's.
You'll find the results above, and we hope you'll share some of your own assumptions about Trader Joe's products in the comments. Together, we might be able to figure this out.
POTTER, Neb. Five generations ago, Rasmus and Christine Nielsen and their two children arrived in a Union Pacific Railroad immigrant car to claim a homestead in a rural community known as Little Denmark.
They built a sod house. Their neighbors were several dozen other Danes and Norwegians on little farms scattered across more than 64 square miles of treeless prairie in the high and dry Nebraska Panhandle.
The Nielsens were among 300,000 Danes who immigrated to America between 1850 and 1920. While that was fewer than the numbers coming from Norway and Sweden, it still represented more than 10 percent of Denmarks population at the time. Yet the story of that emigration has largely faded out of Danish memory.
Now, however, a Danish filmmaker is poking into a few pioneer stories for a Danish television documentary about immigration to America from the Scandinavian country in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The projects working title is The Pursuit of Happiness.
Nebraska and western Iowa are settings for the project.
About 10,000 Danes came to Nebraska and thousands more to Iowa. The Danish belt across America generally stretched from Racine, Wisconsin, and Chicago through the Omaha-Council Bluffs-Blair region to Dannebrog, Cordova and Minden in central Nebraska. Dannebrog bills itself as the Danish Capital of Nebraska.
More Danish-Americans lived in Omaha than any other U.S. city at the turn of the 21st century. Still, people reporting Danish ancestry amounted to only 3.1 percent of Nebraskas population; in Iowa, it was 2.3 percent.
Mark Halstead, 30, a great-great-grandson of Rasmus and Christine Nielsen who farms in the footprint of Little Denmark, said there was a time when he wished his ancestors hadnt settled in western Nebraska far from the richer soils and more plentiful precipitation of the eastern end of the state. His disenchantment with his ancestors decision 125 years ago, however, is long evaporated.
Now he marvels at the courage and grit of the Little Denmark settlers southwest of Potter.
For them to come over, build a house, get a well ... took an unbelievable amount of work and endurance, he said. They had to hand-dig a well ... its 200 to 300 feet to water here. We get upset if theres a sunspot and we lose our GPS signals and have to drive our (automatic-steering) tractor.
Like his Danish ancestors, Halstead said he has found happiness. He and his wife, Ashley, a speech pathologist, have a 2-year-old son, Luke, who is the sixth generation of the family in Little Denmark. They farm with Marks parents, Bryce and Linda Halstead.
Mark Halstead was one of several descendants of Little Denmark settlers recently interviewed on their ancestors homestead for the documentary.
The three-part series will tell the stories of five immigrants and the Danish culture they created in America, said Peter Kryger of Vordingborg, Denmark, who is writing and directing the film. Kryger and cinematographer Jarkko Virtanen of Helsinki, Finland, spent seven days in late March interviewing and filming in the Midlands.
Sites included the Danish American Archive and Library and former Dana College campus in Blair; the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn, Iowa; downtown Omaha; the Danish communities of Dannebrog and Nysted in central Nebraska; and the Potter area.
The Nebraska filming focused on immigrant Julius Nielsen, whose homestead launched the Little Denmark settlement. Nielsen was a 48-year-old bankrupt farmer and carpenter when he and his wife, Sophie, left their home in the village of Kulby and brought eight of their nine children to America in 1886.
Nielsen paid an $18 filing fee to claim a 160-acre farm under the Homestead Act of 1862. He actively encouraged other Danes to take up homesteads and join his family and create a Danish colony. Among those who responded were Rasmus and Christine Nielsen.
John Mark Nielsen of Blair, director emeritus of the Museum of Danish America and no relation to either Rasmus Nielsen or Julius Nielsen, said immigrants effectively promoted Danish emigration in letters to newspapers especially Den Danske Pioneer published in Omaha about their new lives in America.
The Pioneer is so important, because it published stories from local communities, so readers came to know these places in western Iowa and Nebraska and Omaha and they were drawn to these areas, he said.
Little Denmark like many western Nebraska communities in general never had a population that rivaled settlements farther east. Little Denmark was concentrated in Kimball County, and spilled into Cheyenne County. Only 219 people in the two counties currently identify themselves as having Danish ancestry, according to the 2015 American Community Survey.
To compare, Audubon and Shelby Counties in western Iowa the buckle of the Danish belt across America reported 1,570 and 1,760 Danish-Americans, respectively. They are home to two of the most Danish places in the United States, the villages of Kimballton and Elk Horn. Nearly 53 percent of Kimballtons population claimed Danish ancestry in the 2000 census. Nearby Elk Horn was second with 41.3 percent.
In addition to telling the story of Julius Nielsen and the settlers of Little Denmark, plans call for the documentary to feature:
August Rasmussen, an 1856 immigrant to Greenville, Michigan, who enticed 36 others from his village to join him the next year.
Kristina Beck, a 16-year-old who trekked across Nebraska to Utah Territory in 1868 as one of the more than 18,000 Danes converted by Mormon missionaries.
Christen Madsen Rrmose, a repeat offender in Denmark who was shipped off to America as punishment in 1876 and who eventually became U.S. marshal for Oklahoma.
Jens Jensen, who designed key elements of the Chicago park system, worked with architect Frank Lloyd Wright and became a leading figure in landscape architecture in the early 20th century.
The project was inspired by the 2014 Danish best-seller Rejsen til Amerika (The Journey to America) by journalist and author Ole Snnichsen. The book caught the attention of award-winning documentary filmmaker Lars Feldbelle-Petersen and his Film & TV Compagniet. Other partners include the Rebild National Park Society in Denmark and the Museum of Danish America. The museum helped raise about a third of the projects $600,000 budget from the A.P. Mller Foundation in Denmark and the Scan Design Foundation in Seattle, Washington.
John Mark Nielsen said other elements of the project include a short documentary film for museum exhibits, interactive materials for museum educational programming and websites.
The documentary is scheduled for airing in Denmark in August. Nielsen said talks continue about producing a dubbed or subtitled version for U.S. public television audiences.
david hendee/the world-herald
A Northwest High School student got the opportunity of a lifetime when he was selected for the United States Youth Senate.
Matthew Fredricks, a senior who lives near Alda, was one of two youth delegates selected from Nebraska and one of 104 in the youth senate group.
One of Fredricks teachers at Northwest told him about the youth senate opportunity in September. Fredricks put in an application, wrote essays and then took a test on both state and federal government issues and leaders.
I didnt know what was going to be on the test, but I studied for it, Fredricks said.
On the test, he said, were questions about who the state and national leaders were, as well as some quotes by past leaders. Also on the test was an essay question. Fredricks had to write an essay about the Senate not voting for former President Barack Obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.
He took the test in October and soon heard of his selection for the youth senate.
When Fredricks got the news, it was a little bit of disbelief, he said.
But I knew I had a chance at it because I was prepared, Fredricks said.
He was lucky to be chosen, he said, especially because of the many students in Nebraska who probably also wanted the same. As part of being selected, Fredricks was awarded a $10,000 college scholarship from the Hearst Foundation.
The other student chosen from Nebraska was Jacob McNeill, a senior at Elkhorn South High School.
Ive been interested in government for quite a while, Fredricks said. He took classes in school that helped pique his interest. Those classes got him interested in how things have been done in the past and how different theories have played out in the political spectrum.
Fredricks, president of Northwests Future Business Leaders of America group, said hes interested in the economy and taxes.
All of that knowledge and interest in the topic eventually brought him to shaking President Donald Trumps hand.
That was pretty cool, Fredricks said. He got to go to Washington, D.C., with the youth senate in early March.
On the trip, Fredricks and the 104 youth delegates met with the countrys leaders, including President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. The group also met with senators and others, such as the Israeli ambassador.
Fredricks said getting to meet other students from around the country, and two international students who were chosen, was educational.
I learned that theres a lot of different opinions that stem from their backgrounds, Fredricks said of meeting the other delegates, which was a benefit.
Meeting the president and chief justice was Fredrickss favorite part of the trip.
I knew it was going to be cool, but it surpassed my expectations because of the firepower of the people we met and the other kids I got to talk to, he said.
Although it was a unique experience getting to meet the countrys leaders, Fredricks said he learned that a lot of our leaders, theyre people, too. Theyre not up on a pedestal. Theyre normal people.
On his hard work and being involved in school and the community, Fredricks said he just tries to work hard, do his best and stay humble.
If I put my greatest effort into everything I do, I know itll be alright, Fredricks said.
When asked what makes her extraordinary, the Rev. Caroline Price-Gibson, pastor at the First Presbyterian Church, is humble.
She says nothing makes her extraordinary and that everyone shes gotten to know is extraordinary in some way. Price-Gibson does admit, however, that she is a little different from everyone else due to losing her leg and being an immigrant.
When she was in high school, Price-Gibson developed cancer in her thigh. At the time, there were no CT scans, and doctors thought she wasnt exercising enough. Price-Gibson said it was six months before they did a biopsy and realized it was more than a bruise or something.
In those days, the best way of dealing with cancer was to chop it (the limb) off at the next joint, she said. The joints provide a natural barrier. Unfortunately, my tumor was in my thigh, so they took the leg out. But it saved my life.
Price-Gibson said she wore a prosthesis for years, mainly so people wouldnt know she has just one leg. But as she got older, her balance was not as good, and she realized she was happier without her prosthesis.
Due to having one leg, she said, she is able to empathize with those with disabilities. Price-Gibson added that, due to being born in England and raised in Europe, she is also able to understand the struggles of immigrants.
When she was a child, Price-Gibson said, her father was in the British army and was stationed in Germany and Singapore before coming to the United States. The family lived in Germany during the 1950s, when much of the country was still in ruins from World War II. Price-Gibson called it a different world and said her experiences growing up in Germany sparked her political interests.
I remember climbing over rubble to get to the butcher, she said. My father was in intelligence work. So, from that perspective, I grew up a little bit suspicious of people. At one point, the cook in our town turned out to be a spy from East Germany. He got dismissed. The phones were always bugged, and so I never talked on the phone very much.
Price-Gibson said faith was important to her family and she grew up learning Bible stories. At a retirement party for her father, a minister from their church suggested he return to England to be a minister. Price-Gibson said that, rather than return to England, her father chose to stay in the United States and attend seminary in Richmond, Va.
When I was about 11 or 12 or 13, he was in seminary, she said. He developed cancer during that time. He had one church and lived about 18 months before he died when I was 14.
Price-Gibson studied religion at Columbia University with the intention of eventually teaching. A chaplain at the college took her to Union Theological Seminary on campus, and she was fascinated by what was being done in Harlem and the inner city.
There were students that were working with churches there, Price-Gibson said. It was the 60s and a very idealistic time due to the (Vietnam) War but also because you thought you could change the world.
Price-Gibson said she found herself called by God to the church but had no self-confidence. She worked in small churches for a year, developed some self-confidence and went on the path of becoming a minister. She was ordained in 1977.
Price-Gibson later met her husband, Stephen, who is also a minister. Price-Gibson said they were told Iowa was a place where people were more open to having a female pastor. They landed in Lake City, Iowa.
My first church was a church that was struggling, she said. The committee could not agree. They both wanted a different guy. I was their second choice for everybody. They decided that was the Holy Spirit talking and they called. It was unusual in those days. But I went as a co-pastor with my husband, so it was less radical for them to call us.
After their children were born, Price-Gibson and her husband wanted to be closer to family and moved to Pittsburgh. Originally, she was going to stay at home, but she later realized it was not economic feasible and got a part-time job at a nursing home.
I was completely miserable when I found out I got the job. I did not want it, but I had it anyways, she said. It turned out to be an incredible learning experience for me. I got to lead a support group for Alzheimers disease, immersing myself in a health care institution, learning some of the procedures they have to follow and getting to know the people.
But Price-Gibson still longed to be in a church. She got her opportunity when a couple of inner-city churches had a vacancy for a pastor. From there, she got to be a chaplain for an Alcoholics Anonymous motorcycle group.
Price-Gibson has been the pastor at churches in Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia in both urban and rural settings. She said living in these different areas has given her and her husband a wonderful perspective on things.
In some ways, both (rural and urban) communities have deep roots, Price-Gibson said. People who have been there for two or three generations have a lot of interconnectedness. In the urban setting, you get more people in need people who, for various reasons, are in distress.
Price-Gibson said she arrived in Grand Island after her husband began looking for a ministerial job and told her to put her own resume together to get a job nearby. He was unable to land a job and decided to just forget it. Price-Gibson submitted her resume to the Presbyterian churchs national office but could not figure out how to delete hers online.
I thought Id just leave it out there and talk to some churches, she said. A couple churches called, and I had a terrible interview with them. But then, one week, two churches called. One was in California and the other was this one.
After she was named pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in 2008, Price-Gibsons husband took a job with the Presbyterian church in Edgar before the First Presbyterian Church in Kearney called to interview him.
He thought they wouldnt be interested in him because we didnt want to move to Kearney, Price-Gibson said. He was just going to live in Grand Island and commute. But they decided to give it a try. Hes been there more than five years now.
In her duties as pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Price-Gibson said some of her ministries have included working with the Sudanese community and serving meals at the Salvation Army.
Price-Gibson said the one thing she wants people to know about her and her ministry is that she is a person that travels the journey of faith trying to serve God and serve others.
WASHINGTON Good news! Proof you cant fool all the people all of the time.
A record 65 percent of Americans say they do not approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing in the White House. Six out of 10 Americans say he isnt honest.
Americans dont like the inability to focus, the unpresidential tweets, the chaos, the obvious lack of experience and the galling incompetence. They dislike Trumps evidence-free insistence on blaming others for his self-created problems.
When Syrian leader Bashar Assad this month killed dozens of his own people, including young children, with chemical weapons that Russia assured the Obama administration had been destroyed, did Trump blame Russia, which has been a big supporter and arms-supplier for Syria? No, Trumps instinct was to blame former President Barack Obama.
Even as the FBI investigates ties the Trump campaign might have had with the Russian government while Vladimir Putin went about undermining American democracy, Trump has been desperately trying to deflect attention to yes Obama, despite no proof whatsoever.
The world is a mess. I inherited a mess, Trump said Wednesday, promising to fix it after seeing pictures of writhing Syrian babies. How? Getting rid of Assad? Establishing a safe zone? War? He said he wont tell us. I now have responsibility and I will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly, he said.
But while we wait for Trump to learn how complicated foreign policy is and what his options are, Trump will not sit idle. Even as he struggles to switch from campaign to governing mode, Trump is changing the country and world.
For example, he just abruptly canceled U.S. funds for the United Nations Population Fund, which has supplied millions of women in developing countries with contraceptives. Advocates for womens and childrens health are reeling, with no idea how they will continue to help women who already have more children than they can care for, especially in the many countries facing drought and war.
Trump is in the process of meeting world leaders. What is inexplicable is that he refuses to warn dictators to stop committing human rights violations that have been documented by the United States and international rights organizations. For example, when he met with Egypts president, Trump widely praised the military autocrat who has killed, tortured and jailed thousands of opponents and journalists. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has done a fantastic job, Trump said.
One of the first acts of Trumps Environmental Protection Agency was to revoke the agencys proposal to ban a pesticide known as chlorpyrifos, made by Dow AgroSciences. EPA scientists had warned the chemical damages childrens brains by interrupting the electrochemical processes that nerves use to communicate with muscles and other nerves. It can adversely affect development, the immune system, reproduction and neurology.
When Trump signed an executive order designed to get rid of dozens of health and safety regulations, he gave his pen to the CEO of DOW chemical, who was standing beside him.
The EPA also is requiring that its employees now tell Washington headquarters about any enforcement actions they plan to take against any company anywhere and get permission. The EPA also is asking businesses what health and safety regulations they think should be repealed. With a one-third cut looming in the agencys budget, prepare for chaos.
One of the laws Trump has signed gives internet providers the right to sell data based on everything any of us look up online. Why does he not care about our privacy?
And at the start of Sexual Assault Awareness month, Trump defended Fox News Bill OReilly after it was reported he or the network settled with five women who accused him of sexual harassment for $13 million. I dont think Bill did anything wrong, said Trump, who just knows these things and bragged about sexual assault himself. Nearly two dozen former OReilly advertisers disagree.
Nonetheless, 35 percent of Americans continue fooling themselves.
Predicting ones own future is an uncertain business. But when institutions known for their prognosticating skills predict your future, you might want to listen. This lesson is one that Americas institutions of higher education seem to be failing.
After looking at the budget proposal by the Trump administration, Moodys Investors Service painted a grim financial future for the nations colleges and universities. According to their analysis, Trumps budget proposal to slash federal research funding and end financial support for the arts and humanities would irreparably harm institutions that rely on those government dollars.
But lets first put things into perspective. Moodys is one of the big three credit rating agencies (together with Standard & Poors and Fitch Ratings) that rate the bond credit of businesses, governments and other institutions.
They rank the creditworthiness of borrowers based on expected investor loss in the event of a default.
The other thing that we must remember is that colleges and universities both public and private borrow money in order to pay for many projects, which, in turn, affects directly the cash flow of these institutions.
Based on the initial proposal by the White House, higher education would lose $4 billion in discretionary funding.
This money not only covers direct expenses for research projects, but also what is called indirects, which are paid directly to colleges and universities to help them maintain their research infrastructures. Further, some of that money is used to provide what is called start-up packages that give new faculty the financial assistance necessary to kick-start their research agendas. Additionally, the presidents America First budget proposes nearly $6 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health.
The vast majority of biomedical research in this country is funded by the NIH, and cuts of this magnitude would have serious consequences in our constant search for better medicines and medical treatments.
In fact, because of its importance, the NIH budget in the past has had solid bipartisan support in Congress.
While some of the wealthiest universities, like the Ivy League (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.), with their large endowments and large fundraising capabilities from private sources can probably weather the cuts to some extent, most others will not. This will be particularly the case for public institutions, which are the ones that usually serve people in rural areas and those with less financial means. Still, according to Moodys, even for the Ivy League types, it will take years to adjust to the new realities that would be brought about by such cuts.
And Moodys projections for higher education are not alone, but accompany dire predictions for the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. The administrations proposed budget eliminates totally funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Although the last two have rather small budgets ($140 million each), according to Moodys their disappearance will have a ripple effect on higher education. One of the projections by this credit agency is that by being unable to fund arts and humanities projects, colleges and universities will have fewer programs with which to attract private donors, sending them into a death spiral.
The same can be said of other federal agencies that support research across academia. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget will be slashed by 31 percent, the Agriculture Department by 21 percent and the Interior Department (where the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Parks Service reside) will be cut by 12 percent.
Reductions to the Department of Educations budget through the elimination of the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and reduction in Federal Work Study funding would also affect about 550 schools rated by Moodys.
Although there will be a huge increase in defense spending (a $54 billion increase), which would provide some research-related funding to higher education, that kind of research is usually concentrated in a rather small number of institutions. And if we decode some of the rhetoric of the current administration, a lot of that money will probably go to private companies rather than to colleges and universities.
And to these cuts the already relentless cuts to public higher education budgets by state legislatures and you have a perfect storm that will obliterate higher education as we know it, particularly when it comes to accessibility by students of lesser means.
There was a time when the U.S. was considered the greatest country in the world for, among other things, its system of higher education and its support in the broadest sense for intellectual inquiry.
This support helped to attract the most talented people in the world to come to this nation and use their abilities in science, the arts and humanities in service to the United States. Institutions of higher education have played a major role in the nations ability to respond to threats to our national security, whether from Sputnik, the arms race, pandemic disease, or climate change. Those times of greatness may be over sooner rather than later.
Dr. Aldemaro Romero Jr. is a writer and college professor with leadership experience in higher education. He can be contacted through his website at: http://www.aromerojr.net
Tonight's Edwardsville District 7 Board of Education meeting will have a different atmosphere.
Gone is the weight of the world, which that $56 million in missing state funding must have felt like.
On Tuesday, voters approved a 55-cent referendum to balance the District 7 budget by 2019 and begin the process of updating its curriculum and safety net.
The last time the district's education fund saw a rate increase was 1977. Jimmy Carter was president.
Now, after eight years of cuts and revenue enhancements, the district can focus its attention on moving forward.
And that's something Superintendent Dr. Lynda Andre isn't familiar with as she nears the end of her second year in that position.
"To say we are thrilled with the outcome of Tuesdays election is an understatement. The District 7 Board of Education, administration, teachers and other employees are so appreciative of our communities willingness to support our students now and in the future," Andre said.
Now, the district can begin planning for the future.
"Work has already begun on the implementation of Phase I of the curriculum, technology, and school security updates promised in Proposition E for August, 2017," Andre said.
Had Proposition E failed, the district was at risk of having its finances taken over by the state of Illinois. That won't happen now.
"In addition, this very positive vote will provide District 7 with revenue needed to avoid a future takeover by the state," Andre said "Its like a dark cloud has been lifted.
At its meetings and through social media and other sources, District 7 will be keeping in touch with its constituents.
"The administration will provide frequent progress reports on the needed updates as well as progress being made toward achieving a balanced education fund and restoring financial stability," Andre said.
And to those constituents, she also said thank you.
"Without the support of the citizens of District 7, none of these things would have been possible," Andre said. "We are extremely grateful to the citizens for their strong support of Proposition E which will allow this district to continue providing all students the educational and extracurricular opportunities they deserve."
Edwardsville Education Association Co-Presidents Dave Boedeker and Beth Duncan issued a statement thanking those who voted in favor of the referendum.
"On behalf of the hundreds of teachers and educators of the Edwardsville school district, we want to thank the community for stepping up and helping provide much-needed funds for Edwardsville schools," the statement read.
Boedeker and Duncan went on to say that they've seen up close the impact the lack of state funding has had over the last eight years.
"Partnering with administrators, we watched as over 100 people lost their jobs, the salary freeze halted even basic cost of living adjustments, and basic operating costs were slashed. Our members know first-hand how difficult things have been," the statement read. "Were glad to be part of the solution. But unfortunately, this is also yet another example how real people and children are hurt by the continuing partisan gridlock in Springfield."
Tonight's board of education meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at Woodland Elementary School.
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017
War is the continuation of politics by other means, Clausewitz once said. But that much-quoted aphorism certainly failed to predict United States President Donald Trumps decision to launch a military strike to punish the decision of Syrias President Bashar Assad to gas innocent civilians in Khan Sheikhoun, which killed 87 people, including 31 children. For the US, this may be a war that came out of the blue, which took place only two months after a new president was elected.
There has never been any US diplomacy in the Syrian war. Trumps predecessor Barack Obama, a realist par excellence, realized the complexity of the situation in Syria and decided to forgo diplomacy, yet was also unwilling to use military options in the conflict.
Despite his animosity toward Obama, Trump initially shared his predecessors conviction regarding the Syrian conflict. And by launching an attack on Syria the billionaire president has contradicted his own America First position, which certainly disavows an interventionist policy. In fact, in 2013 after Assad used chemical weapons against his own population, Trump said on Twitter that it was foolish for the US to get involved in the conflict.
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Linkedin Indah Wardhani and Muhammad Djindan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017
The recent protests outside the State Palace against the construction of a cement factory in Rembang regency, Central Java, which saw dozens of Kendeng women encase their feet in concrete, is just the tip of the iceberg in problems involving mining governance in Indonesia.
The rally indicated that the granting of mining licenses remains a problem in this country. Indonesias decentralized mining system shows that the delegation of the authority to local administrations in issuing mining licenses fails to collect meaningful input from nearby communities.
The problematic cement factory adds to cases of how the decision chain in the development of natural resources ignores the interests and concerns of local communities.
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Linkedin Lailatul Fitriyah (The Jakarta Post) Indiana Mon, April 10, 2017
The xenophobic, anti-Christian, politically driven but religiously masked Indonesian Muslim hard-line populist movement went to a new low these past couple weeks when it employed the colonialist narrative of pribumi (native) to marginalize Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama and his supporters. This latest stunt came after a failed campaign to prohibit mosques from facilitating obligatory Islamic rituals for the remains of Muslims who allegedly supported Ahok during their lifetime.
Various posts on social media took notice of how these people who stuck pribumi stickers on cars, and who flaunted pribumi posters while protesting again in downtown Jakarta, wore Arabic-style clothing and supported the rival gubernatorial candidate known to be of Arab descent.
The idea of transforming Indonesia into a sharia-based country (whatever that means), which is being promoted by these groups, cannot be deemed an Indonesian idea. However, what is missing from these observations is that tracing back authenticity is not only futile but also dangerous for those arbitrarily excluded from the circle of the indigenous.
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Linkedin Gatot Soepriyanto (The Jakarta Post) Melbourne Mon, April 10, 2017
The tax amnesty has officially ended. Some public and media commentators deemed the program a success, underscoring the Rp 4.8 quadrillion (US$355.5 billion) worth of previously unreported assets declared by almost 1 million taxpayers and raking in more than Rp 114 trillion in penalty fees in the process. Others, however, remained skeptical, highlighting the fact that the tax pardon initiative failed to achieve some of its targets.
Most notably: the lower than expected amount of repatriated funds. Indeed, based on tax office data, although more than Rp 1 quadrillion worth of foreign assets was declared during the amnesty, only Rp 147 trillion in funds stashed abroad were repatriated.
This begs the question of why the program was unable to bring the sizeable amount of money home. More importantly, what should the government do in the future to entice those assets back?
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Linkedin Edith M. Lederer (Associated Press) United Nations Mon, April 10, 2017
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has selected Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai to be a U.N. messenger of peace, the highest honor bestowed by the U.N. chief on a global citizen.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Friday that the 19-year-old education advocate will focus worldwide attention on the need for all girls to go to school. She will be officially designated at a ceremony on Monday and then hold a conversation with Guterres and youth representatives from around the world on girls' education, he said.
Yousafzai became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate in 2014, when she was recognized for her advocacy of the right of all children to education. Her campaign led to a Taliban assassination attempt near her home in northwest Pakistan that left her severely wounded. She went to Britain for medical treatment and now goes to school there.
Read also: Malala Yousafzai to study at Oxford
"Even in the face of grave danger, Malala Yousafzai has shown an unwavering commitment to the rights of women, girls and all people," Guterres said.
"Her courageous activism for girls' education has already energized so many people around the world," he said in a statement. "Now as our youngest-ever U.N. Messenger of Peace, Malala can do even more to help create a more just and peaceful world."
Other messengers of peace including actors Michael Douglas and Leonardo DiCaprio, primatologist Jane Goodall and musicians Daniel Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma.
Messengers of Peace volunteer "their time, talent and passion" in different fields to help focus global attention on the work of the United Nations, according to the U.N.
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Linkedin Edvard Pettersson (Bloomberg) Mon, April 10, 2017 16:31 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde87d05d 2 Science & Tech Google,employees,#Google,Women,discrimination,#Discrimination Free
Alphabet Inc.s Google denied Department of Labor allegations that an in-progress investigation suggests systemic compensation disparities against women at the internet giant.
Every year, we do a comprehensive and robust analysis of pay across genders and we have found no gender pay gap, Google said in an emailed statement Sunday. Other than making an unfounded statement which we heard for the first time in court, the DoL hasnt provided any data, or shared its methodology.
The Guardian reported that Labor Department regional director Janette Wipper testified in San Francisco court Friday that the pay disparities against women appear to be found pretty much across the entire workforce at the tech company. The investigation isnt complete but the department has received compelling evidence of significant discrimination, the Guardian reported, citing the Labor Departments regional solicitor, Janet Herold.
The allegations come at a time when Silicon Valley is under the microscope like never before for reports of discrimination against women. Uber Technologies Inc. has been investigating claims of sexual harassment from a former engineer, while investors across the tech world are wondering how to transform both start-ups and more established digital companies into more egalitarian workplaces.
Read also: Google enables in-app image translation
The testimony couldnt be immediately confirmed from court records. Representatives of the Labor Department in San Francisco didnt immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
The department sued Google in January, alleging the company had failed to turn over compensation data and documents as part of a routine compliance evaluation. Google is required to let the government inspect records for an audit because its a federal contractor, according to the Labor Department.
Google already has turned over 1.8 million data points and spent more than $500,000 to comply with the requests, including having its engineers build a new tool to extract information from its databases, said Lisa Barnett Sween, litigation manager with Jackson Lewis P.C. in San Francisco, representing Google.
A Department of Labor administrative law judge in San Francisco on Friday granted Googles request for a preliminary protective order on its salary data. Google, like many Silicon Valley companies, fiercely guards compensation used to lure and retain employees.
Right now, millions of Japanese citizens and visiting tourists are enjoying the cherry blossoms that turn the country into an explosion of picnicking and pink. Since this is one of the world's great annual draws for amateur photographers, we sent lenswoman Shiho Fukadawho specializes in social-documentary photographyto capture the moment and to share 10 key pieces of advice for those taking on such a daunting project.
Shiho Fukada uses a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, a popular digital SLR camera that doesnt require any particular special training. You can buy one for about $2,000 on Amazon.com. For lenses, I like prime lenses like 35mm F1.4 and 50mm F1.2, she explains. I use 35mm because I think it is close to how I see the world.
For detail shots among the trees, Fukada used an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. For a wider variety of shots, she used a EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM. This lens has an adjustable focus distance, allowing a photographer the versatility of a tighter or wider frame.
(Here, picnickers enjoy cherry trees in blossom at Shinjyuku Gyoen in Tokyo on April 4, 2017.)
Read also: Revisiting photographers' bible 'The Decisive Moment'
How to shoot the cherry blossoms: Do your research in advance.(Bloomberg/Shiho Fukada)
Do Your Research in Advance
"I usually read as much as I can about the subject matter," Fukada advises. "For example, if Im going to shoot a portrait, I read about that person and what he or she does. This helps me shoot this person in appropriate context, background, and setup.
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Linkedin Sebastian Partogi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 13:09 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86f8a3 4 People najwa-shihab,mata-najwa,catatan-najwa,Book,politics Free
Television journalist Najwa Shihab takes her role as the Indonesian Republic National Librarys duta baca, an ambassador with a mission to improve reading habits and interests among Indonesians, seriously.
I am carrying out this literacy campaign across different regions. Im excited to have so many local volunteers for this program, Najwa, who serves the role from 2016 to 2020, told The Jakarta Post in an interview. The most exciting part is when I go to campuses for both the Mata Najwa program and my duties as a literacy ambassador and meet students who are still highly enthusiastic.
In November 2016, she also published a book called Catatan Najwa (Najwas Scribbles; Literati Publisher) the first one in what is planned to be a series of book anthologizing the editorials of her popular weekly talk show Mata Najwa (Najwas Eyes) on Metro TV, a news channel where she has been working since 2001.
The new book itself collects the best editorials of her weekly talk show. The editorials, read out by her at the opening and closing of the show, summarize that particular episodes topic of conversation in compact and concise sentences.
Catatan Najwa (Najwas Scribbles) by Najwa Shihab(Literati Publisher/File)
Mainly, this book focuses on legal issues and politics, particularly the presidential transition that happened in 2014. This is why the book contains so many stories about President Joko Jokowi Widodo and [his contender in the 2014 election] Prabowo [Subianto]. But the issue isnt limited to this topic, she told the Post in an interview.
Najwa and her publisher plan to put out similar books focusing on other topics, like literacy and education.
Read also: Why women's participation in politics too crucial to be overlooked
She said she was inspired by TV journalist Bill OReillys closing statements for his The OReilly Factor talk show on FOX to formulate the style of her editorials.
During the last four or five years, it seems like our talk show has found the right format for our editorials. In the first two or three years, the format had pretty much been random since we were still looking for our own distinctive style, said the 39-yearold daughter of prominent Muslim scholar Quraish Shihab. The editorials selected for the Catatan Najwa anthology are unique for its quatrain-like format, with witty, sometimes a little bit satirical, thoughts compressed into rhyming sentences.
One particular editorial, entitled Pejabat Kekinian (Contemporary Officials), seems to take a jab at the behavior of some public officials who seem to focus too much on creating an image and displaying charm on social media.
Read also: Meet four Indonesian celebrities on the current political scene
Take a look: karena jadi gaul saja tidak mencukupi, kepemimpinan harus tahan banting dan presisi (because being charming alone isnt enough; leadership requires resilience and precision). Turn the page and you will find some graphic design of icons frequently found on social media handles, such as like and retweet buttons.
Najwa hosts popular weekly talk show Mata Najwa (Najwas Eyes) on Metro TV(Antara/File)
Speaking about the penchant of many public officials and politicians for pencitraan (building image), do not even think of trying to use charm on Najwa if you are a politician craving popularity, as the journalist will scrutinize your words to the core.
Although she can be very relaxed when interviewing musicians or Indonesias everyday heroes, she is best known for her sometimes intimidating gaze and quick-working mind in testing the claims or words of politicians, which, at many times, can be very dubious.
I dont do it to corner them, but to hold them accountable, to make sure that what they say or claim is in line with hard facts and also to gauge their ambitions with their actual track records, she says.
Read also: We all lie, scientists say, but politicians even more so
I dont want them to use the show merely to gain the limelight, said Najwa, who holds bachelors degree in law from the University of Indonesia and Masters from Melbourne Law School.
To achieve this purpose, she said meticulous research was vital, just as in any journalistic works, and the research goes way beyond reading news clippings and checking the internet.
The talk shows research team, for instance, once found that Banten governor hopeful Wahidin Halims free healthcare program had resulted in huge unpaid debts for local hospitals after they visited these hospitals to check the programs implementation.
The team also tracks how many times a politician changes his stance regarding certain issues to scrutinize inconsistency. Some US portals, such as Politico.com, also record the changes in a particular politicians stance regarding certain issues in a flip-flop thermometer, she says.
Unfortunately, Indonesian politicians have no guilt about turning their backs on their words, even after we play them a video of what they said a few years ago right in front of them.
Despite the not-so-good atmosphere of our political situations, Najwa remains optimistic and energetic, as her duties as duta baca keeps her spirits high.
Currently, the literacy campaign, which mainly targets millennials, focuses on the creation of digital libraries. It is also setting up a number of mobile libraries across different regions.
Many people want to donate their books, but the obstacle lies in the high distribution costs. This is why we are now setting up distribution channels so that more people are able to have access to books, she said.
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Linkedin Duncan Graham (The Jakarta Post) Malang Mon, April 10, 2017 09:20 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde866e3e 4 Books Book,history,recruit-to-revolution,john-coast Free
From the bloodletting and intrigue of the Majapahit dynasty to the story of Prince Diponegoro through to building a nation; the mix of mysteries and facts continues to yield high quality ore. Some stories feature European adventurers.
Probably the most famous was Ktut Tantri, aka Surabaya Sue, aka Muriel Walker, the Scottish-American Bali hotelier who supported the nationalists. Tortured by the Japanese she became a broadcaster and speech writer for Sukarno and told some of her past in her autobiography Revolt in Paradise. Though not all.
Less famous and less coy is John Coast, though his past is almost as fantastic. His biography, Recruit to Revolution, first published in 1952, has been reissued by a reputable publisher and edited by scholar Laura Noszlopy.
Coasts story starts in pre-war Britain where he worked as a bored bank clerk who loved to watch ballet. He enlisted and was sent to defend Singapore two weeks before it fell. As in The Lunchbox film about the dabbawallahs of Mumbai sometimes you have to get on the wrong train to get to the right station.
For more than three years, Coast toiled on the 418-kilometer Death Railway linking Thailand with Burma. He slaved with thousands of European prisoners and maybe up to 300,000 romusha, conscripted Indonesians; he found them more likeable than the blackguard Dutch.
Despite the appalling conditions and deaths of about a third of the workers, Coast spent his time usefully. He discovered Balinese dance and organized performances to entertain the men.
Read also: How Panji met Genji in Tokyo
He also studied Dutch and Malay, arousing suspicion as he had the fantastic idea of Indonesian independence. Instead of crying in his cups during the long sea voyage home after release, he wrote about his experiences. Railroad of Death was published in 1946 and did well. Coast mixed with Indonesians in London and assembled a Javanese dance group to stage tours.
Coast helped his friends agitating to get the Dutch out of the East Indies through cultural activities, translations and lobbying. Although independence had been declared after the Japanese surrender, the colonialists had returned and were engaged in a guerrilla war.
During this time, Coast met key players including the Moscow go-between Suripno and the Sorbonne-educated economist Sumitro Joyohadikusumo, who later became minister of Finance. He and Coast were the same age both were born in 1917.
According to Noszlopys introduction, Joyohadikusumo was also associated with the Socialist Party of Indonesia.
Read also: Your struggle is ours too: Chinese-Indonesian community's role in Indonesian independence movement
The closest Coast could get to Indonesia was the British Embassy in Bangkok. He was supposed to be handling public relations but spent time developing contacts with Indonesians. He quit after a year to work for the new Indonesian government. Coast claimed his former employer considered him unstable and a nutcase.
Long before security clearances and plastic name tags hampered adventurers, oddballs like Coast could get into what he called the thick of things. He was also a speedy learner, prepared to adapt and dilute his personal beliefs. Keen to be seen as egalitarian in the postcolonial era he wore shorts and walked.
A Javanese friend who understood the protocols of appearances trumping abilities offered advice: Wear long pants and a tie; use a car; mix only with top officials and wear glasses to look older. The ploys worked and Coast then got treated with respect.
His job was organizing clandestine flights of goods and guns into Indonesia past the Dutch blockade.
Read also: The Loner: Yudhoyono's squandered decade
American pilots flew old Dakotas from Thailand to Bukittinggi and Jambi in Sumatra, and Yogyakarta. To earn money the revolutionaries exported opium another awkward piece to fit into the jigsaw of the nations history.
Coast met the leaders of the new government and was impressed with their qualities. He formed a close relationship with Agus Salim, who cleverly organized support for the new Republic from Arab states using his credentials as an Islamic scholar.
Coast accompanied the Indonesian delegation to the 1949 Round Table Conference in The Hague which led to the Dutch withdrawal from Indonesia. He was then smart enough to realize his job had been done and there was no place for a foreigner in the new nationalism.
He moved to Bali to become a concert promoter taking an Indonesian dance troupe called Peliatan (named after a village near Ubud) on a successful tour to Britain and the US.
Coast wrote about his experiences in Dancing out of Bali and for some time was seen as an Indonesian expert. He worked with people like the naturalist film producer Sir David Attenborough on BBC documentaries. Coasts essay on EastWest relationships is as relevant today as it was when written in the 1950s.
What this book doesnt say is that Coast had allegedly been a pre-war fascist and Nazi sympathizer, a background only recently revealed through the release of official papers.
The omission is strange as the information was published in 2015 and also because Coast was later linked to left-wing activists and causes. Although allegedly of interest to the MI5 spy agency Coast was never arrested though some friends were jailed.
Two years ago Britains Express tabloid commented that it is unlikely they [Attenborough and other celebrities] would have wanted much to do with him [Coast] if they had any inkling of the depth of his anti-Semitic fanaticism.
Was this true? Fortunately Indonesians saw the man for what he was a genuine anti-colonialist with the determination to help the new nation through his skills and contacts. Coast married a Javanese (Supianti) and died in 1989 with his reputation intact.
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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 11:48 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86cc59 1 Food pablo-cheesetart,Pablo-cheese-tart,#cheese,food,food-and-beverage,#food,Hooters,Hooters-Jakarta,restaurant,#restaurant,The-Cheesecake-Factory Free
It is always interesting to discuss Jakartas dining scene as it brims with a plethora of eateries. Recently, the capital welcomed three new franchise outlets, namely Pablo Cheese Tart, Hooters and The Cheesecake Factory.
Those wanting to know more may want to check the list below.
Pablo Cheese Tart
Pablo Cheese Tart's new outlet in Neo Soho shopping mall, West Jakarta. (Pablo Cheese Tart/File)
Pablo Cheese Tart is not a new kid on the block in Jakartas dining scene. Following the success of its first outlet in Gandaria City shopping mall in South Jakarta, the Japanese cheese tart shop opened a new outlet in Neo Soho shopping mall in West Jakarta on March 8.
Unlike its first outlet, which was designed for take-away, the second outlet is aimed at catering for dine-in customers. With a capacity of 50 seats, Pablo Cheese Tart enthusiasts can now have a freshly baked cheese tart right inside the joint.
Where : Neo Soho, LG Floor, Jl Letjen S. Parman Kav. 28, Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta
Read also: Jakarta's 2017 dining forecast: 4 trends to look out for
Hooters Jakarta
Hooters plan to open an outlet in Jakarta was first announced through its Facebook page in September. Since then, Jakartas food enthusiasts have been talking about the American restaurant chain.
Finally, the restaurant officially opened its doors last month. In addition to its food and beverages and iconic sexy waitresses, the restaurant also offers live screening of sport events.
Where : Jl. Kemang Raya No. 5, South Jakarta
The Cheesecake Factory
A post shared by THECHEESECAKEFACTORYINDONESIA (@thecheesecakefactoryindonesia) on Mar 26, 2017 at 8:46pm PDT
US-based cheesecakes distributor The Cheesecake Factory has recently made its debut appearance in Jakarta. Opening as a food stand in supermarkets, cheesecake enthusiasts now have the opportunity to sample the brands popular treats, including original cheesecake, Ultimate Red Velvet and Oreo Dream Extreme. The cheesecake is available in Food Hall and Ranch Market supermarkets with prices starting from Rp 600,000 (US$44.95). (kes)
Where : Food Hall and Ranch Market supermarkets
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 18:31 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde885e6b 1 Lifestyle transgender,LGBT,Thailand,#Thailand,discrimination,army,Army-Draft Free
As they do every April, military officers call names to decide the military draft, and as they do, a group of young transgender women sit together, waiting to hear their names.
While Thailand is seen as a progressive country and safe space for those who identify as part of the LGBT community, many still have reported discrimination, and the mandatory army draft for those assigned male at birth is no exception.
"I was born male, so I must be here, as duty calls," Kanphitcha Sungsuk told Reuters.
The mandatory army draft occurs every April, and includes every 21-year-old Thai man, who must either volunteer to serve for six months or take their chances in a lottery, where a choice of black ticket lets them go home but a red ticket means they must serve for two years", reported Reuters.
Read also: Boy Scouts will allow transgender children into programs
Exemptions are made for those with disabilities, and trans women, but only if they can prove it to a doctor, who will see if they have undergone a sex change. Those who cannot provide physical or paper evidence of "gender identity disorder must continue to be part of the draft.
Executive director of the Thai Transgender Alliance for Human Rights, Jetsada Taesombat, explained that most are stressed and worried that they will be undressed, stared at, or humiliated in public. Taesombat continued, some are so stressed out they want to commit suicide to avoid conscription.
"Society looks on and thinks we are accepted, but it's actually not so," said Khwan Suphalak, 23, mentioning that hotels have denied her entry over her gender identity. "We're always treated differently." (sul/kes)
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 18:15 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde8849de 1 National Yogyakarta,angklung,street-musician,ban,human-rights Free
The Yogyakarta administrations stance on banning street musicians is thought by some to have breached the economic, social, cultural, civic and political rights of the provinces residents. The administration has categorized the musicians as vagrants and beggars who disrupt traffic.
Pandawa Legal Aid and Consultation Institute director Sugiyarto said on Monday that the Yogyakarta governor through the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) had banned angklung (bamboo music instrument) players from operating on city streets based on a 2004 regional regulation on traffic management and a 2014 regional regulation on vagrants and beggars.
They are not vagrants or beggars. They have ID cards and dress neatly while entertaining people who are waiting at the traffic lights, Sugiyarto said while accompanying angklung players who complained of the policy to the Yogyakarta City Council.
Sugiyarto said the street musicians were trying to make a living, an action that was protected under Law No. 30/1999 on human rights.
Angklung player Widi Ariska said if the musicians were banned from making a living on the streets, they would be unemployed and fall into poverty.
I can earn about Rp 100,000 [US$7.50] a day, said Widi, a Banyumas resident in Central Java, adding that there were some 15 angklung street musician groups throughout the province, 40 percent of whom were Yogyakarta residents.
Yogyakarta City Council deputy head Dharma Setiawan said he would help solve the problem.
However, Yogyakarta Public Order Agency head GBPH Yudhaningrat stated that the agency would continue to ban the musicians from working on the streets, arguing that their activities fell under the category of begging.
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Linkedin Winda A. Charmila (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 16:57 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde87d1cd 1 City Jakarta-reclamation,public-information Free
A group of activists and fishermen incorporated in the Save Jakarta Bay Coalition has to bite the bullet once again over a recent study on the environmental, social and economic impacts of the northern Jakarta land reclamation project that serves as the basis for continuing the controversial project.
During the fourth hearing at the Public Information Commission (KIP) on Monday, officials from the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Ministry did not show up and asked for postponement in a written statement.
KIP commissioner Evy Trisulo said the ministry had asked for the hearing to be postponed as it was still in the process of gathering evidence related to the continuation of the project.
The recent study on the reclamation project was made public following different policies by former coordinating maritime affairs minister Rizal Ramli, who had decided to stop the project, and his successor, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, who approved its continuation.
We want to explain that there are different statements by Bapak Rizal Ramli and Bapak Luhut Pandjaitan related to their recommendations regarding the reclamation project [] We want detailed information on the continuation of the project, said a researcher of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), Rayhan Dudayev, during the hearing.
The ICEL, along with the Legal Aid Institute (LBH), the Peoples Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA) and the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Union (KNTI), are part of the coalition.
Rayhan added that the resumption remained questionable due to the difference in opinions, hence the coalition also proposed to get access to the study conducted by the ministry under the leadership of Rizal for comparison.
In June, Rizal said the development of Islet G of the reclamation project had to be halted due to gross violations committed by the developer, as the islet was constructed above underwater electricity cables and in the path of shipping lanes. It also was found to damage the environment.
Two months later, Luhut said there were no problems related to the project and approved the resumption of the reclamation, including Islet G.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017
Amid one of the most divisive gubernatorial elections in the history of the capital, incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama and his rival Anies Baswedan tried to show their lighter sides on Saturday night by taking part in a live stand-up comedy routine program aired on TV.
During the talk show, Ahok and Anies were challenged to deliver election-related jokes.
Accompanied by their respective running mates Djarot Saiful Hidayat and Sandiaga Uno, each were given two minutes to deliver their best jokes.
Ahok went first, beginning by saying that he would intentionally make his jokes not funny.
Sorry, but I dont want to make this program any funnier than The Ahok Show, he said with a grin, referring to the name of an online interactive talk show program uploaded to his social media accounts as part of his election campaign.
He then proceeded to talk to the audience about his experiences as governor of Jakarta.
I was on an impromptu visit the other day when I met a resident who kept frowning. He said he frowned because I would evict him. Then he showed me the invoice of his property tax that said he had to pay nothing. He somehow concluded that zero tax meant that he would be evicted, said Ahok. Instead of being happy, he thought he would get evicted. This is all because of the gubernatorial election.
Ahok then recited a funny experience as deputy governor when he was visiting residents hit by floods and forced to move to the Marunda low-cost apartments in North Jakarta in 2013.
When he was inside the apartment, some civil servants suddenly rushed downstairs to meet the mayor of North Jakarta. The civil servants were excited to meet their mayor, so I followed them, forgetting that I was the deputy governor at that time. I still thought I was just a regular businessman. he said, this time drawing a larger laugh.
Following Ahok, Anies tried his best to make the audience laugh even though he did not keep up with the theme of the challenge.
Understanding that he is not a professional comedian, Anies asked the audience to laugh at him before he started his routine. I would appreciate it if everyone could laugh because this is hard to do, said Anies.
He started his performance by saying that Jakartans had done themselves proud as the word nongkrong, which is Indonesian slang for hanging out, had made it onto The New York Times website.
So many young people like to nongkrong these days that The New York Times even defined the word, which according to them means sitting, talking and doing nothing, said Anies as the audience giggled.
Anies jokes caused the audience, which consisted mostly of young adults, to burst out in laughter when he mentioned the popular dating app Tinder.
I see teenagers swiping right on their smartphones and it turns out they are playing with Tinder. I wanted to download it too, but I didnt after I found out what the app was for, said Anies, jokingly adding that he had seen married people use the app.
The stand-up comedy segment and the whole program was filled with laughter and humorous banter, a stark contrast to the candidates previous TV appearances where the public could see a clear antipathy between the two tickets.
Despite all the political brawling, the fact that both candidates still managed to show off their humorous side together was something to be appreciated, said Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst Siti Zuhro.
The program was intended to show off the humorous side of each candidate, so even though the program displayed the competition between Ahok and Anies, watching them could make people feel the program was simple and relaxing, she said.
However, the audience, especially people who will cast their votes in the upcoming election runoff, must not misinterpret the apparent friendliness displayed by the two candidates during the program, Siti added.
People must not interpret their intimacy as their real stance. They are competing against each other, so they will calculate and memorize each others words and actions, she said.
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Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Banyumas Mon, April 10, 2017 10:34 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86ac86 4 Politics Nahdlatul-ulama,HTI,Islam,Muslim Free
Hundreds of members of Barisan Ansor Serbaguna (Banser), the youth wing of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), have taken down banners calling for the creation of khilafah, or Islamic country.
The banners featured the logo of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) and were set up in several regencies of Central Java, before being taken down on Sunday. They were found in strategic locations of Banyumas, Cilacap, Purbalingga and Brebes.
Those banners have no permits and they contain an invitation to build an Islamic country. This is not right, and Banser is against it, Andry Widyanto, the coordinating head of Banser in Banyumas, told The Jakarta Post.
(Read also: Jokowi, allies call for national unity amid pressure)
Andry said the banners had been found in 20 locations in Purwokerto, the capital of Banyumas regency. He added that Banser would fight anything that harmed national unity, including the idea of building an Islamic country.
He said his teams decision to take down the banners was the decision of all Banser members.
We have coordinated with the police, and they gave us the permission to do this, he added.
Banyumas Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Aziz Andriansah was involved in guiding Bansers action. He said he had asked Banser members to go about their action in a calm way.
Aziz said he had not known about the presence of HTI in Banyumas and said police also had yet to discover which party was behind the installation of the banners.
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 18:02 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde883114 1 Business Jokowi-administration,Joko-Widodo,HKTI,agrarian-reform,farmers-association,Moeldoko,TNI Free
The Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) has elected former Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Moeldoko, who is also a close aide to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, as its new chairman.
Moeldoko replaced Mahyudin, a Golkar Party politician and the deputy speaker of the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR).
Moeldoko said he was committed to designing long and short term strategies for the HKTI and its 60 million members to achieve Indonesias vision in becoming a global food supplier.
I, representing Indonesian farmers, extend gratitude to the government for the agriculture infrastructure its building today. We, the HKTI, are truly a strategic partner of the government, he said in his HKTI inauguration speech, which was attended by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman and Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly.
The HKTI is considered to be one of the most sought after strategic posts by the country's elite politicians. Past chairmen of the association include Gerindra Party chief and former presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and Hanura Party chief Oesman Sapta.
(Read also: Farmers association introduces new paddy seeds to jack up productivity)
The government has been working toward agrarian reform, in which it seeks to boost land distribution to residents and open loan access and other assistance to farmers.
The HKTI, funded by donations, has recently invented two paddy seeds named after Moeldoko: M70D and M400. The new seeds have been planted on 1,000 hectares of paddy fields in Java and Kalimantan. (wit)
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan Mon, April 10, 2017 06:54 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde85ff59 1 National Medan,murder,murder-case Free
An apparent mass murder has taken place at a house on Jl. Kayu Putih in the densely-populated Medan Deli district in Medan, North Sumatra. On Sunday morning at 10 a.m., locals discovered a family of five dead and covered in blood in their house.
The victims are husband Riyanto, 50, wife Sri Ariyani, 35, Sris mother Sumarni, 60, and the couples children Naya, 13, and Gilang, 8. Stab wounds were allegedly found on their bodies. The police have taken the bodies to Bhayangkara Hospital in Medan for an autopsy.
Meanwhile, the familys youngest child, two-year-old Kirana, was found alive but had bruises all over her body. The toddler has been admitted to Mitra Medika Hospital for intensive care.
Spripim, 40, a neighbor, said suspicions of murder arose after local people noticed that the lights of the familys house were still on even though the sun had come up. He said he called Riyantos name but no one replied. He then saw that the door at the side of the house was open. He entered and was shocked to see the family members covered in blood. He then screamed for help.
Murni, Riyantos mother, urged the police to arrest the perpetrator. She also said the familys motorcycle and jewelry were missing from the house.
North Sumatra Police spokeswoman Sr. Comr. Rina Sari Ginting said the police had formed a team of investigators from the North Sumatra Police and the Medan Police to investigate the possible murder case.
Our initial suspicion is robbery with violence, she said, adding that the case might qualify as the most sadistic murder case in the province so far this year. (rin)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 11:55 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86d849 1 Politics Golkar,#GolkarParty Free
Golkar chairman Setya Novanto has asked all party members to start putting up banners announcing President Joko Jokowi Widodo as Golkars presidential candidate for the 2019 election.
Setya told a regional party meeting in Surabaya, East Java, on Sunday to set up Jokowis pictures in areas deemed strategic to introduce Jokowis 2019 presidential bid nominated by Golkar.
I ask all Golkar cadres to put up banners of Pak Jokowis pictures. You can do it, cant you? Setya said before the party's members as quoted by Tribunnews.com, adding that Golkars decision to endorse Jokowis second term was unchangeable.
(Read also: With Jokowis charm, Golkar set to compete in 2019 poll)
To defend such a decision, Setya, who is also the speaker of the House of Representatives, cited an internal survey conducted by Golkar that found Jokowis popularity hit 50.8 percent, leaving behind his potential strongest contender, Prabowo Subianto, with 20.2 percent.
The survey included Prabowo as his Gerindra Party is said to nominate him again to run in the 2019 presidential race. Setya said that the internal study also placed Jokowis popularity at top rank with 98 percent.
Setya further asked Golkar members to set up a proper strategy to win the upcoming regional elections as well as the presidential election, expecting each village and city in East Java, as well as elsewhere, to recorded 100 new party cadres.
Setya, who is under fire of his alleged involvement in a mega graft scandal of e-ID procurement, needs protection from President Jokowi from the internal party's rift. (msa/dan)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 18:42 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde886af4 1 National dpd-speaker-replacement,government Free
Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly has refused to intervene in the ongoing leadership spat between two factions at the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), leaving the problem for the DPD to resolve internally.
There are two contrasting views in regard to the matter. There are protests [against the DPDs new leadership]. Its normal, Yasonna said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.
The minister, who is a politician from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the government fully respected the Supreme Courts decision to inaugurate Oesman Sapta Odang as new DPD chairman along with his two deputies Nono Sampono and Darmayanti Lubis.
However, Yasonna also welcomed Oesmans predecessor GKR Hemas and her supporters protesting against his leadership and that of his two deputies. We shall see what will happen because the Supreme Court has inaugurated them.
Hemas led the opposition to Oesmans leadership following his controversial inauguration by the Supreme Court after it previously issued a ruling that maintained Hemas leadership until 2019 by annulling the DPDs code of conduct, which had halved the tenure of DPD speakers and deputy speakers from five years to two-and-a-half years.
The Hanura Party chairman was inaugurated as the DPD speaker on April 4 by deputy chief justice Suwardi on behalf of the Supreme Court chief Hatta Ali who was on minor haj. (msa)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10 2017
High school and Madrasah Aliyah (Islamic senior high school) students in Jakarta will take the computer-based standardized exam from Monday until Thursday.
Jakarta Education Agency deputy head Bowo Irianto said the exam would be conducted in three sessions at 470 high schools and 92 Madrasah Aliyah schools.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 14:32 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde878047 1 National palm-oil,deforestation,European-Parliament,European-Union,biofuel,RI-EU Free
Jakarta has denounced the European Parliaments recent ruling on palm oil and deforestration that it considers to be damaging to the countrys biofuel exports.
The Foreign Ministry said the European Parliament's Resolution on Palm Oil and Deforestation of Rainforests, which was passed in Strasbourg on April 4, was a discriminatory act as it contradicts the European Unions position of being a champion of open, free and fair trade.
The European Parliament's resolution was based on inaccurate and unaccountable data on development related to palm oil and forestry management in palm oil producing countries, including Indonesia, the ministry said in a statement.
(Read also: EU policy unjustifiable)
It argued that oil palm plantations did not make a significant impact on global deforestration, citing studies by the European Commission in 2013 that said from a total of 239 ha of land which underwent deforestation globally in a 20 year period, 58 million ha was for livestock grazing, 13 million ha for soy cultivation and 6 million ha for palm oil production, meaning palm oil only contributed to 2.5 percent of the total deforestation.
Indonesia is now the worlds largest palm oil producer supplying more than 26 million tons of palm oil-based products to global markets annually. The EU has been one of the largest importers, taking up to 15 percent of Indonesian exports.
The palm oil industry has also been subject to criticism for its irresponsible business practices, having been embroiled in land conflicts with residents and causing deforestation and haze. (rdi/wit)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 14:00 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde8776dc 1 City Jokowi-administration,Joko-Widodo,Palangkaraya,jakarta,moving-the-capital Free
The government plans by the end of the year to finish assessing potential alternative cities that could become Indonesias new capital.
National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head Bambang Brodjonegoro said Monday that the government was determined to move the Indonesian capital out of Java. He said Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan was one of the options.
It has to be outside Java, Bambang said on the sidelines of the Regional Workshop on Country Safeguard Systems as quoted by Antara news agency. The final decision will come within this year.
In the search for the countrys new capital city, Bambang explained that Bappenas was looking at the availability of land and natural resources around the potential cities. He, however, declined to detail the list of the alternatives besides Palangkaraya.
The government included Palangkaraya on the list because former president Soekarno had planned to move the capital city there. (msa/wit)
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 22:26 2037 a291276806121264c0bd211cde88ae44 1 National Visa,#visa Free
The government is planning to remove some of the 169 countries on the free-visa list, as few tourists from those countries travel to Indonesia.
The Law and Human Rights Ministry, along with related institutions, such as the Foreign Affairs Ministry, is currently evaluating the benefits of the free-visa policy, with the country standing to potentially lose around Rp 1 trillion (US$75.4 million) in non-tax revenue from the policy.
There are some countries that have not contributed significantly to Indonesia's income. We granted them the free-visa policy but their citizens almost never vacation here, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said during a meeting with the House of Representatives Commission II on Monday.
Yasonna added that the number of tourists from some countries was increasing, and therefore the policy made sense. However, the ministry refused to provide details about the countries that would be removed as the review was still ongoing.
The evaluation includes inter-ministerial talks because the purpose of the policy is to increase the number of foreign tourists, so the Tourism Ministry also plays a role, Immigration Ministry director general Ronny F. Sompie said.
The free-visa policy has been in effect since 2015. (dan)
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Linkedin Lailatul Fitriyah (The Jakarta Post) Indiana, US Mon, April 10 2017
The xenophobic, anti-Christian, politically driven but religiously masked Indonesian Muslim hard-line populist movement went to a new low these past couple weeks when it employed the colonialist narrative of pribumi (native) to marginalize Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama and his supporters. This latest stunt came after a failed campaign to prohibit mosques from facilitating obligatory Islamic rituals for the remains of Muslims who allegedly supported Ahok during their lifetime.
Various posts on social media took notice of how these people who stuck pribumi stickers on cars, and who flaunted pribumi posters while protesting again in downtown Jakarta, wore Arabic-style clothing and supported the rival gubernatorial candidate known to be of Arab descent.
The idea of transforming Indonesia into a sharia-based country (whatever that means), which is being promoted by these groups, cannot be deemed an Indonesian idea. However, what is missing from these observations is that tracing back authenticity is not only futile but also dangerous for those arbitrarily excluded from the circle of the indigenous.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Mon, April 10 2017
Investment has been the main engine of Indonesias growth after domestic consumption, and its role has become increasingly important amid continuing economic weakness. The Jakarta Posts Linda Yulisman and Dylan Amirio recently talked to Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chief Thomas Lembong about overall investment prospects in the country and other issues. Here are excerpts of the interview.
Question: In ASEAN, Indonesia now competes tightly with its peers, such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, to attract foreign direct investment. What is BKPMs strategy to cope with such competition?
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017
In another move to balance out his firm stance against Muslim radicals participating in sectarian rallies, President Joko Jokowi Widodo has toned down earlier statements about the separation of religion and politics.
Jokowi, ahead of a recent sectarian rally by conservative Muslim groups against Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, had warned the groups not to mix religion with politics.
While reaping criticism from Islamist political parties, his statements did not stop the rally on March 31, in which police detained five protesters, including Muslim Peoples Forum (FUI) leader Muhammad Al-Khaththath.
The President later met Muslim clerics from across the nation and thanked them for maintaining religious harmony and asked them to preserve it.
I issued a warning a few weeks ago that we should not mix politics and religion. What I meant was that the context of the warning concerns the unity of our country, Jokowi said on Saturday during his visit to the Kholifatulloh Singo Ludiro Islamic boarding school in Sukoharjo, Central Java, where he inaugurated a new school building and mosque.
Jokowi said religion and politics should be put together in a proper context, such as in policymaking.
In order to maintain our countrys unity, we should not let religion be politicized to become a commodity, Jokowi went on.
In recent months, Jakarta has witnessed numerous antiAhok rallies that have also become a cause celebre for opposing Jokowi, whose party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), supports the Christian governor of Chinese descent in the Jakarta election.
On Sunday, thousands of members of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the countrys largest Muslim organization, which is affiliated with a party allied with Jokowi, the National Awakening Party (PKB), gathered in Sidoarjo, East Java, to call for national unity.
Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, who is also an NU member, attended the event, along with PKB chairman Muhaimin Iskandar and Setya Novanto, the chairman of the Golkar Party, another government ally.
This event is expected to secure religious harmony amid current issues faced by the country, said M. Hasan Mutawakkil Alallah, the chairman of NUs East Java chapter, as quoted by news agency Antara.
Syafii Maarif, the former chairman of Indonesias second-largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, also expressed concern over the use of religion as a political tool that gave rise to identity politics and social division.
The majority of people in this country is Muslim; however, I am worried that [the majority] itself is divided and [its members] end up insulting one another, Syafii said in Jakarta on Saturday at a discussion titled Indonesia at a Crossroads: Pancasila Country vs Religious Country.
The number people misusing and monopolizing the truth in the name of a certain religion might be small, but they seemed to be gaining ground, because they spoke too loudly, Syafii said. Meanwhile, the majority supporting the countrys ideology of Pancasila was mostly silent.
Our country must not be weak in light of this threat. Authorities should be more watchful and vigilant. Dont let vigilante groups take action, Syafii added.
National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian, who was also present at the discussion, said he noticed that identity politics in the nation was getting stronger, while on the other hand Pancasila principles were fading away in society.
While noting that such identity politics was the consequence of a democratic country where unequal wealth distribution was still the underlying cause of conflict, Tito said what Indonesia needed now was to strengthen conflict prevention mechanisms.
I think instruments like the Inter-Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB) should be further empowered to bridge communication between religious groups. If we look closely, the problem is often miscommunication, Tito said.
Clearly we are entering a potentially dangerous convergence of expanding robotic artificial intelligence along with the political will to continue allowing robots more and more autonomy as they carry out the traditional duties of the military and police. Some experts argue that the precision of robotics will curb many of the abuses we have seen from our military and police. But is that the trend we are actually seeing? Or will automated systems of violent control inevitably lead to even greater industrial-level suppression and killing?
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10 2017
In another move to balance out his firm stance against Muslim radicals participating in sectarian rallies, President Joko Jokowi Widodo has toned down earlier statements about the separation of religion and politics.
Jokowi, ahead of a recent sectarian rally by conservative Muslim groups against Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, had warned the groups not to mix religion with politics.
While reaping criticism from Islamist political parties, his statements did not stop the rally on March 31, in which police detained five protesters, including Muslim Peoples Forum (FUI) leader Muhammad Al-Khaththath.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 12:38 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86de38 1 Business Jokowi,Constitutional-Court,bylaws,revocation Free
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has said he accepts the verdict made by the Constitutional Court that prohibited the Home Minister from revoking regional bylaws.
He said the revocation of the regional bylaws that had taken place since 2015 was to help smooth the process of investment.
"We actually want to simplify the process in obtaining investment permits both in central government and regional government. However, we respect the Constitutional Court's decision," Jokowi said on Saturday during his official visit to Central Java as reported by tempo.co.
The Constitutional Court annulled four provisions in Article 251, Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 8 of the 2014 Regional Government Law that principally allowed the central government to scrap problematic regional byways.
Jokowi said his administration, however, would continue its deregulation policy to simplify and speed up the process in obtaining investment licenses to boost the country's economic growth.
"We have to uphold the law, but this is my responsibility to finish [the deregulation process] both in central government and in the regions," he added.
(Read also: Courts decision on local bylaws may hinder investment: Darmin)
The Home Affairs Minister had scrapped 3,143 bylaws throughout 2015 and 2016 without facing the challenge of judicial reviews. The bylaw revocation is part of the Jokowi administrations efforts to improve the country's business climate. (yon/bbn)
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Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 13:18 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde870b4b 1 City 2017JakartaElection,ahok-djarot,Anies-Baswedan-Sandiaga-Uno Free
Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama and his running mate Djarot Saiful Hidayat have found themselves facing criticism after their recently released campaign advertising was accused of raising race issues.
A hashtag, #KampanyeAhokJahat, was used in Twitter shortly after a two-minute video ad went viral on Sunday. The video was uploaded by Ahok onto his Twitter account followed with a caption: #beragamItuBasukiDjarot (Basuki and Djarot are diverse).
In the video that allegedly depicts a 1998 riot, a group of seemingly angry men pounce on a car, trapping the driver and her daughter inside. The next scene showed a group of men in Muslim attire carrying a sign reading "Ganyang Cina" (crush Chinese), while the city is in riot.
Afterwards a badminton player of Chinese descent was shown on the screen while Djarot's voice was heard in the background urging Jakartan residents to vote, no matter their race, ethnicity, or religion (SARA).
(Read also: Ahok focuses on online campaign in second round)
One Jakartan who objected to the video was Gerindra lawmaker Rachel Maryam whose party supports Ahok's challenger, Anies Baswedan. "Its the most racist campaign ad using the SARA issue and playing victim. Provocative," she said via her twitter account.
A group of lawyers calling themselves Advokat Cinta Tanah Air is also planning to file a report against the video to the Election Supervisory Commission on Monday, claiming that it had hurt Islam. (idb/wit)
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 14:53 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde8786ef 1 Business Lion-Air,flight-delay,Yogyakarta,jakarta,back-to-normal Free
Lion Air Group has said that its flights have returned to normal after the delays of its three flights from Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta on Sunday night.
The delays affected a Wings Air flight from Yogyakarta to Surabaya, East Java, Batik Air flights from Yogyakarta to Jakarta Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport and to Soekarno Hatta International Airport, Banten.
The planes were supposed to fly between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Sunday night.
(Read also: Flights at Halim airport diverted for Air Forces anniversary)
"The passengers flew before 7 a.m. this morning. Everything has gone back to normal today," Lion Air Group public relations manager Andy Saladin said over the phone on Monday.
He said that the passengers affected by the delay stayed in hotels paid for by the airline.
Andy said the delays were due to the commemoration of the Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) anniversary at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, which led to the closure of the airport and the overlay work at Adisutjipto International Airport. (bbn)
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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017
Malaysia is putting high hopes on the planned unified halal certification with Indonesia, the country with the worlds largest Muslim population, in a bid to strengthen halal trade relations between the two countries.
At present, Indonesia only directly accepts Malaysian halal certificates for industrial goods, such as palm oil.
However, Malaysian end-user products must undergo various tests to obtain another halal certificate from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and halal logo from the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) before being marketed in Indonesia.
To address the issue, Malaysian and Indonesian authorities are reviewing their halal certifications to avoid inefficient imports and exports in the long run.
We have been collaborating very closely because we want to sell more products to Indonesia and, of course, we also welcome Indonesian products in Malaysia, Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed told reporters on the sidelines of the 2017 Malaysia International Halal Showcase (Mihas) in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Some challenges have not been resolved. Indonesian authorities recognize our halal certification, but there are some additional tests that our people have to go through.
The MUIs Food and Drug Analysis Agency (LPPOM) deputy director, Muti Arintawati , said her side had planned to simplify halal certification for Malaysian end-user products imported into Indonesia.
We may not need to conduct an audit at the production location. Instead, we can just audit the documents of those products. Nonetheless, this plan has yet to be officially agreed to, Muti told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday.
In August last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was committed to boosting trade between the two neighboring countries to US$30 billion in the near future.
Total trade between Malaysia and Indonesia has seen a declining trend to $14.31 billion in 2016 from $24 billion in 2013 amid the global economic crisis, as shown by data from Indonesias Trade Ministry.
Indonesia is huge, of course. Its a very big market. [] The issue here is that there are some technical issues in regard to the acceptance of halal, Abu Bakar Koyakutty, senior director of the market access and international partnership division at the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
There are different standards on halal. If we can resolve the issue, we see theres a huge potential.
According to a 2016 study published by Salaam Gateway, a business intelligence platform that is a joint effort between the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Center and intelligence and research agency Thomson Reuters, one of problems facing halal regulatory standards globally is that there is no unified standard.
For instance, it states there is a significant variance between the standards of the Department of Standards Malaysia (DSM) applied in Malaysia and the standards of the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA) applied in the United Arab Emirates.
The cost of gaining multiple certifications to satisfy the needs of different markets adds complexity and could prohibit entry, resulting in unmet demand for halal food among Muslim consumers, said the report.
The report also notes the slow and limited uptake of halal accreditation programs, the process in which a third neutral party validates the certification.
Compounding that problem, halal accreditation bodies have yet to sign specific mutual recognition agreements for halal certification and there is no forum or framework to ensure peer review.
Halal accreditors operate independently of each other at present and, often times, there is limited clarity on the jurisdiction of the accreditors.
Meanwhile, the State of Global Islamic Economy Report 2016/2017 by Thomson Reuters and research and advisory firm DinarStandard puts the size of Islamic economy at an estimated $3 trillion by 2021, rising from $1.9 trillion in 2015.
In 2015, Muslims spending on food and beverages stood at $1.1 trillion and there was $415 billion estimated revenues from halal-certified food and beverage products.
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Linkedin Ahmad Bayuny (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 17:16 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde87de77 1 Business Mitsubishi,sales,increase,Q1 Free
Authorized Mitsubishi truck distributor PT Krama Yudha Tiga Berlian Motors (KTB) has announced its sales increased by 23 percent in the first quarter of 2017, compared to the same period last year.
The total sales up to March this year reached 10,068 units of vehicles, compared to 8,197 units in the same period in 2016, said KTB marketing director Duljatmono as reported by kontan.co.id.
Improved performance of the countrys logistics and plantation sectors helped Mitsubishis sales, Duljatmono said, adding Sumatra saw the biggest increase in sales, helped by the price increase of commodities exported from the island.
Amid the increase in sales of commercial vehicles, there have been concerns about a possible increase in the rate of non-performing loans (NPLs), related to loans for commercial vehicle sales.
Duljatmono, however, said the NPLs could decrease with the sales surge.
The market share of Mitsubishi commercial vehicles in January and February stood at 46.3 percent, a 0.3 percent decrease from last year, while the shares of Hino and Isuzu were 31.8 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively.
This year, KTB aims to increase its commercial vehicle share to 48 percent, compared to 45.8 percent in 2016. (bbn)
The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post
Topics : Mitsubishi sales increase Q1
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 13:24 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde871bd4 1 National national-hero,Indonesian-literature,indonesian-poet,chairil-anwar Free
Writers from West Sumatra have proposed renowned poet Chairil Anwar to be awarded a national hero title for his contributions to Indonesian literature.
The head of the forum of Chairil Anwar's national hero nomination, Gus TF Sakai, said Sunday that Chairil deserved to be acknowledged as a national hero not only because of his work but also his close relationship with several national figures, such as Sutan Syahrir, Sukarni and Khairul Saleh.
Yulfian Afrizal, a member of the forum, said that if WR Supratman, the composer of the national anthem Indonesia Raya, could be recognized as a hero, Chairil's works then should earn him the status.
"Chairil's poems are monumental," Yulfian added, as quoted by antaranews.com.
Iyut Fitra, the deputy head of the forum said that the forum would conduct several activities related to the nomination of Chairil Anwar.
Iyut added that the forum had also received support from Limapuluh Kota regency administration in which the recommendation would be delivered to the West Sumatra governor before it would be conveyed to the Social Affairs Ministry.
Born in Medan in 1922, Chairil was known for his work that often explored death, existentialism and also individualism, concepts that critics called results of Western influence, but had become inspiration for the country's revolution. (rdi/wit)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 13:59 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde8774dc 1 Business Real-Estate-Indonesia,apartment,tax Free
Real Estate Indonesia (REI) has rejected the government plan to impose taxes on vacant apartments as it will discourage investment in the sector.
REI secretary general Paulus Totok Lusida said such a policy was not in line with the governments campaign to attract investors, including participants of the tax amnesty, who were invited to put their money in the property sector.
Dont introduce a policy that could discourage [investment in the property sector]. The property business relates to 150 other businesses, said Paulus as reported by tempo.co on Monday.
Paulus disclosed the result of the meeting between representatives of REI and the government to discuss the progressive taxes for idle plots of land. During the meeting, the government representatives expressed their wish to tax vacant apartments.
Paulus said the majority of people bought apartments as second homes or only for investment. He also question the definition of vacant apartments. If I frequently visit Jakarta and stay in my apartment, is my apartment vacant? he said.
In an unconfirmed document dated in April, the Finance Ministry proposed three choices of policies to Agrarian and Spatial Ministry or National Land Agency (BPN): progressive taxes from ownership of idle land, taxes from vacant apartments and taxes from capital gain.
Meanwhile, Agrarian and Spatial Minister Sofyan Djalil said that such a policy would not be implemented in the near future. We will rethink such a policy because property is having a difficult time now. We will discuss it further, he added. (bbn)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie and Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017
The Constitutional Courts recent ruling curtailing the central governments authority to revoke regional bylaws may embolden local politicians to issue more religiously-inspired regulations that are often discriminatory against women and minority groups, human rights activists have said.
The ruling comes as Indonesia confronts a rising tide of religious conservatism, which appears to have encroached further into the nations political sphere.
With the rise of identity politics and the central governments inability to revoke problematic bylaws, it is feared that local politicians may now have a greater incentive and greater freedom to enact religiously-tinted regulations to boost their popularity.
A 2015 survey conducted by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) found that base political considerations were primarily responsible for the implementation of sharia-based laws, with local politicians bowing to demands from conservative Muslim groups in exchange for votes during elections. It found that most of the sharia-inspired bylaws that the study reviewed in Jakarta, Banten and West Java were passed during a local election campaign season.
It is possible that the ruling may also lead to a more excessive implementation of the existing discriminatory bylaws, Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) executive director Supriyadi Widodo Eddyono said.
Supriyadi argued that local governments would most likely ignore the central governments recommendations after the courts ruling.
He took as an example the Aceh administrations refusal to amend its Islamic criminal code bylaw, or Qanun Jinayat. The Home Ministry said in a letter sent to the Aceh government and the Aceh Provincial Legislative Council in 2014 that some of the laws in Qanun contradicted national laws.
But since the Aceh Governance Law said Qanun could only be repealed by a Supreme Court ruling, not the Home Ministry, the Aceh administration has never responded to the ministrys letter, he said.
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of the Indonesian Regency Administrations Association (Apkasi), 45 regencies nationwide and one individual, who submitted a request for a judicial review of the 2014 Regional Administration Law.
In its decision, the Constitutional Court annulled four provisions in Article 251, Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 8 of the law. These provisions principally allowed the central government to scrap problematic bylaws.
That said, a bylaw revocation can now only be filed to the Supreme Court, which is responsible for examining judicial reviews of regulations from a lower level than national law, such as bylaws, as outlined in the Constitution.
National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) chairman Azriana lamented the courts ruling.
The mechanism to scrap bylaws issued by the Home Ministry, if implemented effectively, is actually the most effective way to get rid of hundreds of discriminative bylaws across the country, Azriana said.
Data from Komnas Perempuan reveals that from 2009 up to August 2016, a total of 421 discriminatory bylaws were issued by local governments, including those that regulate morality and restrict womens control of their own bodies.
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Linkedin Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10 2017
As United States President Donald Trump defended the missile strike in Syria and hinted that he would continue the effort in the future, the Indonesian government reiterated on Sunday that it would continue to press for a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict.
In a letter to Congress sent on Saturday, Trump said his action was based on the US vital national security and foreign policy interests, and that additional action might follow in the future.
President Trump also said the attack was meant to degrade Assads ability to conduct chemical weapon attacks and to dissuade the Syrian regime from using or proliferating chemical weapons.
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Quit smoking
Tobacco Free Cass/Sarpy County recently announced help for those who would like to quit smoking cigarettes. If you want to quit smoking tobacco, Nebraska Tobacco Quitline will mail you a two-week supply of nicotine gum, patches or lozenges as long as you are a Nebraska resident over the age of 18. Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
PCC appreciation week
Plattsmouth Community Center is sponsoring its annual Community Appreciation Week April 24-29. There will be a free party with free food, games and movies. For more information, go to www.plattsmouth.org/rec for more details.
Salad luncheon
Church of the Holy Spirit is sponsoring its Spring Salad Luncheon T11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 27, at St. Johns School Gym/
Amazing Race
Only a few spots are left for Plattsmouth Chamber of Commerces Second Annual Amazing Race Road Rally on April 28. Contact the Chamber at ccruse@plattsmouthchamber.com to register or go online at www.plattsmouthchamber.com.
Spring Clean-up
Spring Clean-up is 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and April 30, at the east end of Main Street past the railroad tracks.
Thank you
The Chamber of Commerce wants to thank our community for the continued support. The Chamber is a non-profit organization that connects business and our community together. With the continued support of our local business we are able to help our community grow, and help bring more interest to our community.
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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 08:44 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde864d2a 1 National death-penalty,Jokowi-administration,human-rights Free
The government has been encouraged to heed the United Nations call to abolish the death penalty from the countrys judicial system.
Jakarta-based human rights watchdog Imparsial said it expected the government to finally adopt the recommendation during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) slated for next month, when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will review Indonesias human rights record along with that of other UN member states.
The government must no longer avoid the recommendation regarding the death penalty, as it is clear the policy is questionable, Imparsial deputy director Muhammad Gufron told the press on Sunday.
(Read also: Death penalty meets fresh resistance)
Gufron suggested the government comprehensively review the last three rounds of executions in order to identify alleged corrupt practices in the process.
The upcoming UPR will be the third session held to evaluate the human rights record of each of UN member. The quadrennial gathering has always seen the UNHRC suggest that Indonesia abolish the death penalty, a recommendation Indonesia has consistently rejected. (wit)
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang Mon, April 10, 2017 15:33 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde87a701 4 National national-exam,computer-based-national-examinations,computer-based-test,blackout Free
State high school SMAN 1 Semarang has rented a power generator to ensure that students run computer-based national exams not disrupted by power outages over the next four days.
The school's vice principal, Agustin Yuanis, said Monday that the school spent Rp 6 million to rent the generator for four days.
We received the funding from the students parents. We had to do this in order to avoid complications during the national exam, Agustin said.
(Read also: Blackouts hamper exams for high school students)
Agustin said the Central Java Education Agency had coordinated with state-owned electricity company PLN to inspect the school's electrical system. However, the school decided to rent the power generator because of the recent unpredictable weather conditions.
The principal of private high school Pangudi Luhur Don Bosco, Bruder Agustinus Sudarmadi, said his school was not worried about the possibility of electrical failures as his school already had their own power generator.
At least 11 of 48 vocational high schools in Kendal regency, Central Java, experienced power outages during the computer-based national exam last week. Heavy rainfall had caused several trees to fall, which disrupted electricity lines. (rdi/wit)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 11:05 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86bfba 1 Business Singapore-Airlines,Ethiopian-Airlines,codeshare-agreement Free
Star Alliance members Singapore Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines plan to expand their codeshare agreement on June 1 to also cover the daily non-stop flights of Ethiopian Airlines from Addis Ababa to Singapore, according to a statement.
Under the agreement, Singapore Airlines customers can also fly through Ethiopian Airlines vast intra-African network, while in turn, Ethiopian Airlines customers will have access to multiple destinations across the Singapore Airlines network.
The airlines codeshare agreement started in 2011 and the expanded codeshare flights were still subject to regulatory approvals, the statement added.
Singapore Airlines marketing planning senior vice president Tan Kai Ping said that the extended agreement was part of the carriers efforts to continuously expand its network in Africa, Asia and the southwest Pacific.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian Airlines strategic and alliances vice president Girma Shiferaw said that the agreement would offered the best connectivity options with one ticket and a single check-in at the first boarding airport.
It will also play a critical role in enhancing investment, trade and tourism ties between a rising Africa and business-friendly Singapore. Shiferawa said.
Singapore Airlines, with its subsidiaries, operates a modern passenger fleet of more than 100 aircraft to 130 destinations around the world, while Ethiopian Airlines serves more than 90 international destinations across five continents with more than 240 daily departures. (yon/bbn)
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 13:27 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde871d03 1 Business bni,BPJS-Kesehatan,cooperation,health-service Free
State-owned lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) has sealed a series of memorandums of understanding (MoU) with the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) to widen the healthcare services network.
The partnership is expected not only to help boost the numbers of BNI customers and BPJS Kesehatan members, but also to increase people's financial literacy, said BNI institutions and transactions director Adi Sulistyowati during the signing event in Jakarta on Monday.
The publicly listed lender will open registration for BPJS Kesehatan agents to become Agen46, branchless banking agents, so that they can receive insurance premium payments through the bank's application.
The partnership will also cover the financing supply chain from BPJS Kesehatan's partners, especially hospitals, to accelerate patients' bills payments, Adi Sulistyowati said.
"We hope this [the cooperation] can improve service quality for BPJS Kesehatan's members," she said.
(Read also: BNI seeks Rp 7.69t from negotiable certificates of deposits)
BPJS Kesehatan membership and marketing director Andayani Budi Lestari expressed a similar hope.
"As many as 171.9 million members made 194 million visits [to health facilities] as of December last year," she said. "This means this program is highly needed by the people." (bbn)
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang Mon, April 10, 2017 10:07 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86980a 4 National terrorism,Densus-88,tuban-police-attack Free
Satria Aditama, one of the six people shot dead after an attack on a police station in Tuban, East Java, was known as a friendly person in his neigborhood.
Just like other people of his age, the 19-year-old resident of Ngaliyan subdistrict in Semarang, Central Java, was active in the neighborhood and went regularly to a nearby mosque.
But he changed six months ago. He did not hang out with his friends or go to the mosque, Candra Satya Nugroho, the head of neighboring unit where he lived, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Satria was the youngest of five children of Wagito and Cici Murdiati. When he was not in the neighborhood, he usually visited his older siblings. The news that he was among the six people who apparently attacked a police station in Tuban shocked the residents in Ngaliyan.
We are shocked. We are now helping his mother Cici Murdiati to cope with this tragedy. We think Satria is a victim of a terrorist group, said Candra.
National Polices counterterrorism squad Densus 88 shot six men on Saturday after they apparently attacked the police station in Tuban. The motive behind the attack was suspected to be retaliation against the police who had earlier arrested a leader of terrorist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) in Lamongan, East Java. (wit)
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Linkedin Gatot Soepriyanto (The Jakarta Post) Melbourne Mon, April 10 2017
The tax amnesty has officially ended. Some public and media commentators deemed the program a success, underscoring the Rp 4.8 quadrillion (US$355.5 billion) worth of previously unreported assets declared by almost 1 million taxpayers and raking in more than Rp 114 trillion in penalty fees in the process. Others, however, remained skeptical, highlighting the fact that the tax pardon initiative failed to achieve some of its targets.
Most notably: the lower than expected amount of repatriated funds. Indeed, based on tax office data, although more than Rp 1 quadrillion worth of foreign assets was declared during the amnesty, only Rp 147 trillion in funds stashed abroad were repatriated.
This begs the question of why the program was unable to bring the sizeable amount of money home. More importantly, what should the government do in the future to entice those assets back?
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 17:53 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde882e6a 1 City workers,#workers Free
The Independent Laborers Union Confederation (GSBI) held a demonstration on Monday in front of the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta to demand the dismissal of Adj. Sr. Comr. Danu Wiyata, Tangerang Polices chief of intelligence and security agency, who is alleged to have assaulted a female factory worker.
As seen in a video that went viral, Danu apparently slapped a female factory worker during a confrontation as the police attempted to disperse protesters who were holding a rally during a car-free day event on Sunday in Tangerang, Banten.
We condemn the act of violence by the Tangerang Police who also forcibly dispersed a peaceful rally by Tangerang workers, said coordinator of the demonstration, Rudi HB Daman, in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.
According to a protester who preferred to remain anonymous, several representatives of the protesters later met with an investigator from the polices internal affairs division (Propam).
Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Monday that the police would not attempt to cover up any violation committed by police officers.
We will not dismiss any mistakes made by officers. This [incident] should teach us to refrain from being emotional and remain calm, he said.(dea/dan)
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Linkedin HS Dillon (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 11 2017
The International Conference on Human Rights Protection in the Fishery Industry hosted by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry on March 27 provided an opportunity for Minister Susi Pudjiastuti to lay out the thinking behind the new regulations she has introduced.
The horrific reality and practice of modern day slavery in Benjina and Ambon that the Associated Press laid bare two years ago had to be addressed, of course, but not a knee-jerk reaction to appear to be taking action. The whole process of exploitation of fishery resources in Indonesian waters needs to be carefully examined and weaknesses in prevailing regulations addressed in light of the demands of current times.
Considering the complexities of the whole situation, the minister brought on board experts respected for their integrity and competence to solidify her bureaucracy. The first step was to regain control of the fisheries industry in Indonesia, which was accomplished through an initial moratorium and relicensing of vessels permitted to operate in its waters. That Indonesia would no longer tolerate illegal fishing was publicly demonstrated by the arrest and ultimate destruction of unlicensed fishing vessels operating within Indonesian territorial waters. This was no mean feat, as she was confronting deeply entrenched interests, with far reaching tentacles.
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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Tue, April 11 2017
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has revised one of its rules to qualify for temporary special mining permits (IUPK) for miners negotiating terms of conversion from a contract of work (CoW) with the government.
Ministerial Decree No. 28/2017, a substitute for Decree No. 5/2017 on adding value to minerals through domestic processing, was signed on March 31, just days before the ministry announced that it had awarded major gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia an eight-month IUPK, thus enabling it to secure an export permit for its copper concentrates.
Prior to the publication of the amendment on Monday, many parties argued that Freeport Indonesias IUPK was groundless as previous regulations stipulated that miners could only obtain such a permit after they finished negotiating 11 requirements.
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 11 2017
The government is pinning high hopes on the upcoming visit of United States Vice President Mike Pence to draw in more tourists from the worlds biggest economy.
Indonesia expects foreign arrivals from the US to surge by 28.3 percent to 380,000 this year.
For comparison, the figure of US visits rose by only 11 percent to 296,183 last year from 2015.
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PLATTSMOUTH A woman who embezzled $15,000 from the Plattsmouth Hy-Vee grocery store last year entered a plea in her case Monday morning.
La Vista resident Lisa M. Smith, 38, pled no contest to a Class IV felony of theft by taking-$1,500 to $5,000 during an appearance in Cass County District Court. The state agreed to reduce its original Class IIA felony charge of theft-unlawful taking more than $5,000 in exchange for her plea.
The state also agreed to recommend probation at the time of sentencing. Deputy County Attorney Colin Palm said Smith had agreed to pay back the full restitution amount of $15,000 during her probation period.
Palm told the court a Plattsmouth police detective went to the Plattsmouth Hy-Vee on Sept. 30 to investigate a report of embezzlement. The detective met members of Hy-Vees corporate financial loss prevention team at the store. The detective learned Smith had told the Hy-Vee employees that she had taken money from the business.
Palm said Smith later made a similar admission to the detective during an interview. Smith told the detective she had performed accounting jobs for the store and had access to financial documents. She said she had entered fake transactions into accounting documents and had stolen $15,000 over the course of one year.
Smith remains free on bond. The court set a sentencing date of May 15.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, April 11 2017
Writers from West Sumatra have called for renowned poet Chairil Anwar to be awarded the national hero title for his contributions to Indonesian literature.
The head of a forum supporting the nomination of Chairil Anwar as a national hero, Gus TF Sakai, said Sunday that Chairil deserved to be acknowledged not only because of his work but also because of his close relationship with several national figures, such as Sutan Syahrir, Sukarni and Khairul Saleh.
Yulfian Afrizal, a member of the forum, said if WR Supratman, the composer of Indonesia Raya, the national anthem, could be recognized as a national hero, then Chairil too deserved the status.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 18:09 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde883f21 1 News bali,tourism,#tourism,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,travel-agents,destination,#destination,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia Free
The Ministry of Tourism wants travel agents to come up with 10 new package tours that they will call the "New Balis" in order to entice international tourists to visit not only the Island of the Gods but also other places of Indonesia.
As the ministry enters the second year of its three-year business plan for the promotion of tourism outside Bali, the focus has shifted from branding, which was executed last year, to advertising. In 2018, the government aims to reach the selling stage.
If branding is catching peoples attention, advertising aims to persuade people to come to Indonesia, while selling includes giving discounts and price cuts, said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.
Both airlines and travel agents need to be creative. Perhaps they can do joint promotions or hard-selling promotions to attract tourists to come to Indonesia, he added.
The ministry is also hoping that the promotion of less popular destinations will distribute air traffic more evenly, alleviating congestion at the airports serving Bali and Jakarta. The air connectivity problem is an urgent matter for us, since most tourists come to Indonesia by airplane, said Hiramsyah Sambudy Thaib, who heads a team at the Tourism Ministry tasked with accelerating the development of new tourism hot spots.
(Read also: In Bali, Trumps planned six-star hotel risks angering the Gods)
The ten promoted destinations include Solo, Medan and Lombok, all of which have their own airport operating 24 hours a day. Airports that are currently being upgraded to accommodate large planes are Silangit Airport in North Sumatra and Leo Wattimena Airport in North Maluku.
This is a huge opportunity for both airlines and travel agents. They can reverse the tour offerings from two days in Bali and one day in Lombok, for example, to one day in Bali and two days in Lombok, so that it wont all be concentrated in Bali, he added.
Construction work to extend the runway of Silangit Airport is slated to conclude by September. Meanwhile, Leo Wattimena Airport currently can only accommodate ATR 72 planes. An upgrade will enable the airport to accommodate Boeing 737s to attract tourists to Morotai. The runway extension is targeted for completion by June next year.
To support continued growth in air traffic, the government is in a process of deregulation to make it easier for airlines to add more flights to Indonesia. (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 17:18 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde87e768 1 News Semarang,shopping,#shopping,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,destination,#destination,tourism,#tourism,Semarang-Great-Sale,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia Free
Good news for shopaholics: The Semarang Great Sale (SEMARGRES) 2017 is currently ongoing from April 7 May 7, offering discounts of up to 70%. Entering its seventh year, the event is attended by businesspeople and consumers from across the country.
During the opening event, a parade began at Semarang's town hall, proceeded to Pemuda Street, Imam Bonjol, Piere Tendean and ended back at the town hall.
Modern markets, street vendors, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), hospitality businesses, fashion designers and socialites alike participated in the parade, where promotional offers for the event were announced.
Semarang Mayor Hendrar Prihadi said the national-scale event was joined by businesspeople from all levels.
There are approximately 2,000 tenants at this event, weve printed out four million coupons, and our targeted minimum revenue is Rp 200 billion. We also have two cars for a door prize [raffle], says Prihadi.
(Read also: Mangrove tourism abundant in Semarang)
The involvement of [state-owned railway operator] KAI and Garuda Indonesia definitely makes it easier for visitors to come to Semarang, he added.
Also attending the event was the Ministry of Tourisms deputy minister for domestic tourism marketing, Esthy Reko Astuti, who said SEMARGRES encouraged shopping trips by local and foreign tourists.
She also explained that the ministry was currently developing shopping trip programs by creating more shopping and culinary events. This year, the minister has set a target of welcoming 15 million local and foreign tourists, with 3.4 millions coming for shopping and culinary tours.
Conventional media promotion like SEMARGRES is actually very good, because it combines the promotion of the products sold with the event, she said.
She also praises the Semarang city council for including traditional market vendors and SMEs, The event also has a direct impact for participating local street vendors and small enterprises, said Astuti.
Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya also expressed his appreciation for SEMARGRES. The SEMARGRES event is Semarangs attraction as a destination to do shopping and explore local food. In the tourism business portfolio, it plays a huge role in attracting tourists, explained Yahya. (asw)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java Mon, April 10, 2017 14:23 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde87783f 1 Destinations Semarang,#Semarang,Central-Java,tourism,#tourism,traveling,#travel,#traveling,Kota-Lama,Little-Netherlands-Semarang,travel,old-town Free
There is often one exotic historic area in every city waiting to be explored. In Semarang, Central Java, the area is named Kota Lama (Old Town) or Outstadt.
Situated in the intersection of Jl. Pemuda and Jl. Imam Bonjol, Kota Lama is also known as Little Netherlands. Established in the 18th century when Indonesia was a Dutch colony, its location is currently separated from a residential area.
One of Kota Lama's abandoned buildings.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
The center of Kota Lama is Blenduk Church (Nederlandsch Indische Kerk). Built in 1753, the church is the oldest building in the area.
In addition to Blenduk Church, there are more than 50 well-maintained colonial buildings in Kota Lama, displaying 18th century European architecture. Once visitors step foot in the area, they feel as if they are being transported back 200 years.
One of the corners of Kota Lama. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
(Read also: Mangrove tourism abundant in Semarang)
Despite its rich history, Kota Lama was once forgotten, leading it to becoming a red-light district as well as a center of cockfighting.
Built in 1753, the Blenduk Church is the oldest building in Kota Lama. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Fortunately, the city administration kicked off efforts to revive the area a year ago. The illegal street vendors, cockfighting rings and prostitutes were removed. The old buildings have been renovated and transformed into offices, banks and restaurants, creating a lively ambiance during the nighttime. The government also opened the Klitikan Market, which hosts antique shops. Tourism police can also be seen strolling the area to provide safety for visitors.
Visitors pose in front of Klitikan Market.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Although some abandoned buildings across the area remain to be rejuvenated, Kota Lama is still an interesting place to explore, especially for history buffs. (jes/kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 13:05 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde86f0bc 1 News cheng-beng,ritual,tradition,Chinese-descents,#ritual,#culture,culture,Pangkalpinang,Kwan-Tie-Miau-Temple,Bangka-Belitung Free
About 2,000 tourists from inside and outside the country visited the Kwan Tie Miau Temple, the oldest temple in Pangkalpinang city in Bangka Belitung Islands province, to observe the Cheng Beng ritual.
During Cheng Beng, also known as Qing Ming, people of Chinese descent pay respect to their ancestors and deceased loved ones by cleaning their graves and leaving offerings for them. This year, the peak of Cheng Beng falls on Wednesday, but the ritual is usually observed up to 10 days prior and after.
During Cheng Beng and other Kong Hu Cu [Confucian] celebrations, many people who have settled in foreign lands, as well as travelers, take their time to pray and worship in this temple, Kwan Tie Miau Temple caretaker A Kiong told Antara news agency on Wednesday.
A Kiong said that people of Chinese descent who are about to go live in a foreign land would pray in the temple for luck. People who have became successful outside their homeland will also come to donate money, necessities and prayer-supporting facilities to the temple.
(Read also: Cheng Beng lures people to North Sumatra)
A post shared by Shaggy Sigit Sarwanto (@shaggy_solo) on Mar 11, 2017 at 1:45am PST
A Kiong said that the visitors do not only pray in the temple. They also want to learn about the history of this temple."
He explained that the temple was built in 1846 and it served as historical evidence of the arrival of the Chinese people who worked in tin mines in Bangka Belitung. Back in the day, it was a shelter and places for the Chinese workers to meet.
The caretaker said that the temple's architecture, which is dominated by the color red and features the black and white Yin-Yang circle on top of the building, symbolized luck, fortune and happiness.
The public still believe that this temple could bring luck and happiness. Thats why Chinese people from inside and outside the region always take their time to pray and worship here, A Kiong said. (mas/kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 10, 2017 18:23 2038 a291276806121264c0bd211cde884e83 1 News bali,#Bali,food,#food,Ubud-Food-Festival,festival,#festival,tourism,#tourism,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia Free
The third Ubud Food Festival (UFF) will be held on May 12-14, and will be attended by culinary A-listers from Indonesia and around the world.
This time around, the theme of the event will be the culinary exploration of Bali, which has just been crowned the worlds most beautiful island by American travel website TripAdvisor. Titled Every Flavor is a Story, this years installment of the annual culinary festival, held in the Ubud area, will be largest in the festivals history.
UFF offers plenty of culinary events for visitors to gather around, eat, drink, party and share their knowledge of cuisine [] Indonesian cuisine has reached an international level of fame and so have its traditions and the practitioners, says UFF founder and director Janet DeNeefe.
The confirmed guest stars for this years event are celebrity chefs Farah Quinn, Marinka and Bara Pattiradjawane. Also attending are local culinary legends, Sisca Soewitomo and Bondan Winarno.
(Read also: Ubud among world's best destinations in 2016: Report)
If everything goes as planned, we will also invite President Joko Widodos personal cook. Culinary expert William Wongso, who, at last years event, launched his book, Flavors of Indonesia: William Wongsos Culinary Wonders, will also be attending and I hope he will bring another surprise for us this year, adds DeNeefe.
Other guests include Locavores Eelke Plasmeijer, who recently made it onto the Asias 50 best restaurants list, dessert expert Will Goldfarb of Room 4 Dessert in New York City, Chris Salans from Ubud, Mosaic institution, Michelin-star chef Nic Vanderbeeken of CasCades Restaurant and Hujan Locales chef Will Meyrick.
With more than 100 speakers from Indonesia and abroad attending, the three-day event will be filled with programs such as Think, Talk, Taste discussion Masterclass sessions, cooking demos and movie screenings.
Cuisine is a cultural product that has long been known for its importance to Balinese taste and tradition. Our Wonderful Indonesia product portfolio has three pillars: 35 percent Nature, 60 percent culture and 5 percent man-made. Cuisine takes up to 30 percent of the culture portfolio, explains Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.
Please come and join the Ubud Food Festival! Its going to be impressive and tasty, he adds. (asw)
Community Board 3s transportation committee last week approved a strongly worded resolution in response to a federal lawsuit by Yep Tours, Inc. against the City of New York. It urged the Department of Transportation to revoke a temporary permit awarded to Yep on Pike Street.
Yep filed the lawsuit Feb. 14 after city officials rejected its bus permit application. The legal move also followed the seizure of three Yep buses by the New York City Sheriff. The citys finance department had obtained a judgment against the Massachusetts-based bus operator for unpaid fines. In the complaint, Yep called on U.S. District Judge John Koeltl to declare New York Citys intercity bus law unconstitutional. The company asked for $1 million in damages, claiming racial bias against the minority-owned company and discrimination against an out-of-state firm.
Court documents show that Judge Koeltl delayed a hearing on a preliminary injunction, and strongly encouraged the city to grant a six-month permit while the legal case proceeds. The approval did not sit well with members of the community, who have been battling Yep for several years.
Chad Marlow, chairperson of the transportation committee, noted that the community board was not named in the lawsuit, but argued that a response from CB3 was necessary. The board spent several years advocating for intercity bus regulation. State Sen. Daniel Squadron worked with CB3 to craft a bill that became law in 2012. For this reason, said Marlow, the lawsuit casts aspersions on us, and threatens a regulatory system the community board has championed.
[The community board has an advisory role to play in reviewing bus applications but the Department of Transportation has the sole authority for awarding permits.]
While Yep claims its applications have been dismissed in an arbitrary manner, the resolution states that the community boards rejections were based on the bus companys illegal operations without a permit, among other factors. Yeps ongoing disregard for the law and local law enforcement, wrote the transportation committee, was exemplified by the statement of its attorney, at CB3s November 2015 meeting, that Yep Tours, Inc. would continue to unlawfully operate its buses if it was denied a permit by the New York City Department of Transportation.
In its lawsuit, Yep alleged that the city has violated the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by showing a preference for in-state companies. But the CB3 resolution states that, a majority of bus stop permits have been granted to lawfully operated companies that provide service between New York City and non-New York State locations.
The claim from Yep of discrimination against a minority-owned firm that serves largely Chinese passengers was called by the committee, a baseless and irresponsible allegation of racism that intentionally fails to recognize that CB3 and the New York City Department of Transportation have supported and granted scores of designated bus stop permits to minority owned companies to operate in the same Chinatown neighborhood in which Yep Tours, Inc. was seeking its bus stop.
The resolutions sharpest language was reserved for the agreement between Yep and the citys law department for a temporary permit:
The granting of the designated bus stop permit to Yep Tours, Inc. severely undermines the work of every governmental, community, and law enforcement collaborator on the intercity bus issue in our district the granting of the designated bus stop permit to Yep Tours, Inc. undermines the efforts of law abiding intercity bus companies who play by the rules and are seeking to improve the reputation of their industry CB 3 disapproves of the decision to agree to and cause a designated bus stop permit to be issued to Yep Tours, Inc., which inexplicably responded to Yep Tours, Inc.s highly questionable lawsuit by granting the company a designated bus stop permit it had not previously held and was repeatedly denied.
The resolution concluded:
CB3 rejects and condemns any allegations by Yep Tour, Inc., in its lawsuit against the City of New York, that assert the decision to deny Yep Tours, Inc. a designated bus stop permit was based upon racial bias, a bias against bus companies that operate outside the State of New York, insofar as (1) none of CB3s rejections of Yep Bus Tours designated bus stop permit application were based upon race or a preference for in-state bus operators or operations, and (2) Yep Tours, Inc.s record as a bus operator with little respect for the law or the community in which it wishes to operate provides more than adequate grounds for denying the company a designated bus stop permit, and that CB 3 calls upon the Law Department and the Department of Transportation to revoke or not renew Yep Tours, Incs designated bus stop permit at its first opportunity to do so.
For several years, the SPaCE Block Association has been battling Yep and other illegal operators along Pike Street, East Broadway, Canal Street and Division Street. They cheered the city sheriffs crackdown and were dismayed when Yep got its way, at least temporarily, by filing a federal lawsuit. During the meeting, SPaCE President Emma Culbert said, Its major green light to these guys (meaning all bus operators) that they can behave exactly how they want to behave. Its an absolute slap in the face to the people who live in this area, who have investments in this area, who run businesses in this area.
A couple of committee members, however, pushed to soften language in the original resolution explicitly criticizing the citys law department. David Crane, a former committee chairperson said of the resolution, it wont make us friends (within the city administration). Another member, Karen Blatt, said, I feel that this resolution unfairly blames the law department.
Marlow argued that its important to send a message to the judge that the local community is a stakeholder in the case, even if its not a defendant. While acknowledging the citys concerns about being sued, Marlow said other factors need to be considered as well, otherwise, its the people with the money and the ability to sue who end up getting their way. Marlow also said, City agencies, law enforcement agencies have been nothing but cooperative and generous partners in helping to tame the Chinatown bus industry. The resolution, he argued, would make it clear to city officials that the community remains committed to supporting their enforcement efforts.
A somewhat toned down resolution was approved by the committee. The full board will consider it later this month. You can read the full text below.
The Department of City Planning today announced that its pushing off a public scoping meeting for the upcoming Two Bridges environmental review until May 25. It had originally been scheduled for April 27.
The environmental review is meant to study how the Lower East Side will be impacted by three large-scale residential projects along the East River. City Council member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer put out a press release heralding the delay.
The elected officials wrote a letter to the developers of the three projects March 17, asking them to support a delay. They declined, just as they had when local residents made a similar request earlier this year. Brewer and Chin then fired off a second letter to City Planning, noting that the environmental review documents were not made available in Spanish and Chinese. There are a large number of non-English speakers within the impacted area.
The Two Bridges community needs time to consider all of the impacts of these massive development projects and that requires the release of information in a language that they can understand, said Chin. That is why I joined Borough President Brewer to fight for more time for the community to arrive at a consensus about its needs and desired outcomes. In order to achieve this goal, I will continue to fight to ensure that residents and business owners in Two Bridges are heard.
The scoping meeting will now take place May 25 at the Manhattan Municipal Building, Mezzanine level, 1 Centre St. There are separate sessions at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. We published the draft scope of work last month.
On Wednesday, April 19, Community Board 3s land use committee is scheduled to discuss its position on the draft scope of work. That meeting takes place at University Settlement, 273 Bowery at 6:30 p.m.
The projects planned in the Two Bridges area include a 79-story tower at 247 Cherry St. from JDS Development Group; 62 ad 69 story towers from L+M Development Partners and the CIM Group at 260 South St.; and a 62-story building by the Starrett Group at 259 Clinton St. A spokesperson for the developers declined to comment today. In late March, they released a statement saying, We share the elected officials desire for meaningful community engagement, which is why we believe its important to start the scoping process and analyze the issues that have been raised. We have taken part in an unprecedented pre-development process and have gleaned important feedback from three public meetings in the neighborhood and several additional meetings with residents and community groups. We look forward to building on this as we head into the scoping hearing and the environmental review process.
UPDATE 3:30 p.m. A few more details from a letter sent by DCP Director Marisa Lago to Council member Chin and Borough President Brewer today. The letter notes that the city is legally required to hold the hearing 30-45 days after the draft scope is released. Lago says her agency is committed to providing multi-language access to the community. The scoping notice, she said, would soon be posted in Chinese and Spanish on DCPs website. The city has also asked the developers to provide translation services at the meeting. They have agreed.
For those of us who are Christians this week is particularly significant. Holy Week is the time when we remember the passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ and at sundown last night, our Jewish friends and neighbors began their observation of Passover.
These two events are intrinsically linked no matter which observation you choose to recognize. Those of us who claim allegiance to the Christian faith sometimes have to be reminded that Christ was Jewish and during the week that we know as Holy Week, Jesus celebrated Passover.
God instituted Passover to remind the Jewish nation of the redemption He gave when He provided the means to escape slavery under the Egyptian pharaoh. The Seder offers the opportunity to tell the story to the next generation. The children at the sacred meal ask four questions and I have read that at the supper Jesus celebrated in the upper room the night before His death, tradition suggests that the questions were asked by the apostle John as he was the youngest in attendance.
According to The Complete Book of Jewish Observance by Leo Trepp the following four questions are asked:
Why is this night different from all other nights?
On all other nights, we eat Hametz and Matzah, on this night only Matzah;
On all other nights, we eat all kinds of herbs, on this night we eat bitter herbs:
On all other nights, we need not dip our food onto condiments at all, on this night we have to do so twice;
On all other nights, we may take our meal sitting up straight or in a reclining position, on this night we are all reclining.
According to Trepp, the first question refers to the Matzah which are flat unleavened breads that were to remind the Jewish people that when God led them to their freedom it was so sudden that they didnt have time to bake bread in advance. The bitter herbs symbolize the bitterness of slavery that the Israelis endured. The third question refers to the dipping of the green herbs into salt water representing the tears shed by their ancestors during slavery in Egypt. The fourth question relates to the fact that according to ancient custom the rich took their banquets reclining on couches and this custom was revived during this meal to commemorate the richness of life with Him.
This ancient celebration of Gods providential care for the Jewish nation is a reminder for all of us of His continued provision. For those of us who celebrate Holy Week, Christ is the ultimate provision of God to save His people from the slavery of sin.
So an Easter menu based on recipes that are used to celebrate Passover is very appropriate. One of my favorite sources of Jewish recipes is 1000 Jewish Recipes by Faye Levy. When I first purchased this book shortly after its publication in 2000, I was amazed at the breadth and scope of Ms. Levys work. She features a guide to keeping a kosher home and menus and recipes for every Jewish religious observation. The section on Passover is replete with wonderful recipes to honor the great God who inspired them.
No matter what you choose as your main dish for Easter or Passover, the following side dishes are traditional Jewish additions to your table from 1000 Jewish Recipes.
Quote of the Week: Blessings before we eat help us to reflect on the miraculous nature of food and to use this realization as a springboard to connect with God. An apple, a loaf of bread, a glass of wine all are miraculous and we have been given a myriad of blessings to take advantage of the powerful moment before eating. Rabbi Hyim Shafner, The Torah of Food, People of the Cookbook
A Hallmark Holiday Inn
Fiona Rangely (Lacey Chabert - The Sweetest Christmas) is a New York City real estate broker and work always seems to come first, which is why her boyfriend, Nate (Jesse Moss - A Ring by Spring), ends their relationship. Down in the dumps, Fiona and her best friend, Angela (Fiona Vroom), decide to head up to Vermont where her dad (Keith MacKechnie) and step mum (Rebecca Staab) run a beautiful holiday inn. There Fiona finds herself locking horns with Derek (Carlo Marks - Sleepwalking in Suburbia), the top chef who her dad has hired. But when Nate shows up with his new girlfriend Fiona persuades Derek to pretend to be her boyfriend to make Nate jealous and in return she will use her skills to persuade a nearby farmer to sell a plot of land so he can grow more of the produce he uses. But whilst Nate certainly pays attention to Fiona and Derek some thing unexpected happens for Fiona.
There have been many times I have heard people speak about the law of attraction, but as a movie lover and a fan of TV movies there is also some thing called the law of Hallmark attraction. Okay I made that up but anyone who is a fan of Hallmark romantic comedies knows that part of what these movies thrive on is appeal and that is what "Moonlight in Vermont" has an abundance of. That appeal starts with the adorable Lacey Chabert matched up with the handsome Carlo Marks, it is a combination which delivers the cute wholesomeness which draws you in to them as a couple falling in love.
Then "Moonlight in Vermont" has the appeal of her father's Vermont holiday inn, the sort of place which has a familiar look which makes you think that maybe they used it in another Hallmark movie, possibly a Christmas movie as it has the perfect exterior look. On the subject of which we do have this being set in Vermont which has a nice layer of snow and that combines with some traditions such as the local town having its annual Maple festival. It gives "Moonlight in Vermont" that picturesque location, the sort of place you would like to escape to and maybe never return from.
Now to be honest I could go on and mention that Fiona has some issues from her father having left the city and sold the family apartment to Derek being one of those guys who lives by the ethos of slow down and smell the maple syrup. But I don't think there is much need as "Moonlight in Vermont" doesn't stray from that familiar Hallmark movie formula and that is not a criticism as when they get it right, when a Hallmark movie delivers that easy to watch appeal, the almost escapism of a small town retreat which is twee and traditional, it is a joy for Hallmark fans like me.
What this all boils down to is that "Moonlight in Vermont" delivers every single thing that fans of Hallmark movies love and that makes it an absolute joy, especially for those who, like me, like Lacey Chabert.
Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin star as geriatric bank robbers in the mildly amusing comedy Going in Style, directed by Zach Braff.
Joe (Caine), Albert (Arkin) and Willie (Freeman) are three down on their luck friends whose pension fund has been suddenly dissolved by the company that they've been working for most of their lives. Joe, who will lose his house in 30 days, witnesses a bank robbery and is inspired to attempt one himself, with the help of the others. Despite their advanced age and lack of experience, the three decide they have nothing to lose and set out to rob the bank that's holding their pension funds.
Going in Style is a remake of a 1979 film of the same name, but on its own merits, it's an entirely serviceable, if not particularly memorable, little comedy. It never sets its sights higher than a chuckle and on average has slightly more hits than misses.
The first big joke of the film is that Joe has trouble getting up from a chair - because he's old, you see and old people are old. Mildly amusing antics set to overly cooky music are Going in Style's bread and butter. One of the main comedic setpieces involves the trio practicing their thievery by robbing a grocery store. They're really inept and slow about it and that's the joke. At one point, the movie has them awkwardly run away from security while a radio edit of 'Feel Right' by Mark Ronson ft. Mystikal indicates to the audience that they should laugh. Why they used the radio edit when the characters have no trouble swearing at various points will forever be a mystery.
Everything about the movie is mild, from the comedy to the stakes. The trio wants to get their pension money and they make a pact to give any extra earnings to charity. Their weapons are loaded with blanks so that they don't accidentally hurt anyone. They don't care if they get caught, because they're not too worried about prison at their age. It's the dramatic equivalent of a half-hearted shrug - if they make it, good for them, if they don't, well, that's fine too.
Going in Style makes somewhat of an attempt to get audiences emotionally invested - Joe has a granddaughter he cares deeply for and wants to get her deadbeat father (a severely disinterested Peter Serafinowicz) involved in her life, Albert is starting a new romantic relationship with Annie (Ann-Margret) and Willie is hiding his medical woes from the others. There's some dramatic weight to it - just about enough to make you feel a twinge of something. An emotinal pinch or pinprick perhaps.
It's a thoroughly unambitious movie that could have a lot more with this setup and its characters. You would think a scene of Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman getting high on weed would be a lot funnier than them just getting the munchies and making a quip about getting a prescription for it. Also, Christopher Lloyd is there, playing a minor character that's senile and the joke with him in every scene he's in is that he's senile and does and says things that senile people do and say. Riveting.
There are a lot of plot holes when it comes to how the heist actually works out. The FBI makes it seem as if there's only one thing that went wrong, when in reality, there are a ton of inconsistencies and potential witnesses that could place the trio at the scene of the crime. The biggest laugh of the movie, although wholly unintentional, is when they try to make it seem like some kind of ingenious, slick caper went down.
All of that being said, Going in Style is not really a bad movie. It's short, bland and harmless, getting just enough of a reaction to not be completely disposable. It's a movie that's utterly and completely content with mediocrity and there's something almost endearing about that.
Going in Style is out now, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Dozens of protesters have gathered to show solidarity with refugees in the town where a 17-year-old asylum seeker was brutally attacked.
The group marched through Croydon, south London, as part of a protest organised by campaigners Stand Up To Racism.
The march comes after Kurdish Iranian student Reker Ahmed was beaten and kicked by a gang of around 30 while waiting at a bus stop in the town with two friends.
A stream of around 100 people travelled through Croydon on Saturday, brandishing signs and chanting: No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here.
Weyman Bennett, 51, joint national convener for Stand Up to Racism, said the march was a public display of sympathy and support for Reker and his family.
He said: I think its a tragedy that Reker Ahmed has escaped a war zone to be attacked in Croydon.
Its a tragedy both for the local people and obviously for himself and his family.
(Lauren Hurley/PA)
We have to make sure that we welcome refugees and treat them with respect because its how we would like to be treated if we were refugees.
There are problems in Croydon but they are not caused by refugees, they are caused by the problems that existed before refugees arrived inside this country.
Following the attack on March 31, a total of 16 people have been arrested and 13 charged with offences including attempted murder and violent disorder, the Metropolitan Police has said.
University Challenge will draw to a close tonight as stern-faced Canadian graduate Eric Monkman threatens to claim the coveted crown.
The Wolfson Cambridge captain caused a viewer storm earlier in the competition against Emmanuel Cambridge, when his quick-fire answers secured 120 out of his teams winning 170-point score.
He will return to the panel in Monday nights series finale as he faces Oxford Balliol, led by Joey Goldman.
Wolfson will face Balliol in the big showdown (BBC/PA)
But while his impressive performance has so far prompted the hashtag #Monkmania to go viral across social media, with some fans confessing their love for him over Twitter, the star himself told The Telegraph he was baffled by the attention.
I certainly dont think of myself as any object of desire, he said. I assume people are being ironic, not serious.
Comparing the attention of his British fans to that of his girlfriend, Beijing Normal University law professor Jiang Na, he added: She doesnt really see much thats happeningShe thinks its a bit strange.
In an interview with Cambridge News, he continued: I have had several people recognise me and approach me in the street since my television appearances.
I try to remember the nice comments and forget the strange ones.
Now back in Canada, Eric last week celebrated the broadcast of his final appearance on the show with a nostalgic trip to Cambridge, and a meet-up with former Emmanuel rival, Bobby Seagull.
After the pair visited Eton College and Windsor College together, Seagull told GQ magazine his old opponent had made his list of top contenders to be best man at his wedding.
But the best part of the trip was meeting old friends pic.twitter.com/J4HPVRObhu Eric Monkman (@e_monkman) April 4, 2017
Erics big showdown on Monday will be hosted by Jeremy Paxman as the much-loved BBC quiz show marks its 55th year.
It could be a tense fight between Eric and Joey, who also caused a stir when he threw Jeremy a disgruntled whatever after incorrectly answering a question on British actors.
University Challenge continues on BBC Two at 8pm on Monday.
An English student who is set to graduate from a Scottish university has set up a petition to end "discrimination" in the Scottish student support system.
Rebecca Jeynes, 21, will graduate from Edinburgh Napier University this year but needs to study a postgraduate diploma in Legal Practice, before being able to work as a lawyer north of the border.
Edinburgh Napier University The student, who normally resides in the UK, is now calling on members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) in Holyrood to change their approach towards other students from England in her situation, and is appealing to the Student Awards Agency for Scotland to change their criteria. Jeynes first sought support from Student Finance England, but was told the Diploma in Legal Practice was not covered because it is not a Masters. The Student Awards Agency for Scotland told her she was not ordinarily resident in Scotland.
Ms Jeynes has said she is being denied up to 10,000 in loan support, including living costs, which are available to Scots students and other EU students.
She has already spent 26,500 in undergraduate course fees and another 33,500 in everyday costs during her time in Scotland, but needs more money in order to fund the next step in her legal career.
With this weeks mild weather finally feeling more like spring, people are likely thinking more about outdoor activities.
This Saturday will be the perfect opportunity for everyone to give fishing a try when Free Fishing and Park Entry Day is observed in Nebraska. This allows everyone to enjoy fishing or a state park area without the requirement of a fishing or park permit.
Although no fishing or park entry permits will be required on the free day, which is celebrated annually on the Saturday before Memorial Day weekend, all other fee requirements, laws and regulations will be in effect.
As part of the Free Fishing and Park Entry Day activities, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission will host family fishing clinics at several locations.
A family fishing clinic is set for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at Lake No. 3 of Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area.
Two Rivers State Recreation Area, east of Yutan, also will host a family fishing clinic from 9 a.m. to noon at Lake No. 1. Anglers at Two Rivers SRAs trout late must buy a daily trout tag.
The clinic at Eugene T. Mahoney State Park near Ashland is set for 9-11 a.m. at Owen Marina.
While the public is encouraged to bring their own fishing gear to the clinics, tackle will be available for children to use, including rods and reels, bobbers, hooks, sinkers and bait.
Game and Parks employees and volunteer fishing instructors will hand out materials and offer fishing tips to the participants.
Summit Lake State Recreation Area near Tekamah will be having a special grand opening celebration from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Childrens events will include a bounce house, pony rides, train rides, outdoor education trailer, fishing clinic and hot dog cook out. A dedication for the new Bob Eckdahl camp ground is set for 1 p.m.
Then at 7:30 p.m., there will a live auction to raise funds for the new shower house and handicapped fishing pier across the lake at the No Wake Bar and Grill.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, located between Blair and Missouri Valley, Iowa, also has an event planned for Saturday.
Family Fishing Day activities will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the refuges South Gate Recreation Area. All ages are welcome to participate. You may bring your own equipment or use equipment and bait provided by the refuge.
Basic fishing instruction and fish identification will be provided by the refuge staff and volunteers. Any Nebraska resident can fish at DeSoto without a fishing license during this event.
An entrance permit is required for all vehicles. The daily entrance fee for private vehicles is $3.
So if youre ready for a trip that offers the perfect mix of freedom and unforgettable experiences, book your flights to Namibia today.
Where to go
Kick start your trip with a visit to Namibias capital city Windhoek. It is a very modern city, blending modern Western trends with its traditional African culture. It is a great place for a bit of respite after a long flight; offering an array of tasty cuisines, cultural sights and shopping opportunities.
To the West of Windhoek lies the coastal city of Swakopmund. This city is the perfect beach holiday destination, and is filled with beautiful German colonial architecture masking a public library, museums, aquariums, and galleries. Head just outside of the city along the Swakop River for beautiful rolling sand dunes.
To the north of Swakopmund is the famous Damaraland. A rugged and untamed piece of Namibia, it is home to thousands of species of birds, animals and plant life and offers tourists the opportunity to see famous geographical landmarks.
Arguably Namibias best-known tourist attraction is the conservation area Sossusvlei, which is characterised by its huge red sand dunes that surround a white salt and clay pan. The planes have sand dunes stretching up to almost 400 metres, making it a photographers paradise.
And finally, a great place to visit (and one you definitely cannot miss) is the 360,000 square mile wide Kalahari Desert. This vast expanse stretches across Namibia, Botswana and South Africa and is famous for its rolling sand dunes, and beautiful collection of flora and fauna.
What to do
Go on safari
Namibia is arguably the best place in Africa to do a safari. It offers a huge display of wild and plant life, which is mostly accessible by 4x4 or buggy. This makes it the ideal destination to catch a glance of some of the rarest animals on the planet including cheetahs, hyenas, elephants, and many more.
Tours and safaris can be organised by operators in Namibia or at home before you fly and give you options ranging from camel safaris, to self-drive safaris, to flying safaris.
And the best thing about a safari in the desert? Theres no phone signal, so you can switch off completely and enjoy the ride.
Ride the sand dunes
Such a huge part of Namibia is covered by glorious red sand dunes, so if youre looking for an adventure why not try racing across them? The Namib and Kalahari Deserts are the perfect spots to quad bike and sandboard, giving tourists the chance to take in more of the glorious landscapes than possible by foot.
Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are the two main cultural recreational hubs in Namibia, and the best places to try out sandboarding. This is a definite on the to-do list for snowboarders and surfers, and even inexperienced boarders too.
See Namibia from above
While visiting Sossusvlei, make sure to check out the ballooning launch pad where you can take a trip high into the sky to see the wonders of the Namibian landscape from above. This is the perfect activity for both professional and amateur photographers.
If youre feeling brave, there is also the opportunity to go paragliding or even do a skydive!
Get inspired by architecture
The buildings in Swakopmund are among the most fascinating and beautiful in the world. Its rich architectural history has been well preserved since the German colonial occupation from the late 1880s through until the early 1900s, making it a hot spot for Namibian tourism.
Enter inside these buildings to find the National Marine Aquarium, the Swakopmund Museum and even take a tour around the historical Swakopmund Lighthouse.
Take a dip in the hot springs
If youre a fan of hiking, why not take a walk through Africas largest natural gorge, which is the home of one of the most gorgeous hot springs on earth? The /Ai-/Ais hot spring is one of the many hidden treasures found in the Fish River Canyon, along with the secret Apollo 11 Cave, which is said to hold animal images dating back 25,000 years!
This is the perfect activity for those who love walking and soaking up their natural surroundings, and for those who just want to kick off their boots and melt into the steamy, cleansing waters.
Eat like kings
The Namibian cuisine is interesting and varied depending on which city you travel to. Some particular specialities worth tasting are the Swakopmund green asparagus, the Luderitz oysters and Kalahari truffles.
If you decide to take a tour or safari, no doubt youll encounter traditional dishes like braaivleis (meat barbeque) and potjiekos, which is a sumptuous spicy stew containing meats and fish cooked over an open fire. Both of these dishes are cooked outdoors and to be enjoyed with large groups of people.
The Villain That's Become will entertain audiences while unveiling more information relevant to the war to come. The different characters continue to move forward towards their end goal, aligning themselves with particular sides and coming ever closer to the final confrontation which will decide the future of Oz.
Lady Ev (Stefanie Martini) takes a brave step against The Wizard (Vincent DOnofrio) in this weeks episode, prioritising her kingdom over the rest of Oz in a move that leaves some of her people restless.
Unfortunately, things quickly go wrong for her as despite all her intelligence, she has not prepared for The Wizards cunning and cruelty. Always one step ahead of his enemies, his back-up plan pays off, as his soldiers successfully get him inside the castle, putting Lady Ev at his mercy. Once again The Wizards viciousness and insecurity is apparent to the audience, as he manipulates those around him in a continuous and ever desperate attempt to cling onto power.
Dorothy (Adria Arjona) remains on the run in The Villain Thats Become, once again finding herself in the same place as Lucas (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), though due to very different results.
Indeed, where the two were once friendly and flirtatious they now fight with very deadly intent, as it becomes clear that in order to survive Dorothy may have to do the unthinkable and kill the one person who has unwaveringly stood by her until now.
This is made all the harder by the obvious internal struggle that Lucas faces, as he wavers between his love for Dorothy and his loyalty to Glinda. The torture that the two go through provides explosive scenes of tension and unspoken emotion as the two grapple with their new predicament while still feeling the fierce affection for each other which has underpinned the show.
Meanwhile Tip (Jordan Loughran) and Mistress West (Ana Ularu) continue their plans to reclaim Oz, determinedly staying under the radar of their enemies while they search for allies and a way to the throne. Though Tip has sided with Mistress West and risked a great deal to be where she now is, she continues to struggle against her new identity.
Despite swallowing the remains of Mistress East, as well as dying and coming back to life, she can see no change or improvement from her previous self. Without a clear sign of magic she doubts her power and falls into a state of frustration and fear that threaten to bring all of of Mistress Wests ambitions down around them. This is further complicated by Tips sudden and strange return to the form of a male, as without the female heir to the throne Mistress West will find no help from even the closest of allies.
The Villain That's Become succeeds in entertaining its audience while revealing new secrets and unveiling more details about the war that is to come, but it is far from perfect.
Indeed the episode feels painfully slow at times and certain scenes feel irrelevant. At other times, the storylines feel rushed and the effort put in to lead to that moment feels wasted. This is particularly true of Dorothy and Lucass storyline, as all the tension and pain that we have witnessed building through the show, and especially through the last few episodes, all comes to nothing.
They fight at the beginning and while it does seem as though Lucas might actually kill Dorothy, suddenly he's back to himself enough to beg for Dorothys help restraining him. And just like that he is defeated and their story is over.
Despite the obvious curricular nature of their encounter and ending, it's a plotline that audiences have been following since the beginning. Not only does this ending to a story feel very rushed, but it also feels incredibly unsatisfactory.
Fans are left wondering what the importance or relevance of this scene is and why a moment that should have been dramatic and satisfying failed to live up to the expectations of its audience in such an utterly unsatisfying way.
While the episode itself was not the most impressive or engaging thus far, the performances of Jordan Loughran (Tip) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Lucas) were highly impressive. Both commendably portray complex characters who must make agonising and irreversible choices that will change their lives forever. While both actors have provided impressive performances before, the portrayals they give in The Villain That's Become are undoubtedly the most compelling by far.
Emerald City airs Wednesdays at 9pm on 5STAR. Watch the trailer below.
Remember #TheDress? The infamous garment that broke the internet when a photo of it emerged on social media and divided the the world over its colours? Of course you do.
I don't understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it's a trick somehow.
I'm confused and scared.
PS it's OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND BLACK Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 27, 2015
If that's not White and Gold the universe is falling apart. Seriously what is happening???? Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) February 27, 2015
Now almost two years later, a neuroscientist has come up with a brand new explanation as to why some people saw it as white and gold while others saw the very same outfit as blue and black. (For reference, the dress later turned to to be blue and black).
He believes its all down to when you wake up.
Dr Pascal Wallisch, a researcher at New York University, has suggested people who are early risers are more likely to see the dress as white and gold, while those who love a good old lie-in see it as black and blue.
Wallisch claims this is down to how our circadian rhythms (internal body clocks) and exposure to sunlight affects our perception of colour.
Michele Bastock, of Roman Originals, models the two-tone dress (Joe Giddens/PA)
Early risers, he says, are more exposed to natural light and are more likely to see shadows while those who stay up late are more used to long-wavelength artificial light and, consequently, are more likely to see the dress as black and blue.
His theory is that those who thought the dress was photographed in shadow likely saw the two-tone garment as white and gold.
The original image was overexposed, rendering the illumination source uncertain, Wallisch said. As a result, we make assumptions about how the dress was illuminated, which affects the colours we see.
The dress sparked a furious Twitter debate in 2015 (Joe Giddens/PA)
Shadows are blue, so we mentally subtract the blue light in order to view the image, which then appears in bright colours gold and white.
However, artificial light tends to be yellowish, so if we see it brightened in this fashion, we factor out this colour, leaving us with a dress that we see as black and blue.
This is a basic cognitive function: to appreciate the colour on an object, the illumination source has to be taken into account, which the brain does continuously.
The results are based on an online study with more than 13,000 participants.
Wallisch said his research found demographic factors such as gender and age had very little effect.
This suggests that whatever kind of light one is typically exposed to influences how one perceives colour, he added.
Its hard to say whether this theory explains the phenomenon, but it is the latest in the many studies that have emerged since the photo of the outfit went viral.
The findings are published in Journal of Vision.
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Polls are now open for Election Day: What voter turnout is like so far.
Bollywood actress Kriti Sanon, who is currently busy shooting for her upcoming, film Raabta alongside Sushant Rajput, is taking out time to learn horse riding.
Apart from her busy schedule, the actress is dedicatedly learning horse riding, as the plot of the upcoming Dinesh Vijans directorial has requirement of well versed horse riding for her role.
Known for her romantic roles in films, Dilwale famed actress has instantly developed her liking for horse riding, "she gets on horse, whenever she gets chance".
The actress recently shared her happiness of learning horse riding on social media, while she was attending 'Gujarat Polo League', she twitted, "Riding this beautiful one took me back to #Raabta horse riding days! #GujaratPoloCup #lovehorses #thenewavatarofpolo."
Raabta the upcoming action film is slated to be released on June 9.
Anthropology, which is indispensably applicable in several streams of sciences and social sciences, is a neglected subject in Delhi University (DU) as none of the colleges has this subject at graduation level.
Only the Department of Anthropology at the Faculty of Sciences has B.Sc. (Hons) Anthropology at undergraduate level with limited number of seats. However, the department has M.Sc. Anthropology, M.Sc. Forensic Science, Research (both M.Phil. & Ph.D) and certificate course in Forensics.
According to teachers and research students, as compared to subjects like Botany, Zoology and Physics, Anthropology is not popular among students as the colleges don't have it and majority of students who apply in DU are unaware of the existence of the Department of Anthropology.
The course has only 40 seats. Professor Satwanti Kapoor of the department emphasizes on the need to create 'awareness' about the subject and its applications at both school and college levels. "We don't have the at colleges which is a drawback in making it popular. Even at school level, it is undermined as the subject is taught under Biology and not as a separate one," said Kapoor.
Anthropology is often considered as a "boundary-less" subject as it has wide applicability in various streams and has interdisciplinary outreach. "Anything and everything which has to do with human being is our forte. It has applications everywhere and trained/skilled professionals or researchers are in demand in the fields of forensic, medicines, population study, human physiology and in all types of surveys. But the irony is that the subject has not been given due recognition," said the professor.
According to sources, many colleges have expressed interest in starting the subject at Under-Graduate level. Also, Professor Anup K Kapoor, Head of the Department of Anthropology, has written to 8 DU colleges regarding the same. "These colleges have shown interest. We can help them initially in teaching and practicals," said Prof Kapoor.
But, with the new academic session at door, it is unlikely that any such course will start in the new session.
One of the most important aspects of public diplomacy is the people-to-people connect, strengthened through bonds built over the years.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations, India and Lithuania celebrated their 'personal bond', with the release of the book India and Lithuania: A Personal Bond. The event organised by the Lithuanian Embassy in New Delhi, in collaboration with the India International Centre, saw an august audience including Ambassador Laimonas Talat-Kelpsa and other dignitaries.
"The contacts between India and Lithuania started earlier than 1992, dating back to 1625 or even earlier. This history is waiting to be properly researched. The book is a wonderful example of how individuals can play an important role in forging a strong relationship between two countries" said Ambassador TalatKelpsa.
The book featuring Mahatma Gandhi and three Lithuanians: Poska, Vydunas and Kallenbach on its cover, is a unique chronicle of the journey, times and contributions of these historical personalities towards the development of a special connect between two geographically distant nations.
For example, few people in India know that Hermann Kallenbach, Gandhiji's closest associate during his South African times, came from the small western Lithuanian town of Rusne!
The book provides a detailed account of how Kallenbach and Gandhi's journey. Adventure is the other name of Antanas Poska, who travelled from Lithuania to India on a motorbike in 1931! In fact, the University of Calcutta honoured Poska with a posthumous D.Litt. in 2014.
Compiling the book must have seen many challenges. Ambassador Talat-kelpsa agrees. "Collection of data was a huge challenge, besides the logistics pertaining to the publishing of the book.
The greatest challenge lies ahead in the continuation of the process of research of bi-lateral relations, so that the book does not become an onetime event. In fact, the book will be launched in Kolkata, Bangalore and New Delhi. We expect the events to draw enough media attention in order to help propagate the message."
The launch of the book was followed by the screening of the documentary Lithuanian Coloumbuses in India, which covers the stories of those prominent Lithuanians who have left a footprint in India since their first arrival, way back in 1625! What was the inspiration behind the making of the film? Director Edita Mildazyte elaborates "In 2018, Lithuania will celebrate its centenary as a republic. Men and women, in our history, have left a legacy behind them, stories which I wanted to compile into a series of documentaries of the destinations they had travelled toIndia was one of those destinations. In fact, my appreciation for the valour and spirit of Lithuanians like Rudamina and Szostak, who came to India in the 17- 18th century, rose manifold, after I myself came to experience India and all its rich diversity. An emotional connect was developed with the protagonists of my films."
Mildazyte adds that the response to her film has been encouraging, with letters and phone calls from all quarters. She concludes on a philosophical note "My 'Indian' episode has a deeply personal connection. Firstly, I lost my husband just before coming here, so my trip to India was, in a way, a sort of escape. Secondly, I was introduced to so many wonderful people, with such interesting stories that I could have not imagined , even in my dreams." And journeys of a lifetime start with the turning of a page
Tracking mixed Asian markets, domestic bourses started Wednesdays trading session on a flat note with Midcap and Smallcap indices outperforming the front liners.
At 9.30 am, the Sensex was trading four points or 0.01 per cent up at 29,793 while the Nifty50 was trading three points or 0.03 per cent higher at 9,240.
In broader markets, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices surged around 0.4 per cent each.
All the BSE sectoral indices, except Capital Goods index, were trading in the positive zone with Metal index leading the gains, up 0.7 per cent. Capital Goods index slipped 0.1 per cent.
On Tuesday, the BSE Sensex closed 213 points or 0.72 per cent higher at 29,788, while the NSE Nifty ended 56 points or 0.61 per cent lower at 9,237.
Top gainers in the Sensex-30 pack: Axis Bank (up 0.9 per cent), Gail (up 0.9 per cent), Power Grid (up 0.7 per cent), Hero Motocorp (up 0.6 per cent) and Infosys (up 0.6 per cent).
Top losers in the Sensex-30 pack: Lupin (down 1 per cent), Adani Ports (down 0.6 per cent), Tata Motors (down 0.5 per cent), L&T (down 0.5 per cent) and ITC (down 0.5 per cent).
Asian markets were trading with more declines and fewer gains. Japans Nikkei 225 Index lost 1.4 per cent, Singapores Straits Times Index slipped 0.1 per cent, Hong Kongs Hang Seng index fell 0.2 per cent, Koreas KOSPI index rose 0.1 per cent and Chinas Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3 per cent.
Back home, the Rupee was trading nine paisa down at 64.72 against the US Dollar.
AFS Intercultural Programs and the AFS Asia-Pacific Initiative (AAI), with the support of UNESCOs New Delhi Office, will convene the 3rd Annual AFS Asia-Pacific International Global Citizenship Education Forum entitled Global Citizenship Education: Essential for Employability & the 21st Century Workforce.
The event will be held from April 20 to 23 in New Delhi. Educators, representatives of corporations, governments, institutions, and others are invited to participate in the forum.
At the sessions, distinguished speakers will present insights into why intercultural skills and global citizenship are necessary in the 21st century workplace and why developing these must go hand-inhand with science, math, technology and engineering, within education systems.
Some of the speakers, who will be seen at the forum, includes Anantha Duraiappah, director of UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development; Matangi Gowrishankar, director of British Petroleums Global Leadership Academy and Head of Capability Development; Sumer Singh, leading educationist; Senthil Kumaran, founder of The Learners Confluence; Namrata Jha, director of the Institute of International Education's New Delhi Office; Makiko Deguchi, president-elect of SIETAR Japan; Francisco Marmolejo, head of World Bank Global Solutions Group on Tertiary Education and lead Education Specialist for India; Daniel Obst, president and CEO of AFS Intercultural Programs; and other dignitaries.
The forums goal is to make intercultural learning opportunities and global citizenship education more accessible, relevant and actionable. It builds on two previous editions in Bali, Indonesia (2015) and Perth, Australia (2016). AFS Intercultural Programs India is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit education organisation.
Each year around 12,000 young people take part in the AFS Programs that are supported by over 42,000 volunteers and staff in 60 countries worldwide. Registrations for the forum are open until 14 April.
Unfazed by Chinas relentless opposition, Tibetan spiritual leader, his Holinessthe 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, finally set foot on the soil of Arunachal Pradesh last week.
The Nobel peace laureate, who was in Guwahati on April 1 where he graced a number of events, was scheduled to fly to Tawang on 4 April but could not due to inclement weather and had to take the land route instead.
The octogenarian Buddhist leader travelled to Bomdila in Arunachals West Kameng district via Tezpur town in central Assam. Next day, his party made it to Dirang on their way to Tawang, a Buddhist-concentrated locality of Arunachal, which the Chinese government claims as their area.
Earlier, the Indian external affairs ministry, in a strong statement, commented that no artificial controversy should be created around the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
The Indian government has clearly stated on several occasions that the Dalai Lama is a revered religious leader, who is deeply respected as such by the Indian people. Hence no additional colour should be ascribed to his religious and spiritual activities and visits to various states of the country.
Union minister for state for home, Kiren Rijiju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, commented before the Dalai Lamas arrival in his state, that the Tibetan Buddhist monks visit to the Tibet-bordering Indian state was purely religious as such no political angle behind his visit should be ascribed.
He continued, Arunachal is an inseparable part of India and China should not object to his Holiness visit to the state. Its Indias internal affairs. Rijiju, who practices Buddhism, strongly commented that New Delhi had never interfered in Chinas internal affairs and it expected Communist China to reciprocate it.
As various Chinese agencies, including the government-run media outlets opposed the Dalai Lamas visit to Tawang, the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) also discouraged his visit. It warned the Dalai Lama not to utter a single word against the Beijing administration from the soil of Assam.
However, no one endorsed the separatist militant outfits warning. They feel that the Ulfa (Independent) has slowly turned into a puppet of Red China after them shelter along the south China-Myanmar border areas. In a formal letter addressed to the Tibetan religious leader, Dr Abhizeet Asom, the self-styled chairman of Ulfa (I), argued that the Dalai Lamas visit to Tawang would disturb peace and tranquillity in the state as the Beijing administration was opposed to any high profile individuals visit to Arunachal, terming it a part of south Tibet.
The Ulfa (I) letter said, The caveat we would like you (Dalai Lama) to honour upon making the trip is that that nothing against China will be uttered by you in private or public, because China has always been a friendly neighbour of ours and the relationship between China and Assam is truly very deep when it comes to the linguistic and cultural heritage of the two nations, said Dr Asom.
The militant leader, who is suspected to be based in London, wrongly pointed out that during the 1962 Sino-India war, the Peoples Liberation Army personnel did not set foot on Assam soil, but in reality Chinese soldiers crossed Arunachal Pradesh and arrived in Tezpur until the Beijing administration received warnings from the American authorities.
Dr Asom, a practicing physician based in the UK, also criticised the Indians who extend moral support for a Free Tibet and raised voices against the Tibetan government-in-exile along with the Dalai Lama. Saying that former Indian Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee accepted Tibet as an integral part of China, the militant leader also argued that Indias first PM Jawaharlal Nehru also officially recognised Tibet as a Chinese region. He asserted that his party was fighting New Delhi for a Swadhin Asom (sovereign Assam) for decades.
But the Patriotic Peoples Front Assam welcomed the Dalai Lama to the North-east. It said Tibet is not China but rather is the actual northern neighbour of the region. The civil society group expressed the hope that his holiness visit would strengthen the bond between the peoples of Tibet and Indias Northeast.
It criticised China for using the armed outfit as a card against New Delhi. It claimed that the Ulfa (I) military head Paresh Barua, who was earlier hiding in Dhaka, is now a tenant of Chinas southern province bordering Myanmar. It also quoted intelligence sources that Barua is running an umbrella organisation of Northeastern militant outfits, which the Chinese elements were supporting as an act of revenge for Indians continued hospitality to the Dalai Lama. In Guwahati, the Dalai Lama attended the concluding programme of The Assam Tribunes platinum jubilee and Dainik Asoms golden jubilee celebrations on 1 April.
Next day, he graced a public function at Gauhati University, where an Assamese translation of his autobiography My Land and My People was also launched in the presence of Assam governor, Banwarilal Purohit and chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal.
He also joined in the Namami Brahmaputra festival at the heart of the city, which was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on 31 March on the bank of the river that originates in Tibet.
The Dalai Lama also visited Dibrugarh University in eastern Assam on 3 April where he addressed a select gathering. He emphasised the need for internal peace for every individual. Preaching ahimsa (non-violence), he pointed out that without karuna (compassion) it cannot emerge. In various interactions in Assam, the Dalai Lama termed himself as the longest guest of India. He recalled those days, when the Hun Chinese invaded Tibet and he had to escape from Lhasa in 1959.
He revealed that now he becomes a messenger of Indian culture to the world like a son of the great country. As the international media reported the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal Pradesh, the Chinese foreign ministry came out with the statement that by hosting the Tibetan spiritual leader on a contested stretch of land on the India-China border New Delhi has caused serious damage to the relations between the two countries.
The foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying commented that China firmly opposed the visit by a man (the Dalai Lama) Beijing labels a dangerous separatist to the disputed border region and New Delhi would get no benefit out of it. Rejecting the arguments that the Dalai Lamas trip was solely religious in nature, Chunying said Beijing would lodge a formal protest with New Delhi in this regard.
However, the Dalai Lama clarified during a media interaction at Bomdila that New Delhi had never used him against Beijing. India is a land of peace, harmony and non-violence, he commented. The spiritual leader also urged the Chinese government to offer the Tibetans genuine autonomy and meaningful self-rule (if not independence). Welcoming the Dalai Lama in his state, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu asked China not to advice India on what to do and what not to do with His Holinesss movement inside the country.
He even asserted that China is not Arunachals next-door neighbour but Tibet. The McMahon Line demarcates the boundary between India and Tibet, he claimed. The Dalai Lama previously visited Arunachal Pradesh in 1983, 1997, 2003 and 2009. Every time China reacted sharply and New Delhi made softer arguments, saying that it was very unfortunate.
But this time, with a new regime in New Delhi, there was no official reaction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi even though he was personally targeted by the Chinese government-controlled media outlets.
The writer is the Guwahati-based special representative of The Statesman.
Art is not only a powerful form of expression; it is a very effective medium that brings people together, irrespective of nationality and background.
It was no different with Douglas and Renato, who came all the way from Brazil to create their 'masterpiece'.
With the wall of a residential block serving as an imposing canvas, both these street artists created 'The Facing Walls', a rhapsody of brilliant colours, portraying the diverse flora and fauna of their country.
The 'art in making', open for public viewing in a public space, is an expansion of the Lodhi Art District a seed of India's first permanent public art gallery. Ambassador of Brazil Tovar da Silva Nunes, who was present with his team to experience the creation in making, commented, "This is unique project which presents, in an extremely vibrant way, the natural beauty of Brazil, in an Indian space, which, in turn, complements it with its botanical diversity.
He said 'The Facing Walls' serves like a 'botanical bridge', bringing people of both nations closer, thereby enhancing the people-to-people connect." Curator Giulia Ambrogi adds, "The location for the project, which is in Khanna Market, Lodhi Colony, is ideal. It is fairly central, with wellmaintained foot-paths and green spaces. For this reason, it is ideal to meet the objective of creating a public, openair 'art museum'. The canvas, which is a wall, is identical throughout and leaves no room for 'visual bombardments'. In fact, it is heartening to see the impact and the response the creation is used as a backdrop for 'photo sessions' and animated discussions!"
The initiative, kicked off in 2015, has seen almost 27 artists as an integral part of its journey. The number is set to see an increase, with more artists being welcomed. Renato, braving the strong sun, is enthusiastic about the project. "This incredible experience has seen so many happy faces, helpful people and creativity."
He smiles and adds, "I manage the challenge the sun poses with some refreshing juice and water." Douglas, who completes the duo Bicicleta Sem Freio, together with Renato, explains the challenges faced, "We have been painting murals for four years. It is a challenge to paint in a different country, where languages and cultures are different. The best part, however, is that people are so friendly here and everyone around has become a 'buddy'." So, has he learnt Hindi? "Nahin, nahin!" he retorts with a laugh.
He is surrounded by children, who lovingly cling to him, and he has a new pet too a dog, who has proudly staked claim to the spotlight. The duo strives to complete the mural, so that they are able to make time for a tour of Delhi.
As Douglas says, "I have so many gifts to buy!" How was the reaction of the public? Aru Bose, who is the site manager for the project, is full of praise for the residents and also the shop-owners. She says "Anything we needed was made available to us with ado: storage space, ladders, basic electricity supply and even chai in cold winters we received so much help and care. It is simply amazing!" Of course, no project can be successful without its partners.
The Embassy of Brazil, ST+ART India Foundation, Sanskriti Kendra and Central Public Works Department are a wonderful example of how art and partnerships can make a significant social impact. As the gathering sips on coconut water thoughtfully provided by the Ambassador, the children, the colours, the laughter and the ambience is a wonderful experience of how smiles can conquer all boundaries, leaving no scope for language barriers.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the worlds leading hotel companies, announces the opening of the 102-room Candlewood Suites Celaya hotel.
Located in Celayas eastern commercial area, the hotel is ideal for both business and leisure travelers to Guanajuato. This is IHGs second Candlewood Suites property in Mexico, joining the Candlewood Suites Queretaro-Juriquilla hotel which opened November 2016.
The Candlewood Suites Celaya hotel is located close proximity to several key landmarks such as Honda Mexico, Amistad Industrial Park, Galerias Celaya mall and Celaya University. Guests can enjoy spacious studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites with fully-equipped kitchens and executive desks. Additional amenities include a 24-hour fitness center, laundry facility, outdoor swimming pool, free parking and a Gazebo Grill area.
The hotel provides unique offerings for guests staying overnight or for weeks at a time including the Candlewood Cupboard, a 24-hour in-hotel convenience store which sells products such as breakfast items, snacks, refreshments and easy to prepare meals, and the Lending Locker, where guests can borrow common household items to use during their stay.
Celaya is known as the Bajio regions Golden Gate because of its diverse economic activities including manufacturing, commerce and agriculture, and its geographical location that connects the cities of Queretaro, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Celaya is also famous throughout Mexico for its exquisite sweets including cajeta (sweetened caramel). Guests traveling to Celaya should visit several of the citys historical landmarks which include: the Jardin Principal de Celaya, the Cathedral, San Francisco Convent and Church, Pantheon, Mummy Museum and Regional History Museum and several others.
The Candlewood Suites Celaya hotel opened following a US$10 million investment by its owner OVQ Celaya, S.A. de C.V. The hotel, located at Av. Eje Nor-Oriente, Manzana 177 Col. Predio Rustico, Celaya is owned by OVQ Queretaro, S.A. de C.V. and managed by Diamond Lodging.
Namami Brahmaputra is a hegemonic Hindutva version of select elements of Assams culture that found its political and diplomatic expression in the recently concluded show. The question is, does culture serve the ruling ideology of governance necessarily? If it does not, then one needs to tailor and twist major symbols of culture, religion and spirituality into a politically subservient mythology, which the word namami brings in.
Plebeians even thought that it is Nabami, coinciding with the return of Goddess Durga in the form of Basanti and the annihilation of Ravana on the ninth day of the calendars last month.
Namami Brahmaputra got tucked into Basanti Pujas ninth day, thereby raising a ritually deep and politically pregnant toast to Hindutva Assams multicultural and multireligious ethos is such that it is a land of earthly spirituality where nature is celebrated in its utilitarian and regenerative forms.
Earthly spirituality assumes the form of the mother goddess and her ritualistic feminine acts such as mother goddess Kamakhyas menstruation or god Umananda lying at the feet of Goddess Uma right on Brahmaputra. Numerous temples and local pedestals of worship mark a proliferation of Tantric-Buddhist cults of sacrifice, contemplation and penance across Assam.
Namami was a reproduction in a different manner than the usual practice of these rituals, which involve a variety of sacrificial rites and related offerings that propitiate both as a nature-spirit and deity.
Now the Brahmaputra only occupies a marginal place in this ritualistic universe, while its presence in the sacred landscape of Assam provides bedrock for religious faith covering the whole class of people whose lives are related to the river in an earthly manner.
Namami turned this earthly relationship into supra-terrestrial just as it is in Kashi Biswanath, where one offers an araati to the Ganga. The Brahmaputra is not like the Ganga in the ritual imagination of Hindu religion and culture. The specificity and identity of the river Brahmaputra remains beyond any araati. Interestingly enough, Brahmaputra being a male river, cannot be offered an araati and so, Namami looked like an imitation of the Varanasi araati.
Totally un-aboriginal and unknown, the show of araati by 21 Brahmins from Varanasi in a staterun function runs counter to the secular character of any state-run cultural event. In a larger ideological context, this is an irresolvable conflict between ideological Brahminism coming in the guise of mainstream Hinduism and little forms of the multi-religious and multicultural ethos of Assam.
Namami has brought it to the fore. The claim that singing of songs about Brahmaputra by superstars will increase the tourism potential of Assam, which Priyanka Chopra, in another advertisement termed as naturally wild only caused a whimper. Superstars and performers, as Bertolt Brecht would have said, are not in a position to invite the audience to critically judge what they perform or say, and hence much of these acts of show-off end up in a whimper due to misrepresentation of some kind.
The theme song sung by 15 stars was supposed to be the main attraction for many, but the local media felt dismayed about repeated invocations of Brahma, Ganga and other canonical references to the Hindu paternal and maternal pantheon. This lay in stark contrast with how people, who live by the Brahmaputra, perceive it as their source of life and livelihood. It even went against Bhupen Hazarikas notion of Mahabahu Brahmaputra, which is a more apt metaphor of Assams sycretic culture, going much beyond any Hindu religion-based notion of the Brahmaputra as Brahmas son that invokes Brahman of Advaita vedanta. Hazarika sang about Azan Fakir and Guru Teg Bahadur as predecessors of Bishnu Rabha and peoples culture of assimilation between Padma and Luit, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Tagore in his evocative song, Mahabahu.
The question is, if Hazarika could not make the nation aware of Axomiya culture and religion and its central connection with the Brahmaputra, how can one Namami show make it known to the country as a whole? Hazarika made it clear that the Axomiya people are Indians because they belong to Axomiya culture and language and not the other way round. Namamis emphasis on Hindu cultural moorings directly stems from the political authorities.
Contrastingly, Hazarikas clarion call that Axomiya people need to save themselves from going to the dogs, or the imagery of a trembling heart, establish an umbilical connection between Borluit (another name of the Brahmaputra) and the existential concerns that Namami seem to translate into afterlife terms of salvation of the soul.
So the success of the spectacle, as per Brecht, which is supposed to depend on the actors, could not really establish a significant connection between the spectators, life-worlds and the Brahmaputra except establishing some connections with the ritual world of mainstream Hinduism.
Does Hinduism play a significant role in spreading Hindutva in Assam? This is a political question that gets negotiated in the domain of culture with an ideological implication of accepting the dominance of the superior over the local. The large number of plain and hill tribes of Assam who use the Brahmaputra for fishing and irrigation with its attendant festivals, artifacts, food and costumes, stand in conflict with the concept Namami. Hence, non-vegetarian food stalls were relegated to a corner, as Namami inaugurated a new age culture of vegetarianism in Assam.
The common folk of the tribal populace remained a little confused, as it could not explain why vegetarianism has to be promoted instead of their traditional fermented fish and pork. Many opined that there should have been representations of traditional folk and non-classical tribal dance and music of Assam. To some extent, forms close to classical forms were amply presented giving it a panIndian twist, either in terms of Bollywood or a fusion style. This again sent tremors across cultural practitioners telling them that only Shastric forms are acceptable. Bhaona, based on Sankardeva and Madhavdevas lives and works, was also presented without much allowance for a critical engagement. Many a time Sankardeva became Guru, while Guru in Assams parlance is more human and earthly than an attribution of supernatural qualities. Guru as a marker of folk spirituality and satra culture of Assam did not exactly find an easy parallel in Namami, as there is no fixed way of worship of the guru except in art forms like Bhaona, Jakir-Jiri and other such mix of music and enactment.
The highbrow pan-Indian aesthetic presentation of Sankar-Madhaba tradition of Assam needed a much more Tantric and lokayata backdrop than that of unreal trances of classical moves on stage. The political question comes back here. Can an earthly Axomiya syncretism provide a hosting ground to a pan-Indian classical tradition? Can Assams audience be enthralled by superstars and political rallies from powers that are? No one forgets how the Brahmaputra is being diverted by China at the heights of Tibet.
The presence of the Dalai Lama in Namami only added a diplomatic colour, given the India and Chinas tiff over the Buddhist monks subsequent visits to Arunachal Pradesh. Can Namami be an indirect platform for settling such continental diplomatic controversies?
The flow of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries across Assam create a natural ecosystem of cultural, musical and theatrical reproduction that the official mode of reproduction certainly scuttled during Namami. It was more a New Delhi-Varanasi type than an Axomiya type but the public definitely enjoyed the shows and gimmicks, marked as they were by colourful gaiety.
The writer is Associate Profesor of Philosophy at the North Eastern Hill University, Shillong.
Expressing deep concern over security issues, terrorism and boundary conflicts, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said that Dhaka has comprehensively addressed India's security concerns.
"We have comprehensively addressed India's security concerns and this has been a factor in trust building," Hasina said while addressing the India Foundation Awareness Programme in Delhi.
Taking about the Teesta issue, Sheikh Hasina said that Prime Minister Modi has assured that his government will conclude the water sharing treaty at the earliest.
"PM Modi has reiterated his government's strong resolve to conclude the water sharing treaty at the earliest," she said, adding, once it happens, the face of Indo-Bangladesh relations would undergo another transformation.
"We strongly believe our common water resources must act as a uniting force," she added.
The Bangladesh PM noted the role of India in its War of Liberation in 1971. People of India and its govt supported us wholeheartedly during the War of Liberation in 1971," she said.
The Bangladesh PM is on a 4-day official visit to India after a gap of 7 years.
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama on Monday delivered his last sermon to thronging devotees here and thanked the Arunachal Pradesh government, especially Chief Minister Pema Khandu, for the invitation and facilitating his visit, which has drawn much flak from China.
Addressing devotees in chaste Tibetan at the Yid GaChosin monastery, the Dalai Lama said his visit to the northeastern state has been a "memorable one" and that he would cherish it forever.
He also thanked the people, particularly from far off villages, who gathered in large numbers to welcome and listen to him at all the places that he visited.
Giving a talk on the last day of his four-day visit to Tawang, the Tibetan spiritual leader also said secular ethics is the only way to bring lasting peace and happiness in the world.
"Peace in post World War II is built on fear. But genuine peace can come only through inner peace," he said, at another event. The Dalai Lama gave a talk on 'Secular Ethics and Happiness' and stressed that inner peace can come through training of the mind.
Delivering an address to an audience assembled at Kalawangpo Hall, the Nobel Peace laureate reiterated that secular ethics must be achieved through education and not just through prayers or faith.
State Chief Minister Pema Khandu was also present at the event.
Replying to a query on what would be the state of secular ethics when presently the world is witnessing clash of beliefs, the Dalai Lama said: "Neither can destroy each other's beliefs. So the best way is to make peace and live together."
"A terrorist killing in the name of religion can never be true to his faith. However, efforts must be made to reach out to them as they are not born terrorist but circumstances made them so," he said.
Emphasising on education as the key to bring in human understanding and values, the Dalai Lama lamented that western nations are not helping in bringing true values of education, due to which everyone is after material pursuit leading to untold human sufferings.
Responding to a question on Buddhist belief on Karma, the Dalai Lama urged the audience to follow Buddhist teachings only after having convinced themselves through investigation and experiments. He said followers of Buddhist philosophy have the liberty to reject it if they find it unsatisfactory.
On Karma, the Dalai Lama said, "It's our action that brings comfort and discomfort.
Asked whether religious rituals have become more important than wisdom or philosophy, the spiritual leader declared that rituals are not important. However, he emphasised on use of intelligence to transform emotions and not through rituals.
Earlier, the Dalai Lam released a book titled 'Ocean and Blue Mountains' published by department of Karmik and Adhyatmik Affairs (DoKAA) in presence of Chief Minister Pema Khandu and other dignitaries.
The book title refers to 'Ocean' as His Holiness and 'Blue Mountains' as the people of Arunachal Pradesh, and is a collection of memoirs of the special bond shared between the two. The Dalai Lama also released a book titled 'Crossing of the Frontiers' describing his exile route from Tibet to India, published by Losel Nyinje Charitable Society and Monyul Social Welfare Association.
A book on Monyul was also released by him.
In the morning, the Dalai Lama gave his last sermon to devotees at the Yid GaChosin monastery ground on Rinzin Dhondup initiation followed by a long life offering ceremony.
He also blessed and distributed one lakh saplings to be planted in and around Tawang.
On his way to the Kalawangpo Hall, the Dalai Lama consecrated the statue of Lord Buddha at the heart of Tawang township.
On Sunday, the Dalai Lama consecrated the Tara Temple 'Dolma Lhagang', Guru Padhmasambhava Statue cum Temple (Lumpo), and laid the foundation stone of Gyalwa Jamba (Kuber) statue to be built at Buri near the Indo-Bhutan border. He gave the name Jamtseling for the Jamba (Kuber) statue besides donating Rs 50,000 from his side for its construction.
The Dalai Lama was supposed to perform the rituals after landing at Lumla on April 4, which couldn't materialise due to rescheduling of his programme.
China had fiercely objected to the visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh, which it considers as "disputed" and part of south Tibet
Four terrorists were killed when security forces foiled a major infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, an official said on Monday.
"A major infiltration bid from across the LoC was foiled by the Army troops in Keran sector yesterday (Sunday) evening," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said here.
"A search operation is going on in the area," he said.
Four Pakistani terrorists attempting to infiltrate the Indian territory were on Monday killed by the army in the Keran sector of Kupwara district in North Kashmir.
A spokesman for the Northern Command of the army said that four heavily armed terrorists in Pakistan army snow uniform were shot dead when they tried to infiltrate through the Line of Control (LOC).
The spokesman said that the area is being combed to ascertain whether any other terrorist was there. He said that the alerted troops detected a group of terrorists trying to infiltrate across the LOC and foiled the bid. The army in the valley has been kept on high alert because of the by-election and the violence that has broke out.
The infiltration attempt comes just few hours after the death of eight persons and injury to more than 120, including 100 security personnel, in the election related violence yesterday. Polling for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat is scheduled on 12 April.
Authorities on Monday made heavy deployment of police and Central Reserve Police Force to maintain law and order as the separatists called protest shutdown affected life across the Kashmir Valley.
"Etiquette deployments have been made to maintain the law and order situation on Monday," a senior police official said here.
Eight protesters were killed when the security forces opened fire during the voting process in the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary by-poll on Sunday.
Of these, seven were killed in Budgam and one died in Ganderbal district.
Mobs attacked the polling stations, damaging the EVMs and ransacking the polling stations, at nearly 100 places in Budgam.
Separatists have called a two-day shutdown and protest against Sunday's civilian killings.
Markets, public transports, education institutions and other businesses remained closed here and other places in the valley.
The Kashmir University has postponed all examinations scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shant Manu on Sunday said re-poll would be held at 50 to 100 polling stations where violence had resulted in the disruption of polling process.
Around seven per cent votes were polled during Sunday's by-poll which marked the lowest voter turnout in the last 27 years.
The CEO has said that the next phase of the by-poll would be held on schedule on April 12 in south Kashmir's Anantnag parliamentary constituency.
Meanwhile, to check the spread of rumours by anti-social elements authorities have decided to suspend the internet facility in the entire valley till April 12.
Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer arrested in Pakistan, will be hanged to death as he has been given the death sentence by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) on Monday. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said a Field General Court Martial awarded the capital punishment and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had confirmed the death sentence.
Here is a sequence of events that led to Kulbhushan Jadhav's fate thus far:
Jadhav was arrested on 3 March 2016 in Balochistan's Mashkel area after he entered from Iran. He was accused by Pakistan of creating unrest in Balochistan and Karachi.
Jadhav was tried by FGCM under section 59 of the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 and Section 3 of the official Secret Act of 1923.
The Indian Government believed he was picked up from Iran. Despite repeated requests for consular access to Jadhav, Indian diplomats were not allowed to meet him.
India acknowledged Jadhav as a retired navy man, but denied that he was in any way connected to the government.
Jadhav's Indian passport was in the name of Hussein Mubarak Patel.
Islamabad alleged that Jadhav, who retired in 2013, was an active agent of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
In March 2016, Islamabad released a video footage of Jadhav and said he revealed how India engineers violence and separatism in the restive province of Balochistan.
Jadhav joined the Indian National Defence Academy in 1987 and was commissioned in the engineering branch of Indian Navy in 1991.
After 14 years of service, he launched intelligence operations in 2003 and established a small business in Iran, according to sources.
(With inputs from agencies)
As opposition leaders disrupted Lok Sabha proceedings over the purported racial remarks of BJP leader Tarun Vijay, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and colour cannot be allowed in India.
"India is a secular country, discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and colour cannot be allowed here, the Union minister said in Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha was adjourned after Opposition members created uproar over the remarks of Tarun Vijay about South Indians.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded strict action against Tarun Vijay threatening agitation if proper action is not taken against the BJP leader.
Saying that attacks on Africans in India had nothing to do with racism, Tarun Vijay had told Al Jazeera: If we were racist, why would we have all the entire south why do we live with them if we are racist. We have black people around us.
Later he apologised. Feel bad, really feel sorry. My apologies to those who feel (what) I said was different than what I meant.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday hoped India and Bangladesh would soon clinch the deal on the sharing of Teesta waters, which would radically transform the relationship of the two countries. The public and private sector units of the two countries signed as many as 13 accords worth billions of dollars, taking the number of agreements inked during her four-day trip to 35.
Speaking at an event organised by the India Foundation, Sheikh Hasina noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reiterated to her his governments resolve to conclude the Teesta treaty at the earliest. Once that happens, the face of Indo-Bangla relations would undergo another transformation, she added.
She said she firmly believed that the common water resources of the two countries must act as a uniting force.
Comprehensive, basin wise solution to water sharing of all common rivers holds key to our common future.
It is understood that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had given some proposals to Sheikh Hasina to break the stalemate over the Teesta issue, which the Bangladesh PM promised to study.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh had comprehensively addressed Indias security concerns, which has helped in trust-building between the two countries. She noted that the two countries had also amicably settled their land and maritime boundary dispute.
She also hailed the whole-hearted support of the government and the people of India in Bangladeshs War of Liberation in 1971. Bangladesh Parliament had recently adopted a unanimous resolution declaring March 25 as Genocide Day in remembrance of Pakistani atrocities and this genocide must be recognised as such by the international community. PM Modi, she said, had promised to remain with Bangladesh in its efforts in this direction.
her last engagement while addressing leaders of Indias apex business of chambers, she said Bangladesh was looking to enhance trade with India, widen footprint of Border Haats and open up trade routes which were closed during the 1965 war.
called upon the Indian industrial houses to invest in Bangladesh, especially in infrastructure projects, power and energy, food and agro-processing, manufacturing, transport and other such sectors. The 13 accords signed today are in areas like power, oil and gas, container transportation, veterinary sciences, education and health.
Dismay, fear and panic grips many in parts of India, as the ban on selling of meat that triggered dissension not only among the common people but also in the corridor of politics continues to be imposed in several states.
Recently, it was the crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses initiated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath followed by other states like Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh, and now the announcement of life imprisonment for cow slaughter in Gujarat.
Following it, the voice for and against the ban in social networking sites and mobile apps has been growing louder and wider. But the ban on cow slaughter is not a new issue, it has been debated upon in both the political and social circles even before, and it is an age-old matter.
The ban on cow slaughter is ancient
According to history books, cow slaughter became prominent in India when Islamic rulers of Arab and Central Asian Turkic arrived in the country. It was during the Mughal rule that selected restricted bans were introduced on cow slaughter. It was believed that Mughal emperor Humayan stopped eating beef after killing of cows in Hindu territory led to severe clashes. So, later other Mughal emperors like Akbar and Jahangir prohibited cow slaughter.
Where was Indias first slaughterhouse built?
While killing of cows and domestic animals was practiced openly, Indias first formal slaughterhouse was built in Calcutta, now Kolkata, in 1760 by Robert Clive.
What does the Indian Constitution have to say about beef ban?
Yes, in Directive Principles of State Policy, the Article 24 of the Indian Constitution states prohibition of slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and drought cattle. The milch and drought cattle include buffaloes, mithun and yak.
Where is cow slaughter legal in India?
Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Mizoram, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura are states where there are no restrictions on cow slaughter or sale of cows.
States where cow slaughter is banned
In Gujarat: According to the bill passed by the state Assembly on March 31, now it is life imprisonment for cow slaughter in the state from the earlier seven-year jail term. The bill also imposed 10 years' imprisonment for transportation of cows. People in possession of beef will be slapped a fine of Rs.1-5 lakh along with a jail term of 7-10 years.
In Uttar Pradesh, cow slaughter can lead to seven-year jail term with fine up to Rs.10,000.
In Maharashtra, slaughter or consumption of cow meat is banned and five years' imprisonment and Rs.10,000 fine of the accused.
In Jharkhand, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan jail term of 10 years has been imposed on selling or consumption of beef. However, a fine of Rs.1 lakh is imposed for killing in Haryana and Rs. 50,000 in Chhattisgarh along with seven-year imprisonment.
In Tamil Nadu and Odisha, up to three years jail and two years jail along with Rs.1,000 fine in both the states respectively.
In Karnataka, possession of cows is not considered illegal, but killing can lead to seven-year jail and Rs.1 lakh fine. But, it is yet to become a law in the state.
In Madhya Pradesh, killing of cow would result in seven-year jail.
In Himachal Pradesh, killing of cows is allowed for only research purposes. But, otherwise anyone caught in the act of slaughtering cow for selling and consumption will be jailed for five years.
Cow slaughter is banned in Assam, except on fit-for-slaughter certificate according to the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 1950. Also in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana,
In Chandigarh, cow killing, storing or consuming beef is banned.
Cow killing is allowed in Bihar for the ones older than 15 years. However, slaughter of calves is banned. The violater will be slapped a jail term of six month and Rs.1,000 fine.
In New Delhi, slaughtering of cows, not buffaloes, and possession of beef even if killed outside the city is banned.
Volotea launched flights from Vienna Airport to the French cities of Nantes and Marseilles, and will also inaugurate flight service to the Italian seaport of Genoa.
We would like to welcome Volotea, currently the third largest and fastest growing low cost carrier in Europe, to Vienna. This gratifying growth clearly shows that airlines recognise the potential of Vienna as an important hub for leisure-tourism within Europe. With Nantes and Marseille, there now is a total offer of nine destinations and 101 weekly flights to France. The new flight service to Genoa provides particularly convenient travel options to link up with Mediterranean cruises, says Julian Jager, Member of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG, pleased with the expanded flight offer from Vienna.
We are very proud of adding the prestigious city of Vienna on our network, connecting the Austrian capital to 3 destinations in Europe. Vienna represents for Volotea a strategic destination in Europe attracting both leisure and business traffic segments especially from Italy and France. We want to establish strong commercial relationships with Austrian passengers as well as travel partners in order to simplify new travel experiences to Nantes, Marseille and Genoa, has stated Pierfrancesco Carino, Chief Sales Officer of Volotea.
I would like to warmly welcome Volotea to the city! Volotea sets course for Vienna from two countries, both of which already rank among the top ten nations with respect to the number of overnight stays in Vienna. We counted more than 1.1 million overnight stays from Italian and French guests in 2016. Direct flights serve as a particularly strong driving force for the development of tourism. For this reason, I see considerable potential in the new Volotea flights to help push the number of guests in Vienna from France and Italy to even higher levels, states Norbert Kettner, Director of WienTourismus in welcoming this new addition to the airlines operating at Vienna Airport.
Seasonal flight connections to Nantes, Marseille and Genoa
The airline offers seasonal flight service to the new routes from April to October, departing from Vienna five times per week. On Thursdays and Sundays Volotea flies to the large French city of Nantes, known for its historical architecture and far-reaching river landscapes. In 2010, it was named one of the five environmental capitals of Europe. Flights will be operated on Mondays and Fridays from Vienna to Marseilles, the oldest city in France, and one of Europes most important port cities. On Saturdays, Volotea operates one weekly flight to the seaport of Genoa, which is considered to be one of Italys most culturally rich cities thanks to its numerous churches, museums and art galleries and also acts as the starting point for a large number of Mediterranean cruises. The airline operates either a Boeing 717 or an Airbus A319 on these routes.
Volotea serves 79 destinations in Europe
Volotea, the airline of mid and small-sized European cities, offers direct flights at very competitive prices. Volotea will count on 28 aircraft this year: 18 Boeing 717 (with a configuration of 125 seats) and 10 Airbus A319 (with 150 seats). Since its creation in April2012, Volotea has carried more than ten million passengers across Europe and expects to transport 4.3 million in 2017. In 2017 Volotea will operate 243 routes among 79 medium and small-sized cities in 16 countries: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Israel, Albania, Moldavia, Portugal, Malta, UK, Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg. More Information can be found under www.volotea.com
Triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy violate Muslim women's right to equality and dignity and are not protected by the right to profess, practise and propagate religion under Article 25(1) of the Constitution, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday.
Describing triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy as "patriarchal values and traditional notions about the role of women in society", the Centre said these were "an impediment to the goal of achieving social democracy" and contrary to the country's obligations under international treaties and covenants.
Under the triple talaq, a Muslim man can instantly divorce his wife by repeating 'talaq' thrice. As per 'nikah halala', a woman divorcee, has to marry someone else and consummate this marriage before getting a divorce to remarry her earlier husband.
"The conferment of a social status based on patriarchal values or one that is at the mercy of menfolk is incompatible with the letter and spirit of Articles 14 and 15," the Centre said.
"The right of a woman to human dignity, social esteem and self-worth are vital facets of her Right to Life under Article 21," the Centre has said.
The Centre's stand was enunciated in a written submission filed ahead of hearing of the matter by a Constitution Bench commencing May 11. The submissions drawn by advocate Madhvi Divan have been settled by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.
"The fundamental question (is) whether, in a secular democracy, religion can be a reason to deny equal status and dignity, available to women under the Constitution."
The Centre said the pivotal issue that needed to be addressed was whether under a secular Constitution women merely because of their religious identity could be relegated to a status significantly more vulnerable than their counterparts who profess any other faith, namely Hindus, Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, etc.
Pointing out that gender justice was a constitutional goal of overwhelming importance and magnitude, the Union government said the Fundamental Right to Equality takes within its fold, equality of status and the gender equality, gender equity and gender justice are values intrinsically entwined in guarantee of equality under Article 14.
The practices of triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy impact the social status and dignity of Muslim women and render them unequal and vulnerable qua men belonging to their own community; women belonging to other communities and also Muslim women outside India, it added.
Referring to reforms by several Islamic countries, including those have overwhelming Muslim population, the Centre said Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt and Iran have undertaken significant reforms and the practices of instant triple talaq or automatic polygamy at will is not permitted in most of these countries.
The government said the paradox is that Muslim women in India are more vulnerable in their social status because of the prevalence of such practices, even though they live in a secular country and that their position is weaker than women who live in theocratic societies or countries where Islam is the state religion.
"Patriarchal values and traditional notions about the role of women in society are an impediment to the goal of achieving social democracy and they are likely to hold back the community at large, resulting in lopsided development and pockets of social backwardness "
Describing triple talaq, 'nikah halala' and polygamy as repugnant to the guarantee of secularism an essential feature of the Indian Constitution the Centre said that lopsided development and pockets of social backwardness is not in the larger interest of the integrity and development of the nation.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma, who led his team to victory against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, was booked for breaching the Indian Premier League (IPL) code of conduct.
Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians captain, was reprimanded by the match referee for showing excessive, obvious disappointment with an Umpires decision during his team's contest against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium, the BCCI said in a statement on Monday.
According to the BCCI, Sharma admitted the Level 1 offence 2.1.5 of the IPL Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials.
On Sunday, Sharma was given LBW by umpire CK Nandan in the 10th over, though the MI skipper was not happy with the decision.
While returning to the pavilion, Sharma made angry gestures towards the umpire.
Although replay proved that the umpire was wrong at his stance as he couldnt see a thick inside edge before ball hit batsmans pad, Rohits dissent wasnt appreciable with such attitude.
The ongoing visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh has the Chinese press working overtime, criticising the Indian government for permitting him to visit Tawang, an area it claims as part of Tibet.
China had been objecting to the visit ever since it was announced and as the date drew close, the level of protests increased. It summoned the Indian ambassador in Beijing while simultaneously lodging an objection with the foreign ministry in Delhi. It stopped just short of threatening India with retaliation, hinting towards diplomatic and economic actions.
This is the Dalai Lamas seventh visit to Tawang, so why raise objections now? China officially considers the Dalai Lama as a threat to its occupation of Tibet. In their opinion he is not a religious head, but the instigator of all violence and protests in Tibet. It is the first time that Chinese protests have been of such magnitude. It is not possible that China has suddenly woken up to the fact that the Dalai Lama can break their stranglehold on Tibet, nor have they suddenly discovered that a visit to Tawang would change the perception of their claims. There are other reasons for its actions.
Last year the Dalai Lama visited Mongolia on a purely religious visit. He did not meet any representative of the government as the Mongolians did not wish to anger China. However, China took it as an affront, resorting to an economic blockade. India did try and come to the rescue of Mongolia with an offer of aid.
However, the Mongolians were forced to bend and promised China to never permit the Dalai Lama to enter again, despite the country being largely Buddhist. Many countries in South East Asia are either Buddhist or possess a sizeable Buddhist population. Some of these even border China or have an ongoing territorial dispute with it.
China maintains continuous pressure on them to prevent the Dalai Lama from visiting. China has always attempted to isolate him, but has never truly succeeded. India permitting his visit to Tawang, which would be possibly well reported in these countries, would impact Chinas standing and others may be tempted to follow suit. Hence it must resort to serious objections.
China had also objected when the Dalai Lama, as part of a group of Nobel Laureates, had visited Rashtrapati Bhawan and met the President of India, last year. India had to issue a clarification stating that the visit was non-political. Similarly, when Prime Minister Modi invited the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile to his swearing in, China protested.
China always protests whenever the Dalai Lama visits abroad, especially if he is to interact with the political leadership of any nation. The Dalai Lama could have been a threat to Chinas forced occupation of Tibet when he escaped to India and was given refuge over half a century ago.
For decades post its occupation Tibet remained closed to the world, while China subjugated it, supressing any uprising with brute force, ignoring international criticism. In the present era, it has increased connectivity of Tibet with the mainland, forcefully pushed in Han Chinese, seeking to change the demography. It maintains a force capable of suppressing any anti-national action.
The Dalai Lamas influence has also reduced in Tibet over time. China realizes that its decision of choosing Pakistan over India would possibly never bridge the gap with India, at least in the near term. Its objections to India joining the NSG, support to Azhar Masood in the UN and when the time comes, its desire to veto any reforms permitting Indian entry into the UN Security Council have driven the two nations further apart.
China is militarily and economically stronger and holds the cards, but realizes India is not a pushover, nor is India akin to Mongolia. With a slowing economy, China cannot play the economic card, as it would hurt itself more than India, since balance of trade is in Beijings favour and it seeks to expand its investments.
Militarily, it can never repeat 1962. India claims Aksai Chin, which China refuses to discuss. India has never agreed to the one-China policy of Taiwan being an integral part of China, thereby challenging China. It permitted a visit by a Taiwanese parliamentary delegation in February, angering China.
Recent intrusions and Indian response has shown Indian determination. Indias reluctance to join the One Belt One Road (OBOR) and CPEC despite its coaxing proves India is willing to challenge Chinese hegemony. China has begun stoking the Arunachal issue by objecting to any dignitary visiting there as an act of aggression, as it did with the previous US Ambassador, Richard Verma.
A few months ago, India accepted Chinese objections and denied visas to the Uighur dissident Dolkun Isa, New York based Tiananmen Square protestor Lu Jinghua and Hong Kong based activist Ray Wong to attend the inter-faith conference in Dharamsala. But nothing changed.
China still objected to India entering the NSG and held the veto on Azar Masood. Even if India had cancelled the Dalai Lamas visit on Chinese protests, their attitude would have remained unaltered. For China, the Dalai Lama is just another card akin to Arunachal which it employs to indicate that relationships are disturbed. It realistically does not fear the Dalai Lama.
However, the Dalai Lama represents a suppressed nation and ensures that the world remembers the Tibetan cause. China worries about the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama, which could happen in India, an action it desperately seeks to control. Its strong protests on the visit indicate its aggressive attitude to the ongoing dispute, whose resolution is nowhere in sight.
India adopted the best response, issuing just one statement, remaining silent, neither provoking nor defending, letting the visit conclude, while silently conveying its message of independence in thought and action and unwillingness to be bullied by a stronger and more powerful neighbour.
The writer is a retired Major-General of the Indian Army
Democracy is equally revered and reviled by citizens of practising democracies. While the advocates of democracy highlight the virtues of the system, the detractors cite equally compelling arguments.
The perceived blessings of choice, empowerment, voice in governance, and enfranchisement are ranged against the flip side of the democratic coin ~ conformism, minority oppression, populism and indecisive governments.
A very engaging point of departure in the discourse on democracy in recent times is the attention being paid to the inherent incongruity of one person or a group wielding enormous power, in the name of the people. This character of the system presupposes that the decisions of one or very few persons, underwritten by the will of the collective represented by ballot, will articulate the hopes and convictions of the people.
The presumption extends to the point that the willfully governed citizens must submit to be pronouncements of their representatives, in the form of obedience to the enacted laws. Since all functioning democracies have some form of legislature, the justification of government by representation is that legislators will, and must, bear in mind the interests of their respective electorates, if they wish to be elected again.
Going by conventional wisdom, the health of a democratic arrangement is predicated on the system of checks and balances. Some institutions are put in place, to guard against the exercise of unbridled power on the part of the governing few.
The most common and haloed of these institutions are the Constitution, the courts, the legislature and a rule-bound bureaucracy. The Constitution is the basic law of the land, and circumscribes the legislative space, within which all subsequent enactment of laws can take place.
The courts, from the circuit bench to the Supreme Court, ensure that there is no transgression of the basic law by either the legislature or the executive. The legislature ensures that enactments are formulated after due deliberations, taking into account the concerns of all. And the bureaucracy is an entity that implements the policies of the state, dispassionately and without fear or favour.
At the core of the democratic structure of governance is the happy equilibrium of the right of dissent and the submission to laws one disagrees with. As Evelyn Beatrice Hall once said famously: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. This single sentence, in a remarkably eloquent fashion, encapsulates the duties and privileges of both the governing and the governed in a democracy.
This is where the importance of institutions lies, specifically in retaining the vibrant character of a democracy. When institutions like the Constitution, the courts and the legislature are allowed to discharge their objectives, the equilibrium between individual rights and the authority of the state is preserved.
Those who wax eloquent on democratic values have maintained that these institutions have evolved and continue to be germane as the guardians of both the freedom of the people and the majesty of the state. But the burden of institutions weighs more heavily in favour of guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of the citizenry. This argument leads to a what if proposition, in which institutional roles are given a go-by, in favour of individual or group caprice in the exercise of the power of the state.
The state is a form of organised force on an enormous scale. Man is a weak creature of flesh and blood, with a built-in limitation of comprehension of such unrestrained power over his fellow men. Ergo, autocracy ensues when a man is given the baton of command over the fate of the populace, without being guided by a contrary force.
History, time and again, has been witness to this axiom. Demagogues have been elected and eclipsed. The irony is unmistakable ~ democracy can unwittingly play the midwife to despotism.
In his celebrated and criticised work, Orientalism, Edward Said has dwelt on the tendency of the West to debunk eastern civilisations as extremely prone to despotic rule. He attributes this to the misconception of the western commentator that the oriental mind is incapable of individualism and is in thrall of The Chief.
Said blames this colonial narrative of the imperial powers, mainly Britain and France, for the perversion of oriental history to cater to the prejudices of the western world. Whether or not one is swayed by Saids critique, an objective question, may be asked ~ How has the orient fared in comparison to the west in terms of established democracies degenerating into authoritarian or despotic regimes? And in the degenerate category, I include those regimes where the exercise of franchise is hindered and not merely those where the franchise has been formally extinguished by a despot or a junta. The number of failed democracies, de facto and de jure, is higher in the Orient.
The civil service is the first institution which has been the most vulnerable to succumb to the iron fist of the despot. From the dictators of ancient Rome to the modern day authoritarian ruler, it has been apparent that the established bureaucracy of the day is the easiest to persuade to fall in line.
The collective bureaucracy of the world has even come up with a justification for this ~ following the line of least resistance. Bureaucrats are suitably placed to modify the system from within. And this is the insidious corruption of the democratic system. And once the functioning of the government is geared to the wishes of one individual, it is a matter of time before the other institutions ~ the Constitution, the courts and Parliament ~ topple in the fullness of time. This spectacle of bureaucratic rot has been very overt here, in the very recent past. Some would argue, not without reason, that the stench of the putrefaction endures even today.
Even though the west has had its share of systemic failures ~ most visible of which would be the transition of the Weimar Republic to the Fuhrers Third Reich ~ western democracies, as a rule, have endured fairly unchanged to this day. This is because of the strength and autonomy of their established institutions.
Demagogues have not been able to dent the resilience of the Constitutions, the legislatures, the courts and the civil service, in their various roles of protecting the ruled from the rulers. No wonder issue-based dissent and support, within party ranks and across aisles, is fairly common in western legislatures.
But one would be hard put to cite such a break in the ranks of the political parties in our neck of the woods. Extremely partisan politics, that puts loyalty before reason, can never be truly representative. Where numbers carry more weight than fairness, institutions have been systematically denigrated to serve the interests of the ruling party. And the tyranny of numbers cannot tolerate dissent. Most particularly when the cult of the individual leader becomes excessively strong. It has been borne out time and again, certainly in this sub-continent, that the institutions of the state have been reduced to playthings, subject to the whims and fancies of certain individuals. The states institutions are the bedrock of democracy.
The writer is a joint Secretary, Planning, Govt of West Bengal. The views are personal and not the government's.
Confirmation of the theory that the seas unite as much as they divide has just been underscored by ships of the Indian and Chinese navies conducting a joint operation to counter an attempted act of piracy off the African coast.
Contacts between the two forces are marginal at best, but both responded to a distress call, which only proves that even in the face of political confrontation humanitarian considerations retain a place of priority among seafarers.
In military terms the joint action may not have amounted to much, but that was not known to the respective naval commanders when they responded to a call from the UK Maritime Trade Organisation about a merchant ship having come under pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden.
The missile-destroyer INS Mumbai and three accompanying vessels headed for the Mediterranean immediately altered course and sailed for the trouble spot, as did the Chinese vessel PLA-CNS Yulin.
A helicopter from the INS Mumbai quickly reached the MV OS-35, a bulk carrier registered in the Polynesian island-state of Kelavu, which had been commandeered by pirates near Aden. Its Filipino crew had secured themselves in the hold ~ as per prescribed procedure.
However, the pirates appeared to have been aware of the distress call, and so they abandoned their quarry.
After the aerial search revealed no hostile activity, a boarding party from the Chinese ship completed the joint rescue operation, which has been duly appreciated by the Filipino sailors who had feared for their lives.
A feature of the operation was that the Chinese and Indian warships adhered to long-standing protocols and acted immediately ~ before political/diplomatic complexities entered the equation.
And that re-emphasises the reality that when left free to act of their own accord, military personnel respond positively to crisis situations at sea. Something both Beijing and New Delhi must applaud: the baggage of history must not determine every course of action.
History, alas, cannot be overlooked and recent events point to a revival of Somali-based pirate activity. At least four such cases have been reported in recent weeks ~ one of them involving an Indian crew being taken into captivity.
Piracy had been a major problem until four or five years when an international policing effort had paid dividends. At that time the practice was to hold the crew to ransom, and the shipping companies paid up.
In the recent cases the pirates seem keen to loot the cargo, rather than extort ransom money. However, the situation merits close monitoring for the menace to shipping can easily resurface. The Indian Navy had played its part in the previous operations ~ it must be ready to once again shoulder the international responsibilities that befall a major maritime power.
China on Monday called on the US and North Korea to exercise restraint and avoid escalation of tensions after the US deployed a nuclear aircraft carrier close to the Korean peninsula.
The US Pacific Command confirmed on Saturday that it has mobilised the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its attack group to waters near North Korea in response to North Korea's launch of a medium-range missile into the sea on April 5, Efe news reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference that Beijing is closely monitoring the situation.
The Carl Vinson, which was on its way to Australia after participating in annual joint military exercises with South Korea just a month back, was steered back toward the Korean Peninsula, following US President Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Florida last week.
During the meet, both leaders discussed the need to prevent fresh provocations by Pyongyang, an ally of Beijing.
Foreign Ministers and representatives of the G7 group will meet on Monday and Tuesday in the Italian city of Lucca to discuss Syria and ways to counter the Islamic State (IS) terror group.
The meeting will be attended by Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, French Foreign Minister Jean Marc Ayrault, UK Foregn Secretary Boris Johnson, Japan's Fumio Kishida, Canada's Chrystia Freeland and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, Efe news reported.
The two-day meet, which is a precursor to the G7 summit in May in the Italian city of Taormina, comes at a time of increasing concern among Western nations over terrorist threats and conflicts in the Middle East.
In fact, Syria will be one of the main points on the agenda, especially after the March 6 US airstrike on the Shayrat air base in the city of Homs, in response to the use of chemical weapons by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The Italian interior minister, too, has convened a meeting with his counterparts from Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, there will be a second session, which will be followed by a press conference to brief the media regarding the outcome of the meeting.
In addition to the Syrian crisis and the threat from terrorism, the foreign ministers will also discuss the instability in Libya, North Korea's intention to continue its nuclear and missile weapons program, ties with Russia and the Ukraine crisis.
Other matters on the agenda also include the situation in Iraq and the complete integration of Iran in the international community.
North Korea on Monday accused the US of trying to "maintain its colonial rule" in South Korea by helping the conservative forces remain in power.
Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, said the US is "displeased with the ever increasing possibility of the collapse of the conservative regime and regime change by the progressive pro-reform forces in South Korea."
"The reality is clear that the US remains unchanged in its wild ambition for maintaining its colonial rule over South Korea and gets ever more sly and vicious in its methods to quench the South Korean people's growing desire for independence," Xinhua quoted the newspaper as saying.
Whenever South Korea faced a serious political crisis, "the US maintained its colonial rule by replacing its lackeys with others and setting up a new puppet regime," the newspaper said.
"The colonial rule that divided the territory of Korea and the homogeneous Korean nation into two and inflicted unbearable pain upon the Koreans is bound to collapse under the united struggle of the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad," it said.
The situation on the Korean peninsula is getting tense as the US is sending an aircraft carrier combat group to the waters near the North Korea.
Washington says the deployment is in reaction to "provocations" by the North Korea.
Pyongyang has carried out a number of missile launches and nuclear tests, with the most recent being Wednesday's launch of a ballistic missile.
In a rare move, the United Nations on Monday urged the European Union to stop transferring asylum-seekers to Hungary, criticising the country's new policy of holding men, women and children in containers.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on the EU to temporarily halt the transfer of asylum seekers under a complex EU rule known as the Dublin Regulation. This requires a migrant to apply for asylum in the first country of the bloc that they enter, and to be returned there if necessary.
"The situation for asylum-seekers in Hungary, which was already of deep concern to UNHCR, has only got worse since the new law introducing mandatory detention for asylum-seekers came into effect," said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.
Yokohama, Japan has been chosen as the host for the 23rd World Congress of the International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO). The conference will be attended by approximately 800 measurement technology experts from all over the globe.
Based in Budapest, Hungary, IMEKO is a non-governmental federation of measuring institutions that is focused on the advancement of measurement technology.
With the joint efforts of the city of Yokohama, the Yokohama Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the PACIFICO Yokohama Convention Center in cooperation with the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), the city was able to make a successful bid for the Congress.
In September of 2016, the governing body of IMEKO chose Yokohama over Hangzhou, China as the venue.
The deciding factors were said to be high grades for "the enthusiasm of the local host committee members, the vision of placing importance on the development of young research professionals, the convenience of Yokohama's transportation network, and the close proximity of facilities such as international conference halls, hotels, malls, etc."
Held every three years, Japan has not been the host nation since the Congress was held in Osaka in 1999.
Current IMEKO President-elect and Chairman of the Technical Board, Prof. Masatoshi Ishikawa, Dean of University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, is set to be appointed President from 2018.
The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE) will take on the role of local host.
remaining of
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The length of time that travelers stay in the United Arab Emirates increased using longer layovers and connections between Europe and America with Asian destinations. The figures are partly fueled by the 96-hour visa for any airline traveler in Dubai.
The fastest growing group is now those staying between six to eight nights, according to ForwardKeys which predicts future travel patterns by analyzing 16 million booking transactions a day.
Although short stays one to three nights represented 67% of arrivals during the last 12 months, stays longer than three nights grew more quickly.
Details of the ForwardKeys analysis will be presented at the influential 13th Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) in Dubai April 25 to 27, organized by Bench Global Business Events.
Olivier Jager, CEO, ForwardKeys, said: These findings show significant progress in the UAEs attractiveness as a destination and further potential advancement for the UAE economy.
The ForwardKeys data shows that overall bookings for short stays one to three nights are currently running ahead of last year for April and May while June is lagging behind because of the quieter Ramadan period. Forward bookings from the UK, France and Indonesia remain strong.
The UK, USA, and Kuwait all contributed to the growth of both short-stay and long-stay travelers to the UAE. Chinese arrivals for long-stays boomed when the free-of-charge, visa-on-arrival was introduced for them in November 2016. The Chinese also flocked to the UAE for their New Year 2017.
Looking ahead, bookings for long stays in Dubai are currently more than 28% ahead of last year, driven by European and US travelers planning Easter and Spring holidays. Russians will also be arriving in increasing numbers, not only for the Easter weekend, but also in late April and early May for Spring holiday, Labour Day and Victory Day. Saudi Arabia also contributes to the Easter booking surge possibly due to expats living there taking a break in the UAE.
The death sentence pronounced by Pakistan on alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav is being seen as a calculated reaction by the Army and the ISI in Islamabad which are finding themselves in a spot over the recent disappearance of its retired army officer Lt Col Mohammed Habib in Nepal.
"The predominant attempt is obviously to keep the pot boiling and alongside use it as a pressure tactic with India," said a top home ministry official.
Sources in the Indian intelligence said that Habib's disappearance from a town in Nepal bordering India is being viewed by the Pakistan ISI and Army as a handiwork of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Officials in the security establishment said that Pakistan Army is very protective of its own officers and Habib's disappearance has created a flutter within the Army circles in Islamabad. "They feel the R&AW is behind it. And, (they) can use this as a pressure tactic right now ," said an official. However, Indian agencies have denied any role in his disappearance.
Jadhav had been accused by Pakistani Army of being an R&AW spy who was acting as an agent fuelling separatist movement in Baluchistan to destabilise the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He has also been accused of playing a role in recent terror incidents in Baluchistan as well as Karachi.
Intelligence sleuths decry the death sentence awarded to Jadhav as a clear case of "coerced confession and lies" where the Indian citizen was not even allowed consular access flouting all international and domestic laws.
"Pakistan is a signatory of Geneva Convention which deals with enemy soldiers in their custody," an MoD official said.
The Ministry of Defence, on its part, has termed it a "diplomatic issue" rubbishing all claims that Jadhav was a serving naval officer. Defence sources said he was retired and was working in private capacity before he was abducted and forced to confess his role as a spy.
Hours after the Inter Services Public Relations, media wing of the ISI, came out with a statement that Jadhav had been awarded death sentence by a Pakistani military court on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a demarche to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit. He was summoned and handed over the demarche.
An MEA statement said that "Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly."
It said that the Indian government through its High Commission in Islamabad, has repeatedly sought consular access to him, as provided for by international law. Requests were formally made 13 times between March 25, 2016 and March 31, 2017, but it was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities.
"The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial."
The MEA spokesperson referred to statements made by senior Pakistani officials who have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. "The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances. If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the Government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," it said.
Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested by Pakistan law enforcement agency last year for spying, has been sentenced to death by a Pakistan army court, say media reports quoting Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces. According to early reports, Jadhav was secretly tried by a Pakistan army court and sentenced to death on charges of espionage.
Jadhav was accused by Pakistan of spying for intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). While the Indian government has denied any links with Jadhav, it identifies him as a retired naval officer.
Responding to the death sentence, the Indian government said it was not informed of the trial.
The government believes that the Mumbai-based former Naval officer was abducted from Iran.
However, according to Pakistan media reports, Jadhav was arrested by the country's law enforcement agencies in the first week of March 2016 while "infiltrating into Pakistan from the Saravan border area of Balochistan with Iran". Apparently, he worked under the cover name Hussein Mubarik Patel.
Shortly after the arrest last year, Pakistan had released a video in which Jadhav is seen confessing. However, the video was rejected by India.
He has been accused of planning to sabotage Pakistan ports of Gwadar and Karachi. Jadhav also engaged in activities to destabilise Balochistan, a key province in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Following the PDP request to defer the Anantnag bypoll, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday asked the chief electoral officer of Jammu and Kashmir to hold a meeting with all the political parties to decide upon the postponement. The meeting is scheduled at 3:30 pm today.
Earlier today, the PDP requested the ECI to postpone the Anantnag parliamentary constituency bypoll in the wake of the incidents of violence in the state, which resulted in the death of eight people.
Tasduq Mufti, PDP candidate for Anantnag constituency where the by-election is scheduled for April 12, told reporters that his party has made an appeal to the ECI to postpone the elections.
Eight people were killed in various incidents of violence during the Srinagar Parliamentary constituency bypolls on Sunday, which recorded an abysmally low turnout of about seven per cent.
When asked if he would withdraw his nomination in the wake of the violence in the state, he said he is willing to do so if that would lead to postponement of the by-election.
Ever since Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath assumed power in Uttar Pradesh, he has made it clear that the dons and mafias in the state will have a tough time. Now, they have started feeling the heat of his regime.
The UP administration, in the past couple of weeks, has shifted over 40 dons from their area of influence to remote jails. For instance, don-turned-politician and BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari has been shifted to Banda jail about 300 km from Lucknow, while sharpshooter Munna Bajrangi has been transferred to remote Pilibhit jail from Jaunpur which is 500 km away. Atiq Ahamed, another don-turned-politician, whose area of influence has been Allahabad, has been transferred to Deoria jail about 300 km away.
Yogi's move has, however, drawn stiff opposition from these prisoners. Ansari assailed the move to shift him from Lucknow to Banda and said he has been shifted because a central minister wanted to eliminate him. Atiq Ahamed has filed a petition in Allahabad high court challenging the move of the government to shift him to Deoria jail without obtaining the consent of the court.
According to jail officials, who do not want to be named, these dons are furious over their shifting because the move has diluted the patronage, protection and facilities they enjoy in their home districts or in their area of influence.
Besides shifting their jails, the UP government has asked the Anti-Terrorist Squad and Special Task Force to keep a strict vigil on such criminals.
Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav was on Monday sentenced to death by a Pakistan army court for allegedly spying on Pakistan for India's intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Jadhav was arrested by Pakistan law enforcement agency on March 3, 2016, while "infiltrating into Pakistan from the Saravan border area of Balochistan with Iran", according to Pakistan media. However, the Indian government that has denied any links with the alleged RAW agent, maintained that Jadhav was abducted from Iran.
Jadhav allegedly worked under the cover name Hussein Mubarik Patel.
Based in Mumbai, he joined the National Defence Academy in 1987 and subsequently, joined the Indian Navy in January 1991. He served in the Navy till December 2001 when the Parliament attack occurred. "That is when I started contributing my services towards gathering of information and intelligence within India," he was heard saying in a "confessional" video, released by Pakistan shortly after his arrest last year. To pursue his new mission, Jadhav moved to Chabahar in Iran and established a small business.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, said Jadhav converted to Islam, adopted a false identity and worked at Gadani under the cover of a scrap dealer.
According to early reports, Jadhav was secretly tried by a Pakistan army court and sentenced to death on charges of espionage. He has been accused of planning to sabotage the Pakistan ports of Gwadar and Karachi. Jadhav was also charged with engaging in activities to destabilise Balochistan, a key province in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Here are excerpts from the transcript of the confessional video, released by Pakistani media houses:
"I am still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and will be due for retirement in 2022 as a commissioned officer in the Indian Navy.
I was picked up by RAW in 2013 end. Ever since I have been directing various activities in Balochistan and Karachi at the behest of RAW and deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, I was basically the man for Mr Ani Kumar Gupta who is the joint secretary of RAW and his contacts in Pakistan especially in Balochistan Student Organisation."
My purpose was to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration.
There are finances which are fed into the Baloch movement through various contacts or various ways and means into the Baloch liberation (movement) and various activities of the Baloch liberation and RAW handlers go towards activities which are criminal, which are anti-national, which can lead to maiming or killing of people within Pakistan and mostly these activities were centred around of what I have knowledge is of ports of Gwadar, Pasni Jewani and various other installations, which are around the coast damaging various other installations, which are in Balochistan.
So the activities seemed to be revolving around to create a criminal sort of a mindset within the Baloch liberation and lead to instability within Pakistan.
So in my pursuit towards achieving the set targets by my handler in RAW, I was trying to cross over into Pakistan from the Saravan border in Iran on March 3, 2016, and was apprehended by the Pakistani authorities while on the Pakistani side.
And the main aim of this crossing over into Pakistan was to hold meeting with the BSN personnel in Balochistan for carrying out various activities which they were supposed to undertake and carrying backwards the messages which they had to deliver, backwards to the Indian agencies.
The main issues regarding this were that they were planning to conduct operations in the next immediate future, near future. That was to be discussed mainly.. That was the main aim of trying to come into Pakistan.
The moment that I realised that my intelligence operations have been compromised on my being detained in Pakistan, I revealed that I am an Indian naval officer.
And it is on mentioning that I am an Indian naval officer the total perception of the establishment of the Pakistani side changed and they treated me very honourably and with utmost respect and due regard and handled me subsequently in a more professional, proper courteous way.
They handled me in a way that befits that of an officer.
Once I have realised that I have been compromised in my process of intelligence operations I decided to just end the mess that I have landed myself in. And just wanted to subsequently move on and cooperate with the authorities in removing the complication which I have landed myself and my family members into.
Whatever I am stating just now, it is the truth. It is not under any duress or pressure I am doing it. It is totally out of my own desire to mention and come clean out of this entire process which I have gone through in the last 14 years."
However, India has rejected the video terming it "fabricated".
US Vice President Mike Pence on Erev Shabbos telephoned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and thanked him on behalf of US President Donald Trump for Israels strong support for the American action in Syria. The Vice President also updated the Prime Minister on the details of the action and its results.
Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated the need to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons.
US Vice President Pence and Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasized the strength of the alliance between Israel and the US.
In his response to the heinous Syrian attack involving chemical weapons, PM Netanyahu stated, In both word and action, President Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated. Israel fully supports President Trumps decision and hopes that this message of resolve in the face of the Assad regimes horrific actions will resonate not only in Damascus, but in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere.
President Reuven Rivlin also responded to the attack saying, In the face of the terrible use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians, the clear and determined steps of the US Administration and Military under the leadership of President Trump, constitute a fitting and appropriate response to such unthinkable brutality.
In acting as it has, the United States serves as an example to the entire free world, which must support any step required to bring the atrocities in Syria to an end.
(YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
A volley of U.S. cruise missiles had barely been launched into Syria before the Internet filled up with fact-free theories about the real reason for an international crisis.
A popular one on the right-most fringes: The U.S. government actually carried out the chemical weapons massacre in Syria last week a false flag to trick President Trump into retaliating, thus entangling himself in a foreign war.
A slightly more convoluted strain on the left: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the chemical weapons massacre to help Trump distracting Americans from an investigation into Trumps campaign ties to Russia by provoking the missile strike.
That theory evidence-free was laid out on a small anti-Trump website shortly after the missile strike.
But it went mainstream Friday night, when Lawrence ODonnell advanced similar speculation on his MSNBC show, The Last Word.
Wouldnt it be nice, ODonnell asked a nodding, smiling Rachel Maddow, if it was just completely, totally, absolutely impossible to suspect that Vladimir Putin orchestrated what happened in Syria this week so that his friend in the White House could have a big night with missiles and all the praises hes picked up over the past 24 hours?
The theory was impossible to rule out, ODonnell said, because of the Trump campaigns ties to the Russian government.
A few minutes later, the host elaborated on his theory under banner text: Wag The Dog? recalling a similar conspiracy theory that President Bill Clinton launched missiles in 1998 to distract from his own scandal.
It changes the conventional wisdom about the dynamic between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, ODonnell said. President Trump has finally dared to do something Vladimir Putin doesnt like. It changes everything.
ODonnell didnt offer any evidence on his theory, promising only that you wont hear proof that the scenario Ive just outlined is impossible.
What ODonnell did hear, if he followed the reaction to his show, was derision from across the political spectrum.
The clip spread quickly across right-leaning sites where a writer on Twitchy asked: Honest question: MSNBC is OK with this crap?
The network declined to answer The Washington Posts questions about the segment, which Adam Johnson a writer for the left-leaning magazine the Nation called a great weasel way to float bat s conspiracy theories.
CNN reported Saturday morning that the United States is investigating whether Russia, which has long supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the atrocity-filled civil war, was complicit in the chemical attack in Idlib province last week. A Kremlin spokesman denied it to the network, as has Assads regime.
The attack last week caused civilians and children to choke, foam at the mouth and die in a cloud of poison, possibly sarin.
Trump lamented seeing photos of innocent children, innocent babies killed in the strike, which he said made him reconsider his longtime stance against intervening in Syrias civil war.
Early Friday, Trump ordered dozens of cruise missiles launched at a Syrian military airfield, marking the United States first direct intervention in the six-year-old conflict.
If, as ODonnell theorized on MSNBC, Putin had planned all this to boost Trumps poll numbers, the Russian president didnt show it.
Russia instead retaliated by pulling out of an agreement designed to prevent skirmishes with the United States in the airspace over Syria.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post Avi Selk
Budget negotiators struck a deal late Friday night that will could make New York the largest state to offer tuition-free public higher education to residents.
The $153 billion state budget agreement includes the Excelsior Scholarship, which covers tuition for any New Yorker accepted to one of the states community colleges or four-year universities, provided their family earns less than $125,000 a year.
Proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January, the scholarship taps into one of the Democratic Partys most popular ideas and advances a bipartisan movement to lower the cost of college that is taking shape across the country.
Today, college is what high school was it should always be an option even if you cant afford it, Cuomo said, in a statement Saturday. With this program, every child will have the opportunity that education provides.
The scholarship program will be phased in over three years, beginning for New Yorkers making up to $100,000 annually in the fall of 2017, increasing to $110,000 in 2018, and reaching $125,000 in 2019. Nearly 1 million families will qualify for the scholarship.
It is a last-dollar program, meaning the state would cover any tuition left over after factoring in federal Pell Grants and New Yorks Tuition Assistance Program. Students must be enrolled in college full time and take at least 30 course credits a year, though those facing hardships can pause and restart the program or take fewer credits.
Not much changed from the initial proposal, including the $163 million estimated cost for the first year of the program, though there were some concessions to win over lawmakers. Award recipients attending community college now have to remain in New York for two years after graduation, while those at state universities must stay for four years. Private universities, whose leaders said the plan would undermine their schools, will see an increase in state tuition assistance funding.
The New York General Assembly will vote on the budget Saturday, with the State Senate slated to do the same in the coming days, according to Cuomos office. All told, the budget includes $7.5 billion in support for higher education, a 6.3 percent increase in funding over the prior year.
In-state tuition at community colleges in New York pencils in at $4,350, while tuition at State University of New York schools is $6,470 for residents. The City University of New York schools cost about the same as their state counterparts. Both state and city university systems were granted permission to raise their tuitions by $200 in the budget agreement.
States across the country and across the political spectrum are paying greater attention to college costs as more local employers demand some form of postsecondary education. There are at least 85 initiatives at the municipal and state level aiming to cover the cost of tuition at community colleges, according to the Upjohn Institute. Tennessee, Oregon and Minnesota have free community-college programs, with Tennessees model lauded as a viable path for reducing higher-education costs.
Momentum for debt-free college has been building for years, but Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Hillary Clinton elevated the issue of college affordability with campaign proposals to make public higher education free for the vast majority of American families.
Sanders, who in January helped Cuomo unveil the scholarship at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, introduced legislation in the senate last week to make public colleges and universities tuition-free for families earning less than $125,000 as well. The senator from Vermont said he intends to forge ahead with the plan, while proponents rally behind states to continue the fight.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
Criticized for his low-profile diplomacy, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is emerging from the shadows with a leading public role in shaping and explaining the Trump administrations missile strikes in Syria. And, hes set for an even higher-profile mission, heading to Moscow under the twin clouds of Russias U.S. election meddling and its possible support for a Syrian chemical weapons attack.
Since taking office in February, the former Exxon Mobil CEO has admittedly shunned the spotlight and the press. Yet, Tillerson was surprisingly visible during last weeks announcement of the response to the gruesome chemical attack, fielding questions from reporters on and off camera, and then captured in an official White House photo seated next to President Donald Trump as they heard the result of the 59 cruise missiles that struck a Syrian military base.
Tillerson was a prominent fixture during the most important foreign policy period in Trumps young presidency: a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that coincided with the strikes against Syria. He was by Trumps side during his meetings with Xi and spoke publicly multiple times to address both issues.
It was Tillerson who delivered the Trump administrations first blistering condemnation of Russia in the hours after the strikes. Standing in a cramped conference room alongside national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Tillerson said Moscow had failed to live up to its obligations under a 2013 agreement to strip Syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles. Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has simply been incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement, he said.
On Sunday, he made his first network television interview appearances. In one interview, Tillerson said he sees no reason for retaliation from Russia for the U.S. missile strikes. Russia maintains a close political and military alliance with President Bashar Assads government and has been accused of supporting its attacks against Syrians opposed to Assads rule something Moscow adamantly denies.
Tillerson said on CBS Face the Nation that Russians were not targeted by the strikes. He also said the top U.S. priority in the region hadnt changed and remained the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Then he headed to Europe to gather with the foreign ministers of the other major industrialized nations before venturing on eastward to become the first Trump Cabinet member to visit Moscow and possibly meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The criticism from the foreign policy establishments left and right that has dogged his tenure is dying down.
Tillerson had faced questions about whether he understood that his new position meant he was now the face of the United States to the world, that he had to answer no longer to a small group of top shareholders but to more than 320 million Americans.
The secretary of state must be the spokesman for American foreign policy, said Eliot Cohen, a senior State Department official during George W. Bushs presidency. This is the administrations first crisis but it wont be their last by a long shot, so hes going to have to get used to this.
Joining Trump at the presidents Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Tillerson was supposed to focus on the informal summit with Xi. Instead, he was thrust to the forefront after photos of the bodies piled in heaps in Idlib, Syria, dramatically altered the agenda.
Only a week earlier, Tillerson had alarmed U.S. allies by indicating the U.S. was no longer interested in pushing for Assads removal from power.
In the hours leading up to Trumps decision to order the strikes, Tillerson was among the most forward-leaning of Trumps top aides in suggesting the U.S. would deliver an appropriate response. He challenged Russia publicly in a way Trump appeared scrupulously to avoid and said of Assad early Thursday: It would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people.
After the cruise missiles crashed down in Syria, Tillerson was calm and commanding in a question-and-answer session with journalists.
Cohen, a conservative critic of Trumps foreign policy who has chided Tillerson for his reticence, said he saw Tillerson growing into the job. I suspect youll see more of him as he grows more comfortable in dealing with the press and in his relationship with the president and the administrations national security team, Cohen said.
The challenge will be greater in Russias capital this week. Tillerson is arriving at a fragile point in U.S.-Russia relations, where he will have to confront the Kremlins anger over the missile strikes in Syria along with suspicion at home that Moscow may have been complicit in the Syrian governments chemical weapons attack. Senior U.S. military officials have said they are looking into whether Russia provided drone surveillance and helped Syrian forces try to cover up what theyd done.
Beyond Syria are disputes over Russias 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimea region and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
At the same time, Tillerson carries to Moscow the weight of FBI and congressional investigations into Russias interference in last years presidential election. The Trump campaigns possible ties to the presumed Russian meddlers are also under scrutiny.
This is going to be Tillersons biggest test to date, said Julianne Smith, a National Security Council and Defense Department official under President Barack Obama. Hes been getting poor reviews across the national security establishment, tons of questions about whether he has the intellect, the stamina, the courage to really take this position and fly with it and really soar.
The events of the past several days seem to have stanched such questions, and his increasingly public persona seems to reflect a greater confidence.
When he goes to Russia, keeping a low profile would likely be impossible, even if it were his goal.
(AP)
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times
What? Youre not serious are you? No pot roast? No steak? Not even baked chicken?
Yes, thats our custom. You cant eat anything roasted on Pesach because people might think that its Paschal lamb meat..
Wait, you prepare meat in a pot. The Paschal lamb was roasted over a fire on a wooden spit! They are not the same.
It doesnt matter..
The above conversation has transpired for hundreds of years in Jewish families throughout the world. What is the story with roasted meats on Pesach? It is only forbidden during the first seder or at both sedarim? What about the day meals?
BOILED CHICKEN AND STUFFED CABBAGE
It is because of this that many, many families have stuffed cabbage, boiled chicken or tongue or ribs as the main course at their Pesach Seders.
Tongue is always boiled. The stuffed cabbage is without the rice, of course. Some serve ribs that are baked in a sauce. Ribs are always baked in sauce. These choices are not random. Many Poskim actually advise utilizing these dishes because they are well-known to be cooked rather than baked.
THE SOURCE OF THE PROHIBITION
The Gemorah in Psachim 53a states: In those places where it is the custom to eat roasted meats on Pesach, one does so. In those places where it is the custom not to eat roasted meats on Pesach then it is forbidden.
The reason is that since the Korban Pesach is only eaten roasted and on a spit and without water there were those who were concerned that when one eats roasted meat people would assume it was the Korban Pesach and that they were eating Kodshim outside of the holy places.
They were stringent and forbade the consumption of all meats even meats that would not have been eligible for a Korban Pesach.
When they accepted this stringency upon themselves they did so for all of their descendants. Indeed, it is in regard to such matters that Shlomo haMelech said (Mishlei 1:8), Listen my son to the admonitions of your father and do not abandon the Torah [customs] of your mother.
The prohibition is codified in Shulchan Aruch Orech Chaim (476:1). It applies to all meats as well as to chicken (476:2).
It is also for this reason that many people only eat the roasted shank bone during the daytime rather than at the Pesach seder at night.
ROASTED IN A POT
Nonetheless, there is great debate as to the parameters of the prohibition. The Aruch HaShulchan (OC 476:2) rules that it DOES NOT apply to meat that is roasted in a pot even if there is no water present. There is, of course, a debate in the Gemorah (Psachim 41a) itself between Rebbe and the Chachomim as to whether or not meat roasted in a pot is permitted. The Chachomim write that it is permitted, while Rebbe holds that it is not. Nonetheless, the Aruch haShulchan writes that is only in regard to receiving lashes in preparing the Korban Pesach incorrectly that they argue.
Indeed, the Aruch haShulchan questions why it is that some of the Acharonim are so stringent when the issue only revolves around a minhag and not an actual halacha.
The Mishna Brurah, however, citing numerous acharonim states that even if it is roasted in a pot it is still a violation of our custom and forbidden.
Notwithstanding the Aruch haShulchans point, most Poskim rule in accordance with the Mishna Brurah, unless one has a specific family minhag to rely upon the opinion of the Aruch HaShulchan. As in all matters of halacha, one should check with ones own Rav or Posaik.
DETECTABLE GRAVY
Rav Shmuel Vosner ztl wrote (Shaivet HaLevi Vol. IX #120:1) that even though if one adds water it is not halachically considered roasted the masses of people still call that roasted. He thus recommends that one add an additional amount of liquid to the extent that it be easily seen that there is a gravy to it. It appears that this suggestion would work even according to the Mishna Brurah.
LOGISTICAL DIFFICULTIES
The downside of this suggestion is that, as many chefs know, the best meats are ones that are the softest. That is why some cuts are more expensive than others in that the more expensive cuts come from the parts of the animal where the muscles are not exercised. When meats are cooked with additional water, it usually causes the meat to be tougher.
A WORKAROUND
One workaround to the tough meat problem is to cook the meat on a low flame for a long time. Expert chefs explain that even though one has added outside liquids, this should keep the meat softer. [As in all matters of cooking, one should check with an expert cook or chef.]
WHAT ABOUT FRYING MEAT [or Chicken]?
Believe it or not, meat that is fried is also a debate. The response Pnei Mayvin #123 rules that it is forbidden. He bases himself on the Pri Magadim in the beginning of YD #87 who equates frying with roasting. Others, however, rule that frying is considered like cooking and not like roasting and permit it. [The Pischei Teshuvah and the Darchei Teshuvah #87 both rule that frying is akin to cooking and not roasting.]
WHAT IF THE MEAT WAS FIRST ROASTED THEN COOKED?
The Mishna Brurah rules that if the meat was first roasted and then cooked, it is permitted. The Pri Chodosh and the Kaf HaChaim (276:4), however disagree with this leniency. Yet a third opinion differentiates between whether it was roasted yet still uncooked before the Yom Tov started. If it was not cooked by the beginning of the holiday, the Yam Yissachar forbids consuming it!
DAY MEALS?
The language of the Mishna Brurah is that our custom (among Ashkenazic Jews) is not to have even a pot-roasted meat on both nights of the Seder. Since he does not mention the day meals being a problem it is clearly indicative that he allowed such meat during the day meals. Not so is the opinion of a number of Chassidisha Poskim.
CONCLUSIONS
The customs in Klal Yisroel are, indeed, quite numerous. One of the themes on Pesach is the fact that we have carried these traditions since our exodus from Mitzrrayim. The most important thing to do, therefore, is to follow the minhagim of ones family in this regard. In doing so, may we merit the geulah speedily in our days. Next year in Yerushalayim!
The author can be reached at [email protected]
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used a visit Monday to a World War II memorial to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians, as the Trump administration sought to rally world leaders behind a strategy to resolve the protracted civil war in Syria.
Opening his visit to Italy, Tillerson traveled up a winding mountain road to SantAnna di Stazzema, the Tuscan village where the Nazis massacred more than 500 civilians during World War II. As he laid a wreath at the site, Tillerson alluded to the chemical attack in Syria last week that triggered retaliatory U.S. airstrikes.
We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world, Tillerson said. This place will serve as an inspiration to us all.
Tillersons visit to Europe has been overshadowed from the start by President Donald Trumps decision to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons by launching cruise missiles at a Syrian air base. The U.S. military action has renewed the worlds focus on Assads fate and on Syrias civil war, now in its seventh year.
The top American diplomat plans to use his meetings with foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized economies normally a venue for wonky economic discussions to try to persuade leading countries to support the U.S. plan. The centerpiece of that diplomacy will come Tuesday morning when Tillerson takes part in a meeting of likeminded nations on Syria, including several Arab nations invited to attend.
The Trump administration is hoping that after defeating the Islamic State group in Syria, it can restore stability by securing local cease-fires between Assads government and opposition groups that allow local leaders who have fled to return and by restoring basic services. The next step would be to use U.N. talks to negotiate a political transition that could include Assad leaving power.
From Italy, Tillerson will travel to Moscow, becoming the first Trump administration official to visit Russia. That trip, too, is fraught with tension over Syria: Tillerson has blamed Russia, Assads strongest ally, of either complicity or incompetence for allowing Assad to possess and use chemical weapons.
During his first day in Italy, Tillerson plans to meet Monday with foreign ministers from the U.K. and France before the G-7 summit formally opens.
(AP)
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering Monday for a meeting given urgency by the chemical attack in Syria and the U.S. military response, with participants aiming to pressure Russia to end its support for President Bashar Assad.
Last weeks nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred President Donald Trump to strike for the first time at Assads forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday at the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy that the United States is rededicating itself to hold to account any and all who commit crimes against innocent people.
Tillerson accompanied Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano to SantaAnna di Stazzema, a site of Nazi atrocities where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed during World War II.
Alfano said the massacre site was a reminder that peace is not a given. That is why we are here to work all together for peace and liberty.
Over the weekend, Alfano said that Europes broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a renewed harmony between the United States and its partners ahead of the first meeting of G-7 foreign ministers since Donald Trump took office in January.
We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart, Alfano told Sky TG24 Sunday. I welcome this renewed harmony.
Officials are hoping that this can be leveraged to bring a new diplomatic push to end the 6-year-old civil war in Syria.
The meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca also brings German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, along with other G-7 foreign ministers, at a moment when the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Koreas persistent ballistic missile tests.
The meeting also comes amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the deadly Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.
The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia.
The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.
Russia has plans to put forward a proposal on Monday for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, said a spokesman in Berlin for the German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
The spokesman, Martin Schaefer, said German viewed it as a good and important sign.
Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Britains Johnson, who had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of Mondays G-7 meeting, canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had changed the situation fundamentally.
He said that instead he would work with the United States and other G-7 nations to build coordinated international support for a cease-fire on the ground and an intensified political process.
Tillerson is due to travel to Russia after the G-7 gathering, and Johnson said he will deliver a clear and coordinated message to the Russians.
Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares its allies determination that Assad must be removed from power.
After the chemical attack, Trump said his attitude toward Assad has changed very much and Tillerson said steps are underway to organize a coalition to remove him from power.
In a round of television interviews that aired Sunday, though, Tillerson said the top U.S. priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Alfano was cautious on the question of whether to push Assad out, saying that decision should be up to the Syrians.
I have to say, the Libya experiment did not go well. We are still paying the price, Alfano said, referring to the lawlessness that has ensued since the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the subsequent flow of migrants to Europe via Italy.
(AP)
Israels Foreign Ministry has condemned comments by Frances far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen denying that the French State was responsible for rounding up Jews in World War II.
The ministry says in a statement that her comments are contrary to historical truth, as expressed in the statements of successive French presidents who recognized Frances responsibility for the fate of the French Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
Former president Jacques Chirac formally acknowledged the states role in Jewish persecution in 1995, a position maintained and approved by his successors Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also says Frances recognition of its responsibility underpins the annual events marking the anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from France and the study of the Holocaust in the education system, both of which are important elements in the battle against anti-Semitism, which unfortunately is once again raising its head.
(AP)
The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African nations security forces, according to U.S. officials.
Congress is expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve at the very end of Barack Obamas presidency. The arrangement will call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million, one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak about internal diplomatic conversations.
Though President Donald Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft, the National Security Council is still working on the issue. Military sales to several other countries are also expected to be approved but are caught up in an ongoing White House review. Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.
The Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets at least three times in recent years. In the worst incident, a fighter jet on Jan. 17 repeatedly bombed a camp at Rann, near the border with Cameroon, where civilians had fled from Boko Haram. Between 100 and 236 civilians and aid workers were killed, according to official and community leaders counts.
That bombing occurred on the same day the Obama administration intended to officially notify Congress the sale would go forward. Instead, it was abruptly put on hold, according to an individual who worked on the issue during Obamas presidency. Days later, Trump was inaugurated.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said this past week that he supported the A-29 deal to Nigeria as well as the sale of U.S.-made fighter jets to Bahrain that had been stripped of human rights caveats imposed by the Obama administration.
Under Obama, the U.S. said Bahrain failed to make promised political and human rights reforms after its Sunni-ruled government crushed Arab Spring protests five years ago.
We need to deal with human rights issues, but not on weapons sales, Corker said.
The State Department said in a 2016 report that the Nigerian government has taken few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government.
Amnesty International has accused Nigerias military of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8,000 Boko Haram suspects. President Muhammadu Buhari promised to investigate the alleged abuses after he won office in March 2015, but no soldier has been prosecuted and thousands of people remain in illegal military detention. Nigerias military has denied the allegations.
The A-29 sale would improve the U.S. relationship with Nigeria, Africas largest consumer market of 170 million people, the continents biggest economy and its second-largest oil producer. Nigeria also is strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa where experts warn Islamic extremists like the Nigeria-based Boko Haram may expand their reach.
The aircraft deal also would satisfy Trumps priorities to support nations fighting Islamic uprisings, boost U.S. manufacturing and create high-wage jobs at home. The A-29 aircraft, which allow pilots to pinpoint targets at night, are assembled in Jacksonville, Florida.
Its hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the U.S., said J. Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and head of its Africa Center.
Once Congress is officially notified of the sale, lawmakers who want to derail it have 30 days to pass veto-proof legislation. Thats a high hurdle given Corkers support. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also said he backs the sale.
Weve really got to try to do what we can to contain them, McCain said of Boko Haram.
In Trumps first phone call with Buhari in February, he assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism, according to Buharis office.
A Feb. 15 White House statement that provided a summary of the call said President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigerias fight against Boko Haram.
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in mid-February he was leery of the sale because of the Nigerian militarys impunity. Cardin said this week hes not trying to block the deal.
Ultimately we hope that the sale goes forward, he said. But there is progress that needs to be made in protecting the civilian population.
(AP)
Consumers are being misled by hundreds of websites that show cheap travel deals which turn out to be far more expensive when clicked on, new research warns.
This means holidaymakers are being shown 'bargain' prices on travel websites which often do not exist and many websites are not complying with EU laws on transparency.
The European Consumer Protection Cooperation said 235 websites it looked at would need to change the way they listed travel prices.
Of 352 travel websites reviewed, 235 were told they needed to change their pricing
The CPC looked at 352 price comparison and travel booking websites in total in October 2016.
In 32 per cent of cases the price initially given increased through the booking process as extra elements were added on and in 30 per cent the total price, or the way it was calculated, was not clear.
In 20 per cent of websites, promotional offers were listed on the comparison site which weren't available on the booking page.
Furthermore, one in four websites did not specify that when they said rooms were in short supply with messages stating the deal is 'only available today' it was not made clear that this only applied to that specific website.
In 22 per cent of cases only limited information was given about the provider of the comparison site, with 4 per cent not giving this information at all.
The way users of a website leave reviews was also criticised and 12.3 per cent of the websites looked at presented reviews in an unclear or nontransparent way.
No specific websites were mentioned but the CPC has approached the websites concerned.
'Consumers deserve the same protection online as offline', says Vera Jourova
It has told them they need to make sure they are complying with EU consumer legislation which states that they need to be fully transparent about prices and they need to present offers in a clear way and at an early stage in the booking process.
The area described as the 'least problematic' was the way adverts are displayed on travel websites and just 2.8 per cent were picked up for using misleading adverts.
Vera Jourova, commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality, said: 'The internet provides consumers with plenty of information to prepare, compare and book their holidays.
'However, if the reviews on comparison websites are biased or prices are not transparent, these websites are misleading consumers.
'The companies concerned need to respect the European consumer rules, just like a travel agent would.
'Consumer authorities will now require the websites to solve these issues. Consumers deserve the same protection online as offline.'
The CPC is a network of the consumer authorities of 28 countries (26 EU countries, plus Norway and Iceland).
Every year it looks at a range of different websites to make sure consumer protection laws are being adhered to. These checks, or sweeps as they're known, look at different sectors and in 2015 focussed on the consumer rights directive, in 2015 looked at guarantees on electronic goods and in 2013 looked at travel services.
A top City regulator is under growing pressure to quit amid raging questions over a massive fraud on small businesses.
John Griffith-Jones, 62, chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority, has been accused of a conflict of interest as his investigators probe a possible cover-up at failed bank HBOS.
Staff at the lenders turnaround unit in Reading deliberately destroyed small businesses, spending the proceeds on luxury holidays and sex parties with prostitutes. The scandal cost HBOS 245m, and Lloyds, which now owns it, has set aside 100m to compensate the entrepreneurs whose livelihoods were ruined.
Concern: John Griffith-Jones was senior partner at HBOSs auditor KPMG when the fraud took place
The criminals behind the fraud were jailed in February, and the FCA is now examining who knew what at the bank. But campaigners are deeply concerned by the role of Griffith-Jones, who was senior partner at HBOSs auditor KPMG when the fraud took place.
Accountancy giant KPMG gave HBOS a clean bill of health when the fraud gang was operating from 2003 to 2007. Critics believe this makes it impossible for the FCA to be balanced and his resignation has been demanded by SNP MP George Kerevan, who chairs Parliaments business banking group, and Thames Valley police and crime commissioner Anthony Stansfeld, whose force investigated the case.
And last night, Lord Myners, a former City minister, joined the chorus of concern, warning the scandal exposed the cosy links between big businesses and the organisations meant to hold them to account. It might not be a sensible idea to put, as the chairman of the FCA, someone whos essentially an insider, he said.
KPMG has audited a string of scandal-hit businesses, including the Co-op Bank, which nearly collapsed after a 2013 accounting scandal. Griffith-Jones was made KPMGs joint European chairman in 2007. He left in 2012.
An FCA spokesman said: John Griffith-Jones was not involved in the auditing of, nor had any role in the wider relationship with, HBOS while a partner at KPMG. While chairman of the FCA, John recused himself from the report into the failure of HBOS and he has no role in the enforcement investigations into HBOS.
Tesco's offer of compensation to investors who claim they lost out in its 326million accounting scandal is just a 'drop in the ocean', according to lawyers.
Southwark Crown Court yesterday approved a 129million fine imposed by the Serious Fraud Office, under a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), following an investigation into a black hole in its accounts in 2014.
But while the SFO's probe into the company has ended, Tesco still faces a civil lawsuit for hundreds of millions of pounds from investors.
Accounting scandal: Tesco has been fined 129m and will also pay 85m to thousands of shareholders who were misled about the company's profits
The supermarket will pay 85m to thousands of shareholders who were misled about the company's profits. But this covers only those investors who bought Tesco shares in 2014 between August 29 and September 19.
Lawyers acting for shareholders say the over-statements in Tesco's accounts stretched over a much longer period which Tesco has admitted.
They want Tesco to address the wider period of admitted overstatement in the civil proceedings. Sean Upson, a partner at Stewarts Law, is leading a case involving 117 investors who want 170million in compensation from the grocer.
'The compensation being offered is a drop in the ocean,' sad Upson.
'One of our claims is for 3million, but the investor only stands to receive 10,000 from this payout. Most people are just getting peanuts.'
The deal reached between Tesco and the SFO enables the firm to avoid a criminal conviction provided it meets certain conditions and pays the fine.
But the DPA relates only the potential criminal liability of subsidiary Tesco Stores Limited and does not address whether Tesco PLC or any employees of the companies are liable.
Separately, three former Tesco executives face charges of fraud, which they deny, at a trial to be held later this year.
Tesco declined to comment.
MBABANE Former Channel Swazi News anchor, who is also erstwhile Communications Officer at SWANNEPHA Khanyakwezwe Dlamini, has been arrested in Mozambique.
Dlamini was arrested in Maputo last Monday, allegedly for being involved in a syndicate that allegedly cleans counterfeit money.
SWANNEPHA is an acronym for Swaziland National Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS. Dlamini appeared in court last Thursday, but was not granted bail as he was sent back to jail. He is currently a guest at the Maputo Central Prison (Machava).
According to highly placed sources and submissions made in court by the police, Dlamini allegedly used to travel to Mozambique with an unknown amount of counterfeit notes, which were mostly in South African Rands and sometimes Dollars.
He allegedly worked with a crew whom he would give the fake notes to and they in turn would somehow change the money into Metical, which is the Mozambican currency, said a source close to the matter.
It was alleged that after Dlaminis agents had been able to clean the money into Metical, they would then call him and tell him that the deed was done and he would travel from Swaziland to Mozambique to collect it. He would allegedly then go to legitimate outlets and ask to change the money into Rands or Dollars as he was travelling back to Swaziland where he would not be able to use the Mozambican currency, said the source. Leading to his arrest, the Mozambican police are said to have gotten hold of one of the people Dlamini allegedly dealt with.
The individual who was caught was told by the police to call the suspect and tell him that his money was ready.
He allegedly called him last week Sunday and they agreed to meet at one of their usual meeting spots on Monday, which was when the police pounced on him, alleged the source.
Dlamini has as a result remained in jail and on Thursday, after the short hearing, he was sent back to custody after the police told the courts that they were still looking for more people that he might have worked with.
The Swazi High Commissioners office in Maputo was contacted and informed about Dlaminis incarceration.
When called for comment, Swazi Consul to Mozambique Sigayoyo Magongo confirmed that the matter had been reported to them. He said they had also contacted his family in Swaziland and some of the officials were making plans to go and see him in prison.
The suspect was once a news- reader at Channel Swazi TV station where he also hosted a talk show.
LAVUMISA A police officer apparently hanged himself because he was unable to absorb the pressure to score well in his confirmation examination at the Matsapha Police College.
The examination refers to an assessment which newly-recruited police officers must pass in order to be confirmed as police officers. However, one is not dismissed from the service simply because they have failed the examination. Instead, those who fail to make it are given another opportunity to sit for the examination, according to the police.
The exam usually lasts two days and is generally comprised of a set of two papers.
Information gathered was that the suicide victim had already sat for the first instalment of the examination, and that he was due to write the last part on the following day when he decided to take his own life.
The 30-year-old police constable who was among the group of police recruits who took part in a pass-out parade recently, probably died on Thursday after hanging himself using a rope.
He was on Friday found hanging from a tree situated not far from the police camp at the Lavumisa Police Station where he had been deployed after leaving college.
Information gathered at the police station was that the officer had never talked about his suicidal thoughts to any of his colleagues, nor his superiors.
Even though his intent was not clear, most officers at the police station believe the deceased was a bit apprehensive about the outcome of the confirmation examination that he had written with other colleagues earlier on during the day.
What raised suspicion was that the officer simply disappeared from the police camp soon after they sat for the assessment.
Reports are that on the day he disappeared, he told his roommate that he was going to prepare for the last instalment of the examination but he never came back to the house to sleep that night.
Witnesses said he just went off on his own without being clear about where he was going to study in preparation for the exam. Officers began to suspect something was amiss when he didnt make the trip to the final paper. Moreover, when his colleagues returned from writing the exam on Friday afternoon, the officers whereabouts still could not be ascertained.
A search party was then commissioned and it took the officers a while to locate the mans whereabouts. His body was found dangling from a tree near the police camp.
Witnesses disclosed that there was no sign of life from the officer, and no sign of struggle or foul play when the body was eventually discovered.
MBABANE No matter how dedicated government can be in rooting out ghost employees in the public service, it cannot enumerate soldiers.
This is because the work of soldiers is a security issue and all information about them is not for public consumption. This transpired in the Public Service Payroll and Skills Audit where it was highlighted that the consultants struggled to enumerate and verify the payroll for the armed forces.
It is reflected in the report that 5 312 members from the Ministry of Defence, who include His Majestys Defence Forces, were not enumerated due to delays in securing the necessary authorisation from key stakeholders.
One of the recommendations in the report is that relevant authorisation had to be sought by the Ministry of Public Service in order for the uniformed members from the Ministry of Defence to be enumerated. Civilians working within the Ministry of Defence should be enumerated together with the members who were not enumerated during the audit, the report stated.
In an interview with the Ministry of Defence Principal Secretary (PS) Andreas Mathabela, he mentioned that it was actually an insult to demand information on the operations of soldiers.
The Ministry of Defence was enumerated including the PS and other staff members. But with soldiers it was not allowed and this is for security reasons. You are not even allowed to know how many soldiers were trained and for what. At the army, we know we are the people who are there and we do want anyone to do an audit on the soldiers, said Mathabela.
He mentioned that government was not privy to information on the courses that soldiers had to undergo in order for them to join the different ranks in the army. Mathabela was responding to a question if the non enumeration of soldiers was not going to promote corruption and lead to ghost employees.
He mentioned that government was informed that it did not have a right to enumerate soldiers. If someone wants to check on information on soldiers I will call that some sort of betrayal to the countrys security. The soldiers information on the payroll plus qualifications is no bounds because you do not even know their syllabus, Mathabela said.
It has since transpired that prior to government making a call on radio (media), over 4 000 civil servants had not be accounted for.
This is the question that remains unanswered following the findings of the Public Service Payroll and Skills Audit Report June 2015, where it has been discovered that out of 37 075 members of the public service who were on the payroll on February 2014, about 4 510 were not enumerated as there was no information available on the payroll and skills audit database about their whereabouts.
MBABANE Instead of being showered with gifts on his wedding day, a groom had a bucket full of human waste poured on him.
Peter Mavuso (27) and Cleo Mkhwanazi (21), who attend one of the churches in Mbabane, had their big day ruined even before they were officially united by their pastor.
The contents of the bucket were emptied on the grooms head allegedly by his enraged former girlfriend. This happened yesterday during a church service, which was aligned with the wedding held at a school where the church normally conducts its services.
The suspect, estimated to be only 18 years of age, caused the nasty scene with the help of her two friends.
The trio went to the church as part of the congregation, all clad in black clothes. Just when the couple was called up to the front for the start of their wedding ceremony, *Noma stood up from her seat and poured the contents of the five-litre container on the grooms head in full view of the congregation.
It is unknown where she obtained the contents from.
According to the grooms mother, Thandi Mavuso, her son was seated between her and his father Bongani Mavuso when the unfortunate incident happened. The parents also found themselves being soaked in excreta.
While conducting the deed, Noma is alleged to have said, You deserve this, before taking off. When the grooms mother asked why she did this, Nomas two friends responded with unpalatable words which cannot be published due to their sensitivity.
This left those present during the church service, which is held in a classroom, in shock. They were also forced to vacate their house of prayer.
On the bright side, this misfortune did not stop the couple from proceeding with the wedding.
After the troublesome trio had left the scene, the grooms relatives washed his clothes and clean clothes were fetched from his rented house in Corporation. The marriage officer, only identified as Pastor Dlamini, proceeded with uniting the couple.
Weddings are associated with blessings but the presence of human waste in such a gathering begs the question of whether the union of the bride and groom will be harmonious or not.
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By Mark Hallum
A Douglas Manor home has hit the market with a $3.2 million price-tag, but this house is more than just waterfront property.
The 18th century Dutch Colonial at 37-04 Douglaston Parkway first belonged to Cornelius Van Wyck and was designated an historic site by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966. According to multinational real estate, jewelry and art brokerage Sothebys, it is the largest waterfront property in the historic district of Douglas Manor.
The commission said the house was built around 1735 by an unknown architect. Van Wyck was the son of a Dutch immigrant who came to New York in 1660. Cornelius eventually passed the home down to his son, Stephen, who added to the structure and served as a delegate in the Continental Congress. The home remained in the family until 1819 when it was sold to Wynant Van Zandt, who added 120 acres to the property as a well as an area in the north of the property known as The Point.
Van Zandt was a wealthy merchant from the city who began the transformation of the area from working farms to country estates around the year he purchased the land, according to The Douglaston and Little Neck Historical Society.
The Douglas family acquired the property in 1835.
Realtor Nina Kowalsky said the home has belonged to the same family for about 100 years and has not been on the market.
The integrity of the house has been kept up, Kowalsky said, listing items such as flooring, structural support and brick work in the backyard as original. It needs some updating for someone who wants more of an up-to-date look, but it has to follow the rules and regulations of the LPC, because this is a very special home in Douglas Manor.
The LPC describes the house with hand-hewn shingles on its salt-box type roof. The house faces Little Neck bay.
The sections of the house original to Cornelius Van Wycks time of ownership are the dining room, master bedroom and the living hall. The kitchen is an addition from the 1930s. The Georgian mantlepieces in the livingroom have been preserved.
At 3,876 square feet, overall, the house includes four bedrooms, and an equal number of bathrooms. There are six fireplaces.
The property is now down to about .65 acres of land, compared to the 120 added by Van Zandt.
The LPC at the time of designation deemed the Van Wyck house to be an outstanding example of an early 18th century Dutch Colonial house that is notable for its interesting details of the Dutch period, and it makes a significant contribution to the legacy of early Colonial craftsmanship and that, situated in an attractive setting, it is one of the very few Dutch Colonial houses remaining in New York City.
New York
Travelers stuck in endless delays at New York City's cramped and congested LaGuardia Airport can feel like prisoners. Now there's a plan to liberate them by closing the city's most notorious jail.
A commission that helped persuade city officials to eventually close New York's violent jail complex on Rikers Island said the 400 acres could be redeveloped as a new runway and terminal extension for LaGuardia. The island sits just off one of the runways at LaGuardia, which is squeezed onto a narrow strip of land at the edge of Flushing Bay.
That idea is being met positively by some who say it would help improve air service and increase capacity at an aging airport that is among the most ridiculed in America.
Last year it had by far the highest rate of late-arriving flights among the nation's big airports. And then-Vice President Joe Biden highlighted its wear and grime in 2014 when he quipped that a visitor who didn't know better would think he had arrived in a Third World country.
"This for us, we think, would be a dream come true," said Joseph Sitt, a real estate developer and chairman of the Global Gateway Alliance, a group that advocates for improvements to the region's airport system.
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When a train jumped the tracks this past week at New York's Penn Station, the seemingly minor accident led to a cascade of exasperating delays for hundreds of thousands of commuters.
When a flood forced authorities to condemn a one-lane, century-old bridge in rural Ozark, Mo., it was no less frustrating for the residents and business owners cut off from their shortest route into town.
The two episodes highlight a reality about the U.S. transportation system it is aging, congested and so vital that when things go wrong, big and costly disruptions can result for which there is no quick fix.
Though President Donald Trump has promised a $1 trillion infrastructure-rebuilding program, not all of that may go toward transportation. Even then, it would fall well short of the many trillions needed to fix the country's web of roads, bridges, railways, subways and bus stations.
The commuter train in New York derailed because of a weakened railroad tie. No one was seriously injured. But the incident shut down eight of the station's 21 tracks, disrupting Amtrak service in the Northeast from Boston to Washington, as well as delaying commuter trains in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for the better part of a week.
Business meetings were canceled, ballgames, dinners and doctor's appointments missed, and commuters fumed.
Lawyer Dominic Boone, who travels into New York from New Jersey, complained that because he arrived late to the office and had to leave early to catch a different train, he lost 10 hours of work for which he could have billed clients.
"They should have been working on Penn Station forever ago," Boone said. "As a nation, we should be spending more on our crumbling infrastructure."
The disruption was only a brief example of the frustration travelers could face if the region can't find a way to replace a pair of deteriorating, overcrowded, century-old rail tunnels that run under the Hudson River and connect New York and New Jersey.
Daniel Morley
MALTA For a second time, a Ballston Spa man has allegedly violated an order of protection, which has led to his arrest on a felony charge, Saratoga County Sheriff's Office said.
Craig M. Guilfoyle, 31, of 72 Ballston Avenue, was arrested at 11:34 a.m. April 5 and charged with criminal contempt in the first degree after he appeared at the protected person's home, deputies said. He also allegedly telephoned the protected person, which is also a violation of the order, deputies said.
As the Miami Herald would observe, Saturday's notice recalling an untold quantity of organic salad from Walmart stores across the southeastern United States "tiptoes around the batness" of the situation.
The very, very disgusting batness of it all.
Fresh Express' recall notice says only that, despite "a range of stringent controls ... in place during growing and harvesting," some "extraneous animal matter" found its way into a single five-ounce container of Organic Marketside Spring Mix, somewhere on the continent.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the other hand, will tell you possibly more than you wanted to know.
"Two people in Florida reported eating some of the salad before the bat was found," reads the agency's notice of an investigation of the incident.
The dead bat was turned over to the federal government.
"The deteriorated condition of the bat did not allow for CDC to definitively rule out whether this bat had rabies."
That sounds bad, though the CDC offers reassurance that the chance of a live rabies virus making its way into the salad is very small.
And the two people who ate the salad appear healthy.
"Immediately upon notification of the event, Fresh Express food safety and rapid response teams worked in close coordination with Walmart and regulatory authorities to launch an intensive investigation," a spokesperson for the company, which is owned by Chiquita of bananas fame, wrote in a statement to The Washington Post.
"Based on all available evidence, we are confident this is an isolated incident."
Fresh Express, like many food makers in the age of mass distribution, has issued a handful of recalls before. But those contamination scares - salmonella, almond allergens, errant packages of Parmesan cheese - did not resemble whatever horror greeted the salad eaters in Florida.
Not that a little dead bat is the most dangerous thing you can find in a meal. A minimal chance of rabies in two people who seem fine pales in comparison to a batch of Listeria-tainted Blue Bell ice cream that sickened people in four states.
And a cucumber contamination in 2015 killed two people and sickened hundreds.
A Walmart spokesperson didn't say in which store the bat was found, but said that as soon as the company learned of the incident, it told all stores selling salad from that batch to pull it off the shelves.
There are no signs that the incident will lead to anything like the public relations crisis that Chipotle faced in 2015, when 80 college students fell ill after visiting a single restaurant.
Or Taco Bell's E. coli-based financial catastrophe a decade ago.
Or Jack in the Box before that.
A decomposed bat is not even necessarily the grossest extraneous matter you can find in your dinner.
NPR has an entire compendium of reports about fingers found in fast food.
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Albany
It came a week after the April 1 deadline but the Senate on Sunday passed the 2017-18 budget, closing the book on an unusually long and at times bitterly fought process.
The Assembly passed the final budget bill on Saturday, almost a day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo said they had reached a deal on the $153 billion spending plan. The plan grows to $163 billion, counting federal dollars for ongoing repairs following Superstorm Sandy and for Obamacare.
A day and half later, senators, who had left town during a brief impasse on Wednesday, made their way back to approve the plan as well.
"It was the hardest budget that we've done during my administration but it's also the best budget that we've done," Cuomo said earlier Sunday in a radio interview.
He also downplayed the week's delay: "Normally, in the old days when a budget was late, it was late months and months. So seven days isn't good and you want to be on time, but it's not the worst thing in the world.''
Republicans, who control the Senate along with the eight-member Independent Democratic Conference, offered both praise and criticism of the budget.
"With much reservation I vote Aye," Republican Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco said, explaining that he believed too many policy items had been inserted into the spending plan.
He called for a constitutional amendment to prevent such moves in the future.
Other Republicans praised certain parts of the budget, such as the free SUNY and CUNY tuition for students whose families earn under $125,000.
"Each and every member here should take great pride in knowing that college affordability is very important to this chamber," said Long Island Republican Kenneth LaValle.
Mainline Democrats, who were boxed out of serious budget talks, offered extensive criticism of the bill.
They spent nearly two hours blasting omissions such as a lack of ethics reform and a DREAM Act which would have given state aid to college students who may not be legal residents.
"I call it the big abominable," Bronx Democrat Gustavo Rivera said of the revenue bill, also known colloquially as the Big Ugly.
Cuomo also caught some criticism.
"I know that he forgot to acknowledge one of the leaders of this house," Brooklyn Democrat Velmanette Montgomery said, referring to Cuomo's initial release which thanked legislative leaders of the Senate Republicans, Assembly Democrats and IDC but not the mainline Democrat leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
"She's not invisible," Montgomery said.
Republicans curtly reminded mainline Democrats that they were in the minority.
"This was a three-way agreed-upon budget," GOP finance chairwoman Cathy Young of Olean said, responding to a question by Manhattan Democrat Brad Hoylman.
The budget talks took place between Cuomo, GOP Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Democratic Majority Speaker Carl Heastie.
Also participating was IDC Leader Jeff Klein, who said his group would have withheld support for the entire budget if the Raise the Age measure wasn't included.
Despite that, mainline Democrats didn't mention the IDC, but instead repeatedly credited Heastie with pushing Raise the Age. It was unusual given the figurative silos that the Senate and Assembly generally operate in.
Final vote on the revenue bill, which contained the policy initiatives, was 53-4. Mainline Democrats Martin Dilan, Daniel Squadron, Brad Hoylman and Rivera voted against the plan.
Republican senators Phil Boyle, Rob Ortt and Tom Croci were absent on Sunday.
Boyle was on a trip to Israel and Croci was said to be on Naval reserve duty. It wasn't clear where Ortt was. He is facing felony charges that he helped rig a no-show job for his wife.
On the Democratic side, George Latimer also was out as was Liz Krueger who had a family emergency.
By passing the measure at the end of the weekend, the Senate salvaged what was scheduled as a two-week recess for Passover and Easter. Lawmakers are set to return to the Capitol on April 24.
Mindful of the back-and-forth difficulties, including fights over credit for legislation that was passed, Flanagan tried to strike a conciliatory tone. "We don't agree on a lot of things but that's fine. That's part of the process,'' he said.
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Stockholm
Swedes questioned their country's welcoming immigration policies with pride and pain on Sunday after learning that an asylum-seeker from Uzbekistan was allegedly behind the truck rampage that killed four people, Stockholm's deadliest extremist attack in years.
The Swedish capital was slowly, but resolutely, regaining its normal rhythm as details about the 39-year-old suspect in the attack emerged. Police said he had been ordered to leave Sweden in December because his request for a residence permit was rejected six months earlier.
Instead, he allegedly went underground, eluding authorities' attempts to track down and deport him until a hijacked beer truck raced down a pedestrian street and rammed into an upscale department store on Friday.
"It makes me frustrated," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Swedish news agency TT on Sunday.
The suspect, who has been detained on suspicion of terrorist offenses, was known for having "been sympathetic to extremist organizations," Jonas Hysing of Sweden's national police said.
A second person was arrested on the same potential charge Sunday, and four others were being held by police. None of them have been identified.
Security officials in neighboring Norway, where a 17-year-old asylum-seeker from Russia was detained early Sunday in connection with an explosive device found near a busy subway station, spoke of the alarming potential for a copycat effect.
Norwegian's security agency said it wasn't clear if the teen planned to carry out an attack with the primitive homemade device police defused without any injuries. Agency head Benedicte Bjornland said it was likely the youth had been inspired by recent attacks in Stockholm, France, Germany, Britain and Russia.
"The attacks demonstrate how easy such attacks can be carried out, and prove to others that it is possible to make something similar," Bjornland said.
Washington
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is taking a hard line against Russia on the eve of his first diplomatic trip to Moscow, calling the country "incompetent" for allowing Syria to hold on to chemical weapons and accusing Russia of trying to influence elections in Europe using the same methods it employed in the United States.
Tillerson's comments, made in interviews aired Sunday, were far more critical of the Russian government than any public statements by President Donald Trump, who has been an increasingly lonely voice for better ties with Russia. They seemed to reflect Tillerson's expectation, which he has expressed privately to aides and members of Congress, that the U.S. relationship with Russia is already reverting to the norm: one of friction, distrust and mutual efforts to undermine each other's reach.
"This was inevitable," said Philip H. Gordon, a former Middle East coordinator at the National Security Council who is now at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Trump's early let's-be-friends initiative was incompatible with our interests, and you knew it would end with tears." The Russians' behavior has not changed, Gordon added, and they "are using every means they can cyber, economic arrangements, intimidation to reinsert themselves around the Middle East and Europe."
Tillerson made it clear that he agreed with that view, sweeping past Trump's repeated insistence, despite the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, that there was no evidence of Russian interference in last year's election. The meddling "undermines any hope of improving relations," Tillerson said on ABC's "This Week," "not just with the United States, but it's pretty evident that they're taking similar tactics into electoral processes throughout Europe."
Such tough talk will make Tillerson's job even more difficult when he arrives Tuesday for the first visit to Moscow by a top Trump administration official. While he must offer sharp warnings to Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, and to President Vladimir Putin, if they meet it was unclear whether such a meeting had been quietly arranged he must also find a way forward with them in countering the Islamic State and then dealing with the Syrian president, Bashar Assad.
Yet as Tillerson arrived in Italy to meet with foreign ministers before going to Moscow, the administration was sending conflicting signals about U.S. policy on Syria and the extent to which it would hold its patron Russia responsible for continued violence.
Tillerson and the new national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," said that the U.S. attack last week on a Syrian air base was intended solely to halt future chemical attacks and not to destabilize or overthrow the Assad government.
"What's significant about the strike is not that it was meant to take out the Syrian regime's capacity or ability to commit mass murder of its own people," said McMaster, who was new to the Sunday show circuit, "but it was to be a very strong signal to Assad and his sponsors that the United States cannot stand idly by as he is murdering innocent civilians."
Neither man would commit to further military action in Syria even if Assad continued to kill civilians in large numbers by conventional means rather than with the chemical weapons that prompted Trump to reverse his stance on intervention. Instead, Tillerson said that defeating the Islamic State remained the first priority. Only then, he said, would he turn to a cease-fire process leading to elections, so that "the Syrian people can decide the fate of Assad."
But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, suggested that such a process was doomed as long as Assad was in power. "We know there's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime," she said on CNN. "If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it's going to be hard to see a government that's peaceful and stable with Assad."
That statement stood in contrast not only to Tillerson's comments but also to her own remarks a week ago before Assad carried out his latest chemical weapons attack on civilians in which she insisted that his departure from office was not a diplomatic priority for the United States.
The Trump administration's Syria policy has been difficult to parse. Tillerson, in his first television appearances since taking office, seemed to describe two different strategic objectives: halting chemical attacks and ultimately negotiating a cease-fire. But he made it clear that he had no intention of backing a military intervention that would overthrow Assad. That suggested that as long as the dictator used conventional means to kill his own people barrel bombs instead of sarin gas the United States would keep its distance.
"I think what the United States and our allies want to do is to enable the Syrian people to make that determination" about Assad's fate, Tillerson said on CBS' "Face the Nation" a line that was used often by his predecessor in the Obama administration, John Kerry. "You know, we've seen what violent regime change looks like in Libya and the kind of chaos that can be unleashed."
Albany
The state has blocked a planned half-billion dollar natural gas pipeline in its western region that aimed to supply parts of the state and the Midwest, as well as export gas to Canada and overseas from the fracking fields of Pennsylvania.
On Friday, the state Department of Environmental Conservation rejected a key permit for the 97-mile Northern Access pipeline, saying the project risked damage to creeks, trout streams and wetlands. The pipeline would deliver gas from McKean County, Pa., north into New York through Allegany, Cattaraugus and Erie Counties, to about 20 miles east of Buffalo.
From there, gas could be shipped in existing pipelines to customers in New York, the Midwest, and into Canada, where natural gas export facilities are being proposed from a potential facility in Nova Scotia.
After nearly three years of study and more than 5,700 public comments, DEC rejected a required water quality permit for Northern Access "due to the project's failure to avoid adverse impacts to wetlands, streams, and fish and other wildlife habitat. We are confident that this decision supports our state's strict water quality standards that all New Yorkers depend on," according to a DEC statement. The pipeline would cross 192 streams and more than 73 acres of state and federally protected wetlands.
Northern Access is the third proposed natural gas pipeline project to stall in New York in a year. In April 2016, backers of the Northeast Energy Direct gas pipeline project, which would have passed through southern Albany and Rensselaer counties to bring fracked gas from northern Pennsylvania to metropolitan Boston, withdrew the 188-mile project citing a lack of potential customers.
The week after that, DEC denied a water quality permit for the 120-mile Constitution pipeline, which would cross 250 creeks and streams in the Southern Tier to deliver gas from Pennsylvania to Schoharie County, where other existing pipelines connect to the northeast and Canada. Developers are suing in federal court to challenge the state denial.
On Monday, developers of the Northern Access project, National Fuel Gas Supply Corp., of Williamsville, Erie County, and Empire Pipeline Inc., pushed back against the denial.
Pipeline construction would "certainly have less effect than either exploding an entire bridge structure and dropping it into Cattaraugus Creek (Route 219) or developing and continuously operating a massive construction zone in the middle of the Hudson River for the Tappan Zee Bridge for a minimum of five years, both New York state-approved projects," said National Fuel Gas President and CEO Ronald J. Tanski.
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"What is perhaps the most troubling aspect of this decision is that DEC waited literally until the 11th hour to issue this denial," he said. "It attempts to set a new standard that cannot possibly be met by any infrastructure project in the state that crosses streams or wetlands, whether it is a road, bridge, water, or an energy infrastructure project."
Anti-pipeline activists welcomed the state's denial. "The DEC denial letter persuasively details why this project would be devastating to our environment," said Albany resident Diana Wright, of the grassroots group People of Albany United for Safe Energy. "In addition to the importance of protecting our valuable natural resources, if we are to halt global climate change, we must not build any more fossil fuel infrastructure, which will lock us into dirty energy for the next four to five decades, and immediately move to sustainable energy sources."
Another PAUSE member, Susan Weber, added, "We think most of these pipelines, if not all, are about shipping the gas overseas, where the price is much higher. In January, the U.S. lifted the ban on shipping U.S. gas and oil overseas. So much for making the U.S. energy-independent."
bnearing@timesunion.com 518-454-5094 @Bnearing10
THE GOOD:
The state budget features commendable legal, economic and social justice measures.
THE UGLY:
So why couldn't leaders make any progress on cleaning up corruption?
More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion See More Collapse
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Call it a legal contradiction in the new state budget: Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature did much to improve justice, but not a thing about the corruption that has plagued state government.
The justice part of it covers a wide range, from the criminal to the socioeconomic. Notably, the governor and lawmakers agreed that New York will more fully honor the state's obligation to provide lawyers for indigent defendants. While not picking up the full load from counties, the state will pay new costs of meeting higher standards to come from the Office of Indigent Legal Services including a promise that defendants will have a lawyer from their very first court appearance, and that public defenders have reasonable limits on their case loads and adequate resources.
New York is also finally raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18, rather than automatically treating 16- and 17-year-old defendants as adults. It was no small matter to overcome fear-mongering tropes and recognize that a humane, enlightened approach isn't incompatible with a safe society.
The state will also require videotaping of more police interrogations, to address concerns about false or coerced confessions.
There's some justice, too, in a public education system that will help more low and moderate income students go to college under a plan for free tuition at public institutions and expanded Tuition Assistance Program grants for students who go to private schools. It's really a loan forgiveness program, with a fair condition that graduates stay in New York for at least as many years as they received tuition help.
The state is also increasing Foundation Aid, which prioritizes needier school districts. The extra $700 million, though, is a far cry from the $4.3 billion that's been held back from schools, despite a promise by the state years ago; it's even distant from the Board of Regents' recommendation for a $1.47 billion hike. But it's a step toward more just school funding.
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The governor and lawmakers, though, were still unable to take so much as a baby step to address the scandals that have roiled state government the last several years.
Campaign finance reform, to address the underlying cause of the convictions of the Legislature's last top two leaders the corrupting influence of big money in politics?
Contracting reform, to make it harder to engage in the kind of behind-the-scenes behavior that's detailed in the indictments of several close associates of the governor and SUNY Poly's former president?
Voting reform, to remove some of the obstacles that depress turnout in New York, and that protect incumbents and preserve the influence of the major parties?
Nope.
For all the good this budget does, it's conspicuous for what it doesn't accomplish. New York shouldn't have to choose between a more just society and a more honest government. There are nearly two months left in the session. Time enough to get both done.
One of Ireland's premier artists, renowned for his portrayals of the equestrian world, has made a generous donation to the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation.
Cashel based artist Peter Curling is one of eleven Co. Tipperary artists to donate an original, miniature art piece to 'Incognito', an art sale for the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation, to go on sale for 50 each in The Solomon Gallery (April 21st to 25th), giving buyers a chance to purchase a valuable piece worth thousands from a well known name.
Hugo Jellett CEO of the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation, Margaret Naughton Jack & Jill liaison nurse for Tipperary and Cathy Keighery Jack & Jills liaison nurse for Galway attended the launch of Incognito, the new arts fundraiser which offers 1,500 original, miniature art pieces, donated to the charity by over 1000 artists from around the country and overseas.
People can view the Incognito collection online at www.incognito.ie and www.jackandjill.ie but, as the name Incognito suggests, the artists identity is kept top secret and wont be revealed until after the sale, giving buyers a chance to purchase a valuable piece from a well-known name like Peter Curling for just 50.
It is hoped that Incognito will raise 75,000 for Jack & Jill to fund home nursing care for the 300 children under Jack & Jills wing today, children with severe development delay as a result of brain damage, children who may never paint a picture themselves; precious children who do better at home, where they are well cared for by their parents with critical support from Jack & Jill nurses.
Born in Waterford in Ireland in 1955, Peter Curling's family moved to England in 1963, where he received his education. Mr Curling has achieved international renown for his eloquent and flowing portrayals of the racing world, and his work has been exhibited at a number of prestigious venues all over the world.
Peter Curling's limited edition print of Istabraq winning the 1998 Cheltenham Champion Hurdle raised 100,000 for The John Durkan Leukaemia Trust Fund.
The population of County Tipperary now stands at about 160,000 people, and the Premier County has the smallest percentage of 'non-Catholics' in Ireland, according to the latest 2016 census results.
The Central Statistics Office published preliminary findings on Thursday, from Census 2016, and they make for some interesting reading regarding the Premier County.
While the population of Ireland overall stands at 4,761,865 in April 2016, an increase of 173,613 (3.8%) since April 2011, the population of County Tipperary is now 159,553, an increase of 0.5% over the five years.
Tipperarys population in April 2016 was comprised of 79,668 males and 79,885 females. There were 53,009 more females than males in the State in April 2016, giving an overall sex ratio of 97.8 males for every 100 females, a slight decline on the 2011 ratio of 98.1.
The average age of Tipperarys population in April 2016 was 38.6 years, compared to 37.4 years in April 2011. Nationally, the average age of the population was 37.4, up from 36.1 in April 2011. The number of males aged 65 and overall increased by 22% to 296,837, while the number of females aged 65 and over increased by 16.7% to 340,730.
Some 8,013 people were divorced/separated in Tipperary, a rate of 5.0%, compared to the national rate of 4.7%. The number of divorced people in Ireland has increased to 103,895 (18%) since 2011.The number of separated people increased slightly to 118,178 (from 116,194 in 2011).
Meanwhile, 65,391 people in Tipperary stated that they could speak Irish, compared to 67,338 in April 2011. Within this figure, 1,450 spoke Irish daily outside the education system, while 3,723 spoke Irish weekly outside the education system. Nationally, 1,761,420 people stated that they were able to speak Irish, with 73,803 speaking Irish daily outside the education system and 111,473 doing so weekly.
Records show that 1,228 Irish Travellers resided in County Tipperary in April 2016, an increase of 6.8% since 2011. Nationally, the number of people enumerated as Irish Travellers increased by 5.1% to 30,987.
The Census showed that 35,813 dwellings in Tipperary had broadband access in April 2016, an increase of 16.7% since April 2011. Some 6,881 dwellings had non-broadband internet access, an increase of 2.2%, while the number of dwellings with no internet access fell by 23.4% to 14,912. Nationally,312,982 dwellings (18.4%) had no internet connection, down from more than 1 in 4 (25.8%) in 2011.
The most common type of housing in Tipperary is a 'detached' house, in line with Munster and national norms. Some 58.2% of Tipp people live in this type of dwelling, compared to 50.1% in all of Munster.
There are 59,276 households in Tipperary, with 467,864 in Munster, and an average of 2.7 persons per household.
Records show that 5.2% of the Tipperary population recorded 'no religious' belief, below Munster (8.6%) and nationwide (9.8%). Tipperary also has the lowest number of non-Catholics at 12.9 per cent. Nationwide, the number of Catholics fell to 3,729,100 from 3,861,300, and comprised 78.3% of the population in April 2016, compared to 84.2% in April 2011.
The percentage of the population who are recorded as 'non-Irish nationals' in Tipperary is 9.0%, somewhat below Munster (10.4%) and Ireland overall (11.6%).
WASHINGTON Laying bare deep and dangerous divisions on Syria and other issues, President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that U.S. relations
Election day information: voting times, polling centers and races
Residents will have their final chance to cast votes in local races on Nov. 8, including seats on both the NLCS and MCS boards and Sheriff.
Samsung has already said it's working on a Galaxy Note 8 that will launch this year, and now that handset is the subject of a leak that could hint at what the company has planned.
(Image credit: The Note 8 could have a similar look to the S8+. Credit: Slash Leaks)
An image has been published to Slashleaks that the poster says is a Galaxy Note 8. The image appears to show a large handset running Samsung's new virtual personal assistant Bixby. The person who snapped the image placed an S Pen stylus to the right of the handset. On the bottom-right of the screen, there also appears to be a menu option for activating the S Pen's options.
On the design front, the smartphone in question looks strikingly similar to the Galaxy S8+, boasting a small bezel at the top and bottom, curved edges to the left and right, and a button on the right that would ostensibly be used to activate Bixby. There's also no physical home button in the handset, suggesting Samsung could move to the virtual option like it has in the Galaxy S8 line.
MORE: Galaxy Note 8 Rumors - Features, Release Date and More
Samsung confirmed earlier this year that despite challenges last year with the Galaxy Note 7's battery that saw the handset blow up in some cases, it plans to release a Galaxy Note 8 in 2017. Samsung has remained silent on its plans, but several reports have cropped up, suggesting the device could come with a 6.3-inch screen and be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip.
Like its predecessors, the Galaxy Note 8 will likely support the S Pen.
The leaked image published on Monday (Apr. 10) could be the real thing, but there's also a chance that it might not. The handset in question looks like a Galaxy S8+ and it's possible the person, trying to dupe Internet users, simply placed the S Pen next to the device to suggest it was a Galaxy Note 8. Adding an icon for S Pen options is a simple Photoshop trick.
That said, it's been rumored that Samsung isn't planning a big design shift with the Galaxy Note 8, and the handset might indeed look like the Galaxy S8 line. The big difference, though, will be a slot for the S Pen. And this latest leak doesn't show that slot to confirm it's actually a Note 8 design.
Look for more info on the Galaxy Note 8 info as we slowly but surely inch towards the handset's unveiling.
We know it reads an awful lot like that fake news nonsense many people seem to have only now realised exists, but in REAL, HONEST-TO-GOODNESS NEWS, Tye Trujillo, the 12-year-old son of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, is playing bass for Korn during a run of South American shows.
Fieldy, the bands usual bassist, cannot do the dates for unforeseen circumstances, which usually amounts to old legal problems made getting a VISA impossible hopefully 12-year-old Tyes terrible report card wont hamper his entry into the country.
Oh, and if you want to check out his chops, Tye is in a band named The Helmets, because they are about three years too young to name their band after an element on the periodic table.
If youre sick of using The Force to flip the record over and lower the needle while not having a thematically-appropriate turntable for such Jedi skills, then you are in luck.
U.S. company Crosley are releasing a limited-edition portable Star Wars turntable for Record Store Day, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the iconic film A New Hope.
The vintage-style player has three-speeds (for making your Ratcat albums sound like Jesus and Mary Chain, or vice versa), pitch control, stereo speakers, RCA outputs, a headphone jack, and bluetooth. It will retail for $109.95, and can be pre-ordered here if you cant make the trip to Massachusetts.
Check out a few dangerously low-res photos below.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- More bullet holes pierced the home where a 3-year-old boy was killed, now his mother feels the shooters are warning his family. Amorian Hale died two years ago, shot while sleeping in the house at 67th and Walrond. His family moved out, but that hasn't stopped the gunfire.
FOREST CITY The Iowa State Patrol responded to a fatal vehicle accident Saturday in rural Winnebago County.
At 4:13 p.m. a state trooper was called to the scene of an accident south of 350th Street on 100th Avenue, west of Forest City and north of Crystal Lake.
According to the incident report, a 2016 Polaris Ranger a utility task vehicle rolled while turning onto 100th Avenue from a private driveway, ejecting the driver.
Two people were injured, one fatally. Names have not been released pending notification of family.
The Hancock County Sheriff's Office, the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office, Crystal Lake Fire and Rescue, Forest City EMS and Mercy Air-Med assisted at the scene.
While the local. . . Most of those same people also support immigration reform crackdowns against Mexicans and everybody else, too. Accordingly, here's an outpouring of support that mostly comes from newsies. You decide: Syrian Refugees Celebrate One-Year Anniversary In Kansas City
JUST AS STREETCAR CRITICS SUSPECTED . . . TRANSIT EXPERTS CONFIRM THAT THE THE TOY TRAIN IS MORE ABOUT SERVICING TOURISTS AND PARTY PEOPLE THAN DOWNTOWN WORKERS!!!
"The KC Streetcar will begin extended Sunday service hours Sunday, April 9.
"The new Sunday service schedule will run streetcars from 7:00 a.m. and until 11:00 p.m., adding an extra hour in the evening. This change is based on ridership demand and downtown activity.
What weve seen is that Sunday is typically the second busiest ridership day of the week for the KC Streetcar, but offers the lowest service level in terms of hours of operation and number of streetcars on the route, said Donna Mandelbaum, communications manager with the KC Streetcar Authority. This change in operations will better serve the downtown residents as well as those visiting for events at the Sprint Center, the Power & Light District, Union Station and everything in between.
"Hours of operation for the KC Streetcar are 6:00 a.m.-Midnight, Monday through Thursday; 6:00 a.m. 2:00 a.m. on Fridays; 7:00 a.m. 2:00 a.m. on Saturdays; and 7:00 a.m. 11:00 p.m. on Sundays . . ."
We've got a couple of free hours tonight so we're gonna ride on the toy train streetcar aimlessly like all the other hobos and drunkards downtown this evening thanks to a new transit feature.To wit . . .Check the confirmation by way of their words . . .######And so, this is an appropriate place to take a pause and consider even more local topics for the morning update.As always, thanks for reading this week . . .
STL Public Radio: Missouri State Auditor calls for overhaul of Transportation Development District laws
"Outrageous. Thats the word Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway used over and over to describe her offices findings after an audit into the states 205 Transportation Development Districts. The average citizen is getting taken advantage of here, Galloway said Monday at a press conference to release the report . Its outrageous that theres almost $1 billion in project costs that taxpayers are on the hook for. They dont know about it and they didnt vote for it. Galloway, a Democrat, is calling on legislators to overhaul state law regarding Transportation Development Districts or TDDs. The Missouri General Assembly first passed a law in 1990 to allow the creation of the districts, which can charge sales taxes for the construction or maintenance of transportation projects . . ."
The complaints of Kansas City voters resonate across the State as this Democratic Party lady identifies a Kansas City ballot question currently underway very much like the first streetcar secret vote that was described as the "most corrupt election since the Pedergast era" by local power players.Checkit:Deets:Meanwhile, most of the media is complicit in keeping the current streetcar vote a secret.Developing . . .
For the first three months of 2017 nearly 39,000 new and second hand cars were put into circulation
Sales of new and second hand cars for the month of March increased by over 43%, as more than 15,000 vehicles were registered in 2017, according to the Greek Statistical Services (ELSTAT). 15,350 cars were put into circulation in the month compared to 10,699 in March of 2016, with the brand new cars amounting to 10,003 in comparison to 6,698 in last year over the same period.
For the first three months of 2017 nearly 39,000 new and second hand cars were put into circulation, as opposed to 28,354 over the same term last year, which is a 35.6% rise. The new vehicles that hit the roads for the first quarter of the year amounted to 22,912, compared to 16,532 in 2016, a 38.6%. In contrast, the data showed a 27.4% drop in sales of motorcycles over 50cc for March compared to 2016.
Read more here.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
According to a report in Montreal newspaper La Presse, the number of Americans being denied entry to Canada is growing rapidly. In 2016, 31 percent more U.S. citizens were turned away than in the previous year. 30,233 American travelers were sent back from the border in 2016 compared to 23,052 in 2015. Back in 2014, the number was just 7,509.
Increased sharing of criminal records and other data between U.S. and Canadian authorities is one likely reason for the increase, according to an immigration lawyer quoted by La Presse. The number of Canadians being denied entry to the U.S. has remained relatively steady at 28,584 in 2016. In 2015, 27,311 Canadians were turned back and in 2014, the number was 28,875.
Source: statista.com
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
The leader of the Northern Cypriot community, Mustafa Akinci warned that any attempts by the Cypriot Republic in the south to go ahead with drilling for hydrocarbons before a solution to the dispute between the two communities would lead to rising tensions. We do not want new tensions and areas of dispute. We want to benefit through collaboration and the common wealth.
That is why a solution is necessary, he said. If drilling starts before achieving a solution [Cypriot problem], then the risk of new tensions and conflicts will be present instead of cooperation, Mr. Akinci said during a speech on April 9.
Read more here.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Tenmou, Bahrains first Business Angels, has announced that it will bring the global Get in the Ring competition to the kingdom for the first time.
The Get in the Ring competition, is a yearly event wherein start-ups compete with business pitches on a local level and proceed onto the international level, going up against teams from all over the world through one-on-one challenges.
As part of the competition, Bahraini start-ups and entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to participate in a business pitch challenge on April 22 in Bahrain Bourse at the Bahrain Financial Harbour Mall.
The event is held in strategic partnership with Bahrain Bourse. Additional partners include ALBA and Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB). Winners of the competition will qualify to compete in the Get in the Ring Foundation global finals scheduled to take place in May 2017 in Singapore.
Hasan Haider, CEO of Tenmou said: We are thrilled to introduce innovative and dynamic global competitions such as Get in the Ring as optimum opportunity for Bahraini start-ups. At Tenmou, our aim is to nurture and showcase local talent to the international entrepreneurial community and contribute to Bahrains growing start-up ecosystem. The event offers a fun and inviting competition structure unlike any Bahrain has seen before and we are proud to be the host.
Chief executive officer of Bahrain Bourse Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa said that Bahrain Bourse is pleased to host this competition and is supportive of the efforts that will open up doors to Bahraini entrepreneurs to develop the work environment and enhance its competitiveness.
Get in the Ring global events are organised by independent organisations around the world and offer start-ups the opportunities to make valuable networking connections to grow their business ventures. TradeArabia News Service
Work is progressing rapidly on the construction of Sohar Three, a greenfield, integrated combined-cycle gas turbine power plant located in Oman's Sohar Port.
The project is valued at over $1 billion and is on track to commence commercial operations by January 2019.
With more than enough capacity to power new developments in the recently announced Sohar Port South and Sohar Freezone Phase Two expansions, the new plant will have a power output of over 1,700 MW, making it Omans second largest power station, said a statement.
Being developed by Shinas Generating Company, the project is in partnership with Mitsui, Acwa Power and Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding. The sole off-taker will be Oman Power and Water Procurement Company, which will supply the power produced to Omans national grid.
Mark Geilenkirchen, Sohar CEO, explained the importance of the new plant to Sohar. We have seen sustained double-digit growth in Sohar for over 12 years now, and we are 100 per cent on track for continued expansion. Our role is to ensure that world-class infrastructure is in place before our incoming tenants require it, so they do not experience delays when commencing production. In times of budgetary constraints right across the GCC, Sohar has once again shown it is possible to develop, finance, build, own and operate a large-scale high-performance power plant like this one with a significant share of private investment. Since we started operations here in 2004, public-private partnerships have been at the core of our success story - made in Sohar.
Sohar Freezone CEO, Jamal T Aziz, added: The first phase of Sohar Freezone is practically leased out and our technical teams are now busy planning Phase Two. The current levels of international interest from investors, especially in the food and logistics sectors is phenomenal and sufficient network power at reasonable rates is a prerequisite to the continued smooth growth of Sohar Freezone.
Sohar Port and Freezone is a deep sea port and free zone in the Middle East. With current investments of $26 billion, it is one of the world's fastest growing port and free zone developments and lies at the centre of global trade routes between Europe and Asia. - TradeArabia News Service
Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) said it has signed a partnership agreement with Oman Oil Company (OOC) for the development of a major refinery and petrochemical complex in the Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Al Wusta Governorate of Oman.
Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Complex will be the biggest joint investment project in the SEZ, said a statement from KPI, the international subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).
The OOC is the sultanate's investment arm in the field of energy and related sectors.
Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) quoted KPC's chief executive Nizar Al Adsani as saying that the project offers a distinct incentive and a model example for oil investment in the Gulf region.
The refinery will develop Duqm into one of the major centres of oil investment on the regional and the world's scenes, stated Al Adsani.
On his part, Oman's Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhi, who is also OOC chairman, said that the agreement embodies the distinct Kuwaiti-Omani bilateral ties, opening up fresh prospects for further cooperation to serve mutual interests.
This strategic partnership seeks to develop one of the promising vital projects in the SEZ, he added.
The agreement would play an effective role for achieving the sultanate's oil strategy, turning the SEZ into one of the world's major economic centres, remarked KPI's chief executive Bakheet Al Rashidi after signing the agreement with OOC acting executive managing director Hilal Al Kharusi in Muscat.
The Duqm Refinery will be established on a total area of 900 hectares. Once completed, the refinery will have the capacity to process 230,000 barrels of crude oil per day for both local and international markets.-TradeArabia News Service
Microsoft has introduced the very latest in application development tools to the regions software professionals, as it launched Visual Studio 2017 during an exclusive event at VOX Cinemas, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai.
The company is celebrating 20 years of Visual Studios integrated development environment (IDE), a suite that allows coders to build enterprise-grade solutions for their platform of choice, using their language of choice.
At the event, Microsoft demonstrated the vast range of new features in Visual Studio 2017, which make the latest version an IDE for any developer and any OS. Attendees were then invited to join the Microsoft team for a special screening of Kong: Skull Island.
We are committed to provide developers with a versatile toolkit that stands apart in the industry, said Michael Mansour, chief innovation officer, Microsoft Gulf. Visual Studio 2017 gives programmers the depth and breadth of capabilities they need to build meaningful solutions for their organisations. This is a cross-device, language-neutral, multi-platform IDE that provides tools spanning the DevOps process, from conception, through every stage of testing, to application deployment.
Visual Studio 2017 covers more developer activities than ever before, with the latest features focused on enhanced productivity, refined fundamentals, streamlined Azure development, and best-in-class mobile development.
Enhanced productivity: Visual Studio 2017 carries enhanced code navigation; improved IntelliSense; streamlined refactoring, code-fixing and debugging capabilities; and other time-saving measures on everyday tasks, regardless of language or platform. In addition, for teams embracing DevOps, Visual Studio 2017 streamlines the developer inner loop and speeds up code flow with brand new real-time features, such as live unit-testing and live dependency validation.
Refined fundamentals: Visual Studio 2017 speeds up execution of day-to-day development tasks. A new lightweight, modular installation allows coders to install only those tools they require; a faster IDE optimises work, from start-up to shut down; and new ways to view, edit, and debug code without the need for projects or solutions, allows programmers to focus on the big picture.
Streamlined Azure development: Built-in tools within Visual Studio 2017 provide comprehensive integration with the cross-platform .NET Core, Azure applications, services, Docker Containers and more. Visual Studio 2017 makes it easier than ever to configure, build, debug, package and deploy applications and services on Microsoft Azure, directly from within the IDE.
Best-in-class mobile development: Visual Studio 2017 now offers Xamarin, the common-language platform that makes it faster and easier than ever for developers to build, connect, and tune mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Windows. Developers can also choose to develop mobile apps with Apache Cordova or the Visual C++ cross-platform library. Whichever path a coder chooses, they have access to advanced debugging and profiling tools and unit-test generation features.
Whether you are building for Web, standalone, mobile or cloud; whether you are building for healthcare, manufacturing, education or government Visual Studio has you covered in every language, on every device and on every platform, Mansour added. - TradeArabia News Service
Gov. Terry Branstad flashed a green light Monday at legislative efforts to legalize consumer fireworks in Iowa.
Most states in this country do permit fireworks. We have a lot of Iowans that go out of state to buy their fireworks, Branstad told his weekly news conference. I am not opposed to Iowa having access to legal fireworks on a limited basis.
Senate File 489 would allow licensed retailers or community groups to sell consumer-grade fireworks out of permanent structures to adults between June 1 and July 8 and between Dec. 10 and Jan. 3. A similar provision would apply to conforming temporary structures, such as tents, from June 13 through July 8 each year. The bill, which is awaiting House action, also places time restrictions for the display of fireworks.
I will wait to see whats in it if indeed a bill passes, the governor said Monday. We are one of the very few states that have very restrictive laws on fireworks.
Egypt's President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi has declared a three-month state of emergency after attacks on two Coptic churches that left at least 44 dead, a report said.
The declaration allows authorities to make arrests without warrants and search people's homes, BBC reported.
Sisi warned that the war against the jihadists would be "long and painful", and said that the state of emergency would come into force after all "legal and constitution steps" were taken.
In Alexandria, an explosion outside St Mark's Coptic church killed 13 people. Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church, had been attending Mass inside and was unhurt, an earlier BBC report said quoting state media.
An earlier blast at Mar Gerges church in Tanta killed 27, while 78 others were injured, a Health Ministry spokesman announced.
Twenty-two of the injured were discharged from hospital, it said.
The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the explosions. The group has recently targeted Copts in Egypt.
Four police officers, including one policewoman, were among those killed in Alexandria, the interior ministry said. The suicide bomber blew himself up after they stopped him from entering the church.
The first explosion in Tanta, 94 km (58 miles) north of Cairo, took place near the altar.
Security forces later dismantled two explosive devices at the Sidi Abdel Rahim Mosque, also in Tanta, the state-run Al-Ahram news website reports.
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail phoned Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Diocese to extend condolences over the victims of the two blasts.
President of Shebin el Kom primary court Counselor Sameul George was among those killed in the attack which targeted Mar Gerges Church in Tanta, said an official.
Hotels in Dubai reported significant declines in both average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) in March, according to preliminary data from research firm STR.
The steepest fall was in RevPAR, which slid 11 per cent to Dh652.61 ($177.6) while ADR dropped 9.8 per cent to Dh756.21 ($205.8), it said.
The decline in rates is a result of a number of new projects expected to enter the market in the next few years.
However, despite the decrease there was notable growth in both supply and demand, which went up 6 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively, data showed.
Occupancy remained high at 86.3 per cent, slipping just 1.3 per cent.
According to STR, demand was boosted by events like GFIA (Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture, 20-21 March), ARABLAB The Expo 2017 (20-23 March) and DIHAD (Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition, 21-23 March). - TradeArabia News Service
Emirates has been recognised as the Best Airline in the World in the inaugural TripAdvisor Travelers Choice Awards for Airlines.
In addition to clinching the grand prize, the airline was the biggest winner with four other awards including Best Major Airline - Middle East & Africa, Best Economy Class, Best First Class and Worlds Best Airlines - Top 10.
This is the first year TripAdvisor has introduced a category for airlines in its signature Travellers Choice Awards. The awards highlight the worlds top carriers based on the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for airlines worldwide gathered over a 12-month period.
Sir Tim Clark, president, Emirates Airline, said: We are honoured to be named the Best Airline in the World at the TripAdvisor Travelers Choice Awards for Airlines 2017. The fact that the awards are a result of unbiased reviews and feedback speaks to our commitment to deliver a superior travel experience for our customers. We want travellers to continue making Emirates their first choice whenever they think to travel. That is why we continue to invest in products and services across all classes, and why our service teams work hard and put their hearts into providing the very best experience for our customers both on board and on the ground every day.
We are proud to announce the inaugural Travelers Choice Awards for airlines, to help travellers make the most well-informed air travel decisions, based on the experiences of the TripAdvisor community, said Bryan Saltzburg, general manager for TripAdvisor Flights. Its a high honour for Emirates to be recognised as the top airline in the world by the TripAdvisor community and speaks to their continued focus on delivering fantastic customer experiences.
Emirates is the worlds largest international airline, with an extensive network that has grown to offer its customers a choice of 155 destinations in 83 countries across six continents. It operates one of the worlds youngest modern wide-body fleets, and is the first and only airline in the world to operate a fleet of all Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft for its passenger flights.
The airline recently announced a multi-million dollar cabin interiors upgrade programme including an enhanced Onboard Lounge for its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft which will make its debut in July.
Emirates also recently underwent a product overhaul with a host of exclusive products introduced to its First and Business Class cabins. New additions include the worlds first moisturising lounge wear in First Class, luxury blankets, skincare from organic brand Voya and a new range of amenity kits from Bulgari. In the last year, Emirates has also introduced several new products for customers travelling in Economy including the worlds first interactive amenity kits and sustainable blankets made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles. - TradeArabia News Service
Air France is inviting Dubai residents to register for a unique night out at the Sofitel Dubai Downtown, from where three lucky couples will grab their bags, passports and head straight to Dubai airport to fly to the ultimate city of love Paris.
Lucky winners of 'Bonjour Paris!' will get a chance to spend two nights at the prestigious Sofitel Paris Le Faubourg in the heart of the city.
Participants in this exclusive occasion must pre-register before April 28 and confirm their eligibility.
To register, visit www.airfrance.ae. - TradeArabia News Service
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Google announced that the latest "Android Wear 2.0" update would be released to a handful of supported devices. The search giant revealed this great news for smartwatch users this week.
Almost two months have already passed since Google launched Android Wear 2.0. It is a version of Android OS that is designed mainly for smartwatches and other wearables. This update will only be available for some supported devices. Included in the list are Tag Heuer Connected, Fossil Q Founder (Gen 1), Fossil Q Marshall, Fossil Q Wander, Nixon the Mission, Polar M600, Casio Smart Outdoor and Michael Kors ACCESS. The upcoming update first roll out will only be received by 19 devices and update for Huawei and LG devices will follow.
The news about the "Google's Android Wear 2.0" update has been circulating on the web even earlier before its official release. It was said by one of the users of Fossil Q Founder second generation. That user even posted a screenshot confirming this news. The full complete list of Android Wear 2.0 update's supported devices is posted on XDA website.
The latest update added quite a number of new features for smartwatch users. Among these design is refashioned, the options for watch powered apps are also new and the newest feature that will let a watch-gesture reply.
Although Huawei smartwatches will later receive the "Android Wear 2.0 update, says XDA Developers. but Google has reportedly fixed some problems about "Android wear 2.0" for Huawei. Hoi Lam, who works for Google's Android Wear in London, said in a tweet just recently, confirming the issue they had with Huawei smartwatch.
In behalf of the company, Lam apologized for the inconvenience brought by the delay. It is due to the problem encountered by the Android Wear Team last week but they assured that Huawei smartwatch users would soon be receiving the update from "Android Wear 2.0."
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Michelle Barnes went to a bat cave in the Uganda jungle and came home infected with Marburg virus, a cousin of Ebola that causes hemorrhagic fever. Upon treating the disease, researchers at Vanderbilt University and Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. have discovered a monoclonal antibody from Barnes, which could cure monkeys from being infected by Marburg and Ravn viruses.
In coordination and paid for by the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the Health and Human Services Department, scientists are now rushing to recreate the antibody and have it mass-produced. If proven to be successful from human trials, the cure can be used when another outbreak happens like the 2014-2016 Ebola incident that killed 11,000 people and hit 28,000 individuals with the virus.
NBCDFW.com reported Barnes as saying, "If somebody needed to get Marburg virus so you could donate your cells for research, I am glad it was me." She continued to say, "I happen to have really good immunity."
Barnes came home from the trip after the New Year in 2008. At first, Barnes started with just feeling tired until she experienced heavy vomiting and sweating. NBC News reported that when Barnes tested for Marburg and Ebola, the results came out negative.
Some of her organs have started to weaken and eventually, her gall bladder was taken after it had failed. Gradually, Barnes recovered and even learned that a Dutch tourist went to the same cave and died of the virus.
The World Health Organization discovered that the bats carried the virus and killed 80 percent of the tourists infected with it. Barnes got a re-test and found the virus present in her blood. She donated her blood for a research study by the University. The antibody cured four monkeys with Marburg virus and five primates with Ravn.
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
An American Airlines flight kicked off musician John Kaboff when he carried a cello on board. The flight's pilot and crew told him that the stringed instrument posed a safety risk.
The 46-year-old cellist bought a seat next to him for his $100,000 cello aboard 737 aircraft flight 153 bound for Chicago on April 4. Kaboff told ABC7 that the pilot and a flight attendant approached him on his seat and instructed him to "voluntarily leave" or else he will "be removed from the airplane" all because of the musical instrument. The crew deemed it unsafe for flight travel.
It became apparent that the crew had mistaken the cello as a bass fiddle when they showed Kaboff a handheld computer that listed the bass fiddle as among the musical instruments banned from the aircraft. The musician tried to correct them but the pilot had already made up his mind. They also denied Kaboff's request for a seatbelt extension to secure the cello as it wasn't strapped in and the 4 feet instrument slightly touched the floor.
Back at Virginia's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the upset musician posted a video on Facebook about the incident. He's traveled with the American Airlines 40 times in the past three years and twice this month and the only time something like this happened was 12 years ago. The airline has since apologized for the "error" and informed ABC7 in a statement that Kaboff and his cello had already been "accommodated on the next flight to Chicago." The airline will also refund Kaboff about $150 for the cello's seat.
The musician hoped that the airlines would also improve its training for the flight crew. As it turned out, cellos are allowed in-flight as long as they meet the seat size requirements and do not exceed 165 pounds. Kaboff's cello weighed about 70 pounds.
Kaboff's experience happened with fellow musicians in 2014 when the US Airways didn't let in violinists Nicolas Kendall and Zach De Pue because of their violins. The classical musicians retaliated by playing on the tarmac and uploading the video on YouTube. According to The Blaze, US Airways issued an apology and booked the violinists on another flight.
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Everyone was surprised during a Turkish Airlines flight when an unexpected passenger showed up mid-flight. A lady gave birth to a healthy baby girl 42,000 feet above the ground and was assisted by the cabin crew.
The Boeing 737 was coming from Guinea and was bound for Burkina Faso when suddenly the flight staff noticed that the mother was having labor pains. The cabin crew immediately came to help the mother as she was giving birth. According to the Huffington Post, she was 28 weeks pregnant and that she's been feeling pains earlier on the flight.
On Friday, the airline company took the incident to Twitter which said, "It's a girl. Welcome on board Princess!" The baby was named Kadiju and pictures of the crew holding the baby who was wrapped in a blanket were posted online.
Upon landing, the mother and the baby were immediately rushed to the hospital to be taken care of. NBC News reported that both of them were in perfectly good health.
It wasn't really clear whether there was a health professional during the flight who assisted the mother gave birth or whether the cabin crew was experienced in delivering a baby. The airline was asked for their comments but no response has been made yet.
The Turkish Airlines policy about pregnant mothers states that women are allowed to fly until their 28th week of pregnancy even without a doctor's approval. For those who are already in their 29th-35th week, they should get a certification from their doctors that they are healthy enough to travel.
There are some instances where babies born on the aircraft are given free flights by airline companies for the rest of their lives. However, there have been no reports yet stating that baby Kadiju will get free flights from Turkish Airlines.
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Going on a long vacation and exploring a new country is something we've all clamored for, and having all those experiences with your partner makes everything more special and memorable. Millennial couples nowadays tend to invest more in travel than in material possessions, because, let's face itlounging together on a white sand beach in the Philippines and posting a sweet picture on Instagram sounds much better than both owning limited edition shoes or what-not.
Prepared to be jealous then of Jack Morris and Lauren Bullen. They are currently living the dream of traveling around the most beautiful places on Earth, and they get paid while they're doing it.
They are both Instagram influencers who have amassed millions of followers because of their lifestyle, and while to us "normals", going on vacation is pretty much a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of thing, to Jack and Lauren, it's their everyday life.
According to Cosmopolitan UK, making a living off being Instagram influencers is not something they really planned on doing. Lauren used to be a dental assistant in Australia and Jack didn't even finish college and used to work 9-5 on a carpet cleaning job. After a little soul searching, they finally figured out what they want to do, and have crossed paths in Fiji for the same reason.
"We met in March 2016 whilst on a job together in Fiji. We got on so well from day one and were inseparable throughout the whole trip," said Morris in a post made by Travel and Leisure. Now, every single picture they post on Instagram doesn't earn less than $3,000.
All of their pictures are sensational and well taken, and according to the couple, they edit their pictures using Lightroom on Macbook Pro. They both have separate travel blogs as wellJack takes all pictures of Lauren and Lauren takes all pictures of Jack. Their pictures together are made using a tripod and a timer.
According to Jack, it's not too late to start a similar lifestyle and be an Instagram influencer. He recently made a Q&A post in his travel blog where he listed some tips on influencing and on how he and Lauren are living the ultimate life.
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
WATERLOO | Just after Judge Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Courts ninth justice, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, praised the process that led to the Monday morning swearing-in ceremony.
Ernst spoke at the Waterloo Rotary Monday afternoon, where she stressed the importance of working in a bipartisan manner but also highlighted her enjoyment of working alongside fellow Iowa Republican, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.
I value him a lot. The U.S. Senate values him a lot, and if you were able to watch any of the judiciary hearings over the past number of weeks, as we were going through the Judge Neil Gorsuch confirmation process -- Senator Grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee, and he ushered all of that through flawlessly, Ernst said when asked by a Rotarian about her relationship with Grassley.
She said Grassleys efforts to confirm Gorsuch earned accolades, not just from Republicans but from Democrats on the way he handled the process.
That process included the first-time use of the so-called nuclear option, lowering the threshold to cut off debate on the U.S. Senate floor to 51 votes instead of 60, for Supreme Court nominees. In a follow-up interview, Ernst said she did not share the concerns of others about its deployment.
Longtime U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for example, said it was not good for the U.S. Senate to change the rules, though he ultimately voted for the rule change.
Why Courts Matter Iowa, a coalition that works to ensure the federal judiciary is representative of the American population, likewise, criticized the rule change: The so-called nuclear option completes the partisan hatchet job on the independence of the judiciary that began last year when Grassley and Republicans engaged in unprecedented obstruction of Merrick Garlands nomination.
But Ernst said the rule change made sense, as Gorsuch is eminently qualified and earned bipartisan support.
It became very political, and we wanted to make sure that somebody who is so well-qualified and actually was granted the highest qualification rating from the (American Bar Association) was confirmed to the Supreme Court, Ernst said.
She said Democrats had previously changed the rules for lower judiciary appointments, and she recognizes that the new rules will mean that door is open to just 51 votes for judicial nominees, up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ernst said she did not see it as a slippery slope to changing the rules on regular legislation to reduce the threshold to end debate.
Ernst stressed the bipartisan support for Gorsuch, like she did throughout much of her speech to the Rotarians. She pointed to her relationship with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., as one example of someone she doesnt always agree with but has a good relationship with.
She said the pair have literally baked bread together, and they have found common ground on some legislation, including a bill this month to combat sexual assault on college campuses.
Ernst also downplayed the divisiveness in the U.S. Senate. While she acknowledged some challenges, she said the split between Republicans and Democrats is played up in the media.
Ernst said she tries to work across party lines and seek common ground where possible.
Im looking for good pieces of legislation that has a lot of buy-in from not just Republicans but Democrats as well, Ernst said. If you want a bill to move forward, not only in the Senate but in the House, you need to be working together and this is one way to show that we are really working together, and were getting ideas from different types of populations and finding solutions together. That's leadership.
Surfing and yoga have become a tandem these days, and it's actually increasing in popularity. Both activities complement each other because once you get worn out doing surfing, yoga helps release tension in your body through meditation and stretching exercises. Here are some of the best surfing and yoga destinations perfect for the summer break.
Flash Pack, Morocco. If you're looking for a place that's less crowded and without the presence of gap-year kids, then head out to Flash Pack. It offers a one of a kind travel experience where travelers can go solo but still meet other people. The nine-day group tour takes solo travelers to the various attractions in Morocco and ends with a three-day surfing and yoga experience at Taghazout.
Drift Retreat, Jersey. Check out the Channel Islands and experience a retreat like no other with Drift. A little over $530 per person, one can experience an all-in package that includes airport or ferry transfers, three nights accommodation, food, beverages, two yoga sessions and a surf lesson. According to Metro, all equipment and facilities are also free while you're at Drift.
Free Spirit Hostel, Nicaragua. Surfing and yoga breaks don't have to be expensive, which is why the Free Spirit Hostel at El Transito offers an all-in package of $299 per person. This includes a six-night stay at a shared dorm, six breakfasts and dinners, five yoga lessons, three surf lessons, and free use equipment. From March to August, guests can experience the best waves at El Transito.
Wanderlust, New Zealand. If you want some girl time with your friends and families, visit the all-female surf and yoga retreat of Wanderlust, which is located in Raglan, New Zealand. According to the Wanderlust website, the waves here at Raglan are perfect for all types of surfers and there are also guided surfing services offered for beginners.
Star Surf Camps, France. Experience thrilling waves and vibrant nightlife here at Star Surf Camps. The town is famous for its great waves, but it's also close to San Sebastian which is a well-known part capital. This place is perfect for younger travelers.
If you're thinking of going on a surfing and yoga break, make sure you visit these places. You'll definitely have an unforgettable experience of a lifetime.
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
The US-Mexico border has seen gloomy faces and trembling hands as many Mexican immigrants passed by the boundary in search for a peaceful life. Likewise, America's airports have been brimming with people from the Middle East as they escape escalating issues like war, political tension, and social injustices.
"My father was a bracero. He suffered a lot," many immigrants have voiced out their stories in the portal My Immigration Story to call out for the public to do away with the anti-immigration policy. A certain Graciela, wrote that her family went to the States where her mother cleaned others people's homes and ironed other people's clothes.
Lucy has another story as well. She brought her daughter, Linda, to the States from Mexico in an attempt to find a doctor that would operate on her daughter's crushing spine. They went overboard with their one-year humanitarian visa and are trapped in New Mexico. There was a specialist four hours from where they were, but that would mean crossing illegally to the border. Once caught, they have to be deported back to Mexico and lose access to medical assistance.
"She was in pain," Lucy told Buzzfeed. "Two parts of her spine were basically folded, but we couldn't cross the checkpoints and had to cancel the appointment." Five months later, Lucy and her daughter sought treatment in Texas, which is accessible without crossing the boundaries and running into some trouble.
Even families affected by the Iran-Iraqi war fled from their home country and sought refuge in America where they can find new jobs, schooling and even a place they can call home. But now, their situation had become a lot harder, especially when the Trump administration placed travel bans and the order to have the border wall enforced.
There are calls in which the president wanted to boost security by hiring a total of 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The My Immigration Story held memoirs of people, immigrants, and activists over the lives of individuals crossing the states for a better future.
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
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Zero Mass Water's Source device is a rooftop solar device that produces water instead of just electricity.
With the virtual explosion of rooftop solar arrays producing clean electricity, the future of democratized power is bright, but when it comes to water, we don't have nearly as many options. Most of us are directly tied into the local water supply, which is great when it works well, and horrible when it doesn't (as evidenced by the recent and ongoing travesties in communities such as Flint, Michigan), and although some homes may capture rainwater for irrigation, or have their own well, there aren't a lot of alternative choices for getting clean drinking water, other than purchasing bottled water.
However, there are some up-and-coming water innovations that could be put into play at homes and businesses that would allow people to have more control over their own drinking water supply. In recent years, the idea of pulling water vapor from the air and condensing it into drinking water is getting a whole lot more attention, and not just in off-grid areas and in the developing world, but also right here in suburbia and urban areas as well. One company that offers a localized clean water solution is Zero Mass Water, and its Source device looks to be a promising addition to homes or businesses that want to gain some water sovereignty.
Zero Mass Water, an Arizona State University spin-off startup based in Scottsdale, has developed a "drinking water solar panel" that is a standalone system requiring no wired or water input connections, and the company has been installing its SOURCE device in pilot programs on homes and in communities since 2015.
A single unit has a physical footprint of 2.8 square meters, generates its own electricity from a solar photovoltaic panel (and stores some of that electricity in an integrated lithium-ion battery for keeping water pressure up after dark), and uses that electricity to drive a cycle of condensation and evaporation that can produce 2 to 5 liters of water per day.
A 30-liter reservoir holds the generated water and allows for the distilled water to have minerals added to it for taste, and the output can be plumbed directly to a tap inside the home or business. Multiple SOURCE units can be installed in an array in order to generate the appropriate amount of water to meet the needs of the owner.
According to the company, the only maintenance or financial input required by the SOURCE is a new air filter every year, and a new mineral cartridge every 5 years, which means that after the initial purchase and install, the owner can essentially own their own drinking water supply with minimal inputs. Although pricing on the units hasn't been publicly announced yet, Phoenix Business Journal states the price as $4,800, "which includes the $3,200 panel and $1,600 for an additional panel." Part of the company's goal is global water democratization, so customers will be asked to help underwrite part of the cost of additional SOURCE units for people living in areas with little to no water infrastructure.
"When you purchase SOURCE panels for your home, you will own your water for the first time. In order to purchase that panel, we will ask you to split the cost of an additional panel with Zero Mass Water. The panel that you split with us will go to a community of your choosing, a family who will leapfrog poor or non-existent infrastructure. As their SOURCE gets installed you will accelerate water democratization. You get to choose the region and then our partners around the world identify families with little or no clean water (to start with, located in Latin America, the Middle East, and underserved in the US). These families will not receive a panel for free, but will instead purchase it for the cost of getting it to them and installing it. Together, both households own their water." - Cody Friesen, Founder and CEO of Zero Mass Water
HAMPTON | A man charged with felony drug offenses following a traffic stop in Hampton pleaded guilty to a lesser charge last week.
David Hernandez, 27, Eagle Grove, was sentenced to 50 days in jail and fined $315, according to Franklin County District Court records, on a misdemeanor charge of methamphetamine possession.
A felony charge of failure to affix a drug tax stamp was dismissed.
Hampton police charge two with drug-related offenses HAMPTON Two people were charged by Hampton police with drug-related offenses after a traff
Hernandez originally was charged with felony meth possession with intent to deliver after a vehicle he was a passenger in was stopped for a traffic violation on Sept. 3, 2016, in the 100 block of First Avenue Northwest in Hampton, police reported.
The driver of the vehicle, Lara Pineda, 32, Hampton, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa to one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. No sentencing date has been set.
-- Mary Pieper
MASON CITY | Friends and family members placed balloons, crosses and flowers at the site of a crash that killed five young people early Monday morning.
Authorities say the victims were in an eastbound Jeep Liberty that hit a tree in the 400 block of Sixth Street Southwest about 2:30 a.m.
The Jeep burst into flames. All five died at the scene.
Mason City police hadn't released the names of the victims as of Monday afternoon, but word of the incident and those involved spread among the victims circle of friends.
Tokens and memorials began to appear at the crash site by early afternoon.
A family member of one victim placed five crosses and five balloons in honor of the dead.
Three high school students brought flowers for another victim, who they said was a former classmate.
Other flowers were propped against the base of the tree stump.
The damaged tree, which was deemed a hazard, was cut down by city crews this morning.
The Globe Gazette learned the identity of some of the victims, but the Mason City Police Department would not confirm the names.
Police Chief Jeff Brinkley said officers were aware that word of the crash and the victims' identities were starting to filter around the community, but the department will wait until Tuesday morning to release names of those involved.
A couple of families have asked for just a few more hours to reach some additional relatives, he said.
Check back at globegazette.com for updates on this developing story.
Our previous story:
Update: Five die in Mason City crash; community stunned
MASON CITY | Five people, including at least two high school-aged students, were killed early Monday morning in a fiery crash on Sixth Street Southwest not far from the Mason City Fire Department station.
None of the five have been identified. All were apparently in a 2007 Jeep Liberty that reportedly struck a tree and caught fire in the 400 block of Sixth Street Southwest around 2:30 a.m.
The Mason City Mohawks Facebook page, which says it is not affiliated with Mason City Schools, posted "at least one former graduate and possibly a current student have perished following a car accident that killed all five passengers early this morning."
It directed those seeking counseling to the Mason City Youth for Christ facility.
Police Lt. Rich Jensen said Monday afternoon all five occupants of the vehicle have been identified but names will not be released until mid-morning Tuesday to allow the affected families to contact their loved ones.
Mason City Youth for Christ opened its doors as a place for grieving young people to gather Monday afternoon and evening, according to Executive Director Derek Jacobson. By 2 p.m., about 30 had gathered.
Police came across the crash at about 2:40 a.m. when officers noticed a power outage west of downtown and began a search for the possible cause.
They said the vehicle, which was on fire, was heavily damaged. The driver, a white man, and the passengers, two black men, a white man and a white female, were all pronounced dead at the scene.
The accident resulted in a power outage that affected 1,300 residents for about two hours, according to Alliant Energy.
The crash is the worst one in Mason City in at least 66 years. Retired Mason City police officer Duane Jewell, who served from 1951 to 1995 including one year as chief, said Monday he could not recall a tragedy of such magnitude in his career.
Check back at globegazette.com for more on this developing story.
New Delhi, April 10
Bangladesh is looking to open more trade channels with India, widen footprint of border haats and open up routes that were closed during the 1965 war, visiting PM Sheikh Hasina said today.
Observing that nothing is solved by confrontation but friendship is the solution to all problems, she said the two nations have been able to establish profound mutual trust and exemplary friendship over the years.
Hasina, who is on a four-day visit to India, urged Indian industry houses to invest in Bangladesh, especially in infrastructure projects, power and energy, transport, manufacturing, food and agricultural processing sectors.
She said the Indian business community can take full advantage of Bangladeshs steady economic growth, high demographic dividend, low business cost and large consumer base, noting that to facilitate further investments, a One Stop Service Act is currently being finalised.
Hasina also witnessed the signing of pacts worth over $9 billion by companies from India and Bangladesh aimed at deepening partnership in sectors like power and oil and gas.
Speaking in Bengali, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister took a potshot at her opposition parties, saying there were charges that she was going to sell off the country to India.
She was addressing a meeting organised by business chambers CII, Ficci and Assocham here. PTI
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 9
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) celebrated "Valour Day'' today to commemorate the battle of "Sardar Post'' on Gujarat border which took place in 1965 and witnessed two companies of CRPF repulsing a brigade level attack by Pakistan and gunning down 34 of its soldiers.
On the occasion, Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched a web portal Bharat ke Veer for the welfare of the Central Armed Police Force. The idea was initiated by the actor Akshay Kumar.
The Home Minister appreciated Akshay Kumar, and called him 'Action Kumar' for developing the idea.
The portal's aim is to enable donors to contribute towards the family of braveheart who sacrifices life in the line of duty.
The site bharatkeveer will be available on web portal as well on mobile application. This domain allows anyone to financially support the bravehearts.
The website is technically supported by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and powered by State Bank of India.
The actor recently donated Rs 1.08 crore to the families of the CRPF jawans, who were martyred while fighting Maoists in Sukma, Chhattisgarh.
While addressing the CAPFs personnel, he said, I am a soldier's son myself. While watching a documentary film, an idea came to mind that a website should be there for people who want to donate to the next of kin of the Central Armed Police Force and paramilitary forces soldiers. As I could donate to the soldiers' families, many people also showed their eagerness to donate money, but didnt know how to go ahead. I think by this website anyone from anywhere now can donate to our soldiers.
On the occasion, Home Minister Rajnath Singh praised the brave Chetan Kumar Cheetah and said, One cant buy bravery in market. It's in heart. Cheetah, who has just come out of the mouth of death, is a big example of this. Thanks to his sheer will he survived.
New Delhi, April 10
The Delhi High Court on Monday denied bail to LIC agent Anand Chauhan in a money laundering case involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others.
"I have dismissed this petition (bail application)," Justice Vipin Sanghi said. Chauhan is in judicial custody since his arrest in July last year.
During the hearing on his bail plea earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had claimed that there was ample evidence against him and there was serious apprehension that he could tamper with evidence if released on bail.
The accused had approached the high court challenging the trial court's August 20 last year order dismissing his bail plea, saying there was "more than sufficient material" to show his involvement in the alleged offence.
The ED had alleged that Virbhadra Singh had "invested huge amount in purchasing LIC policies in his own name and his family members through Chauhan."
Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9, 2016, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act after the ED alleged that he was not cooperating with the probe.
Chauhan had sought bail on the ground that the case against him was documentary in nature and there was no need to keep him in custody. He had claimed of having joined and cooperated with the agency in the ongoing probe.
In a separate case, Virbhadra Singh and his wife were on March 31 charge sheeted by the CBI in a special court here in a disproportionate assets case after the High Court refused to quash FIR against them and lifted the stay on their arrest.
PTI
Majid Jahangir
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, April 10
The Army has killed at least four unidentified militants during an infiltration bid in Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara district.
(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)
The Army said that the four were killed along the line of Control (LoC) in Dudniyal Keran sector, over 150 kms from Srinagar.
The gunfight broke when the Army noticed movement of militants close to the LoC late Sunday.
The group was challenged by the soldiers, however, they opened fire triggering a gunfight. The gunfight ended this morning with the killing of four militants, an Army officer said. Arms and ammunition was also recovered from the encounter site.
The combing and search operation in the area is underway, he said
The identity of the slain militants is being established. This is the first infiltration bid that has been foiled by the Army in Kashmir this year.
New Delhi, April 10
Awarding of death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan shows how the country's military court system rides "roughshod" over international standards, Amnesty International on Monday said.
In a strongly-worded statement, the rights body said military courts are an inherently "abusive system" that are best left to deal with issues of military discipline, not any other crime.
"The death sentence given to Kulbushan Jadhav shows yet again how Pakistan's military court system rides roughshod over international standards. Stripping defendants of their rights and operating in notorious secrecy, military courts do not dispense justice...," said Biraj Patnaik, South Asia Director of Amnesty International.
Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of execution, he added.
The statement came in reaction to the Pakistan army chief approving execution of Jadhav for his "involvement in espionage and sabotage activities" in that country. PTI
SIOUX CITY | The Sioux City school district placed John Chalstrom on administrative leave two days after the district's budget chief, through an intermediary, raised a series of concerns about superintendent Paul Gausman's management of the district, according to documents obtained by The Sioux City Journal.
Chalstrom was previously a Clear Lake High School principal.
In the documents, Chalstrom accused Gausman of creating a hostile workplace and threatening his job if he shared alternative budget options with school board members outside regular board meetings.
In one example, the chief financial officer cited his proposal to further expand an early retirement program that he claimed could have avoided the recent elimination of middle school reading teacher positions.
Rather than bring his concerns to the board himself, Chalstrom approached Dan Greenwell, a businessman and frequent critic of Gausman and his administration.
After exchanging emails in late January, Greenwell said he and Chalstrom met at the Mike's Saloon restaurant around 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 10 to go over Chalstrom's concerns. That same day Chalstrom had requested sick leave, with district records showing he left the district offices after 9 a.m.
The next morning, Feb. 11, Greenwell met school board president Mike Krysl and vice president Mike McTaggart at Caribou Coffee, where Greenwell detailed the concerns raised by Chalstrom. It included allegations that Gausman used a management style heavy on "manipulation and intimidation," and exhibited "very strong bully behavior."
"I indicated that many of the items on John's list could be validated by (school board) members with a proper investigation. Both (Krysl and McTaggart) thanked me for reaching out," Greenwell said in an interview last week.
That same day, a Saturday, Greenwell said he emailed a bullet-point summary to the remaining board members. He sent another document, with a more detailed account of Chalstrom's concerns, to board member Paul Gorski. The Journal obtained copies of all the documents, and verified they originated with Chalstrom.
On Monday, Feb. 13, the district placed Chalstrom on administrative leave with pay, but did not publicly announce the move. After The Journal asked about it weeks later, a district spokeswoman offered no explanation for the decision, saying she couldn't comment because it involved confidential personnel matters.
Chalstrom has repeatedly declined comment, and turned down the Journal's request to be interviewed for this story.
In a statement to The Journal Wednesday, Gausman reiterated that "Dr. Chalstroms current status of leave from the district is a personnel matter. I am not able to speak about any items related to personnel matters."
In the same statement, Gausman vehemently denied the claims asserted in the documents shared by Greenwell.
I became aware of the list of allegations that Mr. Greenwell sent to the board just before mid-February, which coincides with the timeline when Dr. Chalstrom was placed on leave. I have not discussed the list of allegations with Mr. Greenwell or Dr. Chalstrom. I am only aware of these allegations from Mr. Greenwells communication to the board, which board members shared with me.
"The allegations prepared by Mr. Greenwell do not in any way reflect who I am as a leader, and the allegations are not true. I will continue to stay focused on the work of moving our district forward; the students, families, and community deserve no less," the superintendent continued.
Greenwell on Friday vehemently denied he prepared the list, saying it came directly from Chalstrom.
Greenwell stressed that Chalstrom sought him out because of his bulldog reputation for school board oversight. Greenwell emerged as a key district watchdog in 2014, leading a group of parents that successfully pushed for reforms to a standards-based grading system for grades K-6. In September 2015, Greenwell lost his bid for a seat on the seven-member school board.
"John noted I had experience as both a CEO and CFO and would understand both the inappropriate management behavior that was being utilized, as well as the important financial details he was not allowed to present. In short, he indicated I had earned credibility," said Greenwell, who was chief financial officer for the former Terra Industries and is currently chief executive of LSB Industries, an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based chemical company.
Serious concerns
In an interview with The Journal Wednesday, school board member Perla Alarcon-Flory said board members are having "very important discussions" about the information Greenwell shared, but didn't characterize it as an investigation.
"These are serious concerns and we have to address them... This is not something we are going to brush off or sweep under the rug or anything like that," Alarcon-Flory said.
Gorski said publicly discussing the allegations in detail is difficult.
"There is a lot of stuff there. It is a situation that the school board has to deal with and, quite frankly, it can't be a public issue," Gorski said.
Citing confidential personnel matters, Krysl and McTaggart declined to comment on the allegations, or even confirm they met with Greenwell on Feb. 11. Both expressed their support and confidence in Gausman.
School board member David Gleiser said he had no reason to believe that Chalstrom may have been a conflict with Gausman.
Two other board members -- Jackie Warnstadt and John Meyers declined all comment, saying the issues involve personnel matters that should not be publicly aired.
Possible settlement
There are signs Chalstrom, who is paid an annual salary of $140,255 under a contract set to expire on June 30, and the district are headed toward a possible separation deal.
The agenda released late Friday afternoon for the school board's regular meeting on Monday includes an item titled, "consideration of agreement with Dr. John Chalstrom."
Prior to the 6 p.m. start time for the meeting at the Educational Service Center, the board is scheduled to enter closed session at 4:30 p.m.
Among the reasons the board cited, under state law, for the closed meeting is to "evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered."
Budget chief
Chalstrom's removal from his day-to-day duties on Feb. 13 came as the district entered the crucial final weeks of finalizing a budget for the next academic year.
Falling enrollment, rising costs for salaries and benefits and smaller-than-anticipated increase in state aid forced district officials to identify nearly $4 million in budget reductions for fiscal 2018.
The biggest chunk of savings was achieved through an expansion of the district's early retirement program.
Under the expanded criteria, 50 teachers and other staff opted for early retirement by the end of the current school year, qualifying for additional financial incentives.
Thirty-two of those positions will be filled by teachers who are paid a lesser salary. Eighteen positions will go unfilled, leading to projected savings of $2.5 million.
Most of the positions left vacant are middle school reading instructors. The early retirement plan was unveiled in November in conjunction with a plan to shift away from standalone reading classes in grades 6-8.
The restructuring set off a flurry of protests from parents and other district residents who worried the move would negate strides the district had made in improving reading test scores.
In a document Greenwell shared, Chalstrom said the plan the school board adopted was created "solely" by associate superintendent Kim Buryanek.
Chalstrom said he suggested to Gausman and human resources director Rita Vanatta that the district instead broaden the number of staff that could qualify for early retirement -- "cast the net, and make reductions accordingly."
"Dr. Gausman did not want to 'buy down the veteran staff' and was not receptive," Chalstrom said in the document. "The Management Fund budget could have afforded up to 90 teachers without impacting the levy rate and without impacting programming."
At their Feb. 10 meeting, Greenwell said Chalstrom scratched out on three cocktail napkins an expanded early retirement package to deliver additional savings, which would have raised the total to nearly $4.5 million, sparing the reading program.
"(Chalstrom) felt the board had not received alternatives to keep the reading plan. Numerous board members have confirmed no alternatives were offered or presented. Plus, he felt that he was unable to approach the board for fear of retribution," Greenwell said.
Gausman declined to specifically address Chalstrom's claims regarding the early retirement program. In a statement, though, the superintendent detailed the process used to develop the policy and the reasons for limiting its scope.
Working closely with Gausman, Buryanek led the program, which was "developed through a process involving the entire superintendent's cabinet," Gausman said.
The goal, he said, was to not cut too sharply into the district's veteran teacher pool, which ranks as one of the most tenured among the state's urban districts. In the adopted plan, the average years of service dropped less than one year, from about 14.2 to 13.6, according to district figures.
"To bring that down further, when not required by the budget, would have unnecessarily reduced our veteran and highly valued staff members, who serve our students," Gausman said.
There also were financial considerations, he said.
"The more staff members who retire through this plan, the more stipends we pay, and we pay those out of local property taxes," Gausman said.
No contact?
In the documents Greenwell shared with school board members, Chalstrom claimed he was "specifically prohibited from speaking with board members outside of board meetings," "specifically directed not to speak about selected shortcomings in selected programs," and "prohibited from providing the board with a full set of options on various programs."
Gausman declined to address those allegations. But in response to questions from The Journal last week, he stressed there is "no policy or protocol that would prohibit a cabinet member from speaking to board members.
"It is important to note, however, that the board has one employee: the superintendent of schools," he added. "As the superintendent, it is my job to bring recommendations to the board that are fiscally sound, that achieve the goals in our strategic plan, that respect the goals the board has provided me as their one employee, and that provide growth in student achievement while working through any challenges."
Gausman further added, "All ideas are welcomed and considered and, as one might imagine, not all ideas initially discussed make it into the final recommendation of the superintendent."
Alarcon-Flory dismissed the notion that more budget options should have been aired, saying the board weighed many good alternatives toward closing the budget gap for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
"We sat down and discussed several, several, several alternatives," Alarcon-Flory said.
The school board is scheduled to formally adopt the fiscal 2018 budget at its meeting Monday.
Gausman, who previously served as superintendent of the West Central School District in Hartford, S.D., was appointed superintendent of Sioux City's 15,000-student public school district in 2008. Five years later, he was named Iowa Superintendent of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa.
Last month, Gausman emerged as one of three finalists for the superintendent job in the Omaha public school district. He and the other remaining finalist -- Khalid Mumin, the superintendent of Reading School District in Pennsylvania -- later removed themselves from consideration after learning neither candidate had sufficient support from the school board.
Chalstrom was selected as chief financial officer for the Sioux City district in 2014 by Gausman, with the guidance of an advisory committee comprised of school administrators and finance experts from the local business community.
Prior to coming to Sioux City, Chalstrom also served as superintendent of the Cherokee School District for 10 years.
New Delhi, April 10
The National Human Rights Commission on Monday issued notice to the Gautam Budh Nagar administration over allegations that few locals have been "falsely implicated" in the case on assault on African nationals.
The Commission took cognisance of a complaint by the residents of the NSG society that police "falsely implicated" some of the locals in the March 27 incident that sparked widespread outrage.
The notices have been issued to the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Gautam Budh Nagar and they have been given four weeks to submit reports in the matter.
NHRC's Director General (Investigation) has also been tasked with collecting facts pertaining to the issue.
"According to the complaint by some residents of the society, the students and their parents, living in the NSG society, are being harassed in the name of the investigations," an official statement said.
The residents complained that while some "anti-social elements" assaulted a number of Nigerian nationals at a nearby mall, police have named 53 people who were "not even present" at the place of the incident.
"Allegedly, the seven persons, arrested by the police in the matter were also not present at the site of the assault.
They were part of the candle march and sitting at the Pari Chowk at the time of the incident a video recording of which is available with the police," it said. PTI
New Delhi, April 10
India and Australia on Monday inked six pacts, including one aimed at boosting counter-terrorism cooperation, after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull here.
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The two leaders held comprehensive discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.
Earlier on Monday, the Australian Prime Minister said his country will work more closely with India in order to secure stronger ties.
Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit, Turnbull told the media after his ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapti Bhavan.
Read: Australian PM Turnbull, Modi take Metro to Akshardham
Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on a extraordinary journey of growth and development, he said.
The achievements of India are the admiration of the world, Turnbull said, adding: We in Australia look forward to working even more closely than we have done in the past. He arrived here on Sunday evening on a four-day state visit to India.
We are bound together to ties of history of values of people. We look forward, Prime Minister (Modi) and I, to making that even stronger in this visit, Turnbull added.
Turnbull was received by Modi at the Rastrapati Bhavan and was then accorded the ceremonial guard of honour in the forecourt of the presidential residence.
This is Turnbulls first bilateral visit to India since he assumed office in September 2015.
His predecessor, Tony Abbott had visited India in September 2014 and this was followed by Modis visit to Australia in November that year. Agencies
Beijing, April 10
China today claimed full credit for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, ignoring Indian Navys role in the operation.
While a Chinese navy statement last night omitted reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese vessel whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in fighting pirates.
On the absence of any mention of the Indian Navys role in the operation, Hua said Chinas Ministry of Defence should be approached for details.
According to what we have learnt from the military on April 8 at 5 pm, the 25th convoy of Chinese navy received reports from the UKMTO about the hijack of Tuvalaun ship OS35, she said. PTI
Indian Navy posts pic
Asked about the Chinese navys statement, an Indian Navy spokesperson referred to his tweet, Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti-piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD
He also posted a picture with the tweet which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel
Bhopal, April 10
Expressing anguish over the caste system still prevailing in India, Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot has said it is ironic that temples and wells still remain inaccessible to those who actually build them.
Even today we are getting reports of one or two such incidents taking place in the country and we should ensure that they do not occur at all, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Gehlot told PTI on Monday.
Voicing his anguish over the caste system at a seminar on Dr BR Ambedkar at a college in Ujjain on Saturday, he said, You ask us to dig well, but prevent us from drinking its water... we make idols, but you closed portals of the temple for us.
You have the wells dug by us, but once the job is done, you dont let us drink water from it, Gehlot said.
Whenever you need to make a pond, you deploy us as workers and at that time we sweat it out and even spit and urinate in it, the minister said.
But when the time comes to draw water from it to quench the thirst, you do not allow us to do so saying it will turn impure, he said.
The senior BJP leader said, The portals of temples for which we make idols are closed for us once the task is over.
Who will correct it after all? the minister asked.
Though you may have paid us for making idols, the fact remains that we made it. Let us at least see and touch them, he said at the seminar ahead of Ambedkars birth anniversary on April 14.
Asked about the concern he expressed over the continuance of the caste system and the deep-rooted prejudices of the large section of the people, Gehlot told PTI, Suman Maharaj, a saint, was also present on the dais when I pointed out these incidents and also urged him to work for removing these social evils from the society.
The saint, in his address, had mentioned that the people making idols wear shoes while doing so... and responding to that I said it was not true that those making idols do so.
I pointed out that people engage Dalits for digging wells and ponds, building temples and making idols but later they are stopped from entering such religious places or to take or drink water, he said.
Such incidents are still taking place in the country though just one or two... my ministry is getting such reports from almost all the states, Gehlot said.
He also pointed out that at Alot in Ratlam district, neighbouring Ujjain, people did not allow a Dalit marriage procession to pass through their locality sometime back.
Such incidents are taking place even today and my ministry is trying to ensure that they do not occur at all, he said. PTI
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 10
A month before the constitution bench hearing on petitions challenging triple talaq, polygamy and nikah halala, the Centre on Monday requested the Supreme Court to declare these practices unconstitutional as they violated Muslim womens fundamental right to live with dignity a right available to women of other religions in India.
In its written submission placed before the top court, the NDA government said neither triple talaq nor polygamy practised in the Muslim community in India was sanctioned by Islam.
A five-judge constitution bench is to take up petitions filed by Muslim women and organisations against these discriminatory practices from May 11 during the ensuing summer vacation.
The top court which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging triple talaq, polygamy and nikah halala has already made it clear that it would not look into the Uniform Civil Code which is currently being examined by the Law Commission of India.
There are separate sets of personal laws in India for each religion governing marriage, divorce, succession, adoption and maintenance. Hindu law has substantially changed since the 1950s; activists complain that Muslim law has hardly been reformed.
The Centre said the constitutional protection of right to religion guaranteed under Article 25 was not absolute as these practices violated right to equality and right to life and liberty guaranteed under Article 14 and Article 21.
Gender equality, gender equity and gender justice are values intrinsically entwined in the guarantee of equality under Article 14 as such equality of all women in the country was something which was non-negotiable.
Practices of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy cannot be regarded as part of any essential religious practice and would not therefore automatically be entitled to protection under Article 25, the Centre said.
It said: Practices such as polygamy cannot be described as being sanctioned by religion inasmuch as historically, polygamy prevailed across communities for several centuries, including the ancient Greeks and Romans, Hindus, Jews and Zoroastrians. It had less to do with religion and more to do with social norms at the time.
The Centres submissions are in sharp contrast to those of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) which has sought to defend the practices of triple talaq, polygamy and nikah halala, saying the Supreme Court cannot consider the constitutional validity of the principles of Muslim Personal law.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, AIMPLB had on March 27 said these issues were matters to be dealt with by the legislature.
On Triple Talaq, it said: Once three pronouncements of divorce are made, the marriage dissolves and the woman becomes unlawful or haram to the man who had pronounced divorce.
Defending polygamy, AIMPLB said: Polygamy meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern for women. The policy of Islam is to discourage polygamy but not to prohibit it. Islam encourages monogamy but does not make it mandatory.
Triple talaq or Talaq-e-biddat refers to pronouncing the word talaq thrice in one sitting while 'nikah halala' permits a man to remarry the woman he divorced only after she has married someone else; the marriage has been consummated with that man and then she has been divorced or widowed.
Polygamy allows a Muslim man to take four wives.
Many Muslim women and Muslim groups have challenged these practices on the ground that these violated their fundamental right to equality, right to non-discrimination and right to live with human dignity.
The NDA government had earlier requested the court to decide whether personal law is law within the meaning of Article 13(3) of the Constitution that defines law.
Article 13(2) restrains the State from making any law that takes away or abridges fundamental rights of citizens. If personal law were to be declared law within the meaning of Article 13(3), then courts can examine it and declare it or any portion of it unconstitutional for violation of fundamental rights of citizens (read Muslim women).
The Centre wanted the court to consider if the practices of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy among Muslims were compatible with Indias obligation under international treaties and covenants it was signatory to.
Ajay Banerjee & Simran Sodhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 10
A retired Indian Naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani Army court martial for alleged spying in Pakistan.
Commander Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav (retd) alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Mashkel in Balochistan, Pakistan had claimed at the time of arrest.
An infuriated India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and in a strongly-worded demarche said if Pakistan carried out the sentence, India would view it as a case of premeditated murder.
This will be regarded as a case of premediated murder by the Indian government and its people if the sentence is carried out without observing the basic norms of justice, it said.
India had countered that Jadhav was not a spy but was operating a shipping business in Iran and was not in Pakistan.
Islamabad had alleged that he was involved in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan.
Read:
A press release of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of Pakistan said on Monday, The Chief of Pakistan Army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed his (Jadhav's) death sentence awarded by Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence.
The ISPR claimed that Jadhav confessed before a magistrate and the court that he was tasked by Indias Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) to plan, coordinate and organise espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi.
Indias demarche to the Pak envoy described the proceedings against Jadav as farcical and said, The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Shri Jadhav are farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him. It is significant that our High Commission was not even informed that Shri Jadhav was being brought to trial."
Sources in the government said Jadav was a businessman who carried cargo to and fro Iranian ports, bordering Pakistan, and was subsequently kidnapped by Pakistan in March last year. Later, Pakistan released his alleged video confession and held it up as proof of India's involvement in the Balochistan province.
New Delhi, April 10
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said the resolution of the long-pending Teesta water-sharing issue would transform bilateral ties with India.
On the Teesta issue, Prime Minister Modi once again reiterated his governments strong resolve to conclude the water-sharing treaty soon, Hasina said, speaking at a reception by India Foundation, a Delhi-based policy advocacy group.
Once it happens, the face of Indo-Bangladesh relations would undergo another transformation, she said.
On the shared water resources between the neighbours, Hasina said: We strongly believe our common water resources must act as a uniting force.
A comprehensive, basin-wide solution with in-built solution to water sharing of all common rivers holds the key to our common future, she added.
Speaking on her interaction with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banjerjee on the issue, the visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister said: But I do not know what Didi (Mamata) would do. In my talks with her she gave a new twist, but Modiji has assured that we are here to look after it.
We had asked for water but she is giving us electricity. At least we got something, she said in a lighter note.
Though an agreement on sharing of the Teesta waters was drafted ahead of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit to Bangladesh in 2011, it was withdrawn at the last moment when Banerjee protested against its provisions.
Banerjees position is that the treaty would render north Bengal dry and affect farmers of her state.
Ahead of Hasinas visit, Banerjee last Wednesday said there is no water in the river.
The West Bengal Chief Minister, whose cooperation is crucial for any river-water agreement with Bangladesh, has maintained that she will prioritise her states interest while deciding on the proposed water-sharing treaty.
She has also claimed that the Centre has not consulted her over the issue.
Hasina is on a four-day official visit to India.
This is her first bilateral visit to India in seven years. She last visited the country in January 2010. IANS
Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service
Fatehgarh Sahib, April 10
In a major success, the police have arrested four members of a dreaded gang involved in supplying synthetic drugs to students.
They used to supply drugs to students of educational institutes in this district.
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The police have also recovered arms and ammunition from the gang, which was also involved in land-grabbing and murder cases.
Tribune News Service
Amritsar/Chandigarh, April 10
The Akal Takht today criticised the Centres negative response to the Ontario Assemblys motion that declared the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as genocide.
Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh said the Centre should endorse the motion in the Lok Sabha and the state government should do so in the Vidhan Sabha.
Both governments should voice the concerns of the Sikh community. I appreciate the Canadian provinces initiative, he said.
Meanwhile, stating that the killings of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country in November 1984 were most certainly a genocide of the community, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal today requested the Centre to acknowledge the incident as a brutal genocide.
Every Indian, except those guilty of this tragedy, regards it as genocide. We request the Prime Minister to apply balm to the deep wounds of the community by intervening to ensure that the guilty are not allowed to go scot-free any longer, he said.
He added, We are grateful to the authorities and the people of Ontario for this touching gesture of compassion and solidarity. They have called this shameful chapter by its right name.
Sukhbir said the Sikhs were grateful to the members of the BJP who had courageously come out in the streets during the genocide to stand by the community.
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh/New Delhi, April 10
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has welcomed the Prime Ministers reported decision to hold a meeting of Punjab and Haryana on April 20 to resolve the contentious SYL Canal issue.
The Chief Ministers statement came in response to a submission made in the Supreme Court by the Centre that the Prime Minister has called for a meeting between Punjab and Haryana on April 20.
The SYL matter is listed before the Supreme Court on April 12, 2017.
Punjab also submitted before the court that a new government had assumed office in the state and that it would issue renewed instructions in the matter and hence an adjournment would be necessitated.
The court took note of the request made and asked counsel to renew the request at 2 pm on April 12.
Punjab was represented by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, Advocate General Atul Nanda, Advocate General and senior advocate RS Suri, while the Union of India was led by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.
Capt Amarinder said he had been seeking the Centres intervention in the matter to find an amicable settlement to the issue in the interest of Punjab.
Allowing the SYL to be constructed before ascertaining the water availability amounted to putting the cart before the horse, he said.
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 10
Less than a month after the Punjab and Haryana High Court called for details of innocents implicated in drug cases, the Punjab Police have issued letters to all its field units. They have been asked to furnish information on cases where blameless have been found drawn in drug cases by invoking the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Information to this effect was placed before the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta in an affidavit by Punjab DGP, who said details were awaited from the field units and the process was likely to take some more time.
Taking a note of the assertion, Justice Gupta set a four-week deadline after recording the state counsels submission that the court would be apprised of information received by the DGP office.
Justice Gupta has already asked the state to specify whether a policy was in place to compensate the victims of implication. The developments took place during the hearing of a contempt of court petition filed by Jasdeep Singh against police officer Parampal Singh Umranangal.
Jasdeep Singh had initially moved the court for initiation of action for his alleged implication in a case registered at a Ludhiana police station in January, 2012, under the NDPS Act.
The petitioner, running a small cloth business in Ludhiana since 1977, had claimed that he was a whistle blower and had conducted a sting operation in 2003 revealing certain facts about 14 police officials.
He moved the court for action against the police officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act. As such, he was implicated in an NDPS case on January 14, 2012.
He was ultimately acquitted by the Special Court in August, 2015. Thereafter, he made a representation for taking action against the police officials responsible for implicating him in a false case. It was disposed of by a coordinate Bench in October, 2015.
Taking up the matter, Justice Gupta had asserted it appeared that the petitioner was implicated in a case under the NDPS Act. Justice Gupta had also warned babus and top cops to either stop the practice of violating directions or face stringent action, including punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act and exemplary costs. The word of caution came after Justice Gupta observed that the High Court orders were apparently being treated nonchalantly.
Attempt to smuggle poppy husk foiled
Abohar: With the arrest of two Ludhiana residents, the Government Railway Police in Rajasthan on Monday claimed to have foiled an attempt to smuggle 40 kg of banned poppy husk into Punjab. Officials said Jaswinder Singh of Tajpur Road and Raju Balmiki of Jain-ka-Theka area, both in Ludhiana, were nabbed with the contraband as they were boarding a train at Chittorgarh for Punjab on Sunday night. Preliminary investigation indicated that they had purchased poppy husk from Madhya Pradesh. OC
GS Paul
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, April 10
Several former secret agents and the families of those who either lost their lives or have been languishing in Pakistani jails assembled at Jallianwala Bagh here today to sensitise the Central and state governments about their cause. They demanded dignified compensation.
They submitted a memorandum, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee, through the DC office, urging them to introduce administrative reforms concerned with retirement and rehabilitation of Indian Intelligence agents and their families.
Like the defence forces be it the Army, Navy or Air Force the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is serving the country for years. But when an agent is caught in a covert operation on a foreign soil, the country disowns him.
The former agents resented that except for Bhikhiwind native Sarabjit Singhs family, no recognition or compensation was given to any other family.
Jammu-based former spy Vinod Sawhney (61), who had suffered third-degree torture in Pakistani jails for around 10 years, unfolded many stories of agents who were lucky enough to return, but have been fighting a protracted battle with the government for their rehabilitation.
He produced several documents to prove that he worked as a spy for the Indian government between 1977 and 1988. With desperation writ large on his face, he said, The government uses and throws its agents. Sawhney heads the Jammu Ex-Sleuths Association. He is raising voice for the welfare of unsung heroes, who worked for the Indian intelligence agencies, and the families of those killed on the other side of the border.
The story of Ferozepurs Upender Nath Sharma (71) is no different. The Intelligence Bureau hired him in 1968. A later year later, he was caught spying in Pakistan. He was released in 1974 under the 1972 Simla Agreement. Many like me, spent prime of their youth in Pakistani jails. After my release, I did petty jobs to sustain my family. Not only me, there are many who ran from pillar to post to get their due, but to no avail, he said.
Kathua-based Kamal Kumar has been fighting for the release of his father Om Parkash lodged in Rawalpindis Adiala jail. He was holding a letter of the High Commission of India to prove that his father was indeed lodged in the Pakistani jail. My father was caught in 1998. I was two years old then. My family is living a miserable life and theres no relief from the Centre. I want early release of my father, he said.
Gurdaspurs Surinder Pal carried with him blood-stained Tricolour in which he received the body of his father Satpal Singh, an intelligence agent. The family vowed not to wash the blood stains till they got the dues from the government.
My father was nabbed in 1999 on the other side of border during the Kargil War. He was tortured in a Pakistani jail. He ultimately died. We received his body in 2000 at the Attari-Wagah border. Many government officials had been visiting our house, promising us a job and other monetary benefits, but the assurances have not materialised. To date, we havent got justice, he added.
Move ICJ over Jadhavs death penalty: Dalbir
Chandigarh: Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistan jail in 2013, said India should approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and ensure that the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan was not carried out. "Even if I assume that Jadhav was an agent, still he does not deserve death sentence. There are many Pakistani nationals lodged in our jails who are charged with serious crimes. Should they be hanged? The 2000 Red Fort attack case convict was a Pakistani, but he wasn't hanged," she said. PTI
Gagandeep Teja
Tribune News Service
Patiala, April 10
The staff of Gian Sagar Medical College, Banur, on Monday blocked the national highway to protest against the college management and Punjab government for non-payment of salaries.
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The protesting staff alleged that they had not been paid salaries for the past six months.
The road blockade led to people being harassed.
Vibha Sharma and Mukesh Ranjan
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 10
Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral on Monday raised the matter pertaining to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the Rajya Sabha.
Speaking during Zero Hour, Gujral demanded that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should withdraw the statement made following the motion in the Ontario Assembly terming the riots as genocide.
This led to protests from the Congress with its leader Anand Sharma demanding that Gujral calling the riots a state-sponsored genocide, in Parliament be expunged.
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Deputy Speaker PJ Kurien said he would expunge the words, if necessary, after going through the record.
The Ontario Assembly recently became the first legislature in Canada to carry a motion that described the riots as genocide.
India termed it misguided, as the motion was moved by a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) belonging to the ruling Liberal Party of Ontario, which had voted down a similar motion last summer.
We reject this misguided motion which is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process, said MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay.
The Akali Dal is a partner of the BJP-led alliance at the Centre.
Withdraw MEA statement against Ontario Assembly resolution: Chandumajra
Expressing unhappiness over the Centres response to one of Canadas provincial Assemblies (Ontario) resolution describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as genocide, Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra on Monday demanded that the statement of the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs should be withdrawn forthwith.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour Chandumajra said, If the 1984 carnage was not genocide, then what it could be called.
Evoking former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, the MP from Punjab said they had already termed the massacre as genocide.
I demand from the Government of India to withdraw the statement issued by the spokesperson of the foreign ministry rejecting the Ontario Assembly resolution terming the riots as genocide, he said.
Immediately after the Ontario resolution New Delhi had termed it misguided, as the motion was moved by a Member of Provincial Parliament or MPP belonging to the ruling Liberal Party of Ontario, which had voted down a similar motion last summer.
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, April 10
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh have decided to sort out their pending issues of division of assets and liabilities in a time-bound manner. This was decided at a meeting of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat with his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath at Lucknow today.
Trivendra Singh Rawat met UP Chief Minister Adityanath at his residence and discussed programmes and policies initiated by recently elected BJP governments in both the states. Both CMs also discussed the pending issues of divisions of assets and liabilities between the two states for the past 16 years and agreed to resolve these issues in a time bound manner.
It was decided to prepare a complete note with opinion of both the states on various issues followed by a meeting of Chief Secretaries of both the states. Both the Chief Ministers decided that on issues where there is consensus would be resolved by the Chief Secretaries but in case of dispute ministers of respective departments of both the states would take a decision. On issues which would remain pending, the Chief Ministers would take a final decision and even ask the Union Government to arbitrate and the decision of the Central Government would be final and binding on both the states.
The Uttarakhand Chief Minister raised the issue of getting a share in the Tehri Dam project power, control of Uttar Pradesh on the properties of Irrigation Department at Haridwar, control of Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department on various government ponds, contribution of both the states in the proposed Jamrani Dam project at Haldwani and division of assets and liabilities of various other departments, including forest, cooperatives, housing and transport.
Both the leaders stated that leadership of both the states wants to resolve the pending issues sincerely and hoped that the Central Government would also provide help and assistance. Uttarakhand BJP chief Ajay Bhatt, Additional Chief Secretary Om Parkash from Uttarakhand and senior officials of Uttar Pradesh were present in the meeting.
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 10
The Uttarakhandi film industry has appealed to the newly formed government to provide tax relief to the state film industry on the lines of Marathi film industry.
It was stated by Mumbai-based producer Meenakshi Bhatt, who was in Chandigarh today.
Bhatt said they had made a film, Gopi Bhina, which has depicted the plight of migration from the hill state of Uttarakhand. Almost two hours long movie will reveal the cultural, heritage, folk, lifestyle and places of the hill state, Bhatt said.
The film includes the star cast of famous Bollywood stars Hemant Pandey and Himani Shivpuri.
Such projects not only help in promoting the culture but also boost tourism and create job opportunities in the state, said Meenakshi Bhatt at a press conference held today at the Chandigarh Press Club.
The movie will be screened in Chandigarh on April 23 at Neelam theatre.
Lucca, April 10
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations met on Monday to forge a response to the deadly chemical attack in Syria, and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said they would consider imposing sanctions against Russian backers of President Bashar Assad.
G-7 diplomats gathering in Lucca, Italy, hope to use outrage over the attack and wide international support for the United States retaliatory missile strikes to push Russia to abandon Assad and join a new peace effort for Syria.
Speaking after meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Johnson said ministers will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions, certainly, on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures.
He said Russia had a choice: to continue backing the toxic Assad regime, or to work with the rest of the world to find a solution for Syria, a political solution.
Last weeks nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred President Donald Trump, who was previously cool to the idea of US intervention, to strike for the first time at Assads forces.
US warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the US believes the attack was launched. AP
Kathmandu/Islamabad, April 10
The family of a retired Pakistan Army officer who went missing in Nepal believes the Indian intelligence may have abducted him, the Pakistani media reported on Monday.
The Nepal Police are searching for retired Lt Col Muhammad Habib Zahir, who went missing in Lumbini in Nepal on Thursday soon after landing there for a job interview.
The Pakistan embassy in Kathmandu has asked the Nepali Foreign Ministry to help find out his whereabouts.
Saad Habib, his son, said his father reached Kathmandu-via Muscat.
"I received his last phone call from Kathmandu on April 6 and he told me that a person named Javaid Ansari received him at the airport. My father went missing after that," the Dawn quoted Saad Habib as saying.
Col Zahir retired from the Pakistan Army three years ago and was in search of a job.
A few weeks ago, he received a phone call from Britain and the caller, who identified himself as Mark Thomas, offered him an attractive job.
After reaching Lumbini, the Pakistani officer's telephone went dead.
Saad Habib said the initial probe by the family and friends revealed that the British telephone number from which the officer got the job offer was computer generated and the email domain and its associated website were registered in India.
According to the son, this has prompted concerns that Indian intelligence agencies may have abducted him.
"We have asked local authorities in Rupandehi district to look into the disappearance," Nepal Police spokesman Sarbendra Khanal told Xinhua news agency.
Authorities in Pakistan have registered a case against unknown "anti-state elements" and launched an investigation.
IANS
Two former Detroit DOT employees pleaded guilty for their roles in a CDL fraud scheme.
On March 28, Calvin Foulks and Michelle Reed pleaded guilty in Michigan State Court, Detroit, to forgery and bribery. Foulks, of Southfield, Michigan, and Reed, of Novi, Michigan, also agreed to pay restitution to the city of Detroit in the amounts of $1,000 and $625 respectively.
In February 2017, Foulks and Reed turned themselves in and were arraigned on felony charges for taking more than $4,000 in cash bribes in return for falsifying multiple Michigan Department of State documents. The forged documents stated that applicants had taken and passed the CDL skills test when, in fact, they had not.
The Michigan Secretary of State invalidated 85 CDL tests related to the scheme. Affected drivers were required to retest before their CDL driving privileges could be restored.
DDOT Director Dan Dirks said the incidents happened between May 2012 and June 2013. Once it was discovered, DDOT stopped conducting its own CDL testing. Since that time all DDOT drivers have received their certifications through a third-party vendor, according to the Detroit Free Press. The cost for this certification is paid for by the students.
DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with assistance from the Detroit Area Public Corruption Task Force, which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Detroit Police Department-Internal Affairs, and the State of Michigan Attorney Generals Office.
The new automated manual transmission joint venture between Cummins and Eaton will include both existing and new products for global distribution. Photo: Eaton
A new joint venture, Eaton Cummins Automated Manual Transmission Technologies, includes current Eaton AMTs as well as a new, heavy-duty AMT slated for introduction later this year, plus future AMT products designed for commercial vehicle markets worldwide.
Building on a well-established commercial vehicle powertrain partnership, Eaton and Cummins announced the new venture April 10. The two companies will jointly design, develop, manufacture and service a global portfolio of automated manual transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles.
Cummins and Eaton will each own 50% of the new joint venture, and Eaton will receive $600 million in cash from Cummins for its interest.
The new joint venture includes both current Eaton AMTs as well as a new, heavy-duty AMT slated for introduction later this year, plus future AMT products designed for commercial vehicle markets worldwide. Both Cummins and Eaton dealers worldwide will support the new companys AMT products.
Ken Davis, president of Eatons Vehicle Group, said in a conference call that the new joint venture company will develop both proprietary AMTs that are vertically integrated with Cummins diesel engines, as well as stand-alone AMTs for OEMs and for customers specing non-Cummins engine solutions.
Assuming the required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions are met, the companies expect the transaction to close in the third quarter. Cummins will consolidate joint venture results as part of its Components business segment.
Eatons Vehicle Group will retain its global manual transmission business, global clutch business, current generation medium-duty and heavy-duty automated transmission business outside of North America, global aftermarket business, light-duty transmission business, agricultural transmission business, and global automotive business and associated product lines.
"This announcement today is a historic milestone in Cummins efforts to become a global powertrain solutions provider." Ed Pence, Cummins
Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies brings together two strong companies that have worked together for decades, have similar values and have a shared commitment to their customers success," said Ed Pence, vice president and general manager of Cummins High Horsepower Engine Group. "This announcement today is a historic milestone in Cummins efforts to become a global powertrain solutions provider by supplying our customers the best-performing commercial vehicles possible with that is with our own engines, or supporting proprietary OEM diesel engines.
Pence added that the new joint venture is wholly in keeping with Cummins historical product offerings, and will complement those existing product lines as well. When you look at our history at Cummins and the engines, turbochargers, emissions and air-handling solutions as well as our filtration and fuel systems, we believe this new joint venture fits very well into that existing product portfolio and will give our global OEM partners even more choices to help them develop the best performing commercial vehicles they can using the specifications of their choosing.
Cummins Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger added, "Our growth strategy includes expanding our product offerings and extending our global footprint by becoming the worlds leading powertrain supplier. Our JV with Eaton will deliver the most advanced automated transmissions and develop an integrated powertrain and service network that supports our customers like never before.
Photo: Evan Lockridge
Swift Transportation Co. and Knight Transportation Inc. will merge via a stock swap to form a new company, Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. The companies said the deal will bring together two of the largest players in trucking for a combined enterprise value of $6 billion.
The Phoenix-based companies announced on April 10 that their respective boards of directors have unanimously approved the merger of Knight and Swift in an all-stock transaction that they said will create the industry's largest full truckload company.
The Knight-Swift shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KNX." The transaction, subject to customary stockholder and antitrust approval, is expected to close in this year's third quarter.
This transaction combines under common ownership two long-standing industry leaders creating North America's premier truckload transportation company with $5 billion in annual revenue and a Top 5 truckload presence in dry van, refrigerated, dedicated, cross-border Mexico and Canada, and a significant presence in brokerage and intermodal, the companies said in a statement.
The new holding company will remain headquartered in Phoenix and will operate with some 23,000 tractors, 77,000 trailers, and 28,000 employees. The companies noted that, post-merger, the distinct Swift and Knight brands and operations will be maintained.
Under the terms of the agreement, each Swift share will convert into 0.72 shares of Knight-Swift by means of a reverse stock split. Each share of Knight will be exchanged for one Knight-Swift share.
The companies said that based on the $30.65 closing price of Knight shares on April 7, the last trading day before the announcement, the implied value per share of Swift is $22.07. Upon the deals closing, Swift stockholders will own approximately 54% and Knight stockholders will own approximately 46% of the combined company.
Based on Knights closing share price on April 7; the number of combined company shares expected to be outstanding after closing; and the combined net debt of Swift and Knight as of December 31, 2016, the combined company would have an implied enterprise value of approximately $6 billion.
Knight is expected to be the accounting acquirer, and the transaction is expected to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share with expected pre-tax synergies of approximately $15 million in the second half of 2017, $100 million in 2018, and $150 million in 2019.
The Swift-Knight deal will outweigh the purchase of Con-way by XPO Logistics as the largest acquisition in trucking.
In Knights 26-year history, we have built a truckload company with industry leading margins and investment returns, said Knight Executive Chairman Kevin Knight. When the two companies began discussions, we had four goals in mind: create a company with the best strategic position in our industry; identify significant realizable synergies that would create value for both sets of stockholders; create a business that over the long-term will operate at Knight's historical margins and financial returns; and agree on a leadership and corporate governance framework that will benefit all stakeholders. I am confident we have achieved those goals.
Swift Chairman Richard Dozer said the combined companies will be able to capitalize on economies of scale to achieve substantial synergies. This is an exciting chapter in the Swift story and everyone who is a part of it should be both proud of what we bring to the table and excited about what lies ahead. I am confident in this new team, in the new structure and in the future of Swift in the industry.
Jerry Moyes, Swift founder and controlling stockholder, said he cannot think of a better combination. The Knight and Moyes families grew up together, and the Knights helped me build Swift before starting their own company and making it an industry leader in growth and profitability.
"I am confident that we have the right approach to maximizing the contribution of both teams, and I look forward to helping the Knight-Swift leadership team in any way I can to continue the legacy of both great companies, Moyes added.
[Swift founder] Jerry Moyes will serve on the board of the combined entity and will be allowed to name another board member, according to an April 10 analyst update released by Stifel. Up to 10 board members will come from the current Knight Board. Effectively, this deal represents the pupil acquiring the teacher's company [Knight founder Kevin Knight launched his career at Swift] and will give the Knight team control of the new entity.
Stifel also observed that Swift appears to have struggled with the retirement of its founder and spiritual leader, Jerry Moyes. Former Chief Operating Officer Kevin Knight will be in a strong position to provide strategic leadership of the combined entity. Mr. Knight is known as one of if not the best operator in the truckload industry and we believe [he] will add some operating discipline and strategic direction to the Swift organization.
Given that the merger is being announced right after completion of the Schneider IPO last week, Stifel added that it may be designed to allow the combined company an opportunity to better compete with its newly financially invigorated, big orange perpetual motion machine from Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Take a canoe to the lower end of what is considered Oklahomas premier scenic river and the ride concludes over 3 miles of water that could be called upper Tenkiller Lake or it could be considered the lower end of the Illinois River or an area a state senator last week called no mans land.
Sen. Wayne Shaw, R-Grove, authored Senate Bill 75 to remedy that situation. The measure called for extending the scenic river designation of the Upper Illinois River from where it ends now at its confluence with Barren Fork Creek (also a scenic river) 3 miles downstream to the boat ramp at Horseshoe Bend in the uppermost reaches of Tenkiller Lake
The bill passed the Senate in March, but it failed in the House Appropriations and Budget Select Agencies Subcommittee on a 4-3 vote Wednesday, effectively killing it and leaving the river at status quo for at least two more years.
Its just kind of become a no mans land where nobody supervises the river, Shaw said.
Riverside residents pushed for the bill, according to retired optometrist Dr. George Foster, who has been familiar with the area since his first years at Northeastern State University at Tahlequah in 1965. He retired and built a home on the river in the 1990s.
He said residents will continue to push for the designation and that the issue will be back in front of legislators again, likely in the next session.
It shouldnt be just the residents pushing for this, he said. It should be anyone who loves the river and the lake, who has seen how it has changed. Unless someone stands up for it in the long term, for generations to come it will continue to deteriorate.
Foster on Friday said he regretted some of his words in the committee hearing where the bill failed.
The area is scarcely patrolled, and partiers and others with airboats and jet craft motoring up into the steams after midnight often disrupt the neighborhood, he said.
Focusing on his noise complaints in front of the committee was a mistake, he said.
The point I didnt bring up that I should have was that little over 3 miles is beyond the scenic river and its not into Lake Tenkiller; there has been no security to it, no Highway Patrol response, no sheriff, no rangers, he said. Lets take the stewardship of this away from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who have done nothing in the area, and roll it into the new management under the GRDA Scenic Rivers to give them the opportunity to be good stewards and improve the cleanliness and security.
Rep. Steve Vaughan, R-Ponca City, voted against the bill and said he heard Fosters complaints.
My concern is if the situation is fair to all involved, he said. The people who have the boats have as much right to be on the river as the people who have built homes above the river.
First you have to try to work with people to see if you can make it work out. You dont shut down the river because you think someones motor is too loud, he said.
Brannen Parrish, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, said the Corps is looking into problems in the area.
We are working to try to improve that area up there, he said. We are working to get a law enforcement contract and working on getting a cleaning contract for those areas.
Many anglers from around Oklahoma and Missouri go to the area this time of year for the spring sand bass spawning run. We also of course encourage people to police their own areas and not to litter, Parrish said.
Ed Fite, vice president for scenic rivers and water quality for GRDA, said he sees a different picture and said he told lawmakers so.
There is a boat ramp at Horseshoe Bend but there are no facilities that are maintained, no regular trash collection, no bathrooms, signs are damaged, and what amenities are left are in disarray, he said. Its an area that gets a lot of use by in-state and out-of-state users and it needs a lot of help.
I dont think the Corps has the staffing or the funding to monitor and maintain that stretch of river to the extent it needs ... There is no doubt in my mind GRDA would have committed the resources to improve Horseshoe Bend and also stepped up to repair and re-open some of the places along that stretch that have been gated and closed in recent years, he said.
Fite acknowledged Vaughans concern that new rules could be unfair to current users, but added that seasonal exceptions to scenic river designations to allow use of motor-driven boats are used in many designated areas.
In fact, Fite charged that Vaughans concerns were the only valid ones raised in committee and said potential agriculture issues cited by other members of the committee with their no votes were kind of predictable and not applicable because the vast majority of land along the stream is owned by the Corps of Engineers.
In 40 years working for scenic rivers it was not a surprise, he said.
Legislators past and present have made concerted efforts to stop scenic rivers ... Each time Ive gone to a hearing or some public process where we try to discuss bringing in a new scenic river its always been the farm lobby that is embedded within the Legislature that objects to the changes, he said.
The same political patronage appraisers that Sheriff Vic Regalado inherited from Stanley Glanz a year ago, including three with ties to Regalados campaign donations, continue to earn thousands of dollars performing appraisals, according to a Tulsa World analysis.
The 11 appraisers collectively have been paid at least $227,000 since July 6, individually accumulating from $15,000 to $26,000 in that span, according to a Tulsa World database compiled from district court records.
Regalado told the Tulsa World in a May 6 interview that all of the appraisers he inherited would have to reapply for their jobs, a process he hoped to accomplish after a month or two of developing and implementing a revamped application process.
Regalado, who was first sworn in as sheriff April 11, 2016, also told the newspaper that his policy would preclude appointments of those within two degrees of separation of his campaign donors, as well as two degrees of separation from his family.
In an interview with the Tulsa World on Friday, Regalado said he paused the turnover process because he became aware of a software program that can perform accurate appraisals. He said he wanted to explore that opportunity and support state law reform a bill still winding its way through the legislative process that would allow its use as an option in lieu of people.
I didnt want to make the changes then and turn around and tell (new appointees) were potentially going with this software and they have to leave, Regalado said.
A Tulsa World reporter noted that the sheriff has been in office for a year and yet three appraisers with political ties are still being used, while only one appraiser has real estate credentials that can be confirmed in public database searches.
Thats a good point. We may be moving forward quicker than I thought, then, to be quite honest with you, Regalado said. I think I may have to look at that, because if its going to be a qualification, anyway, we might as well start now. Im going to take a look at that.
Regalado said he knows what changes need to be made from Glanzs administration a lot of them and that he has had to prioritize them because some have taken an enormous amount of my time.
But the sheriff added that he had a friend a certified appraiser who does work in Tulsa County review the Sheriffs Office appraisers for potential issues. So, Regalado said, he has no qualms about their continuing to serve.
He said theyre doing a good job, and the process is working the way it should, Regalado said.
The Tulsa World reported in May 2015 that friends and relatives of Glanz had earned up to $51,000 per year for the equivalent of one day of work per week appraising foreclosed property in what Glanz termed political patronage positions and a hell of a job.
Since April 2009, the 11 current appraisers 10 appointed by Glanz together have received at least $3.3 million, according to the Worlds database. Adding in unknown appraisers, or ones who no longer do them, raises that total to $3.9 million.
Court records show that eight of the current 11 have performed appraisals at least as recently as March and the other three as recently as February.
Regalado also discussed appraisal reform while on the campaign trail, offering insights into how he would reform appraiser appointments in lieu of Glanzs practice of political patronage.
Political patronage should have no place in a professional Sheriffs Office, Regalado wrote in response to a World candidate questionnaire. I believe that appraiser positions should be filled with qualified and experienced individuals who will do their jobs efficiently and effectively, without regard to political connections or personal relationships.
Three of the appraisers Cassie Barkett, Deborah Brewster and Reuben Davis have ties to Regalados election campaign, according to finance reports.
Davis donated $2,000 to Regalados campaign. He is a longtime friend of Glanzs and a former reserve sheriffs deputy.
Deborah Brewster is the wife of Clark Brewster, an attorney the Sheriffs Office uses to defend itself in jail-related lawsuits. Barkett is their daughter. Clark Brewster donated $500 to Regalados campaign.
Regalado emphasized on Friday that he knows, and that those three people understand, that they arent still appraisers as a campaign favor.
There are more pressing problems that I have dealt with and I continue to deal with, Regalado said. But it doesnt mean that has been forgotten. And it will be taken care of when the timing is right.
Leslie McCrary has been paid the most of all Sheriffs Office appraisers since July 6, garnering $26,334.
McCrary is the daughter of Robert Bates, a longtime friend of Glanzs, a Sheriffs Office benefactor and a former Sheriffs Office reserve deputy. Bates is serving a four-year prison sentence for second-degree manslaughter for accidentally shooting a man, killing him, during a Sheriffs Office gun sting two years ago.
During the May 6 interview, Regalado also said he would require that future appointees hold, at a minimum, a real estate sales or broker license.
Only one of the current appraisers holds a current and active credential, according to a World search of the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission licensee database and the Appraisal Subcommittee national registry.
Howard Kelsey, a distant relative of Glanzs, has an active real estate license that doesnt expire until November 2018.
Barkett, Davis and McCrary are among the six or seven appraisers who dont appear to have any certifications, past or present. The other appraisers appear to have certifications that either are inactive or expired.
The practice is legal and largely unregulated in Oklahoma counties. The most populous counties have paid millions of dollars each year to sheriff-appointed positions, according to another World database that looked at money paid for appraisals in Oklahomas seven most populous counties from 2014 to 2015.
Each appraiser in Tulsa County nets $99 per appraisal, with dozens sometimes occurring in a day, according to court records. The $99 payments are paid in the foreclosure process, not with taxpayer dollars.
The few stipulations on the matter in state law include that three disinterested persons must take an oath to impartially appraise and return an estimate of the real value of properties.
An appraiser reform bill sponsored by state Rep. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, failed to pass in the 2016 legislative session. The legislation was designed to require a level of certification and address cronyism concerns.
In the current session, another attempt at reform is written into House Bill 1707, which is authored by Rep. Randy McDaniel, R-Oklahoma City, and Sen. Gary Stanislawski, R-Tulsa.
Proposed alterations include use of impartial outside party or parties which shall not be associated with the sheriff and at least three independent, disparate and credible sources to estimate the current market value on foreclosed properties.
OKLAHOMA CITY An email telling teenage pages that there are cross-dressers in the building caused a noon-time furor in the Capitol on Monday.
The email, ostensibly from a House staffer who oversees the page program, was apparently prompted by the visit of about 70 LGBTQ students from the Tulsa area who were lobbying mostly on behalf of HIV awareness and education funding and support. Their presence prompted someone at the Capitol to arrange for pages to use private staff and member restrooms.
A mass email with the electronic signature of Karen Kipgen, supervisor of the page program, was sent to offices within the Capitol saying As per the Speakers office, Pages are being allowed access to the ladies restroom across from 401, for today. Again, there are cross-dressers in the building.
Speaker Charles McCalls office quickly disavowed the message, saying it was not approved by McCall nor any of his immediate staff.
Never have I felt so unsupported, said Pickles Lee, 18, a senior at Owasso High School. This email sort of escalated everything.
Oklahomans for Equality Director Toby Jenkins, whose organization sponsored the group, said the visit had been uneventful to that point, though legislators had been hard for the group to find.
Somewhat ironically, the LGBTQ youth were talking less about issues directly affecting them this year because most bills viewed as discriminatory against them have been killed.
We came down to the Capitol to talk about laws, said Ella Gambino, 17, a Union High School senior. To be referred to as cross-dressers is something you say as an insult.
A spokesman for McCall said the incident is being investigated.
The email was not authorized by me, my staff or my office, McCall said in a statement. It was sent unilaterally by a House staff member without any input or permission. I was unaware that such an email was being sent, and the remarks contained in the email are not condoned by me or the Office of the Speaker. As Speaker, all Oklahomans should feel welcome in the Oklahoma Capitol building. We are looking into this matter, and it will be taken seriously.
This week and next the History channel premieres Navy SEALs: Americas Secret Warriors.
The two part doco screened on the US History Channel in February.
Navy SEALs: Americas Secret Warriors is an in depth, behind the curtain look at the most prestigious fighting force in the world the Navy Seals. From their inception in WWII (and the pivotal role the Seals played in DDay) and through their missions in Vietnam, we trace the Seals rise to a watershed moment in 1980. After a failed government mission to rescue American hostages in Iran, Navy Seal Team Six the elite of the elite is formed.
Seal Team Six is responsible for some of the most daring and iconic missions in U.S. military history, from the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates to the epic take down of Osama Bin Laden. Their crucial role in the 21st century nature of war has made them a lethal team of highly trained soldiers capable of executing missions anywhere in the world, at any time, against any enemy, and in near total secrecy.
Includes extensive interviews with former SEALs, including some who speak on camera for the first time.
Tuesdays from April 11 at 9.30pm.
Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has her next TV project greenlit with Amazon Prime picking up The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for two seasons -their first ever multi-season pick-up.
Starring Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards) as Miriam Midge Maisel, it centres around a 1958 New York City woman who has everything shes ever wantedthe perfect husband, two kids, and an elegant Upper West Side apartment perfect for hosting Yom Kippur dinner. But her perfect life suddenly takes an unexpected turn and Midge discovers a previously unknown talent one that changes her life forever. She charts a course that takes her from her comfortable life on Riverside Drive, through the basket houses and nightclubs of Greenwich Village as she storms the world of stand-up comedya course that will ultimately lead her to a spot on Johnny Carsons couch.
The project was one of 5 pilots showcased to subscribers with an audience vote.
In her onstage debut, Mrs. Maisel killed and had audiences responding overwhelmingly with digital applause, said Joe Lewis, Head of Comedy, Drama & VR, Amazon Studios. Like any great young stand-up, were excited to see what she has to say next and for a long time to come. That made it an easy decision to order two seasons from Amy and her incredible cast.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel also stars Michael Zegen as Midges husband Joel Maisel, Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson, Tony Shalhoub as Midges father Abe Weissman, and Marin Hinkle as Midges mother Rose Weissman.
Source: Deadline
Former Winners & Losers / Neighbours actor and Big Brother housemate Blair McDonough is filming a guest role for Home and Away.
He leaked the news via his Instagram with a photo of the script, before the network had announced it.
Just like riding a bike right?! #homeandaway he revealed.
A Channel Seven spokesman later told News Corp, Channel Seven can confirm: Blair McDonough has commenced shooting a guest role on Home and Away.
He has also appeared in Sea Patrol and Heartbeat.
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).
AIM: MARL
TSX-V: MARL
10 April 2017
Granite House, La Grande Rue,
St. Martin, Guernsey, GY1 3RS
Channel Islands
Issue of Equity- Warrant Exercise
Mariana Resources Ltd ("Mariana" or the "Company"), the AIM ("MARL") and TSXV ("MARL") listed exploration and development company with projects in Turkey, Cote d'Ivoire and South America, announces that the following warrants have been exercised into ordinary shares with funds received.
187,500 Warrants exercised at GBP0.30
The Company will issue and allot 187,500 new ordinary shares.
Admission to AIM
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and the TSXV. Dealings are expected to commence on or about 13 April 2017 ("Admission").
Following Admission, there will be a total of 126,422,018 ordinary shares on issue.
Mariana Resources Limited
"Glen Parsons"
Glen Parsons, CEO
**ENDS**
Glen Parsons (CEO) Mariana Resources Ltd +61 2 9437 4588 Eric Roth (COO) Mariana Resources Ltd +56 9 8818 1243 Karen Davies (IR) Mariana Resources Ltd (Canada) +1 604 314 6270 Rob Adamson RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0041 Will Souter RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0050 In U.K. Oliver Stansfield Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5061 Jonathan Evans Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5016 Camilla Horsfall Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3224 Megan Ray Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3203
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.
About Mariana Resources
Mariana Resources Ltd is a TSX.V and AIM (MARL) quoted exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver, and copper projects in South America, Turkey, and Ivory Coast.
Mariana's most advanced asset is the Hot Maden gold-copper project in northeast Turkey, which is a joint venture with Turkish partner Lidya Madencilik (30% Mariana and 70% Lidya) and which is rapidly advancing to development. On January 17, 2017, Mariana released the results of a Preliminary Economic Study ("PEA") which demonstrated exceptional potential economics for the Hot Maden Project (after-tax NPV and IRR of USD 1.37B and 153%, respectively) based on a development scenario incorporating a 1Mtpa underground mining / processing operation and the production of two saleable concentrates (a copper-gold concentrate and a gold-pyrite concentrate). This PEA was based on the updated (July 25, 2016) mineral resource estimate of 3.43 Moz gold equivalent (Indicated Category) and 0.09 Moz gold equivalent (Inferred Category) (100% basis) in the Main Zone, as well as a maiden 351,000 Moz gold equivalent (Inferred Category) (100% basis) resource in the New Southern Discovery. Elsewhere in Turkey, Mariana holds a 100% interest in the Ergama gold-copper project.
On October 7, 2016, Mariana announced the signing of a binding Term Sheet to acquire an indirect 80% interest in Ivory Coast-focused private exploration company Awale Resources SARL ("Awale"). Through the transaction Mariana will gain an immediate foothold in an established exploration portfolio with known gold mineralisation and artisanal gold workings, and which comprises i) 3 granted contiguous licenses (1,191 km2) in the Bondoukou area, and ii) 4 licenses under application (1,593 km2) in both the Bondoukou and Abengourou areas. The Boundoukou concessions lie along the southwestern extension of the Birimian Bole-Nangodi greenstone belt in adjacent Ghana, host to a number of high grade orogenic gold deposits.
In southern Argentina, the Company's core gold-silver projects are Las Calandrias (100%), Sierra Blanca (100%), Los Cisnes (100%), and Bozal (100%). These projects are part of a 100,000+ Ha land package in the Deseado Massif epithermal gold-silver district in mining-friendly Santa Cruz Province.
In Suriname, Mariana has a direct holding of 10.2% of the Nassau Gold project. The Nassau Gold Project is a 28,000 Ha exploration concession located approximately 125 km south east of the capital Paramaribo and immediately adjacent to Newmont Mining's 4.2Moz gold Merian project.
In Peru and Chile, Mariana is focusing on acquiring new opportunities which complement its current portfolio.
Hot Maden Mineral Resource Estimate - Main Gold-Copper Zone (2 g/t AuEq Cut-off) Indicated Mineral Resource Domain Tonnes Au Cu Zn AuEq Au Cu AuEq t g/t % % g/t* Ounces Tonnes Ounces** Main Zone LG 463,000 1.1 1.1 0.3 2.4 17,000 5,000 36,000 Main Zone HG 4,501,000 3.9 1.9 0.2 6.3 570,000 87,000 908,000 Main Zone UHG 2,086,000 32.7 3.5 0.1 36.9 2,195,000 73,000 2,476,000 Mixed Gold-Zinc 17,000 7.5 3.1 3.6 11.2 4,000 1,000 6,000 Peripheral Lodes 60,000 2.1 0.4 0.4 2.5 4,000 5,000 Total 7,127,000 12.2 2.3 0.2 15.0 2,790,000 166,000 3,431,000 Inferred Mineral Resource Domain Tonnes Au Cu Zn AuEq Au Cu AuEq t g/t % % g/t* Ounces Tonnes Ounces** Main Zone LG 395,000 1.7 0.9 0.03 2.8 21,000 4,000 35,000 Main Zone HG 31,000 3.9 1.6 0.1 5.8 4,000 6,000 Main Zone UHG 6,000 39.1 2.1 0.01 41.6 7,000 8,000 Mixed Gold-Zinc 4,000 1.7 0.4 2.4 2.2 Peripheral Lodes 282,000 3.2 0.9 0.1 4.3 29,000 2,000 38,000 Total 718,000 2.7 0.9 0.1 3.8 62,000 7,000 88,000
Hot Maden - Southern Gold-Copper Zone (2 g/t AuEq Cut-off) Inferred Mineral Resource Domain Tonnes Au Cu Zn AuEq Au Cu AuEq t g/t % % g/t* Ounces Tonnes Ounces** South Zone LG 396,000 2.8 0.7 0.0 3.6 35,000 3,000 46,000 South Zone HG 583,000 5.3 0.7 0.0 6.1 98,000 4,000 114,000 Main Zone UHG 224,000 22.2 1.0 0.0 23.4 160,000 2,000 169,000 Mixed Gold-Zinc 44,000 9.0 1.0 3.2 10.2 13,000 15,000 Peripheral Lodes 104,000 1.9 0.3 0.0 2.2 6,000 7,000 Total 1,352,000 7.2 0.7 0.1 8.1 313,000 10,000 351,000
*Au Equivalence (AuEq) calculated using a 100 day moving average of $US1,215/ounce for Au and $US2.13/pound for Cu as of May 29, 2016. No adjustment has been made for metallurgical recovery or net smelter return as these remain uncertain at this time. Based on grades and contained metal for Au and Cu, it is assumed that both commodities have reasonable potential to be economically extractable.
*-The formula used for Au equivalent grade is: AuEq g/t = Au + [(Cu % x 22.0462 x 2.13)/(1215/31.1035)] and assumes 100 % metallurgical recovery. **-Au equivalent ounces are calculated by mulitplying Mineral Resource tonnage by Au equivalent grade and converting for ounces. The formula used for Au equivalent ounces is: AuEq Oz = [Tonnage x AuEq grade (g/t)]/31.1035
Safe Harbour
This press release contains certain statements which may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as at the date of this press release and include, without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, the realization, cost, timing and extent of mineral resource estimates, estimated future exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, and requirements for additional capital. The words "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimate", "forecasts", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "may", "will", or similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the effects of general economic conditions; the price of gold, silver and copper; misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements; risks associated with international operations; the need for additional financing; risks inherent in exploration results; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters; currency and commodity price fluctuations; title matters; environmental liability claims; unanticipated operational risks; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities; political risk; and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's annual financial statements for the most recently completed financial year which is available on the Company's website at www.marianaresources.com . Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, 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 forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
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Published April 10, 2017
During April, the University of Louisiana Monroe will host four events to raise public awareness and provide education on preventing sexual violence. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The events are presented by the WellSpring and several campus groups, including ULM Counseling Center, Femhawks, Title IX Task Force and Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. Items for care packages for victims and survivors of sexual assault will be collected throughout the month. For lists of items needed, visit the Office of Recruitment, Sandel Hall 104 or Title IX Coordinator Office, Library 612.
The events are:
Monday: Sexual Assault Awareness Seminar at 5:30 p.m. in Nursing Auditorium.
Tuesday: Visit the Quad with the Title IX Task Force, the Wellspring, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Tuesday: Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event starts at 4 p.m. in the Quad with registration beginning at 3:30 p.m.
April 26: Denim Day Wear jeans to show solidarity with victims and survivors of sexual assault. The events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jaleesa Harris at jharris@ulm.edu or Melanie Clark at mclark@wellspringalliance.org.
Many Rohingya children like these, photographed in February 2017, live in overcrowded makeshift sites in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar. UNHCR/Saiful Huq Omi
UKHIYA, Bangladesh At their age, Asif and Suleman* should be running around, kicking up dirt, giving their parents trouble. Instead the young brothers sit like statues, staring blankly with dull eyes.
Suleman is 12 and Asif eight, but they look much younger than their peers. In recent weeks, their daily routine has consisted of religious school and private English lessons. No play and only sporadic sleep.
I have dreams of happy children playing, said Suleman unexpectedly. But in my dreams we cant play with them. Im always afraid. If something falls on the ground or there is a sudden noise, I jump and remember what happened.
The boys are among many distressed Rohingya children who have arrived in Bangladesh since October last year, when a security crackdown in Myanmars northern Rakhine state tore them from their families. More than 70,000 people are estimated to have fled to Bangladesh in the last five months; as many as half could be children aged under 18 years.
"Im always afraid."
Suleman and Asif were playing in their backyard when their home was raided. They ran away, unable to save their little brother who was playing in the front of the house. They believed their parents were shot and killed in the attack, but do not know if their brother survived.
Fleeing with some neighbours, they were eventually taken to their uncle Mustafa in Bangladesh, who had fled earlier in October with his family. Today they live in a makeshift shelter and have received some rice and relief supplies.
Beyond their immediate needs, these boys will need psychosocial counselling to help them overcome the loss of their loved ones and the violence they have witnessed.
In Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps, multi-age play spaces have been set up to help address mental distress.
Play is essential for all children to build a foundation for learning, but it is particularly important for refugee children because of its therapeutic role, said Marzia Dalto, UNHCRs Protection Officer in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh. When properly managed, safe and imaginative play can help to reduce stress and optimize brain development. It can provide healing opportunities for childrens emotional trauma and offer hope to break the cycle of physical and emotional violence.
Asif, 8, and Suleman, 12, say their parents were killed in the violence near Maungdaw, Myanmar. UNHCR
For some, play can feel like a luxury. Kamal*, 12, lost his parents during the violence in Myanmar. With nothing to their name, he and three elder sisters fled to Bangladesh in November. They had to borrow 80,000 kyat (US$60) from a neighbour to pay for a boat to cross the Naf River.
In Bangladesh, they were found by a long-staying Rohingya refugee, Noor Kaida, who decided to host them despite having four children of her own.
I came across these children crying at a graveyard nearby, said Noor Kaida, 27, who herself fled Myanmar as a baby with her parents. I took them in because they have nothing, no one. They are so vulnerable and we have a moral responsibility for them.
"They are so vulnerable and we have a moral responsibility for them.
As the only boy, Kamal volunteered to work at a tea shop in town. He barely comes back to their shelter anymore.
His eldest sister Talifa*, 18, worries incessantly: They are still so young. How we will find food and clothing, how we will survive? We are also in debt to our neighbour for the boat fees. He keeps asking and I promised to beg or do whatever I can to repay him.
Their host says she will shelter them for as long as she can until they find their own shelter or get married."
Good intentions aside, the presence of so many unaccompanied minors raises serious protection concerns around the risk of child labour, early marriage, trafficking and sexual exploitation.
UNHCR has mobilized community support groups involving women and youth in the refugee camps to reach out to these vulnerable children. The agency is also working with partners to trace family members where possible, and to assess the best interests of those who have no surviving family. Options could range from tracing and reunification with close relatives, to appointing guardians or foster families who can offer care and guidance.
I think of my parents often, said Talifa. We bear the pain inside but we have to deal with it.
*Names changed for protection reasons
Zimbabwean refugee Nomsa Ndlovu* (left) is living her life positively, confidently and with a clarity she could not have acquired, had she not come to terms with my sexuality and the resulting determination to be true to herself. She lives with her South African partner, Mpumi Dlamini.* UNHCR/Pumla Rulashe
Johannesburg, South Africa - For several years the suffocating pressure Nomsa Ndlovu* felt keeping her sexual orientation a secret weighed heavily on her shoulders.
Virulent rumours had started to swirl about in her community and the impact these would have on her family and elderly mother in particular, informed her decision to flee her native Zimbabwe in 2004, for neighbouring South Africa.
Years before I left home, she explains, I tried to conform to the cultural norms and standards prescribed for men and women, so as not to stigmatize and outcast my family because of my sexual orientation, but I failed.
Ndlovu, like girls her age let herself fall pregnant so that suspicion about sexuality would be contained. Two children later however, she knew that she was fighting a losing battle and one whose outcome she had to come to terms with.
Coming to South Africa was one step in that direction, she says.
In spite of her relocation to a country, whose Consitution was the first in the world to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and the first and to date, only African country to legalise same sex marriage, Ndlovu continued to live amongst and in the familiarity of Zimbabwes refugee community prolonging her inability and agony to live openly as a lesbian.
I continued to fool myself and the men I had relationships with knowing full well that my heart wasnt in what I was doing.
Ndlovu endured 10 long years fearful of revealing her secret, but knowing in the back of her mind that sooner than later, it had to be revealed.
It was in 2014, when she was studying journalism at a college in Johannesburg, that Ndlovu took the momentous step that would change her life for the better. The pursuit of the truth, the first principle underpinning the importance of journalism, was the key that helped her cross the barrier that would steer her life in the direction she could only dream of, over the years.
Through her daughter, who is also lesbian, Ndlovu met her life partner, Mpumi Dlamini* in November 2014.
With the support of her South African partner, Ndlovus acceptance of herself and the confidence that grew out of this decision encouraged her to grow her circle of friends not only amongst South Africans but within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, which has support groups.
It is through an LGBTI support group on Whatsapp Messenger that she met James Obi, a volunteer HIV/AIDS counsellor, who with the support of UNHCRs social assistance NGO partner, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), set up a test and treat programme in the office, on 01 February 2017.
In September 2016, South Africa became one of the worlds first countries to begin rolling out post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) under the universal test and treat (UTT) programme, which provides antiretroviral medicine (ARV) irrespective of ones CD4 count to any HIV positive person.
Obi had advertised the services offered at the test and treat programme he is running at JRS, within the LGBTI support group Ndlovu is a member of.
After speaking to her partner about testing for HIV, Ndlovus new found confidence and desire to live her life true to herself and honest in her relationship with Dlamini and those around her, decided to take up the offer of an HIV test.
We were tested as a couple at JRS, says Ndlovu, after Obi had made the pre and post counselling process comfortable and relaxed.
When my test results came up positive and my partners negative, I couldnt have been in a better environment for the support I need.
JRS has over many years not only provided assistance to refugees with specific needs through financial support and other resources provided by UNHCR, but it has developed a reputation in the refugee community for being one of the few safe spaces refugees seek for succour and solace.
Since owning up to my sexual orientation, says Ndlovu I have increasingly come to realise how South Africa and JRS through UNHCR, have given me and other LGBTI refugees the time, the space and resources to be who we are, to talk about our lives, the problems and dilemmas we face, and the solutions we can arrive at, because this would not be possible in the countries we have come from.
Given their past persecution experiences in the countries of origin and the negative social attitudes they face within the communities they live, LGBTI refugees are recognised in UNHCR programmes as a group with specific needs and are therefore prioritised for services and social assistance, including short-term food provision, accommodation and basic needs support, among others. The agency has also received earmarked HIV funding. Additional support will be provided to LGBTI refugees, which UNHCR deems a particular population group in need of support, as well as young women and persons of concern engaging in, or are at-risk of engaging in transactional sex. UNHCRs outreach programmes targeting the identification of persons with specific needs, who are referred to relevant organisations since 2016, reached over 17,500 persons of concern.
For UNHCR, says Charlotte Ridung, UNHCRs Senior Operations Manager for the South Africa operation, risks which include the threat of arrest and detention, refoulement, harassment, exploitation, discrimination, as well as heightened risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), HIV-AIDS, human smuggling and trafficking, are important not only to protect refugees from, but to ensure that members of particular social groups, like the LGBTI community, receive the same quality of protection and assistance that all refugees are entitled to.
We consider it essential for host states and the international community to continue their efforts to ensure that all refugees, including those in the LGBTI community, are able to exercise all the rights to which they are entitled, and the right not to be subjected to cruel or degrading treatment or punishment, because of their sexual orientation.
To this end, we applaud the South African government for the strides it has taken to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, and which has given refugees who are LGBTI, the assurance that they can live productively and without harassment in their country of asylum.
Buoyed by the support she has legally and knowing her HIV status, Ndlovu is considering training to become an HIV/AIDS counsellor as part of JRSs test and treat programme, an initiative UNHCR encourages, as it enables appropriately qualified refugee volunteers to advise their compatriots and fellow exiles in relation to issues such as health, education, SGBV and HIV/AIDS.
For a very long time, I was unhappy with my lot in life but today, I am strong, I am healthy, I am free to associate with whomever I want and am not considered an oddity by most of the general public, Ndlovu beams.
For Johan Viljoen, JRS South Africa Country Director Ndlovus new outlook on life is to be celebrated.
With the physical space, emotional and psychological support provided by JRS, we hope that more LGBTI refugees will feel confident to utilise our services because they are at their disposal.
In spite of their HIV test results, Ndlovu and Dlamini are together for the long haul.
Knowing your HIV status means getting to know who you are and the direction you want your life to take, irrespective of whether the result is positive or negative, says Ndlovu. I am living my life positively, confidently and with a clarity I could not have acquired, had I not come to terms with my sexuality, my HIV status and the resulting determination to be true to myself and my loved ones.
I am ready to help other LGBTI refugees come to this realisation, too.
*Names changed to protect their identity.
Crossing a mountain border between Iran and Turkey one and a half years ago, eight-year-old Farzad was separated from his mother in the middle of a snowstorm. He has not spoken a word ever since. UNHCR/Roland Schonbauer
MYTILENE, Lesvos Eight-year-old Afghan refugee Farzad withdrew into a world of silence after he was briefly separated from his family as they tried to flee across the mountainous Iran-Turkey border in the snow.
He was cut off from them for only 20 or 30 minutes, but has not spoken since. Farzad has not said a word since he got separated from his mother in the snowstorm at the border, said his father, Jalil*.
Farzad is among a growing number of refugee children whose health has been adversely affected by flight.
Symptoms range from development problems to self-harm, nightmares and depression. Particularly vulnerable are youngsters detained against the recommendations of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, that children should not be detained. Mental health problems are also seen among children who travel alone without the protection of their parents, or who have no access to psychiatric or health care.
Farzad, his father and 22-year-old brother Awalmir* now live in a municipality-run camp at Karatepe on the Greek island of Lesvos. His mother Uzma* and his other brother Rafiq*, 18, are in Germany.
Jalil, previously a farmer, told the story of how he and his wife, fearing for their childrens safety in their war-torn home country, tried to reach Turkey via Iran in 2015. Snow was falling as they approached the Turkish border squeezed into a smugglers car with three other people. The smuggler did not have any snow chains, so he had difficulties to keep the car on track, Jalil said.
Suddenly, he told us to get out of the car because the Iranian police were following us. He said they were at about 2,000 or 3,000 metres altitude at the time. They threw all the luggage out of the car, he added. In the ensuing chaos, Uzma and Rafiq set off in a different direction."
In the kindergarten, he only plays by himself.
Jalil, Farzad and Awalmir followed a steep path too steep for Jalil, who is in his fifties and suffers from a heart condition. So I sat down in the snow until Awalmir came to drag me on, said Jalil. In all of this, we found out that we had lost Farzad.
The two men went back and surrendered to the Iranian police and were relieved to find that the police had already found Farzad, alone.
On that day, Farzad completely stopped talking, Jalil added. In the kindergarten, he only plays by himself. Previously the child had had no serious problems. He said basic words and counted up to 10, and he did play with other children.
Once in the hands of the Iranian police, Jalil asked to make a phone call. From relatives, he discovered that Uzma and Rafiq were still with the smugglers and he decided that they should continue their journey, while he would follow with their other two sons.
Mother and one son made it to Germany and Jalil and the others made five more attempts to reach Greece via the Iran-Turkey route and a hazardous sea crossing.
Having spent the past few months living in the site, Jalil hopes that efforts by UNHCR partner Metadrasi to reunite the family will succeed.
Farzads worrying condition is a stark reminder of how hard it is for families to be torn apart in flight.
Farzads worrying condition is a stark reminder of how hard it is for families to be torn apart in flight, said Astrid Castelein, head of the UNHCR office on Lesvos. For their psychosocial wellbeing, we reiterate our call to governments to speed up family reunifications from Greece.
She said the agency had paid for a paediatrician to treat Farzad and the three family members had been moved into a new prefabricated house close to the toilets. He is wetting his pants a lot, and I have to wash everything all the time, Jalil said.
This move into the prefabricated and heated house, funded with aid from the European Commission, helps Jalil deal with the challenge of getting his son to the toilet in time.
Castelein said they succeeded in enrolling Farzad in the Special Primary School in Mytilene, designed to help children with learning disabilities two months ago. Asked whether his son liked it, Jalil shrugged. I dont know, as he does not talk.
Farzad, who has not spoken since he was separated from his mother, is living with his father in Lesvos. UNHCR/Roland Schonbauer
In the playground at Karatepe, Farzads face lights up when animator Gregoris Pallis approaches him and takes his hands.
Pallis works for the NGO Save the Children, which runs a UNHCR-funded child friendly space at Karatepe. He hugs Farzad, swings him round and has him smiling within two minutes. There has been a connection with Farzad from the first day we met, Pallis said.
Through its partner organizations, UNHCR provides psychological and social support to families and children, including unaccompanied children.
It also coordinates procedures for organizations to identify people with mental health needs so they can be referred to the right specialists.
*names have been changed
Iceland has donated ISK 6.5 million (US$ 51,000) to UNHCR in support of people fleeing the conflict in Syria.
Since the start of the conflict in Syria more than 660,000 Syrians have fled to the neighbouring countries. Over half of them are children. In addition, it is estimated that 2.5 million people have fled their homes but remain within Syria. The past few months have seen a huge surge in violence and it is expected that by end June 2013 one million people will have fled to neighbouring countries. The severe winter conditions across Syria and the surrounding region is exacerbating the situation, bringing new difficulties to the displaced people.
UNHCR is currently appealing for US$ 493.8 million for the Syrian emergency. UNHCR thanks Iceland for this timely contribution, which will help UNHCR assist thousands of vulnerable Syrians during the hardships of winter, says Pia Prytz Phiri, UNHCR Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic countries.
UNHCR activities in the neighbouring countries are focusing on keeping the refugees safe and warm by providing winter adapted tents and scaling up distribution of plastic sheeting, mattresses, stoves, heaters and blankets. Inside Syria, UNHCRs staff members continue, despite the insecurity, to distribute vital assistance and winterization aid in the cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Al Hassakeh and Homs.
UNHCR is almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions, mostly from governments.
As part of the international communitys emergency response to Syria, the Republic of Estonia has donated EUR 50,000 (USD 64,350) to UNHCR to assist and protect Syrian refugees in Jordan.
Since the conflict began in Syria in March 2011, more than 400,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. In addition, it is estimated that around 2.5 million people have fled their homes but remain within Syria.
Most of the Syrian refugees have fled to the neighbouring countries. Due to the escalating conflict the number of refugees in these host countries could rise to 710,000 individuals by the end of the year. The dramatic increase of refugees has put a large burden on the host communities. The resources are strained even further with the start of the winter. In Jordan, the number of refugees is currently more than 118,000 and about 70 per cent of them are living on the local economy in urban areas. The Zaatri refugee camp north of Amman, hosting about 35 000 refugees, has experienced its first heavy rains and temperatures are falling.
Due to the dramatic surge in refugee numbers UNHCR is scaling up its emergency response and the Regional Response Plan has been revised to USD 488 million. UNHCR requirements are USD 245 million, of which 48 per cent (118.6 million USD) has been funded.
UNHCR thanks Estonia for this important and timely donation which will contribute to protection and lifesaving assistance during the hardship of winter for the more than 118,000 Syrian refugees hosted by the Government of Jordan. Estonias contribution is a great gesture of solidarity with the Government of Jordan, UNHCR and its partners that strive to deliver timely assistance to the refugees, says Pia Prytz Phiri, UNHCR Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic countries.
In 2012 Estonia has so far donated USD 188,110 in total, including both unearmarked funding and a contribution of EUR 55, 000 (USD 72,084) to prevent sexual gender based violence in Georgia and West Abkhazia.
UNHCR is almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions, mostly from governments.
Danish English
Announcement
10 April 2017
Coloplast transactions in connection with share buy-back programme
As mentioned in Announcement No. 2/2017 Coloplast has initiated the second part of the share buy-back programme totalling up to DKK 1bn. This part of the programme of DKK500m is expected to take place from 27 February, 2017 to 28 August, 2017.
The buy-back programme will be structured in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation No. 596/2014 of the European Parliament and Council of 16 April 2014 (MAR) and Regulation 2016/1052, also referred to as the "Safe Harbour" rules, which ensure that the company is protected against violation of insider legislation in connection with the buyback programme.
The following transactions have been executed during the period 3 7 April 2017:
Date Number of shares Buying price Amount DKK 3 April 2017 3,000 539.01 1,617,018.90 4 April 2017 13,811 538.24 7,433,651.98 5 April 2017 370 542.50 200,725.00 6 April 2017 19,416 539.45 10,473,883.54 7 April 2017 25,375 538.51 13,664,790.21 Accumulated until now under the programme 331,487 514.55 170,566,278.52
Henceforth, Coloplast owns 3,915,143 treasury B shares of DKK 1 equal to 1.81% of the companys total share capital.
An overview showing the transaction data for the period 3 7 April 2017 is enclosed.
Kind regards,
Investor Relations
Coloplast A/S
Tel. +45 4911 1800
For further information, please contact
Investors and analysts
Ellen Bjurgert
Director, Investor Relations
Tel. +45 4911 1800/+45 4911 3376
Email: dkebj@coloplast.com
Rasmus Srensen
Sr. Manager, Investor Relations
Tel. +45 4911 1800/ +45 4911 1786
Email: dkraso@coloplast.com
Press and the media
Dennis Kaysen
Director, Corp. Communication
Tel. 4911 2608
Email: dkdk@coloplast.com
This announcement is available in a Danish and an English language version. In the event of discrepancies, the Danish version shall prevail.
Coloplast develops products and services that make life easier for people with very personal and private medical conditions. Working closely with the people who use our products, we create solutions that are sensitive to their special needs. We call this intimate healthcare.
Our business includes ostomy care, urology and continence care and wound and skin care. We operate globally and employ more than 11,000 people.
The Coloplast logo is a registered trademark of Coloplast A/S. 2017-04 All rights reserved Coloplast A/S, 3050 Humlebk, Denmark.
Fairfield University's students, staff and safety department came together last week to surprise sophomore student, Meg Moore, with a new wheelchair equipped with communicative technology. The 20-year-old's previous motorized wheelchair was falling apart. It was being held with duct tape and needed to be replaced.
Moore said she was indeed surprised and did not expect any of it. Sgt. Rob Didato, of Connecticut University's public safety department, said they noticed Moore struggling with the outdated chair. So they decided to step in and help.
Moore and her mom were fighting with the insurance to get her the new chair. Due to the insurance issue, Didato and his department decided to start a campaign. Moore's classmates generously pitched in and helped raised the thousands in funds.
Two Fairfield alumni, Bryan LeClerc of batch '84 and Robert Bercham of batch '62 also helped by negotiating the price of the wheelchair with the manufacturer. LeClerc was able to negotiate the price of the chair from the original $60,000 down to $40,000. Didato said if it weren't for Berchama and LeClerc they wouldn't know how they would be able to present the chair to Moore.
Moore lives with her mother in a handicap-accessible dorm on campus. She is a Dean's list student, she takes regular class load, she's also a member of the Varsity Pep Band and a Campus Ministry lector, The Fairfield Daily Voice reported. Moore founded the Yes You Can Club, which is a support group that connects students with cancer patients and disabled members of the community.
They presented the chair in a ceremony last Friday. The chair was blessed by one of the Unviersity's resident Jesuits. The safety department and members of the school's staff were present and Moore was grateful for the really wonderful people in her town, Fox News reported.
Deepak Chopra, an iconic author integrative medical pioneer, will deliver the 134th baccalaureate ceremony address for the 2017 USC graduates and their families. The nondenominational interfaith celebration will be held on May 11 at the Bovard Auditorium.
The USC commencement event will confer more than 15,000 degrees, USC News reported. Some of the degree candidates will be conferred at the main ceremony or at one of the satellite ceremonies held in various University Park and Health Science campuses. The commencement address will be delivered by Will Farrell, who is a Mark Twain Price recipient and is a nominee for Tony and Emmy awards.
Chopra has authored more than 85 books translated to 43 various languages. 24 of these books are included in the list of New York Times best-sellers. One of his renowned scientific theories is how humans can prevent aging with the help of an ancient Indian meditation technique called AyurVeda, Daily Trojan reported.
He founded the website The Chopra Foundation, which aims to enhance health and well-being among its followers. It is also dedicated to promoting world peace, expanding consciousness, and improving ones spirituality. He also founded The Chopra Center for Wellbeing, which promotes self-awareness and well-being by offering meditation and yoga sessions.
Presently, Chopra is a professor at the University of California and the Sand Diego School of Medicine. He is also a researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He pioneered the philosophy of integrating ancient healing principles and modern science. The University's Center for Integrative Medicine also shares the same philosophies with Chopra.
With these credentials, he is easily one of the best choices to deliver the baccalaureate keynote. Time magazine even describes him as "one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century." After the ceremony, the baccalaureate dinner will be held on Pardee Way at 6:30 pm.
"Rick and Morty" Season 3 Episode 2's release date remains under the playful secrecy of Justin Roiland and Adult Swim. Fans are still in awe after it debuted last April 1 to everyone's surprise. But one thing is crystal clear, Episode 2 will be more twisted and scheming when Rick meets Bird Person's new persona, Bird Phoenix.
The former BFFs are expected to clash in Episode 2 with Tammy in the sideline controlling his bird husband. For sure, this will highlight "Rick and Morty" Season 3 while theories and guesses are the only things left for viewers to ponder upon, EmergencyAwesome vlogged.
In this season 3, Tammy has risen to power acting as the de facto leader of the Galactic Forces where she hijacked Bird Person's mind. His new form, Bird Phoenix, is likely to be used against Rick whom the enemies are known to be Bird's ultimate companion.
How Rick will counter this scheme remains unclear but one thing is for sure, knowing his personality, this one is going to be "Rick and Morty" hell of a ride. Moreover, looking back on how Bird described his friendship with Rick suggests that their potential brawl could be like OB1-Anakin Skywalker hostility from "Star Wars."
Therefore, Bird Person's arc could end in two crucial ways in "Rick and Morty" Season 3. First is Rick can bring back his humanity or he could end him if he has been truly dead all this time.
Meanwhile, there could be another character to be used against Rick in "Rick and Morty" Season 3. Everyone should now keep an eye with Jerry. His character just had a divorce with Beth and received numerous awards from the Galactic Federation during the previous season, Vulture reported.
Knowing Tammy, she could overturn Jerry to capture Rick and do let him do the nasty tricks in her stead. In addition, Jerry's personality reflects greed for attention and insecurity which the enemies might take advantage of.
How's your "Rick and Morty" Season 3 experience?
Latvian English
Riga, 2017-04-10 12:41 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 1. Reports of the Management Board, the Supervisory Council and the auditor.
To get acquainted with the reports of the Management Board, the Supervisory Council of joint stock company Baltic Telekom and the statement of the sworn auditor.
Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.
2. Approval of Annual report for the year 2016.
1) To approve the Annual report of joint stock company Baltic Telekom for the year 2016 drawn up by the Management Board and considered by the Supervisory Council of joint stock company Baltic Telekom.
2) To discharge the Management Board and the Supervisory Council of joint stock company Baltic Telekom from the liability for the actions taken in 2016.
Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.
3. Covering of the losses for the year 2016.
To cover loses in the amount of 1 544 485 EUR for the year 2016 of joint stock company Baltic Telekom from the next years profit.
Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.
4. Election of auditor and determination of the remuneration for auditor.
1) To elect Elita Stabina, SIA I.F. REVIZIJA (license No.109), as the sworn auditor for the audit of Annual report of joint stock company Baltic Telekom for the year 2017.
2) To determine 1 600 EUR, VAT not included, as the annual remuneration for the sworn auditor for the audit of Annual report for the year 2017.
Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.
Riga, April 10, 2017
Member of the Management Board G.Zolotarev
The findings of the researchers at the Johns Hopkins University may help save the lives of over 30,000 Americans suffering from Huntington's disease. Moreover, the drug may help prevent another 200,000 people from of inheriting the ailment.
Foremost, proteins and salts (components of a brain cell) need to move in and out of the nucleus in order to function properly. Now, the HTT gene that triggers Huntington disease secretes proteins that clump together in the nucleus to block the passage. If the proteins fail to enter, the cell will shut down and die eventually.
The study may also aid scientists in understanding other fatal brain diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and dementia. John Grima of Johns Hopkins University conducted the research published in the journal "Neuron". He is a graduate student from the Department of Neuroscience in the School of Medicine.
According to Grima, his team has found a "traffic jam" in cells. If they could fix it, a new avenue for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases may become available soon. Nonetheless, he is not yet sure whether clearing these "traffic jams" could stop cells from dying and could hinder the progression of Huntington's disease. In any case, Grima assured that his group aims to develop a drug that could do both.
As of now, Morningside Maryland reported, there are only two treatments available for Huntington's. The latest was approved by the FDA just over a week ago. Both drugs improve mobility and gait problems associated with Huntington's patients. Unfortunately, there is no available medication that could slow or stop the progression of the disease. That is what Grima's team is working on right now.
For the record, the onset of the symptoms begins between ages 30 and 50. Alarmingly, half of these patients will transfer the ailment to their offspring. If not treated within 10 to 25 years after initial diagnosis, the affected person would lose the ability to speak, walk, and reason out.
Per Medical Express, the researchers are working in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein, the director of Hopkin's Brain Science Institute. Other schools like the University of Florida and the University of California (Irvine) took part in the demonstration of how Huntington's disease disrupts normal cell activity.
Idaho's revolutionary education program has been attracting national attention from various experts in the education sector because of the success of their model. Their secret - pay teenagers directly to manage themselves and graduate early.
The program called "Advanced Opportunities" pays public school students who are in the seventh to twelfth grade $4,125 which they can use in any of the state's post-secondary educational institutions. With that money, students can take extra classes, pay for standardized test fees, or try out courses.
What makes this program unique than other education program is that it encourages high school students to graduate early and take college credits while still in high school. The program is under the Idaho Department of Education.
The program works by awarding students $1,500 scholarship every year for graduating early and for every year they skipped. That means if a student graduates three years earlier than what's expected, she gets $4,500. That amount is enough to cover one year's worth of tuition in some state schools or 40 percent of tuition if they opt to go to the University of Idaho.
One recipient of this program is Cassandra Madrigal, a 17-year old high school senior with 3.94 GPA. She already finished two Advanced Placement classes last year and taking another two this year.
Such privileges were once considered a benefit that only the rich could afford. However, Madrigal has availed of them and will be the first one in her family to attend college when she enrolls at the Idaho State University.
The goal of the program is to even the playing field for students who come from lower-income families. Aside from that, the state of Idaho hopes that more students will be encouraged to attend college.
Three astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) return to Earth Monday morning after a 173-day mission in space. They arrived at the ISS last October. Now, they are going home.
Shane Kimbrough, along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, departed the ISS via the Soyuz capsule just before 4 a.m. Kimbrough is an astronaut from NASA while Rhyzhikov and Borisenko are Rusian cosmonauts. The journey back to Earth's surface usually takes about three and a half hours. For the Soyuz capsule, it landed 10 minutes earlier in Kazhakstan, according to ABC13.
Luckily, the crew said they feel well and would return to work after "a little bit." Astronauts who are already used to living in space often need some time to relearn how to live on Earth. To better illustrate, they go back to infancy stage as they relearn to walk, talk, eat, and everything else about being human.
For example, former ISS commander Chris Hadfield spoke of his "superhuman-like" moments if strength during his five-month mission. Hadfield said he was able to lift a refrigerator with only his fingertips or do a series of somersaults with no sweat. However, coming back to Earth presented "challenges".
Hadfield explained that his lips and tongue felt heavy that he had to change the way he talks. In space, the astronaut noted that they had weightless tongues. Thus, speech is one issue for spacemen coming back on Earth. On the other hand, bone density decreases at a rate of 1 percent per month and muscle mass shrinks when orbiting the Earth due to zero gravity.
Just like a newborn baby, astronauts are so fragile that regular checkups are needed. Some are scientific, to form assumptions about astronaut health. Though, the majority is more specific to the person's condition to ensure he or she is recovering appropriately.
On another note, per BABW News, the departure of the three astronauts on the space station means a new administration. Peggy Whitson, also from NASA, is the new commander of the team. She has been there since November. In fact, she first held the position in 2008.
The future of farming is headed for the digital world, which means whoever has the best information and the fastest way to get it wins the best yields. The agricultural revolution will come from the ability to get information about farm fields, weather forecasts, artificial intelligence and computing power. With this vital, real-time information, farmers can make better and accurate decisions in agriculture.
Climate Corp. President Michael Stern told his Harvard audience that agricultural revolution will not come from new plant breeds and other genetic innovations, but from information and digital technology, Harvard Gazette reported. The first significant agricultural revolution started 10,000 years ago when human beings began using farm for their crops, said Harvard University Center for the Environment co-director Peter Hubers, who introduced Stern during the event. Meanwhile, the second great revolution happened from the 1930s to the 1960s when high-yield crops were developed along with advancements in irrigation, which was called the "green revolution."
Now, Huybers claim that the third great agricultural revolution will be in the field of information. Speaking during the "Future of Food" lecture series by HUCE, Stern said the agriculture revolution inclined towards the digitization of information is badly needed in the coming decades. One specific example for this revolution is the "precision agriculture," where advancements in technology are used to manage crops and livestock, and drones are one of the leading devices in this field, Crop Life reported.
Global population is rising at a rapid rate, while land for agriculture is constrained due to environmental issues, which is why finding out how to grow more food is very important. This concern is an effect of the climate change, which has altered weather patterns. This leads to various plant disease and agricultural pests' problems, as well as water availability.
Stern said agriculturists should find a way to develop new tools as they face the future. This is something they need in the coming 10 to 15 years as the planet will become a lot drier and hungrier.
Oct. 26, 2022
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. Cadets got the unique experience of interacting with and learning from the 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2022 at the U.S. Air Force Academy Sept. 27-29. The National Character and Leadership Symposium sponsored the visit and three days of activities.The 12
HOUSTON, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LINN Energy, Inc. (OTCQB:LNGG) announced today that its common stock has been approved for trading on the OTCQB market under the symbol LNGG. Investors can find real-time quotes and market information for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com. The Company believes the OTCQB (which is operated by the OTC Markets Group, Inc.) constitutes an established securities market within the meaning of the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (FIRPTA).
ABOUT LINN ENERGY
LINN Energy, Inc. was formed in February 2017 as the reorganized successor to Linn Energy, LLC. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the Companys core focus area is the SCOOP / STACK / Merge in the Mid-Continent. Additional information about LINN Energy is available at www.linnenergy.com.
UW Art Museum Presents Two Exhibitions Featuring Jon Schueler
Jon Schuelers Weathering Skies, 1967, 22 x 30 inches, watercolor on paper (w/c 67-26) from Jon Schueler: Weathering Skies is on view through June 24 at the UW Art Museum. (Collection: Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock (c) Jon Schueler Estate)
The University of Wyoming Art Museum is presenting two exhibitions by American abstract expressionist painter Jon Schueler.
Jon Schueler: Weathering Skies is a national touring exhibition on view now through June 24. Jon Schueler: Paintings will be on view July 1-Sept. 9.
Organized by the Arkansas Art Center and the Jon Schueler Estate, Jon Schueler: Weathering Skies presents 26 watercolors that explore Schuelers fascination with the power of the sky. Before he was a painter, Schueler navigated a B-17 bomber during World War II. The sky became a place fraught with anxiety and, yet, filled with incredible beauty and meaning.
Only after the war did Schueler train as an artist at the California School of Fine Arts. He became one of the 20th centurys abstract expressionist painters known for filling his canvases with images inspired by the atmospheric sky.
Jon Schueler: Paintings explores the evolution of Schuelers artistic practice through 18 paintings drawn from the UW Art Museum collection and representing four decades of the artists work. His focus is largely on the sky, and his paintings convey nature at a specific moment, such as the buildup of clouds with the filtered sun breaking through. Using a range of color to express light, from subdued gray to intense red, Schueler creates paintings that are not only full of life and movement but are emotionally charged.
A recent gift to the UW Art Museum, the works in Jon Schueler: Paintings represent the largest single representation of his work in a public collection.
Jon Schuelers The Sea is Red, 1958, 67 x 72 inches, oil on canvas (o/c 58-44) from Jon Schueler: Paintings is on view through Sept. 9 at the UW Art Museum. (Collection: University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie (c) Jon Schueler Estate)
The addition of 18 paintings by Jon Schueler to our collection significantly expands our holdings in abstract expressionism, says Susan Moldenhauer, UW Art Museum director and chief curator. In addition to using these works in this and future exhibitions, we look forward to making the paintings accessible to students and faculty through scheduled class visits and use in the Pat Guthrie Teaching Gallery.
For more information about the Art Museum, call (307) 766-6622, visit the website at www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum, or follow the museum on Facebook.
Through its Museum as Classroom approach, the UW Art Museum places art at the center of learning for all ages. Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 Willett Drive in Laramie, the museum is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday hours are extended to 7 p.m. February through April and September through November. Admission is free.
About Jon Schueler
Schueler was a second-generation abstract expressionist. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisc., in 1916 and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Following World War II, when he flew missions over France and Germany as a B-17 navigator, he attended the California School of Fine Arts (1948-1951), where he was surrounded by a group of historically important artists whose work led to the development of the Bay Area Figurative Movement of painting.
In 1951, Schueler moved to New York, which became his base until his death in 1992. However, these years were punctuated by visits to Mallaig, Scotland, where the light and weather of the area became the hallmark for his signature style.
UW Recipient of Innovation Fund Grant for Student-Led Research Projects
The University of Wyoming is among seven schools -- three from the United States, two from Brazil, and one each in Colombia and Mexico -- to receive grant money for collaborative research projects, and to increase bilateral mobility of U.S., Latin American and Caribbean students through study abroad program development.
UW is one of the latest recipients of the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund. The grant aims to promote new higher education partnerships in engineering, physics, geology and geophysics. It is sponsored by ExxonMobil and is part of a larger grant program through the U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas and NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The 100,000 Strong programs goal is to increase the annual number of U.S. students studying in Latin America and the Caribbean to 100,000, and bring 100,000 Latin American and Caribbean students to the U.S. by 2020.
UW will partner with Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan (UADY), Merida, Mexico, on a project, titled Enhancing International Exchanges between engineering students at the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan (UADY) in Merida, Mexico.
The demand for engineering projects to become more global and the need for engineering graduates to have international exchange experience have motivated UW and UADY to build on their existing partnership by enhancing exchange programs and opportunities in civil engineering, say Mary Katherine Scott and Jennifer Tanner Eisenhauer, the leads on the grant proposal.
Tanner Eisenhauer, a civil and architectural engineering associate professor, says students from Mexico will travel to UW to gain perspectives on civil and structural engineering practices, and participate in hands-on learning experiences in beam and wall designs based on U.S. masonry codes. UW students will then travel to Mexico to study engineering aspects of Mayan ruins and learn about alternative construction methods and cultural preservation practices of Spanish colonial period architecture.
With the engineering field becoming more global, the ability for UW students to interact with colleagues from different cultures becomes even more important, she adds.
Creating opportunities for more students to gain international experiences is one of UWs chief priorities, says Scott, acting director of the International Programs Office. This study abroad course design is a partnership that has been designed with bilateral mobility at its core. Students from both institutions will have the chance to work with international students and professors in myriad ways, including field visits, seminars and group projects.
Scott says the collaborative model will encourage new ways of thinking, global perspectives and the development of the intercultural communication and professional skills students need to succeed beyond the classroom.
We are excited to be partnering with UADY on this pilot of a group course exchange program, and foresee great potential for collaboration in the future, she adds.
Helping secure the grant with Scott and Tanner Eisenhauer were Dennis Coon, professor of mechanical engineering; Kevin Befus, assistant professor in civil engineering; and Shawn Bunning, International Programs project coordinator.
Innovation Fund grants fuel strategic new partnerships among higher education institutions in the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere to create innovative and sustainable student exchange and training programs. Since its inception in January 2014, the Innovation Fund grants have been building institutional capacity, increasing student mobility within the Americas, and enhancing regional education cooperation and competitiveness.
This is the third in four of Innovation Fund grant competitions supported by ExxonMobil. With a commitment in 2014 of $1 million, ExxonMobil has facilitated 24 new higher education partnerships to date. The partnerships between 24 U.S. universities and community colleges in 16 U.S. states and 28 higher education institutions in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana and Mexico are providing more study opportunities for students in various fields.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TransCore has commenced work to design, build, and maintain the Virginia Department of Transportations (VDOT) latest express toll lanes along the I-64 corridor in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Announcement of the award follows TransCores selection by VDOT last July to implement its toll technology along the I-66 corridor inside of Washington D.C.s Capital Beltway, which remains on schedule for completion this year.
TransCores demonstrated ability to meet fast-track tolling project schedules will enable VDOT to complete the I-64 project in the fall of 2017. Segment 1 of the project converts two reversible High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes between I-564 and I-264 to new dynamically-priced express lanes that utilize TransCores flagship Infinity Express lane solution. Infinity Express tightly integrates with TransCores Advanced Traffic Management System, TransSuite, to further enhance VDOTs ability to monitor and respond to traffic conditions and congestion in real time. As part of the I-64 contract, TransCore will maintain the new express lane system for up to 16 years.
Since developing the countrys first High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane system in San Diego, TransCore has deployed and operated over 600 miles of HOT/express lanes across California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. TransCores coast-to-coast deployments constitute the overwhelming majority of all express lanes in the United States and the largest systems in the U.S.
TransCore has worked in close partnership with VDOT over the last 42 years on a number of electronic tolling projects, such as the George P. Coleman Bridge, the Powhite Parkway, the I-66 Express Lanes and now the I-64 Express Lanes.
We are truly honored that VDOT continues to place its trust in TransCore to deliver on the Commonwealths most complex toll projects and challenging deployment schedules, said Whitt Hall, senior vice president, TransCore. We share VDOTs mission to increase driver mobility on existing roadways through use of the most innovative and reliable tolling solutions available.
About TransCore
A leader in the transportation industry, TransCore provides innovative, technical solutions and engineering services for applications encompassing next generation Open Road Tolling and Traffic Management Systems. The company operates award-winning tolling customer service centers for departments of transportation throughout the U.S. and internationally. A pioneer in Radio Frequency Identification systems used in the transportation industry, TransCore secures access for airports, hospitals, parking garages, border patrols, trucking fleets and the rail industry.
Based in Nashville, Tenn., TransCore is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roper Technologies, a diversified technology company in the S&P 500, Fortune 1000, and Russell 1000 indices.
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) (Hitachi) today announced the formation of Insights Laboratory -- a new global research team focused on accelerating the delivery of innovative new solutions for Lumada, Hitachis IoT platform, using advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and NEXPERIENCE collaborative process(1). The Insights Laboratory team will focus on agile co-creation of digital solutions with customers and partners in every phase of the development cycle. From ideation and incubation to system design, architecture and proof-of-concept and value, the Insights Laboratory team is committed to delivering positive business and societal outcomes for Hitachis customers.
The Insights Laboratory will be comprised of a global team of researchers and designers from Hitachis Global Center for Social Innovation (CSI) and Center for Technology Innovation, working in close collaboration with the Hitachi Insight Group(2) to drive a global, unified IoT business and go-to-market strategy. The labs core members will be based in the Silicon Valley Research Center of CSI-North America (CSI-NA) under the direction of Dr. Umeshwar Dayal, Senior Vice President and Senior Fellow, R&D Division at Hitachi America, Ltd.
A key feature of the Insights Laboratory is the presence of cross-disciplinary researchers, data scientists, designers and solution architects, who will work directly with customers under a shared vision to generate new concepts, and create prototypes and demos that are ultimately verified through a unified proof-of-concept process, commented George Saikalis, CTO of Hitachi America, Ltd. and GM of CSI-NA, Hitachi, Ltd. The formation of Insights Laboratory demonstrates not only a great show of confidence in our research expertise, but reinforces Hitachis commitment to provide solutions that meet real-world needs worldwide. Through the strategic appointment of Dr. Dayal and the location of the core Insights Laboratory team in Silicon Valley, Hitachi is positioning its cutting-edge research to take place in proximity to other leading global research institutes and industrial partners.
We are excited to embark on this new and deeper level of collaboration, as we work to develop innovative solutions on the Lumada IoT platform, said Keiji Kojima, CEO of Hitachi Insight Group and CEO of Services & Platforms Business Unit, Hitachi, Ltd. The Insights Laboratorys global research team unites some of the brightest minds in the world to help our customers and partners solve real challenges, and drive better business and societal outcomes.
(1) October 15, 2015 News release: Hitachi Establishes NEXPERIENCE for Accelerating Social Innovation Business http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2015/10/151015.html
(2) May 10, 2016 News release: Hitachi Insight Group Formed to Accelerate Hitachis Global Internet of Things Business http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2016/05/160510a.html
About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2015 (ended March 31, 2016) totaled 10,034.3 billion yen ($88.8 billion). The Hitachi Group is a global leader in the Social Innovation Business, and it has approximately 335,000 employees worldwide. Through collaborative creation, Hitachi is providing solutions to customers in a broad range of sectors, including Power / Energy, Industry / Distribution / Water, Urban Development, and Finance / Government & Public / Healthcare. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.
Company contacts:
US: Hope Nicora Japan: Kensuke Katagiri Hitachi Insight Group Hitachi, Ltd. Hope.Nicora@hitachiinsightgroup.com +81 3-5208-9324 +1-831-227-3660 kensuke.katagiri.dc@hitachi.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OHIO STATEHOUSE -- Recently introduced legislative language in the State of Ohio Budget Bill (HB 49) would abolish the Ohio Manufactured Homes Commission (MH Commission). The Ohio Department of Commerce would assume regulation and break up and bury the program in various layers of bureaucracy at a significantly higher cost.
Ohio Manufactured Homes Association (OMHA) Executive Director Tim Williams has testified extensively before three different House of Representatives Finance Committees. MH Commission members Ron Younkin of Greenlawn Homes and Evan Atkinson of Clayton Homes have also testified along with Frank Pojman, President of the Association of Manufactured Home Residents of Ohio (AMHRO) and Jim Demetrus also of AMHRO and the former resident appointee to the MH Commission. Rick Robinson of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) in Washington, D.C. testified regarding the National Fire Protection Associations 2013 study citing the superior fire safety record of todays manufactured homes.
In recent years the Ohio General Assembly consolidated all regulation of installation, dispute resolution, dealer licensing, and manufactured home park regulation under the MH Commission, creating a one stop shop. The Ohio Commission is a stand-alone agency with no layers of bureaucracy.
Six of the nine members of the Commission are appointed by the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives (3) and the Ohio Senate President (3) representing various industry segments. The Governor appoints the remaining three seats on the Commission. However, the Governor has failed to appoint a manufactured home resident for two years and for the better part of five years he has left the health sanitarian seat empty. Both appointments are required by law. This has denied manufactured home residents and health officials a voice in regulatory issues, which is vital to the MH Commissions work.
However, the best endorsement of the MH Commissions superior commitment to the safety and affordability of manufactured home residents was from the residents association (AMHRO) President Frank Pojman in his written testimony before two House of Representatives Committees. Mr. Pojman stated: AMHROs view has not wavered in its support of the MH Commission. I urge any of your Committee to review the agendas and minutes of the MH Commission meetings, to see the all-important issues that are discussed, for the benefits and safety of manufactured homeowners. When you look at all nine members, who make up the Commission, youll see the most important segments of our industry, putting manufactured housing ideas and plans together, that will always make it better at ground level and above.
Williams said, The Swamp has risen up against our residents and industry. OMHA and AMHRO have united on behalf of our residents and businesses to oppose the Ohio Department of Commerces extravagant request for spending authority of 30% more to conduct the same program. Incredibly, the Department of Commerce not only wants more money but would drastically reduce the Commissions 100% inspection of all new and used home installations, thus jeopardizing the safety of our homeowners and residents.
The OMHA, AMHRO and MHI feel that Department of Commerce officials have hidden behind unsubstantiated written statements attacking the Commission, residents and the industry while refusing to answer questions on the record. This is a classic case of government bureaucracy abusing their position of public trust to mislead the public in order to expand bureaucratic control at the expense of affordable homeownership for 900,000 Ohioans living in manufactured homes.
Instrumental to the industry and residents efforts to preserve the Ohio MH Commission has been outreach to legislators. Hundreds of contacts have already been made to Ohio legislators. Williams said, Our industry and residents have banded together for the common cause of protecting the safety of manufactured homes in Ohio by retaining the Ohio MH Commission.
Egyptians wheel away a body near a church in Alexandria after a bomb blast struck worshippers gathering to celebrate Palm Sunday on Apr 9, 2017. (Photo: AFP)
40 more were injured in the blast at Saint Mark's church in Alexandria, the ministry said in a statement.
The explosion comes just hours after a bombing rocked a Coptic church in Egypt's Nile Delta, killing at least 27 people and injuring 78.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for both blasts, which took place on Palm Sunday - just a week before Coptic Easter and the same month that Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Egypt.
Egypt's interior ministry said that a suicide bomber had tried to storm the church where Coptic Pope Tawadros II was leading a Palm Sunday service, but blew himself up when police prevented him from entering.
A Coptic church official said Tawadros had left the church before the blast.
FIA (the Foreign Investment Agency) said there were 654 deals of foreigners capital contribution and share purchase in the first two months of the year, with the total contributed capital of $619 million, four times higher than that of the same period of last year.
Foreign investors mostly targeted businesses in the manufacturing and processing sector with 220 deals made in the field, worth $292 million.
The fields of wholesale & retail and vehicle repair also attracted foreign investments with 197 deals made, worth $124 million. Real estate was the third attractive sector which had 14 deals, valued at $60 million.
HCMC saw the highest number of capital contribution deals (322 deals, $313 million), followed by Hanoi, Binh Duong, Nghe An and Quang Binh.
In fact, foreign investors began buying into Vietnams businesses many years ago, but the movement only became clearer in 2015. In M&A deals, for example, Vietnams businesses seek capable partners in the context of global integration.
From July 1, 2015 to July 20, 2016, foreign investors contributed capital and bought into 3,000 businesses with the total value of $2.9 billion. In 2016 alone, 2,547 Vietnams businesses received foreign shareholders with foreign ownership ratios at over 50 percent or in conditional investment fields, valued at $3.425 billion in total.
From July 1, 2015 to July 20, 2016, foreign investors contributed capital and bought into 3,000 businesses with the total value of $2.9 billion. In 2016 alone, 2,547 Vietnams businesses received foreign shareholders with foreign ownership ratios at over 50 percent or in conditional investment fields, valued at $3.425 billion in total.
This occurred after the 2014 Investment Law took effect. Under the new regulations, foreign investors dont have to apply for investment registration certificates when contributing capital or buying into Vietnams businesses. They only have to follow registration procedures at state management agencies.
Analysts said simple administrative procedures have prompted foreign investors to buy a stake in Vietnamese businesses.
However, Nguyen Tri Hieu, an economist, warned that state management agencies should not be too optimistic about the foreigners capital contribution, because no one can say for sure if the capital will keep flowing into Vietnam in the last months of the year.
The changes in the worlds economies and unpredictable policies applied by the US administration are contributing to an uncertain atmosphere. If foreign investors are uncomfortable about new policies, they may withdraw capital from new emerging markets, including Vietnam.
According to Hieu, simplified laws affect foreign investors decisions. However, they will only make investments if they can see bright prospects in Vietnams economy.
Therefore, in order to encourage foreign investors to pour money into Vietnam, the country should try to enhance its national credibility.
To date, Vietnam still is not among the countries that Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch have advised investing in.
CUDAHY, Wis., April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Patrick Cudahy, the Home of Sweet Apple-Wood Smoked Flavor, is once again delivering innovative and exciting products that complement busy lifestyles and schedules. The Wisconsin-based brand is proudly introducing a new, convenient addition to its line of lunch meats, Patrick Cudahy Lunch Packs.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/375136b0-7ffb-4f0a-8276-d17e9a5c5d2f
Available in Honey Ham, Smoked Ham, Roasted Turkey, and Smoked Turkey varieties, the Patrick Cudahy Lunch Packs include two individual lunch meat packages for longer-lasting freshness, which make up to four sandwiches. The easy-open packs also offer convenience for on-the-go consumers, and each pack features new Patrick Cudahy recipes, inviting consumers to try delicious creations like Smoked Ham and Bacon or the Oven Roasted Turkey Everything Bagel.
Patrick Cudahy is always looking for innovative ways to make flavorful products while carrying on the tradition of quality and value our consumers expect, said Bud Matthews, Patrick Cudahy brand senior vice president for Smithfield Foods. Were excited to add Lunch Packs to our portfolio, and we know this product will meet the demand for fast and fresh options consumers can enjoy at home, work, or school.
Patrick Cudahy Lunch Packs are now available in 8-ounce packages at select grocery stores throughout Wisconsin. All varieties, including Honey Ham, Smoked Ham, Roasted Turkey, and Smoked Turkey, are pre-sliced, deli thin, and ready to eat. This new product is gluten-free with no MSG, trans-fat, or allergens.
For more information about Patrick Cudahy, please visit www.patrickcudahy.com or www.Facebook.com/PatrickCudahyMeats. Patrick Cudahy is a brand of Smithfield Foods.
About Patrick Cudahy
For more than 125 years, families throughout the Midwest have known the name Patrick Cudahy as one they can count on for quality, value and for the unmistakable flavor of Sweet Apple Wood. Our product line includes fully cooked and traditional bacon, bacon pieces and toppings, dry sausage, pepperoni, ham, deli and sliced meats.
About Smithfield Foods
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From Bac Ha, they can take a motorbike 12km drive to reach Hoang Thu Pho to admire the beautiful landscapes there.
The place is home to a large community of ethnic Mong, ancient snow tea trees and plum and peach fruits.
There are imposing mountains rising to the sky and majestic forests.
Hoang Thu Pho looks like a picture postcard with its immense green trees, corn and rice fields and a harmonious combination of nature and life that waits to be discovered.
The melodies of mountains and streams can be clearly heard as can the songs of birds in the jungle.
Visitors should take a path leading to the centre of the commune to explore the leisurely daily life of the Mong.
They can experience home-stay in their wooden houses by a stream, breathing the fresh air and admiring the wild nature.
At night they can enjoy corn wine and char-grilled chicken served with cham cheo, a unique salt of the Mong, or sticky rice served with roasted chicken and ginger and grilled pig.
Passers-by are reflected on the window of the Panasonic Centre in Tokyo on Jul 29, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura)
This is the first time Panasonic has relocated the global headquarters of a business unit outside of Japan. The relocated headquarters will be situated within Panasonic Appliances Refrigeration Devices Singapore.
Panasonic will also upgrade its research and development (R&D) centre in Singapore, where it will take on a global leadership role and spearhead research for new productions and emerging refrigeration technologies for the firms global operations. This is expected to double the size of its R&D centre here, the company said.
Also in the works is the transformation of Panasonics manufacturing plant. It will evolve its traditional manufacturing operations to what is called "smart manufacturing" - with a digitally enabled factory that will have automated guided vehicles for transportation of parts, a centralised storage area and consolidated operations.
The Japanese firm will also tap on big data and automation to streamline operations, a move that is expected to take place over the next five years.
Panasonic said it is committed to working with Singaporeans to increase their skill sets and build deep capabilities. The presence of the refrigeration compressor business unit's global R&D centre in Singapore is expected to allow Singaporeans to take up leadership roles and drive innovative change across the region, it said.
TECH MAY REPLACE SOME JOBS, BUT ALSO CREATE NEW ONES
Speaking at the launch on Friday, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say emphasised that Singapore must be committed to partner technology to innovate pervasively across all sectors of our economy.
Acknowledging that there are concerns about technology taking away jobs, Mr Lim said that while technology may replace some jobs, it can also create new and better ones.
Citing Panasonic as an example, the minister said: Instead of robotisation, what we see here is cobotisation - workers and robots working together as co-workers. With upgrading of skills and improvement in productivity, the median salary of local staff has increased by 35 per cent with this transformation.
Meanwhile, Mr Lim said that as an export-oriented economy, it is important for Singapore to recognise the pace of transformation is dictated not by our local readiness, but by global competition. But some companies may lack the expertise to grow their operations here, he said.
Hence, it is to our own interest to support companies to have access to global expertise where necessary. At the same time, we will help our locals to learn faster and adapt better so that, progressively, they can acquire the expertise and experience to take on more duties and responsibilities.
Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu
The PM hailed the business efforts in realizing the strategy for Viet Nam's automobile industry development and its investment of around US$ 500 million in establishing an automobile production complex in Gian Khau Industrial Park, which will create 8,000 jobs.
He appraised the corporations contribution of VND7,000 billion to the State budget in 2016.
By 2018, import tax on cars may be down to 0%, the PM noted, asking the corporation to overcome obstacles and difficulties.
He expected that the corporation will make efforts to produce necessary and crucial accessories and engines, head to new export markets, set up a professional staff and join the automobile manufacturing value chain.
PM Phuc required leaders of Ninh Binh Province to facilitate businesses operating in automobile manufacturing.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will gather with other leaders of southern EU nations to back greater EU integration after Brexit. (AFP/JOSEP LAGO)
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the leaders of France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Malta will gather at El Pardo palace outside Madrid.
The meeting will be a chance to "launch a message of unity and commitment to the project of European integration at a decisive moment in our history," the office of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said in a statement.
"Europe must continue to work to address the issues of greatest concern to its citizens and strengthen its project of integration," the statement continued.
Also on Monday's summit agenda is the issue of immigration, of particular interest to southern EU states which are on the frontline of the problem.
The leaders will also discuss economic, social and defence policies.
The meeting of the leaders will be the third by the group following gatherings in Athens in September and Lisbon in January.
Southern European leaders have sought at past meetings to forge a common front on growing challenges, from the refugee crisis to Brexit, and to counter the influence of nations in northern Europe within the bloc.
The date of the Madrid meeting was announced on Mar 29, the day that Britain formally began the two-year process of quitting the EU.
The Syria crisis will also be discussed in Madrid, a French diplomatic source said.
Inside a laboratory for tissue cultivation in the Agricultural Hightech Park of HCM City. - VNA/VNS Photo Manh Linh
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that the bottleneck of the agriculture sector was technology. He said his ministry was promoting connections with leading farming technology companies from Switzerland, the Netherlands and Israel as well as other countries with a developed agriculture sector to provide opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural firms to look for appropriate technologies.
Many Vietnamese firms are now aware of that they should not import outdated machinery and technologies but look for advanced technologies. However, the most difficult thing is how to find the appropriate technologies.
Luong Minh Tung, Chairman of Yen Phu Beef and Dairy Cattle Breading Joint Stock Company in northern Ninh Binh Province, said that his company had a worry about how to preserve meat.
In many countries, beef-preserving technologies were very good which could ensure meat quality up to three months, Tung said, adding that his company was looking for a partner with such technology.
Nguyen Van Linh, Chairman of Bac Giang Province Peoples Committee, said that the Northern Province which was known for lychee as a specialty and was promoting export of this type of fruit, expected to find a suitable preservation technology.
The lychee harvest lasted only one month, inserting large pressure on consumption. Thus, lychee preservation technology was very important.
A number of companies from Israel, the Netherlands, and Switzerland were also looking for providing technologies and cooperating high-tech agricultural production in Viet Nam recently.
Recently, more than 30 Israeli companies visited Viet Nam to look for co-operation opportunities.
Vu Kien Trung, general director of Khang Thinh Irrigation Technology JSC, sole agent of Israel-based Netafim in Viet Nam, was quoted by the Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper that drip irrigation technology was initially completely strange to Viet Nams agricultural production but now gaining more popularity.
The newspaper quoted Ambassador Duong Chi Dung, Head of Viet Nams Permanent Mission to the UN and other international organisations, as saying that many Swiss corporations wanted to co-operate with Vietnamese firms in agricultural production, especially in processing.
Swiss companies were especially willing to study and develop appropriate technologies for Viet Nam and co-operate in technology transfer, according to Dung.
The agriculture ministries of Viet Nam and Holland were also looking to connect firms from both sides with the aim of promoting high-tech agricultural production.
The painting, made with ink and gouache a type of watermedia consisting of pigment, water, a binding agent (usually dextrin or gum arabic), and sometimes additional inert material is 82cm x 66cm and was completed during the period of 1937-39.
It combined "Oriental" themes with "Occidental" forms, a specialty in Phos works.
Le Pho (1907 - 2001) was a Vietnamese painter. In 1932, he earned a scholarship to study at Ecole des Beaux-Arts (National School of Fine Arts) in Paris. After returning to the country, he taught at Vietnam University of Fine Arts in Hanoi.
His favourite subjects are Vietnam landscapes, still life with flowers, family settings and portraits. Vietnamese women often portrayed as elongated, surrealistic figures are a recurrent theme in his works.
As part of the universitys first generation, Pho spent most of his time working in France. Each of his works are painstakingly well-preserved, stored and separated into seperated files. Thanks to that, his paintings are thriving on the world market. His works normally range from US$10,000 to US$50,000 per painting.
Before Family Life was sold, three other of the artists pieces sold at high prices this year.
The trio Nhin Tu Dinh Doi (A View From Top of The Hill, oil in canvas, 1937), sold at US$844,697 , Thieu Nu va Canh Na (Young Lady and the Sugar Apple branch, silk on canvas, 1938), sold at US$567,178 at Hong Kongs Christies; and Tinh Mau Tu (Motherhood, silk canvas, 1940) sold at US$629,276 at Hongkongs Sothebys.
What to do with weak banks?
On April 5, the Ministry of Justice held a meeting to appraise the law on supporting the restructuring of credit institutions and non-performing loan (NPL) settlement. One of the controversial contents of the draft is the compulsory purchase at VND0. These measures are adopted to weak banks placed under special control and given time to recover, but there is no effective recovery plan.
According to the SBVs draft, this measure is only an alternative channel with an aim to avoid system breakdown in case other remedies prove ineffective. Finance and banking expert Can Van Luc said legalising the method of buying banks at VND0 will create a solid basis for the SBV to speed up the restructuring of the banking system. However, Luc also warned that this measure should not be deployed en masse.
Meanwhile, lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, chairman of BASICO Law Firm, said that this is a complicated, expensive, and unnecessary solution. The purchase of banks at VND0 is only symbolic because maintaining a weak credit institution with negative chartered capital is very complex and costly, whether it is done directly or indirectly, Duc said.
According to experts, the SBV offers a solution of purchasing these banks at VND0 (instead of allowing them to declare bankruptcy) not only to avoid the collapse of banks as well as the banking system but also to save credit institutions that may have good growth potential in the future.
However, in fact, before the VND0 purchasing option, the SBV has set a 5-10 year roadmap for these banks to recover. If banks remain weak, they cannot be fixed. Then, if the SBV continues to maintain weak banks, it will lead to market distortions and affect the safety and health of the banking system.
Moreover, the purpose of compulsory purchase is to protect the interests of depositors, not to save bankers. Therefore, the best measure is spending all resources on supporting depositors instead of the weak banks.
If the SBV still does not want to declare a credit institution bankrupt, instead of buying it at a compulsory price of VND0, the State can announce that it would pay out the depositors, but there should be a deadline and the process may even last for several years instead of an immediate all-around pay-out.
Weak banks should be allowed to go bankrupt
Another solution to handle weak banks stated by the draft law is dissolution or bankruptcy. This measure is supported by some experts.
According to lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, when it comes to weak banks, before the dissolution, bankruptcy or purchase at VND0 in line with the draft, the SBV has given a long time to sort themselves out, so their bankruptcy will not affect the security of the system. The compulsory purchase of VND0 is still costly and if the SBV later sells these banks at a higher price, it will not look good on the SBV, despite the significant capital SBV poured in to restore these credit institutions. In fact, over the years, some banks, such as Viet Hoa and APBank, have been quietly dissolved without so much as a ripple in the overall system.
Although the solution of buying weak banks at VND0 adopted by the SBV (including Ocean Bank, GPBank, and CB) has been praised by lawyers, legalizing as one of the critical solutions to tackle weak banks needs careful consideration.
Economist Le Xuan Nghia said that the solution of buying a bank at VND0 recently successfully avoids system breakdown and keeps the trust of depositors. However, in the next phase, weak banks must gradually decrease both mobilization and lending in order to avoid panic. Then, it is necessary to let some weak banks go bankrupt to set an example, instead of continuing to buy at VND0.
Agreeing with Nghia, finance and banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu said that the SBV should let the major banks with negative capital go bankrupt instead of buying them at VND0. Bankruptcy will reduce unfair competition on the market.
Of course, according to the SBV, when applying the methods like bankruptcy, dissolution or purchase at VND0, the foremost principle is prudence and the maintenance of the systems security, as well as ensuring depositors interests.
TORONTO, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay" or the "Company") (TSX:MND) is pleased to announce the following changes to its management team, effective immediately:
Bradford Mills to serve as Chair of the Board. Mr. Mills was previously Executive Chairman.
Belinda Labatte to serve as Chief Development Officer. Ms. Labatte was previously Head of Stakeholder Engagement & Corporate Affairs.
Chris Gregory to serve as Vice President Operational Geology and Exploration. Mr. Gregory was previously Vice President Operational Geology and Chief Shield Geologist.
Andre Booyzen to serve as Vice President Leadership Development, Performance & Sustainability. Mr. Booyzen was previously General Manager of the Costerfield mine.
Melanie McCarthy to serve as General Manager of Costerfield. Ms. McCarthy was previously Project Manager at Costerfield.
Par Goting to serve as General Manager of Bjorkdal. Mr. Goting joined the Company April 5, 2017, replacing the previous general manager who had resigned in 2016.
Jasmine Virk to serve as Director Corporate Affairs and Corporate Secretary. Ms. Virk was previously Director Corporate Affairs.
Mark Sander, President and CEO of Mandalay Resources, commented, I am delighted to announce these new and expanded roles within the Company that will augment organizational collaboration and effectiveness. Also. I am pleased to introduce Par Goting, who joins us from Boliden as our new General Manager at Bjorkdal.
These changes serve to increase our capacity to discover, evaluate and capture new acquisition opportunities at the same time as planning and delivering robust operating results at a growing number of operations going forward. The changes also represent recognition of our people for high performance in their previous roles.
Dr. Sander concluded, I wish to thank Brad Mills for his work as Executive Chairman in 2016 and look forward to his continuing contributions as Chair going forward.
About Mandalay Resources Corporation:
Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia, Chile, and Sweden, and a development project in Chile. The Company is focused on executing a roll-up strategy, creating critical mass by aggregating advanced or in-production gold, silver, and antimony projects in Australia, the Americas, and Europe to generate near-term cash flow and shareholder value.
Ingo Gunther, [278-3] Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Monitoring Network (2011): Locations of the seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide sensing facilities of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty International Monitoring System, as well as the International Data Centre of the CTBTO, located in Vienna. As of 2005, the treaty is not yet in effect, pending ratification of all 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty. Courtesy of Hood Museum
Ingo Gunther, [1] TV Ownership (2010): If you multiply the number of daily TV deaths by the number of people owning TV sets and subtract that number from the population, most nations would disappear on a daily basis.
Ingo Gunther, [155-17] Company vs. Country (2016): Some companies have yearly gross incomes larger than the entire GDP of a given country. Seventy of the top 100 economies are corporations, not countries, up from about 50 in 2002. Courtesy Hood Museum
Ingo Gunther, [115-2] Wetlands (2016): Wetlands is the collective term for marshes, swamps, bogs, and similar areas. About 75% of all endangered species are native to the worlds wetlands.
If you peer in the window of the Hood Downtown gallery in Hanover you will see a darkened room illuminated by the light from 50 globes, of all colors and patterns.
Theyre the work of Ingo Gunther, a German-born, New York-based artist, whose exhibition, titled World Processor, continues a string of innovative contemporary art shows at the Hood Museums temporary gallery on Hanovers Main Street.
Gunther has devised an ingenious way to get across the kind of vital but dusty data that usually show up in position papers or reports as dry recitation with equally dry graphics to match.
What if you were able to analyze global migration patterns, compare the GDPs of different countries, and look at the locations of free economic zones or manmade borders by seeing them on a globe?
And what if you were able to then compare one globe, with one set of data, to another globe next to it with another set of related data? The mind grasps complex information and makes intellectual connections very differently when it can take things in as three-dimensional forms.
Thats a long way of saying that Gunthers World Processor globes are satisfying aesthetically and intellectually. They are visually arresting, and they make you think about how we consume and process information. More to the point, Gunther is able to take what seems like the most arcane data, and make it tangible and comprehensible.
Take one globe with a network of lines. Each line sprouts from an odd location and ends in an equally odd location. When you read the label you realize that you are looking at the trajectories of nuclear missiles from their points of origin in the countries that are nuclear powers, to their intended targets.
Another globe, by comparison, shows the locations of the international monitoring system facilities of the nuclear-test-ban treaty. One can ponder the relationship between the international structures put in place to monitor the testing of nuclear weapons, and the flight paths that missiles would take if all the human systems that have been devised to keep that from happening were to fail.
The Gunther exhibition, and the related show Mining Big Data: Amy Balkin and Luis Delgado-Qualtrough in the Strauss Gallery in the Hopkins Center, were curated by Juliette Banco, the Hood Museums deputy director and Katherine Hart, the museums senior curator of collections.
The two women saw the work of all three artists last spring at the 2016 FotoFest in Houston, Texas, a biennial exhibition that is one of the leading international festivals for photo-based art.
They didnt go to FotoFest with the idea of curating a show about Big Data, but that theme emerged as they looked at the work of Balkin, Delgado-Qualtrough and Gunther, all of whom juxtapose nuggets of text with visual elements.
In a period of endless information, and when the meaning and ownership of facts is being challenged whose fact is this anyway? these artists have found ways to visually represent such urgent problems as climate change, famine and war-driven human migration.
Art can help make sense of the onslaught of information coming at us, Bianco said in a recent interview with Gunther and the two curators.
I think we both have a lot of tolerance for engagement with issue-oriented art, said Hart.
Gunther studied ethnology and cultural anthropology at Frankfurt University and sculpture and media at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf. He made his first globes in the late 1980s, and has made some 1,500 in all: Each globe is dated because over time, of course, information changes, borders can shift, water sources are depleted, climate changes.
He began his career as a journalist but became disillusioned by the changes he saw in the news business.
There are way too many opinions, and a lack of well-proportioned information, he said. Still, he draws on standard journalistic sources for the data he uses, including The Economist, the UN Development Report, the World Bank, and, on occasion, the CIAs World Factbook.
Gunthers aim is to present data as clearly as possible, but also to lure the viewer with his hand-painted, meticulously drawn globes, which isnt too difficult.
People like globes, Gunther said. And when the globes are placed side by side in a space, hes noticed that people bounce back and forth from one globe to the next, acting as vectors for the data.
Its an intellectual, playful thing, he said. The idea is, everything is related to everything.
Hart echoed this, in her own way. There are multi-valent ways in which art can be interpreted, she said. Art isnt linear. Its OK to be open-ended. Art raises questions. It opens up different rabbit holes you can go down.
Gunther was scheduled to give a lecture today at the gallery, but that has been postponed due to illness. Check back with the Hood Museum website, at hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu, for further information.
World Processor runs through May 28.
Mining Big Data: Luis Delgado-Qualtrough and Amy Balkin continues in the Strauss Gallery, Hopkins Center, through April 30.
Openings and Receptions
ArtisTree Gallery in South Pomfret marks mud season with its annual celebration of same, with the show MUD, opening Friday at the gallery from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Artists spin variations on the theme of mud season. The show goes through May 6.
Adventures in Weaving, a show by Braintree, Vt. artist Susan Rockwell, opens Friday at the Tunbridge Public Library; there will be a public reception from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at the library. Rockwell is part of the Vermont Weavers Guild and has taught weaving classes for more than 30 years. The show runs through May 19.
As part of First Friday in White River Junction, Long River Gallery and Gifts, which has closed its location in Lyme and has now moved to White River, is exhibiting Lyme artist Stephanie Reiningers paintings in the show Springs Flowers and Colors. Through May 5. The gallery will also offer this Friday a demonstration of Ukrainian egg decorating by Shannon Wallis from 5 to 8 p.m. For more information go to tinyurl.com/firstfridaylongriver.
Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, in the Tip-Top Building in White River Junction, opens Collaborations, a set of prints made by Vicky Tomayko and Bert Yarborough, with a reception Friday evening from 6 to 8 p.m.
At Scavenger Gallery in White River Junction, jeweler Stacy Hopkins will host a wine tasting, starting at 5:30 p.m. The work of print maker Lois Beatty and sculptor and wood worker Ria Blaas will also be on view.
The Norwich Public Library presents the show Odanaksis: Plein Air Paintings, an exhibition of work by artists Anne Webster Grant, Gail M. Barton, Helen Elder, Susan Rump, Linda Landry, Jo Tate and Becky Cook. (There is a show up by the same group at the Zollikofer Gallery at the Hotel Coolidge.) Odakansis, the Abenaki term for little village, describes a group of artists who paint together outdoors at different locations around the Upper Valley. The Norwich Public Library holds a public reception beginning at 5 p.m. Friday. The show continues through May 26.
Ongoing
Arabella, Windsor. The gallery exhibits works by local artists and artisans in a variety of media, including jewelry, oils, acrylics, photography, watercolors, pastels and textiles.
Center for the Arts, New London. The center shows work by Penny Koburger at the New London Inn, and pastels and oils by Gwen Nagel at the Lake Sunapee Bank on Main Street. In celebration of Youth Art Month, work by students from New London Elementary School also is on view at the Whipple Gallery in New London. All three shows end April 29.
Converse Free Library, Lyme. Lyme artist and printer Matt Brown exhibits Woodblock Prints: Parts and Process in the Betty Grant Gallery through May 31.
Howe Library, Hanover. Boston artist Tatiana Yanovskaya-Sink, who also spends time in the summer in the Sunapee area, exhibits paintings in the librarys Ledyard Gallery through May 3.
Kilton Library, West Lebanon. A selection of work from Hanover Street School and Mount Lebanon School will be exhibited at the library: Hanover Street students showed their art through Wednesday; Mount Lebanon students work will be on view today through May.
Main Street Museum, White River Junction. Theoretical Clothing and The Shape of Being, an exhibition of clothing design, photography and sculpture by H. Seano Whitecloud, runs through April 22. On April 22, Whitecloud, along with other designers, will show his clothes as part of WRJ Fashion Weekend at the Engine Room in White River Junction.
Osher at Dartmouth, Hanover. Lyme artist and illustrator Meg McLean exhibits her oil paintings in the show Still Seeing Green through April 27. The gallery is at the Osher office at 7 Lebanon Street, Hanover. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:30 to 4:30 p.m., Fridays from 8:30 to 1 p.m.
Philip Read Memorial Library, Plainfield. Prints by Barnard artist Sabra Field are on view through July 1.
Royalton Memorial Library, South Royalton. A show of work by South Royalton School students continues through April 14. There will be a public reception today from 4 to 6 p.m.
SculptureFest, Woodstock. The annual celebration of three-dimensional art generally ends when foliage season does, but 80 percent of the show is still on view. Grounding, a show of site-specific work curated by sculptors Jay Mead and Edythe Wright, is on view at the King Farm. For more information, go to sculpturefest.org.
White River Gallery at BALE, South Royalton. Expansions, a show of paintings by Jasper Tomkins, is on view through April 30.
Zollikofer Gallery, Hotel Coolidge, White River Junction. The Spirit of Odanaksis, an exhibition of work by members of a group Upper Valley plein air painters, is on view through May 10.
Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.
Poverty rates in Cambodia remain stubbornly high, despite the country's booming economy, and that is creating problems like homeless youth. However, young artists are hoping to change that through the spread of hip-hop music and a strict no-nonsense attitude.
It's a much broader approach to simply doling out dollars, said Vuthy Sokanha, communications officer at Friends International, who is also urging tourists, businesses and wealthy Khmers to think twice before giving money to child beggars.
The money itself, the parents wont use to send their kids to school, instead they use that money on drugs, alcohol and gambling, she said.
That's why education, music, a dance troupe and a school called Tiny Toones, establish in 2005 to engage very young people, have been deployed to deal with child exploitation, ranging from sexual abuse, drug addiction and bad parenting.
Getting through is difficult
At school, Tiny Toones uses break-dancing and the culture of hip-hop to engage, inspire and educate young people, especially street kids, who follow their favorite artists online and with the aid of a smart phone, and prefer them to traditional Khmer artists.
Traditional Khmer dance remains popular with older audiences and during festivals and weddings. But times are changing and the sound of hip hop music is being heard more widely in the lead-up to the approaching mid-April Khmer New Year, than the chime of brass bells.
Sarom Jacky Sara, a dance instructor at Tiny Toones and a former street kid, said parents often used their children as a way of finding money to support their alcohol and gambling addictions.
I went to see the parents of those kids. The mother is addicted to gambling and she's drunk, so they don't care about the kids, but they have set them limits to bring at least 10,000 riels ($2.50), or 20,000 riels ($5.00) home, each time they go out. That is the true story. I have asked the children.
Hip hop classes were established here by Tuy KK Sobil, an American artist and native Cambodian who was deported from the U.S. after falling afoul of the law. He introduced break-dance lessons for street kids as a means of setting goals.
We listen to all types of world famous songs with good rhythms, mix the songs and create the style. We also mixed Khmer traditional songs with disco music to make it more creative.
Additionally, school fees, transportation for those who want to study and hip hop lessons are all free. The school also teaches Khmer literature, English, computer skills, and graffiti.
According to a recent survey by the Cambodian National Institute of Statistics, Columbia University in New York, and Friends International, of this country's seven largest urban centers about 2,700 youths were in need of a home with the numbers rising due to higher unemployment and migration to the cities from rural villages.
There are no previously comparable numbers, but Sokhana said the survey indicated a noticeable increase of about 40 percent over the last two years. Of the total, some 1,800 homeless youths are affiliated with Friends International.
On the street
Typically, homeless youth are aged between 13 and 17 years and fit snugly at the bottom of the social ladder, where they are easily exploited and often bullied into begging and collecting empty drink cans, or, more heinously, drugs, prostitution and other forms of criminal activity.
Doung Chan is a 12-year-old street kid who spends much of her time outside a Star Mart convenience store on Monivong Blvd, toying with her smart phone.
She initially ran-off at the sight of cameras but returned and said her parents had told her not to speak with journalists. Later, she began to talk but was hesitant.
She was once rescued by Friends International, but left because her younger sister was abandoned during the daytime by their parents, and street life where she can earn between five and seven dollars a day by begging was more lucrative.
I left there because no one was looking after my sister. I come here as a beggar. My mom is a scrap collector and my dad is a construction worker. The money that I find is to help pay for the rent, she said.
Then there's Chea Channy. He fell into into drugs and said life on the street was difficult. He was attacked and beaten by rival gangs and wanted out. He was lucky and found a place at Friends where he is learning culinary skills and is drug-free.
I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I had not met with Friends. I have no one to depend on, no shelter and no food, Channy said. I was mistreated.
Tough love
Cambodia's post-war economic boom has lifted millions out of poverty but growth has been uneven and social workers have warned that better results among street kids won't happen by simply giving money.
Sokanha says the plight faced by Chan and Channy is common and successes rare.
We should think twice before giving money or buying from children because this act can encourage them to do more and them to stay in poverty, she said, adding one day can earn their parents $10 to $20. With four to five children on the streets, they can bring in $80 to $100 a day.
That's a tidy sum when the poverty rate is just two dollars a day and construction companies pay their laborers as little as three dollars a day. It also compares favorably with what's on offer from NGOs like Friends International and Tiny Toones.
If they can earn this much per day and if they wish to lead life on the street then they can actually save money and afford to leave but they dont because begging is too easy for them, Sokanha said.
Her sentiments were echoed by Jacky, whose rehabilitated students get a chance to perform abroad perhaps twice a year.
Weve seen people break dance in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, said Jacky, adding hip hop and education have succeeded where just giving money has failed.
Luke Hunt contributed to this report.
Chea Vandeth, an advisor to the Council of Ministers under the late deputy prime minister Sok An, is slated to become a lawmaker following a parliamentary meeting on Friday last week.
Leng Penglong, National Assembly spokesman, said Vandeth had been selected as a replacement for An, who died last month in Beijing of an unknown illness.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, could not be reached to confirm whether members of the opposition would attend the meeting.
As well as being a lawmaker in Takeo province, An held numerous official positions in Prime Minister Hun Sens governments over the years, leading to fierce speculation about who would assume the posts following his death.
As well as being a lawmaker, An was the a deputy prime minister and minister in charge of Hun Sens cabinet.
Phay Siphan, cabinet spokesman, said Vandeth had gained a doctorate in Russia and had worked to help the people of Takeo province for many years.
He added that Vandeth is also a successful businessman.
In 2013, Vandeth became a founder of the American University of Phnom Penh.
He is also chairman of the JC Royal Group, which previously owned the rights to manage the Choeung Ek killing fields memorial site.
Vandeth could not be reached for comment.
A Russian computer programmer has been arrested in Barcelona, Spain, possibly in connection with hacking during last year's U.S. presidential election.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Madrid announced the arrest Sunday, but did not say why Peter Levashov was taken into custody.
Spanish authorities are reported to have notified the Russian embassy of Levashov's arrest Friday.
The 36-year-old computer expert was allegedly arrested on a U.S. warrant while vacationing in Spain with his wife Maria Levashova, according to Russian news media and Reuters.
After Levashov's arrest, Peter Carr, a spokesman in the U.S. Justice Department said the case "remained under seal" and Washington had "no information to provide at this time."
The U.S. government has accused Russia of hacking Democratic Party emails to help the presidential campaign of then Republican candidate Donald Trump, who won the election in November.
The U.S. Congress is also examining links between Russia and the Trump campaign.
4 The coffin of PC Keith Palmer, who was killed in the recent Westminster attack, is transported through Carriage Gates at the Palace of Westminster, where it laid overnight, to his funeral at Southwark Cathedral in central London.
Cambodia's decision to walk out on a contract with a U.S. military unit has set off alarm bells within the diplomatic community and raised concerns that Prime Minister Hun Sen is prepared to sacrifice millions of dollars worth of humanitarian work to appease regional powers such as Russia and China.
Diplomats and political analysts said they were stunned by a government notification ending work on schools and hospitals by the U.S. Navy Mobile Construction Battalion, or the Seabees.
Well, I will find it extraordinary that Cambodians would happily cancel these types of projects without something coming in to replace it, said Billy Chia-Lung Tai, an independent human rights consultant at CL Consulting.
But who's going to be building these projects and where's that money going to come from? Or are these schools and hospitals simply just not going to be built?" he asked. "And if that is the case, are these projects now going to be picked up as Chinese-funded projects?
Poke in the eye
The Cambodian government has not said why it declined to renew its Seabee contract, a move described by one diplomat as another "poke in the eye" for the Americans.
It's a point of frustration for Washington, given the nature of the Seabees' work.
Since 2008, the Seabees have carried out $5 million worth of construction projects that benefited tens of thousands of Cambodians across the country, said Jay Raman, spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh.
They've completed projects such as maternity wards, hospital improvements, water wells, bathroom facilities in public schools and similar projects, working hand in hand with the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and local communities, he said.
Whether China or Russia will step in to fill the breach remains to be seen, but the apparent use of genuine humanitarian works for political point-scoring has left Cambodia's most vulnerable even further exposed.
Raman said the Seabees "were scheduled to build six additional bathroom facilities at schools and two new maternity wards" and had other projects scheduled through 2019. "But, unfortunately, those have now been cancelled."
Encroaching power plays
The agreement's cancellation means at least 20 planned projects will be scrapped in a move reminiscent of Cold War plays.
Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy, added Hun Sen might be attempting to reposition Cambodia politically in his belief that the U.S. is on the decline in East Asia while Russia is seeking to raise its regional profile.
He noted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's shift toward China and U.S. President Donald Trump's as-yet-unclear foreign policy.
With Duterte in Manila and Trump in Washington, perhaps Hun Sen sees the decline of the U.S. as a trend and is attempting to reposition Cambodia, Thayer said. The cancelling of the Seabees work continues a pattern of anti-U.S. actions by Hun Sen that Russian diplomats would have picked up.
Those anti-U.S. actions included Hun Sen's request that the U.S. forgive a $505 million debt for food and agricultural goods. Cambodia's Lon Nol government borrowed the money in the 1970s, during its civil war with the Khmer Rouge.
The Russians have also refused to renegotiate a $1.5 billion debt incurred by the Cambodians during the Moscow-backed Vietnamese occupation of the country in the 1980s. However, China wrote off debts incurred in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge regime about 15 years ago.
In January, Phnom Penh suspended joint military exercises with the U.S., citing the June elections as the cause while rejecting suggestions that its decision was related to military and financial ties with China.
Beijing held its first joint naval drill with Cambodia last year after it funded lucrative contracts for Chinese-made weapons, jeeps, helicopters and training.
Cambodia looks north by northeast
Thayer said it became clear about three to four years ago that Russian President Vladimir Putin was angling toward re-engaging in the Asia-Pacific.
Not much was done because Vietnam was the only country with solid links, he said. Last year, Russia hosted a summit with ASEAN leaders in Sochi and this seems to have breathed new life into an older initiative.
Thayer added that the Russian navy had also conducted several exercises with its Chinese counterpart and last year had visited the Philippines after Dutertes pivot to China.
Putin rankles at the sanctions and isolation imposed on Russia by the U.S. and EU, he said. He seeks to break out and demonstrate that Russia has foreign friends, hence the opportunistic approach to Cambodia.
China and Cambodia are also steadily tightening their diplomatic relationship.
In the past month, Beijing said it expected to bestow sister city status on Phnom Penh, while China's Shaanxi province struck a separate agreement to increase trade and tourism.
With commune elections due in June and general elections in July next year, the ruling party is increasingly relying on Chinese largesse as its backbone for a booming postwar economy. Two-way trade between Cambodia and China is expected to top $5 billion this year.
A strike in English-speaking parts of Cameroon is approaching its sixth month mark. Schools in those areas remain shut and business paralyzed. As tensions deepen, Cameroon has begun grappling with some of the deeper grievances underpinning the divide.
Another market was burned in an English-speaking area of the country on Saturday. This time, it was in the northwestern town of Kumbo at St. Augustines College junction.
Local businessman Ndukong Gabriel estimates he lost $20,000 worth of property. He says he will no longer be capable of repaying his loan.
"All credit union presidents should come on board to grant some clemencies to all their clients that they granted loans before these crises," says Gabriel.
The government has blamed the fires on secessionist groups in English-speaking zones.
The unrest in those areas, the northwest and the southwest, began shortly after English-speaking lawyers and teachers went on strike in November, demanding reforms. The situation intensified as the strike pulled in other activists who say the English-speaking minority is marginalized and that those regions should declare total independence.
The government has rejected secessionist discourse but announced some changes, including the recruitment of more bilingual teachers and more anglophone judicial officers.
A Pandoras box
Paul Nchoji Nkwi, anthropologist and social sciences lecturer at the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda, says it will take deeper reform to calm tensions.
"The strike of the teachers and the lawyers just opened a Pandora's box and there are lots of grievances which are now emerging."
Justice Minister Laurent Esso announced earlier this month that the government will propose draft legislation to address alleged marginalization in the court system.
Cameroon has parallel legal systems inherited from its two former colonial rulers. Francophone regions follow the French legal tradition while anglophone areas use British common law.
Esso says President Paul Biya is very aware of the difficulties raised concerning anglophones. He says among other measures, Biya has asked for the elaboration of a draft law on the creation of a common law division at the Supreme Court to handle cases from the English-speaking parts of Cameroon. He says they have also been instructed to conduct a census of English-speaking lawyers to increase their representation at the higher levels of the judiciary.
The predominance of French speakers at the highest levels of decision-making is proving a challenging grievance to address.
Tensions on that issue recently made their way to the floor of the National Assembly.
English-speaking parliamentarians protested last week as Cavaye Yeguie Djibril was re-elected speaker of the lower house. Djibril is from a French-speaking region, as is his deputy. Anglophone lawmakers said if the speaker is francophone, his first vice should be anglophone.
Calls for solidarity
Joseph Banadzem is president of the minority S.D.F. parliamentary group at the lower house.
"You have four main ministries and about 11 extra ministries that deal with youths. None of them is anglophone. The minister of secondary education, minister of basic education, minister of higher education, minister of vocational education, minister of scientific education and their secretaries of state - none of them is anglophone," Banadzem said. " People are talking about real things which we are living. There should not be as if you are pushing us to look as if we have created a situation in the country."
English is only spoken by about 20 percent of the population. Yaya Doumba, a French-speaking parliamentarian from the Adamawa region, says not everything falls on language lines.
He says the Mbere division where he comes from has never had a government minister. He says roads in many French-speaking regions are as bad as those in the English-speaking areas. He says there should be solidarity among francophones and anglophones in Cameroon as they find solutions to common problems.
President Biya has on several public outings declared that he is open for dialogue, but that he is not ready for any discussions that would question the unity of the country.
Strikers have demanded the unconditional release of everyone arrested over the stoppage and the reinstatement of the internet in English-speaking zones before dialogue can resume. Biya has said detainees must face justice.
In the Central African Republic, armed groups have occupied, looted and damaged schools, preventing thousands of children from getting their education, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch. The country has been in crisis since late 2012, with militias controlling much of the countryside.
School buildings are preferred by armed groups for use as bases or barracks as they are typically the most solid structures in town.
But according to Aboubacry Tall, the interim representative for UNICEF in the CAR, this basically means the whole country is running at a sub-optimal level.
When children cannot go to school, they end up in the streets and they become vulnerable to all kinds of things, including being recruited into and pressed into service by the armed groups.... What it means is we are basically building the kind of citizen that we would not want to run into in a dark corner on a street somewhere, said Tall.
Lawlessness in rural areas
CAR government forces maintain little control outside the capital Bangui. In the countryside, Christian and Muslim armed militias fight between themselves for mineral resources and trade routes. Bandits and other forces like the Lords Resistance Army also take advantage of the poor security situation.
Human Rights Watch researcher Lewis Mudge traveled throughout the CAR in November 2016 and January 2017 investigating access to schools.
Mudge found even if the fighters were just outside the school, the students still could not, or would not, attend. Some children would have to pass by militia members who killed members of their family.
We found just scores of children who spoke about how this had reduced self-worth, how they felt like they had no future, how they used to have big dreams and do not anymore, Mudge said.
The Saint Francois public primary school in Bangui was occupied by anti-Balaka militia in December 2013. They used it as a barracks, said school director Edouard Pere.
He said they destroyed all the material. They broke the students desks. Students have to sit on the ground. They destroyed the library. They took all the books. They left the school in a very bad state.
Child recruitment
Pere said the militia was also recruiting children into their ranks and giving them weapons. The militia left the school in late 2015. After rehabilitation funded by the government and UNICEF, the school reopened in February 2016 with about 2,500 students now back in class.
But it is a different story outside the capital, said Eugenne-Lucienne Ngbondo, a senior official at the Ministry of Education.
She said there are schools that do not work at the moment, but the government is working to liberate the schools.
The Ministry of Education negotiates with armed groups, sometimes using U.N. peacekeepers as mediators, to try to get the rebels to leave the schools.
Mudge said the number of occupied schools has decreased thanks in part to an initiative started last year by the U.N. mission, MINUSCA.
Opposition calls for mass protests against Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila fell flat on Monday when only a handful of people showed up, undermining efforts to oust him after his refusal to quit on expiry of his mandate last year.
The sparse turnout in the capital Kinshasa and other major cities pointed to the opposition's waning credibility and persistent difficulties convincing Congolese to risk frequently deadly crackdowns by security services.
The normally hectic streets of Kinshasa, a city of more than 10 million people, were nearly deserted on Monday as the police patrolled heavily and fearful residents stayed home.
"How was I supposed to march?" said Papy Kazadi, an opposition supporter on Kinshasa's deserted Boulevard Triomphal, where the march was supposed to begin. "There is no one here."
The demonstration's prospects dimmed on Sunday when the main opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, flew to Ethiopia at the invitation of the African Union, just hours after holding a news conference to urge Congolese to take to the streets.
Deadly protests in September and December as well as worsening militia violence across the vast, flimsily governed country in recent months have raised fears of a backslide toward the civil wars of the turn of the century that killed millions.
But Kabila has successfully co-opted many opponents by negotiating the formation of a power-sharing government meant to organize a presidential election to replace him by year-end.
The country's second city Lubumbashi and its eastern hub of Goma also remained calm, residents said, though police said they arrested about 10 demonstrators in Lubumbashi.
The United Nations human rights office in Congo said it had confirmed at least 40 arrests of people trying to demonstrate across the country.
"The precipitous departure of Felix Tshisekedi the day before the march was indeed discouraging," Desire Kapangu, a resident of Kinshasa's Kasavubu district, told Reuters.
The opposition has also been wracked by infighting since the February death of longtime standard bearer Etienne Tshisekedi.
Last Friday, Kabila named Bruno Tshibala, a former member of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the largest opposition party, as the new prime minister.
The UDPS and its allies rejected his nomination, saying Kabila violated a December deal with them by not naming a candidate of the alliance's choosing and accused him of maneuvering to hold onto power.
Kabila denies that charge. He says election delays are due to logistical and budgetary constraints.
Egypt has declared a declared a three-month state of emergency in the wake of two Coptic church bombings that killed at least 44 people.
"A series of steps will be taken, most importantly, the announcement of a state of emergency for three months after legal and constitution steps are taken," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said in a speech aired on state television.
The first blast was in the northern city of Tanta, where a powerful explosion ripped through a Palm Sunday service at St. George's Church, killing 27 people and wounding 78 others, state TV reported. The explosive device was planted under a seat in the main prayer hall, it said.
Not long after that, at least 17 people were killed and 41 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack outside St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.
U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on the phone Sunday with Sissi to offer condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.
In a White House statement, Trump called the attack "heinous."
"President Trump condemned the attacks that killed and injured dozens of Egyptians. The president also expressed his confidence in [the Egyptian president's] commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians," the statement said.
Egypt's Christian minority, which makes up roughly 10 percent of the population, has increasingly been targeted by Islamist extremists.
Bishop Suriel, a Coptic Christian leader in Melbourne, Australia, told VOA that more needs to be done to increase security to protect Christians, as well as to combat terrorism that affects places all across the world.
He said attacks like the ones Sunday do not deter Coptic Christians.
"In fact, after such events we find that our churches are even more full and more people are coming to pray, and we raise their hearts to God for mercy and for strength," he said.
He also expressed hope that an upcoming visit to Egypt by Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, will send a "very strong message of peace and hope."
Pope Francis denounced the bombings Sunday and expressed "his deep condolences" to Tawadros II and "all of the dear Egyptian nation." Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church, had been attending mass inside the targeted church in Alexandria but was not hurt, state media reported.
The United Nations Security Council called the attack cowardly and urged all members to assist the Egyptian government. Members said any form of terrorism "constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security."
Meanwhile, Israel closed the Taba border that leads to the Sinai peninsula on Monday, amid warning by its anti-terrorism office of an "imminent" attack.
Yisrael Katz, Israel's transportation and intelligence minister, urged Israel citizens to leave Egypt. The minister said intel information shows "increased activity by the Islamic State militants" in Sinai, and because the terrorist group is losing ground in Syria and Iraq, there is a restored motivation to attack other areas.
The border remains open, Katz said, for those wanting to return to Egypt.
The announcement came hours before the beginning of the Passover holiday, a time where Sinai is a popular destination.
At least 16 people have been killed in South Sudan as militiamen targeted civilians based on their ethnicity.
Witnesses say the Dinka militiamen, aligned with South Sudan's government, went house to house Monday in the town of Wau searching for people from the local Luo and Fertit ethnic groups. Residents say streets were deserted Monday as families hid inside their homes.
The United Nations mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, said its workers saw "the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were 10 people who had been injured."
U.N. officials have repeatedly warned that South Sudan is at risk of genocide.
U.N. officials say the killings were in retaliation for a rebel attack on government forces in Wau state on Sunday that killed two officers.
UNMISS said about 3,000 people, mostly women and children, had fled to a Catholic Church in town. It said 84 people had sought protection in a civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers. Residents told reporters that army soldiers were blocking the main road to the encampment, preventing most people from reaching the site.
South Sudan has been beset by violence for more than three years because of a political rivalry between the young country's two leaders.
The power struggle between President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer, broke out in December 2013, after the president accused Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup.
Fighting has split the country along ethnic lines, displaced more than two million people from their homes, and caused food shortages in many areas.
Diplomats from world powers have spent the past few years trying to figure out how to address the conflict in Syria, North Korea's nuclear ambitions and Russia's actions in its neighborhood and abroad. Those issues remain a key focus this week, some with a renewed sense of urgency, as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with his G-7 counterparts in Italy before traveling for talks in Moscow.
More concrete outcomes from the G-7 are more likely in late May when leaders of those countries gather for their own summit in Italy. But foreign ministers meeting Monday and Tuesday are laying the groundwork for those talks, with a priority on their collective efforts to oust the Islamic State group from Syria and Iraq.
Tillerson said Sunday the United States remains committed to an international roadmap developed in Geneva in 2012 for bringing an end to the conflict in Syria, which then was just more than a year old and has since become a massive humanitarian disaster.
Syrians to decide
The Geneva Communique calls for a new Syrian constitution and elections, but does not specify the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. officials have in recent days given differing statements on the long-held U.S. policy that Assad should leave power. Tillerson said Islamic State is the focus for now, and Assad's future is up to Syrians themselves.
I think what the United States and our allies want to do is to enable the Syrian people to make that determination, Tillerson told CBS News. We've seen what violent regime change looks like in Libya and and the kind of chaos that can be unleashed.
Libya is another topic for the G-7. That country has struggled with political instability since the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi, with rival governments and militias seeking to assert authority and a U.N.-led process unable to establish a unified body.
Eastern Ukraine is a concern
Most of the G-7 members took part in a NATO-led air operation backed by a U.N. resolution to protect civilians from strikes by the Libyan government. Russia expressed opposition to that mission, declaring the resolution to be overly broad in what it allowed.
Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine led the G-7 to suspend Russia's involvement from what had been the G-8 group of nations.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine is expected to be among the topics Tillerson raises with Russian officials in Moscow.
A senior State Department official said in previewing the trip that Tillerson will likely push Russia to honor its commitments under agreements reached in Minsk to halt fighting in eastern Ukraine and work toward a peaceful resolution to that conflict.
He will reiterate that sanctions will remain in place until Russia reverses the actions that triggered them, and as well as on the Crimea-related sanctions that will stay in place until there is a change there, the official said.
North Korea a common foe
North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile tests will be another topic of discussion, but one where the U.S. and Russia have similar ground, having joined other powers in issuing condemnations of a number of tests in the past year.
A senior State Department official said generally Tillerson will stress that the United States is willing to work with Russia on areas that are beneficial to the American people, but will "hold Russia accountable when it violates international norms."
The most glaring issue in the relationship may be the finding of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia interfered with last year's U.S. presidential election with the goal of boosting Trump's chances of winning.
Tillerson is expected to raise the issue, and according to the senior State Department official, sees it as an example of areas where Russia is "creating tensions unnecessarily that erode trust."
The talks about overall U.S.-Russia relations will also serve as a step in exploring whether a direct meeting at a higher level between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is to come.
Eyewitnesses say gunmen dressed in military uniforms went on a massacre Monday in South Sudan's Wau town. They say dozens of people were killed and scores of others wounded when gunmen who looked like government forces stormed houses, killed civilians and looted property.
Odongi Simon, a resident of Wau's Nazareth neighborhood, said: "It started with the sound of gunshots around the areas of Nazareth, Hai Bafra and those areas that are inhabited by the Luo and Fertit in Wau. We have seen many people were just pulled out of their rooms. When they are recognized as Fertit and Luo they are killed."
Simon said a combination of armed men in military uniform and others in civilian clothes conducted house-to-house searches early Monday, killed dozens of unarmed civilians, then burned their houses and looted property. He said the violence paralyzed markets, schools and government offices.
"The general situation is very tense. No one is coming out of their room," Simon said. "Those who know they are targeted, they cannot come out of their rooms to go on the street, because once they go they are arrested or they are killed on the spot."
Aid needed
Father Moses Peter, a Catholic priest at the Wau Diocese, says thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, are seeking shelter at the church compound. Father Peter said the number of displaced seeking shelter likely will increase unless aid agencies arrive.
"We don't have something in our hands to give them," Father Peter said. "They need to be given food for children who are just coming from home. And the second one could be, maybe, shelter because they are many now and most of them don't have shelter."
A Red Cross surgical team said it was flying to Wau on Monday to assist those wounded in the attack. The team's arrival is part of the planned project by the International Committee of the Red Cross to support the Wau Teaching Hospital in its surgical capacity. The ICRC said it received multiple requests to assist medical staff in Wau.
A 23-year-old woman who, for security reasons, preferred to be identified only as Nonoya is among those sheltering at the Catholic Church compound. Nonoya said she saw bodies of young men as she fled to the church.
A medical worker speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from government soldiers said 12 bodies bearing bullet wounds were brought to the mortuary at Wau Teaching Hospital.
Conflicting tallies
Despite the eyewitness accounts, Wau State Deputy Governor Anthony Charles Mbgerende said six people were killed and four others wounded in the violence.
Mbgerende declared a curfew within Wau town. He said his security officers are looking for the men in military uniform and the others who carried out the massacre.
"We don't know, actually, where they are from. But some of them are in civilian dress and some of them in [military] uniform. Sometimes the uniform half is for the army and another one is police," Mbgerende said.
SPLA Deputy Spokesperson Santo Dominick in Juba said government forces fought with opposition forces in the Baggari area, about 25 kilometers southwest of Wau town, on Saturday and Sunday. Dominick said government forces captured Baggari, which has been under the control of armed opposition forces for several months. He said the situation in Baggari is "now getting gradually to normalcy."
The secretary general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement In Opposition loyal to Riek Machar said government forces shot and killed 18 civilians in Wau town.
Tingo Peter confirmed that the South Sudan Army has been combing residential areas in Wau, targeting individuals from certain ethnic groups. Peter confirmed that government soldiers and their proxy militia attacked rebel positions around Wau town.
"The government soldiers, and the Mathing Anyor [a government-backed militia] [had] the plan to attack the Baggari area with heavy ops from the government and the helicopter from up [above], so they shoot the area since Friday and our forces managed to evacuate from the area of Baggari. Yesterday, we managed to come back to Wau town," Peter said.
Peter told South Sudan in Focus that government soldiers and their militia group killed 17 men and one female in Wau town, all of them civilians. He said the SPLM-IO did not start the fighting.
Valeria Gamboni, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in South Sudan, said in a statement, "We call on all weapon bearers to respect civilians, health facilities and ICRC and other medical staff during this tense time."
Bahaa Franshaw spikes pieces of meat onto a skewer, ready to sell to the passing trade. His potential customers include civilians coming through Hamdaniya from Mosul to escape the fighting there. Heading toward Mosul are military reinforcements and non-governmental organization workers trying to help get the war-torn city back on its feet.
Five months on from its capture by Iraqi troops, Hamdaniya which lies between Irbil and Mosul stands as a near-deserted example of the immense task of reconstruction facing authorities not only in this area but others after clearing out Islamic State group fighters.
One of the few who have returned to Hamdaniya, whose Christian majority population once numbered around 70,000, the 46-year-old Franshaw hopes to revive the farm he had to leave behind, though he is more skeptical of the country's prospects as a whole.
"I want Iraq to come back as it was before, but it will not happen,'' he said.
IS militants who were driven from the town retreated to Mosul from where they continue their fight against the Iraqi military. There are no official numbers on the pre-war residents who have returned to Hamdaniya, but Franshaw says he'd be surprised if more than a hundred have returned. They are in addition to the police recruits who are being trained here and military who have taken up positions in the town.
Many of Hamdaniya's buildings have been destroyed. Between the coalition airstrikes, Iraqi artillery and IS forces blowing up the rest, several streets have been reduced to a pile of rubble.
While Franshaw holds out hope of one day reviving his farm, for now he has reinvented himself by opening a kebab shop to serve the passing trade. The town lacks in basics. There is no water and the power comes from the generators. Franshaw's restaurant works off water tanks, and the plumbing is improvised and breaks down frequently.
"It's difficult to come back because there is nothing to come back for,'' Franshaw says.
Saad Hashim, a Sunni Muslim from Baghdad, eats lunch at Franshaw's place. He says the displaced people he transports to camps have all promised to return as soon as the infrastructure will allow, with power and water restored.
A local commander of a Christian militia, Arkan Hasib Khidh, blames the authorities for a lack of progress in the town. "The government didn't do anything for us so far,'' he said.
There are signs of normalcy, though. A makeshift hospital is about to take in its first patients and authorities will start handling legal cases. This summer, a school is expected to open its doors to students.
The progress is painfully slow, however, and points to the long, difficult journey ahead for a population which has suffered under IS rule, and is now struggling without key infrastructure.
Back at his home, which managed to escape the worst and was only trashed and looted, Franshaw says he fails to understand why some of the damage happened after IS fighters had gone.
Stepping over his stuff, now scattered on the living room floor, he points to the broken furniture and says: "This wasn't done by the IS.''
Hungary's right-wing president has signed controversial legislation on foreign universities that critics warn could force the closure of a top international institution founded by U.S. financier George Soros.
The approval Monday by President Janos Ader came less than a day after tens of thousands of protesters rallied in central Budapest against the legislation, which is seen as targeting Central European University.
Soros founded CEU an English-language institution of about 1,400 students from more than 100 countries in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union. At that time, the financier's move was widely hailed as helping Hungary transition from decades of communism to democracy by providing exposure to democratic ideals.
The legislation signed Monday requires all 28 foreign universities operating in Hungary to have campuses in their home countries, as well. Critics have for months pointed out that CEU is the only university among the 28 with no overseas branch, fueling widespread fears the law aims to deny young people access to the Western-leaning CEU and its pro-democracy curriculum.
The new law further bars colleges and universities based outside the European Union from awarding Hungarian diplomas without the consent of the respective governments.
Without such consent, the law will ban the university from enrolling new students after Jan. 1, 2018, and force it to close in 2021.
State media quoted the president Monday as insisting the new law "does not infringe [on] freedom of learning or of teaching" enshrined in Hungary's constitution.
However, last week the U.S. embassy in Budapest issued a statement critical of the legislation, while accusing lawmakers who backed it of targeting the Soros-founded university. Embassy Charge d' Affaires David Kostelancik also said that Washington will continue to advocate for CEU's "unhindered operation in Hungary."
Prime minister viewed harshly in West
Right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose ruling Fidesz party crafted the legislation, is viewed in much of Europe and beyond as an autocrat and a xenophobe who has long viewed the liberal internationalist Soros as an ideological foe.
Orban is an outspoken critic of EU migration policy and has loudly criticized sanctions against Russia that were imposed by the EU and the United States after Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
The online U.S. publication Politico described him in 2015 as "Europe's new dictator."
Last October, thousands of demonstrators marched in Budapest to protest the sudden closure of the country's largest-selling opposition newspaper, Nepszabadsag.
Those protests also targeted Orban, who has long been accused of stifling press freedoms and isolating private media outlets critical of his controversial anti-migrant stance.
The newspaper's shutdown came just weeks after it published reports alleging widespread corruption within Orban's ruling party, including close allies of the prime minister.
The future of Afghanistans unity government is shaky, according to a new report by the International Crisis Group.
The Brussels based NGO says Afghanistan's New Unity Government is beset with internal disagreements and discord, while facing a revived insurgency.
The group blames the discord on what it called the vagueness of the U.S.- [negotiated] power-sharing agreement that frames the government". It says that has led to "widely diverging interpretations" of its powers and authority.
Then U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry helped negotiate the agreement when controversy over the results of the 2014 presidential elections threatened to derail the process. Both presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, claimed victory.
The September 2014 deal led to the creation of a Chief Executive Officer position, which was given to Abdullah, while Ghani became president. The CEO post was supposed to be turned into the role of prime minister within two years by a constitutional Loya Jirga or Grand Assembly.
That never happened and differences in the way supporters of Abdullah and Ghani interpreted the agreement led to infighting.
Abdullah believed the agreement gave him an equal share in government, while Ghani thought the ultimate authority rested with him. Many Afghans complained the genuine and meaningful partnership the agreement was supposed to generate between the two was missing from the start.
According to the International Crisis Group, both sides tried to stack civil and military posts with their supporters, mostly on ethnic grounds, with Ghani favoring Pashtuns and Abdullah favoring Tajiks.
The report says the squabbling led to delays in promised electoral reforms and parliamentary elections. It also led to a lack of leadership in addressing major challenges facing the government.
Though the Afghan National Police is in urgent need of reform, the unity governments leadership has yet to tackle the corruption, nepotism and factionalism within it, the International Crisis Group noted. Senior NATO officials have also often cited lack of good leadership as one of the major reasons Afghan security forces have lost ground to the Taliban.
The ICG report says the only promising way forward is for Ghani and Abdullah to acknowledge the stability of the government and country requires they work together.
The report credits the government with some success in the economy. It says apart from maintaining macro-economic stability, the government managed to improve domestic revenues and secure donor commitments for the next several years.
Founded in 1995 The International Crisis Group says its mission is working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world.
Israel closed its Taba border crossing to the Sinai peninsula on Monday following warnings by its anti-terrorism office of an imminent militant attack there and urged its citizens to leave Egypt hours before the start of the Passover holiday, when Sinai is a popular destination for many secular Israelis.
Soon after the announcement, sirens wailed in parts of southern Israel alerting residents to a rocket attack. The military said a rocket fired from Sinai exploded in southern Israel, hitting a greenhouse but causing no injuries. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Yisrael Katz, Israel's transportation and intelligence minister, said in a statement Monday there was intel regarding a potential terror attack against tourists in the Sinai peninsula. The crossing remains open for those wanting to return from Egypt.
The border closure comes a day after militants in Egypt bombed two churches, killing dozens of Christian worshipers during Palm Sunday ceremonies. In the wake of those attacks, Israel's anti-terrorism office called on all Israeli tourists in Sinai to return home immediately and asked Israelis planning trips to the Sinai to cancel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Monday sending Israel's condolences to the families of those who were murdered in yesterday's terrorist attacks in Egypt and wishing a quick and full recovery to the wounded.
He said the world must unite and fight terrorism everywhere.
The Israeli government statement says that intelligence information shows increased activity by Islamic State militants in Sinai. It adds that with the Islamic State group losing ground in Iraq and Syria, there is renewed motivation to carry out terror attacks in different arenas at this time.
Israel called on its citizens to leave Egypt on the eve of the Passover holiday that commemorates the biblical Exodus story of the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt.
The weeklong festival is widely celebrated in Israel even among otherwise nonreligious Jews. But southern Sinai, with its pristine beaches and Red Sea coral reefs, has traditionally been a popular Israeli tourist destination - especially for secular Israelis during the Passover holiday.
Israel mostly shuts down after sundown for the holiday, as families and friends gather for Seder, the ritual multi-course meal where the story of the exodus from Egypt is discussed in detail so that the tradition is preserved throughout the generations.
Leavened goods like bread and items made from yeast such as beer are banned during the holiday. Instead, Jews eat matzo - unleavened bread - to illustrate how the Israelites had no time to let their bread rise as they fled from bondage in the land of the Pharaohs.
Despite the relaxing draw of Sinai, tourism there has declined since 2013, when the Egyptian military overthrew an elected Islamist president and an Islamic insurgency based in northern Sinai intensified. Rocket attacks on Israel from Sinai are relatively rare but Islamic militants there have been behind a few attacks in recent years. Egypt has been battling the militants, many linked to the Islamic State group.
Israel issues travel recommendations from time to time based on intelligence reports. Monday's travel warning was unusual in its urgency and it is rare for the Taba crossing to be shut down.
Israel signed a peace treaty with neighboring Egypt in 1979 and the two countries maintain close security cooperation.
Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has been named as a U.N. Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls' education.
During a ceremony at U.N. headquarters Monday, and streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the 19-year-old, saying, "I am a frustrated ex-physics professor facing the most famous student in the world. You are not only a hero, but you are a very committed and generous person."
He read from the designation on the framed certificate that he presented to the young activist, citing her dedicated service to the ideals and objectives of the United Nations especially its vision of a life of dignity for all people.
Guterres also cited Yousafzai's "courageous defense" of the rights of all people, including women and girls, to education and equality, and honored her for showing "an unwavering dedication to peace" even in the face of great danger, and her desire to foster a better world.
Yousafzai is the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, receiving that international accolade in 2014 when she was 17 years old. She is now the youngest U.N. Messenger of Peace.
Early start as blogger
Yousafzai became an advocate for girls' education when she was 11 years old and living under Taliban rule in Pakistan's Swat Valley. There she began to blog anonymously for the BBC's Urdu language site, campaigning for the right of girls to an education.
"Education is the right of every child and, especially for girls, this right should not be neglected," Yousafzai told a packed room of diplomats and young girls Monday. "If we want to go forward, we have to give education to girls. And, once you educate girls, you change the whole community, the whole society."
The role of men in effecting change in society is crucial, she said, paying tribute to her father as one who always encouraged her.
"What is different in my story is that my father did not stop me," she said. "It wasn't that I was very intelligent or very clever or I had some special kind of training or something. All I had was a father and a family who said, 'Yes, you can speak out, it's your choice.'"
Watch: Malala Yousafzai Honored by United Nations
Shot by the Taliban
Yousafzai's advocacy brought retaliation from the Taliban, which preferred to see women and girls oppressed. On Oct. 9, 2012, Yousafzai, then 15, was attacked and shot in the head while on the school bus.
Yousafzai was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar, and four days later to an intensive care unit in Birmingham, England.
"I realized that extremists tried all their best to stop me; they tried to kill me and they didn't succeed," she said. "And it is a clear evidence that no one can stop me. This means that now this a new life, a second life, and it is for the purpose of education."
Malala's father comments
Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, spoke with VOA about why his daughter connects with so many people.
"Its really maybe the purity of her heart, the purity of her intentions, the purity of her cause that she stands for education and especially for womens empowerment through girls education," he said. "And that cause is so sacred and it connects her to girls and adults around the world.
"Many old men, old ladies, they love her. This is something you cant explain in words," he said. "I see this connectivity between Malala and the rest of the world. We receive every day, every week, bundles of school projects on her. We receive many notes from many parts of the world, Far east to Africa."
Ziauddin also shared some tips. "I dont have much to tell the world about parenthood or about mentorship. Usually I tell two simple things: number one, we should believe in our children and listen to them. Usually we adults dont listen to them. Ours or others.
"Most importantly, I used to listen to my children. I still listen to them very carefully. Number two: appreciate them, value them, realize they are worthy, significant, very important. Then they believe in themselves. And number three: I say to the patriarchal societies, to the fathers and brothers ask me what I didnt do I didnt clip her wings. Thats so simple. We dont have to do anything more. We dont need to do anything extra.
"Simple thing is we should believe that half of our population are women, they have the same rights we have. They have same intelligence, smartness and wisdom that we have. And they have the same equal rights that we have once we believe they are amazing," said Ziauddin Yousafzai.
He spoke about what he sees on the horizon. "The Fund is doing fantastic. I didnt imagine that when we started this fund in 2013, we were just three to four people. Now it has more than 30 staff, it has a lot of budget and it is working in many countries. The focus is on girls' education, secondary education," he said.
"Malala has been working very effectively through her fund for the Syrian refugees. Weve been to Jordan twice, to Lebanon once. Shes opened two schools on her birthday in 2016 [in Lebanon]. The fund is doing very well. Especially, our strength lies in advocacy. We cant send every child to school we dont have that billions-of-dollars budget," said Ziauddin Yousafzai.
"But Malalas strength and her voice is very effective to demand from world powers, from the governments, to invest more on education, rather than in investing on wars and ammunition, and tanks and guns," he said.
Working for girls education
Yousafzai lives in Britain with her parents and younger brother. There, she has become an international advocate for girls' education through the Malala Fund, which she runs with her father, Ziauddin. The fund promotes 12 years of free, safe and quality education for girls worldwide.
She has visited the families of the Chibok girls in Nigeria, worked with Syrian refugees opening two schools for them in Lebanon and has invested in education for girls in her native Pakistan.
According to U.N. statistics, more than 130 million girls do not go to school. Many are forced to marry early or must work or care for younger siblings, denying them their right to education.
Yousafzai joins the ranks of other U.N. Messengers of Peace, including actors Michael Douglas (disarmament) and Leonardo DiCaprio (climate change), and musician Stevie Wonder (persons with disabilities).
Hometown reaction
In Yousafzai's hometown of Swat, people hailed her new U.N. title.
Mohammad Khan, a prominent human rights activist and lawyer based in Swat, said he was pleased that the international community has appreciated Yousafzai's efforts and the ordeal she has gone through for the sake of women's rights and education.
"The sacrifice she has given for humanity, it has no precedent in [the] contemporary world," Khan told VOA's Deewa service.
Yousafzai's school teacher, Ahmed Shah, said he was proud of Yousafzai for being designated as the U.N. peace messenger.
"It is a matter of great pride and prestige for us that Malala Yousafzai has brought these honors for our homeland," he told Deewa.
U.S. Senator John McCain has accused Russia of having cooperated with Syria in a chemical weapons attack that has killed more than 80 people, including more than a dozen children.
The Republican senator said Monday at a press conference in Belgrade that he believes the Russians knew about chemical weapons because they were operating exactly from the same base.
He says I hope that this behavior by Syria, in what clearly is cooperation with Russia and Syria together, will never happen again.
McCain says the U.S. should take out Syria's air force as part of stopping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from repeating such attacks in the future.
He says the United States should first tell Russia that this kind of a war crime is unacceptable in the world today.
In the aftermath of President Donald Trump's surprise strikes on Syria, his allies and adversaries have searched for some broader meaning in his decision.
Is Trump now a humanitarian interventionist, willing to wield American military power when foreign governments threaten their own citizens? Is he a commander in chief who once warned against intervention in Syria but is now prepared to plunge the United States deeper into the conflict? Is he turning on Russia, one of Syria's most important patrons, after months of flirting with closer U.S. ties with Moscow?
Trump would say he's simply flexible, an emerging foreign policy doctrine that leaves room for evolution and uncertainty.
"I don't have to have one specific way, and if the world changes, I go the same way, I don't change," Trump said Wednesday, a day after the chemical weapons attack in Syria that compelled him to order airstrikes against a government air base. "Well, I do change and I am flexible, and I'm proud of that flexibility."
Action in Syria
Allies in the Middle East and Europe who panned Trump's efforts to ban Syrian refugees from the United States cheered his decision to strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military after viewing images of young children killed in the chemical attacks. Yet they did so without any clear guidance from Washington on the next steps in Syria.
Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said the United States was willing to take more action against Assad, while White House officials cautioned that the strikes did not signal a broader shift in U.S. policy.
Mark Feierstein, who served in the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, said it's difficult to glean a direction for U.S. policy from Trump's actions in Syria because Trump "is not moored to any coherent ideology or set of ideas."
But for some of Trump's supporters, ideological elasticity is a virtue for a president who took office with no practical foreign policy experience. They say it gives the former real estate mogul breathing room to learn on the job and accept advice from more seasoned advisers.
"I think as time goes on, every day that has passed, he more and more has understood the gravity of U.S. leadership," said GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Trump ran for office as a Republican but has few ties to the party's traditionally conservative philosophy. He often has relied on his flexibility as a way to reassure Americans that some of his more unconventional and controversial proposals were merely suggestions.
Yet on some issues, he has shown a willingness to follow through. He has ordered construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and signed executive orders banning entry to the U.S. for people from some majority Muslim countries, including Syria. Those travel orders have so far been blocked by the courts.
The angry reaction to the Syria strikes from some of his strongest campaign supporters showed that they expected him to fulfill promises to stay out of Syria.
"Those who wanted us meddling in the Middle East voted for other candidates," Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator, wrote on Twitter.
As a candidate and private citizen, Trump cast Syria's civil war as a quagmire from which the United States should steer clear. Until the chemical weapons attack, Trump mainly saw Syria as a hotbed for terrorists seeking to attack the U.S. He rarely spoke of the hundreds of thousands killed and the millions displaced during the six years of clashes between the Assad government, backed by Russia and Iran, and opposition groups.
"He seems to put great score in unpredictability, and that's not such a bad thing in foreign relations if it has some kind of framework around it," said Peter Romero, a top State Department official in the Clinton administration. But Romero said that if Trump is "being erratic, then it'll have very little impact."
Trump not alone
Trump is hardly the first president to change his approach to America's role in the world. In 2011, President Barack Obama justified intervention in Libya by citing specific criteria, including the imminent slaughter of civilians. When most of the same guidelines appeared applicable in Syria, particularly after a deadly 2013 chemical weapons attack, Obama backed away from planned military strikes.
"There's always a transformation that takes place from a person who wins the presidency, and then once he assumes office he necessarily sees the world from a different perspective," said Edward Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel who now directs Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "Trump suddenly realizes he's responsible for much of the world."
Shift toward Russia
Another consequence of Trump's shift on Syria has been a strikingly tougher tone from his administration on Russia. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whose close ties to Russia raised questions during his confirmation hearings, slammed Moscow for either being "complicit" in the chemical weapons attack or "incompetent."
Corker was among those who welcomed that shift. "The beginning thinking of the administration around Russia was somewhat unsettling, but you've seen that evolve," he said.
But Trump's flexibility means there are no guarantees that he's prepared to fully abandon his efforts to forge a partnership with Russia on counterterrorism, nuclear proliferation and other issues.
Skeptics noted that a confrontation with Russia over Syria was well-timed for a president whose campaign is under investigation by the FBI and congressional committees for possible coordination with Moscow during the 2016 election. Also, Trump himself has yet to match the harsh criticism of Moscow that some of his advisers have levied.
A military court in Pakistan has sentenced an alleged Indian spy to death on charges of espionage and sabotage activities against the country, a rare move likely to fuel bilateral tensions.
An army spokesman, while announcing details of the decision Monday, identified the man as Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav of Indias primary foreign intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Jadhav was arrested through a counterintelligence operation in Pakistans violence-hit southwestern Baluchistan province in March 2016, and the military court found him guilty of all charges, said Major-General Asif Ghafoor.
The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) and awarded death sentence, Ghafoor added and said the Pakistan army chief signed off on the verdict.
The spokesman reiterated that Jadhav was a serving Indian navy officer and tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan.
Indian denials
New Delhi has acknowledged that Jadhav was a retired Indian naval officer, but rejected he was connected in any way to the government.
Shortly after Mondays announcement by the Pakistan army, India summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner and condemned the proceedings against Jadhav as farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him.
An Indian Foreign Ministry statement said Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been crediblyexplained. Since his arrest, India has made 13 requests, including one last month to seek consular access to Jadhav, but this was not permitted by Islamabad, it added.
Pakistani officials maintain the law does not allow consular access to detainees facing anti-state spying charges.
India also dismissed as clearly absurd in the circumstances the Pakistan armys assertions that Jahhav was provided, during what India called the so-called trial, with a defending officer.
If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder, it warned.
Confession video
The Pakistan military released a confessional video shortly after Jadhav's arrest in which he gave details of anti-Pakistan operations launched from neighboring Iran.
I am still a serving officer in the Indian Navy ... I commenced intelligence operations in 2003, and established a small business in Chabahar in Iran. As I was able to achieve undetected existence and visits to Karachi in 2003 and 2004, ... I was picked up by RAW in 2013, and ever since I have been directing various activities in Baluchistan and Karachi at the behest of RAW, and deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, said Jadhav.
The issue has also become an irritant in Islamabads relations with Tehran. Soon after his arrest, Pakistani officials asked Iran to investigate Jadhavs activities on its soil.
Pakistani officials say they have also shared with the United Nations documents detailing Jadhavs confession and other subversive acts India is allegedly undertaking to destabilize Pakistan.
Relations between the two nuclear-armed rival nations have deteriorated in recent years and a wide-ranging bilateral dialogue aimed at normalizing ties remains suspended.
The two countries have lately engaged in intense military clashes along the dispute border in Kashmir, a divide Himalayan region both India and Pakistan claim in its entirety.
Pope Francis' trip to Egypt this month is expected to go ahead despite twin attacks on Christian churches that killed 44 people, Vatican officials said on Monday.
However, diplomats and Vatican sources cautioned that the trip could be put in jeopardy or parts of it changed if the security situation worsened.
The pope is due to spend about 27 hours in the Egyptian capital Cairo on April 28-29, meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, grand imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb and the country's Coptic Pope Tawadros.
Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Vatican deputy secretary of state, told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper that the events on Sunday, however tragic, "could not impede the pope from carrying out his mission of peace."
Tawadros was leading a congregation at Mass in Alexandria's Saint Mark's Cathedral when it was attacked. He was not hurt.
That blast in Egypt's second-largest city came hours after a bomb struck a Coptic church in Tanta, a nearby city in the Nile Delta.
"There is no doubt that the pope will carry out his intention to go," Becciu said.
The Vatican also sent several communiques about logistics to journalists due to accompany the pope on his plane, in another indication that the trip was still on.
However, a senior diplomatic source said "we will have to keep our finger on the pulse of the situation until the very last minute."
In another indication of deepening worries about safety, there is no indication of the venue for a number of meetings by the pope in the latest program.
Both Vatican and diplomatic sources said a number of events might have to take place in one location, such as the presidential palace, so as to limit the number of times the pope would have to move around in the city.
Both of Sunday's attacks were claimed by the Islamic State, which has waged a campaign against Egypt's Christian minority, the largest in the Middle East.
Egypt's cabinet said on Monday a state of emergency would remain in place for three months.
Serbia and the United States agreed to step up efforts to bolster regional security including joint military and police training drills, Serbian Prime Minister and President-elect Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday.
Serbia is maintaining a balancing act between the West and Russia, its traditional Orthodox Christian and Slavic ally.
Although it wants to join the European Union, Belgrade has adamantly refused to join NATO which bombed it in 1999 during the war in Kosovo. In 2008, with the U.S. backing, Kosovo declared independence.
After meeting Republican Senator John McCain, who also chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, Vucic told reporters that the two sides will have "six or seven" joint training drills this year.
During his one-day visit to Serbia, McCain attended a training between country's elite SAJ police unit, a detachment of the U.S. Special Operations Command and a military unit from Slovenia, a ex-Yugoslav republic and now NATO member.
"I am sure Mosul and Raqqa will fall," McCain told a news conference speaking through an interpreter, referring to two Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria. "Many people (seeking to do violence) may (then) come to Europe and the U.S. ... therefore joint drills are important," McCain said.
Vucic said the two also discussed regional stability, including talks between Serbia and Kosovo on normalizing relations, and the political crises in ethnically divided Macedonia and Bosnia.
In 2016, Serbia conducted 206 joint military activities with the United States and NATO, and 17 with Russia. It will later this year participate in a training drill in Kazkhstan staged by the Russia-controlled Collective Security Treaty Organization.
U.S. police say a gunman opened fire at a southern California elementary school Monday, killing his estranged wife, in a murder-suicide that also left an 8-year-old student dead.
Police say 53-year-old Cedric Anderson entered San Bernardino's North Park Elementary School and shot dead special education teacher Karen Elaine Smith, also 53, before shooting himself.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, said two students who were standing behind Smith were also struck by gunfire. Both were airlifted to a nearby hospital where 8-year-old Jonathan Martinez died of his injuries. Another boy, aged 9, was initially listed in critical condition, but police say he is now stable.
Authorities say they do not believe the two students were targeted by the shooter and were believed to have been caught in the gunfire unintentionally.
Burguan said Anderson and Smith had been married only a few months and were estranged for at least one month. He said Anderson had a criminal history of weapons charges as well as domestic violence.
Authorities say Anderson gained entrance to the school as a visitor and kept his weapon, a large-caliber revolver, concealed until he began firing inside the classroom.
The classroom was for special needs students in the first through fourth grades.
North Park Elementary School, which has around 600 students, was evacuated and the students bused to the nearby campus of California State University at San Bernardino. Television footage showed the students walking hand-in-hand across the campus, escorted by police officers.
San Bernardino is about an hour's drive east of Los Angeles. The city is the site of the December 2015 terror attack in which a newlywed couple inspired by Islamic State opened fire at a county government office party, killing 14 people.
Somali security forces have taken over an Indian-owned commercial boat held by Somali pirates during an operation overnight, officials said.
The mayor of Hobyo, Abdullahi Ahmed Ali, told VOA's Somali service that his forces seized the boat after they surrounded the vessel off the coast of Hin-Barwaaqo village, south of Hobyo.
He said the pirates abandoned the boat after elders warned that security forces were approaching and planning to storm the vessel. Pirates seized the boat, MSV Al Kausar, earlier this month.
Mayor Ali said only two of the crew members were found on board the boat and authorities believe the remaining nine sailors were moved to land by the pirates.
Officials said security forces are pursuing the pirates who are holding the Indian sailors hostage.
They took the sailors to Qarafaow village; we exchanged gunfire, we have seized a vehicle carrying food and supplies for the pirates, Ali said.
MSV Al Kausar and its crew members were seized in the Indian Ocean en route to the southern port town of Kismayo.
The boat was chartered by a Somali businessman and was carrying commercial goods.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Indian and Chinese sailors freed a cargo ship after pirates briefly seized the vessel. The incident marked the fifth pirate attack this year off the Somali coast.
Security officials say piracy is reemerging in Somali waters following an increase in illegal fishing.
The former director of intelligence in Somalia's Puntland region, Abdi Hassan Hussein, told VOA organized groups are preparing to conduct attacks.
There are more than eight groups who want to engage piracy activities; some of them already went into the sea, some are in preparation and some have already carried out attacks, Hussein told VOA Somali.
At their peak in the early 2010's, Somali pirate gangs were responsible for hundreds of attacks on commercial ships traveling in the Gulf of Aden, the western Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea.
In all of 2016, the International Maritime Bureau recorded only two pirate attacks near Somalia, neither of which resulted in a hijacking.
You can find Fatuma Warsama on the side of the road somewhere between Qardho and Bandar Bayla in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region. The 50-year-old pastoralist and her family traveled for miles across this dry, cracked earth in search of pasture for their goats.
"We heard of some signs of rain in this area, so we came here...but the situation is just the same. There is nothing," Warsama said, pulling the end of her bright orange garment over her head to block the blazing midday sun. She sits outside the makeshift hut that has become her family's new home.
"We can't get milk or meat nowwe are eating white rice," she says.
Pastoralists like Warsama depend on their animals to survive. But after three consecutive seasons of poor rainfall in the region, severe drought is decimating their herds. Somalia has already lost nearly a third of its livestock, says the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The remaining animals grow weaker each day. Humanitarian organizations are now racing to prevent a repeat of the 2011 famine that killed over 260,000 people in the Horn of Africa nation.
"The pastoralists depend on livestock for daily cash, so with the drought you can imagine the income is very low. The prices of animals drop down and the price of food increases. So it impacts directly and indirectly on the livelihood of the households," says Khalid Saeed, the head of FAO's livestock sector in Somalia.
Livestock contributes to about 40% of Somalia's Gross Domestic product. In 2014, the country exported a record 5.3 million animals to mostly Middle Eastern countries, the highest such figure in two decades, according to FAO.
But with drought come fears of disease which prompted Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations to place a ban on Somali meat imports in December 2016, effectively paralyzing the market.
"Before the drought, the animals were good and we used to sell them. The biggest animal would fetch $100. The lowest we used to get was $50," Warsama said.
Now, that figure is closer to $30 per animal.
The deteriorating situation means 6.2 million Somalis face acute food insecurity, and more than 2.9 million are at risk of famine, says the UN.
In Puntland, Somali veterinarians working with the FAO are canvasing an area so vast that you can go days without seeing human activity. The initial push aims to see 2,250 animals a day for 30 days - giving them immunizations, vitamin boosters and treatment for things like parasites, respiratory diseases and injuries. A second round starting in April aims to bring the total number of animals treated up to 20.5 million, impacting as many as three million families.
It seems like a massive undertaking, but the FAO says the cost per animal treated is only $.40. The project reports directly to Somalia's Ministry of Livestock.
"The Somali people depend on the animals. If there are no animals, there is no life in Somalia," said Jamila Mohamed Ali, a 20-year-old veterinarian working with the FAO in the Puntland region.
The FAO is also sending delivery trucks through the region to deposit cool, clean water into hand-dug pools. They are supposed to deliver separate water for the animals and humans, FAO says, but the dire circumstances mean pastoralists are sharing the water with their livestock, risking disease and infection.
Some pastoralists have lost so many animals that they are migrating to informal camps near urban areas in search of food and water. More than 187,000 people were displaced during a three week period in March alone, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports. In all, the drought has displaced nearly half a million people in Somalia.
Hawa Mahmoud has been living with her husband and three children outside the town of Qardho since November in a shelter made from sticks and mud.
"We left half of our possessions behind. We didn't have a car to transport us so we made three trips by camel," Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud's fourth child is due any day now, but there is no hospital in this camp or in others around the country. That is already having worrying consequences. Nearly 16,000 people have contracted cholera in Somalia this year, and the disease has killed more than 365 people, the U.N. reports.
Towns are struggling to meet the needs of thousands of hungry new arrivals. Decades of conflict and chaos have left the Somali government with few resources and limited reach.
"There are a lot of problems here. [The displaced] don't have any livelihoods. They've become a burden to the town," said the mayor of Quardo, Abdi Said Osman.
Business owners in Quardo have been been extending credit to people living in the nearby camps, but no one knows how long that generosity can last. Mahmoud's husband, Abdinoor Abdillah Hassan, has been able to scrape together some income with odd jobs.
"I do manual labor. I use my strength to make money. We have nothing else," he said.
South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday accused some protesters of racism after marches last week that drew tens of thousands of people demanding his resignation, while the opposition announced plans for a new protest.
More than 60,000 people marched in South African cities on Friday in largely peaceful protests to demand Zuma quit after a cabinet reshuffle set off the latest crisis of his presidency.
Speaking at a memorial to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the assassination of anti-apartheid and Communist Party leader Chris Hani - whose murder led to nationwide riots - Zuma said South Africa had not yet built a non-racial society decades after white-minority rule ended in 1994.
In his first public response to the protests, Zuma said they "demonstrated that racism is real" in South Africa.
"Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried in 1994, with some posters depicting black people as baboons," the president said.
"It is clear that some of our white compatriots regard black people as being lesser human beings or sub-human."
A mixed racial profile of people attended the rallies.
Police said about 60,000 people took part in the marches in the major cities.
Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), which has strong support among white people, had called for a march in Johannesburg, and held a rally of more than 10,000 people.
In the capital Pretoria, about 15,000 people gathered in a field outside the Union Buildings, the site of Zuma's offices, in a march led by civil society group SaveSA. Other marches were held in Cape Town, Durban and other parts of the country.
Maimane's spokesman Mabine Seabe said of Zuma's comments: "He cannot argue based on policy and is trying to distract from the issues by using race as a scapegoat."
Zuma's spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga also said there were posters in Pretoria that depicted black people as baboons.
Ngqulunga sent a picture to Reuters that has been used on Twitter showing a Zuma caricature.
Some placards during the protests used vulgar language against Zuma, Reuters witnesses said.
"It's been proven before that if you place a racial bombshell in a conversation it clouds the issues," said Gwen Ngwenya, the chief operating officer of the South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg."It's an effective spin strategy that's very shrewd ... because it plays on historical racial tensions in South Africa."
New Protest
The DA, the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters and other smaller parties announced a new protest march dubbed "National Day of Action" on Wednesday at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, aimed at drumming up support for a no-confidence motion against the president in parliament on April 18.
The African National Congress, which has a commanding majority in parliament, has said its members would vote against the motion.
Zuma's sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in a cabinet reshuffle on March 31 has outraged allies and opponents alike, undermined his authority and caused rifts in the ANC, which has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid.
The rand has tumbled more than 11 percent since March 27, when Zuma ordered Gordhan to return home from overseas talks with investors, days before firing him.
Fitch on Friday followed S&P Global Ratings and downgraded South Africa to "junk", citing Gordhan's dismissal as one reason.
On Monday, Zuma said he had met Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganyago and Tom Moyane, the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, to discuss the impact of the credit rating downgrades and "how we should respond adequately."
Zuma reiterated plans to transform the economy to include more black people, who, he said, were passed up for promotions and had lower salaries than white people doing the same jobs.
"The majority of black people are still economically disempowered. They are dissatisfied with the limited economic gains from liberation," he said.
Black people make up 80 percent of the population, yet the lion's share of the economy in terms of ownership of land and companies remains in the hands of white people, who make up about 8 percent of the population.
A suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest penetrated a fortified Somali National Army base in Mogadishu on Monday, killing at least five soldiers, government military sources told VOA.
The bomber targeted the camp in Mogadishu's Wadajir district, which is one of the largest training camps for the Somali army.
VOA reporter Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle, who visited the scene after the attack, saw several burned cars and bloodstains in front of the camp, an area that had been a parade zone for the soldiers during morning training.
In a separate explosion in the city, Abdulkadir Osman, an official working with the Somali Education Ministry, was killed when an explosive device affixed to his car detonated.
The attacks came a day after the new Somali army chief, General Ahmed Mohamed Jimale Irfid, survived a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 15 people near his convoy in Mogadishu.
The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mogadishu residents and security experts say the militants have increased their attacks since Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo declared the country is at war with al-Shabab and gave the jihadi group 60 days to surrender in return for education and jobs.
One-off surgical strikes like the kind carried out by the U.S. against the Syrian regime on Thursday have had a spotty record of effectiveness, raising questions over the latest assaults ability to alter the course of the six-year-old Syrian conflict, according to military experts.
The strikes against a Syrian military airfield, which came in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack by Syrian forces on Tuesday, appear one-off and limited in scope.
This is all tactical, said Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington. "The only way this is effective is to go all in."
Surgical strikes are intended for a specific military target. In this case it was to put the regime of President Bashar al-Assad on notice that the Trump administration has drawn a line on the use of chemical weapons and intends to enforce it. The threshold for chemical use was drawn and later abandoned by the Obama administration after Syria agreed to abandon its chemical weapons arsenal under a 2013 agreement brokered by Russia.
The Trump administration has now drawn a line and said were not going to tolerate chemical weapons attacks and the ball is in Russias court, said Linda Robinson, a senior defense policy researcher at RAND.
Past U.S. presidents have had varying degrees of success with surgical strikes.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan ordered a series of airstrikes against Libyan government targets in response to a Libyan terrorist attack against a Berlin discotheque 10 days earlier.
The air raid did not dislocate the regime of Moammar Gadhafi but did it eventually lead him to dismantle Libya's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in 2004, Blaise Misztal, director of the national security program at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, said.
The strike did not necessarily lead to a major change in the regime domestically but it certainly changed some of its external behavior, Misztal said.
In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton expanded the use of surgical airstrikes to pressure Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.
In 1993, U.S. ships fired 23 Tomahawk missiles into downtown Baghdad to penalize Iraq for a failed assassination of former President George H. W. Bush. And in 1998, U.S. ships in the Arabian and Red Seas launched almost 90 cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Sudan in response to the al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
So frequent did the the use of retaliatory strikes under Clinton become that critics came to pejoratively refer to it as cruise missile foreign policy and "cruise missile diplomacy." In Roggio's words, cruise missiles were the drones of the 90s" and far less effective.
Saddam's behavior did not improve and and Clinton was roundly criticized for resorting to missile attacks to boost his poll numbers. Al-Qaida hatched the September 11th 2001 attacks under Taliban protection.
I think we saw how effective cruise missile diplomacy was particularly during the Clinton years, Roggio said.
But the assault on Syria was more than a pinprick strike, Robinson said. During the strike, 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from two destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea. While that number pales by comparison to the roughly 500 fired at the outset of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, it was larger than the 47 Obama ordered against IS in September 2014 as he rolled out an air campaign against the group, she said.
There was actual degradation of the Syrian regimes military capability," RAND researcher Robinson said.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the missiles targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems and radars.
The Syrian army announced on Friday that six people had been killed and several others wounded during the strikes.
Senior U.S. officials said U.S. has no immediate plans to for additional strikes against the Syrian regime.
We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary, U.S. envoy Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Friday.
In carrying out the strikes, the Trump administration hinted at future military action. Robinson said the next round of strikes will be even stronger.
That is because the interpretation would be he clearly did not get the message that the new administration is intent upon to holding the Assad regime to account concerning the 2013 agreement, Robinson said.
Sweden held a moment of silence Monday for the victims of Friday's terrorist truck attack killed four people and injured 15.
A 39-year-old Uzbek believed to have extremist sympathies is under arrest for allegedly ramming a stolen truck into a crowd at the Ahlens department store in Stockholm.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of Swedes turned out in Stockholm for what they called a "lovefest" after the attack.
"Fear shall not reign. Terror cannot win," Mayor Karin Wanngard told a crowd estimated at 50,000.
One woman held a poster reading: "We don't respond with fear, we respond with love."
In Washington, the White House says President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Prime Minister Stefan Lofven of Sweden to express condolences to the loved ones of those who were killed." A statement said the two leaders agreed to maintain their close partnership in the global fight against terrorism.
Police arrested the Uzbek-born suspect hours after the truck attack. He was known to intelligence services since last year when he disappeared before he could be deported after his application for asylum was rejected. Authorities knew he had pro-extremist sympathies.
But no group has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack and no motive is known.
Police say they have arrested a second person in connection with the attack, but have given no further information.
Photos taken at the scene Friday showed the vehicle was a truck belonging to beer maker Spendrups, which said its truck had been hijacked earlier in the day.
Witnesses say the truck drove straight into the entrance of the Ahlens Department Store on Drottninggatan, the city's biggest pedestrian street, sending shoppers screaming and running. Television footage showed smoke coming out of the store after the crash.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he hopes Russia will abandon its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after last week's deadly chemical attack.
"It is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end,'' Tillerson said in Italy where he has been attending talks with other G-7 foreign ministers. Syria has been the focus on the talks that come ahead of Tillerson's trip to Moscow where he is due to meet with Russian officials.
On the sidelines of the talks in Italy, Tillerson was meeting with counterparts from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates about the U.S. response to last week's Syrian chemical weapons attack.
'Game has now been changed'
After his own meeting with Tillerson on Monday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that after the U.S. launched cruise missiles at a Syrian air base, "The game has now been changed."
Johnson said allies will be discussing adding new sanctions against Syrian military figures, and also members of the Russian military who have coordinated Syrian efforts and are as Johnson said, "contaminated by the appalling behavior of the Assad regime."
Later Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke by telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump. Her office said the two leaders agreed there is now a "window of opportunity" to persuade Russia that allying with Syria is no longer in its interest.
A White House statement on that conversation, and one between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said all three agree on the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable.
Tillerson honors civilians
Tillerson joined other G-7 foreign ministers in laying a wreath Monday at a Tuscan village where Nazis massacred more than 500 civilians during World War II. He alluded to the American retaliatory airstrikes in Syria after Damascus launched a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people and sickened hundreds more.
"We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world," Tillerson said. "This place will serve as an inspiration to us all."
Aside from the six-year-old Syrian civil war and Russia's alliance with Assad, the G-7 foreign ministers also face other daunting issues, including the threat of North Korea's nuclear weapons development program and Moscow's support of pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine waging battles with the Kyiv government.
G-7 leaders to meet in May
The leaders of the G-7 countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the U.S. are gathering for their own summit in Italy in May; but, the foreign ministers meeting Monday and Tuesday are laying the groundwork for those talks, with a priority on their collective efforts to oust Islamic State fighters from Syria and Iraq.
Tillerson said Sunday the United States remains committed to an international roadmap developed in Geneva in 2012 for bringing an end to the conflict in Syria, now in its seventh year. When that plan was developed, the civil war was just more than a year old and has since become a massive humanitarian disaster.
The Geneva Communique calls for a new Syrian constitution and elections, but does not specify the fate of Assad. U.S. officials have in recent days offered contradictory statements on the long-held U.S. policy that Assad should be ousted. Tillerson has called for Assad's removal, but said Islamic State is the focus for now.
An Ugandan judge charged a university researcher Monday with offensive speech and cyber harassment against the countrys president. The root of this controversy is sanitary pads for schoolgirls.
According to the charge sheet, Stella Nyanzi used her computer in February to post to her Facebook page an insulting message about President Yoweri Museveni, allegedly calling him a pair of buttocks, among other things.
This is the third time Nyanzi has been detained in relation to these alleged postings, but it is the first time she has been charged with a crime. The state says she has willfully and repeatedly used electronic communication to post offensive online messages intended to disturb or attempt to disturb the peace.
Before the fully packed courtroom, state attorney Jonathan Muwaganya called for Nyanzi to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Your Honor, if the order being sought through this application is not granted and it is established that the suspect is a psychiatrical case then it will lead to continued reputational damage of her victims and the general public, said Muwaganya.
Her lawyer Semakadde Isaac dismissed the states accusations.
The defense prays in submission that this court is pleased to ignore the application of the State for an inquiry into the insanity or other incapacities of the accused person as it was made under wrong law and that the court be further pleased to invoke the right law to hear the accused person on bail, said Issac.
In February, Nyanzi took to Facebook to collect donations of sanitary products for schoolgirls after the first lady said the government could not afford to supply them. President Museveni had promised on the campaign trail last year to provide sanitary pads for girls in need.
Nyanzi has publicly and colorfully criticized the first family and the government over the issue.
As many as a third of girls in the country have to miss school because they cannot afford sanitary products, according to government statistics.
At the time of her arrest Friday, Nyanzi, who holds a PhD in medical and cultural anthropology, had just finished giving a talk on menstruation. She entered a plea of not guilty Monday.
He makes promises of sanitary pads to girls. He goes against the promise. Yoweri Museveni is offending Ugandans and we are silent and those of us who dare to speak truth to power are called the offenders. I am happy to take on the mantle of insanity if this mantle is going to be the only time that the regime will be told about its offense to the people of Uganda and therefore I am not guilty of offensive communication, she said.
The judge ordered Nyanzi to return in two weeks to apply for bail.
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) on Monday urged European Union members to temporarily suspend transfers and returns of all asylum seekers to Hungary.
UNHCR said the situation in Hungary has gotten worse since the country's new policy to detain new asylum seekers, including children, in shipping containers surrounded by high razor fences at the border for the entire time of their asylum procedures.
According to a U.N. statement, as of April 7, there were 110 people, including four unaccompanied children and children with their families, held in shipping containers.
Hungary's policy also includes deporting any migrants who do not hold official papers.
The United Nations position comes after Hungary passed a law on March 28 for tougher immigration stances that led to the building of camps.
"The situation for asylum seekers in Hungary, which was already of deep concern to UNHCR, has only gotten worse since the new law introducing mandatory detention for asylum seekers came into effect," said Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Reports say the unusual move will bring more attention on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, which has been condemned by rights groups on its strict policies on migrants.
"While acknowledging the authorities' recent efforts to address police violence, we remain very concerned about highly disturbing reports of serious incidents of ill-treatment and violence against people crossing the border into Hungary, including by State agents," Grandi said.
"These unacceptable practices must be brought to an end and I urge the Hungarian authorities to further investigate any allegation of abuse and violence," he added.
The United Nations urged EU members to suspend migrants' return under the Dublin regulation, a rule that says any asylum seekers must have their cases handled in the first EU country they have entered, and should be returned there if necessary.
Grandi said the suspension should continue, "until the Hungarian authorities bring their practices and policies in line with European and international law."
"It is important that asylum systems, as well as reception conditions, are further improved in many EU and candidates States. This will help reduce irregular onward movements and the increasing reliance on smugglers. It will also help to reduce current pressure at the Hungary's southern border," Grandi said.
U.S. and Afghan special forces in eastern Afghanistan have cleared Islamic State fighters from much of a key stronghold IS has occupied since 2015, provincial officials and local residents told VOA.
A reporter for VOA's Afghan service traveled to the remote Achin region over the last several days with Afghan forces. He found that village after village suffered destruction at the hands of IS. In the wake of a 10-day-long continuing offensive in eastern Nangarhar province that officials said killed dozens of IS fighters, the terror group left buildings crumbled, services cut off and residents traumatized.
More than 200 houses have been destroyed, and hundreds of families fled their villages for secure places, locals told VOA.
"We left our homes for our lives," said Mohammad Anwar, an Achin resident. "Our houses are fully destroyed and nothing has been left."
Residents said they grew to believe that Afghan forces would never rid IS from the area.
"Schools, markets, everything has been destroyed, and we hope everything will be rebuilt so that people can return," said Rahimullah, another local who, like most Afghans, uses a first name only. "But we are very happy that the government forces have arrived. We want peace in our country."
Outside one village, the VOA reporter found a hole filled with what locals say are the bodies of IS fighters.
Provincial officials said more than 120 militants have been killed in the ongoing air and ground offensive, now in its second week.
"Afghan commando forces, as well as police and NATO forces, have launched the operation in the area," Achin district governor Islamiel Shinwari told VOA.
Dozens of IS fighters have fled into the mountains in eastern Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan.
"They [IS militants] were present in this area," Anwar said. "Afghan forces have arrived and the militants fled our areas."
The anti-IS operation in Achin is part of a joint U.S.-Afghan military effort to eliminate IS from Afghanistan.
"Our goal in 2017 is to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan," U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, spokesperson for Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, told VOA last month.
IS's self-styled Khorasan Province branch (ISIS-K) has taken root in mountainous areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, increasing its recruiting efforts and terror attacks nationwide. Its name refers to a centuries-old description of Afghanistan and surrounding areas of Central Asia and Persia.
NATO and the Afghan government say their security operations in recent months have reduced the extremists' strength in Afghanistan from several thousand to now under 1,000 fighters, and their territorial control from more than 10 districts to fewer than five.
The U.S. Air Force is downplaying reports a U.S. military plane appeared to come unusually close to Air Force One moments before the jet carrying President Donald Trump landed at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday.
The sighting aboard Air Force One of a C-17 Globemaster occurred at 6:23 p.m. (2223 UTC) as the presidential aircraft was descending into its home base located in the state of Maryland, just outside Washington.
Air Force One took no evasive measures and there was no indication it was in any danger. The presidential flight landed without incident at Andrews six minutes later.
Air Force One officials on Monday confirmed pilots had visual and radar contact with the cargo aircraft as it approached the military base.
"There were no safety concerns at any time," Air Force Spokesman Col. Pat Ryder told VOA. "In addition, both aircraft were being monitored by air traffic control. There was nothing out of the ordinary regarding Air Force One's approach and landing at Joint Base Andrews."
Several journalists, including a VOA correspondent aboard the flight witnessed the incident after being alerted by Associated Press staff photographer Alex Brandon who managed to snap a picture of the other plane after it approached at a slightly lower altitude from the north and veered off to the starboard (right) side of Air Force One.
Those from the media who saw the other plane, including a television audio technician who has been flying on Air Force One since the Carter administration, agreed they had never witnessed such a close encounter aboard the presidential aircraft.
I would say beyond all doubt that this is a strange occurrence, said a retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel commenting on the incident, who was quoted by Strategic Sentinel, which specializes in geospatial intelligence.
Air Force One is often given more separation by air traffic controllers beyond the typical 300 meters vertically or 4.8 kilometers horizontally spacing.
Trump was returning from a four-day stay at his Mar-a-Lago resort where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and ordered a missile strike against an airfield from where the Syrian air force had launched planes that allegedly dropped sarin nerve gas on civilians in rebel-held territory.
By sending a U.S. navy strike force into waters near North Korea, President Donald Trump is raising concerns that he is prepared to put America's interests ahead of those of regional allies.
The threat of force against North Korea has gained new credibility following U.S. airstrikes against Syria for using chemical weapons on its own people. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the military strike against Syria was a warning to other countries, including North Korea, that a response is likely if they pose a danger.
I think Kim Jong Un fears to see such a situation, said North Korea defector and analyst Ahn Chan-il, with the World Institute for North Korean Studies.
The U.S. Pacific Command said it ordered the USS Carl Vinson group, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying ships, including guided missile destroyers and aircraft squadrons, to sail towards the Korean Peninsula as a prudent measure, citing Pyongyang's reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing nuclear and ballistic missile provocations.
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said Monday the deployment of the Carl Vinson carrier strike group to the region is defensive in nature.
Considering that the possibility of a North Korean strategic provocation, especially a nuclear test or missile launch is rising, (the U.S.) is adopting a full readiness posture, said Moon.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, also voiced support for the increased U.S. deterrence measures.
It all comes down to the fact that their [the U.S.] stance is that all options are on the table. Japan praises that kind of stance, said Suga.
North Korea on the other hand said the U.S. strikes against Syria justify its efforts to develop a reliable nuclear deterrent against Washington's ever more reckless moves towards war.
The move comes amid reports that North Korea is posed to conduct another nuclear test, with movements detected by satellites at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. North Korea in the past has timed provocative missile tests to coincide with the April 15 birthday of its founding leader, the late Kim Il Sung, a holiday known as the Day of the Sun.
Since January 2016 Pyongyang has conducted two nuclear tests, as well as launching numerous short and medium range ballistic missiles. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said earlier this year that his country is in the final stage of conducting a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland.
The Trump administration has placed a high priority on preventing North Korea from developing a credible long-range nuclear ballistic missile capability that could directly threaten U.S. national security.
Risky proposition
However there is growing concern in South Korea that the U.S. will actually launch a strike against a nuclear or missile facility in the North, if Pyongyang follows through with another provocative test.
Political analyst Bong Young-shik, with the Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies, said launching an attack against the North is a risky proposition, that is likely to cause more harm than good.
I question whether the United States is ready to assume all the responsibilities for the consequences of that action, said Bong.
A U.S. unilateral attack would likely provoke nuclear North Korea to retaliate against the South, putting at immediate risk the millions of people who live in Seoul and other areas close to the inter-Korean border.
Robert Kelly, a professor of political science at Pusan University, wrote in his Asian Security Blog, that the situation could quickly escalate and that the slide from a limited action toward war would loom.
Allies concerned
Analysts say any U.S. unilateral action against North Korea that could also severely strain the alliance between Seoul and Washington.
While official reaction in Seoul has been supportive of the U.S. naval strike force deployment, some candidates running for president in South Korea are urging caution. An interim government has been in place in South Korea following the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye for her alleged involvement in a bribery scandal. An early presidential election has been scheduled for May 9.
Both Moon Jae-In, the leading candidate in the race who represents the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, and a spokesman for the conservative Liberty Party Korea, called on the U.S. to consult with South Korea before taking any military action.
China
It is also unknown how China would react. Last week's Florida summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jingping produced no immediate breakthrough on how to deal with the increasing North Korean nuclear threat.
Both sides agree that the level of North Korea's WMD [weapons of mass destruction] threat has reached a very serious level, but I think they are still miles apart in terms of what kind of measures have to be taken to deal with the problem, said Bong.
While Beijing opposes North Korea's nuclear program, it is reluctant to increase sanctions against its economically dependent ally for fear of causing widespread instability and losing a strategic buffer zone against the U.S.-South Korea alliance.
On Monday, China sent it's top nuclear envoy to Seoul to discuss the increasing North Korean threat, the results of the Xi/Trump summit, and the contentious issue of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system being deployed in the South, which Beijing strongly opposes.
Youmi Kim contributed to this report.
The White House on Monday made clear it sees no way that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can stay in power for the long term.
Sean Spicer, U.S. President Donald Trump's spokesman, told reporters, "You can't imagine a stable and peaceful Syria with Assad in charge. I don't think that's a scenario that's possible."
The White House press secretary said the U.S.'s main priority is defeating Islamic State fighters in Syria and then to "create an environment for a change in leadership." He said one goal in ending the conflict, now in its seventh year, is to create a safe place for war weary Syrians to be able to remain in the country without having to flee the country for safe harbor.
Trump last week launched a missile attack on the air field U.S. officials believe Syria used as a base to assault rebels fighting the Assad regime with chemical weapons. Dozens were killed and hundreds more were sickened.
Spicer described Syria's subsequent use of the field for takeoffs as "a PR stunt," adding that the base's radar, refueling facilities and more than 20 percent of Syria's overall fleet of fixed wing aircraft were destroyed.
Spicer said the U.S. attack might not be the last.
"We hold open the possibility of future action," he said. "I think not just Syria, but what the world saw last week was a president that is going to act decisively, and proportionally and with justification."
He added, "If you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb in to [kill] innocent people, I think you will see a response from the president. That is unacceptable."
He said Trump would "hold cards close to the vest, but make no mistake, he will act."
Still, Spicer said the U.S. has no intention "to become the world's policeman."
Nearly five million children under age five have been successfully vaccinated against polio in war-torn Yemen almost two-months after a nationwide immunization campaign was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank.
The campaign, which began on February 20, has taken much longer than usual to complete because of security challenges. The logistics involved in reaching millions of children with life-saving vaccines in war-torn Yemen are immense and complicated.
WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, told VOA different parts of the country are controlled by different warring parties. He said informing them of the campaign, organizing health teams and transporting the polio vaccines takes a lot of time.
For this campaign, more than 5,000 vehicles have been rented, more than 40,000 health workers were mobilized.... This is a big operation, obviously. But, with the support of local religious leaders, political leaders, that element is absolutely crucial that it is being accepted by the population and that vaccination teams are being trained and prepared in advance, he said.
Jasarevic said health workers only recently were able to bring the campaign to Yemens Saada governorate. Despite intensifying violence, he said more than 150,000 children under age five were vaccinated against polio and nearly 370,000 children between the ages of six months and 15 years were immunized against measles there.
He said the war has made routine immunizations in Yemen impossible, making nationwide immunization campaigns against polio and other killer diseases necessary.
We have seen for example in Syria that polio came back because there were areas where children were not immunized for some time. We do not want this to happen in Yemen. Yemen is still polio-free and we want to keep it polio-free and these campaigns are one of the ways to make sure that the virus cannot find a host, Jasarevic said.
The United Nations reports Yemens two-year-long conflict has all but destroyed the countrys health system. It says the situation of Yemens children continues to worsen and many are dying from preventable diseases.
Bomb attacks at two Coptic churches in Egypt killed at least 44 people and injured more than 100 as worshipers where marking Palm Sunday.
The first blast was in the northern city of Tanta, where a powerful explosion ripped through a Palm Sunday service at St. George's Church, killing 27 people and wounding 78 others, state TV reported. The explosive device was planted under a seat in the main prayer hall, it said.
In a separate incident, at least 17 people were killed and 41 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack outside St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for both blasts.
In Alexandria, Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church, had been attending mass inside the targeted church but was not hurt, state media reported.
After the bombings, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi declared a three-month state of emergency. "A series of steps will be taken, most importantly, the announcement of a state of emergency for three months after legal and constitution steps are taken," Sissi said in a speech aired on state television.
The blasts appear to have been timed for maximum impact, as people gathered to mark Palm Sunday. It is one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, marking the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Egypts Christian minority, which makes up roughly 10 percent of the population, has increasingly been targeted by Islamist extremists.
On Sunday, Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, denounced the bombings and expressed his deep condolences to Tawadros II and all of the dear Egyptian nation. Sources close to Pope Francis told Arab media he has not canceled plans to visit Egypt, later this month.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns.' He said he has "great confidence" that President Sissi will handle situation properly.
A Coptic church spokesman said the head of the church, Pope Tawadros III, who was conducting Palm Sunday services inside the the Alexandria church, may have been the target of the attack.
Eyewitnesses in Tanta said an explosive device detonated near the church altar as worshipers recited prayers. Victims of the blast were taken to several nearby hospitals and residents of Tanta were urged to donate blood.
Dr. Amjed Abdel Raouf, Dean of the Tanta Medical College, says doctors are doing their best to care for victims of the blast:
He says that more than 60 wounded people were taken to two government hospitals. He said some victims had suffered burns and others were being treated for shrapnel wounds.
Egypts Mufti Shawki Alam condemned the Islamic State group for the blasts, insisting that its followers are not authentic Muslims.
He called the group a criminal, terrorist group, by all measures and insisted that Egypt is at a critical point in the life of our nation and that everyone must exert more effort to put an end to extremist ideology and errant interpretations of Islam.
Zimbabwe has more than 50 registered political parties, several of which have set their eyes on the grand prize of the presidency in 2018. But if sentiments by analysts or even the countrys president are anything to go by, individually or as a coalition, the opposition parties are no match against him or his revolutionary and incumbent Zanu-PF party, fractured as it is by alleged factionalism.
President Robert Mugabe, the worlds oldest president at 93, has already declared victory in the upcoming 2018 elections, saying the public feel that there is no replacement, successor who to them is acceptable, as acceptable as I am.
In President Mugabes view, the only threat to him or Zanu-PF clinching the 2018 elections, is not the opposition, which he has often chided, but the quarrels with the party, suspicions with the party, which he assured they are remedying. But despite the quarrels and suspicions, which include factionalism allegations involving one of his vice presidents, Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife, Grace, Zanu-PF has remained largely intact over the years, compared to opposition parties.
One characterization President Mugabe has made of the nature of opposition parties, can be summed up by his reference to the Zimbabwe People First (ZimFirst) - the party of his former Vice President Joyce Mujuru, where he said, its born in the morning and before sunset, it has become something else.
Soon after Mr. Mugabes prediction, Mujuru did split from the less than two-year-old ZimFirst Party and started a new party called the National Peoples Party (NPP).
Such has been the fate of political parties, including the once formidable and very strong and unified opposition Movement for Democratic Change then led Morgan Tsvangirai, which, even by Mugabes admission, won the 2008 presidential election, but agreed to a power-sharing agreement that analysts say, diminished its luster.
The once unified MDC-party is now fractured, and the mother of several offspring opposition parties led by former senior members including Tendai Biti, Professor Welshman Ncube, Elton Mangoma and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, while Tsvangirai still leads what is now abbreviated as MDC-T.
As the 2018 elections draw close, the opposition parties are debating forming a grand coalition to challenge the aging leaders 37-year reign, saying he is no longer fit to run the country. President Mugabe has scoffed this effort saying his party is not afraid as the oppositions coalition will just amount to a huge pile of zero. Nothing.
Stephen Chan, Professor of World Politics at the University of London agrees that it will take more than a coalition of opposition parties to defeat President Mugabe in the 2018 elections, and also believes that Mugabe and his party will remedy all conflict before the elections and stand as a united front.
Succession battles will not hinder Zanu (PF) from taking the country forward since the party has a strong internal disciplinary machinery to take care of the squabbles, said Chan, pointing out that there would eventually be a smooth, though not imminent, Zanu (PF) succession.
IS ZIMBABWES OPPOSITION WEAK?
As Mugabes exit from Zimbabwe politics becomes more imminent either voluntary due to his incapacity to lead due to age or an unlikely move by Zanu-PF to ask him to step down, as Mr. Mugabe said he will do if asked, questions about the oppositions ability to successfully take over, continue to fester.
Independent analyst David Monyae agrees with Mr. Mugabe on the fact that a grand coalition alone wont dent Zanu-PFs chances in 2018, because the opposition lack unity and strong leadership.
At the moment the opposition dont have a strong figure, individual, Monyae said, remarking further on whether the leadership will be the same of the same, having [Morgan] Tsvangirai or having [Joice] Mujuru, and one is not clear in terms of a coalition, under the banner of which leader? queried Monyae, concluding that the opposition is not clear. Its a 50-50, one does not really know.
Monyaes observation reflects what analysts have described as the selfish and ego-struck nature of many opposition leaders, whos splits have been mostly rooted in power struggles, rather than divergence of strategy on how to defeat Mugabe and address the plight of Zimbabwes citizens.
Agreeing that there is a power-play in opposition politics over leadership, analyst Chipo Dendere of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, sees Tsvangirai as the coalitions obvious choice, given his popularity among citizens, with the title fight falling on the position of vice president. Dendere said if the coalition could settle on a strong leader, and execute a thoughtful strategy, they could maybe defeat Mugabe.
I think Tsvangirai has the upper-hand to be the presidential candidate, and then, then they think about whos vice president, lamented Dendere before throwing out a few suggestions. I dont know if Welshman [Ncube] should be the vice president, I dont know if mai [Joice] Mujuru should be the vice president, I dont know if Tendai Biti should be the vice president, (inaudible?) Maybe Thoko, [MDC-T VP] Thokozani Khupe. I dont know how they can decide who will be the vice president, Dendere said.
Strategy, stressed Dendere will also help the opposition parties leverage on their strongholds in parliamentary elections as well as the presidential elections, ensuring strength in numbers where it counts. Dandere elaborates.
They eventually have to look at the electoral map and say, if someone from the coalitions is stronger for a particular district, then that person should run in that district. So thats how that coalition should work, Dendere expounded.
So, Mai Mujuru should run for Mt. Darwin, right. Someone from MDC-T or MDC-W, should not run for that seat. That seat should be run by Mai Mujuru because shes stronger. So its going to be a matter of looking at each of the 300 candidates, because they need 300 candidates for senate and parliament, about 300, right, including the women, the proportional representation of women, so they need to create a coalition of 300 candidates and make sure that each person who is running for each district, is the strongest.
THE OPPOSITIONS PERSPECTIVE
Ask any of the opposition parties currently in existence and you will hear unanimity on the fact that President Mugabe must now leave the stage, citing age and failure to improve lives of ordinary citizens. All dispute and dismiss the perception that they are weak, turning the tables instead on Mr. Mugabe and his party, which they accuse of infiltrating their parties in efforts to destroy them from within.
Spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora of the Tsvangirai-led MDC party challenges Mr. Mugabes and other analysts assertions that they are politically weak, by reminding them of their 2008 presidential victory.
He has amnesia, terrible amnesia, said Mwonzora. He has forgotten that he lost to MDC in 2008, and so he cannot say that we always lose to Zanu-PF. He lost to Morgan Tsvangirai and orchestrated an orgy of violence, Mwonzora continued.
Further, added Mwonzora, while the MDC-has seen some monumental splits and internal disagreements since its formation in 1999, Mwonzora said Zanu-PF is no exception.
The disunity within the opposition political parties is not a phenomenon of the MDC. Its actually a phenomenon of Zanu-PF, Mwonzora reflected. It was Zapu, then it split into Zapu and Zanu. Then we had Frolizi (Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe), then we had (inaudible?) After that we also had ZUM (Zimbabwe Unity Movement) coming from Zanu-PF ZUD [Zimbabwe Union of Democrats] from Margaret Dongo from Zanu-PF, Mujurus Zimbabwe People First coming from Zanu-PF, and right now we have two distinct, irreconcilable groups, G40 and Lacoste, within Zanu-PF. He is presiding over the most divided party on the African continent, said Mwonzora.
The newly formed National Peoples Party of former Vice President Joice Mujuru boasts of having an inside knowledge of the workings of Zanu-PF, that will help the party overcome the fate of fellow opposition parties and leaders. Jelousy Mawarire is the NPPs spokesperson.
We are a party that has a very significant number of ex-Zanu-PF members, ex-military people, ex-intelligence people, who are in our party, Mawarire said. So they know the modus operandi of Zanu-PF and Mugabe, and we will never be fooled that Zanu-PF does not infiltrate opposition political parties. Thats a lie, and it a lie thats supposed to lull opposition parties so that they become too comfortable and not very vigilant to fish out infiltrators from among themselves, said Mawarire.
Opposition leader Tendai Biti who now heads the Peoples Democratic Party, which is an offshoot of MDC-Renewal, another splinter of the Movement Democratic Party where he once served as secretary general, too disagrees that opposition parties are weak, accusing Zanu-PF instead of stifling their growth.
The opposition is not weak, said Biti, and accused Zanu-PF stealing the oppositions electoral victory. The opposition has been winning elections since 2000. Zanu-PF, for all intent and purposes does not exist. it exists because it controls the state, and the state and the party, Zanu-PF have conflated. So we live in a party state, concluded Biti.
Biti, who in a 2015 interview with the online paper Bulawayo 24 described the opposition as a disaster, impotent, divisive, divided and hubristic, is pushing for a coalition of opposition parties, which would include his former boss, Tsvangirai, who Biti has openly accused of among other things, failing to lead.
Despite President Mugabe and other analysts dismissal of a coalition of opposition parties to stand against Zanu-PF in 2018, Biti said that is the way to go for opposition parties.
What the opposition has to do and we have no excuse for not doing that, is that we have to form a grand coalition and of coursesteps have started. Some of us are members of CODE, the coalition for democrats, and others are in electoral alliance known as NERA, the National Electorate Reform Agenda. So I think that leaders of NERA, leaders of CODE, must move very quickly to form a grand coalition so that we can shame this shameless old man, Biti said.
Whether or not the opposition is weak, based on Mr. Mugabes assertions and that of analysts, political analysts David Monyae says there current situation is a no-win situation for Zimbabwe no-one is addressing the fundamental issues bedeviling the country.
There is no doubt that the opposition in Zimbabwe is weak, so he is. He is also weak himself. So its a question of having a fragmented opposition and having an aging leader, with a fairly good party, however, the lack of succession in his own party weakens the very same party that the fragmentation within the opposition might end up with a great potential of fragmentation within Zanu-PF.
Monyae cautions against dragging out debate over who is in a better position, despite their clear faults, saying the country is declining at a rate that will take longer to fix.
The period of decay is getting much, much longer. No one expected that Mugabe would reach this stage as a head of state. Hes the oldest in the world, and there is absolutely no need for him to continue, there is no point that he is making to anyone. But there is an urgent need to deal with succession issues within Zanu-PF and to pave way for easing of sanctions, as well as to ensure that the easing of sanctions as well as to ensure that the country operates like all other African countries.
Political analysts and economists are warning that Zimbabwe risks becoming a failed state as the country faces multiple social and economic problems, spawned by endemic governance failures and compounded by a debilitating ruling party succession crisis. Critics say the crisis has been worsened by the countrys fractured opposition parties that have dismally failed to provided leadership and a viable alternative.
Ugandan police detained an academic who has been critical online of what she calls "despotic family rule" in this East African country.
Stella Nyanzi, a research fellow at Uganda's Makerere University, was arrested Friday for violating a law against misusing computers, police spokesman Asan Kasingye said Sunday.
Nyanzi would be charged this week with the offenses of cyber harassment and offensive communication, he said.
Nyanzi is popular on Facebook for her relentless criticisms of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled since 1986. Museveni's critics increasingly warn that he plans to rule for life. Some Ugandan lawmakers have been recently saying they would back a proposal to remove the age limit from the country's constitution, the last obstacle to a possible life presidency for Museveni.
On Facebook recently, Nyanzi rebuked First Lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as education minister, for saying the government had no money to buy sanitary towels [napkins] for poor schoolgirls, although the president had promised to budget for them when he was campaigning for re-election last year. Many Ugandan girls are reported to drop out of school because of the shame they feel for lacking sanitary pads.
"I totally reject the idea that one cannot ... and should not criticize the people responsible for abusing the rights of Ugandans and resources of Uganda through thirty-one years of increasing despotic family rule," Nyanzi said in one of her Facebook posts. "As a thinker, scholar, poetess, lyricist, writer, Facebooker and creative producer, it is my responsibility to boldly critique the corrupt tyrants of the day."
Nyanzi has described the first lady as "foolish" and out of touch with the problems of ordinary Ugandans. The academic, who trained as medical anthropologist, often uses sexual imagery to underscore her points on Facebook, leading many to accuse her of obscenity in this conservative country. But her fans say she is an honest activist who is using her literary skills to fight for the poor.
In an interview with a local TV station, the first lady said she had chosen to "forgive" Nyanzi's criticisms, which she described as hurtful.
"I still don't know what kind of wrong I committed to deserve that kind of language and the names she chose to call me, and all that. I just wanted to tell people that I honestly forgave that lady," the first lady said. "Because I don't understand how an educationist can use that language to say anything about anybody."
Chief Minister Meets Cross Border Trade Unions to Discuss Brexit
Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, held a meeting with representatives of the Gibraltar and Spanish trade unions on Friday. The Unions who attended were Unite, UGT and Comisiones Obreras with the Spanish Unions represented by their top leadership in Andalusia.
Matters of current interest were discussed although the main thrust was the latest development on Brexit and how it affects the workers on both sides of the border. Particular attention was paid to the issue of the rights of new cross-frontier workers after the United Kingdom and Gibraltar have left the European Union.
Mr Picardo said: The opportunity to meet with the unions from across the frontier and fully brief them on developments is an important one. I have nurtured strong links with those unions because there is a clear common interest for us in staying in touch during the Brexit process. We have common concerns which require us to keep in close touch.
After this initial opportunity to discuss issues, it was agreed to continue close contacts to co- ordinate policy for the benefit of Gibraltarians and workers who live in Spain and work in Gibraltar.
GHA Reforms Improve A & E Department
Two Charge Nurses deployed to A & E
A&E to be streamlined to focus on accidents, emergencies and acutely unwell patients
More than 500 GP appointments saved each month by new repeat prescription service
The Gibraltar Health Authority have announced the first step in a series of reforms in the Accident & Emergency Department.
The reforms have begun with the deployment of two additional A&E Charge Nurses. "This ensures that a highly skilled, senior member of the nursing staff leads and manages the A&E team in every shift. The Charge Nurse role is crucial, as they are the front line management on the shop floor. They are responsible for organising and supporting the whole clinical team on each shift and ensure that all A&E patients receive high-quality, safe, compassionate and timely clinical care." explained a spokesperson for Govt.
Sister Natasha Cerisola, nurse manager, from the A&E department supports that view. She said: "A&E is a very busy and dynamic Department, which needs strong and experienced leadership".
This A&E reform comes after the success of the recent Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Courses carried out in Gibraltar for the first time. These courses were provided by the faculty from St Georges Hospital NHS Trust in London, a major teaching hospital, well known as a result of the very popular UK Channel 4 TV programme 24 Hours in A&E. The intensive four-day course was hosted at the University of Gibraltar in October 2016 and again in February 2017, and ensured that our front line A&E staff are fully trained and accredited to provide gold standard clinical care.
Further, the services of A&E will be streamlined in order to allow the Department to concentrate on providing timely care for accidents, emergencies and acutely unwell patients. While A&E will continue to issue initial sick certificates for patients, where appropriate, extensions of these certificates will no longer be issued from A&E. Patients who need further sick leave will need to make an appointment at the Primary Care Centre with a GP for medical review and further sick certification. The GHAs team of GPs will make sure that those patients who may require sick certificate extensions are seen in a timely manner.
The recent launch of the repeat prescription service at the PCC saved 300 routine appointments in February alone and is forecast to save at least 320 GP appointments every month. Additionally, the new sick note telephone service saved 192 GP appointments in March and is forecast to save over 220 appointments every month. The combined result is an increased availability of over 500 GP appointments per month. These saved appointments mean that the excellent and dedicated clinical staff of nurses and GPs will be able to spend more meaningful time with patients at their consultations. Patients and patient welfare are firmly at the heart of the Governments reforms.
Commenting on the first phase of A&E reforms, the Minister for Health, Care and Justice, Neil F. Costa, said: On advice from our clinical leads at A&E, my Ministry, in consultation with the GHAs Medical Director, decided to commence our reforms with the deployment of two highly competent and skilled Charge Nurses. As with all the reforms we are introducing, my Ministry and the GHA will keep a close eye to ensure its effectiveness. The reforms I have announced today are part of a wider reform process and I very much look forward to making further announcements in the next few weeks.
Government to Mark 50th Anniversary of 1967 Referendum
The Government has today announced a number of events that will take place in order to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. This was the first time that the people of Gibraltar were given the choice to remain British or to come under Spanish sovereignty.
The programme of events is being coordinated by the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia and it will involve several Government Ministers and departments. An inter-ministerial committee has been set up chaired by Dr Garcia which includes the Minister for Heritage Dr John Cortes and the Minister for Culture Steven Linares, together with officials.
On 14 June 1967, UK Minister of State at the Commonwealth Office Judith Hart told the Westminster Parliament that a referendum would be held in Gibraltar on 10 September that year. There would be two options on the ballot paper open to the people of Gibraltar. The first to pass under Spanish sovereignty in accordance with the terms proposed by the Spanish Government to Her Majestys Government on 18 May 1966. The second choice was to voluntarily retain the link with Britain, with democratic local institutions and with Britain retaining its existing responsibilities.
There will be an exhibition at the Casemates galleries which will open on 14 June this year. This will mark 50 years to the day when the United Kingdom Government announced that a referendum would take place in Gibraltar. The exhibition is being organised by the Government Archivist, who already holds a considerable number of media news reels, press cuttings and photographs of the time. However, members of the public who hold photographs, footage and memorabilia which relates to the 1967 referendum which may be suitable for displaying during the exhibition are invited to come forward and contact the Archivist so that an initial assessment can be made.
The exhibition will run until the first week of July.
The exhibition will be followed later in the year by a memorial event and concert. This is intended to bring together both the lighter and the more serious political message of the time.
There will be special coins minted to mark the 50th anniversary of the referendum and a set of stamps will also be issued.
A project is already in the pipeline, in conjunction with residents, for the re-painting of the steps at Devils Gap in red, white and blue. This part of Gibraltar was an emblematic representation of the spontaneous actions taken by the people of Gibraltar to decorate the areas in which they lived in the colours of the Union Jack.
A commemorative booklet, similar to the one issued to mark the 75th anniversary of the Evacuation in 2015, will also be published. This will be distributed to schools around Gibraltar in order to highlight the anniversary of this important event.
The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia said:
The referendum took place on 10 September 1967. On a turnout of 95.8%, 12,138 people voted to remain British and only 44 voted for Gibraltar to become a part of Spain. This was the first time that the Gibraltarians had been given the choice and encouraged to exercise it. They spoke with devastating clarity.
The Government considers that it is important to mark the 50th anniversary of this momentous occasion in the history of Gibraltar. The referendum represented, at a symbolic level, that fact that British sovereignty over Gibraltar had come to rest on the living wishes of the descendants of the people who had lived on this Rock since 1704.
The 10 September was later chosen as the date for Gibraltar National Day because it marks the anniversary of the day on which this referendum took place. This year promises to be extra- special.
The list of events published so far is not exhaustive. For now, I would remind anyone with referendum memorabilia that can be displayed during the exhibition to contact the Government Archivist on telephone 20079461.
After the gorgeously shot and deliciously catty Bette and Joan showdown at the 1963 Oscars, which revealed caverns of vulnerability lying underneath their Hollywood personas, the follow-up hour is a bit lackluster. The episode centers on Bob bringing Joan and Bette back together for another hag horror film the genre has taken off, thanks to them and the ladies agreeing only because theyre out of options. If you think it sounds exactly like the lead-up to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, well, youre right. Its all a little too deja vu to make for a compelling episode (obviously, it ends up very different, but were talking about the hour at hand for now).
The biggest issue with Hagsploitation, though, is pulling focus from the premise of the show. The best scenes of the episode and the entire series, really are the ones in which Bette and Joan are left alone to duke it out. Stanley Tucci is excellent as the callous, ill-tempered Jack Warner, but, like, I know hes a dick I dont need to see him mistreating his employees. Alfred Molinas Bob Aldrich is wonderful, but his divorce story line, though sad, takes away from the precious little Bette-and-Joan time we are given. Even Joans solo story with her brother, although it further illuminates the origin of Joans insecurities and neediness, feels bloated (dont get me wrong, Jessica Lange should win all the awards for this role). The episode seems to forget that its Lange and Susan Sarandons fiery relationship, whether theyre in the same room or simply fuming about the other elsewhere, that makes this show work.
The big 1963 Oscars confrontation has come and gone, and Joan is keeping her career alive thanks to another horror film, Strait-Jacket, but she isnt happy about it. Her director, William Castle (welcome, John Waters!), is all about playing up the campy horror gimmicks, and Joan is decidedly not. Hey, at least that ax she has to swing around while on the premiere tour matches her dress, right?
Joan looks broken. Shes tending to her loneliness and humiliation via alcohol and throwing things at Mamacitas head. You know things are really bad when Mamacita is threatening to leave.
As if things couldnt get any worse: Hedda shows up with some bad news and some worse news. She has a fatal heart defect. Her speech about the end of her career and how proud she is of crushing the careers of people she deemed less-than-moral is a surprising whopper. Speaking of awards, Judy Davis and her hats will be winning a whole bunch, too, right?
Anyway, just as Joan is beginning to mourn her friends misfortune, Hedda drops a bomb: Theres a rumor going around that someone has a stag film (read: porno) of Joan from her younger days. Heddas going to give Joan the chance to tell her side of the story. Itll be Heddas last great scoop. Of course Joan promptly denies the whole thing, kicks her dying friend out, and goes to visit the person she knows must be behind the whole thing: her older brother, Hal.
Joans relationship with her brother is, um, not great. He wants to remind Joan that under all of her furs, shes just like him. Hes also harboring a grudge over Joans treatment of their mother he claims Joan brought her to California and was cruel to her in her final days, not allowing her to eat with Joans children, making her use the servants entrance, etc. But weve heard how Joans mother treated Joan growing up, so no one is faultless here. Joan is willing to pay Hal off with most of the money she has left but he ends up dying during an appendectomy surgery before he cashes it. You want insight into who Joan really is? Upon hearing about the death of her brother, the first thing she does is grab a drink and make a phone call to cancel that check she handed over. Real cold, Joanie.
How does a woman who repeatedly claims to be strapped for money find enough to pay her brother to get rid of her porno? The girl has to work. So, when Bob Aldrich shows up with a part for Joan in his new film, What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?, she eventually has to say yes even if it is the last thing she wants to do.
It takes a lot of prodding from Bob to coax both Joan and Bette to join his film, especially once he informs them that the rivals would have to work together again. I believe Bettes exact words when she hears the news are: I wouldnt piss on Crawford if she were on fire. So, theres that.
However, they cant overlook the opportunity to re-create the magic of Baby Jane. Obviously, Joan has her hush money problems, and Bette has had such a lack of film offers that shes had to take, ugh, TV roles. Neither Joan nor Bette want to make the mistakes they did the last time. If they have to sign on to the picture, they might as well get everything they deserve. For Joan, that means top billing and money upfront (Every time I agree to a backend, thats exactly where I end up getting it.); for Bette its creative control. Bette and Joan are coming for whats theirs this time around.
Bob and his new studio head, Darryl Zanuck (Bob dicks over Jack Warner and gives the movie to Warners rival as a way to stick it to the guy. Yes, Bob, we can hear your newly returned balls clanking), give the girls what they want, and thus we arrive back on a studio lot for a Bette and Joan showdown.
They meet in the studio parking lot for the first time since the Oscars. You remember that fire between Lange and Sarandon I was talking about? This scene is oozing in it. Joans pretending to want a fresh start with Bette, while Bette asks if she can use Joans gift of a box of matches to set Joan on fire. After all thats out of the way, Bette does have an offer for Joan: She wants them to work together. Its the only way theyll get everything that Bob promised them. They need to be a united front. Joan agrees to be Bettes ally.
Well, that truce lasts all of 30 seconds. As Bette rips on Bobs script during the table read, Joan offers little help. Bette starts to complain about her notes not being taken into consideration, especially ones about removing some of the silly gore and replacing it with strong character development. Theres a thin line between art and trash, she reminds Bob, and she uses Joans latest film as an example. That there is the last straw for Joan. Things escalate, and Bette ends up walking out until there are changes.
Some of those changes mustve been made, because before too long Bette and Bob are down in Louisiana getting started on Cousin Charlotte. Bob confesses to Bette that he and Harriet are getting a divorce, and the director and his star seem closer than ever. Well be alone together, she says to comfort a heartbroken Bob. Bette is an excellent resource for getting through a divorce after all, she reminds Bob, shes had four of them.
This growing friendship does not sit well with Joan. She arrives in Louisiana after production is under way, only to find that shes been all but forgotten. Theres no one there to greet her at the airport or take her to the hotel, and when she does make it to the hotel, theres no room for her. Enter Bette, a friend to hotel concierges across America. She helps fix the missing room problem for Joan and then runs off to sip on Champagne while Joan is forced to wait around to be taken care of.
As Mamacita astutely points out, Bette is enjoying Joans obvious discomfort. Add it to Mamacitas growing list of reasons why Joan should pull out of this movie. Once Joans brother dies and Joan doesnt have such an urgent need for money, Mamacita begs her to quit the last time was awful for everyone. But Joan wont. If shes not working, she might as well be dead. She needs this picture, even if she doesnt want it.
Joan finally gets to her room and vows to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation. She calls up Bob to inform him of her arrival and hears Bette in the background pouring her director a glass of that Champagne, having a lovely time without Joan. Joanie is not amused. Fingers crossed it leads to some forward momentum.
All season Ive struggled with what, exactly, I want from the end of this show. Should it look like its always looked, with Hannah continuing to struggle and failing and trying again and maybe making marginal progress toward adulthood? Should it end with a collapse, with all the consequences of all of Hannahs decisions crashing down and crushing her? Should it be a fairy tale, where she magically gets everything shes ever wanted, and everything her critics have always wanted for her? Should any of these four women even still be friends?
The beginning of Girls was about a failure to launch in the way the rest of the world seemed to want Hannah to launch. She was constantly failing at things, making terrible choices and thoughtless, self-focused decisions. Its one of the things that truly makes Hannah Horvath stand out among protagonists, especially female protagonists: Her perpetual refusal to play along with what her audience seemed to want for her. Should the end of the series look like her finally playing along? And if it does, would that be growing up, or would it be giving in?
Goodbye Tour, true to its title, is a last hurrah, because Hannah seems to be finally doing all of those adult things weve watched her struggle with for six seasons. Not only is she having a baby, the most adult thing Girls can imagine a woman doing, shes accepting a job. A real job, as a professor, teaching internet or something, that will come with 100 students, a house upstate, and a move out of the city.
So look: Before thinking about the rest of the episode and all of the interesting, thoughtful stuff thats going on here, I need to address one thing first. If Girls is, indeed, going to end up as a fairy tale, its hard to imagine any more direct way of implying that than Hannah magically lands an academic job at a college within commuting distance of New York City, on the basis of her internet writing career. In just thinking about that as a plausible, real-life event, I began laughing out loud so hard that I had to stop for breath. It is possibly the most absurd thing this show has ever done, and Im saying that with full memory of the fact that Marnie and Desi took a meeting with the music coordinator for Greys Anatomy. The only thing that somewhat mitigates its unlikelihood is that it does at least sound like a ridiculous position, teaching 100 students in 25-person seminars how to write with honesty, or something, and of course there are no details about how long Hannah would be expected to keep this job. But in any event, its hard to imagine anything more fantastical than Glinda the Academic Job Witch of the North (played by Ann Dowd, a.k.a. Patti from The Leftovers) floating down and giving Hannah a teaching position.
The majority of the episode is about something else, something ultimately far more important to the series than this one glaring improbability. Goodbye Tour is about Hannah asking herself all the questions I posed up at the top. Should she take this job? Should she leave the city and give up her idea of being a writer, first and foremost? Should she give up the dream of living an unstable, health-insurance-free but possibly more creative life, so she can support her child? Is this what the right choice looks like?
The answer is an unequivocal yes, as indicated by the joyful ending montage with Hannah literally dancing by herself, cut into the scene of her moving into a new place upstate, hugging herself and happily rubbing her pregnant belly while swiveling in a chair and surveying her new home. She chooses the road that looks like security and responsibility, the road with health insurance on it, and she looks thrilled. And to Girls significant credit, the episode makes it clear that after all this time, its not a particularly hard choice.
Hannah spends the bulk of the episode mulling the question of whether to take this job, and the only person who makes an impassioned argument that she shouldnt is Elijah. Her father tells her to take the job without hesitation. She cannot get in touch with Marnie, Shoshannas number isnt even the same anymore, and she refuses to speak to Jessa. Its hardly even a difficult decision Goodbye Tour makes it obvious that almost nothing is keeping her here now. The only person voting for staying is Elijah, and his reasoning is entirely rooted in his own need for reassurance and fear about the future. That disappears in an instant as soon as he finally gets cast in White Boys Cant Jump.
Even Caroline, who makes a brief reappearance on the stoop outside Hannahs apartment, recommends that Hannah leave the city. Caroline happily seems to have gotten the help she needed, which she ascribes both to having left the city and to a short but very powerful stay at a hospital. Whatever other messages she may be sending, Caroline hardly makes a powerful argument in favor of urban parenting.
So Hannah ends up knocking on Shoshannas door, and discovering that shes drifted so far away from her friends that theyre all here celebrating Shoshannas engagement to a person Hannah didnt even know existed. Hannahs furious and hurt, and they all end up crammed into the bathroom for Marnies group meeting, a final conclave of the series four leads. Its a perfect scene, not just for what it accomplishes, but for the way its done theyre together in this minuscule space, and we wonder if maybe this will be a moment of reconciliation and forgiveness. It wont. The cinematography communicates it even before the dialogue does: They hardly look at one another, and certainly never in an intimate, personal way. Theyre all in this bathroom together, and yet each character occupies her own, separate visual box. (The exception is Hannah and Marnie, who share a wider shot together a few times, but who also almost never look at one another.) Still, it could be on its way to a happy, goopy reunion, but then Shoshanna comes along and blows the whole thing up.
Shoshanna, whos been drifting further and further into the background of this series, ends up turning that narrative marginalization on its head. She is better without them. They are, she tells them, better without each other. None of them seems capable of interacting without making the entire relationship a self-centered, myopic nightmare. They have nothing in common. Shoshanna wasnt marginalized or pushed into the background, she tells the other three women; she chose a happier, less narcissistic, less boring group of friends, and she recommends they all do the same. (She now has friends with jobs and purses and nice personalities.) Shoshanna is not wrong. Shes amazingly funny the whole scene is, even while its also a little devastating but she is certainly not wrong, and everyone else seems to realize it.
When they get back into the party, Hannah and Jessa do have a sweet reconciliation, and everyone manages to get along and have a good time. Its not the sort of conversation where they now vow to be friends forever, though. Its forgiveness; it is not swearing undying love. The bathroom scene gives us each of the women in her own box, separated from one another and unhappy. The closing dance montage plays the same visual trick. Its a tiny apartment, and yet each of them is visually and narratively in her own space, apart from any of the other women. We get a few shots of Hannah and Jessa together, and a few brief glimpses of them dancing in each others frame, but theyre certainly not dancing with one another. At the end, this is not about four people dancing in the begrudging, synchronized choreography we saw them do at the end of season threes Beach House episode. They dance by themselves.
Hannahs magical academic job looks like a fairy-tale ending, something that appears out of nowhere to take away all the pain. It frustrates me, even though I know Goodbye Tour would also make a very satisfying, fitting finale episode. (Girl learns to support and be happy for herself, fin. There are worse conclusions, regardless of how improbable.) Heres why the unreality doesnt matter so much, though: For one, the real ending here is not about Hannahs job, but the end of these four characters relationship with one another, and Hannahs relationship with New York. And that ending is far more complex, and thoughtful, and sad and effective and right for the series.
The other reason is that this was not the finale. In almost every respect, Girls has wrapped up Hannahs life into a neat little bow of achievement and expectation and sent her off into the future except theres still one episode left. Well have one last chance to see Hannah actually have to grapple with the consequences of her choices. Come with me, Hannah sings as she drives away from the city, maybe for the last time. Ill take you home.
Photo: Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images
If you were planning on ushering in the first beautiful day of spring by blasting Big Pimpin while driving your children to Sunday school this morning, you already know the bad news: The majority of Jay Zs catalog is not longer available on Spotify. Billboard reports that his songs were pulled from the streaming platform Friday, April 7, at the request of the artist. All that remains of Hovas oeuvre on Spotify is little more than a handful of hit singles, including Dirt Off Your Shoulder, Ns in Paris, and Linkin Parks Numb/Encore, as well as Jay Zs two collaborative albums with R.Kelly, 2002s The Best of Both Worlds and 2004s Unfinished Business. Unless Numb/Encore A Cappella Explicit and Jays feature on Lenny Kravitzs 2004s Storm is enough to satisfy your needs, fans will have to turn to Jay Zs own platform Tidal or, as of now, Apple Music. If not, well, Numb/Encore A Cappella Amended will be waiting for you to enjoy.
Well, here it is. The unveiling of the infamous and unfinished Chateau Sheree. This is the Wrestlemania of the Real Housewives world. The party had aerialists and three signature drinks named after shady comments about Chateau Sheree. A team of shirtless security and dozens of other various dubiously employed friends and confidantes of Sheree came together to put on the party of a lifetime. In the meantime, lets check in on the other Housewives. Cynthias main story line this episode is that she wants to get koi. Cynthia. I dont think you can put koi in a lake.
Kandi is dragging Riley to go have dinner with Block at a restaurant that looks to have a hibachi element, but theyre not sitting at the hibachi tables, which is foolish. Everyone knows that onion volcano brings people together. How can you be upset when your chef-tainer is making a beating heart of fried rice? Kandi is setting some ground rules for Riley hoping that shell at least try to talk to her dad. I know that teenagers are difficult but Riley is difficult. She tells her mom she ruined her favorite restaurant for her by making her have this dinner. Would she be saying that if she were sitting at a grill getting a shrimp flipped into her mouth? Block shows up and . ugh, this guy. He tries to pretend that he had any kind of relationship with his daughter and when Riley pushes back, he calls her brainwashed. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, DUDE? That is some gaslight-y bullshit. Then Kandi and Block have a pretty rough argument in front of their child about which of them is a good parent. Riley stands up for herself at the end of the dinner and tells her dad that shes not brainwashed, she remembers things, and when he says, Lets hang out, she goes Were hanging out right now.
Johnnie and Phaedra go to meet with esteemed employment attorneys. They determined that his claim that he came up with the idea for Old Lady Gang is pretty flimsy, but he might have a case for some missing overtime pay. He claims while he was planning Kandis Coming to Americathemed wedding, he had to work 16 hours a week to find enough feather girls. Phaedra said that she crunched some numbers and Johnnie was only working for bread crumbs and loose Skittles at the bottom of Kandis purse. Yeah, okay, this is definitely gonna hold up in court.
Sheree is meeting with her team for the last few days of preparations on Chateau Sheree and yall the appliances arent gonna make it. Sheree flips out and screeches, You can fit these bitches whole houses in this and it wouldnt look this good. She aint wrong, but she also aint got a fridge in her whole house so its like half a dozen of one. Porsha and her sister do some reflecting as they visit their fathers grave, and its a sweet scene between two sisters. Porsha keeps saying Baby Nup, and I finally figured out what bothers me so much about the phrase. Nup is short for nuptial. What on Earth is a baby nuptial agreement for two people who arent planning on getting married? It makes me furious.
Its time for the housewarming party! Bienvenue Chez Sheree! Porsha arrives with Todd and theyre starting their journey as a power couple who will leave a lasting legacy for their families as what? What does Todd do? Does he do? Sherees house is pretty bomb its all silvers and grays with lots of crystals and pillows. Sheree comes down the stairs in a bizarre gown-jumpsuit hybrid that looks like one of those dresses you get on Amazon from a third-party seller with like eight reviews. Phaedra arrives, and its a little icy between her and Kandi. Also between Kandi and Porsha. Who is Kandi friends with right now? When Phaedra finds out that Sherin woman was at the party last week, she just says its messy and wicked that Kandi and Todd invited her.
A bunch of Sherees various friends and other socialites arrive, and they all get flashbacks to clips of them from 2008 where everyone is wearing bootcut jeans and pointy-toed boots. Suddenly a sentient blonde wig rolls through the door. Its the one and only Ms. Kim Zolciak-Biermann and her brick of a husband and sound a sick frog makes, Kroy. It seems like the dust has settled between Kim and some of the Housewives, but it doesnt stay that way for long. Kenya decides to start roaming around looking for water damage and exposed drywall. She drags Kandi into the basement and notices that the basement is unfinished. QUEL HORREUR! Someone grabs Sheree and says, These bitches in your Basement. Classic.
Sheree drags them out and Kenya decides to start listing the similar fixtures and furniture. Kenya. Who cares? You just look petty as hell. Kim chimes in and asks why Kenya is being an asshole. Oh, Kim. She also says Kenyas vagina is going to fall out of her dress and she cant have a child or keep a man. Oh, Kim. (But she aint wrong.) Sheree takes her poof skirt off to reveal a jumpsuit, and that somehow diffuses the situation.
No way some petty basement bitch is gonna ruin my night. ICONIC. PUT IT ON A TOTE.
Phaedra and Kandi sit down to try to clear the air about this Sherin woman and the whole Johnnie thing. Phaedra doesnt believe that Kandi didnt invite Sherin and claims attorney-client privilege, but Johnnie is not her client. Peter and Cynthia talk because for some reason Cynthia wants to be friends with this person who hurt her and is an all-around garbage fire.
The party was a success, and we get glimpses into the lives of the Housewives now. Phaedra had her divorce settlement thrown out and shes learning how to windsurf. Kandi got a writing credit on an Ed Sheeran song (that she had to sue to get) and shes taking up mosaic-making. Porsha launched her own line of detox cleanses and published a book of haiku. Kenya has a new mystery man and adopted four rabbits. Sheree makes a speech to the crowd about how proud she is of herself, but people still dont think shes living at Chateau Sheree. Also, shes learning how to reupholster vintage furniture. See you for the MULTIPART REUNION SPECIALS. Im already winded.
Risk, the latest documentary from Academy Award winner Laura Poitras (Citizenfour), premiered its first trailer tonight, and it will scare you more than a clown peering out of your sewer drain. Filmed over six years, including through the 2016 presidential election, the doc focuses on Julian Assange and tells the WikiLeaks story from the inside, through Poitrass point of view. The film will be released by Showtime Documentary Films theatrically nationwide, with a television premiere this summer. And if Risk is anything like Citizenfour, it will be a really fascinating, but really terrifying, wake-up call.
Mission Wacos annual Fashion With a Passion style show and luncheon will start at 11 a.m. April 19 at The Phoenix Ballroom, 401 S. Third St.
Cost is $45 per person or $335 for a table for eight. Proceeds underwrite Mission Wacos Arts Program for lower-income children and youth.
For reservations, call 753-4900 or visit www.missionwaco.org.
BU Campus Orchestra
The Baylor University Campus Orchestra will present a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Baylors Roxy Grove Hall.
The ensemble is composed of 35 Baylor students, whose majors range across virtually every discipline the university offers.
Titled Themes of Sorrow and Joy, the concert will open with Ennio and Andrea Morricones Cinema Paradiso, as well as works by Jean Sibelius, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Benjamin Britten.
For more information, visit www.baylor.edu/music or call 710-3991.
Chronic diseases
The Area Agency on Aging of the Heart of Texas is having a Better Choices, Better Health chronic disease self-management workshop from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The workshop, geared for people with chronic conditions such as heart disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc., will meet for six weeks with two trained facilitators in a small-group setting.
The workshop focuses on managing symptoms, choosing a healthy lifestyle, stress management, making informed treatment decisions, medication use and setting weekly goals.
Advance registration is required. To register, call 292-1855.
SCV meeting
The Sons of Confederate Veterans will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Poppa Rollos Pizza, 703 N. Valley Mills Drive.
The meeting will feature a program related to Confederate History Month in April.
Optional dining will start at 6 p.m. Visitors are welcome.
For more information, visit www.scv-waco.org or call 772-1676.
Hewitt story times
The Hewitt Public Library, 200 Patriot Court in Hewitt, will present story times for toddlers, ages 12 to 36 months, and preschoolers, ages 3 to 5, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The toddler sessions will start at 9:30 a.m. with a program about Counting Birds.
Preschoolers will meet at 10:30 a.m. with a program about Dogs and Puppies.
For more information, call 666-2442.
WHS class of 1967
The Waco High School class of 1967 will have its 50-year reunion June 9-10.
The reservation deadline is May 15.
To make a reservation, classmates can email Elaine Earl Milam at elainemilamtx@sbcglobal.net.
The future of the Waco Regional Airport is under review, and the public is invited to learn more about the project and the direction local leaders hope to take.
A new airport master plan will guide the next 20 years of the airport and outline expected development costs, financing methods and management options. The draft covers the future role of the airport in local, regional and national systems and outlines a growing demand for a larger terminal and increased air service for the Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is expected to add more than 31,500 people in the next 21 years, according to the document.
The public information workshop will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the airport terminal building, 7909 Karl May Drive. The come-and-go session is meant to inform residents about the airports overall maintenance, development and operations.
The two most significant factors for choosing an airport are convenience and cost, placing Wacos airport in a strong position to continue to attract passengers, according to the master plan draft.
Guests will hear about proposed construction projects that involve runways, drainage, safety areas, the terminal buildings and parking, Waco Regional Airport manager Joel Martinez said. The master plan is close to completion as city officials work to share the information with the public, Martinez said. It is expected to be finalized by June, he said.
American Eagle operates the airports only commercial flights: five daily nonstop trips to Dallas-Fort Worth.
Its important to keep the public, whose taxes support the facility, involved in the process as officials move forward, Martinez said. Some of the proposed major projects will determine whether elected city leaders issue bonds to finance the work, he said.
The master plan, which was last done in 2002, is being prepared by Missouri-based Coffman Associates Inc. and Walker Partners, the airports engineer of record. The city of Waco received a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration for the plan that covers 90 percent of the fixed-fee project cost. The city covers the remaining 10 percent.
The cost of maintaining an airport is an investment which yields impressive benefits to the local community, the plan states. Moreover, the plan will aid in supporting decisions for directing limited and valuable city resources for future airport development. Ultimately, the continued investments in the airport will allow the city of Waco to reap the economic benefits generated by historical investments.
A former Waco pool company owner was sentenced to 44 years in prison Monday for sexually abusing a young family member over a four-year period.
Jurors in Wacos 54th State District Court deliberated about two hours Monday morning before recommending that Judge Matt Johnson sentence Jose Salazar-Hernandez to 30 years in prison on the first count and seven years in prison on the remaining two counts.
At the request of prosecutors Hilary LaBorde, Christi Hunting Horse and Sydney Tuggle, the judge ordered Salazar-Hernandez to serve the three sentences consecutively, for a total of 44 years in prison.
Salazar-Hernandez, 43, must serve between 37 and 40 years before he is eligible for parole.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated about seven hours before finding Salazar-Hernandez guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a young child and two counts of indecency with a child by contact.
Jurors acquitted Salazar-Hernandez on two other counts of indecency with a child by contact.
The first count carried a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison without parole and a maximum of life in prison without parole. He faced from two to 20 years in prison on the indecency counts.
In summations Friday, Tuggle asked the jury for a life prison term on the continuous sexual abuse of a young child count, saying the abuse the victim suffered from Salazar-Hernandez amounted to a life sentence for her.
He deserves no less, she said.
Defense attorney Robert Callahan asked the jury if they noticed the statue of Themis, the Greek goddess of divine law, on top of the courthouse dome. A wind storm in June 2014 blew off the statues left arm, which held symbolic scales of justice.
Traditionally, she holds a scale in one hand and a sword in the other, Callahan said. Please dont think because the arm with the scales was blown off that you should go straight to the sword in this case.
Callahan said after the six-day trial was over that he and co-counsel Kayla Dailey continue to believe that Salazar-Hernandez is innocent.
These are difficult cases and we only take them when we truly believe in our clients innocence, Callahan said. There were five allegations. The jury decided three were true beyond a reasonable doubt. They obviously took their duties seriously from start to finish. We take our duties seriously, as well. We will continue to fight for Jose as we explore the possibility of appeal.
In an emotional victim-impact statement, the victim, who is now 13, cried so much at first that she could barely be heard. She told Salazar-Hernandez that she still loves him and said she wonders if he will still be the same person when he gets out.
The girl testified that Salazar-Hernandez, a family member, sexually abused her on numerous occasions beginning when she was 6. He stopped when she was 10, she said. She confided that she was abused to a friend at school when she was 11.
Police are searching for a potential witness in the shooting death of a 25-year-old man who died after after his vehicle crashed into a utility pole at the 6300 block of Bosque Boulevard in December 2015, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.
Braxton Wayne Bennett died after emergency medical responders found a single-vehicle crash on Bosque Boulevard on Dec. 22, 2015. Swanton said medical staff found gunshot wounds to Bennett's torso .
"It was later determined that the occupant died from that gunshot wound, but shortly before we responded to the crash, other officers responded to the 1000 block of North Valley Mills Drive on a shooting," Swanton said. "It was determined that Bennett was the victim of the earlier shooting and he left the scene in that vehicle."
Bennett crashed his car into a utility pole and later died at a local hospital. Police classified the death as the 20th homicide in 2015.
No arrests have been made in the murder investigation. Police released police released police dash camera images Monday of a woman who was at the scene of the Bosque Boulevard crash.
Swanton said detectives would like to speak with the woman about the incident as she may be a potential witness in the case. He previously told the Tribune-Herald that Bennett's death was not a random shooting.
Anyone with information about the identity of the woman or with any information about the murder is asked to contact Waco police Det. Cassie Price at 750-7615 or Waco Crime Stoppers at 753-4357 and reference case #15-23534.
News, analysis, and archives on the grassroots in Haiti. Nouvel, analiz, ak achiv sou baz yo an AYITI. Noticias, analisis y archivos sobre el pueblo de Haiti.
ASHLAND An announcement regarding the fate of the Ashland Family Clinic is coming soon.
Last week, Earl West, president of the Ashland Community Medical Clinic Fund board of directors, said the board will be announcing their decision on whether the clinic will remain open and who will operate it in the next week or so.
The decision came after a well-attended public meeting on March 26 where about 60 people filled the community resource center room at the Ashland Public Library to voice their opinion about the clinic.
The attendees were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the clinic open, West said.
Nobody spoke against having health care in Ashland, he said. Everyone felt the clinic needed to remain open.
The clinic was in danger of closing after the announcement in February that the remaining health care provider, Dr. Greg Precht, was leaving at the end of April to pursue employment in Omaha.
Prior to Prechts announcement, Chelsea Schuster, a physicians assistant who worked in the clinic part-time, left for personal reasons. As a result, the hours were reduced from five days a week to four in January.
The clinic has been operated by Saunders Medical Center (SMC) since 2011. Precht came on board the following year.
After Precht announced his resignation, representatives from the local Medical Clinic Fund board and about 20 members of the public met with the SMC Board of Trustees in Ashland.
It was there the public learned that the clinic had been losing money over the years, including $341,000 in 2016. SMC officials also indicated the clinics patient base had not grown as expected.
West said the Medical Clinic Fund board has been discussing options for the clinic, which include staying with SMC or going with a different provider. He said there have been two other providers other than SMC that have stepped forward to indicate interest.
The medical fund board used input gathered at the March 26 meeting when deciding which provider to choose, West said.
We left with the understanding that were going to come up with a provider and were going to make a decision based on whoever gives us the best health care for Ashland, he said. Thats the most important thing.
The medical fund board is in charge of making decisions regarding the clinic because of the communitys history regarding local health care.
The community found itself without a doctor in the 1970s, so Ashland applied to sponsor two South Vietnamese doctors through a program that brought refugee physicians from the war torn Asian country to the U.S. A fund drive was started in 1976 to build a building that would house a medical clinic as well as dentist and optometrist offices. The Ashland Community Medical Fund was established as a nonprofit, tax exempt corporation. The medical office opened in July 1977.
The Ashland Community Medical Clinic Fund board continues to own the building, charging rent to its tenants.
The medical fund board chose SMC to operate the clinic just over five years ago, replacing Lincoln Family Medical Group, which had operated the clinic for 25 years.
WAHOO Select agencies across the nation will soon participate in National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, but for area residents, proper disposal options are not limited to one day.
Through the Nebraska Medication Education on Disposal Strategies (MEDS) initiative, Wahoo Pharmacy and Saunders Medical Center Long Term Care Pharmacy provide free disposal of outdated or unneeded prescription medication.
Weve probably collected five or six 40 gallon containers, said Wahoo Pharmacy Manager Steve Mayfield.
Wahoo Pharmacy has participated in the initiative for the past year and a half.
By using a secure bin, the pharmacy in downtown Wahoo is able to collect tableted medications in the original bottle and send to be incinerated.
SMCs long term care pharmacy has participated in the initiative since the fall of last year, said SMC Pharmacist Brent Cernik.
Cernik said bringing prescription medication to a licensed pharmacist is the best practice of proper disposal.
It keeps them out of landfills and water system so its not contaminating any of our natural resources, Cernik said.
Neither SMCs pharmacy nor Wahoo Pharmacy can receive controlled substances. However, each can provide a prepaid sleeve so that an individual can mail in a controlled substance for proper disposal.
Mayfield added that while bringing prescription medication back to the pharmacy is the best option for proper disposal, if that is not an option the Center for Disease Control has outlined other disposal methods. The CDC recommends crushing and mixing the prescription tablets with coffee grounds or cat little to destroy the integrity of the tablets, he said.
The Nebraska MEDS initiative is funded by the Nebraska Environmental Trust and the Nebraska Legislature. The mission of the Nebraska MEDS Coalition is to educate Nebraskans about drug disposal and provide safe ways to dispose of them in order to better safeguard the environment and protect public health.
Wahoo Pharmacy and SMC Long Term Care Pharmacy are two of over 300 pharmacies across Nebraska participating in the initiative.
Since August 2012, over 33,000 pounds of medication have been collected by Nebraska pharmacies as part of Nebraska MEDS.
PRAGUE Volunteers committed to protection and well-being of the Prague community gathered Saturday evening.
The annual Prague Volunteer Fire and Rescue banquet took place at the Prague Parish Hall and leadership for the department gave reports.
Two members have stepped into new roles in the department, as new a new fire chief and a new rescue captain were elected earlier this year.
New Rescue Squad Captain Mark Rezac reported that the rescue unit was dispatched 40 times last year.
Thats every nine days we are going out so our rescue squad is really, really important to our community, he added.
Rezac also reported that two department members received their first responder certification this past year. They are Catherine Duerksen and JaNahn Niven and will next be training to become EMTs.
The new fire chief is Mike Hines. He said his goal for the coming year was to focus on training for department members.
We are going to push the training, he said. I think we can never train too much.
Hines said the department has also prepared and submitted a federal grant that will hopefully provide 40 new sets of bunker gear and new hoses for the fire trucks. The total grant asking is $150,000 to $160,000.
The department wont find out until later this year if the grant is awarded. If approval does not come, the fire chief said the purchases would still be needed.
That would help, he said about a positive grant outcome. Because even if we dont get that grant, we still need to replace that bunker gear.
Hines also reported that Austin Wade and Matt Sousek joined the fire department this past year.
The Saturday evening banquet also included awards.
Greg Ourada was given a plaque and several other mementos in recognition of his past 14 years as fire chief.
He said he enjoyed the experience of being fire chief but that it was time for him to step back. Ourada said he will continue to serve on the department but felt it was time with younger people with fresh ideas to step into leadership roles.
Years of service were recognized for both fire and rescue personnel. Volunteer firefighters honored and their years of service are John Wade, 10; Tom Johnson, 20; and Carl Sousek, Harvey Vanek and Ray Paseka, 25.
Rezac was honored for his 15 years with Prague Rescue.
For the people of Syria, the international community's failure to resolve their crisis has been tragic. For America and the world, that failure should have clarified thinking about how to deal with that cauldron of sectarian malevolence.
Not that you'd know it from the euphoria over Donald Trump's decision to launch strikes against the Assad regime. The conventional wisdom from world leaders to editorial writers to neo-conservatives and liberal hawks has praised the President's response to Bashar al-Assad's alleged chemical weapons attack last week.
But some cautionary lessons should have emerged from the six-year civil war that has cost 400,000 lives, displaced millions and created a refugee crisis. If we continue to ignore these lessons, we are in danger of making a bad situation worse. Here are three of them.
First lesson: be wary of the injunction "Don't just stand there; do something".
He said the principle underlying the motion was that of open and transparent government, and the right of the press to cover important issues without hindrance.
"The City of Perth should be committed to leading the local government sector in WA in the areas of transparency, disclosure and public accountability. Members of the press must be able to receive timely responses to reasonable questions from the City's administration in order to carry out their important role of keeping the Council and its staff accountable to the people whom we serve."
Post journalist Lloyd Gorman said while some of his questions to the City over the past year could be seen as politically charged or sensitive, the bulk had been about normal matters that would be routine for any of the seven councils The Post also covered.
He said when the City's boundaries expanded last year to include most of Subiaco's south ward, about 3000 of its readers found themselves in the City of Perth without being asked about it or being given a choice.
"The boundaries of Perth might have changed, but not our readership or circulation area, so everything that still happens in and around UWA, QEII and Kings Park is still of interest and relevant to our readers," he said.
The decision to euthanise a baby dolphin found stranded in the Peel Harvey Estuary on Saturday drew criticism from the public, but the Department of Parks and Wildlife has defended its actions.
"This dolphin was around two months old, which means it is 100 per cent dependent on mum, and needs to suckle every hour," DPaW wildlife officer Matt Swan said.
It was 'most humane' to euthanise the baby dolphin. Credit:Mandurah Mail
Mr Swan said it was not possible to take the dolphin back out to the deep, or to hand-rear it.
"We know from our experience in DPaW that [taking it back out to the deep] is a gamble, and not a gamble we're prepared to take It usually results in the animal being washed up again later, in a spot where no-one will discover it, and it will flounder in the shallows for days and days," he said.
Following a visit by the WCO Secretary General in February, a mission was conducted by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) -funded Customs Capacity Building for WCO Members 2012-17 Project Manager. Together with TRA, a clear view on Action Plan for WCO-Norad support to Tanzania over the remaining 6 months of the Programme was established. Support to date has built capacity in the areas of Classification and Valuation, through training missions and the development of a core team within TRA.
The mission took place in Dar es Salaam, 27-30 March 2017.
During the mission, the Managers of each of the key Customs departments reviewed and validated TRAs 2017/18 WCO Capacity Building Annual Needs assessment. A presentation on the WCOs Mercator Programme was also delivered with emphasis on the understanding of the utility of a Project Management Approach for delivery of strategic objectives. WCO-Norad Project Manager reviewed other initiatives with TRA counterparts, including the WCO-INAMA Institutional Assessment Tool as well as the WCO-EAC AEO Progamme also being delivered in Tanzania.
The aim of the WCO-Norad project is to deliver technical assistance to seven countries in specific areas of Customs operations. For more information, please contact the Project Manager, Ms. Andrea Hampton (Andrea.Hampton@wcoomd.org)
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Weve been told all our lives that a picture paints a thousand words and I came across a graph showing the spending, income and debt of the US and I thought it would be neat to prepare one for these figures for The Bahamas.
Turns out its not fun. Its cause for concern. No, not concern. Alarm!
Of course the defenders of big government will suggest government spending is what creates economic growth. Yes, theyll say that in spite of all the economic indicators proving otherwise.
No economic improvement. No improvement in education. Crumbling pubic infrastructure. The list can go on and on, but I think you get my drift?
One proviso. The numbers from 1991 to 2012 were provided by The Central Bank of The Bahamas, while the numbers from 2013 to 2016 are taken from various sources.
Ive asked The Central Bank if they can update the numbers and include the VAT revenue.
If anyone reading this can help with that it would be appreciated.
Download Public Finances of the Bahamas 1991 2016 Spreadsheet here...
All these numbers are headed in the wrong direction yet the status quo continues with the government.
Tatum's 39 points help Celtics hold on to beat Grizzlies 109-106
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Apr. 09, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 09, 2017 | 06:50 PM | PADUCAH, KY
The arrest of one Paducah man led to a foot chase and the arrest of another Paducah man Sunday afternoon.
According to the McCracken County Sheriff's office, deputies were given a tip that 24-year-old Dustin Baldwin was at McDonalds on Clarks River Road and that he had active warrants. When police arrived, Baldwin was taken into custody without incident on charges of absconding supervision and on a McCracken County arrest warrant for drug offenses.
Police saw another man running out a side door. Deputies identified the man as 32-year-old John Tucker, who had an arrest warrant in McCracken County. Tucker ran to Country Air Mobile Home Park and entered one of the homes. Deputies found Tucker inside the home, and he was taken into custody without any further incident.
Tucker was charged with fleeing and evading police and on the arrest warrant.
Both were lodged in the McCracken County Regional Jail.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 09, 2017 | 09:11 PM | CUBA, KY
A man was arrested Saturday on multiple charges following a shooting in Graves County.
According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to a call of a man shooting at a vehicle in Cuba that was occupied by a woman, her boyfriend and a 4-year-old child. The woman told police she went to the home of Gregory Travis to get some of her belongings.
When she knocked on the door, Travis reportedly yelled that he had a gun, so the woman returned to the vehicle her boyfriend and daughter were in. The woman told police that as they were leaving, Travis fired a shot at their vehicle, leaving a hole on the left side.
Police found Travis a short time later in Mayfield and arrested him on three counts of 1st degree wanton endangerment. Travis, a convicted felon, told police he didn't own any guns but during a search of his home, deputies found three handguns, ammunition, some marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Travis was additionally charged with three counts of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was lodged in the Graves County Jail.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Apr. 09, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 09, 2017 | 01:25 PM | PADUCAH, KY
The garbage truck driver that went the wrong way for miles on I-24 and injured multiple people has been declared by a federal safety office to be an "imminent hazard to public safety."
The U.S. Department of Transportations Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration served the federal order to 23-year-old Dalton Lampley of Calvert City on March 31.
The agency's imminent hazard out-of-service order states that Lampleys continued operation of a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death to you and the motoring public if not discontinued immediately.
Failure to comply with the order may result in action by the U.S. Attorneys Office for equitable relief and punitive damages. Civil penalties of up to $1,782 may be assessed for each violation of operating a commercial motor vehicle in violation of the order. Willful violation of the order may also result in criminal penalties.
Lampley also may be subject to a civil penalty enforcement proceeding brought by FMCSA for his violation of the agencys safety regulations, according to the agency.
On March 17th, Lampley was operating a large commercial truck along Interstate 24 in McCracken County, when he crossed the median and began driving eastward in the westbound lanes, striking two cars and causing multiple collisions. With police vehicles in pursuit, Lampley continued driving into Marshall County.
Leaving the Interstate, Lamply headed erratically into Calvert City, Kentucky, where spiked stop strips were placed in the roadway by a police officer. Lampley changed lanes and drove his truck directly at the police officer, who escaped injury. Lampleys truck finally became disabled and he was arrested and charged with reckless driving, assault, criminal mischief and resisting arrest.
Lampley told police officers he had used a Schedule II controlled substance earlier that day as well as for the past several days. Use of a Schedule II controlled substance is prohibited by federal safety regulations.
Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
An anchor tenant has been found for the office atrium portion of the $20-million James Avenue Pumping Station redevelopment on Waterfront Drive.
Think Shift, a local advertising agency, has signed a tentative agreement to lease most of the roughly 12,000-square-foot atrium, which will sit on steel girders suspended three metres above ground level inside the original building. The firm is waiting for the final leasing documents to be signed.
Work on the one-storey atrium is well underway, and co-developer Bryce Alston said it should be completed in November.
RUTH / BONNEVILLE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Think Shift president David Lazarenko sits in the James Avenue Pumping Station, where his advertising agency will be the anchor tenant once the redevelopment is complete.
Its actually been going quite well. Were on schedule so thats good, he said.
And with the nicer weather now, its really going to start to pick up. It just opens up a chance to do a whole bunch of work that we couldnt do. Well be able to really ramp up.
The developers plan to carve a series of large skylights into the roof of the original building so tenants in neighbouring buildings can see down into the building.
The interior office atrium will feature glass walls, with several large cut-out areas in the floor so Think Shift employees and maybe even some of the occupants in the two neighbouring buildings can see the refurbished pumping equipment in the buildings lower level.
Think Shift CEO David Baker and company president David Lazarenko said their firm expects to move into its new quarters in February 2018.
Both sound as if they cant wait.
Its just going to be stunning. Essentially, the glass walls will wrap around where the pumps are, he said. And (the original pump house) is such a spectacular building. You can see why Heritage Winnipeg wanted to protect it.
Baker noted the roof on the pump house building has dual peaks, so theyre leaving the rafters open in the office atrium to add more character to the space.
The office atrium is the first of three phases in the pumping station redevelopment, which was announced last summer.
The second phase involves the construction of a narrow, six-storey building on the east side of the original structure, and the third phase will see the construction another six-storey building on the west side of it.
The east-side building will have about 1,500 sq. ft. of commercial space on the ground floor, another 3,000 sq. ft. of office or retail space in the front portion of the basement and five floors of rental apartments.
The west-side building will have an underground parkade, about 3,000 sq. ft. of main-floor office or retail space and five floors of rental apartments.
Alston said work on the east-side building is scheduled to get underway in July, and will take about 14 months to complete. Work on the west-side building wont begin until next March and will take about 16 months to finish.
Both of the new buildings will feature a hybrid design. The ground-floor podium will be made of steel, and the rest of the structure will feature wood-frame construction.
Alston said they will be only the second and third wood-frame buildings that are more than four storeys high to be built in the city.
The first is another six-storey building he and co-developer Rick Hofer are building on Ross Avenue, in the West Exchange District.
There will be 90-plus one- and two-bedroom apartments in the two new buildings. Most will be one-bedroom units ranging in size from 525 to 550 sq. ft. The monthly rental rate will be $1,250 to $1,300. The seven two-bedroom, two-level penthouse units will be about 1,200 sq. ft. in size, with a rooftop deck. Theyll rent for about $2,500 per month.
Alston said theyre hoping to find a restaurant operator for the main floor of the east-side building.
5468796 Architecture Inc. The roughly 12,000-square-foot atrium will sit on steel girders suspended about three metres above ground level inside the original building.
Ive had a couple of people approach me already, and we havent really even begun designing it yet. We know the size it will be, but theres still a lot of things to figure out.
The commercial space in the lower level of the pumping station will be suitable for either another restaurant or maybe an office tenant, Alston said.
He said theyll extend the windows on the front of the building down to the floor-level of the basement to allow more light into the lower level.
Alson said its a relief to have an anchor tenant lined up for the office atrium.
It gives me a lot more confidence pushing forward and it will help with leasing up the balance of the commercial space. Getting that first tenant is always the key.
Although they looked at several other locations in the East Exchange, Baker and Lazarenko said their preference was to be on Waterfront Drive.
Youve got the park across the street there, and we can see restaurants starting to pop up (in the area). Its also got great character and its central, Baker said.
Lazarenko noted Baker had been looking at the pumping station even before they learned Alston and Hofer were planning to redevelop it.
He (Baker) has always had this idea of working with the shell of a great building and really making it unique, Lazarenko said.
So when Bryce came along and said they were going to be doing this, it was almost fate in some ways.
Because they got involved at an early stage in the project, Baker and Lazarenko had a lot of input into how their new office would be designed.
Think Shift will lease about 10,000 sq. ft. altogether.
Its currently leasing some office space on Erin Street until the new quarters are ready.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
Right now, the U.S. Congress is in the midst of a fierce debate over the future of our nations healthcare system. In the midst of this very important discussion about a subject that impacts every American, it would have been easy to overlook a program aimed at helping one little town in far Northwest Montana.
That is why I am writing this letter to express our (my and Libbys) thanks to Senator Steve Daines for his efforts to protect an important provision for Libby residents affected by asbestos. Thousands of current and former Libby residents have benefitted from the provision which provides money for asbestos illness screenings, makes anyone regardless of age with an asbestos related illness eligible for Medicare, and provides a pilot program allowing for medical care and daily living assistance not covered by Medicare.
As Republicans in Congress prepared to roll out their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare earlier this month, Senator Daines sent a letter and engaged in talks with Congressional leadership bringing the Libby issue to their attention. I am pleased to say that the American Health Care Act leaves the Libby provision untouched and these vital programs for the people of Libby will continue.
I share Senator Daines desire to see Obamacare repealed and replaced. However, what is happening in Libby is a public health emergency and these programs are unrelated to the larger law. We must continue to care for those in our community affected by asbestos, and I thank the senator for going to bat for us.
Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Libby, represents House District 1 in the Montana Legislature.
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
AWARDS
Karlee Blatz
is this years winner of the Canadian Bar Associations (CBA) Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA) Up and Comer Award. The award recognizes a CCCA in-house member with less than 15 years in-house who demonstrates strong participation at any level within the profession, the CCCA and the organization that they serve. Blatz is regional director of labour relations and senior legal counsel, human resources, at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. Called to the bar in 2007, she has throughout her career demonstrated a strong commitment to the in-house counsel profession by way of her leadership and involvement in various associations, including the Manitoba Bar Association, the CBA and the CCCA. She is also an active volunteer with the Manitoba Childrens Museum, the United Way of Winnipeg and the Manitoba Law Foundation.
The Winnipeg Branch of the Canadian Culinary Federation (CCFCC Winnipeg)
held its annual awards gala on March 25 at the RBC Convention Centre. 2017 Top Chef of the Year is Michael Keeler from Assiniboia Downs. The winner of Associate of the Year was Binner Marketing, represented by Bonnie Mularchuk. The Life Time Achievement Award winner was Karl Omen of Red River College, while special honour went to Nick Marchuk, who entered the national Honour Society of CCFCC Canada. Special Life Time Associate membership was awarded to Mo Razik and Gaspar Scholcz for
their many years of membership and service to the branch. A special thanks to the teachers and students from Tech-Voc, Lord Selkirk and John G. Stewart high schools and Culinary Team Manitoba for helping with the action stations for the evening reception.
Manitoba Pork Council
has announced the recipients of the 2017 Pork Industry Awards. Prof. Laurie Connor received Manitoba Porks 2017 Award of Distinction in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the hog industry in teaching and mentoring the next generation of livestock specialists while advancing swine research provincially and nationally, at all times with passion and integrity. Megan Bergman, Manitobas chief veterinary officer, was also presented with the 2017 Pork Industry Award in recognition of her exemplary support of the industry as it met recent swine health challenges through her strong leadership, knowledge and genuine empathy in dealing with Manitoba pork producers. Manitoba Pork congratulates these extraordinary industry partners for their leadership, innovation and steadfast commitment to the betterment of agriculture in Manitoba and beyond, council chairman George Matheson said.
PEOPLE
Shari Wolfson
has joined Staffmax Staffing & Recruiting as the business development manager. Shari goes to Staffmax with more than 20 years experience in the staffing industry providing solutions and superior levels of customer service. In addition, she has extensive experience with recruitment in both permanent and temporary placements in a variety of industries and is active in the Winnipeg business community, volunteering her time with several organizations. A Winnipeg-owned and -operated company, Staffmax is a leading provider of permanent and temporary staffing solutions across Canada.
Julie Turenne-Maynard
has been appointed as the executive director of the Catholic Health Association of Manitoba, the Interfaith Healthcare Association of Manitoba, and the Manitoba Association of Residential Community Care Homes for the Elderly. Turenne-Maynard brings a wealth of experience and working knowledge of Manitobas faith-owned health and human service organizations. With a career spanning more than 30 years in operations, project management and consulting in the private sector, she has the combination of talent and leadership skills required to help move the works of each of the organizations forward.
EVENTS
The Assiniboia Chamber of Commerce
will hold its annual general meeting on April 20 at the Holiday Inn Airport West, 2520 Portage Ave., beginning at 11:30 a.m. All members are encouraged to attend. Following the AGM, a member lunch meeting will be held and the keynote speaker will be Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman. Please register at assiniboiachamber.ca, or contact our office at 204-774-4154.
Got a promotion or a new contract? Email you submission to: bizlistings@freepress.mb.ca.
Opinion
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
In politics, as in life, there are few things more distasteful than a bully.
Weve see quite a few political bullies lately. Situations where political parties with majority mandates use their unfettered power to not only pursue their policy and legislative agendas, but also change the very nature of democracy itself.
In Washington, D.C., last week, we watched as the Republican majority in the Senate used its majority to change the rules for the confirmation of nominees to the Supreme Court.
Given the importance of the matter, the Senate formerly allowed minority parties to filibuster the presidents nominees for the high court as a way of moderating the power of both majority parties and the office of the president. Ending a filibuster required a 60-vote super majority, rather than a simple majority. The super-majority requirement typically triggered bipartisan negotiations to bring a filibuster to an end.
All that changed last week when Republicans, tired of Democratic delay tactics, unleashed the nuclear option. Simply put, Senate Republicans voted to change the rules that required a super majority to end a filibuster on a Supreme Court nomination. In an ironic twist, you do not need a super majority to change the rules about when a super majority is required.
Without going into a lot of history on the so-called nuclear option, it should be noted Democrats have themselves used nuclear options to limit the need for super majorities in other scenarios. More worrisome is the fact there are rumours circulating around Capitol Hill that Republicans may continue to change the very rules governing the operation of Congress to end the practice of filibustering legislation.
This is no small change to the foundations of American democracy. Filibusters, and other procedural tactics used by minority parties, are essential to ensure majority bullies must negotiate with their political opponents to achieve legislative progress. Take away the filibuster and other delay tactics, and you really amplify the power of the majority. And thats not really democracy.
However, Americans are hardly alone in this trend toward political bullying.
In Manitoba, the Progressive Conservative government introduced a bill recently that contains a series of changes to the way we conduct elections, including new, higher political donation limits, new voter identification rules and restrictions on third-party advertising. Opposition critics and democracy advocates believe the changes a mere formality given the Tory majority in the Manitoba Legislature are inherently skewed to aiding the current government.
In Ottawa, the federal Liberal government is also demonstrating an appetite for bully tactics. Last month, the Liberal government released a discussion paper that outlined possible changes to the way parliament works, including reforms for question period, debate scheduling and rules for committee business.
Opposition parties believe the changes could severely limit their ability to hold the government accountable. They are filibustering the proposals at committee until the Liberals agree to seek all-party support for any changes to the rules of parliament. The opposition filibuster prompted Grit House Leader Bardish Chagger to complain last week the government would never allow the opposition to have a veto over our campaign commitments.
Its hard to overstate the absurdity and arrogance of that comment. At least Republicans in Washington had the decency to call their bully tactics the nuclear option, a term that seems to acknowledge the gravity of the violence being done to a democratic institution. Liberals seem to think the whole notion of seeking the support of opposition parties to change the rules of parliament is, in and of itself, somehow unfair. Back in government less than two years and the Liberals have already forgotten what it was like to be in opposition.
Empathy is certainly in short supply in the scenarios described above. Even now, Conservative party critics howling at Liberal indifference should remember the absurdly named Fair Elections Act, a law that was anything but. Its changes to voter identification rules are thought to have discouraged tens of thousands of Canadians from voting in the last election. The current Liberal government is in the process of undoing those changes.
Lamentably, rather than moving closer to a world of bipartisan collaboration or public consultation on changes to democratic institutions, we are surrounded by examples of mischievous, malicious tinkering by majority governments that seem to have no shame about making changes that, for the most part, seem to have less to do about improving democracy, and more to do with creating strategic political advantages.
Along with empathy, we seem to be suffering from a deficit of principle. The rules that safeguard the integrity of democratic institutions legislatures, courts, elections should not be changed often, or at the whim of a majority. And when changes are necessary, there should be a requirement to seek the support of both majority and minority political parties.
Ironically, the Liberals understood this need when it came to the idea of changing our electoral system from first-past-the-post to proportional representation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had pledged during the 2015 federal election that recommendations for electoral reform would be made by an all-party committee of Parliament. Later, the Liberal government decided that any proposals from that committee should be put to the nation in a referendum.
The Liberals abandoned electoral reform as a policy priority, concerned that proportional representation would open the door to extremist political elements. Still, Trudeau seemed to understand that no government with a majority mandate should use that power to change something as fundamental as how we elect our politicians.
It would be welcomed if the Liberals in Ottawa and the Tories in Manitoba were to take a similar approach when it comes to any changes to democratic institutions. Or, perhaps, these changes could be undertaken by a non-partisan, arms-length commission that could sort through ideas that make the system fairer and more accountable, and discard those that seek only to stack the deck.
One thing is for certain: until we all agree that changes to the pillars of democracy are not the prerogative of a majority government, bullies will carry the day.
dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Councilor Janice Lukes will bring forward a motion Tuesday directing the city to look at options for residential rental licensing in the area surrounding the University of Manitoba.
Its the latest in a series of moves spearheaded by the councillor (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) to crack down on illegal rooming houses and unsafe rental homes near the campus. Lukes has been working with city bylaw officials and a neighbourhood group has been focusing on community education and awareness. This motion will target landlords.
Ultimately, its the landlords, Lukes said Monday. (Renting) needs to be safe, it needs to be licensed.
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Coun. Janice Lukes outside a rooming house for students on Pasadena Avenue where a fire broke out last month.
Late last month, a fire at a home on Pasadena Avenue believed to be housing between five and nine university students raised concerns in the community. Lukes motion asks the city to confer with other municipalities across the country that have implemented some form of residential licensing for single-family homes renting rooms, whether it covers the entire city or focuses only on areas near universities. Lukes said shes specifically interested in bringing in some sort of licensing in the neighbourhoods surrounding the University of Manitoba: Fort Richmond, Agassiz, Montcalm and University Heights.
Its the second time Lukes has requested a report looking at student-housing issues. The first was back in 2015, a report she called pointless, owing in part to the vagueness of her own request and the broad information it generated.
Its a really complicated issue, she said. This (report) is more specific, were just going to target licensing.
Several cities in Ontario currently have some form of residential licensing. In Oshawa, properties near Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology require licensing under the Residential Rental Housing Licensing bylaw. The application fee is $75, while the licence fee itself is $500 and expires after a year. In comparison, the cities of Waterloo and London have similar bylaws that cover the whole city, not just post-secondary hubs. Buildings and homes with four or fewer rental rooms are required to get a licence.
Lukes said shes very confident the standing policy committee on property and development, heritage and downtown development will approve her motion. Shes asking for the report to come back within 90 days and include a plan for licensing near the U of M.
Im not sure what the results of it will be. Every city is unique but this is a very serious big problem, she said.
Lukes request has the support of several student groups, including the University of Manitoba Students Union (UMSU).
All year we hear about concerns from students, from homeowners in the area, and I think this just adds some accountability to landlords, said UMSU president Tanjit Nagra.
We want to make sure theyre safe, and theyre not being taken advantage of by landlords.
jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Finance Minister Cameron Friesens second budget Tuesday will balance fiscal restraint with significant investments in infrastructure.
While government belt-tightening is expected to dominate discussion, a source said Friesen will pledge a record annual investment in water-related infrastructure.
All told, projected spending on strategic infrastructure roads, bridges, sewers, flood-proofing, hospitals and schools will be well above $1 billion, the source said.
WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Finance Minister Cameron Friesen
Also expected are a promise of greater utilization of public-private partnerships and the beginnings of an overhaul of the provinces tax credit system.
Friesen said Monday there will be some good news for Manitobans in the budget along with the austerity measures the government has been warning about for months as it attempts to to wrestle with a deficit approaching $1 billion.
I think that tomorrow when they crack the binding on that budget and give it a fair read, what theyll find is that our approach is balanced, it is moderate, it is responsible, he said.
This will be a budget that really shows that even in its earliest stages this government has gotten results for Manitobans.
The underlying tone of the budget is expected to be one of the need for austerity in the short term for long-term prosperity.
The Health, Education and Families departments will all see spending increases, a source said, but others may not be so lucky.
Friesen said the government could no longer afford to boost spending by an average of 3.6 per cent per year while revenues only increased by 2.2 per cent. On that basis, the deficit would soar to $1.7 billion by 2019-2020.
Asked about the governments openness to having services delivered by the private sector, Friesen said the Progressive Conservatives have made it clear that they value an approach that is based on results.
According to a report, the government is considering privatizing the provinces air services branch, which maintains and co-ordinates the public fleet of air ambulances and water bombers. As many as 91 jobs may be affected.
Were going to ask a lot of questions about what we should be in the business of doing, what others can do for us on a contract basis, Friesen said, without commenting directly on the report.
We dont take an ideological approach when it comes to these things; we take a results-based approach.
Friesen called the provinces system of tax credits ungainly and confusing. Some tax credits are seldom-used, but remain on the books, he said.
There have been approaches that have not been evidence based, he said of the credits.
Tax credits and rebates could be a huge target for a government eager to cut spending.
The province spends $335 million each year on the education property tax credit for homeowners and renters. Its worth up to $700 apiece, and while the NDP designated the money an education tax credit a decade ago, the money doesnt put a penny into public education it is a means of using government revenue to reduce the impact of property taxes on individuals bills. The Pallister government has given strong hints its at least considering some form of income-testing which would reduce the hundreds of millions of dollars the credit leaves out of the provincial treasury.
Meanwhile, the tuition fee income tax rebate currently costs the Manitoba treasury about $54 million, and is climbing inexorably as more students graduate each year.
The rebate is based on taxes paid by graduates who remain in Manitoba. Its capped at $2,500 a year, but grads can receive up to $25,000 total over as many as 20 years, if they stay in Manitoba. That rebate could be dropped entirely, saving the province an enormous amount of money, or some or all of the money could be shifted to supporting students currently in postsecondary.
NDP finance critic James Allum said he feared the government would slash spending at the expense of programs Manitobans need.
We really hope they dont do that, that they dont carpet bomb the people of Manitoba with more austerity measures. But every indication is that is exactly where theyre going, he said.
with files from Nick Martin
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Report of the Advisory Panel on Fiscal Performance
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Police are alerting Winnipeggers that an HIV-positive sex offender who faced possible deportation is instead getting out of prison and expected to resume living in the city.
Apay Ogouk, 33, is being released Tuesday after serving his sentence on three counts of aggravated sexual assault. Ogouk had unprotected sex with three female teen partners including two who contracted the potentially deadly disease. Although the acts were consensual, Ogouk didnt tell the women about his condition or take steps to protect them from exposure.
Although he participated in some treatment programming in the past, Ogouk is still considered at risk to reoffend in a sexual manner, the Manitoba high-risk sex offender unit said Monday in its community notification.
Apay Ogouk, 33, is a convicted sex offender and is considered at risk to reoffend in a sexual manner against all females, both children and adults. (Police handout)
All females are at risk.
At his November 2014 sentencing hearing, court heard how Ogouk was born in Sudan and suffered a horrible upbringing, which included his fathers execution, living in a crowded refugee camp and moving to an Ethiopian orphanage after his mother died of health issues in his early teens. He came to Canada as a refugee in 2005, settling in Winnipeg.
In 2006, Ogouk was told he was HIV-positive after getting tested at a clinic. He was repeatedly told over the years, often through an interpreter, about the dangers of being sexually active and not using protection. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority even obtained a special order under the Public Health Act compelling him to disclose his condition to sexual partners.
But Ogouk failed to do so, striking up three relationships with women between 2006 and 2009.
The first, with a 15-year-old girl who would hang out at his apartment and drink alcohol, did not result in her becoming infected as a matter of pure luck, the Crown told court. But his other two partners were not as fortunate. Both became seriously ill months after beginning their relationships with him and learned they are HIV-positive.
Police began investigating in 2010 and obtained a warrant for Ogouks arrest. He had moved to Calgary, where he was eventually charged with aggravated sexual assault against two other women. Both have tested negative for HIV.
Ogouk was given a five-year sentence for those offences after pleading guilty. He was then given a seven-year sentence for the three Winnipeg crimes, but that included a large chunk of time already spent in custody.
If I get a chance, I dont do that again, Ogouk said through a translator at the time of his sentencing. Im very sorry for that.
Court was told Ogouk might have his refugee status revoked and be deported to Africa, although there was no guarantee that would occur. Given Mondays public alert, it clearly hasnt.
Ogouk has been serving his sentence in Alberta but is expected to return to Winnipeg now that he is free again, according to police.
This information is provided to enable members of the public to take suitable measures to protect themselves. Any form of vigilante activity or other unreasonable conduct directed at Ogouk will not be tolerated, a police release said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Manitoba Integrated High Risk Sex Offender Unit at (204) 984-1888 or Manitoba Crime Stoppers at (204) 786-8477 or toll free at 1-800-222-8477.
mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca
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The New Democrats unleashed a prolonged attack on the Pallister government Monday over its plans to close emergency rooms at Concordia, Victoria and Seven Oaks hospitals.
But Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen calmly replied that it will all be for the better, that the moves announced Friday will provide better service while reducing the wait times that the former NDP government bequeathed on Manitobans
They do not care about results, and we do, Premier Brian Pallister fired back at the NDP.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Concordia Hospital its Emergency.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority will be launching a public education campaign shortly to explain the type of treatment that will be offered in urgent care clinics to open at Victoria and Seven Oaks, Goertzen said.
Seven New Democrats stood in question period to accuse the Tories of endangering Manitobans health, of having a plan to close more ERs outside Winnipeg, of planning to close all of the QuickCare clinics and of failing to provide personal care home beds.
Health critic Matt Wiebe who said Concordias emergency room saved his life as an injured three-year-old said that the government has an obsession with cutting services and the emergency-care system, putting families at risk.
NDP MLA Rob Altemeyer predicted that the loss of the urgent-care facility at Misericordia will clog up the ER at the Health Sciences Centre.
Goertzen said QuickCare clinics will continue to play a role in the health-care system, but hes considering whether theyre appropriately located.
The health minister said the NDP is resisting changes to a system that for the past 17 years produced Canadas worst waiting times, adding the Opposition is content to let Manitobans languish.
(The NDP) know the emergency-room system wasnt working. Walking five minutes to an ER where you wait six hours doesnt make a lot of sense, Goertzen said.
We recognize this is a significant change, I dont want to diminish that. This is a two-year plan. Theres never going to be a perfectly seamless system. Well take the time to get it right.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Winnipeg School Division trustees are again asking the austerity-driven Pallister government to build three new schools and theyve made a second Kelvin High School gym only their sixth-highest priority.
Education Minister Ian Wishart said Monday he noticed how low a priority the gym is, after more than 500 current and future Kelvin students rallied at the legislature last week demanding that the Tories reverse their decision to cancel a second full-sized $6.7 million gym for Kelvin.
Winnipeg School Division has its list of priorities, and (Kelvin) is a long way from number one, Wishart said in an interview. We did check back, and it was at one point number one for them. They do have other pressing needs now.
WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Parents and students of Kelvin High School gather at the legislative building.
Im trying not to prejudge that until I meet with the parents next week, he said.
WSDs five-year capital plan was to go before the board Monday evening essentially a wish list of the divisions top priorities for major construction and renovations.
The Pallister government recently approved $44 million worth of repairs for 72 schools across Manitoba such as new roofs or boilers but has not financed or committed to any significant education capital projects in its first year in office.
Wishart has said is considering Saskatchewans model of using public-private partnerships to build new schools, but would not say Monday whether there will be anything in Tuesdays provincial budget.
WSDs top three priorities would cost more than $100 million.
We certainly will be looking at all the financial tools, he said. Were not in a position to be speculating.
Wishart said that when the province does build new schools, he likes the campus concept used in Calgary and Edmonton, which build schools, community recreation facilities, and other community spaces in one location. That requires foresight in planning and having enough land available, Wishart said.
He said there is growth almost everywhere in Manitoba, and cited Brandon and Seven Oaks school divisions for their acquisitions of sufficient land years ahead of the need to build. That adds pressure in more places than weve ever had before, in modern times, Wishart said.
Topping WSDs list again this year is a nursery to Grade 8 school for the Waterford Green housing development in the northwest corner. The former NDP government promised to build the school.
Second is a new high school in the citys northwest corner. Sisler High School is Manitobas largest, at 1,936 students, and nearby Maples Collegiate in Seven Oaks School Division is third at 1,724.
Third on the list is a new N-8 French milieu Sir William Osler school at the west end of River Heights near Kenaston Boulevard.
The division argues it needs a new school to serve a booming demand for French-language education, exacerbated by space problems expected to result in the coming years from children WSD expects would live in developments built on the site of the former Kapyong barracks.
Wishart made it clear Monday that hes not into building schools before housing gets built. Nor would he be likely to build a new school when Ecole Tuxedo Park, Laidlaw School, and other Pembina Trails S.D. schools a few blocks west of Kenaston have empty desks.
WSD board chairwoman Sherri Rollins said Monday that Kelvins gym was rated seventh when the Selinger NDP government publicly promised to build it though Wishart said that by that point, the NDP had made verbal indications it would approve the project.
In discussions with Minister Wishart, the board emphasized that Manitoba and Winnipeg in particular are growing and that the Winnipeg School Division would like to continue to respond and prepare for anticipated growth, especially growth caused by immigration, for which Wishart is the minister responsible, Rollins said.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
5-year capital plan submission to the Public Schools Finance Board
Opinion
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This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Manitobans should have access to housing, but, at any given time, there are about 1,400 people experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg alone. Many others live under threat of homelessness, paying the rent with money needed for food and other basic necessities.
Housing advocates call on the provincial government to remember these people when the budget is tabled Tuesday.
A commonly proposed solution is for these individuals to go get a job. However, many are already working. Full-time minimum-wage earners dont make enough to live above the poverty line. Worse off are parents who cant work full time because they cant find child-care space, students who can only work part-time while studying and people with disabilities who face barriers to full-time work.
BORIS MINKEVICH/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Files Anti-poverty advocates gather at the steps of the Manitoba Legislature in 2015 to ask the Manitoba government to make poverty-reduction measures a priority.
Others cannot work and are forced to live on inadequate income benefits. This includes refugees who need time to settle and transition into employment, people with severe and prolonged disabilities and older adults who face discriminatory barriers to employment.
A comprehensive plan featuring a higher minimum wage, more child-care spaces and higher social assistance benefits would go a long way toward improving incomes. But in its absence, we need to make housing more affordable for Manitobans given the incomes they live with today.
Where to turn?
The private market does not make money on affordable housing and simply does not supply enough of it. Even with government incentives, its not happening. Developers and landlords encourage governments to step in with rent top-ups for low-income tenants. Manitobas Rent Assist program, which provides an income benefit to low-income Manitobans, is certainly helping and ongoing investments into this program will be critical.
For a rent top-up to be an effective solution, there needs to be enough housing in the market. But there isnt. And there definitely isnt enough low-rent housing. In Winnipeg, the cheapest bachelor units, which can house single individuals experiencing homelessness, have a 2.8 per cent vacancy rate just 27 vacant units. The Plan to End Homelessness in Winnipeg says 7,500 units are needed just to house the homeless.
For a rent top-up to be effective, it must also be large enough to ensure low-income people can afford the housing that is available. But it isnt in many cases. The best a family of five can do with Rent Assist is afford a one-bedroom apartment.
Until there is a better top-up through Rent Assist, someone needs to add more affordable units to the market. If the private sector isnt about to suddenly start building the quantities that are needed, who will?
Manitoba under the NDP government was a leader in building social housing. It added 1,500 units each of affordable and social housing between 2009 and 2014, and committed to building another 500 of each by 2016. The province also made record investments in maintaining the existing stock of affordable and social housing.
The province also stepped in to provide housing with supports for specific demographics that the private market underserves. Women fleeing domestic violence require housing that optimizes their safety and offers trauma-informed supports. Youth aging out of the care of Child and Family Services need transitional housing with supports to move into permanent affordable housing. Some large families, including newcomer and indigenous families, require larger units with settlement supports. Persons with disabilities require housing built to high standards of accessibility. The private market does not provide housing with these supports and services.
The new government has committed to a new housing strategy, but there has been no public commitment to setting a target and timeline for building new social and affordable housing. The Right to Housing Coalition is calling for 300 net new social and affordable housing units built by the public, non-profit and co-op sectors annually so that Manitoba does not fall behind going forward.
Manitoba can set an ambitious target and invest provincial dollars knowing that the federal governments renewed interest in affordable housing will bring in additional funding to assist local efforts.
This province has made progress on the housing file in recent years. We eagerly await the 2017 budget to see how much further we can expect to go with our new governments vision for affordable housing.
Kirsten Bernas chairs the Provincial Working Group of the Right to Housing Coalition.
Opinion
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2017 (2038 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Historian Donald Creighton once noted that history is an encounter between character and circumstance. A hundred years ago, a series of long- and short-term causes or circumstances led to the carnage of the First World War. But it was individuals who personally shaped those events and outcomes, such as: Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian nationalist extremist; Germanys Kaiser Wilhelm II; Czar Nicholas II of Russia; and British Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the strategist of arguably the bloodiest and most futile battles of the conflict.
Another key character of that era was Alexander Kerensky. A century later, he is remembered, perhaps somewhat unfairly, as the individual whose controversial policies enabled Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks to seize power in Russia, which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union and seven decades of harsh and brutal dictatorship.
Early in 1917, Nicholas II, the last czar of the Russian Empire, abdicated. Nicholas was the architect of his own demise. He had stubbornly and foolishly tried to maintain his autocratic rule. For more than decade, he had suppressed any advancement of liberal democracy and failed to adequately address the economic and military turmoil that plagued Russias deeply troubled involvement in the war.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES People crowd the street in front of the ruins of the Nikitsky Gate in Petrograd (St. Petersburg and Leningrad), Russia, shortly after the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. The tumult sent shockwaves around the world.
Within a year and a half of his abdication, he, his wife Alexandra and their five children were murdered by their Bolshevik captors, acting on the direct orders of Lenin.
In the wake of the czars abdication, a provisional government was established, at first led by Prince Georgi Lvov, who had worked out an arrangement with the St. Petersburg or Petrograd Soviet, the radical workers and soldiers council. But it was the 35-year-old Kerensky, the provisional governments justice minister and then war minister, who wielded power. By the summer of 1917, Kerensky was prime minister.
A lawyer by education and a former theatre student with a flair for the dramatic, Kerensky was a moderate socialist with a big ego who dressed impeccably and relished his political fame. He was ambitious, a skilled orator and loved playing to the crowd. He regarded himself as a man of the people, though in much the same way as U.S. President Donald Trump sees himself as a champion of the downtrodden American middle-class.
Lenins revolutionary deputy, Leon Trotsky, who disdained Kerensky, dismissed him as someone who merely hung around the Revolution. Nonetheless, for a brief time, Kerensky was truly popular, hailed as the poet of freedom and the spirit of the people. He was the Russian Bonaparte, a leader akin to Napoleon who could save the fatherland.
With the benefit of historical hindsight, Kerensky made a few monumental errors. He absolutely refused to pull Russia out of the First World War. Instead, he and his generals orchestrated a summer offensive. His military officials predicted losses of approximately 6,000 men; in fact, 400,000 soldiers were ultimately killed.
Trapped on the eastern front facing an implacable German enemy, Russian troops mutinied and offered their support to the Bolsheviks who had promised to end the countrys participation in the war. Had the provisional government negotiated a peace treaty, no doubt the Bolsheviks would never have come to power, argues British historian Orlando Figes.
Kerensky, however, was a product of his time. He was proud, patriotic and devoted to the concept of honour, which had contributed to the outbreak of the war in 1914. He could not turn his back on his chief allies, Britain and France; the national humiliation would have been too great, in his view.
Kerenskys second great mistake was underestimating Lenin and the Bolsheviks, whom he insisted he could control. He was wrong. He should have arrested all of the revolutionary leaders, yet he decided, as the head of a democratic socialist government, he could not behave as the repressive czarist regime had. None of his ministers dared challenge him. He believed the words of praise about him and unwisely dismissed the criticism at his own peril.
In the fall of 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and seized power. Kerensky was away from St. Petersburg at the time and was forced to flee into exile. He lived in Paris and then moved to New York to write his memoirs. For the next five decades, he doggedly defended his actions.
One day, a few years before Kerensky died, a New York history professor told his students who were studying the Russian Revolution that at the next class the guest speaker would be none other than Alexander Kerensky. The students were sure the professor was kidding them. What about getting Napoleon for the class after that to discuss the Battle of Waterloo, one of them cried out, to laughter. But, sure enough, a week later, when the class gathered, there was 85-year-old Kerensky at the podium to offer the skeptical students his version of the fateful events of 1917 and his role in them.
He became a sad, almost pathetic shadow of the promising politician he once was, yet also a mythical figure.
Now and Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context.
Montanas two US Senators were split on the vote that last Friday confirmed Neil Gorsuch as the next lifetime member of the US Supreme Court. Senior Senator Jon Tester voted against the successful nominee, citing, among other things, Gorsuchs propensity to judge cases in a way that empowers corporations over individuals. Specifically Tester said he believed that Gorsuch supports the massive intrusion of corporations into our election processes, a political disaster that has allowed almost unmeasurable corporate influence since the Supreme Courts Citizens United decision was handed down. That Supreme Court decision effectively made corporations citizens and ruled that their money was Constitutional free speech. Senator Testers opposition to Gorsuch based on these concerns was consistent with the position held by 75 percent of Montanans when they voted on those very questions on a ballot issue election here in 2012.
On the other hand, when Junior Senator Steve Daines backed President Trumps nominee he made a statement from the Senate floor where, among other things, he ironically said that most importantly, the American people deserve nine members on the Supreme Court. That most important rationale rings hollow given Senator Daines shameful obstructionism over the last 380+ days while the Supreme Court was saddled with only eight justices because of highly-partisan political reasons.
Perhaps Senator Daines has banked on Montanans forgetting that getting the court back up to nine members was not the most important thing to him last year as he joined that highly-partisan effort that not only denied a Judiciary Committee hearing to President Obamas nominee Merrick Garland, but also resulted in all Republican senators, including Daines, refusing to personally meet and talk with the well-qualified nominee. The refusal to even consider Merrick Garland broke the record for not acting on a nominee way back on July 26, 2016. As Daines maintained his record-setting obstructionism on Merrick Garland since that date, he has been silent about that most important issue of the American people deserving nine members on the Supreme Court. That conveniently becoming important to Senator Daines now is the kind of hypocritical flip-flop that turns people off about politicians.
Senator Tester, in contrast, did not hide behind unconscionable delaying tactics like Daines did with Merrick Garland. In Montana fashion, he held a personal meeting with Gorsuch, supported Gorsuch getting a committee hearing and participated in the up-or-down confirmation vote. Testers reasons for voting against Gorsuch were clear.
He was deeply concerned that dark money will continue to drown out the voices and votes of citizens [saying that] over the years, Judge Gorsuch gave corporations the same Constitutional rights as a nurse from Plentywood, a teacher from Kalispell, or a farmer from Fort Benton. Tester said, When it comes to the letter of the law, he [Gorsuch] believes corporations are people.
Further, Senator Tester said that according to [one of] Judge Gorsuchs opinion[s] he believes campaign contributions deserve First Amendment [free speech] protections [adding that] Montanans know: money is not speech. Senator Tester said: I am concerned that if Judge Gorsuch is confirmed, our future will be shaped with dark money
Those very issues were addressed directly in 2012 by Montana voters when, by an overwhelming 75 percent margin, they approved Initiative 166. Specifically Montana voters held that corporations are not human beings with constitutional rights and that each such [state or federal] elected and appointed official [was] charged to act to prohibit corporations from making contributions to or expenditures on the campaigns of candidates or ballot issues. That peoples directive included Senator Daines and Daines vote for Gorsuch seems to violate that directive.
By their 75 percent vote the people of Montana said they regarded:
money as property, not speech;
Constitutional rights as rights of human beings, not rights of corporations; and
immense aggregation of [corporate] wealth [as] corrosive and distorting when used to advance the political interests of corporations.
Senator Tester is to be commended for following the course laid out clearly at the ballot box by 75 percent of Montanans. Senator Daines, in contrast, has chosen to ignore that 75 percent, ignore their specific directives about this important issue, and has sided with President Trump, GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell and the corporate elite over the people of Montana.
Evan Barrett, who lives in historic Uptown Butte, recently retired after 47 years at the top level of Montana economic development, government, politics and education. He is an award-winning producer of Montana history films who continues to write columns and record commentaries, and occasionally teach Montana history.
Members of the Minnesota Genbu-Kai karate group attended the International Goodwill Games in Santa Ana California on Feb. 24-26. Thirteen members attended seminars and competed in karate and kobudo (traditional Japanese weapons) events. Black belt members also officiated events.
Karate-do training is for anyone interested in learning a way of maintaining a lifelong physical and mental fitness while learning self-defense skills.
To learn more about training in karate with our Winona group, visit the website: mnkarate.com or contact the group at: (507) 452-5009. Training sessions are held at 1164 W. 10th St., Valencia Studio No. 3 Winona, MN 55987.
As is the case with so many delights produced at Neat-Os Bakery, customers cant wait until these treatsthe annual award winnersare done.
Customers enter the downtown Baraboo bakery every day looking for fresh doughnuts and cookies. Each spring, they eagerly await a peek at Amanda and Tony Nietos award-winning cake and bread creations.
It feels like they almost expect it at this time of year, Tony Nieto said.
For five years, Neat-Os has returned from the Midwest Foodservice Expo in Milwaukee with top prizes. Last month, Amanda and Tony won awards in nine categories. Their medalsalong with Tonys Rising Star Award, his bread basket made of actual bread, and Amandas cakes depicting geodes and a patriotic eagle are now on display.
Tony said the awards and award-winning creations serve as powerful marketing tools when the staff woos couples shopping for a wedding cake baker. You cant help but be assured youre in the right place and in the right hands, he said.
Amandas cakes have won awards for several years. This year, she won a silver medal in the non-fondant wedding cake category for her buttercream cake featuring geodes made of rock candy. She also took silver in the Peoples Choice category for her fondant and Rice Krispie treat cake depicting an eagle draped in an American flag.
While customers look forward to seeing what fresh ideas the bakery comes up with each spring, the Nietos dont spend the entire year planning contest entries. Most of the time, the ideas come the week before, Amanda said.
Tony walked out of this years event wearing so many medals, he felt like a 1990s rapper. He took Best in Show for his bread sculpture of a bread basket. Every piece, down to the flowers and bees resting at its base, is made of actual bread. You can eat every part of it, Amanda said.
He also took first place in the Bismarck category with his lemon meringue confection. That was just the beginning. Tony took second place in three categories: in the hybrid category for his broughnut, a brownie baked inside a doughnut, with brownie icing on top; in the longjohn category for a longjohn inspired by Samoa Girl Scout cookies; and in the doughnut hole display category for his Smores on a stick, doughnut holes topped with Smores ingredients. Finally, he placed third in three categories: braided bread, for his Milwaukee rye-French bread combination; fritter, for his apple fritter; and cruller, for his blueberry cruller coated with a lemon glaze.
For all this, as well as his service to the Wisconsin Bakers Association, Tony won the Rising Star Award. It was a pretty fun night, he said.
The bakers said they enjoy the challenge the competition presents. Its a break from the daily time to make the doughnuts routine, and a creative outlet. Its really kind of neat to be able to do that kind of stuff, Tony said, adding that the competition gives his wife an opportunity to show off her cake-sculpting skills. Its just right up her wheelhouse.
The cakes are annual conversation pieces, with past winners depicting Yoda from Star Wars and the leg lamp from A Christmas Story generating attention.
It definitely gets people in the door, Amanda said. Thats always a good thing.
1967
A good sized crowd was on hand at the City Council meeting to hear what action the council would take on go-go girls dancing in city taverns. The first dancer appeared some six weeks ago in a local tavern. No action was taken by the council and the matter was tabled until after the spring election.
Mayor John Albright was re-elected by a narrow margin of 69 votes over challenger John J. Blaska. Walter Gernetzky was elected city clerk and Dorothy Hermanson city treasurer.
1977
People from all parts of the state attended the Annual Womens Civic Club Antique Show and Sale at St. Jeromes gym. People waited in line at the doors to get in, and a steady stream of visitors kept up both days of the show. The show was attended by 1,200 people.
Dickason School held a Hippie Day for students at the school.
1987
Charlie Yelk, who is 69, retired in March after 38 years with the Columbus Police Department. Yelk began as a caretaker at Columbus Firemans Park and received a park police badge. In 1956, he was appointed city constable and served until the position was abolished in 1973. He then went on and worked for the Columbus Police Department.
The third annual Scandinavian Smorgasbord will be served to the public at Faith Lutheran Church. Waitresses will be wearing Norwegian costumes in honor of Syttende Mai day.
1997
Columbus voters picked Jim Davis as the next mayor. Davis received 824 votes to current Mayor Joe Marks 517. Marks had wanted to sell the city-owned country club which was unpopular and may have led to his defeat.
The Columbus Kiwanis Club is selling a dozen red roses for $18 as a club fundraiser.
Operations at Volk Field just became a little more state-of-the-art.
Officials at the Air National Guard Base in Camp Douglas unveiled the newly renovated Counterland Operations Center at a special ribbon-cutting event April 7.
Several top commanders from Wisconsins Air National Guard unit were on hand, including Volk Field commander Col. David May, Wisconsin assistant adjutant general for air, Brig. Gen. Gary Ebben, and Col. Chad Milne, Wisconsin director of air operations and veteran fighter pilot.
The 4,000-square foot operations center cost $300,000 to renovate and will be used for training opportunities and intelligence briefing sessions. Last August, the base hosted the Northern Lightning exercise and May said the training mission was so successful it created the need for more training facilities at Volk Field.
After the success of Northern Lightning we realized this really had to be done, May said. We jumped into it with design and construction and we completed this ahead of schedule at a very reasonable cost and mostly in-house. Its a very reasonable amount for a huge payoff.
May said the renovated facility offers a modernized workspace ideally suited for next generation aircraft fighter jets, including the F-35A Lightning II. At the center, personnel can access two impact ranges throughout the complex, which includes warfare training systems, creating a unique and beneficial training experience unlike any other training center in the Air National Guard.
The high-tech facility was completed just in time. The base plans to host the next Northern Lightning exercise beginning May 1, which will last about two weeks. The center will also allow for better strategic planning and command operations.
Before the jets go to fly their missions, on the front-end of that, there is lots of planning that goes into that, May said. Its kind of the less glamorous, behind-the-scenes work that goes into flying a successful mission. Well, this is where theyre going to do all that work.
The commander said personnel will be able to discuss classified information at the facility, go out and fly missions, and return to the center to debrief. A partition will be constructed to separate the space into private work stations and be removed to allow larger meetings. The center also features high-tech electronics and TV monitors to assist with training and mission preparations.
Commanders are excited to bring in F-35s for the Northern Lightning session in May and the jets could be returning to Volk on a regular basis. May said Truax Field in Madison the 115th Fighter Wing is on the short list of possible landing spots for F-35s.
Everything we do here supports that aircraft and enhances making Madison a great place for the F-35, May said. The combination of the facilities and the great airmen they have down there with the training space we have here puts us in a very strong position to compete for the F-35s.
Milne, a Cashton native, is a 30-year veteran of the Air National Guard. Milne, who has flown in combat missions in Iraq, knows the value of specialized training and preparedness.
This is a premier air training environment, Milne said. There are not too many locations where you can accomplish different facets of training: air-to-air, air-to-ground, all combined here. Volk Field is unique that way. Were really excited about this.
In addition to F-35s, the Northern Lightning session will bring F-22s to Volk. Milne said the new facility adds to the air fields reputation of being a leader in air defense training. In his career, Milne has flown KC-135s Stratotankers, C-26s, and for the past 12 years, F-16s.
Ive flown the F-16 the longest and thats the most challenging, Milne said. Airplanes aside, what is the most memorable to me is working with the people in the Wisconsin Air National Guard. Its been a great opportunity to work with quality people and serve my country.
Volk Field provides the Air National Guard with specific first-hand training that prepares personnel for important foreign combat missions. The bases air space spans from the Eau Claire area to Lake Michigan, west to east, with the southern border around Portage and the northern edge near Wisconsin Rapids.
It prepares us for combat deployment in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, Milne said.
About 150 to 160 officers from south-central Wisconsin and beyond are involved in a manhunt for a Janesville felon who authorities say stole guns, threatened public officials, and wrote a 161-page anti-government manifesto that he sent to President Donald Trump.
We are continuing the search that weve been doing. Were looking at rural areas. Were looking at county parks. Were looking at places where someone could hunker down and camp, Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden said Sunday.
Rock County Sheriffs Office Commander Troy Knudson said since the search began Thursday for Joseph Jakubowski, 32, law enforcement has received 320 tips and leads. As of 9 p.m. Sunday, Jakubowski remained at large, the Rock County Sheriff Department said.
The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Jakubowskis arrest. Jakubowski is a suspect in a gun shop break-in and theft in Janesville Tuesday evening. Authorities say he also made suggestions about attacking several targets, including schools.
Knudson said police have been in contact with a number of people who may have known Jakubowski or people who have reported sightings of him.
Jakubowski is described as 5-foot-10, 200 pounds, with green eyes and brown hair. Investigators said he is currently unemployed. His last known employment was a seasonal job at Best Buy over the holidays, Knudson said.
Spoden said the Sheriffs Office has had some tips that have panned out, but others show a community on edge, in one case mistaking target practice in a rural area of the county as suspicious gunfire.
Also, law enforcement received a suspicious circumstance report near St. Marys Church, on East Wall Street in Janesville, where a man was reported placing weapons into the trunk of a vehicle, Knudson said.
Police, supported by tactical resources, responded and made contact with a resident who lived near there. The resident explained that he was preparing to go target shooting. A tactical team searched his home and his story was verified.
So theres a certain amount of people wanting to help out but they are not necessarily tips that we can use, Spoden said.
Police patrols near places of worship were stepped up Sunday because Janesville police said Jakubowski expressed anti-religious views in his manifesto. However, there were no specific threats to any particular church or religious group, police said.
The Rock County Sheriffs Office said it appears the only church to close Sunday was Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Sun Prairie, where it was reported that someone who looked like Jakubowski came in Thursday and asked unusual questions.
The questions included inquiries about practices of turning people away from services, Sun Prairie police Lt. Brian Teasdale said.
On Sunday, Teasdale said the man was not Jakubowski, adding the Sun Prairie Police Department asks that all citizens remain alert of their surroundings.
Spoden said the Sheriffs Office is under the assumption that Jakubowski is still in the area, but hasnt ruled out that he may have fled somewhere else, which is why they have sought federal help.
Besides the Rock County Sheriffs Office and the Janesville Police Department, the FBI is involved, as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Secret Service. The state Department of Criminal Investigations is providing security, Spoden said.
Citizens, grocery stores, restaurants and a fire department have all donated food to the investigating officers, he said.
People out in the public have approached me to say, Thank you for what you are doing. We know you are going to get him, Spoden said. Its really good on the morale for the officers to get some appreciation.
Knudson said sign companies in Rock, Dane and Walworth counties have donated their services, getting Jakubowskis picture up on signs and billboards.
It increases the visibility and hopefully increases the chances of him being spotted and being able to bring this thing to a quick resolution, he said.
Dorothy Clemitus
Dorothy L. Clemitus, 74, of Reedsburg, passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 8, 2017, at Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg.
She was born Oct. 10, 1942, in St. Lois, Missouri, the daughter of Wendell and Amy (McFarland) McNay. On Oct. 19, 1963, Dorothy was united in marriage to John Martin Clemitus in Crystal Falls, Michigan. This marriage was blessed with four children. John preceded her in death on Oct. 11, 2010.
Dorothy left behind a legacy that is all about strength, determination and love. She will be remembered for her strength of character and convictions, the determination to overcome any obstacle that life would throw at her, and the love that she had for those closest to her, be they friend or family. Dorothy served in the Reedsburg School District for 20 years as a teachers aide, assisting with special needs classrooms. She had a very special way with the students. They admired her, counted on her and dearly missed her when she retired.
Dorothy spent her retirement with her husband John, they became snowbirds and escaped Wisconsin winters to enjoy the Arizona warmth. They loved to travel and took many trips and enjoyed their time together. Spending time with her grandchildren was looked on as a special occasion, and was always anticipated with many great plans-many special memories were made. She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Reedsburg, and a member of the Red Hat Club where she enjoyed her friends and their many outings together. Dorothy also enjoyed casino trips and shopping, she loved a good bargain. She was also preceded in death by her son Robert on July 29, 1985; parents; and brother, David McNay.
Dorothy is survived by her children, Kathleen (Michael) Busser of Lodi, Michel Clemitus of Omaha, Nebraska, James (Jenifer) Celmitus of Beaver Dam; grandchildren, Jacob and Hannah Busser, Nicholas and Christopher Clemitus , Jack and Jamie Clemitus.
A very heartfelt thank you to the Agrace Hospice staff for the wonderful care given to our mother.
Funeral services for Dorothy Cemitus will be conducted at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 13, 2017, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Reedsburg. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Farber Funeral Home and from 10:30 a.m. until the time of the service Thursday at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Agrace Hospice.
For President Bashar Assad attacking his Syrian people with deadly gas chemicals, President Trump blasted a Syrian air base with cruise missiles protecting innocent Syrian civilians against Assad regime this week. This United States strike could send messages to North Korea, another U.S. enemy (President Kim Jong II).
The U.S. retaliated with cruise missiles in less than 100 days of Trump presidency. These Syrian attacks can protect U.S. and our allies. The U.S. also retaliated against the late Muammar Qaddafi (Lybia), Osama Bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders' leadership.
President Trump, keep protecting the U.S as commander-in-chief against enemies and lead the U.S. economics (jobs, etc.) and socially.
Fred Jackson, Decatur
Ag Growth International Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes grain and rice handling, storage, and conditioning equipment in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company offers storage equipment comprising grain and bolted bins, hopper bins, smooth wall bins, temporary storage equipment, unloads and sweeps, water tanks, fuel tanks; and conditioning equipment, such as mixed flow dryers, fans and heaters, aerations, airaugers, aeration floors, vents and exhausters, stirrings, and accessories. It also provides portable handling equipment, such as portable augers, conveyors, grain vacs, post pounders, seed treaters, and accessories; and permanent handling equipment, including bucket elevators, chain and belt conveyors, enclosed belt conveyors, distributors, feed handling equipment, screw feeders and conveyors, and spouts and connections. In addition, the company offers towers, catwalks, ladders, all-steel buildings, flat storage buildings; batch blenders, bulk scales, declining weight blenders, vertical blenders, micro-dosing systems, mixers, milling equipment; and controllers, hazard monitoring equipment, monitoring and automation equipment, sampling solutions. Further, it provides cleaning and destoners, rice milling and processing equipment, bin unloads, blending and control systems, Liquid and dry fertilizer blending and conveying equipment, turnkey design and build construction solutions for seed and fertilizer facilities, and farm management software. The company markets its products under the AGI, Airlanco, Batco, Brownie, CMC, Compass, Danmare, Ezee-dry, Frame, Grain Guard, Grainmaxx, Hi Roller, Hutchinson, Improtech, Junge, Keho, Mayrath, Milltec, MMS, Neco, PTM, REM, Sabe, Sentinel, Storm, Suretrack, Tramco, Twister, Westeel, Westfield, Wheatheart, and Yargus brand names. It provides its equipment for agricultural commodities. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada.
PNM Resources, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides electricity and electric services in the United States. It operates through Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) and Texas-New Mexico Power Company (TNMP) segments. The PNM segment engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The segment generates electricity using coal, natural gas and oil, nuclear fuel, solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources. As of December 31, 2021, this segment had owned or leased facilities with a total net generation capacity of 2,168 megawatts; and owned 3,426 miles of electric transmission lines, 5,751 miles of distribution overhead lines, 5,765 miles of underground distribution lines, and 250 substations. The segment also owns and leases communication, office and other equipment, office space, vehicles, and real estate. The TNMP segment provides regulated transmission and distribution services. As of December 31, 2021, the segment owned 983 miles of overhead electric transmission lines, 7,297 miles of overhead distribution lines, 1,408 miles of underground distribution lines, and 113 substations. The segment also owns and leases vehicles, service facilities, and office locations throughout its service territory. The company serves approximately 806,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers and end-users of electricity in New Mexico and Texas. PNM Resources, Inc. was incorporated in 1882 and is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
BlackRock, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks. It also provides global risk management and advisory services. The firm manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. It also launches and manages open-end and closed-end mutual funds, offshore funds, unit trusts, and alternative investment vehicles including structured funds. The firm launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and real estate mutual funds. It also launches equity, fixed income, balanced, currency, commodity, and multi-asset exchange traded funds. The firm also launches and manages hedge funds. It invests in the public equity, fixed income, real estate, currency, commodity, and alternative markets across the globe. The firm primarily invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, SMID-cap, large-cap, and multi-cap companies. It also invests in dividend-paying equity securities. The firm invests in investment grade municipal securities, government securities including securities issued or guaranteed by a government or a government agency or instrumentality, corporate bonds, and asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on bottom-up and top-down approach to make its investments. The firm employs liquidity, asset allocation, balanced, real estate, and alternative strategies to make its investments. In real estate sector, it seeks to invest in Poland and Germany. The firm benchmarks the performance of its portfolios against various S&P, Russell, Barclays, MSCI, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch indices. BlackRock, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in New York City with additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts; London, United Kingdom; Gurgaon, India; Hong Kong; Greenwich, Connecticut; Princeton, New Jersey; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Washington, District of Columbia; Toronto, Canada; Wilmington, Delaware; and San Francisco, California.